Glossary

Glossary

Words in canting use are printed in italics

abject	to reject.
abram, abraham	mad; naked.
abram-man	one of a class of vagrants who excited sympathy or terror in beholders by feigning madness.
abroach, to set	to let the liquid out of a cask.
admiration	a marvel.
advoutery	adultery.
affect	to regard affectionately.
affiance	confidence, trust.
after-clap	subsequent and unexpected stroke.
afterdeal	disadvantage.
aim, to give	to guide or encourage the archers.
alate	of late.
ale-bush	inn sign, inn.
All Hallows	toll-colletor's office at market.
altham	wife of a vagabond.
amerce	to fine (as legal punishment).
amort, all	out of spirits.
angel	a gold coin, value 10s. to 11s.
angler	thief who uses a hook on a line.
antic	clown, merry-andrew,
apple-squire	a pimp.
apt	to make fit, adapt.
apronman	workman, mechanic.
armour of proof	Strong armour of tested quality.
arrant	(subs.) errand; (adj.) itinerant, downright.
a-swame	fainting.
ataunt	See "taunt"
atomy	an atom, tiny being.
autem	a church.
autem-mort	a married female vagrant.
bailie	bailiff, sheriff's officer.
bale (of dice)	set required for any game.
band	the flat collar which began to replace the ruff in men's dress about the end of the sixteenth century.
bandog	a fierce watchdog, mastiff, hence a "bloodhound of the law".
bandore	Stringed musical initrument like a lute or gutar (Stanford).
barnard, barnacle	member of a group of swindlers; he first appears to be the victim of a joke, in which the dupe takes part.
barnard's law	a special department of the cony-catcher's craft. The dupe is persuaded to think that he is cheating others.
barred dice	see "dicing terms".
Bartholomew babies	dolls like those sold at Batholemew Fair.
bash	to be put out of countenance.
basil	a fetter.
basilisco	a piece of heavy ordnance.
bate	Strife, discord.
bat-fowling	cony-catching at cards.
batteler	a rank among poor students at Oxford.
bauer	beaver, the lower face-portion of a helmet.
bawdy-basket	name for peddling woman.
bawker	roguish player in bowling-alley who has confederates in the crowd.
beak	magistrate.
beaupere	companion.
beater	taker-up (q.v.).
bell-brow	place of receiver of Stolen property.
bellman	watchman or town-crier.
belly-cheat	apron.
bench-whistler	idler.
bene	good.
beneship	very good; goodness.
bene-faker of gybes	one who manufactures false passes, licences etc.
beray	befoul.
betraited	distraught.
bett	past tense and past participle of "beat".
bing	to go.
bing a waite!	go you hence!
bird	cozeners' dupe.
bit, bite	coin or money.
black jack	a leathern jug for beer, tarred outside (Skeat and Mayhew).
bleater	vitirn of a Jack-in-a-box (q.v.).
bleating-cheat	calf or sheep.
blue-coat	beadle, servant in livery.
bob	to steal (from a person); to make a game of.
boil	to betray. The boil is up:the alarm is given.
boll	to drink.
bolt	a roll of textile fabric.
bolt, boult	to sift.
bolsterer	? one who shares another's bolster. See N.E.D., s.v. "bolster" v. 6.
bombast	cotton wadding.
boon	represents (in such phrases as boon voyage ) a six-teenth century attempt to anglicise the French" bon.
boot-hater	freebooter, brigand.
booty	(i) play, at bowls, etc., which begins with intentional losses in order to encourage the opponent, who finally comes to grief; (ii) play which ends in loss, the "booty" coming to the loser's friends, who have laid their bets against him.
bord	a shilling; half-a-bord, six-pence.
borsholder	petty constable.
boun	to get oneself ready.
bouse	liquor; to drink. Rome bouse: wine.
bousing ken	ale-house.
brabble	to quarrel.
brach	bitch-hound.
