1712. Spectator, No. 474. I beg you would publish this letter, and let me be known all at once for a queer fellow, and avoided.
1752. Smollett, Faithful Narrative, Wks. (1901, xii. 184). The very cule who hath a warrant against me for snabbling his peeter and queer joseph.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 59. Thyestes died exceeding rich, And left his staff to this queer bitch. Ibid. 103. Gods are queer fish as well as men.
1789. Parker, Happy Pair [in Life's Painter]. Though fancy queer-gamm'd smutty Muns Was once my fav'rite man. Ibid. Bunter's Christening, v. Such a queer procession of seedy brims and kids. Ibid. (1800). Life's Painter, 144. The queer-plunger, the surgeon, and the landlord get upon this lock about ten guineas, and share the whack.
1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, xxv. "He knows my gybe [pass] as well as the jark [seal] of e'er a queer cuffin [justice of peace] in England."
1821. Egan, Life in London, II. i. The duke and the dealer in queer—the lady and her scullion— . . . they are "all there."
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xxiii. "You would be queered in the drinking of a penny pot of malmseys."
1824. Sonnets for the Fancy [Boxiana, iii. 622]. The queerum queerly smear'd with dirty black. Ibid. The knowing bench had tipped her buzer queer.
1825. Jones, True Bottomed Boxer [Univ. Songster, ii. 96]. Till groggy and queery.
1826. Bruton, My Mugging Maid [Univ. Songster, iii. 103] Told me, that Hodge's max had queered My mugging maid.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxxxiii. Oh, my kiddies, cried Bess . . . you are in Queer Street.
1829. Marryat, Frank Mildmay, xx. 'You Englishmen go to work in a queerish kind of way,' said he, 'you send soldiers to live on an island where none but sailors can be of use.'
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood (1864), 180. Rum gills and queer gills. Ibid. 'Nix my Doll.' Readily the queer screens I could smash.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, lv. 482. "If you had gone to any low member of the profession, it's my firm conviction . . . that you would have found yourselves in Queer Street before this."
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Grey Dolphin.' Things . . . were looking rather queerish.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia. Queer Cuffin will be the word yet if we don't tout.
1844. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, xvii. I could tell tales of scores of queer doings there.
1848. Dickens, Dombey & Son, xl. 'A fair friend of ours has removed to Queer Street.' 'What do you mean, Major?' 'I mean . . . that you will soon be an orphan-in-law.'
1855. C. Kingsley, Westward Ho. "'Go away,' I heard her say, 'there's a dear man.' And then something about a 'queer cuffin,' that's a justice in these carter's thieves' Latin." Ibid. (1857) Two Years Ago, xiv. I am very high in Queer Street just now, ma'am, having paid your bills before I left town.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, iv. 'We've seen his name—the old man's—on some very queer paper, says B. with a wink to J.
1865. "Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, ii. 5. Put it about in the right quarter that you'll buy queer bills by the lump.
1866. London Misc., 5 May, 202. I don't think I told you all the business. A precious queer start it was.
1871. Figaro, 20 Feb. He established a saloon in New York which became the headquarters of all the counterfeiters and shovers of the queer in the country.
1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 218. Consumption was queering him.
1886-96. Marshall, Pomes [1897], 16. It is true her descent was in some respects queer.
1888. Missouri Republican, 4 Mar. The police are looking for the queer-shover, and are confident of effecting his capture. Ibid. 25 Jan. Moulds for making the queer having been found on his premises.
