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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78263 ***
+
+
+
+
+                             SLANG AND ITS
+                               ANALOGUES
+                           PAST AND PRESENT.
+
+               A DICTIONARY, HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE,
+                 OF THE HETERODOX SPEECH OF ALL CLASSES
+             OF SOCIETY FOR MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED YEARS.
+
+        WITH SYNONYMS IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, ETC.
+
+
+
+                         COMPILED AND EDITED BY
+                            JOHN S. FARMER,
+
+   “Americanisms—Old and New”: “Ex Oriente Lux”: “’Twixt Two Worlds.”
+
+
+
+                           VOL. I.—A TO BYZ.
+
+                     PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.
+
+                                MDCCCXC.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    The author will esteem it a favour to be furnished with
+    examples of cant or slang of any kind or nationality,
+    together with quotations, especially early ones, illustrating
+    usage, meaning, derivation, etc. All communications may be
+    addressed to John S. Farmer, care of A. P. Watt, Esq., 2,
+    Paternoster Square, London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY NOTE.
+
+
+“He that undertakes to compile a dictionary, undertakes that which, if
+it comprehends the full extent of his design, he knows himself unable
+to perform. Yet his labours, though deficient, may be useful, and with
+the hope of this inferior praise, he must incite his activity, and
+solace his weariness.” So wrote the great lexicographer, Dr. Johnson,
+in the “Advertisement” to the fourth edition of his Dictionary of the
+English Language, published in 1773. In another place he had already
+told, in words which have since become classical, of the difficulties
+he had encountered, and of his own estimate of the shortcomings of his
+work as compared with the original design. It is in very much the same
+position that I find myself, now that I have completed the first
+instalment of my own task, smaller and less important though it be. I
+am fully conscious of manifold imperfections; yet I hope, and indeed
+believe, that I have, in my presentation of what is generically known
+as “slang,” advanced the enquiry in some measure. While cordially
+acknowledging the aid I have derived from the labours of my
+predecessors in the field, I cannot but recognise that, again and
+again, having adopted a new mode of treatment, I have found myself
+forced to “blaze” the way into what was practically a terra incognita.
+
+The difficulties were manifold, and crowded upon one at every turn from
+the very outset. First and foremost came the question of deciding
+whether any given word, phrase, or turn of expression could with
+justice be relegated to the limbo of unorthodox speech—in short to
+decide, What is Slang? As a matter of fact, I have not yet discovered,
+nor have I been able to formulate any definition which covers the whole
+of the ground to be traversed. As Dr. Murray truly observes, “there is
+absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English
+language has a well-defined centre, but no discernible circumference.”
+Authorities differ between themselves, and often with themselves when
+asked to set down in plain scientific terms the marks which distinguish
+the vagrant words of slang from correct and orthodox English. Nor is
+the difficulty removed or lessened by an analysis of the genesis, or
+the application of this vast and motley crowd of heterodox words: of a
+verity the borderland between slang and the “Queen’s English” is an
+ill-defined territory, the limits of which have never been clearly
+mapped out. It is, therefore, not without hesitation, that I have
+ventured to explore this “Dark Continent” of the World of Words. If I
+cast a ray of light where before was darkness, or reduce to some sort
+of order where much was confusion—well and good: if, on the other hand,
+my steps at times chance to falter, others will, in such a case, be
+able to profit by my experience as I have by that of my predecessors.
+
+Hence—bearing in mind the ill-defined character of much of the
+enquiry—my title, “Slang and its Analogues,” which I think fairly and
+accurately describes the scope and intent of the present work, though
+it may not satisfy those critics who, without examination, seek to
+decry or put aside that which it has cost years of labour and research
+to produce. For the rest, however, a conscientious worker may well be
+content to abide the result of careful and honest criticism, whether
+for praise or demerit.
+
+Great as was the initial difficulty in regard to a dividing line
+between the three great divisions of colloquial English—dialectical,
+technical, and slang—it was clearly and obviously necessary to draw the
+line somewhere. After careful consideration, I adopted, as a standard
+between literary and non-literary English, Annandale’s edition of
+Ogilvie’s Imperial English Dictionary. With but few exceptions, it will
+be found that no word is here included which is there set down as
+forming part of the orthodox inheritance of “the noble English tongue.”
+The next great difficulty with which I found myself confronted was the
+determination of the exact meanings of slang words and expressions.
+Frequently I discovered I had to deal with a veritable Proteus—slang
+used to-day in one sense shades off to-morrow into many modifications.
+This fact I have had to keep steadily in mind. It will account, in some
+instances, for what may, at first sight, appear to be an unnecessarily
+extended list of illustrative quotations; in such cases it will
+generally be found, on examination, that different shades of meaning
+are exemplified.
+
+As regards treatment, I have adopted, though not in its entirety, what
+is commonly known as the “historical method,” supplementing this by an
+attempt at the comparative study of slang, i.e., the presentation of
+unorthodox English in juxtaposition with the argots of other European
+nations, notably those of the French, German, Italian, and Spanish
+peoples. The historical usage of slang is amply illustrated by the
+quotations appended to each example. These comprise in their range the
+whole period of English literature from the earliest down to the
+present time, my plan having been to give the first ascertainable use
+of any given word or phrase, tracing it down century by century,
+winding up with an example “down to date.” These illustrative
+quotations, roughly speaking, number upwards of 100,000 for the whole
+work. I was fortunate enough shortly after commencing my final task of
+revision to have about 12,000 quotations placed at my disposal by Mr.
+G. L. Apperson, of Wimbledon, who for many years has had special
+knowledge of the requirements of such work, having sub-edited certain
+sections of the New English Dictionary. I am glad to be able to make
+special mention of my indebtedness in this respect; as also to Mr. G.
+A. King, of Croydon, an old Wykehamist, for invaluable aid in
+connection with public school words and phrases.
+
+Copious materials for a comparative study of English and foreign slang
+will be found in the often-times lengthy lists of analogous and
+synonymous terms appended to the more important and more commonly used
+examples in the body of the work. This branch of my study I shall deal
+with more fully in an article to follow the completion of the
+vocabulary proper, and I purpose to enhance the usefulness of that
+portion of the dictionary by a complete alphabetical list of all the
+foreign slang words and phrases herein used, with full references to
+page and column.
+
+For the rest, my method will, I think, need little elucidation. I have
+endeavoured to make each example, with its explanation, derivation,
+synonyms, and illustrative quotations, as far as possible, complete in
+itself. Over and above this, however, the cross-references will be
+found of considerable value for the purpose of comparison, and will, I
+hope, be acceptable. I may also add that, wherever possible, I have
+given a reference indicating where synonymous or analogous words may be
+found. The arrangement of these synonyms has been a matter of
+considerable thought; first, as to the most fitting place for
+inclusion; and second, so to distribute them throughout the dictionary
+as to present a piece of work evenly balanced, and ready of reference.
+
+
+
+There are certain sources of information of which I must make special
+acknowledgment. Among books, first and foremost, comes that invaluable
+store-house, Notes and Queries. I have freely drawn for information
+upon this inestimable periodical from its very first issue, invariably
+making a note of my indebtedness, and to whom, in the text. The New
+English Dictionary has also been of service in supplying, at times,
+earlier examples of the use of a slang word or phrase than those of
+which I was already possessed. It is not, however, without a certain
+amount of perhaps pardonable satisfaction that I, working
+single-handed, am often able to give much earlier illustrations of the
+slang side and usage of our mother tongue, than occurs elsewhere.
+
+As regards French Argot, Francisque Michel, Lorédan Larchey, and A.
+Barrère, respectively, are the chief authorities to whom I wish to
+render due acknowledgment; Avé-Lallemant and Kahle have also been
+specially useful in connection with the German Gaunersprache. The dates
+of quotations have, wherever possible, been finally verified by
+comparison with the comprehensive and useful appendix to Dr. Brewer’s
+Reader’s Handbook.
+
+
+
+It may not be out of place to give some indication of the complete
+scheme (subject to slight modification) of Slang and its Analogues. The
+work will comprise:—
+
+
+    I.    A dictionary of ancient and modern English slang, treated
+          historically, including copious lists of English, French,
+          German, and Italian synonyms, etc.
+    II.   A chapter on the comparative study of the subject; this
+          embraces English cant and slang, French Argot, German
+          Gaunersprache, Italian Fourbesque, Spanish Germania, and
+          Portuguese Calão.
+    III.  A new and exhaustive Bibliography, with copious entries of
+          foreign books treating of the subject.
+    IV.   A list of authorities and references to periodical
+          literature, with full titles and dates as mentioned
+          throughout the dictionary.
+    V.    A complete vocabulary of all foreign slang words and
+          expressions occurring throughout the body of the work,
+          with detailed references to example, page, and column.
+          This will form in itself a comprehensive dictionary of
+          foreign slang.
+
+
+Note.—A table of abbreviations used in this Volume will be found on
+page 406.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            A DICTIONARY OF
+                        SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES.
+
+
+                                  A
+
+
+A (vulgar)—[“ă” as in bat].—A common vulgarism in speaking for (1)
+“have,” (2) “I,” (3) “he,” (4) “at,” (5) “on,” etc. It occurs in these
+connections for more than 300 years; all were used by Shakspeare, as
+well as by Beaumont and Fletcher and other writers of the Elizabethan
+period.
+
+
+A1 or A1 Copper-Bottomed, adj. phr. (popular).—Applied to men or
+things, A1 is synonymous with a high degree of praise. ‘He must be a
+first-rater,’ said Sam. ‘A1,’ replied Mr. Roker. [1837, Pickwick
+Papers.]
+
+The derivation of this colloquialism from the symbols used in
+registering ships at Lloyd’s is pretty well known. Letters—A.A. (in
+black and red), Æ (in black), E, etc.—are employed to denote various
+degrees of excellence in the hulls of vessels, figures being added to
+show the quality of the equipments, such as masts and rigging in
+sailing vessels, or boilers and engines in steamers. When hull and
+fittings alike are of the best, a vessel is classed A1. Hence, in
+mercantile circles, the expression has become popularly current, in a
+figurative sense, to signify the highest commercial credit; and, by a
+process of expansion, excellence of quality in general, i.e.,
+first-class; first-rate. The form varies, being rendered by first-class
+letter a; A1 copper-bottomed; and, in the U.S.A., A1 and no mistake.
+The earliest reference given in the New English Dictionary for the
+colloquially figurative usage bears date 1836, but it was employed at
+least two years previously in a quarter which seems definitely to fix,
+not only the period of its adoption, but the process of transition as
+well. A1 was a perfectly natural colloquialism in the hands of Captain
+Marryat, at once an experienced seaman and a practised writer.
+
+    1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xliii. ‘Broached molasses, cask
+    No. 1, letter A.’
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 229.
+    ‘Here’s spoons for six, and tea and sugar for one. Sold again! and
+    this time to my old sweetheart of all. She’s a prime girl, she is;
+    she is a number one, copper-bottomed, and can sail as well in her
+    stays as out of her stays; she is full rigged, and carries a lot of
+    canvas. But I must not tell tales out of school.’
+
+    1882. Punch, lxxxii. 181, 1. In Vino (et cetera) Veritas. ‘What’s
+    up, old man? You seem to be out of sorts!’ ‘Snappe’s been here. I
+    begged him to give me his candid opinion about my pictures. He
+    did!’ ‘Ah! I see! It differs from yours! Now when I want a fellow’s
+    candid opinion about my pictures, I ask him to dinner, give him a
+    first-rate bottle of claret, a cup of A1 coffee, a glass of old
+    cognac, and the best cigar money can buy, and then I show him my
+    pictures, and I always find that his candid opinion coincides with
+    my own.’
+
+Eng. Synonyms. All brandy; the pure quill; about East (American); about
+right; at par; the cheese; all there; bang up; a corker; up to Dick;
+downy; fizzing; that’s Bible; splash up; up to the nines; up to the
+knocker; down to the ground; slap up, etc.
+
+French Synonyms. Abracadabrant, adj. (from Abracadabra); aux petits
+oignons (literally ‘like small onions.’ Cf., English, ‘like a thousand
+of bricks,’ and ‘like winkey’); bath (adj.: also bate. In Argot and
+Slang the origin of the term is thus stated:—Towards 1848 some Bath
+notepaper of superior quality was hawked about in the streets of Paris,
+and sold at a low price. Thus ‘papier bath’ became synonymous of (sic)
+excellent paper. In a short time the qualifying term alone remained and
+received a general application); arriver bon premier (literally ‘to
+arrive a good first’).
+
+(Fenian).—Sometimes erroneously No. 1. In the copy of Hotten’s Slang
+Dictionary, annotated by H. J. Byron, the playwright, now in the
+British Museum, this is given as ‘a title for the commander of 900
+men.’
+
+
+Aaron, subs. (thieves’).—‘The Aaron,’ says H. O. Manton in Slangiana,
+‘is the chief or captain of a gang or school of thieves. The title is
+invariably preceded by the prefix The—par excellence the first—similar
+to the eldest representatives of certain Irish and Scotch clans or
+families, such as The O’Connor Don, The Chisholm, etc. As Aaron was the
+first high priest ... it is probably of Jewish origin in its slang
+application. An Aaron was an old cant term for one of a class of
+cadgers, who combined begging with acting as guide to the summits of
+mountains, chiefly to evade the laws against vagabondage, no doubt a
+play, in its slang sense, on its Hebrew equivalent, lofty.’ In this
+last connection a closer relationship probably exists than that just
+stated, inasmuch as Gesenius thinks that the Hebrew Aaron is a
+derivative of Hāron, a mountaineer. It is to be remarked that leaders
+of the church were also called Aarons.
+
+
+A. B., or A. B. S. (commercial).—An able-bodied seaman.—See Bottle
+sucker.
+
+    1875. Chambers’ Journal, No. 627. Of all the European sailors by
+    far the most reliable were five stalwart A.B’S.
+
+
+Abaddon, subs. (old).—A thief who, to general nefarious practices, adds
+perfidy to his companions. Rarely, and perhaps only locally used. It is
+obviously derived from Abaddon, the destroyer or angel of the
+bottomless pit (Revelation ix., 11).
+
+
+Abandannad, Abandannaad, subs. (thieves’).—1. A nearly obsolete term to
+designate primarily a pickpocket, whose chief quarry is pocket
+handkerchiefs or bandannas; and, hence
+
+2. A petty thief, i.e., one whose depredations are regarded by the
+fraternity as not worth the risk incurred. Brewer writes down the word
+as a contraction of ‘a bandanna lad.’ With this derivation is connected
+the story of an incident said to have been a prime factor in the
+movement resulting in the passing of Sir Samuel Romilly’s Act for the
+abolition of capital punishment for highway robberies under 40s. value.
+Briefly told, it is that a footpad robbed a woman of a bandanna shawl,
+valued at 9d., an offence for which a notorious highwayman was hanged.
+Subsequently, however, he was proved to have been innocent, whereupon
+the fact of her mistaken accusation having done an innocent man to
+death so preyed upon the woman’s mind that she became raving mad. The
+incidents touched the public conscience, an agitation ensued, and the
+law was amended as stated.
+
+
+Abandoned Habits, subs. phr. (popular).—The riding costumes of the
+ladies of the demi-monde in Hyde Park—(Slangiana). The punning and
+sufficiently obvious innuendo involved in the appellation hardly calls
+for further comment.—See Anonyma.
+
+
+Abbess or Lady Abbess, subs. (old).—The keeper of a house of ill-fame;
+also a procuress. It has been suggested that the origin of this term
+for the mistress of a brothel, as also that of Abbot (q.v.), the name
+given to the male associate of the mistress, may be traced to the
+alleged illicit amours of Abelard and Héloïse. In this connection it is
+significant that, according to Francisque Michel’s Etudes Comparées sur
+l’Argot, a common woman was, in the old French cant, said to come from
+l’abbaye des s’offre à tous. The keeper of such an establishment was
+called l’abbesse, and her associate le sacristain. The analogy was
+carried still further, by the inmates being termed ‘nuns’ and ‘sisters
+of charity.’ This depravation in the meaning of words, usually applied
+only to the holders of sacred offices, may possibly, without undue
+license, be regarded as resulting from the mockery born of the
+degradation, in the popular mind, of the priestly office; or, it may
+naturally flow from the loose way in which the title of ‘abbot’ was
+often applied to the holders of non-monastic offices. Thus, the first
+step toward degeneration may have occurred in applying the term to the
+principal of a body of clergy, as an episcopal rector; or, as amongst
+the Genoese, to a chief magistrate. The second stage was reached when,
+in the middle ages, ‘abbot’ was applied ironically to the heads of
+various guilds and associations, and to the leaders in popular
+assemblages and disorderly festivities, e.g., the Abbot of
+Bell-ringers, the Abbot of Misrule, the Abbot of Unreason. Henceforward
+deterioration was both easy and rapid to the point when ‘abbot’ and its
+co-relative abbess, signified a steward and stewardess of the stews
+(q.v.). The terms are now obsolete on both sides of the Channel. In
+England the modern equivalent for abbess is mother (q.v.); and in
+France la maca, mère maca, la maquecée, or l’institutrice, do similar
+duty.
+
+    1782. Wolcot [P. Pindar], Odes to the Pope, Ode ii. in Works
+    (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 492.
+
+        So an old abbess, for the rattling rakes,
+        A tempting dish of human nature makes,
+        And dresses up a luscious maid.
+
+    1840. W. Kidd, London and all Its Dangers. The infernal wretches
+    who traffic in the souls and bodies of their helpless victims are
+    called lady abbesses.
+
+
+Abbey Lubber, subs. phr. (old).—[From abbey + lubber.]
+
+1. An old term of contempt for an able-bodied idler who grew sleek and
+fat upon the charity of religious houses; also sometimes, especially
+subsequent to the Reformation, applied to monks. In this sense it has
+long fallen into disuse.
+
+    1680. Dryden, Spanish Friar, III. 3. This is no huge, overgrown
+    abbey lubber.
+
+2. The term survives, however, and is still occasionally used by
+seafaring men, although ‘lubber’ is now more common amongst our Jack
+tars for a lazy, thriftless individual. If a sailor wishes to express
+the utmost scorn for laziness and meanness, he finds a very much more
+forcible expression in a ‘dirty dog and no sailor.’—See Lubbers’ hole.
+
+
+Abbot, subs. (old).—The husband or ‘fancy man’ of an abbess (q.v.); now
+called a ponce (q.v.). In the old French argot these gentry were
+dignified by the title of sacristain. They were occasionally spoken of
+as croziered abbots, or abbots on the cross, in which case the
+establishments over which they mounted guard were not so much brothels
+as panel cribs (q.v.), where prostitution served mainly as a cloak for
+robbery.
+
+
+Abbott’s Priory, subs. phr. (popular).—The King’s Bench Prison was
+formerly so-called; perhaps from Chief Justice Abbott.
+
+
+Abbreviations.—These occasionally partake most clearly of the nature of
+slang. As illustrative examples may be mentioned:—K.D.Gs., the King’s,
+now the First Dragoon Guards.—O.K., all right; ‘orl krect.’—B.T.I., a
+big thing on ice.—Q.T., generally ‘on the strict Q.T.’, i.e.,
+quiet.—T.T., too thin.—Cri., the Criterion (restaurant or theatre).—The
+Ox., the Oxford Music Hall.—Tec., detective.—B.P., British Public.—B.
+and S., brandy and soda.—P.D.Q., pretty d——d quick.
+
+
+A. B. C.’s (London).—1. The Aërated Bread Co.’s establishments are,
+familiarly speaking, A. B. C.’s.
+
+2. (Christ’s Hospital).—Ale, Bread and Cheese on ‘going home night.’
+
+As easy as a. b. c., adv. phr. (popular).—Extremely facile; the acme of
+ease, i.e., from an adult’s point of view; children, however, probably
+view the matter in a different light. In this, as in much else,
+distance lends enchantment to the scene. This colloquialism is by no
+means of modern growth; Shakspeare speaks of answer ‘coming like A. B.
+C. book.’
+
+
+A-Bear, v. (provincial and vulgar).—To suffer, or to tolerate. [From
+old English abearan, to bear or carry].—This term, though hoary with
+age, and long of honorable usage (from A.D. 885 downward), must now be
+classed with degenerate words, or at all events with non-literary
+English. Though still largely dialectical, its use amongst people of
+education is reckoned vulgar. It is now invariably employed in
+conjunction with ‘cannot’—‘I can’t abear furriners.’
+
+
+Abelwhackets.—See Ablewhackets.
+
+
+Aberdeen Cutlet, subs. phr. (familiar).—A dried haddock.—Cf.,
+Billingsgate pheasant.
+
+
+Abide, v. (vulgar).—To tolerate; to put up with. This, like abear
+(q.v.), has ancient sanction for its use. In the senses of to endure,
+suffer, bear, or sustain—meanings which are now obsolete—the word can
+be traced back as far as A.D. 1205; the modern vulgar usage, rarely
+employed affirmatively, dates from about A.D. 1526, when Tindale
+translated John viii. 43, by ‘He cannot abyde the hearyng of my words.’
+Abide, therefore, may be classed amongst those words which, once
+respectable, have now fallen into disrepute. Shakspeare puts into the
+mouth of one of his characters a phrase which, to those acquainted with
+the speech of the uneducated classes, has a very modern appearance, ‘I
+cannot abide the smell of hot meat.’
+
+
+Abigail, subs. (popular).—A lady’s maid. There can be little doubt that
+the familiar use of this name for the genus ‘waiting woman,’ was
+primarily an allusion to the title of handmaid assumed by Abigail, the
+wife of Nabal, in speaking to the servants of King David. ‘Behold, let
+thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my
+Lord’ (1 Sam. xxv. 41). Other names recorded in the Bible, and for the
+matter of that elsewhere, have been used much in the same way as
+marking distinctive character. Abigail has thus become associated with
+the idea of a female servant; so, too, a giant is spoken of as a
+Goliath; a patient man as a Job; a shrew as a Jezebel; a coward as a
+Bob Acres, cum multis aliis. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s comedy of The
+Scornful Lady (1616), one of the characters, Mrs. Youngton, a ‘waiting
+gentlewoman,’ is named Abigail. This play, having a long run of public
+favour,—Pepys in his Diary [1666], iv. 195, specially mentions
+it,—possibly led to the popularization of the nickname. At all events
+it subsequently appeared on more than one occasion in the same
+connection in the plays of the period. There is no reason to suppose
+that the term was derived from the notorious Abigail Hill, better known
+as Mrs. Masham, a poor relative of the Duchess of Marlborough, by whom
+she was introduced to a subordinate place about the person of Queen
+Anne; nor will the contention that it was first established in public
+usage by Dean Swift, who employed it in a letter to Stella, hold good;
+although likely enough he caused it to take deeper root than before.
+The terms on which he was with the Mashams rendered him the last person
+in the world likely to have used such a term, unless it had been so
+long in familiar use as to be deprived of all appearance of personal
+allusion to them.
+
+    1663. T. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, II., vi. in Dodsley, O.P.
+    (1780), xi., 425. [In this play, a waiting woman is termed an
+    Abigail.]
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, book XI., ch. ii. The mistress was no
+    sooner in bed than the maid prepared to follow her example. She
+    began to make many apologies to her sister Abigail for leaving her
+    alone in so horrid a place as an inn.
+
+    1858. G. Eliot, Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. iii. The next morning,
+    Mrs. Sharp, then a blooming Abigail of three-and-thirty, entered
+    her lady’s private room.
+
+It has been stated that Old English writers used the word Abigail to
+signify a termagant woman, and also a female bigamist, but there is no
+evidence to support these views. It may be mentioned that the French
+use the word in the popular English sense. A waiting woman was also
+formerly called a comb-brush (q.v.).
+
+
+Ablewhackets, also Abelwhackets, Abelwackets, subs. (nautical).—[From
+able (uncertain, perhaps alluding to able seaman) + whack]. A game of
+cards played by sailors, in which the loser receives a whack or blow
+with a knotted handkerchief for every game (or point) he loses. Smyth,
+in his Sailor’s Word Book [1867], says it is very popular with
+horny-fisted salts. It is quoted by Grose as far back as 1785, but
+Clark Russell, in Sailor’s Language [1883], refers to it as obsolete.
+
+
+Abound, v. (American).—To be prominent; en évidence.
+
+    1873. Evening Standard, 28 January. When we are told of a professed
+    wit more than usually abounding at an evening party, there is no
+    temptation to recruit our dictionaries from the English
+    manufactured in the United States.
+
+
+About East, adv. phr. (American).—To the frontiersman or pioneer, the
+Eastern or New England States are typical of all that he cherishes most
+and loves best. The vicissitudes of his rough Western life, the toil
+and hardships he has undergone while battling with nature and building
+up a new habitation far from the old homestead, all predispose him to
+turn with longing eyes and undying, though quaintly exaggerated love to
+the East—the home of his fathers. A famous Yankee character (Major Jack
+Downing) makes use of the expression that he would ‘Go East of sunrise
+any day to see sich a place.’ Everybody and everything connected with
+the East, i.e., his native land, is commendable. To his mind they
+cannot be surpassed—hence the things he would hold up to admiration he
+says are about East, i.e., ‘about right.’ Indeed, it is surprising what
+a strong hold this idea has upon the minds of men. Many a familiar
+phrase recalls the old times and the old folks to memory, which, in
+this respect, is evergreen. They talk of going down East, that is, to
+New England, while the Down-Easter is neither more nor less than the
+pure and veritable Yankee.—Farmer’s Americanisms, Old and New.
+
+
+About Right, adv. phr. (vulgar).—Correctly; to the purpose;
+properly—general satisfaction on the part of the speaker concerning a
+given thing or action. ’Arry sometimes varies the locution by ter
+rights (q.v.).
+
+    1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, ch. iv. ‘You’re about right,
+    there, Mr. Lawless; you’re down to every move, I see, as usual.’
+
+    1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. xxii. ‘I am afraid your schemes
+    went a little awry yesterday,’ observed Mrs. Daventry.... ‘You’re
+    about right; they did.’
+
+
+About the Size of It, adv. phr. (American).—1. An expression covering a
+wide field—assent, general satisfaction, approval, etc. Synonymous with
+about right; o.k.; ter rights, etc.
+
+2. Used also for ‘how’; ‘how much,’ etc.—a measure of quantity or
+quality.
+
+    1876 (?). James Greenwood, New ‘Roughs’ Guide’ in ‘Odd People in
+    Odd Places.’ Got no home, no wittles, and never a ’a’penny to buy
+    none with. That’s about the size of how destitoot we are, sir.
+
+    1881. Punch, May 14, p. 228. Sir G[orgius] M[idas] goes in for
+    Culture. “Look ’ere, Clarke. ‘Appy thought! I’ll make this little
+    room the libery, you know; ’ave a lot o’ books. Mind you order me
+    some.’ ‘Yes, Sir Gorgius. What sort of books shall I order?’ ‘Oh,
+    the best, of course, with binding and all that to match!’ ‘Yes, Sir
+    Gorgius, how many shall I order?’ ‘Well,—let me see,—suppose we say
+    a couple o’ ’undred yards of ’em, hay? That’s about the size of it,
+    I think.”
+
+
+Above Board, adv. phr. (common).—Without disguise or concealment; with
+an absence of artifice. Jamieson refers this to the language of the
+gaming table, the players when changing cards putting their hands on,
+i.e., above the table or board to ensure fair dealing. It appears,
+however, even in its figurative sense to be a colloquialism of long
+standing.—See Murray’s New English Dictionary.
+
+
+Above One’s Bend, adv. phr. (American).—See Bend.
+
+
+Above Par, adv. phr. (familiar).—Used figuratively in a multitude of
+senses, e.g. (1) in reference to one’s health or spirits, in good
+condition; (2) applied to a man in liquor it signifies a state of
+moderate drunkenness; or (3) used in regard to pecuniary matters it is
+synonymous with being ‘flush,’ having ‘the needful’—‘best bliss of
+earth,’ as Duncombe puts it. Derived from the technical, commercial
+meaning. Stocks are said to be at par when purchasable at their ‘face’
+value; when at a premium they are above par; and when selling at a
+decline in value, i.e., at a discount, they are said to be below par;
+hence the colloquial usage. See example in quotation. Synonyms, up to,
+or above the mark.
+
+    1880. Punch, June 5, p. 253. Fred on Pretty Girls and Pictures.
+
+        Awful fellow that Ted at his letters!—he writes for the
+            Scanmag, you know;
+        And his style never falls below ‘par.’ Not my joke, heard him
+            putting it so——.
+        And the pars in the Scanmag—he does them—are proper, and chock
+            full of ‘go.’
+        Only paper I care to grind through, never preachy, or gushing,
+            or slow!
+
+
+Abracadabra, subs. (scientific jargon).——1.—A cabalistic word used in
+incantations. When written in a manner similar to that shown in
+accompanying diagram, so as to be read in different directions, and
+worn as an amulet, it was supposed to cure certain ailments.
+
+                         A B R A C A D A B R A
+                          A B R A C A D A B R
+                           A B R A C A D A B
+                            A B R A C A D A
+                             A B R A C A D
+                              A B R A C A
+                               A B R A C
+                                A B R A
+                                 A B R
+                                  A B
+                                   A
+
+Hence (2), any word-charm, empty jingle of words, gibberish, nonsense,
+or extravagant idea. Littré’s derivation from the Hebrew—ab father,
+mach spirit, and dabar word—is regarded by many authorities as
+fanciful; as also is T. A. G. Balfour’s reference of it to a
+composition of the first letters of the Hebrew words signifying
+‘Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’ Other authorities, though by no means
+in accord, generally agree that a Persian origin is the most likely.
+Mr. R. S. Charnock (Notes and Queries, 7 S., iii., 504) thinks it
+related to the cabalistic word abraxas composed of the Greek letters α,
+β, ρ, α, ξ, α, ς, making, according to the Greek numeration, the number
+365.
+
+    Des auteurs beaucoup plus anciens n’ont vu dans le mot abraxas,
+    qu’une réunion des lettres numériques, qui étant additionées
+    donnent le nombre 365, ou l’année entière, en sorte qu’ abraxas
+    serait le symbole du soleil ou de sa révolution annuelle
+    presumée.—Depping.
+
+In Persian, according to Grotenford, abraxas means the ‘Sun God’; if
+this be so its use as a talisman is easily understood. Yet another
+derivation is from a corrupt form of the Hebrew—dabar is verbū, and
+abraca is benedixit, i.e., verbum benedixit. If, however, the word is
+Semitic at all, and nothing more than an unintelligible jargon of
+letters, it could possibly be better explained than by Littré, by
+Abra(i) seda bra(i), ‘Out, bad spirit, out!’ as a magic formula for
+driving out the demon which causes the fever. It is interesting in this
+connection to compare Mark i. 25, ix. 25, and parallel passages.
+
+    1687. Aubrey’s Remaines of Gentilisme, p. 124 (1881). [In this work
+    abracadabra is given arranged as a spell.]
+
+    1711. Spectator, No. 221. They [the signatures] are, perhaps,
+    little amulets or charms to preserve the paper against the
+    fascination and malice of evil eyes; for which reason I would not
+    have my reader surprised, if hereafter he sees any of my papers
+    marked with a Q, a Z, a Y, an &c., or with the word abracadabra.
+
+    1722. Defoe, Journal of the Plague (ed. Brayley, 1835, p. 56).
+    ‘This mysterious word, which, written in the form of a triangle or
+    a pyramid, was regarded as a talisman or charm of wonderful power,
+    is said to have been the name of a Syrian god, whose aid was
+    considered to be invoked by the wearers of the amulet. It
+    originated in the superstitions of a very remote period, and was
+    recommended as an antidote by Serenus Sammonicus, a Roman
+    physician, who lived in the early part of the third century, in the
+    reigns of the emperors Severus and Caracalla. Its efficacy was
+    reputed to be most powerful in agues and other disorders of a
+    febrile kind, and particularly against the fever called by the
+    physicians Hemitritæus.’
+
+    1879. Literary World, 5 Dec., p. 358, col. 2 [m]. The new
+    abracadabra of science, ‘organic evolution.’
+
+
+Abraham, subs. (popular).—A clothier’s shop of the lowest description,
+where slop-made garments of shoddy cloth form the staple commodity
+together with second-hand clothes or hand-me-downs (q.v.). Chiefly
+localized in the East End of London, where these establishments are
+kept by Jews; hence probably the derivation of the term; adj. (old
+cant).—See Abram.
+
+
+Abraham-Cove, Abraham-Man, Abram-Cove, Abram-Man, Tom of Bedlam’s Man,
+or Bedlam Beggar, subs. (old cant).—It is difficult now-a-days to trace
+with certainty the origin of these terms, notwithstanding a wealth of
+matter on the subject. Nares describes the fraternity as a set of
+vagabonds who wandered about the country soon after the dissolution of
+the religious houses: the provision for the poor in those places being
+cut off and no other substituted. Thus, primarily, an Abraham-man was a
+vagabond, a beggar—tattered, unwashed, unkempt—and a thief withal.
+‘What an Abram!’ an exclamation for a naked fellow. Harman, the
+earliest authority, refers to them as feigning madness (see quot.), and
+as having been resident in Bethlehem Hospital. Wards in the ancient
+Bedlam bore distinctive names of some saint or patriarch; that named
+after Abraham was devoted to a class of mendicant lunatics, who on
+certain days were permitted to go out begging. It is an open question
+whether the ward gave the name to the men or vice versâ. In either
+case, however, the use of the term ‘Abraham’ is in this connection
+possibly an allusion to the beggar Lazarus in Luke xvii. These
+mendicants bore a badge, but many assumed the distinction without
+right, and begged feigning lunacy. Hence, it may be, the more popular
+signification of the term—
+
+2. An impostor, wandering about the country pretending to be mad,
+begging in the streets, and laying hands upon all trifles ‘considered’
+or ‘unconsidered’ in his way. Dekker, in his English Villanies [1632],
+has many curious particulars of the habits of this class of impostors
+who were said to sham Abraham. Shakspeare also, in King Lear [1605],
+Act ii., Scene 3, describes and puts into the mouth of one of these
+characters the following words:
+
+
+    ... the basest and most poorest shape,
+    That ever penury in contempt of man,
+    Brought near to beast: my face I’ll grime with filth;
+    Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots;
+    And with presented nakedness outface
+    The winds, and persecutions of the sky.
+    The country gives me proof and precedent
+    Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
+    Strike in their numb’d and mortified bare arms
+    Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
+    And with this horrible object, from low farms,
+    Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes and mills,
+    Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
+    Enforce their charity.
+
+
+The term is now obsolete, though Scott used it as late as 1824, and
+from the Quarterly Review (1813), IX., p. 167, it seems to have then
+been in pretty general use. The modern prototype is called a tramp or
+cadger. To sham Abraham, i.e., to feign sickness or distress is,
+however, still in vogue. The French equivalent is Fagotin (m).—See also
+Abraham sham and Abram.
+
+    1573. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 29. These Abraham men be those that
+    fayn themselves to have bene mad, and have bene kept either in
+    Bethlehem, or in some other pryson a good time, and not one amongst
+    twenty that ever came in prison for any such cause.
+
+    1625. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, II., i. Are they padders
+    or Abram-men that are your consorts?
+
+    1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Abram cove, naked or poor man.
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxi. ‘There is a trick for you
+    to find an Abram-man, and save sixpence out when he begs of you as
+    a disbanded seaman.’
+
+
+Abraham Grains, subs. (thieves’).—A publican who brews his own beer.
+
+
+Abraham Newland, subs. (popular).—A bank note. Abraham Newland was
+chief cashier to the Bank of England, from 1778 to 1807.
+
+    1829. Sir W. Scott, letter to Croker in Croker Papers, vol. II., p.
+    36. A bank note seems to terrify everybody out of their wits, and
+    they will rather give up their constitution to Hunt and Cobbett
+    than part with an Abraham Newland to preserve it.
+
+
+Abraham’s Balsam, subs. (old).—Death by hanging.—See To die in one’s
+boots.
+
+
+Abraham Sham, subs. (old cant).—1.—Feigned sickness or distress. See
+Abraham-man. Usually spoken of as to sham Abraham, or Abram (q.v.).
+From this primary meaning, joined with an allusion to the name of a
+once well-known chief cashier of the Bank of England, was derived the
+secondary meaning of the term shamming Abraham, to forge bank-notes.
+Abraham Newland was in office in the years 1778–1807, and a popular
+song of the period ran as follows:
+
+
+    ‘I have heard people say that sham Abraham you may,
+    But you mustn’t sham Abraham Newland.’
+
+
+Further point is added to this stanza by the fact that bank notes were
+themselves termed Abraham Newlands (q.v.), and that forgery was felony
+by statute.
+
+    1759. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, cxix. “He swore that I
+    understood my business perfectly well, but that I shammed Abraham
+    merely to be idle.”
+
+    1849. C. Bronté, Shirley, ch. xxxiii. Matthew, sceptic and scoffer,
+    had already failed to subscribe a prompt belief in that pain about
+    the heart; he had muttered some words, amongst which the phrase
+    shamming Abraham had been very distinctly audible.
+
+
+Abraham Suit, subs. phr. (thieves’).—False pretences; fraudulent
+representations to excite sympathy. The term is applied to any trick or
+artifice calculated to extract money from the charitable, whether by
+means of begging letter, a faked-up appearance, or other contrivance.
+Those who resort to such practices are said to go on the Abraham suit.
+Cf., Abraham sham.
+
+
+Abraham’s Willing, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—A shilling.
+
+
+Abraham Work, subs. phr. (popular).—Shams of all kinds are so
+designated, from a bubble company down to the most trumpery ‘city
+pen’orth.’
+
+
+Abram, subs. (old and also modern sea slang).—1. The same as
+Abraham-man (q.v.).—2. A malingerer; one who gets put on the sick list
+to shirk work.
+
+Adj. (old cant).—1. Mad.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 36 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Abram madde. He maunds Abram, he begs as a madde man.
+
+2. Naked, ‘she’s all Abram.’
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, part I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). Abram,
+    naked.
+
+3. Abram or Abram coloured (old).—Derivation uncertain, but supposed to
+be a corruption of ‘auburn.’ In this connection it may be remarked that
+it is to be found in Coriolanus, Act II., scene 3; but where the
+original reads Abram the folio has ‘auburn.’ To sham Abram, verb
+(old).—Also see Abraham sham.—The original signification of this word,
+to feign sickness, led to its use to describe pretence of any kind;
+this is specially the case amongst sailors, workmen, etc., who describe
+malingering as doing Abram, the defaulter also being called by the same
+name.
+
+
+Abregoyns, Abergoins, Abrogans, subs. (American).—Vulgarisms for
+‘aborigines.’
+
+
+Abridgments, subs. (nonce word).—Knee breeches. This term for small
+clothes appears in Bulwer Lytton’s comedy, Money.
+
+    1840. Bulwer Lytton, Money, iv. 4. Frantz (producing a pair of
+    small clothes, which Toke examines). Your master is von beggar,
+    etc. Toke. I accept the abridgements, but you’ve forgotten to line
+    the pockets.
+
+
+Abroad, adv. (old).—1. Confused; staggered; perplexed. More generally
+retained in this sense in America than in England.
+
+2. (popular).—Generally all abroad; i.e., wide of the mark; wrong;
+uncertain in one’s estimate; or, ‘all at sea.’ In this figurative sense
+the expression is much older than is popularly supposed.—See Bedoozled.
+
+    1821. The Fancy, vol. I., p. 255. In the fourth round he came in
+    all abroad, and got a doubler in the bread-basket, which spoiled
+    him for the remainder of the fight.
+
+    1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. lxi. ‘My friend!’ repeated
+    Kit, ‘You’re all abroad, seemingly,’ returned the other man.
+    ‘There’s his letter, take hold.’
+
+    1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, ch. v. At the twelfth round the latter
+    champion was all abroad, as the saying is, and had lost all
+    presence of mind, and power of attack or defence.
+
+3. To be transported. The French have a similar circumlution, aller en
+traverse, and the Italian Fourbesque has andar a traverso.
+
+4. (Win. Coll.)—A boy returning to school work after being ill is said
+to come abroad. When on the sick list he is continent (q.v.) i.e.,
+continens cameram, vel lectum, keeping his room or bed. When recovered
+he is allowed to go foris, out of doors, or more colloquially, abroad.
+Adams, in Wykehamica, remarks that the use of this term shows the
+antiquity of the school, dating as it does from the times of the
+‘patrium sermonem fugito, Latinum exerceto, of the Tabula legum.’ To be
+furked abroad is a less complimentary term implying that a ‘man’ has
+been ‘shuffling’; it is specially applied to those who having ‘gone
+continent’ in the morning are sent back to school by the doctor at 9
+a.m.
+
+
+Abroaded (society).—See quotation, and compare with abroad.
+
+    1876. H. O. Manton, Slangiana, p. 11 (See Bibliography).
+    Fashionable slang for a noble defaulter on the Continent (sic) to
+    avoid creditors. It is the police official slang for convicts sent
+    to a colonial or penal settlement, but it is applied by thieves to
+    transportation either at home or in the Colonies.
+
+
+Abs (Win. Coll.)—1. An abbreviation of ‘absent’ placed against the name
+of a boy when absent from the school.
+
+2. v. tr., to take away. Formerly, circa, 1840, to abs a tolly
+(candle), meant to put it out; now it would mean to take it away
+whether lighted or unlighted, the modern ‘notion’ for putting it out
+being to ‘dump’ it.
+
+3. v. n. To get away; generally used in the imperative, as, ‘abs!’ ‘Oh!
+do abs!’ Sometimes, however, a fellow is said to abs quickly, and mess
+things (q.v.) are absed (trans.), or put away.
+
+4. To have one’s wind absed is to have it taken away by a violent blow
+in the stomach.
+
+
+Abscotchalater, subs. (thieves’).—Quoted by H. O. Manton in Slangiana
+as ‘one who is hiding away from the police.’ Cf., Absquatulate.
+
+
+Absence, subs. (Eton).—Names-calling, which takes place at 3 p.m. and 6
+p.m. on half-holidays; and at 11.30 a.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m. on whole
+holidays; at 6 p.m. only in summer half.
+
+
+Absent Without Leave, adv. phr. (thieves’).—Said of one who has broken
+prison; or (popular) absconded.
+
+
+Absit, subs. (Cambridge).—See quotation.
+
+    1886. Dickens’s Dictionary of the University of Cambridge, p. 3.
+    Every undergraduate wishing to leave Cambridge for a whole day, not
+    including a night, must obtain an ‘absit’ from his tutor.
+    Permission to go away for a longer period, either at the end of the
+    term or in the middle, is called an ‘exeat,’ and no undergraduate
+    should go down without obtaining his ‘exeat.’
+
+
+Abskize, Abschize, v. (American).—To depart; go away. Said to be of
+Western origin, and to have been in use about 1883. Of rare and
+probably local usage. It has been derived from the Dutch afscheyden;
+Ger. abscheiden of similar meaning; a not unlikely origin, bearing in
+mind the large Dutch and German element in the U.S.A.
+
+
+Absquatulate, also Absquotilate, v. (American).—To run away; to decamp;
+with the more or less forcible idea of absconding in disgrace. A
+factitious word, of American origin and jocular use, simulating a Latin
+form, perhaps from Latin ab and squat, i.e., to settle on land,
+especially public or new lands, without any title or right whether of
+purchase or permission, though in Australia the term is employed in a
+more restricted sense for a sub-lessee of the government at a nominal
+rent. It was first used by Mr. Hackett, as Nimrod Wildfire, a Kentucky
+character, in a play called ‘The Kentuckian,’ by Bernard, produced in
+1833. It is now less often heard than formerly, having been replaced in
+some degree by the word skedaddle (q.v.). For synonyms, see Amputate
+one’s mahogany.
+
+    1835–1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xiv. ‘What’s the use
+    of legs but to absquotilate with ... when traps are sot for you.’
+
+    1879. Punch, Jan. 18, p. 23, col. 1. The Reward of Merit. Mrs. Lyon
+    Hunter, ‘How do you do, Mr. Brown? Let me present you to the
+    Duchess of Stilton! Your Grace, permit me to present to you Mr.
+    Brown, the distinguished scholar!’ Her Grace (affably). ‘Charmed to
+    make your acquaintance—er—Mr. Brown!’ Mr. Brown (with effusion).
+    ‘Your Grace is really too kind. This is the ninth time I’ve enjoyed
+    the distinction of being presented to your Grace within the last
+    twelve months; but it’s a distinction I value so highly, that
+    without trespassing too much on your Grace’s indulgence, I hope I
+    may be occasionally permitted to enjoy it again.’ [Bows, and
+    absquatulates.]
+
+    1884. Daily Telegraph, August 20, p. 6, col. 1. Yet who knows but
+    that some day an accident may happen to the Aberdeenshire works of
+    art ... the sense of the cartoons be totally subverted—in
+    Rabelaisian phrase, ‘absquashed and absquatulated.’
+
+
+Academician, subs. (old).—The inmate of a brothel.
+
+
+Academy, subs. (old).—1. A disorderly house; a brothel; a bagnio. Grose
+remarks that these establishments were also called pushing schools. The
+old brothels have of late years rapidly disappeared, their places being
+taken by what are known as bed houses (q.v.). These vary in character
+as regards style, equipment, and cost, but of whatever grade, rooms may
+be had for longer or shorter periods as required. The French call them
+maisons de societé; maisons de passe; foutoirs, and gros numéros, the
+last from the fact, that these semi-private brothels bear a number of
+large dimensions over the entrance. The French have also a somewhat
+analogous term for the mistress of an académie in l’institutrice, the
+teacher. In the finishing academy (q.v.) the inmates are young
+prostitutes, the next stage in whose downward career is taken on the
+streets.
+
+2. According to the N.Y. Slang Dictionary, a penitentiary or prison for
+minor offences.
+
+3. A thieves’ school; also a band of thieves. There are establishments
+of similar character bearing more distinctive names, e.g.:
+
+4. Buzzing Academy (thieves’).—A school for thieves, chiefly boys.
+Fagan, the old Jew in Oliver Twist, will occur to mind, as also the
+devices by which he taught his gang to pick pockets and pilfer
+adroitly.
+
+5. Canting Academy (vagrants’).—A house of call or common lodging
+house, frequented by the fraternity; a cadger’s dossing ken. The term
+is also applied to any house where application for food or money is
+likely to be successful. At the regular ‘beggar’s house’—establishments
+which abound more or less in every town—information can be obtained so
+that the district can be thoroughly and systematically ‘worked.’
+
+6. Character Academy.—At these places false characters are drawn up, to
+say nothing of the concoction of schemes of robbery.
+
+7. Floating Academy (thieves’).—The hulks or prison ships were formerly
+so-called. When the regulations as regards transportation were relaxed,
+convicts condemned to hard labour were sent on board these vessels.
+
+8. Gammoning Academy.—A reformatory.
+
+
+Acause, conj. (vulgar).—A corruption of ‘because.’
+
+
+Accommodation House, subs. (popular).—A brothel. Also frequently
+applied to what in police court phraseology are known as disorderly
+houses, i.e., houses where rooms can be hired for shorter or longer
+periods as desired.—See Bed house.
+
+
+According to Cocker.—See Cocker.
+
+
+According to the Revised Statutes.—See Revised statutes.
+
+
+Account. To go on the account, verb. phr. (old nautical).—To join in a
+fillibustering or buccaneering expedition; to turn pirate. Ogilvie
+says, probably from the parties sharing, as in a commercial venture.
+
+    1812. Scott, Letter to a Friend. I hope it is no new thing for
+    gentlemen of fortune who are going on the account to change a
+    captain now and then.
+
+To account for (sporting).—To kill; literally to be answerable for
+bringing down one’s share of the shooting; to make away with.
+
+    1846–48. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xx. The persecuted animals
+    [rats] bolted above ground: the terrier accounted for one, the
+    keeper for another.
+
+    1858. Letter from Lahore, 28 September, in Times, 19 November. In
+    the course of one week they were hunted up and accounted for; and
+    you know that in Punjab phraseology accounting for means the
+    extreme fate due to mutineers. [M.]
+
+
+Accounts. To cast up one’s accounts, verb. phr. (old cant).—To vomit.
+Still common; quoted by Grose [1785]. The expression sometimes runs,
+amongst seafaring men, to audit one’s accounts at the Court of Neptune.
+
+Eng. Synonyms. To shoot the cat; to cat.
+
+French Synonyms. Semer des miettes (lit. to sow or scatter crumbs);
+piquer le renard (lit. to goad the fox). Cf. ‘to shoot the cat.’ The
+old French phrase was chasser or escorcher le renard, either because,
+says Cotgrave, ‘in spueing one makes a noise like a fox that barks, or
+because the flaying of so unsavory an animal will make any man spue’;
+renverser (lit. to overturn, to upset); faire restitution (lit. to make
+amends; to restore); revoir la carte (lit. to look at the bill of fare
+again).
+
+(Thieves’).—To turn Queen’s evidence.
+
+
+Accumulatives, subs. (American).—These journalistic sparring matches
+are essentially a ‘Yankee notion.’ In England they are called codicils
+(q.v.), under which see an amusing example which will illustrate their
+character, as also the length to which American editors sometimes go in
+heaping Ossa upon Pelion.
+
+
+Accumulator, subs. (racing).—A bettor, who when successful with one
+horse, carries forward the stakes to another event.
+
+
+Ace of Spades, subs. phr. (old).—A widow. Though obsolete in England,
+it is quoted by the New York Slang Dictionary (1881) as still current
+in America.
+
+
+Ack, intj. (Christ’s Hospital).—No! refusal of a request, e.g., ‘Lend
+me your book.’ ‘Ack!’
+
+
+Ackman, Ackpirate (old), Or Ackruff (American), subs.—A freshwater
+thief; a ruffian who in conjunction with watermen robs and sometimes
+murders on the water. [Ack (unknown derivation, unless a corrupted form
+of ark, a boat; or wherry) + man, etc.] Quoted by Grose [1785], and
+also by Clark Russell, in Sailor’s Language [1883].
+
+
+Acknowledge the Corn, verb. phr. (American).—To make an admission of
+failure; to admit being outwitted. The various stories professing to
+account for derivation are discussed in detail in Americanisms, Old and
+New: the most circumstantial and certainly the best authenticated, runs
+as follows:—In 1828, the Hon. Andrew Stewart was in Congress discussing
+the principle of ‘Protection,’ and said in the course of his remarks,
+that Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky sent their haystacks, cornfields, and
+fodder to New York and Philadelphia for sale. The Hon. Charles A.
+Wickliffe, from Kentucky, jumped up and said, ‘Why that is absurd; Mr.
+Speaker, I call the gentleman to order. He is stating an absurdity. We
+never send haystacks or cornfields to New York or Philadelphia.’ ‘Well,
+what do you send?’ ‘Why, horses, mules, cattle, hogs.’ ‘Well, what
+makes your horses, mules, cattle, hogs? You feed a hundred dollars’
+worth of hay to a horse, you just animate and get upon the top of your
+haystack and ride off to market. How is it with your cattle? You make
+one of them carry fifty dollars’ worth of hay and grass to the Eastern
+market. Mr. Wickliffe, you send a hog worth ten dollars to an Eastern
+market; how much corn does it take at thirty-three cents per bushel to
+fatten it?’ ‘Why, thirty bushels!’ ‘Then you put that thirty bushels of
+corn into the shape of a hog, and make it walk off to the Eastern
+market.’ Mr. Wickliffe jumped up and said: ‘Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge
+the corn.’ [De Vere’s Americanisms [1872] p. 47.] Latterly the
+expression has been used in England in the sense of simply to make an
+admission.
+
+    1860. Haliburton (Sam Slick), The Season Ticket, No. 9. ‘He had a
+    beard that wouldn’t acknowledge the corn to no man’s.’
+
+    1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, p. 361. Acknowledge the corn, to
+    confess a charge or imputation.
+
+    1883. G. A. Sala, Living London, p. 97. Mr. Porter acknowledges the
+    corn as regards his fourteen days’ imprisonment, and is forgiven by
+    his loving consort.
+
+
+Acorn. A horse foaled of an acorn, subs. phr. (old).—The gallows.
+Euphemisms for hanging, the ‘tree’ itself, and the victim of the law’s
+majesty were, at the time when the death penalty was a common
+punishment, both many and curious. A horse foaled of an acorn, is
+obviously an allusion to the timber of which the triple tree (q.v.) was
+constructed. The widows of those who had suffered the extreme penalty
+of the law were termed hempen widows (q.v.); the children of such, or
+those likely to meet with death by hanging, hempseed (q.v.); and hempen
+fever (q.v.) represented the dread malady itself.
+
+    1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. viii. I believe as how ’tis
+    no horse, but a devil incarnate; and yet I’ve been worse mounted,
+    that I have—I’d like to have rid a horse that was foaled of an
+    acorn (i.e., he had nearly met with the fate of Absalom).
+
+    1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. ‘The cove ... is as pretty a
+    Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an
+    acorn.’
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 8. Tom Sheppard
+    was always a close file, and would never tell whom he married. Of
+    this I’m certain, however, she was much too good for him.... As to
+    this little fellow ... he shall never mount a horse foaled by an
+    acorn, if I can help it.
+
+
+Acquaintance. To scrape acquaintance, verb. phr. (common).—To make
+acquaintance. Probably from ‘bowing and scraping’ to a person, in order
+to curry favor.
+
+    1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle [ed. 1711], p. 5, Lucinda. Pray
+    good Cæsar, keep off your paws; no scraping acquaintance for
+    Heaven’s sake.
+
+This phrase has a classical origin, an account of which from the pen of
+Dr. Doran, F.S.A., appears in the Gentleman’s Magazine [N.S. xxxix.
+230] in an article on ‘The Masters of the Roman World during the
+Happiest Years of the Human Race.’
+
+    There is an anecdote connected with Hadrian and the custom of
+    bathing, from which is derived the proverbial saying of scraping an
+    acquaintance. The Emperor, entering a bath, saw an old soldier
+    scraping himself with a tile. He recognised the man as a former
+    comrade—his memory on such points never failed him—and, pitying his
+    condition that he had nothing better than a tile for a flesh-brush,
+    he ordered the veteran to be presented with a considerable sum of
+    money, and a costly set of bathing garments. Thereupon all the old
+    soldiers of the Imperial Army became as anxious to claim fellowship
+    with the Emperor as the Kirkpatricks of Great Britain and Ireland
+    are proudly eager to establish kinship with the Empress of the
+    French. As Hadrian entered the bath the day after that on which he
+    had rewarded his former comrade, he observed dozens of old soldiers
+    scraping themselves with tiles. He understood the intent, but
+    wittily evaded it. ‘Scrape one another, gentlemen,’ said he, ‘you
+    will not scrape acquaintance with me!’
+
+
+Acquisitive, subs. (American).—Plunder; booty; pickings. A noun formed
+from the adjective.
+
+
+Acreocracy, subs. (common).—The landed interest. Possibly of American
+coinage [of simulated Greek formation, from English acre + Greek
+κρατέω, to hold sway or to govern]. Compare with democracy, mobocracy,
+aristocracy, etc.
+
+    1878. Hallberger’s Illustrated Magazine, p. 622. The introduction
+    of a plutocracy among the aristocracy and the acreocracy though it
+    has tended somewhat to vulgarize our social institutions, etc.
+
+
+Acres, subs. (theatrical).—A coward. From Bob Acres, in Sheridan’s
+Rivals [1775]; here the character part is of a blusterer, one who talks
+big, but when put to the push, to use his own words, ‘his courage
+always oozed out of his finger ends.’ Cf., Abigail for a waiting maid;
+Samson for a strong man; Job for a monument of patience, and others.
+
+
+Across Lots. To go across lots, verb. phr.—To proceed by the shortest
+route; similarly to do anything in the most expeditious manner. The
+phrase had its rise in the natural tendency of settlers, in
+thinly-populated districts, to shorten the distance from point to point
+by leaving the road and striking across vacant lots. Brigham Young
+familiarized its idiomatic use in the now notoriously historic saying
+attributed to that ‘Saint,’—‘We’ll send them (the Gentiles) to hell
+across lots.’
+
+    1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers.
+
+        Past noontime they went trampin’ round
+        An’ nary thing to pop at found,
+        Till, fairly tired o’ their spree,
+        They leaned their guns agin a tree,
+        An’ jest ez they wuz settin’ down
+        To take their noonin’, Joe looked roun’
+        And see (acrost lots in a pond
+        That warn’t mor’n twenty rod beyond),
+        A goose that on the water sot
+        Ez ef awaitin’ to be shot.
+
+    1854. J. C. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, i., p. 35 [to a
+    grumbler]:—‘You would cut across the lot, like a streak of
+    lightning, if you had a chance.’
+
+    1887. Scribner’s Magazine. ‘I didn’t see Crossby go by, did you?’
+    ‘He’d have had to foot it by the path cross-lots, replied Ezra,
+    gravely, from the doorstep.’
+
+
+Acteon, subs. (old).—A cuckold; from the horns planted on the head of
+Acteon by Diana.
+
+
+Acting the Deceitful, verb. phr. (old theatrical).—Performing; mumming;
+acting.—Duncombe.
+
+
+Active Citizen, subs. (popular).—A louse. For synonyms, see Chates.
+
+
+Act of Parliament, subs. (old).—A military term for small beer, five
+pints of which, by an Act of Parliament, a landlord was formerly
+obliged to give gratis to each soldier billetted upon him. For
+synonyms, see Cold blood.
+
+
+Actual. The actual, subs. (popular).—Money, when spoken of
+collectively. The fact of the existence of innumerable synonyms for the
+‘modern staff of life’ goes far to bear out the latter-day contention
+that it is not the ‘evil’ itself [‘money is the root of all evil’—Old
+Saw] but the lack of it that is to be deplored. The central idea
+enshrined in many of these terms will well repay comparative study, a
+vein of subtle, and sometimes grim humor and pathos running through not
+a few of them. This applies equally to English slang, and to the
+French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese argots. Compare for example
+the English ‘feathers’ with the Spanish amigos (friends), the Italian
+agresto (sour grapes), and the French du foin (hay), or de l’os (bone),
+and obviously many a new side-light upon national habits and modes of
+thought may be obtained therefrom. The English and French, the two
+nations whose slang vocabularies are by far the most copious extant,
+have respectively upwards of 130 and 50 synonymous terms for money. The
+generic names are as follows:—
+
+Eng. Synonyms. Ballast; beans; blunt (i.e., specie,—not soft, or rags,
+i.e., bank-notes); brads; brass; bustle; coal; coppers (copper money,
+or mixed pence); chink; chinkers; chips; corks; dibs; dimmock; dinarly;
+dirt; dooteroomus (or doot); dumps; dust; dye stuffs; feathers; family
+plate (silver); dollars; gent (silver,—from argent); gilt; haddock (a
+purse of money); hard stuff (or hard); horse nails; huckster; John;
+John Davis; loaver; lour (the oldest cant term for money); mopusses;
+muck; needful; nothings (money collected in a hat by
+street-performers); ochre (gold); oof; ooftish; pewter; palm oil;
+pieces; posh; queen’s pictures; quids; rags (bank-notes); ready; ready
+gilt; ready John; redge (gold); rhino; rowdy; shadscales (or scales);
+shot; shekels; sinews of war; shiners (sovereigns); shin plasters (or
+plasters); skin (a purse of money); Spanish; spondulics; stamps; stiff
+(cheques, or bills of acceptance); stuff; stumpy; tin (silver); tow;
+wad; wedge (silver); wherewith; and yellow-boys (sovereigns). In the
+17th century money was often called ‘shells’—is this the origin of ‘to
+shell out’?—and ‘Oil of Angels’ (q.v.).
+
+French Argot. De l’artiche (thieves’: retirer de l’artiche, is to pick
+the pockets of a drunkard); du morningue; du foin (lit. hay); du plâtre
+(thieves’: lit. plaster); du poussier (thieves’: lit. coal-dust; Cf.,
+English ‘coal’ and ‘dust’); des soldats (thieves’: Falstaff, in Merry
+Wives of Windsor, ii., 2, says ‘money is a good soldier’); de la
+mornifle (this thieves’ term for money, whether good or counterfeit,
+originally signified false money only; there is a grim suggestiveness
+between the orthodox meaning of the word, ‘a slap on the face,’ and its
+slang signification); de la sauvette (also a basket used by rag-pickers
+and collectors of street refuse); de l’huile (lit. oil); du beurre
+(pop.: lit. butter); de la braise (pop.: ma braise is a term of
+endearment among the Lyonnais, and is equivalent to mon trésor, my
+treasure); du bath (thieves’: the tip-top; the excellent. From a
+superior kind of Bath note paper, which, in 1848, was hawked about the
+streets of Paris, and sold at a low price. Thus papier bath became
+synonymous with excellent paper. In a short time the qualifying term
+alone remained, and received a general application.—Argot and Slang);
+du graissage (pop.: lit. grease, Cf., ‘palm oil,’ and ‘greasing the
+palm’ in English slang); de la thune (thieves’: in old French cant the
+Roi de la Thune was the king of the beggars, and the old prison of
+Bicêtre, where free board and lodging was provided for many of the
+fraternity, was called La Thune. It is easy to see why the name of a
+place, where beggars congregated in considerable numbers and received
+relief, should pass into use to signify pecuniary alms); de la miche de
+profonde (pop. and thieves’: this exactly corresponds to the English
+‘loaver’); de l’oignon pèse (pop.: lit. heavy onion. Cf., Fourbesque
+argume); du sable (pop.: lit. sand); des pimpions (thieves’: Qy., from
+pimpant, fine, spruce, smart); de l’os (familiar: lit. bone); du nerf
+(lit. sinew. Cf., English ‘sinews of war’); des pepettes (pop.:
+pepette, a coin of the value of fifty centimes); des achetoires (pop.:
+from acheter, to buy); de la galette (pop.: lit. sea biscuit); des
+picaillons (pop.: probably a corruption of picaron, a Spanish coin); de
+ce qui se pousse (pop.: that which pushes itself forward. Cf., English
+proverb, ‘It’s money makes the mare to go’); de quoi (pop.: the
+wherewithal. Cf., English ‘the needful,’ the ‘ready’), de l’oignon
+(pop.: lit. onion. Fourbesque has also argume, lit. in Italian, an
+onion); de l’oseille (pop.: lit. sorrel); de la douille (thieves’ and
+pop.: from a kind of large fig much esteemed in Paris); des jaunets
+(lit. buttercups. Cf., English ‘yellow-boys’); des sous (lit. pence);
+de la graisse (pop. and thieves’: lit. ‘grease.’ Cf., palm oil); de
+l’affare (a thieves’ term, probably from the argotic verb affurer, to
+cheat, steal, or deceive); du metal (lit. metal); du zinc (lit. zinc);
+du pèze (from the Italian pezzo, a piece; Spanish peso, a silver coin,
+weighing an ounce); du pedzale; des noyaux (popular); des sonnettes
+plombes (plomb = lead); des sonnettes (lit. bells. Cf., English
+‘chinkers’); du quantum (from the Latin); du gras (lit. fat); de
+l’atout (lit. trumps in cards); de l’huile de main (lit. hand oil, the
+English ‘palm grease’); des patards (obsolete copper coins, value ¼d.;
+now applied particularly to a two-sous piece, and to money generally);
+de la vaisselle de poche (lit. pocket plate: vaisselle = gold and
+silver plate); du carme (from the game of Trictrac); de la pécune (lit.
+cash); des ronds (lit. circles; from the shape of coins); de la bille
+(from billon); du “sine quâ non” (from the Latin; meaning obvious); du
+sit nomen (from the Latin); quibus (an abbreviation of quibus fiunt
+omnia).
+
+Italian Fourbesque. Agresto (lit. sour grapes); albume (lit. white of
+egg), argume (lit. onions); asta, asti (from Ital. asta, a staff);
+contramaglia (silver money); brunotti (lit. brownish); penne (lit.
+feathers); smilzi (from Ital. smilzi = menu); squame (lit. chips or
+scales).
+
+Spanish Germania. Amigos (lit. friends); florin (here can be traced the
+Spanish connection with the Netherlands); sangre (lit. blood).
+
+Portuguese Calão.—Parne.
+
+German Synonyms (Gaunersprache).—See Gilt.
+
+
+Ad., Adver. subs. (printers’).—An abbreviated form of ‘advertisement.’
+
+    1854. Dickens, Household Words, xiii., 9. The really interesting
+    ads are in the body of the paper.
+
+    1888. New York Times, Ap. 6.
+
+        [The country editor’s wife—] ... reads the ads with the editor,
+          Just to find what each has paid.
+        ‘But the column ad of the jeweller, there,’
+        So he says, ‘and the harness, and human hair,
+          Must be taken out in trade!’
+        She wears the corsets he gets for ads,
+          And rattles his sewing machine;
+        She uses the butter, and cups, and things,
+        The country subscriber so faithfully brings,
+          With a cheerfulness seldom seen.
+
+
+Adam, subs. (old).—A sergeant or bailiff; a master man or foreman. Now
+used by thieves in the sense of an accomplice. Explained by
+commentators as a reference to the fact that the buff worn by a bailiff
+resembled the native buff worn by our first parent, or from his keeping
+the garden.
+
+    1598. Shakspeare, Comedy of Errors, iv., 3. Ant. S.... What Adam
+    dost thou mean? Dro. S. Not that Adam that kept the Paradise, but
+    that Adam that keeps the prison: he that goes into the calf-skin
+    that was killed for the prodigal.
+
+    1848. Sinks of London Laid Open, p. 96. Adam, a henchman, an
+    accomplice.
+
+
+Adam’s Ale, or sometimes simply Adam, and in Scotland Adam’s Wine.—A
+colloquialism of long standing for water, humorously suggesting that
+anything stronger was unknown to our first parents. Duncombe wittily
+adds a comment that our first father’s drink is best with brandy. This
+also would appear to be the view taken in most of the French and German
+equivalents.
+
+Eng. Synonyms. Fish broth; aqua pompaginis.
+
+French. Anisette de barbillon (a popular term); essence de parapluie
+(popular: lit. essence of umbrella); l’Adam’s ale (a literal
+translation of the English term); limonade (popular: a caustic comment
+surely upon the virtues of lemonade); lance (popular and thieves’: this
+term also does duty for ‘rain’; properly written l’ance, derived from
+the Spanish Germania ansia, itself an abbreviation of angustia, an
+allusion to the employment of water as a means of torture); sirop or
+ratafia de grenouilles (popular: lit. syrup of frogs); sirop de
+l’aiguière (popular: lit. pitcher syrup); sirop de baromètre (popular,
+barometer syrup).
+
+German Gaunersprache. Gänsewein (lit. goose-wine).
+
+Italian Fourbesque. Lenza (the remarks on French lance quoted above,
+apply equally here).
+
+    1643. Prynne, Sov. Power of Parl., II., 32. They have been shut up
+    in prisons and dungeons ... allowed onely a poore pittance of
+    Adam’s ale, and scarce a penny bread a day to support their lives.
+    [M.]
+
+    1786–9. Wolcot [P. Pindar], Lousiad, c. ii., line 453.
+
+        Old Adam’s beverage flows with pride,
+        From wide-mouth’d pitchers, in a plenteous tide.
+
+    1884. Daily Telegraph, April 1, p. 5, col. 2. The spectral banquet
+    graced now only by Adam’s ale, or the sick-room toast and water.
+
+    1886. John Coleman, Elfie, pt. I., ch. ii. For my part, I stuck to
+    Adam’s ale, which Elfie brought from the spring.
+
+
+Adam Tiler, subs. (old slang).—A pickpocket’s associate; one who
+receives stolen goods, and then runs off with them. [From Adam, an
+accomplice + tiler, a watchman. Cf., Masonic term.] For synonyms, see
+Fence.
+
+
+Added to the List (racing).—An abbreviation of ‘added to the list of
+geldings in training.’ Among French thieves, désatiller is the term
+employed to signify castration; or, where the operation is performed
+upon a man, abélardiser, i.e., to mutilate a man, as Chanoine Fulbert
+mutilated Abélard, the lover of his daughter or niece, Héloise.
+
+
+Addition, subs. (old).—A term for various toilet requisites, used by
+women; such as paint, rouge, powder, etc.
+
+    1704. Centlivre, Platonick Love, Act iii., Scene 1. Milliner. Be
+    pleased to put on the addition madam. Mrs. Dowdy. What does she
+    mean now? to pull my skin off, mehap, next. Ha, Peeper, are these
+    your London fashions? Peeper. No, no, addition is only paint,
+    madam.
+
+
+Addition, Division, and Silence! phr. (American).—A Philadelphia
+expression, which, for a time, had a vogue as a catch phrase. It is
+properly rendered multiplication, division, and silence! William M.
+Tweed, or as he is more familiarly known ‘Boss’ Tweed, is generally
+credited with this expression. Being asked what in his view was the
+proper qualification for a member of a ring or trust, in which all play
+into each other’s hands for mutual advantages, he replied
+multiplication, division, and silence!
+
+
+Addle Cove, subs. (common).—A foolish man; an easy dupe; literally, a
+rank sucker (q.v.), and equivalent to addle-head, addle-pate,
+addle-plot, all of which are common dictionary words. Why Barrère and
+Hotten have followed the lead of Grose in classing these words as slang
+is hardly clear. Dialectical they may have been, but all English was
+similarly placed prior to the 15th century, and the first reference
+given by Murray, bears the date of A.D. 1250.
+
+
+Adept, subs. (thieves’).—An expert amongst the light-fingered gentry.
+It is quite an open question whether adept, even in a thief’s sense,
+can fairly be classed as slang, the meaning being obviously identical
+with that commonly attached to the word.
+
+
+Adjective Jerker, subs. phr. (literary).—A term of derision applied,
+like ink-slinger (q.v.), to those who write for the press. The special
+allusion in the present case is doubtless to the want of discrimination
+which young writers, and reporters on low-class papers, often exhibit
+in the use of a plethora of adjectives to qualify a simple statement of
+fact.
+
+    1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, April 29. Genevieve spent four
+    hours last night in constructing a three-line letter, which she
+    sent to an adjective jerker on a society weekly, and in which she
+    said she would spend the summer months in the Rocky Mountains.
+
+
+Adjutant’s Gig, subs. phr. (military).—The barrack roller. Men under
+punishment are generally put to the task of drawing this machine.
+
+
+Admiral. To tap the Admiral, verb phr. (nautical).—A practice otherwise
+known as ‘sucking the monkey.’ Explained in Peter Simple as having
+originally been used amongst sailors for drinking rum out of cocoa nuts
+from which the milk had been extracted and replaced by spirits, an
+evasion of the regulation prohibiting the purchase of ardent liquors
+when on shore in the tropics. The Germans have an analogous expression
+Den affen saugen, to ‘suck the monkey,’ with the same signification.
+
+Nowadays it is applied to drinking on the sly from a cask by inserting
+a straw through a gimlet hole, and to drinking generally.
+
+    1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (the Black Mousquetaire).
+
+        What the vulgar call sucking the monkey,
+        Has much less effect on a man when he’s funky.
+
+
+Admiral of the Blue, subs. phr. (old).—A publican or tapster; from the
+colour of his apron; now obsolete. Cf., Admiral of the red.
+
+    1731. Poor Robin [Pseudonym of Robert Herrick] Almanac.
+
+        As soon as customers begin to stir,
+        The admiral of the blue, cries, ‘Coming, sir!’
+        Or if grown fat, the mate his place supplies;
+        And says, ’tis not my master’s time to rise.
+        Of all our trades, the tapster is the best,
+        He has more men at work than all the rest.
+
+
+Admiral of the Narrow Seas, subs. phr. (nautical).—A man who, under
+drink, vomits into the lap of his neighbour or vis-à-vis.
+
+
+Admiral of the Red, subs. phr. (popular).—A wine-bibber; one whose face
+by its redness bears evidence of a fondness for the bottle. Formerly
+the highest rank of naval officers was divided into three grades or
+classes denominated from the colours hoisted by them, Admirals of the
+Red, White, or Blue squadron. Now there are four grades; Admiral of the
+Fleet, Admiral, Vice-admiral, and Rear-admiral. The French call the
+bottle or copper-nose possessed by admirals of the red betterave (lit.
+a beetroot); also un piton passé à l’encaustique; and un piffard. Cf.,
+Admiral of the blue.
+
+
+Admiral of the White, subs. phr. (familiar).—Quoted as ‘a white-faced
+person; a coward; a woman in a faint.’ Rarely heard, and at best but an
+extremely weak imitation of kindred phrases, to wit, admiral of the
+blue, and admiral of the red.
+
+
+Admirals of the Red, White, and Blue, subs. phr. (familiar).—Beadles;
+hall-porters; and such-like functionaries when sporting their gorgeous
+liveries of office.
+
+
+Adonize, verb. (rare). [French adoniser; from adonis + ize].—To make
+beautiful or attractive; to adorn oneself with a view of attracting
+admiration; said only of men.
+
+    1818. S. E. Ferrier, Marriage, ch. ix. ‘Venus and the Graces, by
+    Jove!’ exclaimed Sir Sampson, bowing with an air of gallantry; ‘and
+    now I must go and adonize a little myself.’ The company then
+    separated to perform the important offices of the toilette.
+
+    1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, ch. xl. ‘He positively
+    refused to face the ladies till he had changed his shooting
+    costume, so I left him up at the hall to adonize.’
+
+
+Adsum, verb. (Charterhouse).—The response made in answering to
+names-calling.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, The Newcomes, p. 774. ‘At the usual evening hour
+    the chapel bell began to toll, and Thomas Newcome’s hands outside
+    the bed feebly beat time. And just as the last bell struck, a
+    peculiar sweet smile shone over his face and he lifted up his head
+    a little, and quickly said, ‘adsum,’ and fell back. It was the word
+    we used at school when names were called; and lo, he whose heart
+    was as that of a little child had answered to his name, and stood
+    in the presence of the Master.’
+
+
+Adullamites, subs. (parliamentary).—A nickname, in the first instance,
+for a party of seceding Liberals, namely, Messrs. Horsman, Lowe, Earl
+Grosvenor, Lord Elcho, etc., who in 1866 voted with the Tories, when
+Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone introduced a measure for the extension
+of the Franchise. In the debate on the 30th March John Bright said they
+had agreed to draw back into a political cave of adullam. The reference
+is to those who, with King David, took refuge in the cave of adullam (1
+Sam. xxii., 1). The political party in question were also known
+collectively as ‘The Cave.’
+
+    1878–80. Justin McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, p. 142. The
+    little third party were at once christened the adullamites, and the
+    name still survives and is likely long to survive its old political
+    history. Ibid., p. 143. The wild cheers of the Conservatives and
+    the adullamites showed on which ‘sword sat laurel victory.’ Ibid.,
+    p. 152. [Lord Derby] had at once invited the leading members of the
+    adullamite party to accept places in his Administration.
+
+The primary usage has been extended as explained in the following
+quotations.
+
+    1870. Notes and Queries, March 5, p. 241. The Scriptural ‘cave of
+    adullam’ has become an adopted byword for a small clique who unite
+    to obstruct the party with which they usually associate.
+
+    1884. New York Times, July 19. The Conservative party then
+    presented a tolerably solid front against the extension of the
+    franchise, and received besides a large reinforcement of
+    adullamites from the Liberal side.
+
+
+Advance Backward, verb. (American).—A rather odd way of expressing
+retrogression.
+
+    1888. Chicago Inter-Ocean, Jan. 23. The advice given to his company
+    by a raw Yankee captain to advance backward, seems paralleled in
+    the Chicago Tribune of the 18th inst.
+
+
+Advantage (Californian).—See Pocket advantage.
+
+
+Æger, subs. (Univ.). Lat. sick.—Same as Ægrotat (q.v.).
+
+    1870. Chambers’ Journal, June 18, p. 395. Dick laughed. ‘I’ll get
+    the receipt from him. I often want a good thing for an Æger.’
+
+    1888. H. Smart, in Temple Bar, February, p. 213. ‘Instead of
+    applying for leave to my tutor, I had resorted to the old device of
+    pricking Æger.’
+
+
+Ægrotat, subs. (Univ.).—[L. he is sick, 3rd pers. sing. pres. ind. of
+ægrotare, to be sick from ægrotus, sick, from æger, sick]. In English
+universities a medical certificate given to a student, showing that he
+has been prevented by sickness from attending to his duties, or his
+examination; also used for the degree taken by those so excused. Also
+called Æger (q.v.).
+
+    1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. They [at Cambridge] sported an Ægrotat,
+    and they sported a new coat!
+
+    1864. Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 37. I sent
+    my servant to the apothecary for a thing called an Ægrotat, which I
+    understood ... meant a certificate that I was indisposed.
+
+Reading ægrotat.—In some universities leave taken, commonly in
+December, in order to get time to read for one’s degree.
+
+
+Affair of Honour, subs. (old).—Killing an innocent man in a duel. This
+euphemism was largely in vogue during the Regency days.
+
+
+Affidavit Men, sub. phr. (old slang), or, as they also used to be
+called, Knights of the Post.—False witnesses who attended Westminster
+Hall and other Courts of Justice, ready to swear anything for hire;
+they were distinguished by having straws stuck in the heels of their
+shoes.—See Straw bail under Bail.
+
+
+Affinity, subs. (American).—A cant term in frequent use amongst
+so-called free-lovers. One’s affinity is supposed to be a person of the
+opposite sex, for whom an attachment so strong is felt that even if
+already married, as more often than not is the case, the husband will
+abandon his legitimate wife, and vice versâ, in favour of the new
+attraction, or affinity as he or she is called. The argument is
+generally only an excuse for unbridled sexual license; indeed, it is
+inconceivable that it could be otherwise, except in a society of
+seraphs and archangels.
+
+
+Afflicke, subs. (old).—See quotation.
+
+    1610. Rowland’s Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Chub’s Repr., 1874).
+    Afflicke, a theefe.
+
+
+Afflictions, subs. (drapers’).—Mourning goods, half-mourning being
+designated mitigated afflictions (q.v.).
+
+
+Affygraphy, subs. (common).—‘It fits to an affygraphy,’ i.e., to a
+nicety—to a T; also of time—‘in an affygraphy.’
+
+
+Afloat, adv. (common).—On the move; en évidence. This term is of
+nautical origin.
+
+To have one’s back-teeth well afloat, is to be well-primed with liquor;
+in short, to be in one of the many degrees of intoxication.
+
+    1888. Missouri Republican, Jan. 25. When sober on the bench Judge
+    Noonan is a model of all the virtues. On Friday night, however, in
+    company with Dr. Munford, of Kansas City, ex-Speaker Wood, Mr.
+    Charles Mead, and several other gentlemen, his honor once more
+    drank until, as an onlooker put it, his back teeth were well
+    afloat.
+
+
+A-Fly, adv. (vulgar).—See Fly.
+
+
+Afterclap, subs. (American).—An attempt to unjustly extort more in a
+bargain or agreement than at first settled upon. [Derived from after +
+clap, a blow or shock.] Current in England since the beginning of the
+fifteenth century, signifying an unexpected subsequent event; something
+happening after an affair is supposed to be at an end.
+
+
+After-Dinner Man; Afternoon’s Man.—Generally read to mean a tippler;
+one given to long potations after the mid-day meal, formerly the most
+substantial taken during the twenty-four hours. Smythe Palmer, however,
+appears to throw a different gloss upon the term, for he says [N. and
+Q., 5 S., viii., 112], Afternoones men—equivalent to after-dinner men.
+It was the custom, formerly, to dine in the halls of our Inns of Court
+about noon, and those who returned after dinner to work must have been
+much devoted to business, or obliged to work at unusual hours by an
+excess of it.—See quot. from Earle.
+
+    1614. Overbury, A wife, etc. (1638), 196. Make him an afternoones
+    man.
+
+    1621. Burton, Anat. Mel. Democr. to Reader (1657), 44. Bervaldus
+    will have drunkards, afternoon men, and such as more than
+    ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad.
+
+    1628. Earle, Microcosmography (A Player). Your Innes of Court men
+    were undone but for him, hee is their chiefe guest and employment,
+    and the sole businesse that makes them afternoones men.
+
+    1830. Dublin Sketch Book. The good Baronet (Sir Francis Burdett)
+    was not only a foxhunter, but a celebrated after-dinner man. It
+    must have been a good bout indeed in which he was worsted.
+
+
+After Four, subs. phr. (Eton).—From 3 to 6 p.m. on half-holidays; 4 to
+5 on whole schoolday.
+
+
+Afternoon Farmer, subs. phr. (popular).—This expression for one who
+procrastinates, or who misses an opportunity is, in reality, a
+provincialism. It is quoted in more than one of the English Dialect
+Society’s Glossaries as a very common phrase for one who is always
+behind, i.e., late in preparing his land, in sowing or harvesting his
+crops. It is only slang when used figuratively apart from agricultural
+pursuits.
+
+
+After Twelve, subs. phr. (Eton).—From noon till 2 p.m.
+
+    1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, p. 39. I used to visit him
+    regularly in the dear old college from the after twelve.
+
+
+Against Collar. To work against collar, verb. phr. (popular).—To battle
+or cope with difficulties; ‘to kick against the pricks’; ‘to pull
+against the tide.’
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 114. ‘It
+    is always thought to be a bad plan to let journeymen Cheap Johns
+    get into debt with their employers. It is bad in two ways, for if
+    they owe their governors a few pounds, they are working an uphill
+    game, or against collar, and that don’t suit their book, and it
+    destroys the independence which is, and always should be, between
+    the master and the man.’
+
+
+Against the Grain, adv. phr. (popular).—Against the fibres of the wood;
+hence, in opposition to the wish; unwillingly; unpleasantly;
+reluctantly. ‘It went against the grain to do it, but I knew I must,’
+is a common expression.
+
+    1673. Dryden, Amboyna, Act i. Seizing their factories I like well
+    enough, it has some savour in’t; but for this whoresome cutting of
+    throats, it goes a little against the grain.
+
+    1693. Dryden, Juvenal, i., 202. Though much against the grain
+    forc’d to retire.
+
+    1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 2. Nothing in nature is so ungrateful as
+    story-telling against the grain, therefore take it as the author
+    has given it you.
+
+    1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 1st Period., ch. xi. As I had
+    promised for them, the other servants followed my lead, sorely
+    against the grain, of course, but all taking the view that I took.
+
+    1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxiii. It went against
+    my grain to leave the poor chap alone.
+
+
+Agaze, adv. (American thieves’).—Astonished; open-eyed.
+
+
+Aggerawator, subs. (common); also Haggerawator, both forms being
+corruptions of ‘aggravator.’—A lock of hair brought down from the
+forehead, well greased, and then twisted in spiral form upon the
+temple, either toward the ear, or conversely toward the outer corner of
+the eye. This style of dressing the hair was formerly much affected by
+costermongers, male and female, and other street folk, but the
+‘ornament’ is now rarely seen. It appears to be known among certain
+classes in France, especially prostitutes’ bullies.
+
+Eng. Synonyms. Kiss-curls; cobbler’s knots; cow-licks; Newgate knockers
+(from a supposed resemblance to the knocker on the prisoner’s door at
+Newgate); number sixes; bellropes (being wherewith to draw the belles);
+bow-catchers; spit-curls; lovelocks, etc.
+
+French Argot. Des guiches; des rouflaquettes (from being sported by
+prostitutes’ bullies), des accroche-cœeurs (lit. heart-hooks).
+
+    1836. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 132. His hair carefully twisted
+    into the outer corner of each eye, till it formed a variety of that
+    description of semi-curls, usually known as ‘aggerawators.’
+
+From the following they would appear at one time to have formed part of
+the personal adornment of women in Australia.
+
+    1859. Frank Fowler, Southern Lights and Shadows, p. 38. The ladies
+    are addicted to ... straw-coloured gloves, and strained hair,
+    embellished with two or three c’s—aggravators they call
+    them—running over the temple.
+
+
+Agility, subs. (low).—A woman who, in mounting a stile, or, when being
+swung, exposes more of her person than is usually counted decent, is
+said to show her agility. The story told is an absurdly vulgar play
+upon words.
+
+
+Agitate the Communicator! verb. phr. (common).—Ring the bell!
+
+
+Agitator, subs. (common).—A bell-rope, or knocker.
+
+
+Agogare, intj. (American thieves’).—Be quick! a warning signal [from
+agog].—New York Slang Dictionary.
+
+
+Agony. To pile up the agony. verbal phr. (popular).—To intensify a
+statement or relation by exaggerated or blood-curdling details.
+Newspapers pile on the agony when ‘writing up’ murder, divorce, and
+other sensations.
+
+    1857. C. Bronté, in Mrs. Gaskell’s Life, ch. xxv. What climax there
+    is does not come on till near the conclusion; and even then, I
+    doubt whether the regular novel-reader will consider the ‘agony
+    piled sufficiently high’ (as the Americans say), or the colours
+    dashed on to the canvas with the proper amount of daring.
+
+    1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. vi. ‘Sooner or later that
+    organ will shake the Cathedral to bits; the vibrations were
+    fearful. I thought there was a great deal too much noise. You lose
+    effect when you pile up the agony like that.’
+
+
+Agony column, subs. phr. (popular).—The second column of the Times;
+originally so-called from the fact of its being devoted to
+advertisements for missing friends, and private communications, many of
+which are of a harrowing character. Most London newspapers, for the
+phrase is chiefly local, have now a similar column. Subjoined are a few
+examples of these advertisements:—
+
+    I am not sure of identity. Are you Juan of 1873? Longing to see
+    you.—B.
+
+    My darling, how often do I say from my heart come and let us reason
+    together that we may be happy here and live and love for ever. God
+    bless and spare us to meet again.
+
+    Satisfied.—Meet Friday outside Farringdon Street Station, Three
+    p.m. Have slip paper in coat button-hole.—J. T.
+
+
+HERBERT WILLIAM BONNETT, who left Bristol on Thursday, Sept. 5, is
+REQUESTED to COMMUNICATE at once with his uncle at Keynsham. If any
+shipping agent is aware of his taking passage in any boat leaving
+England, either London, Liverpool, or elsewhere, please write at once
+to Mr. J. D. Coates, Keynsham, near Bristol. All expenses will be paid.
+
+
+
+The earliest mention in Murray’s Dictionary is dated 1880, but from the
+following quotation it will be seen that the term has been in use for
+at least twenty years.
+
+    1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, part II., p. 78. The advertisement
+    of the committee, which appeared in the agony column of the Times,
+    who wanted to know how I wished the money applied.
+
+    1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. xxiii. There were anonymous
+    appeals to the runaways in agony columns.
+
+
+Agony Piler, subs. (theatrical).—An actor who performs blood-curdling
+parts in sensational plays.
+
+
+Aground, adv. (common).—Stuck fast; stopped; at a loss; ruined; like a
+boat or vessel aground.
+
+
+Ain’t, sometimes A’N’T, verb. phr. (vulgar).—A corruption for (1) ‘am
+not’; (2) ‘are not’; (3) ‘is not.’ This vulgarism appears to be of much
+older standing than set down in the New English Dictionary, where the
+earliest example is dated 1778.
+
+    1710. Swift, Journal to Stella, 24 Nov., Letter ix. I ain’t vexed
+    at this puppy business of the bishops, although I was a little at
+    first.
+
+    1800. Coleridge, Piccolomini, II., xiii. Ter. Where’s the hurry?
+    Come, one other composing draught.... Goetz. Excuse me—ain’t able.
+    Ter. A thimble-full! Goetz. Excuse me.
+
+    1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 275. ‘You are a clever fellow,
+    Tottle, ain’t you?’
+
+
+Air and Exercise, subs. phr. (old).—To have had air and exercise,
+signified that one had undergone a whipping at the cart’s tail. About
+the beginning of the present century the same operation was termed
+shoving the tumbler (q.v.). Among thieves at the present time, air and
+exercise means penal servitude; in America it is only applied to a
+short term of imprisonment.
+
+
+Airing, subs. (racing).—When it is not intended that a horse shall win
+a race for which it is brought to the starting post, it is said to be
+out for an airing.
+
+    1889. Evening Standard, June 25 (Sir Chas. Russell’s speech in
+    Durham-Chetwynd case).—What he (Sir C. Russell) meant was that Sir
+    G. Chetwynd never did anything so gross and vulgar as that [tell
+    the jockey to ‘pull’ horses], and that if horses were pulled, that
+    was not the way in which in any class of turf society instructions
+    were given. A wink was as good as a nod, and trainers and jockeys,
+    from various trivial circumstances, very easily gathered whether a
+    particular horse was only out for an airing, or whether it was on
+    the job.
+
+
+Air Line, or Air Line Road (American).—To take the air line; to go
+direct, and by the shortest route; idiomatically, to avoid
+circumlocution. The origin of this expression is to be found in the
+straight lines of railway, without expensive detours and grades, which
+in the New World are rendered possible by the vast expanses of unbroken
+level. These lines of railway are called air line roads, or straight
+shoots (q.v.). De Vere remarks that since the number of such roads has
+increased in the more thickly settled parts of the Union, the
+advantages of direct lines between two great centres over others which
+meander from town to town have become very manifest, and for a few
+years a tendency to build such air lines has agitated Legislatures,
+from whom and from financial circles in the States and abroad help is
+asked. These lines not unfrequently run for long distances by the side
+of older lines.
+
+    1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, Jan. 24. The obese style once
+    admired is now disliked. Many old English authors had too much
+    rhetoric for our age. Of one thing we are profoundly convicted,
+    that we have no time to spare for superfluities. An author must
+    take the air line or we will not travel.
+
+    1888. Florida Times Union Advertisement, Feb. 11. Ask for tickets
+    viâ Augusta or Atlanta and the Piedmont air line.
+
+
+Air One’s Heels, verb. phr. (popular).—To loiter; to hang about.
+
+
+Air One’s Vocabulary, verb. phr. (old).—To talk for talking’s sake; to
+show off by one’s talk; ‘to flash the gab.’ One of the wits of the time
+of George IV., when asked what was going on in the House of Commons
+answered that Lord Castlereagh was airing his vocabulary. The term is
+now rarely heard, but the practice is with us always.
+
+
+Airy, subs. (vulgar).—A corruption of ‘area,’ e.g., ‘Down the airy
+steps.’
+
+
+A-Jakes.—See Ajax.
+
+
+Ajax, subs. (old). (Pronounced with both ‘a’s’ long).—The name of this
+hero furnished many unsavoury puns to our ancestors, from its
+similarity in sound to the two English words, a jakes. In some of the
+passages the allusion is rather obscure, as in this:
+
+    1609. Ben Jonson, Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, iv., 5. A stool
+    were better, sir, of Sir Ajax, his invention.
+
+It is plainer in Shakspeare:
+
+    1594. Love’s Labour Lost, v., 2. Your lion, that holds his poll-ax,
+    sitting on a close stool, will be given to Ajax.
+
+The cause of all this vein of low wit was, perhaps, Sir John
+Harrington, who in 1596 published his celebrated tract called The
+Metamorphosis of Ajax, by which he meant the improvement of a jakes, or
+necessary, by forming it into what we now call a water-closet, of which
+Sir John was clearly the inventor. For this offence to her delicacy,
+Queen Elizabeth kept him for some time in disgrace. Used directly for a
+necessary house.
+
+    1611. Cotgrave, Eng. Treasury, p. 16. Which (like the glorious Ajax
+    of Lincoln’s Inne, I saw in London) laps up naught but filth and
+    excrements.
+
+    1720. Hosp. of Incurab. Fooles, p. 6. Adoring Sterculio for a god,
+    no lesse unworthily then shamfully constituting him a patron and
+    protector of Ajax and his commodities.
+
+To the above work of Sir J. Harrington, Ben Jonson seems to allude, as
+a masterpiece in its way, when, at the conclusion of a dirty poem, he
+says,
+
+    1574–1637. On the Famous Voyage, vol. VI., p. 290:
+
+        And I could wish for their eterniz’d sakes,
+        My muse had plough’d with his that sung A-jax.
+
+The rhyme here proves that the pronunciation of the time was suited to
+the English meaning. Even Camden condescends to play upon this word.
+Speaking of the French word pet, he says,
+
+    1605. Remains, p. 117. Inquire, if you understand it not, of
+    Cloacina’s Chaplains, or such as are well read in Ajax.—See Jakes.
+
+
+Akerman’s Hotel, subs. (obsolete).—Newgate prison was once so called.
+The governor’s name was Akerman.—See Cage.
+
+
+Akeybo.—A slang phrase used in the following manner:—He beats akeybo,
+and akeybo beat the devil.—Hotten.
+
+
+A-la-Mort.—See Amort.
+
+
+Albany Beef, subs. phr. (American).—The popular name of the flesh of
+the sturgeon. This, in color and taste, has some resemblance to beef,
+especially when cut in steaks and grilled. Albany is a town on the
+Hudson River as high as which the fish in question is or was to be
+caught in large numbers, and as a matter of course, it consequently
+formed a not inconsiderable factor in the food supply of the
+inhabitants—hence the term Albany beef.
+
+
+Albertopolis, subs. (popular).—A nickname formerly given by Londoners
+to the Kensington Gore district, out of compliment to the late Prince
+Consort. The Albert Hall and the Exhibition buildings of 1862, with
+which Prince Albert was so closely identified, are situated within the
+radius; and the Albert Memorial is hard by.
+
+    1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxxiii., p. 366 (1877). Mr.
+    Cauthar tripped out of the house, and devoted the remainder of the
+    evening to working out a composition for the nutriment of the hair,
+    which, under the name of Cauthar’s Crinibus, has an enormous
+    circulation over the infant heads of albertopolis.
+
+
+Albonized, ppl. adj. (pugilistic).—Whitened. [From L. albus, white.]
+
+
+Alderman, subs. (popular).—1. A half-crown. This term is explained by
+Brewer as containing an allusion to the fact that an alderman is a kind
+of half-king, whatever that may mean.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. Two shillings and
+    sixpence—alderman.
+
+2. A long pipe; also called a churchwarden (q.v.); in both instances
+the name is probably an allusion to the penchant these personages had
+at one time for the long clay.
+
+    1859. Fairholt, Tobacco (1876), 173. Such long pipes were
+    reverently termed alderman in the last age, and irreverently yards
+    of clay in the present one.
+
+3. A turkey; a variant is an alderman in chains; i.e., a roast turkey
+well stuffed and garnished with sausages. The latter are said to be
+emblematical of the gold chain worn by the civic dignitary—what then
+about the stuffing?
+
+    1782. George Parker, Humorous Sketches, p. 31. Nick often eat a
+    roast fowl and sausage with me, which in cant is called an
+    alderman, double slang’d.
+
+4. (thieves’).—A jemmy (q.v.); sometimes alderman jemmy. A weightier
+tool is called a Lord Mayor, whereby it is clear that the criminal
+classes are not without some kind of respect for the city fathers. The
+tool is used for burglary purposes.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, May 14, p. 3, col. 7. A complete set of
+    safe-breaking tools had been used and left behind, including
+    wedges, an alderman jemmy, a hammer weighing 14 lbs.
+
+    1888. Saturday Review, 15 Dec, p. 719. One side of slang was
+    illustrated by the burglar Casey in a well-known case of robbery in
+    the City some years ago, who explained in Court that the big jemmy
+    with which iron shutters were prised open was called the
+    ‘alderman,’ adding, ‘it would never do to be talking about crowbars
+    in the street.’
+
+5. Blood and guts alderman, subs. phr. (popular).—A pompous man; one
+with a ‘corporation.’ The allusion is to the alleged or real
+over-eating and drinking of aldermen as a class.
+
+
+Alderman Lushington, subs. (Australian).—Intoxicating beverages.
+
+
+Alderman’s Pace.—A slow and stately gait, like that of a burly man as
+aldermen are generally represented. The French have an equivalent
+phrase, pas d’abbé.
+
+
+Aldgate. A draught on the pump at Aldgate, subs. phr. (commercial).—A
+bad bill of exchange. A play on the word ‘draught.’
+
+
+Alecampane.—See Allacompain.
+
+
+Alecie, Alecy, subs. (old nonce words) [from ale + suffix cie or cy, as
+in ‘lunacy’].—The state of being under the influence of ale;
+drunkenness; also balmyness.
+
+    1594. J. Lyly, Mother Bombie, cc. 9. If he had arrested a mare
+    instead of a horse, it had beene a slight oversight, but to arrest
+    a man, that hath no likenesse of a horse, is flat lunasie, or
+    alecie.
+
+
+Ale-Draper, subs. (old) [from ale + draper as in linen-draper].—A
+humorous title for an alehouse keeper; probably from the ancient custom
+of measuring ale by the yard. It long survived dialectically, but is
+now obsolete. Synonyms were rum-cull, and squirt-quester (q.v.).
+
+    1593. Henry Chettle, Kinde-Harts Dreame. Two milch maydens that had
+    set up a shoppe of ale-drapery.
+
+    1747. In Parish Register of Scotter, Linc. [Buried], July 8th,
+    Thomas Broughton, Farmer and Ale Draper.
+
+
+Ale-Knight, subs. phr. (old) [from ale + knight, used derisively].—A
+tippler; a boon companion.
+
+    1575. Eccl. Proc., Chester. [The Vicar of Whalley, Lanc., is
+    charged with being a common dronker and ale knight.]
+
+    1654. Witt’s Recreations.
+
+        Come all you brave wights,
+        That are dubbed ale-knights
+        Now set out youselves in fight:
+        And let them that crack
+        In the praises of sack,
+        Know malt is of mickle might.
+
+    1863–64. Chambers’ Bk. of Days, ii., 597. This man was a regularly
+    dubbed ale-knight, loved barley wine to the full.
+
+
+Ales, subs. (Stock Exchange).—The shares in the brewery business of S.
+Allsopp and Sons, Limited, are thus known.
+
+
+Ale Spinner, subs. phr. (old) [from ale + spinner, a manufacturer or
+producer].—A brewer or publican.
+
+
+Alexandra Limp, subs. (popular).—The name given to an erstwhile fit of
+semi-imbecility on the part of ‘Society.’ The Princess of Wales,
+through a slight infirmity, walks with a suspicion of lameness, and
+servile imitation of everything pertaining to royalty caused the sudden
+appearance (circa 1860–70) of a crowd of limping petticoated toadies.
+The craze passed away as suddenly as it came. Cf., Grecian bend.
+
+    1876. Chambers’ Journal, No. 629. Your own advocacy of the Grecian
+    bend and the Alexandra limp—both positive and practical imitations
+    of physical affliction. [h.]
+
+
+Alfred David, subs. (common).—An affidavit—obviously a humorous
+corruption in pronunciation; also affidavy; and, by an extended process
+of curtailment, davy. All are common colloquialisms among the
+uneducated classes. After-davy is likewise occasionally heard,
+generally in connection with a person in extremis.
+
+
+Algerine, subs. (theat.).—A member of a company who, when ‘the ghost’
+cannot be induced to walk, i.e., when the exchequer is low, and
+salaries are not paid, ‘remonstrates’ with the manager. The term is
+also used to designate the hard-up borrower of petty sums.
+
+
+Alive and Kicking, adv. phr. (popular).—An intensive form of ‘alive’ in
+its most colloquial sense of being alert and full of action. In the
+days of Pierce Egan’s Tom and Jerry, alive partook far more of the
+nature of slang than now. Sometimes all alive and kicking is varied by
+all alivo; knowing; all fly. The allusion is to a child in the womb
+after quickening.
+
+    1889. Globe, Oct. 4, p. 1, col. 3. Next day there appeared a letter
+    from a Mr. Basil Watts Phillips, who proclaimed himself as a son of
+    the playwright, and stated, moreover, that his mother, the
+    playwright’s widow, as well as another son, named Gordon, were—to
+    use a popular phrase—‘alive and kicking.’ Miss Emma, therefore,
+    could hardly be recognised, with fairness, as the ‘only living
+    representative of the late Watts Phillips.’
+
+
+Allacompain, subs. (rhyming slang).—Forms: alacompain, alicumpane,
+elecampain, etc. 1. In the so-called rhyming slang this is the
+equivalent of rain.
+
+2. (common).—Candy supposed to be made from the root of inula helenium
+or bellwort; it contains, however, little else than colored sugar.
+
+
+All A-Float, subs. (rhyming slang).—A coat.
+
+
+All Alive, adv. and adj. (tailors’).—Ill-made garments, and ‘misfits,’
+are said to be all alive.
+
+
+All Along Of (vulgarism).—On account of; by reason of, etc.
+
+
+All-a-Mort.—See Amort.
+
+
+All Around Sports, sub. (American).—Obviously a corruption of ‘all
+round sportsmen,’ i.e., men whose interest in sport is catholic, and
+all embracing.
+
+
+All at Sea, adv. phr. (popular).—In an uncertain, vague condition. Of
+nautical origin, and perhaps more colloquial than slang; equivalent to
+all abroad (q.v.).
+
+
+All Brandy, adv. phr. (common).—When it is desired to commend or speak
+well of anything it is said to be all brandy. The use of such a term
+suggests curious reflections upon the drinking habits of those who
+employ it.
+
+Synonyms. A1; the pure quill; about east; about right; at par; the
+cheese.
+
+
+All Dickey.—See Dickey.
+
+
+Alleviator, subs. (common).—A drink; refreshment.
+
+    1846. Mark Lemon, Golden Fetters. If any of you feel thirsty after
+    this exciting interview, I shall be happy to stand an alleviator.
+
+Synonyms. Gargle; smile; Alderman Lushington; long sleeved ’un
+(Australian, when taken from a long glass); shout; etc.—See Gargle.
+
+
+Alley, Ally, Alay, subs. (schoolboys’ term).—A superior kind of marble.
+Supposed to be a corrupted and abbreviated form of ‘alabaster,’ of
+which these superior kind of marbles are sometimes made. Alley is the
+name given to the medium sizes, smaller ones being called mivvies
+(q.v.), and the largest bonces (q.v.). The word sometimes appears as
+alley tor, or alley taw. De Foe, in ‘Duncan Campbell,’ as early as
+1720, speaks of a large bag of marbles and alleys, and at that time the
+term was considered vulgar. It is interesting to note that the supposed
+derivation of alley from alabaster is borne out by the fact, that among
+school-boys stone marbles are called stoneys (q.v.), and clay ones
+commoneys (q.v.). Additional weight is also given to the accuracy of
+this derivation, when it is remembered that what are known as ‘Dutch
+alleys’ (q.v.), are only stoneys enamelled or glazed different colours.
+In old Berlin slang, alley tors were known as Kalbacher.
+
+
+All-Fired, adj. All-Firedly, adv. (American).—Thought by most to be a
+Puritanical corruption of ‘hell-fired,’ and in that respect a profane
+euphemistic adjective. In this connection it carries with it the
+meaning of ‘immense,’ ‘excessive,’ or ‘inordinate’ in general; but, of
+course, the primary signification of this corruption is perfectly
+obvious. Some, however, think the word may be taken at its face value
+[all + fire + ed.], an intensitive of the merely rhetorical fire.
+Common now on both sides of the Atlantic.
+
+    1755. The World, No. 140. How arbitrary is language! and how does
+    the custom of mankind join words, that reason has put asunder! Thus
+    we often hear of hell-fire cold, of devilish handsome, and the
+    like.
+
+    1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxiv. ‘Look at that ’ere
+    Dives,’ they say, ‘what an all-fired scrape he got into by his
+    avarice with Lazarus.’
+
+    1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xl. ‘I knows I be so
+    all-fired jealous; I can’t abear to hear o’ her talkin’, let alone
+    writin’ to——’
+
+    1883. James Payn, Thicker than Water, ch. xvii. ‘Well,’ he said ...
+    ‘you’ve been an all-fired time you have in selling those jars.’
+
+
+All Fly.—See Fly.
+
+
+All Fours. To go or be on all fours, verb. phr. (popular).—From the
+four legs of a quadruped, or the two legs and two arms of a child or
+man. Hence to go on all fours is to go evenly, the figure of speech
+presented being the reverse of limping like a lame dog. Thence follows
+the metaphorical use of the phrase in the sense of exact analogy and
+similarity of relation. It is thus synonymous with ‘as like as two
+peas’ (the French say, comme deux gouttes d’eau, as like as two drops
+of water); ‘a chip of the old block’; a ‘Chinese copy,’ etc. At the
+same time, a show of probability must be conceded to those philologists
+who refer the phrase to the masonic symbol of the square, emblematic of
+harmony and completeness. Possibly masons gave its use a fresh impetus.
+
+
+All Gammon! phr. (common).—All nonsense; rubbish!—See All my eye.
+
+
+All Gay, adv. (thieves’).—All serene; all right; the coast is clear.
+The French voleur says, c’est franco!
+
+
+All-Get-Out, phr. (American).—That beats all-get-out, is an old retort
+to any extravagant story or assertion. Barrère says, ‘oh, get out!’
+appears to have suggested the phrase, which is, perhaps, not altogether
+obvious.
+
+
+All Hands to the Pump, verb. phr. (old).—An expression borrowed from
+seafaring life, signifying concentration of energy in any one
+direction. Now-a-days we say, ‘a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull
+altogether’; this also is a sailor’s phrase.
+
+
+All Holiday at Peckham, proverbial phr. (popular).—No work to do; and,
+as a concomitant, nothing to eat. A play upon words.—See Peckish.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. All holiday at Peckham ... a saying
+    signifying that it is all over with the business or person spoken
+    of or alluded to.
+
+    1848. Forster, Oliver Goldsmith, bk. I., ch. vi., p. 55 (5ed.) ‘Oh,
+    that is all a holiday at peckham,’ said an old friend very
+    innocently one day, is a common proverbial phrase.
+
+It seems that Goldsmith in the early part of his London life passed
+some miserable months as usher in a school at Peckham, and the memory
+of this doleful period was ever bitter to him. Years afterwards, a
+friend in conversation happened to speak facetiously of it being ‘all
+holiday at Peckham,’ and was surprised to find that this innocent
+reference to a recognised proverbial phrase was regarded by Goldsmith
+as an unkind allusion to his past misery, and, therefore, a personal
+insult.
+
+
+All Hollow, adv. (popular).—To beat, or carry all hollow, i.e.,
+utterly; completely.
+
+
+All Hot! subs. (common).—A hot potato. A cry used by peripatetic street
+vendors.
+
+
+All In, phr. (Stock Exchange).—When the market is depressed and a
+disposition to sell prevails, it is said to be all in. Conversely, all
+out signifies that the market is improving.
+
+
+All in a Pucker.—See Pucker.
+
+
+All in Fits, adv. phr. (tailors’).—Badly made clothes are said to be
+all in fits, or to have a paralytic stroke. Such garments are also said
+to fit where they touch, i.e., nowhere. Now common.
+
+
+All jaw. All jaw like a sheep’s head, adv. phr. (common).—Said of one
+who is a great talker; or, who has the gift of the gab.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 41. ‘Look
+    at the man! hear him; why, he’s all jaw like a sheep’s head. He was
+    drummed out of the regiment he was in for eating his comrades’
+    knapsacks.’
+
+A synonym is all mouth.—See Jaw.
+
+
+All Lombard Street to a China Orange, phr. (old); sometimes all Lombard
+Street to ninepence.—One of many fanciful forms of betting once current
+among the sporting fraternity; others were ‘Chelsea College to a sentry
+box,’ ‘Pompey’s Pillar to a stick of sealing wax,’ etc.
+
+    1819. Thomas Moore, Tom Cribb’s Memorial to Congress, p. 38.
+
+        A pause ensued—’till crie of ‘Gregson,’
+          Brought Bob, the poet, on his legs soon,—
+        My eyes, how prettily Bob writes!
+          Talk of your camels, hogs and crabs,
+        And twenty more such Pidcock frights—
+          Bob’s worth a hundred of these dabs,
+        All Lombard Street to ninepence on it.
+
+
+All Moonshine, adverbial phr. (popular).—Moonshine is in old-fashioned
+and provincial English ‘an illusive shadow,’ ‘a mere pretence’
+[Halliwell]. The expression it is all moonshine is now variously
+applied, whether as referring to empty professions, to vain boasts, to
+promises not trustworthy, to questionable statements, or to any kind of
+extravagant talk. There exist in several languages so many words of
+lunar connection, all implying variableness or inconstancy, that
+possibly this phrase also, it is all moonshine, may have been primarily
+employed to express some degree of fickleness, or caprice; in allusion
+to the inconstancy or changeableness of the moon, or rather moonlight.
+When anyone professes or promises great things, which we do not expect
+to see realized, we say it is all moonshine, for moonshine is very
+shifty; one week we have it, another we have it not; nay, it shifts
+from night to night. ‘Lunes’ in old English, are not only fits of
+insanity, but freaks. And the term ‘lunatic’ itself did not properly
+signify a person always insane, but one who was mad at intervals,
+dependent as was supposed on the phases of the moon. This distinction
+is still very accurately maintained in Spanish philology: ‘Lunatics, El
+loco, cuya demencia no est continua, sino por intervalos que proceden
+del estado en que se halla la Luna.’ Hence also in French, modern and
+old: ‘Il a des lunes,’ he is whimsical or fantastic. ‘Tenir de la
+lune,’ to be inconstant, mutable; ‘Avoir un quartier de la lune, en la
+teste,’ or ‘Il y a de la lune,’ he is changeable, giddy, capricious. In
+the ‘language of symbols’ the moon is the emblem of hypocrisy, as in
+the following device:
+
+    ‘La lune avec ces mots,
+    Mentiri didicit.
+    (Elle trompe toujours.)
+
+    Pour l’hypocrisie, dont la lune est le symbole.’ Menestriar,
+    Philosophie des Images, vol. I., p. 266.
+
+Another emblem is the following:
+
+                  ‘La lune,
+          Non vultus non color unus,
+    Pour une personne qui n’est pas sincère.’
+
+Ibid, I., p. 269.
+
+Moonshine, in conformity with these ideas, was probably employed
+originally in characterising the talk of persons too mutable to be
+relied on from one time to another.—Notes and Queries.
+
+    1714. Spectator, No. 597. Several of my correspondents have been
+    pleased to send me an account how they have been employed in sleep,
+    and what notable adventure they have been engaged in during that
+    moonshine in the brain.
+
+    1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xxii., p. 397. ‘They
+    are all pig-headed together ... they are blinded by specious
+    arguments that will turn out, I fear, to be all moonshine.’
+
+
+All Mouth, adv. (common).—Applied to a loquacious talker. Cf., All jaw.
+
+
+All My Eye, adv. phr. (common).—Variations in form are: all my eye and
+Betty Martin—my elbow—Tommy—and my grandmother. All nonsense; rubbish.
+The suggested derivations of this significant retort to a tedious
+narration containing neither rhyme nor reason are as various as the
+forms in which the phrase appears. Not so clear, however, is the
+evidence in support of any of them, although Barrère unwittingly
+stumbles upon what is probably the true origin. Had he studied the
+subject of slang historically, he would have been able to adduce
+adequate proof for what he merely puts forth as a ‘more probable’
+derivation than those of his predecessors. After stating that some have
+suggested the origin of the phrase in the Welsh, al mi hivy, it is very
+tedious or all nonsense, he says, ‘It seems far more probable that it
+is a contraction of the phrase ‘there is as much of it as there is in
+all my eye,’ the words being made more forcible by closing one of the
+organs of vision. To express dissent from any statement, or a refusal
+to comply with a request. French slang has the corresponding term mon
+œil! which is usually accompanied by a knowing wink and a significant
+gesture as an invitation to inspect the organ.’ From a comparative
+study of the dates and examples which follow, it seems a fair deduction
+to assume that the original form of the phrase was simply all my eye,
+and that the additional tags given above are later importations.
+
+    1653. Archbishop Bramhall, Answer to the Epistle of M. de la
+    Milletière [Works, vol. I., pp. 68–9. ed. Ox. 1842.] Fifthly,
+    suppose (all this notwithstanding) such a conference should hold,
+    what reason have you to promise to yourself such success as to
+    obtain so easy a victory? You have had conferences and conferences
+    again at Poissy and other places, and gained by them just as much
+    as you might put in your eye and see never the worse.
+
+    1682. Preface to Julian the Apostate (London, printed for Langley
+    Curtis). What benefit a Popish successor can reap from lives and
+    fortunes spent in defence of the Protestant religion he may put in
+    his eye; and what the Protestant religion gets by lives and
+    fortunes spent in the service of a Popish successor will be over
+    the left shoulder.
+
+    1768. Goldsmith, Good-natured Man, Act iii. Bailiff. That’s all my
+    eye. The king only can pardon.
+
+    1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, i, 1. As for black clothes,—that’s
+    all my eye and Tommy.
+
+Hotten’s contention, that all my eye and Betty Martin was a vulgar
+phrase constructed from the commencement of a Roman Catholic prayer to
+St. Martin (the patron saint of drunkards), ‘Oh, mihi, beate Martine,’
+which in common with many another fell into discredit and ridicule
+after the Reformation, is both fanciful and untrue. In the first place
+there is no prayer in the Breviary which answers to the description
+given; and in the second it has been shown that the essential part of
+the phrase is very much older than the Joe Millerism which first set
+the copy for every lexicographer of the ‘unwritten word,’ from Hotten
+down to Brewer and Barrère, the latter of whom, strangely enough, after
+pitching on the right track, stultifies himself by an admission that
+all my eye and Betty Martin seems to have been the original phrase. The
+earliest example of the ‘Betty Martin’ form, found after long search,
+occurs in Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, published in 1819, where it
+appears simply as all my eye, Betty, but that the phrase was known long
+previously is proved by the extract from Poole quoted above.
+
+Among English Synonyms of refusal or incredulity, are: Cock and bull
+story; a wild-goose chase; a mare’s nest; fiddle-de-dee; do you see any
+green in my eye? that’s a flam; over the left; go teach your grannie to
+suck eggs; Walker! you be blowed! You be hanged! Not for Joe! How’s
+your brother, Job? Don’t you wish you may get it? Yes, in a horn
+(American); That’s all round my hat.
+
+Fr. Des fadeurs (lit. insipidity); C’est des vannes? (lit. floodgates
+or sluices); des nèfles (lit. medlars); des navets! (turnips); de
+l’anis! (lit. aniseed); du flan! (lit. custard); tu t’en ferais mourir!
+(lit. you will die after it); mon œil! (my eye); flûte! Zut! (go to the
+deuce!); et ta sœur? (phrase of the ‘who’s your hatter’ stamp); des
+plis! (don’t you wish you may get it); la peau! (blow it all!); de la
+mousse! (expression of ironical refusal); du vent! (go to pot!); des
+emblèmes!; des fouilles!; on t’en fricasse!
+
+
+All Nations, subs. (old).—1. A mixture of the drainings of all kinds of
+spirits and malt liquors; it is of an extremely intoxicating character.
+Sometimes called alls, or all sorts.
+
+2. A parti-colored dress or coat; a Joseph’s garment. Also one that is
+patched.
+
+
+All-Night-Man, subs. (old).—A body snatcher. Now obsolete.
+
+    1861. Ramsay, Remin, ser. ii., 133. The body lifters, or
+    all-night-men, as they were wont to be called.
+
+
+All of a Heap.—See Heap.
+
+
+All of a Hough, adv. phr. (tailors’).—Said of an unskilled workman.
+Equivalent to clumsy; bungling; unworkmanlike. Hotten quotes this as a
+Suffolk phrase (hough being spelt hugh, and pronounced with a grunt).
+Synonymous with ‘all on one side’; falling with a thump.
+
+
+All of my Lone, adv. phr. (American).—A negro vulgarism for ‘alone.’
+
+
+All on the Go (vulgarism).—See Go.
+
+
+All Out, adv. phr. (vulgar).—1. Entirely; completely; by far, as in
+‘all out the best.’ This vulgarism must now be classed among depraved
+words; but as far as written English is concerned, it can be traced
+back to the year 1300. It seems to have fallen out of use about the
+middle of the seventeenth century.
+
+    1830. Carleton, Traits and Stories, vol. II., p. 102. ‘He’s now in
+    his grave, and, thank God, it’s he that had the dacent funeral all
+    out.’
+
+2. Another old English expression, now obsolete, is to drink all out,
+to empty a bumper; and hence,—
+
+3. Used substantively, e.g., an all out being equivalent to what ’Arry
+would call now-a-days a big drunk. The connection between the ancient
+and modern usage is clear.
+
+4. To be all out also signifies to be in error; quite wrong.
+
+5. (turf).—A man is said to be all out when unsuccessful during the
+whole of a day’s racing.
+
+6. (Stock Exchange).—See All in.
+
+7. (athletic).—Exhausted; said of a man or crew who, having exerted him
+or themselves to the utmost, can do no more.
+
+    1886. Graphic, April 10, p. 392. Pitman the Cambridge stroke, after
+    passing the ‘Queen’s Head,’ Mortlake, put on a grand spurt, to
+    which his crew fairly responded, though pretty well all out.
+
+
+All-Overish, adj. (colloquial). An indefinite feeling which pervades
+the body at critical periods, when sickening for an illness, or at a
+moment of supreme excitement, as when about to ‘pop the question’
+which, says Hotten, ‘is sometimes called feeling all over alike, and
+touching nowhere.’ Synonyms are ‘to feel all round one’s hat,’ and
+‘chippy.’
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 52. ‘When
+    the mob began to gather round, I felt all-overish.’
+
+
+All-Overishness, subs. (colloquial).—The state of being
+all-overish.—See foregoing.
+
+    1854. Ainsworth, Flitch of Bacon, pt. II., ch. v. ‘I feel a sort of
+    shivering and all-overishness.’
+
+    1841. John Mills, Old English Gentleman, ch. xxiv., p. 186 (3 ed.).
+    ‘Isn’t it natural for a body to feel a sort of a queer
+    all-overishness on the eve of a wedding, I should like to know?’
+
+
+All over Pattern, subs. phr. (common). Used in describing patterns that
+are intricate, or designs in which the pattern is not of a set
+character.
+
+    1881. F. E. Hulme. Suggestions in Floral Design. A term [all over
+    pattern] used to denote a design in which the whole of a field is
+    covered with ornament in contradistinction to such as have units
+    only at intervals, leaving spaces of the ground between them. The
+    ornament of the Moors as seen in the decorations of the Alhambra,
+    and that of Eastern nations generally, is most commonly of this
+    nature; the whole surface of the object is covered with decorative
+    forms so as to present to the eye a mass of elaborate detail, the
+    leading lines of which can often only be detected by careful
+    scrutiny. When, as in some Persian surfaces, these lines are often
+    quite lost, the result is unsatisfactory.
+
+
+All Over the Shop, adv. phr. (common).—1. A phrase applied to any
+ubiquitous person, thing or deed.—See Shop.
+
+    1883. G. R. Sims, Lifeboat, etc. (Awful Character). He kills little
+    babies all over the shop, each day in a river one thrown is.
+
+2. Disconcerted.
+
+    1887. E. E. Money, Little Dutch Maiden, II., xi., 225. ‘Oh, please
+    don’t blush; it makes me feel all over the shop.’
+
+
+Allow, subs. (Harrow School).—A boy’s weekly allowance.
+
+
+Allowances, subs. (tailors’).—The extra measure in cutting cloth for a
+garment to permit of turnings in for seams; also the trimmings, such as
+wadding, buttons, braid, etc. Rather technical than slang.
+
+
+All Round, adj. (popular).—1. Able in all departments; adaptable in
+every respect to the purpose in view. Whether applied to sport,
+business, or indeed any department of life or thought, within a given
+circle, it carries with it, mutatis mutandis, the same meaning. Cf. All
+around sports.
+
+    1881. James Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. xl. ‘He’s a bad one all
+    round.’
+
+    1883. Graphic, August 11, p. 138, col. 2. Foremost still as an
+    ‘all-round’ cricketer among the gentlemen stands W. G. Grace.
+
+2. Average; see quotation.
+
+    1869. Notes on N. W. Prov. India, p. 98. We find an all round rent
+    of so much per acre charged on the cultivation.
+
+
+All-Rounder, subs. (popular). [From all round + er] he who or that
+which is all round (q.v.); as an all round man; particularly applied,
+however, to a shirt collar the same height all round the neck and
+meeting in front. Once fashionable, but little worn now.
+
+    1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxii. But he had bestowed,
+    perhaps, the greatest amount of personal attention on his
+    collar.... Some people may think that an all-rounder is an
+    all-rounder, and that if one is careful to get an all-rounder one
+    has done all that is necessary. But so thought not Macassar Jones.
+
+    1860. All the Year Round, No. 42, 369. That particularly
+    demonstrative type of the [collar] species known as the all
+    rounder. [M.]
+
+    1865. Lord Strangford, Selection (1869), II., 163. Dressed in full
+    uniform, with high stand-up collar; the modern all rounder not
+    having got so far into Asia. [M.]
+
+    1875. Chambers’ Journal, No. 586. To present himself in an all
+    rounder hat and coat of formal cut on Sunday.
+
+
+All Round my Hat, adv. phr. (popular).—1. To feel all round one’s hat
+is to feel queer; out of sorts; all overish.
+
+2. That’s all round my hat is synonymous with gammon! Nonsense! See All
+my eye. A music hall song [1834] had this phrase as a refrain.
+
+3. Spicy as all round my hat, i.e., sensational.
+
+    1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII, p. 177, col. 1. ’Arry on a jewry.
+
+Fact is, I have bin on a Jury. New line for yours truly, dear boy, and
+I ’oped it might be a rare barney, a thing as a chap could enjoy. I am
+nuts upon Criminal Cases, Perlice News, you know, and all that, And,
+thinks I, this will be ‘tuppence coloured,’ and spicy as all round my
+hat.
+
+
+Alls, subs.—1. See All nations.
+
+    1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. alls, tap-droppings. The
+    refuse of all sorts of spirits drained from the glasses, or spilt
+    in drawing. The mixture is sold in gin-houses at a cheap rate.
+
+2. (artisans’).—See Bens.
+
+
+All’s Blue.—See Blue.
+
+
+All Serene! intj. (popular).—All right. All’s well! This phrase is
+thought to be of Spanish origin, and to be derived from the word serena
+a countersign used by sentinels in Cuba. The night watchmen in Spain
+likewise end their proclamation of the hour by ‘é sereno!’ It is also
+equivalent to O.K., and a few years since was the burden of one of the
+senseless street cries, which, every now and again, have a vogue in
+large cities. Most of these catches originate in music-hall songs. All
+serene, however, was vulgarly colloquial long before the period in
+question, as will be seen by the following example:
+
+    1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xlv. ‘You’re all serene, then,
+    Mr. Snape,’ said Charley; ‘you’re in the right bon.’
+
+
+All Smoke, Gammon and Pickles.—See Smoke.
+
+
+All Sorts, subs. (common).—Explained by quotation.—See All nations.
+
+    1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. vi. A counter perforated in
+    elaborately-pricked patterns, like a convivial shroud, apparently
+    for ornament, but really for the purpose of allowing the drainings,
+    overflowings, and out-spillings of the gin-glasses to drop through,
+    which, being collected with sundry washings, and a dash, perhaps,
+    of fresh material, is, by the thrifty landlord, dispensed to his
+    customers under the title Of all sorts.
+
+
+All Sorts of, adj. (American).—First rate; excellent. A phrase very
+common in the South and West, and used in many different ways. It
+carries with it the idea of smartness and chic, as, e.g., when applied
+to a woman, a horse, or a building.
+
+
+Allspice, subs. (popular).—A nickname for a grocer; the derivation is
+obvious.
+
+
+All’s Quiet on the Potomac, phr. (American).—A period of undisturbed
+rest, quiet enjoyment, or peaceful possession; a phrase dating from the
+Civil War, when its frequent repetition in the bulletins of the War
+Secretary made it familiar to the public, who quickly appropriated it
+in a metaphorical sense. It has since formed the refrain of many a
+song.
+
+    1862. The Picket Guard.
+
+        All quiet along the Potomac, they say,
+          Except now and then a stray picket
+        Is shot on his beat as he walks to and fro,
+          By a rifleman hid in a thicket.
+
+
+All T. H., adv. phr. (tailors cutters’).—Said in praise or approval; a
+tailor’s equivalent of a 1; all right; all there—of which last it is
+possibly an abbreviated form.
+
+
+All the Caboose, adv. phr.—See Caboose.
+
+
+All the Go, adv. phr. (common).—One of the innumerable superlatives of
+work-a-day English; quite up to the mark; in full demand; ‘no
+deception, gents!’—See Go.
+
+
+All There, adv. phr. (popular).—Up to the mark; first-rate; ready for
+any emergency; a phrase of general satisfaction and approval; also, in
+one’s element.
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 220. ‘He stayed in
+    a place doing the grand and sucking the flats till the folks began
+    to smoke him as not all there.’
+
+    1880. Punch, Aug. 7, p. 59. All there! Clerk (who has called to see
+    the gas-meter). ‘Is yours a wet, or a dry meter, madam?’ Young Wife
+    (who does not like to show ignorance). ‘Well, it is rather damp,
+    I’m afraid!’
+
+    1883. James Payn, Thicker than Water, ch. xx. It was his excusable
+    boast, though expressed in somewhat vulgar language, that when
+    anything was wanted he was ‘all there.’
+
+
+All the Shoot.—Equivalent to ‘the whole boiling’ (q.v.).
+
+
+All the Way Down, adv. phr. (popular).—Synonymous with complete
+adaptability to the end in view; sometimes varied by ‘up to the
+knocker,’ or ‘up to the nines.’
+
+
+All to His Own Cheek.—See Cheek.
+
+
+All to Pieces, adverbial phr. (common).—1. [Cf. Go to pieces.] A
+superlative of all work. To go all to pieces is to collapse utterly; to
+be altogether ruined; to be in a state of utter collapse.
+
+    1667. Pepys, Diary, Aug. 29. I find by all hands that the Court is
+    at this day all to pieces, every man of a faction of one sort or
+    other.
+
+    1811. Jane Austen, Sense and S., ch. xxx. ‘Fifty thousand pounds!
+    and by all accounts it won’t come before its wanted; for they say
+    he is all to pieces. No wonder! dashing about with his curricle and
+    hunters!’
+
+    1882. Punch, LXXXII., 185, 2. ‘Ah Jerry, we might as well go back
+    to the Shades as be among such a shady crowd.’ Young Bob Logic
+    seemed rather nettled at this speech of the Corinthian’s, and said,
+    ‘Well, don’t you know you can’t expect a fellow to look very bright
+    till he’s had an S. and B., or two and a Kümmel? These pals will be
+    all right after dinner.’ ‘Let us hope they will,’ said the
+    Corinthian, ‘for they look all to pieces now.’
+
+2. When a woman is confined she is said to go all to pieces; variants
+being to explode; to bust up.
+
+3. (rowing).—Collapsed; exhausted; said of a crew when rowing wildly.
+
+    1884. Echo, April 7, p. 3, col. 1. The Oxford men were now all to
+    pieces! their boat was full of water.
+
+4. (sporting).—In racing and athletic circles equivalent to want of
+form.
+
+
+All to Smash, adv. phr. (common).—Also ‘all to pieces,’ i.e., bankrupt;
+ruined; in a state of utter delapidation; or, complete
+discomfiture.—See Smash.
+
+    1861. Cuthbert Bede, Our New Rector, ch. x., p. 105. ‘There isn’t a
+    fellow at school can match me, Miss Moore! I beat them all to
+    smash!’
+
+
+All Up, adv. phr. (common).—‘It’s all up’ with so-and-so, or with such
+and such a thing, or course of action; i.e., the endeavour is
+fruitless; utter ruin or collapse is the end of it all; there is
+nothing left for hope; sometimes also, death. This phrase, indicative
+of total failure, discomfiture, and destruction, does not appear to be
+of very ancient standing, and can only be traced back as far as
+Fielding (see quotation). The mock epitaph, which the late Mr. W. J.
+Conybeare inserted in his novel Perversion, fitly illustrates the
+popular usage of all up. It is supposed to be written in commemoration
+of a country squire cut off in the midst of festivities.
+
+    ‘Quite well at ten,
+      Had a few friends to sup with me;
+    Taken ill at twelve,
+      And at one it was all up with me.’
+
+Also Up.
+
+Among English Synonyms may be mentioned:—To have missed stays
+(nautical); to have gone to pot; to have gone to smash; to have gone to
+the devil.
+
+    1752. Fielding, Amelia, book XII., ch. vi. ‘All is up and undone!’
+    cries Murphy.
+
+    1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. lx. A-double l, all,
+    everything; a cobbler’s weapon; u-p, up, adjective, not down;
+    s-q-u-double e-r-s, Squeers, noun substantive, a educator of youth.
+    Total, all up with Squeers.
+
+
+Allus, adv. (vulgar).—Always.
+
+
+All Wag Blue, subs. phr. (American).—A frolicing, rollicking time; a
+spree; a kick-up.
+
+
+Allybeg.—See Llybege.
+
+
+Almighty, adj. (common).—Mighty; great; exceedingly—a superlative of
+all work. For example, in the ‘dialect’ of which this word is a
+component part, an over-officious man is put down as ‘almighty fast’;
+or a horse with good points as an ‘almighty fine beast’; and so on
+throughout the whole range of superlative merit. It ranks with ‘awful,’
+‘eternal,’ ‘everlasting,’ ‘lovely,’ and a multitude of other words,
+orthodox enough when properly handled, but which become the purest
+slang when used, as is frequently the case, of things finite, and even
+of trifles. So employed, almighty is generally regarded as an
+Americanism, and is credited to our kinsmen across the sea, a view
+supported by De Quincey’s use of the term. If this be so, there is, in
+truth, little at which to wonder. The ‘wild,’ the boundless West is no
+unlikely nursery for big, high-sounding words; and though one may
+justly condemn such depravation of our mother-tongue, the fact remains.
+Thus, amongst the untutored backwoodsmen and rough pioneers of the West
+a week is an ‘eternal’ time; a good officer is an almighty general; and
+a spell of rain is spoken of as an ‘everlasting’ deluge. The foregoing
+examples by no means exhaust the potentialities of the language; as,
+e.g., when people talk of a man playing almighty ‘smash’ with his
+prospects, meaning that he is hopelessly ruining his chances of
+success: or driving a fellow-citizen into a state of almighty ‘shivers’
+through ill-treatment; or of a thing lasting till almighty ‘crack,’
+i.e., for an interminable period.
+
+    1824. De Quincey, Works (1871), XVI., 261. Such rubbish, such
+    almighty nonsense (to speak transatlantice) no eye has ever beheld.
+
+    1833. Marryat, Peter Simple (1863), 328. An almighty pretty French
+    privateer lying in St. Pierre’s.
+
+    1888. New York Mercury, July 21. ‘This is a rum world,’ said the
+    driver, with a chuckle, as he drove up the street. ‘And of all
+    places in it New York is the rummest. And hack-drivin’ is the
+    rummest business, leadin’ one into the rummest secrets. Another
+    passenger to the “Rookery.” I wonder whether the other boys gits as
+    many customers to that place as Luke Hyatt? If they do it must be
+    almighty full sometimes.’
+
+In another place De Quincey speaks of a man who cannot live and cannot
+die as being ‘in an almighty fix,’ and the expression is otherwise
+frequently used by him. Captain Marryat likewise constantly employs it;
+in fact, the phrase was well ‘acclimatised’ on this side of the
+Atlantic long prior to the publication of My Novel [1853], and Prof.
+Barrère, in attributing its popularisation ‘in a certain measure’ to
+Lord Lytton, failed to render due credit, if any, either to De Quincey
+or Marryat.
+
+
+Almighty Dollar, subs. (American).—The power of money; Mammon regarded
+as an embodiment of the worship of, and the quest for gold. This phrase
+is, in reality, an old friend with a new face, for Ben Jonson used the
+term in its modern sense when speaking of the power of money. Its
+modern application to dollars is traceable to Washington Irving, who
+made use of it in a charming little sketch, entitled A Creole Village.
+
+    1574–1637. Ben Jonson, Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland.
+
+        Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold,
+        And almost every vice, almightie gold.
+
+    1839. Washington Irving, Wolfert’s Roost: A Creole Village, p. 40.
+    The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion
+    throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotee in these
+    peculiar villages.
+
+    1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xxii. ‘Genius,
+    gentlemen, is apt to be careless of the main chance. It don’t care
+    for the almighty dollar; it lets fellows like me heap up the
+    stamps.’
+
+    1886. G. Sutherland, Australia, p. 102. The travelling Yankee, with
+    an overwearing confidence in the almighty dollar.
+
+
+Aloft. To go aloft, verb. phr. (common).—To die; the figure of speech
+presented here is nautical in origin.
+
+    1790. C. Dibdin, Sea Songs: Tom Bowling.
+
+        Here a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling,
+          The darling of our crew;
+        No more he’ll hear the tempest howling,
+          For death has broached him to.
+        His form was of the manliest beauty,
+          His heart was kind and soft;
+        Faithful below, Tom did his duty,
+          And now he’s gone aloft.
+
+Few expressions synonymous with the act of dying equal this in force or
+pathos; and it is rarely, moreover, that slang climbs on the wings of
+hope into a purer atmosphere than that of the vices and follies of men
+with which it is mainly concerned. By no means few in number, nor
+wanting in sententiousness and dramatic meaning are the phrases
+employed in the vulgar tongue to signify the greatest of all human
+experiences.
+
+English Synonyms. To kick the bucket; to hop the twig; to go to Davy
+Jones’ locker (nautical); to be put to bed with a shovel; to take an
+earth bath; to croak; to take a ground sweat; to go under (American:
+the visible disposal of the body furnishing a simile for the process of
+death); to go up (compare with foregoing: when the victim of lynch law
+is enquired after the questioner is told that he has ‘gone up,’ i.e.,
+been hanged); to lose the number of one’s mess (a sailor’s phrase); to
+snuff it (from snuffing a candle); to lay down one’s knife and fork; to
+stick one’s spoon in the wall; to give in; to give up; to peg out; to
+slip one’s cable (this, like ‘to go to Davy Jones’ locker,’ is of
+nautical origin); to pass in one’s checks (a euphemism drawn from the
+game of poker, the simile being that of settling one’s earthly accounts
+and the paying in to the banker of the dues at the end of the game);
+Kickeraboo (West Indian: a corruption of ‘to kick the bucket’).
+
+French. Passer l’arme à gauche (popular: ‘to lay down one’s arms’);
+casser sa pipe (lit. ‘to break one’s pipe’); dévisser or décoller son
+billard (lit. ‘to break one’s cue’); graisser ses bottes (lit. ‘to
+grease one’s boots’); avaler sa langue (lit. ‘to swallow one’s
+tongue’); avaler sa gaffe (‘to lower one’s boat-hook’); avaler sa
+cuiller (lit. ‘to lay down one’s spoon’); avaler ses baguettes
+(military: lit. ‘to lay aside one’s drum-sticks’); n’avoir plus mal aux
+dents (lit. ‘to have toothache no more.’ In Fr. Argot mal de dents is
+also synonymous with love); poser sa chique (popular: lit. ‘to lay down
+one’s finish, elegance, dash, spirit’—in short all that is distinctive
+in a man); claquer (familiar: lit. ‘to chatter with cold’ or ‘fear’);
+saluer le public (theat.: lit. ‘to make one’s bow’—to make one’s last
+appearance on this world’s stage, and one’s first in that land where
+‘the dead are many, and the living few’); recevoir son décompte
+(military: lit. ‘to receive deferred pay’; décompte is also military
+slang for a ‘mortal wound’); cracher ses embouchures (an expression of
+musical origin: the figure is obviously that of losing the power to
+perform on wind instruments); déteindre (popular: lit. ‘to wash off the
+colour’ or ‘dye.’ Is this a play upon words, or an allusion to death as
+the great revealer of man as he is?); donner son dernier bon à tirer
+(familiar: equivalent to the American, ‘to pass in one’s checks.’
+French printers understand by this phrase ‘to send the last proofs to
+press’); lâcher la perche (popular: lit. ‘to slip off one’s perch’);
+éteindre son gaz (popular: ‘to turn off the gas.’ Cf., ‘to snuff it’);
+épointer son foret (popular: lit. ‘to break off the point of the
+drill,’ as in boring); être exproprié (popular: lit. ‘to be
+dispossessed’; exproprier is a judicial term signifying ‘to take
+possession of the landed property of a debtor’); péter son lof
+(sailors’); fumer ses terres; fermer son parapluie (popular: ‘to close
+one’s umbrella’); perdre son bâton (popular: ‘to lose one’s walking
+stick’); descendre la garde (popular: ‘to come off guard’); défiler la
+parade (military: ‘to file off parade’; equivalent to the English ‘to
+lose the number of one’s mess’); tourner de l’œil (popular: is there
+not here an allusion to the phenomenon attendant on genuine sleep;
+feigned sleep can always be detected by turning up the eyelids of the
+sleeper, if sleep be genuine only the ‘whites’ of the eyes will be
+discoverable); perdre le goût du pain (popular: ‘to lose one’s taste
+for bread’); lâcher la rampe (theatrical: ‘to lose sight of the
+footlights’); faire ses petits paquets (popular: ‘to pack up one’s
+[small] traps’); casser son crachoir (popular: lit. ‘to break one’s
+spittoon’ or mouth); remercier son boulanger (thieves’: lit. ‘to thank
+the baker.’ It must be explained that boulanger baker is a French
+nickname for the devil); canner; dévider à l’estorgue (thieves’);
+baiser la camarde (popular: ‘to salute,’ or ‘kiss Death’; camarde is a
+popular euphemism for the ‘Messenger of Life’); camarder (popular: see
+previous example); fuir (thieves’: lit. ‘to fly’ or ‘escape’—from
+justice or capture); casser son câble (popular: ‘to slip the
+cable’—evidently a simile drawn from the sea); casser son fouet
+(popular: ‘to break’ or ‘lay aside one’s whip’); faire sa crevaison
+(popular: crever, ‘to kill’ or ‘die’ is usually only employed in
+speaking of animals); déralinguer (sailors’: properly ‘to detach from
+the bolt rope’); virer de bord (sailors’: lit. ‘to tack about’);
+déchirer son faux-col (popular: verbatim, ‘to burst open one’s
+collar’—the allusion is obvious); se dégeler (in good French, ‘to
+thaw’); couper sa mèche (coachman’s: ‘to throw down the whip’); piquer
+sa plaque (sailors’); mettre la table pour les asticots (popular:
+properly ‘to lay the table [become food] for worms’); aller manger les
+pissenlits par la racine (popular: ‘to go and feed off dandelion
+roots’—observe, by the way, that pissenlit is an exact equivalent for
+one of the English field names of the dandelion, viz.,
+‘piddle-the-bed’); laisser fuir son tonneau (familiar: lit. ‘to let
+fly’ or ‘kick away the cask.’ Cf., ‘to kick the bucket’); calancher
+(vagrants’); laisser ses bottes quelque part (familiar: lit. ‘to leave
+one’s boots somewhere’); déchirer son habit (popular: properly ‘to
+rend’ or ‘cast aside one’s coat’); déchirer son tablier (popular: in
+literary French this means, ‘to throw aside or destroy one’s apron’);
+souffler sa veilleuse (popular: meaning lit. ‘to blow out one’s
+nightlamp’ or ‘floating wick.’ Compare with ‘to snuff it’ or ‘to put
+out one’s light’ in English slang); pousser le boum de cygne (popular);
+avoir son coke (familiar); prendre sa secousse (popular: i.e., ‘to take
+one’s blow’ or ‘shock’); rendre sa buche (tailors’: the allusion is an
+obvious one); rendre sa canne au ministre (military: lit. ‘to resign
+one’s commission to the Minister [of War]’); rendre sa clef (gypsy:
+lit. ‘to give up the key’); rendre son livret (popular: lit. ‘to throw
+up one’s cards’).
+
+German Synonyms. See Hop the twig.
+
+Italian Fourbesque. Sbasire (lit. ‘to faint away’); sbasire su le funi
+(lit. ‘to faint away on the rope’).
+
+
+Alone, adv. (old).—In the flash vocabulary of the time of Pierce Egan’s
+Tom and Jerry [circa 1800–1825], only an experienced man of the world
+could be allowed to go alone. Such a one was said to be fly; up to
+snuff (q.v.), etc.
+
+
+Along Of, adv. (vulgar).—A dialectical form for on account of; owing
+to; pertaining, or belonging to. Formerly along on, and it so appeared
+as early as A.D. 880: along of was used by Chaucer, but it is now
+mainly confined to the illiterate or vulgar.
+
+    1369. Chaucer, Troylus ii., 1001. On me is not along thin evil
+    fare.
+
+    1581. W. Stafford, Exam. of Complaints, p. 16 (New Shaks. Soc.:
+    Ed.). Complaining of general poverty, he says: ‘Whereof it is
+    longe, I cannot well tell.’
+
+    1601. Holland, Pliny, p. 25, quoted in Morris’ Elem. Hist. Eng.
+    Gram., p. 198. And that is long of contrarie causes.
+
+    1858. Dickens, Xmas. Stories (going into Society), p. 65 (II. ed.).
+    Would he object to say why he left it? Not at all; why should he?
+    He left it along of a dwarf.
+
+    1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. xviii. ‘Mayhap the concert
+    didn’t come off, along of the snow.’
+
+
+Alsatia, or Alsatia the Higher, subs. (old slang).—1. Whitefriars, once
+a place privileged from arrests for debt, as was also Alsatia the
+lower, or the Mint in Southwark. Both were suppressed, in 1697, on
+account of the notorious abuses committed there. A charter of liberties
+and privileges had been granted, in 1608, by King James I. to the
+inhabitants of this district, and it speedily became the haunt of
+insolvent debtors, cheats, and gamesters, who conferred upon it the
+jocular cant name of Alsatia, a Latinised form of Alsace, a province
+which had long enjoyed the reputation of a ‘debateable land.’
+
+    1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia I., in wks. (1720), IV., 25. Who are
+    these? Some inhabitants of White-fryers; some bullies of Alsatia.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvi. Whitefriars, adjacent to
+    the Temple, then well known by the cant name of Alsatia.
+
+2. Hence any rendezvous or asylum for loose characters and criminals,
+where immunity from arrest is tolerably certain; a haunt of thieves,
+and the criminal classes; a low quarter.
+
+    1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, etc. (1811), p. 82. A ’squire of
+    Alsatia. A spendthrift or sharper, inhabiting places formerly
+    privileged from arrests.
+
+    1861. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. II., ch. i. So Blind
+    Peter was the Alsatia of Slopperton, a refuge for crime and
+    destitution.
+
+    1876. Lord Justice James, in ex parte Saffery re Cooke, Law Times,
+    35, p. 718. The Stock Exchange is not an Alsatia; the Queen’s laws
+    are paramount there, and the Queen’s writ runs even into the sacred
+    precincts of Capel-Court.
+
+
+Alsatian, subs. (old).—A rogue, or debauchee, such as haunted Alsatia
+or Whitefriars.
+
+    1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II., 259. The benchers of the
+    Inner Temple having given orders for bricking up their little gate
+    leading into White-fryers ... the Alsatians came and pulled it
+    down.
+
+    c. 1700. Gentleman Instructed, p. 491 [10 ed., 1732]. He spurr’d to
+    London, and left a thousand curses behind him. Here he struck up
+    with sharpers, scourers, and Alsatians.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. ‘You shall sink a
+    nobleman in the Temple Gardens, and rise an Alsatian at
+    Whitefriars.’
+
+Adj.—Pertaining to Alsatia; roguish; debauched.
+
+    1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia I. in wks. (1720), IV., 27. He came
+    out of White Fryers: he’s some Alsatian bully.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. An extravagantly long
+    rapier and poinard marked the true Alsatian bully.
+
+    1882. Besant, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, ch. vii. The road
+    has come to be regarded with admiration as one of those Alsatian
+    retreats, growing every day rarer, which are beyond and above the
+    law.
+
+
+Alsatia Phrase, subs. (old).—A slang or cant term, such as was used by
+Alsatians; or, now-a-days, by thieves and vagrants.
+
+    1704. Swift, Tale of a Tub. Apology for author. The second instance
+    to shew the author’s wit is not his own, is Peter’s banter (as he
+    calls it in his Alsatia phrase) upon transubstantiation.
+
+Synonymous terms were Pedler’s French, St. Giles’ Greek, etc.
+
+
+Altamel, Altemal, subs., adj., adv., and intj. (American thieves’).—
+
+Adv.—All together, as ‘Let’s anchor altemal,’ i.e., ‘Let us come to a
+stop altogether.’
+
+Subs.—The sum total of a bill or story.
+
+Intj.—An injunction to ‘cut it short.’
+
+Altemal is said to be derived from the Dutch altemal, but Murray has it
+as ‘altumal’ with a different derivation. [From L. altum, the deep,
+i.e., the sea + al.] Grose leans to the former and quotes Dutch
+reckoning as synonymous; from a verbal account without particulars,
+such as was given in brothels and sponging houses—accounts which
+allowed of no sort of verification. Cf., Flemish account and remarks
+under Dutch.
+
+    1711. Medleys, 29 Jan. (1712), 186. His altumal cant, a mark of his
+    poor Traffick and Tar-Education.
+
+    1758. Chambers, Cycl. Supp. Altumal, a term used to denote the
+    mercantile style, or dialect. In this sense, we meet with altumal
+    cant, to denote the language of petty traders and tars.
+
+
+Altering the Jeff’s Click.—See Jeff’s click.
+
+
+Altham, subs. (old cant).—A wife; mistress.—See quotation.
+
+    1560. John Awdeley, Fraternitye of Vacabondes (1869. English
+    Dialect Society’s Reprint), p. 4. A curtall is much like to the
+    Vpright man, but hys authority is not fully so great. He vseth
+    commonly to go with a short cloke, like to grey Friers, and his
+    woman with him in like liuery, which he calleth his altham if she
+    be hys.
+
+
+Altitudes. In his altitudes, phr. (old).—In an elevated mood, chiefly
+from liquor; putting on airs and graces; using lofty phrases; in a
+state of excitement; and, in a special slang sense, drunk. The phrase
+has been incorrectly given as ‘out of his altitudes.’ The first trace
+of it is to be found in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Laws of Candy, II.
+[1616].
+
+    1630. Jonson, New Inn, I. I have talked somewhat above my share, at
+    large, and been in the altitudes, the extravagants.
+
+    1668. Dryden, An Evening’s Love, Act iii. If we men could but learn
+    to value ourselves, we should soon take down our mistresses from
+    all their altitudes, and make them dance after our pipes.
+
+    1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, Act v. Clar. ‘Who makes thee cry out
+    thus, poor Brass?’ Brass. ‘Why, your husband, madam; he’s in his
+    altitudes here.’
+
+    1785. Francis Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. The man is in
+    his altitudes, i.e., he is drunk.
+
+
+Altocad, subs. (Win. Coll.).—A somewhat venerable paid member of the
+choir who takes alto.
+
+
+Alybbeg.—See Lybbege.
+
+
+Alycompaine.—See Allacompain.
+
+
+Ambassador, subs. (nautical).—A sailor’s practical joke upon ‘green’
+hands, similar to the festivities formerly universally observed when
+‘crossing the line.’ These tricks have been common to sailors of every
+nation. Ambassador was thus managed:—A large tub was filled with water,
+two stools being placed on either side of it; over the whole was thrown
+a tarpaulin or old sail, kept tight by two persons, who represented the
+king and queen of a foreign country, and who were seated on the stools.
+To the victim was allotted the part of ambassador, who, after repeating
+a ridiculous speech dictated to him, was led in great state up to the
+throne, and seated between the king and queen. They rising suddenly, as
+soon as the unsuspecting victim was seated, caused him to fall backward
+into the tub of water.
+
+
+Ambassador of Commerce, subs. (familiar).—A commercial traveller; a
+bagman (q.v.).
+
+
+Ambia, subs. (American).—A euphemism for the juice of tobacco, as
+expectorated after chewing. Most frequently heard in the Southern and
+Western States. Apparently a corruption of ‘amber’ (indeed it is
+commonly spelt and pronounced ambeer)—presumably from a similarity in
+colour between expectorated tobacco saliva and the mineralised resinous
+product.
+
+
+Ambidexter, also in 17th century, Ambodexter, subs. and adj. (old
+slang).—[From ambo, both + dexter, the right hand, i.e., the faculty of
+using both hands as right hands, or equally well.] Applied first in a
+slang sense to a lawyer taking fees or bribes from both plaintiff and
+defendant, ambidexter gradually became identified with double-dealing
+of all kinds.
+
+    1532. Use of Dice Play (1850), 17. Any affinity with our men of
+    law? Never with those that be honest. Marry! with such as be
+    ambidexters, and used to play in both the hands. [M.]
+
+    1555. Ridley, Works, 27. They may be called neutrals, ambidexters,
+    or rather such as can shift on both sides. [M.]
+
+    1691. Blount, Law Dictionary. Ambidexter.... That Juror or
+    Embraceor who takes Money on both sides, for giving his Verdict.
+
+    1703. De Foe, Ref. Manners, 93. Those ambodexters in Religion, who
+    Can any thing dispute, yet any thing can do.
+
+    1864. Sir F. Palgrave, Norman and Eng. III., 278. An ambidexter,
+    owing fealty to both Counts, and not faithful to either.
+
+
+Ambush, subs. (American thieves’).—Fraudulent weights and measures. A
+punning allusion to the accepted meaning of the word—to lie in wait
+(lying weight). In juxtaposition to this may be placed the Fourbesque
+(Italian thieves’ argot); giusta, a pair of scales, a balance, which in
+Italian literally means ‘correct.’ Cf., French thieves’ argot, juste
+(an abbreviation of justice), for the assizes; also the Spanish
+Germania justia, in a similar sense, the last-named being a shortened
+form of the Spanish justicia.
+
+
+Amen Curler, subs. (old slang).—The name formerly given to a parish
+clerk. In the army the chaplain’s clerk is called an amen wallah
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Amener, subs. (old).—A nickname given to one who agrees to everything
+said or done. [From that sense of amen = to ratify solemnly + er.]
+
+
+Amen-Snorter, subs. (Australian).—A parson; from which it will be
+observed that the fifth continent is evolving words and phrases as
+peculiar to itself as America has already done. For synonyms, see Devil
+dodger.
+
+    1888. Bulletin, Nov. 24. In Maori-land it is impossible to swing
+    any kind of cat without smiting some variety of amen-snorter. Still
+    the saints are not happy. They have just held at Wellington a
+    ‘United Ker-ristian Conference’ to ruminate on the sinfulness of
+    things and the scarcity of the unsanctified threepenny. A Rev.
+    vessel, one Potter, opined that the meagre quantity and inferior
+    quality of family devotion accounted for the depleted condition of
+    the ‘treasury of the Loard,’ and suggested that steps should be
+    taken ‘to find out what families omit this important duty.’ Since
+    which all the dead-beats and suspected hen-snatchers plead when
+    before the Binch that they were ‘only mouching round to find out
+    whether the family neglected its religious dooties, yer washup.’
+
+
+Amen Wallah, subs. (military).—A chaplain’s clerk; the allusion is
+sufficiently obvious. ‘Wallah’ is Hindustani for ‘man’ or person. Cf.,
+the old English slang, amen curler (q.v.).
+
+
+Amerace, adv. (American thieves’).—Jargon signifying near at hand;
+within call.
+
+
+American Shoulders, subs. (tailors’).—A particular ‘cut,’ in which the
+shoulders of a coat are so shaped as to give the wearer a broad and
+burly appearance. This is usually done where a man’s shoulders are of
+the champagne (q.v.) order, i.e., like the neck of a wine bottle, with
+nothing upon which the garment in question can be hung.
+
+
+American Tweezers, subs. (thieves’).—An ingenious instrument of
+American invention, by means of which it is possible to turn a key in a
+door and unlock it from the outside.
+
+
+Ames Ace, Ambs-Ace, or Ambes-Ace. Within ames ace, subs. phr. (old).—1.
+Nearly; very near; ambs-ace was the double ace, the lowest throw at
+dice. Hence also
+
+2. Bad luck; misfortune. The expression, according to Murray, dates
+back to A.D. 1297.
+
+
+Aminidab, subs. (old).—A jeering name for a Quaker.—Grose.
+
+
+Ammunition, subs. (common).—Paper for use at the cabinet d’aisance.
+Also called curl papers (q.v.).
+
+
+Ammunition Leg, subs. (military).—A wooden leg. From the attributive
+use of ‘ammunition’ as applied to stores supplied to soldiers for
+equipment or rations. To show the length to which this application of
+the word has been carried, it may be noted that Robertson, in 1693,
+speaks of ‘an ammunition whore.’—scortum castrense.
+
+
+Amort, adv. and pred. adj. (old).—Usually all amort, an antithetical
+phrase to all alive (q.v.), and meaning half dead; in a state of
+stupor; without spirit; sometimes used as a synonym of balmy, cracked,
+dotty, all of which see. A-la-mort, from the French, is regarded as the
+original form, though it is doubtful which took precedence in literary
+English. At one time both forms were quite naturalised; they are now of
+interest as affording an instance of words, gradually lapsing into
+slang or vulgar usage, and then coming to be regarded as Anglo-French
+phrases. American thieves still retain them, to signify struck dumb, or
+confounded; in these senses they are given by Grose in his Dictionary
+of the Vulgar Tongue [1787], which would seem to show they had already
+commenced their downward career.
+
+
+Ampersand, subs. (familiar).—The breech; or posteriors. [From Eng. and
++ Latin per se, by itself, + Eng. and; literally, ‘and by itself and’
+used to distinguish the character ‘&,’ which in old nursery books came
+at the end of the alphabet. Hence, employed to signify the hinder
+parts.] The word in its slang sense is quite a recent introduction,
+said to be of American origin. For synonyms, see Blind cheeks.
+
+
+Amputate. To amputate one’s mahogany or timber (familiar).—To be off;
+to begone—the idea being that of quick or violent motion, often, though
+not always, the result of moral or physical force. [Probably from that
+sense of amputate equivalent to ‘cut off’ or ‘away.’ Cf., ‘cut,’ a
+slang synonym.] A welcher is called a timber-merchant, because he
+removes himself, or ‘cuts his stick’ with celerity as occasion
+requires. Both the English and French have many synonymous words and
+phrases to express the same idea. Among the more popular may be
+mentioned:—
+
+English Synonyms. To skedaddle (an American term); to cut one’s lucky;
+to sling, or take one’s hook; to mizzle; to absquatulate; to pad the
+hoof; to give leg bail; to bolt; to cut and run; to chivey; to walk the
+trotters; to slip one’s cable; to step it; to leg it; to tip the
+double; to make, or take tracks; to hook it; to make beef (thieves’
+term); to slope; to cut the cable and run before the wind (obviously a
+sailor’s phrase); to slip it; to abskize; to paddle; to guy (used by
+thieves); to evaporate; to vamoose (American, from the Spanish
+imperative vamos, let us go); to speele (used by thieves); to skip; to
+tip one’s rags a gallop; to walk one’s chalks; to pike; to hop the
+twig; to turn it up; to cap one’s lucky (a phrase mainly confined to
+American thieves); to crush; to cut dirt; to bunk; to pike it; to stir
+one’s stumps.
+
+French. Faire or jouer la fille de l’air (lit. ‘to go like the wind,’
+fille de l’air, daughter of air, being a poetical embodiment); faire le
+lézard (a thief’s term, and meaning properly ‘to imitate a lizard,’ an
+allusion to swiftness of motion); faire le jat-jat; faire la paire
+(lit. ‘to go double,’ Cf., ‘to tip the double’); faire gille (a very
+old French phrase; it means also to become bankrupt. The connection
+between bankruptcy and decamping is obvious); se déguiser en cerf
+(popular: lit. ‘to play the stag’); s’évanouir (popular: lit. ‘to
+vanish’ or ‘fade away’); se cramper or tirer sa crampe (cramper is a
+popular term for rapid flight, and contains an allusion to the cramp or
+nervous contraction sometimes caused by violent motion. Old French had
+the verb crampir in the sense of ‘to bend’ or ‘double up.’ Tirer sa
+crampe is lit. ‘to get cramped’); se lâcher du ballon (popular: ‘to let
+loose the balloon,’ an allusion to the rapidity with which a balloon
+shoots up into the air when set free); se la couler (exactly equivalent
+to the English slang ‘to slip it’); se donner de l’air (popular: Cf.,
+faire la fille de l’air); se pousser du zeph (popular: properly ‘to
+push forward with the wind.’ Zeph is a contraction of zephir); se
+sylphider (popular: from sylphide, a sylph; a reference to what in
+English racing terminology would be termed the ‘light-weight’ character
+of such creatures enabling them to get over the ground quickly); se
+faire la débinette; jouer des fourchettes (popular: ‘to put one’s forks
+into play’); fourchettes (in French argot = legs or ‘pins’); se la
+donner (Michel says la here refers to ‘la clef des champs,’ an
+expression synonymous with ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’); se la briser
+(popular); ramasser un bidon (thieves’); se la casser (popular); se la
+tirer; tirer ses granches; valser (lit. to dance); se tirer les
+pincettes (popular: lit. ‘to pull along’ or to extricate ‘one’s tongs’
+or ‘nippers.’ Cf., English ‘nip along’); se tirer les baladoires; se
+tirer les pattes (lit. ‘to move one’s paws’); se tirer les trimoires
+(thieves’: trimoires is a cant term for legs, and trimer signifies
+painful progression, or doing most of a journey on foot); se tirer les
+flûtes (popular: les flûtes = ‘shanks’ or ‘pegs’); jouer des guibes
+(guibe is a popular term for the leg, chiefly employed in burlesque);
+jouer des quilles (this expression is very old. Quilles properly
+signifies ‘crutches,’ and is popularly employed for the legs); se
+carapater (lit. ‘to run on one’s paws.’ Cf., ‘to take to one’s heels’);
+se barrer (lit. ‘to dash over’); baudrouiller (thieves’: this has the
+signification of ‘to whip up’); se cavaler (thieves’: cavaler was once
+synonymous with chevaucher; therefore, se cavaler signifies in reality,
+‘to go on horseback on oneself,’ in which connection it may be compared
+with ‘shanks’ mare,’ the ‘marrow-bone stage’ [the Marylebone stage], or
+the German Schuhster’s Rappen, the shoemaker’s black horses, i.e., the
+shoes. Se cavaler likewise has reference to running away with the tail
+between the legs when fright has seized hold of an animal, and as
+employed by thieves conveys the idea of cowardice as well as that of
+locomotion); faire une cavale or se payer une cavale (popular: Cf., se
+cavaler); jouer des or se tirer les paturons (popular and thieves’:
+this may be translated ‘to pad the hoof.’ Paturons is properly the
+‘pasterns.’ The frequent use of se tirer in connection with the idea of
+moving from place to place with a celerity which is oftentimes
+accentuated by a fear of arrest or unwelcome obstruction is extremely
+fitting. Se tirer means literally to extricate oneself; to get through;
+to pull oneself forward—extra endeavour resulting in rapid
+progression); happer le taillis (thieves’: lit. ‘to catch, lay hold of’
+or ‘gain the copse’; i.e., a place of concealment); flasquer du poivre
+à quelqu’un or la rousse (thieves’: Cf., Amuse; ‘to fly from the
+police’; lit. ‘to shake the pepper box in the eyes of the police’;
+rousse is a cant term for a guardian of the peace); décaniller
+(thieves’: this word, derived from canille, a French provincialism for
+chenille, a caterpillar, is an allusion to the metamorphosis of the
+grub into a butterfly when it takes unto itself wings); décarrer
+(thieves’: to leave prison; décarrer de belle, to be released from
+prison without having been tried); exhiber son prussien (popular:
+prussien is a common colloquialism for the posteriors, and the phrase
+literally means ‘to show one’s behind,’ or ‘turn tail.’ It may be worth
+while remarking that the term prussien as applied to the breech is no
+vulgar expression of contempt towards the Prussians. The word is
+derived, says Michel, from the gypsy prusiatiñi, which Borrow
+translates by pistol. Formerly the French called ‘the behind’ by the
+name of a Parisian church, Saint-Jean le Rond); démurger (thieves’: to
+leave a place; to be set at liberty); désarrer (thieves’: ‘to guy’; to
+make beef); gagner les gigoteaux (also gagner au trot, au pied, gagner
+le camp, la colline, le taillis, la guérite, etc.); se faire une paire
+de mains courantes à la mode (thieves’); fendre l’ergot (lit. ‘to split
+the spur,’ an allusion to the toes being pressed to the ground, and
+thus naturally parted); filer son nœud, or son cable (sailors’ and
+popular: lit. ‘to cut the ropes’ or ‘cable’); se défiler (popular, but
+derived from the military term, signifying to go off parade: might be
+translated ‘to leg it’); s’écar-bouiller (popular: properly ‘to crush’;
+compare with the English synonym ‘crush’); esballonner (popular); filer
+son cable par le bout (sailors’); faire chibis (thieves’: ‘to escape
+from prison’); déraper (common); fouiner (popular: this is, in reality,
+no more slang than the English ‘to sneak away’); se la fracturer
+(popular: properly a surgical term, meaning ‘to fracture’); jouer des
+gambettes (popular: may be translated ‘to leg it’; ‘to stir one’s
+stumps’; gambettes is from the old French gambe, a leg); s’esbigner
+(popular: properly ‘to give the slip’); ramoner ses tuyaux (popular:
+lit. ‘to sweep one’s chimney’; ramoner, in its primary cant
+signification of ‘to mutter’ or ‘to mumble,’ is an allusion to the
+rumbling noise produced by sweeping a chimney. Se faire ramoner is ‘to
+go to confession,’ or ‘to take a purgative’—the one a moral, and the
+other a physical cleansing. Hence ramoner ses tuyaux, ‘to run away,’ in
+reference to the speedy locomotion consequent upon the process of
+purging); foutre le camp (popular: equivalent to ‘hook it’; a coarse
+expression); tirer le chausson (popular); se vanner (thieves: Michel
+derives this from the Italian vannare, ‘to flap the wings,’ but another
+authority refers it to the motions of the body and arms of a winnower;
+the word in literary French signifying ‘to sift’ or ‘to winnow.’ Others
+trace it to the old French vanoyer, ‘to disappear.’ In all cases,
+however, it would seem to be equivalent to the English ‘come shake
+yourself! be off!’); ambier (thieves’); chier du poivre (popular: ‘to
+abscond,’ or ‘to fail to be at hand when needed’); se débiner, or se
+débiner des fumerons (popular: ‘to stir one’s stumps’); caleter
+(popular); attacher une gamelle (popular and thieves’); camper (low);
+affuter ses pincettes (thieves’: lit. ‘to sharpen the pins’ or ‘to leg
+it’); and many others.
+
+German Synonyms. Abbaschen (from paschen, ‘to smuggle’); abbauen
+(literally ‘to remove, or finish’ [a building]); abfocken; abhalchen
+(from Hebrew holach, ‘to go’); schefften; abschnurren (a
+beggar-musicians’ term; also to beg through a lane, town, or district.
+[M.H.G., snurren, schnurren, schnurrant]); abtarchenen; abtippeln (to
+run away secretly); alchen (from Hebrew holach, ‘to go’); aschween
+(Hanoverian: according to Thiele hascheweine—probably corrupted from
+schuw; heschiw, ‘to turn round’); blättern (corrupted from
+plettern—Hebrew pleto); caball (from Latin caballus, ‘a horse’; hence,
+to fly quickly as if on horseback); dippeln (a Viennese thieves’ term)
+fucken or focken.
+
+Italian Fourbesque. Sbignare or svignare (these words though given as
+cant by the author of the Nuovo Modo are now received words); comprare
+(lit. ‘to buy’); comprar viole; allungare il muro (lit. ‘to lengthen
+the wall’); balzare (lit. ‘to caper,’ ‘to skip,’ ‘to bounce’); batter
+la calcosa (lit. ‘to beat the earth.’ Cf., American ‘to cut dirt’);
+dare a lata; scoscare.
+
+Spanish Germania. Piñarse (an old and now obsolete term); alar; alarse;
+alolargo (lit. ‘at large’); picar (lit. ‘to use the spurs’); safarse
+(lit. ‘to escape’ or ‘save oneself’ [from arrest]).
+
+
+Amuse, verb. (old cant).—To fling dust or snuff in the eyes of a person
+intended to be robbed. Also, to invent some plausible tale, to delude
+shop-keepers and others, thereby to put them off their guard, and so to
+obtain an opportunity of robbing them.
+
+
+Amusers, subs. (old cant and American thieves’).—A certain class of
+thieves’ accomplices who throw snuff, pepper, and other noxious
+substances in the eyes of the person they intend to rob, a confederate
+then, while apparently coming to the rescue, completing the operation.
+In this, as in much of the slang of the criminal classes, there runs a
+vein of brutal cynicism. Though obsolete in England the term survives
+in America amongst the criminal classes.
+
+
+Anabaptist, subs. (old slang).—A pickpocket caught in the act, and
+punished with the discipline of the pump or horse-pond.—Grose.
+
+
+Anchor. To come to an anchor, verb. phr. (nautical and common).—To
+stop; to sit down; to rest. [From the operation of bringing ships to a
+standstill by casting anchor.]
+
+
+Anchorage, subs. (common).—An abode; where one dwells. Of nautical
+origin (see Anchor). For synonyms, see Diggings.
+
+
+Ancient Mariners, subs. (Univ. Oxford).—A term applied to rowing dons.
+
+
+And Don’t You Forget It, phr. (American).—A senseless string of words
+employed indiscriminately in season and out of season. Like ‘Who’s your
+hatter?’ ‘How’s your poor feet?’ ‘Not for Joe!’ ‘Does your mother know
+you’re out?’ ‘What! again! so soon?’ and many others, which every now
+and then have caught the ‘fancy’ of the streets of our large towns, the
+phrase under consideration has run an almost riotous course through the
+large centres of population in America. In most cases these strings of
+words convey no special idea, and can only be described as utterly
+vulgar, without the slightest scintillation of wit or humour of any
+kind.
+
+    1888. Boston Weekly Globe, Feb. 29. There can be no two opposing
+    opinions in that respect. Great capital demands dividends.
+    Dividends can be had only from a prosperous business. A prosperous
+    business must recognise the law of supply and demand, and if the
+    public demand dirt the newspapers will furnish dirt—and don’t you
+    forget it.
+
+    1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. 6. ‘Did you see any Quakers in
+    Philadelphia?’ was asked of a Detroiter who lately returned from
+    that city.
+
+    ‘Only one that I was sure of.’
+
+    ‘Did he ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ you?’
+
+    ‘He did. He got down off his hack and said: ‘If thee don’t pay me
+    2 dols. I’ll knock thy blamed head off,’ and I paid, although I
+    knew the regular fare was twelve shillings. You don’t want to fool
+    with those Quakers any, and don’t you forget it.’
+
+
+And He Didn’t, phr. (tailors’).—A phrase of the all my eye (q.v.)
+stamp, i.e., ‘You tell me you have not; but for all that I think you
+have’—the action referred to being generally of a discreditable
+character.
+
+
+And No Mogue? phr. (tailors’).—Used in a variety of ways to signify
+doubt and uncertainty. It is equivalent to the street gamin’s ‘no kid?’
+when used interrogatively, i.e., ‘there’s no mistake, is there?’ ‘Now,
+joking apart?’ Also used as a ‘set down’ to narrators claiming descent
+from Baron Munchausen, in which case it is equivalent to the ‘You don’t
+say so!’ of politer circles; in both cases the spokesman conveys the
+idea that one’s credulity has been somewhat taxed.
+
+
+And No Whistle, phr. (tailors’).—A kind of tu quoque; usually applied
+to a man by a listener desiring to convey to the speaker the idea that
+no matter what others may think to the contrary, he [the listener]
+believes that what has been said refers to the person speaking.
+
+
+Andrew Millar, subs. (nautical).—A curious cant name for a ship of war;
+sometimes simply Andrew. Its origin is quite unknown; but it has been
+pointed out that Antonio, in the Merchant of Venice, speaks of one of
+his vessels as his ‘wealthy Andrew’; and it has been conjectured that
+in this case the ship was named after the celebrated Admiral Andrea
+Doria, who died in 1560. But to trace any connection between this
+Andrew, however general the use of the name may have become, and the
+Andrew Millar of modern sailors’ slang, would be difficult.
+
+    1598. Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, i., i., 27.
+
+        But I should think of shallows and of flats,
+        And see my wealthy Andrew dock’d in sand.
+
+Among Australian smugglers the term still survives for a revenue
+cutter.
+
+
+Angel or Flying Angel, subs. (common).—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1880. James Greenwood, Seaside Insanity in Odd People in Odd
+    Places, p. 45. It is at this point when the one day excursionist,
+    who, as well as his wife, has an olive-branch or two with him,
+    finds his fortitude suddenly collapse. With the youngest but one
+    (his good lady, of course, carries the baby) bestriding his
+    shoulder, he puts his best foot foremost from the beach to the town
+    so as to be in good time at the station. He is hot and fagged, and
+    his temper is not improved by the knowledge that the cherub to whom
+    he is giving a ‘flying angel’ is smearing his Sunday hat with the
+    seaweed with which its little fists are full.
+
+
+Angelicas.—See Angelics.
+
+
+Angelics, subs. (old).—Unmarried young ladies. Now Angelicas.
+
+    1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 5. (Dicks’ ed., 1889.) Jerry.
+    You think the cut of my clothes rather too rustic—eh? Tom. Exactly;
+    dress is the order of the day. A man must have the look of a
+    gentleman, if he has nothing else. We must assume a style if we
+    have it not. This, what do you call it?—this cover-me-decently, was
+    all very well at Hawthorn Hall, I daresay; but here, among the
+    pinks in Rotten Row, the ladybirds in the Saloon, the angelics at
+    Almack’s, the top-of-the-tree heroes, the legs and levanters at
+    Tattersall’s, nay, even among the millers at the Fives, it would be
+    taken for nothing less than the index of a complete flat.
+
+
+Angeliferous, adj. (American).—Angelic; also super-excellent; a
+factitious word. It is interesting to note that ‘angelification,’
+‘angelify,’ and ‘angelified,’ were in use in the seventeenth century,
+but never to any great extent. [From angel + iferous, a spurious form
+based on the model of ‘auriferous.’] It is said to have been first used
+by Bird in his novel, entitled Nick of the Woods.
+
+
+Angels Altogether, subs. phr. (West Indian).—A sobriquet applied to
+habitual drunkards. It originated about the year 1876, and was, in the
+first instance, a bon-mot of a well-known sugar planter on the East
+Coast Demerara. A negro hand, notorious for his hard drinking, applied
+for a holiday, and the manager having a suspicion that Quashie wanted
+it simply to go ‘on the drink,’ bantered him as follows:—‘John! you
+were drunk on Sunday?’ ‘Yes, massa!’ ‘Monday too?’ ‘Yes, massa!’ and on
+the question being repeated as regards Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
+and Friday, it elicited similar responses, whereupon the ‘boss’
+quietly, but pointedly said, ‘But John, you can’t be an angel
+altogether, you know!’ The story got abroad, caught on, and in a short
+time the whole colony rang with the expression.
+
+
+Angel’s Footstool, subs. phr. (nautical).—Yankee skippers, given to
+high falutin’, aver that their craft carry far more canvas than any
+vessel afloat of ‘foreign’ origin (the term ‘foreign’ including British
+bottoms, as well as those of nations other than Anglo-Saxon). Imaginary
+sails are crowded on their craft, among these being one which they
+jokingly call an angel’s footstool. It is pretended to be a square
+sail, and is supposed to top the skyscrapers, moon-sails, and cloud
+cleaners (q.v.).
+
+
+Angel’s Gear, subs. phr. (nautical).—It is thus that ‘jolly tars’
+sometimes speak of female attire. Jack is notoriously most susceptible
+where a petticoat is concerned.
+
+
+Angel’s-Oil, subs. (old).—A seventeenth century colloquialism for money
+used for bribery; sometimes oil of angels. For synonyms, see Actual,
+and Boodle.
+
+
+Angel’s Suit, subs. phr. (tailors’).—A ‘combination’ garment for males.
+The coat and waistcoat were made in one, and the ‘unmentionables’
+buttoned on to it. Neither garment nor name was extensively adopted.
+
+
+Angel’s Whisper, subs. phr. (military).—A name given to the call to
+defaulter’s drill. Needless to say it is, as Artemus Ward would express
+it, ‘wrote sarcastic.’
+
+
+Anglers, Hookers, or Starrers, subs. (old).—Pilferers or petty thieves,
+who, with a stick having a hook at the end, steal goods from shop
+windows, etc. So far Grose; but Duncombe adds that starrers are an
+order of thieves who break show glasses in jewellers’ windows and, in
+the consequent confusion steal the goods. The term is a very ancient
+one. Dekker in English Villanies [1632], thus describes an ‘angler for
+duds’:—‘He carries a short staff in his hand, which is called a filch,
+having in the nab or head of it a ferme (that is to say a hole) into
+which, upon any piece of service, when he goes a filching, he putteth a
+hooke of iron, with which hook he angles at a window in the dead of
+night for shirts, smockes, or any other linen or woollen.’ It would
+appear from this that modern thieves are both much more daring and
+expert. It is not an uncommon thing for a crack thief, in the broad
+daylight, in the most crowded streets of London, to break a jeweller’s
+window, snatch some valuables, and make off with them. An iron
+instrument is used for the purpose which is concealed by the coat
+sleeve.—See Area sneak.
+
+
+Angling Cove, subs. (thieves’).—A receiver of stolen goods.—See Fence.
+
+
+Angling for Farthings, verb. phr. (old thieves’).—Begging out of a
+prison window with a cap or box, let down at the end of a long
+string.—Grose. Such a practice, it is needless to say, would be
+impossible nowadays.—See Hooker.
+
+
+Anglomaniacs, subs. phr. (American).—A club in Boston is thus
+self-styled. Its members are opposed to anything British in every shape
+and form. The term is of course a contradiction, and should, to express
+the policy of its members, be Anglophobists.
+
+
+Angry Boys.—See Bloods.
+
+
+Angular Party, subs. phr. (common).—A term given to any gathering of
+people of which the number is odd; say three, seven, thirteen, etc.
+
+
+Animal, subs. (American).—A new arrival at the United States Military
+Academy at West Point. Cf., Snooker.
+
+To go the whole animal (American).—A variant of ‘to go the whole hog.’
+In the West Indies it is varied by ‘to go the whole dog.’—See Hog.
+
+    1838. C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, p.... Opposing all half
+    measures, and preferring to go the extreme animal.
+
+    1859. G. A. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, p. 62.... that they had
+    much better pay first-class, and go the entire animal.
+
+
+Animules, subs. (American).—This expression is very generally used in
+the South-western territories, and in California, as a substitute for
+‘mules.’ A witty play upon ‘animals’ and ‘mules.’
+
+    1834(?) Centre-Pole Bill, in Overland Monthly. ‘Ten miles to town!
+    Waal, stranger, I guess I’ll stake out here to-night. Them animules
+    is too beat to do that. Where’s yer water?’ ‘It’s all around you
+    to-night; but you can turn your mules into the corral.’
+
+
+Ankle. To sprain one’s ankle, verb. phr. (old).—When a girl has been
+seduced she is said to have sprained her ankle. Both French and German
+slang have analogous expressions; in the former, elle a mal aux genoux
+is said of a woman who is pregnant, i.e., ‘she has a bad knee.’ In
+German, ladies so placed ‘lose a shoe’; but of synonyms there are
+plenty.—See Leg.
+
+
+Ankle-Beaters, subs. phr. (old).—A class of boys who attended cattle
+markets for the purpose of driving to the slaughter-house the animals
+purchased by the butcher. They were called ankle-beaters from their
+driving the animals with long wattles, and beating them on the legs to
+avoid spoiling or bruising the flesh. Also called penny-boys (q.v.),
+because they received one penny per head as remuneration.
+
+
+Anne’s Fan, properly Queen Anne’s Fan, subs. phr. (common).—Putting the
+tip of the thumb of either hand to the nose, and then spreading the
+fingers in the shape of a fan. A gesture of contempt often intensified
+either by twiddling the digits when in the position named, or by
+similarly placing the other hand in an extended line. It is also called
+taking a sight (q.v.), and biting the thumb (q.v.).
+
+
+Annex, verb. (American).—To steal; in England the wise it call
+‘convey.’—See Bone.
+
+
+Anodyne, subs. (American thieves’).—A euphemism for death. From the
+figurative sense of the word—anything that soothes wounded or excited
+feelings, or that lessens the sense of misfortunes. Cf., Old English
+slang term for a halter, Anodyne necklace.
+
+Verb. (American thieves’).—To kill. Cf., foregoing; also To cook one’s
+goose.
+
+
+Anodyne Necklace, subs. phr. (old).—A halter. An anodyne is that which
+allays or extinguishes pain, and the hangman’s rope may indeed be
+regarded, from one point of view, as a cure for all pains. The
+expression is old, being traced back to 1639. During the period when
+the death penalty was inflicted for all kinds of comparatively trivial
+offences—for sheep stealing, and even highway robberies of not more
+than forty shillings value—synonyms equally grim and sententious were
+numerous. According to Wilyam Bullein, an anodyne necklace was that
+which ‘light fellows merrily will call ... neckweede, or Sir Tristam’s
+knot, or St. Andrew’s lace (q.v.).’ Other terms for the hangman’s noose
+were hempen cravat, horse’s nightcap, Tyburn tippet (q.v.).
+
+    1639. F. Beaumont, Bloody Brother, Act iii., Sc. 2. [Speaks of the
+    hangman’s halter as a ‘necklace.’]
+
+    1766. Oliver Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield [works, Globe ed., chap.
+    xx., p. 43.] [George Primrose’s cousin exclaims] ‘May I die by an
+    anodyne necklace, but I’d rather be an under-turnkey in Newgate
+    [than an usher in a boarding-school]’.
+
+The water poet (John Taylor, a Thames waterman, 1580–1654), explaining
+the virtue of hemp, says:—
+
+
+    Some call it neck-weed, for it hath a tricke
+    To cure the necke that’s troubled with the crick.
+
+
+An anodyne necklace was also the name of a quack amulet, which, for a
+long period, was a household word. This famous remedy occupied as
+prominent a position in the advertising columns of the journals of the
+middle of the eighteenth as Holloway’s pills in the latter part of the
+nineteenth century. This necklace was of beads artificially prepared,
+small, like barleycorns, and cost five shillings. For foreign synonyms,
+see Horse’s nightcap.
+
+
+Anoint, verb. (familiar).—To beat soundly; to thrash; humorously
+derived from the proper meaning of the word, ‘to smear’ or ‘rub over
+with oil or other unctuous substances.’ In the North of England the
+saying is somewhat more analogous—‘to anoint with the sap of a hazel
+rod.’
+
+    1175. Rom. of Partenay (Skeat), 5653.
+
+        Then thay put hym hout, the kyng away fly,
+        Which so well was anoynted indede,
+        That no slene ne pane had he hole of brede.
+
+    1703. Fuller’s Trip to Bridewell, quoted in Ashton’s The Fleet, p.
+    211. The whipper began to noint me with his instrument, that had, I
+    believe, about a dozen strings notted at the end.
+
+    1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. v. ‘I’ll bring him to the gangway,
+    and anoint him with a cat-and-nine-tails.’
+
+    1824. W. Irving, Tales of a Trav., II., 287. Seize a trusty staff
+    and anoint the back of the aggressor.
+
+There seems to be some connection, too, between this sense of to
+anoint, and the depraved use of anointed (q.v.) to signify great
+rascality. Cf., Strap oil.
+
+
+Anoint or Grease the Palm, verb. phr. (common).—To bribe. The Scotch
+say ‘to creesh the luif.’ The expression is very old.
+
+    1584. Knox, Hist. of Reformation, works [1846] I., 102. Yea, the
+    handis of our Lordis so liberallie were anoynted.
+
+See Grease the palm.
+
+
+Anointed, ppl. adj. (old).—1. Used in a depraved sense to signify
+eminence in rascality. The most probable derivation appears to be that
+suggested by Prof. Skeat [N. and Q., 3 S., ix., 422]. In a French MS.,
+Romance of Melusine, is an account of a man who had received a thorough
+and severe beating, which is thus referred to:—Qui anoit este si bien
+oignt. The English version [Early English Text Society] translates
+this, ‘which so well was anoynted indeed.’ From this it is clear that
+to anoint a man was to give him a sound drubbing, and that the word was
+so used in the fifteenth century. Thus, an anointed rogue means either
+one who has been well thrashed or who has deserved to be. Cf., To
+anoint.
+
+    1769. Robertson, Hist. of Reign of Charles V. Many assumed the
+    clerical character for no other reason than that it might screen
+    them from the punishment which their actions deserved. The German
+    nobles complained loudly that their anointed malefactors, as they
+    called them, seldom suffered capitally even for the most enormous
+    crimes.
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxxvii. ‘But, not being Lord
+    Etherington, and an anointed scoundrel into the bargain, I will
+    content myself with cudgelling him to death.’
+
+2. Knowing; ripe for mischief.—Duncombe.
+
+
+Anonyma, subs. (popular).—A lady of the demi-monde; generally, though
+not invariably, applied to one of the better class. Women of this
+status were also called by the Times pretty horsebreakers, a notorious
+anonyma (circa 1868) having been a good horsewoman. Another and earlier
+name was Incognita; this as well as anonyma had reference to the
+unrecognised position these ladies hold in what is called ‘Society,’
+which tries to shut its eyes to a product of its own vice. The French
+cocotte best corresponds to the English term. For synonyms generally,
+see Barrack hack.
+
+    1864. G. A. Sala, Quite Alone, ch. i. Is that anonyma driving twin
+    ponies in a low phaeton, a parasol attached to her whip, and a
+    groom with folded arms behind her? Bah! there are so many anonymas
+    nowadays. If it isn’t the Nameless One herself, it is Synonyma.
+
+    1865. Ouida, Strathmore, ch. vi. ‘I’m getting tired of Mondes, one
+    confounds so easily with Demi-monde, and aristocrats that are so
+    near allied to anonyma.’
+
+    1881. Doran, In and about Drury Lane, vol. II., p. 159. Those
+    anonymas, who dress with such exquisite propriety lest they should
+    be mistaken for modest women.
+
+    1889. Modern Society, July 13, p. 852. ‘Christopher’s Honeymoon,’
+    by Mr. Malcolm Watson, produced at the Strand, on Wednesday, is not
+    wholly bad, but it is too thin. The honeymooner is surprised at his
+    wedding breakfast by the news that a former wife, whom he thought
+    dead, is still alive. Matters are still further complicated when
+    his mother-in-law mistakes his buxom laundress for a fair anonyma.
+
+
+Another. You’re another, phr. (common).—A retort—in usage hardly
+courteous or suave. Generally spoken in anger or resentment. The
+quotations which follow specify clearly the manner of use. It is
+interesting to note how very old is this common rejoinder—nearly 350
+years; it is, moreover, an example which fully illustrates the value of
+the historical method in dealing with slang words and phrases.
+
+    c. 1534. N. Udall, Roister Doister, III., v., p. 58 (Arber). R.
+    Royster. If it were another but thou, it were a tenane. M. Mery. Ye
+    are an other your selfe, sir. [M.]
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. IX., ch. vi. ‘You mistake me,
+    friend,’ cries Partridge, ‘I did not mean to abuse the cloth; I
+    only said your conclusion was a non-sequitur.’ ‘You are another,’
+    cries the Serjeant, ‘an’ you come to that. No more a sequitur than
+    yourself.’
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xv., p. 123. ‘Sir,’ said Mr. Tupman,
+    ‘you’re a fellow.’ ‘Sir,’ said Mr. Pickwick, ‘you’re another.’
+
+    1888. Sir W. Harcourt, Speech at Eighty Club, Feb. 21. You know the
+    little urchins in the street have a conclusive argument. They say
+    ‘you’re another.’
+
+
+Another Acrobat, phr. (music-hall).—Another drink—acrobat being a play
+upon the word ‘tumbler,’ i.e., a glass.
+
+
+Another Guess, adj., or Another Guess Sort of Man, phr. (old). A cute
+man; one who is, in modern lingo, up to snuff (q.v.). ‘Guess’ suggests
+an erroneous derivation; the word is really a corruption of
+‘another-gates’ [according to Murray the original genitive case ‘of
+another-gate, i.e., of another way, manner, or fashion’].
+
+
+Another Lie Nailed to the Counter, phr. (American).—A detected slander.
+The practice of nailing spurious coins to shop counters is, even yet,
+not an obsolete custom in country districts; and hence, probably, is
+derived this colloquialism.
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, Oct. 20. ‘Who employed you last?’ ‘A
+    Republican speaker, who had me back up his declaration that
+    Cleveland was in the habit of beating his wife!’ ‘But that lie was
+    nailed a good while ago.’ ‘I know it,’ chuckled the C.L., ‘but it’s
+    easy enough to pull out the nail.’
+
+
+Antagonise, verb. (sporting).—This, ‘to act as an opponent,’ sounds
+very like slang; but, as a matter of fact, so long as the antagonising
+forces are of the same kind the word is legitimate enough. It has been
+so used from 1634 downwards, by Herbert, Keats, John Stuart Mill, and
+others. Only when (as for example in America a person in political
+phraseology is said to antagonise a measure when it is meant that he
+opposes it) the word is used in connection with antagonistic forces not
+of a kind can it be regarded as partaking of slang. In the quotation by
+Barrère from the Saturday Review (no date given: refer, however, to
+Sat. R., Dec. 18, 1886, p. 799) the word is used in a perfectly correct
+manner.
+
+    1886. Saturday Review on Sporting Slang, 18 Dec, p. 799, col. 1.
+    Dingley Dell sent Jones and Robinson to the wickets, where they
+    were antagonised with the leather by Alf and the Young Phenomenon.
+
+
+Anthony, or To Cuff Anthony, verb. (old).—To knock one’s knees together
+from an infirmity. Also called to cuff Jonas.
+
+Antony, or Anthony Cuffin, subs.—A knock-kneed man.
+
+
+Anthony, or Tantony Pig, subs. (old).—See Tantony pig.
+
+    1787. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. The favourite or
+    smallest pig in the litter; to follow like a tantony pig, i.e., St.
+    Anthony’s pig, signified to follow close at one’s heels. St.
+    Anthony, the hermit, was a swine herd, and is always represented
+    with his bell and pig.
+
+
+Antimony, subs. (printers’).—Type; so called from one of its component
+parts.
+
+
+Anyhow. Anyhow you can fix it, phr. (American).—A slang expression of
+acquiescence as, e.g., ‘I don’t know if you’ll succeed, but anyhow you
+can fix it.’
+
+
+Any Other Man! phr. (American).—A call to order addressed to prosy,
+discursive speakers when they give themselves over to the use of
+synonymous terms.
+
+
+Any Racket, subs. (rhyming slang).—A penny faggot.
+
+
+Anything. Like, or as anything, adv. phr. (common).—A vulgarism rather
+than slang. Used in the same manner, as are like one o’clock; like old
+boots (q.v.), when a person is at a loss for a simile.—See Winkey.
+
+    1542. Udall’s Erasmus Apoph., p. 32. The young maiden, where the
+    lokers on quaked and trembled for feare, daunced without any feare
+    at all emong sweardes and kniues, beyng as sharpe as anythyng.
+
+    1740. Richardson, Pamela, ii., 57. O my dear father and mother, I
+    fear your girl will grow as proud as anything.
+
+    1840. Barham, I. L. (Misadv. at Margate).
+
+        The tear-drop in his little eye again began to spring,
+        His bosom throbb’d with agony, he cried like anything.
+
+    1878. Carroll, Through a Looking Glass, iv., 73. They wept like
+    anything to see such quantities of sand.
+
+
+Anythingarian, subs. (common).—A contemptuous term for one who is
+apathetic as regards his political or religious creed, or other matters
+upon which mankind generally hold decided views. [From anything +
+arian, after trinit-arian, unit-arian.]
+
+    1717. Entertainer, Nov. 6 [quoted in N. & Q., 7 S., vi., 66]. Nor,
+    which is ten times worse, Free-thinkers, Atheists, Anythingarians.
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. i.).
+
+    Lady Sm. What religion is he of?
+
+    Lady Sp. Why, he is an anythingarian.
+
+    Lady Ans. I believe he has his religion to chuse, my lord.
+
+    1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. xxii. They made puir Robbie
+    Burns an anythingarian with their blethers.
+
+
+Anythingarianism, subs. (popular).—The creed or doctrine of an
+Anythingarian.—[See preceding].
+
+    1851. C. Kingsley (Life, i., 215). Schiller’s ‘Gods of Greece’
+    expresses, I think, a tone of feeling very common, and which finds
+    its vent in modern Neo-Platonism—Anythingarianism.
+
+
+Anything Else.—See Not doing anything else.
+
+
+Anywhere Down There! (tailors’).—If, in a workroom or elsewhere where
+tailors congregate, an article is dropped upon the floor, anywhere down
+there! is used as a kind of catch-phrase.
+
+
+Apartments. To have apartments to let, verb. phr. (popular).—1. To take
+rank in the estimation of one’s fellows as an idiot; ‘a born fool’—one
+who is empty-headed, not furnished with brains.
+
+English Synonyms. To be dotty; to have a screw loose; to be balmy; to
+have a bee in one’s bonnet (Scotch); to be off one’s chump; to have no
+milk in the cocoa-nut; to be touched; to be balmy in one’s crumpet; to
+be wrong in the upper storey; to have rats in the upper storey; to have
+a tile loose; to be half baked.
+
+French Synonyms. Avoir une écrevisse dans la tourte, or dans le
+vol-au-vent (popular: that is ‘to have a crawfish in the pie,’ or ‘in
+the head.’ Cf., ‘to have rats in the upper storey’); avoir la boule
+détraquée (popular: lit. ‘to have one’s ball turned’); avoir le coco
+félé (popular: lit. ‘to have one’s cocoa nut cracked.’ In English slang
+the head is also called a ‘cocoa-nut’); avoir le trognon détraquée
+(popular: ‘to have a bee in one’s bonnet.’ Trognon is also a slang term
+for the head or ‘noddle’); avoir un asticot dans la noisette (popular:
+lit. ‘to have a maggot in one’s nut.’ In English slang the head is
+likewise ‘the nut.’ Cf., also the expression ‘a worm in the bud’);
+avoir un bœuf gras dans le char (popular); avoir un cancrelat dans la
+boule (popular: lit. ‘to have a cockroach in one’s ball’—‘ball’ here
+referring to the head or ‘nut.’ Cancrelat is properly kakerlac or
+American cockroach); avoir un hanneton dans le reservoir (popular: lit.
+‘to have a May-bug’ or ‘cockchafer in one’s cistern’ or ‘well.’ This
+seems to be on all fours with ‘a bee in one’s bonnet.’ The phrase
+sometimes runs avoir un hanneton dans le plafond, i.e., to have a
+cockchafer in one’s ceiling, and here the analogy between the two
+phrases is more clearly marked); avoir un moustique dans la boite au
+sel (popular: lit. ‘to have a mosquito in the salt-box or cellar’);
+avoir un voyageur dans l’omnibus (popular); avoir une araignée dans le
+plafond (popular: lit. ‘to have a spider in the head’; plafond, ‘a
+ceiling,’ be it noted is a slang term for ‘the head’); avoir une
+grenouille dans l’aquarium (popular: lit: ‘to have a frog in one’s
+aquarium’); avoir une hirondelle dans le soliveau (popular: ‘to have a
+swallow in the head’); avoir une Marseillaise dans le Kiosque
+(popular); avoir une punaise dans le soufflet (popular: ‘to have a bug
+in one’s brain’); avoir une sardine dans l’armoire à glace (popular:
+‘to have a sardine in the head or brain.’ Armoire à glace = the head);
+avoir une trichinne dans le jambonneau (popular: jambonneau, the head);
+avoir une sauterelle dans la guitare (popular: lit. ‘to have a
+grasshopper in the guitar’).
+
+For other synonyms, see Tile loose.
+
+2. A widow is said to have apartments to let.
+
+
+Ape-leader, subs. (old).—An old maid. Leading apes in hell was the
+employment jocularly assigned to those who neglected to assume marital
+functions while living.
+
+    1581. Lyly, Euphucs (Arb.), 87. Rather thou shouldest leade a lyfe
+    to thine owne lyking in earthe, than ... leade apes in hell. [M.]
+
+    1605. Lond. Prodigal, I., 2. ’Tes an old proverb, and you know it
+    well, that women dying maids lead apes in hell.
+
+    1717. Mrs. Centlivre, Bold Stroke, II., 1. Poor girl; she must
+    certainly lead apes, as the saying is.
+
+    1830. General P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I., 198. Joining with
+    other old women, in leading their apes in Tartarus. [M.]
+
+There are several proverbial sayings in which the ape plays an
+important part. To say an ape’s paternoster is to chatter with cold;
+this corresponds with the French, dire des patenôtres de singe. To put
+an ape into one’s hood or cap, to make a fool of one, etc.
+
+
+Apes, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Atlantic and North-Western Railway first
+mortgage bonds.
+
+
+Apostles, or The Twelve Apostles, subs. phr. (Cambridge
+Univ.).—Formerly, when the Poll, or ordinary B.A. degree list was
+arranged in order of merit, the last twelve were nicknamed The Twelve
+Apostles. They were also called The Chosen Twelve, and the last, St.
+Poll or St. Paul—a punning allusion to 1 Cor. xv., 9, ‘For I am the
+least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle.’ The
+list is now arranged alphabetically and in classes. Hotten suggests
+that Apostles is a corruption of post alios, i.e., ‘after the others.’
+It may perhaps also be mentioned that in one American University at
+least, Columbia College, D.C., the last twelve on the B.A. list
+actually receive the personal names of the Apostles.
+
+    1795. Gentleman’s Magazine, Jan., p. 19. [The last twelve names on
+    the Cambridge list are here called The Twelve Apostles.]
+
+Manœuvering the Apostles, a variant of the familiar expression, ‘to rob
+Peter to pay Paul’; i.e., to borrow from one person to pay another.
+
+
+Apostle’s Grove, subs. (common).—The London district known as St.
+John’s Wood. Also called grove of the evangelist. Both names are
+applied sarcastically in allusion to the large numbers of the
+demi-monde who live in that quarter of town.
+
+
+Apothecary. To talk like an apothecary, verb phr. (old).—To talk
+nonsense; from the pseudo gravity and affectation of knowledge often
+assumed by these gentlemen at a time when their status was not legally
+held under examination and license of the Apothecaries’ Company.
+
+Apothecaries’ bill, subs. (old).—A long bill.
+
+Apothecaries’, or raw Latin, subs. (old).—Now called dog-Latin (q.v.).
+
+
+Apple Cart, subs. (common). 1. The human body. A slang term similar to
+‘potato trap,’ ‘bread-basket,’ ‘bellows,’ ‘blue plumb,’ ‘bacon,’ and
+‘beer-barrel’ (all of which see). There are numerous variations in
+usage; e.g., if two men are quarrelling, and a friend of one interferes
+saying ‘I will upset his apple cart’ it means, ‘while you are parleying
+with the enemy I will knock him down.’ Again, if a child falls down,
+says W. W. Skeat (referring to his early Kentish remembrance of the
+word), you first enquire if he is much hurt. If he is merely a little
+frightened you say, ‘Well, never mind, then; you’ve only upset your
+apple cart and spilt the gooseberries.’ The child laughs and all is
+well again.
+
+2. Also employed in a figurative sense. To upset an apple cart
+sometimes means, not so much to knock a man down, as to prevent him
+from doing what he wants to do by the upsetting as it were, of an
+imaginary apple cart; i.e., to thwart; to disarrange; to overthrow; to
+ruin an undertaking. Sometimes the expression is varied by to upset the
+old woman’s apple cart. Barrère’s reference of the genesis of the
+phrase to the costermonger’s imaginative powers is ‘all conjecture and
+fancy’; as also is his American derivation of the expression in its
+more figurative sense. In the first place apple carts are perfectly
+familiar objects in all country districts; and, in the second, the
+phrase is too old a provincialism to need deriving from the peripatetic
+vendors in question. Further, though to upset his apple cart and spill
+the peaches may be an American variation for the second sense, as it
+appears to have been so used, dialectically, throughout England, the
+weight of assumption must be given to its English origin, and
+subsequent transference to America.
+
+English Synonyms. Beer-barrel; bacon.
+
+French Synonyms. Acabit (literally, quality); cylindre (popular: lit.
+‘a cylinder,’ or ‘barrel.’ Cf. with English ‘beer barrel’); grosse
+caisse (popular: lit. ‘a large case,’ or ‘box’); paillasse (popular:
+lit. ‘a straw mattress’); also place d’armes; casaquin.
+
+
+Apple Dumpling Shop, subs. phr. (common).—A woman’s bosom. For
+synonyms, see Dairies.
+
+
+Apple-Monger.—The same as apple-squire (q.v.).
+
+
+Apple-Pie Bed, subs. phr. (common).—A practical joke, which consists in
+making up a bed with the sheets doubled half way up, so as to prevent a
+person from stretching out at full length, and filling the bag thus
+formed with brushes, soap-dishes, etc. So called, either from the
+apple-turnover, in which the ‘paste’ is turned over the apples, or from
+the French, à plis, folded.
+
+    1811. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), i., 466. After
+    squeezing myself up, and making a sort of apple-pye bed with the
+    beginning of my sheet.
+
+    1883. Saturday Review, Nov. 3, p. 566, col. 2. Some ‘evil-disposed
+    persons’ have already visited his room, made his bed into an
+    apple-pie, plentifully strewn with hair-brushes and razors.
+
+The French have an analogous phrase, ‘mettre un lit en portefeuille.’
+
+
+Apple-Pie Day, subs. phr. (Winchester Coll.)—The day on which
+Six-and-Six (q.v.) is played. It is the Thursday after the first
+Tuesday in December. So called because hot apple-pies were served on
+gomers (q.v.) in College for dinner.
+
+
+Apple Pie Order, subs. phr. (familiar).—Exact or perfect order.
+Etymologists have long puzzled themselves concerning this expression,
+and many derivations have been put forward in explanation. Some have
+found in it an allusion to the regular order in which the component
+parts of some varieties of that toothsome delicacy, apple pie, were
+formerly laid one on the top of, or side by side with each other.
+Others, on the contrary, scout such a homely origin, and suggest that
+apple pie order is cap à pied order. The authorities who incline to
+this view point out that cap à pied in the sense of ‘perfectly
+appointed’ occurs in one of the scenes of Hamlet. Though
+orthographically the transition from one to the other, at first sight,
+would appear to be somewhat lame and halting, yet phonetically the
+difference is much less marked. It has further been suggested that
+apple pie order is a corruption of ‘Alpha-beta’ i.e., alphabetical
+order, but this would seem rather far-fetched, as also is the reference
+of it to the nursery rhyme of ‘A was an apple pie; B bit it; C cut it;
+D divided it,’ and so on, the allusion being to the regular order in
+which the letters of the alphabet occur. Probably the weight of
+evidence is on the side of the derivation from cap à pied, more
+especially as that phrase was once very familiar.
+
+    1813. Scott in Lochart, Life, IV. (1839), 131. The children’s
+    garden is in apple pie order.
+
+    1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, viii., 29. Put the craft a little
+    into apple pie order.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Old Woman in Grey).
+
+        I am just in the order which some folks—though why,
+        I am sure I can’t tell you—would call apple pie.
+
+
+Apples. How we apples swim! phr. (common).—i.e., ‘What a good time we
+are having.’ This expression, a very old one, is synonymous with
+pleasureable experience coupled with brisk action.
+
+    1697–1764. Hogarth (Works by J. Ireland and J. Nichols, London,
+    1873), III., p. 29. And even this, little as it is, gives him so
+    much importance in his own eyes, that he assumes a consequential
+    air, sets his arms akimbo, and strutting among the historical
+    artists cries, ‘how we apples swim.’
+
+    1860. Cornhill Mag. (D. Mallett, Tyburn), Dec., p. 737. While
+    tumbling down the turbid stream, Lord, love us, how we apples swim.
+
+
+Apples and Pears, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—A pair of stairs.
+
+
+Apple-Squire, subs. (old).—A harlot’s attendant, or fancy man (q.v.);
+these gentry are now commonly called ‘bullies’ (q.v.). Nares gives
+‘squire of the body’ as a synonymous term; also apron-squire.
+
+    1500. (circa) Way to Spyttel Hous, 832 in Hazl. E. P. P., iv., 60.
+    [Here given as applesquyers.]
+
+    [1580–1654] Taylor, Discourse by Sea (works II., 21).
+
+        Are whoremasters decai’d, are bawds all dead,
+        Are pandars, pimps, and apple-squires all fled? [N.]
+
+    1738. Poor Robin.... Little truth will be found amongst cut-purses,
+    liars, bawds, whores, pimps, pandars, and apple-squires; only the
+    pimp pretends to something more of truth than the other, for if he
+    promise to help you to a whore, he will be sure that she shall not
+    be an honest woman. [N.]
+
+For synonyms, ancient and modern, and also foreign equivalents, see
+Fancy man.
+
+
+Apron. Green apron, subs. (old).—A contemptuous term for a lay
+preacher.—See Bible-pounder.
+
+    1654. Warren, Unbelievers, 145. It more befits a green-apron
+    preacher, than such a Gamaliel. [M.]
+
+    1705. Hickeringill, Priestcraft I. (1721). 21. Unbeneficed Noncons.
+    (that live by Alms and no Paternoster, no Penny, say the
+    green-aprons). [M.]
+
+    1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II., 451. The gifted priestess amongst the
+    Quakers is known by her green apron. [M.]
+
+
+Aproneer, subs. (old).—A shop-keeper; a tradesman. Murray states that
+the term was used contemptuously of the Parliamentary party during the
+Civil Wars.
+
+    1659. Gauden, Tears of Church, 238. Some prating sequestrator, or
+    some surly aproneer.
+
+    1690. D’urfey, Collin’s Walk, c. iii., p. 107. But every sturdy
+    aproneer, arm’d with battoon, did straight appear.
+
+
+Apron-Rogue, subs. (old).—A labourer; a mechanic.
+
+    1663. Killegrew, Parson’s Wedding in Dodsley’s Old Plays (1780),
+    XI., 382. Apron-rogues with horn hands. [M.]
+
+
+Apron-Squire.—See Apple-squire.
+
+
+Apron-String Hold or Tenure, subs. phr. (familiar).—An estate held by a
+man during his wife’s life; or by virtue of her right.
+
+    1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 67. Apron-string tenure is very weak.
+    [M.]
+
+    1753. Richardson, Grandison, iv., 23. He cursed the apron-string
+    tenure, by which he said he held his peace. [d.]
+
+    1804. Mrs. Barbauld, Richardson I., 160. All her fortune in her own
+    power—a very apron-string tenure.
+
+
+Apron-Strings. To be tied to or always at a woman’s apron-strings,
+verb. phr. (common).—Under petticoat government; to dangle after a
+woman. Formerly said only of children; later of all who follow a woman
+subserviently.
+
+    1712. Spectator, No. 506. The fair sex are so conscious to
+    themselves, that they have nothing in them which can deserve
+    entirely to ingross the whole man, that they heartily despise one,
+    who, to use their own expression, is always hanging at their
+    apron-strings.
+
+    1834. Miss Edgeworth, Helen, ch. viii. A homebred lordling, who,
+    from the moment he slipped his mother’s apron-strings, had fallen
+    into folly.
+
+    1849. Macaulay, History of England, II., 649. He could not submit
+    to be tied to the apron-strings even of the best of wives.
+
+
+Aqua, subs. (American thieves’).—Water. From the Latin.
+
+
+Aqua Pompaginis, subs. phr. (old).—Pump water [Dog-Latin; from L.,
+aqua, water + English, pump + simulated Latin termination, aginis].
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Aqua Pompaginis....
+    Apothecaries’ Latin.
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 13. ‘Exactly my
+    sentiments,’ rejoined Blueskin. ‘I wouldn’t force him for the
+    world; but if he don’t tip the stivers, may I be cursed if he don’t
+    get a taste of the aqua pompaginis. Let’s have a look at the
+    kinchen that ought to have been throttled,’ added he, snatching the
+    child from Wood. ‘My stars! here’s a pretty lullaby-cheat to make a
+    fuss about—ho ho!’
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 15. ‘He shall go
+    through the whole course,’ replied Blueskin, with a ferocious grin,
+    ‘unless he comes down to the last grig. We’ll lather him with mud,
+    shave him with a rusty razor, and drench him with aqua pompaginis.’
+
+For synonyms, see Adam’s ale.
+
+
+Aquatics, subs. (Eton college).—The particular game of cricket in which
+men in the boats play.
+
+
+Aqua-Vitæ, subs. (old).—Formerly an alchemic term; but, after a while,
+popularly received as a generic name for ardent spirits, such as
+brandy, whiskey, etc. [From L. = water of life. Cf., French eau-de-vie,
+and Irish usquebaugh.]
+
+
+Arabs, subs. (common).—Nicknames for young street vagrants are
+numerous. They are ‘Bedouins,’ ‘Street Arabs,’ and ‘Juvenile Roughs’ in
+London; they are ‘Gamins’ in Paris; ‘Bowery Boys’ in New York;
+‘Hoodlums’ in San Francisco; and ‘Larrikins’ in Melbourne. This last
+phrase is an Irish constable’s broad pronunciation of ‘larking,’
+applied to the nightly street performances of these young scamps,
+there, as elsewhere, a real social pestilence.—See Street Arab.
+
+    1848. Guthrie, Plea for Ragged Schools. [In this work the homeless
+    wanderers and children of the streets were spoken of as Arabs of
+    the City, and City Arabs.]
+
+
+Arbor Vitæ, subs. (old).—The penis. [Latin; = the Tree of Life]. For
+synonyms, see Creamstick.
+
+
+Arch.—See Ark.
+
+
+Arch-Cove or Arch-Rogue, subs. (thieves’).—The chief or leader of a
+gang of thieves. [From Greek, archo to be first, to command, to rule +
+cove, a slang term for a man.] Formerly also dimber damber, upright
+man.—See Cove and Area sneak.
+
+
+Archdeacon, subs. (Oxford Univ.).—Merton strong ale.
+
+
+Arch-Dell or Arch-Doxy, subs. (old).—The wife or female companion of an
+arch-cove.—See Dell.
+
+
+Archduke, subs. (old slang).—A buffoon; an eccentric person.
+
+
+Arch Gonnof.—See Dimber damber.
+
+
+Ard, adj. (American thieves’).—Hot; a corrupted form of ‘ardent.’
+Formerly ‘a foot.’—See Creepers.
+
+
+Area-Sneak, subs. (common).—A thief who lurks about areas for the
+purposes of theft.
+
+    1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. lix., p. 480. ‘Why wasn’t I a
+    thief, swindler, housebreaker, area-sneak, robber of pence out of
+    the trays of blind man’s dogs?’
+
+    1869. English Mechanic, 14 May, p. 181, col. 1. [They] would
+    invariably become pickpockets or area-sneaks.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, June 13, p. 7, col. 3. The area-sneak, too,
+    may find his occupation partially gone through the strictness of
+    the rules which encompass the trade of the second-hand dealer.
+
+Among other names for thieves may be mentioned:—
+
+English and American. Beak or beaker-hunter (a poultry thief);
+bug-hunter (speciality—breast pins, studs, etc.); buz-faker (a
+pickpocket); buttock and file (a shoplifter); bouncer (one who steals
+while bargaining with a tradesman; a shoplifter); bridle-cull (a
+highwayman); cracksman (a burglar); crossman (an old term. Literally a
+man ‘on the cross,’ or who gets his living surreptitiously); cross-cove
+(see foregoing); conveyancer (a pickpocket); dancer (a thief who gains
+entrance to houses from the roof); flash-cove (a sharper); flashman (a
+prostitute’s bully who pretends to catch the victim in flagrante
+delicto with his wife, and thus makes an excuse for robbery and
+extortion); finder (a thief who confines his depredations to
+meat-markets and butchers’ shops); gun (a contraction of gonnof, which
+see); gleaner, hooker, or angler (these are petty thieves, who work
+with hooks and rods); lob-sneak; lully-prigger (one who steals clothes
+when they are hanging out to dry); snakesman or sneaksman (a
+shoplifter; a petty thief); sneeze-lurker (this kind work by first
+blinding victims with pepper, etc.); moucher (a prowling thief);
+mill-ben (an old cant term, which see); prig; prop-nailer (a ‘prop’ is
+a scarf pin); palmer (a thief who ‘rings the changes’; but see under
+Palmer); pudding-snammer (an eating-house thief); drummer or drammer
+(these gentry stupify their victims prior to robbing them);
+stook-hauler (speciality—pocket-handkerchiefs); tooler (a pickpocket);
+toy-getter (a watch thief).
+
+French Synonyms. Un droguiste (corresponds to the English ‘hawk’ or
+‘rook’); un chêne affranchi (a ‘flash cove’); un careur, or voleur à la
+care (thief who robs money-changers while pretending to offer old coins
+for sale); un enfant de la matte (‘a child of folly.’—See Family man);
+un tiretaine (a country thief); un garçon de cambrouse (a highwayman);
+un garçon de campagne (same as example last quoted); un frère de la
+manicle; un philantrope (a peddlar’s term); un bonjourier or voleur au
+bonjour (an early morning thief, but see under Thieves); un philibert
+(of the sharper stamp); un philosophe (lit. ‘a philosopher’); un enfant
+de minuit (formerly, says Cotgrave, enfants de la messe de minuit,
+i.e., companions of the midnight mass, not for devotion, but for
+robbery and abuse); ramastiqueur (one who swindles by means of
+pocket-book dropping, etc.—a variety of the confidence trick); un
+jardinier, un Americain (‘confidence trick’ men); un tirebogue (a watch
+thief; in English slang a ‘toy-getter’); un friauche; un grinchisseur
+de bogues (a watch thief); un mion de boule (equivalent to the English
+‘prig’); un fil de soie; un doubleur (= English ‘prig’; un doubleur de
+sorgue, ‘a night thief’); un voleur à la tire (a pickpocket); un tireur
+(a pickpocket; literally ‘one who draws out’); etc.
+
+German Synonyms. Broschem-blatter; cochem (a thieves’ accomplice; from
+Hebrew chochem, wise, instructed); erntemackener (thieves who steal
+from houses while the owners are away harvesting. From erndte, harvest
++ machen, to make); anstiebler (one who plans robberies; an instigator
+to theft. A corrupted form of anstifter, an instigator); achbrosch
+(also achberosch, achperosch, achprosch, approsch, an infamous thief or
+robber, a rogue, a sharper. Not so much from the Chaldean achbero, a
+mouse + rosch, head, as from the passage Jer. Baba. Mez. 8., achberi
+reschii, i.e., ‘the mice are vile.’ Hence applied primarily to a
+notorious thief. Thiele says the expressions have not been so much in
+use since the suppression of the famous Rhenish robber gang; the words,
+however, particularly achbrosch, are not by any means obsolete, being
+very much in use by cattle and horsedealers, and sharpers generally);
+ganof (Hebrew, ‘a thief’; from gonaw, ‘to steal’); achelpeter (an
+inactive lazy old thief who sponges upon his confederates. From Hebrew
+ochal, to eat + putzen, from O.H.G., bizan, pizzan, ‘food’); golehopser
+(a thief who jumps on a loaded cart or other vehicle whilst in motion
+to steal boxes or small packages. In English slang this kind of thief
+is called a ‘dragsman’); goleschàchter (the same as preceding, but
+instead of making off bodily with the booty, the packages are cut open,
+and the contents thrown down for an accomplice to secure); bihengst (a
+thief who steals bees); baldower (a principal, or leader of a gang of
+thieves; one who advises and plans robberies. Balhoche is also a man
+who has an opportunity for theft; balspiess, the host of an inn,
+frequented by thieves and rogues); brenner (a thief who preys upon
+others of his kind, by demanding, under threats of exposure, a share of
+a successful robbery, without having taken part in it. From brennen,
+‘to claim’; literally ‘to burn’; or it may be from berennen, ‘to run
+against or blockade’); chalfan (also chalfen, chalfener, chilfer,
+legitimately ‘a money changer,’ but amongst German thieves the name of
+the rogue who, in changing money, commits theft. Cf., English, ‘ringing
+the changes’); chawer (Hebrew: literally an associate; chaweress
+[fem.], a thief’s confederate; a comrade. Chawrusse, kabruse, a gang or
+confederation of thieves; chawrusse melochenen, to form a gang of
+thieves; chenneter, a thief who knows how to conduct himself with tact
+and address in good society. From the Hebrew chono, gentle, kind,
+affable); chessenspiess, fem., chessenspiesse (the landlord or mistress
+of an inn frequented by thieves—a place where they may find refuge
+without fear of discovery. From the Hebrew); chechom (also chochem,
+chochemer,—more frequently spelled with ‘K’—from the Hebrew, the wise
+one. A prudent, cunning thief. Chochem lehorre, a dangerous thief, one
+prepared for the worst; of a similar meaning is chochem mechutten, a
+dangerous companion, a rogue of the worst type); bahnherr (also
+bohnherr and Herr by itself: literally ‘a road-master’; a burglar—one
+who prepares a robbery); diffler (a thoroughly dexterous thief; from
+tupfel, ‘a point’); drängler (a thief, who, to divert the attention of
+people from his intention, causes a crowd to assemble); paddendrücker
+(a pickpocket—one whose speciality is purses: drücker is a corrupted
+form of trecken, ‘to draw’ or ‘steal’ quickly and adroitly. Drücker,
+like drücken, ‘to steal’ is never used by itself, but always with the
+object of the theft; hence paddendrücker, a purse thief; luppendrücker,
+a watch thief; torfdrücker, a generic name for a pickpocket);
+eintreiber (a confederate who entices a victim to play so that his
+comrade may swindle him); erefschieber (a thief who goes out at evening
+time to commit robberies. Also erefhalchener, erefgänger, erefhändler.
+Eref = evening); fichtegänger (a night thief or burglar); fiesel
+(supposed to be derived from faser, ‘a birch,’ ‘rod,’ or ‘fibre.’ In
+Vienna, the scum of society is meant by fiesel—the commonest thief,
+professional vagabond, a protector of brothels and whores of the most
+repulsive kind. These thieves are of great daring, utterly
+unscrupulous, and are consequently much dreaded. Some feign to carry on
+the business of a rag and bone-picker, what in the fiesellange or
+Viennese thieves’ lingo is termed, ‘going out for profit.’ In the sense
+of ‘a rod,’ fiesel is applied to the membrum genitale masculi; hence
+fiesel as synonymous with strength, i.e., pertaining to the stronger
+sex. It was formerly used in connection with many other words; e.g.,
+mädchenfiesel, ‘one who habitually runs after women,’ ‘a molrower,’ a
+‘loose fish.’ Fiesel-language means the language of the strong, of
+those belonging to the fellowship of thieves, burglars, and rowdies);
+freikäufer (a thief whose speciality it is to steal at fairs and
+markets); freischupper (a card sharper; a gambling cheat who carries on
+his business in crowded places of public resort); gacheler (also
+gachler, gackler, kachler, kakler, kegler: a pantry thief; one who
+steals eatables and plate from kitchens whilst servants are attending
+at table); gannew (from Hebrew gonaw, ‘to steal’); gaslan (from Hebrew
+gosal, ‘to rob’); glitscher (gypsy: glitschin, ‘the key’: a thief who
+works by means of skeleton keys); godler chochem (from Hebrew godol,
+great, strong, celebrated + Hebrew chochem, the wise one; hence, a
+clever rogue, a thief who thoroughly understands his business); goi
+gomur (an utterly unreliable confederate. Goi, plural gojim is applied
+to those not Jews, to Christians; in the plural, especially, in the
+sense of ignorant people, suspicious or two-faced characters; also used
+as a synonym for Philistine—a man of whom one has to be careful. Goje
+[fem.] is almost always used contemptuously for a female); götte (also
+götti, göde, göttling [O.H.G., gataling] a confederate, a
+relative—especially used to denote one who has been doing good
+business); gutenmorgenwünscher (literally ‘good morning wisher’:
+thieves who break into rooms early in the morning for purposes of
+robbery. The French have an analogous expression in bonjourier, or
+voleur au bon jour). For other synonyms, see Thieves.
+
+Italian Synonyms (Fourbesque). Quadro (a cut-purse. In the Germania or
+Spanish argot, quadro is used in the sense of ‘a poignard,’ and
+quadrata in that of ‘purse.’ Possibly the Fourbesque quadro is derived
+from one of these words. In Italian it is literally ‘a square’ or ‘a
+rule’); granchetto (also ‘one who speaks gibberish’); lavorante di
+scarpe (a pickpocket or cut-purse: lit. ‘working shoes’); camuffo;
+fiadetto (also ‘a dolt,’ ‘a duffer’); carpione; truccante (also ‘a
+beggar’).
+
+Spanish Synonyms (Germania). Aquila (a sharper: lit. ‘an eagle’);
+bolador (thought to be derived from the French voleur); comendadores de
+bola (thieves who work principally at fairs and markets); gerifalte
+(lit. ‘a gerfalcon’—one of the ‘hawk’ species); lince (lit. ‘a lynx.’
+This class of thief varies robbery with begging); piloto (a thief who
+directs others to the place of rendezvous, i.e., where a robbery has
+been planned; lit. ‘a pilot’); trabajar (lit. ‘a traveller’).—See
+Thieves.
+
+Portuguese Synonyms (Calão). Pai (a captain of thieves—an Aaron or
+arch-cove); maguino (a highwayman).
+
+For exhaustive and comparative description of all classes of thieves,
+both English and foreign, see Thieves—their names and methods.
+
+
+Arf, adj. (vulgarism).—Half; e.g., ‘’arf an ’our,’ i.e., half an hour.
+
+’Arf and ’arf.—See Four-half.
+
+
+Argal.—See Argol-bargol.
+
+
+Argol-Bargol, subs. and verb. (old).—Argol, sometimes argal, is a
+corrupt pronunciation of Latin ergo, therefore; hence, from that word
+being frequently used in conversation, a clumsy, unsound piece of
+reasoning or cavilling; and verbally, to bandy words. Hotten says
+argol-bargol is Scotch, but argal is found in Hamlet, v. i., and the
+fuller form is probably onomatopoetic like ‘shilly-shally,’
+‘hocus-pocus,’ etc., unless it comes from the Hebrew through the
+Yiddish bar-len ‘to talk or speak’ [anyhow].
+
+    1596. Shakspear, Hamlet v. i., 21., 1st Clown. Here lies the water;
+    good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water, it
+    is, will he, nil he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come
+    to him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his
+    own death, shortens not his own life.
+
+    1823. J. Galt, The Entail, i., 53. ‘Weel, weel,’ said the laird,
+    ‘dinna let us argol-bargol about it; entail your own property as ye
+    will, mine shall be on the second son.’
+
+    1861. Times, 23 Aug. Mr. Buckle’s argument [is] as absurd an argal
+    as ever was invented by philosopher or gravedigger. [M.]
+
+
+Argol-Bargolous, adj. (old).—Quarrelsome.—See Argol-bargol.
+
+    1822. J. Galt, The Provost, p. 194. No doubt his argol-bargolous
+    disposition was an inheritance accumulated with his other conquest
+    of wealth from the mannerless Yankees.
+
+
+Argufy, verb. (vulgar).—A corrupted form of ‘to argue,’ usually
+associated with cavilling or a bandying of words; also, ‘to signify’;
+e.g., ‘It doesn’t much argufy.’
+
+    1758. A. Murphy, The Upholsterer, Act i. Well, it does not signify
+    argifying.
+
+    1837. Lytton, Ernest Maltravers, bk. IV., ch. vii. ‘Lord! how I
+    should like to have you on the roadside instead of within these
+    four gimcrack walls. Ha! ha! the argufying would be all in my
+    favour then.’
+
+
+Aristippus, subs. (old).—1. A diet drink or decoction of sarsaparilla
+and other drugs, sold at the coffee-houses, and drank as tea.—Grose.
+
+2. Also a cant name for canary wine.
+
+    1627. (circa) Middleton, Wks. (Halliwell), II., 422. Rich
+    aristippus, sparkling sherry.
+
+
+Arkansas Toothpick, subs. (American).—A grimly facetious name for a
+folding bowie knife of large dimensions.
+
+    1854. Sir Theo. Martin (with Prof. Aytoun), Bon Gaultier Ballads.
+
+        ‘Straightway leaped the valiant Slingby
+          Into armor of Seville,
+        With a strong Arkansas toothpick,
+          Screwed in every joint of steel.’
+
+    1881. A. B. Greenleaf, Ten Years in Texas, p. 27. All these (men)
+    irrespective of age, size, or condition in life, could be seen with
+    a Navy six-shooter and an Arkansas toothpick suspended to a
+    raw-hide belt tucked around their waists. Supplement the above
+    equipment with a sore-backed mustang pony, an old army saddle-tree
+    and rope bridle, and you have an exact picture and entire
+    possession of the fifteenth constitutional amendment.
+
+    1888. Detroit Free Press, Aug. It is not good form to use a
+    toothpick in Arkansas now. A big revolver is the thing in the best
+    society.
+
+For synonyms, see Chive.
+
+
+Ark-Floater, subs. (theatrical).—An actor well advanced in years. [From
+an allusion to the proverbial saying concerning anything ancient, ‘He,
+or it, must have come out of Noah’s ark,’ + floats, the footlights.]
+
+
+Arkman, subs. (old).—A Thames waterman. Cf., Ackman.
+
+
+Ark-Ruff, or Ark-Ruffian.—The same as ack-man (q.v.).
+
+
+Armour. To be in armour, verb. phr. (old).—To be pot-valiant; ‘primed’;
+full of Dutch courage.—See Screwed.
+
+
+Armpits. To work under the armpits, verb. phr. (old).—To sail so far to
+the windward of the law in petty larceny, that, if caught and tried,
+the punishment would not amount to more than transportation. On the
+passing of Sir Samuel Romilly’s Act, capital punishment was abolished
+for highway robberies under 40s. in value. Hence, formerly, to work
+under the armpits was to avoid the halter or neck-squeezer (q.v.),
+which is applied above the armpits.
+
+
+Arm-Props, subs. (common).—Crutches; otherwise wooden legs (q.v.).
+
+    1825. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Scene 6. Beggar: You
+    did quite right; vell, vile I can get fifteen bob a day by
+    gammoning a maim, the devil may vork for me. If any lady or gemman
+    is inclined for a dance, I’ll nash my arm-props in a minute.
+
+    (Throws down his crutches.)
+
+
+Arms and Legs, subs. phr. (common).—Poor, weak beer, because there is
+no body in it!—See Swipes.
+
+
+Armstrong. To come Captain Armstrong.—See Captain Armstrong.
+
+
+Arrow (vulgarism).—A corruption of ‘e’er, a,’ or ‘ever a.’
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. V., ch. viii. ‘I don’t believe there
+    is arrow a servant in the house ever saw the colour of his money.’
+
+    1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker, i., 126. ‘I now carries my head
+    higher than arrow private gentlewoman of Vales.’
+
+
+’Arry, subs. (common).—The Christian name Harry without the aspirate. A
+popular embodiment of the vulgar, rollicking, yet on the whole
+good-tempered ‘rough’ of the great metropolis. His ‘get-up’ is, as he
+would himself put it, ‘immense’; he is seen to most advantage—his
+own—on Sundays and bank holidays; his ‘young woman’—generally
+‘’Arriet’—is en suite; taken altogether he is a lively, jovial, but
+ill-bred ‘cuss.’ Mr. Punch in an inimitable series of sketches has ‘hit
+off’ his man ‘to a T.’
+
+    1880. Millikin, Punch’s Almanac.
+
+        January! Tailor’s bill comes in.
+        Blow that blooming snip! I’m short of tin.
+        Werry much enjoyed my autumn Caper,
+        But three quid fifteen do look queer paper.
+        Want another new rig out, wuss luck,
+        Gurl at Boodle’s bar seems awful struck.
+        Like to take her to pantermime;
+        That and oysters after would be prime.
+        Fan’s a screamer; this top coat would blue it,
+        Yaller at the seams, black ink wont do it.
+        Wonder if old snip would spring another?
+        Boots, too, rayther seedy; beastly bother!
+        Lots o’ larks that empty pockets ‘queer.’
+        Can’t do much on fifty quid a year.
+
+        Febrywary! High old time for sprees!
+        Now’s yer chance the gals to please or tease.
+        Dowds to guy and pooty ones’ to wheedle,
+        And give all rival chaps the needle.
+        Crab your enemies,—I’ve got a many,
+        You can pot ’em proper for a penny.
+        My! them walentines do ’it ’em ’ot.
+        First-rate fun: I always buy a lot.
+        Prigs complain they’re spiteful, lor’ wot stuff!
+        I can’t ever get ’em strong enough.
+        Safe too; no one twigs your little spree,
+        If you do it on the strict Q.T.
+        If you’re spoons, a flowery one’s your plan,
+        Mem. I sent a proper one to Fan.
+
+        March! I’m nuts upon a windy day,
+        Gurls do get in such a awful way.
+        Petticoats yer know, and pooty feet;
+        Hair all flying,—tell you it’s a treat.
+        Pancake day. Don’t like ’em—flabby, tough,
+        Rayther do a pennorth o’ plum-duff.
+        Seediness shows up as Spring advances,
+        Ah! the gurls do lead us pretty dances.
+        Days a-lengthening, think I spotted Fan
+        Casting sheep’s eyes at another man.
+        Quarter-day, too, no more chance of tick,
+        Fancy I shall ’ave to cut my stick.
+        Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear,
+        Two d left!—must go and do a beer!
+
+        April! All Fools’ Day’s a proper time,
+        Cop old gurls and guy old buffers prime.
+        Scissors! don’t they goggle and look blue,
+        When you land them with a regular ‘do?’
+        Lor! the world would not be worth a mivvey,
+        If there warn’t no fools to cheek and chivy.
+        Then comes Easter. Got some coin in ’and,
+        Trot a bonnet out and do the grand.
+        Fan all flounce and flower; fellows mad,
+        Heye us henvious; nuts to me, my lad.
+        ’Ampstead! ’Ampton! Which is it to be?
+        Fan—no flat—prefers the Crystal P.
+        Nobby togs, high jinks, and lots o’ lotion,
+        That’s the style to go it, I’ve a notion!
+
+        May! The month o’ flowers. Spooney sell!
+        ‘Rum ’ot with,’ is wot I likes to smell.
+        Beats yer roses holler. A chice weed,
+        Licks all flowers that ever run to seed.
+        Nobby button ’oler very well,
+        When one wants to do the ’eavy swell;
+        Otherwise don’t care not one brass farden,
+        For the best ever blowed in Covent Garden.
+        Fan, though, likes ’em, costs a pretty pile,
+        Rayther stiff, a tanner for a smile.
+        Blued ten bob last time I took ’er out,
+        Left my silver ticker up the spout.
+        Women are sech sharks! If I don’t drop ’er,
+        Guess that I shall come a hawful cropper!
+
+        June! A jolly month; sech stunning weather!
+        Fan and I have lots of outs together:
+        Rorty on the river, sech prime ’unts,
+        Foul the racers, run into the punts.
+        Prime to ’ear the anglers rave and cuss,
+        When in quiet ‘swims’ we raise a muss.
+        Snack on someone’s lawn upon the quiet,
+        Won’t the owner raise a tidy riot
+        When he twigs our scraps and broken bottles?
+        Cheaper this than rusty-rongs or hottles.
+        Whitsuntide ’ud be a lot more gay
+        If it warn’t so near to Quarter-day.
+        Snip turns sour, pulls ‘county-courting’ faces,
+        Must try and land a little on the races.
+
+        At July! just nicked a handy fiver,
+        (Twenty-five to one on old ‘Screw-driver’!)
+        New rig-out. This mustard colour mixture
+        Suits me nobly. Fan appears a fixture.
+        Gurls like style, you know, and colour ketches ’em,
+        But good show of ochre,—that’s what fetches ’em.
+        Wimbledon! I’m not a wolunteer,
+        Discipline don’t suit this child—no fear!
+        But we ’ave fine capers at the camp,
+        Proper, but for that confounded scamp:
+        Punched my ’ead, because I guyed his shooting.
+        Fan I fancied rather ’igh faluting;
+        Ogled the big beggar as he propped me,
+        Would ’a licked ’im if she ’adn’t stopped me.
+
+        August! Time to think about my outing.
+        No dibs yet, though, so it’s no use shouting.
+        Make the best of the Bank ’Oliday.
+        Fan ‘engaged’! Don’t look too bloomin’ gay.
+        Drop into the bar to do a beer.
+        Twig her talking to that volunteer.
+        Sling my ’ook instanter sharp and short,
+        Took Jemimer down to ’Ampton Court,
+        Not ’arf bad that gurl. Got rather screwed,
+        Little toff complained as I was rude.
+        ’It ’im in the wind, he went like death;
+        Weak, consumptive cove and short o’ breath.
+        Licked ’im proper, dropped ’im like a shot’—
+        Only wish that Fan had seen that lot.
+
+        ’Ere’s September! ’Oliday at last!
+        Off to Margit—mean to go it fast.
+        Mustard-coloured togs still fresh as paint,
+        Like to know who’s natty, if I ain’t.
+        Got three quid; have cried a go with Fan,
+        Game to spend my money like a man.
+        But stickin’ tight to one gal ain’t no fun,—
+        Here’s no end of prime ’uns on the run
+        Carn’t resist me somehow, togs and tile
+        All A1—make even swell ones smile.
+        Lor! if I’d the ochre, make no doubt
+        I could cut no end of big pots out.
+        Call me cad? When money’s in the game,
+        Cad and swell are pooty much the same.
+
+        Now October! Back again to collar,
+        Funds run low, reduced to last ’arf dollar.
+        Snip on rampage, boots a getting thin,
+        ’Ave to try the turf to raise some tin.
+        Evenings getting gloomy; high old games;
+        Music ’alls look up the taking names.
+        Proper swells them pros! If I’d had my choice,
+        There’s my mark. Just wish I’d got a voice;
+        Cut the old den to-morrow, lots o’cham,
+        Cabs and diamonds—ain’t that real jam?
+        Got the straight tip for the Siezerwitch,
+        If I honly land it, I’ll be rich.
+        Guess next mornin’ wouldn’t find me sober—
+        Allays get the blues about October.
+
+        Dull November! Didn’t land that lot.
+        Fear my father’s son is going to pot.
+        Fan jest passed me, turned away ’er eyes,
+        Guess she ranked me with the other guys.
+        Nobby larks upon the Ninth, my joker
+        But it queers a chap to want the ochre.
+        Nothing like a crowd for regular sprees,
+        Ain’t it fine to do a rush, and squeeze?
+        Twig the women fainting! oh, it’s proper!
+        Bonnet buffers when the blooming copper
+        Can’t get near yer nohow. Then the fogs!
+        Rare old time for regular jolly dogs.
+        If a chap’s a genuine ’ot member,
+        He can keep the game up in November!
+
+        Dun December! Dismal, dingy, dirty.
+        Still short commons—makes a chap feel shirty.
+        Snip rampageous, drops a regular summons.
+        Fan gets married; ah! them gurls is rum ’uns!
+        After all the coin I squandered on ’er!
+        Want it now. A ’eap too bad, ’pon honour.
+        Snow! ah, that’s yer sort though, and no error,
+        Treat to twig the women scud in terror.
+        Hot ’un in the eye for that old feller;
+        Cold ’un down ’is neck, burst his umbreller.
+        Ha! ha! then Christmas,—’ave a jolly feast!
+        The Boss will drop a tip,—’ope so, at least.
+        If I don’t land some tin, my look-out’s queer.
+        Well, let’s drink, boys—‘Better luck next year!’
+
+
+Arse, subs. (low).—The posterior; the breech; the fundament. Once in
+polite use, but now considered very vulgar. As Grose in his Dictionary
+of the Vulgar Tongue [1785] prints the word thus, ‘a—e,’ it is evident
+that it had then fallen into disfavour. Murray traces the word back to
+about A.D. 1000. [A.S., ears, œurs; Icelandic and Swedish, ars; Danish,
+arts, and German, arsch].
+
+    1000 (circa). Ælfric, Glossary in Wright, 44·2 [Nates, ears-lye].
+    [M.]
+
+    1480. Caxton, Chronicles of England, ccxxvi., 233. They lete hange
+    fox tailles ... to hele and hyde her arses.
+
+    1663. Butler, Hudibras I., iii., 964. Then mounted both upon their
+    Horses, But with their Faces to the arses. [M.]
+
+    1704. Swift, Battle of the Books (1711), 235. Do you think I have
+    nothing else to do but to mend and repair after your arse [i.e.,
+    behind you, in your rear].
+
+Heavy-arse, a hulking, lazy fellow; a sluggard.
+
+    1530. Palsgrave, 436, 2. What up, heavy-arse, cannest thou nat
+    aryse? [M.]
+
+To hang the arse, to hang or hold back; to be afraid to advance.
+
+    1633. Massinger, Guardian, V., v. Nay, no hanging an arse. [M.]
+
+Arse-upwards in good luck.
+
+    1600 (circa). Timon I., 5 (1842), 20. This man this daye rose with
+    his arse upwards: To daye a fidler, and at night a noble.
+
+Also such forms as arse-board, the tail board of a cart—this is still
+dialectical; arse-gut, the rectum; arse-long; arse-push, a heavy
+backward fall; arse-ropes, the intestines.
+
+
+Arse-Cooler, subs. (low).—A bustle or dress-improver. [From arse, see
+preceding + cooler; in reference to the manner in which this article of
+feminine attire extends the dress, and prevents it clinging to the part
+of the body referred to.]
+
+For synonyms, see Bird-cage.
+
+
+Ars-Musica, subs. (low).—The podex when used as a noisy vent.—A play
+upon words.
+
+
+Arst (vulgarism).—A mispronunciation of ‘asked.’
+
+
+Arsy-Varsy or Arsy-Versy, adv. and adj. (low).—Topsy-turvy; topside
+t’other way; heels over head; or ‘the cart before the horse.’ [From
+arse + Latin versus ‘to turn,’ following model onomatopoetic compounds
+like ‘hirdie-girdie,’ ‘higgledy-piggledy,’ etc.] Once in polite use,
+but now confined to the low and vulgar.
+
+    1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 62. Ye set the cart before the
+    horse ... cleane contrarily, and arsy-versy as they say.
+
+    1728. Bailey, Dictionary. Arsy-versey, topsy-turvy, preposterously,
+    perversely, without order.
+
+Still dialectical. See English Dialect Society’s Glossaries, e.g., West
+Somerset Word Book.
+
+
+Arter (vulgarism).—An incorrect pronunciation of ‘after.’
+
+
+Artesian, subs. (Australian).—In Gippsland, Victoria, a well-known and
+popular brew of beer is manufactured with water obtained from an
+artesian well at Sale—and hence artesian as a common nickname for all
+Colonial beer.—See also Cascade.
+
+English synonyms for beer will be found under Swipes.
+
+
+Artful Dodger, subs. (rhyming and thieves’ slang).—1. A lodger.
+
+    1881. New York Slang Dictionary. Artful dodgers, fellows who dare
+    not sleep twice in the same place for fear of arrest.
+
+2. An expert thief. The artful dodger in Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’ will
+occur to mind in this connection.
+
+
+Arthur. King Arthur (old).—A sailor’s game, thus described, in effect,
+by Grose. When near the line, or in a hot latitude, a man who is to
+represent King Arthur, is ridiculously dressed, having a large wig made
+out of oakum, or some old swabs. He is seated on the side, or over a
+large vessel of water, and every person in turn is ceremoniously
+introduced to him, and has to pour a bucket of water over him, crying
+out, ‘Hail, King Arthur!’ If during the ceremony the person introduced
+laughs or smiles (to which his majesty endeavours to excite him by all
+sorts of ridiculous gesticulations), he changes places with, and then
+becomes King Arthur, till relieved by some brother tar who has as
+little command over his muscles as himself.—See also Ambassador.
+
+
+Artichoke, subs. (American thieves’).—An aged prostitute of the lowest
+type. For general synonyms, see Barrack hack.
+
+
+Article, subs. (popular).—1. A term of contempt for a worthless or
+insignificant person or animal—‘A pretty article he is.’
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxvi., p. 268. You’re a nice
+    article, to turn sulky on first coming home!
+
+2. A woman. In this sense generally current at the beginning of the
+century—‘a prime article,’ a handsome girl, or, as the Lexicon
+Balatronicum [1811] has it, ‘a hell of a goer.’
+
+    1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxxi. ‘She’d never have done
+    for you, you know; and she’s the very article for such a man as
+    Peppermint.’
+
+See also Sappy for English and foreign synonyms.
+
+
+Articles, subs. (thieves’).—A suit of clothes. Formerly current in
+England [circa 1780–1825]; now surviving principally amongst American
+thieves.
+
+
+Articles of Virtue, subs. phr. (popular).—Virgins. A play upon the word
+‘virtue,’ in allusion to the absence of defloration; and also upon
+vertu in its special English usage.
+
+
+Artist, subs. (American thieves’).—An adroit rogue; a skilful
+gamester.—N.Y.S.D.
+
+
+As ... as They Make ’Em, phr. (common).—Generally employed with such
+adjectives as ‘hot,’ ‘drunk,’ ‘bad,’ etc.; e.g., as bad as they make
+’em.
+
+    1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 17, p. 3. On reaching the party it was
+    evident that one of the Frenchmen was, not to put too fine a point
+    on it, about as drunk as they make ’em. He opened the campaign by
+    asking us to have a drink with him. Of course, he spoke in French.
+
+
+Asia Minor, subs. (popular).—The Kensington and Bayswater districts in
+London, on account of the many Anglo-Indians who, on their retirement,
+take refuge therein. The nickname, however, is a double-barrelled one,
+inasmuch as this quarter is also the headquarters of the Greek
+community in the metropolis. Sobriquets of the kind are not infrequent.
+The district between Maida Vale and St. Peter’s Park, Paddington, is
+called ‘the New Jerusalem,’ because of the large number of Jews who
+live there; and the same reason has given an exactly identical
+appellation to Brighton, while Cheltenham is nicknamed ‘the Black Hole’
+from its numerous Anglo-Indian residents.
+
+A sketch appeared under the title of ‘The Ladies in Parliament’ in
+Macmillan’s Magazine [Nov., 1866], wherein Tyburnia was described as
+‘the pension’d Indian’s undisturbed retreat.’
+
+    1888. Daily News, 9 Feb., p. 2, col. 5. The Ladbroke Hall,
+    Notting-hill ... is in the centre of a district where Indians in
+    the British metropolis mostly congregate, a circumstance which has
+    acquired for this part of London the nickname of Asia Minor, by
+    which it is sometimes called.
+
+
+Ask Bogy! phr. (old nautical slang).—An evasive reply.
+
+
+Askew, subs. (old cant).—A cuppe.—Harman [1567].
+
+
+Asquirm.—See Squirm.
+
+    1866. W. D. Howells, Venetian Life, ch. xviii. It is wet and slimy
+    underfoot, and the innumerable gigantic eels, writhing everywhere,
+    set the soul asquirm.
+
+
+Ass, subs. (printers’).—A compositor, so nicknamed by pressmen, who, in
+turn, are called pigs (q.v.). Ass is sometimes varied by donkey. In
+French printing offices compositors are called mulets, i.e., ‘mules.’
+
+
+Assay It! intj. (American thieves’).—Commence! try it! Obviously from
+the verb ‘to assay,’ and probably introduced by counterfeit coiners.
+
+
+Assig., subs. (old).—An assignation.—Grose.
+
+
+Aste, subs. (old cant).—Nares quotes this as an old cant term for
+money. For modern synonyms, see Actual.
+
+    1612. The Passenger of Benvenuto. These companions, who in the
+    phisionomie of their forehead, eyes, and nose, carry the impression
+    and marke of the pillerie galley, and of the halter, they call the
+    purse a leafe, and a fleece; money, cuckoes, and aste, and crowns.
+
+
+Astronomer, subs. (old).—A horse which carries its head high.
+
+
+Athanasian Wench, subs. (old).—A forward, abandoned woman, of obliging
+disposition—one who practises prostitution from libidinous desire
+rather than for gain. Also Quicunque vult. For synonyms, see Barrack
+hack.
+
+
+Atlantic-Ranger, subs. (common).—A herring. The derivation is too
+obvious to need particularization.
+
+    1883. Good Words, p. 378. Peas-pudding, and hard-boiled eggs,
+    rubbing shoulders, as it were, with Atlantic rangers (i.e., red
+    herrings).
+
+Among other curious synonyms for this fish may be mentioned
+Billingsgate pheasant; two-eyed steak; Yarmouth capon; sea rover; and
+Glasgow magistrate, all of which see. A very common request at
+Lockhart’s coffee-houses in London is for ‘a door step and a sea
+rover,’ i.e., a halfpenny slice of bread and butter and a herring.
+
+
+Atmosphere, subs. (American).—By the atmosphere of a thing, whether
+book, church, or individual, is meant its tone or influence. Atmosphere
+is one of the most recent introductions into the canting-slang
+phraseology of ‘Culchaw, don’t you know!’ It belongs to the same
+category as that which employs awfully and dreadfully for ‘very’; or
+lovely for anything pleasing, etc. The number of legitimate words
+perverted from their legitimate meanings and used in senses oftentimes
+ludicrous is much larger than most people would care to admit.
+
+
+Atomy, subs. (familiar).—1. A diminutive, or deformed person. [From a
+jocular pronunciation of ‘anatomy.’] As will be seen from the
+historical examples which follow, this expression has been in the
+mouths of the English people for at least 300 years.
+
+    1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, iv., i., 57.
+
+        ... I see, Queen Mab hath been with you.
+        She is the fairies’ midwife; and she comes
+        In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
+        On the forefinger of an alderman,
+        Drawn with a team of little atomies,
+        Athwart men’s noses as they fall asleep.
+
+    1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v., 4, 33. Host. Thou atomy, thou!
+
+    Dot. Come, you thin thing, come, you rascal.
+
+    1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. iii. ‘He was an atomy when
+    he came up from the North, and I am sure he died ... at twenty
+    stone weight.’
+
+    1866. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. ix. A miserable little
+    atomy, more deformed, more diminutive, more mutilated than any
+    beggar in a bowl.
+
+    1884. Cornhill Magazine, May, p. 478. ‘And atomy scarecrow and
+    atomy, what next will you call me? Yet you want to marry me!’
+
+    1886. Miss Braddon, Mohawks, ch. xxii. ‘How lovely his young wife
+    looks to-night; lovely enough to keep that poor old atomy in
+    perpetual torment.’
+
+2. (American thieves’).—Amongst the fraternity atomy has the special
+meaning of an empty-headed person, and not necessarily one deformed or
+of small, mean stature.
+
+For synonyms, in first sense, see Sappy.
+
+
+Attack, verb. (common).—A jocular rendering of the legitimate word; to
+commence operations, not necessarily, however, with the idea of force,
+which is always associated with the proper usage. Also as a subs.
+
+    1812. Combe (Dr. Syntax), Pictur. xvii., 62. The Doctor then ...
+    pronounced the grace ... The fierce attack was soon begun.
+
+    1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. i. It was a double letter, and the
+    Major commenced perusing the envelope before he attacked the inner
+    epistle.
+
+
+At That, adv. phr. (American and Australian).—An intensitive phrase
+tacked on to the end of an assertion or statement already made. ‘He’s a
+slick ’cute rascal, and a pretty demon at that,’ i.e., he is a rascal
+of rascals, an adept at villainy. It is a purely cant phrase, and has
+achieved a degree of popularity quite out of proportion to its
+merits—if any. Proctor suggests that the expression is an abbreviation
+of ‘added to that,’ but others regard it as the German dazu, a theory
+which is not improbable, in view of the large German element in the
+States.
+
+    1882. Pinkerton’s Mollie Maguires and Detectives. A miner from
+    Wadesville, was spoken of as an ancient Mollie—Cooney being
+    actually what the detective assumed to be, and a sharp one at that.
+
+    1888. Forest and Stream, March 15. Worth a year’s subscription, and
+    cheap at that.
+
+    1888. New York Herald, July 22. Who would have supposed that the
+    self-contained Mr. French, the icily regular T. Henry French, with
+    a disposition as undemonstrative as the Alpine edelweiss, would
+    suffer his temper to go away because of the loss of a hat—aye, and
+    of an old hat at that.
+
+
+Attic or Attic-Storey, subs. (common).—The head, from its being the
+highest or crowning member, the body being figuratively regarded as a
+house. Sometimes upper-storey. For synonyms, see Crumpet.
+
+    1870. Alford, in Life (1873), 467. Tolerably well all day, but the
+    noise in the attic unremoved.
+
+Queer in the attic, etc. Drunk; also weak-minded, or ‘cracked.’
+
+
+Attic-Salt, subs. (literary).—Well-turned phrases spiced with wit and
+humour. A reference to the peculiar style and idiom of the Greek
+language as used by the Athenians, and, says Hotten, ‘partly a sly hit
+at the well-known poverty of many writers.’ Whether so, or not, the
+phrase is one of long standing.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.) In Philology, we say attic-salt,
+    for a delicate, poignant kind of wit and humour after the Athenian
+    manner, who were particular in this way.
+
+    1779. Sheridan, The Critic, Act i., Sc. 2. I have the plot from the
+    author, and only add—characters strongly drawn—highly coloured—hand
+    of a master—fund of genuine humour—mine of invention—neat
+    dialogue—attic-salt.
+
+    1848. Jas. Hannay, King Dobbs, ch. ix., p. 129 (1856). ‘If you joke
+    in that style, we’ll lose the day,’ said Dobbs, who had some quiet
+    homely superstitions. ‘What? is it unlucky to spill attic-salt, as
+    well as the ordinary kind?’
+
+
+Attleborough, subs. (American).—Sham jewelry; used in precisely the
+same manner as ‘Brummagem,’ and as widely applied to men and things. It
+has passed from the classics of thiefdom into general use, and is
+applied to anything of a sham, pinchbeck, insincere, or doubtful
+character. Attleborough is a town celebrated for its manufacture of
+trashy jewelry.
+
+
+Attorney, subs. (popular).—A drumstick of goose, or turkey, grilled and
+devilled. [From devil = a lawyer who does routine work for another =
+attorney.]
+
+    1828. G. Griffin, Collegians, ch. xiii. ‘I love a plain beef steak
+    before a grilled attorney.’
+
+(Thieves’).—A shrewd, and often not over honest or scrupulous man who,
+possessing some knowledge of the law, acts in the capacity of legal
+adviser to those of the ‘crooked craft’ unfortunate enough to need
+assistance. Such men are generally solicitors and others whose names
+have been struck off the rolls, as also, occasionally, solicitors’
+clerks who have otherwise failed in life. Their practices are shady,
+but their fees are low.
+
+
+Attorney-General’s Devil.—See Devil.
+
+
+Auctioneer. To tip or give the auctioneer.—A phrase borrowed from the
+sale room, and signifying ‘to knock a man down.’
+
+    1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, Essay I., p. 4 (1864). And who,
+    in return for a craven blow, can deliver the auctioneer well over
+    the face and eyes.
+
+
+Audit-Ale, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—A special brew of ale, peculiar to
+Trinity College, made in the first instance for draught on audit days,
+whence its name.
+
+    1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Lay of S. Dunstan).
+
+              To be sure the best beer
+              Of all did not appear,
+        For I’ve said ’twas in June, and so late in the year
+        The ‘Trinity audit ale’ is not come-at-able,
+        As I’ve found to my great grief when dining at that table.
+
+    1876. Trevelyan, Life of Macaulay (1884), ch. iv., p. 127. A glass
+    of the audit ale, which reminded him that he was still a fellow of
+    Trinity.
+
+
+Audley.—See John Audley.
+
+
+Aufe.—See Oaf.
+
+
+Auger, subs. (American thieves’).—A person given to prosiness is so
+called; a bore.
+
+
+Aught, subs. (vulgarism).—A common illiteracy for ‘naught’ when naming
+the cipher—‘o’.
+
+
+Auld Hornie, subs. (common).—One of the numerous nicknames given to the
+devil. Others are, old nick; old scratch; old Harry; skipper; old
+gentleman; deuce; dickens; ruffian, etc.—See Skipper for synonyms.
+
+
+Auld Reekie (popular).—A sobriquet for the old town of Edinburgh. It
+means ‘old smoky.’ Of late years it has been applied to the whole city.
+
+    1806. Miss Pitman, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), i.,
+    271. We are within two hours-and-a-half of Auld Reeky.
+
+    1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. vi. ‘And what news do you bring us from
+    Edinburgh, Monkbarns?’ said Sir Arthur; ‘how wags the world in Auld
+    Reekie?’
+
+    1889. Colonies and India, July 24, p. 10, col. 1. The Australasian
+    Colony in Auld Reekie is prospering apace, and it may soon be
+    necessary to plant some gum trees along Princes Street to meet the
+    growing demands of the population.
+
+
+Auly-Auly, subs. (Win. Coll.).—A game formerly played in ‘Grass Court’
+on Saturday afternoons after chapel. It consisted in throwing an
+india-rubber ball at one another, and everybody was obliged to go down
+and join in it. ‘Haul ye, call ye,’ is the supposed derivation; but, as
+the game, though in vogue in 1830, was not played as late as 1845,
+there is some difficulty in defining it in detail.
+
+
+Aunt, subs. (old).—Applied, especially during the Elizabethan period,
+to either a procuress, a prostitute, or a concubine. It survived till
+the commencement of the present century and then gradually died out.
+For synonyms, see Mother.
+
+    1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch the Old One, II., i. Was it not
+    then better bestowed upon his uncle than upon one of his aunts?—I
+    need not say bawd, for everyone knows what aunt stands for in the
+    last translation.
+
+    1623. Shakspear, Winter’s Tale, iv., 3.
+
+        Summer songs for me and my aunts,
+        While we lie tumbling in the hay.
+
+To go and see one’s aunt (common).—To go to the W.C.—See Mrs. Jones.
+
+
+Aunt Sally, subs. (familiar).—A well-known game, common to race-courses
+and fairs, which consists in throwing short staves at a wooden head
+mounted on a stick, placed upright in the ground, and forming a kind of
+target. In the mouth of the image is placed a clay pipe, and the object
+of the player, who stands at say twenty or thirty yards distance, is to
+demolish this. The amusement is not unlike the more popular ‘three
+shies a penny.’ The origin of Aunt Sally is wrapped in mystery; nor is
+it known whether she is any relation to the black lady whose effigy
+some few years since was frequently to be met with suspended outside
+the shops of rag and ‘marine store’ dealers. A writer in Notes and
+Queries [2 S., x., 117] affirms that Aunt Sally is the heroine of a
+popular negro melody, in which the old lady meets with several
+ludicrous adventures, but evidence in support of this theory is at
+present wanting.
+
+    1866. G. A. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. i., p. 11. They will
+    go to Epsom by the rail, and create disturbances on the course, and
+    among the ‘sticks’ and aunt sallies.
+
+    1883. Punch, June 2, p. 264, col. 1. The average number of ‘chucks’
+    at cocoa-nuts before achieving success is six, and of ‘shies’ at
+    aunt sally, four.
+
+
+Au Reservoir! intj. phr. (common).—Au revoir. A mere play upon sounds.
+Common in America, where it originated, and now often heard in England.
+
+
+Australian Flag, subs. (Anglo-Australian).—The tail of a shirt, when,
+after exertion, it rucks up in folds between the trousers and the
+waistcoat—an ‘up-country’ phrase.—See Cornstalk.
+
+
+Australian Grip, subs. (Australian).—A hearty shake of the hands.
+
+
+Autem, Autum, Autom, subs. (old cant).—A church. The term first appears
+in Harman’s Caveat [1573]; again in Rowland’s Martin Mark-all [1610];
+in Head’s English Rogue [1665]; in Cole’s English Dictionary [1724]; in
+Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [1785], and in Duncombe’s Sinks
+of London Laid Open [1848].—See also Autem mort.
+
+Adj.—Married. So quoted in Cole’s English Dictionary, whence autem
+mort, etc.
+
+
+Autem-Bawler, subs. (old cant).—A parson. [From autem (q.v.), a church
++ bawler, a speaker.] For modern English and foreign synonyms, see
+Gospel shark. Other ancient expressions for a clergyman are autem-jet,
+autem-cackler, and autem-pricker; the last two named, however, apply,
+as a rule, only to Dissenters.
+
+
+Autem-Cackler, subs. (old cant).—A Dissenter; sometimes specially
+applied to Dissenting ministers.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 260. ‘On one
+    occasion a Jew was selling cocoa-nut, when the autem-cackler, i.e.,
+    Dissenting minister, came and wanted to impart to the Israelite the
+    sin he committed in carrying on his vocation on such a day
+    [Sunday]. The Jew half listened to what the other said, but kept on
+    calling out “Cocoa-nut a half-penny a slice, a very nice
+    cocoa-nut—cocoanut!”’
+
+2. A married woman.—See Autem. In this sense it is used in a canting
+song in the New York Slang Dictionary, first published in 1881, and
+which, as a specimen of the verse affected by the light-fingered
+fraternity, it may not be out of place to give entire. It should be
+read in connection with the remarks On canting songs (q.v.).
+
+
+        ‘A HUNDRED STRETCHES (1) HENCE.’
+
+        ‘Oh! where will be the culls of the bing (2)
+          A hundred stretches hence?
+        The bene morts (3), who sweetly sing,
+          A hundred stretches hence?
+        The autumn-cacklers, autumn-coves (4),
+        The jolly blade who wildly roves;
+        And where the buffer (5), bruiser (6), blowen (7),
+        And all the cops (8) and beaks (9) so knowin’
+          A hundred stretches hence?
+
+        ‘And where the swag (10), so bleakly (11) pinched (12),
+          A hundred stretches hence?
+        The thimbles (13), slang (14), and danglers (15) filched,
+          A hundred stretches hence?
+        The chips (16), the fawneys (17), chatty-feeders (18),
+        The bugs (19), the boungs (20), and well-filled readers (21);
+        And where the fence (22) and snoozing-ken (23),
+        With all the prigs (24) and lushing men (25),
+          A hundred stretches hence?
+
+        ‘Played out they lay, it will be said
+          A hundred stretches hence;
+        With shovels they were put to bed (26)
+          A hundred stretches since!
+        Some rubbed to wit had napped a winder (27),
+        And some were scragged (28) and took a blinder (29),
+        Planted the swag and lost to sight,
+        We’ll bid them, one and all, good-night,
+          A hundred stretches hence.’
+
+
+    1, Stretch, a year; 2, culls of the bing, innkeepers, publicans; 3,
+    bene morts, pretty girls or women; 4, autumn cove, married men; 5,
+    buffer, smuggler, rogue, or cheat; 6, bruiser, prostitute’s bully
+    or prize-fighter; 7, blowen, a showy prostitute; 8, cop, policeman;
+    9, beak, a magistrate; 10, swag, plunder, proceeds of robbery; 11,
+    bleakly, cleverly, also handsome; 12, pinched, stolen; 13, thimble,
+    a watch; 14, slang, a watch chain; 15, danglers, a bunch of seals;
+    16, chips, money; 17, fawney, a ring; 18, chatty-feeder, a spoon;
+    19, bug, a breast pin; 20, boung, a purse; 21, reader, a
+    pocket-book; 22, fence, a receiver of stolen goods; 23,
+    snoozing-ken, a brothel; 24, prig, a thief; 25, lushing-men,
+    drinking-men; 26, put to bed with a shovel, buried; 27, to nap a
+    winder—to nap, to cheat, winder, a life sentence; 28, scragged,
+    hanged; 29, to take a blinder, to drown oneself.
+
+
+Autem Cackle Tub, subs. (old cant).—The meeting house of Dissenters of
+every description. Also a pulpit.
+
+
+Autem-Cove, subs. (old cant).—A married man. [From autem (q.v.), a
+church + cove, a man.]
+
+
+Autem-Dippers or Autem-Divers, subs. (old cant).—1. Formerly a nickname
+for Baptists, from their practice of immersing adult converts, as
+distinguished from infant sprinkling.
+
+2. Pickpockets who practised in churches were called autem-divers; also
+churchwardens and overseers of the poor who defrauded, deceived, and
+imposed upon the parish.
+
+
+Autem-Goglers, subs. (old cant).—Pretended French prophets—Grose.
+Conjurors, fortune-tellers—Duncombe.
+
+
+Autem-Jet, subs. (old cant).—A parson. [From autem, a church + jet,
+black, in allusion to the black garments usually worn by ‘the cloth.’]
+For some curious synonyms, see Devil-dodger.
+
+
+Autem, or Autem-Mort, subs. (old cant).—A married woman, i.e., one
+wedded in a church. [From autem, a church + mort, or mot, a woman.] The
+term belongs to the oldest cant, and is the subject of a long
+description in Harman’s Caveat. (See quotation.) The old fraternity of
+vagabonds (for a full description of which, see Cadgers—ancient and
+modern) was divided into well marked classes, as also were the women
+who accompanied them in their peregrinations. The men were not strict
+monogamists, either as regards lawful companions or those of another
+grade—
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 49. These Autem Mortes be maried
+    wemen, as there be but a fewe: For Autem in their language is a
+    church, so shee is a wyfe maried at the church, and they be as
+    chaste as a cowe I have, that goeth to bull eury moone, with what
+    bull she careth not. These walke most times from their husbands
+    companye a moneth and more to gether, being asociate with another
+    as honest as her selfe. These wyll pylfar clothes of hedges; some
+    of them go with children of ten or xii years of age; yf tyme and
+    place serue for their purpose, they will send them into some house,
+    at the window, to steale and robbe, which they call in their
+    language, Milling of the ken; and wil go with wallets on their
+    shoulders, and slates at their backes. There is one of these Autem
+    Mortes, she is now a widow, of fyfty yeres old; her name is Alice
+    Milson: she goeth about with a couple of great boyes, the youngest
+    of them is fast Upon xx yeares of age....
+
+    1592. Greene, Quip, in works IX., 283. The pedler as bad or rather
+    worse, walketh the country with his docksey at the least, if he
+    have not two, his mortes dels, and Autem Mortis.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 7 (H. Club’s Reprint, 1874).
+    Here another [complains] that they could not quietly take their
+    rest in the night, nor keepe his autem, or doxie sole vnto
+    himselfe.
+
+    1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. Morts, autem-morts,
+    walking morts, dells, doxies with all the shades and grades of the
+    canting crew, were assembled.
+
+Toward the end of the eighteenth century autem-mort was used as
+synonymous with a female beggar alone; then another meaning crept into
+the word—a prostitute.—See Cadger.
+
+
+Autem-Prickear.—The same as autem-cackler (q.v.).
+
+
+Autem-Quaver, subs. (old cant).—A Quaker. [From autem, a church +
+quaver, referring to the shaking, peculiar to some of the religious
+exercises of the Society of Friends.]
+
+
+Autem-Quaver-Tub, subs. (old cant).—A Quaker’s meeting-house; also a
+desk therein.
+
+
+Author-Baiting, subs. (theatrical).—Calling the author of an
+unsuccessful play before the curtain, and then, wanting all sense of
+decency and feeling, to overwhelm him with every imaginable source of
+annoyance—yelling, hooting, bellowing, etc.
+
+
+Avast! intj. (nautical).—Hold on! Stop! Shut up! Stow it! etc., etc. No
+word perhaps has more suggested derivations than avast! Webster writes
+it down as from the Italian basta, enough; literally, it suffices, from
+bastare, to suffice. He does not, however, seem to have been altogether
+certain, for he queries whether it is not a worn-down form of the Dutch
+houd vast, hou’ vast, hold fast! a derivation which Dr. Murray endorses
+as ‘probable’ in his New Dictionary of the English Language. Bearing in
+mind that avast, although used colloquially is first and foremost a
+sailor’s term, this derivation does not seem far-fetched; for, the
+Dutch having been themselves one of the great maritime nations of the
+past, it is not unlikely that the term should have come from them,
+especially when it is borne in mind that a large proportion of nautical
+terms are so derived.
+
+Such are boom; sprit; reef; schooner; skate; sloop; stiver; taffrail;
+yacht (jaghten, ‘to chase’), etc.
+
+On the other hand, as regards the Italian basta, it is only fair to
+point out that French workmen use basta, in the sense of enough! no
+more! The same term occurs also in the Spanish.
+
+Hotten connects it with the old cant bynge a waste, get out of the way!
+go hence! but though one cannot speak with certainty, this is not, on
+the face of it, apparent. There seems no discoverable connection
+between the two; moreover, the comparative and historical method of
+dealing with slang shows us that avast in its present form and sense
+can be traced as far back as 1681, within about a hundred years of the
+publication of Harman’s Caveat where bynge a waste first occurs. The
+probability therefore is that the two terms are distinct, and that
+avast is derived from a different source to bynge a waste (q.v.) which,
+as Leland points out, has probably its origin in the Romany.
+
+    1681. Otway, Soldiers’ Fortune, iv., i. Hoa up, hoa up; so avast
+    there, sir.
+
+    1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xli. ‘Avast there, friend: none of
+    your tricks upon travellers.’
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xcvii. ‘And upon this scrap
+    of paper—no, avast—that’s my discharge from the parish.’
+
+    1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xiv. But avast now!
+    we’ve had enough of philosopherising.
+
+
+Avoirdupois-Lay, subs. (old thieves’ cant).—This is given by Grose as
+meaning the theft of brass weights off shop counters.
+
+
+Avuncular-Relation, subs. (common).—A pawnbroker—a facetious variant of
+uncle (q.v.), another name for the same individual.
+
+
+Awake, adv. (old, and modern American thieves’).—On the alert;
+vigilant. Cf., wide-awake, a certain kind of hat, so called,
+by-the-bye, from its never having a ‘nap.’ For synonyms, see Fly.
+
+    1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry (Dicks’ ed., 1889), p. 6.
+
+Prime. From the cut of the gentleman’s clothes, I presume he’s lately
+come from the Esquimaux Islands.
+
+Tom. Ha! ha! very good, Primefit; I say, Jerry—you see he’s down upon
+you.
+
+Jerry. Yes, he’s up, he’s awake, he’s fly—Ha! ha!
+
+    1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, ch. xxxix., p. 314. ‘If you hear the
+    waiter coming, sir, shove it in your pocket and look out of the
+    window, d’ye hear?’ ‘I’m awake, father,’ replied the dutiful
+    Wackford.
+
+
+Awful, subs. (common).—A sensational newspaper, tale, or narration;
+e.g., a penny awful. Sometimes called a dreadful; other names for this
+kind of mental pabulum are blood and thunder tales, and gutter
+literature.
+
+Adj.—Generally colloquial as an intensitive, conveying no more awe-full
+meaning than ‘very,’ ‘exceedingly,’ etc. Strange as it may appear this
+familiar usage is very old, and was frequently heard north of the Tweed
+long prior to its use by Southrons. An intermediate stage was its
+appearance across the Atlantic, whence its re-introduction into the
+Mother Country may be traced.
+
+    1834. Lamb, Gent. Giantess, Misc. Wks. (1871), 363. She is indeed,
+    as the Americans would express it, something awful.
+
+    b. 1789, d. 1880. Planché, Good Woman in the Wood.
+
+        ‘A poor widow and her orphan chicks
+        Left without fixtures, in an awful fix.’
+
+    1883. Hawley Smart, At Fault, III., v., 82. ‘I’m awful glad you two
+    have made acquaintance.’
+
+Awfully, the adverbial form, is subjected to the same ill-treatment, as
+the following examples will show.
+
+    1877. Punch’s Pocket Book for 1878, p. 165. You should have come
+    with us. It’s too awfully nice, as I told you I thought it would
+    be.
+
+    1878. M. E. Braddon, Cloven Foot, ch. vii. ‘Awfully,’ was Miss
+    Clare’s chief laudatory adjective [sic]; her superlative form of
+    praise was ‘quite too awfully,’ and when enthusiasm carried her
+    beyond herself she called things ‘nice.’ ‘Quite too awfully nice,’
+    was her maximum of rapture.
+
+    1889. Illustrated Bits, July 13.
+
+        An Old Proverb Twisted.
+
+        ‘The ham of the sandwich was awfully tough,’
+          He said, for, oh, it was dry,
+        As at first he tried to bite into the stuff,
+          All in vain, how hard he would try.
+        But at last, when fairly bit into the thing,
+          He found that it was all right,
+        And he said, as happy as any king,
+          ‘The bark was worse than the bite.’
+
+French equivalents are, bigrement; jusqu’à la troisième capucine; and
+pommé.
+
+
+Awkward-Squad, subs. (military and naval).—Recruits when commencing to
+learn their drill.
+
+
+Ax, Axe, verb. (vulgar).—To ask. Though now looked upon as a vulgarism,
+ax is still largely dialectical, and is really the most correct form of
+the word. ‘Ask’ is the northern gloss which has gradually supplanted
+ax. The latter, down to nearly 1600, says Dr. Murray, was the regular
+literary form.
+
+    c. 1380. Chaucer, Tale of Melibeus. Seint Jame eck saith: If eny
+    fellow have neede of sapiens, axe it of God.
+
+    1474. Caxton, Game of the Chesse, bk. III., ch. viii. He must nedes
+    begge and axe his breed.
+
+    1758. A. Murphy, The Upholsterer, Act i. An old crazy fool—axing
+    your pardon, ma’am, for calling your father so.
+
+    1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, Act ii., Sc. 2. Mrs. Sneak. Where is
+    the puppy? Sneak. Yes, yes, she is axing for me.
+
+    1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. vi. ‘I axed her would she like to
+    live in the great house, and she said no.’
+
+    1883. Echo, Jan. 25, p. 2, col. 3. To axe, considered but a
+    vulgarism, for to ask, is good Saxon.
+
+
+Axe. An axe to grind, phr. (American).—A much-used phrase of political
+origin. Men are said to have axes to grind when suspected of selfish or
+interested motives. From politics the expression has passed into use
+among all classes of society. The Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean (Feb. 1888)
+spoke of certain politicians as ‘men with axes to grind.’ What we
+believe is right is more often so because it grinds our axe than
+otherwise.
+
+    1871. (From Hoppe’s Conversations Lexicon). Miner. ‘Who’ll turn the
+    grindstones?’ When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers,
+    begging them to taste a little brandy, and throwing half his goods
+    on the counter, thinks I, that man has an axe to grind.
+
+    1888. Detroit Free Press, Sept. 22. William Black, the novelist,
+    says the only ax a novelist has to grind is the climax.
+
+
+Axe-My-Eye! subs. (cheap jacks’).—One who is up to every trick; a cute
+fellow.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 232.
+
+        Stow your gab and gauffery,
+          To every fakement I’m a fly;
+        I never takes no fluffery,
+          For I’m a regular axe-my-eye.
+
+
+Ayrshires, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Glasgow and South-Western Railway
+Stock.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              B
+
+
+B Not to know b from a battledore, phr. (old).—To be entirely
+illiterate; very ignorant. This old cant phrase has several variants,
+all of them alliterative in character. For example, not to know b from
+a bull’s-foot—from a broomstick—chalk from cheese, etc. Each and all
+indicate inability to distinguish between familiar objects that differ.
+Battledore is an old name for the hornbook from which children used to
+learn the alphabet.
+
+    1401. Pol. Poems, II., 57. I know not an a from the wynd-mylne, ne
+    a b from a bole foot. [M.]
+
+    1609. Dekker, Guls-Hornebooke, 3. You shall not neede to buy
+    bookes; no, scorne to distinguish a b from a battledore; onely
+    looke that your eares be long enough to reach our rudiments, and
+    you are made for ever.
+
+    1846. Brackenridge, Modern Chivalry, 43. There were members who
+    scarcely knew b from a bull’s-foot. [M.]
+
+
+B (fenian).—Mr. H. J. Byron, the playwright, in his annotated copy of
+the Slang Dictionary, mentions this as the title of a captain in the
+‘army of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.’
+
+
+B’s.—See B flat.
+
+
+Babe, subs. (parliamentary).—The last elected member of the House of
+Commons. The oldest representative of the chamber is called the father
+of the house (q.v.).
+
+(American).—The youngest member of a class at the United States
+Military College at West Point. A term sans wit, sans point, sans
+almost everything.
+
+
+Babe in the Wood, subs. phr. (old).—1. A victim of the law’s
+solicitude; in other words, a culprit sentenced to the stocks or the
+pillory. Obsolete.
+
+2. Dice are also called babes in the wood.
+
+
+Babes, subs. (auctioneers’).—A set of auction thieves, who attend sales
+for the express purpose of blackmail. Their modus operandi is as
+follows. In consideration of a small bribe of money or beer, or both,
+they agree not to oppose the bidding of the larger dealers, who thus
+dishonestly keep down the price of lots. The practice is generally
+worked in connection with knock-outs (q.v.).
+
+(American).—A set of Baltimore rowdies are so-called; at various times
+they have also received the names of blood tubs and plug-uglies (q.v.).
+
+
+Baboo-English, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—A species of ‘English as she is
+wrote’ (q.v.). Its main peculiarity is its grandiloquence, a feature
+born of an attempt to adapt Western speech to Eastern imagery and
+hyperbole.
+
+
+Baby-Herder, subs. (American).—A nurse; a simile drawn from life on the
+plains, and worked out with true cowboy humour.
+
+
+Babylonitish, subs. (Winchester College).—A dressing gown. An
+abbreviated form of ‘Babylonitish garment.’
+
+
+Baby-Pap, subs. (thieves’).—A cap; part of the so-called rhyming slang
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Bacca.—See Baccy.
+
+
+Bacca-Pipes, subs. (common).—Whiskers when curled in ringlets, a now
+obsolete fashion.—See Mutton-chops.
+
+
+Baccare! Backare! intj. (old cant).—Go back! [a humorous form of back +
+a simulated Latin termination]. In use from about 1553–1660.
+
+    1592. Lyly, Midas, V., 2. The masculine gender is more worthy than
+    the feminine. Therefore, Licio. backare.
+
+    1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii.;
+
+        Saving your tale, Petruchio, I pray
+        Let us, that are poor petitioners, speak too;
+        Baccare! you are marvellous forward.
+
+                                                    [N.]
+
+
+Baccy, also Bacca, subs. (common).—A corrupted form of ‘tobacco.’
+Apparently of quite recent introduction. An equivalent term in French
+is perlot, from perle.
+
+    1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. ii. ‘You must larn to chaw baccy.’
+
+    1861. Jas. Conway, Forays among Salmon and Deer, p. 228. I lay on
+    an Affghan goat-rug spread over fresh heather, with a pipe filled
+    with good baccy in my mouth.
+
+
+Bach or Batch, verb. (American).—To live as a bachelor.
+
+
+Bachelor’s Baby, subs. (old).—An illegitimate child. For synonyms, see
+Bye-blow.
+
+
+Bachelors-Fare, subs. (familiar).—Bread and cheese and kisses—a
+humorous allusion to the real or alleged ‘short commons,’ generally
+assumed to be meted out to a man who is unattached. Like many other
+proverbial sayings there is more sound than truth in it.
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, conv. i. Lady Ans. Colonel, some
+    ladies of your acquaintance have promised to breakfast with you,
+    and I am to wait on them; what will you give us? Col. Why, faith,
+    madam, bachelor’s-fare, bread and cheese and kisses.
+
+
+Back, verb. (popular).—To bet or wager; to support by means of money,
+kind, or influence, on the turf or elsewhere. From the earlier and more
+legitimate meaning to support, maintain, or strengthen. Possibly in the
+sense of to wager or support by betting, back can hardly nowadays be
+classed as slang; there seems too, to be long and constant usage to
+support its claim as a regular dictionary word.
+
+(Uppingham School).—At football, to be ready for a chance.
+
+To put or set up one’s back, phr. (familiar).—To rouse oneself to
+antipathy; to get angry; to resist. The figure presented is that of a
+cat, which, when irritated, arches or sets up its back. Also used
+negatively as an exhortation to keep one’s temper. Don’t get your back
+up! For synonymous phrases, see Hold your hair on!
+
+    1726. Vanbrugh and Cibber, Provoked Husband, V., iii., 112. O Lud!
+    how her back will be up then when she meets me.
+
+    1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, ch. 66. My uncle’s back was up in
+    a moment; and he desired him to explain his pretensions.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xvi. ‘I know she is flighty, and
+    that; and Brian’s back is up a little. But he ain’t a bad fellow;
+    and I wish I could see you and his wife better friends.’
+
+    1883. Greenwood, Grandmother Cooper, in Odd People in Odd Places, p
+    2. ‘You don’t know what you’re sayin’; therefore you don’t mean no
+    harm. If so be you think what you just now said, keep it to
+    yourself, don’t say it to me. It sets my back up, and when my
+    back’s set up I’m sometimes orkard.’
+
+To ride on one’s back, phr. (old).—To deceive successfully.
+
+
+Back and Belly, phr. (vulgar).—1. Back and before; all over.
+
+2. To keep one back and belly, phr. (old).—To feed and clothe. Cf.,
+Belly-timber and Back-timber.
+
+
+Back-Breaker, subs. (common).—One who sets, or that which is, an
+example of more than ordinary human powers of endurance; e.g., in
+pedestrianism or racing a man or horse whose pace is considerably over
+the average. In sporting phraseology he or it is called a scorcher
+(q.v.) and the pace of such is also eloquently called ‘killing.’
+Back-breaking is therefore synonymous with excessive exertion or effort
+of all kinds.
+
+
+Back-Cap. To give a back-cap, phr. (American).—To expose; to reveal
+what one knows of another, in a detrimental sense.
+
+    1883. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, p. 462. [A pretended
+    converted thief is made to say]:—i told him all about my being in
+    prison and about you, and how i had almost done giving up looking
+    for work and how the Lord got me the job when i asked him ... and
+    then i felt better than ever i had done in my life, for i had given
+    Mr. Brown a fair start with me and now i didn’t fear no one giving
+    me a back-cap and running me off the job.
+
+
+Back-Cheat, subs. (old cant).—A cloak. Also called a wrap-rascal
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Back-Door. A gentleman of the back-door, subs. phr. (common).—A
+sodomist; formerly a backgammon player. The vice itself is called
+back-door work. For synonyms, see Usher.
+
+
+Backdoor-Trot, subs. (provincial).—Diarrhœa. The allusion is obvious. A
+more common term is jerry-go-nimble (q.v.).
+
+
+Back Down, verb, (common).—To yield; to retreat from a position; to
+abandon a line of argument; to eat one’s words. Originally an American
+turn of expression.—See Back track and Back out.
+
+Subs.—Usually a square back down; a severe rebuff; sometimes, utter
+collapse.
+
+
+Backed, ppl. adj. (old).—Dead—a figurative use of to ‘put on one’s
+back,’ i.e., to place hors de combat.
+
+
+Back-End, subs. (racing).—The last two months of the racing season.
+More technical than slang.
+
+    1820. Blackw. Mag., Oct., p. 3. When you did me the honour to stop
+    a day or two at last back-end.
+
+    1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. xxix. ‘Most of what I got over
+    that steeplechase I dropped at the back-end over the October
+    handicaps.’
+
+Adj.—The meaning, mutatis mutandis, is the same as back-end.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, April 30, p. 3, col. 6. And neither [horse]
+    could beat Palermo on back-end form.
+
+
+Back-Gammon Player.—See Back-door.
+
+
+Backhand, verb. (common).—To detain the decanter when it is passed
+round, and thus to drink more than one’s share; a more recent phrase is
+‘not drinking fair.’—See, however, Backhander.
+
+    1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. viii. ‘Livingstone, if
+    you begin backhanding already, you’ll never be able to hold that
+    great raking chestnut I saw your groom leading this evening.’
+
+
+Back-Handed Turn (Stock Exchange).—An unprofitable bargain.
+
+
+Backhander, subs. (common).—1. A drink out of turn; also detention of
+wine at table so as to get an extra share.
+
+    1855. Thackery, Newcomes, ch. xliii. ‘Thank you, Mr. Binnie, I will
+    take a backhander, as Clive don’t seem to drink.’
+
+    1873. Saturday Review, p. 798. Long experience has shown us that to
+    get small advantages over us gives the Scotch so much pleasure,
+    that we should not think of grudging them the mild satisfaction,
+    just as a kindly host affects not to notice a valued guest, who, he
+    observes, always helps himself to an innocent backhander.
+
+2. A blow on the face with the back of the hand.
+
+    1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, p. 11. ‘Go away, Sarah,’ said
+    Johnny, with a backhander.
+
+    1862. Farrar, St. Winifred’s, ch. xxxiii. He administered a
+    backhander to Elgood, as he spoke, and the next minute Charlie,
+    roused beyond all bearing, had knocked him down.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College. The doctor
+    comes suddenly round a corner, and finds Tibbs [a fag] mopping the
+    rosy fluid from his nose with a rueful countenance, having just
+    received a sharp backhander from one of his lords and masters.
+
+3. Hence, figuratively, a rebuke; a ‘setting down.’
+
+    1850. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. i. I knew this was what
+    John calls a back hander at me, but I can be so good-natured when I
+    have anything to gain, therefore I only said ——.
+
+
+Backing and Filling, adj. (colloquial).—A backing and filling policy is
+one that is shifty; irresolute; trifling. A figurative usage derived
+from backing and filling a vessel, i.e., keeping it in the middle of
+the stream of a narrow river by advancing first to one shore, and then
+backing to the other, allowing the stream to make the way, the wind
+blowing in an opposite direction to the stream.
+
+
+Backing-On.—See Turning-on.
+
+
+Backings Up, subs. (Winchester College).—The unconsumed ends of
+half-burned fagots. They are collected and sometimes made into
+surreptitious fires by ‘Juniors.’
+
+
+Back Jump, subs. (thieves’).—A back window.—See Jump.
+
+
+Backmarked. To be backmarked, verb. (pedestrian).—In handicapping to
+receive less start from ‘scratch’ than previously given—even to being
+put back to ‘scratch.’
+
+
+Back Out, verb. (colloquial).—To retreat cautiously and tacitly; from
+stable phraseology; e.g., the backing out of a horse. Very much the
+same as to back down (q.v.).
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. viii. Jobson, however, was determined
+    that Morris should not back out of the scrape so easily.
+
+    1855. A. Trollope, The Warden, ch. xii. How was he to back out of a
+    matter in which his name was already so publicly concerned?
+
+    1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, pt. IV., p. 152. I am sure that he
+    had done his best to spread the report of my marriage with his
+    sister for fear of my backing out.
+
+
+Back Scuttle, verb. (thieves’).—The same as back-slang (q.v.).
+
+
+Back-Seam. To be down on one’s back-seam, phr. (tailors’).—To be down
+on one’s luck; to be unfortunate.
+
+
+Back Seat. To take a back seat, phr. (American).—Figuratively, to
+retire into obscurity; it also sometimes implies a silent confession of
+failure; an inability to accomplish what one has attempted. The
+colloquialism has gained a world-wide currency; it received an immense
+‘send off,’ as the Americans say, from Andrew Johnson’s famous saying
+in 1868, that in the work of Reconstruction traitors should take back
+seats.
+
+    1885. Society, Feb. 7, p. 9. This great batting achievement must,
+    however, take a back seat when compared with the enormous total
+    recently scored by Shaw’s Eleven in Australia, against a powerful
+    Colonial team.
+
+    1888. Daily News, Feb. 24, p. 5, col. 2. Any form of art which is
+    barred by its very nature from perfection must take what the
+    Americans call a back seat.
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, p. 426. Who will say the Britishers are not a
+    forbearing and forgiving race, and the inhabitants of
+    Stratford-on-Avon don’t by any means take a back seat in that line?
+    Ignatius Donnelly actually visited the birthplace of Shakespeare,
+    and wasn’t lynched! Far from it, he was hospitably received and
+    entertained.
+
+
+Back-Slum, subs. (colloquial).—The lowest and most disreputable
+quarters of a town or city; generally applied to the dens and rookeries
+of the criminal and ‘outcast’ classes.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff’s Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Scene 5. Log. Well,
+    don’t grumble—every one must pay for his learning—and you wouldn’t
+    bilk the schoolmaster, would you? But, come, I’m getting merry; so
+    if you wish for a bit of good truth, come with me, and let’s have a
+    dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land. Jerry.
+    Back slums—Holy Land!—I’m at fault again. Log. Why, among the
+    beggars in Dyot Street, St. Giles’s. Tom. Beggars! ah, we shall be
+    very good figures for the part.
+
+        (Turns out his pockets.)
+
+    1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. xx. Not in
+    fetid alleys and festering London back-slums only is man’s fight
+    with difficulty a bitter and crushing battle.
+
+(Australian thieves’.)—A back room or entrance.
+
+
+Backstaircase, subs. (common).—A bustle, or ‘dress improver.’ For
+synonyms, see Birdcage.
+
+
+Backstair Influence, subs. (familiar).—Underhand dealing or persuasion;
+a stab in the dark; intrigue. [From the use of the back or private
+stairs of a palace, etc., for other than state visitors; hence, a
+secret mode of approach; and, attributively, applied to indirect,
+oblique, and unfair intrigue.]
+
+    1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, II. He is like a backstair minister at
+    Court, who, while the reputed favourites are sauntering in the
+    bed-chamber, is ruling the roast in the closet.
+
+    1877. Grenville Murray, Round about France, p. 77. These men are
+    the most indefatigable retailers of backstairs small talk to the
+    little fry of journalism.
+
+
+Back-Stall, subs. (thieves’).—An accomplice who ‘covers’ the actual
+thief; especially used in relation to garrote-robberies, in which the
+back-stall has two functions, first to screen his companion, and then,
+if necessary, to ‘make off’ with the booty.
+
+
+Back Talk. No back talk! phr. (common).— 1. A slang catch-phrase
+indicating that the matter in question is closed to discussion;
+‘there’s nothing more to be said.’
+
+2. Underhand insinuation.
+
+
+Back Teeth. To have one’s back teeth well afloat, phr. (popular).—A
+facetiously brutal way of implying that the subject of such a remark is
+well primed with liquor—even to the verge of drunkenness.—See Screwed.
+
+    1888. Missouri Republican, Jan. 25. When sober on the bench, Judge
+    Noonan is a model of all the virtues. On Friday night, however, in
+    company with Dr. Munford, of Kansas City, ex-Speaker Wood, Mr.
+    Charles Mead and several other gentlemen, his honour once more
+    drank until, as an onlooker put it, his back teeth were well
+    afloat.
+
+
+Back-Timber, subs. (old).—Clothes. A humorous term which dates back to
+the middle of the seventeenth century. Other slang equivalents are togs
+and toggery; also war-paint in the sense of fine or showy garb. In
+French argot, alpague is used synonymously.
+
+    b. 1574, d. 1656. Bp. Hall, Works V., 543. Was there ever more riot
+    and excess in diet and clothes, in belly-cheer and back-timber,
+    than we see at this day? [d.]
+
+
+Back Tommy, subs. (tailors’).—A piece of cloth used to cover the
+‘stays’ at the waist.
+
+
+Back-Track. To take the back-track, phr. (American).—To retreat from
+any assumed position; to back out (q.v.).
+
+
+Back Up, verb. (Winchester College).—To call out. In ‘College’ various
+times are called out by Junior in ‘Chambers,’ such as ‘Three quarters!’
+‘Hour!’ ‘Bells go single!’ ‘Bells down!’
+
+
+Back-Slang, subs. (street and costermonger).—A species of slang, in
+which every word, as far as possible, is pronounced backwards. See ‘A
+Comparative and Historical Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.
+
+verb. 1. (thieves’).—To talk in the back-slang lingo.
+
+2. (thieves’).—To go or come stealthily from a place; to sneak by a
+roundabout way; also, to go away quickly.
+
+3. (Australian).—Up country in Australia, as in most parts a little out
+of the beaten tracks of civilization, a traveller is welcome at most of
+the homesteads in his way. Though unknown to the inmates, and bearing
+no letter of introduction, it is a common thing for a wayfarer to ride
+or drive up to a house, maybe call for help, and then take up his
+quarters for the night. This, in Australia, is called back-slanging it,
+though how the phrase is derived is not quite clear, for there is no
+suggestion of sneaking or proceeding stealthily in the question.
+
+
+Backwardation, subs. (Stock Exchange).—A penalty paid for an extension
+of time, by sellers, when unable to deliver stock or shares which they
+have contracted to deliver by a certain date. Backwardation is the
+reverse of contango (q.v.). Obviously this sometimes permits the
+purchase of stock cheaper on credit than for cash.
+
+    1850. Keyser, Law of the Stock Exchange. The term backwardation is
+    employed when stock is more in demand than money, and a premium is
+    given to obtain the loan of stock against its value in money.
+
+    1886. Daily News, 14 Dec, p. 6, col. 1. The 1873 loan is, on
+    balance, about ⅝ lower, at 94, after being 93½. The backwardation
+    on the stock went off at the close.
+
+
+Backy, subs. (tailors’).—A shop-mate who works behind another.
+
+
+Bacon, subs. (popular).—The human body. A reference probably to the
+fact that the flesh of the pig forms the staple meat diet of the rural
+population, and lower classes generally. Formerly, no doubt, the term
+was applied, at first ironically or contemptuously, to a sleek, gross
+person; hence such compounds as ‘chaw-bacon,’ ‘bacon-brains,’
+‘bacon-face,’ ‘bacon-slicer,’ ‘bacon-picker,’ etc. A transference in
+sense, and a curtailment in form, in which bacon came to signify the
+human body was, from this point, easy enough. For synonyms, see
+Apple-cart.
+
+To save one’s bacon, phr. (popular).—To escape narrowly from loss,
+danger, or damage; to just get off. The term is here an attributive
+usage of the slang sense, in which bacon signifies the human body. When
+it is said that a man has just saved his bacon, it refers to the
+individual himself. So also in the kindred phrase, ‘Oh, spare my
+bacon,’ the suppliant asks to be spared in his own person; and the same
+idea occurs in ‘to sell one’s bacon,’ i.e., one’s flesh or body, as in
+the case of women of the town. Falstaff, in. I. Henry IV., Act ii., Sc.
+2. 93 [1596] thus applies bacon to human beings—‘On! Bacons, on!’ So
+far the general aspect of the question; in regard to particulars, Mr.
+Thomas Boys has some curious remarks upon the subject [N. and Q., 2 S.,
+iv., 132] in effect as follows. In connecting the phrase to save one’s
+bacon with its original meaning, we are carried back to times when
+imputed heresy was expiated at the stake; and a man was said to have
+just saved his bacon (i.e., from frying), who had himself narrowly
+escaped the penalty of being burnt alive. This connection of the two
+ideas is thus shown. When a pig is killed, it is the custom in some of
+the southern countries of Europe, as well as in many parts of England,
+to remove the bristles from the dead pig’s hide, not by scalding but by
+singeing. This is an operation of some nicety; for too much singeing
+would spoil the bacon. But practice makes perfect; and by the aid of
+ignited stubble, straw, or paper, the object is effected. The bristles
+are all singed off, and the bacon remains intact. This operation of
+singeing is in Portugal called chamuscar, from chama or chamma, a flame
+or blaze. Chamuscar, to singe, as pigs, to takeoff the hair (Moraes).
+Hence the noun chamusco, which is the smell of anything that has been
+singed. Hence also the phrase cheira a chamusco (he smells of
+singeing). This last phrase, however, cheira a chamusco, was specially
+applied to any suspected heretic:—‘o que merece ser queimado, e faz per
+onde o seja, o que dizião por afronta aos Judeos encobertos.’ That is
+‘he who deserved to be burnt, and acted in a way that was very likely
+to lead to it,’ was said to smell of singeing (‘cheirar a chamusco’),
+i.e., to smell of the fire. Consequently, the phrase was contumeliously
+addressed to anyone who was secretly a Jew (Moraes). Thus the
+persecuted Israelite, who steadfastly adhered to his forefathers’
+creed, and lived in daily peril of the stake, was allusively but
+threateningly and insultingly compared to the abhorred carcass, which,
+though not yet roasted, boiled or fried, had already the smell of fire.
+If, after all, he was actually burnt alive, the same allusion was
+carried out to the end; for he was then said, ‘morrer frito,’ to be
+fried to death (literally, ‘to die fried’). But even if not burnt he
+still had the chamusco, or ‘smell of fire’; that is, he had only just
+saved his bacon.
+
+    1691. Weesils, I., 5. No, they’l conclude I do’t to save my bacon.
+    [M.]
+
+    1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. II., p. 12.
+
+        For could their talent be forsaken,
+        And they unite truth to save their bacon.
+
+    1721. Mrs. Centlivre, The Artifice, v., ii. That pretence shan’t
+    save your bacon, you old villain you.
+
+    1836. M. Scott, Cringle’s Log, ch. v. ‘You know I saved your bacon
+    in that awkward affair, when through drunkenness you plumped the
+    Torch ashore.’
+
+    1866. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. lii. Jem drew a long breath and
+    said brutally, yet with something of satisfaction, ‘You have saved
+    your bacon this time.’
+
+The French equivalent it may be noticed is somewhat analogous—sauver
+son lard, i.e., ‘to save one’s bacon.’
+
+Possibly, however, most people will be inclined to take the phrase at
+its face value, without resort to complicated argumentative derivation.
+In such a case the figurative use of bacon as signifying the body will
+suffice to explain its origin.
+
+To pull bacon, phr.  (popular).—An operation described by the immortal
+Ingoldsby in the line—
+
+    He put his thumb unto his nose and spread his fingers out.
+
+In other words to take a sight (q.v.), or to make Queen Anne’s fan
+(q.v.).
+
+    1886. Household Words, Oct. 2, p. 453. [This] peculiar action has,
+    I believe, almost invariably been described as ‘taking a sight.’ A
+    solicitor, however, in a recent police case at Manchester,
+    described it as pulling bacon.
+
+    1887. Leeds Evening News, Sept. 15. ‘Pulling bacon’ at Leeds
+    policemen.—Before Mr. Goodman and Mr. Farrar Smith, at the Leeds
+    Police Court to-day, George Evans (50), coachman to the Earl of
+    Mexborough, Mexborough Hall, near Methley, was summoned under the
+    Hackney Carriage Bye-laws for having driven on the wrong side of
+    the road. Police-constables Moody and Lockwood were on duty in Boar
+    Lane on the 6th inst., when they saw the defendant driving a pair
+    of horses attached to a carriage on the wrong side of the road for
+    a distance of one hundred yards. The officers spoke to him, when he
+    put his fingers to his nose and pulled bacon at them. He had been
+    previously cautioned, but had not taken the slightest notice.
+    Defendant said he had been a driver in London for eighteen years,
+    and knew they had policemen in the road there, but he did not
+    understand the law of driving in Yorkshire. He was fined 20s.
+
+
+Bacon-Faced, adj. (colloquial).—With sleek, fat face; full faced. Otway
+in the Atheist [1684] speaks of one with a ‘bacon face like a
+cherubim.’
+
+
+Bacon-Fed, adj. (colloquial).—Fat or greasy. The expression occurs in
+Shakspeare’s King Henry IV.—See Bacon.
+
+
+Bacon-Slicer, subs. (old).—A rustic.—See Chawbacon.
+
+    1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xv. (Bohn), I., 149. If he
+    have not a better judgment, a better discourse, and that expressed
+    in better terms than your son, with a complete carriage and
+    civility to all manner of persons, account me for ever hereafter a
+    very clounch, and bacon-slicer of Brene.
+
+
+Bad, adj. (popular).—Hard; difficult. Used as in quotation.
+
+    1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, ch. xi. ‘I have heard you say
+    over and over again that, when they are in the mood, their very
+    temper makes them bad to beat.’
+
+To go to the bad, phr.  (colloquial).—To be ruined; to become depraved.
+Virgil has a similar phrase in pejus ruere, ‘to go to the worse.’
+
+    1864. M. E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, ch. xi. ‘A reckless man, ready
+    to go to the bad by any road that can take me there; worthless
+    alike to myself and to others.’
+
+    1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Beauty and Beast). Let him go
+    to the bad at his own mad pace.
+
+To the bad, i.e., on the wrong side of the account; in deficit.
+
+    1816. ‘Quiz,’ Grand Master, viii., 25. I’ve really to the bad some
+    thousand of rupees to add. [M.]
+
+    1884. Pall Mall G., 6 Feb., 4. He was between £70 and £80 to the
+    bad. [M.]
+
+Want ’em or him bad, phr. (American).—A humorous manner of expressing
+strong desire.
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, March 9. Myers’ absence is seriously
+    annoying to the defense, and does not appear quite as funny as it
+    did when the prosecution called for him on Saturday last. It is not
+    probable that the Court will very long suspend the trial if Myers
+    does not appear. As the case now stands, the defense want Myers,
+    and want him bad.
+
+
+Bad ’Apenny.—See Bad halfpenny.
+
+
+Bad-Bargain, subs. (old).—Formerly a worthless soldier; a malingerer.
+Nowadays the term is applied to any worthless person or scapegrace.
+
+
+Bad-Break, subs. (American).—A corruption of ‘bad outbreak,’ i.e.,
+riotous conduct, generally attributable to drink.
+
+
+Bad Crowd Generally, phr.  (American).—Of Western origin, and
+equivalent to the English no great shakes (q.v.). ‘Crowd,’ it may be
+remarked, in America, signifies either one or more individuals.
+
+
+Bad-Egg, subs. (familiar).—A scoundrel; a blackguard; a ‘loose fish.’
+In America the meaning attached to the term does not necessarily
+involve such an idea of depravity as on this side of the Atlantic. In
+the States the term is also applied to a worthless speculation.
+
+    1866. Sala, Trip to Barbary, p. 130. The man in black baize with
+    the felt képi, and who had a hatchet face desperately scarred with
+    the small-pox, looked from head to heel a bad egg.
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 123. There is no
+    doubt, but there are many of the officials of the convict prisons
+    who are what the Yankees call bad eggs.
+
+English Synonyms. Bad-lot; bad halfpenny; bad-hat. In Australia
+‘ne’er-do-wells’ are termed sundowners; dry hash; or, a stringy bark.
+
+French Synonyms. Malfrat (popular); mauvais gobet (popular: mauvais,
+bad; gobet, properly a mouthful, morsel, lump, or piece); ferlampier or
+ferlandier (thieves’: ferlampié formerly signified a dunce); clique
+(popular); mariasse (popular).
+
+
+Bad Form, subs. (society).—He who, or that which fails to conform to
+the shifting fads and fancies of Society, with a big S; and, in a more
+general sense, anybody or anything vulgar or lacking polish.
+
+    1882. Punch. Eton boy. What an awful lot of energy you’ve got
+    uncle! Uncle. Pretty well, my boy, for my time of life, I think! e.
+    b. Yes! but energy’s such awful bad form, you know!
+
+
+Badge, subs. (old).—Used in the canting sense, for one branded in the
+hand. ‘He has got his badge, and piked’; i.e., ‘he was burned in the
+hand, and is at liberty.’—Grose.
+
+
+Badge-Cove, subs. (old).—A parish pensioner; also in the sixteenth,
+seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries a licensed beggar or almsman. The
+remarks under Abram man and Abram sham are to the point in this
+connection.
+
+
+Badger, subs. (old).—1. A river thief. A good account of these gentry
+appears in Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard.
+
+2. (American thieves’).—In the cant language of the American criminal
+classes a badger or panel thief (q.v.) is one who robs a man after a
+woman accomplice has enticed the victim into her den.
+
+3. (schoolboy).—A red haired individual.
+
+4. (harlotry).—A common prostitute.—See Barrack-hack.
+
+5. (nautical).—Sometimes badger-bag. The fictitious individual
+personating Neptune in the festivities incident to ‘crossing the
+line.’—See Ambassador and Arthur.
+
+6. (Wellington School).—A fellow who has got his ‘badge’ for play in
+the 2nd XV. at football.
+
+verb. (popular).—To tease; to annoy; to confound.
+
+    1798. O. Keefe, Wild Oats, I., i. At home, abroad, you will still
+    badger me.
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxiv., p. 299. Tracy Tupman, and
+    Augustus Snodgrass, were severally called into the box; both
+    corroborated the testimony of their unhappy friend; and each was
+    driven to the verge of desperation by excessive badgering.
+
+    1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xviii., p. 82. ‘Which I
+    meantersay,’ cried Joe, ‘that if you come into my place
+    bull-baiting and badgering me, come out!’
+
+The popular French equivalent of to badger is aguigner.
+
+To overdraw the badger, phr.  (popular).—A figurative use of ‘drawing
+the badger’; to overdraw one’s banking account.
+
+    1843–4. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg.
+
+        His cheeks no longer drew the cash,
+        Because, as his comrades explain’d in flash,
+          He had overdrawn his badger.
+
+
+Badger State, subs. (American).—A popular name for the State of
+Wisconsin, and so called because of the badgers which once abounded
+there.
+
+
+Bad Give-Away.—See Give away.
+
+
+Bad-Halfpenny, subs. (popular).—A ne’er-do-weel; an allusion to the
+frequency with which, like bad coins, they are always ‘turning up.’
+Cf., Bad-egg.
+
+(Australian).—A failing speculation; a risky venture.
+
+
+Bad Hat, subs. (popular).—The same as bad egg (q.v.).
+
+    1883. Besant, They Were Married, p. II., ch. ix., in Captain’s
+    Room, etc. There may be one or two bad hats among eldest sons; but
+    there is not one, I am sure—there cannot be one—who would dare to
+    take his wife’s salary and deprive her of her son.
+
+
+Bad Lot.—A term derived from auctioneering slang, and now generally
+used to describe a man or woman of indifferent morals.
+
+    1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lx. ‘He’s a bad’un, Mr. Lightfoot—a
+    bad lot, sir, and that you know.’
+
+    1868. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. I., ch. ii. ‘I am
+    good for nothing,’ he said, ‘I am a bad lot. I wonder they don’t
+    hang such men as me.’
+
+    1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. i. ‘The impracticable
+    Daniel has a certain kind of influence; and though he rarely cares
+    to use it on his own account—being so bad a lot that he dare not
+    give himself a decent character—he will employ it to the uttermost
+    for a spotless nephew.’
