subs. phr. (old).—1. See quot. 1762. Also PITCH THE NOB, PRICK THE BELT (or LOOP), and FAST AND LOOSE.
1762. GOLDSMITH, Life of Nash [Works (Globe), 545]. The manner in which country men are deceived by gamblers, at a game called PRICKING IN THE BELT, or the old Nob. This is a leathern strap folded up double, and then laid upon a table: if the person who plays with a bodkin pricks into the loop of the belt, he wins, if otherwise he loses. However, by slipping one end of the strap, the sharper can win with pleasure.
1776. BRAND, Observations on Popular Antiquities (1813), II. 300. PRICKING AT THE BELT, or girdle; called also fast and loose…. It appears to have been a game much practised by the Gypsies in the time of Shakspeare.
1788. G. A. STEVENS, The Adventures of a Speculist, i. 69. This is the cant of those who go about the country defrauding the unwary with the game called, PRICKING AT THE BELT.
1840. H. COCKTON, Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist, lx. They were standing at a PRICK-IN-THE-GARTER table, at which a gentleman had a long piece of list, which he wound round and offered any money that no man could prick in the middle.
1892. W. C. SYDNEY, England and the English in Eighteenth Century, i. 83. One class of gamblers cheated passers-by … by inviting them to PRICK IN THE BELT, OR THE GARTER for a wager.
