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commonly inflicted on a quot, is pinning a greasy
dishclout to the skirts of his coat.
COVE. A man, a fellow, a rogue. The cove was bit; the
rogue was outwitted. The cove has bit the cole; the
rogue has got the money. CANT.
COVENT, or CONVENT GARDEN, vulgarly called COMMON
GARDEN. Anciently, the garden belonging to a
dissolved monastery; now famous for being the chief
market in London for fruit, flowers, and herbs. The
theatres are situated near it. In its environs are
many brothels, and not long ago, the lodgings of the
second order of ladies of easy virtue were either there, or
in the purlieus of Drury Lane.
COVENT GARDEN ABBESS. A bawd.
COVENT GARDEN AGUE. The venereal disease. He broke
his shins against Covent Garden rails; he caught the
venereal disorder.
COVENT GARDEN NUN. A prostitute.
COVENTRY. To send one to Coventry; a punishment inflicted
by officers of the army on such of their brethren
as are testy, or have been guilty of improper behaviour,
not worthy the cognizance of a court martial. The person
sent to Coventry is considered as absent; no one must
speak to or answer any question he asks, except relative
to duty, under penalty of being also sent to the same place.
On a proper submission, the penitent is recalled, and
welcomed by the mess, as just returned from a journey to
Coventry.
COVEY. A collection of whores. What a fine covey here
is, if the Devil would but throw his net!
TO COUCH A HOGSHEAD. To lie down to sleep. CANT.
COUNTERFEIT CRANK. A general cheat, assuming all sorts
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of characters; one conterfeiting the falling sickness.
COUNTRY HARRY. A waggoner. CANT.
COUNTRY PUT. An ignorant country fellow.
COUNTY WORK. Said of any work that advances slowly.
COURT CARD. A gay fluttering coxcomb.
COURT HOLY WATER, COURT PROMISES. Fair speeches and promises,
without performance.
COURT OF ASSISTANTS. A court often applied to by young
women who marry old men.
COW. To sleep like a cow, with a **** at one's a-se; said
of a married man; married men being supposed to sleep
with their backs towards their wives, according to the
following proclamation:
All you that in your beds do lie,
Turn to your wives, and occupy:
And when that you have done your best,
Turn a-se to a-se, and take your rest.
COW JUICE. Milk.
COW'S BABY. A calf.
COW'S COURANT. Gallop and sh -e.
COW-HANDED. Awkward.
COW-HEARTED. Fearful.
COW ITCH. The product of a sort of bean, which excites an
insufferable itching, used chiefly for playing tricks.
COW'S SPOUSE. A bull.
COW'S THUMB. Done to a cow's thumb; done exactly.
COXCOMB. Anciently, a fool. Fools, in great families,
wore a cap with bells, on the top of which was a piece of
red cloth, in the shape of a cock's comb. At present,
coxcomb signifies a fop, or vain self-conceited fellow.
CRAB. To catch a crab; to fall backwards by missing one's
stroke in rowing.
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CRAB LANTHORN. A peevish fellow.
CRAB LOUSE. A species of louse peculiar to the human body;
the male is denominated a cock, the female a hen.
CRAB SHELLS. Shoes. IRISH.
CRABS. A losing throw to the main at hazard.
CRABBED. Sour, ill-tempered, difficult.
CRACK. A whore.
TO CRACK. To boast or brag; also to break. I cracked his
napper; I broke his head.
THE CRACK, or ALL THE CRACK. The fashionable theme,
the go. The Crack Lay, of late is used, in the cant
language, to signify the art and mystery of house-breaking.
CRACKER. Crust, sea biscuit, or ammunition loaf; also the
backside. Farting crackers; breeches.
CRACKISH. Whorish.
CRACKING TOOLS. Implements of house-breaking, such as
a crow, a center bit, false keys,
CRACKMANS. Hedges. The cull thought to have loped by
breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back
by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw; the man
thought to have escaped by breaking through the hedge,
but we brought him back by a great blow on the head,
which laid him speechless.
