Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a prisoner, esp. a sharper (not necessarily imprisoned in Newgate); also attrib.

1607		Dekker Jests to Make you Merrie in Grosart Works (1886) II 343: Our Newgate-bird ... spreading dragon-like wings, ... beheld a thousand Synnes.
1621		Rowley, Dekker & Ford Witch of Edmonton IV ii: They be as fine New-gate birds as she.
1633		J. Hart Klinike n.p.: [notes] (Anglicae Gallowes-clapper, Newgate-bird, &c.).
1648		‘Mercurio-Mastix Hibernicus’ A muzzle for Cerberus 29: [G]rand Impostors, perjured Knaves, out-veying any, otherwise Newgate-bird, Pick-hatch, Shoarditch, or Turnball-street Cockatrice, or the most hot-mouthed Scold, and black-mouthed cursing Witch, in all the devills Territories.
1667		W. Carr An occasional dialogue at a coffee-house 15: [H]e was a notorious Newgate bird; and to save his Craick, became Thief-taker.
1672		French Rogue n.p.: [N]or is he a Newgate-bird that may at length pick out thy Eyes.
1677		Otway Cheats of Scapin I i: Newgate-bird, Rogue, Villain, what a Trick hast thou play’d me in my Absence?
1685		Dangerfields Dance 1: A Newgate-Bird thou may’st accounted be, / Highly deserving of the pillory.
1693		Poor Robin n.p.: A most plentiful crop [...] of hectors, trepanners, gilts, pads, biters, prigs, divers, lifters, filers, bulkers, droppers, famblers, donnakers, cross-biters, kidnappers, vouchers, millikers, pymers, decoys, and shop-lifters, all Newgate-birds, whom the devil prepares ready fitted for Tyburn, ready to drop into the hangman’s mouth [N].
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 293: One Whitwood a Thief-Taker [...] had gained such an Ascendancy over the whole Gang of Newgate-birds that infested the Town in his Time.
1715		‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell 50: Thou Newgate-Bird!- (Pox take this couplet) / Mayst thou for ever wear Stone-doublet.
1724		G.E., Gentleman John Sheppard 52: What Newgate-Bird but himself would have projected his Escape from so strong a Cage.
1732		Ozell Miser I iii : Out of my House, thou sworn Master-Catpurse, true Newgate-bird .
1735		Proc. Old Bailey 16 Apr. 77/2: She owned she had a Guinea, though she said she would not give it in that Newgate-Bird-Son-of-a-Bitch's House.
1748		S. Johnson Richard Savage 165: If, instead of a Newgate Bird, I may be allowed to be a Bird of the Muses.
1759		Defoe Fortune’s Fickle Distribution 18: Many a Newgate-Bird becomes a geat Man, and several of our Justiices have been burnt in the Hand.
1767		A. Murphy School for Guardians 59: Thou vile impostor! — Thou Newgate-bird. [beats him again].
1776		R. Lloyd Phoebe at Court 35: You’ve made me out a Newgate Bird; / But who cares for you.
1780		T. Gray Candidate 2: His lying, and filching, and Newgate-bird tricks.
1786		Derby Mercury 9 Feb. 2/2: These Directions seem to have been the Result of a Knowledge of the Practice of Prisons, and which no Newgate-Bird could have schemed better.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Newgate Bird, a Thief or Sharper, frequently Caged in Newgate.
1792		School for Scandal 56: The Newgate bird made a desperate attempt upon the constable.
1810		Morn. Post (London) 9 Nov. 3/3: If you out in calculations like de Newgate bird, you is de peoples dat should suffer.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1826		T. Hood ‘Last Man’ Works (1862) I 241: ‘Come down,’ says he, ‘you Newgate-bird, / And have a taste of my snaps!’.
1830		Examiner 21 Feb. 4/1: Of one character think highly: viz. that of the case-hardened Newgate bird.
1839		(con. 1715) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 106: Come along, my Newgate bird!
1858		‘The Honour of the Family’ Town Talk 10 July 111: Why, I took you for that Newgate-bird, Tom Snapper!
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 497: Newgate Birds. The men sent on board ship from prisons.
1877		Western Dly Press 12 Mar. 6/2: If instead of a Newgate-bird I may be allowed to be a bird of the Muses [...] I sing very loudly in my cage.
1898		W. Besant Orange Girl II 125: ‘Gaol-bird!’ he cried, banging his fist on the table and talking thickly. ‘Newgate-bird—what do you want? Money?’.

a collar-like beard worn under the chin.

