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knight of the post. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
Suggesting that such a person would be familiar with the whipping-post or pillory.
Noun
knight of the post (plural knights of the post)
- (obsolete, idiomatic) A known perjurer; a professional false witness.
1662, [Samuel Butler], “”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. , London: John Martyn and Henry Herringman, , published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, canto I:[…] But with more lucky hit than those
That use to make the stars depose,
Like knights o' th' post, and falsely charge
Upon themselves what others forge;
As if they were consenting to
All mischief in the world men do […]
1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., , →OCLC:[T]he fugitive had been cajoled by a certain knight of the post, who undertook to manage the thousand pounds in such a manner, as would, in a very little time, make him perfectly independent […] .
1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless:A knight of the post […] quoth he, for so I am termed; a fellow that will swear you anything for twelve pence.
Translations
professional false witness