Hardcastle is a detective from a bygone era when the language was slightly different. As a guide for readers a glossary of words and phrases is given on this page.
‘A’ FROM A BULL’S FOOT, to know: to know nothing.
ACK EMMA: signallers’ code for a.m. (cf PIP EMMA.)
ACT UP: temporarily to assume the role of a higher rank while the substantive holder is on leave or sick.
ALBERT: a watch chain of the type worn by Albert, Prince Consort (1819-61).
ALL MY EYE AND BETTY MARTIN: nonsense.
ANDREW, The: seamen’s slang for the Royal Navy.
ANTECEDENTS or ANTECEDENT HISTORY: police slang for details of an accused person’s general background, address, education & previous employment, etc.
APM: assistant provost marshal (a lieutenant colonel of the military police).
BAG CARRIER: an officer, usually a sergeant, deputed to assist the senior investigating officer in a murder or other serious enquiry.
BAILEY, the: Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London.
BAILIWICK: area of responsibility.
BARNEY: an argument.
BEAK: a magistrate.
BEETON, Mrs: famous writer of a widely read cookery book.
BEF: British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders.
BENT: crooked or stolen.
BIRD LIME: time (rhyming slang).
BIRD, to give the: to dismiss.
BLACK ANNIE or BLACK MARIA: a police or prison van.
BLADE: a dashing young man.
BLIGHTY ONE: a wound suffered in battle that necessitated repatriation to the United Kingdom.
BLIGHTY: the United Kingdom.
BLIMP: an airship.
BLOW THE GAFF, To: to reveal a secret.
BLOW, a: police slang for a relief.
BLUEJACKET: a rating in the Royal Navy.
BLUES, The: alternative name for the Royal Horse Guards.
BOB: a shilling (now 5p).
BOCHE: derogatory term for Germans, particularly soldiers.
BOOTNECK: a member of the Royal Marines.
BOOZER: a public house.
BRADBURY: a pound note. From Sir John Bradbury, Secretary to the Treasury, who introduced pound notes in 1914 to replace gold sovereigns.
BRADSHAW: a timetable giving routes and times of British railway services.
BREWSTER SESSIONS: magistrates’ sessions for the issue of licences to permit trade in alcoholic liquors.
BRIEF, a: a warrant or a police warrant card or a lawyer or a barrister’s case papers.
BROLLY: an umbrella.
BUCK HOUSE: Buckingham Palace.
BULL AND COW: a row (rhyming slang).
BUN IN THE OVEN, TO HAVE A: to be pregnant.
BUNK, to do a: to run away.
BUSY, a: a detective.
CARNEY: cunning, sly.
CARPET: three months’ imprisonment. (The length of time it took to weave a carpet in prison workshops.)
CATS AND DOGS, to come down: raining heavily.
CB: Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.
CHESTNUTS OUT OF THE FIRE, to pull your: to solve your problem.
CHINWAG: a talk.
CHOKEY: a prison (ex Hindi).
CID: Criminal Investigation Department.
CIGS: Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
C-in-C: Commander-in-Chief
CIVVIES: civilians (i.e. not members of the armed forces) or plain clothes worn by members of the armed forces.
CLINK: prison. Clink Street, London, was the site of an old prison.
CLOBBER: clothing.
CLYDE (as in D’YOU THINK I CAME UP THE CLYDE ON A BICYCLE?): to suggest that the speaker thinks one is a fool.
COCK-AND-BULL STORY: an idle, silly or incredible story.
COFFIN NAILS: cigarettes.
COLDSTREAMER: a soldier of the Coldstream Guards.
COLLAR, to: to arrest.
COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE: official title of New Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police.
CONK OUT, to: to suffer engine failure.
COPPER: a policeman.
COPPER-KNOBS: people with auburn hair.
CO-RESPONDENT SHOES: brown & white shoes, reputed to be worn by philanderers.
COSTERMONGER: a fruit-seller.
COUGH, to: to confess.
