PETER LAY. The department of stealing portmanteaus, trunks, &c.

PETER LUG. Who is Peter Lug? who lets the gla.s.s stand at his door, or before him.

PETTICOAT HOLD. One who has an estate during his wife's life, called the ap.r.o.n-string hold.

PETTICOAT PENSIONER. One kept by a woman forsecret services.

PETTISH. Pa.s.sionate.

PETTY FOGGER. A little dirty attorney, ready to undertake any litigious or bad cause: it is derived from the French words pet.i.t vogue, of small credit, or little reputation.

PHARAOH. Strong malt liquor.

PHILISTINES. Bailiffs, or officers of justice; also drunkards.

PHOENIX-MEN. Firemen belonging to an insurance office, which gave a badge charged with a phoenix: these men were called likewise firedrakes.

PHOS BOTTLE. A. bottle of phosphorus: used by housebreakers to light their lanthorns. Ding the phos; throw away the bottle of phosphorus.

PHRASE OF PAPER. Half a quarter of a sheet. See VESSEL, PHYSOG.

PHYSOG. The face. A vulgar abbreviation of physiognomy.

PHYZ. The face. Rum phyz; an odd face or countenance.

PICAROON. A pirate; also a sharper.

PICKANINY. A young child, an infant. NEGRO TERM.

PICKING. Pilfering, petty larceny.

PICKLE. An arch waggish fellow. In pickle, or in the pickling tub; in a salivation. There are rods in brine, or pickle, for him; a punishment awaits him, or is prepared for him. Pickle herring; the zany or merry andrew of a mountebank. See JACK PUDDING.

PICKT HATCH. To go to the manor of pickt hatch, a cant name for some part of the town noted for bawdy houses in Shakespeare's time, and used by him in that sense.

PICKTHANK. A tale-bearer or mischief maker.

PICTURE FRAME. The sheriff's picture frame; the gallows or pillory.

To PIDDLE. To make water: a childish expression; as, Mammy, I want to piddle. Piddling also means trifling, or doing any thing in a small degree: perhaps from peddling.

PIECE. A wench. A d.a.m.ned good or bad piece; a girl who is more or less active and skilful in the amorous congress.

Hence the (CAMBRIDGE) toast, May we never have a PIECE (peace) that will injure the const.i.tution. Piece likewise means at Cambridge a close or spot of ground adjacent to any of the colleges, as Clare-hall Piece, &c.

The spot of ground before King's College formerly belonged to Clare-hall. While Clare Piece belonged to King's, the master of Clare-hall proposed a swop, which being refused by the provost of King's, he erected before their gates a temple of CLOACINA. It will be unnecessary to say that his arguments were soon acceded to.

PIG. A police officer. A China street pig; a Bow-street officer. Floor the pig and bolt; knock down the officer and run away.

PIG. Sixpence, a sow's baby. Pig-widgeon; a simpleton.

To pig together; to lie or sleep together, two or more in a bed. Cold pig; a jocular punishment inflicted by the maid seryants, or other females of the house, on persons lying over long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes, and leaving them to pig or lie in the cold. To buy a pig in a poke; to purchase any thing without seeing.

Pig's eyes; small eyes. Pigsnyes; the same: a vulgar term of endearment to a woman. He can have boiled pig at home; a mark of being master of his own house: an allusion to a well known poem and story. Brandy is Latin for pig and goose; an apology for drinking a dram after either.

PIG-HEADED. Obstinate.

PIG RUNNING. A piece of game frequently practised at fairs, wakes, &c. A large pig, whose tail is cut short, and both soaped and greased, being turned out, is hunted by the young men and boys, and becomes the property of him who can catch and hold him by the tail, abpve the height of his head.

PIGEON. A weak silly fellow easily imposed on. To pigeon; to cheat. To milk the pigeon; to attempt impossibilities, to be put to shifts for want of money. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off a church.

PIGEONS. Sharpers, who, during the drawing of the lottery, wait ready mounted near Guildhall, and, as soon as the first two or three numbers are drawn, which they receive from a confederate on a card, ride with them full speed to some distant insurance office, before fixed on, where there is another of the gang, commonly a decent looking woman, who takes care to be at the office before the hour of drawing: to her he secretly gives the number, which she insures for a considerable sum: thus biting the biter.

PIGEON'S MILK. Boys and novices are frequently sent on the first of April to buy pigeons milk.

To PIKE. To run away. Pike off; run away.

PILGRIM'S SALVE. A sirreverence, human excrement.

PILL, or PEELE GARLICK. Said originally to mean one whose skin or hair had fallen off from some disease, chiefly the venereal one; but now commonly used by persons speaking of themselves: as, there stood poor pill garlick: i.e. there stood I.

PILLALOO. The Irish cry or howl at funerals.

PIMP. A male procurer, or c.o.c.k bawd; also a small f.a.ggot used about London for lighting fires, named from introducing the fire to the coals.

PIMP WHISKIN. A top trader in pimping.

PIMPLE. The head.

PIN. In or to a merry pin; almost drunk: an allusion to a sort of tankard, formerly used in the north, having silver pegs or pins set at equal distances from the top to the bottom: by the rules of good fellowship, every person drinking out of one of these tankards, was to swallow the quant.i.ty contained between two pins; if he drank more or less, he was to continue drinking till he ended at a pin: by this means persons unaccustomed to measure their draughts were obliged to drink the whole tankard.

Hence when a person was a little elevated with liquor, he was said to have drunk to a merry pin.

PIN BASKET. The youngest child.

PIN MONEY. An allowance settled on a married woman for her pocket expences.

PINCH. At a pinch; on an exigency.

PINCH. To go into a tradesman's shop under the pretence of purchasing rings or other light articles, and while examining them to shift some up the sleeve of the coat.

Also to ask for change for a guinea, and when the silver is received, to change some of the good shillings for bad ones; then suddenly pretending to recollect that you had sufficient silver to pay the bill, ask for the guinea again, and return the change, by which means several bad shillings are pa.s.sed.

To PINCH ON THE PARSON'S SIDE. To defraud the parson of his t.i.the.

PINCHERS. Rogues who, in changing money, by dexterity of hand frequently secrete two or three shillings out of the change of a guinea. This species of roguery is called the pinch, or pinching lay.

To PINK. To stab or wound with a small sword: probably derived from the holes formerly cut in both men and women's clothes, called pinking. Pink of the fashion; the top of the mode. To pink and wink; frequently winking the eyes through a weakness in them.

PINKING-DINDEE. A sweater or mohawk. IRISH.

PINS. Legs. Queer pins; ill shapen legs.

PIPER. A broken winded horse.