Newcome (Clemency), about 30 years old, with a plump and cheerful face, but twisted into a tightness that made it comical. Her gait was very homely, her limbs seemed all odd ones; her shoes were so self-willed that they never wanted to go where her feet went. She wore blue stockings, a printed gown of hideous pattern and many colors, and a white apron. Her sleeves were short, her elbows always grazed, her cap anywhere but in the right place; but she was scrupulously clean, and “maintained a kind of dislocated tidiness.” She carried in her pocket “a handkerchief, a piece of wax-candle, an apple, an orange, a lucky penny, a cramp-bone, a padlock, a pair of scissors, a handful of loose beads, several balls of worsted and cotton, a needle-case, a collection of curl-papers, a biscuit, a thimble, a nutmeg-grater, and a few miscellaneous articles.” Clemency Newcome married Benjamin Britain, her fellow-servant at Dr. Jeddler’s, and opened a country inn called the Nutmeg-Grater, a cozy, well-to-do place as any one could wish to see, and there were few married people so well matched as Clemency and Ben Britain.—C. Dickens, The Battle of Life (1846).
Newcome (Colonel), a widower, distinguished for the moral beauty of his life. He loses his money and enters the Charter House.
Clive Newcome, his son. He is in love with Ethel Newcome, his cousin, whom he marries as his second wife.—Thackeray, The Newcomes (1855).
Newcome (Johnny), any raw youth when he first enters the army or navy.
Newman Noggs. Ralph Nickleby’s clerk, but Ralph’s nephew’s friend and secret coadjutor.—Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby.
Newland (Abraham), one of the governors of the Bank of England, to whom, in the early part of the nineteenth century, all Bank of England notes were made payable. A bank-note was called an “Abraham Newland;” and hence the popular song, “I’ve often heard say, sham Ab’ram you may, but must not sham Abraham Newland.”
Trees are notes issued from the bank of nature, and as current as those payable to Abraham Newland.—G. Colman, The Poor Gentleman, i. 2 (1802).
Newman. An intelligent American who has made a fortune as a manufacturer, yet kept his head steady. He sees life with clear, sometimes with amused eyes.
“In America,” Newman reflected, “lads of twenty-five and thirty have old heads and young hearts, or at least, young morals; abroad they have young heads and very aged hearts, morals the most grizzled and wrinkled.”—Henry James Jr., The Americans (1877).