COVE: a man.
CRACKLING, a piece of: an attractive woman.
CRACKSMAN: a safebreaker or housebreaker.
CRIB: in the criminal context a house.
CRIMED: military slang for receiving punishment.
CROWN-AND-ANCHOR: a game played with dice marked with crowns and anchors.
CULLY: alternative to calling a man ‘mate’.
CUTPURSE: a thief or street robber. Originally one who, literally, cut a purse to steal the money therein.
D: a detective.
DABS: fingerprints.
DAPM: deputy assistant provost marshal.
DARBIES: handcuffs.
DARTMOOR: a remote prison on Dartmoor in Devon.
DDI: Divisional Detective Inspector.
DEKKO: a look (ex Hindi).
DERBY ACT or DERBY LAW: Military Service Act 1916, formulated by Lord Derby, that introduced conscription.
DICKEY BIRD: a word (rhyming slang).
DIGS or DIGGINGS: rented lodgings, usually short term.
DILLY, the: short for Piccadilly and its environs; a haunt of prostitutes.
DIP: a pickpocket or to steal from the pocket.
DOG’S DINNER, a: a mess.
DOGBERRY: a watchman (ex Shakespeare).
DOLLAR: five shillings (25p).
DOOLALLY-TAP: of unsound mind (ex Hindi).
DOXY: a woman of loose character.
DPP: Director of Public Prosecutions.
DRUM: a dwelling house, or room therein. Any place of abode.
DSC: Distinguished Service Cross.
DSO: Distinguished Service Order.
DUFF, to put up the: to make pregnant.
DUMMY, to throw or sell a: to set a false trail.
DUMMY: a wallet.
DUSTY ANSWER: an uncooperative reply.
DUTCH UNCLE, to talk to like a: to talk to in a kindly fashion.
EARWIGGING: listening.
EIGHT O’CLOCK WALK, to take the: to be hanged.
EWBANK: proprietary name of an early type of non-electric carpet sweeper.
EYEWASH: nonsense.
FARTHING: one quarter of an old penny.
FEEL THE COLLAR, to: to make an arrest.
FENCE, to: to dispose of stolen property.
FENCE: a receiver of stolen property.
FIDDLE-FADDLE: trifling talk or behaviour.
FIND THE LADY: a three-card trick, the ‘lady’ being a solitary queen alongside two nondescript cards, placed face down. Bets are placed on which one is the queen.
FIVE-AND-NINE ON THE BRIGHTON LINE: the fare from London to Brighton was five shillings and ninepence; ‘Brighton Line’ was, therefore, a popular call for the number 59 among troops playing housey-housey (qv) or tombola.
FIVER: £5 sterling.
FIVE-STRETCH: five year’s imprisonment.
FLASH IN THE PAN: an abortive effort.
FLEET STREET: former centre of the newspaper industry, and still used as a generic term for the Press.
FLIM or FLIMSY: a five-pound note. From the thin paper on which it was originally printed.
FLIM-FLAM: a piece of nonsense.
FLOG, to: to sell.
FLOOZY: a young woman of dubious sexual morals.
FLORIN: two shillings (10p).
FLOUNDER: a cab (rhyming slang: flounder and dab).
FLUFF, a bit of: a girl; an attractive young woman.
FORM: previous convictions.
FOURPENNY CANNON, a: a steak and kidney pie.
FRONT, The: theatre of WW1 operations in France and Flanders.
GAMAGES: a London department store.
GAMP: an umbrella (from Sarah Gamp in Charles Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit).
GANDER, to cop a: to take a look.
GEEZER: a man, usually derogatory.
GILD THE LILY, to: to exaggerate.
GLIM: a look (a foreshortening of ‘glimpse’).
GLOSTERS: alternative spelling for the Gloucestershire Regiment.
GOC: General officer commanding.
GODS, The: the gallery of a theatre.
GPO: General Post Office.
GRASS: an informer.
