subs. (thieves’).—1. A ticket of any kind—railway pass, pawnbrokers’ duplicate, raffle voucher (or bookie’s); also a pocket book. Hence BRIEFLESS = ticketless; BRIEF-SNATCHING, stealing pocketbooks, also see quot. 1885.
1879. J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL., 501. I took a BRIEF (ticket) to London Bridge.
1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18, 3, 2. His usual line of business was ‘BRIEF-SNATCHING,’ i.e., hovering about the crowd that surrounds a small bookmaker, and snatching from the hands of the unwary the credential they with rash eagerness exhibit, and which they desire to exchange with the man they have bet with for their winnings.
1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, 3. Following close at the heels of Newman, I soon found myself within the Aquarium, all BRIEFLESS as I was, and without having been asked any questions.
1889. The Sporting Times, 6 July. They copped the BRIEFS at the next station, and he changed carriages.
2. (gaming).—Chiefly in pl. = cards tampered with for swindling purposes. BRIDGE, CONCAVES, and CONVEXES, LONGS, and SHORTS, REFLECTORS, etc. German Briefe, Baron Heinecken says, was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm.
1529. [Edited by] LUTHER, Liber Vagatorum (1860), 47. Item—beware of the Joners (gamblers), who practice Beseflery with the BRIEF (cheating at cards), who deal falsely and cut one for the other, cheat with Boglein and spies, pick one BRIEF from the ground, and another from a cupboard, etc.
1720. Old Book of Games, quoted by Hotten. Take a pack of cards and open them, then take out all the honours … and cut a little from the edges of the rest all alike, so as to make the honours broader than the rest, so that when your adversary cuts to you, you are certain of an honour. When you cut to your adversary cut at the ends, and then it is a chance if you cut him an honour, because the cards at the ends are all of a length. Thus you may make BREEFS end-ways as well as side-ways.
BROTHER OF THE BRIEF, subs. phr. (old).—An advocate.
1749. SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 193. My husband’s BRETHREN OF THE QUILL and BRIEF.
TO GET ONE’S BRIEF, verb. phr. (prison).—To get one’s ticket-of-leave.
