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Death’s Head

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Bawds and procuresses used to wear a ring bearing the impression of a death’s head in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Allusions not uncommon in plays of the period.

Sell some of my cloaths to buy thee a death’s-head, and put [it] upon thy middle finger. Your least considering bawds do so much.”—Messenger: Old Laws, iv. 1.

 

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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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Dear Bought and Far Brought
Dearest
Death
Death and Doctor Hornbook
Death from Strange Causes
Death in the Pot
Death under Shield
Death-bell
Death-meal (A)
Death-watch
Death’s Head
Death’s Head on a Mopstick
Deaths-man
Debateable Land
Debon
Debonair [Le Débonnaire]
Débris
Debt of Nature
Decameron
Decamp
Decaniller