Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories

Read Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories for Free Online

Book: Read Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories for Free Online
Authors: Angela Carter
Tags: Fantasy, Short Stories, F, Magical Realism
— frowsty, unclean
carser

house, home
poll

young lady with whom a gentleman is having an irregular relationship
killing

adjective of high commendation; outstanding; unique
ginger-hackled

adj. — having auburn or flaxen hair
skull-thatcher

a straw-bonnet maker
on the nose, to be

on the look-out
jomer

sweetheart
fake the rubber, to

stand treat in an extravagant manner
mendozy

dear, darling; a term of endearment probably from the valiant fighter, Mendoza
out and out

adj. — first-rate; splendid
glorious sinner

dinner (rhyming slang)
alderman in chains, an

a turkey hung with sausages
Ben Flake, a

a steak (rhyming slang)
neddy, a

a large quantity of commodity, as in “a neddy of fruit”, “a neddy of fish”
Sharp’s Alley blood worms

black puddings. Sharp’s Alley was very recently a noted slaughtering place near Smithfield
Irish apricots

potatoes
Joe Savage

cabbage (rhyming slang)
storrac

carrots (back slang)
beargeared
    bleary
    blued
    primed
    lumpy
    top-heavy
    moony
    scammered on the ran-tan
    ploughed
    muddled
    obfuscated
    swipy
    kisky
    sewed up
    all mops and brooms
    lap the gutter, to
    not be able to see a
    hole in the ladder, to
}
adjectives and phrases denoting various stages of drunkenness
go to a Bungay Fair and lose both legs, to

to have reached the ultimate degree of intoxication. In the Ancient Egyptian language, the determinative character of the hieroglyphic verb “to be drunk” has the significant form of the leg of a man being amputated
flare-up, a

row
soush

house (back slang)
drop into somebody, to

give them an unprovoked beating
twist

appetite, e.g. “Will’s got a capital twist for a Ben Flake” or, in the case of the hero of our anecdote, a capital twist for …
batty fang, a

a sound beating, a drubbing
dragging time

the evening of a country fair day, when the young fellows begin pulling the wenches about
sick as a horse

popular simile denoting extreme ennui
catchy

inclined to take undue advantage
fancy-bloke

gentleman friend
bed-fagot

bed companion
gooseberry pudden
Gill
Moll
}
terms of disapprobation applied to females
blast, to

to curse
give jessie, to

to commit assault and battery upon someone
Mullingar heifer

said of a lady whose ankles are “beefy”, or thick. A term of Irish origin. It is said that a traveller passing through Mullingar was so struck with this pecularity in the local women that he determined to accost the first he met next. “May I ask,” said he, “if you wear hay in your shoes?” “Faith, an what if I do?” said the girl. “Because,” says the traveller, “that accounts for the calves of your legs coming down to feed on it.”
barnacled

adj. — applied to a wearer of spectacles (corruption of Latin binnoculi?). Derived by some from the barnacle (Lepas Anatifera), a kind of conical shell adhering to ships’ bottoms. Hence a marine term for goggles, and for which they are used by sailors in a case of ophthalmic derangement
cove

or covey; a man or boy of any age
spoffy

adj. — officious, intrusive
blackberry swagger

a person who hawks tapes, bootlaces, etc.
Newgate fringe, a

the collar of beard worn under the chin; so called from its indicating the position of the rope when Jack Ketch operates
sing out, to

exclaim in a loud voice
knife it, to

to stop, to bring to a halt
stow faking, to

to cease evil activity
stunning

adj. — astounding
fag

blow
twopenny

head
Albertopolis

a facetious appelation given by Villagers to the Kensington Gore district
buy the rabbit, to

make a bad bargain; obtain a deal of trouble and inconvenience by some action
slubberdegullion

worthless wretch
pepper, to
    clump, to
    leather, to
}
degrees of beating
flop down, to go

to collapse totally
Rory O’More

floor (rhyming slang)
step it, to

abscond
frog and toad

main road (rhyming slang)
Joe Blake the Bartlemy, to go to

to visit a low woman in a house of ill-repute
hop the twig, to

to run away; to leave someone in the lurch
vertical

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