meg n.1
1. a guinea.
Squire of Alsatia I i: Prithee, noble squire, equip me with a couple of megs, or two couple of smelts. | ||
Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Meggs c. Guineas. We fork’d the rum Cull’s Meggs to the tune of Fifty, c. We Pickt the Gentleman’s Pocket of full Fourty Guineas. | ||
Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 228: Then on with your Night-Caps and tie up your Legs, / A Begging let’s go for the Smelts and the Megs. | ||
Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) II [as cit. c.1698]. | ||
New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | ||
, , , | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
Life and Adventures. | ||
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Meggs, guineas, (cant). | |
Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 61: meggs were formerly guineas. | ||
Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. [as cit. 1859]. |
2. (US) a silver coin, from ten cents (a dime) to a dollar.
Spokane Press (WA) 22 Sept. 7/3: The best draw made [...] was thirty megs (dollars). | ||
Gullible’s Travels 62: Some doll she was, too, in a fifty-meg evenin’ dress marked down to thirty-seven. | ‘Three Kings and a Pair’ in||
Wise-crack Dict. 11/1: Meg – Any denomination of silver money between ten cents and one dollar, signified by fifteen megs, twenty megs, etc. | ||
You Bright and Risen Angels (1988) 314: Here’s how we clean out their cush, their C-notes and megs, their deemers and crisp green bumblebees. |
3. (US) a cent.
Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/3: Meg — A penny. | ||
[no title] 10 Aug. [synd. col.] Hot dogs are up to ten megs apiece. | ||
Says ’Bugs’ Baer 15 Nov. [synd. col.] Admission will be from fifty megs to a dollar. |
4. see mag n.3