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

RATTLERS, a railway; “on the RATTLERS to the stretchers,” i.e., going to the races by railway.

RAW, uninitiated; a novice.—Old. Frequently a JOHNNY RAW.

RAW, a tender point, a foible; “to touch a man up on the RAW” is to irritate one by alluding to, or joking him on, anything on which he is peculiarly susceptible or “thin-skinned.”

READER, a pocket-book; “give it him for his READER,” i.e., rob him of his pocket-book.—Old cant.

READY, or READY GILT (properly GELT), money. Used by Arbuthnot, “Lord Strut was not very flush in READY.”

REAM, good or genuine. From the Old cant, RUM.

REAM-BLOAK, a good man.

RECENT INCISION, the busy thoroughfare on the Surrey side of the Thames, known by sober people as the NEW CUT.

REDGE, gold.

RED HERRING, a soldier.