rogue, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

rogue n.

[the term is an original cant coinage and refers to a specific order of villain, the Fourth Order of Canters; its absorption into SE, meaning a general-purpose rascal, ran in parallel, albeit slightly later by some 20 years]

1. (UK Und.) a professional villain, ‘neither as stout or hardy as the upright-man’ (Harman); thus roguish adj.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 36: ? Roge is neither so stoute or hardy as the upright man.
1589		Nashe Martin-Marprelate Tractes in Works I (1883–4) 166: They & their Father, playing the fooles without any liuerie, are rogues indeed, by the lawes of the land.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching n.p.: [as cit. c.1566].
1608		Dekker Belman of London C4: A Rogue is knowen to all men by his name, but not to all men by his conditions; no puritane can discemble more than he, for he will speake in a lamentable tune & crawle along the streetes, (supporting his body by a staffe) [...] his head shall be bound about with lynnen, loathsome to behold [...] his apparell is all tattered, his bosome naked, and most commonly no shirt on.
1620		‘Song of the Beggar’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 14: I am a Rogue and a stout one, / A most courageous drinker.
1620		Rowlands Night Raven 4: A base rude Rascall of the Roguish crew, For misdeamenours that by him there grew, [...] Made himself merry with his Knauish part.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue [title].
1669		W. Winstanley New Help To Discourse 131: Rogues, whose very name denotes their natures, they have fingers as nimble as the Upright-men, have their Wenches and meeting places, where whatsoever they get, they spend.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 45: The very name of a Rogue denotes the nature. It is a general title, and appertins to all which are of dissolute lives and conversations.
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii 68b: Give me leave to give you the names (as in their Canting Language they call themselves) of all (or most of such) as follow the Vagabond Trade, according to their Regiments or Divisions, as [...] Rogues, common Beggars that will not Work though they be able.
1691		T. Blount Law Dict. n.p.: Rogue [...] Signifies an idle sturdy Beggar who [...] is worthily so called; who for the first offence is called A Rogue of the first degree, and is punished by whipping and boring through the Grissel of the Right Ear, with a hot Iron [...] A Rogue of the second degree [is] put to death as a Felon, if he be above eighteen years old.
1707		‘Rum-Mort’s Praise of Her Faithless Maunder’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 36: Though thy togeman was not new, / In it the rogue to me was true.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: rogues the Fourth Order of Villains, a Name which includes all the other Denominations. They have their particular Societies and Confederacies, and are so link’d together, that nothing but the Halter separates them. If one be in Prison the rest relieve him, wherefore they seldom discover one another, being sworn (if taken) not to betray the rest; and this Oath they keep inviolably, tho’ they break all others. They have their several Wenches, and several Places of Meeting, where they lavishly spend whatsoever they unlawfully get, and wallow in all manner of Debauchery. Their Company is dangerous, their Lives detestable, and their Ends miserable.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 53: One of the Rogues slip’d in having agreed with his Confederates to conceal himself in the House till Midnight, and then to let them in.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: rogues a Name which includes all the other Denominations.
1749		B.M. Carew ‘The Oath of the Canting Crew’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 50: Rogue or rascal, frater, maunderer, / Irish toyle, or other wanderer.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Rogues The fourth order of canters.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1818		W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian (1883) 260: Deil a gude fellow that has been but twelvemonth on the lay, be he ruffler or padder, but he knows my gybe as well as the jark of e’er a queer cuffin in England – and there’s rogue’s Latin for you.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1837		R.P. Robinson Life and Conversations 8: There are he-rogues and she-rogues.

2. a corn chandler [his trad. negative image].

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Rogues [...] a corn chandler.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

3. (US black) a ladies’ man, a sexually active man [ SE rogue male; note Urquhart, The Complete Works of Rabelais (1653), in list of names for the penis: ‘my lusty live sausage, my crimson chitterlin, [...] my pretty rogue’].

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 149: The labels assigned to sexually active males underscore this supposed sexual voraciousness – stud, rogue, cum freak.
1997		H.S. Thompson Proud Highway [footnote] 28: Bob Butler was a Louisville ‘rogue’ friend of Thompson’s.

