Victorian Slang

"Cor Blimey, strike a light"... learn how to speak just like Oliver and the Artful Dodger!

Posted by Paul Whitrow, 3rd June, 2009 | Permalink | 17 Comments

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Victorian Slang

Abbess:Female brothel keeper. A Madame.
Abbot: The husband, or preferred man of an Abbess.
Alderman: Half-Crown
Area: The below-ground servant's entrance in the front of many London town-houses. (Not underworld slang)
Area Diving: A method of theft that necessitates sneaking down area steps, and stealing from the lower rooms of houses.
Bacca-pipes: Whiskers curled in small, close ringlets.
Barkers (Barking Irons): Guns. Pistols, esp. Revolvers.
Beak: Magistrate
Beak-hunting: Poultry stealing
Bearer up: Person that robs men who have been decoyed by a woman accomplice.
Beef: (1) (v) Raise hue-and-cry.(2) (n) Thief. (cr) = Hot Beef! = Stop Thief!
Bend: Waistcoat, vest
Betty: A type of lockpick
Billy: Handkerchief (often silk)
Bit Faker: A coiner.A counterfeiter of coins.
Blackleg: A person who will work, contrary to a strike.In the Colonies they are called Scabs.
Blag: To steal or snatch, usually a theft, often by smash-and-grab
Blob, on the (Blab): Begging by telling hardluck stories.
Blooming, Bloody (Blasted, etc.):are forms of profanity not heard in polite company (Today they've been replaced in prestige with "Fucking",
which is really too bad.)
Blow: Inform.
Blower: Informer.Also a disrepectful term for a girl.
Bludger:A violent criminal; one who is apt to use a bludgeon.
Blue Bottle: A policeman
Boat, get the (Boated): To be sentanced to transportation (obs.). To receive a particularly harsh sentence.
Bone, Bene: (Pronounced Bone and Benneh?)Good or profitable.
Bonnet: A covert assistant to a Sharp
Broad Arrow: The arrow-like markings on a prison convict's uniform."Wearing the broad arrow" = In prison.
Broads: Playing cards. Ex. "Spreading the broads" = playing a game of cards)
Broading: Cheating at cards
Broadsman: A card Sharper
Bruiser: A Boxer (b)
Buck Cabbie: A dishonest cab driver
Bug hunting: Robbing, or cheating drunks.Esp. at night.
Bull: Five shillings
Buor: A woman
Buttoner: A sharper's assistant who entices dupes.
Buzzing: Stealing, esp. Picking Pockets.

Candle to the devil, To hold a: To be evil
Cant: A present; a free meal or quantity of some article.Also the creole and jargon spoken by thieves and the"surplus population."
Cant of togs:A gift of clothing.
Caper: A criminal act, dodge or device.
Cash Carrier: A pimp, ponce or whore's minder.
Chapel, the: Whitechapel.
Chat:a Louse (a singular of Lice).
Chaunting: Singing; also informing
Chaunting lay: Street singing (hopefully for money)
Chavy:Child
Chink:Money
Chiv, shiv: Knife, razor or sharpened stick (r)
Choker: Clergyman."Gull a choker"
Christen: To remove identifying marks from, to make like newagain."Christen a watch."
Church: To remove identifying marks from, to make like new again."Church a watch."
Cly faking: To pick a pocket, especially of its handkerchief (for which there was a ready market)
Cockchafer: An especially build treadmill in the 'Steel
Coiner:A coin counterfeiter
Cokum (n & adj): Opportunity, advantage, shrewd, cunning.
Cool: Look, look at this/it. (cb)
Coopered: Wornout, useless
Coopered Ken: A bad place for a stick up.
Cop, Copper:A policeman
Couter:Pound (money)
Cove:A man
Crabshells: Shoes
Cracksman: A Burgler, a safecracker.One who clracks of breaks locks.A whole genre of thief.
Crapped:hung, hanged.
Crib: A building, house or lodging.The location of a gaol.
Crimping shop: A waterfron lodging house, esp. one associated with the forcable impressment of seamen.
Crooked cross, to play the:To betray, swindle or cheat.
Crow:A lookout.A doctor.
Crusher:A policeman

