Part 77 (2/2)

SWIG. A hearty draught of liquor.

SWIGMEN. Thieves who travel the country under colour of buying old shoes, old clothes, &c. or selling brooms, mops, &c. CANT.

TO SWILL. To drink greedily.

SWILL TUB. A drunkard, a sot.

SWIMMER. A counterfeit old coin.

SWIMMER. A s.h.i.+p. I shall have a swimmer; a cant phrase used by thieves to signify that they will be sent on board the tender.

TO SWING. To be hanged. He will swing for it; he will be hanged for it.

SWING TAIL. A hog.

TO SWINGE. To beat stoutly.

SWINGING. A great swinging fellow; a great stout fellow.

A swinging lie; a l.u.s.ty lie.

SWINDLER. One who obtains goods on credit by false pretences, and sells them for ready money at any price, in order to make up a purse. This name is derived from the German word SCHWINDLIN, to totter, to be ready to fall; these arts being generally practised by persons on the totter, or just ready to break. The term SWINDLER has since been used to signify cheats of every kind.

SWIPES. Purser's swipes; small beer: so termed on board the king's s.h.i.+ps, where it is furnished by the purser.

SWISH TAIL. A pheasant; so called by the persons who sell game for the poachers.

TO SWIVE. To copulate.

SWIVEL-EYED. Squinting.

SWIZZLE. Drink, or any brisk or windy liquor. In North America, a mixture of spruce beer, rum, and sugar, was so called. The 17th regiment had a society called the Swizzle Club, at Ticonderoga, A. D. 1760.

SWORD RACKET. To enlist in different regiments, and on receiving the bounty to desert immediately.

SWOP. An exchange.

SYEBUCK. Sixpence.

SYNTAX. A schoolmaster.

TABBY. An old maid; either from Tabitha, a formal antiquated name; or else from a tabby cat, old maids being often compared to cats. To drive Tab; to go out on a party of pleasure with a wife and family.

TACE. Silence, hold your tongue. TACE is Latin for a candle; a jocular admonition to be silent on any subject.

TACKLE. A mistress; also good clothes. The cull has tipt his tackle rum gigging; the fellow has given his mistress good clothes. A man's tackle: the genitals.

TAFFY, i.e. Davy. A general name for a Welchman, St.

David being the tutelar saint of Wales. Taffy's day; the first of March, St. David's day.

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