pickthank
A tale-bearer or mischief maker.
English · UK & Ireland 1152
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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.
picture frame
The sheriff's picture frame; the gallows or pillory.
piece
A contemptuous term for a woman; a strumpet.—Shakspeare. Not always objectionable nowadays. A "barber’s clerk" does not object to hear his sweetheart or wife called "a nice PIECE;" and gentlemen of the counter-jumping fraternity describe their "young ladies" as "nice PIECES of goods."
pieman
In tossing, the man who cries is called the PIEMAN. In the old days when the itinerant PIEMAN’S duty was to toss or sell, and his call was, "Hot pies, toss or buy, toss or buy," he was always supposed to be entitled to the cry, the intending eater "skying the copper." An active and efficient police have, however, improved tossing—so far, at all events, as PIEMEN and poor people are concerned—off the face of the earth, and gaming of all descriptions is now a luxury confined to the rich.
pig
A police officer. A China street pig; a Bow-street officer. Floor the pig and bolt; knock down the officer and run away.
pig
A mass of metal,—so called from its being poured in a fluid state from a SOW, which see.—Workman’s term.
pig and tinder-box
The vulgar rendering of the well-known tavern sign, "Elephant and Castle."
pig running
A piece of game frequently practised at fairs, wakes, &c. A large pig, whose tail is cut short, and both soaped and greased, being turned out, is hunted by the young men and boys, and becomes the property of him who can catch and hold him by the tail, above the height of his head.
pigeon
A weak silly fellow easily imposed on. To pigeon; to cheat. To milk the pigeon; to attempt impossibilities, to be put to shifts for want of money. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off a church.
pigeon
A gullible or soft person. The French cant, or Argot, has the word PIGEON, dupe—"PECHON, PESCHON DE RUBY, apprenti gueux, enfant (sans doute dérobé)". The vagabonds and brigands of Spain also used the word in their Germania, or robbers’ language, PALOMO (PIGEON), ignorant, simple. In the sporting world sharps and flats are often called "rooks and PIGEONS" respectively—sometimes "spiders and flies."
pigeon's milk
Boys and novices are frequently sent on the first of April to buy pigeons milk.
pigeon-english
The English spoken by the natives of Canton and other parts of China.
pigeon-flying
Or BLUEY CRACKING, breaking into empty houses and stealing lead.
pigeons
Sharpers, who, during the drawing of the lottery, wait ready mounted near Guildhall, and, as soon as the first two or three numbers are drawn, which they receive from a confederate on a card, ride with them full speed to some distant insurance office, before fixed on, where there is another of the gang, commonly a decent looking woman, who takes care to be at the office before the hour of drawing: to her he secretly gives the number, which she insures for a considerable sum: thus biting the bite
pike
A turnpike; "to bilk a PIKE," to cheat the keeper of the toll-gate. Mr. Tony Weller makes many amusing remarks on PIKES and PIKE-keepers. Since the first edition of this work was published, PIKES and PIKE-keepers have departed from amongst us, so far as London and its immediate vicinity are concerned.
pike it
Is said as a hasty and contemptuous, if not angry, dismissal, "if you don’t like it, take a short stick and PIKE it." This is but a form of the attempts at rhyming smartness common in London.
pikey
A tramp or gipsy. A PIKEY-cart is in various parts of the country one of those habitable vehicles suggestive of a wandering life. Possibly the term has reference to one who constantly uses the PIKE, or turnpike road.
pile
A sum of money; generally the whole of a man’s private means. A term originally peculiar to Californian miners, in reference to their accumulated dust and nuggets. American gamblers speak of "putting all the PILE on" when they fancy anything very much. "To go the whole PILE" runs level with our sporting phrase, "To go a raker."
pilgrim's salve
A sirreverence, human excrement.
pill
A doctor.—Military. PILL-DRIVER, a peddling apothecary.
pill-box
A doctor’s carriage.
pillaloo
The Irish cry or howl at funerals.
pimp
A male procurer, or cock bawd; also a small faggot used about London for lighting fires, named from introducing the fire to the coals.
