Definition of "truepenny"
truepenny
noun
plural truepennies
(obsolete, sometimes capitalized) An honest, reliable fellow.
Quotations
Hamlet: . . Give me one poor request.Horatio: What is't, my lord? we will.Hamlet: Never make known what you have seen to-night. .Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.Ghost: [Beneath] Swear.Hamlet: Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, truepenny?Come on—you hear this fellow in the cellarage—Consent to swear.
c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene v]
"Ha!" said Christie, "art thou there, old True-penny? here, stable me these steeds, and see them well bedded, and stretch thine old limbs by rubbing them down; and see thou quit not the stable till there is not a turned hair on either of them."
1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], page 37