gooseberry-picker
English edit
Noun edit
gooseberry-picker (plural gooseberry-pickers)
- (archaic, British slang) One who works on behalf of another person who takes the credit for the work.
- (archaic, British slang) A chaperone.
- 1869, Susannah M. Saurin (plaintiff.), Extraordinary Trial by a Sister of Mercy: Saurin Versus Starr (page 78)
- The Solicitor-General: I understand that a gooseberry-picker is the person who stands by whilst a young man and young woman are making love (laughter).
- 1869, Susannah M. Saurin (plaintiff.), Extraordinary Trial by a Sister of Mercy: Saurin Versus Starr (page 78)
Hypernyms edit
- (one who works on another behalf): surrogate
Hyponyms edit
- (one who works on another behalf): ghost writer
References edit
- Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors (1889–1890) “gooseberry-picker”, in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant […], volumes I (A–K), Edinburgh: […] The Ballantyne Press, →OCLC, page 419.
- John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1893) “gooseberry-picker”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume III, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, pages 183–184.
- John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary