detrimental n.
1. (UK society) a younger brother of the heir of an estate [note primogeniture rendered such younger sons ineligible to inherit].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Belfast News Letter 10 June 4/1: The Detrimental [...] I’m only twenty-four; / My ringlets have a natural curl; / I’m nearly six feet one; / My father is a Noble Earl:- / But I’m his youngest son. | |
| Chester Chron. 24 Dec. 2/2: The younger son has no taste for politics [...] the Church being limited, besides being dull, and the Bar requiring cleverness [...] what is a detrimental to do. | |
| Bristol Mercury 12 Jan. 6/6: Algernon (the heir): Awfully kind [...] to give us a lift. But it was rather a squeeze, eh? Jack the Detrimental (his younger brother): Yes. |
2. a male flirt.
| DSUE (1984) 301/2: from ca. 1850. |
3. (UK society) an ineligible suitor.
| Punch 133/1: Defining that zero of fortune to stand below which constitutes a detrimental [F&H]. | |
 | Political Portraits 113: The fact is, that the detrimentals won’t work; born into shifty affluence, it is easier to struggle on in a false position than to struggle out of it [F&H]. | |
| Household Words 13 March, 400: A detrimental, in genteel slang, is a lover, who, owing to his poverty is ineligible as a husband; or one who professes to pay serious attention to a lady without serious intention of marriage, and thereby discourages the intentions of others [F&H]. |
4. a male homosexual.
| DSUE (1984) 301/2: C.20. |