subs. (common).—1. A hat; a GOSS (q.v.), a CADY (q.v.). [At one time hats were made of beaver’s fur; the term is still occasionally applied to tall ‘chimney-pot hats,’ in spite of the fact that for many years silk has replaced the skin of the rodent in their manufacture.] Hence IN BEAVER (university) = in a tall hat and non-academicals: as distinguished from ‘cap and gown.’
1528. ROY and BARLOW, Rede me and be nott wrothe.
| And to exalte the thre folde crowne | |
| Of Antichrist hys BEVER. |
1661. PEPYS, Diary, 27 June. Mr. Holden sent me a BEVER which cost me £4 5s.
1712. GAY, Trivia, II. 277.
| The broker here his spacious BEAVER wears, | |
| Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares. |
1840. New Monthly Magazine, lix., 271. He … went out of College in what the members of the United Service called mufti, but members of the University BEAVER, which means not in his academics—his cap and gown.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, ix. ‘Had you not better take off your hat?’ asks the Duchess, pointing … to ‘the foring cove’s’ BEAVER, which he had neglected to remove.
1857. O. W. HOLMES, The Autocrat of Breakfast-Table, x. We know this of our hats, and are always reminded of it when we happen to put them on wrong side foremost. We soon find that the BEAVER is a hollow cast of the skull, with all its irregular bumps and depressions.
2. See BEVER.
