| 18th Century Thieves Cant |
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| Death |
| Death : Death |
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| BACKED | dead; as He wishes the Senior backed, i.e. He longs to have his Father upon Six Mens Shoulders. His Backs up, a taunting Expression. | 1737 |
| BACKED | Dead. He wishes to have the senior, or old square-toes, backed; he longs to have his father on six mens shoulders; that is, carrying to the grave. | 1811 |
| BARREL FEVER | He died of the barrel fever; he killed himself by drinking. | 1811 |
| BED | Put to bed with a mattock, and tucked up with a spade; said of one that is dead and buried. You will go up a ladder to bed, i.e. you will be hanged. In many country places, persons hanged are made to mount up a ladder, which is afterwards turned round or taken away, whence the term, Turned off. | 1811 |
| BUCKET | To kick the bucket; to die. | 1811 |
| COOL CRAPE | A shroud. | 1811 |
| COOL-CRAPE | When a Person dies, he is said to be put into his Cool-crape | 1737 |
| CROAK | to die. | 1819 |
| DUSTMAN | A dead man: your father is a dustman. | 1811 |
| EARTH BATH | A Grave. | 1811 |
| ETERNITY Box | A coffin. | 1811 |
| GRIM | Old Mr. Grim; death. | 1811 |
| GRIN | To grin in a glass case; to be anatomized for murder: the skeletons of many criminals are preserved in glass cases, at Surgeons hall. | 1811 |
| GROUND SWEAT | A grave. | 1811 |
| GROUND-SWEAT | a Grave. | 1737 |
| KICKERAPOO | Dead. NEGRO WORD. | 1811 |
| KINGDOM COME | He is gone to kingdom come, he is dead. | 1811 |
| OTTOMISED | To be ottomised; to be dissected. Youll be scragged, ottomised, and grin in a glass case: youll be hanged, anatomised, and your skeleton kept in a glass case at Surgeons Hall. | 1811 |
| PEG TRANTUMS | Gone to Peg Trantums; dead. | 1811 |
| PEG-TRANTUMS | as Gone to Peg-Trantums, dead. | 1737 |
| SHOVEL | To be put to bed with a shovel; to be buried. He or she was fed with a fire-shovel; a saying of a person with a large mouth. | 1811 |
| SMABBLED, or SNABBLED | Killed in battle. | 1811 |
| STONE-DEAD | quite dead. | 1737 |
| USED UP | Killed: a military saying, originating from a message sent by the late General Guise, on the expedition at Carthagena, where he desired the commander in chief to order him some more grenadiers, for those he had were all used up. | 1811 |
| WOODEN HABEAS | A coffin. A man who dies in prison is said to go out with a wooden habeas. He went out with a wooden habeas; i.e. his coffin. | 1811 |
| WOODEN SURCOAT | A coffin. | 1811 |
| Death : Hanging |
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| ACORN | You will ride a horse foaled by an acorn, i.e. the gallows, called also the Wooden and Three-legged Mare. You will be hanged.--See THREE-LEGGED MARE. | 1811 |
| BEILBYS BALL | He will dance at Beilbys ball, where the sheriff pays the music; he will be hanged. Who Mr. Beilby was, or why that ceremony was so called, remains with the quadrature of the circle, the discovery of the philosophers stone, and divers other desiderata yet undiscovered. | 1811 |
| BEILBYS BALL | He will dance at Beilbys ball, where the sheriff pays the music; he will be hanged. Who Mr. Beilby was, or why that ceremony was so called, remains with the quadrature of the circle, the discovery of the philosophers stone, and divers other desiderata yet undiscovered. | 1811 |
| CHATES | the Gallows. | 1737 |
| CHATES or CHATTS | The gallows. CANT. | 1811 |
| CRAP | the gallows. | 1819 |
