claret
Blood.—Pugilistic. Otherwise Badminton—which see.
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.
clashy
A low fellow, a labourer.—Anglo-Indian.
class
The highest quality or combination of highest qualities among athletes. "He’s not CLASS enough," i.e., not good enough. "There’s a deal of CLASS about him," i.e., a deal of quality. The term as used this way obtains to a certain extent among turfites.
clawed off
Severely beaten or whipped; also smartly poxed or clapped.
clawhammer coat
An American term for a tail-coat used in evening costume. Also known as a steel-pen coat.
clean
Expert; clever. Amongst the knuckling coves he is reckoned very clean; he is considered very expert as a pickpocket.
clean
Quite, or entirely; "CLEAN gone," entirely out of sight, or away.—Old, see Cotgrave and Shakspeare. CLEAN CONTRARY, quite different, opposite.
clear
Very drunk. The cull is clear, let's bite him; the fellow is very drunk, let's cheat him. CANT.
cleaver
One that will cleave; used of a forward or wanton woman.
clerked
Soothed, funned, imposed on. The cull will not be clerked; i.e. the fellow will not be imposed on by fair words.
cleymes
Artificial sores, made by beggars to excite charity.
click
A blow. A click in the muns; a blow or knock in the face. CANT.
click
A knock or blow. CLICK-HANDED, left-handed.—Cornish. A term in Cumberland and Westmoreland wrestling for a peculiar kind of throw, as "an inside CLICK," or "an outside CLICK."
clicker
A salesman's servant; also, one who proportions out the different shares of the booty among thieves.
clicker
A female touter at a bonnet shop. In Northamptonshire, the cutter out in a shoemaking establishment. In the Dictionary of the Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew, Lond. n. d. (but prior to 1700), the CLICKER is described as "the shoemaker’s journeyman or servant, that cutts out all the work, and stands at or walks before the door, and saies—‘What d’ye lack, sir?
clicket
Copulation of foxes; and thence used, in a canting sense, for that of men and women: as, The cull and the mort are at clicket in the dyke; the man and woman are copulating in the ditch.
cliggy
Or CLIDGY, sticky.—Anglo-Saxon, CLÆG, clay.—See CLAGGUM.
climb
To climb the three trees with a ladder; to ascend the gallows.
clinch
A pun or quibble. To clinch, or to clinch the nail; to confirm an improbable story by another: as, A man swore he drove a tenpenny nail through the moon; a bystander said it was true, for he was on the other side and clinched it.
clinch
(to get the), to be locked up in jail.
clincher
That which rivets or confirms an argument, an incontrovertible position. Also a lie which cannot be surpassed, a stopper-up, said to be derived as follows:—Two notorious liars were backed to outlie each other. "I drove a nail through the moon once," said the first. "Right," said the other; "I recollect the circumstance well, for I went round to the back part of the moon and clinched it"—hence CLINCHER.
cling-rig
Stealing tankards from public-houses, &c.
clink
A place in the Borough of Southwark, formerly privileged from arrests; and inhabited by lawless vagabonds of every denomination, called, from the place of their residence, clinkers. Also a gaol, from the clinking of the prisoners' chains or fetters: he is gone to clink.
clinkers
A kind of small Dutch bricks; also irons worn by prisoners; a crafty fellow.
clipper
A fine fast-sailing vessel. Applied also as a term of encomium to a handsome woman.
clipping
Excellent, very good. CLIPPER, anything showy or first-rate.
cloak twitchers
Rogues who lurk about the entrances into dark alleys, and bye-lanes, to snatch cloaks from the shoulders of passengers.
clock
A watch. Watches are also distinguished by the terms "red clock," a gold watch, and "white clock," a silver watch. Generally modified into "red’un" and "white’un."
clod hopper
A country farmer, or ploughman.
clod pate
A dull, heavy booby.
close
As close as God's curse to a whore's a-se: close as shirt and shitten a-se.
