badge-cove

English

Noun

badge-cove (plural badge-coves)

(archaic, thieves' cant) A parish pensioner. [18th-19th century]
(obsolete) A licensed (badged) beggar. [16th-18th century]
(Polari) An old person; a senior citizen.

References

Grose, Francis, The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue / Lexicon Balatronicum: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence: altered and enlarged (London; 1811)
“Badge coves” in Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, volume I (A–K), Edinburgh: The Ballantyne Press, 1889–1890, page 63.

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