upright man

noun — 2 senses

upright man

noun
1

UK, Archaic The leader of a group of thieves or vagrants.

  • I hope then you can cant, for by your cudgels, you sirra are an upright man.1611, Thomas Middleton, The Roaring Girle:
  • And the gentry had kind hearts, and would have given baith lap and pannel to ony puir gypsy; and there was not one, from Johnnie Faa the upright man, to little Christie that was in the panniers, would cloyed a dud from them.1815, Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering:
2

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see upright, man.

  • Later He gave him freedom from the Lord to live alone as an upright man to cultivate and keep His garden called Eden.2013, Danson Enogiomwan Ubebe, Return to God: The ABC of 'set Free by Knowing the Truth', →ISBN, page 19:
Synonyms
criminal leader

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.