Jennifer Kloester Read online

  to pull caps with someone: to argue

  to swallow one’s spleen: to curb one’s temper

  within ames-ace: nearly, or very near

  LYING

  bag of moonshine: nonsense, a lot of nothing

  bamboozle: to deceive, hoax or make a fool of a person; to humbug or impose on someone

  Banbury stories: a long-winded nonsense tale, a cock-and-bull story

  bouncer: a big lie

  Canterbury Tales: a long, tedious story

  a clanker: a huge lie

  cut a sham: to deliberately trick, cheat or deceive

  cut a wheedle: to deliberately lead astray or decoy by flattery and insinuation

  doing it much too brown: to go over the top in telling a lie; to lie or cheat thoroughly

  faradiddles: a petty lie; originally ‘taradiddle’

  flummery: false compliments

  fudge: nonsense

  fustian or fustian nonsense: pompous rubbish

  gammon: nonsense, lies; to pretend, lie or deceive

  gulled: duped, fooled, tricked

  a hum: a falsehood, a deceit, a made-up story

  pitching the gammon: to talk plausibly; to hoax someone; to flatter without restraint; to tell grand stories; to deceive merrily

  plumper: an arrant lie—possibly from the false cheeks worn in previous centuries

  shamming it: to pretend or make things up

  slum: to speak cant or talk nonsense

  to offer Spanish coin: to flatter with fair words and compliments

  toad-eat: to pay compliments or to flatter in the hope of winning a person’s favour or approval

  whiskers: lies

  MONEY

  at a stand or a standstill: run out of money and in financial difficulty

  blunt: money

  brass: money

  brought to point non plus: backed into a financial corner with few options for recovery

  cheeseparing: miserly, niggardly, mean with money

  dibs not in tune: not enough money; in a parlous financial state

  dished: financially ruined

  drawing the bustle: spending too much money

  a dun: a persistent creditor

  flush in the pocket or flush with funds: having plenty of ready money

  full of juice: wealthy

  gingerbread: money

  grease someone in the fist: to put money into a person’s hand; to bribe someone or give them a monetary incentive

  gullgropers: a professional moneylender, especially one who does business with gamblers

  hang on someone’s sleeve: to rely on someone financially

  haven’t a sixpence to scratch with: flat broke

  high water with him: wealthy; he has lots of money

  in deep: in serious debt

  in dun territory: in debt

  in the basket: to be in financial difficulty—from the practice of putting those who could not pay their gambling debts at a cock-fight into a basket suspended above the pit. The term also relates to those purse-pinched stagecoach travellers who could only afford to travel in the boot—originally a large basket strapped to the back of the carriage.

  low ebb or at ebb-water: a lack of money

  low water: lack of money

  nip-cheese or nip-farthing: a miser

  not a feather to fly with: no money, dead broke

  note of hand: an IOU

  on the rocks: financially ruined, bankrupt

  outrun the constable: to overspend; to live beyond one’s means

  plump in the pocket: to have plenty of ready cash

  pockets to let: no money, penniless

  purse-pinched: short of money

  raise the wind: borrow money

  the ready: money, particularly money in hand

  recruits: money, often money that is expected

  the rhino: money

  the River Tick: standing debts

  rolled-up: no money and in serious financial trouble

  run off one’s legs: to have spent all one’s money

  run on tick: to buy on credit

  swallow a spider: to go bankrupt

  swimming in lard: very wealthy

  tip over the dibs: to lend or give money to someone

  to bleed: to extort money either openly or in an underhand way

  to fleece: to swindle

  to frank someone: to pay their way

  to stand huff: to pay the bill in a tavern; to pay for everyone

  under the hatches: in debt

  vowels: IOUs

  well-breeched: having plenty of money in your pockets—a prime target for robbery

  well-inlaid: plenty of money

  NOT THE THING

  a bridle cull: a highwayman

  a cursed rum touch: a strange person; an odd or eccentric man who is also annoying

  a flat: an honest man; a fool, one who is easily tricked; a greenhorn

  fulhams: loaded dice

  half flash and half foolish: having a small knowledge of cant and a limited experience of the world

  an ivory-turner: one who cheats in dice games

  a peep-o-day boy: an unsteady young man always involved in pranks or larks

  a rattle: one who talks too much

  a rum ’un: a strange person, an odd or eccentric man

  a sharp: a cheat who lives by his skill at manipulating the cards or dice

  smoky: suspicious, curious

  uphills: loaded dice; false dice made to roll to the higher or upper numbers—as opposed to downhills which fall to the lower numbers

  PEOPLE

  all the crack: in the mode, the height of fashion

  an ape leader: a woman beyond marriageable age; an old maid—so-called because of a proverb that says their failure to increase and multiply dooms them to lead apes in hell. Also used by Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing II.i.41 and The Taming of the Shrew II.i.34

  awake on every suit: knowing what’s going on, understanding the business

  a bang-up cove: a dashing man who spends money easily; a good-natured splendid fellow

  bang up to the knocker: first-rate; well dressed, turned out in prime style

  bang up to the mark: first-rate

  bird-witted: thoughtless, brainless, easily imposed upon, gullible, inconsiderate

  a bit of muslin: a girl; an attractive female—though usually one who is ready to be seduced or taken as a mistress

  bracket-faced: ugly, hard-featured

  bran-faced: freckled

  a chawbacon: a country bumpkin; a stupid man

  a chit: a young girl

  a cicisbeo: a married woman’s lover or escort

  clunch: a clownish person, awkward, foolish

  complete to a shade: superbly dressed, dressed in the height of fashion

  a diamond of the first water: a remarkably beautiful woman

  a dowdy: a plain, ill-dressed female

  a downy one: aware, a knowing intelligent person

  a doxy: a whore

  a green girl: a naive, inexperienced young woman

  a hoyden: an active, tomboyish romp of a girl

  a hussy: a forward, badly behaved female

  a jade: a disreputable woman

  a jilt: a woman who cries off from an engagement not long before the wedding

  a Johnny raw: a novice, an inexperienced or untried youth

  a loose fish: an unreliable person; a person of dissipated habits; a lecher or a drunk

  a mort: a woman or wench; but could sometimes mean a harlot

  an out and outer: one who is first-rate; a perfect person; excellent in every way

  a prime article: a handsome woman, a beautiful female

  a romp: a forward girl

  a swell mort: an upper-class woman

  a tabby: an old maid

  a vixen: a shrewish woman

  a vulgar mushroom: a pushing, pretentious member of the new rich—the reference being to mushrooms as a kind of fungus w