The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue dates from 1811 and this is probably the only full, uncensored and searchable version of this dictionary on the internet. All the original crudities have been restored and it offers an interesting perspective on Common English from the time of the Regency and Jane Austen.

Select a letter or type a word and click Find. Searches are automatically wild-carded and clicking on words in the first column will look for all occurrences of that word, or related word.

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Entries releated to FREE

 

BANG UP		Quite the thing, hellish fine. Well done. Compleat. Dashing. In a handsome stile. A bang up cove; a dashing fellow who spends his money freely. To bang up prime: to bring your horses up in a dashing or fine style: as the swell's rattler and prads are bang up prime; the gentleman sports an elegant carriage and fine horses.
BAYARD OF TEN TOES		To ride bayard of ten toes, is to walk on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances, BEAK. A justice of-peace, or magistrate. Also a judge or chairman who presides in court. I clapp'd my peepers full of tears, and so the old beak set me free; I began to weep, and the judge set me free.
BLEEDING CULLY		One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely.
BUCK OF THE FIRST HEAD		One who in debauchery surpasses the rest of his companions, a blood or choice spirit. There are in London divers lodges or societies of Bucks, formed in imitation of the Free Masons: one was held at the Rose, in Monkwell-street, about the year 1705. The president is styled the Grand Buck. A buck sometimes signifies a cuckold.
COB, or COBBING		A punishment used by the seamen for petty offences, or irregularities, among themselves: it consists in bastonadoing the offender on the posteriors with a cobbing stick, or pipe staff; the number usually inflicted is a dozen. At the first stroke the executioner repeats the word WATCH, on which all persons present are to take off their hats, on pain of like punishment: the last stroke is always given as hard as possible, and is called THE PURSE. Ashore, among soldiers, where this punishment is sometimes adopted, WATCH and THE PURSE are not included in the number, but given over and above, or, in the vulgar phrase, free gratis for nothing. This piece of discipline is also inflicted in Ireland, by the school-boys, on persons coming into the school without taking off their hats; it is there called school butter.
CORPORATION		The magistrates, etc. of a corporate town. Corpus sine ratione. Freemen of a corporation's work; neither strong nor handsome.
DELLS		Young buxom wenches, ripe and prone to venery, but who have not lost their virginity, which the UPRIGHT MAN claims by virtue of his prerogative; after which they become free for any of the fraternity. Also a common strumpet.
FREE		Free of fumblers hall; a saying of one who cannot get his wife with child.
FREE AND EASY JOHNS		A society which meet at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet-street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.
FREE BOOTERS		Lawless robbers and plunderers: originally soldiers who served without pay, for the privilege of plundering the enemy.
FREEHOLDER		He whose wife accompanies him to the alehouse.
FREEMAN'S QUAY		Free of expence. To lush at Freeman's Quay; to drink at another's cost.
FREEZE		A thin, small, hard cider, much used by vintners and coopers in parting their wines, to lower the price of them, and to advance their gain. A freezing vintner; a vintner who balderdashes his wine.
HUM DRUM		A hum drum fellow; a dull tedious narrator, a bore; also a set of gentlemen, who (Bailey says) used to meet near the Charter House, or at the King's Head in St. John's-street, who had more of pleasantry, and less of mystery, than the free masons.
MILCH COW		One who is easily tricked out of his property; a term used by gaolers, for prisoners who have money and bleed freely.
SCALD MISERABLES		A set of mock masons, who, A.D. 1744, made a ludicrous procession in ridicule of the Free Masons.
SCRIP		A scrap or slip of paper. The cully freely blotted the scrip, and tipt me forty hogs; the man freely signed the bond, and gave me forty shillings. - Scrip is also a Change Alley phrase for the last loan or subscription. What does scrip go at for the next rescounters? what does scrip sell for delivered at the next day of settling?
WET PARSON		One who moistens his clay freely, in order to make it stick together.
WILLING TIT		A free horse, or a coming girl.