Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
gooseberry lay en · NOUN
Meanings
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(archaic, qualifier:thieves' cant) The stealing of linen hanging on a line.
I soon had some kids in working order, and we done a good business - this was in the winter, and we all vent on the gooseberry lay - that means taking things from clothes lines - and ye see they would talk about it ven dey comes home, so that the landlord could hear 'em sometimes - being only a thin board partition between our room and his'n. […]
1865, Ballou's Monthly Magazine, page 315:How long have you been off the gooseberry lay, son?
, Dashiell Hammett, early manuscript of The Maltese Falcon, quoted in 2020, Study Guide to The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (Influence Publishers)
Forms