pox n.1
1. syphilis.
| [ | ![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Hickscorner Biii: God punyssheth full sore with grete sekeness As pockes pestylence purple and ares]. |
| Rede me and be nott wrothe (1895) 32: He had the pockes, without fayle, Wherefore people on hym did rayle. | |
| Gammer Gurton’s Needle II ii: The pox light on her whore’s sides. | |
| Mirrour for Magestrates of Citties (2nd edn) H2: They goe to some blind brothel-house wher [...] the imbracement of a paynted Harlot, and the French Pockes for a reckoning, the Punie payeth fortie shillings. | |
| ‘Little Robin’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 117: But surely here they have earthed the foxe, / That lothsomely stancke and died of the poxe. | |
| Disputation Betweene a Hee and a Shee Conny-Catcher (1923) 37: They say the Poxe came from Naples, some from Spaine, some from France, but wheresoeuer it first grew, it is so surely rooted now in England . | |
| Knight of the Burning Pestle V i: Her breath is yet inflamed: besides, there is a maine fault in the touch-hole, it runnes, and stinketh; [...] Ten such touch-holes would breed the Pox in the Army. | |
| Bartholomew Fair II vi: The hole in the nose here [...] is caused from tobacco, the mere tobacco! when the poor innocent pox, having nothing to do there, is miserably, and most unconscionably slander’d. | |
| ‘Discovery by Sea’ in Nares Glossary (1901) II 29: And so I leave her to her hot desires, / ’Mongst pimps and pandars, and base apple-squires, / To mend or end, when age or pox will make [...] whore-masters all forsake her. | |
| ‘Travels of Twelve-pence’ in Works (1869) I 69: She gaue me to the Surgeon, for some Lotion, [...] For Plaisters, and for oyntments in a Box, / And so I left my Mistris, with a Pox. | |
| Royal King and Loyal Subject III iii: Away you rogues! [...] Do I keep house to entertain tatterdemalions, with a pox? | |
| Bartholomew Faire in Old Bk Collector’s Misc. 4: If you take not heed of them [i.e. whores] they will give you fairings with the pox. | |
| (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk II 224: But what shall I say of those poor men that are plagued with the pox and the gout? | |
| ‘Sensual Delight’ in (1969) 226: Let the pox be your friend and the plague be your end. | |
| Whores Dialogue 7: I think I should stink so of my Pox that no body would indure me. | |
| ‘On George Villiers’ in Bagford Ballads (1878) II 642: The pox upon Pox has Eaten by Bits, / His T—. | |
| (attrib.) Sodom III i: Hold, hold, no more, I cann no longer beare: / Im borne by Pox to fall and will fall here. | |
| Dialogue from Hell of Cuckoldom 14: We are all French-men, and therefore you need not doubt the cause, the Pox, and our Wives, Ma foy. | |
| Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 51: The grand pox eat this buffoon, says the serious wary husband. | |
| ‘The He-Strumpets’ Athenianism – Project IV 95: He-Whore! The Word’s a Paradox; But there’s a Club hard by the Stocks, Where Men give unto Men the Pox. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘A Petition to the Ladies’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 102: The Beaux ne’re come here with their powdered Locks / [...] / Besides, the salt Water’s not good for their P—x. | |
| Penkethman’s Jests 130: Fornication and Perjury go as often together, as Paint and the Pox. | |
| Proceedings at Sessions (City of London) Apr. 23/2: [advert] This Day is Published [...] A Practical Treatise [...] II. On the Virilent Gonorrhoea, or Clap. III. On the Venereal Lues, or the Grand Pox. | |
| Thief-Catcher 10: They begin to walk the Streets [...] picking up drunken, unthinking Men and Apprentices, whom they decoy into Bawdy-houses [...] and often give them the Pox. | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) I 205: There is a man, who well can do, / For scratches, burns, and poxes too. | |
| Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 58: The scurvy, the cancer, and the pox. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | West India Customs and Manners 31: Should you at any time be affected with these stages of the p-x, be very studious to get yourself [...] properly cured. | |
| ‘The Phlegm Pot’ No. 32 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: Low whoring brings the pox. | |
| ‘The Young English Blowen’ Cockchafer 8: And this fine young English blowen of a butcher caught the p-x. | |
| ‘The Fine Young Common Prostitute’ Cuckold’s Nest 40: She tramped it out at night, / By the East India Docks, / And all the tars she took on board, / She gave to them the p-x. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | in Stories the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell (1994) 30: It is the Pocks and the Clap [...] Company A has got one officer toillin with the Pock and one private with the Clap. | |
| Cythera’s Hymnal 12: Claps that set at nought and sold him, / Pox that burned him grievously. | |
| My Secret Life (1966) I 48: Suddenly the fear of the pox came over me, I went up to the bedroom, soaped and washed my prick. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 179: Maladie (la). The lues veneris; ‘the pox’. | |
| ‘Cats on the Rooftops’ in (1979) 48: Dogs on the seashore, dogs on the rocks / Dogs with gonorrhea, dogs with pox. | |
| This Side of Jordan 138: She got de big pox. | |
| (con. 1914–18) ‘She was Poor, but She was Honest’ Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier 88: Now she’s standing in the gutter, / Selling matches penny-a-box: / While he’s riding in his carriage / With an awful dose of —. | |
| ‘Christopher Columbo’ in (1979) 53: They’d caught a pox from every box / That syphilised all Europe. | |
| Limericks 12: The Good Lord / [...] / Gave them pox. | |
| (con. 1954) Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun I i: Bloody hell he’s got syphylitic teeth [...] Here — how do you manage to catch pox there. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | (con. 1940s–60s) ‘The Ringadangdoo’ in Snatches and Lays 17: There came to town a son of a bitch / Who had the pox and the seven-year-itch. | |
| Sky Ray Lolly 33: Fig-leaves I’m sure, are prettier far than cocks, / And only suffer greenfly not the pox. | |
| (con. 1930s) Emerald Square 217: I could have told her all about ‘the pox’, Liberties style for syphilis. |
2. constr. with the, a synon. for fuck/hell etc, esp. in interrog. phrs., e.g. who the..., how the...
| Ram-Alley I i: w. sm.: My Punk’s my Punke, and noble Letchery Sticks by a man when all his friends forsake him. bou.: The Poxe it will, art thou so sencelesse. | |
| Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 31: She that I ask for is my Sister, / I wonder how the Pox you miss’d her. | |
| Teagueland Jests I 46: How the pox didst thou come by that broken face, Mac? | |
| Siege IV i: Who, the pox, made you fight? | |
| Rover II i: Blunt. Her Name? [...] what care I for Names. She’s fair! young! brisk and kind! [...] What a Pox care I for knowing her by any other Title. | |
| Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 67: Who the Pox is oblig’d to tire a good Horse to carry your Load? | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) I 70: Son of an ugly squinting bitch, / Pray who the pox made you a witch? [Ibid.] 120: Our wives without it won’t remain; / Pray how the pox should they contain? | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 12: Pray who the pox made you a witch? |
3. any venereal disease.
| Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 3: If the poore dumb dice be but a little out of square, the pox and a thousand plagues breake their neckes out at window. | |
| Scornful Lady III ii: A primitive pox in his bonesswearing, cheating, / So many heauy curses, plagues and poxes. | |
| Emperour of the East IV iii: For the gonorrhea, or if you will heare it In a plainer phrase, the pox. | |
| Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 135: The barber reply’d [...] I am to search you for the pox. | |
| Peregrine Pickle (1964) 374: The second affirmed, that it was no other than a confirmed pox. | |
| Whore’s Catechism [trans.] 85: They [i.e. a baudruche, a sheath] are little bags or sheaths [...] with which a man envelopes his pego when he strokes a woman of whom he is not sure. By this means he is protected against the pox. | |
| ‘The Ball of Kirriemuir’ in (1979) 15: The village postman he was there / Scared to death of pox. | |
| Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 274: Kind gentlewomen in Covent Garden wooing from their balconies with sucking mouths and the poxfouled wenches of the taverns and young wives. | |
| Ulysses (1960) 317: There’s a bloody sight more pox and pax about that boyo. Edward Guelph-Wettin! | |
| This Gutter Life 176: The whole of this pox-rotten world is poncing on its neighbours! | |
| Joyful Condemned 379: Scared of getting the pox? | |
| diary 20 Nov. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 184: He had to give one of the deckhands a jab for pox . | |
| Whistle in the Dark Act II: Anytime I got pox or crabs, it wasn’t off the ones I thought I’d get it off. | |
| East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 76: Never knew what the pox was in those days. | |
 | Sex in Lit. 4 58: A bit vague, but presumably he got pox, like so many did. | |
| Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 101: POX — All sexually transmitted venereal diseases. |
In derivatives
venereally diseased, esp. suffering from syphilis; also used fig.
