adv. phr. (common).—Without means; STONY-BROKE (q.v.); HIGH-AND-DRY (q.v.). Hence TO SIGHT (or LAND ON) a PEBBLY BEACH = to be face to face with ruin; TO PEBBLE BEACH = to suck dry, to clean out: see DEAD-BROKE.
1886–96. MARSHALL, Age of Love [‘Pomes,’ 26]. Yiffler could see himself stranded, for he could SIGHT A PEBBLY BEACH. Ibid. (Beautiful Dreamer), 65. I was able to see that my beautiful dreamer had PEBBLE-BEACHED me.
1889. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, Jan. One of those mysteries which only those who have been PEBBLY-BEACHED can reveal.
1898. BINSTEAD, A Pink ’Un and a Pelican, 278. Fleet St. can possibly ‘give a bit of weight’ to most places as a ‘run’ for the utterly magless, rapless, and PEBBLE-BEACHED.
1901. Referee, 21 April, 9, 2. In the slang of the day a gentleman who is “stony broke” describes himself as PEBBLY BEACH. With a deficit of fifty-three millions to warrant the change, “Hicks Beach” may now be fairly substituted.
