What does under-spur-leather mean?
Under-spur-leather means (obsolete) Subordinate, underling..
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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
(obsolete) Subordinate, underling..
1711, Jonathan Swift, Letter to Esther Johnson dated 9 October, 1711, in Letters Written by the Late Jonathan Swift, London: C. Bathurst et al., 3rd edition, 1769, p. 61, I have instructed an under-spur-leather to write so, that it is taken for mine.
1816, Walter Scott, The Black Dwarf in Tales of my Landlord, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Volume 1, Chapter 12, p. 242, […] I have opened house, not only for the gentry, but for the under-spur-leathers whom we must necessarily employ.
[…] if the Officers are allow’d to impose upon them, Under-Spur-leathers are always the Tyrants; a Government regulated by Laws, and Govern’d according to such Regulations, never willingly put it into the power of any Inferiour Officer to Tyrannize over his fellow Subjects.
Use under-spur-leather when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Under-spur-leather means (obsolete) Subordinate, underling..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
1711, Jonathan Swift, Letter to Esther Johnson dated 9 October, 1711, in Letters Written by the Late Jonathan Swift, London: C. Bathurst et al., 3rd edition, 1769, p. 61, I have instructed an under-spur-leather to write so, that it is taken for mine.
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