1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 229. Two young men, who, now and
then, varied their amusements by bonneting the proprietor of this
itinerant coffee-house.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, II., p. 216. You are a dutiful and
affectionate little boy to come a bonnetin’ your father in his old
age.
1843. Dickens, Christmas Carol in Prose, p. 22. Scrooge reverently
disclaimed ... any knowledge of having wilfully bonneted the Spirit
at any period of his life.
1882. Saturday Review, LIV., p. 629. The students hustled and
‘bonnetted’ a new professor.
To have a green bonnet, phr. (common).—To fail in business. [From the
green cloth cap formerly worn by bankrupts.]
Bonnet-Builder, subs. (popular).—A milliner. [The derivation is
clear.]—See Build.
1839. Song in The Little Melodist, quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet,
p. 93. Will you go to Bagnigge Wells, Bonnet builder, O!
1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. ‘Build.’ A milliner is
jestingly called a ‘bonnet-builder.’
Bonneter.—1. See Bonnet, subs., sense 1.