Whit

See also: whit

English

Noun

Whit (plural Whits)

  1. The season of Whitsuntide.
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Shortening of the surname of Dick Whittington, London mayor who funded the rebuilding of the prison.

Proper noun

the Whit

  1. (originally thieves' cant, now archaic or historical) Newgate Prison in London, England (particularly as it was in the 15- and 1600s).
    • 1951, Georgette Heyer, The Quiet Gentleman:
      A Bow Street Runner says "I knew a cove as talked the way you do – leastways, in the way of business I knew him! In fact, you remind me of him very strong […] He was on the dub-lay, and very clever with his fambles. He ended up in the Whit, o’ course."
    • 2020 May 5, Peter Linebaugh, The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century, Verso Books, →ISBN:
      One of the strong drinks brewed in the Whit, a place as noted for the variety of its potions as the irony of its expressions, was called 'South Sea'. The gin brewed in Newgate was […]

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