+
+
+Bad Man, subs. (American).—A bad man, in the West, is a somewhat mixed
+character. The term is generally understood to mean a professional
+fighter or man-killer, but who, despite this drawback, is said by
+Roosevelt, in Ranch Life in the Far West, to be sometimes, according to
+his light, perfectly honest. These are the men who do most of the
+killing in frontier communities; yet it is a noteworthy fact that the
+men who are killed generally deserve their fate. These men are, of
+course, used to brawling, and are not only sure shots, but, what is
+equally important, able to ‘draw’ their weapon with marvellous
+quickness. They think nothing whatever of murder, and are the dread and
+terror of their associates; yet they are very chary of taking the life
+of a man of good standing, and will often ‘weaken’ and ‘backdown’ at
+once if confronted fearlessly. With many of them their courage arises
+from confidence in their own powers and knowledge of the fear in which
+they are held; and men of this type often show the white feather when
+they get into a ‘tight place.’ Others, however, will face any odds
+without flinching, and when mortally wounded, have been known to fight
+with a cool ferocious despair that was terrible. During the last two or
+three years, stockmen have united to put down these dangerous
+characters, often by the most summary exercise of lynch law; and, as a
+consequence, many localities once infested by bad men are now perfectly
+law-abiding.
+
+
+Bad Match Twist, subs. phr. (hairdressers’).—A man who has red, or
+carotty hair and black whiskers is said to have a bad match twist.
+
+
+Badminton, subs. (common).—1. A cooling drink; a kind of claret-cup, so
+called because invented at the Duke of Beaufort’s seat of the same
+name. Composed of claret, sugar, spice, soda-water, and ice.
+
+    1845. Disraeli, Sybil, bk. I., ch. i. ‘Waiter, bring me a tumbler
+    of Badminton.’
+
+    1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. ix. An enormous measure of
+    Badminton, that grateful compound of mingled claret, sugar, and
+    soda-water.
+
+    1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. ix. Looking up out of a great
+    silver flagon of Badminton, with which he was ending his breakfast.
+
+2. (pugilistic).—Blood; from the similarity in colour to the summer
+drink of the same name. Claret (q.v.), for a like reason, is also, in
+the language of the prize-ring, synonymous with blood.
+
+
+Bad Record.—See Record.
+
+
+Bad Shot, subs. (popular).—An abortive attempt; a woman’s guess.
+
+    1844. Kinglake, Eothen, viii., 137. I secretly smiled at this last
+    prophecy as a bad shot.
+
+    1859. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’) in Notes and Queries, 2 S.,
+    viii., p. 492. A bad shot is one of the worst exposures of his
+    ignorance that a University man when up for examination can make.
+
+See, however, Shot.
+
+
+Bad Slang, subs. (circus and showmen’s).—Faked up monstrosities;
+spurious curiosities.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 206.
+    Roderick Palsgrave was considered by all who knew him to be the
+    best showman of a bad slang that ever travelled. He would get hold
+    of any black girl or woman, dress her up, and then show her as one
+    of the greatest novelties ever seen.
+
+
+Bag, subs. (old slang).—1. A woman when enceinte was said ‘to have a
+bag.’ Cf., To bag. Sense 3.
+
+2. (Westminster School).—Milk.
+
+To empty the bag, phr. (old).—To tell, or disclose the whole truth; to
+wind up an argument or discussion.
+
+To give the bag, phr.  (old).—1. Formerly used in varying senses. In
+the following quotation it conveys, says Nares, the idea of chicanery
+and cheating. This, however, is doubtful, but compare ‘to give the bag
+to hold.’
+
+    1592. Greene, Quip, in works IX., 263. You shall be ... lighte
+    witted upon every small occasion to geue your maister the bagge.
+
+2. In another respect to give the bag was used in a sense analogous to
+that conveyed in to give the sack (q.v.), i.e., to dismiss a person
+from one’s employment, with this important difference that primarily
+the ‘bag’ or ‘sack’ was not given by the master or mistress to the
+servant, but vice versâ, and, therefore, the expression meant ‘to leave
+without warning.’ This was the earliest usage.
+
+    1592. Defence of Conny Catching, in Greene’s works XI., 86. If he
+    meane to giue her the bagge, he selleth whatsoever he can, and so
+    leaues hir spoild both of hir wealth and honestie.
+
+    1647. Speedy Hue and Crie, I.... He being sometime an Apprentice on
+    London Bridge ... gave his master the bag. [M.]
+
+Gradually the meaning of to give the bag changed to that which, even
+to-day, is dialectically current, i.e., ‘to dismiss a person from one’s
+employment,’ though in large centres of population to give or receive
+the sack is, at present, the more popular equivalent. While dealing
+with variations of this kind, it is noteworthy that ‘bag’ was, in the
+seventeenth century, varied by ‘canvas,’ as Shirley has it——
+
+    1652. Shirley, The Brothers, Act ii. I have promis’d him as much as
+    marriage comes to, and I lose my honour, if my don receive the
+    canvas.
+
+Gifford and Dyce in a note say ‘the phrase is taken from the practice
+of journeymen mechanics who travel in quest of work, with the
+implements of their profession. When they are discharged by their
+masters, they are said to receive the canvas, or the bag; because in
+this their tools and necessaries are packed up, preparatory to their
+removal.’ This suggested derivation would possibly pass muster were it
+not that, treated historically, the phrase though identical in form is
+shown to have had an earlier usage, and one, moreover, of an entirely
+antagonistic character; unless indeed, in the first instance, it was
+customary for employers to find ‘bags’ of tools and working implements
+for their employees, in which case the workman or servant in leaving
+his work would naturally give the master the bag. The transition in
+sense which the phrase has undergone would then become perfectly clear,
+as far as the why and wherefore of the change is concerned. Cf., Sack.
+
+To give one the bag to hold, phr.  (old).—To leave in the lurch; to
+engage a person’s attention in order to deceive. Cf., To give the bag,
+sense 1.
+
+    1793. T. Jefferson, Writings (1859), iv., 7. She will leave Spain
+    the bag to hold. [M.]
+
+    1823. Scott, Peveril of the Peak, vii. She gave me the bag to hold
+    and was smuggling in a corner with a rich old Puritan.
+
+In the bottom of the bag, phr.  (old).—An expression equivalent to
+what, in modern slang, is termed ‘having a trump card in reserve’;
+something in hand as a last resource or expedient.
+
+    1659. Reynolds, in Burton Diary (1828), iv., 447. If this be done
+    which is in the bottom of the bag, and must be done, we shall ...
+    be able to buoy up our reputation, [M.]
+
+To let the cat out of the bag, phr.  (familiar).—To disclose a trick or
+secret.—See Cat.
+
+To put one in a bag, phr. (old).—Usage and derivation explained, as far
+as known, in quotation.
+
+    1662. Fuller, Worthies, Cardigan (ii., 579). They (the Welsh) had a
+    kind of play wherein the stronger who prevailed put the weaker into
+    a sack; and hence we have borrowed our English by-word to express
+    such, betwixt whom there is apparent odds of strength. ‘He is able
+    to put him up in a bagge.’ [d.]
+
+    1676. Earl of Rochester, Hist. of Insipids, st. 14.
+
+        Had haughty Holms but call’d in Spragg,
+        Hans had been put into a bag.
+
+To put or get one’s head in a bag, phr.  (printers’).—A ‘bag’ here
+signifies a pot of beer; hence, to drink. Also in use amongst seafaring
+men.
+
+    1887. Sat. Review, 14 May, p. 700. It is slang, and yet purely
+    trade slang, when one printer says of another that he has got his
+    head in the bag.
+
+To turn to bag and wallet (old).—To become a beggar.
+
+Verb. (popular).—1. To secure for oneself. Most probably a mere
+extension of the colloquial sporting usage of to bag (properly, to put
+or enclose in a bag), in the sense of to seize, capture, entrap, or
+otherwise bring within one’s reach.
+
+    1880. Mortimer Collins, Thoughts in my Garden, vol. I., p. 163. The
+    word beggar itself is from bag—meaning a man who carries a bag; and
+    modern commercial slang reproduces the phrase, saying of a clever
+    man of business that he has bagged a good thing.
+
+2. To steal; or to catch (a thief or man). Sometimes rendered by to
+collar (q.v.).
+
+    1818. Moore, Fudge Family in Paris, VI. Who can help to bag a few,
+    When Sidmouth wants a death or two?
+
+    1862. Farrar, St. Winifred’s, ch. xxxv. They would not call it
+    stealing but bagging a thing, or, at the worst, ‘cribbing
+    it’—concealing the villainy under a new name.
+
+3. (old).—To beget; to conceive; to breed. Also to be bagged. This
+usage dates from about A.D. 1400, and was colloquial until about the
+middle of the seventeenth century. Warner [in Alb. Eng. VI., 148] has
+the line
+
+    Well, Venus shortly bagged, and ere long was Cupid bred.
+
+To get baggy, phr.  (common).—Said of clothes when loosened by the
+stretching which arises from wear and tear. Trousers get baggy at the
+knees.
+
+
+Bag and Baggage, phr.  (common).—To clear one out bag and baggage is to
+get quit of one entirely. A deprecatory expression indicating complete
+riddance.
+
+
+Bag and Bottle, subs. phr. (old).—Food and drink. The former from being
+carried in a bag as by beggars and vagrants; the latter also being of
+similar derivation.
+
+    1671. Eachard, Observations. An ill-contriving rascal that in his
+    younger years should choose to lug the bag and the bottle a mile or
+    two to school; and to bring home only a small bit of Greek or Latin
+    most magisterially construed.
+
+
+Baggage. Heavy baggage, subs. phr.  (old).—1. Women and
+children.—Grose.
+
+2. Baggage is also a familiar colloquialism for a pert, saucy, young
+woman; like ‘wench,’ ‘rogue,’ ‘gypsy,’ it is often used endearingly.
+
+    1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, I., iii. I believe the baggage loves
+    me.
+
+    1732. Fielding, The Miser, Act i., Sc. 9. Here’s a baggage of a
+    daughter, who refuses the most advantageous match that ever was
+    offered.
+
+    1863. Alex. Smith, Dreamthorpe, p. 12. And Beauty, who is something
+    of a coquette ... goes off in a huff. Let the baggage go!
+
+3. (old).—A whore or strumpet; a woman of loose morals.
+
+4. (old).—Rubbish; ‘rot.’
+
+    1575. Touchstone of Complexions, p. 118. For throughe cruditye and
+    lacke of perfect concoction in the stomacke is engendered great
+    abundance of naughty baggage and hurtful phlegme.
+
+    1576. Gascoigne, The Steele Glas, p. 79. When brewers put no bagage
+    in their beere.
+
+Adj. (old).—Used contemptuously of individuals and things. Cf.,
+Baggage—a worthless, good-for-nothing woman.
+
+    1593. G. Harvey, Pierees Superero, in works (Gresart) II., 273.
+    Bibbing Nash, baggage Nash, swaddish Nash, rogish Nash, the
+    bellweather of the scribling flocke.
+
+    1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, ii., 128. For four cellars of wine,
+    syder, ale, beer, with wood, hay, corn, and the like, stored up for
+    a year or two, he gave not account of sixpence, but spent it upon
+    baggage, and loose franions. Ibid., p. 123. Booth himself confest,
+    in the hearing of those witnesses, that Pregion had nothing to do
+    with that baggage woman.
+
+
+Baggage-Smasher, subs. (American).—1. A railway porter. The why and
+wherefore of this nickname is abundantly apparent from the following
+quotations.
+
+    1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 358. The baggage-smasher, as the
+    porter is commonly called, handles his burdens with appalling
+    recklessness, and responsibility there is none.
+
+    1880. New Virginians, i., 37. ‘Called baggage-smashers.’ [M.]
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, Nov. 3. Fashionable people who have spent the
+    summer at the watering places or at the seaside, but have now
+    returned to the cities, assert that the baggage-smasher has become
+    more destructive than ever. The baggage-smasher is indeed a terror.
+    In fact there are two of them: the one who flits from station to
+    station and dumps your poor dumb trunk with force enough to drive
+    piles in a government breakwater, and the one who loiters around
+    the depôt watching for his chance to shatter your baggage. The
+    depôt baggageman is the most culpable of the two species. In his
+    long and dark career of smashing trunks, he has, evidently, knocked
+    the hoops off his conscience, and there is no remorse brave,
+    foolhardy and reckless enough to tackle his heart-strings and play
+    on them.
+
+2. Also a thief who hangs about ‘depôts,’ with a view to robbery of
+luggage.
+
+    1861. New York Tribune, Nov. 23. Gamblers, ticket-swindlers,
+    emigrant robbers, baggage-smashers, and all the worst classes of
+    the city.
+
+
+Bagged, ppl. adj. (American).—A term used to signify imprisonment and
+victimization—probably only an extension of the idea of capture as
+derived from sport, through the slang ‘to bag,’ i.e., to steal. Cf., To
+bag.
+
+
+Bagging, subs. (provincial slang).—In the first instance, food taken
+between regular meals; now generally applied, especially in Lancashire,
+to what is known in the South of England as ‘high tea.’
+
+    1750. J. Collier, in Lancashire Glossary (E.D.S.). Hoo’l naw cum
+    agen till baggin’ time. [M.]
+
+    1870. Chambers’ Journal, Oct., p. 661. Lancashire adopts the
+    whole-board or partial-board system very extensively. The local
+    term of bagging implies bread and cheese, or pies; and there are
+    all the varieties of board and lodging, dinner of potatoes and
+    bacon with buttermilk, bagging in the forenoon and afternoon,
+    dinner and lunch, and rations allowed for women.
+
+    1879. In Temple Bar Mag., 4 Jan. Baggin’ is not only lunch, but any
+    accidental meal coming between two regular ones.
+
+
+Bagging the Over.—See Jockeying the over.
+
+
+Bagman, subs. (popular).—1. A commercial traveller. Formerly of
+respectable usage; now only employed contemptuously.
+
+    1765. Goldsmith, Essays, I. The bagman was telling a better story.
+    [M.]
+
+    1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, p. 20. When all the rest of
+    mankind look hideous, dirty, peevish, wretched, after a forty
+    hours’ coach-journey, a bagman appears as gay and spruce as when he
+    started.
+
+The term bagman took its rise in the saddle-bags in which the
+commercial traveller of the past century carried his patterns and
+goods. These saddle-bags being of larger dimensions than those usually
+carried by travellers on horseback, would designate the commercial
+traveller par excellence as the bagman.
+
+2. In sporting slang, a ‘bag-fox.’
+
+    1875. Stonehenge, Brit. Sports, I., II., iv., § 5. If ... wild cubs
+    cannot be found, a bagman or two must be obtained. [M.]
+
+
+Bagnio, subs. (old).—A brothel. [From Italian bagno, a bath, properly a
+hot bath; whence an application as in the case of stew (q.v.), for a
+house of prostitution.]
+
+    1624. Massinger, Parliament of Love, II., ii. To be sold to a
+    brothel or a common bagnio.
+
+    1851. Thackeray, English Humour, V. (1858), 243. How the prodigal
+    drinks and sports at the bagnio.
+
+    1861. Wright, Domestic Manners in England during the Middle Ages,
+    491. They were soon used to such an extent for illicit intrigues,
+    that the name of a hothouse or bagnio became equivalent to that of
+    a brothel.
+
+
+Bag of Bones, subs. phr. (familiar).—A lean, attenuated person;
+sometimes called a ‘walking skeleton.’ The French have un sac à os
+(often contracted into sacdos)—a literal translation. The term is quite
+modern, being traced by Murray no further back than 1838, when Dickens
+used it [in Oliver Twist, iv., 64].
+
+
+Bag o’ Moonshine, subs. phr. (common).—Nonsense.—See All moonshine.
+
+
+Bag of Nails, subs. phr. (American thieves’).—A state of confusion or
+topsy-turveydom. [Qy. from ‘bacchanals.’]
+
+
+Bag of Tricks, phr.  (common).—Generally, the whole bag of tricks;
+i.e., every expedient.
+
+
+Bagpipe, subs. (common).—A windy talker; a senseless chatter-box. The
+derivation is obviously from the musical instrument of the same name.
+
+Verb. (old).—A lascivious practice; too indecent for explanation.
+
+
+Bags, subs. (popular).—An ironical nickname for trousers, thought by
+some to be of University origin, and borrowed from ‘the variegated
+bags’ of Euripides—τους θυλάκους τους ποικίλους (Cyclops., 182).
+
+    1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
+    Green, p. 51. Just jump into a pair of bags and Wellingtons. Ibid.,
+    p. 5. His black go-to-meeting bags.
+
+    1870. Chambers’ Journal (Christmas Number). ‘But, holloa!’ he
+    cried, as he caught sight of his legs. ‘Parsons don’t wear light
+    tweed bags!’... Jack had to unpack his portmanteau and get out his
+    evening inexpressibles.
+
+    1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xv. His well-shapen hip and calf
+    were hidden in loose-fitting bags of corduroy.
+
+    1880. Punch, Jan. 10, p. 6. The spread of education and liberal
+    ideas.—His Grace the Duke of Poplar and Bermondsey. ‘Just look at
+    these bags you last built me, Snippe! J’ever see such beastly bags
+    in your life? I shall always be glad to come and dine with you, old
+    man; but I’ll be hanged if you shall ever measure me for another
+    pair of bags!’ Mr. Snippe (of Snippe and Son, St. James’s Street).
+    ‘You’ve always grumbled about your bags, as you call ’em, ever
+    since you were my fag at Eton; and at Christchurch you were just as
+    bad, even though my poor dear old governor used to come all the way
+    down and measure you himself. It ain’t the fault of the bags, my
+    dear Popsy—it’s the fault of the legs inside ’em! So, shut up, old
+    Stick-in-the-mud, and let’s join the ladies—the duchess has
+    promised to give us “Little Billee.”’
+
+When made of startling material, or ‘cut’ in an exaggerated style of
+fashion they become howling bags.
+
+English Synonyms. Dittoes; kicks; kicksies; bum-bags; sit-upons;
+unmentionables; continuations; hams; inexpressibles; abridgements;
+drumstick-cases; and ducks (when made of white material).
+
+French Synonyms. Dalzar; falzar.
+
+Intj. (schoolboy).—Bags! or bags I! is frequently used to assert a
+claim to some article or privilege. Analogous schoolboy slang is fains
+or fain it (q.v.) for demanding a truce during the progress of a game,
+and which is always granted by the opposing party. In other schools
+pike I or prior pike serve to lay claim to anything, or for asserting
+priority of claim. Also bar! e.g., ‘He wanted me to do so and so, but I
+barred not.’ Cf., Fain, Pike, and Bar.
+
+To have the bags, phr. (popular).—This phrase is erroneously given by
+Hotten (and Barrère has followed suit), as to have the bags off. The
+meaning is to be of age, and thus to possess all the rights and
+privileges of adultship; also to have plenty of money. Obviously an
+allusion to the transition from child’s attire to the garments of
+manhood.
+
+Bags of mystery, subs. phr. (common).—Sausages and saveloys are so
+called—from the often mysterious character of their compounds.
+Presumably composed of minced ‘meat,’ but so highly flavoured and
+seasoned that no man can tell whereof they are made.
+
+To take the bags (athletic).—To act as ‘hare’ in ‘Hare and Hounds,’ a
+game too well known to need description in this place.
+
+(Stock Exchange).—Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway Bonds.—Formed
+from the initial letters, thus B-A-G-S.
+
+
+Baijan.—See Bejan.
+
+
+Bail. Straw-bail or straw-shoes, subs. (common).—A nickname for a
+person willing for a consideration, to give evidence, or act as bail.
+Formerly men were much more ostentatious in plying a vocation of
+perjury than is now happily possible. It was no uncommon thing for such
+openly to perambulate the entrances to the law-courts ready for any
+chance customer. They made known their occupation by wearing a piece of
+straw just sticking out of their shoes. The Quarterly Review (xxxiii.,
+344) points out that the practice is a very ancient one, Athens having
+abounded in straw-shoes. The modus operandi was much the same then as
+in later days. When it was ‘desirable’ to season Attic testimony with
+bribery and perjury, the scene outside a Greek court of justice might
+be thus described. An advocate or lawyer who wanted a convenient
+witness knew by these signs [the straws in the sandals] where to find
+one, and the colloquy between the parties was brief. ‘Don’t you
+remember’ said the advocate—(the party looked at the fee and gave no
+sign: but the fee increased and the powers of memory increased with
+it). ‘To be sure I do!’ ‘Then come into the court and swear it.’ And
+straw-shoes went into the court and swore it. As b.c., so A.D.
+1754—before and after.
+
+    1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, book I., chap. ii. Charity took to
+    husband an eminent gentleman whose name I cannot learn; but who was
+    famous for so friendly a disposition, that he was bail for above a
+    hundred persons in one year. He had likewise the remarkable honour
+    of walking in Westminster Hall with a straw in his shoe.
+
+At present lawyers use straw-bail to designate insufficient bail.
+Closely allied to this term, and used much in the same manner, is ‘a
+man of straw.’ The figure is the effigy of a man, stuffed with straw;
+hence, ‘a man of straw,’ the semblance of a man—a person of neither
+substance nor responsibility; or one put forward to screen a real
+delinquent. A curious usage, akin to the foregoing, is also sometimes
+heard among sailors. For example, a strike for wages having taken place
+amongst the crew of a ship, ‘blacklegs’ (q.v.), or ‘straw-yarders’ as
+they were called in nautical phraseology, took the place of the
+strikers. On the meaning of the expression being asked, it was
+explained that a ‘straw-yarder’ was a man about the docks who had never
+been to sea, and knew little or nothing of the duties of a seaman.
+
+To give or take leg-bail, phr. (common).—To escape, either from arrest,
+or from prison; literally, to be indebted to one’s legs for flight. For
+exhaustive list of synonyms, see Amputate.
+
+    1775. Adair, American Indians, 277. I had concluded to use no
+    chivalry, but give them leg-bail instead of it, by ... making for a
+    deep swamp. [M.]
+
+    1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. iii. ‘I e’en gae them leg-bail, for
+    there’s nae ease in dealing wi’ quarrelsome fowk.’
+
+    1848. Marryat, Poacher, xxii. Given them leg-bail, I swear.
+
+The phrase is sometimes amplified thus:—to take leg-bail and give land
+security.
+
+
+Bail Up! also Bale Up! intj. (Australian).—A bushranger’s phrase for
+‘stand and deliver’! ‘Shell out’!
+
+    1880. Blackwood’s Mag., July, p. 91. [Australian loq.] ‘Bail up!
+    Bail up!’ shout the two red-veiled attackers, revolvers in hand.
+
+    1887. G. L. Apperson, All the Year Round, July 30, p. 68, col. 1.
+    In times gone by, it was by no means an uncommon occurrence [in
+    Australia] for a coach to be ‘stuck up’ by a band of bushrangers,
+    whose shouts of bail up, an invitation equivalent to our ‘shell
+    out,’ supported by revolver barrels, terrified the hearts of the
+    passengers. But a coach is now seldom interfered with, and to
+    ‘stick up’ is applied to less daring attempts to rob.
+
+2. Hence, colloquially, a demand for instant payment. Equivalent to the
+English fork out! stump up! etc. For synonyms, see Shell out.
+
+
+Bait, subs. (common).—Anger; rage; indignation. Derived from the
+figurative sense of ‘to bait,’ i.e., to worry; harass; or tease.
+
+    1882. F. Anstey, Vice-Versâ, ch. v. ‘I went calmly on, smoking my
+    cigar as if nothing was the matter. That put the Proctor in a bait,
+    I can tell you!’
+
+
+Baitland, subs. (nautical).—Admiral Smyth in his Sailors’ Word Book
+quotes this as ‘an old word, formerly used to signify a port where
+refreshments could be procured.’
+
+
+Bake, verb. (Winchester College).—To rest, or lie down.
+
+
+Baked, ppl. adj. (common).—Collapsed; exhausted; done up; e.g., ‘toward
+the end of the course the crew were regularly baked.’ A common
+colloquialism at the beginning of the present century; but the punning
+idea involved is very ancient. To bake one’s bread in the sense of ‘to
+do for one’ occurs as early as 1380, as will be seen from the following
+quotation.
+
+    1380. Sir Ferumb, 577. For euere my bred had be bake; myn lyf dawes
+    had be tynt.
+
+Half-baked (common) is said of a dull-witted or imbecile person, i.e.,
+one who is ‘soft’ or inexperienced, in contrast to one who is baked in
+the sense of ‘seasoned,’ quick-witted, etc.
+
+    1864. Notes and Queries, 3 S., vi., 494, 2. He is only
+    half-baked—put in with the bread, and taken out with the cakes.
+
+
+Baker, subs. (Winchester College).—A cushion. These were of two kinds;
+that used in ‘College’ was of large size, oblong in shape, and green in
+colour. The other used in ‘Commoners’ was thin, narrow, much smaller,
+and of red colour. The term baker is also applied to anything placed
+upon a form to sit upon, e.g., a blotting book or other article; in
+short, anything comfortable to sit upon.
+
+(American).—A loafer. The word is generally attributed to Baron de
+Mandat Grancey, who, in his work Cowboys and Colonels, innocently
+translated the word ‘loafer’ as baker.
+
+To spell baker (colloquial).—To attempt a difficult task. In the old
+spelling books ‘baker’ was frequently the first word of two syllables
+to which a child came when learning to spell.
+
+
+Baker-Kneed, also Baker-legged, adj. (common).—1. Knock-kneed;
+disfigured by crooked legs. This deformity, incident to bakers, arising
+from the constrained position in which they knead bread, is said to be
+the almost certain penalty of habitually bearing any burden of bulk in
+the right hand, or of excessive force constantly exerted by the right
+side of the body. The knees gradually incline inwards until they
+closely resemble the right side of the letter K.
+
+    1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, Act ii., Sc. 2. Will women’s tongues,
+    like bakers’ legs, never go straight?
+
+    1692. L’Estrange, Life of Æsop. Æsop ... was ... flat-nos’d,
+    hunch-back’d, blabber-lipp’d, a long misshapen head; his body
+    crooked all over, big-belly’d, baker-legg’d, and his complexion so
+    swarthy that he took his very name from ’t; for Æsop is the same
+    with Æthiop.
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bakes-legg’d, straddling, with
+    the legs bowing outward.
+
+    1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 13. His voice had broken to a
+    gruffish squeak. He had grown blear-eyed, baker-kneed, and gummy.
+
+2. Effeminate. Either an attributive usage of the foregoing, or an
+allusion to the popular belief that a woman’s legs are never straight.
+Compared physiologically with those of a man this is doubtless true;
+but otherwise most women would resent the imputation as a libel.
+
+    1652. Gaule, Hagastrom, 186. Baker-kneed signifies effeminate.
+
+
+Baker Layer, subs. (Winchester College).—A Junior who used to take a
+prefect’s green baker (q.v.) in and out of ‘Hall’ at meal times. The
+term is now obsolete.
+
+
+Baker’s Dozen, subs. (colloquial).—Thirteen reckoned as twelve.
+Formerly, so careful were ‘the powers that be’ regarding the supply of
+bread, that bakers were liable to heavy penalties for any deficiency in
+the weight of loaves. So hedged in, indeed, was the sale of bread, that
+the weight of loaves was fixed by law, for every price from
+eighteenpence down to twopence, but penny loaves or rolls were not
+specified in the statute. Bakers, therefore, when selling the latter,
+in order to be on the safe side, gave, for a dozen of bread, an
+additional loaf, known as ‘inbread.’ A similar custom of giving extra
+quantity was formerly observed with regard to coal, and publishers
+nowadays reckon thirteen copies of a book as twelve. That the term
+baker’s dozen was thoroughly colloquial at the latter end of the
+sixteenth century is apparent from the first of the following
+quotations:
+
+    1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in works III., ii. Conioyning with his
+    aforesaid Doctor Brother in eightie eight browne baker’s dozen of
+    Almanackes.
+
+    1639. Will of Francis Pynner, of Bury, Gent., dated April 26
+    [Camden Society’s ‘Bury Wills’]. The yerely sume of ffiue pounds
+    p’cell of the said yerely rents to be bestowed in wheaten bread, to
+    be made into penny loaves, and upon eu’y Lord’s day, called Sonday,
+    throughout eu’y yere of the said terme [40 years or thereabouts],
+    fowre and twenty loaves of the said bread, with the inbread allowed
+    by the baker for those twoe dosens of bread, to be timely brought
+    and sett vpon a forme towards the vpp’end of the chancell of the
+    said p’ish church of St. Marie, and ... the same twoe dosens of
+    bread to be giuen and distributed ... to and amongst fowre and
+    twentie poore people.... And they, the said clarke, sexton, and
+    bedell, shall alwaies haue the inbread of all the bread aforesaid
+    ovr and besides their shares in the said twoe dosens of bread.
+
+    1733. Fielding, Don Quixote, III., vi. I could not number them. I
+    dare swear there were a good round baker’s dozen, at least.
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxviii. ‘As to your lawyer, you
+    get just your guinea’s worth from him—not even so much as the
+    baker’s bargain, thirteen to the dozen.’
+
+Baker’s dozen is occasionally used in a somewhat more figurative sense,
+and is not confined to the technicalities of trade. It is employed to
+signify thirteen or fourteen. It is so quoted in Grose (1785), but the
+usage is apparently much older than that, for Hudson, the navigator,
+when he discovered the bay to which his name is given, designated a
+cluster of thirteen or fourteen islands on the east shore of it. The
+Baker’s Dozen, as may be seen on the charts; and even French atlases
+exhibit these islands as La Douzaine du boulanger.
+
+To give one a baker’s dozen is to pummell a man well; to thrash him
+soundly—a humorous allusion to the good measure implied by the phrase.
+
+
+Bakes, subs. (American thieves’).—A schoolboy.
+
+
+Bakester, subs. (Winchester College).—One who bakes (see Bake); a
+sluggard. The term is now obsolete.
+
+
+Baking Leave, subs. (Winchester College).—Permission to bake (q.v.) in
+a study in ‘Commoners,’ or in a ‘scob’ place in College. In this sense
+the term is obsolete; but it is now used of leave to sit in any other
+person’s ‘toys’ (q.v.)—a sort of bureau.
+
+
+Baking Place, subs. (Winchester College).—A kind of sofa in ‘Studies’
+of ‘Commoners.’
+
+
+Balaam, subs. (journalistic).—A term applied to all kinds of
+miscellaneous matter, generally of a trumpery and indifferent
+character, used as ‘padding’ in periodical publications. Evidently from
+Numbers xxii., 30, in which the ass spoke ‘with man’s voice.’ Balaam
+hence denotes ‘the speech of an ass,’ and is well applied to the stupid
+jokes, and silly paragraphs with which odd corners and short columns
+are often lengthened out. Brewer claims an American origin, but Webster
+only calls it ‘a cant term.’ In any case the term has clearly reference
+to nonsense to be thrown in to fill space, or nonsense thrown out as
+refuse. The curious point in the story of Balaam is that the ass talks
+like a philosopher and the prophet behaves like a donkey. The term was
+popularised by its frequent use in Blackwood’s Magazine.
+
+    1826. Scott, Mal. Malagr. iii., 3. How much Balaam (speaking
+    technically) I have edged out of your valuable paper.
+
+    1839. Lochart, Scott, lxx. (1842), 622. Balaam is the cant name for
+    asinine paragraphs about monstrous productions of nature and the
+    like, kept standing in type to be used whenever the real news of
+    the day leave an awkward space that must be filled up somehow. [M.]
+
+
+Balaam-Basket or Balaam-Box, subs. (journalistic).—1. The receptacle
+for Balaam (q.v.).
+
+2. When articles or other contributions are rejected they are put in
+the Balaam-basket, which may either be a pigeon-hole (to await return
+to the author); the waste paper basket; or, as the readiest mode of
+extinction, the flames. In any case, the destination is said to be the
+Baalam-basket or box.
+
+    1827. Blackw. Mag., xxi., 340. Several dozen letters on the same
+    subject now in our Balaam-box.
+
+    1873. Hall, Modern English, p. 17. An essay for the Edinburgh
+    Review, in ‘the old unpolluted English language,’ would have been
+    consigned by the editor to his Balaam-basket.
+
+    1877. Notes and Queries, 5 S., vii., 270, 2. At the risk of getting
+    into your Balaam-box, I venture to record the whole contents of my
+    bundle as they lie before me.
+
+
+Balaclava-Day, subs. (military).—A soldier’s pay day. Balaclava, in the
+Crimean War [1854–6], was the base of supply for the English troops;
+and, as pay was drawn, the men went down to make their purchases.
+
+
+Balance, subs. (American).—A balance properly is that which balances or
+produces equilibrium. It is the difference between two sides of an
+account—the amount of which is necessary to make the one equal to the
+other. It is not the rest or the remainder, yet we continually hear of
+the balance of this or that thing. In the sense of ‘rest,’ ‘residue,’
+or ‘remainder,’ balance is the purest slang.
+
+    1846. Albany Journal, Jan. 7. The yawl returned to the wreck, took
+    ten or eleven persons and landed them, and then went and got the
+    balance from the floating cabin. [b.]
+
+    1861. Boston Transcript, Dec. 27. ‘We listened to Wendell Phillips
+    for about half an hour, and having an engagement elsewhere, we were
+    forced to leave, and so lost the balance of his oration.’ [de v.]
+
+The word is thus used very much like the Scottish lave (what is left),
+employed by Burns in the line—
+
+
+    ‘I’ll get a blessing with the lave,
+    And never miss it.’
+
+
+In some parts of Virginia the word ‘shank’ is quaintly used for the
+same purpose, and one friend will say to another, ‘Suppose you come in
+and spend the shank of the evening with me?’ The vulgarism is becoming
+common in England, as witness the following:—
+
+    1875. Blackwood’s Magazine, April, 443. Balance, long familiar to
+    American ears, is becoming so to ours. In an account of a ship on
+    fire we read ‘Those saved remained the balance of the night
+    watching the burning wreck.’ [M.]
+
+    1883. P. Fitzgerald, Recreations of a Literary Man, 170. Everyone
+    is away shooting or riding; a balance of the ladies is left. [M.]
+
+
+Balbus, subs. (University).—A Latin prose composition. In Arnold’s
+well-known text book, Latin Prose Composition, balbus turns up at every
+corner; he is here, there, and everywhere; he appears to be willing and
+able to do anything, and go anywhere; in fact it is balbus this, and
+balbus that, until the wonder is whether balbus was not something of a
+prig or bore, or both. At all events those who used the text book in
+question, cannot fail to remember that doughty old fossil of a Roman to
+their dying day.
+
+    1870. Quarterly Review. Balbus was in constant use.
+
+
+Balderdash, subs. (old).—1. Adulterated wine; a mixture of liquors such
+as wine and beer, milk and beer, etc.
+
+2. (colloquial).—Frothy talk; nonsense; a jumble of words.
+
+    1885. Murray, New English Dictionary, Art. Balderdash, vol. I., p.
+    633, col. 3. From the evidence at present, the inference is that
+    the current sense was transferred from 1 or 2 [i.e., Froth, frothy
+    liquid, or a jumbled mixture of liquids] either with the notion of
+    ‘frothy talk,’ or of ‘a senseless farrago,’ or ‘jumble of words.’
+    Most etymologists have, however, assumed 3 [nonsense; frothy talk,
+    etc.] to be the original sense, and sought its explanation in the
+    obvious similarity of balder to dialectical balder, ‘to use coarse
+    language’; Dutch, balderen, ‘to roar, thunder’; Norwegian, baldra;
+    Icelandic, baldrast, ballrast, ‘to make a clatter,’ and of -dash to
+    the verb dash in various senses. The Welsh baldorddus, adj., f.
+    baldordd, ‘idle, noisy talk, chatter,’ has also been adduced....
+    Other conjectures may be found in Wedgwood, Skeat, and E. Müller.
+
+
+Bald-Face, subs. (American).—New whiskey; so villainous is the
+compound, that only by courtesy can it be recognised as at all
+approaching the Simon Pure. For synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+
+Bald-Faced Shirt, subs. (American).—In cowboy lingo, a white shirt;
+from the fact of being white on the face or front. Ordinarily bald-face
+is used of animals, e.g., a bald-faced stag. Hereford cattle, too, have
+white faces, and as cowboys are brought into close contact with all
+kinds of cattle, the term as applied to a linen shirt is possibly a
+mere transference in sense. Cf., Boiled shirt.
+
+
+Bald-Faced Stag, subs. (common).—A bald-headed man; [from bald-faced,
+having white on face + stag, a slang term for a man. Cf., Stag party.]
+For synonyms, see Bladder of lard.
+
+
+Baldheaded.—To go it baldheaded, phr. (American).—With eager
+impetuosity, or great haste; to do a thing with all one’s might and
+main. A suggestion of action without stopping to cover one’s head,
+i.e., on the spur of the moment.
+
+    1848–62. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers, p. 6.
+
+        It ain’t by princerples nor men
+          My preudunt course is steadied,—
+        I scent which pays the best, an’ then
+          Go into it baldheaded.
+
+    1869. Our Young Folks. Whenever he had made up his mind to do a
+    thing he went at it baldheaded. [de v.]
+
+    1888. Pall Mall Gazette, June 22. The Chicago Republicans, to use
+    an Americanism, have gone baldheaded for protection. If shouting
+    could win a Presidential contest, Blaine and Protection would be
+    certain.
+
+To snatch baldheaded, phr. (American).—To defeat a person in a street
+fight.
+
+    1871. R. Grant White, Words and Their Uses.
+
+        The crowd than gave a specimen of calumny broke loose,
+        And said I’d snatched him baldheaded, and likewise cooked his
+            goose.
+
+
+Bald-Headed Row, subs. phr. (American).—The first row of stalls at
+theatres, especially those which make a feature of ballets. The term is
+a cynical allusion to the fact that these seats are generally occupied
+by men of mature age; the innuendo is obvious.—See Frog-salad.
+
+
+Balditude, subs. (American).—A state of baldness. Probably a nonce
+word.
+
+    1882. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry
+    Finn, p. 187. Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it;
+    trouble has brung these gray hairs and this premature balditude.
+
+
+Baldober or Baldower, subs. (thieves’).—A leader; a head man; a
+spokesman. This term has been imported into the lingo of English
+thieves from the German Gaunersprache, in which it has very much the
+same meaning.
+
+
+Balductum, subs. (old).—Nonsense; rubbish. Cf., Balderdash.
+
+
+Baldy, subs. (American).—A colloquial vulgarism for a bald-headed man.
+Cf., Balditude.
+
+
+Balfour’s Maiden, subs. (Parliamentary).—A nickname given to a kind of
+covered battering-ram used by the Royal Irish Constabulary in carrying
+out evictions in Ireland in the years 1888–9. On many estates the
+tenants made most desperate resistance to all attempts on the part of
+the landlords to recover possession, upon which the latter appealed
+for, and obtained the assistance of the authorities. This but served to
+intensify the struggle, and the tenants, driven to extremities, in some
+cases resisted all endeavours, even to throwing boiling water over the
+soldiers and police employed against them. To protect the evictors, and
+also to render easier the demolition of the cabins of the wretched
+people, a kind of covered battering-ram was made, whereupon the Home
+Rule Party sarcastically gave it, amongst other nick-names, that of
+Balfour’s maiden. The term was first used by Sir Wm. Harcourt in a
+speech at a monster Home Rule meeting, held at St. James’s Hall, on
+Wednesday, April 10, 1889. An account of the incident runs as follows:—
+
+    1889. Daily News, April 11. Resolute government has not been
+    absolutely extinguished. Now at Letterkenny, Mr. Balfour has
+    introduced a new invention, the latest development of resolute
+    government. The Government were questioned on the subject, and they
+    accepted the responsibility for the facts. It stated that in view
+    of the Olphert estate evictions, there reached there an iron-headed
+    spiked battering-ram to be used in carrying out the evictions. Why,
+    really, gentlemen, when you read of these things they are like the
+    pictures one sees of the Siege of Jerusalem—(loud laughter)—of the
+    implements, which the Latins called tormenta. We are familiar with
+    them in old mediæval castles. You find instruments called ‘The
+    Scavenger’s Daughter,’ and ‘The Maiden,’ and other implements of
+    that character. I think this last pattern of ram of Mr. Balfour’s
+    might be called ‘The Unionist’s Daughter’—(loud laughter)—or it
+    might be christened ‘Balfour’s Maiden.’ (Cheers and laughter.) But
+    not to deprive the Liberal Unionists of their share we might call
+    it ‘Chamberlain’s Tenants’ Protector.’ (Renewed merriment.)
+
+
+Ball, subs. (thieves’).—1. A prison ration. 2. A drink.
+
+To open the ball, phr.  (common).—To commence an undertaking; to start
+off.
+
+    1876. Eton Chronicle, July 20.
+
+        ... Whatever may seem the mishaps of his team,
+          Whatever their failings and sinnings,
+        He who opened the ball and who saw them all fall,
+          Scarce deserved that defeat in one innings.
+
+
+Ballad-Basket, subs. (old).—A street singer.—See Street pitcher. A
+French equivalent is un braillard.
+
+
+Ballambangjang, subs. (nautical).—The Straits of Ballambangjang, though
+unnoticed by geographers, are frequently mentioned in sailors’ yarns as
+being so narrow, and the rocks on each side so crowded with trees
+inhabited by monkeys, that the ship’s yards cannot be squared, on
+account of the monkey’s tails getting jammed into, and choking up, the
+brace blocks.—Hotten.
+
+
+Ballast, subs. (common).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual.
+
+Well-ballasted, adj. (common).—A rich man is said to be well-ballasted.
+
+English Synonyms. ‘To be flush’; also ‘to have brass; brads,’ etc. See
+synonyms for money generally under Actual.
+
+Among French equivalents for the solidity arising from the possession
+of wealth may be mentioned:—Être zingué (popular: literally ‘to be
+covered with zinc’); avoir des monacos (popular: monaco is an ironical
+term for a sou); daim huppé (popular: daim, a slang term for a swell,
+is properly a ‘buck,’ and huppé also signifies high in station,
+well-off); homme au sac (familiar: ‘a man with a bag,’—presumably of
+money); avoir des picaillons (popular: picaillons is thought to be a
+corruption of picarons, a Spanish coin); être de la fête (popular:
+i.e., ‘to be in luck’s way’); être sacqué (popular: meaning obvious);
+rupin (thieves’ term); avoir de ce qui sonne (popular: ‘to have that
+which chinks’); tailler en plein drap (popular).
+
+In the Spanish Germania a rich or well-ballasted man is florido, i.e.,
+‘flowery’ or ‘agreeable.’
+
+
+Ball Face, subs. (American).—A contemptuous epithet applied by negroes
+to white persons. Salem, Mass., 1810–1820.
+
+
+Ball-Keeper, subs. (Winchester College).—In ‘Commoners’ an ‘Inferior’
+appointed to look after cricket and footballs. In return for this
+service he was exempted from ‘kicking in’ and ‘watching out.’ ‘Junior
+in College’ has to bring through balls every evening.—See Balls.
+
+
+Ball of Fire, subs. phr. (popular).—A glass of fiery and pungent
+brandy. For all synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+
+Ballooning, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Inflating the price of stocks by
+fictitious means, such as newspaper articles, bogus sales, etc.
+
+
+Balloon It, verb. (American).—To indulge in rhodomontade; to draw the
+long bow; to talk big. Obviously from ‘to puff or swell out’ as a
+balloon.
+
+    1878. T. Sinclair, Mount, 33. Gas-brained, ballooning wandering
+    men. [M.]
+
+
+Ball O’ Wax, subs. (common).—A snob, or shoe-maker.—See Snob.
+
+
+Balls. To bring through balls, phr.  (Winchester College).—‘Junior in
+College’ collects footballs from the lockers in school, and brings them
+through at six o’clock to be blown, or repaired, if necessary.
+
+To make balls of, verb. phr. (popular).—To go wrong; to do what ‘lands’
+one in trouble; generally, to make a mistake.
+
+All balls, adv. (popular).—All rubbish; nonsense. For synonyms, see All
+my eye.
+
+
+Ballum Rancum, subs. (old).—A hop or dance, where the women are all
+prostitutes; a dance at a brothel. These orgies sometimes take the form
+of ‘buff-balls,’ all present dancing in the nude.
+
+
+Bally, adj. (popular).—A comparatively recent coinage, it is said, of
+the Sporting Times, from ‘bally-hooly.’ Generally, though not always,
+used as is ‘bloody,’ in the lower strata of the body politic. It also
+signifies intensity, and in cases where the vocabulary at command is
+limited, bally does yeoman’s service for such words as ‘fearful,’
+‘dreadful,’ ‘terrible,’ ‘outrageous,’ ‘confounded.’
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, July 6 (Answers to Correspondents). H. G.
+    Steele.—Thanks. What a bally idiot you must be.
+
+    1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 5. Newman Noggs, bringing small
+    boy to carry master’s bag, and inculcating manners at the same
+    time, ‘Now, what would you say if I was to give you sixpence for
+    taking it?’ ‘I should say ’twasnt half enough, and you can bally
+    well take it yourself,’ was the prompt reply. Boys are boys
+    nowadays, and no error, thinks Newman.
+
+
+Bally-Bounder.—See Bally and Bounder.
+
+
+Bally-Fellow.—See Bounder and Bally.
+
+
+Bally Flat.—See Bounder and Bally.
+
+
+Bally Fool.—See Bounder and Bally.
+
+
+Ballyrag.—See Bullyrag.
+
+
+Balm, subs. (old).—A lie.—Duncombe.
+
+
+Balmy, subs. and adj. (common).—Sleep; sleepy. [From the figurative
+sense of balmy, i.e., deliciously soft and soothing.]
+
+To have a dose of the balmy; i.e., ‘to go to sleep.’
+
+    1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. viii., p. 42. ‘As it’s
+    rather late, I’ll try and get a wink or two of the balmy.’
+
+English Synonyms. To doss; to go to Bedfordshire (q.v.)—a play upon
+words.
+
+French Synonyms. La pionce or pionçage (popular: subs., see pioncer);
+le somno (popular: an abbreviated form of somnolence); piquage de
+romance (a military term); casser une canne, or sa canne (popular: this
+also means ‘to die.’ In French as in other languages the analogy
+between Sleep and Death is fully recognised. Many of the French slang
+phrases for the former are also used to express the latter. Mors janua
+vitæ!); casser son pif (popular: pif in French argot = ‘the nose.’
+Amongst the peasants of Normandy and Berry it signifies a
+‘grog-blossom’); pioncer (popular: from piausser, a provincialism for
+‘to sleep’); piquer un chien (popular: piquer a canting verb of action,
+‘to do’; therefore ‘to do as a dog’); piquer une romance (popular);
+faire son lézard (popular: Cf., piquer un chien); faire son michaud
+(thieves’: i.e., ‘to rest one’s head or knowledge box’); roupiller
+(this term is in general colloquial use); se recueillir (popular: ‘to
+wrap oneself in meditation’); compter des pauses (musicians’: ‘to count
+the beats.’ Cf., various suggested remedies for overcoming insomnia;
+e.g., counting slowly up to a hundred, etc., etc.); taper de l’œil
+(popular: ‘to rub the eyes.’ Cf., English ‘to have sleepy dust in one’s
+eyes’); mettre le chien au cran de repos (popular: ‘to curl oneself up
+like a dog’); souffler ses clairs (popular: ‘to blow or put out one’s
+light,’ i.e., ‘to shut the eyes’); fermer maillard (popular: to close
+one’s shutters, i.e., eyelids. Maillard was the inventor of a
+particular kind of shutter. Other analogous expressions are être
+terrassé par maillard, i.e., ‘to be extremely sleepy.’ Sleep is
+expressed by fermeture); faire schloff or schloffer, from the German
+schlafen.
+
+Spanish Synonym. In the Germania difunto, properly ‘defunct,’ is used
+for asleep.
+
+A Portuguese Synonym for sound sleep is a bom sornar, i.e., ‘to sleep
+on both ears.’
+
+2. Dull-witted; thick-skulled. In this sense balmy is used up and down
+the whole gamut of imbecility from mere stolidity to downright
+insanity. Popularly used, it signifies in most cases little more than
+shallow-brained or muddle-headed; or, to use slang equivalents in their
+most familiar sense, ‘to be touched,’ ‘to be wrong in the upper story,’
+‘dotty.’ Among thieves, however, it is usually applied to insanity, to
+put on the balmy stick being, among convicts, to feign madness.
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 231. List
+    of patterers’ words. Balmy—Insane.
+
+A large number of synonyms will be found under apartments to let, but
+in addition to those there mentioned may be instanced the following in
+the French slang:—Demenager (popular: ‘to remove one’s furniture.’ It
+also means ‘to die’); paumer la sorbonne (i.e., ‘to punch the head,’
+sorbonne being a slang term for that part of the human body. The
+Sorbonne is a well-known university and seat of learning. Among
+thieves, too, sorbonner is used in the sense of ‘to think’); être un
+peu toc (i.e., slightly crazy; toc in slang = ridiculous); avoir une
+pomme de canne felée (popular: a rather opprobrious expression, meaning
+‘to have a slate off.’ Cf., ‘to have a tile loose’); avoir une fissure
+(literally ‘to have a crack’); avoir un grain.
+
+
+Balmy Cove, subs. (common).—A weak-minded individual; one who has ‘a
+tile loose.’ [From balmy (q.v.) + cove, a man.] Among French thieves
+such an individual is called un hurlubier (hurlublu is an obsolete term
+used jestingly for a giddy goose or hair-brained person); also biscayen
+from the Bicêtre prison which has a lunatic ward for demented convicts.
+The prison itself is called La Biscaye, but this name has no connection
+with the province of Biscay as might be supposed.
+
+
+Balsam, subs. (thieves’ and popular).—One of the many generic names for
+money. A full list of synonyms will be found under Actual. The allusion
+of course is obvious, i.e., a healing soothing agent or agency; but, in
+its secondary signification of impertinence, ‘brass,’ ‘cheek,’ etc.,
+the reverse of the shield is given. Such reversals in the legitimate
+meanings of words are not uncommon in slang.
+
+
+Bam, subs. (old slang).—1. A cheat; an imposition; a story intended to
+hoax the credulous; what nowadays generally goes under the name of
+chaff or humbug [bam is thought to be an abbreviated form of bamboozle
+(q.v.)]. Murray has traced it back to 1762, but it appears nearly
+twenty years previous in Dyche’s dictionary, and also in Martin’s, the
+second edition of which was published in 1754.—See verb To bam.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bam (s.), a sham or pretence, a
+    lying excuse.
+
+    1762. Foote, Orators, Act ii. Why I know that man, he is all upon
+    his fun; he lecture—why ’tis all but a bam.
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. ix. ‘It’s all a bam, ma’am—all a
+    bamboozle and a bite, that affair of his illness.’
+
+Verb.—To hoax, to bamboozle; to wheedle; to cheat. [Of same formation
+as substantive, which see above, and Cf., Bamboozle.] The first trace
+of it appears in Cibber’s Double Gallant [1707], and is discussed by
+Swift in his introduction to Polite Conversation [1738], where he
+mentions among ‘the exquisite refinements’ then in vogue,—bam for
+bamboozle, and bamboozle for, God knows what. Whereupon a correspondent
+of Notes and Queries [2 S., Jan. 10, ’57, p. 31] alluding to the
+despair of etymologists in regard to these words remarked that if from
+was put in the place of for, it would describe the predicament in which
+philologists are placed.
+
+    1754. H. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. To bam, or to bamboozle, to fun,
+    to fib, to sham.
+
+    1760. Colman, Polly Honeycombe, in wks. (1777) IV., 43. Lord, how
+    well he behaves! We shall certainly bam the old gentleman.
+
+    1830. Marryat, King’s Own, ch. xlix. ‘Now, you’re bamming me—don’t
+    attempt to put such stories off on your old granny.’
+
+    1874. E. L. Linton, Patricia Kemball, ch. xxxix. For a moment the
+    thought flashed across him whether ‘that tale of Gordon Frere was
+    all a bam, and had the girl taken a liking for himself?’
+
+
+Bamblustercate, verb. (nonce-word).—A factitious creation signifying to
+embarrass; confuse; or hoax in a blustering manner. [From bam, to hoax,
+or confuse + bluster, noisy assertion + cate, a termination in
+imitation of ‘conglomerate’.]—See also Comflogisticate.
+
+
+Bamboo, verb. (American).—A corruption of bamboozle. To cheat; to
+victimize; to hoax.—See, however, Bam and Bamboozle.
+
+
+Bamboozle, verb. (familiar).—To hoax; deceive; or impose upon.
+Philologists are all confessedly at sea in regard to the derivation of
+bamboozle and its attributive forms, but the general tendency of
+evidence is to refer it to a gypsy origin. Johnson states it to be a
+cant word; and Bouchier, in his glossary says, ‘it has with great
+propriety long had a place in the gypsy or canting dictionaries,’ it
+being in his opinion ‘the sole invention of gypsies or vagrants.’
+Leland thinks it ‘possibly’ the Hindu word bambhorna, to humbug, with
+the gypsy terminative āsel. Wedgwood suggests its origin in the Italian
+bamboccio, a young babe, and metaphorically an old dotard or babyish
+gull; imbambolare, to blear or dim one’s sight, also with flatteries
+and blandishments, to inveigle and make a fool of one. If a verb were
+made of bambocciolo in the same way as bambocciolare, it would have
+much the sense of bamboozle. A. E. Quekett (N. and Q., 5 S., xii., 488)
+throws a side-light upon this last theory by pointing out that in
+Shakspeare’s Taming of the Shrew, Katharina says, ‘Belike you mean to
+make a puppet of me,’ and Petruchio replies, ‘Why true; he means to
+make a puppet of thee.’ Comparing this passage with the rest of the
+scene it would seem that Petruchio’s answer is not a mere repetition of
+Katharina’s words, but contains a double entendre of some kind. He
+(Quekett) then hazards that perhaps she meant to say, ‘Perhaps you mean
+to treat me as a doll without a will of its own,’ while Petruchio
+appears to mean something very like, ‘He wishes to bamboozle you.’
+
+Be all this as it may, bamboozle first came into vogue during the early
+part of the last century; for in the Tatler No. 230 [1710], we read,
+‘The third refinement observable in the letter I send you consists in
+the choice of certain words invented by some pretty fellows, such as
+banter, bamboozle, country-put, and kidney, some of which are now
+struggling for the vogue, and others are in possession of it’!
+
+So also with the derivatives; e.g., bamboozle (subs.); Bamboozled;
+bamboozlement; bamboozler; bamboozling.
+
+    1703. Cibber, She Would and She Would Not, II., i. (1736), 34. Sham
+    proofs, that they propos’d to bamboozle me with. [M.]
+
+    1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 31. But, says I, sir, I perceive this is
+    to you all bamboozling.
+
+    1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. III., ch. vi. There are
+    a sort of fellows that they call banterers and bamboozlers, that
+    play such tricks; but it seems these fellows were in earnest!
+
+    1731. Coffey, Devil to Pay, Act i., Sc. 3. You juggler, you
+    cheating, bamboozling villain!
+
+    1754. Foote, Knights, Act ii. You are tricked, imposed on,
+    bamboozled!
+
+    1779. R. Cumberland, Wheel of Fortune, Act ii., Sc. 1. You know I
+    love you, Emily, ... and therefore you baffle and bamboozle and
+    make a bumpkin of me.
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. ix. ‘It’s all a bam, ma’am—all a
+    bamboozle and a bite, that affair of his illness.’
+
+    1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. xxxvi. ‘One does not like to be
+    bamboozled out of one’s right of election, by a smooth-tongued
+    fellow, who sends one to the devil the moment the election is
+    over.’
+
+    1886. Sat. Review, No. 1587, p. 423. The public is a great
+    bamboozable body.
+
+(Nautical).—To decoy the enemy by hoisting false colours—merely an
+extension of the popular sense.
+
+English Synonyms. ‘To throw dust in the eyes’; ‘to use the pepper-box’;
+‘to gild the pill’; ‘to throw a tub to a whale’; ‘to make believe the
+moon is made of cream cheese’; ‘to jockey’; ‘to stick’; ‘to bilk’; ‘to
+do’; ‘to best’; ‘to do brown’; ‘to bounce’; ‘to take in’; ‘to kid’; ‘to
+gammon.’
+
+French Synonyms. Une monteuse de coups (a woman who bamboozles her
+lovers); monter des couleurs (popular: ‘to deceive by false
+representations’; couleur signifies ‘pretence,’ ‘semblance’); faire la
+queue à quelqu’un (popular); tirer la carotte (thieves’); faire voir le
+tour (popular); canarder (popular: literally ‘to shoot at one from a
+sheltered position’; i.e., to have an advantage, and thus to be able to
+hoax or humbug); dindonner (popular: from dindon, a ‘goose’); faire le
+coup, or monter le coup à quelqu’un (popular: coup in French slang is
+‘a secret process,’ ‘a knack’ or ‘dodge’—hence ‘to deal one an
+underhand blow,’ or ‘to serve one a trick’); empaler (popular: ‘to
+deceive by false representations’; literally ‘to empale’); passer des
+curettes (popular: ‘to make a fool of one’); monter une gaffe (popular:
+gaffe in French slang = ‘a joke’; a piece of deceit); monter le job or
+jobarder (popular: job is equivalent to ‘simpleton’ or ‘flat,’ and is
+the same as jobelin); mener en bateau un pante pour le refaire
+(thieves’: ‘to deceive a man in order to rob him’); monter un batteau
+(popular); donner un pont à faucher (thieves’: ‘to lay a trap or
+snare’); promener quelqu’un (popular: ‘to make a fool of one.’ Cf., ‘to
+rush’); compter des mistouffles (familiar: mistouffle = ‘a scurvy
+trick’; ‘a joke’); gourrer (popular: ‘to stick’; ‘to kid’; ‘to
+deceive’); affluer (from à flouer, ‘to cheat’; ‘to diddle out of’);
+roustir (popular and thieves’: ‘to cheat’); affûter (thieves’: ‘to make
+unlawful profits’); bouler (popular); juiffer (popular: literally ‘to
+Jew’ as in English); pigeonner (familiar: ‘to do,’ ‘to pluck.’ In
+English slang the victims of card and other sharpers are called
+‘pigeons’); flancher (popular: ‘to laugh at’ or ‘ridicule’); faire la
+barbe (popular: Cf., faire la queue); hisser un gandin (thieves’:
+literally ‘to hoist a dandy’ or ‘swell’); mettre dedans (popular: to
+take a rise out of one; literally to ‘take in’); être l’autre (popular:
+Cf., ‘to get left.’ The phrase also signifies ‘to be the lover,’ the
+mistress); planter un chou (familiar).
+
+German Synonyms.—See Jockey.
+
+Italian Synonyms. Traversare (literally ‘to cross over’); dar la
+stolfa.
+
+Spanish Synonym. Encantar (literally ‘to enchant,’ ‘to entertain with
+soft words’).
+
+
+Bambosh, subs. (nonce word).—Apparently a variation of bamboozling, as
+follows. [Bam + bosh.] Humbug; deceit; hoaxing.
+
+    1865. Day of Rest, Oct., 585. I was deaf to all that bambosh. [M.]
+
+
+Bambsquabbled.—This coined word, which is, however, rarely used except
+in humorous writings, first saw the light in The Legend of the American
+War. It signifies discomfiture and defeat, or stupefaction; sometimes
+written bumsquabbled.
+
+    1835–40. T. C. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 2 S., ch.
+    ii. The judge said, ‘He had got too much already, cut him off the
+    other two-thirds, and make him pay all costs.’ If he didn’t look
+    bumsquabbled it’s a pity.
+
+
+Banaghan. He beats Banaghan, phr.  (old).—An Irish saying of one who
+tells wonderful stories; Banaghan, thought Grose, was a minstrel famous
+for dealing in the marvellous—a kind of prototype of Baron Munchausen.
+Of this, deponent knowing nothing, says the same.
+
+
+Banagher, verb. (old).—To bang.
+
+
+Bananaland, Bananalander, subs. (Australian).—Queensland, and a native
+of Queensland respectively. Apparently from a large portion of that
+section of the fifth continent lying within the tropics, thus allowing
+of the cultivation of the banana tree (Musa sapientum).
+
+    1886. Chamb. Journal, Feb. 20, p. 124. Booted and spurred
+    ‘Cornstalks’ and Banana-men (natives of New South Wales and
+    Queensland respectively).
+
+    1887. Melbourne (Victoria) Sportsman, 23 March, p. 7, col. 2. Paddy
+    Slavin came from Queensland with the reputation of having beaten
+    all the Bananalanders.
+
+    1887. Sydney (N.S.W.) Bulletin, 26 Feb., p. 6. His friends rallied
+    up to congratulate him, and see him through, after the custom of
+    the simple Bananalander.
+
+It may be interesting to note that a native of New South Wales is
+nicknamed a ‘cornstalk’ because built somewhat tall and thin. Those
+whose stature is shorter, with circumference of wider dimensions in
+proportion to their height are said to be ‘nuggety.’ The gum trees of
+Tasmania give the elegant nickname ‘gumsucker’ to its inhabitants. In
+this practice antipodean colonists follow suit with their cousins
+across the Atlantic.—See Nicknames.
+
+
+Banco, subs. (Charterhouse School).—Evening preparation down at ‘house’
+each day, superintended by a monitor. It answers to the Winchester
+toy-time.
+
+
+Banco-Steerer.—See Bunco-steerer.
+
+
+Bandanna, subs. (common).—Formerly a silk handkerchief with white,
+yellow, or other coloured spots on a dark ground. Now applied to
+handkerchiefs of all kinds. The name is thought to come from the
+Spanish bandano, a neckerchief.
+
+    1752. J. Long, Bengal (1870), 31. Plain taffaties, ordinary
+    bandannoes, and chappas.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. iv. The Colonel was striding about
+    the room in his loose garments, puffing his cigar fiercely anon,
+    and then waving his yellow bandanna.
+
+
+Banded, ppl. adj. (old).—Hungry. To mitigate the pangs of hunger,
+starving men tighten the belt round the ‘middle.’ Bamfylde Moore Carew,
+the king of the beggars, mentions the practice. Cf., Caffre’s tightener
+and bands.
+
+
+Bandero, subs. (American).—Widows’ weeds; a corruption of the now
+obsolete ‘bandore,’ a widow’s head-dress. Bandore was itself a
+corruption of the French bandeau, given by Littré as anciennement,
+coiffure des veuves. The term was current about the beginning of the
+last century, but in 1785 we find it quoted as slang. It appears,
+however, to have survived in America whilst dropping entirely out of
+use in the Mother Country. In the English drapery trade mourning goods
+are sometimes called afflictions (q.v.).
+
+
+Ban-Dog, subs. (old).—A bailiff, or his assistant. Originally, says
+Murray, a dog tied or chained up either to guard a house, or on account
+of its ferocity; hence generally a mastiff or bloodhound. The
+transition from this point to the slang sense is clear.
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 12. ‘But where
+    are the lurchers?’ ‘Who?’ asked Wood. ‘The traps!’ responded a
+    bystander. ‘The shoulder-clappers!’ added a lady, who, in her
+    anxiety to join the party, had unintentionally substituted her
+    husband’s nether habiliments for her own petticoats. ‘The
+    ban-dogs!’ thundered a tall man whose stature and former avocations
+    had procured him the nickname of ‘The long drover of the Borough
+    market.’  ‘Where are they?’ ‘Ay. where are they?’ chorused the mob,
+    flourishing their various weapons, and flashing their torches in
+    the air; ‘we’ll sarve ’em out.’
+
+
+Bands, subs. To wear the bands (old cant).—To be hungry.—See Banded.
+
+
+B. and S. (popular).—An everyday colloquialism, in the abbreviated
+form, for brandy and soda.
+
+    1868. Whyte Melville, White Rose, ch. xiii. Before the b. and
+    s.—signifying a beaker of brandy and soda-water—could make its
+    appearance.
+
+    1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. v. ‘Come away, and I will get
+    you some tea, though what would be better for you still, would be
+    some b. and s.’
+
+    1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 69, col. 1.
+
+        I’ll sing you a fine new song, all about a fine young spark,
+        Who’s a fine young London gentleman, quite up to any lark,
+        Who takes supper very early, and breakfasts in the dark;
+        Who’s a real ‘dear old chappie,’ as I needn’t perhaps remark.
+
+                            *  *  *  *  *
+
+        He will say that port and sherry his nice palate always cloy;
+        He’ll nothing drink but ‘b. and s.’ and big magnums of ‘the
+        boy’;
+        He’s the darling of the barmaid and the honest waiter’s joy,
+        As he quaffs his Pommery, ‘Extra Sec,’ his ‘Giesler,’ or
+        ‘Ivroy.’
+
+
+Bandy, subs. (thieves’).—A sixpence; so called, in the first instance,
+from these coins being often thin, worn, and bent. Also called a
+cripple and bender, but, for synonyms, see the latter. The term appears
+in Grose [1785].
+
+    1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25, n. A bandy or cripple,
+    a sixpence.
+
+    1885. Household Words, June 20, p. 155. The sixpence is a coin more
+    liable to bend than most others, so it is not surprising to find
+    that several of its popular names have reference to this weakness.
+    It is called a bandy, a ‘bender,’ a ‘cripple.’
+
+
+Bang, subs. (colloquial).—1. A blow; Old Norse, bang, a hammering.
+Though a dictionary word, bang has not yet succeeded in passing from
+the limbo of vulgarism in many of its uses. For example, a ‘bang of the
+door’ sounds legitimate enough, and is an expression to which even the
+most pronounced stickler for linguistic purity would scarcely object;
+yet, a ‘bang on the nose’ or ‘jaw’ would, doubtless, be looked upon as
+low and vulgar. Only to illustrate such variations, can the word find a
+fitting entry into these pages. Amongst pugilists and the vulgar, bang
+is, without doubt, closely identified with personal castigation; and,
+in this connection.
+
+English Synonyms are not rare. To bang one in the jaw; to spoil one’s
+picture; to give a wipe on the nose; to fetch one a stinger, etc. The
+blow itself is designated a whopper; wipe; clout; prop; cant; dig;
+corker; shooting stars (in allusion to the dazed condition of a person
+so struck, stars being seen dancing before one’s eyes).
+
+French Synonyms. Un gnon (popular); un écopage (familiar); une dandine
+(popular); un cabochon (common); un estaffion (popular: may be rendered
+‘a bang on the nut’); un coup de gilquin (popular); un renfoncement
+(colloquial: ‘a blow with the fist’; lit. ‘an indentation’); une beugne
+(common); une beigne (popular); une dariole (familiar: properly a kind
+of pastry); un coup de tampon (popular: ‘a hard shove’; tampon, ‘a
+buffer’); une balle de coton (popular); une baffre (popular: ‘a blow in
+the face with the fist’); un pétard (familiar: either ‘a box on the
+ear’ or ‘a cant on the gills’); une paraphe (popular: paraphe is
+properly the flourish added to one’s signature); dégrader le portrait à
+quelqu’un (popular: ‘to fetch one a bang in the mug.’ Cf., ‘to spoil
+one’s picture’); détacher un coup de pinceau sur la frimousse (popular:
+‘to make pencil marks upon the face’; i.e., ‘to spoil one’s
+physiognomy,’—the allusion presumably being to the face as the work of
+the Divine Artist). For other synonyms, see Wipe.
+
+2. A style adopted by women in dressing the hair upon the forehead,
+generally curled and frizzed, the process being thus described. To make
+the bang, one must begin by dividing the front hair at half-inch
+distances from ear to ear, combing the rest back. This is repeated
+until the whole front hair has been successfully banged. In England
+these fringes are also called toffs (q.v.).
+
+    1880. W. D. Howell, The Undiscovered Country, ch. viii. When one
+    lifted his hat to wipe his forehead, he showed his hair cut in
+    front like a young lady’s bang.
+
+    1883. Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 1. It was no doubt
+    unfortunate that when the Empress Eugenie cut her hair across her
+    forehead from sorrow of heart, the women of five continents should
+    imitate her until the bang became universal.
+
+Verb.—1. To deliver a blow as described under bang (subs. 1);
+generally, to thump or strike violently; to thrash.
+
+    1588. Marprelate’s Epistle, p. 4 (ed. Arber). His grace will cary
+    to his grave I warrant you the blowes which M. Cartwright gave him
+    in this cause: and, therefore, no marvell though he was loth to
+    have any other so banged as he himselfe was to his woe.
+
+    1592. John Day, Blind Beggar, Act ii., Sc. 2, p. 37. I am sure my
+    cloak cannot go without hands; and I’ll have it again, or I’ll bang
+    it out of the coxcombs of some of them.
+
+    b. 1719. H. Carey, Sally in our Alley, st. 3.
+
+        My master comes, like any Turk,
+        And bangs me most severely.
+
+    1731. Fielding, The Lottery, Sc. 2. Ah, think, my lord! how I
+    should grieve to see your lordship bang’d.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 47. ‘It
+    was good stuff and good make at first, and hasn’t been abused, and
+    that’s the reason why it always bangs a slop, because it was good
+    to begin with.’
+
+    1884. Cornhill Mag., April, p. 442. ‘Davis,’ said Toddy, ‘you
+    haven’t had a banging this term, and you’re getting cocky.’
+
+2. To dress the hair with a fringe on the forehead, cut squarely
+across, so that it ends abruptly.
+
+    1882. Century Mag., XXV., 192. He was bareheaded, his hair banged
+    even with his eyebrows in front.
+
+    1888. Detroit Free Press.
+
+        Bang, Sister, bang with care;
+        If your poker’s too hot you’ll lose your hair.
+
+3. To surpass; to excel. So also banging, adj., great or thumping.
+
+4. (Stock Exchange.)—To loudly offer stock with the intention of
+lowering the price.
+
+To be banged up to the eyes, phr.  (common).—To be drunk. For synonyms,
+see Screwed.
+
+
+Bang-Beggar, subs. (old).—A constable or beadle. It is not quite clear
+whether this is not merely a dialecticism. In Lowland Scotch it
+signifies a strong staff.
+
+
+Banger, subs. (common).—A lie. Generally, that’s a banger! This elegant
+phrase is sometimes varied by ‘that’s a whopper’ (q.v.); or the now
+classical ‘thumper’ (q.v.), an invention of the late Lord Iddesleigh.
+
+(Yale College).—A club-like cane or stick; a bludgeon. This word is one
+of the Yale vocables.—Hall’s College Words and Customs.
+
+    Yale Lit. Mag., vol. XX., p. 75.
+
+        The Freshman reluctantly turned the key,
+        Expecting a Sophomore gang to see,
+        Who, with faces masked and bangers stout,
+        Had come resolved to smoke him out.
+
+
+Bang-Off, adv. (familiar).—Without stopping; right away; e.g., ‘I wrote
+as promised bang-off,’ i.e., without delay. [From bang, a loud, sudden
+sound + off, movement from a place or thing.]
+
+
+Bang-Out. To bang-out, verbal phr. (common).—To depart hurriedly and
+with noise.
+
+Adv. phr.—Completely, entirely, combined with suddenness; e.g., ‘the
+candle went bang-out.’
+
+
+Bang-Pitcher, subs. (old).—A drunkard. Possibly only dialectical.
+
+
+Bangster subs. (provincial).—According to Jamieson:—1. A violent and
+disorderly person, who regards no law but his own will. 2. A victor. 3.
+A braggart. 4. A loose woman.
+
+    1820. Scott, The Abbot, ch. xix. If the Pope’s champions are to be
+    bangsters in our very change houses, we shall soon have the
+    changelings back again, [h.]
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxiii. If you are so certain of
+    being the bangster—so very certain, I mean, of sweeping stakes,
+    what harm will Miss Clara come to by your having the use of her
+    siller.
+
+
+Bang-Straw, subs. (old).—A nickname for a thresher of corn; a
+provincialism.
+
+
+Bang-Tailed, adj. (popular).—Short tailed. Usually applied to horses.
+
+    1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. ‘These bang-tailed
+    little sinners any good?’ said Drysdale, throwing some
+    cock-a-bondies across the table. ‘Yes, I never like to be without
+    them and a governor or two.’
+
+
+Bang-Up, adj. phr.  (common).—First-rate; quite up to the mark; A 1;
+slap up; in the height of fashion. Also banged-up.
+
+    1812. H. and J. Smith, Rejected Addresses, p. 188. Dance a bang-up
+    theatrical cotillion.
+
+    1842. Lever, Jack Hinton, ch. vii. His hat set jauntily on one
+    side, his spotted neckcloth knotted in bang-up mode.
+
+    1844. Quarterly Review, XXIV., 368. We could not resist giving a
+    specimen of John Thorpe ... altogether the best portrait of a
+    species which, though almost extinct, cannot yet be quite classed
+    among the Palæotheria, the bang-up Oxonian.
+
+    1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, vol. I., ch. xxxiv. There appeared on the
+    cliff in a tax cart, drawn by a bang-up pony ... his friends, the
+    Sutbury Pet and the Rottingdean Fibber.
+
+Subs.—Also used substantively as in the following example; that which
+is quite right; the ‘thing’; the ‘go.’
+
+    1882. Punch, LXXXII., 185, 1. Modern Life in London, or Tom and
+    Jerry back again. The trio turned into the Arcade, and saw a number
+    of gay sparks and fair ones promenading. ’Twas a curious sight, a
+    glimpse of Life in London, one of its primest features, and yet, as
+    the Corinthian remarked to his Coz, these people seemed like the
+    ‘ghosts of a former generation.’ ‘These then are the dandies, the
+    fops, the goes and the bang-ups, these the Corinthians of to-day,’
+    was also Tom’s exclamation to young Bob, who said, ‘I don’t know
+    about being Corinthians, but some of these fellows are very ‘good
+    form,’ and as to being bang-up, a good many poor old chappies are
+    deuced hard-up.’
+
+Verb tr.—To make smart; produce in first-rate style.
+
+    1821. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Tour iii., c. v.
+
+        Pat to his neckcloth gave an air
+        In style, and á la militaire;
+        His pocket too a kerchief bore
+        With scented water sprinkled o’er;
+        Thus banged-up, sweeten’d, and clean shav’d,
+        The sage the dinner-table braved.
+
+
+Bangy, subs. (Winchester College).—‘Brown’ sugar. From Bangalore, a
+once coarse-growing sugar country.
+
+Adj.—Colour of brown sugar; e.g., bangy bags, brown trousers. These
+were also called bangies. So universally was the term bangy used to
+designate a brownish hue, that a gate of that colour at Winchester
+College, formerly leading from Grass Court into Sick House Meads, was
+called the Bangy Gate. The name is now often used for the gate by
+Racquet Court, into Kingsgate Street.
+
+
+Banian-Days or Banyan-Days, subs. (nautical).—Those days in which
+sailors have no flesh meat. Probably derived from the practice of the
+Banians, a caste of Hindoos, traders or merchants, who entirely
+abstained from all animal food.
+
+    1690. Ovington, in Yules’ Anglo-Indian Glossary. Of kitcheney
+    (butter, rice, and dai) the European sailors feed in these parts,
+    and are forced at such times to a Pagan abstinence from flesh,
+    which creates in them an utter detestation to those banian-days as
+    they call them.
+
+    1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxv. They told me that on Mondays,
+    Wednesdays, and Fridays, the ship’s company had no allowance of
+    meat, and that these meagre days were called banyan-days, the
+    reason of which they did not know; but I have since learned they
+    take their denomination from a sect of devotees in some parts of
+    the East Indies, who never taste flesh.
+
+    1820. Lamb, Elia (Christ’s Hospital). We had three banyan to four
+    meat days in the week.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. lxiii. If he might be so bold as to
+    carry on the Eastern metaphor, he would say, knowing the excellence
+    of the Colonel’s claret and the splendour of his hospitality, that
+    he would prefer a cocoanut day at the Colonel’s to a banyan-day
+    anywhere else.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack. [From
+    Strolling Players’ bill.] Wooldridge’s Theatre. Wanted 700 men, to
+    man that splendid first-class, Frigate, ‘The Theatre,’ commanded by
+    A. J. Wooldridge, now lying at her moorings, in Cheapside. Mr.
+    Wooldridge, with all due respects to his brother Tars, hopes they
+    will lend a hand to man his Vessel. He cannot offer them a barrel
+    of Ale, but he will make them a promise of his unfeigned thanks and
+    gratitude for this and past favours, with his hearty good wishes
+    for the prosperity of the Town and Trade of Brighton; that his
+    Shipmates, wherever bound, may set sail with fair wind and good
+    passage; that they may never have short allowance—banyan days; or a
+    southerly wind in the Bread Basket.
+
+
+Banjo, subs. (common).—A bed-pan; also called a fiddle or slipper
+(q.v.)—the latter from an improved shape which allows of its being
+slipped in without disturbing the patient.
+
+
+Bank, subs. (common).—A lump sum of money; one’s fortune.
+
+Verb (thieves’).—1. To secure; to obtain (in a pilfering sense).
+
+2. To put in a place of safety.
+
+3. To go shares; to divide fairly with confederates.
+
+4. (prison.)—Millbank prison.
+
+    1889. Answers, May 25, p. 412. We approached our destination,
+    Millbank—the bank in a convict’s parlance.
+
+
+Bankers, subs. (old).—Clumsy boots and shoes; now called
+beetle-crushers. For synonyms generally, see Trotter-cases.
+
+
+Bank Shaving, subs. phr. (American).—Before banks were regulated by Act
+of Congress, a practice prevailed among the least reputable of such
+institutions of purchasing notes of hand and similar documents at
+enormously usurious rates of discount. Many were the facilities for
+sharp practice of every kind. Such banks were called shaving banks, and
+the unfortunate wretch who thus ‘raised the wind’ was said to get his
+paper shaved. The origin of the phrase may be looked for in maritime
+nomenclature, a shaver from a sailor’s point of view being a man who is
+cute and unscrupulous—possibly from the unpleasant operation of shaving
+on board ship when crossing the line.
+
+
+Bankside Ladies, subs. phr. (old).—Ladies of more complaisance than
+virtue. Bankside, Southwark, was once the fashionable theatrical
+quarter of London. There stood once the Globe, the Swan, the Rose, and
+the Hope theatres. On the boards of the first-named originally appeared
+most of Shakspeare’s plays. In Old London the neighbourhoods of the
+principal theatres appear to have been noted for anything but vestal
+virtue. Covent Garden and Drury Lane, like Bankside, have entered
+largely into the vicious slang of the past.
+
+    1638. Randolph, Muses’ Looking-Glass, O. Pl., 9., 206. Come, I will
+    send for a whole coach or two of Bankside ladies, and we will be
+    jovial.
+
+
+Bank-Sneak, subs. (American).—A variety of the genus thief who confines
+his attention to bank robberies. Smart, clever, well-dressed, they
+usually work in gangs, two or three confederates being employed as
+cover whilst the leader does the work. In large towns considerable
+finesse is exhibited by these men in effecting their purpose; but in
+the more thinly populated districts polish and ruse are abandoned in
+favour of more drastic methods. The bank-sneak of the West pursues his
+depredations more as a bandit; his city confrère is more adroit, and
+therefore infinitely more dangerous. For synonyms, see Area-sneak.
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 16. Buffalo officers to-day picked
+    out from a batch of Erie convicts Watt N. Jones, the notorious
+    bank-sneak and burglar so widely known professionally in every city
+    of the United States and Canada.
+
+
+Banner, subs. (American news-boys’).—The money paid for board and
+lodging at the homes frequented by these flying mercuries. The origin
+of the term is unknown.
+
+
+Bant, verb (common.)—To follow the dietary prescribed by Mr.
+Banting.—See Banting.
+
+
+Banting, subs. (common).—A course of diet by which fat people seek to
+reduce their bulk. It consists in strictly discarding as food all
+articles known to favour the development of adipose tissue. It was
+introduced about the year 1864 by a Mr. W. Banting—hence the name. The
+dietary recommended was the use of butcher’s meat principally, and
+abstinence from beer, farinaceous food, and vegetables. Also
+figuratively, to reduce in any way.
+
+    1864. Times, 12 Aug., 4. The classics seemed to have undergone a
+    successful course of banting.
+
+    1868. Miss Braddon, Only a Clod, p. 114. She was a rigid
+    disciplinarian of the school formed by Mr. Banting. Ibid., p. 113.
+    A parlour where all the furniture seemed to have undergone a
+    prolonged course of banting.
+
+    1883. Knowledge, 27 July, p. 49, col. 2. Bantingism excludes beer,
+    butter, and sugar.
+
+
+Bantling, subs. (old).—A young, or small child. This word, once slang,
+is now a received dictionary word. It is stated in Bacchus and Venus
+[1737], and by Grose, to be a cant term. It was formerly synonymous
+with bastard. Appended are a few examples of its use when knocking for
+admittance at the doors of the dictionaries.
+
+    1593. Drayton, Eclog., vii., 102. Lovely Venus ... smiling to see
+    her wanton bantlings game.
+
+    1635. Quarles, Emblems, II., viii. (1718), 93. See how the dancing
+    bells turn round ... to please my bantling.
+
+    1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xlvii. ‘That he may at once
+    deliver himself from the importunities of the mother and the
+    suspense of her bantling.’
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxx. ‘Let the bantlings,’
+    said she, ‘be sent to the hospital ... and a small collection be
+    made for the present support of the mother.’
+
+    1758. Goldsmith, Essays, x. Who follow the camp, and keep up with
+    the line of march, though loaded with bantlings and other baggage.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxi. ‘Sell me to a gipsy, to
+    carry pots, pans, and beggars bantlings.’
+
+
+Banty, adj. (American thieves’).—Saucy; impudent.
+
+
+Baptised or Christened, ppl. adj. (old).—Mixed with water; spirits and
+wines are said to be baptised when diluted. The French equivalent is
+chrétien; also baptisé.
+
+    1636. Healey, Theophrastus, 46. He wil give his best friends his
+    baptized wine.
+
+
+Bar, verb and prep. (colloquial and racing).—1. Used as a verb bar
+signifies to exclude; to prohibit; also to object to a person or
+action. Its lineage is of undoubted respectability, but its usage is
+now but little removed from the vulgar. As a preposition it is
+synonymous with ‘except’—mainly used in racing; e.g., ‘Four to one bar
+one.’
+
+    c. 1598. Shakspeare, M. of Venice, ii., 2, 207. Nay, but I bar
+    to-night: you shall not gauge me by what we do to-night.
+
+    1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, wks. III. (1712), 382. That were
+    as hard as to bar a young parson in the pulpit, the fifth of
+    November,—railing at the Church of Rome.
+
+    1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, Act ii. What I have in my mind, out it comes:
+    but bar that; I’se an honest lad as well as another.
+
+    1752. Foote, Taste, Act ii. I don’t suppose now, but, barring the
+    nose, Roubiliac could cut as good a head every whit.
+
+    1818. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iii. ‘I should like to try that
+    daisy-cutter of yours upon a piece of level road (barring canter)
+    for a quart of claret at the next inn.’
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. lv., p. 483. ‘I’ll bet you ten guineas
+    to five, he cuts his throat,’ said Wilkins Flasher, Esquire.
+    ‘Done,’ replied Mr. Simmery. ‘Stop! I bar,’ said Wilkins Flasher,
+    Esquire, thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps he may hang himself.’
+
+2. (American thieves’.)—To stop; to cease. Obviously an attributive
+meaning of the legitimate word.
+
+3. (American colloquial.)—A spurious verb, the signification of which
+is derived from the drinking-bar. Thus a tippler is said to bar too
+much when given to inordinate drinking.
+
+
+Baragan Tailor, subs. (tailors’).—A rough-working tailor.
+
+
+Barb, verb (old cant).—To barb gold was heretofore a cant term for
+clipping or shaving it. The modern term is to sweat (q.v.). [Apparently
+from to barber, to shave or trim.]
+
+    1610. Ben Jonson, Alchemist, I., i. Ay, and perhaps thy neck within
+    a noose, for laundring gold, and barbing it.
+
+
+Barber, verb. (University).—When impositions are worked off by deputy
+they are said to be barberised. Tradition relates that a learned barber
+was at one time frequently employed as a scapegoat in working off this
+species of punishment inflicted on peccant students—hence the
+expression. A story ben trovato esd non e vero!
+
+That’s the barber.—A street catch-phrase, says Grose, about the year
+1760. There is nothing new under the sun; not even idiotic and
+wearisome street cries, which so many good philologists deplore as a
+sign of the depravity of the times. That’s the barber, like ‘Who’s your
+hatter?’ and ‘How’s your poor feet?’ meant nothing, save a general and
+indefinite comment on any action, measure, or thing. ‘All serene!’
+(q.v.) is presumably its nearest modern street equivalent.
+
+
+Barber’s-Cat, subs. (old).—A weak, sickly looking individual. In French
+such a person is called un faiblard and un astec, the latter an
+allusion to the Mexican dwarfs. According to Hotten, the term is also
+‘used in connexion with an expression too coarse to print.’
+
+
+Barber’s-Chair, subs. (old).—A prostitute; a drab; a strumpet. So
+called from a barber’s-chair being common to all comers. It will be
+remembered that Shakspeare in All’s Well [ii., 2.] likens an
+all-embracing answer to a question to ‘a barber’s-chair that fits all
+buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or
+any buttock.’
+
+    1621. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, III. iv., i, iii. (1651), 665.
+    A notorious strumpet as common as a barber’s-chair. [M.]
+
+    1708. Motteux, Rabelais’ Pantagr., Prognost. v. Bonarobaes.
+    Barber’s-chairs, hedge whores.
+
+
+Barber’s-Clerk, subs. (common).—A term of reproach generally applied by
+mechanics and artisans to overdressed and vaunting clerks and shopmen.
+In a secondary sense it is used of anyone over-particular in his
+personal appearance. The phrases ‘oh, he’s just come from the
+barber’s,’ and ‘one of Truefitt’s young men’ are common enough.
+
+    1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 155. ‘Tailor!’ screamed a third.
+    ‘Barber’s-clerk!’ shouted a fourth. ‘Throw him o-ver!’ roared a
+    fifth, [d.]
+
+
+Barber’s Music, subs. (old).—Harsh and roughly discordant music.
+Barber’s shops were formerly places of great resort, and the old plays
+are full of references to the means by which customers, while waiting
+their turn, wiled away the time. Amongst other things it was usual to
+provide a cittern, a musical instrument similar to a guitar, upon which
+any who chose could try their skill. Many of the old proverbs refer to
+this circumstance. Ben Jonson in The Silent Woman [iii., 5] makes
+Morose say of his wife whom his barber had recommended, ‘I have married
+his cittern that is common to all men’; and Matheo, in The Honest
+Whore, speaks of a barber’s citterne for every serving man to play
+upon. Therefore, it is little wonder that barber’s music should be
+synonymous with discord.
+
+    1660. Pepys, June 5. My lord called for the lieutenant’s cittern,
+    and with two candlesticks with money in them for symbols (cymbals)
+    we made barber’s music.
+
+
+Barefooted on the Top of Ones Head, phr. (American).—Bald-headed. The
+application of the simile is obvious.
+
+
+Bargain. Selling a bargain, phr.  (old).—A species of low wit, much in
+vogue about the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, but which is of
+much more ancient usage. It is frequently alluded to by Swift, who
+remarks that ‘the maids of honor often amused themselves with it.’ If
+so, it seems incredible; and one would say so much the worse for the
+‘maids of honor.’ It is thus described: A person would come into a room
+full of company, apparently in a fright, crying out, ‘It is white, and
+follows me!’ On any of the company asking what? the bargain was sold by
+the first speaker naming a certain portion of the body. In another, and
+happily more decent form, this somewhat senseless ‘sell’ still has a
+vogue. This slang expression and practice was apparently well known to
+Shakspeare, who makes Costard use it in Love’s Labour Lost [Act iii.,
+Sc. 1], ‘The boy hath sold him a bargain.’
+
+
+Barge, subs. (printers’).—1. A ‘case’ in which there is an undue
+proportion of some letters, and a corresponding shortness of those
+which are most valuable.
+
+2. The term is also applied among printers to a card or small box on or
+in which ‘spaces’ are put while correcting formes away from ‘case.’
+
+Verb.—To abuse; to slang. Cf., Bullyrag. The allusion is, of course, to
+the rough mode of speaking peculiar to bargees or bargemen.
+
+    1861. Albert Smith, Medical Student, p. 102. ‘Whereupon they all
+    began to barge the master at once; one saying “his coffee was all
+    snuff and chick-weed.”’
+
+(Uppingham School.)—To knock against a person; to come into collision
+with.
+
+
+Barge-Arse, subs. (common).—A man or woman of rotund development at the
+back. [From barge, a clumsy vessel, + arse, O.E., posterior or
+buttock.] A low term of ridicule. Also used as an adjective,
+barge-arsed.
+
+
+Barge-pole, subs. (Winchester College).—A large stick or thick bough,
+of which there was one in each fagot. Also generally used for any large
+piece of wood.
+
+
+Bark, subs. (common).—1. An Irishman or Irishwoman. Cf., Barkshire.
+
+    1869. Notes and Queries, 4 S., iii., 406. In Lancashire an Irishman
+    is vulgarly called a bark.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 191. Mike
+    when asked by some of his countrymen why he called Fairbanks a
+    ‘bark,’ i.e., an Irishman, said, ‘If I had not put the ‘bark’ on
+    him he would have put it on me, so I had the first pull.’
+
+2. The skin. This occurs also dialectically. In Alan Ramsay’s poems
+[1758] it is so used.
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xx., p. 209. To the great
+    detriment of what is called by fancy gentlemen the bark upon his
+    shins, which were most unmercifully bumped against the hard leather
+    and the iron buckles.
+
+    1876. Family Herald, 2 Dec., p. 80, col. 1. With the bark all off
+    his shins from a blow with a hockey stick.
+
+3. (colloquial.)—A cough. Cf., verb, To bark, sense 2.
+
+Verb.—1. To scrape; or rub off the skin; to abraise.
+
+    1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 227. So, after getting up
+    [the tree] three or four feet, down they came slithering to the
+    ground, barking their arms and faces.
+
+    1859. Macmillan’s Magazine, Nov., p. 18. The knuckles of his right
+    hand were barked.
+
+    1872. Mark Twain, Roughing It, p. 16 (Routledge’s ed.). Every time
+    we avalanched from one end of the stage to the other, the
+    ‘Unabridged Dictionary’ would come too; and, every time it came, it
+    damaged somebody. One trip it barked the Secretary’s elbow; the
+    next trip it hurt me in the stomach, and the third, it tilted
+    Bemis’s nose up till he could look down his nostrils—he said.
+
+2. To cough; generally applied when it is persistent and hacking.
+
+The word with the bark on it, phr. (American).—Without mincing the
+matter; without circumlocution.
+
+    1872. Mark Twain, Roughing It, chap. xv. If ever another man gives
+    a whistle to a child of mine, and I get my hands on him, I will
+    hang him nigher than Haman! That is the word with the bark on it.
+
+To take the bark off, phr. (popular).—To reduce in value, either
+deliberately, or by accident; a figurative usage of ‘to graze,’ ‘to
+take the skin off.’
+
+    1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, p. 310. I rode my gallant grey so
+    close to the wheel, that I grazed his near foreleg against it and
+    took the bark off, as his owner told me, to the tune of three pun’
+    sivin.
+
+    1853. Rev. Ed. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Further Adventures of
+    Verdant Green, p. 31. That’ll take the bark from your nozzle, and
+    distil the Dutch pink for you, won’t it?
+
+To bark at the moon (colloquial).—To clamour uselessly; to agitate to
+no effect; to labour in vain.
+
+    1630. Taylor’s Workes. And thus my booke and comparisons end
+    together; for thus much I know, that I have but all this while
+    bark’d at the moone, throwne feathers against the winde, built upon
+    the sands, wash’d a blackmore, and laboured in vaine.
+
+
+Barker, subs. (popular).—1. A pistol. [From barker, a noisy assailant,
+i.e., one who barks like a dog.] Sometimes called barking iron (q.v.).
+The latter, as far as is known, is the oldest term. An early use of
+barkers bears date of 1815, whilst barking iron occurs in Parker’s
+Life’s Painter, 1789.
+
+    1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiii. ‘Had he no arms?’ asked the
+    Justice. ‘Ay, ay, they are never without barkers and slashers.’
+
+    1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xxii. ‘Barkers for me, Barney,’
+    said Toby Crackit. ‘Here they are,’ replied Barney, producing a
+    pair of pistols.
+
+    1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. xxiv. I’ll give you five for
+    those pistols ... being rather a knowing one about the pretty
+    little barkers.
+
+English Synonyms. ‘Meat in the pot.’ (A Texan term, alluding to the
+means by which meat is literally provided for the pot. Texan figures of
+speech are often startling enough in originality and sententiousness.
+Nor is the moral ingenuity revealed by this vernacular less striking;
+e.g., when revolvers are said ‘to make all men equal.’) Other synonyms
+for revolvers of similar character are ‘my unconverted friend’; ‘a
+one-eyed scribe’ (an argument always persuasive and sometimes
+unanswerable); ‘blue lightning’ (sometimes a tragedy in three acts: Act
+i., a word; Act ii., a flash of blue lightning; and Act iii., certain
+death); ‘whistler’ (from the sharp hissing sound of a bullet in its
+flight); ‘peace-maker’ (a sarcastic commentary on the proverb that
+‘short reckonings make long friends’); dag; pop; etc.
+
+French Synonyms. Un aboyeur (popular: a literal translation of
+‘barker’; also ‘a tout’); un pitroux (thieves’: in the old Provencal,
+pitrou bore the sense of a piece of wood or stick, and it is possible
+that French thieves have here merely transferred the name from one
+weapon to another); un pétouze (a play upon words. In the old cant
+pétouze signified the ancient coin known as a pistole); un bayafe
+(thieves’: formerly baillaf, a term employed by the robbers who
+infested the highways of Southern France. It is thought to be derived
+from two words bailler, to give, and affe or rather affre, signifying
+fear); un mandolet (thieves’); pied de cochon (military: literally ‘a
+pig’s foot’; a variety of weapon of large size and calibre); un
+crucifix or un crucifix à ressort (thieves’: literally ‘a crucifix,’ or
+‘a crucifix with a spring’); un soufflant (thieves’: soufflet = to
+whisper); les burettes (thieves’ and popular: literally ‘phials’).
+
+2. (common.)—A man employed to stand in front of shops and shows to
+attract the attention of passers-by, and if possible to entice them
+inside, where he can safely leave them to the tender mercies of the
+salesmen. The origin of the term is obvious; and, it is interesting to
+note that barker has its exact equivalent in the French aboyeur.
+Amongst touting photographers, in low neighbourhoods, this individual
+is called a doorsman, and the term is likewise applied to auction-room
+touts.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Barker (s.), a salesman’s
+    servant that walks before his door, to invite customers in to buy
+    cloaths.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Barker. The shopman
+    of a dealer in second-hand clothes, particularly about Monmouth
+    St., who walks before his shop and deafens every passenger with his
+    cries of clothes, coats, or gowns, ‘what d’ye want gemmen, what
+    d’ye buy?’
+
+    1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 109. Mock-auctions and
+    ‘selling-off’ shops are not the only pests where barkers are kept
+    at the doors to invite unwary passengers to ‘walk in, walk in, sale
+    just begun.’
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, Oct. 13. I am a barker by profession. The
+    pedestrian agility required to pace up and down before the
+    ‘Half-dime Museum of Anatomy and Natural History,’ soliciting
+    passers-by to enter, is of itself enormous; but where it gets in
+    its base hit is when it increases the appetite. McGinty knows this.
+    McGinty is my friend, but I wouldn’t serve a tenth of his unexpired
+    terms for ten dollars. I have peddled clams with McGinty and have
+    seen him eat three bushels of our stock. That is nothing. When the
+    show isn’t paying, I have to go out and eat grass. This shows you
+    what nickel-plated, back-action appetites we have.
+
+3. A man with a troublesome cough; his complaint is otherwise known as
+a ‘churchyard cough,’ or a ‘notice to quit’ (q.v.).
+
+4. (nautical.)—Besides being used as a designation for a pistol, barker
+is also employed for lower deck guns on board ship.
+
+    1842. Cooper, Jack O’ Lanthorne, I., 151. Four more carronades with
+    two barkers for’ard.
+
+5. See quotation, as follows:—
+
+    1879. Greenwood, Outcasts of London. But what was barking? I
+    thought a great deal about the matter, and could arrive at no more
+    feasible conclusion than that a barker was a boy that attended a
+    drover, and helped him to drive his sheep by means of imitating the
+    bark of a dog.
+
+6. (University.)—A noisy assertive individual; and, in a complimentary
+sense, a great swell.
+
+7. (American.)—A noisy coward; a blatant bully.
+
+
+Barkey (nautical).—A term of endearment in use amongst seafaring men
+when speaking of a vessel to which they have got attached. ‘She’s a
+barkey—she is, my lads!’
+
+
+Barking-Irons, subs. (thieves’).—Pistols. Cf., Barker, sense 1.
+Barking-iron is, historically, an older term than barker by about a
+quarter of a century. Formerly applied, in the navy, to large duelling
+pistols.
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 173. Pistols, barking-irons.
+
+    1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. II., ch. vi. ‘And look you, prick
+    the touch-hole, or your barking-iron will never bite for you.’
+
+
+Barking through the Fence, phr. (American).—A taking advantage of some
+obstacle or shield for saying or doing something, which, but for such
+protection, would not be said or done; or which if done or said might
+entail unpleasant consequences upon the sayer or doer.
+
+
+Barkshire, subs. (common).—Ireland.—See Bark.
+
+
+Bark up the Wrong Tree, verbal phr. (American).—Of trapper and pioneer
+derivation, and idiomatically used to signify that a person is at fault
+as to his purpose, or the means by which he is endeavouring to attain
+his object. The expression arose in this way: the Western huntsman
+found that his prey gradually became more and more wily and cunning in
+eluding pursuit, and frequently he and his dogs were at fault,
+supposing they had ‘treed’ their game when in reality, especially in
+the case of opossums and squirrels and such-like animals, it had
+escaped by jumping from the boughs of one tree to another. The dogs
+consequently were left barking up the wrong tree.
+
+    1835. Richmond Enquirer, Sep. 8. ‘You didn’t really go to old
+    Bullion,’ said a politician to an office-seeker, ‘Why, he has no
+    influence there, I can tell you. You barked up the wrong tree
+    there, my friend, and you deserve to fail.’
+
+    1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. Professor Rose who ‘hit’ this town
+    last spring is around calling us a fugitive from justice, and
+    asking why the police don’t do something. Gently, Professor. When
+    we left Xenia, O., the Sheriff patted us on the back and lent us
+    half-a-dollar. We are the only man in this town who doesn’t turn
+    pale when the stage comes in, and the only one who doesn’t break
+    for the sage brush when it is announced that the United States
+    Marshal is here. We ain’t rich or pretty, but we are good, and the
+    Professor is barking up the wrong tree.
+
+
+Barnaby. To dance barnaby, phr.  (popular).—To move expeditiously;
+irregularly.
+
+
+Barnacle, subs. (old cant).—1. A pickpocket. For synonyms, see Area
+sneak.
+
+    b. 1809, d. 1870. Mark Lemon, Leyton Hall. The man that stood
+    beside thee is old Crookfinger, the most notorious setter, barnacle
+    and foist in the city.
+
+2. (old.)—A good job, or snack easily got.—Lexicon Balatronicum (1811).
+
+3. (old.)—A gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of
+horses.—Lexicon Balatronicum (1811).
+
+4. (old.)—A constant attendant; he who, or that which sticks to one
+like a barnacle to a ship’s bottom.
+
+    1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe! III., wks., 1873, III., 39. Ile
+    cashiere all my yong barnicles. [M.]
+
+    1868. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, I., i., 7. Slopper found
+    him a species of barnacle rather difficult to shake off.
+
+5. (old cant.)—A decoy swindler; from the pertinacity with which such a
+one fastens on to a victim, and will not be shaken off until the
+purpose in view is effected. Cf., senses 1 and 4.
+
+    1591. Greene, Notable Discovery of Coosnage (1859), 23. Thus doth
+    the Verser and the Setter feign a kind friendship to the Cony....
+    As thus they sit tippling, coms the barnackle and thrusts open the
+    doore ... steps back again: and very mannerly saith I cry you
+    mercy, Gentlemen. I thoght a frend of mine had bin heere.
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman of London, wks. (1885) III., 131. He that ...
+    before counterfeited the dronken Bernard is now sober and called
+    the barnacle.
+
+6. (old.)—An individual speaking with a nasal twang; one who speaks
+through his nose.
+
+    1591. Percivall, Sp. Dictionary. Gango, a barnacle, one that
+    speaketh through the nose, Chenolopex. [Chenalopex in Pliny, a
+    species of goose.] [M.]
+
+
+Barnacles, subs. (popular).—1. Spectacles. Formerly applied only to
+spectacles with side pieces of coloured glass, and used more as
+protectors from wind, dust, and glaring light than as aids to the
+sight. Hence used popularly for all kinds of glasses. The derivation
+seems uncertain. The principal suggested origins are:—(1) a corruption
+of binoculis [from Latin bini, double, + oculus, an eye]; (2) an
+attributive usage of barnacles, which, with ‘horse-twitchers’ or
+‘brakes,’ are tools put on the nostrils of horses when they will not
+stand still to be shooed; and in support of this it has been pointed
+out [N. and Q., 1 S., v., 13] the figure of the barnacle borne in
+heraldry sufficiently shows why the term has been transferred to
+spectacles, which were formerly only kept in position by the manner in
+which they clipped the nose; (3) that barnacles are so called from the
+similarity in shape to the black streak which proceeds from the upper
+part of the beak in a line to the corner of, and right round the eye of
+the bernicle, or barnacle goose (Anser bernicla). There is a strong
+resemblance in the mark to a pair of spectacles.
+
+    1571. Damon and Pythias (Dodsley’s Old Plays), Hazlett IV., 81.
+    These spectacles put on. Grim. They be gay barnacles, yet I see
+    never the better.
+
+    1653. Sir Thomas Urquhart, Translation of Rabelais, bk. V., ch.
+    xxvii. They had barnacles on the handles of their faces, or
+    spectacles at most.
+
+The difference between spectacles and barnacles seems to be indicated
+in this passage. In the original French the phrase reads ‘bezicles au
+nez.’ A later quotation illustrative of the usage is:
+
+    1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. i. ‘Give me the barnacles,
+    my good youth, and who can say what nose they may bestride in two
+    years hence?’
+
+English Synonyms. ‘Bossers’; ‘gig-lamps’; ‘goggles.’ A man wearing
+these aids to sight is sometimes called ‘four eyes’ (q.v.).
+
+French Synonyms. Les persiennes (popular: properly ‘venetian
+shutters’); une vitrine (popular: literally ‘a shop window,’ or glass
+case in a museum).
+
+2. (old cant.)—See quotation.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Barnacles (s.) ... in the
+    Canting Language, a pair of spectacles; also the irons or fetters
+    worn by felons are so called; also the gratuity or reward that
+    jockies have for buying horses for gentlemen.
+
+
+Barndoor, subs.  (sporting).—1. A facetious term for a target too large
+to be missed; i.e., as large as a barndoor. Hence barndoor practice as
+applied to organised battues, in which game is driven within a range
+from which it is impossible to escape. This can hardly be called sport;
+rather let it be known as ‘slaughter.’
+
+2. (cricket.)—A player who blocks every ball.
+
+
+Barnet! intj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Nonsense! humbug! Now obsolete.
+
+
+Barnet Fair, subs. (thieves’).—The hair; part of the rhyming slang
+(q.v.). For synonyms see Top dressing.
+
+
+Barney, subs. (popular).—1. A word which varies in sense according to
+the predelictions of the person using it. Generally speaking it means a
+jollification; ‘lark’; pleasurable outing; picnic. The ’Arries and
+roughs of London, however, always associate it with a certain amount of
+rowdyism. Its derivation is unknown, although Barrère gives a long
+dissertation concerning its origin in the Yiddish. As, however, this is
+founded mainly upon a misreading of a quotation from Punch, it is
+somewhat beside the mark.
+
+2. Humbug; cheating; a hoax; something pre-arranged—not genuine. In
+sporting circles it signifies an unfair race of any kind.
+
+    1865. B. Brierley, Irkdale, II., 19. I won thee i’ fair powell one
+    toss an’ no barney.
+
+    1882. Evening News, 2 Sept., p. 1, col. 6. Blackguardly barneys
+    called boxing competitions. [M.]
+
+Murray gives this last in illustration of the secondary sense which he
+applies to the word, viz., a prize-fight. Barney, it is true, does
+signify a prize-fight, but it means more than that. A fair contest
+would not be so named; there must be an element of chicanery in the
+matter. Besides which, barney is applied to unfair sporting
+competitions of any kind. A comparison of the different quotations
+given under this heading will clearly prove that point.
+
+    1884. Referee, April 13, p. 7, col. 4. Who would believe that Mr.
+    Gladstone shammed being ill, and that Sir Andrew Clark issued false
+    bulletins, and that the whole thing was a barney from beginning to
+    end.
+
+    1885. Bell’s Life, Jan. 3, p. 3, col. 4. Few genuine matches have
+    taken place this season on the Transatlantic waters, though
+    exhibitions and barney contests have been plentiful.
+
+3. (American.)—At Harvard College, about the year 1810, this word was
+used to designate a bad recitation. To barney was to recite
+badly.—Hall’s College Words and Customs.
+
+
+Barn-Mouse. To be bitten by a barn-mouse, phr.  (old).—To be tipsy;
+‘screwed.’ The Lexicon Balatronicum says ‘it is probably an allusion to
+barley,’ presumably as the source of malt liquor. Cf., ‘To have on’ Or
+‘wear a barley-cap,’ to be tipsy; also barley-cap = a tippler.
+
+
+Barn-stormer, subs. (theatrical).—A deprecatory epithet applied to
+strolling players.
+
+    1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 June, p. 5, col. 1. If this be
+    barn-storming, Betterton and Garrick were barn-stormers.
+
+    1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. Travelling players who acted short
+    and highly tragic pieces to audiences of clodpoles in any barn or
+    shed they could get, used to be known as barn-stormers, and a
+    ranting, noisy style of acting and speaking is still called
+    ‘barn-storming.’
+
+    1887. Referee, 21 August, p. 3, col. 1. Mr. Edward Terry has again
+    been elected at the head of the poll as trustee of the charities of
+    Barnes. He is not the first clever actor who has been known as a
+    Barnes-stormer.
+
+The French term for one of such a troupe is cabotin.
+
+
+Barnumese, subs. (American).—Barnum, the proprietor of ‘the greatest
+show upon earth,’ has at any rate one claim to immortal fame in having,
+like Boycot, Burke, and Balfour, added a new word to the English
+tongue. The ‘high falutin,’ bombastic style of the great man’s
+announcements are notorious; as much so, in fact, as is the diction of
+the great London newspaper which claims ‘the largest circulation in the
+world.’ From such circumstances we get words like barnumese and
+telegraphese, to signify exaggeration of style—what in slang parlance
+is known as the ‘putting on of side.’
+
+Verb.—To Barnumize is to talk or assert oneself in the style popularly
+attributed to Barnum.
+
+
+Baronet, subs. (old).—A humorous variation for sirloin [of beef].
+
+    1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. IV., ch. x. The sight of the roast
+    beef struck him dumb, permitting him only to say grace, and to
+    declare he must pay his respects to the baronet, for so he called
+    the sirloin.
+
+
+Barrack-Hack, subs. (familiar).—1. In an inoffensive sense applied to
+young women who attend garrison balls year after year. So used there is
+no such imputation of lax morals as occurs in sense 2.
+
+2. A soldier’s prostitute. There are but few classes of persons to whom
+a greater number of slang epithets have been applied than to the poor
+wretched creatures, who from choice, bad-treatment, or as a means of
+subsistence abandon themselves to a life of prostitution. These names
+are to be found in plenty for all grades of semi-public or public
+women. They run the gauntlet from the gilded courtezan to the veriest
+drab in the last stages of destitution and disease. The list of
+synonyms is both long and grim; the names in many cases speaking
+volumes on a subject which it would be painful as well as needless to
+pursue farther in this place, inasmuch as the epithets both in French
+and English, and, it must be added, those of other languages as well,
+speak with a brutal cynicism to which it would be out of place to add a
+comment.
+
+English Synonyms. Ladies of accommodating morals; ladies of more
+complaisance than virtue; anonyma; pretty horsebreaker; artichoke;
+columbine; common Jack; convenient; cow; crack; aunt; ladies of easy
+virtue; bangster; blowen; garrison-hack; bat; bawdy-basket; bed-fagot;
+fireship; bit o’ muslin; laced mutton; mot; bobtail; bona roba; brevet
+wife; grass widow; brimstone; black Bess; brown Bessy; bulker; bunter;
+burick; buttock; cab moll; cat; chauvering donna; chauvering moll;
+barber’s chair; demi-rep; tartlet; trollop; shake; poll; dolly-mop; gay
+woman; unfortunate; dress-lodger; mauks; quædam (obsolete); woman;
+bitch; perfect lady; public ledger; necessary; warming-pan; nun.
+
+French Synonyms. Une persilleuse (familiar); une mal peignée (popular:
+‘a dirty ill-dressed woman; drab; or draggletail’); une moellonneuse (a
+prostitute who frequents builders’ yards); hirondelle de goguenot
+(military: ‘a barrack-hack’; in French soldiers’ slang un goguenot is a
+tin can used for making coffee or soup); un chausson (literally ‘a
+sock’ or ‘stocking’); almanach de trente six mille adresses (popular:
+literally ‘a directory.’ Cf., English ‘public-ledger’); une génisse
+(popular: literally ‘a heifer.’ Cf., English ‘cow’); une raccrocheuse
+(popular: raccrocher, ‘to hook’); une vache à lait (popular: literally
+‘a milch cow’); une fleur de macadam (popular: ‘a roadside flower’; ‘a
+street walker’); une roulante (popular: in old French slang un roulant
+= a vehicle. Cf., English ‘cab’); une camelote (popular: a prostitute
+of the lowest class; a draggletail); une morue (popular: literally ‘a
+cod-fish’); une marcheuse (popular: properly ‘a walker’; in theatrical
+parlance, a female super); une piqueuse de trains (popular: one who
+prowls about railway stations. Piqueuse = needlewoman); un pigeon
+voyageur (familiar: a girl who travels up and down a railway seeking
+clients; literally ‘a carrier pigeon’); une pieuvre (familiar: a kept
+woman; properly ‘an octopus’); un carcan à crinoline (popular: carcan,
+applied to either sex is an opprobrious epithet; the phrase also
+signifies ‘a gaunt-woman’); un omnibus (popular: i.e., ‘one who may be
+ridden by all’); un cul crotté (low: properly ‘a dirty bottom’); une
+trychine (popular: an allusion to trichina spiralis, the disease-germ
+in bad pork); une fenêtrière (popular: an allusion to the custom of
+this class to watch at windows and invite passers-by to visit them);
+une traîneuse (familiar: a prostitute who plies her trade at railway
+stations); un trumeau (popular: literally ‘a leg of beef’); une
+crevette (popular: ‘a prawn’ or ‘shrimp’); une boulonnaise (a girl who
+‘walks’ the Bois de Boulogne); un matelas ambulant (popular: properly
+‘a walking mattress.’ Cf., English ‘bed-fagot’); une demoiselle du
+Pont-Neuf (popular: this kind haunt the bridge of the name over the
+Seine); un demi-castor (popular: a woman of the demi-monde); une
+laqueuse (familiar: a prostitute frequenting the lake in the Bois de
+Boulogne); une pailletée (common: properly ‘spangled’); un pelican
+(familiar: a dressy courtesan); une ningle (a literary term); une
+maquillée (popular: ‘one with painted face’); une gueuse (popular:
+gueuse = beggarly, wretched); une fille or femme du trottoir (popular:
+‘a girl’ or ‘woman of the pavement’); une vieille garde (familiar: an
+old worn-out prostitute); une biche (popular: ‘a hind’ or ‘roe’); une
+déhanchée (popular: ‘a waddler’); une demi-mondaine (general: a woman
+of the demi-monde; a fashionable prostitute); une portion (military:
+literally ‘a share’ or ‘portion’; one who is shared by many); une
+limace (popular: properly ‘a slug’); une terrinière (the lowest sort of
+prostitute; terrine = earthen pan); une terreuse (a woman who prowls
+about lonely spots); une terrière (popular); une fille à parties
+(popular); une rivette; une voirie (popular: ‘a common sewer’); une
+boule rouge (familiar: a frequenter of the Quartier de la Boule Rouge,
+Fanbourg Montmartre); une vessie (popular: a very low prostitute;
+vessie applied to either sex is an offensive epithet); une demoiselle
+de bitume (familiar); un pont d’Avignon (popular); une pontonnière
+(popular: a prostitute who plies her trade under the arches of bridges;
+ponton = pontoon, ‘a bridge of boats’; pontonnier = ‘a toll gatherer’);
+une polisseuse de tuyaux de pipe (literally ‘a polisher of pipe
+stems’); une pompe funèbre (familiar: properly ‘funeral pomp’); une
+polisseuse de mâts de cocagne en chambre (popular: an extremely
+degraded variety of prostitute; literally ‘a polisher of greasy poles
+in a room’); une punaise (general: ‘a bug’—a public woman of the lowest
+grade); une dessalée (popular: literally ‘a knowing woman’); une
+mangeuse de viande crue (popular: ‘a devourer of raw meat’); une cité
+d’amour (literally ‘a city of love’); autel de besoin (popular: ‘an
+altar of necessity’; Cf., English ‘necessary’); une vésuvienne
+(familiar: literally ‘a vesuvian,’ either in allusion to the volcano or
+the well-known brand of matches; in either case the epithet comes very
+close to the old English slang ‘fireship,’ an old and diseased
+prostitute); peau, or peau de chien (popular: literally ‘dog’s skin’);
+un grenier à coups de sabre (a soldiers’ term: grenier, a granary;
+coups de sabre, thrusts with a broad sword); une rempardeuse (a woman
+who frequents the ramparts); une femme de terrain (a draggletailed
+woman; femme, woman, terrain, ground); une saucisse (popular: i.e., ‘a
+small sausage’); une trainée (familiar); une baleine (popular: ‘a
+whale’); une lésé-bombe (popular); une fille en brème (a registered
+prostitute; la brème is the card given to such women by the police);
+une fille en carte (a registered woman: see preceding); une boutonnière
+à pantalons (familiar: a kind of semi-prostitute; a sempstress who
+walks the streets at night; in their own words, they ‘work for their
+living, but do the naughty for their clothes’); une fille de maison or
+une fille à numéro (familiar: these names are given to girls in
+brothels; Cf., English ‘dress-lodgers’); une fille de tournure
+(familiar: this also is applied to the inmate of a brothel; literally
+‘a girl of figure’); une poupée (popular: ‘a doll’); une mouquette
+(popular); des poules (popular: the inmates of a brothel are so called;
+literally ‘hens’); une galvaudeuse (popular: galvauder, ‘to scold’);
+une planche à boudin (familiar: literally ‘a slice of pudding’; in
+English harlotry ‘to take one’s pudding’ or ‘greens’ is to have sexual
+connection); une blanchisseuse en chemise (blanchisseuse = laundress;
+être dans la chemise de quelqu’un is to be constantly with one); un
+lard (literally ‘bacon’ or body); une gadoue (properly ‘street refuse’
+or ‘mud’); un sommier de caserne (military: sommier means
+‘hair-mattress,’ and caserne = ‘barracks’; applied to girls who prowl
+about barracks); une grivoise (this term is now obsolete, but was
+formerly applied to a garrison town prostitute. It means, literally, ‘a
+jolly canteen woman’); une paillasse à soldats (a barrack-hack;
+literally ‘a straw mattress for soldiers’); un passe-lacet (properly ‘a
+bodkin’—i.e., ‘something to be threaded’); un chameau (the term was
+originally applied to a gaunt, ungainly woman; it now signifies a
+prostitute also); un membre de la caravane (a euphemism for un chameau,
+q.v.); un lolo (popular); une grue (popular: a kept woman; faire le
+pied de grue, ‘to dance attendance’); une soupeuse (literally ‘one who
+takes supper’; an allusion to the ‘cabinets particuliers’ of French
+restaurants); une belle petite (a young and pretty prostitute of the
+superior class; literally ‘a pretty darling’); une pêche à quinze sous
+(a literary term); une boulevardière (a superior class of prostitute
+frequenting the boulevards); un camélia (a kept woman; a reference to
+the heroine of La Dame aux camélias by A. Dumas fils); une lorette (a
+variety of prostitute named after the Quartier Notre Dame de Lorette,
+the Paris Pimlico); une petite dame (literally ‘a little lady’); une
+impure (a kept woman; properly ‘an unchaste one’); une agenouillée
+(journalistic); une verticale; une horizontale de grande marque (a
+fashionable courtezan); une cocotte (a generic term); une pierreuse (a
+public woman of the lowest grade who plies her hideous trade in houses
+in course of building, etc.); une chamègue; un bourdon (thieves’:
+literally ‘a drone’); une lipète (popular); une magneuse (popular: a
+woman who depraves herself with members of her own sex. The name is
+said to be in allusion to a religious community who derived their
+cognomen from that of their founder, Jeanne Canart, the daughter of
+Nicholas Colbert, who was the Seigneur de Magneux); une vielle lanterne
+(popular: an old prostitute; lanterne = ‘window’); une feuille
+(literally ‘a leaf’; the term is one used at the Saumur School of
+Cavalry); un blanc (literally ‘blank’ or ‘white’; the derivation is
+somewhat obscure, but the term is a very ancient one for a public
+woman. Mangeur de blanc is a man who lives upon the earnings of
+prostitutes and ruins them. Formerly, the expression mettre à blanc was
+used in the sense of ‘to ruin’); une vache (this term in its popular
+signification merely means ‘a woman of indifferent character’; if a
+prostitute is intended, the expression is une vache à lait, a milch
+cow); un veau (literally ‘a calf’; the phrase is applied to a young
+prostitute. Cf., ‘vache à lait’); une retapeuse (popular); un wagon
+(popular: a dirty prostitute. Cf., wagon, ‘a railway carriage’ and un
+omnibus); une taupe (familiar: literally a mole, an animal that works
+in the dark; also ‘a cunning fox’); une Jeanneton (popular: a
+chambermaid at an inn); une andre (an old word; see Fourbesque landra);
+une roulure (popular: a public woman of the lowest description. Rouler
+signifies ‘to roll,’ ‘to wander,’ ‘to stroll,’ ‘to keep going’); une
+fille de barrière (popular: a prostitute plying her trade at the
+barriers or gates of the city); une dossière (thieves’: literally ‘a
+back’); une rouleuse (familiar: an abandoned woman; literally the name
+of a species of caterpillar); une paillasse à troufion (a soldier’s
+woman); une paillasse de corps de garde (military: literally ‘a
+guard-room mattress’); une marneuse (popular: a variety of low class
+prostitute frequenting the river-side; literally ‘clayey’); une Louis
+(a bully’s mistress; the allusion is to the fancy which women in
+brothels often have of powdering and dressing the hair in the fashion
+of the times of Louis XV.); une ouvrière (also a ‘bully’s’ mistress.
+The term signifies, literally, ‘a workwoman.’ These wretched creatures
+support their companions who live and batten on what the woman earns in
+the sale of her person); une fesse (popular: properly ‘a breech’); une
+marmite (harlotry: ‘a flesh pot’); un torchon (a low class of woman;
+torchon = ‘a dish clout’); une sauterelle (familiar: ‘a grass-hopper’);
+un prat; une femme de cavoisi (thieves’: a well dressed prostitute of
+the boulevards); une louille; une larque (a registered woman; a
+corruption of largue); une menesse (a thieves’ term); une larguèpe; une
+magnuce (see une magneuse); une casserole (thieves’: literally ‘a
+saucepan’); une goipeuse (thieves’: a name given to prostitutes who
+wander about the country); une ronfle; une ronfle à grippart; un
+ronfleur (thieves’: ronfler is properly ‘to snore’); un grippeur
+(gripper = ‘to nab’; crib; clutch); une panterne; une bourre de soie (a
+kept woman; bourre = floss + soie = silk); un asticot (a bully’s or
+thief’s mistress; literally ‘a maggot’; it may be stated that asticot
+is also used for both the membrum virile, and for vermicelli); une
+panuche (thieves’: a term applied to showily dressed women who live in
+brothels); une calège (thieves’: a kept woman; cale, a kind of
+head-dress); une ponante (thieves’: a low-class prostitute); une môme
+or mômeresse (thieves’); une lutainpem (thieves’); une laissée
+(thieves’ and roughs’); une galupe (popular: a street walking
+prostitute); une ponife, poniffe, or poniffle (thieves’).
+
+For German Synonyms, see Tart.
+
+Italian Synonyms. Una sbriso (this term has another cant signification,
+viz., ‘to be naked’; hence, probably, its attributive usage for a
+prostitute); una losena (this, like other Fourbesque terms for a woman,
+also means ‘a woman of the town’; indeed in most argots there seems to
+be little, if any distinction drawn between women of easy virtue, and
+the sex as a whole); una guagnastra (i.e., one who acts as a sheath;
+the allusion is obvious. Cf., English ‘broom’ and ‘broom-handle’ for
+the female pudenda and the male penis respectively); una marcona (said
+to be an allusion to a certain incident in the history of the Papal
+States); una landra (curiously enough this term signifying, in orthodox
+Italian, a prostitute is, in the Fourbesque, synonymous also with
+‘woman.’ The French andre, a woman of the town, dates back to the
+sixteenth century); una brocca (literally a jug, pitcher, or stupid
+person); una brocchiera (from Italian brocchiere, ‘a buckler’ or
+‘shield’); una baia (i.e., a mistress); una farfoia (also a nun, in
+which connection compare with English abbess); una chierlera (this term
+likewise is also used in the sense of a female devotee. Both the
+English and French slang have ‘nun’ as an equivalent for a prostitute);
+una carniera or carnifica (cant terms for a ‘sister,’ and ‘fox’ also);
+una cara (literally ‘dear.’ Cf., French belle petite, ‘little
+darling.’)
+
+The Spanish Germania has gaya to signify a prostitute. This is an exact
+equivalent of the French fille de joie or ‘gay girl’; gaya in Spanish
+signifies ‘gay.’ Another name is found in germana, in explanation of
+which it may be briefly explained that the Spanish argot or Germania
+took its name from a band or brotherhood of thieves and robbers; and it
+would thus appear that germana, the name for a female member of the
+band was also used generically for a prostitute! Marca, or marquida and
+marquisa are also all used in the sense of a public woman. It may be
+noted that in the Italian marchesata stands for a woman when under
+menstruation, the physiological fact itself being called marchese;
+mercenario, a street walker, also signifies a nun of the religious
+order of La Merced.
+
+
+Barracking, subs. (Australian).—Banter; chaff. Cf., Barrikin.
+
+
+Barrel-Boarder, subs. (American).—A loafer in low drinking-saloons.
+
+
+Barrel-Campaign, subs. (American).—Political contests in which bribery
+and corruption go hand-in-hand with canvassing and voting. A wealthy
+candidate for office is said to have originated the phrase by
+remarking, ‘Let the boys know that there’s a bar’l o’ money ready for
+’em,’ or words to that effect. The use of the term in this sense became
+general about 1876.—See Boodle.
+
+    1884. Boston (Mass.) Journal, 1 Nov., 1. We are accustomed to
+    barrel-campaigns here. Nobody supposes this district to be
+    Democratic, but the Democrats depend upon carrying it with money.
+
+    1888. Florida Times Union, Feb. 11, p. 4. It will be remembered
+    that Mr. Flower was the nominal candidate of the anti-Cleveland men
+    four years ago, and with the aid of his barrel they really did
+    achieve some show of success.
+
+
+Barrel-Fever, subs. (popular).—An indisposition caused by excessive
+drinking. ‘He died of barrel-fever’; i.e., ‘he killed himself through
+drink.’ For synonyms, see Gallon distemper.
+
+
+Barrel-House, subs. (American).—A low groggery.
+
+    1888. Missouri Republican, Feb. 11. The West-Side police are still
+    arresting barrel-house loafers in the hope of catching an expert
+    cracksman among them.
+
+
+Barrell’s Blues, subs. phr. (military).—A nickname given to the Fourth
+Foot. [From its facings and Colonel’s name from 1734 to 1739.] They are
+also called ‘the Lions,’ from the ancient badge of the regiment.
+
+
+Barres, subs. (gaming).—Money lost at play, but not paid. The term is
+an old one, and has long been obsolete. A corrupt form of ‘barrace,’ an
+obsolete plural of ‘bar.’
+
+
+Barrikin, subs. (common).—Gibberish; jargon; a jumble of words. For
+usage, see quotation.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 15. ‘The
+    high words in a tragedy we call jaw-breakers, and say we can’t
+    tumble to that barrikin.’ Ibid, p. 25. Can’t tumble to your
+    barrikin [i.e., can’t understand you]. Ibid, p. 27. The rich has
+    all that barrikin to themselves.
+
+
+Barring.—See To bar.
+
+
+Barring Out, subs. phr. (old).—Exclusion from a place by means of locks
+and bars. More particularly applied to a half serious but oftentimes
+jocular rebellion of schoolboys against the schoolmaster.
+
+    1728. Swift, Journal of a Modern Lady.
+
+        Not schoolboys at a barring-out,
+        Raised ever such incessant rout.
+
+    1847. Tennyson, Princess, conclusion.
+
+        Revolts, republics, revolutions, most,
+        No graver than a schoolboys’ barring-out.
+
+
+Barrow-Bunter, subs. (old).—A barrow-woman; a female costermonger.
+
+    1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, i., 140. I saw a dirty
+    barrow-bunter in the street cleaning her dusty fruit with her own
+    spittle.
+
+
+Barrow-Man, subs. (old).—1. A man who hawks his wares on a barrow; a
+costermonger. The term dates back to the middle of the seventeenth
+century. Un marottier is the French equivalent for one species of the
+fraternity, better known in England as a dudsman (q.v.).
+
+2. Also formerly a man under sentence of transportation.
+
+
+Barrow-Tram, subs. (familiar).—An ungainly person; one awkward in gait,
+and coarse and rawboned in feature.
+
+
+Barter, subs. (Winchester College).—A half volley. From the Warden of
+that name famous for disposing of them.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 133. What a
+    noble game cricket must be when one loved it so much,
+    notwithstanding the previous training! What genuine excitement when
+    College and Commoners was played; what frantic shouting when Rapid
+    got well hold of a ‘barter’ ... and sent the ball from ‘Spanish
+    Poplar,’ right over Mead’s wall by ‘Log pond.’
+
+    1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 327. Barter was the most popular boy of
+    his day with his schoolfellows. Wonderful things are told of his
+    scores at cricket at which he is supposed to have been the hardest
+    hitter of his own times, or of any near him.... He was so renowned
+    for the tremendous force with which he was wont to swipe the ball,
+    commonly known to cricketers as a ‘half-volley,’ that it actually
+    changed its name in the Wykehamical vocabulary, and for fully half
+    a century afterwards—and, for all I know, to the present day—bore
+    the name of a Barter.
+
+Verb.—To hit a ball hard at cricket.
+
+Hitting barters.—Practice catching; full pitches hit from the middle of
+‘Turf’ towards Ball-Court for catching practice towards the end of
+‘Long Meads.’
+
+
+Bartholomew Baby, subs. (old).—A gaudily dressed doll, such as appears
+to have been commonly sold at Bartholomew Fair.—See Bartholomew-pig.
+Also applied to a person gaudily dressed.
+
+    1682. Wit and Drollery, p. 343.
+
+        Her petticoat of sattin,
+          Her gown of crimson tabby,
+        Lac’d up before, and spangl’d ore,
+          Just like a Bartholomew baby.
+
+
+Bartholomew-Pig, subs. (old).—Roasted pigs, says Nares, were formerly
+among the chief attractions of Bartholomew Fair, West Smithfield,
+London: they were sold piping hot, in booths and on stalls, and
+ostentatiously displayed, to excite the appetite of passengers. Hence a
+Bartholomew-pig became a common subject of allusion: the Puritan railed
+against it.
+
+    1614. B. Jons., Bart. Fair, i., 6. For the very calling it a
+    Bartholomew-pig, and to eat it so, is a spice of idolatry.
+
+Falstaff, in coaxing ridicule of his enormous figure, is playfully
+called by his favourite,
+
+    1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., ii., 4. Thou whoreson little tidy
+    Bartholomew-boar-pig.
+
+Dr. Johnson thought that paste-pigs were there meant: but the true
+Bartholomew-pigs were substantial, real, hot, roasted pigs; as may be
+seen throughout the above play of old Ben, where Ursula, the pig-woman,
+is no inconsiderable personage. Gayton also speaks of the pig-dressers.
+
+    Like Bartholomew Fair pig-dressers, who look like the dams, as well
+    as the cooks of what they roasted.
+
+Fest. N., p. 57.
+
+The young wife in Jonson’s play pretends a violent longing for pig,
+that she may be taken to the fair; and it seems that her case was far
+from uncommon. Davenant speaks of the Bartlemew-pig,
+
+
+        That gaping lies on every stall,
+        Till female with great belly call.
+
+
+The fair in its later days got to be a place of too much mobbing and
+riot for ladies in that condition. There might also be paste-pigs, but,
+if so, they were very inferior objects, and meant only for children.
+Mrs. Ursula also tells us the price of her pigs; namely, five
+shillings, five shillings and sixpence, or even six shillings! This was
+surely as dear in James I.’s time, as a guinea lately. The highest
+price, of course, was to be asked of a longing woman. The fair was
+abolished in 1854, having been inaugurated in 1133.—Nares.
+
+
+Barts., subs. (medical students’).—An abbreviation of ‘St. Bartholomew
+Hospital.’
+
+
+Bash, verb (popular).—To beat; thrash; or crush out of shape. Possibly
+from the Scandinavian bask, a slap; ‘box’ also seems to have the same
+derivation. Chiefly appearing in the northern dialects, bash is
+regarded nowadays in the light of a vulgar colloquialism. Thieves use
+it synonymously with ‘to flog.’—See Bashing. In older writers the word
+appears as pash, the ‘p’ in this case being simply a harder form than
+‘b.’ An alternative onomatopoetic derivation has, however, been
+suggested, the ‘b’ of such words as ‘beat’ and ‘bang’ being transferred
+to the terminal letters of ‘dash,’ ‘gash,’ ‘smash,’ etc.
+
+    1592. Nashe, Strange Newes, in wks. II., 272. A leane arme put out
+    of the bed shall grind and pash euerie crum of thy booke into
+    pin-dust.
+
+    1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, II., ii. Jove’s artillery shot down
+    at once, to pash your gods in pieces.
+
+    1882. Daily Telegraph, Dec. 9, p. 2, col. 6. A man ... told witness
+    that he would earn a sovereign if he cared to give a certain
+    woman—the complainant—a couple of black eyes.... His instructions
+    were to follow the man he met in the public-house in Bear Street,
+    and to bash the woman he would point out to him in Portland Street.
+
+    1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. xii. ‘If you have got bashed about
+    pretty well since you came back, it’s been all your own fault, and
+    you know it.’
+
+    1883. Standard, March 2, p. 6, col. 7. Mr. Hannay reminded her that
+    when the summons was applied for, the boy’s father had said that
+    the boy was bashed on the floor, and received a black eye and a
+    bruised head.
+
+Amongst synonyms may be mentioned the English verb ‘bang,’ and the
+French bêcher, which signifies properly to dig or break up ground.—See
+Tan.
+
+
+Basher, subs. (pugilistic).—A prize-fighter. For synonyms, see Bruiser.
+
+    1882. Daily Telegraph, Dec. 16, p. 2, col. 6. According to the
+    statement of the prosecuting solicitor, this was the man who
+    undertook to point out to Leech, the professed basher, the woman
+    whom he was to assault in Portland Street.
+
+
+Bashi-Bazouk, subs. (popular).—A ruffian; and used loosely as a more or
+less mild term of opprobrium; also applied to anything bizarre in
+character or composition. The expression came into vogue during the
+period when the Bulgarian atrocities were electrifying the world by
+their barbarous cruelty. The Bashi-bazouks are properly irregular
+Turkish soldiery. They are collected hastily in times of emergency; and
+are, consequently, somewhat impatient of discipline, assuming that such
+a commodity in its Western sense is known at all to the
+Tartar-descended Turk—‘the unspeakable Turk’ as he was fitly called
+during the period above alluded to. So infamous have these levies
+become at times, that more than once they have been disbanded in
+deference to pressure brought to bear upon the Turkish authorities by
+the Western powers.
+
+
+Bashing, subs. (prison).—A flogging; a taste of the cat-o’-nine-tails.
+Prisoners condemned to this punishment at the commencement of their
+term are said by their companions to receive a bashing in; if they also
+undergo a flogging just previous to their release, it is called a
+bashing out.
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 157. There were the
+    evidences of former floggings, or bashings, as the prisoners call
+    them.
+
+
+Basils, subs. (old cant).—Fetters on one leg only.
+
+
+Basin, subs. (American).—A schooner (q.v.).
+
+
+Basing.—See That’s basing.
+
+
+Basketed, ppl. adj. (old).—From this cockpit expression used of persons
+unable or unwilling to pay their losses, and who in consequence were
+relegated for the rest of the day to a basket hung over the cockpit, is
+derived the figurative usage in the sense of ‘to be left out in the
+cold’; not understood; non-plussed; ‘floored.’
+
+    b. 1788, d. 1841. Hook, Gerv. Skinner, ch. iii. Skinner was quite
+    enchanted with the brilliancy of his guests, although now and then
+    a little puzzled at their allusions; there jokes were chiefly local
+    or professional, and very frequently my excellent friend Gervase
+    was, to use a modern phrase of general acceptation, basketed.
+
+    1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, vol. I., p. 79. The fight was soon over
+    after this circumstance, and the sweaters and trainers were
+    completely in the basket!
+
+    1866. E. Yates, Land at Last.... And find you in his den, lighting
+    it up like—like—like—I’m regularly basketed, by jove!
+
+To be brought or to go to the basket, phr.  (familiar).—To be
+imprisoned; to be reduced to poverty. A basket is here the symbol of
+daily provision, or alms. Formerly prisoners were dependent on charity
+for daily sustenance, and it was customary for them to let down a
+basket by a string through the gaol windows, soliciting the alms of
+passers-by.—See also Angling for farthings.
+
+    1632. Massinger and Field, Fatal Dowry, v., 1. Pontalier [to
+    Liladam, who is in custody for debt].
+
+        Arrested! this is one of those whose base
+        And abject flattery help’d to dig his grave;
+        He is not worth your pity, nor my anger;
+        Go to the basket, and repent.
+
+    1700. Gentleman Instructed [1732], p. 6. God be praised! I am not
+    brought to the basket, though I had rather live on charity than
+    rapine. [d.]
+
+To be left in the basket, phr.  (common).—To be rejected; abandoned;
+unchosen. Cf., second quotation.
+
+    1840. Barham, I. L. (House Warning).
+
+        Whatever he wants, he has only to ask it,
+        And all other suitors are left in the basket.
+
+    1874. Bell’s Life, 26 Dec. The pick of the basket, a compact young
+    greyhound.
+
+
+Basket-Making, subs. (old).—When enceinte a woman was formerly said ‘to
+have a kid in the basket.’ [Cf., Bay-window.] Hence basket-making to
+signify the act of copulation.
+
+
+Bass, subs. (popular).—A familiar abbreviation for Bass’ ale, brewed at
+Burton-on-Trent.
+
+    1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
+    Green, p. 23. The young gentleman exhibited great capacity for the
+    beer of Bass, and the porter of Guiness.
+
+    1863. Oudia, Held in Bondage, I., p. 65. Those idle lads in the
+    Temple, who smoke cavendish and drink Bass. Ibid, p. 126.
+    Discussing Bass and a cold luncheon.
+
+    1868. Miss Braddon, Only a Clod, I., p. 138. A lot of fellows
+    drinking no end of Bass.
+
+    18(?). Annie Thomas, A Passion in Tatters, I., p. 110. Bass that
+    was not worthy of its name.
+
+
+Baste, verb (colloquial).—To thrash; to beat soundly. This verb is
+given a place here for the purpose of comparison, as it is somewhat
+uncertain whether it can with propriety be classed as slang. Of
+uncertain origin, but dating from the sixteenth century; to baste,
+properly ‘to sew together loosely,’ or ‘to apply fat or gravy to a
+joint,’ is, in its figurative usage, of more than passing interest when
+compared with anoint (q.v.), and other words employed in the same
+figurative sense. It is curious indeed to note the many synonymous
+analogues for a good beating or thrashing, all of which pertain more or
+less to slang. R. W. Hackwood [N. and Q., 7 S., vii., 153] mentions
+several, amongst others colting (q.v.), used by Marryat in Midshipman
+Easy. As bearing upon the general idea involved in this class of words,
+the quotation may be placed side by side with another from the King’s
+Own by the same writer.
+
+    1830. Marryat, King’s Own, ch. vii. ‘He always carried in his
+    pocket a colt (i.e., a foot and a half of rope, knotted at one end
+    and whipped at the other), for the benefit of the youngsters, to
+    whom he was a most inordinate tyrant.’
+
+    1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xii. ‘Then he colted me for
+    half-an-hour, and that’s all.’
+
+Colting like basting is of uncertain derivation. Comparing it, however,
+with analogous words, may we not take it, continues the writer referred
+to, as very closely associated with, if not actually belonging to, the
+series of synonyms for the operations which derive their origin from
+the shoemakers, curriers, and allied trades, as we find it in ‘a
+leathering,’ ‘a strapping,’ ‘a tanning,’ ‘a welting,’ etc. Indeed, it
+is worth noting in this connection, from the number of epithets applied
+to the operation, what a deal of chastising has apparently been
+required in most trades and occupations, for nearly all—except,
+perhaps, the carpenter’s, where sticks are plentiful—appear to be
+represented, and even in the domestic circle one can have a choice of
+‘a towelling,’ ‘a basting,’ ‘a clouting,’ ‘a rubbing down,’ ‘a
+dressing,’ ‘a trimming,’ or ‘a wiping’ when occasion requires.
+
+    1533. Bellenden, Livy, III. (1822), 223. He departit weil basit and
+    defuleyeit of his clothing.
+
+    1599. Greene, George-a-Greene, in wks. (Grosart) XIV., 174. Ile
+    baste you both so well, you were neuer better basted in your liues.
+
+    1605. Tryall of Chevalry, III., i., in Bullen’s Old Plays, iii.,
+    305. But, had I knowne as much, I would have basted him till his
+    bones had rattled in his skin.
+
+    1611. Beaumont, Knight of Burning Pestle, II., iv.
+
+        Look on my shoulders, they are black and blue;
+        Whilst to and fro fair Luce and I were winding,
+        He came and basted me with a hedge-binding.
+
+    1660. Pepys, Diary, July 22. One man was basted by the keeper, for
+    carrying some people over on his back, through the water.
+
+    1754. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. To baste or bast ... to beat, or
+    bang soundly.
+
+    1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., xix., p. 328. ‘Hold your
+    row, Davvy,’ he roared out, wrathfully: ‘you’d not like me to come
+    back and give you a basting.’
+
+Among some English Synonyms may also be mentioned:—to give a hiding; to
+give a walloping; to dust one’s jacket; to quilt; to tan; to set about;
+to walk into; to manhandle; to give one Jesse; to give one gas; to
+dowse; to pay.
+
+For synonyms generally, see Tan.
+
+
+Baster, subs. (American thieves’).—A New York cant term for a house
+thief.
+
+
+Bastile, subs. (vagrants’).—A workhouse. For synonyms, see Big house.
+Probably from the Bastile, a famous prison; lock-ups for a long time
+being generically named Bastiles. Now corrupted into steel.
+
+    1883. Cuthbert Bede, in Graphic, June 2, p. 558, col. 2. Mister
+    Corbyn had always called the workhouse by the opprobrious epithet
+    of the basteel.
+
+(Thieves’.)—A prison.—See Cage. Bastile in this sense is mentioned by
+Captain Grose [1785].
+
+
+Bat, subs. (old slang).—1. A prostitute who plies her trade by night;
+an allusion to the nocturnal habits of the flying mammal—indeed,
+another old term for a woman of the town was literally a fly-by-night.
+The equivalent French term, hirondelle de nuit, i.e., ‘a night
+swallow,’ is more poetic. For full lists of synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
+
+2. (American.)—A spree; frolic; and sometimes a drunken bout. A
+contracted form of ‘batter.’
+
+    1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 1. Mr. Pote: ‘I see in the
+    evening paper that a woman has been bitten by a bat, and afterwards
+    died of lockjaw.’ Mrs. P. (tartily): ‘If she had been bitten by the
+    kind of bat you went on when I was away last Saturday week, she
+    would probably have died of delirium tremens.’
+
+3. (athletic.)—Pace; speed (in walking, rowing, etc.). Partly also
+dialectical, especially Scotch, Craven, and Lincolnshire.
+
+    1887. Daily News, 18 August, p. 6, col. 3. Here they come, a mixed
+    flock of birds full bat overhead.
+
+To bat one’s eyes, phr. (American).—1. A South-western term which is
+explained by quotation.
+
+    1846. Overland Monthly, p. 79. The ox whip has both parts as long
+    as they can be managed. I have seen a poor fellow from Ohio,
+    totally unused to this enormous affair, swing it round his head in
+    many an awkward twist, while the Texans stood by and laughed to see
+    him knock off his hat and bat his eyes at every twitch, to avoid
+    cutting them out.
+
+Cf., Italian batter d’occhio, twinkling of an eye.
+
+2. (American gaming.)—To look on but not to play. Cf., Bet.
+
+Off or on one’s own bat, phr.  (popular).—On one’s own account; by
+one’s own exertions. A figurative usage of a cricketing term; ‘off
+one’s own bat,’ is said of a score made by a player individually.
+
+    1845. Sydney Smith, Fragm. Irish Ch., wks. II., 340, 1. He had no
+    revenues but what he got off his own bat. [M.]
+
+    1855. Lord Lonsdale, in Croker Papers (1884), vol. III., p. 325.
+    Derby ... would not make a Ministry from his own friends or his own
+    bat.
+
+    1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. xxiii. ‘You have a weakness
+    for the great world? Good. Score off your own bat, and it is the
+    great world comes to you.’
+
+    1884. Sat. Review, March 8, p. 308, col. 2. He has in the most
+    workmanlike manner, and off his own bat, lost for the Government an
+    important seat by a crushing majority.
+
+To carry out one’s bat, phr.  (popular).—This also is derived from a
+cricketing expression. In the game it means to be not out, i.e., the
+last man in. Figuratively, therefore, to carry out one’s bat is to
+persevere and carry through an undertaking; to outlast all other
+opponents; and thus to secure the result aimed at.
+
+    1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxviii. The General defended his
+    stumps as he would have defended a fortress, and carried his bat
+    out with a score of a hundred and seven.
+
+
+Batchelor’s Son, subs. (old).—A bastard.
+
+
+Bates’ Farm or Garden, subs. (thieves’).—Coldbath Fields prison. [From
+a warder of that name + a certain appropriateness in the initials,
+C.B.F., the prison initials, and used as a stamp = Charley Bates’
+Farm.] When, formerly, the convicts were put to the treadmill in this
+prison, they were said to be ‘feeding the chickens on Charley Bates’
+Farm.’ Newgate was also called Akerman’s Hotel, from a former governor,
+and a similar reason has caused the Melbourne gaol to be nicknamed
+Castilan’s Hotel by Australian thieves.
+
+    [Circa 1850, but date uncertain.]
+
+        Bates’ Farm.
+
+        Good evening pals, how do you do,
+          I thought I’d give a call,
+        And introduce myself to you,
+          For I’m glad to see you all.
+        I’m up to every little fake,
+          But in me there’s no harm,
+        For it was this blooming morning
+          That I left Old Bates’ Farm.
+
+                    CHORUS.
+
+        Then, here’s success my knowing kids,
+          I’m filled with ev’ry charm,
+        I feel so gay this blessed day,
+          I’ve left Old Bates’ Farm.
+
+        Now, every morning when you rise,
+          You get a starving meal,
+        And if you don’t eat all they send
+          You have to work the wheel.
+        Then so merrily we go,
+          To chapel to have prayers,
+        And for a little pastime work
+          The everlasting stairs.
+
+                                        Chorus.
+
+        The last time that I went to see
+          Old Bates, he shook my hand,
+        And said, ‘I’m glad to see you,
+          You’re a chap I understand.’
+        He said, ‘You’re here for nothing now?’
+          I said ‘Yes,’ like the rest,
+        It was only for knocking a bobby down,
+          And jumping on his chest.
+
+                                        Chorus.
+
+        So now I’ve got my liberty,
+          And once again I’m free,
+        I mean to ‘crack a crib’ to-night.
+          But pals don’t ‘crack on me.’
+        So if I should touch lucre,
+          For a time I will keep calm,
+        If I don’t see you here some night,
+          I shall at Bates’ Farm.
+
+                                        Chorus.
+
+
+Bath. Go to Bath! phr.  (familiar).—This popular saying appears to have
+two distinct readings, both of which, however, are traceable to the
+same source.
+
+1. Go to Bath! i.e., an injunction to desist; to be gone; get out of my
+sight, or hearing, for you are mad or cracked—a forcible expression of
+incredulity, sometimes intensified by ‘and get your head shaved.’ The
+saying is applied to those who either relate crack-brained stories, or
+propose undertakings that raise a doubt as to sanity. The allusion is
+to the fact that, in former days, persons who showed symptoms of
+insanity were sent to Bath to drink the medicinal waters; the process
+of shaving the head being previously resorted to.
+
+    1840. Barham, I. L. (Grey Dolphin). ‘Go to Bath!’ said the baron. A
+    defiance so contemptuous roused the ire of the adverse commanders.
+
+    1885. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Oct. 16, p. 362. You
+    tell a disagreeable neighbour to go to Bath in the sense in which a
+    Roman would have said abi in malam rem.
+
+2. Hence, to become a beggar. Bath, especially in the latter part of
+the last century, and at the beginning of the present one, enjoyed a
+reputation for its fashion and baths: it was also, naturally enough,
+for this very reason, the resort of countless numbers of beggars. To go
+to Bath signified, therefore, amongst vagrants, to proceed to what was
+in reality one of the first centres of beggardom; presumably to solicit
+alms. Hence also an additional clue to the process of transition into
+sense 1. What more natural than to bid an importunate applicant to
+betake himself to Bath to join his fellows? Fuller in his Worthies has
+a passage which throws some additional light upon the question.
+
+    1662. Fuller, History of the Worthies of England. Beggars of
+    Bath.—Many in that place; some natives there, others repairing
+    thither from all parts of the land; the poor for alms, the pained
+    for ease. Whither should flock fowl in a hard frost, but to the
+    barn-door? Here, all the two seasons, being the general confluence
+    of gentry. Indeed laws are daily made to restrain beggars, and
+    daily broken by the connivance of those who make them; it being
+    impossible when the hungry belly barks, and bowels sound, to keep
+    the tongue silent. And although oil of whip be the proper plaister
+    for the cramp of laziness, yet some pity is due to impotent
+    persons. In a word, seeing there is the Lazar’s bath in this city,
+    I doubt not but many a good Lazarus, the true object of charity,
+    may beg therein.
+
+Long previous to 1662, however, stringent vagrant laws were in force.
+
+    1588. William Lambard, The Office of the Justices of the Peace, p.
+    334. Such two Justices may ... License diseased persons (living of
+    almes) to trauell to Bathe, or to Buckstone [Buxton], for remedie
+    of their griefe.
+
+
+Bathing Machines, subs. (nautical).—A name given to the old 10 ton
+brigs.—Russell’s Sailor’s Language.
+
+
+Bat-Mugger, subs. (Winchester College).—A wooden instrument used for
+rubbing oil into cricket bats.
+
+
+Bats, subs. (thieves’).—A pair of bad or old boots. Elworthy in West
+Somerset Words gives this as a heavy laced boot with hobnails.
+
+
+Bats Down? (Winchester and general).—‘How many bats down?’ i.e., how
+many wickets have fallen?
+
+
+Battels, subs. (University).—The weekly bills of students at Oxford.
+The derivation of the term has been the subject of much discussion, and
+is very uncertain. Murray says much depends on the original sense at
+Oxford: if this was ‘food, provisions,’ it is natural to connect it
+with ‘battle,’ to feed, or receive nourishment.—See quotation.
+
+    1886–7. Dickens, Dictionary of Oxford and Cambridge, p. 16. Battels
+    is properly a designation of the food obtained from the College
+    Buttery. An account of this, and of the account due to the Kitchen,
+    is sent in to every undergraduate weekly, hence these bills also
+    are known as battels, and the name, further, is extended to the
+    total amount of the term’s expenses furnished by the College. In
+    some Colleges it is made essential to the keeping of an
+    undergraduates’ term that he should battel, i.e., obtain food in
+    College on a certain number of days each week.
+
+To quote Dr. Murray again, however, it appears that the word has
+apparently undergone progressive extensions of application, owing
+partly to changes in the internal economy of the colleges. Some Oxford
+men of a previous generation state that it was understood by them to
+apply to the buttery accounts alone, or even to the provisions ordered
+from the buttery, as distinct from the ‘commons’ supplied from the
+kitchen: but this latter use is disavowed by others ... but whether the
+battels were originally the provisions themselves, or the sums due on
+account of them, must at present be left undecided.
+
+    1853. Cuthbert Bede, Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. vii. The
+    Michaelmas term was drawing to its close. Buttery and kitchen books
+    were adding up their sums total; bursars were preparing for
+    battels.
+
+(Eton.)—See quotation.
+
+    1798. H. Tooke, Purley, 390. Battel, a term used at Eton for the
+    small portion of food which, in addition to the College allowance,
+    the collegers receive from their dames.
+
+
+Batter, subs. (common).—Wear and tear; e.g., ‘the batter is more than
+any human being can stand for long.’ [From one of the ordinary meanings
+of to batter, to wear or impair by beating or long service, as a
+battered jade.]
+
+Ppl. adj.—Given up to debauchery; this sense follows upon
+
+To go on the batter, i.e., to walk the streets for purposes of
+prostitution; but cf., Bat.
+
+
+Battle of the Nile, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—A ‘tile’ = a hat. For
+synonyms, see Cady.
+
+
+Battle Royal, subs. (colloquial).—A vehement quarrel.
+
+    1698. Howard, All Mistaken, Act i.
+
+    1st Nurse. Your husband is the noted’st cuckold in all our street.
+
+    2nd Nurse. You lie, you jade; yours is a greater.
+
+    Phil. Hist—now for a battle-royal.
+
+    18(?). Thackeray, Shabby Genteel Story, ch. vi. A battle-royal
+    speedily took place between the two worthy mothers-in-law.
+
+    1865. Sketches from Cambridge, p. 137. Our brethren there [in
+    Oxford] seem to be always indulging in battles-royal.
+
+
+Battlings, subs. (public schools’).—A weekly allowance of money. At
+Winchester it is 1s., while at Repton it is only 6d.
+
+    1864. Household Words, p. 188. The business of the latter was to
+    call us of a morning to distribute amongst us our battlings, or
+    pocket-money.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 184. The
+    expense was defrayed by the boys subscribing the last three
+    battlings (i.e., the weekly shilling allowed each boy). This was
+    rather an illusory coin, for we seldom actually fingered it, as
+    some one of the College servants generally had a kind of
+    prescriptive right to a benefit; and whenever Saturday arrived,
+    Præfect of Hall’s valet was sure to come round to ask the boys if
+    they would give their battling to Rat Williams, or Dungy, or
+    Purver, or Long John, or some other equally deserving individual.
+
+    1883. Trollope, Autobiogr. (1883), I., 13. Every boy had a shilling
+    a week pocket-money, which we called battels. [This is probably a
+    misprint—the Winchester term, as that used at other schools, is
+    battling. It was advanced out of the pocket of the second master.]
+
+
+Battner, subs. (old).—An ox; beef being apt to batten or fatten those
+that eat it. ‘The cove has hushed the battner,’ i.e., has killed the
+ox.—Grose [1785].
+
+
+Batty, subs. (general).—Wages; perquisites. Derived from batta, an
+extra pay given to soldiers while serving in India.—Hotten. Col. Yule
+says in Indian banking, agio or difference in exchange; discount on
+coins not current; or of short weight.
+
+    1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1 S., Merton, ch. viii. Whether
+    he could draw full batta in peace-time.
+
+    1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, 5 S., ‘Batta.’ Batta or Batty
+    (Hindustanee). Perquisites; wages. Properly, an allowance to East
+    Indian troops in the field.
+
+
+Baulk, subs. (Winchester College).—A false report (especially that a
+master is at hand), which is sported (q.v.), not spread.
+
+(Popular.)—A false shot; a mistake.
+
+
+Baum, verb (American Univ.).—To fawn; to flatter; to curry
+favour.—Hall’s College Words and Phrases.
+
+
+Bawbels or Bawbles, subs. (old).—A man’s testicles. Originally, a
+provincialism. For synonyms, see Cods.
+
+
+Bawcock, subs. (old).—A burlesque term of endearment. [From either
+French beau, fine, + French coq, cock = a fine or good ‘feller’; or
+from English boy + cock = a young dandy or strut.]
+
+    1599. Shakspeare, Henry V., iii., 2, 25. Pist. Be merciful, great
+    duke, to men of mould!... Good bawcock ’bate thy rage!
+
+    1861. H. Ainsworth, Constable of the Tower, p. 131. One of the
+    gamesome little bawcock’s jests.
+
+
+Bawd, subs. (old).—A female procuress. A carted bawd meant one who had
+been placed in a cart and led through the town to make her person known
+to the inhabitants. Cf., Abbess. See also Cart and Barrack-hack for
+synonyms.
+
+
+Bawde Phisicke.—See quotation.
+
+    1560–1. Awdeley, The XXV. orders of Knaues, (ed. 1869), p. 14.
+    Bawde Phisicke, is he that is a Cocke, when his Maysters meate is
+    euyll dressed, and he challenging him therefore, he wyl say he wyll
+    eate the rawest morsel thereof him selfe. This is a sausye knaue,
+    that wyl contrary his Mayster alway.
+
+
+Bawdy Banquet, subs. (old).—Whoremongering. [From bawdy, lewd, +
+banquet.]
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 63. ‘Where haue I bene?’ quoth he,
+    and began to smyle. ‘Now, by the mas, thou hast bene at some baudy
+    banquet.’
+
+
+Bawdy Banquet, subs. (old).—A running after loose women; molrowing.
+
+
+Bawdy Basket, subs. (old cant).—1. The twenty-third rank of canters
+(see Harman), who carried pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to
+sell, but lived mostly by stealing,
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (ed. 1869), p. 65. These bawdy baskets be also
+    wemen, and go with baskets and Capeases on their armes, where in
+    they haue laces, pynnes, nedles, white ynkell, and round sylke
+    gyrdles of al coulours. These wyl bye conneyskins and steale linen
+    clothes of on hedges. And for their trifles they will procure of
+    mayden seruaunts, when [leaf 20, back] their mystres or dame is
+    oute of the waye, either some good peece of béefe, baken, or
+    chéese, that shalbe worth xij pens, for ii pens of their toyes. And
+    as they walke by the waye, they often gaine some money wyth their
+    instrument, by such as they sodaynely mete withall. The vpright men
+    haue good acquayntance with these, and will helpe and relieue them
+    when they want. Thus they trade their lyues in lewed lothsome
+    lechery. Amongest them all is but one honest woman, and she is of
+    good yeares; her name is Ione Messenger. I haue had good proofe of
+    her, as I haue learned by the true report of diuers.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 39 (1874). [In
+    list of orders of thieves], bawdy-baskets.
+
+2. A prostitute; an alternative and earlier form of bawd (q.v.).
+
+    1589. Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesie, bk. III., ch. xix.
+
+        Many a faire lasse in London towne,
+        Many a bawdie basket borne vp and downe:
+        Many a broker in a thridbare gowne,
+        Many a bankrowte scarce worth a crowne. In London.
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 86. The
+    victualers to the campe are women, and to those some are Glymerers,
+    some bawdy-baskets, some Autem-Morts.
+
+
+Bawdy House Bottle, subs. phr. (old).—A very small one, short measure,
+being among the many means used by the keepers of those houses, to gain
+what they call an honest livelihood; indeed, this is one of the least
+reprehensible, the less they give a man of their infernal beverages for
+his money, the kinder they behave to him.—Grose.
+
+
+Bayard of Ten Toes. To ride Bayard of ten toes, phr.  (old).—To go on
+foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.—See Marrow bone stage.
+
+    1606. Breton, Good and Badde, p. 14. Breton says of the ‘honest
+    poore man,’—his trauell is the walke of the woful, and his horse
+    Bayard of ten toes.
+
+    1662. Fuller, Worthies, Somerset (ii., 291). At last he [Coryat]
+    undertook to travail into the East Indies by land, mounted on an
+    horse with ten toes.
+
+
+Bay Window, subs. (common).—A slang phrase applied to women when
+pregnant, or men who have ‘corporations.’ The allusion is obvious.
+
+
+B. C., subs. (common).—A name jokingly applied to a person who brings a
+trumpery action for libel against another. Dr. Brewer in Phrase and
+Fable thus, in effect, explains the allusion:—A young woman complained
+to Mr. Ingham [the magistrate at Bow Street Police Court and now (1889)
+Sir James Ingham] of having been abused by a woman who called her a b.
+c. On being asked the meaning, the young woman said c meant ‘cat’ but
+the B——, well, it was too shocking to utter, and the magistrate allowed
+her to whisper the word in his ear. It was a well-known word of
+sanguinary sound; but, though b.c. was hardly a pretty epithet, yet his
+worship could hardly grant a summons for libel against the person of
+whom complaint was made for using it.
+
+
+Beach-Cadger, subs. (old).—A beggar whose ‘pitch’ is at
+watering-places, and sea-ports. [From beach, the sea-shore + cadger, a
+beggar.]
+
+
+Beach-Comber, subs. (nautical).—1. One who hangs about the sea-shore on
+the look-out for jobs. It was chiefly applied to runaway seamen,
+deserters from whalers, who lived along the beach in South America, the
+South Sea Islands, etc. It is a term of contempt.—Clark Russell’s
+Sailors’ Language.
+
+    1847. Blackwood’s Magazine, LXI., 757. A daring Yankee
+    beech-comber. [M.]
+
+    1880. Athenæum, 18 Dec., p. 809, col. 2. The white scamps who, as
+    beech-combers, have polluted these Edens and debauched their
+    inhabitants.
+
+    1885. A. Lang, in Longm. Mag., VI., 417, note. Beach-comber is the
+    local term for the European adventurers and long-shore loafers who
+    infest the Pacific Archipelagoes. There is a well-known tale of an
+    English castaway on one of the isles, who was worshipped as a deity
+    by the ignorant people. At length he made his escape, by swimming,
+    and was taken aboard a British vessel, whose captain accosted him
+    roughly. The mariner turned aside and dashed away a tear: ‘I’ve
+    been a god for months and you call me a (something alliterative)
+    beach-comber!’ he exclaimed, and refused to be comforted.
+
+2. A river boatman.
+
+3. A thief who prowls about the sea-shore; a plunderer of wrecks; a
+picker-up of waifs and strays. This is derived from sense 4.
+
+4. (American.)—A long wave rolling in from the ocean. Hence applied to
+those whose occupation it is to pick up, as pirates or wreckers,
+whatever these waves wash in to them.
+
+
+Beach-Tramper, subs. (nautical).—A coastguardsman. [From beach, the
+shore of the sea + tramp, to walk along + er.]
+
+
+Bead. To draw a bead [on one], phr. (American).—To attack an opponent
+by speech or otherwise. The phrase has passed into colloquial use from
+backwoods parlance, where it signifies the process of taking aim and
+firing. The front sight of a gun is in appearance like a bead.
+
+    1841. Catlin, North American Indians (1844), I., x., 77. I made
+    several attempts to get near enough to draw a bead upon one of
+    them.
+
+    1870. Bret Harte, Society on the Stanislaus (in Poems and Prose).
+    It is not a proper plan, to lay for that same member for to put a
+    bead on him.
+
+    188(?) S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
+    p. 48. I was pretty close to the Shanty, and I thought I heard the
+    old man coming all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and
+    looked around a bunch of willows, and there was the old man down
+    the path apiece just drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.
+
+    1889. Albany Journal, Aug. 6. If Jake’s not careful I’ll draw a
+    bead on him. Very little more will make me go for him tooth and
+    nail.
+
+To raise a bead.—To bring to the point; to ensure success. The figure
+is taken from brandy, rum, or other liquors, which will not ‘raise a
+bead,’ unless of the proper strength.
+
+    1846. N. Y. Tribune, Letter from Ohio. The result was, if the
+    convention had been then held, the party wouldn’t have been able to
+    raise a bead. [b.]
+
+
+Beagle, subs. (old).—A spy; informer; man-hunter; policeman; also a
+general term of contempt. [From beagle, a small hound, which tracks by
+scent, formerly used for hunting.]
+
+    1599. Myrr. Mag., Jack Cade, xix., 2. That restless begle sought
+    and found me out. [M.]
+
+    1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, Act iii., Sc. 4. Mon. I beseech you,
+    Mistress Tenterhook,—before God, I’ll be sick, if you will not be
+    merry. Mist. Ten. You are a sweet beagle.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Beagle (s.) ... also a
+    contemptuous name given to a boy or man, as to say, you are a
+    special beagle, is the same as, you are good for nothing.
+
+    1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, III., vii., v., 377. Attorneys
+    and Law-beagles, which hunt ravenous on this Earth.
+
+
+Beak, subs. (old cant).—1. A policeman or guardian of the peace. As far
+as is known, this (as ‘beck’) is the oldest cant term for a member of a
+class of men, who, perhaps, above all others, have been the recipients
+of nicknames and epithets, and these, be it noted, not always of a
+complimentary character. In Harman’s Caveat (1573), harman beck is
+explained as ‘the counstable,’ harmans being ‘the stockes.’ The
+derivation of beck or beak is doubtful. Especially vague seems that
+which finds its source in the Saxon beag, a gold collar worn by civic
+magistrates, and an emblem of authority. This genesis appears to be
+based on the later and secondary sense of beak, a magistrate, a meaning
+which it still retains. But, against this must be placed the fact that,
+as the name for a watchman or guardian of the peace, beak boasts a much
+older usage. Sir John Fielding, half brother of the author of Tom
+Jones, and an active Middlesex Justice in the last century, was
+popularly known as the ‘Blind Beak’ [c. 1750]; but beyond this date no
+instance of this sense has been found. If, therefore, beak originally
+signified a policeman, it is difficult to discover any connection with
+the Saxon beag, inasmuch as watchmen are not known to have been
+decorated with gold collars. The following quotations will give other
+illustrations, and also show that, meaning a policeman, the term has
+not long been obsolete.
+
+    1609. Dekker, a Gypsy song, in Lanthorne and Candlelight, etc.
+
+        The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck,
+        If we mawnd Pannam, lap or Ruff-peck,
+
+        Or poplars of yarum; he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans.
+        Or else he sweares by the lightmans,
+        To put our stamps in the Harmans.
+        The Ruffian cly the ghost of the Harman beck.
+        If we heaue a booth we cly the Jerke.
+        If we niggle or mill a bousing ken.
+        Or nip a bung that has but a win,
+        Or dup the giger of a gentry cofes ken:
+        To the quier cuffing we bing,
+        And then to the quier-Ken to scowre the Cramp-ring,
+        And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the lightmans,
+        The Bube and Ruffian cly the Harman beck and Harmans.
+
+[This is thus ‘Englished’ by Dekker].
+
+        The Diuell take the Constable’s head,
+        If we beg Bacon, Butter-milke or bread.
+        Or Pottage, to the hedge he bids us hie,
+        Or sweares (by this light) i’th’ stocks we shall lie.
+        The Deuill haunt the Constable’s ghoast,
+        If we rob but a booth, we are whip’d at a poast.
+        If an ale-house we rob or be tane with a whore,
+        Or cut a purse that has iust a penny, and no more,
+        Or come but stealing in at a gentleman’s dore:
+        To the Justice straight we goe,
+        And then to the Jayle to be shakled: And so
+        To be hang’d on the gallows i’th’ day time: the pox
+        And the Deuill take the Constable and his stocks.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6.
+
+    Land. Gentlemen vagabonds; the traps are abroad, and half a
+    thousand beadles and beaksmen are now about the door.
+
+    Billy. De beak! oh curse a de beak!
+
+    Jemmy. Gemmen!—gemmen! (Knocking on table to command attention.)
+
+    Jack. Silence for the chair!
+
+    Jemmy. Put out the lights, put out the lights, every one shift for
+    himself. Here, Bob, carry me up the ladder, good luck to you do,
+    Bob.
+
+    1840. Thackeray, Catherine, ch. x. But Mrs. Polly, with a wonderful
+    presence of mind, restored peace by exclaiming, ‘Hush, hush! the
+    beaks, the beaks!’ Upon which, with one common instinct, the whole
+    party made a rush for the garden gates, and disappeared into the
+    fields. Mrs. Briggs knew her company: there was something in the
+    very name of a constable which sent them all a-flying.
+
+English Synonyms. ‘Blue’ (traceable to Queen Elizabeth’s days when the
+colour of the uniform was the same as now); ‘men in blue’; ‘Royal
+Regiment of Footguards Blue’; ‘bluebottle’ (used by Shakspeare); ‘blew
+coate’ (also a Shakspearian term, and still in use); ‘Dogberry’ (an
+allusion to Much Ado about Nothing); ‘charley’ (one of the old
+watchmen); ‘bobby’; ‘peeler’; ‘copper’ (a thieves’ term, from ‘to cop’
+to lay hold of); ‘crusher’ (thieves’); ‘slop’ (a back slang corruption
+of ‘police’ = esclop, with c not sounded and shortened to ‘slop’);
+‘scufter’ (a northern term, as also is the example next following);
+‘bulky’ (used by Bulwer Lytton); ‘philip’ (from a thieves’ signal);
+‘cossack’; ‘philistine’; ‘frog’ (from pouncing upon criminals);
+‘Johnnie Darby’ (a corruption of gendarme); ‘Johnnie’; ‘pig’ (a plain
+clothes man); ‘worm’; ‘nose’; ‘nark’; ‘dee’ (a detective); ‘tec’; the
+C.T.A. (a circus man’s term); ‘demon’ (Australian thieves’); ‘reeler’;
+‘raw lobster’ (this like ‘blue,’ etc., would appear to be a reference
+to the colour of the uniform).
+
+French Synonyms. Un rousse (popular and thieves’: roux signifies ‘red,’
+and red hair has always been held in contempt as indicative of
+treachery and craft; hence its application by the criminal classes to
+their natural enemies); un roussin (thieves’: of same derivation as
+foregoing); un bâton de réglisse (popular: ‘a stick of liquorice’); un
+baladin (properly ‘a mountebank, juggler, or buffoon’); une cagne
+(popular: ‘a dog,’ i.e., ‘a worthless fellow,’ ‘a slut’; cagne or
+caigne in Old French signified ‘dog,’ and was derived from the Latin
+canis, whence caignot, ‘a little dog.’ It may also be noted that, prior
+to the establishment of the modern gendarmerie, the archers of the
+watch were known as chiens-courants); un cogne (thieves’: another form
+of cagne); un balai (hawkers’: properly ‘a broom, brush, or besom’); un
+serin (popular: properly ‘a canary’; serin is also slang for ‘a foolish
+fellow,’ ‘a greenhorn’); un pousse (thieves’: the guardians of public
+order formerly known in Paris as serjents or archers de l’écuelle were
+called pousse-culs); une vache (literally ‘a cow’); un arnif
+(thieves’); une peste (thieves’: literally ‘a plague’ or ‘torment’);
+une tronche â la manque; un flaquadard; un cabestan (thieves’: properly
+‘a hand-winch’; Michel thinks this is derived either from cabe, ‘a
+dog’; or from capitan, ‘a captain.’ The latter, be it noted, has also
+the signification of ‘hector’ or ‘braggadocio’); un raille or railleux
+(thieves’: a detective. Michel derives it from raillon, a weapon with
+which the police were formerly armed. Victor Hugo thought it came from
+the English word ‘rascal,’ but there seems little, if any, authority
+for this); un sacre (Nicot gives this as ‘a bird of prey,’ but Henri
+Estienne adds that it was used to denote ‘one who lays hands on
+everything that comes in his way’; also ‘a gourmand’); un grive
+(thieves’: ‘a warder’ or ‘military patrol’); un laune (thieves’); un
+flique (popular: also a petty police magistrate. Thought to be a
+corruption of friquet, another opprobrious term for a police man); un
+bec du gaz; un estaffier (familiar: also, among thieves, ‘a cat’); une
+bourrique (thieves’: also ‘an informer’); un pousse trottoir (pousse
+from pousser, ‘to push’; trottoir, a footpath); un lampion rouge
+(thieves’); un escargot de trottoir (popular: literally ‘a snail of the
+footpath’); un cierge (thieves’: properly ‘a wax taper’); un sergo
+(popular); un grippe-Jesus (a term used by thieves in the north of
+France, and by seafaring men which, says Michel, might lead one to
+suppose that gendarmes only arrested innocent persons); un pince sans
+rire (thieves’: a sly, malicious person); un pot â tabac (popular: ‘a
+tobacco jar’); un singe de la rousse (singe = monkey, de la rousse, ‘of
+the police force’).
+
+For German Synonyms, see Copper.
+
+Italian Synonyms. Un’ zaffo (literally ‘a bung’ or ‘tipstaff’); un’
+foco or un’ fuoco (literally ‘fire’).
+
+Spanish Synonyms. Uno mastin (literally ‘a mastiff’ or ‘bulldog’; ‘a
+clumsy fellow’; ‘a clown’); una harpia (un harpeo = ‘grapnel’ or
+‘grappling-iron’); una fiera (properly ‘a wild beast’).
+
+2. (popular.)—A magistrate. Cf. foregoing, much of which has reference
+to this secondary meaning of beak. Sometimes Called a beak of the law.
+
+    1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. ‘My eyes, how green!’
+    exclaimed the young gentleman. ‘Why a beak’s a madgst’rate.’
+
+    18(?) Hood, Tale of a Trumpet.
+
+        The pies and jays that utter words,
+        And other Dicky gossips of birds,
+        Who talk with as much good sense and decorum,
+        As many beaks who belong to the quorum.
+
+    1881. Punch, Dec. 3, 258. A pair of anti-vivisectionists. Sir
+    Slangsby Jaunter. ‘See that old fellow, Miss Diana? That’s Doctor
+    Katchett, who swears he’s going to find a cure for lunatics! Just
+    got into trouble. Been trying the effects of extreme terror and
+    bodily fatigue on a rabbit, and without chloroform, too, the old
+    ruffian! And then he killed it, and dissected its brain. Going to
+    be had up before the beak for it! Bow St., you know!’ Miss Diana.
+    ‘Serve him right, horrid man! Don’t want to know about such people.
+    But talking of rabbits, what a splendid run that second Hare gave
+    us to-day! Thirty minutes gallop without a check!—Wasn’t it
+    lovely!—And I was in at the death!’
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Oct. 12, p. 5, col. 2. Taken before some
+    French beak whom he did not know, and an interpreter brought, the
+    ‘cotched’ culprit was made to pay 20 f., his friend escaping
+    because he was not caught red-handed.
+
+An English Synonym is ‘queer cuffin’ (old cant).
+
+French Synonyms. Un sapeur (thieves’: properly ‘a sapper,’ i.e., ‘one
+who undermines’ [one’s chances of wrong doing]); un pante en robe
+(pante in French slang is equivalent to ‘a man’ or ‘cove’; en robe =
+‘in a robe’); un endormi (popular: properly ‘a sleepy-head’); un
+grignon (thieves’: probably from grigner les dents, ‘to show one’s
+teeth threateningly’; or from grognon, ‘grumbler,’ ‘growler’); un
+gerbier; un curieux (thieves’: i.e., ‘the curious one’; from the adj.
+curieux. Michel, however, adds that curieux formerly signified ‘a
+courtier’); un singe à rabat (thieves’: possibly rabat is an
+abbreviated form of rabat-joie, ‘a wet blanket.’ The phrase would then
+mean ‘a baboon with a wet blanket,’ ‘a damper’; or it may be derived
+from singe, a monkey + rabat, slang for ‘a cloak.’ Cf., singe de la
+rousse); un lustre (thieves’: properly ‘renown’; ‘distinction’); un
+pant’ de la magistrat’ muche (thieves’).
+
+Italian Synonym. Un antigo (literally ‘an old one’; also ‘a master,’ ‘a
+boss’).
+
+Spanish Synonym. Sombrador (thieves’ and popular: from sombra, ‘shade’;
+i.e., one who puts in the shade. Poner â la sombra is ‘to imprison’).
+
+3. (popular.)—The nose. For synonyms, see Conk.
+
+    1598. Florio. Naso adunco, a beake-nose. [M.]
+
+    1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I., 296. The well-known hooked beak of
+    the old countess. [M.]
+
+    1865. E. C. Clayton, Cruel Fort, I., 143. A large, fat, greasy
+    woman, with a prominent beak.
+
+    1876. E. C. Grenville Murray, The Member for Paris, I., p. 80. It
+    was not the most agreeable thing in the world to be suddenly
+    interrupted in a mantel-shelf conversation by a gentleman with a
+    firm beak-nose and a red rosette in his button-hole.
+
+4. (Eton and Marlborough Schools.)—A master.
+
+
+Beaker, subs. (thieves’).—A fowl. Sometimes shortened into beak. The
+derivation is obviously an illusion to the beak or horny mandibles of
+poultry. Formerly called cackling-cheat (q.v.), and by French thieves
+une estable, or une estaphle.
+
+
+Beaker-Hunter, subs. (thieves’).—A poultry yard thief. Also
+beak-hunter.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 445. A poultry stealer. A
+    beaker-hunter.
+
+
+Beak-Gander, subs. (common).—A judge of the Superior Courts. [From beak
+(q.v.), a magistrate + gander, a humorous term for an old man.]
+
+
+Beaksman, subs. (old).—See Beak (sense 1), of which it is an
+alternative form.
+
+
+Beam Ends. To be thrown on one’s beam ends, phr.  (nautical).—1. To be
+in bad circumstances; to be at one’s last shift; hard-up; a metaphor
+drawn from sea-faring life. A ship is said to be on her beam ends when
+she is so prostrated on her side by stress of weather, or shifting of
+cargo, as to submerge her lee rail.
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xl. In short, he laughed the idea
+    down completely; and Tom, abandoning it, was thrown upon his beam
+    ends again for some other solution. [h.]
+
+    1851. Henry Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., 121. When
+    a fellow is on his beam ends, as I was then, he must keep his eyes
+    about him, and have impudence enough for anything, or else he may
+    stop and starve. [h.]
+
+2. Also, less figuratively, to be thrown to the ground; to be reduced
+to a sitting or lying posture.
+
+    1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxvi. Our first lieutenant was ... on
+    his beam ends, with the rheumatiz.
+
+    1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
+    Green. You get on stunningly, gig-lamps, and haven’t been on your
+    beam ends more than once a minute.
+
+
+Bean or Bien, subs. (popular).—A sovereign. Formerly a guinea. In
+America five-dollar gold pieces are now called beans. See also
+Half-bean and Haddock of beans. In the old French cant, biens meant
+money or property. For synonyms, see Canary.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Bean, a guinea. Half-bean.
+
+    1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. ix. Zoroaster took long
+    odds that the match was off; offering a bean to half a quid (in
+    other words, a guinea to a half guinea).
+
+    1885. D. C. Murray, Rainbow Gold, bk. V., ch. vi. ‘Here’s some of
+    the beans,’ he continued figuratively, as he drew five sovereigns
+    from the same pocket, and surveyed them in his great brown palm.
+
+Full of beans, phr.  (society).—In good form or condition; as full of
+health, spirits, or capacity as a horse after a good feed of beans.
+Among the ancients the word signified venery; possibly, therefore, a
+more esoteric meaning may be attached to it than commonly supposed.—See
+Beany.
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, June 29. The tennis-ground [was] a pretty
+    place, overlooking the harbour, and surrounded by trees and female
+    beauty. The game began. ‘Ich dien,’ shouted Jack, as full of beans
+    as the Prince of Wales’ plume, and immediately sent a ball which
+    went bang through the window of an adjoining house.
+
+To give beans, phr.  (common).—To chastise; to give a good drubbing.
+For synonyms, see Tan.
+
+Like beans, adv. phr. (common).—In good form, style, time, etc.; with
+force; a general expression of approval and praise. Cf., Like blazes,
+bricks, or one o’clock.
+
+Not to care, or be worth a bean.—To hold in little esteem; to think
+lightly of; to be of little value. The allusion is to the small worth,
+or value of a bean, or ‘the black of a bean.’ A variant is not worth a
+straw (q.v.). Both phrases are old, not worth a bean being traced back
+to 1297.
+
+To be beany, phr. (common).—To be in good humour—a metaphor also drawn
+from the stable.
+
+To know beans, phr. (American).—To be well informed. The phrase is
+incorporated into many expressions in a very strange way; and is an
+allusion to the fondness of New Englanders in general, and Bostonians
+in particular, for baked beans and pork, combined with a sly hit at the
+assumption of superior culture on which they are supposed to insist. To
+know beans, therefore, is to be sharp and shrewd; to be within the
+charmed circle of the ‘cultured elect’—in short to be fully equipped in
+the ‘upper storey.’
+
+    1888. Portland Transcript, March 7. The pudding was pronounced a
+    success by each member of the assembled family, including a dainty
+    Boston girl who, of course, knows beans.
+
+    1888. Chicago Herald. One has to know beans to be successful in the
+    latest Washington novelty for entertainment at luncheons.
+
+An alternative derivation may, however, be found in the English form.
+
+To know how many blue beans make five white ones, phr. (common).—This
+is generally put in the form of a question, the answer to which is
+‘Five, if peeled,’ and those who fail to get tripped by the ‘catch’ are
+said ‘to know how many,’ etc.; in other words to be cute; knowing; wide
+awake.
+
+    1830. Galt, Laurie, T. (1849), II., i. 42. Few men who better knew
+    how many blue beans it takes to make five. [M.]
+
+    1886. Zoological Comparisons, in Broadside Ballad.
+
+        Nature and art improves us, the girls with smiles are moving
+            us,
+        Which very often ruin us there’s no gammon about that;
+        Then just as we begin to know ‘how many beans make five,’
+        The ladies call us puppies when we at that age arrive;
+        You may perchance become a deer, if in favour with some lass,
+        If not you’re called a donkey, and oftentimes an ass.
+
+    1889. Daily News, 4 Nov., p. 6, col. 5. Mr. Gladstone and The
+    Saturday Review. Sir,—My master, who is a good Conservative, lends
+    me The Saturday Review to improve my mind.... It says that there
+    were eighty-six Parnellites, and that if Mr. Gladstone, by his
+    wickedness, could make them leave off voting for the Tories, and
+    vote for him, instead of being in a minority of four, he would have
+    had a majority of 80. Why, Sir, the dunce of the school knows that
+    if you take 80 from one side and add it on to the other, the
+    difference is not 80, but 160. It is as simple as how many blue
+    beans make five. I think some people are losing their wits faster
+    than Mr. Gladstone.—I am, Sir, yours respectfully, A Schoolboy.
+
+Three blue beans in a blue bladder.—Nares confesses his inability to
+discover the origin of this whimsical combination of words, but points
+out that it is at least of long standing. The subjoined quotations
+would seem to indicate the meaning as noisy, frothy talk; clap-trap.
+
+    1600. Dekker, Old Fortunatus, iii., p. 128.
+
+    F. Hark, does’t rattle?
+
+    S. Yes, like three blue beans in a blue bladder, rattle, bladder,
+    rattle.
+
+    1717. Mathew Prior, Alma (cant), I., v., 25.
+
+            They say——
+        That putting all his words together,
+        ’Tis three blue beans in one blue bladder.
+
+
+Bean Belly, subs. (old).—A nickname for a Leicestershire man; from a
+real or supposed fondness of the inhabitants of this county for beans.
+
+
+Bean-Feast, subs. (common).—An annual feast given by employers to their
+work-people. The derivation is uncertain, and, at present, their is
+little evidence to go upon. Some have suggested its origin in the
+prominence of the bean goose, or even beans at these spreads; others
+refer it to the French bien, good, i.e., a good feast (by-the-bye,
+tailors call all good feeds bean-feasts); whilst others favour its
+derivation from the modern English bene, a request or solicitation,
+from the custom of collecting subscriptions to defray the cost. All
+three suggestions are, at the best, unsatisfactory, and numerous
+objections crop up at every turn to each of them. An annual outing of
+this kind is also called a wayzgoose (q.v.).
+
+    1882. Printing Times, 15 Feb., 26, 2. A bean-feast dinner served up
+    at a country inn. [M.]
+
+    1884. Bath. Jour., 26 July, 6, 1. The annual grant of £20 for their
+    bean-feast. [M.]
+
+
+Bean-Feaster, subs. (common).—One who takes part in a bean-feast
+(q.v.).
+
+    1884. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 621. For the delectation of the bold
+    bean-feasters. [M.]
+
+
+Beano, subs. (printers’).—The same as bean-feast (q.v.).
+
+
+Bean Traps, subs. (American thieves’).—A swell mobsman, or stylish
+sharper. Beans (q.v.) are five-dollar gold pieces, and the insinuation
+is obvious. In old English cant a bean meant a guinea, probably from
+the French biens, property.
+
+
+Beany, adj. (common).—Full of vigour; fresh, like a bean-fed horse. Or,
+it may be an allusion to the meaning of venery, which Aristotle says
+was attached to the word beans.
+
+    1852. Kingsley, in Life (1876), I., 278. The very incongruity keeps
+    one beany and jolly.
+
+    1870. Daily News, 27 July, 5. The horses ... looked fresh and
+    beany. [M.]
+
+
+Bear, subs. (Stock Exchange).—1. Applied, in the first instance, to
+stock sold by jobbers for delivery by a certain date on the chance of
+prices falling in the meantime, thus allowing the seller to re-purchase
+at a profit. The phrase was probably at first ‘to sell the bear-skin,’
+the buyers of such bargains being called bear-skin jobbers (see quot.),
+in allusion to the proverb, ‘To sell the bear’s skin before one has
+caught the bear.’ So far, the origin of the phrase seems pretty clear;
+of the date of its introduction, however, nothing is known. It was a
+common term in Stock Exchange circles, at the time of the bursting of
+the South Sea Bubble in 1720, but it does not seem to have become
+colloquial until much later. In these transactions no stock was passed,
+the ‘difference’ being settled according to the quotation of the day,
+as is the practice now in securities dealt with for ‘the account.’ At
+present the term for such an arrangement is time-bargain.
+
+    1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 38, p. 3. Being at that General Mart of
+    stock-jobbers called Jonathans ... he bought the bear of another
+    officer. [M.]
+
+    1719. Anatomy of Change Alley (N. and Q., 5 S., vi., 118). Those
+    who buy Exchange Alley bargains are styled ‘buyers of bear-skins.’
+    [M.]
+
+    1778. Bailey, Dictionary (24 ed.). To sell a bear, to sell what one
+    hath not.
+
+2. Hence a dealer who speculates for a fall. The earliest instance
+noted of this transferred usage is in
+
+    1744. London Magazine, 86. These noisy devotees were false ones,
+    and in fact were only bulls and bears. [M.]
+
+    1768. Foote, Devil upon Two Sticks, Act i. A mere bull and bear
+    booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent bankrupts.
+
+    1774. Colman, Man of Business, iv., i., in wks. (1777) II., 179. My
+    young master is the bull, and Sir Charles is the bear. He agreed
+    for stock expecting it to be up at three hundred by this time; but,
+    lack-a-day, sir, it has been falling ever since.
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iv. The hum and bustle which his approach
+    was wont to produce among the bulls, bears, and brokers of
+    Stock-alley.
+
+    1860. Peacock, Gryll Grange, ch. xviii. In Stock Exchange slang,
+    bulls are speculators for a rise, bears for a fall.
+
+    1889. Ally Sloper’s H. H., Aug. 3, p. 242, col. 3. Mrs. Spingles
+    says she doesn’t wonder that the Stock Exchange at times resembles
+    a menagerie let loose, seeing what a lot of bulls, bears and stags
+    they have at Capel Court.
+
+The French Bourse equivalent is un baissier. See the analogous terms
+bull; stag; and lame duck.
+
+3. (old.)—The pupil of a private tutor, the latter being called a
+bear-leader (q.v.). From the general roughness and uncouthness of boys;
+a reference to the heavy build and ungainliness of the plantigrade in
+question. Even now the youth of the rising generation are sometimes
+called ‘unlicked cubs.’ Also called formerly bridled-bear.
+
+    1832. Legends of London, II., 247. When I was the youthful bear—as
+    the disciple of a private tutor is called at Oxford. [M.]
+
+Verb.—To act as a bear (q.v.).
+
+    1861. New York Tribune, Nov. 29. There is no truth in the startling
+    developments, implicating British officials, in the Herald’s
+    despatch.... His Lordship is wholly guiltless of the charge which
+    the Herald, in its anxiety to bear the market, has brought against
+    him.
+
+Are you there with your bears? phr. (colloquial).—A greeting of
+surprise at the reappearance of anybody or anything; are you there
+again; or, in the words of its most recent slang equivalent, ‘What,
+again! so soon?’ The phrase is explained by Joe Miller, as the
+exclamation of a man who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha
+and the bears, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the
+same preacher and the same discourse.
+
+    1642. James Howell, Instructions for Forreine Travell, sec. 3.
+    Another when at the racket court he had a ball struck into his
+    hazard, he would ever and anon cry out, estes vous là avec vos
+    ours? Are you there with your bears? which is ridiculous in any
+    other language but English.
+
+    1740. Richardson, Pamela, III., 335. O no, nephew! Are you
+    thereabouts with your bears?
+
+    1820. Scott, Abbot, xv. Marry, come up. ‘Are you there with your
+    bears?’ muttered the dragon.
+
+To play the bear, phr. (common).—To behave in a rough and rude manner.
+
+    1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., p. 473, col. 1. When we haue so
+    turned all order vpsidowne ... there is nothing but ... playing the
+    beare amongst vs.
+
+Bear a bob, verbal phr. (nautical).—1. To lend a hand; look sharp! look
+alive!
+
+2. (popular.)—To aid, to assist, to take part in anything.
+
+
+Bearded Cad, subs. (Winchester College).—A porter, employed by the
+College to convey luggage from the railway station to the school. The
+term originated in an extremely hirsute individual, who, at one time,
+acted in the capacity.
+
+
+Beard-Splitter, subs. (old).—A man much given to the company of
+prostitutes; nowadays called a hot member, or molrower, which see for
+synonyms. [From beard, a tuft of hair + splitter, one who divides. The
+allusion is obvious.]
+
+
+Bearer-Up.—See Bear up and Bonnet.
+
+
+Bear-Garden Jaw, subs. (old).—Rough, unmannerly speech; talk akin to
+that used in bear gardens and other places of low resort. Quoted by
+Grose, 1785. [From bear-garden, a place set apart for bear baiting and
+other rough sports + jaw, talk or speech.]
+
+    1848. John Forster, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, bk. IV., chap. xi. He
+    called Burke a bear-garden railer.
+
+    1871. Archibald Forbes, My Experience of the War between France and
+    Germany, p. 301. The bear-garden-like Babel was rather more noisy
+    than usual.
+
+
+Be-Argered, adj. (familiar).—Drunk.
+
+
+Bearing, ppl. adj. (Stock Exchange).—Acting as a bear (q.v.); or using
+artifices to lower the price of stock to suit a ‘bear’ account.
+
+
+Bearings. To bring one to one’s bearings, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To
+bring one to reason; to act as a check. A nautical term.
+
+
+Bear-Leader, subs. (old).—A travelling tutor. In the days when it was
+customary to send ‘young hopefuls’ on the Grand Tour, the expression
+was much more common and significant than is nowadays the case. The
+simile is taken from a person who leads about a tame bear for
+exhibition.
+
+    1749. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 4 June (1883), vol. II., p. 392. I
+    shall not wonder if she takes me for his bear-leader, his
+    travelling governor!
+
+    1756. Foote, Englishman Returned from Paris, Act i.
+
+    Serv. My young master’s travelling tutor, sir, just arrived.
+
+    Crab. ... Shew him in. This bear-leader, I reckon now, is either
+    the clumsy curate of the knight’s own parish church, or some needy
+    highlander.
+
+    1812. Combe, Dr. Syntax, Tour I ch. xxiii.
+
+        And as I almost wanted bread,
+        I undertook a bear to lead,
+        To see the brute perform his dance
+        Through Holland, Italy, and France;
+        But it was such a very Bruin,
+
+        .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
+
+        I took my leave, and left the cub
+        Some humbler Swiss to pay and drub.
+
+    1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. vii. They pounced upon the
+    stray nobility, and seized young lords travelling with their
+    bear-leaders.
+
+
+Bearskin-Jobber, subs. (Stock Exchange).—See Bear, subs., sense 1.
+
+
+Bear Up, verb (common).—To cheat; to swindle in any way; more
+particularly applied to the action of ‘decoys’ and confederates.—See
+Bonnet. The derivation is obviously from that sense of to bear up,
+signifying support or backing up.
+
+    1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 40. The billiard-marker
+    refused to make any division of the spoil, or even to return the
+    £10 which had been lost to him in bearing up the cull.
+
+    1883. Referee, Dec. 2, p. 2, col. 4. This looks as if the bearing
+    up and ‘bonneting’ which has been done by friendly writers in
+    response to my remarks is all thrown away.
+
+
+Beast, subs. (common).—1. Applied to anything unpleasant; or, to that
+which displeases; e.g., ‘It’s a perfect beast of a day,’ for ‘it’s an
+unpleasant day.’—See Beastly.
+
+2. (American cadet.)—A name given to new cadets at the U.S. Military
+Academy at West Point.—See Snooker.
+
+3. (Cambridge University.)—Anyone who has left school and come up to
+Cambridge for study, before entering the University, is called a beast,
+because ‘he is neither man nor boy.’
+
+
+Beastly, adv. (popular).—In modern colloquial usage applied to whatever
+may offend the taste. Akin also to ‘awful,’ ‘everlasting,’ etc.—when
+used as mere intensitives, i.e., ‘very,’ ‘exceedingly.’ [Originally
+from beastly, of, or pertaining to the nature of a beast; hence,
+figuratively, brutish, irrational, unmanly; whence, through a series of
+transitions, its slang significations.]
+
+    1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks., 1873, III., 159. I thought
+    ’twould bee a beastly iourney.
+
+    1778. Johnson, in D’Arblay Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I., p. 37. ‘It
+    moves my indignation to see a gentleman take pains to appear a
+    tradesman. Mr. Braughton would have written his name with just such
+    beastly flourishes!’
+
+    1865. Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct., p. 5, col. 3. He was in good health
+    ... looked almost ‘beastly well,’ as I once heard it described.
+    [M.]
+
+    1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. i. He had a troublesome dryness in
+    his throat, and a general sensation of dull heaviness, which he
+    himself would have described—expressively enough, if not with
+    academical elegance—as ‘feeling beastly.’
+
+
+Beast with Two Backs, subs. phr. (old).—Explained in second quotation.
+
+    1602. Shakspeare, Othello, Act i., Sc. 1. Brabantio: What profane
+    wretch art thou? Iago: I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you, your
+    daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with the two backs.
+
+    1785. Grose, Classical Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue. Beast with two
+    backs, a man and woman in the act of copulation.
+
+
+Beat, subs. (American).—1. This word is used in many ways, its precise
+meaning often depending on its qualifying adjective. It is said of both
+men and things; for example, a live beat is anybody or anything that
+surpasses another, and the sense is not derogatory in the least. A dead
+beat, on the other hand, is the name given to a man who sponges on his
+fellows. [Probably from that sense of beat signifying to overcome; to
+show oneself superior to, either in a good or bad sense].
+
+    1888. New York Tribune, May 16. As we pay big money for our special
+    news, we can’t afford to throw it away on account of a little
+    mistake in the name. So we shove her in with the single remark that
+    it is better to have a Carrot for a President than a dead beat for
+    a son-in-law. In this way, we again score a live beat on the galoot
+    ‘The Rip-snorter.’ Whoopee! Now is the time to subscribe.
+
+    1888. New York Mercury, Aug. 7. But not only steamboats and
+    locomotives were used by reporters for beats, but one newspaper man
+    named Monroe F. Gale made a trip across the Atlantic in a
+    pilot-boat, to get some peculiar news in his own fashion. All
+    things taken into consideration, there never was a bolder voyage
+    over the Atlantic than this made by the ‘Romer,’ all for the sake
+    of a few ‘points’ in news.
+
+2. (popular.)—The round of a policeman or watchman when on duty; one’s
+daily round of duty, work, etc.; and, figuratively, one’s sphere of
+influence.
+
+    1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 211. The first
+    evening I took my stand in Fleet Street, to look out for a fare, I
+    was drove from street to street by women of my own profession, who
+    swore I should not come in their beats until I had paid my
+    ‘footing.’
+
+    1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 31. The costermongers repaired
+    to their ordinary beats in the suburbs.
+
+    1862. Saturday Review, 15 March, 295. Ask him why anything is
+    so-and-so, and you have got out of his beat. [M.]
+
+Faire sa nouveauté is said of a French prostitute when seeking fresh
+fields and pastures new.
+
+Ppl. adj. (popular).—1. Overcome; exhausted; ‘done up.’ Generally
+dead-beat (q.v.). [A shortened form of beaten.]—See Beaten out.
+
+    1832. Moore, Jerome, etc., wks. II. (1862), 558. Till fairly beat,
+    the saint gave o’er, [M.]
+
+    1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffery Hamlyn, ch. xxxvii. ‘The lad was
+    getting beat, and couldn’t a’gone much further.’
+
+2. Hence also, figuratively, to be baffled; defeated.
+
+Verb (American).—To swindle; to deceive; to cheat.
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Ap. 12. Later he heard of her marriage to
+    some lawyer or artist named Diss Debar. Previous to this she had
+    been in Montreal and telegraphed that she was dying. She beat the
+    hotel out of a hundred dollars.
+
+Daisy beat (American thieves’).—A swindle of the first water; a robbery
+of magnitude.
+
+To beat hollow—to sticks—to ribands—to fits—all creation—to shivers,
+etc. (popular).—To excel; to surpass.
+
+    1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, I., ii. Crab was beat
+    hollow, Careless threw his rider, and Miss Slammerkin had the
+    distemper.
+
+    1847. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1877), p. 55. Many ladies ... were
+    beat all to sticks by the lovely Odille. [M.]
+
+    1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. i. Talk of climate! a
+    real fine day in England, like a really handsome Englishwoman,
+    beats creation.
+
+    1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. i. I rode a race against
+    Bob Dashwood the other morning, ... and beat him all to ribands.
+
+    1879. Lowell, Poetical Works, 418. And there’s where I shall beat
+    them hollow.
+
+    1889. Modern Society, 19 Oct., p. 1302. (How the Nobility live in
+    Germany.) Germans beat the English hollow at drinking beer; the
+    ladies drink it, and the children also, like milk; and it seems to
+    agree with them, for they are very robust. They are not ceremonious
+    at any meal, and eat as if in a hurry for a train, cutting up all
+    on their plate first, then forking it in with the aid of bread or
+    their fingers.
+
+The French say arriver bon premier, ‘to arrive’ or ‘be a good first.’
+Cf., synonyms in A1.
+
+To get a beat on is to get the advantage of. The same idea is expressed
+in the phrase to beat one’s way through the world; in other words, to
+push one’s interests with vigour and pertinacity. As used by thieves
+and their associates, to get a beat on one, besides conveying the idea
+of obtaining an advantage, also implies that the point has been scored
+by underhand, secret, or unlawful means.
+
+To beat the booby or goose, phr. (nautical).—To strike the hands across
+the chest and under the armpits to warm them. Formerly to beat Jonas.
+
+    1883. Times, 15 March, p. 9, col. 6. The common labourers at
+    outdoor work were beating goose to drive the blood from their
+    fingers. [M.]
+
+To beat the road, phr. (American).—To travel by rail without
+paying.—See Dead-heads and To beat, sense 1.
+
+That beat’s the Dutch!—See Dutch.
+
+
+Beat Daddy Mammy (old military).—To tattoo; to practice the elements of
+drum beating.
+
+
+Beaten Down to Bed-Rock, adv. phr. (American).—See Bedrock.
+
+
+Beaten Out, ppl. adj. with adv. (common).—Impoverished; in one’s last
+straits; hard up.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 351. The beaten
+    out mechanics and artisans, who, from want of employment in their
+    own trade, take to making small things. Ibid, p. 400. The last
+    class of street sellers is the beaten out mechanic or workman.
+
+
+Beater-Cases, subs. (old).—Boots or shoes. Nearly obsolete.
+Trotter-cases (q.v.) is the usual term nowadays.—See Beaters.
+
+
+Beaters, subs. (American).—The feet. [A transferred sense of beater,
+originally signifying one who ‘beat’ or walked the streets. Barclay, in
+Shyp of Folys (1509), speaks of ‘night watchers and beters of the
+stretes.’] For synonyms, see Creepers.
+
+
+Beat the Hoof, verbal phr. (popular).—To walk; to plod; to prowl. [From
+beat, in the sense of to strike the ground in walking, etc., + hoof, a
+humorous term for the foot.] To beat the hoof is an older form of the
+modern pad the hoof (q.v.).
+
+    1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i., Sc. 3.
+
+        Falstaff: Hold, sirrah, [to Robin] bear you these letters
+            tightly;
+        Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.—
+        Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go;
+        Trudge, plod away, o’ the hoof; seek shelter, pack!
+
+    1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II., 412. They all beated it on the hoof to
+    London, [M.]
+
+
+Beat the Rib.—See Rib.
+
+
+Beau Trap, subs. (old).—1. A loose stone in a pavement, under which
+water lodges, and which, on being trodden upon, squirts it up, to the
+great damage of clean clothes.
+
+2. (old.)—Also a well-dressed sharper, on the look out for raw country
+visitors and such like.
+
+3. (old.)—A fop, well-dressed outwardly indeed, but whose linen,
+person, and habits generally, are unclean.
+
+
+Beauty, subs. (American cadet).—A term applied, on the rule of
+contrary, to the plainest or ugliest cadet in the class at the United
+States Military Academy at West Point. Cf., Snooker and Babe.
+
+
+Beauty-Sleep, subs. (familiar).—Sleep before midnight, the idea being
+that early hours conduce to health and beauty.
+
+    1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, II., p. 120. The fair pupils have
+    talked themselves to sleep, which, if report does not belie them,
+    is not until they have forfeited all chance of adding to their
+    attractions by getting a little beauty-sleep before twelve o’clock.
+
+    1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. xv. ‘Are you going? it is not
+    late; not ten o’clock yet.’ ‘A medical man, who may be called up at
+    any moment, must make sure of his beauty-sleep.’
+
+    1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, ch. lxiv. Would I please to remember
+    that I had roused him up at night, and the quality always made a
+    point of paying four times over for a man’s loss of his
+    beauty-sleep. I replied that his loss of beauty-sleep was rather
+    improving to a man of so high a complexion.
+
+    1880. Jas. Payn, Confid. Agent, ch. iii. ‘You must get your
+    beauty-sleep,’ cried he to his wife when Barlow had departed, ‘or
+    you will have no colour in your cheeks to-morrow.’
+
+
+Beaver, subs. (common).—1. An old term for a hat; goss or cady,
+however, is more frequently heard nowadays. At one time hats were made
+of beaver’s fur—hence the name; the term is still occasionally applied
+to tall ‘chimney-pot hats,’ in spite of the fact that for many years
+silk has replaced the skin of the rodent in their manufacture.
+
+    1528. Roy, Sat. To exalte the thre folde crowne Of anti-christ hys
+    bever. [M.]
+
+    1661. Pepys, Diary, 27 June. Mr. Holden sent me a bever, which cost
+    me £4 5s.
+
+    1712. Gay, Trivia, bk. II., l., 277.
+
+        The broker here his spacious beaver wears,
+        Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. ix. ‘Had you not better take off
+    your hat?’ asks the Duchess, pointing ... to ‘the foring cove’s’
+    beaver, which he had neglected to remove.
+
+    1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. x. We know
+    this of our hats, and are always reminded of it when we happen to
+    put them on wrong side foremost. We soon find that the beaver is a
+    hollow cast of the skull, with all its irregular bumps and
+    depressions.
+
+In beaver, phr. (University).—In a tall hat and non-academical garb, as
+distinguished from cap and gown.
+
+    1840. New Monthly Magazine, lix., 271. He ... went out of College
+    in what the members of the United Service called mufti, but members
+    of the University beaver, which means not in his academics—his cap
+    and gown. [M.]
+
+See also Bever.
+
+
+Beck, subs. (old cant).—1. A constable.—See Beak and Copper.
+
+2. A parish beadle. Apparently the term was applied to all kinds of
+watchmen.—See Harman-beck.
+
+Verb (thieves’).—To imprison. Amongst Dutch thieves bekaan has the same
+signification, imprisoned.
+
+    1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth ch. lv. The circle with the two
+    dots was writ by another of our brotherhood, and it signifies as
+    how the writer ... was becked, was asking here, and lay two months
+    in Starabin.
+
+
+Bed. To put to bed with a pickaxe and shovel (common).—To bury. For
+analogous expressions, see Ladder.
+
+    c. 1881. Broadside Ballad, ‘Hands off’—
+
+        Kitty Crea, some fine day, when I’m laid in the clay,
+        Put to bed with a spade in the usual way,
+        And yourself on the shelf a neglected old maid,
+        Troth, your conscience will sting you, I’m greatly afraid.
+
+
+Bedder, subs. (Cambridge University).—A charwoman; one who makes the
+beds and performs other necessary domestic duties for residents in
+college.
+
+
+Bed-Fagot, subs. (familiar).—1. Applied contemptuously to a woman; Cf.,
+‘hussy,’ ‘witch,’ etc.
+
+2. Synonymous with prostitute. For full list of analogous terms, see
+Barrack-hack.
+
+
+Bedfordshire, subs. (familiar).—A humorous term for bed. There are
+several other phrases of a kindred character; as, for example, Sheet
+Alley (q.v.); Blanket Fair (q.v.); The Land of Nod (q.v.), etc.
+
+    1665. Cotton, Poet. Wks. (1765), 76.
+
+        Each one departs to Bedfordshire.
+        And pillows all securely snort on. [M.]
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. iii.).
+
+    Lady Ans. I’m sure ’tis time for all honest folks to go to bed.
+
+    Miss. Indeed my eyes draw straws (she’s almost asleep)....
+
+    Col. I’m going to the Land of Nod.
+
+    Ner. Faith, I’m for Bedfordshire.
+
+    1845. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg.
+
+        The time for sleep had come at last,
+        And there was the bed, so soft, so vast,
+          Quite a field of Bedfordshire clover.
+
+
+Bed-House, subs. (common).—A place of assignation where beds can be
+hired for a longer or shorter period as required—hence the name. For
+synonyms generally, see Nanny shop.
+
+
+Bedoozle, verb (American).—To confuse; to bewilder. Probably a corrupt
+form of the old English verb ‘bedazzle,’ used by Shakspeare in Taming
+of the Shrew, iv., 5, 46. [1593.]
+
+
+Bedpost. In the twinkling of a bedpost, phr.
+(familiar).—Instantaneously; with great rapidity. Originally in the
+twinkling of a bedstaff. This phrase has given rise to not a little
+speculation; first, as to what use the bedstaff was put; and, secondly,
+as to its possible connection with rapidity of motion. The generally
+received explanation is that the staff referred to was, as Johnson puts
+it, ‘a wooden pin stuck anciently on sides of the bedstead to hold the
+cloaths from slipping on either side.’ Dr. Murray, however, points out
+that the great lexicographer gave no authority, and also that ‘no
+corroborative evidence has been found.’ Still it seems certain that
+bedstaffs were used and kept near beds for some purpose by our
+ancestors. Bobadil, in Every Man in his Humour [1596], uses one to
+display his skill with the rapier, and the following explanation has
+been suggested by Mr. Thomas Boys [Notes and Queries, 2 S., vi., 437].
+The bedstaff was an upright peg, fixed into the side of the bedstead
+after the manner of a pin, and projecting upwards to keep the bed
+clothes in their place. Consequently, as offering the means of
+exhibiting the use of the rapier, the wooden bedstaff may have afforded
+a very available as well as harmless implement. Suppose then the
+bedstaff to have been an upright peg or pin fitting into a hole or
+socket in the side of the bedstead, and, in length, about equal to the
+rapier. The socket is a few inches deep; and the bedstaff has (to
+steady it) a projecting rim which overlays the socket like a lid. The
+part of the bedstaff which enters the socket will then be the hilt of
+the rapier; the projecting rim will be the guard; and the rest of the
+staff will do duty as the blade. In the bedstaff we have then the form
+of a rapier; and, with this implement of wood, Captain Bobadil would
+have no difficulty in exhibiting his passado and stoccado. The rapier
+of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, moreover, was by no means
+the light and foil-like weapon now known as the small sword. It was of
+great length and heavy, and a bedstaff such as that suggested above,
+with a species of guard, and most likely about the weight of a heavy
+single-stick, would have been no bad instrument wherewith to
+indoctrinate a tyro in the noble art of self defence.
+
+Hence, probably, if this be so, the derivation of the expression, in
+the twinkling of a bedstaff; more especially if, as would occasionally
+be the case, it were used as a weapon of defence against intruders,
+when possibly even life itself might hang upon a dexterous use of the
+implement.
+
+    1660. Charac. Italy, 78. In the twinkling of a Bedstaff he disrobed
+    himself ... and was just skipping into bed. [M.]
+
+    1676. T. Shadwell, Virtuoso, I., i. ’Gad, I’ll do it instantly, in
+    the twinkling of a bedstaff.
+
+    1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XI., 259. Shake ’em off and leap into
+    bed, in the twinkling of a bedstaff.
+
+    1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. i. ‘I’ll adown and be
+    with you in ... the twinkling of a bedpost.’
+
+Among English Synonyms may be included:—In a jiffy; in two two’s; in a
+brace of shakes; before you can say Jack Robinson; in a crack; in the
+squeezing of a lemon.
+
+Between you and me and the bedpost, phr. (familiar).—A humorous tag to
+an assertion; i.e., ‘between ourselves’;—‘I know what you say, but,
+between you and me, etc. ... the thing is absurd.’ Sometimes the last
+word is varied by ‘post,’ ‘door post,’ or ‘gate post’—any prop seems to
+serve.
+
+    1831. Bulwer Lytton, Eugene Aram, p. 234. Ah, sir, all very well to
+    say so; but, between you and me and the bedpost, young master’s
+    quarrelled with old master.
+
+    1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, p. 127. And between you and me
+    and the post, sir, it will be a very nice portrait too.
+
+    1879. Punch, March 8, p. 108. Discussing an absent friend. ‘Yes,
+    Robinson’s a clever feller, and he’s a modest feller, and he’s a
+    honest feller; but betwixt you and i and the post, Mr. Jones,’ said
+    Brown, confidentially, picking his wisdom tooth with his little
+    finger nail, ‘Robinson ain’t got neither the Looks, nor yet the
+    Language, nor yet the Manners of a Gentleman.’
+
+‘Right you are, sir!’ said Jones, shovelling the melted remains of his
+Ice Pudding into his Mouth with a Steel Knife (which he afterwards
+wiped on the Table Cloth). ‘You’ve ’it ’im orf t’ a T!’
+
+
+Bedrock. To get down to bedrock [in anything; whether in an enquiry, or
+in one’s circumstances, etc.].—To the bottom; to the lowest level. A
+miner’s term, alluding to the solid rock underlying superficial and
+other formations. Therefore, metaphorically, ‘to reach bedrock’ is to
+attain a solid basis or foundation; bedrock facts are the ‘chiels that
+winna ding’—the incontestible and uncontrovertible truth.
+
+    1870. Bret Harte, Poems and Prose, p. 113. ‘No! no!’ continued T.
+    hastily. ‘I play this yer hand alone. To come down to the bedrock
+    it’s just this,’ etc.
+
+    1875. Scribner’s Magazine, p. 277. Getting to the real character of
+    a man is coming to the bedrock.
+
+    1888. Louisiana Press, March 31. Thomas J. Whiteman, of Carrol
+    county, is a Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri. You can
+    bet your bedrock dollar that the next governor of Missouri will be
+    a white man, although his first name isn’t apt to be Thomas.
+
+
+Bee. To have a bee in the head or bonnet, phr. (familiar).—To be
+possessed of queer ideas; ‘half-cracked’; flighty. This phrase is of
+considerable antiquity, being traced back to a Scotch writer, Gawin
+Douglas by name [1474–1521], Bishop of Dunkeld, who used it in a
+translation of Virgil’s Æneid.
+
+    1512–3 (translated: published in 1553). Gawin Douglas, Æneis,
+    VIII., Prol. 120. Quhat bern be thou in bed with heid full of beis.
+
+    1657. Samuel Colvil, Whigg’s Supplication, or Scotch Hudibras
+    [1710]. Which comes from brains which have a bee.
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s, ch. xvii. ‘Maybe ye think the puir lassie
+    has a bee in her bonnet; but ye ken yoursell if naebody but wise
+    folk were to marry, the warld wad be ill peopled.’
+
+    1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, III., 307. It is not an uncommon
+    crochet amongst benevolent men to maintain that wickedness in
+    necessarily a sort of insanity, and that nobody would make a
+    violent start out of a straight path unless stung to such disorder
+    by a bee in his bonnet.
+
+For synonyms, see Apartments to let.
+
+    1868. Dr. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 77, col. 2.
+    You have a bee in your bonnet or your head is full of bees; [i.e.]
+    full of devices, crotchets, fancies, inventions, and dreamy
+    theories. The connection between bees and the soul was once
+    generally maintained ... the moon was called a bee by the
+    priestesses of Cerës, and the word lunatic or moon-struck still
+    means one with ‘bees in his head.’
+
+
+Beef, subs. (common).—1. Human flesh (a transferred sense); i.e.,
+obese; stolid; or fleshy like an ox.
+
+    1862. Cork Examiner, March 28. Chelmsford stood higher in the leg,
+    and showed less beef about him. [M.]
+
+2. (nautical.)—By a further transition beef has also come to signify
+men; strength; or ‘hands’; ‘More beef!’ a bo’sun’s exhortation to extra
+exertion.
+
+    1863. Cornhill Magazine. Feb., ‘Life on Board a Man of War.’ Useful
+    at the heavy hauling of braces, etc., where plenty of beef is
+    required. [M.]
+
+3. (common.)—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.
+
+To be in beef, phr. (old)—Said only of women. It means to have carnal
+knowledge.
+
+To be in a man’s beef, phr. (old).—To wound with a sword.—Grose.
+
+To cry or give beef, or hot beef, phr. (thieves’).—To give an alarm; to
+pursue; to set up a hue and cry. It has been suggested that beef in
+this case is a rhyming synonym to ‘thief.’ For synonyms, see To guy.
+
+To be dressed like Christmas beef, phr. (common).—To be decked out in
+one’s best raiment; in allusion to the ‘dressing’ of Christmas beef by
+butchers.
+
+To make beef, phr. (thieves’).—To run away; to decamp. For synonyms,
+see Amputate.
+
+Beef! intj. (Australian).—‘Stop thief.’ Cf., To cry or give beef.
+
+Beef up! phr. (common).—‘Put on your strength!’ ‘Give a long pull and a
+strong pull!’
+
+
+Beef-Brained, adj. (common).—Doltish; obtuse; thickheaded; a reference
+to the heavy, dullness of appearance of oxen.
+
+
+Beef-Head, subs. (common).—A dolt; a stupid, thickheaded person. Cf.,
+Beef-brained.
+
+
+Beef It, verb (common).—Considered originally a provincialism, but now
+common. The lower classes in the East End of London frequently speak of
+beefing it, either in reality or anticipation (mostly latter), when
+referring to a meat meal, more particularly when it happens to be beef.
+
+
+Beefment. On the beefment, adv. phr. (thieves’).—On the alert; on the
+look out.
+
+
+Beef-Stick, subs. (military).—The bone in a joint of beef. At mess it
+is ‘first come, best served’; and those who come last sometimes get
+little more than the beef-stick.
+
+
+Beef Straight.—See Straight.
+
+
+Beef to the Heels, like a Mullingar Heifer, phr. (Irish).—A stalwart
+man, or a fine woman; i.e., one whose superiority is manifest from the
+crown of the head to the sole of the foot; literally, all beef down to
+the heels.
+
+    c. 1880. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, p. 193. Dolly was
+    not a fine woman as they say, at all; not beef to the heels, by any
+    means; in a grazier’s eye she would have had no charm whatsoever.
+
+
+Beef-Witted, adj. (common).—See Beef-brained.
+
+    1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, in wks. (Grosart) III., 257.
+    Liues there anie such slowe yce-braind beefe-witted gull.
+
+    1863. Reader, 22 Aug. This British bull-neckedness, this British
+    beef-wittedness. [M.]
+
+
+Beefy, adj. (common).—Fleshy; unduly thick, or obese. [From beef + y: a
+transferred sense.] Also beefiness, subs., fleshy development. The
+ankles of women are sometimes ungallantly spoken of as beefy, with
+which compare beef to the heels. A run of luck and good fortune,
+generally, is likewise referred to as beefy.
+
+    1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xi. To see him in his huge
+    shirt-sleeves, with his awkward beefy hands hanging inanely by his
+    side, and his great foolish mouth open.
+
+
+Bee-Line. To take or make a bee-line [for a place or object], phr.
+(originally American; now common).—To go direct; ‘as the crow flies’;
+without circumlocution. Bees, when fully laden with pollen, make for
+the hive in a straight, or bee-line. One of the American railways is
+called the Bee-Line Road from the direct route it takes between its
+termini. Cf., Straight shoot.
+
+    1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers.
+
+        The field of Lexin’ton where England tried
+        The fastest colors thet she ever dyed.
+        An’ Concord Bridge, thet Davis, when he came,
+        Found was the bee-line track to heaven an’ fame,
+        Ez all roads be by natur’, ef your soul
+        Don’t sneak thur shun-pikes so’s to save the toll.
+
+    1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. v. How they could follow an enemy’s
+    trail, or strike a bee-line through unpathed woods to the point
+    they sought!
+
+    1875. Miss Bird, Six Mos. in Sandwich Islands, Lett. xxix., p. 275
+    (1886). Horses cross the sand and hummocks as nearly as possible on
+    a bee-line.
+
+    1884. Aldridge, Ranch Notes, p. 78. The cattle are in great dread
+    of this pest [the heel-fly], and the instant an animal feels one,
+    it hoists its tail in the air, and takes a bee-line for the nearest
+    water.
+
+
+Beelzebub’s Paradise, subs. (popular).—Hell; the infernal regions.
+Beelzebub is a frequent mis-reading for Beelzebul, the name given by
+the Jews to the prince of demons. The usage occurs in the New Testament
+at Matthew x., 25, and xii., 24–27, where Beelzebub should read
+Beelzebul. The former is properly the god of the Philistines,
+worshipped as the destroyer of flies [from Hebrew baal, lord + zebub, a
+fly]; whilst the latter is an opprobrious change on the former [from
+Hebrew baal, lord + zebul, dung].
+
+
+Been in the Sun, adv. phr. (common).—A synonym for ‘drunk,’ in
+connection with which see Screwed. An allusion to a flushed, heated
+appearance.
+
+
+Been Measured for a New Umbrella, phr. (American).—Said sportively of
+anyone appearing in new, ill-fitting clothes, or who has struck out a
+new line of action, the wisdom of which is doubtful. The joke is an old
+one and refers to a man of whom it was said that nothing fitted him but
+his umbrella.
+
+
+Been There. Oh, yes, I’ve been there, phr. (American), i.e., ‘I know
+what I am about.’ A popular exclamation. When it is said of a man that
+he has been there, shrewdness, pertinacity, and experience are implied.
+A variant may be found in the equally slang expression, ‘he got there
+all the same.’—See Got there.
+
+    1888. Atlanta Constitution, May 4. The Japanese say: ‘A man takes a
+    drink; then the drink takes a drink, and next the drink takes the
+    man.’ Evidently the Japanese ‘have been there.’
+
+2. Another and more invidious meaning, however, is attached to the
+phrase. Women suspected of clandestine meetings with men are said to
+have been there.
+
+
+Beer, subs. (familiar).—To do a beer, i.e., to take a drink of beer.
+
+    1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 3.
+
+        Quarter-day, too, no more chance of tick,
+        Fancy I shall ’ave to cut my stick.
+        Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear,
+        Two d. left!—must go and do a beer!
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, July 6. It was the old tale of stony,
+    pebble-beached, block granite Wednesday, and money on the staff
+    there was none. ‘Pitcher,’ said Shifter, brushing the dust off his
+    tongue, ‘got enough for a beer?’ ‘Enough for a beer?’ repeated
+    Pitcher. ‘Good heavens, I wish I had. If Bass’s ale was a ha’penny
+    a barrel I couldn’t buy enough to soak a fly-paper!’
+
+Verb.—To drink beer; also, to get drunk.
+
+    1780–6. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’) Odes R. Acad., wks., 1794, I., 105. He
+    surely had been brandying it or beering, that is, in plainer
+    English, he was drunk. [d.]
+
+To think no small beer [of oneself], phr. (common).—Small beer is weak
+beer; hence, figuratively equivalent to a trifle. The expression, to
+think no small beer of oneself, indicates, therefore, a good measure of
+self-esteem.
+
+    1840. De Quincey, Style, wks. XI., 174. [I] should express her
+    self-esteem by the popular phrase, that she did not think small
+    beer of herself.
+
+
+Beer and Bible, phr. (political).—An epithet applied sarcastically to a
+political party which first came into prominence during the last
+Beaconsfield Administration. It was called into being by a measure
+introduced by the moderate Liberals in 1873, with a view to placing
+certain restrictions upon the sale of intoxicating drinks. The Licensed
+Victuallers, an extremely powerful association, whose influence
+extended all over the kingdom, took alarm, and turned to the
+Conservatives for help in opposing the bill. In the ranks of the latter
+were numbered the chief brewers; the leaders of the association,
+moreover, had mostly strong high church tendencies, while one of them
+was president of the Exeter Hall organization. The Liberals, noting
+these facts, sarcastically nicknamed this alliance the Beer and Bible
+Association; the Morning Advertiser, the organ of the Licensed
+Victuallers, was dubbed the Beer and Bible Gazette; and lastly,
+electioneering tactics ascribed to them the war cry of beer and bible!
+This so-called beer and bible interest made rapid strides: in 1870 the
+Conservatives were at their low water mark among the London
+constituencies; but, in 1880, they had carried seats in the City,
+Westminster, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, and Southwark. A
+notable exception to this strange fellowship was Mr. Bass [afterwards
+Lord Bass], of pale-ale fame, who held aloof from opposition to the
+measure in question. Anent the nickname Beer and Bible Gazette given to
+the Morning Advertiser, it may be mentioned that it had already earned
+for itself a somewhat similar sobriquet. For a long time this paper
+devoted one-half of its front page to notices of publicans and
+tavern-keepers; while the other half was filled up with announcements
+of religious books, and lists of preachers at the London churches and
+chapels. This gained for the paper the equally singular sobriquet of
+the ‘Gin and Gospel Gazette.’
+
+
+Beer and Skittles. Generally, Not all beer and skittles, phr.
+(familiar), i.e., not altogether pleasant, or couleur de rose. A tap
+room simile, the allusion being to drinking beer and playing at
+skittles at one and the same time.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 138. But
+    football wasn’t all beer and skittles to the Fags. There was an
+    institution called ‘Kicking in,’ which, while it lasted, was much
+    worse than ‘watching out’ at cricket, although it had the very
+    great merit of not continuing so long; for, even on a whole
+    holiday, we seldom had more than two hours of it.
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Aug. 13, p. 6. Prince George of Wales is
+    ‘learning his profession,’ and finds it is not all beer and
+    skittles. That run across the Channel into Queenstown harbour
+    showed our young naval officer the difference between an ironclad
+    and a torpedo boat. The latter is an uncommonly lively craft, and
+    in a choppy sea under a fresh breeze was surprisingly nimble. The
+    commander of No. 79 arrived in the harbour, having shown that at
+    least in one respect he has already something in common with the
+    late admiral, Lord Nelson. The officers of the Revenge had the
+    honour to request the pleasure of the company of the Prince and his
+    brother officers to breakfast. The brother officers went, His Royal
+    Highness spent the day in his hammock, and towards evening wrote to
+    his Royal Father a description of the perils of the deep.
+
+
+Beer-Barrel, subs. (common).—The human body. Cf., Bacon.
+
+
+Beeriness, subs., Beery, adj. (common).—Pertaining to a state of, or
+approaching to drunkenness; intoxicated; fuddled with beer. For
+synonyms, see Screwed.
+
+    1857. Dickens, Dorrit, bk. I., ch. viii., p. 56. The stranger was
+    left to the ... beery atmosphere, sawdust, pipe-lights, spittoons,
+    and repose.
+
+    1877. D. C. Murray, in Belgravia, July, p. 73. There was a beery
+    and bloated captain, resident in the inn, who had left the army, as
+    the rumour ran, under disreputable auspices.
+
+    1889. Modern Society, July 13, p. 838. It is a fact that does not
+    seem to have struck anyone, that Shakspeare’s first appearance as a
+    sporting tipster was in the words, ‘Lay on Macduff.’ We believe,
+    however, that they could at that time have got five to one against
+    him. So sure was the bard of his tip, that he added, in his own
+    classical language, ‘Damn’d be he that first cries, Hold, enough,’
+    which is vulgarly translated by the beery oracle of the kerbstone,
+    ‘Put yer shirt on ’im, cuffs an’ all.’
+
+
+Beer-Jerker, subs. (American).—A tippler.—See Jerker and Slinger.
+
+
+Beerocracy, subs. (common).—The brewing and beer-selling interest. [A
+humorous appellation in imitation of aristocracy. From beer + [o]
+cracy, from Greek κρατέω, to rule, to hold.]
+
+    1881. World, 19 Jan., p. 10, col. 2. The startling mixture of
+    peerage and beerocracy ... was absent this time. [M.]
+
+
+Beer-Slinger.—See Slinger; also Jerker.
+
+
+Beeswax, subs. (old).—1. Poor, soft cheese. Sometimes called sweaty-toe
+cheese (q.v.).
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. Bob: Now,
+    landlord, ’arter that ’ere drap of max, suppose we haves a drain o’
+    heavy wet, just by way of cooling our chaffers—mine’s as dry as a
+    chip—and, I say, do you hear, let’s have a twopenny burster, half a
+    quartern of beesvax, a ha’p’orth o’ ingens, and a dollop o’ salt
+    along vith it, vill you? Mace: Bellay! a burster and beesvax—ingens
+    and salt here. (Calling as he fetches the porter from the side
+    wing, l.). Now, then, here you are, Master Grimmuzzle.
+
+    1849. Bell’s Life. [From Baumann.] A burster with a slice of
+    beeswax.
+
+2. A bore; one who ‘buttonholes’ another. Generally, Old beeswax.
+
+
+Beeswaxers, subs. (Winchester College).—Thick boots used for football.
+Probably from being smeared with beeswax or other substitute for
+rendering footgear supple. Pronounced Bĕswaxers.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 137. Our
+    costume consisted of a jersey, flannel trousers, beeswaxers
+    (lace-up boots), or ‘High-lows’ (low shoes), with two or three
+    pairs of ‘Worsteders’ (thick worsted stockings), the feet of all
+    but one pair being cut off.
+
+
+Beeswing, subs. (common).—A gauzy film or ‘crust,’ in port wines, the
+result of age. [From bees + wing; so called from its appearance when
+broken up in the process of decanting.] Hence also beeswinged.
+
+    1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, III., p. 26. Scott from under bushy
+    eyebrows winked at the apparition of a beeswing.
+
+    1850. D. Jerrold, The Catspaw, Act i. Whereupon, the animal spirits
+    are held in suspense, like—like the beeswing in port.
+
+    1873. Fitzedward Hall, Modern English, p. 32. This port is not
+    presentable unless beeswinged.
+
+Old beeswing, subs. (common).—A nickname for anyone, but especially for
+one who ‘takes to his liquor kindly’ as the saying goes.
+
+    18(?). Mark Lemon, Golden Fetters, II., p. 74. Mr. Clendon did not
+    call Mr. Barnard ‘old cock,’ ‘old fellow,’ or old beeswing.
+
+
+Beetle-Crusher or Beetle Squasher, subs. (popular).—1. A large foot.
+The term was popularised by Leech in the pages of Punch. For synonyms,
+see Hoof.
+
+2. In a transferred and now more common sense to that originally
+obtaining, a large boot or shoe. Also Beetle-cases. For synonyms, see
+Trotter-cases.
+
+    1869. W. Bradwood, The O.V.H., ch. xxi. Writhing yet striving to
+    look pleasant on the infliction which the beetle-crusher of a
+    recent arrival had just inflicted on his pet corn.
+
+    c. 1880. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, II., p. 200. Yes,
+    but what horrible boots! Whoever could have had the atwocity to
+    fwame such beetle-crushers.
+
+3. (military.)—An infantry soldier; the term is applied to them by the
+cavalry. A variant is Mud-crusher, which see for synonyms.
+
+
+Beetle-Crushing, adj. (popular).—With solid tread, such as comes from
+large heavy feet encased in boots or shoes to match; e.g., the marching
+of infantry. Cf., Beetle-crusher, sense 3.
+
+    1876. Anteros, I., p. 188. The possibility floated before him, now,
+    of sending all his live and dead stock into the market,—of exchange
+    into a sedate beetle-crushing corps.
+
+
+Beetles, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Colorado mine shares.
+
+    1887. Atkins, House Scraps.
+
+        Oh supposing our creamjugs were broken,
+        Or beetles were sowing the babies.
+
+
+Beetle-Sticker, subs. (common).—An entomologist.
+
+
+Before the Wind, phr. (colloquial).—In prosperous circumstances; out of
+debt or difficulty. From the nautical expression.
+
+
+Begad! intj. (common).—A corruption of ‘By God!’ and, as such a
+euphemistic oath.—See Oaths.
+
+    1742. Fielding, J. Andrews. Begad! madam ... ’tis the very same I
+    met.
+
+    1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., iv., 39. Only one, begad! in the
+    world.
+
+
+Beggared. I’ll be beggared if, etc., phr. (common).—An emphatic form of
+asseveration; i.e., ‘I’ll give up everything, even to being reduced to
+beggary, if,’ etc.
+
+
+Beggar-Maker, subs. (old).—A publican.
+
+
+Beggars, subs. (cards’).—The small cards from the deuce to the ten are
+so called.
+
+
+Beggar’s Bolts.—See Beggar’s bullets.
+
+
+Beggar’s Bullets or Bolts (old).—Stones.
+
+    1584. Hudson, Judith, in Sylvester’s Du Bartas (1608), 698. A pack
+    of country clowns ... that them to battail bownes, with begger’s
+    bolts and levers. [M.]
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. ‘The beggar’s bullets
+    began to fly’; i.e., they began to throw stones.
+
+
+Beggar’s Bush. To go home by beggar’s bush, phr. (old).—To go to ruin;
+otherwise explained as follows.
+
+    1686. Twelve Ingenious Characters. He throws away his wealth as
+    heartily as young heirs, or old philosophers, and is so eager of a
+    goal, or a mumper’s wallet, that he will not wait fortune’s leisure
+    to undo him, but rides post to beggar’s bush, and then takes more
+    pains to spend money than day-labourers to get it. [N.]
+
+    1868. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 78. Beggar’s Bush.
+    To go by beggar’s bush (or) go home by beggar’s bush, i.e., to go
+    to ruin. Beggar’s bush is the name of a tree which once stood on
+    the left hand of the London road from Huntingdon to Caxton, so
+    called because it was a noted rendezvous for beggars. These punning
+    phrases and proverbs are very common.
+
+Russell Hill, near Croydon, where the Warehousemen’s and Clerks’
+Schools are, is locally known as Beggar’s Bush.
+
+
+Beggar’s Plush, subs. (old)?—Corduroy.—See quotation.
+
+    1688. London Gazette, No. 2379, page 4. A person ... in a dark grey
+    Cloth Coat.... Breeches of Beggar’s Plush. [M.]
+
+
+Beggar’s Velvet, subs. (common).—Downy particles which accumulate under
+furniture from the negligence of housemaids. Otherwise called
+sluts’-wool (q.v.).
+
+
+Beggar the Thing! intj. (common).—Equivalent to ‘confound’ or ‘hang the
+thing’—used to give additional emphasis to a word or action.
+
+
+Begin Upon [a Person], verb (common).—To attack; to assault.
+
+
+Begosh! B’gosh! intj. (American).—An expletive, probably of negro
+origin; a half veiled oath; a corruption of ‘By God!’—See Oaths.
+
+    1888. The Epoch, May 5. Art dealer (descanting on the virtues of
+    the picture). ‘You will observe, sir, that the drawing is free,
+    that—’ Agriculturist. ‘Well, if the drawin’s free an’ you don’t tax
+    me too much for the frame b’gosh I’ll take it.’
+
+
+Behind, subs. (common).—1. The posterior; the rump.
+
+    c. 1830. George IV., in Saturday Review (1862), 8 Feb. Go and do my
+    bidding—tell him he lies, and kick his behind in my name. [M.]
+
+2. (Eton and Winchester Colleges.)—A back at football. At Eton called
+short behind and long behind, usually abbreviated to ‘short’ and
+‘long.’ At Winchester, second behind and last behind. These answer to
+the half-back and back of Association football. At Winchester, in the
+Fifteens, there is also a third behind.
+
+
+Behind One’s Side, adv. phr. (Winchester College).—Said of a man when
+nearer the opponent’s goal than the player of his team who last touched
+the ball.
+
+
+Beilby’s Ball, subs. (old).—An Old Bailey execution.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Beilby’s Ball,—‘he
+    will dance at Beilby’s Ball, where the sheriff pays [for] the
+    musick: he will be hanged. Who Mr. Beilby was, or why that ceremony
+    was so called remains with the quadrature of the circle, the
+    discovery of the philosopher’s stone, and diverse other desiderata
+    yet undiscovered.’
+
+
+Bejan, Baijan, etc., subs. (Scotch University).—A freshman; a student
+of the first year at the Universities of St Andrew’s and Aberdeen: it
+is now obsolete at Edinburgh. [From the French bec jaune, yellow beak,
+in allusion to the color of the mandibles of young birds.] The term was
+adopted from the University of Paris; but, signifying ‘a novice’ it has
+been in more or less general use for nearly three hundred years. At
+Aberdeen, the second-class students are ‘semi-bejans’; in the third
+‘tertians’; while those in the highest rank are ‘magistrands.’ In the
+University of Vienna the freshman is called beanus, and in France
+‘footing money’ is bejaunia. For synonymous terms for freshmen and raw
+recruits, see Snooker.
+
+    1611. Cotgrave. Bejaune, a novice ... or young beginner, in a trade
+    or art.
+
+    1865. G. Macdonald, Alec Forbes, ch. xxxiv. The benches were
+    occupied by about two hundred students, most of the freshmen or
+    bejans in their red gowns.
+
+    1887. Standard, Feb. 10, p. 5, col. 2. The term baijan, used in one
+    of the Scottish universities to designate a freshman, is from the
+    French bec jaune, yellow beak—young birds having usually bills of
+    this hue.
+
+
+Belch, subs. (common).—Beer, especially poor beer. So called because of
+its liability to cause eructation. The term is probably much older than
+indicated by quotations. One of Shakspeare’s characters in Twelfth
+Night is Sir Toby Belch, a reckless, roystering, jolly knight of the
+Elizabethan period. For synonyms, see Swipes.
+
+    1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XV., p. 347. Those Poor Sots who are
+    gussling belch at his own Ale-house.
+
+    1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. VII., p. 18.
+
+        I sneak’d into a little house,
+        Where porters do their belch carouse.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Belch (s.), common beer or ale
+    sold in publick houses is so called.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Belch, all sorts of
+    beer, that liquor being apt to cause eructation.
+
+    1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 265.
+    ‘Let’s have a pot of that fourpenny English Burgundy of yours, and,
+    whilst my mates are drinking the belch, I want to talk business
+    with you.’
+
+
+Belcher, subs. (pugilistic).—A neckerchief named after Jim Belcher, a
+noted pugilist. The ground is blue, with white spots. Also,
+attributatively, to any handkerchief of a similar pattern. For
+synonyms, see Fogle.
+
+    1812. Examiner, 21 Sept., 607, 1. The traverser ... tied a belcher
+    handkerchief round his neck.
+
+    18(?). Dickens, The Ghost of Art, in Reprinted Pieces, p. 215. I
+    saw that the lower part of his face was tied up, in what is
+    commonly called a belcher handkerchief.
+
+    1874. Macmillan’s Magazine, April, p. 506. The spotted blue and
+    white neckerchief, still called a belcher, bears the name of a
+    famous prize fighter.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—A ring. Described in quotation.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 399. The best
+    sort of rings for fawney dropping is the belchers. They are a good
+    thick looking ring, and have the crown and V.R. stamped upon them.
+
+3. (circus and showmen.)—A drinker of beer; generally a hard drinker.
+Cf., Belch.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 99. Now it
+    is well known that travelling mummers are all rare belchers ... I
+    kept them in conversation ... until the drink took the desired
+    effect, and one by one the princes and kings dropped on the grass
+    floor, and were sound drunk and asleep.
+
+
+Belial, subs. (Oxford University).—A nickname of Balliol College.
+
+
+Believe. I believe you, phr. (common).—This phrase is frequently
+employed to signify general assent; ‘yes.’ Sometimes colloquially ‘I
+believe you my boy’; once a favourite catch-phrase of a well-known
+actor.
+
+    1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 286. ‘Now confess: were you not
+    a little surprised?’—‘I believe you,’ replied that illustrious
+    person.
+
+    1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 140. ‘Miss Rouney, I gather,
+    was the confidante of the other.’ ‘Confidant? I believe you.’
+
+    1860. George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, p. 199. ‘Is she a cross
+    woman?’—‘I believe you.’
+
+    1879. Dudley Costello, The Millionaire of Mincing Lane, p. 204.
+    ‘And she hates that fellow?’—‘Hates him? I believe you.’
+
+
+Bell, subs. (vagrants’).—A song. Tramps’ term. Simply diminutive of
+bellow.—Hotten.
+
+Verb (schoolboy).—To bell a marble is to run away with it, but the
+action scarcely amounts to actual theft.
+
+To ring one’s own bell, phr. (American).—A variation of ‘to blow one’s
+trumpet’; to sound one’s praises personally.
+
+
+Bell-Bastard, subs. (provincial slang).—In the West of England the
+illegitimate child of a woman who is herself illegitimate; why and
+wherefore is obscure, though possibly a corruption of ‘double bastard.’
+
+
+Bellmare, subs. (American).—A political leader, mostly used
+contemptuously. The term is a slang appropriation from the terminology
+of Western life, where it seems to be used in regard to mules much in
+the same way as bell-wether is employed in England in reference to
+sheep. Why the grey mare, says the author of A Ride with Kit Carson,
+should be the better horse in the estimation of mules I cannot say, but
+such is certainly the fact. Though very cautious animals when relying
+solely on their own judgment, they would appear to have a consciousness
+of their own inferiority, which induces them to entertain a great
+regard for the sagacity of the horse, and especially for that of a
+white mare. The wily Californians, taking advantage of this amiable
+weakness, employ a steady, old, white mare of known gentleness and good
+character, to act as a kind of mother and guide to each drove of unruly
+mules.
+
+
+Bellows, subs. (popular).—The lungs. This, etymologically, is the same
+as ‘belly,’ both words having passed through a most complicated
+history. Properly speaking a bellows is an instrument constructed to
+produce a strong current of air, and the word itself can be traced back
+to about A.D. 800. Its figurative and slang signification is recorded
+as follows:—
+
+    1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 115. The lungs doe draw a breath....
+    When these bellowes doe decay, then health from both doth fade
+    away, [M.]
+
+    1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act v., Sc. 2., p. 75 (2
+    ed.). Heark you, madam, don’t abuse my wife—slut quotha! i’gad let
+    me tell you, she has done a cleaner thing than you’ll ever do while
+    your bellows blow, old lady.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3.
+
+        A plague on those malty cove fellows,
+          Who’d have us in spirits relax;
+        Drink, they say, and you’ll ne’er burn the bellows,
+          Half water instead of all max;
+        A glass of good max, had they twigg’d it,
+          Would have made them, like us, lads of wax;
+        For Sal swigg’d, and Dick swigg’d,
+          And Bob swigg’d, and Nick swigg’d,
+        And I’ve swigged, and we’ve all of us swigg’d it,
+          And, by Jingo, there’s nothing like max.
+                        All Max!
+            By Jingo, there’s nothing like max!
+
+    1843. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), Sam Slick in England, ch. xxii. He
+    [the servant] is so fat and lazy ... walkin’ put him out o’
+    breath.... How I would like to lick him ... round the park ... to
+    improve his wind, and teach him how to mend his pace. I’d repair
+    his old bellowses for him, I know.
+
+Though regarded as slang in England, the word is colloquially used in
+many parts of America, in the duplicated plural form—bellowses.
+
+    1848. J. R. Lowell, in Biglow Papers, I., p. 23. His bellowses is
+    sound enough.
+
+
+Bellowsed, ppl. adj. (old).—Transported; lagged. Cf., Bellowser, sense
+2.
+
+
+Bellowser, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A blow in the pit of the stomach, or
+wind—one that takes the breath away.
+
+2. (old.)—A sentence of transportation for life.
+
+    1856. Novels and Tales (from Household Words), Tauch. ed. vi., p.
+    187. A sigh of the kind which is called by the lower classes a
+    bellowser.
+
+
+Bellows to Mend, phr. (common).—It is said of a broken-winded horse
+that it has bellows to mend; likewise of a man whose lungs are
+affected, or one who from any cause is ‘out of health.’
+
+    1856. Cuthbert Bede, Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. iv. To one
+    gentleman he would pleasantly observe, as he tapped him on the
+    chest, ‘Bellows to mend for you, my buck!’
+
+
+Bell-Rope, subs. (common).—The same as aggerawators (q.v.).
+
+    1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v., ‘Love lock.’ When men indulge
+    in a curl in front of their ears, the love-lock is called a
+    bell-rope—i.e., a rope to pull the belles after them.
+
+
+Bells Down! intj. (Winchester College).—See quotation and Bells go
+single!
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 62. The
+    junior in chamber had a hard time of it; ... while endeavouring to
+    get through his multifarious duties, he had to keep a sharp ear on
+    the performance of the chapel bell, and to call out accordingly,
+    ‘first peal!’ ‘second peal!’ and bells down!
+
+
+Bells go Single! intj. (Winchester College).—A single bell is rung for
+five minutes before the hour at which chapel commences. For College
+evening chapel three three’s are rung, and then follows a ‘bell,’ one
+for every man in College—70.
+
+    1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 256. At a quarter to six the peal again
+    rang out, and the cry of bells go was sounded in shrill tones
+    through every chamber of College and Commoners.... After ten
+    minutes the peal changed, and only a single bell continued to ring.
+    This was notified by the cry bells go single, and five minutes
+    afterwards, by that of ‘bells down.’... Presently the head-master
+    ... would descend from his library: or the second master ... would
+    appear at the archway near Sixth Chamber, and the warning voice
+    would be heard ‘Gabell’ or ‘Williams through,’ ‘Williams,’ or
+    ‘Ridding in.’ Straightway there would be a general rush, the
+    college-boys darting across the quadrangle in the rear of the
+    Præfect of Chapel; while the Commoners hurried in, keeping up a
+    continuous stream from their more distant quarters.
+
+
+Bellswagger.—See Belswagger.
+
+
+Bell-Topped, Bell-Knobbed, ppl. adj. (harlotry).—Said of a man whose
+penis is considerably thicker at the top end than at the root or
+middle.
+
+
+Bell-Topper, subs. (popular).—A silk hat. [From bell, alluding to the
+shape, + top, from its position when worn, in relation to the rest of
+the body + er.] For synonyms, see Golgotha.
+
+    1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Aug. 5, p. 5, col. 4. His
+    very bell-topper hat had been garlanded with flowers.
+
+
+Belly-Ache, subs. (vulgar).—A pain in the bowels; a colic.
+
+    1881. New York Times, Dec. 18, quoted in N. and Q., 6 S., v., 65.
+    Bellyache. To grumble without good cause. Employés bellyache at
+    being overworked, or when they fancy themselves underfed, etc.
+
+
+Belly-Bender, subs. (American).—A boy’s term for weak and unsafe ice.
+
+
+Belly-Bound, adj. (vulgar).—Constipated; costive.
+
+
+Belly-Bumper or Belly-Buster. To take a belly-buster, phr.
+(American).—To ride down a hill in a sled lying on one’s stomach, an
+amusement confined, it hardly needs saying, to young America. The idea
+of toboganning was derived from this boyish pastime, and the oaken
+board has been succeeded by the fleet-winged toboggan, made of seasoned
+maple with handsomely upholstered seats. With the advent of improved
+ice vehicles the interest in these sports has increased, and instead of
+being confined to the vulgar boys who used to ride down hill
+belly-buster fashion, men and even the most fashionable women now
+partake of this pleasant and invigorating pastime. Also belly-bumbo,
+belly-guts, or gutter, belly-flounders, belly-flumps, and
+belly-plumper.
+
+    1888. Chicago Inter-Ocean. Barney has a sled, on which he hauls the
+    fish in snowy weather. Barney had his sled out yesterday,
+    belly-bumping on a little patch of ice and snow.
+
+
+Belly-Button, subs. (American).—The navel.
+
+
+Belly-Can (political).—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Mar. 28. Whatever ultimately comes of the
+    Sunday Closing movement, it will at any rate leave behind it a
+    curious addition to the English language. This is the word
+    ‘belly-can,’ which is (according to the opponents of Sunday
+    Closing) the plebeian counterpart of the more genteel ‘small
+    cask’—both things being, of course, contrivances for getting round
+    the legal prohibition of Sunday drinking. Lexicographers may
+    perhaps be glad to have the definitions of the two phrases as given
+    yesterday afternoon by Mr. Cavendish Bentinck:—The ‘belly-can’ was
+    a tin vessel not unlike a saddle in shape, which men and women,
+    generally the latter—let hon. members note that—got filled with
+    beer and secreted about their clothes, an averaged-sized can
+    holding about four quarts. A more aristocratic method of private
+    Sunday drinking was by means of the ‘small cask.’ The small cask
+    industry was said to be an exceedingly prosperous one in certain
+    districts. Grocers advertised for casks as a speciality, and one
+    grocer advertised on a Saturday fifty and sixty and sometimes even
+    100 empty casks.
+
+
+Belly-Cheat or Belly-Chete, subs. (old).—An apron; also food. [From
+belly + slang cheat, a thing; from Anglo-Saxon ceat, a thing.]
+
+    1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, wks. (1885) III., 196. A
+    belly-chete, an apron.
+
+    1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, II., i. Each man shall eat his own
+    stol’n eggs and shall possess what he can purchase—back or
+    belly-cheats.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Belly-cheat, an apron.
+
+
+Belly-Cheer or Belly-Chere, subs. (old).—Food. This term is of
+considerable antiquity, as also is belly-cheering for eating and
+drinking. For synonyms, see Grub.
+
+    1559. Eliotes Dictionarie. Abdomini indulgere, to geve hym selfe to
+    bealy-chere.
+
+    1612. Rowlands, Knaves of Spades, etc. Gluttonie mounted on a
+    greedie beare, To belly-cheere and banquets lends his care.
+
+    1699. Coles, English Dictionary. Belly-cheer, Cibaria.
+
+
+Belly-chere.—See Belly-cheer.
+
+
+Belly-Chete.—See Belly-cheat.
+
+
+Belly-Full, subs. (old).—1. A sound drubbing; a thrashing.
+
+    1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 265. The churlish frampild
+    waues gaue him his belly-full of fish broath.
+
+    1605. Chapman, All Fooles, Act ii., p. 58 (Plays, 1874). Walk not
+    too boldly; if the serjeants meet you, you may have swaggering work
+    your belly-full.
+
+    1666. Pepys, Diary, Oct. 28. He says that in the July fight, both
+    the Prince and Holmes had their belly-fulls, and were fain to go
+    aside.
+
+    1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xvi. Bunker’s Hill, where,
+    Mr. Slick observed, ‘the British first got a taste of what they
+    afterwards got, a belly-full.’
+
+2. A woman with child was also formerly said to have her
+belly-full.—See Belly-up.
+
+
+Belly-Furniture, subs. (old).—Food; something wherewith to furnish the
+belly. Cf., Belly-timber, Back-timber, etc.
+
+    1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. I., ch. v. (Bohn’s), i., 110. Then
+    did they fall upon the victuals, and some belly-furniture to be
+    snatched at in the very same place.
+
+
+Belly-go-Firster, subs. (pugilistic).—An initial blow, generally given,
+say some authorities, in the stomach—whence its classic name!
+
+
+Belly-Gut, subs. (old).—A lazy, greedy fellow.
+
+    1540. Morysine, transl., Vives’ Introd. Wisd., viij. Such as be
+    skoffers, swell feastes ... bely guts. [M.]
+
+    1733. Bailey, Erasmus, p. 346. Since then thou would’st not have a
+    belly-gut for thy servant, but rather one brisk and agile, why then
+    dost thou provide for thyself a minister fat and unwieldy?
+
+
+Belly-Guts, subs. (American schoolboys’).—1. In Pennsylvania, molasses
+candy.
+
+2. (American.)—Equivalent to belly-bumper (q.v.).
+
+
+Belly-Hedges, subs. (Shrewsbury School).—In school steeple-chases,
+obstructions of such a height that they can easily be cleared—i.e.,
+about ‘belly-high.’
+
+
+Belly-Piece, subs. (old).—1. An apron. Cf., Belly-cheat.
+
+    1689. Shadwell, Bury Fair. If thou shoulds cry, it would make
+    streaks down thy face; as the tears of the tankard do upon my fat
+    host’s belly-pieces.
+
+2. A mistress; a concubine; a whore.
+
+    1630. Randolph, Jealous Lovers. Asot: Come, blush not, bashfull
+    belly-piece—I will meet thee: I ever keep my word with a fair lady.
+    I will requite that jewell with a richer.
+
+
+Belly Plea, subs. (old).—A plea of pregnancy, generally adduced by
+female felons capitally convicted. This they took care to provide for,
+previous to trial; every gaol had, as the Beggars’ Opera informs us,
+one or more child-getters, who qualified the ladies for that expedient.
+The plea still holds good, execution of female convicts in ‘an
+interesting condition’ being deferred until after accouchement. In
+practice, it really means a commutation of the death penalty for life
+imprisonment. All chances, however, of becoming enceinte after arrest
+are sedulously guarded against by the rules of modern prison life.
+
+
+Belly-Plumper, subs. (American).—See Belly-bumper.
+
+
+Belly-Timber, subs. (old).—Food; provisions of all kinds. [From belly +
+timber.] This, like many other words of its class (e.g., back-timber,
+q.v.), was once in serious use, but for a long period it has been going
+down hill, and it is now a thorough-going vulgarism, only surviving
+dialectically, and as slang. Massinger and the older dramatists
+employed it seriously; toward the end of the seventeenth century it
+began to be used in a ludicrous and vulgar sense. Butler employs it
+thus, and in Charles Cotton’s Scarronides (1678), the hero we are told—
+
+
+    Lay thinking now his guts grew limber,
+    How they might get more belly-timber.
+
+
+For synonyms generally, see Grub.
+
+    1614. Terence in English, Annona cara est. Corne is at a high
+    price; victuals are deare; belly-timber is hard to come by.
+
+    1637. Massinger, Guardian, III., iii.
+
+    Ador. Haste you unto my villa, and take all provisions along with
+    you....
+
+    Car. Trust me for belly-timber.
+
+    1663–78. S. Butler, Hudibras.
+
+                 Through deserts vast,
+        And regions desolate they pass’d,
+        Where belly-timber, above ground
+        Or under, was not to be found.
+
+    1719. Poor Robin’s Almanack, Feb. On the 10th day of this month,
+    being Shrove-Tuesday, is like to be a great innundation of
+    belly-timber.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Belly-timber (s.), all sorts of
+    food.
+
+    1820. Scott, Monastery, ch. xv. ‘Yonder comes the monkish retinue
+    ... I hope a’gad, they have not forgotten my trunk-mails of apparel
+    amid the ample provision they have made for their own
+    belly-timber.’
+
+
+Belly-Up, adv. phr. (old).—Applied to women when enceinte. From the
+protrusion of the abdomen which takes place under such
+circumstances.—See Belly-full.
+
+
+Belly-Vengeance, subs. (common).—Sour beer, apt to cause gastralgia.
+The French call this pissin de cheval, i.e., ‘horse urine.’ For
+synonyms, see Swipes.
+
+
+Belongings, subs. (colloquial).—1. Qualities; endowments; faculties.
+
+2. Relations; one’s kindred.
+
+3. One’s effects; or possessions. In sense 1 belongings has long been
+an accepted word; senses 2 and 3 are given by Annandale as ‘colloquial
+and vulgar.’
+
+    1852. Dickens, Bleak House. I have been trouble enough to my
+    belongings in my day.
+
+    1866. Saturday Review, 24 Feb., p. 244, col. 2. The rich uncle
+    whose mission is to bring prosperity to his belongings. [M.]
+
+4. (American.)—Used by the prudishly inclined for trousers.—See Bags.
+
+
+Below the Belt, adv. phr. (popular).—To strike a man below the belt is
+to hit him unfairly, a term derived from the pugilistic arena. Hence,
+underhand dealing, and the taking of mean advantage generally. It is
+akin with ‘To stab a man in the back.’
+
+
+Belswagger, subs. (old).—1. A lewd man; a whoremaster; a pimp. [Thought
+to be a contracted form of belly + swagger, i.e., a man given up to
+bodily pleasure. Ash has both forms.]
+
+    1775. Ash, Dictionary. Belswagger, a whoremaster.
+
+2. A bully; a hectoring fellow. This is the older, but least important
+usage.
+
+    1592. Greene, Defence of Coney-Catching. ... the belswaggers of the
+    country.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bellswagger, a noisy,
+    bullying fellow.
+
+
+Beltinker, subs. and verb (common).—A beating; a drubbing. To thrash;
+to beat soundly.—For synonyms, see Tan.
+
+
+Bemused, ppl. adj. (common).—Fuddled; as in the stupid stage of
+drunkenness. [From be + muse + ed, originally to be sunk in reverie, or
+contemplation.] The expression as generally used now is bemused with
+beer. This phrase, originally used by Pope, was given a new impetus by
+G. A. Sala (in Gaslight and Daylight). In America, especially, it
+caught the popular fancy and ran a brief but riotous course throughout
+the Union to signify one who addicted himself to ‘soaking’ with beer.
+The transatlantic usage naturally reacted upon the Mother Country, and
+from being occasionally employed it became much more popular, and was
+heard on all sides—a striking instance of ‘fashion in words.’
+
+    1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 15. A parson much be-mus’d in beer.
+
+    1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. viii. A fat little man,
+    primed with port, but who, when not thus bemused, is an influential
+    member of his committee.
+
+    1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, ch. iv., in
+    Longman’s Mag., April, p. 694. So while the Doctor made himself
+    drunk with words, the adopted stable-boy bemused himself with
+    silence.
+
+For synonyms generally, see Screwed.
+
+
+Ben, subs. (theatrical).—1. A benefit; a performance of which the
+receipts, after paying expenses, are devoted to one person’s special
+use or benefit.
+
+    1872. Miss Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, I., 190. ‘I have played clown
+    for my ben,’ murmured the great Dr. Mortemas.
+
+    1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Forgotten). You saw me as
+    Hamlet, Charley, the night that I had my ben.
+
+2. (old cant.)—A fool.—Grose.—See Benish.
+
+3. (common.)—A shortened form of Benjamin (q.v.), a coat; also of benjy
+(q.v.), a waistcoat.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 252.
+    Being at Hailsham, a small market town in Sussex, about the year
+    1846, I attended the club feast, which was held on the common. At
+    that time we used to buy men’s waistcoats of Michael Riley, of
+    Manchester, at £5 per gross, and sell them at 1s. 6d., 1s. 3d., and
+    the lowest price at a shilling each. I had a bale containing twelve
+    dozen arrive that morning, they were red ones; and in offering
+    these bens, the plan was to put them on to show how well they
+    fitted.
+
+To stand ben (popular).—To stand treat.
+
+
+Benar.—See Bene.
+
+
+Benbouse, subs. (old cant).—Good beer. [From the Latin bene = good +
+bouse or booze.]
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 85. The vpright cofe canteth to the
+    Roge: ‘I saye by the Salomon I will lage it of with a gage of
+    benebouse; then cut to my nose watch.’ [‘I sweare by the masse, I
+    wull washe it of with a quart of good drynke; then saye to me what
+    thou wylt.’]
+
+    1622. John Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush.
+
+        I crown thy nab with a gag of benbouse,
+        And stall thee by the salmon into clowes,
+        To maund on the pad and strike all the cheats,
+        To mill from the Ruffmans, and commission and slates.
+        Twang dell’s, i’ the stiromel, and let the quire cuffin
+        And Herman Beck strine and trine to the Ruffin!
+
+    i.e.,
+
+        I poure on thy pate a pot of good ale,
+        And by the Rogue’s oath, a Rogue the install,
+        To beg on the way and rob all thou meets,
+        To steal from the hedge both the shirt and the sheets,
+        And lie with thy wench in the straw till she twang,
+        Let the Constable, Justice, and Devil go hang!
+
+
+Bencher, subs. (old).—A frequenter of taverns; one who hulks about
+public houses; perhaps with an allusion to the Benchers of the Inns of
+Court.
+
+
+Ben Cull or Cove, subs. (thieves’).—A friend; a ‘pall’; a companion.
+[From old cant bene or ben, good + cull, a man.] For synonyms, see
+Cove.
+
+
+Bend, verb (Scotch).—To tipple; to drink hard. Jamieson, the first
+lexicographer to draw attention to the word in its slang sense,
+illustrates his example by quotations from Alan Ramsay. Murray suggests
+that it is derived from that sense of to bend, signifying ‘to pull,’
+‘to strain,’ ‘to apply oneself.’
+
+    1758. A. Ramsay, Poems (1800), I., 215. Brawtippony ... which we
+    with greed bended, as fast as she could brew. Ibid, ii., 73. To
+    bend wi’ ye, and spend wi’ ye, an evening, and gaffaw. [1860.
+    Ramsay, Remin., Ser. 1 (ed. 7), 47. Bend weel to the Madeira at
+    dinner, for here ye’ll get little o’t after.]
+
+Above one’s bend, phr. (common).—Above one’s ability, power or
+capacity; or out of one’s reach. Probably a corruption of ‘above one’s
+bent.’ Shakspeare puts the expression in the mouth of Hamlet, ‘to the
+top of my bent’ (iii., 2). In the Southern States [U.S.A.], its place
+is generally taken by above my huckleberry (q.v.). An English
+equivalent is ‘above one’s hook.’
+
+    1848. J. F. Cooper, The Oak Openings. It would be above my bend to
+    attempt telling you all we saw among the red skins.
+
+Grecian bend (popular).—A craze amongst women which had a vogue from
+about 1872 to 1880. It consisted in walking with the body bent forward.
+
+    1876. Chambers’ Journal, No. 629. Your own advocacy for the Grecian
+    bend and the Alexandra limp—both positive and practical imitations
+    of physical affliction.
+
+On the bend, phr. (common).—In an underhand, oblique, or crooked
+way—not ‘on the square.’
+
+    1863. J. C. Jeaffreson, Live It Down, II., 152. I never have paid
+    anything yet on the square, and I never will. When I die, I’ll
+    order my executor to buy my coffin off the square. He shall get it
+    on the bend somehow or other.
+
+
+Bender, subs. (popular).—1. A sixpence. Thought to be an allusion to
+the ease with which these coins were liable to be bent in use. At one
+time the currency was not of such good quality as now.
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178. Sixpence. A bender.
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xlii., p. 367. ‘Will you take three
+    bob?’ ‘And a bender,’ suggested the clerical gentleman.... ‘What do
+    you say, now? We’ll pay you out for three-and-sixpence a week.
+    Come!’
+
+    1869. Whyte Melville, M. or N., p. 66. A ragged boy established, at
+    the crossing, who had indeed rendered himself conspicuous by his
+    endeavours to ferry Puckers over dry-shod, was accosted by a
+    shabby-genteel and remarkably good-looking man, in the following
+    vernacular—‘On this minnit, off at six, Buster; two bob an’ a
+    bender, and a three of eye-water, in?’ ‘Done for another joey,’
+    replied Buster, with the premature acuteness of youth foraging for
+    itself in the streets of London.
+
+Among synonymous terms for this coin may be mentioned cripple; bandy;
+crookback; downer; fyebuck; lord of the manor; tanner; sprat; kick;
+half a borde; tizzy.
+
+2. (Scotch.)—A hard and persistent drinker; a tippler. This should be
+compared with bend.
+
+    1728. Ramsay, Poems (1848), III., 162. Now lend your lugs, ye
+    benders fine, wha ken the benefit of wine.
+
+    1810. Tannahill, Poems (1846), 53. Or benders, blest your wizzens
+    weetin’.
+
+3. (public schools’.)—In public school phraseology a bender is a stroke
+of the cane administered by the master while the culprit bends down his
+back.
+
+4. (common.)—The arm. In connection with this see the following, and
+for synonyms, see Chalk Farm.
+
+5. (American.)—A drinking bout or spree, in the course of which, to use
+another slang expression, ‘the town is painted red,’ and the
+participants decidedly unbent. This is possibly derived from any one of
+the three following sources:—(1) from the Scotch usage; (2) from the
+facetious name given to the arm, which becomes a bender from being so
+frequently bent or ‘crooked’ to lift the glass to the mouth; (3) from
+the Dutch bende, an assembly, party, or band.
+
+    1854. Putnam’s Monthly, Aug.
+
+        I met her at the Chinese room;
+          She wore a wreath of roses,
+        She walked in beauty like the night,
+          Her breath was like sweet posies.
+        I led her through the festal hall,
+          Her glance was soft and tender;
+        She whispered gently in my ear,
+          ‘Say, Mose, ain’t this a bender?’
+
+    1864. Richmond Dispatch, 3 Jan. ‘Most of the owners of these names
+    had been tempted by the festivities of the day to go on a regular
+    bender, and had to pay the penalty for their New Year’s frolic by
+    appearing this morning in the police-court.’
+
+    1888. Detroit Free Press, 4 Aug. He was a character noted for going
+    on frequent benders until he came very near having the jimjams and
+    then sobering up.
+
+6. (American.)—A euphemism employed by the squeamishly inclined for the
+leg. A similar piece of prudishness is displayed in an analogous use of
+‘limb.’ With a notorious mock-modesty American women decline to call a
+leg a leg; they call it a limb instead. This tendency is the more
+remarkable when the great freedom extended to American girls and women
+is borne in mind; unless, indeed, it arises from guilty knowledge.
+White, who, perhaps, was rather given to excessive incisiveness of
+speech, remarked that perhaps such persons think that it is indelicate
+for women to have legs, and that therefore they are concealed by
+garments, and should be concealed in speech. Professor Geikie, during
+one of his Canadian tours, also found out that both sexes had limbs of
+some sort; the difficulty was to discover whether they were used to
+stand on or to hold by. Sensible people everywhere, however, have
+little part in such prudery.
+
+    1849. Longfellow, Kavanagh. Young ladies are not allowed to cross
+    their benders in school.
+
+7. (schoolboys’.)—The bow-shaped segment of a paper kite.
+
+    1873. Dr. Blackley, Hay Fever, p. 145. The first kite was six feet
+    in length by three feet in width, and was made of the usual form,
+    namely, with a central shaft or ‘standard,’ and a semi-circular top
+    or bender.
+
+Over the bender, phr. (common).—A variant of ‘over the left shoulder’;
+the connection between bender, a slang term for the arm, and the
+shoulder is sufficiently apparent. There are many analogous
+expressions, which see under Over the left.
+
+Intj.—An exclamation of incredulity; also used as a kind of saving
+clause to a promise which the speaker does not intend to carry into
+effect. Probably an abbreviated form of over the bender.
+
+
+Bendigo, subs. (common).—A rough fur cap named after a notorious
+pugilist.
+
+
+Bend Over, intj. (Winchester College).—A direction to put oneself into
+position to receive a ‘spanking.’ This is done by bending over so that
+the tips of the fingers extend towards the toes, thus presenting a
+surface as tight as a drum on the part to be castigated.
+
+
+Bene, Ben, adj. (old cant).—Good. This belongs to the most ancient
+English cant, and is probably a corruption from the Latin. Benar and
+benat appear to have been used as comparatives of bene.—(See quots.)
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p, 86. What, stowe your bene, cofe,
+    and sut benat whydds, and byng we to rome vyle to nyp a bong. [i.e.
+    What, hold your peace good fellow and speak better words, and let
+    us go to London to cut, or steal a purse.]
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Ben, good.
+
+    1611. Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl or Moll
+    Cut Purse.
+
+        A gage of ben Rom-bouse,
+        In a bousing ken of Rom-vile
+
+        Is benar than a Caster, Peck, pennam, lay
+        Or popler.
+
+    i.e.,
+
+        A quart pot of good wine
+        In a drinking house of London
+        Is better than a cloak, meat, bread, butter milk (?) or
+        porridge.
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11, list of cant words in.
+    Bien, good.
+
+    1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 265. ‘I’ve
+    brought a couple of bene coves, with lots of the Queen’s pictures
+    in their sacks’ [pockets].
+
+Subs. (old cant).—‘Stowe your bene,’ i.e., ‘hold your tongue.’ See
+quotation above from Harman’s Caveat.
+
+
+Bene-Bouze.—See Benbouse.
+
+
+Bene-Cove.—See Ben-cull.
+
+
+Bene Darkmans! intj. (old cant).—Good night! French thieves say
+sorgabon, an inversion of bonne sorgue.
+
+
+Benedick, subs. (familiar).—1. A sportive name for a newly-married man;
+especially one who has long been a bachelor. Apparently, however, there
+is some confusion in the usage (see sense 2). The name was derived from
+Shakspeare’s character in Much Ado About Nothing.
+
+    1599. Shakspeare, Much Ado About Nothing, v., 4, 100. Don Pedro.
+    How dost thou, benedick, the married man?
+
+    1805. Rev. J. Marriott, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888),
+    I., 239. From what I have seen of his lordship, both as a bachelor
+    and as a benedick.
+
+2. A bachelor. Cf., foregoing.
+
+    1843. Life in the West. He is no longer a benedic, but a quiet
+    married man.
+
+    1856. C. Bronté, Professor, ch. xxiv. ‘Are you married, Mr.
+    Hunsden?’ asked Frances, suddenly.
+
+    ‘No. I should have thought you might have guessed I was a benedick
+    by my look.’
+
+
+Bene Feakers, subs. (cant).—Counterfeiters of bills.—Grose.
+
+
+Bene Feakers of Gybes, subs. phr. (cant).—Counterfeiters of
+passes.—Grose.
+
+
+Bene or Bien Mort, subs. (old cant).—A fine woman; a pretty girl; a
+hostess. [From bene, old cant for ‘good,’ + mort, a canting term for a
+woman.]
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 85 (ed. 1869). A bene mort hereby at the
+    sign of the prauncer. [i.e., The Horse.]
+
+    1671. Richard Head, The English Rogue.
+
+        Bing out, bien morts, and ture and ture,
+          Bing out, bien morts, and toure;
+        For all your duds are bing’d awast,
+          The bien cove hath the loure.
+
+    i.e.,
+
+        Go forth, brave girls: look out, look out,
+          Look out, I say, good maids,
+        For all your clothes are stole, I doubt,
+          And shar’d among the blades.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. ‘Tour out,’ said the one
+    ruffian to the other; ‘tour the bien mort twiring at the gentry
+    cove.’
+
+    1823. Scott, Peveril of the Peak, ch. xxxvi. Why the bien morts
+    will think you a chimney-sweeper on May-day.
+
+    1881. New York Slang Dictionary. [See first stanza of canting song
+    on page 80 ante.]
+
+
+Beneship.—See Benship.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 86. The vpright man canteth to the
+    Roge. Man! ‘That is beneshyp to our watche.’ [That is very good for
+    vs.]
+
+
+Beneshiply, adv. (old cant).—Worshipfully.—Grose.
+
+
+Ben-Flake, subs. (thieves’).—A steak.
+
+
+Bengal Tigers, subs. (military).—The Seventeenth Foot; so nicknamed
+from its badge of a royal tiger granted for services in India from
+1804–1823. Also called ‘The Lily-Whites’ from its facings.
+
+    1874. Chambers’ Journal, p. 801. The 17th ... the Bengal Tigers,
+    from their badge—a tiger.
+
+
+Bengi, subs. (military).—An onion.
+
+
+Bengy.—See Benjy.
+
+
+Benish, adj. (old cant.)—Foolish.—See Ben, sense 2.
+
+
+Benjamin, subs. (Winchester College).—1. A small ruler.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—A coat. It is said to have been derived from a
+well-known London advertising tailor of the same name. Formerly this
+garment was called a Joseph, but for synonyms, see Capella. An upper
+Benjamin = a great coat.
+
+    1815. T. Peacock, Nightmare Abbey, p. 159. His heart is seen to
+    beat through his upper Benjamin. [M.]
+
+    1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. Benjamins, and
+    great-coats, and cloaks of all sorts and sizes.
+
+    1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. lix., p. 181 (1888). The coachman
+    ... with narrow-rimmed hat and fashionable Benjamin.
+
+    1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 7 March, p. 3, col. 2. [Quoting East-end
+    slang.]
+
+
+Ben Joltram, subs. (provincial).—Brown bread and skimmed milk; a
+Norfolk term for a ploughboy’s breakfast.—Hotten.
+
+
+Benjy, subs. (nautical).—1. A low crowned straw hat having a very broad
+brim.
+
+    1883. W. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, p. 14. Benjie, the name
+    of a straw hat worn by sailors.
+
+2. (common.)—A waistcoat. Also ben (q.v.). For synonyms, see Fan.
+
+    1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171. Benjy, a vest.
+
+
+Bens, subs. (American).—A workman’s slang term for his tools. In
+England called alls.
+
+
+Benship or Beenship, subs. (old cant).—Worship; goodness. This word,
+evidently from beneship (q.v.), is given by Bailey in his Dictionary
+[1728], and by Coles in 1724.
+
+Adv. (old cant).—Very good.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Benship, very good.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr.). Benship,
+    very good.
+
+    1665. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874).
+    Benshiply, very well.
+
+
+Beong, subs. (thieves’ and costermongers’).—A shilling. [From Italian
+bianco, white; also the name of a silver coin.] For full list of
+synonyms, see Deaner.
+
+
+Beray, verb (old cant).—To defile; to befoul; to abuse.
+
+
+Berkeleys, subs. (common).—A woman’s breasts. [It may be noted that in
+the gypsy, berk, or burk = breast; plural, berkia.] For synonyms, see
+Dairies.
+
+
+Bermudas, subs. (old).—A district in London, similar to Alsatia in
+Whitefriars (q.v.), and the Mint in Southwark, privileged against
+arrests. The Bermudas are thought to have been certain narrow and
+obscure alleys and passages north of the Strand, near Covent Garden,
+and contiguous to Drury Lane; see, however, the second quotation where
+the Mint would seem to be indicated.
+
+    1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, II., 1. Meercraft. Engine, when did
+    you see my cousin Everhill? keeps he still your quarter in the
+    Bermudas? Eng. Yes, sir, he was writing this morning very hard.
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 12. In short, every
+    contrivance that ingenuity could devise was resorted to by this
+    horde of reprobates to secure themselves from danger or
+    molestation. Whitefriars had lost its privileges; Salisbury Court
+    and the Savoy no longer offered places of refuge to the debtor; and
+    it was, therefore, doubly requisite that the Island of the Bermuda
+    (as the Mint was termed by its occupants) should uphold its rights,
+    as long as it was able to do so.
+
+As regards the derivation of the name, Nares suggests it in the actual
+practice, which obtained of debtors fleeing to the Bermuda Islands,
+when first discovered, to elude their creditors. This fact is alluded
+to in the following. Cf., second quotation already given.
+
+    1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, III., 3. There’s an old debt of
+    forty, I ga’ my word. For one is run away to the Bermudas.
+
+
+Berthas, subs. (Stock Exchange).—The nickname in the ‘House’ and among
+brokers for the ordinary stock of the London, Brighton and South Coast
+Railway Company.
+
+    1889. The Rialto, Mar. 23. The week opened very badly on the Stock
+    Exchange, and two or three days of utter stagnation followed, but
+    yesterday afternoon a revival took place, which was quite dramatic
+    in its suddenness and vigour. Between two o’clock and the closing
+    of the doors at four o’clock, advances were made ranging from 2½ in
+    Berthas to an average of 1 in Americans. Tintos climbed to 12¼, and
+    even Kaffirs raised their sickly heads. All the little bulls went
+    home happier than they have been for three weeks.
+
+
+Berwicks, subs. (Stock Exchange).—The ordinary stock of the North
+Eastern Railway.
+
+
+Bespeak-Night, subs. (theatrical).—A benefit.—See Ben.
+
+
+Bess.—See Betty.
+
+
+Bess-o’-Bedlam, subs. (old).—A lunatic vagrant.
+
+    1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xxvi. ‘Why, what Bess of Bedlam is
+    this, would ask to see my lord on such a day as the present?’
+
+
+Best. To best one, verb (common).—1. To obtain an advantage; to secure
+a superior position in a contest or bargain. The meaning of to best,
+therefore, is really ‘to worst.’ In this sense, not necessarily to
+cheat.—See sense 2.
+
+    1863. Trafford, World in Ch., II., 77. As I am a staunch Churchman
+    I cannot stand quiet and see the Dissenters best the Establishment.
+    [M.]
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 69. Bob
+    was a good salesman, but of bad temper, who if he could not get rid
+    of any unruly fellow by his chaffing him, would invariably turn to
+    Perdue and say, ‘Look at this man; I shan’t bother with him, why
+    don’t you get him away? He’s interrupting me and the business. I
+    can’t jolly him down, so you must settle and do away with him, or I
+    must “dry up,” for the fellow’s bested me.’
+
+    c. 1879. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 92. His intimates
+    were wont to say there was no trusting Cuddie Elliston, while, as
+    for Sam Pearson, it was a current saying that ‘No one had ever
+    bested him.’ Still, Yorkshire has a certain respect for this
+    faculty; and though Pearson was regarded as a man who carried it
+    rather far, and would have skinned his own brother upon occasion,
+    yet public opinion did not get much further regarding him than that
+    ‘Lawyer Pearson knew his away about; and you’d to get up main early
+    in the morning to get a point the best of him.’
+
+    1883. Graphic, Feb. 24, p. 191, col. 1. So there are people who
+    will not scruple to best a railway company, who would be loth to
+    wrong a private person.
+
+2. Sometimes, however, passing the ill-defined border line between
+sharp practice and down-right roguery, to best is an equivalent of to
+cheat; to swindle.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 234. His
+    game was besting everybody, whether it was for pounds, shillings,
+    or pence. At one time he cheated a poor farming man out of his
+    milch cow in exchange for another. The man was in liquor at the
+    time, and when he came to his senses he went right away to another
+    part of the country, and his poor wife took it so to heart that she
+    died shortly afterwards.
+
+    1879. Horsley, in Macmillan’s Magazine, Oct. When I went to the
+    fence he bested (cheated) me because I was drunk, and only gave me
+    £8 10s. for the lot. So the next day I went to him and asked him if
+    he was not going to grease my duke (put money into my hand). So he
+    said, ‘No.’ Then he said, ‘I will give you another half-a-quid’;
+    and said, ‘Do anybody, but mind they don’t do you.’ So I thought to
+    myself, ‘All right, my lad; you will find me as good as my master,’
+    and left him.
+
+    1885. May, in Fortnightly Review, Oct., p. 578. The quack broker
+    who piles up money by besting his clients. [M.]
+
+
+To give one best (thieves’).—To leave one; to sever companionship.
+
+    1879. Horsley, in Macmillan’s Mag., Oct. While using one of those
+    places [concerts], I first met a sparring bloke (pugilist), who
+    taught me how to spar, and showed me the way to put my dukes up.
+    But after a time I gave him best (left him) because he used to want
+    to bite my ear (borrow) too often.
+
+
+Bester, subs. (common).—A cheat; a swindler.—See Best, sense 2.
+Generally applied to a turf or gaming blackleg.
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 24. Those who cheat
+    the Public ... ‘Bouncers and Besters’ defrauding, by laying wagers,
+    swaggering, or using threats.
+
+    1885. Evening News, 21 September, 4, 1. The complainant called her
+    father a liar, ‘a bester and a crawler.’
+
+
+Besting the Pistol, phr. (pedestrian).—To get away before the signal
+for starting is actually given. [From besting, gaining an advantage, +
+pistol, the firing of which is the signal to ‘Go!’]
+
+    1889. Polytechnic Magazine, July 7, p. 330. The third man from
+    scratch was evidently in too great a hurry; twice he tried to best
+    the pistol, and as often the whole start had to be made afresh.
+
+
+Bet. You bet! intj. (American).—You may depend on it; you may be sure;
+certainly! be assured! Originally a Californian phrase tacked on to an
+assertion to give it additional emphasis. So popular is the expression
+that it has been given as a name in the form of Ubet to a town in the
+Canadian Northwest. Oftentimes it is amplified into ‘you bet your
+boots,’ ‘life,’ ‘bottom dollar,’ and so on. The two former were used in
+New York and Boston as far back as 1840.
+
+    c. 1882. Stavely Hill, From Home to Home. We reached the settlement
+    of Ubet. The name had been selected from the slang phrase so
+    laconically expressive of ‘You may be sure I will’.... A night
+    marauder took advantage of a good moon to place a ladder against a
+    window, hoping to secure the property of a gentleman asleep within
+    the chamber. As he lifted the window, and put his head in, the
+    gentleman woke up, and with great promptness presented his
+    six-shooter, shouting out ‘You get!’ With equal promptness the
+    detected thief exclaimed you bet! and slid down the ladder,—et
+    procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram.
+
+    1870. Bret Harte, Poems, etc., The Tale of a Pony: Ah, here comes
+    Rosey’s new turn-out! Smart! You bet your life ’twas that!
+
+    1872. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. ii. ‘The
+    mosquitoes are pretty bad about here, madam!’ ‘You bet!’ ‘What did
+    I understand you to say, madam?’ ‘You bet!’
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Mar. 7. Congressional Report. Mr.
+    Boutelle—That is the bravery to which you refer? (Applause on the
+    Republican side.) Mr. O’Ferrall—Well, sir, it is the right kind of
+    bravery: you may bet your bottom dollar on that.
+
+(American.)—To bet one’s eyes is a gambler’s term for an onlooker who
+neither takes part in, nor bets upon the game.
+
+
+Bethel, verb.—See quotation.
+
+    1740. North, Examen, p. 93. In the year 1680 Bethel and Cornish
+    were chosen sheriffs. The former used to walk about more like a
+    corn-cutter than Sheriff of London. He kept no house, but lived
+    upon chops, whence it is proverbial for not feasting to bethel the
+    city.
+
+
+Be There, verbal phr. (common).—To be there is to be on the qui vive;
+alive; knowing; in one’s element.
+
+
+Better, adv. (vulgar).—More; without any idea of superiority. A
+depraved word; once in good usage, but now regarded as a vulgarism.
+
+    1587. Fleming, Cont. Holinshed, III., p. 1382, col. 2. Woorth one
+    hundred and twentie pounds and better. [M.]
+
+    1679. Plot, Staffordshire (1686), p. 239. The bodies ... being
+    better than an inch long. [M.]
+
+    1769. Gray, in N. Nichols’ Corr. (1843), p. 87. It is better than
+    three weeks since I wrote to you. [M.]
+
+    1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. lxx., p. 217 (1888). Following its
+    windings for somewhat better than a furlong.
+
+    1854. Ainsworth, Flitch of Bacon, pt. I., ch. v. ‘Pastor of Little
+    Dunmow Church for fifty years and better.’
+
+    1857. Dickens, Dorrit, bk. I., ch. x., 75. ‘Yes. Rather better than
+    twelve years ago.’
+
+    1860. Dickens, Xmas Stories (Mess. from Sea), p. 89 (H. ed.). ‘He
+    shipped for his last voyage better than three years ago.’
+
+
+Better Half, subs. (colloquial).—humorous term for a wife. The history
+of the phrase is thus given by Murray, ‘originally my better half,
+i.e., the more than half of my being; said of a very close and intimate
+friend’; (Cf., ‘the better part of me’ Shaks.; ‘meæ partem animæ,’
+‘animæ dimidium meæ,’ Horace; ‘animæ partem ... nostra majorem’
+Statius); especially (after Sidney) used for ‘my husband’ or ‘wife’;
+now, jocularly appropriated to the latter. Formerly also applied to the
+soul, as the better part of man.
+
+    1580. Sidney, Arcadia, III., 280. [Argalus to Parthenia, his wife.]
+    My deare, my better halfe (sayd hee), I find I must now leaue thee.
+    [M.]
+
+    Circa 1600. Shakspeare, Sonnets, xxxix., 2.
+
+        O how thy worth with manners may I sing,
+          When thou art all the better part of me?
+        What can mine own praise to mine own self bring?
+          And what is’t but mine own when I praise thee.
+
+    1720. Sheffield (Duke of Buckingham), wks. (1753) I., 274. My dear
+    and better half is out of danger. [M.]
+
+    1842. Theodore Martin, in Fraser’s Magazine, Dec., p. 241, col. 2.
+    I ... shall look out for a better half. [M.]
+
+
+Betting Round, ppl. adj. (racing).—Laying fairly and equally against
+nearly all the horses in a race, so that no great risk can be run.
+Commonly called getting round.—Hotten.
+
+
+Bettor Round, subs. (racing).—One who is addicted to betting round
+(q.v.).
+
+    1882. ‘Thormanby,’ Famous Racing Men, p. 75. He [John Gully] worked
+    on gradually as a layer of odds—a ‘bettor round,’ or ‘leg,’ as he
+    was called in those days. [c. 1820.]
+
+
+Betty or Bess, subs. (old).—A small instrument used formerly by
+burglars to force open doors and pick locks. Now called a jenny; also
+jemmy; tivvil; twist; or screw. For synonyms, see Thieves, etc.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). Betty,
+    an instrument to break a door.
+
+    1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus. vol. II., pt. IX., p. 7.
+
+        So Ruffains, who, with Crows and Betties,
+        Break Houses, when it dark and late is.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bring bess and glym;
+    i.e., bring the instrument to force the door, and the dark
+    lanthorn.
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 339. Expert burglars
+    are generally equipped with good tools. They have a jemmy, a
+    cutter, a dozen of betties, better known as picklocks.
+
+Verb (colloquial).—To potter about; to fuss about. Usually said of a
+man assuming the domestic functions of a woman.
+
+All betty! intj. (thieves’).—cry of warning; ‘it’s all up; the game is
+lost!’
+
+
+Betty Martin.—See All my eye.
+
+
+Betwattled, ppl. adj. (old).—Surprised; confounded; out of one’s
+senses; also bewrayed.—Grose.
+
+
+Between You and Me and the Bedpost.—See Bedpost.
+
+
+Bever, Bevir, Bœver, subs. (Eton, Winchester, and Westminster
+Colleges).—An afternoon meal served in hall. An old time term for a
+repast or snack between meals, especially in the afternoon; it is still
+dialectical in some parts of England. Murray gives examples of its use
+dating back to 1500.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 83. In
+    summer time we were let out of afternoon school for a short time
+    about four p.m., when there was a slight refection of bread and
+    cheese laid out in Hall. It was called beever-time, and the pieces
+    of bread beevers.
+
+    1884. M. Morris, in English Illustrated Magazine, Nov., p. 73. [At
+    Eton, we] came up from cricket in the summer afternoons for beaver.
+
+
+Beverage or Bevy, subs. (old).—A tip; a vail; equivalent to the French
+pourboire; money for drink, demanded, says Grose [1785], of any one
+having a new suit of clothes. For synonyms, see Tip.
+
+
+Beware, subs. (theatrical).—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, vol. III., p.
+    149. ‘We [strolling actors] call breakfast, dinner, tea, supper,
+    all of them “numyare”; and all beer, brandy, water, or soup, are
+    beware.’
+
+
+B Flats, subs. (common).—Bugs. Cf., F sharps, and for synonyms, see
+Norfolk Howards.
+
+    1866. Dickens, Household Words, xx., 326. Mrs. B. beheld one night
+    a stout negro of the flat-back tribe—known among comic writers as b
+    flats—stealing up towards the head of the bed.
+
+    1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. B flats.—Bugs. The pun is ‘B’
+    (the initial letter), and ‘flat,’ from the flatness of the
+    obnoxious insect.
+
+
+Bib. To nap a bib, or one’s bib, phr. (popular).—To weep; to ‘blubber’;
+to ‘snivel.’
+
+French Synonyms. Lâcher les écluses (popular: ‘to let loose the
+floodgates’; the phrase also means ‘to void urine’); pisser des yeux
+(common: ‘to urinate with the eyes’); pleuvoir des châsses (thieves’:
+pleuvoir = ‘to rain’; in military slang to void urine; châsse = eye);
+verver (thieves’: a corrupted form of verser, ‘to pour out,’ to shed);
+viauper (popular: this argotic verb also means ‘to go molrowing’ or ‘to
+lead a dissolute life’); chasser des reluits (popular: chasser = ‘to
+expel,’ ‘to drive out’; reluits = ‘the eyes,’ or ‘ogles’); chier des
+châsses (popular: a coarse term); chigner (popular); baver des clignots
+(popular: literally ‘to drivel, slaver’ or ‘slobber the eyes’—cligner
+signifying ‘to wink’ or ‘blink’; hence clignots, ‘the blinkers’ or
+‘winkers’); beugler (popular: properly ‘to bellow’ [like a bull]).
+
+German Synonyms. Echen eichen (from the Hebrew echa, the first word in
+the Lamentations of Jeremiah); flonen, phlonen, flannen, flaussen, or
+flennen (to pull one’s mouth awry, either for laughing or crying, but
+among German thieves mainly in the former sense); jalen jaulen, or
+jolen machen (from the Hebrew jolal, whining; ‘to howl,’ to whine).
+
+Italian Synonyms. Trignare (this also signifies to ‘rain’: Cf., the
+French, pleuvoir des châsses); slenzare or slenzire (also ‘to urinate’:
+Cf., French, lâcher les écluses); ventare (the primary slang sense of
+ventare is ‘to moisten,’ hence ‘to shed tears’: properly ‘to blow,’ ‘to
+be windy’); lenzare or lenzire (primarily, in a slang sense, ‘to soak,’
+‘to wet’; from this the meaning is transferred to signify ‘to make
+water,’ i.e., ‘to urinate,’ and also ‘to shed tears’: the word is
+properly written l’ance; the derivation will be found under the French
+synonyms for Adam’s ale, q.v.).
+
+In Spanish there is one expression for ‘to cry’ which is full of
+poetry—fabricar las perlas, i.e., ‘to make pearls.’ Arabs likewise
+speak of tears as ‘pearls on the face.’
+
+
+Bibables or Bibibles, subs. (American).—Drink, as distinguished from
+food. [A coinage on the model of ‘edibles,’ ‘eatables,’ ‘drinkables,’
+etc.; from Latin bib-ĕre, to drink, + able, i.e., able to be drunk.]
+
+    1860. William Howard Russell (Special Correspondent of the Times),
+    My Diary in India in the years 1858–9, I., p. 8. Could all the
+    pale-ale, soda-water, sherry, porter, and vin ordinaire, and the
+    feebler bibables be turned into nectar, etc.
+
+    1860. Pittsburg Despatch, Aug. The table was loaded and spread with
+    edibles and bibibles of every possible kind. [de v.]
+
+
+Bib-All-Night, subs. (old).—A toper; a confirmed drunkard. [From
+bib-ĕre, to drink, + all-night.]
+
+    1612. Sylvester, Lacrymæ Lacrymaram, p. 101. Bats, Harpies, Syrens,
+    Centaurs, Bib-all-nights.
+
+
+Bible, subs. (nautical).—See quotations.
+
+    1867. Admiral Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bible, a hand-axe; a small
+    holy-stone [a kind of sand-stone used in cleaning decks], so called
+    from seamen using them kneeling.
+
+    1883. W. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, p. 14. Bibles. Small
+    holy-stones, no doubt originally so called because they oblige
+    those who use them to kneel. They are also termed ‘prayer books’
+    for the same reason.
+
+That’s bible, phr. (common).—That’s the truth; that’s A 1.
+
+
+Bible-Carrier, subs. (vagrants’).—A person who sell songs without
+singing them. Often heard in the neighbourhood of Seven Dials.
+
+
+Bible-Clerk, subs. (Winchester College).—A College prefect in full
+power, appointed for one week. He keeps order in school, reads the
+lessons in chapel, takes round rolls (q.v.), and assists at floggings.
+He is absolved from going up to books (q.v.) during his term of office.
+The prefect of Hall need not act as Bible-clerk unless he likes, and
+the prefect of School may choose any week he pleases; the rest take
+weeks in rotation, in the order of their Chambers in College.—See
+Bibler and Bibling.
+
+    1864. Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. XCV., p. 73. [At dinner] portions
+    of beef were served out to the boys ... the Bible-clerk meanwhile
+    reading a chapter from the Old Testament. Ibid, p. 87. An hour ...
+    is expected to be employed in working under the superintendence of
+    the Bible-Clerk, as the præfect in daily ‘course’ is termed, who is
+    responsible for a decent amount of order and silence at these
+    hours.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 103. Order
+    was kept during school hours by the Bible-clerk and Ostiarus, two
+    of the Præfects, who held these offices in rotation—the former
+    lasting for a week, the latter for one day only. They paraded
+    School armed with sticks, and brought up to the Head and Second
+    Masters (who alone had the power of flogging) the names of the
+    delinquents which had been ‘ordered’ for punishment; the names of
+    the more heinous offenders being confided to the Bible-clerk, the
+    others to the Ostiarus.
+
+    1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 59. There appears to have been no
+    regular Bible-clerk.... From this it has been inferred that the
+    institution of these offices must have been subsequent, and (some
+    think) long subsequent to the Founder’s time.
+
+
+Bible-Pounder, subs. (common).—A clergyman. [From bible + pounder, from
+the practice indulged in by some excitable exponents, of pounding or
+beating their hands upon the book or desk while preaching.] For
+synonyms, see Devil-dodger.
+
+
+Bibler, subs. (Winchester College).—Now called bibling (q.v.).
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 109. The
+    first time a boy’s name was ordered, the punishment was remitted on
+    his pleading ‘Primum tempus.’ For a more serious breach of duty, a
+    flogging of six cuts (a bibler) was administered, in which case the
+    culprit had to ‘order his name to the Bible-clerk,’ and that
+    individual, with the help of Ostiarius, performed the office of
+    Jack Ketch.
+
+
+Bibler Under Nail, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—See Bibling under
+nail.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 109. If a
+    boy was detected in a lie, or any very disgraceful proceeding—a
+    rare occurrence, I am happy to say—he had to stand up in the centre
+    of Junior row during the whole of the School time, immediately
+    preceding the infliction of the flogging; this pillory process was
+    called a bibler under the nail.
+
+
+Bibling, subs. (Winchester College).—Formerly called a bibler (q.v.). A
+flogging of six cuts on the small of the back, administered by the head
+or second master. So called because the person to be operated upon
+ordered (q.v.) his name to the Bible-clerk (q.v.).
+
+    1864. Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. XCV., p. 79. Underneath is the
+    place of execution, where delinquents are bibled. Ibid, p. 72. It
+    need hardly be said that it [the rod] is applied in the ordinary
+    fashion: six cuts forming what is technically called a bibling—on
+    which occasions the Bible-Clerk introduces the victim; four being
+    the sum of a less terrible operation called a ‘scrubbing.’
+
+
+Bibling-Rod, subs. (Winchester College).—The instrument with which a
+bibling (q.v.) was administered. It consisted of a handle with four
+apple twigs in the end, twisted together. It is represented on ‘Aut
+Disce.’ It was invented and first used by Warden Baker in 1454. It is
+not used now.
+
+
+Bibling Under Nail, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—A bibling (q.v.)
+administered for very heinous offences after an offender had stood
+under nail (q.v.).—See quot. in Bibler under nail.
+
+
+Biddy, subs. (old).—1. A chicken; sometimes chick-a-biddy. Hence,
+figuratively.
+
+2. (familiar.)—A young woman, not necessarily Irish. In both these
+senses the word appears in Grose [1785]. Since that time it would seem
+to have changed somewhat in meaning as follows.
+
+3. (familiar.)—A woman, whether young or old.
+
+    1868. O. W. Holmes, Guardian Angel, ch. xxviii., p. 233 (Rose
+    Lib.). ‘Don’t trouble yourself about Kitty Fagan, for pity’s sake,
+    Mr. Bradshaw. The biddies are all alike, and they’re all as stupid
+    as owls, except when you tell ’em just what to do, and how to do
+    it. A pack of priest-ridden fools!’
+
+    1887. Cornhill Mag., May, p. 510. How he gave to one old biddy
+    ‘five guineas to buy a jack,’ and to another substantial help
+    towards her boy’s schooling.
+
+4. (Winchester College.)—See Bidet.
+
+5. (American.)—A servant girl—generally Irish.
+
+
+Bidet, or Biddy, subs. (Winchester College).—A bath. Juniors fill these
+for Præfect. The Winchester term is the French word bidet, the name
+given to the low narrow bedroom bathing stools, used principally by
+women, but more frequently on the Continent than in England. They are
+of such a shape that they can be bestridden. In this connection it may
+be mentioned, that in French bidet also signifies ‘a small horse’ or
+‘pony.’
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bidet, commonly
+    pronounced biddy, a kind of tub, contrived for ladies to wash
+    themselves, for which purpose they bestride it like a little French
+    pony or post horse, called in France bidets.
+
+
+Bien.—See Bene.
+
+
+Biff, subs. (American).—A blow. ‘To give [one] a biff in the jaw’;
+Anglicé, ‘to wipe one in the chops.’ Cf., Bang, and for synonyms, see
+Dig.
+
+
+Biffin, subs. (familiar).—‘My biffin!’ i.e., ‘my pal!’ A biffin is
+properly a dried apple: Norfolk biffins especially are considered great
+delicacies.
+
+
+Big. To talk or look big, phr. (familiar).—To assume a pompous style or
+manner with a view to impressing others with a sense of one’s
+importance; to talk boastingly. A French equivalent is se hancher.
+
+    1579. Spenser, Shep. Cal., Sept., 50.
+
+        The shepheards swayne you cannot wel ken,
+        But it be by his pryde, from other men:
+        They looken bigge as Bulls.
+
+    1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, Act iv., Sc. 3. Not a more
+    cowardly rogue, in all Bohemia: if you had but looked big, and spit
+    at him, he’d have run.
+
+    1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, l. 26. The squire, in all
+    probability, cursed his punctuality in his heart, but he affected
+    to talk big.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xv. ‘You will gain nought by
+    speaking big with me.’
+
+    1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. viii. ‘He looked big, and
+    talked big, and altogether was a considerable big man in his own
+    consait.’
+
+    1855. Anthony Trollope, The Warden, p. 207. The Archdeacon waxed
+    wrath, talked big, and looked bigger.
+
+
+Big as All Outdoors, phr. (American).—An expression intended to convey
+an idea of indefinite size; hugeness; enormous capacity.
+
+    1838. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. ii. The
+    infarnal villain! Tell me who he is, and if he was big as all
+    outdoors, I’d walk into him. Ibid, ch. iv. He is looking as big as
+    all outdoors gist now, and is waitin’ for us to come to him.
+
+
+Big-Bellied, adj. (colloquial).—Advanced in pregnancy.
+
+    1711. Addison [Referred to by].
+
+    1848. John Forster, Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, bk. II.,
+    ch. iv. My desires are as capricious as the big-bellied woman’s.
+
+
+Big Ben, subs. (popular).—A nickname for the clock in the tower of the
+Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the
+Commissioner of Works, under whose supervision it was constructed. It
+was commenced in 1856, and finished in 1857.
+
+    1869. The Register or Mag. of Biography, p. 213. With Sir Charles
+    Barry’s sanction he designed the ornament cast on the Westminster
+    Bell, familiarly known as big Ben.
+
+    1880. Punch, No. 2039, p. 51. Big Ben struck two, and the house
+    adjourned.
+
+
+Big Bird. To get or give the big bird, phr. (theatrical).—To be hissed
+on the stage; or, conversely, to hiss. When an actor or actress gets
+the big bird, it may be from two causes: either it is a compliment for
+successful pourtrayal of villainy, in which case the gods (q.v.) simply
+express their abhorence of the character and not of the actor; or, the
+hissing may be directed against the actor, personally, for some reason
+or other. The big bird is the goose. For synonyms, see Goosed.
+
+    1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. To be goosed, or, as it is
+    sometimes phrased, to get the big bird, is occasionally a
+    compliment to the actor’s power of representing villainy, but more
+    often is disagreeably suggestive of a failure to please.
+
+
+Big Bug, subs. (popular).—A person of standing or consequence, either
+self-estimated or in reality. A disrespectful but common mode of
+allusion to persons of wealth or with other claims to distinction.
+Variants are Big-dog, Big-toad, Big-wig, and Great gun (which see for
+general synonyms).
+
+    1854. Widow Bedott Papers, p. 301. Miss Samson Savage is one of the
+    big bugs,—that is, she’s got more money than a’most anybody else in
+    town.
+
+    1857. N. Y. Times, February. The free-and-easy manner in which the
+    hair-brained Sir Robert Peel described some of the big bugs at
+    Moscow has got him into difficulty.
+
+    1872. Schele de Vere, Americanisms, p. 392. Persons of great wealth
+    and distinction are irreverently called big bugs, and I-street, in
+    Washington, is thus said to be inhabited by the foreign ambassadors
+    and other big bugs. J. C. Neal makes a nice distinction when he
+    says of a rich man without social importance: ‘He is one of your
+    big bugs, with more money than sense.’
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, Sep. 15. Don’t appear unduly surprised or
+    flustrated if, on answering the front door bell, you find Mr.
+    Gladstone wiping his feet on the door mat. Invite him to walk in in
+    a cool, collected tone of voice.... Show him you have entertained
+    big bugs before.
+
+
+Big Country, subs. (hunting).—The open country.
+
+
+Big Dog of the Tanyard, phr. (American).—A consequential, pompous
+individual; one who will neither allow others a voice in any matter, or
+permit dissent from his own views. The obvious derivation is from the
+customary guarding of tanyards by ferocious watch-dogs. For synonyms,
+see Great gun.
+
+
+Big Dog with the Brass Collar, phr. (American).—The chief in any
+undertaking or enterprise; a leader. A simile evidently derived from
+the stable or kennel. The phrase is sometimes shortened to big dog. For
+synonyms, see Great gun.
+
+    1848. J. R. Bartlett, Americanisms, p. 42. In some parts of the
+    country, the principal man of a place or in an undertaking is
+    called the big dog with a brass collar, as opposed to the little
+    curs not thought worthy of a collar.
+
+    1882. Alan Pinkerton, The Molly Maguires, p. 24. ‘Yes,’ said
+    Dormer, ‘Lawler is the big dog in these parts now; besides he kapes
+    a good tavern, and will see no old-timer, or young one either, for
+    that matther, sufferin’ from want while he can relieve him!’
+
+
+Big Drink, subs. (familiar).—1. The ocean; more particularly applied to
+the Atlantic. Also called the big pond, herring pond, the puddle
+(q.v.).
+
+    1882. Miss Braddon, Mount Royal, ch. xiii. ‘I was coming across the
+    big drink as fast as a Cunard could bring me.’
+
+2. (Western American.)—When a Western plainsman talks of the big drink,
+he is always understood to mean the Mississippi river.
+
+To take a big or long drink is to partake of liquor from a large glass.
+It is very customary when calling for refreshment to state whether a
+long or short drink is required.
+
+
+Big Figure. To go the big figure, phr. (common).—A variant of ‘to go
+the whole hog,’ or ‘to go the whole animal.’ It signifies embarking
+upon an enterprise of magnitude. The phrase is mainly current in the
+Southern States, and is derived from a term used in poker.
+
+    1868. Pickings from the Picayune, p. 226. When I saw that, I
+    thought I might as well go the big figure, you see, and so I
+    grabbed the bag; but mischief would have it, that just then the
+    policeman grabbed me and took me to the caboose.
+
+
+Biggest, adj. (American).—A superlative often used in the sense of ‘the
+best’ or ‘the finest.’
+
+    1848. Ruxton, Life in Far West, p. 129. The thermal springs are
+    regarded by the trappers as the breathing-places of his Satanic
+    majesty; and considered, moreover, to be the biggest kind of
+    medicine to be found in the mountains.
+
+    1888. Washington (Pa.) Review. The Pittsburg Times is as breezy a
+    journal as comes to this office. It is the biggest little paper we
+    are acquainted with.
+
+
+Biggest Toad in the Puddle, phr. (American).—One of the many bold, if
+equivocal metaphors to which the West has given rise. The biggest toad
+in the puddle is the recognised leader or chief whether in politics, or
+in connection with the rougher avocations of pioneer life. Equivalent
+to the big dog with the brass collar (q.v.).—See also Big bug, and for
+synonyms generally, Great gun.
