Slops, any weak, wet, and warm mixture. Hard drinkers regard all effeminate beverages as SLOPS.

Slops, chests or packages of tea; “he shook a slum of SLOPS,” i.e., stole a chest of tea. Also ready-made clothes—the substantive of SLOP.

Slops, liquid house-refuse.

Slopshop, a tailor’s shop where inferior work is done, and where cheap goods are sold.

Slour, to lock, or fasten.—Prison Cant.

Sloured, buttoned up; SLOURED HOXTER, an inside pocket buttoned up.

Slowcoach, a lumbering, dull person; one slow of comprehension.

Slowed, to be locked up (in prison).

Sluicery, a gin-shop or public-house.

Sluicing one’s bolt, drinking.

Slum, a chest, or package. See SLOPS.

Slum, a letter.—Prison Cant.

Slum, an insinuation, a discreditable innuendo.

Slum, or BACK SLUM, a dark retreat, a low neighbourhood; as Westminster and East-end SLUMS, favourite haunts for thieves.

Slum, to hide, to pass to a confederate.

Slum, to saunter about, with a suspicion, perhaps, of immoral pursuits.—Cambridge University Slang.

Slum the gorger, to cheat on the sly, to be an eye-servant. Slum in this sense is old cant.

Slumgullion, any cheap, nasty, washy beverage. An Americanism best known in the Pacific States.

Slumming, passing bad money.

Slush, the grease obtained from boiling the salt pork eaten by seamen, and generally the cook’s perquisite.

Slushy, a ship’s cook.

Sluter, butter.—North.

Smack smooth, even, level with the surface, quickly.

Small-beer; “he doesn’t think SMALL-BEER of himself,” i.e., he has a great opinion of his own importance. Small coals is also used in the same sense.

Small hours, the early hours after midnight.

Small potatoes, a term of contempt. “He’s very SMALL POTATOES,” he’s a nobody. Yet no one thinks of calling an important personage “large POTATOES.”

Smalls, a University term for the first general examination of the student. It is used at Cambridge, but properly belongs to Oxford. The Cambridge term is “little go.”

Smash, to become bankrupt, or worthless; “to go all to SMASH,” to break, “go to the dogs,” or fall in pieces.

Smash, to pass counterfeit money.

Smasher, one who passes bad coin, or forged notes.

Smashfeeder, a Britannia-metal spoon,—the best imitation shillings are made from this metal.

Smash-man-Geordie, a pitman’s oath.—Durham and Northumberland. See Geordie.

Smeller, the nose; “a blow on the SMELLER” is often to be found in pugilistic records. Otherwise a NOSE-ENDER.

Smish, a shirt, or chemise.

Smithers, or SMITHEREENS; “all to SMITHEREENS,” all to smash, SMITHER is a Lincolnshire word for a fragment.

Smock-face, a white delicate face,—a face without whiskers.

Smoke, London. From the peculiar dense cloud which overhangs London. The metropolis is by no means so smoky as Sheffield, Birmingham, &c.; yet country-people, when going to London, frequently say they are on their way to the SMOKE; and Londoners, when leaving for the country, say they are going out of the SMOKE.

Smoke, to detect, or penetrate an artifice. Originally used by London detectives, probably on account of their clouded intellects.

Smudge, to smear, obliterate, daub. Corruption of SMUTCH.

Smug, smuggling.—Anglo-Chinese.

Smug, extremely neat, after the fashion, in order.

Smug, sleek, comfortable. Term often applied to a seemingly pious humbug, more of the Chadband than the Stiggins.

Smut, a copper boiler. Also, the “blacks” from a furnace.

Smutty, obscene,—vulgar as applied to conversation. Variation of dirty.

Snack, a share or division of plunder. To “go SNACKS,” to divide equally. Also, a light repast.—Old Cant and Gipsy term.

Snack, to quiz or chaff with regard to a particular weakness or recent transaction. As a substantive in this sense SNACK means an innuendo.

