Glossary list

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Glossaries

Term Main definition
the ton¹

People of fashion; fashionable society; the fashionable world. [O.E.D.]

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The turf

Horse racing and its associated business.

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the_horns¹

To ‘give horns to’; to cuckold ; to dishonour by adultery [OED]

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the_indian_trade¹

Tea was imported by the East India Company and thus sometimes described as 'Indian'

[Ref: Markman Ellis, Professor of Eighteenth Century Studies at Queen Mary University of London. Canton Tea Company website http://www.cantonteaco.com/blog/2011/06/teas-of-the-eighteenth-century-english-tea-trade/]

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the_lake¹

Lake of Fire, Hell.

"I heard it also called out to them that stood around on the Man that sat on the cloud, 'Gather together the tares, the chaff, and stubble, and cast them into the burning lake. And, with that, the bottomless pit opened, just whereabout I stood; out of the mouth of which there came, in an abundant manner, smoke and coals of fire, with hideous noise"

John Bunyan The Pilgrims Progress (1678) Chapter 2. Project Gutenberg Website http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39452/39452-h/39452-h.htm [accessed 27Apr2020]

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the_needful¹

The necessary funds; money, cash [OED]

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thick-tollols

Possibly victuals. Simon Rennie (i) writes "This is a guess, informed by similar wilful word-mangling we have come across, but I think 'thick-tollols' refers to 'victuals'. You'll be familiar with the practice of creating comic versions of unfamiliar phrases. We have a poem where 'bronchitis' is known as the 'brown-critters'.

(i) Senior Lecturer in Victorian Poetry, Exeter University

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thrutch¹

Thrutch: Thrust; push
[A Glossary of Lancashire Dialect http://www.dunkerley-tuson.co.uk/Pages/LancashireDialectGlossary.aspx]

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Synonyms - thrutch't¹, thrutchin'¹
tick¹

A very short period of time; almost immediately; The time it takes for a clock to tick.
Mechanical clocks, especially large ones, emitted an audible tick. [CPB]

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Tiddle-le-bump
Presumably flirtatious or sexual behaviour. The OED gives one 19th century meaning of tiddle as “To fondle or indulge to excess; to pet, pamper; to tend carefully, nurse, cherish.”
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tiff¹

Trim, Condition

[Palmer, Roy - A Touch on the Times Songs of Social Change 1770 to 1914 (Penguin Education, 1974) pp 62]

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tift

slight fit of ill-humour or offendedness; a petty quarrel or disagreement:[OED]

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Synonyms - tiff
tiger¹

Servants working as liveried coachmen. Judith Flanders [i] says that "Their name derived from their striped livery. Tigers, usually boys, wore tight, jocky-like outfits".

Reference

[i] Flanders, Judith. The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dicken's London (New York, Thomas Dunne Books St. Martin's Press, 2014) p87

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tighter¹

tidier or neater [OED/CPB]

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tights
Tight-fitting breeches, worn by men in the 18th and early 19th centuries. (OED)
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tint¹

Lost (scots) The OED gives a latest quotation in 1725.

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Tin¹

Cash

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tip²

Money given to an inferior, especailly to a servant or employee of another for a service rendered or expected [OED]

Tip¹

A piece of useful private or special information

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tit(1)

A small horse

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