Duffers (Grose 1811 Dictionary)

Duffers

Cheats who ply in different parts of the town, particularly about Water-lane, opposite St. Clement’s church, in the Strand, and pretend to deal in smuggled goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling them Spital-fields goods at double their current price.

Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.

Duds * Dugs

Nearby

Nathan Bailey's 1736 Dictionary of canting and thieving slang

John S. Farmer's collection of canting songs and slang rhymes

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About

Francis Grose was independently wealthy, having inherited money from his father, a jeweller. Finding himself overspending, he published a number of books; his Provincial Glossary seems to have been the starting-point for the Vulgar Tongue reproduced here.