High-liver, subs. (old).—A garretteer; a thief housed in an attic. Hence, High-living = lodging in a garret.—Lex. Bal.
High-men, subs. (old).—Dice loaded to show high numbers. Also, High-runners. See Fulhams and Low-men.
1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller in Wks. [Grosart], v., 27. The dice of late are growen as melancholy as a dog, high men and low men both prosper alike.
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, i., 3. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd and fullam holds, And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Pise, false dice, high men or low men.
1605. London Prodigal, i., 1. I bequeath two bale of false dice, videlicet, high men and low men, fullams, stop-catertraies, and other bones of function.
1615. Harington, Epigrams, i., 79. Your high And low men are but trifles.
1657–1733. John Dennis, Letters, ii., 407. Shadwell is of opinion, that your bully, with his box and his false dice, is an honester fellow than the rhetorical author, who makes use of his tropes and figures, which are his high and his low runners, to cheat us at once of our money and of our intellectuals. [[313]]
1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Men talk of high and low dice.
High-nosed, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Very proud in look and in fact; supercilious in bearing and speech; superior (q.v.).