1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, &c, i. 264. The God of Love, or else Old Nick, Sure had design'd this Devilish trick.
1720. Swift, Apollo to the Dean [Works (1824), xiv. 134]. For I think in my conscience he deals with Old Nick.
a.1796. Burns, Tam o' Shanter, II. There sat auld Nick, in shape o' beast. Ibid, Add. to the Devil. But fare-you-weel, AULD NICKIE-BEN.
1829. Buckstone, Billy Taylor. Nick or Belzebub, Or as our children call thee, black old Bogey, Appear!
1833. Haliburton, Clockmaker, I S. x. And kick like mad, and then Old Nick himself wouldn't start 'em.
1855. Notes and Queries, I S. xii. 228. All over the North a demon bearing this designation, slightly modified by dialectic variations, is commonly acknowledged. He is the Anglo-Saxon Nicer; Dan. Nōecke or Nökke (Nikke); Swedish Neck, Necken ('ejusdem significationis' as Finn Magnusen observes, 'ut et Anglorum Nick—Old Nick; Belgarum, Nicker—qui, jam nune diabolum indicant'); Fennish Næki; Esthonian Nack; Scotch Nicneven; German Nichs, Nicks, Nichse, the Nickar of the people of the Feroës, and the Nikel of those of the Rugen.
1870. Moncrieff, Giovanni in London, i. 2. And, pray, what were you sent to Old Nick for, my love?
1884. Clark Russell, Jack's Courtship, xvi. I knew you'd do it—it's the Seymour spirit—a fair grip, and Old Nick may shriek for mercy.
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 38. In that Gallery, Charlie, Old Nick would have found it too warm.
Old one (or old'un), subs, phr. (common).—1. The devil: see Skipper.—Grose (1785).
2. (common).—A father.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xx. It's the old 'un. Old one, said Mr. Pickwick, What old One? My father, sir, replied Mr. Weller.
3. (racing).—A horse more than three years old.
4. (theatrical).—The pantaloon; the fool's father (q.v.).
Old pegg, suds, phr, (old).— Poor Yorkshire cheese, made of skimmed milk.—Grose (1785).
Old pelt, subs, phr, (printers').—An old pressman. [In allusion to the ink pelts formerly in use for distributing the ink.]
Old pod (or Old Pot-and-Pan), subs, phr. (rhyming).—I. An old man; a father . . . Also (2) a wife; a woman.
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xvi. You must know that my old pot was a bark.
Old Poger, subs, phr, (old).—The devil: see Skipper.—Grose.
Old probabilities, subs, phr. (American).—The Superintendent of the United States' weather bureau. Sometimes Old Prob.
1888. New York Herald, 4 Nov. When you come to think of the sort of weather we have had in New York upon the occasions of great popular political turnouts . . . you will find that as a rule old probabilities has been rather kindly disposed to both parties.
Old red-eye,subs,phr, (American). —Whiskey. See Old Man's Milk.
Old Rip. See Rip.
Old Roger, subs. phr. (old).—The devil: see Skipper.—Grose (1785); Lex. Bal. (1811).
Old salt, subs. phr. (nautical).—An experienced sailor.
Old Saucy Seventh, subs, phr., (military).—The 7th (The Queen's Own) Hussars: in Peninsula times. Also "The Lily-White Seventh," "Young Eyes," "Old Strawboots" and "Straws."
