| Quote | Category | Chapter | Notes | Queries |
| as fine as fivepence | slang | 1 | ||
| everything prime | slang | 1 | ||
| tremendous swell | slang | 1 | ||
| first stare | slang | 1 | highest class? Origin? | |
| frippery set | slang | 1 | idle, unindustrious types. | Origin? |
| perfect block | slang | 1 | Used to describe Endymion Dauntry | |
| barques of frailty | slang | 1 | prostitute/courtesan | |
| high stickler | slang | 1 | snob or very class-conscious | |
| chucklehead | slang | 1 | fool | |
| rake-down | slang | 1 | mean-spirited scolding | |
| bracket-faced | slang | 1 | ||
| purse-pinched | slang | 1 | inadequate income to support standard of living | |
| pinchpenny | slang | 1 | cheapskate or miser | |
| sconcing the reckoning | slang | 1 | avoiding outlay of money by any means | |
| scaly | slang | 1 | cheap or ungenerous? | |
| block | slang | 1 | not a very bright person; generally male | |
| come to cuffs | slang | 1 | dispute or argue with | |
| hardfisted | slang | 1 | cheapskate or miser | |
| fiddle-faddle | slang | 1 | "nonsense!" | |
| nipfarthing | slang | 1 | miserly, cheaply done | |
| gammon | slang | 1 | uncredible statement | |
| prime article | slang | 2 | prostitute/courtesan | |
| encroaching mushroom | slang | 2 | lower-class person trying to rub shoulders with upper class | |
| on the toodle | slang | 2 | drunk? | |
| queer in the attic | slang | 2 | unbalanced, illogical | |
| dirty dishes | slang | 2 | embarrassing relatives; black sheep | |
| poker up | slang | 2 | express disapproval | |
| top-lofty | slang | 2 | snobby | |
| humdurgeon | slang | 2 | commotion | |
| bear-garden jaw | slang | 2 | ill-tempered tirade | Origin? |
| hatchet | slang | 2 | One with a lean, sharp face, suggestive of the edge of a hatchet. Used to describe Louisa Buxted. | |
| quack oneself | slang | 2 | be a hypochondriac | |
| outrunning the constable | slang | 2 | avoiding creditors | |
| first-oars | slang | 2 | a favorite | |
| wet-goose | slang | 2 | silly person, generally female | |
| complete to a shade | slang | 2 | ||
| nip-cheese | slang | 2 | cheapskate or miser | |
| up to the nines | slang | 3 | in the latest mode of fashion | Origin? |
| neat as wax | slang | 3 | Well-groomed | |
| bumblebath | slang | 3 | mull or mess | |
| brassy | slang | 3 | forward or aggressive | |
| out-and-out cock of the game | slang | 3 | ||
| diamond of the first water | slang | 3 | extremely beautiful | Origin? |
| monkey's allowance | slang | 3 | a very small income | Origin? |
| chuckfarthing | slang | 3 | ||
| fiddlestick | slang | 3 | ||
| Matrimonial Market | slang | 4 | ||
| shag-rag | slang | 4 | untidy child or person | |
| I'll go bail | slang | 4 | ||
| toadeater | slang | 4 | sycophant | |
| pelter | slang | 5 | ||
| break a straw | slang | 5 | ||
| rules the roast | slang | 5 | has complete charge of something | Origin? |
| pudding-heart | slang | 5 | timid or cowardly | |
| rum touch | slang | 6 | odd or distasteful person; beneath notice | Origin? |
| Puff-guts | slang | 6 | ||
| tattle-box | slang | 7 | a too-talkative person | |
| wishing us all at Jericho | slang |
7
|
From Nancy Mayer:
"Historical Dictionary of Slang by Farmer and Henley vol 1 A-k. Jericho:
1. A place of concealment or banishment. Generically: Go to
the Devil. 2. As a derivative of the above it was used for
the watercloset or privy at the end of the garden."
