1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 87

WILLOW. Poor, and of no reputation. To wear the willow; to be abandoned by a lover or mistress.

WIN. A penny,

TO WIN. To steal. The cull has won a couple of rum glimsticks; the fellow has stolen a pair of fine candlesticks.

WIND. To raise the wind; to procure mony.

WINDER. Transportation for life. The blowen has napped a winder for a lift; the wench is transported for life for stealing in a shop.

WIND-MILL. The fundament. She has no fortune but her mills; i.e. she has nothing but her **** and a*se.

WINDFALL. A legacy, or any accidental accession of property.

WINDMILLS IN THE HEAD. Foolish projects.

WINDOW PEEPER. A collector of the window tax.

WINDWARD Pa.s.sAGE. One who uses or navigates the windward pa.s.sage; a sodomite.

WINDY. Foolish. A windy fellow; a simple fellow.

WINK. To tip one the wink; to give a signal by winking the eye.

WINNINGS. Plunder, goods, or money acquired by theft.

WINTER CRICKET. A taylor.

WINTER'S DAY. He is like a winter's day, short and dirty.

WIPE. A blow, or reproach. I'll give you a wipe on the chops. That story gave him a fine wipe. Also a handkerchief.

WIPER. A handkerchief. CANT.

WIPER DRAWER. A pickpocket, one who steals handkerchiefs.

He drew a broad, narrow, cam, or specked wiper; he picked a pocket of a broad, narrow, cambrick, or coloured handkerchief.

TO WIREDRAW. To lengthen out or extend any book, letter, or discourse.

WISE. As wise as Waltham's calf, that ran nine miles to suck a bull.

WISE MEN OF GOTHAM. Gotham is a village in Nottinghams.h.i.+re; its magistrates are said to have attempted to hedge in a cuckow; a bush, called the cuckow's bush, is still shewn in support of the tradition. A thousand other ridiculous stories are told of the men of Gotham.

WISEACRE. A foolish conceited fellow.

WISEACRE'S HALL. Gresham college.

WIT. He has as much wit as three folks, two fools and a madman.

WITCHES. Silver. Witcher bubber; a silver bowl. Witcher tilter; a silver-hilted sword. Witcher cully; a silversmith.

TO WOBBLE. To boil. Pot wobbler; one who boils a pot.

WOLF IN THE BREAST. An extraordinary mode of imposition, sometimes practised in the country by strolling women, who have the knack of counterfeiting extreme pain, pretending to have a small animal called a wolf in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which is continually gnawing them.

WOLF IN THE STOMACH. A monstrous or canine appet.i.te.

WOOD. In a wood; bewildered, in a maze, in a peck of troubles, puzzled, or at a loss what course to take in any business. To look over the wood; to ascend the pulpit, to preach: I shall look over the wood at St. James's on Sunday next. To look through the wood; to stand in the pillory. Up to the arms in wood; in the pillory.

WOOD p.e.c.k.e.r. A bystander, who bets whilst another plays.

WOODc.o.c.k. A taylor with a long bill.

WOODEN HABEAS. A coffin. A man who dies in prison is said to go out with a wooden habeas. He went out with a wooden habeas; i.e. his coffin.

WOODEN SPOON. (Cambridge.) The last junior optime.

See WRANGLER, OPTIME.

WOODEN HORSE. To fide the wooden horse was a military punishment formerly in use. This horse consisted of two or more planks about eight feet long, fixed together so as to form a sharp ridge or angle, which answered to the body of the horse. It was supported by four posts, about six feet long, for legs. A head, neck, and tail, rudely cut in wood, were added, which completed the appearance of a horse. On this sharp ridge delinquents were mounted, with their hands tied behind them; and to steady them (as it was said), and lest the horse should kick them off, one or more firelocks were tied to each leg. In this situation they were sometimes condemned to sit an hour or two; but at length it having been found to injure the soldiers materially, and sometimes to rupture them, it was left off about the time of the accession of King George I.

A wooden horse was standing in the Parade at Portsmouth as late as the year 1750.

WOODEN RUFF. The pillory. See NORWAY NECKCLOTH.

WOODEN SURTOUT. A coilin.

WOMAN OF THE TOWN, or WOMAN OF PLEASURE. A prost.i.tute.

WOMAN AND HER HUSBAND. A married couple, where the woman is bigger than her husband.

WOMAN'S CONSCIENCE. Never satisfied.

WOMAN OF ALL WORK. Sometimes applied to a female servant, who refuses none of her master's commands.

WOOLBIRD. A sheep. CANT.

WOOL GATHERING. Your wits are gone a woolgathering; saying to an absent man, one in a reverie, or absorbed in thought.

WOOLLEY CROWN. A soft-headed fellow.

WORD GRUBBERS. Verbal critics, and also persons who use hard words in common discourse.

WORD p.e.c.k.e.r. A punster, one who plays upon words.

WORD OF MOUTH. To drink by word of mouth, i.e. out of the bowl or bottle instead, of a gla.s.s.

WORLD. All the world and his wife; every body, a great company.

WORM. To worm out; to obtain the knowledge of a secret by craft, also to undermine or supplant. He is gone to the diet of worms; he is dead and buried, or gone to Rothisbone.

WRANGLERS. At CAMBRIDGE the first cla.s.s (generally of twelve) at the annual examination for a degree. There are three cla.s.ses of honours, wranglers, senior optimes, and junior optimes. Wranglers are said to be born with golden spoons in their mouths, the senior optimes with silver, and the junior with leaden ones. The last junior optime is called the wooden spoon. Those who are not qualified for honors are either in the GULF (that is, meritorious, but not deserving of being in the three first cla.s.ses) or among the pollot [Proofreaders Note: Greek Letters]