subs. phr. (colonial and nautical).—An argumentative ignoramus: see quots., and cf. SEA-LAWYER.
1901. Referee, 7 April, 1, 2. Great care should be exercised so as to minimise chances of their being able to take two chances for their money, one in the game, and the other by ‘SEA-LAWYERING.’
1896. H. G. TURNER, Lecture on J. P. Fawkner. For some years he cultivated and developed his capacity for rhetorical argument by practising in the minor courts of law in Tasmania as a paid advocate, a position which in those days, and under the exceptional circumstances of the Colony, was not restricted to members of the legal profession, and the term BUSH LAWYER probably takes its origin from the practice of this period.
1896. MORRIS, Austral English, s.v. BUSH-LAWYER. Name often used for a layman who fancies he knows all about the law without consulting a solicitor. He talks a great deal, and ‘lays down the law.’
1899. HYNE, Further Adventures of Captain Kettle, v. Robinson’s a SEA-LAWYER, is he? Courts, he talks about.
