subs. phr. (colloquial).—A technical or constructive sense. [See quot. 1837.]
1837. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, i. The chairman felt it his imperative duty to demand … whether he had used the expression … in a common sense. Mr. Blotton had no hesitation in saying he had not—he had used the word in its PICKWICKIAN SENSE.
18[?]. H. JAMES, Substance and Shadow, 199 [Century]. Unitarianism and Universalism call themselves the church in an altogether PICKWICKIAN sense of the word, or with pretensions so affable as to offend nobody.
