or raughty, adj. (costers’).—Of the very best. Hence RORTY-TOFF = an out-and-out swell; RORTY-DASHER = a fine fellow; TO DO THE RORTY = to have a good time.
c. 1864. VANCE, The Chickaleary Cove, 1. I have a RORTY gal. Ibid., 2. The vestat with the bins so RORTY.
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Culture in the Slums, ‘Rondeau,’ 3.
| For in such RORTY wise doth Love express | |
| His blooming views. |
1893. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 31, ‘On the Road.’ We’d a rare RORTY time of it, Charlie. Ibid., 69, ‘On a ’Ouse Boat.’ Wos a doin’ the RORTY and rosy as lively as ’Opkins’s lot.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, ix. She is Boadicea … no ‘British warrior queen’ of nursery recitation, but a right-down ‘RAUGHTY gal,’ leading her alley to battle against the Roman ‘slops.’
