subs. (common).—1. A playing card.
1857. THACKERAY, The Virginians, xv. The company voted … three honours in their hand, and some good court cards, more beautiful than the loveliest scene of nature; … hour after hour delightfully spent over the PASTEBOARD.
1896. FARJEON, The Betrayal of John Fordham, III. 277. I might ’ave done well among the swells, I’m that neat with the PASTEBOARDS. I can shuffle ’em any way I want, kings at top, aces at bottom, in the middle, anywhere you like.
2. (common).—A visiting card. Also as verb (or TO SHOOT, or DROP, ONE’S PASTEBOARD) = to leave a visiting card at a person’s house.
1849. THACKERAY, Pendennis, xxxvi. We shall only have to leave our PASTEBOARDS.
1861. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxv. I shall just leave a PASTEBOARD.
1897. KENNARD, The Girl in the Brown Habit, x. I told my missus to drop a card on you to-day. You see … we hunting men have not much time for that sort of thing; and PASTEBOARD leaving is quite out of my line.
1891. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 3 Jan. Then his PASTEBOARD he presented—puffed a cigarette, contented.
1897. B. MITFORD, A Romance of the Cape Frontier, I. ii. ‘Boss engaged,’ said the sharp boy…. ‘Take that PASTEBOARD in at once.’
