1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 34

Goldfinches; guineas.

GOLGOTHA OR THE PLACE OF SCULLS. Part of the Theatre at Oxford, where the heads of houses sit; those gentlemen being by the wits of the university called sculls.

GOLLUMPUS. A large, clumsy fellow.

GOLOSHES, i.e. Goliah's shoes. Large leathern clogs, worn by invalids over their ordinary shoes.

GOOD MAN. A word of various imports, according to the place where it is spoken: in the city it means a rich man; at Hockley in the Hole, or St. Giles's, an expert boxer; at a bagnio in Covent Garden, a vigorous fornicator; at an alehouse or tavern, one who loves his pot or bottle; and sometimes, though but rarely, a virtuous man

GOOD WOMAN. A nondescript, represented on a famous sign in St. Giles's, in the form of a common woman, but without a head.

GOODYER'S PIG. Like Goodyer's pig; never well but when in mischief.

GOOSE. A taylor's goose; a smoothing iron used to press down the seams, for which purpose it must be heated: hence it is a jocular saying, that a taylor, be he ever so poor, is always sure to have a goose at his fire. He cannot say boh to a goose; a saying of a bashful or sheepish fellow.

GOOSE RIDING. A goose, whose neck is greased, being suspended by the legs to a cord tied to two trees or high posts, a number of men on horseback, riding full speed, attempt to pull off the head: which if they effect, the goose is their prize. This has been practised in Derbys.h.i.+re within the memory of persons now living.

GOOSEBERRY. He played up old gooseberry among them; said of a person who, by force or threats, suddenly puts an end to a riot or disturbance.

GOOSEBERRY-EYED. One with dull grey eyes, like boiled gooseberries.

GOOSEBERRY WIG. A large frizzled wig: perhaps from a supposed likeness to a gooseberry bush.

GOOSECAP. A silly fellow or woman.

GORGER. A gentleman. A well dressed man. Mung kiddey. Mung the gorger; beg child beg, of the gentleman.

GOSPEL SHOP. A church.

GOREE. Money, chiefly gold: perhaps from the traffic carried on at that place, which is chiefly for gold dust.

CANT.

GORMAGON. A monster with six eyes, three mouths, four arms, eight legs, live on one side and three on the other, three a.r.s.es, two ta.r.s.es, and a *** upon its back; a man on horseback, with a woman behind him.

GOTCH-GUTTED. Pot bellied: a gotch in Norfolk signifying a pitcher, or large round jug.

TO GOUGE. To squeeze out a man's eye with the thumb: a cruel practice used by the Bostonians in America.

To GRABBLE. To seize. To grabble the bit; to seize any one's money. CANT.

GRAFTED. Cuckolded, i.e. having horns grafted on his head.

To GRAB. To seize a man. The pigs grabbed the kiddey for a crack: the officers, seized the youth for a burglary.

GRANNAM. Corn.

GRANNUM'S GOLD. h.o.a.rded money: supposed to have belonged to the grandmother of the possessor.

GRANNY. An abbreviation of grandmother; also the name of an idiot, famous for licking, her eye, who died Nov. 14, 1719. Go teach your granny to suck eggs; said to such as would instruct any one in a matter he knows better than themselves.

GRAPPLE THE RAILS. A cant name used in Ireland for whiskey.

GRAPPLING IRONS. Handcuffs.

GRAVE DIGGER. Like a grave digger; up to the a-se in business, and don't know which way to turn.

GRAVY-EYED. Blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a running humour.

TO GREASE. To bribe. To grease a man in the fist; to bribe him. To grease a fat sow in the a-se; to give to a rich man. Greasy chin; a treat given to parish officers in part of commutation for a b.a.s.t.a.r.d: called also, Eating a child.

GREAT INTIMATE. As great as s.h.i.+rt and s.h.i.+tten a-se.

GREAT JOSEPH. A surtout. CANT.

GREEDY GUTS. A covetous or voracious person.

GREEK. St. Giles's Greek; the slang lingo, cant, or gibberish.

GREEN. Doctor Green; i.e. gra.s.s: a physician, or rather medicine, found very successful in curing most disorders to which horses are liable. My horse is not well, I shall send him to Doctor Green.

GREEN. Young, inexperienced, unacquainted; ignorant. How green the cull was not to stag how the old file planted the books. How ignorant the b.o.o.by was not to perceive how the old sharper placed the cards in such a manner as to insure the game.

GREEN BAG. An attorney: those gentlemen carry their clients' deeds in a green bag; and, it is said, when they have no deeds to carry, frequently fill them with an old pair of breeches, or any other trumpery, to give themselves the appearance of business.

GREEN GOWN. To give a girl a green gown; to tumble her on the gra.s.s.

GREEN SICKNESS. The disease of maids occasioned by celibacy.

GREENHEAD. An inexperienced young man.

GREENHORN. A novice on the town, an undebauched young fellow, just initiated into the society of bucks and bloods.

GREENWICH BARBERS. Retailers of sand from the pits at and about Greenwich, in Kent: perhaps they are styled barbers, from their constant shaving the sandbanks.

GREENWICH GOOSE. A pensioner of Greenwich Hospital.

GREGORIAN TREE. The gallows: so named from Gregory Brandon, a famous finisher of the law; to whom Sir William Segar, garter king of arms (being imposed on by Brooke, a herald), granted a coat of arms.

GREY BEARD. Earthen jugs formerly used in public house for drawing ale: they had the figure of a man with a large beard stamped on them; whence probably they took the name: see BEN JONSON'S PLAYS, BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, &c. &c. Dutch earthen jugs, used for smuggling gin on the coasts of Ess.e.x and Suffolk, are at this time called grey beards.

GREY MARE. The grey mare is the better horse; said of a woman who governs her husband.

GREY PARSON. A farmer who rents the t.i.thes of the rector or vicar.

GRIG. A farthing. A merry grig; a fellow as merry as a grig: an allusion to the apparent liveliness of a grig, or young eel.

GRIM. Old Mr. Grim; death.