/ · 1894 Brewer’s · S · Sixteen-string Jack
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
John Rann, a highwayman, noted for his foppery. He wore sixteen tags, eight at each knee. (Hanged in 1774.)
“Dr. Johnson said that Gray’s poetry towered above the ordinary run of verse as Sixteen-string Jack above the ordinary foot-pad.”—Boswell: Life of Johnson.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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