1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 63

RAT. A drunken man or woman taken up by the watch, and confined in the watch-house. CANT. To smell a rat; to suspect some intended trick, or unfair design.

RATS. Of these there are the following kinds: a black rat and a grey rat, a py-rat and a cu-rat.

RATTLE. A dice-box. To rattle; to talk without consideration, also to move off or go away. To rattle one off; to rate or scold him.

RATTLE-PATE. A volatile, unsteady, or whimsical man or woman.

RATTLE-TRAPS. A contemptuous name for any curious portable piece of machinery, or philosophical apparatus.

RATTLER. A coach. Rattle and prad; a coach and horses.

RATTLING COVE. A coachman. CANT.

RATTLING MUMPERS. Beggars who ply coaches. CANT.

RAWHEAD AND b.l.o.o.d.y BONES. A bull beggar, or scarechild, with which foolish nurses terrify crying brats.

READER. A pocket-book. CANT.

READER MERCHANTS. Pickpockets, chiefly young Jews, who ply about the Bank to steal the pocket-books of persons who have just received their dividends there.

READY. The ready rhino; money. CANT.

REBUS. A riddle or pun on a man's name, expressed in sculpture or painting, thus: a bolt or arrow, and a tun, for Bolton; death's head, and a ton, for Morton.

RECEIVER GENERAL. A prost.i.tute.

RECKON. To reckon with one's host; to make an erroneous judgment in one's own favour. To cast-up one's reckoning or accounts; to vomit.

TO RECRUIT. To get a fresh supply of money.

RECRUITING SERVICE. Robbing on the highway.

RED FUSTIAN. Port wine.

RED LANE. The throat. Gone down the red lane; swallowed.

RED RIBBIN. Brandy.

RED LATTICE. A public house.

RED LETTER DAY. A saint's day or holiday, marked in the calendars with red letters. Red letter men; Roman Catholics: from their observation of the saint days marked in red letters.

RED RAG. The tongue. Shut your potatoe trap, and give your red rag a holiday; i.e. shut your mouth, and let your tongue rest. Too much of the red rag (too much tongue).

RED SAIL-YARD DOCKERS. Buyers of stores stolen out of the royal yards and docks.

RED SHANK. A Scotch Highlander.

REGULARS. Share of the booty. The coves cracked the swell's crib, fenced the swag, and each cracksman napped his regular; some fellows broke open a gentleman's house, and after selling the property which they had stolen, they divided the money between them.

RELIGIOUS HORSE. One much given to prayer, or apt to be down upon his knees.

RELIGIOUS PAINTER. One who does not break the commandment which prohibits the making of the likeness of any thing in heaven or earth, or in the waters under the earth.

THE RELISH. The sign of the Ches.h.i.+re cheese.

RELISH. Carnal connection with a woman.

REMEDY CRITCH. A chamber pot, or member mug.

REMEMBER PARSON MELHAM. Drink about: a Norfolk phrase.

RENDEZVOUS. A place of meeting. The rendezvous of the beggars were, about the year 1638, according to the Bellman, St. Quinton's, the Three Crowns in the Vintry, St. Tybs, and at Knapsbury: there were four barns within a mile of London. In Middles.e.x were four other harbours, called Draw the Pudding out of the Fire, the Cross Keys in Craneford parish, St. Julian's in Isleworth parish, and the house of Pettie in Northall parish. In Kent, the King's Barn near Dartford, and Ketbrooke near Blackheath.

REP. A woman of reputation.

REPOSITORY. A lock-up or spunging-house, a gaol. Also livery stables where horses and carriages are sold by auction.

RESCOUNTERS. The time of settlement between the bulls and bears of Exchange-alley, when the losers must pay their differences, or become lame ducks, and waddle out of the Alley.

RESURRECTION MEN. Persons employed by the students in anatomy to steal dead bodies out of church-yards.

REVERENCE. An ancient custom, which obliges any person easing himself near the highway or foot-path, on the word REVERENCE being given him by a pa.s.senger, to take off his hat with his teeth, and without moving from his station to throw it over his head, by which it frequently falls into the excrement; this was considered as a punishment for the breach of delicacy, A person refusing to obey this law, might be pushed backwards. Hence, perhaps, the term, SIR-REVERENCE.

REVERSED. A man set by bullies on his head, that his money may fall out of his breeches, which they afterwards by accident pick up. See HOISTING.

REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRa.s.sIERS. A visitation of the clergy. See CROW FAIR.

RHINO. Money. CANT.

RIB. A wife: an allusion to our common mother Eve, made out of Adam's rib. A crooked rib: a cross-grained wife.

RIBALDRY. Vulgar abusive language, such as was spoken by ribalds. Ribalds were originally mercenary soldiers who travelled about, serving any master far pay, but afterwards degenerated into a mere banditti.

RIBBIN. Money. The ribbin runs thick; i.e. there is plenty of money. CANT. Blue ribbin. Gin. The cull lushes the blue ribbin; the silly fellow drinks common gin.

To RIBROAST. To beat: I'll ribroast him to his heart's content.

RICH FACE, or NOSE. A red pimpled, face.

RICHAUD SNARY. A dictionary. A country lad, having been reproved for calling persons by their christian names, being sent by his master to borrow a dictionary, thought to shew his breeding by asking for a Richard Snary.

RIDER. A person who receives part of the salary of a place or appointment from the ostensible occupier, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, or great man appointing.

The rider is said to be quartered upon the possessor, who often has one or more persons thus riding behind him. See QUARTERED.

RIDGE. A guinea. Ridge cully; a goldsmith. CANT.