nob n.3
the game of prick-the-garter, a form of swindling game, in which one pricks a folded belt with a needle; the bettor attempts to pierce the place where the belt is folded.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Discoveries (1774) 7: We defrauded an old Farmer of fifteen Guineas, at the old Nobb, called Pricking the Belt. | |
| Whole Art of Thieving 7: To shew how People are defrauded in Fairs and Markets, different ways, as follows: [...] Third, is the deceiving art, called the Old Nobb, that is, pricking in the belt. | |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 117: Nob, old, a favourite game used by sharpers, called pricking in the hat. |
In compounds
(UK Und.) a specialist in prick-the-garter, usu. working at fairs, races and similar open-air events.
| Satirist (London) 5 Aug. 255/2: The desperate gangs called nob coves, that frequented the country races and fairs, that used to play the old game of pricking the garter. |
(UK Und.) a specialist in prick-the-garter, usu. working at fairs, races and similar open-air events.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 254: nob-pitchers a general term for those sharpers who attend at fairs, races, &c., to take in the flats at prick in the garter, cups and balls, and other similar artifices. | |
| Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 24: [T]he Nob Pitchers try it with pricking in the Garter. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1812]. |