brack a flaw in cloth (N.E.D.). braid to assault, reproach passionately bran burn. brazil brazil-wood, used for making dyes, also for walking-sticks, clubs, etc. bribering Stealing. bristle dice see "dicing terms." broach to spit (in cooking) ; to flab, broker middleman; second-hand dealer; often employed to mean receiver of Stolen goods. broom-man Street-sweeper, scavenger. brunt a blow, onset. buck clothes prepared for washing; the liquid; the aion of washing them. budge a beak to flee from justice. budget a bag, wallet. bufe, bugher dog. bung a purse, pocket. buy a purse. cackling-cheat cock or capon. cacodaemon evil spirit. caliver light musket. callet a drab. Candlemas February 2nd, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. cannikin the plague. cant the secret language of thieves and beggars ; to speak this language; to beg in a whining tone. cantle the protuberant part at the back of a saddle (N.E.D.). cap-case travelling-bag, carcanet a collar of jewels. carl common fellow, countryman. cassan cheese. cast condemn; overthrow an opponent. cai1er a cloak. catlle to see or look. catchpole officer employed for making arrest. cater one who buys provisions. cates visuals. caul spider's web. cautel precaution, wariness, cent, sant game at cards with winning score a hundred. chafer saucepan, chapman trader, bargainer, salesman. charm one who picks a lock. chats, cheats gallows. cheap to trade, bargain. cheaped had at a bargain. cheat anything (usually qualified by preceding word, thus, "bleating-cheat," sheep). cheat a false die, cheat fine, forfeit, reversion, etc.which falls to a landlord. Chepemans Cheapside Market. chip worthless thing. chop to buy and sell. chop a card to change its place in the pack secretly. chopping vigorous, rapping. clapperdudgeon a beggar born; also as term of reproach. clewner chief man among the rogers (q.v.). cleym a sore. clinker to cause to shrink. cloth-man clothier. cloy a snap (q.v.). cloy to teal; to obtrint, encumber. cloyed intruded upon by others claiming a share (Grosart). cly seize, steal. cly the jerk to be whipped. cog a coin. cog to cheat at dice or cards, to practice deceit; see"dicing terms." Cole, colt a cheating knave, colt innkeeper who becomes victim of rank-riders (q.v.). colour pretence, false appearance of correctness. commission shirt. commodity advantage, profit; parcel of goods handed over by money-lender to a need client initead of money (sometimes called a "commodity of brown paper"); a whore. conceit, to take a to sicken of some morbid affection. congee to make a ceremonious bow. conjeát to devise, plot. contraries see " dicing terms." conveyance a trick, piece of roguery. cope to faiten up a ferret's mouth. copesmate associate, comrade, copy, to change one's to alter one's behaviour. cornuto a cuckold (lit, furnished with horns). corporal oath corporale juramentum, taken while touching a sacred object. corsie a corrosive. cote-card court-card. couch to embroider (rare). couch a hogshead to lie down to sleep. counsellor advising barrister. country a word often employed to mean county. Thus, "a countryman of mine " : a man from my county.
couples	pair of leashes holding together two hunting dogs.
courtesy-man	spokesman of a company of beggars pretending to be ex-soldiers.
courtlax	cutlass.
cousin	a dupe.
cove	person, fellow.
covert	protection, shelter.
covetise	covetousness.
crack	talk big, hoist, brag (Skeat die and ace with the other and Mayhew).
crackmans	a hedge.
cramp-rings	fetters.
crank, the	the falling sickness. A counterfeit crank is one who pretends to be a sufferer.
crashing-cheats	teeth.
crassing-cheats	apples, pears, and other fruit.
cravant	craven.
creeping law	the craft of those who follow petty thievery in the suburbs.
crome	stick furnished with a hook at the end.
cross	coin (colloquial).
crossbiter	swindler, tricker; often with a special sense, meaning one who extorts money by threats from a man found compromising himself with a woman of easy virtue.
cross-lay	a wager meant to deceive the company as to the caller's intentions.
cue	Q, half a farthing.
cuffin	man, fellow.
curb	the curber's hook.
curber	one who steals from open windows.
cursitor	wanderer, tramp.
curtal	small piece of artillery; horse with docked tail (term of abuse).
curtal	vagabond who wears a short cloak.
cushnet	a little cushion.
cut	to speak, say.
cut benely, to	to speak gently.
cut bene whids, to	to speak properly, truly.
derrick	hangman; gallows. From the name of a Tyburn hangman (c. 1600).
deuce-ace	two and one (i.e. a throw that turns up deuce with one hence a poor throw, bad luck, mean estate, the lower class (N.E.D.). See "dicing terms."
dewse-a-vill	the country, as opposed to town.
dicing terms	ace =1 ; deuce =; trey =3 cater =4; ciflque=5; sice = 6. Kinds of dice (i) squariers are fair dice; (ii) langrets or barred dice are not perfect cubes, but have greater length along one axis. Thus barred cater-treys are longer in the 3-4 direction and will seldom turn up these numbers; so with barred sice-aces , cinque-deuces ; (iii) flats are dice shorter in one dimension; a flat cater-trey will therefore normally throw up a 3 or 4; (iv) fullams are weighted, and will throw up the side farthest from the weight; (v) gourds and (?) graviers are hollowed near one face and produce a contrary result; (vi) bristle dice have a short bristle attached to one face or edge; (vii) high men and low men are wrongly numbered on one face; usually 5 is subtituted for 2 in a high man , and 2 for 5 in a low man ; (viii) a demi or demi-bar is apparently a false die with only half the usual bias; (ix) contraries are false dice with an opposite tendency to those already in play, and will thus "crossbite" them; (x) the vantage is the tendency of a die; (xi) cogging is the manipulation of the die in the dice- box.

