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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
Northumberland, from the particular croaking the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter r.
The tears of a hypocrite. Crocodiles are fabulously reported to shed tears over their prey before they devour it.
Or CROAKUS, a quack or travelling doctor; CROCUS-CHOVEY, a chemist’s shop.
A groat, or four pence.
An old ewe whose teeth are worn out; figuratively, a toothless old beldam.
A termagant or malicious old woman. CRONY, an intimate friend.
An intimate companion, a comrade; also a confederate in a robbery.
Sixpence; for the reason of this name, see CRIPPLE.
A nickname for a man with bandy legs. He buys his boots in Crooked Lane, and his stockings in Bandy-legged Walk; his legs grew in the night, therefore could not see to grow straight; jeering sayings of men with crooked legs.
A term used among dog-stealers and the "fancy" generally, to denote anything stolen. "Got on the CROOK" is exchangeable with "Got on the cross," CROOK and cross generally being synonymous.
To hang on to, to lead, to walk arm-in-arm; to court or pay addresses to a girl.
A nick name for a presbyterian: from their cropping their hair, which they trimmed close to a bowl-dish, placed as a guide on their heads; whence they were likewise called roundheads. See ROUNDHEADS.
To turn up in the course of conversation. "It CROPPED UP while we were speaking."
Hanged. Sometimes topped. "May I be topped."
The tail. The croppen of the rotan; the tail of the cart. Croppen ken: the necessary-house. CANT.
A heavy fall, a decided failure. Term originally used in the hunting-field, but now general, and not at all confined to physical matters.
A person who has had his hair cut, or CROPPED, in prison. Formerly those who had been CROPPED (i.e., had their ears cut off and their noses slit) by the public executioner were called CROPPIES, then the Puritans received the reversion of the title.
Drummers of the foot guards, or Chelsea hospital, who find out weddings, and beat a point of war to serenade the new married couple, and thereby obtain money.
Sickness in the stomach, arising from drunkenness.
To come home by weeping cross; to repent at the conclusion.
A deception—two persons pretending hostility or indifference to each other, being all the while in concert for the purpose of deceiving a third. In the sporting world a CROSS is an arrangement made between two men that one shall win without reference to relative merits. This is sometimes done with the backer’s consent for the public benefit, at other times a backer is himself the sufferer, the men having "put some one in to lay," according to instructions.—See DOUBLE CROSS.
One who combines with a sharper to draw in a friend; also, to counteract or disappoint. CANT.--This is peculiarly used to signify entrapping a man so as to obtain CRIM. COM. money, in which the wife, real or supposed, conspires with the husband.
A particular lock or fall in the Broughtonian art, which, as Mr. Fielding observes, conveyed more pleasant sensations to the spectators than the patient.
A man and woman who live by thieving.
A cross cove; any person who lives by stealing or in a dishonest manner.
A peevish boy or girl, or rather an unsocial ill-tempered man or woman.
An unexpected fling down or repulse; from a peculiar throw practised by wrestlers.
A house frequented by thieves.
Prohibited from taking food from the buttery.—University.
Or COCK-CROW, to exult over another’s abasement, as a fighting-cock does over his vanquished adversary.
A visitation of the clergy. See REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS.
A fiddle: probably from CROOTH, the Welch name for that instrument.
Oatmeal and water, or milk; a mess much eaten in the north.
The head. I fired into her keel upwards; my eyes and limbs Jack, the crown office was full; I s--k-d a woman with her a-e upwards, she was so drunk, that her head lay on the ground.
Wrinkles which gather in the corners of the eyes of old or dissipated people.
Food. Christ’s Hospital boys apply it only to bread.
Beggars, or highway spies, who traverse the road, to give intelligence of a booty; also rogues ready to snap up any booty that may offer, like privateers or pirates on a cruise.
"to pick up one’s CRUMBS," to begin to have an appetite after an illness; to improve in health, circumstances, &c., after a loss thereof.
Fat, fleshy. A fine crummy dame; a fat woman. He has picked up his crumbs finely of late; he has grown very fat, or rich, of late.
Fat, plump.—North. In London street slang, lousy.
A lousy or filthy bed.
A face pitted with small-pox marks.
To crush. Perhaps from the sound of teeth grinding against each other.
To run or decamp rapidly. CRUSH DOWN SIDES, run to a place of safety, or the appointed rendezvous.—North Country Cant.
Excellent, first-rate.
Ill-tempered, petulant, morose.—Old, said to be a corruption of the Anglo-Norman CORUSEUX.
One that uses paint and cosmetics, to obtain a fine complexion.
An unlicked cub; an unformed, ill-educated young man, a young nobleman or gentleman on his travels: an allusion to the story of the bear, said to bring its cub into form by licking. Also, a new gamester.
A mannerless uncouth lout.—See UNLICKED.
An appellation, originally given by Londoners to the Warwick and Eccleston Square districts. From the name of the builders.
The husband of an incontinent wife: cuckolds, however, are Christians, as we learn by the following story: An old woman hearing a man call his dog Cuckold, reproved him sharply, saying, 'Sirrah, are not you ashamed to call a dog by a Christian's name?' To cuckold the parson; to bed with one's wife before she has been churched.
Taylors, who are jocularly said to subsist, during the summer, chiefly on cucumbers.
Properly the last word spoken by one actor, it being the CUE for the other to reply. "Very often an actor knows nothing of a piece beyond his own lines and the CUES."
An old cuff; an old man. To cuff Jonas; said of one who is knock-kneed, or who beats his sides to keep himself warm in frosty weather; called also Beating the booby.
A man, honest or otherwise. A bob cull; a good-natured, quiet fellow. CANT.
A man or boy.—Old Cant. RUM CULL, the manager of a theatre.
A disposition liable to be cheated, an unsuspecting nature, open to imposition.
Broken glass. French, CUEILLETTE, a gathering or collection.
Or CULING, stealing from the carriages at racecourses.
A fog or fool: also, a dupe to women: from the Italian word coglione, a blockhead.