their bodies, called a sooterkin, of the size of a mouse, which when mature slips out.

Sop. A bribe. A sop for Cerberus; a bribe for a porter, turnkey, or gaoler.

SOPH. (Cambridge) An undergraduate in his second year. SORREL. A yellowish red. Sorrel pate; one having red

hair.

SORROW SHALL BE HIS SOPS.

He shall repent this. Sorrow

go_by me; a common expletive used by the presbyterians in Ireland.

SORRY. Vile, mean, worthless. A sorry fellow, or hussy; a worthless man or woman.

SOUL CASE. The body.

case; he wounded him.

He made a hole in his soul

French.

SOUL DOCTOR, or DRIVER. A parson.
SOUNDERS. A herd of swine.

SOUSE. Not a souse; not a penny.

Sow. A fat woman. He has got the wrong sow by the ear, he mistakes his man. Drunk as David's sow; see DAVID'S

Sow.

Sow's BABY. A sucking pig.

SOW CHILD. A female child.
SPADO. A sword. Spanish.

SPANGLE. A seven shilling piece.

1

SPANK. (Whip) To run neatly along, between a trot and gallop. The tits spanked it to town; the horses went merrily along all the way to town.

SPANISH. The spanish; ready money.

SPANISH COIN. Fair words and compliments.

SPANISH FAGGOT.

The sun.

SPANISH GOUT. The pox.

SPANISH PADLOCK. A kind of girdle contrived by jealous husbands of that nation, to secure the chastity of their wives.

SPANISH, or KING OF SPAIN'S TRUMPETER. An ass when braying.

SPANISH WORM. A nail: so called by carpenters when they meet with one in a board they are sawing.

SPANKS, OF SPANKERS. Money; also blows with the open hand.

SPANKING. Large.

SPARK. A spruce, trim, or smart fellow. A man that is always thirsty, is said to have a spark in his throat. SPARKISH. Fine, gay.

SPARKING BLOWs, Blows given by cocks before they close,

or

or, as the term is, mouth it: used figuratively for words previous to a quarrel.

SPARROW. Mumbling a sparrow; a cruel sport frequently practised at wakes and fairs: for a small premium, a booby having his hands tied behind him, has the wing of a cock sparrow put into his mouth: with this hold, without any other assistance than the motion of his lips, he is to get the sparrow's head into his mouth: on attempting to do it, the bird defends itself surprisingly, frequently pecking the mumbler till his lips are covered with blood, and he is obliged to desist: to prevent the bird from getting away, he is fastened by a string to a button of the booby's coat. SPARROW-MOUTHED. Wide-mouthed, like the mouth of a sparrow it is said of such persons, that they do not hold their mouths by lease, but have it from year to year; i. e. from ear to ear. One whose mouth cannot be enlarged without removing their ears, and who when they yawn have their heads half off.

SPATCH COCK. [Abbreviation of dispatch cock.] Ahen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled; an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion. To SPEAK WITH. To rob. I spoke with the cull on the cherry-coloured prancer; I robbed the man on the black horse. Cant.

SPEAK. Any thing stolen. He has made a good speak; he has stolen something considerable.

SPECKED WHIPER. A coloured hankerchief.

Cant.

SPICE. To rob. Spice the swell; rob the gentleman. SPICE ISLANDS. A privy. Stink-hole bay or dilberry creek. The fundament.

SPIDER-SHANKED. Thin-legged.

TO SPIFLICATE. To confound, silence, or dumbfound.
SPILT. A small reward or gift.

SPILT. Thrown from a horse, or overturned in a carriage:

pray, coachee, don't spill us.

SPINDLE SHANKS. Slender legs.

TO SPIRIT AWAY. To kidnap, or inveigle away.
SPIRITUAL FLESH BROKER. A parson.

SPIT. He is as like his father as if he was spit out of his mouth; said of a child much resembling his father. SPIT. A sword.

SPIT FIRE. A violent, pettish, or passionate person. SPLICED. Married: an allusion to joining two ropes ends by splicing. Sea term.

SPLIT CROW. The sign of the spread eagle, which being represented with two heads on one neck, gives it somewhat the appearance of being split.

SPLIT

SPLIT CAUSE. A lawyer.
SPLIT FIG. A grocer.

SPOIL IRON. The nick-name for a smith.

SPOONEY. (Whip.) Thin, haggard, like the shank of a spoon; also delicate, craving for something, longing for sweets. Avaricious. That tit is damned spooney. She's a spooney piece of goods. He's a spooney old fellow.

SPOIL PUDDING. A parson who preaches long sermons, keeping his congregation in church till the puddings are overdone.

TO SPORT. To exhibit: as, Jack Jehu sported a new gig yesterday: I shall sport a new suit next week. To sport or flash one's ivory; to shew one's teeth. To sport timber; to keep one's outside door shut; this term is used in the inns of court to signify denying one's self. N. B. The word sport was in great vogue ann. 1783 and 1784. SPUNGE. A thirsty fellow, a great drinker. To spunge; to eat and drink at another's cost. Spunging-house: a bailiff's lock-up-house, or repository, to which persons arrested are taken, till they find bail, or have spent all their money: a house where every species of fraud and extortion is practised, under the protection of the law.

