To Pay (Grose 1811 Dictionary)

To Pay

To smear over. To pay the bottom of a ship or boat; to smear it over with pitch: The devil to pay, and no pitch hot or ready. SEA TERM.—Also to beat: as, I will pay you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face and eyes, and all your d—d jaws. To pay away; to fight manfully, also to eat voraciously. To pay through the nose: to pay an extravagant price.

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

Paw Paw Tricks * To Peach

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.