B
BABY PAPS. Caps.
BACONNING. A fat round face; a full pale face.
BADGER. A panel thief; a fellow who robs a man's pocket after he has been enticed into bed with a woman; to torment.
BAG OF NAILS. Every thing in confusion.
BAGGED. Imprisoned.
BALL. Prison allowance.
BALLUM-RANCUM. A ball where all the dancers are thieves and prostitutes.
BALSAM. Money.
BAM. A lie; to bamboozle; humbug.
BANDERO. A widow's weeds.
BANDOG. A civil officer.
BANGUP. The best; very fine; height of the fashion.
BAPTIZED. Liquor that has been watered.
BARDY. A sixpence.
BARKER. One who patrols the streets for customers in front of his employer's shop; vide Chatham street.
BARKING. Shooting.
BARKING-IRONS. Pistols.
BARNACLES. A good booty; a pair of spectacles; hand-cuffs.
BARREL FEVER. Delirium tremens.
BASTER. A house-thief.
BAT. A prostitute who walks the streets only at night.
BAZAAR. A counter.
BEAK. A magistrate; a judge.
BEAKQUERE. A sharp, strict magistrate who is attentive to his duty.
BEANS. Five-dollar gold-pieces.
BEAT. Get the best of him; "Beat the flat;" rob the man.
BEATER-CASES.}
BEATERS. } Boots.
BEAU-TRAPS. Well-dressed sharpers; fortune-hunters.
BELCHER TIE. A flashy neckerchief.
BEN. A vest.
BENDER. A spree; a drunken frolic.
BENE. Good; first rate.
BENE-BOUSE. Good drink.
BENE-COVE. A good man.
BENE-CULL. A good fellow.
BENE-DARKMAN. Good night.
BENEN-COVE. A better man.
BENFLAKE. A cheap beef-steak.
BENISON. A blessing.
BENJAMIN. A coat.
BENS. Fools.
BESS. A pick of a very simple construction.
BETTING HIS EYES. A term used by gamblers when a "sucker" looks on at the game, but does not bet.
BETTY. A picklock.
BEVER. An afternoon lunch.
BIENLY. Excellently, "She coaxed so bienly."
BIG THING. A rich booty.
BILBOA. A pointed instrument.
BILK. To cheat.
BILL OF SALE. A widow's weeds.
BILLY. A piece of whalebone or rawhide about fourteen inches long, with an oval-shaped lump of lead at each end, one larger than the other, the whole being covered with buckskin or india-rubber.
BILLY BUTTER. Mutton.
BILLY NOODLE. A soft fellow that believes the girls are all in love with him.
BINGAVAST. Get you gone, "Bing we to New-York;" go we to New-York.
BINGO. Liquor.
BINGO-BOY. A drunken man.
BINGO-MORT. A drunken woman.
BIRDLIME. Time. Time arrests and reveals all things.
BIRTHDAY SUIT. Stark naked.
BIT. Out-witted, "The cove was bit;" "The cove has bit the flat, and pinched his cole," outwitted and robbed him.
BIT. Done; sentenced; convicted.
BITE. To steal; to rob.
BLACK ACT. Picking locks.
BLACK COVE-DUBBER. A turn-key; a prison keeper.
BLACK FRIARS. Look out.
BLACK OINTMENT. Raw meat.
BLACK SPY. The devil.
BLACK-BOX. A lawyer.
BLACKLEG. A gambler.
BLARNEY. A picklock.
BLEAK. Handsome; "The Moll is bleak," the girl is handsome.
BLEAK-MORT. A pretty girl.
BLEATING RIG. Sheep-stealing.
BLEED. To compel a person to give money under threat of exposure.
BLINK. Not to see when one may. "The copper blinks, and won't drop to me," i. e. the officer pretends not to see me; the officer looks another way. To go to sleep.
BLOCK-HOUSE. A prison.
BLOKE. A man.
BLOSS. Woman; mistress; girl.
BLOTTED. Written.
BLOW. To inform.
BLOW A CLOUD. Smoke a segar or pipe.
BLOWEN. The mistress of a thief. "The blowen kidded the bloke into a panel crib, and shook him of his honey and thimble," i. e. the girl enticed the man into a thieving-house, and robbed him of his watch and money.
BLUDGEONER. A fellow who passes off some well-dressed woman as his wife. She goes out in search of a gallant, and entices her victim into some unfrequented place. The bludgeoner waits outside until she gives him a signal that the man is robbed, when he rushes in with a knife, pistol, or club, and accuses the man with having seduced his wife. The poor fool gets away as fast as possible, and does not know that he is robbed.
BLUDGET. A female thief who decoys her victims into alley-ways, or other dark places, for the purpose of robbing them.
BLUE-BILLY. A peculiar handkerchief.
BLUE-PIGEON-FLYING. Stealing lead off the tops of houses.
BLUE-PLUM. A bullet; "Surfeit the bloke with blue-plum," shoot him.
BLUE-RUIN. Bad gin.
BLUFFER. The landlord of a hotel.
BLUNDERBUSS. An ignorant, blustering fellow.
BLUNT. Money.
BOARDING-HOUSE. City prison; the Tombs.
BOARDING-SCHOOL. Penitentiary.
BOAT. "To boat with another;" to go in with him; to be his partner in the same boat—in the same scrape.