GREAT SCOTLAND YARD: location of an army recruiting office and a military police detachment. Not to be confused with New Scotland Yard, half a mile away in Whitehall.
GROWLER: a taxi.
GUNNERS, The: a generic term to encompass the Royal Horse Artillery, the Royal Garrison Artillery and the Royal Field Artillery. In the singular, a member of one of those regiments.
GUV or GUV’NOR: informal alternative to ‘sir’.
HA’PENNY: a half penny.
HACK: the driver of a Hackney carriage or a taxi or the vehicle itself or a newspaper reporter.
HALF A CROWN or HALF A DOLLAR: two shillings and sixpence (12½p).
HALF-COLONEL: a lieutenant colonel.
HAND AMBULANCE: a two-wheeled barrow used for conveying drunkards to the police station, and occasionally for removing dead bodies.
HANDFUL: five years’ imprisonment.
HANDLE TO ONE’S NAME: having a title (e.g. Lord or Sir).
HAP’ORTH: half a penny’s-worth; taken to mean worthless.
HAVE IT UP, to: to engage in sexual intercourse.
HAVILDAR: a native sergeant in the Indian Army.
HAWKING THE MUTTON: leading a life of prostitution.
HOBSON’S CHOICE: no choice at all. From the 1916 book of the same name by Harold Brighouse.
HOLLOWAY: women’s prison in North London.
HORSE’S NECK: brandy and ginger ale; reputed to be a favourite drink among officers of the Royal Navy.
HOSPITAL BLUES: A blue uniform, with white shirt and red tie, issued to wounded soldiers who were convalescing.
HOUSEY-HOUSEY: army term for lotto, bingo or tombola.
IRON: a firearm, especially a handgun.
IRONCLAD: a battleship.
JIG-A-JIG: sexual intercourse.
JILDI: quickly (ex Hindi).
JOANNA: a piano (rhyming slang).
JUDY: a girl.
JUG-AND-BOTTLE: the bar of a public house where one could obtain beer in either a bottle or in one’s own jug to be consumed off the premises.
KATE CARNEY: army (rhyming slang: from Kate Carney, a music hall comedienne of the late 19th early 20th century).
KATE short for KATE CARNEY: see above.
KC: King’s Counsel: a senior barrister.
KETTLE: a pocket watch.
KIP, to have a: to sleep.
KNOCK OFF to: to arrest.
KNOCKED OFF: arrested.
KNOCKING SHOP: a brothel.
LAY-DOWN, a: a remand in custody.
LINEN DRAPERS: newspapers (rhyming slang).
LONG BOW, to draw the: to exaggerate or to tell unbelievable stories.
MADAM: a brothel keeper.
MAGSMAN: a common thief.
MANOR: a police area.
MARLBOROUGH: a famous public school in Wiltshire.
MATELOT: a sailor, usually of the Royal Navy.
MBE: Member of the Order of the British Empire.
MC: Military Cross.
MI5: counter-espionage service of the United Kingdom.
MILLING: fighting.
MINCES: eyes (rhyming slang: mince pies).
MOCKERS, to put on the: to frustrate one’s plans.
MONIKER: a name or nickname.
MONS, to make a: to make a mess of things, as in the disastrous Battle of Mons in 1914.
MUFTI: army officers’ term for plain clothes (ex Arabic).
NAPOO: no good; finished. Bastardisation of the French: il n’y en a plus (there is none left), usually in answer to a soldier’s request for more beer.
NCO: non-commissioned officer.
NICK: a police station or prison or to arrest or to steal.
NICKED: arrested or stolen
NINETEEN TO THE DOZEN, to talk: to talk very fast.
NOOKIE: sexual intercourse.
NOSE, a: an informant.
NOT PYGMALION LIKELY: a euphemism for ‘not bloody likely’ from George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.
OBE: Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
OCCURRENCE BOOK: handwritten record of every incident occurring on a police sub-division.
OFF ONE’S NUT: to be crazy.
OICK: a cad.
