adj. and adv. (colloquial).—1.  Outrageous; (2) ridiculous; and (3) SPICY (q.v.).

1

  1350.  The Turnament of Totenham [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, III. 91].

        Alle the wyues of Totenham come to se that siȝt,
To fech home thaire husbondis, that were thaym trouthe pliȝt,
With wispys and kixes, that was a RICH siȝt.

2

  1821.  P. EGAN, Life in London, II. ii. The left-hand side of the bar is a RICH bit of low life.

3

  1843.  W. T. PORTER, ed., The Big Bear of Arkansas, etc., 57. Thar we was settin’ on our hoses, rollin’ with laughin’ and licker, and thought the thing was RICH.

4

  1844.  B. DISRAELI, Coningsby, VIII. i. ‘Was Spraggs RICH?’ ‘Wasn’t he! I have not done laughing yet…. Killing!… The RICHEST thing you ever heard!’

5

  1897.  B. MITFORD, A Romance of the Cape Frontier, I. ix. The notion of Allen bothering any one to take out a bees’ nest … struck them all as ineffably RICH.

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