Dab: bed (cb)."To dab it up with_____" = to engage in carnal acts with ___.
Dabeno: Bad (cb)
Daffy:A small measure, esp. of spiritous liquers.
Deadlurk: Empty premises.
Deaner: A shilling. (Etymologially descended from the Dinarious, or ancient silver penny of Britain...)
Deb: Bed (cb)
Demander:One who gains monies through menace.
Derbies: (Pronounced Darbies).Handcuffed
Device:Tuppence
Deuce Hog (Duce Hog): 2 shillings
Devil's claws: The broad arrows on a convict's prison uniform.
Dewskitch:A beating
Didikko:Gypsies; half breed gypsies (r). (From Didikai, aRom contraction of Dik akai, or "look here")
Dillo: Old (cb)
Dimmick:A base coin, counterfeit
Ding: (v & n) Throw away, pass on.Any object that has been so treated. Ex. "Knap the ding" or to take something that has been thrown out.
Dipper:Pickpocket
Dispatches:Loaded dice
Dobbin: Ribbon
Dollymop: A prostitute, often an amateur or a part-time street girl; a midinette.
Dollyshop:A low, unlicenced loan shop or pawn shop.
Don: A distinguished/expert/clever person; a leader
Dookin: Palmistry
Down:Suspicion."To put down on someone" means to inform on thatperson's plans.While "To take the down of a ticker"means to
Christen a watch.
Do Down: To beat someone badly, punishing them with your fists. (b)
Downer:Sixpence.
Downy:Cunning, false.
Drag: (1) A three month gaol sentence.(2)A street
Dragsman:A thief who steals from carriages.
Drum:A building, house or lodging; the location of a gaol.
Dub: (1) Bad (cb); (2) Key, lockpick
Duce:Tuppence
Duckett: A street hawker or vendor's licence.
Duffer:A seller of supposedly stolen goods.Also a Cheating Vendor or hawker.
Dumplin:A swindling game played with skittles
Dumps:Buttons and other Hawkers small wares.
Dunnage:Clothes

E.O.:A fairground gambling game
Escop (Esclop, Eslop): Policeman (cb)

Fadge: Farthing
Fakement:a Device or pretence (especially a notice or certificate to facilitate begging).
Family, the: The criminal Underworld, also Family People.
Fan:To delicately feel someone's clothing, while it is still being worn, to search for valuables.
Fancy, the:The brethren of the boxing ring.
Fawney: Ring
Fawney-dropping: A ruse whereby the villain pretends to find a ring (which is actually worthless) and sells it as a Possibly valuable article ata
low price.
Fine wirer:A highly skilled pickpocket
Finny: Five pound note
Flag: An apron
Flam:A lie
Flash (v & adj):Show, Showy (as in "Show-off," or "Flashy"); smart; something special.
Flash house:A public house patronized by criminals.
Flash notes:Paper that looks, at a glance, like bank-notes
Flat:A person who is flat is easily deceived.
Flatch:Ha'penny
Flats:Playing cards, syn. Broads.
Flimp:A snatch pickpocket.Snatch stealing in a crowd.
Flue Faker: Chimney sweep
Flummut: Dangerous
Fly, on the:Something done quickly.
Flying the Blue Pidgeon: Stealing roof lead.
Flying the Mags: The game of "Pitch and Toss"
Fogle: A silk handkerchief
Fushme: Five shillings

Gaff: Show, exhibition, fair "Penny Gaff" - Low, or vulgar theatre.
Gallies: Boots
Gammon: Deceive
Gammy: False, undependable, hostile
Garret:Fob pocket in a waistcoat
Garrote: (v & n) A misplaced piano wire, and how it was misplaced.
Gatter:Beer
Gattering: A public house
Gegor: Begger
Gen:Shilling
Glim:(1) Light or fire.(2) Begging by depicting oneselfas having been burnt out of one's home.(3) Venereal Disease.
Glock: Half-wit
Glocky: Half-witted
Gonoph:A minor thief, or small time criminal
Granny:Understand or recognize
Gravney:A Ring
Grey, Gray:A coin with two identical faces
Griddling: Begging, peddling, or scrounging
Growler:A four wheeled cab
Gulpy: Gullible, easily duped.

Half inch: Steal (From pinch) (cr)
Hammered for life: Married
Hard up: Tobacco
Haybag: Woman
Haymarket Hector: Pimp, ponce or whore's minder; especially around the areas of Haymarket and Leicester Squares.
Hoisting:Shoplifting
Holywater sprinkler: A cudgel spiked with nails.
Huey, Hughey: A town or village.
Huntley,to take the: Syn. To take the Cake or to take the Biscuit.Also to be most excellent, as in Huntley and Palmer's biscuits.
Hykey:Pride.

Irons: Guns esp. Pistols or revolvers.

