English

Noun

dimber mort ‎(plural dimber morts)

1. (archaic, Britain, cant) A pretty girl.
   • 1837, Disraeli, Benjamin, Venetia:

     Tip me the clank, like a dimber mort as you are; trim a ken for the gentry cove; he is no lanspresado, or I am a kinchin.

   • 1918, Farnol, Jeffery, Our Admirable Betty:

     Look'ee Benno, if you're a-hiding of some dimber mort aloft there I'm the cove to——

   • 1988, Wertenbaker, Timberlake, Our Country's Good, Act 2, Scene 1:

     Liz, he says, why trine for a make, when you can wap for a winne. I'm no dimber mort, I says. Don't ask you to be a swell mollisher, sister, coves want Miss Laycock, don't look at your mug. So I begin to sell my mother of saints.

   • 2015, Monroe, Erica, Beauty and the Rake:

     Look at 'er, Jay, 'ave ye ever seen a better dimber mort?

Related terms

• dimber cove

References

• Grose, Francis (1788) A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, London: S. Hooper
• Farmer, John Stephen (1891) Slang and Its Analogues, volume 2, page 287