Knave

Definitions

1. A boy; especially, a boy servant.
   archaic
2. Any male servant; a menial.
   archaic
3. A tricky, deceitful fellow; a dishonest person.
   dated
4. A playing card marked with the figure of a servant or a soldier.

Equivalents

Examples

“Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave that, doting on his own⟳ obsequious bondage, wears out his time, much like⟳ his master's ass, For naught but provender, and when he's old – cashier'd! Whip me such honest knaves.”

“I could plainly diſcover from whence one Family derives a long Chin; why a ſecond hath abounded with Knaves for two Generations, and Fools for two more; why a third happened to be crack-brained, and a fourth to be Sharpers.”

“He was a man whom scarcely any amount of fortune could have⟳ benefited permanently, and who was made to be ruined, to cheat small tradesmen, to be the victim of astuter sharpers: to be niggardly and reckless, and as destitute of honesty as the people who cheated him, and a dupe, chiefly because he was too mean⟳ to be a successful knave.”

“I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last⟳ rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.”

“God's bones! Whenever I go to beat⟳ those knaves / my tapsters, out she [my wife] comes with clubs and staves, / "Go on!" she screams — and it's a caterwaul — / "You kill⟳ those dogs! Break⟳ back and bones and all!"”

CEFR level