+
+    1848. J. R. Bartlett, Americanisms, p. 42. Biggest toad in the
+    puddle. A Western expression for a head-man; a leader of a
+    political party, or of a crowd. Not an elegant expression, though
+    sometimes well applied. Thus a Western newspaper, in speaking of
+    the most prominent man engaged in the political contest for one of
+    the Presidential candidates before Congress, says: ‘Mr. D. D. F.—is
+    the biggest toad in the puddle.’
+
+
+Biggin, subs. (Winchester College).—A coffee machine in two parts—a
+strainer, and a coffee-pot for the infusion. It took its name from the
+inventor, a Mr. Biggin, who received letters patent ‘some years’
+previous to 1803. (Gent. Mag., lxxiii., p. 1094.)
+
+
+Biggity, adv. (American).—Consequential; giving oneself airs. A negro
+term.
+
+    c. 1884. S. L. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi, p. 511. These
+    railroads have made havoc with the steamboat commerce. The clerk of
+    our boat was a steamboat clerk before these roads were built. In
+    that day the influx of population was so great, and the freight
+    business so heavy, that the boats were not able to keep up with the
+    demands made upon their carrying capacity; consequently the Captain
+    was very independent and airy—pretty biggity as Uncle Remus would
+    say.
+
+
+Big Gun, subs. (familiar).—A person of consequence. Possibly of
+sporting origin. For synonyms, see Great gun.
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, Oct. 13. ‘Who’s a big gun? You don’t consider
+    that insignificant ink-slinger across the way a big gun, do you?’
+    ‘My wife can hardly wait to get it out of the mail,’ shouted Jones,
+    desperately.
+
+
+Big-Head. To have a big-head, phr. (American).—1. To be conceited;
+bumptious. Also applied to men or youths who are ‘cocksure’ of
+everything, or affected in manner.—See also Swell-head.
+
+    1848. J. R. Bartlett, Americanisms, p. 43. Boys who smoke cigars,
+    chew tobacco, drink strong liquors, gamble, and treat their parents
+    and superiors as their inferiors—of such a boy it is said, ‘He has
+    got the big-head.’
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, Oct. 20. If we were to base our calculation
+    upon the corpulency of his iron hat and helmet, we should say it
+    was a case of big-head, while his legs were long as a pair of
+    duplex pinchers, his arms like the fans of a windmill, his feet
+    like the foot of Mont Blanc, while his digital annex is like an
+    inverted ham.
+
+2. The phrase also signifies the after effect of a debauch.
+
+To get the big-head. To get drunk. For synonyms, see Screwed.
+
+
+Big House, subs. (common).—The workhouse,—a phrase used by the very
+poor; sometimes called the large house.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 52. ‘As
+    long as they kept out of the big house (the workhouse), she would
+    not complain.’ Ibid, II., p. 251. The men hate the thought of going
+    to the big house.
+
+
+Big Mouth, subs. (American).—Excessive talkativeness; loquacity. Cf.,
+All mouth. For synonyms, see Gas.
+
+
+Big Nuts to Crack, subs. phr. (American).—An undertaking of magnitude;
+one not easy to perform. [From a presumed difficulty in cracking large
+nuts.]
+
+
+Big One or Big ’Un, subs. (old).—A man of note or importance. The
+current colloquialism is big-wig, but at one time big-one was the more
+frequently-used expression. For synonyms, see Great gun.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 42. Then up rose
+    Ward, the veteran Joe, And, ’twixt his whiffs, suggested briefly
+    That but a few at first should go, And those, the light-weight
+    Gemmen chiefly; As if too many big ones went, They might alarm the
+    Continent!
+
+
+Big People, subs. (familiar).—Persons of standing or consequence. Cf.,
+Great gun.
+
+    1858. Anthony Trollope, Dr. Thorne, I., p. 43. He would in no way
+    assume a familiarity with bigger men than himself; allowing to the
+    bigger men the privilege of making the first advances. Ibid, p. 81.
+    When one is absolutely in the dirt at their feet, perhaps these big
+    people won’t wish one to stoop any further.
+
+
+Big Pond, subs. (popular).—The Atlantic. Also called the big drink
+(q.v.).
+
+    1838. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xviii. He
+    [old Clay] is all sorts of a hoss, and the best live one that ever
+    cut dirt this side of the big pond, or t’other side either.
+
+    1883. Sala, Living London, p. 204. Next time Miss Ward crosses the
+    big pond, I earnestly hope that she will cross the ‘Rockies,’ and
+    triumphantly descend the Pacific slope.
+
+
+Big Pot, subs. (familiar).—A person of consequence. For synonyms, see
+Great gun.
+
+    1880. Punch’s Almanac, The Cad’s Calendar. Lor! if I’d the ochre,
+    make no doubt, I could cut no end of big pots out. Call me cad?
+    When money’s in the game, Cad and swell are pooty much the same.
+
+
+Big-Side, subs. (Rugby School).—The combination of all the bigger
+fellows in the school in one and the same game or run; also the ground
+specially used for the game so denominated. Used also at other public
+schools.
+
+
+Big-Side Run, subs. (Rugby School).—A paper chase, in which picked
+representatives of all houses take part, as opposed to a house run.
+
+
+Big Take, subs. (American).—That which takes the public fancy; a great
+success, etc.,—in short, anything that ‘catches on.’—See Take.
+
+
+Big Talk, subs. (popular).—Pompous speech; a pedantic use of long
+words.
+
+    1874. Saturday Review, Feb., p. 280. [With regard to words like
+    ‘psithurism,’ ‘cheirognomy,’ ‘scintillating eyes,’ ‘the
+    phaesimbrotous sun’] perhaps they have been grown so accustomed to
+    big talk that, etc.
+
+
+Big-Wig, subs. (popular).—A person of consequence; one high in
+authority or rank. [From big + wig, an allusion to the large and ornate
+headgear of men of importance in former times.] The term is used both
+contemptuously and humorously. For synonyms, see Great gun.
+
+    1703. English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin
+    trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother of the togati, fresh as a
+    new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements. Be unto
+    him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport,
+    in term and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their
+    bull-dogs—the town-raff and the bargees—well-blunted or
+    stiver-cramped—against dun or don—nob or big wig—so may you never
+    want a bumper of bishop.
+
+    1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xx. We live among bankers and
+    city big-wigs, and be hanged to them, and every man, as he talks to
+    you, is jingling his guineas in his pocket.
+
+    1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xlv. So you are going to
+    sit among the big-wigs in the House of Lords.
+
+    1876 circa. Broadside Ballad, ‘Justice and Law.’
+
+        The Penge Case you know took a curious twist,
+          But how it occurred, we can’t guess,
+        Unless, unexpected, some turn of the wrist,
+          Has got some ‘big-wig’ in a mess.
+        To some folks it seems rather queer, now, you see,
+          When ‘Sentence of Death’ had been passed,
+        That one of the four is allowed to go free,
+          And her prison doors wide open cast.
+                                    Chorus.
+
+    1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxvi. ‘The Right
+    Honorable gentleman no doubt means,’ said Phineas, ‘that we must
+    carry ourselves with some increased external dignity. The world is
+    bigwigging itself, and we must buy a bigger wig than any we have
+    got, in order to confront the world with proper self-respect.’
+
+
+Big-Wigged, ppl. adj. (popular).—Pompous; consequential. [From big-wig
+(q.v.) + [g] ed.]
+
+    1851. Carlyle, John Sterling, pt. I., ch. vii. And along with
+    obsolete spiritualisms, he sees all manner of obsolete thrones and
+    big-wigged temporalities.
+
+
+Big-Wiggery, subs. (popular).—A display of consequence, or pomposity.
+[From big-wig (q.v.) + [g] ery, a condition.]
+
+    1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. ii. Whilst Louis XIV., his old
+    squaretoes of a contemporary—the great worshipper of bigwiggery—has
+    always struck me as a most undoubted and Royal Snob.
+
+    1855. Household Words, xii., 250. All this solemn bigwiggery—these
+    triumphs, ovations, sacrifices, orations.
+
+
+Big-Wiggism, subs. (popular).—Pomposity. [From big-wig (q.v.) + [g]
+ism, a state or condition.]
+
+    1871–72. G. Eliot, Middlemarch, ch. xvii. I determined not to try
+    anything in London for a good many years at least. I didn’t like
+    what I saw when I was studying there—so much empty big-wiggism and
+    obstructive trickery.
+
+
+Big Words, subs. (familiar).—Pompous speech; ‘crack-jaw’ words. Cf., To
+talk big, and Big talk.
+
+    1879. Grenville Murray, Member for Paris, I., p. 103. ‘I don’t like
+    such cynicism!’ ‘Oh, cynicism is a big word.’
+
+
+Bilbo or Bilboa, subs. (old).—A sword. Bilboa in Spain was once
+renowned for well-tempered blades. Grose [1785] quotes the term as
+slang; this, however, is somewhat doubtful.
+
+    1592. Greene, Disputation, etc., in wks. X., 236. Let them doe what
+    they dare with their bilbowe blades, I feare them not.
+
+    1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act iii., Sc. 7. Tell them, I say,
+    he must refund—or bilbo’s the word, and slaughter will ensue.
+
+    1713. Guardian, No. 145. ‘He that shall rashly attempt to regulate
+    our hilts, or reduce our blades, had need to have a heart of oak
+    ... Bilbo is the word, remember that and tremble.’
+
+    1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. iv. ‘It was all fair play; your
+    comrade sought a fall, and he has got it.’
+
+    ‘That is true enough,’ said Bothwell, as he slowly rose; ‘put up
+    your bilbo, Tom.’
+
+2. A kind of stock—a long iron bar with sliding shackles for the ankles
+of prisoners, and a lock by which to fasten the bar at one end to the
+ground. The derivation is very uncertain.
+
+    1557. Hakluyt, Voy., I., 295. I was also conveyed to their lodgings
+    ... where I saw a pair of bilbowes.
+
+    1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, in wks. (Grosart) III., 255. He
+    that is spyced with the gowte or the dropsie, frequently dreameth
+    of fetters and manacles, and being put on the bilbowes.
+
+    1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 2. Ham. ... Methought I lay
+    worse than the mutines in the bilboes.
+
+    1695. Congreve, Love for Love, Act iii., Sc. 6. Now a Man that is
+    marry’d, has as it were, d’ye see, his Feet in the bilboes, and
+    may-hap mayn’t get ’em out again when he wou’d.
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 19. And are those shear’d,
+    or put into bilboes, and handcufft.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bilboes, the punishing a person
+    at sea, by laying or putting the offender in irons, or a sort of
+    stocks, but more severe than the common stocks.
+
+    1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. ‘And now let us talk about
+    our business.’ ‘Your business, if you please,’ said Hatterick;
+    ‘bagel and donner!—mine was done when I got out of the bilboes.’
+
+
+Bile, subs. (old).—1. The female pudenda. For synonyms, see
+Monosyllable.
+
+2. (common.)—A vulgarism for ‘boil.’
+
+
+Bilgewater, subs. (common).—Bad beer. Properly the name given to the
+drainings to the lowest part of a ship; being difficult to get at,
+these become, at times, exceedingly foul and offensive. For synonyms,
+see Swipes.
+
+
+Bilk, subs. (common).—A word, formerly in general use, to which a
+certain stigma of vulgarity is now attached. Uncertain in
+derivation—possibly a corrupted form of ‘balk’—it was first employed
+technically at cribbage to signify the spoiling of an adversary’s score
+in the crib. Among obsolete or depraved usages may be mentioned.
+
+Subs. 1. (obsolete.)—A statement or string of words without sense,
+truth, or meaning, jointly or severally.
+
+    1663. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, I., i. Tub. He will have the last
+    word, though he talk bilk for’t. Hugh. Bilk! what’s that. Tub. Why
+    nothing; a word signifying Nothing. [Note refers to Cole’s English
+    Dict. (n.d. given) and to Halliwell, Arch. and Prov. Words, s.v.]
+
+    1740. North, Examen, p. 213. Bedloe was sworn, and being asked what
+    he knew against the prisoner, answered, Nothing.... Bedloe was
+    questioned over and over, who still swore the same bilk.
+
+2. (common.)—A hoax; an imposition; a humbug. For synonyms, see Sell.
+Cf., Bite.
+
+    1664. Butler, Hudibras, II., iii., 376. Spells, Which over ev’ry
+    month’s blank-page In th’ Almanack strange bilk’s presage. [M.]
+
+    1694. Congreve, Double Deal, III., x. There he’s secure from danger
+    of a bilk. [M.]
+
+    1733 circa. North, Lives, i., 260. After this bilk of a discovery
+    was known. [M.]
+
+3. (common.)—A swindler; a cheat. This is the most familiar current use
+of the word in its substantive form, and is applied mainly to persons
+who cheat cabmen of their fares, or to men who swindle prostitutes out
+of their wretched earnings. Also bilker. For synonyms, see Sell. Cf.,
+Bite.
+
+    1790. Sheridan, in Sheridaniana, 109. Johnny W[i]lks, Johnny
+    W[i]lks, Thou greatest of bilks.
+
+    1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. ix. After a little delay, the wagoner
+    drove off, cursing him for a bilk, and vowing that he’d never have
+    any more to do with a ‘larned man.’
+
+4. (American.)—A strongly offensive term used in the West to signify a
+person who habitually sponges upon another, and who never by any chance
+makes a return or even offers to do so. In English slang it means a
+downright cheat or swindler (see sense 3). It will therefore be seen
+that the Western American usage has considerably softened its meaning.
+
+    1840. McClure, Rocky Mountain, p. 211. The term was entirely novel
+    to me, and I first asked its meaning of a landlord, who explained
+    to me by saying that a bilk is a man who never misses a meal and
+    never pays a cent.
+
+Adj. (obsolete).—Fallacious; without truth or meaning.
+
+    1740. North, Examen, p. 129. To that [Oates’s plot] and the
+    author’s bilk account of it I am approaching.
+
+Verb (common).—To cheat; defraud; evade one’s obligations; escape from,
+etc. (see subs., sense 2, and compare with quotations). For synonyms,
+see Stick. Cf., Bite.
+
+    1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act v., Sc. 3. 1. Knight: Ay, a
+    great lawyer that shall be nameless bilked me too.
+
+    1729. Gay, Polly, Act ii., Sc. 9. Honour plays a bubbles part, ever
+    bilk’d and cheated.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bilk (v.), to cheat, balk,
+    disappoint, deceive, gull, or bubble; also to go out of a
+    publick-house or tavern, without paying the reckoning.
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XIV., ch. iv. ‘I promise you,’
+    answered Nightingale, ‘I don’t intend to bilk my lodgings; but I
+    have a private reason for not taking a formal leave.’
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bilke. ‘Let us bilk
+    the rattling cove’; let us cheat the hackney coachman of his fare:
+    bilking a coachman, a box keeper, or a poor whore, was formerly
+    among men of the town thought a gallant action.
+
+    1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. xix. ‘Are you playing me
+    false? Have you set another man on the track with a view to bilk me
+    of my promised fee?’
+
+To bilk the blues, phr. (thieves’).—To evade the police.—See Blues.
+
+To bilk the schoolmaster, phr. (common).—To obtain knowledge or
+experience without paying for it.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5. Log. Well,
+    don’t grumble—every one must pay for his learning—and you wouldn’t
+    bilk the schoolmaster, would you? But, come, I’m getting merry; so
+    if you wish for a bit of good truth, come with me, and let’s have a
+    dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land.
+
+
+Bilker, subs. (common).—A cheat; a swindler. Sometimes abbreviated to
+bilk (sense 3).
+
+
+Bilking, subs. (common).—The action of cheating or swindling.
+
+
+Bill, subs. (Eton College).—1. A list of the boys who have to go to the
+head master at 12 o’clock; also of those who get off absence (q.v.), or
+names-calling, e.g., an eleven playing in a match are thus exempt.
+
+    1876. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton. Some of the small
+    boys whom this delightful youth tempted to ape his habits, had
+    often occasion to rue it when they staggered back to college giddy
+    and sick, carrying with them a perfume which told its tale to their
+    tutors, and caused them to be put in the bill.
+
+2. (Harrow School.)—Names-calling.
+
+To hang up a bill, phr. (American political).—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1887. Cornhill Magazine, June, p. 628. To hang up a bill is to pass
+    it through one or more of its stages, and then to lay it aside and
+    defer its further consideration for a more or less indefinite
+    period.
+
+To rush a bill, phr. (American political).—To expedite the passing of a
+bill through the Senate and Congress. Cf., Rush.
+
+    1887. Cornhill Magazine, June, p. 628. To rush a bill is an
+    expression well known in the American Senate, and occasionally also
+    used here.
+
+Long or short bill, subs. phr. (thieves’).—A long or short term of
+imprisonment.
+
+To pay a bill at sight, phr. (old).—Said of a man or woman who is
+always ready for sexual commerce.
+
+
+Billbrighter, subs. (Winchester College).—A small fagot used for
+lighting coal fires in Kitchen. So called from a servant, Bill Bright,
+who was living in 1830.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 89. The
+    Kitchen is a spacious apartment with a vaulted roof, occupying the
+    entire height of the building on the west side of the quadrangle,
+    and at least half its length; here we might see a few Fags
+    endeavouring to coax Jem Sims, John Coward, or Mother Mariner (the
+    cooks), for an extra supply of mashed potatoes, till Kitchen is
+    cleared by the exasperated Manciple, who has just detected a
+    delinquent in the act of secreting under his gown an armful of the
+    small faggots used for lighting the Kitchen fires (called Bill
+    Brighters), an opportunity for purloining which was never allowed
+    to slip by a Junior of a properly regulated mind.
+
+
+Billed Up, ppl. adj. (military).—In the Guards’ regiments to be billed
+up signifies to be confined to barracks.
+
+
+Billet, subs. (popular).—A situation; a ‘berth.’ [From billet, an
+official military order requiring food and shelter to be provided for
+the soldier bearing it.]
+
+To get a billet, phr. (thieves’)—When in prison to obtain promotion to
+duties which carry with them certain privileges.
+
+
+Billiard Block, subs. (society).—An epithet applied to one who puts up
+with disagreeables for the sake of pecuniary or other advantages; also,
+occasionally, to one who acts as ‘jackal’ for another and to tame cats
+(q.v.).
+
+    1831. Mrs. Gore, Mothers and Daughters, p. 75. The Duke of L. was
+    fortunate in somewhat more than the usual apportionments of
+    souffre-douleurs, doubles, billiard-blocks, living hunters, younger
+    brothers, to talk to the young lady nieces, etc.
+
+
+Billiard-Slum, subs. (Australian thieves’).—False pretences.
+
+To give on the billiard-slum.—See Mace.
+
+
+Billingsgate, subs. (popular).—Foul, coarse language; scurrilous
+vituperation. From the evil reputation which the market of the same
+name has enjoyed for centuries. In the seventeenth century references
+to the violent and abusive speech of those frequenting the place were
+very numerous. In French an analogous reference is made to the Place
+Maubert, long noted for its noisy market.
+
+    1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act iii. Quaint. ... Whose
+    reputation, though never so clear and evident in the eye of the
+    world, yet with sharp invectives—Wid. Alias, Billingsgate. Quaint.
+    With poignant and sour invectives, I say, I will deface.
+
+    1711. Defoe, The Review, vol. VII., preface. As long as faction
+    feeds the flame, we shall never want Billingsgate to revile one
+    another with.
+
+    1712. Spectator, No. 451. Our satire is nothing but ribaldry, and
+    Billingsgate.
+
+    1852. Thackeray, Esmond, ch. ix. If she had come with bowl and
+    dagger, would have been routed off the ground by the enemy with a
+    volley of Billingsgate, which the fair person always kept by her.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack. Messrs. Cannon
+    and Co. defied the surgeon or anybody else to say the fish was bad,
+    and kept jabbering away both at the same time and in elegant
+    Billingsgate, until the constable returned; but he came without the
+    doctor, who had gone to attend an urgent case out of the town, and
+    the people at his house could not say when he would return.
+
+To Billingsgate or talk Billingsgate.—To scold; to talk coarsely, or
+violently; to ‘slang.’
+
+    1678. A. Littleton, Lat. Dict. To Billingsgate it. Arripere
+    maledictum ex trivio.
+
+So also, You’re no better than a Billingsgate fish-fag, i.e., rude and
+ill-mannered; Billingsgatry, scurrilous language.
+
+
+Billingsgate Pheasant, subs. (common).—A red herring or bloater. This
+is also called a two-eyed steak, but for synonyms, see Atlantic-ranger.
+
+
+Bill of Sale, subs. (old).—Widow’s weeds. Such are also said to have
+apartments or a house to let (q.v.).
+
+
+Billy, subs. (thieves’).—1. A pocket or neck-handkerchief, chiefly of
+silk. The various ‘fancies’ have been thus described:—Belcher, darkish
+blue ground, large round white spots, with a spot in the centre of
+darker blue than the ground. This was adopted by Jem Belcher, the
+pugilist, as his ‘colours,’ and soon became popular amongst ‘the
+fancy.’ Bird’s-eye wipe, a handkerchief of any colour, containing white
+spots. The blue bird’s-eye is similar to the Belcher except in the
+centre. Sometimes a bird’s-eye wipe has a white ground and blue spots.
+Blood-red fancy, red. Blue Billy, blue ground, generally with white
+figures. Cream fancy, any pattern on a white ground. King’s man, yellow
+pattern on a green ground. Randal’s man, green, with white spots; named
+after the favourite colours of Jack Randal, pugilist. Water’s man, sky
+coloured. Yellow fancy, yellow with white spots. Yellow man, all
+yellow. For synonyms generally, see Wipe.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. A silk handkerchief.
+    A billy.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—Stolen metal.—See Billy-hunting.
+
+3. (American thieves’.)—A weapon used by desperadoes, and also by the
+police when apprehending violence or dangerous resistance on the part
+of the former when pursued. The construction of a billy varies, but
+usually it is composed of a piece of untanned cowhide, as hard as horn
+itself, some six inches in length, twisted or braided into a sort of
+handle, and covered from end to end with woollen cloth. One extremity
+is loaded with three quarters of a pound of lead; to the other is
+firmly attached a loop, large enough to admit a man’s hand, formed of
+strong linen cord, and intended to allow the billy to hang loose from
+the wrist, and at the same time prevent it being lost or wrenched from
+the grasp of its owner. At close quarters, it proves a very savage and
+formidable arm of defence, resembling, but being much more dangerous
+than the ordinary slung-shot in use by policemen and others. Twelve
+ounces of solid lead and raw-hide, dashed against the thickest skull by
+a strong armed ruffian, would as effectually silence a man as an ounce
+of the same metal discharged from the bore of a Springfield rifle. It
+may be remarked that billy in English slang is a policeman’s staff, a
+very different weapon.
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Ap. 4. The condition of the man reported
+    as having been shot twice in the head on Thursday afternoon, is not
+    at all alarming. It transpires that his wounds are not of the
+    gun-shot sort, but were inflicted with a billy in the hands of a
+    Pinkerton man.
+
+4. (popular.)—A policeman’s staff; a truncheon.
+
+    1884. Daily News, Ap. 7, p. 5, col. 1. Anderson was first brought
+    down by a pistol shot, and was then corrected with a billy, till he
+    declared himself vanquished.
+
+5. (Australian and New Zealand.)—A bushman’s tea-pot or saucepan.
+
+    1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Sept. 3, 5, 5. They got
+    enough flour from Sydney to make their ‘dampers,’ and enough tea to
+    boil in their billies.
+
+    1886. G. Sutherland, Australia, p. 104. A billy, or small tin can,
+    for boiling tea or coffee.
+
+    1889. Illustrations, Oct., p. 22. Refusing a pressing invitation to
+    stay and spend Christmas with the good people with whom I had been
+    boarding, and heeding lightly their remarks as to ‘new chum,’
+    ‘dangers of the bush,’ ‘all alone,’ ‘strange country,’ etc., etc.,
+    I took a look at the map, and packed my ‘swag.’ Now a ‘swag’
+    proper, usually contains blankets, towels, ‘billy,’ pannikin, and
+    many other articles ... Ibid, p. 28. The ‘billy’ is off, but the
+    roadman (Irish, of course) gives me a grateful cup of beer, and
+    accompanies me to the hotel another mile down the road.
+
+
+Billy Barlow, subs. (common).—A street clown; a mountebank—so called
+from the hero of a slang song. Billy was a real person, semi-idiotic,
+and though in dirt and rags, fancied himself a swell of the first
+water. Occasionally he came out with real witticisms. He was a
+well-known street character about the East-end of London, and died in
+Whitechapel Workhouse.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 148.
+    Billy Barlow is another supposed comic character, that usually
+    accompanies either the street-dancers or acrobats in their
+    peregrinations. The dress consists of a cocked-hat and red feather,
+    a soldier’s coat (generally a sergeant’s with sash), white trousers
+    with the legs tucked into Wellington boots, a large tin eye-glass,
+    and an old broken and ragged umbrella.
+
+These merry Andrews are otherwise called Jim crows and saltimbancos;
+among the French, un pitre.
+
+
+Billy-Boy, subs. (nautical).—A vessel like a galliot, with two masts,
+the fore-mast square-rigged. They hail mainly from Goole. Also called
+humber-keels.
+
+
+Billy-Button, subs. (rhyming slang).—1. Mutton.
+
+2. (tailors’.)—A contemptuous term for a journeyman tailor.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 117. And
+    there I did Jeremiah Stitchem to his Billy Button. Ibid, p. 142. A
+    laughable sketch entitled Billy Button’s ride to Brentford, and I
+    used to be Jeremiah Stitchem, a servant of Billy Button’s, that
+    comes for a ‘situation.’
+
+
+Billy-Buzman, subs. (thieves’).—A thief whose speciality is silk pocket
+and neckerchiefs. [From billy, slang for a pocket-handkerchief, +
+buzman, slang for a thief.]
+
+
+Billy-Cock, subs. (popular).—A round, low-crowned hat—generally of soft
+felt, and with a broad brim. Speculation has been rife as to the
+derivation of the term. Murray says ‘apparently the same as
+“bully-cocked,” used 1721, probably meaning after the fashion of the
+“bullies” or hectoring “blades” of the period’ (see quot.). A writer,
+C. K. C. in Notes and Queries, however [6 S., ii., p. 355], points out
+that ‘these hats were first made for “Billy Coke”—or to speak more
+respectfully, Mr. William Coke—a gentleman well known at Melton Mowbray
+a quarter of a century ago [circa 1853], and used by him at the great
+shooting parties at Holkham. The old-established hatters in the
+West-end still call them “Coke hats.”’ Of the reality of the
+personality of William Coke of Melton fame there is, and can be no
+doubt, and although the name of the hat may be derived from
+‘bully-cock,’ yet the weight of evidence seems to be against it, unless
+a slight transference of meaning, very common in slang, has taken
+place.
+
+    1721. Amherst, Terræ Filius, No. 46, p. 246. [A description of an
+    Oxford ‘smart’ or dandy.] When he walks the street, he is easily
+    distinguish’d by a stiff silk gown, which rustles in the wind, as
+    he struts along; a flaxen tie-wig, or sometimes a long natural one,
+    which reaches down below his waist; a broad bully-cock’d hat, or a
+    square cap of above twice the usual size; white stockings, thin
+    Spanish leather shoes; his cloaths lined with tawdry silk, and his
+    shirt ruffled down the bosom as well as at the wrists. Besides all
+    which marks, he has a delicate jaunt in his gait, and smells very
+    philosophically of essence.
+
+    1862. Life Among Colliers, 35. I was told to take off my bonnet,
+    and tie a billy-cock [wide-awake] tight down.
+
+    1872. Farjeon, Griff, p. 14. With the men, mole-skin trousers,
+    pea-jackets, billy-cock hats, and dirty pipes predominated.
+
+    1884. Pall Mall G., March 28, p. 11, col. 1. He wore a plaited
+    blouse drawn in at the waist and a dilapidated billy-cock hat.
+
+2. (Australian.)—The billy-cock of the Antipodean colonies differs from
+the English head-gear known by the name in being made of hard instead
+of soft felt, and in having a turned up brim.
+
+For synonymous terms of head-gear, see Deerstalker.
+
+
+Billy-Fencer, subs. (thieves’).—A marine store dealer.—See Fence.
+
+
+Billy-Goat, subs. (common).—A tufted beard; similar to that of a goat.
+
+    1882. Standard, 11 Feb., p. 3, col. 2. Hair turning grey, hazel
+    eyes, billy-goat beard. [M.]
+
+
+Billy-Hunting, subs. (thieves’).—1. Collecting and buying old
+metal.—See Billy-fence.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 465. ‘He
+    goes tatling and billy-hunting in the country (gathering rags and
+    buying old metal).’
+
+2. Going out to steal pocket-handkerchiefs.—See Billy, sense 1.
+
+
+Billy Noodle, subs. (American).—This combination stands in American
+slang for a fellow whose self-conceit leads him to suppose himself
+specially attractive to the other sex. [From Billy, a male name, +
+noodle, a fool.]
+
+
+Billy-Roller, subs. (common).—See quotations.
+
+    1840. Mrs. Trollope, Michael Armstrong, ch. xiv. ‘What is the
+    billy-roller?’... ‘It’s a long stout stick, ma’am, that’s used
+    often and often to beat the little ones employed in the mills when
+    their strength fails.’
+
+    1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III., 1166. This is the billy-roller, so
+    much talked of in the controversies between the operatives and
+    masters in the cotton-factories, as an instrument of cruel
+    punishment to children, though no such machine has been used in
+    cotton-mills for half a century at least. [M.]
+
+
+Bim, Bimshire, subs. (West Indian).—Nicknames for a Barbadian and the
+island of Barbadoes. This place is also sometimes jeeringly called
+Little England, and Barbadian is contracted into ’Badian.
+
+    1887. Paton, Down the Islands. Barbadoes is known all the world
+    over as the little island that pays her way; it has never been
+    conquered; its people are enterprising and energetic, go-ahead and
+    driving; in short, the business men of these islands (the
+    Caribbees). Barbadian may therefore be said to mean a man with ‘go
+    and grit, energy and vim.’
+
+
+Bing.—See Bynge a waste.
+
+
+Binge, subs. (Oxford Univ.)—A drinking bout.
+
+
+Bingham’s Dandies, subs. (military).—The 17th Lancers. From its Colonel
+(Lord Bingham) causing the men’s uniforms to fit so well. It is one of
+the smartest regiments of the service. They were also at one time
+christened the Horse Marines (q.v.). Two troops of this showy corps
+were employed as marines on board the ‘Hermione’ frigate during some
+severe fighting in the West Indies. Hence the sobriquet now almost
+quite forgotten. But the 17th are still well-known as the Death or
+Glory Boys, from their badge, which consists of a death’s head, with
+the words, ‘or glory.’
+
+
+Bingo, subs. (old cant).—Brandy, or other spirituous liquor. Thought by
+Dr. Murray to be a humorous formation from B. for ‘brandy’ (Cf., ‘B.
+and S.’) and stingo.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue. Bingo, brandy.
+
+    1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 41.
+
+        FIGHTING ATTIE’S SONG.
+
+        Air.—‘He was famed for deeds of arms
+        ’Rise at six—dine at two—
+        Rob your man without ado-
+        Such my maxims—if you doubt
+        Their wisdom, to the rightabout!’
+
+    (Signing to a sallow gentleman on the same side of the table to
+    send up the brandy bowl.)
+
+        ‘Pass round the bingo,—of a gun,
+        You musty, dusty, husky son!’
+
+    (The sallow gentleman in a hoarse voice,)
+
+        ‘Attie—the bingo’s now with me,
+        I can’t resign it yet, d’ye see!’
+
+    (Attie, seizing the bowl,)
+
+        ‘Resign, resign it—cease your dust!’
+
+    (Wresting it away, and fiercely regarding the sallow gentleman.)
+
+        ‘You have resigned it—and you must.’
+
+    CHORUS.
+
+        ‘You have resigned it—and you must.’
+
+    1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxxiii. Some soda water with a
+    dash of bingo clears one’s head in the morning.
+
+For all synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+Hence bingo boy, a tippler; a drunkard. Bingo mort, a drunken
+woman.—See Mort.
+
+
+Bingy, adj. (trading).—A term largely used in the butter trade to
+denote bad, ropy butter; nearly equivalent to vinnied. It may be noted
+that in the English Dialect Society’s Chestere Glossary, bingy is given
+as a peculiar clouty or frowsty taste in milk—the first stage of
+turning sour.
+
+    1857. Mrs. Gaskell, Life of C. Bronté, ch. iv. The milk, too, was
+    often bingy, to use a country expression for a kind of taint that
+    is far worse than sourness, and suggests the idea that it is caused
+    by want of cleanliness about the milk pans, rather than by the heat
+    of the weather.
+
+    1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, ch. xv. I’ve heerd my aunt say
+    as she found out as summat was wrong wi’ Nancy as soon as the milk
+    turned bingy, for there ne’er had been such a clean lass about her
+    milk-cans afore that.
+
+
+Binnacle Word, subs. (old nautical).—A fine or affected word, which
+sailors jeeringly offer to chalk up upon the binnacle.—Grose.
+
+
+Birch-Broom, subs. (rhyming slang).—A room.
+
+Like a birch-broom in a fit, phr. (common).—Said of a rough, towzly
+head.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 90. I should
+    like to know what looks worse than to see a young man or woman with
+    their hair in an uproar, like a birch-broom in a fit, and some of
+    you chaps down there look as if you hadn’t had your hair combed
+    since last reaping time, when you did it with a field-rake, which
+    is very harrowing to one’s feelings.
+
+
+Birchin Lane.—To send one to Birchin Lane, phr. (old).—To castigate; to
+flog. A punning allusion to birch, a rod. Cf., Strap oil, etc.
+
+
+Bird, subs. (theatrical).—Mr. H. J. Byron says that when a piece is
+hissed the actors say ‘The bird’s there!’;—the bird alluded to being
+the goose notorious for its hissing capacities.—See however, Big bird
+and Goose.
+
+Verb (old).—To thieve; to steal; to look for plunder. So used by Ben
+Jonson.
+
+
+Bird-Cage, subs. (common).—1. A bustle, an article of feminine attire,
+used for extending the skirts of the dress. So called because at one
+time constructed of such a size and in such a manner as to be not
+altogether unlike an elongated bird-cage.
+
+    1860 circa. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Agricultural Irish Girl,’ verse
+    3.
+
+        She has no great education, for
+          She’s not much past her letters;
+        But for acting like a lady, I
+          Would like to see her betters:
+        She does not read Ouida’s works,
+          Nor Bow Bells’ fashions pages;
+        And she does not wear those things behind,
+          The ladies call bird-cages.
+
+Among English Synonyms may be mentioned canary cage; backstaircase;
+false hereafter; bishop.
+
+French Synonyms. Un volapuk; un strapontin; un lieutenant (a pun on
+tenant lieu de ce qui manque); un nuage (parcequ’il cache la lune; lune
+= the posteriors).
+
+2. (common.)—A four-wheeled cab. For synonyms, see Growler.
+
+3. (racing.)—The paddock at the Newmarket race-course where saddling
+takes place. It adjoins the grand stand.
+
+    1884. St. James’s Gazette, May 1, p. 1. All the favourites were
+    brought into the bird-cage. [M.]
+
+
+Birdlime, subs. (rhyming slang).—1. Time.
+
+2. (old.)—A thief. From the glutinous substance of the same name spread
+upon twigs for the purpose of catching birds and holding them fast.
+
+    1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, V., 2. That birdlime there stole it.
+
+    1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, III., 2. My rogue of a son has laid
+    his birdlime fingers on’t.
+
+
+Bird’s-Eye, Bird’s-Eye Fogle, Bird’s-Eye Wipe, subs. (common).—A silk
+handkerchief spotted with eye-like markings.—See also Billy and Wipe.
+
+    1665. Pepys, Diary, May 14. To church, it being Whit-Sunday; my
+    wife very fine in a new yellow bird’s-eye hood, as the fashion is
+    now.
+
+    1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xviii. He wore a blue
+    bird’s-eye handkerchief round his neck.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, August 7, p. 6, col. 2. His neckerchief was
+    of the same hue [silver grey], with a light crimson bird’s-eye.
+
+
+Bird-Witted, adj. (old).—Inconsiderate; thoughtless; easily imposed
+on.—Grose.
+
+    1605. Bacon, Adv. Learning, II. (1861), 228. If a child be
+    bird-witted, that is, hath not the faculty of attention, the
+    mathematics giveth a remedy thereunto.
+
+    1650. Ussher, Ann., VI., 360. [He] proved ... but a bird-witted
+    man.
+
+
+Birk, subs. (back slang).—A ‘crib’ (q.v.), i.e., a house. For synonyms,
+see Diggings.
+
+
+Birthday Suit, subs. (common).—Naked; in the buff (q.v.); in the suit
+in which Adam and Eve first saw each other, and ‘were not ashamed.’ A
+French equivalent is s’habiller en sauvage.
+
+    1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, l. 61. I went in the morning to a
+    private place, along with the housemaid, and we bathed in our
+    birth-day soot.
+
+
+Bishop, subs. (old).—1. A warm decoction of wine, orange or lemon peel,
+and sugar—but variously compounded. Similar to flip and purl (q.v.).
+
+    1703. English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin
+    trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother of the togati, fresh as a
+    new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements. Be unto
+    him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport,
+    in term and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their
+    bull-dogs—the town-raff and the bargees—well-blunted or stiver
+    cramped—against dun or don—nob or big-wig—so may you never want a
+    bumper of bishop.
+
+    1738. Swift, Women Who Cry Oranges, wks., 1755, IV., i., 278. Well
+    roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup. They’ll make a sweet bishop.
+
+    1753. The World, No. 37. Punch, bishop, cool tankard, and negus are
+    equally denied me.
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xlviii., p. 421. He and the landlord
+    were drinking a bowl of bishop together.
+
+2. subs. (American).—A bustle—part of feminine attire consisting of a
+pad worn on the back part of the waist, and designed to give prominence
+to the skirt. For synonyms, see Bird-cage.
+
+    1848. Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, p. 42. Bishop. An
+    appendage to a lady’s wardrobe, otherwise called a bustle.
+
+I sing the bishop, alias the bustle.
+
+    1862–75. Saxe, Progress. Imperial Fashion decides the gravest
+    questions which divide the world.
+
+        If wrong may not, by circumstance, be right,—
+        If black cravats be more genteel than white,—
+        If, by her bishop, or her ‘grace,’ alone
+        A genuine lady, or a church, is known.
+
+3. (common.)—A chamber utensil; a jerry; jordan; and it (q.v.).
+
+4. (Winchester College.)—The sapling with which a fagot is bound
+together.
+
+Verb.—1. A term among horse dealers, for burning marks into a horse’s
+teeth, after he has lost them by age; or, by other deceptive arts to
+give a good appearance to a bad horse. By bishopping, a horse is made
+to appear younger than he is. The expression is derived from the name
+of a person who initiated the practice, and has no connection with ‘to
+bishop,’ a provincialism for ‘to burn.’ For synonyms, see Fig.
+
+    1727. R. Bradley, Family Dict., vol. I., s.v. ‘Horse.’ This way of
+    making a horse look young, is by Horse Coursers called Bishoping.
+
+    1884. Ill. Lon. News, 23 August, 171, col. 2. To bishop ... a term
+    ... signifying the use of deceptive arts to make an old horse
+    appear like a young one.
+
+In French the process is called masquer en alezan; also maquiller un
+gayet.
+
+2. To murder by drowning. The term, now obsolete, is like burke and
+boycott from the name of an individual. A man named Bishop drowned a
+boy in Bethnal Green, in 1831, to sell the body for dissecting
+purposes.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Account of a New Play). I burked the papa, now
+    I’ll bishop the son. [d.]
+
+    1864. Athenæum, p. 559, col. 1. We have ‘to burke,’ and ‘to
+    bishop.’ [M.]
+
+
+Bismarquer, verb (familiar).—To cheat; to play foul at cards or
+billiards. A word formed from the name of Prince Bismarck, the German
+Chancellor, whose policy in 1865–6 roused the indignation of a large
+section of European thought.
+
+
+Bit, Bite, Byte, subs. (old).—1. An old cant term for money. For
+synonyms, see Actual.
+
+    1532. Use of Dice Play (Percy Soc.). Now waxen is he so proud of
+    his gain, because he hath gotten a new chain, fyer new apparel, and
+    some store of byte.
+
+    1592. Defence of Conny-Catching, in Greene’s wks. XI., 44. So some
+    that would not stoope a farthing at cardes, would venter all the
+    byte in their boung at dice.
+
+    1607. Dekker, Jests to make you Merie, in wks. (Grosart) II., 328.
+    If they follow you in the street, and once know where the bung and
+    the bit is, as much as to say your purse and the money.
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 122. To
+    learne before he play what store of Bit he hath in his Bay, that
+    is, what money he hath in his pursse.
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 149. Snack the bit. To share
+    the money.
+
+    1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. He is caught—he must
+    ‘stand and deliver’; then out with the dummy [pocket book], and off
+    with the bit.
+
+2. (colloquial)—The name given to coins varying in value according to
+locality—usually, however, to the silver piece of the lowest
+denomination. Fourpenny pieces are still called bits in English slang,
+but are more popularly known as Joeys (q.v., for synonyms); and in
+Demerara the term is in general use for the same coin; in America a 12½
+cent piece is called a bit, and a defaced 20 cent piece is termed a
+long bit. A bit is the smallest coin in Jamaica, equal to 6d.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bit (s.) ... In the West
+    Indies, it is the least piece of silver coin, which goes current at
+    7 pence half-penny.
+
+    1875. Scribner’s Magazine, July, p. 277. For a young city, San
+    Francisco is very much wedded to petty traditions. It clings to the
+    bit with a deathlike tenacity; clings to it against all reason and
+    against its own interests. The bit is a mythical quantity. It is
+    neither twelve and a half cents, nor half of twenty-five; it is
+    neither fifteen cents nor ten cents. If you buy a bit’s worth, and
+    throw down twenty-five cents, you get ten cents back; if you offer
+    the same ten cents in lieu of a bit, you are looked upon as a mild
+    sort of a swindler. And yet, the bit is the standard of minimum
+    monetary value.
+
+
+Bitch, subs. (low).—1. An opprobrious term for a woman, generally
+containing an implication of lewdness and ‘fastness.’ Not now in
+literary use, though formerly so. [From its primary sense of a female
+dog.] It is the most offensive apellation that can be given to an
+English woman, even more provoking than that of whore.
+
+    1400. Chester Pl. (1843), 181. Whom calleste thou queine skabde
+    biche? [M.]
+
+    1575. J. Still, Gammer Gurton, II., ii. Come out, thou hungry needy
+    bitch. [M.]
+
+    1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 9. An extravagant bitch of a
+    wife.
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVII., ch. iii. There was my lady
+    cousin Bellaston, and my lady Betty, and my lady Catharine, and my
+    lady I don’t know who; damn me if ever you catch me among such a
+    kennel of hoop-petticoated bitches.
+
+    1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1834), 446. You are a ... son of a bitch.
+
+2. (old.)—Applied, opprobriously, as in sense 1, to a man. It has long
+since passed out of decent usage.
+
+    c. 1500. E. E. Misc. (1855), 54. He is a schrewed byche, In fayth,
+    I trow, he be a wyche.
+
+    1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, xviii., 310. Ulysses looking sourly
+    answered, You bitch. [M.]
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVII., iii. It is an old
+    acquaintance of above twenty years standing. I can tell you
+    landlord is a vast comical bitch, you will like un hugely.
+
+Verb (low).—1. To go whoring; molrowing; to frequent the company of
+prostitutes.
+
+2. To yield, or give up an attempt through fear.—Grose.
+
+3. (common.)—To spoil; to bungle.
+
+To stand bitch.—To make tea, or do the honours of the tea table, or to
+perform a female part. Bitch is here used generically for a woman.
+
+
+Bitch Booby, subs. (old military).—A country girl.—Grose.
+
+
+Bitchery, subs. (low).—Harlotry; lewdness. [From bitch, sense 1, +
+ery.]
+
+    1532–3. More, Confut. Tindale, wks., 648, col. 1. Such marriage is
+    very vnlawfull leckery and plain abhominable bychery.
+
+    1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I., iv., 188. He will vnline himselfe
+    from bitchery.
+
+    1663–1704. Thomas Brown, Works, Serious and Comical, III., p. 94.
+    Thither run Sots purely to be drunk that they may ... forget ...
+    the roguery of their lawyers, the bitchery of their paramours, or
+    the ingratitude of the world.
+
+(?). Stanyhurst, Description of Ireland, p. 14. The quip sat as
+unseemly in his mouth as for a whore to reprehend bitchery, or for an
+usurer to condemn simony.
+
+
+Bitch Party, subs. (popular).—A party composed of women. Originally an
+Oxford term for a tea-party, tea being considered a beverage only fit
+for women. [From bitch, a woman, + party.] Also hen party (q.v.). Cf.,
+Stag party.
+
+    1889. C. Whibley, In Cap and Gown, Characters of Freshmen, p. 176.
+    ‘The studious freshman ... goeth to a small bitch-party and findeth
+    his gown taken “by mistake.”’
+
+
+Bite, subs. (old).—1. An old slang term for money.—See Bit.
+
+2. (old.)—The female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
+
+3. An imposition; a piece of humbug; a ‘sell’ or ‘do.’ Cf., Bilk, Bam,
+Bargain, and Sell, for synonyms. The sense runs through all stages,
+from jocular hoaxing to downright swindling. Also in the sense of
+disappointment, as in the old proverb ‘the biter bit.’ A man is bitten
+when he burns his fingers meddling in matters, which, though promising
+well, turn out failures.—See also Cross bite.
+
+    1711. Steele, Spectator, No. 156, ¶ 2. It was a common bite with
+    him, to lay Suspicions that he was favoured by a Lady’s Enemy.
+
+    1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., ix., 43. Sharpers would not frequent
+    gaming-tables, if the men of fortune knew the bite.
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. ix. ‘It’s all a bam, ma’am—all a
+    bamboozle and a bite, that affair of his illness.’
+
+    1860. Sat. Review, Ap. 14, 475, 2. That form of practical joking,
+    which in the time of ‘The Spectator,’ was known as a bite ... in
+    the popular slang of the day, is designated ‘a sell.’
+
+    1883. Daily News, Ap. 18, p. 5, col. 4. Lord Randolph Churchill, we
+    fear, has been making Mr. Gladstone the victim of what, in the
+    slang of Addison’s time, would have been called a bite, and what in
+    the slang of our own time is called a ‘sell.’
+
+4. (old.)—A sharper; cheat; trickster. Cf., Bilk. See Rook for
+synonyms.
+
+    1742. Fielding, Miss Lucy (1762), 176. Is this wench an idiot, or a
+    bite? Marry me, with a pox!
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xcviii. From which
+    circumstance it was conjectured that Peregrine was a bite from the
+    beginning, who had found credit on account of his effrontery and
+    appearance, and imposed himself upon the town as a young gentleman
+    of fortune.
+
+    1787. S. Jenyns, in Dodsley, III., 169. The fool would fain be
+    thought a bite.
+
+5. (popular.)—Applied in a transferred sense to anybody or anything
+suspected of being different to what it appears, but not necessarily in
+a bad sense.
+
+    1846. Brackenridge, Mod. Chiv., 21. The jockeys suspected that the
+    horse was what they call a bite, that under the appearance of
+    leanness and stiffness, was concealed some hidden quality of
+    swiftness.
+
+6. (common.)—One who drives a hard bargain; a ‘close fist.’
+
+7. (familiar.)—A nickname for a Yorkshireman.—See Daily News, Sept. 11,
+1883, and Yorkshire Post, Jan. 9, 1884.
+
+    1883. Daily News, Sept. 4, p. 5, col. 6. The great and puissant
+    race known indifferently as ‘tykes’ or bites.
+
+8. (printers’.)—An irregular white spot on the edge or corner of a
+printed page, caused by the frisket not being sufficiently cut out.
+
+    1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. in Savage Dict. Print, s.v. Bite. If the
+    frisket is not sufficiently cut away, but covers some part of the
+    form, so that it prints on the frisket, it is called a bite. [M.]
+
+    1884. Blades, Caxton, 130. In ‘Speculum Vitæ Christi’ we actually
+    find a bite, half of the bottom line remaining unprinted. [M.]
+
+Verb (old).—1. To deceive; cheat; swindle; to ‘do’ or ‘take in.’ In
+modern colloquial English to slick or to sell (q.v.). Formerly used
+both transitively and passively; now only in latter.
+
+    1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 109. Then a
+    rook ... follows him close, and engages him in advantageous bets,
+    and at length worries him, that is gets all his money, and then
+    they smile and say, ‘The lamb is bitten.’
+
+    1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 12. Nay, he has bit you fairly enough,
+    that’s certain.
+
+    1724. A Journey through England. Many a poor German hath been bit
+    by an ordinary or his taylor, after this manner; they have suffered
+    the poor wretch to run in debt, made him an extravagant bill, and
+    then arrested him, and so forced him to pay their demands.
+
+    1731. Fielding, The Lottery, Sc. 3. However, Madam, you are bit as
+    well as I am; for I am no more a lord, than you are a fortune.
+
+    1822. [Nares] Love in a Barn, an old ballad.
+
+        He shall not have my maiden-head,
+          I solemnly do swear;
+        But I’ll bite him of a portion,
+          Then marry with Ralph, my dear.
+
+    1838. Thackeray, Yellowplush Memoirs, ch. x. ‘You were completely
+    bitten, my boy—humbugged, bamboozled—ay, and by your old father,
+    you dog.’
+
+    1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xvii., p. 232. I have no
+    particular pleasure in recalling my Newmarket doings. I was
+    infernally bit and bubbled in almost every one of my transactions
+    there.
+
+Hence 2. (popular.)—To strike a hard bargain.
+
+3. (old.)—To steal; e.g., ‘to bite the roger,’ to steal a portmanteau;
+‘to bite the wiper,’ i.e., to purloin a handkerchief.
+
+Intj. (old.)—1. Formerly an equivalent to the modern ‘Sold!’ ‘Done!’
+etc.
+
+    1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, Act iii.
+
+    Ld. Mo. ’Tis possible I may not have the same regard to her frown
+    that your Lordship has.
+
+    Ld. Fop. That’s bite, I’m sure; he’d give a joint of his little
+    finger to be as well with her as I am.
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. i.).
+
+    Miss. I’m sure the gallows groans for you.
+
+    Nev. Bite, Miss; I was but in jest.
+
+    1714. Addison, Spectator, No. 514. It is a superstition with some
+    surgeons who beg the bodies of condemned malefactors, to go to the
+    gaol and bargain for the carcass with the criminal himself.... The
+    fellow who killed the officer of Newgate, very forwardly, and like
+    a man who was willing to deal, told him, ‘Look you, Mr. Surgeon,
+    that little dry fellow, who has been half starved all his life, is
+    now half dead with fear, cannot answer your purpose.... Come, for
+    twenty shillings I am your man.’ Says the Surgeon, ‘Done, there’s a
+    guinea.’ This witty rogue took the money, and as soon as he had it
+    in his fist, cries, ‘bite, I am to be hanged in chains.’
+
+2. (Charterhouse.)—A warning = Cave!
+
+To do a thing when the maggot bites, phr. (common), is to do it when
+the fancy takes one; ‘at one’s own sweet will.’ When a person acts from
+no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have ‘a
+maggot in his head,’ to have ‘a bee in his bonnet’; or, in French,
+avoir des rats dans la tête; in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in
+his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of
+the internal irritation. Cf., Apartments to let.
+
+
+Bite One’s Hips, verbal phr. (tailors’).—To regret a word or action.
+
+
+Bite One’s Name In, verbal phr. (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple;
+also to drink greedily.
+
+
+Bite on the Bridle, verbal phr. (old).—To be pinched in circumstances;
+to be reduced; in difficulties.
+
+
+Biter, subs. (old).—1. A practical joker; a hoaxer; one who deceives; a
+cheat and trickster. Cf., Bite. The term now only survives in the
+proverbial expression, ‘the biter bit.’ For synonyms, see Rook.
+
+    1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 108. [Biter is
+    given in a list of names of cheats and thieves’.]
+
+    1680. Cotton, Complete Gamester, in Singer’s Hist. Playing Cards
+    (1816), p. 333. Hectors, setters, gilts, pads, biters, etc., and
+    these may all pass under the general appellation of rooks.
+
+    1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 12. A biter, who is a dull fellow, that
+    tells you a lye with a grave face, and laughs at you for knowing
+    him no better than to believe him.
+
+    1711. Spectator, No. 47. These gentlemen are commonly distinguished
+    by the name of biters: a race of men that are perpetually employed
+    in laughing at those mistakes which are of their own production.
+
+    1712. Spectator, No. 504. A biter is one who tells you a thing you
+    have no reason to disbelieve in itself, and perhaps has given you,
+    before he bit you, no reason to disbelieve it for his saying it;
+    and if you give him credit, laughs in your face, and triumphs that
+    he has deceived you.
+
+    1812. Coombe, Syntax, Picturesque, c. xix.
+
+        Pray have you travell’d so far north,
+        To think we have so little wit,
+        As by such biters to be bit?
+
+2. (old.)—An amorous woman (sexually). Cf., Athanasian wench.
+
+
+Bite the Ear, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To borrow. Formerly, a term of
+endearment; to caress fondly. For synonyms, see Shins.
+
+    1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 502. He used to want to
+    bite my ear (borrow) too often.
+
+
+Bite the Thumb, verbal phr. (old).—To make a gesture of contempt, which
+was formerly regarded in the light of an insult. Nares says the thumb
+in the action represented a fig, and the whole was equivalent to ‘a fig
+for you.’ There are several gestures of this kind. That best known is
+probably taking a sight (q.v.). A similar gesture of contempt is used
+by the lower orders in France which, there is little doubt, is the
+‘biting the thumb’ spoken of in Romeo and Juliet. The person using the
+gesture placed the nail of his thumb under the front teeth of the upper
+jaw, and then jerked the thumb forward, using at the same time an
+expression equivalent to ‘I don’t care that for you.’ Another
+contemptuous action is placing the thumb between the closed fore and
+middle fingers; while according to Darwin’s Expression of the Emotions,
+it appears that with the Dakota Indians of North America ‘contempt is
+shown ... conventionally by the hand being closed and held near the
+breast; then, as the fore arm is suddenly extended, the hand is opened
+and the fingers separated from each other. If the person at whose
+expense the sign is made is present, the hand is moved towards him and
+the head sometimes averted from him.’ This sudden extension and opening
+of the hand perhaps indicates the dropping or throwing away a valueless
+object.
+
+    1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, i., 1. I will bite my thumb at
+    them; which is a disgrace to them if they bear it.
+
+    1596. Lodge, Wit’s Miserie. Behold next I see Contempt marching
+    forth, giving me the fies, with his thombe in his mouth.
+
+    1638. Randolph, Muses’ L. Glass, O. Pl., ix., 220. Dogs and
+    pistols! To bite his thumb at me! Wear I a sword To see men bite
+    their thumbs?
+
+    1678. Rules of Civility, transl. from French, p. 44. ’Tis no less
+    disrespectful to bite the nail of your thumb, by way of scorn and
+    disdain, and drawing your nail from between your teeth, to tell
+    them you value not this what they can do.
+
+
+Bite Up, subs. (tailors’).—An unpleasant altercation.
+
+
+Bit-Faker or Turner Out, subs. (thieves’).—Coiner of bad money. [From
+bit, an old canting term for money, + faker, one who makes, or does.]
+Also bit-maker.—See Turner out and Faker.
+
+
+Bit Faking, subs. (thieves’).—Manufacturing base coin; counterfeiting.
+[From bit + fake + ing.—See preceding.] Cf., Turner out.
+
+
+Biting Up, subs. (tailors’).—Grieving over a loss or bereavement.
+
+
+Bit-Maker, subs. (old).—A counterfeiter.—See Bit-faker.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 447. Coiners—bit-makers.
+
+
+Bit-o’-Bull, subs. (old).—Beef. The French say un gobet; formerly, a
+dainty morsel.
+
+
+Bit of Blood, subs. (common).—A high-spirited horse; a thoroughbred.
+The derivation is obvious. For synonyms, see Prad.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 10.
+
+        ’Mong the vehicles, too, which were many and various,
+        From natty barouche down to buggy precarious,
+        We twigg’d more than one queerish sort of turn-out,
+        C—n n—g came in a job, and then canter’d about
+        On a showy, but hot and unsound, bit of blood,
+        (For a leader once meant, but cast off, as no good).
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, II., p. 156. Not that we slacken
+    in our pace the while, not we: we rather put the bits of blood upon
+    their mettle.
+
+
+Bit of Cavalry, subs. (old).—A horse.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 6. Tom. You are
+    now at Tattersal’s, Jerry, a very worthy fellow, who made his
+    fortune by a horse called Highflyer. Jerry. Hum! and if one may
+    judge from the splendour and extent of his premises, he seems to be
+    no small highflyer himself. Tom. You are right, Jerry—I shall here
+    buy a bit of cavalry—that is a prad, on your judgment.
+
+
+Bit of Ebony, subs. (common).—A negro or negress. For synonyms, see
+Snowball.
+
+
+Bit of Fat, subs. (common).—1. An unexpected pecuniary advantage in a
+transaction.
+
+2. (printers’.)—See Fat.
+
+
+Bit of Jam.—See Jam.
+
+
+Bit of Leaf, subs. (thieves’).—Tobacco.
+
+
+Bit of Muslin, subs. (common).—A young girl; generally applied only to
+prostitutes. Also bit of stuff. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
+
+
+Bit of Mutton, subs. (familiar).—A woman; generally, a prostitute is
+meant. Cf., Laced mutton, and for synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
+
+
+Bit of Sticks, subs. phr. (sporting).—A corpse. For synonyms, see Dead
+meat.
+
+
+Bit of Stiff, subs. (common).—A bank-note, or other paper money; the
+equivalent of money when not in specie, i.e., a draft or bill of
+exchange.
+
+    1854. Lever, Dodd Family Abroad, I., 313. I’m sorry that bit of
+    stiff, meaning the bill, wasn’t for five thousand francs.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 234. He
+    liked to have the party’s name written across a piece of paper with
+    a stamp attached, commonly called a bit of stiff.
+
+To do a bit of stiff, phr. (common).—To accept a bill.
+
+
+Bit of Stuff, subs. (familiar).—An overdressed man; a man with full
+confidence in his appearance and abilities; a young woman; also called
+a bit of muslin.
+
+    1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xxiii. ‘One night he says to me,
+    “Will, come up and I’ll show you a devilish fine piece of stuff.”
+    So I walks with him, and he takes me to a shop where they dealed in
+    marine stores, and we goes and finds your mother in the back
+    parlour.’
+
+
+Bit On.—See On.
+
+
+Bitter, subs. (popular).—A glass of beer.
+
+To do a bitter.—To drink a glass of bitter. Originally, says Hotten, an
+Oxford term varied by to do a beer.
+
+    1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, 1st., III.,
+    ch. x. Mr. Verdant Green and Mr. Bouncer ... turned into the
+    coffee-room of ‘The Mitre’ to do bitters, as Mr. Bouncer phrased
+    the act of drinking bitter beer.
+
+    c. 1882. Comic Song, ‘The West End Boys,’ verse 3.
+
+        Let fortune frown and friends betray,
+        There’s a class of men that’s ever gay,
+        Where some make troubles, they make joys,
+        And are known by the title of the West End Boys.
+        They commence their evening with cigars,
+        And ‘How-d’ye-do, dear,’ at the bars,
+        ‘Another bitter, I really can’t go,
+        There’s something about you that charms me so.’
+                   Oh, don’t they like, etc.
+
+
+Bittock, subs. (originally provincial; now common).—A distance of very
+undecided length. If a North countryman be asked the distance to a
+place, he will most probably reply, ‘a mile and a bittock.’ The latter
+may be considered any distance from one hundred yards to ten miles.
+Also of time. [From bit + ock, a diminutive suffix.]
+
+    1802. J. Wilson (‘Congleton’), M.S. Let. to F. Boucher. Bittock, a
+    small Piece or small Bit; Cheshire. [M.]
+
+    1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. x. ‘To Chamwood, madam? It’s unco
+    late, and its sax miles an’ a bittock down the water.’
+
+    1884. Daily News, April 15, p. 4, col. 7. Edinburgh University is
+    three hundred years old, or rather, three hundred years and a
+    bittock.
+
+
+Bit You.—A hair of the dog that bit you.—See Hair.
+
+
+Bivvy or Gatter, subs. (provincial).—Beer; ‘shant of bivvy,’ a pot or
+quart of beer; probably from the Italian, bevere, bere. Latin, bibere.
+English, beverage.
+
+
+Biz, subs. (originally American, now general).—A vulgar corruption for
+business, employment, or occupation. ‘Good biz’ is profitable business.
+
+    1882. Democracy, ch. vii. A number of gentlemen were waiting for
+    interviews with the President, and among them was the whole
+    Pennsylvania delegation, ready for biz, as Mr. Tom Lord remarked,
+    with a wink.
+
+    1884. Saturday Review, Jan. 5, p. 13, col. 2. It is satisfactory to
+    learn from the conductor of the circus that biz is very fair.
+
+    1889. Ally Sloper, Aug. 17, p. 262, col. 1. We understand, though
+    we cannot vouch for the truth of the statement, that a New York
+    lady, moving in the best society, while twisting some worsted, hit
+    upon the idea of applying a little system of her own to a larger
+    field than mere yarn, so she invented a machine for twisting wire
+    rope, and has sold the patent for £10,000 and a royalty upon future
+    sales. Very good biz, this, eh!
+
+
+B. K. S., subs. (military).—An abbreviation of ‘barracks’; its usage is
+explained by quotation.
+
+    1887. Standard, 10 Feb., p. 5, col. 2. B. k. s., used by officers
+    ‘in mufti,’ who do not wish to give their address.
+
+
+Blab, subs. (vulgar).—A revealer of that which should be kept secret; a
+betrayer; a babbler. A depraved word; once in common use, but rarely
+employed now, except colloquially. Grose [1785] includes it in his
+Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue as forming part of the slang of his
+time. These remarks apply with more or less cogency to blab when used,
+to signify loose talk or chatter, when employed as a verb, and to the
+various derivative compounds and allied forms, such as ‘blabber,’
+‘blabbing,’ ‘blabbing-book,’ etc.—a taint of vulgarism now rests upon
+them all.
+
+
+Black Act, subs. (American).—A corrupted form of black art (q.v.).
+
+
+Blackamoor’s Teeth, subs. (old).—Cowrie shells—the currency of some
+savage tribes.
+
+    1700. W. King, Transactioneer, p. 36. He has shells called
+    Blackmoore’s Teeth, I suppose ... from their Whiteness. [M.]
+
+    1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, p. 334. Known by the Name of Cowries
+    amongst Merchants, or of Blackamores’ Teeth among other Persons.
+    [M.]
+
+
+Black-and-Tan, subs. (vagrants’).—Porter or stout and ale, mixed in
+equal quantities. [From black, in allusion to the dark colour of porter
+and stout, + and + tan, i.e., of the yellowish brown colour of ale.]
+
+
+Black-and-Tan Country, subs. phr. (American).—The Southern States of
+North America. [From black, a sobriquet for a negro, + and + tan, a pun
+and an allusion to the slang verb ‘to tan,’ to thrash or beat +
+country; i.e., the country where the negroes were tanned or beaten.]
+
+
+Black and White, subs. phr. (colloquial).—The black characters of print
+or writing on white paper. Therefore, to put a thing down in black and
+white is to preserve it in writing or in print. Black on white is a
+variant.
+
+    1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, IV., ii. I have it here in
+    black and white. [Pulls out the warrant.]
+
+    1667. Shirley, Love Tricks, Act ii., Sc. 2. Gov. [with a letter]
+    ... Alas, poor gentleman! Little does he think what black and white
+    is here.
+
+    1712. Spectator, No. 286. My desire is, Sir, that you will be
+    pleased to give us, in black and white, your opinion in the matter
+    of dispute between us.
+
+    1714. Spectator, No. 616. They had like to have dumfounded the
+    justice; but his clerk came in to his assistance, and took them all
+    down in black and white.
+
+    1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, pt. III., bk. II., ch. viii. His
+    accounts lie all ready, correct in black and white to the uttermost
+    farthing.
+
+    1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xii., p. 202. ‘A man
+    can’t so much as put on a pair of clean stockings in the morning,
+    but its laid before high quarters in black and white at mid-day by
+    the secret police!’
+
+
+Black-Arse, subs. (old).—A kettle; a pot. [From black, from its colour,
++ arse, the posterior, hinder, or ‘bottom’ part.]
+
+
+Black Art, subs. (old).—1. Picking of locks; burglary. For synonyms,
+see Crack.
+
+    1591. Greene, Conny-Catch., wks., 1883, II., x., 72. I can set down
+    the subtiltie of the blacke art, which is picking of lockes.
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman of Lond., wks., 1884–5, III., 137. This blacke
+    art ... is called in English, Picking of Lockes.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Black art, the art of
+    picking a lock.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. [The definition given is the same as
+    that of Grose, as above-mentioned.]
+
+2. (undertakers’.)—The business of an undertaker. Cf., Black work.
+
+    1861. Sala, Seven Sons of Mammon, i., p. 78. Rich men’s funerals in
+    the first style of black art.
+
+
+Black-ball, verb (common).—See Pill.
+
+
+Blackballing, subs. (nautical).—Stealing or pilfering. A sailor’s word.
+It originated amongst the employees of the old Black Ball line of
+steamers between New York and Liverpool. The cruelty and scandalous
+conduct of officers to men—and sailors to each other—were so
+proverbial, that the line of vessels in question became known all over
+the world for the cruelty of its officers, and the thieving
+propensities of its sailors.
+
+
+Blackbeetles, subs. (old).—The lower strata of society. [Apparently a
+term of contempt derived from the cockroach, generally called a
+blackbeetle.] Obsolete.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6. Jerry: Tom,
+    here’s a group of blackbeetles—do you see those lovely mendicants?
+    Tom: Beauty in rags—I do—Cupid imploring charity. I’ll relieve him,
+    for I’ll be after that match-girl directly. Jerry: And I’ll chant a
+    few words to that beautiful ballad-singer. Log: And I’ll take pity
+    on that charming beggar.
+
+
+Blackberry Swagger, subs. (common).—A person who hawks tapes,
+boot-laces, etc.
+
+
+Blackbird, subs. (popular).—Formerly an African captive on board a
+slaver; now generally understood as referring to a Polynesian
+indentured labourer, who, if not by name a slave, is often one to all
+intents and purposes. [Obviously derived from the black or dark-brown
+colour of these people.]
+
+    1881. Chequered Career, p. 180. The white men on board knew that if
+    once the blackbirds burst the hatches ... they would soon master
+    the ship. [M.]
+
+Verb.—To capture negroes or Polynesians; to kidnap (see subs.). Hence
+the verbal substantive and ppl. adj. blackbirding, in the same sense.
+
+    1883. Graphic, April 21, p. 398, col. 1. The day is not far distant
+    when, to avoid blackbirding, and the revengeful massacres which
+    these kidnappers provoke, the whole of Oceania will have to be
+    placed under civilised control.
+
+    1883. Academy, 8 Sep., p. 158. [He] slays Bishop Patteson by way of
+    reprisal for the atrocities of some blackbirding crew. [M.]
+
+    1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 19 Aug. p. 2, col. 2. Years ago
+    blackbirding scoundrels may have hailed from Fiji. [M.]
+
+
+Blackbird-Catching.—See Blackbird.
+
+
+Black-Birders, subs. (popular).—See quotation.
+
+    1883. All the Year Round, 22 Sep., p. 355. Blackbirders, the
+    kidnappers for labour purposes on the islands of the Pacific.
+
+
+Black Box, subs. (old).—A lawyer. So given in Grose [1785]; Lexicon
+Balatronicum [1811]; and in Duncombe’s Sinks of London [1848]. [From
+the black tin boxes in which clients’ papers are kept.]
+
+
+Black-Boy, subs. (old).—See Black-coat.
+
+
+Black Bracelets, subs. (old).—Handcuffs. For synonyms, see Darbies.
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 63.
+
+        When the turnkey, next morning, stepped into his room,
+        The sight of the hole in the wall struck him dumb;
+        The sheriff’s black bracelets lay strewn on the ground,
+        But the lad that had worn ’em could nowhere be found.
+                                Tol-de-rol!
+
+
+Black-Cattle, subs. (popular).—1. Clergymen; parsons. [From the
+prevailing hue of the garments worn by the profession.] Sometimes used
+in the same way as red-coats for soldiers, e.g., black-coats (q.v.);
+also devil dodgers, the latter of which, see for synonyms.
+
+2. (old.)—Lice. These are also called active citizens and chates
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Black-Cattle Show, subs. (popular).—A gathering of clergymen. [From
+black-cattle (q.v.) + show, in its slang sense of a party or meeting.]
+
+
+Black-Coat, subs. (familiar.)—A parson. Cf., Black-cattle and
+Devil-dodger.
+
+    1627. R. Perrot, Jacob’s Vow, 52. Let us take heed how these
+    black-coates get the day of us. [M.]
+
+    1671. Eachard, Observations, p. 176. Suppose we should bestow upon
+    a poor low thinking black-coat, one of our best forms, such as
+    follows; it is five to one he would commit some ecclesiastical
+    blunder or other, in setting his name too near.
+
+    1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, i. You are the black-coat’s son
+    of Knocktarlitie.
+
+    1870. Emerson, Soc. and Solit., ix., p. 197. The black-coats are
+    good company only for black-coats. [M.]
+
+
+Black-Cuffs, subs. (military).—The Fifty-eight Foot, from the
+regimental facings which have been black since 1767. They have also
+been nicknamed the Steel Backs (q.v.).
+
+
+Black Diamonds, subs. (popular).—1. Coals. [A simile in allusion to the
+colour, and also to the fact that both coal and diamonds are carbon.]
+
+    1849. T. Miller, in Gabarni in London, p. 43. Were he even trusted
+    with the favourite horse and gig to fetch a sack of black diamonds
+    from the wharf.
+
+2. Also formerly a rough but clever or good person; this sobriquet,
+however, has given place to rough diamond (q.v.).
+
+
+Black Dog, subs. (old).—1. Applied, circa 1702–30, to a counterfeit
+shilling and other base silver coinage. In this connection it may be
+pointed out that black had long previously been applied to base money.
+Ruding, in his Annals of the Coinage [London, 1817, vol. I., p. 405],
+having mentioned black money, appends this note—‘Qy. Turonenses Nigri?
+Copper money struck at Tours.’ [See Turney’s infra. Qy. corrupted from
+Tierney, name of maker.] It is introduced in his account of the Statute
+of Money, passed at York, 1335, 9 cap., Edward III., which recites that
+all manner of black money which had been commonly current in the king’s
+realm and obeisance should be utterly excluded, so as not to be current
+in one month after proclamation, on pain of forfeiture of the same.
+Later on, in 1339, a certain black money called ‘turneys’ was made by
+certain persons in Ireland, who circulated it to the injury of the
+king’s sterling money, and to his no little loss and prejudice.
+Proclamation had, therefore, been ordered to be made to prohibit the
+circulation of it, on pain of forfeiture of money and goods. But the
+king having been informed that great inconvenience had arisen from this
+prohibition on account of the scarcity of sterling money, it was,
+therefore, commanded that, provided it should be found on due inquiry
+more advantageous to the public to allow the currency of the said black
+money, proclamation should be made to authorise it until a sufficient
+quantity of other money was provided.
+
+    1706. Luttrell, in Ashton’s Reign Queen Anne, II., p. 225. The Art
+    of making black dogs, which are shillings, or other pieces of money
+    made only of Pewter, double wash’d. [M.]
+
+    1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., wks., 1755, V., ii., 44. Butcher’s
+    half-pence, black-dogs, and others the like. [M.]
+
+2. (common.)—Delirium tremens; the horrors; ‘jim jams.’ Black dog is a
+frequent figurative expression dialectically for depression of spirits,
+and melancholy. Among the ancients a black dog and its pups were
+considered an evil omen. For synonyms, see Gallon distemper.
+
+    1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxxiii. ‘Yes, sir,’ said the
+    butler, nodding, ‘D.T., sir. After one of his rages the black dog
+    comes, and it’s hawful work; so I hope you’ll go, sir.’
+
+To blush like a black dog, phr. (old).—Not to blush at all; to be
+shameless.—See also Blush.
+
+    1634. Withal, Dictionary, p. 557 [ed. 1634]. Faciem perfricuit. He
+    blusheth like a black dogge, hee hath a brazen face.
+
+
+Black Doll.—See Dolly shop.
+
+    1835. Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 174. [Speaking of a
+    marine-store shop]: imagine, in addition to this incongruous mass,
+    a black doll in a white frock, with two faces—one looking up the
+    street, the other looking down, swinging over the door.
+
+    1838. Douglas Jerrold, Men of Character, II., p. 100. Five hundred
+    articles, among which might be found knockers, scrapers, barbers’
+    poles, black dolls.
+
+    1861. Cornhill Magazine, Nov., p. 609. The best price given for old
+    rags—inquire at the sign of the black doll.
+
+
+Black-Eye. To give a bottle a black eye, phr. (old).—To empty it. Cf.,
+Dead man.
+
+
+Black-Eyed Susan, subs. (American).—Texan for a revolver. Among other
+slang equivalents for this weapon current in the Lone Star State may be
+mentioned meat in the pot, blue lightning, the peace-maker, mr.
+speaker, a one-eyed scribe, pill box and my unconverted friend. For
+synonyms, see Meat in the pot.
+
+
+Black-Fly, subs. (old).—A contemptuous name for a clergyman. For
+synonyms, see Devil-dodger.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. The greatest drawback on the farmer is
+    the black fly, i.e., the parson who takes tithe of the harvest.
+
+
+Blackfriars! intj. (thieves’).—An exclamation of warning; look out!
+beware!—See Thieves.
+
+
+Blackguard, subs. (common).—A man coarse in speech, and offensive in
+manner; a scamp; a scoundrel; a disreputable fellow. The term, as now
+used, is one of the utmost opprobrium, and although a good deal of
+uncertainty hangs about its history and derivation, it seems pretty
+clear that a certain amount of odium has always been attached to the
+word. Between two of its primary significations, however,—(1) a kitchen
+knave or scullion, and (2) a guard of attendants, black in person,
+dress, or character, generally in reference to the devil’s
+body-guard—and the modern usage, there is a somewhat marked line to be
+drawn. The earliest mention is as follows:—
+
+    1532. MS. Churchwarden’s Accompts. St. Margaret’s, Westminster
+    (Receipts for burials). Item Receyvid for the lycens of iiij.
+    torchis of the blake garde vjd.
+
+What this guard was is not definitely known. Some have suggested that
+it was a body of soldiers; others that it was a band of torch bearers
+at funerals; while some incline to the belief that it was comprised of
+street link-boys.
+
+Better supported by evidence are the senses first mentioned, in which
+blackguard signifies (1) a scullion, and (2) a member of the devil’s
+body-guard. But here too, Murray points out that it would be difficult
+to assign priority. First, however, let the quotations be given in
+sets:—
+
+Sense 1 = a scullion.
+
+    1535. Sir W. Fitzwilliams, 17 Aug., in Cal. State Papers. Two of
+    the ring-leaders had been some time of the black guard of the
+    king’s kitchen. [M.]
+
+    1579. Fulke, Refut. Kastel, 779. They ought not, nor yet any of the
+    scullerie or blacke garde. [M.]
+
+Sense 2 = Devil’s body-guard; also other attendants.
+
+    1583. Fulke, Defence, x., 386. Pelagius, Celestins, and other like
+    heretics of the devil’s body-guard, [M.]
+
+    1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, wks. [1884–5] III., 214.
+    The Great Lord of Limbo did therefore commaund all his Blacke guard
+    that stood about him, to bestirre them. [M.]
+
+Comparing these one with the other, we are clearly face to face in one
+set of quotations with a popular superstition—a belief of an age when
+witchcraft was prevalent, and when hobgoblins and the like were
+assigned as black guards to his Satanic Majesty. Whether there was any
+connection in the popular mind between the King’s scullions and the
+Devil’s body-guard, cannot now be definitely stated. Still, it is
+probable; and this view is borne out by later references. It is curious
+to note the concluding lines of Hudibras’ Address to Ralpho, which may
+perhaps explain the process by which the term of black guard may have
+come to be applied to the lowest class of domestics in the royal
+kitchens or other great establishments. Still, as stated, priority
+cannot be given to either; moreover, the use of black guard in either
+sense may have been a mere play on words, whether of 1 on 2, or 2 on 1
+is equally uncertain. The quotation from Hudibras is as follows:
+
+    1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. III., canto 1, line 1403.
+
+        I do believe thee, quoth the knight;
+        Thus far I’m sure thou’rt in the right,
+        And know what ’tis that troubles thee,
+        Better than thou hast guess’d of me.
+        Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite,
+        Condemn’d to drudg’ry in the night;
+        Thou hast no work to do in th’ house,
+        Nor half-penny to drop in shoes;
+        Without the raising of which sum
+        You dare not be so troublesome;
+        To pinch the slatterns black and blue,
+        For leaving you their work to do.
+        This is your business, good Pug Robin,
+        And your diversion, dull dry bobbing.
+
+So also the following:—
+
+    1655. Fuller, Church History [1845], vol. V., p. 160. For who can
+    otherwise conceive but such a prince-principal of darkness must be
+    proportionately attended with a black guard of monstrous opinions.
+
+The Black Guard of Satan, argues a writer in Notes and Queries [Sir J.
+Emmerson Tennent, N. and Q., 1 S., vii., 78], was supposed, in the
+popular view, to perform the drudgery of the kitchen and servants’ hall
+in the infernal household.
+
+    1588–1628. Hobbes, Microcosmus, vol. II., p. 134. Since my lady’s
+    decay I am degraded from a cook, and I fear the devil himself will
+    entertain me but for one of his blackguards, and he shall be sure
+    to have his roast burnt.
+
+Hence came the popular superstition that these goblin scullions, on
+their visits to the upper world confined themselves to the servants’
+apartments of the houses which they favoured with their presence, and
+which at night they swept and garnished; pinching those of the maids in
+their sleep who, by their laziness, had imposed such toil on their
+elfin assistants; but slipping money into the shoes of the more tidy
+and industrious servants whose attention to their own duties before
+going to rest had spared the goblins the task of performing their share
+of the drudgery. In allusion to this is Gifford’s note on Ben Jonson’s
+plays [vol. II., p. 170],—
+
+    In all great houses, but particularly in the Royal Residences,
+    there were a number of mean dirty dependents, whose office it was
+    to attend the wool-yard, sculleries, etc. Of these, the most
+    forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the
+    kitchens, halls, etc. To this smutty regiment, who attended the
+    progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, which,
+    with every other article of furniture, were then removed from
+    palace to palace, the people, in derision, gave the name of black
+    guards; a term since become sufficiently familiar, and never
+    properly explained.
+
+Many other references also go to prove the connection in the popular
+mind, so far as usage is concerned, between the two significations. In
+all this, however, the peculiarly contemptuous odium attached to the
+word in modern times is absent, and between the old and the modern
+significations a sharp line may, as already stated, be drawn.
+
+The earliest reference to blackguard as applied to a vagabond or loafer
+occurs in 1683. Since that time the word seems gradually to have become
+more and more depraved, until its present meaning of a low, worthless
+fellow, one open to, and ready for any villainy has been reached. The
+following quotations will well repay comparative study.
+
+    1683. MS., in Lord Steward’s Office, Windsor Castle [N. and Q., 1
+    S., ix., p. 15]. 7 May, Whereas of late a sort of vicious, idle,
+    and masterless boys and rogues, commonly called the blackguard,
+    with divers other lewd and loose fellowes, vagabonds, vagrants, and
+    wandering men and women, do usually haunt and follow the Court.
+
+    1695. Congreve, Love for Love, Act iii., Sc. 10. Or if that won’t
+    do, I’ll bring a Lawyer that shall out-lye the Devil: and so I’ll
+    try whether my black-guard or his shall get the better of the day.
+
+    1744. Nov. 26, Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1833), II., 57. The whole
+    stage filled with blackguards, armed with bludgeons and clubs.
+
+    1780. Parody on the Rosciad, etc., p. 13. Like him I’m a blackguard
+    and sot.
+
+    1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 59. As black-guards
+    at Newmarket meeting bawl about the lists of horses.
+
+    1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. iii., p. 37. ‘I must
+    request you to be a little more careful in your language. You have
+    come amidst gentlemen here, not blackguards.’
+
+Adj.—Of or pertaining to a blackguard; to the scum or refuse of
+society; vile; vicious.
+
+    1760. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. ix. He is become a
+    blackguard gaol-bird.
+
+    1803. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), I., 178. His friends
+    were ill-natured, and behaved like blackguard beasts.
+
+Verb.—To act like a ruffian; to use filthy, scurrilous language; to
+play the vagabond or scoundrel.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxix. ‘I have been called names, and
+    blackguarded quite sufficiently for one sitting.’
+
+So also with other derivatives and compounds—blackguardism,
+blackguardize, blackguardly, blackguardy.
+
+    1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 124. The talent of common
+    blackguardism.
+
+    1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. v. I was awakened by being
+    shoved through the folding-doors of a gin-shop, into a glare of
+    light and hubbub of blackguardism.
+
+    1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xxvi. ‘I beg your pardon, sir,
+    for saying that; I said it in a hurry. It was blackguardly.’
+
+    1883. William Morris, reported in Illust. London News, March 10, p.
+    243, col. 3. Almost all ordinary wares now made by man were
+    shabbily and pretentiously ugly.... Not even the pine-trees and
+    gardens could make the rich men’s houses at Bournemouth tolerable.
+    They were simply blackguardly; and even as he spoke they were being
+    built by the mile.
+
+
+Black Hole, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—Cheltenham, from the number of
+retired Anglo-Indians who live there. Cf., Asia Minor.
+
+    1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 234, col. 1. Gained for
+    Cheltenham the ... title of The Black Hole.
+
+
+Black Horse, subs. (military).—A nickname of the Seventh Dragoon
+Guards, so called from the regimental facings, black on scarlet.
+Occasionally the epithet is shortened into The Blacks. During the reign
+of George II., the corps was known as The Virgin Mary’s Guard, and is
+now often called Strawboots (q.v.).
+
+
+Black House, subs. (trade).—A place of business where hours are long,
+and wages at starvation rates; a sweating house.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 234. I have
+    mentioned that the black houses or linen-drapers at the west end of
+    London, were principally supplied from the east end.
+
+
+Black Indies, subs. (old).—Newcastle-on-Tyne, from its wealth in coal.
+The term is now obsolete, but it was in common use at the latter part
+of the eighteenth century.
+
+
+Black Jack, subs. (Winchester College).—A large leathern jug for beer,
+holding two gallons. The term was not peculiar to Winchester; in olden
+times Jacks were common everywhere.
+
+    (?) Simon the Cellarer. But oh, oh, oh! his nose doth show, How oft
+    the Black Jack to his lips doth go.
+
+
+Black job, subs. (common).—A funeral. Mr. H. J. Byron, in his annotated
+copy of the Slang Dictionary states ‘it was the late Lord Portsmouth’s
+hobby to attend all the black jobs he could hear of.’ [From black, in
+reference to the sombre trappings of funerals + job].—See Black work.
+
+    1866. Yates, Land at Last, I., p. 101. ‘What, a funeral mute?’
+    ‘Yes, Sir, black-job business,’ etc.
+
+
+Black Joke, subs. (old).—The female pudenda.—See Monosyllable for
+synonyms. Said to have been the burden of an obscene song, circa 1811.
+
+
+Blackleg, subs. (common).—1. A turf swindler; a rook; a welsher; also
+one who cheats at cards or billiards. Origin unknown; although many
+speculations have been hazarded, none are satisfactory.—See Leg.
+
+    1771. B. Parsons, Newmarket, II., 163. The frequenters of the Turf,
+    and numberless words of theirs are exotics everywhere else; then
+    how should we have been told of blacklegs, and of town-tops ...
+    taken in ... beat hollow, etc. [M.]
+
+    1774. Colman, Man of Business, I., in wks. (1777) II., 133.
+    Countesses and semptresses, lords, aldermen, blacklegs, and
+    Oxonians.
+
+    1812. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Picturesque, ch. x. The crowd with their
+    commission pleas’d, Rudely the trembling black-leg seiz’d, Who, to
+    their justice forc’d to yield, Soon ran off dripping from the
+    field.
+
+    1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xv. ‘Mr. T—— is
+    pursuing quite disgraceful courses all night and day, squandering
+    away his money among sharpers and blacklegs.’
+
+2. A workman who, when his fellows are on strike, is willing to go on
+working. An opprobrious term. Cf., Black-nob and Scab.
+
+    1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 29 Oct., p. 7. If the timber merchants
+    persist in putting on blacklegs, a serious disturbance will ensue.
+    [M.]
+
+3. Also by another transference of meaning applied to any one failing,
+or refusing to join his fellows in combination for a given purpose.
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 21, p. 5, col. 1. It was stated at
+    the meeting that the master bakers were much behind the journeymen
+    in the matter of organisation, and the difficulty of maintaining
+    the price against unscrupulous bakers at ‘a living figure’ was
+    emphasized. The question of the preparation of a list of master
+    baker ‘blacklegs’ was also touched upon. These men are selling
+    bread at 4½d. the quartern, and at even a lower rate.
+
+Verb (tailors’).—Amongst the fraternity of ‘snips,’ to blackleg is used
+as synonymous with ‘to boycott’—i.e., to make things so uncomfortable
+for a man that he is compelled to leave his work or the town.
+
+To blackleg it, phr. (trades’).—Amongst trades’ union men to return to
+work before the causes of a strike have been removed, or settled to the
+satisfaction of the leaders.
+
+    1888. Baltimore Herald, May 6. Early this morning the mountain
+    paths leading to the William Pen colliery were lined with men,
+    dinner in hand, determined to go to work. Some were non-union
+    miners, while the remainder were Knights of Labor who had
+    determined to blackleg it, regardless of the jeers and threats of
+    their companions.
+
+
+Black-Leggism, Black-Leggery, subs. (common).—Cheating; swindling; the
+arts and practices of a blackleg (q.v.—sense 1).
+
+    1832. Maginn, in Blackwood’s Mag., XXXII., 427. From following any
+    profession save the Army, the Navy, Black-apronry and
+    Black-leggery. [M.]
+
+
+Black-Man or Black Gentleman, subs. (old).—The devil. For synonyms, see
+Skipper.
+
+    1606. Dekker, in Newes from Hell, in wks. (Grosart) II., 113. [Old
+    Nick called the Black Gentleman.]
+
+    1861. G. Meredith, Evan Harrington, ch. iii., p. 23 (1885). ‘Rich
+    as Crœsus, and as wicked as the black man below! as dear papa used
+    to say.’
+
+
+Blackmans.—See Darkmans.
+
+
+Black Maria, subs. (popular).—A prison van or omnibus, used for the
+conveyance of prisoners. The origin of the phrase is unknown, but black
+is obviously from the dark and sombre colour of Her Majesty’s Carriage
+as it is sometimes jocularly called. This view is also supported by the
+fact that a variant is Sable Maria (see quot.). Julian Marshall, in
+Notes and Queries [6 S., vii., p. 355], suggests that the term Maria
+may be allied to ‘Marinated,’ transported to some foreign plantation,
+and ‘married,’ persons chained or handcuffed together, in order to be
+conveyed to gaol [Grose has this, as also has the Lexicon
+Balatronicum]. In marinated evident allusion is made to the compulsory
+voyage; in married to the forced wedlock of convictism. Black Maria
+may, therefore, possibly be a corruption of one or the other, or both
+terms. A writer on slang states that the term is said to have
+originated in Philadelphia in 1838, but gives no evidence in support of
+the statement.
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 61. On alighting
+    from the ‘Sable Maria’ we were ushered through a door into a long
+    white-washed passage, with cells on one side.
+
+    1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge xvii. It is the time
+    when Black Maria, the prison van, stands waiting at the door, and
+    the signal is given that the prisoners are coming out.
+
+    1889. Answers, Feb. 9. There are two kinds of Black Marias. One is
+    called the night van and the other the day. The passengers politely
+    term them ‘mails.’ The day van holds eighteen passengers not
+    including the driver and warder, and the night van a dozen. The
+    vans are divided into two halves, and on each side are small
+    compartments about two feet square with a seat and door, which is
+    carefully locked.
+
+Amongst French Synonyms may be mentioned:—Le courrier du Palais (a
+thieves’ term: courrier, a post or mail + Palais, an abbreviated form
+of Palais de Justice, a police court or sessions house); un panier à
+salade (familiar: ‘a salad basket’); le courrier de la prefecture
+(thieves’: Cf., courrier du Palais. Préfecture = the office of a chief
+magistrate); l’omnibus pègres (in slang un pègre signifies ‘a thief’);
+un guimbard (thieves’: une guimbarde is properly ‘a long cart’); le
+service du château (roughs’ and thieves’: ‘the prison service’; château
+= prison).
+
+For other synonyms, see Her Majesty’s Carriage.
+
+
+Black-Monday, subs. (old).—1. A schoolboys’ term for the Monday on
+which, after holidays, school re-opens. Obviously called black, from
+the reluctance with which young hopefuls turn their backs upon the
+sweets of home and play. Black Friday was used of the day on which
+Overend, Gurney & Co., suspended payment—10 May, 1886. Cf., Blue
+Monday.
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. xi. She now hated my
+    sight, and made home so disagreeable to me, that what is called by
+    school-boys black Monday was to me the whitest in the whole year.
+
+    1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. i. There comes a time when the
+    days are grudgingly counted to a blacker Monday than ever makes a
+    schoolboy’s heart quake within him.
+
+2. (popular.)—The Monday on which the death penalty is carried out;
+these events are generally arranged to fall on the day in question.
+
+
+Black-Mummer, subs. (old).—An epithet applied to one unwashed and
+unshorn.
+
+
+Black-Nob, subs. (trades’ union).—A non-unionist; one who, while his
+fellows are on strike, persists in working at his trade; a blackleg
+(q.v.). [Apparently a humorous variant of blackleg. From black =
+wicked, atrocious, + nob, the head, in place of leg in blackleg.] They
+are also called knobsticks and scabs (q.v.).
+
+
+Black Ointment, subs. (American thieves’).—A term for uncooked meat.
+
+
+Black-Pot, subs. (old).—A toper; a tippler. [Beer mugs were called
+black-pots; also black-jacks, hence, probably, a transference of the
+name from the utensil to the drinker.]
+
+    1594. Greene, Fr. Bacon, v., 122. I’ll be Prince of Wales over all
+    the black-pots in Oxford.
+
+    1636. Heywood, Love’s Mistr., II. Iugg, what’s shee but sister to a
+    black-pot.
+
+    1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, xxxii. A whole whiskin, or
+    black-pot of sufficient double ale.
+
+
+Black Psalm. To sing the black psalm, phr. (old).—To cry; a saying used
+to children.—Grose.
+
+
+Blacks.—See Black horse.
+
+
+Black Sal or Suke, subs. (popular).—A kettle.—See Sukey for synonyms.
+
+
+Black Saturday, subs. (workmen’s).—A Saturday on which an artisan or
+mechanic has no money to take, having anticipated it by advances. Cf.,
+Black Monday and Blue Monday.
+
+
+Black-Sheep, subs. (common).—A mildly opprobrious term for a
+scapegrace; a ‘bad lot’; ‘un mauvais sujet.’ It is also applied like
+blackleg and black-nob to workmen who persist in working when their
+comrades are on strike. The word is hardly slang now.
+
+    1864. Le Fanu, Uncle Silas, ch. xxvi. ‘Your Uncle Silas had injured
+    himself before that in the opinion of the people of his county. He
+    was a black sheep, in fact. Very bad stories were told and believed
+    of him.’
+
+    1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxxvii. ‘In all cities there are
+    black sheep, but in a city like London, sound finance is the rule,
+    I am sure.’
+
+    1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xxviii. ‘Many
+    companies, perfectly sound in principle, may be ruined by a sudden
+    decrease in the price of shares; a panic sets in, and in a few
+    hours the shareholders may lose all. And if you bring this about by
+    selling without concert with the other favoured allottees, you’ll
+    be called a black sheep.’
+
+Verb (Winchester College).—When a fellow in ‘Junior Part’ got above (or
+‘jockeyed’) a fellow in ‘Middle Part.’
+
+
+Blacksmith’s Daughter, subs. (popular).—A key. Formerly the key with
+which the doors of sponging houses were unlocked. Also Locksmith’s
+daughter, which see for synonyms.
+
+    1859. C. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities. Place it under the care of
+    the blacksmith’s daughter.
+
+    1864. Reader [quoted in N. and Q., 5 S., ix., 263]. Blacksmith’s
+    daughter. A key. I have never met with this word in print, but have
+    heard it frequently in conversation.
+
+
+Black-Spice Racket, subs. (old).—The practice of robbing chimney
+sweepers of their tools, bag, and soot.—Lexicon Balatronicum.
+
+
+Black Spy, subs. (old).—A cant name for the devil. The French
+equivalent is le dache. For synonyms, see Skipper.
+
+
+Black-Strap, subs. (common).—1. Thick, sweet port. A contemptuous term,
+in allusion to its dark colour, strap being an old name for wine.—(See
+quot.).
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 131.
+    Sometimes likewise this Card-cheating, goes not vnder the name of
+    Bernard’s Lawe, but is called Batt fowling, and then ye Setter is
+    the Beater, the foole that is caught in the net, the bird, the
+    Tauerne to which they repaire to worke the Feate, is the Bush; the
+    wine the Strap, and the cardes the Limetwigs.
+
+    1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 3. Tom (taking his seat):
+    Gentlemen, I beg pardon for being scarce so long; but having to
+    start early, I thought it best to see that the toggery was all
+    right and fly—I never shirk the black strap intentionally, you
+    know. Jerry: Don’t mention it, my dear Tom.
+
+    1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. x. The orator gets deeper into
+    his subject, till an extremely abrupt conclusion ... empties every
+    bumper of ‘black strap’ like a shot.
+
+2. (American.)—Properly speaking, gin mixed with molasses, but
+frequently applied to a compound of any alcoholic liquor with molasses.
+Beverages of this description were at one time the commonest of drinks
+among agricultural labourers.
+
+    1882. Pinkerton, Molly Maguires and Detectives, p. 84. From the
+    great iron kettle a savory incense arose; it came from an admixture
+    of high-wines and common molasses, in about the proportion of one
+    gallon of the latter to four of the spirit.... The seething
+    blackstrap was pronounced ready for use. It rapidly disappeared,
+    and, as it diminished and was imbibed, the fun and hilarity
+    proportionately increased.
+
+3. (old.)—A task of labour imposed on soldiers at Gibraltar as a
+punishment for small offences.—Grose.
+
+
+Black’s Your Eye. To say black’s your eye, phr. (old).—To accuse; to
+find fault with. The phrase was varied by black’s your eyebrow, nail,
+etc. A more modern rendering is black is the white of your eye.
+
+    1528. Roy, Sat. (1845). They eate their belies full.... And none
+    sayth blacke is his eye. [M.]
+
+    1583. Stubbs, Anatomic of Abuses, p. 65. And then no man say blacke
+    is their eye, but all is well, and they as good Christians, as
+    those that suffer them unpunished.
+
+    1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Love’s Cure, iii., 1. I can say
+    black’s your eye, though it be grey; I have conniv’d at this your
+    friend, and you.
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, IX., iv. The house is well known to be a
+    house of as good reputation as any on the road, and, though I say
+    it, is frequented by gentry of the best quality, both Irish and
+    English. I defy anybody, to say black is my eye, for that matter.
+
+
+Black-Teapot, subs. (popular).—A negro footman.
+
+
+Blackwork, subs. (common).—Undertaking. The waiters met with at public
+dinners are often employed during the day as mutes, etc. Omnibus and
+cab drivers regard blackwork as un dernier ressort.—See Black-job.
+
+    1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxvi. A florid man who
+    officiates as a waiter at the London Tavern o’nights, and sometimes
+    takes a spell in the black work, or undertaking line of business.
+
+
+Bladder of Lard, subs. (popular).—A bald-headed person. [From the
+supposed similarity of the smooth, hairless cranium to a bag or bladder
+of lard.]
+
+    1886. Athenæum, July 31, p. 142. An elderly Jew money-lender, whom
+    she afterwards describes to her admiring friends as a bladder of
+    lard, a graceful reference to his baldness and tendency to
+    stoutness.
+
+
+Blade, subs. (common.)—A roysterer; a gallant; a sharp, keen fellow; a
+free and easy, good fellow. [Probably from blade, a sword, a soldier.
+There seems no warrant for supposing the word connected with the Dutch
+bloed, or with the term ‘blood,’ a dandy, in use in the time of the
+Georges in a somewhat similar sense; indeed, the following quotations
+show a much older usage. In French a ‘sly blade’ is called un renaré.]
+
+    1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. The pox of such antic,
+    lisping, affecting fantasticoes; these new tuners of accents! By
+    Jesu, a very good blade!—a very tall man!
+
+    1632. Chapman and Shirley, The Ball, Act iv.
+
+        This came first o’ keeping company with the blades,
+        From whom I learnt to roar and run away.
+
+    1636. Davenant, The Wits, Act v.
+
+                    The old blade
+        Skulks there like a tame filcher, as he had
+        New stolen ’bove eggs from market-women.
+
+    1637. Fletcher, Elder Brother, I., ii.
+
+                    If he be that old
+        Rough testy blade he always used to be.
+
+    1664. Pepys, Diary, Jan. 4. For suffering his man (a spruce blade)
+    to be so saucy as to strike a ball while his master was playing in
+    the Mall.
+
+    1667. Pepys, Diary, June 3. With his hat cocked like a fool behind,
+    as the present fashion among the blades is.
+
+    1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, Act iv., Sc. 2. These London
+    blades are all stark mad; I met one about two hours ago, that had
+    forgot his name, and this fellow would persuade me now, that I had
+    forgot mine.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Blade (s.) ... is sometimes
+    used to signify a beau, spark, or hectoring fellow.
+
+    1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act i., Sc. 2. ‘A
+    troublesome old blade, to be sure; but a keeps as good wines and
+    beds as any in the whole country.’
+
+    1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xxiv., p. 115. ‘He forged
+    wills, this blade did, if he didn’t also put the supposed testators
+    to sleep too.’
+
+    1883. Broadside Ballad, ‘Happy Thoughts,’ st. 4.
+
+        My Uncle Dowle has lots of money;
+        He’s a very knowing looking blade.
+
+
+Blamed, ppl. adj. (popular).—An expletive used to emphasize a
+statement. It partakes of the nature of an oath, being often used
+instead of ‘doomed’ or ‘damned.’ In America the expression is more of a
+colloquialism than it is in England.—See Oaths.
+
+    1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. vi. Yes,
+    John Bull is a blamed blockhead.
+
+    1872. S. Clemens, Roughing It, ch. ix. The keeper had fired four
+    times at an Indian, but he said with an injured air, that the
+    Indian had ‘skipped’ around so’s to spile everything—and
+    ammunition’s blamed skurse too.
+
+    1873. Carleton, Farm Ballads, p. 18.
+
+        And so that pourin’ dissentions in our cup;
+        And so that blamed cow-critter was always coming up.
+
+    1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. 6. ‘Did you see any Quakers in
+    Philadelphia?’ was asked of a Detroiter who lately returned from
+    that city. ‘Only one that I was sure of.’ ‘Did he “thee” and “thou”
+    you?’ ‘He did. He got down off his hack and said: “If thee don’t
+    pay me 2 dols. I’ll knock thy blamed head off,” and I paid,
+    although I knew the regular fare was twelve shillings. You don’t
+    want to fool with those Quakers any, and don’t you forget it.’
+
+    1888. Portland Transcript, May 9. ‘Why do you object to your
+    daughter marrying?’ ‘Wouldn’t object ef she wuster marry the right
+    sorter man.’ ‘Isn’t Tom the right sort of man?’ ‘Not by a blamed
+    sight.’
+
+
+Blame it! intj. (common).—A round-about oath. Equivalent to ‘Damn it!’
+[A transferred sense of blame.]
+
+
+Blamenation! intj. (common).—Damnation!—See Oaths.
+
+
+Blank, Blanked, Blankety, adj. (common).—Euphemistic oaths, the
+derivation of which is clearly an outcome of the practice of
+representing an oath, for decency’s sake in printing, by a dash or
+blank space; e.g., d——d. The terms are used in America in many
+combinations (see quots.). Cf., Oaths.
+
+    1857. C. Dickens, Farce for the Championship, in All the Year
+    Round. Enter a closely shaven, bullet-headed fellow in an ecstasy
+    of excitement at having just seen Cuss, and at the exquisite
+    ‘fitness’ of that worthy. ‘So help me blank, blank!’ he cries
+    delightedly, ‘if he ain’t a blank picter with the weins in his face
+    down ’ere and ’ere, a showin’ out just if a blank hartist ’ad
+    painted him. Tell yer he’s beautiful, fine as a blank greyhound,
+    with a blank heavy air with him that looks blank like winnin’. Take
+    yer two quid to one, guv’nor,’ adds the speaker, suddenly picking
+    out a stout purple-faced farmer in the group of eager listeners.
+
+    1873. C. Reade, Simpleton, xxiii. Blank him! that is just like him;
+    the uneasy fool! [M.]
+
+    1878. Mrs. Edwardes, Jet, iii., 272. ‘——the colonel of the
+    regiment!’ exclaims Mark.... ‘Blank the colonel of the regiment!’
+    With slow, unmistakable gusto she lingers over the monosyllable
+    ‘blank.’ [M.]
+
+    1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, in Hallberger’s Illustrated
+    Magazine, vol. I., p. 378. Because you’re religious, blank you, do
+    you expect me to starve? Go and order supper first! Stop! Where in
+    blank are you going? Here you’ve been and gone three hours on an
+    errand for me, and blame me if you ain’t runnin’ off without a word
+    about it.
+
+    1888. Troy Daily Times, Feb. 3. The captain looked anxious, and an
+    irate fellow-passenger, who had not ceased swearing since we left
+    Tuxpan, declared by all that is sacred and profane that he had
+    known vessels to be hindered thirty days; yes, even three months,
+    by that blankety blankety bar!
+
+    1888. Owosso (Mich.) Press, April. ‘Doctor, I’m a dead man!’ ‘Not
+    right now?’ said I, as I kicked his dog out. ‘Just as good as
+    dead,’ said he, ‘or you wouldn’t kick that dog in that way with
+    safety. Not by a blankety blank blank sight.’ ‘Needn’t waste so
+    much profanity, Mr. Starkhill,’ said I.
+
+
+Blanket. Lawful blanket, subs. (old).—A wife. For synonyms, see Dutch.
+
+
+Blanket Fair, subs. (popular).—Bed. Cf., Bedfordshire, Sheet Alley, and
+Land of Nod.
+
+
+Blanket Hornpipe, subs. (common).—Sexual commerce. The allusion is
+obvious. Cf., Basket making.
+
+
+Blarmed, ppl. adj. (common).—A euphemism for blessed (q.v.); ‘damned’;
+‘blowed’ (q.v.); or blamed (q.v.), of the last of which it is probably
+a corruption.—See Oaths.
+
+    1867. No Church, I., 104. To be in a blarmed hurry.
+
+    1872. John Forster, Life of Dickens, ch. xxxi. (III., p. 191). He
+    saw a strange sensation among the angry travellers whom he had
+    detained so long; heard a voice exclaim, ‘I am blarmed if it ain’t
+    Dickens!’ and stood in the centre of a group of Five Americans!
+
+
+Blarm Me! intj. (common).—A euphemistic oath.—See Blarmed.
+
+
+Blarney, subs. (colloquial).—Blandishment; soft speech, or ‘sawder’;
+gross flattery; ‘gammon.’ [From Castle Blarney in Ireland, in the wall
+of which, difficult of access, is placed a stone. Whoever is able to
+kiss this is said thereafter to be able to persuade to anything.
+Blarney is from bladh-ey, flowery island, and this may have some
+connection with the curious tradition. On the other hand, according to
+Brewer, Cormack Macarthy held the Castle of Blarney in 1602, and
+concluded an armistice with Carew, the lord president, on condition of
+surrendering the fort to the English garrison. Day after day his
+lordship looked for the fulfilment of the terms, but received nothing
+except protocols and soft speeches, till he became the laughing-stock
+of Elizabeth’s ministers, and the dupe of the lord of Blarney.]
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has licked the
+    blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller.
+
+    1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xix. They were as cunning as
+    foxes and could tell blarney from good sense.
+
+    c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, ‘A nice young thing.’
+
+        Such a nice young thing, such a sweet young thing,
+        Her name was Kate Carney, she came from Killarney,
+        So full of her blarney, but fond of her Barney,
+        Such a fair young thing, a rare young thing,
+        And just for a lark she had dyed her hair dark,
+        And they called her the Colleen Dhu.
+
+    1884. Ruskin, in Pall Mall Gazette, 17 Nov., p. 11, col. 2. It was
+    bombastic English blarney—not Irish. [M.]
+
+The French have baliverne and pelotage with the same meaning.
+
+Verb.—1. To wheedle; to coax; to flatter grossly.
+
+2. (American thieves’.)—Besides the English slang signification of ‘to
+wheedle,’ it also bears the secondary meaning, among the low and
+criminal classes of America, of ‘to pick locks.’
+
+
+Blart Out, verb (American, ? nonce word).—A corruption of ‘blurt out’;
+to utter abruptly.
+
+    1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, pref., p. v. It
+    warn’t the part of a gentleman for to go and pump me arter that
+    fashion, and then go right off and blart it out in print. Ibid, ch.
+    viii. And there are others again who blart right out whatever comes
+    uppermost.
+
+
+Blasé, adj. (common).—Used up; exhausted with enjoyment; satiated.
+[From French blaser, of unknown derivation.] Its extended colloquial
+use in England is explained in second quotation.
+
+    1823. Byron, Don Juan, ch. xii., st. 81. A little blasé—’tis not to
+    be wondered At, that his heart had got a tougher rind, And though
+    not vainer from his past success, No doubt his sensibilities were
+    less.
+
+    1883. G. A. Sala, in Illustrated London News, March 10, p. 235,
+    col. 3. There should be a chronology of slang. It is about forty
+    years ago, I think, that the great popularity of a French farce
+    called ‘L’Homme Blasé’ brought the word into colloquial use in
+    England; indeed the first translation of the French piece (at the
+    Princess’s, Wright, the low comedian, playing the hero,) was called
+    Blasé, with some sub-title that I forget. Subsequently another
+    translation was produced, Charles Mathews playing the principal
+    character. As a title for this version, we borrowed a slang term
+    from the Americans, and ‘L’Homme Blasé’ became ‘Used Up’!
+
+
+Blast, verb (low).—To curse; to damn. An expression of reprobation and
+hatred. Used in such combinations as Blast me! Blast you! Blast your
+eyes! etc.—See Oaths.
+
+    1654. Chapman, Revenge for Honour, V., ii. And thus I kiss’d my
+    last breath. Blast you all! Ta. Damn’d desperate villain!
+
+    1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. X., ch. v. ‘I don’t know what you mean
+    by ominous,’ cries the colonel; ‘but, blast my reputation, if I had
+    received such a letter, if I would not have searched the world to
+    have found the writer.’
+
+    1759. Goldsmith, Cit. of the World, lett., 105. ‘Blast me!’ cries
+    Tibbs, ‘if that be all, there is no need of paying for that.’
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. viii. ‘Hands, Captain MacTurk!’
+    exclaimed Sir Bingo, in some confusion; ‘no, blast him—not so bad
+    as that neither.’
+
+
+Blasted, ppl. adj. (low).—Execrable; confounded; often substituted for
+‘damned,’ ‘bloody,’ it being thought a milder form. Grose has blasted
+fellow for an abandoned rogue, and blasted brimstone for a prostitute.
+[From blast, q.v.]—See Oaths.
+
+    1682. Dryden, Medal, 260. What curses on thy blasted Name will
+    fall.
+
+    1750. Chesterfield, Letters, 8 Jan. (1870), 169. Colonel Chartres
+    ... who was, I believe, the most notorious blasted rascal in the
+    world. [M.]
+
+    1874. Pusey, Lent. Sermons, 79. Balaam after the success of his
+    blasted counsel. [M.]
+
+    1884. Good Words, Nov., p. 767, col. 1. Jim Black states that the
+    blasted railway has done away with those journeys.
+
+
+Blatantation, subs. (? nonce word).—Noisy effusion; swagger. [From
+blatant, noisy, offensively clamorous, + ation.] Cf., Blatancy.
+
+    1833. Graphic, Feb. 24, p. 199, col. 3. On the ground betting men
+    are conspicuous with their books, blatantations, blackguardism, and
+    swell clothes.
+
+
+Blater, subs. (old).—A calf. [Probably a corruption of ‘bleater,’ from
+its cry.]
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11 [list of cant words in].
+    Blater, a calf.
+
+    1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. Don’t be glim-flashy; why you’d
+    cry beef on a blater.
+
+
+Blather, subs. (familiar).—Noisy talk; voluble nonsense. Cf., Blether.
+
+    1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxix., p. 309 (1873).
+    ‘There’s a letter there from Sir Mordaunt, askin’ for more time,
+    and promisin’ all sorts of things; but I’m sick of him and his
+    blather.’
+
+Verb.—To talk volubly; noisily; nonsensically.—See Blether.
+
+    1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxiv. Mrs. O’Brien was
+    blathering about the pedigree of the O’Briens and the O’Shandrydans
+    to Mrs. Joyce.
+
+
+Blatherskite, subs. (common).—1. Boastful disputatious swagger. Cf.,
+Bletherskite.
+
+2. A swaggerer; boaster; one who talks volubly and nonsensically. Cf.,
+Bletherskite.
+
+    1888. New York Herald, July 29. Every blatherskite republican is
+    filled to the brim and spouting high protection, while the
+    democrats are not prepared to meet them for want of documents.
+
+    1888. Chicago Watchman. Dr. Brookes, of St. Louis, must be a nice
+    man to live with. He refers to Dr. R. W. Dale and Dr. Parker as
+    ‘blatant blatherskites,’ and evidently regards Professor Drummond
+    as beyond reformation.
+
+
+Blayney’s Bloodhounds, subs. (military).—The Eighty-ninth Foot. They
+obtained this nickname during the Irish Rebellion in 1798. [Blayney,
+from their Colonel’s name + Bloodhounds from their skill in tracking
+Irish rebels.] They also earned for themselves the sobriquet of The
+Rollickers, in allusion to the ‘jolly doggish’ bearing of the corps.
+
+
+Blaze, subs. and verb (common).—In some of the usages of this word, the
+precincts of slang are narrowly touched, even if the boundary line is
+not crossed; as e.g., when a man is said to blaze his way through the
+labyrinths of the metropolis. The original meaning is well known. The
+early settlers in traversing the vast forests which abounded on the
+American continent, found it very necessary to mark their route. This
+they did by the simple expedient of blazing the trees at convenient
+distances. Blazing consists merely in chopping a piece of the bark off
+each tree selected in the desired line of march. The mark itself is
+called a blaze. In addition to this, blazing was also adopted as an
+indication that the land within the limits of the trees thus marked had
+been appropriated by a settler—a rude and informal, but, in early days,
+a thoroughly well recognised method of securing a title to the land.
+Some writers affect to derive the word from the old French blazon, the
+armorial bearing of the Normans, and quote the use of ‘blazen,’ by
+Shakspeare, in a sense not altogether dissimilar to the meaning
+conveyed by blazing, as proof to this effect.
+
+It is employed generally in America and all English-speaking colonies.
+The following quotations will exemplify its use both in the original
+and more figurative senses.—See Blazes.
+
+    1737. Wesley, wks. (1872) I., 68. We then found another blaze and
+    pursued it. [M.]
+
+    1883. Bret Harte, In the Carquinez Woods, ch. viii. ‘I made a blaze
+    hereabouts to show where to leave the trail. There it is,’ he
+    added, pointing to a slight notch cut in the trunk of an adjoining
+    tree.... They proceeded cautiously at right angles with the blazed
+    tree for ten minutes more.
+
+Blaze-away, intj. (common).—Look sharp; ‘stir your stumps’—an
+injunction to renewed and more effective effort.
+
+
+Blazer, subs. (popular).—Originally applied to the uniform of the Lady
+Margaret Boat Club of St. John’s College, Cambridge, which was of a
+bright red and was called a blazer. Now applied to any light jacket of
+bright colour worn at cricket or other sports. Prof. Skeat [N. and Q.,
+7 S., iii., 436] speaking of the Johnian blazer, says it was always of
+the most brilliant scarlet, and thinks it not improbable that the fact
+suggested the name which subsequently became general.
+
+    1880. Times, June 19. Men in spotless flannel, and club blazers.
+    [M.]
+
+    1885. Punch, June 27, p. 304. On the morning of the start for our
+    ‘Spin to Brighton,’ Harkaway turns up clad in what he calls a
+    blazer, which makes him look like a nigger minstrel out for a
+    holiday.
+
+    1889. Daily News, Aug. 22, p. 6, col. 6. Dress by the Sea. Sir,—In
+    your article of to-day, under the above heading, you speak of ‘a
+    striped red and black blazer,’ ‘the blazer,’ also of ‘the pale
+    toned’ ones. This is worth noting as a case of the specific
+    becoming the generic. A blazer is the red flannel boating jacket,
+    worn by the Lady Margaret, St. John’s College, Cambridge, Boat
+    Club. When I was at Cambridge it meant that and nothing else. It
+    seems from your article that a blazer now means a coloured flannel
+    jacket, whether for cricket, tennis, boating, or seaside
+    wear.—Yours faithfully, Walter Wren.
+
+
+Blazes, subs. (general).—The infernal regions. This, an allusion to the
+flames of hell, was the original meaning; constant use, however, has
+lessened the force of the expression, and as in the case of ‘bloody,’
+few who employ such flowers of oratory have any notion of the proper
+signification. In most cases the word is now a meaningless intensitive,
+and takes rank with such expressions as like one o’clock, like winkey,
+etc. The verb to blaze is likewise employed in a manner closely
+bordering on slang. Thus one says of an action that it is a blazing
+shame; that he has a blazing headache; that so-and-so is a blazing
+thief; that such a job is blazing hard work; that it is a blazing hot
+day—all figurative uses of the legitimate idea. Appended are
+illustrations of some of its usages.
+
+(Common.)—The brilliant habiliments of flunkeys. Derived from the
+episode of Sam Weller and the ‘swarry.’
+
+Old Blazes, subs. (common).—The devil. For synonyms, see Skipper.
+
+    1849. Southern Literary Messenger, June. He looked, upon my word,
+    like Old Blazes himself, with his clothing all on fire, and rage
+    and despair in his face.
+
+Go to blazes, phr. (common).—Go to the devil; go to hell—expressions of
+contempt used in imprecations.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 135. He jumps
+    through a trap in the window with a bottle on it, marked ‘Old Tom,’
+    and a scroll falls down, written gone to blazes.
+
+    1861. Thackeray, Adventures of Philip, I., p. 99. Old Parr Street
+    is mined, sir—mined! And some morning we shall be blown into
+    blazes,—into blazes, sir, mark my words!
+
+    1862. Mrs. Riddell (‘F. G. Trafford’), Too Much Alone, p. 200. ‘Has
+    no one been here this afternoon?’ ‘Yes, one man, to ask his way to
+    blazes, or some place else.’
+
+    1880. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Sketch (Mr. Skae’s Item). I could
+    have told Johnny Skae that I would not receive his communication at
+    such a late hour, and to go to blazes with it.
+
+    1882. Jas. Payn, in ‘A Failure of Justice’, in Glow Worm Tales, p.
+    97. ‘Sir,’ cried I, authoritatively, ‘let me tell you I am a
+    Middlesex magistrate.’ ‘Oh, yes: a likely story!’ was his audacious
+    reply. ‘You’ve got ’Ighbury Barn written on your countenance you
+    have, go to blazes!’ and he slammed down the window.
+
+Like blazes, adv. phr. (popular).—Vehemently; with extreme ardour.—See
+Anything and Winkey.
+
+    1845. B. Disraeli, Sybil or The Two Nations, p. 330. Syllabubs like
+    blazes, and snapdragon as makes the flunkeys quite pale. Ibid, p.
+    369. ‘They pelted the police....’ ‘And cheered the red-coats like
+    blazes,’ said Mick. Ibid. She sets her face against gals working in
+    mills like blazes.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 159. She
+    liked this very much, in fact so much, that the other little ones
+    used to cry like blazes because I wouldn’t let them have a turn at
+    them [the stilts].
+
+    1859. Chas. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, I., p. 15 (in parts). A
+    blazing strange answer.
+
+    1864. J. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone or Thorough. They hate each
+    other like blazes.
+
+    18(?). De Quincey, Spanish Nun, sect. 24. The horse was so maddened
+    by the wound, and the road so steep, that he went like blazes.
+
+How, Who, or What the blazes, phr. (popular).—A somewhat more intense
+interrogatory than Who or What or even Who or What the Dickens.
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. lv., p. 479. ‘Pell,’ he used to say to
+    me many a time, ‘how the blazes you can stand the head-work you do,
+    is a mystery to me.’
+
+    1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xvii. ‘Who the blazes
+    would recognise Jack Seymour in those shore-going duds?’
+
+Drunk as blazes or blaizers, phr. (common).—Very drunk; what is
+vulgarly called ‘beastly’ drunk. Whether this expression follows the
+derivation of the examples given above, or whether we must seek its
+origin in a totally different direction, is a matter of some doubt. The
+alternative derivation suggested is that the phrase is really drunk as
+blaizers, an expression which dates back at least to 1830 [N. and Q., 6
+S., i., 434]. Sir Thomas Wyse, in Impressions of Greece, speaking (see
+Life of Richard Waldo Sibthorp, by J. Fowler, 1880, p. 227) of the
+reverence for St. Blaize, in Greece (who is also, as is known, the
+patron saint of the English woolcombers), and how his feast was
+observed in the woollen manufactories of the Midland Counties, says,
+‘Those who took part in the procession were called Blaizers, and the
+phrase as drunk as blaizers originated in the convivialities common on
+those occasions! So good “Bishop and Martyr” Blaize is dishonoured as
+well as honoured in England, and very probably in Greece.’ Further data
+may be found in Chambers’ Book of Days, vol. I., pp. 219–20.
+
+
+Bleach, verb (Harvard University.)—To absent oneself from morning
+prayers.—Hall’s College Words and Phrases.
+
+
+Bleached Mort, subs. (old).—A fair complexioned wench.—Grose. [From
+bleached, white or fair, + mort, a girl or woman.]
+
+
+Bleak, adj. (American thieves’).—In the phraseology of American
+thieves, bleak means handsome.
+
+
+Bleater, subs. (old).—The victim of a sharper or rook. In the following
+quotation a Jack in the box (q.v.) is an old thieves’ term for a
+swindler or cheat.
+
+    1609. Dekker, Lanthorne, wks., 1884–5, III., 290. They that are
+    Cheated by Iacke in a Boxe are called bleaters.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bleaters, those
+    cheated by Jack in a Box.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. (Same definition given.)
+
+
+Bleating Cheat, subs. (old).—A sheep.—Grose. [In the old cant cheat or
+chete [from Anglo-Saxon ceat] signified a thing; and the names of
+animals were frequently formed by adding an adjective descriptive of
+their peculiar noise or cry. Thus a grunting cheat was a pig; a
+cackling cheat a fowl; a bleating cheat a sheep.] A sheep is also
+called a wool-bird (q.v.). Among French thieves this animal is
+designated une morne.
+
+
+Bleating Cull, subs. (old).—A sheep stealer. [From bleating, see
+preceding, + cull, a man, honest or otherwise.]
+
+
+Bleating Prig or Rig, subs. (old).—Sheep stealing. [From bleating, see
+Bleating cheat, + prig, or rig, the act of stealing.]
+
+
+Bleed, verb tr. and intr. (popular).—1. To be victimised; to lose or
+part with money so that the loss is felt; to be ‘rushed’ (q.v.); to
+have money drawn or extorted from one. [An allusion to the loss
+sustained by parting with one’s life blood.]
+
+    1668. Dryden, An Evening’s Love, Act iv., Sc. 1. In fine, he is
+    vehement, and bleeds on to fourscore or an hundred; and I, not
+    willing to tempt fortune, come away a moderate winner of two
+    hundred pistoles.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bleed (v.) ... also to part
+    with money freely, upon proposing something agreeable to a person’s
+    disposition, whether it be in gaming or anything else.
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxvi. To whom he was
+    particularly agreeable, on account of his person, address, and
+    bleeding freely at play.
+
+    1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xxii. The reputed
+    readiness with which she bled, at last brought her the honour of an
+    old countess, who condescended to win from her, at two sittings,
+    very nearly £5,000.
+
+    1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxviii. ‘You have got a bill of
+    sale for her furniture.... By Jove, sir, you’ve bled that poor
+    woman enough.’
+
+    1885. Manchester Evening News, 23 June, p. 2, col. 2. Men who give
+    bills have to bleed for the accommodation.
+
+2. (printers’.)—A book bleeds when the margins are ‘planed’ down so
+that the edge of the printed portion is cut away.
+
+    1876. Daily Telegraph, June 9, p. 2, col. 1. So very carelessly has
+    the mechanical part of production been done that, in the
+    phraseology of the craft—half technical, half slang—the pages bleed
+    in many places—i.e., the binder’s knife when cutting the edges has
+    also cut away portions of the printed matter.
+
+
+Bleeder, subs. (University).—1. A duffer beyond compare; a superlative
+fool. (common).—A euphemism for ‘bloody fool.’
+
+2. (sporting.)—A sovereign. For synonyms, see Canary.
+
+3. (old.)—A spur; an obvious allusion.
+
+
+Bleeding, adj.—An expletive, which, if meant, would partake of the
+nature of an oath; as it is there is little enough, sanguinary, either
+literally or metaphorically about much that is described as bleeding.
+It sounds big and weighty to those who use it, and that suffices.
+
+    1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, pt. II., ch. xxiii. ‘When he
+    isn’t up to one dodge he is up to another. You make no bleeding
+    error.’
+
+
+Bleeding Cully, subs. (old).—One who parts easily with his money, or
+bleeds freely.—Grose.—[See Bleed.]
+
+
+Bleed the Monkey, verbal phr. (nautical).—To steal rum from the mess
+tub called ‘the monkey.’ The term is exclusively naval, ‘monkeys’ not
+being known on merchant ships. The practice is also called sucking the
+monkey, and tapping the admiral.—See Admiral.
+
+    1889. Chambers’ Journal, 3 Aug., p. 495. To suck the monkey is a
+    phrase explained in Peter Simple as having originally been used
+    among sailors for drinking rum out of cocoa-nuts, the milk having
+    been poured out and the liquor substituted. It is now applied to
+    the act of drinking on the sly from a cask by inserting a straw
+    through a gimlet hole, and to drinking generally. Barham, in the
+    legend of the Black Mousquetaire says:
+
+        What the vulgar call sucking the monkey,
+        Has much less effect on a man when he’s funky.
+
+
+Blenker, verb (American).—To plunder. A cant phrase much used during
+the Civil War. Possibly allied to the northern provincialism ‘blenk,’ a
+trick or stratagem. ‘Blenk’ was also used in Morte d’Arthur in the
+sense of ‘to bilk,’ or ‘cheat.’
+
+
+Bless, verb (popular).—To curse; to damn.—See Blessed.
+
+To bless oneself, verbal phr. (common).—To be surprised; to be vexed;
+to be mortified. Generally, ‘God bless me!’ or ‘Bless my eyes!’ ‘Bless
+my soul!’ ‘Lor’ bless me!’
+
+    1592. Shakspeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, iv., 2, 11. Quin: Yea,
+    and the best person too: and he is a very paramour, for a sweet
+    voice. Flu: You must say, paragon: a paramour is, God bless us, a
+    thing of nought.
+
+    1615. T. Adams, Black Dev., 71. He ... would blesse himselfe to
+    think that so little a thing could extend itself to such a
+    capacity. [M.]
+
+    1665. Pepys, Diary, 1 Apr. How my Lord Treasurer did bless himself,
+    crying he could do no more, etc.
+
+    1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. xl. Rub your hands thrice across
+    your foreheads—blow your nose—cleanse your emunctories—sneeze, my
+    good people!—God bless you.
+
+    1814. Miss Austen, Mansfield Park, ch. xviii. Could Sir Thomas look
+    in upon us just now, he would bless himself, for we are rehearsing
+    all over the house.
+
+    1843. Dickens, Christmas Carol, p. 77. ‘Why, bless my soul,’ cried
+    Fred, ‘who’s that?’
+
+    1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, I., p. 307. After they had lain
+    apart for a little while, very silent and sullen, John sneezed.
+    ‘God bless you!’ says Joan, over the bolster.
+
+Not a [penny] to bless oneself with, phr. (popular).—Utterly
+impecunious; ‘without a sou.’
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 237. He landed there
+    without a penny to bless himself with.
+
+    1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, I., p. 113. I heard that Mr. Mell
+    was not a bad sort of fellow, but hadn’t a sixpence to bless
+    himself with.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 55. The most
+    of ’em ain’t got a farthing to bless themselves with.
+
+    1861. George Eliot, Silas Marner, p. 38. I have not a shilling to
+    bless myself with.
+
+To bless one’s stars, verbal phr. (common).—To thank oneself; to
+attribute one’s good fortune to luck, generally in a ludicrous sense.
+
+    1845. Hood, Pauper’s Christmas Carol, iii. Ought not I to bless my
+    stars?
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 230. Forty-eight
+    marks! a week’s remission. The very thought made me savage, but I
+    blessed my stars I had not lost my class, or my good berth.
+
+
+Blessed, Blest, ppl. adj. (popular).—An ironical euphemism; often used
+like blazing for ‘cursed,’ ‘damned,’ etc., or as a vow.—See quot. from
+Hindley and Oaths.
+
+    1806. Windham, Let. in Speeches (1812), I., 77. As one of the happy
+    consequences of our blessed system of printing debates, I am
+    described to-day ... as having talked a language directly the
+    reverse of that which I did talk. [M.]
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 139. One
+    Maidstone Fair time, I saw one of the gipsy Lees called ‘Jemmy,’
+    fighting with a man much bigger than himself. Tom Rosseter, the
+    mumper, was seconding his brother-in-law, Jemmy Lee, when, as Jemmy
+    kept throwing his man very heavily, he said, ‘My dear blessed
+    brother, don’t throw the blessed man like that or you will be sure
+    to kill him.’ ‘Well,’ said Jemmy, ‘but my dear blessed brother, if
+    I don’t kill the dear blessed man, why the big blessed —— will be
+    sure to kill me, and so I must keep on throwing the dear blessed
+    man, for you see what a blessed big dear fellow he is to me.’
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 245. ‘They called
+    in the coppers, and some feller in the shop twigged my old girl as
+    one he’d a-seen before, and blessed if they didn’t identify her as
+    having lifted some things out of the shop, and she was pinched for
+    seven “stretch.”’
+
+    1882. Punch, Aug. 5, p. 49. Sir Pompey Bedell: ‘Oh!—er—Mr. Grigsby,
+    I think! How d’ye do?’ [extending two fingers]. Grigsby: ‘I hope I
+    see you well, Sir Pompey. And next time you give me two fingers,
+    I’m blest if I don’t pull ’em off.’
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, July 6. St. Mannock.—Did you ever hear a
+    still, small voice whispering over its morning shrimps, ‘What a
+    pair of blessed fools you are!’
+
+
+Blether, Blather, subs. (Scotch and U.S.A.).—Nonsense; vapid talk;
+voluble chatter.
+
+    b. 1759, d. 1796. Burns, Tam Samson’s Elegy, st. 12.
+
+        Yon auld gray stane, amang the heather,
+                Marks out his head,
+        Whare Burns has wrote in rhyming blether,
+                Tam Samson’s dead!
+
+    1886. Pall Mall Gazette, 3 May, 6, 2. Havelock’s florid adjurations
+    to his men, the grim veterans of the 78th, bluntly characterized as
+    blether.
+
+Hence blethering (verb, subs.) used in the same sense as blether, and
+as an adjective for ‘volubly’ or ‘foolishly talkative.’ Cf.,
+Bletherskate.
+
+    b. 1759, d. 1796. Burns, Holy Fair, st. 8.
+
+        And some are busy blethrin’
+                  Right loud that day.
+
+    1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. xiv. ‘I hae been clean spoilt, just
+    wi’ listening to twa blethering auld wives.’
+
+    1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. vi. He had brought this
+    blethering Irishman down here, and deluged him with punch for the
+    express purpose of turning him inside out.
+
+
+Bletherskate, Blatherskite, subs. (provincial and American).—1.
+Boastful swagger, whether in talk or action.
+
+2. A boaster; noisy talker of blatant nonsense. [From blether, to talk
+nonsensically, + skate, allied to Scotch skyte, a contemptible fellow.]
+It occurs in Maggie Lauder, a well-known Scotch song, a fact which
+Murray says led to its popularisation in the United States. In Ireland
+it seems to have taken the forms of bladder-skate and bladderum-skate.
+
+    Circa 1650. F. Sempill, Maggie Lauder, i. Jog on your gait, ye
+    blether-skate. [M.]
+
+    1825. C. Croker, Tradit. S. Ireland, p. 170. He was, as usual,
+    getting on with his bletherumskite about the fairies. [M.]
+
+    1870. J. R. O’Flanagan, Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland.
+    ‘Lord Redesdale was speaking of people who learnt to skate with
+    bladders under their arms, to buoy them up if they should fall into
+    a hole and risk being drowned.’ ‘Ah, my Lord,’ said Toler, ‘that is
+    what we call bladderumskate in Ireland.’
+
+
+Blew, verb (common).—1. To inform; to ‘peach’; to expose; to
+betray.—See Blow upon, of which it is a variant.
+
+2. (popular.)—To spend; to waste; generally in connection with money.
+When a man has spent or lost all his money, he is said to have blewed
+it. [The derivation is uncertain, that most likely being its reference
+to a corrupt grammatical use of blew, the past tense of ‘to blow.’
+Money spent recklessly and wasted vanishes as if blown away by the
+wind.]
+
+    1884. Daily Telegraph, May 28, p. 5, col. 1. ‘Which paid him £1,700
+    compensation, when he took to horses, and blewed the blooming lot
+    in eighteen months.’
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, June 29.
+
+        Isabel and Maudie knew the Turf and all its arts—
+          They had often blewed a dollar on a wrong ’un—
+        And Isabel one evening met a mug from rural parts,
+          An attenuated Juggins, and a long ’un.
+
+French Synonyms. Se faire rincer (popular: ‘to be cleared out’ [at a
+game]. Rincer, properly ‘to drench,’ ‘to serve out,’ also has the slang
+signification of ‘to thrash’); paumer (thieves’ and vagrants’: this
+verb is very old, and is derived from palma = empoigner. It also
+signifies to arrest, lose, etc.); laumir (an old cant term); se faire
+ratisser (familiar: literally ‘to scrape oneself’); faire rasoir
+(gaming: ‘to be penniless’); se faire enturer (popular: ‘to cut into
+oneself’; enture = incision or cut); panner quelqu’un (popular); mettre
+dans le sac (gamesters’: Cf., ‘be in a hole’); décavage (familiar: a
+term employed to signify the circumstances of a gamester who has
+‘blewed it’; one who is in ‘Queer Street’—from décavé, a ruined
+gamester); se faire lessiver: ‘to wash oneself.’ Michel gives lessive =
+defence, and lessiveur = barrister, and remarks that better terms could
+hardly be given to advocate and speech by those charged with offence,
+and who wish to return from the same ‘white as snow,’ or, as police
+phraseology hath it, without a stain upon one’s character. For other
+synonyms, see Shave.
+
+
+Blimey, intj. (low).—A corruption of ‘Blind me!’; an expression little
+enough understood by those who constantly have it in their mouths.
+
+
+Blind, subs. (common).—1. The night time—an allusion to the absence of
+light.—See Darkmans.
+
+2. (familiar.)—A pretence; a shift; an action through which one’s real
+purpose is concealed; that which obstructs; a ‘make-believe.’
+
+    1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act iii. He ... took your court to her,
+    only as a blind to your affection for me.
+
+    1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, Act ii., Sc. 5. I know you don’t
+    love Cynthia, only as a blind for your passion to me.
+
+    1703. Mrs. Centlivre, Beau’s Dual, I., i. (1872), i., 70. Am I
+    publish’d to the world as a blind for his designs?
+
+    1877. E. L. Linton, World Well Lost, ch. xxviii. The excuse was too
+    palpably a blind to be accepted as a reason.
+
+    1889. Answers, July 13, p. 104, col. 3. The Major and the Captain
+    he referred to in his letters were mere ‘blinds.’ The Captain
+    relied upon the fact that not one person in a dozen took the
+    trouble to apply to these gentlemen.
+
+3. (printers’.)—A paragraph [¶] mark is so called; from the eye of the
+reversed ‘P’ being filled up.
+
+Adj. (old).—Tipsy; in liquor. Nares says this cant term was used with
+others in the works of Taylor, the water-poet [1630]. For synonyms, see
+Screwed.
+
+Blind as a brickbat, adv. phr. (colloquial).—A facetious simile for
+very blind—mentally or physically.
+
+    1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, III., p. 97. The old scholar ...
+    is as blind as a brickbat.
+
+When the devil is blind, adv. phr. (common).—Never. The French have
+three very graphic—though in one case very vulgar—analogues for this
+expression—quand les poules pisseront, which need not be translated; le
+trente six du mois, i.e., ‘on the thirty-sixth day of the month,’ and
+quand les poules auront des dents, i.e., when cocks and hens have
+teeth.
+
+To go it blind.—A luminous figure of speech to convey the idea of
+entering upon an undertaking without thought as to the result, or
+inquiry beforehand. This is one of the many slang expressions which owe
+their origin to the American game of poker, the special form of which
+known as blind poker, where the cards are betted upon before being
+looked at, being responsible for the phrase now in question. Cf., also
+Blind (subs.).
+
+    1848. J. Russell Lowell, Biglow Papers, II., p. 118—
+
+              ‘to impress on the popular mind
+        The comfort and wisdom of goin’ it blind.’
+
+    1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 328. Blind Poker has given rise to
+    the very common phrase, to go it blind, used whenever an enterprise
+    is undertaken without previous inquiry.
+
+    1882. General Sherman, Memoirs, vol. I., p. 342. I know that in
+    Washington I am incomprehensible, because at the outset of the war
+    I would not go it blind, and rush headlong into a war unprepared
+    and with an utter ignorance of its extent and purpose.
+
+    1888. Chicago Ledger, May 12. ‘And so you’ve married a jewel, have
+    you, Tom?’ ‘I have, for a fact, Dick.’ ‘Lucky dog! You’re a man in
+    a million. Mighty few go it blind and fare as well as you’ve done.’
+    ‘I didn’t go it blind. I employed a detective, and he managed to
+    get board in the family.’
+
+
+Blind Cheeks, subs. (common).—The posteriors. [The derivation is from
+an obvious simile.]
+
+Among English Synonyms are—Two fat cheeks and ne’er a nose; blind
+Cupid; ampersand; cheeks; arse; corybungo; dopey; droddum; dummock;
+feak; bum; nock (i.e., ‘a notch’); round mouth; windmill; blind-eye;
+monocular eye-glass.
+
+French Synonyms. Un borgne (low: ‘a one-eyed person’); un cyclope (the
+allusion is mythological—from Cyclops, the one-eyed giant, whose optic
+was placed in the middle of the forehead); la rose des vents; un piffe;
+un pignard; boite aux ordures. German Synonym. Acherponim (from Hebrew
+achar ponim; literally ‘the face at the back’). For other synonyms, see
+Bum.
+
+
+Blind Drunk, adj. phr. (common).—Very intoxicated; so drunk as to be
+unable to see better than a blind man. Americans say, ‘So drunk as not
+to be able to see through a ladder.’ For synonyms, see Screwed.
+
+    1845. Disraeli, Sybil or the Two Nations, p. 350. Hang me if I
+    wasn’t blind drunk at the end of it.
+
+
+Blinder. To take a blinder, phr. (thieves’).—To die. For synonyms, see
+Aloft.
+
+
+Blind Eye, subs. (common).—The podex.—See Blind cheeks.
+
+
+Blind Half Hundred, subs. (military).—The Fiftieth Regiment of Foot;
+from so many men suffering from ophthalmia during the Egyptian campaign
+[1801]; also the Dirty Half Hundred from the men in action wiping their
+faces with their black facings during the Peninsula War. Half Hundred
+is an adaptation of the number of the regiment—the Fiftieth. The corps
+is also called the ‘Gallant Fiftieth,’ from its gallantry at the battle
+of Vimiera, 1808.
+
+    1871. Chambers’ Journal, No. 417, p. 803. The Dirty Half Hundred
+    was the curious nickname given to the 50th Foot. Two accounts are
+    given of the origin of this. One asserts that it was from their red
+    uniforms being faced with black and silver lace, and thus giving
+    the regiment a dull and sombre appearance; whilst the other tells
+    us that it was from the men wiping their perspiring faces with the
+    black cuffs of their coats, and thus giving their countenances a
+    somewhat swarthy tint. Whatever may be the origin of this
+    sobriquet, they bear a second about which there can be no doubt.
+    From the glorious charge, led by Colonel Walker, at Vimiera, this
+    regiment is known as the ‘Gallant Fiftieth.’
+
+    1886. Tinsley’s Magazine, April, p. 322. Most people have heard of
+    the ‘Fighting Fiftieth.’ But the 50th are rich in nicknames. They
+    are, or at least they were, the Blind Half-Hundredth, having been
+    but too literally blinded by the ravages of ophthalmia when in
+    Egypt with Sir Ralph Abercromby. And when on one occasion the men
+    dried the perspiration from their faces with their cuffs, they for
+    a while became the Dirty Half-Hundredth.
+
+
+Blind Harpers, subs. (old).—Beggars counterfeiting blindness, playing
+on fiddles, etc.—Grose.
+
+
+Blind-Man’s Holiday, subs. (familiar).—Formerly this common
+colloquialism signified the night or darkness; it is now, however,
+usually applied to the time ‘between lights’ when it is too dark to
+see, but often not dark enough to light up, and a holiday or rest from
+work is taken. The blind from their infirmity are in general exempted
+from labour, and in this view keep holiday; when the twilight hour
+comes, when those that can work, or read, etc., can no longer see to do
+so, it is blind-man’s holiday to them, and they of necessity rest
+accordingly. This derivation, one would think, is sufficiently obvious;
+but, on the other hand, there are those who think the expression a
+corruption of ‘blind-man’s all-day.’ The meaning then would be that the
+gradual departure of light brings one to the state which the blind man
+endures all day, or which is all the day the blind man has. Whichever
+derivation be true, it is, however, interesting to note that this
+‘household word’ of to-day has been in the mouths of the English people
+for more than three hundred years. It is the English equivalent of the
+Scotch in the gloaming, of an equally venerable lineage.
+
+    1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 263. And what will not
+    blinde Cupid doe in the night which is his blindman’s holiday?
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. iii.). Indeed, madam, it is
+    blindman’s holiday; we shall soon be all of a colour.
+
+    1824. T. Fielding, Proverbs, etc. (Familiar Phrases), p. 147.
+    Blindman’s holiday.
+
+    1866. Aunt Judy’s Mag., Oct., 358. At meal times, or in blindman’s
+    holiday, when no work was to be done. [M.]
+
+
+Blind Monkeys, subs. (common).—Hotten thus explains this expression:—An
+imaginary collection at the Zoological Gardens, which are supposed to
+receive care and attention from persons fitted by nature for such
+office and for little else. An idle and useless person is often told
+that he is only fit to lead the blind monkeys to evacuate. Another form
+this elegant conversation takes, is for one man to tell another that he
+knows of a suitable situation for him. ‘How much a week? and what to
+do?’ are natural questions, and then comes the scathing and sarcastic
+reply, ‘Five bob a week at the doctor’s—you’re to stand behind the door
+and make the patients sick. They won’t want no physic when they sees
+your mug.’
+
+
+Blindo, verb (military).—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.
+
+
+Blind One’s Trail, verbal phr. (American).—Figuratively, to remove the
+traces of one’s actions; to conceal one’s intentions. This expression
+is obviously traceable to the days of Indian warfare, when even the
+lives of those engaged often depended upon the success with which the
+trail could be ‘blinded,’ or obliterated. Also to trash one’s trail
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Blind Side, subs. (familiar).—The blind side of a person or thing is
+that which is weakest; the most assailable side. The expression is much
+older than the example quoted by Murray [1655].
+
+    1606. Chapman, Gentleman Usher, Act i., p. 79 (Plays, 1874).
+
+        For that, we’ll follow the blind side of him,
+        And make it sometimes subject of our mirth.
+
+    1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act iii. Con. My father’s credulous,
+    and this rogue has found the blind side of him.
+
+    1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. III., ch. v. Indeed, if this
+    good man had an enthusiasm, or what the vulgar call a blind side,
+    it was this,—he thought a schoolmaster the greatest character in
+    the world, and himself the greatest of all schoolmasters.
+
+    1820. Lamb, Elia (Mrs. Battle). All people have their blind
+    side—their superstitions.
+
+
+Blink, verb (American).—To drink. [Probably of humorous origin, similar
+to smile (q.v.).—and alluding to a wink or blink exchanged between
+friends and comrades before drinking. A frequent toast is ‘I look
+towards you,’ and the transference of sense in such a phrase as ‘I
+wink’ or ‘blink to you,’ and then the use of to blink for ‘to drink’ is
+easy enough. Cf., also To go out and see a man.]
+
+
+Blinker, subs. (popular).—1. The eye. [From blink, to move the eyelids,
+to wink; Cf., Winkers; Peepers; Optics, etc.] For synonyms, see Glims.
+
+    1816. Quiz, Grand Master, I., ii. A patent pair of goggle winkers,
+    Conceal’d from public view his blinkers. [M.]
+
+    1888. American Humorist. ‘Blank your blinkers,’ angrily retorted
+    Brudee, ‘your business was not to fight, but show us the enemy.’
+
+2. (common.)—pl. Spectacles. For synonyms, see Barnacles.
+
+    1732. M. Green, Grotto, 10. Bigots who but one way see through
+    blinkers of authority. [M.]
+
+    1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, I., 38. A little fellow, with blinkers
+    over his eyes. [M.]
+
+    1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., IV. (1858), 205. Who only dare to look
+    up at life through blinkers. [M.]
+
+3. (provincial.)—In Norfolk, a black eye.
+
+4. (pugilistic.)—A hard blow in the eye.
+
+Blank your blinkers.—A euphemistic oath, equivalent to the more common
+‘D——n your eyes.’—See Oaths.
+
+
+Blink-Fencer, subs. (thieves’).—A person who sells spectacles. [From
+blink, a contracted form of ‘blinkers,’ spectacles + fence, primarily a
+receiver of stolen goods, but also applied to a tradesman of any kind,
++ er.]
+
+
+Blinko, subs. (thieves’ and vagrants’).—An amateur entertainment held,
+generally, at a public house; a free and easy (q.v.); a sing song
+(q.v.).
+
+    1877. J. Greenwood, Dick Temple. ‘What is a blinko for instance?’
+    ‘Well, it’s a kind of entertainment, singing, and that,’ replied
+    the old fellow, ‘to which strangers are not invited—least of all
+    the police.’
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, August 4, p. 2, col. 1. ‘An Harmonic blinko,
+    the proceeds of which will be given towards buying a barrow for
+    Young Duckling, who has got married with no visible means of
+    support.’
+
+
+Blister, verb (common).—Employed euphemistically for ‘to damn.’ Cf.,
+Blamed.
+
+    1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Vox, ch. xxvi. ‘Where can they be hid?’
+    he exclaimed, with great emphasis. ‘Blister ’em! Where can the
+    scoundrels be got to?’
+
+
+Blizzard, subs. (popular).—A poser; a stunning blow; an unanswerable
+argument, etc., etc. This word, recently brought into prominent notice
+as the name by which sudden and exceptionally severe snowstorms are
+known in the Western States of America, is one the etymology of which
+is dubious. Some authorities derive it from the German blitz—lightning,
+but a correspondent of N. and Q. claims it as of English nationality,
+asserting that the word has been known in the Midland Counties in its
+present form, or nearly so, for over thirty years; further stating that
+‘may I be blizzered’ is a common oath there. Assuming that the
+expression is a variation of the more generally familiar ‘May God
+strike me blind’ (that is, presumably by lightning), there is nothing
+antagonistic between the two theories of its genesis, and a further
+light is perhaps thrown upon the subject, tending to support its German
+origin, by the fact that, in Pennsylvania, it has been familiar,
+according to a correspondent of the New York Sun, for more than
+half-a-century, its use and meaning being akin to the instances above
+mentioned. It appears that in the central counties of the State in
+question, the word was always used to include the idea of the ‘poser,’
+and even of force, violence, spitefulness, or vindictiveness. If one
+dealt another a hostile blow he ‘gave him a blizzard on the nose,’ ‘on
+the jaw,’ ‘between the eyes,’ etc. If a magistrate lectured a litigant
+severely he ‘gave him a blizzard.’ If in debate one dealt mercilessly
+in ridicule he ‘gave his opponent a blizzard.’ If one man swore at or
+cursed another he ‘gave him a blizzard.’ If a man’s wife scolded him
+she ‘gave him a blizzard.’ When it is remembered that Pennsylvania is
+the State in which the Dutch or German element most largely
+predominates, it does not seem far fetched to attribute its origin to a
+Teutonic source, more especially as there is nothing in the English
+usage to preclude such a derivation. However this may be, the word
+invariably seems to imply suddenness combined with violence; and, at
+any rate, it apparently disposes of the supposition that the word is of
+Western origin, or a coinage of so recent a date as is frequently
+supposed. Like most words of its class, which have largely struck the
+popular taste, it has been generally adopted in an idiomatic sense to
+signify a stunning blow; an overwhelming argument, or a cool reception.
+
+    1834. Crockett, Tour Down East, 16. A gentleman at dinner asked me
+    for a toast; and supposing he meant to have some fun at my expense,
+    I concluded to go ahead, and give him and his likes a blizzard.
+
+    1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 443. Blizzard, a term referred back
+    to the German Blitz, means in the West a stunning blow or an
+    overwhelming argument.
+
+    1884. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. L. News, Feb. 23, p. 171, col. 2.
+    Blizzard. The philologers in American Slang refer back to the
+    German blitz; and its original meaning in the Western States seems
+    to have been a stunning blow or an overwhelming argument. In the
+    Eastern States a sudden set-in of severe frost is called a ‘cold
+    snap.’ Query, how many ‘cold snaps’ does it take to make a
+    ‘blizzard’?
+
+    1888. San Francisco News Letter. I should like to have seen the
+    Colonel’s face when he got that very cold, blizzardy letter. I bet
+    that if Minnie had been near him he would have slapped her real
+    hard.
+
+
+Bloak.—See Bloke.
+
+
+Bloat, subs. (American thieves’).—1. A drowned body.
+
+2. A drunkard. The simile which groups the two is, perhaps, not far
+wrong. [Probably from bloat, an adjective signifying puffed, swollen,
+inflated. Bloat was also formerly in use in England as a contemptuous
+name for a human being.]
+
+
+Bloated Aristocrat, subs. (familiar).—An opprobrious epithet for a man
+swollen with the pride of rank or wealth; also a general sobriquet
+applied by ‘the masses’ to ‘the classes.’ ‘Bloated’ has long been
+employed in a similar sense. Swift spoke of a certain statesman as ‘a
+bloated minister’ [1731].
+
+    1861. Thackeray, Adventures of Philip, I., p. 101. What a bloated
+    aristocrat Thingamy has become since he got his place!
+
+    1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, essay I., p. 17 (1864). Of the
+    two most salient English gentlemen represented, one is a bloated
+    aristocrat of a Baronet hopelessly in debt, the other a rapid
+    brainless nobleman.
+
+    1869. M. Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. x. We sat down finally, at a
+    late hour, in the great Casino, and called for unstinted champagne.
+    It is so easy to be bloated aristocrats where it costs nothing of
+    consequence!
+
+
+Bloater.—See My Bloater; also Mild Bloater.
+
+
+Blob, verb (vagrants’).—To talk; to ‘patter.’ [Probably a corrupted
+form of blab.] Beggars are of two kinds—those who screeve (introducing
+themselves with a fakement, or false document) and those who blob, or
+state their case in their own truly ‘unvarnished’ language. [See,
+however, second quot.]
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 339. ‘Of
+    professional beggars there are two kinds—those who “do it on the
+    blob” (by word of mouth), and those who do it by “screeving,” that
+    is, by petitions and letters.’
+
+    1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. xxvi. ‘Five minutes
+    more and we shall run into him,’ he shouts, sitting well back on
+    his horse, and urging him to his extreme pace, ‘when he blobs like
+    that he’s getting beat. See how Canvas sticks to him, and the
+    yellow dog hangs back waiting for the turn.’
+
+
+Block, subs. (old).—A stupid person; a hard unsympathetic individual;
+one of mean, unattractive appearance. [A figurative sense of block, as
+of wood or stone.]
+
+    a. 1534. N. Udall, Roister Doister, III., iii., p. 44 (Arber). Ye
+    are such a calfe, such an asse, such a blocke.
+
+    1595. Shakspeare, Two Gentlemen, Act ii., Sc. 5. Speed. What an ass
+    art thou! I understand thee not. Launce. What a block art thou,
+    that thou canst not!
+
+    1599. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour. Induct. Cor. Hang him,
+    dull block!
+
+    1624. Massinger, Bondman, II., ii. This will bring him on, Or he’s
+    a block.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Block (s) ... sometimes an
+    ignorant, stupid fellow.
+
+    1881. Besant and Rice, Chaplain of the Fleet, pt. II., ch. iv. She
+    said that her partner was delightful to dance with, partly because
+    he was a lord—and a title, she said, gives an air of grace to any
+    block—partly because he danced well and talked amiably.
+
+2. The head. Possibly an abbreviated form of barber’s block (q.v.). For
+synonyms, see Crumpet.
+
+    1637. Shirley, Lady of Pleas, II., i. Buy a beaver For thy own
+    block.
+
+    1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xxxv. ‘I cleaned a groom’s boots
+    on Toosday, and he punched my block because I blacked the tops.’
+
+Barber’s Block, subs. (common).—1. A transferred sense [from a wooden
+head for showing off a wig] applied to a showy, over-dressed man; a
+fop.
+
+    1876. E. Lynn Linton, Hallberger’s Illus. Mag., p. 72. No, not to
+    men worthy of the name of men—men, not barber’s blocks.
+
+2. The head.—See Block, sense 2.
+
+    1823. Scott, Peveril of the Peak, ch. v. (I., p. 67). Were I not to
+    take better care of the wood than you, brother, there would soon be
+    no more wood about the town than the barber’s block that’s on your
+    own shoulders.
+
+A chip of the same old block, phr. (common).—A man or thing exhibiting
+the same qualities as he or that with which a comparison is made.
+
+    1627. Sanderson, Serm., I., 283. Am not I a child of the same Adam,
+    a vessel of the same clay, a chip of the same block, with him. [M.]
+
+    1655. L’Estrange, Charles I., 126. Episcopacy, which they thought
+    but a great chip of the old block Popery. [M.]
+
+To cut a block with a razor, phr. (old).—Inconsequent argument; futile
+endeavour; incongruous application of means or ability to the end in
+view.
+
+    1774. Goldsmith, Retaliation, 42. ’Twas his fate unemployed or in
+    place, sir, to eat mutton cold and cut blocks with a razor.
+
+To block a hat, phr. (popular).—To crush a man’s hat over the eyes by a
+blow; to bonnet (q.v.).
+
+
+Blockers.—See Block Ornaments.
+
+
+Block House, subs. (old).—A prison; the house of detention. For
+synonyms, see Cage.
+
+    1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III., xi., 85. To stop the disorders
+    of our disorderly Theeues ... built a Block-house. [M.]
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Block-houses,
+    Prisons, houses of correction, etc.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. [Same definition given as in Grose.]
+
+    1889. Murray, New English Dictionary. [Common since c. 1500: of
+    uncertain history. The Ger. equivalent blockhaus (‘einen steinen
+    Blockhaus’) is quoted by Grimm, 1557 and 1602; the Du. blokhuis is
+    in Kilian, 1599; Fr. blocus, generally considered to be the same
+    word, and orig. in same sense, is quoted by Littré in the 16th c.
+    (Cf., Bloccuz). So far as evidence goes, the Eng. is thus the
+    earliest; but we should expect it to be of Du. or Ger. origin. In
+    any case the sense was not originally (as in modern notion) a house
+    composed of blocks of wood, but one which blocks or obstructs a
+    passage. The history and age of the Ger. blockhaus and Fr. blocus
+    require more investigation.]
+
+
+Block Island Turkey, subs. (American).—Salted cod-fish. Connecticut and
+Rhode Island. Slang delights in naming fish as flesh. For some curious
+examples, see Two-eyed steak.
+
+
+Block Ornaments, or Blockers, subs. (common).—1. Small pieces of meat
+of indifferent quality, trimmings from the joints, etc. Exposed for
+sale on the blocks or counters of butcher’s shops in cheap
+neighbourhoods.
+
+    1848. Fraser’s Mag., XXXVII., 396. Forced to substitute a blocker
+    of meat, with its cheap accompaniment of bread and vegetables ...
+    for poultry and rump steaks. [M.]
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 54. For
+    dinner ... they buy block ornaments, as they call the small,
+    dark-coloured pieces of meat exposed on the cheap butchers’ blocks
+    or counters. Ibid, p. 516. What they consider a good living is a
+    dinner daily off good block ornaments (small pieces of meat,
+    discoloured and dirty, but not tainted, usually set for sale on the
+    butcher’s block).
+
+    1884. Punch, No. 2063, p. 29. And eager-faced women must bargain
+    for tainted block ornaments still.
+
+    1887. Standard, Jan. 20, The Poor at Market. Watching a man who
+    stands with his wife and little girl before a butcher’s shop, let
+    us see what they have to choose from in buying for the next day’s
+    dinner. On the shelves set out in front of the shop meat scraps are
+    offered at 3½d. the lb.; better scraps (or block ornaments, as they
+    are termed) at 4d.; somewhat shapeless small joints of beef from
+    inferior parts at 5d., one coarse shoulder of mutton at the same;
+    tolerably good-looking meat at 6d.; mutton chops at 7d. and 8d.;
+    and rump steak at 10d.
+
+2. Applied to individuals, a block ornament signifies a queer looking
+man or woman—one odd in appearance.
+
+
+Bloke or Bloak, subs. (common).—A man; a fellow. In saying ‘not
+strictly “a man” as Hotten defines it, but a man in a contemptuous
+sense,’ Barrère is himself wide of the mark. The word may sometimes be
+used contemptuously; but, generally speaking, any idea of reproach or
+praise is absent, and a bloke means a man pure and simple. In witness
+whereof are the following examples of its use.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 397. If we
+    met an old bloke (man) we propped him.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. A gentleman.—A bloak.
+
+    1860. Sala, The Baddington Peerage, II., p. 49. My old bloke!
+
+    1862. Kingsley, in Macmillan’s Mag., Dec, 96. Little better than
+    blokes and boodles after all. [M.]
+
+    1863. Ouida, Held in Bondage, bk. I., p. 245. The girl is stunning,
+    the blokes say, so we must forgive you.
+
+    1865. Miss Braddon, in Temple Bar, XIII., 483. The society of the
+    aged bloke is apt to pull upon the youthful intellect.
+
+    1869. J. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. It came out in the
+    course of the evidence that the meaning of the word bloke was ‘a
+    man whom a woman might pick up in the street.’
+
+    1873. Robinson, Little Kate Kirby, I., p. 136. ‘Give us a horder
+    then, old bloke,’ shrieked another gamin.
+
+    c. 1875. Broadside Ballad, ‘Keep it Dark.’
+
+        I have heard though may be it isn’t a fact,
+                                Keep it dark!
+        That the present Lord Chancellor’s going to be sacked,
+                                Keep it dark!
+        And Dr. Kenealy, that popular bloke,
+        That extremely warm member, the member for Stoke,
+        Is about to succeed him, the lawyers to choke—
+                            But, keep it dark!
+
+    c. 1869. Broadside Ballad, ‘Shooting the Moon.’ Spoken—Yes, and I
+    used to do very well, until some ragged young urchin said to his
+    pal, don’t you varder, don’t you know that ere bloke, that’s the
+    bloke we saw the other day with a barrow.
+
+    1883. Daily News, May 15, p. 7, col. 2. ‘When you are coming out
+    into the yard ask the next bloke to change numbers with you.’
+
+In each case the ‘face value’ of the word appears to be simply ‘a man,’
+and in spite of Barrère’s assertion that ‘in the police newspapers
+twenty-five years ago a bloke was a victim of sharps, a stupid person,
+a greenhorn,’ the evidence is all the other way; in one instance,
+indeed, the individual in question is reported to be ‘a gentleman.’ As
+regards derivation, its origin is uncertain. Hotten and Ogilvie compare
+it with the Hindustanee loke, a man; while Leland traces it to ‘the
+Dutch blok, a log, a fool.’ For synonyms, see Cove.
+
+
+Blood, subs. (old).—1. A fop; dandy; buck; or ‘fast’ man. Originally in
+common use, but now obsolete. [From that legitimate sense of the word
+which attributes the seat of the passions and emotions to the blood.
+Hence, a man of spirit; one who is worth mention, and, in an inferior
+sense, he who makes himself notorious, whether by dress or rowdyism.]
+In the last century, especially during the regency of George IV., the
+term was largely in vogue to denote a young man of good birth or social
+standing about town; subsequently, it came to mean a riotous,
+disorderly fellow.
+
+    1562. Bulleyn, Sicke Men, etc., 73a. A lustie blood, or a
+    pleasaunte brave young roister. [M.]
+
+    1606. John Day, Ile of Gulls, Act i., p. 9. Basil. Welcome
+    gallants, welcome honord bloods. Ibid. To which effect we have sent
+    a generall challenge to all the youthfull bloods of Africa.
+
+    1752. Adventurer, No. 15. Our heroes of liberty, whether Bucks or
+    Bloods, or of whatever other denomination, when by some creditor of
+    slavish principles they have been locked up in a prison, never yet
+    petitioned to be hanged.
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 21. ‘Trenchard!’
+    he muttered—‘Aliva Trenchard. They were right, then, as to the
+    name. Well, if she survives the accident—as the blood who styles
+    himself Sir Cecil fancies she may do—this ring will make my fortune
+    by leading to the discovery of the chief parties concerned in this
+    strange affair.’
+
+    1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, ch. x. A perfect and celebrated blood, or
+    dandy about town, was this young officer.
+
+    1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. ii., p. 36. The modern bloods
+    have given up the respectful ceremonies which distinguished a
+    gentleman in my time.
+
+2. (old.)—Money. [A comparison of blood, as the vital principle, to
+money, as that upon which the sustenance of life depends—the ‘sinews of
+war,’ the ‘needful,’ etc.] For all synonyms, see Actual.
+
+    1748. Dodsley, Collection of Poems, III., 199.
+
+        He sticks to gaming, as the surer trade;
+        Turns downright sharper, lives by sucking blood.
+
+    1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. iv. ‘A man who ought to
+    consider himself uncommonly fortunate never to have known what it
+    was to be hard up, or to have a pack of extravagant sons sucking
+    his blood, like so many modern vampires.’
+
+Verb (familiar).—To deplete of money; to victimise; a figurative usage
+of ‘to bleed’; i.e., surgically, to let or draw blood by opening a
+vein. Cf., subs., sense 2, and Bleed.
+
+    1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 187. ‘He is very likely
+    to want a thousand pounds at any moment. There’s a leaven of the
+    old squire in his composition, and I recollect hearing that he was
+    blooded over the Phaeton Leger.’ ‘You surely can’t mean that he has
+    taken to racing? Why, you must be aware that he has no money for
+    anything of that sort.’
+
+
+Blood and Entrails, subs. (American).—The British ensign is so
+nicknamed by Yankee sailors; English salts return the compliment by
+jokingly speaking of the American flag as the gridiron and doughboys
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Blood and Thunder, subs. (common).—A beverage of port wine and brandy
+mixed. Port is the blood, from its colour; brandy the thunder—the
+combined effects being, it is held, provocative of ‘thundering’
+head-aches.
+
+
+Blood and Thunder Tales, subs. phr. (originally American, now
+common).—Low class fiction, the term being generally applied to works
+dealing with the exploits of desperadoes, cut-throats, and other
+criminals. Also called Awfuls, Penny dreadfuls, Gutter literature,
+Shilling shockers, etc., all of which see for further illustrations.
+
+    1876. Portland Transcript, May. Here let me say one word to the
+    Transcript mothers. Look carefully to your child’s reading matter.
+    Beware of the cheap, trashy romances, the blood and thunder tales
+    by Tom, Dick and Harry, which fill the counters of so many of our
+    bookstores.
+
+    1883. Daily News, March 26, p. 2, col. 3. The blood and thunder
+    tragedies generally associated with the transpontine drama.
+
+
+Blood-an’-’Ouns, phr. (old).—An abbreviated form of an old and
+blasphemous oath—‘God’s blood and wounds!’
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 58. ‘Och! if
+    he’s a friend o’ yours, my dear joy, there’s no more to be said;
+    and right sorry am I I struck him. But, blood-an’-’ouns! man, if
+    ould Nick himself were to hit me a blow, I’d be afther givin’ him
+    another.’
+
+
+Blood-Curdler or Blood-Freezer, subs. (common).—A narration or incident
+which ‘makes the flesh creep’; that which stirs one’s feelings
+strongly, and generally repulsively. Said of a sensational murder, a
+thrilling ghost-story, etc. Cf., Blood and thunder tales.
+
+
+Blood for Blood, phr. (trade).—When tradesmen exchange wares, setting
+the cost of one kind off against another instead of making payment in
+currency, they are said to give blood for blood. Cf., Blood. (1) the
+vital fluid; (2) money—hence applied to that upon the sale of which a
+man is dependent for a livelihood.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. A hatter furnishing a hosier with a
+    hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for
+    blood.
+
+
+Blood-Freezer.—See Blood-curdler.
+
+
+Blood-Red Fancy, subs. (pugilistic).—A particular kind of handkerchief
+sometimes worn by pugilists and frequenters of prize fights.—See Billy.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. Red silk
+    handkerchief. Blood-red fancy.
+
+
+Blood Suckers, subs. (military).—The Sixty-third Regiment of Foot.
+
+
+Blood-Tub, subs. (American).—A rowdy; a blustering bully; a rough. This
+nickname was peculiar to Baltimore, which city, perhaps of all cities
+in the Union, enjoyed, for a time, an unenviable reputation on account
+of the rowdyism of a section of its inhabitants. More or less, however,
+these turbulent gangs infest all the more important centres of
+population, and answer in many respects to the English ‘roughs.’ They
+are recruited largely from the labouring and commercial population;
+they drink, and swear, but commit no crime, save an occasional deed of
+violence in times when excitement runs unusually high, and are for the
+most part affiliated with one or other of the two political parties,
+the Republicans or Democrats. They are known as Dead Rabbits in New
+York, Moyamensing Hounds in Philadelphia, Blood-tubs in Baltimore,
+where at other times they have also been designated Babes, Plug-uglies,
+and Ashlanders. The Blood-tubs are reported to have been mostly
+butchers, and to have got their epithet from having, on an election
+day, dipped an obnoxious German’s head in a tub of warm blood, and then
+driven him running through the town.
+
+    18(?). Song of the Irish Legion.
+
+        Blood-tubs and plug-uglies, and others galore,
+        Are sick for a thrashing in sweet Baltimore;
+        Be jabers! that same I’d be proud to inform
+        Of the terrible force of an Irishman’s arm.
+
+
+Bloody, adj. (low).—An epithet difficult to define, and used in a
+multitude of vague and varying senses. Most frequently, however, as it
+falls with wearisome reiteration every two or three seconds from the
+mouths of London roughs of the lowest type, no special meaning, much
+less a sanguinary one, can be attached to its use. In such a case it
+forms a convenient intensitive, sufficiently important as regards sound
+to satisfy those whose lack of language causes them to fall back upon a
+frequent use of words of this type. Bloody occasionally carries with it
+a suspicion of anger, resentment, or detestation. [For suggested
+derivations, and some incidental illustrative examples, see adverbial
+usage, which follows.]
+
+    1840. R. Dana, Bef. Mast, ii., 2. You’ll find me a bloody rascal.
+    Ibid, xx., 61. They’ve got a man for a mate of that ship, and not a
+    bloody sheep about decks. [M.]
+
+    1880. Ruskin, Fiction, Fair and F., § 29. The use of the word
+    bloody in modern low English is a deeper corruption, not altering
+    the form of the word, but defiling the thought in it. [M.]
+
+Adv. (low).—Among the vulgar at the present day bloody, used
+adverbially, says G. A. Sala [Notes and Queries, 4 S., i., Feb. 8,
+1868], simply qualifies the superlative and excessive. Admiral Gambier,
+who is said to have introduced ‘tea and piety’ into the navy, very
+properly discountenanced the practice so long common to naval officers
+of d——g the sailors’ eyes while they were reefing topsails. His tars,
+scarcely grateful, nicknamed the admiral ‘Old Bloody Politeful.’ The
+lower classes use bloody indifferently as a term of depreciation or
+appreciation. Thus, it’s a bloody shame; and per contra in a flash
+song, the poet (supposed to be languishing in prison) recounts that the
+chaplain discoursed to the inmates—
+
+
+    ‘How Jonah lived inside of a whale,
+    ’Twas a bloody sight better than county gaol.’
+
+
+As regards derivation, dual causes seem to have operated in the
+evolution of bloody in its depraved sense. The various stages are
+summarised by Murray, in so far as evidence will permit, as follows.
+The origin is not quite certain; but there is good reason to think that
+it was at first a reference to the habits of the ‘bloods’ or
+aristocratic rowdies of the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th
+c. The phrase ‘bloody drunk’ was apparently = ‘as drunk as a blood’
+(Cf., ‘as drunk as a lord’); thence it was extended to kindred
+expressions, and at length to others; probably in later times, its
+associations with bloodshed and murder (Cf., a bloody battle, a bloody
+butcher) have recommended it to the rough classes as a word that
+appeals to their imagination. We may compare the prevalent craving for
+impressive or graphic intensives, seen in the use of jolly, awfully,
+terribly, devilish, deuced, damned, ripping, rattling, thumping,
+stunning, thundering, etc. There is no ground for the notion that
+bloody, offensive as from association it now is to ears polite,
+contains any profane allusion, or has connection with the oath
+‘’sblood!’ In this particular it may be noted that Mr. C. G. Leland is
+in error when he says ‘Mr. Hotten thinks this is an expletive without
+reference to any [italics not in original] meaning.’ Mr. Hotten neither
+said nor implied anything of the kind, but just the reverse; and Mr.
+Leland has hung his remarks upon a misquotation. Hotten’s exact words
+are ‘bloody, an expletive used, without reference to meaning, as an
+adjective and an adverb, simply for intensification’—a very different
+thing; ergo as far as Hotten goes he is absolutely correct.
+
+There seems little doubt, however, that the association of bloody with
+bloodshed and murder has had a very large influence in determining its
+present bad signification in the mouth of a cockney of the lower
+classes. It is noteworthy, too, that the German blutig is sometimes
+used, says H. Tiedeman [N. and Q., 4 S., i., Feb. 8, 1868], in the same
+manner as the London bloody:—While living in Dresden, I heard many
+times uttered such phrases as—
+
+
+    ‘Ich habe keinen blutigen Heller mehr,’
+    [I have no bloody penny or ‘red cent’ more],
+
+
+for ‘I have not a single penny left,’ etc. Was, then, the Dresden
+blutig introduced to the London mob in the shape of bloody? The Dutch
+bloedig may be used figuratively, just as the French sanglant. Une
+injure sanglante might be translated by ‘een bloedige beleediging.’ It
+might, and it is in fact, sometimes used to qualify an adjective. To
+say ‘bloedig schoon’ (literally, ‘bloody beautiful’), would be
+perfectly correct, but then it has not the sense of exceedingly; it
+keeps its original meaning. ‘Bloedig schoon’ could not be rendered
+otherwise than by sanguinary and beautiful.
+
+    1676. Sir G. Etheredge, Man of Mode (Act i., Sc. 1), p. 186, ed.
+    1723.
+
+    Dor. Give him half-a-crown.
+
+    Med. Not without he will promise to be bloody drunk.
+
+    1684. Dryden, Prol. Southerne’s Disappointment, line 59. The
+    doughty bullies enter bloody drunk. [M.]
+
+    1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, Act iv., Sc. 1. Plume. Thou art
+    a bloody impudent fellow. [There is no question of fighting in the
+    context.]
+
+    1711. Swift, Journal to Stella, 8 May, letter 22. It was bloody hot
+    walking to-day.
+
+    1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. ‘I’ve a bloody great
+    mind to go down with him,’ stuttered another.
+
+From the foregoing examples the word would appear to have been once in
+literary use; it is not now customary to print it in full, but thus,
+b——y. In passing it may be mentioned that there is no ground for
+attributing its derivation to ‘By’r Our Lady.’
+
+
+Bloody Back, subs. (old).—A soldier; a nickname alluding to the colour
+of his coat. [From bloody = of the colour of blood, i.e., scarlet or
+blood-red + back.]
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Bloody back. A jeering appellation for
+    a soldier.
+
+
+Bloody Chasm. To bridge the bloody chasm, phr. (American).—A favourite
+expression with orators who, during the years immediately succeeding
+the Civil War, sought to obliterate the memory of the struggle. The
+antithetical phrase is to wave the bloody shirt (q.v.).
+
+
+Bloody Eleventh, subs. (military). The Eleventh Regiment of Foot. At
+the battle of Salamanca, fought with the French, the corps was nearly
+cut to pieces, whence its sanguinary sobriquet. At Fontenoy and Ostend
+also, it was hard-pressed and nearly annihilated.
+
+
+Bloody Jemmy, subs. (common).—An uncooked sheep’s head.—See Sanguinary
+James for synonyms.
+
+
+Bloody Shirt. To wave the bloody shirt.—A phrase which is only one of
+many of a similar character, variants such as ‘to wave the crimson
+banner,’ ‘the ensanguined under garment,’ etc., being quite frequently
+met with in American journalism. Its origin and history is thus
+explained in Americanisms, Old and New:—It is a political phrase used
+in the States to signify the opening anew or keeping alive of factious
+strife on party questions. Primarily it was the symbol of those who,
+during the Reconstruction period at the close of the rebellion of the
+Southern or Confederate States, would not suffer the Civil War to sink
+into oblivion out of consideration for the feelings of the vanquished.
+Perhaps a more odious term never crept into politics than the bloody
+shirt; it is alike distasteful to the sense, brutal and vulgar, and
+capable of misuse. There are still those who, in American politics, in
+the thousand and one points of difference which continually and
+inevitably must arise between institutions so diverse in origin,
+tradition, and practice as those of the North and South, seek for party
+purposes to estrange the one from the other by keeping alive the
+exciting memories of the old bitter struggle. When a man is said to
+have waved the bloody shirt it is known that he has gone back in spirit
+and intent to the sorrowful days of the Republic, when the blue and the
+grey, each confident of battling for the right, were slaying each other
+in the valleys of the South. He ignores the peace which has settled
+over the old fields of war, and does not assent to the hand clasp of
+Federal with Confederate. He tries to open the strife anew, mocks the
+spirit of forgiveness, and rakes the old ashes over in the hunt for a
+burning coal. He scoffs at those who fought against the Union, and,
+because they have come back to it, calls them insincere. He rebukes the
+veteran who forgave them when together they laid down their arms. This
+is called waving the bloody shirt, and to-day, when many of those now
+in active life cannot remember the time when the Rebellion had closed,
+and the boys were marching home, there are legislators and journalists
+who devote their efforts to stirring up a sectional hatred which
+without these efforts would be but a tradition. Many Southerners keenly
+resent the spirit which thus traduces the now loyal South, and declares
+it hypocritical. The bloody shirters, as they are called, rail at the
+decency which forgives and forgets, and with venomous tongues revile
+alike those who fell in the lost cause, those who lived to repent, and
+those who would grant pardon. So long as men lost to honour will do
+this the action must have a name—it will be called waving the bloody
+shirt. From this special meaning it is now passing into general use to
+indicate similar tactics in regard to any cause. It has recently been
+introduced into English journalism in connection with the Irish
+struggle, and the ‘Unionist Party’ has been accused of waving the
+bloody shirt—with how much truth or the reverse there is here no
+concern. The origin of the expression is to be sought in a Corsican
+custom now nearly, if not quite, obsolete. In the days of the fierce
+vendette—the feuds which divided the Corsicans, family from family,
+bloodshed was a common occurrence. Before the burial of a murdered man,
+the gridata was celebrated. This word, which literally means a crying
+aloud, may be translated ‘a wake.’ The body of the victim was laid upon
+a plank; his useless firearms were placed near his hand, and his
+blood-stained shirt was hung above his head. Around the rude bier sat a
+circle of women, wrapped in their black mantles, who rocked themselves
+to and fro with strange wailings. The men, relatives and friends of the
+murdered man, fully armed stood around the room, mad with thirst for
+revenge. Then one of the women—the wife or mother or sister of the dead
+man—with a sharp scream would snatch the bloody shirt, and waving it
+aloft begin the vocero—the lamentation. This rhythmic discourse was
+made up of alternate expressions of love for the dead, and hatred of
+his enemies; and its startling images and tremendous curses were echoed
+in the faces and amidst the mutterings of the armed mourners. Its
+application to American politics is credited to Mr. Oliver P. Morton,
+who, elected United States senator in 1867, and again in 1873, took a
+prominent part as a leader of the more radical Republicans, favouring a
+stern policy of coercion in the reconstruction of the Southern States.
+He was one of the Presidential Candidates at the Cincinnati Convention
+of 1876, his name standing second on the first ballot. Happily,
+however, his opinions were too pronounced to unite the factions of his
+party, and the ultimate choice fell upon Mr. Hayes.
+
+    1888. Coldwater (Mich.) Sun, Jan. The bloody shirt is gradually
+    fading away. The white-winged dove of peace spreads her wings here
+    and there, patriotism forgets and forgives old differences,
+    sectionalism is gradually giving way to love of country—the whole
+    country. In fact the ill-feeling between the North and South would
+    have died out years ago among the veterans of both sections, had
+    they been left to themselves, and the politicians been as patriotic
+    as they.
+
+    1888. New York Weekly Times, Mar. 21. It is reprehensible to the
+    last degree for the Bourbons of the South to continue to play on
+    the colour line—the Southern bloody shirt—and then denounce
+    Republican extremists for doing the same thing at the North.
+
+
+Bloomer, subs. (Australian prison slang).—A mistake. Said to be an
+abbreviated form of ‘blooming error.’—See Blooming.
+
+
+Blooming, often Bloomin’, ppl. adj. (common).—This word, similar in
+type to ‘blessed,’ ‘blamed,’ and other words of the kind, is, as used
+by the lower classes, a euphemism for bloody (q.v.), but it is also
+frequently employed as a mere meaningless intensitive. Like the
+last-named word, little count is taken of its exact primary meaning.
+Its slang use may be traced to that figurative sense of the orthodox
+word, which signifies ‘in the bloom of health and beauty,’ ‘in the
+prime,’ ‘flourishing,’ etc. Some uncertainty exists as to the origin of
+this not over-ornamental addition to our expletive vocabulary. If the
+word is used by Granvil (see quot.) in its modern sense, then the
+phrase is very much older than has hitherto been imagined. Barring
+this, it would seem that we are indebted for it to the Californian
+coast, although there is little doubt that the chief instrument in its
+acclimatization in England was Mr. Alfred G. Vance, the comic singer,
+well-known in connection with ‘Jolly dogs,’ and other extensively
+popular music-hall songs. As before stated, it has very largely
+supplanted ‘bloody’; bally (q.v.) is also used in the same manner. Its
+applications are manifold. One is requested not to make any blooming
+mistake or error; another ‘showing off,’ or ‘putting on side,’ is told
+not to be so blooming flash; an excessively stupid man is spoken of as
+a blooming idiot; and an inquisitive individual is told more forcibly
+than politely, perhaps, ‘you asks me no bloomin’ imper’int questions,
+an’ I tells yer no bloomin’ lies.’
+
+    1726. Rev. J. Granvil, Sadducismus triumphatus [under the head of
+    ‘The Demon of Tedworth’ (1661). Granvil makes mention that on one
+    occasion the spirit came into a room panting like a dog, and]
+    company coming up, the room was presently filled with a blooming
+    noisome smell.
+
+    18(?). Colonel John Hay, Ballad, ‘The Mystery of Gilgal.’
+
+        He went for his ’leven inch bowie knife:
+        I tries to foller a Christian life,
+        But I’ll drop a slice of liver or two,
+        My bloomin’ shrub, with you.
+
+    1887. G. R. Sims, Dagonet Ballads (Told to the Missionary). ‘I
+    feels like a bloomin’ babby—I gets so infernal weak.’
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 222. ‘Afore that I
+    worked in the galleries, a making the casemates for the guns, and
+    blooming hard work it was.’
+
+    1882. Punch’s Almanac, p. 4. The Steam Launch in Venice (‘Sic
+    Transit Gloria Mundi’)—’Andsome ’Arriet: ‘Ow my! If it ’yn’t that
+    bloomin’ old Temple Bar, as they did aw’y with out o’ Fleet
+    Street!’ Mr. Belleville (referring to guide book): ‘Now it ’yn’t.
+    It’s the fymous Bridge o’ Sighs, as Byron went and stood on; ’im as
+    wrote ‘Our Boys,’ yer know!’ ’Andsome ’Arriet: ‘Well, I never!’
+
+    1880. Jas. Greenwood, Flyfaker’s Hotel, in Odd People in Odd
+    Places, p. 59. ‘Who’s got any music?’ presently exclaimed the dirty
+    scoundrel who had been mending the boxing-glove; ‘—— me, let’s have
+    a bloomin’ lark! Let’s have a tune and a song. Who’s got any
+    bloomin’ music?’
+
+    1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxxviii. ‘And if there’s
+    fire there ought to be nothen to stop us from cooking a bloomin’
+    old goat.’
+
+    1889. Ally Sloper, July 6. Injured Innocence: Indignant Son of
+    Labour. Well, I’m blowed! If that ’ere bloomin’ swell ain’t
+    a-himitatin’ me!
+
+
+Bloss, subs. (old, and American thieves’).—A generic name for a woman,
+whether girl, wife, or mistress. Probably from an attributive sense of
+‘blossom.’ For example, Shakspeare, in Titus Andronicus [1588, iv., 2,
+72], employs it in the sense of one lovely and full of promise. ‘Sweet
+blowse you are a beautious blossome sure.’ Tennyson also [1847] in the
+Princess [v., 79] uses the expression, ‘My babe, my blossom, ah, my
+child!’ Cf., Blowen.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bloss (cant), the
+    pretended wife of a bully or shop-lifter.
+
+    1881. New York Slang Dictionary, ‘Slang Stories,’ p. 42. ‘Why,
+    Bell, is it yourself? Tip us your daddle, my bene mort. May I dance
+    at my death, and grin in a class-case, if I didn’t think you had
+    been put to bed with a shovel....’ ‘No, Jim, I only piked into
+    Grassville with a dimber-damber, who couldn’t pad the hoof for a
+    single darkman’s without his bloss to keep him from getting pogy.’
+
+
+Blot the Scrip, verbal phr. (old).—To put an undertaking into writing;
+the modern phrase is ‘to put it in black and white.’ Hence
+
+To blot the scrip and jark it (old), i.e., to stand engaged, or bound
+for anyone.—Grose. Jark means a seal, and in Oxford slang, a safe
+conduct pass; in the former sense it is retained in the patter of
+modern American thieves, a synonym being jasker. Jarkman is the name
+given in America to a begging letter writer, whose accomplishments in
+this respect are varied by the production of false characters for
+servants, and other documents of a kindred nature. This is a case, like
+many others, in which old English cant terms have, across the Atlantic,
+been invested with a new meaning. Formerly a jarkman was equivalent to
+an ‘Abram-man,’ i.e., a licensed beggar.
+
+
+Bloviate, verb (American).—To talk aimlessly and boastingly; to indulge
+in ‘high falutin’. [A factitious word probably founded on the verb
+blow, sense 1, on the model of ‘deviate.’] Said to have been in use
+since 1850.
+
+
+Blow, subs. (common).—1. A shilling.
+
+Amongst Synonyms for this coin are beong; borde; button; deaner or
+deener; bob; bobstick (old slang); breaky-leg; gen (this forms part of
+the so-called back slang); hog; levy; peg; stag; teviss; twelver;
+touch-me (this is an abbreviated form of touch-me-on-the-nob, rhyming
+slang for bob or shilling); Abraham’s willing (also rhyming slang for a
+shilling).
+
+    1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. But afterwards I got
+    3s. 9d., and then four blow. Ibid. I went to the Steel
+    (Bastile—Coldbath Fields Prison), having a new suit of clobber on
+    me and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).
+
+    1885. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 5, p. 2, col. 6. They said they could
+    sell some for five blows (shillings), and that he could easily make
+    £158 of the stuff.
+
+2. (Old University.)—A drunken frolic; a spree. Cf., Blow-out, subs.
+For synonyms, see Jamboree.
+
+Verb.—1. To boast; to brag; to ‘gas’—generally to talk boastfully or
+self-assertingly of oneself or one’s affairs. In this sense to blow,
+long dialectically current, is now regarded as slang. It is also
+associated with the idea of angry speech, ‘storming,’ ‘fuming.’ Cf.,
+Blow up, and for synonyms, see Gas.
+
+    c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 97. Blouing veynly wip fleschli wit. [M.]
+
+    1519. Four Elements, in Hazl. Dodsley, I., 41. Why, man, what
+    aileth thee so to blow? [M.]
+
+    1785. Burns, Epistle to J. Lapraik, st. 16. I winna blaw about
+    mysel; As ill I like my fauts to tell.
+
+    1883. Graphic, Jan. 27, p. 79, col. i. The whole team has taught
+    Australia not to blow (as they say)—a not unneeded lesson.
+
+    1883. Mrs. Campbell Praed, Sketches of Australian Life, p. 45. ‘He
+    was famous for his coolness and daring, and for blowing, in
+    Australian parlance, both of his exploits and of his “bonnes
+    fortunes.”’
+
+2. (general.)—To inform; to expose; to betray; to peach. Cf., also Blow
+upon and Blow the gab. [This is a transferred sense of blow = to
+breathe out; to give forth by breathing; hence, to sound a signal on an
+instrument; to blaze abroad as by a trumpet.] For synonyms, see Peach.
+
+    1575. Appius and Virg., in Hazl. Dodsley, IV., 136. Was all well
+    agreed? did nobody blow ye? [M.]
+
+    1721. Defoe, History of Colonel Jack. ‘As for that,’ says Will, ‘I
+    could tell it well enough, if I had it, but I must not be seen
+    anywhere among my old acquaintances, for I am blown, and they will
+    all betray me.’
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Blow (v.) ... also to discover
+    the secrets of another; also when a person undervalues or slights a
+    person or thing, he is said to blow upon it.
+
+    a. 1859. L. Hunt, Country Lodgings, in Casquet Lit. (1877), I., p.
+    42, col. 1. D—n me, if I don’t blow ... I’ll tell Tom Neville, [M.]
+
+3. (American.)—To lie; and in a slightly less opprobrious sense to
+‘gas’ so much as to be perilously near the border-line which separates
+boasting exaggeration from absolute untruth.
+
+4. (general.)—Frequently employed euphemistically for ‘to
+damn’—generally in the imperative.—Blow it! i.e., ‘hang it’! or damn
+it! Cf., Blowed, with which it is closely allied in all senses.
+
+    1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. ii. ‘Well, if you won’t stand a
+    pot,’ quoth the tall man, ‘I will, that’s all, and blow
+    temperance.’
+
+    1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xxvi. ‘Blow his station in
+    life! If he was a duke I shouldn’t want him.’
+
+5. (general.)—To lose or spend money. Cf., Blue.
+
+6. (University.)—To indulge in a frolic or spree. Cf., Blow out; also
+To go on the blow.
+
+7. (Winchester School.)—To blush.
+
+To bite the blow, phr. (old cant).—To steal goods; to Prig, which see
+for synonyms.
+
+
+Blow a Cloud, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To smoke a cigar or pipe;
+Hotten says, ‘a phrase used two centuries ago’ but gives no authority,
+and Murray’s earliest example only dates from 1855, but as will be seen
+below, it occurs in Tom Crib in 1819.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 39.
+
+          ... His fame I need not tell,
+        For that, my friends, all England’s loud with;
+        But this I’ll say, a civiller Swell
+          I’d never wish to blow a cloud with.
+
+    1870. M. Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. vii. And blowing suffocating
+    ‘clouds’ and boisterously performing at dominoes in the
+    smoking-room at night.
+
+French Synonyms. Tubons en une (popular: ‘let’s blow a cloud’; tuber =
+to smoke); piper; la fumerie (popular: smoking); faire du brouillard
+(‘to produce or make a fog or mist’); en bourrer une; bouffarder. A
+German Synonym is Esef schwächen, or schweihen.
+
+
+Blow-Book, subs. (old).—A book containing indelicate or ‘smutty’
+pictures.
+
+    1708. Post Man, 8 June. Last Sunday a person did pennance in the
+    Chapter-House of St. Paul’s, London, for publickly shewing in
+    Bartholomew Fair a book called a blow-book, in which were many
+    obscene and filthy pictures: the book was likewise burnt, and the
+    person paid costs.
+
+
+Blowed. To be blowed, verb (familiar).—Blowed is here a euphemism for
+‘damned’; to all intents and purposes, it is frequently little more
+than a thinly-veiled oath. Hotten says that Tom Hood used to tell the
+following story:—‘I was once asked to contribute to a new journal, not
+exactly gratuitously, but at a very small advance upon nothing—and
+avowedly because the work had been planned according to that estimate.
+However, I accepted the terms conditionally—that is to say, provided
+the principle could be properly carried out. Accordingly, I wrote to my
+butcher, baker, and other tradesmen, informing them that it was
+necessary, for the sake of cheap literature and the interest of the
+reading public, that they should furnish me with their several
+commodities at a very trifling per-centage above cost price. It will be
+sufficient to quote the answer of the butcher:—“Sir,—Respectin’ your
+note, Cheap literater be blowed! Butchers must live as well as other
+pepel—and if so be you or the readin’ publick wants to have meat at
+prime cost, you must buy your own beastesses, and kill yourselves.—I
+remain, etc., John Stokes.”’
+
+Cf., Blow me!
+
+    1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 50. Others remonstrating with
+    the said Thomas Sludberry, on the impropriety of his conduct, the
+    said Thomas Sludberry repeated the aforesaid expression, ‘You be
+    blowed.’
+
+    1863. Jeaffreson, Live It Down, III., p. 249. (Cries of ‘Chair,
+    Chair,’ and ‘Order, order.’) ‘Order be blowed!’ exclaimed the
+    infuriated Mr. H.
+
+    1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. II., ch. v. ‘Holiday be
+    blowed!’ said Fledgely, entering, ‘What have you got to do with
+    holidays?’
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 244. ‘No,’ says
+    she, ‘we’ve got some more besides that, and enough, too, to take us
+    to France. Blowed, old man, if we don’t go to Paris, and there we
+    can get £300 for them.’
+
+    1879. Punch’s Almanac, p. 7. Seasonable Slang. For Spring.—You be
+    blowed! For Summer.—I’ll warm yer! For Autumn.—Not so blooming
+    green! For Winter.—An ice little game all round.
+
+    1889. Ally Sloper’s H. H., Aug. 3, p. 242, col. 2. ‘Blowed if I’d
+    have made her Mrs. Juggins, if I’d have known she wor going to make
+    a footstool of me!’
+
+
+Blowen or Blowing, subs. (old.)—This word appears to have passed
+through a series of ups and downs in the course of its career.
+Originally signifying a woman, without special reference to moral
+character, it subsequently came to mean a showy courtesan, or a
+prostitute. It still retains the latter meaning, but is frequently used
+in a more complimentary sense than heretofore to signify a finely built
+handsome girl. In America among the criminal classes it is only used to
+designate a mistress. Its derivation is extremely uncertain, the two
+most important suggestions being that it comes (1) from the reputation
+having been ‘blown upon’; and (2) that in Wilts blowen signifies a
+blossom—hence blowen a flower; a pet.
+
+    1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, I., in wks. (1720) IV., 17. What
+    ogling there will be between thee and the blowings!
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143. Blowen, a woman.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Blowen, a prostitute: a woman who
+    cohabits with a man without marriage.
+
+    1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. ii. ‘If she’s a good girl, and
+    loves you, she’ll not let you spend your money on her.’ ‘I haint
+    such a ninny as that,’ said Beck, with majestic contempt. ‘I
+    ’spises the flat that is done brown by the blowens.’
+
+    1848. C. Kingsley, Yeast, ch. xi. Why don’t they have a short
+    simple service now and then, that might catch the ears of the
+    roughs and the blowens, without tiring out the poor thoughtless
+    creatures’ patience, as they do now?
+
+For synonyms in the sense of prostitute, see Barrack-hack.
+
+
+Blower, subs. (old).—1. A girl; a contemptuous name in opposition to
+jomer (q.v.); given by Grose [1785].
+
+2. (American and Colonial.)—A good talker; a boaster; a ‘gas-bag.’ Cf.,
+Blow, verb, sense 1.
+
+    1863. Manhattan, in Evening Standard, 10 Dec. General Grant ... is
+    not one of the blower generals. [M.]
+
+    1864. Spectator, 22 Oct., 1202, col. 1. Notorious among our bar and
+    the public as a blower. [M.]
+
+    1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 584. ‘You need not blow so, my
+    friend. I don’t believe a word of what you say.’ Hence also the
+    noun blower, a braggart, with special reference to his success in
+    imitating Baron Munchausen.
+
+3. A pipe. Cf., Blow a cloud.
+
+
+Blow Great Guns, verbal phr. (popular).—To blow a hurricane; a violent
+gale. Sometimes varied by to blow great guns and small arms.
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 23. ‘Curse me, if I
+    don’t think all the world means to cross the Thames this fine
+    night!’ observed Ben. ‘One’d think it rained fares as well as
+    blowed great guns. Why, there’s another party on the stair-head
+    inquiring arter scullers; and, by the mass! they appear in a
+    greater hurry than any of us.’
+
+    1854. H. Miller, Sch. and Schm. (1858), 14. It soon began to blow
+    great guns. [M.]
+
+
+Blowhard, subs. (American).—A Western term of revilement, the precise
+meaning of which it would be difficult to explain, since a newcomer
+may, in one and the same breath, be called a blarsted Britisher, a
+Coyote, and a blowhard. If all these are synonymous, then indeed the
+Englishman in America is in a bad way. Cf., Blower, sense 2.
+
+
+Blow Hot and Cold, verbal phr. (familiar).—To be treacherous;
+inconsistent; vacillating. There is an allusion in the expression to
+one of Æsop’s fables.
+
+    1577. W. Bullinger, Decades (1592), 176. One which out of one
+    mouth, doeth blowe both hoat and colde. [M.]
+
+    1756. The World, No. 185. This old fellow is of a most capricious,
+    unequal temper, and, like the satyr in the fable, blows hot and
+    cold in the same breath.
+
+    1856. Motley, Dutch Rep., V., v., 750. Being constantly ordered ‘to
+    blow hot and cold with the same breath.’
+
+
+Blowing Up, subs. (colloquial).—A scolding; a severe reprimand; a
+jobation.—See Blow up. The French equivalent is affres (fem. pl.),
+i.e., ‘agonies.’
+
+    1839. Haliburton, Letter-Bag Gt. West, IV., 42. I would give him a
+    good blowing-up. [M.]
+
+    1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xxv., p. 448. The
+    waves dashed over the pier, ducking the three or four venturesome
+    spirits who went on there. I was one—and received a good blowing up
+    from Mr. Brandon for my pains.
+
+
+Blow in One’s Pipe, verbal phr. (American).—A transatlantic equivalent
+of to blow or blew [one’s money]; i.e., to spend it.
+
+
+Blow Me! Blow Me Up! Blow Me Tight! intj. phr. (popular).—Expressions
+which, like blowed (q.v.), serve either as half-veiled oaths or as
+merely big sounding but meaningless exclamations.
+
+    1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 48. ‘Blow me up (says he) if
+    I have had a fellow with such rum toggys cross my company these
+    many a day.’
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress.
+
+        Says Bill ‘there’s nothing like a Bull
+        And blow me tight’—Bill Gibbons ne’er
+        In all his days was known to swear,
+        Except light oaths, to grace his speeches,
+        Like ‘dash my wig’ or ‘burn my breeches,’
+        ‘Blow me——’
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 25. Here
+    blow me, I’ll do such a thing I never did before, I’ll say
+    thirty—yes, thirty shillings buys the lot, and I’ll have no more
+    nor take no less.
+
+
+Blow One’s Bazoo, verbal phr. (American).—To boast; to swagger; to
+gasconade. [From the Dutch bazu, an abbreviation of bazuin, a trumpet;
+hence an equivalent of the English ‘to blow one’s own trumpet’.]
+
+
+Blow Oneself Out, verb (common).—To eat heartily; to gorge oneself.—See
+Blow out.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Babes in the Wood).
+
+        In the dog-days, don’t be so absurd
+        As to blow yourselves out with green-gages!
+
+
+Blow Out, subs. (common).—A gluttonous feast, a heavy ‘feed,’ or
+entertainment. Also called a Tuck in, which see for synonyms. Cf., Blow
+oneself out.
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, II., 264. ‘She sent me a card for
+    her blow-out,’ said Mowbray, ‘and so I am resolved to go.’
+
+    1847. Th. Hook, Man of Many Friends. The giving good feeds is, with
+    many of these worthies, the grand criterion by which the virtues
+    and talents of mankind are measured ... these persons call a
+    similar favour either a ‘spread’ or a ‘blow-out.’
+
+    1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. ‘Get us hot water,
+    and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the real stuff, and we’ll have
+    a blow-out.’
+
+Verb (thieves’).—To steal. For synonyms, see prig.
+
+
+Blowse, Blowsy, Blouze, Blowzy, subs. (old).—1. A beggar’s trull; a
+wench.
+
+2. A slatternly woman, especially one with dishevelled hair. Thought to
+be of canting origin. In Grose’s time the term was humorously varied by
+Blowsabella, in reference to the country girl in Gay’s pastoral poem,
+‘The Shepherd’s Week,’ which depicts rural life in its character of
+poverty and rudeness, rather than as clothed in the colours of romance.
+
+        We, fair, fine ladies, who park out our lives
+        From common sheep-paths, cannot help the crows,
+        From flying over; we’re as natural still
+        As Blousalinda.
+
+    1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. xvi., st. 37, p. 43 (E.D.S.). Whiles
+    Gillet, his blouse, is a milking thy cow.
+
+    1605. Chapman, All Fooles, Act iv., p. 68 (Plays, 1874).
+
+        Wed without my advice, my love, my knowledge,
+        Ay, and a beggar, too, a trull, a blowse!
+
+    1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, III., i. Wench is your trull, your
+    blouze, your dowdie.
+
+    1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. VII., p. 20.
+
+        So the old Babylonian Blouze,
+        And her demure fanatick Spouse.
+
+    1851. Thackeray, English Humorists, p. 167. Are not the Rosalindas
+    of Britain as charming as the Blousalindas of the Hague?
+
+
+Blow the Gab or Gaff, verbal phr. (common).—To reveal, or ‘let out’ a
+secret; to peach. Cf., Gaff, Gag and Gab. For synonyms, see Peach.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To blow the gab
+    (cant), to confess, or impeach a confederate.
+
+    1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xliii. ‘One of the French
+    officers, after he was taken prisoner, axed me how we had managed
+    to get the gun up there; but I wasn’t going to blow the gaff.’
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 122. The prisoner,
+    burning for revenge, quietly bides his time till the chief warder
+    comes round, then asks to speak to him, and ‘blows the gaff.’
+
+
+Blow the Grampuse, verbal phr. (nautical).—To throw cold water on a man
+who has fallen asleep when on duty.
+
+
+Blow the Groundsels, verbal phr. (old).—To have sexual commerce on the
+ground.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To blow the
+    groundsils (cant), to lie with a woman on the floor.
+
+
+Blow Together, verbal phr. (tailors’).—To make garments in a slovenly
+manner.
+
+
+Blow Up, subs. (colloquial).—A scolding; a ‘wigging’; a railing.
+
+    1809. Sir W Gell, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1883), I., 355.
+    There won’t be any quarrel, so you need not fear. The only chance
+    is Keppel making a blow up when she abuses me.
+
+    1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxviii. Morgan had had ‘a devil of
+    a blow hup with his own guv’nor, and was going to retire from the
+    business haltogether.’
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. vii. ‘Mind the hice is here in time;
+    or they’ll be a blow up with your governor.’
+
+Verb (colloquial).—To scold.
+
+    1809. Sir W. Gell, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), I.,
+    355. I have heard her daughter blow up Lady Salisbury when she had
+    quarrelled with Lady Sefton.
+
+    1883. G. A. S[ala], in Illust. L. News, June 16, p. 599, col. 1.
+    That the ’aughty nobleman should blow up the clerk for presuming to
+    take a seat in his presence.
+
+To blow up sky-high, phr. (American).—The American, fond of doing
+everything with unusual energy, likes to blow up sky-high, an addition
+which lends colour to the supposition that probably the phrase is
+originally a nautical one, and really borrowed from the blowing up of a
+vessel, much as the meaning of the words must have evaporated before it
+reached the present stage.
+
+
+Blow upon (old).—To betray; to tell tales of; to discredit; to
+defame.—See Blow, verb, sense 2. Used also with indirect passive.
+
+    1402. [? T. Occleve], Letter of Cupid, in Arber’s Garner, vol. IV.,
+    p. 61.
+
+        Thus they despisèd be, on every side,
+        Dislanderèd and blown upon full wide.
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. X., ch. ii. ‘That the reputation of
+    her house, which was never blown upon before, was utterly
+    destroyed.’
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, II., p. 239. It fortunately
+    occurred to me, that if I gave it him myself, I could be of no
+    farther use. I should have been blown upon immediately.
+
+    1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. xii. ‘The condition
+    of our affairs is desperate, and may be blown upon at any moment.’
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 4. Both desisted from
+    their own recriminations as to ‘rounding’ and ‘blowing’ on each
+    other.
+
+    1882. Jas. Payn, in Glow Worm Tales, p. 301. ‘An Improvement on a
+    System.’ If Mr. Prince had caught me before his establishment had
+    got ‘blown upon’ in the public prints, he might have persuaded me
+    to become an inmate of the Agapemone. I hope I should not have
+    approved of the manner of life in vogue at that institution, but I
+    make no doubt that I should have fallen in with it without much
+    resistance.
+
+
+Blub.—See Blubber, verb.
+
+
+Blubber, subs. (common).—1. The mouth. From the figurative use of the
+word, especially of anything swollen or protruding, as of the lips. For
+synonyms, see Potato-trap.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. I have stopped the
+    cull’s blubber, I have stopped the fellow’s mouth.
+
+2. A woman’s breasts.—See Sport blubber, and for synonyms, Dairies.
+
+Verb (familiar).—To cry; to weep—used contemptuously. Also shortened
+into blub.
+
+    1400. Test. Love, II. (1560), 283, 1. Han women none other wrech
+    ... but blober and wepe till hem list stint. [M.]
+
+    1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, xliv. (1804), 202. He blubbered
+    like a great school-boy who had been whipped.
+
+    1826. Scott, Woodstock, IV. Phœbe Mayflower blubbered heartily for
+    company. [M.]
+
+To sport blubber, phr. (common).—To show one’s breasts, said of women,
+especially those with large and prominent bosoms.
+
+
+Blubber and Guts, subs. (common).—Obesity; a low term.
+
+
+Blubber-Belly, subs. (common).—A fat person.
+
+
+Blubber Head, subs. (common).—A foolish, empty-headed individual.—See
+Apartments to let.
+
+
+Blucher (ch. hard), subs. (Winchester College).—1. A College præfect in
+half power. Their jurisdiction does not extend beyond ‘Seventh Chamber
+passage,’ though their privileges are the same as those of other
+præfects. They are eight in number.
+
+    1864. Blackwood, p. 86. The remaining eight college præfects
+    (called in Winchester tongue, bluchers) have a more limited
+    authority, confined to Chambers and the Quadrangle.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 30. The
+    eight senior præfects were said to have ‘full power,’ and had some
+    slight privileges not enjoyed by the remaining ten, who were
+    generally called bluchers.
+
+2. A non-privileged cab plying at railway stations. The origin of the
+name and its application, as far as known, is given in the two
+following quotations.
+
+    1864. Soc. Sc. Review, I., p. 406. The railway companies recognise
+    two other classes of cabs, called the ‘privileged’ ... and the
+    ‘Bluchers,’ named after the Prussian Field-Marshal who arrived on
+    the field of Waterloo only to do the work that chanced to be
+    undone.
+
+    1870. Athenæum, 5 March, p. 328. Non-privileged cabs, which are
+    admitted to stations after all the privileged have been hired, are
+    known as Bluchers.
+
+
+Bludgeoner, subs. (harlotry).—A bully; pimp; ponce; a man attached to a
+house of ill-fame for the purpose of terrorising victims, and rendering
+easier the task of plunder. [From bludgeon, a stout stick or club, + er
+or eer; i.e., one armed with the weapon in question.]
+
+    1852. Blackwood’s Magazine, p. 224. Those brutal bludgeoneers ...
+    go out ... in gangs to poach. [M.]
+
+    1855. Trollope, Warden, xiv., p. 144. Old St. Dunstan with its
+    smiting bludgeoneer has been removed.
+
+
+Bludger, subs. (thieves’).—A low thief, who does not hesitate to use
+violence; literally one who will use a bludgeon. Cf., Bludget.
+
+    1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Those who plunder with
+    violence; as ... bludgers or ‘stick slingers,’ who rob in company
+    with low women.
+
+
+Bludget, subs. (American).—This is given in the New York Slang
+Dictionary [1881] as ‘a low female thief, who decoys her victims into
+alley-ways, etc., to rob them.’ Cf., Bludger.
+
+
+Blue.—Few words enter more largely into the composition of slang, and
+colloquialisms bordering on slang, than does the word blue. Expressive
+alike of the utmost contempt, as of all that men hold dearest and love
+best, its manifold combinations, in ever varying shades of meaning,
+greet the philologist at every turn. A very Proteus, it defies all
+attempts to trace the why and wherefore of many of the turns of
+expression of which it forms a part—why true blue should be synonymous
+with faithful, staunch adherence to one’s faith and principles; or why,
+on the other hand, to look blue should signify affected with fear,
+dismayed, and low-spirited. Curiously enough, the historical method
+helps but little to decide why in one case an exact reversal of meaning
+should have taken place in the application of the word; for, as far as
+the evidence is concerned, both the good and bad shades of meaning
+appear to run contemporaneously. It is also noteworthy that the word
+enters largely into the slang of nationalities other than our own;
+indeed, one of the most curious, as well as one of the most interesting
+facts connected with the comparative study of slang, is that which
+reveals the oneness of the human race in its modes of thought and
+speech, the Tower of Babel notwithstanding. This special feature of
+slang will, to some extent, be found dealt with at the end of this
+work; but the subject is too wide, and the field too vast, for one
+student to have accomplished much single-handed. This, however, may be
+said; that, comparing the slang of one nation with that of another, one
+finds the same ideas cropping up, revealing, alas! the same follies and
+foibles, but also showing, let it be said, in the few cases where slang
+travels beyond the earthy and the sensual, the same aspirations, the
+same endeavour, and the same hope.
+
+Subs.—1. A policeman. [From the colour of the uniform.] This epithet
+can be traced back to Elizabethan days [see Blue-bottle], and the
+uniform seems to have been blue from time immemorial; indeed, this
+colour appears from the earliest times to have been the badge of
+servitude. Pliny tells us blue was the colour in which the Gauls
+clothed their slaves; and, for many ages, blue coats were the liveries
+of servants, apprentices, and those in humble stations of life—to wit,
+the blue-clad beadles, the ‘varlets’ who wore the blue, the blue-coat
+boys, and even harlots in a house of correction, who wore blue as a
+dress of ignominy. The proverb quoted by Ray, ‘he’s in his better blue
+clothes,’ i.e., ‘he thinks himself wondrous fine,’ has reference to the
+livery of a servant. The police more recently have been known
+collectively as blues, the men in blue, blue-boys, blue bottles,
+blue-devils, royal regiment of foot-guards blue, all nicknames
+referring to the colour of the uniform. For general synonyms, see Beak.
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 257. He would
+    chatter gaily and enter with great gusto into the details of some
+    cleverly executed ‘bit of business,’ or ‘bilking the
+    blues,’—evading the police.
+
+    18(?). Hood, Row at the ‘Oxford Arms.’
+
+        Well, that’s the row, and who can guess the upshot after all?
+        Whether Harmony will ever make the ‘Arms’ her house of call;
+        Or whether this here mobbing, as some longish heads fortell it,
+        Will grow to such a riot that the Oxford blues must quell it.
+
+
+2. A blue is known to licensed victuallers and their customers in
+certain districts of Wales as a compromise between the half-pint and
+the pint pot. It is not recognised as a legal measure by the
+authorities on weights and measures, but it is approaching to something
+like a status, as it deserves to do in the interests of temperance.
+Although there is no Board of Trade standard of the blue, and
+inspectors have no power to stamp measures of this denomination for use
+in trade, the Board of Trade has pointed out to the local authorities
+that there is nothing in the Weights and Measures Act to prevent the
+use of the blue or to make its possessor liable to penalties, always
+provided of course that the vessel is not used as a measure.
+
+3. A scholar of Christ’s Hospital; a blue-coat boy. [This nickname is
+also derived from the colour of the clothes—blue drugget gown or body
+with ample skirts to it, a yellow vest underneath in winter time, small
+clothes of Russia duck, worsted yellow stockings, a leathern girdle,
+and a little black worsted cap, usually carried in the hand, being the
+complete costume. This was the ordinary dress of children in humble
+life during the reigns of the Tudors.]
+
+    1834. W. Trollope (Title), Christ’s Hospital ... with memoirs of
+    Eminent Blues.
+
+    1877. W. H. Blanch, Blue-Coat Boys, p. 33. To some extent it holds
+    also with regard to Civil Engineers, amongst whom, however, one
+    well-known name is that of a blue.
+
+4. Short for blue-stocking (q.v.); formerly a contemptuous term for a
+woman having or affecting literary tastes.
+
+    1788. Madame D’Arblay, Diary (1876), iv., 219. He was a little the
+    more anxious not to be surprised to-night, but his being too tired
+    for walking should be imputed to his literary preference of reading
+    to a blue. At tea Miss Planta again joined us, and instantly behind
+    him went the book; he was very right, for nobody would have thought
+    it more odd or more blue.
+
+    1823. Byron, Don Juan, ch. xi., st. 50. The Blues, that tender
+    tribe, who sigh o’er sonnets.
+
+    1845. Disraeli, Sybil, p. 76. ‘But she was very clever....’
+    ‘Accomplished?’ ‘Oh, far beyond that....’ ‘A regular blue.’
+
+    1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
+    Green, I., p. 7. His Aunt Virginia was as learned a blue as her
+    esteemed ancestress in the court of Elizabeth, the very Virgin
+    Queen of Blues.
+
+5. Female learning or pedantry.
+
+    1824. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 47. She also had a twilight tinge of
+    blue. [M.]
+
+6. (University.)—At Oxford and Cambridge a man is said to get his blue
+when selected as a competitor in inter-university sports. The
+University colours are, for Oxford, dark blue; and for Cambridge, light
+blue. Cf., To get one’s silk, said of a barrister when made Queen’s
+Counsel.
+
+Adj.—1. A contemptuous epithet applied usually to women of literary
+tastes.—See Blue-stocking. The French have elle est bleue celle-là; en
+voilà une de bleue; je la trouve bleue.
+
+    1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary (1842), iv., p. 219. Nobody would have
+    thought it more odd or more blue.
+
+    1834. Southey, The Doctor, ch. lxxxix. Les Dames des Roches, both
+    mother and daughter were remarkable and exemplary women; and there
+    was a time when Poictiers derived as much glory from those blue
+    ladies as from the Black Prince.
+
+    1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xi. She was a little, a very
+    little blue—rather a babbler in the ‘ologies’ than a real disciple.
+
+    1842. Dickens, American Notes, ch. iii., p. 33. Blue ladies there
+    are, in Boston; but like philosophers of that colour and sex in
+    most other latitudes, they rather desire to be thought superior
+    than to be so.
+
+    1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxxiii. She had been
+    growing decidedly blue. Not only had she, under Bray’s auspices,
+    published a series of papers in Blunt’s Magazine, but she had
+    positively written a child’s book.
+
+    1864. Spectator, No. 1875, p. 660. A clever, sensible woman, rather
+    blue.
+
+2. Indecent; ‘smutty’; obscene. This may be derived from the blue dress
+of harlots—see preceding, subs., 1.—although Hotten suggests it as
+coming from the French Bibliothèque Bleu, a series of books of very
+questionable character. Books or conversation of an entirely opposite
+nature are said to be brown or Quakerish, i.e., serious, grave, decent.
+
+3. Gloomy; fearful; depressed; low-spirited. Cf., To look blue, Blue
+funk, and In the blues. Possibly an allusion to the blueness of cold.
+
+    1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxviii. Charley replied that
+    neither had he any money at home. ‘That’s blue,’ said the man. ‘It
+    is rather blue,’ said Charley.
+
+    1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, I., p. 93. It’s blue; uncommon blue.
+
+    1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, I., p. 60. ‘My dear Charlie,’ said
+    the girl.... ‘That certainly is a blue look-out,’ she continued—for
+    however earnest was her purpose she would not but express herself
+    in her slang metaphor.
+
+    1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. xl. I kept up
+    my blue meditations.
+
+    1874. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Gilded Age, ch. xxvii. I had
+    forgotten dear, but when a body gets blue, a body forgets
+    everything.... I am sorry I was blue, but it did seem as if
+    everything had been going against me for whole ages.
+
+Verb.—1. To blush. Cf., subs., sense 3.
+
+    1709. Steele and Swift, Tatler, No. 71, p. 8. If a Virgin blushes,
+    we no longer cry she blues. [M.]
+
+2. To pawn; pledge; spend; actually to get rid of money quickly. Cf.,
+Blew. There are two suggested derivations of the word when used in this
+sense; (1) that it is connected with ‘blown,’ i.e., dissipated or
+scattered; and (2) that money so squandered has disappeared as
+effectually as if it had passed into the blue, i.e., the sky or the
+deep sea. The German has ins blaue hinein, ‘away into the blue,’
+equivalent to the French passer au bleu. Faire passer au bleu is to
+dissipate, spend, or squander. For synonyms, in the sense of to pawn,
+see Pop.
+
+    1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 2. This top coat?—would blue it.
+
+    1887. Punch, 10 Sept., p. 111. I never minds blueing the pieces
+    purvided I gets a good spree.
+
+3. To miscalculate; ‘to make a “mess” of anything’; to mull.
+
+4. (thieves’.)—To steal; to plunder. To be blued, to be robbed. For
+synonyms, see Prig.
+
+By all that’s blue, phr. (popular).—A euphemistic oath; probably
+meaning ‘by Heaven.’ It may be compared with the French parbleu,
+synonymous with par Dieu.
+
+    1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxiii. ‘The black cat, by all that’s
+    blue!’ cried the Captain.
+
+Men in blue, phr. (popular).—The police.—See Blue, subs., sense 1.
+
+    1882. Besant, All Sorts and Cond. of Men, ch. xliii. ‘You must now
+    begin to think seriously about handcuffs and prison, and men in
+    blue.’
+
+    1886. G. A. Apperson, Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 137. The police in
+    recent times have been known as the blues and the men in blue.
+
+Till all is blue, phr. (popular).—1. To the utmost; to the end; for an
+indefinite period. Smyth, in his Sailors’ Word Book, says this phrase
+is borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port and getting
+into deep water.
+
+    1835. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. xix. [The land] could
+    be made to carry wheat till all’s blue again. Ibid., 3 S., ch. xx.
+    Your mother kickin’ and screamin’ till all was blue again.
+
+    1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, I., p. 184. I’ll have at her again,
+    and dance till all’s blue before I give in.
+
+2. When applied to drinking, till all is blue signifies exceeding
+tipsy. As will be seen, this usage is somewhat ancient. It is an
+allusion to the supposed effect of drinking on the eyesight. An
+analogous French expression is avoir un coup d’bleu (to be slightly
+tipsy).
+
+    1616. R. C., Times’ Whis., v., 1835. They drink ... Vntil their
+    adle heads doe make the ground Seeme blew vnto them.
+
+    1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv., 2. We can drink till all look blue.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Lay of St. Dunstan).
+
+                   ‘I have nothing to do:
+        And ’fore George, I’ll sit here and I’ll drink till all’s
+        blue!’
+
+To look blue, phr. (popular).—To be confounded; surprised; astonished;
+annoyed or disappointed. French equivalents are en rester tout bleu; en
+être bleu; en bailler tout bleu; and baba from ébahi, astounded.
+
+    c. 1600. Rob. Hood (‘Ritson’), II., xxxvi., 84. It made the sunne
+    looke blue. [M.]
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. Blue, adj. ... 2, blank, or cast down;
+    as, he looked blue upon it.
+
+    1884. Cornhill Mag., Jan., p. 111. The prudent (and sagacious)
+    officer looked blue. But he speedily recovered himself.
+
+To make the air blue, phr. (popular).—To curse; to swear; to use
+profane language. Cf., Blue, adj., sense 2.
+
+True blue, phr. (colloquial).—Faithful; genuine; real; an allusion to
+blue as the colour of constancy. A reference either to the deep blue of
+the sky or sea suggestive of interminableness; or, it may be derived as
+was ‘Coventry blue,’ from a dye that would neither change its colour
+nor be discharged by washing; hence figuratively, to signify persons or
+things of sterling character or quality. In neither case is the
+argument clear or decisive; there is certainly no reason in nature why
+the colour and cardinal virtue should be thus associated. Blue skies
+and blue seas are proverbially deceitful, and on the other hand, the
+expression seems too old a one to owe its origin to the dyer’s skill.
+
+    1383. Chaucer, Squiere’s Tale.
+
+        And by hire bedde’s hed she made a mew,
+        And covered it with velouettes blew,
+        In signe of trouthe that is in woman sene.
+
+    Ibid, Court of Love, line 246.
+
+        So you dir folke (quod she) that knele in blew,
+        They were the colour ay and ever shal,
+        In signe they were, and ever wil be true,
+        Withoutin change.
+
+
+Blue Apron, subs. (common).—A tradesman.
+
+    1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., xliii., 230. For if any saucy blue-apron
+    dares to affront any venerable person ... all scholars are
+    immediately forbid to have any dealing or commerce with him.
+
+    1868. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 98. A blue-apron
+    statesman, a lay politician, a tradesman who interferes with the
+    affairs of the nation. The reference is to the blue apron once worn
+    by nearly all tradesmen, but now restricted to butchers,
+    poulterers, fishmongers, and so on.
+
+
+Bluebacks, subs.—1. The paper money of the Confederates. A cant name,
+originating, as in the case of United States paper currency greenbacks,
+in the colour of the printing on the reverse. A more pronounced slang
+name, subsequently applied to bluebacks, was ‘shucks,’ from their
+worthlessness after the war. ‘Shucks’ is an old English term for the
+refuse of peas and similar products when shelled.
+
+    1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 291. The confederate notes bore,
+    for the same reason, the name of bluebacks, which was, however,
+    soon exchanged for the slang term of shucks.
+
+2. The Orange Free State paper money.
+
+    1878. Trollope, South Africa, II., p. 206. Bluebacks, as they were
+    called, were printed. Ibid, p. 222. The bluebacks as the Orange
+    Free State banknotes were called.
+
+
+Blue Bellies.—A nickname bestowed by Southerners, during the Civil War,
+upon their opponents of the North, whose uniform was blue. They were
+also called boys in blue, yanks, etc. The Southerners, on the other
+hand, received such names as the secesh, rebs, and johnny rebs, the
+latter being sometimes shortened to johnnies. The grey uniform of the
+Confederates likewise caused them to be styled boys in grey and
+greybacks, the latter epithet cutting two ways, as the Southern
+soldiers not only wore grey uniforms, but ‘greyback’ in America as well
+as England signifies a louse.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 9, p. 5, col. 4. The Confederate armies
+    during the great Civil War in America ... were known ... as
+    ‘Greybacks,’ whereas their Federal opponents, from the light-azure
+    gaberdines which they wore, were dubbed ‘blue-bellies.’
+
+
+Blue Bills, subs. (Winchester College).—The tradesmen’s bills sent home
+to the parents and guardians of students. [So called from the colour of
+the envelopes generally used.]
+
+
+Blue Billy, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A handkerchief (blue ground with
+white spots) sometimes worn and used as a colour at prize-fights.—See
+Billy, sense 1.
+
+2. (mining.)—See quotation.
+
+    1887. ‘Death of Blue Billy,’ in Chamb. Jour., Dec. 17, p. 812. Blue
+    Billy is the technical name given to the lime rendered foul in the
+    purification of the gas.
+
+
+Blue Blanket, subs. (common).—1. The sky. This simile is an old one;
+Defoe’s use of it may probably have been suggested by Shakspeare’s
+‘blanket of the dark’ (Macbeth, I., v.).
+
+    c. 1720. Defoe, Hist. of Devil, quoted in N. and Q., 7 S., ii.,
+    289; see also 7 S., ii., 492. We must be content till we come on
+    the other side the blue blanket, and then we shall know the whole
+    story.
+
+    1877. Greenwood, Under the Blue Blanket. The vagrant brotherhood
+    have several slang terms for sleeping out in a field or meadow. It
+    is called ‘snoozing in Hedge Square’; ‘dossing with the daisies’;
+    and ‘lying under the blue blanket.’
+
+The French say, ‘coucher à l’hotel de l’Etoile,’ i.e., ‘to sleep at the
+Star Hotel’; while in the Fourbesque, or Italian cant, heaven or the
+sky is termed copertore, a covering or blanket.
+
+2. (common.)—A rough overcoat made of coarse pilot cloth.
+
+
+Blue Blazes.—See Blazes.
+
+
+Blue Boar, subs. (old).—A certain venereal disease.
+
+
+Blue-Bottle, subs. (popular).—1. A policeman. This epithet, at one time
+applied generally to all wearers of a dark blue uniform, is now
+invariably understood to mean a guardian of the peace. It is one of the
+oldest of the nicknames given to members of the force, and occurs as
+far back as 1598.
+
+Cf., Blue, sense 1, and see Beak for synonyms.
+
+    1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v., 4. Dall [addressing beadle] ...
+    you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner.
+
+    1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. lxiv. ‘Police, indeed!’
+    muttered Charley, ‘the General can’t remember that he is out of
+    London.... These confounded sulky Austrian officials are rather
+    different customers to deal with from our blue-bottles.—Messrs. Al
+    and Co.’
+
+    1864. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Sept. 13. Caught in his own toils
+    by the blue-bottles of Scotland Yard, [M.]
+
+    1864. Blackwood’s Mag., p. 15. He who could summon to his aid every
+    alphabetical blue-bottle that ever handled a truncheon.
+
+    1888. Middleton, Michaelmas Term. And to be free from the
+    interruption of blue beadles, and other bawdy officers.
+
+2. A serving-man, blue having been the usual habit of servants. Cf.,
+Blue-coat.
+
+    1602. Honest Whore, O. Pl., iii., 389. You proud varlets, you need
+    not be ashamed to wear blue, when your master is one of your
+    fellows.
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman, sign E., 3. The others act their parts in
+    blew coates, as (if) they were their serving-men.
+
+Hence blue-bottle is sometimes a term of reproach for a servant. [Case
+Altered, i., 2. O. Pl., v., 6.] And a serving-man, in B. Jonson, says,
+‘Ever since I was of the blue order.’
+
+About 1608, when Middleton’s Comedy of A Trick to catch the Old One was
+produced, the blue-coats of servants appear to have been changed for
+cloaks, such as were worn by the upper classes also at that time. Thus,
+in that comedy [Act ii., Anc. Drama, v., p. 151]:—There’s more true
+honesty in such a country serving man, than in a hundred of our cloak
+companions. I may well call ’em companions, for since blue coats have
+been turned into cloaks, one can scarce know the man from the master.
+B. Jonson [Mask of Christmas] introduces New Yeares Gift, In a blew
+coat, serving-man like, with an orange, etc.
+
+    1845. G. P. R. James, Arrah Neil, p. 325. The personage to whom he
+    addressed himself, was one of the serving-men of that day, known by
+    the general term of blue-bottles.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. x. (I., p. 173). I fancy you
+    would love to move to court like him, followed by a round score of
+    old blue-bottles. Ibid, ch. xi. My lord, my father ... has
+    blue-bottles enough to wait on him.
+
+
+Blue Boy, subs. (common).—A bubo; a tumour or abscess with
+inflammation. Specially applied to that kind which is a result of
+venereal disease.
+
+
+Blue-Boys, subs. (popular).—The police. The expression is generally
+used in the plural. Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.
+
+    1880. Jas. Greenwood, Help Myself Society, in Odd People in Odd
+    Places, p. 68. The ‘Help Yourselves’ are especially strong in
+    instrumental music. They have a friend in Colonel Fraser, the head
+    of the City police, and the excellent band of that branch of the
+    force is at their service, and Sir E. Henderson shows himself to be
+    at heart a ‘Help Yourself,’ by permitting the instrumental blue
+    boys belonging to several metropolitan divisions to spend a
+    Saturday night there. Besides these, they have the Polytechnic
+    orchestral band when it is required, and an excellent grand piano
+    with a skilled player and accompanyist.
+
+
+Blue Butter, subs. (common).—Mercurial ointment, used for the
+destruction of parasites.
+
+
+Blue-Coat, subs.—A constable; a guardian of public order. This, like
+many of its congeners, has been applied to serving-men, beadles,
+tailors, and others wearing a uniform of a dark blue colour. Like blue,
+blue-bottle, etc., its application to a policeman is of some antiquity.
+Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 19 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). And
+    being so taken, haue beene carried to places of correction, there
+    wofully tormented by blew-coates, cowardly fellowes, that ... haue
+    so scourged vs, that flesh and blood could hardly endure it.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 417. ‘I
+    thinks them Chartists are a weak-minded set ... a hundred o’ them
+    would run away from one blue-coat.’
+
+
+Blued or Blewed, ppl. adj. (common).—Tipsy; drunk. For synonyms, see
+Screwed.
+
+
+Blue Dahlia, subs. (common).—A colloquialism for something rare or
+seldom seen; a rara avis.
+
+
+Blue Devils, subs. (popular).—1. Dejection; lowness of spirits;
+hypochondria.
+
+    1786. Cowper, Letters, No. 219, vol. II., p. 143 (ed. 1834). I have
+    not that which commonly is a symptom of such a case belonging to
+    me,—I mean extraordinary elevation in the absence of Mr. Blue
+    devil. When I am in the best health, my tide of animal
+    sprightliness flows with great equality.
+
+    1790. W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 1.
+
+        Or, dropping poisons in the cup of joy,
+        Do the blue devils your repose annoy?
+
+    1871. Planché, King Christmas. There are blue devils which defy
+    blue pills.
+
+    1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge iii. He got
+    discontented and had fits of blue devils.
+
+Two French equivalents for feeling out of sorts are s’emboucaner, and
+s’éncoliflucheter.
+
+2. (popular.)—Delirium tremens. From the apparitions drunkards often
+suppose they see. In both this and the foregoing sense blue devils is
+contracted into blues.
+
+    1818–9. Cobbett, Resid. U.S., 42. It was just the weather to give
+    drunkards the blue devils.
+
+    1831. Scott, Demonology, i., 18. They, by a continued series of
+    intoxication, became subject to what is popularly called the blue
+    devils.
+
+Hence such derivatives as blue devilage; blue devilry; blue devilism;
+and an adjectival form blue devilly.
+
+    1871. Lockhart, Fair to See, I., p. 208. On the lower hills the
+    pine-trees loomed through stagnant mists with a dejected and
+    blue-devilly aspect.
+
+
+Blue Fear, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright. [From the ‘blue’ or pallid
+cast of countenance which fear is supposed to induce. The same as blue
+funk (q.v.), which is more general.]
+
+    1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, in Longman’s
+    Mag., April, p. 683. Anastasie had saved the remainder of his
+    fortune by keeping him strictly in the country. The very name of
+    Paris put her in a blue fear.
+
+
+Blue Flag, subs. (common).—A blue apron (q.v.). Worn by butchers,
+publicans, and other tradesmen.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has hoisted the
+    blue flag, he has commenced publican, or taken a public house,
+    alluding to the blue aprons worn by publicans.
+
+
+Blue Funk, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright, nervousness, or dread.
+[Funk is ‘to stink through fear’; Wedgwood connects it with the Walloon
+funker, ‘to smoke.’]
+
+    1856. Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 196. If I was
+    going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk.
+
+    1861. Macmillan’s Magazine, p. 211. I was in a real blue funk.
+
+    1861. Saturday Review, Nov. 23, 534. We encounter ... the miserable
+    Dr. Blandling in what is called a blue funk. [M.]
+
+    1871. Maxwell, in Life (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly χλωρὸν θέος is
+    the Homeric for a blue funk.
+
+
+Blue Hen’s Chickens, subs. (American).—A slang name for the inhabitants
+of Delaware. The nickname arose thus: Captain Caldwell, an officer of
+the first Delaware regiment in the American War of Independence, was
+noted for his love of cock-fighting. Being personally popular, and his
+regiment becoming famous for their valour, they were soon known as
+‘game-cocks’; and as Caldwell maintained that no cock was truly game
+unless its mother was a blue hen, his regiment, and subsequently
+Delawareans generally, became known as blue hen’s chickens, and
+Delaware as the Blue Hen State for the same reason. A boaster is also
+often brought to book by the sarcasm, ‘Your mother was a blue hen no
+doubt.’
+
+
+Blue Horse, subs. (military).—The Fourth Dragoon Horse, from its
+facings.
+
+
+Blue Lightning, subs. (American).—One of the grimly facetious names
+with which Texans have christened revolvers. At times a dispute has
+literally been a word, a flash of blue lightning and—certain death. For
+synonyms, see Barker.
+
+
+Blue Monday, subs. (workmen’s).—A Monday spent in dissipation and
+absence from work. One often hears the phrase ‘to feel Mondayish.’ The
+German has der blaue Montag. Cf., Black Saturday.
+
+    1885. Harper’s Magazine, p. 873, col. 1. The workman getting sober
+    after his usual blue Monday. [M.]
+
+
+Blue Moon. Once in a blue moon, phr. (popular).—Extremely seldom; an
+unlimited time; a rarely recurring period. An old phrase, first used in
+the sense of something absurd. A blue moon, like the Greek Kalends, is
+something which does not exist. A variant is ‘when two Sundays come in
+a week.’ As regards origin nothing is known; barring the extract from
+Roy and Barlow, authorities give no examples earlier than 1876—a
+curious fact.
+
+    1526. Roy and Barlowe, Rede me and be not wroth, p. 114 [ed. Arber,
+    1871].
+
+        Yf they saye the mone is belewe,
+        We must beleve that it is true,
+          Admittynge their interpretacion.
+
+    1860. F. W. Robinson, Grandmother’s Money, I., p. 144. If he talked
+    till a blue moon, etc.
+
+    1876. Miss Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. xxiv. Why should
+    she stint as to one or two puddings a week ... and a fruit pasty
+    once in a blue moon.
+
+    1884. R. E. Francillon, Ropes of Sand, ch. xxi. ‘I’ve made bold to
+    take the chance of your being at home for once in a blue moon, Mr.
+    Carew,’ said she.
+
+
+Blue Murder or Blue Murders, subs. (common).—A term used to describe
+cries of terror or alarm; a great noise; an unusual racket. Cf., French
+morbleu.
+
+    1887. J. S. Winter, Eng. Ill. Mag., Dec., p. 179. The dingy person
+    dropped his victim and howled what the half-dozen officers ...
+    graphically described as blue murder.
+
+
+Blueness, subs. (common).—Indecency. Smutty talk is described as blue,
+sense 2 (q.v.).
+
+    1840. Carlyle, Diderot, Ess., 240. The occasional blueness of both
+    [writings] shall not altogether affright us.
+
+French Synonyms. Les horreurs; les bêtises; les gueulées. To talk blue
+is rendered by décravater ses propos.
+
+
+Blue Noses, subs. (American).—The natives of Nova Scotia. A nickname
+given them by the Yankees in allusion, it is said, to a potato of that
+name which Nova Scotians claim to be the best in the world. Proctor,
+however, thinks differently, and says he would wager that the Nova
+Scotians were called blue noses before the potato which they rear was
+so named, and hazards the suggestion that the nickname refers to the
+blueness of nose resulting from intense cold.
+
+    1837–40. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’). Do you know the reason monkeys
+    are no good? Because they chatter all day long,—as do the
+    niggers,—and so do the blue noses of Nova Scotia.
+
+    18(?). Sir George Simpson, Overland Journey, vol. I., p. 19. After
+    a run [in the steamer] of fourteen days, we entered the harbour of
+    Halifax, amid the hearty cheers of a large number of blue noses.
+
+
+Blue [or Blew] One’s Screw, verbal phr. (common).—To waste or squander
+one’s salary. [From blue or blew (q.v.) + screw (q.v.).]
+
+
+Blue Peter, subs. (card-players’).—The signal or call for trumps at
+whist. [Properly a blue flag with white square in centre, hoisted as a
+signal for immediate sailing.]
+
+    1875. Beeton, Handy Book of Games, p. 358. Since the introduction
+    of Blue Peter, the necessity of leading through your adversary’s
+    hand has become less and less.
+
+
+Blue Pigeon, subs. (thieves’).—Lead used for roofing purposes. Cf.,
+Bluey and Blue pigeon flyer. Of doubtful origin, but possibly a punning
+allusion. Lead has long been known as ‘bluey,’ and pigeons frequently
+find a resting-place on house-tops.
+
+    1887. Judy, 27 April, p. 200. A burglar whose particular ‘lay’ was
+    flying the blue pigeon, i.e., stealing lead.
+
+(Nautical.)—The sounding lead.
+
+
+Blue Pigeon Flyer, subs. phr. (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead from
+the roofs of buildings. Hotten thus explains the modus operandi.
+Sometimes a journeyman plumber, glazier, or other workman, who, when
+repairing houses, strips off the lead, and makes away with it. This
+performance is, though, by no means confined to workmen. An empty house
+is often entered and the whole of the roof in its vicinity stripped,
+the only notice given to the folks below being received by them on the
+occasion of a heavy downfall of rain. The term flyer has, indeed, of
+late years been more peculiarly applied to the man who steals the lead
+in pursuance of his vocation as a thief, than to him who takes it
+because it comes in the way of his work.
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 165. Blue pigeon flying.
+    Fellows who steal lead off houses, or cut pipes away.
+
+French equivalents are un limousineur; un gras-doublier; un
+mastaroufleur.
+
+To fly the blue pigeon, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To steal lead from the
+roofs of houses.—See Blue pigeon. French equivalents are faire la
+mastar au gras-double; ratisser du gras double.
+
+    1872. J. Doran, in Notes and Queries, 4 S., x., 308. Even at the
+    present day, no rascal would stoop to strip lead from the roof of a
+    house. At least, what honest men would call by that name, he would
+    prettily designate as ‘flying the blue pigeon.’
+
+
+Blue Pill, subs. (popular).—A bullet; also called blue plum and blue
+whistler. For synonyms, see Pill.
+
+    1861. N. Y. Tribune (Let. from Missouri), Nov. 10. Between blue
+    pills, halters, and the penitentiary, we shall soon work off this
+    element of rascaldom and horse-thieves.
+
+
+Blue Plum, subs. (thieves’).—A bullet. Cf., Blue pill and Blue
+whistler.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Surfeited with a blue
+    plumb, wounded with a bullet; a sortment of George R——’s blue
+    plumbs, a volley of ball, shot from soldier’s firelocks.
+
+    1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood (1884), p. 95.
+
+        Believe me, there is not a game, my brave boys,
+        To compare with the game of high toby;
+        No rapture can equal the toby man’s joys,
+        To blue devils, blue plumbs give the go by.
+
+
+Blue Ruin, subs. (common).—Gin, generally of inferior quality. For
+synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+    c. 1817. Keats, A Portrait. He sipped no olden Tom or ruin blue, or
+    Nantz or cherry brandy.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 39.
+
+        A few short words I first must spare,
+        To him, the Hero, that sits there,
+        Swigging Blue ruin, in that chair.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Log. Here,
+    Landlord, more Blue Ruin, my boy! Sal. Massa Bob, you find me no
+    such bad partner; many de good vill and de power me get from de
+    Jack Tar.
+
+    1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. xx. ‘The littel un ... had
+    been abrought up upon spoon-meat, with a dash o’ blue-ruin to make
+    him slim and ginteel.’
+
+    1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxiii. The stuff itself,
+    which in the western gin-shops goes generally by the name of
+    blue-ruin or ‘short.’
+
+
+Blues, subs. (popular).—1. Despondency; hypochondria; depression of
+spirits. [A shortened form of blue devils (q.v.).] A French synonym is
+se faire des plumes or paumer ses plumes.
+
+    1807. Washington Irving, Salmagundi (1824), p. 96. In a fit of the
+    blues. [M.]
+
+    1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. viii. The moat alone is
+    enough to give one the blues.
+
+    1889. John Strange Winter, That Imp, p. 10. ‘Miss Aurora,’ he said
+    suddenly, one evening after dinner, ‘it’s awfully dull at Drive
+    now; does it never strike you so?’ ‘Very often, my dear,’ answered
+    Miss Aurora promptly. ‘It’s as dull as—’ ‘Ditch-water,’ supplied
+    Driver, finding she paused for a word which would express dulness
+    enough. ‘I wonder you and Betty don’t die of the blues.’
+
+2. The police.—See Blue, sense 1.
+
+3. (military.)—The Royal Horse Guards Blue are popularly so known from
+the blue facings on the scarlet uniform. The corps first obtained the
+name of ‘Oxford Blues’ in 1690, to distinguish it from a Dutch regiment
+of Horse Guards dressed in blue, commanded by the Earl of Portland, the
+former being commanded by the Earl of Oxford. Subsequently the regiment
+was, during the campaign in Flanders [1742–45], known as the ‘Blue
+Guards.’
+
+
+Blue Skin, subs. (old).—1. Formerly a contemptuous term for a
+Presbyterian. Butler, in Hudibras [I., p. 26], says:—
+
+
+          ‘’twas Presbyterian true blue,
+    For he was of the stubborn crew
+    Of errant saints, whom all men grant
+    To be the true Church Militant.’
+
+
+Blue is still the Presbyterian colour, and is used as an adjective by
+them in describing books and people.
+
+2. (West Indian.)—A half-breed—the child of a black woman by a white
+man.
+
+
+Blue Squadron, subs. (colonial).—One of mixed blood; properly one with
+a Hindoo strain. Eurasians belong to the blue squadron. Cf., Touch of
+the tar brush.
+
+
+Blue Stocking, subs.—A literary lady: applied usually with the
+imputation of pedantry. The generally received explanation is that the
+term is derived from the name given to certain meetings held by ladies
+in the days of Dr. Johnson for conversation with distinguished literary
+men. One of the most eminent of these literati was a Mr. Benjamin
+Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings, and whose conversation
+at these meetings was so much prized, that his absence at any time was
+felt to be a great loss, so that the remark became common, ‘We can do
+nothing without the blue stockings,’ hence these meetings were
+sportively called blue-stocking clubs, and the ladies who attended them
+blue-stockings. It is stated that the name specially arose in this way.
+A foreigner of rank refused to accompany a friend to one of these
+parties on the plea of being in his travelling costume, to which there
+was the reply, ‘Oh! we never mind dress on these occasions; you may
+come in bas bleus or blue stockings,’ with allusion to Stillingfleet’s
+stockings, when the foreigner, fancying that bas bleus were part of the
+necessary costume, called the meeting ever after the Bas-bleu Society.
+In modern slang the term blue-stocking is abbreviated into blue.
+Derivatives are blue-stockingism, blue-stockinger, etc.
+
+    b. 1738, d. 1819. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Benevolent Epistle, in wks.
+    (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 125.
+
+        I see the band of blue-stockings arise,
+          Historic, critic, and poetic dames!
+
+    1780. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, i., 326. Who would not be a
+    blue-stockinger at this rate?
+
+    1784. Walpole, Letters, iv., 381. [Walpole, writing to Hannah More,
+    playfully makes it a verb = to put on blue stockings.] When will
+    you blue-stocking yourself, and come amongst us?
+
+    1877. Macmillan’s Mag., May, p. 50. On the airs and graces of the
+    gushing blue stockings who were in vogue in that day ... she had no
+    mercy.
+
+    1877. Miss Martineau, Autob., vol. I., p. 100. Young ladies (at
+    least in provincial towns) were expected to sit down in the parlour
+    to sew,—during which reading aloud was permitted,—or to practice
+    their music; but so as to fit to receive callers, without any signs
+    of blue-stockingism which could be reported abroad.
+
+
+Blue Stone, subs. (common).—Gin or whiskey of so bad a quality that it
+can only be compared to vitriol, of which bluestone is also a nickname
+in the north of England and Scotland. For all synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+    1880. Blackwood’s Mag., June, p. 786. The bar was still thronged,
+    and the effects of the mixture of spirits of wine, bluestone, and
+    tobacco-juice, were to be seen on a miserable wretch who lay
+    stretched in the courtyard.
+
+    1882. W. G. Black, in Notes and Queries, 6 S., v., p. 348. A
+    witness was asked in the Northern Police Court, Glasgow, a few
+    weeks ago, a question relative to the quality of certain whiskey
+    said to have been supplied to him. ‘It wasn’t whiskey,’ he said,
+    ‘it was nothing but bluestone.’ ‘But what?’ inquired the
+    magistrate. ‘Bluestone, your honour,’ was the answer—‘poison.’ I
+    heard the question and answer, and there can be no doubt that the
+    word was used as a familiar one.
+
+
+Blue Tape, subs. (old).—One of the many cant terms for gin. For
+synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+
+Blue Whistler, subs. (American).—A bullet. For synonyms, see Pill.
+
+    1888. New York Herald, Nov. 4. It was Mr. Barbour’s rifle shot
+    which had hit him in the head and caused him to stagger. The pellet
+    of lead passed deep into the brain. The second shot was from the
+    Atlanta drummer, and his thirteen blue whistlers tore the brute’s
+    liver into shreds and made a great hole in his side. Ibid. After a
+    few moments of reflection, being nearest to the quarry, I lifted my
+    double-barrelled shotgun and let drive a volley of blue whistlers
+    straight at bruin’s yawning jaws.
+
+
+Bluey, subs. (thieves’).—1. Lead.—See also Blue pigeon. [Supposed to be
+an allusion to the colour.]
+
+French Synonyms. Du doussin; du noir (noir = black); du saucisson. ‘To
+dispose of bluey at the fence,’ i.e., the receiver of stolen
+goods—porter du gras-double au moulin.
+
+2. (Australian.)—A bushman’s bundle, the outside wrapper of which is
+generally a blue blanket—hence the name. This is also called his swag
+(q.v.); likewise a drum (q.v.).
+
+
+Bluey-Hunter, subs. (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead, as described
+under blue pigeon flyer (q.v.), of which bluey-hunter is a synonym.
+Cf., Billy-hunter.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 26.
+    Bluey-hunters, or those who purloin lead from the tops of houses.
+
+    1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Bluey-hunters, who
+    take lead from the tops of houses.
+
+
+Bluff, subs. (vagrants’ and common).—An excuse; a pretence; that which
+is intended to hoodwink or ‘to blind.’ Probably a transferred usage of
+the American sense.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 231.
+    [List of patterer’s words.] Bluff, an excuse.
+
+    1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, ch. xxxix. There is a strong
+    suspicion among men whose heads are level that this Minstrel
+    Variety Performance is a bluff of the ‘Messenger’ to keep from the
+    public the real motives of the murder.
+
+    1884. Boston (U.S.) Journal, Sept. 25. The oiler was only a bluff.
+
+Verb (common).—To turn aside; to stop; to hoodwink; to blind as to
+one’s real intention. Properly, to brag; to conceal one’s weakness;
+from the American game of poker.—See subs.
+
+    1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 327. Like its near cousin,
+    suggestively called bluff, poker is a mere hazard game, with which,
+    however, is combined great skill in bragging to a purpose. One man
+    offers a bet on his hand; another doubles the bet and ‘goes one
+    better’; then the first tries to bluff him off by a still higher
+    bet, and thus the stake rises rapidly to often enormous sums.
+
+    1883. Echo, April 20, p. 3, col. 5. Subsequently a prominent
+    bookmaker attempted to bluff Captain Machell by laying him 2,000 to
+    1,000 on Goggles against Sweetbread—a merry little bit of financial
+    diplomacy, which was promptly followed by Goggles being struck out.
+
+    1885. Bret Harte, Ship of ’49, ch. v. ‘Far from bluffing, Sleight,
+    I am throwing my cards on the table. Consider that I’ve passed out.
+    Let some other man take my hand.’
+
+It may be remarked that Ray [1674–91] gives bluff as to blindfold, and
+Bailey [1721] as to hoodwink. The German has blüffen; the Dutch
+blaffen, ‘to bark at,’ and verblüffen, ‘to put out of countenance.’
+
+So also bluffing in a similar sense.
+
+    1889. Answers, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. The youths evidently
+    disagreed as to the nature of my business: one, as far as I could
+    gather, assumed that I was a ‘nark,’ and that I was bluffing
+    (making an excuse), and ‘flamming’ (lying).
+
+
+Bluffer, subs. (old).—An innkeeper.—Grose. Bailey [1721] also gives the
+term with the same meaning, and American thieves still retain the word
+in a similar sense.
+
+2. (nautical).—A bo’sun.
+
+
+Blunderbuss, subs. (old).—A stupid blundering fellow.—Grose.
+
+
+Blunt, subs. (popular).—Money, especially ready money. For a long list
+of synonyms, see Actual. [There are several suggested derivations; (1)
+that it is from the French blond, sandy or golden colour, and that a
+parallel may be found in brown or browns, the slang for halfpence.
+Far-fetched as this etymology seems, say Hotten, it may be correct, as
+it is borne out by the analogy of similar expressions. Cf., Blanquillo,
+a word used in Morocco and Southern Spain for a small Moorish coin. The
+‘asper’ (ἄσπρόν) of Constantinople is called by the Turks akcheh, i.e.,
+‘little white’; (2) that it received its name in allusion to the blunt
+rim of coins. A third is that it received the name from Mr. John Blunt,
+the chairman of South Sea Bubble.]
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. [List of cant words.]
+    Blunt, money.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. (Holding out
+    his right hand for the money, and keeping the porter away with the
+    other.) Bob. That’s your sort; give us hold on it. (Takes Mace’s
+    empty hand.) Vy, vhere? Mace. (Keeping the porter back.) Vy, here.
+    Bob. Oh, you are afeard of the blunt, are you? Mace. No, it ain’t
+    that; only I’m no schollard—so I alvays takes the blunt vith von
+    hand, and gives the pot vith t’other. It saves chalk and prewents
+    mistakes, you know.
+
+    1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xxxix. ‘It’s all very well,’ said
+    Mr. Sikes; ‘but I must have some blunt from you to-night.’ ‘I
+    haven’t a piece of coin about me,’ replied the Jew.
+
+    1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 315. Blunt ... is also a
+    well-known slang term for money.
+
+    1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 147, col. 2. ‘The New Almacks.’ ‘It
+    appears, my dear Jerry,’ said the Corinthian, ‘that anybody can
+    enter here who chooses to “sport his blunt”’—that is, to pay.
+
+
+Blunted, ppl. adj. (old).—Possessed of money.
+
+    18(?). English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin
+    trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother of the togati, fresh as a
+    new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements. Be unto
+    him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport,
+    in term and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their
+    bull-dogs—the town-raff and the bargees—well-blunted or
+    stiver-cramped—against dun or don—nob or big wig—so may you never
+    want a bumper of bishop.
+
+
+Blush like a Black or Blue Dog, verbal phr. (old).—Not to blush at all.
+
+    1579. Gosson, Apologie of School of Abuse, p. 75. If it bee my
+    fortune too meete with the learned woorkes of this London Sabinus,
+    that can not playe the part without a prompter, nor utter a wise
+    worde without a piper, you shall see we will make him to blush like
+    a blacke dogge, when he is graveled.
+
+    ed. 1634. Withal, Dictionary, p. 557. Faciem perfricuit. Hee
+    blusheth like a blacke dogge, hee hath a brazen face.
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. i.).
+
+    Lord Sp. (to the Maid). Mrs. Betty, how does your body politick?
+
+    Col. Fye, my lord, you’ll make Mrs. Betty blush.
+
+    Lady Sm. Blush! Ay, blush like a blue dog.
+
+    1828. C. K. Sharpe to a lady, in C. K. S.’s Correspondence (1888),
+    II., 421. I send you a pair of blue stockings of my own knitting. I
+    blush like a blue dog about the workmanship, for I fear they are
+    too short.
+
+
+B.N.C., abbreviation (University).—For Brasenose; initials of Brasen
+Nose College. In spite of the nose over the gate, the probability is
+that the real name was Brasinium. It is still famous for its beer.
+
+    1885. Daily News, March 13, p. 5, col. 1. As when Corpus bumped
+    b.n.c. years ago, and went head of the river, whereon a spirit of
+    wrath entered into the b.n.c. men, and next night they bumped
+    Corpus back again.
+
+
+Board, verb (military).—1. To borrow.
+
+2. (nautical.)—To accost; ask of; make a demand; i.e., to come to close
+quarters. The allusion is to boarding a ship for a hand-to-hand
+conflict; originally in a forcible or hostile sense, but now used in a
+modified form for to ‘make up to,’ to ‘make advances to.’ The figure of
+speech is a very old one, as will be seen from the following examples.
+
+    1547. Earl Surrey, Æneid, IV., 395. At length her self bordeth
+    Aeneas thus. [M.]
+
+    1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, ii., 2. [Enter Hamlet, reading.] Queen.
+    But look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. Pol. ... I’ll
+    board him presently:—O, give me leave.
+
+    1672–1726. Vanbrugh, False Friend, I., i., 97. What do you expect
+    from boarding a woman ... already heart and soul engaged to
+    another.
+
+    1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Board him, a colloquialism for
+    I’ll ask, demand, or accost him.
+
+To board in the smoke, phr. (nautical).—To take one unawares, or by
+surprise. In the midst of a naval fight boarding operations were often
+successfully carried out under cover of the smoke from a broadside.
+
+On the board, phr. (tailors’).—Enjoying all the privileges and
+emoluments of a competent workman. When an apprentice becomes a regular
+journeyman he goes ‘on the board.’ Tailors usually work squatting on a
+low raised platform—hence possibly the expression.
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 146. During the
+    term of his imprisonment he became an excellent working tailor, and
+    was on the board, as it is termed, among those who are efficient
+    hands.
+
+To keep one’s name on the board, phr. (Cambridge Univ.).—To remain a
+member of a College.
+
+
+Boarding House or School, subs. (old).—A nickname given by thieves in
+London to Newgate, but it is equally applicable to any gaol. New York
+thieves apply it to the Tombs. [From that sense of Boarding School = an
+establishment where persons are boarded and taught, convicts being
+likened to scholars.] French thieves call such an institution un
+collège. For synonyms, see Cage.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Boarding School.
+    Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison or house of correction.
+
+
+Boardman, subs. (vagrants’).—A standing patterer; explained by
+quotation. Sometimes called a ‘sandwich man.’
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 251. I have
+    no doubt that there are always at least twenty standing
+    patterers—sometimes they are called boardmen—at work in London.
+    Ibid, p. 248. They endeavour to attract attention to their papers,
+    or, more commonly, pamphlets ... by means of a board with coloured
+    pictures upon it, illustrative of the contents of what they
+    sell.... (This) is what is usually denominated in street technology
+    ‘board work.’
+
+
+Board of Green Cloth, subs. (familiar).—A card or billiard table. [From
+board, a table, + green cloth, from the colour of the cloth with which
+the table is covered.]
+
+    1771. P. Parsons, New Newmarket, II., 24. That board of green
+    cloth, the billiard table.
+
+    1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 23. ‘I am going down to F——’ ‘As
+    usual, the board of green cloth, eh? you will go there once too
+    often, if you don’t mind, old fellow.’ ‘That’s my look out,’
+    replied Cumberland.
+
+    1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. vi. Often have I seen him
+    rise from the board of green cloth, and turning his chair thrice,
+    from right to left, reseat himself at the play-table, confident
+    that success would follow the mystical manœuvre.
+
+    1886. Miss Braddon, Mohawks, ch. viii. The soft seductive sound of
+    the dice sliding gently on to the board of green cloth.
+
+
+Boat, subs. (old).—Formerly applied to the hulks; latterly to any
+prison. [The derivation is obvious, old dismasted ships having long
+served as places of detention for convicts.] For synonyms, see Cage.
+
+    1856. H. Mayhew, Great World of London, p. 82, note. [List of
+    thieves’ names of prisons.] The Hulks, or any Public Works—The
+    Boat.
+
+Verb (old).—1. Originally to transport; the term is now applied to
+penal servitude. To ‘get the boat,’ or to ‘be boated,’ is to be
+sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, equivalent to transportation
+under the old system. Cf., Boat, subs., and for synonyms, see Cop.
+
+2. (American thieves’.)—To join as partner; evidently a corruption of
+‘to be in the same boat,’ i.e., to be in the same position or
+circumstances.
+
+To bail one’s own boat, phr. (American).—To be self-reliant. A variant
+is ‘to paddle one’s own canoe.’—See Canoe.
+
+
+Bob, subs. (popular).—1. A shilling. [The derivation is obscure, but
+there are several suggested explanations. Murray points out that there
+was an old French coin called a bobe, but he thinks its survival in
+English slang is very unlikely. Others think it a corruption of
+‘baubee’ or ‘bawbee,’ a debased Scotch coin, issued in the reign of
+James VI. of Scotland, equal in value to a halfpenny. A more likely
+origin than either of the foregoing is from bob, a grub used as bait
+for fish, the allusion being to money as a bribe.] The old cant had
+bobstick (q.v.) as a synonym, and a spurious plural is sometimes formed
+of bob, thus bobber—two bobber = a two-shilling piece. Cf., Blow for
+synonyms.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bob or bobstick, a shilling.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Tom. Now
+    then, what’s to pay, landlord? Mace. All out, vill be fourteen bob
+    and a kick, your honour. Tom. Well, there’s a flimsy for you; serve
+    the change out in max to the covies. (Gives money.)
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Misadventures at Margate). I changed a
+    shilling—(which in town the people call a bob).
+
+    1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 74, col. 1. Accommodation. Swell.
+    ‘Haw—no small change about me.’ Minstrel. ‘Oh, don’t mention ’t
+    sar. A bob will do sar, and if you’ll call at my club tomorrow,
+    sar, the hall portar will give you sixpence back, sar. My kyard,
+    sar, etc.!!’
+
+2. (old.)—A shoplifter’s assistant; one who receives and carries off
+stolen goods. In French he is called un nonne or un noune.
+
+3. (old.)—Gin.—See quotations in Bobstick, and Drinks for synonyms.
+
+    1749. ‘Honours of the Fleet,’ quoted in Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 286.
+    H’ had strain’d his credit for a Dram of Bob.
+
+4. (military.)—An infantry soldier; generally light-bob, i.e., a
+soldier of the light infantry. [This is probably an allusion to their
+being enlisted with the Queen’s shilling or bob.] For synonyms, see
+Mudcrusher.
+
+    1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports and Adventures in Scotland, xxxv., 282.
+    Me, that never ... listened to a light-bob.
+
+    1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xxiv. Mr. Stubble, as may be
+    supposed from his size and slenderness, was of the light-bobs.
+
+5. (Winchester College).—A large white jug containing about a gallon in
+measure, and used for beer.
+
+    1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 85. Each end
+    and Præfect’s mess had their beer served up in a large white jug,
+    or ‘bob.’ The vessel used for the same purpose in Commoners’ was
+    called a ‘Joram.’
+
+    1888. T. A. Trollope, What I Remember. Only those ‘Juniors’
+    attended whose office it was to bring away the portions of bread
+    and cheese and bobs of beer for consumption in the afternoon.
+
+Adj. (old).—Lively; nice; in good spirits.
+
+    1721. Cibber, Refusal, I., sp. 109. Yesterday at Marybone, they had
+    me all Bob as a Robin. [M.]
+
+    1864. Miss Yonge, Trial, I., 113. ‘That’s a nice girl’.... ‘Bobber
+    than bobtail.’ [M.]
+
+Verb (old).—To cheat; to trick; to disappoint. Also to bob out of.
+
+    1605. Tryall Chev., I., in Bullen’s O. Plays, iii., 273. I had
+    rather dye in a ditch than be bobd of my fayre Thomasin.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bob (v.), to jog, touch, or
+    give notice by some such like sign; also a cant word for to trick
+    or cheat.
+
+Intj. (familiar).—Stop! That’s enough!
+
+    1889. Modern Society, June 6. ‘Say when,’ said Bonko, taking up a
+    flagon of whiskey and commencing to pour out the spirit into my
+    glass. ‘Bob!’ replied I.
+
+Dry bob, phr. (old).—Fruitless coition.
+
+Dry bob, Wet bob, subs. (Eton College).—The first-named is one who
+devotes himself to cricket or football and other land sports; the
+latter one who goes in for rowing and aquatics generally. The origin of
+the term is doubtful.—See Dry bob and Wet bob.
+
+    1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, p. 42. ‘It is settled, the match
+    to-morrow shall be between Aquatics and Dry bobs,’ said a senior
+    boy.
+
+    1874. Saturday Review, Aug., p. 212. The friendly rivalry between
+    England and America led some while ago to a contest between the wet
+    bobs, to use an Eton phrase, of either country, and it was only
+    fair that the dry bobs should show what they could do.
+
+All is bob, phr. (old).—All’s safe; ‘serene’; ‘gay.’ For synonyms, see
+O.K.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. [All’s bob is defined
+    as foregoing.]
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 12. A moment
+    afterwards, the street was illumined by a blaze of torchlight, and
+    a tumultuous uproar announced the arrival of the first detachment
+    of Minters. Mr. Wood rushed instantly to meet them. ‘Hurrah!’
+    shouted he, waving his hat triumphantly over his head. ‘Saved!’
+    ‘Ay, ay, it’s all bob, my covey! You’re safe enough, that’s
+    certain!’ responded the Minters.
+
+Bear a bob! phr. (common).—Be brisk! look sharp!
+
+Bob a nod, phr. (common.)—A shilling a head. [From bob, slang for
+shilling, + nod, the head.]
+
+To give the bob, phr. (old).—To give the door. An old term used by
+Massinger—‘It can be no other but to give me the bob.’
+
+S’help me bob, phr. (low).—A street oath, equivalent to ‘So help me
+God’; a corrupted form of the legal oath. ‘So help’ is pronounced
+swelp. There are several variants, such as s’help the cat—my greens—the
+taturs, etc.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Dead Drummer).
+
+        For his jaw-work would never, I’m sure, s’elp me bob,
+        Have come for to go for to do sich a job!
+
+    1880. Jas. Payn, Confid. Agent, ch. xix. ‘Not another word will I
+    say, s’help me bob.’ And John rolled over in his bed like an
+    indignant porpoise.
+
+To shift one’s bob, phr. (common).—To go away. Cf., Bobbing around, ‘to
+go expeditiously from place to place.’
+
+
+Bobber, subs. (common).—1. A fellow-workman; mate; or ‘chum’ (q.v. for
+synonyms).
+
+    1860. W. White, Round Wrekin, 34. Bobber being the equivalent of
+    chum. [M.]
+
+    1871. Daily News, May 19. As he sells these, the buyers or their
+    bobbers carry them off. [M.]
+
+2. A spurious plural of bob (q.v.) = a shilling.
+
+
+Bobbery, subs. (popular).—A noise; squabble; disturbance; or ‘racket.’
+[An Anglo-Indian representation of Bāp re! O father! a common
+exclamation of surprise or grief.—Yule. Murray thinks the evidence for
+its origination in India is decisive, other plausible derivations to
+the contrary notwithstanding.] The first of the following quotations
+shows an earlier use by thirteen years than that given by the New
+English Dictionary.
+
+    1803. Kenney, Raising the Wind, II., i. If I don’t go back, and
+    kick up such a bobbery—
+
+    1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. ii. I’ll bet a wager there’ll be a
+    bobbery in the pigsty before long, for they are ripe for mischief.
+
+    1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xix. ‘I can do nothing but
+    there’s a bobbery at the bottom of it.’
+
+    1879. Punch, 17 May, 227. I might in quiet hold my own, And not go
+    kicking up a bobbery. [M.]
+
+
+Bobbish, adj. (common).—Frequently pretty bobbish, i.e., hearty; in
+good health and spirits; clever; spruce. Cf., Bob, adj. So also
+bobbishly, adv.
+
+    1819. Scott, in Lockhart, xliv. (1842), 394. I trust you will find
+    me pretty bobbish. [M.]
+
+    1857. Dickens, The Detective Police, in Reprinted Pieces, p. 247.
+    ‘Halloa, Butcher! is that you?’ ‘Yes, it’s me, How do you find
+    yourself?’ ‘Bobbish,’ he says.
+
+    1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. iv., p. 13. Every Christmas
+    Day, he retorted, as he now retorted, ‘It’s no more than your
+    merits. And now are you all bobbish, and how’s sixpennorth of
+    halfpence?’ meaning me.
+
+    1881. W. D. Howells, Dr. Breen’s Practice, ch. vii. ‘I didn’t know
+    that I mustn’t look downcast. I didn’t suppose it would be very
+    polite, under the circumstances, to go round looking as bobbish as
+    I feel.’
+
+
+Bobbles, subs. (common).—The testicles—a corrupted form of bawbells.
+For synonyms, see Cods.
+
+
+Bobby, subs. (popular).—A policeman. This nickname, though possibly not
+derived from, was certainly popularised by the fact that the
+Metropolitan Police Act of 1828 was mainly the work of Mr., afterwards
+Sir Robert Peel. Long before that statesman remodelled the police,
+however, the term ‘bobby the beadle’ was in use to signify a guardian
+of a public square or other open space. There seems, however, a lack of
+evidence, and examples of its literary use prior to 1851 have not been
+discovered. For synonyms, see Beak, sense 1.
+
+At the Universities the Proctors are or used to be called bobbies.
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 16. It is
+    often said in admiration of such a man that he could muzzle half a
+    dozen bobbies before breakfast!
+
+    1880. Punch, No. 2038. Going round a corner and crying, Bobby!
+    bobby! bobby! when he saw a Proctor.
+
+    1884. Punch, July 26, p. 41, col. 2.
+
+        But oh, for the grip of the ‘Bobby’s’ hand
+          Upon his neck that day.
+
+    1889. The Mirror, Aug. 26, p. 7, col. 2. On the back seat was
+    perched the perfidious Amelia Ann, the lust of conquest clearly
+    written upon her sinful and perspiring face. She had put her cat in
+    the birdcage, its former occupant being, I presume, inside the
+    cat.... In this order the ghastly procession moved off, to the
+    evident amusement of a ‘bobby,’ whose beat seems to include nothing
+    beyond the area-railings of the opposite house.
+
+
+Bobby-Twister, subs. (thieves’).—A burglar or thief, who, when
+resisting pursuit or capture, uses violence. Of obvious derivation.—See
+Thieves.
+
+
+Bob-Cull, subs. (thieves’).—A good fellow; a pleasant companion. [From
+bob (adj.) = nice, lively + cull, old cant for a man.]
+
+
+Bob My Pal, subs. (rhyming slang).—A girl, i.e., ‘gal.’
+
+
+Bobstick, subs. (old).—A shilling’s worth. Cf., Bob, sense 1.
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 162. Bobstick of rum slim.
+    That is, a shilling’s worth of punch.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5. Tom. Allons
+    donc—Waiter, bring some wine. Log. Hang cards! bring me a bobstick
+    of rum slim, or a glass of Barsac—stay, on second thoughts, I’ll
+    have a sniker of green tea punch.
+
+
+Bob Tail, subs. (old).—1. A lewd woman. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
+
+2. An impotent man or eunuch.
+
+Tag, rag, and bobtail; a mob of all sorts of low people; the common
+herd; the rabble.
+
+    1659–60. Pepys, Diary, Mar. 6. The dining-room ... was full of tag,
+    rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking. [M.]
+
+    1785. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Ode to R. A.’s, ii., wks. (1812) I.,
+    80. Tag-rags and Bobtails of the sacred Brush. [M.]
+
+    1820. Byron, Blues, ii., 23. The rag, tag, and bobtail of those
+    they call ‘Blues.’ [M.]
+
+    1841. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, xxxv. ‘We don’t take in no tagrag and
+    bobtail at our house.’ [M.]
+
+
+Boco, subs. (originally pugilistic, now common).—1. The nose. [Probably
+from beak, sense 3.] The form employed by American thieves is boke. For
+synonyms, see Conk.
+
+    1880. Besant and Rice, Seamy Side, ch. i. ‘A common keeper, who was
+    in the lot, got a heavy oner on the boko for his share.’ ‘Boys,’
+    said Mr. Hamblin, ‘who use slang come to the gallows. Boko is—’
+    ‘Conk or boko,’ said Nicolas the vulgar. ‘It’s all the same.’
+
+    1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, July 6. Dear Old Blistered
+    Boko,—I trust you will allow me to thank you and your Graphologist
+    for my character I received this morning. My friends say it is
+    correct. I am saving up my pocket-money for a bottle of nose
+    bloomer. I can see your boko blushing at the prospect.
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, July 6. The Gnat, with the Cunning peculiar
+    to the Wicked flew up the Lion’s boko and Stung him so Badly, that
+    the Great Beast rent himself to Death with his Own Claws.
+
+2. Nonsense; ‘bosh.’ [Of unknown derivation, and it seems to have no
+connection with sense 1.]
+
+    1886. Punch, 25 Sept., p. 145. Lop-sided Free Trade is all boko.
+
+
+Bodier, subs. (pugilistic).—A blow on the side of the body.—See
+Rib-roaster.
+
+
+Bodkin, subs. (sporting).—Amongst sporting men, a person who takes his
+turn between the sheets on alternate nights, when an hotel has twice as
+many visitors as it can comfortably lodge; as, for instance, during a
+race-week. A transferred sense from
+
+To ride or sit bodkin, phr. (common).—To take a place and be wedged in
+between other persons when the accommodation is intended for two only.
+
+    1638. Ford, Fancies, IV., i. (1811), 186. Where but two lie in a
+    bed, you must be—bodkin, bitch-baby—must ye? [M.]
+
+    1798. Loves of the Triangles, 182. While the pressed bodkin,
+    punched and squeezed to death, Sweats in the mid-most place.
+
+    1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxxiv. The writer supposes
+    Aubrey to come to town in post-chaise and pair, sitting bodkin
+    probably between his wife and sister.
+
+
+Body-Cover, subs. (American thieves’).—A coat. One is almost tempted to
+ask whether this is the only garment known to the criminal classes.
+Cf., Wrap-rascal.
+
+
+Body of Divinity Bound in Black Calf, phr. (old).—A parson. So quoted
+in the Lexicon Balatronicum [1811]. For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.
+
+
+Body-Slangs, subs. (thieves’).—Fetters. [From slang (q.v.), a
+chain.]—See quot. and for synonyms, Darbies.
+
+    1819. Vaux, Memoirs. Body-slangs are of two kinds. Each consists of
+    a heavy iron ring to go round the waist, to which are attached in
+    one case two bars or heavy chains, connected with the fetters round
+    the ankles, in the other case a link at each side attached to a
+    handcuff. Into these the wrists are locked, and thus held down to
+    the prisoner’s sides. The latter are now only to be found in
+    museums.
+
+
+Body-Snatcher, subs. (old).—1. A bailiff or runner. [The snatch was the
+trick by which the bailiff captured the delinquent.] These terms are
+now obsolete, so far as the pursuits mentioned are concerned. They are
+mentioned by Parker [1781] in his View of Society, II., 70.
+
+2. A policeman. For synonyms, see Beak, sense 1.
+
+    1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. i., p. 254. ‘Now,
+    if you or I was to do such a dodge as that, we should have the
+    body-snatchers (police officers) after us.’
+
+3. (American.)—A generally objectionable individual. This variety is
+especially known as a mean body-snatcher (q.v.).
+
+4. (popular.)—A violator of graves; a ‘resurrectionist.’
+
+    1833. Sir F. Head, Bubbles from the Brunnen, 126. Any one of our
+    body-snatchers would have rubbed his rough hands. [M.]
+
+    1863. Reader, Aug. 22. At that time (1827–28) ... body-snatching
+    became a trade.
+
+5. (common.)—An undertaker. For synonyms, see Cold cook.
+
+
+Bog, subs. (prison).—1. The works at Dartmoor, on which convicts
+labour; during recent years a large quantity of land has been reclaimed
+in this way.
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 158. These were the
+    men destined for outdoor work, the bogs, as the places where the
+    different outside gangs worked were called [at Dartmoor].
+
+2. (low.)—An abbreviated form of bog-house (q.v.), or bog-shop.
+
+Verb.—To ease oneself; to evacuate.—See Bury a Quaker.
+
+
+Bogey.—See Bogy.
+
+
+Boggle-De-Botch, Boggledy-Botch, subs. (colloquial).—A bungle; ‘mess’;
+‘hash.’ [From boggle, ‘to fumble,’ ‘to bungle,’ + botch, ‘to bungle’ or
+‘to construct clumsily.’] Boggle by itself is more frequently employed.
+
+    1834. Miss Edgeworth, Helen, ch. xxvi. A fine boggle-de-botch I
+    have made of it.... I am aware it is not a canonical
+    word,—classical, I mean; nor in nor out of any dictionary
+    perhaps—but when people are warm, they cannot stand picking terms.
+
+
+Bog-House, Bog-Shop, subs. (low).—A privy; a necessary house. The term,
+as will be seen, is an old one. [The derivation is probably from bog, a
+morass of decaying matter; a soft, spongy place.] For synonyms, see
+Bury a Quaker and Mrs. Jones.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. xii., p. 123 (1874).
+    Fearing I should catch cold, they out of pity covered me warm in a
+    bogg-house.
+
+    1703. Ward, London Spy, pt. III., p. 47. Its walls being adorn’d
+    with as many unsavoury Finger-dabs as an Inns of Court Bog-house.
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bog-house, a privy, or
+    necessary-house.
+
+
+Boglander, subs. (old).—An Irishman. [From the boggy and marshy
+character of a considerable portion of the Emerald Isle.] Cf.,
+Bog-trotter.
+
+    1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. XVI., p. 383. [Boglander is the
+    name applied to an Irishman in this work.]
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bog Lander, an
+    Irishman. Ireland being famous for its large bogs which furnish the
+    chief fuel in many parts of that kingdom.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. [The same definition given as in
+    Grose.]
+
+
+Bog Latin, subs. (Irish).—A spurious mode of speech simulating the
+Latin in construction.—See Dog Latin.
+
+
+Bog-Oranges, subs. (popular).—Potatoes. The phrase is an allusion to
+the vegetable in question forming a very substantial food staple of the
+Irish peasantry, with whom, in the popular mind, potatoes are largely
+associated. Hence probably the nickname. Cf., Murphy. [Oranges, from
+the shape, + bog = Irish, Bogland being a humorous nick-name for the
+Emerald Isle.]
+
+
+Bog-trotter, subs. (familiar).—A satirical name for an Irishman.
+Camden, however [c. 1605], speaking of the ‘debateable land’ on the
+borders of England and Scotland, says, ‘both these dales breed notable
+bog-trotters.’ From this the original sense would appear to have been
+one accustomed to walk across bogs. As a nickname for an Irishman, it
+dates at least from 1671.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. xxvii. (Repr. 1874), p.
+    232. [Irishmen are spoken of as bog-trotters in this work.]
+
+    1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxix. Gaunt reapers and
+    bog-trotters in those traditional blue body-coats, leathern smalls,
+    and bell-crowned hats, that seem to be manufactured nowhere save in
+    Ireland.
+
+
+Bog-trotting, adj. (familiar).—A contemptuous epithet applied to one
+living among bogs; e.g., a bog-trotting Irishman.
+
+    1758–65. Goldsmith, On Quack Doctors (Essays and Poems, 1836), p.
+    127. Rock advises the world to beware of bog-trotting quacks.
+
+    1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 169. The impudent, bog-trotting
+    scamp dare not threaten me!
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 191. ‘What do you
+    mean by calling me Irish? it is you that are Irish, you——.’ ‘Ha!
+    ha! ha! ha!’ jerked out Fagan. ‘There, I tould you so. He can’t
+    stand to be called by his true name; the bog-trotting rascal denies
+    his Ould Ireland for a mother.’
+
+
+Bogus, adj. (American, now common).—Spurious: fictitious; a term
+applied to anything sham, or to that which is not what it professes to
+be. Various accounts, some of them of a circumstantial character, are
+given as to the genesis of this word. One thing only seems certain; and
+that is its American origin. The generally received derivation,
+hitherto, has been that given by the Boston Courier (12 June, 1857) to
+the effect that the word is a vile corruption of the Italian name
+Borghese, a notorious swindler, who about the year 1837 literally
+flooded the Western and South-western States with fictitious cheques,
+notes, and bills of exchange and similar securities to an enormous
+amount. It is said that the name was gradually corrupted first to
+borges and then to bogus, and the man Borghese being associated in the
+popular mind with doubtful money transactions, his name so corrupted
+into bogus became applied to fraudulent papers and practices, and
+latterly to any spurious or counterfeit object, as bogus money, hair,
+diamonds, accusations, etc. Yet another suggestion is one put forward
+by Mr. Jas. Russell Lowell. He thinks it has descended in a corrupted
+form from the French Bagasse, the refuse of the sugar cane after the
+juice has been expressed. This worthless product has, it is suggested,
+given the name to other worthless things having travelled from
+Louisiana up the Mississippi, and thence throughout the Union, finally
+spreading itself over the English speaking world. A few, however,
+affect to regard it as a corruption of [hocus] pocus, and say that it
+refers to the German ‘Hocus Pocus Imperatus, wer nicht sieht ist
+blind.’
+
+The latest light upon the history of the word is thrown, as usual, by
+the indefatigable Dr. Murray, who, while slily satirising the ‘bogus
+derivations circumstantially given,’ makes another attempt to solve the
+riddle. He says: ‘Dr. S. Willard, of Chicago, in a letter to the editor
+of this Dictionary, quotes from the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph of
+July 6 and Nov. 2, 1827, the word bogus as a subs., applied to an
+apparatus for coining false money. Mr. Eber D. Howe, who was then
+editor of that paper, describes in his Autobiography (1878) the
+discovery of such a piece of mechanism in the hands of a gang of
+coiners at Painesville, in May, 1827; it was a mysterious looking
+object, and some one in the crowd styled it a bogus, a designation
+adopted in the succeeding numbers of the paper. Dr. Willard considers
+this to have been short for tantrabogus, a word familiar to him from
+his childhood, and which in his father’s time was commonly applied in
+Vermont to any ill-looking object; he points out that tantarabobs is
+given in Halliwell as a Devonshire word for the devil.’ [Bogus seems
+thus to be related to bogy, etc.]
+
+    1825. Hughes, in J. Ludlow’s Hist. U.S., 338. This precious house
+    of representatives—the bogus legislature as it was at once called.
+
+    1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’) Innocents at Home, ch. xvii.
+    Nobody had ever received his bogus history as gospel before; its
+    genuineness had always been called in question either by words or
+    looks; but here was a man that not only swallowed it all down, but
+    was grateful for the dose.
+
+    1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxxv. ‘They’ve got some good money,
+    as well as bogus notes.’
+
+    1883. Saturday Review, March 31, p. 399, col. 2. M. Soleirol had
+    probably a number of forged autographs of Molière; his whole
+    collection was a bogus assortment of frauds.
+
+
+Bogy, Bogey, subs. (common).—A landlord. An attributive usage of the
+more familiar meanings—(1) the devil; (2) a person much dreaded. The
+transition from sense 2 to that which signifies a landlord is easy. A
+French equivalent is Monsieur Vautour; vautour = a vulture; and the
+term is applied to a hard-hearted landlord. In passing, it may perhaps
+be mentioned (having in view the uncertainty which Murray confesses
+hangs round the history of this word in its primary meanings) that ask
+Bogy, as a reply to a question, occurs in Grose [1785]. It is true it
+is there associated with a vulgarism which, however, on the face of it,
+appears to have had little to do with the expression, except perhaps in
+the not over clean mind of the burly bon-vivant who compiled the
+dictionary in question. It seems to have been used much as the modern
+‘God knows’! or ‘Bramah knows’ under similar circumstances. This, at
+any rate, would carry it back, in very much its present form, much
+earlier than 1825, Murray’s earliest trace of it. Grose says it was
+‘sea wit,’ whatever that may mean.
+
+Adj. (studios’).—Sombre, or dark in tint. Said of a painting exhibiting
+these characteristics.
+
+
+Bohn, subs. (American College).—A translation; a pony (q.v.). The
+volumes of Bohn’s Classical Library are in such general use among
+undergraduates in American Colleges, that Bohn has come to be a common
+name for a translation.
+
+    1855. Songs, Biennial Jubilee, Yale College. ’Twas plenty of skin
+    with a good deal of bohn.
+
+
+Boil, verb (old).—To betray; ‘to Peach,’ which see for synonyms.
+
+    1602. Rowlands, Greene’s Coney Catchers, 16. His cloyer or follower
+    fortwith boyles him, that is, bewrayes him. [M.]
+
+    1611. Middleton and Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks., 1873, III., 220.
+    Wee are smoakt ... wee are boyl’d, pox on her! [M.]
+
+
+Boil Down, verb (popular).—To reduce in bulk by condensing or
+epitomizing. When a literary work is reduced to smaller compass by the
+presentation only of the main or salient features, it is said to be
+boiled down. [The expression is a figurative use (quite recent
+by-the-bye) of boiling down in the sense of lessening the bulk by
+boiling.]
+
+    1880. Sat. Review, No. 1288, 28. It is surprising to see how much
+    research Mr. S. has sometimes contrived to boil down into a single
+    line. [M.]
+
+    1885. G. Dolly, Dickens as I Knew Him, p. 125. The newspaper and
+    political elements having been consulted, and their opinions having
+    been boiled down.
+
+    1887. H. Frederic, in Scribn. Mag., I., 479. ‘To boil down’ columns
+    of narrative into a few lines of bald, cold statement.
+
+    1888. Polytechnic Mag., 25 Oct., p. 258.
+
+        Whatever you have to say, my friend,
+          Whether witty, or grave, or gay—
+        Condense as much as ever you can,
+          And say in the readiest way;
+        And whether you write on rural affairs,
+          Or particular things in town,
+        Just a word of friendly advice—boil it down.
+
+
+Boiled Shirt, Biled Shirt or Boiled Rag, subs. (American).—In the West,
+biled shirt is the odd name given to a shirt of white linen, and it is
+not difficult to see the line of reasoning from which the term derives
+its significance. In the active stirring life of the West little count
+is taken of the convenances of civilization, and only on Sundays and
+festive occasions would the woollen undergarment be discarded for the
+white linen article. Indeed, in many cases, the former would be worn
+until it literally dropped to pieces. Now white shirts are facetiously
+known as biled shirts all over the States, and only recently (May,
+1888) a question in dispute between the employés of the Chicago Tramway
+Companies and the managers of the same was whether the former should
+wear, when on duty, coloured or biled shirts. Cf., Bald-faced shirt.
+
+    1854. McClure, Rocky Mountains, p. 412. In order to attend the
+    Governor’s reception, I borrowed a boiled shirt, and plunged in
+    with a Byron collar, and polished boots, and also the other
+    necessary apparel.
+
+    1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, ch. xii. But
+    they were rough in those times! ... if a man wanted a fight on his
+    hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was to appear in
+    public in a white shirt or a stove-pipe hat, and he would be
+    accommodated. For those people hated aristocrats. They had a
+    particular and malignant animosity toward what they called a biled
+    shirt.
+
+    1872. Dublin Univ. Mag., Feb., p. 219. Every man arrays himself in
+    ‘store-clothes’ and boiled shirts.
+
+    1888. New York World, 13 May. Is it possible that the Chicagoans
+    never heard of white shirts before this spring? May be the
+    street-railway presidents never saw a starched shirt (I must
+    deplore the use of the word biled as applied to shirts) until this
+    year.
+
+
+Boiler, subs. (Winchester College).—1. A plain coffee-pot used for
+heating water. Called fourpenny and sixpenny boilers, not from their
+price, but from the quantity of milk they will hold: τὸ παν boilers
+were large tin saucepan-like vessels in which water for hot bidets
+(q.v.) was heated.
+
+2. See Pot boiler.
+
+
+Boiler-Plated, adj. (American).—Imperturbable; stolid; stoical. [The
+simile is akin to that contained in expressions like iron-clad,
+copper-bottomed, etc., drawn mainly from marine phraseology.]
+
+
+Boilers or Brompton Boilers, subs. (popular).—1. A name originally
+given to the new Kensington Museum and School of Art, in allusion to
+the peculiar form of the buildings, and the fact of their being mainly
+composed of, and covered with, sheet iron. This has been changed since
+the extensive alterations in the building, or rather pile of buildings,
+and the term boilers is now applied to the Bethnal Green Museum.—See
+Pepper-boxes.
+
+    1885. Daily News, July 9, p. 5, col. 1. The building is merely a
+    fragment of the old ‘Brompton boilers,’ set up originally for the
+    South Kensington Museum.
+
+2. (Royal Military Academy.)—Boiled potatoes. Fried potatoes are called
+greasers.
+
+
+Boiling or Biling. Whole boiling or biling, subs. phr. (common).—The
+whole lot; entire quantity. [A figurative usage, from a quantity boiled
+at one time.] Variants are the whole gridiron (q.v.) and all the shoot.
+
+    1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xviii. The
+    last mile, he said, tho’ the shortest one of the whole bilin’, took
+    the longest [time] to do it by a jug full.
+
+    1837. Marryat, Dog Fiend, xiii. [He] may ... whip the whole boiling
+    of us off to the Ingees.
+
+    1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lix., p. 496. ‘And the whole
+    bileing of people was mixed up in the same business, and no other.’
+
+    1874. E. L. Linton, Patricia Kemball, ch. xxii. ‘He have Dora? No,
+    not if he licked my foot for her, and I broke the whole boiling of
+    them—as I will!’
+
+
+Boil One’s Lobster, verbal phr. (old).—To enter the army after having
+been in the church. [From lobster, a slang term for a soldier, the
+allusion being to the change in colour which lobsters undergo in the
+process of boiling, turning from a bluish black to red.] Cf., Black
+coat and Red coat.
+
+
+Boke, subs. (American thieves’).—The nose. [This may either be derived
+directly from beak, sense 3, or indirectly from boko (q.v.).] For
+synonyms, see Conk.
+
+
+Bold as Brass, adv. phr. (popular).—Audaciously forward; presumptuous;
+without shame. The simile, or at least the general idea, seems to be an
+old one. Shakspeare (see quot.) uses the expression ‘a face of brass,’
+and even to this day brass, sense 1 (q.v.), is synonymous with
+impudence or ‘cheek.’
+
+    1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour Lost, v., 2.
+
+        Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury.
+        Can any face of brass hold longer out?——
+
+    1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., p. 12. He came in as bold as
+    brass.
+
+    1854. Thackeray, Lovel the Widower, p. 195. ‘A nursery governess at
+    the wages of a housemaid’ I continued, bold as Corinthian brass.
+
+    c. 1882. Broadside Ballad, ‘Timothy Titus.’
+
+        The name belongs to brave men, and I’m as bold as brass,
+        I do not wear the lion’s skin and show myself an ass;
+        I’m full of pluck and can defy, like Ajax, anything,
+        And if you put me to the test, a proof I soon can bring.
+
+
+Boler, also Bowler, subs. (popular).—A stiff felt hat. For synonyms,
+see Cady.
+
+    1861. Sat. Review, Sept. 21, 297. We are informed that he ... wore,
+    or rather carried in his hand, a white bowler hat.
+
+    1882. Pebody, Eng. Journalism, xxi., 158. The ministers, in bowlers
+    and pea-jackets, are to be found upon the shore of highland locks.
+
+    1889. Answers, June 8, p. 24. Most of the men were clothed in loud
+    and greasy suits of tweed, and wore what are known as bowler hats,
+    many of them much the worse for wear. The ladies affected fine and
+    smart costumes, but as the greater part of their dresses had seen
+    long months of service, the smartness was somewhat of the
+    bedraggled order.
+
+
+Bolly, subs. (Marlborough College).—Pudding.
+
+
+Bolt, subs. (old).—The throat. [This curious term would seem to be
+derived from bolt = to gulp down.]
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Tom. Here,
+    Dusty, my prince, now then, sluice your bolt. (Gives Bob gin.) Bob.
+    Vell, your honours, here’s luck. (Bolts gin.) That’s a regular
+    kwortern, I knows by my mouth.
+
+Verb (at one period slang, now recognised).—1. To escape; to leave
+suddenly. Bolt is an instance of a word which once orthodox,
+subsequently fell into disrepute, but which, after having for
+generations served as a mere slang term, is now nearly as respectable
+as when Dryden wrote: ‘I have reflected on those who, from time to
+time, have shot into the world, some bolting out on the stage with vast
+applause, and others hissed off.’ The following are a few examples of
+its use. For synonyms, see Amputate.
+
+    1668. Etherege, She Would if She Could, I., i. (1704), p. 94. Is he
+    gone? Court. Ay, ay! you may venture to bolt now.
+
+    1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. vi. Then, of a
+    sudden, bolting into the room, he began to tell....
+
+    1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. XI., ch. vii. In his way home, Booth
+    was met by a lady in a chair, who immediately upon seeing him ...
+    bolted out of it.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc, 7. Log. Come
+    along, then. Now, Jerry, chivey! Jerry. Chivey? Log. Mizzle? Jerry.
+    Mizzle? Log. Tip your rags a gallop! Jerry. Tip my rags a gallop?
+    Log. Walk your trotters! Jerry. Walk my trotters? Log. Bolt! Jerry.
+    Bolt? oh, aye! I’m fly now. You mean go.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (M. of Venice). Jessy ransack’d the house,
+    popp’d her breeks on, and when so Disguis’d, bolted off with her
+    beau—one Lorenzo.
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. ix., p. 90. He was more
+    strongly tempted ... to make excursive bolts into the neighbouring
+    alleys when he answered the door.
+
+2. (American).—The usage in the United States indicates the right of
+the independently minded to revolt against partisan rule, as ‘He bolted
+the party nominations.’ Also substantively, as ‘He has organized a
+bolt.’ The word derived this meaning from its sporting application to a
+horse when it becomes unmanageable on the race-course. Cf., Bolter. It
+is rarely used with its dictionary meaning in political connections;
+and, when so used, is generally misunderstood by the average reader.
+
+    1871. St. Louis Democrat, 3 April. ‘Several of our contemporaries
+    have announced it as a well-established fact, that Carl Schurz has
+    bolted from the Republican party. We have the very best authority
+    for denying the report.’
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 3 Feb. What the Register does object to
+    are the fellows who bolt the ticket and support the opposition
+    candidate when they can not control nominations.
+
+3. (colloquial.)—To eat hurriedly without chewing; to swallow whole; to
+gulp down. Wolcot in a note to the first quotation hereunder appended,
+explains bolt as a Hampshire word. ‘A rapid deglutition of bacon,
+without the sober ceremony of mastication.’
+
+    1794. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Ode to Tyrants, in wks. (Dublin, 1795),
+    vol. II., p. 527.
+
+        Bold push’d the Emp’ror on, with stride so noble,
+        Bolting his subjects with majestic gobble.
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvi., p. 171. Dyspeptic
+    individuals bolted their food in wedges.
+
+    1857. Dickens, Dorrit, bk. I., ch. xiii., 101. ‘Give me as short a
+    time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it.’
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, Jan. 10, p. 5, col. 3. The dangerous habit
+    of bolting a light luncheon in two or three minutes.
+
+Getting the bolt, phr. (thieves’).—Being sentenced to penal servitude.
+Cf., Boat.
+
+To turn the corner of Bolt Street, phr. (popular).—A humorous
+expression for running away. Cf., Bolt, sense 1, also Queer Street, and
+for synonyms, see Amputate.
+
+
+Bolter, subs. (old).—1. Explained by quotation. The privileged places
+referred to were such as Whitefriars, the Mint, Higher and Lower
+Alsatia, etc.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bolter (s.), a cant name for
+    one who hides himself in his own house, or some privileged place,
+    and dares only peep, but not go out of his retreat.
+
+2. One who ‘bolts’; especially applied to horses, but figuratively to
+persons in the sense of one given to throwing off restraint; in
+American parlance one who ‘kicks’ (q.v.).
+
+    1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk. Bk. (1872), 244. The engine may explode
+    ... or be a bolter. [M.]
+
+    1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. xiii. ‘Three of the horses
+    had never been in harness before, and the fourth was a bolter.’
+
+    1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lviii., p. 483. This sparkling
+    sally is to the effect that, although he always knew she was the
+    best-groomed woman in the stud, he had no idea she was a bolter. It
+    is immensely received in turf-circles.
+
+    1881. C. J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, p. 17. It is better to ride a
+    steady old plodder than to trust your neck to a bolter.
+
+3. (American.)—One who exercises the right of abstention in regard to
+his political party. See Bolt, verb, sense 2.
+
+    1883. Atlantic Monthly, LII., 327. To whom a ‘scratcher’ or a
+    bolter is more hateful than the Beast. [M.]
+
+    1884. American, VIII., 100. To denounce the twenty-seven as bolters
+    from their party.
+
+
+Bolt-in-Tun, phr. (London thieves’).—Bolted; run away.
+
+    1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. A term founded on the cant word ‘bolt,’
+    and merely a fanciful variation very common among flash persons,
+    there being in London a famous inn so called. It is customary when
+    a man has run away from his lodgings, broken out of jail, or made
+    any other sudden movement, to say ‘the Bolt-in-tun is concerned,’
+    or ‘he’s gone to the Bolt-in-tun’ instead of simply saying, ‘he has
+    bolted,’ etc.
+
+
+Boltsprit, Boltspreet, Bowsprit, subs. (common).—An old and humorous
+term for the nose. [The analogy is between the spar or boom extending
+beyond the stem of a vessel and the nose as a prominent and projecting
+feature of the face.] For synonyms, see Conk.
+
+    1690. Shadwell, Amorous Bigot, Act v. As thou lovest thy ears, or
+    nose, that bolt-sprit of thy face. [M.]
+
+    1691. Shadwell, Scowerers, Act v. They do not consider the
+    tenderness of my bolt-sprit. [M.]
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Boltsprit (s.), a cant name for
+    the nose.
+
+
+Bolt the Moon, verbal phr.—To remove one’s goods and chattels under
+cover of night with a view of evading the payment of rent. A variant of
+shoot the moon (q.v.); the act itself is called a moonlight flitting
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Bolus, subs. (common).—An apothecary; a doctor. [From bolus, a large
+pill frequently prescribed by physicians.]
+
+    1878. Hatton, Cruel London, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘The doctor, up from
+    the Indian bar, came and said I was wanted in London’ ... ‘good for
+    old Bolus,’ said Kernan; ‘and I believe him.’
+
+
+Boman, subs. (old).—A gallant fellow. This is mentioned by Nares, who,
+however, could find no example illustrating its use.
+
+
+Bombay Ducks, subs. (old).—1. The Bombay regiments of the East India
+Company’s army were so called.
+
+2. A well known delicacy, the exact nature of which is explained by G.
+A. Sala in the second quotation.
+
+    1865. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 14 August, 5, 4. His cuisine
+    was, with the occasional interpolation of a not entirely
+    objectionable curry, accompanied by Bombay ducks, exclusively
+    old-fashioned English.
+
+    1886. G. A. Sala, in Ill. Lon. News, 7 August, 138, 2. The Bombay
+    duck is the Anglo-Indian relation of the Digby chick. Alive, it is
+    a fish called the bummelo; dead and dried, it becomes a duck.
+
+
+Bombo, Bumbo, subs. (common).—A nickname given to various mixtures, but
+chiefly to cold punch. Smollett, in a note in Roderick Random, speaks
+of it as ‘a liquor composed of rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.’
+
+    1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, ch. xxxiv. A table well stored
+    with bumbo and wine.
+
+    1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bombo, weak cold punch.
+
+    a. 1886. Northumb. Song, in N. and Q., 6 March, 195. The pitmen and
+    the keelman ... drink bumbo made of gin.
+
+
+Bona, subs. (popular).—A girl; young woman; a belle.
+
+    c. 18(?). Broadside Ballad, ‘Oh, Fred, don’t be so frivolous.’
+
+        Girls are in vulgar called donas,
+          Some are called Miss and some Mrs.,
+        The best of them all are called bonas,
+          The whole jolly lot’s fond of kisses.
+        I kiss pretty lips, and I squeeze finger tips,
+          No matter what I have to pay,
+
+        If I meet a dear maid who is somewhat afraid,
+          She’ll blush like a virgin and say, ‘Oh my.’
+
+                                                Chorus.
+
+Adj. (theatrical).—Good. [From the Latin.]—See Rumbo.
+
+
+Bonanza, subs. (American).—A happy hit; a stroke of fortune; success.
+[From the Spanish, a fair wind, fine weather, prosperous voyage.]
+Bonanza was originally the name of a mine in Nevada, which once, quite
+unexpectedly, turned out to be a big thing, and of enormous value; now
+applied to any lucky hit or successful enterprise.
+
+    1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 272. But a bonanza with millions in
+    it is not struck every week.
+
+    1888. San Francisco News Letter, 4 Feb. The mines along the veins
+    running north and south, of which North Belle Isle is the center,
+    are all stayers, and in the east and west ledge Grand Prize has
+    entered a body of ore which may develop into a bonanza as big as
+    the one which paid millions in dividends in years gone by.
+
+
+Bona-Roba, subs. (old).—A courtesan; a showy prostitute. [From Italian
+buona, good, + roba = a robe or dress.] The term was much in use among
+the older dramatists. Ben Jonson speaks of a bouncing bona-roba; and
+Cowley seems to have considered it as implying a fine, tall figure.
+Bona in modern times is frequently employed to signify a girl or young
+woman, without reference to morals.
+
+    1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., iii., 2. We knew where the
+    bona-robas were; and had the best of them all at commandment.
+
+    b. 1618, d. 1667. Cowley, Essay on Greatness (quoted by Nares). I
+    would neither wish that my mistress nor my fortune should be a
+    bona-roba;—but as Lucretius says, Parvula, pumilio, tota merum sal.
+
+    1822. Scott, Nigel, xvi. Your lordship is for a frolic into
+    Alsatia? ... there are bona-robas to be found there. [M.]
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 69. The other
+    bona-roba, known amongst her companions as Mistress Poll Maggot,
+    was a beauty on a much larger scale—in fact, a perfect Amazon.
+
+
+Bonce, subs. (popular).—1. The head; [probably a derivative of sense 2,
+from the analogy between them.] For synonyms, see Crumpet.
+
+2. A large marble [origin unknown, but see Alley].
+
+
+Bone, subs. (American).—When a traveller, in passing his luggage
+through the Custom House, tips the officer in the expectation that the
+latter’s examination of his impedimenta will be more or less
+superficial, the fee thus given is termed a bone. The practice, is, of
+course, contrary to all regulations; but, human nature being human
+nature all the world over, it is believed that similar expedients for
+evading the law are not altogether unknown in England.
+
+Adj. (thieves’).—Good; excellent; ◇ is the vagabonds’ hieroglyphic for
+bone, or good, chalked by them on houses and street corners as a hint
+to succeeding beggars. [Probably from French bon, good. Cf., Boon.]
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. He
+    [beggar] mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. I give one or
+    two instances. ◇ ‘Bone,’ meaning good.
+
+    1883. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. L. News, Nov. 10, p. 451, col. 3. It is
+    well known that the lozenge-shaped diagram chalked by beggars and
+    tramps on doors and walls in ‘promising’ neighbourhoods stands for
+    ‘bone,’ a corruption of the French ‘bon,’ as a hint to succeeding
+    vagabonds that they will find the happiest of hunting-grounds in
+    the locality.
+
+Verb (popular).—1. To filch; to steal; to make off with; to take into
+custody. [There are two suggested derivations:—(1) that the figure of
+speech is drawn from the manner in which a dog makes off with a bone;
+(2) that bone is a corruption of ‘bonnet’ (a gambling cheat who
+‘sharks’ one’s money slyly).] For synonyms in sense of to steal, see
+Prig; in sense of to apprehend, see Nab.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bone (v.), a cant word to seize
+    or arrest; also to cheat or strip a person of his money or goods.
+
+    1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs, II., 157. Tell us how you was boned,
+    signifies tell us the story of your apprehension, a common request
+    among fellow-prisoners in a jail, which is readily complied with as
+    a rule; and the various circumstances therein related afford
+    present amusement, and also useful hints for regulating their
+    future operations, so as to avoid the like misfortune.
+
+    1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, ch. lvii., p. 467. ‘And why you were
+    living so quiet here, and what you had boned, and who you had boned
+    it from, wasn’t it?’
+
+    1861. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. II., ch. ii. ‘I’m
+    blest if he hasn’t been and boned my mug. I hope it’ll do him more
+    good than it’s done me.’
+
+    1871. Chambers’ Journal, Dec. 9, A Double Event, p. 774. It would
+    be a breach of confidence to tell you how it was arranged, but,
+    after some haggling, it was arranged that, on the understanding
+    that I gave up the securities, I was to bone the reward which the
+    detectives had missed.
+
+2. (American.)—To bribe; to ‘grease the palm.’—See Bone, subs.
+
+3.(American cadets’.)—To study hard. [From bohn (q.v.).]
+
+To have a bone in the leg—arm—throat, etc., phr. (common).—A humorous
+reason for declining to use the member spoken of; a feigned obstacle.
+
+    1542. Nicholas Udall, Erasmus’s Apophthegmes (1877, Reprint of ed.
+    1562). p. 375. He refused to speake, allegeing that he had a bone
+    in his throte, and he could not speake.
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. iii.). Nev. Miss, come, be
+    kind for once, and order me a dish of coffee. Miss. Pray go
+    yourself; let us wear out the oldest first; besides, I can’t go,
+    for I have a bone in my leg.
+
+
+Bone-Ache, subs. (old).—The lues venerea. [The allusion is obvious.]
+
+    1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse. But cucullus non facit monachum—’tis
+    not their newe bonnets will keepe them from the old boan-ack.
+
+    1606. Shakspeare, Tro. and C., ii., 3. After this the vengeance on
+    the whole camp! or rather the bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the
+    curse dependent on those that war for a placket.
+
+
+Bone-Box, subs. (common).—The mouth. [The teeth are here represented as
+the ‘bones.’ The latter are now more commonly called ‘ivories.’] For
+synonyms, see Potato-trap, and compare with Bone-house.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Shut your bone-box;
+    shut your mouth.
+
+
+Bone-Crusher, subs. (sporting).—A heavy bore rifle used for killing big
+game. [Literally that which crushes or breaks bones by force. Cf.,
+Bone-shaker.]
+
+    1872. H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone (2 ed.), p. 63.
+    African game require bone-crushers; for any ordinary carbine
+    possesses sufficient penetrative qualities, yet has not the
+    disabling qualities which a gun must possess to be useful in the
+    hands of an African explorer. Ibid, p. 342. What is wanted for this
+    country is a heavy bore—No. 10 or 12 is the real bone-crusher, that
+    will drop every animal shot.
+
+
+Boned.—See Bone, verb, sense 1.
+
+
+Bone-Grubber, subs. (common).—One who lives by collecting bones from
+heaps of refuse, selling his spoils at the marine stores or to bone
+grinders. [From bone + grub, to seek by burrowing, + er.] Also called
+bone-picker (q.v.), and tot-pickers (q.v.). See first quotation and cf.
+bone-picker form. The French term is un biffin, which also signifies a
+foot-soldier, his knapsack being compared to a rag or bone-picker’s
+basket; also un chifferton or un chiffortin; un cupidon (an ironical
+allusion to his hook and basket); un graffin. For other synonyms, see
+Tot-picker.
+
+    c. 1750. ‘The Hunter’s Wedding,’ quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet,
+    1888, p. 366.
+
+        Sam the grubber, he having had warning,
+          His wallet and broom down did lay.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 155. The
+    bone-grubber generally seeks out the narrow back streets, where
+    dust and refuse are cast, or where any dust-bins are accessible.
+    The articles for which he chiefly searches are rags and bones,—rags
+    he prefers,—but waste metal, such as bits of lead, pewter, copper,
+    brass, or old iron, he prizes above all.
+
+    1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 40. A black-chinned and lanthorn-jawed
+    bone-grubber.
+
+2. A resurrectionist; a violator of graves. Cobbett was therefore
+called ‘a bone-grubber,’ because he brought the remains of Tom Paine
+from America. Cf., Bone-house. Latterly, from the quotation which
+follows, the term seems to have been extended to all having to do with
+funerals.
