Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a cobbler.

1805		Tyne Mercury 17 Sept. 2/5: Three journeymen bootmakers were conviSed of a combination [...] if the masters had acceded to the wishes of these knights of the awl, eight-ninths of their business would have had to been sacrificed.
1826		Westmorland Gaz. 17 June 2/5: These were men of all grades, from the knights of the awl, thimble, and shuttle, up to the great Champion himself.
1832		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 8 n.p.: A boot cramper, and Knight of the Awl, whose magnificent cobbler’s stall stands near the Fifth Ward Hotel.
1836		Fife Herald 8 Dec. 3/3: The temporary loss of the white hat of the knight of the awl.
1842		Wkly Rake (NY) 30 July n.p.: wants to knowWhat Mr F.— , the ‘Knight of the awl, needle and waxed thread [...] means by not paying men that he employs.
1849		Essex Standard 16 Feb. 2/6: A gallant knight of the awl [...] wooed and won a buxom widow.
1864		John o’ Groat Jrnl 18 Aug. 2/8: In 1852 it was ‘Johnie lad,’ as out knight of the awl called him.
1888		N. Devon Jrnl 9 Feb. 8/6: That well-known knight of the awl, William Y. Berry.
1893		Western Times 24 Mar. 8/4: A certain ‘knight of the awl’ a day or two ago received a letter containing an offer.

a schoolteacher.

1830

Exeter Flying Post 7 Jan. 4/4: A comely-looking wench, with [...] such pretty pouting rose-coloured lips that we do not wonder [...] they inspired the soul of the aged knight of the birch.

a heavy drinker.

1656

R. Fletcher ‘The London Lady’ Epigrams and Poems 191: The Citty Usher [...] dubs them bach’lor Knight of the black Jugg.

see separate entry.

1. a censor.

1894		Dly Teleg. (Launceston, Tas.) 10 Feb. 6/2: [E]ven this -puissant knight of the blue pencil does not aIways succeed in punching all the unconscious humor out of their communications.
1900		Dundee Eve. Post 30 May 6/2: ‘Knight of the Blue Pencil’. The Duties of the Press Censor.
1909		Cheltenham Chron. 11 Dec. 3/3: But soft, behold where the knight of the blue pencil stalks! [...] but perhaps at this time of general electioneering I may be forgiven mild flutter the game at which everybody is, in the parlance, ‘having a pennorth’.
1913		Yorks. Post 1 Apr. 8/6: ‘We are back at the Leeds Star Chamber. No. 1, Park Row. where the knight of the blue pencil sits in solitary state and crosses out and puts in’.
1914		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Dec. 11/4: ‘Interview?’ said Mr. M. L. Moss. ‘Oh! yes — if the censor pleases [...] There is no division, but a united Empire, and we shall win. There! do you think that will pass the Knight of the Blue Pencil?
1921		Milngavie & Bearsden Herald 1 Apr. 1/3: [A]ll the emanations of his diseased and wandering brain are read by a bored but peace-loving knight of the blue pencil .
1940		Manchester Eve. News 29 Nov. 2/4: The ways of the Knights of the Blue Pencil often baffle editors, so they must completely mystify readers.

2. (Aus.) a newspaper sub-editor.

1909		Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 12 Nov. 2/2: It is impossible for me to give you a detailed description [...] because if I did the knight of the blue pencil would be sure to line it out.
1923		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 28 Apr. 11/9: This is where the art of the true Knight of the Blue Pencil comes in. He it is who, by a process of judicious selection and pruning, accomplishes such seemingly impossible tasks as ‘getting a quart into a pint pot’.
1935		W. Australian (Perth) 10 Aug. 6/8: ‘Do you think, sir,’ asked the visitor, ‘there's a chance of that poem I sent in on the silver jubilee getting in your paper sooner or later?’ ‘There may be, later,’ barked the knight of the blue pencil.

3. (Aus.) a film editor.

1950

Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 25 Feb. 16/3: The experienced knights of the blue pencil [...] saved an hour and a half by disembowelling the play.

(US) a tramp.

1884

C.F. Lummis letter 5 Nov. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 68: You never saw such a country as this for tramps. I have met or overtaken more of these knights of the brogan [...] between here and Denver than in all the rest of my trip.

1. a chimney sweep.

1799		Sporting Mag. Mar. XIII 356/1: They beheld the knight of the brush in his sable robes.
1810		Eve. Mail (London) 9 Apr. 3/3: A chimney sweeper’s boy got into a butter-basket [...] and fell asleep [...] Two thieves passing along shortly afterwards, and conceiving the basket filled with butter or eggs, carried it away [...] to divide the spoil, when lo! instead of rich booty, out sprang the young knight of the brush.
1821		Wrocs. Jrnl 1 Mar. 4/4: The owner of the house, [...] rushed forth, and wresting an oaken cudgel from the poor sweep’s hand, belaboured him unmercifully, that the discomfited knight of the brush and shovel was fain seek safety in flight.
1827		Morn. Post (London) 4 Sept. 3/5: A dingy knight of the brush grinning at her sorrows.
1837		Stamford Mercury 20 Oct. 3/4: A well-known knight of the brush [...] took an airing on Sunday last in an open carriage [...] his manners offended the rustics.
1847		Morn. Post (London) 1 Feb. 8/1: The worthy knight of the soot-brush arrived late.
1850		Kendal Mercury 9 Mar. 1/2: Chimney-Sweeper and Thieves [...] Turning round suddenly, they beheld the knight of the brush.
1860		Morn. Chron. (London) 30 Mar. 8/4: Shaw, a knight of the brush, who appeared in his working clothes, about as black and as sootty as if he had just descended from a ‘foul flue’.
1874		Sheffield Indep. 8 July 3/4: A group [...] got hold of a luckless chimney-sweep who had proved obnoxious to them, and they made him suffer. One of the miners drew him into a fight [...] but the knight of the brush was nowhere, and had to give in to his brawny antagonist.
1882		Leics. Chron. 23 Sept. 7: As the chimney sweeping fraternity do not [...] usually attain to a very high standard of integrity, it is worthy of note that a purse containing 55., picked up in the street a few days ago by a sable knight of the brush [etc].
1892		Whitstable Times 23 Jan. 6/5: A milkman met the local sweep [and] asked him him when he had a good wash last, to which the knight of the brush immediately replied [etc.].

