Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative form of
Abraham man .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Before his death from a terminal phthisis, he had taken to the street as an Abraham-man.
Nevermore Harold Schechter 1999
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_Fraternitye, Belman_, &c. [CD] "An _Abraham-man_ is he that walketh bare-armed, and bare-legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad, and caryeth a packe of wool, or a stycke with baken on it, or such lyke toy, and nameth himselfe Poore Tom."
Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters John Earle
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I tell thee, friend, one must serve a long apprenticeship ere one can learn to be even so much as a clapper-dudgeon, much less a crank or an Abraham-man. (
The Adventures of Robin Hood Howard Pyle 1882
hernesheir commented on the word Abraham-man
A mendicant vagabond from the Arbraham Ward of Bethlehem Hospital, London. Abraham-men wore a distinctive badge. Another sense of this word refers to those who feigned lunacy in order to receive the social services of the day.
January 1, 2011