Knight

subs. (common).—An ironical prefix of profession or calling: generic.

  [Combinations are KNIGHT OF THE BLADE = a bully (B. E. 1690); KNIGHT OF THE BRUSH = an artist or painter; KNIGHT OF THE COLLAR = a gallows-bird; KNIGHT OF THE CLEAVER = a butcher; KNIGHT OF THE CUE = a billiard-marker; KNIGHT OF THE GREEN CLOTH = a gamester; KNIGHT OF HORNSEY (or OF THE FORKED ORDER) = a cuckold; KNIGHT OF INDUSTRY = a thief; KNIGHT OF THE KNIFE = a cut-purse; KNIGHT OF LABOR = (in America) a workingman; KNIGHT OF THE LAPSTONE = a cobbler; KNIGHT OF THE NAPKIN = a waiter; KNIGHT OF THE NEEDLE = a tailor; KNIGHT OF THE QUILL = an author or journalist; KNIGHT OF THE PENCIL = a book-maker; KNIGHT OF THE PESTLE = an apothecary; KNIGHT OF THE PIT = a cocker; KNIGHT OF THE PETTICOAT = a bawdy-house bully; KNIGHT OF THE PISSPOT—a physician, an apothecary; KNIGHT OF THE POST = a knight dubbed at the whipping post or pillory, also a rogue who got his living by giving false witness or false bail; KNIGHT OF THE RAINBOW = a footman (GROSE, 1785); KNIGHT OF THE ROAD = a footpad or highwayman: also KNIGHT OF THE RUMPAD; KNIGHT OF THE SHEARS or THIMBLE = a tailor (GROSE, 1785); KNIGHT OF THE SPIGOT = a tapster, a publican; KNIGHT OF THE SUN = an adventurer, a knight-errant; KNIGHT OF THE WHEEL = a cyclist; KNIGHT OF THE WHIP = a coachman; KNIGHT OF THE YARD = a shopman or counter-jumper.]

  c. 1554.  Youth [DODSLEY, Old Plays (1847), ii. 15].

  1592.  NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell, in Works, ii. 19. A KNIGHT OF THE POST, quoth he, for so I am tearmed; a fellowe that will sweare you anything for twelue pence.

  1606.  Sir Gyles Goosecappe, I. iii. [in BULLEN’S Old Plays, iii. 19]. Rud. O good KNIGHT A THE POST, heele sweare anything.

  1614.  JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, ii. 1. ‘Is this goodly person before us here … a KNIGHT OF THE KNIFE?’ ‘What mean you by that?’ ‘I mean a child of the horn thumb … a cut purse.’

  1620.  FORD, A Line of Life. But is his resolution any way infracted, for that some refractaries are (like KNIGHTS OF THE POST) hired to witnesse against him?

  1621.  BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III. xi. 187 (1836). Perjur’d knaves, KNIGHTS OF THE POST, lyers.

  1659.  Lady Alimony, i., 3 (DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 284). That KNIGHT OF THE SUN who employed me should have done his errand himself. Ibid., iii., 6 (p. 340). Sir Reu. Doubt nothing, my fellow-KNIGHTS OF HORNSEY.

  1635.  GLAPTHORNE, The Hollander, in Wks. (1874), 94. ‘I know not how you stile him.’ ‘Not John a Stiles, the KNIGHT OF THE POST is it?’

  1653.  R. BROME, The Damoiselle, in Wks. (1873), Act i. 1. He takes me for a KNIGHT OF THE POST.

  1662.  Rump Songs, ii. 47.

  1662.  J. WILSON, The Cheats, v., 2. D. D. How!—Stick a BULLS FEATHER in my Cap!—Make me a Knight o’ th’ forked Order! Ibid. iv. 1.

  1671.  R. HEAD, The English Rogue, I. ch. xxx. p. 246 (Repr. 1874). His investation into the honour of one of the KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD.

  1691–2.  Gentlemen’s Journal, March, p. 2. I know some of your sturdy, stuff KNIGHTS OF THE QUILL. Ibid., Feb., p. 5. KNIGHTS OF THE POST, Alsatian braves.

  1694.  ECHARD, Plautus’s Comedies Made English, p. 151. When e’er we meet wi’ fellows who hire KNIGHTS O’ THE POST in law-sutes, and rascals who forswear themselves in chancery.

