Knife, subs. (once literary: now military).—A sword.
c. 1270. Robert of Gloucester, p. 104. He drow ’ys knyf, and slow
the kyng.
Verb. (colloquial).—1. To stab.
1851. F. Walpole, The Ansayrii, ii. 8. A brute who in cold blood
knived and tortured them with his own hand.
1862. Dickens, Xmas Stories (Somebody’s Luggage), p. 132 (H. ed.).
If you should even get into trouble through knifeing—or say,
garotting—a brother artist.
1870. Globe, 17 Nov., i. 3. Already a too refractory sufferer has
been threatened by his torturer with the not very pleasant
alternative of being knifed if he does not submit with a better
grace.
2. (American electioneering).—To plot against the candidate of one’s
own party.
1870. Globe, 17 Nov. [Leader].
To lay down one’s knife and fork, verb. phr. (common).—To die; to peg
out (q.v.); to snuff it (q.v.). For synonyms see Aloft and Hop the
Twig.
To knife it, verb. phr. (old).—To decamp; to cut it (q.v.).
Knife it! intj. (old).—Separate! leave off! go away!
To play a good knife and fork, verb. phr. (common).—To eat with
appetite.
1837. Knowles, Love Chase, i. 3. Why shouldn’t I marry? Knife and
fork i play Better than many a boy of twenty-five.
1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ii. viii. The Colonel plays a good
knife and fork at tiffin, and resumes those weapons with great
success at dinner.
Before one can say ‘knife’! phr. (common).—Instanter; in the twinkling
of an eye (q.v.). Cf. Jack Robinson.
1892. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxiv. She’d be off and
out to sea before any one could say ‘knife.’
Knife-board, subs. (common).—A seat for passengers running lengthwise
on the roof of an omnibus: now mostly superseded by ‘garden seats’ Fr.
l’impératrice.
1853. Diogenes, ii. 21. A ‘Correspondent’ calls the top of an
omnibus ‘the eyrie of the knife-board.’
1856. Punch, xxxi. 203. And then the knifeboard cramps you so.
1859. Punch, xxxvi. 51, 2. Perhaps Mum’ll ride on the knifeboard.
1860. Arthur Smith, Thames Angler, ii. ‘On ‘busses’ knifeboards,
stretch’d, The City clerks all tongue-protruded lay.’
1882. Daily News, 7 Oct., p. 5, col. 7. The box, or still better
the knifeboard, of an omnibus facing the docks is the real shifting
point from which to view the most superb range of docks in
existence on any river but the Thames.
1889. Daily Telegraph, 5 Jan. The ‘insides’ were terrified, and
clamoured loudly, so the driver left his seat, staggered up on the
knifeboard, and fell asleep.
Knifer, subs. (common).—A sharking sponge.
Knifish, adj. (tailors’).—Spiteful.
Knight, subs. (common).—An ironical prefix of profession or calling:
generic.
[Combinations are Knight of the Blade = a bully (B. E. 1690);
Knight of the Brush = an artist or painter; Knight of the Collar =
a gallows-bird; Knight of the Cleaver = a butcher; Knight of the
Cue = a billiard-marker; Knight of the Green Cloth = a gamester;
Knight of Hornsey (or of the Forked Order) = a cuckold; Knight of
Industry = a thief; Knight of the Knife = a cut-purse; Knight of
Labor = (in America) a workingman; Knight of the Lapstone = a
cobbler; Knight of the Napkin = a waiter; Knight of the Needle = a
tailor; Knight of the Quill = an author or journalist; Knight of
the Pencil = a book-maker; Knight of the Pestle = an apothecary;
Knight of the Pit = a cocker; Knight of the Petticoat = a
bawdy-house bully; Knight of the Piss-pot = a physician, an
apothecary; Knight of the Post = a knight dubbed at the whipping
post or pillory, also a rogue who got his living by giving false
witness or false bail; Knight of the Rainbow = a footman (Grose,
1785); Knight of the Road = a footpad or highwayman: also Knight of
the Rumpad; Knight of the Shears or Thimble = a tailor (Grose,
1785); Knight of the Spigot = a tapster, a publican; Knight of the
Sun = an adventurer, a knight-errant; Knight of the Wheel = a
cyclist; Knight of the Whip = a coachman; Knight of the Yard = a
shopman or counter-jumper].
c. 1554. Youth [Dodsley, Old Plays (1847), ii. 15]. God’s fate!
thou didst enough there For to be made knight of the collar.
1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in Works, ii. 19. A knight of the
post, quoth he, for so I am tearmed; a fellowe that will sweare you
anything for twelue pence.
1606. Sir Gyles Goosecappe, 1, iii. [in Bullen’s Old Plays, iii.
19]. O good Knight a’ the post, heele sweare.
1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fayre, ii. 1. ‘Is this goodly person
before us here ... a knight of the knife?’ ‘What mean you by that?’
‘I mean a child of the horn thumb ... a cut purse.’
1620. Ford, Line of Life. But is his resolution any way infracted,
for that some refractaries are (like knights of the post) hired to
witnesse against him?
