English

Alternative forms

• boozing-ken

Noun

boozing ken ‎(plural boozing kens)

1. (archaic, British slang) A pub; a public house; a tavern.
   • 1665, Head, Richard, The English Rogue, page 54:

     We straight betook our selves to the Boozing Ken; and having bubb'd nimly, we concluded an everlasting friendship.

   • 1834, Ainsworth, William Harrison, Rookwood, volume 2, pages 303–304:

     The Ruffler, who found his representative in a very magnificently equipped, and by no means ill-favoured knave, whose chin was decorated with a beard as lengthy and as black as Sultan Mahmood's, together with the dexterous Hooker, issued forth from the hovel which they termed their boozing ken, eager to catch a glimpse of the Prince of the High Toby Gloaks.

Synonyms

• See Wikisaurus:pub

References

• Barrère, Albert; Leland, Charles Godfrey (1889) A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, volume 1, page 165
• Farmer, John Stephen (1890) Slang and Its Analogues, volume 1, pages 297–298