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 TUNE

 

BLACK JOKE		A popular tune to a song, having for the burden, "Her black joke and belly so white:" figuratively the black joke signifies the monosyllable. See MONOSYLLABLE.
CAMBRIDGE FORTUNE		A wind-mill and a water-mill, used to signify a woman without any but personal endowments.
CHICKEN NABOB		One returned from the East Indies with but a moderate fortune of fifty or sixty thousand pounds, a diminutive nabob: a term borrowed from the chicken turtle.
CROAKER		One who is always foretelling some accident or misfortune: an allusion to the croaking of a raven, supposed ominous.
CUNDUM		The dried gut of a sheep, worn by men in the act of coition, to prevent venereal infection; said to have been invented by one colonel Cundum. These machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of Philips, at the Green Canister, in Half-moon-street, in the Strand. That good lady having acquired a fortune, retired from business; but learning that the town was not well served by her successors, she, out of a patriotic zeal for the public welfare, returned to her occupation; of which she gave notice by divers hand-bills, in circulation in the year 1776. Also a false scabbard over a sword, and the oil-skin case for holding the colours of a regiment.
CUNNING MAN		A cheat, who pretends by his skill in astrology to assist persons in recovering stolen goods: and also to tell them their fortunes, and when, how often, and to whom they shall be married; likewise answers all lawful questions, both by sea and land. This profession is frequently occupied by ladies.
DUTCH CONCERT		Where every one plays or signs a different tune.
FAYTORS, or FATORS		Fortune tellers.
FORTUNE HUNTERS		Indigent men, seeking to enrich themselves by marrying a woman of fortune.
FORTUNE TELLER, or CUNNING MAN		A judge, who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot or doom. To go before the fortune teller, lambskin men, or conjuror; to be tried at an assize. See LAMBSKIN MEN.
GYPSIES		A set of vagrants, who, to the great disgrace of our police, are suffered to wander about the country. They pretend that they derive their origin from the ancient Egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge in astronomy and other sciences; and, under the pretence of fortune-telling, find means to rob or defraud the ignorant and superstitious. To colour their impostures, they artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of gibberish peculiar to themselves. They rove up and down the country in large companies, to the great terror of the farmers, from whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take very considerable contributions.
JOB'S COMFORTER		One who brings news of some additional misfortune.
KEMP'S SHOES		Would I had Kemp's shoes to throw after you. BEN JONSON. Perhaps Kemp was a man remarkable for his good luck or fortune; throwing an old shoe, or shoes, after any one going on an important business, being by the vulgar deemed lucky.
QUEEN DICK		To the tune of the life and death of Queen Dick. That happened in the reign of Queen Dick; i.e., never.
TIPPERARY FORTUNE		Two town lands, stream's town, and ballinocack; said of Irish women without fortune.
TUNE		To beat: his father tuned him delightfully: perhaps from fetching a tune out of the person beaten, or from a comparison with the disagreeable sounds of instruments when tuning.
WIND-MILL		The fundament. She has no fortune but her mills; i.e. she has nothing but her cunt and arse.