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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
Or COOLIE, a soldier. The former was originally applied to a discharged soldier, and perhaps came from SHODDY, which is made from soldiers’ and policemen’s worn-out coats. The term was one of opprobrium, and was probably the result of a long peace, for it became obsolete as soon as the Crimean War commenced.
A shop. Any quantity of goods. As, plant the swag; conceal the goods. Rum swag; a shop full of rich goods. CANT.
A lot or plenty of anything, a portion or division of property. In Australia the term is used for the luggage carried by diggers. Scotch, SWEG, or SWACK; German, SWEIG, a flock. Old cant for a shop.
A warehouse where "Brummagem" and general wares, fancy trinkets, plated goods, &c., are sold. Jews are the general proprietors; and the goods are very low-priced, trashy, and showy. SWAG-SHOPS were formerly plunder depôts.—Old Cant.
To bully, brag, or boast, also to strut.
One who carries the booty after a burglary.
To boast or "gas" unduly.
Cheap or small beer. Any weak fermented beverage.
He keeps a swannery; i.e. all his geese are swans.
To exchange. Grose says it is Irish cant, but the term is now included in most dictionaries as an allowed vulgarism.
A boiled leg of mutton and trimmings. Sam Weller’s adventure with the Bath footmen originated the term. See TRIMMINGS.
The master of a Punch-and-Judy exhibition who "fakes the slum," and does the necessary squeak for the amusement of the bystanders. See SCHWASSLE BOX. The orthography of many of these colloquial expressions differs. It was thought best to give the various renderings as collected.
To extract money from a person, to "bleed." Also, to squander riches.—Bulwer.
Common term for a "cutting" or "grinding" employer,—one who SWEATS his workpeople. A cheap tailor, who pays starvation wages.
A mode of diminishing the gold coin, practiced chiefly by the Jews, who corrode it with aqua regia. Sweating was also a diversion practised by the bloods of the last century, who styled themselves Mohocks: these gentlemen lay in wait to surprise some person late in the night, when surrounding him, they with their swords pricked him in the posteriors, which obliged him to be constantly turning round; this they continued till they thought him sufficiently sweated.
A contemptuous term for a low or shabby man.
Easy to be imposed on, or taken in; also expert, dexterous clever. Sweet's your hand; said of one dexterous at stealing.
Loving or fond; "how SWEET he was upon the moll," i.e., what marked attention he paid the girl.
A term applicable to either the masculine or feminine gender, signifying a girl's lover, or a man's mistress: derived from a sweet cake in the shape of a heart.
A person who runs up the prices of articles at an auction. See JOLLYING, BONNET, &c.
Guinea droppers, cheats, sharpers. To sweeten to decoy, or draw in. To be sweet upon; to coax, wheedle, court, or allure. He seemed sweet upon that wench; he seemed to court that girl.
A gentleman. A well-dressed map. The flashman bounced the swell of all his blunt; the girl's bully frightened the gentleman out of all his money.
A man of importance; a person with a showy, jaunty exterior, "a rank SWELL," a very flashily dressed person, a man who by excessive dress apes a higher position than he actually occupies. Any one occupying a superior position in society is by the mob called a SWELL. Anything is said to be SWELL or SWELLISH that looks showy, or is many coloured, or is of a desirable quality.
Said of a showy man in the habit of wearing much jewellery.
A disorder to which horses are extremely liable, particularly those of the subalterns of the army. This disorder is generally occasioned by remaining too long in one livery-stable or inn, and often arises to that height that it prevents their coming out at the stable door. The most certain cure is the unguentum aureum--not applied to the horse, but to the palm of the master of the inn or stable. N. B.
Coarser pieces abound in vulgarities and Slang expressions.
A hearty draught of liquor.
To drink. Saxon, SWIGAN.
Thieves who travel the country under colour of buying old shoes, old clothes, &c. or selling brooms, mops, &c. CANT.
To drink inordinately. SWILL, hog-wash. From which the verb has possibly been derived.—Norfolk.
"a good SWIM," a good run of luck, a long time out of the policeman’s clutches.—Thieves’ term. Among anglers "a good SWIM" is a good pitch for a part where fish are plentiful—that is, because a lot of fish keeping together are called a SWIM. Thus one who is in luck, is well connected, or is doing a good business, is said to be in a good SWIM.
A counterfeit old coin.
One who obtains goods on credit by false pretences, and sells them for ready money at any price, in order to make up a purse. This name is derived from the German word SCHWINDLIN, to totter, to be ready to fall; these arts being generally practised by persons on the totter, or just ready to break. The term SWINDLER has since been used to signify cheats of every kind.
Although a recognised word in standard dictionaries, commenced service as a slang term. It was used as such by the poor Londoners against the German Jews who set up in London about the year 1762, also by our soldiers in the German war about that time. SCHWINDELN, in German, signifies to cheat.
To have one’s SWING is to have a full turn at anything.
Large, huge, powerful. As a SWINGEING blow, SWINGEING damages, &c.
A great swinging fellow; a great stout fellow. A swinging lie; a lusty lie.
At cricket, to hit hard with a full swing of the bat. Most probably a condensation of "wipe swingeing" or "swinging wipe."
Purser's swipes; small beer: so termed on board the king's ships, where it is furnished by the purser.
Sour or small beer. SWIPE, to drink.—Sea.
(from SWIPES), intoxicated.
To flog, derived perhaps from the sound. Maybe, a corruption of SWITCH.
A pheasant; so called by the persons who sell game for the poachers.
Or SWITCHED, married.
Drink, or any brisk or windy liquor. In North America, a mixture of spruce beer, rum, and sugar, was so called. The 17th regiment had a society called the Swizzle Club, at Ticonderoga, A. D. 1760.
To enlist in different regiments, and on receiving the bounty to desert immediately.
Mathematics; also, a mathematician; as a verb, to work hard for an examination, to be diligent in one’s studies.—Army.
A groom.—Anglo-Indian.
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.
Forbidden. This word, now very common, is derived from a custom of the South-Sea islanders, first noticed in Cook’s Voyages.
Silence, hold your tongue. TACE is Latin for a candle; a jocular admonition to be silent on any subject.
A taste foreign to what was intended; a barrel may get a TACK upon it, either permanently mouldy, sour, or otherwise.
Tied down. When a man has another vanquished, or for certain reasons bound to his service, he is said to have "got him TACKED."
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.
Clothes.—Sea. Also to encounter a person in argument.
Fat. A TAF ENO is a fat man or woman, literally A FAT ONE.
(corruption of David), a Welshman. Compare Sawney (from Alexander), a Scotchman; Paddy (from Patrick), an Irishman; and Johnny (from John Bull), an Englishman.
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.
A mixed crowd of low people, the lower orders generally.
A prostitute. Also, a sword.