1811 Dictionary in the Vulgar Tongue, by Francis Grose is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here: [LINK TO TABLE OF LINK]. Section H
Section H
HABERDASHER OF PRONOUNS. A schoolmaster, or
usher.
HACKNEY WRITER. One who writes for attornies or
booksellers.
HACKUM. Captain Hackum; a bravo, a slasher.HAD'EM. He has been at Had'em, and came home by Clapham; said of one who has caught the venereal disease.HAIR SPLITTER. A man's yard.HALBERT. A weapon carried by a serjeant of foot. To get a halbert; to be appointed a serjeant. To be brought to the halberts; to be flogged a la militaire: soldiers of the infantry, when flogged, being commonly tied to three halberts, set up in a triangle, with a fourth fastened across them. He carries the halbert in his face; a saying of one promoted from a serjeant to a commission officer.HALF A HOG. Sixpence.HALF SEAS OVER. Almost drunk.HAMLET. A high constable. Cant.HAMS, or HAMCASES Breeches.HAND. A sailor. We lost a hand; we lost a sailor. Bear a hand; make haste. Hand to fist; opposite: the same as tete-a-tete, or cheek by joul.HAND AND POCKET SHOP. An eating house, where ready money is paid for what is called for.
HAND BASKET PORTION. A woman whose husband receives
frequent presents from her father, or family, is
said to have a hand-basket portion.
HANDLE. To know how to handle one's fists; to be skilful
in the art of boxing. The cove flashes a rare handle to
his physog; the fellow has a large nose.
HANDSOME. He is a handsome-bodied man in the face; a
jeering commendation of an ugly fellow. Handsome is that
handsome does: a proverb frequently cited by ugly women.
HANDSOME REWARD. This, in advertisements, means a
horse-whipping.
To HANG AN ARSE. To hang back, to hesitate.HANG GALLOWS LOOK. A thievish, or villainous appearance.HANG IN CHAINS. A vile, desperate fellow. Persons guilty of murder, or other atrocious crimes, are frequently, after execution, hanged on a gibbet, to which they are fastened by iron bandages; the gibbet is commonly placed on or near the place where the crime was committed.HANG IT UP. Score it up: speaking of a reckoning.HANG OUT. The traps scavey where we hang out; the officers know where we live.HANGER ON. A dependant.HANGMAN'S WAGES. Thirteen pence halfpenny; which, according to the vulgar tradition, was thus allotted: one shilling for the executioner, and three halfpence for the rope,—N. B. This refers to former times; the hangmen of the present day having, like other artificers, raised their prices. The true state of this matter is, that a Scottish mark was the fee allowed for an execution, and the value of that piece was settled by a proclamation of James I. at thirteen pence halfpenny.HANK. He has a hank on him; i.e. an ascendancy over him, or a hold upon him. A Smithfield hank; an ox, rendered furious by overdriving and barbarous treatment. See BULL HANK.HANKER. To hanker after any thing; to have a longing after or for it.HANS IN KELDER. Jack in the cellar, i.e. the child in the womb: a health frequently drank to breeding women or their husbands.HARD. Stale beer, nearly sour, is said to be hard. Hard also means severe: as, hard fate, a hard master.HARD AT HIS A-SE. Close after him.HARE. He has swallowed a hare; he is drunk; more probably a HAIR, which requires washing down,HARK-YE-ING. Whispering on one side to borrow money.HARMAN. A constable. CANT.HARMAN BECK. A beadle. CANT.HARMANS. The stocks. CANT.HARP. To harp upon; to dwell upon a subject. Have among you, my blind harpers; an expression used in throwing or shooting at random among the crowd. Harp is also the Irish expression for woman, or tail, used in tossing up in Ireland: from Hibernia, being represented with a harp on the reverse of the copper coins of that country; for which it is, in hoisting the copper, i.e. tossing up, sometimes likewise called music.HARRIDAN. A hagged old woman; a miserable, scraggy, worn-out harlot, fit to take her bawd's degree: derived from the French word HARIDELLE, a worn-out jade of a horse or mare.HARRY. A country fellow. CANT.—Old Harry; the Devil.HARUM SCARUM. He was running harum scarum; said of any one running or walking hastily, and in a hurry, after they know not what.HASH. To flash the hash; to vomit. CANT.
HASTY. Precipitate, passionate. He is none of the Hastings
sort; a saying of a slow, loitering fellow: an allusion to the
Hastings pea, which is the first in season.
