skull-thatcher

English

Noun

skull-thatcher (plural skull-thatchers)

1. (UK, slang, obsolete) A maker of straw bonnets.
   • 1828, Cumberland's Minor Theatre, page 5:

     Having been sent to London on a medical trip by his uncle, Mr. Quince, he had become smitten with a fair milliner — a skull-thatcher, anglice, a maker of straw bonnets, but with no more money in her purse than would buy a dose of salts […]

   • 1859, J. W. Overton, Harry Hartley; or, Social science for the workers, volume 420, page 29:

     'Which accounts for your frequent attendance, loveliest of skull thatchers!' said Harry in a polite bantering tone, which did not make the intended sarcasm less apparent.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary