To Milk the Pigeon (Grose 1811 Dictionary)

To Milk the Pigeon

To endeavour at impossibilities.

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

Milk and Water * Milling Cove

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.