Green’s Dictionary of Slang

parson n.

[the parson supposedly ‘sets people in the right way’]

a signpost, esp. a finger-post.

[[UK]G. Granville She-Gallants II 1: Parsons that point out Roads they ne're go].
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Parson, a guide post, hand or finger post by the road side for directing travellers, compared to a parson, because like him it sets people in the right way.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum.
[US]Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
[NZ]Tuapeka Times (Otago, NZ) 12 Aug. 6/4: On country roads the signposts are called by criminals ‘parsons’’.

In derivatives

In compounds

Parson Palmer (n.) [a real-life, if forgotten, clergyman]

anyone who stops the communal glass circulating by talking before passing it on.

[UK]Swift Polite Conversation in Works (1766) XI 197: lord sm.: (Interrupting him.) Pray, Sir John, did you ever hear of Parson Palmer? sir john: No, my Lord; what of him? lord sm.: Why, he used to preach over his Liquor.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Parson palmer, a jocular name or term of reproach, to one who stops the circulation of the glass by preaching over his liquor, as it is said was done by a parson of that name, whose cellar was under his pulpit.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]N. Wales Chron. 21 Jan. 4/3: Give us back our little skillet an’ gridiron, an’ leave off your Parson Palmer orations.
[UK]Newcastle Courant 21 Mar. 2/1: The name ‘arson Palmer’ was applied to anybody who stopped the bottle, or who held forth over his liquor as one Palmer Palmer did.
parson’s face (n.)

1. (US) a bullock’s head as used in cooking.

[US]Bemidji Daily Pioneer (MN) 30 Mar. 2/2: Scouse or lobscouse, a parson’s face sea pie, junk, tack, slush and duff —there’s a meal ye can’t beat [...] A parson’s face seapie. That’s a pie made of bullock’s head.

2. see minister’s face n.

parson’s nose (n.) (also deacon’s nose) [the religious official varies according to one’s faith, so pope’s nose under pope n. is usu. Protestant use]

the rump of a chicken, duck, goose or other poultry; usu. in Catholic use (cf. bishop’s nose n.).

[US]Longfellow Hyperion I 142: At its other extremity, the day, like the fowls of the air, has an epicurean morsel—a parson’s nose .
[US]N.Y. Sporting Whip 4 Feb. n.p.: The parson’s nose he tendered to a lady who is very partial to choice bits.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Jan. 3/5: Sir Alfred Stephens almost choked himself with laughter at the joke, at the same time digesting the ‘parson’s nose’ of a goose.
[US]T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature II 8: Mr. Slick, what part shall I help you to – a slice of breast, a wing, a side-bone, or the deacon’s nose, or what?
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[UK]Sl. Dict. 247: Parson’s nose the hind part of a goose ? a savoury mouthful [Hotten 1865], [Hotten 1872]; … Sometimes called the pope’s nose.
[UK]Cornishman 22 July 2/1: The cooked tails of poultry resemble some forms of mitres. Hence we get Pope’s nose (in Ireland) and Parson’s nose in England.
[US]Reno (NV) Eve. Gazette 28 Apr. 2/2: The rump of a fowl is the ‘pope’s,’ ‘parson’s’ or ‘bishop’s nose.’.
[UK]S. Mackenzie [perf. Arthur Roberts] ‘Aftr You With That’ 🎵 ‘I’m keeping my eye on the parson’s nose / So after you with that!’.
H. Champion ‘I See You’ve Got the Old Brown Hat On’ [monologue] I spotted a lump with fat on, I said as I arose, ‘Is that the parson’s nose?’.
[US]Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
parson’s week (n.) [irrespective of other duties, the clergyman’s trad. ‘working day’ is Sunday]

Monday to Saturday, esp. a holiday that lasts from Monday to Saturday.

letter to H.F. Carey in Works I 144: I can [...] contrive to get my duty done for a Sunday, so that I may be out a ‘Parson’s week’.
Parson Trulliber (n.) [‘the pig-feeding and the pig-headed’ (Hotten, 1873); note epon. character in Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742)]

a rude, vulgar country clergyman.

[UK]London Standard 14 Jan. 1/4: A modern Fielding would be very much at a loss for a Parson Trulliber.
[UK]Morn. Chron. 28 Jan. 3/3: [title] Parson Trulliber in His tantrums.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict. 196: Parson Trulliber a rude, vulgar, country clergyman; the race is most probably now extinct.
[UK]Sportsman 21 Nov. 2/1: Notes on News [...] The swinish coarseness of Parson Trulliber.
[UK]Sl. Dict.
[UK]Western Dly Press 17 Aug. 3/6: The disruptions which had rent the Church in twain had come not from the fox-hunting, hard-drinking clergy of the last century [...] nort from Parson Trulliber, but from John Wesley.