old clothesman

plural old clothesmen

1. alternativeAlternative form of old-clothesman.

   The old, old clothesman is, I am sorry to say, becoming every day a swan of blacker hue.

   1883, George Augustus Sala, Dutch Pictures: With Some Sketches in the Flemish Manner

   2 more examples

   “And if he be an old clothesman,” replied Margery, “any trade is better than the idle useless life you are leading, Jack Barnes, which will soon leave you without clothes to wear -- as to his beard, perhaps ere you have one, you may be called to account for all your sinful doings."

   1825, Charlotte Elizabeth, Zadoc, the outcast of Israel: a tale, page 5

   My first recollections of Old Clo' are entwined with the remembrance of a threat, very awful and terrifying to me then, of being imprisoned in the bag of an old clothesman, and forthwith conveyed away.

   1852, Charles Dickens, Household Words - Volume 13, page 130