释义 |
† ˈpickpurse Obs. [See pick-.] 1. One who steals purses or from purses; a pickpocket.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1140 Ther saugh I first... The pykepurs [v.r. pykpurs]. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. vii. 370 A dosen harlotes Of portours and of pykeporses. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 121 b, The pikepurses and stealers of apparell. 1543in Lett. & Papers Hen. VIII, XVIII. ii. 316 All pickpurses' ears are not set on the pillory as yet. 1615T. Adams White Devill 47 The pick-purse..doth not so much hurt as this general robber. 1727Swift Dreams Wks. 1755 III. ii. 234 His fellow pick-purse..Fancies his fingers in the cully's fob. b. transf. and fig.
a1586Sidney Astr. & Stella lxxiv, I am no pick-purse of anothers wit. a1602W. Perkins Cases Consc. (1619) 332 Inordinate and affected care is commonly a great pickpurse. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Argent, Good cheape commodities are notable picke-purses. c. attrib.
1508Dunbar Flyting 114 Pynit pykpuirs pelour. c1550Dice-Play B v, Hyghe law [signifieth] robbery, Figginge lawe, picke purse crefte. 1612Pasquil's Night-Cap (1877) 8 To see a pilfring and a pick-purse knaue,..Diue to the bottome of a true mans purse. d. purgatory pickpurse, pickpurse purgatory: a dyslogistic term of 16th c. controversy, used orig. app. by Latimer, in reference to the use made of the doctrine of purgatory to obtain payments for masses for departed souls, etc.
1537tr. Latimer's Serm. bef. Convoc. D ij, They that begotte and brought forth, that one old ancient purgatorie pycke pourse. c1550Bale K. Johan (Camden) 63 Your pardons, your bulles, your purgatory pyckepurse. 1556Olde Antichrist 81 b, That most gayneful fornace of the popes pikepurce Purgatorie. a1591H. Smith Arrow agst. Ath. (1622) 60 It may be well and justly called Purgatorie Pick⁓purse; wealth and great riches of the clergy, was the only mark they aimed at. 1712M. Henry Popery Wks. 1853 II. 346/2 ‘Purgatory pick-purse’, so it has been called. 2. A name of Shepherd's Purse, Capsella Bursapastoris, from its impoverishing the land. Also of Corn Spurrey, Spergula arvensis. Cf. prec. 2.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. xxiii. §2. 215 Shepheardes purse is called..in the North part..Pickepurse, and Caseweede. 1617Minsheu Ductor, Pickepurse an hearbe so called... Shepheards purse or Shepheards Pouch. 1787W. Marshall E. Norfolk Gloss., Pickpurse, or Sandweed, spergula arvensis, common spurrey. |