Abraham cove

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See also: Abraham-cove

English

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Noun

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Abraham cove (plural Abraham coves)

  1. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Synonym of Abraham man
    • 1892, David Law Proudfit, The Man from the West:
      […] and an "Abraham cove"—that is to say, an animal driven to desperation by cold and hunger.
    • 2004, Pamela Britton, Tempted, →ISBN:
      Funny, but her words made him smile. "Ahh, Mary my love, how I missed your saucy tongue."
      My love? The beard splitter. The Abraham cove. She wasn't his love. "Burn in hell."
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Abraham man.

Further reading

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  • 1890, John Stephen Farmer, Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: A to Byz, page 10:
    Abraham cove. […] The term is now obsolete, though Scott used it as late as 1824, and from the Quarterly Review (1813), IX., p. 167, it seems to have then been in pretty general use. The modern prototype is called a tramp or […]
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