slang. [In later times, app. used as an abbreviation of CODGER; but it is very doubtful if this is the origin, since it appears much earlier than codger.] A slang appellation applied to persons, with various forces: see the quotations.
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cod, also a Fool … An honest Cod, a trusty Friend.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, V. v. (1737), 18. O what an honest Cod was this same Ædituus!
1851. C. D. Bevan, Lett., in Beddoes’ Poems & Lett. (Introd.), 130. [At the Charterhouse] … In those days the pensioners (or as we called them ‘Cods’) were not remarkable … for cleanliness.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, II. 333. The old reverend black-gowns … the Cistercian lads called these old gentlemen Codds—I know not wherefore.
1873. Slang Dict., Cod, to hoax, to take a ‘rise’ out of one. Used as a noun, a fool.
1878. Macleod, Hist. Dumbarton, II. 46. Ye vile drunken cod.
