chouder
A sea-dish, composed of fresh fish, salt pork, herbs, and sea-biscuits, laid in different layers, and stewed together.
English · UK & Ireland 1488
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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.
chouse
To cheat out of one’s share or portion. Hackluyt, CHAUS; Massinger, CHIAUS. From the Turkish, in which language it signifies an interpreter. Gifford gives a curious story as to its origin:—
chout
An entertainment.—East-end of London.
chovey
A shop.—Costermonger.
chow-chow
A mixture, food of any kind. Also chit-chat and gossip.—Anglo-Chinese.
chowdar
A fool.—Anglo-Chinese.
christ-cross row
The alphabet in a horn-book: called Christ-cross Row, from having, as an Irishman observed, Christ's cross PREFIXED before and AFTER the twenty-four letters.
christening
Erasing the name of the true maker from a stolen watch, and engraving a fictitious one in its place.
christening
Erasing the name of the maker, the number, or any other mark, from a stolen watch, and inserting a fictitious one in its place.
christian
A tradesman who has faith, i.e. will give credit.
christmas compliments
A cough, kibed heels, and a snotty nose.
chub
He is a young chub, or a mere chub; i.e. a foolish fellow, easily imposed on: an illusion to a fish of that name, easily taken.
chubby
Round-faced, plump. Probably from the same derivative as CHUB, which means literally a fish with a big head.
chuck
My chuck; a term of endearment.
chuck
Bread or meat; in fact, anything to eat. Also a particular kind of beefsteak.
chuck a jolly
To bear up or bonnet, as when a costermonger praises the inferior article his mate or partner is trying to sell. See CHI-IKE.
chuck a stall
To attract a person’s attention while a confederate picks his pockets, or otherwise robs him.
chuckle-head
Much the same as "buffle head," "cabbage head," "chowder head," "cod’s head,"—all signifying that large abnormal form of skull generally supposed to accompany stupidity and weakness of intellect; as the Scotch proverb, "muckle head and little wit."—Originally Devonshire, but now general.
chuckle-headed
Stupid, thick-headed.
chucks!
Schoolboy’s signal on the master’s approach.
chuff it
I.e., be off, or take it away, in answer to a street seller who is importuning you to purchase. Halliwell mentions CHUFF as a "term of reproach," surly, &c.
chuffy
Round-faced, chubby.
chull
Make haste. An abbreviation of the Hindostanee CHULLO, signifying "go along." CHULL is very commonly used to accelerate the motions of a servant, driver, or palanquin-bearer.
chum
A chamber-fellow, particularly at the universities and in prison.
chum
An intimate acquaintance. A recognised term, but in such frequent use with slangists that it almost demands a place here. Stated to be from the Anglo-Saxon, CUMA, a guest.
chummage
Money paid by the richer sort of prisoners in the Fleet and King's Bench, to the poorer, for their share of a room. When prisons are very full, which is too often the case, particularly on the eve of an insolvent act, two or three persons are obliged to sleep in a room. A prisoner who can pay for being alone, chuses two poor chums, who for a stipulated price, called chummage, give up their share of the room, and sleep on the stairs, or, as the term is, ruff it.
chumming-up
An old custom amongst prisoners before the present regulations were in vogue, and before imprisonment for debt was abolished; when a fresh man was admitted to their number, rough music was made with pokers, tongs, sticks, and saucepans. For this ovation the initiated prisoner had to pay, or "fork over," half-a-crown—or submit to a loss of coat and waistcoat.
chummy
A chimney-sweep—probably connected with chimney; also a low-crowned felt hat. Sometimes, but rarely, a sweep is called a clergyman—from his colour.
chump
The head or face. Also one end of a loin of mutton. A half-idiotic or daft person is said to be off his chump.
chunk
Among printers, a journeyman who refuses to work for legal wages; the same as the flint among taylors. See FLINT.
chunk
A thick or dumpy piece of any substance, as a CHUNK of bread or meat.—Kentish.
church a yack
(or watch), to take the works of a watch from its original case, and put them into another one, to avoid detection.—See CHRISTEN.
church warden
A Sussex name for a shag, or cormorant, probably from its voracity.
church work
Said of any work that advances slowly.
churchwarden
A long pipe, "a yard of clay;" probably so called from the dignity which seems to hedge the smoker of a churchwarden, and the responsibility attached to its use. Sometimes called an Alderman.
churchyard cough
A cough that is likely to terminate in death.
churl
Originally, a labourer or husbandman: figuratively a rude, surly, boorish fellow. To put a churl upon a gentleman; to drink malt liquor immediately after having drunk wine.
cinder
Any liquor used in connexion with soda-water, as to "take a soda with a CINDER in it." The cinder may be sherry, brandy, or any other liquor.
cinder garbler
A servant maid, from her business of sifting the ashes from the cinders. CUSTOM-HOUSE WIT.
circumbendibus
A roundabout way, or story. He took such a circumbendibus; he took such a circuit.
circumbendibus
A roundabout way, a long-winded story.
cit
A citizen of London.
civil reception
A house of civil reception; a bawdy-house, or nanny-house. See NANNY-HOUSE.
civility money
A reward claimed by bailiffs for executing their office with civility.
clack
A tongue, chiefly applied to women; a simile drawn from the clack of a water-mill.
clack-box
A garrulous person, so called from the rattle formerly used by vagrants to make a rattling noise and attract attention.—Norfolk.
clack-loft
A pulpit, so called by orator Henley.
claggum
Boiled treacle in a hardened state, hardbake.—See CLIGGY.
clan
A family's tribe or brotherhood; a word much used in Scotland. The head of the clan; the chief: an allusion to a story of a Scotchman, who, when a very large louse crept down his arm, put him back again, saying he was the head of the clan, and that, if injured, all the rest would resent it.
clank
A silver tankard. CANT.
clank napper
A silver tankard stealer. See RUM BUBBER.
clap
A venereal taint. He went out by Had'em, and came round by Clapham home; i.e. he went out a wenching, and got a clap.
clap
To place; "do you think you can CLAP your hand on him?" i.e., find him out. CLAP is also a well-known form of a contagious disease.
clap on the shoulder
An arrest for debt; whence a bum bailiff is called a shoulder-clapper.
clap-trap
High-sounding nonsense. An ancient theatrical term for a "TRAP to catch a CLAP by way of applause from the spectators at a play."—Bailey’s Dictionary.
clapper
The tongue of a bell, and figuratively of a man or woman.
clapper
The tongue. Said of an over-talkative person, to be hung in the middle and to sound with both ends.
clapper claw
To scold, to abuse, or claw off with the tongue.
clapperdogeon
A beggar born. CANT.
claret
French red wine; figuratively, blood. I tapped his claret; I broke his head, and made the blood run. Claret-faced; red-faced.