(UK, thieves, obsolete) A public house whose landlord is ignorant of the practices of the thieves and tramps who frequent it.
(UK, thieves, obsolete) A public house whose landlord is ignorant of the practices of the thieves and tramps who frequent it.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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An obsolete piece of British thieves and vagabond cant for a lodging house that catered to tramps and vagabonds — essentially a dosshouse. Padding referred to the act of walking the roads (padding the hoof), and ken was cant for a house. Documented in 18th and 19th century slang dictionaries.