subs. phr. (old).—An old man (GROSE); a FOGEY (q.v.); a PRECISIAN (q.v.); also OLD SQUARETOES. Hence SQUARE-TOED = formal, prim, testy.
1771. SMOLLETT, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1900), i. 65. He seems to have a reciprocal regard for OLD SQUARETOES, whom he calls by the familiar name of Mathew.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 23.
| OLD SQUARE-TOES … | |
| Call’d silence; but he first with care | |
| Lifted his buttocks off his chair. |
1860–3. THACKERAY, The Roundabout Papers, xi. Have we not almost all learnt these expressions of old foozles, and uttered them ourselves when in the SQUARE-TOED state. Ibid. (1862), The Adventures of Philip, xv. I have heard of an OLD SQUARETOES of sixty who learned very satisfactorily to dance.
