Definition of "gentlemans"

A tattered cadie, or errand porter, whom David Deans had jostled in his attempt to extricate himself from the vicinity of the scorners, exclaimed in a strong north-country tone, "Ta de'il ding out her Cameronian een—what gi'es her titles to dunch gentlemans about?"

1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, page 222

“If he be one gentleman, he may tine wid me: and I vill show to de gentlemans of England, vat de Italian gentlemans are.”

1830, John Gideon Millingen, Adventures of an Irish Gentleman, volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 253

You are a gentleman, and gentlemans are much too fine for trate.

1900, Wilson Barrett, Elwyn Alfred Barron, In Old New York: A Romance, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page and Company, page 64

No person shall keepe any schoole... except it be in some publike or free Grammer Schoole, or in some such noblemans... or gentlemans... house as are not recusants.

1604, Acts of Parliament 1 under James I, c.4, §8

VVe may commend / A Gentlemans modeſty, manners, and fine language, / […] / Yet, though he obſerue, and vvaſte his ſtate vpon vs, / If he be ſtanch and bid not for the ſtocke / That vve vvere borne to traffick vvith; the truth is / VVe care not for his company.

1624, Phillip [i.e., Philip] Massinger, The Bond-man: An Antient Storie. […], London: […] Edw[ard] Allde, for Iohn Harison and Edward Blackmore, […], Act I, scene iii, signature [B4], recto

IN the fourth place we are to conſider the Gentlemans advantage, in reſpect of his Authority over thoſe that relate to, or depend on him: […]

1660, [Richard Allestree], “Sect[ion] VII. Of the Fourth Advantage, that of His Authority.”, in The Gentlemans Calling, London: […] T[imothy] Garthwait […], page 117