Part 55 (1/2)

ORGAN. A pipe. Will you c.o.c.k your organ? will you smoke your pipe?

ORTHODOXY AND HETERODOXY. Somebody explained these terms by saying, the first was a man who had a doxy of his own, the second a person who made use of the doxy of another man.

OSCHIVES. Bone-handled knives. CANT.

OSTLER. Oatstealer.

OTTOMY. The vulgar word for a skeleton.

OTTOMISED. To be ottomised; to be dissected. You'll be scragged, ottomised, and grin in a gla.s.s case: you'll be hanged, anatomised, and your skeleton kept in a gla.s.s case at Surgeons' Hall.

OVEN. A great mouth; the old woman would never have looked for her daughter in the oven, had she not been there herself.

OVERSEER. A man standing in the pillory, is, from his elevated situation, said to be made an overseer.

OUT AT HEELS, OR OUT AT ELBOWS. In declining circ.u.mstances.

OUTRUN THE CONSTABLE. A man who has lived above his means, or income, is said to have outrun the constable.

OUTS. A gentleman of three outs. See GENTLEMAN.

OWL. To catch the; a trick practised upon ignorant country b.o.o.bies, who are decoyed into a barn under pretence of catching an owl, where, after divers preliminaries, the joke ends in their having a pail of water poured upon their heads.

OWL IN AN IVY BUSH. He looks like an owl in an ivy bush; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig, or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze.

OWLERS. Those who smuggle wool over to France.

OX HOUSE. He must go through the ox house to bed; a saying of an old fellow who marries a young girl.

OYES. Corruption of oyez, proclaimed by the crier of all courts of justice.

OYSTER. A gob of thick phlegm, spit by a consumptive man; in law Latin, UNUM VIRIDUM GOBb.u.m

P'S. To mind one's P's and Q's; to be attentive to the main chance.

P.P.C. An inscription on the visiting cards of our modern fine gentleman, signifying that they have called POUR PRENDRE CONGE, i.e. 'to take leave,' This has of late been ridiculed by cards inscribed D.I.O. i.e. 'Damme, I'm off.'

PACKET. A false report.

PACKTHREAD. To talk packthread; to use indecent language well wrapt up.

PAD. The highway, or a robber thereon; also a bed. Footpads; foot robbers. To go out upon the pad; to go out in order to commit a robbery.

PAD BORROWERS. Horse stealers.

TO PAD THE HOOF. See To BEAT THE HOOF.

PADDINGTON FAIR DAY. An execution day, Tyburn being in the parish or neighbourhood of Paddington. To dance the Paddington frisk; to be hanged.

PADDY. The general name for an Irishman: being the abbreviation of Patrick, the name of the tutelar saint of that island.