Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
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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 WOOD

 

ACORN  You will ride a horse foaled by an acorn, i.e. the gallows, called also the Wooden and Three-legged Mare. You will be hanged. - See THREE-LEGGED MARE. ACT OF PARLIAMENT. A military term for small beer, five pints of which, by an act of parliament, a landlord was formerly obliged to give to each soldier gratis.
 
BABES IN THE WOOD  Criminals in the stocks, or pillory.
 
FAGGOT  A man hired at a muster to appear as a soldier. To faggot in the canting sense, means to bind: an allusion to the faggots made up by the woodmen, which are all bound. Faggot the culls; bind the men.
 
HOBBY HORSE  A man's favourite amusement, or study, is called his hobby horse. It also means a particular kind of small Irish horse: and also a wooden one, such as is given to children.
 
HULVER-HEADED  Having a hard impenetrable head; hulver, in the Norfolk dialect, signifying holly, a hard and solid wood.
 
JACK OF LEGS  A tall long-legged man; also a giant, said to be buried in Weston church, near Baldock, in Hertfordshire, where there are two stones fourteen feet distant, said to be the head and feet stones of his grave. This giant, says Salmon, as fame goes, lived in a wood here, and was a great robber, but a generous one; for he plundered the rich to feed the poor: he frequently took bread for this purpose from the Baldock bakers, who catching him at an advantage, put out his eyes, and afterwards hanged him upon a knoll in Baldock field.
 
JURY LEG  A wooden leg: allusion to a jury mast, which is a temporary substitute for a mast carried away by a storm, or any other accident. SEA PHRASE.
 
KING'S WOOD LION  An Ass. Kingswood is famous for the great number of asses kept by the colliers who inhabit that place.
 
MEN OF KENT  Men born east of the river Medway, who are said to have met the Conqueror in a body, each carrying a green bough in his hand, the whole appearing like a moving wood; and thereby obtaining a confirmation of their ancient privileges. The inhabitants of Kent are divided into Kentish men and men of Kent. Also a society held at the Fountain Tavern, Bartholomew Lane, A.D. 1743.
 
OPTIME  The senior and junior optimes are the second and last classes of Cambridge honors conferred on taking a degree. That of wranglers is the first. The last junior optime is called the Wooden Spoon.
 
PARENTHESIS  To put a man's nose into a parenthesis: to pull it, the fingers and thumb answering the hooks or crochets. A wooden parenthesis; the pillory. An iron parenthesis; a prison.
 
PURL  Ale in which wormwood has been infused, or ale and bitters drunk warm.
 
PURL ROYAL  Canary wine; with a dash of tincture of wormwood.
 
RABBIT  A Welch rabbit; bread and cheese toasted, i.e. a Welch rare bit. Rabbits were also a sort of wooden canns to drink out of, now out of use.
 
RUFF  An ornament formerly worn by men and women round their necks. Wooden ruff; the pillory.
 
RUFFMANS  The woods, hedges, or bushes.
 
SHILLALEY  An oaken sapling, or cudgel: from a wood of that name famous for its oaks. IRISH.
 
SKEW  A cup, or beggar's wooden dish.
 
SPUNK  Rotten touchwood, or a kind of fungus prepared for tinder; figuratively, spirit, courage.
 
TIMBER TOE  A man with a wooden leg.
 
WOOD  In a wood; bewildered, in a maze, in a peck of troubles, puzzled, or at a loss what course to take in any business. To look over the wood; to ascend the pulpit, to preach: I shall look over the wood at St. James's on Sunday next. To look through the wood; to stand in the pillory. Up to the arms in wood; in the pillory.
 
WOOD PECKER  A bystander, who bets whilst another plays.
 
WOODCOCK  A taylor with a long bill.
 
WOODEN HABEAS  A coffin. A man who dies in prison is said to go out with a wooden habeas. He went out with a wooden habeas; i.e. his coffin.
 
WOODEN HORSE  To fide the wooden horse was a military punishment formerly in use. This horse consisted of two or more planks about eight feet long, fixed together so as to form a sharp ridge or angle, which answered to the body of the horse. It was supported by four posts, about six feet long, for legs. A head, neck, and tail, rudely cut in wood, were added, which completed the appearance of a horse. On this sharp ridge delinquents were mounted, with their hands tied behind them; and to steady them (as it was said), and lest the horse should kick them off, one or more firelocks were tied to each leg. In this situation they were sometimes condemned to sit an hour or two; but at length it having been found to injure the soldiers materially, and sometimes to rupture them, it was left off about the time of the accession of King George I. A wooden horse was standing in the Parade at Portsmouth as late as the year 1750.
 
WOODEN RUFF  The pillory. See NORWAY NECKCLOTH.
 
WOODEN SURTOUT  A coilin.