dimber mort
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English
[edit]Noun
[edit]dimber mort (plural dimber morts)
- (archaic, UK, thieves' cant) A pretty girl.
- 1837, Benjamin Disraeli, Venetia:
- Tip me the clank, like a dimber mort as you are; trim a ken for the gentry cove; he is no lanspresado, or I am a kinchin.
- 1918, Jeffery Farnol, Our Admirable Betty:
- Look'ee Benno, if you're a-hiding of some dimber mort aloft there I'm the cove to——
- 1988, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country's Good, act 2, scene 1:
- Liz, he says, why trine for a make, when you can wap for a winne. I'm no dimber mort, I says. Don't ask you to be a swell mollisher, sister, coves want Miss Laycock, don't look at your mug. So I begin to sell my mother of saints.
- 2015, Erica Monroe, Beauty and the Rake:
- Look at 'er, Jay, 'ave ye ever seen a better dimber mort?
Synonyms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]References
[edit]- [Francis Grose] (1788) “Dimber mort”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC.
- John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1891) “dimber mort”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume II, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, page 287.