SPUNK. Rotten touchwood, or a kind of fungus prepared for tinder; figuratively, spirit, courage.

SPOON HAND. The right hand.

TO SPOUT. To rehearse theatrically.

SPOUTING CLUB. A meeting of apprentices and mechanics to rehearse different characters in plays: thus forming recruits for the strolling companies.

SPOUTING. Theatrical declamation.
SPOUTED. Pawned.

SPREAD. Butter..

SPREAD EAGLE. A soldier tied to the halberts in order to be whipped; his attitude bearing some likeness to that figure, as painted on signs.

SPREE. A frolic. Fun. A drinking bout. A party of pleasure.

SPRING-ANKLE WAREHOUSE. Newgate, or any other gaol. Irish.

SQUAB. A fat man or woman: from their likeness to a well-stuffed couch, called also a squab. A new-hatched chicken.

SQUARE. Honest, not roguish. A square cove, i. e. a man who does not steal, or get his living by dishonest

means.

SQUARE TOES. An old man:

square toed shoes were anciently

anciently worn in common, and long retained by old

men.

SQUEAK. A narrow escape, a chance: he had a squeak for his life. To squeak; to confess, peach, or turn stag. They squeak beef upon us; they cry out thieves after us. Cant.

SQUEAKEK. A bar-boy; also a bastard or any other child. To stifle the squeaker; to murder a bastard, or throw it into the necessary house.---Organ pipes are likewise called squeakers. The squeakers are meltable; the small pipes are silver. Cant.

SQUEEZE CRAB. A sour-looking, shrivelled, diminutive fellow.

SQUEEZE WAX. A good-natured foolish fellow, ready to become security for another, under hand and seal. SQUELCH. A fall. Formerly a bailiff caught in a barrackyard in Ireland, was liable by custom to have three tosses in a blanket, and a squelch; the squelch was given by letting go the corners of the blanket, and suffering him to fall to the ground. Squelch-gutted; fat, having a prominent belly.

SQUIB. A small satirical or political temporary jeu d'esprit, which, like the firework of that denomination, sparkles, bounces, stinks, and vanishes.

SQUINT-A-PIPES. A squinting man or woman; said to be born in the middle of the week, and looking both ways for Sunday; or born in a hackney coach, and looking out of both windows; fit for a cook, one eye in the pot, and the other up the chimney; looking nine ways at

once.

SQUIRE OF ALSATIA. A weak profligate spendthrift, the squire of the company; one who pays the whole reckoning, or treats the company, called standing squire.

SQUIRISH. Foolish.

SQUIRREL. A prostitute: because she like that animal, covers her back with her tail. Meretrix corpore corpus alit. Menagiana, ii. 128.

SQUIRREL HUNTING. See HUNTING.

STAG. To turn stag; to impeach one's confederates: from a herd of deer, who are said to turn their horns against any of their number who is hunted.

TO STAG. To find, discover, or observe.

STAGGERING BOB, WITH HIS YELLOW PUMPS. A calf just dropped, and unable to stand, killed for veal in Scotland: the hoofs of a young calf are yellow.

STALL WHIMPER. A bastard. Cant.

STAL

STALLING. Making or ordaining. Stalling to the rogue; an ancient ceremony of instituting a candidate into the society of rogues, somewhat similar to the creation of a herald at arms. It is thus described by Harman: the upright man taking a gage of bowse, i. e. a pot of strong drink, pours it on the head of the rogue to be admitted; saying, I, A. B. do stall thee B. C. to the rogue; and from henceforth it shall be lawful for thee to cant for thy living in all places.

STALLING KEN. A broker's shop, or that of a receiver of stolen goods.

STALLION. A man kept by an old lady for secret services. STAM FLESH. To cant. Cant.

STAMMEL, OF STRAMMEL. A coarse brawny wench.

STAMP. A particular manner of throwing the dice out of the box, by striking it with violence against the table. STAMPS. Legs.

STAMPERS. Shoes.

STAND-STILL. He was run to a stand-still; i. e. till he could no longer move.

STAR GAZER. A horse who throws up his head; also a hedge whore.

TO STAR THE GLAZE. To break and rob a jeweller's show glass. Cant.

STARCHED. Stiff, prim, formal, affected.

STARING QUARTER. An ox cheek.

START, OF THE OLD START. Newgate: he is gone to the start, or the old start. Cant.

STARTER. One who leaves a jolly company, a milksop; he is no starter, he will sit longer than a hen.

STARVE'EM, ROB'EM, AND CHEAT'EM. Stroud, Rochester, and Chatham; so called by soldiers and sailors, and not without good reason.

STAR LAG. Breaking shop-windows, and stealing some article thereout.

STASH. To stop. To finish. To end. The cove tipped the prosecutor fifty quid to stash the business; he gave the prosecutor fifty guineas to stop the prosecution. STATE. To lie in state; to be in bed with three harlots. STAY. A cuckoll.

STAYTAPE. A taylor; from that article, and its coadjutor buckram, which make no small figure in the bills of those • knights of the needle.

STEAMER. A pipe. A swell steamer; a long pipe, such as is used by gentlemen to smoke. STEEL. The house of correction.

STELL