Jack:Detective
Jemmy: (1) Smart.(2) of Superior class.(3) an housebreaker's tool.
Jerry:A Watch
Jerryshop:Pawnbrokers
Joey: A fourpence piece
Jolly: Disturbance or Fracas
Judy: A woman, specifically a prostitute
Jug loops: Locks of hair brought over the temples and curled (a hairstyle that thankfully died out later in the period).
Julking: Singing (as of caged songbirds)
Jump: A ground floor window, or a burglary committed throughsuch a window.

Kanurd: Drunk (cb)
Kecks: Trousers
Ken:House or other place, esp. a lodging or public house.
Kennetseeno:Bad, stinking, putrid -- Malodorous. (r)
Kennuck:Penny
Kidsman:An organizer of child thieves
Kife: Bed
Kinchen-lay (Kynchen-lay):Stealing from children
Kingsman:A coloured or black handkerchief.
Knap: To steal, take or receive
Knapped: Pregnant
Knob:"Over and under" a fairground game used for swindling.
Know life, to: To be knowledgable in criminal ways

Lackin, Lakin: Wife
Ladybird: A Prostitute
Lag: A convict or Ticket-of-leave man; To be sentenced to transportation or penal servitude.
Lamps:Eyes
Laycock, Miss (or Lady): Female sexual organs
Lavender, in:(1) To be hidden from the police, (2) to be pawned, (3) to be put away, (4) to be dead.
Lay:A method, system or plan
Leg :A dishonest person, a sporting cheat or tout.
Lill: Pocketbook
London Particular: Thick London "Pea Soup" fog
Long-Tailed:A banknote worth more than 5 pounds is said to be "long tailed"
Luggers: Ear rings
Lumber: (1) Unused, or second-hand furniture.(2) To pawn.(3) To go into seclusion.(4) To be in lumber is to be in gaol.
Lump Hotel:Work House
Lurk: (1) A place of resorting to or concealment in.(2) A scheme or method
Lurker:A criminal of all work, esp. a begger, or someone who uses a beggar's disguise.
Lush:An alcoholic drink.
Lushery:A place where a lush may be had.A low public house or drinking den.
Lushing Ken:See Lushery
Lushington:A drunkard

Macer:A cheat
Mag: Ha'pence
Magflying: Pitch and toss
Magsman:An inferior cheat
Maltooler: A pickpocket who steals while riding an omnibus, esp. from women.
Mandrake:a Homosexual
Mark: The victim
Mary Blaine: Railway Train (cr); to meet a train or to travel via railway.
Mauley:Handwriting, signature
Mecks:Wine or spirits
Milltag: Shirt
Miltonian: Policeman
Min:Steal
Mitting:Shirt
Mizzle: Quit, Steal, or Vanish
Mobsman:A swindler or pickpocket, usually well-dressed.Originally one of the "Swell Mob"
Mollisher: A woman, often a villain's mistress
Monkery:the Country
Monniker: Signature
Mot: Woman, esp. the proprietress of a lodging or publichouse
Moucher, Moocher:A rural vagrant.A gentleman of the road.
Mouth: (1) Blabber.(2) A Fool
Mug-hunter: A street robber or footpad. Hence the modern "Mugger"
Mumper:Begger or scrounger
Mutcher:A thief who steals from drunks
Muck Snipe:A person who is "down and out"

Nail:Steal
Nancy: Buttocks
Nebuchadnezzar: Male sexual organs; "to put Nebuchadnezzar out to grass" means to engage in sexual intercourse.
Neddy: Cosh
Nemmo: Woman (cb)
Nethers:Lodging charges, rent
Newgate Knockers:Heavily greased side whiskers curling back to, or over the ears
Netherskens: Low lodging houses, flophouses
Nibbed: Arrested
Nickey: Simple in the head
Nobble:The inflicting of grievious bodily harm
Nobbler: (1) One who inflicts grevious bodily harm.(2) A sharper's confederate
Nommus!:Get away! Quick!(cb)
Nose:Informer or Spy
Nubbiken:A sessions courthouse

On the fly:While in motion or quickly
Onion:A watch seal
Out of twig: Unrecognized or in disquise
Outsider:An instrument, resembling needle nosed pliers, used for turning a key in a lock from the wrong side.