| Bartholomew Fair II v: I hope to see ’em plagu’d one day (pox’d they are already, I am sure). | |
| Parson’s Wedding (1664) I i: If thou should’st turn honest, would it not vex thee to be chaste and Paxat [sic] – a Saint without a Nose? | |
| ‘The Prentices’ Answer to the Whores’ Petition’ in Bagford Ballads (1878) II 509: You ate your doors doe stand Poxed and Painted. | |
| Nugae Venales 15: A Young Maid [...] was courted by a Person of Quality, whom she understood was Poxt. | |
| ‘A Satire Upon the Times’ Works (1721) 19: But Punk-rid Ratcliffe’s not a greater Cully, / Now tawdry Isham, intimately known / To all pox’d whores, and famous Rooks in Town. | |
| Night-Walker 27: Such [whores] as were [...] Sick, Poxt, or Old she would turn out of doors. | |
| ‘The Poor Whores Complaint’ in I (1975) 217: You know you’re all poxt and so am I. | |
| Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 59: You double Poxt Salivated B—h. | |
| Satyr against Pride II 45: Altho’ her Poxed Breath infects the Air; Decoying Cully with inchanted Charms, As grasping him within her circling Arms. | |
| Low Life Above Stairs I i: Her Ladyship has been poxed as often as any Drab in Drury-lane. | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) II 172: May he be pox’d if he has kiss’d her. | |
| Derby Mercury 3 Aug. 4/1: What are the odds, F—e, whether you are hanged or poxed first? | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 78: Then how the rogues will wish they’d box’d, / Instead of running to get pox’d. | |
| Whore’s Catechism [trans.] 76: How many are there [...] who flatter themselves they have got something choice and safe, until they find themselves well poxed. | |
| ‘Nursery Rhymes’ in Pearl 6 Dec. 29: He preferred tom-cat’s piss, / Which he kept a pox’d nigger to frig in. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 20: Attraper quelque chose. To be ‘poxed’ or ‘clapped’. | |
| (con. WW1) Patrol 232: ‘Festering lot of poxed-up niggers! I will get ’em’. | |
| Stone Mad (1966) 185: Remember that if you knock out a corner, the stone is poxed. | |
| letter 13 Sept. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 780: La puta mar that [...] has clapped us all and pox-ed us too. | |
| diary 13 Nov. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 179: Don’t they get diseases? Oh yes, he said. They’ll be poxed up to the eyeballs by the time we sail. | |
| Spike Island (1981) 140: Now, listen son [...] this one is poxed to the eyeballs. | |
| Picture of Paradise in Dazzling Dark (1996) Act I: While he’s at it, let him curse all the poxed horses you put your money on. | |
| Birthday 204: Ceasing to rebel against the toffee-nosed poxed up loudmouthed swivel-eyed fuckpigs. |
In compounds
see poxhead n.
a doctor specializing in venereal diseases.
| Narrative of Street-Robberies 57: Steal a Horse, and go upon the Highway [...] that will sooner wean your Mind from whoring, than either the Advice of a Priest, a Prig, or a Pox-doctor. | |
| Medico-chirurgical Rev. 34 627: Your mad doctor, heart doctor, water doctor, and pox doctor are descendants of the ancient brood. | |
| Medical Lexicon 836/1: syphilidiater [...] A pox doctor. One who occupies himself in treating syphilis. | |
| [as cite 1851]. | |
| Medical World 19 169: [M]any practitioners treat these cases carelessly because they [...] dread the reputation of being a ‘pox- doctor’. | |
| Lean Men I 148: ‘[T]hey won't turn out the civil guard to stop a common pox doctor from getting knocket over the head’. | |
| Call the Doctor 108: Dr Tom Saffold, heelmaker turned pox-doctor, was one of many who sought to fascinate potential patients by skill at doggerel. | |
| (ref. to 1850) March of Medicine 48: [I]n 1850 the well-known Parisian pox doctor Ricord could boast that [...] he had treated about 300,000 cases of syphilis. | |
| Great Land 72: ‘They reckon he was a pox doctor back in San Francisco’. | |
| Traveller’s Tool 118: I reckon every loving husband and devoted family man owes it to his nearest and dearest to slap his walloper on the pox doctor’s desk at least one [sic] a month. | |
| ‘Who’s Jack of Robbo?’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Clive Robertson looks exactly like a pox doctor. | |
| Lords of the Sword 52: ‘You’d better see a pox doctor.’ ‘For what?’ ‘For a cure for love’. | |
| (con. 1500) et al. Great Pox 141: [H]is remedies had to be distinctive if he was going to enhance his reputation as a pox doctor. | |
| (ref. to 1678) Lives of Eng. Rakes 63: In July 1678 Savile wrote to Rochester from a pox doctor’s in Leather Lane. |
see separate entry.