BOATED. Transported; gone to sea.
BOB. The fellow that carries off the plunder; a shop-lifter; a cover or staller.
BOB MY PAL. My girl.
BOB-CULL. A good fellow.
BOBBIE. A policeman.
BODY-COVER. A coat.
BOGUS. Bad coin; false.
BOKE. The nose.
BOLT. Run away.
BONE. To take; to steal; to ask him for it.
BONEBOX. The mouth.
BONED. Arrested; taken; carried off.
BONESETTER. A hard-riding horse.
BONNET. Hat. "Bonnet him," knock his hat down over his eyes.
BONNETTER. One who entices another to play; or the fellow who takes the "flat" in hand after the "roper in" has introduced him to the house.
BOOBY-HATCH. Station-house; watch-house.
BOODLE. A quantity of bad money.
BOODLE-CARRIER. The man who carries the bulk of the counterfeit money that is to be passed. The person who passes, or shoves it, as it is called, having but one "piece" at a time. The fellow with the boodle keeps close in the wake of the shover, to receive the good money, and supply him with the counterfeit, as occasion requires.
BOOKED. Arrested.
BOOLY-DOG. An officer; a policeman.
BOOSING-KEN. A drinking-shop.
BOOTH. A place in which thieves congregate.
BORDELLO. A house of ill-fame.
BOSHING. A flogging.
BOTS. Boots.
BOTTLE-HEAD. A stupid fellow.
BOUNCE. To scold; blow up; to swagger; to convince by the force of sound more than sense.
BOUNCER. A fellow that robs while bargaining with the store-keeper.
BOUNCING CHEAT. A bottle.
BOUNG. A purse.
BOWER. A prison.
BOWSPRIT IN PARENTHESIS. A pulled nose.
BRACKET-MUG. A very ugly face.
BRADS. Money.
BRAG. To boast.
BRASS. Money.
BREAD-BAG. The stomach.
BREAK-'O-DAY DRUM. A place for the sale of liquor, that never closes day or night.
BREAKUPS. Steamboat-landings; dispersing of people from theatres, lecture-rooms, churches, etc.
BRIEF. Duplicate.
BROAD PITCHING. The game of three-card monte.
BROADS. Cards.
BROADY. Materials of any kind.
BROKEN LEG. A woman that has had a child out of marriage.
BROTHER OF THE BLADE. A soldier.
BROTHER OF THE BOLUS. A doctor.
BROTHER OF THE BUNG. A brewer.
BROTHER OF THE BUSKIN. An actor.
BROTHER OF THE COIF. A counsellor-at-law.
BROTHER OF THE GUSSET. A pimp.
BROTHER OF THE QUILL. An author; an editor.
BROTHER OF THE STRING. Fiddler, or musician.
BROTHER OF THE SURPLICE. A minister.
BROTHER OF THE WHIP. A coachman.
BRUISER. A fighter.
BRUSH. To flatter; to humbug; an encounter. "It was the hardest brush I ever saw; both men were as game as pebbles. It was nothing but cut, carve, and come again."
BRUSHER. A full glass.
BRUSHING UP A FLAT. Praising or flattering.
BUBB. To drink; "Bubb your lush," drink your grog.
BUBBLE. To cheat.
BUCK. A hack-driver; bail.
BUCKET. A live man.
BUCKLER. A collar.
BUCKS-FACE. A cuckold.
BUDGE. A thief that sneaks into a store, and hides until the persons who lock up are gone, when he lets in his accomplice.
BUFE. A dog.
BUFE-NAPPER. A dog-thief; a mean rogue.
BUFFER. A pugilist.
BUFFET. A false swearer.
BUFFING IT HOME. Swearing point blank to a circumstance or thing.
BUG. A breast-pin.
BUGABOSE. Sheriff's officers.
BUGAROCH. Handsome; very pretty.
BUGGER. A pickpocket; a buggsman.
BUGGING. Taking money from a thief by a policeman.
BULK AND FILE. Shop-lifters; two pickpockets operating together—the "bulk" jostles the party that is to be robbed, and the "file" steals the treasure.
BULL. A locomotive.
BULL-DOGS. Pistols.
BULL-TRAPS. Rogues who personate officers for the purpose of extorting money.
BULLY. A lump of lead tied in a corner of a kerchief.
BULLY TIMES. Good times.
BUMY-JUICE. Porter or beer.
BUN. A fellow that can not be shaken off.
BUNG. A purse or pocket.
BURNERS. Rogues who cheat countrymen with false cards or dice.
BURNING. Cheating.
BURNT OUT. Worn-out roués; fellows that sorrow for the past, fear the future, and can only make the present endurable through means that are revolting to human reason.
BURST. The conclusion of an entertainment; a spree.
BURSTER. A burglar. Sometimes it denotes bread.
BUS-NAPPER. A constable.
BUST. To enter forcibly; a burglary.
BUSTLED. Confused; perplexed; puzzled.
BUTTEKER. A store.
BUTTER-KEN. A shop or store.
BUTTERED. Whipped.
BUTTON. To secure; to entice a simpleton to play.
BUZZING. Searching for. "I was in a push and had to buzz about half a glass before I touched a flat's thimble and slang. I fenced the swag for half a century"—"I was in a crowd and searched for half an hour before I succeeded in stealing a man's watch and chain, which I sold for fifty dollars."