• c = Cant
• cb = (Cockney) Back-slang
• cr = (Cockney) Rhyming slang
• sh = Shelta, or Tinker
• r = Romany (n.b., not true Rom, but linguistically descended from it)
• b = Boxing

A

• Abbess: Female brothel keeper. A Madame.
• Abbot: The husband, or preferred man of an Abbess.
• Alderman: Half-Crown
• Area: The below-ground servant's entrance in the front of many London town-houses. (Not underworld slang)
• Area Diving: A method of theft that necessitates sneaking down area steps, and stealing from the lower rooms of houses.

B

• Bacca-pipes: Whiskers curled in small, close ringlets.
• Barkers (Barking Irons): Guns. Pistols, esp. Revolvers.
• Beak: Magistrate
• Beak-hunting: Poultry stealing
• Bearer up: Person that robs men who have been decoyed by a woman accomplice.
• Beef: (1) (v) Raise hue-and-cry. (2) (n) Thief. (cr) = Hot Beef! = Stop Thief!
• Bend: Waistcoat, vest
• Betty: A type of lockpick
• Billy: Handkerchief (often silk)
• Bit Faker: A coiner. A counterfeiter of coins.
• Blackleg: A person who will work, contrary to a strike. In the Colonies they are called Scabs.
• Blag: To steal or snatch, usually a theft, often by smash-and-grab
• Blob, on the (Blab): Begging by telling hardluck stories.
• Blooming, Bloody (Blasted, etc.): are forms of profanity not heard in polite company (Today they've been replaced in prestige with "Fucking", which is really too bad.)
• Blow: Inform.
• Blower: Informer. Also a disrepectful term for a girl.
• Bludger: A violent criminal; one who is apt to use a bludgeon.
• Blue Bottle: A policeman
• Boat, get the (Boated): To be sentanced to transportation (obs.). To receive a particularly harsh sentence.
• Bone, Bene: (Pronounced Bone and Benneh?) Good or profitable.
• Bonnet: A covert assistant to a Sharp
• Broad Arrow: The arrow-like markings on a prison convict's uniform. "Wearing the broad arrow" = In prison.
• Broads: Playing cards. Ex. "Spreading the broads" = playing a game of cards)
• Broading: Cheating at cards
• Broadsman: A card Sharper
• Bruiser: A Boxer (b)
• Buck Cabbie: A dishonest cab driver
• Bug hunting: Robbing, or cheating drunks. Esp. at night.
• Bull: Five shillings
• Buor: A woman
• Buttoner: A sharper's assistant who entices dupes.
• Buzzing: Stealing, esp. Picking Pockets.

C

• Candle to the devil, To hold a: To be evil
• Cant: A present; a free meal or quantity of some article. Also the creole and jargon spoken by thieves and the "surplus population."
• Cant of togs: A gift of clothing.
• Caper: A criminal act, dodge or device.
• Cash Carrier: A pimp, ponce or whore's minder.
• Chapel, the: Whitechapel.
• Chat: a Louse (a singular of Lice).
• Chaunting: Singing; also informing
• Chaunting lay: Street singing (hopefully for money)
• Chavy: Child
• Chink: Money
• Chiv, shiv: Knife, razor or sharpened stick (r)
• Choker: Clergyman. "Gull a choker"
• Christen: To remove identifying marks from, to make like new again. "Christen a watch."
• Church: To remove identifying marks from, to make like new again. "Church a watch."
• Cly faking: To pick a pocket, especially of its handkerchief (for which there was a ready market)
• Cockchafer: An especially build treadmill in the 'Steel
• Coiner: A coin counterfeiter
• Cokum (n & adj): Opportunity, advantage, shrewd, cunning.
• Cool: Look, look at this/it. (cb)
• Coopered: Wornout, useless
• Coopered Ken: A bad place for a stick up.
• Cop, Copper: A policeman
• Couter: Pound (money)
• Cove: A man
• Crabshells: Shoes
• Cracksman: A Burgler, a safecracker. One who clracks of breaks locks. A whole genre of thief.
• Crapped: hung, hanged.
• Crib: A building, house or lodging. The location of a gaol.
• Crimping shop: A waterfron lodging house, esp. one associated with the forcable impressment of seamen.
• Crooked cross, to play the: To betray, swindle or cheat.
• Crow: A lookout. A doctor.
• Crusher: A policeman

