poor man
Preserved but no longer current.
The blade-bone of a shoulder of mutton is so called in Scotland. In some parts of England it is termed a "poor knight of Windsor/* because it holds the same relation to "Sir Loin'* as a Windsor knight does to a baronet. Scott (Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xix) tells of a laird who, being asked by an English landlord what he would have for dinner, produced the utmost consternation by saying, "I think I could relish a morsel of a poor man.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “poor man” mean?
The blade-bone of a shoulder of mutton is so called in Scotland. In some parts of England it is termed a "poor knight of Windsor/* because it holds the same relation to "Sir Loin'* as a Windsor knight does to a baronet. Scott (Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xix) tells of a laird who, being asked by an English landlord what he would have for dinner, produced the utmost consternation by saying, "I think I could relish a morsel of a poor man.
Is “poor man” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.