HASTY PUDDING. Oatmeal and milk boiled to a moderate thickness, and eaten with sugar and butter. Figuratively, a wet, muddy road: as, The way through Wandsworth is quite a hasty pudding. To eat hot hasty pudding for a laced hat, or some other prize, is a common feat at wakes and fairs.HAT. Old hat; a woman's privities: because frequently felt.HATCHES. Under the hatches; in trouble, distress, or debt.HATCHET FACE. A long thin face.HAVIL. A sheep. CANT.HAVY CAVY. Wavering, doubtful, shilly shally.
HAWK. Ware hawk; the word to look sharp, a bye-word
when a bailiff passes. Hawk also signifies a sharper, in
opposition to pigeon. See PIGEON. See WARE HAWK.
HAWKERS. Licensed itinerant retailers of different commodities,
called also pedlars; likewise the sellers of news-papers.
Hawking; an effort to spit up the thick phlegm, called
OYSTERS: whence it is wit upon record, to ask the person
so doing whether he has a licence; a punning allusion to the
Act of hawkers and pedlars.
To HAZEL GILD. To beat any one with a hazel stick.HEAD CULLY OF THE PASS, or PASSAGE BANK. The top tilter of that gang throughout the whole army, who demands and receives contribution from all the pass banks in the camp.HEAD RAILS. Teeth. SEA PHRASE.HEARING CHEATS. Ears. CANT.HEART'S EASE. Gin.HEARTY CHOAK. He will have a hearty choak and caper sauce for breakfast; i.e. he will be hanged.HEATHEN PHILOSOPHER. One whose breech may be seen through his pocket-hole: this saying arose from the old philosophers, many of whom depised the vanity of dress to such a point, as often to fall into the opposite extreme.
TO HEAVE. To rob. To heave a case; to rob a house.
To heave a bough; to rob a booth. CANT.
HEAVER. The breast. CANT.
HEAVERS. Thieves who make it their business to steal
tradesmen's shop-books. CANT.
HECTOR. bully, a swaggering coward. To hector; to
bully, probably from such persons affecting the valour of
Hector, the Trojan hero.
HEDGE. To make a hedge; to secure a bet, or wager, laid on one side, by taking the odds on the other, so that, let what will happen, a certain gain is secured, or hedged in, by the person who takes this precaution; who is then said to be on velvet.HEDGE ALEHOUSE. A small obscure alehouse.HEDGE CREEPER. A robber of hedges.HEDGE PRIEST. An illiterate unbeneficed curate, a patrico.HEDGE WHORE. An itinerant harlot, who bilks the bagnios and bawdy-houses, by disposing of her favours on the wayside, under a hedge; a low beggarly prostitute.
HEELS. To he laid by the heels; to be confined, or put in
prison. Out at heels; worn, or diminished: his estate or
affairs are out at heels. To turn up his heels; to turn up
the knave of trumps at the game of all-fours.
HEEL TAP. A peg in the heel of a shoe, taken out when it
is finished. A person leaving any liquor in his glass, is
frequently called upon by the toast-master to take off his
heel-tap.
HELL. A taylor's repository for his stolen goods, called
cabbage: see CABBAGE. Little hell; a small dark covered
passage, leading from London-wall to Bell-alley.
HELL-BORN BABE. A lewd graceless youth, one naturally
of a wicked disposition.
HELL CAT. A termagant, a vixen, a furious scolding woman.
See TERMAGANT and VIXEN.
HELL HOUND. A wicked abandoned fellow.
HELL FIRE DICK. The Cambridge driver of the Telegraph.
The favorite companion of the University fashionables,
and the only tutor to whose precepts they attend.
HELTER SKELTER. To run helter skelter, hand over head,
in defiance of order.
HEMP. Young hemp; an appellation for a graceless boy.HEMPEN FEVER. A man who was hanged is said to have died of a hempen fever; and, in Dorsetshire, to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.HEMPEN WIDOW. One whose husband was hanged.HEN-HEARTED. Cowardly.HEN HOUSE. A house where the woman rules; called also a SHE HOUSE, and HEN FRIGATE: the latter a sea phrase, originally applied to a ship, the captain of which had his wife on board, supposed to command him.
HENPECKED. A husband governed by his wife, is said to
be henpecked.
HEN. A woman. A cock and hen club; a club composed
of men and women.
HERE AND THEREIAN. One who has no settled place of
residence.
HERRING. The devil a barrel the better herring; all equally
bad.
HERRING GUTTED. Thin, as a shotten herring.
HERRING POND. The sea. To cross the herring pond at
the king's expence; to be transported.
