devil’s dung
The fetid drug assafœtida.
English · UK & Ireland 846
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
devil’s livery
Black and yellow. From the mourning and quarantine uses of the colours.
devotional habits
Horses weak in the knees, and apt to stumble and fall, are said to have these.—Stable.
dew-beaters
Feet; "hold out your DEW-BEATERS till I take off the darbies."—Peveril of the Peak. Forby says the word is used in Norfolk for heavy shoes to resist wet.
dew-drink
A morning draught, such as is served out to labourers in harvest time before commencing work.
dewitted
Torn to pieces by a mob, as that great statesman John de Wit was in Holland, anno 1672.
dewskitch
A good thrashing, perhaps from catching one’s due.
dial plate
The face. To alter his dial plate; to disfigure his face.
dibbs
Money; so called from the huckle bones of sheep, which have been used from the earliest times for gambling purposes when money was not obtainable—in one particular game being thrown up five at a time and caught on the back of the hand like halfpence.
dice
The names of false dice: A bale of bard cinque deuces A bale of flat cinque deuces A bale of flat sice aces A bale of bard cater traes A bale of flat cater traes A bale of fulhams A bale of light graniers A bale of langrets contrary to the ventage A bale of gordes, with as many highmen as lowmen, for passage A bale of demies A bale of long dice for even and odd A bale of bristles A bale of direct contraries.
dick
That happened in the reign of queen Dick, i. e. never: said of any absurd old story. I am as queer as Dick's hatband; that is, out of spirits, or don't know what ails me.
dick
A riding whip; gold-headed DICK, one so ornamented.
dickens
Synonymous with devil; "what the DICKENS are you after?" what the devil are you doing? Used by Shakspeare in the Merry Wives of Windsor. In many old stories his Satanic Majesty is called the DICKENS, and by no other name, while in some others the word is spelt "diconce."
dickey
An ass. Roll your dickey; drive your ass. Also a seat for servants to sit behind a carriage, when their master drives.
dickey
Bad, sorry, or foolish; food or lodging is pronounced DICKEY when of a poor description; "very DICKEY", very inferior; "it’s all DICKEY with him," i.e., all over with him.
dicky
A woman's under-petticoat. It's all Dicky with him; i.e. it's all over with him.
dictionary
Of all the Cant and Flash Languages, both Ancient and Modern, 18mo. Bailey, 1790.
dictionnaire
Des Halle, 12mo. Bruxelles, 1696.
diddeys
A woman's breasts or bubbies.
diddle
Old cant word for geneva, or gin.
diddler
Or JEREMY DIDDLER, an artful swindler. A diddler is generally one who borrows money without any intention of ever repaying it; the sort of man who, having asked for half-a-crown and received only a shilling, would consider that eighteenpence was owing to him.—From Raising the Wind.
diddling
Cheating or swindling. Borrowing money without any intention of repaying it. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a very amusing article once on DIDDLING, which he seemed to regard as a rather high art.
didoes
Pranks or capers; "to cut up DIDOES," to make pranks.
dig
A hard blow. Generally in pugilistic circles applied to a straight "left-hander," delivered under the guard on the "mark."
diggers
Spurs; also the spades on cards.
diggings
Lodgings, apartments, residence; an expression probably imported from California, or Australia, with reference to the gold diggings. It is very common nowadays for a man moving in very decent society to call his abode or his office, or anyplace to which he frequently resorts, his "DIGGINGS."
dilberries
Small pieces of excrement adhering to the hairs near the fundament.
dildo
[From the Italian DILETTO, q. d. a woman's delight; or from our word DALLY, q. d. a thing to play withal.] Penis-succedaneus, called in Lombardy Passo Tempo. Bailey.
diligent
Double diligent, like the Devil's apothecary; said of one affectedly diligent.