+
+    1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, essay vii., p. 181 (1864). The
+    crowd in Cheapside declared that I was a mute. They called me
+    bone-grubber.
+
+
+Bone-House, subs. (familiar).—1. The human body—an obvious allusion.
+
+    1870. Emerson, Soc. and Sol., vi., 119. This wonderful bone-house
+    which is called man. [M.]
+
+2. A coffin. The term is also used to signify a charnel-house, and
+Americans generally call a cemetery a ‘bone-yard.’
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, II., p. 207. Nothing soon—lie in
+    bed—starve—die—Inquest—little bone-house—poor prisoner.
+
+    1846. Walbran, Guide Ripon. The celebrated bone-house no longer
+    exists.
+
+    1848. Forster, Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, II., p. 165 (bk.
+    IV., ch. viii.). The body [of a man who had poisoned himself] was
+    taken to the bone-house of St. Andrew’s, but no one came to claim
+    it.
+
+
+Bone Muscle, verbal phr. (American college).—To practice gymnastics.
+Cf., Bone, verb, sense 3.
+
+
+Bone-Picker, subs. (common).—1. A footman. [Evidently a contemptuous
+allusion to sense 2, a footman’s duties being to pick up and set in
+order after his employer.] The French term is un larbin.
+
+2. (common.)—A collector of bones, rags, and other refuse from the
+streets and places where rubbish is placed, for the purpose of sale to
+marine dealers and bone crushers. The same as bone-grubber, sense 1
+(q.v.).
+
+    1866. Ruskin, Crown of Wild Olives, p. 25. The deceased was a
+    bone-picker. he was in the lowest stage of poverty, etc.
+
+
+Boner, subs. (Winchester College).—A sharp blow on the spine.
+
+
+Bones, subs. (common).—1. Dice, which are also called St. Hugh’s bones
+(q.v.). [So called because made of bone or ivory.] ‘To rattle the
+bones,’ i.e., ‘to play at dice.’ The term is a very old one, as also
+seem to be games played with the little cubes in question.
+
+    c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 328. This fruyt cometh of the bicched
+    bones two, fforsweryng, Ire, falsnesse, Homycide.
+
+    a. 1529. Skelton, wks. (ed. Dyce) I., 52. On the borde he whyrled a
+    payre of bones.
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 123. Who
+    being left by his parents rich in money and possessions, hath to
+    the musicke of square ratling bones danced so long, that hee hath
+    danced himselfe into the company of beggers.
+
+    1698. Dryden, Persius, III., 96.
+
+        But then my study was to cog the dice,
+        And dexterously to throw the lucky sice:
+        To shun ames-ace, that swept my stakes away;
+        And watch the box, for fear they should convey
+        False bones, and put upon me in the play.
+
+    1772. Foote, Nabob, Act ii. When your chance is low, as tray, ace,
+    or two deuces, the best method is to dribble out the bones from the
+    box.
+
+    1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xviii. ‘I saw you sit down to
+    écarté last week at Trumpington’s, and taking your turn with the
+    bones after Ringwood’s supper.’
+
+    1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. xxviii. ‘What with
+    speculations failing, and consols dropping all at once, not to
+    mention a continual run of ill-luck with the bones, I saw no way
+    out of it but to bolt.’
+
+2. (common.)—Pieces of bones held between the fingers and played
+Spanish castanet fashion. Generally used as an accompaniment to banjo
+and other ‘negro’ minstrel music.
+
+    1592. Shakspeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, iv., 1, line 27. Tita.
+    What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? Bot. I have a
+    reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 195. Peter
+    rolling about in his chair like a serenader playing the bones, and
+    the young Othello laughing as if he was being tickled. Ibid, p.
+    201. The bones, we’ve real bones, rib-of-beef bones, but some have
+    ebony bones, which sound better than rib-bones—they tell best, etc.
+
+    1865. Times, 17 July. Amateur negro melodists ... thumped the banjo
+    and rattled the bones. [M.]
+
+3. (common.)—A member of a ‘negro’ minstrel troupe; generally applied
+to one of the ‘end’ men who plays the bones (sense 2).
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III. First of all we
+    formed a school of three—two banjos and a tambourine, and after
+    that we added a bones and a fiddle.
+
+    1867. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, p. 236. The band
+    clashes out; big fiddle and little fiddle, harp and bones, off they
+    go.
+
+    1884. Sat. Review, June 7,740, col. 1. A single row of negro
+    minstrels seated on chairs ... while at the end are Bones and
+    Sambo. [M.]
+
+4. (general.)—The bones of the human body, but more generally applied
+to the teeth. French thieves call these les piloches (f); and les
+osselots (m). Cf., Bone-box and Bone-house, and for synonyms, see
+Grinders.
+
+5. (common.)—A surgeon; generally sawbones (q.v.). A list of curious
+nicknames for the medical profession will also be found under Squirt.
+
+    1887. Chamb. Journal, Jan. 8, p. 30. ‘I have sent for the village
+    bones, and if he can but patch me up, it may not yet be too late.’
+
+6. (Stock Exchange.)—(1) The shares of Wickens, Pease and Co.; (2)
+North British 4% 1st Preference Shares, the 4% 2nd Preference Stock
+being nicknamed Bonettas.
+
+As dry or hard as a bone, phr. (common), i.e., as free from moisture as
+a bone after it has been picked and cleaned, as by a dog.
+
+    1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, i. It’s as dry as a bone.
+
+    1837. R. Nicoll, Poems (1843), 83. Dubs were hard as ony bane.
+
+One end is pretty sure to be bone, phr. (American).—An old time saying
+equivalent to an admission that ‘all is not gold that glitters’; that
+the realization of one’s hopes never comes up to the ideal formed of
+them.
+
+    1888. The World, 13 May. People here (in the west) have to get up
+    and get in order to make both ends meet, and even then one end is
+    pretty sure to be bone.
+
+To be upon the bones, phr. (vulgar).—To attack.
+
+    b. 1616, d. 1704. Sir R. L’Estrange (in Annandale). Puss had a
+    month’s mind to be upon the bones of him, but was not willing to
+    pick a quarrel.
+
+To feel a thing in one’s bones.—A simile signifying assurance;
+conviction.
+
+    1887. Scribner’s Magazine. I ain’t a-goin’ to mention no names but
+    I kin feel it in my bones that things ain’t on the square here,
+    there’s a nigger in the fence.
+
+    1888. Missouri Republican, 22 Feb. Nat. M. Shelton, of Lancaster,
+    said: ‘I am in the race of attorney-general, and I feel it in my
+    bones that I will get the nomination.’
+
+To make no bones, phr. (familiar).—To make no scruple; to show no
+hesitation; to commence and finish a work without difficulty—now
+restricted to colloquial use; it was formerly current literary coin,
+and is frequently to be met with in our older literature. Its earlier
+form was, ‘to find bones in,’ which clearly shows the phrase to have
+originated in a reference to bones in soup, or similar food, regarded
+as obstacles to swallowing. In this sense it is found as early as the
+middle of the fifteenth century, in the Paston Letters. It does not
+occur in its present shape to make bones until a century later; but,
+from this period on to the end of the seventeenth century it was in
+constant use.
+
+    1459. Paston Lett., 331, I., 444. And fond that tyme no bonys in
+    the matere. [M.]
+
+    1542. Udall, Apoph. of Erasmus, p. 133 (1877). Yea, and rather then
+    faill, both whole mainor places, and also whole Lordships, the
+    ‘make no bones, ne sticke not, quite and cleue to swallow doune the
+    narrow lane, and the same to spue up again.’
+
+    1565. Shacklock, Hatchet of Heresies. And instede of that whiche he
+    saide, This is my body, they haue made no bones at it, to say, this
+    is my brede.
+
+    1590. Greene, Francesco’s Fortune, in wks. VIII., 189. Tricke thy
+    selfe vp in thy best reparrell, and make no bones at it but on a
+    woing [wooing].
+
+    1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 112. He ... would make
+    no bones to take the wall of Sir Philip Sidney.
+
+    1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act iii. Man. How could I refrain? A
+    lawyer talked peremptorily and saucily to me, and as good as gave
+    me the lie. Free. They do it so often to one another at the bar,
+    that they make no bones on’t elsewhere.
+
+    1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxiv. Do you think that the
+    Government or the Opposition would make any bones about accepting
+    the seat if it be offered to them?
+
+To pick a bone or bones with one, phr. (colloquial).—To have an
+unpleasant matter to settle with one; also, a difficulty to solve; ‘a
+nut to crack.’
+
+    1565. Colfhill, Answ. Treat. Cron. (1846), 277. A bone for you to
+    pick on. [M.]
+
+    1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), 1, s.v. Pick, To give one a
+    bone to pick, scrupulum alicui injicere.
+
+    1850–68. H. Rogers, Ess., II., ii. (1874), 103. Many a bone in
+    these lectures which a keen metaphysician would be disposed to pick
+    with the author.
+
+
+Bonesetter, subs. (old).—A hard riding horse; a ricketty conveyance;
+properly one whose occupation is to set broken and dislocated bones.
+The sarcastic, punning reference is of course to the dire effects which
+naturally follow the use of an animal of such a description. The odd
+way in which slang is often derived, strikes one at times as very
+curious. Not only are words frequently coined which resemble genuine
+words, such as ‘solemncholy’ for ‘melancholy,’ and ‘it don’t much
+magnify’ for ‘it don’t much signify,’ but the meaning of such
+factitious words is, in many cases, either subtly reversed or endowed
+with an extremely cynical tinge of humour and sarcasm. The present
+instance is a case in point. A more modern term is boneshaker (q.v.),
+which is less subtle in its meaning, bone-setter being certainly far
+more brutally cynical in its suggestiveness. See second quotation for
+some curious synonyms formerly in use.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bone Setter, a hard
+    trotting horse.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 7. Jerry. I long
+    to be there,—let’s hasten to dress at once. Log. Aye; call a
+    rattler. Jerry. A rattler! I’m at fault again. Log. A rattler is a
+    rumbler, otherwise a jarvy! better known perhaps by the name of a
+    hack; handy enough in a wet day, or a hurry. Jerry. A hack! If it’s
+    the thing we rattled over the stones in to-day, It might more
+    properly be called a bone-setter. Tom. Or bone-breaker.—But if you
+    dislike going in a hack, we’ll get you a mab. Jerry. A mab! I’m at
+    fault again—never shall get properly broken in. Tom. A mab is a
+    jingling jarvy!—a cabriolet, Jerry.—But we must mind our flash
+    doesn’t peep out at Almack’s. ’Tis classic ground there.
+
+
+Bone-Shake, verb (popular).—To ride a bone-shaker (q.v.), i.e., a heavy
+bicycle of a very old type.
+
+    1889. Answers, Feb. 23, p. 195, col. 1. Among those who learnt to
+    boneshake was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been a
+    devoted cyclist.
+
+
+Bone-Shaker, subs. (old).—1. A hard trotting horse.—See Bone-setter.
+
+2. (popular.)—An old type of bicycle in use prior to the introduction
+of india-rubber tires and other manifold improvements. The first
+bicycle propelled by cranks and pedals was ridden in Paris in 1864. It
+created enormous excitement. On being introduced into England people
+went bicycle mad, and the number of persons who suffered in consequence
+of riding the old bone-shakers was considerable. Among those who learnt
+to ‘bone-shake’ was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been
+a devoted cyclist, for he regarded the sport as a grand one, and
+prophesied a big future for it. In 1868 Mr. Charles Spencer rode to
+Brighton on a bone-shaker in 14 hours from London. The papers were full
+of what was then considered an extraordinary feat, but on Aug. 10,
+1889, four riders of the Polytechnic Cycling Club covered the distance
+to Brighton and back, 108 miles, in 7 hours 50 minutes, which is better
+time than a most perfectly-appointed modern four-in-hand can be driven
+over the same course by the aid of unlimited relays of horses kept in
+readiness to be changed at a moment’s notice. Only one machine was used
+throughout the trial, viz., a safety roadster, weighing 36 lbs.
+
+    1874. A. Howard, Bicycle, 10. In 1870 and 1871, the low, long
+    bone-shaker began to fall in public esteem. [M.]
+
+    1884. G. L. Hillier, in Longman’s Mag., March, p. 487. The
+    bone-shaker, as the ribald cyclist of the present day designates
+    the ancestor of his present bicycle.
+
+    1885. Nineteenth Century, Jan., p. 92. In the Field’s report of the
+    performance of the Cambridge Town Bicycle Club we find this entry:
+    ‘Half Mile Race on bone-shakers, not exceeding 36 in.’
+
+
+Bone Standing, verbal phr. (American college).—To study hard.
+[Evidently an allusion to the alertness implied by a standing
+position.]
+
+
+Bonettas, subs. (Stock Exchange.)—The 4% 2nd North British 2nd
+Preference Stock.—See Bones, subs., sense 6, § 2.
+
+
+Bong.—See Boung.
+
+
+Boniface, subs. (popular).—The landlord of a tavern or inn. [Derived
+from Farquhar’s play.]
+
+    1707. Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem. [Boniface is here given as the
+    name of landlord of the inn.]
+
+    1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, I., 120. To give the characteristic
+    features and to stamp the peculiar traits of honest Boniface.
+
+    1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xvi. The landlord either
+    could not, or would not, give them any actual information as to his
+    guests.... So the blue-coated myrmidons of Scotland Yard got but
+    little information from Boniface.
+
+
+Boning Adjutant, verbal phr. (American cadets’).—Aping a military
+bearing. [From bone, to study, to imitate.] So also boning muscle
+(q.v.) is going in largely for gymnastics. To bone standing, to study
+hard. Boning demerit, giving no cause for complaint as regards one’s
+conduct. All West Point cadet slang.
+
+
+Bonk, subs. (travelling showmens’).—A short, steep hill. [Possibly only
+a provincialism, or an obsolete form of ‘bank.’]
+
+    1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 302. In Lancashire,
+    Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire, the approaches to some of
+    the large works are either up or down some steep, short hill,
+    usually termed bonk, and the drivers of heavily laden carts with
+    two horses have the breeching on the leading chain-horse, as well
+    as the horse in the shafts, so that when they are going down one of
+    these steep bonks, the horse is as useful as a help in drawing up.
+
+
+Bonnet, subs. (old).—1. A gambling cheat; a decoy at auctions.
+[So-called because they bonnet or blind the eyes of the victims.—See
+Bonnet, verb, sense 1.] Hotten says sometimes called a bearer-up. The
+bonnet plays as though he were a member of the general public, and by
+his good luck, or by the force of his example, induces others to
+venture their stakes. Bonneting is often done in much better society
+than that to be found in the ordinary gaming-rooms. A man who persuades
+another to buy an article on which he receives commission or
+percentage, is said to bonnet or bear-up for the seller. Also called a
+bonneter. The French has bonneteur for one profuse in compliments and
+bows.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bonnet, a concealment.
+
+    1841. Comic Almanack, October. Or a man at a hell, Playing the part
+    of a bonnetter well.
+
+    1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. xxi. I began to think my
+    military friend was ‘a bonnet,’—one of those harpies employed by
+    gambling-house keepers to enhance temptation by the influence of
+    example, and generally selected for their respectable and innocent
+    appearance.
+
+(?) 1868. Times (quoted by Brewer, Phrase and Fable, p. 104). A man who
+sits at a gaming-table, and appears to be playing against the table;
+when a stranger appears, the bonnet generally wins.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 217. We bid
+    or praised up his goods: in fact, often acted as ‘puffers’ or
+    bonnets, to give him a leg up.
+
+    1885. Morning Post, Sept. 5, p. 7, col. 3. There was no distinct
+    evidence to connect him with a conspiracy to defraud.... He might
+    have been used as a sort of bonnet to conceal the utter
+    worthlessness of propositions made by the others.
+
+2. (old.)—A pretext; pretence; or ‘make believe.’
+
+3. A woman. [This sense is analogous to ‘petticoat,’ the names of
+articles of feminine attire being transferred to the wearer.]
+
+    1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 3. Then comes Easter, Got some coin in
+    hand, Trot a bonnet out and do the grand.
+
+Verb (common).—1. To act as a bonnet (q.v.); to cheat; to puff; to
+‘bear up’ (q.v.).
+
+    1871. ‘Hawk’s-Eye,’ Budget of Turf Notes, p. 2. I could point out
+    now what horses he is bonneting for the 2,000 Guineas and Derby of
+    this year, and the horses whose pretensions he is trying to
+    discredit.
+
+    1887. Referee, 15 May, p. 1, col. 3. Nobody can suppose that I am
+    anxious to bonnet for the Times newspaper.
+
+2. (popular.)—To crush a man’s hat down over his eyes.
+
+    1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 229. Two young men, who, now and
+    then, varied their amusements by bonneting the proprietor of this
+    itinerant coffee-house.
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick, II., p. 216. You are a dutiful and
+    affectionate little boy to come a bonnetin’ your father in his old
+    age.
+
+    1843. Dickens, Christmas Carol in Prose, p. 22. Scrooge reverently
+    disclaimed ... any knowledge of having wilfully bonneted the Spirit
+    at any period of his life.
+
+    1882. Saturday Review, LIV., p. 629. The students hustled and
+    ‘bonnetted’ a new professor.
+
+To have a green bonnet, phr. (common).—To fail in business. [From the
+green cloth cap formerly worn by bankrupts.]
+
+
+Bonnet-Builder, subs. (popular).—A milliner. [The derivation is
+clear.]—See Build.
+
+    1839. Song in The Little Melodist, quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet,
+    p. 93. Will you go to Bagnigge Wells, Bonnet builder, O!
+
+    1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. ‘Build.’ A milliner is
+    jestingly called a ‘bonnet-builder.’
+
+
+Bonneter.—1. See Bonnet, subs., sense 1.
+
+2. (common.)—A crushing blow on the hat.—See Bonnet, verb, sense 2.
+
+
+Bonnets So Blue, subs. (rhyming slang).—Irish stew.—See Rhyming slang.
+
+
+Bono, adj. (circus and thieves’).—Good. [From the Latin.]
+
+
+Booby Hutch, subs. (thieves’).—A police station; so called no doubt
+from the light in which the criminal classes regard those who are
+foolish enough or unfortunate enough to get ‘landed’ in such places.
+[Booby = a fool + hutch, a box or confined space.]
+
+
+Booby-Trap, subs. (schoolboys’).—An arrangement of books, wet sponges,
+vessels of water, etc., so arranged on the top of a door set ajar that
+when the intended victim enters the room, the whole falls upon him.
+
+    1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. iii., p. 28. He had devoted it
+    to the construction of what he called a ‘booby-trap,’ which
+    ingenious piece of mechanism was arranged in the following manner:
+    The victim’s room-door was placed ajar, and upon the top thereof a
+    Greek Lexicon, or any other equally ponderous volume, was carefully
+    balanced, and upon this was set in its turn a jug of water. If all
+    these were properly adjusted, the catastrophe above described was
+    certain to ensue when the door was opened.
+
+    1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. xiv. ‘I made a first-rate
+    booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow buffer who came in to
+    see you.’
+
+    1883. Sat. Review, Nov. 3, p. 566, col. 2. On his way down to
+    dinner he is suddenly drenched from head to foot by a booby-trap—a
+    sponge soaked in water placed above a half-open door.
+
+
+Boodle, subs. (American).—1. A crowd; a company; the ‘whole boiling’
+(q.v.). With this meaning the form often appears as caboodle (q.v.).
+[As regards derivation, which is obscure, Murray, speaking of both
+senses as here treated, says the U.S. boodle, in sense 1, must be the
+same as Markham’s ‘buddle’ (see quotation given below from New English
+Dictionary); sense 2 (also only in U.S.) may be a different word.
+Boodle suggests a Dutch origin from boedel pronounced boodle, and in
+its primary sense means ‘household stuff,’ and refers to property left
+by a testator. It is curious to note that bodle was a Scotch coin of
+the value of one-sixth of a penny.]
+
+    1625. F. Markham, Bk. Honour, IV., ii. Men curiously and carefully
+    chosen out (from all the buddle and masse of great ones) for their
+    approoued wisedome. [M.]
+
+    1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat, p. 139. He would like to have the
+    whole boodle of them (I remonstrated against this word, but the
+    professor said it was a diabolish good word ...) with their wives
+    and children shipwrecked on a remote island.
+
+    1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, p. 361. Boodle, ‘the whole boodle
+    of them,’ i.e., all, the whole. [List of Americanisms.]
+
+    1884. E. E. Hale, Xmas. in Narragansett, ch. ix., p. 272. At eleven
+    o’clock the ‘whole boodle of them,’ as Uncle Nahum called the
+    caravan ... had to boot and spur for church. [M.]
+
+2. (American.)—In its second signification this curious word seems to
+have come into prominent use in politics during the past five years.
+Its meaning and usage is thus explained in Americanisms—Old and New.
+Some elections cannot be conducted without boodle first and last.
+Boodle does not mean the capital or stock-in-trade, except the business
+or trade be something secret, peculiar and illegal. Boodle always means
+money; but money has not always been boodle (see sense 4). Money
+honestly received and spent, money that circulates in regular and
+honest channels, that appears in cash-book and ledger and expense
+account, is never boodle; but when a sum—a thousand dollars, more or
+less—is given to some one to use in influencing a third party, given
+perhaps in silence and certainly without requiring any writing of
+acknowledgment or obligation—that is boodle. Boodle is money used for
+purposes of bribery and corruption; and the same word is employed to
+indicate the money that comes as spoils, the result of some secret
+deal, the profits of which are silently divided. The term is likewise
+used to cover the ill-gotten gains of the bank robber, or the
+absconding cashier. ‘He carried away so much boodle.’ In elections the
+primaries have to be ‘fixed,’ a great many men have to be ‘seen’; in
+short, the amount of money that it seems necessary in some cases to use
+to elect a few honest public servants is a thing to wonder at. And when
+these men are elected, it appears that they often lose the power of
+distinguishing between ‘straight money’ and boodle. The word seems
+destined to take its permanent place in the language.—See also
+Boodlers.
+
+    1884. Boston (Mass.) Globe, Oct. 7. ‘Sinews of war,’ and ‘living
+    issues,’ ‘soap,’ and other synonyms for campaign boodle are
+    familiar. [M.]
+
+    1888. Philadelphia Bulletin, 24 Feb. The best man in the world
+    cannot make an honest living by being a City Councilman. The office
+    is an unsalaried one, and any money that is made out of it is
+    boodle. This is the new term for plunder, fraud and every form of
+    stealing that can be practised by office-holders, who, in the
+    practice, add the crime of perjury. It is an easy business for men
+    of easy virtue.
+
+    1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 3.
+
+        In the evening, up the street,
+          As you see him passing by,
+        You’re convinced his mind’s replete
+          With the legal science high;
+        That he ponders of divorce,
+          Or, of boodle cases great;
+        That he spends all day, of course,
+          Fighting counsel for the State.
+
+3. (American thieves’.)—Amongst the thieving fraternity boodle is used
+to denote money that is actually spurious or counterfeit, and not
+merely money used for nefarious purposes, but which as currency is
+genuine enough.
+
+4. (American general.)—Money. This is the latest sense imported into
+the word. The transition by which it has come to be synonymous with
+‘dust,’ ‘pieces,’ ‘rhino,’ ‘oof,’ etc., is an easy one.—See Actual.
+
+    1888. Puck’s Library, Jan., p. 4.
+
+        Shakey, take a fader’s plessing,
+          Take it, for you ket it sheap;
+        Go in hot for making money,
+          Go in for to make a heap.
+        Don’ you do no dings vot’s grooked,
+          Don’ you do no dings vot’s mean—
+        Aber rake right in dot boodle,
+          Qviet, calm, and all serene.
+
+To carry boodle is to utter base coinage.—See Boodler.
+
+Fake-boodle, subs. (American thieves’).—A roll of paper over which,
+after folding, a dollar bill is pasted, and another bill being loosely
+wrapped round this it looks as if the whole roll is made up of a large
+sum of money in bills.
+
+
+Boodler, subs. (American political).—1. One who bribes or corrupts.—See
+Boodle, sense 2.
+
+    1888. Omaha World. American. ‘As you are a native of Canada I
+    suppose you think that country is all right, but for my part I
+    should hate most awfully to be a subject of a queen.’ Canadian.
+    ‘The queen is a mere figure-head; there is no difference at all
+    between Canada and the United States.’ ‘Come to think, I believe
+    you do have elections there.’ ‘I should say we did. We have
+    elections and campaigns, and political parties, and bosses, and
+    ringsters, and boodlers, and——.’ ‘Boodlers?’ ‘Plenty of ’em.’
+    ‘Well, well! Why, you are freemen just like us.’
+
+2. (American thieves’.)—Boodlers and shovers are the men who issue
+false money (see Boodle, sense 3). Swindlers of this type generally
+hunt in couples; one carrying the bulk of the counterfeit money, and
+receiving the good change as obtained by his companion, who utters the
+boodle piece by piece. The game is generally worked so that at the
+slightest alarm the boodle carrier vanishes and leaves nothing to
+criminate his confederate.
+
+
+Booget, subs. (old cant).—A travelling tinker’s basket. Quoted by
+Harman [1567].
+
+
+Book, subs. (sporting).—1. In betting, more especially in connection
+with horse racing, an arrangement of bets made against certain horses,
+and so calculated that the bookmaker (q.v.) has a strong chance of
+winning something whatever the result.
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick, I., p. 400. And Wilkins Flasher, Esquire,
+    entered it (the bet) in a little book with a gold pencil-case; and
+    the other gentleman entered it also, in another little book with
+    another gold pencil-case.
+
+    1837. Disraeli, Henrietta Temple, p. 260. Am I to be branded
+    because I have made half a million by a good book?
+
+    1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. liii. ‘He has backed the
+    Dodona colt for the Derby, and has got a heavier book on the race
+    than he likes.’
+
+    1869. Gent. Mag., July, p. 231. He wins your money with a smile,
+    will accommodate his book to suit what bets you may choose to make.
+
+    1879. Jas. Payn, High Spirits (Change of Views). He had a
+    knowledge, too, of practical mathematics, which enabled him to make
+    a book upon every great racing event of the year.
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Oct. 21, p. 6, col. 1. Every sporting man
+    is flattered if termed a sportsman, but it would be almost an
+    insult to speak to a sportsman as a sporting man. Wherein does the
+    distinction lie? it may be asked. The one is a lover of sport for
+    the sake of the thing itself. The other is a lover of it for what
+    he can get out of the business. The former may bet, but he does not
+    look at sport through the glasses of a book; the latter always
+    bets, and in fact would not care about it at all if he could not
+    take or give odds.
+
+2. (card-players’.)—The first six tricks at whist.
+
+3. (general.)—The copy of words to which music is set; the words of a
+play; formerly only applied to the libretto of an opera.
+
+    1768. Sterne, Sentimental Journey, I., 180. A small pamphlet, it
+    might be the book of the opera.
+
+    1889. Answers, 8 June, p. 24. The prompter had a little table on
+    the ‘prompt’ side; that is, the right-hand side looking from the
+    house, and his ‘book’ was one mass of directions, the margins being
+    covered with little pictures and diagrams of the stage, showing the
+    positions of the leading actors in every scene.
+
+To know one’s book, phr. (popular).—To have made up one’s mind; to know
+what is best for one’s interest.
+
+    c. 1879. Broadside Ballad, ‘Ain’t you glad you didn’t.’
+
+        Ain’t you glad sometimes to know,
+          A second thought you took,
+        About a subject upon which
+          You thought you knew your book;
+        Now first of all you think you will,
+          And then you think you won’t,
+        While someone says ‘Go in and win!’
+          And someone else says ‘Don’t.’
+
+To suit one’s book, phr. (common).—To suit one’s arrangements. Cf.,
+Book, subs., sense 1, the allusion being to betting books, in which
+bets are formally entered.
+
+    1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. vi. ‘By which time he
+    expects to be so hard up that he must marry somebody, and as there
+    will be plenty of the needful, she will suit his book as well as
+    any other.’
+
+
+Booked, ppl. adj. (common).—Caught; fixed; disposed of; destined, etc.
+From the book-keeping term—entered in a book, or registered.
+
+    1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, p. 6. I am booked for a much longer
+    journey.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. Booked, caught,
+    taken, or disposed of.
+
+    1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. xxiii. ‘I don’t remember
+    anyone having given me an “engaged ring” before; and it’s not leap
+    year, neither. However, the lady’s booked, which is a great
+    relief.’
+
+French thieves use être planché for ‘to be booked’; also être mort
+(i.e., ‘to be dead’); the adjective is rendered by faitré, and the
+person booked is un gerbable.
+
+
+Book-Form, subs. (sporting).—The relative powers of speed or endurance
+of race-horses as set down in the Racing Calendar or ‘book.’
+
+
+Bookie or Booky, subs. (sporting).—An abbreviated form of bookmaker
+(q.v.).
+
+    1885. Eng. Ill. Mag., April, p. 509. No rowdy ring, but a few quiet
+    and well-known bookies, who were ready enough to lay the odds to a
+    modest fiver.
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, 29 June.
+
+        He now had occasion to speedily hie
+          To the bookie who laid him the bet,
+        Who was one of the small and particular fry,
+          That at times, when convenient, forget.
+
+
+Bookmaker, subs. (sporting).—The English Encyclopædia says:—In betting
+there are two parties—one called ‘layers,’ as the bookmakers are
+termed, and the other ‘backers,’ in which class may be included owners
+of horses as well as the public. The backer takes the odds which the
+bookmaker lays against a horse, the former speculating upon the success
+of the animal, the latter upon its defeat; and taking the case of
+Cremorne for the Derby of 1872, just before the race, the bookmaker
+would have laid 3 to 1, or perhaps £1000 to £300 against him, by which
+transaction, if the horse won, as he did, the backer would win £1000
+for risking £300, and the bookmaker lose the £1000 which he risked to
+win the smaller sum. At first sight this may appear an act of very
+questionable policy on the part of the bookmaker; but really it is not
+so, because so far from running a greater risk than the backer, he runs
+less, inasmuch as it is his plan to lay the same amount (£1000) against
+every horse in the race, and as there can be but one winner, he would
+in all probability receive more than enough money from the many losers
+to pay the stated sum of £1000 which the chances are he has laid
+against the one winner, whichever it is.—See also Book, subs., sense 1,
+and Bookie.
+
+    1862. London Review, Aug. 30, p. 188. Betting there seemed to be
+    none ... we could not perceive a single book or bookmaker.
+
+    1880. W. Day, Racehorse in Training, ch. xxiv., p. 245. Bookmakers
+    pursue a legitimate and lucrative trade by laying against all
+    horses as they appear in the market.
+
+    1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. iii. Finding ... that the
+    bookmaker whom for once they have landed for ‘a thousand to thirty’
+    is hopelessly insolvent.
+
+
+Bookmaker’s Pocket, subs. (sporting).—A breast-pocket made inside the
+waistcoat, for notes of large amount.—Hotten.—See Bookmaker.
+
+
+Books, subs. (card-players’).—1. A pack of cards. A term used mainly by
+professional card-players. Also called devil’s books; book of broads;
+book of briefs. The French equivalent is un juge de paix; while une
+cartouchière à portées is a prepared pack used by sharpers.
+
+    1706. Mrs. Centlivre, Basset Table, IV., ii., wks. (1872) I., 245.
+
+    L. Revel. Clean cards here.
+
+    Mrs. Sago. Burn this book, ’t has an unlucky air [tears them].
+    Bring some more books.
+
+2. (Winchester College.)—(a.) The prizes formerly presented by Lord Say
+and Sele, now given by the governing body, to the ‘Senior’ in each
+division at the end of ‘Half.’
+
+(b.) The school is thus divided:—Sixth Book—Senior and Junior Division;
+the whole of the rest of the School is in Fifth Book—Senior Part,
+Middle Part, Junior Part, each part being divided into so many
+divisions, Senior, Middle and Junior, or Senior, 2nd, 3rd and Junior,
+as the case may require. Formerly there was also ‘Fourth Book,’ but it
+ceased to exist about twenty-five years ago.
+
+    1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 104. The
+    school was divided into three classes, or books, as they were
+    called. Of these, the Præfects formed one, Sixth Book; Fifth Book
+    was sub-divided into three parts, called respectively, ‘Senior,
+    Middle, and Junior part of the Fifth’; in speaking of them, the
+    words, ‘of the Fifth’ were generally omitted. The rest of the boys
+    made up ‘Fourth Book.’
+
+(c.) Up at books.—In class; repeating lessons; now called Up to books.
+
+    1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 101. At each
+    end of school are three tiers of benches rising gradually one above
+    the other,—that on the ground being called ‘Senior Row,’ and the
+    others  ‘Middle,’ and ‘Junior Row’ respectively. On these the
+    Classes sit when ‘up at books,’ i.e., when repeating lessons.
+
+(d.) Books chambers.—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 103. On
+    Remedies (a kind of whole holiday), we also went into School in the
+    morning and afternoon for an hour or two without masters; this was
+    called books chambers; and on Sundays, from four till a quarter to
+    five.
+
+(e) To get or make books.—To make the highest score at anything. Cf.,
+Books, sense 2a.
+
+
+Bookwork, subs. (University).—Mathematics that can be learned verbatim
+from books—all that are not problems.
+
+
+Boom.—This word is a comparatively recent production in its slang
+sense; and is variously used as a substantive or as a verb. Before
+particularizing its special usages, it may be interesting to note how,
+within a few years, it has made its appearance in a variety of
+combinations; as, ‘the whole State is booming for Smith,’ or ‘the boys
+have whooped up the State to boom for Smith,’ or ‘the Smith boom is
+ahead in this State,’ etc., etc. Stocks and money are said to be
+booming when active; and any particular spot within a flourishing
+district is regarded as within the boom-belt. A successful team or
+party is said to be a booming squad, and we even read of boomlets to
+express progress of a lesser degree. [Its origin is largely a matter of
+conjecture, but the most probable derivation is from the nautical
+phrase ‘boom-out,’ signifying a vessel running rapidly before the wind;
+but Murray points out that as various associations are probable, and as
+the actual use of the word has not been regulated by any distinct
+etymological feeling, it is not likely that any derivation will account
+for all its applications.]
+
+Subs.—Commercial activity; rapid advance in prices; a flourishing state
+of affairs—in all its applications it is synonymous with extreme vigour
+and effectiveness. The first quotation carries its use back a few years
+beyond the earliest date given in the New English Dictionary.
+
+    1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 277. Another boom in prices is to
+    be looked for.
+
+    1883. Referee, May 6, p. 3, col. 2. ‘The Merry Duchess’ is a big
+    boom, and I understand that money is being turned away nightly.
+
+    1883. M. Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 499. I lived
+    here in 1857—an extraordinary year there in real-estate matters.
+    The boom was something wonderful. Everybody bought, everybody sold
+    ... anything in the semblance of a town lot, no matter how
+    situated, was saleable.
+
+    1888. Boston Daily Globe. After the Sheridan reception, of course
+    John Sherman must come to Boston. The Ohio statesman knows where
+    all the real live booms start. If Mr. Blaine is wise he also will
+    come to the ‘Hub’ without delay.
+
+    1888. Missouri Republican, 16 Feb. ‘Jim, they say thar is a big bum
+    up at Rome.’ ‘What’s that?’ said Jim. ‘It’s a kind of new tradin’
+    business what swells and shrinks, and the sweller and shrinker
+    stays down in a celler and works the machine. They trade in stock.’
+    ‘Horses and mules?’ said Jim. ‘No, hit’s all on paper, and nobody
+    can see what he’s buyin’. You put your money in and wait for a
+    swell. If it comes you are all right, but if a shrink comes you are
+    busted, and you feel so ashamed that you don’t say anything about
+    it, and it never gets into the papers—nothing but the swells gits
+    into the papers.
+
+Verb, intr.—To go off with a boom.—See subs. To make rapid and vigorous
+progress; to advance by leaps and bounds; trans. to push; to puff; to
+bring into prominence with a rush.
+
+    1874. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Gilded Age, ch. xxvii. There’s
+    200,000 dollars coming, and that will set things booming again.
+
+    1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 272. Stocks may boom to-day, but
+    droop to-morrow, and with the crash come remorse and repentance.
+    Ibid, p. 277. When stocks are active they are said to be booming.
+
+    1884. M. Twain, Huckleberry Finn, xiii., 3. We boomed along down
+    the river, watching for lights and watching for our raft.
+
+    1888. Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean. The city of Paris is said to be
+    diminishing instead of increasing in population. They don’t know
+    how to boom a town over there.
+
+As already stated, boom enters into many combinations; boomer (q.v.),
+boom-belt, booming-squad, etc.
+
+    1888. New Orleans Picayune. A boom in North Carolina is not the
+    kind of phenomenon to which we are accustomed here. Sales of land
+    at from 2 dols. to 10 dols. an acre in a boom belt are not of
+    record hereabout.
+
+    1888. Chicago Herald. Ben Butterworth, of Ohio, one of the
+    mainstays of John Sherman’s booming squad, has just had the title
+    of boss Republican tariff debater conferred upon him by the culture
+    of Boston.
+
+To top one’s boom off, phr. (nautical).—To be off, or to start in a
+certain direction.
+
+    1871. G. Meredith, Harry Richmond, ch. xxxviii., p. 346 (1886).
+    ‘And now top your boom, and to bed here.’
+
+
+Boomer, subs. (American).—1. One who booms or causes an enterprise to
+become flourishing, active or notorious. [From boom, subs., + er.]
+
+    1888. Times, Sept. 26, p. 8. [He] is a North-Western boomer of
+    great earnestness. [M.]
+
+    1885. Boston (Mass.) Journal, Aug. 19, p. 2, col. 4. The Oklahoma
+    boomers. [M.]
+
+2. Attributively applied to anybody or anything considerably above the
+average. Thus, what English people would call a bouncing lie, an
+American, if given to slang, would call a boomer; so also a fine woman,
+a horse with extra good points, etc., etc.
+
+
+Boomerang, subs. (American).—Figuratively used to signify acts or
+words, the results of which recoil upon the person from whom they
+originate. The boomerang is properly an Australian missile weapon
+which, when thrown, can be made to return to the thrower; or which,
+likewise, can be caused to take an opposite direction to that in which
+it is first thrown.
+
+    1845. Holmes, Modest Request, Poems (1884), 42. Like the strange
+    weapon, which the Australian throws, Your verbal boomerang slaps
+    you on the nose. [M.]
+
+    1870. Lowell, Among My Books, 1 S. (1873), 219. The boomerang of
+    argument, which one throws in the opposite direction of what he
+    means to hit. [M.]
+
+
+Booming, ppl. adj. (American).—Flourishing; active; in good form;
+large; astonishing.—See Boom and Boomer in all senses.
+
+
+Boom-Passenger, subs. (nautical).—A sailor’s slang term for a convict
+on board ship. Derived from the circumstance that prisoners on board
+convict ships were chained to, or were made to crawl along or stand on
+the booms for exercise or punishment.—Hotten.
+
+
+Boon-Companion, subs. (colloquial).—A comrade in a drinking bout; a
+good fellow. [Boon is evidently a corruption of the French bon.]
+
+    1566. Drant, Med. Morall, A. v. He is my bone companion, it’s he
+    that cheares up me. [M.]
+
+    1592. Greene, Quip, in wks. XI., 220. To seeke good consortes and
+    boone companions to passe away the day withall.
+
+    1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, in wks. III., 228. Our Poets or
+    boone companions they are out of question.
+
+    1600. W. Kemp, Nine Days’ Wonder, in Arber’s English Garner, vol.
+    VII., p. 27. And coming to my inn, where the host was a very boon
+    companion, I desired to see him.
+
+    1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. I., ch. v. This was
+    occasioned by his being a boon companion, loving his bottle and his
+    diversion.
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxiii. The morning after a
+    debauch is usually one of reflection, even to the most customary
+    boon companion.
+
+    1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxvii. We went downstairs to our dinner,
+    as charmed with each other as boon companions always should be.
+
+
+Boon-Companionship, subs. (colloquial).—Jollity; conviviality.—See
+Boon-companion.
+
+    1592. Nashe, Strange Newes, in wks. II., 176. Thinke not, though
+    vnder correction Of your boone-companionship, I am disposd to be a
+    little pleasant, I condemne you of anie immoderation, either in
+    eating or drinking.
+
+    1849. Lytton, Caxtons, pt. XII., ch. iv. A little society, and
+    boon-companionship ... would take Roland out of those gloomy
+    reveries.
+
+
+Boong.—See Bung.
+
+
+Boorde.—See Bord.
+
+
+Boost, subs. (American).—A hoisting; a ‘shove’; a ‘lift’; a ‘push up’—a
+New England vulgarism.
+
+    1858. Dow, Sermons. Office seekers ask you to give them a boost
+    into the tree of office. [M.]
+
+    1866. T. A. Richards, Rice Fields of the South. [A negro-preacher
+    in South Carolina, loq.] ‘For, my bredderen, little Zaccheus was
+    bound to see the Lord for once, dough he had to climb up de tree to
+    do it. And how did he get up der tree? Ah, how did he get up der
+    tree, my bredderen? Did he wait for some lazy nigger to bring him a
+    ladder? Ah, no, my bredderen. Did he wait to be boosted? Ah, no, my
+    bredderen. Not a boost! He climbed right straight up der tree
+    hisself, like de possum, by his own hands and feet and de grace of
+    God!’
+
+    1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 11. A genius took hold of the
+    business, and gave it a little boost. He was a man of the times,
+    and he applied his reasoning faculties to the problem presented to
+    him. ‘What,’ he asked, ‘is the chief means of success?’
+
+Verb.—To hoist; to lift up; to shove.—See subs.
+
+    1848–64. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers, II., 106. Whereas ole Abram
+    ’d sink afore he’d let a darkie boost him.
+
+    1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. vii. You ought
+    to have seen that spider-legged old skeleton go! and you ought to
+    have seen the bull cut out after him, too—head down, tongue out,
+    tail up, bellowing like everything, and actually mowing down the
+    weeds, and tearing up the earth, and boosting up the sand like a
+    whirlwind!
+
+    1884. Harper’s Magazine, Aug., p. 481, col. 1. To boost a jurist of
+    so much helpless avoirdupois in through the carriage door.
+
+
+Boosy.—See Boozy.
+
+
+Boot, verb (military).—To beat; to punish with a strap. The punishment
+is irregular and unconventional, being inflicted by soldiers on a
+comrade discovered guilty of some serious breach of the unwritten law
+of comradeship, such as theft, etc. The beating was formerly inflicted
+with a bootjack—hence the name.
+
+
+Booth, subs. (thieves’).—A house; ‘to heave a booth,’ i.e., ‘to rob a
+house.’
+
+
+Booth-Burster, subs. (theatrical).—A loud and noisy actor. A variant of
+barn-stormer (q.v.).
+
+
+Booting, subs. (military).—A punishment administered with a strap. Cf.,
+Colting.
+
+
+Boot-Joe, subs. (military).—Musketry drill.
+
+
+Boot-Leg Plan.—See On the boot-leg plan.
+
+
+Bootlick, subs. (American).—A flunkey; hanger-on; or doer of dirty
+work. [In England such a one is called a ‘bootlicker,’ of which
+bootlick is probably an abbreviated form.]
+
+Verb.—To toady; to hang on; to undertake ‘dirty’ work.
+
+
+Boots, subs. (colloquial).—1. The servant at hotels and places of a
+kindred character who cleans the boots of visitors. Formerly called
+boot-catchers, because in the old riding and coaching days part of
+their duty was to divest travellers of their footgear.
+
+2. (military.)—The youngest officer in a regimental mess.
+
+Like old boots—beans—bricks—blazes, etc., phr. (common).—Thoroughly;
+vigorously. A simile as general in its application as it is irrelevant.
+It may mean anything, everything, and nothing. Why old boots and not
+new boots is beyond comprehension.
+
+    1868. Miss Braddon, Sir Jasper, ch. xxvii., p. 282. I’ll stick to
+    you like old boots.
+
+    1874. Saturday Review, Jan., p. 55. An Oxford man, nay even a
+    Balliol man ... introduced in the story a pleasing change by such a
+    phrase as jawing away like old boots.
+
+To buy old boots, phr. (old).—To marry or keep the cast-off mistress of
+another man.
+
+To die in one’s boots (q.v.).
+
+
+Boots and Leathers.—See Commoner peal.
+
+
+Booty. To play booty, phr. (old).—To play falsely; dishonestly; or
+unfairly; this with the object of not winning, a previous arrangement
+having been made with a confederate to share the spoils resulting from
+the bogus play. Sometimes it takes the form of permitting the victim to
+win small stakes in order to encourage him to hazard larger sums which,
+naturally, he is not allowed to win.—See quotation from Dyche.
+
+    1575. Frat. of Vacabondes, p. 13. They wil make as much as they
+    can, and consent as though they wil play booty againt him.
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 133. They
+    ... haue still an eare how the layes [bets] are made, and according
+    to that leuell doe they throw their bowles, so that be sure the
+    bowlers play booty.
+
+    1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. I., ch. ii. The best gamesters,
+    before they laid their money, always inquired which horse little
+    Joey was to ride; and the bets were rather proportioned by the
+    rider than by the horse himself; especially after he had scornfully
+    refused a considerable bribe to play booty on such an occasion.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Booty (s.), plunder, spoil,
+    prize; also a cant word signifying a pretence to one thing, and at
+    the same time intends and does the contrary, in order to cheat,
+    impose upon, and draw in a person to lay wagers, play at some game,
+    etc.
+
+    1776. Colman, The Spleen, in wks. (1777) IV., 276. Jubilee started
+    and stumbled but, by-the-bye, I believe his rider played
+    booty—Duenna won the stakes, and the knowing ones were all taken
+    in.
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. vii. ‘Were he caught playing booty, he
+    would be disarmed, and probably dismounted.’
+
+    1831. Disraeli, Young Duke. One thing remained to be lost—what he
+    called his honour, which was already on the scent to play booty.
+
+So also booty = playing booty, and booty-fellow, a sharer in the
+plunder.
+
+
+Booze, subs. (popular).—1. Drink; a draught. The older forms are bouse
+or bouze (q.v.), but booze in its present form appears as early as
+1714. For synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Booze, Drink. [List of
+    cant words.]
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6. Jemmy.
+    Gemmen, have you ordered the peck and booze for the evening? Sold.
+    Suke. Aye, aye, I’ve taken care of that—shoulder of veal and
+    garnish—Turkey and appendleges—Parmesan—Filberds—Port and Madery.
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. Kid. The Music Hall Sports are at
+    Alexandra Park on the 23rd, and there will be rare doings on that
+    occasion. Master and Shifter both give prizes, and there will be
+    booze in our drag.
+
+2. A drinking bout; a tipsy frolic. Murray’s first quote for this form
+and sense is dated 1864; but, from the following, it will be seen to be
+at least thirty years older. For synonyms, see Jamboree.
+
+    1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. ‘We’ll have a jolly
+    boose when all’s over.’
+
+    1884. St. James’s Gazette, 19 Dec., p. 4, col. 1. There was a great
+    booze on board.
+
+Verb (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple; to guzzle. An old term
+employed in some sense of ‘to drink’ as early as 1300. Also booze
+(q.v.). For synonyms, see Swill.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 5. The buriall was tourned to
+    bousing and belly cheere.
+
+    1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in wks. II., 91. They should haue
+    all the companie that resort to them, bye bowzing and beere-bathing
+    in their bouses every after-noone.
+
+    1777. Colman, Epilogue to Sheridan’s School for Scandal. While good
+    Sir Peter boozes with the squire.
+
+    1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xiii., p. 173. ‘I wonder, Sir
+    Charles Lyndon, a gentleman who has been the King’s ambassador, can
+    demean himself by gambling and boozing with low Irish black-legs!’
+
+So also boozed (ppl. adj.), drunk, fuddled; boozy (adj.), drunken,
+‘screwed’; boozing (verbal subs.), the act of drinking hard; and boozer
+(subs.), a drunkard, a tippler—examples of which respectively will be
+found hereunder in sections.
+
+    b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I.,
+    416.
+
+        Droupy and drowsie,
+        Scurvy and lousie
+        Her face all bowsie.
+
+    1592. Greene, Quip, in wks. XI., 253. To marke the bowsie drunkard
+    to dye of the dropsy.
+
+    1611. Cotgrave, Piailleur: m ... a tipler, bowser.
+
+    1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, V., 4. And in the meantime, to be
+    greasy, and bouzy.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. iv., p. 36 (1874). Most
+    part of the night we spent in boozing, pecking rumly ... that is
+    drinking, eating.
+
+    1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x., 288. Which in his cups the bowsy poet
+    sings.
+
+    1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. IV., p. 14. Amongst a
+    Crowd of Sots, half boozy.
+
+    c. 1819. Wolcot, P. Pindar, p. 303, ed. 1830.
+
+        This landlord was a boozer stout,
+        A snuff-taker and smoker. [d.]
+
+    1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxiii. The boozy unshorn wretch
+    is seen hovering round quays as packets arrive, and tippling drams
+    in inn bars where he gets credit.
+
+    1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxxiii. The quantity of
+    brandy-and-water that Jack took showed what a regular boozer he
+    was.
+
+    1850. P. Crook, War of Hats, 50. Boozed in their tavern dens, The
+    scurril press drove all their dirty pens.
+
+    1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. xi. ‘Till they can show there’s
+    something they love better than swilling themselves with ale,
+    entension of the suffrage can never mean anything for them but
+    entension of boozing.’
+
+    1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, Aug. 24, p. 267, col. 2.
+
+        In Canton gardens I have boozed;
+        Beneath the palm-trees I have snoozed;
+        I’ve seen the alligator smile,
+        And peppered at the crocodile.
+
+
+Boozing Cheat, subs. (thieves’).—A bottle. [From booze (q.v.), drink, +
+cheat, from A.S. ceat, a thing.]
+
+
+Boozing-Ken, subs. (old).—A drinking den. [From booze (q.v.), drink, +
+ken, a place.] A term of long standing. A French equivalent is une
+bibine, but for general synonyms, see Lush crib.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. A bowsing-ken, a ale house.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Bowsing-ken, an Ale-house.
+
+    1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, II., i.
+
+        When last in conference at the boozing-ken,
+        This other day we sat about our dead prince.
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Boozing-ken, an
+    Ale-house. [List of cant words in.]
+
+    1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. The hovel which they
+    termed their boozing-ken.
+
+
+Boozington, subs. (Australian thieves’).—A drunkard. [Apparently a
+formation from booze (q.v.), to drink, on the model of lushington
+(q.v.), an English equivalent.] For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.
+
+
+Borachio, subs. (old).—A nickname for a drunkard; formerly a skin for
+holding wine. For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.
+
+
+Borak. To poke borak, verbal phr. (colonial).—To pour fictitious news
+into credulous ears; to ‘stuff’; to ‘kid.’
+
+    1587. Notes and Queries, 7 S., iii., 476. Poke borak, applied in
+    Colonial conversation to the operations of a person who pours
+    fictitious information into the ears of a credulous listener.
+
+
+Bord, Borde, Boorde, subs. (old cant).—A shilling. The origin is
+unknown. For synonyms, see Blow.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 85. Roge, but bouse there a bord, i.e.,
+    but drink there a shilling.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Boord, a shilling; Halfe a Boord, sixepence.
+
+    1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks. (1873) III., 219. My Lord Noland
+    ... bestowes vpon you two, two boordes and a half.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). Borde,
+    a shilling.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. [The same
+    definition.]
+
+
+Bordeaux, subs. (pugilistic).—Blood [an allusion to the colour of the
+wine. Cf. Claret and Badminton]. For synonyms, see Claret.
+
+
+Bord You! phr. (nautical).—An expression used to claim the next turn in
+drinking.
+
+
+Bore, subs. and verb (old slang, but now recognised).—Anybody or
+anything wearisome or annoying; to weary or to be wearied. [The
+derivation is unknown, and the word does not appear in English
+literature prior to 1750. Hotten’s reference to Shakspeare, King Henry
+VIII., i., 1,
+
+
+                      At this instant
+        He bores me with some trick,
+
+
+is a misreading, ‘bore’ in this instance signifying ‘to stab,’ as the
+context clearly shows.]
+
+Verb (sporting).—To push or thrust out of the course; and boring,
+subs., the practice of ‘boring.’ Amongst pugilists it signifies to
+drive an opponent on to the ropes of the ring by sheer weight, whilst
+amongst rowing men it denotes the action of a coxswain in so steering a
+boat as to force his opponent into the shore, or into still water, thus
+obtaining an unfair advantage; also analogously applied to
+horse-racing. The term, as so used, is a very old one, and is derived
+from the persistency of motion of a boring tool.
+
+    1672. Vanbrugh, Lover’s Quarrels, 317 in Hazl. E. P., pt. II., 266.
+    He bor’d him out of the saddle fair.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress. M—rl—y, that very
+    great Count, stood deploring, He hadn’t taught Georgy his new modes
+    of boring.
+
+    1821. The Fancy, vol. I., p. 255. Evans bored in, and upset his man
+    in the first round.
+
+    1870. Dickens, Edwin Drood, ch. xvii., p. 129. Their fighting code
+    stood in great need of revision, as empowering them not only to
+    bore their man to the ropes, but ... also to hit him when he was
+    down.
+
+
+Born Days. All One’s Born Days, phr. (colloquial).—One’s lifetime.
+
+    1740. Richarsdon, Pamela, III., 383. He never was so delighted in
+    his born days.
+
+    1758. Richardson, Grandison, I., 103. There was one Miss Byron, a
+    Northamptonshire lady, whom I never saw before in my born days.
+
+    1809. Miss Edgeworth, Ennui, ch. ix. Craiglethorpe will know just
+    as much of the lower Irish as the Cockney who has never been out of
+    London, and who has never in all his born days seen an Irishman but
+    on the English stage.
+
+
+Born Weak, phr. (nautical).—Said of a vessel feebly built.—Clark
+Russell’s Sailors’ Language.
+
+
+Bosh, subs. (common).—Nonsense; rubbish; ‘stuff’; ‘rot’—anything
+beneath contempt. [The derivation is uncertain. Murray says the word
+became current in England from its frequent occurrence in Morier’s
+Persian novels, Ayesha [1834], etc., most of them extremely popular
+productions. Its source has been suggested in the Turkish bosh lakerdi,
+‘empty talk’; in the German bosh or bossch, an equivalent of ‘swipes’;
+and in the Gypsy bosh, ‘a noise,’ ‘a fiddle,’ from which latter it has
+been thought that there may be some connection between the exclamation
+bosh! and fiddle-de-dee (q.v.).]
+
+    1834. Morier, Ayesha, I., 219. This firman is bosh—nothing, [M.]
+
+    1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. x. I always like to read old
+    Darwin’s Loves of the Plants, bosh as it is in a scientific point
+    of view.
+
+    1880. Punch, 10 Jan., p. 9, col. 2. ‘Prophet,’ said I, ‘of things
+    evil!’ ‘Things are going to the devil’ Is the formula of fogies, I
+    have heard that bosh before.
+
+Verb.—To humbug; to spoil; to mar.
+
+    1870. Macmillan’s Magazine, XXI, 71. You bosh his joke [a man’s] by
+    refusing to laugh at it; you bosh his chance of sleep by playing on
+    the cornet all night in the room next to him. [M.]
+
+    1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xiv. ‘And wouldn’t he make a
+    jolly schoolmaster?’ exclaimed Reginald. ‘Boys would get on
+    capitally with Jardine. They’d never try to bosh him.’
+
+Intj.—Nonsense! Rubbish! It’s all my eye!—See All my eye.
+
+    1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxi. Bosh! It’s all correct.
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gazette, October 30, p. 3, col. 1. ‘You always
+    learn in front of the looking-glass, do you not, Mr.
+    Brandram?’—‘Bosh!’ was the laughing reply. ‘I generally learn my
+    plays and recitations whilst I am dressing; but you don’t think I
+    deliberately stand and make monkey-faces in the looking-glass.’
+
+
+Bosh Faker, subs. (vagrants’).—A violin player. [From Gypsy bosh, a
+violin, + faker, a performer or player.]
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 231.
+
+        Can you rocker Romanie
+          Can you patter flash,
+        Can you rocker Romanie
+          Can you fake a bosh.
+
+
+Boshing, subs. (American thieves’).—A flogging. [Apparently a corrupted
+form of bashing.]—See Bash.
+
+
+Boshy, adj. (common).—Trumpery; nonsensical.—See Bosh.
+
+    1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. iv. ‘There was no dancing, only
+    boshy games and a conjuror.’
+
+
+Bos-Ken, subs. (vagrants’).—A farmhouse. An old canting term. [From L.
+bos = ox + ken, a house.] Cf., Ken.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 472. ‘Up
+    at a bosken (farm-house) they’ll get among the servant girls.’
+
+
+Boskiness, subs. (popular).—The quality of being fuddled with drink;
+bemused; a state of drunkenness.
+
+    1887. Judy, 31 August, p. 101. The Town Councillor had a squabble
+    with his parent ... and accused him of boskiness.
+
+
+Bosky, adj. (popular).—Drunk; tipsy; fuddled. [Derivation uncertain;
+bosky = ‘wooded,’ or ‘bushy,’ and there may be an allusion to the
+obscurity and overshadowing, peculiar to a wooded country. Bailey
+[1728] has also bosky = swelled, but does not give the slang sense of
+the word, although it appears in the editions 1730–6. It may,
+therefore, be a figuratively humorous reading of ‘swelled,’ i.e.,
+‘tight.’] For synonyms, see Screwed.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bosky (a.), fuddled, half or
+    quite drunk.
+
+    1824. Blackw. Mag., XVI., 573. He may be tipsy, bosky, cut, or
+    anything but drunk.
+
+    1886. Punch, 17 April, p. 185. I got a bit bosky last night. Has
+    the ’eadache got into my rhymes?
+
+
+Bosman, subs. (vagrants’).—A farmer. [From the Dutch bosch-man, one who
+lives in the woods; otherwise Boschje-man, or bushman.] Cf., Bosken.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 471.
+    ‘I’ve seen the swell bosmen (farmers) buy the pills to give the
+    people standing about.’
+
+
+Boss, subs. (American and English).—1. A master; a head man; one who
+directs. [From the Dutch baas, a master.] Few words have acquired a
+greater hold on American life than this term, and the primitive meaning
+of master, overseer, or superior of any kind, though in a large measure
+retained to this day, has been widened out in every direction. The
+political boss is the leader whose word is law to his henchman. Boss
+Tweed, of New York, is believed to have been the first to bear the
+title in a semi-official way. The phrase boss rule is said to have been
+invented by Mr. Wayne MacVeagh, and employed by him in political
+speeches in Chicago. It is now in common use in this sense. In the two
+first quotations the word appears to be used much as in the modern
+sense. For synonyms, see Governor.
+
+    1590. Marlowe, Tamburlaine, pt. I., Act iii., Sc. 3. Zab. Base
+    concubine, must thou be placed by me, That am the empress of the
+    mighty Turk? Zen. Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss!
+
+    1679. M. Philipse, Early Voyage to New Netherlands (quoted by De
+    Vere). Here they had their first interview with the female boss or
+    supercargo of the vessel.
+
+    1848. Bartlett, Americanisms. I have never known a second wife but
+    what was boss of the situation.
+
+    1850. New York Herald, May 24. The Eternal City is in a very
+    curious position. The Pope has returned to his ancestral home; but
+    he has nothing in his pocket, and Rothschild refuses to let him
+    have any more money. A thousand years ago, and the boot would have
+    been on t’other leg.... To-day it is very different. The Father of
+    Holiness is the dependent of the Jew, and Rothschild is the real
+    Pope and boss of all Europe.
+
+    1888. New York Herald, Jan. 12. Alderman Campbell—I move an
+    amendment to make Hamline the general superintendent and chief boss
+    of this whole gas business.
+
+2. (popular.)—A short-sighted person; also one who squints. Cf.,
+Boss-eyed and Boss, verb, sense 2.
+
+3. (popular.)—A miss; a blunder. Cf., Boss, verb, sense 2.
+
+Adj.—Pleasant; first rate; chief.
+
+    1884. Echo, March 3, p. 1, col. 4. The Americans are acknowledged
+    to be the boss artificers in wood.
+
+    1888. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 18. Take it all together, with
+    scarcity of food and little sleep, we had a hard but a boss time.
+
+Verb.—1. To manage; direct; control.—See subs., sense 1.
+
+    1856. National Intelligencer, Nov. 3. The little fellow that bosses
+    it over the crowd.
+
+    1872. Athenæum, March 9. A child wishing to charge his sister with
+    being the aggressor in a quarrel for which he was punished,
+    exclaimed, ‘I did not boss the job; it was sister.’
+
+    1883. Saturday Review, April 28, p. 515, col. 1. It is long since
+    the more respectable inhabitants of America have been divided
+    between the convenience of the Irish as hewers of wood and drawers
+    of water, and as voters easily bossed or bribed on the one hand,
+    and the manifold nuisance of them on the other.
+
+    1885. Sporting Times, July 6. The Shah has fairly bossed everything
+    this week—he has been chief actor in our social system.
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, July.
+
+        When lovely woman hires a servant
+          And bosses her around all day,
+        What makes the girl pray half so fervent
+          As her desire to run away.
+
+2. (popular.)—To miss one’s aim; to make such a shot as a boss-eyed
+(q.v.) person would be expected to make. Boss-shot is a common phrase.
+
+    1887. N. and Q., 7 S., iii., 236. To boss is schoolboy slang for
+    ‘to miss.’
+
+So also derivatives—bossing, acting as a boss; bossism, a system of
+management or wire-pulling; bossy, pertaining to the qualities of a
+leader.
+
+
+Bossers, subs. (common).—Spectacles.—See Barnacles.
+
+
+Boss-Eyed, adj. (common).—Said of a person with one eye, or rather with
+one eye injured; a person with an obliquity of vision. In this sense
+sometimes varied by squinny-eyed and swivel-eyed (q.v.). Also used as a
+subs.—Boss-eye.
+
+    c. 1884. Broadside Ballad, ‘Put me some Jam Roll by, Jenny.’
+
+        Come where the waves roll high, Jenny,
+          Come where the waves roll high,
+        Jenny, old girl, I love you,
+          Come where the waves roll high.
+        Come where the waves roll high, Jenny,
+          Come where the sea-sick lie,
+        Come where we eat salt-junk, love,
+          Come with your old bos-eye.
+
+French Synonyms. Borgniat; cligner des œillets (a military term, ‘to be
+boss-eyed’); boiter des calots (‘to be boss-eyed’); calorgne.
+
+
+Bostruchyzer, subs. (Oxford University).—A small kind of comb for
+curling the whiskers.—Hotten. Obsolete.
+
+
+Bot, Bott, Botts, subs. (common).—The colic; belly-ache; gripes.
+Properly a name given to maggots found in the intestines of horses,
+under the hides of oxen, and in the nostrils of sheep. A French
+equivalent is la tourmente, i.e., ‘the torment.’
+
+    1787. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 27.
+
+        A countra Laird had ta’en the batts,
+        Or some curmurring in his guts.
+
+    1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. viii. ‘I ne’er gat ony gude by his
+    doctrine, as ye ca’t, but a sour fit o’ the batts wi’ sitting amang
+    the wet moss-hays for four hours at a yoking.
+
+
+Botanical Excursion, subs. (old).—A thief’s circumlocution for
+transportation—the allusion being to Botany Bay (q.v.).
+
+
+Botany Bay, subs. (University).—1. At Oxford, Worcester College is so
+designated on account of its remote situation as regards the bulk of
+the collegiate buildings. It will be seen that a similar reason has
+caused a certain portion of Trinity College, Dublin, to receive an
+identical nickname. The general idea underlying the term is obviously
+that to get to the places in question one has figuratively to go almost
+as far as if transported to the real Botany Bay, formerly a convict
+settlement in New South Wales.
+
+    1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. xx., note. Botany Bay was the
+    slang name given by college men to a new square rather remotely
+    situated from the remainder of the college [i.e., Trinity, Dublin].
+
+    1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
+    Green, I., p. 63. A name given to W. College, from its being the
+    most distant college.
+
+2. (thieves’ and prison.)—Penal servitude. Formerly convicts
+[1787–1867] were transported to Botany Bay, a convict settlement at the
+Antipodes. Hence to go to Botany Bay was in popular use for a long term
+of imprisonment.
+
+
+Botany-Bay Fever, subs. (old).—Transportation; penal servitude.
+Convicts condemned to transportation were said to have died of, or to
+have Botany-Bay fever. Cf., Hempen fever for hanging.
+
+
+Botch, subs. (old).—A tailor. [An abbreviated form of ‘botcher,’ which
+has been used for a very long period in all the following senses—a
+cobbler, tailor who does repairs, jobber, and an unskilful workman.]
+Also called a Snip, which see for synonyms.
+
+
+Bottle. To turn out no bottle, phr. (sporting).—Not to turnout well; to
+fail.
+
+
+Bottle-Ache, subs. (common).—Drunkenness; also applied to an attack of
+delirium tremens. [From bottle, in allusion to drink causing
+indisposition, + ache, a pain or sickness.] There are many curious
+terms for this effect of intemperance, such as Jim-jams, barrel-fever,
+quart-mania; but for full list of synonyms, see Gallon distemper.
+
+
+Bottle-Arsed, adj. phr. (printers’).—Type thicker at one end than the
+other—a result of wear and tear.
+
+
+Bottle-holder, subs. (common).—A second at a prize-fight, hence—
+
+2. One who gives moral support; a backer; an adviser. In the Times of
+1851, Lord Palmerston was reported to consider himself the
+bottle-holder of oppressed states: and in Punch of the same year, a
+cartoon appeared representing that statesman as the ‘judicious
+bottle-holder.’
+
+    1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (l.). An old bruiser makes a good
+    bottle-holder.
+
+    1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxix. Petrie ... recommends, upon his
+    own experience, as tutor in a family of distinction, this attitude
+    to all led captains, tutors, dependents, and bottle-holders of
+    every description.
+
+    1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. ii. Cold water, and a
+    little vinegar, applied according to the scientific method
+    practised by the bottle-holders in a modern ring.
+
+    1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xl. ‘Do you remember his tremendous
+    fight with Biggs?’ ‘Remember? who didn’t? Marston was Berry’s
+    bottle-holder.’
+
+
+Bottle-Holding, verbal subs. (common).—Backing; supporting.
+
+    1878–80. Justin MacCarthy, History of Our Own Times, II., p. 115.
+    The noble lord (Palmerston) told the deputation that the past
+    crisis was one which required on the part of the British Government
+    much generalship and judgment, and that a good deal of judicious
+    bottle-holding was obliged to be brought into play.
+
+
+Bottle of Brandy in a Glass, phr. (common).—A glass of beer; a recent
+and absurd slang introduction.
+
+
+Bottle of Spruce, subs. (rhyming slang).—Twopence. The play of words is
+upon ‘deuce’ = two.
+
+
+Bottles, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Barrett’s Brewery and Bottling Co.
+Shares.
+
+
+Bottle-Sucker, subs. (nautical).—An able-bodied seaman; the
+abbreviation is A.B.S., and a bottle-sucker is supposed to be a
+humorous rendering.
+
+
+Bottle-Up, verb (old).—To restrain (temper, feelings, etc.); to keep or
+hold back.
+
+    1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 53. Vapours ... botteled up in
+    cloudes.
+
+    1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. xi. Austin played very bad,
+    trumped his partner’s ... knave, led out strong suits of trumps
+    without any suit to follow, bottled them when his partner led them
+    first time round.
+
+    1871. Cincinnati Commercial, April, p. 637. He will bottle up his
+    wrath, having had some experience in the line of bottling up during
+    the war, and pour out his vials upon General Farnsworth’s head,
+    whenever the occasion offers.
+
+
+Bottom, subs. (colloquial).—1. The posteriors; not now in literary use.
+For synonyms, see Blind-cheeks and Bum.
+
+    1794–6. E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), III., 253. So as to have his head
+    and shoulders much lower than his bottom.
+
+    1822–36. J. Wilson, Noctes Ambr., xxxix. (1864), iv., 79. The
+    Dunghill cock ... hides his head in a hole ... unashamed of the
+    exposure of his enormous bottom.
+
+    1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II., iv., i., 185. Patriot women take
+    their hazel wands, and fustigate ... broad bottom of priests.
+
+2. (popular.)—Capital; resources; stamina; ‘grit.’
+
+    1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II., 451. Beginning on a good bottom
+    left him by his father.
+
+    1747. Captn. Godfrey, Science of Defence, p. 34. I have mentioned
+    strength and art as the two ingredients of a boxer. But there is
+    another, which is vastly necessary; that is, what we call a
+    bottom.... There are two things required to make this bottom, that
+    is, wind and spirit, or heart, or wherever you can fix the
+    residence of courage.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, pref., p. xv. The
+    peculiarities of this boxer discussed—his power of standing with
+    his arms extended for two whole days, without any rest, by which
+    means he wore out his adversaries’ bottom, and conquered without
+    either giving or taking.
+
+    1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, vol. II., ch. xiv. He did not like to
+    dine with Steyne now. They had run races of pleasure together in
+    youth when Bareacres was the winner. But Steyne had more bottom
+    than he, and had lasted him out.
+
+3. (popular.)—Spirit placed in a glass prior to the addition of water.
+[From bottom, the lowest surface or part of anything, the foundation,
+the basis. See peculiar American usage in 1883 quot.] Also used as a
+verb.
+
+    1854. Sir Theo. Martin, Bon Gaultier Ballads. Bottomed well with
+    brandy.
+
+    1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxxi. Gin and water was the
+    ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one of its denizens
+    inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours, generally did so with
+    a bottom of brandy.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, 2 July, p. 5, col. 3. Soda and dark bottom
+    is mentioned in a list of American drinks in this article.
+
+To knock the bottom out of one, phr. (American).—To overcome; to
+defeat, etc.
+
+    1888. Cleveland Leader. The declination of Mr. Blaine, has knocked
+    the bottom out of Mugwumpery.
+
+
+Bottom Dollar, subs. phr. (American).—The last dollar. The phrase ‘to
+bet one’s bottom dollar’ is frequently heard.
+
+
+Bottom Facts, subs. phr. (American).—The exact truth about any matter.
+To ‘get to the bottom facts’ concerning a subject, is to arrive at an
+unquestionable conclusion concerning it; or, as is said in England, to
+get to the root of the question.
+
+    1877. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Life on the Mississippi, p.
+    393. You take a family able to emba’m, and you’ve got a soft thing.
+    You can mention sixteen different ways to do it—though there aint
+    only one or two ways when you come down to the bottom facts of
+    it—and they’ll take the highest priced way every time. It’s human
+    nature—human nature in grief.
+
+The phrase is also varied by bottom rock.
+
+    1888. Omaha World. Bottom Rock. Conductor (on California train some
+    years hence)—‘All out for Pitholeville.’ Real Estate Agent
+    (entering car)—‘Orange groves and apple orchards, two for a penny.’
+
+
+Bottomless Pit, subs. (old slang).—A coarse and vulgar name for the
+female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
+
+
+Botty, subs. (popular).—An infant’s posteriors; the French say tu tu.
+
+Adj. (popular).—Conceited; swaggering. To look botty is in French,
+faire sa merde; faire son matador.
+
+
+Bough, subs. (old).—The gallows. Tree (q.v.) is used in a similar
+sense.
+
+    1590. Swinburn, Testaments, 53. Or in Kent in Gauelkind ... for
+    there it is said, the father to the boughe, and the son to the
+    ploughe. [M.]
+
+    1596. Spenser, State Irel., wks. (1862), p. 553, col. 2. Some ...
+    have beene for their goods sake caught up, and carryed straight to
+    the bough.
+
+    1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III., iv., 77. If she doom thee to the
+    bough.
+
+
+Boughs. Up in the boughs, phr. (old).—In a passion. Quoted by Grose.
+
+
+Bounce, subs. (common).—Brag; swagger; boastful falsehood and
+exaggeration.
+
+    1714. Steele, Lover (1723), 93. This is supposed to be only a
+    bounce.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (s.) ... also the huff,
+    brag, or swaggering of a bully or great pretender.
+
+    1765. Goldsmith, Haunch of Venison, l. 14. But hold—let me
+    pause—don’t I hear you pronounce this tale of the bacon a damnable
+    bounce?
+
+    1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. i. Only tell a man you
+    think him good-looking, and he falls in love with you directly; or
+    if that is too great a bounce—and indeed very few of them have the
+    slightest pretensions to beauty—you need only hint that he rides
+    gallantly.
+
+    1880. Blackwood’s Mag., May, p. 670. The whole heroic adventure was
+    the veriest bounce, the merest bunkum!
+
+2. Impudence; cheek; brass (q.v.).
+
+    1872–4. John Forster, Life of Dickens, ch. lx. It is the face of
+    the Webster type, but without the bounce of Webster’s face.
+
+3. A boaster; swaggerer; showy swindler; bully. Cf., Bouncer.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Bounce, a person well or fashionably
+    drest is said to be a rank bounce.
+
+Verb.—1. To boast; bluster; hector; bully; blow up.
+
+    1633. Fletcher, Nt. Walkers, IV., i. I doe so whirle her to the
+    Counsellors’ chambers ... and bounce her for more money.
+
+    1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XVIII., p. 428. With lies he tells his
+    Bloody Feats, And Bounces like a Bully.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (v.), to swagger, boast,
+    crack, stump, or pretend to great matters.
+
+    1749. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 3 May (1833), vol. II., p. 374. The
+    Lords had four tickets a-piece, and each Commoner at first but two,
+    till the Speaker bounced and obtained a third.
+
+    1760. Colman, Polly Honeycombe, in wks. (1777) IV., 55. Nay, nay,
+    old gentleman, no bouncing; you’re mistaken in your man, sir!
+
+    1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. ‘He’ll be drinking at
+    all the places coming along to get his courage up to bounce me.’
+
+    1883. Daily News, July 26, p. 4, col. 8. To bounce is simply to
+    prevail on persons whose mirth interferes with the general
+    enjoyment to withdraw from society which they embarrass rather than
+    adorn.
+
+2. To lie; to cheat; to swindle.
+
+    1762. Foote, Liar, II., i. If it had come to an oath, I don’t think
+    he would have bounced.
+
+    1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. x. ‘It’s them gals, Mr.
+    Austin, got a shilling of mine among un somewhere, and wants to
+    bounce me out of it.’
+
+On the bounce, phr. (common).—In a state of spasmodic movement; general
+liveliness.
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Funny to a degree was it to watch
+    some of the select and chosen of Lord Coventry, Major Clements, and
+    those that rule the interior of the Invited Enclosure at Ascot.
+    Several well known defaulters would be observed going to and fro
+    ‘on the bounce,’ including one young gentleman who once signed his
+    surname uninitialled to a cheque which was cashed by a confiding
+    tradesman, who took the said endorsement for that of his baronial
+    parent.
+
+To get the grand bounce, phr. (American).—This is equivalent, in
+political parlance, to dismissal, especially in reference to government
+appointments.
+
+
+Bounceable, adj. (common).—Prone to bouncing or boasting; ‘uppish’;
+‘bumptious.’ [From bounce (q.v.) + able.]
+
+    1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xvi. As soon as we
+    had exhibited sundry doses of Irish cordial to our friend Tip—under
+    the effects of which he became quite bouncible, and ranted about
+    the feat he was to take a prominent part in.
+
+    1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. iv. I heard that Mr. Sharp’s
+    wig didn’t fit him; and that he needn’t be so bounceable—somebody
+    else said ‘bumptious’—about it.
+
+
+Bouncer, subs. (common).—1. A bully; hector; blusterer; one who talks
+swaggeringly. [From the verb bounce, senses 1 and 2, + er.]
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (4 ed.). Bouncer (s.), a bully or
+    hectoring bravado.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 24. Those who
+    cheat the Public ... Bouncers and Besters defrauding, by laying
+    wagers, swaggering, or using threats.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—A thief who steals goods from shop counters while
+bargaining with the tradesman. The exact French equivalent is
+dégringoleur, and the practice itself is termed dégringoler à la carre.
+
+3. (common.)—A lie; a liar. For synonyms, see Whopper. [This usage in
+many instances completely overlaps sense 4.]
+
+    1762. Foote, Liar, II., i. He will tell ye more lies in an hour,
+    than all the circulating libraries put together will publish in a
+    year ... he was always distinguished by the facetious appellation
+    of the bouncer.
+
+    1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xxxi. ‘He’s ... such a
+    bouncer!!... I mean that he’s the greatest liar that ever walked a
+    deck.’
+
+    1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xxii. ‘In that case, I
+    should say wait, and put your trust in Time—Time, the father of
+    Truth, as Mary Stuart called him when she wanted to go in for a
+    bouncer,—and oh, what an incredible number of royal bouncers were
+    carried to and fro in the despatches of that period!’
+
+4. (common.)—Anything large of its kind; a ‘whopper’; a ‘thumper’; a
+‘corker.’
+
+    1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 140. My Book will grow
+    such a bouncer, that those which buy it must bee faine to hire a
+    porter to carry it after them in a basket.
+
+5. (American.)—A man who ejects; a ‘chucker-out’ (q.v.).
+
+    1883. Daily News, July 26, p. 4, col. 8. The other fresh American
+    type is less remarkable—the bouncer. One might suppose that a
+    bouncer was a noisy braggart; but no. A scientific writer in the
+    Nation describes a bouncer as a ‘silent, strong man.’ Every one who
+    mixes much in society in Whitechapel will understand the functions
+    of the bouncer when we explain that he is merely the English
+    ‘chucker-out.’
+
+6. (harlotry.)—A prostitute’s companion; ponce; bully. For synonyms,
+see Ponce.
+
+7. (naval.)—A gun that ‘kicks’ when fired.
+
+
+Bouncing, ppl. adj. (common).—Vigorous; lusty; exaggerated; excessive;
+big. This word has manifold meanings, referring, in its various senses,
+to largeness of size, vigour of action, with the idea of ungainliness
+rather than elegance. It is, as will be seen, of long continued use.
+
+    c. 1563. Jacke Jugder, p. 42 (ed. Grosart). And made you a banket
+    [banquet], and bouncing cheare.
+
+    1588. Marprelate’s Epistle, p. 14 (ed. Arber). For there must bee
+    orders of ministers in the congregation where you meane this
+    bounsing priest should haue superiortie.
+
+    1611. Middleton, Roaring Girle, Act iii., Sc. 3. The duck that sits
+    is the bouncing ramp, that roaring girl my mistress.
+
+    1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xix. While I was at work in the
+    shop, a bouncing damsel, well dressed, came in.
+
+    1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. ii. By the side of many tall and
+    bouncing young ladies in the establishment, Rebecca Sharp looked
+    like a child.
+
+
+Bouncing Cheat, subs. (old).—A bottle. [Bouncing, probably, says Grose,
+an allusion to the explosive noise made in drawing a cork, + cheat, a
+thing = Anglo Saxon ceat of the same meaning.] The French equivalent is
+une rouillarde or rouille, said to be derived from rouler. Empty
+bottles, it may be mentioned, are known as dead-men; camp-candlesticks;
+dead-marines; fellow-commoners, etc. For other synonyms, see Dead-men.
+
+
+Bounder, subs. (popular).—1. A four-wheeled cab or growler (q.v.).
+[Supposed to be an allusion to the jolting motion caused when
+travelling over a rough road, a fact intensified by the indifferent
+springs upon which such vehicles are often hung.]
+
+2. (University.)—A student whose manners are not acceptable; one whose
+companionship is not cared for.
+
+3. (University.)—A dog-cart. Cf., sense 1.
+
+4. (common.)—A vulgar though well-dressed man; a superior kind of
+‘’Arry’; one whose dress and personal appearance are correct, but whose
+manners are of a questionable character. The term is very often used in
+connection with bally (q.v.). a bally-bounder is one of the most
+objectionable of the genus. A synonymous term is snide (q.v.), and
+French equivalents are un mufe and un espèce de cafouilleux. A curious
+instance of French back-slang is found in another name—un lof, loff,
+loffard, loffe; lof here is fol reversed, i.e., mad, senseless,
+foolish.
+
+
+Bound To Be Had, Bound To Shine, etc., ppl. adj. (colloquial).—This
+expression enters into many slang phrases; for instance, when it seems
+certain that a man will be out-witted, cheated, or ‘bested,’ it is said
+of him that he is bound to be had; similarly, a man fated or resolved
+to distinguish himself is bound to shine. The colloquial use of bound
+dates back as far as 1360, but the peculiar expressions which bring it
+within the category of slang, are of much later origin. The following
+quotation will illustrate the usage in question, and further examples
+will be found under had, shine, etc.
+
+    1864. Hartford Post, July 14. When the public have an opportunity
+    of examining this beautiful steamer, they will pronounce her the
+    finest and most comfortable boat they have ever visited, and be
+    satisfied that she is bound to shine.
+
+
+Boung.—See Bung.
+
+
+Boung-Nipper.—See Bung-nipper.
+
+
+Bounty-Jumper, subs. (American).—A term applied to men who, receiving a
+bounty when enlisting, desert, re-enlist, and receive a second bounty.
+[From bounty, a gratuity given to recruits on joining the army or navy,
++ jumper, a slang term for one who decamps surreptitiously.] The War of
+the Rebellion is responsible for this, as for many other
+colloquialisms. As the conflict lengthened out, men became in great
+request, and large bounties were offered by the North for volunteers.
+This bounty was found in many cases to be a direct incitement with
+unprincipled men to bad faith and unfair dealing. Such would enlist,
+receive their bounty, join their regiment, and then decamp, to reappear
+in another State, to go through the same performance. Cases were known
+where this was done many times over, and the practice was called
+bounty-jumping.—See Jumping.
+
+    1875. Higginson, History of United States, p. 306. Bringing into
+    the service many bounty-jumpers, who enlisted merely for money, and
+    soon deserted to enlist again.
+
+    ante 1880. Song of the Bounty-Jumper (quoted in Bartlett).
+
+        My song is of a fast young man whose name was Billy Wires;
+        He used to run with the machine, and go to all the fires:
+        But as he lov’d a soldier’s life, and wished strange things to
+            see,
+        So the thought struck him that he would go and jump the
+            bounti-e.
+
+
+Bounty-Jumping, subs. (American).—Obtaining a bounty by enlisting and
+then deserting. Cf., Bounty-jumper.
+
+    1887. Illus. Lon. News, May 14, 552, 1. In the Civil War in America
+    between the Northern and Southern States, bounty-jumping, or
+    enlisting, and obtaining the bounty in several regiments, and then
+    deserting, rose to the dignity of a fine art.
+
+
+Bourbon, subs. (American).—1. A Democrat of the straitest sect; a
+fire-eater. Applied, for the most part, to the Southern Democrats of
+the old school. This use of the word probably ante-dates the Civil War,
+but no instance of such use has been found in print. Bourbon County,
+Kentucky, is popularly associated with this kind of Democrat, but we
+must look to the old Bourbon party in France—uncompromising adherents
+of political tradition—for its true paternity.
+
+2. A superior kind of whiskey; originally applied to that manufactured
+in Bourbon, Kentucky. For synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+
+Bouse, Bowse, Booze, subs. (old).—1. Applied to drink or liquor of any
+kind. In the sixteenth century bouse formed part of the cant of beggars
+and thieves; latterly the word, whether as substantive or verb, has
+become colloquial. [Thought to be derived from the Dutch busen, to
+drink to excess.] For synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Bowse, drinke.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Bowse, drinke.
+
+    1633. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, I., i. Well. No bouse?
+    nor no tobacco?
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary Vulgar Tongue. Bouze, etc., drink.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. As above.
+
+2. (old.)—A drinking bout; a carouse. This sense is more frequently
+current than sense 1.
+
+Verb.—To drink to excess; to tipple; to ‘swill.’ Both this and the
+substantive seem to have been known as early as 1300, but neither came
+into general use until the sixteenth century, from which period both
+forms have become more and more colloquial. For synonyms, see Lush.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 32. They bowle and bowse one to another,
+    and for the tyme bousing belly chere.
+
+    1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse. Who surmise, if there were no
+    playes, they should have all the companie that resort to them bye
+    bowzing and beere-bathing in their houses everie afternoone.
+
+    1615. Harington, Epigrams.
+
+        Yet such the fashion is of Bacchus crue
+        To quaffe and bowze, until they belch and spue.
+        Well, leave it, Marcus, else thy drinking health.
+        Will prove an eating to thy wit and wealth.
+
+So also bouser, a toper; bousing, hard drinking; and bousy, intoxicated
+or ‘screwed.’
+
+Bouse the jib, verbal phr. (nautical).—To tipple; to drink heavily.—See
+Lush.
+
+
+Bousing Ken, subs. (old).—A tavern; inn; or drinking den; now applied
+to a low public house. For synonyms, see Lush crib.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat. Man. What, stowe your bene, cofe, and cut
+    benat whydds, and byng we to rome vyle, to nyp a bong; so shall we
+    haue lowre for the bousing ken, and when we byng back to the
+    deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll
+    the ken for a bagge of dudes.
+
+    1652. Brome, Jovial Crew, II., wks. (1873) III., 390 ... As Tom or
+    Tib When they at bowsing ken do swill.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 27. But
+    notwithstanding the Protean nature of the Flash or Cant language,
+    the greater part of its vocabulary has remained unchanged for
+    centuries, and many of the words used by the Canting Beggars in
+    Beaumont and Fletcher, and the Gipsies in Ben Jonson’s Masque, are
+    still to be heard among the Gnostics of Dyot-street and
+    Tothill-fields. To prig is still to steal; to fib, to beat; lour,
+    money; duds, clothes; prancers, horses; bouzing-ken, an alehouse;
+    cove, a fellow; a sou’s baby, a pig, etc., etc.
+
+
+Bouzy.—See Boozy.
+
+
+Bow. Two (or many) strings to one’s bow, phr. (colloquial).—To have an
+alternative; more resources than one. The phrase sometimes formerly ran
+to have many strings to the bow. Numerous figurative expressions in all
+languages indicate the dominant pursuits of the respective nations; the
+English abounds in habitual phrases testifying to the engrossing
+avocations in all times. It is in this manner that to have two strings
+to one’s bow has passed into proverbial usage. In the fourteenth
+century—a Frenchman, Gaston de Foix, said of our ancestors, ‘Of bows I
+know not much, but who would know more, let him go to England, for that
+is truly their business.’ In the olden time, archery, as the dominant
+pursuit, gave figures of speech to the language—with the very pith of
+wisdom or Saxon sarcasm. If you made an enemy’s machinations recoil
+upon himself, you ‘outshot a man in his own bow.’ If you are a cautious
+man, ‘Always have two strings to your bow,’ and ‘Get the shaft-hand of
+your adversaries,’ or ‘Draw not thy bow before thy arrow be fixed.’ Of
+course, if you can ‘Kill two birds with one shaft,’ so much the better.
+Never ‘shoot wide of the mark’—that is, don’t make a foolish guess on a
+subject you know nothing about. Of useless, silly conversation, our
+ancestors said—‘The fool’s bolt is soon shot’; and if a man evidently
+exaggerated, he was said to ‘draw a long bow.’ If a man’s pretensions
+were not in accordance with the facts of his case—in other words, if he
+came under the category of ‘false pretences’—it was said that he ‘had a
+famous bow, but it was up at the Castle.’ Vain military and other
+boasters were the many who ‘talked of Robin Hood, but who never shot
+his bow.’ ‘An archer is known by his aim, and not by his arrows’; that
+is, if you are not answerable for your materials, at least show your
+skill in the modus operandi; or at all events, don’t depend entirely
+upon your tool.
+
+    1562. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (1867), 30. Ye have many stryngis
+    to the bowe. [M.]
+
+    1588. Marprelate’s Epistle, p. 18 (ed. Arber). Doe you not thinke
+    that I haue two strings to my bow.
+
+    1606. John Day, Isle of Gulls, Act ii., Sc. 2, p. 39. A wise man’s
+    bow goes with a two-fold string.
+
+    1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xvii. He was resolved to have two
+    strings to his bow, that in case the one failed, he might use the
+    other.
+
+(?) T. Brown, wks. IV., 115, ed. 1760. A man in Amsterdam is suffer’d
+to have but one religion, whereas in London he may have two strings to
+his bow.
+
+    1886. Mrs. Riddell, For Dick’s Sake, ch. iv., p. 11 (S.P.C.K.). She
+    had a second string to her bow, which suited her far better; and
+    she sent Dick back his letters and his presents, and a note
+    beginning, ‘Dear sir,’ and ending ‘Yours truly.’
+
+To draw the long bow, phr. (colloquial).—To exaggerate; to ‘gas’; to
+‘talk up.’
+
+    1819–24. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 1. They ... draw the long bow
+    better now than ever.
+
+To draw the bow up to the ear, phr. (colloquial).—To do a thing with
+alacrity; ‘to put on full steam’; to exert oneself to the utmost.
+
+    1860. Macmillan’s Mag., Feb., p. 258. So Miller, the coxswain, took
+    to drawing the bow up to the ear at once.
+
+
+Bow-Catcher, subs. (common).—A kiss-curl. For synonyms, see
+Aggerawator. [A corruption of ‘beau-catcher.’ Cf., Bell-rope.]
+
+
+Bowdlerize, verb (colloquial).—To expurgate by removing offensive or
+questionable words from a book or writing. [From Dr. T. Bowdler’s
+method in editing an edition of Shakspeare, in which, to use his own
+words, ‘Those ... expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety
+be read aloud in a family.’]
+
+    1836. Gen. P. Thompson, Let. in Exerc. (1842), IV., 124. Among the
+    names ... are many, like Hermes, Nereus, ... which modern
+    ultra-christians would have thought formidably heathenish; while
+    Epaphroditus and Narcissus they would probably have bowdlerized.
+
+    1870. Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 47. No profane hand shall
+    dare, for me, to curtail my Chaucer, to bowdlerise my Shakspeare,
+    or to mutilate my Milton.
+
+    1874. E. L. Linton, Patricia Kemball, ch. iii. Her uncle had not
+    made her read much beside the Bible and Shakspeare, which last he
+    had bowdlerised on his own account with a broad pen and very thick
+    ink.
+
+From this comes bowdlerization, squeamish emasculation of a work; also
+bowdlerizer, etc.
+
+    1882. Westm. Review, April, p. 583. The bowdlerization which the
+    Editor has thought necessary is done in an exceedingly awkward and
+    clumsy fashion.
+
+
+Bower, subs. (American thieves’).—A prison—a transferred usage of the
+orthodox word. For synonyms, see Cage.
+
+
+Bowery Boy, Bowery Girl, subs. (American).—The ’Arry and ’Arriet of New
+York of some years ago. The Bowery is a well known thoroughfare in the
+American metropolis. [Formerly spelt bouwerij, and derived from bouw,
+tillage, or bouwen, to till, to cultivate, being equivalent to the
+modern Dutch word boerderij, a farm, or the business of farming. The
+Bowery was the farm of Governor Stuyvesant.] Cf., Blood tub.
+
+
+Bowlas, subs. (common).—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 208.
+    Bowlas, or round tarts made of sugar, apple, and bread.
+
+
+Bowled, ppl. adj. (Winchester).—Croppled (q.v.).
+
+
+Bowler.—See Boler.
+
+
+Bowles, subs. (common).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.
+
+
+Bowl Out, verb (popular).—To overcome; to get the better of; to defeat.
+[Formerly a cricketing term—to bowl a man out by displacing the bails.]
+Cf., Bowl over. Among thieves it signifies, in a transitive form, to be
+arrested or ‘lagged.’
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bowled out, when he [a thief]
+    is ultimately taken, tried, and convicted [he] is said to be bowled
+    out at last.
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iii. The polite and accomplished
+    adventurer, who nicked you out of your money at White’s, or bowled
+    you out of it at Marybone.
+
+    1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxiv. ‘He’s handsomer than
+    you are; if you don’t mind your play, he’ll bowl you out.’
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 121. Now and again a
+    warder does get bowled out, and comes to grief. At the very least
+    he loses his situation.
+
+
+Bowl Over, verb (popular).—To defeat; to worst. Cf., Bowl out.
+
+    1862. Cornhill Mag., p. 729. You have bowled me over, and I know I
+    can’t get up again.
+
+    1878. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, II., p. 291. I sent in a
+    zinc bullet close to the ear, which bowled it [the rhinoceros]
+    over, dead.
+
+    1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xlvii. He confessed to
+    himself that he was completely bowled over,—‘knocked off his pins!’
+
+
+Bowl the Hoop, subs. (rhyming slang).—Soup.
+
+
+Bowman, adv. (old).—See quotation.
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 11. Help!
+    ejaculated Wood, renewing his cries. Arrest! Jigger closed! shouted
+    a hoarse voice in reply. All’s bowman, my covey. Fear nothing.
+    We’ll be upon the ban-dogs before they can shake their trotters!
+
+
+Bowse.—See Booze.
+
+
+Bowsing Ken.—See Bousing ken.
+
+
+Bowsprit, subs. (popular).—The nose.—See Boltsprit.
+
+To have one’s bowsprit in parenthesis is to have it pulled. ‘To have
+one’s head in Coventry’ will occur to mind as another English slang
+phrase very similar in character.
+
+
+Bow-Window, subs. (common).—A stomach of large proportions. [A bay or
+bow-window is properly a curved window, hence the transference of the
+term to a big belly.] Also bow-windowed, i.e., big-bellied.
+
+    1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, ch. i. He was a very large man ... with
+    what is termed a considerable bow-window in front.
+
+    1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxxiv. (1884), 334. Look at that
+    very bow-windowed man. [M.]
+
+    1889. Daily Telegraph, May 6. She was what is vulgarly called
+    bow-windowed.
+
+
+Bow-Wow, subs. (common).—1. A childish name for a dog.
+
+    1800. Cowper, Beau’s Reply.
+
+        Let my obedience then excuse
+          My disobedience now,
+        Nor some reproof yourself refuse
+          From your aggrieved bow-wow.
+
+    18(?82). Broadside Ballad, ‘I haven’t for a long time now.’
+
+        I used to have a sweetheart, once,
+          A precious little pearl!
+        Indeed she was—she really was,
+          A very charming girl.
+
+        I sang outside her door each night
+          Till her father bought a big bow-wow,
+        But I haven’t—haven’t—
+          I haven’t for a long time now!
+
+2. (old.)—A Bostonian—a term of contempt.
+
+3. (popular.)—A cavalier; lover; specially applied to a man who dangles
+after a woman. Also see Tame cat.
+
+    1877. Chamb. Journal, 12 March, p. 173. Mrs. Brittomart was one of
+    those who never tolerated a bow-wow—a species of animal well known
+    in India—and never went to the hills as a ‘grass-widow.’
+
+
+Bow-Wow-Mutton, subs. (old).—Dog’s flesh. [From bow-wow, a humorous
+term for a dog, + mutton, here used generically for meat.]
+
+
+Bow-Wow-Word, subs. (common).—A term applied sarcastically by Max
+Müller to words for which it is claimed that they are in imitation of
+natural sounds, i.e., onomatopoetic words, of which a full list will be
+found under Cachunk.
+
+
+Bowyer, subs. (old).—One who draws a ‘long bow’; a dealer in the
+marvellous; a teller of improbable stories; a liar.—See Long bow.
+
+
+Box, subs. (thieves’).—A prison cell.
+
+    1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 89.
+
+        In a box of the stone-jug I was born,
+        Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn
+                              Fake away.
+
+    1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 214. The box in the stone-jug
+    is doubtless a cell.
+
+Verb (Westminster School).—To take possession of; ‘to bag.’
+
+To be in a box, phr. (common).—To be cornered; in a fix; ‘stuck’ or
+‘hung up.’
+
+To be in the wrong box, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To be out of one’s
+element; to be in a false position; mistaken. Brewer traces this to
+Lord Lyttelton, who, being of rather a melancholy disposition, used to
+tell his friends that when he went to Vauxhall he was always supposing
+pleasure to be in the next box to his, or at least that he himself was
+so unhappily situated as always to be in the wrong box for it. The only
+objection to be raised to this story is that the phrase is a very old
+one, of which the derivation is now lost.
+
+    1554. Ridley (‘Foxe,’ 1838), vi., 438. Sir, quoth I, if you will
+    hear how St. Augustine expoundeth that place, you shall perceive
+    that you are in a wrong box.
+
+    1588. J. Udall, Distrephes, p. 31. I perceive that you and I are in
+    a wrong box.
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xliii. ‘That, I grant you,
+    must be confessed: doctor, I’m afraid we have got into the wrong
+    box.’
+
+    1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. x. ‘Take care your rights of
+    man don’t get you in the wrong box—there’s no arguing on board of a
+    man-of-war.’
+
+On the box, phr. (workmen’s).—A man when on strike and in receipt of
+strike pay is said to be on the box.
+
+    1889. Daily News, 19 Nov., p. 6, col. 7. The ‘Blackleg’ Question
+    Arising. As these have to be allowed strike pay in order to keep
+    them out of temptation, the number of men on the box, as they say
+    in the North, may be taken to be a thousand.
+
+
+Box Harry, verbal phr. (commercial travellers’).—Among bag-men to take
+dinner and tea together; ‘dining out,’ i.e., doing without a meal at
+all.
+
+
+Box Hat, subs. (common).—A silk hat. For synonyms, see Cady.
+
+
+Box-Irons, subs. (old).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 173. Shoes. Hockey-dockies,
+    or Box-irons.
+
+
+Box of Dominoes, subs. phr. (popular).—The mouth. [From box + dominoes
+(q.v.), a slang term for the teeth.] For synonyms, see Potato-trap.
+
+
+Box the Compass, verbal phr. (nautical).—To repeat in succession, or
+irregularly, the thirty-two points of the compass; beginners on
+accomplishing this feat are said to be able to box the compass.
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. vi. ‘A light, good-humoured,
+    sensible wench, who knows very well how to box her compass.’
+
+    1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp. Boxing, among sailors, is used to
+    denote the rehearsing the several points of the compass in their
+    proper order. [M.]
+
+    1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xviii. I can raise a perpendicular ...
+    and box the compass.
+
+    1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. To box the compass. Not only to
+    repeat the names of the thirty-two points in order and backwards,
+    but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its
+    division.
+
+
+Box the Jesuit, verbal phr. (old).—See Cockroaches.
+
+
+Boy, subs. (popular).—1. Champagne. [A story, ben trovato, is told by
+the Sporting Times of June 30, 1882, as regards the origin of the
+phrase:—At a shooting party in Norfolk once, a youth was told off to
+supply the company with champagne. The day being hot and the sportsmen
+thirsty, cries of ‘Boy! Boy! Boy!’ were heard all day long. This
+tickling the fancy of the royal and noble party, the term ‘boy’ became
+applied to champagne.] Also called fiz and cham (q.v.). The latter form
+is nearly reproduced in the French slang, le champ; they also brutally
+speak of this wine as coco épileptique, another epithet being cidre
+élégant.
+
+    1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 69, col. 2. ‘The fine young London
+    Gentleman.’
+
+        He will say that port and sherry his nice palate always cloy;
+        He’ll nothing drink but ‘B. and S.’ and big magnums of the boy;
+        He’s the darling of the Barmaid, and the honest waiter’s joy,
+        As he quaffs his Pommery ‘Extra Sec,’ his ‘Giesler’ or ‘Ivroy,’
+        Like a fine young London Gentleman,
+        Quite of the present style.
+
+    1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 155, col. 1. Dined with Tom and Corky
+    at a new place they had discovered, and raved of. Of course,
+    beastly dinner, but very good boy. Had two magnums of it.
+
+    1883. Punch, August 18, p. 84, col. 1. Shall it be B.-and-S., or
+    bumpers of the boy?
+
+2. (common.)—A hump on a man’s back. In low circles it is usual to
+speak of a humpbacked man as two persons—‘him and his boy,’ and from
+this much coarse fun and personality are at times evolved.
+
+3. (Anglo-Indian and colonial.)—A servant of whatever age.
+
+Old boy, subs. (popular).—1. A familiar term of address. The old boy is
+one’s father; the ‘guv’nor,’ or ‘boss.’ Sometimes my boy.
+
+    1602. Shaks., Twel. N., ii., 4, 122. But di’de thy sister of her
+    loue my boy? [M.]
+
+    1740. Richardson, Pamela, III., 380. Never fear, old boy, said Sir
+    Charles, we’ll bear our Parts in Conversation. [M.]
+
+2. The devil. For synonyms, see Skipper.
+
+    1835–40. Haliburton, Clockmaker, (1862), 140. As we invigorate the
+    form of government (as we must do, or go to the old boy).
+
+Yellow boy, subs. (common).—A guinea; also, one pound sterling. [From
+the colour.] As will be seen the term is an old one. For synonyms, see
+Canary.
+
+    1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act i.
+
+        How now, yellow boys, by this good light!
+        Sirrah, varlet, how came I by this gold?
+
+    1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. I., ch. vi. There wanted
+    not yellow boys to fee counsel, hire witnesses, and bribe juries.
+
+    1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. xlii. ‘The delight of
+    picking up the money—the bright, shining yellow boys—and sweeping
+    ’em into one’s pocket!’
+
+
+Boys, subs. (popular).—This word is very generally in use in the
+plural. Thus, bookmakers speak of their fellows, in the aggregate, as
+the boys; and it must be noted as a curious fact that on race-courses
+the whole army of the swindling and thieving fraternity are so
+designated.
+
+Angry or roaring boys, subs. (old).—A set of young bucks, bloods or
+blades (q.v.), of noisy manners and ‘fire-eating’ tastes. Nares says
+‘like the Mohawks’ (q.v.) described by the Spectator, they delighted to
+commit outrages and get into quarrels. Early mention is made of such
+characters. Wilson, in his Life of James I. [1653], gives an account of
+their origin:—The king minding his sports, many riotous demeanours
+crept into the kingdom; divers sects of vicious persons, going under
+the title of roaring boys, bravadoes, roysterers, etc., commit many
+insolencies; the streets swarm, night and day, with bloody quarrels,
+private duels fomented, etc.
+
+    1599. Greene, Tu Quoque, Old Plays, vii., 25.
+
+        This is no angry, nor no roaring boy, but a blustering boy.
+
+    1609. Ben Jonson, Epicœne, i., 4. The doubtfulness of your phrase,
+    believe it, sir, would breed you a quarrel once an hour with the
+    terrible boys, if you should but keep ’em fellowship a day.
+
+    1610. Ben Jonson, Alchemist, iii., 4.
+
+        Sir, not so young, but I have heard some speech
+        Of the angry boys, and seen ’em take tobacco.
+
+    1616. Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady, iv., 1.
+
+        Get thee another nose, that will be pull’d
+        Off, by the angry boys, for thy conversion.
+
+
+Boys of the Holy Ground, subs. phr. (old).—Formerly [1800–25] bands of
+roughs infesting a well-known region in St. Giles.—See Holy Land.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 7.
+
+        For we are the boys of the holy ground,
+        And we’ll dance upon nothing and turn us round.
+
+
+Brace, verb (American thieves’).—To get credit by swagger.
+
+Brace it through, phr. (American).—To succeed by dint of sheer
+impudence. Cf., Brace up, ‘to gird oneself up,’ ‘to buckle to.’
+
+
+Bracelets, subs. (familiar).—Handcuffs; fetters for the wrist.
+[Derivation obvious.] French thieves call them les alliances, properly
+‘wedding rings’; also la tartouve and les lacets. For synonyms, see
+Darbies.
+
+    1661. Wit and Drollery, quoted in Disraeli Cur. of Wit. (Tom
+    O’Bedlams.) [Fetters are called bracelets in a song in this work.]
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. lv., p. 371 (1874).
+    Fetters confined my legs from stragling, and bracelets were clapt
+    upon my arms.
+
+    1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 62. ‘Thank
+    you—thank you!’ faltered Jack, in a voice full of emotion. ‘I’ll
+    soon free you from these bracelets.’
+
+    1848. W. H. Ainsworth, James the Second, bk. I., ch. ii. ‘It may
+    be, young squire, you’ll have to go ... with a pair of bracelets on
+    your wrists, and pay your next reck’nin’ to the gov’nor of
+    Newgate.’
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. v., p. 359. He travels with
+    other people who are also bound to London, and who, seeing him
+    handcuffed, know very well his steel bracelets are not the insignia
+    of honour.
+
+
+Brace of Shakes, phr. (popular).—In a moment; ‘jiffy’; ‘twinkling of an
+eye,’ etc.—See, however, Shakes. The expression is sometimes a couple,
+instead of a brace of shakes. A French equivalent is far-far.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Babes in the Wood). I’ll be back in a couple
+    of shakes.
+
+    1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. xii. ‘But I’ve a trick with a
+    ’oss that’ll set that sort o’ thing—if it ain’t gone too far, that
+    is to say—right in a brace of shakes.’
+
+    1884. Cornhill Mag., Jan., p. 101. ‘If there were any boys at
+    Oppingbury now like those who were here when I was young, they’d
+    break the window in a couple of shakes.’
+
+
+Brace Up, verb (thieves’).—1. To pawn stolen goods—generally to their
+utmost value.
+
+2. (American.)—To take a drink. [A transferred sense; from brace-up =
+to string up; to give firmness to.]
+
+    1888. Puck’s Library, Ap., p. 20. Come old boy, let’s brace up; a
+    bumper will pull you together again.
+
+
+Bracket-Faced, adj. (old).—Ugly; hard-featured.—Grose.
+
+
+Bracket-Mug, subs. (common).—An ugly face. [From bracket (Cf.,
+Bracket-faced) + mug, a slang term for the face.] For synonyms, see
+Hatchet-face.
+
+
+Brads, subs. (common).—A generic term for money. De Vaux (see quot.),
+though somewhat limiting the meaning, uses the term elsewhere as
+equivalent to ‘pence’ or ‘coppers.’ It possibly originated among
+shoemakers, brads being small rivets or nails largely employed by them.
+Cf., Horse-nails, and for synonyms, Actual.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Brads, halfpence; also money in
+    general.
+
+    1855. Punch, XXIX., 10. [Cf., Punch’s suggestion for a ‘fast’
+    partner in banks who should enquire of customers] ‘Will you take it
+    in flimsies, or will you have it all in tin? Come, look sharp, my
+    downy one, and I’ll fork out the brads like bricksy wicksy.’
+
+    1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. ‘B Flats.’ Four B’s, essential
+    for social success.—Blood, brains, brass, brads [money].—American.
+
+    1888–9. Payne, Eavesdropper, pt. II., ch. ii. They used such funny
+    terms: ‘brads’ and ‘dibbs’ ... at last it was borne in upon me that
+    they were talking about money.
+
+Tip the brads.—See quotation and Tip.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 4. [To] tip the
+    brads—and down with the dust, is to be at once good, great,
+    handsome, accomplished, and everything that’s desirable—money,
+    money, is your universal good,—only get into Tip Street, Jerry.
+
+
+Brag, subs. (thieves’).—A usurer; a Jew. Cf., Sixty-per-cent.
+
+
+Braggadocia, subs. (thieves’).—This is explained in Dickens’ Reprinted
+Pieces (in a footnote) to mean three months’ imprisonment as reputed
+thieves. It is difficult to trace the connection between this and the
+ordinary meaning of braggadocio.
+
+    1857. Dickens, Reprinted Pieces (Three ‘Detective’ Anecdotes, The
+    Artful Touch), p. 253. ‘We don’t take much by this move, anyway,
+    for nothing’s found upon ’em, and it’s only the braggadocia after
+    all.’
+
+
+Brain Pan, subs. (sporting).—1. The skull, or skull-cap. Also called
+brain-canister. Hotten quotes the term as of pugilistic origin, but it
+ante-dates the palmy days of the ‘Fancy’ by many years. Brain pan in
+this sense can, perhaps, hardly be classed as slang; not so, however,
+sense 2. The Scotch equivalent is harn-pan.—See quotations under sense
+2.
+
+2. (common.)—The head itself. For general synonyms, see Chump.
+
+    b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I.,
+    417.
+
+        Upon her brain pan
+        Like an Egyptian
+        Capped about.
+
+    1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 91. The
+    spirit of her owne malt walkt in her brayne pan.
+
+    1609. Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, Prœmium. Tarleton, Kemp, nor Singer
+    ... never played the clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot
+    of you all shall if hee will but boyle my Instructions in his
+    braine-pan.
+
+    1622. Massinger, Virgin-Martyr, ii., 2.
+
+        Oh, sir, his brain-pan is a bed of snakes,
+        Whose sting shoots through his eye-balls.
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. xxxiii. ‘Weize a brace of balls through
+    his harn-pan!’
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xi. ‘Were I your master,
+    sirrah, ... I would make your brain-pan, as you call it, boil over,
+    were you to speak a word in my presence before you were spoken to.’
+
+
+Bramble, subs. (provincial slang).—In Kent a lawyer is so called;
+obviously a sarcastic allusion to the ‘tangles’ of the law.
+
+
+Bramble-Gelder (provincial slang).—A derisive appellation for an
+agriculturist; a Suffolk term.
+
+
+Bran, subs. (common).—A loaf. [In all likelihood this is a mere
+abbreviation of bran-loaf.] For synonyms, see Tommy.
+
+    1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. He purchased a sufficiency
+    of ready-dressed ham and a half-quartern loaf, or, as he himself
+    expressed it, ‘a fourpenny bran!’ Ibid, p. 306. Two half-quartern
+    brans, pound of best fresh.
+
+
+Branded Ticket, subs. (nautical).—Admiral Smyth [1867] quotes this as
+‘a discharge given to an infamous man, on which his character is given,
+and the reason he is turned out of the service.’
+
+
+Brandy Face, subs. (old).—A tippler; a drunkard, especially one whose
+favourite drink is brandy.
+
+    a. 1687. Cotton, Æneid, II. Burl. (1692), 85. You goodman
+    brandy-face, unfist her. [M.]
+
+
+Brandy-Faced, ppl. adj. (general).—Red-faced; bloated. [A reference to
+the effects upon the physiognomy of excessive indulgence in
+intoxicating drinks.] The expression is mentioned by Grose as early as
+1785, but it is probably still older, for see quotation under
+brandy-face.
+
+    1859. G. A. Sala, Tw. Round Clock, 284. Hulking labourers and
+    brandy-faced viragos, squabbling at tavern doors.
+
+
+Brandy is Latin for Goose or For Fish, phr. (popular).—This punning
+vulgarism appears first in Swift’s Polite Conversation, and Brewer thus
+states the philological equation.
+
+    What is the Latin for Goose? (Answer) Brandy. The pun is on the
+    word answer. Anser is the Latin for goose, which brandy follows as
+    surely and quickly as an answer follows a question.
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. ii.). Lord Sm. Well, but
+    after all, Tom, can you tell me what’s Latin for a goose? Nev. O my
+    lord, I know that; Why, brandy is Latin for a goose, and Tace is
+    Latin for a candle.
+
+    1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xi. ‘Art thou forward in thy
+    learning? Canst thou tell me Latin for goose?’ ‘To be sure,’
+    replied Tom, ‘brandy.’
+
+As regards the second form, namely, brandy is Latin for fish, the
+origin is more obscure, although it is to some extent explained in the
+following quotation.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 125. We are told
+    that the thirst and uneasy feeling at the stomach, frequently
+    experienced after the use of the richer species of fish, have led
+    to the employment of spirit to this kind of food. Hence, says Dr.
+    Pereira, the vulgar proverb, brandy is Latin for fish.
+
+
+Brandy Pawnee, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—Brandy and water. [From brandy +
+Hindustan pānī, water. Cf., Parney, also a slang term for water.]
+
+    1816. Quiz, Grand Master, pref. And died at last with brandy pauny.
+    [M.]
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. i. ‘I’m sorry to see you, gentlemen,
+    drinking brandy-pawnee,’ says he; ‘it plays the deuce with our
+    youngest men in India.’
+
+    1860. W. H. Russell, My Diary in India, I., p. 120. They had tiffin
+    at two; hot lunch and ale and brandy-pawnee.
+
+
+Brandy Smash, subs. (popular).—An American drink concocted of brandy
+and crushed ice. Cf., Drinks.
+
+    1862. E. MacDermott, Popular Guide to International Exhibition,
+    1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an
+    American bar, where visitors may indulge in ‘juleps,’ ‘cocktails,’
+    ‘cobblers,’ ‘rattlesnakes,’ ‘gum-ticklers,’ ‘eye-openers,’
+    ‘flashes-o’-lightning,’ brandy-smashes, ‘stone-fences,’ and a
+    variety of similar beverages.
+
+    1869. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents Abroad. We procured the
+    services of a gentleman experienced in the nomenclature of the
+    American bar ... a bowing, aproned Frenchman stepped forward and
+    said Que veulent les messieurs? Our general said (after naming
+    several other drinks) give us a brandy smash; the Frenchman began
+    to back away suspicious of the ominous vigour of the last order.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, 2 July, p. 5, col. 3. [Brandy-smash is
+    mentioned in a list of American drinks.]
+
+    1888. New York Evening Post, 24 Feb. Philological.—Gallic
+    Tourist—‘I do not see how any one ever learns the absurd English. I
+    read on the menu of drinks, ‘Sherree Cobblair,’ I find in the
+    dictionary—a mender of shoes of sherry wine; ‘Santa Cruz Sour,’ La
+    Sainte Croix acide; brandy smash, ‘Eau de vie écrasé.’ Bête de
+    langue!’
+
+
+Bran-Mash, subs. (military).—Bread sopped in coffee or tea. Cf.,
+Floating batteries.
+
+
+Brass, subs. (popular).—1. Impudence; effrontery; brass being a type of
+unblushing hardness, shamelessness, etc. This colloquialism is by no
+means of yesterday, having been used by Shakspeare. Sometimes rendered
+bold as brass. Cf., Cheek, which also see for synonyms.
+
+    1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour Lost, v., 2, 395. Biron. Thus pour
+    the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold
+    longer out?
+
+    1701. Defoe, True Born Englishman, pt. II. By my Old Friend [The
+    Devil], who printed in my face A needful competence of English
+    brass.
+
+    1703. Farquhar, Inconstant, Act i., Sc. 2. Thou hast impudence to
+    set a good face upon anything; I would change half my gold for half
+    thy brass, with all my heart.
+
+    1740. North, Examen, p. 256. She in her defence made him appear
+    such a rogue upon record, that the Chief Justice wondered he had
+    the brass to appear in a court of justice.
+
+    1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act iii., Sc. 1. ‘To me
+    he appears the most impudent piece of brass that ever spoke with a
+    tongue.’
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 68. Oh, what a
+    face of brass was his, Who first at Congress show’d his phyz.
+
+    1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lv., p. 462. ‘I haven’t brass
+    enough in my composition, to see him in this place and under this
+    charge.’
+
+    1876. C. H. Wall, trans. Molière, vol. I., p. 18. Gorgibus is a
+    simpleton, a boor, who will readily believe everything you say,
+    provided ... you have brass enough.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 199. He
+    started with a lot of tin, but had not sufficient brass or physique
+    to stand the wear-and-tear of the life.
+
+2. (common.)—A generic term for money. At one time money was made of
+brass, hence probably the slang usage. Cf., Tin.
+
+    1526. Tyndale, Matt. x., 9. Posses not golde, nor silver, nor
+    brasse yn youre gerdels.
+
+    1597. Hall, Satires, IV., v., 12.
+
+        Hirelings enow beside can be so base,
+        Tho’ we should scorn each bribing varlet’s brass.
+
+    1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, ch. xx. ‘There’ll be Fosters
+    i’ th’ background, as one may say, to take t’ biggest share on t’
+    profits,’ said Bell. ‘Ay, ay, that’s but as it should be, for I
+    reckon they’ll ha’ to find the brass the first.’
+
+    1864. M. E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, ch. xii. ‘Steeve’s a little too
+    fond of the brass to murder any of you for nothing.’
+
+    1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 129. ‘It’s noa use
+    they’re telling us afterwards they ain’t collared the brass.’
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Billy Wells. What the dickens is all
+    this about the hats? We have seventy-two telegrams and letters on
+    the subject, and would prefer the brass.
+
+
+Brass-Bound and Copper Fastened, adj. phr. (nautical).—Said of a lad
+dressed in a midshipman’s uniform.—W. Clark Russell.
+
+
+Brass-Bounder, subs. (nautical).—A midshipman.
+
+
+Brasser, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—A bully.
+
+
+Brass Farthing or Farde.—The lowest limit of value.—See quots.
+
+    1642. Rogers, Naaman, 33. As bare and beggarly as if he had not one
+    brasse farthing. [M.]
+
+    1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 5. Nobby button’-oler very well When one
+    wants to do the ’eavy swell; Otherwise don’t care not one brass
+    farden, For the best ever blowed in Covent Garden.
+
+    1880. Besant and Rice, Seamy Side, x., 78. I care not one brass
+    farthing.
+
+
+Brass Knocker, subs. (vagrants’).—Broken victuals; the remains of a
+meal. Specially applied by beggars to the scraps often bestowed upon
+them in place of money.
+
+
+Brass-Plate Merchant, subs. (common).—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 95. The
+    brass-plate merchant, as he is called in the trade, being a person
+    who merely procures orders for coal, gets some merchant who buys in
+    the coal-market to execute them in his name, and manages to make a
+    living by the profits of these transactions.
+
+
+Brassy, adj. (common).—Impudent; impertinent; shameless. Cf., Brass,
+sense 1.
+
+    1570–76. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 156. To make them blush ...
+    were they never so brassie and impudent.
+
+    1661. T. Middleton, Mayor of Quinborough, iii., 1. There’s no
+    gallant so brassy impudent durst undertake the words that shall
+    belong to’t.
+
+    1738–1819. Wolcot, P. Pindar, p. 73, ed. 1830.
+
+        No. Mr. Gattle—Betty was too brassy,
+        We never keep a servant that is saucy.
+
+    1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, ch. xxxii. ‘I asked him to leave his
+    name, sir, and he said Mr. Rowland Yorke knew his name quite well
+    enough without having it left for him.’ ‘As brassy as that was he!
+    I wish to goodness it was the fashion to have a cistern in your
+    house roofs’!
+
+
+Brazen-Faced, ppl. adj. (common).—Shameless; impudent; unblushing. With
+a face as of brass, see Brass. Hotten remarks that such a person is
+sometimes said to have had his face rubbed with a brass candle-stick.
+
+    1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps., xii., 5. With such brazenfaste
+    baldnesse.
+
+    1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 84. Amidst his impudent
+    brazen-fac’d defamation of Doctor Ferne.
+
+    1693. Dryden, Juvenal, III., 133. Quick-witted, brazen-fac’d, with
+    fluent tongues.
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 10. Thus with an
+    unparallell’d Impudence every brazen-fac’d Malefactor is harden’d
+    in his Sin.
+
+    1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., viii., p. 137. ‘Of all the
+    impudent brazen-faced rascals that are cheating the gallows, you
+    must be the worst.’
+
+
+Bread, subs. (old).—Employment; a transferred sense, the idea being—no
+work; no food.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Out of bread, out of
+    employment.
+
+
+Bread and Butter Fashion, phr. (harlotry).—An expression descriptive of
+the sexual embrace.
+
+
+Bread and Butter Warehouse, phr. (old).—A nickname given to the old
+Ranelagh Gardens. An allusion to the scenes of infamy and debauchery
+which once characterized the place.—See Bread and butter fashion.
+
+
+Bread and Meat, subs. phr. (military).—The commissariat.
+
+
+Bread Bags, subs. (military).—A nickname given in the army and navy to
+any one connected with the victualling department, as a purser or
+purveyor in the commissariat. At one time called muckers, and amongst
+French soldiers riz-pain-sel.
+
+
+Bread-Barge, subs. (nautical).—The distributing basket or tray
+containing the rations of biscuits.
+
+
+Bread-Basket, subs. (popular).—The stomach. [An obvious allusion to
+that part of the body as a receptacle of food.]
+
+English Synonyms. Bread-room; dumpling-depôt; victualling-office;
+porridge-bowl.
+
+French Synonyms. La panetière (common: properly a bag or satchel
+wherein shepherds put their bread; a pouch. Akin to this is the slang
+term la pantière, the mouth); panier au pain (a literal translation of
+the English term); le jabot (popular: formerly heart or breast. Se
+remplir le jabot = to have a ‘blow out’); la halle aux croûtes
+(popular: this may be rendered literally as ‘Crust’ hall; also, a
+baker’s shop); la place d’armes (popular: the place of arms, stronghold
+or arsenal); la soute au pain (popular: soute = store-room, etc.; thus,
+the expression would correspond closely to victualling office or
+bread-basket. ‘Put that in your bread-basket’ is rendered by colle-toi
+ça dans le Fusil, i.e., ‘ram that in your gun’).
+
+Italian Synonym. The Fourbesque has fagiana (properly a chest or store
+house for beans.)
+
+    1753. Foote, Englishman in Paris, Act 1. Another came up to second
+    time, but I let drive at the mark, made the soup-maigre rumble in
+    his bread-basket, and laid him sprawling.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 18. Neat milling
+    this Round—what with clouts on the nob, Home hits in the
+    bread-basket, clicks in the gob.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 1. Jerry. Now,
+    doctor, take care of your bread-basket—eyes right, look to your
+    napper.
+
+    1856. Reade, Never too Late to Mend, ch. lxx. When you can’t fill
+    the bread-basket, shut it. Go to sleep till the Southern Cross
+    comes out again.
+
+    1876. C. H. Wall, trans. Molière, vol. I., p. 194. And get as a
+    reward an ugly piece of cold steel right through my bread-basket.
+
+
+Bread-Picker, subs. (Winchester College).—The four senior præfects used
+to appoint ‘Juniors’ to this office which was nominal, but which
+carried with it exemption from fagging at meal times. No ‘notion’ book
+states in what the office consisted, but it is supposed that it relates
+to times when Juniors had to secure the bread, etc., served out for
+their masters.
+
+
+Bread-Room, subs. (old).—The stomach. A variant of bread-basket, which
+see for synonyms.
+
+    1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. v. He ordered the
+    waiter ... to ... bring along-side a short allowance of brandy or
+    grog, that he might cant a slug [dram] into his bread-room. Ibid,
+    ch. xvii. The waiter ... returned with a quartern of brandy, which
+    Crowe, snatching eagerly, started into his bread-room at one cant.
+
+
+Bread-Room Jack, subs. (nautical).—A purser’s servant.
+
+
+Break, subs. (thieves’).—A collection (of money) usually got up by a
+prisoner’s friends, either to defray the expenses of his defence, or as
+a ‘lift’ when leaving prison. Formerly and more generally applied to a
+pause in street performances to enable the hat to be passed round. Cf.,
+Lead. French slang has une bouline with the same meaning; and, to make
+a collection is, among mountebanks, faire la manche.
+
+    1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. The mob got me up a
+    break (collection), and I got between five or six foont
+    (sovereigns).
+
+
+Break Down, subs. (Australian).—1. A measure of liquor.—See quotation.
+
+    1759. Frank Fowler, Southern Lights and Shadows, p. 53. To pay for
+    liquor for another is to ‘stand,’ or to ‘shout,’ or to ‘sacrifice.’
+    The measure is called a ‘nobbler,’ or a break-down.
+
+2. (common.)—A noisy dance; also, a convivial gathering. The term was,
+at first, specially applied to a negro dance, but is now in general use
+in England in a humorous sense. Also used as a verb, i.e., to break
+down, to dance riotously; to be boisterous and ‘spreeish.’ For
+synonyms, see Flare up.
+
+    1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, II., p. 54. And Mr. Pingle retired
+    into the next room, where he indulged in the steps of a comic dance
+    popular with burlesque actors, and known as a nigger break-down.
+
+    1873. Sat. Review, May, p. 676. We shall not be surprised to learn
+    that they have serious thoughts of engaging a few comic singers and
+    break-down dancers for their next campaign.
+
+    1883. Daily News, March 26, p. 2, col. 4. A patter song ... was
+    twice redemanded, chiefly, it appeared, for the sake of a comical
+    ‘break-down’ danced by the demented king.
+
+
+Break o’ Day Drum (American thieves’).—A drinking saloon which keeps
+its doors open all night.
+
+
+Break One’s Back, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To become bankrupt; an
+extension of the figurative usage to overpower; render nugatory; crush.
+
+    1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., Act i., Sc. 1. Aber. I do know
+    Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have By this so sicken’d
+    their estates, that never They shall abound as formerly. Buck. O,
+    many Have broke their backs with laying manors on ’em For this
+    great journey.
+
+    1620. Middleton, Chaste Maid, iii., 2. [The word is here used in
+    the sense of bankruptcy and ruin.]
+
+    1887. Baring Gould, The Game-cocks, ch. xxviii. ‘They are very
+    poor, and have made a hard fight to get on. I fear this change
+    would break their backs.’
+
+    1888. Ashton, Mod. Street Ballads, p. 13. The cesses, rates, and
+    tithes nearly breaks their backs.
+
+
+Break One’s Egg.—See Crack one’s egg.
+
+
+Break Out All Over or In a Fresh Spot, etc., verbal phr.
+(American).—Expressions in common use—in the one case conveying an idea
+of completeness; and, in the other, of commencing some new undertaking,
+or assuming a different position whether in an argument or action.
+These usages may be traced to the phraseology of medicine.
+
+
+Break Shins, verbal phr. (general).—To borrow money. Hotten thinks the
+term is a variant of ‘to kick,’ formerly in use with a similar meaning.
+This may be so, but it is worthy of note that ‘to shin’ is colloquial
+in America in the sense of ‘to walk quickly,’ ‘to gad about’; but
+having particular reference also, in mercantile phraseology, to the
+action of a man who, finding himself short of money to meet his
+engagements, goes round to his friends to borrow what he requires. To
+bite the ear (q.v.) has the same signification; but for synonyms, see
+Shins.
+
+
+Break the Balls, verbal phr. (billiards).—To commence playing; a phrase
+very much akin to ‘breaking ground’; indeed few verbs enter more
+largely into figurative or colloquial combinations than break.
+
+
+Break the Molasses Jug, verbal phr. (American).—To come to grief; to
+make a mistake.
+
+
+Break the Neck or Back of Anything, verbal phr. (common).—To accomplish
+the major portion of a task; to be near the end of an undertaking; to
+be past the middle of same.
+
+
+Breaky-Leg, subs. (common).—1. Intoxicating drink of any kind. [A
+humorous allusion to one of the possible effects of confirmed
+drunkenness, or the weakness produced in one’s legs by tippling.] For
+all synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—A shilling.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. A shilling.
+    Breake-leg.
+
+
+Breast Fleet, subs. (old).—Roman Catholics; so called from their
+practice of crossing themselves on the breast as an act of devotion.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He (or she) belongs
+    to the breast fleet; i.e., is a Roman Catholic; an appellation
+    derived from their custom of beating their breasts in the
+    confession of their sins.
+
+
+Breath. Change your breath, phr. (American).—An injunction to adopt a
+different manner or bearing. An offensive, slang expression which,
+originating in California, quickly ran its course through the Union.
+
+
+Breech, verb (schoolboys’).—To flog or be flogged; especially on the
+posteriors. This verb was formerly in literary use, but has now fallen
+into disuetude.
+
+    1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxxiv., st. 6, p. 166 (S.D.S.).
+
+        Maides, up I beseech yee
+        Least Mistres doe breech yee.
+
+    1637. Massinger, Guardian, i., 1. How he looks! like a school-boy
+    that had play’d the truant, And went to be breech’d.
+
+    1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xxiv. ‘Go to,’ said Wayland, ‘thou art
+    a prating boy, and should be breeched for thine assurance.’
+
+
+Breeched, ppl. adj. (popular).—1. To be well off; to have plenty of
+money; ‘to be well breeched,’ to be in good circumstances. Cf.,
+Ballasted. The French have a similar idiom. If a man is bankrupt he is
+said to be déculotté—unbreeched. Given in this sense by Vaux in his
+Flash Dictionary [1812].
+
+
+Breeches. To wear the breeches, phr. (common).—A phrase said only of
+women; and signifying to rule; to usurp a husband’s prerogative; to be
+‘master.’ An analogous phrase is ‘the grey mare is the better horse of
+the two.’ [The derivation is obviously an allusion to breeches as the
+symbol of authority, i.e., of manhood.] Murray traces the expression
+back to 1553, but it is, in reality, much older. It is found in French
+as early as 1450.
+
+    1450. Les Quinze Joyes de Mariage: La Dixiesme Joye. Edition
+    Elzevirienne, Paris (1853), p. 113. Et sachez qu’il est avenu à
+    aucuns que l’en leur faisoit boire de mauvès brouez affin de porter
+    les braies ou pour autres choses pires.
+
+The idea is met with in English at about the same date in a carol, the
+burden of which is founded on it:—
+
+    14(?). Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century, Percy Soc. Pub.,
+    vol. XXIII., p. 65.
+
+        Nova, nova, sawe you ever such,
+        The moste mayster of the hows weryth no brych.
+
+Also a little later, from the same collection:—
+
+    The Boke of Maid Emlyn, vol. VI., p. 21.
+
+            All women be suche,
+        Thoughe the man wear the breche.
+
+It is curious to note also that the expression has cropped up in most
+languages. The Dutch say, ‘De vrouw draagt ’er de broek’; the Germans,
+‘Sie hat die Hosen.’ The Germans have also other ‘breeches’ sayings; as
+e.g., ‘Das Hertz ist ihm in die Hosen gefallen.’ Other illustrative
+quotations are:—
+
+    1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxvii. st. 18, 156 (E.D.S.).
+
+        Least some should talke, as is the speech,
+        The good wiues’ husband weares no breech.
+
+    1591. Nashe, A Prognostication, in wks. II., 158. Diverse great
+    stormes are this yere to be feared, especially in houses where the
+    wives weare the breeches.
+
+    1663. T. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, ii., 3, in Dodsley’s O. P.
+    (1780), xi., 413. Anything that may get rule; I love to wear the
+    breeches.
+
+    1724. Swift, Misc. Poems, in wks. (1824) XIV., 199.
+
+        Those men, who wore the breeches least,
+        Call’d him a cuckold, fool, and beast.
+
+    1820. Coombe, Syntax, Consolation, ch. v.
+
+        When she doth wear the breeches;
+        And the poor fool dare not resist
+        The terrors of her threat’ning fist.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 4. Mrs. T. No,
+    no—no mischief—harkye, you did me a service just now in the street.
+    Tom. I know I did, down by the pump. Mrs. T. Well, now, I’ll do you
+    one—my husband is asleep: I have the keys; and I wear the breeches.
+
+
+Breeching, verbal subs. (schoolboys’).—A flogging. Like breech (q.v.),
+formerly in general use.
+
+    1520. Whittington, Vulg. (1527), 26. I studye to-day to-daye
+    bycause I fere a brechyng.
+
+    1594. Nashe, Unfortunate Traveller, in wks. V., 149. Heeres a
+    stirre thought I to my selfe after I was set at libertie, that is
+    worse than an vpbrayding lesson after a britching.
+
+
+Breef.—See Brief.
+
+
+Breeze, subs. (general).—A row; quarrel; disturbance; coolness. [From
+breeze, a cool wind.]
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To kick up a breeze,
+    to breed a disturbance.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 5. But, though we
+    must hope for such good times as these, Yet, as something may
+    happen to kick up a breeze.
+
+    1865. Saturday Review, 28 Jan., p. 119. ‘Don’t be angry; we’ve had
+    our breeze. Shake hands!’ [M.]
+
+
+Brekker, subs. (Oxford University).—Breakfast. [Formed by phonetically
+taking the first syllable of ‘breakfast’ + er, a species of slang
+formation, which originated at Harrow.]—See ‘Comparative and Historical
+Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.
+
+
+Brevet Hell, subs. (American).—A nickname for a battle, which
+originated during the Civil War. The meaning is obvious enough. The
+carnage and bloodshed of a battle-field is only a degree short of the
+horrors of the theological ‘hell.’ Compare with brevet-wife,
+brevet-rank.
+
+
+Brevet-Wife, subs. (general).—A woman who, without being married to a
+man, lives with him, takes his name, and enjoys all the privileges of a
+wife. A transferred figurative sense of the legitimate word.
+
+
+Brew, verb (Marlborough School).—To make afternoon tea. Almost always
+carried on in couples, but sometimes three boys brew together.
+
+
+Brewer’s Horse, subs. (old).—A drunkard. For synonyms, see Elbow
+crooker.
+
+
+Brewing, verbal subs. (Marlborough College).—The making of afternoon
+tea.—See Brew.
+
+
+Brian o’ Linn, subs. (rhyming slang).—Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+
+Briar, Brier, subs. (popular).—A colloquialism for ‘brier-wood pipe.’
+The Erica arborea or White Heath, a native of the Mediterranean
+littoral is largely used in the manufacture of pipes. [Cf., Fr. bruyère
+= ‘heath.’]
+
+    1882. Graphic, Dec. 16, p. 683, col. 2. Nowadays, every third man
+    you meet has a cigarette or a briar in his mouth.
+
+    1886. Harper’s Mag., 27 Dec. There is the ever-ready brier-root
+    pipe loaded with Caporal.
+
+
+Brick, subs. (popular).—A good fellow; one whose staunchness and
+loyalty commend him to his fellows—a highly eulogistic epithet for one
+man to apply to another. Said to be of University origin, the simile
+being drawn from the classics. A writer in Hallberger’s Illustrated
+Magazine [1878, p. 635], says the expression is logically deduced in
+the following amusing manner. A brick is ‘deep-red,’ so a ‘deep-read’
+man is a brick. The punning syllogism is carried further. To read like
+a brick is to read till you are deep-‘read’; a deep-read man is in
+University-phrase a ‘good man’; a good man is a jolly fellow with
+non-reading men, ergo a jolly fellow is a brick.
+
+It has, however, been pointed out that dedicatory columns of various
+forms have been found bearing Greek inscriptions, records of the great
+and virtuous. Some of these were circular and fluted pillars; but the
+Athenians are said to have dedicated square columns so inscribed, which
+gave rise to the style τετράγ = ωνος ἀνὴρ [see Aristotle, Eth., i.,
+10], one whose worth entitled him to honorary mention on some
+monumental stone of the form described. The anticipatory distinction
+might, therefore, be easily accorded to one worthy of such posthumous
+honours. From the meritorious notion of the rectangular stone or pillar
+we get the living type of genuine or supposititious worth—a regular
+brick. A further analogy may be drawn from the clayey basis of the
+brick, even in a state of combination with sand and ashes—those types
+of instability and decay—and we naturally acquire the notion of
+solidity, consistency, and strength. We are thus enabled to apply the
+above phrase to the child of clay, who may chance to resemble it in its
+constitution, whose moral materials and parts have been originally so
+carefully formed, so judiciously tempered and skilfully moulded, that,
+in spite of a frail and infirm nature, he has preserved his shape thus
+early given. The fiery test but determines his solidity; his sound,
+staunch, and unshrinking firmness, constitutes him a regular brick or
+hero, the attributes which especially qualify him for that metaphorical
+appellation. Cf., On the square; straight—true—clean as a die.
+
+    1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Brothers of Birchington). In brief
+    I don’t stick to declare, Father Dick, So they called him for
+    short, was a regular brick; A metaphor taken, I have not the page
+    aright, Out of an ethical work by the Stagyrite.
+
+    1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 10. ‘Mr. Fairlegh, let me
+    introduce this gentleman, Mr. George Lawless; he is, if he will
+    allow me to say so, one of the most rising young men of his
+    generation, one of the firmest props of the glorious edifice of our
+    rights and privileges.’ ‘A regular brick,’ interposed Coleman.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. ‘But the others are capital.
+    There is that little chap who has just had the measles—he’s a dear
+    little brick.’
+
+    1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 100. He voted E.’s new
+    crony a brick.
+
+    1876. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, ch. xvi. Their brothers’
+    friend, declared by Hans to be the salvation of him, a fellow like
+    nobody else, and, in fine, a brick.
+
+French Synonyms. Un bon gniasse (cads’ and thieves’); être d’un bon
+bouchon (to be a brick. Michel gives bouchon as ‘cadet’); un bon bougre
+(popular: Barrère says the word bougre is often used with a disparaging
+sense; bougre de cochon, ‘you dirty pig’; bougre de serin, ‘you ass.’
+Littré derives bougre from Bulgarus, Bulgarian; the heretic Albigeois,
+who shared the religious ideas of some of the Bulgarians, received the
+name of bougres); un zig, zigue, zigorneau, zigard, or zingo (popular:
+Michel gives zig as camarade, ‘a comrade’; in Italian zigno or petit
+lézard which latter (lézard) signifies in French argot, a ‘bad lot’).
+
+Verb (American).—To punish a man by bringing the knees close up to the
+chin, and lashing the arms tightly to the knees—a species of trussing.
+
+Like a brick—like bricks—(and in an intensive form) like a thousand of
+bricks, adv. phr. (common).— With energy; alacrity; thoroughly;
+vehemently and with much display. [Derived partly attributively from
+brick (q.v.), and partly in allusion to the crash of failing bricks.]
+There are numerous similes of a kindred character; e.g., Like beans;
+Like one o’clock; Like blazes, all of which see.
+
+    1835. Dickens, Sketches, p. 139. Bump they [cab and horse] cums
+    agin the post, and out flies the fare like bricks.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Ingoldsby Penance).
+
+        For the Friar to his skirts closely sticks,
+        ‘Running after him,’—so said the Abbot,—like bricks!
+
+    1860. New Orleans Picayune, April 27 (Police Report). ‘When it came
+    to the breakdown, Your Honor, he kicked up a row like a drove of
+    contrary mules, and when we wanted to turn him out, he fell upon us
+    like a thousand of bricks, and threatened to make minced meat of
+    the police and every one of us.’
+
+    1864. Western World, March 5. ‘When Mr. Nye had finished, Mr.
+    Stewart rose, and with his irresistible logic and impressive
+    language came down upon him like a thousand of bricks, till he was
+    utterly crushed and demolished.’
+
+Brick in the hat, phr. (American).—A drunken man is said to have a
+brick in his hat, the allusion being to top-heaviness and inability to
+preserve a steady gait.
+
+
+Brick-duster.—See Brickfielder.
+
+
+Brickdusts, subs. (military).—The Fifty-third Regiment of Foot, so
+nicknamed from its facings, which are scarlet. Another slang
+appellation is ‘The Old Five-and-Threepennies,’ from its number and the
+daily pay of an ensign.
+
+
+Brickfielder or Brickduster, subs. (Australian colloquial).—In Sydney
+the name given to a dust or sand-storm brought by southerly winds from
+sand hills locally known as the Brickfields—hence the name. Also called
+the buster or southerly burster.
+
+    18(?). Munday, Our Antipodes. In October, 1848, as I find by my
+    diary, I witnessed a fine instance of a nocturnal brickfielder.
+    Awakened by the roaring of the wind I arose and looked out. It was
+    bright moonlight, or it would have been bright but for the clouds
+    of dust, which, impelled by a perfect hurricane, curled up from the
+    earth, and absolutely muffled the fair face of the planet.
+    Pulverised specimens of every kind and colour of soil within two
+    miles of Sydney, flew past the house high over the chimney tops in
+    lurid whirl-winds, now white, now red. It had all the appearance of
+    an American prairie fire, barring the fire.
+
+    1853. Fraser’s Mag., XLVIII., 515. What the Sydney people call a
+    brickfielder.
+
+    1886. Cowan, Charcoal Sk. The buster and brickfielder: Austral
+    red-dust blizzard and red-hot simoon.
+
+
+Bricklayer, subs. (clerical).—A clergyman. [It has been hazarded that
+the term is a familiar corruption of Rubricklayer, to denote general
+character for Rubrical exactness—said of men who not only lay down
+Liturgical law, but obey it. With more propriety, however, may it be
+held as referring to the important part taken by the mediæval clergy in
+ecclesiastical architecture. Mr. Thomas Boys, in the course of an
+interesting article on the subject [N. and Q., 2 S., vii., 115], traces
+its historical derivation somewhat as follows:—It is well known how in
+former days the building of cathedrals and other sacred edifices was
+patronised and promoted both by the dignitaries and by the clergy
+generally; but it is not, perhaps, matter of equal notoriety that many
+chapters and collegiate bodies had a functionary called a workman
+(operarius), on whom devolved the charge of repairing and maintaining
+the sacred fabric, and who was often one of their own number. In fact,
+he was of the dignitaries of the church. ‘Operarius, Dignitas, in
+Collegiis Canonicorum, et Monasteriis, cui operibus publicis vacare
+incumbit’ (Carpenter). The office of this operarius or workman was
+called ‘operaria.’ ‘Operaria. Dignitas Operarii in collegiis
+canonicorum et monasteriis’ (ib.). In Spain, the clerical operarius was
+called by the corresponding Spanish name, obrero (a workman). ‘Obrero.
+Se llama tambien el que cuida de las obras, en las Iglesias o
+Comunidades, que en algunas Cathedrales es dignidad’ (Dicc. de la Ac.
+Esp.); i.e., in some cathedrals the office made the holder of it a
+dignitary. Salazar de Mendoza, in his ‘Cronica del Cardenal Don R. G.
+de Mendoça,’ tells us that, the Cardinal having conceded to the Chapter
+of the cathedral at Toledo, the administration of the building-fund,
+the Chapter in 1485, nominated as workman (obrero) the Canon Juan de
+Contreras (Lib. II., cap. 62, par. 2). May we not conjecture, then,
+that, if clergymen are now provincially called bricklayers, it is
+because their mediæval predecessors were, with a special reference to
+building, called ‘workmen’? Possibly, from the appointment of certain
+ecclesiastics in former days under the name of operarii or workmen, for
+the repair and maintenance of public edifices in the University of
+Oxford, the title of bricklayers may have passed, in course of time, to
+the neighbouring clergy of Oxon and Berks. The use of bricks, which
+ceased in this country after the decline of the Roman power, is stated
+by Hallam to have been reintroduced, probably from Flanders, in the
+early part of the fourteenth century.
+
+With perhaps equal propriety the term [bricklayer] is thought to refer
+to the οἰκοδομὴ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ (Eph. iv., 12), trusting that
+they, like St. Paul, are wise ‘master builders’; builders on the only
+true foundation, ‘which is Jesus Christ.’ Edify, edificare οἰκοδομεῖν
+have primary reference to houses built with hands, as well as to the
+spiritual one of building up the Church of Christ.]
+
+
+Bricklayer’s Clerk, subs. (nautical).—One of the hundred names given to
+a lubberly sailor.—W. Clark Russell. For synonyms, see Strawyarder, and
+Cf., Bail.
+
+
+Bricks, subs. (Wellington College).—A sort of pudding.
+
+
+Bridge, subs. (cards’).—A cheating trick at cards, by which any
+particular card is cut by previously curving it by the pressure of the
+hand. Used in France as well as in England, and termed in the Parisian
+Argot faire le pont sec, also couper dans le pont. The modus operandi
+of avoiding, or rather of neutralizing the cut, which is the very
+backbone of the card-sharper’s art, is somewhat difficult, and is
+generally performed by one of two methods, termed respectively the
+‘bridge’ and the ‘pass.’ In the former method the sharper, at the end
+of his shuffle—the cards being still held backs uppermost in the left
+hand—takes some twelve or fifteen of the underneath cards lengthwise
+between the thumb and first and second fingers of the right hand and
+throws them on the top of the pack, at the same time giving them a
+slight squeeze outwards which causes them to assume an imperceptible
+curve. When placed on the table to be cut, the pack will now, owing to
+this curve or ‘bridge,’ present in the middle a very slight gap almost
+invisible to the eye; and experience shows that the odds are twenty to
+one that the adversary will cut exactly at that very spot, thus taking
+off the twelve or fifteen cards thrown on the top and bringing the
+‘readied’ portion of the pack back to its original position.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 266. I got my
+    living by card-playing in the low lodging-houses ... I worked the
+    oracle; they were not up to it. I put the first and seconds on, and
+    the bridge too.
+
+    1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, I., p. 251. I’ve found out the way
+    that Yankee fellows does the king. It’s not the common bridge that
+    every body knows.
+
+    1866. Yates, Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto
+    been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die,
+    talking over a flat, or winning money of a greenhorn, was to have
+    its vent in launching a great City Company.
+
+Verb (old).—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. To bridge a person, or to throw him
+    over the bridge, is ... to deceive him by betraying the confidence
+    he has reposed in you.
+
+
+Bridle-Cull, subs. (old).—A highwayman. [From bridle + cull, a ‘man.’]
+A French equivalent is un garcon de campagne; also un grinche de
+cambrouse; aller au trimar or trimard, ‘to become a highwayman.’ Trimar
+= road or ‘toby.’
+
+    1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. I., ch. v. A booty of £10 looks
+    as great in the eye of a bridle-cull, and gives as much real
+    happiness to his fancy, as that of as many thousands to the
+    statesman.
+
+
+Bridport or Brydport Dagger, subs. (old).—The hangman’s rope. ‘To be
+stabbed with a Bridport Dagger’ signifies ‘to be hanged.’ For synonyms,
+see Horse’s nightcap, and Cf., Anodyne necklace.
+
+    1662. Fuller, Worthies, Dorset (I., 310). ‘Stab’d with a Brydport
+    dagger.’ That is, hang’d or executed at the Gallowes; the best, if
+    not the most, hemp (for the quantity of ground) growing about
+    Brydport.
+
+    1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, etc. (1811), p. 67. Stabbed with a
+    Brydport dagger. That is hanged. Great quantity of hemp is grown
+    about this town; and, on account of its superior qualities, Fuller
+    says there was an ancient statute, now disused, that the cables for
+    the royal navy should be made thereabouts.
+
+    1807. Southey, Espriella’s Letters, i., 35 (3 ed.). The
+    neighbourhood is so proverbially productive of hemp, that when a
+    man is hanged, they have a vulgar saying, that he has been stabbed
+    with a Bridport dagger.
+
+
+Brief, subs. (thieves’).—A ticket of any kind, whether railway pass,
+pawnbrokers’ duplicate, or ticket for a raffle; also a pocket book.
+Hence briefless (q.v.).
+
+    1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I took a brief
+    (ticket) to London Bridge.
+
+    1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18, p. 3, col. 2. His usual line of
+    business was ‘brief-snatching,’ i.e., hovering about the crowd that
+    surrounds a small bookmaker, and snatching from the hands of the
+    unwary the credential they with rash eagerness exhibit, and which
+    they desire to exchange with the man they have bet with for their
+    winnings.
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. They copped the briefs at the next
+    station, and he changed carriages.
+
+
+Briefless, adj. (common).—Ticketless.—See Brief.
+
+    1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 3. Following close at the heels
+    of Newman, I soon found myself within the Aquarium, all briefless
+    as I was, and without having been asked any questions.
+
+
+Briefs or Breefs, subs. (card-sharpers’).—Cards tampered with for the
+purpose of swindling.—See Bridge, Concaves, and Convexes, Longs, and
+Shorts, Reflectors, etc. [From the German briefe, which Baron Heinecken
+says was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm. Brief is also
+the synonym for a card in the German Rothwalsch dialect, and briefen is
+to play at cards.]
+
+    1529. [Edited by] Luther, Liber Vagatorum (1860), p. 47.
+    ‘Item—beware of the Joners (gamblers), who practice Beseflery with
+    the brief (cheating at cards), who deal falsely and cut one for the
+    other, cheat with Boglein and spies, pick one brief from the
+    ground, and another from a cupboard,’ etc.
+
+    1720. Old Book of Games, quoted by Hotten. ‘Take a pack of cards
+    and open them, then take out all the honours ... and cut a little
+    from the edges of the rest all alike, so as to make the honours
+    broader than the rest, so that when your adversary cuts to you, you
+    are certain of an honour. When you cut to your adversary cut at the
+    ends, and then it is a chance if you cut him an honour, because the
+    cards at the ends are all of a length. Thus you may make breefs
+    end-ways as well as side-ways.’
+
+
+Brief-Snatcher, subs. (thieves’).—Pocket-book thieves. [From brief
+(q.v., sense 1), slang term for a pocket-book, + snatcher.]
+
+
+Brigh, subs. (thieves’).—A pocket.
+
+    1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. Having a new suit of
+    clobber on me, and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).
+
+Some English Synonyms are:—Cly, skyrocket.
+
+French Synonyms are une grande; une profonde, parfonde or prophête
+(thieves’: literally deep; also used for ‘cave’ or ‘cellar’); une
+fouillouse (thieves’: this term is an old one. Fouille = a ‘digging’ or
+excavation. There are various forms—foulle, felouse, filoche); une
+gueularde (thieves’: gueulard = wallet in slang, but properly signifies
+a stove); une baguenaude (thieves’ and cads’: properly ‘a
+bladder-nut’); une balade or ballade; une valade (thieves’: from
+avaler, to swallow up); une fondrière (thieves’); un four banal
+(thieves’: either used to signify a ‘pocket,’ a ‘false pocket,’ or an
+‘omnibus’); une sonde (literally sonde = probe).
+
+
+Bright in the Eye, subs. (common).—Slightly tipsy. [An allusion to the
+sparkling appearance of the eyes at an early stage of intoxication;
+subsequently they become dull and sleepy.] For synonyms, see Screwed.
+
+
+Brighton Tipper, subs.—A peculiar kind of ale.—See quotation.
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 347. Requiring ... a pint
+    of the celebrated staggering ale, or Real Old Brighton Tipper, at
+    supper. Ibid, p. 447. If they draws the Brighton Tipper here, I
+    takes that ale at night, my love.
+
+
+Brim, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. [A contraction of brimstone (q.v.)]
+For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
+
+    1730–6. Bailey. Brim [q. a contraction of Brimstone], a common
+    strumpet. [M.]
+
+    1764. T. Brydges, Homer Travest. (1797), i., 173. Can mortal
+    scoundrels thee [Hera] perplex, And the great brim of brimstones
+    vex?
+
+    1808. Jamieson. Brim, a cant term for a trull.—Loth.
+
+2. (common).—Nowadays the term signifies an angry, violent woman, or a
+termagant, without reference to moral character. An equivalent French
+term is une chipie. Cf., Brimstone.
+
+    1799. Whim of the Day. She raved, she abused me, and splenetic was;
+    She’s a vixen, she’s a brim, zounds! She’s all that is bad.
+
+
+Brimstone, subs. (old).—1. A violent tempered woman; a virago; a
+spitfire. [A reference to the inflammable character of the mineral.]
+
+    1712. Bp. Burnet, in Walpole’s Reminiscences (1819), p. 75. ‘Oh,
+    madam,’ said the bishop, ‘do not you know what a brimstone of a
+    wife he had?’
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. vi. ‘She is ... not a
+    brimstone, like Kate Koddle, of Chatham.’
+
+    1760. C. Johnston, Chrysal, II., 190. I hate the law damnably ever
+    since I lost a year’s pay for hindering our boatswain’s mate’s
+    brother from beating his wife. The brimstone swore I beat her
+    husband, and so I paid for meddling.
+
+    1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxiii. Who seemed, too, to
+    have a temper of her own, and promised, under circumstances, to
+    turn out a bit of a b—mst—ne.
+
+2. (old.)—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
+
+    1785. Grose. Brim (abbreviation of brimstone), an abandoned woman;
+    perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared
+    to brimstone for its inflammability.
+
+
+Briney or Briny, subs. (popular).—The sea. A ‘dip in the briney’ once a
+year is a great attraction to Cockney excursionists. Hotten tells a
+story of one excursionist saying to another, as they stripped in a
+double machine, ‘Why, ’Arry what dirty feet you’ve got!’ ‘’Ave I; well
+yer see I wasn’t down last year.’ [From the adj. signifying, ‘of or
+pertaining to brine or the sea.’]
+
+    1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. xiv. The luckless plight
+    in which a stout gentleman had found himself, by the temporary loss
+    of all his apparel, while he was disporting in the briny.
+
+    1881. Punch, Jan. 15, p. 14. Grigsby. Hullo, my Jellaby, you here!
+    Come and take a dip in the briny, old man. I’m sure you look as if
+    you wanted it. Postlethwaite. Thanks, no. I never bathe. I always
+    see myself so dreadfully foreshortened in the Water, you know!
+
+    1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Next day bathing, returning from
+    which we beheld a curious sight, three nymphs carrying down to the
+    strand a bath in which one of them was, apparently with a curious
+    mistrust of the sea, going to try the briny.
+
+English Synonyms. Herring pond; big pond; big drink; the puddle; Davy’s
+locker.
+
+French Synonyms. La grande tasse (familiar: properly ‘the big cup.’
+Boire dans la grande tasse, ‘to be drowned’); la grande bleue (popular:
+the great blue—an allusion to the colour of deep sea water); le grand
+salé (popular: literally ‘the great salt’); le pré salé (popular:
+properly the salted or briny meadow.)
+
+
+Bring Down the House, verbal phr. (general).—To elicit loud applause;
+and, still more figuratively, to be successful. [The figure of speech
+is that demonstrative applause will cause the walls to give way. Cf.,
+To raise the roof off.]
+
+    1754. World, II., No. 76, 125. His apprehension that your statues
+    will bring the house down.
+
+    1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
+    Green, II., p. 23. Why, it would surpass the British sailor’s
+    broadsword combat for six, and bring down the house.
+
+    1872. Forster, Life of Charles Dickens, ch. xliv. (IV., p. 252).
+    ‘And give us your applause, for that is always just’! which brought
+    down the house with rapture.
+
+    1877. Mrs. Riddell, Her Mother’s Darling, II., p. 61 (ch. xii). I
+    do not fancy she would ever forgive any of us if Honie were to
+    bring down the house at Elm Vale.
+
+    1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 3. But Samson’s crowning feat of
+    all was to break with his fist two steel chains, suspended from a
+    couple of posts. This fairly brought down the house.
+
+
+Brisket-Beater, subs. (old).—A Roman Catholic. Cf., Breast fleet and
+Craw-thumper, synonymous terms. Quoted by Grose [1785].
+
+
+Bristles or Bristle Dice, subs. (old).—A method of ‘cogging’ dice by
+inserting bristles into them, and thus influencing the position of the
+cubes when ‘thrown.’
+
+    1532. Dice Play (1050), 28. Bristle dice, be now too gross a
+    practice to be put in use. [M.]
+
+    1680. Cotton, in Singer Hist. Cards, 335. This they do by false
+    dice, as ... By bristle-dice. [M.]
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. ‘Men talk of high and
+    low dice, Fulhams and bristles ... and a hundred ways of rooking
+    besides.’
+
+
+Bristol Milk, subs. (old).—Sherry. [An allusion to sherry being
+formerly a large import of the city of Bristol.] For synonyms, see
+Drinks.
+
+    1644. Prynne and Walker, Fiennes’ Trial, 78. Good store of Bristol
+    milk, strong wines and waters. [M.]
+
+    1662. Fuller, Worthies, Bristol. ‘Bristol milk’; this metaphorical
+    milk, whereby Xeres or Sherry Sack is intended.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bristol milk, a
+    Spanish wine called sherry, much drank at that place, particularly
+    in the morning.
+
+    1849–61. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I., iii. A rich beverage made of the
+    best Spanish wine, and celebrated ... as Bristol milk.
+
+
+Broach Claret, verbal phr. (pugilistic).—To draw blood.—See, however,
+Claret.
+
+
+Broad and Shallow, phr. (popular).—An epithet applied to the so-called
+‘Broad Church,’ in contradistinction to the ‘High’ and ‘Low’
+Churches.—See High and dry.
+
+    1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. In the Church have we not the
+    three schools of High and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?
+
+
+Broadbottoms, subs. (political).—A nickname given to two Coalition
+Governments, one in the last century [1741], and the other in 1807.—See
+quots.
+
+A pamphlet dated April 18, 1807, has reference to the latter. Its full
+title is:—‘The pigs possessed, or the broadbottom’d litter running
+headlong into the Sea of Perdition.’ The characters are George III., as
+the British farmer; Lords Sidmouth, Ellenborough, Howick (‘Test Act’);
+Mr. Windham; Lords Holland, Walpole, Carlisle St. Vincent; Earls Temple
+(‘Last Stake’), Grenville (‘Catholic Bill’), and of Derby; Lords
+Erskine, Lauderdale (a Scotch pig), H. Petty, and Moira; the Duke of
+Bedford, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, marked ‘Erin go Bragh’;
+Earl Spencer, Marquis of Buckingham (‘Family’), R. B. Sheridan
+(Harlequin), Courtney, Tierney, and Whitbread (‘Entire’). Courtney is
+placed in profile between Ellenborough and Sidmouth. He was an intimate
+friend of Fox. This is said to be the only portrait of him. The print
+is a supplement to another styled ‘More Pigs than Teats.’ The pigs
+represent the Ministers described commonly by the phrase ‘All the
+Talents,’ or the ‘Broad-Bottoms’ who were succeeded, April, 1807, by
+the Duke of Portland and his supporters. The former are not to be
+confounded with an earlier ‘Broad-Bottom’ Administration. The latter
+was commemorated in the satirical inscription for Fox’s tomb, Hic jacet
+Pater Broad-Bottomos.
+
+    1742. Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1833), No. 22, Feb. 18, vol. I., p.
+    106. The Tories declare against any farther prosecution—if Tories
+    there are, for now one heard of nothing but the broad-bottom; it is
+    the reigning cant word, and means, the taking all parties and
+    people, indifferently, into the ministry.
+
+    1843. Macaulay, Historical Essays, II., p. 244. The Pelhams had
+    forced the King, much against his will, to part with Lord
+    Carteret.... They proceeded, after this victory, to form the
+    Government on that basis, called by the cant name of the
+    ‘broad-bottom.’
+
+    1863. Jeaffreson, Live It Down, I., p. 249. The star of Granville
+    is falling, that of Pelham is in the ascendant; and the great
+    coalition on ‘The Br. B.’ is managing the affairs of the State.
+
+    1871. Miss Braddon, Robert Ainsleigh, I., p. 37. A scathing reply
+    from the polished chief of the famous Br. B. Administration.
+
+    1887. Pol. Slang, in Cornhill Mag., June, p. 628. A Coalition
+    Government in the last century was known by the apt nickname of the
+    ‘Broad Bottom.’
+
+
+Broadbrim, subs. (common).—A Quaker. [The origin of this expression is
+to be found in the hat once peculiar to the ‘Society of Friends.’
+Hotten says the epithet is now used of any quiet, sedate, old man.]
+
+    1712. Spectator, No. 276. [Broad-brim is used as the name of a
+    Quaker correspondent.]
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VII., ch. x. This the Quaker had
+    observed, and this, added to the rest of his behaviour, inspired
+    honest broad-brim with a conceit that his companion was, in
+    reality, out of his senses.
+
+    1864. Reader (quoted in Notes and Queries, 5 S., ix., p. 263).
+    Broadbrim, a Quaker. This word clearly owes its origin to the
+    peculiar hat worn by the Society of Friends.
+
+    1876. Jas. Grant, One of the Six Hundred, ch. i. The sly
+    broad-brim, and popularity-hunters of the Peace Society sent a
+    deputation to the Emperor Nicholas.
+
+
+Broad-Cooper, subs. (brewers’).—A person employed by brewers to
+negotiate with publicans.
+
+
+Broad Coves, subs. (old).—Card-sharpers. [From broads (q.v.), cards, +
+cove (q.v.), a man.] The modern term for swindling at cards is broad
+faking (q.v.). A French equivalent is un brêmeur. For synonyms, see
+Rook.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5.
+
+        Your swell broad coves, with all their airs
+        Can’t match the kids near Wapping stairs,
+          They are so down and knowing;
+        Of lowest life you’ll see the best,
+        At Maces’s, All-max, in the East;
+          So let’s at once be going:
+        Come, toddle along, toddle along, etc.
+
+
+Broad-Faking, subs. (card-sharpers’).—Playing at cards. Generally used,
+however, to denote ‘work’ of the three card and kindred descriptions.
+
+
+Broad-Fencer, subs. (thieves’).—A ‘k’rect card’ seller at races. [From
+broad (q.v.), a card, + fence or fencer, a ‘tradesman.’]
+
+
+Broads, subs. (general).—Playing cards.—See Stock broads.
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually
+    looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is
+    cards.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Broads, cards; a person expert at
+    which is said to be a good broad-player.
+
+    1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, IV., ii. I nick the broads.
+
+    1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 262. He ... became
+    one of a gang who practised with the broads card-sharping and the
+    ‘confidence trick.’
+
+
+Broadsman, subs. (common).—A card-sharper. [From broads = cards + man.]
+Formerly called broad cove (q.v.). For synonyms, see Rook.
+
+    1879. J. W. Horsley, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macm. Mag.,
+    XL., 502. Broadsmen (card-sharpers).
+
+    1888. G. R. Sims, in Cass. Sat. Journal, 31 March, p. 7. The
+    broadsman is a card-sharper.
+
+
+Broady, subs. (common).—1. Cloth. [A corruption of broad-cloth.]
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 54. Gentlemen
+    finding their own broady can be accommodated.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, August 7, p. 6, col. 2. The prospectus
+    further intimated that ... gentlemen ‘finding their own broady ...
+    could be accommodated.’
+
+2. (thieves’.)—Anything worth stealing.—See Broady worker.
+
+
+Broady Worker, subs. (thieves’).—A man who goes round selling vile
+shoddy stuff under the pretence that it is excellent material, which
+has been ‘got on the cross,’ i.e., stolen.
+
+
+Brock, verb (Winchester College).—To bully; to tease; to badger. [Brock
+is a north country and Hampshire name for a badger.] In French military
+schools this is called faire une brimade or faire brimer.
+
+
+Brockster, subs. (Winchester College).—A bully.—See Brock.
+
+
+Brogues, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—Breeches. This is, in reality, an
+obsolete old English term which has survived among the ‘Blues.’
+
+
+Broiled or Boiled Crow. To eat boiled crow.—A newspaper editor, who is
+obliged by his ‘party’ or other outside influences, to advocate
+‘principles’ different from those which he supported a short time
+before, is said to ‘eat boiled crow.’ Originally the phrase was simply
+to eat crow, and the following account is that currently accepted as to
+its derivation.
+
+    1888. Atlanta Constitution. During the unpleasantness between the
+    States and England, there were located on opposite sides of the
+    Niagara river a British and an American fort, and during an
+    armistice the soldiers of both garrisons were accustomed to go
+    hunting. Among the American troops was one long, lank, stuttering
+    specimen of the genus Yankee, who would persist, in spite of orders
+    to the contrary, in going across the river on his hunting
+    expeditions. One day when on the Canada side he had had poor luck
+    and got nothing, but resolved not to go back entirely empty handed.
+    While passing through the grounds of an English gentleman, he spied
+    a crow, and, blazing away, brought it down. The Englishman had
+    witnessed the shot and resolved to punish the offender for poaching
+    on his private grounds. As the Yankee was loading his gun he
+    approached, and, complimenting him on his good shot, asked to look
+    at his gun. The unsuspecting Yankee handed it to him, and the
+    Briton, bringing the gun to his shoulder and covering the Yankee,
+    abused him for trespassing on his grounds, and ordered him, on pain
+    of death, to take a bite out of the crow. The soldier begged and
+    pleaded, but to no avail. The Englishman had the drop on him, so he
+    finally bit a piece from the breast of the crow. The Englishman,
+    after warning him to keep off his premises in the future, handed
+    him back his gun and bade him clear out. No sooner was his rifle
+    returned than he covered the Briton and ordered him to finish the
+    crow. Then it was the Englishman’s turn to beg off, but the Yankee
+    was firm, and the Englishman, with many a wry face, did succeed in
+    downing several bites of the unsavoury bird. His wounded honour
+    being appeased, the Yankee betook himself back to the fort. The
+    Englishman the next day went to the American commander and told his
+    version of the affair, and demanded that the culprit be punished.
+    From the description given, the American officer knew that the
+    offender must have been the stuttering soldier, and ordered him to
+    be brought before them. When he came in the captain asked him if he
+    had ever seen the gentleman before. The Yankee shifted uneasily
+    from one foot to the other, and, after several attempts, finally
+    answered that he had. ‘When and under what circumstances?’ asked
+    the officer. ‘I d-dined with him y-y-yesterday, captin,’ stuttered
+    the soldier. The story goes that his wit saved the soldier from
+    punishment.
+
+
+Broke. Dead broke (q.v.)—Stone broke (q.v.), adj. (common).—Ruined;
+decayed; hard up—said of health or pecuniary circumstances. The French
+slang has n’avoir pas un radis, literally ‘not to have a radish’; but
+for all synonyms, see Dead-broke.
+
+    1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 16. ‘How do you do when
+    you’re stone broke?’ I ask him. ‘Well, sir, sometimes I comes
+    across a gentleman as gives me a bob and starts me again.’
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Aug. 14. I see that Sullivan made 21,000
+    dols. out of his fight, but as he was ‘dead broke’ before the
+    battle, there won’t be much of it left. Nevertheless, Sullivan has
+    received hundreds of begging letters from folks who want him to pay
+    off mortgages on their homes or buy them houses and lots and things
+    of that sort.
+
+
+Broken Feather in One’s Wing, subs. phr. (popular).—A blot on one’s
+character.
+
+    1880. Mrs. Oliphant, Phœbe, jun., ii., 6. If an angel were to walk
+    about, Mrs. Sam Hurst would never rest till she had found out where
+    he came from. And perhaps whether he had a broken feather in his
+    wing.
+
+
+Broken-Kneed, ppl. adj. (common).—Said of a girl or woman who has been
+seduced. Cf., Ankle and Broken legged; for synonyms, see Dock and Leg.
+In French theatrical slang, avoir mal aux genoux.
+
+
+Broken Legged, ppl. adj. (common).—Seduced.—See Dock and Leg for
+synonyms.
+
+
+Brolly, subs. (general).—An umbrella. Term first used at Winchester,
+being subsequently adopted at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
+
+    1885. Punch, June 6, p. 273. Pair o’ pattens and brolly are more in
+    your line.
+
+
+Broncho, adj. (American).—Unruly; wild; savage. The epithet is derived
+from broncho, the name of the native horse of California, a somewhat
+tricky and uncertain quadruped. The term is familiarly applied to
+horses that buck and show other signs of vice. The Spanish
+signification of the word is rough and crabbed little beast, and in
+truth he deserves this name.
+
+    1888. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. Oh! I don’t know. He’d been
+    singing the music to ‘em’ (imitating them). Sam’s too broncho.
+
+
+Broncho-Buster, subs. (American).—A breaker-in of bronchos; also called
+a flash-rider. [From broncho (q.v.) + bust, in its slang sense of
+annihilate, or overcome, + er.] These men make a profession of their
+business and perform really marvellous feats, riding with ease the most
+vicious and unbroken beasts that no ordinary rider would dare tackle. A
+favourite feat is to sit out the antics of a bucking-horse with silver
+half-dollars under each knee or in the stirrups under each foot. Their
+method of breaking-in may be described as the exercise of main force,
+it being a tussle as to which can hold out the longest, man or broncho.
+The calling is a dangerous one, and a first-class broncho-buster can
+always command high wages and constant employment on large ranches.
+
+
+Bronze John, subs. (American).—Texas name for yellow fever; Englishmen
+commonly call it yellow Jack (q.v.)
+
+
+Broom, subs. (old).—1. See quot.
+
+    1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. ‘The people got rusty about
+    it, and would not deal, and they had bought so many brooms that——’
+    Ibid, ch. xxxiii. (II., p. 96). What are you wanting here? Ye’ll be
+    come wi’ a broom in your pocket frae Ellengowan? Got so many
+    warrants out.
+
+2. (harlotry.)—The female pudenda. The male penis is the broomstick.
+For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
+
+Verb (old).—To run away. For synonyms, see Amputate.
+
+    1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 6. Tom. That will do—now then
+    Dicky, mizzle!—be scarce!—broom! Prime. Wouldn’t intrude a moment,
+    gentlemen, good morning—order my carriage.
+
+
+Broomstick, subs. (athletic).—A sort of rough cricket bat, very narrow
+in the blade and all of one piece of wood.
+
+To jump the broomstick—hop the broom—jump the besom, phr. (common).—To
+live as man and wife without the legal tie. The allusion is to a quasi
+marriage ceremony performed by both parties jumping over a broomstick.
+
+    1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, ii., 3. Jump o’er a broomstick, but
+    don’t make a farce on The marriage ceremonies of the parson.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor I., p. 336. The old
+    woman (who kept the ken), when any female, old or young, who had no
+    tin, came into the kitchen, made up a match for her with some men.
+    Fellows half-drunk had the old women. There was always a broomstick
+    wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man
+    and wife.
+
+    1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xlviii., p. 227. ‘They both
+    led tramping lives, and this woman in Gerrard St. here, had been
+    married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping
+    man, and was a perfect fury in point of jealousy.’
+
+    c. 18(79). Broadside Ballad, ‘David Dove that fell in love.’ By L.
+    M. Thornton.
+
+        The girl that I had hoped to hear
+          Pronounce my happy doom, sir,
+        Had bolted with a carpenter,
+          In fact hopped o’er the broom, sir.
+
+
+Broomsticks, subs. (old).—Worthless bail. For synonyms, see Straw bail
+and Cf., Bail.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Queer bail are persons of no
+    repute, hired to bail a prisoner in any bailable case. These men
+    are to be had in London for a trifling sum, and are called
+    broomsticks.
+
+
+Brosier or Brozier, subs. (Eton College).—A boy when he had spent all
+his pocket-money. [Brozier is a Cheshire term for a bankrupt.] A French
+term for a bankrupt is un déculotté, i.e., one unbreeched; also un
+bauce or bausse fondu.
+
+Broziered, ppl. adj.—Cleaned out; done up; ruined; bankrupt.
+
+    1796. Merton, Way to get Married (in Inchbald’s ‘British Theatre,’
+    vol. XXVI). [The term is so used here].
+
+Brozier-my-dame, verbal phr. (Eton College).—Eating one out of house
+and home. At Eton, when a dame (q.v.) keeps an unusually bad table, the
+boys agree together on a day to eat, pocket, or waste everything
+eatable in the house. The censure is well understood, and the hint is
+generally effective.
+
+    1850. Notes and Queries, June 15, p. 44. I well remember the phrase
+    brozier-my-dame, signifying to eat her out of house and home.
+
+    1888. Rev. W. Rogers, Reminiscences, p. 15. Etonians of my standing
+    will remember John Francis Plumptre, one of the Fellows ... I once
+    behaved very shabbily to him, for I joined a conspiracy to
+    ‘brozier’ him. There were ten or twelve of us [at breakfast], and
+    we devoured everything within reach.
+
+
+Brother-Blade, subs. (old).—A soldier. Formerly brother of the blade,
+i.e., of the sword; a fellow-soldier. For synonyms, see Mudcrusher.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brother of the blade,
+    a soldier.
+
+    1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. ii. ‘I heard some
+    devilish good stories of you at D’Osyndar’s t’other day; the fellow
+    who told them to me little thought I was a brother blade.’
+
+
+Brother Chip (provincial workmen’s).—One of the same calling or trade;
+formerly a fellow carpenter.
+
+    1820. Clare, Poems of Rural Life, Familiar Epistle, st. 3. And,
+    brother chip, I love ye dearly, poor as ye be!
+
+
+Brother of the Brush, subs. phr. (old).—An artist; a house-painter.
+
+    1687. Bp. Cartwright, in Hist. Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 143.
+    Pray make use of my brother of the brush. [M.]
+
+    1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1793), I., 133. The honourable devices
+    which the Pentagraphic bretheren of the brush have shewn in taking
+    copies. [M.]
+
+    1833. Byron, wks. (1846), p. 585, col. 1. A young American brother
+    of the brush. [M.]
+
+
+Brother of the Bung, subs. phr. (old).—A brewer; one of the same trade.
+[Bung here is used as an emblem of the trade of a brewer.]
+
+
+Brother of the Buskin, subs. phr. (old).—A player; actor—one of the
+same profession. [Buskin is in allusion to the covering for the foot
+and leg (cothurnus) worn by actors in tragedy among the ancients; in
+contrast to the sock (soccus) worn by comedians. Stage buskins had very
+thick soles to give an appearance of height. Hence buskin as symbolical
+of tragedy, but used in the phrase brother of the buskin in a
+transferred and general sense.] Quoted by Grose [1785]. Cf.,
+Barn-stormer and Booth-burster.
+
+
+Brother of the Coif, subs. (old).—A serjeant-at-law. [The coif was a
+close-fitting cap worn by the serjeants-at-law—hence the term.] Quoted
+by Grose [1785].
+
+
+Brother of the Gusset, subs. (old).—A pimp or ponce (q.v.). For
+synonyms, see Bully.
+
+
+Brother of the Quill, subs. phr. (old).—An author. [Quill = pen.] For
+synonyms, see Ink-slinger.
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Brother of the quill, an
+    author, one of the same profession.
+
+
+Brother of the String, subs. phr. (old).—A fiddler. [A reference to the
+violin or fiddle as a stringed instrument.]
+
+
+Brother of the Whip, subs. phr. (old).—A coachman, the whip being
+taken, as it were, as an insignia of office.
+
+    1756. The World, No. 207. He ... had always greased my heels
+    himself, and upon every one of my birthdays, had treated all his
+    brother whips at his own expence.
+
+    1849. T. Miller, in Gabarni in London, p. 39. He is very kind to
+    any poor brother of the whip whom he sees tugging up-hill in vain,
+    with a weighty load and an ill-fed team.
+
+
+Brother-Smut, subs. phr. (popular).—A term of familiarity. ‘Ditto,
+brother or sister smut,’ tu quoque.
+
+
+Brother Starlings, subs. (old).—Men who cohabit with the same mistress.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brother Starling ...
+    one who ... builds in the same nest.
+
+
+Broth of a Boy, subs. phr. (Irish originally, but now common).—A jolly
+good fellow. Cf., Brick. [The term is thought to originate from the
+Irish Broth, passion—Brotha, passionate, spirited—its meaning being,
+‘He’s a lad of spirit,’ though it may come from the ancient Cornish
+name for the mastiff—brath. Hence a broth of a boy would then mean ‘a
+stout dog of a boy—robust.’]
+
+    1819–24. Byron, Don Juan, c. viii., st. 24. But Juan was quite a
+    broth of a boy, a thing of impulse and a child of song.
+
+    1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, ch. xx. You ought to have
+    been a preacher and a boy. Faith, and a broth of a boy, and a broth
+    of a preacher you’d have made.
+
+
+Broughtonian, subs. (old).—A bruiser; boxer; pugilist. [From Broughton,
+once the best boxer of his day.]
+
+
+Brown, subs. (common).—1. A halfpenny. [Probably an allusion to the
+colour of the coin in question.] For synonyms of money generally, see
+Actual.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Browns and whistlers, bad halfpence
+    and farthings.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. Bob. Now then
+    for the stumpy. (Searching about in his pockets for the money.) My
+    tanners are like young colts; I’m obliged to hunt ’em into a
+    corner, afore I can get hold on ’em—there!—hand us over three
+    browns out of that ’ere tizzy; and tip us the heavy. (Landlord
+    receives money, and delivers porter.)
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Black Mousquetaire).
+
+        The magic effect of a hand of crowns
+        Upon people whose pockets boast nothing but browns.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 57. If I
+    takes a hat round, they has a plate, and they gets sovereigns where
+    we has only browns. Ibid. We keeps it up for half an hour or an
+    hour ... if the browns tumble in well.
+
+    1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. iv. A shower of browns, the
+    coppers mingled with silver, from our private box, rewards their
+    exertions.
+
+    c. 1884. Broadside Ballad, ‘Jimmy Johnson’s Holiday.’
+
+        But Violet, the Margate pet,
+          Who always call’d him Teaser,
+        Said ‘She would stick like mortar’d brick,
+          While Johnson had a brown.’
+
+2. (old.)—Porter. [Qy. an abbreviation of ‘Brown Stout.’]
+
+    1820. Glossary at end of Corcoran’s The Fancy. Brown, porter; heavy
+    brown, stout.
+
+Verb.—1. A variant of ‘to do brown,’ i.e., to do to perfection; to get
+the better of. [The simile is obviously taken from the browning process
+which meat undergoes during roasting.]—See Do brown.
+
+2. To understand; comprehend.
+
+To do brown, verbal phr. (common).—To do well; also ‘to take in’;
+deceive; to exceed bounds. Cf., Brown, verb, sense 1. French
+equivalents for ‘to allow oneself to be done brown’ are godancer and
+être flouè.—See second quotation for variation in usage.
+
+    a. 1600. John Bon, 162 in Hazl. E. P. P., iv., 16. Ha! browne done.
+    [M.]
+
+    1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 5. ‘Those who consider
+    themselves brown to every move upon the board’ of actual life.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (The Execution). ‘Why, they’d laugh at and quiz
+    us all over the town, We are all of us done so uncommonly brown!’
+
+    1854. Harper’s Monthly, January.
+
+        ‘And some of the greenhorns
+          Resolved upon flight,
+        And vamosed the ranch
+          In a desperate plight;
+        While those who succeeded
+          In reaching the town,
+        Confessed they were done,
+          Most exceedingly brown.’
+
+    1861. Times (on American affairs).
+
+        John Bull, slyly winkin’, then said unto he:
+        ‘My dear Times, my old covey, go pitch into he;
+        Let us wallop great Doodle now when he is down;
+        If we wallops him well, we will do him up brown.’
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 267. I was
+    once done myself with some pigs—I! and done brown too, and at a
+    time when I ought to have known better.
+
+
+Brown Bess, subs. (rhyming slang).—1. Yes.
+
+2. (military.)—The old regulation musket. Considerable discussion has
+taken place over the origin of this term. It first appears in Grose
+[1785], but the term ‘brown musquet’ occurs at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century [1708]. The following suggested derivation appeared
+in N. and Q. [2 S., v., p. 259]. Brown Bess, in its primary meaning, is
+equivalent to brown barrel. Bus, in Dutch is the barrel of a gun; in
+Low Germ. büsse, in Swed. byssa. Hence our English Bess as applied to a
+gun-barrel. (Conf. in Med. Latin—bus-bas fragor scloporum et
+certaminis.) The Dutch bus appears often in composition. Hand-bus, a
+pistol; literally a hand-barrel. Bus-schieter, a gunner; literally a
+barrel-shooter. We have the Dutch bus (a barrel) in three English names
+of fire-arms: namely arquebuse, obus, blunderbuss. At the first of
+these three, arquebuse, we must look a little more closely would we
+trace the term brown Bess to its primæval source. The most formidable
+of cross-bows before fire-arms came into general use, was one which
+shot a ball or pellet from a barrel. Specimens may yet be seen. Now
+this was the original arquebuse (i.e., arc-bus, or arc-et-bus, bow and
+barrel). In process of time as gunpowder came into use, the arc
+disappeared, and the buss or barrel remained. Hence arquebuse, though
+it properly implies a bow fitted with a tube or barrel, came into use
+as the old appellation of a soldier’s firelock. And hence the name of
+Bess (bus, büsse or byssa), which the musket has borne more recently.
+Bess or bus is the last syllable of the old arquebuse or harquebus cut
+off for separate use, just as in the more recent instance of bus from
+omnibus. The barrels of firelocks were sometimes browned. Sometimes,
+however, they were required to be kept bright. Could we ascertain who
+first in mercy ordained the browning of the barrel, we might have some
+prospect of ascertaining the first introduction of the term brown Bess.
+Doubtless it was some hero of the fight, not of the field-day. For a
+further illustration of the term brown Bess, it may be proper to remark
+that in Northumberland, according to Halliwell, a gun is known by the
+not very elegant title of black-bitch. Now like bus in Dutch, büchse is
+in German a gun-barrel. (‘Büchse, 2, ein eisernes Rohr zum schiessen,’
+an iron tube for shooting.) May we not infer, therefore, that
+black-bitch was originally ‘black büchse,’ i.e., black barrel, in
+conformity with brown barrel or brown Bess? ‘Formerly,’ says Zedler,
+‘and before the invention of gunpowder, arquebuse signified a bow with
+a barrel’ (Bogen Büchse), which is the literal meaning of the word.
+Hotten, however, says it is much more likely that the phrase is derived
+from the fact that ‘the soldier is wedded to his weapon,’ and some
+colour is given to this alternative derivation by the fact that the
+Dutch soldier, mindful of all the care he has to bestow upon his gun,
+calls it his wife—mijn geweer is mijn vrouw. French soldiers call their
+weapon la clarinette de cinq pieds.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brown Bess, a
+    soldier’s firelock.
+
+    1820. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Tour II., ch. ii.
+
+        Religion Jack did never profess,
+        Till he had shoulder’d old Brown Bess.
+
+    1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xi. The British soldier,
+    with his clothing and accoutrements, ...—not to mention brown Bess,
+    his mainstay and dependence—nothing punishes him so much as wet.
+
+    1877. Chambers’ Journal, No. 720. Such may have been the case in
+    the days of brown Bess, but a spinning conical ball from the
+    Martini-Henry will pierce the largest crocodile.
+
+3. (old.)—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
+
+    1631. Dore, Polydorun. Things proffered and easie to come by
+    diminish themselves in reputation and price, for how full of pangs
+    and dotage is a wayling lover, for it may be some brown Bessie.
+
+To hug brown Bess, verbal phr. (old).—To serve as a private soldier.
+
+
+Brown George, subs. (old).—1. Explained by quotations.
+
+    1837. Barham, Ingoldsby L., 3 S. ‘Jerry Jarvis’s Wig.’ He looked
+    disdainfully at the wig; it had once been a comely jasey enough, of
+    the colour of over-baked ginger-bread, one of the description
+    commonly known during the latter half of the last century by the
+    name of a brown George.
+
+    1882. Globe, 24 July, p. 2, col. 1. The King [George III.] wore a
+    brown wig ... known popularly a century ago as brown George.
+
+2. (common.)—A jug; generally of brown earthenware. Cf., Black-jack.
+
+    1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxiv. He ... stood behind
+    his oak, holding his brown George, or huge earthenware receptacle,
+    half full of dirty water, in which his bedmaker had been washing up
+    his tea-things.
+
+    1881. Besant and Rice, Chap. of the Fleet, pt. II., ch. iii. His
+    country brother might have been seen at the Crown, over a pipe and
+    a brown George full of strong October.
+
+3. (old.)—A coarse brown loaf; or hard biscuit.
+
+    1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. IV. Author’s Prologue. The devil of
+    one musty crust of a brown George the poor boys had to scour their
+    grinders with.
+
+    1693. Dryden, Persius, V., 215.
+
+        Cubb’d in a cabin, on a mattrass laid,
+        On a brown George, with lousy swabbers fed.
+
+
+Brownie, subs. (nautical).—The polar bear.
+
+
+Brown Janet, subs. (nautical).—A knapsack.
+
+
+Brown Joe, intj. (rhyming slang).—No. Cf., Brown Bess for ‘yes.’
+
+
+Brown-Papermen, subs. (thieves’).—Low gamblers.—See quot.
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 502. ‘But
+    the Little Nick is what we call only ‘brown papermen,’ low
+    gamblers—playing for pence, and 1s. being a great go.’
+
+
+Brown Stone, subs. (American thieves’).—Beer. For synonyms, see Swipes.
+
+
+Brown Talk, subs. (common).—Conversation of an exceedingly ‘proper’
+character, Quakerish. Compare blue.
+
+
+Browse, verb (Marlborough and Royal Military Academy).—To idle; loll;
+take things easy. [A transferred sense of the legitimate word—to eat
+lazily.]
+
+Adj.—See foregoing. ‘A browse morning,’ i.e., one in which there is
+little work.
+
+
+Bruise, verb (prize-fighters’).—1. To fight; box—generally with the
+idea of mauling.
+
+Bruise along, verbal phr. (hunting).—To pound along.
+
+    1865. Dublin University Magazine, II., 19. A majority of those who
+    follow them have ... no notion of hunting, but go bruising along.
+
+    1872. Anteros, xii., p. 110. The baron hunted his five days ...
+    bruising along determinedly.
+
+
+Bruiser, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A prize-fighter; a boxer. [From bruise,
+to maul, + er.]
+
+    1744. Nov. 26, Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1833), II., 57. He let into
+    the pit great numbers of bear-garden bruisers (that is the term),
+    to knock down everybody that hissed.
+
+    1753. Foote, Englishman in Paris, Act i. Dick Daylight and Bob
+    Bread-basket the bruisers.
+
+    1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xii. The man last
+    named was short in stature, but of a square iron build; and it
+    needed only a glance at his posture to see he was a scientific,
+    perhaps a thorough-bred bruiser.
+
+    1846–48. Thackeray, V. Fair, ch. xi. At college he pulled
+    stroke-oar in the Christchurch boat, and had thrashed all the best
+    bruisers of the ‘town.’
+
+    1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xlii. A jolly wag, a fellow of
+    indifferent character, a frequenter of all the ale-houses in the
+    neighbourhood, and rather celebrated for his skill as a bruiser.
+
+    1880. Jas. Greenwood, Flyfaker’s Hotel, in Odd People in Odd
+    Places, p. 58. Nearly every one seemed to have some little job or
+    other that was necessary to be done at this almost last moment for
+    the business of to-morrow; even one of the two villanous-looking
+    bruisers had. They were of the very lowest of the ‘rough’
+    type—broken-nosed, besotted, pimple-visaged, and
+    unwholesome-looking fellows, whose foul and blasphemous language
+    seemed to pollute the pestilent air of the place more than anything
+    else that contributed thereto.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—A prostitute’s bully or fancy man. For synonyms, see
+Bully.
+
+3. (common.)—One fond of fighting. Cf., Chucker-out, and next sense.
+
+4. (American.)—A generic name in large cities for a rowdy or bully.
+Sometimes, however, the term has been limited in its application to a
+particular band of ruffians. This was the case once in Baltimore.
+
+
+Bruising, verbal subs. (prize-fighters’).—Fighting with the fists;
+boxing.
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. c. The combatants were, in
+    point of strength and agility, pretty equally matched; but the
+    jailer had been regularly trained to the art of bruising.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. At that time the Sunday
+    newspapers contained many and many exciting reports of boxing
+    matches. Bruising was considered a fine manly old English custom.
+
+    1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xxxv. Mugford always persisted that he
+    could have got the better of his great hulking sub-editor, who did
+    not know the use of his fists. In Mugford’s youthful time, bruising
+    was a fashionable art.
+
+Ppl. adj. (hunting).—That pounds along.
+
+    1872. Anteros, by the author of Guy Livingstone, I., p. 207. He was
+    a good second-rate shot, and a fair, though by no means bruising
+    rider to hounds. Ibid., p. 234. There were not a few admirers of
+    his bruising style, etc.
+
+
+Brum, subs. (old).—1. A counterfeit coin. [Contracted form of Brummagem
+(q.v.).] The term appears to have been given specially to some
+counterfeit groats [about 1691].
+
+2. (common).—Something counterfeit; not genuine. [A contraction of
+Brummagem (q.v.).]
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, July 9, p. 3, col. 2. One [earring] might be
+    gold, and the other a Brum, though exactly alike.
+
+3. (common).—Copper money struck by Boulton and Watt at their works at
+Soho, Birmingham.
+
+    1787. J. West, Trip to Richmond, in Ashton’s Eighteenth Century
+    Waifs, p. 133. My silver I chang’d for a handful of Brums.
+
+4. (common).—An inhabitant of Birmingham.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 321. For
+    Nottingham is a rare place for good eating; here you may buy
+    anything to eat of the commonest person, or in the commonest place
+    with confidence that it is good, clean, and wholesome, very
+    different to dirty Birmingham and the Brums.
+
+Adj. (Winchester College).—Mean; poor; stingy. A superlative form is
+dead brum. [There are two derivations suggested; viz. (1) from bruma =
+winter; and (2) traditional in ‘College’ that it is an abbreviated form
+of brevissimum.] A popular French equivalent, used both as a
+substantive and adjective, is rapiat.
+
+
+Brumby, subs. (Australian).—A wild horse. An Antipodean counterpart of
+the American ‘broncho.’
+
+
+Brummagem, subs. (popular).—1. A nickname for Birmingham.
+
+    1862. Cornhill, Nov., p. 648. We have just touched for a rattling
+    stake of sugar (i.e., a large stake of money) at Brum.
+
+2. (old).—Base money of various denominations has been so
+called—especially groats in 17th century—hence its application to
+anything spurious or unreal—as in adjectival sense.—See also Brummagem
+buttons and Brums.
+
+    1691. G. Miege, New State Eng., 235. Bromicham, particularly noted
+    a few years ago for the counterfeit groats made here, and from
+    hence dispersed all over the kingdom. [M.]
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bromidgham, money of base metal.
+
+    1834. Southey, The Doctor, ch. cxl. He picked it up, and it proved
+    to be a Brummejam of the coarsest and clumsiest kind, with a head
+    on each side.
+
+Adj.—Counterfeit; unreal; sham; showy; pretentious.—See substantive,
+senses 1 and 2.
+
+    1637. Calendar Dom. St. Papers, 105. Those swords which he ...
+    pretends to be blades of his owne makeing are all Bromedgham blades
+    and forraine blades.
+
+    1686. D’Urfey, Commonwealth of Women, I., i. A Brummingham, son of
+    a wh—, affront the Noble Admiral!
+
+    1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. v. ‘The most of the middle class
+    are as ignorant as the working people about everything that doesn’t
+    belong to their own Brummagem life.’
+
+    1883. Echo, March 28, p. 1, col. 5. There is little of a Brummagem
+    character about the municipal, parochial, and philanthropic work of
+    Birmingham, whatever we may think of some of her industrial
+    productions.
+
+
+Brummagem Buttons, subs. (common).—Counterfeit coin.
+
+    1836. Dickens, Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, I., p. 11.
+    Bad silver, Brummagem buttons, etc.
+
+    1873. Saturday Review, Nov., p. 661. They [Brummagem buttons] were
+    marvellously inexpensive, and being such ingenious imitations of
+    the spade guineas and half-guineas then current that many
+    Englishmen might have failed to detect the difference; they must
+    have been of very great ‘use to the Indians’ indeed.
+
+
+Brummish, adj. (common).—Doubtful; counterfeit. [From Brum (q.v.) +
+ish.]
+
+    1805. G. Colman, John Bull Brit. Theat., 55. Two guineas ... one
+    seems light and t’other looks a little brummish. [M.]
+
+
+Brums, subs. (Stock Exchange).—London and North Western Stock.
+(Formerly London and Birmingham Ry.).
+
+    1887. Atkin, House Scraps.
+
+        We kneel at the feet of our ‘Nancys,’
+          We load them with ‘cottons’ and ‘tapes.’
+        If anything tickles our fancy,
+          We buy them Brums, ‘Caleys’ or ‘Apes.’
+
+
+Brush.—1. See Brother of the brush.
+
+2. subs. (old).—A hasty departure. For analogous terms, see Amputate.
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. xii. ‘I reminded him, not
+    without blushing, of my having no money. He answered, “That
+    signifies nothing, score it behind the door, or make a bold brush,
+    and take no notice.”’
+
+3. (old.)—A person who decamps hastily, or who evades his creditors.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Brush (v.) ... also a canting
+    term for one who goes off privately, or runs away from his
+    creditors, or with stolen goods.
+
+Verb (Christ’s Hospital).—1. To flog.
+
+2. (old.)—To have sexual intercourse. For synonyms, see Ride.
+
+3. (old.)—To run away; to decamp. Also to brush off. For synonyms, see
+Amputate.
+
+    1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Brush, to Fly or Run away. [M.]
+
+    1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Brush, c., run away.
+
+    1764. A. Murphy, No One’s Enemy but his Own, Act ii. Rascal, says
+    my Master, do as I bid you, and so off he brushed to the tune of an
+    old song.
+
+    1776. Foote, Bankrupt, I. But I must brush off, for here comes my
+    lady.
+
+    1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1877), 204. And one Sergeant
+    Matcham had brush’d with the dibs.
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (Dead Drummer). One of their drummers, and one
+    Sergeant Matcham, Had brush’d with the dibs, and they never could
+    catch’em.
+
+
+Brusher, subs. (old).—A full glass.
+
+2. (old.)—See quotation.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Brusher (s.) ... also one that
+    gets or steals away privately.
+
+3. (common and schools’.)—A schoolmaster.
+
+4. (American.)—To humbug by flattery.
+
+Brushing up a flat, phr. (general).—Using mealy-mouthed words, or, to
+employ other slang equivalents, ‘laying it on thick,’ ‘soft soaping
+one.’
+
+
+Brute, subs. (University).—See quot.
+
+    1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Brute, in Cambridge University
+    slang, is a man who has not yet matriculated. The play is evident.
+    A ‘man,’ in college phrase, is a collegian; and as matriculation is
+    the sign and seal of acceptance, a scholar before that ceremony is
+    not a ‘man,’ and therefore only a ‘biped brute.’
+
+
+Brydport Dagger.—See Bridport dagger.
+
+
+B. T. I., phr. (American).—An abbreviation of a big thing on ice. These
+curtailments of slang phrases are not infrequent in America, and among
+others may be mentioned p.d.q.; o.k.; n.g. and q.k., etc. (q.v.).
+
+
+Bub, subs. (old).—1. Strong drink of any kind, but usually applied to
+malt liquor. [It is suggested that this term is onomatopoetic, an
+imitation of the sound of drinking; others, however, incline to regard
+the word as a derivative of the Latin bib-ĕre, to drink. Sometimes
+spelt bubb.] A common expression for eating and drinking is ‘to take
+bub and grub,’ a French equivalent for which is se caresser
+l’Angoulême.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. iv., p. 36 (1874). In a
+    short time these four return’d laden with bub and food.
+
+    1748. Dodsley, Collection of Poems, III., 262.
+
+        Tho’ beef twice boil’d his meal, with P—n’s bub,
+        And sixpence chang’d defrays the frugal club.
+
+    1839. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, ep. II., ch. xi. ‘Och! many a
+    mug o’ bubb have I drained wi’ the landlord.’
+
+2. (common.)—A woman’s breast; generally used in the plural—bubbies
+(q.v.).
+
+3. (old.)—A brother.
+
+4. (American.)—Also bubby. A term of affection applied to a little boy.
+[Said to have originated in Pennsylvania from the German Bube.]
+Likewise used figuratively as a familiar mode of address.
+
+    1872. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It. The cayote turns
+    smiles blandly upon him once more, and with a something about it
+    which seems to say: ‘Well, I shall have to tear myself away from
+    you, bub—business is business, and it will not do for me to be
+    fooling along this way all day.’
+
+    1888. San Francisco Weekly Examiner. When she was ready to go home,
+    she did so without carriage or baby. Shortly after bubby kicked up
+    high jinks, and the joker clerk was sent for to take him away.
+
+5. (old.)—An abbreviated form of bubble, subs.
+
+    1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Bub or bubble, one that is cheated.
+    [M.]
+
+Verb (old).—1. To drink.—See substantive.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. vi., p. 54 (1874). We
+    straight betook ourselves to the Boozing Ken; and having bubb’d
+    rumly, we concluded an everlasting friendship.
+
+2. (old.)—To bribe; to cheat. Cf., Bubble.
+
+    1719. D’Urfey, Pills, II., 54. Another makes Racing a Trade.... And
+    many a Crimp Match has made, By bubbing another Man’s Groom.
+
+
+Bubber, subs. (old).—1. A hard drinker; a confirmed tippler. [From bub
+(q.v.) = drink + er.] A synonymous French term is un bibassier, but for
+analogous terms generally, see Elbow crooker.
+
+    1653. Middleton, Sp. Gipsy, ii., 1. Though I am no mark in respect
+    of a huge butt, yet I can tell you great bubbers have shot at me.
+    [There is a play in the word ‘butt.’]
+
+    1674. R. Head, Canting Acad., 191. A bubber ... goes to the
+    Alehouse, and steals there the Plate.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bubber, ... a great
+    drinker. A thief that steals plate from publick houses.
+
+2. (old.)—A drinking bowl. Cf., derivation of previous sense.
+
+    1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Bubber, a drinking Bowl; also a
+    great Drinker, and he that used to steal Plate from Publick-houses.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bubber, a drinking
+    bowl, etc.
+
+3. (old.)—A public house thief.—See quotation 1690, sense 2; also
+mentioned by Grose [1785].
+
+4. (American.)—A nickname for an old woman with large pendulous
+breasts. Rarely heard.
+
+    1848. Bartlett, Americanisms. Bubber. A stout or stoutly mammalated
+    old woman. Used in Salem, Mass., in 1820, and since. ‘Bubber
+    Jones.’ (Fr. poitron, old woman; Old Fr. pect. poitron; Lat.
+    pectus, the breast.)
+
+
+Bubbies, subs. (common).—A woman’s breasts. An old term of which the
+derivation is somewhat doubtful, though it may be noted that the
+ancient cant has bub in the sense of ‘to drink,’ and also as an
+abbreviated form of bubby. Arber says that ‘bu bu’ is the cry of a
+child needing its mother’s milk.—For synonyms, see Dairies.
+
+    1686. D’Urfey, New Poems (1690), 206.
+
+        The Ladies here may without Scandal shew,
+        Face or white bubbies, to each ogling Beau.
+
+    1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act v., Sc. 7. Did not her eyes
+    twinkle, and her mouth water? Did not she pull up her little
+    bubbies?
+
+    1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. III., ch. viii. ‘To see a
+    handsome, brisk, genteel, young fellow so much governed by a
+    doating old woman! Why don’t you go and suck the bubby?’
+
+    1715. Vanbrugh, Country House, II., v. He talked to me of you, and
+    said you had the charmingest bubbies.
+
+    1748. Dodsley, Collection of Poems, III., 191. And snowy bubbies
+    pull’d above the stays.
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bubbys, a woman’s breasts.
+
+
+Bubbing, subs. (old).—Drinking; tippling.
+
+    1678. Poor Robin’s Char. of Scold, 6. She clamours at him so long
+    ... which makes him seek Bubbing-schools to hide himself in from
+    her fury. [M.]
+
+
+Bubble, subs. (old).—A dupe; gull; also caravan (q.v.); and rook
+(q.v.). Grose thinks from the party cheated being like an air-bubble
+filled with words which are only wind instead of real property. Also
+apparently used of anything not genuine. Applied to persons, it is
+older than appears from Murray.
+
+    1598. Shakspeare, All’s Well, iii., vi., 5. Sec. Lord. On my life,
+    my lord, a bubble. Ber. Do you think I am so far deceived in him?
+
+    1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, III., in wks. (1720) IV., 62. This
+    kinsman a most silly bubble first, and afterwards a betrayer of
+    young heirs.
+
+    1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, V., iii. If her conduct has put a
+    trick upon her virtue, her virtue’s the bubble, but her husband’s
+    the loser.
+
+    1711. Swift, Conduct of the Allies. We are thus become the dupes
+    and bubbles of Europe.
+
+    1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. II., ch. iii. He has
+    been my bubble [tool] these twenty years; and to my certain
+    knowledge, understands no more of his own affairs than a child in
+    swaddling clothes.
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. I., ch. vii. ‘This would be to own
+    herself the meer tool and bubble of the man.’
+
+    1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, I., 69. He persuades his
+    bubble, that he will insure him a certain safe way of getting a sum
+    of money.
+
+    1795. R. Cumberland, The Jew, Act iii., Sc. 2. If he attempts to
+    raise money upon expectancies, be at their peril who are fools
+    enough to trust him: No prudent man will be his bubble.
+
+    1805. G. Barrington, New London Spy (4 ed.), p. 24. The shame of
+    being thought a bubble, and exposed to the town, frequently
+    prevents gentlemen from making use of the statute provided in such
+    cases.
+
+Verb (old).—To cheat; humbug; delude as with bubbles; to overreach.
+Cf., substantive sense.
+
+    1664. Etheridge, Comical Revenge, II., iii., in wks. (1704), 24. I
+    believe he’s gone down to Receive money; ’twere an excellent design
+    to bubble him.
+
+    1685. Dryden, Prol. to Albion and Albanius, 23.
+
+        Freedom and zeal have choused you o’er and o’er;
+        Pray give us leave to bubble you once more.
+
+    1711. Spectator, No 89. That she has bubbled him out of his youth
+    ... and that he verily believes she will drop him in his old age,
+    if she can find her account in another.
+
+    1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. XI., ch. iv. He ... actually bubbled
+    several of their money by undertaking to do them services, which,
+    in reality, were not within his power.
+
+    1777. Sheridan, Trip to Scarborough, Act ii. Help the gentleman
+    with a chair, and carry him to my house presently—that’s the
+    properest place—[aside]—to bubble him out of his money.
+
+    1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, I., 75. And this was the
+    language which the pretenders to the Philosopher’s Stone used to
+    bubble their pigeons with.
+
+    1880. McCarthy, Own Times, III., xli., 235. Some critics declared
+    ... that the French Emperor had bubbled him [Mr. Cobden].
+
+
+Bubbleable, adj. (old).—That can be duped; gullible. [A very rare form
+from bubble, to cheat, + able.]
+
+    1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), II., 109. If the
+    winner be bubbleable, they will insinuate themselves into his
+    acquaintance, and civilly invite him to drink a glass of wine;
+    wheedle him into play, and win all his money.
+
+
+Bubble and Squeak, subs. phr. (common).—A compound of cold meat fried
+up with potatoes and greens. [From the hissing sound produced by the
+frying; originally nautical.]
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bubble and squeak,
+    beef and cabbage fried together; it is so called from its bubbling
+    up and squeaking whilst over the fire.
+
+    1786–89. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Lousiad, ch. i., line 366.
+
+        Such is the sound (the simile’s not weak)
+        Form’d by what mortals bubble call, and squeak,
+        When ’midst the frying-pan, in accents savage,
+        The beef so sorely quarrels with the cabbage.
+
+    1853. Lytton, My Novel, bk. VIII., ch. viii. ‘Rank and title!
+    bubble and squeak! No, not half so good as bubble and squeak.
+    English beef and good cabbage.’
+
+
+Bubble Buff, subs. (old).—A bailiff.
+
+
+Bubble Company, subs. (common).—A swindling association, enterprise or
+project. [From bubble, to cheat, + company.] The South Sea Bubble will
+occur to mind in this connection.
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Bubble ... 5 (in Commerce), a
+    cant name given to certain projects for raising money on imaginary
+    grounds.
+
+    1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. xix. ‘My inheritance
+    disappears as if it had been invested in a bubble company.’
+
+
+Bubbled, ppl. adj. (old).—Gulled; deceived; befooled. [From bubble, to
+cheat, + ed.]
+
+    a. 1683. Oldham, Wks. and Rem. (1686), 66. Bubled Monarchs are at
+    first beguil’d ... at last depos’d, and kill’d. [M.]
+
+    1701. Defoe, True Born Englishman, Introd.
+
+        Who shall this bubbled nation disabuse,
+        While they, their own felicities refuse?
+
+    1889. Gentleman’s Mag., June, p. 598. Towards the end of the
+    century [xvii] a person easily gulled, or bubbled was known as a
+    ‘caravan,’ but earlier the term ‘rook,’ which is now restricted to
+    a cheat or sharper, appears to have been applied to the person
+    cheated.
+
+
+Bubbling Squeak, subs. (army).—Hot soup.
+
+
+Bubbly Jock, subs. (old Scotch).—1. A turkey-cock; a ‘gobbler.’
+[Probably in allusion to the cry of the bird.]
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bubbly jock, a
+    turkey-cock.
+
+    1843. Thackeray, Irish Sketch Book, ch. xv. He took but one glass
+    of water to that intolerable deal of bubbly jock.... Three
+    turkey-wings and a glass of water.
+
+    1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, pt. II., ch. xviii. Puffing
+    his cheeks like some infuriated bubbly jock in a stable-yard.
+
+2. (common.)—A stupid boaster.
+
+3. (popular.)—A pert, conceited, pragmatical fellow; a prig; a cad.
+
+    1883. G. A. Sala, Living London, p. 113. Mr. Benjamin Bunny (Mr. J.
+    L. Toole) is the good-natured husband of a pretty young wife (Miss
+    Winifred Emery). Mr. Bunny is, to use a Scotticism, ‘sair
+    owerhanded,’ not by a ‘bubbly jock,’ but by his wife’s aunt.
+
+
+Bubby.—See Bub and Bubbies.
+
+
+Bucco, subs. (American thieves’).—A dandy. [A corruption of buck
+(q.v.).]
+
+
+Buck, subs. (common).—1. In the first instance a man of spirit or
+gaiety of conduct; later a fop, a dandy. [A transferred sense of buck,
+the male of the fallow deer.] In the form ‘old buck’ it is merely a
+familiar mode of address. The epithet, as applied to a man about town,
+is somewhat obsolete; masher, dude, and swell having taken its place.
+Cf., Blood.
+
+    1725. New Cant. Dict. Buck, as a bold buck, is sometimes used to
+    signify a forward daring Person of either Sex.
+
+    1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. X., ch. ii. A large assembly of young
+    fellows, whom they call bucks.
+
+    1846–48. Thackeray, V. Fair, ch. vi. She had sate by him on the box
+    of his open carriage (a most tremendous buck he was, as he sat
+    there, serene, in state, driving his greys).
+
+    1889. Answers, Feb. 9. The ancient buck was last seen (at the age
+    of eighty-four) wearing a wig, a pair of stays, ‘plumpers,’ rouge,
+    and padding, and he daily anointed his face with a compound called
+    ‘skin-tightener.’ ‘Skin-tightener’ removes wrinkles, and after the
+    face has been washed with ‘bloom of roses,’ the wearer can strut
+    forth with the consciousness that all the world takes him for a
+    quarter of a century younger than he is.
+
+2. (common.)—An unlicensed cabdriver. Apparently also applied to a sham
+fare.—See last quotation.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 362.
+    The long-day men are the parties who mostly employ the bucks ...
+    they are glad to avail themselves of the services of a buck for
+    some hours at the end of the day. Ibid. The bucks are unlicensed
+    cabdrivers, who are employed by those who have a license to take
+    charge of the cab while the regular drivers are at their meals or
+    enjoying themselves.
+
+    1865. Morning Star, 14 Sept. What is the prisoner? Constable: He is
+    a buck, who hangs about an omnibus stand. [M.]
+
+    1887. Daily News, 5 October, 5, 4. At Bow Street something was
+    further heard of the buck. This person ... is the sham fare whom a
+    cabby drives past the police in order to get up to the theatre
+    doors out of his proper turn, and so increase his chance of
+    securing a legitimate fare.
+
+3. (old.)—A sixpence. [Thought to be a corruption of fyebuck (q.v.).]
+The word is rarely used by itself, but generally denotes the sixpence
+attached to shillings in reference to cost, as, ‘three and a buck,’
+three shillings and sixpence. For synonyms, see Bender.
+
+    1885. Household Words, June 20, p. 155. ‘Buck’ is most likely a
+    corruption of ‘fyebuck,’ a slang name for sixpence, which is now
+    almost, if not altogether, obsolete.
+
+4. (schoolboys’.)—A large marble. Cf., Alley, Bonce, Mivey.
+
+    1885. Household Words, June 20, p. 155. Readers whose school-days
+    are still green in their memories will also recognise in buck the
+    name for the large marble once dear to their boyish hearts.
+
+5. (American.)—A term used in poker (q.v.). Cf., Tiger.
+
+Adj. (American University).—At Princeton College anything which is of
+an intensive degree, good, excellent, pleasant or agreeable, is called
+buck.
+
+Verb (American).—1. To oppose; to run counter to. [Possibly a
+corruption of butt, or from buck as applied to a horse.—See sense 2.]
+
+2. (Western American.)—As applied to horses this term is used to
+describe the action of plunging forward and throwing the head to the
+ground in an effort to unseat the rider—a motion of which probably no
+domesticated beast is capable, aside from the Texan miserable and
+treacherous species of horse. A raw hand thus relates his
+experience:—‘When I was told how hard he could buck, I only laughed, my
+impression being that no pony standing on four legs could throw me off.
+I mounted my new horse, and waving my bran new hat about my head,
+galloped away in a dignified style. Suddenly the horse stopped. His
+ears went back, and his hind legs went between his front. The motion
+was a curious one. But I did not fall. Realizing that the man on his
+back could ride a little bit, the pony got right down to business. My
+stomach seemed to fly up into my mouth, and millions of stars floated
+about my head. I am not prepared to state what kind of hold the pony
+got on me, but I went sprawling on the ground, my nose making an
+irrigating ditch. It was all done not more than one hundred yards from
+where my girl was standing. I stuck on well, however, as the saddle,
+blanket, gun and bridle came off with me. The wild yell that greeted my
+exploit nearly drove me mad. While I spit the dirt and curses out of my
+mouth, I thought that if I had that pony back I’d break him in or break
+my head. It ran out on the prairie and joined the Government herd. When
+an old-timer tried to fix things for me in front of my girl by saying,
+“It’s no disgrace, pardnr, that horse can buck off a porus plaster,” I
+thanked him from the bottom of my heart.’
+
+3. (commercial.)—A variant of to cook (q.v.), as applied to accounts.
+
+4. (Western American.)—To play against the bank, usually ‘to buck the
+tiger.’—See following.
+
+    1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, p. 375. I don’t like your looks
+    at all. I’d buck against any bank you ran, all night.
+
+    1880. Bret Harte, Brown of Calaveras. (Tales of the Arg., p. 81).
+    Why don’t you say you want to buck agin’ faro?
+
+    1888. Hotel Mail.
+
+        A man may hunt the wildest game
+          Along the Nile or the Niger,
+              In woods or ranch;
+        But he will find the sport most tame
+          Compared with bucking the tiger
+              At dear Long Branch.
+
+5. (Western American.)—To put forth one’s whole energy. [An extension
+of meaning from sense 4.]
+
+    1870. San Antonio Paper. ‘You’ll have to buck at it like a whole
+    team, gentlemen, or you won’t hear the whistle near your diggings
+    for many a year.’
+
+To run a buck, verbal phr. (old Irish).—To poll a bad vote at an
+election.—Grose.
+
+Buck or fight the tiger, verbal phr. (American).—To gamble. [There are
+two derivations suggested:—(1) that the phrase is derived from the
+parti-coloured division or stripes on a gambling table; (2) that it is
+of Chinese origin. A favourite figure of one of the Chinese gods of
+gambling is a tiger standing on his hind-feet, and grasping a large
+cash in his mouth or his paws. Sometimes the image is made of wood or
+clay, or drawn on a piece of paper or board. The title of the beast,
+His Excellency the Grasping Cash Tiger, is frequently written on a
+piece of paper, and placed in the gambling rooms between two bunches of
+mock-money suspended under the table or on the wall behind it. This
+figure is the sign for a gambling house: ‘The Fighting Tiger.’]
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 14. Last night and to-day they have
+    succeeded in placing under arrest six of the gaming-house keepers
+    of the city and subpœnaed thirty citizens as witnesses, among whom
+    are said to be prominent city officials and business men. The
+    affair has caused a good deal of talk already, and if reports are
+    anywhere near true, it will create a great sensation when the cases
+    are called, and more than one unsuspecting wife will have her eyes
+    opened to the fact that the wicked tiger, and not legitimate
+    business has been detaining her husband out so late at night.
+
+
+Buck Bait, subs. (thieves’).—Bail given by a confederate. Cf., Bait.
+
+
+Buck Down, verbal phr. (Winchester College).—To be sorry; unhappy. Cf.,
+Buck up and Bucksome.
+
+
+Bucked. To be bucked, verb (Uppingham).—To be tired. Cf., Buck up.
+
+
+Buckeen, subs. (Irish).—A bully.—Grose. Properly a young man of the
+poorer aristocracy.
+
+
+Bucket, subs. (American).—An anonymous letter.
+
+Verb (general).—1. To ride hard; not to spare one’s beast.
+
+    1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. xi. ‘I had rather give
+    Brilliant a good bucketing’ [Aunt Horsingham shuddered—I knew she
+    would, and used the word on purpose] ‘over an even heath or a line
+    of grass, than go bodkin in a chariot.’
+
+    1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, II., p. 218. There’s room in the
+    Row to give him [the horse] a very good bucketing.
+
+    1868. Tottenham, C. Villars, I., 243. Bucketing his wretched horse
+    home to Cambridge. [M.]
+
+    1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 342. ‘Ten thousand
+    pardons, Dollie, dearest; but I only got your message an hour or so
+    ago, and am so busy I couldn’t get here before. As it is I have had
+    to bucket my hack unmercifully.’
+
+2. (old.)—To cheat; ruin; deceive.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v. To bucket a person is
+    synonymous with putting him in the well.
+
+    1828. Scott, Diary, in Lockhart (1839), ix., 253. Thurtell ... must
+    in slang phrase have bucketed his palls.
+
+3. (rowing.)—To take the water unfairly—with a scoop at the beginning
+of the stroke instead of a steady even pull throughout.
+
+    1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xv., p. 130. He was
+    not so straight in the back as an Oxford stroke; and he bucketed
+    about a good deal, but he got along.
+
+To give the bucket, phr. (old).—To dismiss from one’s employment; to
+‘send a person about his business.’—Cf., Bag and Sack.
+
+    1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, ch. xxi. He were sore put
+    about because Hester had gi’en him the bucket.
+
+To kick the bucket, phr. (general).—To die. [The bucket here is thought
+to refer to a Norfolk term for a pulley.] When pigs are killed they are
+hung by their hind legs on a bucket.—For synonyms, see Aloft.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bucket; to kick the
+    bucket; to die.
+
+    1796. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Tristia, wks. (1812) V., 242. Pitt has
+    kicked the bucket.
+
+    1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxx. He drained it dry ... and kicked the
+    bucket.
+
+    1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. ii. ‘Fine him a pot’ roared one,
+    ‘for talking about kicking the bucket. He’s a nice young man to
+    keep a cove’s spirits up, and talk about a short life and a merry
+    one.’
+
+    1876(?). Broadside Ballad, ‘Ten Little Niggers.’
+
+        Eight little niggers never heard of heav’n,
+        One kicked the bucket, and then there were seven.
+
+    1889. Answers, July 27, p. 141, col. 3. The high-school girl
+    explained to her particular friend yesterday that He kicked the
+    bucket was slang, and that the polite expression was, ‘He propelled
+    his pedal extremities with violence against a familiar utensil used
+    for the transportation of water and other fluids.’
+
+
+Bucket Afloat, subs. (rhyming slang).—A coat.
+
+
+Bucket Shop, subs. (American).—1. Primarily a petty stock gambling den
+carried on in opposition to regular exchange business, and usually of a
+very doubtful character. The New York World recently investigated the
+whole question, and gave some very interesting details as to the many
+tortuous ways of these crooked corners of the money world. The
+conclusion arrived at was that Wall Street and its vicinity did not
+contain a single ‘square and honest’ bucket-shop; all their dealings
+were nothing but ‘a brace gambling game.’ By their schemes the customer
+had ‘not the ghost of a chance to win.’ Their quotations were obtained
+surreptitiously, and, in handling them, the bucket-shop keepers in
+several ways take unfair advantage of their clients. The term bucket
+shop has become common in England, but, fortunately for the community
+at large, no comparison can be drawn between the establishments known
+by that name in England, and those which flourish in America under the
+same title, though in very truth the proceedings of some of the former
+are scandalous enough. [Possibly from bucket (q.v.), to cheat, + shop.
+As an alternative derivation, the ‘bucket’ into which the tape falls
+may be suggested.]
+
+    1887. Daily News, 14 April, 7, 1. Mr. Charles Fisher said that he
+    carried on business as an agent.... He did Stock Exchange business,
+    for clients. Mr. Besley: Commonly called a bucket shop, I think.
+
+    1888. Missouri Republican, Feb. 12. New York, Feb.
+    11.—(Special).—Inspector Brynes was seized with another spasm of
+    indignation against the bucket-shops this morning, and, accompanied
+    by detectives and a squad of officers, he swooped down upon the
+    lairs of these enemies of the Stock Exchange that abound on Lower
+    Broadway and New Street.
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 3, col. 1. ‘The tape is
+    credited with fostering gambling.’ ‘Well, we know that there are
+    bucket-shops, but we have for some time refused to entertain any
+    proposal for a machine if there is the least prospect of its being
+    used for bucket-shop purposes. There is gambling, of course, but it
+    is unfair to say that the tape is responsible for it. The tape was
+    not originated for that purpose, but in order to inform the public,
+    through the newspapers or otherwise, how securities were going, and
+    it does that. In practice it serves as a check between client and
+    broker, and broker and jobber.’
+
+2. Also applied generally to low groggeries; lottery offices; gambling
+dens, etc.
+
+
+Buck Face, subs. (old).—A cuckold; one who in French slang is said to
+be un loger rue du Croissant.
+
+
+Buck Fitch, subs. (old).—An old roué; a lecherous old man.
+
+
+Buckhara, subs. (American).—A name given in California to a
+cattle-driver or cowboy.
+
+
+Buckhorse, subs. (pugilistic).—A smart blow or box on the ear. [Derived
+from the name of a celebrated ‘bruiser’ of that name. Buckhorse was a
+man who either possessed or professed insensibility to pain, and who
+would for a small sum allow anyone to strike him with the utmost force
+on the side of the face. His real name was John Smith, and he fought in
+public 1732–46.]
+
+French Synonyms. (For the blow itself.) Une boffete (from the old word
+buffet); une bouffe; une châtaigne; une accolade; une pamure. To
+receive a buckhorse, encaisser un soufflet; to give a buckhorse; donner
+la savate.
+
+    1864. Blackwood’s Mag., II., p. 463 (the Public Schools’ Report,
+    1864—Westminster School). One of the Seniors informs us that the
+    common punishment was buckhorsing. ‘That was boxing the ears, was
+    it?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Buckhorsing was rather severe, was it not?’ etc. ‘I
+    got buckhorsed pretty often.’
+
+    1876. Lord Albemarle, Fifty Years of my Life, quoted in Temple Bar,
+    August, 1884, p. 517. He then felled me to the ground by a swinging
+    buckhorse on my right cheek.
+
+
+Buckish, adj. (old).—Foppish; dandyish. [From buck (q.v.) + ish.] Now
+colloquial.
+
+    1782. D’Arblay, Diary, etc. (1876), i., 463. A buckish kind of
+    young man of fashion.
+
+    1785. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Apolog. Postscript to Ode upon Ode, in
+    wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. I., p. 365. Did not good Nathan tell that
+    buckish youth, David the King, that he stole sheep?
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 57. Having beat the rounds
+    (as buckish spirits phrase it) of that bustling microcoser, the
+    British metropolis, for eighteen months.
+
+    1812. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Picturesque, ch. xvii.
+
+        A buckish blade, who kept a horse,
+        To try his fortune on the course.
+
+    1858. G. Eliot, Janet’s Repentance, ch. v. ‘I’ve made him as neat
+    as a new pin this morning, and he says the Bishop will think him
+    too buckish by half.’
+
+    1873. W. D. Howells, A Chance Acquaintance, ch. xiii. A very
+    buckish young fellow, with a heavy black moustache and black eyes,
+    who wore a jaunty round hat, blue checked trousers, a white vest,
+    and a morning-coat of blue diagonals.
+
+
+Buck-Jump, subs. (stable).—A jump made in buck (q.v., verb, sense 2)
+fashion.
+
+    1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. ix. The instant the
+    chestnut was mounted he reared, and indulged in two or three
+    ‘buck-jumps’ that would have made a weaker man tremble for his
+    backbone.
+
+
+Buckle, verb, trans. and intrans. (colloquial).—1. To unite or be
+united in wedlock—a humorous term. For synonyms, see Splice. French
+thieves call such a union l’amadouage.
+
+    1693. Dryden, Juvenal, vi., 37. Is this an age to buckle with a
+    bride?
+
+    1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxvii. Who ... declared
+    himself well satisfied with the young man’s addresses, and desired
+    that they might be buckled with all expedition.
+
+    1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxxii.
+
+    ‘Buckle them, my Lord Bishop, as fast as you can....
+
+    ‘The Bishop accordingly opened his book and commenced the marriage
+    ceremony.’
+
+    1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xlvi. ‘We could have half a
+    dozen married couples all separating, getting rid of their ribs and
+    buckling again, helter-skelter, every man to somebody else’s wife.’
+
+
+Buckle-Beggar, subs. (old).—A Fleet prison ‘clergyman’; one who
+celebrated marriage ceremonies therein; thence, one who celebrated
+irregular marriages; a hedge priest; one who undertook similar offices
+for gypsies and tramps—a buckle the beggars.—See Couple-beggar. [Of
+Scotch derivation, but Cf., Buckle, verb, sense 1.]
+
+    c. 1700. Ld. Fountainhill, Diary, in Larwood, Bk. Cleric. Anecd.,
+    294. He after turn’d a buckle-beggar, i.e., one who married without
+    license. [M.]
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. (II., p. 86). A hedge
+    parson, or buckle-beggar, as that order of priesthood has been
+    irreverently termed. Ibid, ch. xxvii. (III., p. 22). Dr. R., who
+    buckles beggars for a tester [sixpence] and a dram of Geneva.
+
+
+Buckled, ppl. adj. (thieves’).—Arrested; taken into custody;
+‘scragged.’
+
+
+Buckle Down, verb (common).—To ‘settle down’; to become reconciled to;
+a variant of to ‘knuckle down’ (q.v.).
+
+    1874. Jos. Hatton, Clytie, bk. III., ch. iv. ‘But you do not buckle
+    down to your position,’ said Cuffing ... ‘you wrangle, you higgle.’
+
+
+Buckler, subs. (American thieves’).—A collar. Cf., All-rounder.
+
+
+Buckles, subs. (old).—Fetters of any kind. For synonyms, see Darbies.
+
+
+Buckle To, verb (familiar).—To undertake; grapple with; ‘slip in’; work
+vigorously.
+
+    1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. xcvi., st. 84, p. 187 (E.D.S.).
+
+        Then purchase some pelfe,
+          by fiftie and three:
+        or buckle thy selfe,
+          a drudge for to bee.
+
+    1663. Butler, Hudibras, pt. I., ch. ii., l. 926.
+
+        And fitting it for sudden fight,
+        Straight drew it up, t’attack the Knight,
+        For getting up on stump and huckle,
+        He with the foe began to buckle.
+
+    1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. viii. At last
+    Esquire South buckled to, to assist his friend Nic.
+
+    1883. James Payn, Thicket than Water, ch. xxvii. ‘Of course it
+    could never have been taken up as a serious occupation; the way you
+    buckled to at it, as I told Mr. Payton, was something amazing.’
+
+    1889. Modern Society, 19 Oct., p. 1302. (‘How the Nobility live in
+    Germany.’) Though, as a rule, courteous to ladies at dinner, when a
+    course is served all buckle to, and conversation is at an end. Each
+    gentleman forgets his fair neighbour, and minds only number one.
+    Between the courses, when nothing better is on, they converse, and
+    always everything is served à la Russe.
+
+
+Bucksome, adj. (Winchester College).—Happy; in a state of
+‘buck-uppishness.’—See Buck-up.
+
+
+Buck Up, verbal phr. (Winchester College).—To be glad; pleased. Cf.,
+Buck down. The usual expression is ‘Oh buck up,’ a phrase which at
+Westminster School would have a very different meaning, namely, ‘exert
+yourself.’ At Uppingham to be bucked (q.v.) is to be tired.
+
+
+Budge, subs. (old).—1. A pickpocket; a general thief.—See quots., and
+for synonyms, Area-sneak and Thieves.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). Budge,
+    one that steals cloaks.
+
+    1674. R. Head, Canting Acad., 95. The Budge ... his employment is
+    in the dark of the Evening, to go into any door that he seeth open,
+    and ... take whatever next cometh to hand.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—Also called sneaking budge (q.v.). In more modern times
+an accomplice who gains access to a building during the day for the
+purpose of being locked in. When night comes he is thus easily able to
+admit his fellow thieves. For synonyms, see Area-sneak, and Cf.,
+Standing bridge.
+
+    1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. I., ch. iii. ‘I find you are some
+    sneaking budge rascal’ [cant term for pilfering].
+
+3. (old.)—Drink; liquor.—See Drinks. [Thought to be a corruption of
+booze.] There are several derivatives—Budgy, ‘drunk’; Budging-ken, ‘a
+public house’; Cove of the budging-ken, ‘a publican’; Budger, ‘a
+drunkard’—all of which see.
+
+    1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171. Budge, drink.
+
+Verb (old slang, but now colloquial).—To move; ‘to make tracks.’ For
+modern synonyms, see Amputate, and Cf., Budge-a-beake.
+
+
+Budge-a-Beake, verbal phr. (old).—To run away (presumably from
+justice). There seems some connection in meaning between this
+expression and a modern phrase—‘to bilk the blues’ (q.v.). [From budge
+(q.v.), ‘to move away,’ ‘to decamp,’ + a + beak (q.v.), a policeman.]
+For synonyms, see Amputate.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Budge-a-beake, runne away.
+
+
+Budger, subs. (old).—A drunkard. [From budge, subs., sense 3, ‘drink’
+(q.v.) + er.] For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.
+
+
+Budging-Ken, subs. (old).—A public house.—See Budge. [From budge,
+drink, + ken (q.v.), a place or house.] For synonyms, see Lush crib.
+
+    1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171. Budge kain, a
+    public-house.
+
+
+Budgy, adj. (old).—Drunk; intoxicated. [From budge (q.v.), sense 3,
+drink.] For synonyms, see Screwed.
+
+
+Bud of Promise, subs. phr. (American).—A facetious term for a young,
+unmarried woman.—See Rosebud.
+
+    1889. Charlestown Enterprise.
+
+        The young, unmarried girl, in sport,
+          Is called a bud of promise;
+        She blooms each year at some resort,
+          The weather when it warm is.
+        And in the Fall a score of men,
+          Whose hearts till now have harm missed,
+        Compare sad notes, and find out then
+          To each the bud is promised.
+
+
+Bud Sallogh (Old Irish).—A term applied to one who practises
+unmentionable vices.—See Jesuit.
+
+
+Buenos Ayres (provincial).—The Royal Crescent at Margate at the extreme
+end of the town used to be so called. The houses remained unfinished
+for a very considerable time.—H. J. Byron.
+
+
+Bufe, subs. (old cant).—A dog. [Murray says, from the sound of its
+bark.]—See Buffer, and Tike for synonyms.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat, 84. Bufe, a dogge.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bufe, a dog; Bufe’s
+    nob, a dog’s head.
+
+
+Bufe-Nabber or Napper, subs. (old).—A dog thief. [From bufe, old cant
+for a ‘dog,’ + nabber, one who steals or ‘nabs.’] For synonyms, see
+Area-sneak.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bufe-nabber, a
+    dog-stealer.
+
+
+Buff, subs. (common).—1. The bare skin. [An allusion to the colour.]
+
+    1654. Chapman, Revenge for Honour, I., i.
+
+        Then for accoutrements you wear the buff,
+        As you believed it heresy to change
+        For linen: surely most of yours is spent
+        In lint.
+
+    1749. H. Fitzcotton, Homer, I., 38. If you perplex me with your
+    stuff—All that are here shan’t save your buff. [M.]
+
+    1760. Johnston, Chrysal, II., 235. ‘I have got as many clothes and
+    things of all kinds as would serve to set up a Monmouth-street
+    merchant: if the place had held out but a few days longer, the poor
+    devils must have done duty in their buff; ha! ha! ha!’ ‘And the
+    properest dress for them,’ returned the admiral; ‘who wants any
+    clothes in such a climate as this?’
+
+    1824. Hughes, Magic Lay of the One-horse Chay (Blackwood). When our
+    pair were soused enough, and returned in their buff.
+
+    1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 223. ‘There’s a fine young
+    chap there, stript to the buff, and working away hard!’
+
+    1872. C. King, Sierra Nev., viii., 176. Stripping ourselves to the
+    buff, we hung up our steaming clothes. [M.]
+
+2. (old.)—A man; a fellow; also buffer (q.v.).
+
+    1708–15. Kersey, Buff ... a dull Sot, or dronish Fellow. [M.]
+
+    1709. Brit. Apollo, II, No. 8, p. 3, col. 2. Tell me Grave Buffs,
+    Partly Gods, partly men. [M.]
+
+    1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Buff, a Newgate Cant Word used in
+    familiar Salutation as, How dost do, my Buff?
+
+    1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, ch. iv., p. 15. Mayhaps old buff
+    has left my kinsman here his heir.
+
+    1764. Brydges, Homer Travest. (1797), II., 420. You seem afraid
+    these buffs will flinch.
+
+Buff it, verb (common).—1. To swear to; to adhere to a statement hard
+and fast; to stand firm. [Query from ‘to bluff.’] To buff it is
+sometimes enlarged—to buff it home.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v. Buff, To buff to a person or
+    thing, is to swear to the identity of them.
+
+    1881. New York Slang Dictionary. Buffing it home is swearing
+    point-blank to anything, about the same as bluffing it, making a
+    bold stand on no backing.
+
+2. (common.)—To strip; to bare oneself to the ‘buff’ or skin.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 416. ‘You had
+    better buff it, Jim,’ says I; but Jim wouldn’t do it, and kept his
+    trowsers on. Ibid, p. 417. So I locks the door, and buffs it, and
+    forces myself up, etc.
+
+In buff, phr. (common).—Naked; in a state of nudity. Among English
+equivalents are Abram (q.v.) and birthday suit (q.v.), but for all
+synonyms, see Nature’s garb.
+
+    1602. Dekker, Satiro-Mastix. I go in stag, in buff.
+
+    1855. Notes and Queries, 1 S., xi., p. 467. We say of one in a
+    state of nudity, ‘he is in buff.’
+
+To stand buff, verbal phr. (old).—To stand the brunt; to pay the piper;
+to endure without flinching. [From buff, an old pugilistic term for a
+blow.]
+
+    a. 1680. Butler, Hudibras’s Epitaph. And for the good old cause
+    stood buff ’Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff.
+
+    1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, I., i. Would my courage come up to a
+    fourth part of my ill-nature, I’d stand buff to her relations, and
+    thrust her out of doors.
+
+    1737. Fielding, The Miser, Act ii., Sc. 2. Love. How! rascal, is it
+    you that abandon yourself to those intolerable extravagancies?
+    Fred. I must even stand buff, and outface him.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). To stand Buff (v.), to stand
+    stoutly to a thing, to be resolute and unmoved, though the danger
+    be great.
+
+    1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, V., i., 139. Stick close to my advice
+    and you may stand buff to a tigress.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xii. ‘Stand buff against the
+    reproach of thine over-tender conscience.’
+
+
+Buff-Ball, subs. (vagrants’).—A dancing party in which both sexes dance
+together naked. [From buff (q.v.), naked, + ball.] Cf., Ballum rancum.
+
+    1880. Greenwood, In Strange Company. The most favourite
+    entertainment at this place is known as buff-ball, in which both
+    sexes—innocent of clothing—madly join, stimulated with raw whiskey,
+    and the music of a fiddle and a tin whistle.
+
+
+Buffer, subs. (old).—1. A dog. [Considerable obscurity surrounds the
+origin of this term. It occurs in varying forms from 1567 down to the
+present time. Harman gives it as bufe (1567) and bufa (1573); Rowlands
+as buffa (1610); Head as bugher (1673); whilst in The Memorials of John
+Hall it first appears as buffer.] Synonymous terms will be found under
+Tike.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Bufa, a dogge.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Buffa, a Dogge.
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Buffer, a Dog.
+
+    1842. Lover, Handy Andy, ch. iv. ‘It is not every day we get a
+    badger, you know.... Reilly the butcher has two or three capital
+    dogs, and there’s a wicked mastiff below stairs, and I’ll send for
+    my ‘buffer’ and we’d have some spanking sport.’
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 162. They
+    had a dog belonging to them that would be sure to begin a quarrel
+    with another buffer, whenever his master or mistress found a match.
+
+2. (common.)—A man; a fellow—sometimes used with a slightly
+contemptuous meaning; generally speaking a familiar mode of address, as
+in Old Buffer, although even this form may be used disparagingly.
+
+    1749. H. Fitzcotton, Homer, I. (1748), 23. You’re a buffer always
+    rear’d in The brutal pleasures of Bear-garden, [M.]
+
+    1837. Barham, I. L. (The Bagman’s Dog).
+
+        So I’ll merely observe, as the water grew rougher,
+        The more my poor hero continued to suffer,
+        Till the Sailors themselves cried, in pity, ‘Poor buffer!’
+
+    1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. xiv. ‘I made a first-rate
+    booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow buffer who came in to
+    see you.’
+
+3. (pugilistic.)—A boxer; one of ‘the fancy.’ [Hotten gives this as of
+Irish origin, but it would rather seem to come from O.E. buff, a blow.]
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 7.
+
+        Last Tuesday, at Moulsey, the Balance of Power
+        Was settled by twelve Tightish Rounds in an hour,
+        The Buffers, both ‘Boys of the Holy Ground.’—Ibid, p. 51:—
+        Yet, sprightly to the Scratch both Buffers came,
+        While ribbers rung from each resounding frame,
+        And divers digs, and many a ponderous pelt,
+        Were on their broad bread-baskets heard and felt.
+        With roving aim, but aim that rarely miss’d,
+        Round lugs and ogles flew the frequent fist;
+        While showers of facers told so deadly well,
+        That the crush’d jaw-bones crackled as they fell!
+
+4. (old.)—See quots.
+
+    1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Buffer, a Rogue that kills good
+    sound Horses only for their Skins.
+
+    1737. Bacchus and Venus. Buffer, a rogue that killed good sound
+    horses for the sake of their skins, by running a long wire into
+    them.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Buffer, one that
+    steals and kills horses and dogs for their skins.
+
+5. (old.)—One who took a false oath for a ‘consideration.’ Cf., Bail.
+
+6. (old.)—A pistol. Cf., Barker.
+
+    1824. Sir W. Scott, Red Gauntlet. ch. iii. Here be a pair of
+    buffers will bite as well as bark.
+
+7. (old.)—A smuggler; rogue; or cheat.
+
+8. (nautical.)—A navy term for a boatswain’s mate, one of whose duties
+it is—or was—to administer the ‘cat.’ Cf., O.E. Buff, a blow.
+
+
+Buff Howards, subs. (military).—The Third Regiment of Foot; now
+contracted into Buffs. It was nicknamed the Buff Howards, from its
+facings and Colonel from 1737 to 1749; also the Nut-crackers (q.v.);
+and the Resurrectionists (q.v.), from its re-appearing at the Battle of
+Albuera after being dispersed by the Polish Lancers; also the ‘Old
+Buffs,’ from its facings, and to distinguish it from the 31st, the
+‘Young Buffs’; but the most ancient ‘Old Buffs’ were the ‘Duke of York
+and Albany’s Maritime Regiments,’ raised in 1664, and incorporated into
+the 2nd or Coldstream Guards in 1689.
+
+    1886. Tinsley’s Mag., ‘Our Regimental Mottoes and Nicknames,’
+    April, p. 319. The Buffs—a corps which enjoys the almost unique
+    privilege of marching through the city of London with bayonets
+    fixed. The 3rd Foot owes its immortal cognomen to the fact of its
+    having originally been clad in scarlet, lined and faced with buff;
+    its members also had buff waistcoats, buff breeches, and buff
+    stockings. Being the senior regiment thus clothed, they were
+    occasionally styled the ‘Old Buffs’; and the 31st, raised in 1702,
+    and dressed in a precisely similar fashion, were known as the Young
+    Buffs. The following tradition, however, offers a more
+    circumstantial account of the latter appellation. Having earned in
+    some hotly-contested action, the good opinion of a general under
+    whom they were serving, and who expressed his approbation by
+    calling out to the 31st, ‘Well done, Old Buffs!’ A few of the men,
+    somewhat excited by close combat, replied, ‘We are not the Old
+    Buffs, Sir.’ Whereupon the general cried, ‘Then well done, Young
+    Buffs!’ And so the ‘Young Buffs’ they became, and have since
+    remained, although the days of buff waistcoats and stockings have
+    long passed away.
+
+
+Buffle, subs. (old).—A fool; a stupid person. Cf., Buffle-head and
+Buff, sense 2. Murray quotes it as occurring in 1655, but the term is,
+as will be seen, nearly a century older. [After French buffle.] For
+synonymous terms, see following:—
+
+English Synonyms. Buffle-head; Sammy-soft, often contracted into Sammy;
+sheep’s head; crock (the original meaning is rather concerned with a
+slow worthless horse, but in sporting phraseology it has also come to
+mean a foolish, good-for-nothing person); duffer; dotty (also used by
+prostitutes of a low class to designate their protector or fancy man);
+cuckoo; calf; cabbage-head; cake; block; greenhorn; old curmudgeon;
+doddering old sheep’s head.
+
+French Synonyms. Un échappé de Charenton (échapper = to escape;
+Charenton is the name of a lunatic asylum in Paris; hence one escaped
+from Charenton. Cf., English colloquial use of the names of Hanwell,
+Colney Hatch, and Bedlam in describing idiotic or foolish conversation
+or behaviour); échappé d’Herode (Cf., foregoing); un vieil embaumé
+(this term is applied to a foolish person well advanced in years; an
+old curmudgeon); un actionnaire (literary: properly a shareholder).
+
+German Synonyms. Amhorez (literally a countryman; from Hebrew om, the
+people, + erez, country); Blechseppel (a soldier’s term); Chammer (a
+butcher’s or knacker’s word; it also signifies a donkey, and is derived
+from the Hebrew chamor); Dilmisch, Dilledapp, Dilldapp, Dilledali,
+Dellemelle, Dirledapp, Didel, Tatidel, Dudeldop, Dilldan (all these are
+popular expressions for a stupid fellow. Cf., dildalfen = to exhaust);
+Ewil (from the Hebrew owal; the term also stands for a sinner);
+Godeschaute (a great fool, a perfect fool; from the Hebrew godol,
+great, strong, celebrated, + schoto, a fool); Gomol (used only as a
+nickname; from the Hebrew gamal, a camel); Hanne or Hannes (a shortened
+form of Johannes, the German for the English John; it is curious that
+in both languages the nicknames Hanne and Jack should, as applied to
+men, always be used depreciatingly, see Jack); Harbogen, Hornickel,
+Hornigel (besides signifying a fool or weak-headed one, these words are
+used to designate an ox; they are employed indiscriminately); Heckel,
+Häckel, Hegel (also a fop; heckeln = to fool anyone, probably from
+hacken or hecheln, to hew, to hackle); Koppel (a diminutive of Jacob;
+sometimes written Jockel); Ksil (from the Hebrew kossal; variations in
+spelling are Kessil, Kessel, and in students’ slang Theekessel);
+Nebbich or Newich (among thieves employed to designate the clumsy,
+stupid fellow who is only entrusted with unimportant tasks connected
+with a robbery, such for instance as holding the sacks in which the
+stolen property is placed, or in carrying off the plunder); Nille or
+Knolle or Nolle (these terms are used to signify a fool, jester, or the
+male penis); Nowel or Newil or Nebel (also a cunning fellow, a rogue or
+‘sly blade’; das ist ein Newele, the equivalent of the Low German dat
+is een Aas vun Kêrl might be rendered by the English ‘he is a devil of
+a fellow’); Oochbram or Ogbrôm (a fool or rather one whose craziness
+resembles in extent the traditional stature of Og, King of Bashan—at
+least authorities agree in thinking this the most likely derivation of
+the word. Among the Jews Og is taken as an image of gigantic size. When
+the Israelites advanced on Edrëi, Og sat on the wall of the town, and
+his feet reached to the ground, so that Moses at first thought he was
+part of the wall, but when he discovered that it was a man he was
+seized with terror. Rum = on high, therefore Og b’rum = the [great] Og
+on high. Er hat die Grösse von Og Melech haboschon, he has the size of
+Og, King of Bashan. A corresponding expression is found in the Low
+German, de lange Rick, i.e., a tall, slenderly built fellow); Schote or
+Schaute or Schotte (from the Hebrew schoto; used especially of one who
+can be cheated or robbed with his eyes open; a tradesman or money
+changer who can be robbed while transacting business at the counter or
+while exchanging money); Sonof (a Hebrew word signifying properly a
+tail, and mostly used proverbially of things low and contemptible. It
+is also employed to designate the male penis; the German Gaunerspräche
+offers frequent examples in which contemptible names are also used
+synonymously for the male and female organs of generation).
+
+Italian Synonyms. Fiadetto (besides its meaning of a dolt or duffer,
+this term is also applied to a thief, rogue, or indeed a villain of any
+description); ribeba or ribecca (a goose or simpleton; properly a
+violin or Jewish harp); cordovano (this also means in the Fourbesque, a
+big man; properly it is the name of Morocco or Spanish leather);
+furlana; marietta or marietto (a dolt or dunce).
+
+Spanish Synonym. Dupa (Cf., English dupe).
+
+    1580. Beehive of the Romish Churche, fo. 66 b. An unlearned buffle
+    did babble.
+
+    1655. Comic Hist. Francion, iv., 22. He said to the three buffles
+    who stood with their hats in their hands. Tell me you Waggs, etc.
+    [M.].
+
+    1710. Pol. Ballads (1860), II., 90. To see the chief attorney such
+    a buffle.
+
+
+Buffle-Head, subs. (old).—An ignoramus; a stupid obtuse fellow. Cf.,
+Buffle, and which see for synonyms.
+
+    1659. Lady Alimony, I., ii., in Hazl. Dodsley, xiv., 278. What a
+    drolling buffle-head is this!
+
+    1663. Pepys, Diary, March 17. But my Lord Mayor a talking,
+    bragging, buffle-headed fellow.
+
+    1668. Pepys, Diary, Jan. 29. He tells me that Townsend, of the
+    Wardrobe, is the veriest knave and buffle-head that ever he saw.
+
+    1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act ii. Oliv. You know nothing, you
+    buffle-headed stupid creature you.
+
+    1686. D’Urfey, Commonwealth of Women, I., i. A damn’d huffing
+    fellow yonder, a Rebel, Whiggy buffle-head.
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Buffle-head, an ignoramus, or
+    dull sot.
+
+    1887. Dead Man’s Rock, bk. I., ch. v. ‘Jonathan’s a buffle-head ...
+    a daft fule like Jonathan.’
+
+
+Buffleheaded, adj. (old).—Stupid; idiotic; foolish. [From bufflehead, a
+foolish fellow (q.v.), + ed.]
+
+    1883. Baring Gould, John Herring, vol. II., ch. xxv., p. 275.
+    (Tauchnitz ed.) ‘A buffleheaded sort of a chap,’ said Joyce.
+
+
+Buffs, subs. (military).—The Third Regiment of Foot in the British
+army. From their facings.—See Buff Howards.
+
+    1849. Macaulay, Hist. England, I., 295. The third regiment,
+    distinguished by flesh-coloured facings, from which it derived the
+    well-known name of the Buffs.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 232. His father
+    was a captain in the Buffs, and himself a commissioned officer at
+    seventeen.
+
+    1874. Saturday Review, p. 95. This regiment [the First or Grenadier
+    Guards] has almost the longest record of any in the service, only
+    yielding, we believe, to the 1st Royals, and to the 3rd Buffs,
+    which were originally raised for the service of the States-General
+    of Holland.
+
+
+Buffy, adj. (common).—Intoxicated. For synonyms, see Screwed.
+
+    1866. Yates, Land at Last, I., p. 85. Flexor was fine and buffy
+    when he came home last night, after you was gone, sir.
+
+    1872. Besant and Rice, R. M. Mortiboy, ch. xlii. ‘My ideas take me
+    first of all unawares. They generally begin, like a toothache, when
+    I least expect them. Perhaps when I feel a little buffy, in the
+    morning; mayhap, after an extra go of grog the night before. Then
+    one comes all of a sudden.’
+
+
+Bug, subs. (thieves’).—1. A breast pin.
+
+2. (Old Irish.)—A jeering name for an Englishman—Grose says ‘because
+bugs were introduced into Ireland by Englishmen!!’
+
+3. (American.)—The term bug is, in the United States, not confined
+merely, as in England, to the domestic pest, but is applied to all
+insects of the Coleoptera order, which includes what in this country
+are generally called beetles. The English bug (Cimex lectularius) is,
+in the Southern States, known as the chinch. It may be mentioned,
+however, that at Winchester College a usage akin to that prevailing in
+America exists. There a bug merely means an insect, whether belonging
+to the Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, or any other order. Synonyms for the
+English domestic pest will be found under Norfolk Howards.
+
+    1642. Rogers, Naaman the Syrian, 74. Do not all as much and more
+    wonder at God’s rare workmanship in the Ant, the poorest bugge that
+    creeps.
+
+    1888. Grass Valley (Cal.) Tidings. Entomology, or bugology, is now
+    taught to some extent in our public schools. This is well, and is
+    of use. The children ought to learn about the bugs that are
+    destructive to useful vegetation. It is better to learn much about
+    bugs than so much about how to solve those arithmetical problems
+    that will never face anybody in the practical affairs of life.
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, March. The Insane Asylum Board some time
+    ago discontinued a bug-killer’s employment, and the doctor avers
+    that the old hospital building is swarming with cockroaches, and
+    that these bugs will soon be large and fat enough to carry out the
+    inmates and take their food and clothes.
+
+4. (American.)—Bug is also used idiomatically in various combinations,
+as big bugs (q.v.), a jocose and vulgar name for persons of wealth or
+distinction. Thence, similarly, cattle-bugs, that is, wealthy
+stock-raisers; gold-bugs, or monied men, etc.
+
+    1843. Haliburton, Sam Slick in England, ch. xv. The great guns and
+    big bugs have to take in each other’s ladies. Ibid, p. 24. Pick out
+    the big bugs and see what sort of stuff they’re made of.
+
+    1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, March 5. ‘Would Senator Allison’s
+    well-known views on silver coinage operate materially against him
+    in New York.’ ‘I think not; I do not think the feeling against
+    silver is anything like as strong as it was. Of course, a few
+    gold-bugs might fight him, but any of the men I have mentioned are
+    reasonably certain to carry New York.’
+
+That beats the bugs, phr. (American).—A phrase conveying a high mead of
+praise; ‘that beats cock-fighting.’
+
+Verb (old).—1. A cant word among journeymen hatters, signifying the
+exchanging some of the dearest materials of which a hat is made for
+others of less value. Hats are composed of the furs and wools of
+diverse animals, among which is a small portion of bever’s fur. Bugging
+is stealing the bever, and substituting in lieu thereof an equal weight
+of some cheaper ingredient. Bailiffs who take money to postpone or
+refrain the serving of a writ, are said to bug the writ.—Grose.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—To bribe. In old slang, bailiffs accepting money to
+delay service were said to bug the writ.
+
+3. (thieves’.)—To give; hand over; to deliver. Cf., sense 2.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. ‘He bug’d me a quid.’ ‘Bug over the
+    rag.’
+
+
+Bugaroch, adj. (Old Irish).—Pretty; comely; handsome.—Grose.
+
+
+Bug-Blinding, subs. (military).—Whitewashing operations.
+
+
+Bugger, subs. (old).—1. A thief whose speciality is stealing
+breast-pins from drunken men. [From bug, a cant term for a breast pin,
++ (g) ger.] Also called a bug hunter. For synonymous terms, see
+Area-sneak and Bug-hunter.
+
+2. (low.)—A man; a fellow. A coarse term of abuse without, however, any
+reference to the legal meaning—a sodomite. The French has an exact
+equivalent in Bougre, which Littré says is une terme de mépris et
+d’injure, usité dans le langage populaire le plus trivial et le plus
+grossier. The term, as applied to a man, is equivalent to bitch (q.v.),
+as applied to women. Hence also buggery (q.v.).
+
+    1719. D’Urfey, Pills, I., 59. From every trench the bougers fly.
+    [M.]
+
+    1854. M. Holmes, Tempest and Sun, 203. ‘If I’d known all you city
+    buggers was comin’, I’d a kivered my bar feet.’ [M.]
+
+
+Buggery, adj. (low).—An indefinite expression signifying disgust; or
+disapprobation. Of the same type as bloody, blamed, blasted, etc.
+(q.v.), but conveying a somewhat intenser meaning.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 23. A buggery
+    fool, why don’t he let people go to hell their own way? Ibid, p.
+    180. Here mother, give us one of your buggery trotters.
+
+
+Buggy, subs. (old).—A leather bottle.
+
+
+Bugher.—See Buffer.
+
+
+Bug-Hunter, subs. (thieves’).—A thief who plunders drunken men. The
+same as bugger, sense 1.
+
+French Synonyms. Un poivrier (popular and thieves’); un allumeur (this
+term is also applied to an auction room ‘button’ or confederate, and to
+a card-sharper’s decoy); faire un louave, or faire les gavés (to go
+bug-hunting. Louave and gavé = drunkard, the latter from gaver, to
+glut).
+
+    1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Those who hocus or
+    plunder persons by stupefying; as ‘drummers,’ who drug liquor, and
+    ‘bug-hunters,’ who plunder drunken men.
+
+2. subs. (old).—An upholsterer.—Lexicon Balatronicum.
+
+
+Bug-Juice, subs. (common).—1. Ginger ale.
+
+2. (American.)—The Schlechter whiskey of the Pennsylvania Dutch—a very
+inferior spirit. Also called bug-poison. These terms are now applied to
+bad whiskey of all kinds. For synonyms, see Drinks.
+
+    1888. Texas Siftings, 7 July. It is a singular fact, that nearly
+    every character introduced by Charles Dickens into his numerous
+    novels, was addicted to drinking ... each and every individual took
+    his bug-poison with surprising regularity and eminent satisfaction.
+
+
+Bugle It, verb (American cadets’).—To abstain from going into class
+until the last moment—i.e., until the bugle sounds.
+
+
+Bug Walk, subs. (common).—A bed. [Derivation obvious.]
+
+English Synonyms. Bedfordshire; Sheet Alley; Blanket Fair; Land of Nod;
+doss; rip; Cloth Market.
+
+French Synonyms. Un portfeuille (familiar: properly ‘a portfolio’); la
+boîte à puces (popular: this almost exactly corresponds to the English
+‘bug walk,’ the French phrase signifying ‘the flea box’); le pucier
+(popular: from puce = flea); le tremblant (popular); le plumard
+(popular); le fournil (popular and thieves’); la halle aux draps
+(popular: literally, Sheet Market or Fair. Cf., English ‘Blanket
+Fair’); le pagne; le panier aux ordures.
+
+
+Build, subs. and verb (popular).—Properly ‘to build is to construct,’
+says Murray, ‘for a dwelling and by extension of meaning ... to
+construct by fitting together of separate parts; chiefly with reference
+to structures of considerable size ... (not, e.g., a watch or a
+piano).’ Difficult as it may be at times to draw a dividing line
+between a literary, or even a colloquial usage and a slang
+signification, there can be little doubt that when build is applied to
+the make or style of dress, that it is the purest slang—‘It’s a tidy
+build, who made it?’ A tailor, it may be noted, is sometimes called a
+‘trousers’ builder.’ In the United States, this verb is used with much
+more latitude than in England. There, as Fennimore Cooper puts it,
+everything is built. The priest builds up a flock; the speculator a
+fortune; the lawyer a reputation; the landlord a town; and the tailor,
+as in England, builds up a suit of clothes. A fire is built instead of
+made, and the expression is even extended to individuals, to be built
+being used with the meaning of formed. ‘I was not built that way’; and
+hence in a still more idiomatic sense to express unwillingness to adopt
+a specified course or carry out any inconvenient plan.—See Not built
+that way.
+
+    1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. xx. That creator of manly
+    beauty, who builds your coat on the model of an Apollo.
+
+    1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. I., ch.
+    x. If he forswore the primitive garments that his country-tailor
+    had condemned him to wear, and adapted the build of his dress to
+    the peculiar requirements of university fashion.
+
+    1871. A. Forbes, My Experience of the War, etc., II., p. 19. I met
+    a gentleman who had got a dress coat built in the place
+    [Versailles].
+
+    1880. Punch, Jan. 10, p. 6. The spread of education and liberal
+    ideas.—His Grace the Duke of Poplar and Bermondsey. ‘Just look at
+    these bags you last built me, Snippe! J’ever see such beastly bags
+    in your life? I shall always be glad to come and dine with you, old
+    man; but I’ll be hanged if you shall ever measure me for another
+    pair of bags!’ Mr. Snippe (of Snippe and Son, St. James’s Street).
+    ‘You’ve always grumbled about your bags, as you call ’em, ever
+    since you were my fag at Eton; and at Christchurch you were just as
+    bad, even though my poor dear old governor used to come all the way
+    down and measure you himself. It ain’t the fault of the bags, my
+    dear Popsy—it’s the fault of the legs inside ’em! So, shut up, old
+    Stick-in-the-mud, and let’s join the ladies—the duchess has
+    promised to give us “Little Billee.”’
+
+Build a chapel, verbal phr. (nautical).—To steer badly, and so cause a
+ship to veer round.
+
+Not built that way, phr. (general).—Not to one’s taste, in one’s line—a
+general expression of disapproval or dissent, whether said of persons
+or things.
+
+    1881. American Humorist, May 12. We cannot shut our eyes to the
+    fact that mankind is passing through a great era of change; even
+    womankind is not built as she was a few brief years ago.
+
+    1888. Missouri Republican, Jan. 25.
+
+        ‘Why didn’t you roll down?’
+        ‘I wasn’t built that way.’
+
+
+Bulgarian Atrocities, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Varna and Rutschuk Ry. 3
+per cent. obligations.
+
+    1887. Atkin, House Scraps.
+
+        And we’ve really quite a crew
+        Of fancy names to represent a share....
+              But fancy, by the way,
+              Now, in the present day,
+        A Varna’s a Bulgarian atrocity.
+
+
+Bulge, verb (American).—The legitimate meaning is extended in many odd
+ways. ‘Bags’ bulge, but do not get baggy; and in a similar fashion when
+a man is ‘all attention,’ his eyes are said to bulge.
+
+    1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 31. A Phenomenal Fee. ‘Yes,’ said a
+    pompous young lawyer, on a street-car, to a friend: ‘I hadn’t been
+    downtown half an hour this morning, before I got a fee of ten
+    dollars!’ Then the eyes of a man who was hanging on to a strap
+    began TO bulge. ‘I say, young feller,’ he whispered earnestly:
+    ‘what saloon d’ye work at? I’m a waiter, myself!’
+
+To go or be on a bulge, verbal phr. (American).—To drink to excess.
+
+To get the bulge on one, verbal phr. (American mining slang).—To obtain
+an advantage over; an equivalent is to get the drop on one.
+
+    1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, p. 18. Well,
+    you’ve rather got the bulge on me. Or maybe we’ve both got the
+    bulge, somehow.
+
+    1885. Household Words, Oct. 10, p. 466. ‘Smart chap, that Jacob,
+    for a nig!’ remarked he, as we told him the outlines of our story.
+    ‘I guess now he’s had the bulge on you pretty considerable this
+    trip.’
+
+    1888. American Humorist, May 12. ‘Pop! are you up there?’ ‘Yes, my
+    son.’ ‘I saw he had the bulge on you and I got the gun and dropped
+    him!’ ‘Right, my boy. That’s what I was praying for.’
+
+
+Bulger, adj. (common).—Large; synonymous with buster (q.v.).
+
+
+Bulk, subs. (old).—See quots.—See also File and Bulker, sense 2.
+
+    1674. R. Head, Canting Acad., 35. Bulk and File. The one jostles
+    you, whilst the other picks your pocket.
+
+    1725. New Cant. Dict. Bulk, an assistant to a File or Pickpocket,
+    who jostles a Person up against the Wall, while the other picks his
+    Pocket.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bulk and file, two
+    pickpockets; the bulk jostles the party to be robbed, and the file
+    does the business.
+
+
+Bulker, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute of a low type—generally one who
+had no settled home; one who slept on a ‘bulk,’ a kind of sill
+projecting from a window. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
+
+    1691. Shadwell, Scowerers, Act i., Sc. 1. ‘Every one in a petticoat
+    is thy mistress, from humble bulker to haughty countess.’
+
+    1728. Baily, Bulker, a Common Jilt; a Whore.—Canting term. [In a
+    later edition (1790) he adds ‘one who would lay down on a bulk to
+    anyone.’]
+
+2. (old.)—A thief. Cf., Bulk.
+
+    1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), II., 108. Bulker
+    occurs in a list of names of thieves.
+
+    1678. Four for a Penny, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), IV., 147. He is
+    the treasurer of the thieves’ exchequer, the common fender of all
+    bulkers and shop-lifts in the town.
+
+
+Bulky, subs. (provincial).—A police constable. Said to be a northern
+term. For synonyms, see Beak.
+
+    1821. Edinburgh Mag., August, p. 156. This enterprising ruffian
+    boasts of his success in deceiving the bulkies on a search, by
+    concealing his stolen notes in the cape of his coat.
+
+    1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, bk. V., ch. ii. ‘Inquiries about
+    your respectability would soon bring the bulkies about me.’
+
+Adj. (Winchester College).—Rich or generous, or both. The opposite of
+brum (q.v.).
+
+
+Bull, subs. (colloquial.)—1. Formerly a blunder or mistake; now
+generally understood as an inconsistent statement; a ludicrous
+contradiction, often partaking largely of the nature of a pun. [Bull in
+M.E. = to befool; to mock.] The term was current long before the form
+Irish bull is met with.
+
+    1642. Milton, Apol. for Smect., § 6. But that such a poem should be
+    toothless, I still affirm it to be a bull, taking away the essence
+    of that which it calls itself. For if it bite neither the persons
+    nor the vices, how is it a satire? And if it bite either, how is it
+    toothless?
+
+    1673. Dryden, The Assignation, Act iii., Sc. 1. Ben. Faith, lady, I
+    could not sleep one wink, for dreaming of you. Lan. Not sleep for
+    dreaming? When the place falls, you shall be bull master general at
+    court.
+
+    1689. Selden, Table Talk, p. 96 (Arber’s ed.). We can make no
+    notion of it, ’tis so full of intricacy, so full of contradiction:
+    ’tis in good earnest, as we state it, half-a-dozen bulls one upon
+    another.
+
+    1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. I., p. 6. With Stale
+    Quibbles, Puns, and Bulls.
+
+    1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. i. ‘I have got into such an
+    infernal habit of making bulls, that I can’t write sense when I
+    want it.’
+
+    1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxxix. He was telling the
+    most outrageous of Irish stories, and making, on purpose, the most
+    outrageous of Irish bulls.
+
+In this connection it may be noted that in French cavalry regiments
+portez! and remettez! are mock commands given upon the perpetration of
+a bull. La calinotade signifies in the popular speech a ludicrous or
+foolish saying, whilst one given to uttering them is termed un calino.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—A crown or five shilling piece. Formerly bull’s eye
+(q.v.). [The origin is doubtful. It may be a mere allusion to the
+circular shape, or it may be of classical derivation, and be a
+reference to the herds and flocks which at one time constituted a man’s
+wealth. Cf., Latin pecunia, from pecus, cattle or oxen.]
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bull, a crown, or five
+    shillings.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 232.
+    List of patterers’ words. Bull, a crown.
+
+    1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xlvi. Four half-bulls, wot you may
+    call half-crowns.
+
+    1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S., 4 July. And therefore much as a bull
+    (or a hog) stand arbitrarily for a five-shilling-piece, half-a-bull
+    for half a-crown, a bob for a shilling, a tanner for sixpence,
+    etc., with equal propriety might a plum stand for £100,000.
+
+    1889. Answers, July 27, p. 136, col. 2. Once found, the ‘lurker’ is
+    pretty sure to draw a bull (five shillings), or even a ‘counter’
+    (pound).
+
+3. (Stock Exchange.)—Originally a speculative purchase for a rise;
+i.e., a man would agree to buy stock at a future day at a stated price
+with no intention of taking it up, but trusting to the market advancing
+in value to make the transaction profitable. Bull is the reverse of
+bear (q.v.). The term is now more frequently applied to the person
+engaged in the above-mentioned tactics, i.e., to one who tries to
+enhance the value of stocks by speculative purchases or otherwise. Also
+used as a verb and adjective.
+
+    b. 1671, d. 1757. Cibber, The Refusal, or The Ladies’ Philosophy.
+    Granger (to Witling, who has been boasting of his gain): And all
+    this out of ‘Change Alley’? Witling: Every shilling, Sir, all out
+    of stocks, Pulls, Bulls, Rams, Bears, and Bubbles.
+
+    1768. Foote, Devil upon Two Sticks, Act i. A mere bull and bear
+    booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent foot
+    bankrupts.
+
+    1774. Coleman, Man of Business, IV., i., in wks. (1777) II., 179.
+    My young master is the bull, and Sir Charles is the bear. He agreed
+    for stock, expecting it to be up at three hundred by this time;
+    but, lack-a-day, sir, it has been falling ever since.
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iv. The hum and bustle which his approach
+    was wont to produce among the bulls, bears, and brokers of Stock
+    Alley.
+
+    1860. Peacock, Gryll Grange, ch. xviii. In Stock Exchange slang,
+    Bulls are speculators for a rise, Bears for a fall.
+
+    1881. Mark Lane Express, Aug. 8, p. 1085. The speculative movement
+    which has, so far, exerted a bull influence on the maize market.
+
+On the French Bourse a bull is called un haussier; in Berlin he is
+known as liebhaler; and in Vienna the term used is contremine.
+
+4. (nautical.)—See Bull the cask or barrel.
+
+5. (common.)—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 148. In these places, too,
+    the lodgers divide their food frequently, and a man, seeing a
+    neighbour without anything, will hand him his teapot, and say,
+    ‘Here you are, mate; here’s a bull for you.’ A ‘bull’ is a teapot
+    with the leaves left in for a second brew.
+
+6. (thieves’.)—Prison rations of meat, an allusion to its toughness;
+also generally used for meat without any reference to its being either
+tough or tender. A French equivalent is la bidoche. [Its derivation is
+suggested in the following quot.]
+
+    1883. Echo, Jan. 25, p. 2, col. 3. Thus from the French ‘bouilli’
+    we probably get the prison slang term bull for a ration of meat.
+
+7. (American.)—A locomotive; the word is sometimes lengthened into
+bullgine.
+
+8. (Winchester College.)—Cold beef, introduced at breakfast about 1873.
+
+Verb (American University).—At Dartmouth College to recite badly; to
+make a poor recitation. [From the substantive bull, a blunder or
+contradiction, or from the use of the word as a prefix, signifying
+large, lubberly, blundering.]
+
+Stale bull, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Stock held over for a long period
+with profit.
+
+
+Bull and Cow, subs. (rhyming slang).—A row.
+
+
+Bull-Bait, verb (? nonce word).—To bully; hector; badger. [Clearly a
+figurative usage of the legitimate word.]
+
+    1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xviii., p. 82. ‘Which I
+    meantersay,’ cried Joe, ‘that if you come into my place
+    bull-baiting and badgering me, come out!’
+
+
+Bull-Beef, subs. (old).—A frequently recurring term of contempt.
+Prisoners apply it to the hard, stringy meat supplied to them, and
+formerly the expression was in general use. ‘As ugly as bull-beef’; ‘as
+big as bull-beef’; ‘go and sell yourself for bull-beef’; were common
+colloquialisms at the end of the last and the beginning of the present
+century. Sometimes contracted into bull. Cf., Bully beef.
+
+    1579. Gosson, Apol. of the Schoole of Abuse, p. 64 (Arber). I
+    vnderstand they are all in a fustian fume.... They haue eaten
+    bul-bief, and threatned highly too put water in my woortes
+    whensoeuer they catche me.
+
+    1607. Rowlands, Diogines Lanthorne, p. 8 (H. Cl. Repr., 1873). How
+    lookes yonder fellow? what’s the matter with him trow? has a eaten
+    bul-beefe? there’s a lofty slaue indeede, hee’s in the altitudes.
+
+    1738–1819. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Rights of Kings, Ode I., in wks.
+    (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 219. The Cooks, Bluff on th’ occasion,
+    put on bull’s-beef looks.
+
+    1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. 3, in wks. (1809) I., 62.
+
+        Yet thou may’st bluster like bull-beef so big.
+
+    1860. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Season Ticket, x. Which look as
+    cheap as bull-beef at one cent a pound.
+
+    1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, p. 524. To look as big as
+    bull-beef. To look stout and hearty, as if fed on bull-beef.
+    Bull-beef was formerly recommended for making men strong and
+    muscular.
+
+    1888. Ashton, Mod. Street Ballads, p. 61.
+
+        For soon he will his trial take,
+          And hard bull-beef be munching.
+
+
+Bull Calf, subs. (old).—See quot.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull calf, a great
+    hulkey or clumsy fellow.
+
+
+Bull Chin, subs. (old).—Explained by quotation.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull chin, a fat,
+    chubby child.
+
+
+Bull-Dance, subs. (nautical).—A dance in which only men take part. Cf.,
+Stag-dance, Gander-party, Hen-party, etc.
+
+    1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bull-dance. At sea it is performed
+    by men only when without women. It is sometimes called a
+    stag-dance.
+
+    1887. Graphic, March 26, p. 315, col. 3. It is obliged to be a
+    bull-dance. Gentlemen dance with gentlemen, and the pianist is, of
+    course, a gentleman also.
+
+
+Bull-Dog, subs. (old).—1. A sheriff’s officer; a bailiff.
+
+    1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iii., 2. Mock. But pray what’s
+    the matter, Mrs. Lyric?
+
+Lyric. Nothing, sir, but a shirking bookseller that owed me about forty
+guineas for a few lines. He would have put me off, so I sent for a
+couple of bull-dogs, and arrested him.
+
+2. (old.)—A pistol; in the naval service a main-deck gun. Cf., Barker
+and Bull-dog blazer.
+
+    1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, iii., 2. He whips out his
+    stiletto, and I whips out my bull-dog.
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ii., 191. ‘I have always a brace of
+    bull-dogs about me.’... So saying, he exhibited a very handsome,
+    highly-finished, and richly-mounted pair of pistols.
+
+    1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bull-dog or muzzled bull-dog, the
+    great gun which stands housed in the officer’s ward-room cabin.
+    General term for main-deck guns.
+
+    1881. Daily News, Oct. 27, p. 6, col. 2. Revolver cartridges of the
+    ordinary ‘bull-dog’ pattern.
+
+3. (old.)—See quot.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Bull-dog, a sugar-loaf.
+
+4. (University.)—A proctor’s assistant or marshall. Cf., quot. from
+Brewer’s Reader’s Handbook.
+
+    1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, I., x. (1842), 59. Long forgotten
+    stories about proctor’s bit and bull-dogs baffled. [M.]
+
+    1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, bk. III., ch. iii. ‘The proctor
+    and his bull-dogs came up ... and gave chase to the delinquents ...
+    the night was dark, and they reached the College in safety.’
+
+    1847. Tennyson, Princess, Prologue.
+
+                  We unworthier told
+        Of college: he had climb’d across the spikes,
+        And he had squeezed himself betwixt the bars,
+        And he had breath’d the Proctor’s dogs.
+
+    1880. Brewer, Reader’s Handbook. Bull-dogs, the two servants of a
+    university proctor, who follow him in his rounds, to assist him in
+    apprehending students who are violating the university statues,
+    such as appearing in the streets after dinner without cap and gown,
+    etc.
+
+5. (University: obsolete.)—A name for a member of Trinity College,
+Cambridge.
+
+
+Bull-Dog Blazer, subs. (American).—A revolver. [Probably a mere
+amplification of the kindred English canting term; bull-dog, a pistol,
++ blazer, an allusion to the flash attendant upon firing.] For
+synonyms, see Meat in the pot.
+
+
+Bull-Dose, subs. (American).—A severe castigation or flogging. Verb.—To
+thrash; to intimidate; to bully. A term of Southern political origin,
+originally referring to an association of negroes formed to insure, by
+violent and unlawful means, the success of an election. The phrase has
+now passed into general use, political and otherwise, to signify the
+adoption and use of coercive measures. [The derivation is almost
+literal—a bull-dose, a flogging with a strip of hide; the action itself
+being represented by the verb to bulldose. Though indifferently spelt
+both with single and double ‘l’ and with ‘s’ and ‘z,’ the correct
+version is bulldose.] Also derivatives bulldoser (q.v.), and
+bull-dosing, mutatis mutandis, of a kindred meaning.
+
+    1876. New York Tribune, Dec. There was a bad case of ‘bulldozing’
+    in Cincinnati on Monday night. A handful of bold Democrats had
+    gathered to let out their pent-up desire for Tilden or blood....
+    Mr. C—— was in the chair, and was warming up the faithful with an
+    address, when the Republicans crowded around him in so threatening
+    a manner that he mounted the table, shook his address in their
+    faces, and declared, like a true hero, that he was not to be
+    ‘intimidated.’
+
+    1880. Illust. London News, vol. LXXVII., p. 587, col. 1. The
+    Americans have lately been using a strange word, ‘bull-dosing,’
+    which signifies, I believe, political intimidation, but not
+    personal molestation.
+
+    1881. Sat. Review, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. To ‘bull-dose’ a negro in
+    the Southern States means to flog him to death or nearly to death.
+
+    1881. Sat. Review, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. A ‘bull-dose’ means a
+    large efficient dose of any sort of medicine or punishment.
+
+    1887. Cassell’s Mag. (Art. on ‘Americanisms’), June, p. 412. To
+    ‘bulldoze’ is to intimidate, and the word was originally used
+    respecting the alleged interference with negro voters in Louisiana.
+
+    1888. Detroit Evening Journal, 20 Feb. The Democrats complain of
+    the amounts of money they had to face, but that was not such a
+    source of trouble as the bulldozing of voters by the mining bosses.
+    They were driven to the polls, and compelled to vote for Seymour.
+
+A French equivalent is faire son fendart (fendart signifies ‘braggart’
+or ‘swaggerer’; fendant in literary French means a hector or bully).
+
+
+Bull-Doser, subs. (American).—1. A bully; braggart; swaggerer. Cf.,
+Bull-dose. French printers call a bully un mata, an abbreviation of
+matador. It is curious that this term in the original Spanish not only
+signifies a killer of bulls (as in a bull-fight), but also a murderer.
+
+    1878. N. American Review, vol. CXXVII., p. 426. The great
+    ‘bulldozer’ of Europe.
+
+    1882. New York Tribune, 3 May. The hotel where he was staying was
+    visited ... by a mob of bull-dozers. [M.]
+
+2. A pistol.
+
+    1881. Sat. Review, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. A Californian bull-doser
+    is a pistol which carries a bullet heavy enough to destroy human
+    life with certainty.
+
+
+Bullet. To give the bullet, verbal phr. (common).—To discharge an
+employé. Cf., To give the bag, sense 2, under Bag, and Sack. [Possibly
+a punning allusion to the word ‘discharge.’] The term is variously
+used. To shake the bullet at anyone, is to threaten with ‘the sack,’
+but not to give actual notice to leave. To get the bullet is to get
+notice, while to get the instant bullet is to be discharged upon the
+spot.
+
+    1841. Savage, Dict. of Art of Printing. A workman was said to have
+    got the bullet when he was discharged instanter—without the
+    customary notice on either side.
+
+    1872. Chamb. Jour., March 9, p. 147. When a fellow gets the bullet
+    from his work, he mostly has a spell at cab-driving.
+
+    1887. Punch, Sept. 17, p. 126. I have just got the ‘bullet,’
+    Mate—sacked without notice.
+
+
+Bullfinch, subs. (old).—1. A stupid fellow.
+
+2. (hunting.)—A high thick hedge; one difficult to jump or rush
+through. [Most authorities agree in suggesting the origin of this term
+in a corruption of ‘bull-fence,’ i.e., a fence capable of preventing
+cattle from straying.]
+
+    1832. Quart. Rev., Mar., 226. The bull-finch fence ... is a
+    quickset hedge of perhaps fifty years’ growth, with a ditch on one
+    side or the other, and so high and strong that [one] cannot clear
+    it. [M.]
+
+    1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. ix. The third is a
+    teaser—an ugly black bull-finch with a ditch on the landing side,
+    and a drop into a ploughed field.
+
+    1880. The Times, Nov. 2, p. 4, col. 5. They are almost invariably
+    attired in double-stitched shooting coats, that will stand the
+    ordeal of ‘bull-finches’ and brambles.
+
+    1889. Man of the World, June 29. See Harrington, the belted earl,
+    bear down an opponent in the jousts, charging with lance or sword
+    as if he were riding at a South Notts bull-finch.
+
+
+Bull-Jine, subs. (nautical).—A sailor’s term for a locomotive. [Thought
+to be of American origin, New York thieves using the same term, as also
+an abbreviated form—bull.]
+
+
+Bull Money, subs. (harlotry).—Money extorted from or given by those who
+in places of public resort have been detected in flagrante delicto with
+a woman, as a bribe to silence.
+
+
+Bull-Nurse, subs. (nautical).—See quot.
+
+    1885. Graphic, April 4, p. 326, col. 3. ‘Bull-nurses.’ Perhaps we
+    ought to apologise for using this word; but years ago (it may be so
+    still) it was the sailors’ phrase to indicate a male-attendant on
+    the sick.
+
+
+Bullock, subs. (schoolboys’).—1. See quot.
+
+    1855. J. K., in Notes and Queries, 1 S., v., 12, 3 Nov., p. 344.
+    Bullock, a cheat; but as I think, only when cheating at marbles.
+
+2. (Australian.)—A countryman or bushman. Cf., Bullock-puncher.
+
+Verb.—To bully; to bounce over; to intimidate. [Query from bully.]
+
+    1716. M. Davies, Ath. Brit., I., 272. Upon the evidence of that
+    bullocking Fryer Campanella. [M.]
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. II., ch. vi. ‘And then you have
+    charged me with bullocking you into owning the truth.’
+
+    1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, Act ii., Sc. 2. She shan’t think to
+    bullock and domineer over me.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bullock, to hector,
+    bounce, or bully.
+
+
+Bullock’s Heart.—See Token.
+
+
+Bullock’s Horn, verb (rhyming slang).—To pawn. For synonyms, see Pop.
+
+
+Bull Party, subs. (old).—A party of men only. Cf., Bull-dance,
+Stag-party, Hen-tea, etc.
+
+
+Bull-Puncher.—A variant of cow-puncher (q.v.).
+
+
+Bull’s Eye, subs. (schoolboys’).—1. A sweetmeat of which peppermint is
+an important ingredient. [It received its name in allusion to its
+globular shape.]
+
+    1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I., 51. Hardbake, brandy-balls, and
+    bull’s-eyes. [M.]
+
+    1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 83. Dr. Switcher (who had discovered
+    bull’s eyes about, and traced them to the original donor). ‘Don’t
+    you know, Muggins, there’s an old proverb that “Fools give feasts
+    and Wise men eat them”’? Muggins. ‘Yes, Sir, and there’s another
+    one, sir.’ The Doctor. ‘What’s that, sir? Now, Sir?’—(noticing a
+    reticence)—‘What is it, Sir?’—(sternly)—‘or else—!’ Muggins (seeing
+    no escape). ‘Please, Sir, “W—— wise men make proverbs and F—— Fools
+    repea——.”’ [Catches it!]
+
+2. (old.)—A five-shilling piece, otherwise known as a bull (q.v.).
+
+    1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. [Mentioned as a cant term for a
+    crown.]
+
+    1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Bull’s-eye, a Crown.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull’s-eye, a crown
+    piece.
+
+
+Bull’s-eye Villas, subs. (military).—A nickname given to the small open
+tents used by the Volunteers at their annual gathering. [An allusion to
+bull’s-eye in its meaning of the centre of a target.]
+
+
+Bull’s Feather. To give [or get] the bull’s feather, verbal phr.
+(old).—To be made, or be a cuckold. Cf., Acteon. The French say also
+planter des plumes de bœuf.
+
+    16(?). Song of the 17th Century, quoted by Nares—‘The Bull’s
+    Feather.’
+
+        It chanced not long ago as I was walking,
+        An echo did bring me where two were a talking,
+        ’Twas a man said to his wife, dye had I rather,
+        Than to be cornuted and wear a bull’s feather.
+        Then presently she reply’d sweet, art thou jealous?
+        Thou canst not play Vulcan before I play Venus;
+        Thy fancies are foolish, such follies to gather,
+        There’s many an honest man hath worn the bull’s feather—
+        Though it be invisible, let no man it scorn,
+        Though it be a new feather made of an old horn,
+        He that disdains it in heart or mind either,
+        May he be the more subject to wear the bull’s feather.
+
+    1748. Richardson, Cl. Harlowe, v., 295. A good whimsical
+    instrument, take it altogether! But what, thinkest thou, are the
+    arms to this matrimonial harbinger?... Three crooked horns,
+    smartley top-knotted with ribands; which being the ladies’ wear,
+    seem to intimate that they may very probably adorn, as well as
+    bestow, the bull’s-feather.
+
+
+Bull the Cask or Barrel, verbal phr. (nautical).—To pour water into a
+rum cask when empty, with a view to keeping the wood moist and
+preventing leakage. The water, receiving after some time a strong
+impregnation, is very intoxicating. The authorities, not looking with
+much favour upon a wholesale brewing of grog in this way, sometimes use
+salt water as a deterrent, though even this ‘salt water bull’ as it is
+called, when again poured out, has often proved too attractive for
+seamen to resist. Again it is common to talk in the same way of
+‘bulling a teapot,’ ‘coffee-pot,’ etc.; that is; after the first ‘brew’
+has been exhausted, by adding fresh water, and boiling over again, to
+make a second brew from the old materials. This probably was derived
+from bulling the cask, but whether the bulling originally applied to
+the preserving the water-tight qualities of the cask, or to the making
+of the second brew is not quite certain. Taking, however, the present
+acceptation of the term, together with its probable derivation (see
+below), the latter would appear to be the case. [Thought to have its
+origin in French boullir, whence bouilloire, a tea-kettle; bouillon, a
+decoction of meat to which vegetables, salt and pepper have been
+added.]
+
+    1824. Cochrane, Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia
+    and Siberian Tartary, p. 225. My liquor was at end from the effects
+    of a very common sort of leak—it had been tapped too often. I could
+    do nothing but bull the barrel, that is, put a little water into
+    it, and so preserve at least the appearance of vookey.
+
+    1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xx. ‘Why, Jacob, a bull means
+    putting a quart or two of water into a cask which has had spirits
+    in it.’
+
+    1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 148. In these places, too,
+    the lodgers divide their food frequently, and a man, seeing a
+    neighbour without anything, will hand him his teapot, and say,
+    ‘Here you are, mate; here’s a bull for you.’ A ‘bull’ is a teapot
+    with the leaves left in for a second brew.
+
+
+Bull-Trap, subs. (American thieves’).—A personator of a police
+constable.
+
+
+Bully, subs. (old).—1. A ‘protector’ of a prostitute; a ‘fancy man.’
+The name is often well applied, inasmuch as violence and swagger form
+the main staple of the stock-in-trade of such men in levying blackmail
+upon the victims enticed by their women companions.
+
+    1706. Defoe, Jure Divino, i., 8. Mars the celestial bully they
+    adore, And Venus for an everlasting whore.
+
+French Synonyms. Poisson (familiar and popular: one who subsists on the
+gains of a prostitute, the latter being known as his marmite, i.e.,
+‘flesh-pot’; poisson signifies literally ‘a fish,’ and Michel says such
+a one was formerly known as poisson d’avril, a punning variation of
+maquereau [which see], mackerel being fit for food about that month.
+Poisson d’avril properly means a trick or fool’s errand; recevoir un
+poisson d’avril is to be made an April-fool); Alphonse (a French form
+of Alphonso, a ‘fancy name’ for a ‘fancy man.’ Cf., Adonis for a dandy.
+Alphonsisme is the calling of an Alphonse); baigne-dans-le-beurre
+(popular: another allusion to mackerel which is generally served with
+butter); barbise (popular); barbe (popular: lit. ‘beard’); barbille or
+barbillon (a young hand at the business); barbeau (popular: properly
+barbel, from L. L. barbellus, dim. from barbus, a barbel, i.e., the
+fish, from barba, a beard); marlou or marlousier (general: the second
+term is the oldest, and Michel derives it from marlier, formerly used
+in the sense of marguillier, signifying properly ‘churchwarden.’ Cf.,
+Sacristain); benoît (popular); brochet (popular: properly this is
+‘pike’ or ‘jack’); dos, dos vert, and dos d’azur (general: dos = back);
+casquette à trois ponts (popular: so called from a cap often worn by
+such persons); chevalier du bidet (bidet = pony; Cf., Omnibus);
+chevalier de la guiche (familiar); chiqueur de blanc (chiqueur =
+glutton, and blanc, a street-walker. Cf., mangeuse de viande crue);
+bouffeur de blanc (popular); costel (popular); cravate verte (popular);
+guiche (popular); dessous (thieves’: a man for whom ‘love’ is cherished
+by a prostitute); écaillé (literally ‘one with scales,’ like those of a
+fish—allusive of maquereau; fish, another reference to maquereau);
+foulard rouge (popular: lit. ‘red silk handkerchief’); gentilhomme sous
+marin (popular); ambassadeur (popular); gonce à écailles (gonce = man;
+à écailles = with scales, an allusion to maquereau); goujon (general: ?
+does this come from the Gascon gouie, whence comes gouge, a
+prostitute); lacromuche (popular); retrousseur (popular: retrousser
+properly means ‘to turn up,’ ‘to cock’); dauphin (popular: lit.
+dolphin); macchoux (popular); machabée (popular: lit. a corpse); mac or
+macque (popular; abbreviations of maquereau); macrottin (familiar);
+poisson frayeur (frayer [of fishes] signifies ‘to milt’); releveur de
+fumeuse (popular: Cf., relever le chandelier, i.e., to lift up the
+candlestick; from a practice of placing the fees of a prostitute under
+a candlestick); maquignon à bidoche (popular: maquignon is properly a
+‘horsedealer,’ and bidoche = meat); mangeur de blanc (general: a
+devourer of prostitutes. Cf., chiqueur de blanc); tête de patère
+(popular); marloupatte, marloupin (see marlou); marquant (thieves’);
+mec (popular and thieves’); mec de la guiche (so called from his
+kiss-curls—des guiches = kiss-curls); monsieur à nageoires (lit.
+gentleman with fins); monsieur à rouflaquettes (popular: rouflaquettes
+= aggerawators, q.v.); neg en viande chaude (popular: neg is an
+abbreviation of négociant, i.e., merchant, dealer; viande chaude = hot
+meat); patenté (popular: patente is the name of a cap worn by the
+fraternity); porte-nageoires (see monsieur à nageoires); roi de la mer
+(popular: lit. king of the sea. Cf., maquereau, poisson, etc.);
+rouflaquette (Cf., monsieur à rouflaquettes); roule-en-cul,
+soixante-six (popular: insulting terms which might be translated by
+‘pensioner,’ with an obscene prefix); un qui va aux épinards (popular:
+one who receives money from a prostitute, épinards = spinach. Cf., ‘to
+take one’s greens’); valet de cœur (popular: the lover of a
+prostitute); visqueux (properly this signifies ‘viscous,’ ‘slimy,’
+‘clammy’; the term is applied to the lowest type of bullies); bibi
+(popular); bras de fer (lit. ‘arm of iron’).
+
+    1729. Gay, Polly, Act ii., Sc. 7. Jimmy: Sure never was such
+    insolence! how could you leave me with this bawdy-house bully?
+
+    1753. Adventurer, No. 100. I learned to pack cards and to cog a
+    die; became a bully to whores.
+
+    1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xx. The lady was only a
+    woman of the town, and the fellow her bully and a sharper.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act. ii., Sc. 4. M’L. Plaise
+    your honour, I have brought before your worship a most notorious
+    prostitute and common street walker, who, for her foul doings, has
+    been cooped up in the Poultry Comptor, as often as there are years
+    in a week.—I caught her charging these honest gentlemen (pointing
+    to Tom and Jerry) in a most impositious manner, and when I civilly
+    axed her, how she could think of getting drunk, and acting so, she
+    called her bullies here. (Pointing to Kate and Sue.)
+
+    1883. A. Dobson, Fielding, p. 129. Probably a professed sabreur, if
+    not a salaried bully like Captain Stab in the Rake’s Progress.
+
+    1887. Daily News, 15 July, 6, 5. It was not an uncommon thing for a
+    prostitute to solicit a man, and if he refused her importunities,
+    to call upon a ‘bully,’ and complain that she had been assaulted.
+
+2. (Eton College.)—A melée at football; the equivalent of the Rugby
+‘scrimmage’ and the Winchester ‘hot.’ It is where the majority of
+players play.
+
+3. (nautical.)—A term of endearment in use amongst sailors. Equivalent
+to ‘pal,’ ‘mate,’ and similar terms. In this sense it has long been in
+use, Shakspeare often employing it. Probably hence arose the American
+and colonial adjectival use of the word in the sense of fine, ‘crack.’
+
+4. (American thieves’.)—A weapon formed by tying a stone or a piece of
+lead in a handkerchief. This is used knuckleduster fashion.
+
+Adj. (American).—Fine; capital; crack; ‘spiff.’ Applied to persons
+only, this adjective is traceable as far back as 1681; it seems,
+however, to have fallen into disuetude and to have been subsequently
+revived in a much more extended sense in the U.S.A., whence it has made
+the circuit of the English speaking world. Now applied to anything
+deserving of commendation, and used very much in the same way and with
+the same shades of meaning as ‘crack.’
+
+English Synonyms. See A1.
+
+French Synonyms. In addition to those given under A1 may be mentioned
+the following:—muche; pas piqué des hannetons (popular: literally not
+bitten or stung by May-bugs or cockchafers).
+
+    1681. Chetham, Anglers’ Vade Mecum (1689), pref. From such bully
+    fishers this book expects no other reception.
+
+    1855. Cairo City Times. The bully steamboat ‘Crystal Palace’ passed
+    up to St. Louis on Monday. We have no doubt she left papers.
+
+    1870. Meade, New Zealand, p. 331. The roof fell in, there was a
+    ‘bully’ blaze.
+
+    1875. N. Amer. Review, vol. CXX., p. 128. ‘That,’ replied Earney,
+    ‘is Mercury, the god of merchants and thieves.’ ‘Good! that’s
+    bully!’ exclaimed Tweed.
+
+    1880. Bret Harte, A Lonely Ride. ‘I thought you changed horses on
+    the road?’ ‘So we did. Two hours ago.’ ‘That’s odd. I didn’t notice
+    it.’ ‘Must have been asleep sir. Hope you had a pleasant nap. Bully
+    place for a nice quiet snooze,—empty stage, sir!’
+
+That’s bully for you, phr. (American).—Grand or fine; this phrase,
+during the Civil War, had a remarkably popular run.
+
+    1873. Justin McCarthy, Fair Saxon, ch. xix. ‘Darling boy! I had
+    thought of this already.’ ‘Bully for you, mamma! Of course you
+    did.’
+
+Bully boy or bully boy with the glass eye, phr. (American).—A good
+fellow.
+
+    1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. ‘Well said, my hearty
+    captain!’ cried Glossin, endeavouring to catch the tone of
+    revelry.... ‘That’s it, my bully boy! Why, you’re alive again
+    now!—’
+
+    1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. viii. ‘And you, Mr. Frank Osbaldistone,
+    are not the first bully-boy that has said stand to a true man.’
+
+    1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, p. 20. You
+    ought to seen him get started once. He was a bully boy with a glass
+    eye.
+
+
+Bully-Back or Bully-Buck, subs. (old).—Thus described by Grose: A bully
+to a bawdy house, one who is kept in pay, to oblige the frequenters of
+the house to submit to the impositions of the mother abbess or bawd,
+and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies,
+and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant
+young men, whom he finds with her. Cf., Bully-boss.
+
+    1626. Amherst, Terræ Fil., xxxiii., 179. They have spirtual bravves
+    on their side, and old lecherous bully-backs to revenge their
+    cause. [M.]
+
+
+Bully Beef, subs. (military).—Tinned meat. Also called iron ration
+(q.v.). In the navy by bully-beef is meant boiled salt beef. [This may
+either be a corruption of bull beef or from the French bouilli, boiled
+meat.]
+
+    1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, pref., xii.
+    Soup-and-bouilli is another standing sea dish, and, taking it all
+    round, is the most disgusting of the provisions served out to the
+    merchant sailor. I have known many a strong stomach, made
+    food-proof by years of pork eaten with molasses, and biscuit alive
+    with worms, to be utterly capsized by the mere smell of
+    soup-and-bouilli. Jack calls it ‘soap and bullion, one onion to a
+    gallon of water,’ and thus fairly expresses the character of the
+    nauseous compound.
+
+    1887. Daily News, July 9, p. 6, col. 4. The rations will be of the
+    kind known to Tommy Atkins as ‘bully beef.’ There may be in it a
+    considerable proportion of mutton, but that makes no difference to
+    him.
+
+
+Bully-Boss, subs. (American).—The landlord of a brothel or thieves’
+den. [From bully, sense 1 (q.v.), + boss, a master.]
+
+
+Bully-Buck.—See Bully-back.
+
+
+Bully Cock, subs. (old).—1. See quot.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bully-cock, one who
+    foments quarrels in order to rob the persons quarrelling.
+
+2. subs. (old).—A low round hat with broad brim.—See Billy-cock.
+
+3. (old.)—A man who sets other people by the ears, so that, while they
+quarrel, he may rob them with impunity.
+
+
+Bullyrag or Ballyrag, verb (colloquial).—To revile; abuse; scold
+vehemently—usually in vulgar or obscene language; also to swindle by
+means of intimidation. [The etymology is unknown.]
+
+French Synonyms. Arranger aux petits oignons; monter une gamme
+(popular: gamme = thrashing or ‘walloping’); habiller quelqu’un de
+taffetas (popular: i.e., to clothe anyone with fear; Cf., ‘clothed with
+shame’); agonir (popular: ‘to haul over the coals’; properly ‘to pull
+to pieces’); secouer les puces à quel-qu’un (popular: secouer = to
+shake; puces = fleas. Cf., ‘to send one away with a flea in the ear’).
+
+    1760. T. Warton, Oxford Newsman’s Verses.
+
+        On Minden’s plains, ye meek Mounseers!
+        Remember Kingsley’s grenadiers.
+        You vainly thought to ballarag us,
+        Like your fine squadron off Cape Lagos.
+
+    1861. Charles Lever, One of Them, p. 36. He bullyragged me.
+
+    1876. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Tom Sawyer, p. 118. I don’t want
+    nothing better ’n this; I don’t git enough to eat gin’ally,—and
+    here they can’t come and pick a feller and bullyrag him so.
+
+    1880. Jas. Greenwood, Maids in Waiting, in Odd People in Odd
+    Places, p. 143. You should have heard the bullyragging I got,
+    ma’am, from the mistress and the master as well, and I was turned
+    out in the shameful way I’ve already explained to you, for doing
+    what was no wrong at all, but only what me good-nature tempted me
+    to.
+
+    1884. Jas. Payn, Talk of the Town, ch. v. He had never been
+    ‘bally-ragged’ in his own house for ‘nothing’—except by his
+    wife—before.
+
+
+Bullyragging, verb, subs. (colloquial).—Scolding; abuse; and sometimes
+swindling. [From bullyrag (q.v.) + ing.] For synonyms, see Wigging.
+
+    1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. xviii. ‘It would be a good
+    thing for she ... if she could bully Miss Eleanor into marrying
+    Captain Hertford, and then that the pair on ’em should have the
+    bullying and bally-ragging of nine thousand a year.’
+
+    1880. Mrs. Parr, Adam and Eve, xxi., 292. There’ll be more set to
+    the score o’ my coaxin’ than ever ‘all be to Adam’s bully-ragging.’
+    [M.]
+
+    1882. Daily Telegraph, Oct. 19, p. 3, col. 1. ‘And you should have
+    heard the bully-ragging I got, ma’am, from the mistress and the
+    master as well.’
+
+
+Bully-Rook or Bully-Rock, subs. (old).—Originally this term seems to
+have been applied to a pleasant or boon-companion; later, however, to a
+swaggerer, a bully, a bravo. [Thought by most etymologists to be a
+combination of bully (q.v.) + rook (q.v.), a sharper.]
+
+    1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i., Sc. 3. Why says
+    my bully-rook?
+
+    1633. Shirley, Wittie Faire One, Act iii., Sc. 4. Such in the
+    spirit of sack, till we be delphic, and prophesy, my bully-rook.
+
+    1697. Praise of Yorkshire Ale. My bully-rocks, I’ve been
+    experienced long In most of Liquors. [M.]
+
+    1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Bully, or bully-rock, 1. a
+    boisterous, hectoring fellow.
+
+
+Bully Ruffian, subs. (old).—A footpad or highwayman, who, to the injury
+of robbery, added the insult of coarse invective. Cf., Bridle-cull.
+
+
+Bully Trap, subs. (old).—A man who, though of mild outside demeanour,
+is a match for any ruffian who may attack him. Quoted by Grose [1785].
+
+
+Bully Up (Uppingham School), verb.—To hurry up. Mostly used in the
+imperative.
+
+
+Bum, subs. (vulgar).—1. The posteriors; or, as Jamieson puts it, ‘the
+part on which we sit.’ [Considerable doubt exists as to the origin of
+this familiar term. Murray thinks the guess that bum is an abbreviation
+of ‘bottom’ is at variance with the historical fact that the latter, in
+this sense, is found only from the eighteenth century; besides which
+there are phonetic difficulties. The origin is probably onomatopoetic.]
+Besides the synonyms mentioned under Blind cheeks, the following may be
+cited:
+
+English Synonyms. Bum-fiddle; bumpkin.
+
+French Synonyms. Le foiron (popular: from foire = diarrhœa); le tal
+(popular); le garde-manger (popular: Michel says this expression is an
+old one and is to be found in ‘Curiositez françoises’ in the sense of
+‘a necessary house’); le naze (equivalent to ‘smeller,’ or ‘smelling
+cheat’); le soufflet (popular: literally ‘a pair of bellows’); le
+prouas (the same as le prose, of nautical origin); la contre-basse
+(popular: the ‘double bass.’ Cf., Ars musica); le schaffouse (popular:
+a play of words, the town of that name being situated on the Lower
+Rhine—chute du Rhein, and chute du rein, the lower part of the back);
+le gingin (popular); la tabatière (popular: literally ‘the snuff-box’);
+la tire-lire (popular: Rigaud says this term is in allusion to the
+means of subsistence [daily bread] of prostitutes); la giberne
+(literally ‘cartridge-box’); le proye (an old canting term); le cadet
+(popular); la figure (i.e., ‘the face.’ Cf., ‘cheeks’); la canonnière
+(literally ‘a drain pipe’ or ‘pop-gun’); l’oignon (literally ‘the
+onion’); la machine à moulures; le département du bas Rhin (‘the
+department of the Lower Rhine’; rein = back—a play upon words); le
+démoc; le schelingophone; le Prussien (from the Gypsy prusiatin̆i,
+translated by Borrow as ‘pistol’); le panier aux crottes (panier =
+basket; crottes = dung); le visage de campagne; le fignard (i.e., ‘a
+one-eyed cheek’); le visage sans nez (i.e., ‘the face without a nose’);
+le pétrouskin; le face du grand Turc; le tortillon; le fleurant
+(popular: also ‘a nose-gay’); le pedzouille (familiar: ‘a peasant’ or
+‘clod’); le cadran or le cadran lunaise (cadran = dial); le piffe
+(thieves’); le médaillon (popular: literally ‘a medallion’ or
+‘locket’); l’arrière-train (familiar: lit. ‘after-carriage’); le trèfle
+(popular: this also signifies ‘tobacco’); messire Luc (familiar: ‘Mr.
+Luke,’ sometimes also ‘Nancy.’ Cf., Mrs. Jones); le moulin à vent (lit.
+the ‘windmill’); le ponant (popular); la lune (popular: lune in slang
+means a large full face); le bienséant (popular); le pétard (popular
+and thieves’: it also stands for sou; in the Normandy patois pétra is
+used interchangeably with pétard); le ballon (popular: ballon =
+balloon; the analogy is obvious); le moutardier (i.e., the
+mustard-pot); le baril de moutarde (cads’: the mustard barrel);
+l’obusier (lit. the howitzer).
+
+German Synonyms. Tochas; Toges; Doges.
+
+Italian Synonym. Rioppo.
+
+    1387. Trevisa, Higden Rolls, 6 S., 357. It semeth that his bom is
+    oute that hath that euel [ficus, i.e., piles]. [M.]
+
+    1592. Shakspeare, Mids. Night’s Dream, ii., 1, l. 51.
+
+        The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,
+        Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
+        Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
+        And tailor cries, and falls into a couch;
+        And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe.
+
+    1600. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, in wks. (1873) I., 39. Art thou
+    acquainted with neuer a fardingale-maker, nor a French-hood maker,
+    I must enlarge my bumme.
+
+    1609. Shakspeare, Timon of Athens, Act i., Sc. 2.
+
+                      What a coil’s here!
+        Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums!
+
+    1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv., 4. Your breeches sit close
+    enough to your bum.
+
+    1729. Swift, Intelligencer, No. 8, p. 83 (2 ed.).
+
+        And first his bum you see him clap
+        Upon the Queen of Sheba’s lap.
+
+    1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistress, st. 18.
+
+        All, but the wight of bum y-galled, he
+        Abhors both bench, and stool, and fourm, and chair.
+
+    1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. i., in wks. (1809) I., 12. That lazy
+    bum-delighting thing, Ridly the Chancellor.
+
+2. (old.)—An abbreviated form Of bum bailiff (q.v.).
+
+    1663. Butler, Hudibras, I., i., 393.
+
+        It had appeared with courage bolder,
+        Then Sergeant Bum, invading shoulder.
+
+    1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. VII., p. 153.
+
+        The Vermin of the Law, the Bum,
+          Who gladly kept his distance,
+        Does safely now in Triumph come.
+
+    1845. Disraeli, Sybil, bk. III., ch. i. ‘Juggings has got his rent
+    to pay, and is afeard of the bums.’
+
+3. (public schools’.)—A birching; ‘hiding’ or ‘tanning.’ For synonyms,
+see Tanning. Cf., also Bash and Baste.
+
+Verb (old).—To arrest. [An obvious allusion to the duty of a bum or
+bum-bailiff (q.v.).]
+
+Cherry Bums, subs. (military).—The 11th Hussars. Cherry-bum is a
+corruption of Cherubim; but the obvious reference is to the scarlet
+trowsers worn by this branch of the service. A similar nickname is
+given to the French Chasseurs—Culs rouges.—See Cherubim.