2. an artist, a (house) painter.

1814		Morn. Chron. 1 July 3/2: We hear of a character that proposes to cover himself all over with stars, crosses and ribands, as a Knight of the Brush.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 18 Sept. 270/1: A deputy ‘Knight of the Brush,’ [...] immediately furnished the lady with a fresh object of attack.
1832		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 8 n.p.: This knight of the brush [...] now has been made town bull.
1838		Hereford Times 6 Oct. 3/6: A full-grown love-sick painter’s apprentice was brought before the Magistrates [but] even their authority could not restrain the amorous propensity of this ‘knight of the brush’.
1854		Preston Chron. 8 Apr. 5/2: A worthy bumpkin [...] fell into the hands of some mischievous knights of the brush.
1859		Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 5/3: The knights of the brush kept their colors in a certain domestic utensil.
1877		Huddersfield Chron. 14 May 4/6: ‘Just do any good thing that you can think of. You are a painter.’ [...] ‘I’ll do it,’ said the knight of the brush.
1886		Aberdeen Eve. News 1 Nov. 4/2: An artist is not morally above pillaging the hoard of a brother knight of the brush.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1904		Edinburgh Eve. News 14 Jan. 2/6: ‘A Knight of the Brush’ writes [etc.].

a drunkard.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: knight of the brush and moon idle drunken fellows.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1828		Sussex Advertiser 14 Apr. 4/3: Pitmen, colliers, bog-trotters, black-legs, ken-cadgers with their king’s motts, knights of the road, and also a few knights of the brush and moon.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

a butcher.

1794		Sporting Mag. May IV 70/1: A man, whose appearance bespoke him a knight of the cleaver [...] brandishing the terrible instrument of his trade.
1801		Sporting Mag. Nov. XIX 97/1: Two near neighbours [...] the one a Knight of the Shears, and the other of the Cleaver.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 193: The Whitechapel Knight of the Cleaver and his fat ‘Rib’.
1833		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Aug. 31 n.p.: We tanned the Hide of a Butcher last week, and now we want to find out whether some Knight of the Cleaver [...] is not particular in charging .
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 29 Sept. Sept. 42/2: ‘The mother of Lord Seagrave was the daughter of a knight of the cleaver, which, in the vulgar tongue, is yclept a butcher’.
1840		Western Times 4 Jan. 3/6: Master Lodger, an assistant of one of the knights of the cleaver of this city, undertook, for a trifling bet, to eat [...] a small pig stuffed and baked.
1846		D. Corcoran Picking from N.O. Picayune 73: He is [...] a knight of the cleaver, or butcher.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Nov. 2/2: Her incontinence had frequently led her into amorous dalliance with a seductive knight of the cleaver.
1858		Leeds intelligencer 21 Aug. 10/1: One of our [...] townsmen went into the shop of a ‘knight of the cleaver’ in order to purchase half a leg of veal.
1858		Kendal Mercury 4 Sept. 5/4: One of the racers is known as a knight of the cleaver and steel.
1871		Derbyshire Times 8 Apr. 8/4: The conflict was between two worthy sons of the arts and sciences — one being aknight of the cleaver and steel, the other a man of colour.
1878		Western Gaz. 4 Jan. 6/2: A donkey match between a well-known ex-steeple chase gentleman rider’s ‘Fly Away’ and a celebrated knight of the cleaver’s ‘Jemmy’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 13/2: Before commencing proceedings, a certain retired knight of the cleaver, who rejoices in the appellation of old Gift, made a very pertinent inquiry as to who was the coming man, and was he going to wet it.
1899		Cornishman 12 Oct. 4/6: A big brown retriever smelt the toothsome meat, and, when the knight of cleaver was busy serving, he walked off with it.
1904		Western Times 5 May 4/6: The announcement [was] that Mr George Bullen, a local butcher, would enter the lion’s cage. ‘Will he have sufficient pluck to do it?’ [...] but the daring knight of the cleaver soon put all doubts about the matter at rest.
1914		Laverton Mercury (WA) 31 Oct. 3/7: Other considerable bits which are placed at the extreme outward edge of the slab the knight-of-the-cleaver calls ‘dog-tempters,’ because they are put in such a place as to admit of the shopman getting a good aim at any marauding animal.
1921		Western Times 12 July 7/3: ‘But even now,’ interposed a knight of cleaver, ‘farmers are making good prices’.

one who has been hanged.

1554

Interlude of Youth in Dodsley II (1874) 15: God’s fate! thou didst enough there / For to be made knight of the collar.

(UK Und.) a professional criminal; a cheating gambler who fixes sports.

1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 30 Oct. 317/1: [T]hese Knights of the Cross, who, by offering a premium to dishonesty, for their own sinister purposes , had destroyed the character of the Ring.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 208: Gentleman George was a person of majestic dignity among the Knights of the Cross.

a billiard-player; a billiard marker.

1793		Sporting Mag. Mar. I 367/2: The Heir Apparent of an Irish Marquis [...] lost 11,000 guineas, two or three nights since, at W—’s billiard table to a gentleman who proved himself to be a good calculator as well as able player! – The poor Knight of the Cue, and even the markers [...] contrived to pick up a few gleanings on this golden occasion.
1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 26 June 4/2: A certain knotty-headed knight of the cue.
1834		Morn. Chron. 27 Aug. 1/6: Most of the aristocratic ‘Knights of the Cue’ who remain in town congregate round the table every night.
1877		Belfast News Ltr 1 Sept. 4/2: james O’Hare, described as a ‘Knight of the Cue’ and Steward Morrow, a waiter, were charged with having been disorderly.
1885		York Herald 24 Jan. 20/5: These well-known ‘knights of the cue’ were matched to contest 10,000 points up (all in) on even terms.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues IV 120/2: Knight of the cue – a billiard-marker.
1901		Cornishman 6 June 2/4: [The] knights of the cue pay to keep their [...] tables in such order as will help the game.
1923		Illus. Sporting & Dramatic News (London) 3 Nov. 30/1: That's just what I'm trying to avoid, explained the knight of the cue, I don’t want to cut the bally cloth.

one who prefers the company of women and flirtatious words to that of men and macho action.

