Francis Grose - 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

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.

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 county, especially about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter r.

CROAKERS. Forestallers, called also Kidders and Tranters.

CROCODILE'S TEARS. The tears of a hypocrite. Crocodiles are fabulously reported to shed tears over their prey before they devour it.

CROCUS, or CROCUS METALLORUM. A nick name for a surgeon of the army and navy.

CROKER. A groat, or four pence.

CRONE. An old ewe whose teeth are worn out; figuratively, a toothless old beldam.

CRONY. An intimate companion, a comrade; also a confederate in a robbery.

CROOK. Sixpence.

CROOK BACK. Sixpence; for the reason of this name, see CRIPPLE.

CROOK YOUR ELBOW. To crook one's elbow, and wish it may never come straight, if the fact then affirmed is not true—according to the casuists of Bow-street and St. Giles's, adds great weight and efficacy to an oath.

CROOK SHANKS. A nickname for a man with bandy legs. He buys his boots in Crooked Lane, and his stockings in Bandy-legged Walk; his legs grew in the night, therefore could not see to grow straight; jeering sayings of men with crooked legs.

CROP. A nick name for a presbyterian: from their cropping their hair, which they trimmed close to a bowl-dish, placed as a guide on their heads; whence they were likewise called roundheads. See ROUNDHEADS.

CROP. To be knocked down for a crop; to be condemned to be hanged. Cropped, hanged.

CROPPING DRUMS. Drummers of the foot guards, or Chelsea hospital, who find out weddings, and beat a point of war to serenade the new married couple, and thereby obtain money.

CROPPEN. The tail. The croppen of the rotan; the tail of the cart. Croppen ken: the necessary-house. CANT.

CROPSICK. Sickness in the stomach, arising from drunkenness.

CROSS. To come home by weeping cross; to repent at the conclusion.

CROSS DISHONEST. A cross cove; any person who lives by stealing or in a dishonest manner.

CROSS BITE. One who combines with a sharper to draw in a friend; also, to counteract or disappoint. CANT.—This is peculiarly used to signify entrapping a man so as to obtain CRIM. COM. money, in which the wife, real or supposed, conspires with the husband.

CROSS BUTTOCK. A particular lock or fall in the Broughtonian art, which, as Mr. Fielding observes, conveyed more pleasant sensations to the spectators than the patient.

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