pell-mell
Tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together.
English · UK & Ireland 1152
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
pelt
A heat, chafe, or passion; as, What a pelt he was in! Pelt is also the skin of several beasts.
penang-lawyer
A long cane, sometimes carried by a footman. PENANG-LAWYERS are also bludgeons which are carried by all classes in Singapore.
pencil-fever
A supposititious disease among racehorses, the preliminary symptoms of which show that an animal has been pretty considerably "milked." PENCIL-FEVER sets in when, despite the efforts of the "marketeers," a horse can no longer be kept at a short price in the lists, through his actual condition being discovered, and when every layer of odds is anxious to write his name down. This disorder is also called "milk-fever," "market-fever," and other suggestive names.
penny dreadfuls
An expressive term for those penny publications which depend more upon sensationalism than upon merit, artistic or literary, for success.
penny gaff
A shop turned into a temporary theatre (admission one penny), at which dancing and singing take place every night. Sometimes rude pictures of the performers are arranged outside to give the front a gaudy and attractive look, and at night-time coloured lamps and transparencies are displayed to draw an audience. Zest is given to these entertainments by the fact that now and again the police make raids upon the houses, and carry off both actors and spectators. These places are also called "dukeys,"
penny-a-liner
A contributor of local news, accidents, fires, and scandals to a newspaper; a man not regularly "on the paper;" one who is popularly believed to be paid for each contribution at the rate of a penny a line, and whose interest is, therefore, that his articles should be stuffed with fine words and long sentences. This wonderful person, to whom so much is daily attributed, is now generally called a LINER.
penny-wise and pound foolish
Saving in small matters, and extravagant in great.
pennyworth
An equivalent. A good pennyworth; cheap bargain.
pensioner
A man of the most degraded condition who lives off the miserable earnings of a prostitute. There is an unmentionable prefix to the word PENSIONER. See PONCE.
penthouse nab
A broad brimmed hat.
pen’orth
Value for money; as, "I’ll have my PEN’ORTH,"—given irrespective of the actual amount.
pepper
To thrash, or strike.—Pugilistic, but used by Shakspeare.—Eastern Counties.
pepper-boxes
The buildings of the Royal Academy and National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The name was first given by a wag, in allusion to the cupolas erected by Wilkins, the architect, upon the roof, which, from their form and awkward appearance, at a distance suggest to the stranger the fact of their being enlarged PEPPER-BOXES. See BOILERS.
peppered
Infected with the venereal disease.
perch
Or ROOST, a resting-place; "I’m off to PERCH," i.e., I am going to bed.
perform
To carry out a design, generally a dishonest one. To "PERFORM on a flat" is to cozen a fool.
perkin
Beer. Dandy or affected shortening of the widely-known firm, Barclay and Perkins.
perpendicular
A lunch taken standing-up at a tavern bar. It is usual to call it lunch, often as the PERPENDICULAR may take the place of dinner.
perry’s
(William) London Guide and Stranger’s Safeguard against Cheats, Swindlers, and Pickpockets, by a Gentleman who has made the Police of the Metropolis an object of inquiry twenty-two years (no wonder when the author was in prison a good portion of that time!) 1818.
persuaders
Spurs. The kiddey clapped his persuaders to his prad but the traps boned him; the highwayman spurred his horse hard, but the officers seized him.
pesky
An intensitive expression, implying annoyance; as, "A PESKY, troublesome fellow." Corruption of PESTILENT; or, Irish, PEASGACH, rough, rugged. PESKY has now become more American than English. Pesky Ike is the name of a popular American drama.
pet
In a pet; in a passion or miff.
peter
A portmanteau or cloke-bag. Biter of peters; one that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind stage coaches or out of waggons. To rob Peter to pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: styled also manoeuvring the apostles.
peter
A partridge.—Poacher’s term.
peter grievous
A miserable, melancholy fellow; a croaker.
peter lay
The department of stealing portmanteaus, trunks, &c.
