pocket-handkerchief

See also: pockethandkerchief, and pocket handkerchief

English

Noun

pocket-handkerchief (plural pocket-handkerchiefs or pocket-handkerchieves)

1. Alternative form of pocket handkerchief.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 124:

     Here Mrs. Higgs paused for a moment, and drew out a huge red pocket-handkerchief, with which her face was for some minutes confounded.

   • 1833 January, “Pandemonic Revels”, in The Royal Lady’s Magazine, and Archives of the Court of St. James’s, number XXV, London, page 15:

     Sheets, tablecloths, white gowns, and pocket-handkerchiefs were instantly in demand, and every one, as has been seen, entered, con amore, into the extempore entertainment of Pandemonic Revels.

   • 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, “Wherein Mr. Ralph Nickleby is Visited by Persons with Whom the Reader has been Already Made Acquainted”, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 324:

     Mr. Mantalini waited with much decorum to hear the amount of the proposed stipend, but when it reached his ears, he cast his hat and cane upon the floor, and drawing out his pocket-handkerchief, gave vent to his feelings in a dismal moan.

   • 1842, Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt:

     ‘I have before suggested that a genuine blackguard is never without a pocket-handkerchief. But it is not to this fact that I now especially advert.’

   • 1847, Emily Brontë, chapter 13, in Wuthering Heights‎^[1]:

     […] I groped from step to step, collecting the shattered earthenware, and drying the spatters of milk from the banister with my pocket-handkerchief.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter LXVI, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     And as for the separation scene from the child, while Becky was reciting it, Emmy retired altogether behind her pocket-handkerchief, so that the consummate little tragedian must have been charmed to see the effect which her performance produced on her audience.

   • 1868 September 8, “Police News”, in The Cambria Daily Leader, number 2,258, page 3, column 4:

     P.C. Phillips took prisoner into custody, and found the money in his possession, and several pocket-handkerchieves, which had been missed some weeks before.

   • 1876, Edward Whitaker, “Tempus est Ludendi”, in Parley Magna. A Novel., volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], page 57:

     There was but little discord between church and chapel, except at treat-times, and on kindred occasions of exceptional excitement; and every Sunday evening church dames, duly equipped with Rippon’s Selection, an unopened pocket-handkerchief, and a sprig of boy’s love, might be seen marching, like any chapelers, to Zoar.

   • 1888 November 15, The Abilene Weekly Chronicle, volume XIX, number 34, Abilene, Kan., page [8], column 3:

     The election of General Harrison is the triumph of the national over the sectional idea; of the great over the little, of the standard of a powerful country over the pocket-handkerchieves of an elderly politician; and all that is needed to bring about the general prosperity of the whole country of one section as much as another, is an intelligent appreciation of what has happened.

   • 1891, Henry James, The Pupil‎^[2], page 141:

     She laughed […] while she flirted a soiled pocket-handkerchief at him.

   • 1896, E[dith] Nesbit, “Guilty”, in In Homespun, London: John Lane, […]; Boston, Mass.: Roberts Bros., page 128:

     He wore curious clothes, not like most gentlemen, but all wool things, even to his collars and his boots, which were soft and soppy like felt; and he took snuff to that degree I wouldn’t have believed any human nose could have borne it, and he must have been a great trial to Mrs. Oliver until she got used to him and his pottering about all over the house in his soft-soled shoes; and the mess he made of his pocket-handkerchieves and his linen!

   • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:

     An enormous man and woman (it was early-closing day) were stretched motionless, with their heads on pocket-handkerchiefs, side by side, within a few feet of the sea, while two or three gulls gracefully skirted the incoming waves, and settled near their boots.

   • 2014 April 26, Julia McKay, “Scents and sensibility”, in The Kingston Whig-Standard, page A2:

     The 63 year-old Cratzbarg is known for his flamboyant personality and style, with his signature black-framed glasses, big watches and a silk pocket-handkerchief.

   • 2015 January 13, Mark Swed, “Still perplexing and astounding”, in Los Angeles Times, page E4:

     He wore a baggy tuxedo with a white pocket-handkerchief.

Adjective

pocket-handkerchief (comparative more pocket-handkerchief, superlative most pocket-handkerchief)

1. Small, or of restricted size.
   • 1996, Faubion Bowers, Scriabin, a Biography, page 74:

     The pocket-handkerchief garden had trees of cypress, olive, lemon and orange, she emphasized.

   • 2002 January 19, Tim Wapshott, “I lost my heart in Nohant-en-Graçay, France”, in The Guardian:

     When I first went there more than 30 years ago it had patchworks of pocket-handkerchief fields.