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One who deserves and has narrowly escaped the gallows, a slip-gibbet, one for whom the gallows is said to groan.
Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.
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John S. Farmer's collection of canting songs and slang rhymes
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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.