Part 37 (1/2)

HASTY. Precipitate, pa.s.sionate. He is none of the Hastings sort; a saying of a slow, loitering fellow: an allusion to the Hastings pea, which is the first in season.

HASTY PUDDING. Oatmeal and milk boiled to a moderate thickness, and eaten with sugar and b.u.t.ter. Figuratively, a wet, muddy road: as, The way through Wandsworth is quite a hasty pudding. To eat hot hasty pudding for a laced hat, or some other prize, is a common feat at wakes and fairs.

HAT. Old hat; a woman's privities: because frequently felt.

HATCHES. Under the hatches; in trouble, distress, or debt.

HATCHET FACE. A long thin face.

HAVIL. A sheep. CANT.

HAVY CAVY. Wavering, doubtful, s.h.i.+lly shally.

HAWK. Ware hawk; the word to look sharp, a bye-word when a bailiff pa.s.ses. Hawk also signifies a sharper, in opposition to pigeon. See PIGEON. See WARE HAWK.

HAWKERS. Licensed itinerant retailers of different commodities, called also pedlars; likewise the sellers of news-papers.

Hawking; an effort to spit up the thick phlegm, called OYSTERS: whence it is wit upon record, to ask the person so doing whether he has a licence; a punning allusion to the Act of hawkers and pedlars.

To HAZEL GILD. To beat any one with a hazel stick.

HEAD CULLY OF THE Pa.s.s, or Pa.s.sAGE BANK. The top tilter of that gang throughout the whole army, who demands and receives contribution from all the pa.s.s banks in the camp.

HEAD RAILS. Teeth. SEA PHRASE.

HEARING CHEATS. Ears. CANT.

HEART'S EASE. Gin.

HEARTY CHOAK. He will have a hearty choak and caper sauce for breakfast; i.e. he will be hanged.

HEATHEN PHILOSOPHER. One whose breech may be seen through his pocket-hole: this saying arose from the old philosophers, many of whom depised the vanity of dress to such a point, as often to fall into the opposite extreme.

TO HEAVE. To rob. To heave a case; to rob a house.

To heave a bough; to rob a booth. CANT.

HEAVER. The breast. CANT.

HEAVERS. Thieves who make it their business to steal tradesmen's shop-books. CANT.

HECTOR. bully, a swaggering coward. To hector; to bully, probably from such persons affecting the valour of Hector, the Trojan hero.

HEDGE. To make a hedge; to secure a bet, or wager, laid on one side, by taking the odds on the other, so that, let what will happen, a certain gain is secured, or hedged in, by the person who takes this precaution; who is then said to be on velvet.

HEDGE ALEHOUSE. A small obscure alehouse.

HEDGE CREEPER. A robber of hedges.

HEDGE PRIEST. An illiterate unbeneficed curate, a patrico.

HEDGE Wh.o.r.e. An itinerant harlot, who bilks the bagnios and bawdy-houses, by disposing of her favours on the wayside, under a hedge; a low beggarly prost.i.tute.