Peach

A schoolboy term for to inform against another. In allusion to the fruit of this name, it means to turn soft-hearted, and betray. In American the word is used to denote a pretty woman or anything soft and beautiful. Peacock. An inn sign dating from the Crusades, when, the flesh of the peacock being deemed incorruptible, this bird was adopted by many a knight as a crest, typical of the Resurrection. “By the peacock” was a common oath in those days.