closh
A general name given by the mobility to Dutch seamen, being a corruption of CLAUS, the abbreviation of Nicholas, a name very common among the men of that nation.
cloth market
He is just come from the cloth market, i.e. from between the sheets, he is just risen from bed.
cloud
Tobacco. Under a cloud; in adversity.
cloud
TO BE UNDER A, to be in difficulties, disgrace or disrepute; in fact, to be in shady circumstances.
clout
A blow. I'll give you a clout on your jolly nob; I'll give you a blow on your head. It also means a handkerchief. CANT. Any pocket handkerchief except a silk one.
clout
Or RAG, a cotton pocket-handkerchief.—Old Cant. Now "clouts" means a woman’s under-clothes, from the waist downwards, i.e., petticoats when they are on the person; but the term is extended to mean the whole unworn wardrobe. Probably St. Giles’s satire, having reference to the fact that few women there possess a second gown.
clouted shoon
Shoes tipped with iron.
clouting lay
Picking pockets of handkerchiefs.
cloven foot
To spy the cloven foot in any business; to discover some roguery or something bad in it: a saying that alludes to a piece of vulgar superstition, which is, that, let the Devil transform himself into what shape he will, he cannot hide his cloven foot
clover
To be, or live, in clover; to live luxuriously. Clover is the most desirable food for cattle.
clover
Happiness, luck, a delightful position—from the supposed extra enjoyment which attends cattle when they suddenly find their quarters changed from a barren field to a meadow of clover.
cloves
Thieves, robbers, &c.
cloy
To steal. To cloy the clout; to steal the handkerchief. To cloy the lour; to steal money. CANT.
club
A meeting or association, where each man is to spend an equal and stated sum, called his club.
club
In manœuvring troops, so to blunder in giving the word of command that the soldiers get into a position from which they cannot extricate themselves by ordinary tactical means. Young officers frequently "CLUB" their men, and get consequently "wigged" by the inspecting general.
club law
Argumentum bacculinum, in which an oaken stick is a better plea than an act of parliament.
clump
A lump. Clumpish; lumpish, stupid.
clump
To strike, to beat.—Prov.
clunch
An awkward clownish fellow.
clutches
Hands, gripe, power.
clutter
A stir, noise, or racket: what a confounded clutter here is!
cly
Money; also a pocket. He has filed the cly; he has picked a pocket. CANT.
cly
A pocket.—Old Cant for to steal. A correspondent derives this word from the Old English, CLEYES, claws; Anglo-Saxon, CLEA. This pronunciation is still retained in Norfolk; thus, to CLY would mean to pounce upon, to snatch.—See FRISK. Gael., CLIAH (pronounced CLEE), a basket.
clyster pipe
A nick name for an apothecary.
coach
A private tutor. Originally University, but now general. Any man who now trains or teaches another, or others, is called a coach. To coach is to instruct as regards either physical or mental acquirements. A private tutor is sometimes termed a RURAL COACH when he is not connected with a college. At Rugby a flogging is termed a "coaching."
coach wheel
A half crown piece is a fore coach wheel, and a crown piece a hind coach wheel; the fore wheels of a coach being less than the hind ones.
coach-wheel
Or TUSHEROON, a crown-piece, or five shillings.
coal
Money; "post the COAL," put down the money. The phrase was used by Mr. Buckstone at the Theatrical Fund Dinner of 1863. From this is derived the theatrical term COALING, profitable, very good, which an actor will use if his part is full of good and telling speeches—thus, "my part is full of COALING lines." This term was used in the sporting world long anterior to Mr. Buckstone’s speech. See COAL.
coals
"to haul (or pull) over the COALS," to take to task, to scold. Supposed by Jamieson to refer to the ordeal by fire. To "take one’s coals in," is a term used by sailors to express their having caught the venereal disease. It means that they have gotten that which will keep them hot for a good many months.