subs. (old).—1. A bishop. [From his vestments of black and white.]
1663. KILLIGREW, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5 [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), 4th ed., 1875, xiv., p. 459]. In pure charity lay with him, and was delivered of a MAGPIE, a pied prophet, … for the midwife cried out ’twas born a bishop, with tippet and white sleeves.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, i. 107, ‘The Quakers Grace.’ Let not those Silk-worms and MAGPIES have Dominion over us.
2. (thieves’).—See MAG, subs. sense 2.
3. (common).—A pie; pastry. Fr. parfond.
4. (military).—A shot striking a target, divided into four sections, in the outermost but one. [It is signalled with a black and white disk.] Cf. BULL’S-EYE.
1884. Times, 23 July. Running through the scoring gamut with an outer, a MAGPIE, and a miss.