dilly
(An abbreviation of the word DILIGENCE.) A public voiture or stage, commonly a post chaise, carrying three persons; the name is taken from the public stage vehicles in France and Flanders. The dillies first began to run in England about the year 1779.
dilly
Originally a coach, from diligence. Now a night-cart.
dimber
Pretty. A dimber cove; a pretty fellow. Dimber mort; a pretty wench. CANT.
dimber
Neat or pretty.—Worcestershire, but old cant.
dimber damber
A top man, or prince, among the canting crew: also the chief rogue of the gang, or the completest cheat. CANT.
dimber-damber
Very pretty; a clever rogue who excels his fellows; chief of a gang. Old Cant in the latter sense.
dimmock
Money; "how are you off for DIMMOCK?" diminutive of DIME, a small foreign silver coin, in the United States 10 cents.
dinarly
Money; "NANTEE DINARLY," I have no money, corrupted from the Lingua Franca, "NIENTE DINARO," not a penny. Turkish, DINARI; Spanish, DINERO; Latin, DENARIUS.
ding
To knock down. To ding it in one's ears; to reproach or tell one something one is not desirous of hearing. Also to throw away or hide: thus a highwayman who throws away or hides any thing with which he robbed, to prevent being known or detected, is, in the canting lingo, styled a Dinger.
ding
To strike; to throw away, or get rid of anything; to pass to a confederate by throwing. Old, used in old plays.
ding boy
A rogue, a hector, a bully, or sharper. CANT.
ding dong
Helter skelter, in a hasty disorderly manner.
dingey christian
A mulatto; or any one who has, as the West-Indian term is, a lick of the tar-brush, that is, some negro blood in him.
dingy
A small boat. Generally the smallest boat carried by a ship. The g in this is pronounced hard.
dining room post
A mode of stealing in houses that let lodgings, by rogues pretending to be postmen, who send up sham letters to the lodgers, and, whilst waiting in the entry for the postage, go into the first room they see open, and rob it.
dip
To dip for a wig. Formerly, in Middle Row, Holborn, wigs of different sorts were, it is said, put into a close-stool box, into which, for three-pence, any one might dip, or thrust in his hand, and take out the first wig he laid hold of; if he was dissatisfied with his prize, he might, on paying three halfpence, return it and dip again.
dipt
Pawned or mortgaged.
dirt
TO EAT, an expression derived from the East, nearly the same as "to eat humble (Umble) pie," to put up with a mortification or insult.
dirty half-hundred
A nickname given to the 50th Regiment on account of their tattered and soiled appearance during the Peninsular War. A term to be proud of, as it implies much work and little reward.
disgruntled
Offended, disobliged.
disguised
Intoxicated. A very old term is that of "DISGUISED in drink."
dish
To stop, to do away with, to suppress; DISHED, done for, floored, beaten, or silenced. To "do brown" and to "DISH," both verbs with very similar meanings, have an evident connexion so far as origin is concerned, and most likely were both first used in the kitchen as synonymous with "done for." The late Lord Derby made the word "DISH" famous by his latest public act, that of "DISHING the Whigs."
dishclout
A dirty, greasy woman. He has made a napkin of his dishclout; a saying of one who has married his cook maid. To pin a dishclout to a man's tail; a punishment often threatened by the female servants in a kitchen, to a man who pries too minutely into the secrets of that place.
dished up
He is completely dished up; he is totally ruined. To throw a thing in one's dish; to reproach or twit one with any particular matter.
dismal ditty
The psalm sung by the felons at the gallows, just before they are turned off.
dispatchers
Loaded or false dice.
dispatches
A mittimus, or justice of the peace's warrant, for the commitment of a rogue.
distracted division
Husband and wife fighting.
dithers
Nervous or cold shiverings; "it gave me the DITHERS."
ditto
A suit of ditto; coat, waistcoat, and breeches, all of one colour.
dittoes
A SUIT OF, coat, waistcoat, and trousers of the same material.—Tailor’s term.