bulldog briar pipe: a short, stout pipe made from the root of the briar plant.

carping: finding fault with everything.

caution: in this context, one who astonishes or commands attention.

delirium tremens: a violent loss of mental and physical faculties marked by trembling and quaking, often resulting from the excessive and prolonged use of alcohol.

dinner: in the context of the early 20th century, the main meal of the day, eaten at noontime.

discomfited: perplexed or embarrassed.

Dutch courage: alcohol.

in Dutch: in trouble, as in "in Dutch with the boss."

gabbler: someone who babbles.

gawk: a clumsy or stupid person; one who gapes or stares stupidly.

greenhorn: an inexperienced, unsophisticated person; a newcomer unfamiliar with local customs.

gunwale: the upper edge of a boat’s side.

Heart Bowed Down: a song from the Irish opera The Bohemian Girl (1843), lyrics by Alfred Bunn and music by Michael William Balfe.

jag: a temporary state of exhilaration, usually induced by liquor.

Kelly pool: a variety of 15-ball pool, popular from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s.

Lucretia Georgia: a confused reference to Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519), a noblewoman who figured prominently in the Italian Renaissance. A member of an extremely powerful and infamous family, she is associated with ambition, incest, and murder.

a warm lulu for fair: something that is striking to the greatest degree.

Macushla, Mavourneen: dear or darling; from the Irish.

natty: neat, dapper.

Nick Carter, Old Cap Collier: characters from popular "dime-books" of the late 1800s. These dime-books depicted the romanticized and violent adventures of their protagonists and were frowned upon as having a corrupting influence upon children.

Peck’s Bad Boy: a mischievous young character featured in George W. Peck’s weekly newspaper column from the late 19th century.

piazza: a veranda or porch; from the Italian word for a village square.

piker: one who plays cautiously or does things in a small way; a cheapskate.

pippin: an admirable person or thing.

Q.T.: abbreviation of quiet; used in the phrase "on the Q.T." meaning secretly or quietly.

rigged out: to be dressed for an occasion or event.

rube: an awkward, unsophisticated person.

ructions: disturbances or riots.

Sachem Club: the "sachem" were the most senior members of the Tammany Society, a group that dominated New York City politics throughout much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, taken from the title held by Native American chiefs.

salts: any of various mineral salts used as a laxative or cathartic.

Sandow: Eugene Sandow (1867-1925) was a body-builder who developed his physique using Greek sculpture as a model. An intelligent man and a major figure of his day, Sandow was one of the first proponents of governmental health agencies. A showman until the end, he died of an aneurysm after lifting a car out of a ditch.

second girl: euphemistically, the maid.

sedulously: diligently.

shirtwaist: a woman’s tailored blouse or dress, featuring details similar to men’s dress shirts.

skinful: a large quantity, especially of liquor.

sloe-gin: a liqueur made of sugar-sweetened gin in which sloe berries, the fruits from the blackthorn tree, have been steeped.

spooning: talking amorously, caressing and kissing.

sport: a bachelor, a fellow.

stolid: having or expressing little or no sensibility; unemotional.

sweet: a cigarette; from "Sweet Caporal," an American brand of cigarettes popular at the turn of the twentieth century.

tappee: a take on the word "tap."

on tenterhooks: strained or nervous; from tenter, a frame with hooks along two sides that is used to dry and stretch cloth.

Vesta Victoria: a comedienne popular in East Coast music halls of the late 1800s.

W.C.T.U.: the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, a national organization of women founded in 1874 to "proclaim [the] message of truth, purity, and total abstinence."

water wagon: a wagon or truck equipped with a tank or barrels for hauling or sprinkling water. To be "on the water wagon" or "on the wagon" is to abstain from drinking alcohol.

Waterbury: a city in Western Connecticut, about 20 miles northwest of New Haven, known primarily as a commercial and industrial center.

Waterloo: the scene of Napoleon’s final defeat in 1815, by extension, a decisive or final defeat.

whited sepulchre: hypocrites, devils in disguise; from the New Testament, Matthew 23:27: "Woe unto you ... for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of uncleanness."