HERTFORDSHIRE KINDNESS. Drinking twice to the same
person.
HICK. A country hick; an ignorant clown. CANT.HICKENBOTHOM. Mr. Hickenbothom; a ludicrous name for an unknown person, similar to that of Mr. Thingambob. Hickenbothom, i.e. a corruption of the German word ickenbaum, i.e. oak tree.HICKEY. Tipsey; quasi, hickupping.HIDE AND SEEK. A childish game. He plays at hide and seek; a saying of one who is in fear of being arrested for debt, or apprehended for some crime, and therefore does not chuse to appear in public, but secretly skulks up and down. See SKULK.HIDEBOUND. Stingy, hard of delivery; a poet poor in invention, is said to have a hidebound muse.HIGGLEDY PIGGLEDY. Confusedly mixed.HIGH EATING. To eat skylarks in a garret.HIGH FLYERS. Tories, Jacobites.HIGH JINKS. A gambler at dice, who, having a strong head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon.HIGH LIVING. To lodge in a garret, or cockloftHIGH PAD. A highwayman. CANT.HIGH ROPES. To be on the high ropes; to be in a passion.HIGH SHOON, or CLOUTED SHOON. A country clown.HIGH WATER. It is high water, with him; he is full of money.HIGHGATE. Sworn at Highgate—a ridiculous custom formerly prevailed at the public-houses in Highgate, to administer a ludicrous oath to all travellers of the middling rank who stopped there. The party was sworn on a pair of horns, fastened on a stick: the substance of the oath was, never to kiss the maid when he could kiss the mistress, never to drink small beer when he could get strong, with many other injunctions of the like kind; to all which was added the saving cause of "unless you like it best." The person administering the oath was always to be called father by the juror; and he, in return, was to style him son, under the penalty of a bottle.HIKE. To hike off; to run away. CANT.HIND LEG. To kick out a hind leg; to make a rustic bow.
HINNEY, MY HONEY. A north country hinney, particularly
a Northumbrian: in that county, hinney is the general
term of endearment.
HISTORY OF THE FOUR KINGS, or CHILD'S BEST GUIDE TO
THE GALLOWS. A pack of cards. He studies the history
of the four kings assiduously; he plays much at cards.
HOAXING. Bantering, ridiculing. Hoaxing a quiz; joking
an odd fellow. UNIVERSITY WIT.
HOB, or HOBBINOL, a clown.HOB OR NOB. Will you hob or nob with me? a question formerly in fashion at polite tables, signifying a request or challenge to drink a glass of wine with the proposer: if the party challenged answered Nob, they were to chuse whether white or red. This foolish custom is said to have originated in the days of good queen Bess, thus: when great chimnies were in fashion, there was at each corner of the hearth, or grate, a small elevated projection, called the hob; and behind it a seat. In winter time the beer was placed on the hob to warm: and the cold beer was set on a small table, said to have been called the nob; so that the question, Will you have hob or nob? seems only to have meant, Will you have warm or cold beer? i.e. beer from the hob, or beer from the nob.
HOBBERDEHOY. Half a man and half a boy, a lad between
both.
HOBBLED. Impeded, interrupted, puzzled. To hobble;
to walk lamely.
HOBBLEDYGEE. A pace between a walk and a run, a dog-trot.HOBBY. Sir Posthumous's hobby; one nice or whimsical in his clothes.HOBBY HORSE. A man's favourite amusement, or study, is called his hobby horse. It also means a particular kind of small Irish horse: and also a wooden one, such as is given to children.HOBBY HORSICAL. A man who is a great keeper or rider of hobby horses; one that is apt to be strongly attached to his systems of amusement.
HOBNAIL. A country clodhopper: from the shoes of country
farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of
hob-nails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron.
The Devil ran over his face with hobnails in his shoes;
said of one pitted With the small pox.
HOBSON'S CHOICE. That or none; from old Hobson, a
famous carrier of Cambridge, who used to let horses to the
students; but never permitted them to chuse, always
allotting each man the horse he thought properest for his
manner of riding and treatment.
HOCKS. vulgar appellation for the feet. You have left
the marks of your dirty hocks on my clean stairs; a frequent
complaint from a mop squeezer to a footman.
HOCKEY. Drunk with strong stale beer, called old hock.
See HICKEY.
HOCKING, or HOUGHING. A piece of cruelty practised by
the butchers of Dublin, on soldiers, by cutting the tendon
of Achilles; this has been by law made felony.
