RATS. Of these there are the following kinds: a black rat and a grey rat, a py-rat and a cu-rat.
RATTLE. A dice-box. To rattle; to talk without consideration, also to move off or go away. To rattle one off; to rate or scold him.
RATTLE-PATE. A volatile, unsteady, or whimsical man or
woman.
RATTLE-TRAPS. A contemptuous name for any curious
portable piece of machinery, or philosophical apparatus.
RATTLER. A coach. Rattle and prad; a coach and horses.
RATTLING COVE. A coachman. CANT.
RATTLING MUMPERS. Beggars who ply coaches. CANT.
RAWHEAD AND BLOODY BONES. A bull beggar, or scarechild, with which foolish nurses terrify crying brats.
READER. A pocket-book. CANT.
READER MERCHANTS. Pickpockets, chiefly young Jews, who ply about the Bank to steal the pocket-books of persons who have just received their dividends there.