CRACKSMAN. A house-breaker. The kiddy is a clever
cracksman; the young fellow is a very expert house-breaker.
CRAG. The neck.
CRAMP RINGS. Bolts, shackles, or fetters. CANT.
CRAMP WORDS. Sentence of death passed on a criminal by
a judge. He has just undergone the cramp word; sentence
has just been passed on him. CANT.
CRANK. Gin and water; also, brisk, pert.
CRANK. The falling sickness. CANT.
TO CRASH. To kill. Crash that cull; kill that fellow. CANT.
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CRASHING CHEATS. Teeth.
CRAW THUMPERS. Roman catholics, so called from their
beating their breasts in the confession of their sins. See
BRISKET BEATER, and BREAST FLEET.
CREAM-POT LOVE. Such as young fellows pretend to
dairymaids, to get cream and other good things from them.
TO CREEME. To slip or slide any thing into the hands of
another. CANT.
CREEPERS. Gentlemen's companions, lice.
CREW. A knot or gang; also a boat or ship's company. The
canting crew are thus divided into twenty-three orders,
which see under the different words:
MEN.
1 Rufflers
2 Upright Men
3 Hookers or Anglers
4 Rogues
5 Wild Rogues
6 Priggers of Prancers
7 Palliardes
8 Fraters
9 Jarkmen, or Patricoes
10 Fresh Water Mariners, or Whip Jackets
11 Drummerers
12 Drunken Tinkers
13 Swadders, or Pedlars
14 Abrams.
WOMEN.
1 Demanders for Glimmer or Fire
2 Bawdy Baskets
3 Morts
4 Autem Morts
5 Walking Morts
6 Doxies
7 Delles
8 Kinching Morts
9 Kinching Coes
CRIB. A house. To crack a crib: to break open a house.
TO CRIB. To purloin, or appropriate to one's own use,
part of any thing intrusted to one's care.
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TO FIGHT A CRIB. To make a sham fight. BEAR GARDEN
TERM.
CRIBBAGE-FACED. Marked with the small pox, the pits
bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a
cribbage-board.
CRIBBEYS, or CRIBBY ISLANDS. Blind alleys, courts, or
bye-ways; perhaps from the houses built there being cribbed
out of the common way or passage; and islands, from
the similarity of sound to the Caribbee Islands.
CRIM. CON. MONEY. Damages directed by a jury to be
paid by a convicted adulterer to the injured husband, for
criminal conversation with his wife.
CRIMP. A broker or factor, as a coal crimp, who disposes
of the cargoes of the Newcastle coal ships; also persons
employed to trapan or kidnap recruits for the East Indian
and African companies. To crimp, or play crimp; to
play foul or booty: also a cruel manner of cutting up fish
alive, practised by the London fishmongers, in order to
make it eat firm; cod, and other crimped fish, being a
favourite dish among voluptuaries and epicures.
CRINKUM CRANKUM. A woman's commodity. See SPECTATOR.
CRINKUMS. The foul or venereal disease.
CRIPPLE. Sixpence; that piece being commonly much bent
and distorted.
CRISPIN. A shoemaker: from a romance, wherein a prince
of that name is said to have exercised the art and mystery
of a shoemaker, thence called the gentle craft: or rather
from the saints Crispinus and Crispianus, who according
to the legend, were brethren born at Rome, from whence
they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303,
to propagate the Christian religion; but, because they
would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance,
they exercised the trade of shoemakers: the governor of
the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them
to be beheaded, about the year 303; from which time they
have been the tutelar saints of the shoemakers.
CRISPIN'S HOLIDAY. Every Monday throughout the year,
but most particularly the 25th of October, being the
anniversary of Crispinus and Crispianus.
CRISPIN'S LANCE. An awl.
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CROAKER. One who is always foretelling some accident
or misfortune: an allusion to the croaking of a raven,
supposed ominous.
CROAKUMSHIRE. Northumberland, from the particular
croaking the pronunciation of the people of that
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