subs. phr. (card-sharpers’).—1. See quot. and cf. OLD GENTLEMAN, sense 1.
1828. G. SMEETON, Doings in London, 78. There is not only an old gentleman, but an OLD LADY (a card broader than the rest) amongst them.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE.
THE OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE ST., subs. phr. (common).—The Bank of England.
1797. GILRAY, The Old Lady in Threadneedle Street in Danger [Title of Caricature, the reference being to the temporary stopping of cash payments 26th February, 1797, and the issue of pound bank-notes 4th March the same year].
1859. Punch, xxxvi. 174. The girl for my money. The OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE STREET.
1864. M. E. BRADDON, Henry Dunbar, xxv. The … convenient and flimsy paper circulating medium dispensed by the OLD LADY IN THREADNEEDLE STREET.
1871. Chambers’s Journal, 9 Dec., 773. The OLD LADY IN THREADNEEDLE STREET can always take care of herself: if a note is stolen, she don’t suffer; while, if it is lost, it is just so much in her own pocket, unless you can get a justice of the peace to swear it’s burned.
1889. Tit-Bits, 30 Nov., 119, 1. From seven o’clock in the evening until seven o’clock in the morning the OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE STREET is as well protected by Her Majesty’s soldiers as Her Majesty in her palace.
1894. Pall Mall Gazette, 28 July. In its infancy there were only fifty-four persons employed in the service of the OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE STREET; now the staff numbers nearly a thousand employees.
