Part 24 (1/2)

DIVER. A pickpocket; also one who lives in a cellar.

DIVIDE. To divide the house with one's wife; to give her the outside, and to keep all the inside to one's self, i.e. to turn her into the street.

DO. To do any one; to rob and cheat him. I have done him; I have robbed him. Also to overcome in a boxing match: witness those laconic lines written on the field of battle, by Humphreys to his patron.--'Sir, I have done the Jew.'

TO DO OVER. Carries the same meaning, but is not so briefly expressed: the former having received the polish of the present times.

DOASH. A cloak. Cant.

DOBIN RIG. Stealing ribbands from haberdashers early in the morning or late at night; generally practised by women in the disguise of maid servants.

TO DOCK. To lie with a woman. The cull docked the dell all the darkmans; the fellow laid with the wench all night.

Docked smack smooth; one who has suffered an amputation of his p.e.n.i.s from a venereal complaint. He must go into dock; a sea phrase, signifying that the person spoken of must undergo a salivation. Docking is also a punishment inflicted by sailors on the prost.i.tutes who have infected them with the venereal disease; it consists in cutting off all their clothes, petticoats, s.h.i.+ft and all, close to their stays, and then turning them into the street.

DOCTOR. Milk and water, with a little rum, and some nutmeg; also the name of a composition used by distillers, to make spirits appear stronger than they really are, or, in their phrase, better proof.

DOCTORS. Loaded dice, that will run but two or three chances. They put the doctors upon him; they cheated him with loaded dice.

DODSEY. A woman: perhaps a corruption of Doxey. CANT.

DOG BUFFERS. Dog stealers, who kill those dogs not advertised for, sell their skins, and feed the remaining dogs with their flesh.

DOG IN A DOUBLET. A daring, resolute fellow. In Germany and Flanders the boldest dogs used to hunt the boar, having a kind of buff doublet b.u.t.toned on their bodies, Rubens has represented several so equipped, so has Sneyders.

DOG. An old dog at it; expert or accustomed to any thing.

Dog in a manger; one who would prevent another from enjoying what he himself does not want: an allusion to the well-known fable. The dogs have not dined; a common saying to any one whose s.h.i.+rt hangs out behind. To dog, or dodge; to follow at a distance. To blush like a blue dog, i.e. not at all. To walk the black dog on any one; a punishment inflicted in the night on a fresh prisoner, by his comrades, in case of his refusal to pay the usual footing or garnish.

DOG LATIN. Barbarous Latin, such as was formerly used by the lawyers in their pleadings.

DOG'S PORTION. A lick and a smell. He comes in for only a dog's portion; a saying of one who is a distant admirer or dangler after women. See DANGLER.

DOG'S RIG. To copulate till you are tired, and then turn tail to it.

DOG'S SOUP. Rain water.

DOG VANE. A c.o.c.kade. SEA TERM.

DOGGED. Surly.

DOGGESS, DOG'S WIFE or LADY, PUPPY'S MAMMA.

Jocular ways of calling a woman a b.i.t.c.h.

DOLL. Bartholomew doll; a tawdry, over-drest woman, like one of the children's dolls at Bartholomew fair. To mill doll; to beat hemp at Bridewell, or any other house of correction.

DOLLY. A Yorks.h.i.+re dolly; a contrivance for was.h.i.+ng, by means of a kind of wheel fixed in a tub, which being turned about, agitates and cleanses the linen put into it, with soap and water.

DOMINE DO LITTLE. An impotent old fellow.

DOMINEER. To reprove or command in an insolent or haughty manner. Don't think as how you shall domineer here.