Old thieves' cant for a gentleman — someone with money, manners, and a target on their back.
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.
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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 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.
(obsolete, UK, thieves) A gentleman's house.
(obsolete, UK, thieves) A gentleman.
(slang, obsolete, UK) A gentleman.
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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