subs. (old).—An out-and-out, unmitigated lie. [A word of great interest, illustrating the temporary use for certain purposes of the name of a certain person, as in the cases of BURKE, BOYCOTT, BISHOP, and SALISBURY (q.v.). The Meal-tub Plot in 1680 was the concoction of Thomas Dangerfield and Elizabeth Cellier, a Roman Catholic midwife. Forged documents which Dangerfield hid in Colonel Mansel’s lodgings were upon his deposition found there by Government officers; but the fraud was soon discovered, and Dangerfield was committed to Newgate. On his trial he endeavoured to throw the entire blame on Mrs. Cellier, and asserted that the original papers were all to be found in her house hidden in a meal tub. This turned out to be true, and Mrs. Cellier was committed to prison. On her trial she managed to prove that Dangerfield was wholly unworthy of credit, and her marvellous impudence and vigorous mendacity led to her own acquittal, and made her name for the time the equivalent of ‘an out-and-out lie.’ After her trial she thanked the jurors for giving her a good deliverance, and offered to ‘serve their ladies with the same fidelity in their deliveries.’] For synonyms, see WHOPPER.
1682. Pope’s Harbinger, p. 79. That’s a CELIER, Sir, a modern and most proper phrase to signifie any Egregious Lye.
