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 1592. Greene, Defence of Conny-catching [Works, xi. 96]. Even the poore pricklouse the country taylor.

c.1603. Sack for my Money [Collier, Roxburghe Ballads (1847), 178]. Rich Malligo is pure, I know, And bravely can compose a man Of a very prick-lows taylor.

1607. Dekker and Webster, Northward Hoe, ii. 1. If I take master pricklouse ramping so high again I'll make him know how to kiss your blind cheeks sooner.

1620. Rowlands, Night Raven, 9 (Hunterian Club's Repr., 1872). My choller tells thee, th'art a botching slaue, Thy Journy-man a very pricklowse knave.

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1. Tailor, thou art a vermin, Worse than the same thou prosecut'st, and prick'st in subtle seam.

c.1700. Thomas Brown, Paneg. on a Louse [Works (1715), i. 145]. No wonder then such sturdy Valour Against thy Enemy, the Prick-Louse Taylor, To take him every Moment by the Collar.

d.1704. Lestrange [Century]. A taylour and his wife quarrelling, the woman in contempt called her husband pricklouse.

1720 Durfey, Pills to Purge, vi. 293. Says Prick Louse, my Jewel I love you most dearly, My breast every minute still hotter does grow.

d.1796. Burns, To a Tailor, st. 2. Gae mind your seam, ye prick the louse, An' jag the flae.

Prickmedenty (prick-me-dainty or prick-ma-dainty), subs. (old).—A finical person. Also, as adj. = over-precise; affected.

d.1529. Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 582. There was a pryckmedenty, Sat lyke a seynty, And began to paynty, As thoughe she would faynty.

1534. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3. Mary, then prick-me-dainty, come toste me a fig.

1822. Galt, Provost, xxxi. Bailie Pirlet, who was naturally a gabby prick-me-dainty body.

Prick-the-garter, subs. phr. (old).—1. See quot. 1762. Also pitch the nob, prick the belt (or loop), and fast and loose.

1762. Goldsmith, Life of Nash [Works (Globe), 545]. The manner in which country men are deceived by gamblers, at a game called Pricking in the Belt, or the old Nob. This is a leathern strap folded up double, and then laid upon a table: if the person who plays with a bodkin pricks into the loop of the belt, he wins, if otherwise he loses. However, by slipping one end of the strap, the sharper can win with pleasure.

1776. Brand, Popular Antiquities. This was, doubtless, originally a gipsy game, and was much practised by the gipsies in the time of Shakespeare. In those days it was termed pricking at the belt, or fast and loose.

1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i. 69. This is the cant of those who go about the country defrauding the unwary with the game called, Pricking at the belt.

1840. Cockton, Valentine Vox, lx. They were standing at a prick-in-the-garter table, at which a gentleman had a long piece of list, which he wound round and offered any money that no man could prick in the middle.

1892. Sydney, Eng. and English in 18th Century, i. 83. One class of gamblers cheated passers-by by inviting them to prick in the belt, or the garter for a wager.

To play at prick-the-garter, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate: see Greens and Ride.

Pride, subs. (conventional).—Sexual appetite: hence proud = amorous; lustful.—B. E. (c.1696); Grose (1785). See Prick.

Arthur and Merlin [Edinburgh Auchinlech MS., 11]. Yong man wereth jolif, And than proudeth man and wiif.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Esser in frega, to be proud as a bitch or a catterwalling as cats.