FACE. We'll wet it to-morrow; and our silver-beakers
And tavern cups. Where be the French petticoats,
And girdles and hangers?
SUB. Here, in the trunk,
And the bolts of lawn.
Ben Jonson. The Alchemist (1610)
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Osric: The king, sir, hath wager'd with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers*, and so: three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.
Hamlet: What call you the carriages?
Horatio: [aside to Hamlet] I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.
Osric: The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
William Shakespeare. Hamlet
*Webster, definition 2(a)
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Once a kite, hovering over the garden, made a stoop at me, and if I had not resolutely drawn my hanger, and run under a thick espalier, he would have certainly carried me away in his talons.
Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels Into Several Remote Regions of the World (1726)
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At present, however, he is in a ridingdress, jack-boots, leather breeches, a scarlet waistcoat, with gold binding, a laced hat, a hanger, a French posting-whip in his hand, and his hair en queue.
Tobias Smollett. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771)
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The brute gave me a cut in the left side with his hanger, and the mark is still upon me." "Ah! I hope I shall see it," said honest Candide. "You shall," said Cunegonde, "but let us continue."
Voltaire. Candide
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I gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully delighted with; and I made him a belt, with a frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in; and in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not only as good a weapon in some cases, but much more useful upon other occasions.