c.1707. Durfey, Pills to Purge, &c. (1707), ii. 226. The Niece of a Canting, Bleer-Ey'd Non-con.
1748. Dodsley, Collection of Poems, 1. 66. Said a formal non-con, whose rich stock of grace Lies forward expos'd in shop-window of face, Ah! pity your soul, come, be of our sect, For then you are safe, and may plead you're elect.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Non-conformist—a discontented person, who will think and act differently from all others.
1843. Crabb Robinson, in Diary, 7 April, ii. 239 (3rd ed. 1872). So it is that extremes meet, and that we non-cons are in accord with the High Church divines.
Non-est-inventus, phr. (popular).—Absent.—De
Quincey,
Murder as one of the Fine Arts.
Non-licet, adj. phr. (Winchester
College).—Illegal; unbefitting a
Wykehamist: e.g. Don't sport
non-licet notions.
Nonny (nonino, or hey, nonny,
nonny), subs. (old).—1. A refrain
once used to cover indelicate
allusions.
1593. Drayton, Eccl. These noninos of beastly ribauldry.
c. 1620-50. Percy Folio MS., 201. Cupid bidds itt shold bee soe, because all men were made for her hinononino.
c.1625. Beaumont and Fletcher, Hum. Lieut., iv. 2. That noble mind to melt away and moulder For a hey nonny, nonny.
2. (old).—A simpleton: see Buffle and Cabbage-head.
Nonplust, adv. (old).—At the end
of one's tether. Also at point
nonplus.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, ii. Faith, Tom is nonplust; he looks plaguily down in the mouth.
1821. Egan, Life in Lond., ii. i. 147. Remember that he is not yet out of Pupil's Straits, and must not, as you say, be blown up at point nonplus.
Nonsense, subs. (old).—1. Money:
see Actual and Gilt.
1821. Egan, Life in London. Shell out the nonsense: half a quid Will speak more truth than all your palaver.
2. (old).—See quot.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue [Egan], s.v. Nonsense. Melting butter in a wig. Also, fastening the door with a boiled carrot.
3. (Eton College).—A small division of the Third Form.
Nonsuch, The, subs. (venery).—The
female pudendum: see
Monosyllable.
2. (old colloquial).—See quot. 1785. Ital. una coppa d'oro.
1767. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn], 172, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. None-such, one that is unequalled; frequently applied ironically.
Nonjuror, subs. (old).—See quot.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nonjurors. Clergymen and others (Officers in the Army, Navy, etc.) That refus'd to take the Oaths to King William and Queen Mary, and were turn'd out of their Livings and Employments.
Noodle, subs. (common).—A
simpleton. Also billy noodle.
See Buffle and Cabbage-head.—Ash
(1775); Bee (1823).
1843. Moncrieff, The Scamps of London, ii. 3. Half-and-half know-nothing noodle.
c.1845. Sydney Smith Review of Bentham on Fallacies. The whole of these fallacies may be gathered together in a little oration which we will denominate the noodles' oration.
1864. Forsyth, Life of Cicero, xi. He was such a noodle he did not know the value of what he had bought.
1892. G. M. Fenn, The New Mistress, xv. Making a great noodle of yourself.