peter lug
Who is Peter Lug? who lets the glass stand at his door, or before him.
petticoat hold
One who has an estate during his wife's life, called the apron-string hold.
petticoat pensioner
One kept by a woman for secret services.
petty fogger
A little dirty attorney, ready to undertake any litigious or bad cause: it is derived from the French words petit vogue, of small credit, or little reputation.
pewter
Money, like "tin," used generally to signify silver; also a tankard. "Let me have my beer in the PEWTER," is a common request to waiters, made by "City" men, and others who affect habits of rude health. The pots for which rowing men contend are often called PEWTERS.
philadelphia-lawyer
A Transatlantic limb of the law considered to be the very acme of acuteness. Sailors relate many stories of his artful abilities, none, however, short enough to find a place here. The phrase, "Enough to puzzle a PHILADELPHIA-LAWYER," means, enough to puzzle the sharpest man in the world.
philander
To ramble on incoherently; to write discursively and weakly.
philip
A policeman. The word is loudly given as a signal that the police are approaching.
philiper
A thief’s accomplice, one who stands by and looks out for the police while the others commit a robbery, and who calls out "Philip!" when any one approaches.
philistine
A policeman. The German students call all townspeople not of their body "Philister," as ours say "cads." The departing student says, mournfully, in one of the Burschenlieder—
philistines
Bailiffs, or officers of justice; also drunkards.
phillip’s
New World of Words, folio. 1696.
phoenix-men
Firemen belonging to an insurance office, which gave a badge charged with a phoenix: these men were called likewise firedrakes.
phos bottle
A. bottle of phosphorus: used by housebreakers to light their lanthorns. Ding the phos; throw away the bottle of phosphorus.
phrase of paper
Half a quarter of a sheet. See VESSEL, PHYSOG.
physog
The face. A vulgar abbreviation of physiognomy.
physog
Or PHIZ, the face. Swift uses the latter word. Corruption of PHYSIOGNOMY.
phyz
The face. Rum phyz; an odd face or countenance.
picaroon
A pirate; also a sharper.
picaroon
A pirate or buccaneer originally; now an ordinary thief.
piccadilly butchers
A satirical name applied by the crowd to the regiment of Horse Guards, known as the "Royal Blues," from their savage onslaught upon the crowd on the occasion of the arrest of Sir Francis Burdett at his house in Piccadilly, by order of the Speaker of the House of Commons. See CHEESEMONGERS.
piccadilly weepers
Long carefully combed-out whiskers of the Dundreary fashion.
pick
"to PICK oneself up," to recover after a beating or illness, sometimes varied to "PICK up one’s crumbs;" "to PICK a man up," "to do," or cheat him.
pick-me-up
A revivifying drink taken after a debauch; a tonic.
pickaninny
A young child is thus styled by the West Indian negroes. The word is now completely naturalized among sailors and water-side people in England.
pickaniny
A young child, an infant. NEGRO TERM.
pickering’s
(F.) Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United States of America, to which is prefixed an Essay on the present state of the English Language in the United States, 8vo. Boston, 1816.
pickers
The hands.—Shakspeare.
picking
Pilfering, petty larceny.
pickle
An arch waggish fellow. In pickle, or in the pickling tub; in a salivation. There are rods in brine, or pickle, for him; a punishment awaits him, or is prepared for him. Pickle herring; the zany or merry andrew of a mountebank. See JACK PUDDING.
pickle
A miserable or comical position; "he is in a sad PICKLE," said of any one who has fallen into the gutter, or got besmeared. "A PICKLE herring," a comical fellow, a merry-andrew.—Old. Also, a mischievous boy; "what a PICKLE he is, to be sure!" Derived from his always getting into a PICKLE, or mess.
pickles!
Gammon; also a jeering and insulting exclamation.
pickt hatch
To go to the manor of pickt hatch, a cant name for some part of the town noted for bawdy houses in Shakespeare's time, and used by him in that sense.