ale-pole

ale-pole (plural ale-poles)

1. Alternative form of alepole
   • 1889, Legh Richmond, The Fathers of the English Church:

     Now, a wise man will tell him that he playeth the fool, for the ale-pole doth but signifie that there is good ale in the house where the ale-pole standeth, and will tell him that he muste go near the house and there he shall find the drinke,, and not stand sucking the ale-pole in vayne."

   • 1892 July, Thomas H. B. Graham, “The Malt Liquors of the English”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 273, page 55:

     The bush is occasionally shown in old pictures, and on the Bayeux tapestry will be found a representation of a building adorned with an ale-pole.

   • 1983, Peter Clark, The English Alehouse: A Social History 1200-1830, page 68:

     By the end of Elizabeth's reign, however, the ale-pole was starting to lose ground.

   • 2010, Sharon Kay Penman, When Christ and His Saints Slept:

     By the time he finally spotted the protruding ale-pole, Gilbert Fitz John had gotten his boots thoroughly muddied, almost had his money pouch stolen by a nimble-fingered thief, and had been forced to fend off so many beggars and harlots that he doubted he'd reach the Rutting Stag with either his purse or his honour intact.

   • 2012, Greg Walker, John Skelton: Everyman Poetry:

     I know, pole-axeman (or ale-pole haunter?), she pulled the wool over your eyes