subs. (old).—‘A party of persons met together for the purpose of gambling’ (GROSE, VAUX). Also (modern) any small band of associates, as thieves or beggars working together, a set of passengers travelling regularly by the same train, &c. Hence SCHOOLMAN = a companion, a mate.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. 234. Some classes of patterers, I may here observe, work in ‘SCHOOLS’ or ‘mobs’ of two, three, or four.
1866. The London Miscellany, 3 March, 57, 2, ‘London Revelations.’ We don’t want no one took in that’s on the square. The governor’s promised the SCHOOL as strangers shant use the house.