| CRAP'D | hanged. | 1819 |
| DANCE UPON NOTHING | To be hanged. | 1811 |
| DANGLE | to be hanged: I shall see you dangle in the sheriffs picture frame; I shall see you hanging on the gallows. | 1811 |
| DEADLY NEVERGREEN, that bears fruit all the year | The gallows, or three-legged mare. See THREE-LEGGEB MARE. | 1811 |
| DROP | The new drop; a contrivance for executing felons at Newgate, by means of a platform, which drops from under them: this is also called the last drop. See LEAF. See MORNING DROP. | 1811 |
| FRUMMAGEMMD | choaked, strangled, or hanged. | 1737 |
| FRUMMAGEMMED | Choaked, strangled, suffocated, or hanged. CANT. | 1811 |
| GREGORIAN TREE | The gallows: so named from Gregory Brandon, a famous finisher of the law; to whom Sir William Segar, garter king of arms (being imposed on by Brooke, a herald), granted a coat of arms. | 1811 |
| HEMPEN FEVER | A man who was hanged is said to have died of a hempen fever; and, in Dorsetshire, to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords. | 1811 |
| HOLBORN HILL | To ride backwards up Holborn hill; to go to the gallows: the way to Tyburn, the place of execution for criminals condemned in London, was up that hill. Criminals going to suffer, always ride backwards, as some conceive to increase the ignominy, but more probably to prevent them being shocked with a distant view of the gallows; as, in amputations, surgeons conceal the instruments with which they are going to operate. The last execution at Tyburn, and consequently of this procession, was in the year | 1811 |
| JAMMED | Hanged. CANT. | 1811 |
| LADDER | To go up the ladder to rest; to be hanged. | 1811 |
| LEAF | To go off with the fall of the leaf; to be hanged: criminals in Dublin being turned off from the outside of the prison by the falling of a board, propped up, and moving on a hinge, like the leaf of a table. IRISH TERM. | 1811 |
| MORNING DROP | The gallows. He napped the kings pardon and escaped the morning drop; he was pardoned, and was not hanged. | 1811 |
| MORRIS | to hang dangling in the Air, to be executed. | 1737 |
| NEW DROP | The scaffold used at Newgate for hanging of criminals; which dropping down, leaves them suspended. By this improvement, the use of that vulgar vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off. | 1811 |
| NEWMANS LIFT | The gallows. | 1811 |
| NUBBING | hanging. To be nubbed, to be hanged. | 1737 |
| NUBBING | Hanging. Nubbing cheat: the gallows. Nubbing cove; the hangman. Nubbing ken; the sessions house. | 1811 |
| NUBBING-CHEAT | the Gallows. | 1737 |
| PADDINGTON FAIR DAY | An execution day, Tyburn being in the parish or neighbourhood of Paddington. To dance the Paddington frisk; to be hanged. | 1811 |
| PADDINGTON-FAIR | an Execution of Malefactors at Tyburn. | 1737 |
| PISS | He will piss when he cant whistle; he will be hanged. He shall not piss my money against the wall; he shall not have my money to spend in liquor. | 1811 |
| QUINSEY | Choked by a hempen quinsey; hanged. | 1811 |
| SCRAG'D | hang'd. | 1819 |
| SCRAGGED | Hanged. | 1811 |
| SCRAGGEM FAIR | A public execution. | 1811 |
| SCRAGGING-POST | the gallows. | 1819 |
| SHERIFFS BALL | An execution. To dance at the sheriffs ball, and loll out ones tongue at the company; to be hanged, or go to rest in a horses night-cap, i.e. a halter. | 1811 |
| SHERIFFS PICTURE FRAME | The gallows. | 1811 |
| STRETCHING | hanging. He will stretch for it; He will be hangd. | 1737 |
