Il y a du renaud à l’affaire de la chique, elle est maronnée, le dabe est revenu.—Vidocq. (There is some trouble about the job at the church, it has failed, father is returned.)
Marot, adj. (popular), cunning; “up to snuff, one who knows wot’s wot, one who has been put up to the hour of day, one who knows what’s o’clock, leary.”
Marottier, m. (thieves’), hawker, or “barrow-man;” pedlar travelling about the country selling stuffs, neckerchiefs, &c., to country people. Termed, in the English cant, a “dudder” or “dudsman.” “In selling a waistcoat-piece,” says the Slang Dictionary, “which cost him perhaps five shillings, for thirty shillings or two pounds, he would show great fear of the revenue officer, and beg the purchasing clodhopper to kneel down in a puddle of water, crook his arm, and swear that it might never become straight if he told an exciseman, or even his own wife. The term and practice are nearly obsolete. In Liverpool, however, and at the East-end of London, men dressed up as sailors, with pretended silk handkerchiefs and cigars, ‘only just smuggled from the Indies,’ are still to be plentifully found.”
Marpaut, or marpeau, m. (old cant), man; master of a house (obsolete).
Pour n’offenser point le marpaut,
Afin qu’il ne face deffaut
De foncer à l’appointement.
Le Pasquil de la rencontre des Cocus.
The word was formerly used by the Parisians with the signification of fool, greenhorn, loafer.