subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see MONOSYLLABLE.
TO MOUNT A LADDER (TO BED or TO REST), verb. phr. (common).—To be hanged.
1560. Nice Wanton [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ii. 172]. Iniquity. Thou boy, by the mass, ye will CLIMB THE LADDER.
1573. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors [E.E.T.S., 1869, p. 31]. Repentance is never thought upon till they CLYME THREE TREES WITH A LADDER.
1757. RAY, Proverbs (3rd ed.), p. 199, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. ‘HE MOUNTED THE LADDER,’ he was hung.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. To cut a caper upon nothing, or one’s last fling; to catch, or nab, or be copped with, the stifles; to climb the stalk; to climb, or leap from the leafless, or the triple tree; to be cramped, crapped, or cropped; to cry cockles; to dance upon nothing, the Paddington frisk, in a hempen cravat, or a Newgate hornpipe without music; to fetch a Tyburn stretch; to die in one’s boots or shoes, or with cotton in one’s ears; to die of hempen fever or squinsy; to have a hearty choke with caper sauce for breakfast; to take a vegetable breakfast; to marry the widow; to morris (old cant); to trine; to tuck up; to swing; to trust; to be nubbed; to kick the wind; to kick the wind with one’s heels; to kick the wind before the Hotel door; to kick away the prop; to preach at Tyburn cross; to make (or have) a Tyburn show; to wag hemp in the wind; to wear hemp, an anodyne necklace, a hempen collar, a caudle, circle, cravat, croak, garter, necktie or habeas; to wear neckweed, or St. Andrew’s lace; to tie Sir Tristram’s Knot; to wear a horse’s nightcap or a Tyburn tippet; to come to scratch in a hanging or stretching match or bee; to ride the horse foaled of an acorn, or the three-legged mare; to be stretched, topped, scragged, or down for one’s scrag.
FRENCH SYNONYMS (i.e., to suffer the death penalty, formerly by hanging, now by the guillotine). Basculer (popular = to tip-off; to see-saw); bénir des pieds (thieves’ = to bless with the feet, a gibbetted man being un évêque des champs); être béquillé (thieves’); monter à la bute, butte, or bute à regret (thieves’); tirer sa crampe avec la veuve (popular); épouser la veuve (thieves’: to wed the widow: veuve = guillotine); être fauché (thieves’ = to be scythed); être raccourci (popular: raccourci = shortened); être buté (thieves’ = earthed up); mettre la tête à la fenêtre (thieves’: in allusion to passing the head through the lunette or aperture); éternuer dans le son or dans le sac (thieves’ = to sneeze into the sawdust); jouer à la main-chaude (popular: in allusion to the hands tied behind the back; literally: to play hot cockles); embrasser Charlot (thieves’: Charlot = executioner): moufionner son mufle dans le son (thieves’ = to snotter in the sawdust); passer sa bille au glaive [common: bille = NUT (q.v.); glaive = knife]; aller à l’Abbaye de Monte-à-regret (common: to go to Mount Sorrowful Church); passer à la voyante (thieves’); être mécanisé (common = to be passed through the machine: mécanicien = executioner); être glaivé (common = to be knifed); passer sous le rasoir national (popular = to be passed under the national razor); être mis à la bise (old = to be set in the wind); vendanger à l’éschelle (old = to go vintaging on a ladder); avoir le collet rouge (old = to wear the red neck-band); croître d’un demi-pied (old = to grow half a foot taller); faire la longue lettre (old = to make the long letter, i.e., ‘I’—from the Latin); tomber du haut mât (old); servir de bouchon (common = to act as a cork); faire le saut (common = to take the leap); faire un saut sur rien (old = to jump upon nothing); danser où il n’y a pas de plancher (common = to dance where there isn’t a floor); donner un soufflet à une potence (common = to cuff the gallows); donner le moine par le cou (common); approcher du ciel à reculons (common = to go to heaven backwards); danser un branle en l’air (old = to cut capers in the air); avoir la chanterelle au cou (old: chanterelle = first string of a violin); faire le guet à Montfaucon (old = to do sentry go at Mont-faucon, i.e., the public gibbet); faire le guet au clair de la lune à la cour des Monnoyes (old = to stand sentinel by moonlight); monter à la jambe en l’air (old = to mount the leg-in-air); tirer la langue d’un demi-pied (old = to stick out one’s tongue).
ITALIAN SYNONYMS. Agguinzare (= to swing); allungar la vita (= to lengthen life); andar or mandar in piccardia (FLORIO = to go, or be sent to Picardy; also andare a Longone or Fuligno); dar de’ calci al vento, or a Rouiao (FLORIO = to kick the wind); ballare in campo azzuro (= to dance upon nothing); sperlungare (perlunga = lengthened); aver la fune al guindo (= to wear a hempen collar).
