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SYN

This disorder is generally occasioned by remaining too long in one livery-stable or inn, and often arises to that height that it prevents their coming out at the stable door. The most certain cure is the unguentum aureum---not applied to the horse, but to the palm of the master of the inn or stable. N. B. Neither this disorder, nor its remedy, is mentioned by either Bracken, Bartlet, or any of the modern writers on farriery.

SWIG. A hearty draught of liquor.

SWIGMEN. Thieves who travel the country under colour of buying old shoes, old clothes, &c. or selling brooms, mops, &c. Cant.

TO SWILL. To drink greedily.

SWILL TUB. A drunkard, a sot.

SWIMMER. A counterfeit old coin.

SWIMMER. A ship. I shall have a swimmer; a cant phrase used by thieves to signify that they will be sent on board the tender.

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TO SWING. To be hanged. He will swing for it; he will be hanged for it.

SWING TAIL. A hog.

To SWINGE. To beat stoutly.

SWINGING. A great swinging fellow; a great stout fellow. A swinging lie; a lusty lie.

SWINDLER. One who obtains goods on credit by false pretences, and sells them for ready money at any price, in order to make up a purse. This name is derived from the German word schwindlin, to totter, to be ready to fall; these arts being generally practised by persons on the totter, or just ready to break. The term swindler has since been used to signify cheats of every kind.

SWIPES. Purser's swipes; small beer: so termed on board the king's ships, where it is furnished by the purser. SWISH TAIL. A pheasant; so called by the persons who sell game for the poachers.

TO SWIVE. To copulate.

SWIVEL-EYED. Squinting.

SWIZZLE. Drink, or any brisk or windy liquor. In North America, a mixture of spruce beer, rum, and sugar, was so called. The 17th regiment had a society called the Swizzle Club, at Ticonderoga, A. D. 1760.

SWORD RACKET. To enlist in different regiments, and on receiving the bounty to desert immediately.

SWOP. An exchange.

SYEBUCK. Sixpence.

SYNTAX. A schoolmaster.

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TABBY.

TAN

TABBY. An old maid; either from Tabitha, a formal antiquated name; or else from a tabby cat, old maids being often compared to cats. To drive Tab; to go out on a party of pleasure with a wife and family. TACE. Silence, hold your tongue.

Tace is Latin for a candle; a jocular admonition to be silent on any subject. TACKLE. A mistress; also good clothes.

The cull has tipt his tackle rum gigging; the fellow has given his mistress good clothes. A man's tackle: the genitals.

TAFFY, i. e. Davy. A general nanie for a Welchman, St. David being the tutelar saint of Wales. Taffy's day; the first of March, St. David's day.

TAG-RAG AND BOBTAIL. An expression meaning an assemblage of low people, the mobility of all sorts. To tag

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after one like a tantony pig: to follow one wherever one goes, just as St. Anthony is followed by his pig. TAIL. A prostitute. Also, a sword.

TAKEN IN. Imposed on, cheated.

TALE TELLERS. Persons said to have been formerly hired to tell wonderful stories of giants and fairies, to lull their hearers to sleep. Talesman; the author of a story or report: I'll tell you my tale, and my talesman. Tale bearers; mischief makers, incendiaries in families.

TALL BOY. A bottle, or two-quart pot.

TALLY MEN. Brokers that let out clothes to the women of the town. See RABBIT SUCKERS.

TALLYWAGS, or TARRYWAGS. A man's testicles.

TAME. To run tame about a house; to live familiarly in a family with which one is upon a visit. Tame army; the city trained bands.

TANDEM. A two-wheeled chaise, buggy, or noddy, drawn by two horses, one before the other: that is, at length. TANGIER. A room in Newgate, where debtors were confined, hence called Tangerines.

TANNER. A sixpence. The kiddey tipped the rattling cove a tanner for luck; the lad gave the coachman sixpence for drink.

TANTADLIN TART. A sirreverence, human excrement. TANTRUMS. Pet, or passion; madam was in her tantrums. TANTWIVY. A way they went, tantwivy; away they went full speed. Tantwivy was the sound of the hunting horn in full cry, or that of a post horn.

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TAW

TAP. A gentle blow. A tap on the shoulder; an arrest.
To tap a girl; to be the first seducer: in allusion to a beer
barrel. To tap a guinca; to get it changed.
TAPPERS. Shoulder tappers: bailiffs.

TAPE. Red tape; brandy. Blue or white tape; gin.
TAPLASH. Thick and bad beer.

TAR. Don't lose a sheep for a halfpennyworth of tar: tar is
used to mark sheep. A jack tar; a sailor.
TARADIDDLE. A fib, or falsity.

TARPAWLIN. A coarse cloth tarred over: also, figuratively, a sailor.

TARRING AND FEATHERING. A punishment lately inflicted by the good people of Boston on any person convicted, or suspected, of loyalty: such delinquents being stripped naked, were daubed all over with tar, and afterwards put into a hogshead of feathers.

TART. Sour, sharp, quick, pert.

TARTAR. To catch a Tartar; to attack one of superior strength or abilities. This saying originated from a story of an Irish soldier in the Imperial service, who, in a battle against the Turks, called out to his comrade that he had. caught a Tartar. Bring him along then,' said he. won't come,' answered Paddy. Then come along yourself,' replied his comrade. Arrah,' cried he,

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but he won't let me.'--A Tartar is also an adept at any feat, or game: he is quite a Tartar at cricket, or billiards.

