What is Reticule?
1.
A lady's private purse or carnal clutch-bag.
(In Scotland, where it is known as a sporran or "bawbeastie", it is carried discreetly under the lady's kilt.)
From The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde:
The newly-born infant Jack was rescued from an anonymous lady's handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station, by a certain Nurse Blodwen of Neath who, by a happy chance, happened to be in the area.
Weighing sixteen pounds in his birthday-suit, his unexpected, sudden entry into the world meant that, at the maternal moment, the feckless female aristocrat's dainty reticule had been stretched far beyond its normal limits.
The unusual circumstances and the unconventional venue of Jack's birth, left the unfortunate fellow vulnerable to ridicule for the rest of his life, setting him on a course of complicated intrigue and secrecy.
See reticule , ridicule , family pack , griper , horses collar , neath , cloppertune , curly wurlitzer , mpg , under-melbage , spear-carrier , chasuble
From The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde:
The newly-born infant Jack was rescued from an anonymous lady's handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station, by a certain Nurse Blodwen of Neath who, by a happy chance, happened to be in the area.
Weighing sixteen pounds in his birthday-suit, his unexpected, sudden entry into the world meant that, at the maternal moment, the feckless female aristocrat's dainty
The unusual circumstances and the unconventional venue of Jack's birth, left the unfortunate fellow vulnerable to ridicule for the rest of his life, setting him on a course of complicated intrigue and secrecy.
