darkmans

dark +‎ -mans[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɑːkmənz/

darkmans (uncountable)

1. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) The night.
   • c. 1607–1610 (date written), Thomas Middleton; Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girle. Or Moll Cut-purse. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Archer, […], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page number):

     I have, by the salomon, a doxy that carries a kinchin mort in her slate at her back, besides my dell and my dainty wild dell, with all whom I'll tumble this next darkmans in the strommel […]

   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Men were men then, and fought each other in the open field, and there was nae milling in the darkmans.

   • 1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don't tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 3]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     White thy fambles, red thy gan / And thy quarrons dainty is. / Couch a hogshead with me then. / In the darkmans clip and kiss.

• lightmans

• bene darkmans