OLD BAILEY: Central Criminal Court, in Old Bailey, London.
OLD CONTEMPTIBLES: name assumed by survivors of the Battle of Mons in response to the Kaiser’s condemnation of the British Army as ‘a contemptible little army’.
ON THE GAME: leading a life of prostitution.
ON THE SLATE: to be given credit.
ON THE SQUARE: a freemason.
OWT: anything (dialect).
OX AND BUCKS: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.
PAPER THE HOUSE, TO: to give away free tickets for a theatre show.
PEACH, to: to inform to the police.
PEPPER-AND-SALT TROUSERS: black trousers flecked with grey.
PETER JONES: a London department store in Sloane Square, Chelsea.
PICCADILLY WINDOW: a monocle.
PIMP: a prostitute’s ‘minder’.
PIP EMMA: signallers’ code for p.m. (cf ACK EMMA.)
PIP, SQUEAK & WILFRED: WW1 medals, namely the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal 1914-18 and the Victory Medal 1914-19, so named after newspaper cartoon characters of the period.
PISSED AS A FIDDLER’S BITCH: drunk.
PLANTING, A: a burial.
PLATES: feet (rhyming slang: plates of meat).
PLONK, the: the mud of no-man’s-land.
POLICE GAZETTE: official nation-wide publication listing wanted persons, etc.
POMPEY: Portsmouth.
PONY, a: £25 sterling.
POT AND PAN, OLD: father (rhyming slang: old man).
POTMAN: a man who serves beer in a public house, or collects pots (tankards) from the tables.
PREVIOUS: prior convictions for crime.
PROSS: a prostitute.
PROVOST, the: military police.
PURLER: a headlong fall.
PUSSER’S RUM: Royal Navy issue rum, stronger than that normally available to the public. ‘Pusser’ being a contraction of ‘Purser’.
QUEER IN THE ATTIC: of unsound mind.
QUEER STREET, in: in serious difficulty or short of money.
QUID: £1 sterling.
RAGTIME GIRL: a sweetheart; a girl with whom one has a joyous time; a harlot.
RAINING CATS AND DOGS: raining heavily.
RECEIVER, The: the senior Scotland Yard official responsible for the finances of the Metropolitan Police.
RECORD: record of previous convictions.
REDCAPS: The Corps of Military Police.
ROSIE: tea (rhyming slang: Rosie Lee)
ROYAL A: informal name for the A or Whitehall Division of the Metropolitan Police.
ROYAL VICTORIAN ORDER: an order of chivalry in the personal gift of the Sovereign.
ROZZER: a policeman.
RP: regimental police, not to be confused with the Corps of Military Police.
RSM: regimental sergeant major (a senior army warrant officer).
SAA: small arms ammunition.
SALLY ANNE: the Salvation Army.
SAM BROWNE: a military officer’s belt with shoulder strap.
SANDRINGHAM: a royal residence in Norfolk.
SAPPERS: the Corps of Royal Engineers (in the singular a member of that corps).
SAUSAGE AND MASH: cash (rhyming slang).
SCREW: a prison warder.
SCREWING: engaging in sexual intercourse or committing burglary.
SCRIMSHANKER: one who evades duty or work.
SDI: sub-divisional inspector.
SECTION 66: that section of the Metropolitan Police Act 1839 that gave police the power to stop, search, and detain suspected persons.
SELFRIDGES: a London department store.
SELL THE PUP, to: to attempt to deceive.
SEXTON BLAKE: a fictional detective hero of boys’ stories.
SHIFT, to do a: to run away, or escape.
SHILLING: now 5p.
SILK, a: a King’s Counsel (a senior barrister) from the silk gowns they wear.
SINE DIE: (Latin) at a day to be decided; adjourned indefinitely.
SITTER, a: an arrest handed to another officer thereby affording him the credit.
SIXPENCE: equivalent of 2½ p.
SKIN-AND-BLISTER: sister (rhyming slang).
SKINT: broke.
