cherubim, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cherubim n.

[joc. ref. to the line ‘To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry’ in the Te Deum; a similar pun is seen in Ward, The London Spy (1699), describing a whore as a ‘cherubimical lass’]

1. a whingeing child.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812–82		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

2. a choirboy [adds the choirboy’s supposedly angelic persona].

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1873		Sl. Dict.