1602. Shakspeare, Othello, iii. 3, 402. It is impossible you should see this, Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, As salt as wolves in pride.
1629. Davenant, Albovine, i. When I see her I grow proud below the navel.
d.1680. Rochester, Ramble in St. James's Park [Works (1718), i. 82]. So a proud Bitch does lead about Of amorous Curs the humble Rout.
Pride-and-pockets, subs. phr.
(common).—See quot.
1893. Emerson, Lippo, xiii. The place, too, was what we call 'shabby genteel'—a lot of retired tradesmen and half-pay officers . . . pride-and-pockets as we called them.
Pride-of-the-morning (The),
subs phr. (Irish).—A shower of
rain.
Priest, subs. (Irish).—A short
bludgeon: used to administer
the 'last rites' to a landed fish.
To be one's priest, verb. phr. (Scots').—To kill.
1810. Homespun Lays, 135. An' wi' an awfu' shak, Swore he wad shortly be his priest, An' threw him on his back Fu' flat.
A great priest, subs. phr. (Scots').—A strong but ineffectual inclination to stool.—Jamieson.
To let the priest say grace, verb. phr. (old).—To marry: hence priest-link'd = married.—B. E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).
Priest of the Blue-bag, subs. phr. (common).—A barrister: see Greenbag.
1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xx. "He . . . showed himself as practised in every law quibble . . . as if he had been a regularly ordained priest of the blue bag."
Priest's niece, subs. phr. (old).—A
cleric's illegitimate daughter,
or concubine: whence 'No more
character than a priest's niece.'
1663. Killigrew, Parson's Wedding [1827], i. 3, p. 471.
1848. Ruxton, Far West, 145. They were probably his nieces.
Prig, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A thief: also prigger and prig-*man; as verb. = to steal. Whence prigger of prauncers (or palfreys) = a horse-thief; prigger of cacklers = a poultry-thief; prig-napper = a thief-taker; Prince prig (or (Prig-star) = 'a King of the Gypsies, also a Top Thief, or Receiver General' (B. E.); to work on the prig (or prigging-lay) = to thieve; to prig and buz = to pick pockets; priggish = thievish; priggery (or priggism) = thievery.—Awdeley (1560); Harman (1563); Dekker (1608); Head (c.1665); B. E. (c.1696); Hall (1714); Grose (1785).
English synonyms.—To angle; to annex; to bilk; to bite; to bone; to bounce; to bunco; to bust; to buz; to cabbage; to chouse; to claim; to clift; to clink-rig; to cloy (cligh or cly); to collar; to collect; to convey; to cop; to crack; to crib; to cross-fam; to curb; to cut; to dip; to dive; to drag; to draw; to ease; to fake; to filch; to file; to find; to flap; to fleece; to flimp; to fop; to fork; to fraggle; to free; to frisk; to glean; to haul; to hook; to jump; to klep; to knap; to knuckle; to lag; to lap; to lurch; to mag; to make; to maltool (or moll tool); to manarvel; to mill; to mug; to nab; to nail; to nap; to
