“A man in the civil line, a townsman, or tradesman: a military term, from the mohair buttons worn by persons of those descriptions, or any others not in the army, the buttons of military men being always of metal: this is generally used as a term of contempt, meaning a bourgeois, tradesman, or mechanic.”
“A gardener.”
“He is one of King John’s men, eight score to the hundred: a saying of a little undersized man.”
“A woman’s great coat. Also, a sheepish bashful young fellow: an allusion to Joseph who fled from Potiphar’s wife. You are Josephus rex; you are jo-king, i.e. joking.”
“Void of wit.”
“Robbing Peter to pay Paul, i.e. borrowing of one man to pay another.”
“To enrich one’s self.”
“Precise, over nice, puritanical.”
“An infant or baby.”
“A long roundabout tale.”
Cora Lee, Regency Romance Author 