[QUILL sb.1 3 b.] One who works with a quill or pen; a clerk or author. (Chiefly with contemptuous force.)

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1760.  Voy. W. O. G. Vaughan, I. 129. As good as any of the Grub-street Quill-drivers cou’d write.

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1846.  Thackeray, Crit. Rev., Wks. 1886, XXIII. 96. The quill-driver of the present day, with his doubtful position and small gains.

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1887.  T. A. Trollope, What I remember, II. xix. 379. I used … to do all my writing standing; and I strongly recommend the practice to brother quill-drivers.

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  So Quill-driving vbl. sb. and ppl. a. (pres. pple.).

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1719.  D’Urfey, Pills (1872), IV. 319. Quill-driving Prigs, Flock’d to St. James’s.

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1756.  Toldervy, Hist. 2 Orphans, I. 181. Richmond … went to quill-driving till ten.

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1829.  Scott, Jrnl., 13 Jan. At such times I have wished myself a clerk, quill-driving for twopence per page.

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1880.  Browning, Clive, 39. That greenhorn, that quill-driving clerk.

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