d.1612. Harrington, Epigrams, 55. Or doth he mean that thou would'st pick a thank. No sure, for of that fault I count thee frank.
1628. Wither, Brit. Rem., 89. By slavish fawning or by picking thanks.
d.1682. Sir T. Browne, Christ. Mor., i. 20. Be deaf unto the suggestions of . . . pick-thank or malevolent delators.
d.1688. Buckingham, Works (1705), ii. 118. They . . . insinuated themselves into the familys of the poor good natured tenants; then they carry'd pickthank stories from one to another.
1740. North, Examen, 278. He did it to pickthank an opportunity of getting more money.
Pickt-hatch To go to the
manor of pickt-hatch (or to
pickt-hatch grange), verb.
phr. (old).—To whore: see
Greens and Ride. [The Pickt-hatch—a
hatch with pikes—was
a common brothel sign: specifically
in Shakspeare's time a
notorious tavern-brothel in Turnbull
St., Clerkenwell].—Grose
(1785).
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii. 2. Go—a short knife and a thong—to your manor of Pickt-hatch.
1596. Jonson, Ev. Man in his Humour, i. 2. From the Bordello it might come as well, The Spittle, or Pict-hatch.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1. The decay'd vestals of Pict-hatch would thank you That keep the fire alive there.
d.1618. Sylvester, Du Bartas, 576. Borrow'd and brought from loose Venetians, Becomes Pickt-hatch and Shoreditch courtizans.
1630. Optick Glasse of Humours, 89. These be your Pickt-hatch Curtezan wits that merit after their decease to bee carted in Charles waine.
1630. Cupids' Whirligig [Nares]. Set some pickes upon your hatch, and I pray profess to keep a bawdy-house.
d.1635. Randolph (?) Muses' Looking Glass [Reed, Old Plays, ix. 244]. The lordship of Turnbal so—which with my Pickt-hatch Grange, And Shoreditch farm, and other premises Adjoining—very good—a pretty maintenance.
1638. Randolph, Hey for Honesty, B. 3b. Why the whores of Pict-hatch, Turnbull, or the unmerciful bawds of Bloomsbury.
Pick-tooth, adj. phr. (old colloquial).—Leisurely.
1726. Vanbrugh and Cibber, Provoked Husband, iii. My lord and I . . . sat us down by the fireside in an easy, indolent, pick-tooth way.
1749. Smollett, Gil Bias [Routledge], 155. With the pick-tooth carelessness of a lounger.
Pick-up, subs. phr. (common).—A
carnal acquaintance, male or
female: whence, a whoremaster.
Adj. (colloquial).—Composed of what is at the moment available: as a pick-up dinner; a pick-up crew, or team. Cf. scratch and pot-luck.
1840. Betsy Bobbet, 302. She needn't make no fuss about dinner at all. I will eat a picked-up dinner.
Pickwickian Sense, subs. phr.
(colloquial).—A technical or constructive
sense. [See quot. 1837.]
1837. Dickens, Pickwick, i. The chairman felt it his imperative duty to demand . . . whether he had used the expression . . . in a common sense. Mr. Blotton had no hesitation in saying he had not—he had used the word in its Pickwickian sense.
18[?]. H. James, Substance and Shadow, 199 [Century]. Unitarianism and Universalism call themselves the church in an altogether Pickwickian sense of the word, or with pretensions so affable as to offend nobody.
Picnic, subs. (common).—A mellay;
a rough-and-tumble.
1898. Pink 'Un and Pelican, 177. He asked me if I'd "yeared" what a picnic old Ben Harrity had had with his missis.
Picture, subs. (colloquial).—A
model; a pattern; a beau-ideal:
as 'a picture of health,' 'a