Snaffle, conversation on professional or private subjects which the rest of the company cannot appreciate. In East Anglia, to SNAFFLE is to talk foolishly.

Snaffled, arrested, “pulled up,”—so termed from a kind of horse’s bit called a SNAFFLE.

Snaggle teeth, those that are uneven, and unpleasant looking.—West.

Snaggling, angling after geese with a hook and line, the bait being a worm or snail. The goose swallows the bait, and is quietly landed and bagged. See Seymour’s Sketches.

Snaggy, cross, crotchety, malicious.

Snam, to snatch, or rob from the person. Mostly used to describe that kind of theft which consists in picking up anything lying about, and making off with it rapidly.

Snaps, share, portion; any articles or circumstances out of which money may be made; “looking out for SNAPS,” waiting for windfalls, or odd jobs.—Old. Scotch, CHITS, term also used for “coppers,” or halfpence.

Snapps, spirits. Dutch, SCHNAPPS. The word, as originally pronounced, is used by East-end Jews to describe any kind of spirits, and the Gentiles get as near as they can.

Sneaksman, a shoplifter; a petty, cowardly thief.

Sneeze-lurker, a thief who throws snuff in a person’s face, and then robs him.

Sneezer, a snuff-box; a pocket-handkerchief.

Snell-fencer, a street salesman of needles. Snells are needles.

Snick-ersnee, a knife.—Sea. Thackeray uses the term in his humorous ballad of Little Billee.

Snicker, a drinking-cup. A HORN-SNICKER, a drinking-horn.

Snid, a sixpence.—Scotch.

Snide, bad, spurious, contemptible. As, “a SNIDE fellow,” “SNIDE coin,” &c. Also used as a substantive, as, “He’s a SNIDE,” though this seems but a contraction of SNIDE ’UN.

Snigger, to laugh in a covert manner. Also a mild form of swearing,—“I’m SNIGGERED if you will.” Another form of this latter is JIGGERED.

Sniggering, laughing to oneself.—East.

Snip, a tailor,—apparently from SNIPES, a pair of scissors, or from the snipping sound made by scissors in cutting up anything.

Snipe, a long bill or account; also a term for attorneys,—a race with a remarkable propensity for long bills.

Snipes, “a pair of SNIPES,” a pair of scissors. They are occasionally made in the form of a snipe.

Snitch, to give information to the police, to turn approver. Snitching is synonymous in thieves’ slang with “nosing” and “peaching.”

Snitchers, persons who turn Queen’s evidence, or who tell tales. In Scotland, SNITCHERS signify handcuffs.

Snob, a low, vulgar, or affected person. Supposed to be from the nickname usually applied to a cobbler or maker of shoes; but believed by many in its later sense to be a contraction of the Latin, SINE OBOLO. Others go to work for an etymology thus:—They assume that NOBS, i.e., nobiles, was appended in lists to the names of persons of gentle birth, whilst those who had not that distinction were marked down as S NOB, i.e., sine nobilitate, without marks of gentility,—thus, by a simple transposition, quite reversing the meaning. Others, again, remark that, as at college sons of noblemen wrote after their names in the admission lists, fil. nob., son of a lord, and hence all young noblemen were called NOBS, and what they did NOBBY, so those who imitated them would be called quasi-nobs, “like a nob,” which by a process of contraction would be shortened to si-nob, and then SNOB, one who pretends to be what he is not, and apes his betters. The short and expressive terms which many think fitly represent the three great estates of the realm—NOB, SNOB, and MOB—were all originally slang words. The last has safely passed through the vulgar ordeal of the streets, and found respectable quarters in the standard dictionaries. For fuller particulars of the genus SNOB, in all its ramifications, the reader cannot do better than apply to the general works of that great master of the subject, William Makepeace Thackeray, though it may be as well to remark that the SNOB for whom the novelist had such an aversion is now very widely known as “cad.”

Snobbish, stuck up, proud, make-believe.

