Alderman

Definitions

1. A member of a municipal legislative body in a city or town.
2. An English surname originating as an occupation.
3. A half-crown coin; its value, 30 pence.
   UK, historical, obsolete, slang
4. A long pipe for smoking.
5. A large, protruding, or swollen abdomen; a paunch, a potbelly.
   US, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.”

“Half-a-crown is known as an alderman, half a bull, half a tusheroon, and a madza caroon; whilst a crown piece, or five shillings, may be called either a bull, or a caroon, or a cartwheel, or a coachwheel, or a thick-un, or a tusheroon.”

“In one part of Cockaigne an amalgamation of these two last⟳ has lately taken place⟳; and the pleasure experienced by the parishioners of Walbrook is unbounded when smoking an alderman and churchwarden.”

“He'd exercise, get⟳ the fat off, because if he let⟳ it go, he'd have⟳ too much on and maybe make⟳ his heart worse, and you looked like⟳ hell with an alderman. […] And she wouldn't want⟳ a guy who stuck out in front like⟳ a balloon.”

CEFR level