Obsolete British slang for a cheap lodging house or dosshouse, combining 'dossing' (sleeping or lodging cheaply) with 'ken' (thieves' cant for a house or dwelling).
Obsolete British slang for a cheap lodging house or dosshouse, combining 'dossing' (sleeping or lodging cheaply) with 'ken' (thieves' cant for a house or dwelling). The term belongs to the vocabulary of 19th-century street life and vagabond culture. It is now entirely historical.
After three nights in a dossing-ken off the Seven Dials, he was desperate for a real bed.
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(intransitive, British, AU, slang) To sleep, especially in the open or in a makeshift bed, commonly in a derelict building because one is homeless.
(obsolete, UK, slang) A lodging house for tramps.
An obsolete piece of British thieves and vagabond cant for a lodging house that catered to tramps and vagabonds — essentially a dosshouse. Padding referred to the act of walking the roads (padding the hoof), and ken was cant for a house. Documented in 18th and 19th century slang dictionaries.
(slang, obsolete) An outhouse .
(obsolete, slang) A dosshouse; a cheap inn.