scoundrel
A man void of every principle of honour.
English · UK & Ireland 2057
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
scoundrel’s dictionary
Or, an Explanation of the Cant Words used by Thieves, Housebreakers, Street-robbers, and Pickpockets about Town, with some curious Dissertations on the Art of Wheedling, &c., the whole printed from a copy taken on one of their gang, in the late scuffle between the watchman and a party of them on Clerkenwell Green, 8vo. 1754.
scour
To scour or score off; to run away: perhaps from SCORE; i.e. full speed, or as fast as legs would carry one. Also to wear: chiefly applied to irons, fetters, or handcuffs, because wearing scours them. He will scour the darbies; he will be in fetters. To scour the cramp ring; to wear bolts or fetters, from which, as well as from coffin hinges, rings supposed to prevent the cramp are made.
scourers
Riotous bucks, who amuse themselves with breaking windows, beating the watch, and assaulting every person they meet: called scouring the streets.
scout
A college errand-boy at Oxford, called a gyp at Cambridge. Also a watchman or a watch. CANT.
scout
A college valet, or waiter.—Oxford. See GYP.
scrag
The neck.—Old Cant. Scotch, CRAIG. Still used by butchers. Hence, SCRAG, to hang by the neck, and SCRAGGING, an execution,—also Old Cant.
scran
Pieces of meat, broken victuals. Formerly the reckoning at a public-house. SCRANNING, or "out on the SCRAN," begging for broken victuals. Also, an Irish malediction of a mild sort, "Bad SCRAN to yer!" i.e., bad food to you.
scran-bag
A soldier’s haversack.—Military Slang.
scrap
A villainous scheme or plan. He whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers the whole plan or scheme.
scrap
To fight. Also used as a substantive. Prize-fighters are often known as SCRAPPERS.
scrape
To get into a scrape; to be involved in a disagreeable business.
scrape
A difficulty; SCRAPE, low wit for a shave.
scraper
A fiddler; also one who scrapes plates for mezzotinto prints.
scraping
A mode of expressing dislike to a person, or sermon, practised at Oxford by the students, in scraping their feet against the ground during the preachment; frequently done to testify their disapprobation of a proctor who has been, as they think, too rigorous.
scratch
Old Scratch; the Devil: probably from the long and sharp claws with which he is frequently delineated.
scratch
An imaginary meeting-point in a fight, or verbal contest; "coming up to the SCRATCH," preparing to fight—literally approaching the line which used to be chalked on the ground to divide the ring. According to the rules of the prize ring, the toe should be placed at the SCRATCH, so the phrase often is "toeing the SCRATCH."
scratch-race
(on the turf), a race at which the horses run at catch weights, a race without restrictions. In boating, a race in which the crew are picked up anyhow. A SCRATCH crew is a crew of all sorts.
screaming
First-rate, splendid. Believed to have been first used in the Adelphi play-bills; "a SCREAMING farce," one calculated to make the audience scream with laughter. Now a general expression.
screed
An illogical or badly-written article or paper upon any subject.
screen
A bank note. Queer screens; forged bank notes. The cove was twisted for smashing queer screens; the fellow was hanged for uttering forged bank notes.
screeve
A letter, a begging petition.
screw
A skeleton key used by housebreakers to open a lock. To stand on the screw signifies that a door is not bolted, but merely locked.
screw
An unsound or broken-down horse, that requires both whip and spur to get him along. So called from the screw-like manner in which his ribs generally show through the skin.
screw jaws
A wry-mouthed man or woman.
screwed
Intoxicated or drunk.
scrimmage
Or SCRUMMAGE, a disturbance or row.—Ancient. Probably a corruption of SKIRMISH.
scrimshaw
Anything made by sailors for themselves in their leisure hours at sea is termed SCRIMSHAW-WORK.
scrip
A scrap or slip of paper. The cully freely blotted the scrip, and tipt me forty hogs; the man freely signed the bond, and gave me forty shillings.--Scrip is also a Change Alley phrase for the last loan or subscription. What does scrip go at for the next rescounters? what does scrip sell for delivered at the next day of settling?
scroby
To be tipt the scroby; to be whipt before the justices.
scrouge
To crowd or squeeze.—Wiltshire.
scrub
A low mean fellow, employed in all sorts of dirty work.
scruff
The back part of the neck seized by the adversary in an encounter. "I seized him by the SCRUFF of the neck, and chucked him out." Originally SCURF.
scrumptious
Nice, particular, beautiful.
scufter
A policeman.—North Country.
scull
A head of a house, or master of a college, at the universities.
scull
Or SKULL, the head, or master of a college.—University, but nearly obsolete; the gallery, however, in St. Mary’s (the Oxford University church), where the "Heads of Houses" sit in solemn state, is still nicknamed the "Golgotha" by the undergraduates.
scum
The riff-raff, tag-rag, and bob-tail, or lowest order of people.
scurf
A mean fellow. Literally a scurvy fellow.
scut
The tail of a hare or rabbit; also that of a woman.
scuttle
To scuttle off; to run away. To scuttle a ship; to make a hole in her bottom in order to sink her.
sea-connie
The steersman of an Indian ship. By the insurance laws he must be either a PYAH Portuguese, a European, or a Manilla man,—Lascars not being allowed to be helmsmen.
sea-cook
"son of a SEA-COOK," an opprobrious phrase used on board ship, differing from "son of a gun," which is generally used admiringly or approvingly.
seals
A religious slang term for converts. Also a Mormon term for wives. See OWNED.
secret
He has been let into the secret: he has been cheated at gaming or horse-racing. He or she is in the grand secret, i.e. dead.
see
Like "go" and "do," this useful verb has long been supplemented with a slang or unauthorized meaning. In street parlance, "to SEE" is to know or believe; "I don’t SEE that," i.e., "I don’t put faith in what you offer, or I know what you say to be untrue."
see it out
To stay out late or early, and see the gas put out. Also to complete an undertaking.
seedy
Poor, pennyless, stiver-cramped, exhausted.
sees
The eyes. See DAYLIGHTS.
sell
A deception, or disappointment; also a lying joke.
send
To drive or break in. Hand down the Jemmy and send it in; apply the crow to the door, and drive it in.
seraglio
A bawdy-house; the name of that part of the Great Turk's palace where the women are kept.
served
Found guilty. Convicted. Ordered to be punished or transported. To serve a cull out; to beat a man soundly.
set
A dead set: a concerted scheme to defraud a person by gaming.
set-to
A sparring match, a fight; "a DEAD SET" is a determined opposition in argument, or in movement.
setter
A bailiff's follower, who, like a setting dog follows and points the game for his master. Also sometimes an exciseman.
setter
Sevenpence. Italian, SETTE. See SALTEE.—Lingua Franca.
setting jewels
Taking the best portions of a clever book not much known to the general public, and incorporating them quietly with a new work by a thoroughly original author. The credit of this term belongs to Mr. Charles Reade, who explained that the process is accountable for the presence of some writing by one Jonathan Swift, in a story published at Christmas, 1872, and called The Wandering Heir.
settle
To kill, ruin, or effectually quiet a person.
settled
Transported, or sent to penal servitude for life; sometimes spoken of as WINDED-SETTLED.