autem cove

English

Alternative forms

Noun

autem cove (plural autem coves)

  1. (obsolete, Britain, thieves' cant) A married man.
    • 1859, Matsell, George Washington, The Vocabulum: or Rogues Lexicon, A Hundred Stretches Hence:
      Oh! where will be the culls of the bing / A hundred stretches hence? / The bene morts, who sweetly sing, / A hundred stretches hence? / The autum-cacklers, autum-coves, / The jolly blade who wildly roves; / And where the buffer, bruiser, blowen, / And all the cops and beaks so knowin', / A hundred stretches hence?

References
  • “autem cove” in Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, volume I (A–K), Edinburgh: The Ballantyne Press, 1889–1890, page 54.
  • Farmer, John Stephen (1890) Slang and Its Analogues‎, volume 1, page 80
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