Heading
English bailiff, temp. Henry VII.] Fr., un loup (= wolf); un Anglais = an Englishman). Also dunner and dunning.
1663. T. Killegrew, Parson's Wedding, III., v., in Dodsley, O.P. (1780), xi., 452. We shall have the sport, and be revenged upon the rogue for dunning a gentleman in a tavern.
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, I., in wks. (1713), 136. The most insatiable sorts of duns, that invade our lodgings in a morning.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act V., Sc. ii. Man. No, no. Those you have obliged most, most certainly avoid you, when you can oblige 'em no longer; and they take your visits like so many duns.
1678. C. Cotton, Scarronides, bk. i., p. 43 (ed. 1725). Have what you want, nor will I dun ye, But pay me when you can get mony.
1707. Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem, Act III., Sc. iii. I remember the good days when we could dun our masters for our wages, and if they refused to pay us, we could have a warrant to carry 'em before a Justice.
1712. Spectator, No. 454. Though they never buy, they are ever talking of new silks, laces, and ribbons, and serve the owners, in getting them customers as their common dunners do in making them pay.
1731. Daily Journal, 9 Jan. ['List of the officers established in the most notorious gaming-houses.'] 9th.: A dunner, who goes about to recover money lost at play.
1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. III., ch. iii. Poverty and distress, with their horrid train of duns, attorneys, bailiffs, haunted me day and night.
1777. Sheridan, Trip to Scarborough, Act I., Sc. ii. What, hast spent all, eh? And art thou come to dun his lordship for assistance?
1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xv. I refused him admittance as flatly, Blount, as you would refuse a penny to a blind beggar; as obstinately, Tracy, as thou didst ever deny access to a dun.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. ix., p. 66. To fetch three new boys, and dun the relations of two old ones for the balance of a small account.
1888. C. J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, p. 6. Dunning for payment which may not be convenient to them, and which would in no sense conduce to the honour of the dunners.
Dunaker, subs. (old).—A cattle-lifter.
16(?). Poem of 17th Century (quoted by Nares). The seventeenth a dun-aker, that maketh his vows To go i' the country and steal all their cows.
1693. Herrick('Poor Robin'). Mercury is in a conjunction with Venus, and when such conjunctions happen, it signifies a most plentiful crop that year, of hectors . . . donnakers, cross-biters, etc.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Dunderhead, subs. (old).—A fool.
For synonyms, see Buffle and
Cabbage-head.
Dundreary, subs. and adj. (colloquial).—Specifically,
a stammering,
foolish, and long-whiskered
fop—the Lord Dundreary of Our
American Cousin (1858)—generally,
a foppish fool. Cf., Jubilee
Juggins.
1876. Jas. Grant, One of the Six Hundred, ch. iii. His whole air had the 'used up' bearing of those miserable dundrearys who affect to act as if youth, wealth, and luxury were the greatest calamities that flesh is heir to, and that life itself was a bore.
Dundrearies, subs. (colloquial).—A
pair of whiskers cut sideways
from the chin, and grown as long
as possible. A fashion (now
obsolete) suggested by Sothern's
make-up in Our American Cousin.
1882. F. Anstey, Vice-Versâ, ch. xvii. Bushy black whiskers, more like the antiquated dundreary type than modern fashion permits.
Dung, subs. (workmen's).—An
operative working for less than
'society' wages. Formerly, according
to Grose, 'a journeyman
taylor who submits to the law for
regulating journey-men's taylors'
