gallows-bird
(ˈgæləzbɜːd)
[f. gallows n. + bird n.]
One who deserves to be hanged. Also occas., one who has been hanged.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Gallows bird, one that deserves hanging. 1796 Ibid. (ed. 3), Gallows bird, a thief or pick-pocket; also one that associates with them. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth ii, Had this been in another place, young gallow's bird, I had stowed the lugs out of thy head. 1860 Reade Cloister & H. II. i. 11 ‘It is ill to check sleep or sweat in a sick man’, said he. ‘I know that far, though I ne'er minced ape nor gallows-bird’. 1888 Harper's Mag. LXXVI. 415 The famous converted ‘gallows bird’..proclaims the good word in lamentable accents. |