D

• Dab: bed (cb). "To dab it up with_____" = to engage in carnal acts with ___.
• Dabeno: Bad (cb)
• Daffy: A small measure, esp. of spiritous liquers.
• Deadlurk: Empty premises.
• Deaner: A shilling. (Etymologially descended from the Dinarious, or ancient silver penny of Britain...)
• Deb: Bed (cb)
• Demander: One who gains monies through menace.
• Derbies: (Pronounced Darbies). Handcuffed
• Device: Tuppence
• Deuce Hog (Duce Hog): 2 shillings
• Devil's claws: The broad arrows on a convict's prison uniform.
• Dewskitch: A beating
• Didikko: Gypsies; half breed gypsies (r). (From Didikai, a Rom contraction of Dik akai, or "look here")
• Dillo: Old (cb)
• Dimmick: A base coin, counterfeit
• Ding: (v & n) Throw away, pass on. Any object that has been so treated. Ex. "Knap the ding" or to take something that has been thrown out.
• Dipper: Pickpocket
• Dispatches: Loaded dice
• Dobbin: Ribbon
• Dollymop: A prostitute, often an amateur or a part-time street girl; a midinette.
• Dollyshop: A low, unlicenced loan shop or pawn shop.
• Don: A distinguished/expert/clever person; a leader
• Dookin: Palmistry
• Down: Suspicion. "To put down on someone" means to inform on that person's plans. While "To take the down of a ticker" means to Christen a watch.
• Do Down: To beat someone badly, punishing them with your fists. (b)
• Downer: Sixpence.
• Downy: Cunning, false.
• Drag: (1) A three month gaol sentence. (2) A street
• Dragsman: A thief who steals from carriages.
• Drum: A building, house or lodging; the location of a gaol.
• Dub: (1) Bad (cb); (2) Key, lockpick
• Duce: Tuppence
• Duckett: A street hawker or vendor's licence.
• Duffer: A seller of supposedly stolen goods. Also a Cheating Vendor or hawker.
• Dumplin: A swindling game played with skittles
• Dumps: Buttons and other Hawkers small wares.
• Dunnage: Clothes

E

• E.O.: A fairground gambling game
• Escop (Esclop, Eslop): Policeman (cb)

F

• Fadge: Farthing
• Fakement: a Device or pretence (especially a notice or certificate to facilitate begging).
• Family, the: The criminal Underworld, also Family People.
• Fan: To delicately feel someone's clothing, while it is still being worn, to search for valuables.
• Fancy, the: The brethren of the boxing ring.
• Fawney: Ring
• Fawney-dropping: A ruse whereby the villain pretends to find a ring (which is actually worthless) and sells it as a Possibly valuable article at a low price.
• Fine wirer: A highly skilled pickpocket
• Finny: Five pound note
• Flag: An apron
• Flam: A lie
• Flash (v & adj): Show, Showy (as in "Show-off," or "Flashy"); smart; something special.
• Flash house: A public house patronized by criminals.
• Flash notes: Paper that looks, at a glance, like bank-notes
• Flat: A person who is flat is easily deceived.
• Flatch: Ha'penny
• Flats: Playing cards, syn. Broads.
• Flimp: A snatch pickpocket. Snatch stealing in a crowd.
• Flue Faker: Chimney sweep
• Flummut: Dangerous
• Fly, on the: Something done quickly.
• Flying the Blue Pidgeon: Stealing roof lead.
• Flying the Mags: The game of "Pitch and Toss"
• Fogle: A silk handkerchief
• Fushme: Five shillings

G

• Gaff: Show, exhibition, fair "Penny Gaff" - Low, or vulgar theatre.
• Gallies: Boots
• Gammon: Deceive
• Gammy: False, undependable, hostile
• Garret: Fob pocket in a waistcoat
• Garrote: (v & n) A misplaced piano wire, and how it was misplaced.
• Gatter: Beer
• Gattering: A public house
• Gegor: Begger
• Gen: Shilling
• Glim: (1) Light or fire. (2) Begging by depicting oneself as having been burnt out of one's home. (3) Venereal Disease.
• Glock: Half-wit
• Glocky: Half-witted
• Gonoph: A minor thief, or small time criminal
• Granny: Understand or recognize
• Gravney: A Ring
• Grey, Gray: A coin with two identical faces
• Griddling: Begging, peddling, or scrounging
• Growler: A four wheeled cab
• Gulpy: Gullible, easily duped.

H

• Half inch: Steal (From pinch) (cr)
• Hammered for life: Married
• Hard up: Tobacco
• Haybag: Woman
• Haymarket Hector: Pimp, ponce or whore's minder; especially around the areas of Haymarket and Leicester Squares.
• Hoisting: Shoplifting
• Holywater sprinkler: A cudgel spiked with nails.
• Huey, Hughey: A town or village.
• Huntley, to take the: Syn. To take the Cake or to take the Biscuit. Also to be most excellent, as in Huntley and Palmer's biscuits.
• Hykey: Pride.

I

• Irons: Guns esp. Pistols or revolvers.

