ale-drapery

English

Etymology

ale-draper +‎ -y

Noun

ale-drapery

1. (obsolete) The running of an alehouse.
   • 1592, H. Chettle, Kind-harts Dreames, page 20:

     and fare at all tymes as harde as poor Mopos Cut did with his maisters contreyman in Shorditch, till, by the force of his hinder heeles, he vtterly vndid two milch maydens that had set vp a shoppe of Ale-drapery.

   • 2002, Richard Grassby, The Business Community of Seventeenth-Century England, page 226:

     An ale-house keeper would “with a grave air complain that trade was not sufficiently encouraged, when he meant the trade of ale drapery and smoking tobacco'.”

Anagrams

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