subs. (old).—See quot.
1712. STEELE, Spectator, No. 454, 11 Aug. The fellow who drove her came to us, and discovered that he was ordered to come again in an hour, for that she was a SILK-WORM. I was surprised with this phrase, but found it was a cant among the hackney fraternity for their best customers, women who ramble twice or thrice a week from shop to shop, to turn over all the goods in town without buying any thing. The SILK-WORMS are, it seems, indulged by the tradesmen; for though they never buy, they are ever talking of new silks, laces, and ribbands, and serve the owners in getting them customers as their common dunners do in making them pay.
