KING'S BAD BARGAIN. One of the king's bad bargains; a malingeror, or soldier who shirks his duty.

KING'S HEAD INN, or CHEQUER INN, IN NEWGATE STREET. The prison of Newgate.

KING JOHN'S MEN. He is one of king John's men, eight score to the hundred: a saying of a little undersized man.

KING OF THE GYPSIES. The captain, chief, or ringleader of the gang of misrule: in the cant language called also the upright man.

KING'S PICTURES. Coin, money.

KINGDOM COME. He is gone to kingdom come, he is dead.

KIP. The skin of a large calf, in the language of the Excise-office.

KISS MINE A-SE. An offer, as Fielding observes, very frequently made, but never, as he could learn, literally accepted. A kiss mine a-se fellow; a sycophant.

KISSING CRUST. That part where the loaves have touched the oven.

KIT. A dancing-master, so called from his kit or cittern, a small fiddle, which dancing-masters always carry about with them, to play to their scholars. The kit is likewise the whole of a soldier's necessaries, the contents of his knapsack: and is used also to express the whole of different commodities: as, Here, take the whole kit; i.e. take all.

KIT-CAT CLUB. A society of gentlemen, eminent for wit and learning, who in the reign of queen Anne and George I. met at a house kept by one Christopher Cat. The portraits of most of the members of this society were painted by Sir G.o.dfrey Kneller, of one size; thence still called the kit-cat size.

KITCHEN PHYSIC. Food, good meat roasted or boiled. A little kitchen physic will set him up; he has more need of a cook than a doctor.

KITTLE PITCHERING. A jocular method of hobbling or bothering a troublesome teller of long stories: this is done by contradicting some very immaterial circ.u.mstance at the beginning of the narration, the objections to which being settled, others are immediately started to some new particular of like consequence; thus impeding, or rather not suffering him to enter into, the main story. Kittle pitchering is often practised in confederacy, one relieving the other, by which the design is rendered less obvious.

KITTYS. Effects, furniture; stock in trade. To seize one's kittys; to take his sticks.

KNACK SHOP. A toy-shop, a nick-nack-atory.

KNAPPERS POLL. A sheep's head. CANT.

KNAVE IN GRAIN. A knave of the first rate: a phrase borrowed from the dyehouse, where certain colours are said to be in grain, to denote their superiority, as being dyed with cochineal, called grain. Knave in grain is likewise a pun applied to a cornfactor or miller.

KNIGHT OF THE BLADE. A bully.

KNIGHT OF THE POST. A false evidence, one that is ready to swear any thing for hire.

KNIGHT OF THE RAINBOW. A footman: from the variety of colours in the liveries and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of gentlemen of that cloth.

KNIGHT OF THE ROAD. A highwayman.

KNIGHT OF THE SHEERS. A taylor.

KNIGHT OF THE THIMBLE, or NEEDLE. A taylor or stay-maker.

KNIGHT OF THE WHIP. A coachman.

KNIGHT OF THE TRENCHER. A great eater.

KNIGHT AND BARROW PIG, more hog than gentleman. A saying of any low pretender to precedency.

k.n.o.b. The head. See n.o.b.

KNOCK. To knock a woman; to have carnal knowledge of her. To knock off; to conclude: phrase borrowed from the blacksmith. To knock under; to submit.

KNOCK ME DOWN. Strong ale or beer, stingo.

KNOT. A crew, gang, or fraternity. He has tied a knot with his tongue, that he cannot untie with his teeth: i.e.

he is married.

KNOWING ONES. Sportsmen on the turf, who from experience and an acquaintance with the jockies, are supposed to be in the secret, that is, to know the true merits or powers of each horse; notwithstanding which it often happens that the knowing ones are taken in.

KNOWLEDGE BOX. The head.

KNUCKLES. Pickpockets who attend the avenues to public places to steal pocket-books, watches, &c. a superior kind of pickpockets. To knuckle to, to submit.

TO KNUCKLE ONE'S WIPE. To steal his handkerchief.

KNUCKLE-DABS, or KNUCKLE-CONFOUNDERS. Ruffles.

KOn.o.bLIN RIG. Stealing large pieces of coal from coalsheds.

LACED MUTTON. A prost.i.tute.

LACING. Beating. I'll lace your jacket handsomely.

LADDER. To go up the ladder to rest; to be hanged.

LADY. A crooked or hump-backed woman.

LADY OF EASY VIRTUE. A woman of the town, an impure, a prost.i.tute.

LADYBIRDS. Light or lewd women.

LADY DACRE'S WINE. Gin.

LAG. A man transported. The cove was lagged for a drag.

The man was transported for stealing something out of a waggon.

LAG FEVER. A term of ridicule applied to men who being under sentence of transportation, pretend illness, to avoid being sent from gaol to the hulks.

TO LAG. To drop behind, to keep back. Lag last; the last of a company.

LAGE. Water. CANT.

LAGE OF DUDS. A buck of linen.

LAID ON THE SHELF, or LAID UP IN LAVENDER. p.a.w.ned.