1634. Milton, Comus [Aldine], 721. Should in a pet of temperance feed.
1685. Sir P. Hume, Narrative, 42. As we were to goe, several gentlemen inclined to have gone with us, but the Erle petting at it, forbare and stayed there.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 109. They may take themselves off in a pet sometimes, the itch of writing brings them back again.
1766. Brooke, Fool of Quality, i. 193. I would have sent to enquire after them, but I was petted at their neglect of us during our long illness.
2. (old: now recognised).—A darling: also in sarcasm. [In quot. 1607 = a delicate young thing.] Also peat. Whence, as verb. = to fondle.
d.1529. Dunbar [Kington-Oliphant, New English, i. 361-3. Dunbar wrote . . . in Northern English. . . . There are the Celtic words tartan . . . pet (darling) . . . tedder (tether), brat].
1562-77. Gascoign [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, ii. 485.] I grooped in thy pocket pretty peate, And found a Lemman which I looked not.
1578. King Lear [Nares]. To see that proud pert peat, our youngest sister.
1581. Riche, Farewell to Mil. Prof. [Shakspeare Soc., 63]. Have you founde your tongue, now pretie peate? then wee most have an almon for parrat. How durst thou, strompette, chalenge me to bee thy father.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, i. 1. A pretty peat! 'tis best Put finger in the eye.
1605. Jonson, Chapman, &c., Eastward Hoe [Old Plays (Reed), iv. 279.] God's my life, you are a peat indeed.
1607. Dekker and Webster, Westward Hoe, ii. 2. Mon. She's not troubled with the green sickness still, is she? Bird. The yellow jaundice. . . . Troth she's as good a peat!
1629. Boyd, Last Battell, 324. Grosse euill thoghts fedde and petted with yeelding and consent.
d.1631. Donne, Poems, 90. The wench a pretty peat, And (by her eye) well fitting for the seat.
1632. Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2. You are a pretty peat, indifferent fair too.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge (1866), 168]. I was her pet, and came in for the caresses of all the men that frequented the house.
Petard. Hoist with a petard
(or petar), phr. (old).—Caught
in one's own trap; involved in
danger meant for others.
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iii. 4, 207. For 'tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petar.
Pete Jenkins, subs. phr. (circus).—An
auxiliary clown. [The original
Pete Jenkins (c. 1855) had a
line of business (q.v.): he planted
'rustics' in the audience, and
played them thence.
Peter, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A
portmanteau, box, trunk, bag, or
purse: generic for any parcel,
bundle, or package, large or small.
Whence peter-biter (-claimer,
or -man) = a carriage thief (see
Drag); peter-drag (-hunting,
or -lay) = robbery from
vehicles of all kinds; peter-hunting
jemmy = a small crow-*bar
used in smashing the chains
securing luggage to a vehicle.—Grose
(1785); Vaux (1819);
Bee (1823).
1724. Harper, Frisky Moll's Song [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 41]. To you of the Peter Lay.
1728. Street Robberies Consider'd, 'Glossary,' s.v. Peter.
1752. Smollett, Faithful Narrative [Henley, Works (1901), xii. 184]. For snabbling his peter and queer Joseph.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, x. If so be as your name's Paul, may you always rob Peter [a portmanteau] in order to pay Paul.
1863. Story of a Lancashire Thief, 9. Sometimes he'd turn peterman, and he had been generally lucky at it.
