1748. Walpole, Letters, 11. 105. We divert ourselves extremely this winter; plays, balls, masquerades, and pharaoh are all in fashion.
1760. Murphy, Way to Keep Him, i. May I never taste the dear delight of breaking a Pharaoh bank, &c.
c. 1796. Wolcot, Peter Pindar, 249. Behold a hundred coaches at her door, Where Pharo triumphs in his mad career.
2. (old).—A strong ale or beer: also old Pharaoh: see Swipes. —B.E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785).
1685. Praise of Yorkshire Ale, 3. Lac'd Coffee, Twist, Old Pharaoh, and Old Hoc.
d. 1704. T. Brown [Works, ii. 286]. Ezekiel Driver, of Puddle-dock, carman, having disorder'd his pia mater with too plentiful a morning's draught of three threads and old Pharaoh, had the misfortune to have his cart run over him.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 39. Don't muddle your brains with any more of that Pharaoh.
One of Pharaoh's lean kine, subs. phr. (common).—A thin, spare person: one who looks (1) as though he'd run away from a bone-house; or (2) as if he were walking about to save his funeral expenses.
1598. Shakspeare, I Hen. IV., ii. 4. If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, iii. Lady Smart. . . . The Man and his Wife are coupled like Rabbets, a fat and a lean; he's as fat as a Porpus, and she's one of Pharaoh's lean kine.
Pheasant, subs. (common).—1. A
wanton. Hence pheasantry =
a brothel.
2. See Billingsgate-pheasant.
Pheeze (Pheaze, Feaze, or
Feize), verb. (old).—To chastise;
see Tan.
1579. Puttenham, Partheniodes, 180. Your pride serves you to feaze them all alone.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, Induct. I'll pheese you, i'faith.
1602. Shakspeare, Troilus and Cr., ii. 3. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze his pride.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 5. Come, will you quarrel? I will feize you, sirrah.
Philadelphia-catechism, subs.
phr. (American nautical).—The
couplet:—'Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh—holystone
the decks and scrape the
cable.'
PHILADELPHIA-LAWYER, subs. phr.
(common).—A smart attorney:
hence, TO PUZZLE (BE AS SMART
AS, BEAT, or KNOW AS MUCH AS)
a Philadelphia-lawyer = to
be a paragon of shrewdness: see
Greenbag.
1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 128. In that style he'd hammer out all the old and usual 'whids' which, to persons away south of his country, . . . to use a modern metaphor, would puzzle half-a-dozen Philadelphia-lawyers to understand.
188[?]. Hamilton, Men and Manners, xi. 203. It is not unusual among the lower orders in England, when any knotty point is proposed for discussion, to say it would puzzle a Philadelphia-lawyer.
1901. Daily Telegraph, 6 Nov., 'Racing in the Fog.' Racing by electric light is better, all the same, than racing by no light at all, and what entertainment is afforded by a horse-race run "in camera," only a Philadelphia lawyer would be able to explain.
Philander, verb, (old colloquial:
now recognised).—To flirt; to
SPOON (q.v.); to wanton: of both
sexes. Hence, as subs. (or philanderer)
= a lover: specifically
a dangler after women.
1619. Massinger and Fletcher, Laws of Candy. Dram. Pers. Philander, Prince of Cyprus, passionately in love with Erota.
