subs. (common).—1. A pasha. 2. A great (or imperious) man; a grandee.
1593. NASHE, Christ’s Tears (1613) 85, s.v.
1692. J. HACKET, Life of Archbishop Williams, i. 82. In every society of men there will be some BASHAWES, who presume that there are many rules of law from which they should be exempted.
c. 1704. W. DARREL, The Gentlemen Instructed, 203. He desired my company to a minister of state upon business, but the BASHAW was indispos’d, i.e. not to be accosted.
1749. WALPOLE, Letter to George Montagu, in Letters (1820), 20 July, i. 213. The fair Mrs. Pitt has been mobbed in the park, and with difficulty rescued by some gentlemen, only because this BASHAW [Duke of Cumberland] is in love with her.
1794. GODWIN, Caleb Williams, 16, s.v.
1872. ELIOT, Middlemarch, liii., s.v.