1845		Sharpe’s London Mag. 27 Dec. 133/2: His great fat face was fringed with a full-set beard, continued under his chin, after that fashion which is called a Newgate frill .
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 369: A Newgate frill [...] no whiskers, but an immense protuberance of bristly black hair, rising like a wave above his kerchief.
1854		Sheffield Indep. 14 Jan. 9/5: My neck was encircled by what is called the Newgate colar on the lower part of the beard.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 180: NEWGATE FRINGE, or frill, the collar of beard worn under the chin. [Ibid.] 242: tyburn collar, the fringe of beard worn under the chin - See newgate collar.
1861		Reading Mercury 12 Jan. 8/3: He may sport a Newgate frill with impunity.
1873		Royal Cornwall Gaz. 31 May 7/4: Off I slunk, removing the treacherous goatee, and brushing over the bare spot [...] and a busy Newgate frill which luckily still kept its place.
1884		M.E. Braddon Belgravia 175: He wore a bushy grey Newgate collar about the jaws and under his shaven chin.
1885		Cornhill Mag. Sept. 259: Some of them beardless, others with a fringe of hair around their faces, such as the English call a Newgate frill .
1887		Scribner’s Mag. I 329/2: He stood with his back to the fire, pulling at his whiskers, which formed what was earlier known as a Newgate collar, with his right thumb and forefinger.
1892		Tit-Bits 19 Mar. 421/2: The frill round the chin... called the Newgate frill, and the sweep’s frill, would, I imagine, have made the Antinous, or the Apollo Belvedere, look undignified and slovenly [F&H].
1896		York Herald 7 Jan. 4/6: A rather cunning-looking old man, with a Newgate frill, large flat ears, and a red nose.
2004		Guardian Weekend Mag. 10 Jan. 31/3: He [...] grew a u-shaped strip of beard under his chin, reaching up to his ears – a style known as the Newgate fringe.

a form of hairstyle worn by those adjudged (potentially) criminal.

1833		Nat. Standard I 355/1: Their coats are of various fashions; they wear generally three kerchiefs round the neck, of different colours; their hair is arranged in Newgate drops, and a round tile tops their nob.
1844		J. Overs Evenings of a Working Man 184: The masculine carries his nose over a short pipe; his hair in ‘Newgate drops’.

a hanging.

1829		‘Pickpocket’s Chaunt’ (trans. of ‘En roulant de vergne en vergne’) in Vidocq IV 262: Tramp it, tramp it, my jolly blowen, Or be grabbed by the beaks we may; And we shall caper a-heel-and-toeing, [...] A Newgate hornpipe some fine day.
1837		Fraser’s Mag. July 47/2: He stands a very good chance of [...] dancing a Newgate hornpipe at the foreyard-arm.

1. a lock of hair shaped like the figure 6 and twisted from the temple back towards the ear; thus phr. flash as/right as the knocker of Newgate.

1781		Kentish Gaz. 14 July 2/2: In my good neighbour [...] the pompous grizzle [wig] has been laid aside for the spruce club [...] indelicately stiled a Newgate knocker.
1843		Bell’s Wkly Messenger 21 Oct. 3/2: The prisoner assuring him that upon his return ‘he would find him as right as the knocker at Newgate’.
1849		Sam Sly 26 May 1/3: [N]ot to go to the barber’s every time he goes on duty, to get those nasty, greasy, Newgate knockers curled.
1851		H. Mayhew London Labour 1 40/2: As for the hair, they say it ought to be long in front, and done in ‘figure-six’ curls, or twisted back to the ear ‘Newgate-knocker style’.
1855		W. Phillips Wild Tribes of London 108: The long, greasy hair and Newgate-knocker curls of Cautious Jemmy.
1859		W. Burrows Adventures of a Mounted Trooper 53: There they are with their [...] well greased thieves’ curls, or, as some of the flash gentry call them, ‘Newgate knockers’.
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 83: Jem was what would have been designated [...] as ‘flash as the knocker of Newgate’.
1866		Sportsman 15 Nov. 2/1: Notes on News [...] A discontented costermonger, in fur cap, [...] with broken nose, dirty ‘kingsman’ round his neck, and a ‘Newgale knocker’ like an exaggerated horse-leech well oiled on his dishonest-looking temple.
1873		J. Greenwood In Strange Company 203: His hair was long and lank, and so beautifully oiled as to defeat the young man’s intention to ‘curl it under,’ after the approved ‘Newgate knocker’ fashion.
1888		Daily News 1 Dec. n.p.: Visions of Bill Sykes, with threatening look and carefully-trained Newgate knockers, are almost inevitably suggested in the mind of the recipient [F&H].
1894		Aberdeen People’s Jrnl 28 Apr. 2/2: The face of this man had an evil cast, which was not improved by [...] a couple of ‘Newgate Knockers,’ carefully oiled and plaster flat in front of his ears.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 3/2: Aggeravators, Hagrerwaiters (Costermongers). Side-curls still worn by a few conservative costermongers. Of two kinds – the ring, or ringlet (the more ancient), and the twist, dubbed, doubtless in the first place by satirists, ‘Newgate Knockers.’.

2. used of a woman’s hairstyle.

1874

Dundee Courier 17 Nov. 3/5: The present mode in which ladies dress their hair — two broad plaits behind looped up and tied with a ribbon [...] street slang dubs it ‘The Newgate Knocker’.

(UK Und./prison) the hangman’s noose.

