have (or carry) in one's pocket = to control; to pick pockets = to steal from the person (hence pick-pocket = a thief from the person: cf. Pick-purse); pocket-piece = (1) a show coin, whence (2) anything meretricious or unreal: see Rhino.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. IV., iii. 3. I'll be sworn my pocket was picked. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for Meas., iii. 2. Is there none . . . to be had now for PUTTING THE HAND IN THE POCKET and extracting it clutched? Ibid. (1604) Winter's Tale, iv. 3. Ant. [picking his pocket]. Softly, good sir!
1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, ii. 1. Sir Jo. But, agad, I'm a little OUT of pocket at present. Sharp. Pshaw, you can't want a hundred pound. Your word is sufficient anywhere.
1709. Dampier, Voyages, 11. i. 93. For tho there were Fowls to be bought at every house where I lay, yet my pocket would not reach them.
1738. Lady's Decoy, 4. My money is spent; Can I be content With pockets depriv'd of their lining?
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 191. As long as his pockets were lined his reception was warm: empty purses meet with fastened doors. Ibid., 216. Not only did we line our pockets with ducats, &c.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii. 5. Tom. Clean'd out! both sides; look here—pockets to let!—. . . and we have stood the nonsense in prime style.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick (1857), 380. This is rayther a change for the worse, Mr. Trotter, as the gen'l'm'n said, wen he got two doubtful shillin's and six penn'orth o' pocket-pieces for a good half-crown.
1846. Punch, x. 272. It is the work of one moiety of the world to put off certain pocket-pieces as though they were sterling coin. Ibid., 268. Cannot see the brassy pocket-piece under the thin wash of a 'Gentleman exterior.'
1856. Quarterly Review, cxlv. 315. They . . . have more than once again glutted our markets, and been punished in POCKET.
1857. Trollope, Barchester Towers [Century]. Dr. Proudie had interest with the government, and the man carried, as it were, Dr. Proudie in his pocket.
1885. Queen, 26 Sep. It is entirely a question of position, pocket, and inclination.
Adj. (colloquial).—Small: e.g., pocket-Hercules = a sturdy dwarf; pocket-volume = a portable book; pocket-Venus (or -piece) = a diminutive whore or mistress; pocket-parliament = a town-council, or debating society; pocket-hell = a Tartarus of one's own, a Tophet on a minor scale; and so forth.
Verb. (colloquial).—1. To endure; to submit: as to ridicule, insult, or wrong. Hence, TO pocket one's horns = to play the wittol; to put one's pride in one's pocket = to suppress one's pride; TO carry one's PASSIONS IN ONE'S POCKET = to smother one's feelings; TO pocket AN AFFRONT = to submit and say nothing.—Ray (1670); B.E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).
1592. Harvey, Foure Letters [Grosart, Works, i. 166]. Patience hath trained mee to pocket-vp more hainous indignities.
1596. Shakspeare, K. John, iii. 1. Well, ruffian, I must pocket-up these wrongs.
1600. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, iv. When they come in swaggering company, and will pocket up anything, may they not properly be said to be white-livered?
1607. Heywood, Woman Killed, ii. 3. My master shall not pocket up this wrong.
1630. Mabbe, Guzman [Oliphant, ii. 85. We are paid in our own coyne; . . . wrongs are pocketed].
1659. Day, Blind Beggar, i. 2. Yet the worst boy that feeds on Glosters beef Hold it high scorn to pocket up the lye.
1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, iii. 1. What! Wear the livery of my king, and pocket an affront.
