CHO the boot; also, formerly, cutting the back of the coach to

steal the fine large wigs then worn. CHOAK. Choak away, the churchyard's near; a jocular say

ing to a person taken with a violent fit of coughing, or who has swallowed any thing, as it is called the wrong way;

Choak, chicken, more are hatching: a like consolation. CHOAK PEAR. Figuratively, an unanswerable objection: also

a machine formerly used in Holland by robbers; it was of iron, shaped like a pear; this they forced into the mouths of persons from whom they intended to extort money; and on turning a key, certain interior springs thrust forth a number of points, in all directions, which so enlarged it, that it could not be taken out of the mouth : and the iron, being case-hardened, could not be filed: the only methods of getting rid of it, were either by cutting the mouth, or advertizing a reward for the key. These pears were also

called pears of agony. CHOAKING Pye, or Cold Pye. A punishment inflicted

on any person sleeping in company: it consists in wrapping up cotton in a case or tube of paper, setting it on fire, and directing the smoke up the nostrils of the sleeper.

See HOWELL's CoTGRAVE. CHOCOLATE. To give chocolate without sugar; to reprove.

Military term. CHOICE SPIRIT, A thoughtless, laughing, singing, drun

ken fellow. Chop. A blow. Boxing term. To CHOP AND CHANGE. To exchange backwards and for

wards. To chop, in the canting sense, means making dispatch, or hurrying over any business: ex. The autem bawler will soon quit the hums, for he chops up the whiners; ; the parson will soon quit the pulpit, for he hurries over

the prayers. See AUTEM BAWLER, HUMS, and WhiChop CHURCHES. Simoniacal dealers in livings, or other

ecclesiastical preferments. CHOPPING. Lusty. A chopping boy or girl ; a lusty

child. CHOPS. The mouth. I gave him a wherrit, or a souse,

across the chops; I gave him a blow over the mouth:

See WHERRIT. CHOP-STICK. A fork. CHòuder. A sea-dish, composed of fresh fish, salt pork,

herbs, and sea-biscuits, laid in different layers, and stewed together. To CHOUSE. To cheat or trick: he choused me out of it. Chouse is also the term for a game like chuck-farthing.

NERS.

CHRIST-Cross Row. The alphabet in a horn-book : called

Christ-cross Row, from having, as an Irishman observed, Christ's cross prefixed before and after the twenty-four

letters. CHRISTENING. Erasing the name of the true maker from

a stolen watch, and engraving a fictitious one in its place. CHRISTIAN PONEY. A chairman. CHRISTIAN. A tradesman who has faith, i. e. will give cre

dit. CHRISTMAS COMPLIMENTS. A cough, kibed heels, and a

snotty nose. CHUB. He is a young chub, or a mere chub; i. e. a foolish

fellow, easily imposed on: an illusion to a fish of that

name, easily taken.
CHUBBY. Round-faced, plump.
Chuck. My chuck; a term of endearment.
CHUCK FARTHING. A parish clerk.

.
CHUCKIE-HEADED. Stupid, thick-headed.
Chuffy. Round-faced, chubby.
Chum. A chamber-fellow, particularly at the universities

and in prison. CHUMMAGE. Money paid by the richer sort of prisoners

in the Fleet and King's Bench, to the poorer, for their share of a room. When prisons are very full, which is too often the case, particularly on the eve of an insolvent act, two or three persons are obliged to sleep in a room. A prisoner who can pay for being alone, chuses two poor chums, who for a stipulated price, called chummage, give up their share of the room, and sleep on the stairs,

or, as the term is, ruff it. CHUNK. Among printers, a journeyman who refuses to

work for legal wages; the same as the flint among taylors.

See Flint. CHURCH WARDEN. A Sussex name for a shag, or cormo

rant, probably from its voracity. CHURCH WORK. Said of any work that advances slowly. CHURCHYARD COUGH, A cough that is likely to terminate

in death. CHURK. The udder. CHURL. Originally, a labourer or husbandman: figura

tively a rude, surly, boorish fellow. To put a churl upon a gentleman; to drink malt liquor immediately after

having drunk wine. Cinder GARBLER. A servant maid, from her business of

sifting the ashes from the cinders. Custom-house wit. CIRCUMBENDIBUS. A roundabout way, or story. He took such a circumbendibus; he took such a circuit.

Сіт,

CLE tir. A citizen of London, City COLLEGE, Newgate. Civility MONEY. A reward claimed by bailiffs for execut,

ing their office with civility. Civil RECEPTION. A house of civil reception ; a bawdy

house, or nanny-house. See NANNY-HOUSE. CLACK. A tongue, chiefly applied to women; a simile drawn

from the clack of a water-mill. CLACK-LOFT. A pulpit, so called by orator Henley. CLAMMED. Starved. CLAN. A family's tribe or brotherhood; a word much used

in Scotland. The head of the clan; the chief: an allusion to a story of a Scotchman, who, when a very large louse crept down his arm, put him back again, saying he was the head of the clan, and that, if injured, all the rest

would resent it. CLANK. A silver tankard. Cant. CLANK NAPPER. A silver tankard stealer. See Rum BUB

BER.

CLANKER, A great lie. CAP. A venereal taint. He went out by Had'em,and came round by Clapham home; i. e. he went out a wenching,

and got a clap. CLAP ON THE SHOULDER.

