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

DEUCE, twopence; DEUCE at cards or dice, one with two pips or holes.

DEVIL, a printer’s youngest apprentice, an errand boy.

DEVIL-DODGERS, clergymen; also people who go sometimes to church and sometimes to meeting.

DEVIL’S-TEETH, dice.

DEVOTIONAL HABITS, horses weak in the knees and apt to stumble and fall are said to have these.—Stable.

DEWSKITCH, a good thrashing.

DIBBS, money; so called from the huckle bones of sheep, which have been used from the earliest times for gambling purposes, being thrown up five at a time and caught on the back of the hand like halfpence.

DICKEY, bad, sorry, or foolish; food or lodging is pronounced DICKEY when of a poor description; “it’s all DICKEY with him,” i.e., all over with him.

DICKEY, formerly the cant for a worn out shirt, but means now-a-days a front or half-shirt. Dickey was originally TOMMY (from the Greek, τομη, a section), a name which I understand was formerly used in Trinity College, Dublin. The students are said to have invented the term, and the Gyps changed it to DICKEY, in which dress it is supposed to have been imported into England.

DICKEY, a donkey.