dicker	half-score.
diddering and doddering	shaking and shivering.
diet	course of life; board.
disgest	to digest.
dispense	heavy spending.
diver	house-thief who employs small boys to slip through windows.
doddypol	foolish person.
dodkin	doit, a Dutch coin; any small coin.
dorsermaker	maker of panniers.
dosser	basket.
dottrel	kind of plover, an easy prey.
doxy	female vagabond, travelling usually with a man.
draw	to pick a pocket.
draw-latch	petty thief.
drift	a scheme.
drigger	a thief.
drink tobacco	to draw in or inhale the smoke.
drover	a cheating horse-dealer in Smithfield Market.
drug	drudge.
dry-vat	box or cask for dry goods.
duds	clothes, things in general lag of duds, wash-bundle.
dummerer	beggar who feigns dumbness.
dup	to open (door or gate).
dure	to endure.
eagle	member of a group of confederates cheating at cards or dice. He it is who ultimately wins,
ensample	an example.
even and odd	a simple game of chance that can be played with dice and other pieces.
exigent	an emergency, critical moment or state.
extirp	extirpate.
face, to show a brave	to speak deceitfully.
faculty	trade, occupation.
fadge	to fit in with.
fairing	a present, generally understood as having been boughtat a fair.
faitour	early name for vagabond or cheat.
faker (or feager) of loges	one who makes or begs with false papers.
fallows, to come over his	to come over the ground that he had neglected - a rural metaphor (Grosart).
famblers	gloves.
fambles	hands.
fambling-cheat	a ring.
farce	to break open or pick a lock.
fardel	a bundle.
farmerly beggars	beggars who carry no artificial sores.
feager	see faker.
fence	to buy or sell stolen goods.
ferme	hole.
ferret	tradesman who lends commodities to ferret-hunters and their victims.
ferret	to cheat.
ferret-beat,	to strip a man of money by
ferret-claw	cheating him.
lift	to steal.
lifter	thief, cheat.
lifts	stolen goods.
liggen	to lie down .
lightly	usually.
lime-twigs	playing-cards.
limiting law	the art of thieves who practise their craft at assize-towns and fairs.
linen-armourer	orig. maker of adjuncts to armour; became jocular term for "tailor."
lither	lazy, demoralised.
loges	counterfeit papers.
lorel, losel	rogue, ragamuffin.
lour	money.
lour	a scowl.
lowing-cheat	a cow.
lugs	ears.
lurch	a high score in various games.
lurch	to deceive, to leave in the lurch.
lurch, to have on the	to have a man at a disadvantage.
lurcher	one who cheats at bowls.
lusk	a worthless fellow.
macemonger	nonce-word for police officer.
make	companion, mate.
make	a halfpenny.
male	portmanteau (Utterson).
mammering	muttering.
mandilion	kind of overcoat worn by soldiers and servants.
mankind	fierce, furious.
Margery-prater	a hen.
mark	13s. 4d., not a coin.
marker	shop-thief's accomplice.
marter	receiver of stolen goods.
martin	a dupe.
Marymass	one of the festivals of the Virgin.
mason's maund	artificial sore on arm above the elbow.
masty	mastiff.
maund	begging; to beg.
maund abram, to	to beg in the manner of the abram-man.
maunder(er)	a beggar.
meschant	miserable, bad.
metely	moderately.
meuse	a hare's form.
micher	sneak, petty thief.
mill	break up, rob, spoil, kill,
minion	a loved one, mistress,
mint	money.
mistress	the jack (in bowls).
moly	a herb; Ulysses armed himself with it against Circe.
monopolitan	monopolist.
moon-man	night-walker, gypsy.
morris-pike	sixteenth century weapon, said to have had a Moorish origin.
morrow-mass	first mass of the day.
muffling-cheat	napkin.
muggill	beadle.
mummy	medical preparation originally extracted from the substance with which mummies were embalmed.
myrabolan	dried fruit, formerly in repute for its astringent properties (Stanford Dict).
nab	a head.
nab-cheat	a hat or cap.
nase	drunken.
nappy	fresh, strong, "heady" (E.D.D.)
morris-pike	sixteenth century weapon, said to have had a Moorish origin.
