subs. phr. (common).—A dish of toasted cheese. [SMYTH-PALMER: ‘One of a numerous class of slang expressions—the mock-heroic of the eating-house—in which some common dish or product for which any place or people has a special reputation is called by the name of some more dainty article of food which it is supposed humorously to supersede or equal.’] Cf. GERMAN-DUCK, COBBLER’S-LOBSTER, NORFOLK-CAPON, BILLINGSGATE-PHEASANT, and many others (GROSE).
1772. R. GRAVES, The Spiritual Quixote, VII. ix. Go to the tavern, and call for your bottle and your pipe, and your WELSH-RABBIT.
1854–5. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, i. The goes of stout, the Chough and Crow, the WELSH RABBIT, the Red Cross Knight … the song and the cup, in a word, passed round merrily.
