Ladder, 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]. Thou boy, by the mass, ye will climb the ladder.
1573. Harman, Caveat [E. E. T. S., 1869, p. 31]. Repentance is never thought upon till they clyme three trees with a ladder.
1757. Rae, Proverbs (3rd. ed.), p. 199, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, 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
