"to bilk" with object not a person

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Tue Sep 28 20:52:58 UTC 2010


In Tom Jones (Fielding) there is the following passage:

"And do you intend to make a secret of your going away?" said Jones. "I
promise you," answered Nightingale, "I don't intend to bilk my
lodgings; but I have a private reason for not taking a formal leave."

{Gutenberg.]

This seems most close to OED2's:

  3. To 'do (a person) out' of (his due); to cheat, defraud; to evade
payment of (a debt).
      1672 LOCKE in Fox Bourne Life I. v. 268 A man that had bilked
one of the most considerable men of the place.

Fielding has personified the "lodgings".   Is this new or interesting
enough to record?

Joel

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