Would-be

a. and sb. [The phrase would be (see WILL v.¹ 40) used attributively and absolutely.]

  A.  adj. Of persons: That would be; wishing to be; posing as.

  In the earliest examples used as a mock addition to a designation or title: cf. B.

  1300.  Graystanes, in Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surtees), 77. Eum [sc. Henry de Luceby] contempserunt, vocantes eum H. walde be Priur.

1642.  Kynaston, Leoline & Sydanis, 138. By the skill of Marquis would-be Iones, ’Tis found the smoakes salt did corrupt the stones.

  1647.  Trapp, Comm. Matt. v. 21. 286. Epictetus complained that there were many would be Philosophers, as far as a few good words would goe.

1691.  Rabshakeh Vapulans, 2. The Wou’d-be-Wits, and wou’d-be-Wise, The witty Fool must have the foremost place.

1708.  Brit. Apollo, No. 73. 2/2. The next a Proctor’s Clerk, a Would-be Beau.

1750.  Student or Oxf. Misc., I. 23. None but Academical Pedants and would-be-wits.

1794.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 112. We shall see what the court lawyers … and would-be ambassadors will make of it.

1832.  Lytton, Eugene A., IV. ii. They are not rascals—they are would-be men of the world.

1864.  Pusey, Lect. Daniel, ii. 91. Antiochus was a propagator of false religions, a would-be destroyer of the true.

1889.  Gretton, Memory’s Harkback, 307. Napoleon I., in the greatness of his soul, actually bequeathed a legacy of 10,000 francs to Cantillon, the would-be assassin of Wellington.

  b.  transf. Of things: Intended as.

a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), II. 54. The burnished plate That decks the would-be rustic gate.

1856.  Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, II. xxvi. Speaking with a would-be tone of congratulation.

1869.  Trollope, He knew, etc. xcii. (1878), 513. He had continued to speak with the same fluent would-be cynicism.

1901.  H. Sutcliffe, B. Cunliffe, v. 75. His usual stilted gait softened to a would-be airiness.

  c.  With following adj., forming a hyphened phrase.

1826.  Galt, Last of Lairds, xxvii. 238. The would-be-genteel coxcombs of Calcutta.

1840.  T. Gordon, trans. W. Menzel’s Ger. Lit., II. 80. Books, therefore, even those for the very youngest, are filled with Philistinism and would-be-wise morality.

1865.  ‘Annie Thomas,’ On Guard, II. 90. A sayer of would-be-sensible things.

1883.  Miss Broughton, Belinda, I. iii. With a would-be-valedictory wave of the hand.

  d.  Would-be-thought: wishing to be considered as.

1805.  T. Harral, Scenes of Life, II. 67. The wits, and would-be-thought wits, of the day.

1815.  Mrs. Pilkington, Celebrity, II. 148. ‘Perhaps I might,’ rejoined the would-be-thought cynic.

  B.  sb. One who fain would be (something specified or implied).

  Sometimes used as a fictitious surname.

  (a)  1605.  B. Jonson, Volpone, Dram. Pers. (1607), Politique Would-bee, a Knight … Fine Mada. Would-bee, the Knights wife.

1706.  Mrs. Centlivre, Love at Venture, I. i. 5. Enter a Servant, Ser. Sir, here is Mr. Wou’dbe to wait on you.

  (b)  1672.  Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 238. They are the Politick would-be’s of the Clergy.

c. 1730.  Ramsay, To his Son, vi. Yet, this let little would-be’s know.

1732.  London Mag., I. 240. Of all the Fops in Nature, none are so ridiculously contemptible as the Wouldbees.

1781.  Cowper, Conversat., 612. A man that would have foiled, at their own play, A dozen would-be’s of the modern day.