assay
– to commence; to try it.
Possibly derived from the phrase “to take the assay or essay,” i.e., to taste wine to prove that it is not poisoned. It may have been brought into use by counterfeit coiners.
Image by Greg_e via Flickr
Sources
Barrère, Albert and Charles G. Leland. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant. [London]: [...]
artful dodger
– someone who avoids lodging in the same place twice out of fear of arrest.
Fagan, the Artful Dodger, and Oliver Twist. Image via Wikipedia
In England, the term also meant either a lodger or an expert thief. The Artful Dodger was, of course, the name of Fagan’s top child-pickpocket in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist.
Sources
Farmer, [...]
arch-cove
– the head of a gang or mob; governor; president.
arch gonnof
– the head of a gang of thieves.
The use of “arch” to signify the leader or head of a gang is still in use today. Action-adventure movies or television shows often use the terms “arch enemy” or “arch villain.”
Image via Wikipedia
Sources
Matsell, George W. [...]
antelope
– a hog (ironic: “a hog’s ugliness and clumsiness are contrasted with an antelope’s beauty and grace”).
antelope lay
– hog stealing.
Image by johnmuk via Flickr
Sources
Barnes, Daniel R. “An Early American Collection of Rogue’s Cant.” The Journal of American Folklore 79, no. 314 (Oct.-Dec., 1966), 600-607.
Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of the Underworld. New York: [...]
angler
– 1. a petty thief who uses a hook on the end of a string to steal from shop-windows, grates, doors, etc.; 2. a member of a gang of petty thieves who roams the street looking for opportunities; 3. a receiver of stolen goods; a fence; 4. a putter up, i.e., a servant, clerk, [...]
amuse
– 1. to fling dust into someone’s eyes in order to distract them; 2. to tell a false tale in order to distract and then rob an unsuspecting victim; to “entertain” deceptively.
Amusers threw dust or pepper, which they kept in their pockets, into the eyes of someone they wanted to rob. As the amuser [...]
ambush
– fraudulent weights and measures used by grocers, coal-dealers, etc.
The term is a pun on the formal definition of the word: to lie in wait (lying weight).
Sources:
Barrère, Albert and Charles G. Leland. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant. [London]: The Ballantyne Press, 1889.
Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of the Underworld. New York: Bonanza [...]
air and exercise
– 1. a short term of imprisonment, hence “two stretches of air and exercise” means two years in prison; 2. working in the stone quarry at Blackwell’s Island or at Sing Sing.
State Prison at Sing Sing, New York, 1855 – Image via Wikipedia
In England, air and exercise originally referred to someone being [...]
ackruffs
– River thieves; river-pirates (obsolete by 1900).
The word is an American variant of Ark Ruffians, who rob and murder on fresh water. One of their schemes is to pick an argument with a passenger on board the vessel and use the occasion to strip the passenger, throw him or her overboard, and then plunder [...]
Adam
– a henchman, an accomplice.
The word is also used in combination, as in Adam tiler (or tyler), a pickpocket’s accomplice. This latter term refers to the person to whom the pickpocket quickly passes off his or her gains for safekeeping and to avoid suspicion.
Sources:
Matsell, George W. Vocabulum: Or, the Rogue’s Lexicon.. New York: George [...]