| STRETCHING | Hanging. Hell stretch for it; he will be hanged for it. Also telling a great lie: he stretched stoutly. | 1811 |
| SUS PER COLL | Hanged: persons who have been hanged are thus entered into the jailors books. | 1811 |
| SUSPENCE | One in a deadly suspence; a man just turned off at the gallows. | 1811 |
| THREE LEGGED STOOL | or Three legged Mare; Tyburn. | 1737 |
| THREE-LEGGED MARE, or STOOL | The gallows, formerly consisting of three posts, over which were laid three transverse beams. This clumsy machine has lately given place to an elegant contrivance, called the NEW DROP, by which the use of that vulgar vehicle a cart, or mechanical instrument a ladder, is also avoided; the patients being left suspended by the dropping down of that part of the floor on which they stand. This invention was first made use of for a peer. See DROP. | 1811 |
| TO SWING | To be hanged. He will swing for it; he will be hanged for it. | 1811 |
| TOP'D | hanged. | 1819 |
| TOPPING CHEAT | The gallows. CANT. | 1811 |
| TOPPING-CHEAT | the Gallows. | 1737 |
| TRINE | to hang; also Tyburn. | 1737 |
| TRINE | To hang; also Tyburn. | 1811 |
| TRINING | hanging. | 1737 |
| TRINING | Hanging. | 1811 |
| TRYNING | See TRINING. | 1811 |
| TUCKD | hangd. | 1737 |
| TUCKED UP | Hanged. A tucker up to an old bachelor or widower; a supposed mistress. | 1811 |
| TWISTED | executed, hanged. | 1737 |
| TWISTED | Executed, hanged. | 1811 |
| TWISTED | hanged. | 1819 |
| TYBURN TIPPET | A halter; see Latimers sermon before. Edward VI. A. D. 1549. | 1811 |
| WRY MOUTH AND A PISSEN PAIR OF BREECHES | Hanging. | 1811 |
| WRY NECK DAY | Hanging day. | 1811 |
| Death : Related Terms |
|---|
| COLLEGIATES | the Prisoners of the one, and the Shop-keepers of the other of those Places. | 1737 |
| COLLEGIATES | Prisoners of the one, and shopkeepers of the other of those places. | 1811 |
| CRAMP WORDS | Sentence of death passed on a criminal by a judge. He has just undergone the cramp word; sentence has just been passed on him. CANT. | 1811 |
| CRAMP-WORDS | Sentence of Death passed upon a Criminal by the Judge: as, He has just undergone the Cramp-Word; i.e. Sentence is just passed upon him. | 1737 |
| DISMAL DITTY | The psalm sung by the felons at the gallows, just before they are turned off. | 1811 |
| DISMAL-DITTY | a Psalm at the Gallows | 1737 |
| DISPATCHES | a Mittimus, a Justice of Peaces Warrant to send a Rogue to Prison, etc | 1737 |
| DISPATCHES | A mittimus, or justice of the peaces warrant, for the commitment of a rogue. | 1811 |
| GAOLERS COACH | A hurdle: traitors being usually conveyed from the gaol, to the place of execution, on a hurdle or sledge. | 1811 |
| GAOLERS-COACH | a Hurdle. | 1737 |
| MAIDEN SESSIONS | A sessions where none of the prisoners are capitally convicted. | 1811 |
| MAIDEN-SESSIONS | when none are hangd. | 1737 |
| NECK VERSE | Formerly the persons claiming the benefit of clergy were obliged to read a verse in a Latin manuscript psalter: this saving them from the gallows, was termed their neck verse: it was the first verse of the fiftyfirst psalm, Miserere mei,&c. | 1811 |
| OTTOMY | The vulgar word for a skeleton. | 1811 |
| PIT | the Hole under the Gallows, into which those that pay not the Fee, (viz. 6s. 8d.) are cast and buried. | 1737 |
| PIT | The pit is the hole under the gallows, where poor rogues unable to pay the fees are buried. | 1811 |
| POST | as From Pillar to Post, from Constable to Constable. | 1737 |
| TROUNCED | troubled, cast in Law punished. | 1737 |
