Plymouth (or Dunkirk) -cloak, subs. phr. (old).—A cudgel.
1602. Dekker, Honest Whore, ii. Shall I walk in a Plymouth cloak (that's to say) like a rogue, in my hose and doublet, and a crab-tree cudgel in my hand.
1626. Owen, Spec. Jesuit (1629), 10. I would haue soone recall'd him with a Plymouth cloake (margin Cudgell).
[?]. Lenton, Characterismi, Char. 30. Reserving still the embleme of a souldier (his sword) and a Plimouth cloake, otherwise called a battoone.
1628. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, i.1. Wellborn. How, dog? (Raising his cudgel.) Tapwell. Advance your Plymouth cloak, There dwells, and within call . . . A potent monarch, called the constable, That doth command a citadel, called the stocks.
d.1668. Davenant [Nares], fol. p. 229. Whose cloak (at Plimouth spun) was crabtree wood.
d.1668. Denham, Works, 75, 'Ballad on Sir J. Mennis.' He being proudly mounted Clad in cloak of Plymouth.
1742. Ray, Proverbs, 238. That is a cane, a staff; whereof this is the occasion. Many a man of good extraction, coming home from far voyages, may chance to land here, and being out of sorts, is unable for the present time and place to recruit himself with clothes. Here (if not friendly provided) they make the next wood their draper's shop, where a staff cut out serves them for a covering. For we use, when we walk in cuerpo, to carry a staff in our hands, but none when in a cloak.
P-MAKER, subs. phr. (venery).—1.
The penis: see Prick; and (2)
the female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
Poach, subs. (colloquial).—1. To
steal; to sneak {q.v.): see Prig.
Hence (venery) = to steal a man's
wife or mistress—generally to
POACH UPON ANOTHER MAN'S
PRESERVES: cf. PIRATE 2. Also
(racing) = to get the best of a
start: esp. by unsportsmanlike
methods.—Grose (1785); Bee
(1823).
c.1531. Copland, Spyttel Hous [Hazlitt, E. Pop. Poet, iv. 41]. Prolyng and pochyng to get somwhat.
1611. Cotgrave, Dict., s.v. Pocher de labeur d'autruy, to poch into, or encroach upon, another man's imployment, practice in trade.
1620. Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, iv. 1. His greatest fault is he hunts too much in the purlieus; would he leave off poaching.
1821. Egan, Life in London, 11. iv. You shall be admitted into the preserve; but remember, no poaching.
1862. Cornhill Mag., vi., 651. In their wanderings they fall in with other shoals, and some get lost, and some are famished to death, and some are poached, and some get hooked.
1891. Lic. Vict. Gaz., 20 Mar. Seward maintained that the start was a false one, and that his opponent poached full five yards before he (Seward) moved.
2. (old).—To blacken the eyes. Fr. les yeux pochés au beurre noir.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 23. With grinders dislodg'd and with peepers both poach'd.
POACHER, subs. (Stock Exchange).—A
jobber or broker who deals
out of, or is continually changing,
his market.
Poacher-court, subs. phr. (Scots').—The
Kirk-Sessions.
d.1796. Burns, Ep. to J. Rankine. Ae night lately in my fun, I brought a paitrik to the grun, . . . But, deil-ma care! Somebody tell't the poacher-court The hale affair.
Pocket, subs. (colloquial).—1.
Money; means; resources: also
POCKET-BOOK and POCKET-LINING.
Hence, to be in pocket
= to profit; TO BE OUT OF POCKET
= to lose; pockets to let
= penniless, broke (q.v.); to
put one's hand in one's
pocket = (1) to give money (as
in charity), and (2) to spend; TO
