verbal subs. (cab-owners’).—Inserting the date in a cab-driver’s licence in words instead of figures: or, endorsing it in an unusually bold, heavy hand: a hint to possible employers that the holder is undesirable. In other trades it is understood that an unexceptionable character, with the adjectives carefully underlined, is to be read as implying just the opposite of what it appears to say.
1890. Pall Mall Gazette, 15 Sept. A correspondent writes to protest against the heading ‘A Cabman’s Odd Complaint,’ which was given in these columns on Saturday to a paragraph concerning the CHAIR-MARKING of a licence.