Snob-Stick, a workman who refuses to join in strikes, or trade-unions. Amplification of KNOB-STICK.

Snooks, an imaginary personage often brought forward as the answer to an idle question, or as the perpetrator of a senseless joke. Said to be simply a shortening or abbreviation of “Sevenoaks,” the Kentish village.

Snooze, or SNOODGE (vulgar pronunciation), to sleep or doze.

Snooze-case, a pillow-slip.

Snorter, a blow on the nose. A hurry is sometimes called a “reg’lar SNORTER.”

Snot, a term of reproach applied to persons by the vulgar when vexed or annoyed, meaning really a person of the vilest description and meanest capacity. In a Westminster school vocabulary for boys, published in the last century, the term is curiously applied. Its proper meaning is the glandular mucus discharged through the nose.

Snot, a small bream, a slimy kind of flat fish.—Norwich.

Snotter, or WIPE-HAULER, a pickpocket whose chief fancy is for gentlemen’s pocket-handkerchiefs.—North.

Snottinger, a coarse word for a pocket-handkerchief. The German Schnupftuch is, however, nearly as plain. A handkerchief was also anciently called a “muckinger” or “muckender,” and from that a neckerchief was called a “neckinger.”

Snow, wet linen, or linen hung out to dry.—Old Cant.

Snow-gatherer, or SNOW-DROPPER, a rogue who steals linen from hedges and drying-grounds.

Snuff, “up to SNUFF,” knowing and sharp; “to take SNUFF,” to be offended. Shakspeare uses SNUFF in the sense of anger, or passion.

Snuff it, to die. Term very common among the lower orders of London. A fanciful variation of “putting one’s light out,” and used simply in reference to the action of the person dying. Thus any one threatening to murder another says, “I’ll put your light out,” or any one committing suicide is said to “put his own light out;” but to “SNUFF IT” is always to die from disease or accident. To “lay down one’s knife and fork,” to “peg out,” or “give up,” are variations of this form of euphemism.

Snuffy, tipsy, drunk.

Snuggle, to lie closely and cosily.

Snyder, a tailor. German, SCHNEIDER.

Soaker, an habitual drunkard.

Soap, flattery. See SOFT SOAP.

Sober-water, a jocular allusion to the uses of soda-water.

Social evil, a name for some years applied to our street-walking system, in consequence of the articles in the newspapers which treat on the evils of prostitution being so headed. A good story has been often told on this subject, which will bear repeating:—“A well-known divine and philanthropist was walking in a crowded street at night in order to distribute tracts to promising subjects. A young woman was walking up and down, and he accosted her. He pointed out to her the error of her ways, implored her to reform, and tendered her a tract with fervent entreaties to go home and read it. The girl stared at him for a moment or two in sheer bewilderment; at last it dawned on her what he meant, and for what he took her, and looking up in his face with simple amazement, she exclaimed, ‘Lor’ bless you, sir, I ain’t a SOCIAL EVIL; I’m waitin’ for the ’bus!’” The enthusiasm which was felt in this direction a few years back has received considerable modification, as it has been proved that the efforts of the promoters of midnight meetings and other arrangements of a similar nature, praiseworthy though they are, have little or no effect; and that the early-closing movement in the Haymarket has done more to stamp out the SOCIAL EVIL than years of preaching, even when accompanied by tea and buns, could ever have done.

Sock, the Eton College term for a treat, synonymous with “chuck” used at Westminster and other schools. Believed to be derived from the monkish word SOKE. An old writer speaks of a pious man “who did not SOKE for three days,” meaning that he fasted. The word is still used by the boys of Heriot’s Hospital School at Edinburgh, and signifies a sweetmeat; being derived from the same source as sugar, suck, SUCRE, &c.

Sock, credit. As, “He gets his goods on SOCK, while I pay ready.”

Sock into him, i.e., give him a good drubbing; “give him SOCK,” i.e., thrash him well.

Sockdolager. See STOCKDOLLAGER.