+
+To toe one’s bum, phr. (low).—An implied threat of physical
+castigation, rarely, however, carried out literally; to put or ‘chuck’
+out; to show the door to—either will explain the meaning. Sometimes the
+phrase occurs as ‘to hoof one’s bum.’
+
+French Synonyms. Sauter sur la contrebasse (popular); filer un coup de
+trottinet dans l’oignon (thieves’); boucher la lumière (popular:
+properly ‘to stuff up the touch-hole’); enlever le ballon à quelqu’un
+(popular: the allusion is to raising an air balloon with the foot);
+donner un coup de pied juste au bon endroit (popular: ‘to give a kick
+just in the right part’); botter (popular: literally ‘to make’ or
+‘supply anyone with boots’); détacher un coup de pinceau dans la
+giberne (popular: coup de pinceau = ‘a kick,’ or ‘a blow with the
+foot’; giberne = cartridge-box or, in slang, the breech); crever un œil
+à quelqu’un (popular: ‘to stave in one’s eye.’ Cf., Cyclops); graisser
+le train derrière (i.e., ‘to grease the hinder carriage.’ Cf., Eng.
+Basting); détruire le faubourg à quelqu’un (popular: properly faubourg
+= suburb or outskirt); enlever le schelingophone à quelqu’un (popular).
+
+
+Bum Bags, subs. (popular).—Trowsers. [From bum, the posteriors, + bags
+(q.v.).]
+
+
+Bum Bailiff, also Bum Baily, subs. (old).—An opprobrious name for a
+bailiff or sheriff’s officer. Frequently contracted into bum or bummy.
+[Thought to be derived from bum (q.v.), an allusion to the proximity of
+such gentry to debtors’ backs, + bailiff; there is no reason to
+suppose, as suggested, that the term is a corruption of bound-bailiff.
+The French have pousse cul, and it is curious that this term is also,
+in common use, abbreviated to cul, answering to the English
+contraction, bum.]
+
+    1602. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act iii., Sc. 4. Sir Jo. Go, Sir
+    Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the orchard like a
+    bum-baily.
+
+    1628. H. Shirley, Martyr’d Souldier, Act v. I was first a Varlet,
+    then a Bum-baily, now an under Jailor.
+
+    1761. Dr. Hawkesworth, Edgar and Emmeline, ii., 1. By the heavens!
+    she has the gripe of a bum-bailiff.
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. ‘We are in right
+    opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, serjeant and
+    tipstaff, catch-poll and bum-bailey.’
+
+    1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xxxii. ‘You know the state we
+    were in all the summer: Gerald next to penniless, and going about
+    in fear of the bum-bailies.’
+
+
+Bum Bass, subs. (old).—Explained by quot.
+
+    1809. S. Pegge, Anonymiana, p. 415 (ed. 1809). The humble-bee ought
+    rather, perhaps, to be called the bumble-bee as it is in some
+    parts, from the deepness of the note, just as the violoncello is
+    called by the vulgar a bum-bass.
+
+
+Bumble, subs. (common).—A beadle. [This term originated in the name of
+the beadle in Dickens’ Oliver Twist, although it may be noted that in
+the seventeenth century bumble signified a confusion, a jumble. Hence
+bumbler, an idle fellow, or blunderer. A French equivalent is
+chasse-coquin (literally a beggar driver). Cf., Bumble-crew and
+Bumbledom.]
+
+    1883. Punch, August 4, p. 51, col. 1.
+
+        A helpless ‘nuisance’ shunned by the Inspector,
+        Ignored by bumbles and by Boards of Works.
+
+
+Bumble-Crew, subs. (popular).—A collective name for corporations,
+vestries, and other official bodies. [From bumble (q.v.) + crew.]—See
+Bumbledom.
+
+
+Bumbledom, subs. (popular).—A term applied to the spirit of collective
+petty officialism; red tape fussiness and pomposity. [From bumble
+(q.v.) + dom.]
+
+    1856. Saturday Review, II., p. 12, col. 1. The collective Bumbledom
+    of Westminster. [M.]
+
+    1884. Daily News, Dec. 27, p. 6, col. 1. Our scheme is unfolded to
+    the chief officer—not the slightest trace of bumbledom about him—a
+    kind-hearted, genial, happy-faced individual.
+
+
+Bumble Puppy, subs. (popular).—Family whist, i.e., ‘unscientific’
+whist. Also applied, says Hotten, to a game played in public houses on
+a large stone, placed in a slanting direction, on the lower end of
+which holes are made, and numbered like the holes in a bagatelle-table.
+The player rolls a stone ball, or marble, from the higher end, and
+according to the number of the hole it falls into the game is counted.
+It is undoubtedly the very ancient game of Troule-in-madame.
+
+    1886. Daily News, Dec. 25, p. 5, col. 2. Christmas cards, and
+    mince-pies, and another helping of turkey, and family whist, or
+    bumble puppy.
+
+
+Bumbles, subs. (general).—Coverings for the eyes of horses that shy in
+harness. Cf., Blinkers.
+
+
+Bumbo, subs. (West Indian.)—1. The female pudenda; a term applied by
+negroes. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
+
+2. (old.)—Smollett, in a note to the first quotation as follows, says
+bumbo was a liquor composed of ‘rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.’ Grose
+gives it as ‘brandy, water, and sugar’—the component parts seem to vary
+according to taste.
+
+    1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxxiv. Who were making merry in
+    the ward-room, round a table well stored with bumbo and wine.
+
+    1756. Diary of a Sussex Tradesman, in Sussex Arch. Coll., IX., 188,
+    quoted in N. and Q., 7 S., i., 194. 1756, April 28. I went down to
+    Jones’, where we drank one bowl of punch and two muggs of bumboo,
+    and I came home again in liquor.
+
+    1882. Northumbrian Minstrelsy, etc., p. 113, quoted in N. and Q., 7
+    S., i., 195.
+
+        The pitmen and the keelmen trim,
+        They drink bumbo made of gin.
+
+
+Bum-Brusher, subs. (schoolboys’).—A schoolmaster; also applied to an
+usher. [From bum, the posteriors, + brusher, in allusion to the office
+a schoolmaster is sometimes called upon to perform by way of
+punishment.]
+
+English Synonyms. Flaybottom; haberdasher of pronouns.
+
+French Synonyms. Un marchand de soupe (marchand = merchant; soupe =
+soup); un chien de cour (i.e., ‘a watch-dog’); un fouette-cul (a
+literal translation of bum-brusher).
+
+    1704. T. Brown, wks. (1760) II., 86. [Dionysius] was forced to turn
+    bum-brusher.
+
+    1788. New London Magazine, p. 137. A successor was immediately
+    called from that great nursery of bum-brushers, Appleby School.
+
+    1832. Blackwood’s Mag., Oct., p. 426. To protract existence ... in
+    the shape of bum-brushers, and so forth, after the fashion of the
+    exalted emigrés of 1792?
+
+    1838. Comic Almanac, Dec. [School-master’s Letter signed] Barnabas
+    Bom-brush.
+
+
+Bum Charter, subs. (thieves’).—Explained by quot.
+
+    1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. Bum-charter is the name given to bread
+    steeped in hot water by the first unfortunate inhabitants of the
+    English Bastile, where this miserable fare was their daily
+    breakfast, each man receiving with his scanty portion of bread a
+    quart of boiled water from the Cook’s Coppers.
+
+
+Bumclink, subs. (provincial).—In the Midland counties the inferior beer
+brewed for hay-makers and harvest labourers. [Derivation obvious.] For
+synonyms, see Swipes.
+
+
+Bum Curtain, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—1. An academical gown when worn
+scant and short; especially applied to the short black gown worn till
+1835 by members of Caius College. Cf., Bum-perisher.
+
+    1835. (Quoted in Whibley’s Three Centuries of Cambridge Wit
+    [1889].)
+
+        ’Tis the College of Caius—’tis the land where the ‘Bum
+        Curtain’ lately was sported by each jolly chum,
+        But now black and blue are the gowns that they wear
+        Like the eye of a drunkard returned from a fair.
+
+
+Bumf, subs. (schooboys’).—Paper. [An abbreviation of bum-fodder (q.v.),
+an obvious allusion to toilet paper.]
+
+
+Bumfhunt, subs. (Wellington College).—A paper-chase. [Derived from the
+popular schoolboy name for paper, i.e., bumf (q.v.).]
+
+
+Bum Fiddle, subs. (old).—The posteriors. For synonyms, see Blind cheeks
+and Bum.
+
+
+Bum Fidget, subs. (old).—A restless individual. [Obviously from bum,
+the posterior, + fidget, i.e., one who cannot sit still.]
+
+
+Bum Fodder, subs. (old).—1. Low class worthless literature; a term once
+in literary use.—See sense 2.
+
+    1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I., xiii. Torche-culs, arsewisps, bum
+    fodders.
+
+    1753. Scots’ Magazine, April, p. 208, col. 1 (title). Bum fodder
+    for the ladies. [M.]
+
+2. (low.)—Toilet paper, otherwise known as curl paper (q.v.). Cf. Bumf.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bum fodder, soft
+    paper for the necessary house, or torche-cul.
+
+
+Bummaree, subs. (common).—A Billingsgate middle-man. These men, who are
+not recognised as regular salesmen by the trade, are speculative buyers
+of large quantities of fish, which they re-sell in smaller lots. [The
+origin of the name is unknown, though some have speculated that it may
+be from the French bon marée; others, however, think that it is akin to
+bomerie, a French word for what in England is known as ‘bottomry,’
+i.e., the act of borrowing money and pledging the bottom of the ship,
+i.e., the ship itself, for the re-payment of the money. It is argued
+that the leading idea in thus borrowing money on a ship’s keel is the
+hazarding all on a single venture: hence possibly its application to
+other transactions, especially those connected with the sea; such as
+wholesale purchases of fish, in which a large risk is run with an
+uncertain prospect of return—which is, it must be confessed, a somewhat
+far-fetched derivation.] This wholesale retailing of fish is also
+called bummareeing it.
+
+    1786. Report of Committee of City of London on Price of Provisions,
+    31. The bomarees will buy up half the fish the Salesmen have, and
+    sell to the Fishmongers. [M.]
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 71. In
+    Billingsgate the ‘forestallers’ or middle men are known as
+    bummarees.... The bummaree is the jobber or speculator on the fish
+    exchange.
+
+    1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 4 a.m., p. 17. Any one can be a
+    bumbaree.... The process of bumbareeing is very simple. It consists
+    in buying as largely as your means will afford of an auctioneer,
+    hiring a stall for sixpence, and retailing the fish at a swingeing
+    profit.
+
+
+Bummed, ppl. adj. (old).—Arrested. Cf. verb, Bum and Bum-bailiff.
+
+
+Bummer, subs. (old.)—1. A bum-bailiff (q.v.).
+
+2. (turf.)—A heavy loss; a severe pecuniary reverse.
+
+3. (American.)—An idler; loafer; sponger; looter (see quots.). [From
+the German bummler, with a somewhat similar meaning, save that the term
+is used good naturedly, and has not altogether the offensive meaning of
+the American equivalent.] The term came into general use at the time of
+the Civil War, when it was specially applied to a straggler, hanger-on,
+or free-lance, particularly in connection with General Sherman’s famous
+march from Atlanta to the sea. Besides its political signification,
+bummer is used as a general term of reproach in the same way as rascal,
+blackleg, etc., are used in England. Other equivalents are heeler,
+striker, stuffer, and practical politician.
+
+    a. 1865. Major Nichols, Sherman’s Great March. Look hyar, Captain,
+    we bummers ain’t so bad after all. We keep ahead of the skirmish
+    line allers; we let’s ’em know when an enemy’s a comin’, and then
+    we ain’t allus away from the regiment. We turns over all we don’t
+    want ourselves, and we can lick five times as many Rebs as we are
+    any day.
+
+    1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. xxiv. The
+    auctioneer stormed up and down the streets on him for four days,
+    dispersing the populace, interrupting business, and destroying
+    children, and never got a bid—at least never any but the
+    eighteen-dollar one he hired, a notoriously substanceless bummer,
+    to make. The people only smiled pleasantly, and restrained their
+    desire to buy, if they had any.
+
+    1872. Sacramento Weekly Union, Feb. 24, p. 2. All the boys to be
+    trained as scriveners, tape-measurers, counter-hoppers, clerks,
+    pettifoggers, polite loafers, street-hounds, hoodlums, and bummers.
+
+    1875. Scribner’s Magazine, p. 274. San Francisco is the Elysium of
+    bummers. Nowhere can a worthless fellow, too lazy to work, too
+    cowardly to steal, get on so well. The climate befriends him, for
+    he can sleep out of doors four-fifths of the year. He can gorge
+    himself daily for a nominal sum, and get a dinner that a king might
+    envy for fifty cents.
+
+    1877. W. Black, Green Past. and Picc., ch. xiii. Then the great
+    crowd of bummers and loafers, not finding the soil teeming with
+    nuggets, stampeded off like a herd of buffalo.
+
+    1888. Philadelphia Press, Jan. 29. Coy is the chairman of the
+    Democratic Central Committee in Marion County, and has wielded
+    great power in politics as the boss of the bummers.
+
+    1888. Detroit Free Press, May 16. He finds that ten per cent. of
+    the men who patronise these places have a collegiate education;
+    forty per cent. are self-supporting, but prefer this precarious
+    mode of living to anything more respectable; ten per cent. earn
+    excellent wages, and twenty per cent. are chronic bums, who beg or
+    steal the price of their lodgings.
+
+Hence bummerism, to express habits of loafing and petty stealing, and
+bummerish (adj.).
+
+
+Bumming, verb, subs. (Wellington College).—A thrashing, or licking.
+Cf., Bum, sense 1.
+
+
+Bump, subs. (University).—When one boat touches another in a race it is
+said to ‘make a bump,’ and technically beats its opponent. Cf., verbal
+sense, and Bumping race.
+
+Verb.—To overtake and touch an opposing boat, thus winning the heat or
+race.
+
+    1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. iii. He listened, and with respect
+    too, to Mr. Foker’s accounts of what the men did at the University
+    of which Mr. F. was an ornament, and encountered a long series of
+    stories about boat-racing, bumping, College grass-plats, and
+    milk-punch.
+
+    1860. Macmillan’s Magazine, March, p. 331. The chances of St.
+    Ambrose’s making a bump the first night were weighed.
+
+    1865. Sketches from Cambridge, p. 7. I can still condescend to give
+    our boat a stout when it makes a bump.
+
+    1886–7. Dickens, Dictionary of Cambridge, p. 11. Any boat which
+    overtakes and bumps another ... before the winning post is reached,
+    changes place with it for the next race.
+
+
+Bumper, subs. (common).—1. Anything of superlative size, whether a ‘big
+lie,’ horse, house, or woman. Cf., Corker, Whopper, and Thumper.
+
+2. (theatrical).—A full or crowded house.
+
+    1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, ch. xxiv., p. 192. ‘In the
+    confidence that our fellow-towsmen have not lost that high
+    appreciation of public utility and private worth, for which they
+    have long been so pre-eminently distinguished, we predict that this
+    charming actress will be greeted with a bumper.’
+
+3. (cards’.)—When, in long whist, one side has scored eight before the
+other has scored a point, a bumper is the result.
+
+
+Bum-Perisher, Bum-Shaver, subs. (common).—A short-tailed coat; a
+jacket. [From bum, the posteriors, + perisher, a slang variant of that
+which ‘perishes,’ or fails to protect (from cold, etc.).] Cf., Bum
+curtain.
+
+
+Bumping Race, subs. (University).—Eight-oared inter-Collegiate races,
+rowed in two divisions of fifteen and sixteen boats respectively,
+including a sandwich boat (q.v.), i.e., the top boat of the second
+division, which rows bottom of the first. The boats in each division
+start at a distance apart of 175 feet from stern to stern in the order
+at which they left off at the last preceding race, and any boat which
+overtakes, and bumps another (i.e., touches it in any part) before the
+winning post is reached, changes place with it for the next race.
+
+
+Bumpkin, subs. (old).—A humorous term for the posteriors.
+
+    1658. [In Nares] Wit Restored.
+
+        And so I take my leave; prithee, sweet Thumkin,
+        Hold up thy coats, that I may kisse thy bumkin.
+
+
+Bump-Supper, subs. (University).—A supper to commemorate the fact of
+the boat of the college having, in the annual races, ‘bumped’ or
+touched the boat of another college immediately in front. Cf., Bumping
+race.
+
+
+Bumptious, adj. (colloquial).—Arrogant; self-sufficient; on good terms
+with oneself. [Murray puts this down as a formation from bump on the
+model of ‘fractious.’ It is of recent introduction.]
+
+    1803. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary and Letters, vi., 324. No, my dearest
+    Padre, bumptious! no, I deny the charge in toto. [M.]
+
+    1849. Dickens, D. Copperfield, ch. vi., p. 53 (C.D.). I heard that
+    Mr. Sharp’s wig didn’t fit him, and that he needn’t be so
+    ‘bounceable’—somebody else said ‘bumptious’—about it, because his
+    own red hair was very plainly to be seen behind.
+
+    1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. xiii. It was all very well
+    while he was fresh, and having things pretty much as he liked. So
+    long he was bumptious enough.
+
+
+Bumptiousness, subs. (colloquial).—Self-assertiveness; arrogance;
+self-conceit. [From bumptious (q.v.) + ness.]
+
+    1865. Sala, Trip to Barbary, p. 150. Poor Albert Smith, than whom,
+    with all his occasional bumptiousness, an honester and more
+    clear-sighted hater of snobbery and shams never lived.
+
+
+Bum Roll, subs. (old).—A pad or cushion worn by women to extend the
+dress at the back—an equivalent of the modern bustle or dress-improver.
+[From bum, the posteriors, + roll, in the sense of pad or cushion.] At
+one time these were called cork rumps, but for synonyms, see Bird-cage.
+
+    1601. Ben Jonson, The Poetaster, II., i. Nor you nor your house was
+    so much as spoken of, before I disbased myself from my hood and my
+    farthingal, to these bum-rowls, and your whale-bone bodice.
+
+    1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, Old Plays, XI., 460. Those
+    worthies [of a bawd] rais’d her from the flat petticoat and
+    kercher, to the gorget and bum-roll.
+
+
+Bumsquabbled, ppl. adj. (American).—Discomfitted; defeated; stupified.
+Cf., Bum-fiddled, in first quot.
+
+    1620. Fletcher, The Chances, I., v. And am I now bum-fiddled with a
+    bastard?
+
+    1835–40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, p. 251 (ed. 1862). No sooner
+    said than done, Mount Sheer Bullfrog gave the case in our favour in
+    two twos, said Eyetaliano had got too much already, cut him off the
+    other two-thirds, and made him pay all costs. If he didn’t look
+    bumsquabbled it’s a pity.
+
+
+Bum Sucker, subs. (general).—A sponger; toady; lick-spittle; hanger-on.
+[From bum + sucker, allusion obvious.] Cf., Bum. A French equivalent is
+une lèche-cul.
+
+
+Bum Trap, subs. (old).—A bailiff. Cf., Bum-bailiff.
+
+    1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VII., ch. iii. The noble bum-trap,
+    blind and deaf to every circumstance of distress, greatly rises
+    above all the motives to humanity, and into the hands of the jailor
+    resolves to deliver his miserable prey.
+
+
+Bun, subs. (American).—1. A sponger; one who cannot be shaken off.
+
+2. (common).—The female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
+
+To take or yank the bun, verbal phr. (general).—To take first place; to
+obtain first honours. A variant of take the cake.—See Cake. The French
+say décrocher la timballe.
+
+
+Bunce, Bunse or Bunt, subs. (old).—Originally money, a signification
+which it still retains; more generally, however, profit, gain, anything
+to the good. [Thought to be a corruption of bonus.]—See quot., 1851.
+For synonyms in the sense of money, see Actual.
+
+    1719. D’Urfey, Pills, 278. If cards come no better. Oh! oh! I shall
+    lose all my buns. [M.]
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 37.
+    There are still other ‘agents’ among the costermongers, and these
+    are the ‘boys’ deputed to sell a man’s goods for a certain sum, all
+    over that amount being the boys’ profit or bunts. Ibid., p. 526.
+    There are a great number of boys ... engaged by costermongers or
+    small tradesmen, to sell upon commission, or, as it is termed, for
+    bunse (probably a corruption of bonus, bone being the slang for
+    good).... The mode is this: a certain quantity of saleable
+    commodities is given to a boy whom a costermonger knows and perhaps
+    employs, and it is arranged that the young commission-agent is to
+    get a particular sum for them, which must be paid to the
+    costermonger; I will say 3s. For these articles the lad may ask and
+    obtain any price he can, and whatever he obtains beyond the
+    stipulated 3s., is his own profit or bunse. Ib., p. 36. But you see
+    the boys will try it on for their bunts.
+
+    1881. A Chequered Career, p. 270. In the stable, and particularly
+    in livery-stables, there is a box into which all tips are placed.
+    This is called bunt.
+
+
+Buncer, subs. (common).—One who sells on commission, as described under
+bunce (q.v.).
+
+
+Bunch of Fives, subs. (common).—The hand or fist. [An obvious allusion
+to the five fingers gathered or bunched together on the hand.]
+
+    1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. vii. ‘Is this a h-arm, and
+    this a bunch of fives?’
+
+    1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, ch. xxxiv. ‘Now look at that bunch of
+    fives,’ continued the master; and laid a hand, white and soft as a
+    duchess’s, on the table.
+
+    1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 133, col. 1. He smote crashingly down
+    ... with a lead-weighted truncheon he held in his dexter bunch of
+    fives.
+
+    1888. Daily Telegraph, April 30, p. 3, col. 2. The fingers are bent
+    into such an ungraceful bunch of fives, as to be suggestive both of
+    chalkstones and of sausages.
+
+English Synonyms. Mauley; cornstealer; fam or fem (this is said to be
+of Gypsy origin, and to mean five, i.e., five fingers, but see Fehm in
+German synonyms); famble (see preceding); picker; goll (a seventeenth
+century term—‘make them hold up their spread golls,’ says Ben Jonson,
+in the Poetaster); fin; daddle; flipper.
+
+German Synonyms. Fehm or Vehm, or Vehn (more correctly Fem. This
+appears to be the same word as the English seventeenth century
+colloquialism for the hand [see preceding], and is most likely derived
+from the Swedish and Danish fem = five, than from the Gypsy which
+indeed contains no such word); Griffling or Greifling (from greifen, to
+seize); Jad (Hebrew jad, the hand); Kaf (from the Hebrew kaph; the
+[hollow] hand).
+
+Italian Synonyms. Tarantola (an allusion to the many tentacles and
+close grip of the tarantula spider); cerra; calchi dell’ ala (literally
+the foot of the arm. Cf., French doigts du pied); grettina (properly a
+small sandbank).
+
+Spanish Synonyms. Labradora (this, it is curious to note, is an
+obsolete Spanish term signifying literally a laborious or hard-working
+woman, and the inference from this fact is obvious); anclas (literally
+anchors).
+
+
+Bunco or Bunco Game, subs. (American).—A swindling game played either
+with cards or dice, not unlike three card monté. [From the Italian
+banco, a bench or bank].
+
+    1883. Philadelphia Times, No. 289, 2. 2. Tom’s method of bunco was
+    the well-known lottery game. [M.]
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 2. Robert B. Barnet, a plumber doing
+    business in Grant Street, this city, was arrested in Allegheny
+    to-night, on the charge of being implicated in the recent bunco
+    game in which William Murdoch, an old and prominent citizen, was
+    robbed of 10,000 dols.
+
+Verb.—1. To rob, cheat, or swindle by means of the bunco game; or by
+what in England is known as the confidence trick, etc.
+
+    1887. Cincinnati Enquirer. Detectives Kirby and Funk last night
+    spotted J. P. Ramby, the person accused of having bunkoed Ex-County
+    Commissioner Stephens, of Greene County, out of 2,300 dols. in
+    Xenia recently.
+
+    1888. Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean, April 14. John Brothers, a farmer
+    living near Canton, Ohio, was bunkoed out of 2,000 dols. to-day by
+    two sharpers who escaped.
+
+2. From the primary meaning, the verb to bunco has come to be
+synonymous with any attempt at swindling.
+
+So also with various derivatives, bunco-case, bunco-man, bunco-steerer
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Bunco-Steerer, Bunko-Steerer, subs. (American).—A swindler;
+confidence-trick man. The means these men adopt to win confidence are
+always varied and sometimes unique. They are extremely wary, and it is
+oftentimes with considerable difficulty that the arm of the law, long
+as it is assumed to be, can lay hold of them. A bunco-steerer may be
+well known to the police as a professional swindler, and he may be seen
+talking to his intended victim, but, unless caught in an overt act, he
+cannot be interfered with. People whom bunco-steerers lay their snares
+for, are generally men who stand high in their communities;
+consequently it is almost impossible to get victims to become
+complainants, as they do not care to figure in the police courts, and
+the thieves get practically a free field for their operations.
+
+    1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, p. 235. The bunco-steerer
+    ... will find you out the morning after you land in Chicago or St.
+    Louis. He will accost you—very friendly, wonderful friendly—when
+    you come out of your hotel, by your name, and he will remind
+    you—which is most surprising, considerin’ you never set eyes on his
+    face before—how you have dined together in Cincinnati, or it may be
+    Orleans, or perhaps Francisco, because he finds out where you came
+    from last; and he will shake hands with you; and he will propose a
+    drink; and he will pay for that drink; and presently he will take
+    you somewhere else, among his pals, and he will strip you so clean,
+    that there won’t be left the price of a four-cent paper to throw
+    around your face and hide your blushes. In London ... they do the
+    confidence trick.
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 14. Andrew Carnegie fell into the
+    hands of a bunco-steerer in Pittsburg, Saturday night, but was
+    rescued by a detective before he lost anything.
+
+
+Bundle, verb (old).—To practise bundling (q.v.).
+
+    1781. S. Peters, Gen. Hist. Connecticut. It is thought but a piece
+    of civility to ask [a lady] to bundle.
+
+    1797. Sewell. Queeston is an odd way of wooing usual in some sea
+    towns or Isles of Holland, after this manner. When the wench is
+    gone to bed, the fellow enters the room and lays himself down in
+    his clothes upon the blankets, next unto her, with one window of
+    the room open, and thus he talks with her, very innocently—as it is
+    reported.
+
+    1809. W. Irving, Knickerbocker History of New York. Van Corlear
+    stopped occasionally in the villages to ... dance at country
+    frolics, and bundle with the Yankee lasses.
+
+    1871. Schele De Vere, Americanisms, p. 448. To bundle, a custom
+    still prevalent in Wales, and not unfrequently practised in the
+    West, of men and women sleeping with all their clothes on, when
+    there is not house-room to provide better accommodation.
+
+
+Bundling or Bundling Up, subs. (old).—A custom now obsolete, but
+formerly in vogue where bed accommodation was scarce, of men and women
+sleeping on the same bed together without having removed their clothes.
+The practice is mentioned by Wright as having been customary in Wales,
+and it will be remembered that Washington Irving alludes to it in his
+Knickerbocker History of New York. Whatever may have been the case in
+former times, it does not appear to be a habit either in the Mother
+Country or the New World at the present day, even in the districts most
+remote from civilization. No question of immodesty seems to have
+attached to the custom; indeed, attempts were made to prove that
+bundling was very right and proper. On this point, however, opinions
+will vary considerably. Also used in verbal form to bundle. Cf., Caulk.
+
+    1809. W. Irving, Knickerbocker History of New York. Among other
+    hideous customs they [the Yankees] attempted to introduce that of
+    bundling, which the Dutch lasses of the Nederlandts, with their
+    eager passion for novelty and for the fashions, natural to their
+    sex, seemed very well inclined to follow, but that their mothers,
+    being more experienced in the world and better acquainted with men
+    and things, discountenanced all such outlandish innovations.
+
+    1814. Quarterly Review, X., 517. [The custom spoken of in.]
+
+    1842. C. Masson, Journal Balochistan, etc., III., 287. Many of the
+    Afghan tribes have a custom in wooing, similar to what in Wales is
+    known as bundling-up.
+
+    1868. W. H. Dixon, Spiritual Wives, vol. II., p. 31. An old custom,
+    which exists (I believe) in Wales as well as in parts of
+    Pennsylvania and New England, permits under the name of ‘bundling,’
+    certain free, but still innocent endearments to pass between lovers
+    who are engaged.
+
+    1871. H. R. Styles, Bundling; its Origin, Progress, and Decline in
+    America, title. [Contains also its history in England, Wales,
+    Holland, curious songs, etc.]
+
+    1878. C. Wake, Evol. Moral., I., 401. The custom of bundling ...
+    among Celtic peoples. [M.]
+
+
+Bung, Bong, Boung, subs. (old cant.)—1. A purse. [One of the oldest
+cant terms in the language, the origin of which is entirely unknown,
+though, says Murray, ‘its resemblance to the O.E. pung, “a purse,” is
+worth notice.’] Also called skin or poge (q.v.). A French thieves’ term
+is la plotte.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Boung, a purse. Ibid., p. 86.
+
+    1591. Greene, Second Part Conny-catching, in wks., vol. X., p. 96.
+    The Nip vseth his knife, and if he see a Boung lie faire, strikes
+    the stroke.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Bung is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse.
+
+    c. 1658. Cleveland, Cleivelandi Vindiciæ, p. 99 (ed. 1677). He is
+    in the Inquisition of the Purse an Authentick Gypsie, that nips
+    your Bung with a canting Ordinance.
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47. Boung, a
+    Purse.
+
+    1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Bung, a purse.
+
+2. (old.)—A pickpocket. Cf., Bung, sense 1. Bung-nipper (q.v.) was in
+general usage later.
+
+    1598. Shakspeare, King Henry IV., ii., 4. Doll. Away, you cut-purse
+    rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this wine, I’ll thrust my knife
+    in your mouldy chaps, an’ you play the saucy cuttle with me.
+
+    1658. An Age for Apes, p. 232. My bung observing this, takes hold
+    of time, Just as this lord was drawing for a prime, And smoothly
+    rims his purse that lay beside him.
+
+3. (common.)—A brewer; landlord of a public house, etc. [An allusion to
+the bungs, or large corks used in the ‘mouths’ of beer barrels.]
+
+    1863. Cornhill Magazine (The Inner Life of a Man-of-War), Feb. From
+    time immemorial these gentlemen [master’s assistants] have had to
+    stand at the grog-butt and see the grog served out—an important
+    duty, the discharge of which has invested them, such is the
+    playfulness of naval humour, with the title of bungs.
+
+    1884. Graphic, Feb. 23, p. 170, col. 1. That Sir Wilfrid Lawson had
+    turned bung, and applied for a spirit licence.
+
+Verb (pugilistic).—1. Generally bung up, i.e., to close or shut up the
+eyes by means of a blow that causes a swelling. Formerly used of the
+mouth, ears, etc., and in literary use, but now regarded as a
+vulgarism. Cf. verb, sense 2.
+
+    1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in wks. (Grosart) II., 128. That
+    will bung-up their mouthes with a Collyrium of all the stale iestes
+    in a country.
+
+    1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 247. The waies beyond sea
+    were so bungd vp with your dayly oratours or Beadsmen and your
+    crutchet or crout-chant friers ... that a snaile coulde not wriggle
+    in her homes betwixt them.
+
+    1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xix. ‘I bunged up both eyes
+    for him.’
+
+2. (old.)—To give; pass; hand over; drink; or to perform almost any
+action. ‘Bung over the rag,’ hand over the money. Used by Beaumont and
+Fletcher, and Shakspeare. Also, to deceive one by a lie, to Cram, which
+see.
+
+
+Bungay. Go to Bungay! phr. (general).—A euphemistic objurgation
+equivalent to consignment to a region the climate of which is tropical
+in character. For analogous phrases, see Go to hell.
+
+
+Bung-Eyed, comp. ppl. adj. (common).—1. Drunk; fuddled; Screwed, which
+see for synonyms. [Derivation uncertain: possibly from the Scotch
+‘bung,’ a low word quoted by Jamieson as meaning tipsy or fuddled, with
+perhaps an indirect allusion to the bunged or crooked distorted eye,
+the result of a fight or squabble.—See sense 2.]
+
+    1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 268. One
+    coarse-featured fellow, who was nearly bung-eyed over his beer (as
+    they call being drunk).
+
+2. Cross-eyed; unable to see straight; ‘boss-eyed’ or ‘squinny-eyed’
+(q.v.).
+
+
+Bungfunger, verb (American).—To startle; to confuse. Compare with
+bumbsquabbled. Also used as an adjective for ‘confounded.’
+
+    1835–40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, p. 91 (ed. 1862). ‘Well,
+    father, I thought he’d a fainted too, he was so struck up all of a
+    heap; he was completely bung-fungered.’
+
+
+Bung-Juice, subs. (thieves’).—Porter, or beer. [From bung, a stopper
+for casks in which beer is kept, + juice. Cf., Cow-juice for milk,
+etc.] For synonyms, see Drinks and Swipes.
+
+
+Bung Knife or Boung Knife, subs. (old).—Considerable uncertainty exists
+as to the nature or use of this implement. It has however been
+conjectured that as boung was an old cant word for a purse, that boung
+knife may therefore have been a knife kept in the purse or girdle, but
+concerning this nothing definite can be stated.
+
+    1592. Greene, Quip for Upstart Courtier (Hart. Misc., V., 407). One
+    of them had on ... a skeine like a bruer’s boung-knife.
+
+
+Bung Nipper or Boung Nipper, subs. (old).—A cut-purse; a sharper. [From
+bung (q.v.), an old canting term for a purse, + nipper, a thief, i.e.,
+one who nips or steals.] In French, to nip a bung is couper une queue
+de rat, i.e., literally to cut off a rat’s tail; but for synonyms, see
+Area-sneak and Thieves.
+
+
+Bung Upwards, adv. phr. (old).—Said of a person lying on his face.
+
+
+Bunk, subs. (common).—Hasty departure. Cf., Bunk, verb. [Of unknown
+derivation.]
+
+    c. 1870. Broadside Ballad, ‘Peck’s Bad Boy.’
+
+
+        Of course you’re heard of Peck’s bad boy, that dreadful Yankee
+            lad,
+        Who’s bothered his poor parents so they’ve both gone raving
+            mad,
+
+        He put a pound of old Scotch snuff into poor Buddha’s trunk,
+        The keeper tried to catch him, but the bad boy did a bunk.
+
+
+Verb (common).—1. To be off; to decamp. For synonyms, see Amputate.
+
+    c. 1872. Broadside Ballad, ‘Oh, we are a getting on.’
+
+        A stocking used a ‘bank’ to be,
+          In the good old days of old,
+        They didn’t run such risks as we
+          Do now of getting sold.
+        No sooner does a bank go queer,
+          You hear the same old strain,
+        There’s another bald-headed Manageer,
+          Has bunked across to Spain.
+
+    1885. Referee, Feb. 16, p. 7, col. 3.
+
+        It was just such a parcel, bless him! he’d clasped to his noble
+        breast,
+        And bunked with out o’ the building.
+
+    1887. Fun, 9 Nov., p. 201. ‘What is a vanishing point?’ said the
+    schoolmaster to little Billy. ‘The corner you bunks round when the
+    “slops” after yer,’ warbled the golden-haired child.
+
+2. (Wellington College.)—To expel [from the school].
+
+
+Bunker, subs. (common).—Beer. For synonyms, see Drinks and Swipes.
+
+
+Bunkum, Buncombe, Buncome, subs. (American).—Talking merely for
+talking’s sake; claptrap of all kinds; gas; tall talk. The employment
+of the word in its original sense of insincere political speaking or
+claptrap is ascribed to a member of Congress, Felix Walker, from
+Buncombe County, North Carolina, who explained that he was merely
+talking for buncombe, when his fellow members could not understand why
+he was making a speech. Judge Haliburton (Sam Slick) in explaining this
+word says that ‘all over America, every place likes to hear of its
+member of Congress, and see their speeches; and, if they don’t, they
+send a piece to the paper, inquirin’ if their members died a natural
+death, or was skivered with a bowie-knife, for they hante seen his
+speeches lately, and his friends are anxious to know his fate. Our free
+and enlightened citizens don’t approbate silent members; it don’t seem
+to them as if Squashville, or Punkinsville, or Lumbertown was right
+represented, unless Squashville, or Punkinsville, or Lumbertown makes
+itself heard and known, ay, and feared too. So every feller, in bounden
+duty, talks, and talks big too, and the smaller the State, the louder,
+bigger, and fiercer its members talk. Well, when a critter talks for
+talk’s sake, jist to have a speech in the paper to send to home, and
+not for any other airthly puppus but electioneering, our folks call it
+bunkum.’
+
+The term is now universal on both sides of the water, and, indeed,
+wherever English is spoken. So much is this the case that the
+expression may now fairly claim a permanent place in the language. The
+primary meaning has been somewhat enlarged. ‘That’s all buncombe’ is
+equivalent to ‘That’s all nonsense’ or ‘an absurdity.’
+
+Also used attributively; for example, a bunkum proclamation, bunkum
+logic, bunkum politicians, etc.
+
+    1841. Richmond Compiler, Aug. 17. He was not speaking to the House
+    but to bunkum.
+
+    1859. Sala, Tw. Round the Clock, 2 a.m., par. 9. These tales, full
+    of sound and fury, told by honourable idiots full of unutterable
+    ‘bunkum’ (an Americanism I feel constrained to use, as signifying
+    nothingness, ineftably inept and irremediably fire-perforated
+    windbaggery, and sublimated cucumber sunbeams hopelessly eclipsed
+    into Dis)—
+
+    1861. Blackwood’s Mag., April. ‘This parable, explaining the origin
+    of buncombe, would form a very useful text to set up, handsomely
+    illustrated, over the Speaker’s chair in Parliament.’
+
+    1862. New York Tribune, Feb. 11. Despatch from Kansas. General
+    Sibley was within thirty miles of Fort Craig, with twenty-five
+    hundred Texans, with artillery, and had issued a bunkum
+    proclamation.
+
+    1884. Echo, May 12, p. 4, col. 2. It will be seen that the
+    wonderful tales about the favourites were like the reports about
+    Richmond’s lameness, all bunkum.
+
+    1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, March 3. This thing of trying to rule a
+    husband is all buncombe; it can’t be done. You can coax most men,
+    bribe some, and govern a very few, but that vulgar rubbing of the
+    fur the right way wins every time.
+
+    1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 18 Oct., p. 6, col. 2. His explanation was
+    contained in the three words, ‘Bosh, rubbish, and bunkum.’ Was it
+    not time, asked the speaker, that the ‘great unwashed’ should
+    declare that the ‘great unpaid’ were no longer at liberty to
+    oppress them?
+
+
+Bunky, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Awkward; ill-finished.
+
+
+Bunnick, verb (common).—To settle; to dispose of.
+
+    1886. Punch, 17 July, p. 25. ’Owsom-ever we’ve bunnicked up
+    Gladsting, a barney all patriots enjoy.
+
+
+Bunny Grub, subs. (Cheltenham College).—Green vegetables, such as
+cabbage, lettuce, and the like. [Obviously from bunny, a pet name for a
+rabbit, + grub, a slang term for provender, i.e., food akin to that
+upon which rabbits are fed.] At the Royal Military Academy and other
+schools an equivalent is grass (q.v.).
+
+
+Bunse.—See Bunce.
+
+
+Bun-Struggle or Bun-Worry, subs. (military).—A tea meeting given to
+soldiers. For synonymous terms, see Tea fight.
+
+
+Bunt.—See Bunce.
+
+
+Bunter, subs. (harlotry).—1. A prostitute; one who adds theft to her
+other vocation; also a term of contempt for any low woman. See,
+however, quot. from Dyche, 1748, and Mayhew, 1851. For analogous terms,
+see Barrack-hack.
+
+    1705–7. E. Ward, Hudibras Rediv., II., ii. (1715), 25. Punks,
+    Strolers, Market Dames, and Bunters. [M.]
+
+    1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xlvii. And asked with some heat,
+    if he thought I had spent the evening in a cellar with chairmen and
+    bunters.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bunter (s.), one who goes about
+    the streets to gather rags, bones, etc.
+
+    1759. Walpole, Parish Register.
+
+        Here Fielding met his bunter Muse,
+        And, as they quaff’d the fiery juice,
+        Droll Nature stamp’d each lucky hit,
+        With unimaginable wit.
+
+    1763. British Magazine, vol. IV., p. 542. I heard a bunter at the
+    Horse-Guards ... swear she would not venture into the Park.
+
+    1765. Goldsmith, Essays, x. The bunters who swagger in the streets
+    of London.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 158.
+    They were known by the name of bunters, which signifies properly
+    gatherers of rags.
+
+2. Explained by quotation. [Bunter here may be a confused variant of
+bunker, one who runs away or ‘slopes.’]
+
+    1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 223. There is a
+    class of women technically known as bunters, who take lodgings, and
+    after staying some time run away without paying their rent.
+
+
+Burdon’s Hotel, subs. (thieves’).—Whitecross Street Prison, of which
+the Governor was a Mr. Burdon. Almost every prison has a nickname of
+this kind, either from the name of the Governor, or from some local
+circumstance. The Queen’s Bench has an immense number of names—spike,
+park, etc.; and every Chief-Justice stands godfather to it. For full
+list of such names, see Cage.
+
+    1861. Dutton Cook, Paul Foster’s Daughter, ch. ii. ‘David, be
+    respectable, whatever you are, be respectable, and Burdon’s hotel
+    is not for you to sojourn at.’
+
+
+Burick or Burerk, subs. (old).—Latterly applied to any woman or ‘lady,’
+especially one showily dressed, but formerly a thief’s term for a
+prostitute.
+
+    1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. Burick is a prostitute, or common woman.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 262. If they
+    can meet with the burerk (mistress) or the young ladies, etc.
+
+    1889. Answers, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. Let him ask the loafer what
+    his ‘Monekear’ (name) is; whether he can drink a ‘shant of patter’
+    (pint of beer); whether he finds the ‘bone’ or ‘gammy’—that is good
+    or bad as regards begging; and which sex gives him most—the
+    ‘burerks’ (ladies), or the ‘Toffs’ (gentlemen).
+
+Amongst French equivalents for a well-dressed woman may be mentioned
+une panuche (this name is also applied to a prostitute living in a
+brothel); une dubuge; une faraude (the masculine form, un faraud,
+signifies a vulgar fellow proud of smart clothes—a snob, a swell).
+
+
+Burke, verb (military).—To dye the moustache and whiskers. [Burke
+properly is to smother or hush up, and the allusion in the military
+term is to the practice which once prevailed in smart regiments of
+dyeing or smothering the natural colour of the hair for the sake of
+uniformity. The regulations at one time as regards the style of wearing
+the hair were very stringent and precise.]
+
+
+Burn, verb (thieves).—To cheat; to swindle.
+
+
+Burnanded, verb (? nonce word).—To pilfer plots (of plays, novels,
+etc.). [Probably only a nonce word; a formation on the same lines as
+‘Burke,’ ‘Boycott,’ etc., from the name of Mr. F. Burnand, the editor
+of Punch.]
+
+    1882. Echo, Feb. 11, p. 3. The American papers continue to attack
+    the play [The Colonel] vigorously. One of the journals there has
+    invented a new verb to signify the pilfering of plots. ‘Burnanded’
+    is the term.
+
+
+Burn Crust, subs. (old).—A jocular name for a baker. Cf., Master of the
+mint for a gardener; Bung for a brewer; Ball of wax for a shoemaker;
+Quill-driver for a clerk; Snip for a tailor, etc.
+
+
+Burned. To be burned, verb (old).—To be infected with a venereal
+disease.—See Burning.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He was sent out a
+    sacrifice, and came home a burnt offering; saying of seamen who
+    have caught the venereal disease abroad.
+
+
+Burner, subs. (old).—1. A card-sharper.
+
+2. (old.)—The same as burning (q.v.).
+
+
+Burning, verb, subs. (old).—A venereal disease. Shakspeare alludes to
+it in King Lear, ‘No heretics burn’d, but wenches’ suitors.’
+
+
+Burning Shame.—An obscene practice.—See Grose.
+
+
+Burning the Parade, phr. (old).—Thus explained by Grose: ‘Warning more
+men for a guard than were necessary, and excusing the supernumeraries
+for money. This was a practice formerly winked at in most garrisons,
+and was a very considerable perquisite to the adjutants and sergeant
+majors; the pretence for it was to purchase coal and candle for the
+guard, whence it was called burning the parade.’
+
+
+Burn My Breeches! phr. (old).—A mild kind of oath. A few latter day
+‘fancies’ of the same kind will be found under Oaths.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 46.
+
+            ... (Bill Gibbons ne’er
+        In all his days was known to swear,
+        Except light oaths, to grace his speeches,
+        Like ‘dash my wig,’ or ‘burn my breeches.’)
+
+
+Burn the Ken, verbal phr. (old).—To live at an inn or tavern without
+paying for one’s quarters. [From burn (q.v.), to cheat, + ken, an inn,
+tavern, or place.]
+
+
+Burr, subs. (old).—A hanger on; a dependent; one who sponges. [An
+allusion to field burrs or prickly seed pods, which when once attached
+to the clothing are difficult to remove.]
+
+Verb (Marlborough College).—To fight; scrimmage or ‘rag.’
+
+
+Burst, subs. (general).—1. A spree; drunken frolic; big feed; blow out
+(q.v.). Usually on the burst, an extension of the figurative usage of
+the word signifying a violent outburst.—See Bust.
+
+    1880. Blackwood’s Mag., June, p. 775. He became a madman when
+    drunk. Once ‘on the burst,’ as he phrased it, money, horses, cows,
+    furniture, even his wife’s wearing apparel, went to feed the
+    insatiable and cruel demon who possessed him.
+
+    1881. Praed, Policy and Passion, vol. I., p. 228. When his men go
+    on the burst, what can he do but make his daughters help?
+
+2. (sporting.)—A sudden and vigorous access or display of energy; a
+lively pace or spurt.
+
+
+Bursted, ppl. adj. (general).—Hard up. [From burst, failure or
+collapse, + ed.]
+
+    1873. Chicago Daily Tribune, June 30. At the far end [of the room]
+    four lank and bursted frontiersmen sang with a doleful want of
+    melody or attention the celebrated ballad by John Hay on the fate
+    of Little Breeches.
+
+
+Burster, subs. (racing).—1. A heavy fall; a ‘cropper.’
+
+    1863. Evening Standard, 24 April. Benedict came down a burster, and
+    was out of the race.
+
+2. See also Buster, sense 1.
+
+
+Bury. Go bury yourself! phr. (American).—A Californianism which has
+more of the fortiter than the suaviter in its composition. Equivalent
+to ‘Go! hide your diminished head.’ Cf., Carry me out and bury me
+decently.
+
+To bury or dig up the hatchet, verbal phr. (American).—Amongst Indian
+tribes certain symbolic ceremonies are connected with the war-hatchet
+or tomahawk, which are equivalent to a declaration of war, or a compact
+of peace.—To bury the hatchet is the emblem of the putting away of
+strife and enmity; on the other hand, the red skin, before he commences
+hostilities, digs up afresh the fateful symbol. This picturesque
+imagery has passed into the colloquial inheritance of the American
+people, and the expressions of burying or digging up the hatchet are
+frequently applied to the affairs of everyday life. This symbolism
+though new in form is old in idea. Shakspeare in The Tempest, v., 1,
+55, says, ‘I’le breake my staffe, bury it certaine fadomes in the
+earth.’
+
+    1855–59. Washington Irving, Life of Washington, I., p. 361. ‘They
+    smoked the pipe of peace together, and the colonel claimed the
+    credit of having, by his diplomacy, persuaded the sachem to bury
+    the hatchet.’
+
+    1855. Longfellow, Hiawatha, 13.
+
+        Buried was the bloody hatchet;
+        Buried was the dreadful war-club;
+        Buried were all warlike weapons,
+        And the war-cry was forgotten;
+        Then was peace among the nations.
+
+    1873. Carleton Ballads.
+
+        I don’t know what you’ll think, sir—I didn’t come to inquire—
+        But I picked up that agreement and stuffed it in the fire;
+        And I told her we’d bury the hatchet alongside of the cow;
+        And we struck an agreement never to have another row.
+
+To bury a moll, phr. (general).—To desert or forsake a wife or
+mistress. [Moll = woman, wife, or prostitute.]
+
+French Synonyms. Envoyer une ouistiti (ouistiti signifies properly a
+striated monkey); lâcher une femme (literally to cast off a woman);
+balancer une largue.
+
+To bury a Quaker, phr. (Irish slang).—To evacuate; to ease oneself.
+
+English Synonyms. To go to the crapping castle, casa, or ken (castle,
+casa, and ken are old canting terms for a place or house); to the West
+Central (a punning allusion to the initials W.C. for water closet); to
+Mrs. Jones; to the chapel-of-ease; to Sir Harry; to the bog-house,
+rear, dunnock, coffee-shop; to see one’s aunt; to crap; to go and sing
+‘sweet violets’; to go where the queen always goes on foot.
+
+French Synonyms. Mousser (popular: literally to foam or effervesce);
+enterrer son colonel (Cf., to bury a Quaker); aller faire une ballade à
+la lune (i.e., ‘to go and sing to the moon’; also ballade = stroll,
+walk, or lounge; likewise in French slang lune = posteriors); mouler un
+sénateur (popular); mouler une Venus (artists’); gazonner (literally to
+‘cover with turf’); aller au numero cent (a play upon the word sent);
+déponer (Michel thinks that though at first sight this word would seem
+to be directly derived from the Latin deponere, yet it really either
+comes from the old French ponant, signifying posteriors, or from the
+verb poner, used in the thirteenth century in the sense of pondre,
+i.e., to lay eggs); débourrer sa pipe (popular); défalquer (popular);
+tarter or tartir (popular and thieves’: in Latin alvum deponere. Cf.,
+Italian Fourbesque tartire); faire une moulure (moulure in architecture
+= moulding); aller quelque part (lit. to go somewhere); aller à ses
+affaires (lit. ‘to go to one’s business’); aller où le roi va à pied
+(i.e., to go where the king goes on foot. Cf., to go where the queen
+always goes on foot); filer (properly to spin); aller chez Jules (to go
+to Julius. Cf., to go and see one’s aunt); ierchem (low: chier, a
+disguised obscenity, + em); flasquer (thieves’); touser (this word
+comes from tourtouse and signifies properly faire de la corde); faire
+corps neuf (properly to take a new lease of one’s life); déposer une
+médaille de papier volant, or des Pays-Bas (obsolete); faire des cordes
+(des cordes = strings); mettre une lettre à la poste (lit. to go and
+post a letter); faire le grand (grand = an opprobrious epithet); faire
+une commission (to run an errand); fogner (popular); flaquer (popular:
+literally ‘to dash’ [water or any other liquid]); écrire à un Juif
+(literally to write to a Jew); déposer une pêche (popular); poser une
+pépin (popular: poser = to place or cast down; pépin, in botany a
+kernel or pip); poser un factionnaire (popular: factionnaire is
+properly a sentinel or sentry); poser une sentinelle (popular: with
+same meaning as foregoing); envoyer une depèche à Bismarck (popular:
+this may be a contemptuous usage of the German Chancellor’s name,
+although in French slang couleur Bismarck = brown colour); aller où le
+roi n’envoie personne (lit. to go where the king sends no one);
+flaquader (flaque = excrement); fuser (properly to dissolve); gâcher du
+gros (popular); galipoter (another slang meaning of this word is ‘to
+smear’); pousser son rond (popular); faire ronfler la chaire
+percée—Thomas—le bourrelet—la chaise percée (faire ronfler = to cause
+to or make snore, chaire = Bishop’s throne, chaire percée =
+close-stool, and bourrelet = padded cushion with hole in centre, Thomas
+= bedroom chamber); aller voir Bernard (Cf., aller chez Jules); aller
+au buen-retiro (buen retiro properly = a private place of retirement,
+but in this sense is an ironical allusion to a W.C.); faire un pruneau
+or poser un pruneau (Michel thinks this expression is derived from clos
+Bruneau, a facetious name given to the posteriors about the sixteenth
+century); filer le cable de proue (Michel gives this as of nautical
+origin—seamen’s latrines being situated in the fo’cas’le).
+
+Italian Fourbesque. Tartire (properly to lighten or ease one’s
+conscience by confessing to a Priest).
+
+To bury a wife, verbal phr. (old).—To feast and make merry, an
+expression used in connection with the jollifications frequently
+indulged in by apprentices on the completion of their term of
+indenture, when they became ‘full blown’ craftsmen.
+
+
+Bus or Buss, subs. (theatrical).—1. A variant of business (q.v.), of
+which it is an abbreviation. Pronounced biz.
+
+2. (common.)—A contraction of ‘omnibus.’
+
+    1832. Ht. Martineau, Weal and Woe, i., 14. If the station offers me
+    a place in a buss. [M.]
+
+    1852. Dickens, Bleak House, p. 93. He proposed that they should go,
+    per buss, a little way into the country.
+
+    1861. Thackeray, Adventures of Philip, II., p. 316. We were
+    mortified to see that of the five persons conveyed by the ’bus, one
+    was a tradesman, etc.
+
+    1869. Black, In Silk Attire, II., p. 205. Annie Brunel got out of
+    the Hampstead ’bus, and found herself in the muddy highway.
+
+Verb (American).—To punch [one’s head].
+
+
+Bush or Be Bushed, verb (Australian).—Primarily to camp out in the
+bush; or to get lost in the bush. Hence a slang usage in which the
+expression is applied to a person in any mental or physical difficulty
+or muddle.
+
+    1887. All the Year Round, July 30, p. 68. An Australian says that
+    he is bushed just as an Englishman, equally characteristically,
+    declares that he is fogged.
+
+    1889. B. L. Farjeon, In Australian Wilds. ‘We shall have to bush
+    it, mate,’ I said. ‘That’s so,’ said Lilly Trot, unconcernedly; but
+    looking about him sharply, despite his apparent carelessness, for a
+    suitable spot to camp on. Ibid. We were on horseback, with blankets
+    before us on our saddles, to provide for our getting bushed. We
+    were prepared for rough times. I carried my revolver, and Lilly
+    Trot had a villainous-looking black life-preserver up his sleeve,
+    ready at a moment’s notice for any emergency.
+
+
+Bushed, ppl. adj. (old).—Hard up; without money; destitute.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bush’d, poor; without money.
+
+
+Bushed On, verbal phr. (common).—Pleased; delighted.
+
+
+Bushel Bubby, subs. (old).—A full and large breasted woman. [From
+bushel, a (large) measure, + bubby (q.v.), a breast.] Cf., Bubber.
+
+
+Bushwhacker, subs. (American political).—In politics, as in war, simply
+a ‘free-lance.’ During the Rebellion deserters from the ranks of both
+armies infested the country, bands of these marauders making raids upon
+defenceless houses and even going the length of sacking whole towns.
+Originally the term was harmless enough in meaning. At a time when
+water-communication was the chief means of locomotion, and the rivers,
+streams, and creeks of densely wooded regions were alive with the
+advance guards of civilization, bushwhacking was the name given to the
+means by which lumbermen propelled their craft up and down stream. This
+was accomplished by pulling the bushes growing by the water side; or,
+on land, by the cutting away of a thicket in order to obtain a passage.
+The man who did this, and the instrument—a kind of scythe or cutlass
+with which, in the latter case, he thus forced his way—were alike
+called bushwhackers. The word has gone through yet another transition.
+Since the war it has also come to mean a ‘country bumpkin,’ a
+‘clod-pole,’ or any other person of a ‘verdant’ character.
+
+
+Bushy Park, subs. (rhyming slang).—A lark.
+
+To be in Bushy Park, phr. (old).—To be poor.
+
+
+Business, subs. (old).—1. Sexual intercourse. For synonyms, see Greens.
+
+    1630. Taylor, Workes. And Lais of Corinth, ask’d Demosthenes One
+    hundred crownes for one night’s businesse.
+
+    1654. Wits Recreations.
+
+        What Crispulus is that in a new gown,
+        All trim’d with loops and buttons up and down,
+        That learns there on his arm in private chat
+        With thy young wife, what Crispulus is that?
+        He’s proctor of a court, thou say’st and does
+        Some business of my wives: thou brainless goose,
+        He does no business of thy wives, not he,
+        He does thy business (Coracine) for thee.
+
+2. (theatrical.)—Dramatic action; bye-play.
+
+    1753. The World, No. 26. We are too much enamoured with what is
+    called intrigue, business, and bustle, in our plays.
+
+    1820. Scott, The Abbot, ch. xxvii. (III., p. 6). The ... went,
+    came, and returned, mingling in every scene of the piece, and
+    interrupting the business.
+
+    1860. Cornhill Magazine, Dec., p. 749. So well do performers
+    understand this principle, that they give the literary composition
+    the utmost contemptuous title of ‘words,’ while they dignify the
+    movements of the characters with the name of business.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 282. Tom
+    observed, I never saw such business before; how do you do it with
+    that board thing, for I can’t manage it? I have knocked and bruised
+    some of my people about so that they swear they would sooner leave
+    than have such another day.
+
+    1880. Punch, Sept. 18, 130. ‘Quite in his Line.’ Stout Major (to
+    Professional Actor, who has been asked down to coach the Garrison
+    Amateurs): ‘Aw—we played The Bells at our last Theatricals, of
+    which I’ve the Management. I—aw—played Irving’s part myself.
+    Aw—immense Success!’ Professional (drily): ‘Of course you’ve seen
+    him in it?’ Major: ‘Ya-as—but—aw—I didn’t copy him in the
+    least—aw—my own ‘Business.’ Aw—Entirely different reading. In fact,
+    every one said it wasn’t a bit like him!’
+
+    1883. H. Irving, in Good Words, Jan., p. 34. Then consider what
+    scope the ‘business’ of the scene gives to the actor’s purpose.
+
+To do one’s business for one, phr. (common).—To kill; to cause one’s
+death.
+
+    1880. Jas. Greenwood, Grandmother Cooper, in Odd People in Odd
+    Places, p. 4. ‘They said it was his hurts as killed him,’ said the
+    old lady, ‘but it was no use ’em telling me that. It was the bricks
+    and mortar that did his business, poor chap.’
+
+
+Business End [of a thing], subs. (American).—The practical part.
+
+
+Busk It, verb (vagrants’).—To sell obscene songs and books at the bars
+and in the tap-rooms of public houses. Sometimes it implies selling
+other articles. Also to ‘work’ public houses and certain spots as an
+itinerant musician or vocalist. So also busking, verb subs. and ppl.
+adj. and busker, a man who thus sings and performs in public houses: an
+itinerant.
+
+    1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 234. From a
+    furniture-carter of this description I received some most shocking
+    details of having to busk it, as this taking about goods for sale
+    is called by those in the trade. Ibid, I., p. 229. They obtained a
+    livelihood by busking, as it is termed, or in other words, by
+    offering their goods for sale only at the bars or in the tap-rooms
+    and parlours of taverns. Ibid, III., p. 216. Busking is going into
+    public houses and playing and singing and dancing. Ibid, p. 222. I
+    now thought I’d try what is termed busking, that is going into
+    public houses and cutting likenesses of the company.
+
+    1883. Advt. in Echo, May 10, p. 4, col. 6. Busking.—A player on the
+    harp and violin wants a mate.
+
+    1887. Referee, August 21, p. 3, col. 2. Mac himself ... will appear
+    in the Racecourse scene as a busker.
+
+
+Busker.—See under Busk.
+
+
+Busking.—See under Busk.
+
+
+Busnapper.—See Buz-napper.
+
+
+Busnapper’s Kinchin.—See Buz-napper’s Kinchin.
+
+
+Buss.—See Bus.
+
+
+Buss Beggar, subs. (old).—An old prostitute of the lowest type; a
+beggar’s trull.
+
+
+Bust, subs. (vulgar).—A corrupted form of burst. So also busting
+(adj.); busted (ppl. adj.), etc., etc.
+
+    1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 219. A kind of busting noise.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—A burglary.
+
+    18(?79). Horsley, Jottings from Jail. ‘Fatty Bill, from City Road,
+    rem. for a bust ex. two years,’ means that William ... has been
+    compelled to leave his congenial haunts in the City Road, as he is
+    remanded for a burglary, and anticipates two years’ hard labour.
+
+3. (general.)—A frolic; a spree; a drunken debauch. Cf., To go on the
+bust.
+
+    1860. Bartlett (quoted in), A Californian Song.
+
+        And when we get our pockets full
+          Of this bright, shinin’ dust,
+        We’ll travel straight for home again,
+          And spend it on a bust.
+
+4. (American.)—A failure; a fizzle.
+
+Verb (vulgar).—1. To burst; explode.
+
+    1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, II., p. 366. His genius would
+    have busted.
+
+    1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 286. Keep cool, Jefferson
+    ... don’t bust! Ibid, II., p. 124. If the biler of this vessel was
+    Toe bust, Sir, ... and Toe bust now, it would be a festival day in
+    the calendar of despotism.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—To commit a burglary.
+
+3. (thieves’.)—To inform against an accomplice. A slang variant of
+‘split’ (turn king’s evidence, impeach). The person who does this
+splits or bursts the whole concern.
+
+4. (American.)—To fail in business or transactions of any kind.
+
+5. (general.)—To put out of breath; to ‘wind.’
+
+    c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘Taking out the Baby.’ Spoken—And they
+    had all been taking out the baby, and all had had such a doing—that
+    boy o’ mine nearly busted me—and of course they all think they
+    deserve a glass of beer.
+
+6. (American.)—To indulge in a drunken frolic; to go on the spree. Cf.,
+To go on the bust.
+
+    1869. New Orleans Picayune, Feb. 14. ‘Because I was a good-natured
+    fellow, I had to go with them, rollicking, teaparting,
+    excursioning, and busting generally.’
+
+7. (American.)—To destroy; to commit suicide; to ‘set aside’; to
+expose.
+
+    1880. Bret Harte, Chiquita, p. 22. Did you know Briggs of Tuolumne?
+    Busted hisself in White Pine, and blew out is brains.
+
+    1883. North of England Advertiser, Sept. 1. Then he got the Moabite
+    pottery which Mr. Clement Ganneau busted.
+
+Bust me! phr. (common).—A mild oath—blow me! jigger me! (q.v.)—See also
+Oaths.
+
+    1859. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, bk. I., ch. iii. ‘Bust me if I
+    don’t think he’d been a drinking!’
+
+To go on the bust, phr. (common).—To go on a frolic or spree. For
+synonyms, see Paint the town red.
+
+
+Buster, subs. (common).—1. A small new loaf; also a coarse cake or bun
+of large size that fills or blows out the stomach of the eater. [From
+bust, a vulgar form of ‘burst,’ + er.] Cf., Starver.
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. Bob: Now,
+    landlord, ‘arter that ere drap of max, suppose we haves a drain o’
+    heavy wet, just by way of cooling our chaffers—mine’s as dry as a
+    chip—and, I say, do you hear, let’s have a twopenny burster, half a
+    quartern of beesvax, a ha’p’orth o’ ingens, and a dollop o’ salt
+    along vith it, vill you? Mace: Bellay! a burster and beesvax—and
+    salt here. (Calling as he fetches the porter from the side wing,
+    l.) Now, then, here you are, Master Grimmuzzle.
+
+    1841. Comic Almanacks, 1835–43 (Hotten), p. 295.
+
+        ‘Cut us a slap-up slice of Cheshire cheese,
+        And tip’s a twopenny burster if you please.’
+
+    1849. Bell’s Life. [From Baumann.] A burster with a slice of
+    beeswax.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 192. Mo and
+    his man were having a great breakfast one morning at Newcastle, off
+    a twopenny buster and a small bit of butter, with some wishy-washy
+    coffee....
+
+    c. 1882. Broadside Ballad, ‘I can’t get at it.’
+
+        I can’t get at it, I can’t get at it,
+          I like the faggots tho’ they smell,
+          But now the penny’s down the well,
+        I can’t get at it, I can’t get at it,
+        I thought I’d have a ‘buster’ but it’s all no go!
+
+2. (thieves’.)—A burglar. For synonyms, see Area-sneak. Cf., Bust,
+subs., sense 2, and verb, sense 2.
+
+    1879. J. W. Horsley, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macm. Mag.,
+    XL., 582. Busters and screwsmen (burglars).
+
+3. (common.)—Anything of superior size; that has unusual capacity; that
+causes admiration; a spurt. Hence to ‘come an awful buster,’ ‘to fall
+heavily,’ ‘to come a cropper’; ‘in for a buster,’ prepared, ready or
+determined for a spree.
+
+    1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. x. ‘Lor, Pete,’ said
+    Mose, triumphantly, ‘han’t we got a buster of a breakfast!’ at the
+    same time catching at a fragment of the chicken.
+
+    1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. vii., p. 28. ‘At such time
+    as when your sister is on the Ram-page, Pip,’ Joe sank his voice to
+    a whisper, and glanced at the door, ‘candour compels fur to admit
+    that she is a Buster.’
+
+    1870. Popular Song on Franco-German War.
+
+        ... Thank God, my dear Augusta,
+        We’ve had another awful buster,
+        Ten thousand Frenchmen sent below,
+        Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
+
+    c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘I’ll never go courting again.’
+
+        A lawyer’s niece, next, I admired,
+          But brief he made my wooing spec;
+        To a banker’s ward then, I aspired,
+          But got from the banker a check (cheque).
+        A publican said, other measures
+          For his girl he’d to carry out,
+        And a baker he gave me a ‘buster,’
+          With a ‘brick,’ sent me rolling about.
+
+4. (Australian.)—A heavy storm from the south. Otherwise called in
+Sydney a brick fielder (q.v.).
+
+    1885. Household Words, 10 Oct., p. 463. In anxious expectation we
+    now awaited the result of this curious phenomenon of darkest night
+    in day, which, accustomed to the portents that sometimes herald in
+    the terrific busters of these southern seas, as most of us were,
+    all declared they had never seen it equalled.
+
+
+Busting, verb, subs. (thieves’.)—Informing against accomplices; turning
+Queen’s evidence. Cf., Bust, verb, sense 3. For synonyms, see Peaching.
+
+
+Bustle, subs. (common).—1. A pad, roll, or wire contrivance worn by
+women at the back in order to extend the dress, and also with a view to
+setting off the smallness of the waist. [Origin uncertain.] For
+synonyms, see Birdcage.
+
+    1788. T. Monro, in Olla Podrida, No. 40. Such locks the nymphs now
+    wear (in silks who rustle), In rich luxuriance reaching to the
+    bustle. [M.]
+
+    1835. Sketches by Boz, p. 323. Whether she was pretty, whether she
+    wore much bustle, etc. Ibid, p. 488. ‘Did you ever,’ said a little
+    coquette with a large bustle.
+
+    1857. Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. xlv., p. 384. Bertie
+    finished off the countess’s bustle.
+
+2. (old.)—Money. A full list of synonyms will be found under Actual.
+
+    1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bustle, a cant term for money.
+    Ibid. Any object effected very suddenly, or in a hurry, is said to
+    be done on the bustle.
+
+Verb (general).—To confuse; confound; perplex.—See previous quot.
+
+    1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 237. ‘Now
+    bustle him,’ said Tom Maley; ‘you have got him to-rights now. Let
+    go your left straight.’
+
+
+Bust-Maker, subs. (common).—A molrower; a ‘loose fish’; a seducer. For
+synonyms, see Molrower. [From bust, a protuberance, + maker.]
+
+
+Busy-Sack, subs. (common).—A carpet bag. Called in America a grip-sack.
+
+
+Butcher, subs. (cards’).—1. The king in playing-cards. When
+card-playing in public houses was common, the kings were called
+butchers, the queens bitches, and the knaves jacks. The latter term is
+now in general use. In French slang the king is un bœuf.
+
+2. (American.)—A peripatetic ‘small-boy’ vendor of ‘varieties’ and
+‘notions’ on railway cars—at once a convenience and a ‘terror.’
+
+3. (thieves’.)—The prison doctor. For synonyms, see Crocus.
+
+
+Butcher About, verb (Wellington College).—To make a great noise; to
+humbug about.
+
+
+Butcher’s Mourning, subs. (common).—A white hat with a black mourning
+hat-band.
+
+
+Butteker, subs. (old).—A shop.
+
+
+Butter, subs. (popular).—Fulsome flattery; unctuous praise; ‘soft
+soap.’ A French equivalent is le cirage. Cf., verb, sense 1. Also
+buttering-up.
+
+    1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 40.
+
+        For, knowing how, on Moulsey’s plain,
+          The champion fibb’d the Poet’s nob,
+        This buttering-up against the grain,
+        We thought was curs’d genteel in Bob.
+
+    1823. Blackwood’s Magazine, XIV., p. 309. You have been daubed over
+    by the dirty butter of his applause.
+
+    1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. i. The quantity of butter
+    which he poured over Mr. Hardline’s head and shoulders with the
+    view of alleviating the misery which such a communication would be
+    sure to inflict, was very great.
+
+    1880. World, 13 Oct. A lavish interchange of compliments, the
+    butter being laid on pretty thick.
+
+Verb (common).—1. To flatter fulsomely; to indulge in rhodomantic
+praise. French cirer.
+
+    1700. Congreve, Way of World, prol. (1866), 259. The squire that’s
+    buttered still is sure to be undone. [M.]
+
+    1725. New Canting Dictionary. To butter signifies also to cheat or
+    defraud in a smooth and plausible manner.
+
+    1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxviii. ‘Keep him employed, man, for
+    half-an-hour or so—butter him with some warlike terms—praise his
+    dress and address.’
+
+    1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xii. ‘He first butthers them up
+    and then slithers them down!’
+
+    1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago. I’ll butter him, trust me.
+    Nothing comforts a poor beggar like a bit of praise when he is
+    down.
+
+    1884. Saturday Review, 5 July, p. 27, col. 1. The Lord Chief
+    Justice of England made a tour through America, and generously
+    buttered the natives.
+
+2. (old.)—Jamieson says, ‘to increase the stakes every throw or every
+game.’
+
+    1690. B. E., Dictionary of Canting Crew. Butter, to double or
+    treble the bet or wager to recover all losses.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Butter a bet, to
+    double or triple it.
+
+To look as if butter would not melt in one’s mouth, phr. (old).—A
+contemptuous saying of a person of somewhat simple demeanour. Murray
+traces back this familiar phrase to 1530, but a reference to it appears
+in French literature at a much earlier date.
+
+    1475. Les Evangiles des Quenouilles—Vme Journée. Edition
+    Elzevirienne. Paris (1855), p. 72. A cette parolle mist dame
+    Mehault ses mains à ses costez et en grant couroux luy respondy
+    que, etc., et que, Dieu merci, aincoires fondoit le burre en sa
+    bouche, combien qu’elle ne peust croquier noisettes, car elle
+    n’avoit que un seul dent.
+
+    1530. Palgrave, 620, 1. He maketh as thoughe butter wolde not melte
+    in his mouth. [M.]
+
+    1562. Latimer, Serm. Lord’s Prayer, V., ii., 79. These fellows ...
+    can speak so finely, that a man would think butter should scant
+    melt in their mouths.
+
+    1687. Sedley, Bellamira. Sil. He look’d so demurely, I thought
+    butter wou’d not have melted in his mouth, I hope you will make
+    sure work with him before you send him again.
+
+    1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. She looks as if butter would
+    not melt in her mouth, but I warrant cheese won’t choak her.
+
+    1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxviii. (III., p. 26). I am
+    beginning to think ye are but a queer ane, ye look as if butter
+    wadna melt in your mouth, but I sall warrant cheese no choak ye.
+
+    1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 149. Telling her landlady how
+    ... the Mayor was ... a nice, soft-spoken old gentleman; that
+    butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, etc.
+
+Will cut butter when it’s hot, phr. (common).—Said of a knife when
+blunt. An obvious allusion.
+
+Butter and eggs, subs. (common).—Explained by quotations.
+
+    1862. Macmillan’s Mag., Jan., p. 238. And I can do butter-and-eggs
+    all down the slide.... The feat of butter-and-eggs consists in
+    going down the slide on one foot and beating with the heel and toe
+    of the other at short intervals.
+
+Compare the foregoing with the following.
+
+    1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, II., p. 9. Sam Weller, in
+    particular, was displaying that beautiful feat of fancy sliding
+    which is currently denominated ‘knocking at the cobblers’ door,’
+    and which is achieved by skimming over the ice on one foot, and
+    occasionally giving a two-penny postman’s knock upon it, with the
+    other.
+
+
+Butter-Bag or Butter-Box, subs. (old).—Opprobrious epithets for a
+Dutchman. [? In allusion to Holland producing large quantities of
+butter. Cf., quot., 1811.]
+
+    1600. Dekker, Gentle Craft, wks. (1873) I., 21. We have not men
+    enow, but wee must entertaine every butter-box. [M.]
+
+    1650. Howell, Familiar Letters. And for the latter strength we may
+    thank our countryman Ward, and Dansker the butterbag Hollander,
+    which may be said to have bin two of the fatallest and most
+    infamoust men that ever Christendom bred.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Butter-box. A Dutchman, from the great
+    quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country.
+
+
+Butter-Boat. To empty the butter-boat, phr. (common).—To lavish praise;
+to battle. [From butter-boat, a table utensil employed for serving
+melted butter.]
+
+    1865. Sat. Review, 7 Jan., p. 16, col. 2. That kind of praise which
+    feels like the butter-boat down one’s back. [M.]
+
+    1866. J. H. Skinner, After Storm, I., 181. He praised some things
+    and gave advice about others, using the butter-boat less freely
+    than is customary at volunteer inspections. [M.]
+
+
+Butter-Box.—See Butter-bag.
+
+
+Buttercups, subs. (common).—A graceful pet name for children.
+
+    1877. E. L. Linton, World Well Lost, ch. vii. Hilda was still in
+    the schoolroom, and seldom appeared even at afternoon tea; which in
+    general is licensed to include ‘buttercups.’
+
+
+Buttered, ppl. adj. (old).—1. Whipped. Cf., Dusted, Tanned, etc.
+(q.v.).
+
+2. (common.)—Flattered.—See Butter, sense 1.
+
+
+Buttered Bun, subs. (old).—A mistress; also a prostitute, especially
+one who submits to the sexual embrace in quick succession with
+different men. [In this latter sense, if not in former, from buttered =
+greased + bun (q.v.), the female pudenda.] For synonyms, see
+Barrack-hack.
+
+    1679. Cullen, W., Flock of Court Misses, in Roxburgh Ballads
+    (1884), V., 126. This is the day ... that sets our Monarch free
+    From Buttered Buns [i.e., Louise de Quérouaille] and Slavery.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. One lying with a woman that has just
+    lain with another man, is said to have a buttered bun.
+
+
+Butter-Fingered, comp. ppl. adj. (common).—Apt to let things fall;
+greasy or slippery-fingered. The nickname of butter-fingers is hence
+given to those who let things slip easily from their grasp.
+
+    1615. Markham, English Housewife, II., ii. (1668), 51. She must not
+    be butter-fingered, sweet-toothed, nor faint-hearted; for the first
+    will let everything fall, etc.
+
+    1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures, p. 141. He was a slovenly
+    player, and went among the cricket lovers by the sobriquet of
+    butter-fingers.
+
+    1861. G. Meredith, Evan Harrington. The long-hit-off, he who never
+    was known to miss a catch—butter-fingered beast!—he has let the
+    ball slip through his fingers.
+
+    1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xiv. ‘I never allow no
+    butter-fingered girls in this room, except to sweep or scrub, under
+    my own eye. There’s not many ornaments, but what there is is
+    precious, and the apple of master’s eye.’
+
+
+Butter-Flap, subs. (rhyming slang).—A trap—i.e., a light cart.
+
+
+Butterfly, subs. (nautical).—1. A river barge.
+
+2. (cabmen’s.)—The guard for the reins affixed to the top of a hansom
+cab.
+
+    1883. Standard, March 6, p. 6, col. 3. The box covered the whole
+    roof of the cab, preventing him [the cabman] from seeing the
+    butterfly. [M.]
+
+
+Butternuts, subs. (American.)—The sympathisers with the South in the
+North and the Middle States during the American Civil War; the term was
+derived from the colour of the uniforms worn in the early part of the
+war by Confederate soldiers in the West, which, being homespun, were
+dyed brown with the juice of the butternut (Juglans cinerea).
+
+
+Butter-Print, subs. (old).—A child; usually one that is illegitimate.
+Cf., Buttercup.
+
+    1620. Fletcher, Chances, I., v. You will be wiser one day, when you
+    have purchased A bevy of these butter-prints. [M.]
+
+    1639. Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit Without Money, V., iv. I hope she
+    has brought me no butter-print along with her to lay to my charge.
+    [M.]
+
+    1709. Brit. Apollo, II., No. 46, p. 3, col. 2. Her Girl and her
+    Boy, For Patterns employ, To make little Butter-Prints by. [M.]
+
+
+Buttock, subs. (old).—A common prostitute. For synonyms, see
+Barrack-hack, and Cf., File.
+
+    1674. R. Head, Canting Academy, 105. The Bawds and the Buttocks
+    that lived there round.
+
+    1688. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, I., wks. (1720) IV., 17. What
+    ogling there will be between thee and the Blowings!... Every
+    buttock shall fall down before thee.
+
+    1690. B. E., Dictionary of the Canting Crew. Buttock and file, both
+    whore and pickpocket.
+
+
+Buttock and File, subs. phr. (old).—A prostitute and her companion;
+sometimes bulk and file. Occasionally, too, buttock and file is used of
+a single individual—one who unites the roles of a thief and prostitute.
+[From buttock (q.v.), a whore, + file (q.v.), a pickpocket.]
+
+    1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). Bulk
+    and File the Pickpocket and his mate.
+
+    1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. I., ch. v. The same capacity
+    which qualifies a mill-ben, a bridle-cull, or a buttock and file to
+    arrive at any degree of eminence in his profession would likewise
+    raise a man in what the world esteem a more honourable calling.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Buttock and file, a common whore and a
+    pickpocket.
+
+
+Buttock and Tongue, subs. (old).—A scolding woman; a shrew.
+
+
+Buttock and Twang, subs. (old).—A common prostitute, but who refrains
+from theft. Cf., Buttock and file.
+
+
+Buttock Ball, subs. (old).—1. A dance attended by prostitutes. Cf.,
+Ballum rancum and Buff ball.
+
+    1687. T. Brown, Lib., Consc., in Dk. Buckingham’s Wks. (1705), II.,
+    131. Why not into a Bibbing-house, as well as a Dancing School, a
+    buttoc-ball, or the like.
+
+2. (old.)—The sexual embrace; cohabitation. Cf., Bawdy banquet and
+Buttock banquetting.
+
+    1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Buttock-ball, the amorous congress.
+
+
+Buttock Banquetting, subs. (old).—Harlotry.
+
+    1555. Fardle Facions, II., viii., 167. Whiche [wiues] maie
+    neuerthelesse vse buttocke banquetyng abrode.
+
+
+Buttock-Broker, subs. (old).—A procuress; a bawd; an abbess (q.v.).
+
+
+Buttocking Shop, subs. (old).—A brothel; a house of ill fame used by
+the lowest class of public women.
+
+
+Button, subs. (old).—1. A shilling. Formerly this applied to good
+currency; it now only signifies counterfeit coin. For synonyms, see
+Below.
+
+2. A decoy of any kind, whether the confederate of confidence trick
+men, or a sham buyer at an auction. Frequently called a buttoner
+(q.v.). Cf., Bunco-steerer. Fr. un allumé.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 358.
+    They [cheap Jacks] have a man, or more generally a boy ... at a
+    fair, to hank, or act as a button (a decoy), to purchase the first
+    lot of goods put up. Ibid, III., p. 121. Then he (the
+    thimble-rigger) turns round to the crowd, and pretends to be
+    pushing them back, and whilst he is saying, ‘Come gentlemen, stand
+    more backwarder,’ one of the confederates, who is called a
+    ‘button,’ lifts up one of the thimbles with a pea under it, and
+    laughs to those around, as much as to say, ‘We’ve found it out.’
+
+    1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, ix. The button, that is the
+    confederate who egged on the flats.
+
+Verb.—To decoy; to act as confederate in swindles. Fr. aguicher.
+
+Not to care a button—brass button, etc., phr. (common).—A very old
+colloquialism indicative of small value. It has been in continuous use
+from the beginning of the fourteenth century down to the present time.
+Americans say ‘not worth a cent or a red cent,’ while among variants in
+common use in England may be mentioned ‘not to care a fig—a pin—or a
+sou.’
+
+
+Button Burster or Button Buster, subs. (theatrical).—A low comedian.
+[The derivation is sufficiently obvious, that is, one who causes his
+auditors to laugh so that by a figure of speech their buttons are
+regarded as bursting off their clothes.]
+
+
+Button-Catcher, subs. (general).—A tailor. There may be mentioned among
+
+English Synonyms, snip; cabbage contractor; steel-bar driver; goose
+persuader; sufferer; ninth part of a man, etc.
+
+French Synonyms. Un gobeprune (thieves’); un emmailloteur (popular); un
+mangeur de prunes (general); un pique-poux; un pique-prunes; un
+pique-puces; un croque-prunes; un frus-quineur. (Most of these are
+offensive terms, as will be seen when it is stated that puces = fleas;
+poux = lice, and so on.)
+
+
+Buttoner, subs. (thieves’).—A card-sharper’s decoy, an equivalent of
+button, subs., sense 2. For synonyms, see Decoy-duck.
+
+    1841. Blackwood’s Mag., L., 202. Buttoners are those accomplices of
+    thimble-riggers ... whose duty it is to act as flat-catchers or
+    decoys, by personating flats. [M.]
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3 ed.), p. 446. To entice another to
+    play—buttoner.
+
+    1860. Cornhill Mag., II., 334. Enticer of another to play—buttoner.
+    [M.]
+
+
+Button-On. To have a button on, phr. (printers’).—To have a fit of the
+blues; to be despondent.—See Chopper on.
+
+
+Button Pound, subs. (provincial).—Money. For synonyms generally, see
+Actual.
+
+
+Buttons, subs. (common).—A page; sometimes rendered by boy in buttons.
+[In allusion to the numerous buttons which usually adorn the front of a
+page’s jacket.]
+
+    1860. Thackeray, Lovel the Widower, p. 289. [Herein quoted as the
+    name of a page.]
+
+    1873. Chambers’ Jour., p. 605. Even the smallest boy in buttons
+    would have been a retainer too costly for us.
+
+    1874. H. Mayhew, London Characters, p. 311. Others limit their
+    views to a page, or ‘buttons.’
+
+    1885. Ill. Lon. News, April 11, p. 376, col. 1. Such a man is only
+    fit to be dressed like a buttons, and set to open the door to
+    visitors who come to call on his family.
+
+Dash or damn my buttons—wig, etc., phr. (general).—A mild oath, the
+word ‘damn’ often being represented by a dash. Ordinarily employed to
+express vexation or surprise.—See Oaths.
+
+    1860. Wm. Howard Russell, My Diary in India, I., p. 26. Darn my
+    buttons if I haven’t jest a mind to....
+
+Not to have all one’s buttons, phr. (common).—To be deficient in
+intellect; slightly cracky; to have a bee in one’s bonnet.—See
+Apartments to let.
+
+To have a soul above buttons, phr. (common).—To be above one’s work or
+duty; to think one’s ability superior to one’s position. [The quotation
+for 1795 to which Murray calls special attention would seem to indicate
+the possible origin of the phrase.]
+
+    1795. G. Colman, Sylv. Daggerwood, I. (1808), 10. My father was an
+    eminent Button-Maker ... but I had a soul above buttons ... I
+    panted for a liberal profession. [m.].
+
+    1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. i. But my father, who was a
+    clergyman of the Church of England, and the youngest brother of a
+    noble family, had a lucrative living and a soul above buttons, if
+    his son had not.
+
+    1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, III., p. 93. If I were to say to Captain
+    Crackthorpe, ‘What pretty buttons!’ he would be delighted. But
+    you—you have a soul above buttons, I suppose.
+
+To make buttons, phr. (old).—To look sorry; sad; to be in great fear.
+
+    1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Supererog., in wks. II., 238. Thy witt
+    already maketh buttons.
+
+    1653. Middleton, Sp. Gipsy, IV., iii. Sam. O Soto, I make buttons!
+
+
+Button Up, verb (American stockbrokers’).—When a broker has bought
+stock on speculation and it falls suddenly on his hands, whereby he is
+a loser, he keeps the matter to himself, and is reluctant to confess
+the ownership of a share. This is called buttoning up.
+
+
+Butty, subs. (common).—A comrade or partner. Properly and specifically
+a miner who raises coal or ore by contract at a special price per ton,
+employing others to do the actual work. Perhaps more provincial than
+slang, although a writer in Notes and Queries, July 30, 1870, suggests
+its origin in the Romany: he says in the gipsy dialect booty is the
+term for work. Booty-pal is a fellow-workman (literally work-brother).
+As usual when a polysyllable is imported into ordinary use, it loses
+its tail; so booty-pal, in the mouths of navvies ignorant of its
+origin, would soon be cut down to booty or butty.
+
+    1845. Disraeli, Sybil, wks. III., ch. i. Suppose we were to make a
+    shift for a month or six weeks, ... and have no tommy out of the
+    shop, what would the butty say to me? [A note to foregoing explains
+    that a butty in the mining districts is a middleman: a Doggy is his
+    manager. The butty generally keeps a Tommy or Truck shop and pays
+    the wages of the labourers in goods.] Ibid, p. 385. The butty has
+    given notice to quit in Parker’s field this se’nnight. Ibid, p.
+    389. The enemies of the people: all butties, doggies, dealers in
+    truck and tommy.
+
+    1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxxi. ‘He and I cottoned
+    together, and found out that we had been prisoners together
+    five-and-twenty years agone. And so I shouted [stood drinks] for
+    him, and he for me, and at last I says, “Butty,” says I, “who are
+    those chaps round here on the lay?”’
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 101.
+    William Carrol was his partner, or butty, in the ‘lollipop’
+    business—a dismal looking man, who had always a burnt short clay
+    pipe in his mouth.
+
+
+Buvare, subs. (strolling players’).—Explained by quotation. Cf., also
+Beware.
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 201.
+    [Ethiopian serenader loq.] ‘We could then, after our “nunyare” and
+    “buvare” (that’s what we call eat and drink, and I think it’s
+    broken Italian), carry home our 5/– or 6/– each, easy.’
+
+
+Buy a Prop, phr. (Stock Exchange).—A term used to signify that the
+market has gone flat, and that there is no one to support it.
+
+
+Buz or Buzz, subs. (common).—A parlour game which is thus described by
+Hotten, who, however, erroneously limited it to public-houses:—The
+leader commences saying ‘one,’ the next on the left hand ‘two,’ the
+next ‘three,’ and so on to seven, when ‘buz’ must be said. Every seven
+and multiple of 7, as 14, 17, 21, 27, 28, etc., must not be mentioned,
+but ‘buz’ instead. Whoever breaks the rule pays a fine.
+
+    1868. Miss Alcott, Little Women, ch. iii. They ... were in the
+    midst of a quiet game of ‘buzz’ with two or three other young
+    people who had strayed in, when Hannah appeared.
+
+Verb (general).—1. Some uncertainty exists as to whether to buz
+signifies to drain a bottle or decanter to the last drop, or whether it
+means to share equally the last of a bottle of wine, when there is not
+enough for a full glass to each of the party. [See, however, quot.
+1795.] Annandale and Hotten incline to the latter; Grose and Murray to
+the former view, and the following quotations appear to favour the
+explanation of the word first noticed as buzza by the burly
+lexicographer of the ‘Vulgar Tongue.’ [? A corruption of booze or
+bouze, i.e., to drink a bumper or to excess.] The Scotch say bouse a’,
+drink all.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To buzza one, is to
+    challenge him to pour out all the wine in the bottle into his
+    glass, undertaking to drink it, should it prove more than the glass
+    would hold; it is commonly said to one who hesitates to empty a
+    bottle that is nearly out.
+
+    1795. Gent. Mag., p. 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter
+    containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you:
+    come, no heel taps!’
+
+    1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 1. Cribb. ...
+    I’ll give you, ‘May the best man win.’ (All drink.) May the best
+    man win. Green. May the best man vin. Log. With all my heart; but,
+    zounds! we’ve almost buzz’d the bowl. Let’s have another, and d’ye
+    hear, Tom, serve it up in your prize cup; Jerry hasn’t seen it, and
+    we mustn’t omit that.
+
+    1846–48. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., 138. ‘Get some more port,
+    Bowls, old boy, whilst I buzz this bottle here—what was I saying?’
+    ‘I think you were speaking of dogs killing rats,’ Pitt remarked
+    mildly, handing his cousin the decanter to buzz.
+
+    1871. Archibald Forbes, My Experiences of the War between France
+    and Germany, I., p. 234. The Hotel which I had seen a few days
+    before, where Von Tümpling’s staff were buzzing the bottles.
+
+2. To pick pockets. [Probably an allusion to buzz in the sense of to
+talk busily. The victim in buzzing or buz-faking (q.v.) is generally
+engaged in conversation with a confederate, while the buzzer (q.v.) is
+committing the robbery.] For synonyms, see Prig.
+
+    1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 158. In order to give them an
+    opportunity of working upon the prig and buz, that is, picking of
+    pockets.
+
+    1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 445. To pick pockets—to
+    buzz.
+
+    1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 261. In
+    my young days there used to travel about in gangs, like men of
+    business, a lot of people called ‘Nobblers,’ who used to work the
+    ‘thimble and pea rig’ and go buzzing, that is, picking pockets,
+    assisted by some small boys.
+
+3. (American thieves’.)—To search for; to look about one.
+
+
+Buz-Bloke.—See Buz-napper.
+
+
+Buz-Cove.—See Buz-napper.
+
+
+Buz-Gloak.—See Buz-napper.
+
+
+Buz-Man, subs. (thieves’).—1. A pickpocket. Cf., Buz-napper.
+
+    1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 111. The London buzman
+    (swell mobsman) can keep his pony by abstracting ‘skins’ (purses)
+    from gentlemen’s pockets.
+
+2. (thieves’.)—An informer. [From buzz, to talk or whisper, + man.] For
+synonyms, see Nark.
+
+    1877. W. Black, Green Past. and Picc., ch. xi. What was all this
+    about ‘Billy Rowland,’ ‘Scotland Yard,’ ‘Spy,’ ‘Buzman,’ and the
+    rest?
+
+
+Buz-Napper, subs. (old).—1. A pickpocket. [From buz, to pick pockets, +
+napper or nabber, one who seizes or snatches. ‘Buz-bloke,’ ‘buz-cove,’
+‘buz-gloak,’ ‘buz-man,’ and ‘buzzer,’ are all variants of buz-napper;
+‘bloke,’ ‘cove,’ and ‘gloak,’ are old canting terms for a man.] For
+synonyms, see Area-sneak.
+
+    1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 174. A young fry of boys ...
+    follow the profession of a buz-napper.
+
+    1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs of Convict Life in Australia. Buz-cove or
+    buz-gloak, a pickpocket; a person who is clever at this practice is
+    said to be a ‘good buz.’
+
+    1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v.
+
+
+        Until at last there was none so knowing,
+        No such sneaksman or buz-gloak going.
+
+
+    1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Those who plunder by
+    stealth, as ... ‘buzzers,’ who pick gentlemen’s pockets.
+
+    1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 3 p.m., par. 10. Where these
+    ruffiani, these copper captains and cozening buz-gloaks, are to be
+    found during the day, or even up to midnight ... must remain a
+    secret.
+
+    1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 46. Buzzers who pick gentlemen’s
+    pockets, and ‘wires’ who pick ladies’ pockets.
+
+    1867. Galaxy, p. 634. While the [New York] police had no right to
+    arrest pickpockets unless they caught them committing a theft, yet
+    as they had the power to do so, they exercised it, and many were
+    the car-buzzers they led captives to police headquarters.
+
+
+Buz-Napper’s Academy, subs. (old).—A school in which young thieves were
+trained. Figures were dressed up, and experienced tutors stood in
+various difficult attitudes for the boys to practise upon. When clever
+enough they were sent on the streets. Dickens gives full particulars of
+this old style of ‘business’ in Oliver Twist.
+
+    1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 173. [A Buz-napper’s Academy
+    is named and described in this work.]
+
+
+Buz-Napper’s Kinchin, subs. (old).—A watchman. Synonymous terms in the
+sense of police will be found under beak (q.v.).
+
+
+Buzzer.—See Buz-napper.
+
+
+Buzzing or Buz-Faking, subs. (thieves’).—Pocket-picking. Cf., Buz,
+verb, sense 2.
+
+
+By-Blow, subs. (old).—An illegitimate child. [An allusion to the
+unacknowledged status of the mother, and the ‘accident’ of the birth of
+such children.] Also called by-chop and by-slip.
+
+    1594. Barnfield, Affectionate Shepherd. In such a ladies lappe, at
+    such a slipperie by-blow, That in a world so wide could not be
+    found such a wilie Lad; in an age so old, could not be found such
+    an old lad.
+
+    1625. Massinger, Parl. of Love, II., i. Give to each by-blow, I
+    know mine, a farm.
+
+    1678. C. Cotton, Scarronides, bk. I., p. 21 (ed. 1725).
+
+        Now Venus was Æneas Mother,
+        In the behalf then of her by-blow,
+        Which had endured many a dry-Blow,
+        She weeping came, sighing and throbbing.
+
+    1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. II., p. 19.
+
+        The poor Man’s House abound with Brats,
+        As country Barn with Mice and Rats;
+        And Parishes be fill’d with by-blows
+        As thick as Butchers’ Stalls with Fly-blows.
+
+    1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). By-blow (s.), a bastard or
+    illegitimate child.
+
+    1868. Browning, Ring and Bk., iv., 612. A drab’s brat, A beggar’s
+    bye-blow.
+
+    1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. I., ch. iii., p. 34. The one who held the
+    child turned his light on the little wet face;... ‘And whose
+    by-blow is this?’ said he. ‘The devil knows,’ said he who knelt by
+    the mother. ‘But it is Pippa.’
+
+
+By-Chop.—See By-blow.
+
+    1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iv., 2.
+
+                First I have sent
+        By-chop away; the cause gone, the fame ceaseth.
+
+
+By Cracky! intj.—A meaningless ejaculation conveying no idea beyond
+that of general surprise.—See Oaths.
+
+    1888. Superior Inter-Ocean. Say, haint Tubbs a Methodist? By
+    cracky! here’s where it is, and in we walked.
+
+
+Bye-Drink, subs. (common).—Liquid refreshment taken at other than
+meal-times. [From bye = not in regular course + drink.]
+
+    1766. Kenrick, Falstaff’s Wedding, i., 1. I could wish,
+    nevertheless, old white wine stood higher in his lordship’s favour;
+    that I may not be stinted at table, or in my by-drinkings.
+
+    1883. Daily Telegraph, Jan. 10, p. 5, col. 3. Our business men—and
+    many others who are not men of business—take, as it is, a great
+    many more ‘bye-drinks’ in the way of ‘sherry’ and ‘whiskey cold’
+    than is good for them.
+
+
+By George! intj. phr. (popular).—An ejaculation signifying either
+surprise, or anger, or used without any special meaning. Phrases of the
+kind are very numerous, and are mainly employed by those whose poverty
+of language is otherwise very marked. [By George! may either be a
+reference to St. George, the patron saint of England, or to the
+predominant Christian name of the early sovereigns of the Brunswick
+dynasty.]
+
+    1731. Fielding, Grub Street Opera, Act iii., Sc. 7. By George, I’ll
+    make an example of him.
+
+    1737. Bacchus and Venus, p. 117. ’Fore George, I’d knock him down.
+
+    1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxxviii. ‘I—er—a little subject to
+    this sort of thing—er—By George!’
+
+
+By Goldam! intj. phr. (American).—A semi-veiled oath. The Yankee is
+peculiarly fertile in variations on the name of God, and gives a
+striking proof of his ingenuity in inventing new forms for the
+forbidden I swear. He has his by Gorram! by Goldam! and by Goshdang! by
+the side of the English oath by Golly! which occurs as early as
+1743.—See Oaths.
+
+
+By Golly! intj. phr. (popular).—A euphemistic phrase for by God!—See
+Oaths.
+
+    1743. W. Warren, Five Arguments against Tythes. ‘The first person
+    consulted a gentleman-farmer, and declared that he never read
+    anything so good in his life. “By golly,” says he, “he ’as mauled
+    the parsons.”’
+
+    1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 204.
+    Then I turn round to him and say, ‘By golly, if you don’t leave
+    off, I’ll broke you over de jaw.’
+
+
+By Gorram!—See By Goldam!
+
+
+By Gosh! intj. phr. (popular).—A compromise for By God!
+
+    1804. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), I., 210. I promise,
+    by Gosh (which is the most elegant and classical oath imaginable).
+
+    1877. W. Black, Green Past. and Picc., ch. xxxv. ‘If this goes on,’
+    said he suddenly, ‘by Gosh, I’ll heave!’
+
+
+By Gum! By Gummy! intj. phr. (American).—Both these expletives are
+extracts from the great American Dictionary of Oaths and Cuss Words,
+compiled by descendants of the Puritan Fathers.—See Oaths.
+
+    1860. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Season Ticket, No. ix. ‘By gum,
+    Squire Shegog, we have had the greatest bobbery of a shindy in our
+    carriage you ever knowed in all our born days.’
+
+
+By Hook or By Crook.—See Hook.
+
+
+By Hooky, intj. phr. (popular).—A mild form of swearing.—See Oaths.
+
+    1882. Jas. Payn, For Cash Only, ch. xxii. ‘Pay me what you owe me,’
+    says I, ‘or, by hooky, I’ll tell your father.’
+
+
+Byng, Bing, verb (old).—To go. Bynge-awaste, to go away.
+
+    1567. Harman, Caveat, or Warening for Commen Cursetors, p. 86. Man.
+    What, stowe your bene, cofe, and cut benat whydds, and byng we to
+    rome vyle, to nyp a bong; so shall we haue lowre for the bousing
+    ken and when we byng back to the deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some
+    duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll the ken for a lagge of dudes.
+    [i.e.] What, holde your peace, good fellowe, and speake better
+    wordes, and go we to London, to cut a purse; then shall we haue
+    money for the ale house, and when wee come backe agayne into the
+    country, we wyll steale some lynnen clothes of one hedges, or robbe
+    some house for a bucke of clothes.
+
+    1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
+    Bing a wast, get you hence.
+
+    1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Binged avast in a
+    darkmans, stole away in the night. Bing we to Rumeville, shall we
+    go to London?
+
+    1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. ‘Bing out and tour [go out
+    and watch] ye auld devil, and see that nobody has scented.’
+
+    1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. ‘I smell a spy,’ replied
+    the other, looking at Nigel.... ‘Bing avast, bing avast!’ replied
+    his companion.
+
+
+By-Scape, subs. (old).—A bastard. Cf., By-blow.
+
+    1646. Earl Monm., Biondi’s List., VI., ix., 197. For his being
+    God-son to her Brother, and ... for that (being very fair) she
+    thought him a by-scape of his. [M.]
+
+
+By-Slip, subs. (old).—A bastard. See By-blow.
+
+    1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, ii., 37. As Pope Paul the Third
+    carried himself to his ungracious by-slips (an Incubus could not
+    have begot worse), who made no further inquisition after their
+    horrid facts but to say, They learnt it not of him.
+
+
+Byte.—See Bit.
+
+
+By the Ever-Living Jumping Moses! intj. phr.—An effective ejaculation
+and moral waste-pipe for interior passion or wrath is seen in the
+exclamation, by the ever-living jumping Moses!—a harmless phrase, that
+for its length expends a considerable quantity of fiery anger.—Hotten.
+
+
+By the Living Jingo! or By Jingo!—See Jingo.
+
+
+By the Wind, phr. (nautical).—Hard up; in difficulties. [In reference
+to the wind being formerly the most important element of success in a
+sailor’s calling.]
+
+
+                        END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, SIGNS, ETC.
+
+
+    Adj. = Adjective.
+    Adj. phr. = Adjectival phrase.
+    Adv. = Adverb.
+    Adv. phr. = Adverbial phrase.
+    C. c. = Circa, about.
+    Cf. cf. = Confer, compare.
+    f. = feminine.
+    F. or Fr. = French.
+    Heb. = Hebrew.
+    imp. = imperative.
+    int. = interjection.
+    intr. = intransitive.
+    It. = Italian.
+    lit. = literally.
+    [M.] = Murray (quoted from New English Dictionary).
+    m. = masculine.
+    M.E. = Middle English.
+    M.H.G. = Middle High German.
+    [N.] = Nares (quoted from).
+    O.E. = Old English.
+    O.H.G. = Old High German.
+    ppl. = participial or participle.
+    phr. = phrase.
+    pl. = plural.
+    pop. = popular.
+    ppl. adj. = participial adjective.
+    (q.v.) = quod vide, which see.
+    subs. = substantive.
+    trans. = transitive.
+    U.S. or U.S.A. = United States of America.
+
+
+When a word is printed in small capitals it should be referred to for
+further information.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78263 ***
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+</head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78263 ***</div>
+<div class="front">
+<div class="div1 cover">
+<div class="divBody">
+<p class="first"></p>
+<div class="figure cover-imagewidth"><img src="images/new-cover.jpg" alt="Newly Designed Front Cover." width="480" height="720"></div><p>
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div1 frenchtitle">
+<div class="divBody">
+<p class="first center large">SLANG <br>AND ITS <br>ANALOGUES.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div1 imprint">
+<div class="divBody">
+<p class="first center"><i>Seven Hundred and Fifty Copies only printed, of which this is <br>No.</i><span class="xs">.….….….….….….….….…</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div1 titlepage">
+<div class="divBody">
+<p class="first"></p>
+<div class="figure titlepage-imagewidth"><img src="images/titlepage1.png" alt="Original Title Page." width="481" height="720"></div><p>
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="titlePage">
+<div class="docTitle">
+<h1 class="mainTitle"><span class="sc">Slang and its Analogues Past and Present.</span></h1>
+<div class="subTitle"><span class="sc">A Dictionary, Historical and Comparative, of the Heterodox Speech of all Classes of
+Society for more than Three Hundred Years.</span></div>
+<div class="subTitle"><i>WITH SYNONYMS IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, ETC.</i></div>
+</div>
+<div class="byline">COMPILED AND EDITED BY <br><span class="docAuthor">JOHN S. FARMER,</span>
+<br>“<i>Americanisms—Old and New</i>”: “<i lang="la">Ex Oriente Lux</i>”: “<i>’Twixt Two Worlds</i>.” </div>
+<div class="docImprint">VOL. I.—<span class="sc">A to Byz.</span>
+<br><i>PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.</i>
+<br><span class="docDate">MDCCCXC.</span> </div>
+</div>
+<p></p>
+<div class="div1 notice">
+<div class="divBody">
+<p class="first">The author will esteem it a favour to be furnished with examples of cant or slang
+of any kind or nationality, together with quotations, especially early ones, illustrating
+usage, meaning, derivation, etc. All communications may be addressed to <span class="sc">John S. Farmer</span>, care of <span class="sc">A.&nbsp;P. Watt</span>, Esq., 2, Paternoster Square, London, E.C.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb.v">[<a href="#pb.v">v</a>]</span> </p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div1 last-child preface">
+<div class="divHead">
+<div class="figure"><img src="images/o1v.png" alt="PREFATORY NOTE." width="198" height="10"></div>
+<h2 class="main">PREFATORY NOTE.</h2>
+</div>
+<div class="divBody">
+<div class="figure floatLeft"><img src="images/initial-h1.png" alt="“H" width="128" height="129"></div>
+<p class="first">e that undertakes to compile a dictionary, undertakes that which, if it comprehends
+the full extent of his design, he knows himself unable to perform. Yet his labours,
+though deficient, may be useful, and with the hope of this inferior praise, he must
+incite his activity, and solace his weariness.” So wrote the great lexicographer,
+Dr. Johnson, in the “Advertisement” to the fourth edition of his Dictionary of the
+English Language, published in 1773. In another place he had already told, in words
+which have since become classical, of the difficulties he had encountered, and of
+his own estimate of the shortcomings of his work as compared with the original design.
+It is in very much the same position that I find myself, now that I have completed
+the first instalment of my own task, smaller and less important though it be. I am
+fully conscious of manifold imperfections; yet I hope, and indeed believe, that I
+have, in my presentation of what is generically known as “slang,” advanced the enquiry
+in some measure. While cordially acknowledging the aid I have derived from the labours
+of my predecessors in the field, I cannot but recognise that, again and again, having
+adopted a new mode of treatment, I have found myself forced to “blaze” the way into
+what was practically a <i lang="la">terra incognita</i>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb.vi">[<a href="#pb.vi">vi</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The difficulties were manifold, and crowded upon one at every turn from the very outset.
+First and foremost came the question of deciding whether any given word, phrase, or
+turn of expression could with justice be relegated to the limbo of unorthodox speech—in
+short to decide, What is Slang? As a matter of fact, I have not yet discovered, nor
+have I been able to formulate any definition which covers the whole of the ground
+to be traversed. As Dr. Murray truly observes, “there is absolutely no defining line
+in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre, but
+no discernible circumference.” Authorities differ between themselves, and often with
+themselves when asked to set down in plain scientific terms the marks which distinguish
+the vagrant words of slang from correct and orthodox English. Nor is the difficulty
+removed or lessened by an analysis of the genesis, or the application of this vast
+and motley crowd of heterodox words: of a verity the borderland between slang and
+the “Queen’s English” is an ill-defined territory, the limits of which have never
+been clearly mapped out. It is, therefore, not without hesitation, that I have ventured
+to explore this “Dark Continent” of the World of Words. If I cast a ray of light where
+before was darkness, or reduce to some sort of order where much was confusion—well
+and good: if, on the other hand, my steps at times chance to falter, others will,
+in such a case, be able to profit by my experience as I have by that of my predecessors.
+</p>
+<p>Hence—bearing in mind the ill-defined character of much of the enquiry—my title, “Slang
+and its Analogues,” which I think fairly and accurately describes <span class="pageNum" id="pb.vii">[<a href="#pb.vii">vii</a>]</span>the scope and intent of the present work, though it may not satisfy those critics
+who, without examination, seek to decry or put aside that which it has cost years
+of labour and research to produce. For the rest, however, a conscientious worker may
+well be content to abide the result of careful and honest criticism, whether for praise
+or demerit.
+</p>
+<p>Great as was the initial difficulty in regard to a dividing line between the three
+great divisions of colloquial English—dialectical, technical, and slang—it was clearly
+and obviously necessary to draw the line somewhere. After careful consideration, I
+adopted, as a standard between literary and non-literary English, Annandale’s edition
+of Ogilvie’s <i>Imperial English Dictionary</i>. With but few exceptions, it will be found that no word is here included which is
+there set down as forming part of the orthodox inheritance of “the noble English tongue.”
+The next great difficulty with which I found myself confronted was the determination
+of the exact meanings of slang words and expressions. Frequently I discovered I had
+to deal with a veritable Proteus—slang used to-day in one sense shades off to-morrow
+into many modifications. This fact I have had to keep steadily in mind. It will account,
+in some instances, for what may, at first sight, appear to be an unnecessarily extended
+list of illustrative quotations; in such cases it will generally be found, on examination,
+that different shades of meaning are exemplified.
+</p>
+<p>As regards treatment, I have adopted, though not in its entirety, what is commonly
+known as the “historical method,” supplementing this by an attempt at the comparative
+study of slang, <i>i.e.</i>, the presentation of unorthodox <span class="pageNum" id="pb.viii">[<a href="#pb.viii">viii</a>]</span>English in juxtaposition with the argots of other European nations, notably those
+of the French, German, Italian, and Spanish peoples. The historical usage of slang
+is amply illustrated by the quotations appended to each example. These comprise in
+their range the whole period of English literature from the earliest down to the present
+time, my plan having been to give the first ascertainable use of any given word or
+phrase, tracing it down century by century, winding up with an example “down to date.”
+These illustrative quotations, roughly speaking, number upwards of 100,000 for the
+whole work. I was fortunate enough shortly after commencing my final task of revision
+to have about 12,000 quotations placed at my disposal by Mr. G.&nbsp;L. Apperson, of Wimbledon,
+who for many years has had special knowledge of the requirements of such work, having
+sub-edited certain sections of the <i>New English Dictionary</i>. I am glad to be able to make special mention of my indebtedness in this respect;
+as also to Mr. G.&nbsp;A. King, of Croydon, an old Wykehamist, for invaluable aid in connection
+with public school words and phrases.
+</p>
+<p>Copious materials for a comparative study of English and foreign slang will be found
+in the often-times lengthy lists of analogous and synonymous terms appended to the
+more important and more commonly used examples in the body of the work. This branch
+of my study I shall deal with more fully in an article to follow the completion of
+the vocabulary proper, and I purpose to enhance the usefulness of that portion of
+the dictionary by a complete alphabetical list of all the foreign slang words and
+phrases herein used, with full references to page and column.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb.ix">[<a href="#pb.ix">9</a>]</span></p>
+<p>For the rest, my method will, I think, need little elucidation. I have endeavoured
+to make each example, with its explanation, derivation, synonyms, and illustrative
+quotations, as far as possible, complete in itself. Over and above this, however,
+the cross-references will be found of considerable value for the purpose of comparison,
+and will, I hope, be acceptable. I may also add that, wherever possible, I have given
+a reference indicating where synonymous or analogous words may be found. The arrangement
+of these synonyms has been a matter of considerable thought; first, as to the most
+fitting place for inclusion; and second, so to distribute them throughout the dictionary
+as to present a piece of work evenly balanced, and ready of reference.
+</p>
+<hr class="tb"><p>
+</p>
+<p>There are certain sources of information of which I must make special acknowledgment.
+Among books, first and foremost, comes that invaluable store-house, <i>Notes and Queries</i>. I have freely drawn for information upon this inestimable periodical from its very
+first issue, invariably making a note of my indebtedness, and to whom, in the text.
+The <i>New English Dictionary</i> has also been of service in supplying, at times, earlier examples of the use of a
+slang word or phrase than those of which I was already possessed. It is not, however,
+without a certain amount of perhaps pardonable satisfaction that I, working single-handed,
+am often able to give much earlier illustrations of the slang side and usage of our
+mother tongue, than occurs elsewhere.
+</p>
+<p>As regards French <i lang="fr">Argot</i>, Francisque Michel, Lorédan Larchey, and A. Barrère, respectively, are the chief
+authorities to whom I wish to render due acknowledgment; <span class="pageNum" id="pb.x">[<a href="#pb.x">x</a>]</span>Avé-Lallemant and Kahle have also been specially useful in connection with the German
+<i lang="de"><span id="xd33e268">Gaunersprache</span></i>. The dates of quotations have, wherever possible, been finally verified by comparison
+with the comprehensive and useful appendix to Dr. Brewer’s <i>Reader’s Handbook</i>.
+</p>
+<hr class="tb"><p>
+</p>
+<p>It may not be out of place to give some indication of the complete scheme (subject
+to slight modification) of <span class="sc">Slang and its Analogues</span>. The work will comprise:—
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li class="numberedItem"><span class="itemNumber">I.</span> A dictionary of ancient and modern English slang, treated historically, including
+copious lists of English, French, German, and Italian synonyms, etc. </li>
+<li class="numberedItem"><span class="itemNumber">II.</span> A chapter on the comparative study of the subject; this embraces English cant and
+slang, French <i lang="fr">Argot</i>, German <i lang="de"><span id="xd33e293">Gaunersprache</span></i>, Italian <i lang="it">Fourbesque</i>, Spanish <i lang="es">Germania</i>, and Portuguese <i lang="pt"><span id="xd33e303">Calão</span></i>. </li>
+<li class="numberedItem"><span class="itemNumber">III.</span> A new and exhaustive Bibliography, with copious entries of foreign books treating
+of the subject. </li>
+<li class="numberedItem"><span class="itemNumber">IV.</span> A list of authorities and references to periodical literature, with full titles and
+dates as mentioned throughout the dictionary. </li>
+<li class="numberedItem"><span class="itemNumber">V.</span> A complete vocabulary of all foreign slang words and expressions occurring throughout
+the body of the work, with detailed references to example, page, and column. This
+will form in itself a comprehensive dictionary of foreign slang. </li>
+</ul><p>
+</p>
+<p class="small"><span class="sc">Note.</span>—A table of abbreviations used in this Volume will be found on page 406.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb1">[<a href="#pb1">1</a>]</span> </p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="body">
+<div class="div1 letter">
+<div class="divHead">
+<div class="figure"><img src="images/p1001.png" alt="Ornament" width="502" height="140"></div>
+<h2 class="label">&nbsp;</h2>
+<div class="figure"><img src="images/title1.png" alt="A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues." width="513" height="94"></div>
+<h2 class="super">A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues.</h2>
+</div>
+<div class="divBody">
+<div class="figure floatLeft"><img src="images/initial-a.png" alt="A" width="119" height="130"></div>
+<p class="first"><b></b> (vulgar)—[“ă” as in <i>bat</i>].—A common vulgarism in speaking for (1) “have,” (2) “I,” (3) “he,” (4) “at,” (5)
+“on,” etc. It occurs in these connections for more than 300 years; all were used by
+Shakspeare, as well as by Beaumont and Fletcher and other writers of the Elizabethan
+period.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>A1</b> or <b>A1 Copper-Bottomed</b>, <i>adj. phr.</i> (popular).—Applied to men or things, A1 is synonymous with a high degree of praise.
+‘He must be a first-rater,’ said Sam. ‘A1,’ replied Mr. Roker. [1837, <i>Pickwick Papers</i>.]
+</p>
+<p>The derivation of this colloquialism from the symbols used in registering ships at
+Lloyd’s is pretty well known. Letters—A.A. (in black and red), Æ (in black), E, etc.—are
+employed to denote various degrees of excellence in the hulls of vessels, figures
+being added to show the quality of the equipments, such as masts and rigging in sailing
+vessels, or boilers and engines in steamers. When hull and fittings alike are of the
+best, a vessel is classed A1. Hence, in mercantile circles, the expression has become
+popularly current, in a figurative sense, to signify the highest commercial credit;
+and, by a process of expansion, excellence of quality in general, <i>i.e.</i>, first-class; first-rate. The form varies, being rendered by <span class="sc">first-class letter a</span>; <span class="sc">A1 copper-bottomed</span>; and, in the U.S.A., <span class="sc">A1 and no mistake</span>. The earliest reference given in the <i>New English Dictionary</i> for the colloquially figurative usage bears date 1836, but it was employed at least
+two years previously in a quarter which seems definitely to fix, not only the period
+of its adoption, but the process of transition as well. A1 was a perfectly natural
+colloquialism in the hands of Captain Marryat, at once an experienced seaman and a
+practised writer.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb2">[<a href="#pb2">2</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Peter Simple</i>, ch. xliii. ‘Broached molasses, cask No. 1, <span class="sc">letter A</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 229. ‘Here’s spoons for six, and tea and sugar for one. Sold again! and this
+time to my old sweetheart of all. She’s a prime girl, she is; she is <span class="sc">a number one, copper-bottomed</span>, and can sail as well in her stays as out of her stays; she is full rigged, and carries
+a lot of canvas. But I must not tell tales out of school.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, lxxxii. 181, 1. <span class="sc">In Vino (et cetera) Veritas.</span> ‘What’s up, old man? You seem to be out of sorts!’ ‘Snappe’s been here. I begged
+him to give me his candid opinion about my pictures. He did!’ ‘Ah! I see! It differs
+from <i>yours</i>! Now when I want a fellow’s candid opinion about my pictures, I ask him to dinner,
+give him a first-rate bottle of claret, a cup of A1 coffee, a glass of old cognac,
+and the best cigar money can buy, and <i>then</i> I show him my pictures, and I always find that his candid opinion coincides with
+my own.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Eng. Synonyms.</span> All brandy; the pure quill; about East (American); about right; at par; the cheese;
+all there; bang up; a corker; up to Dick; downy; fizzing; that’s Bible; splash up;
+up to the nines; up to the knocker; down to the ground; slap up, etc.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Abracadabrant</i>, <i>adj.</i> (from Abracadabra); <i lang="fr">aux petits oignons</i> (literally ‘like small onions.’ <i>Cf.</i>, English, ‘like a thousand of bricks,’ and ‘like winkey’); <i>bath</i> (<i>adj.</i>: also <i>bate</i>. In <i>Argot and Slang</i> the origin of the term is thus stated:—Towards 1848 some Bath notepaper of superior
+quality was hawked about in the streets of Paris, and sold at a low price. Thus ‘<i>papier bath</i>’ became synonymous of (<i>sic</i>) excellent paper. In a short time the qualifying term alone remained and received
+a general application); <i lang="fr">arriver bon premier</i> (literally ‘to arrive a good first’).
+</p>
+<p>(Fenian).—Sometimes erroneously No. 1. In the copy of Hotten’s <i>Slang Dictionary</i>, annotated by H.&nbsp;J. Byron, the playwright, now in the British Museum, this is given
+as ‘a title for the commander of 900 men.<span id="xd33e434">’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aaron</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—‘The <span class="sc">Aaron</span>,’ says H.&nbsp;O. Manton in <i>Slangiana</i>, ‘is the chief or captain of a gang or school of thieves. The title is invariably
+preceded by the prefix <i>The</i>—par excellence <i>the</i> first—similar to the eldest representatives of certain Irish and Scotch clans or
+families, such as <i>The</i> O’Connor Don, <i>The</i> Chisholm, etc. As <span class="sc">Aaron</span> was the first high priest … it is probably of Jewish origin in its slang application.
+An <span class="sc">Aaron</span> was an old cant term for one of a class of cadgers, who combined begging with acting
+as guide to the summits of mountains, chiefly to evade the laws against vagabondage,
+no doubt a play, in its slang sense, on its Hebrew equivalent, lofty.’ In this last
+connection a closer relationship probably exists than that just stated, inasmuch as
+Gesenius thinks that the Hebrew <span class="sc">Aaron</span> is a derivative of <i>Hāron</i>, a mountaineer. It is to be remarked that leaders of the church were also called
+<span class="sc">Aarons</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>A. B.</b>, or <b>A.&nbsp;B. S.</b> (commercial).—An able-bodied seaman.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bottle sucker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, No. 627. Of all the European sailors by far the most reliable were five stalwart
+<span class="sc">A.B’S.</span>
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb3">[<a href="#pb3">3</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abaddon</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A thief who, to general nefarious practices, adds perfidy to his companions.
+Rarely, and perhaps only locally used. It is obviously derived from <span class="sc">Abaddon</span>, the destroyer or angel of the bottomless pit (Revelation ix., 11).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abandannad</b>, <b>Abandannaad</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—1. A nearly obsolete term to designate primarily a pickpocket, whose
+chief quarry is pocket handkerchiefs or bandannas; and, hence
+</p>
+<p>2. A petty thief, <i>i.e.</i>, one whose depredations are regarded by the fraternity as not worth the risk incurred.
+Brewer writes down the word as a contraction of ‘a bandanna lad.’ With this derivation
+is connected the story of an incident said to have been a prime factor in the movement
+resulting in the passing of Sir Samuel Romilly’s Act for the abolition of capital
+punishment for highway robberies under 40s. value. Briefly told, it is that a footpad
+robbed a woman of a bandanna shawl, valued at 9d., an offence for which a notorious
+highwayman was hanged. Subsequently, however, he was proved to have been innocent,
+whereupon the fact of her mistaken accusation having done an innocent man to death
+so preyed upon the woman’s mind that she became raving mad. The incidents touched
+the public conscience, an agitation ensued, and the law was amended as stated.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abandoned Habits</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—The riding costumes of the ladies of the demi-monde in Hyde Park—(<i>Slangiana</i>). The punning and sufficiently obvious innuendo involved in the appellation hardly
+calls for further comment.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Anonyma</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abbess</b> or <b>Lady Abbess</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The keeper of a house of ill-fame; also a procuress. It has been suggested
+that the origin of this term for the mistress of a brothel, as also that of <span class="sc">Abbot</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), the name given to the male associate of the mistress, may be traced to the alleged
+illicit amours of Abelard and <span id="xd33e542">Héloïse</span>. In this connection it is significant that, according to Francisque Michel’s <i lang="fr">Etudes Comparées sur l’Argot</i>, a common woman was, in the old French cant, said to come from <i lang="fr">l’abbaye des s’offre à tous</i>. The keeper of such an establishment was called <i lang="fr">l’abbesse</i>, and her associate <i lang="fr">le sacristain</i>. The analogy was carried still further, by the inmates being termed ‘nuns’ and ‘sisters
+of charity.’ This depravation in the meaning of words, usually applied only to the
+holders of sacred offices, may possibly, without undue license, be regarded as resulting
+from the mockery born of the degradation, in the popular mind, of the priestly office;
+or, it may naturally flow from the loose way in which the title of ‘abbot’ was often
+applied to the holders of non-monastic offices. Thus, the first step toward degeneration
+may have occurred in applying the term to the principal of a body of clergy, as an
+episcopal rector; or, as amongst the Genoese, to a chief magistrate. The second stage
+was reached when, in the middle ages, ‘abbot’ was applied ironically <span class="pageNum" id="pb4">[<a href="#pb4">4</a>]</span>to the heads of various guilds and associations, and to the leaders in popular assemblages
+and disorderly festivities, <i>e.g.</i>, the Abbot of Bell-ringers, the Abbot of Misrule, the Abbot of Unreason. Henceforward
+deterioration was both easy and rapid to the point when ‘abbot’ and its co-relative
+<span class="sc">abbess</span>, signified a steward and stewardess of the <span class="sc">stews</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). The terms are now obsolete on both sides of the Channel. In England the modern
+equivalent for <span class="sc">abbess</span> is <span class="sc">mother</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); and in France <i lang="fr">la maca</i>, <i lang="fr">mère maca</i>, <i lang="fr">la maquecée</i>, or <i lang="fr">l’institutrice</i>, do similar duty.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1782. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> [P. Pindar], <i>Odes to the Pope</i>, Ode ii. in <i>Works</i> (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 492.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">So an old <span class="sc">abbess</span>, for the rattling rakes, </p>
+<p class="line">A tempting dish of human nature makes, </p>
+<p class="line">And dresses up a luscious maid. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1840. <span class="sc">W. Kidd</span>, <i>London and all Its Dangers</i>. The infernal wretches who traffic in the souls and bodies of their helpless victims
+are called <span class="sc">lady abbesses</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abbey Lubber</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—[From <span class="sc">abbey</span> + <span class="sc">lubber</span>.]
+</p>
+<p>1. An old term of contempt for an able-bodied idler who grew sleek and fat upon the
+charity of religious houses; also sometimes, especially subsequent to the Reformation,
+applied to monks. In this sense it has long fallen into disuse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1680. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Spanish Friar</i>, III. 3. This is no huge, overgrown <span class="sc">abbey lubber</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. The term survives, however, and is still occasionally used by seafaring men, although
+‘lubber’ is now more common amongst our Jack tars for a lazy, thriftless individual.
+If a sailor wishes to express the utmost scorn for laziness and meanness, he finds
+a very much more forcible expression in a ‘dirty dog and no sailor.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Lubbers’ hole</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abbot</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The husband or ‘fancy man’ of an <span class="sc">abbess</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); now called a <span class="sc">ponce</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)<span>.</span> In the old French argot these gentry were dignified by the title of <i>sacristain</i>. They were occasionally spoken of as <span class="sc">croziered abbots</span>, or <span class="sc">abbots on the cross</span>, in which case the establishments over which they mounted guard were not so much
+brothels as <span class="sc">panel cribs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), where prostitution served mainly as a cloak for robbery.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abbott’s Priory</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—The King’s Bench Prison was formerly so-called; perhaps from Chief Justice
+Abbott.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abbreviations.</b>—These occasionally partake most clearly of the nature of slang. As illustrative examples
+may be mentioned:—K.D.Gs., the King’s, now the First Dragoon Guards.—O.K., all right;
+‘orl krect.’—B.T.I., a big thing on ice.—Q.T., generally ‘on the strict Q.T.’, <i>i.e.</i>, quiet.—T.T., too thin.—Cri., the Criterion (restaurant or theatre).—The Ox., the
+Oxford Music Hall.—Tec., detective.—B.P., British Public.—B. and S., brandy and soda.—P.D.Q.,
+pretty d——d quick.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>A.&nbsp;B. C.’s</b> (London).—1. The Aërated Bread Co.’s establishments are, familiarly speaking, <i>A.&nbsp;B. C.’s</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Christ’s Hospital).—<i>A</i>le, <i>B</i>read and <i>C</i>heese on ‘going home night.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb5">[<a href="#pb5">5</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">As easy as a. b. c.</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—Extremely facile; the acme of ease, <i>i.e.</i>, from an adult’s point of view; children, however, probably view the matter in a
+different light. In this, as in much else, distance lends enchantment to the scene.
+This colloquialism is by no means of modern growth; Shakspeare speaks of answer ‘coming
+like A.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;C. book.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>A-Bear</b>, <i>v.</i> (provincial and vulgar).—To suffer, or to tolerate. [From old English <i>abearan</i>, to bear or carry].—This term, though hoary with age, and long of honorable usage
+(from <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 885 downward), must now be classed with degenerate words, or at all events with non-literary
+English. Though still largely dialectical, its use amongst people of education is
+reckoned vulgar. It is now invariably employed in conjunction with ‘cannot’—‘I can’t
+<span class="sc">abear</span> furriners.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abelwhackets.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Ablewhackets</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aberdeen Cutlet</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (familiar).—A dried haddock.—<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Billingsgate pheasant</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abide</b>, <i>v.</i> (vulgar).—To tolerate; to put up with. This, like <span class="sc">abear</span> (q.v.), has ancient sanction for its use. In the senses of to endure, suffer, bear,
+or sustain—meanings which are now obsolete—the word can be traced back as far as <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1205; the modern vulgar usage, rarely employed affirmatively, dates from about <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1526, when Tindale translated John viii. 43, by ‘He cannot <span class="sc">abyde</span> the hearyng of my words.’ <span class="sc">Abide</span>, therefore, may be classed amongst those words which, once respectable, have now
+fallen into disrepute. Shakspeare puts into the mouth of one of his characters a phrase
+which, to those acquainted with the speech of the uneducated classes, has a very modern
+appearance, ‘I cannot <span class="sc">abide</span> the smell of hot meat.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abigail</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A lady’s maid. There can be little doubt that the familiar use of this
+name for the genus ‘waiting woman,’ was primarily an allusion to the title of handmaid
+assumed by <span class="sc">Abigail</span>, the wife of Nabal, in speaking to the servants of King David. ‘Behold, let thine
+handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord’ (1 Sam. xxv. 41).
+Other names recorded in the Bible, and for the matter of that elsewhere, have been
+used much in the same way as marking distinctive character. <span class="sc">Abigail</span> has thus become associated with the idea of a female servant; so, too, a giant is
+spoken of as a Goliath; a patient man as a Job; a shrew as a Jezebel; a coward as
+a Bob Acres, <i lang="la">cum multis aliis</i>. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s comedy of <i>The Scornful Lady</i> (1616), one of the characters, Mrs. Youngton, a ‘waiting gentlewoman,’ is named <span class="sc">Abigail</span>. This play, having a long run of public favour,—Pepys in his <i>Diary</i> [1666], iv. 195, specially mentions it,—possibly led to the popularization of the
+nickname. At all events it subsequently appeared on more than one occasion in the
+same connection <span class="pageNum" id="pb6">[<a href="#pb6">6</a>]</span>in the plays of the period. There is no reason to suppose that the term was derived
+from the notorious <span class="sc">Abigail</span> Hill, better known as Mrs. Masham, a poor relative of the Duchess of Marlborough,
+by whom she was introduced to a subordinate place about the person of Queen Anne;
+nor will the contention that it was first established in public usage by Dean Swift,
+who employed it in a letter to Stella, hold good; although likely enough he caused
+it to take deeper root than before. The terms on which he was with the Mashams rendered
+him the last person in the world likely to have used such a term, unless it had been
+so long in familiar use as to be deprived of all appearance of personal allusion to
+them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">T. Killigrew</span>, <i>Parson’s Wedding</i>, II., vi. in Dodsley, <i>O.P.</i> (1780), xi., 425. [In this play, a waiting woman is termed an <span class="sc">Abigail</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, book XI., ch. ii. The mistress was no sooner in bed than the maid prepared to follow
+her example. She began to make many apologies to her sister <span class="sc">Abigail</span> for leaving her alone in so horrid a place as an inn.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <span class="sc">G. Eliot</span>, <i>Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story</i>, ch. iii. The next morning, Mrs. Sharp, then a blooming <span class="sc">Abigail</span> of three-and-thirty, entered her lady’s private room.
+</p>
+<p>It has been stated that Old English writers used the word <span class="sc">Abigail</span> to signify a termagant woman, and also a female bigamist, but there is no evidence
+to support these views. It may be mentioned that the French use the word in the popular
+English sense. A waiting woman was also formerly called a <span class="sc">comb-brush</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ablewhackets</b>, also <b>Abelwhackets</b>, <b>Abelwackets</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—[From <span class="sc">able</span> (uncertain, perhaps alluding to able seaman) + <span class="sc">whack</span>]. A game of cards played by sailors, in which the loser receives a whack or blow
+with a knotted handkerchief for every game (or point) he loses. Smyth, in his <i>Sailor’s Word Book</i> [1867], says it is very popular with horny-fisted salts. It is quoted by Grose as
+far back as 1785, but Clark Russell, in <i>Sailor’s Language</i> [1883], refers to it as obsolete.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abound</b>, <i>v.</i> (American).—To be prominent; <i lang="fr">en évidence</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <i>Evening Standard</i>, 28 January. When we are told of a professed wit more than usually <span class="sc">abounding</span> at an evening party, there is no temptation to recruit our dictionaries from the
+English manufactured in the United States.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>About East</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (American).—To the frontiersman or pioneer, the Eastern or New England States are
+typical of all that he cherishes most and loves best. The vicissitudes of his rough
+Western life, the toil and hardships he has undergone while battling with nature and
+building up a new habitation far from the old homestead, all predispose him to turn
+with longing eyes and undying, though quaintly exaggerated love to the East—the home
+of his fathers. A famous Yankee character (Major Jack Downing) makes use of the expression
+that he would ‘<span class="sc">Go East</span> of sunrise any day to see <span class="sic">sich</span> a place.’ Everybody and everything connected with the East, <i>i.e.</i>, his native land, is commendable. To his mind they cannot be surpassed—hence the
+things he would <span class="pageNum" id="pb7">[<a href="#pb7">7</a>]</span>hold up to admiration he says are <span class="sc">about East</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘about right.’ Indeed, it is surprising what a strong hold this idea has upon the
+minds of men. Many a familiar phrase recalls the old times and the old folks to memory,
+which, in this respect, is evergreen. They talk of <span class="sc">going down East</span>, that is, to New England, while the <span class="sc">Down-Easter</span> is neither more nor less than the pure and veritable Yankee.—<span class="sc">Farmer’s</span> <i>Americanisms, Old and New</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>About Right</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (vulgar).—Correctly; to the purpose; properly—general satisfaction on the part of
+the speaker concerning a given thing or action. ’Arry sometimes varies the locution
+by <span class="sc">ter rights</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Frank Fairleigh</i>, ch. iv. ‘<span class="sc">You’re about right</span>, there, Mr. Lawless; you’re down to every move, I see, as usual.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>Hard Lines</i>, ch. xxii. ‘I am afraid your schemes went a little awry yesterday,’ observed Mrs.
+Daventry.… ‘<span class="sc">You’re about right</span>; they did.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>About the Size of It</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (American).—1. An expression covering a wide field—assent, general satisfaction,
+approval, etc. Synonymous with <span class="sc">about right</span>; <span class="sc">o.k.</span>; <span class="sc">ter rights</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p>2. Used also for ‘how’; ‘how much,’ etc.—a measure of quantity or quality.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876 (?). <span class="sc">James Greenwood</span>, <i>New ‘Roughs’ Guide’</i> in ‘Odd People in Odd Places.’ Got no home, no wittles, and never a ’a’penny to buy
+none with. That’s <span class="sc">about the size</span> of how destitoot we are, sir.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>Punch</i>, May 14, p. 228. <span class="sc">Sir G[orgius] M[idas] goes in for Culture.</span> “Look ’ere, Clarke. ‘Appy thought! I’ll make this little room the libery, you know;
+’ave a lot o’ books. Mind you order me some.’ ‘Yes, Sir Gorgius. What sort of books
+shall I order?’ ‘Oh, the best, of course, with binding and all that to match!’ ‘Yes,
+Sir Gorgius, how <i>many</i> shall I order?’ ‘Well,—let me see,—suppose we say a couple o’ ’undred yards of ’em,
+hay? That’s <span class="sc">about the size of it</span>, I think.<span id="xd33e988">”</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Above Board</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—Without disguise or concealment; with an absence of artifice. Jamieson
+refers this to the language of the gaming table, the players when changing cards putting
+their hands on, <i>i.e.</i>, above the table or board to ensure fair dealing. It appears, however, even in its
+figurative sense to be a colloquialism of long standing.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Murray’s</span> <i>New English Dictionary</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Above One’s Bend</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (American).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bend</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Above Par</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (familiar).—Used figuratively in a multitude of senses, <i>e.g.</i> (1) in reference to one’s health or spirits, in good condition; (2) applied to a
+man in liquor it signifies a state of moderate drunkenness; or (3) used in regard
+to pecuniary matters it is synonymous with being ‘flush,’ having ‘the needful’—‘best
+bliss of earth,’ as Duncombe puts it. Derived from the technical, commercial meaning.
+Stocks are said to be <i>at par</i> when purchasable at their ‘face’ value; when at a premium they are <span class="sc">above par</span>; and when selling at a decline in value, <i>i.e.</i>, at a discount, they are said to be <i>below par</i>; hence the colloquial usage. <i>See</i> example in quotation. Synonyms, <span class="sc">up to</span>, or <span class="sc">above the mark</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb8">[<a href="#pb8">8</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch</i>, June 5, p. 253. <span class="sc">Fred on Pretty Girls and Pictures.</span>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Awful fellow that Ted at his letters!—he writes for the <i>Scanmag</i>, you know; </p>
+<p class="line">And his style never falls below ‘<span class="sc">par</span>.’ Not my joke, heard him putting it so——. </p>
+<p class="line">And the pars in the <i>Scanmag</i>—he does them—are proper, and chock full of ‘go.’ </p>
+<p class="line">Only paper I care to grind through, never preachy, or gushing, or slow! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Abracadabra</b>, <i>subs.</i> (scientific jargon).——1.—A cabalistic word used in incantations. When written in
+a manner similar to that shown in accompanying diagram, so as to be read in different
+directions, and worn as an amulet, it was supposed to cure certain ailments.
+</p>
+<p class="center">A B R A C A D A B R A <br> A B R A C A D A B R <br> A B R A C A D A B <br> A B R A C A D A <br> A B R A C A D <br> A B R A C A <br> A B R A C <br> A B R A <br> A B R <br> A B <br> A
+</p>
+<p>Hence (2), any word-charm, empty jingle of words, gibberish, nonsense, or extravagant
+idea. Littré’s derivation from the Hebrew—<i>ab</i> father, <i>mach</i> spirit, and <i>dabar</i> word—is regarded by many authorities as fanciful; as also is T.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;G. Balfour’s reference
+of it to a composition of the first letters of the Hebrew words signifying ‘Father,
+Son, and Holy Spirit.’ Other authorities, though by no means in accord, generally
+agree that a Persian origin is the most likely. Mr. R.&nbsp;S. Charnock (<i>Notes and Queries</i>, 7 S., iii., 504) thinks it related to the cabalistic word <i>abraxas</i> composed of the <span class="corr" id="xd33e1109" title="Source: Greeek">Greek</span> letters α, β, ρ, α, ξ, α, ς, making, according to the Greek numeration, the number
+365.
+</p>
+<p lang="fr" class="cit">Des auteurs beaucoup plus anciens n’ont vu dans le mot <i>abraxas</i>, qu’une réunion des lettres numériques, qui étant additionées donnent le nombre 365,
+ou l’année entière, en sorte qu’ <i>abraxas</i> serait le symbole du soleil ou de sa révolution annuelle presumée.—<i>Depping.</i>
+</p>
+<p>In Persian, according to Grotenford, <i>abraxas</i> means the ‘Sun God’; if this be so its use as a talisman is easily understood. Yet
+another derivation is from a corrupt form of the Hebrew—<i>dabar</i> is verbū, and <i>abraca</i> is benedixit, <i>i.e.</i>, verbum benedixit. If, however, the word is <span class="corr" id="xd33e1130" title="Source: Semetic">Semitic</span> at all, and nothing more than an unintelligible jargon of letters, it could possibly
+be better explained than by Littré, by <i>Abra(i) seda bra(i)</i>, ‘Out, bad spirit, out!’ as a magic formula for driving out the demon which causes
+the fever. It is interesting in this connection to compare Mark i. 25, ix. 25, and
+parallel passages.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1687. <span class="sc">Aubrey’s</span> <i>Remaines of Gentilisme</i>, p. 124 (1881). [In this work <span class="sc">abracadabra</span> is given arranged as a spell.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1711. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 221. They [the signatures] are, perhaps, little amulets or charms to preserve
+the paper against the fascination and malice of evil eyes; for which reason I would
+not have my reader surprised, if hereafter he sees any of my papers marked with a
+Q, a Z, a Y, an &amp;c., or with the word <span class="sc">abracadabra</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1722. <span class="sc">Defoe</span>, <i>Journal of the Plague</i> (ed. Brayley, 1835, p. 56). ‘This mysterious word, which, written in the form of
+a triangle or a pyramid, was regarded as a talisman or charm of wonderful power, is
+said to have been the name of a Syrian god, whose aid was considered to be invoked
+by the wearers of the amulet. It originated in the superstitions of a very remote
+period, and was recommended as an antidote by Serenus Sammonicus, a Roman physician,
+who lived in the early part of the third century, in the reigns of the emperors Severus
+and Caracalla. Its efficacy was reputed to be most powerful <span class="pageNum" id="pb9">[<a href="#pb9">9</a>]</span>in agues and other disorders of a febrile kind, and particularly against the fever
+called by the physicians Hemitritæus.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <i>Literary World</i>, 5 Dec., p. 358, col. 2 [<span class="sc">m</span>]. The new <span class="sc">abracadabra</span> of science, ‘organic evolution.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A clothier’s shop of the lowest description, where slop-made garments
+of shoddy cloth form the staple commodity together with second-hand clothes or <span class="sc">hand-me-downs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Chiefly localized in the East End of London, where these establishments are kept
+by Jews; hence probably the derivation of the term; <i>adj.</i> (old cant).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Abram</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham-Cove</b>, <b>Abraham-Man</b>, <b>Abram-Cove</b>, <b>Abram-Man</b>, <b>Tom of Bedlam’s Man</b>, or <b>Bedlam Beggar</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—It is difficult now-a-days to trace with certainty the origin of these
+terms, notwithstanding a wealth of matter on the subject. Nares describes the fraternity
+as a set of vagabonds who wandered about the country soon after the dissolution of
+the religious houses: the provision for the poor in those places being cut off and
+no other substituted. Thus, primarily, an <span class="sc">Abraham-man</span> was a vagabond, a beggar—tattered, unwashed, unkempt—and a thief withal. ‘What an
+Abram!’ an exclamation for a naked fellow. Harman, the earliest authority, refers
+to them as feigning madness (<i>see</i> quot.), and as having been resident in Bethlehem Hospital. Wards in the ancient Bedlam
+bore distinctive names of some saint or patriarch; that named after Abraham was devoted
+to a class of mendicant lunatics, who on certain days were permitted to go out begging.
+It is an open question whether the ward gave the name to the men or <i>vice versâ</i>. In either case, however, the use of the term ‘Abraham’ is in this connection possibly
+an allusion to the beggar Lazarus in Luke xvii. These mendicants bore a badge, but
+many assumed the distinction without right, and begged feigning lunacy. Hence, it
+may be, the more popular signification of the term—
+</p>
+<p>2. An impostor, wandering about the country pretending to be mad, begging in the streets,
+and laying hands upon all trifles ‘considered’ or ‘unconsidered’ in his way. Dekker,
+in his <i>English Villanies</i> [1632], has many curious particulars of the habits of this class of impostors who
+were said to <span class="sc">sham Abraham</span>. Shakspeare also, in <i>King Lear</i> [1605], Act ii., Scene 3, describes and puts into the mouth of one of these characters
+the following words:
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p class="line">… the basest and most poorest shape, </p>
+<p class="line">That ever penury in contempt of man, </p>
+<p class="line">Brought near to beast: my face I’ll grime with filth; </p>
+<p class="line">Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots; </p>
+<p class="line">And with presented nakedness outface </p>
+<p class="line">The winds, and persecutions of the sky. </p>
+<p class="line">The country gives me proof and precedent </p>
+<p class="line">Of <span class="sc">Bedlam beggars</span>, who, with roaring voices, </p>
+<p class="line">Strike in their numb’d and mortified bare arms </p>
+<p class="line">Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary; </p>
+<p class="line">And with this horrible object, from low farms, </p>
+<p class="line">Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes and mills, </p>
+<p class="line">Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers, </p>
+<p class="line">Enforce their charity. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb10">[<a href="#pb10">10</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="first">The term is now obsolete, though Scott used it as late as 1824, and from the <i>Quarterly Review</i> (1813), IX., p. 167, it seems to have then been in pretty general use. The modern
+prototype is called a tramp or cadger. To <span class="sc">sham Abraham</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, to feign sickness or distress is, however, still in vogue. The French equivalent
+is <i>Fagotin</i> (m).—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Abraham sham</span> and <span class="sc">Abram</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1573. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1814), p. 29. These <span class="sc">Abraham men</span> be those that fayn themselves to have bene mad, and have bene kept either in Bethlehem,
+or in some other pryson a good time, and not one amongst twenty that ever came in
+prison for any such cause.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1625. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>New Way to Pay Old Debts</i>, II., i. Are they padders or <span class="sc">Abram-men</span> that are your consorts?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1724. <span class="sc">E. Coles</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Abram cove</span>, naked or poor man.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, ch. xxi. ‘There is a trick for you to find an <span class="sc">Abram-man</span>, and save sixpence out when he begs of you as a disbanded seaman.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham Grains</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A publican who brews his own beer.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham Newland</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A bank note. Abraham Newland was chief cashier to the Bank of England,
+from 1778 to 1807.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1829. <span class="sc">Sir W. Scott</span>, letter to Croker in <i>Croker Papers</i>, vol. II., p. 36. A bank note seems to terrify everybody out of their wits, and they
+will rather give up their constitution to Hunt and Cobbett than part with an <span class="sc">Abraham Newland</span> to preserve it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham’s Balsam</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Death by hanging.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">To die in one’s boots</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham Sham</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—1.—Feigned sickness or distress. <i>See</i> <span class="sc">Abraham-man</span>. Usually spoken of as to <span class="sc">sham Abraham</span>, or <span class="sc">Abram</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). From this primary meaning, joined with an allusion to the name of a once well-known
+chief cashier of the Bank of England, was derived the secondary meaning of the term
+<span class="sc">shamming Abraham</span>, to forge bank-notes. Abraham Newland was in office in the years 1778–1807, and a
+popular song of the period ran as follows:
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p class="line">‘I have heard people say that <span class="sc">sham Abraham</span> you may, </p>
+<p class="line">But you mustn’t <span class="sc">sham Abraham</span> Newland.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">Further point is added to this stanza by the fact that bank notes were themselves
+termed <span class="sc">Abraham Newlands</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and that forgery was felony by statute.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1759. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Citizen of the World</i>, cxix. “He swore that I understood my business perfectly well, but that I <span class="sc">shammed Abraham</span> merely to be idle.”
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">C. Bronté</span>, <i>Shirley</i>, ch. xxxiii. Matthew, sceptic and scoffer, had already failed to subscribe a prompt
+belief in that pain about the heart; he had muttered some words, amongst which the
+phrase <span class="sc">shamming Abraham</span> had been very distinctly audible.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham Suit</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (thieves’).—False pretences; fraudulent representations to excite sympathy. The term
+is applied to any trick or artifice calculated to extract money from the charitable,
+whether by means of begging letter, a faked-up appearance, or other contrivance. Those
+who resort to such practices are said <span class="sc">to go on the Abraham suit</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Abraham sham</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham’s Willing</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (rhyming slang)<span id="xd33e1426">.</span>—A shilling.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb11">[<a href="#pb11">11</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abraham Work</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—Shams of all kinds are so designated, from a bubble company down to the
+most trumpery ‘city pen’orth.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abram</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old and also modern sea slang).—1. The same as <span class="sc">Abraham-man</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).—2. A malingerer; one who gets put on the sick list to shirk work.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (old cant).—1. Mad.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 36 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Abram</span> madde. He maunds <span class="sc">Abram</span>, he begs as a madde man.
+</p>
+<p>2. Naked, ‘she’s all <span class="sc">Abram</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, part I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). <span class="sc">Abram</span>, naked.
+</p>
+<p>3. <span class="sc">Abram</span> or <span class="sc">Abram coloured</span> (old).—Derivation uncertain, but supposed to be a corruption of ‘auburn.’ In this
+connection it may be remarked that it is to be found in <i>Coriolanus</i>, Act II., scene 3; but where the original reads <i>Abram</i> the folio has ‘auburn.’ <span class="sc">To sham Abram</span>, <i>verb</i><span id="xd33e1496"></span> (old).—Also <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Abraham sham</span>.—The original signification of this word, to feign sickness, led <span class="corr" id="xd33e1503" title="Source: t oits">to its</span> use to describe pretence of any kind; this is specially the case amongst sailors,
+workmen, etc., who describe malingering as <i>doing Abram</i>, the defaulter also being called by the same name.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abregoyns</b>, <b>Abergoins</b>, <b>Abrogans</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Vulgarisms for ‘aborigines.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abridgments</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nonce word).—Knee breeches. This term for small clothes appears in Bulwer Lytton’s
+comedy, <i>Money</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Bulwer Lytton</span>, <i>Money</i>, iv. 4. <i>Frantz</i> (producing a pair of small clothes, which Toke examines). Your master is von beggar,
+etc. <i>Toke.</i> I accept the <span class="sc">abridgements</span>, but you’ve forgotten to line the pockets.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abroad</b>, <i>adv.</i> (old).—1. Confused; staggered; perplexed. More generally retained in this sense in
+America than in England.
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular).—Generally <span class="sc">all abroad</span>; <i>i.e.</i>, wide of the mark; wrong; uncertain in one’s estimate; or, ‘all at sea.’ In this
+figurative sense the expression is much older than is popularly supposed.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bedoozled</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <i>The Fancy</i>, vol. I., p. 255. In the <i>fourth</i> round he came in <span class="sc">all abroad</span>, and got a doubler in the bread-basket, which spoiled him for the remainder of the
+fight.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Old Curiosity Shop</i>, ch. lxi. ‘My friend!’ repeated Kit, ‘You’re <span class="sc">all abroad</span>, seemingly,’ returned the other man. ‘There’s his letter, take hold.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>V. Fair</i>, ch. v. At the twelfth round the latter champion was <span class="sc">all abroad</span>, as the saying is, and had lost all presence of mind, and power of attack or defence.
+</p>
+<p>3. To be transported. The French have a similar circumlution, <i lang="fr">aller en traverse</i>, and the Italian Fourbesque has <i lang="it">andar a traverso</i>.
+</p>
+<p>4. (Win. Coll.)—A boy returning to school work after being ill is said to <span class="sc">come abroad</span>. When on the sick list he is <span class="sc">continent</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) <i>i.e.</i>, <i>continens cameram, vel lectum</i>, <i>keeping</i> his room or bed. When recovered he is allowed to go <i>foris</i>, out of doors, or more colloquially, <span class="sc">abroad</span>. Adams, in <i>Wykehamica</i>, remarks that the use of this term shows the antiquity of the school, dating as it
+does from the times of the ‘<i lang="la">patrium sermonem fugito, <span class="pageNum" id="pb12">[<a href="#pb12">12</a>]</span>Latinum exerceto</i>, of the <i lang="la">Tabula legum</i>.’ <span class="sc">To be furked abroad</span> is a less complimentary term implying that a ‘man’ has been ‘shuffling’; it is specially
+applied to those who having ‘gone continent’ in the morning are sent back to school
+by the doctor at 9 a.m.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abroaded</b> (society).—<i>See</i> quotation, and compare with <span class="sc">abroad</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">H.&nbsp;O. Manton</span>, <i>Slangiana</i>, p. 11 (<i>See</i> Bibliography). Fashionable slang for a noble defaulter on the Continent (<i>sic<span id="xd33e1654"></span></i>) to avoid creditors. It is the police official slang for convicts sent to a colonial
+or penal settlement, but it is applied by thieves to transportation either at home
+or in the Colonies.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abs</b> (Win. Coll.)—1. An abbreviation of ‘absent’ placed against the name of a boy when
+absent from the school.
+</p>
+<p>2. <i>v. tr.</i>, to take away. Formerly, <i>circa</i>, 1840, <span class="sc">to abs</span> a tolly (candle), meant to put it out; now it would mean to take it away whether
+lighted or unlighted, the modern ‘notion’ for putting it out being to ‘dump’ it.
+</p>
+<p>3. <i>v. n.</i> To get away; generally used in the imperative, as, ‘<span class="sc">abs!</span>’ ‘Oh! do <span class="sc">abs</span>!’ Sometimes, however, a fellow is said <span class="sc">to abs</span> quickly, and <span class="sc">mess things</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) are <span class="sc">absed</span> (<i>trans.</i>), or put away.
+</p>
+<p>4. <span class="sc">To have one’s wind absed</span> is to have it taken away by a violent blow in the stomach.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abscotchalater</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Quoted by H.&nbsp;O. Manton in <i>Slangiana</i> as ‘one who is hiding away from the police.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Absquatulate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Absence</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Eton).—Names-calling, which takes place at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on half-holidays; and
+at 11.30 a.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m. on whole holidays; at 6 p.m. only in summer half.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Absent Without Leave</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (thieves’).—Said of one who has broken prison; or (popular) absconded.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Absit</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Cambridge).—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">Dickens’s</span> <i>Dictionary of the University of Cambridge</i>, p. 3. Every undergraduate wishing to leave Cambridge for a whole day, not including
+a night, must obtain an ‘<span class="sc">absit</span>’ from his tutor. Permission to go away for a longer period, either at the end of
+the term or in the middle, is called an ‘exeat,’ and no undergraduate should go down
+without obtaining his ‘exeat.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Abskize</b>, <b>Abschize</b>, <i>v.</i> (American).—To depart; go away. Said to be of Western origin, and to have been in
+use about 1883. Of rare and probably local usage. It has been derived from the Dutch
+<i lang="nl">afscheyden</i>; Ger. <i lang="de">abscheiden</i> of similar meaning; a not unlikely origin, bearing in mind the large Dutch and German
+element in the U.S.A.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Absquatulate</b>, also <b>Absquotilate</b>, <i>v.</i> (American).—To run away; to decamp; with the more or less forcible idea of absconding
+in disgrace. A factitious word, of American origin and jocular use, simulating a Latin
+form, perhaps from Latin <i lang="la">ab</i> and <i>squat</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, to settle on land, especially public or new lands, without any title or right whether
+of purchase or permission, though in Australia the term is employed in a more <span class="pageNum" id="pb13">[<a href="#pb13">13</a>]</span>restricted sense for a sub-lessee of the government at a nominal rent. It was first
+used by Mr. Hackett, as Nimrod Wildfire, a Kentucky character, in a play called ‘The
+Kentuckian,’ by Bernard, produced in 1833. It is now less often heard than formerly,
+having been replaced in some degree by the word <span class="sc">skedaddle</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate one’s mahogany</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835–1840. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>Clockmaker</i>, 3 S., ch. xiv. ‘What’s the use of legs but to <span class="sc">absquotilate</span> with … when traps are <span class="sic">sot</span> for you.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <i>Punch</i>, Jan. 18, p. 23, col. 1. <span class="sc">The Reward of Merit.</span> <i>Mrs. Lyon Hunter</i>, ‘How do you do, Mr. Brown?<span id="xd33e1807"></span> Let me present you to the Duchess of Stilton! Your Grace, permit me to present to
+you <i>Mr. Brown</i>, the distinguished scholar!’ <i>Her Grace</i> (affably). ‘Charmed to make your acquaintance—er—Mr. Brown!’ <i>Mr. Brown</i> (with effusion). ‘Your Grace is really too kind. This is the <i>ninth</i> time I’ve enjoyed the distinction of being presented to your Grace within the last
+twelve months; but it’s a distinction I value so highly, that without trespassing
+too much on your Grace’s indulgence, I hope I may be occasionally permitted to enjoy
+it <i>again</i>.<span>’</span> [<i>Bows</i>, and <span class="sc">absquatulates</span>.<span class="corr" id="xd33e1828" title="Not in source">]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, August 20, p. 6, col. 1. Yet who knows but that some day an accident may happen
+to the Aberdeenshire works of art … the sense of the cartoons be totally subverted—in
+Rabelaisian phrase, ‘absquashed and <span class="sc">absquatulated</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Academician</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The inmate of a brothel.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Academy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A disorderly house; a brothel; a bagnio. Grose remarks that these establishments
+were also called <span class="sc">pushing schools</span>. The old brothels have of late years rapidly disappeared, their places being taken
+by what are known as <span class="sc">bed houses</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). These vary in character as regards style, equipment, and cost, but of whatever
+grade, rooms may be had for longer or shorter periods as required. The French call
+them <i lang="fr">maisons de societé</i>; <i lang="fr">maisons de passe</i>; <i lang="fr">foutoirs</i>, and <i lang="fr">gros numéros</i>, the last from the fact, that these semi-private brothels bear a number of large
+dimensions over the entrance. The French have also a somewhat analogous term for the
+mistress of an <i lang="fr">académie</i> in <i lang="fr">l’institutrice</i>, the teacher. In the <span class="sc">finishing academy</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) the inmates are young prostitutes, the next stage in whose downward career is taken
+on the streets.
+</p>
+<p>2. According to the N.Y. Slang Dictionary, a penitentiary or prison for minor offences.
+</p>
+<p>3. A thieves’ school; also a band of thieves. There are establishments of similar
+character bearing more distinctive names, <i>e.g.</i>:
+</p>
+<p>4. <span class="sc">Buzzing Academy</span> (thieves’).—A school for thieves, chiefly boys. Fagan, the old Jew in <i>Oliver Twist</i>, will occur to mind, as also the devices by which he taught his gang to pick pockets
+and pilfer adroitly.
+</p>
+<p>5. <span class="sc">Canting Academy</span> (vagrants’).—A house of call or common lodging house, frequented by the fraternity;
+a cadger’s dossing ken. The term is also applied to any house where application for
+food or money is likely to be successful. At the regular ‘beggar’s house’—establishments
+which abound more or less in every town—information can be obtained so that the district
+can be thoroughly and systematically ‘worked.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb14">[<a href="#pb14">14</a>]</span></p>
+<p>6. <span class="sc">Character Academy.</span>—At these places false characters are drawn up, to say nothing of the concoction of
+schemes of robbery.
+</p>
+<p>7. <span class="sc">Floating Academy</span> (thieves’).—The hulks or prison ships were formerly so-called. When the regulations
+as regards transportation were relaxed, convicts condemned to hard labour were sent
+on board these vessels.
+</p>
+<p>8. <span class="sc">Gammoning Academy.</span>—A reformatory.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acause</b>, <i>conj.</i> (vulgar).—A corruption of ‘because.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Accommodation House</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A brothel. Also frequently applied to what in police court phraseology
+are known as disorderly houses, <i>i.e.</i>, houses where rooms can be hired for shorter or longer periods as desired.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bed house</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>According to Cocker.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cocker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>According to the Revised Statutes.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Revised statutes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Account.</b> <span class="sc">To go on the account</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old nautical).—To join in a fillibustering or buccaneering expedition; to turn pirate.
+Ogilvie says, probably from the parties sharing, as in a commercial venture.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Letter to a Friend</i>. I hope it is no new thing for gentlemen of fortune who are <span class="sc">going on the account</span> to change a captain now and then.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To account for</span> (sporting).—To kill; literally to be answerable for bringing down one’s share of
+the shooting<span id="xd33e1977">;</span> to make away with.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846–48. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, ch. xx. The persecuted animals [rats] bolted above ground: the terrier <span class="sc">accounted for</span> one, the keeper for another.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <i>Letter from Lahore</i>, 28 September, in <i>Times</i>, 19 November. In the course of one week they were hunted up and <span class="sc">accounted for</span>; and you know that in Punjab phraseology <span class="sc">accounting for</span> means the extreme fate due to mutineers. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Accounts.</b> <span class="sc">To cast up one’s accounts</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old cant).—To vomit. Still common; quoted by Grose [1785]. The expression sometimes
+runs, amongst seafaring men, <span class="sc">to audit one’s accounts at the Court of Neptune</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Eng. Synonyms.</span> To shoot the cat; to cat.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Semer des miettes</i> (lit. to sow or scatter crumbs); <i lang="fr">piquer le renard</i> (lit. to goad the fox<span class="corr" id="xd33e2030" title="Not in source">)</span>. <i>Cf.</i> ‘to shoot the cat.’ The old French phrase was <i lang="fr">chasser</i> or <i lang="fr">escorcher le renard</i>, either because, says Cotgrave, ‘in spueing one makes a noise like a fox that barks,
+or because the flaying of so unsavory an animal will make any man spue’; <i lang="fr">renverser</i> (lit. to overturn, to upset); <i lang="fr">faire restitution</i> (lit. to make amends; to restore); <i lang="fr">revoir la carte</i> (lit. to look at the bill of fare again).
+</p>
+<p>(Thieves’).—To turn Queen’s evidence.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Accumulatives</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—These journalistic sparring matches are essentially a ‘Yankee notion.’
+In England they are called <span class="sc">codicils</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), under which see an amusing example which will illustrate their character, as also
+the length to which American editors sometimes go in heaping Ossa upon Pelion.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb15">[<a href="#pb15">15</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Accumulator</b>, <i>subs.</i> (racing).—A bettor, who when successful with one horse, carries forward the stakes
+to another event.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ace of Spades</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A widow. Though obsolete in England, it is quoted by the <i>New York Slang Dictionary</i> (1881) as still current in America.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ack</b>, <i>intj.</i> (Christ’s Hospital).—No! refusal of a request, <i>e.g.</i>, ‘Lend me your book.’ ‘<span class="sc">Ack!</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ackman</b>, <b>Ackpirate</b> (old), Or <b>Ackruff</b> (American), <i>subs.</i>—A freshwater thief; a ruffian who in conjunction with watermen robs and sometimes
+murders on the water. [<span class="sc">Ack</span> (unknown derivation, unless a corrupted form of ark, a boat; or wherry) + <span class="sc">man</span>, etc.] Quoted by Grose [1785], and also by Clark Russell, in <i>Sailor’s Language</i> [1883].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acknowledge the Corn</b>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (American).—To make an admission of failure; to admit being outwitted. The various
+stories professing to account for derivation are discussed in detail in <i>Americanisms, Old and New</i>: the most circumstantial and certainly the best authenticated, runs as follows:—In
+1828, the Hon. Andrew Stewart was in Congress discussing the principle of ‘Protection,’
+and said in the course of his remarks, that Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky sent their
+haystacks, cornfields, and fodder to New York and Philadelphia for sale. The Hon.
+Charles A. Wickliffe, from Kentucky, jumped up and said, ‘Why that is absurd; Mr.
+Speaker, I call the gentleman to order. He is stating an absurdity. We never send
+haystacks or cornfields to New York or Philadelphia.’ ‘Well, what do you send?’ ‘Why,
+horses, mules, cattle, hogs.’ ‘Well, what makes your horses, mules, cattle, hogs?
+You feed a hundred dollars’ worth of hay to a horse, you just animate and get upon
+the top of your haystack and ride off to market. How is it with your cattle? You make
+one of them carry fifty dollars’ worth of hay and grass to the Eastern market. Mr.
+Wickliffe, you send a hog worth ten dollars to an Eastern market; how much corn does
+it take at thirty-three cents per bushel to fatten it?’ ‘Why, thirty bushels!’ ‘Then
+you put that thirty bushels of corn into the shape of a hog, and make it walk off
+to the Eastern market.’ Mr. Wickliffe jumped up and said: ‘Mr. Speaker, I <span class="sc">acknowledge the corn</span>.<span>’</span> [De Vere’s <i>Americanisms</i> [1872] p. 47.] Latterly the expression has been used in England in the sense of simply
+to make an admission.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (<span class="sc">Sam Slick</span>), <i>The Season Ticket</i>, No. 9. ‘He had a beard that wouldn’t <span class="sc">acknowledge the corn</span> to no man’s.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">Bacon</span>, <i>Handbook of America</i>, p. 361. <span class="sc">Acknowledge the corn</span>, to confess a charge or imputation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Living London</i>, p. 97. Mr. Porter <span class="sc">acknowledges the corn</span> as regards his fourteen days’ imprisonment, and is forgiven by his loving consort.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acorn.</b> <span class="sc">A horse foaled of an acorn</span>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—The gallows. Euphemisms for hanging, the ‘tree’ itself, and the victim of
+the law’s majesty were, at the time when the <span class="pageNum" id="pb16">[<a href="#pb16">16</a>]</span>death penalty was a common punishment, both many and curious. <span class="sc">A horse foaled of an acorn</span>, is obviously an allusion to the timber of which the <span class="sc">triple tree</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) was constructed. The widows of those who had suffered the extreme penalty of the
+law were termed <span class="sc">hempen widows</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); the children of such, or those likely to meet with death by hanging, <span class="sc">hempseed</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); and <span class="sc">hempen fever</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) represented the dread malady itself.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1760–61. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Sir L. Greaves</i>, ch. viii. I believe as how ’tis no horse, but a devil incarnate; and yet I’ve been
+worse mounted, that I have—I’d like to have rid <span class="sc">a horse that was foaled of an acorn</span> (<i>i.e.</i>, he had nearly met with the fate of Absalom).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1827. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Pelham</i>, ch. lxxxii. ‘The cove … is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to
+ride <span class="sc">a horse foaled by an acorn</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 8. Tom Sheppard was always a close file, and would never tell whom he
+married. Of this I’m certain, however, she was much too good for him.… As to this
+little fellow … he shall never mount <span class="sc">a horse foaled by an acorn</span>, if I can help it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acquaintance.</b> To <span class="sc">scrape acquaintance</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (common).—To make acquaintance. Probably from ‘bowing and scraping’ to a person,
+in order to curry favor.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698. <span class="sc">Farquhar</span>, <i>Love and a Bottle</i> [ed. 1711], p. 5, <i>Lucinda</i>. Pray good Cæsar, keep off your paws; no <span class="sc">scraping acquaintance</span> for Heaven’s sake.
+</p>
+<p>This phrase has a classical origin, an account of which from the pen of Dr. Doran,
+F.S.A., appears in the <i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i> [N.S. xxxix. 230] in an article on ‘The Masters of the Roman World during the Happiest
+Years of the Human Race.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">There is an anecdote connected with Hadrian and the custom of bathing, from which
+is derived the proverbial saying of <span class="sc">scraping an acquaintance</span>. The Emperor, entering a bath, saw an old soldier scraping himself with a tile. He
+recognised the man as a former comrade—his memory on such points never failed him—and,
+pitying his condition that he had nothing better than a tile for a flesh-brush, he
+ordered the veteran to be presented with a considerable sum of money, and a costly
+set of bathing garments. Thereupon all the old soldiers of the Imperial Army became
+as anxious to claim fellowship with the Emperor as the Kirkpatricks of Great Britain
+and Ireland are proudly eager to establish kinship with the Empress of the French.
+As Hadrian entered the bath the day after that on which he had rewarded his former
+comrade, he observed dozens of old soldiers scraping themselves with tiles. He understood
+the intent, but wittily evaded it. ‘Scrape one another, gentlemen,’ said he, ‘you
+will not <span class="sc">scrape acquaintance with me</span>!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acquisitive</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Plunder; booty; pickings. A noun formed from the adjective.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acreocracy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The landed interest. Possibly of American coinage [of simulated Greek formation,
+from English <span class="sc">acre</span> + Greek <span class="trans" title="krateō"><span lang="grc" class="grek">κρατέω</span></span>, to hold sway or to govern]. Compare with democracy, mobocracy, aristocracy, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <i>Hallberger’s Illustrated Magazine</i>, p. 622. The introduction of a plutocracy among the aristocracy and the <span class="sc">acreocracy</span> though it has tended somewhat to vulgarize our social institutions, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acres</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical)<span>.</span>—A coward. From Bob <span class="sc">Acres</span>, in Sheridan’s <i>Rivals</i> [1775]; here the character part is of a blusterer, one who talks big, but when put
+to the push, to use his own words, ‘his courage always oozed out of his finger ends.’
+<i>Cf.</i>, Abigail for a waiting maid; Samson for a <span class="pageNum" id="pb17">[<a href="#pb17">17</a>]</span>strong man; Job for a monument of patience, and others.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Across Lots.</b> <span class="sc">To go across lots</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i>—To proceed by the shortest route; similarly to do anything in the most expeditious
+manner. The phrase had its rise in the natural tendency of settlers, in thinly-populated
+districts, to shorten the distance from point to point by leaving the road and striking
+<i>across</i> vacant <i>lots</i>. Brigham Young familiarized its idiomatic use in the now notoriously historic saying
+attributed to that ‘Saint,’—‘We’ll send them (the Gentiles) to hell <i>across lots</i>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Lowell</span>, <i>Biglow Papers</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Past noontime they went trampin’ round </p>
+<p class="line">An’ nary thing to pop at found, </p>
+<p class="line">Till, fairly tired o’ their spree, </p>
+<p class="line">They leaned their guns agin a tree, </p>
+<p class="line">An’ jest ez they wuz settin’ down </p>
+<p class="line">To take their noonin’, Joe looked roun’ </p>
+<p class="line">And see (<span class="sc">acrost lots</span> in a pond </p>
+<p class="line">That warn’t mor’n twenty rod beyond), </p>
+<p class="line">A goose that on the water sot </p>
+<p class="line">Ez ef awaitin’ to be shot. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1854. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;C. Neal</span>, <i>Charcoal Sketches</i>, i., p. 35 [to a grumbler]:—‘You would cut <span class="sc">across the lot</span>, like a streak of lightning, if you had a chance.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Scribner’s Magazine.</i> ‘I didn’t see Crossby go by, did you?’ ‘He’d have had to foot it by the path <span class="sc">cross-lots</span>, replied Ezra, gravely, from the doorstep.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acteon</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A cuckold; from the horns planted on the head of Acteon by Diana.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Acting the Deceitful</b>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old theatrical).—Performing; mumming; acting.—<i>Duncombe.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Active Citizen</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A louse. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Chates</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Act of Parliament</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A military term for small beer, five pints of which, by an Act of Parliament,
+a landlord was formerly obliged to give gratis to each soldier billetted upon him.
+For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cold blood</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Actual.</b> <span class="sc">The actual</span>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Money, when spoken of collectively. The fact of the existence of innumerable
+synonyms for the ‘modern staff of life’ goes far to bear out the latter-day contention
+that it is not the ‘evil’ itself [‘money is the root of all evil’—<i>Old Saw</i>] but the lack of it that is to be deplored. The central idea enshrined in many of
+these terms will well repay comparative study, a vein of subtle, and sometimes grim
+humor and pathos running through not a few of them<span>.</span> This applies equally to English slang, and to the French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese
+argots. Compare for example the English ‘feathers’ with the Spanish <i lang="es">amigos</i> (friends), the Italian <i lang="it">agresto</i> (sour grapes), and the French <i lang="fr">du foin</i> (hay), or <i lang="fr">de l’os</i> (bone), and obviously many a new side-light upon national habits and modes of thought
+may be obtained therefrom. The English and French, the two nations whose slang vocabularies
+are by far the most copious extant, have respectively upwards of 130 and 50 synonymous
+terms for money. The generic names are as follows:—
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Eng. Synonyms.</span> Ballast; beans; blunt (<i>i.e.</i>, specie,—not soft, or rags, <i>i.e.</i>, bank-notes); brads; brass; bustle; coal; coppers (copper money, or mixed pence);
+chink; chinkers; chips; corks; dibs; dimmock; dinarly; <span class="pageNum" id="pb18">[<a href="#pb18">18</a>]</span>dirt; dooteroomus (or doot); dumps; dust; dye stuffs; feathers; family plate (silver);
+dollars; gent (silver,—from <i lang="la">argent</i>); gilt; haddock (a purse of money); hard stuff (or hard); horse nails; huckster;
+John; John Davis; loaver; lour (the oldest cant term for money); mopusses; muck; needful;
+nothings (money collected in a hat by street-performers); ochre (gold); oof; ooftish;
+pewter; palm oil; pieces; posh; queen’s pictures; quids; rags (bank-notes); ready;
+ready gilt; ready John; redge (gold); rhino; rowdy; shadscales (or scales); shot;
+shekels; sinews of war; shiners (sovereigns); shin plasters (or plasters); skin (a
+purse of money); Spanish; spondulics; stamps; stiff (cheques, or bills of acceptance);
+stuff; stumpy; tin (silver); tow; wad; wedge (silver); wherewith; and yellow-boys
+(sovereigns). In the 17th century money was often called ‘shells’—is this the origin
+of ‘to shell out’?—and ‘Oil of Angels’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Argot.</span> <i lang="fr">De l’artiche</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">retirer de l’artiche</i>, is to pick the pockets of a drunkard); <i lang="fr">du morningue</i>; <i lang="fr">du foin</i> (lit. hay); <i lang="fr">du plâtre</i> (thieves’: lit. plaster); <i lang="fr">du poussier</i> (thieves’: lit. coal-dust; <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘coal’ and ‘dust’); <i lang="fr">des soldats</i> (thieves’: Falstaff, in <i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, ii., 2, says ‘money is a good soldier’); <i lang="fr">de la mornifle</i> (this thieves’ term for money, whether good or counterfeit, originally signified
+false money only; there is a grim suggestiveness between the orthodox meaning of the
+word, ‘a slap on the face,’ and its slang signification); <i lang="fr">de la sauvette</i> (also a basket used by rag-pickers and collectors of street refuse); <i lang="fr">de l’huile</i> (lit. oil); <i lang="fr">du beurre</i> (pop.: lit. butter); <i lang="fr">de la braise</i> (pop.: <i lang="fr">ma braise</i> is a term of endearment among the Lyonnais, and is equivalent to <i lang="fr">mon trésor</i>, my treasure); <i lang="fr">du bath</i> (thieves’: the tip-top; the excellent. From a superior kind of Bath note paper, which,
+in 1848, was hawked about the streets of Paris, and sold at a low price. Thus <i lang="fr">papier bath</i> became synonymous with excellent paper. In a short time the qualifying term alone
+remained, and received a general application.—<i>Argot and Slang</i>); <i lang="fr">du graissage</i> (pop.: lit. grease, <i>Cf.</i>, ‘palm oil,’ and ‘greasing the palm’ in English slang); <i lang="fr">de la thune</i> (thieves’: in old French cant the <i lang="fr">Roi de la Thune</i> was the king of the beggars, and the old prison of Bicêtre, where free board and
+lodging was provided for many of the fraternity, was called <i lang="fr">La Thune</i>. It is easy to see why the name of a place, where beggars congregated in considerable
+numbers and received relief, should pass into use to signify pecuniary alms); <i lang="fr">de la miche de profonde</i> (pop. and thieves’: this exactly corresponds to the English ‘loaver’); <i lang="fr">de l’oignon pèse</i> (pop.: lit. heavy onion. <i>Cf.</i>, Fourbesque <i lang="fr">argume</i>); <i lang="fr">du sable</i> (pop.: lit. sand); <i lang="fr">des pimpions</i> (thieves’: <i>Qy.</i>, from <i lang="fr">pimpant</i>, fine, spruce, smart); <i lang="fr">de l’os</i> (familiar: lit. bone); <i lang="fr">du nerf</i> (lit. sinew. <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘sinews of war’); <i lang="fr">des pepettes</i> (pop.: <span id="xd33e2551"></span><i lang="fr">pepette</i>, a coin of the value of fifty centimes); <i lang="fr">des achetoires</i> (pop.: from <i lang="fr">acheter</i>, to buy); <i lang="fr">de la galette</i> (pop.: lit. sea biscuit); <i lang="fr">des picaillons</i> (pop.: probably a corruption of <i lang="fr">picaron</i>, a Spanish coin); <i lang="fr">de ce qui se pousse</i> (pop.: that which pushes <span class="pageNum" id="pb19">[<a href="#pb19">19</a>]</span>itself forward. <i>Cf.</i>, English proverb, ‘It’s money makes the mare to go’); <i lang="fr">de quoi</i> (pop.: the wherewithal. <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘the needful,’ the ‘ready’), <i lang="fr">de l’oignon</i> (pop.: lit. onion. Fourbesque has also <i lang="fr">argume</i>, lit. in Italian, an onion); <i lang="fr">de l’oseille</i> (pop.: lit. sorrel); <i lang="fr">de la douille</i> (thieves’ and pop.: from a kind of large fig much esteemed in Paris); <i lang="fr">des jaunets</i> (lit. buttercups. <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘yellow-boys’); <i lang="fr">des sous</i> (lit. pence); <i lang="fr">de la graisse</i> (pop. and thieves’: lit. ‘grease.’ <i>Cf.</i>, palm oil); <i lang="fr">de l’affare</i> (a thieves’ term, probably from the argotic verb <i lang="fr">affurer</i>, to cheat, steal, or deceive); <i lang="fr">du metal</i> (lit. metal); <i lang="fr">du zinc</i> (lit. zinc); <i lang="fr">du pèze</i> (from the Italian <i lang="it">pezzo</i>, a piece; Spanish <i lang="es">peso</i>, a silver coin, weighing an ounce); <i lang="fr">du pedzale</i>; <i lang="fr">des noyaux</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">des sonnettes plombes</i> (<i lang="fr">plomb</i> = lead); <i lang="fr">des sonnettes</i> (lit. bells. <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘chinkers’); <i lang="fr">du quantum</i> (from the Latin); <i lang="fr">du gras</i> (lit. fat); <i lang="fr">de l’atout</i> (lit. trumps in cards); <i lang="fr">de l’huile de main</i> (lit. hand oil, the English ‘palm grease’); <i lang="fr">des patards</i> (obsolete copper coins, value ¼d.; now applied particularly to a two-sous piece,
+and to money generally); <i lang="fr">de la vaisselle de poche</i> (lit. pocket plate: <i lang="fr">vaisselle</i> = gold and silver plate); <i lang="fr">du carme</i> (from the game of <i>Trictrac</i>); <i lang="fr">de la pécune</i> (lit. cash); <i lang="fr">des ronds</i> (lit. circles; from the shape of coins); <i lang="fr">de la bille</i> (from <i>billon</i>); <i lang="fr">du “sine quâ non”</i> (from the Latin; meaning obvious); <i lang="fr">du sit nomen</i> (from the Latin); <i lang="fr">quibus</i> (an abbreviation of <i lang="fr">quibus fiunt omnia</i>).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Fourbesque.</span> <i lang="it">Agresto</i> (lit. sour grapes); <i lang="it">albume</i> (lit. white of egg), <i lang="it">argume</i> (lit. onions); <i lang="it">asta</i>, <i lang="it">asti</i> (from Ital. <i lang="it">asta</i>, a staff); <i lang="it">contramaglia</i> (silver money); <i lang="it">brunotti</i> (lit. brownish); <i lang="it">penne</i> (lit. feathers); <i lang="it">smilzi</i> (from Ital. <i lang="it">smilzi</i> = menu); <i lang="it">squame</i> (lit. chips or scales).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Germania.</span> <i lang="es">Amigos</i> (lit. friends); <i lang="es">florin</i> (here can be traced the Spanish connection with the Netherlands); <i lang="es">sangre</i> (lit. blood).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Portuguese <span id="xd33e2761" lang="pt">Calão</span>.</span>—<i lang="pt">Parne.</i>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms</span> (<span class="sc">Gaunersprache</span>).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Gilt</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ad.<span id="xd33e2783">,</span></b> <b>Adver.</b> <i>subs.</i> (printers’).—An abbreviated form of ‘advertisement.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Household Words</i>, xiii., 9. The really interesting <span class="sc">ads</span> are in the body of the paper.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Times</i>, Ap. 6.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">[The country editor’s wife—] … reads the <span class="sc">ads</span> with the editor, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Just to find what each has paid. </p>
+<p class="line">‘But the column <span class="sc">ad</span> of the jeweller, there,’ </p>
+<p class="line">So he says, ‘and the harness, and human hair, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Must be taken out in trade!’ </p>
+<p class="line">She wears the corsets he gets for <span class="sc">ads</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And rattles his sewing machine; </p>
+<p class="line">She uses the butter, and cups, and things, </p>
+<p class="line">The country subscriber so faithfully brings, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">With a cheerfulness seldom seen. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Adam</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A sergeant or bailiff; a master man or foreman. Now used by thieves in the
+sense of an accomplice. Explained by commentators as a reference to the fact that
+the buff worn by a bailiff resembled the native buff worn by our first parent, or
+from his keeping the garden.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Comedy of Errors</i><span id="xd33e2843">,</span> iv., 3. <i>Ant<span>.</span> S.</i>… What Adam dost thou mean? <i>Dro. S.</i> Not that Adam that kept the Paradise, but that <span class="sc">Adam</span> that keeps the prison: he that goes into the calf-skin that was killed for the prodigal.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <i>Sinks of London Laid Open</i>, p. 96. <span class="sc">Adam</span>, a henchman, an accomplice.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb20">[<a href="#pb20">20</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Adam’s Ale</b>, or sometimes simply <b>Adam</b>, and in Scotland <b>Adam’s Wine</b>.—A colloquialism of long standing for water, humorously suggesting that anything
+stronger was unknown to our first parents. Duncombe wittily adds a comment that our
+first father’s drink is best with brandy. This also would appear to be the view taken
+in most of the French and German equivalents.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Eng. Synonyms.</span> Fish broth; <i lang="la">aqua pompaginis</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French.</span> <i lang="fr">Anisette de barbillon</i> (a popular term); <i lang="fr">essence de parapluie</i> (popular: lit. essence of umbrella); <i lang="fr">l’Adam’s ale</i> (a literal translation of the English term); <i lang="fr">limonade</i> (popular: a caustic comment surely upon the virtues of lemonade); <i lang="fr">lance</i> (popular and thieves’: this term also does duty for ‘rain’; properly written <i lang="fr">l’ance</i>, derived from the Spanish Germania <i lang="es">ansia</i>, itself an abbreviation of <i lang="es">angustia</i>, an allusion to the employment of water as a means of torture); <i lang="fr">sirop</i> or <i lang="fr">ratafia de grenouilles</i> (popular: lit. syrup of frogs); <i lang="fr">sirop de l’aiguière</i> (popular: lit. pitcher syrup); <i lang="fr">sirop de baromètre</i> (popular, barometer syrup).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Gaunersprache.</span> <i lang="de">Gänsewein</i> (lit. goose-wine).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Fourbesque.</span> <i lang="it">Lenza</i> (the remarks on French <i lang="it">lance</i> quoted above, apply equally here).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1643. <span class="sc">Prynne</span>, <i>Sov. Power of Parl.</i>, II., 32. They have been shut up in prisons and dungeons … allowed onely a poore
+pittance of <span class="sc">Adam’s ale</span>, and scarce a penny bread a day to support their lives. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1786–9. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> [P. Pindar], <i>Lousiad</i>, c. ii., line 453.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Old <span class="sc">Adam’s</span> beverage flows with pride, </p>
+<p class="line">From wide-mouth’d pitchers, in a plenteous tide. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1884. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, April 1, p. 5, col. 2. The spectral banquet graced now only by <span class="sc">Adam’s ale</span>, or the sick-room toast and water.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">John Coleman</span>, <i>Elfie</i>, pt. I., ch. ii. For my part, I stuck to <span class="sc">Adam’s ale</span>, which Elfie brought from the spring.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Adam Tiler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—A pickpocket’s associate; one who receives stolen goods, and then runs
+off with them. [From <span class="sc">Adam</span>, an accomplice + <span class="sc">tiler</span>, a watchman. <i>Cf.</i>, Masonic term.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Fence</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Added to the List</b> (racing).—An abbreviation of ‘added to the list of geldings in training.’ Among French
+thieves, <i lang="fr">désatiller</i> is the term employed to signify castration; or, where the operation is performed
+upon a man, <i lang="fr">abélardiser</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, to mutilate a man, as Chanoine Fulbert mutilated Abélard, the lover of his daughter
+or niece, Héloise.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Addition</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A term for various toilet requisites, used by women; such as paint, rouge,
+powder, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1704. <span class="sc">Centlivre</span>, <i>Platonick Love</i>, Act iii., Scene 1. <i>Milliner.</i> Be pleased to put on the <span class="sc">addition</span> madam. <i>Mrs. Dowdy.</i> What does she mean now? to pull my skin off, mehap, next. Ha, Peeper, are these your
+London fashions? <i>Peeper.</i> No, no, <span class="sc">addition</span> is only paint, madam.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Addition, Division, and Silence!</b> <i>phr.</i> (American).—A Philadelphia expression, which, for a time, had a vogue as a catch
+phrase. It is properly rendered <span class="sc">multiplication, division, and silence!</span> William M. Tweed, or as he is more familiarly known ‘Boss’ Tweed, is generally credited
+with this expression. Being asked what in <span class="pageNum" id="pb21">[<a href="#pb21">21</a>]</span>his view was the proper qualification for a member of a ring or trust, in which all
+play into each other’s hands for mutual advantages, he replied <span class="sc">multiplication, division, and silence!</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Addle Cove</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A foolish man; an easy dupe; literally, a <span class="sc">rank sucker</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and equivalent to addle-head, addle-pate, addle-plot, all of which are common dictionary
+words. Why Barrère and Hotten have followed the lead of Grose in classing these words
+as slang is hardly clear. Dialectical they may have been, but all English was similarly
+placed prior to the 15th century, and the first reference given by Murray, bears the
+date of <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1250.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Adept</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—An expert amongst the light-fingered gentry. It is quite an open question
+whether <span class="sc">adept</span>, even in a thief’s sense, can fairly be classed as slang, the meaning being obviously
+identical with that commonly attached to the word.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Adjective Jerker</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (literary).—A term of derision applied, like <span class="sc">ink-slinger</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), to those who write for the press. The special allusion in the present case is doubtless
+to the want of discrimination which young writers, and reporters on low-class papers,
+often exhibit in the use of a plethora of adjectives to qualify a simple statement
+of fact.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>St. Louis Globe Democrat</i>, April 29. Genevieve spent four hours last night in constructing a three-line letter,
+which she sent to an <span class="sc">adjective jerker</span> on a society weekly, and in which she said she would spend the summer months in the
+Rocky Mountains.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Adjutant’s Gig</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (military).—The barrack roller. Men under punishment are generally put to the task
+of drawing this machine.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Admiral.</b> <span class="sc">To tap the Admiral</span>, <i>verb phr.</i> (nautical).—A practice otherwise known as ‘<span class="sc">sucking the monkey</span>.’ Explained in <i>Peter Simple</i> as having originally been used amongst sailors for drinking rum out of cocoa nuts
+from which the milk had been extracted and replaced by spirits, an evasion of the
+regulation prohibiting the purchase of ardent liquors when on shore in the tropics.
+The Germans have an analogous expression <i lang="de">Den affen saugen</i>, to ‘suck the monkey,’ with the same signification.
+</p>
+<p>Nowadays it is applied to drinking on the sly from a cask by inserting a straw through
+a gimlet hole, and to drinking generally.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>Ingoldsby Legends</i> (the Black Mousquetaire).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">What the vulgar call <span class="sc">sucking the monkey</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Has much less effect on a man when he’s funky. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Admiral of the Blue</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A publican or tapster; from the colour of his apron; now obsolete. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Admiral of the red</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1731. <i>Poor Robin</i> [Pseudonym of Robert Herrick] Almanac.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">As soon as customers begin to stir, </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">The admiral of the blue</span>, cries, ‘Coming, sir!’ </p>
+<p class="line">Or if grown fat, the mate his place supplies; </p>
+<p class="line">And says, ’tis not my master’s time to rise. <span class="pageNum" id="pb22">[<a href="#pb22">22</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Of all our trades, the tapster is the best, </p>
+<p class="line">He has more men at work than all the rest. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Admiral of the Narrow Seas</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (nautical).—A man who, under drink, vomits into the lap of his neighbour or <i>vis-à-vis</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Admiral of the Red</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—A wine-bibber; one whose face by its redness bears evidence of a fondness
+for the bottle. Formerly the highest rank of naval officers was divided into three
+grades or classes denominated from the colours hoisted by them, Admirals of the Red,
+White, or Blue squadron. Now there are four grades; Admiral of the Fleet, Admiral,
+Vice-admiral, and Rear-admiral. The French call the bottle or copper-nose possessed
+by <span class="sc">admirals of the red</span> <i lang="fr">betterave</i> (lit. a beetroot); also <i lang="fr">un piton passé à l’encaustique</i>; and <i lang="fr">un piffard</i>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Admiral of the blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Admiral of the White</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (familiar).—Quoted as ‘a white-faced person; a coward; a woman in a faint.’ Rarely
+heard, and at best but an extremely weak imitation of kindred phrases, to wit, <span class="sc">admiral of the blue</span>, and <span class="sc">admiral of the red</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Admirals of the Red, White, and Blue</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (familiar).—Beadles; hall-porters; and such-like functionaries when sporting their
+gorgeous liveries of office.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Adonize</b>, <i>verb.</i> (rare). [French <i lang="fr">adoniser</i>; from <span class="sc">adonis</span> + <span class="sc">ize</span>].—To make beautiful or attractive; to adorn oneself with a view of attracting admiration;
+said only of men.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1818. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;E. Ferrier</span>, <i>Marriage</i>, ch. ix. ‘Venus and the Graces, by Jove!’ exclaimed Sir Sampson, bowing with an air
+of gallantry; ‘and now I must go and <span class="sc">adonize</span> a little myself.’ The company then separated to perform the important offices of
+the toilette.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Frank Fairleigh</i>, ch. xl. ‘He positively refused to face the ladies till he had changed his shooting
+costume, so I left him up at the hall to <span class="sc">adonize</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Adsum</b>, <i>verb.</i> (Charterhouse).—The response made in answering to names-calling.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>The Newcomes</i>, p. 774. ‘At the usual evening hour the chapel bell began to toll, and Thomas Newcome’s
+hands outside the bed feebly beat time. And just as the last bell struck, a peculiar
+sweet smile shone over his face and he lifted up his head a little, and quickly said,
+‘<span class="sc">adsum</span>,’ and fell back. It was the word we used at school when names were called; and lo,
+he whose heart was as that of a little child had answered to his name, and stood in
+the presence of the Master.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Adullamites</b>, <i>subs.</i> (parliamentary).—A nickname, in the first instance, for a party of seceding Liberals,
+namely, Messrs. Horsman, Lowe, Earl Grosvenor, Lord Elcho, etc., who in 1866 voted
+with the Tories, when Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone introduced a measure for the
+extension of the Franchise<span id="xd33e3272">.</span> In the debate on the 30th March John Bright said they had agreed to draw back into
+a political cave of <span class="sc">adullam</span>. The reference is to those who, with King David, took refuge in the cave of <span class="sc">adullam</span> (1 Sam. xxii., 1). The political party in question were also known collectively as
+‘The Cave.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb23">[<a href="#pb23">23</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1878–80. <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>, <i>History of Our Own Times</i>, p. 142. The little third party were at once christened the <span class="sc">adullamites</span>, and the name still survives and is likely long to survive its old political history.
+<i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, p. 143. The wild cheers of the Conservatives and the <span class="sc">adullamites</span> showed on which ‘sword sat laurel victory.’ <i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, p. 152. [Lord Derby] had at once invited the leading members of the <span class="sc">adullamite</span> party to accept places in his Administration.
+</p>
+<p>The primary usage has been extended as explained in the following quotations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, March 5, p. 241. The Scriptural ‘<span class="sc">cave of adullam</span>’ has become an adopted byword for a small clique who unite to obstruct the party
+with which they usually associate.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>New York Times</i>, July 19. The Conservative party then presented a tolerably solid front against the
+extension of the franchise, and received besides a large reinforcement of <span class="sc">adullamites</span> from the Liberal side.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Advance Backward</b>, <i>verb.</i> (American).—A rather odd way of expressing retrogression.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Chicago Inter-Ocean</i>, Jan. 23. The advice given to his company by a raw Yankee captain <span class="sc">to advance backward</span>, seems paralleled in the Chicago <i>Tribune</i> of the 18th inst.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Advantage</b> (Californian).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Pocket advantage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Æger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Univ.). Lat. sick.—Same as <span class="sc">Ægrotat</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, June 18, p. 395. Dick laughed. ‘I’ll get the receipt from him. I often want a good
+thing for an <span class="sc">Æger</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">H. Smart</span>, in <i>Temple Bar</i>, February, p. 213. ‘Instead of applying for leave to my tutor, I had resorted to
+the old device of pricking <span class="sc">Æger</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ægrotat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Univ.).—[L. he is sick, 3rd pers. sing. pres. ind. of <i lang="la">ægrotare</i>, to be sick from <i lang="la">ægrotus</i>, sick, from <i lang="la">æger</i>, sick]. In English universities a medical certificate given to a student<span id="xd33e3390">,</span> showing that he has been prevented by sickness from attending to his duties, or his
+examination; also used for the degree taken by those so excused. Also called <span class="sc">Æger</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1794. <i>Gent. Mag.</i>, p. 1085. They [at Cambridge] <i>sported</i> an <span class="sc">Ægrotat</span>, and they <i>sported</i> a new coat!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Babbage</span>, <i>Passages from the Life of a Philosopher</i>, 37. I sent my servant to the apothecary for a thing called an <span class="sc">Ægrotat</span>, which I understood … meant a certificate that I was indisposed.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Reading ægrotat.</span>—In some universities leave taken, commonly in December, in order to get time to read
+for one’s degree.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Affair of Honour</b><span id="xd33e3427">,</span> <i>subs.</i> (old).—Killing an innocent man in a duel. This euphemism was largely in vogue during
+the Regency days.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Affidavit Men</b>, <i>sub. phr.</i> (old slang), or, as they also used to be called, <span class="sc">Knights of the Post</span>.—False witnesses who attended Westminster Hall and other Courts of Justice, ready
+to swear anything for hire; they were distinguished by having straws stuck in the
+heels of their shoes.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Straw bail</span> under <span class="sc">Bail</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Affinity</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A cant term in frequent use amongst so-called free-lovers. One’s <span class="sc">affinity</span> is supposed to be a person of the opposite sex, for whom an attachment so strong
+is felt that even if already married, as more often than not is the case, the husband
+will abandon his legitimate wife, and <i>vice versâ</i>, in favour of the new attraction, or <span class="sc">affinity</span> as he or she is called. The argument is generally only <span class="pageNum" id="pb24">[<a href="#pb24">24</a>]</span>an excuse for unbridled sexual license; indeed, it is inconceivable that it could
+be otherwise, except in a society of seraphs and archangels.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Afflicke</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowland’s</span> <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 38 (H. Chub’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Afflicke</span>, a theefe.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Afflictions</b>, <i>subs.</i> (drapers’).—Mourning goods, half-mourning being designated <span class="sc">mitigated afflictions</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Affygraphy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—‘It fits to an <span class="sc">affygraphy</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, to a nicety—to a T; also of time—‘in an <span class="sc">affygraphy</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Afloat</b>, <i>adv.</i> (common).—On the move; <i lang="fr">en évidence</i>. This term is of nautical origin.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To have one’s back-teeth well afloat</span>, is to be well-primed with liquor; in short, to be in one of the many degrees of
+intoxication.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Missouri Republican</i>, Jan. 25. When sober on the bench Judge Noonan is a model of all the virtues. On
+Friday night, however, in company with Dr. Munford, of Kansas City, ex-Speaker Wood,
+Mr. Charles Mead, and several other gentlemen, his honor once more drank until, as
+an onlooker put it, his <span class="sc">back teeth were well afloat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>A-Fly</b>, <i>adv.</i> (vulgar).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Fly</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Afterclap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—An attempt to unjustly extort more in a bargain or agreement than at
+first settled upon. <span class="corr" id="xd33e3545" title="Not in source">[</span>Derived from <span class="sc">after</span> + <span class="sc">clap</span>, a blow or shock.] Current in England since the beginning of the fifteenth century,
+signifying an unexpected subsequent event; something happening after an affair is
+supposed to be at an end.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>After-Dinner Man; Afternoon’s Man.</b>—Generally read to mean a tippler; one given to long potations after the mid-day meal,
+formerly the most substantial taken during the twenty-four hours. Smythe Palmer, however,
+appears to throw a different gloss upon the term, for he says [N. and Q., 5 S., viii.,
+112], <span class="sc">Afternoones men</span>—equivalent to <span class="sc">after-dinner men</span>. It was the custom, formerly, to dine in the halls of our Inns of Court about noon,
+and those who returned after dinner to work must have been much devoted to business,
+or obliged to work at unusual hours by an excess of it.—<i>See</i> quot. from Earle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1614. <span class="sc">Overbury</span>, <i>A wife, etc.</i> (1638), 196. Make him an <span class="sc">afternoones man</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1621. <b>Burton</b>, <i>Anat. Mel.</i> Democr. to Reader (1657), 44. Bervaldus will have drunkards, <span class="sc">afternoon men</span>, and such as more than ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1628. <b>Earle</b>, <i>Microcosmography</i> (A Player). Your Innes of Court men were undone but for him, hee is their chiefe
+guest and employment, and the sole businesse that makes them <span class="sc">afternoones men</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <i>Dublin Sketch Book.</i> The good Baronet (Sir Francis Burdett) was not only a foxhunter, but a celebrated
+<span class="sc">after-dinner man</span><span>.</span> It must have been a good bout indeed in which he was worsted.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>After Four</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (Eton).—From 3 to 6 p.m. on half-holidays; 4 to 5 on whole schoolday.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Afternoon Farmer</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—This expression for one who procrastinates, or who misses an opportunity
+is, in <span class="pageNum" id="pb25">[<a href="#pb25">25</a>]</span>reality, a provincialism. It is quoted in more than one of the English Dialect Society’s
+<i>Glossaries</i> as a very common phrase for one who is always behind, <i>i.e.</i>, late in preparing his land, in sowing or harvesting his crops. It is only slang
+when used figuratively apart from agricultural pursuits.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>After Twelve</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (Eton).—From noon till 2 p.m.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Good for Nothing</i>, p. 39. I used to visit him regularly in the dear old college from the <span class="sc">after twelve</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Against Collar.</b> <span class="sc">To work against collar</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (popular).—To battle or cope with difficulties; ‘to kick against the pricks’; ‘to
+pull against the tide.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 114. ‘It is always thought to be a bad plan to let journeymen Cheap Johns get
+into debt with their employers. It is bad in two ways, for if they owe their governors
+a few pounds, they are <span class="sc">working</span> an uphill game, or <span class="sc">against collar</span>, and that don’t suit their book, and it destroys the independence which is, and always
+should be, between the master and the man.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Against the Grain</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—Against the fibres of the wood; hence, in opposition to the wish; unwillingly;
+unpleasantly; reluctantly. ‘It went <span class="sc">against the grain</span> to do it, but I knew I must,’ is a common expression.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1673. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Amboyna</i>, Act i. Seizing their factories I like well enough, it has some savour in’t; but
+for this whoresome cutting of throats, it goes a little <span class="sc">against the grain</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1693. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Juvenal</i>, i., 202. Though much <span class="sc">against the grain</span> forc’d to retire.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1709. <span class="sc">Steele</span>, <i>Tatler</i>, No. 2. Nothing in nature is so ungrateful as story-telling <span class="sc">against the grain</span>, therefore take it as the author has given it you.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>, <i>The Moonstone</i>, 1st Period., ch. xi. As I had promised for them, the other servants followed my
+lead, sorely <span class="sc">against the grain</span>, of course, but all taking the view that I took.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;C. Russell</span>, <i>Jack’s Courtship</i>, ch. xxiii. It went <span class="sc">against my grain</span> to leave the poor chap alone.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Agaze</b>, <i>adv.</i> (American thieves’).—Astonished; open-eyed.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aggerawator</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common); also <b>Haggerawator</b>, both forms being corruptions of ‘aggravator.’—A lock of hair brought down from the
+forehead, well greased, and then twisted in spiral form upon the temple, either toward
+the ear, or conversely toward the outer corner of the eye. This style of dressing
+the hair was formerly much affected by costermongers, male and female, and other street
+folk, but the ‘ornament’ is now rarely seen. It appears to be known among certain
+classes in France, especially prostitutes’ bullies.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Eng. Synonyms.</span> Kiss-curls; cobbler’s knots; cow-licks; Newgate knockers (from a supposed resemblance
+to the knocker on the prisoner’s door at Newgate); number sixes; bellropes (being
+wherewith to <i>draw</i> the <i>belles</i>); bow-catchers; spit-curls; lovelocks, etc.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Argot.</span> <i lang="fr">Des guiches</i>; <i lang="fr">des rouflaquettes</i> (from being sported by prostitutes’ bullies), <i lang="fr">des accroche-cœeurs</i> (lit. heart-hooks).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 132. His hair carefully twisted into the outer corner of each eye, till it formed
+a variety of that description of semi-curls, usually known as ‘<span class="sc">aggerawators</span>.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb26">[<a href="#pb26">26</a>]</span></p>
+<p>From the following they would appear at one time to have formed part of the personal
+adornment of women in Australia.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Frank Fowler</span>, <i>Southern Lights and Shadows</i>, p. 38. The ladies are addicted to … straw-coloured gloves, and strained hair, embellished
+with two or three c’s—<span class="sc">aggravators</span> they call them—running over the temple.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Agility</b>, <i>subs.</i> (low).—A woman who, in mounting a stile, or, when being swung, exposes more of her
+person than is usually counted decent, is said to show her <span class="sc">agility</span>. The story told is an absurdly vulgar play upon words.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Agitate the Communicator!</b> <i>verb. phr.</i> (common).—Ring the bell!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Agitator</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A bell-rope, or knocker.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Agogare</b>, <i>intj.</i> (American thieves’).—Be quick! a warning signal [from <span class="sc">agog</span>].—<i>New York Slang Dictionary.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Agony.</b> <span class="sc">To pile up the agony.</span> <i>verbal phr.</i> (popular).—To intensify a statement or relation by exaggerated or blood-curdling
+details. Newspapers <i>pile on the agony</i> when ‘writing up’ murder, divorce, and other sensations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">C. Bronté</span>, in Mrs. Gaskell’s <i>Life</i>, ch. xxv. What climax there is does not come on till near the conclusion; and even
+then, I doubt whether the regular novel-reader will consider the ‘<span class="sc">agony piled</span> sufficiently high’ (as the Americans say), or the colours dashed on to the canvas
+with the proper amount of daring.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">W. Black</span>, <i>Beautiful Wretch</i>, ch. vi. ‘Sooner or later that organ will shake the Cathedral to bits; the vibrations
+were fearful. I thought there was a great deal too much noise. You lose effect when
+you <span class="sc">pile up the agony</span> like that.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Agony column</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—The second column of the <i>Times</i>; originally so-called from the fact of its being devoted to advertisements for missing
+friends, and private communications, many of which are of a harrowing character. Most
+London newspapers, for the phrase is chiefly local, have now a similar column. Subjoined
+are a few examples of these advertisements:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">I am not sure of identity. Are you Juan of 1873? Longing to see you.—B.
+</p>
+<hr class="tb line"><p>
+</p>
+<p class="clipping">My darling, how often do I say from my heart come and let us reason together that
+we may be happy here and live and love for ever. God bless and spare us to meet again.
+</p>
+<hr class="tb line"><p>
+</p>
+<p class="clipping">Satisfied.—Meet Friday outside Farringdon Street Station, Three p.m. Have slip paper
+in coat button-hole.—J. T.
+</p>
+<hr class="tb line"><p>
+</p>
+<p class="clipping">HERBERT WILLIAM BONNETT, who left Bristol on Thursday, Sept. 5, is REQUESTED to COMMUNICATE
+at once with his uncle at Keynsham. If any shipping agent is aware of his taking passage
+in any boat leaving England, either London, Liverpool, or elsewhere, please write
+at once to Mr. J.&nbsp;D. Coates, Keynsham, near Bristol. All expenses will be paid.
+</p>
+<hr class="tb line"><p>
+</p>
+<p>The earliest mention in Murray’s Dictionary is dated 1880, but from the following
+quotation it will be seen that the term has been in use for at least twenty years.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">L. Oliphant</span>, <i>Piccadilly</i>, part II., p. 78. The advertisement of the committee, which appeared in the <span class="sc">agony column</span> of the <i>Times</i>, who wanted to know how I wished the money applied.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">W. Black</span>, <i>Beautiful Wretch</i>, ch. xxiii. There were anonymous appeals to the runaways in <span class="sc">agony columns</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb27">[<a href="#pb27">27</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Agony Piler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—An actor who performs blood-curdling parts in sensational plays.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aground</b>, <i>adv.</i> (common).—Stuck fast; stopped; at a loss; ruined; like a boat or vessel <span class="sc">aground</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ain’t</b>, sometimes <b>A’N’T</b>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (vulgar).—A corruption for (1) ‘am not’; (2) ‘are not’; (3) ‘is not.’ This vulgarism
+appears to be of much older standing than set down in the <i>New English Dictionary</i>, where the earliest example is dated 1778.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1710. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Journal to Stella</i>, 24 Nov., Letter ix. I <span class="sc">ain’t</span> vexed at this puppy business of the bishops, although I was a little at first.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1800. <span class="sc">Coleridge</span>, <i>Piccolomini</i>, II., xiii. <i>Ter.</i> Where’s the hurry? Come, one other composing draught.… <i>Goetz.</i> Excuse me—<span class="sc">ain’t</span> able. <i>Ter.</i> A thimble-full! <i>Goetz.</i> Excuse me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 275. ‘You are a clever fellow, Tottle, <span class="sc">ain’t</span> you?’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Air and Exercise</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—To have had <span class="sc">air and exercise</span>, signified that one had undergone a whipping at the cart’s tail. About the beginning
+of the present century the same operation was termed <span class="sc">shoving the tumbler</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Among thieves at the present time, <span class="sc">air and exercise</span> means penal servitude; in America it is only applied to a short term of imprisonment.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Airing</b>, <i>subs.</i> (racing).—When it is not intended that a horse shall win a race for which it is brought
+to the starting post, it is said to be <span class="sc">out for an airing</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Evening Standard</i>, June 25 (Sir Chas. Russell’s speech in Durham-Chetwynd case).—What he (Sir C. Russell)
+meant was that Sir G. Chetwynd never did anything so gross and vulgar as that [tell
+the jockey to ‘pull’ horses], and that if horses were pulled, that was not the way
+in which in any class of turf society instructions were given. A wink was as good
+as a nod, and trainers and jockeys, from various trivial circumstances, very easily
+gathered whether a particular horse was only <span class="sc">out for an airing</span>, or whether it was on the job.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Air Line</b>, or <b>Air Line Road</b> (American).—<span class="sc">To take the air line</span>; to go direct, and by the shortest route; idiomatically, to avoid circumlocution.
+The origin of this expression is to be found in the straight lines of railway, without
+expensive detours and grades, which in the New World are rendered possible by the
+vast expanses of unbroken level. These lines of railway are called <span class="sc">air line roads</span>, or <span class="sc">straight shoots</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). De Vere remarks that since the number of such roads has increased in the more thickly
+settled parts of the Union, the advantages of direct lines between two great centres
+over others which meander from town to town have become very manifest, and for a few
+years a tendency to build such <span class="sc">air lines</span> has agitated Legislatures, from whom and from financial circles in the States and
+abroad help is asked. These lines not unfrequently run for long distances by the side
+of older lines.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>St. Louis Globe Democrat</i>, Jan. 24. The obese style once admired is now disliked. Many old English authors
+had too much rhetoric for our age. Of one thing we are profoundly convicted, that
+we have no time to spare for superfluities. An author must take the <span class="sc">air line</span> or we will not travel.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Florida Times Union Advertisement</i>, Feb. 11. Ask for tickets <i>viâ</i> Augusta or Atlanta and the Piedmont <span class="sc">air line</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb28">[<a href="#pb28">28</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Air One’s Heels</b>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (popular).—To loiter; to hang about.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Air One’s Vocabulary</b>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old).—To talk for talking’s sake; to show off by one’s talk; ‘to flash the gab.’
+One of the wits of the time of George IV., when asked what was going on in the House
+of Commons answered that Lord Castlereagh was <span class="sc">airing his vocabulary</span>. The term is now rarely heard, but the practice is with us always.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Airy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vulgar).—A corruption of ‘area,’ <i>e.g.</i>, ‘Down the <span class="sc">airy</span> steps.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>A-Jakes.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Ajax</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ajax</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old). <span class="corr" id="xd33e4070" title="Not in source">(</span>Pronounced with both ‘a’s’ long).—The name of this hero furnished many unsavoury puns
+to our ancestors, from its similarity in sound to the two English words, <span class="sc">a jakes</span>. In some of the passages the allusion is rather obscure, as in this:
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1609. <span class="sc">Ben Jonson</span>, <i>Epicœne, or The Silent Woman</i>, iv., 5. A stool were better, sir, of Sir <span class="sc">Ajax</span>, his invention.
+</p>
+<p>It is plainer in Shakspeare:
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <i>Love’s Labour Lost</i>, v., 2. Your lion, that holds his poll-ax, sitting on a close stool, will be given
+to <span class="sc">Ajax</span>.
+</p>
+<p>The cause of all this vein of low wit was, perhaps, Sir John Harrington, who in 1596
+published his celebrated tract called <i>The Metamorphosis of</i> <span class="sc">Ajax</span>, by which he meant <i>the improvement of a jakes</i>, or necessary, by forming it into what we now call a <i>water-closet</i>, of which Sir John was clearly the inventor. For this offence to her delicacy, Queen
+Elizabeth kept him for some time in disgrace. Used directly for a necessary house.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Cotgrave</span>, <i>Eng. Treasury</i>, p. 16. Which (like the glorious <span class="sc">Ajax</span> of Lincoln’s Inne, I saw in London) laps up naught but filth and excrements.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1720. <i>Hosp. of Incurab. Fooles</i>, p. 6. Adoring Sterculio for a god, no lesse unworthily then shamfully constituting
+him a patron and protector of <span class="sc">Ajax</span> and his commodities.
+</p>
+<p>To the above work of Sir J. Harrington, Ben Jonson seems to allude, as a masterpiece
+in its way, when, at the conclusion of a dirty poem, he says,
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1574–1637. <i>On the Famous Voyage</i>, vol. VI., p. 290:
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And I could wish for their eterniz’d sakes, </p>
+<p class="line">My muse had plough’d with his that sung <span class="sc">A-jax</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">The rhyme here proves that the pronunciation of the time was suited to the English
+meaning. Even Camden condescends to play upon this word. Speaking of the French word
+<i>pet</i>, he says,
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1605. <i>Remains</i>, p. 117. Inquire, if you understand it not, of Cloacina’s Chaplains, or such as are
+well read in <span class="sc">Ajax</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jakes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Akerman’s Hotel</b>, <i>subs.</i> (obsolete).—Newgate prison was once so called. The governor’s name was <span class="sc">Akerman</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Akeybo.</b>—A slang phrase used in the following manner:—He beats <span class="sc">akeybo</span>, and <span class="sc">akeybo</span> beat the devil.—<i>Hotten.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>A-la-Mort.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Amort</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Albany Beef</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—The popular name of the flesh of the sturgeon. This, <span class="pageNum" id="pb29">[<a href="#pb29">29</a>]</span>in color and taste, has some resemblance to beef, especially when cut in steaks and
+grilled. Albany is a town on the Hudson River as high as which the fish in question
+is or was to be caught in large numbers, and as a matter of course, it consequently
+formed a not inconsiderable factor in the food supply of the inhabitants—hence the
+term <span class="sc">Albany beef</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Albertopolis</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A nickname formerly given by Londoners to the Kensington Gore district,
+out of compliment to the late Prince Consort. The Albert Hall and the Exhibition buildings
+of 1862, with which Prince Albert was so closely identified, are situated within the
+radius; and the Albert Memorial is hard by.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">E. Yates</span>, <i>Broken to Harness</i>, ch. xxxiii., p. 366 (1877). Mr. Cauthar tripped out of the house, and devoted the
+remainder of the evening to working out a composition for the nutriment of the hair,
+which, under the name of Cauthar’s Crinibus, has an enormous circulation over the
+infant heads of <span class="sc">albertopolis</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Albonized</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (pugilistic).—Whitened. [From L. <i>albus</i>, white.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alderman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A half-crown. This term is explained by Brewer as containing an allusion
+to the fact that an alderman is a kind of half-king, whatever that may mean.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 444. Two shillings and sixpence—<span class="sc">alderman</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A long pipe; also called a <span class="sc">churchwarden</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); in both instances the name is probably an allusion to the <i>penchant</i> these personages had at one time for the long clay.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Fairholt</span>, <i>Tobacco</i> (1876), 173. Such long pipes were reverently termed <span class="sc">alderman</span> in the last age, and irreverently yards of clay in the present one.
+</p>
+<p>3. A turkey; a variant is <span class="sc">an alderman in chains</span>; <i>i.e.</i>, a roast turkey well stuffed and garnished with sausages. The latter are said to
+be emblematical of the gold chain worn by the civic dignitary—what then about the
+stuffing?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1782. <span class="sc">George Parker</span>, <i>Humorous Sketches</i>, p. 31. Nick often eat a roast fowl and sausage with me, which in cant is called
+an <span class="sc">alderman</span>, double slang’d.
+</p>
+<p>4. (thieves’).—<span class="sc">A jemmy</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); sometimes <span class="sc">alderman jemmy</span>. A weightier tool is called a Lord Mayor, whereby it is clear that the criminal classes
+are not without some kind of respect for the city fathers. The tool is used for burglary
+purposes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, May 14, p. 3, col. 7. A complete set of safe-breaking tools had been used and left
+behind, including wedges, an <span class="sc">alderman jemmy</span>, a hammer weighing 14 lbs.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Saturday Review</i>, 15 Dec, p. 719. One side of slang was illustrated by the burglar Casey in a well-known
+case of robbery in the City some years ago, who explained in Court that the big jemmy
+with which iron shutters were prised open was called the ‘<span class="sc">alderman</span>,’ adding, ‘it would never do to be talking about crowbars in the street.’
+</p>
+<p>5. <span class="sc">Blood and guts alderman</span>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—A pompous man; one with a ‘corporation.’ The allusion is to the alleged
+or real over-eating and drinking of <span class="sc">aldermen</span> as a class.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alderman Lushington</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian).—Intoxicating beverages.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alderman’s Pace.</b>—A slow and stately gait, like that of a burly <span class="pageNum" id="pb30">[<a href="#pb30">30</a>]</span>man as aldermen are generally represented. The French have an equivalent phrase, <i lang="fr">pas d’abbé</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aldgate.</b> <span class="sc">A draught on the pump at Aldgate</span>, <i><span class="corr" id="xd33e4331" title="Source: subst.">subs.</span> phr.</i> (commercial).—A bad bill of exchange. A play on the word ‘draught.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alecampane.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Allacompain</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alecie</b>, <b>Alecy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old nonce words) [from <span class="sc">ale</span> + suffix <span class="sc">cie</span> or <span class="sc">cy</span>, as in ‘lunacy’].—The state of being under the influence of ale; drunkenness; also
+balmyness.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">J. Lyly</span>, <i>Mother Bombie</i>, cc. 9. If he had arrested a mare instead of a horse, it had beene a slight oversight,
+but to arrest a man, that hath no likenesse of a horse, is flat lunasie, or <span class="sc">alecie</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ale-Draper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old) [from <span class="sc">ale</span> + <span class="sc">draper</span> as in linen-draper].—A humorous title for an alehouse keeper; probably from the ancient
+custom of measuring ale by the yard. It long survived dialectically, but is now obsolete.
+Synonyms were <span class="sc">rum-cull</span>, and <span class="sc">squirt-quester</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)<span>.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1593. <span class="sc">Henry Chettle</span>, <i>Kinde-Harts Dreame</i>. Two milch maydens that had set up a shoppe of <span class="sc">ale-drapery</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1747. In <i>Parish Register of Scotter, Linc.</i> [Buried], July 8th, Thomas Broughton, Farmer and <span class="sc">Ale Draper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ale-Knight</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old) [from <span class="sc">ale</span> + <span class="sc">knight</span>, used derisively].—A tippler; a boon companion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1575. <i>Eccl. Proc., Chester.</i> [The Vicar of Whalley, Lanc., is charged with being a common dronker and <span class="sc">ale knight</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1654. <span class="sc">Witt’s</span> <i>Recreations</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Come all you brave wights, </p>
+<p class="line">That are dubbed <span class="sc">ale-knights</span> </p>
+<p class="line">Now set out youselves in fight: </p>
+<p class="line">And let them that crack </p>
+<p class="line">In the praises of sack, </p>
+<p class="line">Know malt is of mickle might. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1863–64. <span class="sc">Chambers’</span> <i>Bk. of Days</i>, ii., 597. This man was a regularly dubbed <span class="sc">ale-knight</span>, loved barley wine to the full.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ales</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—The shares in the brewery business of S. Allsopp and Sons, Limited,
+are thus known.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ale Spinner</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old) [from <span class="sc">ale</span> + <span class="sc">spinner</span>, a manufacturer or producer].—A brewer or publican.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alexandra Limp</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The name given to an erstwhile fit of semi-imbecility on the part of ‘Society.’
+The Princess of Wales, through a slight infirmity, walks with a suspicion of lameness,
+and servile imitation of everything pertaining to royalty caused the sudden appearance
+(<i>circa</i> 1860–70) of a crowd of limping petticoated toadies. The craze passed away as suddenly
+as it came. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Grecian bend</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, No. 629. Your own advocacy of the Grecian bend and the <span class="sc">Alexandra limp</span>—both positive and practical imitations of physical affliction. [<span class="sc">h.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alfred David</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—An affidavit—obviously a humorous corruption in pronunciation; also <span class="sc">affidavy</span>; and, by an extended process of curtailment, <span class="sc">davy</span>. All are common colloquialisms among the uneducated classes. <span class="sc">After-davy</span> is likewise occasionally heard, generally in connection with a person <i lang="la">in extremis</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Algerine</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theat.)<span>.</span>—A member of a company who, when ‘the ghost’ cannot be induced to walk, <i>i.e.</i>, when the exchequer is low, and salaries are not paid, <span class="pageNum" id="pb31">[<a href="#pb31">31</a>]</span>‘remonstrates’ with the manager. The term is also used to designate the hard-up borrower
+of petty sums.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alive and Kicking</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—An intensive form of ‘<span class="sc">alive</span>’ in its most colloquial sense of being alert and full of action. In the days of Pierce
+Egan’s <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, <span class="sc">alive</span> partook far more of the nature of slang than now. Sometimes <span class="sc">all alive and kicking</span> is varied by <span class="sc">all alivo</span>; <span class="sc">knowing</span>; <span class="sc">all fly</span>. The allusion is to a child in the womb after quickening.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Globe</i>, Oct. 4, p. 1, col. 3. Next day there appeared a letter from a Mr. Basil Watts Phillips,
+who proclaimed himself as a son of the playwright, and stated, moreover, that his
+mother, the playwright’s widow, as well as another son, named Gordon, were—to use
+a popular phrase—‘alive and kicking.’ Miss Emma, therefore, could hardly be recognised,
+with fairness, as the ‘only living representative of the late Watts Phillips.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Allacompain</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—Forms: <span class="sc">alacompain</span>, <span class="sc">alicumpane</span>, <span class="sc">elecampain</span>, etc. 1. In the so-called rhyming slang this is the equivalent of rain.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common).—Candy supposed to be made from the root of <i lang="la">inula helenium</i> or bellwort; it contains, however, little else than colored sugar.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All A-Float</b><span class="corr" id="xd33e4586" title="Not in source">, subs.</span> (rhyming slang).—A coat.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Alive</b>, <i>adv. and adj.</i> (tailors’).—Ill-made garments, and ‘misfits,’ are said to be <span class="sc">all alive</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Along Of</b> (vulgarism).—On account of; by reason of, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All-a-Mort.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Amort</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Around Sports</b>, <i>sub.</i> (American).—Obviously a corruption of ‘<span class="sc">all round sportsmen</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, men whose interest in sport is catholic, and all embracing.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All at Sea</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—In an uncertain, vague condition. Of nautical origin, and perhaps more
+colloquial than slang; equivalent to <span class="sc">all abroad</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Brandy</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—When it is desired to commend or speak well of anything it is said to be
+<span class="sc">all brandy</span>. The use of such a term suggests curious reflections upon the drinking habits of
+those who employ it.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Synonyms.</span> A1; the pure quill; about east; about right; at par; the cheese.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Dickey.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dickey</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alleviator</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A drink; refreshment.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Mark Lemon</span>, <i>Golden Fetters</i>. If any of you feel thirsty after this exciting interview, I shall be happy to stand
+an <span class="sc">alleviator</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Synonyms.</span> Gargle; smile; Alderman Lushington; long sleeved ’un (Australian, when taken from
+a long glass); shout; etc.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Gargle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alley</b>, <b>Ally</b>, <b>Alay</b>, <i>subs.</i> (schoolboys’ term).—A superior kind of marble. Supposed to be a corrupted and abbreviated
+form of ‘alabaster,’ of which these superior kind of marbles are sometimes made. <span class="sc">Alley</span> is the name given to the medium sizes, smaller ones <span class="pageNum" id="pb32">[<a href="#pb32">32</a>]</span>being called <span class="sc">mivvies</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and the largest <span class="sc">bonces</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). The word sometimes appears as <span class="sc">alley tor</span>, or <span class="sc">alley taw</span>. De Foe, in ‘Duncan Campbell,’ as early as 1720, speaks of a large bag of marbles
+and <span class="sc">alleys</span>, and at that time the term was considered vulgar. It is interesting to note that
+the supposed derivation of <span class="sc">alley</span> from alabaster is borne out by the fact, that among school-boys stone marbles are
+called <span class="sc">stoneys</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and clay ones <span class="sc">commoneys</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Additional weight is also given to the accuracy of this derivation, when it is
+remembered that what are known as ‘<span class="sc">Dutch alleys</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>), are only <span class="sc">stoneys</span> enamelled or glazed different colours. In old Berlin slang, <span class="sc">alley tors</span> were known as <i lang="de">Kalbacher</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All-Fired</b>, <i>adj.</i> <b>All-Firedly</b>, <i>adv.</i> (American).—Thought by most to be a Puritanical corruption of ‘hell-fired,’ and in
+that respect a profane euphemistic adjective. In this connection it carries with it
+the meaning of ‘immense,’ ‘excessive,’ or ‘inordinate’ in general; but, of course,
+the primary signification of this corruption is perfectly obvious. Some, however,
+think the word may be taken at its face value [<span class="sc">all</span> + <span class="sc">fire</span> + <span class="sc">ed</span>.], an intensitive of the merely rhetorical fire. Common now on both sides of the
+Atlantic.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1755. <i>The World</i>, No. 140. How arbitrary is language! and how does the custom of mankind join words,
+that reason has put asunder! Thus we often hear of <span class="sc">hell-fire cold</span>, of devilish handsome, and the like.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>Clockmaker</i>, 1 S., ch. xxiv. ‘Look at that ’ere Dives,’ they say, ‘what an <span class="sc">all-fired</span> scrape he got into by his avarice with Lazarus<span>.</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown at Oxford</i>, ch. xl. ‘I knows I be so <span class="sc">all-fired</span> jealous; I can’t abear to hear o’ her talkin’, let alone writin’ to——’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">James Payn</span>, <i>Thicker than Water</i>, ch. xvii. ‘Well,’ he said … ‘you’ve been an <span class="sc">all-fired</span> time you have in selling those jars.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Fly.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Fly</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Fours.</b> <span class="sc">To go</span> or <span class="sc">be on all fours</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (popular).—From the four legs of a quadruped, or the two legs and two arms of a child
+or man. Hence to go on <span class="sc">all fours</span> is to go evenly, the figure of speech presented being the reverse of limping like
+a lame dog. Thence follows the metaphorical use of the phrase in the sense of exact
+analogy and similarity of relation. It is thus <span class="corr" id="xd33e4831" title="Source: synomyous">synonymous</span> with ‘as like as two peas’ (the French say, <i lang="fr">comme deux gouttes d’eau</i>, as like as two drops of water); ‘a chip of the old block’; a ‘Chinese copy,’ etc.
+At the same time, a show of probability must be conceded to those philologists who
+refer the phrase to the masonic symbol of the square, emblematic of harmony and completeness.
+Possibly masons gave its use a fresh impetus.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Gammon!</b> <i>phr.</i> (common).—All nonsense; rubbish!—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">All my eye</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Gay</b>, <i>adv.</i> (thieves’).—All serene; all right; the coast is clear. The French <i lang="fr">voleur</i> says, <i lang="fr">c’est franco!</i>
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb33">[<a href="#pb33">33</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>All-Get-Out</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—That beats <span class="sc">all-get-out</span>, is an old retort to any extravagant story or assertion. Barrère says, ‘oh, get out!’
+appears to have suggested the phrase, which is, perhaps, not altogether obvious.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Hands to the Pump</b>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old).—An expression borrowed from seafaring life, signifying concentration of energy
+in any one direction. Now-a-days we say, ‘a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether’;
+this also is a sailor’s phrase.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Holiday at Peckham</b>, <i>proverbial phr.</i> (popular).—No work to do; and, as a concomitant, nothing to eat. A play upon words.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Peckish</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> <span class="sc">All holiday at Peckham</span> … a saying signifying that it is all over with the business or person spoken of or
+alluded to.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Forster</span>, <i>Oliver Goldsmith</i>, bk. I., ch. vi., p. 55 (5ed.) ‘Oh, that is <span class="sc">all a holiday at peckham</span>,’ said an old friend very innocently one day, is a common proverbial phrase.
+</p>
+<p>It seems that Goldsmith in the early part of his London life passed some miserable
+months as usher in a school at Peckham, and the memory of this doleful period was
+ever bitter to him<span>.</span> Years afterwards, a friend in conversation happened to speak facetiously of it being
+‘all holiday at Peckham,’ and was surprised to find that this innocent reference to
+a recognised proverbial phrase was regarded by Goldsmith as an unkind allusion to
+his past misery, and, therefore, a personal insult.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Hollow</b>, <i>adv.</i> (popular).—<span class="sc">To beat</span>, or <span class="sc">carry all hollow</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, utterly; completely.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Hot!</b> <i>subs.</i> (common).—A hot potato. A cry used by peripatetic street vendors.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All In</b>, <i>phr.</i> (Stock Exchange).—When the market is depressed and a disposition to sell prevails,
+it is said to be <span class="sc">all in</span>. Conversely, <span class="sc">all out</span> signifies that the market is improving.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All in a Pucker.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Pucker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All in Fits</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (tailors’).—Badly made clothes are said to be <span class="sc">all in fits</span>, or to have a paralytic stroke. Such garments are also said to fit where they touch,
+<i>i.e.</i>, nowhere. Now common.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All jaw.</b> <span class="sc">All jaw like a sheep’s head</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—Said of one who is a great talker; or, who has the gift of the gab.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 41. ‘Look at the man! hear him; why, he’s <span class="sc">all jaw like a sheep’s head</span>. He was drummed out of the regiment he was in for eating his comrades’ knapsacks.’
+</p>
+<p>A synonym is <span class="sc">all mouth</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jaw</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Lombard Street to a China Orange</b>, <i>phr.</i> (old); sometimes <span class="sc">all Lombard Street to ninepence</span>.—One of many fanciful forms of betting once current among the sporting fraternity;
+others were ‘Chelsea College to a sentry box,’ ‘Pompey’s Pillar to a stick of sealing
+wax,’ etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Thomas Moore</span>, <i>Tom Cribb’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 38<span>.</span>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A pause ensued—’till crie of ‘Gregson,’ <span class="pageNum" id="pb34">[<a href="#pb34">34</a>]</span> </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Brought Bob, the poet, on his legs soon,— </p>
+<p class="line"><i>My eyes</i>, how prettily Bob writes! </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Talk of your camels, hogs and crabs, </p>
+<p class="line">And twenty more such <i>Pidcock</i> frights— </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Bob’s worth a hundred of these dabs, </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">All Lombard Street to ninepence</span> on it. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>All Moonshine</b>, <i>adverbial phr.</i> (popular).—Moonshine is in old-fashioned and provincial English ‘an illusive shadow,’
+‘a mere pretence’ [Halliwell]. The expression <span class="sc">it is all moonshine</span> is now variously applied, whether as referring to empty professions, to vain boasts,
+to promises not trustworthy, to questionable statements, or to any kind of extravagant
+talk. There exist in several languages so many words of <i>lunar</i> connection, all implying variableness or inconstancy, that possibly this phrase also,
+<span class="sc">it is all moonshine</span>, may have been primarily employed to express some degree of fickleness, or caprice;
+in allusion to the inconstancy or changeableness of the moon, or rather moonlight.
+When anyone professes or promises great things, which we do not expect to see realized,
+we say <span class="sc">it is all moonshine</span>, for moonshine is very shifty; one week we have it, another we have it not; nay,
+it shifts from night to night. ‘Lunes’ in old English, are not only fits of insanity,
+but freaks. And the term ‘lunatic’ itself did not properly signify a person always
+insane, but one who was mad at intervals, dependent as was supposed on the phases
+of the moon. This distinction is still very accurately maintained in Spanish philology:
+‘Lunatics, <i lang="es">El loco, cuya demencia no est continua, sino por intervalos que proceden del estado
+en que se halla la Luna</i>.’ Hence also in French, modern and old: ‘<i lang="fr">Il a des lunes</i>,’ he is whimsical or fantastic. ‘<i lang="fr">Tenir de la lune</i>,’ to be inconstant, mutable; ‘<i lang="fr">Avoir un quartier de la lune,<span id="xd33e5062"></span> en la teste</i>,’ or <span id="xd33e5065">‘</span><i lang="fr">Il y a de la lune</i>,<span>’</span> he is changeable, giddy, capricious. In the ‘language of symbols’ the moon is the
+emblem of hypocrisy, as in the following device:
+</p>
+<div lang="fr" class="lgouter">
+<p class="line">‘La lune avec ces mots, </p>
+<p class="line">Mentiri didicit. </p>
+<p class="line">(Elle trompe toujours.) </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">Pour l’hypocrisie, dont la lune est le symbole.’ <span class="sc">Menestriar</span>, <i lang="fr">Philosophie des Images</i>, vol. I., p. 266.
+</p>
+<p>Another emblem is the following:
+</p>
+<div lang="fr" class="lgouter">
+<p class="line xd33e5086">‘La lune, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5088">Non vultus non color unus, </p>
+<p class="line">Pour une personne qui n’est pas sincère.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first right"><i>Ibid</i>, I., p. 269.
+</p>
+<p>Moonshine, in conformity with these ideas, was probably employed originally in characterising
+the talk of persons too mutable to be relied on from one time to another.—<i>Notes and Queries.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 597. Several of my correspondents have been pleased to send me an account how
+they have been employed in sleep, and what notable adventure they have been engaged
+in during that <span class="sc">moonshine in the brain</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">Mrs. H. Wood</span>, <i>Johnny Ludlow</i>, 1 S., No. xxii., p. 397. ‘They are all pig-headed together … they are blinded by
+specious arguments that will turn out, I fear, to be <span class="sc">all moonshine</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Mouth</b>, <i>adv.</i> (common).—Applied to a loquacious talker. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">All jaw</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All My Eye</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—Variations in form are: <span class="sc">all my eye and Betty Martin</span>—<span class="sc">my elbow</span>—<span class="sc">Tommy</span>—and <span class="sc">my <span class="pageNum" id="pb35">[<a href="#pb35">35</a>]</span>grandmother</span>. All nonsense; rubbish. The suggested derivations of this significant retort to a
+tedious narration containing neither rhyme nor reason are as various as the forms
+in which the phrase appears. Not so clear, however, is the evidence in support of
+any of them, although Barrère unwittingly stumbles upon what is probably the true
+origin. Had he studied the subject of slang historically, he would have been able
+to adduce adequate proof for what he merely puts forth as a ‘more probable’ derivation
+than those of his predecessors. After stating that some have suggested the origin
+of the phrase in the Welsh, <span class="sc">al mi hivy</span>, it is very tedious or all nonsense, he says, ‘It seems far more probable that it
+is a contraction of the phrase ‘there is as much of it as there is in <span class="sc">all my eye</span>,’ the words being made more forcible by closing one of the organs of vision. To express
+dissent from any statement, or a refusal to comply with a request. French slang has
+the corresponding term <i lang="fr">mon œil!</i> which is usually accompanied by a knowing wink and a significant gesture as an invitation
+to inspect the organ.’ From a comparative study of the dates and examples which follow,
+it seems a fair deduction to assume that the original form of the phrase was simply
+<span class="sc">all my eye</span>, and that the additional tags given above are later importations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1653. <span class="sc">Archbishop Bramhall</span>, <i>Answer to the Epistle of M. de la Milletière</i> [Works, vol. I., pp. 68–9. ed. Ox. 1842.] Fifthly, suppose (all this notwithstanding)
+such a conference should hold, what reason have you to promise to yourself such success
+as to obtain so easy a victory? You have had conferences and conferences again at
+Poissy and other places, and gained by them just as much as you might <span class="sc">put in your eye</span> and see never the worse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1682. <i>Preface to Julian the Apostate</i> (London, printed for Langley Curtis). What benefit a Popish successor can reap from
+lives and fortunes spent in defence of the Protestant religion he may <span class="sc">put in his eye</span>; and what the Protestant religion gets by lives and fortunes spent in the service
+of a Popish successor will be over the left shoulder.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1768. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Good-natured Man</i>, Act iii. <i>Bailiff.</i> That’s <span class="sc">all my eye</span>. The king only can pardon.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <span class="sc">Poole</span>, <i>Hamlet Travestied</i>, i, 1. As for black clothes,—<span class="sc">that’s all my eye and Tommy</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Hotten’s contention, that <span class="sc">all my eye and Betty Martin</span> was a vulgar phrase constructed from the commencement of a Roman Catholic prayer
+to St. Martin (the patron saint of drunkards), ‘<i>Oh, mihi, beate Martine</i>,’ which in common with many another fell into discredit and ridicule after the Reformation,
+is both fanciful and untrue. In the first place there is no prayer in the Breviary
+which answers to the description given; and in the second it has been shown that the
+essential part of the phrase is very much older than the Joe Millerism which first
+set the copy for every lexicographer of the ‘unwritten word,’ from Hotten down to
+Brewer and Barrère, the latter of whom, strangely enough, after pitching on the right
+track, stultifies himself by an admission that <span class="sc">all my eye and Betty Martin</span> seems to have been the original phrase. The earliest example of the ‘Betty Martin’
+form, found after <span class="pageNum" id="pb36">[<a href="#pb36">36</a>]</span>long search, occurs in <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, published in 1819, where it appears simply as <span class="sc">all my eye, Betty</span>, but that the phrase was known long previously is proved by the extract from Poole
+quoted above.
+</p>
+<p>Among <span class="sc">English Synonyms</span> of refusal or incredulity, are: Cock and bull story; a wild-goose chase; a mare’s
+nest; fiddle-de-dee; do you see any green in my eye? that’s a flam; over the left;
+go teach your grannie to suck eggs; Walker! you be blowed! You be hanged! Not for
+Joe! How’s your brother, Job? Don’t you wish you may get it? Yes, in a horn (American);
+That’s all round my hat.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Fr.</span> <i lang="fr">Des fadeurs</i> (lit. insipidity); <i lang="fr">C’est des vannes?</i> (lit. floodgates or sluices); <i lang="fr">des nèfles</i> (lit. medlars); <i lang="fr">des navets!</i> (turnips); <i lang="fr">de l’anis!</i> (lit. aniseed); <i lang="fr">du flan!</i> (lit. custard); <i lang="fr">tu t’en ferais mourir!</i> (lit. you will die after it); <i lang="fr">mon œil!</i> (my eye); <i lang="fr">flûte! Zut!</i> (go to the deuce!); <i lang="fr">et ta sœur?</i> (phrase of the ‘who’s your hatter’ stamp); <i lang="fr">des plis!</i> (don’t you wish you may get it); <i lang="fr">la peau!</i> (blow it all!); <i lang="fr">de la mousse!</i> (expression of ironical refusal); <i lang="fr">du vent!</i> (go to pot!); <i lang="fr">des emblèmes!</i>; <i lang="fr">des fouilles!</i>; <i lang="fr">on t’en fricasse!</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Nations</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A mixture of the drainings of all kinds of spirits and malt liquors; it
+is of an extremely intoxicating character. Sometimes called <span class="sc">alls</span>, or <span class="sc">all sorts</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A parti-colored dress or coat; a Joseph’s garment. Also one that is patched.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All-Night-Man</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A body snatcher. Now obsolete.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Ramsay</span>, <i>Remin</i>, ser. ii., 133. The body lifters, or <span class="sc">all-night-men</span>, as they were wont to be called.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All of a Heap.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Heap</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All of a Hough</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (tailors’).—Said of an unskilled workman. Equivalent to clumsy; bungling; unworkmanlike.
+Hotten quotes this as a Suffolk phrase (<span class="sc">hough</span> being spelt <i>hugh</i>, and pronounced with a grunt). Synonymous with ‘all on one side’; falling with a
+thump.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All of my Lone</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (American).—A negro vulgarism for ‘<span class="sc">alone</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All on the Go</b> (vulgarism).—<i>See</i> Go.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Out</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (vulgar).—1. Entirely; completely; by far, as in ‘<span class="sc">all out</span> the best.’ This vulgarism must now be classed among depraved words; but as far as
+written English is concerned, it can be traced back to the year 1300. It seems to
+have fallen out of use about the middle of the seventeenth century.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">Carleton</span>, <i>Traits and Stories</i>, vol. II., p. 102. ‘He’s now in his grave, and, thank God, it’s he that had the dacent
+funeral <span class="sc">all out</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>2. Another old English expression, now obsolete, is <span class="sc">to drink all out</span>, to empty a bumper; and hence,—
+</p>
+<p>3. Used substantively, <i>e.g.</i>, an <span class="sc">all out</span> being equivalent to what ’Arry would call now-a-days a <span class="sc">big drunk</span>. The connection between the ancient and modern usage is clear.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb37">[<a href="#pb37">37</a>]</span></p>
+<p>4. <span class="sc">To be all out</span> also signifies to be in error; quite wrong.
+</p>
+<p>5. (turf).—A man is said to be <span class="sc">all out</span> when unsuccessful during the whole of a day’s racing.
+</p>
+<p>6. (Stock Exchange).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">All in</span>.
+</p>
+<p>7. (athletic).—Exhausted; said of a man or crew who, having exerted him or themselves
+to the utmost, can do no more.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Graphic</i>, April 10, p. 392. Pitman the Cambridge stroke, after passing the ‘Queen’s Head,’
+Mortlake, put on a grand spurt, to which his crew fairly responded, though pretty
+well <span class="sc">all out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All-Overish</b>, <i>adj.</i> (colloquial). An indefinite feeling which pervades the body at critical periods,
+when sickening for an illness, or at a moment of supreme excitement, as when about
+to ‘pop the question’ which, says Hotten, ‘is sometimes called feeling all over alike,
+and touching nowhere.’ Synonyms are ‘to feel all round one’s hat,’ and ‘chippy.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. III., p. 52. ‘When the mob began to gather round, I felt <span class="sc">all-overish</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All-Overishness</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—The state of being all-overish.—<i>See</i> foregoing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Ainsworth</span>, <i>Flitch of Bacon</i>, pt. II., ch. v. ‘I feel a sort of shivering and <span class="sc">all-overishness</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <span class="sc">John Mills</span>, <i>Old English Gentleman</i>, ch. xxiv., p. 186 (3 ed.). ‘Isn’t it natural for a body to feel a sort of a queer
+<span class="sc">all-overishness</span> on the eve of a wedding, I should like to know?’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All over Pattern</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common). Used in describing patterns that are intricate, or designs in which the
+pattern is not of a set character.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Hulme.</span> <i>Suggestions in Floral Design.</i> A term [<span class="sc">all over pattern</span>] used to denote a design in which the whole of a field is covered with ornament in
+contradistinction to such as have units only at intervals, leaving spaces of the ground
+between them. The ornament of the Moors as seen in the decorations of the Alhambra,
+and that of Eastern nations generally, is most commonly of this nature; the whole
+surface of the object is covered with decorative forms so as to present to the eye
+a mass of elaborate detail, the leading lines of which can often only be detected
+by careful scrutiny. When, as in some Persian surfaces, these lines are often quite
+lost, the result is unsatisfactory.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Over the Shop</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—1. A phrase applied to any ubiquitous person, thing or deed.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Shop</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>Lifeboat, etc.</i> (<i>Awful Character</i>). He kills little babies <span class="sc">all over the shop</span>, each day in a river one thrown is.
+</p>
+<p>2. Disconcerted.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;E. Money</span>, <i>Little Dutch Maiden</i>, II., xi., 225. ‘Oh, please don’t blush; it makes me feel <span class="sc">all over the shop</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Allow</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Harrow School).—A boy’s weekly allowance.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Allowances</b>, <i>subs.</i> (tailors’).—The extra measure in cutting cloth for a garment to permit of turnings
+in for seams; also the trimmings, such as wadding, buttons, braid, etc. Rather technical
+than slang.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Round</b>, <i>adj.</i> (popular).—1. Able in all departments; adaptable in every respect to the purpose
+in view. Whether applied to sport, business, or indeed any department of life or thought,
+within a <span class="pageNum" id="pb38">[<a href="#pb38">38</a>]</span>given circle, it carries with it, <i lang="la">mutatis mutandis</i>, the same meaning. <i>Cf.</i> <span class="sc">All around sports</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">James Payn</span>, <i>Grape from a Thorn</i>, ch. xl. ‘He’s a bad one <span class="sc">all round</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Graphic</i>, August 11, p. 138, col. 2. Foremost still as an ‘<span class="sc">all-round</span>’ cricketer among the gentlemen stands W.&nbsp;G. Grace.
+</p>
+<p>2. Average; <i>see</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <i>Notes on N.&nbsp;W. Prov. India</i>, p. 98. We find an <span class="sc">all round</span> rent of so much per acre charged on the cultivation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All-Rounder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular). [From <span class="sc">all round</span> + er] he who or that which is <span class="sc">all round</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); as an all round man; particularly applied, however, to a shirt collar the same
+height all round the neck and meeting in front. Once fashionable, but little worn
+now.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>Three Clerks</i>, ch. xxii. But he had bestowed, perhaps, the greatest amount of personal attention
+on his collar.… Some people may think that an <span class="sc">all-rounder</span> is an <span class="sc">all-rounder</span>, and that if one is careful to get an <span class="sc">all-rounder</span> one has done all that is necessary. But so thought not Macassar Jones.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <i>All the Year Round</i>, No. 42, 369. That particularly demonstrative type of the [collar] species known
+as the <span class="sc">all rounder</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">Lord Strangford</span>, <i>Selection</i> (1869), II., 163. Dressed in full uniform, with high stand-up collar; the modern
+<span class="sc">all rounder</span> not having got so far into Asia. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, No. 586. To present himself in an <span class="sc">all rounder</span> hat and coat of formal cut on Sunday.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Round my Hat</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—1. <span class="sc">To feel all round one’s hat</span> is to feel queer; out of sorts; all overish.
+</p>
+<p>2. <span class="sc">That’s all round my hat</span> is synonymous with gammon! Nonsense! <i>See</i> <span class="sc">All my eye</span>. A music hall song [1834] had this phrase as a refrain.
+</p>
+<p>3. <span class="sc">Spicy as all round my hat</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, sensational.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, vol. LXXXII, p. 177, col. 1. <span class="sc">’Arry on a jewry.</span>
+</p>
+<p>Fact is, I have bin on a <span class="sc">Jury</span>. New line for yours truly, dear boy, and I ’oped it might be a rare barney, a thing
+as a chap could enjoy. I am nuts upon Criminal Cases, Perlice News, you know, and
+all that, And, thinks I, this will be ‘tuppence coloured,’ and <span class="sc">spicy as all round my hat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alls</b>, <i>subs.</i>—1. <i>See</i> <span class="sc">All nations</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, s.v. <span class="sc">alls</span>, tap-droppings. The refuse of all sorts of spirits drained from the glasses, or spilt
+in drawing. The mixture is sold in gin-houses at a cheap rate.
+</p>
+<p>2. (artisans’).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bens</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All’s Blue.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Serene!</b> <i>intj.</i> (popular).—All right. All’s well! This phrase is thought to be of Spanish origin,
+and to be derived from the word <i>serena</i> a countersign used by sentinels in Cuba. The night watchmen in Spain likewise end
+their proclamation of the hour by ‘<i lang="es">é sereno!</i>’ It is also equivalent to O.K., and a few years since was the burden of one of the
+senseless street cries, which, every now and again, have a vogue in large cities.
+Most of these catches originate in music-hall songs. <span class="sc">All serene</span>, however, was vulgarly colloquial long before the period in question, as will be
+seen by the following example:
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>Three Clerks</i>, ch. xlv. ‘You’re <span class="sc">all serene</span>, then, Mr. Snape,’ said Charley; ‘you’re in the right bon.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb39">[<a href="#pb39">39</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Smoke, Gammon and Pickles.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Smoke</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Sorts</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Explained by quotation.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">All nations</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Gaslight and Daylight</i>, ch. vi. A counter perforated in elaborately-pricked patterns, like a convivial shroud,
+apparently for ornament, but really for the purpose of allowing the drainings, overflowings,
+and out-spillings of the gin-glasses to drop through, which, being collected with
+sundry washings, and a dash, perhaps, of fresh material, is, by the thrifty landlord,
+dispensed to his customers under the title Of <span class="sc">all sorts</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Sorts of</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American).—First rate; excellent. A phrase very common in the South and West, and
+used in many different ways. It carries with it the idea of smartness and <i>chic</i>, as, <i>e.g.</i>, when applied to a woman, a horse, or a building.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Allspice</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular<span class="corr" id="xd33e5767" title="Source: .)">).</span>—A nickname for a grocer; the derivation is obvious.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All’s Quiet on the Potomac</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A period of undisturbed rest, quiet enjoyment, or peaceful possession;
+a phrase dating from the Civil War, when its frequent repetition in the bulletins
+of the War Secretary made it familiar to the public, who quickly appropriated it in
+a metaphorical sense. It has since formed the refrain of many a song.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>The Picket Guard.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">All quiet along the Potomac</span>, they say, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Except now and then a stray picket </p>
+<p class="line">Is shot on his beat as he walks to and fro, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">By a rifleman hid in a thicket. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>All T. H.</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (tailors cutters’).—Said in praise or approval; a tailor’s equivalent of <span class="sc">a 1</span>; all right; all there—of which last it is possibly an abbreviated form.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All the Caboose</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Caboose</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All the Go</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—One of the innumerable superlatives of work-a-day English; quite up to
+the mark; in full demand; ‘no deception, gents!’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Go</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All There</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—Up to the mark; first-rate; ready for any emergency; a phrase of general
+satisfaction and approval; also, in one’s element.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iii., p. 220. ‘He stayed in a place doing the grand and sucking the flats till
+the folks began to smoke him as not <span class="sc">all there</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch</i>, Aug. 7, p. 59. <span class="sc">All there!</span> <i>Clerk</i> (<i>who has called to see the gas-meter</i>). ‘Is yours a <i>wet</i>, or a <i>dry</i> meter, madam?’ <i>Young Wife</i> (<i>who does not like to show ignorance</i>). ‘Well, it <i>is</i> rather <i>damp</i>, I’m afraid!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <b>James Payn</b>, <i>Thicker than Water</i>, ch. xx. It was his excusable boast, though expressed in somewhat vulgar language,
+that when anything was wanted he was ‘<span class="sc">all there</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All the Shoot.</b>—Equivalent to ‘<span class="sc">the whole boiling</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All the Way Down</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—Synonymous with complete <span class="corr" id="xd33e5884" title="Source: adaptibility">adaptability</span> to the end in view; sometimes varied by ‘<span class="sc">up to the knocker</span>,’ or ‘<span class="sc">up to the nines</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All to His Own Cheek.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cheek</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All to Pieces</b>, <i>adverbial phr.</i> (common).—1. [<i>Cf.</i> <span class="sc">Go to pieces</span>.] <span class="pageNum" id="pb40">[<a href="#pb40">40</a>]</span>A superlative of all work. <span class="sc">To go all to pieces</span> is to collapse utterly; to be altogether ruined; to be in a state of utter collapse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1667. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, Aug. 29. I find by all hands that the Court is at this day <span class="sc">all to pieces</span>, every man of a faction of one sort or other.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <span class="sc">Jane Austen</span>, <i>Sense and S.</i>, ch. xxx. ‘Fifty thousand pounds! and by all accounts it won’t come before its wanted;
+for they say he is <span class="sc">all to pieces</span>. No wonder! dashing about with his curricle and hunters!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, LXXXII., 185, 2. ‘Ah Jerry, we might as well go back to the Shades as be among such
+a shady crowd.’ Young Bob Logic seemed rather nettled at this speech of the Corinthian’s,
+and said, ‘Well, don’t you know you can’t expect a fellow to look very bright till
+he’s had an S. and B., or two and a Kümmel? These pals will be all right after dinner.’
+‘Let us hope they will,’ said the Corinthian, ‘for they look <span class="sc">all to pieces now</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>2. When a woman is confined she is said <span class="sc">to go all to pieces</span>; variants being <span class="sc">to explode</span>; <span class="sc">to bust up</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (rowing).—Collapsed; exhausted; said of a crew when rowing wildly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Echo</i>, April 7, p. 3, col. 1. The Oxford men were now <span class="sc">all to pieces</span>! their boat was full of water.
+</p>
+<p>4. (sporting).—In racing and athletic circles equivalent to want of form.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All to Smash</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—Also ‘<span class="sc">all to pieces</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, bankrupt; ruined; in a state of utter delapidation; or, complete discomfiture.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Smash</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Cuthbert Bede</span>, <i>Our New Rector</i>, ch. x., p. 105. ‘There isn’t a fellow at school can match <i>me</i>, Miss Moore! I beat them <span class="sc">all to smash</span>!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Up</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—‘It’s <span class="sc">all up</span>’ with so-and-so, or with such and such a thing, or course of action; <i>i.e.</i>, the endeavour is fruitless; utter ruin or collapse is the end of it all; there is
+nothing left for hope; sometimes also, death. This phrase, indicative of total failure,
+discomfiture, and destruction, does not appear to be of very ancient standing, and
+can only be traced back as far as Fielding (<i>see</i> quotation). The mock epitaph, which the late Mr. W.&nbsp;J. Conybeare inserted in his
+novel <i>Perversion</i>, fitly illustrates the popular usage of <span class="sc">all up</span>. It is supposed to be written in commemoration of a country squire cut off in the
+midst of festivities.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p class="line">‘Quite well at ten, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Had a few friends to sup with me; </p>
+<p class="line">Taken ill at twelve, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And at one it was <span class="sc">all up</span> with me.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">Also <span class="sc">Up</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Among <span class="sc">English Synonyms</span> may be mentioned:—To have missed stays (nautical); to have gone to pot; to have gone
+to smash; to have gone to the devil.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Amelia</i>, book XII., ch. vi. ‘<span class="sc">All is up</span> and undone!’ cries Murphy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>, ch. lx. A-double l, all, everything; a cobbler’s weapon; u-p, up, adjective, not
+down; s-q-u-double e-r-s, Squeers, noun substantive, a educator of youth. Total, <span class="sc">all up</span> with Squeers.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Allus</b>, <i>adv.</i> (vulgar).—Always.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>All Wag Blue</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—A frolicing, rollicking time; a spree; a kick-up.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Allybeg.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Llybege</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Almighty</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Mighty; great; exceedingly—a superlative <span class="pageNum" id="pb41">[<a href="#pb41">41</a>]</span>of all work. For example, in the ‘dialect’ of which this word is a component part,
+an over-officious man is put down as ‘<span class="sc">almighty</span> fast’; or a horse with good points as an ‘<span class="sc">almighty</span> fine beast’; and so on throughout the whole range of superlative merit. It ranks
+with ‘awful,’ ‘eternal,’ ‘everlasting,’ ‘lovely,’ and a multitude of other words,
+orthodox enough when properly handled, but which become the purest slang when used,
+as is frequently the case, of things finite, and even of trifles. So employed, <span class="sc">almighty</span> is generally regarded as an Americanism, and is credited to our kinsmen across the
+sea, a view supported by De Quincey’s use of the term. If this be so, there is, in
+truth, little at which to wonder. The ‘wild,’ the boundless West is no unlikely nursery
+for big, high-sounding words; and though one may justly condemn such depravation of
+our mother-tongue, the fact remains. Thus, amongst the untutored backwoodsmen and
+rough pioneers of the West a week is an ‘eternal’ time; a good officer is an <span class="sc">almighty</span> general; and a spell of rain is spoken of as an ‘everlasting’ deluge. The foregoing
+examples by no means exhaust the potentialities of the language; as, <i>e.g.</i>, when people talk of a man playing <span class="sc">almighty</span> ‘smash’ with his prospects, meaning that he is hopelessly ruining his chances of
+success: or driving a fellow-citizen into a state of <span class="sc">almighty</span> ‘shivers’ through ill-treatment; or of a thing lasting till <span class="sc">almighty</span> ‘crack,’ <i>i.e.</i>, for an interminable period.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <span class="sc">De Quincey</span>, <i>Works</i> (1871), XVI., 261. Such rubbish, such <span class="sc">almighty</span> nonsense (to speak <i>transatlantice</i>) no eye has ever beheld.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Peter Simple</i> (1863), 328. An <span class="sc">almighty</span> pretty French privateer lying in St. Pierre’s.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Mercury</i>, July 21. ‘This is a rum world,’ said the driver, with a chuckle, as he drove up
+the street. ‘And of all places in it New York is the rummest. And hack-drivin’ is
+the rummest business, leadin’ one into the rummest secrets. Another passenger to the
+“Rookery.” I wonder whether the other boys gits as many customers to that place as
+Luke Hyatt? If they do it must be <span class="sc">almighty</span> full sometimes.’
+</p>
+<p>In another place De Quincey speaks of a man who cannot live and cannot die as being
+‘in an <span class="sc">almighty</span> fix,’ and the expression is otherwise frequently used by him. Captain Marryat likewise
+constantly employs it; in fact, the phrase was well ‘acclimatised’ on this side of
+the Atlantic long prior to the publication of <i>My Novel</i> [1853], and Prof. Barrère, in attributing its popularisation ‘in a certain measure’
+to Lord Lytton, failed to render due credit, if any, either to De Quincey or Marryat.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Almighty Dollar</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—The power of money; Mammon regarded as an embodiment of the worship of,
+and the quest for gold. This phrase is, in reality, an old friend with a new face,
+for Ben Jonson used the term in its modern sense when speaking of the power of money.
+Its modern application to dollars is traceable to Washington Irving, who made use
+of it in a charming little sketch, entitled <i>A Creole Village</i>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb42">[<a href="#pb42">42</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1574–1637. <span class="sc">Ben Jonson</span>, <i>Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold, </p>
+<p class="line">And almost every vice, <span class="sc">almightie</span> gold. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1839. <span class="sc">Washington Irving</span>, <i>Wolfert’s Roost: A Creole Village</i>, p. 40. The <span class="sc">almighty dollar</span>, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine
+devotee in these peculiar villages.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Golden Butterfly</i>, ch. xxii. ‘Genius, gentlemen, is apt to be careless of the main chance. It don’t
+care for the <span class="sc">almighty dollar</span>; it lets fellows like me heap up the stamps.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">G. Sutherland</span>, <i>Australia</i>, p. 102. The travelling Yankee, with an overwearing confidence in the <span class="sc">almighty dollar</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aloft.</b> <span class="sc">To go aloft</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (common).—To die; the figure of speech presented here is nautical in origin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1790. <span class="sc">C. Dibdin</span>, <i>Sea Songs: Tom Bowling</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Here a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">The darling of our crew; </p>
+<p class="line">No more he’ll hear the tempest howling, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">For death has broached him to. </p>
+<p class="line">His form was of the manliest beauty, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">His heart was kind and soft; </p>
+<p class="line">Faithful below, Tom did his duty, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And now he’s <span class="sc">gone aloft</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">Few expressions synonymous with the act of dying equal this in force or pathos; and
+it is rarely, moreover, that slang climbs on the wings of hope into a purer atmosphere
+than that of the vices and follies of men with which it is mainly concerned. By no
+means few in number, nor wanting in sententiousness and dramatic meaning are the phrases
+employed in the vulgar tongue to signify the greatest of all human experiences.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> To kick the bucket; to hop the twig; to go to Davy Jones’ locker (nautical); to be
+put to bed with a shovel; to take an earth bath; to croak; to take a ground sweat;
+to go under (American: the visible disposal of the body furnishing a simile for the
+process of death); to go up (compare with foregoing: when the victim of lynch law
+is enquired after the questioner is told that he has ‘gone up,’ <i>i.e.</i>, been hanged); to lose the number of one’s mess (a sailor’s phrase); to snuff it
+(from snuffing a candle); to lay down one’s knife and fork; to stick one’s spoon in
+the wall; to give in; to give up; to peg out; to slip one’s cable (this, like ‘to
+go to Davy Jones’ locker,’ is of nautical origin); to pass in one’s checks (a euphemism
+drawn from the game of poker, the simile being that of settling one’s earthly accounts
+and the paying in to the banker of the dues at the end of the game); Kickeraboo (West
+Indian: a corruption of ‘to kick the bucket’).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French.</span> <i lang="fr">Passer l’arme à gauche</i> (popular: ‘to lay down one’s arms’); <i lang="fr">casser sa pipe</i> (lit. ‘to break one’s pipe’); <i lang="fr">dévisser</i> or <i lang="fr">décoller son billard</i> (lit. ‘to break one’s cue’); <i lang="fr">graisser ses bottes</i> (lit. ‘to grease one’s boots’); <i lang="fr">avaler sa langue</i> (lit. ‘to swallow one’s tongue’); <i lang="fr">avaler sa gaffe</i> (‘to lower one’s boat-hook’); <i lang="fr">avaler sa cuiller</i> (lit. ‘to lay down one’s spoon’); <i lang="fr">avaler ses baguettes</i> (military: lit. ‘to lay aside one’s drum-sticks’); <i lang="fr">n’avoir plus mal aux dents</i> (lit. ‘to have toothache no more.’ In Fr. Argot <i lang="fr">mal de dents</i> is also synonymous with love); <i lang="fr">poser sa chique</i> (popular: lit. ‘to lay down one’s finish, elegance, dash, spirit’—in short all that
+is distinctive in a man); <i lang="fr">claquer</i> (familiar: lit. ‘to chatter <span class="pageNum" id="pb43">[<a href="#pb43">43</a>]</span>with cold’ or ‘fear’); <i lang="fr">saluer le public</i> (theat.: lit. ‘to make one’s bow’—to make one’s last appearance on this world’s stage,
+and one’s first in that land where ‘the dead are many, and the living few’); <i lang="fr">recevoir son décompte</i> (military: lit. ‘to receive deferred pay’; <i lang="fr">décompte</i> is also military slang for a ‘mortal wound’); <i lang="fr">cracher ses embouchures</i> (an expression of musical origin: the figure is obviously that of losing the power
+to perform on wind instruments<span id="xd33e6299"></span>); <i lang="fr">déteindre</i> (popular: lit. ‘to wash off the colour’ or ‘dye.’ Is this a play upon words, or an
+allusion to death as the great revealer of man as he is?); <i lang="fr">donner son dernier bon à tirer</i> (familiar: equivalent to the American, ‘to pass in one’s checks.’ French printers
+understand by this phrase ‘to send the last proofs to press’); <i lang="fr">lâcher la perche</i> (popular: lit. ‘to slip off one’s perch’); <i lang="fr">éteindre son gaz</i> (popular: ‘to turn off the gas.’ Cf., ‘to snuff it’); <i lang="fr">épointer son foret</i> (popular: lit. ‘to break off the point of the drill,’ as in boring); <i lang="fr">être exproprié</i> (popular: lit. ‘to be dispossessed’; <i lang="fr">exproprier</i> is a <span class="corr" id="xd33e6323" title="Source: judical">judicial</span> term signifying ‘to take possession of the landed property of a debtor’); <i lang="fr">péter son lof</i> (sailors’); <i lang="fr">fumer ses terres</i>; <i lang="fr">fermer son parapluie</i> (popular: ‘to close one’s umbrella’); <i lang="fr">perdre son bâton</i> (popular: ‘to lose one’s walking stick’); <i lang="fr">descendre la garde</i> (popular: ‘to come off guard’); <i lang="fr">défiler la parade</i> (military: ‘to file off parade’; equivalent to the English ‘to lose the number of
+one’s mess’); <i lang="fr">tourner de l’œil</i> (popular: is there not here an allusion to the phenomenon attendant on genuine sleep;
+feigned sleep can always be detected by turning up the eyelids of the sleeper, if
+sleep be genuine only the ‘whites’ of the eyes will be discoverable); <i lang="fr">perdre le goût du pain</i> (popular: ‘to lose one’s taste for bread’); <i lang="fr">lâcher la rampe</i> (theatrical: ‘to lose sight of the footlights’); <i lang="fr">faire ses petits paquets</i> (popular: ‘to pack up one’s [small] traps’); <i lang="fr">casser son crachoir</i> (popular: lit. ‘to break one’s spittoon’ or mouth); <i lang="fr">remercier son boulanger</i> (thieves’: lit. ‘to thank the baker.’ It must be explained that <i lang="fr">boulanger</i> baker is a French nickname for the devil); <i lang="fr">canner</i>; <i lang="fr">dévider à l’estorgue</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">baiser la camarde</i> (popular: ‘to salute,’ or ‘kiss Death’; <i lang="fr">camarde</i> is a popular euphemism for the ‘Messenger of Life’); camarder (popular: <i>see</i> previous example); <i lang="fr">fuir</i> (thieves’: lit. ‘to fly’ or ‘escape’—from justice or capture); <i lang="fr">casser son câble</i> (popular: ‘to slip the cable’—evidently a simile drawn from the sea); <i lang="fr">casser son fouet</i> (popular: ‘to break’ or ‘lay aside one’s whip’); <i lang="fr">faire sa crevaison</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">crever</i>, ‘to kill’ or ‘die’ is usually only employed in speaking of animals); <i lang="fr">déralinguer</i> (sailors’: properly ‘to detach from the bolt rope’); <i lang="fr">virer de bord</i> (sailors’: lit. ‘to tack about’); <i lang="fr">déchirer son faux-col</i> (popular: <i>verbatim</i>, ‘to burst open one’s collar’—the allusion is obvious); <i lang="fr">se dégeler</i> (in good French, ‘to thaw’); <i lang="fr">couper sa mèche</i> (coachman’s: ‘to throw down the whip’); <i lang="fr">piquer sa plaque</i> (sailors’); <i lang="fr">mettre la table pour les asticots</i> (popular: properly ‘to lay the table [become food] for worms’); <span class="pageNum" id="pb44">[<a href="#pb44">44</a>]</span><i lang="fr">aller manger les pissenlits par la racine</i> (popular: <span id="xd33e6427">‘</span>to go and feed off dandelion roots’—observe, by the way, that <i>pissenlit</i> is an exact equivalent for one of the English field names of the dandelion, viz.,
+‘piddle-the-bed’); <i lang="fr">laisser fuir son tonneau</i> (familiar: lit. ‘to let fly’ or ‘kick away the cask.’ <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to kick the bucket’); <i lang="fr">calancher</i> (vagrants’); <i lang="fr">laisser ses bottes quelque part</i> (familiar: lit. ‘to leave one’s boots somewhere’); <i lang="fr">déchirer son habit</i> (popular: properly ‘to rend’ or ‘cast aside one’s coat’); <i lang="fr">déchirer son tablier</i> (popular: in literary French this means, ‘to throw aside or destroy one’s apron’);
+<i lang="fr">souffler sa veilleuse</i> (popular: meaning lit. ‘to blow out one’s nightlamp’ or ‘floating wick.’ Compare
+with ‘to snuff it’ or ‘to put out one’s light’ in English slang); <i lang="fr">pousser le boum de cygne</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">avoir son coke</i> (familiar); <i lang="fr">prendre sa secousse</i> (popular: <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to take one’s blow’ or ‘shock’); <i lang="fr">rendre sa buche</i> (tailors’: the allusion is an obvious one); <i lang="fr">rendre sa canne au ministre</i> (military: lit. ‘to resign one’s commission to the Minister [of War]<span class="corr" id="xd33e6470" title="Not in source">’)</span>; <i lang="fr">rendre sa clef</i> (gypsy: lit. ‘to give up the key’); <i lang="fr">rendre son livret</i> (popular: lit. ‘to throw up one’s cards’).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms.</span> See <span class="sc">Hop the twig</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Fourbesque.</span> <i lang="it">Sbasire</i> (lit. ‘to faint away’); <i lang="it">sbasire su le funi</i> (lit. ‘to faint away on the rope’).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alone</b>, <i>adv.</i> (old).—In the flash vocabulary of the time of Pierce Egan’s <i>Tom and Jerry</i> [<i>circa</i> 1800–1825], only an experienced man of the world could be allowed to go <span class="sc">alone</span>. Such a one was said to be <span class="sc">fly</span>; <span class="sc">up to snuff</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Along Of</b>, <i>adv.</i> (vulgar).—A dialectical form for on account of; owing to; pertaining, or belonging
+to. Formerly <span class="sc">along on</span>, and it so appeared as early as <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 880: <span class="sc">along of</span> was used by Chaucer, but it is now mainly confined to the illiterate or vulgar.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1369. <span class="sc">Chaucer</span>, <i>Troylus</i> ii., 1001. On me is not <span class="sc">along</span> thin evil fare.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1581. <span class="sc">W. Stafford</span>, <i>Exam. of Complaints</i>, p. 16 (New Shaks. Soc.: Ed.). Complaining of general poverty, he says: ‘Whereof
+it is <span class="sc">longe</span>, I cannot well tell.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1601. <span class="sc">Holland</span>, <i>Pliny</i>, p. 25, quoted in Morris’ <i>Elem. Hist. Eng. Gram.</i>, p. 198. And that is <span class="sc">long of</span> contrarie causes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Xmas. Stories</i> (<i>going into Society</i>), p. 65 (II. ed.). Would he object to say why he left it? Not at all; why should
+he? He left it <span class="sc">along</span> of a dwarf.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">W<span>.</span> Black</span>, <i>Beautiful Wretch</i>, ch. xviii. ‘Mayhap the concert didn’t come off, <span class="sc">along of</span> the snow.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alsatia</b>, or <b>Alsatia the Higher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—1. Whitefriars, once a place privileged from arrests for debt, as was
+also <span class="sc">Alsatia the lower</span>, or the Mint in Southwark. Both were suppressed, in 1697, on account of the notorious
+abuses committed there. A charter of liberties and privileges had been granted, in
+1608, by King James I. to the inhabitants of this district, and it speedily became
+the haunt of insolvent debtors, cheats, and gamesters, who conferred upon it the jocular
+cant name of <span class="sc">Alsatia</span>, a Latinised form of Alsace, a province which had long enjoyed <span class="pageNum" id="pb45">[<a href="#pb45">45</a>]</span>the reputation of a ‘debateable land.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1688. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Sq. of Alsatia I.</i>, in wks. (1720), IV., 25. Who are these? Some inhabitants of White-fryers; some bullies
+of <span class="sc">Alsatia</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xvi. Whitefriars, adjacent to the Temple, then well known by the cant name of
+<span class="sc">Alsatia</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. Hence any rendezvous or asylum for loose characters and criminals, where immunity
+from arrest is tolerably certain; a haunt of thieves, and the criminal classes; a
+low quarter.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1787. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Prov. Glossary, etc.</i> (1811), p. 82. A ’squire of <span class="sc">Alsatia</span>. A spendthrift or sharper, inhabiting places formerly privileged from arrests.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Trail of the Serpent</i>, bk. II., ch. i. So Blind Peter was the <span class="sc">Alsatia</span> of Slopperton, a refuge for crime and destitution.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Lord Justice James</span>, in <i lang="la">ex parte</i> Saffery <i>re</i> Cooke, <i>Law Times</i>, 35, p. 718. The Stock Exchange is not an <span class="sc">Alsatia</span>; the Queen’s laws are paramount there, and the Queen’s writ runs even into the sacred
+precincts of Capel-Court.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alsatian</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A rogue, or debauchee, such as haunted Alsatia or Whitefriars.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1691. <span class="sc">Luttrell</span>, <i>Brief Rel.</i> (1857), II., 259. The benchers of the Inner Temple having given orders for bricking
+up their little gate leading into White-fryers … the <span class="sc">Alsatians</span> came and pulled it down.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">c. 1700. <i>Gentleman Instructed</i>, p. 491 [10 ed., 1732]. He spurr’d to London, and left a thousand curses behind him.
+Here he struck up with sharpers, scourers, and <span class="sc">Alsatians</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xvii. ‘You shall sink a nobleman in the Temple Gardens, and rise an <span class="sc">Alsatian</span> at Whitefriars.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—Pertaining to Alsatia; roguish; debauched.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1688. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Sq. of Alsatia I.</i> in wks. (1720), IV., 27. He came out of White Fryers: he’s some <span class="sc">Alsatian</span> bully.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xvii. An extravagantly long rapier and poinard marked the true <span class="sc">Alsatian</span> bully.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Besant</span>, <i>All Sorts and Conditions of Men</i>, ch. vii. The road has come to be regarded with admiration as one of those <span class="sc">Alsatian</span> retreats, growing every day rarer, which are beyond and above the law.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alsatia Phrase</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A slang or cant term, such as was used by Alsatians; or, now-a-days, by thieves
+and vagrants.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1704. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Tale of a Tub</i>. Apology for author. The second instance to shew the author’s wit is not his own,
+is Peter’s banter (as he calls it in his <span class="sc">Alsatia phrase</span>) upon transubstantiation.
+</p>
+<p>Synonymous terms were <span class="sc">Pedler’s French</span>, <span class="sc">St. Giles’ Greek</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Altamel</b>, <b>Altemal</b>, <i>subs.</i>, <i>adj.</i>, <i>adv.</i>, and <i>intj.</i> (American thieves’).—
+</p>
+<p><i>Adv.</i>—All together, as ‘Let’s anchor <span class="sc">altemal</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘Let us come to a stop altogether.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Subs.</i>—The sum total of a bill or story.
+</p>
+<p><i>Intj.</i>—An injunction to ‘cut it short.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Altemal</span> is said to be derived from the Dutch <i lang="nl">altemal</i>, but Murray has it as ‘altumal’ with a different derivation. [From L. <i lang="la">altum</i>, the deep, <i>i.e.</i>, the sea + <span class="sc">al</span>.] Grose leans to the former and quotes <span class="sc">Dutch reckoning</span> as synonymous; from a verbal account without particulars, such as was given in brothels
+and sponging houses—accounts which allowed of no sort of verification. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Flemish account</span> and remarks under <span class="sc">Dutch</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1711. <i>Medleys</i>, 29 Jan. (1712), 186. His <span class="sc">altumal</span> cant, a mark of his poor Traffick and Tar-Education.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1758. <span class="sc">Chambers</span>, <i>Cycl. Supp.</i> <span class="sc">Altumal</span>, a term used to denote the mercantile style, or dialect. In this sense, we <span class="pageNum" id="pb46">[<a href="#pb46">46</a>]</span>meet with <span class="sc">altumal</span> cant, to denote the language of petty traders and tars.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Altering the Jeff’s Click.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jeff’s click</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Altham</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A wife; mistress.—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1560. <span class="sc">John Awdeley</span>, <i>Fraternitye of Vacabondes</i> (1869. English Dialect Society’s Reprint), p. 4. A curtall is much like to the Vpright
+man, but hys authority is not fully so great. He vseth commonly to go with a short
+cloke, like to grey Friers, and his woman with him in like liuery, which he calleth
+his <span class="sc">altham</span> if she be hys.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Altitudes.</b> <span class="sc">In his altitudes</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—In an elevated mood, chiefly from liquor; putting on airs and graces; using
+lofty phrases; in a state of excitement; and, in a special slang sense, drunk. The
+phrase has been incorrectly given as ‘<i>out</i> of his <span class="sc">altitudes</span>.’ The first trace of it is to be found in Beaumont and Fletcher’s <i>Laws of Candy</i>, II. [1616].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1630. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>New Inn</i>, I. I have talked somewhat above my share, at large, and been <span class="sc">in the altitudes</span>, the extravagants.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1668. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>An Evening’s Love</i>, Act iii. If we men could but learn to value ourselves, we should soon take down
+our mistresses from all their <span class="sc">altitudes</span>, and make them dance after our pipes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Confederacy</i>, Act v. <i>Clar.</i> ‘Who makes thee cry out thus, poor Brass?’ <i>Brass.</i> ‘Why, your husband, madam; he’s <span class="sc">in his altitudes</span> here.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Francis Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. The man is <span class="sc">in his altitudes</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, he is drunk.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Altocad</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Win. Coll.).—A somewhat venerable paid member of the choir who takes <span class="sc">alto</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alybbeg.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Lybbege</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Alycompaine.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Allacompain</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ambassador</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A sailor’s practical joke upon ‘green’ hands, similar to the festivities
+formerly universally observed when ‘crossing the line.’ These tricks have been common
+to sailors of every nation. <span class="sc">Ambassador</span> was thus managed:—A large tub was filled with water, two stools being placed on either
+side of it; over the whole was thrown a tarpaulin or old sail, kept tight by two persons,
+who represented the king and queen of a foreign country, and who were seated on the
+stools. To the victim was allotted the part of <span class="sc">ambassador</span>, who, after repeating a ridiculous speech dictated to him, was led in great state
+up to the throne, and seated between the king and queen. They rising suddenly, as
+soon as the unsuspecting victim was seated, caused him to fall backward into the tub
+of water.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ambassador of Commerce</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A commercial traveller; a <span class="sc">bagman</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ambia</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A euphemism for the juice of tobacco, as expectorated after chewing.
+Most frequently heard in the Southern and Western States. Apparently a corruption
+of ‘amber’ (indeed it is commonly spelt and pronounced <i>ambeer</i>)—presumably from a similarity in colour between expectorated tobacco saliva and the
+mineralised resinous product.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ambidexter</b>, also in 17th century, <b>Ambodexter</b>, <i>subs.</i> and <i>adj.</i> (old <span class="pageNum" id="pb47">[<a href="#pb47">47</a>]</span>slang).—[From <i lang="la">ambo</i>, both + <i lang="la">dexter</i>, the right hand, <i>i.e.</i>, the faculty of using both hands as right hands, or equally well.] Applied first
+in a slang sense to a lawyer taking fees or bribes from both plaintiff and defendant,
+<span class="sc">ambidexter</span> gradually became identified with double-dealing of all kinds.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1532. <i>Use of Dice Play</i> (1850), 17. Any affinity with our men of law? Never with those that be honest. Marry!
+with such as be <span class="sc">ambidexters</span>, and used to play in both the hands. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1555. <span class="sc">Ridley</span>, <i>Works</i>, 27. They may be called neutrals, <span class="sc">ambidexters</span>, or rather such as can shift on both sides. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1691. <span class="sc">Blount</span>, <i>Law Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Ambidexter</span>.… That Juror or Embraceor who takes Money on both sides, for giving his Verdict.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1703. <span class="sc">De Foe</span>, <i>Ref. Manners</i>, 93. Those <span class="sc">ambodexters</span> in Religion, who Can any thing dispute, yet any thing can do.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Sir F. Palgrave</span>, <i>Norman and Eng. III.</i>, 278. An <span class="sc">ambidexter</span>, owing fealty to both Counts, and not faithful to either.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ambush</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—Fraudulent weights and measures. A punning allusion to the accepted
+meaning of the word—to lie in wait (lying weight). In juxtaposition to this may be
+placed the Fourbesque (Italian thieves’ argot); <i lang="it">giusta</i>, a pair of scales, a balance, which in Italian literally means ‘correct.’ <i>Cf.</i>, French thieves’ argot, <i lang="fr">juste</i> (an abbreviation of <i>justice</i>), for the assizes; also the Spanish Germania <i lang="es">justia</i>, in a similar sense, the last-named being a shortened form of the Spanish <i lang="es">justicia</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amen Curler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—The name formerly given to a parish clerk. In the army the chaplain’s
+clerk is called an <span class="sc">amen wallah</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amener</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A nickname given to one who agrees to everything said or done. [From that
+sense of <span class="sc">amen</span> = to ratify solemnly + <span class="sc">er</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amen-Snorter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian).—A parson; from which it will be observed that the fifth continent is
+evolving words and phrases as peculiar to itself as America has already done. For
+synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Devil dodger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Bulletin</i>, Nov. 24. In Maori-land it is impossible to swing any kind of cat without smiting
+some variety of <span class="sc">amen-snorter</span>. Still the saints are not happy. They have just held at Wellington a ‘United Ker-ristian
+Conference’ to ruminate on the sinfulness of things and the scarcity of the unsanctified
+threepenny. A Rev. vessel, one Potter, opined that the meagre quantity and inferior
+quality of family devotion accounted for the depleted condition of the ‘treasury of
+the Loard,’ and suggested that steps should be taken ‘to find out what families omit
+this important duty.’ Since which all the dead-beats and suspected hen-snatchers plead
+when before the Binch that they were ‘only mouching round to find out whether the
+family neglected its religious dooties, yer washup.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amen Wallah</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—A chaplain’s clerk; the allusion is sufficiently obvious. ‘Wallah’ is
+Hindustani for ‘man’ or person. <i>Cf.</i>, the old English slang, <span class="sc">amen curler</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amerace</b>, <i>adv.</i> (American thieves’).—Jargon signifying near at hand; within call.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>American Shoulders</b>, <i>subs.</i> (tailors’).—A particular ‘cut,’ in which the shoulders of a coat are so shaped as
+to give the wearer a broad and burly appearance. This is usually done <span class="pageNum" id="pb48">[<a href="#pb48">48</a>]</span>where a man’s shoulders are of the <span class="sc">champagne</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) order, <i>i.e.</i>, like the neck of a wine bottle, with nothing upon which the garment in question
+can be hung.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>American Tweezers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—An ingenious instrument of American invention, by means of which it is
+possible to turn a key in a door and unlock it from the outside.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ames Ace</b>, <b>Ambs-Ace</b>, or <b>Ambes-Ace</b>. <span class="sc">Within ames ace</span>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—1. Nearly; very near; <span class="sc">ambs-ace</span> was the double ace, the lowest throw at dice. Hence also
+</p>
+<p>2. Bad luck; misfortune. The expression, according to Murray, dates back to <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1297.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aminidab</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A jeering name for a Quaker.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ammunition</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Paper for use at the <i lang="fr">cabinet d’aisance</i>. Also called <span class="sc">curl papers</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ammunition Leg</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—A wooden leg. From the attributive use of ‘ammunition’ as applied to
+stores supplied to soldiers for equipment or rations. To show the length to which
+this application of the word has been carried, it may be noted that Robertson, in
+1693, speaks of ‘an ammunition whore.’—<i lang="la">scortum castrense.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amort</b>, <i>adv.</i> and <i>pred. adj.</i> (old).—Usually <span class="sc">all amort</span>, an antithetical phrase to <span class="sc">all alive</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and meaning half dead; in a state of stupor; without spirit; sometimes used as
+a synonym of <span class="sc">balmy</span>, <span class="sc">cracked</span>, <span class="sc">dotty</span>, all of which see. <i lang="fr">A-la-mort</i>, from the French, is regarded as the original form, though it is doubtful which took
+precedence in literary English. At one time both forms were quite naturalised; they
+are now of interest as affording an instance of words, gradually lapsing into slang
+or vulgar usage, and then coming to be regarded as Anglo-French phrases. American
+thieves still retain them, to signify struck dumb, or confounded; in these senses
+they are given by Grose in his <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i> [1787], which would seem to show they had already commenced their downward career.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ampersand</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—The breech; or posteriors. [From Eng. <span class="sc">and</span> + Latin <i>per se</i>, by itself, + Eng. <span class="sc">and</span>; literally, ‘and by itself and’ used to distinguish the character ‘&amp;,’ which in old
+nursery books came at the end of the alphabet. Hence, employed to signify the hinder
+parts.] The word in its slang sense is quite a recent introduction, said to be of
+American origin. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Blind cheeks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amputate.</b> <span class="sc">To amputate one’s mahogany</span> or <span class="sc">timber</span> (familiar).—To be off; to begone—the idea being that of quick or violent motion,
+often, though not always, the result of moral or physical force. [Probably from that
+sense of <span class="sc">amputate</span> equivalent to ‘cut off’ or ‘away.’ <i>Cf.</i>, ‘cut,’ a slang synonym.] A welcher is called a <span class="sc">timber-merchant</span>, because he removes <span class="pageNum" id="pb49">[<a href="#pb49">49</a>]</span>himself, or ‘cuts his stick’ with celerity as occasion requires. Both the English
+and French have many synonymous words and phrases to express the same idea. Among
+the more popular may be mentioned:—
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> To skedaddle (an American term); to cut one’s lucky; to sling, or take one’s hook;
+to mizzle; to absquatulate; to pad the hoof; to give leg bail; to bolt; to cut and
+run; to chivey; to walk the trotters; to slip one’s cable; to step it; to leg it;
+to tip the double; to make, or take tracks; to hook it; to make beef (thieves’ term);
+to slope; to cut the cable and run before the wind (obviously a sailor’s phrase);
+to slip it; to abskize; to paddle; to guy (used by thieves); to evaporate; to vamoose
+(American, from the Spanish imperative <i lang="es">vamos</i>, let us go); to speele (used by thieves); to skip; to tip one’s rags a gallop; to
+walk one’s chalks; to pike; to hop the twig; to turn it up; to cap one’s lucky (a
+phrase mainly confined to American thieves); to crush; to cut dirt; to bunk; to pike
+it; to stir one’s stumps.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French.</span> <i lang="fr">Faire</i> or <i lang="fr">jouer la fille de l’air</i> (lit. ‘to go like the wind,’ <i lang="fr">fille de l’air</i>, daughter of air, being a poetical embodiment); <i lang="fr">faire le lézard</i> (a thief’s term, and meaning properly ‘to imitate a lizard,’ an allusion to swiftness
+of motion); <i lang="fr">faire le jat-jat</i>; <i lang="fr">faire la paire</i> (lit. ‘to go double,’ <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to tip the double’); <i lang="fr">faire gille</i> (a very old French phrase; it means also to become bankrupt. The connection between
+bankruptcy and decamping is obvious); <i lang="fr">se déguiser en cerf</i> (popular: lit. ‘to play the stag’); <i lang="fr">s’évanouir</i> (popular: lit. ‘to vanish’ or ‘fade away’); <i lang="fr">se cramper</i> or <i lang="fr">tirer sa crampe</i> (<i lang="fr">cramper</i> is a popular term for rapid flight, and contains an allusion to the cramp or nervous
+contraction sometimes caused by violent motion. Old French had the verb <i lang="fr">crampir</i> in the sense of ‘to bend’ or ‘double up.’ <i lang="fr">Tirer sa crampe</i> is lit. ‘to get cramped’); <i lang="fr">se lâcher du ballon</i> (popular: ‘to let loose the balloon,’ an allusion to the rapidity with which a balloon
+shoots up into the air when set free); <i lang="fr">se la couler</i> (exactly equivalent to the English slang ‘to slip it’); <i lang="fr">se donner de l’air</i> (popular: <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">faire la fille de l’air</i>); <i lang="fr">se pousser du zeph</i> (popular: properly ‘to push forward with the wind.’ <i lang="fr">Zeph</i> is a contraction of <i lang="fr">zephir</i>); <i lang="fr">se sylphider</i> (popular: from <i lang="fr">sylphide</i>, a sylph; a reference to what in English racing terminology would be termed the ‘light-weight’
+character of such creatures enabling them to get over the ground quickly); <i lang="fr">se faire la débinette</i>; <i lang="fr">jouer des fourchettes</i> (popular: ‘to put one’s forks into play’); <i lang="fr">fourchettes</i> (in French argot = legs or ‘pins’); <i lang="fr">se la donner</i> (Michel says <i lang="fr">la</i> here refers to ‘<i lang="fr">la clef des champs</i>,’ an expression synonymous with ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’); <i lang="fr">se la briser</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">ramasser un bidon</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">se la casser</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">se la tirer</i>; <i lang="fr">tirer ses granches</i>; <i lang="fr">valser</i> (lit. to dance); <i lang="fr">se tirer les pincettes</i> (popular: lit. ‘to pull along’ or to extricate ‘one’s tongs’ or ‘nippers.’ <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘nip along’); <i lang="fr">se tirer les baladoires</i>; <i lang="fr">se tirer les pattes</i> (lit. ‘to move one’s paws’); <i lang="fr">se tirer les trimoires</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">trimoires</i> is a cant term for legs, <span class="pageNum" id="pb50">[<a href="#pb50">50</a>]</span>and <i lang="fr">trimer</i> signifies painful progression, or doing most of a journey on foot); <i lang="fr">se tirer les flûtes</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">les flûtes</i> = ‘shanks’ or ‘pegs’); <i lang="fr">jouer des guibes</i> (<i lang="fr">guibe</i> is a popular term for the leg, chiefly employed in burlesque); <i lang="fr">jouer des quilles</i> (this expression is very old. <i lang="fr">Quilles</i> properly signifies ‘crutches,’ and is popularly employed for the legs); <i lang="fr">se carapater</i> (lit. ‘to run on one’s paws.<span>’</span> <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to take to one’s heels’); <i lang="fr">se barrer</i> (lit. ‘to dash over’); <i lang="fr">baudrouiller</i> (thieves’: this has the signification of ‘to whip up’); <i lang="fr">se cavaler</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">cavaler</i> was once synonymous with <i lang="fr">chevaucher</i>; therefore, <i lang="fr">se cavaler</i> signifies in reality, ‘to go on horseback on oneself,’ in which connection it may
+be compared with ‘shanks’ mare,’ the ‘marrow-bone stage’ [the Marylebone stage], or
+the German <i lang="de">Schuhster’s Rappen</i>, the shoemaker’s black horses, <i>i.e.</i>, the shoes. <i lang="fr">Se cavaler</i> likewise has reference to running away with the tail between the legs when fright
+has seized hold of an animal, and as employed by thieves conveys the idea of cowardice
+as well as that of locomotion); <i lang="fr">faire une cavale</i> or <i lang="fr">se payer une cavale</i> (popular: <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">se cavaler</i>); <i lang="fr">jouer des</i> or <i lang="fr">se tirer les paturons</i> (popular and thieves’: this may be translated ‘to pad the hoof.’ <i lang="fr">Paturons</i> is properly the ‘pasterns.’ The frequent use of <i lang="fr">se tirer</i> in connection with the idea of moving from place to place with a celerity which is
+oftentimes accentuated by a fear of arrest or unwelcome obstruction is extremely fitting.
+<i lang="fr">Se tirer</i> means literally to extricate <span class="corr" id="xd33e7525" title="Source: onself">oneself</span>; to get through; to pull oneself forward—extra endeavour resulting in rapid progression);
+<i lang="fr">happer le taillis</i> (thieves’: lit. ‘to catch, lay hold of’ or ‘gain the copse’; <i>i.e.</i>, a place of concealment); <i lang="fr">flasquer du poivre à quelqu’un</i> or <i lang="fr">la rousse</i> (thieves’: <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Amuse</span>; ‘to fly from the police’; lit. <span id="xd33e7545">‘</span>to shake the pepper box in the eyes of the police<span>’</span>; <i lang="fr">rousse</i> is a cant term for a guardian of the peace); <i lang="fr">décaniller</i> (thieves’: this word, derived from <i lang="fr">canille</i>, a French provincialism for <i lang="fr">chenille</i>, a caterpillar, is an allusion to the metamorphosis of the grub into a butterfly
+when it takes unto itself wings); <i lang="fr">décarrer</i> (thieves’: to leave prison; <i lang="fr">décarrer de belle</i>, to be released from prison without having been tried); <i lang="fr">exhiber son prussien</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">prussien</i> is a common colloquialism for the posteriors, and the phrase literally means ‘to
+show one’s behind,’ or ‘turn tail.’ It may be worth while remarking that the term
+<i lang="fr">prussien</i> as applied to the breech is no vulgar expression of contempt towards the Prussians.
+The word is derived, says Michel, from the gypsy <i>prusiatiñi</i>, which Borrow translates by pistol. Formerly the French called ‘the behind’ by the
+name of a Parisian church, <i>Saint-Jean le Rond</i>); <i lang="fr">démurger</i> (thieves’: to leave a place; to be set at liberty); <i lang="fr">désarrer</i> (thieves’: ‘to guy’; to make beef); <i lang="fr">gagner les gigoteaux</i> (also <i lang="fr">gagner au trot</i>, <i lang="fr">au pied</i>, <i lang="fr">gagner le camp</i>, <i lang="fr">la colline</i>, <i lang="fr">le taillis</i>, <i lang="fr">la guérite</i>, etc.); <i lang="fr">se faire une paire de mains courantes à la mode</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">fendre l’ergot</i> (lit. ‘to split the spur,’ an allusion to the toes being pressed to the ground, and
+thus naturally <span class="pageNum" id="pb51">[<a href="#pb51">51</a>]</span>parted); <i lang="fr">filer son nœud</i>, or <i lang="fr">son cable</i> (sailors’ and popular: lit. ‘to cut the ropes’ or ‘cable’); <i lang="fr">se défiler</i> (popular, but derived from the military term, signifying to go off parade: might
+be translated ‘to leg it’); <i lang="fr">s’écar-bouiller</i> (popular: properly ‘to crush’; compare with the English synonym ‘crush’); <i lang="fr">esballonner</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">filer son cable par le bout</i> (sailors’); <i lang="fr">faire chibis</i> (thieves’: ‘to escape from prison’); <i lang="fr">déraper</i> (common); <i lang="fr">fouiner</i> (popular: this is, in reality, no more slang than the English ‘to sneak away’); <i lang="fr">se la fracturer</i> (popular: properly a surgical term, meaning ‘to fracture’); <i lang="fr">jouer des gambettes</i> (popular: may be translated ‘to leg it’; ‘to stir one’s stumps’; <i lang="fr">gambettes</i> is from the old French <i lang="fr">gambe</i>, a leg); <i lang="fr">s’esbigner</i> (popular: properly ‘to give the slip’); <i lang="fr">ramoner ses tuyaux</i> (popular: lit. ‘to sweep one’s chimney’; <i lang="fr">ramoner</i>, in its primary cant signification of ‘to mutter’ or ‘to mumble,’ is an allusion
+to the rumbling noise produced by sweeping a chimney. <i lang="fr">Se faire ramoner</i> is ‘to go to confession,’ or ‘to take a purgative’—the one a moral, and the other
+a physical cleansing. Hence <i lang="fr">ramoner ses tuyaux</i>, ‘to run away,’ in reference to the speedy locomotion consequent upon the process
+of purging); <i lang="fr">foutre le camp</i> (popular: equivalent to ‘hook it’; a coarse expression); <i lang="fr">tirer le chausson</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">se vanner</i> (thieves: Michel derives this from the Italian <i lang="it">vannare</i>, ‘to flap the wings,’ but another authority refers it to the motions of the body
+and arms of a winnower; the word in literary French signifying ‘to sift’ or ‘to winnow.’
+Others trace it to the old French <i lang="fr">vanoyer</i>, ‘to disappear.’ In all cases, however, it would seem to be equivalent to the English
+‘come shake yourself! be off!’); <i lang="fr">ambier</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">chier du poivre</i> (popular: ‘to abscond,’ or ‘to fail to be at hand when needed’); <i lang="fr">se débiner</i>, or <i lang="fr">se débiner des fumerons</i> (popular: ‘to stir one’s stumps’); <i lang="fr">caleter</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">attacher une gamelle</i> (popular and thieves’); <i lang="fr">camper</i> (low); <i lang="fr">affuter ses pincettes</i> (thieves’: lit. ‘to sharpen the pins’ or ‘to leg it’); and many others.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms.</span> <i lang="de">Abbaschen</i> (from <i lang="de">paschen</i>, ‘to smuggle’); <i lang="de">abbauen</i> (literally ‘to remove, or finish’ [a building]); <i lang="de">abfocken</i>; <i lang="de">abhalchen</i> (from Hebrew <i lang="und">holach</i>, ‘to go’); <i lang="de">schefften</i>; <i lang="de">abschnurren</i> (a beggar-musicians’ term; also to beg through a lane, town, or district. [M.H.G.,
+<i lang="de">snurren</i>, <i lang="de">schnurren</i>, <i lang="de">schnurrant</i>]); <i lang="de">abtarchenen</i>; <i lang="de">abtippeln</i> (to run away secretly); <i lang="de">alchen</i> (from Hebrew <i lang="und">holach</i>, ‘to go’); <i lang="de">aschween</i> (Hanoverian: according to Thiele <i lang="de">hascheweine</i>—probably corrupted from <i lang="de">schuw</i>; <i lang="de">heschiw</i>, ‘to turn round’); <i lang="de">blättern</i> (corrupted from <i lang="de">plettern</i>—Hebrew <i lang="und">pleto</i>); <i lang="de">caball</i> (from Latin <i lang="la">caballus</i>, ‘a horse’; hence, to fly quickly as if on horseback); <i lang="de">dippeln</i> (a Viennese thieves’ term) <i lang="de">fucken</i> or <i lang="de">focken</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Fourbesque.</span> <i lang="it">Sbignare</i> or <i lang="it">svignare</i> (these words though given as cant by the author of the <i lang="it">Nuovo Modo</i> are now received words); <i lang="it">comprare</i> (lit. ‘to buy’); <i lang="it">comprar viole</i>; <i lang="it">allungare il muro</i> (lit. ‘to lengthen the wall’); <i lang="it">balzare</i> (lit. ‘to caper,’ ‘to skip,’ ‘to bounce’); <i lang="it">batter <span class="pageNum" id="pb52">[<a href="#pb52">52</a>]</span>la calcosa</i> (lit. ‘to beat the earth.’ <i>Cf.</i>, American ‘to cut dirt’); <i lang="it">dare a lata</i>; <i lang="it">scoscare</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Germania.</span> <i lang="es">Piñarse</i> (an old and now obsolete term); <i lang="es">alar</i>; <i lang="es">alarse</i>; <i lang="es">alolargo</i> (lit. ‘at large’); <i lang="es">picar</i> (lit. ‘to use the spurs’); <i lang="es">safarse</i> (lit. ‘to escape’ or ‘save oneself’ [from arrest]).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amuse</b>, <i>verb.</i> (old cant).—To fling dust or snuff in the eyes of a person intended to be robbed.
+Also, to invent some plausible tale, to delude shop-keepers and others, thereby to
+put them off their guard, and so to obtain an opportunity of robbing them.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Amusers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant and American thieves’).—A certain class of thieves’ accomplices who throw
+snuff, pepper, and other noxious substances in the eyes of the person they intend
+to rob, a confederate then, while apparently coming to the rescue, completing the
+operation. In this, as in much of the slang of the criminal classes, there runs a
+vein of brutal cynicism. Though obsolete in England the term survives in America amongst
+the criminal classes.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anabaptist</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—A pickpocket caught in the act, and punished with the discipline of
+the pump or horse-pond.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anchor.</b> <span class="sc">To come to an anchor</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (nautical and common).—To stop; to sit down; to rest. [From the operation of bringing
+ships to a standstill by casting anchor.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anchorage</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—An abode; where one dwells. Of nautical origin (<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Anchor</span>). For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Diggings</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ancient Mariners</b>, <i>subs</i>. (Univ. Oxford).—A term applied to rowing dons.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>And Don’t You Forget It</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A senseless string of words employed indiscriminately in season and out
+of season. Like ‘Who’s your hatter?’ ‘How’s your poor feet?’ ‘Not for Joe!’ ‘Does
+your mother know you’re out?’ ‘What! again! so soon?’ and many others, which every
+now and then have caught the ‘fancy’ of the streets of our large towns, the phrase
+under consideration has run an almost riotous course through the large centres of
+population in America. In most cases these strings of words convey no special idea,
+and can only be described as utterly vulgar, without the slightest <span class="corr" id="xd33e7926" title="Source: scintilation">scintillation</span> of wit or humour of any kind.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Boston Weekly Globe</i>, Feb. 29. There can be no two opposing opinions in that respect. Great capital demands
+dividends. Dividends can be had only from a prosperous business. A prosperous business
+must recognise the law of supply and demand, and if the public demand dirt the newspapers
+will furnish dirt—<span class="sc">and don’t you forget it</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, Oct. 6. ‘Did you see any Quakers in Philadelphia?’ was asked of a Detroiter who
+lately returned from that city.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">‘Only one that I was sure of.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">‘Did he ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ you?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">‘He did. He got down off his hack and said: ‘If thee don’t pay me 2 dols. I’ll knock
+thy blamed head off,’ and I paid, although I knew the regular fare was twelve shillings.
+You don’t want to fool with those Quakers any, <span class="sc">and don’t you forget it</span>.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb53">[<a href="#pb53">53</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>And He Didn’t</b>, <i>phr.</i> (tailors’).—A phrase of the <span class="sc">all my eye</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) stamp, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘You tell me you have not; but for all that I think you have’—the action referred
+to being generally of a discreditable character.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>And No Mogue?</b> <i>phr.</i> (tailors’).—Used in a variety of ways to signify doubt and uncertainty. It is equivalent
+to the street gamin’s ‘no kid?’ when used interrogatively, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘there’s no mistake, is there?’ ‘Now, joking apart?’ Also used as a ‘set down’ to
+narrators claiming descent from Baron Munchausen, in which case it is equivalent to
+the ‘You don’t say so!’ of politer circles; in both cases the spokesman conveys the
+idea that one’s credulity has been somewhat taxed.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>And No Whistle</b>, <i>phr.</i> (tailors’).—A kind of <i lang="la">tu quoque</i>; usually applied to a man by a listener desiring to convey to the speaker the idea
+that no matter what others may think to the contrary, he [the listener] believes that
+what has been said refers to the person speaking.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Andrew Millar</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A curious cant name for a ship of war; sometimes simply <span class="sc">Andrew</span>. Its origin is quite unknown; but it has been pointed out that Antonio, in the <i>Merchant of Venice</i>, speaks of one of his vessels as his ‘wealthy <span class="sc">Andrew</span>’; and it has been conjectured that in this case the ship was named after the celebrated
+Admiral Andrea Doria, who died in 1560. But to trace any connection between this <span class="sc">Andrew</span>, however general the use of the name may have become, and the <span class="sc">Andrew Millar</span> of modern sailors’ slang, would be difficult.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Merchant of Venice</i>, i., i., 27.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">But I should think of shallows and of flats, </p>
+<p class="line">And see my wealthy <span class="sc">Andrew</span> dock’d in sand. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">Among Australian smugglers the term still survives for a revenue cutter.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angel</b> or <b>Flying Angel</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">James Greenwood</span>, <i>Seaside Insanity</i> in <i>Odd People in Odd Places</i>, p. 45. It is at this point when the one day excursionist, who, as well as his wife,
+has an olive-branch or two with him, finds his fortitude suddenly collapse. With the
+youngest but one (his good lady, of course, carries the baby) bestriding his shoulder,
+he puts his best foot foremost from the beach to the town so as to be in good time
+at the station. He is hot and fagged, and his temper is not improved by the knowledge
+that the cherub to whom he is giving a ‘<span class="sc">flying angel</span>’ is smearing his Sunday hat with the seaweed with which its little fists are full.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angelicas.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Angelics</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angelics</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Unmarried young ladies. Now <span class="sc">Angelicas</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, p. 5. (Dicks’ ed., 1889.) <i>Jerry.</i> You think the cut of my clothes rather too rustic—eh? <i>Tom.</i> Exactly; dress is the order of the day. A man must have the <i>look</i> of a gentleman, if he has nothing else. We must assume a style if we have it not.
