Drop Coves (Grose 1811 Dictionary)

Drop Coves

Persons who practice the fraud of dropping a ring or other article, and picking it up before the person intended to be defrauded, they pretend that the thing is very valuable to induce their gull to lend them money, or to purchase the article. See Fawny Rig, and MONEY DROPPERS.

Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.

Dropping Member * To Drop Down

Nearby

Nathan Bailey's 1736 Dictionary of canting and thieving slang

John S. Farmer's collection of canting songs and slang rhymes

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About

Francis Grose was independently wealthy, having inherited money from his father, a jeweller. Finding himself overspending, he published a number of books; his Provincial Glossary seems to have been the starting-point for the Vulgar Tongue reproduced here.