gentry cove
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Noun
[edit]gentry cove (plural gentry coves)
- (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A gentleman.
- 1621, Ben Jonson, The Gypsies Metamorphosed:
- As priest of the game, / And prelate of the same. / There's a gentry cove here.
- 1837, Benjamin Disraeli, chapter XIV, in Venetia:
- 'The gentry cove will be romboyled by his dam,' said a third gipsy. 'Queer Cuffin will be the word yet, if we don't tout.'
- 2012, Kate Ross, A Broken Vessel:
- He's a go among the goes, is Mr. Kestrel. He's only got to sport a new kind of topper, or tie his crumpler a new way, and every gentry-cove in town does just the same.
Derived terms
[edit]- gentry cove's ken (“a gentleman's house”)
Related terms
[edit]References
[edit]- John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1893) “gentry cove”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume III, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, page 132.