Pinnace, subs. (old).—A bawd; a prostitute: see Tart. Also (quots. 1607 and 1693) = a woman; a piece (q.v.).
[?]. Songs of the London Prentices, 66. For when all the gallants are gone out o' th' town, O then these fine pinnaces lack their due lading.
1607. Dekker and Webster, Northward Hoe, v. 1. There is as pretty a little pinnace struck sail hereby, and come in lately!—she's my kinswoman . . . her portion three thousand . . . her hopes better.
1614. Bartholomew Fair, i. 1. She hath been before me—punk, pinnace and bawd—any time these two and twenty years, upon record in the Pie-Poudres.
1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, v. 7. A goodly pinnace, richly laden . . . Twelve thousand pounds and all her rigging, besides what lies concealed under hatches.
Pinner (or Pinny), subs. (old colloquial).—A
pinafore.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iii, 2. Pish! give her but leave to gape, rub her eyes, and put on her day pinner.
[?]. The Crafty Miller [Nares]. With a suit of good pinners pray let her be drest, And when she's in bed let all go to rest.
1681. Radcliffe, Ovid Travestie, 5. My hair's about my ears, as I'm a sinner He has not left me worth a hood or pinner.
1705. The London Ladies Dressing Room [Nares]. The cinder wench, and oyster drab. With Nell the cook, and hawking Bab, Must have their pinners brought from France.
1886. F. Locker, Piccadilly [quoted in Century]. When, poor bantling! down she tumbled, daubed her hands, and face, and pinny.
1901. Referee, 14 Ap., 9, 2. Hundreds of tiny toddles in their white pinnies and their little bows of pink and blue were dancing together to a piano-organ.
Pinner-up, subs. phr. (tramps').—A
vendor of broadside songs and
ballads. [They are usually
pinned-up on canvas against a
wall.]
Pinnipe, subs. (American thieves').—A
crab. Hence pinniped =
sideways; crab fashion. [The
Pinnipedia are fin-footed animals.]
Pinnock. To bring pinnock to
pannock, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—See
quot.
1552. Huloet . . . Brynge somethynge to nothynge, as the vulgare speache is, to brynge pynnock to pannock.
Pin-pannierly-fellow, subs. phr.
(old).—See quot.
. . . Kennett MS. [Halliwell]. A pin-pennieble fellow, a coveteous miser that pins up his baskets or panniers, or that thinks the loss of a pin to be a pain and trouble to him.
Pins-and-needles, subs. phr.
(common).—The tingling which
accompanies the recovery of circulation
in a benumbed limb.
1876. G. Eliot, Deronda, lxiii. A man . . . may tremble, stammer, and show other signs of recovered sensibility no more in the range of his acquired talents than pins and needles after numbness.
Pin's-head. To look for a pin's-head
in a cartload of hay,
verb. phr. (old).—To attempt the
impossible. Whence to find a
pin's-head, &c. = to achieve
wonders. See Bottle.
1565. Calfhill, Martialls Tr. of Cross [Parker Soc.], 173.
Pinsrap, subs. (back slang).—A
parsnip.
Pint, subs. (tailors').—Recommendation;
praise.
Pints round! intj. (tailors').—A fine imposed upon a cutter for dropping his shears: nearly obsolete.
