> as lemmas

1840 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker 3rd Ser. 156 There is no gettin quit of them..for they won't take the mitten if you do try to cut them.

1843 T. C. Haliburton Attaché I. (title page) Report my speeches if you like, but if you put my talk in, I'll give you the mitten, as sure as you were born.

1844 J. C. Neal Peter Ploddy & Other Oddities 14 Young gentlemen that have got the mitten..always sigh.

1848 J. R. Lowell Fable for Critics (ed. 2) 936 Here comes Dana,..Who'll be going to write what'll never be written Till the Muse, ere he thinks of it, gives him the mitten.

1851 B. H. Hall Coll. College Words 209 Mitten, At the Collegiate Institute of Indiana, a student who is expelled is said to get the mitten.

1867 O. W. Holmes Guardian Angel xxxiii Some said that Susan had given her young man the mitten, meaning thereby that she had signified that his services as a suitor were dispensed with.

1884 Punch 1 Mar. 108/2 Lifeboat hands who are found shrinking, Or with fear of danger smitten, Get, not medals, but the mitten.

1916 J. B. Cooper Coo-oo-ee xiv. 209 ‘Is there anything wrong?’ asked Sam. ‘No more than she has given me the mitten.’

1942 P. G. Wodehouse Money in Bank xxiii. 240 ‘I've broken my engagement. I'm not going to marry Lionel.’..‘You've really handed him the mitten?’

1968 E. R. Buckler Ox Bells & Fireflies xiii. 174 If she gave you a look, you had got what was known as ‘the mitten’.