a general negative.
| This Gutter Life 59: This pox-rotten, war-worried world! | |
| ‘The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 120: It’s against the law, like everyone else in this poxetten land of hope and glory. |
(Aus.) a sufferer from severe acne.
| Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 101: POX FACE — A teenager with a skin problem. |
see separate entry.
a hospital or clinic specializing in sexually transmitted diseases .
| This Gutter Life 16: I suppose it’s in the pox hospital ye’ll be! | |
| (con. 1940s) Sowers of the Wind 141: She’ll be pleased to know that he’s been in the pox hospital twice. | |
| (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 304: That’s the pox-hospital. |
In phrases
a euph. for get the fuck out under fuck, the phr.
| Villain’s Tale 37: Got the right pox out of that fucking place. |
In exclamations
a general oath.
| Three Lords and Three Ladies of London D: And you are Mast. Fraud too, a pox on your worship. | |
| Man in the Moone IV i: A poxe of all false Prouerbes. | |
| G. Harvey Trimming of Thomas Nashe 24: Hold ope your eyes, with a pox to ye. | |
| Cynthia’s Revels IV i: A pox of all cockatrices! | |
| Revenger’s Tragedy (1967) I ii: duke: Hold, hold, my lord. spu.: Pox on’t. | |
| Tempest I i: A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! | |
| ‘A Kicksey Winsey’ in Works (1869) II 37: A pox upon him. | |
| (trans.) Life of Guzman Pt I Bk I 30: Now a pockes of all ill lucke: pardon me [...] for I sweare unto you. | |
| Beggar’s Bush III i: Pox o’ their prestoes. | |
| Wonder of a Kingdom IV i: Pox on your Catts guts. | |
| ‘In praise of cleane Linnen’ in Works (1869) II 167: And I conclude, A pox of all strait smockes. | |
| New Academy III i: Pox of your Lobster-claws. | |
| Rebellion I i: But pox o’ the fashion. | |
| a catch in (1969) 192: A pox of care! What need we to spare? / My father has made his will. | |
| New Brawle 5: [I] fed him with Caviarre and Potato Pie with a Pox to him. | |
| Don Zara Del Fogoy 47: A Pox upon thee, and they Sea-born Mother. | |
| Wild Gallant IV i: If ever man play’d with such cursed fortune, I’ll be hanged, and all for want of this damned ace – there’s your ten pieces, with a pox to you, for a rooking beggarly rascal as you are. | |
| Sir Martin Mar-all I i: Pox on’t, now I think on’t. | |
| She Would if She Could I i: Well, a pox of this tying man and woman Together, for better, for worse! | |
| Purgatorium Hibernicum 17: Arra pox take dee / Shela I think Dou art after make me / forgett my beads). | |
| Old Troop I i: A pox on you, Rascal. | |
| Love in the Dark II i: Pox o’ this dull memory of mine. | |
| Squire of Alsatia I i: Pox o’ th tatts for me! | |
| Night-Walker Dec. 7: A Pox on your Advice, says she, I desire none of it. | |
| Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1760) II 182: Pox on him for a raw-head and bloody-bones. | |
| Humours of a Coffee-House 27 Aug. 11: A Pox upon the French. | |
| Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 283: A pox of her Picture, cries merry Moll Bunch. | |
| letter iii Journal to Stella (1901) 12: Pox on these declining courtiers! | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy I 79: A Pox of your race of high Flyers. | |
| Penkethman’s Jests 55: Pox o’ that new Name, says a blunt Fellow, the old one was WHORE. | |
| Devil to Pay I i: A pox on her, for a fanatical Jade! | |
| Tom Jones (1959) 179: Pox o’ your sorrow. | |
| Amelia (1926) I 58: Pox on’t, it is unlucky this was done in a room. | |
| Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 173: This plaguy peace, with a pox to’t, has knocked up all the trade of the Alley. | |
| Fool of Quality I xxviii: A Pox upon their Ambition. | |
| The She-Gallant 11: Phaw! pox on her rout. | |
| ‘To Drink’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 67: A pox on Reflection, be jolly. | |
| Humorous Sketches 141: A pox, I say, on both their houses. | |
| A York Dialogue between Ned and Harry 15: A pox on your old friends, says she. | |
| Bk of Sports 46: Neal may now say, in the words of Shakespeare, ‘A pox on both your houses!’. | |
| letter 29 Dec. in Riggio Dreiser-Mencken Letters I (1986) 173: A pox upon the English! | |
| Ulysses 380: But they can go hang, says he, with a wink, for me with their bully beef, a pox on it. | |
| Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 98: I didn’t believe in spiritualism [...] if that was Theodore Roosevelt, a pox on him. What a thing to do! | |
| Smoke in the Lanes 189: Pox on you, boy! | |
| How to Talk Dirty 145: A pox upon you, Christ and Moses. | |
| Essential Lenny Bruce 36: A pox on you. | |
| Who is Teddy Villanova? 175: A pox on you! | |
| Share House Blues 17: A pox on Mrs Macmillan and all her fellow housewives! | |
| Internat. Independent 19 July 33/5: Many have characterised it as millionaires vs billionaires and declared ‘a pox on both your houses’. |
a general oath of dismissal.