J

• Jack: Detective
• Jemmy: (1) Smart. (2) of Superior class. (3) an housebreaker's tool.
• Jerry: A Watch
• Jerryshop: Pawnbrokers
• Joey: A fourpence piece
• Jolly: Disturbance or Fracas
• Judy: A woman, specifically a prostitute
• Jug loops: Locks of hair brought over the temples and curled (a hairstyle that thankfully died out later in the period).
• Julking: Singing (as of caged songbirds)
• Jump: A ground floor window, or a burglary committed through such a window.

K

• Kanurd: Drunk (cb)
• Kecks: Trousers
• Ken: House or other place, esp. a lodging or public house.
• Kennetseeno: Bad, stinking, putrid -- Malodorous. (r)
• Kennuck: Penny
• Kidsman: An organizer of child thieves
• Kife: Bed
• Kinchen-lay (Kynchen-lay): Stealing from children
• Kingsman: A coloured or black handkerchief.
• Knap: To steal, take or receive
• Knapped: Pregnant
• Knob: "Over and under" a fairground game used for swindling.
• Know life, to: To be knowledgable in criminal ways

L

• Lackin, Lakin: Wife
• Ladybird: A Prostitute
• Lag: A convict or Ticket-of-leave man; To be sentenced to transportation or penal servitude.
• Lamps: Eyes
• Laycock, Miss (or Lady): Female sexual organs
• Lavender, in: (1) To be hidden from the police, (2) to be pawned, (3) to be put away, (4) to be dead.
• Lay: A method, system or plan
• Leg : A dishonest person, a sporting cheat or tout.
• Lill: Pocketbook
• London Particular: Thick London "Pea Soup" fog
• Long-Tailed: A banknote worth more than 5 pounds is said to be "long tailed"
• Luggers: Ear rings
• Lumber: (1) Unused, or second-hand furniture. (2) To pawn. (3) To go into seclusion. (4) To be in lumber is to be in gaol.
• Lump Hotel: Work House
• Lurk: (1) A place of resorting to or concealment in. (2) A scheme or method
• Lurker: A criminal of all work, esp. a begger, or someone who uses a beggar's disguise.
• Lush: An alcoholic drink.
• Lushery: A place where a lush may be had. A low public house or drinking den.
• Lushing Ken: See Lushery
• Lushington: A drunkard

M

• Macer: A cheat
• Mag: Ha'pence
• Magflying: Pitch and toss
• Magsman: An inferior cheat
• Maltooler: A pickpocket who steals while riding an omnibus, esp. from women.
• Mandrake: a Homosexual
• Mark: The victim
• Mary Blaine: Railway Train (cr); to meet a train or to travel via railway.
• Mauley: Handwriting, signature
• Mecks: Wine or spirits
• Milltag: Shirt
• Miltonian: Policeman
• Min: Steal
• Mitting: Shirt
• Mizzle: Quit, Steal, or Vanish
• Mobsman: A swindler or pickpocket, usually well-dressed. Originally one of the "Swell Mob"
• Mollisher: A woman, often a villain's mistress
• Monkery: the Country
• Monniker: Signature
• Mot: Woman, esp. the proprietress of a lodging or public house
• Moucher, Moocher: A rural vagrant. A gentleman of the road.
• Mouth: (1) Blabber. (2) A Fool
• Mug-hunter: A street robber or footpad. Hence the modern "Mugger"
• Mumper: Begger or scrounger
• Mutcher: A thief who steals from drunks
• Muck Snipe: A person who is "down and out"

N

• Nail: Steal
• Nancy: Buttocks
• Nebuchadnezzar: Male sexual organs; "to put Nebuchadnezzar out to grass" means to engage in sexual intercourse.
• Neddy: Cosh
• Nemmo: Woman (cb)
• Nethers: Lodging charges, rent
• Newgate Knockers: Heavily greased side whiskers curling back to, or over the ears
• Netherskens: Low lodging houses, flophouses
• Nibbed: Arrested
• Nickey: Simple in the head
• Nobble: The inflicting of grievious bodily harm
• Nobbler: (1) One who inflicts grevious bodily harm. (2) A sharper's confederate
• Nommus!: Get away! Quick! (cb)
• Nose: Informer or Spy
• Nubbiken: A sessions courthouse

O

• On the fly: While in motion or quickly
• Onion: A watch seal
• Out of twig: Unrecognized or in disquise
• Outsider: An instrument, resembling needle nosed pliers, used for turning a key in a lock from the wrong side.

