barnet, n.

1857   ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 1   Barnet-Fair, hair.

1877   J. W. Horsley Jottings from Jail i. 3   Come, cows and kisses, put the battle of the Nile on your Barnet Fair, and a rogue and villain in your sky-rocket.

1887   Referee 6 Nov. 7/3   As she walked along the street With her little ‘plates of meat’, And the summer sunshine falling On her golden ‘Barnet Fair’.

1931   Amer. Speech 6 392   My barnett, my head.

1946   Amer. Speech 21 46   Bonny Fair. Hair... This is certainly a mistake. The word in rhyming slang is Barnet Fair, named after the most famous horse fair in England, held at Barnet, in Hertfordshire, for four hundred years.

1962   F. Norman Guntz i. 7   They send you to a doss house, so that you can get lice in your barnet.

1967   J. Burke Till Death us do Part ii. 33   ‘You know I had hair. I'd still have it, too, if it hadn't been for the war. I saw service.’.. ‘A lot of people saw service,’ said Mike, ‘but they didn't lose their barnets over it.’

1969   G. Sims Sand Dollar xi. 146   ‘Use your barnet!’ Domino said.