cracking tools
Implements of house-breaking, such as a crow, a center bit, false keys, &c.
English · UK & Ireland 17968
All languages English Tiếng Việt
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.
crackle
Or CRACKLING, the scored rind on a roast leg or loin of pork; hence applied to the velvet bars on the gowns of the students at St. John’s College, Cambridge, long called "Hogs," and the covered bridge which connects one of the courts with the grounds, Isthmus of Suez (SUES, Lat. SUS, a swine).
crackmans
Hedges. The cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw; the man thought to have escaped by breaking through the hedge, but we brought him back by a great blow on the head, which laid him speechless.
cracksman
A house-breaker. The kiddy is a clever cracksman; the young fellow is a very expert house-breaker.
cracksman
A burglar, i.e., the man who CRACKS.
cram
To lie or deceive, implying to fill up or CRAM a person with false stories; to impart or acquire learning quickly, to "grind" or prepare for an examination.
crammer
One skilled in rapidly preparing others for an examination. One in the habit of telling lies.
cramp rings
Bolts, shackles, or fetters. CANT.
cramp words
Sentence of death passed on a criminal by a judge. He has just undergone the cramp word; sentence has just been passed on him. CANT.
crank
Gin and water; also, brisk, pert.
cranky
Foolish, idiotic, rickety, capricious (not confined to persons). Ancient cant, CRANKE, simulated sickness. German, KRANK, sickly. A CRANK or CRANKY vessel is one which pitches very much.
crap
To ease oneself by evacuation.
crapping case
Or KEN, the water-closet. Generally called CRAPPING-CASTLE.
craw thumper
A Roman Catholic. Compare BRISKET-BEATER.
craw thumpers
Roman catholics, so called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their sins. See BRISKET BEATER, and BREAST FLEET.
crawler
A mean, contemptible, sycophantic fellow. Also a cab which is driven slowly along while its driver looks out for a fare. Crawling is by recent statute a punishable offence.
crawly mawly
In an ailing, weakly, or sickly state.
cream of the valley
gin
cream-pot love
Such as young fellows pretend to dairymaids, to get cream and other good things from them.
creepers
Gentlemen's companions, lice.
crew
A knot or gang; also a boat or ship's company. The canting crew are thus divided into twenty-three orders, which see under the different words:
crib
A house. To crack a crib: to break open a house.
crib
House, public or otherwise; lodgings, apartments; a situation. Very general in the latter sense.
crib biter
An inveterate grumbler; properly said of a horse which has this habit, a sign of its bad digestion.
cribbage-faced
Marked with the small pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a cribbage-board.
cribbage-faced
Marked with the small-pox, full of holes like a cribbage-board. Otherwise crumpet-face.
crikey
Profane exclamation of astonishment; "Oh, CRIKEY, you don’t say so!" corruption of "O Christ!" Sometimes varied by "O crimes!"
crim
CON. MONEY. Damages directed by a jury to be paid by a convicted adulterer to the injured husband, for criminal conversation with his wife.
crimp
A broker or factor, as a coal crimp, who disposes of the cargoes of the Newcastle coal ships; also persons employed to trapan or kidnap recruits for the East Indian and African companies. To crimp, or play crimp; to play foul or booty: also a cruel manner of cutting up fish alive, practised by the London fishmongers, in order to make it eat firm; cod, and other crimped fish, being a favourite dish among voluptuaries and epicures.
crinkum crankum
A woman's commodity. See SPECTATOR.
crinkums
The foul or venereal disease.
cripple
Sixpence; that piece being commonly much bent and distorted.
cripple
An awkward or clumsy person. Also one of dull wits.
crispin's holiday
Every Monday throughout the year, but most particularly the 25th of October, being the anniversary of Crispinus and Crispianus.
croak
To die—from the gurgling sound a person makes when the breath of life is departing.
croaker
One who is always foretelling some accident or misfortune: an allusion to the croaking of a raven, supposed ominous.
croaker
One who takes a desponding view of everything, a misanthrope; an alarmist. From the croaking of a raven.—Ben Jonson.
croakers
Forestallers, called also Kidders and Tranters.
croaks
Last dying speeches, and murderers’ confessions.
croakumshire
Northumberland, from the particular croaking the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter r.
crocodile's tears
The tears of a hypocrite. Crocodiles are fabulously reported to shed tears over their prey before they devour it.
crocus
Or CROAKUS, a quack or travelling doctor; CROCUS-CHOVEY, a chemist’s shop.
croker
A groat, or four pence.
crone
An old ewe whose teeth are worn out; figuratively, a toothless old beldam.
crone
A termagant or malicious old woman. CRONY, an intimate friend.
crony
An intimate companion, a comrade; also a confederate in a robbery.
crook back
Sixpence; for the reason of this name, see CRIPPLE.
crook shanks
A nickname for a man with bandy legs. He buys his boots in Crooked Lane, and his stockings in Bandy-legged Walk; his legs grew in the night, therefore could not see to grow straight; jeering sayings of men with crooked legs.
crooked
A term used among dog-stealers and the "fancy" generally, to denote anything stolen. "Got on the CROOK" is exchangeable with "Got on the cross," CROOK and cross generally being synonymous.
crooky
To hang on to, to lead, to walk arm-in-arm; to court or pay addresses to a girl.
crop
A nick name for a presbyterian: from their cropping their hair, which they trimmed close to a bowl-dish, placed as a guide on their heads; whence they were likewise called roundheads. See ROUNDHEADS.
crop up
To turn up in the course of conversation. "It CROPPED UP while we were speaking."
cropped
Hanged. Sometimes topped. "May I be topped."
croppen
The tail. The croppen of the rotan; the tail of the cart. Croppen ken: the necessary-house. CANT.
cropper
A heavy fall, a decided failure. Term originally used in the hunting-field, but now general, and not at all confined to physical matters.
croppie
A person who has had his hair cut, or CROPPED, in prison. Formerly those who had been CROPPED (i.e., had their ears cut off and their noses slit) by the public executioner were called CROPPIES, then the Puritans received the reversion of the title.
cropping drums
Drummers of the foot guards, or Chelsea hospital, who find out weddings, and beat a point of war to serenade the new married couple, and thereby obtain money.
cropsick
Sickness in the stomach, arising from drunkenness.
cross
To come home by weeping cross; to repent at the conclusion.
cross
A deception—two persons pretending hostility or indifference to each other, being all the while in concert for the purpose of deceiving a third. In the sporting world a CROSS is an arrangement made between two men that one shall win without reference to relative merits. This is sometimes done with the backer’s consent for the public benefit, at other times a backer is himself the sufferer, the men having "put some one in to lay," according to instructions.—See DOUBLE CROSS.
Advertisement
Ad space — ads help keep Idiomer free. Premium will remove them.