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

STOTOR, a heavy blow, a SETTLER.—Old cant.

STOW, to leave off, or have done; “STOW IT, the gorger’s leary,” leave off, the person is looking. See [STASH], with which it is synonymous.—Ancient cant.

STOW FAKING! leave off there, be quiet! FAKING implying anything that may be going on.

STRAW. Married ladies are said to be “in THE STRAW” at their accouchements. The phrase is a coarse allusion to farm-yard animals in a similar condition.

STRAWING, selling straws in the streets (generally for a penny) and giving the purchaser a paper (indecent or political), or a gold (!) ring,—neither of which the patterer states he is allowed to sell.

STREAK, to decamp, run away.—Saxon. In America the phrase is “to make STREAKS,” or “make TRACKS.”

STREAKY, irritated, ill-tempered.

STREET PITCHERS, negro minstrels, ballad singers, long song men, men “working a board” on which have been painted various exciting scenes in some terrible drama, the details of which the STREET PITCHER is bawling out, and selling in a little book or broadsheet (price one penny); or any persons who make a stand in the streets, and sell articles for their living.

STRETCH, abbreviation of “STRETCH one’s neck,” to hang, be executed as a malefactor.—Bulwer’s Paul Clifford.

STRETCH, twelve months,—generally used to intimate the time any one has been sentenced by the judge or magistrate. One stretch is to be imprisoned twelve months, TWO STRETCH is two years, THREE STRETCH is three years, and so on.