+This, what do you call it?—this cover-me-decently, was all very well at Hawthorn Hall,
+I daresay; but here, among the pinks in Rotten Row, the ladybirds in the Saloon, the
+<span class="sc">angelics</span> at Almack’s, the top-of-the-tree heroes, the legs and levanters at Tattersall’s,
+nay, even among the millers at the Fives, it would be taken for nothing less than
+the index of a complete flat.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb54">[<a href="#pb54">54</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angeliferous</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American).—Angelic; also super-excellent; a factitious word. It is interesting to
+note that ‘angelification,’ ‘angelify,’ and ‘angelified,’ were in use in the seventeenth
+century, but never to any great extent. [From <span class="sc">angel</span> + <span class="sc">iferous</span>, a spurious form based on the model of ‘auriferous.’] It is said to have been first
+used by Bird in his novel, entitled <i>Nick of the Woods</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angels Altogether</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (West Indian).—A sobriquet applied to habitual drunkards. It originated about the
+year 1876, and was, in the first instance, a <i>bon-mot</i> of a well-known sugar planter on the East Coast Demerara. A negro hand, notorious
+for his hard drinking, applied for a holiday, and the manager having a suspicion that
+Quashie wanted it simply to go ‘on the drink,’ bantered him as follows:—‘John! you
+were drunk on Sunday?’ ‘Yes, massa!’ ‘Monday too?’ ‘Yes, massa!’ and on the question
+being repeated as regards Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, it elicited similar
+responses, whereupon the ‘boss’ quietly, but pointedly said, ‘But John, you can’t
+be an <span class="sc">angel altogether</span>, you know!’ The story got abroad, caught on, and in a short time the whole colony
+rang with the expression.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angel’s Footstool</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (nautical).—Yankee skippers, given to high falutin’, aver that their craft carry
+far more canvas than any vessel afloat of ‘foreign’ origin (the term ‘foreign’ including
+British bottoms, as well as those of nations other than Anglo-Saxon). Imaginary sails
+are crowded on their craft, among these being one which they jokingly call an <span class="sc">angel’s footstool</span>. It is pretended to be a square sail, and is supposed to top the <span class="sc">skyscrapers</span>, <span class="sc">moon-sails</span>, and <span class="sc">cloud cleaners</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angel’s Gear</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (nautical).—It is thus that ‘jolly tars’ sometimes speak of female attire. Jack is
+notoriously most susceptible where a petticoat is concerned.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angel’s-Oil</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A seventeenth century colloquialism for money used for bribery; sometimes
+<span class="sc">oil of angels</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>, and <span class="sc">Boodle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angel’s Suit</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (tailors’).—A ‘combination’ garment for males. The coat and waistcoat were made in
+one, and the ‘unmentionables’ buttoned on to it. Neither garment nor name was extensively
+adopted.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angel’s Whisper</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (military).—A name given to the call to defaulter’s drill. Needless to say it is,
+as Artemus Ward would express it, ‘wrote sarcastic.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anglers</b>, <b>Hookers</b>, or <b>Starrers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Pilferers or petty thieves, who, with a stick having a hook at the end, steal
+goods from shop windows, etc. So far Grose; but Duncombe adds that <span class="sc">starrers</span> are an order of thieves who break show glasses in jewellers’ windows <span class="pageNum" id="pb55">[<a href="#pb55">55</a>]</span>and, in the consequent confusion steal the goods. The term is a very ancient one.
+Dekker in <i>English Villanies</i> [1632], thus describes an ‘<span class="sc">angler</span> for duds’:—‘He carries a short staff in his hand, which is called a filch, having
+in the nab or head of it a ferme (that is to say a hole) into which, upon any piece
+of service, when he goes a filching, he putteth a hooke of iron, with which hook he
+angles at a window in the dead of night for shirts, smockes, or any other linen or
+woollen.’ It would appear from this that modern thieves are both much more daring
+and expert. It is not an uncommon thing for a crack thief, in the broad daylight,
+in the most crowded streets of London, to break a jeweller’s window, snatch some valuables,
+and make off with them. An iron instrument is used for the purpose which is concealed
+by the coat sleeve.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Area sneak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angling Cove</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A receiver of stolen goods.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Fence</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angling for Farthings</b>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old thieves’).—Begging out of a prison window with a cap or box, let down at the
+end of a long string<span>.</span>—<i>Grose</i>. Such a practice, it is needless to say, would be impossible nowadays.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Hooker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anglomaniacs</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—A club in Boston is thus self-styled. Its members are opposed to anything
+British in every shape and form. The term is of course a contradiction, and should,
+to express the policy of its members, be <i>Anglophobists</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angry Boys.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bloods</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Angular Party</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—A term given to any gathering of people of which the number is odd; say
+three, seven, thirteen, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Animal</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A new arrival at the United States Military Academy at West Point. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Snooker</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To go the whole animal</span> (American).—A variant of ‘to go the whole hog.’ In the West Indies it is varied by
+‘to go the whole dog.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Hog</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">C. Dickens</span>, <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>, p.… Opposing all half measures, and preferring <span class="sc">to go the extreme animal</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Twice Round the Clock</i>, p. 62.… that they had much better pay first-class, and <span class="sc">go the entire animal</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Animules</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—This expression is very generally used in the South-western territories,
+and in California, as a substitute for ‘mules.’ A witty play upon ‘animals’ and ‘mules.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834(?) <i>Centre-Pole Bill, in Overland Monthly.</i> ‘Ten miles to town! Waal, stranger, I guess I’ll stake out here to-night. Them <span class="sc">animules</span> is too beat to do that. Where’s yer water?’ ‘It’s all around you to-night; but you
+can turn your mules into the corral.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ankle.</b> <span class="sc">To sprain one’s ankle</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old).—When a girl has been seduced she is said to have <span class="sc">sprained her ankle</span>. Both French and German slang have analogous expressions; in the former, <i lang="fr">elle a mal aux genoux</i> is said of a woman who is pregnant, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘she has a bad knee.’ <span class="pageNum" id="pb56">[<a href="#pb56">56</a>]</span>In German, ladies so placed ‘lose a shoe’; but of synonyms there are plenty.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Leg</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ankle-Beaters</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A class of boys who attended cattle markets for the purpose of driving to
+the slaughter-house the animals purchased by the butcher. They were called <span class="sc">ankle-beaters</span> from their driving the animals with long wattles, and beating them on the legs to
+avoid spoiling or bruising the flesh. Also called <span class="sc">penny-boys</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), because they received one penny per head as remuneration.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anne’s Fan</b>, properly <b>Queen Anne’s Fan</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—Putting the tip of the thumb of either hand to the nose, and then spreading
+the fingers in the shape of a fan. A gesture of contempt often intensified either
+by twiddling the digits when in the position named, or by similarly placing the other
+hand in an extended line. It is also called <span class="sc">taking a sight</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and <span class="sc">biting the thumb</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Annex</b>, <i>verb.</i> (American).—To steal; in England the wise it call ‘convey.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bone</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anodyne</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A euphemism for death. From the figurative sense of the word—anything
+that soothes wounded or excited feelings, or that lessens the sense of misfortunes.
+<i>Cf.</i>, Old English slang term for a halter, <span class="sc">Anodyne necklace</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i> (American thieves’).—To kill. <i>Cf.</i>, foregoing; also <span class="sc">To cook one’s goose</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anodyne Necklace</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A halter. An <i>anodyne</i> is that which allays or extinguishes pain, and the hangman’s rope may indeed be regarded,
+from one point of view, as a cure for all pains. The expression is old, being traced
+back to 1639. During the period when the death penalty was inflicted for all kinds
+of comparatively trivial offences—for sheep stealing, and even highway robberies of
+not more than forty shillings value—synonyms equally grim and sententious were numerous.
+According to Wilyam Bullein, an <span class="sc">anodyne necklace</span> was that which ‘light fellows merrily will call … neckweede, or <span class="sc">Sir Tristam’s knot</span>, or <span class="sc">St. Andrew’s lace</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).’ Other terms for the hangman’s noose were <span class="sc">hempen cravat</span>, <span class="sc">horse’s nightcap</span>, <span class="sc">Tyburn tippet</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1639. <span class="sc">F. Beaumont</span>, <i>Bloody Brother</i>, Act iii., Sc. 2. [Speaks of the hangman’s halter as a ‘necklace.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1766. <span class="sc">Oliver Goldsmith</span>, <i>Vicar of Wakefield</i> [works, Globe ed., chap. xx., p. 43.<span class="corr" id="xd33e8422" title="Not in source">]</span> [George Primrose’s cousin exclaims] ‘May I die by an <span class="sc">anodyne necklace</span>, but I’d rather be an under-turnkey in Newgate [than an usher in a boarding-school<span class="corr" id="xd33e8427" title="Source: ’]">]’</span>.
+</p>
+<p>The water poet (John Taylor, a Thames waterman, 1580–1654), explaining the virtue
+of hemp, says:—
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p class="line">Some call it neck-weed, for it hath a tricke </p>
+<p class="line"><i>To cure the necke</i> that’s troubled with the crick. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">An <span class="sc">anodyne necklace</span> was also the name of a quack amulet, which, for a long period, was a household word.
+This famous remedy occupied as prominent a position in the advertising columns of
+the journals of the middle of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb57">[<a href="#pb57">57</a>]</span>eighteenth as Holloway’s pills in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This
+necklace was of beads artificially prepared, small, like barleycorns, and cost five
+shillings. For foreign synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Horse’s nightcap</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anoint</b>, <i>verb.</i> (familiar).—To beat soundly; to thrash; humorously derived from the proper meaning
+of the word, ‘to smear’ or ‘rub over with oil or other unctuous substances.’ In the
+North of England the saying is somewhat more analogous—‘to <span class="sc">anoint</span> with the sap of a hazel rod.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1175. <i>Rom. of Partenay</i> (<span class="sc">Skeat</span>), 5653.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Then thay put hym hout, the kyng away fly, </p>
+<p class="line">Which so well was <span class="sc">anoynted</span> indede, </p>
+<p class="line">That no slene ne pane had he hole of brede. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1703. <span class="sc">Fuller’s</span> <i>Trip to Bridewell</i>, quoted in Ashton’s <i>The Fleet</i>, p. 211. The whipper began to <span class="sc">noint</span> me with his instrument, that had, I believe, about a dozen strings notted at the
+end.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Rod. Random</i>, ch. v. ‘I’ll bring him to the gangway, and <span class="sc">anoint</span> him with a cat-and-nine-tails.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <span class="sc">W. Irving</span>, <i>Tales of a Trav.</i>, II., 287. Seize a trusty staff and <span class="sc">anoint</span> the back of the aggressor.
+</p>
+<p>There seems to be some connection, too, between this sense of <span class="sc">to anoint</span>, and the depraved use of <span class="sc">anointed</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) to signify great rascality. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Strap oil</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anoint</b> or <b>Grease the Palm</b>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (common).—To bribe. The Scotch say ‘to creesh the luif.’ The expression is very old.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1584. <span class="sc">Knox</span>, <i>Hist. of Reformation</i>, <i>works</i> [1846] I., 102. Yea, the handis of our Lordis so liberallie were <span class="sc">anoynted</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>See</i> <span class="sc">Grease the palm</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anointed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—1. Used in a depraved sense to signify eminence in rascality. The most probable
+derivation appears to be that suggested by Prof. Skeat [<i>N. and Q.</i>, 3 S., ix., 422]. In a French MS., <i>Romance of Melusine</i>, is an account of a man who had received a thorough and severe beating, which is
+thus referred to:—<i lang="fr">Qui anoit este si bien oignt</i>. The English version [Early English Text Society] translates this, ‘which so well
+was <span class="sc">anoynted</span> indeed.’ From this it is clear that to <span class="sc">anoint</span> a man was to give him a sound drubbing, and that the word was so used in the fifteenth
+century. Thus, an <span class="sc">anointed</span> rogue means either one who has been well thrashed or who has deserved to be. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To anoint</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1769. <span class="sc">Robertson</span>, <i>Hist. of Reign of Charles V.</i> Many assumed the clerical character for no other reason than that it might screen
+them from the punishment which their actions deserved. The German nobles complained
+loudly that their <span class="sc">anointed</span> malefactors, as they called them, seldom suffered capitally even for the most enormous
+crimes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, ch. xxxvii. ‘But, not being Lord Etherington, and an <span class="sc">anointed</span> scoundrel into the bargain, I will content myself with cudgelling him to death.’
+</p>
+<p>2. Knowing; ripe for mischief.—<i>Duncombe.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anonyma</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A lady of the demi-monde; generally, though not invariably, applied to
+one of the better class. Women of this status were also called by the <i>Times</i> <span class="sc">pretty horsebreakers</span>, a notorious <span class="sc">anonyma</span> (<i>circa</i> 1868) having been a good horsewoman. Another and earlier name <span class="pageNum" id="pb58">[<a href="#pb58">58</a>]</span>was <span class="sc">Incognita</span>; this as well as <span class="sc">anonyma</span> had reference to the unrecognised position these ladies hold in what is called ‘Society,’
+which tries to shut its eyes to a product of its own vice. The French <i>cocotte</i> best corresponds to the English term. For synonyms generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Quite Alone</i>, ch. i. Is that <span class="sc">anonyma</span> driving twin ponies in a low phaeton, a parasol attached to her whip, and a groom
+with folded arms behind her? Bah! there are so many <span class="sc">anonymas</span> nowadays. If it isn’t the Nameless One herself, it is Synonyma.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">Ouida</span>, <i>Strathmore</i>, ch. vi. ‘I’m getting tired of Mondes, one confounds so easily with Demi-monde, and
+aristocrats that are so near allied to <span class="sc">anonyma</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">Doran</span>, <i>In and about Drury Lane</i>, vol. II., p. 159. Those <span class="sc">anonymas</span>, who dress with such exquisite propriety lest they should be mistaken for modest
+women.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Modern Society</i>, July 13, p. 852. ‘Christopher’s Honeymoon,’ by Mr. Malcolm Watson, produced at the
+Strand, on Wednesday, is not wholly bad, but it is <i>too thin</i>. The honeymooner is surprised at his wedding breakfast by the news that a former
+wife, whom he thought dead, is still alive. Matters are still further complicated
+when his mother-in-law mistakes his buxom laundress for a fair <span class="sc">anonyma</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Another.</b> <span class="sc">You’re another</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—A retort—in usage hardly courteous or suave. Generally spoken in anger
+or resentment. The quotations which follow specify clearly the manner of use. It is
+interesting to note how very old is this common rejoinder—nearly 350 years; it is,
+moreover, an example which fully illustrates the value of the historical method in
+dealing with slang words and phrases.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">c. 1534. <span class="sc">N. Udall</span>, <i>Roister Doister</i>, III., v., p. 58 (Arber). <span class="sc">R. Royster.</span> If it were another but thou, it were a tenane. <span class="sc">M. Mery.</span> <span class="sc">Ye are an other</span> your selfe, sir. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. IX., ch. vi. ‘You mistake me, friend,’ cries Partridge, ‘I did not mean to abuse
+the cloth; I only said your conclusion was a <i lang="la">non-sequitur</i>.’ ‘<span class="sc">You are another</span>,’ cries the Serjeant, ‘an’ you come to that. No more a <i lang="la">sequitur</i> than yourself.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick</i>, ch. xv., p. 123. ‘Sir,’ said Mr. Tupman, ‘you’re a fellow.’ ‘Sir,’ said Mr. Pickwick,
+‘<span class="sc">you’re another</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">Sir W. Harcourt</span>, <i>Speech at Eighty Club</i>, Feb. 21. You know the little urchins in the street have a conclusive argument. They
+say ‘<span class="sc">you’re another</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Another Acrobat</b>, <i>phr.</i> (music-hall).—Another drink—<span class="sc">acrobat</span> being a play upon the word ‘tumbler,’ <i>i.e.</i>, a glass.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Another Guess</b>, <i>adj.</i>, or <b>Another Guess Sort of Man</b>, <i>phr.</i> (old). A cute man; one who is, in modern lingo, <span class="sc">up to snuff</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). ‘Guess’ suggests an erroneous derivation; the word is really a corruption of ‘<span class="sc">another-gates</span>’ [according to Murray the original genitive case ‘of another-gate, <i>i.e.</i>, of another way, manner, or fashion’].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Another Lie Nailed to the Counter</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A detected slander. The practice of nailing spurious coins to shop counters
+is, even yet, not an obsolete custom in country districts; and hence, probably, is
+derived this colloquialism.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, Oct. 20. ‘Who employed you last?’ ‘A Republican speaker, who had me back up his
+declaration that Cleveland was in the habit of beating his wife!’ ‘But that <span class="sc">lie was nailed</span> a good while ago.’ ‘I know it,’ chuckled the <span class="sc">C.L<span>.</span></span>, ‘but it’s easy enough to pull out the nail.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb59">[<a href="#pb59">59</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Antagonise</b>, <i>verb.</i> (sporting).—This, ‘to act as an opponent,’ sounds very like slang; but, as a matter
+of fact, so long as the antagonising forces are of the same kind the word is legitimate
+enough. It has been so used from 1634 downwards, by Herbert, Keats, John Stuart Mill,
+and others. Only when (as for example in America a person in political phraseology
+is said to <span class="sc">antagonise</span> a measure when it is meant that he opposes it) the word is used in connection with
+antagonistic forces <i>not</i> of a kind can it be regarded as partaking of slang. In the quotation by Barrère from
+the <i>Saturday Review</i> (no date given: refer, however, to <i>Sat. R.</i>, Dec. 18, 1886, p. 799) the word is used in a perfectly correct manner.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Saturday Review</i> on Sporting Slang, 18 Dec, p. 799, col. 1. Dingley Dell sent Jones and Robinson to
+the wickets, where they were antagonised with the leather by Alf and the Young Phenomenon.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anthony</b>, or <b>To Cuff Anthony</b>, <i>verb.</i> (old).—To knock one’s knees together from an infirmity. Also called <span class="sc">to cuff Jonas</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Antony</span>, or <span class="sc">Anthony Cuffin</span>, <i>subs.</i>—A knock-kneed man.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anthony</b>, or <b>Tantony Pig</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Tantony pig</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1787. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. The favourite or smallest pig in the litter; to follow like a tantony pig, <i>i.e.</i>, St. Anthony’s pig, signified to follow close at one’s heels. St. Anthony, the hermit,
+was a swine herd, and is always represented with his bell and pig.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Antimony</b>, <i>subs.</i> (printers’).—Type; so called from one of its component parts.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anyhow.</b> <span class="sc">Anyhow you can fix it</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A slang expression of acquiescence as, <i>e.g.</i>, ‘I don’t know if you’ll succeed, but <span class="sc">anyhow you can fix it</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Any Other Man!</b> <i>phr.</i> (American).—A call to order addressed to prosy, discursive speakers when they give
+themselves over to the use of synonymous terms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Any Racket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—A penny faggot.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anything.</b> <span class="sc">Like</span>, or <span class="sc">as anything</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—A vulgarism rather than slang. Used in the same manner, as are <span class="sc">like one o’clock</span>; <span class="sc">like old boots</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), when a person is at a loss for a simile.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Winkey</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1542. <span class="sc">Udall’s</span> <i>Erasmus Apoph.</i>, p. 32. The young maiden, where the lokers on quaked and trembled for feare, daunced
+without any feare at all emong sweardes and kniues, beyng as sharpe <span class="sc">as anythyng</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1740. <span class="sc">Richardson</span>, <i>Pamela</i>, ii., 57. O my dear father and mother, I fear your girl will grow as proud <span class="sc">as anything</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Misadv. at Margate</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The tear-drop in his little eye again began to spring, </p>
+<p class="line">His bosom throbb’d with agony, he cried <span class="sc">like anything</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1878. <span class="sc">Carroll</span>, <i>Through a Looking Glass</i>, iv., 73. They wept <span class="sc">like anything</span> to see such quantities of sand.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anythingarian</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A contemptuous term for one who is apathetic as regards his political or
+religious creed, or other matters upon which mankind generally hold decided views.
+[From <span class="sc">anything</span> + <span class="sc">arian</span>, after <i>trinit</i>-<span class="sc">arian</span>, <i>unit</i>-<span class="sc">arian</span>.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb60">[<a href="#pb60">60</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1717. <i>Entertainer</i>, Nov. 6 [quoted in N. &amp; Q., 7 S., vi., 66]. Nor, which is ten times worse, Free-thinkers,
+Atheists, <span class="sc">Anythingarians</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i> (conv. i.).
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Lady Sm.</i> What religion is he of?
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Lady Sp.</i> Why, he is an <span class="sc">anythingarian</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Lady Ans.</i> I believe he has his religion to chuse, my lord.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">C. Kingsley</span>, <i>Alton Locke</i>, ch. xxii. They made puir Robbie Burns an <span class="sc">anythingarian</span> with their blethers.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anythingarianism</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The creed or doctrine of an Anythingarian.—[<i>See</i> preceding].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">C. Kingsley</span> (<i>Life</i>, i., 215). Schiller’s ‘Gods of Greece’ expresses, I think, a tone of feeling very
+common, and which finds its vent in modern Neo-Platonism—<span class="sc">Anythingarianism</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anything Else.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Not doing anything else</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Anywhere Down There!</b> (tailors’).—If, in a workroom or elsewhere where tailors congregate, an article is
+dropped upon the floor, <span class="sc">anywhere down there!</span> is used as a kind of catch-phrase.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apartments.</b> <span class="sc">To have apartments to let</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (popular).—1. To take rank in the estimation of one’s fellows as an idiot; ‘a born
+fool’—one who is empty-headed, not furnished with brains.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> To be dotty; to have a screw loose; to be balmy; to have a bee in one’s bonnet (Scotch);
+to be off one’s chump; to have no milk in the cocoa-nut; to be touched; to be balmy
+in one’s crumpet; to be wrong in the upper storey; to have rats in the upper storey;
+to have a tile loose; to be half baked.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Avoir une écrevisse dans la tourte</i>, or <i lang="fr">dans le vol-au-vent</i> (popular: that is ‘to have a crawfish in the pie,’ or ‘in the head.’ <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to have rats in the upper storey’); <i lang="fr">avoir la boule détraquée</i> (popular: lit. ‘to have one’s ball turned’); <i lang="fr">avoir le coco félé</i> (popular: lit. ‘to have one’s cocoa nut cracked.’ In English slang the head is also
+called a ‘cocoa-nut’); <i lang="fr">avoir le trognon détraquée</i> (popular: ‘to have a bee in one’s bonnet.’ <i lang="fr">Trognon</i> is also a slang term for the head or ‘noddle’); <i lang="fr">avoir un asticot dans la noisette</i> (popular: lit. ‘to have a maggot in one’s nut.’ In English slang the head is likewise
+‘the nut.’ <i>Cf.</i>, also the expression ‘a worm in the bud’); <i lang="fr">avoir un bœuf gras dans le char</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">avoir un cancrelat dans la boule</i> (popular: lit. ‘to have a cockroach in one’s ball’—‘ball’ here <span class="corr" id="xd33e9105" title="Source: refering">referring</span> to the head or ‘nut.’ <i lang="fr">Cancrelat</i> is properly <i>kakerlac</i> or American cockroach); <i lang="fr">avoir un hanneton dans le reservoir</i> (popular: lit. ‘to have a May-bug’ or ‘cockchafer in one’s cistern’ or ‘well.’ This
+seems to be on all fours with ‘a bee in one’s bonnet.’ The phrase sometimes runs <i lang="fr">avoir un hanneton dans le plafond</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, to have a cockchafer in one’s ceiling, and here the analogy between the two phrases
+is more clearly marked); <i lang="fr">avoir un moustique dans la boite au sel</i> (popular: lit. ‘to have a mosquito in the salt-box or cellar’); <i lang="fr">avoir un voyageur dans l’omnibus</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">avoir une araignée dans le plafond</i> (popular: lit. ‘to have a spider in<span id="xd33e9131"></span> the head<span>’</span>; <i lang="fr">plafond</i>, ‘a ceiling,’ be it noted is a slang term for ‘the <span class="pageNum" id="pb61">[<a href="#pb61">61</a>]</span>head’); <i lang="fr">avoir une grenouille dans l’aquarium</i> (popular: lit: ‘to have a frog in one’s aquarium’); <i lang="fr">avoir une hirondelle dans le soliveau</i> (popular: ‘to have a swallow in the head’); <i lang="fr">avoir une Marseillaise dans le Kiosque</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">avoir une punaise dans le soufflet</i> (popular: ‘to have a bug in one’s brain’); <i lang="fr">avoir une sardine dans l’armoire à glace</i> (popular: ‘to have a sardine in the head or brain.’ <i lang="fr">Armoire à glace</i> = the head); <i lang="fr">avoir une trichinne dans le jambonneau</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">jambonneau</i>, the head); <i lang="fr">avoir une sauterelle dans la guitare</i> (popular: lit. ‘to have a grasshopper in the guitar’).
+</p>
+<p>For other synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tile loose</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A widow is said <span class="sc">to have apartments to let</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ape-leader</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An old maid. Leading apes in hell was the employment jocularly assigned to
+those who neglected to assume marital functions while living.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1581. <span class="sc">Lyly</span>, <i>Euphucs</i> (Arb.), 87. Rather thou shouldest leade a lyfe to thine owne lyking in earthe, than
+… <span class="sc">leade apes in hell</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1605. <i>Lond. Prodigal</i>, I., 2. ’Tes an old proverb, and you know it well, that women dying maids <span class="sc">lead apes in hell</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1717. <span class="sc">Mrs. Centlivre</span>, <i>Bold Stroke</i>, II., 1. Poor girl; she must certainly <span class="sc">lead apes</span>, as the saying is.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">General P. Thompson</span>, <i>Exerc.</i> (1842), I., 198. Joining with other old women, in <span class="sc">leading their apes</span> in Tartarus. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>There are several proverbial sayings in which the ape plays an important part. <span class="sc">To say an ape’s paternoster</span> is to chatter with cold; this corresponds with the French, <i lang="fr">dire des patenôtres de singe</i>. <span class="sc">To put an ape into one’s hood</span> or <span class="sc">cap</span>, to make a fool of one, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apes</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—Atlantic and North-Western Railway first mortgage bonds.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apostles</b>, or <b>The Twelve Apostles</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (Cambridge Univ.).—Formerly, when the Poll, or ordinary B.A. degree list was arranged
+in order of merit, the last twelve were nicknamed <span class="sc">The Twelve Apostles</span>. They were also called <span class="sc">The Chosen Twelve</span>, and the last, St. Poll or St. Paul—a punning allusion to 1 Cor. xv., 9, ‘For I am
+the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle.’ The list is
+now arranged alphabetically and in classes. Hotten suggests that <span class="sc">Apostles</span> is a corruption of <i lang="la">post alios</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘after the others.’ It may perhaps also be mentioned that in one American University
+at least, Columbia College, D.C., the last twelve on the B.A. list actually receive
+the personal names of the Apostles.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1795. <i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i>, Jan., p. 19. [The last twelve names on the Cambridge list are here called <span class="sc">The Twelve Apostles</span>.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Manœuvering the Apostles</span>, a variant of the familiar expression, ‘to rob Peter to pay Paul’; <i>i.e.</i>, to borrow from one person to pay another.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apostle’s Grove</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The London district known as St. John’s Wood. Also called <span class="sc">grove of the evangelist</span>. Both names are applied sarcastically in allusion to the large numbers of the demi-monde
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb62">[<a href="#pb62">62</a>]</span>who live in that quarter of town.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apothecary.</b> <span class="sc">To talk like an apothecary</span>, <i>verb phr.</i> (old).—To talk nonsense; from the pseudo gravity and affectation of knowledge often
+assumed by these gentlemen at a time when their status was not legally held under
+examination and license of the Apothecaries’ Company.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Apothecaries’ bill</span>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A long bill.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Apothecaries’</span>, or <span class="sc">raw Latin</span>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Now called <span class="sc">dog-Latin</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apple Cart</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common). 1. The human body. A slang term similar to ‘<span class="sc">potato trap</span>,’ ‘<span class="sc">bread-basket</span>,’ ‘<span class="sc">bellows</span>,’ ‘<span class="sc">blue plumb</span>,’ ‘<span class="sc">bacon</span>,’ and ‘<span class="sc">beer-barrel</span>’ (all of which see). There are numerous variations in usage; <i>e.g.</i>, if two men are quarrelling, and a friend of one interferes saying ‘I will upset
+his <span class="sc">apple cart</span>’ it means, ‘while you are parleying with the enemy I will knock him down.’ Again,
+if a child falls down, says W.&nbsp;W. Skeat (referring to his early Kentish remembrance
+of the word), you first enquire if he is much hurt. If he is merely a little frightened
+you say, ‘Well, never mind, then; you’ve only upset your <span class="sc">apple cart</span> and spilt the gooseberries.’ The child laughs and all is well again.
+</p>
+<p>2. Also employed in a figurative sense. <span class="sc">To upset an apple cart</span> sometimes means, not so much to knock a man down, as to prevent him from doing what
+he wants to do by the upsetting as it were, of an imaginary <span class="sc">apple cart</span>; <i>i.e.</i>, to thwart; to disarrange; to overthrow; to ruin an undertaking. Sometimes the expression
+is varied by <span class="sc">to upset the old woman’s apple cart</span>. Barrère’s reference of the genesis of the phrase to the costermonger’s imaginative
+powers is ‘all conjecture and fancy’; as also is his American derivation of the expression
+in its more figurative sense. In the first place <span class="sc">apple carts</span> are perfectly familiar objects in all country districts; and, in the second, the
+phrase is too old a provincialism to need deriving from the peripatetic vendors in
+question. Further, though <span class="sc">to upset his apple cart and spill the peaches</span> may be an American variation for the second sense, as it appears to have been so
+used, dialectically, throughout England, the weight of assumption must be given to
+its English origin, and subsequent transference to America.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Beer-barrel; bacon.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Acabit</i> (literally, quality); <i lang="fr">cylindre</i> (popular: lit. ‘a cylinder,’ or ‘barrel.’ <i>Cf.</i> with English ‘beer barrel’); <i lang="fr">grosse caisse</i> (popular: lit. ‘a large case,’ or ‘box’); <i lang="fr">paillasse</i> (popular: lit. ‘a straw mattress’); also <i lang="fr">place d’armes</i>; <i lang="fr">casaquin</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apple Dumpling Shop</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—A woman’s bosom. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dairies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apple-Monger.</b>—The same as <span class="sc">apple-squire</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apple-Pie Bed</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—A practical joke, which consists in making up a bed with the sheets doubled
+half way <span class="pageNum" id="pb63">[<a href="#pb63">63</a>]</span>up, so as to prevent a person from stretching out at full length, and filling the
+bag thus formed with brushes, soap-dishes, etc. So called, either from the apple-turnover,
+in which the ‘paste’ is turned over the apples, or from the French, <i lang="fr">à plis</i>, folded.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <span class="sc">C.&nbsp;K. Sharpe</span>, in <i>Correspondence</i> (1888), i., 466. After squeezing myself up, and making a sort of <span class="sc">apple-pye bed</span> with the beginning of my sheet.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Saturday Review</i>, Nov. 3, p. 566, col. 2. Some ‘evil-disposed persons’ have already visited his room,
+<span class="sc">made his bed into an apple-pie</span>, plentifully strewn with hair-brushes and razors.
+</p>
+<p>The French have an analogous phrase, ‘<i lang="fr">mettre un lit en portefeuille</i>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apple-Pie Day</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (Winchester Coll.)—The day on which Six-and-Six (<i>q.v.</i>) is played. It is the Thursday after the first Tuesday in December. So called because
+hot apple-pies were served on <span class="sc">gomers</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) in College for dinner.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apple Pie Order</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (familiar).—Exact or perfect order. <span class="corr" id="xd33e9483" title="Source: Etymolygists">Etymologists</span> have long puzzled themselves concerning this expression, and many derivations have
+been put forward in explanation. Some have found in it an allusion to the regular
+order in which the component parts of some varieties of that toothsome delicacy, apple
+pie, were formerly laid one on the top of, or side by side with each other. Others,
+on the contrary, scout such a homely origin, and suggest that <span class="sc">apple pie order</span> is <i lang="fr">cap à pied</i> order. The authorities who incline to this view point out that <i lang="fr">cap à pied</i> in the sense of ‘perfectly appointed’ occurs in one of the scenes of <i>Hamlet</i>. Though orthographically the transition from one to the other, at first sight, would
+appear to be somewhat lame and halting, yet phonetically the difference is much less
+marked. It has further been suggested that <span class="sc">apple pie order</span> is a corruption of ‘Alpha-beta’ <i>i.e.</i>, alphabetical order, but this would seem rather far-fetched, as also is the reference
+of it to the nursery rhyme of ‘A was an apple pie; B bit it; C cut it; D divided it,’
+and so on, the allusion being to the regular order in which the letters of the alphabet
+occur. Probably the weight of evidence is on the side of the derivation from <i lang="fr">cap à pied</i>, more especially as that phrase was once very familiar.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1813. <span class="sc">Scott</span> in Lochart, <i>Life</i>, IV. (1839), 131. The children’s garden is in <span class="sc">apple pie order</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Jacob Faithful</i>, viii., 29. Put the craft a little into <span class="sc">apple pie order</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Old Woman in Grey</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I am just in the <i>order</i> which some folks—though why, </p>
+<p class="line">I am sure I can’t tell you—would call <i>apple pie</i>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Apples.</b> <span class="sc">How we apples swim!</span> <i>phr.</i> (common).—<i>i.e.</i>, ‘What a good time we are having.’ This expression, a very old one, is synonymous
+with pleasureable experience coupled with brisk action.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1697–1764. <span class="sc">Hogarth</span> (Works by J. Ireland and J. Nichols, London, 1873), III., p. 29. And even this, little
+as it is, gives him so much importance in his own eyes, that he assumes a consequential
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb64">[<a href="#pb64">64</a>]</span>air, sets his arms akimbo, and strutting among the historical artists cries, ‘<span class="sc">how we apples swim</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <i>Cornhill Mag.</i> (D. Mallett, <i>Tyburn</i>), Dec., p. 737. While tumbling down the turbid stream, Lord, love us, <span class="sc">how we apples swim</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apples and Pears</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (rhyming slang).—A pair of stairs.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apple-Squire</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A harlot’s attendant, or <span class="sc">fancy man</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); these gentry are now commonly called ‘<span class="sc">bullies</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>). Nares gives ‘<span class="sc">squire of the body</span>’ as a synonymous term; also <span class="sc">apron-squire</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1500. (<i>circa</i>) <i>Way to Spyttel Hous</i>, 832 in Hazl. <i>E.&nbsp;P. P.</i>, iv., 60. [Here given as <span class="sc">applesquyers</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">[1580–1654] <span class="sc">Taylor</span>, <i>Discourse by Sea</i> (works II., 21).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Are whoremasters decai’d, are bawds all dead, </p>
+<p class="line">Are pandars, pimps, and <span class="sc">apple-squires</span> all fled? [<span class="asc">N.</span>] </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1738. <i>Poor Robin</i>.… Little truth will be found amongst cut-purses, liars, bawds, whores, pimps, pandars,
+and <span class="sc">apple-squires</span>; only the pimp pretends to something more of truth than the other, for if he promise
+to help you to a whore, he will be sure that she shall not be an honest woman. [<span class="asc">N.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms, ancient and modern, and also foreign equivalents, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Fancy man</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apron.</b> <span class="sc">Green apron</span>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A contemptuous term for a lay preacher.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bible-pounder</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1654. <span class="sc">Warren</span>, <i>Unbelievers</i>, 145. It more befits a <span class="sc">green-apron</span> preacher, than such a Gamaliel. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Hickeringill</span>, <i>Priestcraft</i> I. (1721). 21. Unbeneficed Noncons. (that live by Alms and no Paternoster, no Penny,
+say the <span class="sc">green-aprons</span>). [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1765. <span class="sc">Tucker</span>, <i>Lt. Nat.</i>, II., 451. The gifted priestess amongst the Quakers is known by her <span class="sc">green apron</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aproneer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A shop-keeper; a tradesman. Murray states that the term was used contemptuously
+of the Parliamentary party during the Civil Wars.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1659. <span class="sc">Gauden</span>, <i>Tears of Church</i>, 238. Some prating sequestrator, or some surly <span class="sc">aproneer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. <span class="sc">D’urfey</span>, <i>Collin’s Walk</i>, c. iii., p. 107. But every sturdy <span class="sc">aproneer</span>, arm’d with battoon, did straight appear.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apron-Rogue</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A labourer; a mechanic.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">Killegrew</span>, <i>Parson’s Wedding</i> in Dodsley’s Old Plays (1780), XI., 382. <span class="sc">Apron-rogues</span> with horn hands. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apron-Squire.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Apple-squire</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apron-String Hold</b> or <b>Tenure</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (familiar).—An estate held by a man during his wife’s life; or by virtue of her right.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1647. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>Simp. Cobler</i>, 67. <span class="sc">Apron-string tenure</span> is very weak. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <span class="sc">Richardson</span>, <i>Grandison</i>, iv., 23. He cursed the <span class="sc">apron-string</span> tenure, by which he said he held his peace. [<span class="sc">d.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1804. <span class="sc">Mrs. Barbauld</span>, <i>Richardson</i> I., 160. All her fortune in her own power—a very <span class="sc">apron-string tenure</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Apron-Strings.</b> <span class="sc">To be tied to</span> or <span class="sc">always at a woman’s apron-strings</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (common).—Under petticoat government; to dangle after a woman. Formerly said only
+of children; later of all who follow a woman subserviently.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 506. The fair sex are so conscious to themselves, that they have nothing in
+them which can deserve entirely to ingross the whole man, that they heartily despise
+one, who, to use their own expression, is always <span class="sc">hanging at their apron-strings</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb65">[<a href="#pb65">65</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Miss Edgeworth</span>, <i>Helen</i>, ch. viii. A homebred lordling, who, from the moment he <span class="sc">slipped his mother’s apron-strings</span>, had fallen into folly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Macaulay</span>, <i>History of England</i>, II., 649. He could not submit to be <span class="sc">tied to the apron-strings</span> even of the best of wives.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aqua</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—Water. From the Latin.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aqua Pompaginis</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—Pump water [Dog-Latin; from L., <span class="sc">aqua</span>, water + English, <span class="sc">pump</span> + simulated Latin termination, <i lang="la">aginis</i>].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Aqua Pompaginis</span>.… Apothecaries’ Latin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 13. ‘Exactly my sentiments,’ rejoined Blueskin. ‘I wouldn’t force him
+for the world; but if he don’t <i>tip the stivers</i>, may I be cursed if he don’t get a taste of the <span class="sc">aqua pompaginis</span>. Let’s have a look at the <i>kinchen</i> that ought to have been throttled,’ added he, snatching the child from Wood. ‘My
+stars! here’s a pretty <i>lullaby-cheat</i> to make a fuss about—ho ho!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 15. ‘He shall go through the whole course,’ replied Blueskin, with a ferocious
+grin, ‘unless he comes down to the last grig. We’ll lather him with mud, shave him
+with a rusty razor, and drench him with <span class="sc">aqua pompaginis</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Adam’s ale</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aquatics</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Eton college).—The particular game of cricket in which men in the boats play.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aqua-Vitæ</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Formerly an alchemic term; but, after a while, popularly received as a generic
+name for ardent spirits, such as brandy, whiskey, etc. [From L. = water of life. <i>Cf.</i>, French <i lang="fr">eau-de-vie</i>, and Irish <i>usquebaugh</i>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arabs</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Nicknames for young street vagrants are numerous. They are ‘Bedouins,’
+‘Street Arabs,’ and ‘Juvenile Roughs’ in London; they are ‘Gamins’ in Paris; ‘Bowery
+Boys’ in New York; ‘Hoodlums’ in San Francisco; and ‘Larrikins’ in Melbourne. This
+last phrase is an Irish constable’s broad pronunciation of ‘larking,’ applied to the
+nightly street performances of these young scamps, there, as elsewhere, a real social
+pestilence.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Street Arab</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Guthrie</span>, <i>Plea for Ragged Schools</i>. [In this work the homeless wanderers and children of the streets were spoken of
+as <span class="sc">Arabs of the City</span>, and City Arabs.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arbor Vitæ</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The penis. [Latin; = the Tree of Life]. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Creamstick</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arch.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Ark</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arch-Cove</b> or <b>Arch-Rogue</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—The chief or leader of a gang of thieves. [From Greek, <i>archo</i> to be first, to command, to rule + <span class="sc">cove</span>, a slang term for a man.] Formerly also <span class="sc">dimber damber</span>, <span class="sc">upright man</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cove</span> and <span class="sc">Area sneak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Archdeacon</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Oxford Univ.).—Merton strong ale.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arch-Dell</b> or <b>Arch-Doxy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The wife or female companion of an <span class="sc">arch-cove</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dell</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Archduke</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—A buffoon; an eccentric person.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb66">[<a href="#pb66">66</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arch Gonnof.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dimber damber</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ard</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American thieves’).—Hot; a corrupted form of ‘ardent.’ Formerly ‘a foot.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Creepers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Area-Sneak</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A thief who lurks about areas for the purposes of theft.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>, ch. lix., p. 480. ‘Why wasn’t I a thief, swindler, housebreaker, <span class="sc">area-sneak</span>, robber of pence out of the trays of blind man’s dogs?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <i>English Mechanic</i>, 14 May, p. 181, col. 1. [They] would invariably become pickpockets or <span class="sc">area-sneaks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <b>Daily Telegraph</b>, June 13, p. 7, col. 3. The <span class="sc">area-sneak</span>, too, may find his occupation partially gone through the strictness of the rules
+which encompass the trade of the second-hand dealer.
+</p>
+<p>Among other names for thieves may be mentioned:—
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English and American.</span> Beak or beaker-hunter (a poultry thief); bug-hunter (speciality—breast pins, studs,
+etc.); buz-faker (a pickpocket); buttock and file (a shoplifter); bouncer (one who
+steals while bargaining with a tradesman; a shoplifter); bridle-cull (a highwayman);
+cracksman (a burglar); crossman (an old term. Literally a man ‘on the cross,’ or who
+gets his living surreptitiously); cross-cove (<i>see</i> foregoing); conveyancer (a pickpocket); dancer (a thief who gains entrance to houses
+from the roof); flash-cove (a sharper); flashman (a prostitute’s bully who pretends
+to catch the victim <i lang="la">in flagrante delicto</i> with his <i>wife</i>, and thus makes an excuse for robbery and extortion); finder (a thief who confines
+his depredations to meat-markets and butchers’ shops); gun (a contraction of <span class="sc">gonnof</span>, which <i>see</i>); gleaner, hooker, or angler (these are petty thieves, who work with hooks and rods);
+lob-sneak; lully-prigger (one who steals clothes when they are hanging out to dry);
+snakesman or sneaksman (a shoplifter; a petty thief); sneeze-lurker (this kind work
+by first blinding victims with pepper, etc.); moucher (a prowling thief); mill-ben
+(an old cant term, which <i>see</i>); prig; prop-nailer (a ‘prop’ is a scarf pin); palmer (a thief who ‘rings the changes’;
+but <i>see</i> under <span class="sc">Palmer</span>); pudding-snammer (an eating-house thief); drummer or drammer (these gentry stupify
+their victims prior to robbing them); stook-hauler (speciality—pocket-handkerchiefs);
+tooler (a pickpocket); toy-getter (a watch thief).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un droguiste</i> (corresponds to the English ‘hawk’ or ‘rook’); <i lang="fr">un chêne affranchi</i> (a ‘flash cove’); <i lang="fr">un careur</i>, or <i lang="fr">voleur à la care</i> (thief who robs money-changers while pretending to offer old coins for sale); <i lang="fr">un enfant de la matte</i> (‘a child of folly.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Family man</span>); <i lang="fr">un tiretaine</i> (a country thief); <i lang="fr">un garçon de cambrouse</i> (a highwayman); <i lang="fr">un garçon de campagne</i> (same as example last quoted); <i lang="fr">un frère de la manicle</i>; <i lang="fr">un philantrope</i> (a peddlar’s term); <i lang="fr">un bonjourier</i> or <i lang="fr">voleur au bonjour</i> (an early morning thief, but <i>see</i> under <span class="sc">Thieves</span>); <i lang="fr">un philibert</i> (of the sharper stamp); <i lang="fr">un philosophe</i> (lit. ‘a philosopher’); <i lang="fr">un enfant de minuit</i> (formerly, says Cotgrave, <i lang="fr">enfants de la messe de minuit</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, companions of the midnight <span class="pageNum" id="pb67">[<a href="#pb67">67</a>]</span>mass, not for devotion, but for robbery and abuse); <i lang="fr">ramastiqueur</i> (one who swindles by means of pocket-book dropping, etc.—a variety of the confidence
+trick); <i lang="fr">un jardinier</i>, <i lang="fr">un Americain</i> (‘confidence trick’ men); <i lang="fr">un tirebogue</i> (a watch thief; in English slang a ‘toy-getter’); <i lang="fr">un friauche</i>; <i lang="fr">un grinchisseur de bogues</i> (a watch thief); <i lang="fr">un mion de boule</i> (equivalent to the English ‘prig’); <i lang="fr">un fil de soie</i>; <i lang="fr">un doubleur</i> (= English ‘prig’; <i lang="fr">un doubleur de sorgue</i>, ‘a night thief’); <i lang="fr">un voleur à la tire</i> (a pickpocket); <i lang="fr">un tireur</i> (a pickpocket; literally ‘one who draws out’); etc.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms.</span> <i lang="de">Broschem-blatter</i>; <i lang="de">cochem</i> (a thieves’ accomplice; from Hebrew <i lang="und">chochem</i>, wise, instructed); <i lang="de">erntemackener</i> (thieves who steal from houses while the owners are away harvesting. From <i lang="de">erndte</i>, harvest + <i lang="de">machen</i>, to make); <i lang="de">anstiebler</i> (one who plans robberies; an instigator to theft. A corrupted form of <i lang="de">anstifter</i>, an instigator); <i lang="de">achbrosch</i> (also <i lang="de">achberosch</i>, <i lang="de">achperosch</i>, <i lang="de">achprosch</i>, <i lang="de">approsch</i>, an infamous thief or robber, a rogue, a sharper. Not so much from the Chaldean <i lang="und">achbero</i>, a mouse + <i lang="und">rosch</i>, head, as from the passage <i>Jer. Baba. Mez.</i> 8., <i lang="und">achberi reschii</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘the mice are vile.’ Hence applied primarily to a notorious thief. Thiele says the
+expressions have not been so much in use since the suppression of the famous Rhenish
+robber gang; the words, however, particularly <i lang="de">achbrosch</i>, are not by any means obsolete, being very much in use by cattle and horsedealers,
+and sharpers generally); <i lang="und">ganof</i> (Hebrew, ‘a thief’; from <i lang="und">gonaw</i>, ‘to steal’); <i lang="de">achelpeter</i> (an inactive lazy old thief who sponges upon his confederates. From Hebrew <i lang="und">ochal</i>, to eat + <i lang="de">putzen</i>, from O.H.G., <i>bizan</i>, <i>pizzan</i>, ‘food’); <i lang="de">golehopser</i> (a thief who jumps on a loaded cart or other vehicle whilst in motion to steal boxes
+or small packages. In English slang this kind of thief is called a ‘dragsman’); <i lang="de">goleschàchter</i> (the same as preceding, but instead of making off bodily with the booty, the packages
+are cut open, and the contents thrown down for an accomplice to secure); <i lang="de">bihengst</i> (a thief who steals bees); <i lang="de">baldower</i> (a principal, or leader of a gang of thieves; one who advises and plans robberies.
+<i lang="de">Balhoche</i> is also a man who has an opportunity for theft; <i lang="de">balspiess</i><span id="xd33e10313">,</span> the host of an inn, frequented by thieves and rogues); <i lang="de">brenner</i> (a thief who preys upon others of his kind, by demanding, under threats of exposure,
+a share of a successful robbery, without having taken part in it. From <i lang="de">brennen</i>, ‘to claim’; literally ‘to burn’; or it may be from <i lang="de">berennen</i>, ‘to run against or blockade’); <i lang="de">chalfan</i> (also <i lang="de">chalfen</i>, <i lang="de">chalfener</i>, <i lang="de">chilfer</i>, legitimately ‘a money changer,’ but amongst German thieves the name of the rogue
+who, in changing money, commits theft. <i>Cf.</i>, English, ‘ringing the changes’); <i lang="de">chawer</i> (Hebrew: literally an associate; <i lang="de">chaweress</i> [<i>fem.</i>], a thief’s confederate; a comrade. <i lang="de">Chawrusse</i>, <i lang="de">kabruse</i>, a gang or confederation of thieves; <i lang="de">chawrusse melochenen</i>, to form a gang of thieves; <i lang="de">chenneter</i>, a thief who knows how to conduct himself with tact and address in good society.
+From <span class="pageNum" id="pb68">[<a href="#pb68">68</a>]</span>the Hebrew <i lang="und">chono</i>, gentle, kind, affable); <i lang="de">chessenspiess</i>, <i>fem.</i>, <i lang="de">chessenspiesse</i> (the landlord or mistress of an inn frequented by thieves—a place where they may
+find refuge without fear of discovery. From the Hebrew); <i lang="und">chechom</i> (also <i lang="und">chochem</i>, <i lang="de">chochemer</i>,—more frequently spelled with ‘K’—from the Hebrew, the wise one. A prudent, cunning
+thief. <i lang="und">Chochem lehorre</i>, a dangerous thief, one prepared for the worst; of a similar meaning is <i lang="und">chochem mechutten</i>, a dangerous companion, a rogue of the worst type); <i lang="de">bahnherr</i> (also <i lang="de">bohnherr</i> and <i lang="de">Herr</i> by itself: literally ‘a road-master’; a burglar—one who prepares a robbery); <i lang="de">diffler</i> (a thoroughly dexterous thief; from <i lang="de">tupfel</i>, ‘a point’); <i lang="de">drängler</i> (a thief, who, to divert the attention of people from his intention, causes a crowd
+to assemble); <i lang="de">paddendrücker</i> (a pickpocket—one whose speciality is purses: <i lang="de">drücker</i> is a corrupted form of <i lang="de">trecken</i>, ‘to draw’ or ‘steal’ quickly and adroitly. <i lang="de">Drücker</i>, like <i lang="de">drücken</i>, ‘to steal’ is never used by itself, but always with the object of the theft; hence
+<i lang="de">paddendrücker</i>, a purse thief; <i lang="de">luppendrücker</i>, a watch thief; <i lang="de">torfdrücker</i>, a generic name for a pickpocket); <i lang="de">eintreiber</i> (a confederate who entices a victim to play so that his comrade may swindle him);
+<i lang="de">erefschieber</i> (a thief who goes out at evening time to commit robberies. Also <i lang="de">erefhalchener</i>, <i lang="de">erefgänger</i>, <i lang="de">erefhändler</i>. <i lang="und">Eref</i> = evening); <i lang="de">fichtegänger</i> (a night thief or burglar); <i lang="de">fiesel</i> (supposed to be derived from <i lang="de">faser</i>, ‘a birch,’ ‘rod,’ or ‘fibre.’ In Vienna, the scum of society is meant by <i lang="de">fiesel</i>—the commonest thief, professional vagabond, a protector of brothels and whores of
+the most repulsive kind. These thieves are of great daring, utterly unscrupulous,
+and are consequently much dreaded. Some feign to carry on the business of a rag and
+bone-picker, what in the <i lang="de">fiesellange</i> or Viennese thieves’ lingo is termed, ‘going out for profit.’ In the sense of ‘a
+rod,’ <i lang="de">fiesel</i> is applied to the <i lang="la">membrum genitale masculi</i>; hence fiesel as synonymous with strength, <i>i.e.</i>, pertaining to the stronger sex. It was formerly used in connection with many other
+words; <i>e.g.</i>, <i lang="de">mädchenfiesel</i>, ‘one who habitually runs after women,’ ‘a molrower,’ a ‘loose fish.’ <i lang="de">Fiesel</i>-language means the language of the strong, of those belonging to the fellowship of
+thieves, burglars, and rowdies); <i lang="de">freikäufer</i> (a thief whose speciality it is to steal at fairs and markets); <i lang="de">freischupper</i> (a card sharper; a gambling cheat who carries on his business in crowded places of
+public resort); <i lang="de">gacheler</i> (also <i lang="de">gachler</i>, <i lang="de">gackler</i>, <i lang="de">kachler</i>, <i lang="de">kakler</i>, <i lang="de">kegler</i>: a pantry thief; one who steals eatables and plate from kitchens whilst servants
+are attending at table); <i lang="und">gannew</i> (from Hebrew <i lang="und">gonaw</i>, ‘to steal’); <i lang="de">gaslan</i> (from Hebrew <i lang="und">gosal</i>, ‘to rob’); <i lang="de">glitscher</i> (gypsy: <i>glitschin</i>, ‘the key<span>’</span>: a thief who works by means of skeleton keys); <i lang="und">godler chochem</i> (from Hebrew <i lang="und">godol</i>, great, strong, celebrated + Hebrew <i lang="und">chochem</i>, the wise one; hence, a clever rogue, a thief who thoroughly understands his business);
+<i lang="und">goi gomur</i> (an utterly <span class="pageNum" id="pb69">[<a href="#pb69">69</a>]</span>unreliable confederate. <i lang="und">Goi</i>, plural <i lang="und">gojim</i> is applied to those not Jews, to Christians; in the plural, especially, in the sense
+of ignorant people, suspicious or two-faced characters; also used as a synonym for
+Philistine—a man of whom one has to be careful. <i lang="und">Goje</i> [<i>fem.</i>] is almost always used contemptuously for a female); <i lang="de">götte</i> (also <i lang="de">götti</i>, <i lang="de">göde</i>, <i lang="de">göttling</i> [O.H.G., <i lang="de">gataling</i>] a confederate, a relative—especially used to denote one who has been doing good
+business); <i lang="de">gutenmorgenwünscher</i> (literally ‘good morning wisher’: thieves who break into rooms early in the morning
+for purposes of robbery. The French have an analogous expression in <i lang="fr">bonjourier</i>, or <i lang="fr">voleur au bon jour</i>). For other synonyms, see <span class="sc">Thieves</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonyms</span> (Fourbesque). <i lang="it">Quadro</i> (a cut-purse. In the Germania or Spanish argot, <i lang="es">quadro</i> is used in the sense of ‘a poignard,’ and <i lang="it">quadrata</i> in that of ‘purse.’ Possibly the Fourbesque <i lang="it">quadro</i> is derived from one of these words. In Italian it is literally ‘a square’ or ‘a rule’);
+<i lang="it">granchetto</i> (also ‘one who speaks gibberish’); <i lang="it">lavorante di scarpe</i> (a pickpocket or cut-purse: lit. ‘working shoes’); <i lang="it">camuffo</i>; <i lang="it">fiadetto</i> (also ‘a dolt,’ ‘a duffer’); <i lang="it">carpione</i>; <i lang="it">truccante</i> (also ‘a beggar’).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Synonyms</span> (Germania). <i lang="es">Aquila</i> (a sharper: lit. ‘an eagle’); <i lang="es">bolador</i> (thought to be derived from the French <i lang="fr">voleur</i>); <i lang="es">comendadores de bola</i> (thieves who work principally at fairs and markets); <i lang="es">gerifalte</i> (lit. ‘a gerfalcon’—one of the ‘hawk’ species); <i lang="es">lince</i> (lit. ‘a lynx.’ This class of thief varies robbery with begging); <i lang="es">piloto</i> (a thief who directs others to the place of rendezvous, <i>i.e.</i>, where a robbery has been planned; lit. ‘a pilot’); <i lang="es">trabajar</i> (lit. ‘a traveller<span>’</span>).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Thieves</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Portuguese Synonyms</span> (<span id="xd33e10665">Calão</span>). <i lang="pt">Pai</i> (a captain of thieves—an Aaron or arch-cove); <i lang="pt">maguino</i> (a highwayman).
+</p>
+<p>For exhaustive and comparative description of all classes of thieves, both English
+and foreign, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Thieves—their names and methods</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arf</b>, <i>adj.</i> (vulgarism).—Half; <i>e.g.</i>, ‘’arf an ’our,’ <i>i.e.</i>, half an hour.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">’Arf and ’arf.</span>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Four-half</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Argal.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Argol-bargol</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Argol-Bargol</b>, <i>subs.</i> and <i>verb.</i> (old).—<span class="sc">Argol</span>, sometimes <span class="sc">argal</span>, is a corrupt pronunciation of Latin <i lang="la">ergo</i>, therefore; hence, from that word being frequently used in conversation, a clumsy,
+unsound piece of reasoning or cavilling; and verbally, to bandy words. Hotten says
+<span class="sc">argol-bargol</span> is Scotch, but <span class="sc">argal</span> is found in <i>Hamlet</i>, v. i., and the fuller form is probably <span class="corr" id="xd33e10735" title="Source: onamatopoetic">onomatopoetic</span> like ‘shilly-shally,’ ‘hocus-pocus,’ etc., unless it comes from the Hebrew through
+the Yiddish <i lang="und">bar-len</i> ‘to talk or speak’ [anyhow].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Shakspear</span>, <i>Hamlet</i> v. i., 21., <i>1st Clown.</i> Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water,
+it is, will he, nil he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, he drowns
+not himself: <span class="sc">argal</span>, he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb70">[<a href="#pb70">70</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1823. <span class="sc">J. Galt</span>, <i>The Entail</i>, i., 53. ‘Weel, weel,’ said the laird, ‘dinna let us <span class="sc">argol-bargol</span> about it; entail your own property as ye will, mine shall be on the second son.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>Times</i>, 23 Aug. Mr. Buckle’s argument [is] as absurd an <span class="sc">argal</span> as ever was invented by <span class="corr" id="xd33e10772" title="Source: philsopher">philosopher</span> or gravedigger. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Argol-Bargolous</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old).—Quarrelsome.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Argol-bargol</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">J. Galt</span>, <i>The Provost</i>, p. 194. No doubt his <span class="sc">argol-bargolous</span> disposition was an inheritance accumulated with his other conquest of wealth from
+the mannerless Yankees.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Argufy</b>, <i>verb.</i> (vulgar).—A corrupted form of ‘to argue,’ usually associated with cavilling or a
+bandying of words; also, ‘to signify’; <i>e.g.</i>, ‘It doesn’t much <span class="sc">argufy</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1758. <span class="sc">A. Murphy</span>, <i>The Upholsterer</i>, Act i. Well, it does not signify <span class="sc">argifying</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Ernest Maltravers</i>, bk. IV., ch. vii. ‘Lord! how I should like to have you on the roadside instead of
+within these four gimcrack walls. Ha! ha! the <span class="sc">argufying</span> would be all in <i>my</i> favour then.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aristippus</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A diet drink or decoction of sarsaparilla and other drugs, sold at the
+coffee-houses, and drank as tea.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p>2. Also a cant name for canary wine.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1627. (<i>circa</i>) <span class="sc">Middleton</span>, <i>Wks.</i> (Halliwell), II., 422. Rich <span class="sc">aristippus</span>, sparkling sherry.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arkansas Toothpick</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A grimly facetious name for a folding bowie knife of large dimensions.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Sir Theo. Martin</span> (with Prof. Aytoun), <i>Bon Gaultier Ballads</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘Straightway leaped the valiant Slingby </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Into armor of Seville, </p>
+<p class="line">With a strong <span class="sc">Arkansas toothpick</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Screwed in every joint of steel.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1881. <span class="sc">A.&nbsp;B. Greenleaf</span>, <i>Ten Years in Texas</i>, p. 27. All these (men) irrespective of age, size, or condition in life, could be
+seen with a Navy six-shooter and an <span class="sc">Arkansas toothpick</span> suspended to a raw-hide belt tucked around their waists. Supplement the above equipment
+with a sore-backed mustang pony, an old army saddle-tree and rope bridle, and you
+have an exact picture and entire possession of the fifteenth constitutional amendment.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, Aug. It is not good form to use a <span class="sc">toothpick</span> in <span class="sc">Arkansas</span> now. A big revolver is the thing in the best society.
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Chive</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ark-Floater</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—An actor well advanced in years. [From an allusion to the proverbial
+saying concerning anything ancient, ‘He, or it, must have come out of Noah’s <span class="sc">ark</span>,’ + <span class="sc">floats</span>, the footlights.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arkman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A Thames waterman. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Ackman</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ark-Ruff</b>, or <b>Ark-Ruffian</b>.—The same as <span class="sc">ack-man</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Armour.</b> <span class="sc">To be in armour</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old).—To be pot-valiant; ‘primed’; full of Dutch courage.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Armpits.</b> <span class="sc">To work under the armpits</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (old).—To sail so far to the windward of the law in petty larceny, that, if caught
+and tried, the punishment would not amount to more than transportation. On the passing
+of Sir Samuel Romilly’s Act, capital punishment was abolished for highway robberies
+under 40s. in value. Hence, formerly, <span class="sc">to work under the armpits</span> was to avoid the halter <span class="pageNum" id="pb71">[<a href="#pb71">71</a>]</span>or <span class="sc">neck-squeezer</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), which is applied <i>above</i> the armpits.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arm-Props</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Crutches; otherwise <span class="sc">wooden legs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Scene 6. <i>Beggar</i>: You did quite right; vell, vile I can get fifteen bob a day by gammoning a maim,
+the devil may vork for me. If any lady or gemman is inclined for a dance, I’ll nash
+my <span class="sc">arm-props</span> in a minute.
+</p>
+<p class="right">(<i>Throws down his crutches.</i>)
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arms and Legs</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—Poor, weak beer, because there is no body in it!—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Armstrong.</b> <span class="sc">To come Captain Armstrong.</span>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Captain Armstrong</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arrow</b> (vulgarism).—A corruption of ‘e’er, a,’ or ‘ever a.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. V., ch. viii. ‘I don’t believe there is <span class="sc">arrow</span> a servant in the house ever saw the colour of his money.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1771. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Humphrey Clinker</i>, i., 126. ‘I now carries my head higher than <span class="sc">arrow</span> private gentlewoman of Vales.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>’Arry</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The Christian name Harry without the aspirate. A popular embodiment of
+the vulgar, rollicking, yet on the whole good-tempered ‘rough’ of the great metropolis.
+His ‘get-up’ is, as he would himself put it, ‘immense’; he is seen to most advantage—his
+own—on Sundays and bank holidays; his ‘young woman’—generally <span id="xd33e11057">‘</span>’Arriet’—is <i>en suite</i>; taken altogether he is a lively, jovial, but ill-bred ‘cuss.’ <i>Mr. Punch</i> in an inimitable series of sketches has ‘hit off’ his man ‘to a T.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Millikin</span>, <i>Punch’s Almanac</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">January!</span> Tailor’s bill comes in. </p>
+<p class="line">Blow that blooming snip! I’m short of tin. </p>
+<p class="line">Werry much enjoyed my autumn Caper, </p>
+<p class="line">But three quid fifteen do look queer paper. </p>
+<p class="line">Want another new rig out, wuss luck, </p>
+<p class="line">Gurl at Boodle’s bar seems awful struck. </p>
+<p class="line">Like to take her to pantermime; </p>
+<p class="line">That and oysters after <i>would</i> be prime. </p>
+<p class="line">Fan’s a screamer; this top coat would blue it, </p>
+<p class="line">Yaller at the seams, black ink wont do it. </p>
+<p class="line">Wonder if old snip would spring another? </p>
+<p class="line">Boots, too<span id="xd33e11092">,</span> rayther seedy; beastly bother! </p>
+<p class="line">Lots o’ larks that empty pockets ‘queer.’ </p>
+<p class="line">Can’t do much on fifty quid a year. </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Febrywary!</span> High old time for sprees! </p>
+<p class="line">Now’s yer chance the gals to please or tease. </p>
+<p class="line">Dowds to guy and pooty ones’ to wheedle, </p>
+<p class="line">And give all rival chaps the needle. </p>
+<p class="line">Crab your enemies,—I’ve got a many, </p>
+<p class="line">You can pot ’em proper for a penny. </p>
+<p class="line">My! them walentines do ’it ’em ’ot. </p>
+<p class="line">First-rate fun: I always buy a lot. </p>
+<p class="line">Prigs complain they’re spiteful, lor’ wot stuff! </p>
+<p class="line">I can’t ever get ’em strong enough. </p>
+<p class="line">Safe too; no one twigs your little spree, </p>
+<p class="line">If you do it on the strict Q.T. </p>
+<p class="line">If you’re spoons, a flowery one’s your plan, </p>
+<p class="line">Mem. I sent a proper one to Fan. </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">March!</span> I’m nuts upon a windy day, </p>
+<p class="line">Gurls do get in such a awful way. </p>
+<p class="line">Petticoats yer know, and pooty feet; </p>
+<p class="line">Hair all flying,—tell you it’s a treat. </p>
+<p class="line">Pancake day. Don’t like ’em—flabby, tough, </p>
+<p class="line">Rayther do a pennorth o’ plum-duff. </p>
+<p class="line">Seediness shows up as Spring advances, </p>
+<p class="line">Ah! the gurls do lead us pretty dances. </p>
+<p class="line">Days a-lengthening, think I spotted Fan </p>
+<p class="line">Casting sheep’s eyes at another man. </p>
+<p class="line">Quarter-day, too, no more chance of tick, </p>
+<p class="line">Fancy I shall ’ave to cut my stick. </p>
+<p class="line">Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear, </p>
+<p class="line">Two <i>d</i> left!—must go and do a beer! </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">April!</span> All Fools’ Day’s a proper time, </p>
+<p class="line">Cop old gurls and guy old buffers prime. </p>
+<p class="line">Scissors! don’t they goggle and look blue, </p>
+<p class="line">When you land them with a regular ‘do?’ </p>
+<p class="line">Lor! the world would not be worth a mivvey, </p>
+<p class="line">If there warn’t no fools to cheek and chivy. </p>
+<p class="line">Then comes Easter. Got some coin in ’and, </p>
+<p class="line">Trot a bonnet out and do the grand. </p>
+<p class="line">Fan all flounce and flower; fellows mad, <span class="pageNum" id="pb72">[<a href="#pb72">72</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Heye us henvious; nuts to me, my lad. </p>
+<p class="line">’Ampstead! ’Ampton! Which is it to be? </p>
+<p class="line">Fan—no flat—prefers the Crystal P. </p>
+<p class="line">Nobby togs, high jinks, and lots o’ lotion, </p>
+<p class="line">That’s the style to go it, I’ve a notion! </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">May!</span> The month o’ flowers. Spooney sell! </p>
+<p class="line">‘Rum ’ot with,’ is wot <i>I</i> likes to smell. </p>
+<p class="line">Beats yer roses holler. A chice weed, </p>
+<p class="line">Licks all flowers that ever run to seed. </p>
+<p class="line">Nobby button ’oler very well, </p>
+<p class="line">When one wants to do the ’eavy swell; </p>
+<p class="line">Otherwise don’t care not one brass farden, </p>
+<p class="line">For the best ever blowed in Covent Garden. </p>
+<p class="line">Fan, though, likes ’em, costs a pretty pile, </p>
+<p class="line">Rayther stiff, a tanner for a smile. </p>
+<p class="line">Blued ten bob last time I took ’er out, </p>
+<p class="line">Left my silver ticker up the spout. </p>
+<p class="line">Women are sech sharks! If I don’t drop ’er, </p>
+<p class="line">Guess that I shall come a hawful cropper! </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">June!</span> A jolly month; sech stunning weather! </p>
+<p class="line">Fan and I have lots of outs together: </p>
+<p class="line">Rorty on the river, sech prime ’unts, </p>
+<p class="line">Foul the racers, run into the punts. </p>
+<p class="line">Prime to ’ear the anglers rave and cuss, </p>
+<p class="line">When in quiet ‘swims’ we raise a muss. </p>
+<p class="line">Snack on someone’s lawn upon the quiet, </p>
+<p class="line">Won’t the owner raise a tidy riot </p>
+<p class="line">When he twigs our scraps and broken bottles? </p>
+<p class="line">Cheaper this than rusty-rongs or hottles. </p>
+<p class="line">Whitsuntide ’ud be a lot more gay </p>
+<p class="line">If it warn’t so near to Quarter-day. </p>
+<p class="line">Snip turns sour, pulls ‘county-courting’ faces, </p>
+<p class="line">Must try and land a little on the races. </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">At <span class="sc">July</span>! just nicked a handy fiver, </p>
+<p class="line">(Twenty-five to one on old ‘Screw-driver’!<span class="corr" id="xd33e11208" title="Not in source">)</span> </p>
+<p class="line">New rig-out. This mustard colour mixture </p>
+<p class="line">Suits me nobly. Fan appears a fixture. </p>
+<p class="line">Gurls like style, you know, and colour ketches ’em, </p>
+<p class="line">But good show of ochre,—that’s what fetches ’em. </p>
+<p class="line">Wimbledon! <i>I’m</i> not a wolunteer, </p>
+<p class="line">Discipline don’t suit this child—no fear! </p>
+<p class="line">But we ’ave fine capers at the camp, </p>
+<p class="line">Proper, but for that confounded scamp: </p>
+<p class="line">Punched my ’ead, because I guyed his shooting. </p>
+<p class="line">Fan I fancied rather ’igh faluting; </p>
+<p class="line">Ogled the big beggar as he propped me, </p>
+<p class="line">Would ’a licked ’im if <i>she</i> ’adn’t stopped me. </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">August!</span> Time to think about my outing. </p>
+<p class="line">No dibs yet, though, so it’s no use shouting. </p>
+<p class="line">Make the best of the Bank ’Oliday. </p>
+<p class="line">Fan ‘engaged’! Don’t look too bloomin’ gay. </p>
+<p class="line">Drop into the bar to do a beer. </p>
+<p class="line">Twig her talking to that volunteer. </p>
+<p class="line">Sling my ’ook instanter sharp and short, </p>
+<p class="line">Took Jemimer down to ’Ampton Court, </p>
+<p class="line">Not <span>’</span>arf bad that gurl. Got rather screwed, </p>
+<p class="line">Little toff complained as I was rude. </p>
+<p class="line">’It ’im in the wind, he went like death; </p>
+<p class="line">Weak, consumptive cove and short o’ breath. </p>
+<p class="line">Licked ’im proper, dropped ’im like a shot’— </p>
+<p class="line">Only wish that Fan had seen <i>that</i> lot. </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">’Ere’s <span class="sc">September</span>! ’Oliday at last! </p>
+<p class="line">Off to Margit—mean to go it fast. </p>
+<p class="line">Mustard-coloured togs still fresh as paint, </p>
+<p class="line">Like to know who’s natty, if <i>I</i> ain’t. </p>
+<p class="line">Got three quid; have cried a go with Fan, </p>
+<p class="line">Game to spend my money like a man. </p>
+<p class="line">But stickin’ tight to one gal ain’t no fun,— </p>
+<p class="line">Here’s no end of prime ’uns on the run </p>
+<p class="line">Carn’t resist me somehow, togs and tile </p>
+<p class="line">All A1—make even swell ones smile. </p>
+<p class="line">Lor! if I’d the ochre, make no doubt </p>
+<p class="line">I could cut no end of big pots out. </p>
+<p class="line">Call me cad? When money’s in the game, </p>
+<p class="line">Cad and swell are pooty much the same. </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">Now <span class="sc">October</span>! Back again to collar, </p>
+<p class="line">Funds run low, reduced to last ’arf dollar. </p>
+<p class="line">Snip on rampage, boots a getting thin, </p>
+<p class="line">’Ave to try the turf to raise some tin. </p>
+<p class="line">Evenings getting gloomy; high old games; </p>
+<p class="line">Music ’alls look up the taking names. </p>
+<p class="line">Proper swells them pros! If I’d had my choice, </p>
+<p class="line">There’s <i>my</i> mark. Just wish I’d got a voice; </p>
+<p class="line">Cut the old den to-morrow, lots o’cham, </p>
+<p class="line">Cabs and diamonds—ain’t that real jam? </p>
+<p class="line">Got the straight tip for the Siezerwitch, </p>
+<p class="line">If I <i>honly</i> land it, I’ll be rich. </p>
+<p class="line">Guess next mornin’ wouldn’t find me sober— </p>
+<p class="line">Allays get the blues about October. </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">Dull <span class="sc">November</span>! Didn’t land that lot. </p>
+<p class="line">Fear my father’s son is going to pot. </p>
+<p class="line">Fan jest passed me, turned away ’er eyes, </p>
+<p class="line">Guess she ranked me with the <i>other</i> guys. </p>
+<p class="line">Nobby larks upon the Ninth, my joker </p>
+<p class="line">But it queers a chap to want the ochre. <span class="pageNum" id="pb73">[<a href="#pb73">73</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Nothing like a crowd for regular sprees, </p>
+<p class="line">Ain’t it fine to do a rush, and squeeze? </p>
+<p class="line">Twig the women fainting! oh, it’s proper! </p>
+<p class="line">Bonnet buffers when the blooming copper </p>
+<p class="line">Can’t get near yer nohow. Then the fogs! </p>
+<p class="line">Rare old time for regular jolly dogs. </p>
+<p class="line">If a chap’s a genuine ’ot member, </p>
+<p class="line">He <i>can</i> keep the game up in November! </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">Dun <span class="sc">December</span>! Dismal, dingy, dirty. </p>
+<p class="line">Still short commons—makes a chap feel shirty. </p>
+<p class="line">Snip rampageous, drops a regular summons. </p>
+<p class="line">Fan gets married; ah! them gurls is rum ’uns! </p>
+<p class="line">After all the coin I squandered on ’er! </p>
+<p class="line">Want it now. A ’eap too bad, ’pon honour. </p>
+<p class="line">Snow! ah, that’s yer sort though, and no error, </p>
+<p class="line">Treat to twig the women scud in terror. </p>
+<p class="line">Hot ’un in the eye for that old feller; </p>
+<p class="line">Cold ’un down ’is neck, burst his umbreller. </p>
+<p class="line">Ha! ha! then Christmas,—’ave a jolly feast! </p>
+<p class="line">The Boss will drop a tip,—’ope so, at least. </p>
+<p class="line">If I don’t land some tin, my look-out’s queer. </p>
+<p class="line">Well, let’s drink, boys—‘Better luck next year!’ </p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Arse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (low).—The posterior; the breech; the fundament. Once in polite use, but now considered
+very vulgar. As Grose in his <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i> [1785] prints the word thus, ‘a—e,’ it is evident that it had then fallen into disfavour.
+Murray traces the word back to about <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1000. [A.S., <i lang="ang">ears</i>, <i lang="ang">œurs</i>; Icelandic and Swedish, <i lang="sv">ars</i>; Danish, <i lang="da">arts</i>, and German, <i lang="de">arsch</i>].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1000 (<i>circa</i>). <span class="sc">Ælfric</span>, <i>Glossary</i> in Wright, 44·2 [<i>Nates</i>, <span class="sc">ears</span>-lye]. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1480. <span class="sc">Caxton</span>, <i>Chronicles of England</i>, ccxxvi., 233. They lete hange fox tailles … to hele and hyde her <span class="sc">arses</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">Butler</span>, <i>Hudibras</i> I., iii., 964. Then mounted both upon their Horses, But with their Faces to the <span class="sc">arses</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1704. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Battle of the Books</i> (1711), 235. Do you think I have nothing else to do but to mend and repair after
+your <span class="sc">arse</span> [<i>i.e.</i>, behind you, in your rear].
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Heavy-arse</span>, a hulking, lazy fellow; a sluggard.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1530. <span class="sc">Palsgrave</span>, 436, 2. What up, <span class="sc">heavy-arse</span>, cannest thou nat aryse? [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To hang the arse</span>, to hang or hold back; to be afraid to advance.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1633. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>Guardian</i>, V., v. Nay, no <span class="sc">hanging an arse</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Arse-upwards</span> in good luck.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1600 (<i>circa</i>). Timon I., 5 (1842), 20. This man this daye rose with his <span class="sc">arse upwards</span>: To daye a fidler, and at night a noble.
+</p>
+<p>Also such forms as <span class="sc">arse-board</span>, the tail board of a cart—this is still dialectical; <span class="sc">arse-gut</span>, the rectum; <span class="sc">arse-long</span>; <span class="sc">arse-push</span>, a heavy backward fall; <span class="sc">arse-ropes</span>, the intestines.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arse-Cooler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (low).—A bustle or dress-improver. [From <span class="sc">arse</span>, <i>see</i> preceding + <span class="sc">cooler</span>; in reference to the manner in which this article of feminine attire extends the
+dress, and prevents it clinging to the part of the body referred to.]
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bird-cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ars-Musica</b>, <i>subs.</i> (low).—The <i>podex</i> when used as a noisy vent.—A play upon words.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arst</b> (vulgarism).—A mispronunciation of ‘asked.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arsy-Varsy</b> or <b>Arsy-Versy</b>, <i>adv.</i> and <i>adj.</i> (low).—Topsy-turvy; topside t’other way; heels over head; or ‘the cart before the
+horse.’ [From <span class="sc">arse</span> + Latin <i lang="la">versus</i> ‘to turn,’ following model <span class="corr" id="xd33e11545" title="Source: onamatopoetic">onomatopoetic</span> compounds like ‘hirdie-girdie,’ ‘higgledy-piggledy,’ etc.] Once in polite use, but
+now confined to the low and vulgar.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb74">[<a href="#pb74">74</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1539. <span class="sc">Taverner</span>, <i>Erasm. Prov.</i> (1552), 62. Ye set the cart before the horse … cleane contrarily, and <span class="sc">arsy-versy</span> as they say.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1728. <span class="sc">Bailey</span>, <i>Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Arsy-versey</span>, topsy-turvy, preposterously, perversely, without order.
+</p>
+<p>Still dialectical. <i>See</i> English Dialect Society’s Glossaries, <i>e<span>.</span>g.</i>, <i>West Somerset Word Book</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arter</b> (vulgarism).—An incorrect pronunciation of ‘after.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Artesian</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian).—In Gippsland, Victoria, a well-known and popular brew of beer is manufactured
+with water obtained from an artesian well at Sale—and hence <span class="sc">artesian</span> as a common nickname for all Colonial beer.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Cascade</span>.
+</p>
+<p>English synonyms for beer will be found under <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Artful Dodger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming and thieves’ slang).—1. A lodger.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>New York Slang Dictionary.</i> <span class="sc">Artful dodgers</span>, fellows who dare not sleep twice in the same place for fear of arrest.
+</p>
+<p>2. An expert thief. The <span class="sc">artful dodger</span> in Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’ will occur to mind in this connection.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Arthur.</b> <span class="sc">King Arthur</span> (old).—A sailor’s game, thus described, in effect, by Grose. When near the line,
+or in a hot latitude, a man who is to represent King Arthur, is ridiculously dressed,
+having a large wig made out of oakum, or some old swabs. He is seated on the side,
+or over a large vessel of water, and every person in turn is ceremoniously introduced
+to him, and has to pour a bucket of water over him, crying out, ‘Hail, King Arthur!’
+If during the ceremony the person introduced laughs or smiles (to which his majesty
+endeavours to excite him by all sorts of ridiculous gesticulations), he changes places
+with, and then becomes King Arthur, till relieved by some brother tar who has as little
+command over his muscles as himself.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Ambassador</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Artichoke</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—An aged prostitute of the lowest type. For general synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Article</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A term of contempt for a worthless or insignificant person or animal—‘A
+pretty <span class="sc">article</span> he is.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, ch. xxvi., p. 268. You’re a nice <span class="sc">article</span>, to turn sulky on first coming home!
+</p>
+<p>2. A woman. In this sense generally current at the beginning of the century—‘a prime
+<span class="sc">article</span>,’ a handsome girl, or, as the <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum</i> [1811] has it, ‘a hell of a goer.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>Three Clerks</i>, ch. xxxi. ‘She’d never have done for you, you know; and she’s the very <span class="sc">article</span> for such a man as Peppermint.’
+</p>
+<p><i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Sappy</span> for English and foreign synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Articles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A suit of clothes. Formerly current in England [<i>circa</i> 1780–1825]; now surviving principally amongst American thieves.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Articles of Virtue</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—Virgins. A play upon the word ‘virtue,’ in <span class="pageNum" id="pb75">[<a href="#pb75">75</a>]</span>allusion to the absence of defloration; and also upon <i>vertu</i> in its special English usage.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Artist</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—An adroit rogue; a skilful gamester.—<i>N.Y.S.D.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>As … as They Make ’Em</b>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Generally employed with such adjectives as ‘hot,’ ‘drunk,’ ‘bad,’ etc.;
+<i>e.g.</i>, <span class="sc">as bad as they make ’em</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Bird o’ Freedom</i>, Aug. 17, p. 3. On reaching the party it was evident that one of the Frenchmen was,
+not to put too fine a point on it, about <span class="sc">as drunk as they make ’em</span>. He opened the campaign by asking us to have a drink with him. Of course, he spoke
+in French.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Asia Minor</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The Kensington and Bayswater districts in London, on account of the many
+Anglo-Indians who, on their retirement, take refuge therein. The nickname, however,
+is a double-barrelled one, inasmuch as this quarter is also the headquarters of the
+Greek community in the metropolis. Sobriquets of the kind are not infrequent. The
+district between Maida Vale and St. Peter’s Park, Paddington, is called ‘the New Jerusalem,’
+because of the large number of Jews who live there; and the same reason has given
+an exactly identical appellation to Brighton, while Cheltenham is nicknamed ‘the Black
+Hole’ from its numerous Anglo-Indian residents.
+</p>
+<p>A sketch appeared under the title of ‘The Ladies in Parliament’ in <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i> [Nov., 1866], wherein Tyburnia was described as ‘the pension’d Indian’s undisturbed
+retreat.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily News</i>, 9 Feb., p. 2, col. 5. The Ladbroke Hall, Notting-hill … is in the centre of a district
+where Indians in the British metropolis mostly congregate, a circumstance which has
+acquired for this part of London the nickname of <span class="sc">Asia Minor</span>, by which it is sometimes called.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ask Bogy!</b> <i>phr.</i> (old nautical slang).—An evasive reply.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Askew</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A cuppe.—<i>Harman</i> [1567].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Asquirm.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Squirm</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;D. Howells</span>, <i>Venetian Life</i>, ch. xviii. It is wet and slimy underfoot, and the innumerable gigantic eels, writhing
+everywhere, set the soul <span class="sc">asquirm</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ass</b>, <i>subs.</i> (printers’).—A compositor, so nicknamed by pressmen, who, in turn, are called <span class="sc">pigs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Ass is sometimes varied by <span class="sc">donkey</span>. In French printing offices compositors are called <i lang="fr">mulets</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘mules.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Assay It!</b> <i>intj.</i> (American thieves’).—Commence! try it! Obviously from the verb ‘to assay,’ and probably
+introduced by counterfeit coiners.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Assig.</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An assignation.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aste</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—Nares quotes this as an old cant term for money. For modern synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1612. <i>The Passenger of Benvenuto.</i> These companions, who in the phisionomie of their forehead, eyes, and nose, carry
+the impression and marke of the pillerie galley, and of the halter, they call the
+purse a leafe, and a fleece; money, cuckoes, and <span class="sc">aste</span>, and crowns.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Astronomer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A horse which carries its head high.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb76">[<a href="#pb76">76</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Athanasian Wench</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A forward, abandoned woman, of obliging disposition—one who practises prostitution
+from libidinous desire rather than for gain. Also <span class="sc">Quicunque vult</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Atlantic-Ranger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A herring. The derivation is too obvious to need particularization.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Good Words</i>, p. 378. Peas-pudding, and hard-boiled eggs, rubbing shoulders, as it were, with
+<span class="sc">Atlantic rangers</span> (<i>i.e.</i>, red herrings).
+</p>
+<p>Among other curious synonyms for this fish may be mentioned <span class="sc">Billingsgate pheasant</span>; <span class="sc">two-eyed steak</span>; <span class="sc">Yarmouth capon</span>; <span class="sc">sea rover</span>; and <span class="sc">Glasgow magistrate</span>, all of which <i>see</i>. A very common request at Lockhart’s coffee-houses in London is for ‘a door step
+and a sea rover,’ <i>i.e.</i>, a halfpenny slice of bread and butter and a herring.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Atmosphere</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—By the <span class="sc">atmosphere</span> of a thing, whether book, church, or individual, is meant its tone or influence.
+<span class="sc">Atmosphere</span> is one of the most recent introductions into the canting-slang phraseology of ‘Culchaw,
+don’t you know!’ It belongs to the same category as that which employs <i>awfully</i> and <i>dreadfully</i> for ‘very’; or <i>lovely</i> for anything pleasing, etc. The number of legitimate words perverted from their legitimate
+meanings and used in senses oftentimes ludicrous is much larger than most people would
+care to admit.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Atomy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—1. A diminutive, or deformed person. [From a jocular pronunciation of
+‘anatomy.’] As will be seen from the historical examples which follow, this expression
+has been in the mouths of the English people for at least 300 years.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1595. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, iv., i., 57.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">… I see, Queen Mab hath been with you. </p>
+<p class="line">She is the fairies’ midwife; and she comes </p>
+<p class="line">In shape no bigger than an agate-stone </p>
+<p class="line">On the forefinger of an alderman, </p>
+<p class="line">Drawn with a team of little <span class="sc">atomies</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Athwart men’s noses as they fall asleep. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, 2 <i>Henry IV.</i>, v., 4, 33. <i>Host.</i> Thou <span class="sc">atomy</span>, thou!
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Dot.</i> Come, you thin thing, come, you rascal.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>The Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. iii. ‘He was an <span class="sc">atomy</span> when he came up from the North, and I am sure he died … at twenty stone weight.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Gaslight and Daylight</i>, ch. ix. A miserable little <span class="sc">atomy</span>, more deformed, more diminutive, more mutilated than any beggar in a bowl.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, May, p. 478. ‘And <span class="sc">atomy</span> scarecrow and <span class="sc">atomy</span>, what next will you call me? Yet you want to marry me!<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Mohawks</i>, ch. xxii. ‘How lovely his young wife looks to-night; lovely enough to keep that
+poor old <span class="sc">atomy</span> in perpetual torment.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (American thieves’).—Amongst the fraternity <span class="sc">atomy</span> has the special meaning of an empty-headed person, and not necessarily one deformed
+or of small, mean stature.
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms, in first sense, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Sappy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Attack</b>, <i>verb.</i> (common).—A jocular rendering of the legitimate word; to commence operations, not
+necessarily, however, with the idea of force, which is always associated with the
+proper usage. Also as a <i>subs.</i>
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb77">[<a href="#pb77">77</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">Combe</span> (Dr. Syntax), <i>Pictur.</i> xvii., 62. The Doctor then … pronounced the grace … The fierce <span class="sc">attack</span> was soon begun.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, ch. i. It was a double letter, and the Major commenced perusing the envelope before
+he <span class="sc">attacked</span> the inner epistle.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>At That</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (American and Australian).—An intensitive phrase tacked on to the end of an assertion
+or statement already made. ‘He’s a slick ’cute rascal, and a pretty demon <span class="sc">at that</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, he is a rascal of rascals, an adept at villainy. It is a purely cant phrase, and
+has achieved a degree of popularity quite out of proportion to its merits—if any.
+Proctor suggests that the expression is an abbreviation of ‘added to that,’ but others
+regard it as the German <i lang="de">dazu</i>, a theory which is not improbable, in view of the large German element in the States.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Pinkerton’s</span> <i>Mollie Maguires and Detectives</i>. A miner from Wadesville, was spoken of as an ancient Mollie—Cooney being actually
+what the detective assumed to be, and a sharp one <span class="sc">at that</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Forest and Stream</i>, March 15. Worth a year’s subscription, and cheap <span class="sc">at that</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Herald</i>, July 22. Who would have supposed that the self-contained Mr. French, the icily regular
+T. Henry French, with a disposition as undemonstrative as the Alpine edelweiss, would
+suffer his temper to go away because of the loss of a hat—aye, and of an old hat <span class="sc">at that</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Attic</b> or <b>Attic-Storey</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The head, from its being the highest or crowning member, the body being
+figuratively regarded as a house. Sometimes <span class="sc">upper-storey</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Crumpet</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Alford</span>, in <i>Life</i> (1873), 467. Tolerably well all day, but the noise in the <span class="sc">attic</span> unremoved<span>.</span>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Queer in the attic</span>, etc. Drunk; also weak-minded, or ‘cracked.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Attic-Salt</b>, <i>subs.</i> (literary).—Well-turned phrases spiced with wit and humour. A reference to the peculiar
+style and idiom of the Greek language as used by the Athenians, and, says Hotten,
+‘partly a sly hit at the well-known poverty of many writers.’ Whether so, or not,
+the phrase is one of long standing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.) In <i>Philology</i>, we say <span class="sc">attic-salt</span>, for a delicate, poignant kind of wit and humour after the <i>Athenian</i> manner, who were particular in this way.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1779. <span class="sc">Sheridan</span>, <i>The Critic</i>, Act i., Sc. 2. I have the plot from the author, and only add—characters strongly
+drawn—highly coloured—hand of a master—fund of genuine humour—mine of invention—neat
+dialogue—<span class="sc">attic-salt</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Jas. Hannay</span>, <i>King Dobbs</i>, ch. ix., p. 129 (1856). ‘If you joke in that style, we’ll lose the day,’ said Dobbs<span id="xd33e12146">,</span> who had some quiet homely superstitions. ‘What? is it unlucky to spill <span class="sc">attic-salt</span>, as well as the ordinary kind?’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Attleborough</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Sham jewelry; used in precisely the same manner as ‘Brummagem,’ and as
+widely applied to men and things. It has passed from the classics of thiefdom into
+general use, and is applied to anything of a sham, pinchbeck, insincere, or doubtful
+character. Attleborough is a town celebrated for its manufacture of trashy jewelry.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Attorney</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A drumstick of goose, or turkey, grilled and devilled. [From <span class="pageNum" id="pb78">[<a href="#pb78">78</a>]</span><span class="sc">devil</span> = a lawyer who does routine work for another = attorney.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1828. <span class="sc">G. Griffin</span>, <i>Collegians</i>, ch. xiii. ‘I love a plain beef steak before a grilled <span class="sc">attorney</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>(Thieves’).—A shrewd, and often not over honest or scrupulous man who, possessing
+some knowledge of the law, acts in the capacity of legal adviser to those of the ‘crooked
+craft’ unfortunate enough to need assistance. Such men are generally solicitors and
+others whose names have been struck off the rolls, as also, occasionally, solicitors’
+clerks who have otherwise failed in life. Their practices are shady, but their fees
+are low.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Attorney-General’s Devil.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Devil</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Auctioneer.</b> <span class="sc">To tip</span> or <span class="sc">give the auctioneer</span>.—A phrase borrowed from the sale room, and signifying ‘to knock a man down.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Breakfast in Bed</i>, Essay I., p. 4 (1864). And who, in return for a craven blow, can <span class="sc">deliver the auctioneer</span> well over the face and eyes.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Audit-Ale</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Cambridge Univ.).—A special brew of ale, peculiar to Trinity College, made in the
+first instance for draught on audit days, whence its name.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>Ingoldsby Legends</i> (Lay of S. Dunstan).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e5088">To be sure the best beer </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5088">Of all did not appear, </p>
+<p class="line">For I’ve said ’twas in June, and so late in the year </p>
+<p class="line">The ‘Trinity <span class="sc">audit ale</span>’ is not come-at-able, </p>
+<p class="line">As I’ve found to my great grief when dining at that table. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1876. <span class="sc">Trevelyan</span>, <i>Life of Macaulay</i> (1884), ch. iv., p. 127. A glass of the <span class="sc">audit ale</span>, which reminded him that he was still a fellow of Trinity.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Audley.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">John Audley</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aufe.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaf</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Auger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A person given to prosiness is so called; a bore.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aught</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vulgarism).—A common illiteracy for ‘naught’ when naming the cipher—‘o’.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Auld Hornie</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—One of the numerous nicknames given to the devil. Others are, old nick;
+old scratch; old Harry; skipper; old gentleman; deuce; dickens; ruffian, etc.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Skipper</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Auld Reekie</b> (popular).—A sobriquet for the old town of Edinburgh. It means ‘old smoky.’ Of late
+years it has been applied to the whole city.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1806. <span class="sc">Miss Pitman</span>, in C.&nbsp;K. Sharpe’s <i>Correspondence</i> (1888), i., 271. We are within two hours-and-a-half of <span class="sc">Auld Reeky</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1816. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Antiquary</i>, ch. vi. ‘And what news do you bring us from Edinburgh, <span class="corr" id="xd33e12306" title="Source: Montkbarns">Monkbarns</span>?’ said Sir Arthur; ‘how wags the world in <span class="sc">Auld Reekie</span>?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Colonies and India</i>, July 24, p. 10, col. 1. The Australasian Colony in <span class="sc">Auld Reekie</span> is prospering apace, and it may soon be necessary to plant some gum trees along Princes
+Street to meet the growing demands of the population.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Auly-Auly</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Win. Coll.).—A game formerly played in ‘Grass Court’ on Saturday afternoons after
+chapel. It consisted in throwing an india-rubber ball at one another, and <span class="pageNum" id="pb79">[<a href="#pb79">79</a>]</span>everybody was obliged to go down and join in it. ‘Haul ye, call ye,’ is the supposed
+derivation; but, as the game, though in vogue in 1830, was not played as late as 1845,
+there is some difficulty in defining it in detail.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aunt</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Applied, especially during the Elizabethan period, to either a procuress,
+a prostitute, or a concubine. It survived till the commencement of the present century
+and then gradually died out. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Mother</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1608. <span class="sc">Middleton</span>, <i>Trick to Catch the Old One</i>, II., i. Was it not then better bestowed upon his uncle than upon one of his <span class="sc">aunts</span>?—I need not say bawd, for everyone knows what <span class="sc">aunt</span> stands for in the last translation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1623. <span class="sc">Shakspear</span>, <i>Winter’s Tale</i>, iv., 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Summer songs for me and my aunts, </p>
+<p class="line">While we lie tumbling in the hay. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><span class="sc">To go and see one’s aunt</span> (common).—To go to the W.C.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Mrs. Jones</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Aunt Sally</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A well-known game, common to race-courses and fairs, which consists in
+throwing short staves at a wooden head mounted on a stick, placed upright in the ground,
+and forming a kind of target. In the mouth of the image is placed a clay pipe, and
+the object of the player, who stands at say twenty or thirty yards distance, is to
+demolish this. The amusement is not unlike the more popular ‘three shies a penny.’
+The origin of <span class="sc">Aunt Sally</span> is wrapped in mystery; nor is it known whether she is any relation to the black lady
+whose effigy some few years since was frequently to be met with suspended outside
+the shops of rag and ‘marine store’ dealers. A writer in <i>Notes and Queries</i> [2 S., x., 117] affirms that <span class="sc">Aunt Sally</span> is the heroine of a popular negro melody, in which the old lady meets with several
+ludicrous adventures, but evidence in support of this theory is at present wanting.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Gaslight and Daylight</i>, ch. i., p. 11. They will go to Epsom by the rail, and create disturbances on the
+course, and among the ‘sticks’ and <span class="sc">aunt sallies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Punch</i>, June 2, p. 264, col. 1. The average number of ‘chucks’ at cocoa-nuts before achieving
+success is six, and of ‘shies’ at <span class="sc">aunt sally</span>, four.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Au Reservoir!</b> <i>intj. phr.</i> (common).—<i lang="fr">Au revoir.</i> A mere play upon sounds. Common in America, where it originated, and now often heard
+in England.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Australian Flag</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Anglo-Australian).—The tail of a shirt, when, after exertion, it rucks up in folds
+between the trousers and the waistcoat—an ‘up-country’ phrase.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cornstalk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Australian Grip</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian).—A hearty shake of the hands.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem</b>, <b>Autum</b>, <b>Autom</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A church. The term first appears in Harman’s <i>Caveat</i> [1573]; again in Rowland’s <i>Martin Mark-all</i> [1610]; in Head’s <i>English Rogue</i> [1665]; in Cole’s <i>English Dictionary</i> [1724]; in Grose’s <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i> [1785], and in Duncombe’s <i>Sinks of London Laid Open</i> [1848].—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Autem mort</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—Married. So quoted in <span class="pageNum" id="pb80">[<a href="#pb80">80</a>]</span>Cole’s <i>English Dictionary</i>, whence <span class="sc">autem mort</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Bawler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A parson. [From <span class="sc">autem</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a church + <span class="sc">bawler</span>, a speaker.] For modern English and foreign synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Gospel shark</span>. Other ancient expressions for a clergyman are <span class="sc">autem-jet</span>, <span class="sc">autem-cackler</span>, and <span class="sc">autem-pricker</span>; the last two named, however, apply, as a rule, only to Dissenters.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Cackler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A Dissenter; sometimes specially applied to Dissenting ministers.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 260. ‘On one occasion a Jew was selling cocoa-nut, when the <span class="sc">autem-cackler</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, Dissenting minister, came and wanted to impart to the Israelite the sin he committed
+in carrying on his vocation on such a day [Sunday]. The Jew half listened to what
+the other said, but kept on calling out “Cocoa-nut a half-penny a slice, a very nice
+cocoa-nut—cocoanut!” ’
+</p>
+<p>2. A married woman.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Autem</span>. In this sense it is used in a canting song in the <i>New York Slang Dictionary</i>, first published in 1881, and which, as a specimen of the verse affected by the light-fingered
+fraternity, it may not be out of place to give entire. It should be read in connection
+with the remarks On <span class="sc">canting songs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<h4>‘A HUNDRED STRETCHES (1) HENCE.’</h4>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">‘Oh! where will be the culls of the bing (2) </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches hence? </p>
+<p class="line">The bene morts (3), who sweetly sing, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches hence? </p>
+<p class="line">The <span class="sc">autumn-cacklers</span>, autumn-coves (4), </p>
+<p class="line">The jolly blade who wildly roves; </p>
+<p class="line">And where the buffer (5), bruiser (6), blowen (7), </p>
+<p class="line">And all the cops (8) and beaks (9) so knowin’ </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches hence? </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">‘And where the swag (10), so bleakly (11) pinched (12), </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches hence? </p>
+<p class="line">The thimbles (13), slang (14), and danglers (15) filched, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches hence? </p>
+<p class="line">The chips (16), the fawneys (17), chatty-feeders (18), </p>
+<p class="line">The bugs (19), the boungs (20), and well-filled readers (21); </p>
+<p class="line">And where the fence (22) and snoozing-ken (23), </p>
+<p class="line">With all the prigs (24) and lushing men (25), </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches hence? </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">‘Played out they lay, it will be said </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches hence; </p>
+<p class="line">With shovels they were put to bed (26) </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches since! </p>
+<p class="line">Some rubbed to wit had napped a winder (27), </p>
+<p class="line">And some were scragged (28) and took a blinder (29), </p>
+<p class="line">Planted the swag and lost to sight, </p>
+<p class="line">We’ll bid them, one and all, good-night, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A hundred stretches hence.’ </p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1, <i>Stretch</i>, a year; 2, <i>culls of the bing</i><span id="xd33e12580">,</span> innkeepers, publicans; 3, <i>bene morts</i>, pretty girls or women; 4, <i>autumn cove</i>, married men; 5, <i>buffer</i>, smuggler, rogue, or cheat; 6, <i>bruiser</i>, prostitute’s bully or prize-fighter; 7, <i>blowen</i>, a showy prostitute; 8, <i>cop</i>, policeman; 9, <i>beak</i>, a magistrate; 10, <i>swag</i>, plunder, proceeds of robbery; 11, <i>bleakly</i>, cleverly, also handsome; 12, <i>pinched</i>, stolen; 13, <i>thimble</i>, a watch; 14, <i>slang</i>, a watch chain; 15, <i>danglers</i>, a bunch of seals; 16, <i>chips</i>, money; 17, <i>fawney</i>, a ring; 18, <i>chatty-feeder</i>, a spoon; 19, <i>bug</i>, a breast pin; 20, <i>boung</i>, a purse; 21, <i>reader</i>, a pocket-book; 22, <i>fence</i>, a receiver of stolen goods; 23, <i>snoozing-ken</i>, a brothel; 24, <i>prig</i>, a thief; 25, <i>lushing-men</i>, drinking-men; 26, <i>put to bed with a shovel</i>, buried; 27, <i>to nap a winder</i>—<i>to nap</i>, to cheat, <i>winder</i>, a life sentence; 28, <i>scragged</i>, hanged; 29, <i>to take a blinder</i>, to drown oneself.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem Cackle Tub</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—The meeting house of Dissenters of every description. Also a pulpit.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Cove</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A married man. [From <span class="sc">autem</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a church + <span class="sc">cove</span>, a man.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb81">[<a href="#pb81">81</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Dippers</b> or <b>Autem-Divers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—1. Formerly a nickname for Baptists, from their practice of immersing
+adult converts, as distinguished from infant sprinkling.
+</p>
+<p>2. Pickpockets who practised in churches were called <span class="sc">autem-divers</span>; also churchwardens and overseers of the poor who defrauded, deceived, and imposed
+upon the parish.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Goglers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—Pretended French prophets—<i>Grose</i>. Conjurors, fortune-tellers—<i>Duncombe</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Jet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A parson. [From <span class="sc">autem</span>, a church + <span class="sc">jet</span>, black, in allusion to the black garments usually worn by ‘the cloth.’] For some
+curious synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Devil-dodger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem</b>, or <b>Autem-Mort</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A married woman, <i>i.e.</i>, one wedded in a church. [From <span class="sc">autem</span>, a church + <span class="sc">mort</span>, or <span class="sc">mot</span>, a woman.] The term belongs to the oldest cant, and is the subject of a long description
+in Harman’s <i>Caveat</i>. (<i>See</i> quotation.) The old fraternity of vagabonds (for a full description of which, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cadgers</span>—<span class="sc">ancient and modern</span>) was divided into well marked classes, as also were the women who accompanied them
+in their peregrinations. The men were not strict monogamists, either as regards lawful
+companions or those of another grade—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1814), p. 49. These <span class="sc">Autem Mortes</span> be maried wemen, as there be but a fewe: For Autem in their language is a church,
+so shee is a wyfe maried at the church, and they be as chaste as a cowe I have, that
+goeth to bull eury moone, with what bull she careth not. These walke most times from
+their husbands companye a moneth and more to gether, being asociate with another as
+honest as her selfe. These wyll pylfar clothes of hedges; some of them go with children
+of ten or xii years of age; yf tyme and place serue for their purpose, they will send
+them into some house, at the window, to steale and robbe, which they call in their
+language, Milling of the ken; and wil go with wallets on their shoulders, and slates
+at their backes. There is one of these <span class="sc">Autem Mortes</span>, she is now a widow, of fyfty yeres old; her name is Alice Milson: she goeth about
+with a couple of great boyes, the youngest of them is fast Upon xx yeares of age.…
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Quip</i>, in <i>works</i> IX., 283. The pedler as bad or rather worse, walketh the country with his docksey
+at the least, if he have not two, his <i>mortes dels</i>, and <span class="sc">Autem Mortis</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 7 (H. Club’s Reprint, 1874). Here another [complains] that they could not quietly
+take their rest in the night, nor keepe his <span class="sc">autem</span>, or doxie sole vnto himselfe.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, bk. III., ch. v. Morts, <span class="sc">autem-morts</span>, walking morts, dells, doxies with all the shades and grades of the canting crew,
+were assembled.
+</p>
+<p>Toward the end of the eighteenth century <span class="sc">autem-mort</span> was used as synonymous with a female beggar alone; then another meaning crept into
+the word—a prostitute.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cadger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Prickear.</b>—The same as <span class="sc">autem-cackler</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Quaver</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A Quaker. [From <span class="sc">autem</span>, a church + <span class="sc">quaver</span>, referring to the shaking, peculiar to some of the religious exercises of the Society
+of Friends.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Autem-Quaver-Tub</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old <span class="pageNum" id="pb82">[<a href="#pb82">82</a>]</span>cant).—A Quaker’s meeting-house; also a desk therein.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Author-Baiting</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—Calling the author of an unsuccessful play before the curtain, and
+then, wanting all sense of decency and feeling, to overwhelm him with every imaginable
+source of annoyance—yelling, hooting, bellowing, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Avast!</b> <i>intj.</i> (nautical).—Hold on! Stop! Shut up! Stow it! etc., etc. No word perhaps has more
+suggested derivations than <span class="sc">avast!</span> Webster writes it down as from the Italian <i lang="it">basta</i>, enough; literally, it suffices, from <i lang="it">bastare</i>, to suffice. He does not, however, seem to have been altogether certain, for he queries
+whether it is not a worn-down form of the Dutch <i lang="nl">houd vast, hou’ vast</i>, hold fast! a derivation which Dr. Murray endorses as ‘probable’ in his <i>New Dictionary of the English Language</i>. Bearing in mind that <span class="sc">avast</span>, although used colloquially is first and foremost a sailor’s term, this derivation
+does not seem far-fetched; for, the Dutch having been themselves one of the great
+maritime nations of the past, it is not unlikely that the term should have come from
+them, especially when it is borne in mind that a large proportion of nautical terms
+are so derived.
+</p>
+<p>Such are boom; sprit; reef; schooner; skate; sloop; stiver; taffrail; yacht (<i lang="nl">jaghten</i>, ‘to chase’), etc.
+</p>
+<p>On the other hand, as regards the Italian <i lang="it">basta</i>, it is only fair to point out that French workmen use <i lang="fr">basta</i>, in the sense of enough! no more! The same term occurs also in the Spanish.
+</p>
+<p>Hotten connects it with the old cant <span class="sc">bynge a waste</span>, get out of the way! go hence! but though one cannot speak with certainty, this is
+not, on the face of it, apparent. There seems no discoverable connection between the
+two; moreover, the comparative and historical method of dealing with slang shows us
+that <span class="sc">avast</span> in its present form and sense can be traced as far back as 1681, within about a hundred
+years of the publication of Harman’s <i>Caveat</i> where <i>bynge a waste</i> first occurs. The probability therefore is that the two terms are distinct, and that
+<span class="sc">avast</span> is derived from a different source to <span class="sc">bynge a waste</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) which, as Leland points out, has probably its origin in the Romany.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1681. <span class="sc">Otway</span>, <i>Soldiers’ Fortune</i>, iv., i. Hoa up, hoa up; so <span class="sc">avast</span> there, sir.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Rod. Random</i>, ch. xli. ‘<span class="sc">Avast</span> there, friend: none of your tricks upon travellers.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. xcvii. ‘And upon this scrap of paper—no, <span class="sc">avast</span>—that’s my discharge from the parish.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;C. Russell</span>, <i>Jack’s Courtship</i>, ch.<span id="xd33e12930"></span> xiv. But <span class="sc">avast</span> now! we’ve had enough of philosopherising.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Avoirdupois-Lay</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old thieves’ cant).—This is given by Grose as meaning the theft of brass weights
+off shop counters.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Avuncular-Relation</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common<span class="corr" id="xd33e12947" title="Not in source">)</span>.—A pawnbroker—a facetious variant of <span class="sc">uncle</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), another name for the same individual.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb83">[<a href="#pb83">83</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Awake</b>, <i>adv.</i> (old, and modern American thieves’).—On the alert; vigilant. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">wide-awake</span>, a certain kind of hat, so called, by-the-bye, from its never having a ‘nap.’ For
+synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Fly</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i> (Dicks’ ed., 1889), p. 6.
+</p>
+<p><i>Prime.</i> From the cut of the gentleman’s clothes, I presume he’s lately come from the Esquimaux
+Islands.
+</p>
+<p><i>Tom.</i> Ha! ha! very good, Primefit; I say, Jerry—you see he’s down upon you.
+</p>
+<p><i>Jerry.</i> Yes, he’s up, <i>he’s</i> <span class="sc">awake</span>, <i>he’s fly</i>—Ha! ha!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Nich. Nickleby</i>, ch. xxxix., p. 314. ‘If you hear the waiter coming, sir, shove it in your pocket
+and look out of the window, d’ye hear?’ ‘I’m <span class="sc">awake</span>, father,’ replied the dutiful Wackford.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Awful</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A sensational newspaper, tale, or narration; <i>e.g.</i>, a penny <span class="sc">awful</span>. Sometimes called a <span class="sc">dreadful</span>; other names for this kind of mental <i>pabulum</i> are <span class="sc">blood and thunder tales</span>, and <span class="sc">gutter literature</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—Generally colloquial as an intensitive, conveying no more <i>awe-full</i> meaning than ‘very,’ ‘exceedingly,’ etc. Strange as it may appear this familiar usage
+is very old, and was frequently heard north of the Tweed long prior to its use by
+Southrons. An intermediate stage was its appearance across the Atlantic, whence its
+re-introduction into the Mother Country may be traced.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Lamb</span>, <i>Gent. Giantess</i>, Misc. Wks. (1871), 363. She is indeed, as the Americans would express it, something
+<span class="sc">awful</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1789, <i>d.</i> 1880. <span class="sc">Planché</span>, <i>Good Woman in the Wood</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘A poor widow and her orphan chicks </p>
+<p class="line">Left without fixtures, in an <span class="sc">awful</span> fix.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1883. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>At Fault</i>, III., v., 82. ‘I’m <span class="sc">awful</span> glad you two have made acquaintance.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Awfully</span>, the adverbial form, is subjected to the same ill-treatment, as the following examples
+will show.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Punch’s Pocket Book for 1878</i>, p. 165. You <i>should</i> have come with us. It’s too <span class="sc">awfully</span> nice, as I told you I thought it would be.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">M.&nbsp;E. Braddon</span>, <i>Cloven Foot</i>, ch. vii. ‘<span class="sc">Awfully</span>,’ was Miss Clare’s chief laudatory adjective [<i>sic</i>]; her superlative form of praise was ‘quite too <span class="sc">awfully</span>,’ and when enthusiasm carried her beyond herself she called things ‘nice.’ ‘Quite
+too <span class="sc">awfully</span> nice,’ was her maximum of rapture.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Illustrated Bits</i>, July 13.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<h4><span class="sc">An Old Proverb Twisted.</span></h4>
+<p class="line">‘The ham of the sandwich was <span class="sc">awfully</span> tough,’ </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">He said, for, oh, it was dry, </p>
+<p class="line">As at first he tried to bite into the stuff, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">All in vain, how hard he would try. </p>
+<p class="line">But at last, when fairly bit into the thing, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">He found that it was all right, </p>
+<p class="line">And he said, as happy as any king, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">‘The bark was worse than the bite.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">French equivalents are, <i lang="fr">bigrement</i>; <i lang="fr">jusqu’à la troisième capucine</i>; and <i lang="fr">pommé</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Awkward-Squad</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military and naval).—Recruits when commencing to learn their drill.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ax</b>, <b>Axe</b>, <i>verb.</i> (vulgar).—To ask. Though now looked upon as a vulgarism, <span class="sc">ax</span> is still largely dialectical, and is really the most correct form of the word. ‘Ask’
+is the northern gloss which has gradually supplanted <span class="sc">ax</span>. The latter, down to nearly 1600, says Dr. Murray, was the regular literary form.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1380. <span class="sc">Chaucer</span>, <i>Tale of Melibeus</i>. Seint Jame eck saith: If eny fellow have neede of sapiens, <span class="sc">axe</span> it of God.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1474. <span class="sc">Caxton</span>, <i>Game of the Chesse</i>, bk. III., ch. viii. He must nedes begge and <span class="sc">axe</span> his breed.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb84">[<a href="#pb84">84</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1758. <span class="sc">A. Murphy</span>, <i>The Upholsterer</i>, Act i. An old crazy fool—<span class="sc">axing</span> your pardon, ma’am, for calling your father so.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1763. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Mayor of Garratt</i>, Act ii., Sc. 2. <i>Mrs. Sneak.</i> Where is the puppy? <i>Sneak.</i> Yes, yes, she is <span class="sc">axing</span> for me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Ravenshoe</i>, ch. vi. ‘I <span class="sc">axed</span> her would she like to live in the great house, and she said no.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Echo</span>, Jan. 25, p. 2, col. 3. To <span class="sc">axe</span>, considered but a vulgarism, for to ask, is good Saxon.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Axe.</b> <span class="sc">An axe to grind</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A much-used phrase of political origin. Men are said to have <span class="sc">axes to grind</span> when suspected of selfish or interested motives. From politics the expression has
+passed into use among all classes of society. <i>The Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean</i> (Feb. 1888) spoke of certain politicians as ‘men with <span class="sc">axes to grind</span>.’ What we believe is right is more often so because it <span class="sc">grinds our axe</span> than otherwise.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. (From Hoppe’s <i>Conversations Lexicon</i>). Miner. ‘Who’ll turn the grindstones?’ When I see a merchant over-polite to his
+customers, begging them to taste a little brandy, and throwing half his goods on the
+counter, thinks I, that man has an <span class="sc">axe to grind</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, Sept. 22. William Black, the novelist, says the only <span class="sc">ax</span> a novelist has <span class="sc">to grind</span> is the climax.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Axe-My-Eye!</b> <i>subs.</i> (cheap jacks’).—One who is up to every trick; a cute fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 232.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Stow your gab and gauffery, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">To every fakement I’m a fly; </p>
+<p class="line">I never takes no fluffery, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">For I’m a regular <span class="sc">axe-my-eye</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Ayrshires</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—Glasgow and South-Western Railway Stock.
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div class="figure p1084width"><img src="images/p1084.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="153" height="154"></div><p>
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb85">[<a href="#pb85">85</a>]</span> </p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div1 last-child letter">
+<div class="divBody">
+<p class="first"></p>
+<div class="figure p1085width"><img src="images/p1085.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="500" height="140"></div><p>
+</p>
+<div class="figure floatLeft"><img src="images/initial-b.png" alt="B" width="120" height="128"></div>
+<p class="first"><b></b> <span class="sc">Not to know b from a battledore</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To be entirely illiterate; very ignorant. This old cant phrase has several
+variants, all of them alliterative in character. For example, <span class="sc">not to know b from a bull’s-foot</span>—<span class="sc">from a broomstick</span>—<span class="sc">chalk from cheese</span>, etc. Each and all indicate inability to distinguish between familiar objects that
+differ. Battledore is an old name for the hornbook from which children used to learn
+the alphabet.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1401. <i>Pol. Poems</i>, II., 57. I know not an <span class="sc">a</span> from the wynd-mylne, ne a <span class="sc">b from a bole foot</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1609. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Guls-Hornebooke</i>, 3. You shall not neede to buy bookes; no, scorne to <span class="sc">distinguish a b from a battledore</span>; onely looke that your eares be long enough to reach our rudiments, and you are made
+for ever.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Brackenridge</span>, <i>Modern Chivalry</i>, 43. There were members who <span class="sc">scarcely knew b from a bull’s-foot</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>B</b> (fenian).—Mr. H.&nbsp;J. Byron, the playwright, in his annotated copy of the <i>Slang Dictionary</i>, mentions this as the title of a captain in the ‘army of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>B’s.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">B flat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Babe</b>, <i>subs.</i> (parliamentary).—The last elected member of the House of Commons. The oldest representative
+of the chamber is called the <span class="sc">father of the house</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>(American).—The youngest member of a class at the United States Military College at
+West Point. A term <i>sans</i> wit, <i>sans</i> point, <i>sans</i> almost everything.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Babe in the Wood</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—1. A victim of the law’s solicitude; in other words, a culprit sentenced to
+the stocks or the pillory. Obsolete.
+</p>
+<p>2. Dice are also called <span class="sc">babes in the wood</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Babes</b>, <i>subs.</i> (auctioneers’).—A set of auction thieves, who attend sales for the express purpose
+of blackmail. Their <i lang="la">modus operandi</i> is as follows. In consideration of a small bribe of money or beer, or both, they
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb86">[<a href="#pb86">86</a>]</span>agree not to oppose the bidding of the larger dealers, who thus dishonestly keep down
+the price of lots. The practice is generally worked in connection with <span class="sc">knock-outs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>(American).—A set of Baltimore rowdies are so-called; at various times they have also
+received the names of <span class="sc">blood tubs</span> and <span class="sc">plug-uglies</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baboo-English</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Anglo-Indian).—A species of ‘<span class="sc">English as she is wrote</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>). Its main peculiarity is its grandiloquence, a feature born of an attempt to adapt
+Western speech to Eastern imagery and hyperbole.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baby-Herder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A nurse; a simile drawn from life on the plains, and worked out with
+true cowboy humour.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Babylonitish</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A dressing gown. An abbreviated form of ‘Babylonitish garment.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baby-Pap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A cap; part of the so-called <span class="sc">rhyming slang</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bacca.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Baccy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bacca-Pipes</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Whiskers when curled in ringlets, a now obsolete fashion.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Mutton-chops</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baccare!</b> <b>Backare!</b> <i>intj.</i> (old cant).—Go back! [a humorous form of <span class="sc">back</span> + a simulated Latin termination]. In use from about 1553–1660.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Lyly</span>, <i>Midas</i>, V., 2. The masculine gender is more worthy than the feminine. Therefore, Licio.
+<span class="sc">backare</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1593. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Taming of the Shrew</i>, ii.;
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Saving your tale, Petruchio, I pray </p>
+<p class="line">Let us, that are poor petitioners, speak too; </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Baccare!</span> you are marvellous forward. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit right">[<span class="asc">N.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baccy</b>, also <b>Bacca</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A corrupted form of ‘tobacco.’ Apparently of quite recent introduction.
+An equivalent term in French is <i lang="fr">perlot</i>, from <i lang="fr">perle</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Peter Simple</i>, ch. ii. ‘You must larn to chaw <span class="sc">baccy</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Jas. Conway</span>, <i>Forays among Salmon and Deer</i>, p. 228. I lay on an Affghan goat-rug spread over fresh heather, with a pipe filled
+with good <span class="sc">baccy</span> in my mouth.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bach</b> or <b>Batch</b>, <i>verb.</i> (American).—To live as a bachelor.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bachelor’s Baby</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An illegitimate child. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bye-blow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bachelors-Fare</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—Bread and cheese and kisses—a humorous allusion to the real or alleged
+‘short commons,’ generally assumed to be meted out to a man who is unattached. Like
+many other proverbial sayings there is more sound than truth in it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i>, conv. i. <i>Lady Ans.</i> Colonel, some ladies of your acquaintance have promised to breakfast with you, and
+I am to wait on them; what will you give us? <i>Col.</i> Why, faith, madam, <span class="sc">bachelor’s-fare</span>, bread and cheese and kisses.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back</b>, <i>verb.</i> (popular).—To bet or wager; to support by means of money, kind, or influence, on
+the turf or elsewhere. From <span class="pageNum" id="pb87">[<a href="#pb87">87</a>]</span>the earlier and more legitimate meaning to support, maintain, or strengthen. Possibly
+in the sense of to wager or support by betting, <span class="sc">back</span> can hardly nowadays be classed as slang; there seems too, to be long and constant
+usage to support its claim as a regular dictionary word.
+</p>
+<p>(Uppingham School).—At football, to be ready for a chance.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To put</span> or <span class="sc">set up one’s back</span>, phr. (familiar).—To rouse oneself to antipathy; to get angry; to resist. The figure
+presented is that of a cat, which, when irritated, arches or sets up its back. Also
+used negatively as an exhortation to keep one’s temper. <span class="sc">Don’t get your back up!</span> For synonymous phrases, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Hold your hair on!</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1726. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh and Cibber</span>, <i>Provoked Husband</i>, V., iii., 112. O Lud! <span class="sc">how her back will be up</span> then when she meets me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1771. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Humphry Clinker</i>, ch. 66. My uncle’s <span class="sc">back was up</span> in a moment; and he desired him to explain his pretensions.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. xvi. ‘I know she is flighty, and that; and Brian’s <span class="sc">back is up</span> a little. But he ain’t a bad fellow; and I wish I could see you and his wife better
+friends.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Greenwood</span>, <i>Grandmother Cooper</i>, in <i>Odd People in Odd Places</i>, p 2. ‘You don’t know what you’re sayin’; therefore you don’t mean no harm. If so
+be you think what you just now said, keep it to yourself, don’t say it to me. It <span class="sc">sets my back up</span>, and when my back’s set up I’m sometimes orkard.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To ride on one’s back</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To deceive successfully.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back and Belly</b>, <i>phr.</i> (vulgar).—1. Back and before; all over.
+</p>
+<p>2. <span class="sc">To keep one back and belly</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To feed and clothe. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Belly-timber</span> and <span class="sc">Back-timber</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Breaker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—One who sets, or that which is, an example of more than ordinary human
+powers of endurance; <i>e.g.</i>, in pedestrianism or racing a man or horse whose pace is considerably over the average.
+In sporting phraseology he or it is called a <span class="sc">scorcher</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) and the pace of such is also eloquently called ‘killing.’ <span class="sc">Back-breaking</span> is therefore synonymous with excessive exertion or effort of all kinds.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Cap.</b> <span class="sc">To give a back-cap</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To expose; to reveal what one knows of another, in a detrimental sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>, <i>Life on the Mississippi</i>, p. 462. [A pretended converted thief is made to say]:—i told him all about my being
+in prison and about you, and how i had almost done giving up looking for work and
+how the Lord got me the job when i asked him … and then i felt better than ever i
+had done in my life, for i had given Mr. Brown a fair start with me and now i didn’t
+fear no one <span class="sc">giving me a back-cap</span> and running me off the job.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Cheat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A cloak. Also called a <span class="sc">wrap-rascal</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Door.</b> <span class="sc">A gentleman of the back-door</span>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—A sodomist; formerly a <span class="sc">backgammon player</span>. The vice itself is called <span class="sc">back-door work</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Usher</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backdoor-Trot</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial).—Diarrhœa. The allusion is obvious. A more common term is <span class="sc">jerry-go-nimble</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb88">[<a href="#pb88">88</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Down</b>, <i>verb</i>, (common).—To yield; to retreat from a position; to abandon a line of argument; to
+eat one’s words. Originally an American turn of expression.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Back track</span> and <span class="sc">Back out</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Subs.</i>—Usually a <span class="sc">square back down</span>; a severe rebuff; sometimes, utter collapse.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Dead—a figurative use of to ‘put on one’s back,’ <i>i.e.</i>, to place <i lang="fr">hors de combat</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-End</b>, <i>subs.</i> (racing).—The last two months of the racing season. More technical than slang.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <i>Blackw. Mag.</i>, Oct., p. 3. When you did me the honour to stop a day or two at last <span class="sc">back-end</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>Hard Lines</i>, ch. xxix. ‘Most of what I got over that steeplechase I dropped at the <span class="sc">back-end</span> over the October handicaps.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—The meaning, <i lang="la">mutatis mutandis</i>, is the same as <span class="sc">back-end</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, April 30, p. 3, col. 6. And neither [horse] could beat Palermo on <span class="sc">back-end</span> form.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Gammon Player.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Back-door</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backhand</b>, <i>verb.</i> (common).—To detain the decanter when it is passed round, and thus to drink more
+than one’s share; a more recent phrase is ‘not drinking fair.’—<i>See</i>, however, <span class="sc">Backhander</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Lawrence</span>, <i>Guy Livingstone</i>, ch. viii. ‘Livingstone, if you begin <span class="sc">backhanding</span> already, you’ll never be able to hold that great raking chestnut I saw your groom
+leading this evening.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Handed Turn</b> (Stock Exchange).—An unprofitable bargain.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backhander</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A drink out of turn; also detention of wine at table so as to get an
+extra share.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackery</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. xliii. ‘Thank you, Mr. Binnie, I <i>will</i> take a <span class="sc">backhander</span>, as Clive don’t seem to drink.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <i>Saturday Review</i>, p. 798. Long experience has shown us that to get small advantages over us gives
+the Scotch so much pleasure, that we should not think of grudging them the mild satisfaction,
+just as a kindly host affects not to notice a valued guest, who, he observes, always
+helps himself to an innocent <span class="sc">backhander</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A blow on the face with the back of the hand.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Midshipman Easy</i>, p. 11. ‘Go away, Sarah,’ said Johnny, with a <span class="sc">backhander</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <span class="sc">Farrar</span>, <i>St. Winifred’s</i>, ch. xxxiii. He administered a <span class="sc">backhander</span> to Elgood, as he spoke, and the next minute Charlie, roused beyond all bearing, had
+knocked him down.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>. The doctor comes suddenly round a corner, and finds Tibbs [a fag] mopping the rosy
+fluid from his nose with a rueful countenance, having just received a sharp <span class="sc">backhander</span> from one of his lords and masters.
+</p>
+<p>3. Hence, figuratively, a rebuke; a ‘setting down.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Kate Coventry</i>, ch. i. I knew this was what John calls a <span class="sc">back hander</span> at me, but I can be so good-natured when I have anything to gain, therefore I only
+said ——<span>.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backing and Filling</b>, <i>adj.</i> (colloquial).—A <span class="sc">backing and filling</span> policy is one that is shifty; irresolute; trifling. A figurative usage derived from
+<span class="sc">backing and filling</span> a vessel, <i>i.e.</i>, keeping it in the middle of the stream of a narrow river by advancing <span class="pageNum" id="pb89">[<a href="#pb89">89</a>]</span>first to one shore, and then backing to the other, allowing the stream to make the
+way, the wind blowing in an opposite direction to the stream.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backing-On.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Turning-on</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backings Up</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—The unconsumed ends of half-burned fagots. They are collected
+and sometimes made into surreptitious fires by ‘Juniors.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Jump</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A back window.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jump</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backmarked.</b> <span class="sc">To be backmarked</span>, <i>verb.</i> (pedestrian).—In handicapping to receive less start from ‘scratch’ than previously
+given—even to being put back to ‘scratch.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Out</b>, <i>verb.</i> (colloquial).—To retreat cautiously and tacitly; from stable phraseology; <i>e.g.</i>, the <span class="sc">backing out</span> of a horse. Very much the same as to <span class="sc">back down</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. viii. Jobson, however, was determined that Morris should not <span class="sc">back out</span> of the scrape so easily.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>The Warden</i>, ch. xii. How was he to <span class="sc">back out</span> of a matter in which his name was already so publicly concerned?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">L. Oliphant</span>, <i>Piccadilly</i>, pt. IV., p. 152. I am sure that he had done his best to spread the report of my
+marriage with his sister for fear of my <span class="sc">backing out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Scuttle</b>, <i>verb.</i> (thieves’).—The same as <span class="sc">back-slang</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Seam.</b> <span class="sc">To be down on one’s back-seam</span>, <i>phr.</i> (tailors’).—To be down on one’s luck; to be unfortunate.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Seat.</b> <span class="sc">To take a back seat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—Figuratively, to retire into obscurity; it also sometimes implies a silent
+confession of failure; an inability to accomplish what one has attempted. The colloquialism
+has gained a world-wide currency; it received an immense ‘send off,’ as the Americans
+say, from Andrew Johnson’s famous saying in 1868, that in the work of Reconstruction
+traitors should <span class="sc">take back seats</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Society</i>, Feb. 7, p. 9. This great batting achievement must, however, <span class="sc">take a back seat</span> when compared with the enormous total recently scored by Shaw’s Eleven in Australia,
+against a powerful Colonial team.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily News</i>, Feb. 24, p. 5, col. 2. Any form of art which is barred by its very nature from perfection
+must <span class="sc">take</span> what the Americans call <span class="sc">a back seat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, p. 426. Who will say the Britishers are not a forbearing and forgiving race, and
+the inhabitants of Stratford-on-Avon don’t by any means <span class="sc">take a back seat</span> in that line? Ignatius Donnelly actually visited the birthplace of Shakespeare, and
+wasn’t lynched! Far from it, he was hospitably received and entertained.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Slum</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—The lowest and most disreputable quarters of a town or city; generally
+applied to the dens and rookeries of the criminal and ‘outcast’ classes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff’s</span> <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Scene 5. <i>Log.</i> Well, don’t grumble—every one must pay for his learning—and you wouldn’t bilk the
+schoolmaster, would you? But, come, I’m getting merry; so if you wish for a bit of
+good truth, come with me, and let’s have a dive among the cadgers in the <span class="sc">back slums</span>, in the Holy Land. <i>Jerry.</i> <span class="sc">Back slums</span>—Holy Land!—I’m at fault again. <i>Log.</i> Why, among the beggars in Dyot Street, St. Giles’s. <i>Tom.</i> Beggars! ah, we shall be very good figures for the part.
+</p>
+<p class="cit right">(<i>Turns out his pockets.</i>)
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb90">[<a href="#pb90">90</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">M.&nbsp;E. Braddon</span>, <i>Joshua Haggard’s Daughter</i>, ch. xx. Not in fetid alleys and festering London <span class="sc">back-slums</span> only is man’s fight with difficulty a bitter and crushing battle.
+</p>
+<p>(Australian thieves’.)—A back room or entrance.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backstaircase</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A bustle, or ‘dress improver.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Birdcage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backstair Influence</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—Underhand dealing or persuasion; a stab in the dark; intrigue. [From
+the use of the back or private stairs of a palace, etc., for other than state visitors;
+hence, a secret mode of approach; and, attributively, applied to indirect, oblique,
+and unfair intrigue.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1697. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Relapse</i>, II. He is like a <span class="sc">backstair</span> minister at Court, who, while the reputed favourites are sauntering in the bed-chamber,
+is ruling the <span class="sic">roast</span> in the closet.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">Grenville Murray</span>, <i>Round about France</i>, p. 77. These men are the most indefatigable retailers of <span class="sc">backstairs</span> small talk to the little fry of journalism.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Stall</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—An accomplice who ‘covers’ the actual thief; especially used in relation
+to garrote-robberies, in which the <span class="sc">back-stall</span> has two functions, first to screen his companion, and then, if necessary, to ‘make
+off’ with the booty.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Talk.</b> <span class="sc">No back talk!</span> <i>phr.</i> (common).— 1. A slang catch-phrase indicating that the matter in question is closed
+to discussion; ‘there’s nothing more to be said.’
+</p>
+<p>2. Underhand insinuation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Teeth.</b> <span class="sc">To have one’s back teeth well afloat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—A facetiously brutal way of implying that the subject of such a remark
+is well primed with liquor—even to the verge of drunkenness.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Missouri Republican</i>, Jan. 25. When sober on the bench, Judge Noonan is a model of all the virtues. On
+Friday night, however, in company with Dr. Munford, of Kansas City, ex-Speaker Wood,
+Mr. Charles Mead and several other gentlemen, his honour once more drank until, as
+an onlooker put it, his <span class="sc">back teeth were well afloat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Timber</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Clothes. A humorous term which dates back to the middle of the seventeenth
+century. Other slang equivalents are <span class="sc">togs</span> and <span class="sc">toggery</span>; also <span class="sc">war-paint</span> in the sense of fine or showy garb. In French argot, <i lang="fr">alpague</i> is used synonymously.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1574, <i>d.</i> 1656. <span class="sc">Bp. Hall</span>, <i>Works</i> V., 543. Was there ever more riot and excess in diet and clothes, in belly-cheer
+and <span class="sc">back-timber</span>, than we see at this day? [<span class="sc">d.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Tommy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (tailors’).—A piece of cloth used to cover the ‘stays’ at the waist.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Track.</b> <span class="sc">To take the back-track</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To retreat from any assumed position; to <span class="sc">back out</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back Up</b>, <i>verb.</i> (Winchester College).—To call out. In ‘College’ various times are called out by Junior
+in ‘Chambers,’ such as ‘Three quarters!’ ‘Hour!’ ‘Bells go single!’ ‘Bells down!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Back-Slang</b>, <i>subs.</i> (street and costermonger).—A species of <span class="pageNum" id="pb91">[<a href="#pb91">91</a>]</span>slang, in which every word, as far as possible, is pronounced backwards. <i>See</i> ‘A Comparative and Historical Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.
+</p>
+<p><i>verb.</i> 1. (thieves’).—To talk in the <span class="sc">back-slang</span> lingo.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’).—To go or come stealthily from a place; to sneak by a roundabout way;
+also, to go away quickly.
+</p>
+<p>3. (Australian).—Up country in Australia, as in most parts a little out of the beaten
+tracks of civilization, a traveller is welcome at most of the homesteads in his way.
+Though unknown to the inmates, and bearing no letter of introduction, it is a common
+thing for a wayfarer to ride or drive up to a house, maybe call for help, and then
+take up his quarters for the night. This, in Australia, is called <span class="sc">back-slanging it</span>, though how the phrase is derived is not quite clear, for there is no suggestion
+of sneaking or proceeding stealthily in the question.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backwardation</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—A penalty paid for an extension of time, by sellers, when unable
+to deliver stock or shares which they have contracted to deliver by a certain date.
+<span class="sc">Backwardation</span> is the reverse of <span class="sc">contango</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Obviously this sometimes permits the purchase of stock cheaper on credit than for
+cash.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">Keyser</span>, <i>Law of the Stock Exchange</i>. The term <span class="sc">backwardation</span> is employed when stock is more in demand than money, and a premium is given to obtain
+the loan of stock against its value in money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Daily News</i>, 14 Dec, p. 6, col. 1. The 1873 loan is, on balance, about ⅝ lower, at 94, after
+being 93½. The <span class="sc">backwardation</span> on the stock went off at the close.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Backy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (tailors’).—A shop-mate who works behind another.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bacon</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The human body. A reference probably to the fact that the flesh of the
+pig forms the staple meat diet of the rural population, and lower classes generally.
+Formerly, no doubt, the term was applied, at first ironically or contemptuously, to
+a sleek, gross person; hence such compounds as ‘chaw-bacon,’ ‘bacon-brains,’ ‘bacon-face,’
+‘bacon-slicer,’ ‘bacon-picker,’ etc. A transference in sense, and a curtailment in
+form, in which <span class="sc">bacon</span> came to signify the human body was, from this point, easy enough. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Apple-cart</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To save one’s bacon</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—To escape narrowly from loss, danger, or damage; to just get off. The
+term is here an attributive usage of the slang sense, in which <span class="sc">bacon</span> signifies the human body. When it is said that a man has just <span class="sc">saved his bacon</span>, it refers to the individual himself. So also in the kindred phrase, ‘Oh, <span class="sc">spare my bacon</span>,’ the suppliant asks to be spared in his own person; and the same idea occurs in
+‘<span class="sc">to sell one’s bacon</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, one’s flesh or body, as in the case of women of the town. Falstaff, in. <i>I. Henry IV.</i>, Act ii., Sc. 2. 93 [1596] thus applies <span class="sc">bacon</span> to human beings—‘On! Bacons, on!’ So far the general aspect of the question; in regard
+to particulars, Mr. Thomas <span class="pageNum" id="pb92">[<a href="#pb92">92</a>]</span>Boys has some curious remarks upon the subject [N. and Q., 2 S., iv., 132] in effect
+as follows. In connecting the phrase <span class="sc">to save one’s bacon</span> with its original meaning, we are carried back to times when imputed heresy was expiated
+at the stake; and a man was said to have just <span class="sc">saved his bacon</span> (<i>i.e.</i>, from <i>frying</i>), who had himself narrowly escaped the penalty of being burnt alive. This connection
+of the two ideas is thus shown. When a pig is killed, it is the custom in some of
+the southern countries of Europe, as well as in many parts of England, to remove the
+bristles from the dead pig’s hide, not by scalding but by <i>singeing</i>. This is an operation of some nicety; for too much singeing would spoil the bacon.
+But practice makes perfect; and by the aid of ignited stubble, straw, or paper, the
+object is effected. The bristles are all singed off, and the bacon remains intact.
+This operation of singeing is in Portugal called <i lang="pt">chamuscar</i>, from <i lang="pt">chama</i> or <i lang="pt">chamma</i>, a flame or blaze. <i lang="pt">Chamuscar</i>, to singe, as pigs, to takeoff the hair (Moraes). Hence the noun <i lang="pt">chamusco</i>, which is <i>the smell of anything that has been singed</i>. Hence also the phrase <i lang="pt">cheira a chamusco</i> (he smells of singeing). This last phrase, however, <i lang="pt">cheira a chamusco</i>, was specially applied to any suspected <i>heretic</i>:—‘<i lang="pt">o que merece ser queimado, e faz per onde o seja, o que dizião por afronta aos Judeos
+encobertos</i>.<span>’</span> That is ‘he who deserved to be burnt, and acted in a way that was very likely to
+lead to it,’ was said to <i>smell</i> of singeing (‘<i lang="pt">cheirar a chamusco</i>’), <i>i.e.</i>, to smell of the fire. Consequently, the phrase was contumeliously addressed to anyone
+who was secretly a Jew (Moraes). Thus the persecuted Israelite, who steadfastly adhered
+to his forefathers’ creed, and lived in daily peril of the stake, was allusively but
+threateningly and insultingly compared to the abhorred carcass, which, though not
+yet roasted, boiled or fried, had already the smell of fire. If, after all, he was
+actually burnt alive, the same allusion was carried out to the end; for he was then
+said, ‘<i lang="pt">morrer frito</i>,’ to be <i>fried</i> to death (literally, ‘<i>to die fried</i>’). But even if not burnt he still had the <i lang="pt">chamusco</i>, or ‘smell of fire’; that is, he had only <span class="sc">just saved his bacon</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1691. <i>Weesils</i>, I., 5. No, they’l conclude I do’t to <span class="sc">save my bacon</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>Hudibras Redivivus</i>, vol. I., pt. II., p. 12.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">For could their talent be forsaken, </p>
+<p class="line">And they unite truth to <span class="sc">save their bacon</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1721. <span class="sc">Mrs. Centlivre</span>, <i>The Artifice</i>, v., ii. That pretence shan’t <span class="sc">save your bacon</span>, you old villain you.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">M. Scott</span>, <i>Cringle’s Log</i>, ch. v. ‘You know I <span class="sc">saved your bacon</span> in that awkward affair, when through drunkenness you plumped the <i>Torch</i> ashore.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">C. Reade</span>, <i>Never Too Late</i>, ch. lii. Jem drew a long breath and said brutally, yet with something of satisfaction,
+‘You have <span class="sc">saved your bacon</span> this time.’
+</p>
+<p>The French equivalent it may be noticed is somewhat analogous—<i lang="fr">sauver son lard</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to save one’s bacon.’
+</p>
+<p>Possibly, however, most people will be inclined to take the phrase at its face value,
+without resort to complicated argumentative derivation. In such a case the figurative
+use <span class="pageNum" id="pb93">[<a href="#pb93">93</a>]</span>of bacon as signifying the body will suffice to explain its origin.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To pull bacon</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—An operation described by the immortal Ingoldsby in the line—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">He put his thumb unto his nose and spread his fingers out.
+</p>
+<p>In other words <span class="sc">to take a sight</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), or <span class="sc">to make Queen Anne’s fan</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Household Words</i>, Oct. 2, p. 453. [This] peculiar action has, I believe, almost invariably been described
+as ‘taking a sight.’ A solicitor, however, in a recent police case at Manchester,
+described it as <span class="sc">pulling bacon</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Leeds Evening News</i>, Sept. 15. <span class="sc">‘Pulling bacon’ at Leeds policemen.</span>—Before Mr. Goodman and Mr. Farrar Smith, at the Leeds Police Court to-day, George
+Evans (50), coachman to the Earl of Mexborough, Mexborough Hall, near Methley, was
+summoned under the Hackney Carriage Bye-laws for having driven on the wrong side of
+the road. Police-constables Moody and Lockwood were on duty in Boar Lane on the 6th
+inst., when they saw the defendant driving a pair of horses attached to a carriage
+on the wrong side of the road for a distance of one hundred yards. The officers spoke
+to him, when he put his fingers to his nose and <span class="sc">pulled bacon</span> at them. He had been previously cautioned, but had not taken the slightest notice.
+Defendant said he had been a driver in London for eighteen years, and knew they had
+policemen in the road there, but he did not understand the law of driving in Yorkshire.
+He was fined 20s.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bacon-Faced</b>, <i>adj.</i> (colloquial).—With sleek, fat face; full faced. Otway in the <i>Atheist</i> [1684] speaks of one with a ‘<span class="sc">bacon face</span> like a cherubim.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bacon-Fed</b>, <i>adj.</i> (colloquial).—Fat or greasy. The expression occurs in Shakspeare’s <i>King Henry IV.</i>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bacon</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bacon-Slicer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A rustic.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Chawbacon</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1653. <span class="sc">Urquhart</span>, <i>Rabelais</i>, bk. I., ch. xv. (Bohn), I., 149. If he have not a better judgment, a better discourse,
+and that expressed in better terms than your son, with a complete carriage and civility
+to all manner of persons, account me for ever hereafter a very clounch, and <span class="sc">bacon-slicer</span> of Brene.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad</b>, <i>adj.</i> (popular).—Hard; difficult. Used as in quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>Post to Finish</i>, ch. xi. ‘I have heard you say over and over again that, when they are in the mood,
+their very temper makes them <span class="sc">bad</span> to beat.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To go to the bad</span>, <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—To be ruined; to become depraved. Virgil has a similar phrase <i lang="la">in pejus ruere</i>, ‘to go to the worse.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">M.&nbsp;E. Braddon</span>, <i>Aurora Floyd</i>, ch. xi. ‘A reckless man, ready <span class="sc">to go to the bad</span> by any road that can take me there; worthless alike to myself and to others.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>Ballads of Babylon</i> (<i>Beauty and Beast</i>). Let him <span class="sc">go to the bad</span> at his own mad pace.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To the bad</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, on the wrong side of the account; in deficit.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1816. ‘Quiz,’ <i>Grand Master</i>, viii., 25. I’ve really <span class="sc">to the bad</span> some thousand of rupees to add. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Pall Mall G.</i>, 6 Feb., 4. He was between £70 and £80 <span class="sc">to the bad</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Want ’em</span> or <span class="sc">him bad</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A humorous manner of expressing strong desire.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, March 9. Myers’ absence is seriously annoying to the defense, and does not appear
+quite as funny as it did when the prosecution called for him on Saturday last. It
+is not probable that the Court will very long suspend the trial if Myers does not
+appear. As the case now stands, the defense want Myers, and <span class="sc">want him bad</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad ’Apenny.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bad halfpenny</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb94">[<a href="#pb94">94</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad-Bargain</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Formerly a worthless soldier; a malingerer. Nowadays the term is applied to
+any worthless person or scapegrace.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad-Break</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A corruption of ‘bad outbreak,’ <i>i.e.</i>, riotous conduct, generally attributable to drink.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Crowd Generally</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—Of Western origin, and equivalent to the English <span class="sc">no great shakes</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). ‘Crowd,’ it may be remarked, in America, signifies either <i>one</i> or more individuals.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad-Egg</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A scoundrel; a blackguard; a ‘loose fish.’ In America the meaning attached
+to the term does not necessarily involve such an idea of depravity as on this side
+of the Atlantic. In the States the term is also applied to a worthless speculation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Trip to Barbary</i>, p. 130. The man in black baize with the felt képi, and who had a hatchet face desperately
+scarred with the small-pox, looked from head to heel a <span class="sc">bad egg</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. ii., p. 123. There is no doubt, but there are many of the officials of the convict
+prisons who are what the Yankees call <span class="sc">bad eggs</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Bad-lot; bad halfpenny; bad-hat. In Australia ‘ne’er-do-wells’ are termed sundowners;
+dry hash; or, a stringy bark.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i>Malfrat</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">mauvais gobet</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">mauvais</i>, bad; <i lang="fr">gobet</i>, properly a mouthful, morsel, lump, or piece); <i lang="fr">ferlampier</i> or <i lang="fr">ferlandier</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">ferlampié</i> formerly signified a dunce); <i lang="fr">clique</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">mariasse</i> (popular).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Form</b>, <i>subs.</i> (society).—He who, or that which fails to conform to the shifting fads and fancies
+of Society, with a big S; and, in a more general sense, anybody or anything vulgar
+or lacking polish.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch.</i> <span class="sc">Eton boy.</span> What an awful lot of energy you’ve got uncle! <span class="sc">Uncle</span>. Pretty well, my boy, for my time of life, I think! <span class="sc">e. b.</span> Yes! but energy’s such awful <span class="sc">bad form</span>, you know!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Badge</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Used in the canting sense, for one branded in the hand. ‘He has got his <span class="sc">badge</span>, and piked’; <i>i.e.</i>, ‘he was burned in the hand, and is at liberty.<span>’</span>—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Badge-Cove</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A parish pensioner; also in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries
+a licensed beggar or almsman. The remarks under <span class="sc">Abram man</span> and <span class="sc">Abram sham</span> are to the point in this connection.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Badger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A river thief. A good account of these gentry appears in Harrison Ainsworth’s
+<i>Jack Sheppard</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American thieves’).—In the cant language of the American criminal classes a <span class="sc">badger</span> or <span class="sc">panel thief</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is one who robs a man after a woman accomplice has enticed the victim into her den.
+</p>
+<p>3. (schoolboy).—A red haired individual.
+</p>
+<p>4. (harlotry).—A common prostitute.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p>5. (nautical).—Sometimes <span class="sc">badger-bag</span>. The fictitious individual personating Neptune in the festivities incident to ‘crossing
+the line.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Ambassador</span> and <span class="sc">Arthur</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb95">[<a href="#pb95">95</a>]</span></p>
+<p>6. (Wellington School).—A fellow who has got his ‘badge’ for play in the 2nd XV. at
+football.
+</p>
+<p><i>verb.</i> (popular).—To tease; to annoy; to confound.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1798. <span class="sc">O. Keefe</span>, <i>Wild Oats</i>, I., i. At home, abroad, you will still <span class="sc">badger</span> me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick</i>, ch. xxxiv., p. 299. Tracy Tupman, and Augustus Snodgrass, were severally called
+into the box; both corroborated the testimony of their unhappy friend; and each was
+driven to the verge of desperation by excessive <span class="sc">badgering</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Great Expectations</i>, ch. xviii., p. 82. ‘Which I meantersay,’ cried Joe, ‘that if you come into my place
+bull-baiting and <span class="sc">badgering</span> me, come out!’
+</p>
+<p>The popular French equivalent of <span class="sc">to badger</span> is <i lang="fr">aguigner</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To overdraw the badger</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—A figurative use of ‘drawing the badger’; to overdraw one’s banking account.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843–4. <span class="sc">Hood</span>, <i>Miss Kilmansegg</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">His cheeks no longer drew the cash, </p>
+<p class="line">Because, as his comrades explain’d in flash, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">He had <i>overdrawn his badger</i>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Badger State</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A popular name for the State of Wisconsin, and so called because of the
+<span class="sc">badgers</span> which once abounded there.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Give-Away.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Give away</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad-Halfpenny</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A ne’er-do-weel; an allusion to the frequency with which, like bad coins,
+they are always ‘turning up.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bad-egg</span>.
+</p>
+<p>(Australian).—A failing speculation; a risky venture.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Hat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The same as <span class="sc">bad egg</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Besant</span>, <i>They Were Married</i>, p. II., ch. ix., in <i>Captain’s Room, etc.</i> There may be one or two <span class="sc">bad hats</span> among eldest sons; but there is not one, I am sure—there cannot be one—who would
+dare to take his wife’s salary and deprive her of her son.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Lot.</b>—A term derived from auctioneering slang, and now generally used to describe a man
+or woman of indifferent morals.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, ch. lx. ‘He’s a bad’un, Mr. Lightfoot—a <span class="sc">bad lot</span>, sir, and that you know.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Trail of the Serpent</i>, bk. I., ch. ii. ‘I am good for nothing,’ he said, ‘I am a <span class="sc">bad lot</span>. I wonder they don’t hang such men as me.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">M.&nbsp;E. Braddon</span>, <i>Dead Sea Fruit</i>, ch. i. ‘The impracticable Daniel has a certain kind of influence; and though he
+rarely cares to use it on his own account—being so <span class="sc">bad a lot</span> that he dare not give himself a decent character—he will employ it to the uttermost
+for a spotless nephew.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Man</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A <span class="sc">bad man</span>, in the West, is a somewhat mixed character. The term is generally understood to
+mean a professional fighter or man-killer, but who, despite this drawback, is said
+by Roosevelt, in <i>Ranch Life in the Far West</i>, to be sometimes, according to his light, perfectly honest. These are the men who
+do most of the killing in frontier communities; yet it is a noteworthy fact that the
+men who are killed generally deserve their fate. These men are, of course, used to
+brawling, and are not only sure shots, but, what is equally important, able to ‘draw’
+their weapon with marvellous quickness. They think nothing whatever of murder, and
+are the dread and terror of their associates; yet they are very chary of taking the
+life of a man of good standing, and will often ‘weaken’ <span class="pageNum" id="pb96">[<a href="#pb96">96</a>]</span>and ‘backdown’ at once if confronted fearlessly. With many of them their courage arises
+from confidence in their own powers and knowledge of the fear in which they are held;
+and men of this type often show the white feather when they get into a ‘tight place.’
+Others, however, will face any odds without flinching, and when mortally wounded,
+have been known to fight with a cool ferocious despair that was terrible. During the
+last two or three years, stockmen have united to put down these dangerous characters,
+often by the most summary exercise of lynch law; and, as a consequence, many localities
+once infested by <span class="sc">bad men</span> are now perfectly law-abiding.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Match Twist</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (hairdressers’).—A man who has red, or carotty hair and black whiskers is said to
+have a <span class="sc">bad match twist</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Badminton</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A cooling drink; a kind of claret-cup, so called because invented at
+the Duke of Beaufort’s seat of the same name. Composed of claret, sugar, spice, soda-water,
+and ice.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">Disraeli</span>, <i>Sybil</i>, bk. I., ch. i. ‘Waiter, bring me a tumbler of <span class="sc">Badminton</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Digby Grand</i>, ch. ix. An enormous measure of <span class="sc">Badminton</span>, that grateful compound of mingled claret, sugar, and soda-water.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Ouida</span>, <i>Under Two Flags</i>, ch. ix. Looking up out of a great silver flagon of <span class="sc">Badminton</span>, with which he was ending his breakfast.
+</p>
+<p>2. (pugilistic).—Blood; from the similarity in colour to the summer drink of the same
+name. <span class="sc">Claret</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), for a like reason, is also, in the language of the prize-ring, synonymous with
+blood.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Record.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Record</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Shot</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—An abortive attempt; a woman’s guess.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1844. <span class="sc">Kinglake</span>, <i>Eothen</i>, viii., 137. I secretly smiled at this last prophecy as <span class="sc">a bad shot</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’) in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 2 S., viii., p. 492. <span class="sc">A bad shot</span> is one of the worst exposures of his ignorance that a University man when up for
+examination can make.
+</p>
+<p><i>See</i>, however, <span class="sc">Shot</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bad Slang</b>, <i>subs.</i> (circus and showmen’s).—Faked up monstrosities; spurious curiosities.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 206. Roderick Palsgrave was considered by all who knew him to be the best showman
+of a <span class="sc">bad slang</span> that ever travelled. He would get hold of any black girl or woman, dress her up,
+and then show her as one of the greatest novelties ever seen.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bag</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—1. A woman when <i>enceinte</i> was said ‘to have a <span class="sc">bag</span>.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To bag</span>. Sense 3.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Westminster School).—Milk.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To empty the bag</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To tell, or disclose the whole truth; to wind up an argument or discussion.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To give the bag</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—1. Formerly used in varying senses. In the following quotation it conveys,
+says Nares, the idea of chicanery and cheating. This, however, is doubtful, but compare
+‘to give the bag to hold.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Quip</i>, in <i>works</i> IX., 263. You shall be … lighte witted <span class="pageNum" id="pb97">[<a href="#pb97">97</a>]</span>upon every small occasion <span class="sc">to geue</span> your maister <span class="sc">the bagge</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. In another respect <span class="sc">to give the bag</span> was used in a sense analogous to that conveyed in <span class="sc">to give the sack</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), <i>i.e.</i>, to dismiss a person from one’s employment, with this important difference that primarily
+the ‘bag’ or ‘sack’ was not given by the master or mistress to the servant, but <i>vice versâ</i>, and, therefore, the expression meant ‘to leave without warning.’ This was the earliest
+usage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <i>Defence of Conny Catching</i>, in Greene’s <i>works</i> XI., 86. If he meane to <span class="sc">giue her the bagge</span>, he selleth whatsoever he can, and so leaues hir spoild both of hir wealth and honestie.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1647. <i>Speedy Hue and Crie</i>, I.… He being sometime an Apprentice on London Bridge … <span class="sc">gave his master the bag</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>Gradually the meaning of <span class="sc">to give the bag</span> changed to that which, even to-day, is dialectically current, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to dismiss a person from one’s employment,’ though in large centres of population
+<span class="sc">to give or receive the sack</span> is, at present, the more popular equivalent. While dealing with variations of this
+kind, it is noteworthy that ‘bag’ was, in the seventeenth century, varied by ‘canvas,’
+as Shirley has it——
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1652. <span class="sc">Shirley</span>, <i>The Brothers</i>, Act ii. I have promis’d him as much as marriage comes to, and I lose my honour,
+if my don <span class="sc">receive the canvas</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Gifford and Dyce in a note say ‘the phrase is taken from the practice of journeymen
+mechanics who travel in quest of work, with the implements of their profession. When
+they are discharged by their masters, they are said to <span class="sc">receive the canvas</span>, or <span class="sc">the bag</span>; because in this their tools and necessaries are packed up, preparatory to their
+removal.’ This suggested derivation would possibly pass muster were it not that, treated
+historically, the phrase though identical in form is shown to have had an earlier
+usage, and one, moreover, of an entirely antagonistic character; unless indeed, in
+the first instance, it was customary for employers to find ‘bags’ of tools and working
+implements for their employees, in which case the workman or servant in leaving his
+work would naturally <span class="sc">give</span> the master <span class="sc">the bag</span>. The transition in sense which the phrase has undergone would then become perfectly
+clear, as far as the why and wherefore of the change is concerned. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Sack</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To give one the bag to hold</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To leave in the lurch; to engage a person’s attention in order to deceive.
+<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To give the bag</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1793. <span class="sc">T. Jefferson</span>, <i>Writings</i> (1859), iv., 7. She will <span class="sc">leave</span> Spain <span class="sc">the bag to hold</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1823. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Peveril of the Peak</i>, vii. She <span class="sc">gave me the bag</span> to hold and was smuggling in a corner with a rich old Puritan.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">In the bottom of the bag</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—An expression equivalent to what, in modern slang, is termed ‘having a trump
+card in reserve’; something in hand as a last resource or expedient.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1659. <span class="sc">Reynolds</span>, in Burton <i>Diary</i> (1828), iv., 447. If this be done which is <span class="sc">in the bottom of the bag</span>, and must be done, we shall … be able to buoy up our reputation, [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb98">[<a href="#pb98">98</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">To let the cat out of the bag</span>, <i>phr.</i> (familiar).—To disclose a trick or secret.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cat</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To put one in a bag</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—Usage and derivation explained, as far as known, in quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1662. <span class="sc">Fuller</span>, <i>Worthies, Cardigan</i> (ii., 579). They (the Welsh) had a kind of play wherein the stronger who prevailed
+put the weaker into a sack; and hence we have borrowed our English by-word to express
+such, betwixt whom there is apparent odds of strength. ‘He is able to <span class="sc">put him up in a bagge</span>.’ [<span class="sc">d.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1676. <span class="sc">Earl of Rochester</span>, <i>Hist. of Insipids</i>, st. 14.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Had haughty <i>Holms</i> but call’d in <i>Spragg</i>, </p>
+<p class="line"><i>Hans</i> had been <span class="sc">put into a bag</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><span class="sc">To put or get one’s head in a bag</span>, <i>phr.</i> (printers’).—A ‘bag’ here signifies a pot of beer; hence, to drink. Also in use
+amongst seafaring men.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Sat. Review</i>, 14 May, p. 700. It is slang, and yet purely trade slang, when one printer says of
+another that he has <span class="sc">got his head in the bag</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To turn to bag and wallet</span> (old).—To become a beggar.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i> (popular).—1. To secure for oneself. Most probably a mere extension of the colloquial
+sporting usage of to bag (properly, to put or enclose in a bag), in the sense of to seize, capture, entrap,
+or otherwise bring within one’s reach.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Mortimer Collins</span>, <i>Thoughts in my Garden</i>, vol. I., p. 163. The word <i>beggar</i> itself is from <i>bag</i>—meaning a man who carries a bag; and modern commercial slang reproduces the phrase,
+saying of a clever man of business that he has <span class="sc">bagged</span> a good thing.
+</p>
+<p>2. To steal; or to catch (a thief or man). Sometimes rendered by <span class="sc">to collar</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><span class="corr" id="xd33e15434" title="Source: 1881">1818</span>. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Fudge Family in Paris</i>, VI. Who can help <span class="sc">to bag</span> a few, When Sidmouth wants a death or two?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <span class="sc">Farrar</span>, <i>St. Winifred’s</i>, ch. xxxv. They would not call it stealing but <span class="sc">bagging</span> a thing, or, at the worst, ‘cribbing it’—concealing the villainy under a new name.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old).—To beget; to conceive; to breed. Also <span class="sc">to be bagged</span>. This usage dates from about <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1400, and was colloquial until about the middle of the seventeenth century. Warner
+[in <i>Alb. Eng. VI.</i>, 148] has the line
+</p>
+<p class="cit">Well, Venus shortly <span class="sc">bagged</span>, and ere long was Cupid bred.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To get baggy</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Said of clothes when loosened by the stretching which arises from wear
+and tear. Trousers get <span class="sc">baggy</span> at the knees.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bag and Baggage</b>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To clear one out <span class="sc">bag and baggage</span> is to get quit of one entirely. A deprecatory expression indicating complete riddance.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bag and Bottle</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—Food and drink. The former from being carried in a bag as by beggars and vagrants;
+the latter also being of similar derivation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">Eachard</span>, <i>Observations</i>. An ill-contriving rascal that in his younger years should choose to lug the <span class="sc">bag and the bottle</span> a mile or two to school; and to bring home only a small bit of Greek or Latin most
+magisterially construed.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baggage.</b> <span class="sc">Heavy baggage</span>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—1. Women and children.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p>2. <span class="sc">Baggage</span> is also a familiar <span class="pageNum" id="pb99">[<a href="#pb99">99</a>]</span>colloquialism for a pert, saucy, young woman; like ‘wench,’ ‘rogue,’ ‘gypsy,’ it is
+often used endearingly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1693. <span class="sc">Congreve</span>, <i>Old Batchelor</i>, I., iii. I believe the <span class="sc">baggage</span> loves me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1732. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>The Miser</i>, Act i., Sc. 9. Here’s a <span class="sc">baggage</span> of a daughter, who refuses the most advantageous match that ever was offered.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">Alex. Smith</span>, <i>Dreamthorpe</i>, p. 12. And Beauty, who is something of a coquette … goes off in a huff. Let the
+<span class="sc">baggage</span> go!
+</p>
+<p>3. (old).—A whore or strumpet; a woman of loose morals.
+</p>
+<p>4. (old).—Rubbish; ‘rot.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1575. <i>Touchstone of Complexions</i>, p. 118. For throughe cruditye and lacke of perfect concoction in the stomacke is
+engendered great abundance of naughty <span class="sc">baggage</span> and hurtful phlegme.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1576. <span class="sc">Gascoigne</span>, <i>The Steele Glas</i>, p. 79. When brewers put no <span class="sc">bagage</span> in their beere.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (old).—Used contemptuously of individuals and things. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Baggage</span>—a worthless, good-for-nothing woman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1593. <span class="sc">G. Harvey</span>, <i>Pierees Superero</i>, in <i>works</i> (Gresart) II., 273. Bibbing Nash, <span class="sc">baggage</span> Nash, swaddish Nash, rogish Nash, the bellweather of the scribling flocke.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1692. <span class="sc">Hacket</span>, <i>Life of Williams</i>, ii., 128. For four cellars of wine, syder, ale, beer, with wood, hay, corn, and
+the like, stored up for a year or two, he gave not account of sixpence, but spent
+it upon <span class="sc">baggage</span>, and loose franions. <i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, p. 123. Booth himself confest, in the hearing of those witnesses, that Pregion had
+nothing to do with that <span class="sc">baggage</span> woman.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baggage-Smasher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—1. A railway porter. The why and wherefore of this nickname is abundantly
+apparent from the following quotations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">De Vere</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 358. The <span class="sc">baggage-smasher</span>, as the porter is commonly called, handles his burdens with appalling recklessness,
+and responsibility there is none.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>New <span class="corr" id="xd33e15630" title="Source: Viginians">Virginians</span></i>, i., 37. ‘Called <span class="sc">baggage-smashers</span>.<span>’</span> [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, Nov. 3. Fashionable people who have spent the summer at the watering places or at
+the seaside, but have now returned to the cities, assert that the <span class="sc">baggage-smasher</span> has become more destructive than ever. The <span class="sc">baggage-smasher</span> is indeed a terror. In fact there are two of them: the one who flits from station
+to station and dumps your poor dumb trunk with force enough to drive piles in a government
+breakwater, and the one who loiters around the depôt watching for his chance to shatter
+your baggage. The depôt baggageman is the most culpable of the two species. In his
+long and dark career of smashing trunks, he has, evidently, knocked the hoops off
+his conscience, and there is no remorse brave, foolhardy and reckless enough to tackle
+his heart-strings and play on them.
+</p>
+<p>2. Also a thief who hangs about ‘depôts,’ with a view to robbery of luggage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>New York Tribune</i>, Nov. 23. Gamblers, ticket-swindlers, emigrant robbers, <span class="sc">baggage-smashers</span>, and all the worst classes of the city.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bagged</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (American).—A term used to signify imprisonment and victimization—probably only an
+extension of the idea of capture as derived from sport, through the slang ‘to bag,’
+<i>i.e.</i>, to steal. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To bag</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bagging</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial slang).—In the first instance, food taken between regular meals; now
+generally applied, especially in Lancashire, to what is known in the South of England
+as ‘high tea.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">J. Collier</span>, in <i>Lancashire Glossary</i> (E.D.S.). Hoo’l naw cum agen till <span class="sc">baggin’ time</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, Oct., p. 661. Lancashire adopts the whole-board or partial-board system very extensively.
+The local term of <span class="sc">bagging</span> implies bread and cheese, or pies; and there are all <span class="pageNum" id="pb100">[<a href="#pb100">100</a>]</span>the varieties of board and lodging, dinner of potatoes and bacon with buttermilk,
+<span class="sc">bagging</span> in the forenoon and afternoon, dinner and lunch, and rations allowed for women.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. In <i>Temple Bar Mag.</i>, 4 Jan. <span class="sc">Baggin’</span> is not only lunch, but any accidental meal coming between two regular ones.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bagging the Over.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jockeying the over</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bagman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A commercial traveller. Formerly of respectable usage; now only employed
+contemptuously.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1765. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Essays</i>, I. The <span class="sc">bagman</span> was telling a better story. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Paris Sketch Book</i>, p. 20. When all the rest of mankind look hideous, dirty, peevish, wretched, after
+a forty hours’ coach-journey, a <span class="sc">bagman</span> appears as gay and spruce as when he started.
+</p>
+<p>The term <span class="sc">bagman</span> took its rise in the saddle-bags in which the commercial traveller of the past century
+carried his patterns and goods. These saddle-bags being of larger dimensions than
+those usually carried by travellers on horseback, would designate the commercial traveller
+<i lang="fr">par excellence</i> as <i>the</i> <span class="sc">bagman</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. In sporting slang, a ‘bag-fox.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <span class="sc">Stonehenge</span>, <i>Brit. Sports</i>, I., II., iv., § 5. If … wild cubs cannot be found, a <span class="sc">bagman</span> or two must be obtained. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bagnio</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A brothel. [From Italian <i lang="it">bagno</i>, a bath, properly a hot bath; whence an application as in the case of <span class="sc">stew</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), for a house of prostitution.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1624. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>Parliament of Love</i>, II., ii. To be sold to a brothel or a common <span class="sc">bagnio</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>English Humour</i>, V. (1858), 243. How the prodigal drinks and sports at the <span class="sc">bagnio</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Wright</span>, <i>Domestic Manners in England during the Middle Ages</i>, 491. They were soon used to such an extent for illicit intrigues, that the name
+of a hothouse or <span class="sc">bagnio</span> became equivalent to that of a brothel.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bag of Bones</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (familiar).—A lean, attenuated person; sometimes called a ‘walking skeleton.’ The
+French have <i lang="fr">un sac à os</i> (often contracted into <i lang="fr">sacdos</i>)—a literal translation. The term is quite modern, being traced by Murray no further
+back than 1838, when Dickens used it [in <i>Oliver Twist</i>, iv., 64].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bag o’ Moonshine</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—Nonsense.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">All moonshine</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bag of Nails</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American thieves’).—A state of confusion or topsy-turveydom. [Qy. from ‘bacchanals.’]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bag of Tricks</b>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Generally, <span class="sc">the whole bag of tricks</span>; <i>i.e.</i>, every expedient.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bagpipe</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A windy talker; a senseless chatter-box. The derivation is obviously from
+the musical instrument of the same name.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i> (old).—A lascivious practice; too indecent for explanation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bags</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—An ironical nickname for trousers, thought by some to be of University
+origin, and borrowed from ‘the variegated bags’ of Euripides—<span class="trans" title="tous thylakous tous poikilous"><span lang="grc" class="grek">τους θυλάκους τους ποικίλους</span></span> (Cyclops., 182).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Adventures of Verdant Green</i>, p. <span class="pageNum" id="pb101">[<a href="#pb101">101</a>]</span>51. Just jump into a pair of <span class="sc">bags</span> and Wellingtons. <i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, p. 5. His black go-to-meeting <span class="sc">bags</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i> (Christmas Number). ‘But, holloa!’ he cried, as he caught sight of his legs. ‘Parsons
+don’t wear light tweed <span class="sc">bags</span>!’… Jack had to unpack his portmanteau and get out his evening inexpressibles.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">M. Collins</span>, <i>Frances</i>, ch. xv. His well-shapen hip and calf were hidden in loose-fitting <span class="sc">bags</span> of corduroy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch</i>, Jan. 10, p. 6. <span class="sc">The spread of education and liberal ideas.</span>—<i>His Grace the Duke of Poplar and Bermondsey.</i> ‘Just look at these <span class="sc">bags</span> you last built me, Snippe! J’ever see such beastly <span class="sc">bags</span> in your life? I shall always be glad to come and dine with you, old man; but I’ll
+be hanged if you shall ever measure me for another pair of <span class="sc">bags</span>!’ <i>Mr. Snippe</i> (<i>of Snippe and Son, St. James’s Street</i>). ‘You’ve <i>always</i> grumbled about your <span class="sc">bags</span>, as you call ’em, ever since you were my fag at Eton; and at Christchurch you were
+just as bad, even though my poor dear old governor used to come all the way down and
+measure you himself. It ain’t the fault of the <span class="sc">bags</span>, my dear Popsy—it’s the fault of the legs inside ’em! So, shut up, old Stick-in-the-mud,
+and let’s join the ladies—the duchess has promised to give us “Little Billee.” ’
+</p>
+<p>When made of startling material, or ‘cut’ in an exaggerated style of fashion they
+become <span class="sc">howling bags</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Dittoes; kicks; kicksies; bum-bags; sit-upons; unmentionables; continuations; hams;
+inexpressibles; abridgements; drumstick-cases; and ducks (when made of white material).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Dalzar</i>; <i lang="fr">falzar</i>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Intj.</i> (schoolboy).—<span class="sc">Bags!</span> or <span class="sc">bags I!</span> is frequently used to assert a claim to some article or privilege. Analogous schoolboy
+slang is <span class="sc">fains</span> or <span class="sc">fain it</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) for demanding a truce during the progress of a game, and which is always granted
+by the opposing party. In other schools <span class="sc">pike I</span> or <span class="sc">prior pike</span> serve to lay claim to anything, or for asserting priority of claim. Also <span class="sc">bar!</span> <i>e.g.</i>, ‘He wanted me to do so and so, but I <i>barred</i> not.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Fain</span>, <span class="sc">Pike</span>, and <span class="sc">Bar</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To have the bags</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—This phrase is erroneously given by Hotten (and Barrère has followed suit),
+as <span class="sc">to have the bags</span> <i>off</i>. The meaning is to be of age, and thus to possess all the rights and privileges of
+adultship; also to have plenty of money. Obviously an allusion to the transition from
+child’s attire to the garments of manhood.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Bags of mystery</span>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—Sausages and saveloys are so called—from the often mysterious character
+of their compounds. Presumably composed of minced ‘meat,’ but so highly flavoured
+and seasoned that no man can tell whereof they are made.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To take the bags</span> (athletic).—To act as ‘hare’ in ‘Hare and Hounds,’ a game too well known to need
+description in this place.
+</p>
+<p>(Stock Exchange).—<i>B</i>uenos <i>A</i>yres <i>G</i>reat <i>S</i>outhern Railway Bonds.—Formed from the initial letters, thus <i>B-A-G-S</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baijan.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bejan</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bail.</b> <span class="sc">Straw-bail</span> or <span class="sc">straw-shoes</span>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A nickname for a person willing for a consideration, to give evidence,
+or act as bail. Formerly men were much more ostentatious in plying <span class="pageNum" id="pb102">[<a href="#pb102">102</a>]</span>a vocation of perjury than is now happily possible. It was no uncommon thing for such
+openly to perambulate the entrances to the law-courts ready for any chance customer.
+They made known their occupation by wearing a piece of straw just sticking out of
+their shoes. The <i>Quarterly Review</i> (xxxiii., 344) points out that the practice is a very ancient one, Athens having
+abounded in straw-shoes. The <i lang="la">modus operandi</i> was much the same then as in later days. When it was ‘desirable’ to season Attic
+testimony with bribery and perjury, the scene outside a Greek court of justice might
+be thus described. An advocate or lawyer who wanted a convenient witness knew by these
+signs [the straws in the sandals] where to find one, and the colloquy between the
+parties was brief. ‘Don’t you remember’ said the advocate—(the party looked at the
+fee and gave no sign: but the fee increased and the powers of memory increased with
+it). ‘To be sure I do!’ ‘Then come into the court and swear it.’ And <span class="sc">straw-shoes</span> went into the court and swore it. As <span class="sc">b.c.</span>, so <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1754—before and after.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Jonathan Wild</i>, book I., chap. ii. Charity took to husband an eminent gentleman whose name I cannot
+learn; but who was famous for so friendly a disposition, that he was <span class="sc">bail</span> for above a hundred persons in one year. He had likewise the remarkable honour of
+walking in Westminster Hall with a straw in his shoe.
+</p>
+<p>At present lawyers use <span class="sc">straw-bail</span> to designate insufficient bail. Closely allied to this term, and used much in the
+same manner, is ‘a man of straw.’ The figure is the effigy of a man, stuffed with
+straw; hence, ‘a man of straw,’ the semblance of a man—a person of neither substance
+nor responsibility; or one put forward to screen a real delinquent. A curious usage,
+akin to the foregoing, is also sometimes heard among sailors. For example, a strike
+for wages having taken place amongst the crew of a ship, ‘<span class="sc">blacklegs</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>), or ‘straw-yarders’ as they were called in nautical phraseology, took the place
+of the strikers. On the meaning of the expression being asked, it was explained that
+a ‘straw-yarder’ was a man about the docks who had never been to sea, and knew little
+or nothing of the duties of a seaman.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To give or take leg-bail</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To escape, either from arrest, or from prison; literally, to be indebted
+to one’s legs for flight. For exhaustive list of synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1775. <span class="sc">Adair</span>, <i>American Indians</i>, 277. I had concluded to use no chivalry, but <span class="sc">give them leg-bail</span> instead of it, by … making for a deep swamp. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1815. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Guy Mannering</i>, ch. iii. ‘I e’en <span class="sc">gae them leg-bail</span>, for there’s nae ease in dealing wi’ quarrelsome fowk.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Poacher</i>, xxii. <span class="sc">Given them leg-bail</span>, I swear.
+</p>
+<p>The phrase is sometimes amplified thus:—<span class="sc">to take leg-bail and give land security</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bail Up!</b> also <b>Bale Up!</b> <i>intj.</i> (Australian).—A bushranger’s phrase for ‘stand and deliver’! ‘Shell out’!
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb103">[<a href="#pb103">103</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, July, p. 91. [Australian <i>loq.</i>] ‘<span class="sc">Bail up! Bail up!</span>’ shout the two red-veiled attackers, revolvers in hand.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;L. Apperson</span>, <i>All the Year Round</i>, July 30, p. 68, col. 1. In times gone by, it was by no means an uncommon occurrence
+[in Australia] for a coach to be ‘stuck up’ by a band of bushrangers, whose shouts
+of <span class="sc">bail up</span>, an invitation equivalent to our ‘shell out,’ supported by revolver barrels, terrified
+the hearts of the passengers. But a coach is now seldom interfered with, and to ‘stick
+up’ is applied to less daring attempts to rob.
+</p>
+<p>2. Hence, colloquially, a demand for instant payment. Equivalent to the English <span class="sc">fork out! stump up!</span> etc. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Shell out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bait</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Anger; rage; indignation. Derived from the figurative sense of ‘to bait,’
+<i>i.e.</i>, to worry; harass; or tease.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">F. Anstey</span>, <i>Vice-Versâ</i>, ch. v. ‘I went calmly on, smoking my cigar as if nothing was the matter. That put
+the Proctor in a <span class="sc">bait</span>, I can tell you!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baitland</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—Admiral Smyth in his <i>Sailors’ Word Book</i> quotes this as ‘an old word, formerly used to signify a port where refreshments could
+be procured.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bake</b>, <i>verb.</i> (Winchester College).—To rest, or lie down.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baked</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Collapsed; exhausted; done up; <i>e.g.</i>, ‘toward the end of the course the crew were regularly <span class="sc">baked</span>.’ A common colloquialism at the beginning of the present century; but the punning
+idea involved is very ancient. <span class="sc">To bake one’s bread</span> in the sense of ‘to do for one’ occurs as early as 1380, as will be seen from the
+following quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1380. <span class="sc">Sir Ferumb</span>, 577. For euere <span class="sc">my bred had be bake</span>; myn lyf dawes had be tynt.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Half-baked</span> (common) is said of a dull-witted or imbecile person, <i>i.e.</i>, one who is ‘soft’ or inexperienced, in contrast to one who is <span class="sc">baked</span> in the sense of ‘seasoned,’ quick-witted, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 3 S., vi., 494, 2. He is only <span class="sc">half-baked</span>—put in with the bread, and taken out with the cakes.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A cushion. These were of two kinds; that used in ‘College’
+was of large size, oblong in shape, and green in colour. The other used in ‘Commoners’
+was thin, narrow, much smaller, and of red colour. The term <span class="sc">baker</span> is also applied to anything placed upon a form to sit upon, <i>e.g.</i>, a blotting book or other article; in short, anything comfortable to sit upon.
+</p>
+<p>(American).—A loafer. The word is generally attributed to Baron de Mandat Grancey,
+who, in his work <i>Cowboys and Colonels</i>, innocently translated the word ‘loafer’ as <span class="sc">baker</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To spell baker</span> (colloquial).—To attempt a difficult task. In the old spelling books ‘baker’ was
+frequently the first word of two syllables to which a child came when learning to
+spell.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baker-Kneed</b>, also <b>Baker-legged</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—1. Knock-kneed; disfigured by crooked legs. This deformity, incident to
+bakers, arising from the constrained position in which they knead bread, is said to
+be the almost certain penalty of habitually bearing any burden of <span class="pageNum" id="pb104">[<a href="#pb104">104</a>]</span>bulk in the right hand, or of excessive force constantly exerted by the right side
+of the body. The knees gradually incline inwards until they closely resemble the right
+side of the letter K.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1607. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Westward Hoe</i>, Act ii., Sc. 2. Will women’s tongues, like <span class="sc">bakers’ legs</span>, never go straight?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1692. <span class="sc">L’Estrange</span>, <i>Life of Æsop</i>. Æsop … was … flat-nos’d, hunch-back’d, blabber-lipp’d, a long misshapen head; his
+body crooked all over, big-belly’d, <span class="sc">baker-legg’d</span>, and his complexion so swarthy that he took his very name from ’t; for Æsop is the
+same with Æthiop.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i>, 2 ed. <span class="sc">Bakes-legg’d</span>, straddling, with the legs bowing outward.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">Colman</span>, <i>Poetical Vagaries</i>, p. 13. His voice had broken to a gruffish squeak. He had grown blear-eyed, <span class="sc">baker-kneed</span>, and gummy.
+</p>
+<p>2. Effeminate. Either an attributive usage of the foregoing, or an allusion to the
+popular belief that a woman’s legs are never straight. Compared physiologically with
+those of a man this is doubtless true; but otherwise most women would resent the imputation
+as a libel.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1652. <span class="sc">Gaule</span>, <i>Hagastrom</i>, 186. <span class="sc">Baker-kneed</span> signifies effeminate.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baker Layer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A Junior who used to take a prefect’s green <span class="sc">baker</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) in and out of ‘Hall’ at meal times. The term is now obsolete.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baker’s Dozen</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—Thirteen reckoned as twelve. Formerly, so careful were ‘the powers
+that be’ regarding the supply of bread, that bakers were liable to heavy penalties
+for any deficiency in the weight of loaves. So hedged in, indeed, was the sale of
+bread, that the weight of loaves was fixed by law, for every price from eighteenpence
+down to twopence, but penny loaves or rolls were not specified in the statute. Bakers,
+therefore, when selling the latter, in order to be on the safe side, gave, for a dozen
+of bread, an additional loaf, known as ‘inbread.’ A similar custom of giving extra
+quantity was formerly observed with regard to coal, and publishers nowadays reckon
+thirteen copies of a book as twelve. That the term <span class="sc">baker’s dozen</span> was thoroughly colloquial at the latter end of the sixteenth century is apparent
+from the first of the following quotations:
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Saffron Walden</i>, in <i>works</i> III., ii. Conioyning with his aforesaid Doctor Brother in eightie eight browne <span class="sc">baker’s dozen</span> of Almanackes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1639. <i>Will</i> of Francis Pynner, of Bury, Gent., dated April 26 [Camden Society’s ‘Bury Wills’].
+The yerely sume of ffiue pounds p’cell of the said yerely rents to be bestowed in
+wheaten bread, to be made into <i>penny</i> loaves, and upon eu’y Lord’s day, called Sonday, throughout eu’y yere of the said
+terme [40 years or thereabouts], <i>fowre and twenty</i> loaves of the said bread, with the <i>inbread</i> allowed by the baker for those <i>twoe dosens</i> of bread, to be timely brought and sett vpon a forme towards the vpp’end of the chancell
+of the said p’ish church of St. Marie, and … the same <i>twoe dosens</i> of bread to be giuen and distributed … to and amongst fowre and twentie poore people.…
+And they, the said clarke, sexton, and bedell, shall alwaies haue the <i>inbread</i> of all the bread aforesaid ovr and besides their shares in the said twoe dosens of
+bread.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1733. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Don Quixote</i>, III., vi. I could not number them. I dare swear there were a good round <span class="sc">baker’s dozen</span>, at least.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, ch. xxviii. ‘As to your lawyer, you get just your guinea’s worth from him—not even
+so much as the <span class="sc">baker’s bargain, thirteen to the dozen</span>.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb105">[<a href="#pb105">105</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">Baker’s dozen</span> is occasionally used in a somewhat more figurative sense, and is not confined to
+the technicalities of trade. It is employed to signify thirteen or fourteen. It is
+so quoted in Grose (1785), but the usage is apparently much older than that, for Hudson,
+the navigator, when he discovered the bay to which his name is given, designated a
+cluster of thirteen or fourteen islands on the east shore of it. <span class="sc">The Baker’s Dozen</span>, as may be seen on the charts; and even French atlases exhibit these islands as <i lang="fr">La Douzaine du boulanger</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To give one a baker’s dozen</span> is to pummell a man well; to thrash him soundly—a humorous allusion to the good measure
+implied by the phrase.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bakes</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A schoolboy.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bakester</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—One who bakes (<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bake</span>); a sluggard. The term is now obsolete.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baking Leave</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—Permission to <span class="sc">bake</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) in a study in ‘Commoners,’ or in a ‘scob’ place in College. In this sense the term
+is obsolete; but it is now used of leave to sit in any other person’s ‘<span class="sc">toys</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>)—a sort of bureau.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baking Place</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A kind of sofa in ‘Studies’ of ‘Commoners.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balaam</b>, <i>subs.</i> (journalistic).—A term applied to all kinds of miscellaneous matter, generally of
+a trumpery and indifferent character, used as ‘padding’ in periodical publications.
+Evidently from Numbers xxii., 30, in which the ass spoke ‘with man’s voice.’ <span class="sc">Balaam</span> hence denotes ‘the speech of an ass,’ and is well applied to the stupid jokes, and
+silly paragraphs with which odd corners and short columns are often lengthened out.
+Brewer claims an American origin, but Webster only calls it ‘a cant term.’ In any
+case the term has clearly reference to nonsense to be thrown in to fill space, or
+nonsense thrown out as refuse. The curious point in the story of Balaam is that the
+ass talks like a philosopher and the prophet behaves like a donkey. The term was popularised
+by its frequent use in <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1826. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Mal. Malagr.</i> iii., 3. How much <span class="sc">Balaam</span> (speaking technically) I have edged out of your valuable paper.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Lochart</span>, <i>Scott</i>, lxx. (1842), 622. <span class="sc">Balaam</span> is the cant name for asinine paragraphs about monstrous productions of nature and
+the like, kept standing in type to be used whenever the real news of the day leave
+an awkward space that must be filled up somehow. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balaam-Basket</b> or <b>Balaam-Box</b>, <i>subs.</i> (journalistic).—1. The receptacle for <span class="sc">Balaam</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>2. When articles or other contributions are rejected they are put in the <span class="sc">Balaam-basket</span>, which may either be a pigeon-hole (to await return to the author); the waste paper
+basket; or, as the readiest mode of extinction, the flames. In any case, the destination
+is <span class="pageNum" id="pb106">[<a href="#pb106">106</a>]</span>said to be the <span class="sc">Baalam-basket</span> or <span class="sc">box</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1827. <i>Blackw. Mag.</i>, xxi., 340. Several dozen letters on the same subject now in our <span class="sc">Balaam-box</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <span class="sc">Hall</span>, <i>Modern English</i>, p. 17. An essay for the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, in ‘the old unpolluted English language,’ would have been consigned by the editor
+to his <span class="sc">Balaam-basket</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 5 S., vii., 270, 2. At the risk of getting into your <span class="sc">Balaam-box</span>, I venture to record the whole contents of my bundle as they lie before me.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balaclava-Day</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—A soldier’s pay day. Balaclava, in the Crimean War [1854–6], was the
+base of supply for the English troops; and, as pay was drawn, the men went down to
+make their purchases.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balance</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A <span class="sc">balance</span> properly is that which balances or produces equilibrium. It is the difference between
+two sides of an account—the amount of which is necessary to make the one equal to
+the other. It is not the rest or the remainder, yet we continually hear of the <span class="sc">balance</span> of this or that thing. In the sense of ‘rest,’ ‘residue,’ or ‘remainder,’ <span class="sc">balance</span> is the purest slang.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <i>Albany Journal</i>, Jan. 7. The yawl returned to the wreck, took ten or eleven persons and landed them,
+and then went and got the <span class="sc">balance</span> from the floating cabin. [<span class="sc">b.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>Boston Transcript</i>, Dec. 27. ‘We listened to Wendell Phillips for about half an hour, and having an
+<span class="corr" id="xd33e16601" title="Source: engagment">engagement</span> elsewhere, we were forced to leave, and so lost the <span class="sc">balance</span> of his oration.’ [<span class="sc">de v.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>The word is thus used very much like the Scottish <i>lave</i> (what is left), employed by Burns in the line—
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p class="line">‘I’ll get a blessing with the <i>lave</i>, </p>
+<p class="line">And never miss it.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">In some parts of Virginia the word ‘<i>shank</i>’ is quaintly used for the same purpose, and one friend will say to another, ‘Suppose
+you come in and spend the <i>shank</i> of the evening with me?’ The vulgarism is becoming common in England, as witness
+the following:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>, April, 443. <span class="sc">Balance</span>, long familiar to American ears, is becoming so to ours. In an account of a ship
+on fire we read ‘Those saved remained the <span class="sc">balance</span> of the night watching the burning wreck.<span>’</span> [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">P. Fitzgerald</span>, <i>Recreations of a Literary Man</i>, 170. Everyone is away shooting or riding; a <span class="sc">balance</span> of the ladies is left. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balbus</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—A Latin prose composition. In Arnold’s well-known text book, <i>Latin Prose Composition</i>, <span class="sc">balbus</span> turns up at every corner; he is here, there, and everywhere; he appears to be willing
+and able to do anything, and go anywhere; in fact it is <span class="sc">balbus</span> this, and <span class="sc">balbus</span> that, until the wonder is whether <span class="sc">balbus</span> was not something of a prig or bore, or both. At all events those who used the text
+book in question, cannot fail to remember that doughty old fossil of a Roman to their
+dying day.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Quarterly Review.</i> <span class="sc">Balbus</span> was in constant use.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balderdash</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Adulterated wine; a mixture of liquors such as wine and beer, milk and
+beer, etc.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb107">[<a href="#pb107">107</a>]</span></p>
+<p>2. (colloquial).—Frothy talk; nonsense; a jumble of words.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <span class="sc">Murray</span>, <i>New English Dictionary</i>, Art. <span class="sc">Balderdash</span>, vol. I., p. 633, col. 3. From the evidence at present, the inference is that the
+current sense was transferred from 1 or 2 [<i>i.e.</i>, Froth, frothy liquid, or a jumbled mixture of liquids] either with the notion of
+‘frothy talk,’ or of ‘a senseless farrago,’ or ‘jumble of words.’ Most etymologists
+have, however, assumed 3 [nonsense; frothy talk, etc.] to be the original sense, and
+sought its explanation in the obvious similarity of <i>balder</i> to dialectical <i>balder</i>, ‘to use coarse language’; Dutch, <i lang="nl">balderen</i>, ‘to roar, thunder’; Norwegian, <i lang="no">baldra</i>; Icelandic, <i lang="is">baldrast</i>, <i lang="is">ballrast</i>, ‘to make a clatter,’ and of <i>-dash</i> to the verb <i>dash</i> in various senses. The Welsh <i>baldorddus</i>, adj., <i>f.</i> <i>baldordd</i>, ‘idle, noisy talk, chatter,’ has also been adduced.… Other conjectures may be found
+in Wedgwood, Skeat, and E. Müller.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bald-Face</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—New whiskey; so villainous is the compound, that only by courtesy can
+it be recognised as at all approaching the Simon Pure. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bald-Faced Shirt</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—In cowboy lingo, a white shirt; from the fact of being white on the face
+or front. Ordinarily bald-face is used of animals, <i>e.g.</i>, a <span class="sc">bald-faced stag</span>. Hereford cattle, too, have white faces, and as cowboys are brought into close contact
+with all kinds of cattle, the term as applied to a linen shirt is possibly a mere
+transference in sense. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Boiled shirt</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bald-Faced Stag</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A bald-headed man; [from <span class="sc">bald-faced</span>, having white on face + <span class="sc">stag</span>, a slang term for a man. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Stag party</span>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bladder of lard</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baldheaded.</b>—<span class="sc">To go it baldheaded</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—With eager impetuosity, or great haste; to do a thing with all one’s
+might and main. A suggestion of action without stopping to cover one’s head, <i>i.e.</i>, on the spur of the moment.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848–62. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;R. Lowell</span>, <i>Biglow Papers</i>, p. 6.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">It ain’t by princerples nor men </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">My preudunt course is steadied,— </p>
+<p class="line">I scent which pays the best, an’ then </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Go into it <span class="sc">baldheaded</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1869. <i>Our Young Folks.</i> Whenever he had made up his mind to do a thing he <span class="sc">went at it baldheaded</span>. [<span class="sc">de v.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, June 22. The Chicago Republicans, to use an Americanism, have gone <span class="sc">baldheaded</span> for protection. If shouting could win a Presidential contest, Blaine and Protection
+would be certain.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To snatch baldheaded</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To defeat a person in a street fight.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">R. Grant White</span>, <i>Words and Their Uses</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The crowd than gave a specimen of calumny broke loose, </p>
+<p class="line">And said I’d <span class="sc">snatched him baldheaded</span>, and likewise cooked his goose. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bald-Headed Row</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—The first row of stalls at theatres, especially those which make a feature
+of ballets. The term is a cynical allusion to the fact that these seats are generally
+occupied by men of mature age; the innuendo is obvious.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Frog-salad</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balditude</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A state of baldness. Probably a nonce word.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i>, p. 187. Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it; trouble has brung
+these gray hairs and this premature <span class="sc">balditude</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb108">[<a href="#pb108">108</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baldober</b> or <b>Baldower</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A leader; a head man; a spokesman. This term has been imported into the
+lingo of English thieves from the German Gaunersprache, in which it has very much
+the same meaning.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balductum</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Nonsense; rubbish. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Balderdash</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baldy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A colloquial vulgarism for a bald-headed man. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Balditude</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balfour’s Maiden</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Parliamentary).—A nickname given to a kind of covered battering-ram used by the
+Royal Irish Constabulary in carrying out evictions in Ireland in the years 1888–9.
+On many estates the tenants made most desperate resistance to all attempts on the
+part of the landlords to recover possession, upon which the latter appealed for, and
+obtained the assistance of the authorities. This but served to intensify the struggle,
+and the tenants, driven to extremities, in some cases resisted all endeavours, even
+to throwing boiling water over the soldiers and police employed against them. To protect
+the evictors, and also to render easier the demolition of the cabins of the wretched
+people, a kind of covered battering-ram was made, whereupon the Home Rule Party sarcastically
+gave it, amongst other nick-names, that of <span class="sc">Balfour’s maiden</span>. The term was first used by Sir Wm. Harcourt in a speech at a monster Home Rule meeting,
+held at St. James’s Hall, on Wednesday, April 10, 1889. An account of the incident
+runs as follows:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Daily News</i>, April 11. Resolute government has not been absolutely extinguished. Now at Letterkenny,
+Mr. Balfour has introduced a new invention, the latest development of resolute government.
+The Government were questioned on the subject, and they accepted the responsibility
+for the facts. It stated that in view of the Olphert estate evictions, there reached
+there an iron-headed spiked battering-ram to be used in carrying out the evictions.
+Why, really, gentlemen, when you read of these things they are like the pictures one
+sees of the Siege of Jerusalem—(loud laughter)—of the implements, which the Latins
+called <i lang="la">tormenta</i>. We are familiar with them in old mediæval castles. You find instruments called ‘The
+Scavenger’s Daughter,’ and ‘The Maiden,’ and other implements of that character. I
+think this last pattern of ram of Mr. Balfour’s might be called ‘The Unionist’s Daughter’—(loud
+laughter)—or it might be christened ‘<span class="sc">Balfour’s Maiden</span>.’ (Cheers and laughter.) But not to deprive the Liberal Unionists of their share
+we might call it ‘Chamberlain’s Tenants’ Protector.’ (Renewed merriment.)
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ball</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—1. A prison ration. 2. A drink.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To open the ball</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To commence an undertaking; to start off.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <i>Eton Chronicle</i>, July 20.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">… Whatever may seem the mishaps of his team, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Whatever their failings and sinnings, </p>
+<p class="line">He who <span class="sc">opened the ball</span> and who saw them all fall, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Scarce deserved that defeat in one innings. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Ballad-Basket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A street singer.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Street pitcher</span>. A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">un braillard</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ballambangjang</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—The Straits of <span class="sc">Ballambangjang</span>, though unnoticed by geographers, are frequently mentioned in sailors’ yarns as being
+so narrow, and the rocks on each side so crowded with trees <span class="pageNum" id="pb109">[<a href="#pb109">109</a>]</span>inhabited by monkeys, that the ship’s yards cannot be squared, on account of the monkey’s
+tails getting jammed into, and choking up, the brace blocks.—<i>Hotten.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ballast</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Money. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Well-ballasted</span>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—A rich man is said to be <span class="sc">well-ballasted</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> ‘To be flush’; also ‘to have brass; brads,’ etc. <i>See</i> synonyms for money generally under <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Among French equivalents for the solidity arising from the possession of wealth may
+be mentioned:—<i lang="fr"><span id="xd33e17012">Être</span> zingué</i> (popular: literally ‘to be covered with zinc’); <i lang="fr">avoir des monacos</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">monaco</i> is an ironical term for a sou); <i lang="fr">daim huppé</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">daim</i>, a slang term for a swell, is properly a ‘buck,’ and <i lang="fr">huppé</i> also signifies high in station, well-off); <i lang="fr">homme au sac</i> (familiar: ‘a man with a bag,’—presumably of money); <i lang="fr">avoir des picaillons</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">picaillons</i> is thought to be a corruption of <i lang="fr">picarons</i>, a Spanish coin); <i lang="fr">être de la fête</i> (popular: <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to be in luck’s way’); <i lang="fr">être sacqué</i> (popular: meaning obvious); <i lang="fr">rupin</i> (thieves’ term); <i lang="fr">avoir de ce qui sonne</i> (popular: ‘to have that which chinks’); <i lang="fr">tailler en plein drap</i> (popular).
+</p>
+<p>In the Spanish Germania a rich or <span class="sc">well-ballasted</span> man is <i lang="de">florido</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘flowery’ or ‘agreeable.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ball Face</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A contemptuous epithet applied by negroes to white persons. Salem, Mass.,
+1810–1820.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ball-Keeper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—In ‘Commoners’ an ‘Inferior’ appointed to look after cricket
+and footballs. In return for this service he was exempted from ‘kicking in’ and ‘watching
+out.’ ‘Junior in College’ has to bring through balls every evening.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Balls</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ball of Fire</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—A glass of fiery and pungent brandy. For all synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ballooning</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—Inflating the price of stocks by fictitious means, such as newspaper
+articles, bogus sales, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balloon It</b>, <i>verb.</i> (American).—To indulge in rhodomontade; to draw the long bow; to talk big. Obviously
+from ‘to puff or swell out’ as a balloon.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">T. Sinclair</span>, <i>Mount</i>, 33. Gas-brained, <span class="sc">ballooning</span> wandering men. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ball O’ Wax</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A snob, or shoe-maker.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Snob</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balls.</b> <span class="sc">To bring through balls</span>, <i>phr.</i> (Winchester College).—‘Junior in College’ collects footballs from the lockers in
+school, and brings them through at six o’clock to be blown, or repaired, if necessary.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To make balls of</span>, <i>verb. phr.</i> (popular).—To go wrong; to do what ‘lands’ one in trouble; generally, to make a mistake.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">All balls</span>, <i>adv.</i> (popular).—All rubbish; nonsense. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">All my eye</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ballum Rancum</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A hop or dance, where the women <span class="pageNum" id="pb110">[<a href="#pb110">110</a>]</span>are all prostitutes; a dance at a brothel. These orgies sometimes take the form of
+‘buff-balls,’ all present dancing in the nude.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bally</b>, <i>adj.</i> (popular).—A comparatively recent coinage, it is said, of the <i>Sporting Times</i>, from ‘bally-hooly.’ Generally, though not always, used as is ‘bloody,’ in the lower
+strata of the body politic. It also signifies intensity, and in cases where the vocabulary
+at command is limited, <span class="sc">bally</span> does yeoman’s service for such words as ‘fearful,’ ‘dreadful,’ ‘terrible,’ ‘outrageous,’
+‘confounded.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, July 6 (Answers to Correspondents). H.&nbsp;G. Steele.—Thanks. What a <span class="sc">bally</span> idiot you must be.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Bird o’ Freedom</i>, Aug. 7, p. 5. Newman Noggs, bringing small boy to carry master’s bag, and inculcating
+manners at the same time, ‘Now, what would you say if I was to give you sixpence for
+taking it?’ ‘I should say ’twasnt half enough, and you can <span class="sc">bally</span> well take it yourself,’ was the prompt reply. Boys are boys nowadays, and no error,
+thinks Newman.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bally-Bounder.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bally</span> and <span class="sc">Bounder</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bally-Fellow.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bounder</span> and <span class="sc">Bally</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bally Flat.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bounder</span> and <span class="sc">Bally</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bally Fool.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bounder</span> and <span class="sc">Bally</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ballyrag.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bullyrag</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balm</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A lie.—<i>Duncombe.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balmy</b>, <i>subs.</i> and <i>adj.</i> (common).—Sleep; sleepy. [From the figurative sense of <span class="sc">balmy</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, deliciously soft and soothing.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To have a dose of the balmy</span>; <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to go to sleep.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Old Curiosity Shop</i>, ch. viii., p. 42. ‘As it’s rather late, I’ll try and get <span class="sc">a wink or two of the balmy</span>.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> To doss; to go to <span class="sc">Bedfordshire</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)—a play upon words.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">La pionce</i> or <i lang="fr">pionçage</i> (popular: <i>subs.</i>, <i>see</i> <i lang="fr">pioncer</i>); <i lang="fr">le somno</i> (popular: an abbreviated form of <i lang="fr">somnolence</i>); <i lang="fr">piquage de romance</i> (a military term); <i lang="fr">casser une canne</i>, or <i lang="fr">sa canne</i> (popular: this also means ‘to die.’ In French as in other languages the analogy between
+Sleep and Death is fully recognised. Many of the French slang phrases for the former
+are also used to express the latter. <i lang="fr">Mors janua vitæ!</i>); <i lang="fr">casser son pif</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">pif</i> in French argot = ‘the nose.’ Amongst the peasants of Normandy and Berry it signifies
+a ‘grog-blossom’); <i lang="fr">pioncer</i> (popular: from <i lang="fr">piausser</i>, a provincialism for ‘to sleep’); <i lang="fr">piquer un chien</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">piquer</i> a canting verb of action, ‘to do’; therefore ‘to do as a dog’); <i lang="fr">piquer une romance</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">faire son lézard</i> (popular: <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">piquer un chien</i>); <i lang="fr">faire son michaud</i> (thieves’: <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to rest one’s head or knowledge box’); <i lang="fr">roupiller</i> (this term is in general colloquial use); <i lang="fr">se recueillir</i> (popular: ‘to wrap oneself in meditation’); <i lang="fr">compter des pauses</i> (musicians’: ‘to count the beats.’ <i>Cf.</i>, various suggested remedies <span class="pageNum" id="pb111">[<a href="#pb111">111</a>]</span>for overcoming insomnia; <i>e.g.</i>, counting slowly up to a hundred, etc., etc.); <i lang="fr">taper de l’œil</i> (popular: ‘to rub the eyes.’ <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘to have sleepy dust in one’s eyes’); <i lang="fr">mettre le chien au cran de repos</i> (popular: ‘to curl oneself up like a dog’); <i lang="fr">souffler ses clairs</i> (popular: ‘to blow or put out one’s light,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to shut the eyes’); <i lang="fr">fermer maillard</i> (popular: to close one’s shutters, <i>i.e.</i>, eyelids. Maillard was the inventor of a particular kind of shutter. Other analogous
+expressions are <i lang="fr">être terrassé par maillard</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to be extremely sleepy.’ Sleep is expressed by <i lang="fr">fermeture</i>); <i lang="fr">faire schloff</i> or <i lang="fr">schloffer</i>, from the German <i lang="de">schlafen</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Synonym.</span> In the Germania <i lang="es">difunto</i>, properly ‘defunct,’ is used for asleep.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">A Portuguese Synonym</span> for sound sleep is <i lang="pt">a bom sornar</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to sleep on both ears.’
+</p>
+<p>2. Dull-witted; thick-skulled. In this sense <span class="sc">balmy</span> is used up and down the whole gamut of imbecility from mere stolidity to downright
+insanity. Popularly used, it signifies in most cases little more than shallow-brained
+or muddle-headed; or, to use slang equivalents in their most familiar sense, ‘to be
+touched,’ ‘to be wrong in the upper story,’ ‘dotty.’ Among thieves, however, it is
+usually applied to insanity, <span class="sc">to put on the balmy stick</span> being, among convicts, to feign madness.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 231. List of patterers’ words. <span class="sc">Balmy</span>—Insane.
+</p>
+<p>A large number of synonyms will be found under <span class="sc">apartments to let</span>, but in addition to those there mentioned may be instanced the following in the French
+slang:—<i lang="fr">Demenager</i> (popular: ‘to remove one’s furniture.’ It also means ‘to die’); <i lang="fr">paumer la sorbonne</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, <span id="xd33e17474">‘</span>to punch the head,’ <i lang="fr">sorbonne</i> being a slang term for that part of the human body. The Sorbonne is a well-known
+university and seat of learning. Among thieves, too, <i lang="fr">sorbonner</i> is used in the sense of ‘to think’); <i lang="fr">être un peu toc</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, slightly crazy; <i lang="fr">toc</i> in slang = ridiculous); <i lang="fr">avoir une pomme de canne felée</i> (popular: a rather opprobrious expression, meaning ‘to have a slate off.’ <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to have a tile loose’); <i lang="fr">avoir une fissure</i> (literally ‘to have a crack’); <i lang="fr">avoir un grain</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balmy Cove</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A weak-minded individual; one who has ‘a tile loose.’ [From <span class="sc">balmy</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">cove</span>, a man.] Among French thieves such an individual is called <i lang="fr">un hurlubier</i> (<i lang="fr">hurlublu</i> is an obsolete term used jestingly for a giddy goose or hair-brained person); also
+<i>biscayen</i> from the <i>Bicêtre</i> prison which has a lunatic ward for demented convicts. The prison itself is <span class="corr" id="xd33e17528" title="Source: calle">called</span> <i lang="fr">La Biscaye</i>, but this name has no connection with the province of Biscay as might be supposed.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Balsam</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’ and popular).—One of the many generic names for money. A full list of synonyms
+will be found under <span class="sc">Actual</span>. The allusion of course is obvious, <i>i.e.</i>, a healing soothing agent or agency; but, in its secondary signification of impertinence,
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb112">[<a href="#pb112">112</a>]</span>‘brass,’ ‘cheek,’ etc<span>.</span>, the reverse of the shield is given. Such reversals in the legitimate meanings of
+words are not uncommon in slang.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bam</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—1. A cheat; an imposition; a story intended to hoax the credulous; what
+nowadays generally goes under the name of chaff or humbug [<span class="sc">bam</span> is thought to be an abbreviated form of <span class="sc">bamboozle</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)]. Murray has traced it back to 1762, but it appears nearly twenty years previous
+in Dyche’s dictionary, and also in Martin’s, the second edition of which was published
+in 1754.—<i>See</i> verb <span class="sc">To bam</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bam</span> (<span class="sc">s.</span>), a sham or pretence, a lying excuse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1762. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Orators</i>, Act ii. Why I know that man, he is all upon his fun; he lecture—why ’tis all but
+a <span class="sc">bam</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. ix. ‘It’s all a <span class="sc">bam</span>, ma’am—all a bamboozle and a bite, that affair of his illness.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To hoax, to bamboozle; to wheedle; to cheat. [Of same formation as substantive, which
+see above, and <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bamboozle</span>.] The first trace of it appears in Cibber’s <i>Double Gallant</i> [1707], and is discussed by Swift in his introduction to <i>Polite Conversation</i> [1738], where he mentions among ‘the exquisite refinements’ then in vogue,—<span class="sc">bam</span> for bamboozle, and bamboozle for, God knows what. Whereupon a correspondent of <i>Notes and Queries</i> [2 S., Jan. 10, ’57, p. 31] alluding to the despair of etymologists in regard to
+these words remarked that if <i>from</i> was put in the place of <i>for</i>, it would describe the predicament in which philologists are placed.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">H. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i>, 2 ed. <span class="sc">To bam</span>, or <span class="sc">to bamboozle</span>, to fun, to fib, to sham.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1760. <span class="sc">Colman</span>, <i>Polly Honeycombe</i>, in <i>wks.</i> (1777) IV., 43. Lord, how well he behaves! We shall certainly <span class="sc">bam</span> the old gentleman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>King’s Own</i>, ch. xlix. ‘Now, you’re <span class="sc">bamming</span> me—don’t attempt to put such stories off on your old granny.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;L. Linton</span>, <i>Patricia Kemball</i>, ch. xxxix. For a moment the thought flashed across him whether ‘that tale of Gordon
+Frere was all a <span class="sc">bam</span>, and had the girl taken a liking for himself?’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bamblustercate</b>, <i>verb.</i> (nonce-word).—A factitious creation signifying to embarrass; confuse; or hoax in
+a blustering manner. [From <span class="sc">bam</span>, to hoax, or confuse + <span class="sc">bluster</span>, noisy assertion + <span class="sc">cate</span>, a termination in imitation of ‘conglomerate’.]—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Comflogisticate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bamboo</b>, <i>verb.</i> (American).—A corruption of bamboozle. To cheat; to victimize; to hoax.—<i>See</i>, however, <span class="sc">Bam</span> and <span class="sc">Bamboozle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bamboozle</b>, <i>verb.</i> (familiar).—To hoax; deceive; or impose upon. Philologists are all confessedly at
+sea in regard to the derivation of <span class="sc">bamboozle</span> and its attributive forms, but the general tendency of evidence is to refer it to
+a gypsy origin. Johnson states it to be a cant word; and Bouchier, in his glossary
+says, ‘it has with great propriety long had a place in the gypsy or canting dictionaries,’
+it being in his opinion ‘the sole invention of gypsies or vagrants.’ Leland thinks
+it ‘possibly’ the Hindu word <i>bambhorna</i>, to humbug, with the gypsy terminative <span class="pageNum" id="pb113">[<a href="#pb113">113</a>]</span><i>āsel</i>. Wedgwood suggests its origin in the Italian <i lang="it">bamboccio</i>, a young babe, and metaphorically an old dotard or babyish gull; <i lang="it">imbambolare</i>, to blear or dim one’s sight, also with flatteries and blandishments, to inveigle
+and make a fool of one. If a verb were made of <i lang="it">bambocciolo</i> in the same way as <i lang="it">bambocciolare</i>, it would have much the sense of <span class="sc">bamboozle</span>. A.&nbsp;E. Quekett (<i>N. and Q.</i>, 5 S., xii., 488) throws a side-light upon this last theory by pointing out that
+in Shakspeare’s <i>Taming of the Shrew</i>, Katharina says, ‘Belike you mean to make a puppet of me,’ and Petruchio replies,
+‘Why true; he means to make a puppet of thee.’ Comparing this passage with the rest
+of the scene it would seem that Petruchio’s answer is not a mere repetition of Katharina’s
+words, but contains a <i>double entendre</i> of some kind. He (Quekett) then hazards that perhaps she meant to say, ‘Perhaps you
+mean to treat me as a doll without a will of its own,’ while Petruchio appears to
+mean something very like<span id="xd33e17742">,</span> ‘He wishes to <span class="sc">bamboozle</span> you.’
+</p>
+<p>Be all this as it may, <span class="sc">bamboozle</span> first came into vogue during the early part of the last century; for in the <i>Tatler</i> No. 230 [1710], we read, ‘The third refinement observable in the letter I send you
+consists in the choice of certain words invented by some pretty fellows, such as banter,
+<span class="sc">bamboozle</span>, country-put, and kidney, some of which are now struggling for the vogue, and others
+are in possession of it’!
+</p>
+<p>So also with the derivatives; <i>e.g.</i>, <span class="sc">bamboozle</span> (<i>subs.</i>); <span class="sc">Bamboozled</span>; <span class="sc">bamboozlement</span>; <span class="sc">bamboozler</span>; <span class="sc">bamboozling</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1703. <span class="sc">Cibber</span>, <i>She Would and She Would Not</i>, II., i. (1736), 34. Sham proofs, that they propos’d to <span class="sc">bamboozle</span> me with. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1709. <span class="sc">Steele</span>, <i>Tatler</i>, No. 31. But, says I, sir, I perceive this is to you all <span class="sc">bamboozling</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Arbuthnot</span>, <i>History of John Bull</i>, pt. III., ch. vi. There are a sort of fellows that they call banterers and <span class="sc">bamboozlers</span>, that play such tricks; but it seems these fellows were in earnest!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1731. <span class="sc">Coffey</span>, <i>Devil to Pay</i>, Act i., Sc. 3. You juggler, you cheating, <span class="sc">bamboozling</span> villain!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Knights</i>, Act ii. You are tricked, imposed on, <span class="sc">bamboozled</span>!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1779. <span class="sc">R. Cumberland</span>, <i>Wheel of Fortune</i>, Act ii., Sc. 1. You know I love you, Emily, … and therefore you baffle and <span class="sc">bamboozle</span> and make a bumpkin of me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. ix. ‘It’s all a bam, ma’am—all a <span class="sc">bamboozle</span> and a bite, that affair of his illness.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1827. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Pelham</i>, ch. xxxvi. ‘One does not like to be <span class="sc">bamboozled</span> out of one’s right of election, by a smooth-tongued fellow, who sends one to the
+devil the moment the election is over.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Sat. Review</i>, No. 1587, p. 423. The public is a great <span class="sc">bamboozable</span> body.
+</p>
+<p>(Nautical).—To decoy the enemy by hoisting false colours—merely an extension of the
+popular sense.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> ‘To throw dust in the eyes’; ‘to use the pepper-box’; ‘to gild the pill’; ‘to throw
+a tub to a whale’; ‘to make believe the moon is made of cream cheese’; ‘to jockey’;
+‘to stick’; ‘to bilk’; ‘to do’; ‘to best’; ‘to do brown’; ‘to bounce’; ‘to take in’;
+‘to kid’; ‘to gammon.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Une monteuse de coups</i> (a woman who bamboozles her lovers); <i lang="fr">monter des couleurs</i> (popular: ‘to deceive <span class="pageNum" id="pb114">[<a href="#pb114">114</a>]</span>by false representations<span>’</span>; <i lang="fr">couleur</i> signifies ‘pretence,’ ‘semblance’); <i lang="fr">faire la queue à quelqu’un</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">tirer la carotte</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">faire voir le tour</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">canarder</i> (popular: literally ‘to shoot at one from a sheltered position’; <i>i.e.</i>, to have an advantage, and thus to be able to hoax or humbug); <i lang="fr">dindonner</i> (popular: from <i lang="fr">dindon</i>, a ‘goose’); <i lang="fr">faire le coup</i>, or <i lang="fr">monter le coup à quelqu’un</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">coup</i> in French slang is ‘a secret process,’ ‘a knack’ or ‘dodge’—hence ‘to deal one an
+underhand blow,’ or ‘to serve one a trick’); <i lang="fr">empaler</i> (popular: ‘to deceive by false representations’; literally ‘to empale’); <i lang="fr">passer des curettes</i> (popular: ‘to make a fool of one’); <i lang="fr">monter une gaffe</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">gaffe</i> in French slang = ‘a joke’; a piece of deceit); <i lang="fr">monter le job</i> or <i lang="fr">jobarder</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">job</i> is equivalent to ‘simpleton’ or ‘flat,’ and is the same as <i lang="fr">jobelin</i>); <i lang="fr">mener en bateau un pante pour le refaire</i> (thieves’: ‘to deceive a man in order to rob him’); <i lang="fr">monter un batteau</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">donner un pont à faucher</i> (thieves’: ‘to lay a trap or snare’); <i lang="fr">promener quelqu’un</i> (popular: ‘to make a fool of one.’ <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to rush’); <i lang="fr">compter des mistouffles</i> (familiar: <i lang="fr">mistouffle</i> = ‘a scurvy trick’; ‘a joke’); <i lang="fr">gourrer</i> (popular: ‘to stick’; ‘to kid’; ‘to deceive’); <i lang="fr">affluer</i> (from <i lang="fr">à flouer</i>, ‘to cheat’; ‘to diddle out of’); <i lang="fr">roustir</i> (popular and thieves’: ‘to cheat’); <i lang="fr">affûter</i> (thieves’: ‘to make unlawful profits’); <i lang="fr">bouler</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">juiffer</i> (popular: literally ‘to Jew’ as in English); <i lang="fr">pigeonner</i> (familiar: ‘to do,’ ‘to pluck.’ In English slang the victims of card and other sharpers
+are called ‘pigeons’); <i lang="fr">flancher</i> (popular: ‘to laugh at’ or ‘ridicule’); <i lang="fr">faire la barbe</i> (popular: <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">faire la queue</i>); <i lang="fr">hisser un gandin</i> (thieves’: literally ‘to hoist a dandy’ or ‘swell’); <i lang="fr">mettre dedans</i> (popular: to take a rise out of one; literally to ‘take in’); <i lang="fr">être l’autre</i> (popular: <i>Cf.</i>, <span id="xd33e18020">‘</span>to get left.’ The phrase also signifies ‘to be the lover,’ the mistress); <i lang="fr">planter un chou</i> (familiar).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms.</span>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jockey</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonyms.</span> <i lang="it">Traversare</i> (literally ‘to cross over’); <i lang="it">dar la stolfa</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Synonym.</span> <i lang="es">Encantar</i> (literally ‘to enchant,’ ‘to entertain with soft words’).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bambosh</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nonce word).—Apparently a variation of <span class="sc">bamboozling</span>, as follows. [<span class="sc">Bam</span> + <span class="sc">bosh</span>.] Humbug; deceit; hoaxing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Day of Rest</i>, Oct., 585. I was deaf to all that <span class="sc">bambosh</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bambsquabbled.</b>—This coined word, which is, however, rarely used except in humorous writings, first
+saw the light in <i>The Legend of the American War</i>. It signifies discomfiture and defeat, or stupefaction; sometimes written <span class="sc">bumsquabbled</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835–40. <span class="sc">T.&nbsp;C. Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>The Clockmaker</i>, 2 S., ch. ii. The judge said, ‘He had got too much already, cut him off the other
+two-thirds, and make him pay all costs.’ If he didn’t look <span class="sc">bumsquabbled</span> it’s a pity.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banaghan.</b> <i>He beats Banaghan</i>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—An Irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories; Banaghan, thought Grose,
+was a minstrel famous <span class="pageNum" id="pb115">[<a href="#pb115">115</a>]</span>for dealing in the marvellous—a kind of prototype of Baron Munchausen. Of this, deponent
+knowing nothing, says the same.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banagher</b>, <i>verb<span>.</span></i> (old).—To bang.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bananaland</b>, <b>Bananalander</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian).—Queensland, and a native of Queensland respectively. Apparently from
+a large portion of that section of the fifth continent lying within the tropics, thus
+allowing of the cultivation of the banana tree (<i lang="la">Musa sapientum</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Chamb. Journal</i>, Feb. 20, p. 124. Booted and spurred ‘Cornstalks’ and <span class="sc">Banana-men</span> (natives of New South Wales and Queensland respectively).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Melbourne</i> (Victoria) <i>Sportsman</i>, 23 March, p. 7, col. 2. Paddy Slavin came from Queensland with the reputation of
+having beaten all the <span class="sc">Bananalanders</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Sydney</i> (N.S.W.) <i>Bulletin</i>, 26 Feb., p. 6. His friends rallied up to congratulate him, and see him through,
+after the custom of the simple <span class="sc">Bananalander</span>.
+</p>
+<p>It may be interesting to note that a native of New South Wales is nicknamed a ‘<span class="sc">cornstalk</span>’ because built somewhat tall and thin. Those whose stature is shorter, with circumference
+of wider dimensions in proportion to their height are said to be ‘<span class="sc">nuggety</span>.’ The gum trees of Tasmania give the elegant nickname ‘<span class="sc">gumsucker</span>’ to its inhabitants. In this practice antipodean colonists follow suit with their
+cousins across the Atlantic.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Nicknames</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banco</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Charterhouse School).—Evening preparation down at ‘house’ each day, superintended
+by a monitor. It answers to the Winchester <span class="sc">toy-time</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banco-Steerer.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bunco-steerer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bandanna</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Formerly a silk handkerchief with white, yellow, or other coloured spots
+on a dark ground. Now applied to handkerchiefs of all kinds. The name is thought to
+come from the Spanish <i lang="es">bandano</i>, a neckerchief.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <span class="sc">J. Long</span>, <i>Bengal</i> (1870), 31. Plain taffaties, ordinary <span class="sc">bandannoes</span>, and chappas.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. iv. The Colonel was striding about the room in his loose garments, puffing his
+cigar fiercely anon, and then waving his yellow <span class="sc">bandanna</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banded</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Hungry. To mitigate the pangs of hunger, starving men tighten the belt round
+the ‘middle.’ Bamfylde Moore Carew, the king of the beggars, mentions the practice.
+<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Caffre’s tightener</span> and <span class="sc">bands</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bandero</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Widows’ weeds; a corruption of the now obsolete ‘bandore,’ a widow’s
+head-dress. <span class="sc">Bandore</span> was itself a corruption of the French <i lang="fr">bandeau</i>, given by Littré as <i lang="fr">anciennement, coiffure des veuves</i>. The term was current about the beginning of the last century, but in 1785 we find
+it quoted as slang. It appears, however, to have survived in America whilst dropping
+entirely out of use in the Mother Country. In the English drapery trade mourning goods
+are sometimes called <span class="sc">afflictions</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ban-Dog</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A bailiff, or his assistant. Originally, says <span class="pageNum" id="pb116">[<a href="#pb116">116</a>]</span>Murray, a dog tied or chained up either to guard a house, or on account of its ferocity;
+hence generally a mastiff or bloodhound. The transition from this point to the slang
+sense is clear.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 12. ‘But where are the lurchers?’ ‘Who?’ asked Wood. ‘The traps!’ responded
+a bystander. ‘The shoulder-clappers!’ added a lady, who, in her anxiety to join the
+party, had unintentionally substituted her husband’s nether habiliments for her own
+petticoats. ‘The <span class="sc">ban-dogs</span>!’ thundered a tall man whose stature and former avocations had procured him the nickname
+of ‘The long drover of the Borough market.’ ‘Where are they?’ ‘Ay. where are they?’
+chorused the mob, flourishing their various weapons, and flashing their torches in
+the air; ‘we’ll sarve ’em out.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bands</b>, <i>subs.</i> <span class="sc">To wear the bands</span> (old cant).—To be hungry.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Banded</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>B. and S.</b> (popular).—An everyday colloquialism, in the abbreviated form, for brandy and soda.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>White Rose</i>, ch. xiii. Before the <span class="sc">b. and s.</span>—signifying a beaker of brandy and soda-water—could make its appearance.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">W. Black</span>, <i>Beautiful Wretch</i>, ch. v. ‘Come away, and I will get you some tea, though what would be better for
+you still, would be some <span class="sc">b. and s.</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, vol. LXXXII., p. 69, col. 1.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">I’ll sing you a fine new song, all about a fine young spark, </p>
+<p class="line">Who’s a fine young London gentleman, quite up to any lark, </p>
+<p class="line">Who takes supper very early, and breakfasts in the dark; </p>
+<p class="line">Who’s a real ‘dear old chappie,’ as I needn’t perhaps remark. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="tb">*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">He will say that port and sherry his nice palate always cloy; </p>
+<p class="line">He’ll nothing drink but ‘<span class="sc">b. and s.</span>’ and big magnums of ‘the </p>
+<p class="line">boy’; </p>
+<p class="line">He’s the darling of the barmaid and the honest waiter’s joy, </p>
+<p class="line">As he quaffs his Pommery, ‘Extra Sec,’ his ‘Giesler,’ or ‘Ivroy.’ </p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bandy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A sixpence; so called, in the first instance, from these coins being
+often thin, worn, and bent. Also called a <span class="sc">cripple</span> and <span class="sc">bender</span>, but, for synonyms, see the latter. The term appears in Grose [1785].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">T. Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial</i>, p. 25, <i>n.</i> A <span class="sc">bandy</span> or <i>cripple</i>, a sixpence.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Household Words</i>, June 20, p. 155. The sixpence is a coin more liable to bend than most others, so
+it is not surprising to find that several of its popular names have reference to this
+weakness. It is called a <span class="sc">bandy</span>, a ‘bender,’ a ‘cripple.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bang</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—1. A blow; Old Norse, <i>bang</i>, a hammering. Though a dictionary word, <span class="sc">bang</span> has not yet succeeded in passing from the limbo of vulgarism in many of its uses.
+For example, a ‘<span class="sc">bang</span> of the door’ sounds legitimate enough, and is an expression to which even the most
+pronounced stickler for linguistic purity would scarcely object; yet, a ‘<span class="sc">bang</span> on the nose’ or ‘jaw’ would, doubtless, be looked upon as low and vulgar. Only to
+illustrate such variations, can the word find a fitting entry into these pages. Amongst
+pugilists and the vulgar, <span class="sc">bang</span> is, without doubt, closely identified with personal castigation; and, in this connection<span id="xd33e18383">.</span>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms</span> are not rare. To <span class="sc">bang</span> one in the jaw; to spoil one’s picture; to give a wipe on the nose; to fetch <span class="pageNum" id="pb117">[<a href="#pb117">117</a>]</span>one a stinger, etc. The blow itself is designated a whopper; wipe; clout; prop; cant;
+dig; corker; shooting stars (in allusion to the dazed condition of a person so struck,
+stars being seen dancing before one’s eyes).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un gnon</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">un écopage</i> (familiar); <i lang="fr">une dandine</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">un cabochon</i> (common); <i lang="fr">un estaffion</i> (popular: may be rendered ‘a <span class="sc">bang</span> on the nut’); <i lang="fr">un coup de gilquin</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">un renfoncement</i> (colloquial: ‘a blow with the fist’; lit. ‘an indentation’); <i lang="fr">une beugne</i> (common); <i lang="fr">une beigne</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">une dariole</i> (familiar: properly a kind of pastry); <i lang="fr">un coup de tampon</i> (popular: ‘a hard shove’; <i lang="fr">tampon</i>, ‘a buffer’); <i lang="fr">une balle de coton</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">une baffre</i> (popular: ‘a blow in the face with the fist’); <i lang="fr">un pétard</i> (familiar: either ‘a box on the ear’ or ‘a cant on the gills’); <i lang="fr">une paraphe</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">paraphe</i> is properly the flourish added to one’s signature); <i lang="fr">dégrader le portrait à quelqu’un</i> (popular: ‘to fetch one a <span class="sc">bang</span> in the mug.’ <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to spoil one’s picture’); <i lang="fr">détacher un coup de pinceau sur la frimousse</i> (popular: ‘to make pencil marks upon the face’; <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to spoil one’s physiognomy,’—the allusion presumably being to the face as the work
+of the Divine Artist). For other synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Wipe</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A style adopted by women in dressing the hair upon the forehead, generally curled
+and frizzed, the process being thus described. To make the <span class="sc">bang</span>, one must begin by dividing the front hair at half-inch distances from ear to ear,
+combing the rest back. This is repeated until the whole front hair has been successfully
+<span class="sc">banged</span>. In England these fringes are also called <span class="sc">toffs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;D. Howell</span>, <i>The Undiscovered Country</i>, ch. viii. When one lifted his hat to wipe his forehead, he showed his hair cut in
+front like a young lady’s <span class="sc">bang</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 1. It was no doubt unfortunate that when the Empress Eugenie
+cut her hair across her forehead from sorrow of heart, the women of five continents
+should imitate her until the <span class="sc">bang</span> became universal.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. To deliver a blow as described under <span class="sc">bang</span> (<i>subs.</i> 1); generally, to thump or strike violently; to thrash.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1588. <i>Marprelate’s Epistle</i>, p. 4 (ed. Arber). His grace will cary to his grave I warrant you the blowes which
+M. Cartwright gave him in this cause: and, therefore, no marvell though he was loth
+to have any other so <span class="sc">banged</span> as he himselfe was to his woe.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">John Day</span>, <i>Blind Beggar</i>, Act ii., Sc. 2, p. 37. I am sure my cloak cannot go without hands; and I’ll have
+it again, or I’ll <span class="sc">bang</span> it out of the coxcombs of some of them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1719. <span class="sc">H. Carey</span>, <i>Sally in our Alley</i>, st. 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">My master comes, like any Turk, </p>
+<p class="line">And <span class="sc">bangs</span> me most severely. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1731. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>The Lottery</i>, Sc. 2. Ah, think, my lord! how I should grieve to see your lordship <span class="sc">bang’d</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. II., p. 47. ‘It was good stuff and good make at first, and hasn’t been abused,
+and that’s the reason why it always <span class="sc">bangs</span> a slop, because it was good to begin with.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Cornhill Mag.</i>, April, p. 442. ‘Davis,’ said Toddy, ‘you haven’t had a <span class="sc">banging</span> this term, and you’re getting cocky.’
+</p>
+<p>2. To dress the hair with a fringe on the forehead, cut squarely across, so that it
+ends abruptly.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb118">[<a href="#pb118">118</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Century Mag.</i>, XXV., 192. He was bareheaded, his hair <span class="sc">banged</span> even with his eyebrows in front.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Detroit Free Press.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Bang</span>, Sister, <span class="sc">bang</span> with care; </p>
+<p class="line">If your poker’s too hot you’ll lose your hair. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">3. To surpass; to excel. So also <span class="sc">banging</span>, <i>adj.</i>, great or thumping.
+</p>
+<p>4. (Stock Exchange.)—To loudly offer stock with the intention of lowering the price.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be banged up to the eyes</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To be drunk. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bang-Beggar</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A constable or beadle. It is not quite clear whether this is not merely a
+dialecticism. In Lowland Scotch it signifies a strong staff.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A lie. Generally, <span class="sc">that’s a banger</span>! This elegant phrase is sometimes varied by ‘that’s a <span class="sc">whopper</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>); or the now classical ‘<span class="sc">thumper</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>), an invention of the late Lord Iddesleigh.
+</p>
+<p>(Yale College).—A club-like cane or stick; a bludgeon. This word is one of the Yale
+vocables.—<span class="sc">Hall’s</span> <i>College Words and Customs</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Yale Lit. Mag.</i>, vol. XX., p. 75.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The Freshman reluctantly turned the key, </p>
+<p class="line">Expecting a Sophomore gang to see, </p>
+<p class="line">Who, with faces masked and <span class="sc">bangers</span> stout, </p>
+<p class="line">Had come resolved to smoke him out. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bang-Off</b>, <i>adv.</i> (familiar).—Without stopping; right away; <i>e.g.</i>, ‘I wrote as promised <span class="sc">bang-off</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, without delay. [From <span class="sc">bang</span>, a loud, sudden sound + <span class="sc">off</span>, movement from a place or thing.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bang-Out.</b> <span class="sc">To bang-out</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—To depart hurriedly and with noise.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adv. phr.</i>—Completely, entirely, combined with suddenness; <i>e.g.</i>, ‘the candle went <span class="sc">bang-out</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bang-Pitcher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A drunkard. Possibly only dialectical.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bangster</b> <i>subs.</i> (provincial).—According to Jamieson:—1. A violent and disorderly person, who regards
+no law but his own will. 2. A victor. 3. A braggart. 4. A loose woman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>The Abbot</i>, ch. xix. If the Pope’s champions are to be <span class="sc">bangsters</span> in our very change houses, we shall soon have the changelings back again, [<span class="sc">h.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, ch. xxiii. If you are so certain of being the <span class="sc">bangster</span>—so very certain, I mean, of sweeping stakes, what harm will Miss Clara come to by
+your having the use of her siller.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bang-Straw</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A nickname for a thresher of corn; a provincialism.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bang-Tailed</b>, <i>adj.</i> (popular).—Short tailed. Usually applied to horses.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown at Oxford</i>, ch. vi. ‘These <span class="sc">bang-tailed</span> little sinners any good?’ said Drysdale, throwing some cock-a-bondies across the
+table. ‘Yes, I never like to be without them and a governor or two.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bang-Up</b>, <i>adj. phr.</i> (common).—First-rate; quite up to the mark; A 1; slap up; in the height of fashion.
+Also <span class="sc">banged-up</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">H. and J. Smith</span>, <i>Rejected Addresses</i>, p. 188. Dance a <span class="sc">bang-up</span> theatrical cotillion.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb119">[<a href="#pb119">119</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1842. <span class="sc">Lever</span>, <i>Jack Hinton</i>, ch. vii. His hat set jauntily on one side, his spotted neckcloth knotted in <span class="sc">bang-up</span> mode.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1844. <i>Quarterly Review</i>, XXIV., 368. We could not resist giving a specimen of John Thorpe … altogether the
+best portrait of a species which, though almost extinct, cannot yet be quite classed
+among the <span class="corr" id="xd33e18790" title="Source: Palœotheria">Palæotheria</span>, the <span class="sc">bang-up</span> Oxonian.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>V. Fair</i>, vol. I., ch. xxxiv. There appeared on the cliff in a tax cart, drawn by a <span class="sc">bang-up</span> pony … his friends, the Sutbury Pet and the Rottingdean Fibber.
+</p>
+<p><i>Subs.</i>—Also used substantively as in the following example; that which is quite right; the
+‘thing’; the ‘go.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, LXXXII., 185, 1. <i>Modern Life in London</i>, or <i>Tom and Jerry back again</i>. The trio turned into the <span class="sc">Arcade</span>, and saw a number of <i>gay sparks</i> and <i>fair ones</i> promenading. ’Twas a curious sight, a glimpse of <span class="sc">Life in London</span>, one of its primest features, and yet, as the <span class="sc">Corinthian</span> remarked to his Coz, these people seemed like the ‘<i>ghosts</i> of a former generation.’ ‘These then are the <i>dandies</i>, the <i>fops</i>, the <i>goes</i> and the <span class="sc">bang-ups</span>, these the <span class="sc">Corinthians</span> of to-day,’ was also Tom’s exclamation to young Bob, who said, ‘I don’t know about
+being <span class="sc">Corinthians</span>, but some of these <i>fellows</i> are very ‘good form,’ and as to being <span class="sc">bang-up</span>, a good many poor old <i>chappies</i> are deuced <i>hard-up</i>.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb tr.</i>—To make smart; produce in first-rate style.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">Coombe</span>, <i>Dr. Syntax, Tour</i> iii., c. v.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Pat to his neckcloth gave an air </p>
+<p class="line">In style, and <i lang="fr">á la militaire</i>; </p>
+<p class="line">His pocket too a kerchief bore </p>
+<p class="line">With scented water sprinkled o’er; </p>
+<p class="line">Thus <span class="sc">banged-up</span>, sweeten’d, and clean shav’d, </p>
+<p class="line">The sage the dinner-table braved. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bangy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—‘Brown’ sugar. From Bangalore, a once coarse-growing sugar
+country.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—Colour of brown sugar; <i>e.g.</i>, <span class="sc">bangy bags</span>, brown trousers. These were also called <span class="sc">bangies</span>. So universally was the term <span class="sc">bangy</span> used to designate a brownish hue, that a gate of that colour at Winchester College,
+formerly leading from Grass Court into Sick House Meads, was called the <span class="sc">Bangy</span> Gate. The name is now often used for the gate by Racquet Court, into Kingsgate Street.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banian-Days</b> or <b>Banyan-Days</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—Those days in which sailors have no flesh meat. Probably derived from
+the practice of the Banians, a caste of Hindoos, traders or merchants, who entirely
+abstained from all animal food.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. <span class="sc">Ovington</span>, in Yules’ <i>Anglo-Indian Glossary</i>. Of kitcheney (butter, rice, and dai) the European sailors feed in these parts, and
+are forced at such times to a Pagan abstinence from flesh, which creates in them an
+utter detestation to those <span class="sc">banian-days</span> as they call them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Rod. Random</i>, ch. xxv. They told me that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the ship’s company
+had no allowance of meat, and that these meagre days were called <span class="sc">banyan-days</span>, the reason of which they did not know; but I have since learned they take their
+denomination from a sect of devotees in some parts of the East Indies, who never taste
+flesh.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <span class="sc">Lamb</span>, <i>Elia</i> (<i>Christ’s Hospital</i>). We had three <span class="sc">banyan</span> to four meat <span class="sc">days</span> in the week.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. lxiii. If he might be so bold as to carry on the Eastern metaphor, he would
+say, knowing the excellence of the Colonel’s claret and the splendour of his hospitality,
+that he would prefer a cocoanut day at the Colonel’s to a <span class="sc">banyan-day</span> anywhere else.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>. [From Strolling Players’ bill.] <span class="sc">Wooldridge’s Theatre.</span> Wanted 700 men, to man that splendid first-class, Frigate, ‘The Theatre,’ commanded
+by A.&nbsp;J. Wooldridge, now lying at her moorings, in Cheapside. Mr. Wooldridge, with
+all due respects to his brother Tars, hopes they will lend a hand to man his Vessel.
+He cannot <span class="pageNum" id="pb120">[<a href="#pb120">120</a>]</span>offer them a barrel of Ale, but he will make them a promise of his unfeigned thanks
+and gratitude for this and past favours, with his hearty good wishes for the prosperity
+of the Town and Trade of Brighton; that his Shipmates, wherever bound, may set sail
+with fair wind and good passage; that they may never have short allowance—<span class="sc">banyan days</span>; or a southerly wind in the Bread Basket.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banjo</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A bed-pan; also called a <span class="sc">fiddle</span> or <span class="sc">slipper</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)—the latter from an improved shape which allows of its being slipped in without disturbing
+the patient.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bank</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A lump sum of money; one’s fortune.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (thieves’).—1. To secure; to obtain (in a pilfering sense).
+</p>
+<p>2. To put in a place of safety.
+</p>
+<p>3. To go shares; to divide fairly with confederates.
+</p>
+<p>4. (prison.)—Millbank prison.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, May 25, p. 412. We approached our destination, Millbank—the <span class="sc">bank</span> in a convict’s parlance.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bankers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Clumsy boots and shoes; now called beetle-crushers. For synonyms generally,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Trotter-cases</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bank Shaving</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American<span class="corr" id="xd33e19028" title="Not in source">)</span>.—Before banks were regulated by Act of Congress, a practice prevailed among the least
+reputable of such institutions of purchasing notes of hand and similar documents at
+enormously usurious rates of discount. Many were the facilities for sharp practice
+of every kind. Such banks were called <i>shaving banks</i>, and the unfortunate wretch who thus ‘raised the wind’ was said to <span class="sc">get his paper shaved</span>. The origin of the phrase may be looked for in maritime nomenclature, a shaver from
+a sailor’s point of view being a man who is cute and unscrupulous—possibly from the
+unpleasant operation of shaving on board ship when crossing the line.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bankside Ladies</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—Ladies of more complaisance than virtue. <span class="sc">Bankside</span>, Southwark, was once the fashionable theatrical quarter of London. There stood once
+the Globe, the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope theatres. On the boards of the first-named
+originally appeared most of Shakspeare’s plays. In Old London the neighbourhoods of
+the principal theatres appear to have been noted for anything but vestal virtue. Covent
+Garden and Drury Lane, like <span class="sc">Bankside</span>, have entered largely into the vicious slang of the past.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1638. <span class="sc">Randolph</span>, <i>Muses’ Looking-Glass</i>, O. Pl., 9., 206. Come, I will send for a whole coach or two of <span class="sc">Bankside ladies</span>, and we will be jovial.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bank-Sneak</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A variety of the <i>genus</i> thief who confines his attention to bank robberies. Smart, clever, well-dressed,
+they usually work in gangs, two or three confederates being employed as cover whilst
+the leader does the work. In large towns considerable finesse is exhibited by these
+men in effecting their purpose; but in the more thinly populated districts polish
+and <i>ruse</i> are abandoned in favour of more drastic methods. The <span class="sc">bank-sneak</span> of the West pursues his depredations more as a bandit; his city <i>confrère</i> is more adroit, and therefore infinitely more dangerous. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Area-sneak</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb121">[<a href="#pb121">121</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, Feb. 16. Buffalo officers to-day picked out from a batch of Erie convicts Watt N.
+Jones, the notorious <span class="sc">bank-sneak</span> and burglar so widely known professionally in every city of the United States and
+Canada.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banner</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American news-boys’).—The money paid for board and lodging at the homes frequented
+by these flying mercuries. The origin of the term is unknown.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bant</b>, <i>verb</i> (common.)—To follow the dietary prescribed by Mr. Banting.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Banting</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banting</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A course of diet by which fat people seek to reduce their bulk. It consists
+in strictly discarding as food all articles known to favour the development of adipose
+tissue. It was introduced about the year 1864 by a Mr. W. Banting—hence the name.
+The dietary recommended was the use of butcher’s meat principally, and abstinence
+from beer, farinaceous food, and vegetables. Also figuratively, to reduce in any way.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Times</i>, 12 Aug., 4. The classics seemed to have undergone a successful course of <span class="sc">banting</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Only a Clod</i>, p. 114. She was a rigid disciplinarian of the school formed by Mr. <span class="sc">Banting</span>. <i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, p. 113. A parlour where all the furniture seemed to have undergone a prolonged course
+of <span class="sc">banting</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Knowledge</i>, 27 July, p. 49, col. 2. <span class="sc">Bantingism</span> excludes beer, butter, and sugar.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bantling</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A young, or small child. This word, once slang, is now a received dictionary
+word. It is stated in <i>Bacchus and Venus</i> [1737], and by Grose, to be a cant term. It was formerly synonymous with bastard.
+Appended are a few examples of its use when knocking for admittance at the doors of
+the dictionaries.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1593. <span class="sc">Drayton</span>, <i>Eclog.</i>, vii., 102. Lovely Venus … smiling to see her wanton <span class="sc">bantlings</span> game.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1635. <span class="sc">Quarles</span>, <i>Emblems</i>, II., viii. (1718), 93. <i>See</i> how the dancing bells turn round … to please my <span class="sc">bantling</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Rod. Random</i>, ch. xlvii. ‘That he may at once deliver himself from the importunities of the mother
+and the suspense of her <span class="sc">bantling</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. lxxx. ‘Let the <span class="sc">bantlings</span>,’ said she, ‘be sent to the hospital … and a small collection be made for the present
+support of the mother.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1758. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Essays</i>, x. Who follow the camp, and keep up with the line of march, though loaded with <span class="sc">bantlings</span> and other baggage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xxi. ‘Sell me to a gipsy, to carry pots, pans, and beggars <span class="sc">bantlings</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Banty</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American thieves’).—Saucy; impudent.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baptised</b> or <b>Christened</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Mixed with water; spirits and wines are said to be <span class="sc">baptised</span> when diluted. The French equivalent is <i lang="fr">chrétien</i>; also <i lang="fr">baptisé</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1636. <span class="sc">Healey</span>, <i>Theophrastus</i>, 46. He wil give his best friends his <span class="sc">baptized</span> wine.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bar</b>, <i>verb</i> and <i>prep.</i> (colloquial and racing).—1. Used as a verb <span class="sc">bar</span> signifies to exclude; to prohibit; also to object to a person or action. Its lineage
+is of undoubted respectability, but its usage is now but little removed from the vulgar.
+As a preposition it is synonymous with ‘except’—mainly used in racing; <i>e.g.</i>, ‘Four to one <span class="sc">bar</span> one.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>M. of Venice</i>, ii., 2, 207. Nay, but I <span class="sc">bar</span> to-night: <span class="pageNum" id="pb122">[<a href="#pb122">122</a>]</span>you shall not gauge me by what we do to-night.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1672. <span class="sc">Wycherley</span>, <i>Love in a Wood</i>, wks. III. (1712), 382. That were as hard as to <span class="sc">bar</span> a young parson in the pulpit, the fifth of November,—railing at the Church of Rome.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1697. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Æsop</i>, Act ii. What I have in my mind, out it comes: but <span class="sc">bar</span> that; I’se an honest lad as well as another.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Taste</i>, Act ii. I don’t suppose now, but, <span class="sc">barring</span> the nose, Roubiliac could cut as good a head every whit.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1818. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. iii. ‘I should like to try that daisy-cutter of yours upon a piece of level
+road (<span class="sc">barring</span> canter) for a quart of claret at the next inn.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick</i>, ch. lv., p. 483. ‘I’ll bet you ten guineas to five, he cuts his throat,’ said Wilkins
+Flasher, Esquire. ‘Done,’ replied Mr. Simmery. ‘Stop! I <span class="sc">bar</span>,’ said Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps he may hang himself.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (American thieves’.)—To stop; to cease. Obviously an attributive meaning of the
+legitimate word.
+</p>
+<p>3. (American colloquial.)—A spurious verb, the signification of which is derived from
+the drinking-bar. Thus a tippler is said <span class="sc">to bar</span> too much when given to inordinate drinking.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baragan Tailor</b>, <i>subs.</i> (tailors’).—A rough-working tailor.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barb</b>, <i>verb</i> (old cant).—<span class="sc">To barb</span> gold was heretofore a cant term for clipping or shaving it. The modern term is <span class="sc">to sweat</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). [Apparently from to <span class="sc">barber</span>, to shave or trim.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Ben Jonson</span>, <i>Alchemist</i>, I., i. Ay, and perhaps thy neck within a noose, for laundring gold, and <span class="sc">barbing</span> it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barber</b>, <i>verb.</i> (University).—When impositions are worked off by deputy they are said to be <span class="sc">barberised</span>. Tradition relates that a learned barber was at one time frequently employed as a
+scapegoat in working off this species of punishment inflicted on peccant students—hence
+the expression. A story <i lang="it">ben trovato esd non e vero</i>!
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">That’s the barber.</span>—A street catch-phrase, says Grose, about the year 1760. There is nothing new under
+the sun; not even idiotic and wearisome street cries, which so many good philologists
+deplore as a sign of the depravity of the times. <span class="sc">That’s the barber</span>, like ‘Who’s your hatter?’ and ‘How’s your poor feet?’ meant nothing, save a general
+and indefinite comment on any action, measure, or thing. ‘<span class="sc">All serene!</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>) is presumably its nearest modern street equivalent.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barber’s-Cat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A weak, sickly looking individual. In French such a person is called <i lang="fr">un faiblard</i> and <i lang="fr">un astec</i>, the latter an allusion to the Mexican dwarfs. According to Hotten, the term is also
+‘used in connexion with an expression too coarse to print.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barber’s-Chair</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A prostitute; a drab; a strumpet. So called from a <span class="sc">barber’s-chair</span> being common to all comers. It will be remembered that Shakspeare in <i>All’s Well</i> [ii., 2.] likens an all-embracing answer to a question to ‘a <span class="sc">barber’s-chair</span> that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or
+any buttock.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1621. <span class="sc">Burton</span>, <i>Anatomy of Melancholy</i>, III. iv., <span class="sc">i</span>, iii. (1651), 665. A notorious strumpet as common as a <span class="sc">barber’s-chair</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb123">[<a href="#pb123">123</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1708. <span class="sc">Motteux</span>, <i>Rabelais’ Pantagr., Prognost. v. Bonarobaes</i>. <span class="sc">Barber’s-chairs</span>, hedge whores.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barber’s-Clerk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A term of reproach generally applied by mechanics and artisans to overdressed
+and vaunting clerks and shopmen. In a secondary sense it is used of anyone <i>over-particular</i> in his personal appearance. The phrases ‘oh, he’s just come from the barber’s,’ and
+‘one of Truefitt’s young men’ are common enough.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 155. ‘Tailor!’ screamed a third. ‘<span class="sc">Barber’s-clerk!</span>’ shouted a fourth. ‘Throw him <span class="sc">o-ver</span>!’ roared a fifth, [<span class="sc">d.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barber’s Music</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Harsh and roughly discordant music. Barber’s shops were formerly places of
+great resort, and the old plays are full of references to the means by which customers,
+while waiting their turn, wiled away the time. Amongst other things it was usual to
+provide a cittern, a musical instrument similar to a guitar, upon which any who chose
+could try their skill. Many of the old proverbs refer to this circumstance. Ben Jonson
+in <i>The Silent Woman</i> [iii., 5] makes Morose say of his wife whom his barber had recommended, ‘I have married
+his cittern that is common to all men’; and Matheo, in <i>The Honest Whore</i>, speaks of a barber’s citterne for every serving man to play upon. Therefore, it
+is little wonder that <span class="sc">barber’s music</span> should be synonymous with discord.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1660. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, June 5. My lord called for the lieutenant’s cittern, and with two candlesticks with
+money in them for symbols (cymbals) we made <span class="sc">barber’s music</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barefooted on the Top of Ones Head</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—Bald-headed. The application of the simile is obvious.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bargain.</b> <span class="sc">Selling a bargain</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—A species of low wit, much in vogue about the latter end of the reign of
+Queen Anne, but which is of much more ancient usage. It is frequently alluded to by
+Swift, who remarks that ‘the <i>maids</i> of <i>honor</i> often amused themselves with it.’ If so, it seems incredible; and one would say so
+much the worse for the ‘maids of honor.’ It is thus described: A person would come
+into a room full of company, apparently in a fright, crying out, ‘It is white, and
+follows me!’ On any of the company asking what? the bargain was sold by the first
+speaker naming a certain portion of the body. In another, and happily more decent
+form, this somewhat senseless ‘sell’ still has a vogue. This slang expression and
+practice was apparently well known to Shakspeare, who makes Costard use it in <i>Love’s Labour Lost</i> [Act iii., Sc. 1], ‘The boy hath sold him a bargain.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barge</b>, <i>subs.</i> (printers’).—1. A ‘case’ in which there is an undue proportion of some letters, and
+a corresponding shortness of those which are most valuable.
+</p>
+<p>2. The term is also applied among printers to a card or small box on or in which ‘spaces’
+are put while correcting formes away from ‘case.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb124">[<a href="#pb124">124</a>]</span></p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To abuse; to slang. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bullyrag</span>. The allusion is, of course, to the rough mode of speaking peculiar to bargees or
+bargemen.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Albert Smith</span>, <i>Medical Student</i>, p. 102. ‘Whereupon they all began to <span class="sc">barge</span> the master at once; one saying “his coffee was all snuff and chick-weed.” ’
+</p>
+<p>(Uppingham School.)—To knock against a person; to come into collision with.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barge-Arse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A man or woman of rotund development at the back. [From <span class="sc">barge</span>, a clumsy vessel, + <span class="sc">arse</span>, O.E., posterior or buttock.] A low term of ridicule. Also used as an adjective,
+<span class="sc">barge-arsed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barge-pole</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A large stick or thick bough, of which there was one in each
+fagot. Also generally used for any large piece of wood.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bark</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. An Irishman or Irishwoman. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Barkshire</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 4 S., iii., 406. In Lancashire an Irishman is vulgarly called a <span class="sc">bark</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 191. Mike when asked by some of his countrymen why he called Fairbanks a ‘<span class="sc">bark</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, an Irishman, said, ‘If I had not put the ‘bark’ on him he would have put it on me,
+so I had the first pull.’
+</p>
+<p>2. The skin. This occurs also dialectically. In Alan Ramsay’s poems [1758] it is so
+used.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, ch. xx., p. 209. To the great detriment of what is called by fancy gentlemen the
+<span class="sc">bark</span> upon his shins, which were most unmercifully bumped against the hard leather and
+the iron buckles.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <i>Family Herald</i>, 2 Dec., p. 80, col. 1. With the <span class="sc">bark</span> all off his shins from a blow with a hockey stick.
+</p>
+<p>3. (colloquial.)—A cough. <i>Cf.</i>, <i>verb</i>, <span class="sc">To bark</span>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. To scrape; or rub off the skin; to abraise.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown’s School-days</i>, p. 227. So, after getting up [the tree] three or four feet, down they came slithering
+to the ground, <span class="sc">barking</span> their arms and faces.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, Nov., p. 18. The knuckles of his right hand were <span class="sc">barked</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>, <i>Roughing It</i>, p. 16 (Routledge’s ed.). Every time we avalanched from one end of the stage to the
+other, the ‘Unabridged Dictionary’ would come too; and, every time it came, it damaged
+somebody. One trip it <span class="sc">barked</span> the Secretary’s elbow; the next trip it hurt me in the stomach, and the third, it
+tilted Bemis’s nose up till he could look down his nostrils—he said.
+</p>
+<p>2. To cough; generally applied when it is persistent and hacking.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">The word with the bark on it</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—Without mincing the matter; without circumlocution.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>, <i>Roughing It</i>, chap. xv. If ever another man gives a whistle to a child of mine, and I get my hands
+on him, I will hang him nigher than Haman! That is <span class="sc">the word with the bark on it</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To take the bark off</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—To reduce in value, either deliberately, or by accident; a figurative
+usage of ‘to graze,’ ‘to take the skin off.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>David Copperfield</i>, p. 310. I rode my gallant grey so close to the wheel, that I grazed his near foreleg
+against it and <span class="sc">took the bark off</span>, as his owner told me, to the tune of three pun’ sivin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. Ed. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Further Adventures of Verdant Green</i>, p. 31. That’ll <span class="sc">take the bark from</span> your nozzle, and distil the Dutch pink for you, won’t it?
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb125">[<a href="#pb125">125</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bark at the moon</span> (colloquial).—To clamour uselessly; to agitate to no effect; to labour in vain.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1630. <span class="sc">Taylor’s</span> <i>Workes</i>. And thus my booke and comparisons end together; for thus much I know, that I have
+but all this while <span class="sc">bark’d at the moone</span>, throwne feathers against the winde, built upon the sands, wash’d a blackmore, and
+laboured in vaine.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A pistol. [From <span class="sc">barker</span>, a noisy assailant, <i>i.e.</i>, one who barks like a dog.] Sometimes called <span class="sc">barking iron</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). The latter, as far as is known, is the oldest term. An early use of <span class="sc">barkers</span> bears date of 1815, whilst <span class="sc">barking iron</span> occurs in Parker’s <i>Life’s Painter</i>, 1789.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1815. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Guy Mannering</i>, ch. xxxiii. ‘Had he no arms?’ asked the Justice. ‘Ay, ay, they are never without
+<span class="sc">barkers</span> and slashers.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Oliver Twist</i>, ch. xxii. ‘<span class="sc">Barkers</span> for me, Barney,’ said Toby Crackit. ‘Here they are,’ replied Barney, producing a
+pair of pistols.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">C. Kingsley</span>, <i>Two Years Ago</i>, ch. xxiv. I’ll give you five for those pistols … being rather a knowing one about
+the pretty little <span class="sc">barkers</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> ‘Meat in the pot.’ (A Texan term, alluding to the means by which meat is literally
+provided for the pot. Texan figures of speech are often startling enough in originality
+and sententiousness. Nor is the moral ingenuity revealed by this vernacular less striking;
+<i>e.g.</i>, when revolvers are said ‘to make all men equal.’) Other synonyms for revolvers of
+similar character are ‘my unconverted friend’; ‘a one-eyed scribe’ (an argument always
+persuasive and sometimes unanswerable); ‘blue lightning’ (sometimes a tragedy in three
+acts: Act i., a word; Act ii., a flash of blue lightning; and Act iii., certain death);
+‘whistler’ (from the sharp hissing sound of a bullet in its flight); ‘peace-maker’
+(a sarcastic commentary on the proverb that ‘short reckonings make long friends’);
+dag; pop; etc.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un aboyeur</i> (popular: a literal translation of ‘barker’; also ‘a tout’); <i lang="fr">un pitroux</i> (thieves’: in the old Provencal, <i lang="fr">pitrou</i> bore the sense of a piece of wood or stick, and it is possible that French thieves
+have here merely transferred the name from one weapon to another); <i lang="fr">un pétouze</i> (a play upon words. In the old cant <i lang="fr">pétouze</i> signified the ancient coin known as a <i lang="fr">pistole</i>); <i lang="fr">un bayafe</i> (thieves’: formerly <i lang="fr">baillaf</i>, a term employed by the robbers who infested the highways of Southern France. It
+is thought to be derived from two words <i lang="fr">bailler</i>, to give, and <i lang="fr">affe</i> or rather <i lang="fr">affre</i>, signifying fear); <i lang="fr">un mandolet</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">pied de cochon</i> (military: literally ‘a pig’s foot’; a variety of weapon of large size and calibre);
+<i lang="fr">un crucifix</i> or <i lang="fr">un crucifix à ressort</i> (thieves’: literally ‘a crucifix,’ or ‘a crucifix with a spring’); <i lang="fr">un soufflant</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">soufflet</i> = to whisper); <i lang="fr">les burettes</i> (thieves’ and popular: literally ‘phials’).
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A man employed to stand in front of shops and shows to attract the attention
+of passers-by, and if possible to entice them inside, where he can safely leave them
+to the tender mercies of the salesmen. The origin of the term is obvious; and, it
+is interesting to note that <span class="sc">barker</span> has its exact <span class="pageNum" id="pb126">[<a href="#pb126">126</a>]</span>equivalent in the French <i lang="fr">aboyeur</i>. Amongst touting photographers, in low neighbourhoods, this individual is called
+a <span class="sc">doorsman</span>, and the term is likewise applied to auction-room touts.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Barker</span> (s.), a salesman’s servant that walks before his door, to invite customers in to
+buy cloaths.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Barker.</span> The shopman of a dealer in second-hand clothes, particularly about Monmouth St.,
+who walks before his shop and deafens every passenger with his cries of clothes, coats,
+or gowns, ‘what d’ye want <i>gemmen</i>, what d’ye buy?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1828. <span class="sc">Jon. Bee</span>, <i>Picture of London</i>, p. 109. <i>Mock-auctions</i> and ‘selling-off’ shops are not the only pests where <span class="sc">barkers</span> are kept at the doors to invite unwary passengers to ‘walk in, walk in, sale just
+begun.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, Oct. 13. I am a barker by profession. The pedestrian agility required to pace up and down before the ‘Half-dime
+Museum of Anatomy and Natural History,’ soliciting passers-by to enter, is of itself
+enormous; but where it gets in its base hit is when it increases the appetite. McGinty
+knows this. McGinty is my friend, but I wouldn’t serve a tenth of his unexpired terms
+for ten dollars. I have peddled clams with McGinty and have seen him eat three bushels
+of our stock. That is nothing. When the show isn’t paying, I have to go out and eat
+grass. This shows you what nickel-plated, back-action appetites we have.
+</p>
+<p>3. A man with a troublesome cough; his complaint is otherwise known as a ‘<span class="sc">churchyard cough</span>,’ or a ‘<span class="sc">notice to quit</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>4. (nautical.)—Besides being used as a designation for a pistol, <span class="sc">barker</span> is also employed for lower deck guns on board ship.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1842. <span class="sc">Cooper</span>, <i>Jack O’ Lanthorne</i>, I., 151. Four more carronades with two <span class="sc">barkers</span> for’ard.
+</p>
+<p>5. <i>See</i> quotation, as follows:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Greenwood</span>, <i>Outcasts of London</i>. But what was barking? I thought a great deal about the matter, and could arrive
+at no more feasible conclusion than that a <span class="sc">barker</span> was a boy that attended a drover, and helped him to drive his sheep by means of imitating
+the bark of a dog.
+</p>
+<p>6. (University.)—A noisy assertive individual; and, in a complimentary sense, a great
+swell.
+</p>
+<p>7. (American.)—A noisy coward; a blatant bully.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barkey</b> (nautical).—A term of endearment in use amongst seafaring men when speaking of a
+vessel to which they have got attached. ‘She’s a <span class="sc">barkey</span>—she is, my lads!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barking-Irons</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Pistols. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Barker</span>, sense 1. <span class="sc">Barking-iron</span> is, historically, an older term than <span class="sc">barker</span> by about a quarter of a century. Formerly applied, in the navy, to large duelling
+pistols.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 173. Pistols, <span class="sc">barking-irons</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, bk. II., ch. vi. ‘And look you, prick the touch-hole, or your <span class="sc">barking-iron</span> will never bite for you.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barking through the Fence</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A taking advantage of some obstacle or shield for saying or doing something,
+which, but for such protection, would not be said or done; or which if done or said
+might entail unpleasant consequences upon the sayer or doer.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barkshire</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Ireland.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bark</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb127">[<a href="#pb127">127</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bark up the Wrong Tree</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—Of trapper and pioneer derivation, and idiomatically used to signify
+that a person is at fault as to his purpose, or the means by which he is endeavouring
+to attain his object. The expression arose in this way: the Western huntsman found
+that his prey gradually became more and more wily and cunning in eluding pursuit,
+and frequently he and his dogs were at fault, supposing they had ‘treed’ their game
+when in reality, especially in the case of opossums and squirrels and such-like animals,
+it had escaped by jumping from the boughs of one tree to another. The dogs consequently
+were left <span class="sc">barking up the wrong tree</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <i>Richmond Enquirer</i>, Sep. 8. ‘You didn’t really go to old Bullion,’ said a politician to an office-seeker,
+‘Why, he has no influence there, I can tell you. You <span class="sc">barked up the wrong tree</span> there, my friend, and you deserve to fail.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, Oct. Professor Rose who ‘hit’ this town last spring is around calling us a fugitive
+from justice, and asking why the police don’t do something. Gently, Professor. When
+we left Xenia, O., the Sheriff patted us on the back and lent us half-a-dollar. We
+are the only man in this town who doesn’t turn pale when the stage comes in, and the
+only one who doesn’t break for the sage brush when it is announced that the United
+States Marshal is here. We ain’t rich or pretty, but we are good, and the Professor
+is <span class="sc">barking up the wrong tree</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barnaby.</b> <span class="sc">To dance barnaby</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—To move expeditiously; irregularly.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barnacle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—1. A pickpocket. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Area sneak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1809, <i>d.</i> 1870. <span class="sc">Mark Lemon</span>, <i>Leyton Hall</i>. The man that stood beside thee is old Crookfinger, the most notorious setter, <span class="sc">barnacle</span> and foist in the city.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A good job, or snack easily got.—<i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum</i> (1811).
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of horses.—<i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum</i> (1811).
+</p>
+<p>4. (old.)—A constant attendant; he who, or that which sticks to one like a barnacle
+to a ship’s bottom.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1607. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Northward Hoe!</i> III., wks., 1873, III., 39. Ile cashiere all my yong <span class="sc">barnicles</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Trail of the Serpent</i>, I., i., 7. Slopper found him a species of <span class="sc">barnacle</span> rather difficult to shake off.
+</p>
+<p>5. (old cant.)—A decoy swindler; from the pertinacity with which such a one fastens
+on to a victim, and will not be shaken off until the purpose in view is effected.
+<i>Cf.</i>, senses 1 and 4.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1591. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Notable Discovery of Coosnage</i> (1859), 23. Thus doth the Verser and the Setter feign a kind friendship to the Cony.…
+As thus they sit tippling, coms the <span class="sc">barnackle</span> and thrusts open the doore … steps back again: and very mannerly saith I cry you
+mercy, Gentlemen. I thoght a frend of mine had bin heere.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman of London</i>, wks. (1885) III., 131. He that … before counterfeited the dronken Bernard is now
+sober and called the <span class="sc">barnacle</span>.
+</p>
+<p>6. (old.)—An individual speaking with a nasal twang; one who speaks through his nose.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1591. <span class="sc">Percivall</span>, <i>Sp. Dictionary</i>. <i lang="es">Gango</i>, a <span class="sc">barnacle</span>, one that speaketh through the nose, <i>Chenolopex</i>. [<i>Chenalopex</i> in Pliny, a species of goose.] [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barnacles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. Spectacles. Formerly applied <span class="pageNum" id="pb128">[<a href="#pb128">128</a>]</span>only to spectacles with side pieces of coloured glass, and used more as protectors
+from wind, dust, and glaring light than as aids to the sight. Hence used popularly
+for all kinds of glasses. The derivation seems uncertain. The principal suggested
+origins are:—(1) a corruption of <i lang="la">binoculis</i> [from Latin <i lang="la">bini</i>, double, + <i lang="la">oculus</i>, an eye]; (2) an attributive usage of <span class="sc">barnacles</span>, which, with ‘horse-twitchers’ or ‘brakes,’ are tools put on the nostrils of horses
+when they will not stand still to be shooed; and in support of this it has been pointed
+out [<i>N. and Q.</i>, 1 S., v., 13] the figure of the <span class="sc">barnacle</span> borne in heraldry sufficiently shows why the term has been transferred to spectacles,
+which were formerly only kept in position by the manner in which they clipped the
+nose; (3) that <span class="sc">barnacles</span> are so called from the similarity in shape to the black streak which proceeds from
+the upper part of the beak in a line to the corner of, and right round the eye of
+the bernicle, or <span class="sc">barnacle</span> goose (<i lang="la">Anser bernicla</i>). There is a strong resemblance in the mark to a pair of spectacles.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1571. <i>Damon and Pythias</i> (Dodsley’s Old Plays), Hazlett IV., 81. These <span class="corr" id="xd33e20163" title="Source: spectales">spectacles</span> put on. <i>Grim.</i> They be gay <span class="sc">barnacles</span>, yet I see never the better.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1653. <span class="sc">Sir Thomas Urquhart</span>, <i>Translation of Rabelais</i>, bk. V., ch. xxvii. They had <span class="sc">barnacles</span> on the handles of their faces, or spectacles at most.
+</p>
+<p>The difference between spectacles and <span class="sc">barnacles</span> seems to be indicated in this passage. In the original French the phrase reads ‘<i lang="fr">bezicles au nez</i>.’ A later quotation illustrative of the usage is:
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>The Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. i. ‘Give me the <span class="sc">barnacles</span>, my good youth, and who can say what nose they may bestride in two years hence?’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> ‘Bossers’; ‘gig-lamps’; ‘goggles.’ A man wearing these aids to sight is sometimes
+called ‘<span class="sc">four eyes</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Les persiennes</i> (popular: properly ‘venetian shutters’); <i lang="fr">une vitrine</i> (popular: literally ‘a shop window,’ or glass case in a museum).
+</p>
+<p>2. (old cant.)—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Barnacles</span> (<span class="sc">s.</span>) … in the <i>Canting Language</i>, a pair of spectacles; also the irons or fetters worn by felons are so called; also
+the gratuity or reward that jockies have for buying horses for gentlemen.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barndoor</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—1. A facetious term for a target too large to be missed; <i>i.e.</i>, as large as a <span class="sc">barndoor</span>. Hence <span class="sc">barndoor practice</span> as applied to organised battues, in which game is driven within a range from which
+it is impossible to escape. This can hardly be called sport; rather let it be known
+as ‘slaughter.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (cricket.)—A player who blocks every ball.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barnet!</b> <i>intj.</i> (Christ’s Hospital).—Nonsense! humbug! Now obsolete.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barnet Fair</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—The hair; part of the <span class="sc">rhyming slang</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). For synonyms <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Top dressing</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb129">[<a href="#pb129">129</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barney</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A word which varies in sense according to the predelictions of the
+person using it. Generally speaking it means a jollification; ‘lark’; pleasurable
+outing; picnic. The ’Arries and roughs of London, however, always associate it with
+a certain amount of rowdyism. Its derivation is unknown, although Barrère gives a
+long dissertation concerning its origin in the Yiddish. As, however, this is founded
+mainly upon a misreading of a quotation from <i>Punch</i>, it is somewhat beside the mark.
+</p>
+<p>2. Humbug; cheating; a hoax; something pre-arranged—not genuine. In sporting circles
+it signifies an unfair race of any kind.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">B. Brierley</span>, <i>Irkdale</i>, II., 19. I won thee i’ fair powell one toss an’ no <span class="sc">barney</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Evening News</i>, 2 Sept., p. 1, col. 6. Blackguardly <span class="sc">barneys</span> called boxing competitions. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>Murray gives this last in illustration of the secondary sense which he applies to
+the word, viz., a prize-fight. <span class="sc">Barney</span>, it is true, does signify a prize-fight, but it means more than that. A fair contest
+would not be so named; there must be an element of chicanery in the matter. Besides
+which, <span class="sc">barney</span> is applied to unfair sporting competitions of any kind. A comparison of the different
+quotations given under this heading will clearly prove that point.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Referee</i>, April 13, p. 7, col. 4. Who would believe that Mr. Gladstone shammed being ill,
+and that Sir Andrew Clark issued false bulletins, and that the whole thing was a <span class="sc">barney</span> from beginning to end.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Bell’s Life</i>, Jan. 3, p. 3, col. 4. Few genuine matches have taken place this season on the Transatlantic
+waters, though exhibitions and <span class="sc">barney</span> contests have been plentiful.
+</p>
+<p>3. (American.)—At Harvard College, about the year 1810, this word was used to designate
+a bad recitation. To <span class="sc">barney</span> was to recite badly.—<span class="sc">Hall’s</span> <i>College Words and Customs</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barn-Mouse.</b> <span class="sc">To be bitten by a barn-mouse</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To be tipsy; ‘screwed.’ The <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum</i> says ‘it is probably an allusion to barley,’ presumably as the source of malt liquor.
+<i>Cf.</i>, ‘<span class="sc">To have on</span>’ Or ‘<span class="sc">wear a barley-cap</span>,’ to be tipsy; also <span class="sc">barley-cap</span> = a tippler.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barn-stormer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—A deprecatory epithet applied to strolling players.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 6 June, p. 5, col. 1. If this be <span class="sc">barn-storming</span>, Betterton and Garrick were <span class="sc">barn-stormers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Graphic</i>, 10 April, p. 399. Travelling players who acted short and highly tragic pieces to
+audiences of clodpoles in any barn or shed they could get, used to be known as <span class="sc">barn-stormers</span>, and a ranting, noisy style of acting and speaking is still called ‘barn-storming.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Referee</i>, 21 August, p. 3, col. 1. Mr. Edward Terry has again been elected at the head of
+the poll as trustee of the charities of Barnes. He is not the first clever actor who
+has been known as a <span class="sc">Barnes-stormer</span>.
+</p>
+<p>The French term for one of such a troupe is <i lang="fr">cabotin</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barnumese</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Barnum, the proprietor of ‘the greatest show upon earth,’ has at any
+rate one claim to immortal fame in having, like Boycot, Burke, and Balfour, added
+a new word to the English tongue. The ‘high falutin,’ bombastic style of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb130">[<a href="#pb130">130</a>]</span>great man’s announcements are notorious; as much so, in fact, as is the diction of
+the great London newspaper which claims ‘the largest circulation in the world.’ From
+such circumstances we get words like <span class="sc">barnumese</span> and telegraphese, to signify exaggeration of style—what in slang parlance is known
+as the ‘putting on of side.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—<span class="sc">To Barnumize</span> is to talk or assert oneself in the style popularly attributed to Barnum.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baronet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A humorous variation for sirloin [of beef].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1749. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. IV., ch. x. The sight of the roast beef struck him dumb, permitting him only
+to say grace, and to declare he must pay his respects to the <span class="sc">baronet</span>, for so he called the sirloin.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrack-Hack</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—1. In an inoffensive sense applied to young women who attend garrison
+balls year after year. So used there is no such imputation of lax morals as occurs
+in sense 2.
+</p>
+<p>2. A soldier’s prostitute. There are but few classes of persons to whom a greater
+number of slang epithets have been applied than to the poor wretched creatures, who
+from choice, bad-treatment, or as a means of subsistence abandon themselves to a life
+of prostitution. These names are to be found in plenty for all grades of semi-public
+or public women. They run the gauntlet from the gilded courtezan to the veriest drab
+in the last stages of destitution and disease. The list of synonyms is both long and
+grim; the names in many cases speaking volumes on a subject which it would be painful
+as well as needless to pursue farther in this place, inasmuch as the epithets both
+in French and English, and, it must be added, those of other languages as well, speak
+with a brutal cynicism to which it would be out of place to add a comment.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Ladies of accommodating morals; ladies of more complaisance than virtue; anonyma;
+pretty horsebreaker; artichoke; columbine; common Jack; convenient; cow; crack; aunt;
+ladies of easy virtue; bangster; blowen; garrison-hack; bat; bawdy-basket; bed-fagot;
+fireship; bit o’ muslin; laced mutton; mot; bobtail; bona roba; brevet wife; grass
+widow; brimstone; black Bess; brown Bessy; bulker; bunter; burick; buttock; cab moll;
+cat; chauvering donna; chauvering moll; barber’s chair; demi-rep; tartlet; trollop;
+shake; poll; dolly-mop; gay woman; unfortunate; dress-lodger; mauks; quædam (obsolete);
+woman; bitch; perfect lady; public ledger; necessary; warming-pan; nun.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Une persilleuse</i> (familiar); <i lang="fr">une mal peignée</i> (popular: ‘a dirty ill-dressed woman; drab; or draggletail’); <i lang="fr">une moellonneuse</i> (a prostitute who frequents builders’ yards); <i lang="fr">hirondelle de goguenot</i> (military: ‘a barrack-hack’; in French soldiers’ slang <i lang="fr">un goguenot</i> is a tin can used for making coffee or soup); <i lang="fr">un chausson</i> (literally ‘a sock’ or ‘stocking’); <i lang="fr">almanach de trente six mille <span class="pageNum" id="pb131">[<a href="#pb131">131</a>]</span>adresses</i> (popular: literally ‘a directory.<span>’</span> <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘public-ledger’); <i lang="fr">une génisse</i> (popular: literally ‘a heifer.’ <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘cow’); <i lang="fr">une raccrocheuse</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">raccrocher</i>, ‘to hook’); <i lang="fr">une vache à lait</i> (popular: literally ‘a milch cow’); <i lang="fr">une fleur de macadam</i> (popular: ‘a roadside flower’; ‘a street walker’); <i lang="fr">une roulante</i> (popular: in old French slang <i lang="fr">un roulant</i> = a vehicle. <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘cab’); <i lang="fr">une camelote</i> (popular: a prostitute of the lowest class; a draggletail); <i lang="fr">une morue</i> (popular: literally ‘a cod-fish’); <i lang="fr">une marcheuse</i> (popular: properly ‘a walker’; in theatrical parlance, a female super); <i lang="fr">une piqueuse de trains</i> (popular: one who prowls about railway stations. <i lang="fr">Piqueuse</i> = needlewoman); <i lang="fr">un pigeon voyageur</i> (familiar: a girl who travels up and down a railway seeking clients; literally ‘a
+carrier pigeon’); <i lang="fr">une pieuvre</i> (familiar: a kept woman; properly ‘an octopus’); <i lang="fr">un carcan à crinoline</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">carcan</i>, applied to either sex is an opprobrious epithet; the phrase also signifies ‘a gaunt-woman’);
+<i lang="fr">un omnibus</i> (popular: <i>i.e.</i>, ‘one who may be ridden by all’); <i lang="fr">un cul crotté</i> (low: properly ‘a dirty bottom’); <i lang="fr">une trychine</i> (popular: an allusion to <i lang="la">trichina spiralis</i>, the disease-germ in bad pork); <i lang="fr">une fenêtrière</i> (popular: an allusion to the custom of this class to watch at windows and invite
+passers-by to visit them); <i lang="fr">une traîneuse</i> (familiar: a prostitute who plies her trade at railway stations); <i lang="fr">un trumeau</i> (popular: literally ‘a leg of beef’); <i lang="fr">une crevette</i> (popular: ‘a prawn’ or ‘shrimp’); <i lang="fr">une boulonnaise</i> (a girl who ‘walks’ the Bois de Boulogne); <i lang="fr">un matelas ambulant</i> (popular: properly ‘a walking mattress.’ <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘bed-fagot’); <i lang="fr">une demoiselle du Pont-Neuf</i> (popular: this kind haunt the bridge of the name over the Seine); <i lang="fr">un demi-castor</i> (popular: a woman of the demi-monde); <i lang="fr">une laqueuse</i> (familiar: a prostitute frequenting the lake in the Bois de Boulogne); <i lang="fr">une pailletée</i> (common: properly ‘spangled’); <i lang="fr">un pelican</i> (familiar: a dressy courtesan); <i lang="fr">une ningle</i> (a literary term); <i lang="fr">une maquillée</i> (popular: ‘one with painted face’); <i lang="fr">une gueuse</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">gueuse</i> = beggarly, wretched); <i lang="fr">une fille</i> or <i lang="fr">femme du trottoir</i> (popular: ‘a girl’ or ‘woman of the pavement’); <i lang="fr">une vieille garde</i> (familiar: an old worn-out prostitute); <i lang="fr">une biche</i> (popular: ‘a hind’ or ‘roe’); <i lang="fr">une déhanchée</i> (popular: ‘a waddler’); <i lang="fr">une demi-mondaine</i> (general: a woman of the demi-monde; a fashionable prostitute); <i lang="fr">une portion</i> (military: literally ‘a share’ or ‘portion’; one who is shared by many); <i lang="fr">une limace</i> (popular: properly ‘a slug’); <i lang="fr">une terrinière</i> (the lowest sort of prostitute; <i lang="fr">terrine</i> = earthen pan); <i lang="fr">une terreuse</i> (a woman who prowls about lonely spots); <i lang="fr">une terrière</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">une fille à parties</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">une rivette</i>; <i lang="fr">une voirie</i> (popular: ‘a common sewer’); <i lang="fr">une boule rouge</i> (familiar: a frequenter of the Quartier de la Boule Rouge, Fanbourg Montmartre);
+<i lang="fr">une vessie</i> (popular: a very low prostitute; <i lang="fr">vessie</i> applied to either sex is an offensive epithet); <i lang="fr">une demoiselle de bitume</i> (familiar); <i lang="fr">un pont d’Avignon</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">une pontonnière</i> (popular: a prostitute who plies <span class="pageNum" id="pb132">[<a href="#pb132">132</a>]</span>her trade under the arches of bridges; <i lang="fr">ponton</i> = pontoon, ‘a bridge of boats’; <i lang="fr">pontonnier</i> = ‘a toll gatherer’); <i lang="fr">une polisseuse de tuyaux de pipe</i> (literally ‘a polisher of pipe stems’); <i lang="fr">une pompe funèbre</i> (familiar: properly ‘funeral pomp’); <i lang="fr">une polisseuse de mâts de cocagne en chambre</i> (popular: an extremely degraded variety of prostitute; literally ‘a polisher of greasy
+poles in a room’); <i lang="fr">une punaise</i> (general: ‘a bug’—a public woman of the lowest grade); <i lang="fr">une dessalée</i> (popular: literally ‘a knowing woman’); <i lang="fr">une mangeuse de viande crue</i> (popular: ‘a devourer of raw meat’); <i lang="fr">une cité d’amour</i> (literally ‘a city of love’); <i lang="fr">autel de besoin</i> (popular: ‘an altar of necessity’; <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘necessary’); <i lang="fr">une vésuvienne</i> (familiar: literally ‘a vesuvian,’ either in allusion to the volcano or the well-known
+brand of matches; in either case the epithet comes very close to the old English slang
+‘fireship,’ an old and diseased prostitute); <i lang="fr">peau</i>, or <i lang="fr">peau de chien</i> (popular: literally ‘dog’s skin’); <i lang="fr">un grenier à coups de sabre</i> (a soldiers’ term: <i lang="fr">grenier</i>, a granary; <i lang="fr">coups de sabre</i>, thrusts with a broad sword); <i lang="fr">une rempardeuse</i> (a woman who frequents the ramparts); <i lang="fr">une femme de terrain</i> (a draggletailed woman; <i lang="fr">femme</i>, woman, <i lang="fr">terrain</i>, ground); <i lang="fr">une saucisse</i> (popular: <i>i.e.</i>, ‘a small sausage’); <i lang="fr">une trainée</i> (familiar); <i lang="fr">une baleine</i> (popular: ‘a whale’); <i lang="fr">une lésé-bombe</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">une fille en brème</i> (a registered prostitute; <i lang="fr">la brème</i> is the card given to such women by the police); <i lang="fr">une fille en carte</i> (a registered woman: <i>see</i> preceding); <i lang="fr">une boutonnière à pantalons</i> (familiar: a kind of semi-prostitute; a sempstress who walks the streets at night;
+in their own words, they ‘work for their living, but do <i>the naughty</i> for their clothes’); <i lang="fr">une fille de maison</i> or <i lang="fr">une fille à numéro</i> (familiar: these names are given to girls in brothels; <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘dress-lodgers’); <i lang="fr">une fille de tournure</i> (familiar: this also is applied to the inmate of a brothel; literally ‘a girl of
+figure’); <i lang="fr">une poupée</i> (popular: ‘a doll’); <i lang="fr">une mouquette</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">des poules</i> (popular: the inmates of a brothel are so called; literally ‘hens’); <i lang="fr">une galvaudeuse</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">galvauder</i>, ‘to scold’); <i lang="fr">une planche à boudin</i> (familiar: literally ‘a slice of pudding’; in English harlotry ‘to take one’s pudding’
+or ‘greens’ is to have sexual connection); <i lang="fr">une blanchisseuse en chemise</i> (<i lang="fr">blanchisseuse</i> = laundress; <i lang="fr">être dans la chemise de quelqu’un</i> is to be constantly with one); <i lang="fr">un lard</i> (literally ‘bacon’ or body); <i lang="fr">une gadoue</i> (properly ‘street refuse’ or ‘mud’); <i lang="fr">un sommier de caserne</i> (military: <i lang="fr">sommier</i> means ‘hair-mattress,’ and <i lang="fr">caserne</i> = ‘barracks’; applied to girls who prowl about barracks); <i lang="fr">une grivoise</i> (this term is now obsolete, but was formerly applied to a garrison town prostitute.
+It means, literally, ‘a jolly canteen woman’); <i lang="fr">une paillasse à soldats</i> (a barrack-hack; literally ‘a straw mattress for soldiers’); <i lang="fr">un passe-lacet</i> (properly ‘a bodkin’—<i>i.e.</i>, ‘something to be threaded’); <i lang="fr">un chameau</i> (the term was originally applied to a gaunt, ungainly woman; it now signifies a prostitute
+also); <i lang="fr">un membre de la caravane</i> (a <span class="pageNum" id="pb133">[<a href="#pb133">133</a>]</span>euphemism for <i lang="fr">un chameau</i>, <i>q.v.</i>); <i lang="fr">un lolo</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">une grue</i> (popular: a kept woman; <i lang="fr">faire le pied de grue</i>, ‘to dance attendance’); <i lang="fr">une soupeuse</i> (literally ‘one who takes supper’; an allusion to the ‘<i lang="fr">cabinets particuliers</i>’ of French restaurants); <i lang="fr">une belle petite</i> (a young and pretty prostitute of the superior class; literally ‘a pretty darling’);
+<i lang="fr">une pêche à quinze sous</i> (a literary term); <i lang="fr">une boulevardière</i> (a superior class of prostitute frequenting the boulevards); <i lang="fr">un camélia</i> (a kept woman; a reference to the heroine of <i lang="fr">La Dame aux camélias</i> by A. Dumas fils); <i lang="fr">une lorette</i> (a variety of prostitute named after the Quartier Notre Dame de Lorette, the Paris
+Pimlico); <i lang="fr">une petite dame</i> (literally ‘a little lady’); <i lang="fr">une impure</i> (a kept woman; properly ‘an unchaste one’); <i lang="fr">une agenouillée</i> (journalistic); <i lang="fr">une verticale</i>; <i lang="fr">une horizontale de grande marque</i> (a fashionable courtezan); <i lang="fr">une cocotte</i> (a generic term); <i lang="fr">une pierreuse</i> (a public woman of the lowest grade who plies her hideous trade in houses in course
+of building, etc.); <i lang="fr">une chamègue</i>; <i lang="fr">un bourdon</i> (thieves’: literally ‘a drone’); <i lang="fr">une lipète</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">une magneuse</i> (popular: a woman who depraves herself with members of her own sex. The name is said
+to be in allusion to a religious community who derived their cognomen from that of
+their founder, Jeanne Canart, the daughter of Nicholas Colbert, who was the Seigneur
+de Magneux); <i lang="fr">une vielle lanterne</i> (popular: an old prostitute; <i lang="fr">lanterne</i> = <span id="xd33e20918">‘</span>window’); <i lang="fr">une feuille</i> (literally ‘a leaf’; the term is one used at the Saumur School of Cavalry); <i lang="fr">un blanc</i> (literally ‘blank’ or ‘white’; the derivation is somewhat obscure, but the term is
+a very ancient one for a public woman. <i lang="fr">Mangeur de blanc</i> is a man who lives upon the earnings of prostitutes and ruins them. Formerly, the
+expression <i lang="fr">mettre à blanc</i> was used in the sense of ‘to ruin’); <i lang="fr">une vache</i> (this term in its popular signification merely means ‘a woman of indifferent character’;
+if a prostitute is intended, the expression is <i lang="fr">une vache à lait</i>, a milch cow); <i lang="fr">un veau</i> (literally ‘a calf’; the phrase is applied to a <i>young</i> prostitute. <i>Cf.</i>, ‘<i lang="fr">vache à lait</i>’); <i lang="fr">une retapeuse</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">un wagon</i> (popular: a dirty prostitute. <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">wagon</i>, ‘a railway carriage’ and <i lang="fr">un omnibus</i>); <i lang="fr">une taupe</i> (familiar: literally a mole, an animal that works in the dark; also ‘a cunning fox’);
+<i lang="fr">une Jeanneton</i> (popular: a chambermaid at an inn); <i lang="fr">une andre</i> (an old word; <i>see</i> Fourbesque <i lang="fr">landra</i>); <i lang="fr">une roulure</i> (popular: a public woman of the lowest description. <i lang="fr">Rouler</i> signifies ‘to roll,’ ‘to wander,’ ‘to stroll,’ ‘to keep going’); <i lang="fr">une fille de barrière</i> (popular: a prostitute plying her trade at the barriers or gates of the city); <i lang="fr">une dossière</i> (thieves’: literally ‘a back’); <i lang="fr">une rouleuse</i> (familiar: an abandoned woman; literally the name of a species of caterpillar); <i lang="fr">une paillasse à troufion</i> (a soldier’s woman); <i lang="fr">une paillasse de corps de garde</i> (military: literally ‘a guard-room mattress’); <i lang="fr">une marneuse</i> (popular: a variety of low class prostitute frequenting the river-side; literally
+‘clayey’); <i lang="fr">une Louis</i> (a bully’s mistress; the allusion is to the fancy <span class="pageNum" id="pb134">[<a href="#pb134">134</a>]</span>which women in brothels often have of powdering and dressing the hair in the fashion
+of the times of Louis XV.); <i lang="fr">une ouvrière</i> (also a ‘bully’s’ mistress. The term signifies, literally, ‘a workwoman.’ These wretched
+creatures support their companions who live and batten on what the woman earns in
+the sale of her person); <i lang="fr">une fesse</i> (popular: properly ‘a breech’); <i lang="fr">une marmite</i> (harlotry: ‘a flesh pot’); <i lang="fr">un torchon</i> (a low class of woman; <i lang="fr">torchon</i> = ‘a dish clout’); <i lang="fr">une sauterelle</i> (familiar: ‘a grass-hopper’); <i lang="fr">un prat</i>; <i lang="fr">une femme de cavoisi</i> (thieves’: a well dressed prostitute of the boulevards); <i lang="fr">une louille</i>; <i lang="fr">une larque</i> (a registered woman; a corruption of <i lang="fr">largue</i>); <i lang="fr">une menesse</i> (a thieves’ term); <i lang="fr">une larguèpe</i>; <i lang="fr">une magnuce</i> (see <i lang="fr">une magneuse</i>); <i lang="fr">une casserole</i> (thieves’: literally ‘a saucepan’); <i lang="fr">une goipeuse</i> (thieves’: a name given to prostitutes who wander about the country); <i lang="fr">une ronfle</i>; <i lang="fr">une ronfle à grippart</i>; <i lang="fr">un ronfleur</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">ronfler</i> is properly ‘to snore’); <i lang="fr">un grippeur</i> (gripper = ‘to nab’; crib; clutch); <i lang="fr">une panterne</i>; <i lang="fr">une bourre de soie</i> (a kept woman; <i lang="fr">bourre</i> = <i>floss</i> + <i lang="fr">soie</i> = silk); <i lang="fr">un asticot</i> (a bully’s or thief’s mistress; literally ‘a maggot’; it may be stated that <i lang="fr">asticot</i> is also used for both the <i lang="la">membrum virile</i>, and for vermicelli); <i lang="fr">une panuche</i> (thieves’: a term applied to showily dressed women who live in brothels); <i lang="fr">une calège</i> (thieves’: a kept woman; <i lang="fr">cale</i>, a kind of head-dress); <i lang="fr">une ponante</i> (thieves’: a low-class prostitute); <i lang="fr">une môme</i> or <i lang="fr">mômeresse</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">une lutainpem</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">une laissée</i> (thieves’ and roughs’); <i lang="fr">une galupe</i> (popular: a street walking prostitute); <i lang="fr">une ponife</i>, <i lang="fr">poniffe</i>, or <i lang="fr">poniffle</i> (thieves’).
+</p>
+<p>For <span class="sc">German Synonyms</span>, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tart</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonyms.</span> <i lang="it">Una sbriso</i> (this term has another cant signification, <i>viz.</i>, ‘to be naked’; hence, probably, its attributive usage for a prostitute); <i lang="it">una losena</i> (this, like other Fourbesque terms for a woman, also means ‘a woman of the town’;
+indeed in most argots there seems to be little, if any distinction drawn between women
+of easy virtue, and the sex as a whole); <i lang="it">una guagnastra</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, one who acts as a sheath; the allusion is obvious. <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘broom’ and ‘broom-handle’ for the female <i>pudenda</i> and the male <i>penis</i> respectively); <i lang="it">una marcona</i> (said to be an allusion to a certain incident in the history of the Papal States);
+<i lang="it">una landra</i> (curiously enough this term signifying, in orthodox Italian, a prostitute is, in
+the Fourbesque, synonymous also with ‘woman.’ The French <i lang="fr">andre</i>, a woman of the town, dates back to the sixteenth century); <i lang="it">una brocca</i> (literally a jug, pitcher, or stupid person); <i lang="it">una brocchiera</i> (from Italian <i lang="it">brocchiere</i>, ‘a buckler’ or ‘shield’); <i lang="it">una baia</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, a mistress); <i lang="it">una farfoia</i> (also a nun, in which connection compare with English <span class="sc">abbess</span>); <i lang="it">una chierlera</i> (this term likewise is also used in the sense of a female devotee. Both the English
+and French slang have ‘nun’ as an equivalent for a prostitute); <i lang="it">una carniera</i> or <i lang="it">carnifica</i> (cant terms for a ‘sister,’ and ‘fox’ also); <i lang="it">una cara</i> <span class="pageNum" id="pb135">[<a href="#pb135">135</a>]</span>(literally ‘dear.’ <i>Cf.</i>, French <i lang="fr">belle petite</i>, ‘little darling.’)
+</p>
+<p>The Spanish Germania has <i lang="es">gaya</i> to signify a prostitute. This is an exact equivalent of the French <i lang="it">fille de joie</i> or ‘gay girl’; <i lang="es">gaya</i> in Spanish signifies ‘gay.’ Another name is found in <i lang="es">germana</i>, in explanation of which it may be briefly explained that the Spanish argot or Germania
+took its name from a band or brotherhood of thieves and robbers; and it would thus
+appear that <i lang="es">germana</i>, the name for a female member of the band was also used generically for a prostitute!
+<i lang="es">Marca</i>, or <i lang="es">marquida</i> and <i lang="es">marquisa</i> are also all used in the sense of a public woman. It may be noted that in the Italian
+<i lang="es">marchesata</i> stands for a woman when under menstruation, the physiological fact itself being called
+<i lang="es">marchese</i>; <i lang="es">mercenario</i>, a street walker, also signifies a nun of the religious order of <i lang="es">La Merced</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barracking</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian).—Banter; chaff. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Barrikin</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrel-Boarder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A loafer in low drinking-saloons.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrel-Campaign</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Political contests in which bribery and corruption go hand-in-hand with
+canvassing and voting. A wealthy candidate for office is said to have originated the
+phrase by remarking, ‘Let the boys know that there’s a <span class="sc">bar’l</span> o’ money ready for ’em,’ or words to that effect. The use of the term in this sense
+became general about 1876.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boodle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Boston</i> (Mass.) <i>Journal</i>, 1 Nov., 1. We are accustomed to <span class="sc">barrel-campaigns</span> here. Nobody supposes this district to be Democratic, but the Democrats depend upon
+carrying it with money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Florida Times Union</i>, Feb. 11, p. 4. It will be remembered that Mr. Flower was the nominal candidate of
+the anti-Cleveland men four years ago, and with the aid of his <span class="sc">barrel</span> they really did achieve some show of success.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrel-Fever</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—An indisposition caused by excessive drinking. ‘He died of <span class="sc">barrel-fever</span>’; <i>i.e.</i>, ‘he killed himself through drink.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Gallon distemper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrel-House</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A low groggery.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Missouri Republican</i>, Feb. 11. The West-Side police are still arresting <span class="sc">barrel-house</span> loafers in the hope of catching an expert cracksman among them.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrell’s Blues</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (military).—A nickname given to the Fourth Foot. [From its facings and Colonel’s
+name from 1734 to 1739.] They are also called ‘the Lions,’ from the ancient badge
+of the regiment.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barres</b>, <i>subs.</i> (gaming).—Money lost at play, but not paid. The term is an old one, and has long
+been obsolete. A corrupt form of ‘barrace,’ an obsolete plural of ‘bar.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrikin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Gibberish; jargon; a jumble of words. For usage, <i>see</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 15. ‘The high words in a tragedy we call jaw-breakers, and say we can’t
+tumble to that <span class="sc">barrikin</span>.’ <i>Ibid</i>, p. 25. Can’t tumble to your <span class="sc">barrikin</span> [<i>i.e.</i>, can’t understand you]. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 27. The rich has all that <span class="sc">barrikin</span> to themselves.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barring.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">To bar</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb136">[<a href="#pb136">136</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barring Out</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—Exclusion from a place by means of locks and bars. More particularly applied
+to a half serious but oftentimes jocular rebellion of schoolboys against the schoolmaster.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1728. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Journal of a Modern Lady</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Not schoolboys at a <span class="sc">barring-out</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Raised ever such incessant rout. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1847. <span class="sc">Tennyson</span>, <i>Princess</i>, conclusion.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Revolts, republics, revolutions, most, </p>
+<p class="line">No graver than a schoolboys’ <span class="sc">barring-out</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Barrow-Bunter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A barrow-woman; a female costermonger.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1771. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Humphry Clinker</i>, i., 140. I saw a dirty <span class="sc">barrow-bunter</span> in the street cleaning her dusty fruit with her own spittle.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrow-Man</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A man who hawks his wares on a barrow; a costermonger. The term dates back
+to the middle of the seventeenth century. <i lang="fr">Un marottier</i> is the French equivalent for one species of the fraternity, better known in England
+as a <span class="sc">dudsman</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>2. Also formerly a man under sentence of transportation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barrow-Tram</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—An ungainly person; one awkward in gait, and coarse and rawboned in feature.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A half volley. From the Warden of that name famous for disposing
+of them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 133. What a noble game cricket must be when one loved it so much, notwithstanding
+the previous training! What genuine excitement when College and Commoners was played;
+what frantic shouting when Rapid got well hold of a ‘<span class="sc">barter</span>’ … and sent the ball from ‘Spanish Poplar,’ right over Mead’s wall by ‘Log pond.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">Adams</span>, <i>Wykehamica</i>, p. 327. Barter was the most popular boy of his day with his schoolfellows. Wonderful
+things are told of his scores at cricket at which he is supposed to have been the
+hardest hitter of his own times, or of any near him.… He was so renowned for the tremendous
+force with which he was wont to swipe the ball, commonly known to cricketers as a
+‘half-volley,’ that it actually changed its name in the Wykehamical vocabulary, and
+for fully half a century afterwards—and, for all I know, to the present day—bore the
+name of a <span class="sc">Barter</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To hit a ball hard at cricket.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Hitting barters.</span>—Practice catching; full pitches hit from the middle of ‘Turf’ towards Ball-Court
+for catching practice towards the end of ‘Long Meads.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bartholomew Baby</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A gaudily dressed doll, such as appears to have been commonly sold at Bartholomew
+Fair.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bartholomew-pig</span>. Also applied to a person gaudily dressed.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1682. <i>Wit and Drollery</i>, p. 343.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Her petticoat of sattin, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Her gown of crimson tabby, </p>
+<p class="line">Lac’d up before, and spangl’d ore, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Just like a <span class="sc">Bartholomew baby</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bartholomew-Pig</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Roasted pigs, says Nares, were formerly among the chief attractions of Bartholomew
+Fair, West Smithfield, London: they were sold piping hot, in booths and on stalls,
+and ostentatiously displayed, to excite the appetite of passengers. Hence a <span class="sc">Bartholomew-pig</span> became a common subject of allusion: the Puritan railed against it.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb137">[<a href="#pb137">137</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1614. <span class="sc">B. Jons.</span>, <i>Bart. Fair</i>, i., 6. For the very calling it a <span class="sc">Bartholomew-pig</span>, and to eat it so, is a spice of idolatry.
+</p>
+<p>Falstaff, in coaxing ridicule of his enormous figure, is playfully called by his favourite,
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>2 Hen. IV.</i>, ii., 4. Thou whoreson little tidy <span class="sc">Bartholomew</span>-boar-<span class="sc">pig</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Dr. Johnson thought that paste-pigs were there meant: but the true <span class="sc">Bartholomew-pigs</span> were substantial, real, hot, roasted pigs; as may be seen throughout the above play
+of old Ben, where Ursula, the pig-woman, is no inconsiderable personage. Gayton also
+speaks of the pig-dressers.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">Like <span class="sc">Bartholomew</span> Fair <span class="sc">pig</span>-dressers, who look like the dams, as well as the cooks of what they roasted.
+</p>
+<p class="right"><i>Fest. N.</i>, p. 57.
+</p>
+<p>The young wife in Jonson’s play pretends a violent longing for pig, that she may be
+taken to the fair; and it seems that her case was far from uncommon. Davenant speaks
+of the <span class="sc">Bartlemew-pig</span>,
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">That gaping lies on every stall, </p>
+<p class="line">Till female with great belly call. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">The fair in its later days got to be a place of too much mobbing and riot for ladies
+in that condition. There <i>might</i> also be paste-pigs, but, if so, they were very inferior objects, and meant only for
+children. Mrs. Ursula also tells us the price of her pigs; namely, five shillings,
+five shillings and sixpence, or even six shillings! This was surely as dear in James
+I.’s time, as a guinea lately. The highest price, of course, was to be asked of a
+longing woman. The fair was abolished in 1854, having been inaugurated in 1133.—<i>Nares.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Barts.</b>, <i>subs.</i> (medical students’).—An abbreviation of ‘St. Bartholomew Hospital.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bash</b>, <i>verb</i> (popular).—To beat; thrash; or crush out of shape. Possibly from the Scandinavian
+<i>bask</i>, a slap; ‘box’ also seems to have the same derivation. Chiefly appearing in the northern
+dialects, <span class="sc">bash</span> is regarded nowadays in the light of a vulgar colloquialism. Thieves use it synonymously
+with ‘to flog.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bashing</span>. In older writers the word appears as <span class="sc">pash</span>, the ‘p’ in this case being simply a harder form than ‘b.’ An alternative onomatopoetic
+derivation has, however, been suggested, the ‘b’ of such words as ‘beat’ and ‘bang’
+being transferred to the terminal letters of ‘dash,’ ‘gash,’ ‘smash,’ etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Strange Newes</i>, in wks. II., 272. A leane arme put out of the bed shall grind and <span class="sc">pash</span> euerie crum of thy booke into pin-dust.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1622. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>Virgin Martyr</i>, II., ii. Jove’s artillery shot down at once, to <span class="sc">pash</span> your gods in pieces.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Dec. 9, p. 2, col. 6. A man … told witness that he would earn a sovereign if he
+cared to give a certain woman—the complainant—a couple of black eyes.… His instructions
+were to follow the man he met in the public-house in Bear Street, and to <span class="sc">bash</span> the woman he would point out to him in Portland Street.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">F. Anstey</span>, <i>Vice Versâ</i>, ch. xii. ‘If you have got <span class="sc">bashed</span> about pretty well since you came back, it’s been all your own fault, and you know
+it.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Standard</i>, March 2, p. 6, col. 7. Mr. Hannay reminded her that when the summons was applied
+for, the boy’s father had said that the boy was <span class="sc">bashed</span> on the floor, and received a black eye and a bruised head.
+</p>
+<p>Amongst synonyms may be mentioned the English verb ‘bang,’ and the French <i lang="fr">bêcher</i>, <span class="pageNum" id="pb138">[<a href="#pb138">138</a>]</span>which signifies properly to dig or break up ground.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Tan</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Basher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—A prize-fighter. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bruiser</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Dec. 16, p. 2, col. 6. According to the statement of the prosecuting solicitor,
+this was the man who undertook to point out to Leech, the professed <span class="sc">basher</span>, the woman whom he was to assault in Portland Street.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bashi-Bazouk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A ruffian; and used loosely as a more or less mild term of opprobrium;
+also applied to anything <i>bizarre</i> in character or composition. The expression came into vogue during the period when
+the Bulgarian atrocities were electrifying the world by their barbarous cruelty. The
+Bashi-bazouks are properly irregular Turkish soldiery. They are collected hastily
+in times of emergency; and are, consequently, somewhat impatient of discipline, assuming
+that such a commodity in its Western sense is known at all to the Tartar-descended
+Turk—‘the unspeakable Turk’ as he was fitly called during the period above alluded
+to. So infamous have these levies become at times, that more than once they have been
+disbanded in deference to pressure brought to bear upon the Turkish authorities by
+the Western powers.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bashing</b>, <i>subs.</i> (prison).—A flogging; a taste of the cat-o’-nine-tails. Prisoners condemned to this
+punishment at the commencement of their term are said by their companions to receive
+a <span class="sc">bashing in</span>; if they also undergo a flogging just previous to their release, it is called a <span class="sc">bashing out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iii., p. 157. There were the evidences of former floggings, or <span class="sc">bashings</span>, as the prisoners call them.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Basils</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—Fetters on one leg only.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Basin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A <span class="sc">schooner</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Basing.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">That’s basing</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Basketed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—From this cockpit expression used of persons unable or unwilling to pay their
+losses, and who in consequence were relegated for the rest of the day to a basket
+hung over the cockpit, is derived the figurative usage in the sense of ‘to be left
+out in the cold’; not understood; non-plussed; ‘floored.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1788, <i>d.</i> 1841. <span class="sc">Hook</span>, <i>Gerv. Skinner</i>, ch. iii. Skinner was quite enchanted with the brilliancy of his guests, although
+now and then a little puzzled at their allusions; there jokes were chiefly local or
+professional, and very frequently my excellent friend Gervase was, to use a modern
+phrase of general acceptation, <span class="sc">basketed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1818. <span class="sc">P. Egan</span>, <i>Boxiana</i>, vol. I., p. 79. The fight was soon over after this circumstance, and the <i>sweaters</i> and <i>trainers</i> were completely in the <span class="sc">basket</span>!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">E. Yates</span>, <i>Land at Last</i>.… And find you in his den, lighting it up like—like—like—I’m regularly <span class="sc">basketed</span>, by jove!
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be brought</span> or <span class="sc">to go to the basket</span>, <i>phr.</i> (familiar).—To be imprisoned; to be reduced to poverty. A basket is here the symbol
+of daily provision, or alms. Formerly prisoners were dependent on charity for daily
+sustenance, and it was customary for them to let down <span class="pageNum" id="pb139">[<a href="#pb139">139</a>]</span>a basket by a string through the gaol windows, soliciting the alms of passers-by.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Angling for farthings</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1632. <span class="sc">Massinger and Field</span>, <i>Fatal Dowry</i>, v., 1. <i>Pontalier</i> [to Liladam, who is in custody for debt].
