Newcome, subs. (common).—A new arrival; a fresh face: as a freshman at college; a new midshipman; a new baby. Also Johnnie Newcome.
1821. Egan, Life in London, Nocturnal Hells. There were some new-*comes. [The name given to any new faces or persons among the usual visitants in a gambling house].
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, etc., s.v. Newcome Johnny.
New-drop, subs. (old).—See quot.
1788. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. New drop. The scaffold used at Newgate for hanging criminals; which dropping down, leaves them suspended. By this improvement, the use of that vulgar vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off.
New England of the West, subs.
phr. (American).—The State of
Minnesota. [Many New Englanders
settled there].
Newgate, subs. (old).—A gaol:
specifically the prison for the City
of London: see quots. 1592 and
1823. Also Newman's Hotel
(or tea-gardens: man's (Old
Cant.) = a place). Hence, Newgate-bird
(or Newgate-nightingale
= a thief, sharper, or
gaol-bird; Newgate (or Tyburn)
collar, fringe, or
frill = a collar-like beard worn
under the chin; Newgate-frisk
= a hanging; Newgate-knocker
= a lock of hair like
the figure 6, twisted from the
temple back towards the ear
(chiefly in vogue 1840-50—see
Aggerawators); Newgate-*ring
= moustache and beard
as one, without whiskers; Newgate-saint
= a condemned
criminal; to dance the Newgate-hornpipe
= to be hanged;
Newgate-solicitor = a pettifogging
attorney; Born on Newgate-steps
= of thievish origin;
as black as Newgate = very
black; Newgate seize me =
'the gaol be my portion'; Newman's-lift
= the gallows.
c.1531. Copland, Hyeway to Spyttel-*hous [Hazlitt, Pop. Poet, iv., 41]. By my fayth, nyghtyngales of Newgate: These be they that dayly walkes and jettes.
1592. Nash, Pierce Penilesse . . . Newgate . . . a common name for all prisons as homo is a common name for a man or woman.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., iii., 3. Must we all march? Yes, two and two, Newgate fashion.
1607. Dekker, Jests [Grosart, Works (1886), ii., 343]. Our Newgate-bird . . . spreading his Dragon-like wings, . . . beheld a thousand Synnes.
1677. Thomas Otway, Cheats of Scapin, i., 1. Newgate-bird . . . what a trick hast thou played me in my absence.
1732. Ozell, Miser, i., 3. Out of my House, thou sworn Master-Catpurse, true Newgate-bird.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue [Egan], s.v. Newman's-hotel.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, etc., s.v. Newgate. A house of entertainment for rogues of every description. . . . The name itself has been . . . naturalized in Dubliu, as also in Manchester, where the sessions-house is modernized into New Bailey. The old building . . . stood across the entrance to Newgate Street; and probably had its name from . . . having been the newest of all the gates that then choked up the accesses to the metropolis. Ibid. Newgate Steps, figurative for a low or thievish origin. Before 1780, these steps . . . were much frequented by rogues and ws connected with the inmates of that place: some might be said to have received their education there, if not their birth. Ibid. As black as Newgate is said of a street Lady's lowering countenance, or of her muslin-dress, when either is changed from the natural serene. Ibid. Newgate seize me if I do, there now! is an asseveration of the most binding nature, when both parties may be following the same course of life.
1829. Maginn, The Pickpocket's Chaunt [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 105], xiii. And we shall caper a-heel and toeing a Newgate hornpipe some fine day.
