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it from RASCAGLIONE, an Italian word signifying a man.
without testicles, or an eunuch.
RAT. A drunken man or woman taken up by the watch,
and confined in the, watch-house. CANT. To smell a rat;
to suspect some intended trick, or unfair design.
RATS. Of these there are the following kinds: a black rat
and a grey rat, a py-rat and a cu-rat.
RATTLE. A dice-box. To rattle; to talk without consideration,
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also to move off or go away. To rattle one off;
to rate or scold him.
RATTLE-PATE. A volatile, unsteady, or whimsical man or
woman.
RATTLE-TRAPS. A contemptuous name for any curious
portable piece of machinery, or philosophical apparatus.
RATTLER. A coach. Rattle and prad; a coach and horses.
RATTLING COVE. A coachman. CANT.
RATTLING MUMPERS. Beggars who ply coaches. CANT.
RAWHEAD AND BLOODY BONES. A bull beggar, or scarechild,
with which foolish nurses terrify crying brats.
READER. A pocket-book. CANT.
READER MERCHANTS. Pickpockets, chiefly young Jews,
who ply about the Bank to steal the pocket-books of
persons who have just received their dividends there.
READY. The ready rhino; money. CANT.
REBUS. A riddle or pun on a man's name, expressed in
sculpture or painting, thus: a bolt or arrow, and a tun,
for Bolton; death's head, and a ton, for Morton.
RECEIVER GENERAL. A prostitute.
RECKON. To reckon with one's host; to make an erroneous
judgment in one's own favour. To cast-up one's reckoning
or accounts; to vomit.
TO RECRUIT. To get a fresh supply of money.
RECRUITING SERVICE. Robbing on the highway.
RED FUSTIAN. Port wine.
RED LANE. The throat. Gone down the red lane; swallowed.
RED RIBBIN. Brandy.
RED LATTICE. A public house.
RED LETTER DAY. A saint's day or holiday, marked in
the calendars with red letters. Red letter men; Roman
Catholics: from their observation of the saint days
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marked in red letters.
RED RAG. The tongue. Shut your potatoe trap, and
give your red rag a holiday; i.e. shut your mouth, and
let your tongue rest. Too much of the red rag (too much
tongue).
RED SAIL-YARD DOCKERS. Buyers of stores stolen out of
the royal yards and docks.
RED SHANK. A Scotch Highlander.
REGULARS. Share of the booty. The coves cracked the
swell's crib, fenced the swag, and each cracksman napped
his regular; some fellows broke open a gentleman's house,
and after selling the property which they had stolen,
they divided the money between them.
RELIGIOUS HORSE. One much given to prayer, or apt to
be down upon his knees.
RELIGIOUS PAINTER. One who does not break the commandment
which prohibits the making of the likeness of
any thing in heaven or earth, or in the waters under the
earth.
THE RELISH. The sign of the Cheshire cheese.
RELISH. Carnal connection with a woman.
REMEDY CRITCH. A chamber pot, or member mug.
REMEMBER PARSON MELHAM. Drink about: a Norfolk
phrase.
RENDEZVOUS. A place of meeting. The rendezvous of
the beggars were, about the year 1638, according to the
Bellman, St, Quinton's, the Three Crowns in the Vintry,
St. Tybs, and at Knapsbury: there were four barns within
a mile of London. In Middlesex were four other harbours,
called Draw the Pudding out of the Fire, the Cross
Keys in Craneford parish, St. Julian's in Isleworth parish,
and the house of Pettie in Northall parish. In Kent, the
King's Barn near Dartford, and Ketbrooke near Blackheath.
REP. A woman of reputation.
REPOSITORY. A lock-up or spunging-house, a gaol. Also
livery stables where horses and carriages are sold by
auction.
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RESCOUNTERS. The time of settlement between the bulls
and bears of Exchange-alley, when the losers must pay
their differences, or become lame ducks, and waddle out
of the Alley.
RESURRECTION MEN. Persons employed by the students
in anatomy to steal dead bodies out of church-yards.
REVERENCE. An ancient custom, which obliges any person
easing himself near the highway or foot-path, on the
word REVERENCE being given him by a passenger, to take off
his hat with his teeth, and without moving from his station
to throw it over his head, by which it frequently falls
into the excrement; this was considered as a punishment
for the breach of delicacy, A person refusing to obey this
law, might be pushed backwards. Hence, perhaps, the
term, SIR-REVERENCE.
REVERSED. A man set by bullies on his head, that his
money may fall out of his breeches, which they afterwards
by accident pick up. See HOISTING.
REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS. A visitation of the
clergy. See CROW FAIR.
RHINO. Money. CANT.
RIB. A wife: an allusion to our common mother Eve,
made out of Adam's rib. A crooked rib: a cross-grained
wife.
RIBALDRY. Vulgar abusive language, such as was spoken
by ribalds. Ribalds were originally mercenary soldiers
who travelled about, serving any master far pay, but
afterwards degenerated into a mere banditti.
RIBBIN. Money. The ribbin runs thick; i.e. there is
plenty of money. CANT. Blue ribbin. Gin. The cull [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]