rhino

alternative rino

1. archaicslanguncountableMoney.First known use 17th c.

   —Here you are, says Alf, chucking out the rhino. Talking about hanging, I'll show you something you never saw

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   When so be as a man has no money, why then, a savin and exceptin your onnur's reverence, a's but a poor dog. But when so be as a man as got the rhino, why then a may begin to hold up his head.

   1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anne St. Ives, vol. III.52

   There I fell in with Betsy, and as she proved a regular out and outer, I spliced her, and a famous wedding we had of it, as long as the rhino lasted.

   1835, Frederick Marryat, The Pacha of Many Tales

plural rhinos

1. colloquialA rhinoceros.First known use 19th c.

   ‘We were getting a grand shot of a charging rhino when the cameraman got scared and bolted. The fathead!’

   1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 24

   1 more example

   This cutting from an East African newspaper caught our eye last month: "The up mail train from Mombasa was held up for an hour at Kibwezi by an angry rhino on Monday night."

   1961 October, “Talking of Trains: B.R. exile at work?”, in Trains Illustrated, page 586