subs. (old).—1.  See quot. 1755 (B. E.). Hence (2) an abortive proposal or scheme.

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  1673.  DRYDEN, Remarks on the Empress of Morocco. He has all the pangs and throes of a fanciful poet, but is never delivered of any more perfect issue of his phlegmatick brain, than a dull Dutchwoman’s SOOTERKIN is of her body.

2

  1678.  BUTLER, Hudibras, III. ii. 146.

        For Knaves and Fools b’ing near of Kin,
As Dutch Boors are t’ a SOOTERKIN.

3

  1726.  POPE, The Dunciad, i. 126.

        All that on folly frenzy could beget,
Fruits of dull heat, and SOOTERKINS of wit.

4

  1755.  JOHNSON, A Dictionary of the English Language, s.v. SOOTERKIN. A kind of false birth fabled to be produced by Dutch women from sitting over their stoves.

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