1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1814. C. Lamb, Melancholy of Tailors in Poems, etc. (Ed. Ainger), p. 333. The tailor sitting over a cave or hollow place, in the cabalistic language of his order, is said to have certain melancholy regions always open under his feet.
1853. Notes and Queries, 1 S., viii., 315, c. 2. The term cabbage, by which tailors designate the cribbed pieces of cloth, is said to be derived from an old word ‘cablesh,’ i.e., wind-fallen wood. And their hell where they store the cabbage, from helan, to hide.
3. (common).—A gambling house. [Whence Silver-hell = a gambling house where only silver is played for; Dancing-hell = an unchartered hall; and so forth.]
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 4. Jerry. A hell, Tom? I’m at fault again! Log. A gambling house, Jerry!
1841. Comic Almanack, p. 280. A man at a hell, Playing the part of a Bonnetter well.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxxix. He plays still; he is in a hell every night almost.
1890. Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, c. 2. These private hells nevertheless exist, and as all money found on the premises is seized by the police, the players have to resort to all kinds of subterfuge when the three loud knocks are heard which indicate the presence of the commissaire.
4. (venery).—The female pudendum; cf., Heaven. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. [See Boccaccio, Decameron.]
Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, subs. phr. (old).—Three ale-houses formerly situated near Westminster Hall.