Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
A mentally ill beggar.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, obsolete
Qualifier: thieves' cant
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any beggar who pretends to be ill, physically or mentally, to obtain alms.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From patients claiming, genuinely or not, to be temporarily discharged from the Abraham ward at Bethlem Royal Hospital (also known as Bedlam), a psychiatric hospital in London, for the purpose of begging. Possibly an allusion to a story in Luke 16, in which the beggar Lazarus ends up in Abraham's bosom. First use appears c. 1561 in The Fraternity of Vagabonds (1561) by John Awdely.
