A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words / Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James.

by John Camden Hotten

GHOST, “the GHOST does’nt

walk,” i.e., the manager is too poor to pay salaries as yet.—Theat.; Ho. Words, No. 183.

GIB-FACE, properly the lower lip of a horse; “TO HANG ONE’S GIB,” to pout the lower lip, be angry or sullen.

GIBBERISH, unmeaning jargon; the language of the Gipseys, synonymous with SLANG, another Gipsey word. Somner says, “French, GABBER; Dutch, GABBEREN; and our own GAB, GABBER; hence also, I take it, our GIBBERISH, a kind of canting language used by a sort of rogues we vulgarly call Gipseys, a gibble gabble understood only among themselves.”—Gipsey. See Introduction.

GIFFLE GAFFLE, nonsense.—See [CHAFF]. Icelandic, GAFLA.

GIFT, any article which has been stolen and afterwards sold at a low price.

GIG, a farthing. Formerly, GRIG.

GIG, fun, frolic, a spree.

“In search of lark, or some delicious gig,

The mind delights on, when ’tis in prime twig.”