A New and Comprehensive

Vocabulary of the Flash Language

Ra

racket: any game; Some particular kinds of fraud and robbery are so termed when called by their flash titles, and others are called rig. Such as the letter‑racket and the order‑racket, or the kid‑rig, and the cat and kitten‑rig etc, but all these terms depend upon the fancy of the speaker.
In fact any game may be termed a rig, a racket, a suit, a slum, etc…
…by prefixing thereto the particular branch of depredation or fraud in question, many examples of which occur in this work.
rag: money
rag-gorgy: a rich or monied man; But generally used in conversation when a particular gentleman or person high in office is hinted at. Instead of mentioning his name, they say, the rag‑gorgy, knowing themselves to be understood by those they are addressing.
See cove and swell for more information.
ramp: to rob any person or place by open violence; Or suddenly snatching at something and running off with it, as:
I ramp'd him of his montra and Why did you not ramp his castor? etc. A man convicted of this offence is said to have been done for a ramp. This audacious game is known by prigs as the ramp and is nearly similar to the rush.
rank: complete , absolute , downright; An emphatical manner of describing persons or characters.
As in a rank nose, a rank swell, etc, etc.
rattler: a coach

reader: a pocket-book
reader-hunters: see dummy-hunters
regulars: one's due share of a booty etc on a division taking place; Give me my regulars meaning ‘ Give me my dividend’.
reign: the length or continuance of a man's career in a system of wickedness; Which when he is ultimately bowled out is said to have been a long or a short reign according to its duration.
resurrection-cove: a stealer of dead bodies

ribband: money in general
ridge: gold; Whether in coin or any other shape.
As a ridge‑montra means a gold watch, and a cly‑full of ridge means a pocket full of gold.
rig: see racket
ringing ~ ringing-in: to exchange; Ringing the changes is a fraud practised by smashers, who when they receive good money in change of a guinea, etc, ring‑in one or more pieces of base with great dexterity, and then request the party to change them.
ringing castors: frequenting churches and other public assemblies; For the purpose of changing hats, by taking away a good hat and leaving a shabby one in its place; a petty game now seldom practised.
rise the plant: see plant

rock’d: superannuated , forgetful , absent in mind; Old lags are commonly said to be thus affected, probably caused by the sufferings they have undergone.
rollers: horse and foot patrole; Who parade the roads round about London during the night for the prevention of robberies.
romany: a gypsy; To patter romany is to talk the gypsy flash.
rook: a small iron crow
rough-fam ~ rough-fammy: the waistcoat pocket
row in the boat: to go snacks , or have a share in the benefit; Arising from any transaction to which you are privy.
To let a person row with you is to admit him to a share.

ruffles: handcuffs
ruggins’s: to go to bed; This is called going to Ruggins's.
rum: good; In opposition to queer
rumble tumble: a stage-coach
rump’d: flogged or scourged
rumpus: a masquerade
rush: nearly synonymous with the ramp; But the latter term ramp often applies to snatching at a single article, as a silk cloak, for instance, from a milliner’s shop-door.

Whereas a rush may signify a forcible entry by several men into a detached dwelling-house for the purpose of robbing its owners of their money, etc.

A sudden and violent effort to get into any place, or vice versâ to effect your exit, as from a place of confinement, etc is called rushing them or giving it to ’em upon the rush.
russian coffee-house: the brown bear public-house; A name given by some punster of the family to this establishment in Bow‑Street, Covent Garden, London.

A New and Comprehensive