SKIP or SKIPPER: an informal police alternative to station-sergeant, clerk-sergeant and sergeant.
SLÀINTE: (slän’cha) Gaelic salutation for ‘Good health’.
SLING ONE’S HOOK, to: to run away, hastily or secretly.
SMACKER, a: a pound sterling or a kiss.
SMOKE, The: London.
SNOUT: a police informant.
SOMERSET HOUSE: formerly the records office of births, deaths and marriages for England & Wales.
SOV or SOVEREIGN: one pound sterling.
SPALPEEN: a rascal; a worthless fellow.
SPIN A TWIST, TO: to tell an unbelievable tale.
SPIT AND A DRAW, to have a: to smoke a cigarette.
SPONDOOLICKS: money.
SPROG: a child.
STAGE-DOOR JOHNNY: young man frequenting theatres in an attempt to make the acquaintance of actresses.
STIPE: a stipendiary magistrate (a qualified barrister presiding alone in a petty sessional court).
STIR: prison.
STONEY: broke.
STRETCH, a: one year’s imprisonment.
STRIPE, to: to maliciously wound, usually with a razor.
STUFF GOWN: a barrister who has not been elevated to King’s Counsel status.
SUB: police shorthand for sub-divisional inspector, the officer in charge of a sub-division.
SWADDY: a soldier. (ex Hindi.)
SWEET FANNY ADAMS, to know: to know nothing.
TANNER: sixpence (2½p).
TAPE(S): the chevron(s) indicating a non-commissioned officer’s rank.
TATLER, The: a society magazine.
TEA-LEAF: a thief (rhyming slang). (Plural: TEALEAVES.)
THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND: drunk.
TICKETY-BOO: all right, perfect.
TIP THE WINK TO: to advise or inform.
TITFER: a hat (rhyming slang: tit for tat).
TOBY: a police area.
TOD (SLOAN), on one’s: on one’s own (rhyming slang).
TOE-RAG: a contemptuous person.
TOM: a prostitute or jewellery (see TOMFOOLERY).
TOMFOOLERY: jewellery (rhyming slang).
TOMMING: pursuing a life of prostitution.
TOMMY or TOMMY ATKINS: a British soldier. The name ‘Tommy Atkins’ was used as an example on early army forms.
TON: one hundred pounds.
TONGUE PADDING to give a: to scold.
TOOLEY STREET TAILOR: a conceitedly bumptious fellow.
TOPPED: murdered or hanged.
TOPPING: a murder or hanging.
TOUCH OF THE VAPOURS, a: to be overcome with faintness.
TRICK, a: a prostitute’s client.
TROUBLE-AND-STRIFE: wife (rhyming slang).
TUBE: the London Underground railway system.
TUMBLE, a: sexual intercourse.
TUPPENNY-HA’PENNY: a contraction of twopence-halfpenny, indicating something or someone of little worth.
TURN UP ONE’S TOES, to: to die or be killed.
TURNIP WATCH: an old-fashioned, thick, silver pocket watch.
TURPS: short for turpentine, a cleaning spirit.
TWO-AND-EIGHT, in a: in a state (rhyming slang).
UNDER THE DAISIES: dead.
UNDERGROUND, The: the London Underground railway system.
UP THE DUFF: pregnant.
UP THE SPOUT: pregnant.
VAD: Voluntary Aid Detachment: wartime nursing auxiliaries.
WALLAH: someone employed in a specific office (Ex Hindi).
WAR HOUSE: army officers’ slang for the War Office.
WAR OFFICE: Department of State overseeing the army. (Now a part of the Ministry of Defence.)
WATCH COMMITTEE: a provincial police authority.
WET ONE’S WHISKERS: to take a drink.
WHISTLE: a suit (rhyming slang: whistle and flute).
WHITE-FEATHER JOHNNY: man avoiding military service.
WIPERS: Army slang for Ypres in Belgium, scene of several fierce Great War battles.
YOUNG SHAVER: a youth or young man.