Socket-money, money extorted by threats of exposure. To be applied to for SOCKET-MONEY is perhaps one of the most terrible inflictions that can befall a respectable man. Socketers, as the applicants are called, should be punished with the utmost possible severity.

Sodom, a nickname for Wadham, due to the similarity of the sounds.—Oxford University.

Soft, foolish, inexperienced. A term for bank-notes.

Soft-horn, a simpleton; literally a donkey, whose ears, the substitutes of horns, are soft.

Soft-sawder, flattery easily laid on or received. Probably introduced by Sam Slick.

Soft-soap, or soft-sawder, flattery, ironical praise.

Soft-tack, bread.—Sea.

Soft-tommy, loaf-bread, in contradistinction to hard biscuit.

Soiled doves, the “Midnight Meeting” term for prostitutes and “gay” ladies generally.

Sold, “SOLD again! and got the money,” gulled, deceived. Vide SELL.

Sold up, or OUT, broken down, bankrupt.

Soldier, a red herring. Common term in seaport towns, where exchange is made, a soldier being called by the fishy title.

Something damp, a dram, a drink.

Son of a gun, a familiar term for a man. Sometimes applied eulogistically, never contemptuously. Generally said of an artful person, and perhaps, originally, son of a “gun,” (or “gonnof”). In the army it is sometimes applied to an artilleryman.

Sonkey, a clumsy, awkward fellow.

Soor, an abusive term. Hindostanee, a pig.—Anglo-Indian.

Soot-bag, a reticule.

Sop, a soft or foolish man. Abbreviation of MILKSOP.

Soph (abbreviation of “sophister”), a title peculiar to the University of Cambridge. Undergraduates are junior SOPHS before passing their “Little Go,” or first University examination,—senior SOPHS after that.

Sort, used in a slang sense thus—“That’s your SORT,” as a term of approbation. “Pitch it into him, that’s your SORT,” i.e., that is the proper kind of plan to adopt.

So-so, not particularly reputable. “A very SO-SO sort of a person,” a person whom it is no advantage to know. “It was very SO-SO” (said of a piece of work or an entertainment), it was neither good nor bad.

Sound, to pump, or draw information from a person in an artful manner.

Souper, an Irish Roman Catholic who pretends conversion—or perversion—so as to obtain a share of the soup and blankets provided for Protestants only by Christian missionaries. These recalcitrants are also called “swaddlers.”

Sou’-wester, a hat with a projection behind. Much worn at sea in “dirty” weather. A hat similar to that of a dustman or coalheaver, which is called a “fantail.”

Sov, contraction of sovereign; much used in sporting parlance to denote the amount of entrance money, forfeit, and added coin in connexion with a race. In the published conditions of a race the word SOVS is almost invariably used in preference to pounds, though in reckoning the net value of a big stake, after its decision, the common £ is used.

Sow, the receptacle into which the liquid iron is poured in a gun-foundry. The melted metal poured from it is termed PIG.

Sow’s baby, a pig; sixpence.

Spank, a smack, or hard slap.

Spank, to move along quickly; hence a fast horse or vessel is said to be “a SPANKER to go.”

Spanking, large, fine, or strong; e.g., a SPANKING pace, a SPANKING breeze, a SPANKING fellow.

Sparks, diamonds. Term much in use among the lower orders, and generally applied to stones in rings and pins.

Specklebellies, Dissenters. A term used in Worcester and the North, though the etymology seems unknown in either place.

Specks, damaged oranges.—Costermonger’s term.

Speech, a tip or wrinkle on any subject. On the turf a man will wait before investing on a horse until he “gets the SPEECH,” as to whether it is going to try, or whether it has a good chance. To “give the SPEECH,” is to communicate any special information of a private nature.

Speel, to run away, make off; “SPEEL the drum,” to go off with stolen property.—North.

Spell, a turn of work, an interval of time. “Take a SPELL at the capstern.”—Sea. “He took a long SPELL at that tankard.” “After a long SPELL.”

