Dictionary

king's man en · NOUN

Meanings

1. A Loyalist during the American Revolution, or any supporter of the king.
   • Moreover, his willingness to lodge British soldiers, and a free hospitality shown to British officers (among others who frequented his house was General Mackay, a relative, probably, of his wife) marked Mr. Murray as a King's man. 1972, James Henry Stark, The Loyalists of Massachusetts And the Other Side of the American Revolution:
   • The Virginia House of Burgesses condemned the acts even before they took effect, prompting Governor Dunmore, a loyal king's man, to order it dissolved. 2014, Frances H. Kennedy, The American Revolution: A Historical Guidebook, Oxford University Press, page 37:
   • The owner of the grist mill, Smith Bowen, was a patriot, but his father was thought to have Tory tendencies, and when they came to burn the mill he ran out waving his hands and crying, "Spare the mill for I am a King's man." 1894, Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, page 424:
2. A customs officer, or other officer appointed by the English Crown.
   • It is said that the King's man, John Silver (you couldn't make this up), caught Symonds red-handed one day and had his head cut off with a cutlass. […] the coast was less closely monitored by the customs officers than the secluded coves of the south; anyway, the customs men were often in cahoots with the smugglers and wreckers. Despite this, there were few run-ins between smugglers and customs men[…] 2016, Dawn G. Robinson, Secret Bude, Amberley Publishing Limited:
   • […] "king's man" was a customs officer. 1990, Sarah Gibbings, “The Tie: Trends and Traditions”, in Barron's, page 84:
   • Either North or Cheney […] must have secured Arden's appointment to the lucrative post of king's customs officer for the port of Faversham […] From the first, Arden was, in the words of Lena Orlin, who has described these relations in compelling detail, "a king's man in Faversham." 1997, Donald R. Kelley, David Harris Sacks, The Historical Imagination in Early Modern Britain: History, Rhetoric, and Fiction, 1500-1800, Cambridge University Press, page 152:
3. (obsolete) A handkerchief or neckerchief with a yellow pattern on a green background.
   • The ‘Kingsmen’ they call the best handkerchiefs—those that have the pretty-looking flowers on them. Some are only worth 4d. or 5d., some’s not worth taking. 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:

Forms

Coordinates

Randal's man

Synonyms

Loyalist (supporter of the king) · loyalist (supporter of the king)