Pack:A night's lodging for the very poor
Paddingken: A tramp's lodging house
Pall:Detect
Palmer: Shoplifter
Patterer: Someone who earns by recitation or hawker's sales talk, esp. by hawking newspapers
Peter: A box, trunk or safe.
Pidgeon: A victim
Pig: A policeman, usually a detective
Pit: Inside front coat pocket
Plant:A victim
Pogue: A purse or prize
Prad: Horse
Prater:A bogus itinerate preacher
Prig: (1) A thief.(2) To steal
Puckering: Speaking in a manner that is incomprehensible to spectators
Punishers:Superior nobblers.Men employed to give severe beatings
Push:Money

Racket:Illicit occupation or tricks
Rampsman or Ramper: A tearaway or hoodlum
Randy, on the:On the Spree or otherwise looking for companionship
Rasher-wagon: Frying pan
Ray: 1/6 (one and six-pence)
Reader: Pocketbook or wallet
Ream: Superior, real, genuine, good.
Ream Flash Pull: A significant heist
Ream Swag: Highly valuable stolen articles
Reeb:Beer (cb)
Roller:A thief who robs drunks or a prostitute who steals fromher clientele.
Rook: A type of jemmy
Rookery: Slum or ghetto
Rothschild, to come to the: To brag and pretend to be rich.
Rozzers: Policemen
Ruffles: Handcuffs

Saddle: Loaf
St. Peter's Needle: Severe discipline
Salt Box: The Condemned Cell
Sawney: Bacon
Scaldrum dodge: Begging by means of feigned, or self-inflicted wounds
Scran: Food
Scratch an itch: (cr) Bitch
Screever:A writer of fake testimonials; a forger
Srew: Skeleton Key
Screwing:A sub-genre of Cracking; burglary by means of skeletonkeys, waxing keys, or picking locks.
Screwsman:A burglar versed in screwing
Scroby: Flogging in gaol
Scurf:An exploitive employer or gang-leader
Servant's lurk: A lodging or public house used by shady or dismissed servants.
Shake lurk: Begging under the pretence of being a shipwrecked seaman.
Shallow, work the: Begging while half naked.
Shant: A pot or tumbler
Sharp:A (card) swindler
Shevis:A shift, a type of garment.
Shinscraper: The Treadmill
Shirkster: A layabout
Shiver and shake:(cr) A cake
Shivering Jemmy:A half naked begger
Shoful: (1) Bad or counterfeit.(2) An hansom cab
Shofulman:A coiner or passer of bad money.
Skipper: One who sleeps in hedges and outhouses
Skyrocket: (cr) Pocket (rarely used)
Slang cove: A showman
Slap-Bang Job: A night cellar (pub) frequented by thieves, and where no credit is given.
Slum: (1) False, sham, a faked document, etc.(2) To cheat . (3) To pass bad money.
Smasher:Someone who passes bad money.
Smatter Hauling: Stealing Handkerchiefs
Snakesman: A slightly built (boy) criminal used in burglary and housebreaking.
Snells: A hawker's wares
Snide: Counterfeit; counterfeit coins or jewels.
Snide pinching: Passing bad money
Snoozer:A thief that specializes in robbing hotel rooms with sleeping guests.
Snowing: Stealing linen, clothes, etc, that have been hung out to dry.
Soft: Paper money (i.e., "to do some soft" means to pass bad paper money.)
Speeler: Cheat or a gambler
Spike:Workhouse
Sprat:Six pence
Spreading the Broads: Three card monte.
Square rigged: Soberly and respectfully dressed.
Swell: An elegantly, or stylishly dressed gentleman.

Tail: Prostitute
Tatts: Dice, False Dice
Tea Leaf:Thief (cr)
Terrier Crop:Short, bristly haircut (denoting a recent stay in a prison or a workhouse)
Teviss:Shilling
Thicker:A Sovereign or a Pound
Thick 'Un:A Sovereign
Tightener:A meal."To do a Tightener," to take a Meal.
Titfer/Titfertat:Hat (cr)
Toff:An elegantly, or stylishly dressed gentleman.
Toffer:A superior whore.
Toffken:A house containing well-to-do occupants.
Toke: Bread
Tol: Lot (cb), a Share.
Toolers: Pickpockets
Tooling:Skilled Pickpocket
Toper: Road
Topped: Hung
Topping: A hanging
Translators: Secondhand apparel, especially Boots.
Trasseno: An evil person
Tuppeny(Tuppeny Loaf): Head (cr. from Loaf of Bread)
Twirls: Keys, esp skeleton keys.
Twist (Twistand Twirl): Girl (cr)

Under and Over: A fairground game that's easy to swindle people with.

Vamp: To Steal or Pawn."In for a vamp" to be jailed for stealing
Voker:Speak (r)."Voker Romeny?"(Pardon me, but do you speak Thieve's Cant?)

Weeping Willow: Pillow (cr)
Whistle and Flute: Suit (cr)
Work Capitol: Commit a crime punishable by death.

Yack:A watch
Yennap:A Penny. (cb)

Posted on Wednesday 3rd June, 2009 at 3:22 pm by Paul Whitrow, and filed under Humour and Stupid