1621. Burton, Anat. of Mel., iii. xi. 187 (1836). Perjur’d knaves,
knights of the post, lyers.
c. 1633. Lady Alimony, i. 3. That knight of the sun who employed me
should have done his errand himself. Ibid. iii. 7. Doubt nothing,
my fellow knights of hornsey.
1635. Glapthorne, The Hollander, in Wks. (1874), i. 94. Not
John-a-Stiles, the knight of the post, is it?
1653. Brome, The Damoiselle, in Wks. (1873), Act i. 1. He takes me
for a knight of the post.
1662. Rump Songs, ii. 47. Then the knight of the pestle, King
Lambert, and Vane, With a sceptre of iron did over it reign. Ibid.,
ii. 185. A knight of the post, and a cobbling lord.
1662. Wilson, The Cheats, v. 2. How? Stick a bull’s feather in my
cap! Make me a knight of the Forked Order! Ibid. iv. 1.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, 1, ch. xxx. p. 246 (Repr. 1874). His
investation into the honour of one of the knights of the road.
1691–2. Gentlemen’s Journal, Mar. p. 2. I know some of your sturdy,
stuff knights of the quill. Ibid. Feb. p. 5. knights of the post,
Alsatian braves.
1694. Echard, Plautus, p. 151. Whene’er we meet with fellows who
hire knights of the post in law-sutes, and rascals who forswear
themselves.
1709. Mrs. Centlivre, Gamester (1872), i. 162. It is a kind of
knight of the post.—That will swear on either side for interest.
1711. Spectator, No. 172. A couple of courtiers making professions
of esteem, would make the same figure after breach of promise, as
two knights of the post convicted of perjury.
d. 1721. Prior, Poems (1892), i. 156. There the Squires of the Pad,
and the knights of the post.
1777. Foote, Trip to Calais (1795), i. p. 23. That may be the case,
Master Minnikin, with those of the trade who live in the city; but
I would have you to know, the knights of the needle are another
sort of people at our end of the town.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 76. Whose kiss to my lip is as sweet As the
brandy and tea, rather thinnish, That knights of the rumpad so
rurally sip.
1821. Scott, Kenilworth, viii. ‘When an old song comes across us
merry old knights of the spigot, it runs away with our discretion.’
1828. Jon Bee, Picture of London, p. 27. To the practices and
necessities of the coachmen and guard’s private trade, we owe the
increasing number and fresh supply of hangers-on, whose first
business has been the performing fetch-and-carry services for those
knights of the whip.
1838. Jas. Grant, Sketches in London, iii. 119. ‘You’ll do what,
Sir?’ observed the ‘man with the Macintosh,’ eyeing the knight of
the thimble steadily. ‘Just call me a tailor agin, Sir.’
1840. Thackeray, Catherine, v. We did not go into the Park, but
turned off and cantered smartly up towards Kilburn; and, when we
got into the country, galloped as if the devil were at our heels.
Bless you, my love, it was all done in a minute; and the Ensign and
I found ourselves regular knights of the road, before we knew where
we were almost.
1843. W. T. Moncrieff, The Scamps of London, ii. 2. Our hells are
full of Greeks—they are the Corinthians of the order, the top
sawyers—knights of the post, whom you will find in Regent-street,
in the clubs, at Epsom, Ascot, Newmarket, and Doncaster.
1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, iii, iii. p. 267. ‘It’s scarcely
wages for a knight of the rainbow (footman).’
1864. Reader, 22 Oct., p. 505. i. The best guard against any such
spirit, [that of only regarding books by the light of ‘will they
pay’] is that the publisher should be a knight of the pen himself.
1881. New York Slang Dictionary. Gamblers are called knights of the
green cloth, and their lieutenants, who are sent out after
greenhorns, are called decoys, cappers, and steerers.
1885. John Coleman, in Longm. Mag., vii. 78. Occasionally however,
the author has his nose put out of joint by the scene-painter. I
once heard a distinguished knight of the brush exclaim, ‘D—n the
author and the actors! the public come to see my scenery!’
1885. Punch, 7 March, p. 109. The knights of the pencil, Sir, hold
that backers, like pike, are more ravenous in keen weather, and
consequently easier to land.
1890. Daily Telegraph, 25 Feb. p. iv. col. 7. Meanwhile, every
temptation is offered to the felonious tendencies of these knights
of industry. Women parade the rooms with thousands of pounds’ value
of jewellery on their persons.
To be the guest of the cross-legged knights, verb. phr. (old).—To go
dinnerless; to dine with duke Humphrey (q.v.); to dine (or sup) with
Sir Thomas Gresham (q.v.). [In allusion to the stone effigies in the
Round Church (Temple) at one time the rendez-vous of lawyers and their
clients, who attracted a host of dinnerless vagabonds in the hope of
picking up a job]. For synonyms see Peckham.
To be knighted in Bridewell, verb. phr. (old).—To be whipped in prison.
1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse [Grosart, ii. 57]. I knewe an odde
foule-mouthde knaue ... that had ... a backe so often knighted in
Bridewell that it was impossible ... to terrifie him from
ill-speaking.
Knitting Needle, subs. phr. (military).—A sword. For synonyms see
Cheese-toaster.
Knob, subs. (common).—1. The head; the nob (q.v.). For synonyms see
Crumpet. One on the knob = a blow on the head.—Grose (1785).