1900

Regiment 27 Jan. 31/2: Gallant gentlemen, heroes of a score of battles, who were no ‘knights of the drawing room,’ no poodle fakers’.

a card-sharp, a cheating gambler.

c.1673

Rochester ‘A Ramble in St James’s Park’ in Works (1999) 77: Three Knights, o’th’ Elbow, and the slurr / With wriggling Tails, made up to her.

1. a cuckold.

1590		Cobbler of Canterbury (1976) 12: He had dubd him knight of the forked order.
1630		Tinker of Turvey 16: He had dubd him knighte of the forked order.
1651		T. Randolph Hey for Honesty V i: They’d [...] dub me a knight of the forked order.
1663		J. Wilson Cheats V ii: Stick a bull’s feather in my cap! Make me a knight of the forked order!
1716		R. Neve Merry Companion 146: He shall have the Honour to be dubb’d a Knight of the Forked Order, and have his Name enroll’d in the Colony of Cuckoldom.
1845		S. Judd Margaret (1851) I 189: You never heard of the Knights of the Forked Order. There is an old song,—‘Why my good father, what should you do with a wife? / Would you be crested?’.

2. one whose job involves digging with a fork.

1630

J. Taylor ‘Great Eater of Kent’ in Hindley Works (1872) 8: Lackeys, Footmen, and Weavers, and Knights of the public or common order of the fork.

(US Und.) one who enjoys anal intercourse.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 26: knight of the golden grummet (n.): Active pedication; grummet: a nautical rope-ring, thus a suggestion of the anus. (Slang.).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 18: the man who fucks in anal intercourse, as opposed to the one who is fucked [...] knight [of the golden grummet] (rare, so called because knights had lances).

a teacher.

1692

Milton Defence of the People of Eng. in Works (1851) 185: Till you light [...] upon a Stipend large enough for a Knight of the Grammar, or an Illustrious Critick on Horseback .

1. (orig. US) a gambler.

1870		Leeds Mercury 25 June 7/6: [T]ravellers in Spain, who have not [...] had their pockets eased by the adventurous Knights of the Roead in the South of the Peninsula, will still [...] succumb to the wiles of the Knights of the Green Cloth in the North.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. Gamblers are called knights of the green cloth, and their lieutenants, who are sent out after greenhorns, are called decoys, cappers, and steerers.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1894		Hants Advertiser 18 Aug. 7/7: There were ominous signs [...] and even Denver Pete, redoubtable knight of the green cloth as he was, would have done well to have heeded them.

2. a billiards or snooker player.

1909		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 13 Oct. 12/1: As the evenings lengthen and outdoor sports are impossible to the average worker, then is heard the click of the billiard balls, and the knights of the green cloth are very busy indeed.
1916		Western Mail 25 Feb. 4/8: Tom Carpenter, the brilliant young Cardiff knight of the green cloth, managed to retain the Welsh billiards championship.
1925		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 22 Dec. 8/4: Circus World [,,,] Adami, the human billiard table, ought make many knights of the green cloth feel rather ashamed of themselves. He scores cannons his back and seems have supernatural influence over the ivories.
1937		Bath Wkly Chron. 24 Apr. 17/1: [headline] ‘Knights of the Green Cloth’ Mayor talks to Bath Billiards league.
1948		Wilts. Times 14 Feb. 2/7: Who were the [...] Knights of the Green Cloth who were playing in snooker game for ten minutes before discovering that the pink ball was missing?

see brother of the gusset under brother (of the)... n.

1. one doomed to be hanged.

1512

Hickscorner Biii: I am come of goode kynne I tell the[e] My moder was a lady of the stewes blode borne And knyght of the halter my fader ware an horne.

2. the hangman.

1795

Derby Mercury 1 Oct. 2/2: Mr Jack Ketch informed the Sheriffs that he could not think of acting in his official capacity any longer, unless his salary was raised [...] The Court [...] made known to the Knight of the Halter that the merits of his case should be taken into consideration.

a bricklayer; a bricklayer’s labourer.

1810		Morn. Chron. 2 May 3/3: He was saluted by a volley of coarse compliments, uttered by a son of Erin, dubbed a Knight of the Hod.
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 25: Young Terence, a nate little knight o’ the hod.
1837		Sligo Champion 11 Mar. 1/3: A snark-headed knight of the hod came forward.
1846		Sussex Advertiser 31 Mar. 3/1: There was a charge of assault preferred by the complainant, who is a bricklayer [...] against the defendant who is also a knight of the hod.

a thief or swindler.

1804		Lancaster Gaz. 23 June 4/3: A Knight of the Order of Industry, assuming the liovery of an Irish valetudinarian [...] received the ususal douceur [...] the author of the trick merely intended to raise the wind.
1843		Bucks. Herald 4 Mar. 6/5: There was Coroners, Lawyers, and Brewers, / [...] /A Quack Doctor and Birmingham Jew! / There were Knights of all orders and grades; / And a Knight too, of Industry.
1881		Tamworth Herald 7 May 3/2: One of the last arrests effected was that of a young knight of industry [...] It seems that no suspicion entered into the mind of the the recipient until the man was gone.
1887		Derby Dly Teleg. 20 Apr. 3/6: A rather ingenious system of swindling has been discovered by a Parisian knight of industry.
1892		Gloucester Citizen 13 Apr. 4/5: A ‘knight of the industry’ who stole a cheque-book [...] was a notorious swindler and imposter.
1905		Eve. Standard (Dundee) 25 Dec. 4/5: An actress lodged a complaint against a gorgeous knight of the industry who called himself Lord Leicester [...] The woman [...] accused the spurious nobleman of having stolen from her a pair of earrings.

a prisoner in irons who is being transported.

1864

J.F. Mortlock Experiences of a Convict (1965) 52: We were Knights of the Iron Chain, all new arrivals being at once formally invested at the anvil by the high armourer, with a handsome though rusty set of irons, [...] to be worn on the right leg.

(UK/US Und.) a burglar.

