crack-hemp
English
Noun
crack-hemp (plural crack-hemps)
- (obsolete) A person who deserves to be, or is likely to be, hanged; a gallows bird.
- c. 1590–1592, Shakespeare, William, The Taming of the Shrew, act 5, scene 1:
- Come hither, crack-hemp.
- 1820, Scott, Sir Walter, The Abbot (Waverley Novels), page 246:
- Even in the Castle of Avenel thou wert a wild blood enough, but hadst thou been nurtured here, within a flight shot of the court, thou hadst been the veriest crack-hemp of a page that ever wore a feather in thy bonnet or steel by thy side: truly, I wish it may end week with thee.
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Synonyms
- gallows bird, hangdog, wag-halter; See also Thesaurus:gallows bird
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