HOCUS POCUS. Nonsensical words used by jugglers, previous to their deceptions, as a kind of charm, or incantation. A celebrated writer supposes it to be a ludicrous corruption of the words hoc est corpus, used by the popish priests in consecrating the host. Also Hell Hocus is used to express drunkenness: as, he is quite hocus; he is quite drunk.HOD. Brother Hod; a familiar name for a bricklayer's labourer: from the hod which is used for carrying bricks and mortar.
HODDY DODDY, ALL A-SE AND NO BODY. A short clumsy
person, either male or female.
HODGE. An abbreviation of Roger: a general name for a
country booby.
HODGE PODGE. An irregular mixture of numerous things.HODMANDODS. Snails in their shells.HOG. A shilling. To drive one's hogs; to snore: the noise made by some persons in snoring, being not much unlike the notes of that animal. He has brought his hogs to a fine market; a saying of any one who has been remarkably successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify the contrary. A hog in armour; an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like a hog in armour. To hog a horse's mane; to cut it short, so that the ends of the hair stick up like hog's bristles. Jonian hogs; an appellation given to the members of St. John's College, Cambridge.HOG GRUBBER. A mean stingy fellow.HOGGISH. Rude, unmannerly, filthy.HOGO. Corruption of haut goust, high taste, or flavour; commonly said of flesh somewhat tainted. It has a confounded hogo; it stinks confoundedly.HOIST. To go upon the hoist; to get into windows accidentally left open: this is done by the assistance of a confederate, called the hoist, who leans his head against the wall, making his back a kind of step or ascent.HOISTING. A ludicrous ceremony formerly performed on every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field after being married; it was thus managed: As soon as the regiment, or company, had grounded their arms to rest a while, three or four men of the same company to which the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part foremost. He was then hoisted on the shoulders of two strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife beating and playing the pioneers call, named Round Heads and Cuckolds, but on this occasion styled the Cuckold's March; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat: this, in some regiments, was practised by the officers on their brethren, Hoisting, among pickpockets, is, setting a man on his head, that his money, watch, &c. may fall out of his pockets; these they pick up, and hold to be no robbery. See REVERSED.HOITY-TOITY. A hoity-toity wench; a giddy, thoughtless, romping girl.HOLBORN HILL. To ride backwards up Holborn hill; to go to the gallows: the way to Tyburn, the place of execution for criminals condemned in London, was up that hill. Criminals going to suffer, always ride backwards, as some conceive to increase the ignominy, but more probably to prevent them being shocked with a distant view of the gallows; as, in amputations, surgeons conceal the instruments with which they are going to operate. The last execution at Tyburn, and consequently of this procession, was in the year 1784, since which the criminals have been executed near Newgate
HOLIDAY. A holiday bowler; a bad bowler. Blind man's
holiday; darkness, night. A holiday is any part of a
ship's bottom, left uncovered in paying it. SEA TERM. It
is all holiday; See ALL HOLIDAY.
HOLY FATHER. A butcher's boy of St. Patrick's Market,
Dublin, or other Irish blackguard; among whom
the exclamation, or oath, by the Holy Father (meaning
the Pope), is common.
HOLY LAMB. A thorough-paced villain. IRISH.HOLY WATER. He loves him as the Devil loves holy water, i.e. hates him mortally. Holy water, according to the Roman Catholics, having the virtue to chase away the Devil and his imps.HOLLOW. It was quiet a hollow thing; i.e. a certainty, or decided business.HONEST MAN. A term frequently used by superiors to inferiors. As honest a man as any in the cards when all the kings are out; i.e. a knave. I dare not call thee rogue for fear of the law, said a quaker to an attorney; but I wil give thee five pounds, if thou canst find any creditable person who wilt say thou art an honest man.HONEST WOMAN. To marry a woman with whom one has cohabitated as a mistress, is termed, making an honest woman of her.HONEY MOON. The first month after marriage. A poor honey; a harmless, foolish, goodnatured fellow. It is all honey or a t—d with them; said of persons who are either in the extremity of friendship or enmity, either kissing or fighting.
HOOD-WINKED. Blindfolded by a handkerchief, or other
ligature, bound over the eyes.
HOOF. To beat the hoof; to travel on foot. He hoofed it
or beat the hoof, every step of the way from Chester to
London.
HOOK AND SNIVEY, WITH NIX THE BUFFER. This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: Three men, one of who pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.
HOOKEE WALKER. An expression signifying that the story
is not true, or that the thing will not occour.
