gorge
To eat in a ravenous manner. "Rotten GORGERS" are those hungry lads who hang about Covent Garden Market, and devour the discarded fruit.
English · UK & Ireland 17968
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
gorger
A gentleman. A well dressed man. Mung kiddey. Mung the gorger; beg child beg, of the gentleman.
gorger
A swell, a well-dressed, or gorgeous man—probably derived from the latter adjective. Sometimes used to denote an employer, or principal, as the manager of a theatre.
gormagon
A monster with six eyes, three mouths, four arms, eight legs, live on one side and three on the other, three arses, two tarses, and a *** upon its back; a man on horseback, with a woman behind him.
gormed
A Norfolk corruption of a profane oath. So used by Mr. Peggotty in David Copperfield.
gospel shop
A church.
goss
A hat—from the gossamer silk of which modern hats are made.
gotch-gutted
Pot bellied: a gotch in Norfolk signifying a pitcher, or large round jug.
goth
An uncultivated person. One who is ignorant of the ways of society.
government sign-post
The gallows. This is necessarily almost obsolete.
governor
A father, a master or superior person, an elder; "which way, GUV’NER, to Cheapside?"
gowler
A dog.—North Country Cant. Query, GROWLER.
gownsman
A student at one of the universities, as distinguished from a TOWNSMAN.
grab
To clutch, or seize; GRABBED, caught, apprehended.
graft
Work; "where are you GRAFTING?" i.e., where do you work? "What GRAFT are you at?" what are you doing? Perhaps derived from gardening phraseology; or a variation of craft.
grafted
Cuckolded, i.e. having horns grafted on his head.
grannum's gold
Hoarded money: supposed to have belonged to the grandmother of the possessor.
granny
An abbreviation of grandmother; also the name of an idiot, famous for licking, her eye, who died Nov. 14, 1719. Go teach your granny to suck eggs; said to such as would instruct any one in a matter he knows better than themselves.
granny
A knot which will not hold, from its being wrongly and clumsily tied.—Sea.
grapple the rails
A cant name used in Ireland for whiskey.
grass
"gone to GRASS," dead,—a coarse allusion to burial; absconded, or disappeared suddenly; also, gone to waste; it is said of wasted limbs that they have "gone to GRASS;" "oh, go to GRASS," a common answer to a troublesome or inquisitive person,—possibly a corruption of "go to GRACE," meaning, of course, a directly opposite fate.
grass widow
An unmarried mother; a deserted mistress. In the United States, during the gold fever in California, it was common for an adventurer to put both his wife (termed in his absence a GRASS-WIDOW) and his children to school during his absence. Also a married woman, resident in England, whose husband is in India or the colonies.
grass-comber
A country fellow, a haymaker.
grasshopper
A waiter at a tea-garden.
grave digger
Like a grave digger; up to the a-se in business, and don't know which way to turn.
gravel
To confound, to bother; "I’m GRAVELLED," i.e., perplexed or confused.—Old. Also, to prostrate, to beat to the ground.
gravel-rash
A scratched face,—telling its tale of a drunken fall. A person subject to this is called a GRAVEL-GRINDER.
gravesend sweetmeats
Shrimps. GRAVESEND TWINS are solid particles of sewage.
gravy-eyed
Blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a running humour.
gray
A halfpenny, with either two "heads" or two "tails"—both sides alike. They are used for cheating the unwary at "Tommy Dodd," or pitch and toss. They are often "rung in" with a victim’s own money, so that the caller of "heads" or "tails" cannot lose. Thus if A has to call, he or a confederate manages to mix the selected GRAYS with B’s tossing halfpence. There are various and almost obvious uses for them.
gray mare
A wife who "wears the breeches." From an old story in which the point is to show that the "GRAY MARE," the wife’s choice, "is the better horse," and by parity of reasoning that the wife is superior to the husband.
gray-coat parson
A lay impropriator, or lessee of great tithes.
grays
Or SCOTCH GRAYS, lice. These pretty little things are called by many names, among others by those of GRAY-BACKS, and GOLD-BACKED UNS, which are popular among those who have most interest in the matter.
grease spot
A minute remnant, humorously the only distinguishable remains of an antagonist after a terrific contest.
greasing
Bribing. Sometimes called "GREASING the palm" of a man’s hand.
great intimate
As great as shirt and shitten a-se.
grecian bend
Modern milliner slang for an exaggerated bustle, the effect of which is generally assisted by unnaturally high-heeled boots.
greedy guts
A covetous or voracious person.
greek
St. Giles's Greek; the slang lingo, cant, or gibberish.
greek
A wide-awake fellow, a sharper.
greek kalends
An expression signifying an indefinite period; never. Term used in making promises never intended to be carried out. The Greeks had no KALENDS.
green
Doctor Green; i.e. grass: a physician, or rather medicine, found very successful in curing most disorders to which horses are liable. My horse is not well, I shall send him to Doctor Green.
green
Ignorant, not wide-awake, inexperienced.—Shakspeare. "Do you see any GREEN in my eye?" ironical question in a dispute.
green bag
An attorney: those gentlemen carry their clients' deeds in a green bag; and, it is said, when they have no deeds to carry, frequently fill them with an old pair of breeches, or any other trumpery, to give themselves the appearance of business.
green gown
To give a girl a green gown; to tumble her on the grass.
green sickness
The disease of maids occasioned by celibacy.
green-horn
A fresh, simple, or uninitiated person.
greenbacks
The paper money issued in the United States during the war. The term was at first applied only to the notes for small amounts, which were backed with green, but eventually the one word represented all descriptions of what is now known in America as "currency."
greene’s
(Robert) Notable Discovery of Coosnage, now daily practised by sundry lewd persons called Conie-catchers and Crosse-biters. Plainly laying open those pernitious sleights that hath brought many ignorant men to confusion. Written for the general benefit of all Gentlemen, Citizens, Apprentices, Country Farmers, and Yeomen, that may hap to fall into the company of such coosening companions. With a delightful discourse of the coosnage of Colliers, 4to, with woodcuts. Printed by John Wolfe, 1591.
greenhead
An inexperienced young man.
greenhorn
A novice on the town, an undebauched young fellow, just initiated into the society of bucks and bloods.
greenlander
An inexperienced person, a spoon. Sometimes an Irishman.
greenwich barbers
Retailers of sand from the pits at and about Greenwich, in Kent: perhaps they are styled barbers, from their constant shaving the sandbanks.
gregorian tree
The gallows: so named from Gregory Brandon, a famous finisher of the law; to whom Sir William Segar, garter king of arms (being imposed on by Brooke, a herald), granted a coat of arms.
grey beard
Earthen jugs formerly used in public house for drawing ale: they had the figure of a man with a large beard stamped on them; whence probably they took the name: see BEN JONSON'S PLAYS, BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, &c. &c. Dutch earthen jugs, used for smuggling gin on the coasts of Essex and Suffolk, are at this time called grey beards.
grey mare
The grey mare is the better horse; said of a woman who governs her husband.
grey parson
A farmer who rents the tithes of the rector or vicar.
griddler
A person who sings in the streets without a printed copy of the words.—Seven Dials.
gridiron
A County Court summons. Originally a summons to the Court of Westminster only; from the GRIDIRON arms. The Grafton Club is nearly always known as the GRID or GRIDIRON, that instrument being brought into requisition whenever possible in the cuisine.
gridiron and dough boys
The flag of the United States, in allusion to the stars and stripes.—Sea.
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