Francis Grose - 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

CONGO. Will you lap your congo with me? will you drink tea with me?

CONNY WABBLE. Eggs and brandy beat up together. IRISH.

CONSCIENCE KEEPER. A superior, who by his influence makes his dependants act as he pleases.

CONTENT. The cull's content; the man is past complaining: a saying of a person murdered for resisting the robbers. CANT.

CONTENT. A thick liquor, in imitation of chocolate, made of milk and gingerbread.

CONTRA DANCE. A dance where the dancers of the different sexes stand opposite each other, instead of side by side, as in the minuet, rigadoon, louvre, &c. and now corruptly called a country dance.

CONUNDRUMS. Enigmatical conceits.

CONVENIENT. A mistress. CANT.

CONVENIENCY. A necessary. A leathern conveniency, a coach.

COOPED UP. Imprisoned, confined like a fowl in a coop.

COQUET. A jilt.

CORINTH. A bawdy-house. CANT.

CORINTHIANS: Frequenters of brothels. Also an impudent, brazen-faced fellow, perhaps from the Corinthian brass.

CORK-BRAINED. Light-headed, foolish.

CORNED. Drunk.

CORNISH HUG. A particular lock in wrestling, peculiar to the people of that county.

CORNY-FACED. A very red pimpled face.

CORPORAL. To mount a corporal and four; to be guilty of onanism: the thumb is the corporal, the four fingers the privates.

CORPORATION. A large belly. He has a glorious corporation; he has a very prominent belly.

CORPORATION. The magistrates, &c. of a corporate town. Corpus sine ratione. Freemen of a corporation's work; neither strong nor handsome.

COSSET. A foundling. Cosset colt or lamb; a colt or lamb brought up by hand.

COSTARD. The head. I'll smite your costard; I'll give you a knock on the head.

COSTARD MONGER. A dealer in fruit, particularly apples.

COT, or QUOT. A man who meddles with women's household business, particularly in the kitchen. The punishment 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 of characters; one counterfeiting 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:

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.

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, &c.

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.

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.

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.