subs.—1. A corruption of ‘faro.’
d. 1732. GAY, To Pulteney [DAVIES]. Nanette last night at twinkling PHARAOH play’d, The cards the Talliers sliding hand obeyed.
1748. WALPOLE, Letters, II. 105. We divert ourselves extremely this winter; plays, balls, masquerades, and PHARAOH are all in fashion.
1760. A. MURPHY, The Way to Keep Him, i. May I never taste the dear delight of breaking a PHARAOH bank, &c.
c. 1796. WOLCOT, Peter Pindar, 249.
| Behold, a hundred coaches at her door, | |
| Where PHARO triumphs in his mad career. |
2. (old).—A strong ale or beer: also OLD PHARAOH: see SWIPES.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).
1697. The Praise of Yorkshire Ale, 3. Lac’d Coffee, Twist, OLD PHARAOH, and Old Hoc.
d. 1704. T. BROWN [Works, ii. 286]. Ezekiel Driver, of Puddle-Dock, Carman, having disorder’d his pia mater with too plentiful a morning’s draught of three-threads and OLD PHARAOH, had the misfortune to have his cart run over him.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [1889], 39. Don’t muddle your brains with any more of that PHARAOH.
ONE OF PHARAOH’S LEAN KINE, subs. phr. (common).—A thin, spare person: one who looks (1) as though he’d run away from a bone-house; or (2) as if he were walking about to save his funeral expenses.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., ii. 4. If to be fat be to be hated, then PHARAOH’S LEAN KINE are to be loved.
1708–10. SWIFT, Polite Conversation, iii. Lady Smart. … The Man and his Wife are coupled like Rabbets, a fat and a lean; he’s as fat as a Porpus, and she’s ONE OF PHARAOH’S LEAN KINE.
