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Red-breasts

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“The Bow Street runners ceased out of the land soon after the introduction of the new police. I remember them very well as standing about the door of the office in Bow Street. They had no other uniform than a blue dress-coat, brass buttons … and a bright red cloth waistcoat… The slang name for them was ‘Red-breasts.ʹ”—Dickens: Letters, vol. ii. p. 178.

 

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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.

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Recreant
Rector
Reculer pour Mieux Sauter
Reculver
Red
Red
Red Basque Cap
Red Book
Red Book of the Exchequer (The)
Red Boots
Red-breasts
Red Button (A)
Red Cap (Mother)
Red Coats
Red Cock
Red Comyn
Red Cross (The)
Red Cross Knight
Red Feathers (The)
Red Flag (A)
Red Hand of Ulster