1867		Sheffield Indep. 1 June 8/1: His outfit showed him to be a professional knight of the jemmy.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Oct. n.p.: It is rather a difficult matter to determine whether ‘coppers’ have conscientious scruples [...] to pounce upon robust and heavily armed ‘knights of the jimmy’.
1878		Graphic (London) 16 Feb. 12/3: Two plain-clothes men had slyly concealed theselves in a doorway of a jeweller’s shop hoping to bag some knight of the jemmy.
1882		Morpeth Herald 25 Nov. 5/2: The ‘crib’ wherein this ‘knight of the jemmy’ has carried out his nefarious work is the Turk’s Head Hotel.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 Apr. 4/8: The gentlemen who follow the burgling business have apparently fallen on evil times [...] and another Knight of the Jemmy has been ‘retired’ for ten years.
1896		Daily Tel. 8 Aug. in Ware (1909) 163/2: Some seasons ago the place was overrun by knights of the jemmy, who committed their depredations on other people’s property in the coolest manner possible.
1908		Aberdeen Jrnl 13 July 4/4: Between 11 and 12 o’clock on Thursday night a ‘knight of the jemmy’ was disturbed [...] by a railway employee.
1919		V. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 130: The Knight of the Jemmy and his comrade in arms, the safe blower, unperturbedly will shrug their shoulders.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 6: He was a prowler, a house burglar, a knight of the jimmy and skeleton keys.

a cutpurse.

1614

Jonson Bartholomew Fair II iii: Is this goodly person before us here, this ‘vapours’, a knight of the knife?

a cobbler.

1828		Berks. Chron. 14 June 3/3: John Gibbs [...] knight of the lapstone [had] a charge preferred against him by [...] a constable.
1830		P. Hawker Instructions to Young Sportsmen (1844) 362: Johnny Tyrrell, our crack knight of the lapstone at Milford, has made me a pair of boots in this way.
1843		Leeds Times 18 Mar. 3/5: The knight of the lapstone evaded their vigilance, by making his exit.
1855		Sussex Advertiser 25 Sept. 6/6: This knight of the lapstone had become enamoured of Mrs Woodham’s cook.
1867		Hereford Jrnl 9 Nov. 6/2: He is graciously pleased to approve the movement, but he cannot, like the knight of the lapstone, stake his aw’l upon it.
1889		Exeter Flying Post 18 Apr. 4/1: To say nothing of the knight of the lapstone.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a prize-fighter.

1824

Observer (London) 29 Nov. 4/2: In addition to the Knights of the Mawley themselves, about five-and-twenty regular constables were on the spot.

(Aus.) a taxi-driver.

1938

Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Feb. 3/4: [A] gentleman [...] and informed the ‘Bouncer’ of the establishment of his intention to collect a taxi fare, owing to a hard-working knight of the meter.

a waiter.

1774		Foote Cozeners in Works (1799) II 160: The penurious pence of the lawyers won’t do for us, who are the superior knights of the napkin.
1823		Sussex Advertiser 19 May 3/5: In a Foot-Race [...] between a Coachman and a Waiter [...] the Knight of the Napkin flew past his brother Knight of the Whip.
1835		London Standard 19 Sept. 4/4: Says the traveller to the waiter, ‘Let us vow eternal friendship.’ ‘Be it so,’ says the knight of the napkin.
1840		Era (London) 30 Aug. 3/3: It required no knight of the napkin to imbue us.
1853		H. Cockton Valentine Vox 35: ‘Waiter!’ shouted Valentine [...] when the knight of the napkin [...] approached the fire.
1863		Hants Advertiser 5 Sept. 7/6: ‘Sir,’ replied the knight of the napkin, ‘we dine at six’.
1878		Edinburgh Eve. News 13 Sept. 3/4: The knight of the napkin hesitated.
1885		Golden Argosy (NY) us3 308: The knight of the napkin bowed and replied: ‘Sir, we dines at six’ .
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1891		Coventry Eve. Teleg. 8 Aug. 2/5: As though the knight of the napkin had not enough to suffer from the ordinary customer jumping down his throat.
1903		Manchester Courier 21 Feb. 19/2: Once again did the smirking knight of the napkin render the account.
1913		Southern Reporter 2 Oct. 4/4: ‘A gent has ordered roast mutton.’ [...] ‘Yes, sir,’ breathed the distracted knight of the napkin.
1928		Aberdeen Journal 29 June 8/3: The Fascist law [in Italy] ordains that the knight of the napkin must attire himself in one way and no other.
1951		A.J. Bock [bk title] Knight of the Napkin: Memoirs of Fifty Years’ Experiences in Many Lands.

a tailor.

1776		Foote Trip to Calais in Works (1799) II 341: That may be the case, Master Mannikin, with those of the trade who live in the city; but I would have you to know, the knights of the needle are another sort of people at our end of the town.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1795		Sporting Mag. Sept. VI 316/2: Four knights of the needle, (vulgarly called taylors) [...] sat down to eight pounds of salmon, to packs of pease [etc.].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1825		Worcester Jrnl 15 Dec. 4/1: The wife of a celebrated knight of the needle.
1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 26 June 3/1: A certain young man, late a knight of the needle.
1837		‘The Wide Awake Club’ Bentley’s Misc. Feb. 209: A very worthy knight of the needle.
1847		Dumfries & Galloway Standard 28 Apr. 4/3: The knight of the needle had to cross his legs and ply his tiny weapon to make doublets.
1859		Blackburn Standard 17 Aug. 3/7: An aged knight of the needle.
1870		Wrexham Advertiser 25 June 7/5: The knight of the needle delivered them.
1887		Aberdeen Eve. Express 28 Feb. 2/1: The knight of the needle must have been one of those excellent persons who never prophesy unless they know.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1899		Wrexham Advertiser 15 July 6/2: He [...] was a knight of the needle for the last eighteen years.
1909		R. Service ‘The Ballad of the Northern Lights’ Ballads of a Cheechako 15: A knight of the hollowed needle, pard, spewed from the sodden slum.
1911		Dundee Courier 12 Jan. 8/1: The knight of the needle [...] didn’t by any means give himself away.
1927		Aberdeen Jrnl 29 Oct. :

a highwayman.

