troll madam

English

Noun

troll madam (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of troll-my-dames
   • 1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear:

     Look where he stands and glares. Want'st thou eyes at troll-madam?

   • 1889, G. Alan Lowndes, “An Inventory of the Household Goods Of Sir Thomas Barrington, Bart., At Hatfield Priory, In 1626”, in Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, volume 3, page 157:

     i pr of bellowes
     3 greene carpetts
     i pr brasse snuffers
     i Troll madam

   • 2005, Charles Gidley Wheeler, Armada: A Novel, page 80:

     'As for you,' he went on, pointing his knife at Tristram, 'if you think you can start playing troll-madam under this roof, you can think again, because this is a good Christian household and that's the way I intend to keep it.

   • 2020, H. Sutherland Edwards, Old and New Paris: Volume 2, page 27:

     Delavau, the prefect of police, had permitted him to establish, on the public road, a game known as “troll-madam”; and this game, an excellent trap for boobies and passers-by whose slightest words and actions were keenly watched by Vidoc's hounds, produced, from the 20th of July to the 4th of August, 1823, a net profit of 4,364 francs.