kinchin mort

English

Alternative forms

• kinchen mort, kinchen mot, kinchen mott, kinchin mot, kinchin mott

Noun

kinchin mort (plural kinchin morts)

1. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A female child, especially one carried by a beggar.
   • 1611, Thomas Middleton, The Roaring Girl, Edward Lumley, published 1840, page 538:

     I have, by the salomon, a doxy that carries a kinchin mort in her slate at her back, besides my dell and my dainty wild dell, with all whom I'll tumble this next darkmans in the strommel […]

   • 1815, Walter Scott, chapter XXVIII, in Guy Mannering:

     ‘I’ll pray for nane o’ him,’ said Meg, ‘nor for you neither, you randy dog. The times are sair altered since I was a kinchin-mort […] ’

Related terms

• kinchin cove