HOOKED. Over-reached, tricked, caught: a simile taken
from fishing. **** hooks; fingers.
HOOKERS. See ANGLERS.HOOP. To run the hoop; an ancient marine custom. Four or more boys having their left hands tied fast to an iron hoop, and each of them a rope, called a nettle, in their right, being naked to the waist, wait the signal to begin: this being made by a stroke with a cat of nine tails, given by the boatswain to one of the boys, he strikes the boy before him, and every one does the same: at first the blows are but gently administered; but each irritated by the strokes from the boy behind him, at length lays it on in earnest. This was anciently practised when a ship was wind-bound.TO HOOP. To beat. I'll well hoop his or her barrel, I'll beat him or her soundly.TO HOP THE TWIG. To run away. CANT.HOP MERCHANT. A dancing master. See CAPER MERCHANT.
HOP-O-MY-THUMB. A diminutive person, man or woman.
She was such a-hop-o-my thumb, that a pigeon, sitting
on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a-se.
HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins; a ludicrous address to a lame or
limping man, being a pun on the word hop.
HOPPING GILES. A jeering appellation given to any person who limps, or is lame; St. Giles was the patron of cripples, lepers, &c. Churches dedicated to that saint commonly stand out of town, many of them having been chapels to hospitals. See GYLES.
HOPPER-ARSED. Having large projecting buttocks: from
their resemblance to a small basket, called a hopper or
hoppet, worn by husbandmen for containing seed corn,
when they sow the land.
HORNS. To draw in one's horns; to retract an assertion
through fear: metaphor borrowed from a snail, who on the
apprehension of danger, draws in his horns, and retires to
his shell.
HORN COLIC. A temporary priapism.HORN FAIR. An annual fair held at Charlton, in Kent, on St. Luke's day, the 18th of October. It consists of a riotous mob, who after a printed summons dispersed through the adjacent towns, meet at Cuckold's Point, near Deptford, and march from thence in procession, through that town and Greenwich, to Charlton, with horns of different kinds upon their heads; and at the fair there are sold rams horns, and every sort of toy made of horn; even the gingerbread figures have horns, The vulgar tradition gives the following history of the origin of this fair; King John, or some other of our ancient kings, being at the palace of Eltham, in this neighbourhood, and having been out a hunting one day, rambled from his company to this place, then a mean hamlet; when entering a cottage to inquire his way, he was struck with the beauty of the mistress, whom he found alone; and having prevailed over her modesty, the husband returning suddenly, surprised them together; and threatening to kill them both, the king was obliged to discover himself, and to compound for his safety by a purse of gold, and a grant of the land from this place to Cuckold's Point, besides making the husband master of the hamlet. It is added that, in memory of this grant, and the occasion of it, this fair was established, for the sale of horns, and all sorts of goods made with that material. A sermon is preached at Charlton church on the fair day.HORN MAD. A person extremely jealous of his wife, is said to be horn mad. Also a cuckold, who does not cut or breed his horns easily.HORN WORK. Cuckold-making.HORNIFIED. Cuckolded.HORSE BUSS. A kiss with a loud smack; also a bite.HORSE COSER. A dealer in horses: vulgarly and corruptly pronounced HORSE COURSER. The verb TO COSE was used by the Scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging.HORSE GODMOTHER. A large masculine woman, a gentlemanlike kind of a lady.HORSE LADDER. A piece of Wiltshire wit, which consists in sending some raw lad, or simpleton, to a neighbouring farm house, to borrow a horse ladder, in order to get up the horses, to finish a hay-mow.HORSE'S MEAL. A meal without drinking.HOSTELER, i.e. oat stealer. Hosteler was originally the name for an inn-keeper; inns being in old English styled hostels, from the French signifying the same.HOT POT. Ale and brandy made hot.HOT STOMACH. He has so hot a stomach, that he burns all the clothes off his back; said of one who pawns his clothes to purchase liquor.HOUSE, or TENEMENT, TO LET. A widow's weeds; also an atchievement marking the death of a husband, set up on the outside of a mansion: both supposed to indicate that the dolorous widow wants a male comforter.HOYDON. A romping girl.HUBBLE-BUBBLE. Confusion. A hubble-bubble fellow; a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle. Also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the East Indies, called likewise a caloon, and hooker.HUBBLE DE SHUFF. Confusedly. To fire hubble de shuff, to fire quick and irregularly. OLD MILITARY TERM.HUBBUB. A noise, riot, or disturbance.HUCKLE MY BUFF. Beer, egg, and brandy, made hot.
