4. (hunting).—A hunting coat: commonly scarlet (q.v.). Also a hunting man (as wearing pink).
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, i. iv. The pinks stand about the inn door lighting cigars and waiting to see us start.
1860. Macm. Mag., 16. With pea-*coats over their pinks.
Verb. (old).—1. To put home a rapier's point. Also, as subs. = a wound so made.—B. E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).
1598. Jonson, Ev. Man in His Humour, iv. 1. I will pink your flesh full of holes with my rapier for this.
1607. Middleton, Five Gallants, iii. 5. A freebooter's pink, sir, three or four inches deep.
1778. Darblay, Evelina, lxxxiii. Lovel . . . you must certainly pink him; you must not put up with such an affront.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, etc., s.v. Nob. 'Josh paid his respects . . . to the Yokel's nob.' 'His nob was pinked all over,' i.e. marked in sundry places.
2. (American thieves').—To convict: as a result of perjury or cross-examination to one's prejudice.
3. (tailors').—To make carefully, even exquisitely.
4. (pugilists').—To get home easily and often.
1819. Moore, Tom Cribb, 'The Milling Match.' And muns and noddle pink'd in every part.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Pink [of Jim Belcher's method]. I felt myself suddenly pinked all over . . . no blow of finishing importance, to be sure, but all conducing toward victory.
Dutch pink, subs. phr. (pugilists').—Blood: cf. claret.
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, ii. 31. That'll take the bark from your nozzle, and distill the Dutch pink for you, won't it?
Pinking-dinder, subs. phr. (old).—See
quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Pinking-dinder. A sweater or mohawk. Irish.
Pink-spiders, subs. phr. (common).—Delirium
tremens; gallon-distemper (q.v.).
Pinky, subs. (Scots' and American).—The
little finger: also anything
little; the smallest candle, the
weakest beer, etc.
Pin-money, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—An
allowance to a woman
for pocket expenses: originally
to a married woman by her husband,
either by settlement or gift
[Grose, 1785]. Also (modern)
the proceeds of adultery or occasional
prostitution.
1673. Wycherley, Gentleman Dancing Master [Leigh Hunt, Old Dramatists, 67]. 'But what allowance?' . . . 'Stay let me think! first for advance money, five hundred pounds for pins.'
1703. Steele, Tender Husband, i. 1. The main article with me is, that foundation of wives' rebellion, and husbands' cuckoldom—that cursed pin-money.
1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, iv. But then, sir, her coach-hire, her chair-hire, her pin-money, her play-money, her china, and her charity would consume peers.
1718. Hearne, Diary, 29 Aug. Mr. Calvert tells me, that the late princess of Orange (wife of him that they call King William III.) had fifty thousand pounds per annum for pin money (as they commonly call ordinary pocket-money).
d.1719. Addison, Ladies Association [Century]. They have a greater interest in property than either maids or wives, and do not hold their jointures by the precarious tenure of portions or pin-money.
1901. D. Telegraph, 13 Nov., 6, 3. I was to take a profit of 2s. or 3s., his explanation being that he would like to give his wife a little 'pin' money.
