clothes man—a dealer in cast-off or second-hand clothes:
- I bought from the clothes-man a suit of the most gentlemanly garments he possessed.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase man of the cloth—a priest:
- It’s nice to see a man of the cloth actually using and believing in science.
Cf.: clothier—a retail seller of cloth:
- My father was a clothier. He sold cloth to the tailors or to men who would then go to a tailor.
old-clothes man — = clothes man:
- This mantle he had just purchased of the old-clothes man … to protect himself from the cold of the March.