Caleb Quotem
A parish clerk.
English · UK & Ireland 1488
All languages English Tiếng Việt
Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
caper merchant
A teacher of dancing.
carry coals to Newcastle
To do something pointlessly redundant — supplying something where it is already abundant.
cat and kitten sneaking
The theft of pint and quart pots and small pewter spirit measures from public houses.
chalk out
To draw or write down (something) using chalk.
chalk up
To achieve something.
chance the ducks
To take a risk.
cheek by jowl
Side by side.
chop and change
Change opinions repeatedly and abruptly.
chuck in
To give up, to quit.
chuck up
To vomit; throw up.
clean out
To clean, especially to tidy by removing the contents.
close the stable door after the horse has bolted
To take precautions only after the damage has already happened.
cock of the walk
One who dominates others within a group.
cock-robin shop
A small, disreputable printing office.
cold coffee
Misfortune; an unpleasant experience.
cold cook
An undertaker.
cold meat
One or more corpses, or people soon to be killed.
cold meat train
The last railway train of the night by which officers could reach Aldershot via the South Western Railway.
cold pig
The act of throwing cold water over a sleeping individual to wake them.
cold shoulder
To display aloofness and disdain.
common sewer
A communal session of drinking alcohol.
Covent Garden ague
A venereal disease; a sexually transmitted disease.
cracked up
Bankrupt; penniless.
crook one's elbow
To consume alcoholic drink.
curse of Scotland
The nine of diamonds.
ca-sa
A writ of capias ad satisfaciendam.—Legal slang.
cab
A brothel. Mother: how many tails have you in your cab? how many girls have you in your bawdy house?
cab
In statutory language, "a hackney carriage drawn by one horse." Abbreviated from the French CABRIOLET; originally meaning "a light low chaise." The wags of Paris playing upon the word (quasi cabri au lait) used to call a superior turn-out of the kind a cabri au crême. Our abbreviation, which certainly smacks of slang, has been stamped with the authority of the Legislature, and has been honoured by universal custom.
cabbage
Cloth, stuff, or silk purloined by laylors from their employers, which they deposit in a place called HELL, or their EYE: from the first, when taxed, with their knavery, they equivocally swear, that if they have taken any, they wish they may find it in HELL; or, alluding to the second, protest, that what they have over and above is not more than they could put in their EYE.--When the scrotum is relaxed or whiffled, it is said they will not cabbage.
cabbage
Pieces of cloth said to be purloined by tailors. Any small profits in the way of material.
cabbage-head
A soft-headed person.
cabby
Popular name for the driver of a cab. This title has almost supplanted the more ancient one of jarvey.
caboose
The galley or cook-house of a ship; a term used by tramps to indicate a kitchen.
cacafeogo
A sh-te-fire, a furious braggadocio or bully huff.
cackle
To blab, or discover secrets. The cull is leaky, and cackles; the rogue tells all. CANT. See LEAKY.
cackling-cove
An actor. Also called a MUMMERY-COVE.—Theatrical.
cad
Or CADGER (from which it is shortened), a mean or vulgar fellow; a beggar; one who would rather live on other people than work for himself; a man who tries to worm something out of another, either money or information. Johnson uses the word, and gives huckster as the meaning, in which sense it was originally used. Apparently from CAGER, or GAGER, the old Cant term for a man. The exclusives at the English Universities apply the term CAD to all non-members.
caddee
A helper. An under-strapper.
cadge
To beg. Cadge the swells; beg of the gentlemen.
cadge
To beg in an artful, wheedling manner.—North. In Scotland to CADGE is to wander, to go astray. See under CODGER.
cadging
Begging, generally with an eye to pilfering when an opportunity occurs. To be "on the cadge" is almost synonymous with "on the make."
cag
To be cagged. To be sulky or out of humour. The cove carries the cag; the man is vexed or sullen.
cag
To irritate, affront, anger. Schoolboy slang.
cag magg
Bits and scraps of provisions. Bad meat.
cage
A minor kind of prison. A country lock-up which contained no offices.
cagg
To cagg; a military term used by the private soldiers, signifying a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; or, as the term is, till their cagg is out: which vow is commonly observed with the strictest exactness. Ex. I have cagg'd myself for six months. Excuse me this time, and I will cagg myself for a year. This term is also used in the same sense among the common people of Scotland, where it is performed with divers ceremonies.
cagg maggs
Old Lincolnshire geese, which having been plucked ten or twelve years, are sent up to London to feast the cockneys.
cagmag
Bad food, scraps, odds and ends; or that which no one could relish. Grose give CAGG MAGGS, old and tough Lincolnshire geese, sent to London to feast the poor cockneys. Gael., French, and Welsh, CAC, and MAGN. A correspondent at Trinity College, Dublin, considers this as originally a University slang term for a bad cook, κακὸς μάγειρος. There is also a Latin word used by Pliny, MAGMA, denoting dregs or dross.
cake
A "flat;" a soft or doughy person, a fool.
cakey-pannum-fencer
Or PANNUM-FENCER, a man who sells street pastry.
calaboose
A prison.—Sea slang, from the Spanish.
calculate
A word much in use among the inhabitants of the Western States U.S., as "I CALCULATE you are a stranger here." New Englanders use the word "guess" instead of CALCULATE, while the Virginians prefer to say "reckon."
calf-skin fiddle
A drum. To smack calf's skin; to kiss the book in taking an oath. It is held by the St. Giles's casuists, that by kissing one's thumb instead of smacking calf's skin, the guilt of taking a false oath is avoided.
calibogus
Rum and spruce beer, American beverage.
california
Or CALIFORNIANS, money. Term generally applied to gold only. Derivation very obvious.
call
A notice of rehearsal, or any other occasion requiring the company’s presence, posted up in a theatre. "We’re CALLED for eleven to-morrow morning."
call-a-go
In street "patter," is to leave off trying to sell anything and to remove to another spot, to desist. Also to give in, yield, at any game or business. Probably from the "GO" call in cribbage.
calle
A cloak or gown. CANT.
calves
His calves are gone to grass; a saying of a man with slender legs without calves. Veal will be cheap, calves fall; said of a man whose calves fall away.