Alchym., iv. x.
“In England, sir, troth I ever laugh when I think on ’t,
----Why, sir, there all the COSTER-MONGERS are Irish.”
2 P. Hen. IV., O. Pl., iii. 375.
Their noisy manners are alluded to in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Scornful Lady, iv. I.
“And then he’ll rail like a rude COSTER-MONGER
That school-boys had couzened of his apples,
As loud and senseless.”
Cotton, to like, adhere to, or agree with any person; “to COTTON on to a man,” to attach yourself to him, or fancy him, literally, to stick to him as cotton would. Vide Bartlett, who claims it as an Americanism, and Halliwell, who terms it an archaism; also Bacchus and Venus, 1737.
“Her heart’s as hard as taxes, and as bad;
She does not even COTTON to her dad.”
Cotton Lord, a Manchester manufacturer.
Cottonopolis, Manchester. A term much in use among the reporters of the sporting press engaged in that locality.
Council-of-ten, the toes of a man who turns his feet inward.