Spell, “to SPELL for a thing,” to hanker after it, to desire possession.

Spell, to advertise, to put into print. “Spelt in the leer,” i.e., advertised in the newspaper.

Spell, contracted from SPELLKEN. “Precious rum squeeze at the SPELL,” i.e., a good evening’s work at the theatre, might be the remark of a successful pickpocket.

Spellken, or SPEELKEN, a playhouse. German, SPIELEN. See KEN.—Don Juan.

Spick and span, applied to anything that is quite new and fresh.—Hudibras.

Spidireen, the name of an imaginary ship, sometimes mentioned by sailors. If a sailor be asked what ship he belongs to, and does not wish to tell, he will most probably reply—“The SPIDIREEN frigate, with nine decks, and ne’er a bottom.” See merry dun of Dover.

Spierized, to have your hair cut and shampooed, from the shop of Spiers in High Street.—Oxford University.

Spiff, a well-dressed man, a “swell.”

Spiffed, slightly intoxicated.—Scotch Slang.

Spiffs, the per-centages allowed by drapers to their young men when they effect a sale of old-fashioned or undesirable stock.

Spiffy, spruce, well-dressed, tout à la mode.

Spifflicate, to confound, silence, annihilate, or stifle. A corruption of the last word, or of “suffocate.”

Spike Park, the Queen’s Bench Prison. See Burdon’s Hotel.

Spill, to throw from a horse or chaise. See PURL.

Spin, to reject from an examination.—Army.

Spindleshanks, a nickname for any one who has thin legs.

Spin-’em rounds, a street game consisting of a piece of brass, wood, or iron, balanced on a pin, and turned quickly round on a board, when the point, arrow-shaped, stops at a number, and decides the bet one way or the other. The contrivance very much resembles a sea compass, and was formerly the gambling accompaniment of London piemen. The apparatus then was placed on the tin lids of their pie-cans, and the bets were ostensibly for pies, but were frequently for “coppers,” or for beer when two or three apprentices or porters happened to meet. An active and efficient police have, however, changed all that now.

Spiniken, St. Giles’s Workhouse. “Lump,” Marylebone Workhouse. “Pan,” St. Pancras. “Pan” and “Lump” are now terms applied to all workhouses by tramps and costers.

Spinning-house, the place in Cambridge where street-walkers are locked up, if found out after a certain time at night.

Spitalfields’ breakfast. At the East-end of London this is understood as consisting of a tight necktie and a short pipe. Amongst workmen it is usual to tighten the apron string when no dinner is at hand. Hunters and trappers always take in their belts when supplies are short. “An Irishman’s dinner” is a low East-end term, and means a smoke and a visit to the urinal. Sometimes the phrase is, “I’ll go out and count the railings,” i.e., the park or area railings, mental instead of maxillary exercise.

Spitfire, a passionate person.

Splash, complexion powder used by ladies to whiten their necks and faces. The finest rice flour, termed in France poudre de riz, is generally employed. See SLAP.

Splendiferous, sumptuous, first-rate. Splendacious sometimes used with similar meanings.

Splice, to marry; “and the two shall become one flesh.”—Sea. Also, a wife.

Splice the main brace, to take a drink.—Sea.

Split, to inform against one’s companions, to tell tales. “To SPLIT with a person,” to cease acquaintanceship; to quarrel. Also to divide a bottle of aërated water; as, “two brandies and a soda SPLIT;” in which case “to SPLIT with” a person has a very different meaning from that just given.

Split up, long in the legs. Among athletes, a man with good length of limb is said to be “well SPLIT UP.”

Splodger, a lout, an awkward countryman.

Spoffy, a bustling busybody is said to be SPOFFY.

Sponge, “to throw up the SPONGE,” to submit, to give over the struggle,—from the practice of throwing up the SPONGE used to cleanse a combatant’s face at a prize-fight, as a signal that the side on which that particular SPONGE has been used has had enough—that the SPONGE is no longer required.

