To eat the pack (or packie), verb. phr. (Scots').—To waste one's substance; to spend all. Eat-the-pack = a spendthrift. Cf. Pact.
Packet, subs. (provincial).—A hoax;
a false report. Packets = an
expression of incredulity.—Grose
(1785).
Pack-thread, subs. (old).—Covert
obscenity.—Grose (1785).
Pact. To spend the pact, verb.
phr. (Scots').—To waste one's
substance: also to perish the
pact.
Pad, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A path;
a road or highway. Also High-*pad.
1573. Harman, Caveat (1814), 66. The hygh pad, the high way.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Markall, 40 (H. Club's Repr. 1874), s.v.
1611. Middleton and Dekker, Roaring Girl, v. 1. Avast, to the pad, let us bing.
1622. Fletcher, Beggar's Bush. To maund on the pad.
1625. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. A rogue, a very canter I, sir, one that maunds upon the pad.
d.1721. Prior, Thief and Cordelier. The squire of the pad and the knight of the post.
1724. Coles, Eng. Dict., s.v.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, iv. Gentlemen of the pad, as they were then termed.
2. (old colloquial).—An easy-paced horse; an ambler. Also pad-nag.—B. E. (c.1696).
1717. Cibber, Nonjuror, i. 1. I was about buying a pad-nag for your sister.
1770. Foote, Lame Lover, i. 1. He would not sample to break an appointment . . . in order to buy a pad-nag for a lady.
d.1892. Tennyson, Lady of Shalot, ii. 20. An abbot on an ambling pad.
3. (old).—A highway robber; a foot-pad; a tramp: also padder and (Scots') paddist.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Markall, p. 40 (H. Club's Repr. 1874), s.v.
1665. R. Head, English Rogue, i. v. p. 51 (1874), s.v.
1625. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, ii. 1. Are they padders or Abram-men that are your consorts?
1668. Dryden, Albumazar, Prol. 19. Who, like bold padders, scorn by night to prey, But rob by sunshine, in the face of day.
1671. Annand, Mysterium Pietatis, 85. A paddist or highwayman, attempting to spoil a preacher, ordering him to stand . . . was answered, etc.
1672. Shadwell, Epsom Wells, iii. [Wks. (1720), ii. 245]. Bribes received from pads, pick-pockets, and shop-lifts.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. He spurr'd as jockies use to break, Or padders to secure a raik.
1680. Cotton, Gamester, 333. Gilts, pads, biters, etc. . . . may all pass under the general appellation of rooks.
1683. Crowne, City Politics, v. 1. Such rogues as you, who abuse your trade, and like so many padders, make all people deliver their purse that ride in the road of justice.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Pad . . . Rum pad, a daring or stout Highwayman.
1707. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, ii. iv. 22. Since the Ladder Has turn'd off many a handsom Padder.
1708. London Bewitched, 6. This month hedges . . . will be the leacher's bawdy-house; the padder's ambuscade; . . . and the farmer's security.
1712. Shirley, Triumph of Wit [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 37]. The third was a padder, that fell to decay, Who used for to plunder upon the high*way.
1746. Poor Robin [Nares]. Mercury, What does that thief Mercury do with Venus? Why even the very same that hectors and padders do with ladies of pleasure.
1781. Messink, Song [Choice of Harlequin]. Ye scamps, ye pads, ye divers, and all upon the lay.
