subs. (old gaming).—Three cards of a sort (at commerce, cribbage, &c.): DOUBLE-PRIAL = four of a kind: whence also, of persons and things. [A corruption of pair-royal: in quot. 1608 is seen a step towards PRIAL, whilst in quot. 1680 ‘pair-royal’ rhymes with ‘trial.’]

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  1608.  JOHN DAY, Humour out of Breath, i. 1. Flo. Why two fooles. Fr. Is it not past two? doth it not come somewhat neere three, sister? [meaning, to call her one]. Page. Shew PERRYALL and tak’t.

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  d. 1680.  BUTLER, A Ballad on Parliament.

          But when they came to Tryal,
Each one prov’d a Fool,
Yet three Knaves in the whole,
  And that made up a PAIR-ROYAL.

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