In compounds

rogueman (n.)

a receiver of stolen goods.

c.1561

Awdeley Fraternitye of Vacabondes in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 3: A Prygman goeth with a stycke [...] His propertye is to steal cloathes of the hedge, which they call storing of the Rogeman.

rogue’s walk (n.)

(UK society) orig. the pavement that runs from the top of the Haymarket east along Piccadilly Circus; later walking west along Piccadilly from the Circus to Bond Street.

1857		London Dly News 10 Sept. 3/5: I entreat the intelligent magistrates in whose division Rogue’s Walk lies [...] Why should no quiet person be able to walk [...] unmolested [...] If Piccadilly may be termed an artery of the metropolis, most assuredly the strip of pavement between the top of the Haymarket and the Regent’s-circus is one of its ulcers.
1863		Birmingham Dly Gaz. 9 Nov. 2/5: So anxious was Mr Gladstoine that his frail charge should no longer remain within the precincts of the Rogue’s Walk (as the Haymarket has been called) that he saw her to the door of her lodgings in Greek Street, Soho.
1882		London Dly News 11 Jan. 2/1: Moonlight on the Rogue’s Walk. At ten o’clock the Rogue’s walk — that broad ribbon of pavement streching from Piccadilly-circus past the Criterion Theatre and Restaurant to the top of the haymarket — resembles more nearly the scene of a recent riot than a thoroughfare in the heart of London.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 210/2: Rogues’ walk (Soc., 1882). the ‘Walk’ in the ’90s was the north of piccadilly — from the Circus to Bond Street.

In phrases

arch-rogue (n.)

the leader of a gang of thieves.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: arch-rogue the Dimber-Damber, Upright-man or Chief of a Gang; as Arch-Dell, or Arch-Doxy signifies the same Degree in Rank among the Female Canters and Gypsies.
1737		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: arch-rogue, the Dimber-Damber, Uprightman, or Chief of a Gang.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1812, 1855		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 4: Arch rogue – the chief of a gang of thieves, or gypsies.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1856		‘A Harassing Painsworth’ in Yates & Brough (eds) Our Miscellany 28: Listen! all you high pads and low pads, rum gills and queer gills, patricos, palliards, priggers, whipjacks, and jackmen, from the arch rogue to the needy mizzler.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

rogue and pullet (n.) [pullet n. (1)]

(UK Und.) a man and woman working together as a criminal team.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 74: Rogue ‘Rogue and pulley,’ [sic] a man and woman going out to rob gentlemen.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 67: Rogue and Pulley, a man and woman going out to rob gentlemen.

rogue in grain (n.)

a very great rogue [the poor reputation of millers].

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: A Rogue in Grain, a very great Rogue. A Great-he-rogue, a sturdy swinging Rogue.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1808		B. Bradshaw Hist. of Billy Bradshaw 5: And so I became a rogue in grain.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		‘The Hoars of Fleet Street’ in Fanny Hill’s Bang-up Reciter 37: Now Dick and John and Joe and Jane, / And Sam with Bobby Bender, / All came to me like rogues in grain, / To be their money lender.
1846		Censor (London) 4 Jan. 2/3: But Time will surely soon divulge / This secret to the nation, / That rogues in grain alone indulge / In games of speculation.
1847		Northern Star 25 Sept. 23/3: Some Rogue in Grain, speculating upon a large profit upon the people’s food [...] the rogue in grain does just as he pleases with the depositoers’ money.
1851		R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 203: That Mister Peter Sieve of yours, I fear he’s what they call a rogue in grain.
1855		Notts. Guardian 6 Sept. 3/5: There was ’ one rogue in grain’ on ’Change this week and [...] his villainy amounts nearly to murder.

rogue in spirit (n.) [pun]

a distiller or brandy merchant.

1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

rogue with one ear (n.) [the ‘ear’ is the handle]

a chamberpot.

1688

R. Holme Academy of Armory.