gander month
One of the later months of a pregnancy, when the pregnant woman cannot engage in sexual intercourse and her partner might be expected to seek it elsewhere.
English · UK & Ireland 1001
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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.
give it mouth
Speak loudly; speak up.
glasgow magistrate
A salted herring.
go along
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, along.
go the whole pile
To stake all of one's money on a single outcome.
good people
A good person.
gooseberry wig
A large, frizzled wig.
gospel grinder
A missionary, or distributor of religious tracts.
gourock ham
A salted herring.
greenwich goose
A Greenwich pensioner.
grist to the mill
Something used to an advantage.
Grove of the Evangelist
The district of St John's Wood in London, England.
grub and bub
Food and drink of any kind.
grubbing ken
A place where food may be procured; a workhouse or cookshop.
gab
GABBER or GABBLE, talk; "gift of the GAB," loquacity, or natural talent for speech-making.—Anglo-Norman; GAB is also found in the Danish and Old Norse.
gaby
A simpleton, a country bumpkin. Probably from gape.
gad
A trapesing slatternly woman.—Gipsy. Anglo-Saxon, GÆDELING.
gad-so
An exclamation said to be derived from the Italian word cazzo.
gadding the hoof
Going without shoes. GADDING, roaming about, although used in an old translation of the Bible, is now only heard amongst the lower orders.
gaff
A fair. The drop coves maced the joskins at the gaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countryman at the fair.
gaff
A penny play-house, in which talking is not permitted on the stage. See PENNY GAFF.
gaffer
A master, or employer; term used by "navvies," and general in Lancashire and North of England. Early English for an old man. See "BLOW THE GAFF."
gaffing
Tossing halfpence, or counters.—North, where it means tossing up three halfpennies. One man tosses, and another calls. Sometimes the coins are tossed from a stick, and the tosser keeps those which fall heads uppermost.
gag
An instrument used chiefly by housebreakers and thieves, for propping open the mouth of a person robbed, thereby to prevent his calling out for assistance.
gag
A lie; "a GAG he told to the beak."—Thieves’ Cant.
gage
A quart pot, or a pint; also a pipe. CANT.
gage
A small quantity of anything; as "a GAGE of tobacco," meaning a pipeful; "a GAGE of gin," a glassful. GAGE was, in the last century, a chamber utensil.
gaggers
High and Low. Cheats, who by sham pretences, and wonderful stories of their sufferings, impose on the credulity of well meaning people. See RUM GAGGER.
galeny
Old cant term for a fowl of any kind; now a respectable word in the West of England, signifying a Guinea fowl.—Vide Grose. Latin, GALLINA.
galimaufrey
A hodgepodge made up of the remnants and scraps of the larder.
gall
His gall is not yet broken; a saying used in prisons of a man just brought in, who appears dejected.
gallanty show
An exhibition in which black figures are shown on a white sheet to accompanying dialogue. Generally given at night by "Punch and Judy" men.
galley foist
A city barge, used formerly on the lord mayor's day, when he was sworn in at Westminster.
gallied
Hurried, vexed, over-fatigued, perhaps like a galley slave.
gallimaufry
A kind of stew, made up of scraps of various kinds. Sea term, and probably meaning the galley scraps.
gallipot
A nick namefor an apothecary,
gallivant
To wait upon the ladies.—Old.
galloper
A blood horse. A hunter. The toby gill clapped his bleeders to his galloper and tipped the straps the double. The highwayman spurred his horse and got away from the officers.
gallows
Or GALLUS, very, or exceedingly—an unpleasant exclamation; "GALLOWS poor," very poor. Term originally applied to anything bad enough to deserve hanging.
gallows bird
A grief, or pickpocket; also one that associates with them.
gallowses
In the North of England a pair of braces.
gally-yarn
A sailor’s term for a hoaxing story. He expresses disbelief by saying only "G. Y."
galore
Abundance. Irish, GO LEOR, in plenty.
gamb
A leg. Still used as an heraldic term, as well as by thieves, who probably get it from the Lingua Franca. Italian, GAMBA; French, JAMBE, a leg.
gambadoes
Leathern cases of stiff leather, used in Devonshire instead of boots; they are fastened to the saddle, and admit the leg, shoe and all: the name was at first jocularly given.
gambler
A sharper, of tricking, gamester.
game
Any mode of robbing. The toby is now a queer game; to rob on the highway is now a bad mode of acting. This observation is frequently made by thieves; the roads being now so well guarded by the horse patrole; and gentlemen travel with little cash in their pockets.
game
A term variously applied; "are you GAME?" have you courage enough? "what’s your little GAME?" what are you going to do? "come, none of your GAMES," be quiet, don’t annoy me; "on the GAME," out thieving. To "play the GAME" is among sporting men to do a thing thoroughly and properly.
game leg
A lame or wounded leg.
gameness
Pluck, endurance, courage generally.
games
Thin, ill-shapped legs: a corruption of the French word jambes. Fancy gambs; sore or swelled legs.
gammon
Deceit, humbug, a false and ridiculous story. Anglo-Saxon, GAMEN, game, sport.
gammy
Bad, unfavourable, poor tempered. Those householders who are known enemies to the street folk and tramps are pronounced by them to be GAMMY. GAMMY sometimes means forged, as "GAMMY-MONNIKER," a forged signature; GAMMY STUFF, spurious medicine; GAMMY LOWR, counterfeit coin. Hants, GAMY, dirty. The hieroglyphic used by beggars and cadgers to intimate to those of the tribe coming after that things are not very favourable is known as □, or GAMMY. Gaelic, Welsh, and Irish, CAM (GAM), crooked.
gammy-vial
(Ville), a town where the police will not let persons hawk.
gamon
To humbug. To deceive, To tell lies. What rum gamon the old file pitched to the flat; how finely the knowing old fellow humbugged the fool.
gamon and patter
Common place talk of any profession; as the gamon and patter of a horse-dealer, sailor, &c.
gan
The mouth or lips. Cant.
gang
A company of men, a body of sailors, a knot of thieves, pickpockets, &c. A gang of sheep trotters; the four feet of a sheep.
ganger
The person who superintends the work of a gang, or a number of navigators.
gaoler's coach
A hurdle: traitors being usually conveyed from the gaol, to the place of execution, on a hurdle or sledge.