  1709.  CENTLIVRE, The Gamester (1872), i. 162. It is a kind of KNIGHT OF THE POST—that will swear on either side for interest.

  1711.  Spectator, No. 172. A couple of courtiers making professions of esteem, would make the same figure after breach of promise, as two KNIGHTS OF THE POST convicted of perjury.

  d. 1721.  PRIOR, Poems (1892), i. 156. There the Squires of the Pad, and the KNIGHTS OF THE POST.

  1777.  FOOTE, The Trip to Calais (1795), i. p. 23. Lap. That may be the case, Master Minnikin, with those of the trade who live in the city; but I would have you to know, the KNIGHTS OF THE NEEDLE are another sort of people at our end of the town.

  1819.  T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 76.

  1821.  SCOTT, Kenilworth, viii. ‘When an old song comes across us merry old KNIGHTS OF THE SPIGOT, it runs away with our discretion.’

  1828.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Living Picture of London, p. 27. To the practices and necessities of the coachmen and guard’s private trade, we owe the increasing number and fresh supply of hangers-on, whose first business has been the performing fetch-and-carry services for those KNIGHTS OF THE WHIP.

  1838.  JAS. GRANT, Sketches in London, iii. 119. ‘You’ll do what, Sir?’ observed the ‘man with the Macintosh,’ eyeing the KNIGHT OF THE THIMBLE steadily. ‘Just call me a tailor, agin, Sir.’

  1840.  THACKERAY, Catherine, v. We did not go into the Park, but turned off and cantered smartly up towards Kilburn; and, when we got into the country, galloped as if the devil were at our heels. Bless you, my love, it was all done in a minute; and the Ensign and I found ourselves regular KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD, before we knew where we were almost.

  1843.  W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Scamps of London, ii. 2. Our hells are full of Greeks—they are the Corinthians of the order, the top sawyers—KNIGHTS OF THE POST, whom you will find in Regent-street, in the clubs, at Epsom, Ascot, Newmarket, and Doncaster.

  1858.  A. MAYHEW, Paved with Gold, III. iii. p. 267. ‘It’s scarcely wages for a KNIGHT OF THE RAINBOW (footman).’

  1864.  Reader, 22 Oct., p. 505. i. The best guard against any such spirit [that of only regarding books by the light of ‘will they pay’], is that the publisher should be a KNIGHT OF THE PEN himself.

  1881.  New York Slang Dictionary. Gamblers are called KNIGHTS OF THE GREEN CLOTH, and their lieutenants, who are sent out after greenhorns, are called decoys, cappers, and steerers.

  1885.  JOHN COLEMAN, Wilson Barrett and his Work, in Longman’s Magazine, VII. 78. Occasionally, however, the author has his nose put out of joint by the scene-painter. I once heard a distinguished KNIGHT OF THE BRUSH exclaim, ‘D—n the author and the actors! the public come to see my scenery!’

  1885.  Punch, 7 March, p. 109. The KNIGHTS OF THE PENCIL, Sir, hold that backers, like pike, are more ravenous in keen weather, and consequently easier to land.

  1890.  Daily Telegraph, 25 Feb., p. iv., col. 7. Meanwhile, every temptation is offered to the felonious tendencies of these KNIGHTS OF INDUSTRY. Women parade the rooms with thousands of pounds’ value of jewellery on their persons.

  TO BE THE GUEST OF THE CROSS-LEGGED KNIGHTS, verb. phr. (old).—To go dinnerless; TO DINE WITH DUKE HUMPHREY (q.v.); TO DINE (or SUP) WITH SIR THOMAS GRESHAM (q.v.). [In allusion to the stone effigies in the Round Church (Temple) at one time the rendez-vous of lawyers and their clients, who attracted a host of dinnerless vagabonds in the hope of picking up a job.] For synonyms, see PECKHAM.

  TO BE KNIGHTED IN BRIDEWELL, verb. phr. (old).—To be whipped in prison.

  1592.  NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell [GROSART, ii. 57]. I knewe an odde foule-mouthde knaue … that had … a backe so often KNIGHTED IN BRIDEWELL that it was impossible … to terrifie him from ill-speaking.