or nip-louse, prick-the-louse, subs. phr. (common).—A tailor: see SNIP.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).

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  1590.  R. TARLETON, Newes out of Purgatorie [HALLIWELL], 77. She would in brave termes abuse him, and call him rascall, and slave, but above all PRICKLOWSE, which hee could not abide. Ibid. The more he beat her, the more she calde him PRICKLOWSE.

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  1592.  GREENE, The Defence of Conny-catching, in Works, xi. 96. Even the poore PRICKLOUSE the country taylor.

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  c. 1603.  Sack for my Money [COLLIER, Roxburghe Ballads (1847), 178].

        Rich Malligo is pure, I know, …
And bravely can compose a man
    of a very PRICK-LOWS taylor.

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  1607.  DEKKER and WEBSTER, Northward Hoe, ii. 1. Capt. If I take master PRICK-LOUSE ramping so high again, which is none a’ God’s angel, I’ll make him know how to kiss your blind cheeks sooner.

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  1620.  ROWLANDS, The Night Raven, 9 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1872].

        My choller tells thee, th’art a botching slaue,
Thy Journy-man a very PRICKLOWSE knaue.

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  1625.  JONSON, The Staple of News, i. 1.

                        Tailor, thou art a vermin,
Worse than the same thou prosecut’st, and PRICK’ST
In subtle seam.

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  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, A Panegyrick on a Louse [Works (1715), i. 145].

        No wonder then … such sturdy Valour
Against thy Enemy, the PRICK-LOUSE Taylor,
To take him every Moment by the Collar.

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  c. 1704.  SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, Fables, 354. There happen’d a Grievous Quarrel once betwixt a a Taylor and his Wife. The Woman in Contempt of his Trade, called her Husband PRICKLOUSE.

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  1720.  D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vi. 293.

        Says PRICK-LOUSE my Jewel, I love you most dearly,
  My breast every minute still hotter does grow.

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  d. 1796.  BURNS, To a Tailor, st. 2.

        Gae mind your seam, ye PRICK THE LOUSE,
                An’ jag the flae.

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