This site is in danger of going away; please consider the Donate link above...

Hawkers (Grose 1811 Dictionary)

Hawkers

Licensed itinerant retailers of different commodities, called also pedlars; likewise the sellers of news-papers. Hawking; an effort to spit up the thick phlegm, called OYSTERS: whence it is wit upon record, to ask the person so doing whether he has a licence; a punning allusion to the Act of hawkers and pedlars.

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

Hawk * To Hazel Gild

Nearby

Nathan Bailey's 1736 Dictionary of canting and thieving slang

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

Buy a modern reprint of this book from Amazon CA; US;

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.

Harum Scarum
Hash
Hasty
Hasty Pudding
Hat
Hatches
Hatchet Face
Havil
Havy Cavy
Hawk
Hawkers
To Hazel Gild
Head Cully of the Pass
Head Rails
Hearing Cheats
Heart’s Ease
Hearty Choak
Heathen Philosopher
To Heave
Heaver
Heavers