knight of the post
English
Etymology
Suggesting that such a person would be familiar with the whipping-post or pillory.
Noun
knight of the post (plural knights of the post)
- (obsolete, idiomatic) A known perjurer; a professional false witness.
- 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, OCLC 890163163; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, OCLC 963614346, canto I:
- […] But with more lucky hit than those
That use to make the stars depose,
Like knights o' th' post, and falsely charge
Upon themselves what others forge;
As if they were consenting to
All mischief in the world men do […]
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 98, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541:
- [T]he fugitive had been cajoled by a certain knight of the post, who undertook to manage the thousand pounds in such a manner, as would, in a very little time, make him perfectly independent […] .
- 1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless
- A knight of the post […] quoth he, for so I am termed; a fellow that will swear you anything for twelve pence.
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Translations
professional false witness
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