|
Biblical story of Jericho? Does this imply wanting to get rid of someone for good? |
| paper-skulled | slang | 7 | not too bright | |
| brass-faced gypsy | slang | 7 | Were Gypsies reviled at this time in history | |
| baggage | slang | 7 | Webster's: "a saucy, impudent or lively girl". Alverstoke calls Frederica a baggage. Origin: also referred to prostitutes or army camp followers, hence the baggage that was carried by the camp. | |
| nodcock | slang | 8 | ||
| Jaw-me-dead | slang | 8 | one who talks too much, on dull subjects | |
| give you pepper | slang | 8 | Origin? | |
| looby, clodpole | slang | 8 | idiot | Origin? |
| nipperkin | slang | 8 | child | |
| up to all the rigs | slang | 8 | ||
| beyond my touch | slang | 8 | ||
| commoner | slang | 9 | ||
| April-squire | slang | 9 | Origin? | |
| thruster | slang | 9 | ||
| City-mushroom | slang | 9 | one who uses his money derived from trade to try and enter the high society circles | |
| high flyer | slang | 9 | prostitute/courtesan | |
| mooncalf | slang | 10 | ||
| ride on my back | slang | 11 | ||
| brummish | slang | 11 | ||
| Tragedy Jill | slang | 11 | From Nancy Mayer: "a heavy tragedian: in contempt." | Origin? |
| Canterbury tricks | slang | 11 | Origin? | |
| regular spoon | slang | 12 | ||
| cutting a wheedle | slang | 12 | ||
| counter-coxcomb | slang | 12 | ||
| goosecap | slang | 12 | ||
| Go | slang | 12 | ||
| basket-scrambler | slang | 13 | ||
| Trying it on too rare and thick | slang | 13 | Origin? | |
| Bond Street beaux | slang | 14 | ||
| on the strut | slang | 14 | ||
| muttonheaded | slang | 15 | ||
| blue | slang | 15 | intellectual | |
| long-headed | slang | 15 | ||
| Friday-faced | slang | 15 | ||
| Banbury-man | slang | 15 | Origin? | |
| cloth-head | slang | 15 | ||
| sit in one's pocket | slang | 15 | ||
| rumgumption | slang | 15 | ||
| Bag-wig | slang | 15 | Dean? | |
| Queer Nabs | slang | 15 | ||
| play gooseberry | slang | 15 | ||
| mawworm | slang | 15 | ||
| chawbacon | slang | 16 | ||
| Jack-at-warts | slang | 16 | ||
| jobbernoll | slang | 16 | ||
| trump | slang | 16 | ||
| up to the hub | slang | 16 | ||
| cockloft | slang | 16 | brain, head | |
| Parson's mousetrap | slang | 16 | marriage | |
| Corinthian | slang | 16 | evolution of this term? | |
| first-rate fiddler | slang | 16 | ||
| cap the globe | slang | 16 | ||
| trim as a trencher | slang | 16 | well-dressed | |
| high in the instep | slang | 16 | snobbish | |
| stiff-rumped | slang | 16 | even more snobbish; consequential | |
| get riveted | slang | 16 | get married | |
| sound as a roast | slang | 16 | Origin? | |
| full of pluck | slang | 16 | ||
| choice spirits | slang | 16 | wild young man | |
| windsucker | slang | 16 | bore | |
| slow-top | slang | 16 | ||
| well-breeched | slang | 17 | ||
| Greek banditti | slang | 17 | ||
| once-a-week beau | slang | 17 | ||
| tipping him a settler | slang | 17 | ||
| receive a chancery suit upon the nob | slang | 17 | ||
| the ready | slang | 17 | money | |
| peep-of-day boys | slang | 17 | ||
| Cut line | slang | 17 | ||
| lobcock | slang | 17 | dunce | |
| peel eggs | slang | 18 | observe unnecessary proprieties | |
| hurly-burly | slang | 18 | forward, aggressive, immodest | |
| cucumberish | slang | 18 | cash flow uncertain | |
| that's the barber | slang | 18 | that's the ticket! | |
| bamming | slang | 18 | ||
| thatchgallows | slang | 19 | ||
| bacon-picker | slang | 19 | ||
| bit of the drag about you | slang | 19 | ||
| knock-me-down | slang | 20 | heavy brew of ale | |
| top-heavy, overtaken | slang | 20 | intoxicated | |
| poke bogey | slang | 20 | ||
| dicked in the nob | slang | 20 | mentally deficient | |
| poke-nose | slang | 20 | ||
| obfuscated, bright in the eye | slang | 20 | ||
| game as a pebble | slang | 21 | ||
| cut his stick | slang | 21 | die | |
| down pin | slang | 22 | ||
| hold for a long trig | slang | 22 | ||
| nip-shot | slang | 22 | ||
| roll of flimsies | slang | 24 | paper currency | When was paper currency introduced in England? |
| man-milliner | slang | 24 | ||
| pop off the hooks | slang | 25 | die | |
| bull-beef | slang | 25 | ||
| knock-in-the-cradle | slang | 25 | ||
| making a cake of yourself | slang | 26 | ||
| draw bridle | slang | 26 | ||
| Knocked him bandy | slang | 26 | ||
| prime twig | slang | 27 | ||
| Jack-of-legs | slang | 27 | ||
| bacon-brained | slang | 27 | ||
| turn cat in pan | slang | 28 | ||
| beaten us all hollow | slang | 28 | Origin? |