A conceited fellow. The phrase is reported to ‘Dialect Notes,’ vols. ii., iii., and ix., from Arkansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Missouri, New York, and Pennsylvania.
1873. I had the pleasure (?) of seeing at least a score of “smart Alecks” relieved of their surplus cash by betting on the “strap game,” “patent lock,” “ten-die game,” “three-card monte” and other beautiful uncertainties, which are so worked as to appear “a dead sure thing” to the uninitiated.—J. H. Beadle, ‘The Undeveloped West,’ p. 140 (Phila., &c.).
