tom n.12
a promiscuous woman.
Alchemist V v: Did not I say, I would never ha’ you tupped / But by a dubbed boy, to make you a lady tom? |
In compounds
a promiscuous young woman; also a tomboy.
Country-Wife IV iii: Where is this harlotry, this impudent baggage, this rambling tomrigg? | ||
Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tom-boy, a Ramp, or Tomrig. | ||
Remarks on Mr Pope’s Rape of the Lock (1728) 16: The author [...] represents her likewise a fine, modest, well-bred lady. [...] And yet in the very next Canto she appears an arrant Ramp and a Tomrigg. | Letter III||
Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 192: She was a very Tomrig or Hoyden, and delighted only in Boys-play and Pastime. | ||
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Romp, a forward wanton girl, a tomrig. | |
Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | ||
Book of Scoundrels 60: A very ‘tomrig and rump-scuttle,’ she knew only the sports of the boys. | ‘Moll Cutpurse’||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
In phrases
an older woman, the image is of promiscuity or even prostitution.
Sporting Times 2 Jan. 7/4: She wasn’t young [...] in fact she was a regular old Tom-tart [...] and she was trying to mash a youthful lordling. |