1765		Caledonian Mercury 4 Sept. 1/2: A Frace, inscribed to Sir J— F—, Knight of the Pad, by Bob Bagshot.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 76: As sweet as the brandy and tea, rather thinnish, / That Knights of the Rumpad so rurally sip.
1848		Worcester Jrnl 31 Aug. 3/5: While he was thus [asleep] there came by a knight of the pad who had himself happy by taking the horse [...] and riding away.
1867		Liverpool Mercury 22 Apr. 3/4: He should not put himself in the false position of a knight of the pad.

1. a clerk.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 653/1: from ca. 1860; obs.

2. a writer.

1845		M. Fuller Writing from N. Y. Trib. 1844-6 (2000) 271: Some champion [...] might try whether the sting of Criticism was as indifferent to this knight of the pen as he professes its honey to be.
1864		Reader 22 Oct. 505/1: The best guard against any such spirit [that of only regarding books by the light of ‘will they pay’] is that the publisher should be a knight of the pen himself [F&H].
1876		Edinburgh Eve. News 15 Sept. 2/4: A gentleman [...] by profession a knight of the pen, had also gone amissing.
1893		Dundee Courier 13 May 5/2: This accomplished knight of the pen may vicariously become a knight of the sword.
1903		Manchester Courier 17 Mar. 6/2: They welcomed Mr O’Connor as a leader amongst the knights of the pen.

1. a painter.

1825

Edinburgh Mag. Mar. 306: He is a man of truth and honour, and as well deserving of belief in what he states, as any erratic knight of the pencil that ever painted panoramas, or manufactured quartos.

2. an author, a writer.

1839

Dublin University Mag. Feb. 166/2: Thus writes — ay feels our enthusiastic knight of the pencil.

3. a bookmaker.

1877		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 20 Oct. 3/2: The knight of the pencil turned [...] and, raising his hat, said, ‘I never bet with ladies’.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 May 4/2: A bookmaker has been given a dinner before departing for ‘fresh fields and pastures new’; and the same knight of the pencil has been wished bon voyage by a newspaper.
1885		Punch 7 Mar. 109: The knights of the pencil, Sir, hold that backers, like pike, are more ravenous in keen weather, and consequently easier to land [F&H].
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1891		N. Gould Double Event 28: Ike’s knowledge of some of the bookmakers he had met in the old land led him to believe that ‘hard-uppishness’ would scare any knight of the pencil away.
1900		Hull Daily Mail 16 Apr. 4/6: George Percy Turf Accountant [...] ‘Sporting Life,’ April 3rd, 1900, says:— ‘Mr George Percy, a well-known knight of the pencil’.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Nov. 4/3: The result of the Melbourne Cup was a veritable clean sweep for the so-called knights of the pencil.
1908		Hull Daily Mail 23 Mar. 2/5: One well-known ‘Knight of the Pencil’ laid £500 to £400 that Gautrey would not win.

4. a reporter, a journalist.

1888		Dundee Courier 22 Dec. 3/6: Exclusion of Reporters. While the members were assembling a reporter ventured in [...] On Mr Ballingall appearing he thus addressed the stranger [...] ‘Leave the room.’ The meek knight of the pencil at once replied, ‘Certainly’.
1891		Sporting Times 7 Mar. 1/3: But the knight of the pencil was wide awake, / And was not to be had by ‘kid’.
1905		Luton Times 11 Aug. 2/3: ‘I cannot help it, my lord,’ replied the knight of the pencil. ‘My report was despatched by telegraph some hours ago’.

1. (also knight of the burning pestle) someone with a venereal disease, a term of abuse.

c.1607		Beaumont [play title] Knight of the Burning Pestle.
1635		R. Brome Sparagus Garden II ii: The Knight of the burning pestle.
1649		Man in the Moon 28 May - 5 June 73: Alderman Split-breech and the right doubty Mayre are to be dubb’d Knights of the burning Pestle.
1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes I 6: What would the Don have said, had he known some of our British adventurers? the Knight of the spouting-pestle; or the Knight of the burning-pestle, who carried all the ladies before him.
1672		‘To the Knight of the burning Pestle’ Covent Garden Drollery 78: Ralph, who humbly does each Lady greet, And layes his Burning Pestle at her feet.
a.1680		Rochester ‘My Lord All-Pride’ in Works (1999) 94: Alike abroad, at home, i’th’ Camp and Court, / This Knight o’th’ Burning Pestle makes us sport.

2. an apothecary, esp. one who prescribes for venereal diseases.

a.1661		‘Arsy Versy’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 47: Then the Knight of the Pestle, King Lambert and Vane / With a Scepter of Iron did over it reign.
1797		Monthly Mirror 4 366: A knight of the pestle, enclosed in one of his own large blue chemical bottles.
1805		‘Jeremy Swell, Gent.’ Tailors’ Revolt iv: We should have [...] The knights of the Pestle against the ‘doctor and apothecary’.
1813		J. Smith Horace in London 162: If fever assail me / [...] / I’ll spurn Doctor Bailey to see / Some second rate knight of the pestle.
1830		Journal of Health (Phila.) I 18: A London knight of the pestle and mortar — a gentleman apothecary.
1862		Belfast Morn. News 4 Dec. 4/6: The plaintiff is a chemist and druggist [...] A certain knight of the pestle and mortar having taken it into his head to maltreat his wife.

a man employed as ‘muscle’ by a brothel.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a jockey.

