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Devil’s Dust

Old rags torn up by a machine called the “devil,” and made into shoddy by gum and pressure. Mr. Ferrand brought the subject before Parliament, March 4th, 1842. It is so called from the dishonesty and falsehood which it covers. (Latimer’s Sermons.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.