[Possibly in allusion to the parable of the beggar Lazarus in Luke xvi.] One of ‘a set of vagabonds, who wandered about the country, soon after the dissolution of the religious houses; the provision of the poor in those places being cut off, and no other substituted.’ Nares.
1561. Awdelay, Frat. Vacaboundes, 3. An Abraham man is he that walketh bare-armed and bare-legged and fayneth hymselfe mad.
1633. Massinger, New Way to Pay, II. i. Are they padders, or Abram-men, that are your consorts?
1813. Q. Rev., IX. 167. Pretended maniacs who wandered over England, under the name of Abram-men.
Hence, To sham Abram: to feign sickness, a phrase in use among sailors.
1860. J. C. Hotten, Dict. Slang, When Abraham Newland was Cashier of the Bank of England, and signed their notes, it was sung: ‘I have heard people say that sham Abraham you may, but you mustn’t sham Abraham Newland.’
