subs. (common).—1. A term of contempt.
2. (printers’).—An over-inked spot in a printed sheet; a dark patch; a blackened or wasted impression. See FRIAR.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1868. BREWER, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, s.v. MONK. Caxton set up his printing press in the scriptorium of Westminster Abbey; and the associations of this place gave rise to the slang expressions MONK and friar for black and white defects.
