Pelter, subs. (colloquial).—1. A heavy shower: hence, a rain of missiles.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Dead Drummer.' The lightning kept flashing, the rain too kept pouring . . . what I've heard term'd a regular pelter.
1887. Religious Herald, 24 Mar. Presently, another shower came. . . She shrugged up her shoulders and shut her eyes during the pelter.
2. (colloquial).—Anything large; a whopper (q.v.).
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 70. Down upon Sport, now, a pelter.
3. (tramps').—A whore-monger; a MUTTON-MONGER (q.V.).
4. See subs., senses 2 and 4.
5. (obsolete).—See quot.
1827. J. Barrington, Personal Sketches (3rd Edition, 1869), i. 274-275. Every family then had a case of hereditary pistols, which descended as an heirloom . . . for the use of their posterity. Our family pistols, denominated pelters, were brass.
Pelting, adj.—1. See Pelt, subs., sense 2.
2. (obs.).—Mean; paltry; contemptible.—B. E. (c. 1696).
1570. Ascham, Scholemaster, 191. Packing up pelting matters, such as in London commonly come to the hearing of the masters of Bridewell.
1578. North, Plutarch, 458. Hybla being but a pelting little town. Ibid., 69. My mind in pelting prose shall never be exprest, But sung in verse heroical, for so I think it best.
1581. Lyly, Alexander [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ii. 140]. Good drink makes good blood, and shall pelting words spill it?
1597. Shakspeare, Richard II., ii. 1. This land—Is now leas'd out. . . Like to a tenement or pelting farm.
1605. Shakspeare, Lear, ii. 3. From low farms, Poor, pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills.
d. 1616. Beaumont and Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iii. 2. Your penny-pot poets are such pelting thieves.
Peltis-hole, subs. phr. (Old Scots').—A term of reproach: of women: cf. pelt, subs., sense 4. [That is 'tan-pit.']
15[?]. Aberdeen Register [Jamieson]. Maly Awaill was conwickit . . . for myspersonyng of Besse Goldsmycht, calling her peltis hoyll.
Pempe, subs. (Winchester).—An imaginary object in search of which a new comer is sent: cf. pigeon's milk, strap-oil, the squad umbrella, &c. [From pempe moron proteroy = 'Send the fool farther.']
Pen, subs. (old).—1. A prison; a penitentiary : see Cage.
2. (Scots').—A saucy man with a sharp nose—[Jamieson].
3. (colonial).—A three-penny piece.
4. (venery).—The female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE. [Properly of sows.]
TO HAVE NO INK IN THE PEN, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.
b. 1547. Wever, Lusty Juventus [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ii. 97]. When there is no more ink in the pen*, I will make a Shift as well as other men. [* Note by Hazlitt: 'an indelicate figure, which occurs in jest-books and other early literature.']
Knight of the pen, subs, phr. (common).—An author or journalist.
1864. Reader, 22 Oct., 505. i. The best guard against any such spirit, is that the publisher should be a knight of the pen himself.
Penance-board, subs. phr. (old).—The pillory.—B.E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).
