subs. (old).—A warrant-officer; a bum-bailiff. A very old term formerly in respectable use, but employed contemptuously from the sixteenth century. [From CATCH, to arrest, or stop, + POLE or POLL, the head.] Fourbesque, foco or fuoco = fire. Cf., BUM-BAILIFF.

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  1377.  LANGLAND, The Vision of Piers Ploughman. bk. XVIII., 46.

          ‘Crucifige!’ quod a CACHEPOL;
‘I warante hym a wicche.’  [M.]

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  c. 1510.  BARCLAY, Mirror of Good Manners (1570), G., iv. Be no towler, CATCHPOLL, nor customer.

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  1601.  JONSON, The Poetaster, III. CATCHPOLE, loose the gentlemen, or by my velvet arms, etc.

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  1751.  SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xcvii. The CATCHPOLE, after a diligent search, had an opportunity of executing the writ upon the defendant.

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  1859.  G. A. SALA, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xiii. You are brought there by a CATCHPOLE, and kept there under lock and key until your creditors are paid.

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