1835

‘Billy Bighead’ in Cove in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 227: No felon could take his fare worse, / That did in a neat Newgate’s necklace groan!

a novice criminal.

c.1535

R. Copland Hye Way to the Spyttel House line 316: By my fayth, nyghtyngales of Newgate: These be they that dayly walkes and jettes In theyre hose trussed rounde to theyr dowblettes.

a criminal type of person.

c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) 103: Cou’d you get none to serve you, but some Newgate-Stallion; One that us’d to Break up Houses, and Pick open Locks!
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 10 Feb. 115: A natty-looking young gentleman came up, displaying a head and countenance of that peculiar and interesting description which we have heard most aptly designated by some one, somewhere, as a Newgate nob. ‘Vot’s the matter, Bet?’ said the gentleman of the Old Bailey visage.
1862		Berkshire Chron. 20 Dec. 7/1: The jolly Convicts [...] Newgate nobs in jovial ring.

a prisoner under sentence of death.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues V 32/1: Newgate-saint = a condemned criminal.

a second-rate lawyer who hangs around prisons (including but not invariably Newgate) in the hope of picking up work.

1714		T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 194: He apply’d himself to base means to procure money; such as a Newgate Sollicitor, a retainter to Clippers [...] or any thing that was villainous.
1729		Hell Upon Earth 3: Barbers as bust as Newgate Sollicitors at an Old Baily Sessions in embellishing their Customers.
1730		Derby Mercury 14 Jan. 3/2: ‘List of Officers which are established in the most notorious Gaming Houses [...] An Attorney, a Newgate Solicitor.
1736		Proc. Old Bailey 21 July 154/2: I gave all my Money to one Mac - something, a Newgate Solicitor, to manage my Cause, and he is run away with the Money and has done nothing.
1743		Fielding Jonathan Wild (1824) 76: [He] was then a Newgate solicitor, and a bawdy-house bully.
1752		‘Roxana Termagent’ Drury Lane Jrnl 23 Jan. 30: Delectable scenes and transactions of low life, where whores, rogues, gaol-keepers and Old Bailey sollicitors are the most shining characters.
1774		Derby Mercury 14 Jan. 3/2: The notorious Dennis Currin (who pracitised as a Newgate solicitor).
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Newgate Sollicitor. A Pettyfogging & Rogueish Attorney, who attends the Goals [sic] to assist prisoners in evading Justice.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Newgate Solicitor. A petty fogging and roguish attorney, who attends the gaols to assist villains in evading justice.
1796		T. Morton Way to Get Married in Inchbold (1808) XXV 66: I’m a Newgate solicitor; and for fifty pounds will undertake to prevent gibbeting, at least.
1804		Choleric Man in British Drama 1038: Why, this sot would fain have me believe that a Newgate solicitor will refuse a suit upon motives of humanity: a likely tale indeed!
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1820		W.H. Curran Life of J.P. Curran 135: If indeed I was bred a pettifogger or a Newgate solicitor, I should be the better enabled to follow the learned gentleman through the variety of matter which he has introduced to the house.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1788].
1834		Knickerbocker Mag. Sept. 227: There was, about forty years since, in Dublin, a low Newgate solicitor, of the name of Timothy Brecknock.
1841		J. Adolphus Hist. Eng. IV 74: A Newgate solicitor, he was persuaded, would have been ashamed of such a low, scandalous deception.
1859		H.B. Dawson Sons of Liberty in NY 49: The Commission was then given to Nathaniel Jones, ‘a Newgate Solicitor,’ whose wife, Lady Oliphant, lived in adultery with Lord Chief Justice Welles,.
1864		C.H. Hunt Life of E. Livingston 170: Made of such stuff as are the arguments of a Newgate solicitor in defence of a felon caught in the manour.
1884		A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 208: A dunner to recover sums lost; a waiter to snuff candles and fill in the wine; and an attorney or ‘Newgate solicitor’.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(UK Und.) a watch and chain.

1930

Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Dec. 4/6: A ‘screwsman’ going to his ‘fence’ would inquire ‘What price a pair of “gypsy gauns,” a “red kettle,” a “white kettle,” a “Newgate tackle” and a “prop”. The ‘screwsman’ is asking what the ‘fence’ will pay for two single stone diamond rings, a gold watch, a silver watch, , or gold watch and chain and a tiepin.

the hangman’s rope.

1882

Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 10: Newgate Tippet - The hangman’s rope.

(UK Und.) the gallows.

1811

Morn. Post (London) 8 Nov. 3/4: A Beggar’s Opera. Crispin Heeltap— ‘Tis lucky that I and this company / Have not grac’d Newgate tree.

Newgate prison.

1674

Proceedings Old Bailey 12 Dec. 7: Joseph Foster was convicted for Burglary and Fellony [...] being a notorioos [sic] offender that had often commenc’d in Newgate University [...] he now received sentence of Death.

see black as... adj.

see under dance v.

to be hanged.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.