Citations:betty

English citations of betty

(to open with a betty):

• [1823, Francis Grose, Pierce Egan, Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Revised and Corrected edition, page 54:

  Betty. A picklock; to unbetty, or betty a lock, is to open or relock it, by means of the betty, so as to avoid subsequent detection.]

• 1976, Michael Crichton, The Great Train Robbery, page 185:

  “Well then,” he said. “Let’s say you can betty the lock, hang on a rope, and break the drum, and then lock up again with nobody the wiser. How do I get on in the first place, past the Scots jack, with his sharp cool?”

• 2012, Sarah J. Waldock, Jane and the Bow Street Runner, page 355:

  I don't know if he would or not; it turns out his job in the affair is with his skill in bettying locks, to get in and out without anyone finding out that they had even been there.

• 2013, Zack Wentz, “Simplicity itself”, in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, volume 10, page 161:

  The forty quid! Gone! ’Ow could she ’ave gotten in there? The peter ain’t broke, no sign of it bein’ bettied, and I the only one w’ the key.

(to be overly attentive to someone or something):

• 1863, John Weiss, quoting Theodore Parker, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, volume 2, page 105:

  How strange that I should have no children, and only get a little sad sort of happiness, not the affectional quality! I am only an old maid in life, after all my bettying about in literature and philanthropy.

• 1883, H.R.L., Sylvian Despard’s Revenge, page 52:

  They’d pin a dish-cloth to my coat-tail, or take some such liberties with me, if they saw me bettying over their kitchen fire.