1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 235. Take my advice . . . and pocket the affront.
1759. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, xix. If I calmly pocket the abuse, I am laughed at.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 72. Like the bold blust'ring Dickey Hunt, He POCKETED THE whole AFFRONT.
1869. Gent. Mag., July, 195. The member had sense enough to pocket the rebuke, and sat down quietly to enjoy the remaining convivial hours.
2. (common).—To embezzle or steal.
1851. Spencer, Social Statics, 463. They seized the goods of traders, sold them, and pocketed a large part of the proceeds.
1885. Daily Telegraph, 9 Nov. She appears to have been pocketing money from her employer.
3. (colloquial).—To win.
If not pleased put hand in pocket and please yourself, phr. (old).—A retort on grumblers.—Ray (1760).
He plays as fair as if he'd PICKED YOUR POCKET, phr. (old).—Said of rooking gamblers.
Pocket-book dropper. See
Drop-game.
Pocket-borough, subs. phr.
(political).—A constituency in
which votes are controlled by
one man: theoretically, since the
Reform Act of 1832, a thing of
the past; to pocket a borough
= to control votes.
1872. Eliot, Middlemarch, xlvi. "When I think of Burke I can't help wishing somebody had a pocket-borough to give you, Ladislaw." . . . "Pocket-boroughs would be a fine thing," said Ladislaw, "if they were always in the right pocket, and there were always a Burke at hand."
1882. Schouler, Hist. U. States, i. 10. He was . . . loyal to some one of the blood families who contended for the honour of pocketing the borough in which he voted.
Pocketed, adj. (racing).—Said of
a runner so surrounded that he
cannot possibly get out of the
press, and push to the front.
Pocket-pistol, subs. phr. (common).—See
quots.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. IV., v. 3. Fal. But take my pistol if thou wilt . . . [The Prince draws it out and finds it to be a bottle of sack.]
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iv. viii. He had conveyed a thimbleful of the liquid to his own parched throat, and replenished what Falstaff calls a pocket-pistol which he had about him.
1847. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1. xxx. A wicker-covered flask or pocket-pistol, containing near a pint of a remarkably sound Cognac brandy.
1861. G. Eliot, Silas Marner, iv. The inclination for a run, encouraged by . .. a draught of brandy from his pocket-pistol at the conclusion of the bargain, was not easy to overcome.
18[?]. Naylor, Reynard the Fox, 42. He . . . swigged his pocket-pistol.
1864. Babbage, Life of a Philosopher, 218. A glass bottle enclosed in a leather case, commonly called a pocket-pistol.
1870. Orchestra, 7 Jan. My friend was only saved from fainting by a little sherry which I had happily brought in a POCKET PISTOL.
Pocket-thunder, subs. phr. (vulgar).—A
fart.
Pock-nook. To come in on
one's own pock-nook, verb.
phr. (Scots').—See quot.
1821. Sir A. Wylie, Works, iii. 61. I CAME IN ON MY OWN POCK-NOOK; as we say in Scotland when a man lives on his own means.
