sloven1 (sluvn)

[Early mod. E. sloven, slovyn, sloveyne; Levins, Manip. Vocab. (E. E. T. S.), p. 61. They answer that by Jerome nothing can be gathered but only that the ministers came to church in handsome holiday apparel, and that himself did not think them bound by the law of God to go like slovens . Hooker, Eccles. Polity, v. 29. That negligent sloven Had shut out the Pasty on shutting his oven. Goldsmith, Haunch of Venison. 2t. A knave; a rascal. From thens no we. xxiiij. myle[s] lyeth the great towne Meli[n]da, and they be frendes, and there be many slou eynes and fell people out of Geneen. R. Eden (First Books on America, ed. Arber, p. xxviii.).