1867		Baily’s Mag. July 222: Here, in the old four-mile heat days, one well-known knight of the pigskin accomplished a feat which made him illustrious for ever.
1872		Baily’s Mag. Feb. 220: ‘Got anything in your pocket?’ he demanded of the lad. ‘Nothing, sir,’ answered the young knight of the pigskin.
1887		Fore’s Sporting Notes 3 164: ‘Well, Sir,’ continued the knight of the Pigskin, ‘why not, instead of giving me a leg up on Flying Fish, put me up for once on old Jack Sheppard, wearing your first colours of course?’.
1891		Wallace’s Monthly 17 355: McLaughlin, the noted knight of the pigskin, is [...] getting down to one hundred and fifteen pounds.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 42: Knight of the Pigskin, a professional jockey.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Nov. 1/4: One of these knights of the pigskin declined a mount [...] at the recent V.R.C. meeting.
1901		Northants Eve. Teleg. 22 Feb. 2/4: New peers will be created by the King [...] there is a fear in certain good people that perchance he will honour a knight of the pigskin.
1908		Hull Daily Mail 23 Mar. 8/1: My next tip, from a Knight of the Pigskin was Earlston, a horse that you can hear coming 300 yards away.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 July 2nd sect. 10/4: Some months ago much amusement was caused amongst the knights of the pigskin by the drafting of a code of by-laws for their government.
1922		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 10 Oct. 11/5: The young lad’s name will be something to conjure with [...] if I am any judge of a knight of the pigskin.
1934		Hull Daily Mail 22 Nov. 6/5: He had relinquished his ambition to become a ‘knight of the pigskin’ on account of increasing wieght.

a doctor, an apothecary.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a fan of cock-fighting.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see separate entry.

1. a hairdresser.

1796

S. Gunning Delves, a Welch Tale (1797) II 121: I therefore called in my hair dresser, who [...] entertained me with all the politics, all the news, and all the scandal of the day, I tried to interest myself in the various anecdotes succinctly related by this knight of the powder-puff, but the attempt was vain, I grew tired of his nonsense.

2. an effeminate or homosexual male.

1891		Romance of Violette (1970) 179: The jovial landlord at their request sent rolund the corner for young passive pederast, who was celebrated for his abnormal proportions in one direction, and the narrowness of his...ideas, in another. The young knight of the powder puff appeared rouged, with hair dyed like that of a woman.
1939		Star Press (Muncie, IN) 31 May 3/2: They call him a ‘society fighter,’ and he is the current matinee idol of the ring, but his victory over Tommy Farr has shown that he is no knight of the powder puff.

a billiards or snooker player.

1894

Mirror of Life 24 Mar. 15/2: [H]e may play a game or two of billiards with some ‘knights of the pyramid’.

an author.

1691–2		Gentlemen’s Jrnl Mar. 2: I know some of your sturdy, stuff, nights of the quill [F&H].
1791		Gentleman’s Mag. Feb. 120/1: Some vexatious wrangler, some pragmatical knight of the quill, who [...] right or wrong, maintains his hypothesis with inflexible zeal .
1802		Bury & Norwich Post 4 Aug. 2/2: Duel. — In consequence of the dispute between [...] a journeymman printer and a hackney writer [...] the knight of the quill [...] directed his second [...] to load both pistols.
1828		Morn. Post (London) 1 Aug. 2/3: The knight of the quill declared his objection to fight like a blackguard.
1832		Spirit of the Times (NY) 14 Apr. 1/1: This caption [...] has either been introduced by some preparatory remarks by the ‘knights of the quill’ [etc].
1838		Leeds Times 17 Feb. 5/4: The knight of the quill was much elated, boasting in high-sounding words.
1847		Bath Chron. 9 Sept. 4/5: A gallant New England knight of the quill.
1856		Falkirk Herald 11 Sept. 3/2: The profession must be looking up, when a knight of the quill can dare to assert his nationality in this fashion.
1863		Western Gaz. 7 Nov. 3/5: One is an old Californian digger, the other a knight of the quill.
1876		Sunderland Daily Echo 16 June 3/4: A young knight of the quill [...] has been paying his addresses to a fair damsel at Darlington.
1885		Shields Daily Gaz. 12 May 4/3: A certain young ‘knight of the quill’ [...] in the possession of a wife and several children.
1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Oct. 14/1: The ‘Major’ is once more a knight of the quill.
1899		Daily Gaz. for Middlesborough 26 Oct. 4/2: The knight of the quill immediately shut himself in.
1903		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 13 Nov. 3/3: The outrage to their feelings was not completed by the knight of the quill.
1915		Newcastle Jrnl 15 Oct. 8/1: ‘Have you seen any of our officers here this morning?’ asked a lordly knight of the quill.
1927		Cheltenham Chron. 26 Mar. 2/1: He has not sat continually there so long as that redoubtable knight of the quill, ‘Tay Pay’.

a footman, a waiter.

1756		Leeds Intelligencer 21 Dec. 1/3: [The Peace Officers] so carried them off, to the great Joy of the Knights of the Rainbow there present.
1769		Political Register Nov. 262: There runs so strict a parallel between a thorough-paced courtier and a knight of the rainbow [...] only indeed there is so much lying and cringing in the courtier, that a footman hardly ever reaches politeness enough to shine in such noble drudgery.
1771		Town & Country Mag. Jan. 7/1: He was compelled to hire himself as a livery servant to his footman, and now in turn rode behind his former valet’s chariot. This knight of the rainbow had a little more prudence than his late master.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: knight of the rainbow a footman, from the variety of colours in their liveries and trimming, of gentlemen of that cloth.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Rainbow. Knight of the Rainbowe [sic] a Footman from being Clothed in Garments of different Colours.
1795		C. Dibdin Songs I (1842) 150/1: The Knights of the Rainbow — ‘I say, my lord duke, / On hair powder a tax!’.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Sussex Advertiser 9 Sept. 3/4: A gentleman’s servant, grotesquely accoutred, sallied forth in a field [...] his brother sportsmen [...] felt great astonishment and mortification at finding that this renowed knight of the rainbow had done more execution [...] than they could effect.
1821		Hereford Jrnl 3 Oct. 4/3: A Knight of the Rainbow [...] took the shine out of all the coves in his master’s neighbourhood, by threatening to serve them in quick time.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 267: It’s scarcely wages for a ‘knight of the rainbow’ (a footman).
1883		N. Wales Chron. 20 Jan. 6/5: John Jolly, a butler [...] Lightgo, a knight of the rainbow.

a watchman.

1815

Lancaster Gaz. 4 Mar. 1/5: Grimaldi then applied to another knight of the rattle but who declined to set it going ; the enraged clown then snatched it from him, and sprung it himself, and the thief [...] was soon taken [...] and placed in the neighbouring watch-house.

a barber.

1894

Mirror of Life 6 Jan. : Knights of the Razor. James Rymer [...] who claims to have a record of shaving 100 faces in 48min 40 secs.

see separate entry.

