Obs. Also 4 colle, 6 coll. [A word of unknown etymology, and even of uncertain existence, inferred from the following examples (some of which might possibly be explained otherwise), and from COLE-PROPHET.]
1. ? A conjuring trick; jugglery.
a. 1307. in Pol. Songs (1839), 157. Ȝet ther sitteth somenours syexe other sevene … For everuch a parosshe heo polketh in pyne, Ant clastreth with heore colle.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, IV. 24. [They] ffeyned sum ffolie, that ffailid hem neuer And cast it be colis with her conceill at euene, To have preuy parlement for profit of hem-self.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr., I. x. (1867), 20. Coll vnder canstyk, she can playe on bothe handis, Dissimulacion well she vnderstandis.
1564. Becon, Display. Pop. Mass, Wks. (1844), 260. Therefore can ye not play cole under candlestick cleanly, nor whip master Wynchard above the board.
2. A deceiver, cheat, sharper (at dice). (Cf. quots. s.v. COLL sb.3, appar. in sense of ‘dupe,’ but referring to gaming.)
1532. Dice-Play (1850), 25. To teach the young cock to crowe, all after the cheators kind, the old cole instructeth the young in the terms of his art. Ibid., 29. This new nurtured novice … is become so good a scholar, that he … hath been snapper with the old cole at 2 or 3 deep strokes.
3. So perh. in Colle tregetour (= juggler who used mechanical devices, conjurer), where however Colle may be a proper name.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 187. There saugh I Colle tregetour … Pleye an uncouthe thyng to telle: I saugh him carien a wind-melle Vnder a walshe-note shale.
