palliard Obs. or arch.
(ˈpæljəd)
Forms: 5 payllard, -art, 6 palȝard, -ȝart, -yarte, pallart, 6–7 palyard(e, pallyard, 6–9 paillard, 6– palliard.
[a. F. paillard, in 13th c. paillart, f. paille straw: see -ard.]
A professional beggar or vagabond (who sleeps on the straw in barns and outhouses); transf. a low or dissolute knave; a lewd fellow, a lecher, a debauchee.
| 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop ii. xviii, The foxe was but a theef and a payllart and a knaue of poure folke. c 1500 Melusine 294 Ye ought not to meue your self for suche a theef & palyard. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. clxix. [clxv.] 492 He was but a false palyarte, and alwayes agaynste the Crowne of Fraunce. 1561 J. Awdelay Frat. Vacab. 4 A Palliard is he that goeth in a patched cloke. 1567 Harman Caveat vii. 44 The worst and wickedst of all this beastly generation are scarse comparable to these prating Pallyardes. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 476 A most luxurious and effeminate Palliard he [Sardanapalus] was. c 1690 J. Kirkton Hist. Ch. Scotl. ii. (1817) 84 Not only a debauched paillard but a cruel murtherer. 1834 H. Ainsworth Rookwood iii. v, Palliards,..and Jarkmen. 1851 Borrow Lavengro III. 315 The male part of the upper class are..a parcel of poor, shaking, nervous paillards. |
b. attrib. or adj. Knavish; dissolute.
| 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop ii. xvi, Ha a payllart Mule, why goost thow not faster? 1581 N. Burne's Disput. in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.) 170 Vsurpit Bischopis, apostat preistis and palliard Ministeris. 1638 Sat. on Gen. Assembly in Scott. Pasquils (1868) 42 A palyard drunkard charlitan. |