Neapolitan scab, scurf, etc.	the pox.
neat's leather	oxhide.
neeze	sneeze.
neezing-powder	taken to cause sneezing.
new-cut	a card game.
niggling	venery; the word is said to have died, except in literary usage, by 1610.
nigh	to approach.
nip	a cutpurse.
nip a bung, to	to cut a purse.
noble	a gold coin minted in several values in sixteenth century.
nose gent	a nun.
novel(s)	news.
novem, novem-quinque, novum	a game at dice; the principal throws are 4 and 5. Five or six persons play.
Numans, Newmans	Newgate Market,
oak	he that standeth to watch in high law (Greene).
one-and-thirty	a round (?) game at cards, said to have resembled vingt-et-un.
ordinary	eating-house supplying a set meal. Some London ordinaries were notorious gaming houses.
ought	owed.
pad	soft padded saddle.
pad	road.
padder	highway robber.
pair of cards	a pack.
palliard	vagrant beggar (wearing a patched cloak).
paltry, peltry	rubbish, worthless stuff.
pannam	bread.
pantofles	slippers; to be upon one's
teller	i.e. tehon, a 6d. or is. piece.
texted letters	letters in an engrossed document.
throng	crowded.
tib (of the buttery)	goose.
tine	prong, spike.
tinkard	tinker.
tip	to give.
tire	attire.
tire	(of a bird of prey) to feed on, tear at.
togman(s)	coat or cloak.
toll-booth	office and lock-up in markets for the detention of defaulters and others.
toiler	toil-collector.
tour	to see, look, peep.
trace	way, path.
tracer	one who follows up traces, a detective.
trade up	to train up.
traffic	whore.
train	to draw on.
trammel	hobble for tying up a horse.
treacher	a cheat.
tricker	thieves' instrument for forcing windows and cutting metal.
trimming	the trick of changing gold for silver, getting away with both.
trine	to go; to hang. Trine to the cheats, to be hanged.
trining-cheats	gallows.
Trinidado	Trinidad tobacco.
triumph	public procession, pageant, tilting match.
truandise	idleness, vagabondage.
truchman	interpreter.
trug	light woman.
trugging-house	brothel.
trump	game resembling whist.
truss	to pack close, fasten up.
trussed	(of a horse) well-knit.
tumbler	one employed to draw a person into a swindler's net.
unbolish	abolish.
uneath	scarcely, hardly.
upright-man	a sturdy fellow; one of the aristocracy of the vagabond world.
upsy-Frieze	excessively, in the Frisian fashion.
vade	to go away.
vail	to lower, stoop, bow.
vantage, with the	with a little over.
vaulting-house	brothel.
venery	lechery.
venny	to thrust or wound in swordplay.
verse	to introduce oneself to a ranger.
verser	cheat, cozener; is one of a group of sharpers and poses as the well-to-do friend of the taker-up (q.v.).
vie and revie	to vie is to hazard a stake on a card; to revie (by the opponent) is to cover the first stake with a larger; to revie again is to raise the original stake.
vigliacco	rascal.
vincent	victim of bowling-alley cheats.
voider	one who clears the remains of a meal from the table.
vouchsafe	to grant or condescend graciously.
wanion, with a	with a vengeance.
walking mort	vagrant unmarried woman travelling with a male companion.
wapping	venery.
wapping-mort	whore.
warp	curber's look-out man.
warren	victim of ferret-hunter (q.v.).
washing-ball	cake of soap.
washman	a kind of palliard (q.v.).
weasand-pipe	windpipe.
ween	to suppose, imagine.
welted	fringed.
western pug	a bargee on a Thames craft above London.
westward, to be carried	to be taken to Tyburn gallows.
whet	to urge on.
whid	a word; to speak.
whip-jack	beggar who pretends to be a sailor, using a forged licence to travel.
white money	silver money.
white wool	name for the silver coin stolen in the trick of trimming (q.v.).
Whittington	Newgate.
whittled	drunk.
win	penny.
winch	(of a horse) to start, kick out.
with	cord of twisted willow.
wood	mad.
woodcock	simpleton.
woodpecker	card- or dice-player's confederate who hands by and bets.
wrester	lock-picking instrument.
yarrum	milk.
yede	went.

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