tabby party
A social meeting of women for tea and gossip.
English · UK & Ireland 1611
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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.
tap the admiral
To steal some liquor from a cask that is in storage or transit.
teach your grandmother to suck eggs
To presume to give advice to someone far more experienced than you.
Ten Commandments
The ten fingernails, used by women when fighting.
tenpence to the shilling
Mentally deficient.
Tib's Eve
A supposed future time that will never arrive.
timber merchant
A match-seller.
tip the double
To bolt; to run away without paying.
Tommy Dodd
The player in the coin-tossing game of odd man out who is the only player to get heads or tails, and thus wins or loses depending on the chosen rule.
Tooley Street tailor
A self-important, vainglorious person.
towzery gang
A group of swindlers who set up fraudulent auctions with shill bidders.
tu quoque
The vulva or vagina.
twelve godfathers
A jury of twelve people.
two-handed game
A game or proposal in which the chances are fairly even; a situation where one will get as good as one gives.
twopenny rope
A rope stretched out in a low doss-house in order to suspend a kind of hammock of sacking on which a person can sleep.
tabby
An old maid; either from Tabitha, a formal antiquated name; or else from a tabby cat, old maids being often compared to cats. To drive Tab; to go out on a party of pleasure with a wife and family.
tabooed
Forbidden. This word, now very common, is derived from a custom of the South-Sea islanders, first noticed in Cook’s Voyages.
tace
Silence, hold your tongue. TACE is Latin for a candle; a jocular admonition to be silent on any subject.
tack
A taste foreign to what was intended; a barrel may get a TACK upon it, either permanently mouldy, sour, or otherwise.
tacked
Tied down. When a man has another vanquished, or for certain reasons bound to his service, he is said to have "got him TACKED."
tackle
A mistress; also good clothes. The cull has tipt his tackle rum gigging; the fellow has given his mistress good clothes. A man's tackle: the genitals.
tackle
Clothes.—Sea. Also to encounter a person in argument.
taf
Fat. A TAF ENO is a fat man or woman, literally A FAT ONE.
taffy
(corruption of David), a Welshman. Compare Sawney (from Alexander), a Scotchman; Paddy (from Patrick), an Irishman; and Johnny (from John Bull), an Englishman.
tag-rag and bobtail
An expression meaning an assemblage of low people, the mobility of all sorts. To tag after one like a tantony pig: to follow one wherever one goes, just as St. Anthony is followed by his pig.
tag-rag-and-bobtail
A mixed crowd of low people, the lower orders generally.
tail
A prostitute. Also, a sword.
tail-buzzer
A thief who picks coat-pockets.
tail-down
"to get the TAIL DOWN," generally means to lose courage. When a professional at any game loses heart in a match he is said to get his TAIL DOWN. "His TAIL was quite DOWN, and it was all over." The origin is obvious.
take in
A cheating or swindling transaction,—sometimes termed "a dead TAKE IN." Shakspeare has TAKE IN in the sense of conquering. To be "had," or to be "spoken to," were formerly synonymous phrases with to be TAKEN IN.
take it out
To obtain value for money, labour, &c. A rich man is said to "TAKE IT (i.e., his money) OUT in fine footmen, fine feeding," &c. A poor man "TAKES IT (i.e., his trouble) OUT in drink."
taken in
Imposed on, cheated.
tale tellers
Persons said to have been formerly hired to tell wonderful stories of giants and fairies, to lull their hearers to sleep. Talesman; the author of a story or report: I'll tell you my tale, and my talesman. Tale bearers; mischief makers, incendiaries in families.
talk shop
To intrude oneself or one’s private business too freely into conversation. Any one who does this is said to be shoppy.
talking
A stable term, of a milder kind, applied to those horses which are addicted to ROARING. See the latter expression.
tall
Extensive, exaggerated,—generally applied to conversation, as "loud" is to dress, or personal appearance; "TALL talk that," i.e., conversation too boastful or high-flown to be true. Among pedestrians a great rate of speed is spoken of as TALL.
tall boy
A bottle, or two-quart pot.
tally
Five dozen bunches of turnips.—Costermongers’ term.
tally men
Brokers that let out clothes to the women of the town. See RABBIT SUCKERS.
tallyman
An accommodating salesman who takes payment by instalments to suit the convenience of the purchaser, but who is anything but accommodating when payments are irregular. TALLYMEN are the cause of much misfortune to the working classes, from their high and exorbitant rates, and the temptations they offer to weak-minded women, who purchase in haste and repent at leisure.
tame
To run tame about a house; to live familiarly in a family with which one is upon a visit. Tame army; the city trained bands.
tan
To beat or thrash; "I’ll TAN your hide," i.e., I’ll give you a good beating.
tandem
A two-wheeled chaise, buggy, or noddy, drawn by two horses, one before the other: that is, AT LENGTH.
tangier
A room in Newgate, where debtors were confined, hence called Tangerines.
tanner
A sixpence. The kiddey tipped the rattling cove a tanner for luck; the lad gave the coachman sixpence for drink.
tanner
A sixpence. Perhaps Gipsy, TAWNO, little, or Latin, TENER, slender.
tanny
Or TEENY, little. Gipsy, TAWNO, little.
tantadlin tart
A sirreverence, human excrement.
tantrems
Pranks, capers, frolicking; from the Tarantula dance. See account of the involuntary frenzy and motions caused by the bite of the tarantula in Italy.—Penny Cyclopædia.
tantrums
Pet, or passion: madam was in her tantrums.
tantrums
Ill-tempers. "He’s in his TANTRUMS this morning," is often said of a peevish, querulous man. They are not peculiar to the one sex, however.
tantwivy
Away they went tantwivy; away they went full speed. Tantwivy was the sound of the hunting horn in full cry, or that of a post horn.
taoc
A coat. "Cool the DELO TAOC" means, "Look at the old coat," but is really intended to apply to the wearer as well, as professors of mixed slangs might say, "Vardy his nibs in the snide bucket."
tap
A gentle blow. A tap on the shoulder;-an-arrest. To tap a girl; to be the first seducer: in allusion to a beer barrel. To tap a guinea; to get it changed.
tap-tub
The Morning Advertiser,—so called by vulgar people from the fact that this daily newspaper is the principal organ of the London brewers and publicans. Sometimes termed the Gin and Gospel Gazette, though this title is fast fading out since the paper has been in the hands of its present editor.
tape
Red tape; brandy. Blue or white tape; gin.
tape
Gin,—term with female servants. Also, a military term used in barracks when no spirits are allowed. See RIBBON.
taper
To give over gradually, to run short.
tappers
Shoulder tappers: bailiffs.
tar
Don't lose a sheep for a halfpennyworth of tar: tar is used to mark sheep. A jack tar; a sailor.