P

• Pack: A night's lodging for the very poor
• Paddingken: A tramp's lodging house
• Pall: Detect
• Palmer: Shoplifter
• Patterer: Someone who earns by recitation or hawker's sales talk, esp. by hawking newspapers
• Peter: A box, trunk or safe.
• Pidgeon: A victim
• Pig: A policeman, usually a detective
• Pit: Inside front coat pocket
• Plant: A victim
• Pogue: A purse or prize
• Prad: Horse
• Prater: A bogus itinerate preacher
• Prig: (1) A thief. (2) To steal
• Puckering: Speaking in a manner that is incomprehensible to spectators
• Punishers: Superior nobblers. Men employed to give severe beatings
• Push: Money

R

• Racket: Illicit occupation or tricks
• Rampsman or Ramper: A tearaway or hoodlum
• Randy, on the: On the Spree or otherwise looking for companionship
• Rasher-wagon: Frying pan
• Ray: 1/6 (one and six-pence)
• Reader: Pocketbook or wallet
• Ream: Superior, real, genuine, good.
• Ream Flash Pull: A significant heist
• Ream Swag: Highly valuable stolen articles
• Reeb: Beer (cb)
• Roller: A thief who robs drunks or a prostitute who steals from her clientele.
• Rook: A type of jemmy
• Rookery: Slum or ghetto
• Rothschild, to come to the: To brag and pretend to be rich.
• Rozzers: Policemen
• Ruffles: Handcuffs

S

• Saddle: Loaf
• St. Peter's Needle: Severe discipline
• Salt Box: The Condemned Cell
• Sawney: Bacon
• Scaldrum dodge: Begging by means of feigned, or self-inflicted wounds
• Scran: Food
• Scratch an itch: (cr) Bitch
• Screever: A writer of fake testimonials; a forger
• Srew: Skeleton Key
• Screwing: A sub-genre of Cracking; burglary by means of skeleton keys, waxing keys, or picking locks.
• Screwsman: A burglar versed in screwing
• Scroby: Flogging in gaol
• Scurf: An exploitive employer or gang-leader
• Servant's lurk: A lodging or public house used by shady or dismissed servants.
• Shake lurk: Begging under the pretence of being a shipwrecked seaman.
• Shallow, work the: Begging while half naked.
• Shant: A pot or tumbler
• Sharp: A (card) swindler
• Shevis: A shift, a type of garment.
• Shinscraper: The Treadmill
• Shirkster: A layabout
• Shiver and shake: (cr) A cake
• Shivering Jemmy: A half naked begger
• Shoful: (1) Bad or counterfeit. (2) An hansom cab
• Shofulman: A coiner or passer of bad money.
• Skipper: One who sleeps in hedges and outhouses
• Skyrocket: (cr) Pocket (rarely used)
• Slang cove: A showman
• Slap-Bang Job: A night cellar (pub) frequented by thieves, and where no credit is given.
• Slum: (1) False, sham, a faked document, etc. (2) To cheat . (3) To pass bad money.
• Smasher: Someone who passes bad money.
• Smatter Hauling: Stealing Handkerchiefs
• Snakesman: A slightly built (boy) criminal used in burglary and housebreaking.
• Snells: A hawker's wares
• Snide: Counterfeit; counterfeit coins or jewels.
• Snide pinching: Passing bad money
• Snoozer: A thief that specializes in robbing hotel rooms with sleeping guests.
• Snowing: Stealing linen, clothes, etc, that have been hung out to dry.
• Soft: Paper money (i.e., "to do some soft" means to pass bad paper money.)
• Speeler: Cheat or a gambler
• Spike: Workhouse
• Sprat: Six pence
• Spreading the Broads: Three card monte.
• Square rigged: Soberly and respectfully dressed.
• Swell: An elegantly, or stylishly dressed gentleman.

T

• Tail: Prostitute
• Tatts: Dice, False Dice
• Tea Leaf: Thief (cr)
• Terrier Crop: Short, bristly haircut (denoting a recent stay in a prison or a workhouse)
• Teviss: Shilling
• Thicker: A Sovereign or a Pound
• Thick 'Un: A Sovereign
• Tightener: A meal. "To do a Tightener," to take a Meal.
• Titfer/Titfertat: Hat (cr)
• Toff: An elegantly, or stylishly dressed gentleman.
• Toffer: A superior whore.
• Toffken: A house containing well-to-do occupants.
• Toke: Bread
• Tol: Lot (cb), a Share.
• Toolers: Pickpockets
• Tooling: Skilled Pickpocket
• Toper: Road
• Topped: Hung
• Topping: A hanging
• Translators: Secondhand apparel, especially Boots.
• Trasseno: An evil person
• Tuppeny (Tuppeny Loaf): Head (cr. from Loaf of Bread)
• Twirls: Keys, esp skeleton keys.
• Twist (Twist and Twirl): Girl (cr)

U

• Under and Over: A fairground game that's easy to swindle people with.

V

• Vamp: To Steal or Pawn. "In for a vamp" to be jailed for stealing
• Voker: Speak (r). "Voker Romeny?" (Pardon me, but do you speak Thieve's Cant?)

W

• Weeping Willow: Pillow (cr)
• Whistle and Flute: Suit (cr)
• Work Capitol: Commit a crime punishable by death.

Y

• Yack: A watch
• Yennap: A Penny. (cb)