A little boy who gets into a house through the sink-hole, and then opens the door for his accomplices: he is so called, from writhing and twisting like a snake, in order to work himself through the narrow passage.
–From the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
A small dark cell in Guildhall, London, where disorderly apprentices are confined by the city chamberlain: it is called Little Ease from its being so low that a lad cannot stand upright in it.
–From the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
A young chimney-sweeper.
–From the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
A slovenly fop; one finely dressed, but dirty.
–From the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
Seriously…it’s in the dictionary as a phrase used then…I’m not making this stuff up…