(US) an angler.

1833

Spirit of the Times (NY) 12 Jan. 2/1: We arer pleased in giving place to the following ‘knight of the rod’ [...] During the last season I was eye-witness to the takking of a ‘striped bass’ [etc].

see ...the pad

(Aus.) a bookmaker.

1910

Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Aug. 1st sect. 1/1: Having the quadruped in his ‘bag’ he laid it at a fancy price [but] when it had its nose in front in the straight, the odds-yeller nearly fainted [...] it took a dozen doses of brandy to straighten up the knight of the satchel.

(Aus.) a hairdresser, a barber.

1904

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 24 Feb. 7/5: [...] not lead the public to think that there is such a thing as skite among the knights of the scissors.

a sub-editor.

1869

Sportsman (London) 22 July 2/1: Notes on News [...] [A] sub-editor got [...] orders to get up article in praise of Mr Blank’s shoe-polish [...] the knight of the scissors and paste said he ‘would see Mr Blank and his blacking damned first’.

a tailor.

1849

Sam Sly 3 Feb. 2/2: Young ladies are advised to beware of a certain elderly young gentleman, G—e J—s G—n, a knight of the scissors and yard, of Union-street, Bath.

1. a tailor.

1782		J. Caske Tricipitina 14: An action with 300 Pounds damage was brought, against the knight of the shears and thimble.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Knight of the sheers, a taylor.
1793		Sporting Mag. Oct. III 8/1: The race was won by something more than a nostril, by the Cross-legg’d Knight of the Sheers!
1801		Sporting Mag. Nov. XIX 97/1: Two near neighbours [...] the one a Knight of the Shears, and the other of the Cleaver.
1806		Chester Chron. 1 Aug. 4/3: So much for the wisdom of twelve honest men, with a noble knight of the shears and needle for their foreman.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Knight of the shears. A tailor.
1831		‘Sporting Anecdotes – the Hunted Tailor’ [print] John Bishop a brisk looking knight of the thimble & shears, being tired of sitting cross-legged all the week resolved one Sunday upon having a day’s Sporting.
1832		Albany Microscope (NY) 2 June n.p.: Bogardus and Clark, knights of the thimble, goose and bodkin.
1833		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Aug. 31 n.p.: Our Birds have winged their way [...] to examine the affairs of a Knight of the Goose & Shears .
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 2 Apr. n.p.: A certain knight of the shears [etc].
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Sept. 3/2: Miss Barbara Simpson, a freckled beauty, and the daughter of a knight of the shears.
1850		Hereford Times 9 Nov. 6/5: The knight of the shears and goose [...] met a buxom young widow.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Oct. 3/3: Bernard Cross, a knight of the thimble and Shears.
1860		Birmingham Jrnl 28 Apr. 6/3: Some venerable knight of the shears in sober pursuit of his calling.
1879		Shields Daily Gaz. 12 June 4/2: His wife [...] came to the rescue of the knight of the shears, explaining that she had taken an inch from each of the legs.
1889		Portsmouth Eve. News 9 Mar. 2/6: The ‘knight of the shears’ [had] taken a lamp inside the waxen head of his ‘dummy’.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (Aus.) a sheep-shearer.

1889

Dead Bird (Sydney) 19 Oct. 5/4: Now that the sheep-shearers have almost got through with their fleecing operations, the wily back-block shanty-keepers are decorating their best girls and fixing up their old pianofortes in preparation for the reception of the knights of the shears.

a tailor.

1885

L. Emanuel Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 86: Cross-legged, as is the fashion of the knights of the sleeve board.

see brother (of the) buskin under brother (of the)... n.

a publican, an inn-keeper.

1821		Sir W. Scott Kenilworth (1877) 92: When an old song comes across us merry old knights of the spigot, it runs away with our discretion.
1839		Liverpool Mercury 1 Mar. 6/2: We [...] at once recognised in it the invention of some worthy ‘knight of the spigot’.
1846		Stirling Observer 15 Oct. 4/3: This conscientious knight of the spigot.
1874		Burnley Gaz. 19 Dec. 3/2: That fool Holker [...] has been made into a knight — not of the spigot and barrel as he ought to have been.
1882		Daily Gaz. for Middlesborough 30 June 4/1: The prisoner [...] pulled the ‘knight of the spigot’s whiskers .
1893		Burnley Express 25 Nov. 2/6: One Burnley Knight of the Spigot [...] trundled a large barrel of porter into the street.

a pawnbroker.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

a racecourse bookmaker.

1874

J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 317: I heard the oldest of them exclaim, turning to a ‘knight of the standard,’ ‘I’ll take the odds against Stewpan for the Nursery Stakes.’.

a butcher.

1819

P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 18: The Knight of the Steel is sending his buffer after the Dandy to hunt him.

a tailor.

1825

Pierce Egan’s Life in London 8 May 115/3: [A] numerous assemblage of knights of the steel bar and translators of soles.

a doctor specialising in venereal diseases.

1683

Fifteen Real Comforts of Matrimony 94: Twere impossible else, that there should be so much work for the Surgeons and Pintle-smiths about this Town […] such swarms of Charlatans and Knights of the Syringe in every corner of the City.

(Aus.) a tailor.

1904

Truth (Brisbane) 10 Apr. 5/3: ‘FIFTEEN AND A-HALF,’ yelled the tailor-man. [...] ‘Oh, not you,' said the knight of the tape.