pimp whiskin
A top trader in pimping.
pin
In or to a merry pin; almost drunk: an allusion to a sort of tankard, formerly used in the north, having silver pegs or pins set at equal distances from the top to the bottom: by the rules of good fellowship, every person drinking out of one of these tankards, was to swallow the quantity contained between two pins; if he drank more or less, he was to continue drinking till he ended at a pin: by this means persons unaccustomed to measure their draughts were obliged to drink the whole tankard.
pin
"to put in the PIN," to refrain from drinking. From the ancient peg tankard, which was furnished with a row of PINS, or pegs, to regulate the amount which each person was to drink. Drunken people are often requested to "put in the PIN," from some remote connexion between their unsteadiness and that of a carriage wheel which has lost its linch-PIN. The popular cry, "Put in the PIN," can have no connexion with the drinking PIN or peg now, whatever it may originally have had.
pin money
Money for personal or discretionary use
pinch
At a pinch; on an exigency.
pinch
To steal or cheat; also, to catch, or apprehend.
pinchbeck
Inferior, deteriorated. Anything pretending to more than its proper value is said to be PINCHBECK.
pinchers
Rogues who, in changing money, by dexterity of hand frequently secrete two or three shillings out of the change of a guinea. This species of roguery is called the pinch, or pinching lay.
pink
The acme of perfection. The scarlet garb worn in the hunting-field.
pinking-dindee
A sweater or mohawk. IRISH.
pinnel
Or PENNEL,—corruption of penal servitude. As, "four-year PINNEL."
pinner-up
A seller of old songs, pinned against a wall or framed canvas. Formerly many of these street salesmen carried on their little "paper trade" in London. There are but one or two now left.
pins
Legs. Queer pins; ill shapen legs.
pipe
To follow or dog a person; to watch, to notice.
piper
A broken winded horse.
piper
A person employed by an omnibus proprietor to act as a spy on the conductor.
pipkin
The stomach,—properly, an earthen round-bottomed pot—Norwich.
pips
The marks, no matter of what suit, on playing cards. The ace is often called "single PIP."
piscinarians
A club or brotherhood, A.D. 1743.
piss
He will piss when he can't whistle; he will be hanged. He shall not piss my money against the wall; he shall not have my money to spend in liquor.
piss maker
A great drinker, one much given to liquor.
piss pot hall
A house at Clapton, near Hackney, built by a potter chiefly out of the profits of chamber pots, in the bottom of which the portrait of Dr. Sacheverel was depicted.
piss prophet
A physician who judges of the diseases of his patients solely by the inspection of their urine.
piss-burned
Discoloured: commonly applied to a discoloured grey wig.
piss-proud
Having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an erection, but his--was only piss-proud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife.
pissing pins and needles
To have a gonorrhea.
pit
A watch fob. He drew a rare thimble from the swell's pit. He took a handsome watch from the gentleman's fob.
pit-a-pat
The palpitation of the heart: as, my heart went pit-a-pat. Pintledy-pantledy; the same.
pitch
A fixed locality where a patterer can hold forth to a gaping multitude for at least some few minutes continuously; "to do a PITCH in the drag," to perform in the street. An itinerant is said to "make a PITCH" whenever he attempts to do any business.
pitch and fill
Bill,—vulgar shortening for William.
pitch the fork
To tell a pitiful tale.
pitch the nob
PRICK THE GARTER, which see.
pitch-kettled
Stuck fast, confounded.
pitcher
The miraculous pitcher, that holds water with the mouth downwards: a woman's commodity. She has crack'd her pitcher or pipkin; she has lost her maidenhead.
pitt's picture
A window stopt up on the inside, to save the tax imposed in that gentleman's administration. PARTY WIT
pizzy club
A society held, A. D, 1744, at the sign of the Tower, on Tower Hill: president, Don Pizzaro.
place
To name the first three horses in a race. This is the duty of the judge, who sees nothing of the race but the finish. Sometimes an official will place more than the first three, but this in no way interferes with the meaning of the word as generally received. To run "nowhere" is to be unplaced.