1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 62

The swell tipped me fifty quid for the prad; the gentleman gave fifty pounds for the horse.

QUIDS. Cash, money. Can you tip me any quids? can you lend me some money?

QUIFFING. Rogering. See TO ROGER.

QUIDNUNC. A politician: from a character of that name in the farce of the Upholsterer.

QUILL DRIVER. A clerk, scribe, or hackney writer.

QUIM. The private parts of a woman: perhaps from the Spanish quemar, to burn. (CAMBRIDGE) A piece's furbelow.

QUINSEY. Choked by a hempen quinsey; hanged.

QUIPPS. Girds, taunts, jests.

QUIRE, or CHOIR BIRD. A complete rogue, one that has sung in different choirs or cages, i.e. gaols. CANT.

QUIRKS AND QUILLETS. Tricks and devices. Quirks in law; subtle distinctions and evasions.

QUIZ. A strange-looking fellow, an odd dog. OXFORD.

QUOD. Newgate, or any other prison. The dab's in quod; the poor rogue is in prison.

QUOTA. Snack, share, part, proportion, or dividend. Tip me my quota; give me part of the winnings, booty, or plunder. CANT.

RABBIT. A Welch rabbit; bread and cheese toasted, i.e.

a Welch rare bit. Rabbits were also a sort of wooden canns to drink out of, now out of use.

RABBIT CATCHER. A midwife.

RABBIT SUCKERS. Young spendthrifts taking up goods on trust at great prices.

RACK RENT. Rent strained to the utmost value. To lie at rack and manger; to be in great disorder.

RACKABACK. A gormagon. See GORMAGON.

RAFFS. An appellation given by the gownsmen of the university of Oxford to the inhabitants of that place.

RAG. Bank notes. Money in general. The cove has no rag; the fellow has no money.

RAG. A farthing.

TO RAG. To abuse, and tear to rags the characters of the persons abused. She gave him a good ragging, or ragged him off heartily.

RAG CARRIER. An ensign.

RAG FAIR. An inspection of the linen and necessaries of a company of soldiers, commonly made by their officers on Mondays or Sat.u.r.days.

RAG WATER. Gin, or any other common dram: these liquors seldom failing to reduce those that drink them to rags.

RAGAm.u.f.fIN. A ragged fellow, one all in tatters, a tatterdemallion.

RAILS. See HEAD RAILS. A dish of rails; a lecture, jobation, or scolding from a married woman to her husband.

RAINBOW. Knight of the rainbow; a footman: from being commonly clothed in garments of different colours. A meeting of gentlemen, styled of the most ancient order of the rainbow, was advertised to be held at the Foppington's Head, Moorfields.

RAINY DAY. To lay up something for a rainy day; to provide against a time of necessity or distress.

RAKE, RAKEh.e.l.l, or RAKESHAME. A lewd, debauched fellow.

RALPH SPOONER. A fool.

RAM CAT. A he cat.

RAMMISH. Rank. Rammish woman; a st.u.r.dy virago.

RAMMER. The arm. The busnapper's kenchin seized my rammer; i.e. the watchman laid hold of my arm. CANT.

TO RAMP. To s.n.a.t.c.h, or tear any thing forcibly from the person.

RAMSHACKLED. Out of repair. A ramshackled house; perhaps a corruption of RANSACKED, i.e. plundered.

RANDLE. A set of nonsensical verses, repeated in Ireland by schoolboys, and young people, who have been guilty of breaking wind backwards before any of their companions; if they neglect this apology, they are liable to certain kicks, pinches, and fillips, which are accompanied with divers admonitory couplets.

RANDY. Obstreperous, unruly, rampant.

RANGLING. Intriguing with a variety of women.

RANK. Stinking, rammish, ill-flavoured; also strong, great.

A rank knave; a rank coward: perhaps the latter may allude to an ill savour caused by fear.

RANK RIDER. A highwayman.

RANTALLION. One whose s.c.r.o.t.u.m is so relaxed as to be longer than his p.e.n.i.s, i.e. whose shot pouch is longer that the barrel of his piece.

RANTIPOLE. A rude romping boy or girl; also a gadabout dissipated woman. To ride rantipole; the same as riding St. George. See ST. GEORGE.

RANTUM SCANTUM. Playing at rantum scantum; making the beast with two backs.

To RAP To take a false oath; also to curse. He rapped out a volley; i.e. he swore a whole volley of oaths. To rap, means also to exchange or barter: a rap is likewise an Irish halfpenny. Rap on the knuckles; a reprimand.

RAPPAREES. Irish robbers, or outlaws, who in the time of Oliver Cromwell were armed with short weapons, called in Irish RAPIERS, used for ripping persons up.

RAPPER. A swinging great lie.

RAREE SHEW MEN. Poor Savoyards, who subsist by shewing the magic lantern and marmots about London.

RASCAL. A rogue or villain: a term borrowed from the chase; a rascal originally meaning a lean shabby deer, at the time of changing his horns, p.e.n.i.s, &c. whence, in the vulgar acceptation, rascal is conceived to signify a man without genitals: the regular vulgar answer to this reproach, if uttered by a woman, is the offer of an ocular demonstration of the virility of the party so defamed. Some derive it from RASCAGLIONE, an Italian word signifying a man.

without t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, or an eunuch.