▪ I. † ˈcony-catching, vbl. n. Obs.
[f. cony + catching.]
Cheating, duping, knavery.
| 1591 Greene (title) The Second and last part of Conny-Catching. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 45 Come, you are so full of conicatching. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. iv, Subtlety, cunnycatching, knavery..carries all away. c 1650 R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. iii, Cheats who liv'd by coni⁓catching. 1703 E. Ward London Spy xi. 260 (Farmer) Being almost Drunk, their Brains ran on Coney-catching. |
▪ II. † ˈcony-catching, ppl. a. Obs.
That cheats or tricks; gulling, swindling.
| 1592 Nobody & Someb. (1878) 338 These Cunnicatching knaves would have made lesse than Nobody of him. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. i. 128 Your cony-catching Rascalls, Bardolf, Nym, and Pistoll. 1620 Melton Astrolog. 21 The most..Conycatching Art of Astrologie. 1688 R. L.'Estrange Brief Hist. Times II. 115 A Brace of Cony-Catching Impostors. |