LDER

An arrest for debt; whence a bum bailiff is called a shoulder-clapper. CLAPPER. The tongue of a bell, and figuratively of a man

or woman. CLAPPER CLAW. To scold, to abuse, or claw off with the

tongue. CLAPPERDOGEON. A beggar born. Cant. . CLARET. French red wine ; figuratively, blood. I tapped

his claret ; I broke his head, and made the blood run.

Claret-faced; red-faced. CLAWED OFF. Severely beaten or whipped ; also smartly

poxed or clapped. CLEAR. Very drunk. The cullis clear, let's bite him; the

fellow is very drunk, let's cheat him. Cant. CLEAVER. One that will cleave; used of a forward or

wanton woman. CLEAN. Expert; clever. Amongst the knuckling coves he

is reckoned very clean; he is considered very expert as

a pickpocket. CLPRKED. Soothed, funned, imposed on. The cull will

not be clerked ; i. e. the fellow will not be imposed on by

fair words. CLEYMES. Artificial sores, made by beggars to excite

charity:

CLO CLICK. A blow. A click in the muns ; a blow or knock

in the face. Cant. To CLICK. To snatch. To click a nab; to snatch a hat.

Cant. CLICKER. A salesman's servant ; also, one who proportions

out the different shares of the booty among thieves. CLICKET. Copulation of foxes; and thence used, in a

canting sense, for that of men and women : as, The cull and the mort are at clicket in the dyke; the man and

woman are copulating in the ditch. CLIMB. To climb the three trees with a ladder; to ascend

the gallows. CLINCH. A pun or qnibble. To clinch, or to clinch the

nail ; to confirm an improbable story by another: as, A man swore he drove a tenpenny nail through the moon ; a bystander said it was true, for he was on the other side

and clinched it, CLINK. A place in the Borough of Southwark, formerly

privileged from arrests; and inhabited by lawless vagabonds of every denomination, called, from the place of their residence, clinkers. Also a gaol, from the clinking

of the prisoners' chains or fetters : he is gone to clink. CLINKERS. A kind of small Dutch bricks ; also irons worn

by prisoners; a crafty fellow. To CLIP. To hug or embrace : to clip and cling. To clip

the coin ; to diminish the current coin. To clip the king's English ; to be unable to speak plain through drunken

ness. CLOAK TWITCHERS. Rogues who lurk about the entrances

into dark alleys, and bye-lanes, to snatch cloaks from the

shoulders of passengers. Clon HOPPER. A country farmer, or ploughman. CLOD PATE. A dull, heavy booby. CLOD POLE. The same. CLOSE. As close as God's curse to a whore's a-se : close as

shirt and shitten a-se. CLOSE-FISTED. Covetous or stingy. Closh. A general name given by the mobility to Dutch

seamen, being a corruption of Claus, the abbreviation of Nicholas, a name very common among the men of that

nation. Cloth MARKET. He is just come from the cloth market,

i. e. from between the sheets, he is just risen from bed. CLOUD. Tobacco. Under a cloud, in adversity,

, CLOVEN, CLEAVE, or CLEFT, A term used for a woman

who passes for a maid, but is not one. CLOven Foot. To spy the cloven foot in any business; to

COB discover some roguery or something bad in it: a saying that alludes to a piece of vulgar superstition, which is, that, let the Devil transform himself into what shape he

will, he cannot hide his cloven foot. To Chuck. To shew a propensity for a man.

The mors chucks; the wench wants to be doing. Clour. A blow. I'lį give you a clout on your jolly nob;

I'll give you a blow on your head. It also means a handkerchief. Cant. Any pocket handkerchief except a silk

one.

a

Clouted ShooN. Shoes tipped with iron.
CLOUTING LAY. Picking pockets of handkerchiefs.
Clover. To be, or live, in clover; to live luxuriously.

Clover is the most desirable food for cattle.
CLOWES. Rogues.
Cloy. To steal. To cloy the clout ; to steal the handker-

chief. To cloy the lour; to steal money. Cant. CLOYES. Thieves, robbers, &c. CLUB. A meeting or association, where each man is to spend

an equal and stated sum, called his club. CLUB LAW. Argumentum bacculinum, in which an oaken

stick is a better plea than an act of parliament. CLUMP. A lump. Clumpish ; lumpish, stupid. CLUNCH. An awkward clownish fellow. To CLUTCH THE FIst. Toclenchor shut the hand. Clutch

fisted ; covetous, stingy. See CLOSE-FISTED. CLUTCHES. Hands, gripe, power. CLUTTER. A stir, noise, or racket: what a confounded

clutter here is ! Cly. Money ; also a pocket. He has filed the cly; he

has picked a pocket. Cant. CLY THE JERK. To be whipped. Cant. CLYSTER PIPE. A nick name for an apothecary. Coach WHEEL. A half crown piece is a fore coach wheel,

and a crown piece a hind coach wheel ; the fore wheels of

a coach being less than the hind ones. To Coax. To fondle, or wheedle. To coax a pair of stock

ings; to pull down the part soiled into the shoes, so as to give a dirty pair of stockings the appearance of clean ones. Coaxing is also used, instead of darning, to hide the holes

about the ancles. COB. A Spanish dollar. Cob, or COBBING. A punishment used by the seamen for

petty offences, or irregularities, among themselves : it consists in bastonadoing the offender on the posteriors with a cobbing stick, or pipe staff; the number usually inflicted is a dozen. At the first stroke the executioner repeats

the