Part 56 (2/2)

To PEEL. To strip: allusion to the taking off the coat or rind of an orange or apple.

PEEPER. A spying gla.s.s; also a looking-gla.s.s. Track up the dancers, and pike with the peeper; whip up stairs, and run off with the looking-gla.s.s. CANT.

PEEPERS. Eyes. Single peeper, a one-eyed man.

PEEPING TOM. A nick name for a curious prying fellow; derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of Coventry, who, when G.o.diva countess of Chester rode at noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped out of his window, for which he was miraculously struck blind. His figure, peeping out of a window, is still kept up in remembrance of the transaction.

PEEPY. Drowsy.

To PEER. To look about, to be circ.u.mspect.

PEERY. Inquisitive, suspicious. The cull's peery; that fellow suspects something. There's a peery, tis snitch we are observed, there's nothing to be done.

PEG. Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorks.h.i.+re cheese. A peg is also a blow with a straightarm: a term used by the professors of gymnastic arts. A peg in the day-light, the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow in the eye, stomach, or under the ear.

PEG TRANTUM'S. Gone to Peg Trantum's; dead.

PEGO. The p.e.n.i.s of man or beast.

PELL-MELL. Tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together.

PELT. A heat, chafe, or pa.s.sion; as, What a pelt he was in! Pelt is also the skin of several beasts.

PENANCE BOARD. The pillory.

PENNY-WISE AND POUND FOOLISH. Saving in small matters, and extravagant in great.

PENNYWORTH. An equivalent. A good pennyworth; cheap bargain.

PENTHOUSE NAB. A broad brimmed hat.

PEPPERED. Infected with the venereal disease.

PEPPERY. Warm, pa.s.sionate.

PERKIN. Water cyder.

PERRIWINKLE. A wig.

PERSUADERS. Spurs. The kiddey clapped his persuaders to his prad but the traps boned him; the highwayman spurred his horse hard, but the officers seized him.

PET. In a pet; in a pa.s.sion or miff.

PETER. A portmanteau or cloke-bag. Biter of peters; one that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind stage coaches or out of waggons. To rob Peter to pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: styled also manoeuvring the apostles.

PETER GUNNER, will kill all the birds that died last summer.

A piece of wit commonly thrown out at a person walking through a street or village near London, with a gun in his hand.

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