dictionary quotes

PISSING DOWN ANY ONE'S BACK. Flattering him.

QUEER ROOSTER. An informer that pretends to be sleeping,
and thereby overhears the conversation of thieves in
night cellars.

SALMON or SALAMON. The beggars'sacrament or oath.

SHOULDER CLAPPER. A bailiff, or member of the catch
club. Shoulder-clapped; arrested.

SCOTCH PINT. A bottle containing two quarts.

TONY. A silly fellow, or ninny. A mere tony: a simpleton.

FRENCHIFIED. Infected with the venereal disease. The
mort is Frenchified: the wench is infected.

LOOPHOLE. An opening, or means of escape. To find a
loophole in an act of parliament; i.e. a method of
evading it,

TO CUTTY-EYE. To look out of the corners of one's eyes,
to leer, to look askance. The cull cutty-eyed at us; the
fellow looked suspicious at us.

QUEER STREET. Wrong. Improper. Contrary to one's
wish. It is queer street, a cant phrase, to signify
that it is wrong or different to our wish.

BEAR. One who contracts to deliver a certain quantity of
sum of stock in the public funds, on a future day, and at
stated price; or, in other words, sells what he has not got,
like the huntsman in the fable, who sold the bear's skin
before the bear was killed. As the bear sells the stock he
is not possessed of, so the bull purchases what he has not
money to pay for; but in case of any alteration in the price
agreed on, either party pays or receives the difference.
Exchange Alley.

RESCOUNTERS. The time of settlement between the bulls
and bears of Exchange-alley, when the losers must pay
their differences, or become lame ducks, and waddle out
of the Alley.