smell-smock
English
Alternative forms
- smellsmock, smell-smocke, smellsmocke
Etymology
From smell + smock (“woman's undergarment”).
Noun
smell-smock (plural smell-smocks)
- (obsolete) A promiscuous man.
- Synonyms: wencher, womanizer; see also Thesaurus:promiscuous man
- Coordinate term: smock-smelling
- 1604, Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part 2, act 4, scene 1; Rhys, Ernest, editor, Thomas Dekker[1], unexpurgated edition, London: Vizetelly & Co, 1887, page 247:
- As arrant a smell-smock, for an old muttonmonger as thyself.
- (British, dialect) A plant, the cuckooflower or lady's smock (Cardamine pratensis).
- (British, dialect) A plant, the wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella).
References
- Higgins, John (1585) The nomenclator, or remembrancer of Adrianus Iunius physician, diuided in two tomes, conteining proper names and apt termes for all thinges vnder their conuenient titles[2], London: Ralph Newberie and Henrie Denham, page 528b
- Wright, Joseph (1904) The English Dialect Dictionary[3], volume 5, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 552