subs. (old, now recognised).—See quots. Also (colloquial) a disagreeable old woman. [A corruption of O. Fr. haridelle = a worn out horse, a jade.]
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. HARRIDAN, one that is half Whore, half Bawd.
1705–7. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. ii., p. 27. Old Leathers, HARRIDANS, and Cracks.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HARRIDAN. A hagged old woman; a miserable, scraggy, worn-out harlot, fit to take her bawd’s degree.
1815. SCOTT, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxix. ‘Now what could drive it into the noddle of that old HARRIDAN,’ said Pleydell.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