HUCKSTERS. Itinerant retailers of provisions. He is in
hucksters hands; he is in a bad way.
TO HUE. To lash. The cove was hued in the naskin;
the rogue was soundly lashed in bridewell. CANT.
TO HUFF. To reprove, or scold at any one; also to bluster,
bounce, ding, or swagger. A captain huff; a noted bully.
To stand the huff; to be answerable for the reckoning in
a public house.
HUG. To hug brown bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a
private soldier. He hugs it as the Devil hugs a witch:
said of one who holds any thing as if he was afraid of losing
it.
HUGGER MUGGER. By stealth, privately, without making
an appearance. They spent their money in a hugger
mugger way.
HUGOTONTHEONBIQUIFFINARIANS. A society existing in
1748.
HULKY, or HULKING. A great hulky fellow; an over-grown
clumsy lout, or fellow.
HULVER-HEADED. Having a hard impenetrable head; hulver,
in the Norfolk dialect, signifying holly, a hard and
solid wood.
TO HUM, or HUMBUG. To deceive, or impose on one by some story or device. A humbug; a jocular imposition, or deception. To hum and haw; to hesitate in speech, also to delay, or be with difficulty brought to consent to any matter or business,HUMS. Persons at church. There is a great number of hums in the autem; there is a great congregation in the church.HUM BOX. A pulpit.
HUM CAP. Very old and strong beer, called also stingo.
See STINGO.
HUM DRUM. A hum drum fellow; a dull tedious narrator,
a bore; also a set of gentlemen, who (Bailey says) used to
meet near the Charter House, or at the King's Head in St.
John's-street, who had more of pleasantry, and less of mystery,
than the free masons.
HUM DURGEON. An imaginary illness. He has got the
humdurgeon, the thickest part of his thigh is nearest his a-se;
i.e. nothing ails him except low spirits.
HUMBUGS. The brethren of the venerable society of humbugs
was held at brother Hallam's, in Goodman's Fields.
HUMMER. A great lye, a rapper. See RAPPER.HUMMING LIQUOR. Double ale, stout pharaoh. See PHARAOH.HUMMUMS. A bagnio, or bathing house.HUM TRUM. A musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some packthread, thence also called a bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes, instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.HUMP. To hump; once a fashionable word for copulation.HUMPTY DUMPTY. A little humpty dumpty man or woman; a short clumsy person of either sex: also ale boiled with brandy.TO HUNCH. To jostle, or thrust.HUNCH-BACKED. Hump-backed.HUNG BEEF. A dried bull's pizzle. How the dubber served the cull with hung beef; how the turnkey beat the fellow with a bull's pizzle.HUNKS. A covetous miserable fellow, a miser; also the name of a famous bear mentioned by Ben Jonson.HUNT'S DOG. He is like Hunt's dog, will neither go to church nor stay at home. One Hunt, a labouring man at a small town in Shropshire, kept a mastiff, who on being shut up on Sundays, whilst his master went to church, howled so terribly as to disturb the whole village; wherefore his master resolved to take him to church with him: but when he came to the church door, the dog having perhaps formerly been whipped out by the sexton, refused to enter; whereupon Hunt exclaimed loudly against his dog's obstinacy, who would neither go to church nor stay at home. This shortly became a bye-word for discontented and whimsical persons.
HUNTING. Drawing in unwary persons to play or game.
CANT.
HUNTING THE SQUIRREL. An amusement practised by postboys and stage-coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it, so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to be hunted.
HUNTSUP. The reveillier of huntsmen, sounded on the
French horn, or other instrument.
HURDY GURDY. A kind of fiddle, originally made perhaps
out of a gourd. See HUMSTRUM.
HURLY BURLY. A rout, riot, bustle or confusion.HUSH. Hush the cull; murder the fellow.HUSH MONEY. Money given to hush up or conceal a robbery, theft, or any other offence, or to take off the evidence from appearing against a criminal.HUSKYLOUR. A guinea, or job. Cant.HUSSY. An abbreviation of housewife, but now always used as a term of reproach; as, How now, hussy? or She is a light hussy.HUZZA. Said to have been originally the cry of the huzzars or Hungarian light horse; but now the national shout of the English, both civil and military, in the sea phrase termed a cheer; to give three cheers being to huzza thrice.
HYP, or HIP. A mode of calling to one passing by. Hip,
Michael, your head's on fire; a piece of vulgar wit to a
red haired man.
HYP. The hypochondriac: low spirits. He is hypped; he
has got the blue devils, &c.
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