(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Look out!
(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Look out! Beware!.
Add your own interpretation of "namous".
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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(obsolete, UK, thieves) look out; beware.
(archaic, US, _, thieves' slang) Be quick! Look out! Beware!.
(intransitive, idiom) To be vigilant and aware often as an imperative to alert a person to danger.
A piece of old London thieves' cant meaning 'look out' or 'beware' — part of the coded vocabulary that criminals and street hustlers used to tip each other off about danger, typically the approach of police or other threats. Like much Victorian-era thieves' slang, it borrowed place names and ordinary words and repurposed them as warning signals. Today it reads as a historical curiosity, a window into the rich underground argot of 19th-century London.
(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) To run away; to leave; to depart.
Namous means: To run away; to leave; to depart.. The word is mostly archaic or historical; you will only encounter it in old texts, period drama, or school history rather than current teen conversation. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than risky behaviour. If your teen uses it, context will usually make the intent clear. A short, curious question about where they heard it is usually all that is needed to know whether to follow up.
namous means: To run away; to leave; to depart.. Register: archaic, historical. Almost never used today; you will find it only in older texts, dictionaries of dialect, or historical writing. Avoid in active vocabulary. A common learner mistake is using the word in a register it does not fit, or assuming a single global meaning; native speakers immediately notice when slang appears in formal contexts, so always check the surrounding register before producing it yourself.