roguery
(ˈrəʊgərɪ)
[f. rogue n. + -ery.]
1. Conduct or practices characteristic of rogues; knavishness, rascality; † idle vagrancy.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 138 Heere's Lime in this Sacke too: there is nothing but Roguery to be found in Villanous man. 1611 Cotgr., Maraudise, beggerie, roguerie, idle knauerie,..vagabondrie. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 97 Thus was discovered the roguerie of those Magitians. 1745 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. IV. 356, I should have succeeded better, but for the folly and roguery of mankind. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 225 There is a known and curious piece of roguery, against which much of this caution is bent. 1838 Lytton Alice ii. vii, My neglect of my own duties tempted you to roguery. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 326 The unrighteous man..had far better not yield to the illusion that his roguery is clever. |
| personif. 1794 Southey Botany-Bay Ecl. iii, When Roguery rules all the rest of the earth, God be thank'd, in this corner I've got a good berth. |
2. A practice, procedure, or action characteristic of rogues; a knavish or rascally act.
| c 1620 Donne Poems (1633) 48 To live in one land, is captivitie, To run all countries, a wild roguery. 1667–8 Pepys Diary 8 Feb., The ripping up of so many notorious rogueries and cheats of my Lord's. 1722 De Foe Col. Jack i, A constable and his watch, crying out for one Wry⁓neck, who it seems had done some roguery. 1797–1805 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. I. 212 He has been in more rogueries than battles, I believe. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis v, There are worse men..who have never committed half so many rogueries as he. 1879 Browning Ned Bratts 91 Not a single roguery, from the cutting of a purse to the cutting of a throat, but paid us toll. |
3. Playful mischief; waggishness; fun.
| 1664 Cotton Scarron. i. Wks. (1715) 47 Cupid..prepares him for his Roguery. 1681 Wood Life 11 June, The other Terræ Filius made up what was wanting..; full of Waggery and Roguery, but little Wit. 1711 Swift Lett. (1767) III. 165 Lady Berkeley after dinner clapt my hat on another lady's head, and she in roguery put it upon the rails. 1755 Johnson, Roguery, waggery; arch tricks. a 1834 Coleridge Shaks. Notes (1875) 91 As a father speaks of the rogueries of a child. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge ii, The smile of one expecting to detect in this unpromising stranger some latent roguery of eye or lip. |
4. collect. Weeds.
rare.
| 1763 Museum Rust. I. 33 Keep the land plowing the whole following summer,..to keep down the roguery. 1764 Ibid. II. 8 A most excellent plant to sow where land is rich, and inclined to breed roguery. |
5. A place in which persons are trained to become rogues.
| 1822 Galt Sir A. Wylie I. xxiii. 208 I kept a roguery for the supply of the London Market. |
6. Rogues collectively; rascaldom.
| 1898 Besant Orange Girl ii. xxii, A thing at which all Roguery rejoiced. |