Also kirb-. [KERB sb.]
1. a. An edging of stone about the top of a well. b. One of the stones forming the kerb of a path; also, the kerb itself.
a. 1706. Phillips, Kerb-Stone, a Stone laid round the Brim of a Well.
b. [1795. Statist. Acc. Scot., XVI. 614. From 600 to 800 tons of kerb and carriage-way stones. Ibid., 628. Kirb and carriage-way stones.]
1815. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., LXXVII. 134. He calls the edge of the foot-pavement the kerb-stone instead of curb-stone.
1830. J. W. Croker, in C. Papers, 18 Sept. (1884). If one’s foot had slipped at the edge of the kerbstone.
1882. Besant, All Sorts, xxxv. On the kerbstone the little girls are dancing.
2. attrib., as kerb-stone broker (U.S.), a broker, not a member of the stock exchange, who transacts business in the streets; kerb-stone merchant, a street dealer.
1860, 1886. Kerbstone-broker [see CURBSTONE].
1896. Daily News, 5 Aug., 3/5. Among the Kerbstone brokers to-day Diamond Match were sold at 150, which is 72 points below yesterday’s quotation.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 18 Feb., 6/1. It seems an anomaly that gentlemen of the Stock Exchange should have to sink to the level of kerbstone merchants.
