gentry cove
Old thieves' cant for a gentleman — someone with money, manners, and a target on their back.
Definitions
Old thieves' cant for a gentleman — someone with money, manners, and a target on their back. In the criminal underworld of 18th-century Britain, a gentry cove was the mark worth following through a crowded market. The word "cove" was slang for any man or fellow, while "gentry" flagged his social class. It's the ancestor of every hustle that separates marks from their cash.
The pickpocket clocked a gentry cove stepping out of the carriage and signalled to his crew.
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(obsolete, UK, thieves) A gentleman.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
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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Semantically related
- gentry cove's ken87%
An obsolete piece of 18th-19th century British thieves and vagabond cant for a gentleman's house or fine residence — a target for theft. Gentry meant upper class, cove was cant for a fellow or person, and ken was cant for a house or dwelling. Entirely archaic and of historical linguistic interest.
- gentry cove's ken82%
(obsolete, UK, thieves) A gentleman's house.
- dimber cove74%
(obsolete, UK, thieves) A gentleman.
- nib-cove72%
(slang, obsolete, UK) A gentleman.