subs. phr. (card-sharpers’).—1.  See quot.

1

  1828.  G. SMEETON, Doings in London, 77. An OLD GENTLEMAN (a card somewhat larger and thicker than the rest of the pack, and now in considerable use amongst the ‘legs’).

2

  2.  (common).—The devil: see SKIPPER.

3

  1727.  DEFOE, The History and Reality of Apparitions [1729], 364. The devil is not so black as he is painted…. That you may form such images of THE OLD GENTLEMAN in your mind.

4

  1836.  BUCKSTONE, Marana, ii. 1. They do say, if he’s not THE OLD GENTLEMAN himself he is a very near relation…. Gil. And as true as you stand there, only two evenings ago I saw his Satanic Majesty.

5

  1840.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (A Lay of St. Nicholas).

        And how, to the day of their death, THE ‘OLD GENTLEMAN’
  Never attempted to kidnap them more.

6