a tailor.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Globe (London) 24 Dec. 4/4: A smart, scientifc boxing match took place [...] betwixt a gallant knight of the thimble again Power, the celebrated pugilist.
1818		Leeds Intelligencer 13 Apr. 3/4: The president [...] is a knight of the thimble, and the vice-president a son of St Crispin.
1821		‘Manful Exertions’ in Fancy I XVII 411: Ben. Burns, the boxer, raced seventy yards with a Knight of the Thimble, in Hyde Park [...] Snip regretted losing, only because he was on the point of being married, and wanted to cut a dash in the eyes of his dreary.
1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 26 June 1/3: Please inform that knight of the Thimble, Mr. P.T. [etc].
1831		‘Sporting Anecdotes – the Hunted Tailor’ [print] John Bishop a brisk looking knight of the thimble & shears, being tired of sitting cross-legged all the week resolved one Sunday upon having a day’s Sporting.
1846		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune 203: [heading] A Strike Among The Tailors [...] A portion at least of the ‘knights of the thimble’ in this city are determined not to be behind the age.
1849		Paul Pry 5 Mar. 7/1: [T]he POOR Jew [...] has been the means of docking the enormous charges of this redoubted ‘knight of the thimble’.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Oct. 3/3: Bernard Cross, a knight of the thimble and Shears.
1859		Wells Jrnl 30 Jan. 6/5: A poor half-starved creature, named Emily Druce, / Was dragged by a Knight of the thimble and goose.
1869		Bradford Observer 21 Jan. 6/1: He brandished his goose with a terrible look; As a knight of the thimble the worst he would dare.
1878		Eve. Teleg. 25 Dec. 3/3: A Valiant Knight of the Thimble [...] William Sansom, tailor [...] was charged with assaulting a waiter.
1881		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 21 June 7/5: A man, whose well-greased, old silk hat and the general cut of his clothes proclaimed him to be a knight of the thimble and shears.
1886		Edinburgh Eve. News 29 Nov. 2/8: The knight of the thimble proceeded to lift the sash of the kitchen window.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 42: ‘[K]night of the thimble,’ a tailor.
1904		Eve. Teleg. 4 Apr. 4/4: John Slater, a knight of the thimble, [...] appeared before provost Grant.

a great eater.

1741		Champion 15 Apr. 110: It is recorded of Vitellius that he had nearly 10000 dishes for supper [...] Tacitus tells us of this Knight of the Trencher, that he spent upwards of seven Millions in a few Months.
1763		Oxford Jrnl 31 Dec. 4/1: Exploits of the Knight of the Trencher.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Knight of the Trencher, a great Eater.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1847		Stirling Observer 10 June 3/1: This doughty knight of the trencher finished his fear of gluttony by washing all down with a bottle of porter.
1881		Dundee Courier 20 Sept. 7/2: He was a valiant knight of the trencher.
1902		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 4 Oct. 3/4: A Perth glover [...] equally distinguished as a knight of the trencher.

a smoker; also known, by the coiner John Taylor the Water Poet (c.1578–1653), as gentlemen of the whiffe, esquires of the pipe.

1630

J. Taylor ‘Great Eater of Kent’ in Hindley Works (1872) 8: Tobacconists, Knights of the Vapour, Gentlemen of the Whiff, Esquires of the Pipe.

a cyclist.

1870		Grantham Jrnl 5 Feb. 8/2: One illustrious knight of the wheel [...] displayed to public gaze his bicycle.
1888		Edinburgh Eve. News 27 Aug. 4/4: The knight of the wheel [...] is president of a bicycle club.
1895		Western Times 18 June 3/6: She did a good deal of cycling, and became acquainted with a gentleman who was also a knight of the wheel.
1907		Gloucester Jrnl 30 Mar. 7/6: Horse v. Bicycle [...] a race [...] between a modern Dick Turpin and a knight of the wheel.
1910		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 19 May 3/3: He will defy any ordinary knight of the wheel to negotiate the kerb without coming by a broken rib to himself or his machine.

a coachman.

1789		British Mercury 21 Mar. 358: The former is [...] to trot his six white coursers, for thirty miles [...] the knowing-ones pronouce in favour of the Knight of the Whip.
1795		Sporting Mag. Oct. VII 47/2: A brisk gale will do more for the escape of lovers in distress, than the greatest exertions of the Knights of the Whip.
1804		Sporting Mag. Mar. XXIII 352/1: A knight of the whip and the vowels.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1828		‘Jon Bee’ Living Picture of London 27: To the practices and necessities of the coachmen and guard’s private trade, we owe the increasing number and fresh supply of hangers-on, whose first business has been the performing fetch-and-carry services for those knights of the whip.
1833		Morn. Post (London) 9 Oct. 3/5: The knight of the whip drove his chaise on without paying the toll.
1844		New Sporting Mag. (London) Dec. 29: Short stages used to be considered as infra dig. by the regular knights of the whip.
1846		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune 134: They were both knights of the whip [...] lashed together in the harness of friendship.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 Mar. 3/1: Two knights of the whip. Henry Wataford and James Line, having bowed gracefully to the Court [etc.].
1851		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 28 June n.p.: Somewhere in that street, was a ‘knight of the whip’.
1855		Bell’s Life in Sydney 21 Apr. 3/1: A Crack Coachman. A knight of the whip, named Frederick Powler was charged [etc.].
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1871		Fife Herald 9 Mar. 4/4: The disappearance of an amorous ‘knight of the whip’ in the reputed company of a ‘table maid’.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1898		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 30 Apr. 2/7: Another ‘knight of the whip’ was intoxicated on his cab.
1909		Hull Daily Mail 16 Dec. 3/1: ‘I know who you are, Sir,’ said his knight of the whip.

(Aus.) a cricketer, presumably a batsman.

1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 30 Nov. 2/1: Two old knights of the willow, [...] were blowing about the big scores they made in their youthful days.
1896		Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 9 Sept. 2/5: The Euston knights of the willow are again on the war path.

(Aus./US) a draper, a haberdasher.

1825		Amer. Farmer 11 Nov. 271/2: As to myself, who am an unlucky and dyspeptic knight of the yardstick — not being used to such acumen of sight and steadiness of nerve.
1852		Yankee Notions Oct. 290/1: The Knight of the Yardstick sold a thousand and one of those articles the wife of the smith so much coveted.
1853		N.Y. Clipper 31 Dec. 3/3: The funniest matoh of the whole day waa between two gents of the city, ‘Knights of the Yardstick and Scissors,’ whose pride had tempted them to measure their respective merits .
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Mar. 22/4: There was considerable stir among the athletic yard-measurers […] and the robust tape and calico retailers […] when it became known that a prize, roughly estimated at ten guineas, had been donated […] for the highest scorer in the inter-warehouse cricket match [...] at the drapers’ picnic. The off-chance of not only becoming suddenly wealthy, but of attaining undying fame in athletic circles, had the effect of causing an epidemic of cricket to break knights of the yard-stick.