or nooze, verb. (common).—1. To hang.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).
1676. A Warning for House-keepers [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 32]. And when that he hath NOOSED us.
c. 1712. Old Ballads, ‘The Twenty Craftsmen’ [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 37]. None shall be NOOZ’D if you find but one true.
1754. The Scoundrel’s Dictionary. If they catch him horse-stealing he’s NOOZ’D for all.
1809. SCOTT, The Poacher.
| Our buckskinn’d justices expound the law, | |
| Wire-draw the acts that fix for wires the pain, | |
| And for the netted partridge NOOSE the swain. |
2. (old).—To marry. Whence NOOSING = a wedding; NOOSE (or MARRIAGE-NOOSE) = the nuptial knot.—B. E. (c. 1699); GROSE (1785); MATSELL (1859).
1671. C. SHADWELL, The Fair Quaker of Deal, iv. I’ll take the freedom of sending for our noble Commodore, and his lady too, who are by this time NOOSED.
1693. DRYDEN, Juvenal, VI. 59. To thrust his neck in the MARRIAGE-NOOSE!
1694. CROWNE, The Married Beau, i. 1. Works (1874), iv. 258. I’m loth to NOOSE myself in marriage.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). NOOZE (V.) … in the Cant Language, it means both to marry and to hang.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, xxix. The lieutenant, with a sly regard, pronounced, ‘Tunley, warn’t you NOOSED by the curate?’ Ibid. (1771), The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Letter 52. His indefatigable rival ordered a post-chaise, and set out with the lady for Coldstream, a few miles up the Tweed, where there was a person who dealt in this branch of commerce, and there they were NOOSED.
1821. COMBE, Dr. Syntax, Wife, v.
| Nay, on the third or fourth day after: | |
| They were both NOOS’D in Hymen’s garter. |
1828–45. HOOD, Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg in Poems, i. 22 [ed. 1846].
| For next to that interesting job, | |
| The hanging of Jack, or Bill, or Bob, | |
| There ’s nothing so draws a London mob | |
| As the NOOSING of very rich people. |
1901. St. James’s Gazette, 7 Feb., 8, 5. The attendant announced that the bride and bridegroom were at the altar. “Oh, if that’s so,” said the Bishop to Wesley, “let’s go and tie the NOOSE”!
