pickthank
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of pickthank
First recorded in 1490–1500; noun use of verb phrase pick a thank, pick thanks
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Poor Lady, her Court, as we discern from Wilhelmina and the Books, is a sad welter of intrigues, suspicions; of treacherous chambermaids, head-valets, pickthank scouts of official gentlemen and others striving to supplant one another.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 05 by Thomas Carlyle
"It were very just to lay you beside him," he said, "but the blood of a base pickthank shall never mix on my father's dirk with that of a brave man."
From International Short Stories English by Various
"It were very just to lay you peside him," he said, "but the blood of a pase pickthank shall never mix on my father's dirk, with that of a brave man."
From Chronicles of the Canongate by Sir Walter Scott
Le Mercier was a pickthank, angling after the favor of La Pompadour,—a pretentious knave, as hollow as one of his own mortars.
From The Golden Dog by William Kirby
He could not tolerate the spirit of the pickthank; being what we are, he wished us to see others with a generous eye of admiration, not with the smallness of the seeker after faults.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 by Robert Louis Stevenson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
