or Bermudas, (old cant).—Certain obscure and intricate alleys, in which persons lodged who had occasion to live cheap or concealed. They are supposed to have been the narrow passages north of the Strand, near Covent Garden (but see quot. 1839): see STRAIGHTS. [NARES: A practice of running away actually to the Bermuda Islands, when they were first settled, to defraud creditors, probably gave rise to the expression.]
1616. JONSON, The Devil is an Ass, ii. 1. Meercraft. Engine, when did you see my cousin Everhill? keeps he still your quarter in the BERMUDAS? Eng. Yes, sir, he was writing this morning very hard.
1616. JONSON, The Devil is an Ass, iii., 3. There’s an old debt of forty, I ga’ my word. For one is run away to the BERMUDAS.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard, 12. It was, therefore, doubly requisite that the ISLAND of the BERMUDA (as the Mint was termed by its occupants) should uphold its rights, as long as it was able to do so.
