Saint Nicholas' clerk

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

After Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of thieves.

Noun

Saint Nicholas' clerk (plural Saint Nicholas' clerks)

  1. (obsolete) A highwayman.
    • 1589, Thomas Nashe, Martins Months Minde‎:
      And like the Saint Nicolas Clarkes on Salsburie plaine (I vse the si∣militude, for that Martin loues Sarum so well) stept out before vs in the high waie, and bidde vs stand.
    • a. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV Part 1, act 2, scene 1:
      Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas' / clerks, I'll give thee this neck.
    • 1608, Thomas Dekker, The Bel-Man of London‎, published in The Guls Hornbook and The Belman of London in Two Parts, J. M. Dent & Sons, published 1905, page 142:
      The théefe that commits the Robbery, and is the chiefe clerke to Saint Nicholas, is called the High Lawyer.
    • c. 1622, William Rowley, A Match at Midnight, act 1, scene 1:
      And now hur prattle of Davie, I think yonder come prancing down the hills from Kingston, a couple of hur t'other cozens, Saint Nicholas' clerks.
    • 1635, Henry Glapthorne, The Hollander‎, act 3, scene 1:
      Next it is decreed, that the receivers of our rents and customes, to wit divers Rookes, and Saint Nicholas Clearkes shall certainely use no more slights to get more then they can clearely come off with, under penalty of being carried up Hol∣borne in a cart, and at Tiburne executed, which may tend to the dissolution of our whole fraternity.
    • 1662, John Wilson, The Cheats‎, published in The Dramatic Works of John Wilson, Edinburgh: William Paterson, published 1874, act 1, scene 1, page 18:
      I was t'other night upon the randan, and who should I meet with but our old gang, some of St. Nicholas' clerks?

Synonyms

References

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