wedge
Silver plate, because melted by the receivers of stolen goods into wedges. CANT.
English · UK & Ireland 745
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
wedge
A Jew. This may look strange, but it is exact back slang.
weed
A cigar; the WEED, tobacco generally.
weeping cross
To come home by weeping cross; to repent.
weight-for-age
A sporting phrase which, applied to a race, distinguishes it from a handicap or catch-weight event, and informs all interested that the animals which run carry according to their ages, and not their abilities. Winners of certain great races generally carry penalties in addition to WEIGHT-FOR-AGE, for the purpose of equalizing matters somewhat; but as a rule the results are fairly foreshadowed as soon as in these races the horses are at the post, or as soon as the starters are positively known.
wejee
A chimney-pot. Often applied to any clever invention, as, "That’s a regular WEJEE."
welch comb
The thumb and four fingers.
welch ejectment
To unroof the house, a method practised by landlords in Wales to eject a bad tenant.
welch fiddle
The itch. See SCOTCH FIDDLE.
welch mile
Like a Welch mile, long and narrow. His story is like a Welch mile, long and tedious.
welcher
A person who makes a bet without the remotest chance of being able to pay, and, losing it, absconds, or "makes himself scarce." In the betting ring a WELCHER is often very severely handled upon his swindling practices being discovered. The Catterick "Clerk of the Course" once provided some stout labourers and a tar-barrel for the special benefit of the WELCHERS who might visit that neighbourhood. The word is modern, but the practice is ancient.
well
To pocket, to save money. Any one of fair income and miserly habits is said to "WELL it."
well-hung
The blowen was nutts upon the kiddey because he is well-hung; the girl is pleased with the youth because his genitals are large.
welt
To thrash with a strap or stick. Probably meaning to raise wheals.
westminster wedding
A match between a whore and a rogue.
wet
To drink. Low people generally ask an acquaintance to WET any recently purchased article, i.e., to stand treat on the occasion. "WET (originally WHET, to sharpen,) your whistle," i.e., take a drink; "WET the other eye," i.e., take another glass. See SHED A TEAR.
wet parson
One who moistens his clay freely, in order to make it stick together.
wet quaker
One of that sect who has no objection to the spirit derived from wine.
wet un
A diseased cow, unfit for human food, but nevertheless sold to make into sausages. Compare STAGGERING-BOB.
whack
A share of a booty obtained by fraud. A paddy whack; a stout brawney Irishman.
whack
A share or lot. "Give me my WHACK," give me my share.—Scotch, SWEG, or SWACK.
whacker
A lie of unusual dimensions, sometimes called a "round un."
whacking
Large, fine, or strong.
whacks
To go WHACKS, to divide equally; to enter into partnership.
whale
"very like a WHALE," said of anything that is very improbable. A speech of Polonius’s in Hamlet.
whapper
A large man or woman.
what d’yecall’em
A similar expression to "thingumy."
wheedle
A sharper. To cut a wheedle; to decoy by fawning or insinuation. Cant.
wheelband in the nick
Regular drinking over the left thumb.
wheeze
A joke, an anecdote, or dialogue, not strictly connected with a piece that is being played, but introduced by an actor, sometimes with the assistance and for the benefit of others. The dialogues which take place between the songs at nigger entertainments are also known as WHEEZES. The word actually means a new notion as applied to dialogue.
whelp
An impudent whelp; a saucy boy.
whereas
To follow a whereas; to become a bankrupt, to figure among princes and potentates: the notice given in the Gazette that a commission of bankruptcy is issued out against any trader, always beginning with the word whereas. He will soon march in the rear of a whereas.
wherret
Or WORRIT, to scold, trouble, or annoy.—Old English.
whet
A morning's draught, commonly white wine, supposed to whet or sharpen the appetite.
whetstone's park
A lane between Holborn and Lincoln's-inn Fields, formerly famed for being the resort of women of the town.
whid
A word. Sometimes, a fib, a falsehood, a word too much.—Modern Slang, from the ancient cant.
whiddle
To enter into a parley, or hesitate with many words, &c.; to inform, or discover. See WHEEDLE.
whiddler
An informer, or one that betrays the secrets of the gang.
whifflers
Ancient name for fifers; also persons at the universities who examine candidates for degrees. A whiffling cur, a small yelping cur.
whiffles
A relaxation of the scrotum.
whim-wham
An alliterative term, synonymous with fiddle-faddle, riff-raff, &c., denoting nonsense, rubbish, &c.
whip
After the usual allowance of wine is drunk at mess, those who wish for more put a shilling each into a glass handed round to procure a further supply. WHIP-ROUND is now a common term for a subscription of a similar kind to that described.
whip jacks
The tenth order of the canting crew, rogues who having learned a few sea terms, beg with counterfeit passes, pretending to be sailors shipwrecked on the neighbouring coast, and on their way to the port from whence they sailed.
whip the cat
to take out frustration on a weaker person
whipjack
A sham shipwrecked sailor, called also a turnpike-sailor.
whipper-snapper
A diminutive fellow.
whipper-snapper
A waspish, diminutive person.
whipster
A sharp or subtle fellow.
whipt syllabub
A flimsy, frothy discourse or treatise, without solidity.
whiskin
A shallow brown drinking bowl.
whisky
A malt spirit much drank in Ireland and Scotland; also a one-horse chaise. See TIM WHISKY.
whisper
A tip given in secret, a rumour which is spread under the pretence of its being a secret. To "give the WHISPER," is to give a quick tip to any one. An owner’s final instruction to his jockey is called "the WHISPER at the post."
whisperer
A constant borrower.
whistle
The throat. To wet one's whistle; to drink.
whistle
"as clean as a WHISTLE," neatly, or "slickly done," as an American would say; "To whet (or more vulgarly wet) one’s WHISTLE," to take a drink. This last is a very old expression. Chaucer says of the Miller of Trumpington’s wife (Canterbury Tales, 4153)—
whistling shop
A shebeen.
whistling-billy
Or PUFFING-BILLY, a locomotive engine.
whistling-shop
A place in which spirits are sold without a licence.
whit
[i. e. Whittington's.] Newgate. Cant.--Five rum-padders are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country.
white eye
Military slang for a very strong and deleterious kind of whisky, so called because its potency is believed to turn the eyes round in the sockets, leaving the whites only visible.