| Damon and Pithias (1571) Biii: A Pockes take these Maryner knaues. | |
| Diogenes Lanthorne 18: That doe salute them whom they entertaine, With A pox take you till we meete againe. | |
| Women Pleased III ii: Pox take ye foole. | |
| ‘World runnes on Wheeles’ in Works (1869) II 238: But (a Pox take em all) whither doe my wits run after whores and knaues? | |
| et al. ‘A Song’ Wit and Drollery 87: Pox take you, Mistris! I’ll be gone, I have freinds to wait upon. | |
| Sir Martin Mar-all I i: Now, the Pox take you, Sir, what do you mean? | |
| ‘Lilliburlero’ in Bagford Ballads (1878) I 372: Now a Pox tauke me, what dost dow tink, / De English Confusion to Popery drink. | |
| Fingallian Travesty (2013) 190: Till Ulick more pox take his Grace / Was mak much Break upon his face. | |
| ‘A Song’ in Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 304: Pox take you Mistris I’ll be gone. | |
| Way of the World III i: A pox take you both! | |
| Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 29: A Pox take you, replied an old Snuffler, for the Son of a Dripping-Pan! | |
| Wonder! V iii: A pox take his fists! | |
| Beggar’s Opera I vi: I had a fair tug at a charming Gold Watch. Pox take the Taylors for making the Fobs so deep and narrow. | |
| Laugh and Be Fat 32: Thou may’st ev’n take them, and a Pox take thee; and the Devil take the Dog. | |
| Memoirs (1928) I 88: He said P-x take me for a dunce. | |
| High Life Below Stairs II i: Pox take it, face it out. | |
| Sir Launcelot Greaves I 148: Pox rot thee, Tom Clarke, for a wicked laayer! | |
| Devil Upon Two Sticks in Works (1799) II 259: Pox take him! he is so devilish quick. | |
| ‘Lyric Odes’ Works (1794) I 105: P-x take me if I ever read the story Of Michael Angelo, without some swearing. | |
| ‘Subjects for Painters’ Works (1794) II 274: No more the marriage chain I’ll wear, P-x take me if I do! | |
| Public Burning (1979) 417: It’s them poxtaked Japs, the shiftless cusses. |
a general excl. of annoyance, irritation; also as an interrog.
| Lingua n.p.: Men. By the faith of a Knight, what a pox, where are thy Spurres? | |
| English-Men For My Money C: What a pox care I. | |
| speech 16 Sept. 1648 4: What a Pox, are wee blinde that wee cannot understand this? | |
| Paroimiographia Proverbs 22: Other Proverbial sayings [...] What a pox, what a devill means that? | |
| Comedies & Tragedies 52: [W]hat a pox, a Clap is no such dishonour to a Souldier. | |
| Friendship in Fashion IV i: What a pox, you thought to put the Mistress upon Truman! Truman has put the Cuckold upon you. | |
| True Widow II i: Why what a Pox should one do? | |
| Squire of Alsatia IV i: What, a pox, can he give her her maidenhead again? | |
| Teagueland Jests I 109: What-a-pox is the meaning of this? | |
| Character of the Beaux 31: How now Jack-Scribble? What a pox are you going so Sparkish? | |
| ‘Song’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy I 205: What-a-pox, you’re no Whig. | |
| Humours of a Coffee-House 2 July 59: What a Pox is the matter with them? | |
| Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 218: Crying out Cloak! Cloak! what a pox must we cloak for now? | |
| Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 47: D--n you matt, What a P-x has brought you hither this Morning? | |
| Hist. of Highwaymen &c 349: How a Pox came you here from your Post already? | |
| Amelia (1926) I 23: What a pox, are you such a fresh cull that you do not know this fellow? | |
| Midnight Rambler 58: What a pox, says Will. | |
| The Magpye’s Garland 2: Crying, What the Pox would you be at. | |
| DSUE 1179: late C16–mid-19. |