subs. (society).—An ineligible suitor; also a male flirt.
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 133, col. 1. Defining that zero of fortune to stand below which constitutes a DETRIMENTAL.
1859. WHITTY, Political Portraits, p. 113. The fact is, that the DETRIMENTALS won’t work; born into shifty affluence, it is easier to struggle on in a false position than to struggle out of it.
1886. Household Words, 13 March, p. 400. A DETRIMENTAL, in genteel slang, is a lover, who, owing to his poverty is ineligible as a husband; or one who professes to pay attentions to a lady without serious intention of marriage, and thereby discourages the intentions of others.