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Arrested! this is one of those whose base </p>
+<p class="line">And abject flattery help’d to dig his grave; </p>
+<p class="line">He is not worth your pity, nor my anger; </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Go to the basket</span>, and repent. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1700. <i>Gentleman Instructed</i> [1732], p. 6. God be praised! I am not <span class="sc">brought to the basket</span>, though I had rather live on charity than rapine. [<span class="sc">d.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be left in the basket</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To be rejected; abandoned; unchosen. <i>Cf.</i>, second quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>House Warning</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Whatever he wants, he has only to ask it, </p>
+<p class="line">And all other suitors are <span class="sc">left in the basket</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1874. <i>Bell’s Life</i>, 26 Dec. The pick of the <span class="sc">basket</span>, a compact young greyhound.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Basket-Making</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—When <i>enceinte</i> a woman was formerly said ‘to have a kid in the <span class="sc">basket</span>.’ [<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bay-window</span>.] Hence <span class="sc">basket-making</span> to signify the act of copulation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bass</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A familiar abbreviation for Bass’ ale, brewed at Burton-on-Trent.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Adventures of Verdant Green</i>, p. 23. The young gentleman exhibited great capacity for the beer of <span class="sc">Bass</span>, and the porter of Guiness.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">Oudia</span>, <i>Held in Bondage</i>, I., p. 65. Those idle lads in the Temple, who smoke cavendish and drink <span class="sc">Bass</span>. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 126. Discussing <span class="sc">Bass</span> and a cold luncheon.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Only a Clod</i>, I., p. 138. A lot of fellows drinking no end of <span class="sc">Bass</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">Annie Thomas</span>, <i>A Passion in Tatters</i>, I., p. 110. <span class="sc">Bass</span> that was not worthy of its name.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baste</b>, <i>verb</i> (colloquial).—To thrash; to beat soundly. This verb is given a place here for the
+purpose of comparison, as it is somewhat uncertain whether it can with propriety be
+classed as slang. Of uncertain origin, but dating from the sixteenth century; <span class="sc">to baste</span>, properly ‘to sew together loosely,’ or ‘to apply fat or gravy to a joint,’ is, in
+its figurative usage, of more than passing interest when compared with <span class="sc">anoint</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and other words employed in the same figurative sense. It is curious indeed to
+note the many synonymous analogues for a good beating or thrashing, all of which pertain
+more or less to slang. R.&nbsp;W. Hackwood [<i>N. and Q.</i>, 7 S., vii., 153] mentions several, amongst others <span class="sc">colting</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), used by Marryat in <i>Midshipman Easy</i>. As bearing upon the general idea involved in this class of words, the quotation
+may be placed side by side with another from the <i>King’s Own</i> by the same writer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>King’s Own</i>, ch. vii. ‘He always carried in his pocket a <span class="sc">colt</span> (<i>i.e.</i>, a foot and a half of rope, knotted at one end and whipped at the other), for the
+benefit of the youngsters, to whom he was a most inordinate tyrant.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Midshipman Easy</i>, ch. xii. ‘Then he <span class="sc">colted</span> me for half-an-hour, and that’s all.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Colting</span> like <span class="sc">basting</span> is of uncertain derivation. Comparing it, however, with analogous words, may we not
+take it, continues the writer referred to, as very closely associated <span class="pageNum" id="pb140">[<a href="#pb140">140</a>]</span>with, if not actually belonging to, the series of synonyms for the operations which
+derive their origin from the shoemakers, curriers, and allied trades, as we find it
+in ‘a leathering,’ ‘a strapping,’ ‘a tanning,’ ‘a welting,’ etc<span class="corr" id="xd33e21995" title="Source: ?">.</span> Indeed, it is worth noting in this connection, from the number of epithets applied
+to the operation, what a deal of chastising has apparently been required in most trades
+and occupations, for nearly all—except, perhaps, the carpenter’s, where sticks are
+plentiful—appear to be represented, and even in the domestic circle one can have a
+choice of ‘a towelling,’ ‘a basting,’ ‘a clouting,’ ‘a rubbing down,’ ‘a dressing,’
+‘a trimming,’ or ‘a wiping’ when occasion requires.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1533. <span class="sc">Bellenden</span>, <i>Livy</i>, III. (1822), 223. He departit weil <span class="sc">basit</span> and defuleyeit of his clothing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>George-a-Greene</i>, in wks. (Grosart) XIV., 174. Ile <span class="sc">baste</span> you both so well, you were neuer better <span class="sc">basted</span> in your liues.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1605. <i>Tryall of Chevalry</i>, III., i., in Bullen’s <i>Old Plays</i>, iii., 305. But, had I knowne as much, I would have <span class="sc">basted</span> him till his bones had rattled in his skin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Beaumont</span>, <i>Knight of Burning Pestle</i>, II., iv.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Look on my shoulders, they are black and blue; </p>
+<p class="line">Whilst to and fro fair Luce and I were winding, </p>
+<p class="line">He came and <span class="sc">basted</span> me with a hedge-binding. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1660. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, July 22. One man was <span class="sc">basted</span> by the keeper, for carrying some people over on his back, through the water.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i>, 2 ed. <span class="sc">To baste</span> or <span class="sc">bast</span> … to beat, or bang soundly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">Mrs. H. Wood</span>, <i>Johnny Ludlow</i>, 1 S., xix., p. 328. ‘Hold your row, Davvy,’ he roared out, wrathfully: ‘you’d not
+like me to come back and give you a <span class="sc">basting</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>Among some <span class="sc">English Synonyms</span> may also be mentioned:—to give a hiding; to give a walloping; to dust one’s jacket;
+to quilt; to tan; to set about; to walk into; to manhandle; to give one Jesse; to
+give one gas; to dowse; to pay.
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tan</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A New York cant term for a house thief.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bastile</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—A workhouse. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Big house</span>. Probably from the Bastile, a famous prison; lock-ups for a long time being generically
+named Bastiles. Now corrupted into <span class="sc">steel</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Cuthbert Bede</span>, in <i>Graphic</i>, June 2, p. 558, col. 2. Mister Corbyn had always called the workhouse by the opprobrious
+epithet of <span class="sc">the basteel</span>.
+</p>
+<p>(Thieves’.)—A prison.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cage</span>. <span class="sc">Bastile</span> in this sense is mentioned by Captain Grose [1785].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—1. A prostitute who plies her trade by night; an allusion to the nocturnal
+habits of the flying mammal—indeed, another old term for a woman of the town was literally
+a <span class="sc">fly-by-night</span>. The equivalent French term, <i lang="fr">hirondelle de nuit</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘a night swallow,’ is more poetic. For full lists of synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American.)—A spree; frolic; and sometimes a drunken bout. A contracted form of
+‘batter.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Bird o’ Freedom</i>, Aug. 7, p. 1. <i>Mr. Pote</i>: ‘I see in the evening paper <span class="pageNum" id="pb141">[<a href="#pb141">141</a>]</span>that a woman has been bitten by a bat, and afterwards died of lockjaw.’ <i>Mrs. P.</i> (tartily): ‘If she had been bitten by the kind of <span class="sc">bat</span> you went on when I was away last Saturday week, she would probably have died of <i lang="la">delirium tremens</i>.’
+</p>
+<p>3. (athletic.)—Pace; speed (in walking, rowing, etc.). Partly also dialectical, especially
+Scotch, Craven, and Lincolnshire.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Daily News</i>, 18 August, p. 6, col. 3. Here they come, a mixed flock of birds full <span class="sc">bat</span> overhead.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bat one’s eyes</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—1. A South-western term which is explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <i>Overland Monthly</i>, p. 79. The ox whip has both parts as long as they can be managed. I have seen a
+poor fellow from Ohio, totally unused to this enormous affair, swing it round his
+head in many an awkward twist, while the Texans stood by and laughed to see him knock
+off his hat and <span class="sc">bat his eyes</span> at every twitch, to avoid cutting them out.
+</p>
+<p><i>Cf.</i>, Italian <i lang="it">batter d’occhio</i>, twinkling of an eye.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American gaming.)—To look on but not to play. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bet</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Off</span> or on <span class="sc">one’s own bat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—On one’s own account; by one’s own exertions. A figurative usage of a
+cricketing term; ‘<span class="sc">off one’s own bat</span>,’ is said of a score made by a player individually.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">Sydney Smith</span>, <i>Fragm. Irish Ch.</i>, wks. II., 340, 1. He had no revenues but what he got <span class="sc">off his own bat</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Lord Lonsdale</span>, in <i>Croker Papers</i> (1884), vol. III., p. 325. Derby … would not make a Ministry <span class="sc">from</span> his own friends or <span class="sc">his own bat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>Social Sinners</i>, ch. xxiii. ‘You have a weakness for the great world? Good. Score <span class="sc">off your own bat</span>, and it is the great world comes to you.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Sat. Review</i>, March 8, p. 308, col. 2. He has in the most workmanlike manner, and <span class="sc">off his own bat</span>, lost for the Government an important seat by a crushing majority.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To carry out one’s bat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—This also is derived from a cricketing expression. In the game it means
+to be not out, <i>i.e.</i>, the last man in. Figuratively, therefore, <span class="sc">to carry out one’s bat</span> is to persevere and carry through an undertaking; to outlast all other opponents;
+and thus to secure the result aimed at.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">M. Collins</span>, <i>Frances</i>, ch. xxviii. The General defended his stumps as he would have defended a fortress,
+and <span class="sc">carried his bat out</span> with a score of a hundred and seven.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Batchelor’s Son</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A bastard.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bates’ Farm</b> or <b>Garden</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Coldbath Fields prison. [From a warder of that name + a certain appropriateness
+in the initials, C.B.F., the prison initials, and used as a stamp = <span class="sc">Charley Bates’ Farm</span>.] When, formerly, the convicts were put to the treadmill in this prison, they were
+said to be ‘feeding the chickens on <span class="sc">Charley Bates’ Farm</span>.’ Newgate was also called <span class="sc">Akerman’s Hotel</span>, from a former governor, and a similar reason has caused the Melbourne gaol to be
+nicknamed Castilan’s Hotel by Australian thieves.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">[<i>Circa</i> 1850, but date uncertain.]
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<h4><span class="sc">Bates’ Farm.</span></h4>
+<div class="lg cit">
+<p class="line">Good evening pals, how do you do, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I thought I’d give a call, </p>
+<p class="line">And introduce myself to you, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">For I’m glad to see you all. </p>
+<p class="line">I’m up to every little <i>fake</i>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">But in me there’s no harm, </p>
+<p class="line">For it was this <i>blooming</i> morning </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">That I left <span class="sc">Old Bates’ Farm</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb142">[<a href="#pb142">142</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<p class="first xd33e22336"><span class="asc">CHORUS.</span>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Then, here’s success my knowing <i>kids</i>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I’m filled with ev’ry charm, </p>
+<p class="line">I feel so gay this blessed day, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I’ve left <span class="sc">Old Bates’ Farm</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Now, every morning when you rise, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">You get a starving meal, </p>
+<p class="line">And if you don’t eat all they send </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">You have to work the wheel. </p>
+<p class="line">Then so merrily we go, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">To chapel to have prayers, </p>
+<p class="line">And for a little pastime work </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">The <i>everlasting stairs</i>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first xd33e22368">Chorus.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The last time that I went to see </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810"><span class="sc">Old Bates</span>, he shook my hand, </p>
+<p class="line">And said, ‘I’m glad to see you, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">You’re a chap I understand.’ </p>
+<p class="line">He said, ‘You’re here for nothing now?’ </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I said ‘Yes,’ like the rest, </p>
+<p class="line">It was only for knocking a <i>bobby</i> down, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And jumping on his chest. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first xd33e22368">Chorus.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">So now I’ve got my liberty, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And once again I’m free, </p>
+<p class="line">I mean to ‘<i>crack a crib</i>’ to-night. </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">But pals don’t ‘crack on me.’ </p>
+<p class="line">So if I should touch lucre, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">For a time I will keep calm, </p>
+<p class="line">If I don’t see you here some night, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I shall at <span class="sc">Bates’ Farm</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first xd33e22368">Chorus.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bath.</b> <span class="sc">Go to Bath!</span> <i>phr.</i> (familiar).—This popular saying appears to have two distinct readings, both of which,
+however, are traceable to the same source.
+</p>
+<p>1. <span class="sc">Go to Bath!</span> <i>i.e.</i>, an injunction to desist; to be gone; get out of my sight, or hearing, for you are
+mad or cracked—a forcible expression of incredulity, sometimes intensified by ‘<span class="sc">and get your head shaved</span>.’ The saying is applied to those who either relate crack-brained stories, or propose
+undertakings that raise a doubt as to sanity. The allusion is to the fact that, in
+former days, persons who showed symptoms of insanity were sent to <span class="sc">Bath</span> to drink the medicinal waters; the process of shaving the head being previously resorted
+to.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Grey Dolphin</i>). ‘<span class="sc">Go to Bath!</span>’ said the baron. A defiance so contemptuous roused the ire of the adverse commanders.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper</i>, Oct. 16, p. 362. You tell a disagreeable neighbour to <span class="sc">go to Bath</span> in the sense in which a Roman would have said <i lang="la">abi in malam rem</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. Hence, to become a beggar. Bath, especially in the latter part of the last century,
+and at the beginning of the present one, enjoyed a reputation for its fashion and
+baths: it was also, naturally enough, for this very reason, the resort of countless
+numbers of beggars. To <span class="sc">go to Bath</span> signified, therefore, amongst vagrants, to proceed to what was in reality one of
+the first centres of beggardom; presumably to solicit alms. Hence also an additional
+clue to the process of transition into sense 1. What more natural than to bid an importunate
+applicant to betake himself to Bath to join his fellows? Fuller in his <i>Worthies</i> has a passage which throws some additional light upon the question.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1662. <span class="sc">Fuller</span>, <i>History of the Worthies of England. Beggars of Bath.</i>—Many in that place; some natives there, others repairing thither from all parts of
+the land; the poor for alms, the pained for ease. Whither should flock fowl in a hard
+frost, but to the barn-door? Here, all the two seasons, being the general confluence
+of gentry. Indeed laws are daily made to restrain beggars, and daily broken by the
+connivance of those who make them; it being impossible when the hungry belly barks,
+and bowels sound, to keep the tongue silent. And although oil of whip be the proper
+plaister for the cramp of laziness, yet some pity is due to impotent persons. In a
+word, seeing there is the Lazar’s bath in this city, I doubt not but many a good Lazarus,
+the true object of charity, may beg therein.
+</p>
+<p>Long previous to 1662, however, <span class="pageNum" id="pb143">[<a href="#pb143">143</a>]</span>stringent vagrant laws were in force.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1588. <span class="sc">William Lambard</span>, <i>The Office of the Justices of the Peace</i>, p. 334. Such two Justices may … <i>License</i> diseased persons (living of almes) to trauell to <i>Bathe</i>, or to <i>Buckstone</i> [Buxton], for remedie of their griefe.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bathing Machines</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A name given to the old 10 ton brigs.—<span class="sc">Russell’s</span> <i>Sailor’s Language</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bat-Mugger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A wooden instrument used for rubbing oil into cricket bats.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bats</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A pair of bad or old boots. Elworthy in <i>West Somerset Words</i> gives this as a heavy laced boot with hobnails.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bats Down?</b> (Winchester and general).—‘<span class="sc">How many bats down?</span>’ <i>i.e.</i>, how many wickets have fallen?
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Battels</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—The weekly bills of students at Oxford. The derivation of the term
+has been the subject of much discussion, and is very uncertain. Murray says much depends
+on the original sense at Oxford: if this was ‘food, provisions,’ it is natural to
+connect it with ‘battle,’ to feed, or receive nourishment.—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886–7. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Dictionary of Oxford and Cambridge</i>, p. 16. <span class="sc">Battels</span> is properly a designation of the food obtained from the College Buttery. An account
+of this, and of the account due to the Kitchen, is sent in to every undergraduate
+weekly, hence these bills also are known as <span class="sc">battels</span>, and the name, further, is extended to the total amount of the term’s expenses furnished
+by the College. In some Colleges it is made essential to the keeping of an undergraduates’
+term that he should <span class="sc">battel</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, obtain food in College on a certain number of days each week.
+</p>
+<p>To quote Dr. Murray again, however, it appears that the word has apparently undergone
+progressive extensions of application, owing partly to changes in the internal economy
+of the colleges. Some Oxford men of a previous generation state that it was understood
+by them to apply to the buttery accounts alone, or even to the provisions ordered
+from the buttery, as distinct from the ‘commons’ supplied from the kitchen: but this
+latter use is disavowed by others … but whether the <span class="sc">battels</span> were originally the provisions themselves, or the sums due on account of them, must
+at present be left undecided.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Cuthbert Bede</span>, <i>Verdant Green</i>, pt. II., ch. vii. The Michaelmas term was drawing to its close. Buttery and kitchen
+books were adding up their sums total; bursars were preparing for <span class="sc">battels</span>.
+</p>
+<p>(Eton.)—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1798. <span class="sc">H. Tooke</span>, <i>Purley</i>, 390. <span class="sc">Battel</span>, a term used at Eton for the small portion of food which, in addition to the College
+allowance, the collegers receive from their dames.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Batter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Wear and tear; <i>e<span>.</span>g.</i>, ‘the <span class="sc">batter</span> is more than any human being can stand for long.<span>’</span> [From one of the ordinary meanings of <span class="sc">to batter</span>, to wear or impair by beating or long service, as a <span class="sc">battered</span> jade.]
+</p>
+<p><i>Ppl. adj.</i>—Given up to debauchery; this sense follows upon
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To go on the batter</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, to walk the streets for purposes of prostitution; but <i>cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bat</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb144">[<a href="#pb144">144</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Battle of the Nile</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (rhyming slang).—A ‘tile’ = a hat. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cady</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Battle Royal</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—A vehement quarrel.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698. <span class="sc">Howard</span>, <i>All Mistaken</i>, Act i.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>1st Nurse.</i> Your husband is the noted’st cuckold in all our street.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>2nd Nurse.</i> You lie, you jade; yours is a greater.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Phil.</i> Hist—now for a <span class="sc">battle-royal</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Shabby Genteel Story</i>, ch. vi. A <span class="sc">battle-royal</span> speedily took place between the two worthy mothers-in-law.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Sketches from Cambridge</i>, p. 137. Our brethren there [in Oxford] seem to be always indulging in <span class="sc">battles-royal</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Battlings</b>, <i>subs.</i> (public schools’).—A weekly allowance of money. At Winchester it is 1s., while at
+Repton it is only 6d.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Household Words</i>, p. 188. The business of the latter was to call us of a morning to distribute amongst
+us our <span class="sc">battlings</span>, or pocket-money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 184. The expense was defrayed by the boys subscribing the last three <span class="sc">battlings</span> (<i>i.e.</i>, the weekly shilling allowed each boy). This was rather an illusory coin, for we
+seldom actually fingered it, as some one of the College servants generally had a kind
+of prescriptive right to a benefit; and whenever Saturday arrived, Præfect of Hall’s
+valet was sure to come round to ask the boys if they would give their <span class="sc">battling</span> to Rat Williams, or Dungy, or Purver, or Long John, or some other equally deserving
+individual.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Trollope</span>, <i>Autobiogr.</i> (1883), I., 13. Every boy had a shilling a week pocket-money, which we called <span class="sc">battels</span>. [This is probably a misprint—the Winchester term, as that used at other schools,
+is <span class="sc">battling</span>. It was advanced out of the pocket of the second master.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Battner</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An ox; beef being apt to batten or fatten those that eat it. ‘The cove has
+hushed the <span class="sc">battner</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, has killed the ox.—<i>Grose</i> [1785].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Batty</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—Wages; perquisites. Derived from <span class="sc">batta</span>, an extra pay given to soldiers while serving in India.—<i>Hotten.</i> Col. Yule says in Indian banking, agio or difference in exchange; discount on coins
+not current; or of short weight.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <span class="sc">T. Hook</span>, <i>Sayings and Doings</i>, 1 S., <i>Merton</i>, ch. viii. Whether he could draw full <span class="sc">batta</span> in peace-time.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, 5 S., ‘Batta.’ <span class="sc">Batta</span> or <span class="sc">Batty</span> (Hindustanee). Perquisites; wages. Properly, an allowance to East Indian troops in
+the field.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baulk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A false report (especially that a master is at hand), which
+is <span class="sc">sported</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), not spread.
+</p>
+<p>(Popular.)—A false shot; a mistake.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Baum</b>, <i>verb</i> (American Univ.).—To fawn; to flatter; to curry favour.—<span class="sc">Hall’s</span> <i>College Words and Phrases</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bawbels</b> or <b>Bawbles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A man’s testicles. Originally, a provincialism. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cods</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bawcock</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A burlesque term of endearment. [From either French <i lang="fr">beau</i>, fine, + French <i lang="fr">coq</i>, cock = a fine or good ‘feller’; or from English <span class="sc">boy</span> + <span class="sc">cock</span> = a young dandy or strut.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Henry V.</i>, iii., 2, 25. <i>Pist.</i> Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould!… Good <span class="sc">bawcock</span> ’bate thy rage!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Constable of the Tower</i>, p. 131. One of the gamesome little <span class="sc">bawcock’s</span> jests.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb145">[<a href="#pb145">145</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bawd</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A female procuress. A <span class="sc">carted bawd</span> meant one who had been placed in a cart and led through the town to make her person
+known to the inhabitants. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Abbess</span>. <i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Cart</span> and <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span> for synonyms<span>.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bawde Phisicke.</b>—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1560–1. <span class="sc">Awdeley</span>, <i>The XXV. orders of Knaues</i>, (ed. 1869), p. 14. <span class="sc">Bawde Phisicke</span>, is he that is a Cocke, when his Maysters meate is euyll dressed, and he challenging
+him therefore, he wyl say he wyll eate the rawest morsel thereof him selfe. This is
+a sausye knaue, that wyl contrary his Mayster alway.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bawdy Banquet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Whoremongering. [From <span class="sc">bawdy</span>, lewd, + <span class="sc">banquet</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1869), p. 63. ‘Where haue I bene?’ quoth he, and began to smyle. ‘Now, by the mas,
+thou hast bene at some <span class="sc">baudy banquet</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bawdy Banquet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A running after loose women; molrowing.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bawdy Basket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—1. The twenty-third rank of canters (<i>see</i> Harman), who carried pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to sell, but lived mostly
+by stealing,
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (ed. 1869), p. 65. These <span class="sc">bawdy baskets</span> be also wemen, and go with baskets and Capeases on their armes, where in they haue
+laces, pynnes, nedles, white ynkell, and round sylke gyrdles of al coulours. These
+wyl bye co<i>n</i>neyski<i>ns and</i> steale line<i>n</i> clothes of on hedges. And for their trifles they will procure of mayden seruaunts,
+whe<i>n</i> [leaf 20, back] their mystres or dame is oute of the waye, either some good peece
+of béefe, baken, or chéese, that shalbe worth xij pens, for ii pens of their toyes.
+And as they walke by the waye, they often gaine some money wyth their instrument,
+by such as they sodaynely mete withall. The vpright men haue good acquayntance with
+these, and will helpe and relieue them when they want. Thus they trade their lyues
+in lewed lothsome lechery. Amongest them all is but one honest woman, and she is of
+good yeares; her name is Ione Messenger. I haue had good proofe of her, as I haue
+learned by the true report of diuers.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. v., p. 39 (1874). [In list of orders of thieves], <span class="sc">bawdy-baskets</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A prostitute; an alternative and earlier form of <span class="sc">bawd</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1589. <span class="sc">Puttenham</span>, <i>Art of Eng. Poesie</i>, bk. III., ch. xix.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Many a faire lasse in London towne, </p>
+<p class="line">Many a <span class="sc">bawdie basket</span> borne vp and downe: </p>
+<p class="line">Many a broker in a thridbare gowne, </p>
+<p class="line">Many a bankrowte scarce worth a crowne. In London. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman of London</i>, in wks. (Grosart) III., 86. The victualers to the campe are women, and to those
+some are <i>Glymerers</i>, some <span class="sc">bawdy-baskets</span>, some <i>Autem-Morts</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bawdy House Bottle</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A very small one, short measure, being among the many means used by the keepers
+of those houses, to gain what they call an honest livelihood; indeed, this is one
+of the least reprehensible, the less they give a man of their infernal beverages for
+his money, the kinder they behave to him.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bayard of Ten Toes.</b> <span class="sc">To ride Bayard of ten toes</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To go on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Marrow bone stage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1606. <span class="sc">Breton</span>, <i>Good and Badde</i>, p. 14. Breton says of the ‘honest poore man,’—his trauell is the walke of the woful,
+and his horse <span class="sc">Bayard of ten toes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1662. <span class="sc">Fuller</span>, <i>Worthies, Somerset</i> (ii., 291). At last he [Coryat] undertook to travail into the East Indies by land,
+mounted on <span class="sc">an horse with ten toes</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb146">[<a href="#pb146">146</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bay Window</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A slang phrase applied to women when pregnant, or men who have ‘corporations.’
+The allusion is obvious.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>B. C.</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A name jokingly applied to a person who brings a trumpery action for libel
+against another. Dr. Brewer in <i>Phrase and Fable</i> thus, in effect, explains the allusion:—A young woman complained to Mr. Ingham [the
+magistrate at Bow Street Police Court and now (1889) Sir James Ingham] of having been
+abused by a woman who called her a <span class="sc">b. c.</span> On being asked the meaning, the young woman said <span class="sc">c</span> meant ‘cat’ but the <span class="sc">B——</span>, well, it was too shocking to utter, and the magistrate allowed her to whisper the
+word in his ear. It was a well-known word of sanguinary sound; but, though <span class="sc">b.c.</span> was hardly a pretty epithet, yet his worship could hardly grant a summons for libel
+against the person of whom complaint was made for using it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beach-Cadger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A beggar whose ‘pitch’ is at watering-places, and sea-ports. [From <span class="sc">beach</span>, the sea-shore + <span class="sc">cadger</span>, a beggar.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beach-Comber</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—1. One who hangs about the sea-shore on the look-out for jobs. It was
+chiefly applied to runaway seamen, deserters from whalers, who lived along the beach
+in South America, the South Sea Islands, etc. It is a term of contempt.—<span class="sc">Clark Russell’s</span> <i>Sailors’ Language</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1847. <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>, LXI., 757. A daring Yankee <span class="sc">beech-comber</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Athenæum</i>, 18 Dec., p. 809, col. 2. The white scamps who, as <span class="sc">beech-combers</span>, have polluted these Edens and debauched their inhabitants.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <span class="sc">A. Lang</span>, in <i>Longm. Mag.</i>, VI., 417, <i>note</i>. <span class="sc">Beach-comber</span> is the local term for the European adventurers and long-shore loafers who infest
+the Pacific Archipelagoes. There is a well-known tale of an English castaway on one
+of the isles, who was worshipped as a deity by the ignorant people. At length he made
+his escape, by swimming, and was taken aboard a British vessel, whose captain accosted
+him roughly. The mariner turned aside and dashed away a tear: ‘I’ve been a god for
+months and you call me a (something alliterative) <span class="sc">beach-comber</span>!’ he exclaimed, and refused to be comforted.
+</p>
+<p>2. A river boatman.
+</p>
+<p>3<span>.</span> A thief who prowls about the sea-shore; a plunderer of wrecks; a picker-up of waifs
+and strays. This is derived from sense 4.
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—A long wave rolling in from the ocean. Hence applied to those whose
+occupation it is to pick up, as pirates or wreckers, whatever these waves wash in
+to them.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beach-Tramper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A coastguardsman. [From <span class="sc">beach</span>, the shore of the sea + <span class="sc">tramp</span>, to walk along + <span class="sc">er</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bead.</b> <span class="sc">To draw a bead [on one]</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To attack an opponent by speech or otherwise. The phrase has passed into
+colloquial use from backwoods parlance, where it signifies the process of taking aim
+and firing. The front sight of a gun is in appearance like a <span class="sc">bead</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <span class="sc">Catlin</span>, <i>North American Indians</i> (1844), I., x., 77. I made several attempts to get near enough <span class="sc">to draw a bead</span> upon one of them.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb147">[<a href="#pb147">147</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Society on the Stanislaus</i> (in <i>Poems and Prose</i>). It is not a proper plan, to lay for that same member for <span class="sc">to put a bead on him</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">188(?) <span class="sc">S. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i>, p. 48. I was pretty close to the Shanty, and I thought I heard the old man coming
+all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and looked around a bunch of willows,
+and there was the old man down the path apiece just <span class="sc">drawing a bead</span> on a bird with his gun.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Albany Journal</i>, Aug. 6. If Jake’s not careful I’ll <span class="sc">draw a bead on him</span>. Very little more will make me go for him tooth and nail.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To raise a bead.</span>—To bring to the point; to ensure success. The figure is taken from brandy, rum, or
+other liquors, which will not ‘raise a bead,’ unless of the proper strength.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <i>N.&nbsp;Y. Tribune</i>, <i>Letter from Ohio</i>. The result was, if the convention had been then held, the party wouldn’t have been
+able <span class="sc">to raise a bead</span>. [<span class="sc">b.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beagle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A spy; informer; man-hunter; policeman; also a general term of contempt. [From
+<span class="sc">beagle</span>, a small hound, which tracks by scent, formerly used for hunting.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <i>Myrr. Mag.</i>, <i>Jack Cade</i>, xix., 2. That restless <span class="sc">begle</span> sought and found me out. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1607. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Westward Hoe</i>, Act iii., Sc. 4. <i>Mon.</i> I beseech you, Mistress Tenterhook,—before God, I’ll be sick, if you will not be
+merry. <i>Mist. Ten.</i> You are a sweet <span class="sc">beagle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Beagle</span> (s.) … also a contemptuous name given to a boy or man, as to say, <i>you are a special</i> <span class="sc">beagle</span>, is the same as, you are good for nothing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Carlyle</span>, <i>French Revolution</i>, III., <span class="sc">vii.</span>, v., 377. Attorneys and Law-<span class="sc">beagles</span>, which hunt ravenous on this Earth.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beak</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—1. A policeman or guardian of the peace. As far as is known, this (as
+‘beck’) is the oldest cant term for a member of a class of men, who, perhaps, above
+all <span class="corr" id="xd33e23269" title="Source: o hers">others</span>, have been the recipients of nicknames and epithets, and these, be it noted, not
+always of a complimentary character. In Harman’s <i>Caveat</i> (1573), <i>harman</i> <span class="sc">beck</span> is explained as ‘the counstable,’ <i>harmans</i> being ‘the stockes.’ The derivation of <span class="sc">beck</span> or <span class="sc">beak</span> is doubtful. Especially vague seems that which finds its source in the Saxon <i>beag</i>, a gold collar worn by civic magistrates, and an emblem of authority. This genesis
+appears to be based on the later and secondary sense of <span class="sc">beak</span>, a magistrate, a meaning which it still retains. But, against this must be placed
+the fact that, as the name for a watchman or guardian of the peace, <span class="sc">beak</span> boasts a much older usage. Sir John Fielding, half brother of the author of <i>Tom Jones</i>, and an active Middlesex Justice in the last century, was popularly known as the
+‘Blind Beak’ [<i>c.</i> 1750]; but beyond this date no instance of this sense has been found. If, therefore,
+<span class="sc">beak</span> originally signified a policeman, it is difficult to discover any connection with
+the Saxon <i>beag</i>, inasmuch as watchmen are not known to have been decorated with gold collars. The
+following quotations will give other illustrations, and also show that, meaning a
+policeman, the term has not long been obsolete.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1609. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, a Gypsy song, in <i>Lanthorne and Candlelight, etc.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The Ruffin cly the nab of the <span class="sc">Harman beck</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">If we mawnd Pannam, lap or Ruff-peck, </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="pageNum" id="pb148">[<a href="#pb148">148</a>]</span> </p>
+<p class="line">Or poplars of yarum; he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans. </p>
+<p class="line">Or else he sweares by the lightmans, </p>
+<p class="line">To put our stamps in the Harmans. </p>
+<p class="line">The Ruffian cly the ghost of the <span class="sc">Harman beck</span>. </p>
+<p class="line">If we heaue a booth we cly the Jerke. </p>
+<p class="line">If we niggle or mill a bousing ken. </p>
+<p class="line">Or nip a bung that has but a win, </p>
+<p class="line">Or dup the giger of a gentry cofes ken: </p>
+<p class="line">To the quier cuffing we bing, </p>
+<p class="line">And then to the quier-Ken to scowre the Cramp-ring, </p>
+<p class="line">And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the lightmans, </p>
+<p class="line">The Bube and Ruffian cly the <span class="sc">Harman beck</span> and Harmans. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">[This is thus ‘Englished’ by <span class="sc">Dekker</span>].
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The Diuell take the Constable’s head, </p>
+<p class="line">If we beg Bacon, Butter-milke or bread. </p>
+<p class="line">Or Pottage, to the hedge he bids us hie, </p>
+<p class="line">Or sweares (by this light) i’th’ stocks we shall lie. </p>
+<p class="line">The Deuill haunt the Constable’s ghoast, </p>
+<p class="line">If we rob but a booth, we are whip’d at a poast. </p>
+<p class="line">If an ale-house we rob or be tane with a whore, </p>
+<p class="line">Or cut a purse that has iust a penny, and no more, </p>
+<p class="line">Or come but stealing in at a gentleman’s dore: </p>
+<p class="line">To the Justice straight we goe, </p>
+<p class="line">And then to the Jayle to be shakled: And so </p>
+<p class="line">To be hang’d on the gallows i’th’ day time: the pox </p>
+<p class="line">And the Deuill take the Constable and his stocks. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 6.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Land.</i> Gentlemen vagabonds; the <i>traps</i> are abroad, and half a thousand beadles and <i>beaksmen</i> are now about the door.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Billy.</i> De <span class="sc">beak</span>! oh curse a de <span class="sc">beak</span>!
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Jemmy.</i> Gemmen!—gemmen! (<i>Knocking on table to command attention.</i>)
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Jack.</i> Silence for the chair!
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Jemmy.</i> Put out the lights, put out the lights, every one shift for himself. Here, Bob, carry
+me up the ladder, good luck to you do, Bob.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Catherine</i>, ch. x. But Mrs. Polly, with a wonderful presence of mind, restored peace by exclaiming,
+‘Hush, hush! the <span class="sc">beaks</span>, the <span class="sc">beaks</span>!<span>’</span> Upon which, with one common instinct, the whole party made a rush for the garden
+gates, and disappeared into the fields. Mrs. Briggs knew her company: there was something
+in the very name of a constable which sent them all a-flying.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> ‘Blue’ (traceable to Queen Elizabeth’s days when the colour of the uniform was the
+same as now); ‘men in blue’; ‘Royal Regiment of Footguards Blue’; ‘bluebottle’ (used
+by Shakspeare); ‘blew coate’ (also a Shakspearian term, and still in use); ‘Dogberry’
+(an allusion to <i>Much Ado about Nothing</i>); ‘charley’ (one of the old watchmen); ‘bobby’; ‘peeler’; ‘copper’ (a thieves’ term,
+from ‘to cop’ to lay hold of); ‘crusher’ (thieves’); ‘slop’ (a back slang corruption
+of ‘police’ = esclop, with <i>c</i> not sounded and shortened to ‘slop’); ‘scufter’ (a northern term, as also is the
+example next following); ‘bulky’ (used by Bulwer Lytton); ‘philip’ (from a thieves’
+signal); ‘cossack’; ‘philistine’; ‘frog’ (from pouncing upon criminals); ‘Johnnie
+Darby’ (a corruption of <i lang="fr">gendarme</i>); ‘Johnnie’; ‘pig’ (a plain clothes man); ‘worm’; ‘nose’; ‘nark’; ‘dee’ (a detective);
+‘tec’; the C.T.A. (a circus man’s term); ‘demon’ (Australian thieves’); ‘reeler’;
+‘raw lobster’ (this like ‘blue,’ etc., would appear to be a reference to the colour
+of the uniform).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un rousse</i> (popular and thieves’: <i lang="fr">roux</i> signifies ‘red,’ and red hair has always been held in contempt as indicative of treachery
+and craft; hence its application by the criminal classes to their natural enemies);
+<i lang="fr">un roussin</i> (thieves’: of same derivation as foregoing); <i lang="fr">un bâton de réglisse</i> <span class="pageNum" id="pb149">[<a href="#pb149">149</a>]</span>(popular: ‘a stick of liquorice’); <i lang="fr">un baladin</i> (properly ‘a mountebank, juggler, or buffoon’); <i lang="fr">une cagne</i> (popular: ‘a dog,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘a worthless fellow,’ ‘a slut’; <i lang="fr">cagne</i> or <i lang="fr">caigne</i> in Old French signified ‘dog,’ and was derived from the Latin <i lang="fr">canis</i>, whence <i lang="fr">caignot</i>, ‘a little dog.’ It may also be noted that, prior to the establishment of the modern
+<i lang="fr">gendarmerie</i>, the archers of the watch were known as <i lang="fr">chiens-courants</i>); <i lang="fr">un cogne</i> (thieves’: another form of <i lang="fr">cagne</i>); <i lang="fr">un balai</i> (hawkers’: properly ‘a broom, brush, or besom’); <i lang="fr">un serin</i> (popular: properly ‘a canary’; <i lang="fr">serin</i> is also slang for ‘a foolish fellow,’ ‘a greenhorn’); <i lang="fr">un pousse</i> (thieves’: the guardians of public order formerly known in Paris as <i lang="fr">serjents</i> or <i lang="fr">archers de l’écuelle</i> were called <i lang="fr">pousse-culs</i>); <i lang="fr">une vache</i> (literally ‘a cow’); <i lang="fr">un arnif</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">une peste</i> (thieves’: literally ‘a plague’ or ‘torment’); <i lang="fr">une tronche â la manque</i>; <i lang="fr">un flaquadard</i>; <i lang="fr">un cabestan</i> (thieves’: properly ‘a hand-winch’; Michel thinks this is derived either from <i lang="fr">cabe</i>, ‘a dog’; or from <i lang="fr">capitan</i>, ‘a captain.’ The latter, be it noted, has also the signification of ‘hector’ or
+‘braggadocio’); <i lang="fr">un raille</i> or <i lang="fr">railleux</i> (thieves’: a detective. Michel derives it from <i lang="fr">raillon</i>, a weapon with which the police were formerly armed. Victor Hugo thought it came
+from the English word ‘rascal,’ but there seems little, if any, authority for this);
+<i lang="fr">un sacre</i> (Nicot gives this as ‘a bird of prey,’ but Henri Estienne adds that it was used to
+denote ‘one who lays hands on everything that comes in his way’; also ‘a gourmand’);
+<i lang="fr">un grive</i> (thieves’: ‘a warder’ or ‘military patrol’); <i lang="fr">un laune</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">un flique</i> (popular: also a petty police magistrate. Thought to be a corruption of <i lang="fr">friquet</i>, another opprobrious term for a police man); <i lang="fr">un bec du gaz</i>; <i lang="fr">un estaffier</i> (familiar: also, among thieves, ‘a cat’); <i lang="fr">une bourrique</i> (thieves’: also ‘an informer’); <i lang="fr">un pousse trottoir</i> (<i lang="fr">pousse</i> from <i lang="fr">pousser</i>, ‘to push’; <i lang="fr">trottoir</i>, a footpath); <i lang="fr">un lampion rouge</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">un escargot de trottoir</i> (popular: literally ‘a snail of the footpath’); <i lang="fr">un cierge</i> (thieves’: properly ‘a wax taper’); <i lang="fr">un sergo</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">un grippe-Jesus</i> (a term used by thieves in the north of France, and by seafaring men which, says
+Michel, might lead one to suppose that gendarmes only arrested innocent persons);
+<i lang="fr">un pince sans rire</i> (thieves’: a sly, malicious person); <i lang="fr">un pot â tabac</i> (popular: ‘a tobacco jar’); <i lang="fr">un singe de la rousse</i> (<i lang="fr">singe</i> = monkey, <i lang="fr">de la rousse</i>, ‘of the police force’).
+</p>
+<p>For <span class="sc">German Synonyms</span>, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Copper</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonyms.</span> <i lang="it">Un’ zaffo</i> (literally ‘a bung’ or ‘tipstaff’); <i lang="it">un’ foco</i> or <i lang="it">un’ fuoco</i> (literally ‘fire’).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Synonyms.</span> <i lang="es">Uno mastin</i> (literally ‘a mastiff’ or ‘bulldog’; ‘a clumsy fellow’; ‘a clown’); <i lang="es">una harpia</i> (<i lang="es">un harpeo</i> = ‘grapnel’ or ‘grappling-iron’); <i lang="es">una fiera</i> (properly ‘a wild beast’).
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—A magistrate. <i>Cf.</i> foregoing, much of which has reference to this secondary meaning of <span class="sc">beak</span>. Sometimes Called <span class="sc">a beak of the law</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb150">[<a href="#pb150">150</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Oliver Twist</i>, ch. viii. ‘My eyes, how green!’ exclaimed the young gentleman. ‘Why a <span class="sc">beak’s</span> a madgst’rate.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?) <span class="sc">Hood</span>, <i>Tale of a Trumpet</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The pies and jays that utter words, </p>
+<p class="line">And other Dicky gossips of birds, </p>
+<p class="line">Who talk with as much good sense and decorum, </p>
+<p class="line">As many <span class="sc">beaks</span> who belong to the quorum. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1881. <i>Punch</i>, Dec. 3, 258. <span class="sc">A pair of anti-vivisectionists.</span> <i>Sir Slangsby Jaunter.</i> ‘See that old fellow, Miss Diana? That’s Doctor Katchett, who swears he’s going to
+find a cure for <i>lunatics</i>! Just got into trouble. Been trying the effects of extreme terror and bodily fatigue
+on a rabbit, and <i>without chloroform</i>, too, the old ruffian! And then he killed it, and dissected its brain. Going to be
+had up before the <span class="sc">beak</span> for it! Bow St., you know!’ <i>Miss Diana.</i> ‘Serve him right, horrid man! Don’t want to know about such people. But talking of
+rabbits, what a splendid run that second <i>Hare</i> gave us to-day! Thirty minutes gallop without a check!—Wasn’t it lovely!—And I was
+in at the death!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gaz.</i>, Oct. 12, p. 5, col. 2. Taken before some French <span class="sc">beak</span> whom he did not know, and an interpreter brought, the ‘cotched’ culprit was made
+to pay 20 f., his friend escaping because he was not caught red-handed.
+</p>
+<p>An <span class="sc">English Synonym</span> is ‘queer cuffin’ (old cant).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un sapeur</i> (thieves’: properly ‘a sapper,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘one who undermines’ [one’s chances of wrong doing]); <i lang="fr">un pante en robe</i> (<i lang="fr">pante</i> in French slang is equivalent to ‘a man’ or ‘cove’; <i lang="fr">en robe</i> = ‘in a robe’); <i lang="fr">un endormi</i> (popular: properly ‘a sleepy-head’); <i lang="fr">un grignon</i> (thieves’: probably from <i lang="fr">grigner les dents</i>, ‘to show one’s teeth threateningly’; or from <i lang="fr">grognon</i>, ‘grumbler,’ ‘growler’); <i lang="fr">un gerbier</i>; <i lang="fr">un curieux</i> (thieves’: <i>i.e.</i>, ‘the curious one’; from the <i>adj.</i> <i lang="fr">curieux</i>. Michel, however, adds that <i lang="fr">curieux</i> formerly signified ‘a courtier’); <i lang="fr">un singe à rabat</i> (thieves’: possibly <i lang="fr">rabat</i> is an abbreviated form of <i lang="fr">rabat-joie</i>, ‘a wet blanket.’ The phrase would then mean ‘a baboon with a wet blanket,’ ‘a damper’;
+or it may be derived from <i lang="fr">singe</i>, a monkey + <i lang="fr">rabat</i>, slang for ‘a cloak.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">singe de la rousse</i>); <i lang="fr">un lustre</i> (thieves’: properly ‘renown’; ‘distinction’); <i lang="fr">un pant’ de la magistrat’ muche</i> (thieves’).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonym.</span> <i lang="it">Un antigo</i> (literally ‘an old one’; also ‘a master,’ ‘a boss’).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Synonym.</span> <i lang="es">Sombrador</i> (thieves’ and popular: from <i lang="es">sombra</i>, ‘shade’; <i>i.e.</i>, one who puts in the shade. <i lang="es">Poner â la sombra</i> is ‘to imprison’).
+</p>
+<p>3. (popular.)—The nose. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Conk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Florio.</span> <i>Naso adunco</i>, a <span class="sc">beake-nose</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, I., 296. The well-known hooked <span class="sc">beak</span> of the old countess. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;C. Clayton</span>, <i>Cruel Fort</i>, I., 143. A large, fat, greasy woman, with a prominent <span class="sc">beak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;C. Grenville Murray</span>, <i>The Member for Paris</i>, I., p. 80. It was not the most agreeable thing in the world to be suddenly interrupted
+in a mantel-shelf conversation by a gentleman with a firm <span class="sc">beak-nose</span> and a red rosette in his button-hole.
+</p>
+<p>4. (Eton and Marlborough Schools.)—A master.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beaker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A fowl. Sometimes shortened into <span class="sc">beak</span>. The derivation is obviously an illusion to the beak or horny mandibles of poultry.
+Formerly called <span class="sc">cackling-cheat</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and by French thieves <i lang="fr">une estable</i>, or <i lang="fr">une estaphle</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beaker-Hunter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A poultry yard thief. Also <span class="sc">beak-hunter</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb151">[<a href="#pb151">151</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 445. A poultry stealer. A <span class="sc">beaker-hunter</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beak-Gander</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A judge of the Superior Courts. [From <span class="sc">beak</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a magistrate + <span class="sc">gander</span>, a humorous term for an old man.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beaksman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Beak</span> (sense 1), of which it is an alternative form.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beam Ends.</b> <span class="sc">To be thrown on one’s beam ends</span>, <i>phr.</i> (nautical).—1. To be in bad circumstances; to be at one’s last shift; hard-up; a
+metaphor drawn from sea-faring life. A ship is said to be on her <span class="sc">beam ends</span> when she is so prostrated on her side by stress of weather, or shifting of cargo,
+as to submerge her lee rail.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, xl. In short, he laughed the idea down completely; and Tom, abandoning it, was <span class="sc">thrown upon his beam ends</span> again for some other solution. [<span class="sc">h.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Henry Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., 121. When a fellow is <span class="sc">on his beam ends</span>, as I was then, he must keep his eyes about him, and have impudence enough for anything,
+or else he may stop and starve. [<span class="sc">h.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. Also, less figuratively, to be thrown to the ground; to be reduced to a sitting
+or lying posture.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>King’s Own</i>, xxvi. Our first lieutenant was … <span class="sc">on his beam ends</span>, with the rheumatiz.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Adventures of Verdant Green</i>. You get on stunningly, gig-lamps, and haven’t been <span class="sc">on your beam ends</span> more than once a minute.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bean</b> or <b>Bien</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A sovereign. Formerly a guinea. In America five-dollar gold pieces are
+now called <span class="sc">beans</span>. <i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Half-bean</span> and <span class="sc">Haddock of beans</span>. In the old French cant, <i lang="fr">biens</i> meant money or property. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Canary</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> <span class="sc">Bean</span>, a guinea. <span class="sc">Half-bean.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, bk. III., ch. ix. Zoroaster took long odds that the match was off; offering a <span class="sc">bean</span> to <i>half a quid</i> (in other words, a guinea to a half guinea).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <span class="sc">D.&nbsp;C. Murray</span>, <i>Rainbow Gold</i>, bk. V., ch. vi. ‘Here’s some of the <span class="sc">beans</span>,’ he continued figuratively, as he drew five sovereigns from the same pocket, and
+surveyed them in his great brown palm.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Full of beans</span>, <i>phr.</i> (society).—In good form or condition; as full of health, spirits, or capacity as
+a horse after a good feed of beans. Among the ancients the word signified venery;
+possibly, therefore, a more esoteric meaning may be attached to it than commonly supposed.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Beany</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, June 29. The tennis-ground [was] a pretty place, overlooking the harbour, and surrounded
+by trees and female beauty. The game began. ‘Ich dien,’ shouted Jack, as <span class="sc">full of beans</span> as the Prince of Wales’ plume, and immediately sent a ball which went bang through
+the window of an adjoining house.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To give beans</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To chastise; to give a good drubbing. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tan</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Like beans</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—In good form, style, time, etc.; with force; a general expression of approval
+and praise. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Like blazes</span>, <span class="sc">bricks</span>, or <span class="sc">one o’clock</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Not to care</span>, or <span class="sc">be worth a bean</span>.—To hold in little esteem; to think lightly of; to be of little value. The allusion
+is to <span class="pageNum" id="pb152">[<a href="#pb152">152</a>]</span>the small worth, or value of a bean, or ‘the black of a bean.’ A variant is <span class="sc">not worth a straw</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Both phrases are old, <span class="sc">not worth a bean</span> being traced back to 1297.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be beany</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To be in good humour—a metaphor also drawn from the stable.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To know beans</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To be well informed. The phrase is incorporated into many expressions
+in a very strange way; and is an allusion to the fondness of New Englanders in general,
+and Bostonians in particular, for baked beans and pork, combined with a sly hit at
+the assumption of superior culture on which they are supposed to insist. <span class="sc">To know beans</span>, therefore, is to be sharp and shrewd; to be within the charmed circle of the ‘cultured
+elect’—in short to be fully equipped in the ‘upper storey.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Portland Transcript</i>, March 7. The pudding was pronounced a success by each member of the assembled family,
+including a dainty Boston girl who, of course, <span class="sc">knows beans</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Chicago Herald.</i> One has to <span class="sc">know beans</span> to be successful in the latest Washington novelty for entertainment at luncheons.
+</p>
+<p>An alternative derivation may, however, be found in the English form.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To know how many blue beans make five white ones</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—This is generally put in the form of a question, the answer to which is
+‘Five, if peeled,’ and those who fail to get tripped by the ‘catch’ are said ‘<span class="sc">to know how many</span>,’ etc.; in other words to be cute; knowing; wide awake.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">Galt</span>, <i>Laurie, T.</i> (1849), II., i. 42. Few men who better knew <span class="sc">how many blue beans it takes to make five</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Zoological Comparisons</i>, in <i>Broadside Ballad</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Nature and art improves us, the girls with smiles are moving us, </p>
+<p class="line">Which very often ruin us there’s no gammon about that; </p>
+<p class="line">Then just as we begin to know ‘<span class="sc">how many beans make five</span>,’ </p>
+<p class="line">The ladies call us puppies when we at that age arrive; </p>
+<p class="line">You may perchance become a deer, if in favour with some lass, </p>
+<p class="line">If not you’re called a donkey, and oftentimes an ass. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1889. <i>Daily News</i>, 4 Nov., p. 6, col. 5. Mr. Gladstone and <i>The Saturday Review</i>. Sir,—My master, who is a good Conservative, lends me <i>The Saturday Review</i> to improve my mind.… It says that there were eighty-six Parnellites, and that if
+Mr. Gladstone, by his wickedness, could make them leave off voting for the Tories,
+and vote for him, instead of being in a minority of four, he would have had a majority
+of 80. Why, Sir, the dunce of the school knows that if you take 80 from one side and
+add it on to the other, the difference is not 80, but 160. It is as simple as <span class="sc">how many blue beans make five</span>. I think some people are losing their wits faster than Mr. Gladstone.—I am, Sir,
+yours respectfully, <span class="sc">A Schoolboy</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Three blue beans in a blue bladder.</span>—Nares confesses his inability to discover the origin of this whimsical combination
+of words, but points out that it is at least of long standing. The subjoined quotations
+would seem to indicate the meaning as noisy, frothy talk; clap-trap.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1600. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Old Fortunatus</i>, iii., p. 128.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">F. Hark, does’t rattle?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">S. Yes, like <span class="sc">three blue beans in a blue bladder</span>, rattle, bladder, rattle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1717. <span class="sc">Mathew Prior</span>, <i>Alma</i> (cant), I., v., 25.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e24230">They say—— </p>
+<p class="line">That putting all his words together, </p>
+<p class="line">’Tis <span class="sc">three blue beans in one blue bladder</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb153">[<a href="#pb153">153</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bean Belly</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A nickname for a Leicestershire man; from a real or supposed fondness of the
+inhabitants of this county for beans.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bean-Feast</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—An annual feast given by employers to their work-people. The derivation
+is uncertain, and, at present, their is little evidence to go upon. Some have suggested
+its origin in the prominence of the bean goose, or even beans at these spreads; others
+refer it to the French <i lang="fr">bien</i>, good, <i>i.e.</i>, a good feast (by-the-bye, tailors call all good feeds <span class="sc">bean-feasts</span>); whilst others favour its derivation from the modern English <i>bene</i>, a request or solicitation, from the custom of collecting subscriptions to defray
+the cost. All three suggestions are, at the best, unsatisfactory, and numerous objections
+crop up at every turn to each of them. An annual outing of this kind is also called
+a <span class="sc">wayzgoose</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Printing Times</i>, 15 Feb., 26, 2. A <span class="sc">bean-feast</span> dinner served up at a country inn. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Bath. Jour.</i>, 26 July, 6, 1. The annual grant of £20 for their <span class="sc">bean-feast</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bean-Feaster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—One who takes part in a <span class="sc">bean-feast</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Cornh. Mag.</i>, Jan., 621. For the delectation of the bold <span class="sc">bean-feasters</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beano</b>, <i>subs.</i> (printers’).—The same as <span class="sc">bean-feast</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bean Traps</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A swell mobsman, or stylish sharper. <span class="sc">Beans</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) are five-dollar gold pieces, and the insinuation is obvious. In old English cant
+a <span class="sc">bean</span> meant a guinea, probably from the French <i lang="fr">biens</i>, property.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beany</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Full of vigour; fresh, like a bean-fed horse. Or, it may be an allusion
+to the meaning of venery, which Aristotle says was attached to the word <span class="sc">beans</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Kingsley</span>, in <i>Life</i> (1876), I., 278. The very incongruity keeps one <span class="sc">beany</span> and jolly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Daily News</i>, 27 July, 5. The horses … looked fresh and <span class="sc">beany</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bear</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—1. Applied, in the first instance, to stock sold by jobbers for
+delivery by a certain date on the chance of prices falling in the meantime, thus allowing
+the seller to re-purchase at a profit. The phrase was probably at first ‘to sell the
+<span class="sc">bear-skin</span>,’ the buyers of such bargains being called <span class="sc">bear-skin jobbers</span> (<i>see</i> quot.), in allusion to the proverb, ‘To sell the bear’s skin before one has caught
+the bear.’ So far, the origin of the phrase seems pretty clear; of the date of its
+introduction, however, nothing is known. It was a common term in Stock Exchange circles,
+at the time of the bursting of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, but it does not seem
+to have become colloquial until much later. In these transactions no stock was passed,
+the ‘difference’ being settled according to the quotation of the day, as is the practice
+now in securities dealt with for ‘the account.’ At present the term for such an arrangement
+is <span class="sc">time-bargain</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb154">[<a href="#pb154">154</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1709. <span class="sc">Steele</span>, <i>Tatler</i>, No. 38, p. 3. Being at that General Mart of stock-jobbers called Jonathans … he
+bought the <span class="sc">bear</span> of another officer. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1719. <i>Anatomy of Change Alley</i> (<i>N. and Q.</i>, 5 S., vi., 118). Those who buy Exchange Alley bargains are styled ‘buyers of <span class="sc">bear-skins</span>.’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1778. <span class="sc">Bailey</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (24 ed.). To sell <span class="sc">a bear</span>, to sell what one hath not.
+</p>
+<p>2. Hence a dealer who speculates for a fall. The earliest instance noted of this transferred
+usage is in
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1744. <i>London Magazine</i>, 86. These noisy devotees were false ones, and in fact were only bulls and <span class="sc">bears</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1768. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Devil upon Two Sticks</i>, Act i. A mere bull and <span class="sc">bear</span> booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent bankrupts.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1774. <span class="sc">Colman</span>, <i>Man of Business</i>, iv., i., in wks. (1777) II., 179. My young master is the bull, and Sir Charles is
+the <span class="sc">bear</span>. He agreed for stock expecting it to be up at three hundred by this time; but, lack-a-day,
+sir, it has been falling ever since.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. iv. The hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produce among the bulls,
+<span class="sc">bears</span>, and brokers of Stock-alley.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Peacock</span>, <i>Gryll Grange</i>, ch. xviii. In Stock Exchange slang, bulls are speculators for a rise, <span class="sc">bears</span> for a fall.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Ally Sloper’s H. H.</i>, Aug. 3, p. 242, col. 3. Mrs. Spingles says she doesn’t wonder that the Stock Exchange
+at times resembles a menagerie let loose, seeing what a lot of bulls, <span class="sc">bears</span> and stags they have at Capel Court.
+</p>
+<p>The French Bourse equivalent is <i lang="fr">un baissier</i>. <i>See</i> the analogous terms <span class="sc">bull</span>; <span class="sc">stag</span>; and <span class="sc">lame duck</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—The pupil of a private tutor, the latter being called a <span class="sc">bear-leader</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). From the general roughness and uncouthness of boys; a reference to the heavy build
+and ungainliness of the plantigrade in question<span id="xd33e24502">.</span> Even now the youth of the rising generation are sometimes called ‘unlicked cubs.’
+Also called formerly <span class="sc">bridled-bear</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1832. <i>Legends of London</i>, II., 247. When I was the youthful <span class="sc">bear</span>—as the disciple of a private tutor is called at Oxford. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To act as a <span class="sc">bear</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>New York Tribune</i>, Nov. 29. There is no truth in the startling developments, implicating British officials,
+in the <i>Herald’s</i> despatch.… His Lordship is wholly guiltless of the charge which the <i>Herald</i>, in its anxiety to <span class="sc">bear the market</span>, has brought against him.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Are you there with your bears?</span> <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—A greeting of surprise at the reappearance of anybody or anything;
+are you there again; or, in the words of its most recent slang equivalent, ‘What,
+again! so soon?’ The phrase is explained by Joe Miller, as the exclamation of a man
+who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha and the <span class="sc">bears</span>, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the same preacher and the same
+discourse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1642. <span class="sc">James Howell</span>, <i>Instructions for Forreine Travell</i>, sec. 3. Another when at the racket court he had a ball struck into his hazard, he
+would ever and anon cry out, <i lang="fr">estes vous là avec vos ours</i>? <span class="sc">Are you there with your bears?</span> which is ridiculous in any other language but English.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1740. <span class="sc">Richardson</span>, <i>Pamela</i>, III., 335. O no, nephew! <span class="sc">Are you thereabouts with your bears?</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Abbot</i>, xv. Marry, come up. <span class="sc">‘Are you there with your bears<span class="corr" id="xd33e24579" title="Source: ’?">?’</span></span> muttered the dragon.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To play the bear</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To behave in a rough and rude manner.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1579. <span class="sc">Tomson</span>, <i>Calvin’s Serm. Tim.</i>, p. 473, col. 1. When we haue so turned all order vpsidowne … there is nothing but
+… <span class="sc">playing the beare</span> amongst vs.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb155">[<a href="#pb155">155</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">Bear a bob</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (nautical).—1. To lend a hand; look sharp! look alive!
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—To aid, to assist, to take part in anything.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bearded Cad</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A porter, employed by the College to convey luggage from the
+railway station to the school. The term originated in an extremely hirsute individual,
+who, at one time, acted in the capacity.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beard-Splitter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A man much given to the company of prostitutes; nowadays called <span class="sc">a hot member</span>, or <span class="sc">molrower</span>, which <i>see</i> for synonyms. [From <span class="sc">beard</span>, a tuft of hair + <span class="sc">splitter</span>, one who divides. The allusion is obvious.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bearer-Up.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bear up</span> and <span class="sc">Bonnet</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bear-Garden Jaw</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Rough, unmannerly speech; talk akin to that used in bear gardens and other
+places of low resort. Quoted by Grose, 1785. [From <span class="sc">bear-garden</span>, a place set apart for bear baiting and other rough sports + <span class="sc">jaw</span>, talk or speech.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">John Forster</span>, <i>Life of Oliver Goldsmith</i>, bk. IV., chap. xi. He called Burke a <span class="sc">bear-garden railer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">Archibald Forbes</span>, <i>My Experience of the War between France and Germany</i>, p. 301. <span class="sc">The bear-garden-like Babel</span> was rather more noisy than usual.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Be-Argered</b>, <i>adj.</i> (familiar).—Drunk.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bearing</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (Stock Exchange).—Acting as a <span class="sc">bear</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); or using artifices to lower the price of stock to suit a ‘bear’ account.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bearings.</b> <span class="sc">To bring one to one’s bearings</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (colloquial).—To bring one to reason; to act as a check. A nautical term.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bear-Leader</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A travelling tutor. In the days when it was customary to send ‘young hopefuls’
+on the Grand Tour, the expression was much more common and significant than is nowadays
+the case. The simile is taken from a person who leads about a tame bear for exhibition.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1749. <span class="sc">Walpole</span>, <i>Lett. to Mann</i>, 4 June (1883), vol. II., p. 392. I shall not wonder if she takes me for his <span class="sc">bear-leader</span>, his travelling governor!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1756. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Englishman Returned from Paris</i>, Act i.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Serv.</i> My young master’s travelling tutor, sir, just arrived.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Crab.</i> … Shew him in. This <span class="sc">bear-leader</span>, I reckon now, is either the clumsy curate of the knight’s own parish church, or
+some needy highlander.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">Combe</span>, <i>Dr. Syntax, Tour I</i> ch. xxiii.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And as I almost wanted bread, </p>
+<p class="line">I undertook a <span class="sc">bear to lead</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">To see the brute perform his dance </p>
+<p class="line">Through Holland, Italy, and France; </p>
+<p class="line">But it was such a very Bruin,
+</p>
+<p class="line">.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.
+</p>
+<p class="line">I took my leave, and left the <i>cub</i> </p>
+<p class="line">Some humbler Swiss to pay and drub. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1848. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Book of Snobs</i>, ch. vii. They pounced upon the stray nobility, and seized young lords travelling
+with their <span class="sc">bear-leaders</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bearskin-Jobber</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bear</span>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bear Up</b>, <i>verb</i> (common).—To cheat; to swindle in any way; more particularly applied to the action
+of ‘decoys’ and <span class="pageNum" id="pb156">[<a href="#pb156">156</a>]</span>confederates.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bonnet</span>. The derivation is obviously from that sense of <span class="sc">to bear up</span>, signifying support or backing up.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1828. <span class="sc">G. Smeeton</span>, <i>Doings in London</i>, p. 40. The billiard-marker refused to make any division of the spoil, or even to
+return the £10 which had been lost to him in <span class="sc">bearing up</span> the cull.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Referee</i>, Dec. 2, p. 2, col. 4. This looks as if the <span class="sc">bearing up</span> and ‘bonneting’ which has been done by friendly writers in response to my remarks
+is all thrown away.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beast</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Applied to anything unpleasant; or, to that which displeases; <i>e.g.</i>, ‘It’s a perfect <span class="sc">beast</span> of a day,’ for ‘it’s an unpleasant day.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Beastly</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American cadet.)—A name given to new cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West
+Point.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Snooker</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (Cambridge University.)—Anyone who has left school and come up to Cambridge for
+study, before entering the University, is called a <span class="sc">beast</span>, because ‘he is neither man nor boy.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beastly</b>, <i>adv.</i> (popular).—In modern colloquial usage applied to whatever may offend the taste. Akin
+also to ‘awful,’ ‘everlasting,’ etc.—when used as mere intensitives, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘very,’ ‘exceedingly.’ [Originally from <span class="sc">beastly</span>, of, or pertaining to the nature of a beast; hence, figuratively, brutish, irrational,
+unmanly; whence, through a series of transitions, its slang significations.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Roaring Girle</i>, wks., 1873, III., 159. I thought ’twould bee a <span class="sc">beastly</span> iourney.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1778. <span class="sc">Johnson</span>, in D’Arblay <i>Diary, etc.</i> (1876), vol. I., p. 37. ‘It moves my indignation to see a gentleman take pains to
+appear a tradesman. Mr. Braughton would have written his name with just such <span class="sc">beastly</span> flourishes!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, 24 Oct., p. 5, col. 3. He was in good health … looked almost ‘<span class="sc">beastly</span> well,’ as I once heard it described. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">F. Anstey</span>, <i>Vice Versâ</i>, ch. i. He had a troublesome dryness in his throat, and a general sensation of dull
+heaviness, which he himself would have described—expressively enough, if not with
+academical elegance—as ‘feeling <span class="sc">beastly</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beast with Two Backs</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—Explained in second quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1602. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Othello</i>, Act i., Sc. 1. <i>Brabantio</i>: What profane wretch art thou? <i>Iago</i>: I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making
+the <span class="sc">beast with the two backs</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Classical Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Beast with two backs</span>, a man and woman in the act of copulation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—1. This word is used in many ways, its precise meaning often depending
+on its qualifying adjective. It is said of both men and things; for example, a <i>live</i> <span class="sc">beat</span> is anybody or anything that surpasses another, and the sense is not derogatory in
+the least. A <i>dead</i> <span class="sc">beat</span>, on the other hand, is the name given to a man who sponges on his fellows. [Probably
+from that sense of <span class="sc">beat</span> signifying to overcome; to show oneself superior to, either in a good or bad sense].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Tribune</i>, May 16. As we pay big money for our special news, we can’t afford to throw it away
+on account of a little mistake in the name. So we shove her in with the single remark
+that it is better to have a Carrot for a President than a <span class="sc">dead beat</span> for a son-in-law. In this way, we again score <span class="pageNum" id="pb157">[<a href="#pb157">157</a>]</span>a <span class="sc">live beat</span> on the galoot ‘The Rip-snorter.’ Whoopee! Now is the time to subscribe.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Mercury</i>, Aug. 7. But not only steamboats and locomotives were used by reporters for <span class="sc">beats</span>, but one newspaper man named Monroe F. Gale made a trip across the Atlantic in a
+pilot-boat, to get some peculiar news in his own fashion. All things taken into consideration,
+there never was a bolder voyage over the Atlantic than this made by the ‘Romer,’ all
+for the sake of a few ‘points’ in news.
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—The round of a policeman or watchman when on duty; one’s daily round
+of duty, work, etc.; and, figuratively, one’s sphere of influence.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1788. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Stevens</span>, <i>Adv. of a Speculist</i>, i., 211. The first evening I took my stand in Fleet Street, to look out for a fare,
+I was drove from street to street by women of my own profession, who swore I should
+not come in their <span class="sc">beats</span> until I had paid my ‘footing.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 31. The costermongers repaired to their ordinary <span class="sc">beats</span> in the suburbs.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>Saturday Review</i>, 15 March, 295. Ask him why anything is so-and-so, and you have got out of his <span class="sc">beat</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><i lang="fr">Faire sa nouveauté</i> is said of a French prostitute when seeking fresh fields and pastures new.
+</p>
+<p><i>Ppl. adj.</i> (popular).—1. Overcome; exhausted; ‘done up.’ Generally <span class="sc">dead-beat</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). [A shortened form of <span class="sc">beaten</span>.]—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Beaten out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1832. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Jerome, etc.</i>, wks. II. (1862), 558. Till fairly <span class="sc">beat</span>, the saint gave o’er, [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Geoffery Hamlyn</i>, ch. xxxvii. ‘The lad was getting <span class="sc">beat</span>, and couldn’t a’gone much further.’
+</p>
+<p>2. Hence also, figuratively, to be baffled; defeated.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (American).—To swindle; to deceive; to cheat.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, Ap. 12. Later he heard of her marriage to some lawyer or artist named Diss Debar.
+Previous to this she had been in Montreal and telegraphed that she was dying. She
+<span class="sc">beat</span> the hotel out of a hundred dollars.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Daisy beat</span> (American thieves’).—A swindle of the first water; a robbery of magnitude.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To beat hollow</span>—<span class="sc">to sticks</span>—<span class="sc">to ribands</span>—<span class="sc">to fits</span>—<span class="sc">all creation</span>—<span class="sc">to shivers</span>, etc. (popular).—To excel; to surpass.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1759. <span class="sc">Townley</span>, <i>High Life Below Stairs</i>, I., ii. Crab was <span class="sc">beat hollow</span>, Careless threw his rider, and Miss Slammerkin had the distemper.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1847. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>Ingoldsby Legends</i> (1877), p. 55. Many ladies … were <span class="sc">beat all to sticks</span> by the lovely Odille. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>General Bounce</i>, ch. i. Talk of climate! a real fine day in England, like a really handsome Englishwoman,
+<span class="sc">beats creation</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Kate Coventry</i>, ch. i. I rode a race against Bob Dashwood the other morning, … and <span class="sc">beat him all to ribands</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Lowell</span>, <i>Poetical Works</i>, 418. And there’s where I shall <span class="sc">beat them hollow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Modern Society</i>, 19 Oct., p. 1302. (How the Nobility live in Germany.) Germans <span class="sc">beat the English hollow</span> at drinking beer; the ladies drink it, and the children also, like milk; and it seems
+to agree with them, for they are very robust. They are not ceremonious at any meal,
+and eat as if in a hurry for a train, cutting up all on their plate first, then forking
+it in with the aid of bread or their fingers.
+</p>
+<p>The French say <i lang="fr">arriver bon premier</i>, ‘to arrive’ or ‘be a good first.’ <i>Cf.</i>, synonyms in A1.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To get a beat on</span> is to get the advantage of. The same idea is expressed in the phrase <span class="sc">to beat one’s way through the world</span>; in other words, to push one’s interests with vigour and pertinacity. As used by
+thieves and their associates, <span class="sc">to <span class="pageNum" id="pb158">[<a href="#pb158">158</a>]</span>get a beat on one</span>, besides conveying the idea of obtaining an advantage, also implies that the point
+has been scored by underhand, secret, or unlawful means.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To beat the booby</span> or <span class="sc">goose</span>, <i>phr.</i> (nautical).—To strike the hands across the chest and under the armpits to warm them.
+Formerly to <span class="sc">beat Jonas</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Times</i>, 15 March, p. 9, col. 6. The common labourers at outdoor work were <span class="sc">beating goose</span> to drive the blood from their fingers. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To beat the road</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To travel by rail without paying.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dead-heads</span> and <span class="sc">To beat</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">That beat’s the Dutch!</span>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dutch</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beat Daddy Mammy</b> (old military).—To tattoo; to practice the elements of drum beating.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beaten Down to Bed-Rock</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (American).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bedrock</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beaten Out</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> with <i>adv.</i> (common).—Impoverished; in one’s last straits; hard up.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 351. The <span class="sc">beaten out</span> mechanics and artisans, who, from want of employment in their own trade, take to
+making small things. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 400. The last class of street sellers is the <span class="sc">beaten out</span> mechanic or workman.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beater-Cases</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Boots or shoes. Nearly obsolete. <span class="sc">Trotter-cases</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is the usual term nowadays.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Beaters</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beaters</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—The feet. [A transferred sense of <span class="sc">beater</span>, originally signifying one who ‘beat’ or walked the streets. Barclay, in <i>Shyp of Folys</i> (1509), speaks of ‘night watchers and <span class="sc">beters</span> of the stretes.’] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Creepers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beat the Hoof</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (popular).—To walk; to plod; to prowl. [From <span class="sc">beat</span>, in the sense of to strike the ground in walking, etc., + <span class="sc">hoof</span>, a humorous term for the foot.] <span class="sc">To beat the hoof</span> is an older form of the modern <span class="sc">pad the hoof</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, Act i., Sc. 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line"><i>Falstaff</i>: Hold, sirrah, [to <i>Robin</i>] bear you these letters tightly; </p>
+<p class="line">Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.— </p>
+<p class="line">Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go; </p>
+<p class="line">Trudge, <span class="sc">plod away, o’ the hoof</span>; seek shelter, pack! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1691. <span class="sc">Wood</span>, <i>Ath. Oxon.</i>, II., 412. They all <span class="sc">beated it on the hoof</span> to London, [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beat the Rib.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Rib</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beau Trap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and which, on being
+trodden upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of clean clothes.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—Also a well-dressed sharper, on the look out for raw country visitors and
+such like.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A fop, well-dressed outwardly indeed, but whose linen, person, and habits
+generally, are unclean.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beauty</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American cadet).—A term applied, on the rule of contrary, to the plainest or ugliest
+cadet in the class at the United States Military Academy <span class="pageNum" id="pb159">[<a href="#pb159">159</a>]</span>at West Point. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Snooker</span> and <span class="sc">Babe</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beauty-Sleep</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—Sleep before midnight, the idea being that early hours conduce to health
+and beauty.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">Smedley</span>, <i>Frank Fairleigh</i>, II., p. 120. The fair pupils have talked themselves to sleep, which, if report does
+not belie them, is not until they have forfeited all chance of adding to their attractions
+by getting a little <span class="sc">beauty-sleep</span> before twelve o’clock.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Kingsley</span>, <i>Two Years Ago</i>, ch. xv. ‘Are you going? it is not late; not ten o’clock yet.’ ‘A medical man, who
+may be called up at any moment, must make sure of his <span class="sc">beauty-sleep</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">Blackmore</span>, <i>Lorna Doone</i>, ch. lxiv. Would I please to remember that I had roused him up at night, and the
+quality always made a point of paying four times over for a man’s loss of his <span class="sc">beauty-sleep</span>. I replied that his loss of <span class="sc">beauty-sleep</span> was rather improving to a man of so high a complexion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Jas. Payn</span>, <i>Confid. Agent</i>, ch. iii. ‘You must get your <span class="sc">beauty-sleep</span>,’ cried he to his wife when Barlow had departed, ‘or you will have no colour in your
+cheeks to-morrow.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beaver</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. An old term for a hat; <span class="sc">goss</span> or <span class="sc">cady</span>, however, is more frequently heard nowadays. At one time hats were made of beaver’s
+fur—hence the name; the term is still occasionally applied to tall ‘chimney-pot hats,’
+in spite of the fact that for many years silk has replaced the skin of the rodent
+in their manufacture.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1528. <span class="sc">Roy</span>, <i>Sat.</i> To exalte the thre folde crowne Of anti-christ hys <span class="sc">bever</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1661. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, 27 June. Mr. Holden sent me a <span class="sc">bever</span>, which cost me £4 5s.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Gay</span>, <i>Trivia</i>, bk. II., l., 277.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The broker here his spacious <span class="sc">beaver</span> wears, </p>
+<p class="line">Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. ix. ‘Had you not better take off your hat?’ asks the Duchess, pointing … to
+‘the foring cove’s’ <span class="sc">beaver</span>, which he had neglected to remove.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">O.&nbsp;W. Holmes</span>, <i>Autocrat of the Breakfast Table</i>, ch. x. We know this of our hats, and are always reminded of it when we happen to
+put them on wrong side foremost. We soon find that the <span class="sc">beaver</span> is a hollow cast of the skull, with all its irregular bumps and depressions.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">In beaver</span>, <i>phr.</i> (University).—In a tall hat and non-academical garb, as distinguished from cap and
+gown.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <i>New Monthly Magazine</i>, lix., 271. He … went out of College in what the members of the United Service called
+mufti, but members of the University <span class="sc">beaver</span>, which means not in his academics—his cap and gown. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Bever</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beck</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—1. A constable.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Beak</span> and <span class="sc">Copper</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A parish beadle. Apparently the term was applied to all kinds of watchmen.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Harman-beck</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (thieves’).—To imprison. Amongst Dutch thieves <i lang="nl">bekaan</i> has the same signification, imprisoned.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Reade</span>, <i>Cloister and Hearth</i> ch. lv. The circle with the two dots was writ by another of our brotherhood, and
+it signifies as how the writer … was <span class="sc">becked</span>, was asking here, and lay two months in Starabin.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bed.</b> <span class="sc">To put to bed with a pickaxe and shovel</span> (common).—To bury. For analogous expressions, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Ladder</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1881. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Hands off’—
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Kitty Crea, some fine day, when I’m laid in the clay, </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Put to bed with a spade</span> in the usual way, <span class="pageNum" id="pb160">[<a href="#pb160">160</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">And yourself on the shelf a neglected old maid, </p>
+<p class="line">Troth, your conscience will sting you, I’m greatly afraid. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bedder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Cambridge University).—A charwoman; one who makes the beds and performs other necessary
+domestic duties for residents in college.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bed-Fagot</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—1. Applied contemptuously to a woman; <i>Cf.</i>, ‘hussy,’ ‘witch,’ etc.
+</p>
+<p>2. Synonymous with prostitute. For full list of analogous terms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bedfordshire</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A humorous term for bed. There are several other phrases of a kindred
+character; as, for example, <span class="sc">Sheet Alley</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); <span class="sc">Blanket Fair</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); <span class="sc">The Land of Nod</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1665. <span class="sc">Cotton</span>, <i>Poet. Wks.</i> (1765), 76.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Each one departs to <span class="sc">Bedfordshire</span>. </p>
+<p class="line">And pillows all securely snort on. [<span class="asc">M.</span>] </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i> (conv. iii.).
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Lady Ans.</i> I’m sure ’tis time for all honest folks to go to bed.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Miss.</i> Indeed my eyes draw straws (she’s almost asleep).…
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Col.</i> I’m going to the Land of Nod.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Ner.</i> Faith, I’m for <span class="sc">Bedfordshire</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">Hood</span>, <i>Miss Kilmansegg</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The time for sleep had come at last, </p>
+<p class="line">And there was the bed, so soft, so vast, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Quite a field of <span class="sc">Bedfordshire</span> clover. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bed-House</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A place of assignation where beds can be hired for a longer or shorter
+period as required—hence the name. For synonyms generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Nanny shop</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bedoozle</b>, <i>verb</i> (American).—To confuse; to bewilder. Probably a corrupt form of the old English verb
+‘bedazzle,’ used by Shakspeare in <i>Taming of the Shrew</i>, iv., 5, 46. [1593.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bedpost.</b> <span class="sc">In the twinkling of a bedpost</span>, <i>phr.</i> (familiar).—Instantaneously; with great rapidity. Originally <span class="sc">in the twinkling of a bedstaff</span>. This phrase has given rise to not a little speculation; first, as to what use the
+<span class="sc">bedstaff</span> was put; and, secondly, as to its possible connection with rapidity of motion. The
+generally received explanation is that the staff referred to was, as Johnson puts
+it, ‘a wooden pin stuck anciently on sides of the bedstead to hold the cloaths from
+slipping on either side.’ Dr. Murray, however, points out that the great lexicographer
+gave no authority, and also that ‘no corroborative evidence has been found.’ Still
+it seems certain that bedstaffs were used and kept near beds for <i>some</i> purpose by our ancestors. Bobadil, in <i>Every Man in his Humour</i> [1596], uses one to display his skill with the rapier, and the following explanation
+has been suggested by Mr. Thomas Boys [<i>Notes and Queries</i>, 2 S., vi., 437]. The bedstaff was an <i>upright</i> peg, fixed into the side of the bedstead after the manner of a pin, and projecting
+upwards to keep the bed clothes in their place. Consequently, as offering the means
+of exhibiting the use of the rapier, the wooden bedstaff may have afforded a very
+available as well as harmless implement. Suppose then the bedstaff to have been an
+upright peg or pin fitting into a hole or socket in the side of <span class="pageNum" id="pb161">[<a href="#pb161">161</a>]</span>the bedstead, and, in length, about equal to the rapier. The socket is a few inches
+deep; and the bedstaff has (to steady it) a projecting rim which overlays the socket
+like a lid. The part of the bedstaff which enters the socket will then be the <i>hilt</i> of the rapier; the projecting rim will be the <i>guard</i>; and the rest of the staff will do duty as the <i>blade</i>. In the bedstaff we have then the form of a rapier; and, with this implement of wood,
+Captain Bobadil would have no difficulty in exhibiting his <i>passado</i> and <i>stoccado</i>. The rapier of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, moreover, was by no means
+the light and foil-like weapon now known as the small sword. It was of great length
+and heavy, and a bedstaff such as that suggested above, with a species of guard, and
+most likely about the weight of a heavy single-stick, would have been no bad instrument
+wherewith to indoctrinate a tyro in the noble art of self defence.
+</p>
+<p>Hence, probably, if this be so, the derivation of the expression, <span class="sc">in the twinkling of a bedstaff</span>; more especially if, as would occasionally be the case, it were used as a weapon
+of defence against intruders, when possibly even life itself might hang upon a dexterous
+use of the implement.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1660. <i>Charac. Italy</i>, 78. <span class="sc">In the twinkling of a Bedstaff</span> he disrobed himself … and was just skipping into bed. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1676. <span class="sc">T. Shadwell</span>, <i>Virtuoso</i>, I., i. ’Gad, I’ll do it instantly, <span class="sc">in the twinkling of a bedstaff</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>London Spy</i>, pt. XI., 259. Shake ’em off and leap into bed, <span class="sc">in the twinkling of a bedstaff</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Harry Coverdale</i>, ch. i. ‘I’ll adown and be with you <span class="sc">in … the twinkling of a bedpost</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>Among <span class="sc">English Synonyms</span> may be included:—In a jiffy; in two two’s; in a brace of shakes; before you can say
+Jack Robinson; in a crack; in the squeezing of a lemon.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Between you and me and the bedpost</span>, <i>phr.</i> (familiar).—A humorous tag to an assertion; <i>i.e.</i>, ‘between ourselves’;—‘I know what you say, but, <span class="sc">between you and me</span>, etc. … the thing is absurd.’ Sometimes the last word is varied by ‘post,’ ‘door
+post,’ or ‘gate post’—any prop seems to serve.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1831. <span class="sc">Bulwer Lytton</span>, <i>Eugene Aram</i>, p. 234. Ah, sir, all very well to say so; but, <span class="sc">between you and me and the bedpost</span>, young master’s quarrelled with old master.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>, p. 127. And <span class="sc">between you and me and the post</span>, sir, it will be a very nice portrait too.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <i>Punch</i>, March 8, p. 108. Discussing an absent friend. ‘Yes, Robinson’s a clever feller,
+and he’s a modest feller, and he’s a honest feller; but <span class="sc">betwixt you and i and the post</span>, Mr. Jones,’ said Brown, confidentially, picking his wisdom tooth with his little
+finger nail, ‘Robinson ain’t got neither the Looks, nor yet the Language, nor yet
+the Manners of a Gentleman.’
+</p>
+<p>‘Right you are, sir!’ said Jones, shovelling the melted remains of his Ice Pudding
+into his Mouth with a Steel Knife (which he afterwards wiped on the Table Cloth).
+‘You’ve ’it ’im orf t’ a T!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bedrock.</b> <span class="sc">To get down to bedrock</span> [in anything; whether in an enquiry, or in one’s circumstances, etc.].—To the bottom;
+to the lowest level. A miner’s term, alluding to the solid rock underlying superficial
+and other formations. Therefore, metaphorically, ‘to reach <span class="sc">bedrock</span>’ <span class="pageNum" id="pb162">[<a href="#pb162">162</a>]</span>is to attain a solid basis or foundation; <span class="sc">bedrock facts</span> are the ‘chiels that winna ding’—the incontestible and uncontrovertible truth.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Poems and Prose</i>, p. 113. ‘No! no!’ continued T. hastily. ‘I play this yer hand alone. <span class="sc">To come down to the bedrock</span> it’s just this,’ etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Scribner’s Magazine</i>, p. 277. Getting to the real character of a man is <span class="sc">coming to the bedrock</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Louisiana Press</i>, March 31. Thomas J. Whiteman, of Carrol county, is a Republican candidate for Governor
+of Missouri. You can bet your <span class="sc">bedrock</span> dollar that the next governor of Missouri will be a white man, although his first
+name isn’t apt to be Thomas.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bee.</b> <span class="sc">To have a bee in the head</span> or <span class="sc">bonnet</span>, <i>phr.</i> (familiar).—To be possessed of queer ideas; ‘half-cracked’; flighty. This phrase
+is of considerable antiquity, being traced back to a Scotch writer, Gawin Douglas
+by name [1474–1521], Bishop of Dunkeld, who used it in a translation of Virgil’s <i>Æneid</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1512–3 (translated: published in 1553). <span class="sc">Gawin Douglas</span>, <i>Æneis</i>, VIII., Prol. 120. Quhat bern be thou in bed with <span class="sc">heid full of beis</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1657. <span class="sc">Samuel Colvil</span>, <i>Whigg’s Supplication, or Scotch Hudibras</i> [1710]. Which comes from <span class="sc">brains which have a bee</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s</i>, ch. xvii. ‘Maybe ye think the puir lassie has <span class="sc">a bee in her bonnet</span>; but ye ken yoursell if naebody but wise folk were to marry, the warld wad be ill
+peopled.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Bulwer Lytton</span>, <i>My Novel</i>, III., 307. It is not an uncommon crochet amongst benevolent men to maintain that
+wickedness in necessarily a sort of insanity, and that nobody would make a violent
+start out of a straight path unless stung to such disorder by a <span class="sc">bee in his bonnet</span>.
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Apartments to let</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Dr. Brewer</span>, <i>Dictionary of Phrase and Fable</i>, p. 77, col. 2. <span class="sc">You have a bee in your bonnet</span> or <span class="sc">your head is full of bees</span>; [<i>i.e.</i>] full of devices, crotchets, fancies, inventions, and dreamy theories. The connection
+between bees and the soul was once generally maintained … the moon was called a <i>bee</i> by the priestesses of Cerës, and the word lunatic or moon-struck still means one
+with ‘<span class="sc">bees in his head</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beef</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Human flesh (a transferred sense); <i>i.e.</i>, obese; stolid; or fleshy like an ox.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>Cork Examiner</i>, March 28. Chelmsford stood higher in the leg, and showed less <span class="sc">beef</span> about him. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. (nautical.)—By a further transition <span class="sc">beef</span> has also come to signify men; strength; or ‘hands’; ‘More <span class="sc">beef</span>!’ a bo’sun’s exhortation to extra exertion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <i>Cornhill Magazine.</i> Feb., ‘Life on Board a Man of War.’ Useful at the heavy hauling of braces, etc.,
+where plenty of <span class="sc">beef</span> is required. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—The penis. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Creamstick</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be in beef</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old)—Said only of women. It means to have carnal knowledge.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be in a man’s beef</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To wound with a sword.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To cry</span> or <span class="sc">give beef</span>, or <span class="sc">hot beef</span>, <i>phr.</i> (thieves’).—To give an alarm; to pursue; to set up a hue and cry. It has been suggested
+that <span class="sc">beef</span> in this case is a rhyming synonym to ‘thief.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">To guy</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be dressed like Christmas beef</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To be decked out in one’s best raiment; in allusion to the <span class="pageNum" id="pb163">[<a href="#pb163">163</a>]</span>‘dressing’ of Christmas beef by butchers.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To make beef</span>, <i>phr.</i> (thieves’).—To run away; to decamp. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Beef!</span> <i>intj.</i> (Australian).—‘Stop thief.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To cry</span> or <span class="sc">give beef</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Beef up!</span> <i>phr.</i> (common).—‘Put on your strength!’ ‘Give a long pull and a strong pull!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beef-Brained</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Doltish; obtuse; thickheaded; a reference to the heavy, dullness of appearance
+of oxen.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beef-Head</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A dolt; a stupid, thickheaded person. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Beef-brained</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beef It</b>, <i>verb</i> (common).—Considered originally a provincialism, but now common. The lower classes
+in the East End of London frequently speak of <span class="sc">beefing it</span>, either in reality or anticipation (mostly latter), when referring to a meat meal,
+more particularly when it happens to be beef.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beefment.</b> <span class="sc">On the beefment</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (thieves’).—On the alert; on the look out.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beef-Stick</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The bone in a joint of beef. At mess it is ‘first come, best served’;
+and those who come last sometimes get little more than the <span class="sc">beef-stick</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beef Straight.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Straight</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beef to the Heels, like a Mullingar Heifer</b>, <i>phr.</i> (Irish).—A stalwart man, or a fine woman; <i>i.e.</i>, one whose superiority is manifest from the crown of the head to the sole of the
+foot; literally, <span class="sc">all beef down to the heels</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1880. <span class="sc">Rhoda Broughton</span>, <i>Cometh up as a Flower</i>, p. 193. Dolly was not a fine woman as they say, at all; not <span class="sc">beef to the heels</span>, by any means; in a grazier’s eye she would have had no charm whatsoever.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beef-Witted</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Beef-brained</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Terrors of the Night</i>, in wks. (Grosart) III., 257. Liues there anie such slowe yce-braind <span class="sc">beefe-witted</span> gull.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <i>Reader</i>, 22 Aug. This British bull-neckedness, this British <span class="sc">beef-wittedness</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beefy</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Fleshy; unduly thick, or obese. [From <span class="sc">beef</span> + <span class="sc">y</span>: a transferred sense.] Also <span class="sc">beefiness</span>, <i>subs.</i>, fleshy development. The ankles of women are sometimes ungallantly spoken of as <span class="sc">beefy</span>, with which compare <span class="sc">beef to the heels</span>. A run of luck and good fortune, generally, is likewise referred to as <span class="sc">beefy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Gaslight and Daylight</i>, ch. xi. To see him in his huge shirt-sleeves, with his awkward <span class="sc">beefy</span> hands hanging inanely by his side, and his great foolish mouth open.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bee-Line.</b> <span class="sc">To take</span> or <span class="sc">make a bee-line</span> [for a place or object], <i>phr.</i> (originally American; now common).—To go direct; ‘as the crow flies’; without circumlocution.
+Bees, when fully laden with pollen, make for the hive in a straight, or <span class="sc">bee-line</span>. One of the American railways is called the <span class="sc">Bee-Line Road</span> from the direct route it takes between its termini. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Straight shoot</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb164">[<a href="#pb164">164</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;R. Lowell</span>, <i>Biglow Papers</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The field of Lexin’ton where England tried </p>
+<p class="line">The fastest colors thet she ever dyed. </p>
+<p class="line">An’ Concord Bridge, thet Davis, when he came, </p>
+<p class="line">Found was the <span class="sc">bee-line track</span> to heaven an’ fame, </p>
+<p class="line">Ez all roads be by natur’, ef your soul </p>
+<p class="line">Don’t sneak thur shun-pikes so’s to save the toll. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1874. <span class="sc">M. Collins</span>, <i>Frances</i>, ch. v. How they could follow an enemy’s trail, or <span class="sc">strike a bee-line</span> through unpathed woods to the point they sought!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <span class="sc">Miss Bird</span>, <i>Six Mos. in Sandwich Islands</i>, Lett. xxix., p. 275 (1886). Horses cross the sand and hummocks as nearly as possible
+<span class="sc">on a bee-line</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">Aldridge</span>, <i>Ranch Notes</i>, p. 78. The cattle are in great dread of this pest [the heel-fly], and the instant
+an animal feels one, it hoists its tail in the air, and <span class="sc">takes a bee-line</span> for the nearest water.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beelzebub’s Paradise</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Hell; the infernal regions. Beelzebub is a frequent mis-reading for Beelzebul,
+the name given by the Jews to the prince of demons. The usage occurs in the New Testament
+at Matthew x., 25, and xii., 24–27, where Beelzebub should read <i>Beelzebul</i>. The former is properly the god of the Philistines, worshipped as the destroyer of
+flies [from Hebrew <i lang="und">baal</i>, lord + <i lang="und">zebub</i>, a fly]; whilst the latter is an opprobrious change on the former [from Hebrew <i lang="und">baal</i>, lord + <i lang="und">zebul</i>, dung].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Been in the Sun</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—A synonym for ‘drunk,’ in connection with which <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>. An allusion to a flushed, heated appearance.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Been Measured for a New Umbrella</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—Said sportively of anyone appearing in new, ill-fitting clothes, or who
+has struck out a new line of action, the wisdom of which is doubtful. The joke is
+an old one and refers to a man of whom it was said that nothing fitted him but his
+umbrella.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Been There.</b> <span class="sc">Oh, yes, I’ve been there</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American), <i>i.e.</i>, ‘I know what I am about.’ A popular exclamation. When it is said of a man that he
+has <span class="sc">been there</span>, shrewdness, pertinacity, and experience are implied. A variant may be found in the
+equally slang expression, ‘he got there all the same.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Got there</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Atlanta Constitution</i>, May 4. The Japanese say: ‘A man takes a drink; then the drink takes a drink, and
+next the drink takes the man.’ Evidently the Japanese ‘have <span class="sc">been there</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>2. Another and more invidious meaning, however, is attached to the phrase. Women suspected
+of clandestine meetings with men are said to have <span class="sc">been there</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—<span class="sc">To do a beer</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, to take a drink of beer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch’s Almanac</i>, p. 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Quarter-day, too, no more chance of tick, </p>
+<p class="line">Fancy I shall ’ave to cut my stick. </p>
+<p class="line">Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear, </p>
+<p class="line">Two <i>d.</i> left!—must <span class="sc">go and do a beer</span>! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, July 6. It was the old tale of stony, pebble-beached, block granite Wednesday, and
+money on the staff there was none. ‘Pitcher,’ said Shifter, brushing the dust off
+his tongue, ‘got enough for a <span class="sc">beer</span>?’ ‘Enough for a <span class="sc">beer</span>?’ repeated Pitcher. ‘Good heavens, I wish I had. If Bass’s ale was a ha’penny a barrel
+I couldn’t buy enough to soak a fly-paper!’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To drink beer; also, to get drunk.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb165">[<a href="#pb165">165</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1780–6. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> (‘P. Pindar’) <i>Odes R. Acad.</i>, wks., 1794, I., 105. He surely had been brandying it or <span class="sc">beering</span>, that is, in plainer English, he was drunk. [<span class="sc">d.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To think no small beer</span> [of oneself], <i>phr.</i> (common).—Small beer is weak beer; hence, figuratively equivalent to a trifle. The
+expression, <span class="sc">to think no small beer of oneself</span>, indicates, therefore, a good measure of self-esteem.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">De Quincey</span>, <i>Style</i>, wks. XI., 174. [I] should express her self-esteem by the popular phrase, that she
+did not <span class="sc">think small beer of herself</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beer and Bible</b>, <i>phr.</i> (political).—An epithet applied sarcastically to a political party which first came
+into prominence during the last Beaconsfield Administration. It was called into being
+by a measure introduced by the moderate Liberals in 1873, with a view to placing certain
+restrictions upon the sale of intoxicating drinks. The Licensed Victuallers, an extremely
+powerful association, whose influence extended all over the kingdom, took alarm, and
+turned to the Conservatives for help in opposing the bill. In the ranks of the latter
+were numbered the chief brewers; the leaders of the association, moreover, had mostly
+strong high church tendencies, while one of them was president of the Exeter Hall
+organization. The Liberals, noting these facts, sarcastically nicknamed this alliance
+the <span class="sc">Beer and Bible Association</span>; the <i>Morning Advertiser</i>, the organ of the Licensed Victuallers, was dubbed the <span class="sc">Beer and Bible Gazette</span>; and lastly, electioneering tactics ascribed to them the war cry of <span class="sc">beer and bible!</span> This so-called <span class="sc">beer and bible</span> interest made rapid strides: in 1870 the Conservatives were at their low water mark
+among the London constituencies; but, in 1880, they had carried seats in the City,
+Westminster, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, and Southwark<span>.</span> A notable exception to this strange fellowship was Mr. Bass [afterwards Lord Bass],
+of pale-ale fame, who held aloof from opposition to the measure in question. Anent
+the nickname <span class="sc">Beer and Bible Gazette</span> given to the <i>Morning Advertiser</i>, it may be mentioned that it had already earned for itself a somewhat similar sobriquet.
+For a long time this paper devoted one-half of its front page to notices of publicans
+and tavern-keepers; while the other half was filled up with announcements of religious
+books, and lists of preachers at the London churches and chapels. This gained for
+the paper the equally singular sobriquet of the ‘Gin and Gospel Gazette.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beer and Skittles.</b> Generally, <span class="sc">Not all beer and skittles</span>, <i>phr.</i> (familiar), <i>i.e.</i>, not altogether pleasant, or <i lang="fr">couleur de rose</i>. A tap room simile, the allusion being to drinking beer and playing at skittles at
+one and the same time.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 138. But football wasn’t all <span class="sc">beer and skittles</span> to the Fags. There was an institution called ‘Kicking in,’ which, while it lasted,
+was much worse than ‘watching out’ at cricket, although it had the very great merit
+of not continuing so long; for, even on a whole holiday, we seldom had more than two
+hours of it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gaz.</i>, Aug. 13, p. 6. Prince George of Wales is ‘learning his <span class="pageNum" id="pb166">[<a href="#pb166">166</a>]</span>profession,’ and finds it is not all <span class="sc">beer and skittles</span>. That run across the Channel into Queenstown harbour showed our young naval officer
+the difference between an ironclad and a torpedo boat. The latter is an uncommonly
+lively craft, and in a choppy sea under a fresh breeze was surprisingly nimble. The
+commander of No. 79 arrived in the harbour, having shown that at least in one respect
+he has already something in common with the late admiral, Lord Nelson. The officers
+of the <i>Revenge</i> had the honour to request the pleasure of the company of the Prince and his brother
+officers to breakfast. The brother officers went, His Royal Highness spent the day
+in his hammock, and towards evening wrote to his Royal Father a description of the
+perils of the deep.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beer-Barrel</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The human body. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bacon</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beeriness</b>, <i>subs.</i>, <b>Beery</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Pertaining to a state of, or approaching to drunkenness; intoxicated; fuddled
+with beer. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Dorrit</i>, bk. I., ch. viii., p. 56. The stranger was left to the … <span class="sc">beery</span> atmosphere, sawdust, pipe-lights, spittoons, and repose.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">D.&nbsp;C. Murray</span>, in <i>Belgravia</i>, July, p. 73. There was a <span class="sc">beery</span> and bloated captain, resident in the inn, who had left the army, as the rumour ran,
+under disreputable auspices.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Modern Society</i>, July 13, p. 838. It is a fact that does not seem to have struck anyone, that Shakspeare’s
+first appearance as a sporting tipster was in the words, ‘Lay on Macduff.’ We believe,
+however, that they could at that time have got five to one against him. So sure was
+the bard of his tip, that he added, in his own classical language, ‘Damn’d be he that
+first cries, Hold, enough,’ which is vulgarly translated by the <span class="sc">beery</span> oracle of the kerbstone, ‘Put yer shirt on ’im, cuffs an’ all.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beer-Jerker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A tippler.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jerker</span> and <span class="sc">Slinger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beerocracy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The brewing and beer-selling interest. [A humorous appellation in imitation
+of aristocracy. From <span class="sc">beer</span> + [<span class="sc">o</span>] <span class="sc">cracy</span>, from Greek <span class="trans" title="krateō"><span lang="grc" class="grek">κρατέω</span></span>, to rule, to hold.<span class="corr" id="xd33e26569" title="Not in source">]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>World</i>, 19 Jan., p. 10, col. 2. The startling mixture of peerage and <span class="sc">beerocracy</span> … was absent this time. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beer-Slinger.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Slinger</span>; also <span class="sc">Jerker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beeswax</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Poor, soft cheese. Sometimes called <span class="sc">sweaty-toe cheese</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 3. <i>Bob</i>: Now, landlord, ’arter that ’ere drap of max, suppose we haves a <i>drain o’ heavy wet</i>, just by way of cooling our <i>chaffers</i>—mine’s as <i>dry as a chip</i>—and, I say, do you hear, let’s have a twopenny <i>burster</i>, half a quartern of <span class="sc">beesvax</span>, a ha’p’orth o’ ingens, and a dollop o’ salt along vith it, vill you? <i>Mace</i>: Bellay! a burster and <span class="sc">beesvax</span>—ingens and salt here. (<i>Calling as he fetches the porter from the side wing</i>, <span class="sc">l.</span>). Now, then, here you are, Master Grimmuzzle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <i>Bell’s Life.</i> [From Baumann.] A burster with a slice of <span class="sc">beeswax</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A bore; one who ‘buttonholes’ another. Generally, <span class="sc">Old beeswax</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beeswaxers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—Thick boots used for football. Probably from being smeared
+with beeswax or other substitute for rendering footgear supple. Pronounced <i>Bĕswaxers</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 137. Our costume consisted of a jersey, flannel trousers, <span class="sc">beeswaxers</span> (lace-up boots), or ‘High-lows’ (low shoes), with two or three pairs of ‘Worsteders’
+(thick worsted stockings), the feet of all but one pair being cut off.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb167">[<a href="#pb167">167</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beeswing</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A gauzy film or ‘crust,’ in port wines, the result of age. [From <span class="sc">bees</span> + <span class="sc">wing</span>; so called from its appearance when broken up in the process of decanting.] Hence
+also <span class="sc">beeswinged</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, III., p. 26. Scott from under bushy eyebrows winked at the apparition of a <span class="sc">beeswing</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">D. Jerrold</span>, <i>The Catspaw</i>, Act i. Whereupon, the animal spirits are held in suspense, like—like the <span class="sc">beeswing</span> in port.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <span class="sc">Fitzedward Hall</span>, <i>Modern English</i>, p. 32. This port is not presentable unless <span class="sc">beeswinged</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Old beeswing</span>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A nickname for anyone, but especially for one who ‘takes to his liquor
+kindly’ as the saying goes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">Mark Lemon</span>, <i>Golden Fetters</i>, II., p. 74. Mr. Clendon did not call Mr. Barnard ‘old cock,’ ‘old fellow,’ or <span class="sc">old beeswing</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beetle-Crusher</b> or <b>Beetle Squasher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A large foot. The term was popularised by Leech in the pages of <i>Punch</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Hoof</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. In a transferred and now more common sense to that originally obtaining, a large
+boot or shoe. Also <span class="sc">Beetle-cases</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Trotter-cases</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">W. Bradwood</span>, <i>The O.V.H.</i>, ch. xxi. Writhing yet striving to look pleasant on the infliction which the <span class="sc">beetle-crusher</span> of a recent arrival had just inflicted on his pet corn.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1880. <span class="sc">Rhoda Broughton</span>, <i>Cometh up as a Flower</i>, II., p. 200. Yes, but what horrible boots! Whoever could have had the atwocity to
+fwame such <span class="sc">beetle-crushers</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (military.)—An infantry soldier; the term is applied to them by the cavalry. A
+variant is <span class="sc">Mud-crusher</span>, which <i>see</i> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beetle-Crushing</b>, <i>adj.</i> (popular).—With solid tread, such as comes from large heavy feet encased in boots
+or shoes to match; <i>e<span>.</span>g.</i>, the marching of infantry. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Beetle-crusher</span>, sense 3.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <i>Anteros</i>, I., p. 188. The possibility floated before him, now, of sending all his live and
+dead stock into the market,—of exchange into a sedate <span class="sc">beetle-crushing</span> corps.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beetles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—Colorado mine shares.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">Atkins</span>, <i>House Scraps</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Oh supposing our creamjugs were broken, </p>
+<p class="line">Or <span class="sc">beetles</span> were sowing the babies. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Beetle-Sticker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—An entomologist.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Before the Wind</b>, <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—In prosperous circumstances; out of debt or difficulty. From the nautical
+expression.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Begad!</b> <i>intj.</i> (common).—A corruption of ‘By God!’ and, as such a euphemistic oath.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1742. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>J. Andrews</i>. <span class="sc">Begad!</span> madam … ’tis the very same I met.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, II., iv., 39. Only one, <span class="sc">begad!</span> in the world.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggared.</b> <span class="sc">I’ll be beggared if</span>, etc., <i>phr.</i> (common).—An emphatic form of asseveration; <i>i.e.</i>, ‘I’ll give up everything, even to being reduced to beggary, if,’ etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggar-Maker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A publican.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb168">[<a href="#pb168">168</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggars</b>, <i>subs.</i> (cards’).—The small cards from the deuce to the ten are so called.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggar’s Bolts.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Beggar’s bullets</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggar’s Bullets</b> or <b>Bolts</b> (old).—Stones.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1584. <span class="sc">Hudson</span>, <i>Judith</i>, in Sylvester’s <i>Du Bartas</i> (1608), 698. A pack of country clowns … that them to battail bownes, with <span class="sc">begger’s bolts</span> and levers. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. ‘The <span class="sc">beggar’s bullets</span> began to fly’; <i>i.e.</i>, they began to throw stones.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggar’s Bush.</b> <span class="sc">To go home by beggar’s bush</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To go to ruin; otherwise explained as follows.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1686. <i>Twelve Ingenious Characters.</i> He throws away his wealth as heartily as young heirs, or old philosophers, and is
+so eager of a goal, or a mumper’s wallet, that he will not wait fortune’s leisure
+to undo him, but rides post to <span class="sc">beggar’s bush</span>, and then takes more pains to spend money than day-labourers to get it. [<span class="asc">N.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Dictionary of Phrase and Fable</i>, p. 78. <span class="sc">Beggar’s Bush.</span> <span class="sc">To go by beggar’s bush</span> (or) <span class="sc">go home by beggar’s bush</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, to go to ruin. <span class="sc">Beggar’s bush</span> is the name of a tree which once stood on the left hand of the London road from Huntingdon
+to Caxton, so called because it was a noted rendezvous for beggars. These punning
+phrases and proverbs are very common.
+</p>
+<p>Russell Hill, near Croydon, where the Warehousemen’s and Clerks’ Schools are, is locally
+known as <span class="sc">Beggar’s Bush</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggar’s Plush</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old)?—Corduroy.—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1688. <i>London Gazette</i>, No. 2379, page 4. A person … in a dark grey Cloth Coat.… Breeches of <span class="sc">Beggar’s Plush</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggar’s Velvet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Downy particles which accumulate under furniture from the negligence of
+housemaids. Otherwise called <span class="sc">sluts’-wool</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beggar the Thing!</b> <i>intj.</i> (common).—Equivalent to ‘confound’ or ‘hang the thing’—used to give additional emphasis
+to a word or action.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Begin Upon</b> [<b>a Person</b>], <i>verb</i> (common).—To attack; to assault.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Begosh!</b> <b>B’gosh!</b> <i>intj.</i> (American).—An expletive, probably of negro origin; a half veiled oath; a corruption
+of ‘By God!’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>The Epoch</i>, May 5. <i>Art dealer</i> (descanting on the virtues of the picture). ‘You will observe, sir, that the drawing
+is free, that—’ <i>Agriculturist</i>. ‘Well, if the drawin’s free an’ you don’t tax me too much for the frame <span class="sc">b’gosh</span> I’ll take it.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Behind</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. The posterior; the rump.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1830. George IV., in <i>Saturday Review</i> (1862), 8 Feb. Go and do my bidding—tell him he lies, and kick his <span class="sc">behind</span> in my name. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. (Eton and Winchester Colleges.)—A back at football. At Eton called <span class="sc">short behind</span> and <span class="sc">long behind</span>, usually abbreviated to ‘short’ and ‘long.’ At Winchester, <span class="sc">second behind</span> and <span class="sc">last behind</span>. These answer to the half-back and back of Association football. At Winchester, in
+the Fifteens, there is also a <span class="sc">third behind</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Behind One’s Side</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (Winchester College).—Said of a man when nearer the opponent’s goal than the player
+of <span class="pageNum" id="pb169">[<a href="#pb169">169</a>]</span>his team who last touched the ball.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beilby’s Ball</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An Old Bailey execution.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Beilby’s Ball</span>,—‘he will dance at <span class="sc">Beilby’s Ball</span>, where the sheriff pays [for] the musick: he will be hanged. Who Mr. Beilby was,
+or why that ceremony was so called remains with the quadrature of the circle, the
+discovery of the philosopher’s stone, and diverse other desiderata yet undiscovered.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bejan</b>, <b>Baijan</b>, etc., <i>subs.</i> (Scotch University).—A freshman; a student of the first year at the Universities
+of St Andrew’s and Aberdeen: it is now obsolete at Edinburgh. [From the French <i lang="fr">bec jaune</i>, yellow beak, in allusion to the color of the mandibles of young birds.] The term
+was adopted from the University of Paris; but, signifying ‘a novice’ it has been in
+more or less general use for nearly three hundred years. At Aberdeen, the second-class
+students are ‘<span class="sc">semi-bejans</span>’; in the third ‘<span class="sc">tertians</span>’; while those in the highest rank are ‘<span class="sc">magistrands</span>.’ In the University of Vienna the freshman is called <i lang="la">beanus</i>, and in France ‘footing money’ is <i lang="fr">bejaunia</i>. For synonymous terms for freshmen and raw recruits, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Snooker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Cotgrave.</span> <i lang="fr">Bejaune</i>, a novice … or young beginner, in a trade or art.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">G. Macdonald</span>, <i>Alec Forbes</i>, ch. xxxiv. The benches were occupied by about two hundred students, most of the
+freshmen or <span class="sc">bejans</span> in their red gowns.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Standard</i>, Feb. 10, p. 5, col. 2. The term <span class="sc">baijan</span>, used in one of the Scottish universities to designate a freshman, is from the French
+<i lang="fr">bec jaune</i>, yellow beak—young birds having usually bills of this hue.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belch</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Beer, especially poor beer. So called because of its liability to cause
+eructation. The term is probably much older than indicated by quotations. One of Shakspeare’s
+characters in <i>Twelfth Night</i> is Sir Toby Belch, a reckless, roystering, jolly knight of the Elizabethan period.
+For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>London Spy</i>, pt. XV., p. 347. Those <i>Poor Sots</i> who are gussling <span class="sc">belch</span> at his own <i>Ale-house</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>Hudibras Redivivus</i>, vol. I., pt. VII., p. 18.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I sneak’d into a little house, </p>
+<p class="line">Where porters do their <span class="sc">belch</span> carouse. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Belch</span> (s.), common beer or ale sold in publick houses is so called.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Belch</span>, all sorts of beer, that liquor being apt to cause eructation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <span class="sc">A. Mayhew</span>, <i>Paved with Gold</i>, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 265. ‘Let’s have a pot of that fourpenny English Burgundy
+of yours, and, whilst my mates are drinking the <span class="sc">belch</span>, I want to talk business with you.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belcher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—A neckerchief named after Jim Belcher, a noted pugilist. The ground
+is blue, with white spots. Also, attributatively, to any handkerchief of a similar
+pattern. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Fogle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <i>Examiner</i>, 21 Sept., 607, 1. The traverser … tied a <span class="sc">belcher</span> handkerchief round his neck.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>The Ghost of Art</i>, in <i>Reprinted Pieces</i>, p. 215. I saw that the lower part of his face was tied up, in what is commonly called
+a <span class="sc">belcher</span> handkerchief.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, April, p. 506. The spotted blue and white neckerchief, still called a <span class="sc">belcher</span>, bears the name of a famous prize fighter.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—A ring. Described in quotation.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb170">[<a href="#pb170">170</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 399. The best sort of rings for fawney dropping is the <span class="sc">belchers</span>. They are a good thick looking ring, and have the crown and V.R. stamped upon them.
+</p>
+<p>3. (circus and showmen.)—A drinker of beer; generally a hard drinker. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Belch</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 99. Now it is well known that travelling mummers are all rare <span class="sc">belchers</span> … I kept them in conversation … until the drink took the desired effect, and one
+by one the princes and kings dropped on the grass floor, and were sound drunk and
+asleep.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belial</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Oxford University).—A nickname of Balliol College.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Believe.</b> <span class="sc">I believe you</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—This phrase is frequently employed to signify general assent; ‘yes.’ Sometimes
+colloquially ‘<span class="sc">I believe you my boy</span>’; once a favourite catch-phrase of a well-known actor.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 286. ‘Now confess: were you not a little surprised?’—‘<span class="sc">I believe you</span>,’ replied that illustrious person.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849–50. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, I., p. 140. ‘Miss Rouney, I gather, was the confidante of the other.’ ‘Confidant?
+<span class="sc">I believe you</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">George Eliot</span>, <i>The Mill on the Floss</i>, p. 199. ‘Is she a cross woman?’—‘<span class="sc">I believe you.</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Dudley Costello</span>, <i>The Millionaire of Mincing Lane</i>, p. 204. ‘And she hates that fellow?’—‘Hates him? <span class="sc">I believe you.</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bell</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—A song. Tramps’ term. Simply diminutive of <span class="sc">bellow</span>.—<i>Hotten.</i>
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (schoolboy).—<span class="sc">To bell</span> a marble is to run away with it, but the action scarcely amounts to actual theft.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To ring one’s own bell</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A variation of ‘to blow one’s trumpet’; to sound one’s praises personally.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bell-Bastard</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial slang).—In the West of England the illegitimate child of a woman who
+is herself illegitimate; why and wherefore is obscure, though possibly a corruption
+of ‘double bastard.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bellmare</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A political leader, mostly used contemptuously. The term is a slang appropriation
+from the terminology of Western life, where it seems to be used in regard to mules
+much in the same way as bell-wether is employed in England in reference to sheep.
+Why the grey mare, says the author of <i>A Ride with Kit Carson</i>, should be the better horse in the estimation of mules I cannot say, but such is
+certainly the fact. Though very cautious animals when relying solely on their own
+judgment, they would appear to have a consciousness of their own inferiority, which
+induces them to entertain a great regard for the sagacity of the horse, and especially
+for that of a white mare. The wily Californians, taking advantage of this amiable
+weakness, employ a steady, old, white mare of known gentleness and good character,
+to act as a kind of mother and guide to each drove of unruly mules.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bellows</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The lungs. This, etymologically, is the same as ‘belly,’ both words having
+passed through a most complicated history. Properly speaking a bellows is an instrument
+constructed to produce a strong current of air, and the <span class="pageNum" id="pb171">[<a href="#pb171">171</a>]</span>word itself can be traced back to about A.D. 800. Its figurative and slang signification
+is recorded as follows:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1615. <span class="sc">Latham</span>, <i>Falconry</i> (1633), 115. The lungs doe draw a breath.… When these <span class="sc">bellowes</span> doe decay, then health from both doth fade away, [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1730. <span class="sc">Jas. Miller</span>, <i>Humours of Oxford</i>, Act v., Sc. 2., p. 75 (2 ed.). Heark you, madam, don’t abuse my wife—slut quotha!
+i’gad let me tell you, she has done a cleaner thing than you’ll ever do while your
+<span class="sc">bellows</span> blow, old lady.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A plague on those malty cove fellows, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Who’d have us in spirits relax; </p>
+<p class="line">Drink, they say, and you’ll ne’er burn the <span class="sc">bellows</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Half water instead of all max; </p>
+<p class="line">A glass of good max, had they twigg’d it, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Would have made them, like us, lads of wax; </p>
+<p class="line">For Sal swigg’d, and Dick swigg’d, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And Bob swigg’d, and Nick swigg’d, </p>
+<p class="line">And I’ve swigged, and we’ve all of us swigg’d it, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And, by Jingo, there’s nothing like max. </p>
+<p class="line xd33e27473">All Max! </p>
+<p class="line xd33e24230">By Jingo, there’s nothing like max! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1843. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>Sam Slick in England</i>, ch. xxii. He [the servant] is so fat and lazy … walkin’ put him out o’ breath.…
+How I would like to lick him … round the park … to improve his wind, and teach him
+how to mend his pace. I’d repair his old <span class="sc">bellowses</span> for him, I know.
+</p>
+<p>Though regarded as slang in England, the word is colloquially used in many parts of
+America, in the duplicated plural form—<span class="sc">bellowses</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;R. Lowell</span>, in <i>Biglow Papers</i>, I., p. 23. His <span class="sc">bellowses</span> is sound enough.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bellowsed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Transported; lagged. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bellowser</span>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bellowser</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—1. A blow in the pit of the stomach, or wind—one that takes the breath
+away.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A sentence of transportation for life.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <i>Novels and Tales</i> (from Household Words), Tauch. ed. vi., p. 187. A sigh of the kind which is called
+by the lower classes a <span class="sc">bellowser</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bellows to Mend</b>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—It is said of a broken-winded horse that it has <span class="sc">bellows to mend</span>; likewise of a man whose lungs are affected, or one who from any cause is ‘out of
+health.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Cuthbert Bede</span>, <i>Verdant Green</i>, pt. II., ch. iv. To one gentleman he would pleasantly observe, as he tapped him
+on the chest, ‘<span class="sc">Bellows to mend</span> for you, my buck!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bell-Rope</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The same as <span class="sc">aggerawators</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, s.v., ‘Love lock.’ When men indulge in a curl in front of their ears, the love-lock
+is called a <span class="sc">bell-rope</span>—<i>i.e.</i>, a rope to pull the belles after them.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bells Down!</b> <i>intj.</i> (Winchester College).—<i>See</i> quotation and <span class="sc">Bells go single!</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 62. The junior in chamber had a hard time of it; … while endeavouring to get
+through his multifarious duties, he had to keep a sharp ear on the performance of
+the chapel bell, and to call out accordingly, ‘first peal!’ ‘second peal!’ and <span class="sc">bells down!</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bells go Single!</b> <i>intj.</i> (Winchester College).—A single bell is rung for five minutes before the hour at which
+chapel commences. For College evening chapel three three’s are rung, and then follows
+a ‘bell,’ one for every man in College—70.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">Adams</span>, <i>Wykehamica</i>, p. 256. At a quarter to six the peal again rang out, and the cry of <span class="sc">bells go</span> was sounded in shrill tones through every chamber of College and Commoners.… <span class="pageNum" id="pb172">[<a href="#pb172">172</a>]</span>After ten minutes the peal changed, and only a single bell continued to ring. This
+was notified by the cry <span class="sc">bells go single</span>, and five minutes afterwards, by that of ‘bells down.’… Presently the head-master
+… would descend from his library: or the second master … would appear at the archway
+near Sixth Chamber, and the warning voice would be heard ‘Gabell’ or ‘Williams through,’
+‘Williams,’ or ‘Ridding in.’ Straightway there would be a general rush, the college-boys
+darting across the quadrangle in the rear of the Præfect of Chapel; while the Commoners
+hurried in, keeping up a continuous stream from their more distant quarters.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bellswagger.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Belswagger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bell-Topped</b>, <b>Bell-Knobbed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (harlotry).—Said of a man whose <i>penis</i> is considerably thicker at the top end than at the root or middle.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bell-Topper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A silk hat. [From <span class="sc">bell</span>, alluding to the shape, + <span class="sc">top</span>, from its position when worn, in relation to the rest of the body + <span class="sc">er</span>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Golgotha</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, in <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Aug. 5, p. 5, col. 4. His very <span class="sc">bell-topper</span> hat had been garlanded with flowers.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Ache</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vulgar).—A pain in the bowels; a colic.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>New York Times</i>, Dec. 18, quoted in <i>N. and Q.</i>, 6 S., v., 65. <span class="sc">Bellyache.</span> To grumble without good cause. Employés <span class="sc">bellyache</span> at being overworked, or when they fancy themselves underfed, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Bender</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A boy’s term for weak and unsafe ice.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Bound</b>, <i>adj.</i> (vulgar).—Constipated; costive.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Bumper</b> or <b>Belly-Buster.</b> <span class="sc">To take a belly-buster</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To ride down a hill in a sled lying on one’s stomach, an amusement confined,
+it hardly needs saying, to young America. The idea of toboganning was derived from
+this boyish pastime, and the oaken board has been succeeded by the fleet-winged toboggan,
+made of seasoned maple with handsomely upholstered seats. With the advent of improved
+ice vehicles the interest in these sports has increased, and instead of being confined
+to the vulgar boys who used to ride down hill <span class="sc">belly-buster</span> fashion, men and even the most fashionable women now partake of this pleasant and
+invigorating pastime. Also belly-bumbo, belly-guts, or gutter, belly-flounders, belly-flumps,
+and belly-plumper.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Chicago Inter-Ocean.</i> Barney has a sled, on which he hauls the fish in snowy weather. Barney had his sled
+out yesterday, <span class="sc">belly-bumping</span> on a little patch of ice and snow.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Button</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—The navel.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Can</b> (political).—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, Mar. 28. Whatever ultimately comes of the Sunday Closing movement, it will at any
+rate leave behind it a curious addition to the English language. This is the word
+‘<span class="sc">belly-can</span>,’ which is (according to the opponents of Sunday Closing) the plebeian counterpart
+of the more genteel ‘small cask’—both things being, of course, contrivances for getting
+round the legal prohibition of Sunday drinking. Lexicographers may perhaps be glad
+to have the definitions of the two phrases as given yesterday afternoon by Mr. Cavendish
+Bentinck:—The ‘<span class="sc">belly-can</span>’ was a tin vessel not unlike a saddle in shape, which men and women, generally the
+latter—let hon. members note that—got filled with beer <span class="pageNum" id="pb173">[<a href="#pb173">173</a>]</span>and secreted about their clothes, an averaged-sized can holding about four quarts.
+A more aristocratic method of private Sunday drinking was by means of the ‘small cask.’
+The small cask industry was said to be an exceedingly prosperous one in certain districts.
+Grocers advertised for casks as a speciality, and one grocer advertised on a Saturday
+fifty and sixty and sometimes even 100 empty casks.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Cheat</b> or <b>Belly-Chete</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An apron; also food. [From <span class="sc">belly</span> + slang <span class="sc">cheat</span>, a thing; from Anglo-Saxon <i>ceat</i>, a thing.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1609. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Lanthorne and Candlelight</i>, wks. (1885) III., 196. A <span class="sc">belly-chete</span>, an apron.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1622. <span class="sc">Fletcher</span>, <i>Beggar’s Bush</i>, II., i. Each man shall eat his own stol’n eggs and shall possess what he can purchase—back
+or <span class="sc">belly-cheats</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> <span class="sc">Belly-cheat</span>, an apron.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Cheer</b> or <b>Belly-Chere</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Food. This term is of considerable antiquity, as also is <span class="sc">belly-cheering</span> for eating and drinking. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Grub</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1559. <i>Eliotes Dictionarie.</i> Abdomini indulgere, to geve hym selfe to <span class="sc">bealy-chere</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1612. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Knaves of Spades</i>, etc. Gluttonie mounted on a greedie beare, <span class="sc">To belly-cheere</span> and banquets lends his care.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1699. <span class="sc">Coles</span>, <i>English Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Belly-cheer</span>, Cibaria.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-chere.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Belly-cheer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Chete.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Belly-cheat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Full</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A sound drubbing; a thrashing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Lenten Stuffe</i>, in wks. V., 265. The churlish frampild waues gaue him his <span class="sc">belly-full</span> of fish broath.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1605. <span class="sc">Chapman</span>, <i>All Fooles</i>, Act ii., p. 58 (<i>Plays</i>, 1874). Walk not too boldly; if the serjeants meet you, you may have swaggering work
+your <span class="sc">belly-full</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1666. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, Oct. 28. He says that in the July fight, both the Prince and Holmes had their <span class="sc">belly-fulls</span>, and were fain to go aside.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>Clockmaker</i>, 3 S., ch. xvi. Bunker’s Hill, where, Mr. Slick observed, ‘the British first got
+a taste of what they afterwards got, a <span class="sc">belly-full</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>2. A woman with child was also formerly said to have her <span class="sc">belly-full</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Belly-up</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Furniture</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Food; something wherewith to furnish the belly. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Belly-timber</span>, <span class="sc">Back-timber</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1653. <span class="sc">Urquhart</span>, <i>Rabelais</i>, bk. I., ch. v. (Bohn’s), i., 110. Then did they fall upon the victuals, and some
+<span class="sc">belly-furniture</span> to be snatched at in the very same place.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-go-Firster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—An initial blow, generally given, say some authorities, in the stomach—whence
+its classic name!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Gut</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A lazy, greedy fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1540. <span class="sc">Morysine</span>, transl., <i>Vives’ Introd. Wisd.</i>, viij. Such as be skoffers, swell feastes … <span class="sc">bely guts</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1733. <span class="sc">Bailey</span>, <i>Erasmus</i>, p. 346. Since then thou would’st not have a <span class="sc">belly-gut</span> for thy servant, but rather one brisk and agile, why then dost thou provide for thyself
+a minister fat and unwieldy?
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Guts</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American schoolboys’).—1. In Pennsylvania, molasses candy.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American.)—Equivalent to <span class="sc">belly-bumper</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Hedges</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Shrewsbury School).—In school steeple-chases, obstructions of such a height that
+they can easily be cleared—<i>i.e.</i>, about ‘belly-high.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb174">[<a href="#pb174">174</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Piece</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. An apron. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Belly-cheat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1689. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Bury Fair</i>. If thou shoulds cry, it would make streaks down thy face; as the tears of the tankard
+do upon my fat host’s <span class="sc">belly-pieces</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A mistress; a concubine; a whore.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1630. <span class="sc">Randolph</span>, <i>Jealous Lovers</i>. <i>Asot</i>: Come, blush not, bashfull <span class="sc">belly-piece</span>—I will meet thee: I ever keep my word with a fair lady. I will requite that jewell
+with a richer.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly Plea</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A plea of pregnancy, generally adduced by female felons capitally convicted.
+This they took care to provide for, previous to trial; every gaol had, as the <i>Beggars’ Opera</i> informs us, one or more child-getters, who qualified the ladies for that expedient.
+The <i>plea</i> still holds good, execution of female convicts in ‘an interesting condition’ being
+deferred until after accouchement. In practice, it really means a commutation of the
+death penalty for life imprisonment. All chances, however, of becoming <i>enceinte</i> after arrest are sedulously guarded against by the rules of modern prison life.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Plumper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Belly-bumper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Timber</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Food; provisions of all kinds. [From <span class="sc">belly</span> + <span class="sc">timber</span>.] This, like many other words of its class (<i>e.g.</i>, <span class="sc">back-timber</span>, <i>q.v.</i>), was once in serious use, but for a long period it has been going down hill, and
+it is now a thorough-going vulgarism, only surviving dialectically, and as slang.
+Massinger and the older dramatists employed it seriously; toward the end of the seventeenth
+century it began to be used in a ludicrous and vulgar sense. Butler employs it thus,
+and in Charles Cotton’s <i>Scarronides</i> (1678), the hero we are told—
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p class="line">Lay thinking now his guts grew limber, </p>
+<p class="line">How they might get more <span class="sc">belly-timber</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">For synonyms generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Grub</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1614. <i>Terence</i> in English, <i>Annona cara est</i>. Corne is at a high price; victuals are deare; <span class="sc">belly-timber</span> is hard to come by.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1637. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>Guardian</i>, III., iii.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Ador.</i> Haste you unto my villa, and take all provisions along with you.…
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Car.</i> Trust me for <span class="sc">belly-timber</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663–78. <span class="sc">S. Butler</span>, <i>Hudibras</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e5086">Through deserts vast, </p>
+<p class="line">And regions desolate they pass’d, </p>
+<p class="line">Where <span class="sc">belly-timber</span>, above ground </p>
+<p class="line">Or under, was not to be found. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1719. <i>Poor Robin’s Almanack</i>, Feb. On the 10th day of this month, being Shrove-Tuesday, is like to be a great
+innundation of <span class="sc">belly-timber</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Belly-timber</span> (<span class="sc">s.</span>), all sorts of food.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Monastery</i>, ch. xv. ‘Yonder comes the monkish retinue … I hope a’gad, they have not forgotten
+my trunk-mails of apparel amid the ample provision they have made for their own <span class="sc">belly-timber</span><span>.</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Up</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (old).—Applied to women when <i>enceinte</i>. From the protrusion of the abdomen which takes place under such circumstances.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Belly-full</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belly-Vengeance</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Sour beer, apt to cause gastralgia. The French call this <i>pissin de cheval</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘horse urine.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb175">[<a href="#pb175">175</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belongings</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—1. Qualities; endowments; faculties.
+</p>
+<p>2. Relations; one’s kindred.
+</p>
+<p>3. One’s effects; or possessions. In sense 1 <span class="sc">belongings</span> has long been an accepted word; senses 2 and 3 are given by Annandale as ‘colloquial
+and vulgar.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Bleak House</i>. I have been trouble enough to my <span class="sc">belongings</span> in my day.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <i>Saturday Review</i>, 24 Feb., p. 244, col. 2. The rich uncle whose mission is to bring prosperity to
+his <span class="sc">belongings</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—Used by the prudishly inclined for trousers.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bags</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Below the Belt</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—To strike a man <span class="sc">below the belt</span> is to hit him unfairly, a term derived from the pugilistic arena. Hence, underhand
+dealing, and the taking of mean advantage generally. It is akin with ‘To stab a man
+in the back.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Belswagger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A lewd man; a whoremaster; a pimp. [Thought to be a contracted form of
+<span class="sc">belly</span> + <span class="sc">swagger</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, a man given up to bodily pleasure. Ash has both forms.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1775. <span class="sc">Ash</span>, <i>Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Belswagger</span>, a whoremaster.
+</p>
+<p>2. A bully; a hectoring fellow. This is the older, but least important usage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Defence of Coney-Catching</i>. … the <span class="sc">belswaggers</span> of the country.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bellswagger</span>, a noisy, bullying fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beltinker</b>, <i>subs.</i> and <i>verb</i> (common).—A beating; a drubbing. To thrash; to beat soundly.—For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tan</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bemused</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Fuddled; as in the stupid stage of drunkenness. [From <span class="sc">be</span> + <span class="sc">muse</span> + <span class="sc">ed</span>, originally to be sunk in reverie, or contemplation.] The expression as generally
+used now is <span class="sc">bemused with beer</span>. This phrase, originally used by Pope, was given a new impetus by G.&nbsp;A. Sala (in
+<i>Gaslight and Daylight</i>). In America, especially, it caught the popular fancy and ran a brief but riotous
+course throughout the Union to signify one who addicted himself to ‘soaking’ with
+beer. The transatlantic usage naturally reacted upon the Mother Country, and from
+being occasionally employed it became much more popular, and was heard on all sides—a
+striking instance of ‘fashion in words.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1735. <span class="sc">Pope</span>, <i>Prol. Sat.</i>, 15. A parson much <span class="sc">be-mus’d</span> in beer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>General Bounce</i>, ch. viii. A fat little man, primed with port, but who, when not thus <span class="sc">bemused</span>, is an influential member of his committee.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">R.&nbsp;L. Stevenson</span>, <i>The Treasure of Franchard</i>, ch. iv., in <i>Longman’s Mag.</i>, April, p. 694. So while the Doctor made himself drunk with words, the adopted stable-boy
+<span class="sc">bemused</span> himself with silence.
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ben</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—1. A benefit; a performance of which the receipts, after paying expenses,
+are devoted to one person’s special use or benefit.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Dead Sea Fruit</i>, I., 190. ‘I have played clown <span class="pageNum" id="pb176">[<a href="#pb176">176</a>]</span>for my <span class="sc">ben</span>,’ murmured the great Dr. Mortemas.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>Ballads of Babylon</i> (<i>Forgotten</i>). You saw me as Hamlet, Charley, the night that I had my <span class="sc">ben</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old cant.)—A fool.—<i>Grose.</i>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Benish</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—A shortened form of <span class="sc">Benjamin</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a coat; also of <span class="sc">benjy</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a waistcoat.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 252. Being at Hailsham, a small market town in Sussex, about the year 1846, I
+attended the club feast, which was held on the common. At that time we used to buy
+men’s waistcoats of Michael Riley, of Manchester, at £5 per gross, and sell them at
+1s. 6d., 1s. 3d., and the lowest price at a shilling each. I had a bale containing
+twelve dozen arrive that morning, they were red ones; and in offering these bens,
+the plan was to put them on to show how well they fitted.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To stand ben</span> (popular).—To stand treat.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Benar.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bene</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Benbouse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—Good beer. [From the Latin <i lang="la">bene</i> = good + <span class="sc">bouse</span> or <span class="sc">booze</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1869), p. 85. The vpright cofe canteth to the Roge: ‘I saye by the Salomon I will
+lage it of with a gage of <span class="sc">benebouse</span>; then cut to my nose watch.’ [‘I sweare by the masse, I wull washe it of with a quart
+of good drynke; then saye to me what thou wylt.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1622. <span class="sc">John Fletcher</span>, <i>Beggar’s Bush</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I crown thy nab with a gag of <span class="sc">benbouse</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">And stall thee by the salmon into clowes, </p>
+<p class="line">To maund on the pad and strike all the cheats, </p>
+<p class="line">To mill from the Ruffmans, and commission and slates. </p>
+<p class="line">Twang dell’s, i’ the stiromel, and let the quire cuffin </p>
+<p class="line">And Herman Beck strine and trine to the Ruffin! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><i>i.e.</i>,
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I poure on thy pate a pot of good ale, </p>
+<p class="line">And by the Rogue’s oath, a Rogue the install, </p>
+<p class="line">To beg on the way and rob all thou meets, </p>
+<p class="line">To steal from the hedge both the shirt and the sheets, </p>
+<p class="line">And lie with thy wench in the straw till she twang, </p>
+<p class="line">Let the Constable, Justice, and Devil go hang! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bencher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A frequenter of taverns; one who hulks about public houses; perhaps with an
+allusion to the Benchers of the Inns of Court.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ben Cull</b> or <b>Cove</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A friend; a ‘pall’; a companion. [From old cant <span class="sc">bene</span> or <span class="sc">ben</span>, good + <span class="sc">cull</span>, a man.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cove</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bend</b>, <i>verb</i> (Scotch).—To tipple; to drink hard. Jamieson, the first lexicographer to draw attention
+to the word in its slang sense, illustrates his example by quotations from Alan Ramsay.
+Murray suggests that it is derived from that sense of <span class="sc">to bend</span>, signifying ‘to pull,’ ‘to strain,’ ‘to apply oneself.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1758. <span class="sc">A. Ramsay</span>, <i>Poems</i> (1800), I., 215. Brawtippony … which we with greed <span class="sc">bended</span>, as fast as she could brew. <i>Ibid</i>, ii., 73. <span class="sc">To bend</span> wi’ ye, and spend wi’ ye, an evening, and gaffaw. [1860. <span class="sc">Ramsay</span>, <i>Remin.</i>, Ser. 1 (ed. 7), 47. <span class="sc">Bend</span> weel to the Madeira at dinner, for here ye’ll get little o’t after.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Above one’s bend</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Above one’s ability, power or capacity; or out of one’s reach. Probably
+a corruption of ‘above one’s bent.’ Shakspeare puts the expression in the mouth of
+Hamlet, ‘to the top of my bent’ (iii., 2). In the Southern States [U.S.A.], its place
+is generally taken by <span class="sc">above my huckleberry</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). An English equivalent is ‘above one’s hook.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb177">[<a href="#pb177">177</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;F. Cooper</span>, <i>The Oak Openings</i>. It would be <span class="sc">above my bend</span> to attempt telling you all we saw among the red skins.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Grecian bend</span> (popular).—A craze amongst women which had a vogue from about 1872 to 1880. It consisted
+in walking with the body bent forward.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, No. 629. Your own advocacy for the <span class="sc">Grecian bend</span> and the Alexandra limp—both positive and practical imitations of physical affliction.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">On the bend</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—In an underhand, oblique, or crooked way—not ‘on the square.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;C. Jeaffreson</span>, <i>Live It Down</i>, II., 152. I never have paid anything yet on the square, and I never will. When I
+die, I’ll order my executor to buy my coffin off the square. He shall get it <span class="sc">on the bend</span> somehow or other.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bender</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A sixpence. Thought to be an allusion to the ease with which these
+coins were liable to be bent in use. At one time the currency was not of such good
+quality as now.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 178. Sixpence. A <span class="sc">bender</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick</i>, ch. xlii., p. 367. ‘Will you take three bob?’ ‘And a <span class="sc">bender</span>,’ suggested the clerical gentleman.… ‘What do you say, now? We’ll pay you out for
+three-and-sixpence a week. Come!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>M. or N.</i>, p. 66. A ragged boy established, at the crossing, who had indeed rendered himself
+conspicuous by his endeavours to ferry Puckers over dry-shod, was accosted by a shabby-genteel
+and remarkably good-looking man, in the following vernacular—‘On this minnit, off
+at six, Buster; two bob an’ a <span class="sc">bender</span>, and a three of eye-water, in?’ ‘Done for another joey,’ replied Buster, with the
+premature acuteness of youth foraging for itself in the streets of London.
+</p>
+<p>Among synonymous terms for this coin may be mentioned cripple; bandy; crookback; downer;
+fyebuck; lord of the manor; tanner; sprat; kick; half a borde; tizzy.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Scotch.)—A hard and persistent drinker; a tippler. This should be compared with
+<span class="sc">bend</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1728. <span class="sc">Ramsay</span>, <i>Poems</i> (1848), III., 162. Now lend your lugs, ye <span class="sc">benders</span> fine, wha ken the benefit of wine.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1810. <span class="sc">Tannahill</span>, <i>Poems</i> (1846), 53. Or <span class="sc">benders</span>, blest your wizzens weetin’.
+</p>
+<p>3. (public schools’.)—In public school phraseology a <span class="sc">bender</span> is a stroke of the cane administered by the master while the culprit bends down his
+back.
+</p>
+<p>4. (common.)—The arm. In connection with this <i>see</i> the following, and for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Chalk Farm</span>.
+</p>
+<p>5. (American.)—A drinking bout or spree, in the course of which, to use another slang
+expression, ‘the town is painted red,’ and the participants decidedly unbent. This
+is possibly derived from any one of the three following sources:—(1) from the Scotch
+usage; (2) from the facetious name given to the arm, which becomes a <span class="sc">bender</span> from being so frequently bent or ‘crooked’ to lift the glass to the mouth; (3) from
+the Dutch <i lang="nl">bende</i>, an assembly, party, or band.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <i>Putnam’s Monthly</i>, Aug.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I met her at the Chinese room; </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">She wore a wreath of roses, </p>
+<p class="line">She walked in beauty like the night, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Her breath was like sweet posies. </p>
+<p class="line">I led her through the festal hall, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Her glance was soft and tender; </p>
+<p class="line">She whispered gently in my ear, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">‘Say, Mose, ain’t this a <span class="sc">bender</span>?<span>’</span> </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1864. <i>Richmond Dispatch</i>, 3 Jan. ‘Most of the owners of these names had <span class="pageNum" id="pb178">[<a href="#pb178">178</a>]</span>been tempted by the festivities of the day to go on a regular <span class="sc">bender</span>, and had to pay the penalty for their New Year’s frolic by appearing this morning
+in the police-court.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, 4 Aug. He was a character noted for going on frequent <span class="sc">benders</span> until he came very near having the jimjams and then sobering up.
+</p>
+<p>6. (American.)—A euphemism employed by the squeamishly inclined for the leg. A similar
+piece of prudishness is displayed in an analogous use of ‘limb.’ With a notorious
+mock-modesty American women decline to call a leg a leg; they call it a <i>limb</i> instead. This tendency is the more remarkable when the great freedom extended to
+American girls and women is borne in mind; unless, indeed, it arises from guilty knowledge.
+White, who, perhaps, was rather given to excessive incisiveness of speech, remarked
+that perhaps such persons think that it is indelicate for women to have legs, and
+that therefore they are concealed by garments, and should be concealed in speech.
+Professor Geikie, during one of his Canadian tours, also found out that both sexes
+had <i>limbs</i> of some sort; the difficulty was to discover whether they were used to stand on or
+to hold by. Sensible people everywhere, however, have little part in such prudery.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Longfellow</span>, <i>Kavanagh</i>. Young ladies are not allowed to cross their <span class="sc">benders</span> in school.
+</p>
+<p>7. (schoolboys’.)—The bow-shaped segment of a paper kite.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <span class="sc">Dr. Blackley</span>, <i>Hay Fever</i>, p. 145. The first kite was six feet in length by three feet in width, and was made
+of the usual form, namely, with a central shaft or ‘standard,’ and a semi-circular
+top or <span class="sc">bender</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Over the bender</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—A variant of ‘over the left shoulder’; the connection between <span class="sc">bender</span>, a slang term for the arm, and the shoulder is sufficiently apparent. There are many
+analogous expressions, which <i>see</i> under <span class="sc">Over the left</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Intj.</i>—An exclamation of incredulity; also used as a kind of saving clause to a promise
+which the speaker does not intend to carry into effect. Probably an abbreviated form
+of <span class="sc">over the bender</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bendigo</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A rough fur cap named after a notorious pugilist.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bend Over</b>, <i>intj.</i> (Winchester College).—A direction to put oneself into position to receive a ‘spanking.’
+This is done by bending over so that the tips of the fingers extend towards the toes,
+thus presenting a surface as tight as a drum on the part to be castigated.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bene</b>, <b>Ben</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old cant).—Good. This belongs to the most ancient English cant, and is probably
+a corruption from the Latin. <span class="sc">Benar</span> and <span class="sc">benat</span> appear to have been used as comparatives of <span class="sc">bene</span>.—(<i>See</i> quots.)
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1869), p, 86. What, stowe your <span class="sc">bene</span>, cofe, and sut <span class="sc">benat</span> whydds, and byng we to rome vyle to nyp a bong. [<i>i.e.</i> What, hold your peace good fellow and speak better words, and let us go to London
+to cut, or steal a purse.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Ben</span>, good.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker</span>, <i>The Roaring Girl or Moll Cut Purse</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A gage of <span class="sc">ben</span> Rom-bouse, </p>
+<p class="line">In a bousing ken of Rom-vile </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="pageNum" id="pb179">[<a href="#pb179">179</a>]</span> </p>
+<p class="line">Is <span class="sc">benar</span> than a Caster, Peck, pennam, lay </p>
+<p class="line">Or popler. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit center"><i>i.e.</i>,
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A quart pot of good wine </p>
+<p class="line">In a drinking house of London </p>
+<p class="line">Is better than a cloak, meat, bread, butter milk (?) or porridge. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 11, list of cant words in. <span class="sc">Bien</span>, good.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <span class="sc">A. Mayhew</span>, <i>Paved with Gold</i>, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 265. ‘I’ve brought a couple of <span class="sc">bene</span> coves, with lots of the Queen’s pictures in their sacks’ [pockets].
+</p>
+<p><i>Subs.</i> (old cant).—‘Stowe your <span class="sc">bene</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘hold your tongue.’ <i>See</i> quotation above from Harman’s <i>Caveat</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bene-Bouze.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Benbouse</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bene-Cove.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Ben-cull</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bene Darkmans!</b> <i>intj.</i> (old cant).—Good night! French thieves say <i lang="fr">sorgabon</i>, an inversion of <i lang="fr">bonne sorgue</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Benedick</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—1. A sportive name for a newly-married man; especially one who has long
+been a bachelor. Apparently, however, there is some confusion in the usage (<i>see</i> sense 2). The name was derived from Shakspeare’s character in <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, v., 4, 100. <i>Don Pedro.</i> How dost thou, <span class="sc">benedick</span>, the married man?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1805. <span class="sc">Rev. J. Marriott</span>, in C.&nbsp;K. Sharpe’s <i>Correspondence</i> (1888), I., 239. From what I have seen of his lordship, both as a bachelor and as
+a <span class="sc">benedick</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A bachelor. <i>Cf.</i>, foregoing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <i>Life in the West.</i> He is no longer a <span class="sc">benedic</span>, but a quiet married man.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">C. Bronté</span>, <i>Professor</i>, ch. xxiv. ‘Are you married, Mr. Hunsden?’ asked Frances, suddenly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">‘No. I should have thought you might have guessed I was a <span class="sc">benedick</span> by my look.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bene Feakers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (cant).—Counterfeiters of bills.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bene Feakers of Gybes</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (cant).—Counterfeiters of passes.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bene</b> or <b>Bien Mort</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A fine woman; a pretty girl; a hostess. [From <span class="sc">bene</span>, old cant for ‘good,’ + <span class="sc">mort</span>, a canting term for a woman.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i>, p. 85 (ed. 1869). A <span class="sc">bene mort</span> hereby at the sign of the prauncer. [<i>i.e.</i>, The Horse.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">Richard Head</span>, <i>The English Rogue</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Bing out, <span class="sc">bien morts</span>, and ture and ture, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Bing out, <span class="sc">bien morts</span>, and toure; </p>
+<p class="line">For all your duds are bing’d awast, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">The bien cove hath the loure. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit center"><i>i.e.</i>,
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Go forth, brave girls: look out, look out, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Look out, I say, good maids, </p>
+<p class="line">For all your clothes are stole, I doubt, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And shar’d among the blades. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xvii. ‘Tour out,’ said the one ruffian to the other; ‘tour the <span class="sc">bien mort</span> twiring at the gentry cove.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1823. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Peveril of the Peak</i>, ch. xxxvi. Why the <span class="sc">bien morts</span> will think you a chimney-sweeper on May-day.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>New York Slang Dictionary.</i> [See first stanza of canting song on page 80 ante.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beneship.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Benship</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1869), p. 86. The vpright man canteth to the Roge. <i>Man!</i> ‘That is <span class="sc">beneshyp</span> to our watche.’ [That is very good for vs.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beneshiply</b>, <i>adv.</i> (old cant).—Worshipfully.—<i>Grose.</i>
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb180">[<a href="#pb180">180</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ben-Flake</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A steak.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bengal Tigers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Seventeenth Foot; so nicknamed from its badge of a royal tiger granted
+for services in India from 1804–1823. Also called ‘The Lily-Whites’ from its facings.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, p. 801. The 17th … the <span class="sc">Bengal Tigers</span>, from their badge—a tiger.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bengi</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—An onion.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bengy.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Benjy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Benish</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old cant.)—Foolish.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Ben</span>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Benjamin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—1. A small ruler.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—A coat. It is said to have been derived from a well-known London advertising
+tailor of the same name. Formerly this garment was called a <span class="sc">Joseph</span>, but for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Capella</span>. An <span class="sc">upper Benjamin</span> = a great coat.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1815. <span class="sc">T. Peacock</span>, <i>Nightmare Abbey</i>, p. 159. His heart is seen to beat through his <span class="sc">upper Benjamin</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">M. Scott</span>, <i>Tom Cringle’s Log</i>, ch. ii. <span class="sc">Benjamins</span>, and great-coats, and cloaks of all sorts and sizes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">G. Borrow</span>, <i>Lavengro</i>, ch. lix., p. 181 (1888). The coachman … with narrow-rimmed hat and fashionable <span class="sc">Benjamin</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 7 March, p. 3, col. 2. [Quoting East-end slang.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Ben Joltram</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial).—Brown bread and skimmed milk; a Norfolk term for a ploughboy’s breakfast.—<i>Hotten.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Benjy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—1. A low crowned straw hat having a very broad brim.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">W. Clark Russell</span>, <i>Sailors’ Language</i>, p. 14. <span class="sc">Benjie</span>, the name of a straw hat worn by sailors.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A waistcoat. Also <span class="sc">ben</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Fan</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">D. Haggart</span>, <i>Life</i>, Glossary, p. 171. <span class="sc">Benjy</span>, a vest.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bens</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A workman’s slang term for his tools. In England called <span class="sc">alls</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Benship</b> or <b>Beenship</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—Worship; goodness. This word, evidently from <span class="sc">beneship</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), is given by Bailey in his Dictionary [1728], and by Coles in 1724.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adv.</i> (old cant).—Very good.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1814), p. 65. <span class="sc">Benship</span>, very good.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr.). <span class="sc">Benship</span>, very good.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1665. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). <span class="sc">Benshiply</span>, very well.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beong</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’ and costermongers’).—A shilling. [From Italian <i lang="it">bianco</i>, white; also the name of a silver coin.] For full list of synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Deaner</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beray</b>, <i>verb</i> (old cant).—To defile; to befoul; to abuse.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Berkeleys</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A woman’s breasts. [It may be noted that in the gypsy, <i>berk</i>, or <i>burk</i> = breast; plural, <i>berkia</i>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dairies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bermudas</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A district in London, similar to <span class="sc">Alsatia</span> in Whitefriars (<i>q.v.</i>), and the Mint in Southwark, privileged against arrests. The <span class="sc">Bermudas</span> are thought to have been certain <span class="pageNum" id="pb181">[<a href="#pb181">181</a>]</span>narrow and obscure alleys and passages north of the Strand, near Covent Garden, and
+contiguous to Drury Lane; see, however, the second quotation where the Mint would
+seem to be indicated.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1616. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>Devil’s an Ass</i>, II., 1. <i>Meercraft.</i> Engine, when did you see my cousin Everhill? keeps he still your quarter in the <span class="sc">Bermudas</span>? <i>Eng.</i> Yes, sir, he was writing this morning very hard.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i>, p. 12. In short, every contrivance that ingenuity could devise was resorted to by
+this horde of reprobates to secure themselves from danger or molestation. Whitefriars
+had lost its privileges; Salisbury Court and the Savoy no longer offered places of
+refuge to the debtor; and it was, therefore, doubly requisite that the <span class="sc">Island</span> of the <span class="sc">Bermuda</span> (as the Mint was termed by its occupants) should uphold its rights, as long as it
+was able to do so.
+</p>
+<p>As regards the derivation of the name, Nares suggests it in the actual practice, which
+obtained of debtors fleeing to the Bermuda Islands, when first discovered, to elude
+their creditors. This fact is alluded to in the following. <i>Cf.</i>, second quotation already given.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1616. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>Devil’s an Ass</i>, III., 3. There’s an old debt of forty, I ga’ my word. For one is run away to the
+<span class="sc">Bermudas</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Berthas</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—The nickname in the ‘House’ and among brokers for the ordinary
+stock of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>The Rialto</i>, Mar. 23. The week opened very badly on the Stock Exchange, and two or three days
+of utter stagnation followed, but yesterday afternoon a revival took place, which
+was quite dramatic in its suddenness and vigour. Between two o’clock and the closing
+of the doors at four o’clock, advances were made ranging from 2½ in <span class="sc">Berthas</span> to an average of 1 in Americans. Tintos climbed to 12¼, and even Kaffirs raised their
+sickly heads. All the little bulls went home happier than they have been for three
+weeks.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Berwicks</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—The ordinary stock of the North Eastern Railway.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bespeak-Night</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—A benefit.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Ben</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bess.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Betty</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bess-o’-Bedlam</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A lunatic vagrant.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Kenilworth</i>, ch. xxvi. ‘Why, what <span class="sc">Bess of Bedlam</span> is this, would ask to see my lord on such a day as the present?’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Best.</b> <span class="sc">To best one</span>, <i>verb</i> (common).—1. To obtain an advantage; to secure a superior position in a contest or
+bargain. The meaning of <span class="sc">to best</span>, therefore, is really ‘to worst.’ In this sense, not necessarily to cheat.—<i>See</i> sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">Trafford</span>, <i>World in Ch.</i>, II., 77. As I am a staunch Churchman I cannot stand quiet and see the Dissenters
+<span class="sc">best</span> the Establishment. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 69. Bob was a good salesman, but of bad temper, who if he could not get rid of
+any unruly fellow by his chaffing him, would invariably turn to Perdue and say, ‘Look
+at this man; I shan’t bother with him, why don’t you get him away? He’s interrupting
+me and the business. I can’t jolly him down, so you must settle and do away with him,
+or I must “dry up,” for the fellow’s <span class="sc">bested</span> me.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1879. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>From Post to Finish</i>, p. 92. His intimates were wont to say there was no trusting Cuddie Elliston, while,
+as for Sam Pearson, it was a current saying that ‘No one had ever <span class="sc">bested</span> him.’ Still, Yorkshire has a certain respect for this faculty; and though Pearson
+was regarded as a man who carried it rather far, and would have skinned his own brother
+upon occasion, yet public opinion did not get <span class="pageNum" id="pb182">[<a href="#pb182">182</a>]</span>much further regarding him than that ‘Lawyer Pearson knew his away about; and you’d
+to get up main early in the morning to get a point the <span class="sc">best</span> of him.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Graphic</i>, Feb. 24, p. 191, col. 1. So there are people who will not scruple <span class="sc">to best</span> a railway company, who would be loth to wrong a private person.
+</p>
+<p>2. Sometimes, however, passing the ill-defined border line between sharp practice
+and down-right roguery, <span class="sc">to best</span> is an equivalent of to cheat; to swindle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 234. His game was <span class="sc">besting</span> everybody, whether it was for pounds, shillings, or pence. At one time he cheated
+a poor farming man out of his milch cow in exchange for another. The man was in liquor
+at the time, and when he came to his senses he went right away to another part of
+the country, and his poor wife took it so to heart that she died shortly afterwards.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Horsley</span>, in <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, Oct. When I went to the fence he <span class="sc">bested</span> (cheated) me because I was drunk, and only gave me £8 10s. for the lot. So the next
+day I went to him and asked him if he was not going to grease my duke (put money into
+my hand). So he said, ‘No.’ Then he said, ‘I will give you another half-a-quid’; and
+said, ‘Do anybody, but mind they don’t do you.’ So I thought to myself, ‘All right,
+my lad; you will find me as good as my master,’ and left him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <span class="sc">May</span>, in <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, Oct., p. 578. The quack broker who piles up money by <span class="sc">besting</span> his clients. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>To give one best</b> (thieves’).—To leave one; to sever companionship.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Horsley</span>, in <i>Macmillan’s Mag.</i>, Oct. While using one of those places [concerts], I first met a sparring bloke (pugilist),
+who taught me how to spar, and showed me the way to put my dukes up. But after a time
+I <span class="sc">gave him best</span> (left him) because he used to want to bite my ear (borrow) too often.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bester</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A cheat; a swindler.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Best</span>, sense 2. Generally applied to a turf or gaming blackleg.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, IV., 24. Those who cheat the Public … ‘Bouncers and <span class="sc">Besters</span>’ defrauding, by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Evening News</i>, 21 September, 4, 1. The complainant called her father a liar, ‘a <span class="sc">bester</span> and a crawler.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Besting the Pistol</b>, <i>phr.</i> (pedestrian).—To get away before the signal for starting is actually given. [From
+<span class="sc">besting</span>, gaining an advantage, + <span class="sc">pistol</span>, the firing of which is the signal to ‘Go!’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Polytechnic Magazine</i>, July 7, p. 330. The third man from scratch was evidently in too great a hurry; twice
+he tried to <span class="sc">best the pistol</span>, and as often the whole start had to be made afresh.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bet.</b> <span class="sc">You bet!</span> <i>intj.</i> (American).—You may depend on it; you may be sure; certainly! be assured! Originally
+a Californian phrase tacked on to an assertion to give it additional emphasis. So
+popular is the expression that it has been given as a name in the form of <span class="sc">Ubet</span> to a town in the Canadian Northwest. Oftentimes it is amplified into ‘you bet your
+boots,’ ‘life,’ ‘bottom dollar,’ and so on. The two former were used in New York and
+Boston as far back as 1840.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1882. <span class="sc">Stavely Hill</span>, <i>From Home to Home</i>. We reached the settlement of <i>Ubet</i>. The name had been selected from the slang phrase so laconically expressive of ‘You
+may be sure I will’.… A night marauder took advantage of a good moon to place a ladder
+against a window, hoping to secure the property of a gentleman asleep within the chamber.
+As he lifted the window, and put his head in, the gentleman woke up, and with great
+promptness presented his six-shooter, shouting out ‘You get!’ With equal promptness
+the detected thief exclaimed <span class="sc">you bet!</span> and slid down the ladder,—<i lang="la">et procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram</i>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb183">[<a href="#pb183">183</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Poems, etc.</i>, <i>The Tale of a Pony</i>: Ah, here comes Rosey’s new turn-out! Smart! <span class="sc">You bet your life</span> ’twas that!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">S. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Roughing It</i>, ch. ii. ‘The mosquitoes are pretty bad about here, madam!’ ‘<span class="sc">You bet!</span>’ ‘What did I understand you to say, madam?’ ‘<span class="sc">You bet!</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, Mar. 7. Congressional Report. Mr. Boutelle—That is the bravery to which you refer?
+(Applause on the Republican side.) Mr. O’Ferrall—Well, sir, it is the right kind of
+bravery: you may <span class="sc">bet your bottom dollar</span> on that.
+</p>
+<p>(American.)—<span class="sc">To bet one’s eyes</span> is a gambler’s term for an onlooker who neither takes part in, nor bets upon the
+game.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bethel</b>, <i>verb.</i>—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1740. <span class="sc">North</span>, <i>Examen</i>, p. 93. In the year 1680 <i>Bethel</i> and Cornish were chosen sheriffs. The former used to walk about more like a corn-cutter
+than Sheriff of London. He kept no house, but lived upon chops, whence it is proverbial
+for not feasting to <span class="sc">bethel</span> the city.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Be There</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—<span class="sc">To be there</span> is to be on the <i lang="fr">qui vive</i>; alive; knowing; in one’s element.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Better</b>, <i>adv.</i> (vulgar).—More; without any idea of superiority. A depraved word; once in good usage,
+but now regarded as a vulgarism.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1587. <span class="sc">Fleming</span>, <i>Cont. Holinshed</i>, III., p. 1382, col. 2. Woorth one hundred and twentie pounds and <span class="sc">better</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1679. <span class="sc">Plot</span>, <i>Staffordshire</i> (1686), p. 239. The bodies … being <span class="sc">better</span> than an inch long. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1769. <span class="sc">Gray</span>, in <i>N. Nichols’ Corr.</i> (1843), p. 87. It is <span class="sc">better</span> than three weeks since I wrote to you. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">G. Borrow</span>, <i>Lavengro</i>, ch. lxx., p. 217 (1888). Following its windings for somewhat <span class="sc">better</span> than a furlong.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Ainsworth</span>, <i>Flitch of Bacon</i>, pt. I., ch. v. ‘Pastor of Little Dunmow Church for fifty years and <span class="sc">better</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Dorrit</i>, bk. I., ch. x., 75. ‘Yes. Rather <span class="sc">better</span> than twelve years ago.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Xmas Stories</i> (<i>Mess. from Sea</i>), p. 89 (H. ed.). ‘He shipped for his last voyage <span class="sc">better</span> than three years ago.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Better Half</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—humorous term for a wife. The history of the phrase is thus given by
+Murray, ‘originally my better half, <i>i.e.</i>, the more than half of my being; said of a very close and intimate friend’; (<i>Cf.</i>, ‘the better part of me’ Shaks.; ‘<i lang="la">meæ partem animæ</i>,’ ‘<i lang="la">animæ dimidium meæ</i>,’ Horace; ‘<i lang="la">animæ partem … nostra majorem</i>’ Statius); especially (after Sidney) used for ‘my husband’ or ‘wife’; now, jocularly
+appropriated to the latter. Formerly also applied to the soul, as the better part
+of man.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1580. <span class="sc">Sidney</span>, <i>Arcadia</i>, III., 280. [<i>Argalus to Parthenia, his wife.</i>] My deare, my <span class="sc">better halfe</span> (sayd hee), I find I must now leaue thee. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Circa</i> 1600. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, Sonnets, xxxix., 2.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">O how thy worth with manners may I sing, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">When thou art all the <span class="sc">better part</span> of me? </p>
+<p class="line">What can mine own praise to mine own self bring? </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And what is’t but mine own when I praise thee. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1720. <span class="sc">Sheffield</span> (Duke of Buckingham), wks. (1753) I., 274. My dear and <span class="sc">better half</span> is out of danger. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1842. <span class="sc">Theodore Martin</span>, in <i>Fraser’s Magazine</i>, Dec., p. 241, col. 2. I … shall look out for a <span class="sc">better half</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Betting Round</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (racing).—Laying fairly and equally against nearly all the horses in a race, so that
+no great risk <span class="pageNum" id="pb184">[<a href="#pb184">184</a>]</span>can be run. Commonly called <span class="sc">getting round</span>.—<i>Hotten.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bettor Round</b>, <i>subs.</i> (racing).—One who is addicted to <span class="sc">betting round</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. ‘<span class="sc">Thormanby</span>,’ <i>Famous Racing Men</i>, p. 75. He [John Gully] worked on gradually as a layer of odds—a ‘<span class="sc">bettor round</span>,’ or ‘leg,’ as he was called in those days. [<i>c.</i> 1820.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Betty</b> or <b>Bess</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A small instrument used formerly by burglars to force open doors and pick
+locks. Now called a <span class="sc">jenny</span>; also jemmy; tivvil; twist; or screw. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Thieves</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). <span class="sc">Betty</span>, an instrument to break a door.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>Hudibras Redivivus</i>. vol. II., pt. IX., p. 7.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">So Ruffains, who, with Crows and <span class="sc">Betties</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Break Houses, when it dark and late is. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. Bring <span class="sc">bess</span> and glym; <i>i.e.</i>, bring the instrument to force the door, and the dark lanthorn.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, IV., 339. Expert burglars are generally equipped with good tools. They have a jemmy,
+a cutter, a dozen of <span class="sc">betties</span>, better known as picklocks.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (colloquial).—To potter about; to fuss about. Usually said of a man assuming the
+domestic functions of a woman.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">All betty!</span> <i>intj.</i> (thieves’).—cry of warning; ‘it’s all up; the game is lost!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Betty Martin.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">All my eye</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Betwattled</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Surprised; confounded; out of one’s senses; also bewrayed.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Between You and Me and the Bedpost.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bedpost</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bever</b>, <b>Bevir</b>, <b>Bœver</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Eton, Winchester, and Westminster Colleges).—An afternoon meal served in hall. An
+old time term for a repast or snack between meals, especially in the afternoon; it
+is still dialectical in some parts of England. Murray gives examples of its use dating
+back to 1500.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 83. In summer time we were let out of afternoon school for a short time about
+four p.m., when there was a slight refection of bread and cheese laid out in Hall.
+It was called <span class="sc">beever-time</span>, and the pieces of bread <span class="sc">beevers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">M. Morris</span>, in <i>English Illustrated Magazine</i>, Nov., p. 73. [At Eton, we] came up from cricket in the summer afternoons for <span class="sc">beaver</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beverage</b> or <b>Bevy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A tip; a vail; equivalent to the French <i lang="fr">pourboire</i>; money for drink, demanded, says Grose [1785], of any one having a new suit of clothes.
+For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tip</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Beware</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, vol. III., p. 149. ‘We [strolling actors] call breakfast, dinner, tea, supper, all
+of them “numyare”; and all beer, brandy, water, or soup, are <span class="sc">beware</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>B Flats</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Bugs. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">F sharps</span>, and for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Norfolk Howards</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Household Words</i>, xx., 326. Mrs. B. beheld one night a stout negro of the flat-back tribe—known among
+comic writers as <span class="sc">b flats</span>—stealing up towards the head of the bed.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, s.v. <span class="sc">B flats</span>.—Bugs. The pun is ‘B’ (the initial letter), and ‘<span class="sc">flat</span>,’ from the flatness of the obnoxious insect.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb185">[<a href="#pb185">185</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bib.</b> <span class="sc">To nap a bib</span>, or <span class="sc">one’s bib</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—To weep; to ‘blubber’; to ‘snivel.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Lâcher les écluses</i> (popular: ‘to let loose the floodgates’; the phrase also means ‘to void urine’);
+<i lang="fr">pisser des yeux</i> (common: ‘to urinate with the eyes’); <i lang="fr">pleuvoir des châsses</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">pleuvoir</i> = ‘to rain’; in military slang to void urine; <i lang="fr">châsse</i> = eye); <i lang="fr">verver</i> (thieves’: a corrupted form of <i lang="fr">verser</i>, ‘to pour out,’ to shed); <i lang="fr">viauper</i> (popular: this argotic verb also means ‘to go molrowing’ or ‘to lead a dissolute
+life’); <i lang="fr">chasser des reluits</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">chasser</i> = ‘to expel,’ ‘to drive out’; <i lang="fr">reluits</i> = ‘the eyes,’ or ‘ogles’); <i lang="fr">chier des châsses</i> (popular: a coarse term); <i lang="fr">chigner</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">baver des clignots</i> (popular: literally ‘to drivel, slaver’ or ‘slobber the eyes’—<i lang="fr">cligner</i> signifying ‘to wink’ or ‘blink’; hence <i lang="fr">clignots</i>, ‘the blinkers’ or ‘winkers’); <i lang="fr">beugler</i> (popular: properly ‘to bellow’ [like a bull]).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms.</span> <i lang="de">Echen eichen</i> (from the Hebrew <i lang="und">echa</i>, the first word in the Lamentations of Jeremiah); <i lang="de">flonen</i>, <i lang="de">phlonen</i>, <i lang="de">flannen</i>, <i lang="de">flaussen</i>, or <i lang="de">flennen</i> (to pull one’s mouth awry, either for laughing or crying, but among German thieves
+mainly in the former sense); <i lang="de">jalen jaulen</i>, or <i lang="de">jolen machen</i> (from the Hebrew <i lang="und">jolal</i>, whining; ‘to howl,’ to whine).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonyms.</span> <i lang="it">Trignare</i> (this also signifies to ‘rain’: <i>Cf.</i>, the French, <i lang="fr">pleuvoir des châsses</i>); <i lang="it">slenzare</i> or <i lang="it">slenzire</i> (also ‘to urinate’: <i>Cf.</i>, French, <i lang="fr">lâcher les écluses</i>); <i lang="it">ventare</i> (the primary slang sense of <i lang="it">ventare</i> is ‘to moisten,’ hence ‘to shed tears’: properly ‘to blow,’ ‘to be windy’); <i lang="it">lenzare</i> or <i lang="it">lenzire</i> (primarily, in a slang sense, ‘to soak,’ ‘to wet’; from this the meaning is transferred
+to signify ‘to make water,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to urinate,’ and also ‘to shed tears’: the word is properly written <i lang="it">l’ance</i>; the derivation will be found under the French synonyms for <span class="sc">Adam’s ale</span>, <i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>In Spanish there is one expression for ‘to cry’ which is full of poetry—<i lang="es">fabricar las perlas</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to make pearls.’ Arabs likewise speak of tears as ‘pearls on the face.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bibables</b> or <b>Bibibles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Drink, as distinguished from food. [A coinage on the model of ‘edibles,’
+‘eatables,’ ‘drinkables,’ etc.; from Latin <span class="sc">bib</span>-<i>ĕre</i>, to drink, + <span class="sc">able</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, able to be drunk.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">William Howard Russell</span> (Special Correspondent of the <i>Times</i>), <i>My Diary in India in the years 1858–9</i>, I., p. 8. Could all the pale-ale, soda-water, sherry, porter, and <i lang="fr">vin ordinaire</i>, and the feebler <span class="sc">bibables</span> be turned into nectar, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <i>Pittsburg Despatch</i>, Aug. The table was loaded and spread with edibles and <span class="sc">bibibles</span> of every possible kind. [<span class="sc">de v.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bib-All-Night</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A toper; a confirmed drunkard. [From <span class="sc">bib</span>-<i>ĕre</i>, to drink, + <span class="sc">all-night</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1612. <span class="sc">Sylvester</span>, <i lang="la">Lacrymæ Lacrymaram</i>, p. 101. Bats, Harpies, Syrens, Centaurs, <span class="sc">Bib-all-nights</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bible</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—<i>See</i> quotations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <span class="sc">Admiral Smyth</span>, <i>Sailors’ Word Book</i>. <span class="sc">Bible</span>, a hand-axe; a small holy-stone [a kind of sand-stone used in cleaning decks], so
+called from seamen using them kneeling.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb186">[<a href="#pb186">186</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">W. Clark Russell</span>, <i>Sailors’ Language</i>, p. 14. <span class="sc">Bibles.</span> Small holy-stones, no doubt originally so called because they oblige those who use
+them to kneel. They are also termed ‘prayer books’ for the same reason.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">That’s bible</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—That’s the truth; that’s A 1.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bible-Carrier</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—A person who sell songs without singing them. Often heard in the neighbourhood
+of Seven Dials.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bible-Clerk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A College prefect in full power, appointed for one week. He
+keeps order in school, reads the lessons in chapel, takes round <span class="sc">rolls</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and assists at floggings. He is absolved from going up to <span class="sc">books</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) during his term of office. The prefect of <span class="sc">Hall</span> need not act as <span class="sc">Bible-clerk</span> unless he likes, and the prefect of School may choose any week he pleases; the rest
+take weeks in rotation, in the order of their Chambers in College.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bibler and Bibling</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>, vol. XCV., p. 73. [At dinner] portions of beef were served out to the boys … the
+<span class="sc">Bible-clerk</span> meanwhile reading a chapter from the Old Testament. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 87. An hour … is expected to be employed in working under the superintendence
+of the <span class="sc">Bible-Clerk</span>, as the præfect in daily ‘course’ is termed, who is responsible for a decent amount
+of order and silence at these hours.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 103. Order was kept during school hours by the <span class="sc">Bible-clerk</span> and Ostiarus, two of the Præfects, who held these offices in rotation—the former
+lasting for a week, the latter for one day only. They paraded School armed with sticks,
+and brought up to the Head and Second Masters (who alone had the power of flogging)
+the names of the delinquents which had been ‘ordered’ for punishment; the names of
+the more heinous offenders being confided to the <span class="sc">Bible-clerk</span>, the others to the Ostiarus.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">Adams</span>, <i>Wykehamica</i>, p. 59. There appears to have been no regular <span class="sc">Bible-clerk.…</span> From this it has been inferred that the institution of these offices must have been
+subsequent, and (some think) long subsequent to the Founder’s time.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bible-Pounder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A clergyman. [From <span class="sc">bible</span> + <span class="sc">pounder</span>, from the practice indulged in by some excitable exponents, of pounding or beating
+their hands upon the book or desk while preaching.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Devil-dodger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bibler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—Now called <span class="sc">bibling</span> (<i>q.v</i>.).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 109. The first time a boy’s name was ordered, the punishment was remitted on
+his pleading ‘<i lang="la">Primum tempus</i>.’ For a more serious breach of duty, a flogging of six cuts (a <span class="sc">bibler</span>) was administered, in which case the culprit had to ‘order his name to the <span class="sc">Bible-clerk</span>,’ and that individual, with the help of Ostiarius, performed the office of Jack Ketch.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bibler Under Nail</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (Winchester College).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bibling under nail</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 109. If a boy was detected in a lie, or any very disgraceful proceeding—a rare
+occurrence, I am happy to say—he had to stand up in the centre of Junior row during
+the whole of the School time, immediately preceding the infliction of the flogging;
+this pillory process was called a <span class="sc">bibler under the nail</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bibling</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—Formerly called a <span class="sc">bibler</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). A flogging of six cuts on the small of the back, administered by the head or second
+master. So called because the person to be operated upon <span class="pageNum" id="pb187">[<a href="#pb187">187</a>]</span><span class="sc">ordered</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) his name to the <span class="sc">Bible-clerk</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>, vol. XCV., p. 79. Underneath is the place of execution, where delinquents are <span class="sc">bibled</span>. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 72. It need hardly be said that it [the rod] is applied in the ordinary fashion:
+six cuts forming what is technically called a <span class="sc">bibling</span>—on which occasions the Bible-Clerk introduces the victim; four being the sum of a
+less terrible operation called a ‘scrubbing.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bibling-Rod</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—The instrument with which a <span class="sc">bibling</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) was administered. It consisted of a handle with four apple twigs in the end, twisted
+together. It is represented on ‘<i lang="la">Aut Disce</i>.’ It was invented and first used by Warden Baker in 1454. It is not used now.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bibling Under Nail</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (Winchester College).—A <span class="sc">bibling</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) administered for very heinous offences after an offender had stood under <span class="sc">nail</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).—<i>See</i> quot. in <span class="sc">Bibler under nail</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biddy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A chicken; sometimes <span class="sc">chick-a-biddy</span>. Hence, figuratively.
+</p>
+<p>2. (familiar.)—A young woman, not necessarily Irish. In both these senses the word
+appears in Grose [1785]. Since that time it would seem to have changed somewhat in
+meaning as follows.
+</p>
+<p>3. (familiar.)—A woman, whether young or old.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">O.&nbsp;W. Holmes</span>, <i>Guardian Angel</i>, ch. xxviii., p. 233 (Rose Lib.). ‘Don’t trouble yourself about Kitty Fagan, for
+pity’s sake, Mr. Bradshaw. The <span class="sc">biddies</span> are all alike, and they’re all as stupid as owls, except when you tell ’em just what
+to do, and how to do it. A pack of priest-ridden fools!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Cornhill Mag.</i>, May, p. 510. How he gave to one old <span class="sc">biddy</span> ‘five guineas to buy a jack,’ and to another substantial help towards her boy’s schooling.
+</p>
+<p>4. (Winchester College.)—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bidet</span>.
+</p>
+<p>5. (American.)—A servant girl—generally Irish.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bidet</b>, or <b>Biddy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A bath. Juniors fill these for Præfect. The Winchester term
+is the French word <i lang="fr">bidet</i>, the name given to the low narrow bedroom bathing stools, used principally by women,
+but more frequently on the Continent than in England. They are of such a shape that
+they can be bestridden. In this connection it may be mentioned, that in French <i lang="fr">bidet</i> also signifies ‘a small horse’ or ‘pony.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bidet</span>, commonly pronounced <i>biddy</i>, a kind of tub, contrived for ladies to wash themselves, for which purpose they bestride
+it like a little French pony or post horse, called in France <span class="sc">bidets</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bien.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bene</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biff</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A blow. ‘To give [one] a <span class="sc">biff</span> in the jaw’; <i>Anglicé</i>, ‘to wipe one in the chops.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bang</span>, and for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dig</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biffin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—‘My <span class="sc">biffin</span>!’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘my pal!’ A biffin is properly a dried apple: Norfolk biffins especially are considered
+great delicacies.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big.</b> <span class="sc">To talk</span> or <span class="sc">look big</span>, <i>phr.</i> (familiar).—To assume a pompous style or manner with a view to impressing others
+with a sense of one’s importance; to <span class="pageNum" id="pb188">[<a href="#pb188">188</a>]</span>talk boastingly. A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">se hancher</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1579. <span class="sc">Spenser</span>, <i>Shep. Cal.</i>, Sept., 50.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The shepheards swayne you cannot wel ken, </p>
+<p class="line">But it be by his pryde, from other men: </p>
+<p class="line">They <span class="sc">looken bigge</span> as Bulls. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1604. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Winter’s Tale</i>, Act iv., Sc. 3. Not a more cowardly rogue, in all Bohemia: if you had but <span class="sc">looked big</span>, and spit at him, he’d have run.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1771. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Humphry Clinker</i>, l. 26. The squire, in all probability, cursed his punctuality in his heart, but
+he affected to <span class="sc">talk big</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xv. ‘You will gain nought by <span class="sc">speaking big</span> with me.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>Clockmaker</i>, 2 S., ch. viii. ‘He <span class="sc">looked big</span>, and <span class="sc">talked big</span>, and altogether was a considerable big man in his own consait.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Anthony Trollope</span>, <i>The Warden</i>, p. 207. The Archdeacon waxed wrath, <span class="sc">talked big</span>, and <span class="sc">looked bigger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big as All Outdoors</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—An expression intended to convey an idea of indefinite size; hugeness;
+enormous capacity.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>The Clockmaker</i>, 2 S., ch. ii. The infarnal villain! Tell me who he is, and if he was <span class="sc">big as all outdoors</span>, I’d walk into him. <i>Ibid</i>, ch. iv. He is looking as <span class="sc">big as all outdoors</span> gist now, and is waitin’ for us to come to him.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big-Bellied</b>, <i>adj.</i> (colloquial).—Advanced in pregnancy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1711. <span class="sc">Addison</span> [Referred to by].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">John Forster</span>, <i>Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith</i>, bk. II., ch. iv. My desires are as capricious as the <span class="sc">big-bellied</span> woman’s.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Ben</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A nickname for the clock in the tower of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster.
+Named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Commissioner of Works, under whose supervision
+it was constructed. It was commenced in 1856, and finished in 1857.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <i>The Register or Mag. of Biography</i>, p. 213. With Sir Charles Barry’s sanction he designed the ornament cast on the Westminster
+Bell, familiarly known as <span class="sc">big Ben</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch</i>, No. 2039, p. 51. <span class="sc">Big Ben</span> struck two, and the house adjourned.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Bird.</b> <span class="sc">To get</span> or <span class="sc">give the big bird</span>, <i>phr.</i> (theatrical).—To be hissed on the stage; or, conversely, to hiss. When an actor or
+actress <span class="sc">gets the big bird</span>, it may be from two causes: either it is a compliment for successful pourtrayal of
+villainy, in which case the <span class="sc">gods</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) simply express their abhorence of the <i>character</i> and not of the actor; or, the hissing may be directed against the actor, personally,
+for some reason or other. The <span class="sc">big bird</span> is the goose. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Goosed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Graphic</i>, 10 April, p. 399. <span class="sc">To be goosed</span>, or, as it is sometimes phrased, to <span class="sc">get the big bird</span>, is occasionally a compliment to the actor’s power of representing villainy, but
+more often is disagreeably suggestive of a failure to please.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Bug</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A person of standing or consequence, either self-estimated or in reality.
+A disrespectful but common mode of allusion to persons of wealth or with other claims
+to distinction. Variants are <span class="sc">Big-dog</span>, <span class="sc">Big-toad</span>, <span class="sc">Big-wig</span>, and <span class="sc">Great gun</span> (which <i>see</i> for general synonyms).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <i>Widow Bedott Papers</i>, p. 301. Miss Samson Savage is one of the <span class="sc">big bugs</span>,—that is, she’s got more money than a’most anybody else in town.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <i>N.&nbsp;Y. Times</i>, February. The free-and-easy manner in which the hair-brained Sir Robert Peel described
+some of the <span class="sc">big bugs</span> at Moscow has got him into difficulty.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb189">[<a href="#pb189">189</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">Schele de Vere</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 392. Persons of great wealth and distinction are irreverently called <span class="sc">big bugs</span>, and I-street, in Washington, is thus said to be inhabited by the foreign ambassadors
+and other <span class="sc">big bugs</span>. J.&nbsp;C. Neal makes a nice distinction when he says of a rich man without social importance:
+‘He is one of your <span class="sc">big bugs</span>, with more money than sense.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, Sep. 15. Don’t appear unduly surprised or flustrated if, on answering the front
+door bell, you find Mr. Gladstone wiping his feet on the door mat. Invite him to walk
+in in a cool, collected tone of voice.… Show him you have entertained <span class="sc">big bugs</span> before.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Country</b>, <i>subs.</i> (hunting).—The open country.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Dog of the Tanyard</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A consequential, pompous individual; one who will neither allow others
+a voice in any matter, or permit dissent from his own views. The obvious derivation
+is from the customary guarding of tanyards by ferocious watch-dogs. For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Great gun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Dog with the Brass Collar</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—The chief in any undertaking or enterprise; a leader. A simile evidently
+derived from the stable or kennel. The phrase is sometimes shortened to <span class="sc">big dog</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Great gun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;R. Bartlett</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 42. In some parts of the country, the principal man of a place or in an undertaking
+is called the <span class="sc">big dog with a brass collar</span>, as opposed to the little curs not thought worthy of a collar.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Alan Pinkerton</span>, <i>The Molly Maguires</i>, p. 24. ‘Yes,’ said Dormer, ‘Lawler is the <span class="sc">big dog</span> in these parts now; besides he kapes a good tavern, and will see no old-timer, or
+young one either, for that matther, sufferin’ from want while he can relieve him!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Drink</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—1. The ocean; more particularly applied to the Atlantic. Also called
+the <span class="sc">big pond</span>, <span class="sc">herring pond</span>, the <span class="sc">puddle</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Mount Royal</i>, ch. xiii. ‘I was coming across the <span class="sc">big drink</span> as fast as a Cunard could bring me.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (Western American.)—When a Western plainsman talks of the <span class="sc">big drink</span>, he is always understood to mean the Mississippi river.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To take a big</span> or <span class="sc">long drink</span> is to partake of liquor from a large glass. It is very customary when calling for
+refreshment to state whether a <span class="sc">long</span> or <span class="sc">short drink</span> is required.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Figure.</b> <span class="sc">To go the big figure</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—A variant of ‘to go the whole hog,’ or ‘to go the whole animal.’ It signifies
+embarking upon an enterprise of magnitude. The phrase is mainly current in the Southern
+States, and is derived from a term used in poker.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <i>Pickings from the Picayune</i>, p. 226. When I saw that, I thought I might as well <span class="sc">go the big figure</span>, you see, and so I grabbed the bag; but mischief would have it, that just then the
+policeman grabbed me and took me to the caboose.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biggest</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American).—A superlative often used in the sense of ‘the best’ or ‘the finest.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Ruxton</span>, <i>Life in Far West</i>, p. 129. The thermal springs are regarded by the trappers as the breathing-places
+of his Satanic majesty; and considered, moreover, to be the <span class="sc">biggest</span> kind of medicine to be found in the mountains.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Washington</i> (<i>Pa.</i>) <i>Review</i>. <i>The Pittsburg Times</i> is as breezy a journal as comes to this office. It is the <span class="sc">biggest</span> little paper we are acquainted with.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biggest Toad in the Puddle</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—One of the many <span class="pageNum" id="pb190">[<a href="#pb190">190</a>]</span>bold, if equivocal metaphors to which the West has given rise. The <span class="sc">biggest toad in the puddle</span> is the recognised leader or chief whether in politics, or in connection with the
+rougher avocations of pioneer life. Equivalent to <span class="sc">the big dog with the brass collar</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Big bug</span>, and for synonyms generally, <span class="sc">Great gun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;R. Bartlett</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 42. <span class="sc">Biggest toad in the puddle.</span> A Western expression for a head-man; a leader of a political party, or of a crowd.
+Not an elegant expression, though sometimes well applied. Thus a Western newspaper,
+in speaking of the most prominent man engaged in the political contest for one of
+the Presidential candidates before Congress, says: ‘Mr. D.&nbsp;D. F.—is the <span class="sc">biggest toad in the puddle</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biggin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A coffee machine in two parts—a strainer, and a coffee-pot
+for the infusion. It took its name from the inventor, a Mr. Biggin, who received letters
+patent ‘some years’ previous to 1803. (<i>Gent. Mag.</i>, lxxiii., p. 1094.)
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biggity</b>, <i>adv.</i> (American).—Consequential; giving oneself airs. A negro term.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1884. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span>, <i>Life on the Mississippi</i>, p. 511. These railroads have made havoc with the steamboat commerce. The clerk of
+our boat was a steamboat clerk before these roads were built. In that day the influx
+of population was so great, and the freight business so heavy, that the boats were
+not able to keep up with the demands made upon their carrying capacity; consequently
+the Captain was very independent and airy—pretty <span class="sc">biggity</span> as Uncle Remus would say.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Gun</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A person of consequence. Possibly of sporting origin. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Great gun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, Oct. 13. ‘Who’s a <span class="sc">big gun</span>? You don’t consider that insignificant ink-slinger across the way a <span class="sc">big gun</span>, do you?’ ‘My wife can hardly wait to get it out of the mail,’ shouted Jones, desperately.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big-Head.</b> <span class="sc">To have a big-head</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—1. To be conceited; bumptious. Also applied to men or youths who are
+‘cocksure’ of everything, or affected in manner.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Swell-head</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;R. Bartlett</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 43. Boys who smoke cigars, chew tobacco, drink strong liquors, gamble, and treat
+their parents and superiors as their inferiors—of such a boy it is said, ‘He has <span class="sc">got the big-head</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, Oct. 20. If we were to base our calculation upon the corpulency of his iron hat
+and helmet, we should say it was a case of <span class="sc">big-head</span>, while his legs were long as a pair of duplex pinchers, his arms like the fans of
+a windmill, his feet like the foot of Mont Blanc, while his digital annex is like
+an inverted ham.
+</p>
+<p>2. The phrase also signifies the after effect of a debauch.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To get the big-head.</span> To get drunk. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big House</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The workhouse,—a phrase used by the very poor; sometimes called the <span class="sc">large house</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 52. ‘As long as they kept out of the <span class="sc">big house</span> (the workhouse), she would not complain.’ <i>Ibid</i>, <i>II.</i>, p. 251. The men hate the thought of going to the <span class="sc">big house</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Mouth</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Excessive talkativeness; loquacity. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">All mouth.</span> For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Gas</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Nuts to Crack</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—An undertaking of <span class="pageNum" id="pb191">[<a href="#pb191">191</a>]</span>magnitude; one not easy to perform. [From a presumed difficulty in cracking large
+nuts.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big One</b> or <b>Big ’Un</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A man of note or importance. The current colloquialism is <span class="sc">big-wig</span>, but at one time <span class="sc">big-one</span> was the more frequently-used expression. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Great gun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 42. Then up rose Ward, the veteran Joe, And, ’twixt his whiffs, suggested briefly
+That but a few at first should go, And those, the light-weight Gemmen chiefly; As
+if too many <span class="sc">big ones</span> went, They might alarm the Continent!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big People</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—Persons of standing or consequence. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Great gun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <span class="sc">Anthony Trollope</span>, <i>Dr. Thorne</i>, I., p. 43. He would <span class="corr" id="xd33e31321" title="Source: n">in</span> no way assume a familiarity with bigger men than himself; allowing to the bigger
+men the privilege of making the first advances. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 81. When one is absolutely in the dirt at their feet, perhaps these <span class="sc">big people</span> won’t wish one to stoop any further.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Pond</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The Atlantic. Also called <span class="sc">the big drink</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>The Clockmaker</i>, 3 S., ch. xviii. He [old Clay] is all sorts of a hoss, and the best live one that
+ever cut dirt this side of the <span class="sc">big pond</span>, or t’other side either.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Living London</i>, p. 204. Next time Miss Ward crosses the <span class="sc">big pond</span>, I earnestly hope that she will cross the ‘Rockies,’ and triumphantly descend the
+Pacific slope.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Pot</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A person of consequence. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Great gun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch’s Almanac</i>, <i>The Cad’s Calendar</i>. Lor! if I’d the ochre, make no doubt, I could cut no end of <span class="sc">big pots</span> out. Call me cad? When money’s in the game, Cad and swell are pooty much the same.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big-Side</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Rugby School).—The combination of all the bigger fellows in the school in one and
+the same game or run; also the ground specially used for the game so denominated.
+Used also at other public schools.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big-Side Run</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Rugby School).—A paper chase, in which picked representatives of all houses take
+part, as opposed to a house run.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Take</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—That which takes the public fancy; a great success, etc.,—in short, anything
+that ‘catches on.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Take</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Talk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Pompous speech; a pedantic use of long words.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <i>Saturday Review</i>, Feb., p. 280. [With regard to words like ‘psithurism,’ ‘cheirognomy,’ ‘scintillating
+eyes,’ ‘the phaesimbrotous sun’] perhaps they have been grown so accustomed to <span class="sc">big talk</span> that, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big-Wig</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A person of consequence; one high in authority or rank. [From <span class="sc">big</span> + <span class="sc">wig</span>, an allusion to the large and ornate headgear of men of importance in former times.]
+The term is used both contemptuously and humorously. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Great gun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1703. <i>English Spy</i>, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother
+of the togati, fresh as a new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements.
+Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport, in term
+and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their bull-dogs<span class="pageNum" id="pb192">[<a href="#pb192">192</a>]</span>—the town-raff and the bargees—well-blunted or stiver-cramped—against dun or don—nob
+or <span class="sc">big wig</span>—so may you never want a bumper of bishop.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, ch. xx. We live among bankers and city <span class="sc">big-wigs</span>, and be hanged to them, and every man, as he talks to you, is jingling his guineas
+in his pocket.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Geoffrey Hamlyn</i>, ch. xlv. So you are going to sit among the <span class="sc">big-wigs</span> in the House of Lords.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876 <i>circa</i>. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Justice and Law.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The Penge Case you know took a curious twist, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">But how it occurred, we can’t guess, </p>
+<p class="line">Unless, unexpected, some turn of the wrist, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Has got some ‘<span class="sc">big-wig</span>’ in a mess. </p>
+<p class="line">To some folks it seems rather queer, now, you see, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">When ‘Sentence of Death’ had been passed, </p>
+<p class="line">That one of the four is allowed to go free, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And her prison doors wide open cast. </p>
+<p class="line xd33e31485">Chorus. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1880. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>The Duke’s Children</i>, ch. xxvi. ‘The Right Honorable gentleman no doubt means,’ said Phineas, ‘that we
+must carry ourselves with some increased external dignity. The world is <span class="sc">bigwigging</span> itself, and we must buy a bigger wig than any we have got, in order to confront the
+world with proper self-respect.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big-Wigged</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (popular).—Pompous; consequential. [From <span class="sc">big-wig</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">[g] ed</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Carlyle</span>, <i>John Sterling</i>, pt. I., ch. vii. And along with obsolete spiritualisms, he sees all manner of obsolete
+thrones and <span class="sc">big-wigged</span> temporalities.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big-Wiggery</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A display of consequence, or pomposity. [From <span class="sc">big-wig</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">[g] ery</span>, a condition.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Book of Snobs</i>, ch. ii. Whilst Louis XIV., his old squaretoes of a contemporary—the great worshipper
+of <span class="sc">bigwiggery</span>—has always struck me as a most undoubted and Royal Snob.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <i>Household Words</i>, xii., 250. All this solemn <span class="sc">bigwiggery</span>—these triumphs, ovations, sacrifices, orations.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big-Wiggism</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Pomposity. [From <span class="sc">big-wig</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">[g] ism</span>, a state or condition.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871–72. <span class="sc">G. Eliot</span>, <i>Middlemarch</i>, ch. xvii. I determined not to try anything in London for a good many years at least.
+I didn’t like what I saw when I was studying there—so much empty <span class="sc">big-wiggism</span> and obstructive trickery.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Big Words</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—Pompous speech; ‘crack-jaw’ words. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To talk big</span>, and <span class="sc">Big talk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Grenville Murray</span>, <i>Member for Paris</i>, I., p. 103. ‘I don’t like such cynicism!’ ‘Oh, cynicism is a <span class="sc">big word</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bilbo</b> or <b>Bilboa</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A sword. Bilboa in Spain was once renowned for well-tempered blades. Grose
+[1785] quotes the term as slang; this, however, is somewhat doubtful.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Disputation, etc.</i>, in wks. X., 236. Let them doe what they dare with their <span class="sc">bilbowe</span> blades, I feare them not.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1693. <span class="sc">Congreve</span>, <i>Old Batchelor</i>, Act iii., Sc. 7. Tell them, I say, he must refund—or <span class="sc">bilbo’s</span> the word, and slaughter will ensue.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1713. <i>Guardian</i>, No. 145. ‘He that shall rashly attempt to regulate our hilts, or reduce our blades,
+had need to have a heart of oak … <span class="sc">Bilbo</span> is the word, remember that and tremble.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1816. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Old Mortality</i>, ch. iv. ‘It was all fair play; your comrade sought a fall, and he has got it.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">‘That is true enough,’ said Bothwell, as he slowly rose; ‘put up your <span class="sc">bilbo</span>, Tom.’
+</p>
+<p>2. A kind of stock—a long iron bar with sliding shackles for the ankles of prisoners,
+and a lock by which to fasten the bar at one end to the ground. The derivation is
+very uncertain.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1557. <span class="sc">Hakluyt</span>, <i>Voy.</i>, I., 295. I was also conveyed to their lodgings … where I saw a pair of <span class="sc">bilbowes</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb193">[<a href="#pb193">193</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Terrors of the Night</i>, in wks. (Grosart) III., 255. He that is spyced with the gowte or the dropsie, frequently
+dreameth of fetters and manacles, and being put on the <span class="sc">bilbowes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Hamlet</i>, Act v., Sc. 2. <i>Ham.</i> … Methought I lay worse than the mutines in the <span class="sc">bilboes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1695. <span class="sc">Congreve</span>, <i>Love for Love</i>, Act iii., Sc. 6. Now a Man that is marry’d, has as it were, d’ye see, his Feet in
+the <span class="sc">bilboes</span>, and may-hap mayn’t get ’em out again when he wou’d.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 19. And are those shear’d, or put into <span class="sc">bilboes</span>, and handcufft.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bilboes</span>, the punishing a person at sea, by laying or putting the offender in irons, or a
+sort of stocks, but more severe than the common stocks.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1815. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Guy Mannering</i>, ch. xxxiv. ‘And now let us talk about our business.’ ‘<i>Your</i> business, if you please,’ said Hatterick; ‘bagel and donner!—mine was done when I
+got out of the <span class="sc">bilboes</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bile</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. The female <i>pudenda</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Monosyllable</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A vulgarism for ‘boil.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bilgewater</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Bad beer. Properly the name given to the drainings to the lowest part of
+a ship; being difficult to get at, these become, at times, exceedingly foul and offensive.
+For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bilk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A word, formerly in general use, to which a certain stigma of vulgarity
+is now attached. Uncertain in derivation—possibly a corrupted form of ‘balk’—it was
+first employed technically at cribbage to signify the spoiling of an adversary’s score
+in the crib. Among obsolete or depraved usages may be mentioned.
+</p>
+<p><i>Subs.</i> 1. (obsolete.)—A statement or string of words without sense, truth, or meaning, jointly
+or severally.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>Tale of a Tub</i>, I., i. <i>Tub.</i> He will have the last word, though he talk <span class="sc">bilk</span> for’t. <i>Hugh.</i> <span class="sc">Bilk!</span> what’s that. <i>Tub.</i> Why nothing; a word signifying Nothing. [Note refers to Cole’s <i>English Dict.</i> (n.d. given) and to Halliwell, <i>Arch. and Prov. Words</i>, s.v.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1740. <span class="sc">North</span>, <i>Examen</i>, p. 213. Bedloe was sworn, and being asked what he knew against the prisoner, answered,
+Nothing.… Bedloe was questioned over and over, who still swore the same <span class="sc">bilk</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A hoax; an imposition; a humbug. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Sell</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bite</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1664. <span class="sc">Butler</span>, <i>Hudibras</i>, II., iii., 376. Spells, Which over ev’ry month’s blank-page In th’ Almanack strange
+<span class="sc">bilk’s</span> presage. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1694<span id="xd33e31819">.</span> <span class="sc">Congreve</span>, <i>Double Deal</i>, III., x. There he’s secure from danger of a <span class="sc">bilk</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1733 <i>circa</i>. <span class="sc">North</span>, <i>Lives</i>, i., 260. After this <span class="sc">bilk</span> of a discovery was known. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—A swindler; a cheat. This is the most familiar current use of the word
+in its substantive form, and is applied mainly to persons who cheat cabmen of their
+fares, or to men who swindle prostitutes out of their wretched earnings. Also <span class="sc">bilker</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Sell</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bite</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1790. <span class="sc">Sheridan</span>, in <i>Sheridaniana</i>, 109. Johnny W[i]lks, Johnny W[i]lks, Thou greatest of <span class="sc">bilks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Japhet</i>, ch. ix. After a little delay, the wagoner drove off, cursing him for a <span class="sc">bilk</span>, and vowing that he’d never have any more to do with a ‘larned man.’
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—A strongly offensive term used in the West to signify a person who
+habitually sponges upon another, and who never by any chance makes <span class="pageNum" id="pb194">[<a href="#pb194">194</a>]</span>a return or even offers to do so. In English slang it means a downright cheat or swindler
+(<i>see</i> sense 3). It will therefore be seen that the Western American usage has considerably
+softened its meaning.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">McClure</span>, <i>Rocky Mountain</i>, p. 211. The term was entirely novel to me, and I first asked its meaning of a landlord,
+who explained to me by saying that a <span class="sc">bilk</span> is a man who never misses a meal and never pays a cent.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (obsolete).—Fallacious; without truth or meaning.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1740. <span class="sc">North</span>, <i>Examen</i>, p. 129. To that [Oates’s plot] and the author’s <span class="sc">bilk</span> account of it I am approaching.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (common).—To cheat; defraud; evade one’s obligations; escape from, etc. (<i>see subs.</i>, sense 2, and compare with quotations). For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Stick</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bite</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1677. <span class="sc">Wycherley</span>, <i>Plain Dealer</i>, Act v., Sc. 3. 1<span>.</span> <i>Knight</i>: Ay, a great lawyer that shall be nameless <span class="sc">bilked</span> me too.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1729. <span class="sc">Gay</span>, <i>Polly</i>, Act ii., Sc. 9. Honour plays a bubbles part, ever <span class="sc">bilk’d</span> and cheated.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bilk</span> (v.), to cheat, balk, disappoint, deceive, gull, or bubble; also to go out of a publick-house
+or tavern, without paying the reckoning.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. XIV., ch. iv. ‘I promise you,’ answered Nightingale, ‘I don’t intend to <span class="sc">bilk</span> my lodgings; but I have a private reason for not taking a formal leave.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bilke.</span> ‘Let us <span class="sc">bilk</span> the rattling cove’; let us cheat the hackney coachman of his fare: bilking a coachman,
+a box keeper, or a poor whore, was formerly among men of the town thought a gallant
+action.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1847. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Lucretia</i>, pt. II., ch. xix. ‘Are you playing me false? Have you set another man on the track
+with a view to <span class="sc">bilk</span> me of my promised fee?’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bilk the blues</span>, <i>phr.</i> (thieves’).—To evade the police.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blues</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bilk the schoolmaster</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To obtain knowledge or experience without paying for it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 5. <i>Log.</i> Well, don’t grumble—every one must pay for his learning—and you wouldn’t <span class="sc">bilk the schoolmaster</span>, would you? But, come, I’m getting merry; so if you wish for a bit of good truth,
+come with me, and let’s have a dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy
+Land.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bilker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A cheat; a swindler. Sometimes abbreviated to <span class="sc">bilk</span> (sense 3).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bilking</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The action of cheating or swindling.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bill</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Eton College).—1. A list of the boys who have to go to the head master at 12 o’clock;
+also of those who get off <span class="sc">absence</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), or names-calling, <i>e.g.</i>, an eleven playing in a match are thus exempt.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Brinsley Richards</span>, <i>Seven Years at Eton</i>. Some of the small boys whom this delightful youth tempted to ape his habits, had
+often occasion to rue it when they staggered back to college giddy and sick, carrying
+with them a perfume which told its tale to their tutors, and caused them to be put
+in the <span class="sc">bill</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Harrow School.)—Names-calling.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To hang up a bill</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American political).—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, June, p. 628. <span class="sc">To hang up a bill</span> is to pass it through one or more of its stages, and then to lay it aside and defer
+its further consideration for a more or less indefinite period.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To rush a bill</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American political).—To expedite the passing of a bill through the Senate and Congress.
+<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Rush</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb195">[<a href="#pb195">195</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, June, p. 628. <span class="sc">To rush a bill</span> is an expression well known in the American Senate, and occasionally also used here.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Long</span> or <span class="sc">short bill</span>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (thieves’).—A long or short term of imprisonment.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To pay a bill at sight</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—Said of a man or woman who is always ready for sexual commerce.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billbrighter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A small fagot used for lighting coal fires in Kitchen. So called
+from a servant, Bill Bright, who was living in 1830.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 89. The Kitchen is a spacious apartment with a vaulted roof, occupying the entire
+height of the building on the west side of the quadrangle, and at least half its length;
+here we might see a few Fags endeavouring to coax Jem Sims, John Coward, or Mother
+Mariner (the cooks), for an extra supply of mashed potatoes, till Kitchen is cleared
+by the exasperated Manciple, who has just detected a delinquent in the act of secreting
+under his gown an armful of the small faggots used for lighting the Kitchen fires
+(called <span class="sc">Bill Brighters</span>), an opportunity for purloining which was never allowed to slip by a Junior of a
+properly regulated mind.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billed Up</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (military).—In the Guards’ regiments to be <span class="sc">billed up</span> signifies to be confined to barracks.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A situation; a ‘berth.’ [From <span class="sc">billet</span>, an official military order requiring food and shelter to be provided for the soldier
+bearing it.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To get a billet</span>, <i>phr.</i> (thieves’)—When in prison to obtain promotion to duties which carry with them certain
+privileges.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billiard Block</b>, <i>subs.</i> (society).—An epithet applied to one who puts up with disagreeables for the sake
+of pecuniary or other advantages; also, occasionally, to one who acts as ‘jackal’
+for another and to <span class="sc">tame cats</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1831. <span class="sc">Mrs. Gore</span>, <i>Mothers and Daughters</i>, p. 75. The Duke of L. was fortunate in somewhat more than the usual apportionments
+of <i lang="fr">souffre-douleurs</i>, doubles, <span class="sc">billiard-blocks</span>, living hunters, younger brothers, to talk to the young lady nieces, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billiard-Slum</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian thieves’).—False pretences.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To give on the billiard-slum.</span>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Mace</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billingsgate</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Foul, coarse language; scurrilous vituperation. From the evil reputation
+which the market of the same name has enjoyed for centuries. In the seventeenth century
+references to the violent and abusive speech of those frequenting the place were very
+numerous. In French an analogous reference is made to the Place Maubert, long noted
+for its noisy market.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1677. <span class="sc">Wycherley</span>, <i>Plain Dealer</i>, Act iii. <i>Quaint.</i> … Whose reputation, though never so clear and evident in the eye of the world, yet
+with sharp invectives—<i>Wid.</i> Alias, <span class="sc">Billingsgate</span>. <i>Quaint.</i> With poignant and sour invectives, I say, I will deface.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1711. <span class="sc">Defoe</span>, <i>The Review</i>, vol. VII., preface. As long as faction feeds the flame, we shall never want <span class="sc">Billingsgate</span> to revile one another with.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 451. Our satire is nothing but ribaldry, and <span class="sc">Billingsgate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Esmond</i>, ch. ix. If she had come with bowl and dagger, would have been routed off the ground
+by the enemy with a volley of <span class="sc">Billingsgate</span>, which the fair person always kept by her.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb196">[<a href="#pb196">196</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>. Messrs. Cannon and Co. defied the surgeon or anybody else to say the fish was bad,
+and kept jabbering away both at the same time and in elegant <span class="sc">Billingsgate</span>, until the constable returned; but he came without the doctor, who had gone to attend
+an urgent case out of the town, and the people at his house could not say when he
+would return.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To Billingsgate</span> or <span class="sc">talk Billingsgate</span>.—To scold; to talk coarsely, or violently; to ‘slang.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1678. <span class="sc">A. Littleton</span>, <i>Lat. Dict.</i> <span class="sc">To Billingsgate it.</span> <i lang="la">Arripere maledictum ex trivio.</i>
+</p>
+<p>So also, <span class="sc">You’re no better than a Billingsgate fish-fag</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, rude and ill-mannered; <span class="sc">Billingsgatry</span>, scurrilous language.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billingsgate Pheasant</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A red herring or bloater. This is also called a <span class="sc">two-eyed steak</span>, but for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Atlantic-ranger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bill of Sale</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Widow’s weeds. Such are also said to have <span class="sc">apartments</span> or a <span class="sc">house to let</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—1. A pocket or neck-handkerchief, chiefly of silk. The various ‘fancies’
+have been thus described:—<span class="sc">Belcher</span>, darkish blue ground, large round white spots, with a spot in the centre of darker
+blue than the ground. This was adopted by Jem Belcher, the pugilist, as his ‘colours,’
+and soon became popular amongst ‘the fancy.’ <span class="sc">Bird’s-eye wipe</span>, a handkerchief of any colour, containing white spots. The blue bird’s-eye is similar
+to the Belcher except in the centre. Sometimes a <span class="sc">bird’s-eye wipe</span> has a white ground and blue spots. <span class="sc">Blood-red fancy</span>, red. <span class="sc">Blue Billy</span>, blue ground, generally with white figures. <span class="sc">Cream fancy</span>, any pattern on a white ground. <span class="sc">King’s man</span>, yellow pattern on a green ground. <span class="sc">Randal’s man</span>, green, with white spots; named after the favourite colours of Jack Randal, pugilist.
+<span class="sc">Water’s man</span>, sky coloured. <span class="sc">Yellow fancy</span>, yellow with white spots. <span class="sc">Yellow man</span>, all yellow. For synonyms generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Wipe</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 444. A silk handkerchief. A <span class="sc">billy</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—Stolen metal.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Billy-hunting</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (American thieves’.)—A weapon used by desperadoes, and also by the police when
+apprehending violence or dangerous resistance on the part of the former when pursued.
+The construction of a <span class="sc">billy</span> varies, but usually it is composed of a piece of untanned cowhide, as hard as horn
+itself, some six inches in length, twisted or braided into a sort of handle, and covered
+from end to end with woollen cloth. One extremity is loaded with three quarters of
+a pound of lead; to the other is firmly attached a loop, large enough to admit a man’s
+hand, formed of strong linen cord, and intended to allow the <span class="sc">billy</span> to hang loose from the wrist, and at the same time prevent it being lost or wrenched
+from the grasp of its owner. At close quarters, it proves a very savage and formidable
+arm of defence, resembling, but being much more dangerous than <span class="pageNum" id="pb197">[<a href="#pb197">197</a>]</span>the ordinary slung-shot in use by policemen and others. Twelve ounces of solid lead
+and raw-hide, dashed against the thickest skull by a strong armed ruffian, would as
+effectually silence a man as an ounce of the same metal discharged from the bore of
+a Springfield rifle. It may be remarked that <span class="sc">billy</span> in English slang is a policeman’s staff, a very different weapon.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, Ap. 4. The condition of the man reported as having been shot twice in the head on
+Thursday afternoon, is not at all alarming. It transpires that his wounds are not
+of the gun-shot sort, but were inflicted with a <span class="sc">billy</span> in the hands of a Pinkerton man.
+</p>
+<p>4. (popular.)—A policeman’s staff; a truncheon.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Daily News</i>, Ap. 7, p. 5, col. 1. Anderson was first brought down by a pistol shot, and was then
+corrected with a <span class="sc">billy</span>, till he declared himself vanquished.
+</p>
+<p>5. (Australian and New Zealand.)—A bushman’s tea-pot or saucepan.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, in <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Sept. 3, 5, 5. They got enough flour from Sydney to make their ‘dampers,’ and enough
+tea to boil in their <span class="sc">billies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">G. Sutherland</span>, <i>Australia</i>, p. 104. A <span class="sc">billy</span>, or small tin can, for boiling tea or coffee.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Illustrations</i>, Oct., p. 22. Refusing a pressing invitation to stay and spend Christmas with the
+good people with whom I had been boarding, and heeding lightly their remarks as to
+‘new chum,’ ‘dangers of the bush,’ ‘all alone,’ ‘strange country,’ etc., etc., I took
+a look at the map, and packed my ‘swag.’ Now a ‘swag’ proper, usually contains blankets,
+towels, ‘<span class="sc">billy</span>,’ pannikin, and many other articles … <i>Ibid</i>, p. 28. The ‘<span class="sc">billy</span>’ is off, but the roadman (Irish, of course) gives me a grateful cup of beer, and
+accompanies me to the hotel another mile down the road.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy Barlow</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A street clown; a mountebank—so called from the hero of a slang song. Billy
+was a real person, semi-idiotic, and though in dirt and rags, fancied himself a swell
+of the first water. Occasionally he came out with real witticisms. He was a well-known
+street character about the East-end of London, and died in Whitechapel Workhouse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. III., p. 148. <span class="sc">Billy Barlow</span> is another supposed comic character, that usually accompanies either the street-dancers
+or acrobats in their peregrinations. The dress consists of a cocked-hat and red feather,
+a soldier’s coat (generally a sergeant’s with sash), white trousers with the legs
+tucked into Wellington boots, a large tin eye-glass, and an old broken and ragged
+umbrella.
+</p>
+<p>These merry Andrews are otherwise called <span class="sc">Jim crows</span> and <span class="sc">saltimbancos</span>; among the French, <i lang="fr">un pitre</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy-Boy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A vessel like a galliot, with two masts, the fore-mast square-rigged.
+They hail mainly from Goole. Also called <span class="sc">humber-keels</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy-Button</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—1. Mutton.
+</p>
+<p>2. (tailors’.)—A contemptuous term for a journeyman tailor.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 117. And there I did Jeremiah Stitchem to his <span class="sc">Billy Button</span>. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 142. A laughable sketch entitled <span class="sc">Billy Button’s</span> ride to Brentford, and I used to be Jeremiah Stitchem, a servant of <span class="sc">Billy Button’s</span>, that comes for a ‘situation.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy-Buzman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A thief whose speciality is silk pocket and neckerchiefs. [From <span class="sc">billy</span>, slang for a pocket-handkerchief, + <span class="sc">buzman</span>, slang for a thief.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb198">[<a href="#pb198">198</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy-Cock</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A round, low-crowned hat—generally of soft felt, and with a broad brim.
+Speculation has been rife as to the derivation of the term. Murray says ‘apparently
+the same as “bully-cocked,” used 1721, probably meaning after the fashion of the “bullies”
+or hectoring “blades” of the period’ (<i>see</i> quot.). A writer, C.&nbsp;K.&nbsp;C. in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, however [6 S., ii., p. 355], points out that ‘these hats were first made for “Billy
+Coke”—or to speak more respectfully, Mr. William Coke—a gentleman well known at Melton
+Mowbray a quarter of a century ago [<i>circa</i> 1853], and used by him at the great shooting parties at Holkham. The old-established
+hatters in the West-end still call them “Coke hats.” ’ Of the reality of the personality
+of William Coke of Melton fame there is, and can be no doubt, and although the name
+of the hat <i>may</i> be derived from ‘bully-cock,’ yet the weight of evidence seems to be against it,
+unless a slight transference of meaning, very common in slang, has taken place.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1721. <span class="sc">Amherst</span>, <i lang="la">Terræ Filius</i>, No. 46, p. 246. [A description of an Oxford ‘smart’ or dandy.] When he walks the
+street, he is easily distinguish’d by a stiff silk gown, which rustles in the wind,
+as he struts along; a flaxen tie-wig, or sometimes a long natural one, which reaches
+down below his waist; a broad <span class="sc">bully-cock’d</span> hat, or a square cap of above twice the usual size; white stockings, thin Spanish
+leather shoes; his cloaths lined with tawdry silk, and his shirt ruffled down the
+bosom as well as at the wrists. Besides all which marks, he has a delicate jaunt in
+his gait, and smells very philosophically of essence.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>Life Among Colliers</i>, 35. I was told to take off my bonnet, and tie a <span class="sc">billy-cock</span> [wide-awake] tight down.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">Farjeon</span>, <i>Griff</i>, p. 14. With the men, mole-skin trousers, pea-jackets, <span class="sc">billy-cock</span> hats, and dirty pipes predominated.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Pall Mall G.</i>, March 28, p. 11, col. 1. He wore a plaited blouse drawn in at the waist and a dilapidated
+<span class="sc">billy-cock</span> hat.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Australian.)—The <span class="sc">billy-cock</span> of the Antipodean colonies differs from the English head-gear known by the name in
+being made of hard instead of soft felt, and in having a turned up brim.
+</p>
+<p>For synonymous terms of head-gear, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Deerstalker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy-Fencer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A marine store dealer.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Fence</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy-Goat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A tufted beard; similar to that of a goat.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Standard</i>, 11 Feb., p. 3, col. 2. Hair turning grey, hazel eyes, <span class="sc">billy-goat</span> beard. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy-Hunting</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—1. Collecting and buying old metal.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Billy-fence</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 465. ‘He goes tatling and <span class="sc">billy-hunting</span> in the country (gathering rags and buying old metal).’
+</p>
+<p>2. Going out to steal pocket-handkerchiefs.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Billy</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy Noodle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—This combination stands in American slang for a fellow whose self-conceit
+leads him to suppose himself specially attractive to the other sex. [From <span class="sc">Billy</span>, a male name, + <span class="sc">noodle</span>, a fool.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Billy-Roller</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—<i>See</i> quotations.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb199">[<a href="#pb199">199</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Mrs. Trollope</span>, <i>Michael Armstrong</i>, ch. xiv. ‘What is the <span class="sc">billy-roller</span>?’… ‘It’s a long stout stick, ma’am, that’s used often and often to beat the little
+ones employed in the mills when their strength fails.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <span class="sc">Ure</span>, <i>Dict. Arts</i>, III., 1166. This is the <span class="sc">billy-roller</span>, so much talked of in the controversies between the operatives and masters in the
+cotton-factories, as an instrument of cruel punishment to children, though no such
+machine has been used in cotton-mills for half a century at least. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bim</b>, <b>Bimshire</b>, <i>subs.</i> (West Indian).—Nicknames for a Barbadian and the island of Barbadoes. This place
+is also sometimes jeeringly called <span class="sc">Little England</span>, and Barbadian is contracted into <span class="sc">’Badian</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">Paton</span>, <i>Down the Islands</i>. Barbadoes is known all the world over as the little island that pays her way; it
+has never been conquered; its people are enterprising and energetic, go-ahead and
+driving; in short, the business men of these islands (the Caribbees). Barbadian may
+therefore be said to mean a man with ‘go and grit, energy and <i>vim</i>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bing.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bynge a waste</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Binge</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Oxford Univ.)—A drinking bout.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bingham’s Dandies</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The 17th Lancers. From its Colonel (Lord Bingham) causing the men’s uniforms
+to fit so well. It is one of the smartest regiments of the service. They were also
+at one time christened the <span class="sc">Horse Marines</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Two troops of this showy corps were employed as marines on board the ‘Hermione’
+frigate during some severe fighting in the West Indies. Hence the sobriquet now almost
+quite forgotten. But the 17th are still well-known as the <span class="sc">Death or Glory Boys</span>, from their badge, which consists of a death’s head, with the words, ‘or glory.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bingo</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—Brandy, or other spirituous liquor. Thought by Dr. Murray to be a humorous
+formation from B. for ‘brandy’ (<i>Cf.</i>, ‘B. and S.’) and stingo.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bingo</span>, brandy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">Bulwer Lytton</span>, <i>Paul Clifford</i>, p. 41.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<h4>FIGHTING ATTIE’S SONG.</h4>
+<p class="line"><i>Air.</i>—‘He was famed for deeds of arms </p>
+<p class="line">’Rise at six—dine at two— </p>
+<p class="line">Rob your man without ado- </p>
+<p class="line">Such my maxims—if you doubt </p>
+<p class="line">Their wisdom, to the rightabout!’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">(<i>Signing to a sallow gentleman on the same side of the table to send up the brandy
+bowl.</i>)
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘Pass round the <span class="sc">bingo</span>,—of a gun, </p>
+<p class="line">You musty, dusty, <i>husky son</i>!’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">(<i>The sallow gentleman in a hoarse voice</i>,)
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘Attie—the <span class="sc">bingo’s</span> now with me, </p>
+<p class="line">I can’t resign it yet, d’ye see!’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">(<i>Attie, seizing the bowl</i>,)
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘Resign, resign it—cease your dust!’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">(<i>Wresting it away, and fiercely regarding the sallow gentleman.</i>)
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘You have resigned it—and you must.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">CHORUS.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘You have resigned it—and you must.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1861. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown at Oxford</i>, xxxiii. Some soda water with a dash of <span class="sc">bingo</span> clears one’s head in the morning.
+</p>
+<p>For all synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Hence <span class="sc">bingo boy</span>, a tippler; a drunkard. <span class="sc">Bingo mort</span>, a drunken woman.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Mort</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bingy</b>, <i>adj.</i> (trading).—A term largely used in the butter trade to denote bad, ropy butter; nearly
+equivalent to <span class="sc">vinnied</span>. It may be noted that in the English Dialect Society’s Chestere <i>Glossary</i>, <span class="sc">bingy</span> is given as a peculiar clouty or frowsty taste in milk—the first stage of turning
+sour.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb200">[<a href="#pb200">200</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Mrs. Gaskell</span>, <i>Life of C. Bronté</i>, ch. iv. The milk, too, was often <span class="sc">bingy</span>, to use a country expression for a kind of taint that is far worse than sourness,
+and suggests the idea that it is caused by want of cleanliness about the milk pans,
+rather than by the heat of the weather.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Mrs. Gaskell</span>, <i>Sylvia’s Lovers</i>, ch. xv. I’ve heerd my aunt say as she found out as summat was wrong wi’ Nancy as
+soon as the milk turned <span class="sc">bingy</span>, for there ne’er had been such a clean lass about her milk-cans afore that.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Binnacle Word</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old nautical).—A fine or affected word, which sailors jeeringly offer to chalk up
+upon the binnacle.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Birch-Broom</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—A room.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Like a birch-broom in a fit</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Said of a rough, towzly head.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 90. I should like to know what looks worse than to see a young man or woman with
+their hair in an uproar, <span class="sc">like a birch-broom in a fit</span>, and some of you chaps down there look as if you hadn’t had your hair combed since
+last reaping time, when you did it with a field-rake, which is very harrowing to one’s
+feelings.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Birchin Lane.</b>—<span class="sc">To send one to Birchin Lane</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To castigate; to flog. A punning allusion to <i>birch</i>, a rod. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Strap oil</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bird</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—Mr. H.&nbsp;J. Byron says that when a piece is hissed the actors say ‘The
+<span class="sc">bird’s</span> there!’;—the bird alluded to being the goose notorious for its hissing capacities.—<i>See</i> however, <span class="sc">Big bird</span> and <span class="sc">Goose</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—To thieve; to steal; to look for plunder. So used by Ben Jonson.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bird-Cage</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A bustle, an article of feminine attire, used for extending the skirts
+of the dress. So called because at one time constructed of such a size and in such
+a manner as to be not altogether unlike an elongated <span class="sc">bird-cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860 <i>circa</i>. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘The Agricultural Irish Girl,’ verse 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">She has no great education, for </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">She’s not much past her letters; </p>
+<p class="line">But for acting like a lady, I </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Would like to see her betters: </p>
+<p class="line">She does not read Ouida’s works, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Nor <i>Bow Bells’</i> fashions pages; </p>
+<p class="line">And she does not wear those things behind, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">The ladies call <span class="sc">bird-cages</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">Among <span class="sc">English Synonyms</span> may be mentioned canary cage; backstaircase; false hereafter; bishop.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un volapuk</i>; <i lang="fr">un strapontin</i>; <i lang="fr">un lieutenant</i> (a pun on <i lang="fr">tenant lieu de ce qui manque</i>); <i lang="fr">un nuage</i> (<i lang="fr">parcequ’il cache la lune</i>; <i lang="fr">lune</i> = the posteriors).
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A four-wheeled cab. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Growler</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (racing.)—The paddock at the Newmarket race-course where saddling takes place.
+It adjoins the grand stand.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>St. James’s Gazette</i>, May 1, p. 1. All the favourites were brought into the <span class="sc">bird-cage</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Birdlime</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—1. Time.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A thief. From the glutinous substance of the same name spread upon twigs
+for the purpose of catching birds and holding them fast.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Confederacy</i>, V., 2. That <span class="sc">birdlime</span> there stole it.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb201">[<a href="#pb201">201</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Confederacy</i>, III., 2. My rogue of a son has laid his <span class="sc">birdlime</span> fingers on’t.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bird’s-Eye</b>, <b>Bird’s-Eye Fogle</b>, <b>Bird’s-Eye Wipe</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A silk handkerchief spotted with eye-like markings.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Billy</span> and <span class="sc">Wipe</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1665. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, May 14. To church, it being Whit-Sunday; my wife very fine in a new yellow <span class="sc">bird’s-eye</span> hood, as the fashion is now.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown at Oxford</i>, ch. xviii. He wore a blue <span class="sc">bird’s-eye</span> handkerchief round his neck.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, August 7, p. 6, col. 2. His neckerchief was of the same hue [silver grey], with
+a light crimson <span class="sc">bird’s-eye</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bird-Witted</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old).—Inconsiderate; thoughtless; easily imposed on.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1605. <span class="sc">Bacon</span>, <i>Adv.</i> <i>Learning</i>, II. (1861), 228. If a child be <span class="sc">bird-witted</span>, that is, hath not the faculty of attention, the mathematics giveth a remedy thereunto.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1650. <span class="sc">Ussher</span>, <i>Ann.</i>, VI., 360. [He] proved … but a <span class="sc">bird-witted</span> man.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Birk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (back slang).—A ‘<span class="sc">crib</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>), <i>i.e.</i>, a house. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Diggings</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Birthday Suit</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Naked; in the <span class="sc">buff</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); in the suit in which Adam and Eve first saw each other, and ‘were not ashamed.’
+A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">s’habiller en sauvage</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1771. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Humphry Clinker</i>, l. 61. I went in the morning to a private place, along with the housemaid, and we
+bathed in our <span class="sc">birth-day soot</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bishop</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A warm decoction of wine, orange or lemon peel, and sugar—but variously
+compounded. Similar to <span class="sc">flip</span> and <span class="sc">purl</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1703. <i>English Spy</i>, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother
+of the togati, fresh as a new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements.
+Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport, in term
+and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their bull-dogs—the town-raff and the
+bargees—well-blunted or stiver cramped—against dun or don—nob or big-wig—so may you
+never want a bumper of <span class="sc">bishop</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Women Who Cry Oranges</i>, wks., 1755, IV., i., 278. Well roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup. They’ll make
+a sweet <span class="sc">bishop</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <i>The World</i>, No. 37. Punch, <span class="sc">bishop</span>, cool tankard, and negus are equally denied me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick</i>, ch. xlviii., p. 421. He and the landlord were drinking a bowl of <span class="sc">bishop</span> together.
+</p>
+<p>2. <i>subs.</i> (American).—A bustle—part of feminine attire consisting of a pad worn on the back
+part of the waist, and designed to give prominence to the skirt. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bird-cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Bartlett</span>, <i>Dictionary of Americanisms</i>, p. 42. <span class="sc">Bishop.</span> An appendage to a lady’s wardrobe, otherwise called a bustle.
+</p>
+<p>I sing the <span class="sc">bishop</span>, alias the bustle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862–75. <span class="sc">Saxe</span>, <i>Progress</i>. Imperial Fashion decides the gravest questions which divide the world.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">If wrong may not, by circumstance, be right,— </p>
+<p class="line">If black cravats be more genteel than white,— </p>
+<p class="line">If, by her <span class="sc">bishop</span>, or her ‘grace,’ alone </p>
+<p class="line">A genuine lady, or a church, is known. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">3. (common.)—A chamber utensil; a <span class="sc">jerry</span>; <span class="sc">jordan</span>; and <span class="sc">it</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>4. (Winchester College.)—The sapling with which a fagot is bound together.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. A term among horse dealers, for burning marks into a horse’s teeth, after he has
+lost them by age; or, by other deceptive arts to give a good appearance to a bad horse.
+By <span class="pageNum" id="pb202">[<a href="#pb202">202</a>]</span><span class="sc">bishopping</span>, a horse is made to appear younger than he is. The expression is derived from the
+name of a person who initiated the practice, and has no connection with ‘to bishop,’
+a provincialism for ‘to burn.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Fig</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1727. <span class="sc">R. Bradley</span>, <i>Family Dict.</i>, vol. I., s.v. ‘Horse.’ This way of making a <i>horse</i> look young, is by Horse Coursers called <span class="sc">Bishoping</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Ill. Lon. News</i>, 23 August, 171, col. 2. <span class="sc">To bishop</span> … a term … signifying the use of deceptive arts to make an old horse appear like
+a young one.
+</p>
+<p>In French the process is called <i lang="fr">masquer en alezan</i>; also <i lang="fr">maquiller un gayet</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. To murder by drowning. The term, now obsolete, is like <span class="sc">burke</span> and <span class="sc">boycott</span> from the name of an individual. A man named Bishop drowned a boy in Bethnal Green,
+in 1831, to sell the body for dissecting purposes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Account of a New Play</i>). I burked the papa, now I’ll <span class="sc">bishop</span> the son. [<span class="sc">d.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Athenæum</i>, p. 559, col. 1. We have ‘to burke,’ and ‘<span class="sc">to bishop</span>.’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bismarquer</b>, <i>verb</i> (familiar).—To cheat; to play foul at cards or billiards. A word formed from the
+name of Prince Bismarck, the German Chancellor, whose policy in 1865–6 roused the
+indignation of a large section of European thought.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit</b>, <b>Bite</b>, <b>Byte</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. An old cant term for money. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1532. <i>Use of Dice Play</i> (Percy Soc.). Now waxen is he so proud of his gain, because he hath gotten a new
+chain, fyer new apparel, and some store of <span class="sc">byte</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <i>Defence of Conny-Catching</i>, in Greene’s wks. XI., 44. So some that would not stoope a farthing at cardes, would
+venter all the <span class="sc">byte</span> <i>in their boung</i> at dice.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1607. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Jests to make you Merie</i>, in wks. (Grosart) II., 328. If they follow you in the street, and once know where
+the bung and the <span class="sc">bit</span> is, as much as to say your purse and the money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman of London</i>, in wks. (Grosart) III., 122. To learne before he play what store of <span class="sc">Bit</span> he hath in his <i>Bay</i>, that is, what money he hath in his pursse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 149. <i>Snack the</i> <span class="sc">bit</span>. To share the money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, bk. III., ch. v. He is caught—he must ‘stand and deliver’; then out with the dummy
+[pocket book], and off with the <span class="sc">bit</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (colloquial)—The name given to coins varying in value according to locality—usually,
+however, to the silver piece of the lowest denomination. Fourpenny pieces are still
+called <span class="sc">bits</span> in English slang, but are more popularly known as <span class="sc">Joeys</span> (<i>q.v.</i>, for synonyms); and in Demerara the term is in general use for the same coin; in
+America a 12½ cent piece is called a <span class="sc">bit</span>, and a defaced 20 cent piece is termed a <span class="sc">long bit</span>. A <span class="sc">bit</span> is the smallest coin in Jamaica, equal to 6d.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bit</span> (<span class="sc">s.</span>) … In the <i>West Indies</i>, it is the least piece of silver coin, which goes current at 7 pence half-penny.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Scribner’s Magazine</i>, July, p. 277. For a young city, San Francisco is very much wedded to petty traditions.
+It clings to the <span class="sc">bit</span> with a deathlike tenacity; clings to it against all reason and against its own interests.
+The <span class="sc">bit</span> is a mythical quantity. It is neither twelve and a half cents, nor half of twenty-five;
+it is neither fifteen cents nor ten cents. If you buy a <span class="sc">bit’s</span> worth, and throw down twenty-five cents, you get ten cents back; if you offer the
+same ten cents in lieu of a <span class="sc">bit</span>, you are looked upon as a mild sort of a swindler. And yet, the <span class="sc">bit</span> is the standard of minimum monetary value.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bitch</b>, <i>subs.</i> (low).—1. An opprobrious term for a woman, <span class="pageNum" id="pb203">[<a href="#pb203">203</a>]</span>generally containing an implication of lewdness and ‘fastness.’ Not now in literary
+use, though formerly so. [From its primary sense of a female dog.] It is the most
+offensive apellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than
+that of whore.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1400. <i>Chester Pl.</i> (1843), 181. Whom calleste thou queine skabde <span class="sc">biche</span>? [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1575. <span class="sc">J. Still</span>, <i>Gammer Gurton</i>, II., ii. Come out, thou hungry needy <span class="sc">bitch</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Arbuthnot</span>, <i>John Bull</i> (1755), 9. An extravagant <span class="sc">bitch</span> of a wife.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. XVII., ch. iii. There was my lady cousin Bellaston, and my lady Betty, and my
+lady Catharine, and my lady I don’t know who; damn me if ever you catch me among such
+a kennel of hoop-petticoated <span class="sc">bitches</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>P. Simple</i> (1834), 446. You are a … son of a <span class="sc">bitch</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—Applied, opprobriously, as in sense 1, to a man. It has long since passed
+out of decent usage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1500. <i>E.&nbsp;E. Misc.</i> (1855), 54. He is a schrewed <span class="sc">byche</span>, In fayth, I trow, he be a wyche.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1675. <span class="sc">Hobbes</span>, <i>Odyssey</i>, xviii., 310. Ulysses looking sourly answered, You <span class="sc">bitch</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. XVII., iii. It is an old acquaintance of above twenty years standing. I can
+tell you landlord is a vast comical <span class="sc">bitch</span>, you will like <span class="sic">un hugely</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (low).—1. To go whoring; molrowing; to frequent the company of prostitutes.
+</p>
+<p>2. To yield, or give up an attempt through fear.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—To spoil; to bungle.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To stand bitch.</span>—To make tea, or do the honours of the tea table, or to perform a female part. <span class="sc">Bitch</span> is here used generically for a woman.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bitch Booby</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old military).—A country girl.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bitchery</b>, <i>subs.</i> (low).—Harlotry; lewdness. [From <span class="sc">bitch</span>, sense 1, + <span class="sc">ery</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1532–3. <span class="sc">More</span>, <i>Confut. Tindale</i>, wks., 648, col. 1. Such marriage is very vnlawfull leckery and plain abhominable
+<span class="sc">bychery</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Marston</span>, <i>Sco. Villanie</i>, I., iv., 188. He will vnline himselfe from <span class="sc">bitchery</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663–1704. <span class="sc">Thomas Brown</span>, <i>Works, Serious and Comical</i>, III., p. 94. Thither run Sots purely to be drunk that they may … forget … the roguery
+of their lawyers, the <span class="sc">bitchery</span> of their paramours, or the ingratitude of the world.
+</p>
+<p>(?). <span class="sc">Stanyhurst</span>, <i>Description of Ireland</i>, p. 14. The quip sat as unseemly in his mouth as for a whore to reprehend <span class="sc">bitchery</span>, or for an usurer to condemn simony.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bitch Party</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A party composed of women. Originally an Oxford term for a tea-party,
+tea being considered a beverage only fit for women. [From <span class="sc">bitch</span>, a woman, + <span class="sc">party</span>.] Also <span class="sc">hen party</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Stag party</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <span class="sc">C. Whibley</span>, <i>In Cap and Gown</i>, Characters of Freshmen, p. 176. ‘The studious freshman … goeth to a small <span class="sc">bitch-party</span> and findeth his gown taken “by mistake.” ’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bite</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. An old slang term for money.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bit</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—The female <i>pudenda</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Monosyllable</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. An imposition; a piece of humbug; a ‘sell’ or ‘do.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bilk</span>, <span class="sc">Bam</span>, <span class="sc">Bargain</span>, and <span class="sc">Sell</span>, for synonyms. The sense runs <span class="pageNum" id="pb204">[<a href="#pb204">204</a>]</span>through all stages, from jocular hoaxing to downright swindling. Also in the sense
+of disappointment, as in the old proverb ‘the biter bit.’ A man is bitten when he
+burns his fingers meddling in matters, which, though promising well, turn out failures.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Cross bite</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1711. <span class="sc">Steele</span>, <i>Spectator</i>, No. 156, ¶ 2. It was a common <span class="sc">bite</span> with him, to lay Suspicions that he was favoured by a Lady’s Enemy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1721. <span class="sc">Amherst</span>, <i lang="la">Terræ Fil.</i>, ix., 43. Sharpers would not frequent gaming-tables, if the men of fortune knew the
+<span class="sc">bite</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. ix. ‘It’s all a bam, ma’am—all a bamboozle and a <span class="sc">bite</span>, that affair of his illness.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <i>Sat. Review</i>, Ap. 14, 475, 2. That form of practical joking, which in the time of ‘The Spectator,’
+was known as a <span class="sc">bite</span> … in the popular slang of the day, is designated ‘a sell.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily News</i>, Ap. 18, p. 5, col. 4. Lord Randolph Churchill, we fear, has been making Mr. Gladstone
+the victim of what, in the slang of Addison’s time, would have been called a <span class="sc">bite</span>, and what in the slang of our own time is called a ‘sell.’
+</p>
+<p>4. (old.)—A sharper; cheat; trickster. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bilk</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="sc">Rook</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1742. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Miss Lucy</i> (1762), 176. Is this wench an idiot, or a <span class="sc">bite</span>? Marry me, with a pox!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. xcviii. From which circumstance it was conjectured that Peregrine was a <span class="sc">bite</span> from the beginning, who had found credit on account of his effrontery and appearance,
+and imposed himself upon the town as a young gentleman of fortune.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1787. <span class="sc">S. Jenyns</span>, in <i>Dodsley</i>, III., 169. The fool would fain be thought a <span class="sc">bite</span>.
+</p>
+<p>5. (popular.)—Applied in a transferred sense to anybody or anything suspected of being
+different to what it appears, but not necessarily in a bad sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Brackenridge</span>, <i>Mod. Chiv.</i>, 21. The jockeys suspected that the horse was what they call a <span class="sc">bite</span>, that under the appearance of leanness and stiffness, was concealed some hidden quality
+of swiftness.
+</p>
+<p>6. (common.)—One who drives a hard bargain; a ‘close fist.’
+</p>
+<p>7. (familiar.)—A nickname for a Yorkshireman.—<i>See</i> <i>Daily News</i>, Sept. 11, 1883, and <i>Yorkshire Post</i>, Jan. 9, 1884.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily News</i>, Sept. 4, p. 5, col. 6. The great and puissant race known indifferently as ‘tykes’
+or <span class="sc">bites</span>.
+</p>
+<p>8. (printers’.)—An irregular white spot on the edge or corner of a printed page, caused
+by the frisket not being sufficiently cut out.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1677. <span class="sc">Moxon</span>, Mech. Exerc. in Savage <i>Dict. Print</i>, s.v. <span class="sc">Bite</span>. If the frisket is not sufficiently cut away, but covers some part of the form, so
+that it prints on the frisket, it is called a <span class="sc">bite</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">Blades</span>, <i>Caxton</i>, 130. In ‘Speculum Vitæ Christi’ we actually find a <span class="sc">bite</span>, half of the bottom line remaining unprinted. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—1. To deceive; cheat; swindle; to ‘do’ or ‘take in.’ In modern colloquial
+English <span class="sc">to slick</span> or <span class="sc">to sell</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Formerly used both transitively and passively; now only in latter.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1669. <i>Nicker Nicked</i>, in <i>Hart. Misc.</i> (ed. Park), ii., 109. Then a rook … follows him close, and engages him in advantageous
+bets, and at length worries him, that is gets all his money, and then they smile and
+say, ‘The lamb is <span class="sc">bitten</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1709. <span class="sc">Steele</span>, <i>Tatler</i>, No. 12. Nay, he has <span class="sc">bit</span> you fairly enough, that’s certain.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1724. <i>A Journey through England.</i> Many a poor German hath been <span class="sc">bit</span> by an ordinary or his taylor, after this manner; they have suffered the poor wretch
+to run in debt, made him an extravagant bill, and then arrested him, and so forced
+him to pay their demands.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb205">[<a href="#pb205">205</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1731. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>The Lottery</i>, Sc. 3. However, Madam, you are <span class="sc">bit</span> as well as I am; for I am no more a lord, than you are a fortune.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. [<span class="sc">Nares</span>] <i>Love in a Barn, an old ballad</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">He shall not have my maiden-head, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I solemnly do swear; </p>
+<p class="line">But I’ll <span class="sc">bite</span> him of a portion, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Then marry with Ralph, my dear. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1838. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Yellowplush Memoirs</i>, ch. x. ‘You were completely <span class="sc">bitten</span>, my boy—humbugged, bamboozled—ay, and by your old father, you dog.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Barry Lyndon</i>, ch. xvii., p. 232. I have no particular pleasure in recalling my Newmarket doings.
+I was infernally <span class="sc">bit</span> and bubbled in almost every one of my transactions there.
+</p>
+<p>Hence 2. (popular.)—To strike a hard bargain.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—To steal; <i>e.g.</i>, ‘to <span class="sc">bite</span> the roger,’ to steal a portmanteau; ‘to <span class="sc">bite</span> the wiper,’ <i>i.e.</i>, to purloin a handkerchief.
+</p>
+<p><i>Intj.</i> (old.)—1. Formerly an equivalent to the modern ‘Sold!’ ‘Done!’ etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1704. <span class="sc">Cibber</span>, <i>Careless Husband</i>, Act iii.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Ld. Mo.</i> ’Tis possible I may not have the same regard to her frown that your Lordship has.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Ld. Fop.</i> That’s <span class="sc">bite</span>, I’m sure; he’d give a joint of his little finger to be as well with her as I am.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i> (conv. i.).
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Miss.</i> I’m sure the gallows groans for you.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Nev.</i> <span class="sc">Bite</span>, Miss; I was but in jest.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <span class="sc">Addison</span>, <i>Spectator</i>, No. 514. It is a superstition with some surgeons who beg the bodies of condemned
+malefactors, to go to the gaol and bargain for the carcass with the criminal himself.…
+The fellow who killed the officer of Newgate, very forwardly, and like a man who was
+willing to deal, told him, ‘Look you, Mr. Surgeon, that little dry fellow, who has
+been half starved all his life, is now half dead with fear, cannot answer your purpose.…
+Come, for twenty shillings I am your man.’ Says the Surgeon, ‘Done, there’s a guinea.’
+This witty rogue took the money, and as soon as he had it in his fist, cries, ‘<span class="sc">bite</span>, I am to be hanged in chains<span>.</span>’
+</p>
+<p>2. (Charterhouse.)—A warning = <i>Cave!</i>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To do a thing when the maggot bites</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common), is to do it when the fancy takes one; ‘at one’s own sweet will.’ When a
+person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have
+‘a maggot in his head,’ to have ‘a bee in his bonnet’; or, in French, <i lang="fr">avoir des rats dans la tête</i>; in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being
+attributed to the influence of the internal irritation. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Apartments to let</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bite One’s Hips</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (tailors’).—To regret a word or action.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bite One’s Name In</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple; also to drink greedily.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bite on the Bridle</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To be pinched in circumstances; to be reduced; in difficulties.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A practical joker; a hoaxer; one who deceives; a cheat and trickster. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bite</span>. The term now only survives in the proverbial expression, ‘the biter bit.’ For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Rook</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1669. <i>Nicker Nicked</i>, in <i>Hart. Misc.</i> (ed. Park), ii., 108. [<span class="sc">Biter</span> is given in a list of names of cheats and thieves’.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1680. <span class="sc">Cotton</span>, <i>Complete Gamester</i>, in Singer’s <i>Hist. Playing Cards</i> (1816), p. 333. <i>Hectors</i>, <i>setters</i>, <i>gilts</i>, <i>pads</i>, <span class="sc">biters</span>, <i>etc.</i>, and these may all pass under the general appellation of <i>rooks</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1709. <span class="sc">Steele</span>, <i>Tatler</i>, No. 12. A <span class="sc">biter</span>, who is a dull fellow, that tells <span class="pageNum" id="pb206">[<a href="#pb206">206</a>]</span>you a lye with a grave face, and laughs at you for knowing him no better than to believe
+him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1711. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 47. These gentlemen are commonly distinguished by the name of <span class="sc">biters</span>: a race of men that are perpetually employed in laughing at those mistakes which
+are of their own production.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Spectator</span>, No. 504. A <span class="sc">biter</span> is one who tells you a thing you have no reason to disbelieve in itself, and perhaps
+has given you, before he bit you, no reason to disbelieve it for his saying it; and
+if you give him credit, laughs in your face, and triumphs that he has deceived you.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">Coombe</span>, <i>Syntax, Picturesque</i>, c. xix.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Pray have you travell’d so far north, </p>
+<p class="line">To think we have so little wit, </p>
+<p class="line">As by such <span class="sc">biters</span> to be bit? </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">2. (old.)—An amorous woman (sexually). <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Athanasian wench</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bite the Ear</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (thieves’).—To borrow. Formerly, a term of endearment; to caress fondly. For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Shins</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;W. Horsley</span>, in <i>Macm. Mag.</i>, xl., 502. He used to want to <span class="sc">bite my ear</span> (borrow) too often.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bite the Thumb</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To make a gesture of contempt, which was formerly regarded in the light of
+an insult. Nares says the thumb in the action represented a fig, and the whole was
+equivalent to ‘a fig for you.’ There are several gestures of this kind. That best
+known is probably <span class="sc">taking a sight</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). A similar gesture of contempt is used by the lower orders in France which, there
+is little doubt, is the ‘<span class="sc">biting the thumb</span>’ spoken of in <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>. The person using the gesture placed the nail of his thumb under the front teeth
+of the upper jaw, and then jerked the thumb forward, using at the same time an expression
+equivalent to ‘I don’t care that for you.’ Another contemptuous action is placing
+the thumb between the closed fore and middle fingers; while according to Darwin’s
+<i>Expression of the Emotions</i>, it appears that with the Dakota Indians of North America ‘contempt is shown … conventionally
+by the hand being closed and held near the breast; then, as the fore arm is suddenly
+extended, the hand is opened and the fingers separated from each other. If the person
+at whose expense the sign is made is present, the hand is moved towards him and the
+head sometimes averted from him.’ This sudden extension and opening of the hand perhaps
+indicates the dropping or throwing away a valueless object.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1595. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, i., 1. I will <span class="sc">bite my thumb</span> at them; which is a disgrace to them if they bear it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Lodge</span>, <i>Wit’s Miserie</i>. Behold next I see Contempt marching forth, giving me the fies, <span class="sc">with his thombe in his mouth</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1638. <span class="sc">Randolph</span>, <i>Muses’ L. Glass</i>, O. Pl., ix., 220. Dogs and pistols! <span class="sc">To bite his thumb</span> at me! Wear I a sword To see men <span class="sc">bite their thumbs</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1678. <i>Rules of Civility</i>, transl. from French, p. 44. ’Tis no less disrespectful <span class="sc">to bite the nail of your thumb</span>, by way of scorn and disdain, and drawing your nail from between your teeth, to tell
+them you value not this what they can do.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bite Up</b>, <i>subs.</i> (tailors’).—An unpleasant altercation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit-Faker</b> or <b>Turner Out</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Coiner of bad money. [From <span class="sc">bit</span>, an old canting term for money, + <span class="sc">faker</span>, one who makes, or does.] Also <span class="pageNum" id="pb207">[<a href="#pb207">207</a>]</span><span class="sc">bit-maker</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Turner out</span> and <span class="sc">Faker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit Faking</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Manufacturing base coin; counterfeiting. [From <span class="sc">bit</span> + <span class="sc">fake</span> + <span class="sc">ing</span>.—<i>See</i> preceding.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Turner out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biting Up</b>, <i>subs.</i> (tailors’).—Grieving over a loss or bereavement.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit-Maker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A counterfeiter.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bit-faker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 447. Coiners—<span class="sc">bit-makers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit-o’-Bull</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Beef. The French say <i lang="fr">un gobet</i>; formerly, a dainty morsel.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Blood</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A high-spirited horse; a thoroughbred. The derivation is obvious. For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Prad</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 10.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">’Mong the vehicles, too, which were many and various, </p>
+<p class="line">From <i>natty barouche</i> down to <i>buggy precarious</i>, </p>
+<p class="line">We twigg’d more than one <i>queerish</i> sort of <i>turn-out</i>, </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">C—n n—g</span> came in a <i>job</i>, and then canter’d about </p>
+<p class="line">On a showy, but hot and unsound, <span class="sc">bit of blood</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">(For a <i>leader</i> once meant, but cast off, as no good). </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, II., p. 156. Not that we slacken in our pace the while, not we: we rather put the
+<span class="sc">bits of blood</span> upon their mettle.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Cavalry</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A horse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act i., Sc. 6. <i>Tom.</i> You are now at Tattersal’s, Jerry, a very worthy fellow, who made his fortune by
+a horse called Highflyer. <i>Jerry.</i> Hum! and if one may judge from the splendour and extent of his premises, he seems
+to be no small highflyer himself. <i>Tom.</i> You are right, Jerry—I shall here buy a <span class="sc">bit of cavalry</span>—that <i>is a prad</i>, on your judgment.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Ebony</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A negro or negress. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Snowball</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Fat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. An unexpected pecuniary advantage in a transaction.
+</p>
+<p>2. (printers’.)—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Fat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Jam.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jam</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Leaf</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Tobacco.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Muslin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A young girl; generally applied only to prostitutes. Also <span class="sc">bit of stuff</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Mutton</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A woman; generally, a prostitute is meant. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Laced mutton</span>, and for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Sticks</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (sporting).—A corpse. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dead meat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Stiff</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A bank-note, or other paper money; the equivalent of money when not in
+specie, <i>i.e.</i>, a draft or bill of exchange.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Lever</span>, <i>Dodd Family Abroad</i>, I., 313. I’m sorry that <span class="sc">bit of stiff</span>, meaning the bill, wasn’t for five thousand francs.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 234. He liked to have the party’s name written across a piece of paper with a
+stamp attached, commonly called a <span class="sc">bit of stiff</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To do a bit of stiff</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To accept a bill.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb208">[<a href="#pb208">208</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit of Stuff</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—An overdressed man; a man with full confidence in his appearance and
+abilities; a young woman; also called a <span class="sc">bit of muslin</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Jacob Faithful</i>, ch. xxiii. ‘One night he says to me, “Will, come up and I’ll show you a devilish
+fine <span class="sc">piece of stuff</span>.” So I walks with him, and he takes me to a shop where they dealed in marine stores,
+and we goes and finds your mother in the back parlour.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit On.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">On</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bitter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A glass of beer.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To do a bitter.</span>—To drink a glass of bitter. Originally, says Hotten, an Oxford term varied by <span class="sc">to do a beer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Verdant Green</i>, 1st., III., ch. x. Mr. Verdant Green and Mr. Bouncer … turned into the coffee-room
+of ‘The Mitre’ <span class="sc">to do bitters</span>, as Mr. Bouncer phrased the act of drinking bitter beer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1882. <i>Comic Song</i>, ‘The West End Boys,’ verse 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Let fortune frown and friends betray, </p>
+<p class="line">There’s a class of men that’s ever gay, </p>
+<p class="line">Where some make troubles, they make joys, </p>
+<p class="line">And are known by the title of the West End Boys. </p>
+<p class="line">They commence their evening with cigars, </p>
+<p class="line">And ‘How-d’ye-do, dear,’ at the bars, </p>
+<p class="line">‘Another <span class="sc">bitter</span>, I really can’t go, </p>
+<p class="line">There’s something about you that charms me so.’ </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5086">Oh, don’t they like, etc. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bittock</b>, <i>subs.</i> (originally provincial; now common).—A distance of very undecided length. If a North
+countryman be asked the distance to a place, he will most probably reply, ‘a mile
+and a <span class="sc">bittock</span>.’ The latter may be considered any distance from one hundred yards to ten miles.
+Also of time. [From <span class="sc">bit</span> + <span class="sc">ock</span>, a diminutive suffix.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1802. <span class="sc">J. Wilson</span> (‘Congleton’), <i>M.S. Let. to F. Boucher</i>. <span class="sc">Bittock</span>, a small Piece or small Bit; <i>Cheshire</i>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1816. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Old Mortality</i>, ch. x. ‘To Chamwood, madam? It’s unco late, and its sax miles an’ a <span class="sc">bittock</span> down the water.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Daily News</i>, April 15, p. 4, col. 7. Edinburgh University is three hundred years old, or rather,
+three hundred years and a <span class="sc">bittock</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bit You.</b>—<span class="sc">A hair of the dog that bit you.</span>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Hair</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bivvy</b> or <b>Gatter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial).—Beer; ‘shant of <span class="sc">bivvy</span>,’ a pot or quart of beer; probably from the <i>Italian</i>, <span class="sc">bevere</span>, <span class="sc">bere</span>. <i>Latin</i>, <span class="sc">bibere</span>. <i>English</i>, <span class="sc">beverage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Biz</b>, <i>subs.</i> (originally American, now general).—A vulgar corruption for business, employment,
+or occupation. ‘Good <span class="sc">biz</span>’ is profitable business.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Democracy</i>, ch. vii. A number of gentlemen were waiting for interviews with the President, and
+among them was the whole Pennsylvania delegation, ready for <span class="sc">biz</span>, as Mr. Tom Lord remarked, with a wink.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Saturday Review</i>, Jan. 5, p. 13, col. 2. It is satisfactory to learn from the conductor of the circus
+that <span class="sc">biz</span> is very fair.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Ally Sloper</i>, Aug. 17, p. 262, col. 1. We understand, though we cannot vouch for the truth of
+the statement, that a New York lady, moving in the best society, while twisting some
+worsted, hit upon the idea of applying a little system of her own to a larger field
+than mere yarn, so she invented a machine for twisting wire rope, and has sold the
+patent for £10,000 and a royalty upon future sales. Very good <span class="sc">biz</span>, this, eh!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>B.&nbsp;K. S.</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—An abbreviation of ‘barracks’; its usage is explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Standard</i>, 10 Feb., p. 5, col. 2. <span class="sc">B. k. s.</span>, used by officers ‘in mufti,’ who do not wish to give their address.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb209">[<a href="#pb209">209</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blab</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vulgar).—A revealer of that which should be kept secret; a betrayer; a babbler.
+A depraved word; once in common use, but rarely employed now, except colloquially.
+Grose [1785] includes it in his <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i> as forming part of the slang of his time. These remarks apply with more or less cogency
+to <span class="sc">blab</span> when used, to signify loose talk or chatter, when employed as a verb, and to the
+various derivative compounds and allied forms, such as ‘blabber,’ ‘blabbing,’ ‘blabbing-book,’
+etc.—a taint of vulgarism now rests upon them all.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Act</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A corrupted form of <span class="sc">black art</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackamoor’s Teeth</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Cowrie shells—the currency of some savage tribes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1700. <span class="sc">W. King</span>, <i>Transactioneer</i>, p. 36. He has shells called <span class="sc">Blackmoore’s Teeth</span>, I suppose … from their Whiteness. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1719. <span class="sc">W. Wood</span>, <i>Surv. Trade</i>, p. 334. Known by the Name of Cowries amongst Merchants, or of <span class="sc">Blackamores’ Teeth</span> among other Persons. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-and-Tan</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—Porter or stout and ale, mixed in equal quantities. [From <span class="sc">black</span>, in allusion to the dark colour of porter and stout, + <span class="sc">and</span> + <span class="sc">tan</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, of the yellowish brown colour of ale.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-and-Tan Country</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—The Southern States of North America. [From <span class="sc">black</span>, a sobriquet for a negro, + <span class="sc">and</span> + <span class="sc">tan</span>, a pun and an allusion to the slang verb ‘to tan,’ to thrash or beat + <span class="sc">country</span>; <i>i.e.</i>, the country where the negroes were tanned or beaten.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black and White</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (colloquial).—The black characters of print or writing on white paper. Therefore,
+to put a thing down in <span class="sc">black and white</span> is to preserve it in writing or in print. <span class="sc">Black on white</span> is a variant.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>Every Man in His Humour</i>, IV., ii. I have it here in <span class="sc">black and white</span>. [<i>Pulls out the warrant.</i>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1667. <span class="sc">Shirley</span>, <i>Love Tricks</i>, Act ii., Sc. 2. <i>Gov.</i> [with a letter] … Alas, poor gentleman! Little does he think what <span class="sc">black and white</span> is here.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 286. My desire is, Sir, that you will be pleased to give us, in <span class="sc">black and white</span>, your opinion in the matter of dispute between us.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 616. They had like to have dumfounded the justice; but his clerk came in to
+his assistance, and took them all down in <span class="sc">black and white</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Carlyle</span>, <i>French Revolution</i>, pt. III., bk. II., ch. viii. His accounts lie all ready, correct in <span class="sc">black and white</span> to the uttermost farthing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">Mrs. H. Wood</span>, <i>Johnny Ludlow</i>, 1 S., No. xii., p. 202. ‘A man can’t so much as put on a pair of clean stockings
+in the morning, but its laid before high quarters in <span class="sc">black and white</span> at mid-day by the secret police!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Arse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A kettle; a pot. [From <span class="sc">black</span>, from its colour, + <span class="sc">arse</span>, the posterior, hinder, or ‘bottom’ part.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Art</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Picking of locks; burglary. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Crack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1591. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Conny-Catch.</i>, wks., 1883, II., x., 72. I can set down the subtiltie of the <span class="sc">blacke art</span>, which is picking of lockes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman of Lond.</i>, wks., 1884–5, III., 137. This <span class="sc">blacke art</span> … is called in English, Picking of Lockes.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb210">[<a href="#pb210">210</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Black art</span>, the art of picking a lock.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> [The definition given is the same as that of Grose, as above-mentioned.]
+</p>
+<p>2. (undertakers’.)—The business of an undertaker. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Black work</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Seven Sons of Mammon</i>, i., p. 78. Rich men’s funerals in the first style of <span class="sc">black art</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-ball</b>, <i>verb</i> (common).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Pill</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackballing</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—Stealing or pilfering. A sailor’s word. It originated amongst the employees
+of the old Black Ball line of steamers between New York and Liverpool. The cruelty
+and scandalous conduct of officers to men—and sailors to each other—were so proverbial,
+that the line of vessels in question became known all over the world for the cruelty
+of its officers, and the thieving propensities of its sailors.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackbeetles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The lower strata of society. [Apparently a term of contempt derived from the
+cockroach, generally called a blackbeetle.] Obsolete.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 6. <i>Jerry</i>: Tom, here’s a group of <span class="sc">blackbeetles</span>—do you see those lovely mendicants? <i>Tom</i>: Beauty in rags—I do—Cupid imploring charity. I’ll relieve him, for I’ll be after
+that match-girl directly. <i>Jerry</i>: And I’ll chant a few words to that beautiful ballad-singer. <i>Log</i>: And I’ll take pity on that charming beggar.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackberry Swagger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A person who hawks tapes, boot-laces, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackbird</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Formerly an African captive on board a slaver; now generally understood
+as referring to a Polynesian indentured labourer, who, if not by name a slave, is
+often one to all intents and purposes. [Obviously derived from the black or dark-brown
+colour of these people.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>Chequered Career</i>, p. 180. The white men on board knew that if once the <span class="sc">blackbirds</span> burst the hatches … they would soon master the ship. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To capture negroes or Polynesians; to kidnap (<i>see subs.</i>). Hence the <i>verbal substantive</i> and <i>ppl. adj.</i> <span class="sc">blackbirding</span>, in the same sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Graphic</i>, April 21, p. 398, col. 1. The day is not far distant when, to avoid <span class="sc">blackbirding</span>, and the revengeful massacres which these kidnappers provoke, the whole of Oceania
+will have to be placed under civilised control.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Academy</i>, 8 Sep., p. 158. [He] slays Bishop Patteson by way of reprisal for the atrocities
+of some <span class="sc">blackbirding</span> crew. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 19 Aug. p. 2, col. 2. Years ago <span class="sc">blackbirding</span> scoundrels may have hailed from Fiji. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackbird-Catching.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blackbird</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Birders</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>All the Year Round</i>, 22 Sep., p. 355. <span class="sc">Blackbirders</span>, the kidnappers for labour purposes on the islands of the Pacific.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Box</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A lawyer. So given in Grose [1785]; <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum</i> [1811]; and in Duncombe’s <i>Sinks of London</i> [1848]. [From the black tin boxes in which clients’ papers are kept.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Boy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Black-coat</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb211">[<a href="#pb211">211</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Bracelets</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Handcuffs. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Darbies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 63.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">When the turnkey, next morning, stepped into his room, </p>
+<p class="line">The sight of the hole in the wall struck him dumb; </p>
+<p class="line">The sheriff’s <span class="sc">black bracelets</span> lay strewn on the ground, </p>
+<p class="line">But the lad that had worn ’em could nowhere be found.
+</p>
+<p class="line xd33e35160">Tol-de-rol! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Black-Cattle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. Clergymen; parsons. [From the prevailing hue of the garments worn by
+the profession.] Sometimes used in the same way as <span class="sc">red-coats</span> for soldiers, <i>e.g.</i>, <span class="sc">black-coats</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); also <span class="sc">devil dodgers</span>, the latter of which, see for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—Lice. These are also called <span class="sc">active citizens</span> and <span class="sc">chates</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Cattle Show</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A gathering of clergymen. [From <span class="sc">black-cattle</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">show</span>, in its slang sense of a party or meeting.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Coat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar.)—A parson. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Black-cattle</span> and <span class="sc">Devil-dodger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1627. <span class="sc">R. Perrot</span>, <i>Jacob’s Vow</i>, 52. Let us take heed how these <span class="sc">black-coates</span> get the day of us. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">Eachard</span>, <i>Observations</i>, p. 176. Suppose we should bestow upon a poor low thinking <span class="sc">black-coat</span>, one of our best forms, such as follows; it is five to one he would commit some ecclesiastical
+blunder or other, in setting his name too near.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1818. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Heart of Midlothian</i>, i. You are the <span class="sc">black-coat’s</span> son of Knocktarlitie.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Emerson</span>, <i>Soc. and Solit.</i>, ix., p. 197. The <span class="sc">black-coats</span> are good company only for <span class="sc">black-coats</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Cuffs</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Fifty-eight Foot, from the regimental facings which have been black
+since 1767. They have also been nicknamed <span class="sc">the Steel Backs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Diamonds</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. Coals. [A simile in allusion to the colour, and also to the fact that
+both coal and diamonds are carbon.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">T. Miller</span>, in <i>Gabarni in London</i>, p. 43. Were he even trusted with the favourite horse and gig to fetch a sack of
+<span class="sc">black diamonds</span> from the wharf.
+</p>
+<p>2. Also formerly a rough but clever or good person; this sobriquet, however, has given
+place to <span class="sc">rough diamond</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Dog</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Applied, <i>circa</i> 1702–30, to a counterfeit shilling and other base silver coinage. In this connection
+it may be pointed out that <i>black</i> had long previously been applied to base money. Ruding, in his <i>Annals of the Coinage</i> [London, 1817, vol. I., p. 405], having mentioned <i>black</i> money, appends this note—‘Qy. <i>Turonenses Nigri</i>? Copper money struck at Tours.’ [<i>See</i> Turney’s <i>infra</i>. Qy. corrupted from Tierney, name of maker.] It is introduced in his account of the
+Statute of Money, passed at York, 1335, 9 cap., Edward III., which recites that all
+manner of <i>black</i> money which had been commonly current in the king’s realm and obeisance should be
+utterly excluded, so as not to be current in one month after proclamation, on pain
+of forfeiture of the same. Later on, in 1339, a certain <i>black</i> money called ‘turneys’ was made by <span class="pageNum" id="pb212">[<a href="#pb212">212</a>]</span>certain persons in Ireland, who circulated it to the injury of the king’s sterling
+money, and to his no little loss and prejudice. Proclamation had, therefore, been
+ordered to be made to prohibit the circulation of it, on pain of forfeiture of money
+and goods. But the king having been informed that great inconvenience had arisen from
+this prohibition on account of the scarcity of sterling money, it was, therefore,
+commanded that, provided it should be found on due inquiry more advantageous to the
+public to allow the currency of the said <i>black</i> money, proclamation should be made to authorise it until a sufficient quantity of
+other money was provided.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1706. <span class="sc">Luttrell</span>, in Ashton’s <i>Reign Queen Anne</i>, II., p. 225. The Art of making <span class="sc">black dogs</span>, which are shillings, or other pieces of money made only of Pewter, double wash’d.
+[<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1724. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Drapier’s Lett.</i>, wks., 1755, V., ii., 44. Butcher’s half-pence, <span class="sc">black-dogs</span>, and others the like. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—<i lang="la">Delirium tremens</i>; the horrors; ‘jim jams.’ <span class="sc">Black dog</span> is a frequent figurative expression dialectically for depression of spirits, and
+melancholy. Among the ancients a black dog and its pups were considered an evil omen.
+For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Gallon distemper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown at Oxford</i>, ch. xxxiii. ‘Yes, sir,’ said the butler, nodding, ‘D.T., sir. After one of his rages
+the <span class="sc">black dog</span> comes, and it’s hawful work; so I hope you’ll go, sir.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To blush like a black dog</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—Not to blush at all; to be shameless.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Blush</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1634. <span class="sc">Withal</span>, <i>Dictionary</i>, p. 557 [ed. 1634]. <i>Faciem perfricuit.</i> He <span class="sc">blusheth like a black dogge</span>, hee hath a brazen face.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Doll.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dolly shop</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Charles Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 174. [Speaking of a marine-store shop]: imagine, in addition to this incongruous
+mass, a <span class="sc">black doll</span> in a white frock, with two faces—one looking up the street, the other looking down,
+swinging over the door.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Douglas Jerrold</span>, <i>Men of Character</i>, II., p. 100. Five hundred articles, among which might be found knockers, scrapers,
+barbers’ poles, <span class="sc">black dolls</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, Nov., p. 609. The best price given for old rags—inquire at the sign of the <span class="sc">black doll</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Eye.</b> <span class="sc">To give a bottle a black eye</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To empty it. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Dead man</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Eyed Susan</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Texan for a revolver. Among other slang equivalents for this weapon current
+in the Lone Star State may be mentioned <span class="sc">meat in the pot</span>, <span class="sc">blue lightning</span>, <span class="sc">the peace-maker</span>, <span class="sc">mr. speaker</span>, <span class="sc">a one-eyed scribe</span>, <span class="sc">pill box</span> and <span class="sc">my unconverted friend</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Meat in the pot</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Fly</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A contemptuous name for a clergyman. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Devil-dodger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> The greatest drawback on the farmer is the <span class="sc">black fly</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, the parson who takes tithe of the harvest.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackfriars!</b> <i>intj.</i> (thieves’).—An exclamation of warning; look out! beware!—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Thieves</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackguard</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A man coarse in speech, and offensive in manner; a scamp; a scoundrel;
+a disreputable fellow. The term, as now used, is one of the utmost opprobrium, and
+although a good <span class="pageNum" id="pb213">[<a href="#pb213">213</a>]</span>deal of uncertainty hangs about its history and derivation, it seems pretty clear
+that a certain amount of odium has always been attached to the word. Between two of
+its primary significations, however,—(1) a kitchen knave or scullion, and (2) a guard
+of attendants, black in person, dress, or character, generally in reference to the
+devil’s body-guard—and the modern usage, there is a somewhat marked line to be drawn.
+The earliest mention is as follows:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1532. <i>MS. Churchwarden’s Accompts. St. Margaret’s, Westminster</i> (Receipts for burials). Item Receyvid for the lycens of iiij. torchis of the <span class="sc">blake garde</span> vjd.
+</p>
+<p>What this guard was is not definitely known. Some have suggested that it was a body
+of soldiers; others that it was a band of torch bearers at funerals; while some incline
+to the belief that it was comprised of street link-boys.
+</p>
+<p>Better supported by evidence are the senses first mentioned, in which <span class="sc">blackguard</span> signifies (1) a scullion, and (2) a member of the devil’s body-guard. But here too,
+Murray points out that it would be difficult to assign priority. First, however, let
+the quotations be given in sets:—
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Sense 1</span> = a scullion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1535. <span class="sc">Sir W. Fitzwilliams</span>, 17 Aug., in <i>Cal. State Papers</i>. Two of the ring-leaders had been some time of the <span class="sc">black guard</span> of the king’s kitchen. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1579. <span class="sc">Fulke</span>, <i>Refut. Kastel</i>, 779. They ought not, nor yet any of the scullerie or <span class="sc">blacke garde</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Sense 2</span> = Devil’s body-guard; also other attendants.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1583. <span class="sc">Fulke</span>, <i>Defence</i>, x., 386. Pelagius, Celestins, and other like heretics of the devil’s body-guard,
+[<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1609. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Lanthorne and Candlelight</i>, wks. [1884–5] III., 214. The Great Lord of Limbo did therefore commaund all his
+<span class="sc">Blacke guard</span> that stood about him, to bestirre them. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>Comparing these one with the other, we are clearly face to face in one set of quotations
+with a popular superstition—a belief of an age when witchcraft was prevalent, and
+when hobgoblins and the like were assigned as <span class="sc">black guards</span> to his Satanic Majesty. Whether there was any connection in the popular mind between
+the King’s scullions and the Devil’s body-guard, cannot now be definitely stated.
+Still, it is probable; and this view is borne out by later references. It is curious
+to note the concluding lines of Hudibras’ Address to Ralpho, which may perhaps explain
+the process by which the term of <span class="sc">black guard</span> may have come to be applied to the lowest class of domestics in the royal kitchens
+or other great establishments. Still, as stated, priority cannot be given to either;
+moreover, the use of <span class="sc">black guard</span> in either sense may have been a mere play on words, whether of 1 on 2, or 2 on 1
+is equally uncertain. The quotation from Hudibras is as follows:
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1678. <span class="sc">Butler</span>, <i>Hudibras</i>, pt. III., canto 1, line 1403.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I do believe thee, quoth the knight; </p>
+<p class="line">Thus far I’m sure thou’rt in the right, </p>
+<p class="line">And know what ’tis that troubles thee, </p>
+<p class="line">Better than thou hast guess’d of me. </p>
+<p class="line">Thou art some paltry, <span class="sc">blackguard</span> <i>sprite</i>, </p>
+<p class="line">Condemn’d to drudg’ry in the night; </p>
+<p class="line">Thou hast no work to do in th’ house, </p>
+<p class="line">Nor half-penny to drop in shoes; </p>
+<p class="line">Without the raising of which sum </p>
+<p class="line">You dare not be so troublesome; </p>
+<p class="line">To pinch the slatterns black and blue, </p>
+<p class="line">For leaving you their work to do. </p>
+<p class="line">This is your business, good Pug Robin, </p>
+<p class="line">And your diversion, dull dry bobbing. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb214">[<a href="#pb214">214</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="first">So also the following:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1655. <span class="sc">Fuller</span>, <i>Church History</i> [1845], vol. V., p. 160. For who can otherwise conceive but such a prince-principal
+of darkness must be proportionately attended with a <span class="sc">black guard</span> of monstrous opinions.
+</p>
+<p>The <span class="sc">Black Guard</span> of Satan, argues a writer in <i>Notes and Queries</i> [Sir J. Emmerson Tennent, <i>N. and Q.</i>, 1 S., vii., 78], was supposed, in the popular view, to perform the drudgery of the
+kitchen and servants’ hall in the infernal household.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1588–1628. <span class="sc">Hobbes</span>, <i>Microcosmus</i>, vol. II., p. 134. Since my lady’s decay I am degraded from a cook, and I fear the
+devil himself will entertain me but for one of his <span class="sc">blackguards</span>, and he shall be sure to have his roast burnt.
+</p>
+<p>Hence came the popular superstition that these goblin scullions, on their visits to
+the upper world confined themselves to the servants’ apartments of the houses which
+they favoured with their presence, and which at night they swept and garnished; pinching
+those of the maids in their sleep who, by their laziness, had imposed such toil on
+their elfin assistants; but slipping money into the shoes of the more tidy and industrious
+servants whose attention to their own duties before going to rest had spared the goblins
+the task of performing their share of the drudgery. In allusion to this is Gifford’s
+note on Ben Jonson’s plays [vol. II., p. 170],—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">In all great houses, but particularly in the Royal Residences, there were a number
+of mean dirty dependents, whose office it was to attend the wool-yard, sculleries,
+etc. Of these, the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals
+to the kitchens, halls, etc. To this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses,
+and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, which, with every other article of
+furniture, were then removed from palace to palace, the people, in derision, gave
+the name of <span class="sc">black guards</span>; a term since become sufficiently familiar, and never properly explained.
+</p>
+<p>Many other references also go to prove the connection in the popular mind, so far
+as usage is concerned, between the two significations. In all this, however, the peculiarly
+contemptuous odium attached to the word in modern times is absent, and between the
+old and the modern significations a sharp line may, as already stated, be drawn.
+</p>
+<p>The earliest reference to <span class="sc">blackguard</span> as applied to a vagabond or loafer occurs in 1683. Since that time the word seems
+gradually to have become more and more depraved, until its present meaning of a low,
+worthless fellow, one open to, and ready for any villainy has been reached. The following
+quotations will well repay comparative study.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1683. <i>MS.</i>, in Lord Steward’s Office, Windsor Castle [<i>N. and Q.</i>, 1 S., ix., p. 15]. 7 May, Whereas of late a sort of vicious, idle, and masterless
+boys and rogues, commonly called the <span class="sc">blackguard</span>, with divers other lewd and loose fellowes, vagabonds, vagrants, and wandering men
+and women, do usually haunt and follow the Court.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1695. <span class="sc">Congreve</span>, <i>Love for Love</i>, Act iii., Sc. 10. Or if that won’t do, I’ll bring a Lawyer that shall out-lye the
+Devil: and so I’ll try whether my <span class="sc">black-guard</span> or his shall get the better of the day.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1744. Nov. 26, <span class="sc">Walpole</span>, <i>Lett. to Mann</i> (1833), II., 57. The whole stage filled with <span class="sc">blackguards</span>, armed with bludgeons and clubs.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1780. <i>Parody on the Rosciad, etc.</i>, p. 13. Like him I’m a <span class="sc">blackguard</span> and sot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1788. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Stevens</span>, <i>Adv. of a Speculist</i>, i., 59. As <span class="sc">black-guards</span> at <span class="pageNum" id="pb215">[<a href="#pb215">215</a>]</span>Newmarket meeting bawl about the lists of horses.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">Mrs. H. Wood</span>, <i>Johnny Ludlow</i>, 1 S., No. iii., p. 37. ‘I must request you to be a little more careful in your language.
+You have come amidst gentlemen here, not <span class="sc">blackguards</span>.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—Of or pertaining to a blackguard; to the scum or refuse of society; vile; vicious.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1760. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Sir L. Greaves</i>, vol. II., ch. ix. He is become a <span class="sc">blackguard</span> gaol-bird.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1803. <span class="sc">C.&nbsp;K. Sharpe</span>, in <i>Correspondence</i> (1888), I., 178. His friends were ill-natured, and behaved like <span class="sc">blackguard</span> beasts.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To act like a ruffian; to use filthy, scurrilous language; to play the vagabond or
+scoundrel.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. xxix. ‘I have been called names, and <span class="sc">blackguarded</span> quite sufficiently for one sitting.’
+</p>
+<p>So also with other derivatives and compounds—<span class="sc">blackguardism</span>, <span class="sc">blackguardize</span>, <span class="sc">blackguardly</span>, <span class="sc">blackguardy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1781. <span class="sc">G. Parker</span>, <i>View of Society</i>, I., 124. The talent of common <span class="sc">blackguardism</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">C. Kingsley</span>, <i>Alton Locke</i>, ch. v. I was awakened by being shoved through the folding-doors of a gin-shop, into
+a glare of light and hubbub of <span class="sc">blackguardism</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Ravenshoe</i>, ch. xxvi. ‘I beg your pardon, sir, for saying that; I said it in a hurry. It was
+<span class="sc">blackguardly</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">William Morris</span>, reported in <i>Illust. London News</i>, March 10, p. 243, col. 3. Almost all ordinary wares now made by man were shabbily
+and pretentiously ugly.… Not even the pine-trees and gardens could make the rich men’s
+houses at Bournemouth tolerable. They were simply <span class="sc">blackguardly</span>; and even as he spoke they were being built by the mile.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Hole</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Anglo-Indian).—Cheltenham, from the number of retired Anglo-Indians who live there.
+<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Asia Minor</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 5 S., x., p. 234, col. 1. Gained for Cheltenham the … title of <span class="sc">The Black Hole</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Horse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—A nickname of the Seventh Dragoon Guards, so called from the regimental
+facings, black on scarlet. Occasionally the epithet is shortened into <span class="sc">The Blacks</span>. During the reign of George II., the corps was known as <span class="sc">The Virgin Mary’s Guard</span>, and is now often called <span class="sc">Strawboots</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black House</b>, <i>subs.</i> (trade).—A place of business where hours are long, and wages at starvation rates;
+a sweating house.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 234. I have mentioned that the <span class="sc">black houses</span> or linen-drapers at the west end of London, were principally supplied from the east
+end.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Indies</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Newcastle-on-Tyne, from its wealth in coal. The term is now obsolete, but
+it was in common use at the latter part of the eighteenth century.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Jack</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A large leathern jug for beer, holding two gallons. The term
+was not peculiar to Winchester; in olden times <span class="sc">Jacks</span> were common everywhere.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">(?) <i>Simon the Cellarer.</i> But oh, oh, oh! his nose doth show, How oft the <span class="sc">Black Jack</span> to his lips doth go.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black job</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A funeral. Mr. H.&nbsp;J. Byron, in his annotated copy of the <i>Slang Dictionary</i> states ‘it was <span class="pageNum" id="pb216">[<a href="#pb216">216</a>]</span>the late Lord Portsmouth’s hobby to attend all the <span class="sc">black jobs</span> he could hear of.’ [From <span class="sc">black</span>, in reference to the sombre trappings of funerals + <span class="sc">job</span>].—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Black work</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">Yates</span>, <i>Land at Last</i>, I., p. 101. ‘What, a funeral mute?’ ‘Yes, Sir, <span class="sc">black-job</span> business,’ etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Joke</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The female <i>pudenda</i>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Monosyllable</span> for synonyms. Said to have been the burden of an obscene song, <i>circa</i> 1811.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackleg</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A turf swindler; a rook; a welsher; also one who cheats at cards or
+billiards. Origin unknown; although many speculations have been hazarded, none are
+satisfactory.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Leg</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1771. <span class="sc">B. Parsons</span>, <i>Newmarket</i>, II., 163. The frequenters of the Turf, and numberless words of theirs are exotics
+everywhere else; then how should we have been told of <span class="sc">blacklegs</span>, and of <i>town-tops … taken in … beat hollow</i>, etc. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1774. <span class="sc">Colman</span>, <i>Man of Business</i>, I., in wks. (1777) II., 133. Countesses and semptresses, lords, aldermen, <span class="sc">blacklegs</span>, and Oxonians.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">Coombe</span>, <i>Dr. Syntax, Picturesque</i>, ch. x. The crowd with their commission pleas’d, Rudely the trembling <span class="sc">black-leg</span> seiz’d, Who, to their justice forc’d to yield, Soon ran off dripping from the field.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">S. Warren</span>, <i>Diary of a Late Physician</i>, ch. xv. ‘Mr. T—— is pursuing quite disgraceful courses all night and day, squandering
+away his money among sharpers and <span class="sc">blacklegs</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>2. A workman who, when his fellows are on strike, is willing to go on working. An
+opprobrious term. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Black-nob</span> and <span class="sc">Scab</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 29 Oct., p. 7. If the timber merchants persist in putting on <span class="sc">blacklegs</span>, a serious disturbance will ensue. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>3. Also by another transference of meaning applied to any one failing, or refusing
+to join his fellows in combination for a given purpose.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, Nov. 21, p. 5, col. 1. It was stated at the meeting that the master bakers were
+much behind the journeymen in the matter of organisation, and the difficulty of maintaining
+the price against unscrupulous bakers at ‘a living figure’ was emphasized. The question
+of the preparation of a list of master baker ‘<span class="sc">blacklegs</span>’ was also touched upon. These men are selling bread at 4½d. the quartern, and at
+even a lower rate.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (tailors’).—Amongst the fraternity of ‘snips,’ <span class="sc">to blackleg</span> is used as synonymous with ‘to boycott’—<i>i.e.</i>, to make things so uncomfortable for a man that he is compelled to leave his work
+or the town.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To blackleg it</span>, <i>phr.</i> (trades’).—Amongst trades’ union men to return to work before the causes of a strike
+have been removed, or settled to the satisfaction of the leaders.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Baltimore Herald</i>, May 6. Early this morning the mountain paths leading to the William Pen colliery
+were lined with men, dinner in hand, determined to go to work. Some were non-union
+miners, while the remainder were Knights of Labor who had determined <span class="sc">to blackleg it</span>, regardless of the jeers and threats of their companions.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Leggism</b>, <b>Black-Leggery</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Cheating; swindling; the arts and practices of a <span class="sc">blackleg</span> (<i>q.v.</i>—sense 1).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1832. <span class="sc">Maginn</span>, in <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, XXXII., 427. From following any profession save the Army, the Navy, Black-apronry
+and <span class="sc">Black-leggery</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Man</b> or <b>Black Gentleman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The devil. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Skipper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1606. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, in <i>Newes from Hell</i>, in wks. (Grosart) II., 113. [Old Nick called the <span class="sc">Black Gentleman</span>.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb217">[<a href="#pb217">217</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">G. Meredith</span>, <i>Evan Harrington</i>, ch. iii., p. 23 (1885). ‘Rich as Crœsus, and as wicked as the <span class="sc">black man</span> below! as dear papa used to say.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackmans.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Darkmans</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Maria</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A prison van or omnibus, used for the conveyance of prisoners. The origin
+of the phrase is unknown, but <span class="sc">black</span> is obviously from the dark and sombre colour of <span class="sc">Her Majesty’s Carriage</span> as it is sometimes jocularly called. This view is also supported by the fact that
+a variant is <span class="sc">Sable Maria</span> (<i>see</i> quot.). Julian Marshall, in <i>Notes and Queries</i> [6 S., vii., p. 355], suggests that the term <span class="sc">Maria</span> may be allied to ‘Marinated,’ transported to some foreign plantation, and ‘married,’
+persons chained or handcuffed together, in order to be conveyed to gaol [Grose has
+this, as also has the <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum</i>]. In <i>marinated</i> evident allusion is made to the compulsory voyage; in <i>married</i> to the forced wedlock of convictism. <span class="sc">Black Maria</span> may, therefore, possibly be a corruption of one or the other, or both terms. A writer
+on slang states that the term is said to have originated in Philadelphia in 1838,
+but gives no evidence in support of the statement.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. ii., p. 61. On alighting from the ‘<span class="sc">Sable Maria</span>’ we were ushered through a door into a long white-washed passage, with cells on one
+side.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>Three Brass Balls</i>, pledge xvii. It is the time when <span class="sc">Black Maria</span>, the prison van, stands waiting at the door, and the signal is given that the prisoners
+are coming out.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, Feb. 9. There are two kinds of <span class="sc">Black Marias</span>. One is called the night van and the other the day. The passengers politely term
+them ‘mails.’ The day van holds eighteen passengers not including the driver and warder,
+and the night van a dozen. The vans are divided into two halves, and on each side
+are small compartments about two feet square with a seat and door, which is carefully
+locked.
+</p>
+<p>Amongst <span class="sc">French Synonyms</span> may be mentioned:—<i lang="fr">Le courrier du Palais</i> (a thieves’ term: <i lang="fr">courrier</i>, a post or mail + <i lang="fr">Palais</i>, an abbreviated form of <i lang="fr">Palais de Justice</i>, a police court or sessions house); <i lang="fr">un panier à salade</i> (familiar: ‘a salad basket’); <i lang="fr">le courrier de la prefecture</i> (thieves’: <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">courrier du Palais</i>. <i lang="fr">Préfecture</i> = the office of a chief magistrate); <i lang="fr">l’omnibus pègres</i> (in slang <i lang="fr">un pègre</i> signifies ‘a thief’); <i lang="fr">un guimbard</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">une guimbarde</i> is properly ‘a long cart’); <i lang="fr">le service du château</i> (roughs’ and thieves’: ‘the prison service’; <i lang="fr">château</i> = prison).
+</p>
+<p>For other synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Her Majesty’s Carriage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Monday</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A schoolboys’ term for the Monday on which, after holidays, school re-opens.
+Obviously called <i>black</i>, from the reluctance with which young hopefuls turn their backs upon the sweets of
+home and play. <span class="sc">Black Friday</span> was used of the day on which Overend, Gurney &amp; Co., suspended payment—10 May, 1886.
+<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blue Monday</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. VIII., ch. xi. She now hated my sight, and made home so disagreeable to me,
+that what is called by school-boys <span class="sc">black Monday</span> was to me the whitest in the whole year.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">F. Anstey</span>, <i>Vice Versâ</i>, ch. i. There comes a time when the days are grudgingly counted to a <span class="sc">blacker Monday</span> than ever makes a schoolboy’s heart quake within him.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb218">[<a href="#pb218">218</a>]</span></p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—The Monday on which the death penalty is carried out; these events are
+generally arranged to fall on the day in question.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Mummer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An epithet applied to one unwashed and unshorn.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Nob</b>, <i>subs.</i> (trades’ union).—A non-unionist; one who, while his fellows are on strike, persists
+in working at his trade; a <span class="sc">blackleg</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). [Apparently a humorous variant of <span class="sc">blackleg</span>. From <span class="sc">black</span> = wicked, atrocious, + <span class="sc">nob</span>, the head, in place of <i>leg</i> in <span class="sc">blackleg</span>.] They are also called <span class="sc">knobsticks</span> and <span class="sc">scabs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Ointment</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A term for uncooked meat.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Pot</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A toper; a tippler. [Beer mugs were called <span class="sc">black-pots</span>; also <span class="sc">black-jacks</span>, hence, probably, a transference of the name from the utensil to the drinker.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Fr. Bacon</i>, v., 122. I’ll be Prince of Wales over all the <span class="sc">black-pots</span> in Oxford.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1636. <span class="sc">Heywood</span>, <i>Love’s Mistr.</i>, II. Iugg, what’s shee but sister to a <span class="sc">black-pot</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1818. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Heart of Midlothian</i>, xxxii. A whole whiskin, or <span class="sc">black-pot</span> of sufficient double ale.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Psalm.</b> <span class="sc">To sing the black psalm</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To cry; a saying used to children.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blacks.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Black horse</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Sal</b> or <b>Suke</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A kettle.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Sukey</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Saturday</b>, <i>subs.</i> (workmen’s).—A Saturday on which an artisan or mechanic has no money to take, having
+anticipated it by advances. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Black Monday</span> and <span class="sc">Blue Monday</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Sheep</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A mildly opprobrious term for a scapegrace; a ‘bad lot’; ‘<i lang="fr">un mauvais sujet</i>.’ It is also applied like <span class="sc">blackleg</span> and <span class="sc">black-nob</span> to workmen who persist in working when their comrades are on strike. The word is
+hardly slang now.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Le Fanu</span>, <i>Uncle Silas</i>, ch. xxvi. ‘Your Uncle Silas had injured himself before that in the opinion of the
+people of his county. He was a <span class="sc">black sheep</span>, in fact. Very bad stories were told and believed of him.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">M. Collins</span>, <i>Frances</i>, ch. xxxvii. ‘In all cities there are <span class="sc">black sheep</span>, but in a city like London, sound finance is the rule, I am sure.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Golden Butterfly</i>, ch. xxviii. ‘Many companies, perfectly sound in principle, may be ruined by a sudden
+decrease in the price of shares; a panic sets in, and in a few hours the shareholders
+may lose all. And if you bring this about by selling without concert with the other
+favoured allottees, you’ll be called a <span class="sc">black sheep</span>.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (Winchester College).—When a fellow in ‘Junior Part’ got above (or ‘jockeyed’) a
+fellow in ‘Middle Part.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blacksmith’s Daughter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A key. Formerly the key with which the doors of sponging houses were unlocked.
+Also <span class="sc">Locksmith’s daughter</span>, which <i>see</i> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">C. Dickens</span>, <i>Tale of Two Cities</i>. Place it under the care of the <span class="sc">blacksmith’s daughter</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Reader</i> [quoted in <i>N. and Q.</i>, 5 S., ix., 263]. <span class="sc">Blacksmith’s daughter</span>. <span class="pageNum" id="pb219">[<a href="#pb219">219</a>]</span>A key. I have never met with this word in print, but have heard it frequently in conversation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Spice Racket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The practice of robbing chimney sweepers of their tools, bag, and soot.—<i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black Spy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A cant name for the devil. The French equivalent is <i lang="fr">le dache</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Skipper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Strap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Thick, sweet port. A contemptuous term, in allusion to its dark colour,
+<span class="sc">strap</span> being an old name for wine.—(<i>See</i> quot.).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman of London</i>, in wks. (Grosart) III., 131. Sometimes likewise this <i>Card-cheating</i>, goes not vnder the name of <i>Bernard’s Lawe</i>, but is called <i>Batt fowling</i>, and then ye <i>Setter</i> is the <i>Beater</i>, the foole that is caught in the net, the bird, the <i>Tauerne</i> to which they repaire to worke the <i>Feate</i>, is the <i>Bush</i>; the wine the <span class="sc">Strap</span>, and the cardes the <i>Limetwigs</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, p. 3. <i>Tom</i> (<i>taking his seat</i>): Gentlemen, I beg pardon for being scarce so long; but having to start early, I
+thought it best to see that the <i>toggery</i> was all right and <i>fly</i>—I never shirk the <span class="sc">black strap</span> intentionally, you know. <i>Jerry</i>: Don’t mention it, my dear Tom.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Wh. Melville</span>, <i>Digby Grand</i>, ch. x. The orator gets deeper into his subject, till an extremely abrupt conclusion
+… empties every bumper of ‘<span class="sc">black strap</span>’ like a shot.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American.)—Properly speaking, gin mixed with molasses, but frequently applied
+to a compound of any alcoholic liquor with molasses. Beverages of this description
+were at one time the commonest of drinks among agricultural labourers.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Pinkerton</span>, <i>Molly Maguires and Detectives</i>, p. 84. From the great iron kettle a savory incense arose; it came from an admixture
+of high-wines and common molasses, in about the proportion of one gallon of the latter
+to four of the spirit.… The seething <span class="sc">blackstrap</span> was pronounced ready for use. It rapidly disappeared, and, as it diminished and was
+imbibed, the fun and hilarity proportionately increased.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A task of labour imposed on soldiers at Gibraltar as a punishment for small
+offences.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black’s Your Eye.</b> <span class="sc">To say black’s your eye</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To accuse; to find fault with. The phrase was varied by <span class="sc">black’s your eyebrow, nail</span>, etc. A more modern rendering is <span class="sc">black is the white of your eye</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1528. Roy, Sat. (1845). They eate their belies full.… And none sayth <span class="sc">blacke is his eye</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1583. <span class="sc">Stubbs</span>, <i>Anatomic of Abuses</i>, p. 65. And then no man say <span class="sc">blacke is their eye</span>, but all is well, and they as good Christians, as those that suffer them unpunished.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1647. <span class="sc">Beaumont and Fletcher</span>, <i>Love’s Cure</i>, iii., 1. I can say <span class="sc">black’s your eye</span>, though it be grey; I have conniv’d at this your friend, and you.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, IX., iv. The house is well known to be a house of as good reputation as any on the
+road, and, though I say it, is frequented by gentry of the best quality, both Irish
+and English. I defy anybody, to say <span class="sc">black is my eye</span>, for that matter.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Black-Teapot</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A negro footman.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blackwork</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Undertaking. The waiters met with at public dinners are often employed
+during the day as mutes, etc. Omnibus and cab drivers regard <span class="sc">blackwork</span> as <i lang="fr">un dernier ressort</i>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Black-job</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Gaslight and Daylight</i>, ch. xxvi. A florid man who officiates as a waiter at the London Tavern o’nights,
+and sometimes takes a spell in the <span class="sc">black work</span>, or undertaking line of business.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb220">[<a href="#pb220">220</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bladder of Lard</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A bald-headed person. [From the supposed similarity of the smooth, hairless
+cranium to a bag or bladder of lard.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Athenæum</i>, July 31, p. 142. An elderly Jew money-lender, whom she afterwards describes to her
+admiring friends as a <span class="sc">bladder of lard</span>, a graceful reference to his baldness and tendency to stoutness.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blade</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common.)—A roysterer; a gallant; a sharp, keen fellow; a free and easy, good fellow.
+[Probably from <span class="sc">blade</span>, a sword, a soldier. There seems no warrant for supposing the word connected with
+the Dutch <i lang="nl">bloed</i>, or with the term ‘blood,’ a dandy, in use in the time of the Georges in a somewhat
+similar sense; indeed, the following quotations show a much older usage. In French
+a ‘sly <span class="sc">blade</span>’ is called <i lang="fr">un renaré</i>.<span class="corr" id="xd33e36741" title="Not in source">]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1595. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, ii., 4. The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes; these new tuners
+of accents! <i>By Jesu, a very good</i> <span class="sc">blade</span>!—<i>a very tall man</i>!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1632. <span class="sc">Chapman and Shirley</span>, <i>The Ball</i>, Act iv.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">This came first o’ keeping company with the <span class="sc">blades</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">From whom I learnt to roar and run away. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1636. <span class="sc">Davenant</span>, <i>The Wits</i>, Act v.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e35160">The old <span class="sc">blade</span> </p>
+<p class="line">Skulks there like a tame filcher, as he had </p>
+<p class="line">New stolen ’bove eggs from market-women. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1637. <span class="sc">Fletcher</span>, <i>Elder Brother</i>, I., ii.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e35160">If he be that old </p>
+<p class="line">Rough testy <span class="sc">blade</span> he always used to be. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1664. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, Jan. 4. For suffering his man (a spruce <span class="sc">blade</span>) to be so saucy as to strike a ball while his master was playing in the Mall.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1667. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, June 3. With his hat cocked like a fool behind, as the present fashion among the
+<span class="sc">blades</span> is.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698. <span class="sc">Farquhar</span>, <i>Love and a Bottle</i>, Act iv., Sc. 2. These London <span class="sc">blades</span> are all stark mad; I met one about two hours ago, that had forgot his name, and this
+fellow would persuade me now, that I had forgot mine.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Blade</span> (s.) … is sometimes used to signify a beau, spark, or hectoring fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1773. <span class="sc">O. Goldsmith</span>, <i>She Stoops to Conquer</i>, Act i., Sc. 2. ‘A troublesome old <span class="sc">blade</span>, to be sure; but a keeps as good wines and beds as any in the whole country.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Great Expectations</i>, ch. xxiv., p. 115. ‘He forged wills, this <span class="sc">blade</span> did, if he didn’t also put the supposed testators to sleep too.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Happy Thoughts,’ st. 4.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">My Uncle Dowle has lots of money; </p>
+<p class="line">He’s a very knowing looking <span class="sc">blade</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Blamed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (popular).—An expletive used to emphasize a statement. It partakes of the nature
+of an oath, being often used instead of ‘doomed’ or ‘damned.’ In America the expression
+is more of a colloquialism than it is in England.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>The Clockmaker</i>, 3 S., ch. vi. Yes, John Bull is a <span class="sc">blamed</span> blockhead.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">S. Clemens</span>, <i>Roughing It</i>, ch. ix. The keeper had fired four times at an Indian, but he said with an injured
+air, that the Indian had ‘skipped’ around so’s to spile everything—and ammunition’s
+<span class="sc">blamed</span> skurse too.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <span class="sc">Carleton</span>, <i>Farm Ballads</i>, p. 18.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And so that pourin’ dissentions in our cup; </p>
+<p class="line">And so that <span class="sc">blamed</span> cow-critter was always coming up. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1888. <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, Oct. 6. ‘Did you see any Quakers in Philadelphia?’ was asked of a Detroiter who
+lately returned from that city. ‘Only one that I was sure of.’ ‘Did he “thee” and
+“thou” you?’ ‘He did. He got down off his hack and said: “If thee don’t pay me 2 dols.
+I’ll knock thy <span class="sc">blamed</span> head off,” and I paid, although I knew the regular fare was twelve shillings. You
+don’t want <span class="pageNum" id="pb221">[<a href="#pb221">221</a>]</span>to fool with those Quakers any, and don’t you forget it.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Portland Transcript</i>, May 9. ‘Why do you object to your daughter marrying?’ ‘Wouldn’t object ef she wuster
+marry the right sorter man.’ ‘Isn’t Tom the right sort of man?’ ‘Not by a <span class="sc">blamed</span> sight.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blame it!</b> <i>intj.</i> (common).—A round-about oath. Equivalent to ‘Damn it!’ [A transferred sense of <span class="sc">blame</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blamenation!</b> <i>intj.</i> (common).—Damnation!—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blank</b>, <b>Blanked</b>, <b>Blankety</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Euphemistic oaths, the derivation of which is clearly an outcome of the
+practice of representing an oath, for decency’s sake in printing, by a dash or blank
+space; <i>e.g.</i>, d——d. The terms are used in America in many combinations (<i>see</i> quots.). <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">C. Dickens</span>, Farce for the Championship, in <i>All the Year Round</i>. Enter a closely shaven, bullet-headed fellow in an ecstasy of excitement at having
+just seen Cuss, and at the exquisite ‘fitness’ of that worthy. ‘So help me <span class="sc">blank, blank</span>!’ he cries delightedly, ‘if he ain’t a <span class="sc">blank</span> picter with the weins in his face down ’ere and ’ere, a showin’ out just if a <span class="sc">blank</span> hartist ’ad painted him. Tell yer he’s beautiful, fine as a <span class="sc">blank</span> greyhound, with a <span class="sc">blank</span> heavy air with him that looks <span class="sc">blank</span> like winnin’. Take yer two quid to one, guv’nor,’ adds the speaker, suddenly picking
+out a stout purple-faced farmer in the group of eager listeners.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <span class="sc">C. Reade</span>, <i>Simpleton</i>, xxiii. <span class="sc">Blank</span> him! that is just like him; the uneasy fool! [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">Mrs. Edwardes</span>, <i>Jet</i><span id="xd33e37025">,</span> iii., 272. ‘——the colonel of the regiment!’ exclaims Mark.… ‘<span class="sc">Blank</span> the colonel of the regiment!’ With slow, unmistakable gusto she lingers over the
+monosyllable ‘<span class="sc">blank</span>.’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Gabriel Conroy</i>, in <i>Hallberger’s Illustrated Magazine</i>, vol. I., p. 378. Because you’re religious, <span class="sc">blank</span> you, do you expect me to starve? Go and order supper first! Stop! Where in <span class="sc">blank</span> are you going? Here you’ve been and gone three hours on an errand for me, and blame
+me if you ain’t runnin’ off without a word about it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Troy Daily Times</i>, Feb. 3. The captain looked anxious, and an irate fellow-passenger, who had not ceased
+swearing since we left Tuxpan, declared by all that is sacred and profane that he
+had known vessels to be hindered thirty days; yes, even three months, by that <span class="sc">blankety blankety</span> bar!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Owosso</i> (Mich.) <i>Press</i>, April. ‘Doctor, I’m a dead man!’ ‘Not right now?’ said I, as I kicked his dog out.
+‘Just as good as dead,’ said he, ‘or you wouldn’t kick that dog in that way with safety.
+Not by a <span class="sc">blankety blank blank</span> sight.’ ‘Needn’t waste so much profanity, Mr. Starkhill,’ said I.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blanket.</b> <span class="sc">Lawful blanket</span>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A wife. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dutch</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blanket Fair</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Bed. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bedfordshire, Sheet Alley</span>, and <span class="sc">Land of Nod</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blanket Hornpipe</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Sexual commerce. The allusion is obvious. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Basket making</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blarmed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—A euphemism for <span class="sc">blessed</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); ‘damned’; ‘<span class="sc">blowed</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>); or <span class="sc">blamed</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), of the last of which it is probably a corruption.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <i>No Church</i>, I., 104. To be in a <span class="sc">blarmed</span> hurry.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">John Forster</span>, <i>Life of Dickens</i>, ch. xxxi. (III., p. 191). He saw a strange sensation among the angry travellers
+whom he had detained so long; heard a voice exclaim, ‘I am <span class="sc">blarmed</span> if it ain’t Dickens!’ and stood in the centre of a group of <i>Five Americans</i>!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blarm Me!</b> <i>intj.</i> (common).—A euphemistic oath.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blarmed</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb222">[<a href="#pb222">222</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blarney</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—Blandishment; soft speech, or ‘sawder’; gross flattery; ‘gammon.’ [From
+Castle Blarney in Ireland, in the wall of which, difficult of access, is placed a
+stone. Whoever is able to kiss this is said thereafter to be able to persuade to anything.
+<span class="sc">Blarney</span> is from <i>bladh-ey</i>, flowery island, and this may have some connection with the curious tradition. On
+the other hand, according to Brewer, Cormack Macarthy held the Castle of Blarney in
+1602, and concluded an armistice with Carew, the lord president, on condition of surrendering
+the fort to the English garrison. Day after day his lordship looked for the fulfilment
+of the terms, but received nothing except protocols and soft speeches, till he became
+the laughing-stock of Elizabeth’s ministers, and the dupe of the lord of Blarney.<span class="corr" id="xd33e37176" title="Not in source">]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. He has licked the <span class="sc">blarney</span> stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Lever</span>, <i>Harry Lorrequer</i>, ch. xix. They were as cunning as foxes and could tell <span class="sc">blarney</span> from good sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1876. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘A nice young thing.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Such a nice young thing, such a sweet young thing, </p>
+<p class="line">Her name was Kate Carney, she came from Killarney, </p>
+<p class="line">So full of her <span class="sc">blarney</span>, but fond of her Barney, </p>
+<p class="line">Such a fair young thing, a rare young thing, </p>
+<p class="line">And just for a lark she had dyed her hair dark, </p>
+<p class="line">And they called her the Colleen Dhu. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1884. <span class="sc">Ruskin</span>, in <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 17 Nov., p. 11, col. 2. It was bombastic English <span class="sc">blarney</span>—not Irish. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>The French have <i lang="fr">baliverne</i> and <i lang="fr">pelotage</i> with the same meaning.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. To wheedle; to coax; to flatter grossly.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American thieves’.)—Besides the English slang signification of ‘to wheedle,’ it
+also bears the secondary meaning, among the low and criminal classes of America, of
+‘to pick locks.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blart Out</b>, <i>verb</i> (American, ? nonce word).—A corruption of ‘blurt out’; to utter abruptly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>The Clockmaker</i>, pref., p. v. It warn’t the part of a gentleman for to go and pump me arter that
+fashion, and then go right off and <span class="sc">blart it out</span> in print. <i>Ibid</i>, ch. viii. And there are others again who <span class="sc">blart right out</span> whatever comes uppermost.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blasé</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Used up; exhausted with enjoyment; satiated. [From French <i lang="fr">blaser</i>, of unknown derivation.] Its extended colloquial use in England is explained in second
+quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1823. <span class="sc">Byron</span>, <i>Don Juan</i>, ch. xii., st. 81. A little <span class="sc">blasé</span>—’tis not to be wondered At, that his heart had got a tougher rind, And though not
+vainer from his past success, No doubt his sensibilities were less.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, in <i>Illustrated London News</i>, March 10, p. 235, col. 3. There should be a chronology of slang. It is about forty
+years ago, I think, that the great popularity of a French farce called ‘L’Homme <span class="sc">Blasé</span>’ brought the word into colloquial use in England; indeed the first translation of
+the French piece (at the Princess’s, Wright, the low comedian, playing the hero,)
+was called <span class="sc">Blasé</span>, with some sub-title that I forget. Subsequently another translation was produced,
+Charles Mathews playing the principal character. As a title for this version, we borrowed
+a slang term from the Americans, and ‘L’Homme <span class="sc">Blasé</span>’ became ‘Used Up’!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blast</b>, <i>verb</i> (low).—To curse; to damn. An expression of reprobation and hatred. Used in <span class="pageNum" id="pb223">[<a href="#pb223">223</a>]</span>such combinations as <span class="sc">Blast me!</span> <span class="sc">Blast you!</span> <span class="sc">Blast your eyes!</span> etc.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1654. <span class="sc">Chapman</span>, <i>Revenge for Honour</i>, V., ii. And thus I kiss’d my last breath. <span class="sc">Blast you all!</span> <i>Ta.</i> Damn’d desperate villain!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Amelia</i>, bk. X., ch. v. ‘I don’t know what you mean by ominous,’ cries the colonel; ‘but,
+<span class="sc">blast my reputation</span>, if I had received such a letter, if I would not have searched the world to have
+found the writer.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1759. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Cit. of the World</i>, lett., 105. ‘<span class="sc">Blast me!</span>’ cries Tibbs, ‘if that be all, there is no need of paying for that.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, ch. viii. ‘Hands, Captain MacTurk!’ exclaimed Sir Bingo, in some confusion; ‘no,
+<span class="sc">blast him</span>—not so bad as that neither.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blasted</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (low).—Execrable; confounded; often substituted for ‘damned,’ ‘bloody,’ it being
+thought a milder form. Grose has <span class="sc">blasted fellow</span> for an abandoned rogue, and <span class="sc">blasted brimstone</span> for a prostitute. [From <span class="sc">blast</span>, <i>q.v.</i>]—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1682. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Medal</i>, 260. What curses on thy <span class="sc">blasted</span> Name will fall.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Chesterfield</span>, <i>Letters</i>, 8 Jan. (1870), 169. Colonel Chartres … who was, I believe, the most notorious <span class="sc">blasted</span> rascal in the world. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">Pusey</span>, <i>Lent. Sermons</i>, 79. Balaam after the success of his <span class="sc">blasted</span> counsel. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Good Words</i>, Nov., p. 767, col. 1. Jim Black states that the <span class="sc">blasted</span> railway has done away with those journeys.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blatantation</b>, <i>subs.</i> (? nonce word).—Noisy effusion; swagger. [From <span class="sc">blatant</span>, noisy, offensively clamorous, + <span class="sc">ation</span>.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blatancy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <i>Graphic</i>, Feb. 24, p. 199, col. 3. On the ground betting men are conspicuous with their books,
+<span class="sc">blatantations</span>, blackguardism, and swell clothes.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blater</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A calf. [Probably a corruption of ‘bleater,’ from its cry.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 11 [list of cant words in]. <span class="sc">Blater</span>, a calf.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1827. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Pelham</i>, ch. lxxxii. Don’t be glim-flashy; why you’d cry beef on a <span class="sc">blater</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blather</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—Noisy talk; voluble nonsense. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blether</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">E. Yates</span>, <i>Broken to Harness</i>, ch. xxix., p. 309 (1873). ‘There’s a letter there from Sir Mordaunt, askin’ for
+more time, and promisin’ all sorts of things; but I’m sick of him and his <span class="sc">blather</span>.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To talk volubly; noisily; nonsensically.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blether</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;C. Russell</span>, <i>Jack’s Courtship</i>, ch. xxiv. Mrs. O’Brien was <span class="sc">blathering</span> about the pedigree of the O’Briens and the O’Shandrydans to Mrs. Joyce.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blatherskite</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Boastful disputatious swagger. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bletherskite</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A swaggerer; boaster; one who talks volubly and nonsensically. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bletherskite</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Herald</i>, July 29. Every <span class="sc">blatherskite</span> republican is filled to the brim and spouting high protection, while the democrats
+are not prepared to meet them for want of documents.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Chicago Watchman.</i> Dr. Brookes, of St. Louis, must be a nice man to live with. He refers to Dr. R.&nbsp;W.
