dub n.1
1. a key, a picklock; thus dubs, a bunch of keys.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Mill the Gig with a Dub, c. to open the Door with a Pick-lock or false Key. | |
| Memoirs (1714) 12: Dub, a Picklock or Key. | |
| Regulator 19: A Dubb, alias Tylt, alias Pick-Lock-Key. | |
| New Canting Dict. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. |
| (con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in (1999) xxix: A Dub or Tilt A Pick-lock Key. | |
| Thieving Detected 9: The second way is with a dub, (a name for a false key). | |
| View of Society II 149: A woman [...] dressed like a servant-maid, with a cream-pot in one hand, and Betty in the other; and a number of young Dubs hanging by her side. | |
| Life’s Painter 153: A bunch of young dubs by her side, which are a bunch of small keys. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Autobiog. (1930) 292: dub a false key. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Vocab. of the Flash Lang. | |
| Inside Out; or, An Interior View of the N.-Y. State Prison 142: The making of dubs, or skeleton keys. | |
| (con. 1715) Jack Sheppard (1917) 74: That’s the kinchin as was to try the dub for us. | |
| Sixteen-String Jack 206: How my bowman he snivelled away, o, / How he broke off all the dubbs in the whitt, / And chivied the darbies in twain, o. | |
| Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 114: ‘Dub.’ A pick-lock or master key. | |
| Anna Mowbray 12: Upon the wall hung every implement used by house breakers in their lawless calling – false and skeleton keys (in flash termed dubs). | |
| Dict. Modern Sl., Cant etc. 134: Dubs, a bunch of keys. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 25: Dub, a key. |
2. (UK Und.) opening a door with a skeleton key or picklock.
| Hell Upon Earth 3: Some are well-vers’d in the Dub; that is, Robbing Dwelling-Houses, Out-Houses, Ware-Houses, Coach-Houses, or Stables, by picking the Locks thereof. | |
| Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers 13: Those three young Lads, altho’ they are young, yet they are Boman Prigs, and as such go on the lay call’d the Dub, that enter a House, Shop or Ware-House, with a Pick lock key. | |
| ‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: A dub, opening a door with a false key. |
3. a picklock boy.
| Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 205: Dub, a picklock boy. |
4. a toll collector.
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 238: dub at a knapping-jigger: a collector of tolls at a turnpike-gate. | |
| (con. 1737–9) Rookwood (1857) 268: Turpin treated him as he had done the dub at the knapping jigger. |
5. a prison warder.
| ‘Villon’s Good-Night’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 175: For you, you coppers, narks, and dubs, / Who pinched me when upon the snam. |
In compounds
a turnkey.
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Autobiog. 55: I [...] got very gracious with the dub coves, on account of my being a quiet orderly prisoner. | |
| Heart of London II i: We chaunt so rummy, / And slang so plummy, / And scorn the Dub Coveskey. |
(UK Und.) a turnkey, a gaoler.
| Discoveries (1774) 42: A quad Cull and a dubb Cull; a Gaoler and a Turnkey. | |
| Whole Art of Thieving . |
1. picking pockets [given the ety., this may be a misinterpretation by The Tyburn Chronicle’s author – there are no refs. in any other dict.].
| (con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in (1999) xxvii: The Dub Lay Picking Pockets. | |
| Whole Art of Thieving. |
2. (also dab lay) robbery of a house by picking the lock.
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: dub-lay Robbing houses by Picking the Locks. | |
| , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn). |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Vocabulum. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 25: Dub lay, robbing, by picking the lock. | |
| Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: The black act, or the dab lay consists of picking the lock. | |
| Londinismen (2nd edn). | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
In phrases
(UK Und.) to break into a house using a picklock or skeleton key.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Going upon the dub c. Breaking a House with Picklocks. [Ibid.] We’ll strike it upon the dub, c. we will rob that Place. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: going upon the dub going out to break open or pick the locks of houses. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 37: When do you want to go on the dub? |