subs. phr. (old).—1. An upstart; ‘no-one-knows-who’: also as adj.—obscure; mushroom.
1600. SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado about Nothing, i. 3. That young START-UP hath all the glory of my overthrow.
1633. JONSON, A Tale of a Tub, 1. Two junior START-UP societies.
1659. R. BROME, The Queen and Concubine, ii. 1.
| Lod. Upon my life, his Marriage with that START-UP, | |
| That Snake this good Queen cocker’d in her Bosom. |
1764. WALPOLE, Castle of Otranto, iv. Whoever weds Isabella, it shall not be Father Falconara’s STARTED-UP son.
2. (old).—In pl., see quots. 1575 and 1611.
1575. THYNNE, Debate, 33.
| A payre of STARTUPPES had he on his feete, | |
| That lased were up to the small of the legge; | |
| Homelie they were, and easier then meete, | |
| And in their soles full many a wooden pegge. |
1586–1606. WARNER, Albion’s England, IV. xx. 95. And of the bacon’s fat to make his STARTOPES black and soft.
1592. GREENE, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier [Harleian Miscellany, V. 329]. But Hob and John of the country, they stept in churlishly in their high STARTUPS.
1599. JOSEPH HALL, Satires, vi. i.
| And, in high STARTUPS, walk’d the pastur’d plaines, | |
| To tend her tasked herd that there remaines. |
1605. DRAYTON, Eclogues, ix. (1753), 1,429.
| When not a shepherd any thing that could, | |
| But greas’d his START-UPS black as autumn’s sloe. |
1608. WITHALS, Dictionary, 211. In a maner all husbandmen doe weare START-UPS, sunt omnes pene agricolæ soccati.
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Guestres, START-UPS; high shooes, or gamashes for countrey folks.
1614. Terence in English. Some of my men comes running to me, and pulls of my STARTUPS, others I see hasting to make readie supper and to lay the cloath.
1629. MASSINGER, The Picture, v. 1.
| Fie upon’t, what a Thread’s here! a poor Cobler’s Wife | |
| Would make a finer to sow a Clown’s Rent START UP. |
1821. SCOTT, Kenilworth, xxiv. A stupid lout … in a grey jerkin, with his head bare, his hose about his heels, and huge START-UPS upon his feet.
