harman-beck

plural harman-becks · alternative beck-harman · alternative harmanbeck

1. obsoletethieves' cantA policeman.

   Here, safe in our Skipper, let's cly off our Peck, And bowse in defiance o' th' Harman-beck.

   1652, Richard Brome, A Jovial Crew, act 2

   2 more examples

   The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harmanbeck, If we mawnd Pannam, lap, or Ruff-peck, Or poplars of yarum: he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans, Or els he ſweares by the light-mans, To put our ſtamps in the Harmans.

   1609, Thomas Dekker, “Lanthorne and Candle-light. Or, The Bell-man’s Second Nights-walke. […] The Second Edition, […]: Of Canting, How Long It hath beene a Language: How It Comes to bee a Language: How It is Deriued, & by whom It is Spoken. [A Canting Song.]”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Non-dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker. […] (The Huth Library), volume III, London; Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: […] [Hazell, Watson, & Viney] for private circulation only, published 1885, →OCLC, page 203

   But O ben Coue what if we be clyd, Long we cannot foist & nip at last we shall be spyed, If that we be spied, O then begins our woe, With the Harman beake out and alas, To Wittington we goe.

   1610, “The Maunderer's Wooing”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, published 1896, page 8

   Synonyms: harman, nuthook, PC Plod