> as lemmas

1630 J. Taylor Wks. 115/2 Now if my Whore or Thiefe play well their parts, Give them their due, applaud their good deserts. If ill, to Newgate hisse them, or Bridewell, To any place, Hull, Halifax or Hell.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Yorks. 189 From Hell, Hull, and Halifax,——deliver us. This is part of the Beggars and Vagrants Letany... Halifax, is formidable unto them for the Law thereof, whereby Theeves taken..in the very Act of stealing of cloath, are instantly beheaded with an Engine, without any further Legal Proceedings.

1669 in J. Raine Depos. Castle of York (1861) 165 Sirrah! goe to Hallifax.

1807 Deb. Congr. U.S. 11 Dec. (1852) 1169 Instead of sending it [sc. a ship] where he wished it had gone, to Halifax, or to the bottom.

1875– in Eng. Dial. Dict. (at cited word)

1876 Congress. Rec. 4 Aug. 5185/1 ‘Go to Halifax’ was a substitute for a more impious, but not more opprobrious expression.

1882 Congress. Rec. 13 July 6015/1 He told them..that he had no further use for them, and they could go home, ashore, or to Halifax.

1920 H. J. Jennings Chestnuts & Small Beer xiii. 140 I refused to admit that I had made a faux pas, and told my critics to go to Halifax.