subs. (colloquial).—A walk undertaken for the sake of health and exercise [i.e., for the benefit of the constitution]. Tronchiner, from Doctor Tronchin, is French for the verb, tronchinade for the act.
1850. F. E. SMEDLEY, Frank Fairlegh, ch. xxix. One evening, about a week before the examinations were to begin, I was taking my usual CONSTITUTIONAL after Hall.
1853. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, pt. II., p. 41. At one time he was a great friend of Cocky Palmer’s, and used to go with him to the cock-fights at Wheatley—that village just on the other side Shotover Hill—where we did a ‘CONSTITUTIONAL’ the other day.
1871. City of London Directory. ‘Facts and Anomalies.’ The valetudinarian has not much choice in the city for a CONSTITUTIONAL, seeing that it possesses but three walks, and ‘Long Walk’ is the shortest.
