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

WHOP-STRAW, cant name for a countryman; Johnny Whop-straw, in allusion to threshing.

WHOPPER, a big one, a lie.

WIDDLE, to shine.—See [OLIVER].

WIDE-AWAKE, a broad-brimmed felt, or stuff hat,—so called because it never had a nap, and never wants one.

WIDO, wide awake, no fool.

WIFE, a fetter fixed to one leg.—Prison.

WIFFLE-WOFFLES, in the dumps, sorrow, stomach ache.

WIGGING, a rebuke before comrades. If the head of a firm calls a clerk into the parlour, and rebukes him, it is an earwigging; if done before the other clerks, it is a WIGGING.

WILD, a village.—Tramps’ term.—See [VILE].

WILD, vexed, cross, passionate. In the United States the word mad is supplemented with a vulgar meaning similar to our Cockneyism, WILD; and to make a man MAD on the other side of the Atlantic is to vex him, or “rile” his temper—not to render him a raving maniac, or a fit subject for Bedlam.