TAT. Tit for tat; an equivalent.

TATS.

False dice.

TATLER. A watch. To flash a tatler to wear a watch. TATMONGER. One that uses false dice.

TATTERDEMALLION. A ragged fellow, whose clothes hang all in tatters.

TATTOO. A beat of the drum, or signal for soldiers to go to their quarters, and a direction to the sutlers to close the tap, and draw no more liquor for them; it is generally beat at nine in summer and eight in winter. The devil's tattoo; beating with one's foot against the ground, as done by persons in low spirits.

TAW. A schoolboy's game, played with small round balls made of stone dust, called marbles. I'll be one upon your taw presently; a species of threat.

TAWDRY. Garish, gawdy, with lace or staring and discordant colours: a term said to be derived from the shrine and altar of St. Audrey (an Isle of Ely saintess), which for finery exceeded all others thereabouts, so as to become proverbial; whence any fine dressed man or wo

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man

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man was said to be all St. Audrey, and by contraction all tawdry.

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TAYLE DRAWERS. Thieves who snatch gentlemen's swords from their sides. He drew the cull's tayle rumly; he snatched away the gentleman's sword cleverly. TAYLOR. Nine taylors make a man; an ancient and com mon saying, originating from the effeminacy of their employment; or, as some have it, from nine taylors having been robbed by one man; according to others, from the speech of a woollendraper, meaning that the custom of nine taylors would make or enrich one man.-A London taylor, rated to furnish half a man to the Trained Bands, asking how that could possibly be done? was answered, By sending four journeymen and an apprentice.—Puta taylor, a weaver, and a miller into a sack, shake them well, and the first that puts out his head is certainly a thief.---A taylor is frequently styled pricklouse, from their assaults on those vermin with their needles.

TAYLOR'S GOOSE. An iron with which, when heated, they press down the seams of clothes.

TEA VOIDER. A chamber pot.

TEAGUELAND. Ireland. Teaguelanders; Irishmen.

TEARS OF THE TANKARD. The drippings of liquor on a man's waistcoat.

TEDDY MY GODSON. An address to a supposed simple fellow, or nysey.

TEIZE. To nap the teize; to receive a whipping. Cant, TEMPLE PICKLING. Pumping a bailiff: a punishment formerly administered to any of that fraternity caught exercising their functions within the limits of the Temple. TEN TOES. See BAYARD OFTEN TOES.

TEN IN THE HUNDRED. An usurer: more than five in the hundred being deemed usurious interest.

TENANT AT WILL. One whose wife usually fetches him from the alehouse.

TENANT FOR LIFE. A married man; i. e. possessed of a woman for life.

TENDER PARNELL. A tender creature, fearful of the least puff of wind or drop of rain. As tender as Parnell, who broke her fingerin a posset drink.

TERMAGANT. An outrageous scold : from Termagantes, a cruel Pagan, formerly represented in divers shows and entertainments, where being dressed á la Turque, in long clothes, he was mistaken for a furious woman. TERRA FIRMA. A estate in land.

TESTER.

THO

TESTER. A sixpence : from teston, a coin with a head on it TETBURY PORTION. A **** and a clap.

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THAMES. He will not find out a way to set the Thames on fire; he will not make any wonderful discoveries, he is no conjuror. THATCH-GALLOWS.

THICK. Intimate.

A rogue, or man of bad character. They are as thick as two inkle-weavers. THIEF. You are a thief and a murderer, you have killed a baboon and stole his face; vulgar abuse.

THIEF IN A CANDLE. Part of the wick or snuff, which falling on the tallow, burns and níelts it, and causing it to gutter, thus steals it away.

THIEF TAKERS.

Fellows who associate with all kinds of villains, in order to betray them, when they have committed any of those crimes which entitle the persons taking them to a handsome reward, called blood money. It is the business of these thief takers to furnish subjects for a handsome execution, at the end of every sessions.

THIMBLE. A watch. The swell flashes a rum thimble; the gentleman sports a fine watch.

THINGSTABLE. Mr. Thingstable; Mr. Constable: a ludicrous affectation of delicacy in avoiding the pronunciation of the first syllable in the title of that officer, which in sound has some similarity to an indecent monosyllable. THINGUM BOB. Mr. Thingumbob; a vulgar address or nomination to any person whose name is unknown, the same as Mr. What-d'ye-call'em. Thingumbobs; testicles. THIRDING. A custom practised at the universities, where two thirds of the original price is allowed by the upholsterers to the students for household goods returned to themwithin the year.

THIRTEENER. A shilling in Ireland, which there passes for thirteen pence.

THOMOND. Like Lord Thomond's cocks, all on one side. Lord Thomond's cock-feeder, an Irishman, being entrusted with some cocks which were matched for a considerable sum, the night before the battle shut them all together in one room, concluding that as they were all on the same side, they would not disagree: the consequence was, they were most of them either killed or lamed before the morning.

THOMAS. Man Thomas; a man's penis.

THORNS. To be or sit upon thorns; to be uneasy,impatient, anxious for an event.

THORNBACK. An old maid.

THOROUGH CHURCHMAN. A person who goes in at one door of a church, and out at the other, without stopping.

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