Gong-farmer (or Gong-man), subs. (old).—An emptier of cesspools; a gold-finder (q.v.).
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Curadestri, a iakes, goong, or doong farmer.
Gonof (or Gonnof or Gonoph or Gnof), subs. (thieves’).—1. A thief; specifically a pick-pocket, and especially an adept. [From the Hebrew. Ancient English; a legacy from the old time Jews. It came into use again with the moderns who employ it commonly. Cf., gonov = thief in Ex. xxii, 2 and 6, viz., ‘if the gonov be found.’] See Thieves.
1857. Dickens, On Duty with Inspector Field, in ‘Reprinted Pieces’ p. 256. If the smallest gonoph about town were crouching at the bottom of a classic bath Inspector Field would nose him. [[177]]
1849. Morning Chronicle, 2 Nov. A burglar would not condescend to sit among pickpockets. My informant has known a housebreaker to say with a sneer, when requested to sit down with the gonoffs, ‘No, no, I may be a thief, but at least I’m a respectable one.’
1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. III., p. 325. The gonaff (a Hebrew word signifying a young thief, probably learnt from the Jew ‘fences’ in the neighbourhood).
1852. Judson, Myst., etc., of New York, ch. vii. He next assumed his present profession, and became a gnof or pickpocket.
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 146. Oh, you tief! you cheat! you gonnof!
1889. Referee, 12 May. Gonophs … were frequent in Tattersall’s on Friday.
1889. C. T. Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson, Police, p. 321. Boys who creep into houses.… Young gunneffs or gonophs.