come Yorkshire over

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

come Yorkshire over

1. (transitive, UK, slang, obsolete) To cheat or deceive.
   • 1880, The London Quarterly and Holborn Review, volume 53, page 413:

     He was not blind to the natives' faults; he amusingly describes how one "who might have thriven in one of our large towns came Yorkshire over him," by bringing him an india-rubber ball which, instead of being solid, was stuffed inside with chewed leaves.

   • 1930, Alfred Perceval Graves, To Return to All that: An Autobiography, page 208:

     [B]efore I left Huddersfield I had the satisfaction of captaining a team which won most of its matches against the leading Yorkshire towns, though Sheffield 'came Yorkshire over us' by making us play upon the wooden floor of their Drill Hall. The Yorkshire children were almost bilingual. The youngsters talked broad dialect in the playground, yet answered incorrect English in class.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary