knight of the post

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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)

  1. (obsolete, idiomatic) A known perjurer; a professional false witness.
    • 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. , London: John Martyn and Henry Herringman, , published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A R Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
      [] 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, Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., , →OCLC:
      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.

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