1827. Lytton, Pelham, xlix. Champagne with the taste of a gooseberry, and hock with the properties of a pomegranate . . . young men . . . purchase poison at a dearer rate than the most medicine-loving hypochondriac in England.
c. 1863. Artemus Ward [Works (1890) 160]. I found Dr. Schwazey, a leadin citizen, in a state of mind which showed that he'd bin histin in more'n his share of pizen.
1867. Pinkerton, Great Adams Express Robbery, 41. It's a cold day when Barney O'Hara will let a bog-trotter go dry. Name your poison.
1886-96. Marshall, 'Pomes' from the Pink 'Un ['The Garret'], 20. 'My favourite poison,' murmurs she, 'Is good old gin.'
1888. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 50. Wot's yer pison, old pal?
2. (common).—Anything unpleasant. Whence to hate like poison = to detest.
1530. Palsgrave, Lang. Fran., 259. Hate me like poyson.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Leg. 'Knight and the Lady.' And both hating brandy, like what some call pison.
1847. Robb, Squatter Life, 60. It got to be parfect pizen to hear.
Poisoned, adj. (old).—Pregnant;
lumpy (q.v.).—B. E. (c. 1696);
Grose (1785).
Poison-pated, adj. phr. (old).—Red-haired.—Grose
(1785).
Pojam, subs. (Harrow).—A poem:
set as an exercise: a portmanteau-word
(q.v.).
Poke (Poge, Pogh, or Pogue),
subs. (common).—1. A pocket;
a bag; a sack; a pouch; a
purse: generic: cf. peter.—B.
E. (c. 1696); Martin (1754);
Grose (1785); Vaux (1819).
Also (corrupt) palke and pakke.
English synonyms.—Bounge; brigh; bung; busy-sack; carpet-swab; cly; cod; haddock; hoxter; kick; peter; pit; roger (also = portmanteau); roundabout; skin; sky (or skyrocket = rhyming); slash; suck.
French synonyms.—Une baguenaude; une balade (ballade, or valade: avaler = to swallow); un bouchon; une felouse (felouze, filoche, fouille, or fouillouse); une fondrière; un four (or un four banal); une grande; un gueulard (or une gueularde); une louche; une morlingue; une parfonde (or profonde); une prophête; un porte-morningue (or porte-mornif).
Italian synonyms.—Fegatello; figadelto; foglia (= Fr. fouillouse: Michel); santa; scarsello (= Fr. escarcelle); scarpa; tuosa; 'zavatta (= Fr. savate).
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman Creed [Wright (1847), line 791]. Trewely, frere, quath I tho, To tellen the the sothe, There is no peny in my pakke To payen for my mete. Ibid., Vision, 1. 165. A poke full of pardons.
1383. Chaucer [Skeat, Works (1894), 'Reeves Tale,' 1. 358]. And in the floor, with nose and mouth to-broke, They walwe as doon two pigges in a poke.
14[?]. Douce MS., 52. When me profereth the pigge, opon the poghe.
1514. More, A Sergeaunt wold lerne, &c. [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., iii. 128]. They roule and romble, they turne and tumble, as pygges do in a poke.
d. 1529. Skelton, Bowge of Courte [Dyce, i. 48]. I have a stoppynge oyster in my poke.
d. 1549. Borde [?], Mylner of Abyngton [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., iii. 106]. Me thinke our poke is waxen light.
1600. Shakspeare, As You Like It, ii. 7. And then he drew a dial from his poke.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, 63. Some will have the English so called from wearing a pouch or poake (a bag to carry their baggage in) behind their backs.