Spoon, synonymous with SPOONEY. A SPOON has been defined to be “a thing that touches a lady’s lips without kissing them.”

Spooney, a weak-minded and foolish person, effeminate or fond; “to be SPOONEY on a girl,” to be foolishly attached to one.

Spoons, the condition of two persons who SPOON on each other, who are deeply in love. “I see, it’s a case of SPOONS with them,” is a common phrase when lovers are mentioned.

Spoons, a method of designating large sums of money, disclosed at the Bankruptcy Court during the examination of the great leather failures of Streatfield and Laurence in 1860-61. The origin of the phrase was stated to be the reply of the bankrupt Laurence to an offer of accommodating him with £5000,—“Oh, you are feeding me with a TEA-SPOON.” Hence, £5000 came to be known in the firm as a TEA-SPOON; £10,000, a DESSERT-SPOON; £15,000, a TABLE-SPOON; and £20,000, as a GRAVY-SPOON. The public were amused at this TEA-SPOON phraseology, but were disgusted that such levity should cover a gigantic swindle of the kind. It came out in evidence, however, that it was not the ordinary slang of the discount world, but it may not improbably become so. To “take it with a SPOON,” is to take anything in small quantities. The counsel for the defence in the Tichborne perjury case was reminded a short time back by one of the judges that he was using a TEA-SPOON instead of a shovel, to clear through the evidence.

Sport, to exhibit, to wear, &c.,—a word which is made to do duty in a variety of senses, especially at the Universities.—See the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. “To SPORT a new tile;” “to SPORT an Ægrotat” (i.e., a permission from the Dons to abstain from lectures, &c., on account of illness); “to SPORT one’s oak,” to shut the outer door and exclude the public,—especially duns and boring acquaintances. Common also in the Inns of Court. See Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vol. viii. p. 492, and Gentleman’s Magazine, December, 1794.

Sport, an American term for a gambler or turfite—more akin to our sporting man than to our sportsman.

Sporting door, the outer door of chambers, also called the OAK. See under SPORT.—University.

Spot, to mark, to recognise. Originally an Americanism, but now general. “I SPOTTED him (or it) at once.”

Spotted, to be known or marked by the police.

Spout, “up the SPOUT,” at the pawnbroker’s; SPOUTING, pawning. See POP for origin.

Spout, to preach, or make speeches; SPOUTER, a preacher or lecturer.

Sprat, sixpence.

Spread, butter. Term with workmen and schoolboys. See SCRAPE.

Spread, a lady’s shawl, an entertainment, a display of good things.

Spread, a meal. Sporting term for a dinner. A sporting man often challenges another to compete with him at any athletic pursuit or pastime, for so much wine and a SPREAD of large or small proportions.

Spree, a boisterous piece of merriment; “going on the SPREE,” starting out with intent to have a frolic. French, ESPRIT. In the Dutch language, SPREEUW is a jester.

Springer-up, a tailor who sells low-priced ready-made clothing, and gives starvation wages to the poor men and women who “make up” for him. The clothes are said to be SPRUNG-UP, or “blown together.”

Sprint race, a short-distance race, ran at the topmost speed throughout. Sprint is in the North synonymous with SPURT, and hence the name.

Sprung, inebriated sufficiently to become boisterous.

Spry, active, strong, manly. Much used in America, but originally English.

Spuddy, a seller of bad potatoes. In lower life, a SPUD is a raw potato; and roasted SPUDS are those cooked in the cinders with their skins on.

Spun, when a man has failed in his examination at Woolwich, he is said to be SPUN; as at the Universities he is said to be “plucked” or “ploughed.”

Spunge, a mean, paltry fellow, sometimes called a SPUNGER.

Spunge, to live at another’s expense in a mean and paltry manner.

Spunging-house, the sheriff’s officer’s house, where prisoners, when arrested for debt, used to be taken. As extortionate charges were made there for accommodation, the name was far from inappropriate.