+Dale and Dr. Parker as ‘blatant <span class="sc">blatherskites</span>,’ and evidently regards Professor Drummond as beyond reformation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blayney’s Bloodhounds</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Eighty-ninth Foot. They obtained this nickname during the Irish Rebellion
+in 1798. [<span class="sc">Blayney</span>, from their Colonel’s name + <span class="sc">Bloodhounds</span> from their skill in tracking Irish rebels.] They also earned for themselves the sobriquet
+of <span class="sc">The <span class="pageNum" id="pb224">[<a href="#pb224">224</a>]</span>Rollickers</span>, in allusion to the ‘jolly doggish’ bearing of the corps.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blaze</b>, <i>subs.</i> and <i>verb</i> (common).—In some of the usages of this word, the precincts of slang are narrowly
+touched, even if the boundary line is not crossed; as <i>e.g.</i>, when a man is said to <span class="sc">blaze</span> his way through the labyrinths of the metropolis. The original meaning is well known.
+The early settlers in traversing the vast forests which abounded on the American continent,
+found it very necessary to mark their route. This they did by the simple expedient
+of <span class="sc">blazing</span> the trees at convenient distances. <span class="sc">Blazing</span> consists merely in chopping a piece of the bark off each tree selected in the desired
+line of march. The mark itself is called a <span class="sc">blaze</span>. In addition to this, <span class="sc">blazing</span> was also adopted as an indication that the land within the limits of the trees thus
+marked had been appropriated by a settler—a rude and informal, but, in early days,
+a thoroughly well recognised method of securing a title to the land. Some writers
+affect to derive the word from the old French <i lang="fr">blazon</i>, the armorial bearing of the Normans, and quote the use of ‘blazen,’ by Shakspeare,
+in a sense not altogether dissimilar to the meaning conveyed by <span class="sc">blazing</span>, as proof to this effect.
+</p>
+<p>It is employed generally in America and all English-speaking colonies. The following
+quotations will exemplify its use both in the original and more figurative senses.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blazes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1737. <span class="sc">Wesley</span>, wks. (1872) I., 68. We then found another <span class="sc">blaze</span> and pursued it. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>In the Carquinez Woods</i>, ch. viii. ‘I made a blaze hereabouts to show where to leave the trail. There it
+is,’ he added, pointing to a slight notch cut in the trunk of an adjoining tree.…
+They proceeded cautiously at right angles with the <span class="sc">blazed</span> tree for ten minutes more.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Blaze-away</span>, <i>intj.</i> (common).—Look sharp; ‘stir your stumps’—an injunction to renewed and more effective
+effort.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blazer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Originally applied to the uniform of the Lady Margaret Boat Club of St.
+John’s College, Cambridge, which was of a bright red and was called a <span class="sc">blazer</span>. Now applied to any light jacket of bright colour worn at cricket or other sports.
+Prof. Skeat [<i>N. and Q.</i>, 7 S., iii., 436] speaking of the <span class="sc">Johnian blazer</span>, says it was always of the most brilliant scarlet, and thinks it not improbable that
+the fact suggested the name which subsequently became general.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Times</i>, June 19. Men in spotless flannel, and club <span class="sc">blazers</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Punch</i>, June 27, p. 304. On the morning of the start for our ‘Spin to Brighton,’ Harkaway
+turns up clad in what he calls a <span class="sc">blazer</span>, which makes him look like a nigger minstrel out for a holiday.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Daily News</i>, Aug. 22, p. 6, col. 6. <span class="sc">Dress by the Sea.</span> <span class="sc">Sir</span>,—In your article of to-day, under the above heading, you speak of ‘a striped red
+and black <span class="sc">blazer</span>,’ ‘the <span class="sc">blazer</span>,’ also of ‘the pale toned’ ones. This is worth noting as a case of the specific becoming
+the generic. A <span class="sc">blazer</span> is the red flannel boating jacket, worn by the Lady Margaret, St. John’s College,
+Cambridge, Boat Club. When I was at Cambridge it meant that and nothing else. It seems
+from your article that a <span class="sc">blazer</span> now means a coloured flannel jacket, whether for cricket, tennis, boating, or seaside
+wear.—Yours faithfully, <span class="sc">Walter Wren</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb225">[<a href="#pb225">225</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blazes</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—The infernal regions. This, an allusion to the flames of hell, was the
+original meaning; constant use, however, has lessened the force of the expression,
+and as in the case of ‘bloody,’ few who employ such flowers of oratory have any notion
+of the proper signification. In most cases the word is now a meaningless intensitive,
+and takes rank with such expressions as <span class="sc">like one o’clock</span>, <span class="sc">like winkey</span>, etc. The verb <span class="sc">to blaze</span> is likewise employed in a manner closely bordering on slang. Thus one says of an
+action that it is a blazing shame; that he has a blazing headache; that so-and-so
+is a blazing thief; that such a job is blazing hard work; that it is a blazing hot
+day—all figurative uses of the legitimate idea. Appended are illustrations of some
+of its usages.
+</p>
+<p>(Common.)—The brilliant habiliments of flunkeys. Derived from the episode of Sam Weller
+and the ‘swarry.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Old Blazes</span>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The devil. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Skipper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <i>Southern Literary Messenger</i>, June. He looked, upon my word, like <span class="sc">Old Blazes</span> himself, with his clothing all on fire, and rage and despair in his face.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Go to blazes</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Go to the devil; go to hell—expressions of contempt used in imprecations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 135. He jumps through a trap in the window with a bottle on it, marked
+‘Old Tom,’ and a scroll falls down, written <span class="sc">gone to blazes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Adventures of Philip</i>, I., p. 99. Old Parr Street is mined, sir—mined! And some morning we shall be blown
+into <span class="sc">blazes</span>,—into <span class="sc">blazes</span>, sir, mark my words!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <span class="sc">Mrs. Riddell</span> (‘F.&nbsp;G. Trafford’), <i>Too Much Alone</i>, p. 200. ‘Has no one been here this afternoon?’ ‘Yes, one man, to ask his way to
+<span class="sc">blazes</span>, or some place else.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">S. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Sketch</i> (<i>Mr. Skae’s Item</i>). I could have told Johnny Skae that I would not receive his communication at such
+a late hour, and to <span class="sc">go to blazes</span> with it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Jas. Payn</span>, in ‘A Failure of Justice’, in <i>Glow Worm Tales</i>, p. 97. ‘Sir,’ cried I, authoritatively, ‘let me tell you I am a Middlesex magistrate.’
+‘Oh, yes: a likely story!’ was his audacious reply. ‘You’ve got ’Ighbury Barn written
+on your countenance <i>you</i> have, <span class="sc">go to blazes!</span>’ and he slammed down the window.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Like blazes</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—Vehemently; with extreme ardour.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Anything</span> and <span class="sc">Winkey</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">B. Disraeli</span>, <i>Sybil or The Two Nations</i>, p. 330. Syllabubs <span class="sc">like blazes</span>, and snapdragon as makes the flunkeys quite pale. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 369. ‘They pelted the police.…’ ‘And cheered the red-coats <span class="sc">like blazes</span>,’ said Mick. <i>Ibid.</i> She sets her face against gals working in mills <span class="sc">like blazes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 159. She liked this very much, in fact so much, that the other little ones
+used to cry <span class="sc">like blazes</span> because I wouldn’t let them have a turn at them [the stilts].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Chas. Dickens</span>, <i>Tale of Two Cities</i>, I., p. 15 (in parts). A <span class="sc">blazing</span> strange answer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">J. Lawrence</span>, <i>Guy Livingstone or Thorough</i>. They hate each other <span class="sc">like blazes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">De Quincey</span>, <i>Spanish Nun</i>, sect. 24. The horse was so maddened by the wound, and the road so steep, that he
+went <span class="sc">like blazes</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">How</span>, <span class="sc">Who</span>, or <span class="sc">What the blazes</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—A somewhat more intense interrogatory than Who or What or even Who or
+What the Dickens.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick</i>, ch. lv., p. 479. ‘Pell,’ he used to say to me many a <span class="pageNum" id="pb226">[<a href="#pb226">226</a>]</span>time, ‘<span class="sc">how the blazes</span> you can stand the head-work you do, is a mystery to me.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;C. Russell</span>, <i>Jack’s Courtship</i>, ch. xvii. ‘<span class="sc">Who the blazes</span> would recognise Jack Seymour in those shore-going duds?’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Drunk as blazes</span> or <span class="sc">blaizers</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Very drunk; what is vulgarly called ‘beastly’ drunk. Whether this expression
+follows the derivation of the examples given above, or whether we must seek its origin
+in a totally different direction, is a matter of some doubt. The alternative derivation
+suggested is that the phrase is really <span class="sc">drunk as blaizers</span>, an expression which dates back at least to 1830 [<i>N. and Q.</i>, 6 S., i., 434]. Sir Thomas Wyse, in <i>Impressions of Greece</i>, speaking (<i>see</i> <i>Life of Richard Waldo Sibthorp</i>, by J. Fowler, 1880, p. 227) of the reverence for St. Blaize, in Greece (who is also,
+as is known, the patron saint of the English woolcombers), and how his feast was observed
+in the woollen manufactories of the Midland Counties, says, ‘Those who took part in
+the procession were called <span class="sc">Blaizers</span>, and the phrase <span class="sc">as drunk as blaizers</span> originated in the convivialities common on those occasions! So good <span id="xd33e37924">“</span>Bishop and Martyr<span id="xd33e37927">”</span> Blaize is dishonoured as well as honoured in England, and very probably in Greece.<span>’</span> Further data may be found in Chambers’ <i>Book of Days</i>, vol. I., pp. 219–20.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleach</b>, <i>verb</i> (Harvard University.)—To absent oneself from morning prayers.—<span class="sc">Hall’s</span> <i>College Words and Phrases</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleached Mort</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A fair complexioned wench.—<i>Grose.</i> [From <span class="sc">bleached</span>, white or fair, + <span class="sc">mort</span>, a girl or woman.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleak</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American thieves’).—In the phraseology of American thieves, <span class="sc">bleak</span> means handsome.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleater</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The victim of a sharper or rook. In the following quotation a <span class="sc">Jack in the box</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is an old thieves’ term for a swindler or cheat.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1609. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Lanthorne</i>, wks., 1884–5, III., 290. They that are Cheated by Iacke in a Boxe are called <span class="sc">bleaters</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bleaters</span>, those cheated by Jack in a Box.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> (Same definition given.)
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleating Cheat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A sheep.—Grose. [In the old cant <span class="sc">cheat</span> or <span class="sc">chete</span> [from Anglo-Saxon <i>ceat</i>] signified a thing; and the names of animals were frequently formed by adding an
+adjective descriptive of their peculiar noise or cry. Thus a <span class="sc">grunting cheat</span> was a pig; a <span class="sc">cackling cheat</span> a fowl; a <span class="sc">bleating cheat</span> a sheep.] A sheep is also called a <span class="sc">wool-bird</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Among French thieves this animal is designated <i lang="fr">une morne</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleating Cull</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A sheep stealer. [From <span class="sc">bleating</span>, see preceding, + <span class="sc">cull</span>, a man, honest or otherwise.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleating Prig</b> or <b>Rig</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Sheep stealing. [From <span class="sc">bleating</span>, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bleating cheat</span>, + <span class="sc">prig</span>, or <span class="sc">rig</span>, the act of stealing.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb227">[<a href="#pb227">227</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleed</b>, <i>verb tr.</i> and <i>intr.</i> (popular).—1. To be victimised; to lose or part with money so that the loss is felt;
+to be ‘<span class="sc">rushed</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>); to have money drawn or extorted from one. [An allusion to the loss sustained by
+parting with one’s life blood.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1668. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>An Evening’s Love</i>, Act iv., Sc. 1. In fine, he is vehement, and <span class="sc">bleeds</span> on to fourscore or an hundred; and I, not willing to tempt fortune, come away a moderate
+winner of two hundred pistoles.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bleed</span> (v.) … also to part with money freely, upon proposing something agreeable to a person’s
+disposition, whether it be in gaming or anything else.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. lxvi. To whom he was particularly agreeable, on account of his person, address,
+and <span class="sc">bleeding</span> freely at play.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">S. Warren</span>, <i>Diary of a Late Physician</i>, ch. xxii. The reputed readiness with which she <span class="sc">bled</span>, at last brought her the honour of an old countess, who condescended to win from
+her, at two sittings, very nearly £5,000.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, ch. lxviii. ‘You have got a bill of sale for her furniture.… By Jove, sir, you’ve
+<span class="sc">bled</span> that poor woman enough.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Manchester Evening News</i>, 23 June, p. 2, col. 2. Men who give bills have to <span class="sc">bleed</span> for the accommodation.
+</p>
+<p>2. (printers’.)—A book <span class="sc">bleeds</span> when the margins are ‘planed’ down so that the edge of the printed portion is cut
+away.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, June 9, p. 2, col. 1. So very carelessly has the mechanical part of production been
+done that, in the phraseology of the craft—half technical, half slang—the pages <span class="sc">bleed</span> in many places—<i>i.e.</i>, the binder’s knife when cutting the edges has also cut away portions of the printed
+matter.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleeder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—1. A duffer beyond compare; a superlative fool. (common).—A euphemism
+for ‘bloody fool.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (sporting.)—A sovereign. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Canary</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A spur; an obvious allusion.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleeding</b>, <i>adj.</i>—An expletive, which, if meant, would partake of the nature of an oath; as it is there
+is little enough, sanguinary, either literally or metaphorically about much that is
+described as <span class="sc">bleeding</span>. It sounds big and weighty to those who use it, and that suffices.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Son of Vulcan</i>, pt. II., ch. xxiii. ‘When he isn’t up to one dodge he is up to another. You make
+no <span class="sc">bleeding</span> error.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleeding Cully</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely.—<i>Grose.</i>—[<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bleed</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bleed the Monkey</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (nautical).—To steal rum from the mess tub called ‘the monkey.’ The term is exclusively
+naval, ‘monkeys’ not being known on merchant ships. The practice is also called <span class="sc">sucking the monkey</span>, and <span class="sc">tapping the admiral</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Admiral</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, 3 Aug., p. 495. <span class="sc">To suck the monkey</span> is a phrase explained in <i>Peter Simple</i> as having originally been used among sailors for drinking rum out of cocoa-nuts,
+the milk having been poured out and the liquor substituted. It is now applied to the
+act of drinking on the sly from a cask by inserting a straw through a gimlet hole,
+and to drinking generally. Barham, in the legend of the <i>Black Mousquetaire</i> says:
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">What the vulgar call <span class="sc">sucking the monkey</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Has much less effect on a man when he’s funky. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb228">[<a href="#pb228">228</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="first main"><b>Blenker</b>, <i>verb</i> (American).—To plunder. A cant phrase much used during the Civil War. Possibly allied
+to the northern provincialism ‘blenk,’ a trick or stratagem. ‘Blenk’ was also used
+in <i lang="fr">Morte d’Arthur</i> in the sense of ‘to bilk,’ or ‘cheat.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bless</b>, <i>verb</i> (popular).—To curse; to damn.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blessed</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bless oneself</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—To be surprised; to be vexed; to be mortified. Generally, ‘God bless me!’
+or ‘Bless my eyes!’ ‘Bless my soul!’ ‘Lor’ bless me!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Midsummer Night’s Dream</i>, iv., 2, 11. <i>Quin</i>: Yea, and the best person too: and he is a very paramour, for a sweet voice. <i>Flu</i>: You must say, paragon: a paramour is, <span class="sc">God bless us</span>, a thing of nought.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1615. <span class="sc">T. Adams</span>, <i>Black Dev.</i>, 71. He … would <span class="sc">blesse himselfe</span> to think that so little a thing could extend itself to such a capacity. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1665. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, 1 Apr. How my Lord Treasurer did <span class="sc">bless himself</span>, crying he could do no more, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1759. <span class="sc">Sterne</span>, <i><span class="corr" id="xd33e38312" title="Source: Tristam">Tristram</span> Shandy</i>, ch. xl. Rub your hands thrice across your foreheads—blow your nose—cleanse your
+emunctories—sneeze, my good people!—<span class="sc">God bless you.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1814. <span class="sc">Miss Austen</span>, <i>Mansfield Park</i>, ch. xviii. Could Sir Thomas look in upon us just now, he would <span class="sc">bless himself</span>, for we are rehearsing all over the house.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Christmas Carol</i>, p. 77. ‘Why, <span class="sc">bless my soul</span>,’ cried Fred, ‘who’s that?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Bulwer Lytton</span>, <i>My Novel</i>, I., p. 307. After they had lain apart for a little while, very silent and sullen,
+John sneezed. ‘<span class="sc">God bless you!</span>’ says Joan, over the bolster.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Not a [penny] to bless oneself with</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—Utterly impecunious; ‘without a sou.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, I., p. 237. He landed there <span class="sc">without a penny to bless himself with</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>David Copperfield</i>, I., p. 113. I heard that Mr. Mell was not a bad sort of fellow, but <span class="sc">hadn’t a sixpence to bless himself with</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 55. The most of ’em <span class="sc">ain’t got a farthing to bless themselves with</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">George Eliot</span>, <i>Silas Marner</i>, p. 38. <span class="sc">I have not a shilling to bless myself with.</span>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bless one’s stars</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—To thank oneself; to attribute one’s good fortune to luck, generally in
+a ludicrous sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">Hood</span>, <i>Pauper’s Christmas Carol</i>, iii. Ought not I to <span class="sc">bless my stars</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iii., p. 230. Forty-eight marks! a week’s remission. The very thought made me
+savage, but I <span class="sc">blessed my stars</span> I had not lost my class, or my good berth.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blessed</b>, <b>Blest</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (popular).—An ironical euphemism; often used like <span class="sc">blazing</span> for ‘cursed,’ ‘damned,’ etc., or as a vow.—<i>See</i> quot. from Hindley and <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1806. <span class="sc">Windham</span>, <i>Let.</i> in <i>Speeches</i> (1812), I., 77. As one of the happy consequences of our <span class="sc">blessed</span> system of printing debates, I am described to-day … as having talked a language directly
+the reverse of that which I did talk. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 139. One Maidstone Fair time, I saw one of the gipsy Lees called ‘Jemmy,’ fighting
+with a man much bigger than himself. Tom Rosseter, the mumper, was seconding his brother-in-law,
+Jemmy Lee, when, as Jemmy kept throwing his man very heavily, he said, ‘My dear <span class="sc">blessed</span> brother, don’t throw the <span class="sc">blessed</span> man like that or you will be sure to kill him.’ ‘Well,’ said Jemmy, ‘but my dear
+<span class="sc">blessed</span> brother, if I don’t kill the dear <span class="sc">blessed</span> man, why the big <span class="sc">blessed</span> —— will be sure to kill me, and so I must keep on throwing the dear <span class="sc">blessed</span> man, for you see what a <span class="sc">blessed</span> big dear fellow he is to me.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iii., p. 245. ‘They called in the coppers, and some feller in the shop twigged
+my old girl as one he’d a-seen <span class="pageNum" id="pb229">[<a href="#pb229">229</a>]</span>before, and <span class="sc">blessed</span> if they didn’t identify her as having lifted some things out of the shop, and she
+was pinched for seven “stretch.” ’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, Aug. 5, p. 49. <i>Sir Pompey Bedell</i>: ‘Oh!—er—Mr. Grigsby, I think! How d’ye do?’ [extending two fingers]. <i>Grigsby</i>: ‘I hope I see you well, <i>Sir Pompey</i>. And next time you give me two fingers, I’m <span class="sc">blest</span> if I don’t pull ’em off.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, July 6. St. Mannock.—Did you ever hear a still, small voice whispering over its
+morning shrimps, ‘What a pair of <span class="sc">blessed</span> fools you are!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blether</b><span id="xd33e38513">,</span> <b>Blather</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Scotch and U.S.A.).—Nonsense; vapid talk; voluble chatter.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1759, <i>d.</i> 1796. <span class="sc">Burns</span>, <i>Tam Samson’s Elegy</i>, st. 12.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Yon auld gray stane, amang the heather, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5086">Marks out his head, </p>
+<p class="line">Whare <i>Burns</i> has wrote in rhyming <span class="sc">blether</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5086"><i>Tam Samson’s dead</i>! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1886. <span class="sc">Pall Mall Gazette</span>, 3 May, 6, 2. Havelock’s florid adjurations to his men, the grim veterans of the
+78th, bluntly characterized as <span class="sc">blether</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Hence <span class="sc">blethering</span> (<i>verb</i>, <i>subs.</i>) used in the same sense as <span class="sc">blether</span>, and as an adjective for ‘volubly’ or ‘foolishly talkative.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bletherskate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1759, <i>d.</i> 1796. <span class="sc">Burns</span>, <i>Holy Fair</i>, st. 8.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And some are busy <span class="sc">blethrin’</span> </p>
+<p class="line xd33e27473">Right loud that day. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1816. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Old Mortality</i>, ch. xiv. ‘I hae been clean spoilt, just wi’ listening to twa <span class="sc">blethering</span> auld wives.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>Hard Lines</i>, ch. vi. He had brought this <span class="sc">blethering</span> Irishman down here, and <span class="corr" id="xd33e38609" title="Source: deluyed">deluged</span> him with punch for the express purpose of turning him inside out.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bletherskate</b>, <b>Blatherskite</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial and American).—1. Boastful swagger, whether in talk or action.
+</p>
+<p>2. A boaster; noisy talker of blatant nonsense. [From <span class="sc">blether</span>, to talk nonsensically, + <span class="sc">skate</span>, allied to Scotch <span class="sc">skyte</span>, a contemptible fellow.] It occurs in Maggie Lauder, a well-known Scotch song, a
+fact which Murray says led to its popularisation in the United States. In Ireland
+it seems to have taken the forms of <span class="sc">bladder-skate</span> and <span class="sc">bladderum-skate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Circa</i> 1650. <span class="sc">F. Sempill</span>, <i>Maggie Lauder</i>, i. Jog on your gait, ye <span class="sc">blether-skate</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">C. Croker</span>, <i>Tradit. S. Ireland</i>, p. 170. He was, as usual, getting on with his <span class="sc">bletherumskite</span> about the fairies. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;R. O’Flanagan</span>, <i>Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland</i>. ‘Lord Redesdale was speaking of people who learnt to skate with bladders under their
+arms, to buoy them up if they should fall into a hole and risk being drowned.’ ‘Ah,
+my Lord,’ said Toler, ‘that is what we call <span class="sc">bladderumskate</span> in Ireland.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blew</b>, <i>verb</i> (common).—1. To inform; to ‘peach’; to expose; to betray.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blow upon</span>, of which it is a variant.
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—To spend; to waste; generally in connection with money. When a man has
+spent or lost all his money, he is said to have <span class="sc">blewed it</span>. [The derivation is uncertain, that most likely being its reference to a corrupt
+grammatical use of <span class="sc">blew</span>, the past tense of ‘to blow.’ Money spent recklessly and wasted vanishes as if blown
+away by the wind.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, May 28, p. 5, col. 1. ‘Which paid him £1,700 compensation, when he took to horses,
+and <span class="sc">blewed</span> the blooming lot in eighteen months.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, June 29.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Isabel and Maudie knew the Turf and all its arts— </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">They had often <span class="sc">blewed</span> a dollar on a wrong ’un— <span class="pageNum" id="pb230">[<a href="#pb230">230</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">And Isabel one evening met a mug from rural parts, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">An attenuated Juggins, and a long ’un. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Se faire rincer</i> (popular: ‘to be cleared out’ [at a game]. <i lang="fr">Rincer</i>, properly ‘to drench,’ ‘to serve out,’ also has the slang signification of ‘to thrash’);
+<i lang="fr">paumer</i> (thieves’ and vagrants’: this verb is very old, and is derived from <i lang="fr">palma</i> = <i lang="fr">empoigner</i>. It also signifies to arrest, lose, etc.); <i lang="fr">laumir</i> (an old cant term); <i lang="fr">se faire ratisser</i> (familiar: literally ‘to scrape oneself’); <i lang="fr">faire rasoir</i> (gaming: ‘to be penniless’); <i lang="fr">se faire enturer</i> (popular: ‘to cut into oneself’; <i lang="fr">enture</i> = incision or cut); <i lang="fr">panner quelqu’un</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">mettre dans le sac</i> (gamesters’: <i>Cf.</i>, ‘be in a hole’); <i lang="fr">décavage</i> (familiar: a term employed to signify the circumstances of a gamester who has ‘blewed
+it’; one who is in ‘Queer Street’—from <i lang="fr">décavé</i>, a ruined gamester); <i lang="fr">se faire lessiver</i>: ‘to wash oneself.’ Michel gives <i lang="fr">lessive</i> = defence, and <i lang="fr">lessiveur</i> = barrister, and remarks that better terms could hardly be given to advocate and
+speech by those charged with offence, and who wish to return from the same ‘white
+as snow,’ or, as police phraseology hath it, without a stain upon one’s character.
+For other synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Shave</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blimey</b>, <i>intj.</i> (low).—A corruption of ‘Blind me!’; an expression little enough understood by those
+who constantly have it in their mouths.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. The night time—an allusion to the absence of light.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Darkmans</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (familiar.)—A pretence; a shift; an action through which one’s real purpose is
+concealed; that which obstructs; a ‘make-believe.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Wild Gallant</i>, Act iii. He … took your court to her, only as a <span class="sc">blind</span> to your affection for me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1694. <span class="sc">Congreve</span>, <i>Double Dealer</i>, Act ii., Sc. 5. I know you don’t love Cynthia, only as a <span class="sc">blind</span> for your passion to me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1703. <span class="sc">Mrs. Centlivre</span>, <i>Beau’s Dual</i>, I., i. (1872), i., 70. Am I publish’d to the world as a <span class="sc">blind</span> for his designs?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;L. Linton</span>, <i>World Well Lost</i>, ch. xxviii. The excuse was too palpably a <span class="sc">blind</span> to be accepted as a reason.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, July 13, p. 104, col. 3. The Major and the Captain he referred to in his letters
+were mere ‘<span class="sc">blinds</span>.’ The Captain relied upon the fact that not one person in a dozen took the trouble
+to apply to these gentlemen.
+</p>
+<p>3. (printers’.)—A paragraph [¶] mark is so called; from the eye of the reversed ‘P’
+being filled up.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (old).—Tipsy; in liquor. Nares says this cant term was used with others in the works
+of Taylor, the water-poet [1630]. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Blind as a brickbat</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (colloquial).—A facetious simile for very blind—mentally or physically.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>David Copperfield</i>, III., p. 97. The old scholar … is as <span class="sc">blind as a brickbat</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">When the devil is blind</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).—Never. The French have three very graphic—though in one case very vulgar—analogues
+for this expression—<i lang="fr">quand les poules pisseront</i>, which need not be translated; <i lang="fr">le trente six du mois</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘on the thirty-sixth day of the month,’ and <i lang="fr">quand les poules <span class="pageNum" id="pb231">[<a href="#pb231">231</a>]</span>auront des dents</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, when cocks and hens have teeth.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To go it blind.</span>—A luminous figure of speech to convey the idea of entering upon an undertaking without
+thought as to the result, or inquiry beforehand. This is one of the many slang expressions
+which owe their origin to the American game of poker, the special form of which known
+as blind poker, where the cards are betted upon before being looked at, being responsible
+for the phrase now in question. <i>Cf.</i>, also <span class="sc">Blind</span> (<i>subs.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">J. Russell Lowell</span>, <i>Biglow Papers</i>, II., p. 118—
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e5088">‘to impress on the popular mind </p>
+<p class="line">The comfort and wisdom of <span class="sc">goin’ it blind</span>.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1871. <span class="sc">De Vere</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 328. <i>Blind Poker</i> has given rise to the very common phrase, to <span class="sc">go it blind</span>, used whenever an enterprise is undertaken without previous inquiry.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">General Sherman</span>, <i>Memoirs</i>, vol. I., p. 342. I know that in Washington I am incomprehensible, because at the
+outset of the war I would not <span class="sc">go it blind</span>, and rush headlong into a war unprepared and with an utter ignorance of its extent
+and purpose.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Chicago Ledger</i>, May 12. ‘And so you’ve married a jewel, have you, Tom?’ ‘I have, for a fact, Dick.’
+‘Lucky dog! You’re a man in a million. Mighty few <span class="sc">go it blind</span> and fare as well as you’ve done.’ ‘I didn’t <span class="sc">go it blind</span>. I employed a detective, and he managed to get board in the family.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind Cheeks</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The posteriors. [The derivation is from an obvious simile.]
+</p>
+<p>Among <span class="sc">English Synonyms</span> are—Two fat cheeks and ne’er a nose; blind Cupid; ampersand; cheeks; arse; corybungo;
+dopey; droddum; dummock; feak; bum; nock (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘a notch’); round mouth; windmill; blind-eye; monocular eye-glass.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un borgne</i> (low: ‘a one-eyed person’); <i lang="fr">un cyclope</i> (the allusion is mythological—from Cyclops, the one-eyed giant, whose optic was placed
+in the middle of the forehead); <i lang="fr">la rose des vents</i>; <i lang="fr">un piffe</i>; <i lang="fr">un pignard</i>; <i lang="fr">boite aux ordures</i>. <span class="sc">German Synonym.</span> <i lang="de">Acherponim</i> (from Hebrew <i lang="und">achar ponim</i>; literally ‘the face at the back’). For other synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bum</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind Drunk</b>, <i>adj. phr.</i> (common).—Very intoxicated; so drunk as to be unable to see better than a blind man.
+Americans say, ‘So drunk as not to be able to see through a ladder.’ For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">Disraeli</span>, <i>Sybil or the Two Nations</i>, p. 350. Hang me if I wasn’t <span class="sc">blind drunk</span> at the end of it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blinder.</b> <span class="sc">To take a blinder</span>, <i>phr.</i> (thieves’).—To die. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Aloft</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind Eye</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The podex.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blind cheeks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind Half Hundred</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Fiftieth Regiment of Foot; from so many men suffering from ophthalmia
+during the Egyptian campaign [1801]; also the <span class="sc">Dirty Half Hundred</span> from the men in action wiping their faces with their black facings during the Peninsula
+War. <span class="sc">Half Hundred</span> is an adaptation of the number of the regiment—the Fiftieth. The corps is also called
+the ‘Gallant Fiftieth,’ from its gallantry at the battle of Vimiera, 1808.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, No. 417, p. 803. The <span class="sc">Dirty Half Hundred</span> was <span class="pageNum" id="pb232">[<a href="#pb232">232</a>]</span>the curious nickname given to the 50th Foot. Two accounts are given of the origin
+of this. One asserts that it was from their red uniforms being faced with black and
+silver lace, and thus giving the regiment a dull and sombre appearance; whilst the
+other tells us that it was from the men wiping their perspiring faces with the black
+cuffs of their coats, and thus giving their countenances a somewhat swarthy tint.
+Whatever may be the origin of this sobriquet, they bear a second about which there
+can be no doubt. From the glorious charge, led by Colonel Walker, at Vimiera, this
+regiment is known as the ‘Gallant Fiftieth.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Tinsley’s Magazine</i>, April, p. 322. Most people have heard of the ‘Fighting Fiftieth.’ But the 50th are
+rich in nicknames. They are, or at least they were, the <span class="sc">Blind Half-Hundredth</span>, having been but too literally blinded by the ravages of ophthalmia when in Egypt
+with Sir Ralph Abercromby. And when on one occasion the men dried the perspiration
+from their faces with their cuffs, they for a while became the <span class="sc">Dirty Half-Hundredth</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind Harpers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Beggars counterfeiting blindness, playing on fiddles, etc.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind-Man’s Holiday</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—Formerly this common colloquialism signified the night or darkness; it
+is now, however, usually applied to the time ‘between lights’ when it is too dark
+to see, but often not dark enough to light up, and a holiday or rest from work is
+taken. The blind from their infirmity are in general exempted from labour, and in
+this view keep holiday; when the twilight hour comes, when those that <i>can</i> work, or read, etc., can no longer <i>see</i> to do so, it is <span class="sc">blind-man’s holiday</span> to them, and they of necessity rest accordingly. This derivation, one would think,
+is sufficiently obvious; but, on the other hand, there are those who think the expression
+a corruption of ‘blind-man’s <i>all-day</i>.’ The meaning then would be that the gradual departure of light brings one to the
+state which the blind man endures all day, or which is all the day the blind man has.
+Whichever derivation be true, it is, however, interesting to note that this ‘household
+word’ of to-day has been in the mouths of the English people for more than three hundred
+years. It is the English equivalent of the Scotch <span class="sc">in the gloaming</span>, of an equally venerable lineage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Lenten Stuffe</i>, in wks. V., 263. And what will not blinde Cupid doe in the night which is his <span class="sc">blindman’s holiday</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i> (conv. iii.). Indeed, madam, it is <span class="sc">blindman’s holiday</span>; we shall soon be all of a colour.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <span class="sc">T. Fielding</span>, <i>Proverbs, etc.</i> (<i>Familiar Phrases</i>), p. 147. <span class="sc">Blindman’s holiday.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <i>Aunt Judy’s Mag.</i>, Oct., 358. At meal times, or in <span class="sc">blindman’s holiday</span>, when no work was to be done. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind Monkeys</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Hotten thus explains this expression:—An imaginary collection at the Zoological
+Gardens, which are supposed to receive care and attention from persons fitted by nature
+for such office and for little else. An idle and useless person is often told that
+he is only fit to lead the <span class="sc">blind monkeys</span> to evacuate. Another form this elegant conversation takes, is for one man to tell
+another that he knows of a suitable situation for him. ‘How much a week? and what
+to do?’ are natural questions, and then comes the scathing and sarcastic reply, ‘Five
+bob a week at the doctor’s—you’re to stand behind the door and make the <span class="pageNum" id="pb233">[<a href="#pb233">233</a>]</span>patients sick. They won’t want no physic when they sees your mug.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blindo</b>, <i>verb</i> (military).—To die. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Aloft</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind One’s Trail</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—Figuratively, to remove the traces of one’s actions; to conceal one’s
+intentions. This expression is obviously traceable to the days of Indian warfare,
+when even the lives of those engaged often depended upon the success with which the
+trail could be ‘blinded,’ or obliterated. Also <span class="sc">to trash one’s trail</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blind Side</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—The <span class="sc">blind side</span> of a person or thing is that which is weakest; the most assailable side. The expression
+is much older than the example quoted by Murray [1655].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1606. <span class="sc">Chapman</span>, <i>Gentleman Usher</i>, Act i., p. 79 (<i>Plays</i>, 1874).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">For that, we’ll follow the <span class="sc">blind side</span> of him, </p>
+<p class="line">And make it sometimes subject of our mirth. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1663. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Wild Gallant</i>, Act iii. <i>Con.</i> My father’s credulous, and this rogue has found the <span class="sc">blind side</span> of him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1742. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Joseph Andrews</i>, bk. III., ch. v. Indeed, if this good man had an enthusiasm, or what the vulgar
+call a <span class="sc">blind side</span>, it was this,—he thought a schoolmaster the greatest character in the world, and
+himself the greatest of all schoolmasters.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <span class="sc">Lamb</span>, <i>Elia</i> (<i>Mrs. Battle</i>). All people have their <span class="sc">blind side</span>—their superstitions.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blink</b>, <i>verb</i> (American).—To drink. [Probably of humorous origin, similar to <span class="sc">smile</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).—and alluding to a wink or <span class="sc">blink</span> exchanged between friends and comrades before drinking. A frequent toast is ‘I look
+towards you,’ and the transference of sense in such a phrase as ‘I wink’ or ‘<span class="sc">blink</span> to you,’ and then the use of <span class="sc">to blink</span> for ‘to drink’ is easy enough. <i>Cf.</i>, also <span class="sc">To go out and see a man</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blinker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. The eye. [From <span class="sc">blink</span>, to move the eyelids, to wink; <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Winkers</span>; <span class="sc">Peepers</span>; <span class="sc">Optics</span>, etc.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Glims</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1816. <span class="sc">Quiz</span>, <i>Grand Master</i>, I., ii. A patent pair of goggle winkers, Conceal’d from public view his <span class="sc">blinkers</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>American Humorist.</i> ‘<span class="sc">Blank your blinkers</span>,’ angrily retorted Brudee, ‘your business was not to fight, but show us the enemy.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—<i>pl.</i> Spectacles. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barnacles</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1732. <span class="sc">M. Green</span>, <i>Grotto</i>, 10. Bigots who but one way see through <span class="sc">blinkers</span> of authority. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1803. <span class="sc">Bristed</span>, <i>Pedest. Tour</i>, I., 38. A little fellow, with <span class="sc">blinkers</span> over his eyes. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Eng. Hum.</i>, IV. (1858), 205. Who only dare to look up at life through <span class="sc">blinkers</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>3. (provincial.)—In Norfolk, a black eye.
+</p>
+<p>4. (pugilistic.)—A hard blow in the eye.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Blank your blinkers.</span>—A euphemistic oath, equivalent to the more common ‘D——n your eyes.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blink-Fencer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A person who sells spectacles. [From <span class="sc">blink</span>, a contracted form of ‘blinkers,’ spectacles + <span class="sc">fence</span>, primarily a receiver of stolen goods, but also applied to a tradesman of any kind,
++ <span class="sc">er</span>.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb234">[<a href="#pb234">234</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blinko</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’ and vagrants’).—An amateur entertainment held, generally, at a public house;
+a <span class="sc">free and easy</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); a <span class="sc">sing song</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">J. Greenwood</span>, <i>Dick Temple</i>. ‘What is a <span class="sc">blinko</span> for instance?’ ‘Well, it’s a kind of entertainment, singing, and that,’ replied the
+old fellow, ‘to which strangers are not invited—least of all the police.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, August 4, p. 2, col. 1. ‘An Harmonic <span class="sc">blinko</span>, the proceeds of which will be given towards buying a barrow for Young Duckling,
+who has got married with no visible means of support.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blister</b>, <i>verb</i> (common).—Employed euphemistically for ‘to damn.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blamed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">H. Cockton</span>, <i>Valentine Vox</i>, ch. xxvi. ‘Where can they be hid?’ he exclaimed, with great emphasis. ‘<span class="sc">Blister</span> ’em! Where can the scoundrels be got to?’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blizzard</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A poser; a stunning blow; an unanswerable argument, etc., etc. This word,
+recently brought into prominent notice as the name by which sudden and exceptionally
+severe snowstorms are known in the Western States of America, is one the etymology
+of which is dubious. Some authorities derive it from the German <i lang="de">blitz</i>—lightning, but a correspondent of <i>N. and Q.</i> claims it as of English nationality, asserting that the word has been known in the
+Midland Counties in its present form, or nearly so, for over thirty years; further
+stating that ‘may I be blizzered’ is a common oath there. Assuming that the expression
+is a variation of the more generally familiar ‘May God strike me blind’ (that is,
+presumably by lightning), there is nothing antagonistic between the two theories of
+its genesis, and a further light is perhaps thrown upon the subject, tending to support
+its German origin, by the fact that, in Pennsylvania, it has been familiar, according
+to a correspondent of the <i>New York Sun</i>, for more than half-a-century, its use and meaning being akin to the instances above
+mentioned. It appears that in the central counties of the State in question, the word
+was always used to include the idea of the ‘poser,’ and even of force, violence, spitefulness,
+or vindictiveness. If one dealt another a hostile blow he ‘gave him a <span class="sc">blizzard</span> on the nose,’ ‘on the jaw,’ ‘between the eyes,’ etc. If a magistrate lectured a litigant
+severely he ‘gave him a <span class="sc">blizzard</span>.’ If in debate one dealt mercilessly in ridicule he ‘gave his opponent a <span class="sc">blizzard</span>.’ If one man swore at or cursed another he ‘gave him a <span class="sc">blizzard</span>.’ If a man’s wife scolded him she ‘gave him a <span class="sc">blizzard</span>.’ When it is remembered that Pennsylvania is the State in which the Dutch or German
+element most largely predominates, it does not seem far fetched to attribute its origin
+to a Teutonic source, more especially as there is nothing in the English usage to
+preclude such a derivation. However this may be, the word invariably seems to imply
+suddenness combined with violence; and, at any rate, it apparently disposes of the
+supposition that the word is of Western origin, or a coinage of so recent a date as
+is frequently supposed. Like most words of its class, which have largely struck the
+popular taste, <span class="pageNum" id="pb235">[<a href="#pb235">235</a>]</span>it has been generally adopted in an idiomatic sense to signify a stunning blow; an
+overwhelming argument, or a cool reception.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Crockett</span>, <i>Tour Down East</i>, 16. A gentleman at dinner asked me for a toast; and supposing he meant to have some
+fun at my expense, I concluded to go ahead, and give him and his likes a <span class="sc">blizzard</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">De Vere</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 443. <span class="sc">Blizzard</span>, a term referred back to the German <i lang="de">Blitz</i>, means in the West a stunning blow or an overwhelming argument.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. S[ala]</span>, in <i>Ill. L. News</i>, Feb. 23, p. 171, col. 2. <span class="sc">Blizzard</span>. The philologers in American Slang refer back to the German <i lang="de">blitz</i>; and its original meaning in the Western States seems to have been a stunning blow
+or an overwhelming argument. In the Eastern States a sudden set-in of severe frost
+is called a ‘cold snap.’ Query, how many ‘cold snaps’ does it take to make a ‘<span class="sc">blizzard</span>’?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>San Francisco News Letter.</i> I should like to have seen the Colonel’s face when he got that very cold, <span class="sc">blizzardy</span> letter. I bet that if Minnie had been near him he would have slapped her real hard.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloak.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bloke</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—1. A drowned body.
+</p>
+<p>2. A drunkard. The simile which groups the two is, perhaps, not far wrong. [Probably
+from <span class="sc">bloat</span>, an adjective signifying puffed, swollen, inflated. <span class="sc">Bloat</span> was also formerly in use in England as a contemptuous name for a human being.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloated Aristocrat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—An opprobrious epithet for a man swollen with the pride of rank or wealth;
+also a general sobriquet applied by ‘the masses’ to ‘the classes.’ ‘Bloated’ has long
+been employed in a similar sense. Swift spoke of a certain statesman as ‘a bloated
+minister’ [1731].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Adventures of Philip</i>, I., p. 101. What a <span class="sc">bloated aristocrat</span> Thingamy has become since he got his place!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Breakfast in Bed</i>, essay I., p. 17 (1864). Of the two most salient English gentlemen represented, one
+is a <span class="sc">bloated aristocrat</span> of a Baronet hopelessly in debt, the other a rapid brainless nobleman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">M. Twain</span>, <i>Innocents Abroad</i>, ch. x. We sat down finally, at a late hour, in the great Casino, and called for
+unstinted champagne. It is so easy to be <span class="sc">bloated aristocrats</span> where it costs nothing of consequence!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloater.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">My Bloater</span>; also <span class="sc">Mild Bloater</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blob</b>, <i>verb</i> (vagrants’).—To talk; to ‘patter.’ [Probably a corrupted form of <span class="sc">blab</span>.] Beggars are of two kinds—those who <span class="sc">screeve</span> (introducing themselves with a <span class="sc">fakement</span>, or false document) and those who <span class="sc">blob</span>, or state their case in their own truly ‘unvarnished’ language. [<i>See</i>, however, second quot.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 339. ‘Of professional beggars there are two kinds—those who “do it on
+the <span class="sc">blob</span>” (by word of mouth), and those who do it by “<i>screeving</i>,” that is, by petitions and letters.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Good for Nothing</i>, ch. xxvi. ‘Five minutes more and we shall run into him,’ he shouts, sitting well
+back on his horse, and urging him to his extreme pace, ‘when he <span class="sc">blobs</span> like that he’s getting beat. <i>See</i> how Canvas sticks to him, and the yellow dog hangs back waiting for the turn.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Block</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A stupid person; a hard unsympathetic individual; one of mean, unattractive
+appearance. [A figurative sense of <span class="sc">block</span>, as of wood or stone.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb236">[<a href="#pb236">236</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1534. <span class="sc">N. Udall</span>, <i>Roister Doister</i>, III., iii., p. 44 (Arber). Ye are such a calfe, such an asse, such a <span class="sc">blocke</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1595. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Two Gentlemen</i>, Act ii., Sc. 5. <i>Speed.</i> What an ass art thou! I understand thee not. <i>Launce.</i> What a <span class="sc">block</span> art thou, that thou canst not!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>Every Man out of his Humour</i>. Induct. <i>Cor.</i> Hang him, dull <span class="sc">block</span>!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1624. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>Bondman</i>, II., ii. This will bring him on, Or he’s a <span class="sc">block</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Block</span> (s) … sometimes an ignorant, stupid fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Chaplain of the Fleet</i>, pt. II., ch. iv. She said that her partner was delightful to dance with, partly
+because he was a lord—and a title, she said, gives an air of grace to any <span class="sc">block</span>—partly because he danced well and talked amiably.
+</p>
+<p>2. The head. Possibly an abbreviated form of <span class="sc">barber’s block</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Crumpet</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1637. <span class="sc">Shirley</span>, <i>Lady of Pleas</i>, II., i. Buy a beaver For thy own <span class="sc">block</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Ravenshoe</i>, ch. xxxv. ‘I cleaned a groom’s boots on Toosday, and he punched my <span class="sc">block</span> because I blacked the tops.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Barber’s Block</span>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A transferred sense [from a wooden head for showing off a wig] applied
+to a showy, over-dressed man; a fop.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>, <i>Hallberger’s Illus. Mag.</i>, p. 72. No, not to men worthy of the name of men—men, not <span class="sc">barber’s blocks</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. The head.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Block</span>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1823. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Peveril of the Peak</i>, ch. v. (I., p. 67). Were I not to take better care of the wood than you, brother,
+there would soon be no more wood about the town than the <span class="sc">barber’s block</span> that’s on your own shoulders.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">A chip of the same old block</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—A man or thing exhibiting the same qualities as he or that with which a
+comparison is made.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1627. <span class="sc">Sanderson</span>, <i>Serm.</i>, I., 283. Am not I a child of the same Adam, a vessel of the same clay, <span class="sc">a chip of the same block</span>, with him. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1655. <span class="sc">L’Estrange</span>, <i>Charles I.</i>, 126. Episcopacy, which they thought but a great <span class="sc">chip of the old block</span> Popery. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To cut a block with a razor</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—Inconsequent argument; futile endeavour; incongruous application of means
+or ability to the end in view.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1774. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Retaliation</i>, 42. ’Twas his fate unemployed or in place, sir, to eat mutton cold and <span class="sc">cut blocks with a razor</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To block a hat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—To crush a man’s hat over the eyes by a blow; <span class="sc">to bonnet</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blockers.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Block Ornaments</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Block House</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A prison; the house of detention. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1624. <span class="sc">Capt. Smith</span>, <i>Virginia</i>, III., xi., 85. To stop the disorders of our disorderly Theeues … built a <span class="sc">Block-house</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Block-houses</span>, Prisons, houses of correction, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> [Same definition given as in Grose.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <span class="sc">Murray</span>, <i>New English Dictionary</i>. [Common since <i>c.</i> 1500: of uncertain history. The Ger. equivalent <i lang="de">blockhaus</i> (‘<span lang="de">einen steinen Blockhaus</span>’) is quoted by Grimm, 1557 and 1602; the Du. <i lang="nl">blokhuis</i> is in Kilian, 1599; Fr. <i lang="fr">blocus</i>, generally considered to be the same word, and orig. in same sense, is quoted by
+Littré in the 16th c. (<i>Cf.</i>, <i>Bloccuz</i>). So far as evidence goes, the Eng. is thus the earliest; but we should expect it
+to be of Du. or Ger. origin. In any case the sense was not originally (as in modern
+notion) a house composed of blocks of wood, but one which blocks or obstructs a passage.
+The history and age of the Ger. <i lang="de">blockhaus</i> and Fr. <i lang="fr">blocus</i> require more investigation.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb237">[<a href="#pb237">237</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Block Island Turkey</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Salted cod-fish. Connecticut and Rhode Island. Slang delights in naming
+fish as flesh. For some curious examples, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Two-eyed steak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Block Ornaments</b>, or <b>Blockers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Small pieces of meat of indifferent quality, trimmings from the joints,
+etc. Exposed for sale on the blocks or counters of butcher’s shops in cheap neighbourhoods.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <i>Fraser’s Mag.</i>, XXXVII., 396. Forced to substitute a <span class="sc">blocker</span> of meat, with its cheap accompaniment of bread and vegetables … for poultry and rump
+steaks. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 54. For dinner … they buy <span class="sc">block ornaments</span>, as they call the small, dark-coloured pieces of meat exposed on the cheap butchers’
+blocks or counters. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 516. What they consider a good living is a dinner daily off good <span class="sc">block ornaments</span> (small pieces of meat, discoloured and dirty, but not tainted, usually set for sale
+on the butcher’s block).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Punch</i>, No. 2063, p. 29. And eager-faced women must bargain for tainted <span class="sc">block ornaments</span> still.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Standard</i>, Jan. 20, <i>The Poor at Market</i>. Watching a man who stands with his wife and little girl before a butcher’s shop,
+let us see what they have to choose from in buying for the next day’s dinner. On the
+shelves set out in front of the shop meat scraps are offered at 3½d. the lb.; better
+scraps (or <span class="sc">block ornaments</span>, as they are termed) at 4d.; somewhat shapeless small joints of beef from inferior
+parts at 5d., one coarse shoulder of mutton at the same; tolerably good-looking meat
+at 6d.; mutton chops at 7d. and 8d.; and rump steak at 10d.
+</p>
+<p>2. Applied to individuals, a <span class="sc">block ornament</span> signifies a queer looking man or woman—one odd in appearance.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloke</b> or <b>Bloak</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A man; a fellow. In saying ‘not strictly “a man” as Hotten defines it,
+but a man in a contemptuous sense,’ Barrère is himself wide of the mark. The word
+may <i>sometimes</i> be used contemptuously; but, generally speaking, any idea of reproach or praise is
+absent, and a <span class="sc">bloke</span> means a man pure and simple. In witness whereof are the following examples of its
+use.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 397. If we met an old <span class="sc">bloke</span> (man) we propped him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 446. A gentleman.—A <span class="sc">bloak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>The Baddington Peerage</i>, II., p. 49. My old <span class="sc">bloke</span>!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <span class="sc">Kingsley</span>, in <i>Macmillan’s Mag.</i>, Dec, 96. Little better than <span class="sc">blokes</span> and boodles after all. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">Ouida</span>, <i>Held in Bondage</i>, bk. I., p. 245. The girl is stunning, the <span class="sc">blokes</span> say, so we must forgive you.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, in <i>Temple Bar</i>, XIII., 483. The society of the aged <span class="sc">bloke</span> is apt to pull upon the youthful intellect.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">J. Greenwood</span>, <i>Seven Curses of London</i>. It came out in the course of the evidence that the meaning of the word <span class="sc">bloke</span> was ‘a man whom a woman might pick up in the street.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <span class="sc">Robinson</span>, <i>Little Kate Kirby</i>, I., p. 136. ‘Give us a horder then, old <span class="sc">bloke</span>,’ shrieked another gamin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1875. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Keep it Dark.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I have heard though may be it isn’t a fact, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e40098">Keep it dark! </p>
+<p class="line">That the present Lord Chancellor’s going to be sacked,
+</p>
+<p class="line xd33e40098">Keep it dark! </p>
+<p class="line">And Dr. Kenealy, that popular <span class="sc">bloke</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">That extremely warm member, the member for Stoke, </p>
+<p class="line">Is about to succeed him, the lawyers to choke— </p>
+<p class="line xd33e40110">But, keep it dark! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit"><i>c.</i> 1869. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Shooting the Moon.’ Spoken—Yes, and I used to do very well, until some ragged young
+urchin said to his pal, don’t you varder, don’t you know that ere <span class="sc">bloke</span>, that’s the <span class="sc">bloke</span> we saw the other day with a barrow.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb238">[<a href="#pb238">238</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily News</i>, May 15, p. 7, col. 2. ‘When you are coming out into the yard ask the next <span class="sc">bloke</span> to change numbers with you.’
+</p>
+<p>In each case the ‘face value’ of the word appears to be simply ‘a man,’ and in spite
+of Barrère’s assertion that ‘in the police newspapers twenty-five years ago a <span class="sc">bloke</span> was a victim of sharps, a stupid person, a greenhorn,’ the evidence is all the other
+way; in one instance, indeed, the individual in question is reported to be ‘a gentleman.’
+As regards derivation, its origin is uncertain. Hotten and Ogilvie compare it with
+the Hindustanee <i>loke</i>, a man; while Leland traces it to ‘the Dutch <i lang="nl">blok</i>, a log, a fool.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cove</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A fop; dandy; buck; or ‘fast’ man. Originally in common use, but now obsolete.
+[From that legitimate sense of the word which attributes the seat of the passions
+and emotions to the blood. Hence, a man of spirit; one who is worth mention, and,
+in an inferior sense, he who makes himself notorious, whether by dress or rowdyism.]
+In the last century, especially during the regency of George IV., the term was largely
+in vogue to denote a young man of good birth or social standing about town; subsequently,
+it came to mean a riotous, disorderly fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1562. <span class="sc">Bulleyn</span>, <i>Sicke Men</i>, etc., 73<i>a</i>. A lustie <span class="sc">blood</span>, or a pleasaunte brave young roister. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1606. <span class="sc">John Day</span>, <i>Ile of Gulls</i>, Act i., p. 9. <i>Basil.</i> Welcome gallants, welcome honord <span class="sc">bloods</span>. <i>Ibid.</i> To which effect we have sent a generall challenge to all the youthfull <span class="sc">bloods</span> of Africa.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <i>Adventurer</i>, No. 15. Our heroes of liberty, whether Bucks or <span class="sc">Bloods</span>, or of whatever other denomination, when by some creditor of slavish principles they
+have been locked up in a prison, never yet petitioned to be hanged.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 21. ‘Trenchard!’ he muttered—‘Aliva Trenchard. They were right, then,
+as to the name. Well, if she survives the accident—as the <span class="sc">blood</span> who styles himself Sir Cecil fancies she may do—this ring will make my fortune by
+leading to the discovery of the chief parties concerned in this strange affair.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>V. Fair</i>, ch. x. A perfect and celebrated <span class="sc">blood</span>, or dandy about town, was this young officer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Barry Lyndon</i>, ch. ii., p. 36. The modern <span class="sc">bloods</span> have given up the respectful ceremonies which distinguished a gentleman in my time.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—Money. [A comparison of blood, as the vital principle, to money, as that
+upon which the sustenance of life depends—the ‘sinews of war,’ the ‘needful,’ etc.]
+For all synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Dodsley</span>, <i>Collection of Poems</i>, III., 199.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">He sticks to gaming, as the surer trade; </p>
+<p class="line">Turns downright sharper, lives by sucking <span class="sc">blood</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1872. <span class="sc">M.&nbsp;E. Braddon</span>, <i>Dead Sea Fruit</i>, ch. iv. ‘A man who ought to consider himself uncommonly fortunate never to have
+known what it was to be hard up, or to have a pack of extravagant sons sucking his
+<span class="sc">blood</span>, like so many modern vampires.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (familiar).—To deplete of money; to victimise; a figurative usage of ‘to bleed’;
+<i>i.e.</i>, surgically, to let or draw blood by opening a vein. <i>Cf.</i>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 2, and <span class="sc">Bleed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>From Post to Finish</i>, p. 187. ‘He is very likely to want a thousand pounds at any moment. There’s a leaven
+of the old squire in his composition, and I recollect hearing that he was <span class="sc">blooded</span> over the Phaeton Leger.’ ‘You surely can’t mean that he <span class="pageNum" id="pb239">[<a href="#pb239">239</a>]</span>has taken to racing? Why, you must be aware that he has no money for anything of that
+sort.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood and Entrails</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—The British ensign is so nicknamed by Yankee sailors; English salts return
+the compliment by jokingly speaking of the American flag as <span class="sc">the gridiron and doughboys</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood and Thunder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A beverage of port wine and brandy mixed. Port is the <span class="sc">blood</span>, from its colour; brandy the <span class="sc">thunder</span>—the combined effects being, it is held, provocative of ‘thundering’ head-aches.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood and Thunder Tales</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (originally American, now common).—Low class fiction, the term being generally applied
+to works dealing with the exploits of desperadoes, cut-throats, and other criminals.
+Also called <span class="sc">Awfuls</span>, <span class="sc">Penny dreadfuls</span>, <span class="sc">Gutter literature</span>, <span class="sc">Shilling shockers</span>, etc., all of which <i>see</i> for further illustrations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <i>Portland Transcript</i>, May. Here let me say one word to the <i>Transcript</i> mothers. Look carefully to your child’s reading matter. Beware of the cheap, trashy
+romances, the <span class="sc">blood and thunder tales</span> by Tom, Dick and Harry, which fill the counters of so many of our bookstores.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily News</i>, March 26, p. 2, col. 3. The <span class="sc">blood and thunder</span> tragedies generally associated with the transpontine drama.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood-an’-’Ouns</b>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—An abbreviated form of an old and blasphemous oath—‘God’s blood and wounds!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 58. ‘Och! if he’s a friend o’ yours, my dear joy, there’s no more to be
+said; and right sorry am I I struck him. But, <span class="sc">blood-an’-’ouns!</span> man, if ould Nick himself were to hit me a blow, I’d be afther givin’ him another.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood-Curdler</b> or <b>Blood-Freezer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A narration or incident which ‘makes the flesh creep’; that which stirs
+one’s feelings strongly, and generally repulsively. Said of a sensational murder,
+a thrilling ghost-story, etc. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blood and thunder tales</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood for Blood</b>, <i>phr.</i> (trade).—When tradesmen exchange wares, setting the cost of one kind off against
+another instead of making payment in currency, they are said to give <span class="sc">blood for blood</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blood</span>. (1) the vital fluid; (2) money—hence applied to that upon the sale of which a man
+is dependent for a livelihood.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> A hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said
+to deal <span class="sc">blood for blood</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood-Freezer.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blood-curdler</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood-Red Fancy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—A particular kind of handkerchief sometimes worn by pugilists and frequenters
+of prize fights.—<i>See</i> <b>Billy</b>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 446. Red silk handkerchief. <span class="sc">Blood-red fancy.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood Suckers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Sixty-third Regiment of Foot.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blood-Tub</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A rowdy; a blustering bully; a rough. This nickname was peculiar to Baltimore,
+which city, <span class="pageNum" id="pb240">[<a href="#pb240">240</a>]</span>perhaps of all cities in the Union, enjoyed, for a time, an unenviable reputation
+on account of the rowdyism of a section of its inhabitants. More or less, however,
+these turbulent gangs infest all the more important centres of population, and answer
+in many respects to the English ‘roughs.’ They are recruited largely from the labouring
+and commercial population; they drink, and swear, but commit no crime, save an occasional
+deed of violence in times when excitement runs unusually high, and are for the most
+part affiliated with one or other of the two political parties, the Republicans or
+Democrats. They are known as Dead Rabbits in New York, Moyamensing Hounds in Philadelphia,
+<span class="sc">Blood-tubs</span> in Baltimore, where at other times they have also been designated Babes, Plug-uglies,
+and Ashlanders. The <span class="sc">Blood-tubs</span> are reported to have been mostly butchers, and to have got their epithet from having,
+on an election day, dipped an obnoxious German’s head in a tub of warm blood, and
+then driven him running through the town<span id="xd33e40442">.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <i>Song of the Irish Legion.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Blood-tubs</span> and plug-uglies, and others galore, </p>
+<p class="line">Are sick for a thrashing in sweet Baltimore; </p>
+<p class="line">Be jabers! that same I’d be proud to inform </p>
+<p class="line">Of the terrible force of an Irishman’s arm. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bloody</b>, <i>adj.</i> (low).—An epithet difficult to define, and used in a multitude of vague and varying
+senses. Most frequently, however, as it falls with wearisome reiteration every two
+or three seconds from the mouths of London roughs of the lowest type, no special meaning,
+much less a sanguinary one, can be attached to its use. In such a case it forms a
+convenient intensitive, sufficiently important as regards sound to satisfy those whose
+lack of language causes them to fall back upon a frequent use of words of this type.
+Bloody occasionally carries with it a suspicion of anger, resentment, or detestation.
+[For suggested derivations, and some incidental illustrative examples, <i>see</i> adverbial usage, which follows.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">R. Dana</span>, <i>Bef. Mast</i>, ii., 2. You’ll find me a <span class="sc">bloody</span> rascal. <i>Ibid</i>, xx., 61. They’ve got a man for a mate of that ship, and not a <span class="sc">bloody</span> sheep about decks. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Ruskin</span>, <i>Fiction, Fair and F.</i>, § 29. The use of the word <span class="sc">bloody</span> in modern low English is a deeper corruption, not altering the form of the word,
+but defiling the thought in it. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><i>Adv.</i> (low).—Among the vulgar at the present day <span class="sc">bloody</span>, used adverbially, says G.&nbsp;A. Sala [<i>Notes and Queries</i>, 4 S., i., Feb. 8, 1868], simply qualifies the superlative and excessive. Admiral
+Gambier, who is said to have introduced ‘tea and piety’ into the navy, very properly
+discountenanced the practice so long common to naval officers of d——g the sailors’
+eyes while they were reefing topsails. His tars, scarcely grateful, nicknamed the
+admiral ‘Old Bloody Politeful.’ The lower classes use <span class="sc">bloody</span> indifferently as a term of depreciation or appreciation. Thus, it’s a <span class="sc">bloody</span> shame; and <i>per contra</i> in a flash song, the poet (supposed to be languishing in prison) recounts that the
+chaplain discoursed to the inmates—
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb241">[<a href="#pb241">241</a>]</span></p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p class="line">‘How Jonah lived inside of a whale, </p>
+<p class="line">’Twas a <span class="sc">bloody</span> sight better than county gaol.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">As regards derivation, dual causes seem to have operated in the evolution of <span class="sc">bloody</span> in its depraved sense. The various stages are summarised by Murray, in so far as
+evidence will permit, as follows. The origin is not quite certain; but there is good
+reason to think that it was at first a reference to the habits of the ‘bloods’ or
+aristocratic rowdies of the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th c. The phrase
+‘<span class="sc">bloody</span> drunk’ was apparently = ‘as drunk as a blood’ (<i>Cf.</i>, ‘as drunk as a lord’); thence it was extended to kindred expressions, and at length
+to others; probably in later times, its associations with bloodshed and murder (<i>Cf.</i>, a <span class="sc">bloody</span> battle, a <span class="sc">bloody</span> butcher) have recommended it to the rough classes as a word that appeals to their
+imagination. We may compare the prevalent craving for impressive or graphic intensives,
+seen in the use of <i>jolly</i>, <i>awfully</i>, <i>terribly</i>, <i>devilish</i>, <i>deuced</i>, <i>damned</i>, <i>ripping</i>, <i>rattling</i>, <i>thumping</i>, <i>stunning</i>, <i>thundering</i>, etc. There is no ground for the notion that <span class="sc">bloody</span>, offensive as from association it now is to ears polite, contains any profane allusion,
+or has connection with the oath ‘’sblood!’ In this particular it may be noted that
+Mr. C.&nbsp;G. Leland is in error when he says ‘Mr. Hotten thinks this is an expletive
+without reference to <i>any</i> [italics not in original] meaning.’ Mr. Hotten neither said nor implied anything
+of the kind, but just the reverse; and Mr. Leland has hung his remarks upon a misquotation.
+Hotten’s exact words are ‘<span class="sc">bloody</span>, an expletive used, without reference to meaning, as an adjective and an adverb,
+simply for intensification’—a very different thing; <i>ergo</i> as far as Hotten goes he is absolutely correct.
+</p>
+<p>There seems little doubt, however, that the association of <span class="sc">bloody</span> with bloodshed and murder has had a very large influence in determining its present
+bad signification in the mouth of a cockney of the lower classes. It is noteworthy,
+too, that the German <i lang="de">blutig</i> is sometimes used, says H. Tiedeman [<i>N. and Q.</i>, 4 S., i., Feb. 8, 1868], in the same manner as the London <span class="sc">bloody</span>:—While living in Dresden, I heard many times uttered such phrases as—
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p lang="de" class="line">‘Ich habe keinen <i>blutigen</i> Heller mehr,’ </p>
+<p class="line">[I have no <span class="sc">bloody</span> penny or ‘red cent’ more], </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">for ‘I have not a single penny left,’ etc. Was, then, the Dresden <i lang="de">blutig</i> introduced to the London mob in the shape of <span class="sc">bloody</span>? The Dutch <i lang="nl">bloedig</i> may be used figuratively, just as the French <i lang="fr">sanglant</i>. <i lang="fr">Une injure sanglante</i> might be translated by ‘<i lang="nl">een bloedige beleediging</i>.’ It might, and it is in fact, sometimes used to qualify an adjective. To say ‘<i lang="nl">bloedig schoon</i>’ (literally, ‘bloody beautiful’), would be perfectly correct, but then it has not
+the sense of <i>exceedingly</i>; it keeps its original meaning. ‘<i lang="nl">Bloedig schoon</i>’ could not be rendered otherwise than by <i>sanguinary</i> and <i>beautiful</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1676. <span class="sc">Sir G. Etheredge</span>, <i>Man of Mode</i> (Act i., Sc. 1), p. 186, ed. 1723.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Dor.</i> Give him half-a-crown.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Med.</i> Not without he will promise to be <span class="sc">bloody</span> drunk.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb242">[<a href="#pb242">242</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1684. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Prol. Southerne’s Disappointment</i>, line 59. The doughty bullies enter <span class="sc">bloody</span> drunk. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1706. <span class="sc">Farquhar</span>, <i>Recruiting Officer</i>, Act iv., Sc. 1. <i>Plume.</i> Thou art a <span class="sc">bloody</span> impudent fellow. [There is no question of fighting in the context.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1711. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Journal to Stella</i>, 8 May, letter 22. It was <span class="sc">bloody</span> hot walking to-day.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">M. Scott</span>, <i>Tom Cringle’s Log</i>, ch. ii. ‘I’ve a <span class="sc">bloody</span> great mind to go down with him,’ stuttered another.
+</p>
+<p>From the foregoing examples the word would appear to have been once in literary use;
+it is not now customary to print it in full, but thus, b——y. In passing it may be
+mentioned that there is no ground for attributing its derivation to ‘By’r Our Lady.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloody Back</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A soldier; a nickname alluding to the colour of his coat. [From <span class="sc">bloody</span> = of the colour of blood, <i>i.e.</i>, scarlet or blood-red + <span class="sc">back</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> <span class="sc">Bloody back.</span> A jeering appellation for a soldier.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloody Chasm.</b> <span class="sc">To bridge the bloody chasm</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A favourite expression with orators who, during the years immediately
+succeeding the Civil War, sought to obliterate the memory of the struggle. The antithetical
+phrase is <span class="sc">to wave the bloody shirt</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloody Eleventh</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military). The Eleventh Regiment of Foot. At the battle of Salamanca, fought with
+the French, the corps was nearly cut to pieces, whence its sanguinary sobriquet. At
+Fontenoy and Ostend also, it was hard-pressed and nearly annihilated.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloody Jemmy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—An uncooked sheep’s head.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Sanguinary James</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloody Shirt.</b> <span class="sc">To wave the bloody shirt.</span>—A phrase which is only one of many of a similar character, variants such as ‘to wave
+the crimson banner,’ ‘the ensanguined under garment,’ etc., being quite frequently
+met with in American journalism. Its origin and history is thus explained in <i>Americanisms, Old and New</i>:—It is a political phrase used in the States to signify the opening anew or keeping
+alive of factious strife on party questions. Primarily it was the symbol of those
+who, during the Reconstruction period at the close of the rebellion of the Southern
+or Confederate States, would not suffer the Civil War to sink into oblivion out of
+consideration for the feelings of the vanquished. Perhaps a more odious term never
+crept into politics than the <span class="sc">bloody shirt</span>; it is alike distasteful to the sense, brutal and vulgar, and capable of misuse.
+There are still those who, in American politics, in the thousand and one points of
+difference which continually and inevitably must arise between institutions so diverse
+in origin, tradition, and practice as those of the North and South, seek for party
+purposes to estrange the one from the other by keeping alive the exciting memories
+of the old bitter struggle. When a man is said to have waved the <span class="sc">bloody shirt</span> it is known that he has gone back in spirit and intent to the sorrowful days of the
+Republic, when the blue and <span class="pageNum" id="pb243">[<a href="#pb243">243</a>]</span>the grey, each confident of battling for the right, were slaying each other in the
+valleys of the South. He ignores the peace which has settled over the old fields of
+war, and does not assent to the hand clasp of Federal with Confederate. He tries to
+open the strife anew, mocks the spirit of forgiveness, and rakes the old ashes over
+in the hunt for a burning coal. He scoffs at those who fought against the Union, and,
+because they have come back to it, calls them insincere. He rebukes the veteran who
+forgave them when together they laid down their arms. This is called <span class="sc">waving the bloody shirt</span>, and to-day, when many of those now in active life cannot remember the time when
+the Rebellion had closed, and the boys were marching home, there are legislators and
+journalists who devote their efforts to stirring up a sectional hatred which without
+these efforts would be but a tradition. Many Southerners keenly resent the spirit
+which thus traduces the now loyal South, and declares it hypocritical. The <span class="sc">bloody shirters</span>, as they are called, rail at the decency which forgives and forgets, and with venomous
+tongues revile alike those who fell in the lost cause, those who lived to repent,
+and those who would grant pardon. So long as men lost to honour will do this the action
+must have a name—it will be called <span class="sc">waving the bloody shirt</span>. From this special meaning it is now passing into general use to indicate similar
+tactics in regard to any cause. It has recently been introduced into English journalism
+in connection with the Irish struggle, and the ‘Unionist Party’ has been accused of
+<span class="sc">waving the bloody shirt</span>—with how much truth or the reverse there is here no concern. The origin of the expression
+is to be sought in a Corsican custom now nearly, if not quite, obsolete. In the days
+of the fierce <i lang="it">vendette</i>—the feuds which divided the Corsicans, family from family, bloodshed was a common
+occurrence. Before the burial of a murdered man, the <i lang="it">gridata</i> was celebrated. This word, which literally means a crying aloud, may be translated
+‘a wake.’ The body of the victim was laid upon a plank; his useless firearms were
+placed near his hand, and his blood-stained shirt was hung above his head. Around
+the rude bier sat a circle of women, wrapped in their black mantles, who rocked themselves
+to and fro with strange wailings. The men, relatives and friends of the murdered man,
+fully armed stood around the room, mad with thirst for revenge. Then one of the women—the
+wife or mother or sister of the dead man—with a sharp scream would snatch the <span class="sc">bloody shirt</span>, and waving it aloft begin the <i lang="it">vocero</i>—the lamentation. This rhythmic discourse was made up of alternate expressions of
+love for the dead, and hatred of his enemies; and its startling images and tremendous
+curses were echoed in the faces and amidst the mutterings of the armed mourners. Its
+application to American politics <span class="pageNum" id="pb244">[<a href="#pb244">244</a>]</span>is credited to Mr. Oliver P. Morton, who, elected United States senator in 1867, and
+again in 1873, took a prominent part as a leader of the more radical Republicans,
+favouring a stern policy of coercion in the reconstruction of the Southern States.
+He was one of the Presidential Candidates at the Cincinnati Convention of 1876, his
+name standing second on the first ballot. Happily, however, his opinions were too
+pronounced to unite the factions of his party, and the ultimate choice fell upon Mr.
+Hayes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Coldwater</i> (Mich.) <i>Sun</i>, Jan. The <span class="sc">bloody shirt</span> is gradually fading away. The white-winged dove of peace spreads her wings here and
+there, patriotism forgets and forgives old differences, sectionalism is gradually
+giving way to love of country—the whole country. In fact the ill-feeling between the
+North and South would have died out years ago among the veterans of both sections,
+had they been left to themselves, and the politicians been as patriotic as they.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Weekly Times</i>, Mar. 21. It is reprehensible to the last degree for the Bourbons of the South to
+continue to play on the colour line—the Southern <span class="sc">bloody shirt</span>—and then denounce Republican extremists for doing the same thing at the North.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloomer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian prison slang).—A mistake. Said to be an abbreviated form of ‘blooming
+error.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blooming</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blooming</b>, often <b>Bloomin’</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—This word, similar in type to ‘blessed,’ ‘blamed,’ and other words of the
+kind, is, as used by the lower classes, a euphemism for <span class="sc">bloody</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), but it is also frequently employed as a mere meaningless intensitive. Like the
+last-named word, little count is taken of its exact primary meaning. Its slang use
+may be traced to that figurative sense of the orthodox word, which signifies ‘in the
+bloom of health and beauty,’ ‘in the prime,’ ‘flourishing,’ etc. Some uncertainty
+exists as to the origin of this not over-ornamental addition to our expletive vocabulary.
+If the word is used by Granvil (<i>see</i> quot.) in its modern sense, then the phrase is very much older than has hitherto
+been imagined. Barring this, it would seem that we are indebted for it to the Californian
+coast, although there is little doubt that the chief instrument in its acclimatization
+in England was Mr. Alfred G. Vance, the comic singer, well-known in connection with
+‘Jolly dogs,’ and other extensively popular music-hall songs. As before stated, it
+has very largely supplanted ‘bloody’; <span class="sc">bally</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is also used in the same manner. Its applications are manifold. One is requested
+not to make any <span class="sc">blooming</span> mistake or error; another ‘showing off,’ or ‘putting on side,’ is told not to be
+so <span class="sc">blooming</span> flash; an excessively stupid man is spoken of as a <span class="sc">blooming</span> idiot; and an inquisitive individual is told more forcibly than politely, perhaps,
+‘you asks me no <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> imper’int questions, an’ I tells yer no <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> lies.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1726. <span class="sc">Rev. J. Granvil</span>, <i lang="la">Sadducismus triumphatus</i> [under the head of ‘The Demon of Tedworth’ (1661). Granvil makes mention that on
+one occasion the spirit came into a room panting like a dog, and] company coming up,
+the room was presently filled with a <span class="sc">blooming</span> noisome smell.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb245">[<a href="#pb245">245</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">Colonel John Hay</span>, <i>Ballad</i>, ‘The Mystery of Gilgal.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">He went for his ’leven inch bowie knife: </p>
+<p class="line">I tries to foller a Christian life, </p>
+<p class="line">But I’ll drop a slice of liver or two, </p>
+<p class="line">My <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> shrub, with you. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1887. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>Dagonet Ballads</i> (<i>Told to the Missionary</i>). ‘I feels like a <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> babby—I gets so infernal weak.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iii., p. 222. ‘Afore that I worked in the galleries, a making the casemates
+for the guns, and <span class="sc">blooming</span> hard work it was.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch’s Almanac</i>, p. 4. <span class="sc">The Steam Launch in Venice</span> (‘<span lang="la">Sic Transit Gloria Mundi</span>’)—<i>’Andsome ’Arriet</i>: ‘Ow my! If it ’yn’t that <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> old Temple Bar, as they did aw’y with out o’ Fleet Street!’ <i>Mr. Belleville</i> (referring to guide book): ‘Now it ’yn’t. It’s the fymous Bridge o’ <i>Sighs</i>, as Byron went and stood on; ’im as wrote ‘Our Boys,’ yer know!’ <i>’Andsome ’Arriet</i>: ‘Well, I <i>never</i>!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Jas. Greenwood</span>, <i>Flyfaker’s Hotel</i>, in <i>Odd People in Odd Places</i>, p. 59. ‘Who’s got any music?’ presently exclaimed the dirty scoundrel who had been
+mending the boxing-glove; ‘—— me, let’s have a <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> lark! Let’s have a tune and a song. Who’s got any <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> music?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;C. Russell</span>, <i>Jack’s Courtship</i>, ch. xxxviii. ‘And if there’s fire there ought to be nothen to stop us from cooking
+a <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> old goat.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Ally Sloper</i>, July 6. Injured Innocence: <i>Indignant Son of Labour</i>. Well, I’m blowed! If that ’ere <span class="sc">bloomin’</span> swell ain’t a-himitatin’ me!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloss</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old, and American thieves’).—A generic name for a woman, whether girl, wife, or
+mistress. Probably from an attributive sense of ‘blossom.’ For example, Shakspeare,
+in <i>Titus <span class="corr" id="xd33e40974" title="Source: Andromicus">Andronicus</span></i> [1588, iv., 2, 72], employs it in the sense of one lovely and full of promise. ‘Sweet
+<span class="sc">blowse</span> you are a beautious <span class="sc">blossome</span> sure.’ Tennyson also [1847] in the <i>Princess</i> [v., 79] uses the expression, ‘My babe, my <span class="sc">blossom</span>, ah, my child!’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blowen</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bloss</span> (cant), the pretended wife of a bully or shop-lifter.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>New York Slang Dictionary</i>, ‘Slang Stories,’ p. 42. ‘Why, Bell, is it yourself? Tip us your daddle, my bene
+mort. May I dance at my death, and grin in a class-case, if I didn’t think you had
+been put to bed with a shovel.…’ ‘No, Jim, I only piked into Grassville with a dimber-damber,
+who couldn’t pad the hoof for a single darkman’s without his <span class="sc">bloss</span> to keep him from getting pogy.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blot the Scrip</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To put an undertaking into writing; the modern phrase is ‘to put it in black
+and white.’ Hence
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To blot the scrip and jark it</span> (old), <i>i.e.</i>, to stand engaged, or bound for anyone.—<i>Grose.</i> <span class="sc">Jark</span> means a seal, and in Oxford slang, a safe conduct pass; in the former sense it is
+retained in the patter of modern American thieves, a synonym being <span class="sc">jasker</span>. Jarkman is the name given in America to a begging letter writer, whose accomplishments
+in this respect are varied by the production of false characters for servants, and
+other documents of a kindred nature. This is a case, like many others, in which old
+English cant terms have, across the Atlantic, been invested with a new meaning. Formerly
+a jarkman was equivalent to an ‘Abram-man,’ <i>i.e.</i>, a licensed beggar.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bloviate</b>, <i>verb</i> (American).—To talk aimlessly and boastingly; to indulge in ‘high falutin’. [A factitious
+word probably founded on the verb <span class="sc">blow</span>, sense 1, on the model of ‘deviate.’] Said to have been in use since 1850.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb246">[<a href="#pb246">246</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A shilling.
+</p>
+<p>Amongst <span class="sc">Synonyms</span> for this coin are beong; borde; button; deaner or deener; bob; bobstick (old slang);
+breaky-leg; gen (this forms part of the so-called back slang); hog; levy; peg; stag;
+teviss; twelver; touch-me (this is an abbreviated form of touch-me-on-the-nob, rhyming
+slang for bob or shilling); Abraham’s willing (also rhyming slang for a shilling).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <b>J.&nbsp;W. Horsley</b>, in <i>Macm. Mag.</i>, XL., 501. But afterwards I got 3s. 9d., and then four <span class="sc">blow</span>. <i>Ibid.</i> I went to the Steel (Bastile—Coldbath Fields Prison), having a new suit of clobber
+on me and about fifty <span class="sc">blow</span> in my brigh (pocket).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Feb. 5, p. 2, col. 6. They said they could sell some for five <span class="sc">blows</span> (shillings), and that he could easily make £158 of the stuff.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Old University.)—A drunken frolic; a spree. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blow-out</span>, <i>subs.</i> For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Jamboree</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. To boast; to brag; to ‘gas’—generally to talk boastfully or self-assertingly of
+oneself or one’s affairs. In this sense <span class="sc">to blow</span>, long dialectically current, is now regarded as slang. It is also associated with
+the idea of angry speech, ‘storming,’ ‘fuming.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blow up</span>, and for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Gas</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1400. <i>Apol. Loll.</i>, 97. <span class="sc">Blouing</span> veynly wip fleschli wit. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1519. <i>Four Elements</i>, in Hazl. <i>Dodsley</i>, I., 41. Why, man, what aileth thee so to <span class="sc">blow</span>? [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Burns</span>, <i>Epistle to J. Lapraik</i>, st. 16. I winna <span class="sc">blaw</span> about mysel; As ill I like my fauts to tell.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Graphic</i>, Jan. 27, p. 79, col. i. The whole team has taught Australia not to <span class="sc">blow</span> (as they say)—a not unneeded lesson.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Mrs. Campbell Praed</span>, <i>Sketches of Australian Life</i>, p. 45. ‘He was famous for his coolness and daring, and for <span class="sc">blowing</span>, in Australian parlance, both of his exploits and of his “bonnes fortunes.” ’
+</p>
+<p>2. (general.)—To inform; to expose; to betray; to peach. <i>Cf.</i>, also <span class="sc">Blow upon</span> and <span class="sc">Blow the gab</span>. [This is a transferred sense of blow = to breathe out; to give forth by breathing;
+hence, to sound a signal on an instrument; to blaze abroad as by a trumpet.] For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Peach</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1575. <i>Appius and Virg.</i>, in Hazl. <i>Dodsley</i>, IV., 136. Was all well agreed? did nobody <span class="sc">blow</span> ye? [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1721. <span class="sc">Defoe</span>, <i>History of Colonel Jack</i>. ‘As for that,’ says Will, ‘I could tell it well enough, if I had it, but I must
+not be seen anywhere among my old acquaintances, for I am <span class="sc">blown</span>, and they will all betray me.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Blow</span> (v.) … also to discover the secrets of another; also when a person undervalues or
+slights a person or thing, he is said to <span class="sc">blow</span> upon it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1859. <span class="sc">L. Hunt</span>, <i>Country Lodgings</i>, in <i>Casquet Lit.</i> (1877), I., p. 42, col. 1. D—n me, if I don’t <span class="sc">blow</span> … I’ll tell Tom Neville, [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>3. (American.)—To lie; and in a slightly less opprobrious sense to ‘gas’ so much as
+to be perilously near the border-line which separates boasting exaggeration from absolute
+untruth.
+</p>
+<p>4. (general.)—Frequently employed euphemistically for ‘to damn’—generally in the imperative.—<span class="sc">Blow it!</span> <i>i.e.</i>, ‘hang it’! or damn it! <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blowed</span>, with which it is closely allied in all senses.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">C. Kingsley</span>, <i>Alton Locke</i>, ch. ii. ‘Well, if you won’t stand a pot,’ quoth the tall man, ‘I will, that’s all,
+and <span class="sc">blow</span> temperance.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb247">[<a href="#pb247">247</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Golden Calf</i>, ch. xxvi. ‘<span class="sc">Blow</span> his station in life! If he was a duke I shouldn’t want him.’
+</p>
+<p>5. (general.)—To lose or spend money. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p>6. (University.)—To indulge in a frolic or spree. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blow out</span>; also <span class="sc">To go on the blow</span>.
+</p>
+<p>7. (Winchester School.)—To blush.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bite the blow</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old cant).—To steal goods; to <span class="sc">Prig</span>, which <i>see</i> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow a Cloud</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (colloquial).—To smoke a cigar or pipe; Hotten says, ‘a phrase used two centuries
+ago’ but gives no authority, and Murray’s earliest example only dates from 1855, but
+as will be seen below, it occurs in <i>Tom Crib</i> in 1819.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 39.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e2810">… His fame I need not tell, </p>
+<p class="line">For that, my friends, all England’s loud with; </p>
+<p class="line">But this I’ll say, a civiller Swell </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I’d never wish to <span class="sc">blow a cloud</span> with. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1870. <span class="sc">M. Twain</span>, <i>Innocents Abroad</i>, ch. vii. And <span class="sc">blowing</span> suffocating ‘<span class="sc">clouds</span>’ and boisterously performing at dominoes in the smoking-room at night.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Tubons en une</i> (popular: ‘let’s blow a cloud’; <i lang="fr">tuber</i> = to smoke); <i lang="fr">piper</i>; <i lang="fr">la fumerie</i> (popular: smoking); <i lang="fr">faire du brouillard</i> (‘to produce or make a fog or mist’); <i lang="fr">en bourrer une</i>; <i lang="fr">bouffarder</i>. A <span class="sc">German Synonym</span> is <i lang="de">Esef schwächen</i>, or <i lang="de">schweihen</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow-Book</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A book containing indelicate or ‘smutty’ pictures.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1708. <i>Post Man</i>, 8 June. Last Sunday a person did pennance in the Chapter-House of St. Paul’s, London,
+for publickly shewing in Bartholomew Fair a book called a <span class="sc">blow-book</span>, in which were many obscene and filthy pictures: the book was likewise burnt, and
+the person paid costs.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blowed.</b> <span class="sc">To be blowed</span>, <i>verb</i> (familiar).—<span class="sc">Blowed</span> is here a euphemism for ‘damned’; to all intents and purposes, it is frequently little
+more than a thinly-veiled oath. Hotten says that Tom Hood used to tell the following
+story:—‘I was once asked to contribute to a new journal, not exactly gratuitously,
+but at a very small advance upon nothing—and avowedly because the work had been planned
+according to that estimate. However, I accepted the terms conditionally—that is to
+say, provided the principle could be properly carried out. Accordingly, I wrote to
+my butcher, baker, and other tradesmen, informing them that it was necessary, for
+the sake of cheap literature and the interest of the reading public, that they should
+furnish me with their several commodities at a very trifling per-centage above cost
+price. It will be sufficient to quote the answer of the butcher:—“Sir,—Respectin’
+your note, Cheap literater <span class="sc">be blowed!</span> Butchers must live as well as other pepel—and if so be you or the readin’ publick
+wants to have meat at prime cost, you must buy your own beastesses, and kill yourselves.—I
+remain, etc., John Stokes.” ’
+</p>
+<p><i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blow me!</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 50. Others remonstrating with the said Thomas Sludberry, on the impropriety of
+his conduct, the said Thomas Sludberry repeated the aforesaid expression, ‘<span class="sc">You be blowed</span>.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb248">[<a href="#pb248">248</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">Jeaffreson</span>, <i>Live It Down</i>, III., p. 249. (Cries of ‘Chair, Chair,’ and ‘Order, order.’) ‘Order <span class="sc">be blowed</span>!’ exclaimed the infuriated Mr. H.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Our Mutual Friend</i>, bk. II., ch. v. ‘<span class="sc">Holiday be blowed!</span>’ said Fledgely, entering, ‘What have <i>you</i> got to do with holidays?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iii., p. 244. ‘No,’ says she, ‘we’ve got some more besides that, and enough,
+too, to take us to France. <span class="sc">Blowed</span>, old man, if we don’t go to Paris, and there we can get £300 for them.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <i>Punch’s Almanac</i>, p. 7. Seasonable Slang. For Spring.—<span class="sc">You be blowed!</span> For Summer.—I’ll warm yer! For Autumn.—Not so blooming green! For Winter.—An ice
+little game all round.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Ally Sloper’s H. H.</i>, Aug. 3, p. 242, col. 2. ‘<span class="sc">Blowed</span> if I’d have made her Mrs. Juggins, if I’d have known she wor going to make a footstool
+of me!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blowen</b> or <b>Blowing</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old.)—This word appears to have passed through a series of ups and downs in the
+course of its career. Originally signifying a woman, without special reference to
+moral character, it subsequently came to mean a showy courtesan, or a prostitute.
+It still retains the latter meaning, but is frequently used in a more complimentary
+sense than heretofore to signify a finely built handsome girl. In America among the
+criminal classes it is only used to designate a mistress. Its derivation is extremely
+uncertain, the two most important suggestions being that it comes (1) from the reputation
+having been ‘blown upon’; and (2) that in Wilts <span class="sc">blowen</span> signifies a blossom—hence <span class="sc">blowen</span> a flower; a pet.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1688. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Sq. of Alsatia</i>, I., in wks. (1720) IV., 17. What ogling there will be between thee and the <span class="sc">blowings</span>!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 143. <span class="sc">Blowen</span>, a woman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Blowen</span>, a prostitute: a woman who cohabits with a man without marriage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1847. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Lucretia</i>, pt. II., ch. ii. ‘If she’s a good girl, and loves you, she’ll not let you spend
+your money on her.’ ‘I haint such a ninny as that,’ said Beck, with majestic contempt.
+‘I ’spises the flat that is done brown by the <span class="sc">blowens</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">C. Kingsley</span>, <i>Yeast</i>, ch. xi. Why don’t they have a short simple service now and then, that might catch
+the ears of the roughs and the <span class="sc">blowens</span>, without tiring out the poor thoughtless creatures’ patience, as they do now?
+</p>
+<p>For synonyms in the sense of prostitute, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blower</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A girl; a contemptuous name in opposition to <span class="sc">jomer</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); given by Grose [1785].
+</p>
+<p>2. (American and Colonial.)—A good talker; a boaster; a ‘gas-bag.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blow</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">Manhattan</span>, in <i>Evening Standard</i>, 10 Dec. General Grant … is not one of the <span class="sc">blower</span> generals. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Spectator</i>, 22 Oct., 1202, col. 1. Notorious among our bar and the public as a <span class="sc">blower</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">De Vere</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 584. ‘You need not <i>blow</i> so, my friend. I don’t believe a word of what you say.’ Hence also the noun <span class="sc">blower</span>, a braggart, with special reference to his success in imitating Baron Munchausen.
+</p>
+<p>3. A pipe. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blow a cloud</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow Great Guns</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (popular).—To blow a hurricane; a violent gale. Sometimes varied by to <span class="sc">blow great guns and small arms</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], 23. ‘Curse me, if I don’t think all the world means to cross the Thames this
+fine night!’ observed Ben. ‘One’d think it rained fares as well as <span class="sc">blowed great guns</span>. <span class="pageNum" id="pb249">[<a href="#pb249">249</a>]</span>Why, there’s another party on the stair-head inquiring arter scullers; and, by the
+mass! they appear in a greater hurry than any of us.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">H. Miller</span>, <i>Sch. and Schm.</i> (1858), 14. It soon began to <span class="sc">blow great guns</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blowhard</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A Western term of revilement, the precise meaning of which it would be
+difficult to explain, since a newcomer may, in one and the same breath, be called
+a <span class="sc">blarsted Britisher</span>, a <span class="sc">Coyote</span>, and a <span class="sc">blowhard</span>. If all these are synonymous, then indeed the Englishman in America is in a bad way.
+<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blower</span>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow Hot and Cold</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (familiar).—To be treacherous; inconsistent; vacillating. There is an allusion in
+the expression to one of Æsop’s fables.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1577. <span class="sc">W. Bullinger</span>, <i>Decades</i> (1592), 176. One which out of one mouth, doeth <span class="sc">blowe both hoat and colde</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1756. <i>The World</i>, No. 185. This old fellow is of a most capricious, unequal temper, and, like the
+satyr in the fable, <span class="sc">blows hot and cold</span> in the same breath.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Motley</span>, <i>Dutch Rep.</i>, V., v., 750. Being constantly ordered ‘to <span class="sc">blow hot and cold</span> with the same breath.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blowing Up</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—A scolding; a severe reprimand; a jobation.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blow up</span>. The French equivalent is <i lang="fr">affres</i> (<i>fem. pl.</i>), <i>i.e.</i>, ‘agonies.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>Letter-Bag Gt. West</i>, IV., 42. I would give him a good <span class="sc">blowing-up</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">Mrs. H. Wood</span>, <i>Johnny Ludlow</i>, 1 S., No. xxv., p. 448. The waves dashed over the pier, ducking the three or four
+venturesome spirits who went on there. I was one—and received a good <span class="sc">blowing up</span> from Mr. Brandon for my pains.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow in One’s Pipe</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—A transatlantic equivalent of to <span class="sc">blow</span> or <span class="sc">blew</span> [one’s money]; <i>i.e.</i>, to spend it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow Me!</b> <b>Blow Me Up!</b> <b>Blow Me Tight!</b> <i>intj. phr.</i> (popular).—Expressions which, like <span class="sc">blowed</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), serve either as half-veiled oaths or as merely big sounding but meaningless exclamations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1781. <span class="sc">G. Parker</span>, <i>View of Society</i>, I., 48. ‘<span class="sc">Blow me up</span> (says he) if I have had a fellow with such <i>rum toggys</i> cross my company these many a day.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Says Bill ‘there’s nothing like a Bull </p>
+<p class="line">And <span class="sc">blow me tight</span>’—Bill Gibbons ne’er </p>
+<p class="line">In all his days was known to swear, </p>
+<p class="line">Except light oaths, to grace his speeches, </p>
+<p class="line">Like ‘<i>dash my wig</i>’ or ‘<i>burn my breeches</i>,’ </p>
+<p class="line">‘<span class="sc">Blow me</span>——’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 25. Here <span class="sc">blow me</span>, I’ll do such a thing I never did before, I’ll say thirty—yes, thirty shillings buys
+the lot, and I’ll have no more nor take no less.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow One’s Bazoo</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—To boast; to swagger; to gasconade. [From the Dutch <i lang="nl">bazu</i>, an abbreviation of <i lang="nl">bazuin</i>, a trumpet; hence an equivalent of the English ‘to blow one’s own trumpet’.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow Oneself Out</b>, <i>verb</i> (common).—To eat heartily; to gorge oneself.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blow out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Babes in the Wood</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">In the dog-days, don’t be so absurd </p>
+<p class="line">As to <span class="sc">blow yourselves out</span> with green-gages! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Blow Out</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A gluttonous feast, a heavy ‘feed,’ or entertainment. Also called a <span class="sc">Tuck in</span>, which <i>see</i> for synonyms. <span class="pageNum" id="pb250">[<a href="#pb250">250</a>]</span><i>Cf</i>., <span class="sc">Blow oneself out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, II., 264. ‘She sent me a card for her <span class="sc">blow-out</span>,’ said Mowbray, ‘and so I am resolved to go.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1847. <span class="sc">Th. Hook</span>, <i>Man of Many Friends</i>. The giving good feeds is, with many of these worthies, the grand criterion by which
+the virtues and talents of mankind are measured … these persons call a similar favour
+either a ‘spread’ or a ‘<span class="sc">blow-out</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">H.&nbsp;B. Stowe</span>, <i>Uncle Tom’s Cabin</i>, ch. viii. ‘Get us hot water, and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the <i>real stuff</i>, and we’ll have a <span class="sc">blow-out</span>.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (thieves’).—To steal. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">prig</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blowse</b>, <b>Blowsy</b>, <b>Blouze</b>, <b>Blowzy</b>, <i>subs</i>. (old).—1. A beggar’s trull; a wench.
+</p>
+<p>2. A slatternly woman, especially one with dishevelled hair. Thought to be of canting
+origin. In Grose’s time the term was humorously varied by Blowsabella, in reference
+to the country girl in Gay’s pastoral poem, ‘The Shepherd’s Week,’ which depicts rural
+life in its character of poverty and rudeness, rather than as clothed in the colours
+of romance.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">We, fair, fine ladies, who park out our lives </p>
+<p class="line">From common sheep-paths, cannot help the crows, </p>
+<p class="line">From flying over; we’re as natural still </p>
+<p class="line">As Blousalinda. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1557. <span class="sc">Tusser</span>, <i>Husbandrie</i>, ch. xvi., st. 37, p. 43 (E.D.S.). Whiles Gillet, his <span class="sc">blouse</span>, is a milking thy cow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1605. <span class="sc">Chapman</span>, <i>All Fooles</i>, Act iv., p. 68 (<i>Plays</i>, 1874).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Wed without my advice, my love, my knowledge, </p>
+<p class="line">Ay, and a beggar, too, a trull, a <span class="sc">blowse</span>! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1638. <span class="sc">Ford</span>, <i>Lady’s Trial</i>, III., i. Wench is your trull, your <span class="sc">blouze</span>, your dowdie.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>Hudibras Redivivus</i>, vol. II., pt. VII., p. 20.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">So the old Babylonian <span class="sc">Blouze</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">And her demure fanatick Spouse. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1851. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>English Humorists</i>, p. 167. Are not the Rosalindas of Britain as charming as the <span class="sc">Blousalindas</span> of the Hague?
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow the Gab</b> or <b>Gaff</b>, <i>verbal phr</i>. (common).—To reveal, or ‘let out’ a secret; to peach. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Gaff</span>, <span class="sc">Gag</span> and <span class="sc">Gab</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Peach</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">To blow the gab</span> (cant), to confess, or impeach a confederate.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Peter Simple</i>, ch. xliii. ‘One of the French officers, after he was taken prisoner, axed me how
+we had managed to get the gun up there; but I wasn’t going to <span class="sc">blow the gaff</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. ii., p. 122. The prisoner, burning for revenge, quietly bides his time till
+the chief warder comes round, then asks to speak to him, and ‘<span class="sc">blows the gaff</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow the Grampuse</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (nautical).—To throw cold water on a man who has fallen asleep when on duty.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow the Groundsels</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To have sexual commerce on the ground.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. To <span class="sc">blow the groundsils</span> (cant), to lie with a woman on the floor.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow Together</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (tailors’).—To make garments in a slovenly manner.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow Up</b>, <i>subs</i>. (colloquial).—A scolding; a ‘wigging’; a railing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1809. <span class="sc">Sir W Gell</span>, in C.&nbsp;K. Sharpe’s <i>Correspondence</i> (1883), I., 355. There won’t be any quarrel, so you need not fear. The only chance
+is Keppel making a <span class="sc">blow up</span> when she abuses me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, ch. lxviii. Morgan had had ‘a devil of a <span class="sc">blow hup</span> with his own guv’nor, and was going to retire from the business haltogether.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb251">[<a href="#pb251">251</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. vii. ‘Mind the hice is here in time; or they’ll be a <span class="sc">blow up</span> with your governor.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (colloquial).—To scold.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1809. <span class="sc">Sir W. Gell</span>, in C.&nbsp;K. Sharpe’s <i>Correspondence</i> (1888), I., 355. I have heard her daughter <span class="sc">blow up</span> Lady Salisbury when she had quarrelled with Lady Sefton.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. S[ala]</span>, in <i>Illust. L. News</i>, June 16, p. 599, col. 1. That the ’aughty nobleman should <span class="sc">blow up</span> the clerk for presuming to take a seat in his presence.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To blow up sky-high</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—The American, fond of doing everything with unusual energy, likes to
+<span class="sc">blow up sky-high</span>, an addition which lends colour to the supposition that probably the phrase is originally
+a nautical one, and really borrowed from the blowing up of a vessel, much as the meaning
+of the words must have evaporated before it reached the present stage.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blow upon</b> (old).—To betray; to tell tales of; to discredit; to defame.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blow</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 2. Used also with indirect passive.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1402. [? <span class="sc">T. Occleve</span>], <i>Letter of Cupid</i>, in Arber’s <i>Garner</i>, vol. IV., p. 61.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Thus they despisèd be, on every side, </p>
+<p class="line">Dislanderèd and <span class="sc">blown upon</span> full wide. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. X., ch. ii. ‘That the reputation of her house, which was never <span class="sc">blown upon</span> before, was utterly destroyed.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, II., p. 239. It fortunately occurred to me, that if I gave it him myself, I could
+be of no farther use. I should have been <span class="sc">blown upon</span> immediately.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Our Mutual Friend</i>, bk. III., ch. xii. ‘The condition of our affairs is desperate, and may be <span class="sc">blown upon</span> at any moment.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. i., p. 4. Both desisted from their own recriminations as to ‘rounding’ and ‘<span class="sc">blowing</span>’ on each other.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Jas. Payn</span>, in <i>Glow Worm Tales</i>, p. 301. ‘An Improvement on a System.’ If Mr. Prince had caught me before his establishment
+had got ‘<span class="sc">blown upon</span>’ in the public prints, he might have persuaded me to become an inmate of the Agapemone.
+I hope I should not have approved of the manner of life in vogue at that institution,
+but I make no doubt that I should have fallen in with it without much resistance.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blub.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blubber</span>, <i>verb</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blubber</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. The mouth. From the figurative use of the word, especially of anything
+swollen or protruding, as of the lips. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Potato-trap</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. I have stopped the cull’s <span class="sc">blubber</span>, I have stopped the fellow’s mouth.
+</p>
+<p>2. A woman’s breasts.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Sport blubber</span>, and for synonyms, <span class="sc">Dairies</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (familiar).—To cry; to weep—used contemptuously. Also shortened into <span class="sc">blub</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1400. <i>Test. Love</i>, II. (1560), 283, 1. Han women none other wrech … but <span class="sc">blober</span> and wepe till hem list stint. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Roderick Random</i>, xliv. (1804), 202. He <span class="sc">blubbered</span> like a great school-boy who had been whipped.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1826. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Woodstock</i>, IV. Phœbe Mayflower <span class="sc">blubbered</span> heartily for company. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To sport blubber</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To show one’s breasts, said of women, especially those with large and prominent
+bosoms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blubber and Guts</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Obesity; a low term.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blubber-Belly</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A fat person.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb252">[<a href="#pb252">252</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blubber Head</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A foolish, empty-headed individual.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Apartments to let</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blucher</b> (ch. hard), <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—1. A College præfect in half power. Their jurisdiction does
+not extend beyond ‘Seventh Chamber passage,’ though their privileges are the same
+as those of other præfects. They are eight in number.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Blackwood</i>, p. 86. The remaining eight college præfects (called in Winchester tongue, <span class="sc">bluchers</span>) have a more limited authority, confined to Chambers and the Quadrangle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 30. The eight senior præfects were said to have ‘full power,’ and had some slight
+privileges not enjoyed by the remaining ten, who were generally called <span class="sc">bluchers</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A non-privileged cab plying at railway stations. The origin of the name and its
+application, as far as known, is given in the two following quotations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Soc. Sc. Review</i>, I., p. 406. The railway companies recognise two other classes of cabs, called the
+‘privileged’ … and the ‘<span class="sc">Bluchers</span>,’ named after the Prussian Field-Marshal who arrived on the field of Waterloo only
+to do the work that chanced to be undone.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Athenæum</i>, 5 March, p. 328. Non-privileged cabs, which are admitted to stations after all the
+privileged have been hired, are known as <span class="sc">Bluchers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bludgeoner</b>, <i>subs</i>. (harlotry).—A bully; pimp; ponce; a man attached to a house of ill-fame for the
+purpose of terrorising victims, and rendering easier the task of plunder. [From <span class="sc">bludgeon</span>, a stout stick or club, + <span class="sc">er</span> or <span class="sc">eer</span>; <i>i.e.</i>, one armed with the weapon in question.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>, p. 224. Those brutal <span class="sc">bludgeoneers</span> … go out … in gangs to poach. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Trollope</span>, <i>Warden</i>, xiv., p. 144. Old St. Dunstan with its smiting <span class="sc">bludgeoneer</span> has been removed.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bludger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A low thief, who does not hesitate to use violence; literally one who
+will use a bludgeon. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bludget</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Gt. World of London</i>, p. 46. Those who plunder with <i>violence</i>; as … <span class="sc">bludgers</span> or ‘stick slingers,’ who rob in company with low women.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bludget</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—This is given in the <i>New York Slang Dictionary</i> [1881] as ‘a low female thief, who decoys her victims into alley-ways, etc., to rob
+them.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bludger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue.</b>—Few words enter more largely into the composition of slang, and colloquialisms bordering
+on slang, than does the word <span class="sc">blue</span>. Expressive alike of the utmost contempt, as of all that men hold dearest and love
+best, its manifold combinations, in ever varying shades of meaning, greet the philologist
+at every turn. A very Proteus, it defies all attempts to trace the why and wherefore
+of many of the turns of expression of which it forms a part—why true <span class="sc">blue</span> should be synonymous with faithful, staunch adherence to one’s faith and principles;
+or why, on the other hand, to look <span class="sc">blue</span> should signify affected with fear, dismayed, and low-spirited. Curiously enough,
+the historical method helps but little to decide why in one case an exact reversal
+of meaning should have taken place in the application <span class="pageNum" id="pb253">[<a href="#pb253">253</a>]</span>of the word; for, as far as the evidence is concerned, both the good and bad shades
+of meaning appear to run contemporaneously. It is also noteworthy that the word enters
+largely into the slang of nationalities other than our own; indeed, one of the most
+curious, as well as one of the most interesting facts connected with the comparative
+study of slang, is that which reveals the oneness of the human race in its modes of
+thought and speech, the Tower of Babel notwithstanding. This special feature of slang
+will, to some extent, be found dealt with at the end of this work; but the subject
+is too wide, and the field too vast, for one student to have accomplished much single-handed.
+This, however, may be said; that, comparing the slang of one nation with that of another,
+one finds the same ideas cropping up, revealing, alas! the same follies and foibles,
+but also showing, let it be said, in the few cases where slang travels beyond the
+earthy and the sensual, the same aspirations, the same endeavour, and the same hope.
+</p>
+<p><i>Subs.</i>—1. A policeman. [From the colour of the uniform.] This epithet can be traced back
+to Elizabethan days [<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Blue-bottle</span>], and the uniform seems to have been blue from time immemorial; indeed, this colour
+appears from the earliest times to have been the badge of servitude. Pliny tells us
+blue was the colour in which the Gauls clothed their slaves; and, for many ages, blue
+coats were the liveries of servants, apprentices, and those in humble stations of
+life—to wit, the blue-clad beadles, the ‘varlets’ who wore the blue, the blue-coat
+boys, and even harlots in a house of correction, who wore blue as a dress of ignominy.
+The proverb quoted by Ray, ‘he’s in his better blue clothes,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘he thinks himself wondrous fine,’ has reference to the livery of a servant. The
+police more recently have been known collectively as <span class="sc">blues</span>, the <span class="sc">men in blue</span>, <span class="sc">blue-boys</span>, <span class="sc">blue bottles</span>, <span class="sc">blue-devils</span>, <span class="sc">royal regiment of foot-guards blue</span>, all nicknames referring to the colour of the uniform. For general synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Beak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iv., p. 257. He would chatter gaily and enter with great gusto into the details
+of some cleverly executed ‘bit of business,’ or ‘bilking the <span class="sc">blues</span>,’—evading the police.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">Hood</span>, <i>Row at the ‘Oxford Arms.’</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Well, that’s the row, and who can guess the upshot after all? </p>
+<p class="line">Whether Harmony will ever make the ‘Arms’ her house of call; </p>
+<p class="line">Or whether this here mobbing, as some longish heads fortell it, </p>
+<p class="line">Will grow to such a riot that the Oxford <span class="sc">blues</span> must quell it. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">2. A <span class="sc">blue</span> is known to licensed victuallers and their customers in certain districts of Wales
+as a compromise between the half-pint and the pint pot. It is not recognised as a
+legal measure by the authorities on weights and measures, but it is approaching to
+something like a status, as it deserves to do in the interests of temperance. Although
+there is no Board of Trade standard of the <span class="sc">blue</span>, and inspectors have no power to stamp measures of this denomination for use in trade,
+the Board of Trade has pointed out to the local authorities that <span class="pageNum" id="pb254">[<a href="#pb254">254</a>]</span>there is nothing in the Weights and Measures Act to prevent the use of the <span class="sc">blue</span> or to make its possessor liable to penalties, always provided of course that the
+vessel is not used as a measure.
+</p>
+<p>3. A scholar of Christ’s Hospital; a blue-coat boy. [This nickname is also derived
+from the colour of the clothes—blue drugget gown or body with ample skirts to it,
+a yellow vest underneath in winter time, small clothes of Russia duck, worsted yellow
+stockings, a leathern girdle, and a little black worsted cap, usually carried in the
+hand, being the complete costume. This was the ordinary dress of children in humble
+life during the reigns of the Tudors.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">W. Trollope</span> (<i>Title</i>), Christ’s Hospital … with memoirs of Eminent <span class="sc">Blues</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;H. Blanch</span>, <i>Blue-Coat Boys</i>, p. 33. To some extent it holds also with regard to Civil Engineers, amongst whom,
+however, one well-known name is that of a <span class="sc">blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p>4. Short for <span class="sc">blue-stocking</span> (<i>q<span id="xd33e42543">.</span>v.</i>); formerly a contemptuous term for a woman having or affecting literary tastes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1788. <span class="sc">Madame D’Arblay</span>, <i>Diary</i> (1876), iv., 219. He was a little the more anxious not to be surprised to-night,
+but his being too tired for walking should be imputed to his literary preference of
+reading to a <span class="sc">blue</span>. At tea Miss Planta again joined us, and instantly behind him went the book; he was
+very right, for nobody would have thought it more odd or more <span class="sc">blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1823. <span class="sc">Byron</span>, <i>Don Juan</i>, ch. xi., st. 50. The <span class="sc">Blues</span>, that tender tribe, who sigh o’er sonnets.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">Disraeli</span>, <i>Sybil</i>, p. 76. ‘But she was very clever.…’ ‘Accomplished?’ ‘Oh, far beyond that.…’ ‘A regular
+<span class="sc">blue</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Adventures of Verdant Green</i>, I., p. 7. His Aunt Virginia was as learned a <span class="sc">blue</span> as her esteemed ancestress in the court of Elizabeth, the very Virgin Queen of <span class="sc">Blues</span>.
+</p>
+<p>5. Female learning or pedantry.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <span class="sc">Byron</span>, <i>Don Juan</i>, xvi., 47. She also had a twilight tinge of <span class="sc">blue</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>6. (University.)—At Oxford and Cambridge a man is said to get his <span class="sc">blue</span> when selected as a competitor in inter-university sports. The University colours
+are, for Oxford, dark blue; and for Cambridge, light blue. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To get one’s silk</span>, said of a barrister when made Queen’s Counsel.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—1. A contemptuous epithet applied usually to women of literary tastes.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blue-stocking</span>. The French have <i lang="fr">elle est bleue celle-là</i>; <i lang="fr">en voilà une de bleue</i>; <i lang="fr">je la trouve bleue</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1788. <span class="sc">Mad. D’Arblay</span>, <i>Diary</i> (1842), iv., p. 219. Nobody would have thought it more odd or more <span class="sc">blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Southey</span>, <i>The Doctor</i>, ch. lxxxix. Les Dames des Roches, both mother and daughter were remarkable and exemplary
+women; and there was a time when Poictiers derived as much glory from those <span class="sc">blue</span> ladies as from the Black Prince.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Lever</span>, <i>Harry Lorrequer</i>, ch. xi. She was a little, a very little <span class="sc">blue</span>—rather a babbler in the ‘ologies’ than a real disciple.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1842. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>American Notes</i>, ch. iii., p. 33. <span class="sc">Blue</span> ladies there are, in Boston; but like philosophers of that colour and sex in most
+other latitudes, they rather desire to be thought superior than to be so.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Lewis Arundel</i>, ch. xxxiii. She had been growing decidedly <span class="sc">blue</span>. Not only had she, under Bray’s auspices, published a series of papers in <i>Blunt’s Magazine</i>, but she had positively written a child’s book.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 1875, p. 660. A clever, sensible woman, rather <span class="sc">blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. Indecent; ‘smutty’; obscene. This may be derived from the blue dress of harlots—<i>see</i> preceding, <i>subs.</i>, 1<span>.</span>—although Hotten suggests it as coming <span class="pageNum" id="pb255">[<a href="#pb255">255</a>]</span>from the French <i lang="fr">Bibliothèque Bleu</i>, a series of books of very questionable character. Books or conversation of an entirely
+opposite nature are said to be <span class="sc">brown</span> or Quakerish, <i>i.e.</i>, serious, grave, decent.
+</p>
+<p>3. Gloomy; fearful; depressed; low-spirited. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To look blue</span>, <span class="sc">Blue funk</span>, and <span class="sc">In the blues</span>. Possibly an allusion to the blueness of cold.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>Three Clerks</i>, ch. xxviii. Charley replied that neither had he any money at home. ‘That’s <span class="sc">blue</span>,’ said the man. ‘It is rather <span class="sc">blue</span>,’ said Charley.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <span class="sc">Trollope</span>, <i>Orley Farm</i>, I., p. 93. It’s <span class="sc">blue</span>; uncommon <span class="sc">blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Yates</span>, <i>Broken to Harness</i>, I., p. 60. ‘My dear Charlie,’ said the girl.… ‘That certainly is a <span class="sc">blue</span> look-out,’ she continued—for however earnest was her purpose she would not but express
+herself in her slang metaphor.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Roughing It</i>, ch. xl. I kept up my <span class="sc">blue</span> meditations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Gilded Age</i>, ch. xxvii. I had forgotten dear, but when a body gets <span class="sc">blue</span>, a body forgets everything.… I am sorry I was <span class="sc">blue</span>, but it did seem as if everything had been going against me for whole ages.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. To blush. <i>Cf.</i>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 3.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1709. <span class="sc">Steele and Swift</span>, <i>Tatler</i>, No. 71, p. 8. If a Virgin blushes, we no longer cry she <span class="sc">blues.</span> [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. To pawn; pledge; spend; actually to get rid of money quickly. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blew</span>. There are two suggested derivations of the word when used in this sense; (1) that
+it is connected with ‘blown,’ <i>i.e.</i>, dissipated or scattered; and (2) that money so squandered has disappeared as effectually
+as if it had passed into the <span class="sc">blue</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, the sky or the deep sea. The German has <i>ins blaue hinein</i>, ‘away into the blue,’ equivalent to the French <i lang="fr">passer au bleu</i>. <i lang="fr">Faire passer au bleu</i> is to dissipate, spend, or squander. For synonyms, in the sense of to pawn, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Pop</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch’s Almanac</i>, p. 2. This top coat?—would <span class="sc">blue it</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Punch</i>, 10 Sept., p. 111. I never minds <span class="sc">blueing</span> the pieces purvided I gets a good spree.
+</p>
+<p>3. To miscalculate; ‘to make a “mess” of anything’; to mull.
+</p>
+<p>4. (thieves’.)—To steal; to plunder. <span class="sc">To be blued</span>, to be robbed. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Prig</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">By all that’s blue</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—A euphemistic oath; probably meaning ‘by Heaven.’ It may be compared with
+the French <i lang="fr">parbleu</i>, synonymous with <i lang="fr">par Dieu</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Poor Jack</i>, xxiii. ‘The black cat, by <span class="sc">all that’s blue</span>!’ cried the Captain.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Men in blue</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—The police.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blue</span>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Besant</span>, <i>All Sorts and Cond. of Men</i>, ch. xliii. ‘You must now begin to think seriously about handcuffs and prison, and
+<span class="sc">men in blue</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Apperson</span>, <i>Graphic</i>, 30 Jan., p. 137. The police in recent times have been known as the <span class="sc">blues</span> and the <span class="sc">men in blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Till all is blue</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—1. To the utmost; to the end; for an indefinite period. Smyth, in his
+<i>Sailors’ Word Book</i>, says this phrase is borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port and getting
+into deep water.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>The Clockmaker</i>, 2 S., ch. xix. [The land] could be made to carry wheat till <span class="sc">all’s blue</span> again. <i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, 3 S., ch. xx. Your mother kickin’ and screamin’ till <span class="sc">all was blue</span> again.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">Smedley</span>, <i>Frank Fairlegh</i>, I., p. 184. I’ll have at her again, and dance <span class="sc">till all’s blue</span> before I give in.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb256">[<a href="#pb256">256</a>]</span></p>
+<p>2. When applied to drinking, <span class="sc">till all is blue</span> signifies exceeding tipsy. As will be seen, this usage is somewhat ancient. It is
+an allusion to the supposed effect of drinking on the eyesight. An analogous French
+expression is <i lang="fr">avoir un coup d’bleu</i> (to be slightly tipsy).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1616. R. C., <i>Times’ Whis.</i>, v., 1835. They drink … Vntil their adle heads doe make the ground Seeme <span class="sc">blew</span> vnto them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1638. <span class="sc">Ford</span>, <i>Lady’s Trial</i>, iv., 2. We can drink <span class="sc">till all look blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Lay of St. Dunstan</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e5086">‘I have nothing to do: </p>
+<p class="line">And ’fore George, I’ll sit here and I’ll drink <span class="sc">till all’s blue</span>!’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><span class="sc">To look blue</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—To be confounded; surprised; astonished; annoyed or disappointed. French
+equivalents are <i lang="fr">en rester tout bleu</i>; <i lang="fr">en être bleu</i>; <i lang="fr">en bailler tout bleu</i>; and <i lang="fr">baba</i> from <i lang="fr">ébahi</i>, astounded.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1600. <i>Rob. Hood</i> (‘Ritson’), II., xxxvi., 84. It made the sunne <span class="sc">looke blue</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Blue</span>, adj. … 2, blank, or cast down; as, he <span class="sc">looked blue</span> upon it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Cornhill Mag.</i>, Jan., p. 111. The prudent (and sagacious) officer <span class="sc">looked blue</span>. But he speedily recovered himself.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To make the air blue</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—To curse; to swear; to use profane language. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blue</span>, <i>adj.</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">True blue</span>, <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—Faithful; genuine; real; an allusion to blue as the colour of constancy.
+A reference either to the deep blue of the sky or sea suggestive of interminableness;
+or, it may be derived as was ‘Coventry blue,’ from a dye that would neither change
+its colour nor be discharged by washing; hence figuratively, to signify persons or
+things of sterling character or quality. In neither case is the argument clear or
+decisive; there is certainly no reason in nature why the colour and cardinal virtue
+should be thus associated. Blue skies and blue seas are proverbially deceitful, and
+on the other hand, the expression seems too old a one to owe its origin to the dyer’s
+skill.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1383. <span class="sc">Chaucer</span>, <i>Squiere’s Tale</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And by hire bedde’s hed she made a mew, </p>
+<p class="line">And covered it with velouettes <span class="sc">blew</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">In signe of trouthe that is in woman sene. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit"><i>Ibid</i>, <i>Court of Love</i>, line 246.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">So you dir folke (quod she) that knele in <span class="sc">blew</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">They were the colour ay and ever shal, </p>
+<p class="line">In signe they were, and ever wil be true, </p>
+<p class="line">Withoutin change. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Blue Apron</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A tradesman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1721. <span class="sc">Amherst</span>, <i lang="la">Terræ Fil.</i>, xliii., 230. For if any saucy <span class="sc">blue-apron</span> dares to affront any venerable person … all scholars are immediately forbid to have
+any dealing or commerce with him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Dictionary of Phrase and Fable</i>, p. 98. A <span class="sc">blue-apron</span> statesman, a lay politician, a tradesman who interferes with the affairs of the nation.
+The reference is to the <span class="sc">blue apron</span> once worn by nearly all tradesmen, but now restricted to butchers, poulterers, fishmongers,
+and so on.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bluebacks</b>, <i>subs.</i>—1. The paper money of the Confederates. A cant name, originating, as in the case
+of United States paper currency <span class="sc">greenbacks</span>, in the colour of the printing on the reverse. A more pronounced slang name, subsequently
+applied to <span class="sc">bluebacks</span>, was ‘shucks,’ from their worthlessness after the war. ‘Shucks’ is an old English
+term for the refuse of peas and similar products when shelled.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb257">[<a href="#pb257">257</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">De Vere</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 291. The confederate notes bore, for the same reason, the name of <span class="sc">bluebacks</span>, which was, however, soon exchanged for the slang term of shucks.
+</p>
+<p>2. The Orange Free State paper money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">Trollope</span>, <i>South Africa</i>, II., p. 206. <span class="sc">Bluebacks</span>, as they were called, were printed. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 222. The <span class="sc">bluebacks</span> as the Orange Free State banknotes were called.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Bellies.</b>—A nickname bestowed by Southerners, during the Civil War, upon their opponents of
+the North, whose uniform was blue. They were also called <span class="sc">boys in blue</span>, <span class="sc">yanks</span>, etc. The Southerners, on the other hand, received such names as <span class="sc">the secesh</span>, <span class="sc">rebs</span>, and <span class="sc">johnny rebs</span>, the latter being sometimes shortened to <span class="sc">johnnies</span>. The grey uniform of the Confederates likewise caused them to be styled <span class="sc">boys in grey</span> and <span class="sc">greybacks</span>, the latter epithet cutting two ways, as the Southern soldiers not only wore grey
+uniforms, but ‘greyback’ in America as well as England signifies a louse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Feb. 9, p. 5, col. 4. The Confederate armies during the great Civil War in America
+… were known … as ‘Greybacks,’ whereas their Federal opponents, from the light-azure
+gaberdines which they wore, were dubbed ‘<span class="sc">blue-bellies</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Bills</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—The tradesmen’s bills sent home to the parents and guardians
+of students. [So called from the colour of the envelopes generally used.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Billy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—1. A handkerchief (blue ground with white spots) sometimes worn and
+used as a colour at prize-fights.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Billy</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p>2. (mining.)—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. ‘Death of <span class="sc">Blue Billy</span>,’ in <i>Chamb. Jour.</i>, Dec. 17, p. 812. <span class="sc">Blue Billy</span> is the technical name given to the lime rendered foul in the purification of the
+gas.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Blanket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. The sky. This simile is an old one; Defoe’s use of it may probably have
+been suggested by Shakspeare’s ‘blanket of the dark’ (Macbeth, I., v.).
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1720. <span class="sc">Defoe</span>, <i>Hist. of Devil</i>, quoted in <i>N. and Q.</i>, 7 S., ii., 289; <i>see</i> also 7 S., ii., 492. We must be content till we come on the other side the <span class="sc">blue blanket</span>, and then we shall know the whole story.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">Greenwood</span>, <i>Under the Blue Blanket</i>. The vagrant brotherhood have several slang terms for sleeping out in a field or
+meadow. It is called ‘snoozing in Hedge Square’; <span id="xd33e43264">‘</span>dossing with the daisies’; and ‘lying under the <span class="sc">blue blanket</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>The French say, ‘<i lang="fr">coucher à l’hotel de l’Etoile</i>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to sleep at the Star Hotel’; while in the Fourbesque, or Italian cant, heaven or
+the sky is termed <i lang="it">copertore</i>, a covering or blanket.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A rough overcoat made of coarse pilot cloth.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Blazes.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blazes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Boar</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A certain venereal disease.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue-Bottle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A policeman. This epithet, at one time applied generally to all wearers
+of a dark blue uniform, is now invariably understood to mean a guardian of the peace.
+It is one of the oldest of the nicknames given to members of the force, and occurs
+as far back as 1598.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb258">[<a href="#pb258">258</a>]</span></p>
+<p><i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blue</span>, sense 1, and <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Beak</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, 2 <i>Henry IV.</i>, v., 4. <i>Dall</i> [addressing beadle] … you <span class="sc">blue-bottle</span> rogue, you filthy famished correctioner.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Lewis Arundel</i>, ch. lxiv. ‘Police, indeed!’ muttered Charley, ‘the General can’t remember that he
+is out of London.… These confounded sulky Austrian officials are rather different
+customers to deal with from our <span class="sc">blue-bottles</span>.—Messrs. Al and Co.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, in <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Sept. 13. Caught in his own toils by the <span class="sc">blue-bottles</span> of Scotland Yard, [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, p. 15. He who could summon to his aid every alphabetical <span class="sc">blue-bottle</span> that ever handled a truncheon.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">Middleton</span>, <i>Michaelmas Term</i>. And to be free from the interruption of <span class="sc">blue beadles</span>, and other bawdy officers.
+</p>
+<p>2. A serving-man, blue having been the usual habit of servants. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blue-coat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1602. <i>Honest Whore</i>, O. Pl., iii., 389. You proud varlets, you need not be ashamed to wear <span class="sc">blue</span>, when your master is one of your fellows.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman</i>, sign E., 3. The others act their parts in <i>blew coates</i>, as (if) they were their serving-men.
+</p>
+<p>Hence <span class="sc">blue-bottle</span> is sometimes a term of reproach for a servant. [<i>Case Altered</i>, i., 2. O. Pl., v., 6.] And a <i>serving-man</i>, in B. Jonson, says, ‘Ever since I was of <i>the blue order</i>.’
+</p>
+<p>About 1608, when Middleton’s Comedy of <i>A Trick to catch the Old One</i> was produced, the <i>blue-coats</i> of servants appear to have been changed for cloaks, such as were worn by the upper
+classes also at that time. Thus, in that comedy [<i>Act</i> ii., <i>Anc. Drama</i>, v., p. 151]:—There’s more true honesty in such a country serving man, than in a
+hundred of our cloak companions. I may well call ’em companions, for since <i>blue coats</i> have been turned into cloaks, one can scarce know the man from the master. B. Jonson
+[<i>Mask of Christmas</i>] introduces New Yeares Gift, In a <i>blew coat</i>, serving-man like, with an orange, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;R. James</span>, <i>Arrah Neil</i>, p. 325. The personage to whom he addressed himself, was one of the serving-men of
+that day, known by the general term of <span class="sc">blue-bottles</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. x. (I., p. 173). I fancy you would love to move to court like him, followed
+by a round score of old <span class="sc">blue-bottles</span>. <i>Ibid</i>, ch. xi. My lord, my father … has <span class="sc">blue-bottles</span> enough to wait on him.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Boy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A bubo; a tumour or abscess with inflammation. Specially applied to that
+kind which is a result of venereal disease.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue-Boys</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The police. The expression is generally used in the plural. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blue</span>, sense 1, and <span class="sc">Beak</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Jas. Greenwood</span>, <i>Help Myself Society</i>, in <i>Odd People in Odd Places</i>, p. 68. The ‘Help Yourselves’ are especially strong in instrumental music. They have
+a friend in Colonel Fraser, the head of the City police, and the excellent band of
+that branch of the force is at their service, and Sir E. Henderson shows himself to
+be at heart a ‘Help Yourself,’ by permitting the instrumental <span class="sc">blue boys</span> belonging to several metropolitan divisions to spend a Saturday night there. Besides
+these, they have the Polytechnic orchestral band when it is required, and an excellent
+grand piano with a skilled player and accompanyist.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Butter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Mercurial ointment, used for the destruction of parasites.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue-Coat</b>, <i>subs.</i>—A constable; a guardian of public order. This, like many of its congeners, has been
+applied to serving-men, beadles, tailors, and others wearing a uniform of a dark <span class="pageNum" id="pb259">[<a href="#pb259">259</a>]</span>blue colour. Like <span class="sc">blue</span><span id="xd33e43494">,</span> <span class="sc">blue-bottle</span>, etc., its application to a policeman is of some antiquity. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blue</span>, sense 1, and <span class="sc">Beak</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 19 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). And being so taken, haue beene carried to places
+of correction, there wofully tormented by <span class="sc">blew-coates</span>, cowardly fellowes, that … haue so scourged vs, that flesh and blood could hardly
+endure it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. II., p. 417. ‘I thinks them Chartists are a weak-minded set … a hundred o’
+them would run away from one <span class="sc">blue-coat</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blued</b> or <b>Blewed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Tipsy; drunk. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Dahlia</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A colloquialism for something rare or seldom seen; a <i lang="la">rara avis</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Devils</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. Dejection; lowness of spirits; hypochondria.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1786. <span class="sc">Cowper</span>, <i>Letters</i>, No. 219, vol. II., p. 143 (ed. 1834). I have not that which commonly is a symptom
+of such a case belonging to me,—I mean extraordinary elevation in the absence of Mr.
+<span class="sc">Blue devil</span>. When I am in the best health, my tide of animal sprightliness flows with great equality.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1790. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;B. Rhodes</span>, <i lang="la">Bombastes Furioso</i>, Sc. 1.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Or, dropping poisons in the cup of joy, </p>
+<p class="line">Do the <span class="sc">blue devils</span> your repose annoy? </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1871. <span class="sc">Planché</span>, <i>King Christmas</i>. There are <span class="sc">blue devils</span> which defy blue pills.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>Three Brass Balls</i>, pledge iii. He got discontented and had fits of <span class="sc">blue devils</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Two French equivalents for feeling out of sorts are <i lang="fr">s’emboucaner</i>, and <i lang="fr">s’éncoliflucheter</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—<i lang="la">Delirium tremens.</i> From the apparitions drunkards often suppose they see. In both this and the foregoing
+sense <span class="sc">blue devils</span> is contracted into <span class="sc">blues</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1818–9. <span class="sc">Cobbett</span>, <i>Resid. U.S.</i>, 42. It was just the weather to give drunkards the <span class="sc">blue devils</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1831. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Demonology</i>, i., 18. They, by a continued series of intoxication, became subject to what is popularly
+called the <span class="sc">blue devils</span>.
+</p>
+<p>Hence such derivatives as <span class="sc">blue devilage</span>; <span class="sc">blue devilry</span>; <span class="sc">blue devilism</span>; and an adjectival form <span class="sc">blue devilly</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">Lockhart</span>, <i>Fair to See</i>, I., p. 208. On the lower hills the pine-trees loomed through stagnant mists with
+a dejected and <span class="sc">blue-devilly</span> aspect.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Fear</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Extreme fright. [From the ‘blue’ or pallid cast of countenance which fear
+is supposed to induce. The same as <span class="sc">blue funk</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), which is more general.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">R.&nbsp;L. Stevenson</span>, <i>The Treasure of Franchard</i>, in <i>Longman’s Mag.</i>, April, p. 683. Anastasie had saved the remainder of his fortune by keeping him strictly
+in the country. The very name of Paris put her in a <span class="sc">blue fear</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Flag</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A <span class="sc">blue apron</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Worn by butchers, publicans, and other tradesmen.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. He has hoisted the <span class="sc">blue flag</span>, he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, alluding to the blue aprons
+worn by publicans.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Funk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Extreme fright, nervousness, or dread. [<span class="sc">Funk</span> is ‘to stink through fear’; Wedgwood connects it with the Walloon <i lang="fr">funker</i>, ‘to smoke.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Thomas Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown’s School-days</i>, p. 196. If I was going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a <span class="sc">blue funk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, p. 211. I was in a real <span class="sc">blue funk</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb260">[<a href="#pb260">260</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>Saturday Review</i>, Nov. 23, 534. We encounter … the miserable Dr. Blandling in what is called a <span class="sc">blue funk</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">Maxwell</span>, in <i>Life</i> (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly <span class="trans" title="chlōron theos"><span lang="grc" class="grek">χλωρὸν θέος</span></span> is the Homeric for a <span class="sc">blue funk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Hen’s Chickens</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A slang name for the inhabitants of Delaware. The nickname arose thus:
+Captain Caldwell, an officer of the first Delaware regiment in the American War of
+Independence, was noted for his love of cock-fighting. Being personally popular, and
+his regiment becoming famous for their valour, they were soon known as ‘game-cocks’;
+and as Caldwell maintained that no cock was truly game unless its mother was a blue
+hen, his regiment, and subsequently Delawareans generally, became known as <span class="sc">blue hen’s chickens</span>, and Delaware as the <span class="sc">Blue Hen State</span> for the same reason. A boaster is also often brought to book by the sarcasm, ‘Your
+mother was a blue hen no doubt.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Horse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Fourth Dragoon Horse, from its facings.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Lightning</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—One of the grimly facetious names with which Texans have christened revolvers.
+At times a dispute has literally been a word, a flash of <span class="sc">blue lightning</span> and—certain death. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Monday</b>, <i>subs.</i> (workmen’s).—A Monday spent in dissipation and absence from work. One often hears
+the phrase ‘to feel <span class="sc">Mondayish</span>.’ The German has <i lang="de">der blaue Montag</i>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Black Saturday</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Harper’s Magazine</i>, p. 873, col. 1. The workman getting sober after his usual <span class="sc">blue Monday</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Moon.</b> <span class="sc">Once in a blue moon</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—Extremely seldom; an unlimited time; a rarely recurring period. An old
+phrase, first used in the sense of something absurd. A <span class="sc">blue moon</span>, like the Greek Kalends, is something which does not exist. A variant is ‘when two
+Sundays come in a week.’ As regards origin nothing is known; barring the extract from
+Roy and Barlow, authorities give no examples earlier than 1876—a curious fact.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1526. <span class="sc">Roy and Barlowe</span>, <i>Rede me and be not wroth</i>, p. 114 [ed. Arber, 1871].
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Yf they saye the <span class="sc">mone</span> is belewe, </p>
+<p class="line">We must beleve that it is true, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Admittynge their interpretacion. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1860. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;W. Robinson</span>, <i>Grandmother’s Money</i>, I., p. 144. If he talked till a <span class="sc">blue moon</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Joshua Haggard’s Daughter</i>, ch. xxiv. Why should she stint as to one or two puddings a week … and a fruit pasty
+<span class="sc">once in a blue moon</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">R.&nbsp;E. Francillon</span>, <i>Ropes of Sand</i>, ch. xxi. ‘I’ve made bold to take the chance of your being at home for <span class="sc">once in a blue moon</span>, Mr. Carew,’ said she.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Murder</b> or <b>Blue Murders</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A term used to describe cries of terror or alarm; a great noise; an unusual
+racket. <i>Cf.</i>, French <i lang="fr">morbleu</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;S. Winter</span>, <i>Eng. Ill. Mag.</i>, Dec., p. 179. The dingy person dropped his victim and howled what the half-dozen
+officers … graphically described as <span class="sc">blue murder</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb261">[<a href="#pb261">261</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blueness</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Indecency. Smutty talk is described as <span class="sc">blue</span>, sense 2 (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Carlyle</span>, <i>Diderot</i>, <i>Ess.</i>, 240. The occasional <span class="sc">blueness</span> of both [writings] shall not altogether affright us.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Les horreurs</i>; <i lang="fr">les bêtises</i>; <i lang="fr">les gueulées</i>. To talk blue is rendered by <i lang="fr">décravater ses propos</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Noses</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—The natives of Nova Scotia. A nickname given them by the Yankees in allusion,
+it is said, to a potato of that name which Nova Scotians claim to be the best in the
+world. Proctor, however, thinks differently, and says he would wager that the Nova
+Scotians were called <span class="sc">blue noses</span> before the potato which they rear was so named, and hazards the suggestion that the
+nickname refers to the blueness of nose resulting from intense cold.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837–40. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’). Do you know the reason monkeys are no good? Because they chatter all
+day long,—as do the niggers,—and so do the <span class="sc">blue noses</span> of Nova Scotia.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">Sir George Simpson</span>, <i>Overland Journey</i>, vol. I., p. 19. After a run [in the steamer] of fourteen days, we entered the harbour
+of Halifax, amid the hearty cheers of a large number of <span class="sc">blue noses</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue</b> [or <b>Blew</b>] <b>One’s Screw</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—To waste or squander one’s salary. [From <span class="sc">blue</span> or <span class="sc">blew</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">screw</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Peter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (card-players’).—The signal or call for trumps at whist. [Properly a blue flag with
+white square in centre, hoisted as a signal for immediate sailing.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <span class="sc">Beeton</span>, <i>Handy Book of Games</i>, p. 358. Since the introduction of <span class="sc">Blue Peter</span>, the necessity of leading through your adversary’s hand has become less and less.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Pigeon</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Lead used for roofing purposes. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bluey</span> and <span class="sc">Blue pigeon flyer</span>. Of doubtful origin, but possibly a punning allusion. Lead has long been known as
+‘bluey,’ and pigeons frequently find a resting-place on house-tops.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Judy</i>, 27 April, p. 200. A burglar whose particular ‘lay’ was flying the <span class="sc">blue pigeon</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, stealing lead.
+</p>
+<p>(Nautical.)—The sounding lead.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Pigeon Flyer</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead from the roofs of buildings. Hotten thus explains
+the <i lang="la">modus operandi</i>. Sometimes a journeyman plumber, glazier, or other workman, who, when repairing houses,
+strips off the lead, and makes away with it. This performance is, though, by no means
+confined to workmen. An empty house is often entered and the whole of the roof in
+its vicinity stripped, the only notice given to the folks below being received by
+them on the occasion of a heavy downfall of rain. The term <span class="sc">flyer</span> has, indeed, of late years been more peculiarly applied to the man who steals the
+lead in pursuance of his vocation as a thief, than to him who takes it because it
+comes in the way of his work.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 165. <span class="sc">Blue pigeon flying.</span> Fellows who steal lead off houses, or cut pipes away.
+</p>
+<p>French equivalents are <i lang="fr">un limousineur</i>; <i lang="fr">un gras-doublier</i>; <i lang="fr">un mastaroufleur</i>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb262">[<a href="#pb262">262</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">To fly the blue pigeon</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (thieves’).—To steal lead from the roofs of houses.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blue pigeon</span>. French equivalents are <i lang="fr">faire la mastar au gras-double</i>; <i lang="fr">ratisser du gras double</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">J. Doran</span>, in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 4 S., x., 308. Even at the present day, no rascal would stoop to strip lead from
+the roof of a house. At least, what honest men would call by that name, he would prettily
+designate as ‘<span class="sc">flying the blue pigeon</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Pill</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A bullet; also called <span class="sc">blue plum</span> and <span class="sc">blue whistler</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Pill</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>N.&nbsp;Y. Tribune</i> (<i>Let. from Missouri</i>), Nov. 10. Between <span class="sc">blue pills</span>, halters, and the penitentiary, we shall soon work off this element of rascaldom
+and horse-thieves.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Plum</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A bullet. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blue pill</span> and <span class="sc">Blue whistler</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. Surfeited with a <span class="sc">blue plumb</span>, wounded with a bullet; a sortment of George R——’s <span class="sc">blue plumbs</span>, a volley of ball, shot from soldier’s firelocks.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i> (1884), p. 95.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Believe me, there is not a game, my brave boys, </p>
+<p class="line">To compare with the game of high toby; </p>
+<p class="line">No rapture can equal the toby man’s joys, </p>
+<p class="line">To blue devils, <span class="sc">blue plumbs</span> give the go by. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Blue Ruin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Gin, generally of inferior quality. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1817. <span class="sc">Keats</span>, <i>A Portrait</i>. He sipped no olden Tom or <span class="sc">ruin blue</span>, or Nantz or cherry brandy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 39.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A few short words I first must spare, </p>
+<p class="line">To him, the Hero, that sits there, </p>
+<p class="line"><i>Swigging</i> <span class="sc">Blue ruin</span>, in that chair. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act iii., Sc. 3. <i>Log.</i> Here, Landlord, more <span class="sc">Blue Ruin</span>, my boy! <i>Sal.</i> Massa Bob, you find me no such bad partner; many de good vill and de power me get
+from de Jack Tar.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1847. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Lucretia</i>, pt. II., ch. xx. ‘The littel un … had been abrought up upon spoon-meat, with a dash
+o’ <span class="sc">blue-ruin</span> to make him slim and ginteel.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Gaslight and Daylight</i>, ch. xxiii. The stuff itself, which in the western gin-shops goes generally by the
+name of <span class="sc">blue-ruin</span> or ‘short.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blues</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. Despondency; hypochondria; depression of spirits. [A shortened form
+of <span class="sc">blue devils</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).] A French synonym is <i lang="fr">se faire des plumes</i> or <i lang="fr">paumer ses plumes</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1807. <span class="sc">Washington Irving</span>, <i>Salmagundi</i> (1824), p. 96. In a fit of the <span class="sc">blues</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Kate Coventry</i>, ch. viii. The moat alone is enough to give one the <span class="sc">blues</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <span class="sc">John Strange Winter</span>, <i>That Imp</i>, p. 10. ‘Miss Aurora,’ he said suddenly, one evening after dinner, ‘it’s awfully
+dull at Drive now; does it never strike you so?’ ‘Very often, my dear,’ answered Miss
+Aurora promptly. ‘It’s as dull as—’ ‘Ditch-water,’ supplied Driver, finding she paused
+for a word which would express dulness enough. ‘I wonder you and Betty don’t die of
+the <span class="sc">blues</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>2. The police.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Blue</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p>3. (military.)—The Royal Horse Guards Blue are popularly so known from the blue facings
+on the scarlet uniform. The corps first obtained the name of ‘Oxford Blues’ in 1690,
+to distinguish it from a Dutch regiment of Horse Guards dressed in blue, commanded
+by the Earl of Portland, the former being commanded by the Earl of Oxford. Subsequently
+the regiment was, during the campaign in Flanders [1742–45], known as the ‘Blue Guards.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Skin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Formerly a contemptuous term for <span class="pageNum" id="pb263">[<a href="#pb263">263</a>]</span>a Presbyterian. Butler, in <i>Hudibras</i> [I., p. 26], says:—
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter">
+<p class="line xd33e5088">‘’twas Presbyterian <i>true blue</i>, </p>
+<p class="line">For he was of the stubborn crew </p>
+<p class="line">Of errant saints, whom all men grant </p>
+<p class="line">To be the true Church Militant.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">Blue is still the Presbyterian colour, and is used as an adjective by them in describing
+books and people.
+</p>
+<p>2. (West Indian.)—A half-breed—the child of a black woman by a white man.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Squadron</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colonial).—One of mixed blood; properly one with a Hindoo strain. Eurasians belong
+to the <span class="sc">blue squadron</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Touch of the tar brush</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Stocking</b>, <i>subs.</i>—A literary lady: applied usually with the imputation of pedantry. The generally received
+explanation is that the term is derived from the name given to certain meetings held
+by ladies in the days of Dr. Johnson for conversation with distinguished literary
+men. One of the most eminent of these literati was a Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, who
+always wore <span class="sc">blue stockings</span>, and whose conversation at these meetings was so much prized, that his absence at
+any time was felt to be a great loss, so that the remark became common, ‘We can do
+nothing without the <span class="sc">blue stockings</span>,’ hence these meetings were sportively called <span class="sc">blue-stocking</span> clubs, and the ladies who attended them <span class="sc">blue-stockings</span>. It is stated that the name specially arose in this way. A foreigner of rank refused
+to accompany a friend to one of these parties on the plea of being in his travelling
+costume, to which there was the reply, ‘Oh! we never mind dress on these occasions;
+you may come in <i lang="fr">bas bleus</i> or <span class="sc">blue stockings</span>,’ with allusion to Stillingfleet’s stockings, when the foreigner, fancying that <i lang="fr">bas bleus</i> were part of the necessary costume, called the meeting ever after the Bas-bleu Society.
+In modern slang the term <span class="sc">blue-stocking</span> is abbreviated into <span class="sc">blue</span>. Derivatives are <span class="sc">blue-stockingism</span>, <span class="sc">blue-stockinger</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1738, <i>d.</i> 1819. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> (‘P. Pindar’), <i>Benevolent Epistle</i>, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 125.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I see the band of <span class="sc">blue-stockings</span> arise, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Historic, critic, and poetic dames! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1780. <span class="sc">Mad. D’Arblay</span>, <i>Diary</i>, i., 326. Who would not be a <span class="sc">blue-stockinger</span> at this rate?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1784. <span class="sc">Walpole</span>, <i>Letters</i>, iv., 381. [Walpole, writing to Hannah More, playfully makes it a verb = to put on
+<span class="sc">blue stockings</span>.] When will you <span class="sc">blue-stocking</span> yourself, and come amongst us?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Macmillan’s Mag.</i>, May, p. 50. On the airs and graces of the gushing <span class="sc">blue stockings</span> who were in vogue in that day … she had no mercy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">Miss Martineau</span>, <i>Autob.</i>, vol. I., p. 100. Young ladies (at least in provincial towns) were expected to sit
+down in the parlour to sew,—during which reading aloud was permitted,—or to practice
+their music; but so as to fit to receive callers, without any signs of <span class="sc">blue-stockingism</span> which could be reported abroad.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Stone</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Gin or whiskey of so bad a quality that it can only be compared to vitriol,
+of which <span class="sc">bluestone</span> is also a nickname in the north of England and Scotland. For all synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, June, p. 786. The bar was still thronged, and the effects of the mixture of spirits
+of wine, <span class="sc">bluestone</span>, and tobacco-juice, were to be seen on a miserable wretch who lay stretched in the
+courtyard.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb264">[<a href="#pb264">264</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;G. Black</span>, in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 6 S., v., p. 348. A witness was asked in the Northern Police Court, Glasgow, a few
+weeks ago, a question relative to the quality of certain whiskey said to have been
+supplied to him. ‘It wasn’t whiskey,’ he said, ‘it was nothing but <span class="sc">bluestone</span>.’ ‘But what?’ inquired the magistrate. ‘<span class="sc">Bluestone</span>,<span id="xd33e44477"></span> your honour,’ was the answer—‘poison.’ I heard the question and answer, and there
+can be no doubt that the word was used as a familiar one.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Tape</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—One of the many cant terms for gin. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blue Whistler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A bullet. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Pill</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Herald</i>, Nov. 4. It was Mr. Barbour’s rifle shot which had hit him in the head and caused
+him to stagger. The pellet of lead passed deep into the brain. The second shot was
+from the Atlanta drummer, and his thirteen <span class="sc">blue whistlers</span> tore the brute’s liver into shreds and made a great hole in his side. <i>Ibid.</i> After a few moments of reflection, being nearest to the quarry, I lifted my double-barrelled
+shotgun and let drive a volley of <span class="sc">blue whistlers</span> straight at bruin’s yawning jaws.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bluey</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—1. Lead.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Blue pigeon</span>. [Supposed to be an allusion to the colour.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Du doussin</i>; <i lang="fr">du noir</i> (<i lang="fr">noir</i> = black); <i lang="fr">du saucisson</i>. ‘To dispose of <span class="sc">bluey</span> at the fence,’ <i>i.e.</i>, the receiver of stolen goods—<i lang="fr">porter du gras-double au moulin</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Australian.)—A bushman’s bundle, the outside wrapper of which is generally a blue
+blanket—hence the name. This is also called his <span class="sc">swag</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); likewise a <span class="sc">drum</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bluey-Hunter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead, as described under <span class="sc">blue pigeon flyer</span> (q.v.), of which <span class="sc">bluey-hunter</span> is a synonym. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Billy-hunter</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, IV., 26. <span class="sc">Bluey-hunters</span>, or those who purloin lead from the tops of houses.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Gt. World of London</i>, p. 46. <span class="sc">Bluey-hunters</span>, who take lead from the tops of houses.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bluff</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’ and common).—An excuse; a pretence; that which is intended to hoodwink
+or ‘to blind.’ Probably a transferred usage of the American sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 231. [List of patterer’s words.] <span class="sc">Bluff</span>, an excuse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Gabriel Conroy</i>, ch. xxxix. There is a strong suspicion among men whose heads are level that this
+Minstrel Variety Performance is a <span class="sc">bluff</span> of the ‘<i>Messenger</i>’ to keep from the public the real motives of the murder.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Boston</i> (U.S.) <i>Journal</i>, Sept. 25. The oiler was only a <span class="sc">bluff</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (common).—To turn aside; to stop; to hoodwink; to blind as to one’s real intention.
+Properly, to brag; to conceal one’s weakness; from the American game of poker.—<i>See subs.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">De Vere</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 327. Like its near cousin, suggestively called <span class="sc">bluff</span>, poker is a mere hazard game, with which, however, is combined great skill in bragging
+to a purpose. One man offers a bet on his hand; another doubles the bet and ‘goes
+one better’; then the first tries <span class="sc">to bluff</span> him off by a still higher bet, and thus the stake rises rapidly to often enormous
+sums.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Echo</i>, April 20, p. 3, col. 5. Subsequently a prominent bookmaker attempted to <span class="sc">bluff</span> Captain Machell by laying him 2,000 to 1,000 on Goggles against Sweetbread—a merry
+little bit of financial diplomacy, which was promptly followed by Goggles being struck
+out.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Ship of</i> ’49, ch. v. ‘Far from <span class="sc">bluffing</span>, Sleight, I am throwing my cards on the table. Consider that I’ve passed out. Let
+some other man take my hand.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb265">[<a href="#pb265">265</a>]</span></p>
+<p>It may be remarked that Ray [1674–91] gives <span class="sc">bluff</span> as to blindfold, and Bailey [1721] as to hoodwink. The German has <i lang="de">blüffen</i>; the Dutch <i lang="nl"><span class="corr" id="xd33e44681" title="Source: bloffen">blaffen</span></i>, ‘to bark at,’ and <i lang="de"><span class="corr" id="xd33e44685" title="Source: verlüffen">verblüffen</span></i>, ‘to put out of countenance.’
+</p>
+<p>So also <span class="sc">bluffing</span> in a similar sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. The youths evidently disagreed as to the nature of my business:
+one, as far as I could gather, assumed that I was a ‘nark,’ and that I was <span class="sc">bluffing</span> (making an excuse), and ‘flamming’ (lying).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bluffer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An innkeeper.—<i>Grose.</i> Bailey [1721] also gives the term with the same meaning, and American thieves still
+retain the word in a similar sense.
+</p>
+<p>2. (nautical<span class="corr" id="xd33e44711" title="Source: .)">).</span>—A bo’sun.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blunderbuss</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A stupid blundering fellow.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blunt</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Money, especially ready money. For a long list of synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>. [There are several suggested derivations; (1) that it is from the French <i lang="fr">blond</i>, sandy or golden colour, and that a parallel may be found in <span class="sc">brown</span> or <span class="sc">browns</span>, the slang for halfpence. Far-fetched as this etymology seems, say Hotten, it may
+be correct, as it is borne out by the analogy of similar expressions. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blanquillo</span>, a word used in Morocco and Southern Spain for a small Moorish coin. The ‘asper’
+(<span class="trans" title="aspron"><span lang="grc" class="grek">ἄσπρόν</span></span>) of Constantinople is called by the Turks <i lang="tr">akcheh</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘little white’; (2) that it received its name in allusion to the <span class="sc">blunt</span> rim of coins. A third is that it received the name from Mr. John <span class="sc">Blunt</span>, the chairman of South Sea Bubble.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 11. [List of cant words.] <span class="sc">Blunt</span>, money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 3. (<i>Holding out his right hand for the money, and keeping the porter away with the other.</i>) <i>Bob.</i> That’s your sort; give us hold on it. (<i>Takes Mace’s empty hand.</i>) Vy, vhere? <i>Mace.</i> (<i>Keeping the porter back.</i>) Vy, here. <i>Bob.</i> Oh, you are afeard of the <span class="sc">blunt</span>, are you? <i>Mace.</i> No, it ain’t that; only I’m no schollard—so I alvays takes the <span class="sc">blunt</span> vith von hand, and gives the pot vith t’other. It saves chalk and prewents mistakes,
+you know.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Oliver Twist</i>, ch. xxxix. ‘It’s all very well,’ said Mr. Sikes; ‘but I must have some <span class="sc">blunt</span> from you to-night.’ ‘I haven’t a piece of coin about me,’ replied the Jew.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 5 S., x., p. 315. <span class="sc">Blunt</span> … is also a well-known slang term for money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, vol. LXXXII., p. 147, col. 2. ‘The New Almacks.’ ‘It appears, my dear Jerry,’ said
+the Corinthian, ‘that anybody can enter here who chooses to “<i>sport his</i> <span class="sc">blunt</span>” ’—that is, to pay.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blunted</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Possessed of money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <i>English Spy</i>, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother
+of the togati, fresh as a new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements.
+Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport, in term
+and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their bull-dogs—the town-raff and the
+bargees—well-<span class="sc">blunted</span> or stiver-cramped—against dun or don—nob or big wig—so may you never want a bumper
+of bishop.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Blush like a Black or Blue Dog</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—Not to blush at all.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1579. <span class="sc">Gosson</span>, <i>Apologie of School of Abuse</i>, p. 75. If it bee my fortune too meete with the learned woorkes of this London Sabinus,
+that can not playe the <span class="pageNum" id="pb266">[<a href="#pb266">266</a>]</span>part without a prompter, nor utter a wise worde without a piper, you shall see we
+will make him to <span class="sc">blush like a blacke dogge</span>, when he is graveled.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>ed.</i> 1634. <span class="sc">Withal</span>, <i>Dictionary</i>, p. 557. <i lang="la">Faciem perfricuit.</i> Hee <span class="sc">blusheth like a blacke dogge</span>, hee hath a brazen face.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i> (conv. i.).
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Lord Sp.</i> (to the Maid). Mrs. Betty, how does your body politick?
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Col.</i> Fye, my lord, you’ll make Mrs. Betty blush.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Lady Sm.</i> Blush! Ay, <span class="sc">blush like a blue dog</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1828. <span class="sc">C.&nbsp;K. Sharpe</span> to a lady, in C.&nbsp;K. S.’s <i>Correspondence</i> (1888), II., 421. I send you a pair of blue stockings of my own knitting. I <span class="sc">blush like a blue dog</span> about the workmanship, for I fear they are too short.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>B.N.C.</b>, <i>abbreviation</i> (University).—For Brasenose; initials of Brasen Nose College. In spite of the nose
+over the gate, the probability is that the real name was Brasinium. It is still famous
+for its beer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Daily News</i>, March 13, p. 5, col. 1. As when Corpus bumped <span class="sc">b.n.c.</span> years ago, and went head of the river, whereon a spirit of wrath entered into the
+<span class="sc">b.n.c.</span> men, and next night they bumped Corpus back again.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Board</b>, <i>verb</i> (military).—1. To borrow.
+</p>
+<p>2. (nautical.)—To accost; ask of; make a demand; <i>i.e.</i>, to come to close quarters. The allusion is to boarding a ship for a hand-to-hand
+conflict; originally in a forcible or hostile sense, but now used in a modified form
+for to ‘make up to,’ to ‘make advances to.’ The figure of speech is a very old one,
+as will be seen from the following examples.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1547. <span class="sc">Earl Surrey</span>, <i>Æneid</i>, IV., 395. At length her self <span class="sc">bordeth</span> Aeneas thus. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Hamlet</i>, ii., 2. [<i>Enter</i> <span class="sc">Hamlet</span>, reading.] <i>Queen.</i> But look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. <i>Pol.</i> … I’ll <span class="sc">board</span> him presently:—O, give me leave.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1672–1726. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>False Friend</i>, I., i., 97. What do you expect from <span class="sc">boarding</span> a woman … already heart and soul engaged to another.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <span class="sc">Smyth</span>, <i>Sailors’ Word Book</i>. <span class="sc">Board him</span>, a colloquialism for I’ll ask, demand, or accost him.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To board in the smoke</span>, <i>phr.</i> (nautical).—To take one unawares, or by surprise. In the midst of a naval fight boarding
+operations were often successfully carried out under cover of the smoke from a broadside.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">On the board</span>, <i>phr.</i> (tailors’).—Enjoying all the privileges and emoluments of a competent workman. When
+an apprentice becomes a regular journeyman he goes ‘<span class="sc">on the board</span>.’ Tailors usually work squatting on a low raised platform—hence possibly the expression.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iii., p. 146. During the term of his imprisonment he became an excellent working
+tailor, and was <span class="sc">on the board</span>, as it is termed, among those who are efficient hands.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To keep one’s name on the board</span>, <i>phr.</i> (Cambridge Univ.).—To remain a member of a College.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boarding House</b> or <b>School</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A nickname given by thieves in London to Newgate, but it is equally applicable
+to any gaol. New York thieves apply it to the Tombs. [From that sense of Boarding
+School = an establishment where persons are boarded and taught, convicts being likened
+to scholars.] French thieves call such an institution <i lang="fr">un collège</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cage</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb267">[<a href="#pb267">267</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Boarding School.</span> Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison or house of correction.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boardman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—A standing patterer; explained by quotation. Sometimes called a ‘sandwich
+man.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 251. I have no doubt that there are always at least twenty standing patterers—sometimes
+they are called <span class="sc">boardmen</span>—at work in London. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 248. They endeavour to attract attention to their papers, or, more commonly,
+pamphlets … by means of a board with coloured pictures upon it, illustrative of the
+contents of what they sell.… (This) is what is usually denominated in street technology
+‘board work.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Board of Green Cloth</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A card or billiard table. [From <span class="sc">board</span>, a table, + <span class="sc">green cloth</span>, from the colour of the cloth with which the table is covered.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1771. <span class="sc">P. Parsons</span>, <i>New Newmarket</i>, II., 24. That <span class="sc">board of green cloth</span>, the billiard table.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">Smedley</span>, <i>Frank Fairlegh</i>, p. 23. ‘I am going down to F——’ ‘As usual, the <span class="sc">board of green cloth</span>, eh? you will go there once too often, if you don’t mind, old fellow.’ ‘That’s my
+look out,’ replied Cumberland.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Digby Grand</i>, ch. vi. Often have I seen him rise from the <span class="sc">board of green cloth</span>, and turning his chair thrice, from right to left, reseat himself at the play-table,
+confident that success would follow the mystical manœuvre.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Mohawks</i>, ch. viii. The soft seductive sound of the dice sliding gently on to the <span class="sc">board of green cloth</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Formerly applied to the hulks; latterly to any prison. [The derivation is
+obvious, old dismasted ships having long served as places of detention for convicts.]
+For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Great World of London</i>, p. 82, <i>note</i>. [List of thieves’ names of prisons.] The Hulks, or any Public Works—<span class="sc">The Boat</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—1. Originally to transport; the term is now applied to penal servitude. To
+‘get the <span class="sc">boat</span>,’ or to ‘be <span class="sc">boated</span>,’ is to be sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, equivalent to transportation
+under the old system. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Boat</span>, <i>subs.</i>, and for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cop</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American thieves’.)—To join as partner; evidently a corruption of ‘to be in the
+same boat,’ <i>i.e.</i>, to be in the same position or circumstances.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bail one’s own boat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To be self-reliant. A variant is ‘to <span class="sc">paddle one’s own canoe</span>.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Canoe</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bob</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A shilling. [The derivation is obscure, but there are several suggested
+explanations. Murray points out that there was an old French coin called a <i lang="fr">bobe</i>, but he thinks its survival in English slang is very unlikely. Others think it a
+corruption of ‘baubee’ or ‘bawbee,’ a debased Scotch coin, issued in the reign of
+James VI. of Scotland, equal in value to a halfpenny. A more likely origin than either
+of the foregoing is from <span class="sc">bob</span>, a grub used as bait for fish, the allusion being to money as a bribe.] The old cant
+had <span class="sc">bobstick</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) as a synonym, and a spurious plural is sometimes formed of <span class="sc">bob</span>, thus <span class="sc">bobber</span>—<span class="sc">two bobber</span> = a two-shilling piece. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blow</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Bob</span> or <span class="sc">bobstick</span>, a shilling.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb268">[<a href="#pb268">268</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act iii., Sc. 3. <i>Tom.</i> Now then, what’s to pay, landlord? <i>Mace.</i> All out, vill be fourteen <span class="sc">bob</span> and a kick, your honour. <i>Tom.</i> Well, there’s a flimsy for you; serve the change out in max to the covies. (<i>Gives money.</i>)
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Misadventures at Margate</i>). I changed a shilling—(which in town the people call a <span class="sc">bob</span>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, vol. LXXXII., p. 74, col. 1. <span class="sc">Accommodation.</span> <i>Swell.</i> ‘Haw—no small change about me.’ <i>Minstrel.</i> ‘Oh, don’t mention ’t sar. A <span class="sc">bob</span> will do sar, and if you’ll call at my club tomorrow, sar, the hall portar will give
+you sixpence back, sar. My kyard, sar, etc.!!’
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A shoplifter’s assistant; one who receives and carries off stolen goods.
+In French he is called <i lang="fr">un nonne</i> or <i lang="fr">un noune</i>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—Gin.—<i>See</i> quotations in <span class="sc">Bobstick</span>, and <span class="sc">Drinks</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1749. ‘Honours of the Fleet,’ quoted in Ashton’s <i>The Fleet</i>, p. 286. H’ had strain’d his credit for a Dram of <span class="sc">Bob</span>.
+</p>
+<p>4. (military.)—An infantry soldier; generally <span class="sc">light-bob</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, a soldier of the light infantry. [This is probably an allusion to their being enlisted
+with the Queen’s shilling or <span class="sc">bob</span>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Mudcrusher</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1844. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;H. Maxwell</span>, <i>Sports and Adventures in Scotland</i>, xxxv., 282. Me, that never … listened to a <span class="sc">light-bob</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, ch. xxiv. Mr. Stubble, as may be supposed from his size and slenderness, was of
+the <span class="sc">light-bobs</span>.
+</p>
+<p>5. (Winchester College)<span>.</span>—A large white jug containing about a gallon in measure, and used for beer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 85. Each end and Præfect’s mess had their beer served up in a large white jug,
+or ‘<span class="sc">bob</span>.’ The vessel used for the same purpose in Commoners’ was called a ‘Joram.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">T.&nbsp;A. Trollope</span>, <i>What I Remember</i>. Only those ‘Juniors’ attended whose office it was to bring away the portions of
+bread and cheese and <span class="sc">bobs</span> of beer for consumption in the afternoon.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (old).—Lively; nice; in good spirits.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1721. <span class="sc">Cibber</span>, <i>Refusal</i>, I., sp. 109. Yesterday at Marybone, they had me all <span class="sc">Bob</span> as a Robin. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Miss Yonge</span>, <i>Trial</i>, I., 113. ‘That’s a nice girl’.… ‘<span class="sc">Bobber</span> than bobtail.’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—To cheat; to trick; to disappoint. Also to <span class="sc">bob out of</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1605. <i>Tryall Chev.</i>, I., in Bullen’s <i>O. Plays</i>, iii., 273. I had rather dye in a ditch than be <span class="sc">bobd</span> of my fayre Thomasin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bob</span> (v.), to jog, touch, or give notice by some such like sign; also a cant word for
+to trick or cheat.
+</p>
+<p><i>Intj.</i> (familiar).—Stop! That’s enough!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Modern Society</i>, June 6. ‘Say when,’ said Bonko, taking up a flagon of whiskey and commencing to
+pour out the spirit into my glass. ‘<span class="sc">Bob!</span>’ replied I.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Dry bob</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—Fruitless coition.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Dry bob</span>, <span class="sc">Wet bob</span>, <i>subs.</i> (Eton College).—The first-named is one who devotes himself to cricket or football
+and other land sports; the latter one who goes in for rowing and aquatics generally.
+The origin of the term is doubtful.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dry bob</span> and <span class="sc">Wet bob</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1844. <span class="sc">Disraeli</span>, <i>Coningsby</i>, p. 42. ‘It is settled, the match to-morrow shall be between Aquatics and <span class="sc">Dry bobs</span>,’ said a senior boy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <i>Saturday Review</i>, Aug., p. 212. The friendly rivalry between England and America led some while ago
+to a contest between the <span class="sc">wet bobs</span>, to use an Eton phrase, of either country, and it was only fair that the <span class="sc">dry bobs</span> should show what they could do.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb269">[<a href="#pb269">269</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">All is bob</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—All’s safe; ‘serene’; ‘gay.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> O<span>.</span>K.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. [<span class="sc">All’s bob</span> is defined as foregoing.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i>, p. 12. A moment afterwards, the street was illumined by a blaze of torchlight, and
+a tumultuous uproar announced the arrival of the first detachment of Minters. Mr.
+Wood rushed instantly to meet them. ‘Hurrah!’ shouted he, waving his hat triumphantly
+over his head. ‘Saved!’ ‘Ay, ay, it’s <span class="sc">all bob</span>, my covey! You’re safe enough, that’s certain!’ responded the Minters.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Bear a bob!</span> <i>phr.</i> (common).—Be brisk! look sharp!
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Bob a nod</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common.)—A shilling a head. [From <span class="sc">bob</span>, slang for shilling, + <span class="sc">nod</span>, the head.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To give the bob</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To give the door. An old term used by Massinger—‘It can be no other but <span class="sc">to give</span> me <span class="sc">the bob</span>.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">S’help me bob</span>, <i>phr.</i> (low).—A street oath, equivalent to ‘So help me God’; a corrupted form of the legal
+oath. ‘So help’ is pronounced <i>swelp</i>. There are several variants, such as <span class="sc">s’help the cat</span>—<span class="sc">my greens</span>—<span class="sc">the taturs</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Dead Drummer</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">For his jaw-work would never, I’m sure, <span class="sc">s’elp me bob</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Have come for to go for to do sich a job! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1880. <span class="sc">Jas. Payn</span>, <i>Confid. Agent</i>, ch. xix. ‘Not another word will I say, <span class="sc">s’help me bob</span>.’ And John rolled over in his bed like an indignant porpoise.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To shift one’s bob</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To go away. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bobbing around</span>, ‘to go expeditiously from place to place.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bobber</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A fellow-workman; mate; or ‘<span class="sc">chum</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i> for synonyms).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">W. White</span>, <i>Round Wrekin</i>, 34. <span class="sc">Bobber</span> being the equivalent of chum. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <i>Daily News</i>, May 19. As he sells these, the buyers or their <span class="sc">bobbers</span> carry them off. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. A spurious plural of <span class="sc">bob</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) = a shilling.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bobbery</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A noise; squabble; disturbance; or ‘racket.’ [An Anglo-Indian representation
+of <i>Bāp re!</i> O father! a common exclamation of surprise or grief.—<i>Yule.</i> Murray thinks the evidence for its origination in India is decisive, other plausible
+derivations to the contrary notwithstanding.] The first of the following quotations
+shows an earlier use by thirteen years than that given by the <i>New English Dictionary</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1803. <span class="sc">Kenney</span>, <i>Raising the Wind</i>, II., i. If I don’t go back, and kick up such a <span class="sc">bobbery</span>—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Peter Simple</i>, ch. ii. I’ll bet a wager there’ll be a <span class="sc">bobbery</span> in the pigsty before long, for they are ripe for mischief.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Midshipman Easy</i>, ch. xix. ‘I can do nothing but there’s a <span class="sc">bobbery</span> at the bottom of it.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <i>Punch</i>, 17 May, 227. I might in quiet hold my own, And not go kicking up a <span class="sc">bobbery</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bobbish</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Frequently <span class="sc">pretty bobbish</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, hearty; in good health and spirits; clever; spruce. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bob</span>, <i>adj.</i> So also <span class="sc">bobbishly</span>, <i>adv.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, in <i>Lockhart</i>, xliv<span>.</span> (1842), 394. I trust you will find me pretty <span class="sc">bobbish</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>The Detective Police</i>, in <i>Reprinted Pieces</i>, p. 247. ‘Halloa, Butcher! is that you?’ ‘Yes, it’s me, How do you find yourself?’
+‘<span class="sc">Bobbish</span>,’ he says.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Great Expectations</i>, ch. iv., p. 13. Every Christmas Day, he retorted, as he now retorted, ‘It’s no <span class="pageNum" id="pb270">[<a href="#pb270">270</a>]</span>more than your merits. And now are you all <span class="sc">bobbish</span>, and how’s sixpennorth of halfpence?’ meaning me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;D. Howells</span>, <i>Dr. Breen’s Practice</i>, ch. vii. ‘I didn’t know that I mustn’t look downcast. I didn’t suppose it would
+be very polite, under the circumstances, to go round looking as <span class="sc">bobbish</span> as I feel.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bobbles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The testicles—a corrupted form of <span class="sc">bawbells</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cods</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bobby</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A policeman. This nickname, though possibly not derived from, was certainly
+popularised by the fact that the Metropolitan Police Act of 1828 was mainly the work
+of Mr., afterwards Sir Robert Peel. Long before that statesman remodelled the police,
+however, the term ‘<span class="sc">bobby</span> the beadle’ was in use to signify a guardian of a public square or other open space.
+There seems, however, a lack of evidence, and examples of its literary use prior to
+1851 have not been discovered. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Beak</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p>At the Universities the Proctors are or used to be called <span class="sc">bobbies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 16. It is often said in admiration of such a man that he could muzzle half
+a dozen <span class="sc">bobbies</span> before breakfast!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch</i>, No. 2038. Going round a corner and crying, <span class="sc">Bobby! bobby! bobby!</span> when he saw a Proctor.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Punch</i>, July 26, p. 41, col. 2.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">But oh, for the grip of the ‘<span class="sc">Bobby’s</span>’ hand </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Upon his neck that day. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1889. <i>The Mirror</i>, Aug. 26, p. 7, col. 2. On the back seat was perched the perfidious Amelia Ann, the
+lust of conquest clearly written upon her sinful and perspiring face. She had put
+her cat in the birdcage, its former occupant being, I presume, inside the cat.… In
+this order the ghastly procession moved off, to the evident amusement of a ‘<span class="sc">bobby</span>,’ whose beat seems to include nothing beyond the area-railings of the opposite house.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bobby-Twister</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A burglar or thief, who, when resisting pursuit or capture, uses violence.
+Of obvious derivation.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Thieves</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bob-Cull</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A good fellow; a pleasant companion. [From <span class="sc">bob</span> (<i>adj.</i>) = nice, lively + <span class="sc">cull</span>, old cant for a man.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bob My Pal</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—A girl, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘gal.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bobstick</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A shilling’s worth. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bob</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 162. <span class="sc">Bobstick</span> of rum slim. That is, a shilling’s worth of punch.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 5. <i>Tom.</i> <i>Allons donc</i>—Waiter, bring some wine. <i>Log.</i> Hang cards! bring me a <span class="sc">bobstick</span> of rum slim, or a glass of Barsac—stay, on second thoughts, I’ll have a sniker of
+green tea punch.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bob Tail</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A lewd woman. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. An impotent man or eunuch.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Tag, rag, and bobtail</span>; a mob of all sorts of low people; the common herd; the rabble.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1659–60. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, Mar. 6. The dining-room … was full of <span class="sc">tag, rag, and bobtail</span>, dancing, singing, and drinking. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> (‘P. Pindar’), <i>Ode to R. A.’s</i>, ii., wks. (1812) I., 80. <span class="sc">Tag-rags and Bobtails</span> of the sacred Brush. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <span class="sc">Byron</span>, <i>Blues</i>, ii., 23. The <span class="sc">rag, tag, and bobtail</span> of those they call ‘Blues.’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb271">[<a href="#pb271">271</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Barnaby Rudge</i>, xxxv. ‘We don’t take in no <span class="sc">tagrag and bobtail</span> at our house.’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boco</b>, <i>subs.</i> (originally pugilistic, now common).—1. The nose. [Probably from <span class="sc">beak</span>, sense 3.] The form employed by American thieves is <span class="sc">boke</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Conk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Seamy Side</i>, ch. i. ‘A common keeper, who was in the lot, got a heavy oner on the <span class="sc">boko</span> for his share.’ ‘Boys,’ said Mr. Hamblin, ‘who use slang come to the gallows. <span class="sc">Boko</span> is—’ ‘Conk or <span class="sc">boko</span>,’ said Nicolas the vulgar. ‘It’s all the same.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday</i>, July 6. Dear Old Blistered <span class="sc">Boko</span>,—I trust you will allow me to thank you and your Graphologist for my character I
+received this morning. My friends say it is correct. I am saving up my pocket-money
+for a bottle of nose bloomer. I can see your <span class="sc">boko</span> blushing at the prospect.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, July 6. The Gnat, with the Cunning peculiar to the Wicked flew up the Lion’s <span class="sc">boko</span> and Stung <span class="corr" id="xd33e46004" title="Source: hin">him</span> so Badly, that the Great Beast rent himself to Death with his Own Claws.
+</p>
+<p>2. Nonsense; ‘bosh.’ [Of unknown derivation, and it seems to have no connection with
+sense 1.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Punch</i>, 25 Sept., p. 145. Lop-sided Free Trade is all <span class="sc">boko</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bodier</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—A blow on the side of the body.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Rib-roaster</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bodkin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—Amongst sporting men, a person who takes his turn between the sheets
+on alternate nights, when an hotel has twice as many visitors as it can comfortably
+lodge; as, for instance, during a race-week. A transferred sense from
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To ride</span> or <span class="sc">sit bodkin</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To take a place and be wedged in between other persons when the accommodation
+is intended for two only.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1638. <span class="sc">Ford</span>, <i>Fancies</i>, IV., i. (1811), 186. Where but two lie in a bed, you must be—<span class="sc">bodkin</span>, bitch-baby—must ye? [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1798. <i>Loves of the Triangles</i>, 182. While the pressed <span class="sc">bodkin</span>, punched and squeezed to death, Sweats in the mid-most place.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Book of Snobs</i>, ch. xxxiv. The writer supposes Aubrey to come to town in post-chaise and pair, sitting
+<span class="sc">bodkin</span> probably between his wife and sister.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Body-Cover</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A coat. One is almost tempted to ask whether this is the only
+garment known to the criminal classes. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Wrap-rascal</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Body of Divinity Bound in Black Calf</b>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—A parson. So quoted in the <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum</i> [1811]. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Devil-dodger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Body-Slangs</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Fetters. [From <span class="sc">slang</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a chain.]—<i>See</i> quot. and for synonyms, <span class="sc">Darbies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Vaux</span>, <i>Memoirs</i>. <span class="sc">Body-slangs</span> are of two kinds. Each consists of a heavy iron ring to go round the waist, to which
+are attached in one case two bars or heavy chains, connected with the fetters round
+the ankles, in the other case a link at each side attached to a handcuff. Into these
+the wrists are locked, and thus held down to the prisoner’s sides. The latter are
+now only to be found in museums.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Body-Snatcher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A bailiff or runner. [The <span class="sc">snatch</span> was the trick by which the bailiff captured the delinquent.] These terms are now
+obsolete, so far as the pursuits mentioned <span class="pageNum" id="pb272">[<a href="#pb272">272</a>]</span>are concerned. They are mentioned by Parker [1781] in his <i>View of Society</i>, II., 70.
+</p>
+<p>2. A policeman. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Beak</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <span class="sc">A. Mayhew</span>, <i>Paved with Gold</i>, bk. III., ch. i., p. 254. ‘Now, if you or I was to do such a dodge as that, we should
+have the <span class="sc">body-snatchers</span> (police officers) after us.’
+</p>
+<p>3. (American.)—A generally objectionable individual. This variety is especially known
+as a <span class="sc">mean body-snatcher</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>4. (popular.)—A violator of graves; a ‘resurrectionist.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Sir F. Head</span>, <i>Bubbles from the Brunnen</i>, 126. Any one of our <span class="sc">body-snatchers</span> would have rubbed his rough hands. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <i>Reader</i>, Aug. 22. At that time (1827–28) … <span class="sc">body-snatching</span> became a trade.
+</p>
+<p>5. (common.)—An undertaker. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cold cook</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bog</b>, <i>subs.</i> (prison).—1. The works at Dartmoor, on which convicts labour; during recent years
+a large quantity of land has been reclaimed in this way.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iii., p. 158. These were the men destined for outdoor work, the <span class="sc">bogs</span>, as the places where the different outside gangs worked were called [at Dartmoor].
+</p>
+<p>2. (low.)—An abbreviated form of <span class="sc">bog-house</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), or <span class="sc">bog-shop</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To ease oneself; to evacuate.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bury a Quaker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bogey.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bogy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boggle-De-Botch</b>, <b>Boggledy-Botch</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—A bungle; ‘mess’; ‘hash.’ [From <span class="sc">boggle</span>, ‘to fumble,’ ‘to bungle,’ + <span class="sc">botch</span>, ‘to bungle’ or ‘to construct clumsily.’] <span class="sc">Boggle</span> by itself is more frequently employed.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Miss Edgeworth</span>, <i>Helen</i>, ch. xxvi. A fine <span class="sc">boggle-de-botch</span> I have made of it.… I am aware it is not a canonical word,—classical, I mean; nor
+in nor out of any dictionary perhaps—but when people are warm, they cannot stand picking
+terms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bog-House</b>, <b>Bog-Shop</b>, <i>subs.</i> (low).—A privy; a necessary house. The term, as will be seen, is an old one. [The
+derivation is probably from <span class="sc">bog</span>, a morass of decaying matter; a soft, spongy place.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bury a Quaker</span> and <span class="sc">Mrs. Jones</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. xii., p. 123 (1874). Fearing I should catch cold, they out of pity covered
+me warm in a <span class="sc">bogg-house</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1703. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>London Spy</i>, pt. III., p. 47. Its walls being adorn’d with as many unsavoury <i>Finger-dabs</i> as an <i>Inns of Court</i> <span class="sc">Bog-house</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i>, 2 ed. <span class="sc">Bog-house</span>, a privy, or necessary-house.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boglander</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An Irishman. [From the boggy and marshy character of a considerable portion
+of the Emerald Isle.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bog-trotter</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698–1700. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>London Spy</i>, pt. XVI., p. 383. [<span class="sc">Boglander</span> is the name applied to an Irishman in this work.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bog Lander</span>, an Irishman. Ireland being famous for its large bogs which furnish the chief fuel
+in many parts of that kingdom.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> [The same definition given as in Grose.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bog Latin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Irish).—A spurious mode of speech simulating the Latin in construction.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dog Latin</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb273">[<a href="#pb273">273</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bog-Oranges</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Potatoes. The phrase is an allusion to the vegetable in question forming
+a very substantial food staple of the Irish peasantry, with whom, in the popular mind,
+potatoes are largely associated. Hence probably the nickname. <i>Cf.</i>, Murphy. [<span class="sc">Oranges</span>, from the shape, + <span class="sc">bog</span> = Irish, Bogland being a humorous nick-name for the Emerald Isle.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bog-trotter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—A satirical name for an Irishman. Camden, however [<i>c.</i> 1605], speaking of the ‘debateable land’ on the borders of England and Scotland,
+says, ‘both these dales breed notable <span class="sc">bog-trotters</span>.’ From this the original sense would appear to have been one accustomed to walk across
+bogs. As a nickname for an Irishman, it dates at least from 1671.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. xxvii. (Repr. 1874), p. 232. [Irishmen are spoken of as <span class="sc">bog-trotters</span> in this work.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Gaslight and Daylight</i>, ch. xxix. Gaunt reapers and <span class="sc">bog-trotters</span> in those traditional blue body-coats, leathern smalls, and bell-crowned hats, that
+seem to be manufactured nowhere save in Ireland.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bog-trotting</b>, <i>adj.</i> (familiar).—A contemptuous epithet applied to one living among bogs; <i>e.g.</i>, a <span class="sc">bog-trotting</span> Irishman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1758–65. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>On Quack Doctors</i> (Essays and Poems, 1836), p. 127. Rock advises the world to beware of <span class="sc">bog-trotting</span> quacks.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, I., p. 169. The impudent, <span class="sc">bog-trotting</span> scamp dare not threaten me!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 191. ‘What do you mean by calling <i>me</i> Irish? it is <i>you</i> that are Irish, you——.’ ‘Ha! ha! ha! ha!’ jerked out Fagan. ‘There, I tould you so.
+He can’t stand to be called by his true name; the <span class="sc">bog-trotting</span> rascal denies his Ould Ireland for a mother.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bogus</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American, now common).—Spurious: fictitious; a term applied to anything sham, or
+to that which is not what it professes to be. Various accounts, some of them of a
+circumstantial character, are given as to the genesis of this word. One thing only
+seems certain; and that is its American origin. The generally received derivation,
+hitherto, has been that given by the <i>Boston Courier</i> (12 June, 1857) to the effect that the word is a vile corruption of the Italian name
+Borghese, a notorious swindler, who about the year 1837 literally flooded the Western
+and South-western States with fictitious cheques, notes, and bills of exchange and
+similar securities to an enormous amount. It is said that the name was gradually corrupted
+first to <i>borges</i> and then to <span class="sc">bogus</span>, and the man Borghese being associated in the popular mind with doubtful money transactions,
+his name so corrupted into <span class="sc">bogus</span> became applied to fraudulent papers and practices, and latterly to any spurious or
+counterfeit object, as <span class="sc">bogus</span> money, hair, diamonds, accusations, etc. Yet another suggestion is one put forward
+by Mr. Jas. Russell Lowell. He thinks it has descended in a corrupted form from the
+French <i lang="fr">Bagasse</i>, the refuse of the sugar cane after the juice has been expressed. This worthless
+product has, it is suggested, given the name to other worthless things having travelled
+from Louisiana up the Mississippi, <span class="pageNum" id="pb274">[<a href="#pb274">274</a>]</span>and thence throughout the Union, finally spreading itself over the English speaking
+world. A few, however, affect to regard it as a corruption of [hocus] pocus, and say
+that it refers to the German ‘<i lang="de">Hocus Pocus Imperatus, wer nicht sieht ist blind</i>.’
+</p>
+<p>The latest light upon the history of the word is thrown, as usual, by the indefatigable
+Dr. Murray, who, while slily satirising the ‘bogus derivations circumstantially given,’
+makes another attempt to solve the riddle. He says: ‘Dr. S. Willard, of Chicago, in
+a letter to the editor of this Dictionary, quotes from the <i>Painesville</i> (Ohio) <i>Telegraph</i> of July 6 and Nov. 2, 1827, the word <span class="sc">bogus</span> as a <i>subs.</i>, applied to an apparatus for coining false money. Mr. Eber D. Howe, who was then
+editor of that paper, describes in his <i>Autobiography</i> (1878) the discovery of such a piece of mechanism in the hands of a gang of coiners
+at Painesville, in May, 1827; it was a mysterious looking object, and some one in
+the crowd styled it a <span class="sc">bogus</span>, a designation adopted in the succeeding numbers of the paper. Dr. Willard considers
+this to have been short for <i>tantrabogus</i>, a word familiar to him from his childhood, and which in his father’s time was commonly
+applied in Vermont to any ill-looking object; he points out that <i>tantarabobs</i> is given in Halliwell as a Devonshire word for the devil.’ [<span class="sc">Bogus</span> seems thus to be related to <span class="sc">bogy</span>, etc.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, in J. Ludlow’s <i>Hist. U.S.</i>, 338. This precious house of representatives—the <span class="sc">bogus</span> legislature as it was at once called.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’) <i>Innocents at Home</i>, ch. xvii. Nobody had ever received his <span class="sc">bogus</span> history as gospel before; its genuineness had always been called in question either
+by words or looks; but here was a man that not only swallowed it all down, but was
+grateful for the dose.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">M. Collins</span>, <i>Frances</i>, ch. xxxv. ‘They’ve got some good money, as well as <span class="sc">bogus</span> notes.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Saturday Review</i>, March 31, p. 399, col. 2. M. Soleirol had probably a number of forged autographs
+of Molière; his whole collection was a <span class="sc">bogus</span> assortment of frauds.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bogy</b>, <b>Bogey</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A landlord. An attributive usage of the more familiar meanings—(1) the
+devil; (2) a person much dreaded. The transition from sense 2 to that which signifies
+a landlord is easy. A French equivalent is Monsieur Vautour; <i lang="fr">vautour</i> = a vulture; and the term is applied to a hard-hearted landlord. In passing, it may
+perhaps be mentioned (having in view the uncertainty which Murray confesses hangs
+round the history of this word in its primary meanings) that <span class="sc">ask Bogy</span>, as a reply to a question, occurs in Grose [1785]. It is true it is there associated
+with a vulgarism which, however, on the face of it, appears to have had little to
+do with the expression, except perhaps in the not over clean mind of the burly <i lang="fr">bon-vivant</i> who compiled the dictionary in question. It seems to have been used much as the modern
+‘God knows’! or ‘<span class="sc">Bramah knows</span>’ under similar circumstances. This, at any rate, would carry it back, in very much
+its present form, much earlier than 1825, Murray’s earliest trace of it. Grose <span class="pageNum" id="pb275">[<a href="#pb275">275</a>]</span>says it was ‘sea wit,’ whatever that may mean.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (studios’).—Sombre, or dark in tint. Said of a painting exhibiting these characteristics.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bohn</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American College).—A translation; a <span class="sc">pony</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). The volumes of Bohn’s <i>Classical Library</i> are in such general use among undergraduates in American Colleges, that <span class="sc">Bohn</span> has come to be a common name for a translation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <i>Songs, Biennial Jubilee, Yale College.</i> ’Twas plenty of skin with a good deal of <span class="sc">bohn</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boil</b>, <i>verb</i> (old).—To betray; ‘to <span class="sc">Peach</span>,’ which <i>see</i> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1602. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Greene’s Coney Catchers</i>, 16. His cloyer or follower fortwith <span class="sc">boyles</span> him, that is, bewrayes him. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Middleton and Dekker</span>, <i>Roaring Girle</i>, wks., 1873, III., 220. Wee are smoakt … wee are <span class="sc">boyl’d</span>, pox on her! [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boil Down</b>, <i>verb</i> (popular).—To reduce in bulk by condensing or epitomizing. When a literary work is
+reduced to smaller compass by the presentation only of the main or salient features,
+it is said to be <span class="sc">boiled down</span>. [The expression is a figurative use (quite recent by-the-bye) of <span class="sc">boiling down</span> in the sense of lessening the bulk by boiling.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Sat. Review</i>, No. 1288, 28. It is surprising to see how much research Mr. S. has sometimes contrived
+<span class="sc">to boil down</span> into a single line. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <span class="sc">G. Dolly</span>, <i>Dickens as I Knew Him</i>, p. 125. The newspaper and political elements having been consulted, and their opinions
+having been <span class="sc">boiled down</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">H. Frederic</span>, in <i>Scribn. Mag.</i>, I., 479. ‘<span class="sc">To boil down</span>’ columns of narrative into a few lines of bald, cold statement.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Polytechnic Mag.</i>, 25 Oct., p. 258.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Whatever you have to say, my friend, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Whether witty, or grave, or gay— </p>
+<p class="line">Condense as much as ever you can, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And say in the readiest way; </p>
+<p class="line">And whether you write on rural affairs, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Or particular things in town, </p>
+<p class="line">Just a word of friendly advice—<span class="sc">boil it down</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Boiled Shirt</b>, <b>Biled Shirt</b> or <b>Boiled Rag</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—In the West, <span class="sc">biled shirt</span> is the odd name given to a shirt of white linen, and it is not difficult to see the
+line of reasoning from which the term derives its significance. In the active stirring
+life of the West little count is taken of the <i>convenances</i> of civilization, and only on Sundays and festive occasions would the woollen undergarment
+be discarded for the white linen article. Indeed, in many cases, the former would
+be worn until it literally dropped to pieces. Now white shirts are facetiously known
+as <span class="sc">biled shirts</span> all over the States, and only recently (May, 1888) a question in dispute between
+the employés of the Chicago Tramway Companies and the managers of the same was whether
+the former should wear, when on duty, coloured or <span class="sc">biled shirts</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bald-faced shirt</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">McClure</span>, <i>Rocky Mountains</i>, p. 412. In order to attend the Governor’s reception, I borrowed a <span class="sc">boiled shirt</span>, and plunged in with a Byron collar, and polished boots, and also the other necessary
+apparel.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Innocents at Home</i>, ch. xii. But they were rough in those times! … if a man wanted a fight on his hands
+without any annoying delay, all he had to do was to appear in public in a white shirt
+or a stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated. For those people hated aristocrats.
+They had a particular and <span class="pageNum" id="pb276">[<a href="#pb276">276</a>]</span>malignant animosity toward what they called a <span class="sc">biled shirt</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <i>Dublin Univ. Mag.</i>, Feb., p. 219. Every man arrays himself in ‘store-clothes’ and <span class="sc">boiled shirts</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York World</i>, 13 May. Is it possible that the Chicagoans never heard of white shirts before this
+spring? May be the street-railway presidents never saw a starched shirt (I must deplore
+the use of the word <span class="sc">biled</span> as applied to shirts) until this year.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boiler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—1. A plain coffee-pot used for heating water. Called fourpenny
+and sixpenny boilers, not from their price, but from the quantity of milk they will
+hold: <span class="trans" title="to pan"><span lang="grc" class="grek">τὸ παν</span></span> <span class="sc">boilers</span> were large tin saucepan-like vessels in which water for hot <span class="sc">bidets</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) was heated.
+</p>
+<p>2. <i>See</i> <span class="sc">Pot boiler</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boiler-Plated</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American).—Imperturbable; stolid; stoical. [The simile is akin to that contained
+in expressions like iron-clad, copper-bottomed, etc., drawn mainly from marine phraseology.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boilers</b> or <b>Brompton Boilers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A name originally given to the new Kensington Museum and School of
+Art, in allusion to the peculiar form of the buildings, and the fact of their being
+mainly composed of, and covered with, sheet iron. This has been changed since the
+extensive alterations in the building, or rather pile of buildings, and the term <span class="sc">boilers</span> is now applied to the Bethnal Green Museum.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Pepper-boxes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Daily News</i>, July 9, p. 5, col. 1. The building is merely a fragment of the old ‘<span class="sc">Brompton boilers</span>,’ set up originally for the South Kensington Museum.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Royal Military Academy.)—Boiled potatoes. Fried potatoes are called <span class="sc">greasers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boiling</b> or <b>Biling</b>. <span class="sc">Whole boiling</span> or <span class="sc">biling</span>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—The whole lot; entire quantity. [A figurative usage, from a quantity boiled
+at one time.] Variants are the <span class="sc">whole gridiron</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) and <span class="sc">all the shoot</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>Clockmaker</i>, 3 S., ch. xviii. The last mile, he said, tho’ the shortest one of the <span class="sc">whole bilin’</span>, took the longest [time] to do it by a jug full.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Dog Fiend</i>, xiii. [He] may … whip the <span class="sc">whole boiling</span> of us off to the Ingees.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Bleak House</i>, ch. lix., p. 496. ‘And the <span class="sc">whole bileing</span> of people was mixed up in the same business, and no other.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;L. Linton</span>, <i>Patricia Kemball</i>, ch. xxii. ‘He have Dora? No, not if he licked my foot for her, and I broke the <span class="sc">whole boiling</span> of them—as I will!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boil One’s Lobster</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To enter the army after having been in the church. [From <span class="sc">lobster</span>, a slang term for a soldier, the allusion being to the change in colour which lobsters
+undergo in the process of boiling, turning from a bluish black to red.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Black coat</span> and <span class="sc">Red coat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boke</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—The nose. [This may either be derived directly from <span class="sc">beak</span>, sense 3, or indirectly from <span class="sc">boko</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Conk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bold as Brass</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (popular).—Audaciously forward; presumptuous; without shame. The simile, or at least
+the general idea, seems to be an old <span class="pageNum" id="pb277">[<a href="#pb277">277</a>]</span>one. Shakspeare (<i>see</i> quot.) uses the expression ‘a face of brass,’ and even to this day <span class="sc">brass</span>, sense 1 (<i>q.v.</i>), is synonymous with impudence or ‘cheek.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Love’s Labour Lost</i>, v., 2.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line"><i>Biron.</i> Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. </p>
+<p class="line">Can any <span class="sc">face of brass</span> hold longer out?—— </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1846. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, II., p. 12. He came in as <span class="sc">bold as brass</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Lovel the Widower</i>, p. 195. ‘A nursery governess at the wages of a housemaid’ I continued, <span class="sc">bold as Corinthian brass</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1882. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Timothy Titus.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The name belongs to brave men, and I’m as <span class="sc">bold as brass</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">I do not wear the lion’s skin and show myself an ass; </p>
+<p class="line">I’m full of pluck and can defy, like Ajax, anything, </p>
+<p class="line">And if you put me to the test, a proof I soon can bring. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Boler</b>, also <b>Bowler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A stiff felt hat. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cady.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>Sat. Review</i>, Sept. 21, 297. We are informed that he … wore, or rather carried in his hand, a
+white <span class="sc">bowler</span> hat.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Pebody</span>, <i>Eng. Journalism</i>, xxi., 158. The ministers, in <span class="sc">bowlers</span> and pea-jackets, are to be found upon the shore of highland locks.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, June 8, p. 24. Most of the men were clothed in loud and greasy suits of tweed, and
+wore what are known as <span class="sc">bowler</span> hats, many of them much the worse for wear. The ladies affected fine and smart costumes,
+but as the greater part of their dresses had seen long months of service, the smartness
+was somewhat of the bedraggled order.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bolly</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Marlborough College).—Pudding.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bolt</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The throat. [This curious term would seem to be derived from <span class="sc">bolt</span> = to gulp down.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act iii., Sc. 3. <i>Tom.</i> Here, Dusty, my prince, now then, sluice your <span class="sc">bolt</span>. (<i>Gives Bob gin.</i>) <i>Bob.</i> Vell, your honours, here’s luck. (<i>Bolts gin.</i>) That’s a regular kwortern, I knows by my mouth.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (at one period slang, now recognised).—1. To escape; to leave suddenly. <span class="sc">Bolt</span> is an instance of a word which once orthodox, subsequently fell into disrepute, but
+which, after having for generations served as a mere slang term, is now nearly as
+respectable as when Dryden wrote: ‘I have reflected on those who, from time to time,
+have shot into the world, some <span class="sc">bolting</span> out on the stage with vast applause, and others hissed off.’ The following are a
+few examples of its use. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1668. <span class="sc">Etherege</span>, <i>She Would if She Could</i>, I., i. (1704), p. 94. Is he gone? <i>Court.</i> Ay, ay! you may venture to <span class="sc">bolt</span> now.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Arbuthnot</span>, <i>Hist. of John Bull</i>, pt. IV., ch. vi. Then, of a sudden, <span class="sc">bolting</span> into the room, he began to tell.…
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Amelia</i>, bk. XI., ch. vii. In his way home, Booth was met by a lady in a chair, who immediately
+upon seeing him … <span class="sc">bolted</span> out of it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act i., Sc, 7. <i>Log.</i> Come along, then. Now, Jerry, chivey! <i>Jerry.</i> Chivey? <i>Log.</i> Mizzle? <i>Jerry.</i> Mizzle? <i>Log.</i> Tip your rags a gallop! <i>Jerry.</i> Tip my rags a gallop? <i>Log.</i> Walk your trotters! <i>Jerry.</i> Walk my trotters? <i>Log.</i> <span class="sc">Bolt!</span> <i>Jerry.</i> <span class="sc">Bolt?</span> oh, aye! I’m fly now. You mean go.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>M. of Venice</i>). Jessy ransack’d the house, popp’d her breeks on, and when so Disguis’d, <span class="sc">bolted</span> off with her beau—one Lorenzo.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, ch. ix., p. 90. He was more strongly tempted … to make excursive <span class="sc">bolts</span> into the neighbouring alleys when he answered the door.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American<span class="corr" id="xd33e47170" title="Source: .)">).</span>—The usage in the United States indicates the <span class="pageNum" id="pb278">[<a href="#pb278">278</a>]</span>right of the independently minded to revolt against partisan rule, as ‘He <span class="sc">bolted</span> the party nominations.’ Also substantively, as ‘He has organized a <span class="sc">bolt.</span>’ The word derived this meaning from its sporting application to a horse when it becomes
+unmanageable on the race-course. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bolter</span>. It is rarely used with its dictionary meaning in political connections; and, when
+so used, is generally misunderstood by the average reader.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <i>St. Louis Democrat</i>, 3 April. ‘Several of our contemporaries have announced it as a well-established
+fact, that Carl Schurz has <span class="sc">bolted</span> from the Republican party. We have the very best authority for denying the report.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, 3 Feb. What the Register does object to are the fellows who <span class="sc">bolt</span> the ticket and support the opposition candidate when they can not control nominations.
+</p>
+<p>3. (colloquial.)—To eat hurriedly without chewing; to swallow whole; to gulp down.
+Wolcot in a note to the first quotation hereunder appended, explains <span class="sc">bolt</span> as a Hampshire word. ‘A rapid deglutition of bacon, without the <i>sober ceremony</i> of mastication.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1794. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> (‘P. Pindar’), <i>Ode to Tyrants</i>, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 527.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Bold push’d the Emp’ror on, with stride so noble, </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Bolting</span> his subjects with majestic gobble. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, ch. xvi., p. 171. Dyspeptic individuals <span class="sc">bolted</span> their food in wedges.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Dorrit</i>, bk. I., ch. xiii., 101. ‘Give me as short a time as you like to <span class="sc">bolt</span> my meals in, and keep me at it.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Jan. 10, p. 5, col. 3. The dangerous habit of <span class="sc">bolting</span> a light luncheon in two or three minutes.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Getting the bolt</span>, <i>phr.</i> (thieves’).—Being sentenced to penal servitude. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Boat</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To turn the corner of Bolt Street</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—A humorous expression for running away. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bolt</span>, sense 1, also <span class="sc">Queer Street</span>, and for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bolter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Explained by quotation. The privileged places referred to were such as
+Whitefriars, the Mint, Higher and Lower Alsatia, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bolter</span> (s.), a cant name for one who hides himself in his own house, or some privileged
+place, and dares only peep, but not go out of his retreat.
+</p>
+<p>2. One who ‘bolts’; especially applied to horses, but figuratively to persons in the
+sense of one given to throwing off restraint; in American parlance one who ‘<span class="sc">kicks</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Paris Sk. Bk.</i> (1872), 244. The engine may explode … or be a <span class="sc">bolter</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Frank Fairlegh</i>, ch. xiii. ‘Three of the horses had never been in harness before, and the fourth
+was a <span class="sc">bolter</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Bleak House</i>, ch. lviii., p. 483. This sparkling sally is to the effect that, although he always
+knew she was the best-groomed woman in the stud, he had no idea she was a <span class="sc">bolter</span>. It is immensely received in turf-circles.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">C.&nbsp;J. Dunphie</span>, <i>The Chameleon</i>, p. 17. It is better to ride a steady old plodder than to trust your neck to a <span class="sc">bolter</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (American.)—One who exercises the right of abstention in regard to his political
+party. <i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bolt</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, LII., 327. To whom a ‘scratcher’ or a <span class="sc">bolter</span> is more hateful than the Beast<span id="xd33e47363">.</span> [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb279">[<a href="#pb279">279</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>American</i>, VIII., 100. To denounce the twenty-seven as <span class="sc">bolters</span> from their party.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bolt-in-Tun</b>, <i>phr.</i> (London thieves’).—Bolted; run away.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Memoirs</i>. A term founded on the cant word ‘bolt,’ and merely a fanciful variation very common
+among <i>flash</i> persons, there being in London a famous inn so called. It is customary when a man
+has run away from his lodgings, broken out of jail, or made any other sudden movement,
+to say ‘the <span class="sc">Bolt-in-tun</span> is concerned,’ or ‘he’s gone to the <span class="sc">Bolt-in-tun</span>’ instead of simply saying, ‘he has bolted,’ etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boltsprit</b>, <b>Boltspreet</b>, <b>Bowsprit</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—An old and humorous term for the nose. [The analogy is between the spar
+or boom extending beyond the stem of a vessel and the nose as a prominent and projecting
+feature of the face.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Conk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Amorous Bigot</i>, Act v. As thou lovest thy ears, or nose, that <span class="sc">bolt-sprit</span> of thy face. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1691. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Scowerers</i>, Act v. They do not consider the tenderness of my <span class="sc">bolt-sprit</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Boltsprit</span> (s.), a cant name for the nose.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bolt the Moon</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i>—To remove one’s goods and chattels under cover of night with a view of evading the
+payment of rent. A variant of <span class="sc">shoot the moon</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); the act itself is called a <span class="sc">moonlight flitting</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bolus</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—An apothecary; a doctor. [From <span class="sc">bolus</span>, a large pill frequently prescribed by physicians.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">Hatton</span>, <i>Cruel London</i>, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘The doctor, up from the Indian bar, came and said I was wanted
+in London’ … ‘good for old <span class="sc">Bolus</span>,’ said Kernan; ‘and I believe him.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A gallant fellow. This is mentioned by Nares, who, however, could find no
+example illustrating its use.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bombay Ducks</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. The Bombay regiments of the East India Company’s army were so called.
+</p>
+<p>2. A well known delicacy, the exact nature of which is explained by G.&nbsp;A. Sala in
+the second quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, in <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, 14 August, 5, 4. His <i>cuisine</i> was, with the occasional interpolation of a not entirely objectionable curry, accompanied
+by <span class="sc">Bombay ducks</span>, exclusively old-fashioned English.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, in <i>Ill. Lon. News</i>, 7 August, 138, 2. The <span class="sc">Bombay duck</span> is the Anglo-Indian relation of the Digby chick. Alive, it is a fish called the bummelo;
+dead and dried, it becomes a <span class="sc">duck</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bombo</b>, <b>Bumbo</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A nickname given to various mixtures, but chiefly to cold punch. Smollett,
+in a note in <i>Roderick Random</i>, speaks of it as ‘a liquor composed of rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Roderick Random</i>, ch. xxxiv. A table well stored with <span class="sc">bumbo</span> and wine.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <span class="sc">Smyth</span>, <i>Sailors’ Word Book</i>. <span class="sc">Bombo</span>, weak cold punch.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1886. <i>Northumb. Song</i>, in <i>N. and Q.</i>, 6 March, 195. The pitmen and the keelman … drink <span class="sc">bumbo</span> made of gin.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bona</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A girl; young woman; a belle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 18(?). <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Oh, Fred, don’t be so frivolous.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Girls are in vulgar called <span class="sc">donas</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Some are called Miss and some Mrs., </p>
+<p class="line">The best of them all are called <span class="sc">bonas</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">The whole jolly lot’s fond of kisses. </p>
+<p class="line">I kiss pretty lips, and I squeeze finger tips, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">No matter what I have to pay, </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="pageNum" id="pb280">[<a href="#pb280">280</a>]</span> </p>
+<p class="line">If I meet a dear maid who is somewhat afraid, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">She’ll blush like a virgin and say, ‘Oh my.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit right">Chorus.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (theatrical).—Good. [From the Latin.]—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Rumbo</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonanza</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A happy hit; a stroke of fortune; success. [From the Spanish, a fair
+wind, fine weather, prosperous voyage.] <span class="sc">Bonanza</span> was originally the name of a mine in Nevada, which once, quite unexpectedly, turned
+out to be a big thing, and of enormous value; now applied to any lucky hit or successful
+enterprise.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Scribner’s Mag.</i>, July, p. 272. But a <span class="sc">bonanza</span> with millions in it is not struck every week.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>San Francisco News Letter</i>, 4 Feb. The mines along the veins running north and south, of which North Belle Isle
+is the center, are all stayers, and in the east and west ledge Grand Prize has entered
+a body of ore which may develop into a <span class="sc">bonanza</span> as big as the one which paid millions in dividends in years gone by.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bona-Roba</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A courtesan; a showy prostitute. [From Italian <i lang="it">buona</i>, good, + <span class="sc">roba</span> = a robe or dress.] The term was much in use among the older dramatists. Ben Jonson
+speaks of a bouncing <span class="sc">bona-roba</span>; and Cowley seems to have considered it as implying a fine, tall figure. <span class="sc">Bona</span> in modern times is frequently employed to signify a girl or young woman, without
+reference to morals.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>2 Henry IV.</i>, iii., 2. We knew where the <span class="sc">bona-robas</span> were; and had the best of them all at commandment.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1618, <i>d.</i> 1667. <span class="sc">Cowley</span>, <i>Essay on Greatness</i> (quoted by Nares). I would neither wish that my mistress nor my fortune should be
+a <span class="sc">bona-roba</span>;—but as Lucretius says, <i>Parvula, pumilio, tota merum sal</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Nigel</i>, xvi. Your lordship is for a frolic into Alsatia? … there are <span class="sc">bona-robas</span> to be found there. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 69. The other <span class="sc">bona-roba</span>, known amongst her companions as Mistress Poll Maggot, was a beauty on a much larger
+scale—in fact, a perfect Amazon.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonce</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. The head; [probably a derivative of sense 2, from the analogy between
+them.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Crumpet</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A large marble [origin unknown, but <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Alley</span>].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—When a traveller, in passing his luggage through the Custom House, tips
+the officer in the expectation that the latter’s examination of his <i>impedimenta</i> will be more or less superficial, the fee thus given is termed a <span class="sc">bone</span>. The practice, is, of course, contrary to all regulations; but, human nature being
+human nature all the world over, it is believed that similar expedients for evading
+the law are not altogether unknown in England.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (thieves’).—Good; excellent; ◇ is the vagabonds’ hieroglyphic for <span class="sc">bone</span>, or good, chalked by them on houses and street corners as a hint to succeeding beggars.
+[Probably from French <i>bon</i>, good. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Boon</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 232. He [beggar] mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. I give
+one or two instances. ◇ ‘<span class="sc">Bone</span>,’ meaning good.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. G.&nbsp;A. <span class="corr" id="xd33e47756" title="Source: S [ala]"><span class="sc">S[ala]</span></span>, in <i>Ill. L. News</i>, Nov. 10, p. 451, col. 3. It is well known that the lozenge-shaped diagram chalked
+by beggars and tramps on doors and <span class="pageNum" id="pb281">[<a href="#pb281">281</a>]</span>walls in ‘promising’ neighbourhoods stands for ‘<span class="sc">bone</span>,’ a corruption of the French ‘<i lang="fr">bon</i>,’ as a hint to succeeding vagabonds that they will find the happiest of hunting-grounds
+in the locality.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (popular).—1. To filch; to steal; to make off with; to take into custody. [There
+are two suggested derivations:—(1) that the figure of speech is drawn from the manner
+in which a dog makes off with a bone; (2) that <span class="sc">bone</span> is a corruption of ‘bonnet’ (a gambling cheat who ‘sharks’ one’s money slyly).] For
+synonyms in sense of to steal, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Prig</span>; in sense of to apprehend, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Nab</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bone</span> (v.), a cant word to seize or arrest; also to cheat or strip a person of his money
+or goods.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Memoirs</i>, II., 157. Tell us how you was <span class="sc">boned</span>, signifies tell us the story of your apprehension, a common request among fellow-prisoners
+in a jail, which is readily complied with as a rule; and the various circumstances
+therein related afford present amusement, and also useful hints for regulating their
+future operations, so as to avoid the like misfortune.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Nich. Nickleby</i>, ch. lvii., p. 467. ‘And why you were living so quiet here, and what you had <span class="sc">boned</span>, and who you had <span class="sc">boned</span> it from, wasn’t it?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Trail of the Serpent</i>, bk. II., ch. ii. ‘I’m blest if he hasn’t been and <span class="sc">boned</span> my mug. I hope it’ll do him more good than it’s done me.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, Dec. 9, <i>A Double Event</i>, p. 774. It would be a breach of confidence to tell you how it <i>was</i> arranged, but, after some haggling, it was arranged that, on the understanding that
+I gave up the securities, I was to <span class="sc">bone</span> the reward which the detectives had missed.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American.)—To bribe; to ‘grease the palm.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bone</span>, <i>subs.</i>
+</p>
+<p>3.(American cadets’.)—To study hard. [From <span class="sc">bohn</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To have a bone in the leg—arm—throat, etc.</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—A humorous reason for declining to use the member spoken of; a feigned
+obstacle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1542. <span class="sc">Nicholas Udall</span>, <i>Erasmus’s Apophthegmes</i> (1877, Reprint of ed. 1562). p. 375. He refused to speake, allegeing that <span class="sc">he had a bone in his throte</span>, and he could not speake.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i> (conv. iii.). <i>Nev.</i> Miss, come, be kind for once, and order me a dish of coffee. <i>Miss.</i> Pray go yourself; let us wear out the oldest first; besides, I can’t go, for I <span class="sc">have a bone in my leg</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone-Ache</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The <i lang="la">lues venerea</i>. [The allusion is obvious.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Pierce Penilesse</i>. But <i lang="la">cucullus non facit monachum</i>—’tis not their newe bonnets will keepe them from the old <span class="sc">boan-ack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1606. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Tro. and C.</i>, ii., 3. After this the vengeance on the whole camp! or rather the <span class="sc">bone-ache</span>! for that, methinks, is the curse dependent on those that war for a placket.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone-Box</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The mouth. [The teeth are here represented as <i>the</i> ‘bones.’ The latter are now more commonly called ‘ivories.’] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Potato-trap</span>, and compare with <span class="sc">Bone-house</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. Shut your <span class="sc">bone-box</span>; shut your mouth.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone-Crusher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—A heavy bore rifle used for killing big game. [Literally that which crushes
+or breaks bones by force. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bone-shaker</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">H.&nbsp;M. Stanley</span>, <i>How I Found Livingstone</i> (2 ed.), p. 63. African game require <span class="sc">bone-crushers</span>; for any ordinary carbine possesses sufficient penetrative qualities, yet has not
+the disabling qualities which a gun must possess to be useful in the hands of an <span class="pageNum" id="pb282">[<a href="#pb282">282</a>]</span>African explorer. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 342. What is wanted for this country is a heavy bore—No. 10 or 12 is the real
+<span class="sc">bone-crusher</span>, that will drop every animal shot.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boned.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bone</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone-Grubber</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—One who lives by collecting bones from heaps of refuse, selling his spoils
+at the marine stores or to bone grinders. [From <span class="sc">bone</span> + <span class="sc">grub</span>, to seek by burrowing, + <span class="sc">er</span>.] Also called <span class="sc">bone-picker</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and <span class="sc">tot-pickers</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). <i>See</i> first quotation and <i>cf.</i> <span class="sc">bone-picker</span> form. The French term is <i lang="fr">un biffin</i>, which also signifies a foot-soldier, his knapsack being compared to a rag or bone-picker’s
+basket; also <i lang="fr">un chifferton</i> or <i lang="fr">un chiffortin</i>; <i lang="fr">un cupidon</i> (an ironical allusion to his hook and basket); <i lang="fr">un graffin</i>. For other synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tot-picker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1750. ‘The Hunter’s Wedding,’ quoted in J. Ashton’s <i>The Fleet</i>, 1888, p. 366.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Sam the <span class="sc">grubber</span>, he having had warning, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">His wallet and broom down did lay. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. II., p. 155. The <span class="sc">bone-grubber</span> generally seeks out the narrow back streets, where dust and refuse are cast, or where
+any dust-bins are accessible. The articles for which he chiefly searches are rags
+and bones,—rags he prefers,—but waste metal, such as bits of lead, pewter, copper,
+brass, or old iron, he prizes above all.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>Crim. Prisons</i>, 40. A black-chinned and lanthorn-jawed <span class="sc">bone-grubber</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A resurrectionist; a violator of graves. Cobbett was therefore called ‘a <span class="sc">bone-grubber</span>,’ because he brought the remains of Tom Paine from America. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bone-house</span>. Latterly, from the quotation which follows, the term seems to have been extended
+to all having to do with funerals.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Breakfast in Bed</i>, essay vii., p. 181 (1864). The crowd in Cheapside declared that I was a mute. They
+called me <span class="sc">bone-grubber</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone-House</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—1. The human body—an obvious allusion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Emerson</span>, <i>Soc. and Sol.</i>, vi., 119. This wonderful <span class="sc">bone-house</span> which is called man. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. A coffin. The term is also used to signify a charnel-house, and Americans generally
+call a cemetery a ‘bone-yard.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick Papers</i>, II., p. 207. Nothing soon—lie in bed—starve—die—Inquest—little <span class="sc">bone-house</span>—poor prisoner.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Walbran</span>, <i>Guide Ripon</i>. The celebrated <span class="sc">bone-house</span> no longer exists.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Forster</span>, <i>Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith</i>, II., p. 165 (bk. IV., ch. viii.). The body [of a man who had poisoned himself] was
+taken to the <span class="sc">bone-house</span> of St. Andrew’s, but no one came to claim it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone Muscle</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American college).—To practice gymnastics. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bone</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 3.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone-Picker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A footman. [Evidently a contemptuous allusion to sense 2, a footman’s
+duties being to pick up and set in order after his employer.] The French term is <i lang="fr">un larbin</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A collector of bones, rags, and other refuse from the streets and places
+where rubbish is placed, for the purpose of sale to marine dealers and bone crushers.
+The same as <span class="sc">bone-grubber</span>, sense 1 (<i>q.v.</i>).
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb283">[<a href="#pb283">283</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">Ruskin</span>, <i>Crown of Wild Olives</i>, p. 25. The deceased was a <span class="sc">bone-picker</span>. he was in the lowest stage of poverty, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boner</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A sharp blow on the spine.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bones</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Dice, which are also called <span class="sc">St. Hugh’s bones</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). [So called because made of bone or ivory.] ‘To rattle the <span class="sc">bones</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘to play at dice.’ The term is a very old one, as also seem to be games played with
+the little cubes in question.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1386. <span class="sc">Chaucer</span>, <i>Pard. T.</i>, 328. This fruyt cometh of the bicched <span class="sc">bones</span> two, fforsweryng, Ire, falsnesse, Homycide.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1529. <span class="sc">Skelton</span>, wks. (ed. Dyce) I., 52. On the borde he whyrled a payre of <span class="sc">bones</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman of London</i>, in wks. (Grosart) III., 123. Who being left by his parents rich in money and possessions,
+hath to the musicke of square ratling <span class="sc">bones</span> danced so long, that hee hath danced himselfe into the company of beggers.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Persius</i>, III., 96.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">But then my study was to cog the dice, </p>
+<p class="line">And dexterously to throw the lucky sice: </p>
+<p class="line">To shun ames-ace, that swept my stakes away; </p>
+<p class="line">And watch the box, for fear they should convey </p>
+<p class="line">False <span class="sc">bones</span>, and put upon me in the play. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1772. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Nabob</i>, Act ii. When your chance is low, as tray, ace, or two deuces, the best method is
+to dribble out the <span class="sc">bones</span> from the box.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, ch. xviii. ‘I saw you sit down to <i lang="fr">écarté</i> last week at Trumpington’s, and taking your turn with the <span class="sc">bones</span> after Ringwood’s supper.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Good for Nothing</i>, ch. xxviii. ‘What with speculations failing, and consols dropping all at once, not
+to mention a continual run of ill-luck with the <span class="sc">bones</span>, I saw no way out of it but to bolt.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—Pieces of <span class="sc">bones</span> held between the fingers and played Spanish castanet fashion. Generally used as an
+accompaniment to banjo and other ‘negro’ minstrel music.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Midsummer Night’s Dream</i>, iv., 1, line 27. <i>Tita.</i> What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? <i>Bot.</i> I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the <span class="sc">bones</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 195. Peter rolling about in his chair like a serenader playing the <span class="sc">bones</span>, and the young Othello laughing as if he was being tickled. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 201. The <span class="sc">bones</span>, we’ve real <span class="sc">bones</span>, rib-of-beef <span class="sc">bones</span>, but some have ebony <span class="sc">bones</span>, which sound better than rib-<span class="sc">bones</span>—they tell best, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Times</i>, 17 July. Amateur negro melodists … thumped the banjo and rattled the <span class="sc">bones</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—A member of a ‘negro’ minstrel troupe; generally applied to one of the
+‘end’ men who plays the <span class="sc">bones</span> (sense 2).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III. First of all we formed a school of three—two banjos and a tambourine, and after
+that we added a <span class="sc">bones</span> and a fiddle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <span class="sc">Rhoda Broughton</span>, <i>Cometh up as a Flower</i>, p. 236. The band clashes out; big fiddle and little fiddle, harp and <span class="sc">bones</span>, off they go.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Sat. Review</i>, June 7,740, col. 1. A single row of negro minstrels seated on chairs … while at
+the end are <span class="sc">Bones</span> and Sambo. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>4. (general.)—The bones of the human body, but more generally applied to the teeth.
+French thieves call these <i lang="fr">les piloches</i> (<i>f</i>); and <i lang="fr">les osselots</i> (<i>m</i>). <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bone-box</span> and <span class="sc">Bone-house</span>, and for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Grinders</span>.
+</p>
+<p>5. (common.)—A surgeon; generally <span class="sc">sawbones</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). A list of curious nicknames for the medical profession will also be found under
+<span class="sc">Squirt</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Chamb. Journal</i>, Jan. 8, p. 30. ‘I have sent for the village <span class="sc">bones</span>, and <span class="pageNum" id="pb284">[<a href="#pb284">284</a>]</span>if he can but patch me up, it may not yet be too late.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p>6. (Stock Exchange.)—(1) The shares of Wickens, Pease and Co.; (2) North British 4%
+1st Preference Shares, the 4% 2nd Preference Stock being nicknamed <span class="sc">Bonettas</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">As dry</span> or <span class="sc">hard as a bone</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common), <i>i.e.</i>, as free from moisture as a bone after it has been picked and cleaned, as by a dog.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Peter Simple</i>, i. It’s <span class="sc">as dry as a bone</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">R. Nicoll</span>, <i>Poems</i> (1843), 83. Dubs were <span class="sc">hard as ony bane</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">One end is pretty sure to be bone</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—An old time saying equivalent to an admission that ‘all is not gold that
+glitters’; that the realization of one’s hopes never comes up to the ideal formed
+of them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>The World</i>, 13 May. People here (in the west) have to get up and get in order to make both ends
+meet, and even then <span class="sc">one end is pretty sure to be bone</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be upon the bones</span>, <i>phr.</i> (vulgar).—To attack.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1616, <i>d.</i> 1704. <span class="sc">Sir R. L’Estrange</span> (in Annandale). Puss had a month’s mind <span class="sc">to be upon the bones of</span> him, but was not willing to pick a quarrel.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To feel a thing in one’s bones.</span>—A simile signifying assurance; conviction.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Scribner’s Magazine.</i> I ain’t a-goin’ to mention no names but I kin <span class="sc">feel it in my bones</span> that things ain’t on the square here, there’s a nigger in the fence.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Missouri Republican</i>, 22 Feb. Nat. M. Shelton, of Lancaster, said: ‘I am in the race of attorney-general,
+and I <span class="sc">feel it in my bones</span> that I will get the nomination.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To make no bones</span>, <i>phr.</i> (familiar).—To make no scruple; to show no hesitation; to commence and finish a work
+without difficulty—now restricted to colloquial use; it was formerly current literary
+coin, and is frequently to be met with in our older literature. Its earlier form was,
+‘to find bones in,’ which clearly shows the phrase to have originated in a reference
+to bones in soup, or similar food, regarded as obstacles to swallowing. In this sense
+it is found as early as the middle of the fifteenth century, in the <i>Paston Letters</i>. It does not occur in its present shape <span class="sc">to make bones</span> until a century later; but, from this period on to the end of the seventeenth century
+it was in constant use.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1459. <i>Paston Lett.</i>, 331, I., 444. And <span class="sc">fond</span> that tyme <span class="sc">no bonys</span> in the matere. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1542. <span class="sc">Udall</span>, <i>Apoph. of Erasmus</i>, p. 133 (1877). Yea, and rather then faill, both whole mainor places, and also whole
+Lordships, the ‘<span class="sc">make no bones</span>, ne sticke not, quite and cleue to swallow doune the narrow lane, and the same to
+spue up again.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1565. <span class="sc">Shacklock</span>, <i>Hatchet of Heresies</i>. And instede of that whiche he saide, This is my body, they haue <span class="sc">made no bones at it</span>, to say, this is my brede.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1590. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Francesco’s Fortune</i>, in wks. VIII., 189. Tricke thy selfe vp in thy best reparrell, and <span class="sc">make no bones</span> at it but on a woing [wooing].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Saffron Walden</i>, in wks. III., 112. He … would <span class="sc">make no bones</span> to take the wall of <i>Sir Philip Sidney</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1677. <span class="sc">Wycherley</span>, <i>Plain Dealer</i>, Act iii. <i>Man.</i> How could I refrain? A lawyer talked peremptorily and saucily to me, and as good
+as gave me the lie. <i>Free.</i> They do it so often to one another at the bar, that they <span class="sc">make no bones</span> on’t elsewhere.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, ch. lxiv. Do you think that the Government or the Opposition would <span class="sc">make any bones</span> about accepting the seat if it be offered to them?
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb285">[<a href="#pb285">285</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">To pick a bone</span> or <span class="sc">bones with one</span>, <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—To have an unpleasant matter to settle with one; also, a difficulty
+to solve; ‘a nut to crack.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1565. <span class="sc">Colfhill</span>, <i>Answ. Treat. Cron.</i> (1846), 277. A <span class="sc">bone</span> for you <span class="sc">to pick on</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1783. <span class="sc">Ainsworth</span>, <i>Lat. Dict.</i> (Morell), 1, s.v. <i>Pick</i>, <span class="sc">To give one a bone to pick</span>, <i lang="la">scrupulum alicui injicere</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850–68. <span class="sc">H. Rogers</span>, <i>Ess.</i>, II., ii. (1874), 103. Many a <span class="sc">bone</span> in these lectures which a keen metaphysician would be disposed <span class="sc">to pick with</span> the author.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonesetter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A hard riding horse; a ricketty conveyance; properly one whose occupation
+is to set broken and dislocated bones. The sarcastic, punning reference is of course
+to the dire effects which naturally follow the use of an animal of such a description.
+The odd way in which slang is often derived, strikes one at times as very curious.
+Not only are words frequently coined which resemble genuine words, such as ‘solemncholy’
+for ‘melancholy,’ and ‘it don’t much magnify’ for ‘it don’t much signify,’ but the
+meaning of such factitious words is, in many cases, either subtly reversed or endowed
+with an extremely cynical tinge of humour and sarcasm. The present instance is a case
+in point. A more modern term is <span class="sc">boneshaker</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), which is less subtle in its meaning, <span class="sc">bone-setter</span> being certainly far more brutally cynical in its suggestiveness. <i>See</i> second quotation for some curious synonyms formerly in use.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bone Setter</span>, a hard trotting horse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act i., Sc. 7. <i>Jerry.</i> I long to be there,—let’s hasten to dress at once. <i>Log.</i> Aye; call a rattler. <i>Jerry.</i> A rattler! I’m at fault again. <i>Log.</i> A rattler is a rumbler, otherwise a jarvy! better known perhaps by the name of a
+hack; handy enough in a wet day, or a hurry. <i>Jerry.</i> A hack! If it’s the thing we rattled over the stones in to-day, It might more properly
+be called a <span class="sc">bone-setter</span>. <i>Tom.</i> Or bone-breaker.—But if you dislike going in a hack, we’ll get you a mab. <i>Jerry.</i> A mab! I’m at fault again—never shall get properly broken in. <i>Tom.</i> A mab is a jingling jarvy!—a cabriolet, Jerry.—But we must mind our flash doesn’t
+peep out at Almack’s. ’Tis classic ground there.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone-Shake</b>, <i>verb</i> (popular).—To ride a <span class="sc">bone-shaker</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), <i>i.e.</i>, a heavy bicycle of a very old type.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, Feb. 23, p. 195, col. 1. Among those who learnt to <span class="sc">boneshake</span> was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been a devoted cyclist.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone-Shaker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A hard trotting horse.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bone-setter</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—An old type of bicycle in use prior to the introduction of india-rubber
+tires and other manifold improvements. The first bicycle propelled by cranks and pedals
+was ridden in Paris in 1864. It created enormous excitement. On being introduced into
+England people went bicycle mad, and the number of persons who suffered in consequence
+of riding the old <span class="sc">bone-shakers</span> was considerable. Among those who learnt to ‘bone-shake’ was Charles Dickens, who,
+had he lived, would have been a devoted cyclist, for he regarded the sport as a grand
+one, and prophesied a big future for it. In 1868 Mr. Charles Spencer rode to Brighton
+on a <span class="sc">bone-shaker</span> in 14 hours from London. The papers were full <span class="pageNum" id="pb286">[<a href="#pb286">286</a>]</span>of what was then considered an extraordinary feat, but on Aug. 10, 1889, four riders
+of the Polytechnic Cycling Club covered the distance to Brighton and back, 108 miles,
+in 7 hours 50 minutes, which is better time than a most perfectly-appointed modern
+four-in-hand can be driven over the same course by the aid of unlimited relays of
+horses kept in readiness to be changed at a moment’s notice. Only <i>one</i> machine was used throughout the trial, viz., a safety roadster, weighing 36 lbs.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">A. Howard</span>, <i>Bicycle</i>, 10. In 1870 and 1871, the low, long <span class="sc">bone-shaker</span> began to fall in public esteem. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;L. Hillier</span>, in <i>Longman’s Mag.</i>, March, p. 487. The <span class="sc">bone-shaker</span>, as the ribald cyclist of the present day designates the ancestor of his present
+bicycle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, Jan., p. 92. In the <i>Field’s</i> report of the performance of the Cambridge Town Bicycle Club we find this entry:
+‘Half Mile Race on <span class="sc">bone-shakers</span>, not exceeding 36 in.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bone Standing</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American college).—To study hard. [Evidently an allusion to the alertness implied
+by a standing position.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonettas</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange.)—The 4% 2nd North British 2nd Preference Stock.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bones</span>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 6, § 2.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bong.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boung</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boniface</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The landlord of a tavern or inn. [Derived from Farquhar’s play.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1707. <span class="sc">Farquhar</span>, <i>Beaux Stratagem</i>. [<span class="sc">Boniface</span> is here given as the name of landlord of the inn.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1803. <span class="sc">Bristed</span>, <i>Pedest. Tour</i>, I., 120. To give the characteristic features and to stamp the peculiar traits of
+honest <span class="sc">Boniface</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>General Bounce</i>, ch. xvi. The landlord either could not, or would not, give them any actual information
+as to his guests.… So the blue-coated myrmidons of Scotland Yard got but little information
+from <span class="sc">Boniface</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boning Adjutant</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American cadets’).—Aping a military bearing. [From <span class="sc">bone</span>, to study, to imitate.] So also <span class="sc">boning muscle</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is going in largely for gymnastics. To <span class="sc">bone standing</span>, to study hard. <span class="sc">Boning demerit</span>, giving no cause for complaint as regards one’s conduct. All West Point cadet slang.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (travelling showmens’).—A short, steep hill. [Possibly only a provincialism, or an
+obsolete form of ‘bank.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 302. In Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire, the approaches
+to some of the large works are either up or down some steep, short hill, usually termed
+<span class="sc">bonk</span>, and the drivers of heavily laden carts with two horses have the breeching on the
+leading chain-horse, as well as the horse in the shafts, so that when they are going
+down one of these steep <span class="sc">bonks</span>, the horse is as useful as a help in drawing up.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonnet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A gambling cheat; a decoy at auctions. [So-called because they <span class="sc">bonnet</span> or blind the eyes of the victims.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bonnet</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 1.] Hotten says sometimes called a <span class="sc">bearer-up</span>. The <span class="sc">bonnet</span> plays as though he were a member of the general public, and by his good luck, or
+by the force of his example, induces others to venture their stakes. <span class="sc">Bonneting</span> is often done in much better society than that <span class="pageNum" id="pb287">[<a href="#pb287">287</a>]</span>to be found in the ordinary gaming-rooms. A man who persuades another to buy an article
+on which he receives commission or percentage, is said to <span class="sc">bonnet</span> or bear-up for the seller. Also called a <span class="sc">bonneter</span>. The French has <i lang="fr">bonneteur</i> for one profuse in compliments and bows.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Bonnet</span>, a concealment.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <i>Comic Almanack</i>, October. Or a man at a hell, Playing the part of a <span class="sc">bonnetter</span> well.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Digby Grand</i>, ch. xxi. I began to think my military friend was ‘a <span class="sc">bonnet</span>,’—one of those harpies employed by gambling-house keepers to enhance temptation by
+the influence of example, and generally selected for their respectable and innocent
+appearance.
+</p>
+<p>(?) 1868. <i>Times</i> (quoted by <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, p. 104). A man who sits at a gaming-table, and appears to be playing against the
+table; when a stranger appears, the <span class="sc">bonnet</span> generally wins.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 217. We bid or praised up his goods: in fact, often acted as ‘puffers’ or <span class="sc">bonnets</span>, to give him a leg up.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Morning Post</i>, Sept. 5, p. 7, col. 3. There was no distinct evidence to connect him with a conspiracy
+to defraud.… He might have been used as a sort of <span class="sc">bonnet</span> to conceal the utter worthlessness of propositions made by the others.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A <span class="corr" id="xd33e48997" title="Source: pretex">pretext</span>; pretence; or ‘make believe.’
+</p>
+<p>3. A woman. [This sense is analogous to ‘petticoat,’ the names of articles of feminine
+attire being transferred to the wearer.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch’s Almanac</i>, p. 3. Then comes Easter, Got some coin in hand, Trot a <span class="sc">bonnet</span> out and do the grand.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (common).—1. To act as a <span class="sc">bonnet</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); to cheat; to puff; to ‘<span class="sc">bear up</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. ‘Hawk’s-Eye,’ <i>Budget of Turf Notes</i>, p. 2. I could point out now what horses he is <span class="sc">bonneting</span> for the 2,000 Guineas and Derby of this year, and the horses whose pretensions he
+is trying to discredit.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Referee</i>, 15 May, p. 1, col. 3. Nobody can suppose that I am anxious to <span class="sc">bonnet</span> for the <i>Times</i> newspaper.
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—To crush a man’s hat down over his eyes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 229. Two young men, who, now and then, varied their amusements by <span class="sc">bonneting</span> the proprietor of this itinerant coffee-house.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick</i>, II., p. 216. You are a dutiful and affectionate little boy to come a <span class="sc">bonnetin’</span> your father in his old age.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Christmas Carol in Prose</i>, p. 22. Scrooge reverently disclaimed … any knowledge of having wilfully <span class="sc">bonneted</span> the Spirit at any period of his life.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Saturday Review</i>, LIV., p. 629. The students hustled and ‘<span class="sc">bonnetted</span>’ a new professor.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To have a green bonnet</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To fail in business. [From the green cloth cap formerly worn by bankrupts.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonnet-Builder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A milliner. [The derivation is clear.]—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Build</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. Song in <i>The Little Melodist</i>, quoted in J. Ashton’s <i>The Fleet</i>, p. 93. Will you go to Bagnigge Wells, <span class="sc">Bonnet builder</span>, O!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, s.v. ‘Build.’ A milliner is jestingly called a ‘<span class="sc">bonnet-builder</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonneter.</b>—1. <i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bonnet</span>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A crushing blow on the hat.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bonnet</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bonnets So Blue</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—Irish stew.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Rhyming slang</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb288">[<a href="#pb288">288</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bono</b>, <i>adj.</i> (circus and thieves’).—Good. [From the Latin.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booby Hutch</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A police station; so called no doubt from the light in which the criminal
+classes regard those who are foolish enough or unfortunate enough to get ‘landed’
+in such places. [<span class="sc">Booby</span> = a fool + <span class="sc">hutch</span>, a box or confined space.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booby-Trap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (schoolboys’).—An arrangement of books, wet sponges, vessels of water, etc., so arranged
+on the top of a door set ajar that when the intended victim enters the room, the whole
+falls upon him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">Smedley</span>, <i>Frank Fairlegh</i>, ch. iii., p. 28. He had devoted it to the construction of what he called a ‘<span class="sc">booby-trap</span>,’ which ingenious piece of mechanism was arranged in the following manner: The victim’s
+room-door was placed ajar, and upon the top thereof a Greek Lexicon, or any other
+equally ponderous volume, was carefully balanced, and upon this was set in its turn
+a jug of water. If all these were properly adjusted, the catastrophe above described
+was certain to ensue when the door was opened.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">F. Anstey</span>, <i>Vice Versâ</i>, ch. xiv. ‘I made a first-rate <span class="sc">booby-trap</span>, though, one day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Sat. Review</i>, Nov. 3, p. 566, col. 2. On his way down to dinner he is suddenly drenched from head
+to foot by a <span class="sc">booby-trap</span>—a sponge soaked in water placed above a half-open door.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boodle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—1. A crowd; a company; the ‘<span class="sc">whole boiling</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>). With this meaning the form often appears as <span class="sc">caboodle</span> (<i>q.v<span>.</span></i>). [As regards derivation, which is obscure, Murray, speaking of both senses as here
+treated, says the U.S. <span class="sc">boodle</span>, in sense 1, must be the same as Markham’s ‘buddle’ (<i>see</i> quotation given below from <i>New English Dictionary</i>); sense 2 (also only in U.S.) may be a different word. <span class="sc">Boodle</span> suggests a Dutch origin from <i lang="nl">boedel</i> pronounced <span class="sc">boodle</span>, and in its primary sense means ‘household stuff,’ and refers to property left by
+a testator. It is curious to note that <span class="sc">bodle</span> was a Scotch coin of the value of one-sixth of a penny.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1625. <span class="sc">F. Markham</span>, <i>Bk. Honour</i>, IV., ii. Men curiously and carefully chosen out (from all the <span class="sc">buddle</span> and masse of great ones) for their approoued wisedome. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">O.&nbsp;W. Holmes</span>, <i>Autocrat</i>, p. 139. He would like to have the whole <span class="sc">boodle</span> of them (I remonstrated against this word, but the professor said it was a diabolish
+good word …) with their wives and children shipwrecked on a remote island.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">Bacon</span>, <i>Handbook of America</i>, p. 361. <span class="sc">Boodle</span>, ‘the whole <span class="sc">boodle</span> of them,’ <i>i.e.</i>, all, the whole. [List of Americanisms.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;E. Hale</span>, <i>Xmas. in Narragansett</i>, ch. ix., p. 272. At eleven o’clock the ‘whole <span class="sc">boodle</span> of them,’ as Uncle Nahum called the caravan … had to boot and spur for church. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. (American.)—In its second signification this curious word seems to have come into
+prominent use in politics during the past five years. Its meaning and usage is thus
+explained in <i>Americanisms—Old and New</i>. Some elections cannot be conducted without <span class="sc">boodle</span> first and last. <span class="sc">Boodle</span> does not mean the capital or stock-in-trade, except the business or trade be something
+secret, peculiar and illegal. <span class="sc">Boodle</span> always means money; but money has not always been <span class="sc">boodle</span> (<i>see</i> sense 4). Money honestly received and spent, money that circulates in regular and
+honest channels, that appears in cash-book and <span class="pageNum" id="pb289">[<a href="#pb289">289</a>]</span>ledger and expense account, is never <span class="sc">boodle</span>; but when a sum—a thousand dollars, more or less—is given to some one to use in influencing
+a third party, given perhaps in silence and certainly without requiring any writing
+of acknowledgment or obligation—that is <span class="sc">boodle</span>. <span class="sc">Boodle</span> is money used for purposes of bribery and corruption; and the same word is employed
+to indicate the money that comes as spoils, the result of some secret deal, the profits
+of which are silently divided. The term is likewise used to cover the ill-gotten gains
+of the bank robber, or the absconding cashier. ‘He carried away so much <span class="sc">boodle</span>.’ In elections the primaries have to be ‘fixed,’ a great many men have to be ‘seen’;
+in short, the amount of money that it seems necessary in some cases to use to elect
+a few honest public servants is a thing to wonder at. And when these men are elected,
+it appears that they often lose the power of distinguishing between ‘straight money’
+and <span class="sc">boodle</span>. The word seems destined to take its permanent place in the language.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Boodlers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Boston</i> (Mass.) <i>Globe</i>, Oct. 7. ‘Sinews of war,’ and ‘living issues,’ ‘soap,’ and other synonyms for campaign
+<span class="sc">boodle</span> are familiar. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Philadelphia Bulletin</i>, 24 Feb. The best man in the world cannot make an honest living by being a City Councilman.
+The office is an unsalaried one, and any money that is made out of it is <span class="sc">boodle</span>. This is the new term for plunder, fraud and every form of stealing that can be practised
+by office-holders, who, in the practice, add the crime of perjury. It is an easy business
+for men of easy virtue.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Puck’s Library</i>, May, p. 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">In the evening, up the street, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">As you see him passing by, </p>
+<p class="line">You’re convinced his mind’s replete </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">With the legal science high; </p>
+<p class="line">That he ponders of divorce, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Or, of <span class="sc">boodle</span> cases great; </p>
+<p class="line">That he spends all day, of course, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Fighting counsel for the State. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">3. (American thieves’.)—Amongst the thieving fraternity <span class="sc">boodle</span> is used to denote money that is actually spurious or counterfeit, and not merely
+money used for nefarious purposes, but which as currency is genuine enough.
+</p>
+<p>4. (American general.)—Money. This is the latest sense imported into the word. The
+transition by which it has come to be synonymous with ‘dust,’ ‘pieces,’ ‘rhino,’ ‘oof,’
+etc., is an easy one.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Puck’s Library</i>, Jan., p. 4.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Shakey, take a fader’s plessing, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Take it, for you ket it sheap; </p>
+<p class="line">Go in hot for making money, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Go in for to make a heap. </p>
+<p class="line">Don’ you do no dings vot’s grooked, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Don’ you do no dings vot’s mean— </p>
+<p class="line">Aber rake right in dot <span class="sc">boodle</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Qviet, calm, and all serene. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><span class="sc">To carry boodle</span> is to utter base coinage.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boodler</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Fake-boodle</span>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A roll of paper over which, after folding, a dollar bill is
+pasted, and another bill being loosely wrapped round this it looks as if the whole
+roll is made up of a large sum of money in bills.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boodler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American political).—1. One who bribes or corrupts.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boodle</span>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Omaha World.</i> <i>American.</i> ‘As you are a native of Canada I suppose you think that country is all right, but
+for my part I should hate most awfully to be a subject of a queen.’ <i>Canadian.</i> ‘The queen is a mere figure-head; there is no difference at all between Canada and
+the United States.’ ‘Come to think, I believe you do have elections there.’ <span class="pageNum" id="pb290">[<a href="#pb290">290</a>]</span>‘I should say we did. We have elections and campaigns, and political parties, and
+bosses, and ringsters, and <span class="sc">boodlers</span>, and——.’ ‘<span class="sc">Boodlers?</span>’ ‘Plenty of ’em.’ ‘Well, well! Why, you are freemen just like us.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (American thieves’.)—<span class="sc">Boodlers</span> and shovers are the men who issue false money (<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Boodle</span>, sense 3). Swindlers of this type generally hunt in couples; one carrying the bulk
+of the counterfeit money, and receiving the good change as obtained by his companion,
+who utters the <span class="sc">boodle</span> piece by piece. The game is generally worked so that at the slightest alarm the <span class="sc">boodle carrier</span> vanishes and leaves nothing to criminate his confederate.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booget</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A travelling tinker’s basket. Quoted by Harman [1567].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Book</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—1. In betting, more especially in connection with horse racing, an arrangement
+of bets made against certain horses, and so calculated that the <span class="sc">bookmaker</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) has a strong chance of winning something whatever the result.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick</i>, I., p. 400. And Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, entered it (the bet) in a little <span class="sc">book</span> with a gold pencil-case; and the other gentleman entered it also, in another little
+<span class="sc">book</span> with another gold pencil-case.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Disraeli</span>, <i>Henrietta Temple</i>, p. 260. Am I to be branded because I have made half a million by a good <span class="sc">book?</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Lewis Arundel</i>, ch. liii. ‘He has backed the Dodona colt for the Derby, and has got a heavier <span class="sc">book</span> on the race than he likes.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <i>Gent. Mag.</i>, July, p. 231. He wins your money with a smile, will accommodate his <span class="sc">book</span> to suit what bets you may choose to make.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Jas. Payn</span>, <i>High Spirits</i> (<i>Change of Views</i>). He had a knowledge, too, of practical mathematics, which enabled him to make a
+<span class="sc">book</span> upon every great racing event of the year.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, Oct. 21, p. 6, col. 1. Every sporting man is flattered if termed a sportsman, but
+it would be almost an insult to speak to a sportsman as a sporting man. Wherein does
+the distinction lie? it may be asked. The one is a lover of sport for the sake of
+the thing itself. The other is a lover of it for what he can get out of the business.
+The former may bet, but he does not look at sport through the glasses of a <span class="sc">book</span>; the latter always bets, and in fact would not care about it at all if he could not
+take or give odds.
+</p>
+<p>2. (card-players’.)—The first six tricks at whist.
+</p>
+<p>3. (general.)—The copy of words to which music is set; the words of a play; formerly
+only applied to the libretto of an opera.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1768. <span class="sc">Sterne</span>, <i>Sentimental Journey</i>, I., 180. A small pamphlet, it might be the <span class="sc">book</span> of the opera.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, 8 June, p. 24. The prompter had a little table on the ‘prompt’ side; that is, the
+right-hand side looking from the house, and his ‘<span class="sc">book</span>’ was one mass of directions, the margins being covered with little pictures and diagrams
+of the stage, showing the positions of the leading actors in every scene.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To know one’s book</span>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—To have made up one’s mind; to know what is best for one’s interest.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1879. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Ain’t you glad you didn’t.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Ain’t you glad sometimes to know, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A second thought you took, </p>
+<p class="line">About a subject upon which </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">You thought you <span class="sc">knew your book</span>; </p>
+<p class="line">Now first of all you think you will, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And then you think you won’t, </p>
+<p class="line">While someone says ‘Go in and win!’ </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And someone else says ‘Don’t.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><span class="sc">To suit one’s book</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To suit one’s arrangements. <i>Cf.</i>, Book, <i>subs.</i>, sense 1, the allusion being to betting books, in which bets are formally entered.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb291">[<a href="#pb291">291</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Lewis Arundel</i>, ch. vi. ‘By which time he expects to be so hard up that he must marry somebody,
+and as there will be plenty of the needful, she will <span class="sc">suit his book</span> as well as any other.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booked</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Caught; fixed; disposed of; destined, etc. From the book-keeping term—entered
+in a book, or registered.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Hood</span>, <i>Up the Rhine</i>, p. 6. I am <span class="sc">booked</span> for a much longer journey.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 446. <span class="sc">Booked</span>, caught, taken, or disposed of.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">Jas. Payn</span>, <i>Grape from a Thorn</i>, ch. xxiii. ‘I don’t remember anyone having given <i>me</i> an “engaged ring” before; and it’s not leap year, neither. However, the lady’s <span class="sc">booked</span>, which is a great relief.’
+</p>
+<p>French thieves use <i lang="fr">être planché</i> for ‘to be booked’; also <i lang="fr">être mort</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘to be dead’); the adjective is rendered by <i lang="fr">faitré</i>, and the person <span class="sc">booked</span> is <i lang="fr">un gerbable</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Book-Form</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—The relative powers of speed or endurance of race-horses as set down
+in the <i>Racing Calendar</i> or ‘book.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bookie</b> or <b>Booky</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—An abbreviated form of <span class="sc">bookmaker</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Eng. Ill. Mag.</i>, April, p. 509. No rowdy ring, but a few quiet and well-known <span class="sc">bookies</span>, who were ready enough to lay the odds to a modest fiver.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, 29 June.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">He now had occasion to speedily hie </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">To the <span class="sc">bookie</span> who laid him the bet, </p>
+<p class="line">Who was one of the small and particular fry, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">That at times, <i>when convenient</i>, forget. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bookmaker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—The <i>English Encyclopædia</i> says:—In betting there are two parties—one called ‘layers,’ as the <span class="sc">bookmakers</span> are termed, and the other ‘backers,’ in which class may be included owners of horses
+as well as the public. The backer takes the odds which the <span class="sc">bookmaker</span> lays against a horse, the former speculating upon the success of the animal, the
+latter upon its defeat; and taking the case of Cremorne for the Derby of 1872, just
+before the race, the <span class="sc">bookmaker</span> would have laid 3 to 1, or perhaps £1000 to £300 against him, by which transaction,
+if the horse won, as he did, the backer would win £1000 for risking £300, and the
+<span class="sc">bookmaker</span> lose the £1000 which he risked to win the smaller sum. At first sight this may appear
+an act of very questionable policy on the part of the <span class="sc">bookmaker</span>; but really it is not so, because so far from running a greater risk than the backer,
+he runs less, inasmuch as it is his plan to lay the same amount (£1000) against every
+horse in the race, and as there can be but one winner, he would in all probability
+receive more than enough money from the many losers to pay the stated sum of £1000
+which the chances are he has laid against the one winner, whichever it is.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Book</span>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 1, and <span class="sc">Bookie</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>London Review</i>, Aug. 30, p. 188. Betting there seemed to be none … we could not perceive a single
+book or <span class="sc">bookmaker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">W. Day</span>, <i>Racehorse in Training</i>, ch. xxiv., p. 245. <span class="sc">Bookmakers</span> pursue a legitimate and lucrative trade by laying against all horses as they appear
+in the market.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>Hard Lines</i>, ch. iii. Finding … that the <span class="sc">bookmaker</span> whom for once they have landed for ‘a thousand to thirty’ is hopelessly insolvent.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb292">[<a href="#pb292">292</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bookmaker’s Pocket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—A breast-pocket made inside the waistcoat, for notes of large amount.—<i>Hotten.</i>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bookmaker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Books</b>, <i>subs.</i> (card-players’).—1. A pack of cards. A term used mainly by professional card-players.
+Also called <span class="sc">devil’s books</span>; <span class="sc">book of broads</span>; <span class="sc">book of briefs</span>. The French equivalent is <i lang="fr">un juge de paix</i>; while <i lang="fr">une cartouchière à portées</i> is a prepared pack used by sharpers.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1706. <span class="sc">Mrs. Centlivre</span>, <i>Basset Table</i>, IV., ii., wks. (1872) I., 245.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>L. Revel.</i> Clean cards here.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>Mrs. Sago.</i> Burn this <span class="sc">book</span>, ’t has an unlucky air [tears them]. Bring some more <span class="sc">books</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Winchester College.)—(<i>a.</i>) The prizes formerly presented by Lord Say and Sele, now given by the governing body,
+to the ‘Senior’ in each division at the end of ‘Half.’
+</p>
+<p>(<i>b.</i>) The school is thus divided:—<span class="sc">Sixth Book</span>—Senior and Junior Division; the whole of the rest of the School is in <span class="sc">Fifth Book</span>—Senior Part, Middle Part, Junior Part, each part being divided into so many divisions,
+Senior, Middle and Junior, or Senior, 2nd, 3rd and Junior, as the case may require.
+Formerly there was also ‘<span class="sc">Fourth Book</span>,’ but it ceased to exist about twenty-five years ago.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 104. The school was divided into three classes, or <span class="sc">books</span>, as they were called. Of these, the Præfects formed one, <span class="sc">Sixth Book</span>; <span class="sc">Fifth Book</span> was sub-divided into three parts, called respectively, ‘Senior, Middle, and Junior
+part of the Fifth’; in speaking of them, the words, ‘of the Fifth’ were generally
+omitted. The rest of the boys made up ‘Fourth Book.’
+</p>
+<p>(<i>c.</i>) <span class="sc">Up at books.</span>—In class; repeating lessons; now called <span class="sc">Up to books</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 101. At each end of school are three tiers of benches rising gradually one above
+the other,—that on the ground being called ‘Senior Row,’ and the others ‘Middle,’
+and ‘Junior Row’ respectively. On these the Classes sit when ‘<span class="sc">up at books</span>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, when repeating lessons.
+</p>
+<p>(<i>d.</i>) <span class="sc">Books chambers.</span>—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Mansfield</span>, <i>School-Life at Winchester College</i>, p. 103. On Remedies (a kind of whole holiday), we also went into School in the morning
+and afternoon for an hour or two without masters; this was called <span class="sc">books chambers</span>; and on Sundays, from four till a quarter to five.
+</p>
+<p>(<i>e</i>) <span class="sc">To get</span> or <span class="sc">make books</span>.—To make the highest score at anything. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Books</span>, sense 2<i>a</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bookwork</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—Mathematics that can be learned <i>verbatim</i> from books—all that are not problems.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boom.</b>—This word is a comparatively recent production in its slang sense; and is variously
+used as a substantive or as a verb. Before particularizing its special usages, it
+may be interesting to note how, within a few years, it has made its appearance in
+a variety of combinations; as, ‘the whole State is <span class="sc">booming</span> for Smith,’ or ‘the boys have whooped up the State to <span class="sc">boom</span> for Smith,’ or ‘the Smith <span class="sc">boom</span> is ahead in this State,’ etc., etc. Stocks and money are said to be <span class="sc">booming</span> when active; and any particular spot within a flourishing district is regarded as
+within the <span class="sc">boom-belt</span>. A successful team or party is said to be a <span class="sc">booming squad</span>, and we <span class="pageNum" id="pb293">[<a href="#pb293">293</a>]</span>even read of <span class="sc">boomlets</span> to express progress of a lesser degree. [Its origin is largely a matter of conjecture,
+but the most probable derivation is from the nautical phrase ‘boom-out,’ signifying
+a vessel running rapidly before the wind; but Murray points out that as various associations
+are probable, and as the actual use of the word has not been regulated by any distinct
+etymological feeling, it is not likely that any derivation will account for all its
+applications.]
+</p>
+<p><i>Subs.</i>—Commercial activity; rapid advance in prices; a flourishing state of affairs—in all
+its applications it is synonymous with extreme vigour and effectiveness. The first
+quotation carries its use back a few years beyond the earliest date given in the <i>New English Dictionary</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Scribner’s Mag.</i>, July, p. 277. Another <span class="sc">boom</span> in prices is to be looked for.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Referee</i>, May 6, p. 3, col. 2. ‘The Merry Duchess’ is a big <span class="sc">boom</span>, and I understand that money is being turned away nightly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">M. Twain</span>, <i>Life on the Mississippi</i>, ch. lvii., p. 499. I lived here in 1857—an extraordinary year there in real-estate
+matters. The <span class="sc">boom</span> was something wonderful. Everybody bought, everybody sold … anything in the semblance
+of a town lot, no matter how situated, was saleable.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Boston Daily Globe.</i> After the Sheridan reception, of course John Sherman must come to Boston. The Ohio
+statesman knows where all the real live <span class="sc">booms</span> start. If Mr. Blaine is wise he also will come to the ‘Hub’ without delay.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Missouri Republican</i>, 16 Feb. ‘Jim, they say thar is a big <span class="sc">bum</span> up at Rome.’ ‘What’s that?’ said Jim. ‘It’s a kind of new tradin’ business what swells
+and shrinks, and the sweller and shrinker stays down in a celler and works the machine.
+They trade in stock.’ ‘Horses and mules?’ said Jim. ‘No, hit’s all on paper, and nobody
+can see what he’s buyin’. You put your money in and wait for a swell. If it comes
+you are all right, but if a shrink comes you are busted, and you feel so ashamed that
+you don’t say anything about it, and it never gets into the papers—nothing but the
+swells gits into the papers.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb, intr.</i>—To go off with a <span class="sc">boom</span>.—<i>See subs.</i> To make rapid and vigorous progress; to advance by leaps and bounds; <i>trans.</i> to push; to puff; to bring into prominence with a rush.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Gilded Age</i>, ch. xxvii. There’s 200,000 dollars coming, and that will set things <span class="sc">booming</span> again.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Scribner’s Mag.</i>, July, p. 272. Stocks may <span class="sc">boom</span> to-day, but droop to-morrow, and with the crash come remorse and repentance. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 277. When stocks are active they are said to be <span class="sc">booming</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">M. Twain</span>, <i>Huckleberry Finn</i>, xiii., 3. We <span class="sc">boomed</span> along down the river, watching for lights and watching for our raft.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean.</i> The city of Paris is said to be diminishing instead of increasing in population.
+They don’t know how to <span class="sc">boom</span> a town over there.
+</p>
+<p>As already stated, <span class="sc">boom</span> enters into many combinations; <span class="sc">boomer</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), <span class="sc">boom-belt</span>, <span class="sc">booming-squad</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New Orleans Picayune.</i> A <span class="sc">boom</span> in North Carolina is not the kind of phenomenon to which we are accustomed here.
+Sales of land at from 2 dols. to 10 dols. an acre in a <span class="sc">boom belt</span> are not of record hereabout.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Chicago Herald.</i> Ben Butterworth, of Ohio, one of the mainstays of John Sherman’s <span class="sc">booming squad</span>, has just had the title of boss Republican tariff debater conferred upon him by the
+culture of Boston.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To top one’s boom off</span>, <i>phr.</i> (nautical).—To be off, or to start in a certain direction.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb294">[<a href="#pb294">294</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">G. Meredith</span>, <i>Harry Richmond</i>, ch. xxxviii., p. 346 (1886). ‘And now <span class="sc">top your boom</span>, and to bed here.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boomer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—1. One who <span class="sc">booms</span> or causes an enterprise to become flourishing, active or notorious. [From <span class="sc">boom</span>, <i>subs.</i>, + <span class="sc">er</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Times</i>, Sept. 26, p. 8. [He] is a North-Western <span class="sc">boomer</span> of great earnestness. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Boston</i> (Mass.) <i>Journal</i>, Aug. 19, p. 2, col. 4. The Oklahoma <span class="sc">boomers</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. Attributively applied to anybody or anything considerably above the average. Thus,
+what English people would call a bouncing lie, an American, if given to slang, would
+call a <span class="sc">boomer</span>; so also a fine woman, a horse with extra good points, etc., etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boomerang</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Figuratively used to signify acts or words, the results of which recoil
+upon the person from whom they originate. The <span class="sc">boomerang</span> is properly an Australian missile weapon which, when thrown, can be made to return
+to the thrower; or which, likewise, can be caused to take an opposite direction to
+that in which it is first thrown.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">Holmes</span>, <i>Modest Request</i>, Poems (1884), 42. Like the strange weapon, which the Australian throws, Your verbal
+<span class="sc">boomerang</span> slaps you on the nose. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Lowell</span>, <i>Among My Books</i>, 1 S. (1873), 219. The <span class="sc">boomerang</span> of argument, which one throws in the opposite direction of what he means to hit.
+[<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booming</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (American).—Flourishing; active; in good form; large; astonishing.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boom</span> and <span class="sc">Boomer</span> in all senses.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boom-Passenger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A sailor’s slang term for a convict on board ship. Derived from the circumstance
+that prisoners on board convict ships were chained to, or were made to crawl along
+or stand on the booms for exercise or punishment.—<i>Hotten.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boon-Companion</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—A comrade in a drinking bout; a good fellow. [<span class="sc">Boon</span> is evidently a corruption of the French <i lang="fr">bon</i>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1566. <span class="sc">Drant</span>, <i>Med. Morall</i>, A. v. He is my <span class="sc">bone</span> companion, it’s he that cheares up me. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Quip</i>, in wks. XI., 220. To seeke good consortes and <span class="sc">boone companions</span> to passe away the day withall.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Terrors of the Night</i>, in wks. III., 228. Our Poets or <span class="sc">boone companions</span> they are out of question.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1600. <span class="sc">W. Kemp</span>, <i>Nine Days’ Wonder</i>, in Arber’s <i>English Garner</i>, vol. VII., p. 27. And coming to my inn, where the host was a very <span class="sc">boon companion</span>, I desired to see him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Arbuthnot</span>, <i>History of John Bull</i>, pt. I., ch. v. This was occasioned by his being a <span class="sc">boon companion</span>, loving his bottle and his diversion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, ch. xxiii. The morning after a debauch is usually one of reflection, even to the
+most customary <span class="sc">boon companion</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1827. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Pelham</i>, ch. lxvii. We went downstairs to our dinner, as charmed with each other as <span class="sc">boon companions</span> always should be.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boon-Companionship</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—Jollity; conviviality.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boon-companion</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Strange Newes</i>, in wks. II., 176. Thinke not, though vnder correction Of your <span class="sc">boone-companionship</span>, I am disposd to be a little pleasant, I condemne you of anie immoderation, either
+in eating or drinking.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Caxtons</i>, pt. XII., ch. iv. A little society, and <span class="sc">boon-companionship</span> … would take Roland out of those gloomy reveries.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb295">[<a href="#pb295">295</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boong.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bung</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boorde.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bord</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boost</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A hoisting; a ‘shove’; a ‘lift’; a ‘push up’—a New England vulgarism.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <span class="sc">Dow</span>, <i>Sermons</i>. Office seekers ask you to give them a <span class="sc">boost</span> into the tree of office. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">T.&nbsp;A. Richards</span>, <i>Rice Fields of the South</i>. [A negro-preacher in South Carolina, <i>loq.</i>] ‘For, my bredderen, little Zaccheus was bound to see the Lord for once, dough he
+had to climb up de tree to do it. And how did he get up der tree? Ah, how did he get
+up der tree, my bredderen? Did he wait for some lazy nigger to bring him a ladder?
+Ah, no, my bredderen. Did he wait to be <span class="sc">boosted</span>? Ah, no, my bredderen. Not a <span class="sc">boost</span>! He climbed right straight up der tree hisself, like de possum, by his own hands
+and feet and de grace of God!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Puck’s Library</i>, May, p. 11. A genius took hold of the business, and gave it a little <span class="sc">boost</span>. He was a man of the times, and he applied his reasoning faculties to the problem
+presented to him. ‘What,’ he asked, ‘is the chief means of success?’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To hoist; to lift up; to shove.—<i>See subs.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848–64. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;R. Lowell</span>, <i>Biglow Papers</i>, II., 106. Whereas ole Abram ’d sink afore he’d let a darkie <span class="sc">boost</span> him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Roughing It</i>, ch. vii. You ought to have seen that spider-legged old skeleton go! and you ought
+to have seen the bull cut out after him, too—head down, tongue out, tail up, bellowing
+like everything, and actually mowing down the weeds, and tearing up the earth, and
+<span class="sc">boosting</span> up the sand like a whirlwind!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Harper’s Magazine</i>, Aug., p. 481, col. 1. <span class="sc">To boost</span> a jurist of so much helpless avoirdupois in through the carriage door.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boosy.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boozy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boot</b>, <i>verb</i> (military).—To beat; to punish with a strap. The punishment is irregular and unconventional,
+being inflicted by soldiers on a comrade discovered guilty of some serious breach
+of the unwritten law of comradeship, such as theft, etc. The beating was formerly
+inflicted with a bootjack—hence the name.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booth</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A house; ‘to heave a <span class="sc">booth</span>,’ <i>i<span>.</span>e.</i>, ‘to rob a house.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booth-Burster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—A loud and noisy actor. A variant of <span class="sc">barn-stormer</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booting</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—A punishment administered with a strap. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Colting</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boot-Joe</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—Musketry drill.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boot-Leg Plan.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">On the boot-leg plan</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bootlick</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A flunkey; hanger-on; or doer of dirty work. [In England such a one is
+called a ‘bootlicker,’ of which <span class="sc">bootlick</span> is probably an abbreviated form.]
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To toady; to hang on; to undertake ‘dirty’ work.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boots</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—1. The servant at hotels and places of a kindred character who cleans
+the boots of visitors. Formerly called boot-catchers, because in the old riding and
+coaching days part of their duty was to divest travellers of their footgear.
+</p>
+<p>2. (military.)—The youngest officer in a regimental mess.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Like old boots</span>—<span class="sc">beans</span>—<span class="sc">bricks</span>—<span class="sc">blazes</span>, etc., <i>phr.</i> (common).<span class="pageNum" id="pb296">[<a href="#pb296">296</a>]</span>—Thoroughly; vigorously. A simile as general in its application as it is irrelevant.
+It may mean anything, everything, and nothing. Why old boots and not new boots is
+beyond comprehension.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Sir Jasper</i>, ch. xxvii., p. 282. I’ll stick to you <span class="sc">like old boots</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <i>Saturday Review</i>, Jan., p. 55. An Oxford man, nay even a Balliol man … introduced in the story a pleasing
+change by such a phrase as jawing away <span class="sc">like old boots</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To buy old boots</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To marry or keep the cast-off mistress of another man.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To die in one’s boots</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boots and Leathers.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Commoner peal</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booty.</b> <span class="sc">To play booty</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To play falsely; dishonestly; or unfairly; this with the object of not winning,
+a previous arrangement having been made with a confederate to share the spoils resulting
+from the bogus play. Sometimes it takes the form of permitting the victim to win small
+stakes in order to encourage him to hazard larger sums which, naturally, he is not
+allowed to win.—<i>See</i> quotation from Dyche.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1575. <i>Frat. of Vacabondes</i>, p. 13. They wil make as much as they can, and consent as though they wil <span class="sc">play booty</span> againt him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman of London</i>, in wks. (Grosart) III., 133. They … haue still an eare how the layes [bets] are
+made, and according to that leuell doe they throw their bowles, so that be sure the
+bowlers <span class="sc">play booty</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1742. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Joseph Andrews</i>, bk. I., ch. ii. The best gamesters, before they laid their money, always inquired
+which horse little Joey was to ride; and the bets were rather proportioned by the
+rider than by the horse himself; especially after he had scornfully refused a considerable
+bribe to <span class="sc">play booty</span> on such an occasion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Booty</span> (s.), plunder, spoil, prize; also a cant word signifying a pretence to one thing,
+and at the same time intends and does the contrary, in order to cheat, impose upon,
+and draw in a person to lay wagers, play at some game, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1776. <span class="sc">Colman</span>, <i>The Spleen</i>, in wks. (1777) IV., 276. Jubilee started and stumbled but, by-the-bye, I believe
+his rider <span class="sc">played booty</span>—Duenna won the stakes, and the knowing ones were all taken in.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. vii. ‘Were he caught <span class="sc">playing booty</span>, he would be disarmed, and probably dismounted.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1831. <span class="sc">Disraeli</span>, <i>Young Duke</i>. One thing remained to be lost—what he called his honour, which was already on the
+scent to <span class="sc">play booty</span>.
+</p>
+<p>So also <span class="sc">booty</span> = playing <span class="sc">booty</span>, and <span class="sc">booty-fellow</span>, a sharer in the plunder.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Booze</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. Drink; a draught. The older forms are <span class="sc">bouse</span> or <span class="sc">bouze</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), but <span class="sc">booze</span> in its present form appears as early as 1714. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 11. <span class="sc">Booze</span>, Drink. [List of cant words.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 6. <i>Jemmy.</i> Gemmen, have you ordered the peck and <span class="sc">booze</span> for the evening? <i>Sold. Suke.</i> Aye, aye, I’ve taken care of that—shoulder of veal and garnish—Turkey and appendleges—Parmesan—Filberds—Port
+and Madery.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, 6 July. <i>Kid.</i> The Music Hall Sports are at Alexandra Park on the 23rd, and there will be rare doings
+on that occasion. Master and Shifter both give prizes, and there will be <span class="sc">booze</span> in our drag.
+</p>
+<p>2. A drinking bout; a tipsy frolic. Murray’s first quote for this form and sense is
+dated 1864; but, from the following, <span class="pageNum" id="pb297">[<a href="#pb297">297</a>]</span>it will be seen to be at least thirty years older. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Jamboree</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, bk. III., ch. v. ‘We’ll have a jolly <span class="sc">boose</span> when all’s over.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>St. James’s Gazette</i>, 19 Dec., p. 4, col. 1. There was a great <span class="sc">booze</span> on board.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple; to guzzle. An old term employed in some sense
+of ‘to drink’ as early as 1300. Also <span class="sc">booze</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Swill</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1814), p. 5. The buriall was tourned to <span class="sc">bousing</span> and belly cheere.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Pierce Penilesse</i>, in wks. II., 91. They should haue all the companie that resort to them, bye <span class="sc">bowzing</span> and beere-bathing in their <span class="sc">bouses</span> every after-noone.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1777. <span class="sc">Colman</span>, <i>Epilogue to Sheridan’s School for Scandal</i>. While good Sir Peter <span class="sc">boozes</span> with the squire.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Barry Lyndon</i>, ch. xiii., p. 173. ‘I wonder, Sir Charles Lyndon, a gentleman who has been the King’s
+ambassador, can demean himself by gambling and <span class="sc">boozing</span> with low Irish black-legs!’
+</p>
+<p>So also <span class="sc">boozed</span> (<i>ppl. adj.</i>), drunk, fuddled; <span class="sc">boozy</span> (<i>adj.</i>), drunken, ‘screwed’; <span class="sc">boozing</span> (<i>verbal subs.</i>), the act of drinking hard; and <span class="sc">boozer</span> (<i>subs.</i>), a drunkard, a tippler—examples of which respectively will be found hereunder in
+sections.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1529. <span class="sc">Skelton</span>, <i>Elynoor Rommin</i>, in <i>Hart. Misc.</i> (ed. Park), I., 416.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Droupy and drowsie, </p>
+<p class="line">Scurvy and lousie </p>
+<p class="line">Her face all <span class="sc">bowsie</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1592. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Quip</i>, in wks. XI., 253. To marke the <span class="sc">bowsie</span> drunkard to dye of the dropsy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Cotgrave</span>, <i>Piailleur</i>: m … a tipler, <span class="sc">bowser</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1616. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>Devil’s an Ass</i>, V., 4. And in the meantime, to be greasy, and <span class="sc">bouzy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. iv., p. 36 (1874). Most part of the night we spent in <span class="sc">boozing</span>, pecking rumly … that is drinking, eating.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1693. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Juvenal</i>, x., 288. Which in his cups the <span class="sc">bowsy</span> poet sings.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>Hudibras Redivivus</i>, vol. II., pt. IV., p. 14. Amongst a Crowd of Sots, half <span class="sc">boozy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1819. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span>, <i>P. Pindar</i>, p. 303, ed. 1830.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">This landlord was a <span class="sc">boozer</span> stout, </p>
+<p class="line">A snuff-taker and smoker. [<span class="sc">d.</span>] </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1848. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Book of Snobs</i>, ch. xxiii. The <span class="sc">boozy</span> unshorn wretch is seen hovering round quays as packets arrive, and tippling drams
+in inn bars where he gets credit.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Book of Snobs</i>, ch. xxxiii. The quantity of brandy-and-water that Jack took showed what a regular
+<span class="sc">boozer</span> he was.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">P. Crook</span>, <i>War of Hats</i>, 50. <span class="sc">Boozed</span> in their tavern dens, The scurril press drove all their dirty pens.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">G. Eliot</span>, <i>Felix Holt</i>, ch. xi. ‘Till they can show there’s something they love better than swilling themselves
+with ale, entension of the suffrage can never mean anything for them but entension
+of <span class="sc">boozing</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday</i>, Aug. 24, p. 267, col. 2.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">In Canton gardens I have <span class="sc">boozed</span>; </p>
+<p class="line">Beneath the palm-trees I have snoozed; </p>
+<p class="line">I’ve seen the alligator smile, </p>
+<p class="line">And peppered at the crocodile. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Boozing Cheat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A bottle. [From <span class="sc">booze</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), drink, + <span class="sc">cheat</span>, from A.S. <i lang="ang">ceat</i>, a thing.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boozing-Ken</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A drinking den. [From <span class="sc">booze</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), drink, + <span class="sc">ken</span>, a place.] A term of long standing. A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">une bibine</i>, but for general synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Lush crib</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1814), p. 65. A <span class="sc">bowsing-ken</span>, a ale house.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Bowsing-ken</span>, an Ale-house.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb298">[<a href="#pb298">298</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1622. <span class="sc">Fletcher</span>, <i>Beggar’s Bush</i>, II., i.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">When last in conference at the <span class="sc">boozing-ken</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">This other day we sat about our dead prince. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 11. <span class="sc">Boozing-ken</span>, an Ale-house. [List of cant words in.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, bk. III., ch. v. The hovel which they termed their <span class="sc">boozing-ken</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boozington</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian thieves’).—A drunkard. [Apparently a formation from <span class="sc">booze</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), to drink, on the model of <span class="sc">lushington</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), an English equivalent.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Elbow crooker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Borachio</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A nickname for a drunkard; formerly a skin for holding wine. For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Elbow crooker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Borak.</b> <span class="sc">To poke borak</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (colonial).—To pour fictitious news into credulous ears; to ‘stuff’; to ‘kid.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1587. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 7 S., iii., 476. <span class="sc">Poke borak</span>, applied in Colonial conversation to the operations of a person who pours fictitious
+information into the ears of a credulous listener.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bord</b>, <b>Borde</b>, <b>Boorde</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A shilling. The origin is unknown. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Blow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i>, p. 85. <span class="sc">Roge</span>, but bouse there a <span class="sc">bord</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, but drink there a shilling.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Boord</span>, a shilling; Halfe a <span class="sc">Boord</span>, sixepence.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Roaring Girle</i>, wks. (1873) III., 219. My Lord Noland … bestowes vpon you two, two <span class="sc">boordes</span> and a half.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). <span class="sc">Borde</span>, a shilling.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. [The same definition.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bordeaux</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—Blood [an allusion to the colour of the wine. <i>Cf.</i> <span class="sc">Claret</span> and <span class="sc">Badminton</span>]. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Claret</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bord You!</b> <i>phr.</i> (nautical).—An expression used to claim the next turn in drinking.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bore</b>, <i>subs.</i> and <i>verb</i> (old slang, but now recognised).—Anybody or anything wearisome or annoying; to weary
+or to be wearied. [The derivation is unknown, and the word does not appear in English
+literature prior to 1750. Hotten’s reference to Shakspeare, <i>King Henry VIII.</i>, i., 1,
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e31485">At this instant </p>
+<p class="line">He <span class="sc">bores</span> me with some trick, </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">is a misreading, ‘bore’ in this instance signifying ‘to stab,’ as the context clearly
+shows.]
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (sporting).—To push or thrust out of the course; and <span class="sc">boring</span>, <i>subs.</i>, the practice of ‘boring.’ Amongst pugilists it signifies to drive an opponent on
+to the ropes of the ring by sheer weight, whilst amongst rowing men it denotes the
+action of a coxswain in so steering a boat as to force his opponent into the shore,
+or into still water, thus obtaining an unfair advantage; also analogously applied
+to horse-racing. The term, as so used, is a very old one, and is derived from the
+persistency of motion of a boring tool.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1672. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Lover’s Quarrels</i>, 317 in Hazl. <i>E. P.</i>, pt. II., 266. He <span class="sc">bor’d</span> him out of the saddle fair.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>. M—rl—y, that very great <span class="pageNum" id="pb299">[<a href="#pb299">299</a>]</span>Count, stood deploring, He hadn’t taught Georgy his new modes of <span class="sc">boring</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <i>The Fancy</i>, vol. I., p. 255. Evans <span class="sc">bored</span> in, and upset his man in the first round.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Edwin Drood</i>, ch. xvii., p. 129. Their fighting code stood in great need of revision, as empowering
+them not only to <span class="sc">bore</span> their man to the ropes, but … also to hit him when he was down.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Born Days.</b> <span class="sc">All One’s Born Days</span>, <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—One’s lifetime.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1740. <span class="sc">Richarsdon</span>, <i>Pamela</i>, III., 383. He never was so delighted in his <span class="sc">born days</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1758. <span class="sc">Richardson</span>, <i>Grandison</i>, I., 103. There was one Miss Byron, a Northamptonshire lady, whom I never saw before
+in my <span class="sc">born days</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1809. <span class="sc">Miss Edgeworth</span>, <i>Ennui</i>, ch. ix. Craiglethorpe will know just as much of the lower Irish as the Cockney who
+has never been out of London, and who has never in all his <span class="sc">born days</span> seen an Irishman but on the English stage.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Born Weak</b>, <i>phr.</i> (nautical).—Said of a vessel feebly built.—<span class="sc">Clark Russell’s</span> <i>Sailors’ Language</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bosh</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Nonsense; rubbish; ‘stuff’; ‘rot’—anything beneath contempt. [The derivation
+is uncertain. Murray says the word became current in England from its frequent occurrence
+in Morier’s Persian novels, <i>Ayesha</i> [1834], etc., most of them extremely popular productions. Its source has been suggested
+in the Turkish <i>bosh lakerdi</i>, ‘empty talk’; in the German <i lang="de">bosh</i> or <i lang="de">bossch</i>, an equivalent of ‘swipes’; and in the Gypsy <i>bosh</i>, ‘a noise,’ <span id="xd33e51334">‘</span>a fiddle,’ from which latter it has been thought that there may be some connection
+between the exclamation <span class="sc">bosh!</span> and <span class="sc">fiddle-de-dee</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Morier</span>, <i>Ayesha</i>, I., 219. This firman is <span class="sc">bosh</span>—nothing, [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">C. Kingsley</span>, <i>Two Years Ago</i>, ch. x. I always like to read old Darwin’s <i>Loves of the Plants</i>, <span class="sc">bosh</span> as it is in a scientific point of view.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch</i>, 10 Jan., p. 9, col. 2. ‘Prophet,’ said I, ‘of things evil!’ ‘Things are going to
+the devil’ Is the formula of fogies, I have heard that <span class="sc">bosh</span> before.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To humbug; to spoil; to mar.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, XXI, 71. You <span class="sc">bosh</span> his joke [a man’s] by refusing to laugh at it; you <span class="sc">bosh</span> his chance of sleep by playing on the cornet all night in the room next to him. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Golden Calf</i>, ch. xiv. ‘And wouldn’t he make a jolly schoolmaster?’ exclaimed Reginald. ‘Boys
+would get on capitally with Jardine. They’d never try to <span class="sc">bosh</span> <i>him</i>.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Intj.</i>—Nonsense! Rubbish! It’s all my eye!—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">All my eye</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Bleak House</i>, ch. xxi. <span class="sc">Bosh!</span> It’s all correct.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, October 30, p. 3, col. 1. ‘You always learn in front of the looking-glass, do you
+not, Mr. Brandram?’—‘<span class="sc">Bosh!</span>’ was the laughing reply. ‘I generally learn my plays and recitations whilst I am
+dressing; but you don’t think I deliberately stand and make monkey-faces in the looking-glass.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bosh Faker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—A violin player. [From Gypsy <i>bosh</i>, a violin, + <span class="sc">faker</span>, a performer or player.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 231.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Can you rocker Romanie </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Can you patter flash, </p>
+<p class="line">Can you rocker Romanie </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Can you <span class="sc">fake a bosh</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Boshing</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A flogging. [Apparently a corrupted form of <span class="sc">bashing</span>.]—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bash</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb300">[<a href="#pb300">300</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boshy</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Trumpery; nonsensical.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bosh</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">F. Anstey</span>, <i>Vice Versâ</i>, ch. iv. ‘There was no dancing, only <span class="sc">boshy</span> games and a conjuror.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bos-Ken</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—A farmhouse. An old canting term. [From L. <i lang="la">bos</i> = <span class="sc">ox</span> + <span class="sc">ken</span>, a house.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Ken</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 472. ‘Up at a <span class="sc">bosken</span> (farm-house) they’ll get among the servant girls.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boskiness</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The quality of being fuddled with drink; bemused; a state of drunkenness.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Judy</i>, 31 August, p. 101. The Town Councillor had a squabble with his parent … and accused
+him of <span class="sc">boskiness</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bosky</b>, <i>adj.</i> (popular).—Drunk; tipsy; fuddled. [Derivation uncertain; <span class="sc">bosky</span> = ‘wooded,’ or ‘bushy,’ and there may be an allusion to the obscurity and overshadowing,
+peculiar to a wooded country. Bailey [1728] has also <span class="sc">bosky</span> = swelled, but does not give the slang sense of the word, although it appears in
+the editions 1730–6. It may, therefore, be a figuratively humorous reading of ‘swelled,’
+<i>i.e.</i>, ‘tight.’] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bosky</span> (<span class="sc">a.</span>), fuddled, half or quite drunk.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <i>Blackw. Mag.</i>, XVI., 573. He may be tipsy, <span class="sc">bosky</span>, cut, or anything but drunk.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Punch</i>, 17 April, p. 185. I got a bit <span class="sc">bosky</span> last night. Has the ’eadache got into my rhymes?
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bosman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—A farmer. [From the Dutch <i lang="nl">bosch-man</i>, one who lives in the woods; otherwise <i lang="nl">Boschje-man</i>, or bushman.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bosken</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 471. ‘I’ve seen the swell <span class="sc">bosmen</span> (farmers) buy the pills to give the people standing about.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boss</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American and English).—1. A master; a head man; one who directs. [From the Dutch
+<i lang="nl">baas</i>, a master.] Few words have acquired a greater hold on American life than this term,
+and the primitive meaning of master, overseer, or superior of any kind, though in
+a large measure retained to this day, has been widened out in every direction. The
+political boss is the leader whose word is law to his henchman. Boss Tweed, of New
+York, is believed to have been the first to bear the title in a semi-official way.
+The phrase <span class="sc">boss rule</span> is said to have been invented by Mr. Wayne MacVeagh, and employed by him in political
+speeches in Chicago. It is now in common use in this sense. In the two first quotations
+the word appears to be used much as in the modern sense. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Governor</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1590. <span class="sc">Marlowe</span>, <i>Tamburlaine</i>, pt. I., Act iii., Sc. 3. <i>Zab.</i> Base concubine, must thou be placed by me, That am the empress of the mighty Turk?
+<i>Zen.</i> Disdainful Turkess and unreverend <span class="sc">boss</span>!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1679. <span class="sc">M. Philipse</span>, <i>Early Voyage to New Netherlands</i> (quoted by De Vere). Here they had their first interview with the female <span class="sc">boss</span> or supercargo of the vessel.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Bartlett</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>. I have never known a second wife but what was <span class="sc">boss</span> of the situation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <i>New York Herald</i>, May 24. The Eternal City is in a very curious position. The Pope has returned to
+his ancestral home; but he has nothing in his pocket, and Rothschild refuses to let
+him have any more money. A thousand years ago, and the boot would have been on t’other
+leg.… To-day it is very <span class="pageNum" id="pb301">[<a href="#pb301">301</a>]</span>different. The Father of Holiness is the dependent of the Jew, and Rothschild is the
+real Pope and <span class="sc">boss</span> of all Europe.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Herald</i>, Jan. 12. Alderman Campbell—I move an amendment to make Hamline the general superintendent
+and chief <span class="sc">boss</span> of this whole gas business.
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—A short-sighted person; also one who squints. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Boss-eyed</span> and <span class="sc">Boss</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p>3. (popular.)—A miss; a blunder. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Boss</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—Pleasant; first rate; chief.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Echo</i>, March 3, p. 1, col. 4. The Americans are acknowledged to be the <span class="sc">boss</span> artificers in wood.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</i>, March 18. Take it all together, with scarcity of food and little sleep, we had a
+hard but a <span class="sc">boss</span> time.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. To manage; direct; control.—<i>See subs.</i>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <i>National Intelligencer</i>, Nov. 3. The little fellow that <span class="sc">bosses</span> it over the crowd.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <i>Athenæum</i>, March 9. A child wishing to charge his sister with being the aggressor in a quarrel
+for which he was punished, exclaimed, ‘I did not <span class="sc">boss</span> the job; it was sister.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Saturday Review</i>, April 28, p. 515, col. 1. It is long since the more respectable inhabitants of America
+have been divided between the convenience of the Irish as hewers of wood and drawers
+of water, and as voters easily <span class="sc">bossed</span> or bribed on the one hand, and the manifold nuisance of them on the other.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Sporting Times</i>, July 6. The Shah has fairly <span class="sc">bossed</span> everything this week—he has been chief actor in our social system.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, July.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">When lovely woman hires a servant </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And <span class="sc">bosses</span> her around all day, </p>
+<p class="line">What makes the girl pray half so fervent </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">As her desire to run away. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">2. (popular.)—To miss one’s aim; to make such a shot as a <span class="sc">boss-eyed</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) person would be expected to make. <span class="sc">Boss-shot</span> is a common phrase.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>N. and Q.</i>, 7 S., iii., 236. <span class="sc">To boss</span> is schoolboy slang for ‘to miss.’
+</p>
+<p>So also derivatives—<span class="sc">bossing</span>, acting as a boss; <span class="sc">bossism</span>, a system of management or wire-pulling; <span class="sc">bossy</span>, pertaining to the qualities of a leader.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bossers</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Spectacles.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Barnacles</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boss-Eyed</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Said of a person with one eye, or rather with one eye injured; a person
+with an obliquity of vision. In this sense sometimes varied by <span class="sc">squinny-eyed</span> and <span class="sc">swivel-eyed</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Also used as a <i>subs.</i>—<span class="sc">Boss-eye.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1884. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Put me some Jam Roll by, Jenny.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Come where the waves roll high, Jenny, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Come where the waves roll high, </p>
+<p class="line">Jenny, old girl, I love you, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Come where the waves roll high. </p>
+<p class="line">Come where the waves roll high, Jenny, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Come where the sea-sick lie, </p>
+<p class="line">Come where we eat salt-junk, love, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Come with your old <span class="sc">bos-eye</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Borgniat</i>; <i lang="fr">cligner des œillets</i> (a military term, ‘to be boss-eyed’); <i lang="fr">boiter des calots</i> (‘to be boss-eyed’); <i lang="fr">calorgne</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bostruchyzer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Oxford University).—A small kind of comb for curling the whiskers.—<i>Hotten.</i> Obsolete.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bot</b>, <b>Bott</b>, <b>Botts</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The colic; belly-ache; gripes. Properly a name given to maggots found in
+the intestines of horses, under the hides of oxen, and in the nostrils of sheep. A
+French equivalent is <i lang="fr">la tourmente</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘the torment.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1787. <span class="sc">Burns</span>, <i>Death and Dr. Hornbook</i>, st. 27.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A countra Laird had ta’en the <span class="sc">batts</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Or some curmurring in his guts. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb302">[<a href="#pb302">302</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="first cit">1816. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Old Mortality</i>, ch. viii. ‘I ne’er gat ony gude by his doctrine, as ye ca’t, but a sour fit o’ the
+<span class="sc">batts</span> wi’ sitting amang the wet moss-hays for four hours at a yoking.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Botanical Excursion</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A thief’s circumlocution for transportation—the allusion being to <span class="sc">Botany Bay</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Botany Bay</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—1. At Oxford, Worcester College is so designated on account of its
+remote situation as regards the bulk of the collegiate buildings. It will be seen
+that a similar reason has caused a certain portion of Trinity College, Dublin, to
+receive an identical nickname. The general idea underlying the term is obviously that
+to get to the places in question one has figuratively to go almost as far as if transported
+to the real <span class="sc">Botany Bay</span>, formerly a convict settlement in New South Wales.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <span class="sc">Lever</span>, <i>Charles O’Malley</i>, ch. xx., <i>note</i>. <span class="sc">Botany Bay</span> was the slang name given by college men to a new square rather remotely situated
+from the remainder of the college [<i>i.e.</i>, Trinity, Dublin].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Adventures of Verdant Green</i>, I., p. 63. A name given to W. College, from its being the most distant college.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’ and prison.)—Penal servitude. Formerly convicts [1787–1867] were transported
+to <span class="sc">Botany Bay</span>, a convict settlement at the Antipodes. Hence to go to <span class="sc">Botany Bay</span> was in popular use for a long term of imprisonment.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Botany-Bay Fever</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Transportation; penal servitude. Convicts condemned to transportation were
+said to have died of, or to have <span class="sc">Botany-Bay fever</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <i>Hempen fever</i> for hanging.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Botch</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A tailor. [An abbreviated form of ‘botcher,’ which has been used for a very
+long period in all the following senses—a cobbler, tailor who does repairs, jobber,
+and an unskilful workman.] Also called a <span class="sc">Snip</span>, which <i>see</i> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle.</b> <span class="sc">To turn out no bottle</span>, <i>phr.</i> (sporting).—Not to turnout well; to fail.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle-Ache</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Drunkenness; also applied to an attack of <i lang="la">delirium tremens</i>. [From <span class="sc">bottle</span>, in allusion to drink causing indisposition, + <span class="sc">ache</span>, a pain or sickness.] There are many curious terms for this effect of intemperance,
+such as Jim-jams, barrel-fever, quart-mania; but for full list of synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Gallon distemper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle-Arsed</b>, <i>adj. phr.</i> (printers’).—Type thicker at one end than the other—a result of wear and tear.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle-holder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A second at a prize-fight, hence—
+</p>
+<p>2. One who gives moral support; a backer; an adviser. In the <i>Times</i> of 1851, Lord Palmerston was reported to consider himself the <span class="sc">bottle-holder</span> of oppressed states: and in <i>Punch</i> of the same year, a cartoon appeared representing that statesman as the ‘judicious
+<span class="sc">bottle-holder</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Ct. Fathom</i> (<span class="sc">l.</span>). An old bruiser makes a good <span class="sc">bottle-holder</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb303">[<a href="#pb303">303</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1816. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Antiquary</i>, ch. xxxix. Petrie … recommends, upon his own experience, as tutor in a family of
+distinction, this attitude to all led captains, tutors, dependents, and <span class="sc">bottle-holders</span> of every description.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>The Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. ii. Cold water, and a little vinegar, applied according to the scientific method
+practised by the <span class="sc">bottle-holders</span> in a modern ring.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Philip</i>, ch. xl. ‘Do you remember his tremendous fight with Biggs?’ ‘Remember? who didn’t?
+Marston was Berry’s <span class="sc">bottle-holder</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle-Holding</b>, <i>verbal subs.</i> (common).—Backing; supporting.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878–80. <span class="sc">Justin MacCarthy</span>, <i>History of Our Own Times</i>, II., p. 115. The noble lord (Palmerston) told the deputation that the past crisis
+was one which required on the part of the British Government much generalship and
+judgment, and that a good deal of judicious <span class="sc">bottle-holding</span> was obliged to be brought into play.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle of Brandy in a Glass</b>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—A glass of beer; a recent and absurd slang introduction.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle of Spruce</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—Twopence. The play of words is upon ‘deuce’ = two.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—Barrett’s Brewery and Bottling Co. Shares.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle-Sucker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—An able-bodied seaman; the abbreviation is A.B.S., and <span class="sc">a bottle-sucker</span> is supposed to be a humorous rendering.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottle-Up</b>, <i>verb</i> (old).—To restrain (temper, feelings, etc.); to keep or hold back.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1622. <span class="sc">T. Scott</span>, <i>Belg. Pismire</i>, 53. Vapours … <span class="sc">botteled up</span> in cloudes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Austin Elliot</i>, ch. xi. Austin played very bad, trumped his partner’s … knave, led out strong suits
+of trumps without any suit to follow, <span class="sc">bottled</span> them when his partner led them first time round.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <i>Cincinnati Commercial</i>, April, p. 637. He will <span class="sc">bottle up</span> his wrath, having had some experience in the line of <span class="sc">bottling up</span> during the war, and pour out his vials upon General Farnsworth’s head, whenever the
+occasion offers.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottom</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—1. The posteriors; not now in literary use. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Blind-cheeks</span> and <span class="sc">Bum</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1794–6. <span class="sc">E. Darwin</span>, <i>Zoon.</i> (1801), III., 253. So as to have his head and shoulders much lower than his <span class="sc">bottom</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822–36. <span class="sc">J. Wilson</span>, <i>Noctes<span id="xd33e52200"></span> Ambr.</i>, xxxix. (1864), iv., 79. The Dunghill cock … hides his head in a hole … unashamed
+of the exposure of his enormous <span class="sc">bottom</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Carlyle</span>, <i>Fr. Rev.</i>, II., iv., i., 185. Patriot women take their hazel wands, and fustigate … broad <span class="sc">bottom</span> of priests.
+</p>
+<p>2. (popular.)—Capital; resources; stamina; ‘grit.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1662. <span class="sc">Fuller</span>, <i>Worthies</i> (1840), II., 451. Beginning on a good <span class="sc">bottom</span> left him by his father.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1747. <span class="sc">Captn. Godfrey</span>, <i>Science of Defence</i>, p. 34. I have mentioned strength and art as the two ingredients of a boxer. But
+there is another, which is vastly necessary; that is, what we call a <span class="sc">bottom</span>.… There are two things required to make this <span class="sc">bottom</span>, that is, wind and spirit, or heart, or wherever you can fix the residence of courage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, pref., p. xv. The peculiarities of this boxer discussed—his power of standing with
+his arms extended for two whole days, without any rest, by which means he wore out
+his adversaries’ <span class="sc">bottom</span>, and conquered without either giving or taking.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>V. Fair</i>, vol. II., ch. xiv. He did not like to dine with Steyne now. They had run races of
+pleasure together in youth when Bareacres was the winner. But Steyne had more <span class="sc">bottom</span> than he, and had lasted him out.
+</p>
+<p>3. (popular.)—Spirit placed in a glass prior to the addition <span class="pageNum" id="pb304">[<a href="#pb304">304</a>]</span>of water. [From <span class="sc">bottom</span>, the lowest surface or part of anything, the foundation, the basis. <i>See</i> peculiar American usage in 1883 quot.] Also used as a verb.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">Sir Theo. Martin</span>, <i>Bon Gaultier Ballads</i>. <span class="sc">Bottomed</span> well with brandy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>Three Clerks</i>, ch. xxxi. Gin and water was the ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one
+of its denizens inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours, generally did so with
+a <span class="sc">bottom</span> of brandy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, 2 July, p. 5, col. 3. Soda and <span class="sc">dark bottom</span> is mentioned in a list of American drinks in this article.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To knock the bottom out of one</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To overcome; to defeat, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Cleveland Leader.</i> The declination of Mr. Blaine, has knocked the <span class="sc">bottom</span> out of Mugwumpery.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottom Dollar</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—The last dollar. The phrase ‘to bet one’s <span class="sc">bottom dollar</span>’ is frequently heard.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottom Facts</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—The exact truth about any matter. To ‘get to the <span class="sc">bottom facts</span>’ concerning a subject, is to arrive at an unquestionable conclusion concerning it;
+or, as is said in England, to get to the root of the question.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Life on the Mississippi</i>, p. 393. You take a family able to emba’m, and you’ve got a soft thing. You can mention
+sixteen different ways to do it—though there aint only one or two ways when you come
+down to the <span class="sc">bottom facts</span> of it—and they’ll take the highest priced way every time. It’s human nature—human
+nature in grief.
+</p>
+<p>The phrase is also varied by <span class="sc">bottom rock</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Omaha World.</i> <span class="sc">Bottom Rock.</span> Conductor (on California train some years hence)—‘All out for Pitholeville.’ Real
+Estate Agent (entering car)—‘Orange groves and apple orchards, two for a penny.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bottomless Pit</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old slang).—A coarse and vulgar name for the female <i>pudenda</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Monosyllable</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Botty</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—An infant’s posteriors; the French say <i lang="fr">tu tu</i>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (popular).—Conceited; swaggering. <span class="sc">To look botty</span> is in French, <i lang="fr">faire sa merde</i>; <i lang="fr">faire son matador</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bough</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The gallows. <span class="sc">Tree</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is used in a similar sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1590. <span class="sc">Swinburn</span>, <i>Testaments</i>, 53. Or in Kent in Gauelkind … for there it is said, the father to the <span class="sc">boughe</span>, and the son to the ploughe. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Spenser</span>, <i>State Irel.</i>, wks. (1862), p. 553, col. 2. Some … have beene for their goods sake caught up, and
+carryed straight to the <span class="sc">bough</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Morris</span>, <i>Earthly Par.</i>, III., iv., 77. If she doom thee to the <span class="sc">bough</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boughs.</b> <span class="sc">Up in the boughs</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—In a passion. Quoted by Grose.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bounce</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Brag; swagger; boastful falsehood and exaggeration.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <span class="sc">Steele</span>, <i>Lover</i> (1723), 93. This is supposed to be only a <span class="sc">bounce</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bounce</span> (<span class="sc">s.</span>) … also the huff, brag, or swaggering of a bully or great pretender.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1765. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Haunch of Venison</i>, l. 14. But hold—let me pause—don’t I hear you pronounce this tale of the bacon a
+damnable <span class="sc">bounce</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Kate Coventry</i>, ch. i. Only tell a man you think him good-looking, and he falls in <span class="pageNum" id="pb305">[<a href="#pb305">305</a>]</span>love with you directly; or if that is too great a <span class="sc">bounce</span>—and indeed very few of them have the slightest pretensions to beauty—you need only
+hint that he rides gallantly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, May, p. 670. The whole heroic adventure was the veriest <span class="sc">bounce</span>, the merest bunkum!
+</p>
+<p>2. Impudence; cheek; <span class="sc">brass</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872–4. <span class="sc">John Forster</span>, <i>Life of Dickens</i>, ch. lx. It is the face of the Webster type, but without the <span class="sc">bounce</span> of Webster’s face.
+</p>
+<p>3. A boaster; swaggerer; showy swindler; bully. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bouncer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Bounce</span>, a person well or fashionably drest is said to be a <span class="sc">rank bounce</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. To boast; bluster; hector; bully; blow up.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1633. <span class="sc">Fletcher</span>, <i>Nt. Walkers</i>, IV., i. I doe so whirle her to the Counsellors’ chambers … and <span class="sc">bounce</span> her for more money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>London Spy</i>, pt. XVIII., p. 428. With lies he tells his Bloody Feats, And <span class="sc">Bounces</span> like a Bully.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bounce</span> (v.), to swagger, boast, crack, stump, or pretend to great matters.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1749. <span class="sc">Walpole</span>, <i>Lett. to Mann</i>, 3 May (1833), vol. II., p. 374. The Lords had four tickets a-piece, and each Commoner
+at first but two, till the Speaker <span class="sc">bounced</span> and obtained a third.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1760. <span class="sc">Colman</span>, <i>Polly Honeycombe</i>, in wks. (1777) IV., 55. Nay, nay, old gentleman, no <span class="sc">bouncing</span>; you’re mistaken in your man, sir!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Geoffrey Hamlyn</i>, ch. v. ‘He’ll be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to
+<span class="sc">bounce</span> me.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily News</i>, July 26, p. 4, col. 8. <span class="sc">To bounce</span> is simply to prevail on persons whose mirth interferes with the general enjoyment
+to withdraw from society which they embarrass rather than adorn.
+</p>
+<p>2. To lie; to cheat; to swindle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1762. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Liar</i>, II., i. If it had come to an oath, I don’t think he would have <span class="sc">bounced</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Austin Elliot</i>, ch. x. ‘It’s them gals, Mr. Austin, got a shilling of mine among un somewhere, and
+wants to <span class="sc">bounce</span> me out of it.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">On the bounce</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—In a state of spasmodic movement; general liveliness.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, June 29. Funny to a degree was it to watch some of the select and chosen of Lord
+Coventry, Major Clements, and those that rule the interior of the Invited Enclosure
+at Ascot. Several well known defaulters would be observed going to and fro ‘<span class="sc">on the bounce</span>,’ including one young gentleman who once signed his surname uninitialled to a cheque
+which was cashed by a confiding tradesman, who took the said endorsement for that
+of his baronial parent.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To get the grand bounce</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—This is equivalent, in political parlance, to dismissal, especially in
+reference to government appointments.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bounceable</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Prone to bouncing or boasting; ‘uppish’; ‘bumptious.’ [From <span class="sc">bounce</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">able</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">S. Warren</span>, <i>Diary of a Late Physician</i>, ch. xvi. As soon as we had exhibited sundry doses of Irish cordial to our friend
+Tip—under the effects of which he became quite <span class="sc">bouncible</span>, and <i>ranted</i> about the feat he was to take a prominent part in.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>David Copperfield</i>, ch. iv. I heard that Mr. Sharp’s wig didn’t fit him; and that he needn’t be so <span class="sc">bounceable</span>—somebody else said ‘bumptious’—about it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bouncer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A bully; hector; blusterer; one who talks swaggeringly. [From the <i>verb</i> <span class="sc">bounce</span>, senses 1 and 2, + <span class="sc">er</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (4 ed.). <span class="sc">Bouncer</span> (<span class="sc">s.</span>), a bully or hectoring bravado.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, IV., 24. Those who cheat the <span class="pageNum" id="pb306">[<a href="#pb306">306</a>]</span>Public … <span class="sc">Bouncers</span> and Besters defrauding, by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves<span id="xd33e52723">’.</span>)—A thief who steals goods from shop counters while bargaining with the tradesman.
+The exact French equivalent is <i lang="fr">dégringoleur</i>, and the practice itself is termed <i lang="fr">dégringoler à la carre</i>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—A lie; a liar. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Whopper</span>. [This usage in many instances completely overlaps sense 4.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1762. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Liar</i>, II., i. He will tell ye more lies in an hour, than all the circulating libraries
+put together will publish in a year … he was always distinguished by the facetious
+appellation of the <span class="sc">bouncer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Peter Simple</i>, ch. xxxi. ‘He’s … such a <span class="sc">bouncer</span>!!… I mean that he’s the greatest liar that ever walked a deck.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">M.&nbsp;E. Braddon</span>, <i>Dead Sea Fruit</i>, ch. xxii. ‘In that case, I should say wait, and put your trust in Time—Time, the
+father of Truth, as Mary Stuart called him when she wanted to go in for a <span class="sc">bouncer</span>,—and oh, what an incredible number of royal <span class="sc">bouncers</span> were carried to and fro in the despatches of that period!’
+</p>
+<p>4. (common.)—Anything large of its kind; a ‘whopper’; a ‘thumper’; a ‘corker.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Saffron Walden</i>, in wks. III., 140. My Book will grow such a <span class="sc">bouncer</span>, that those which buy it must bee faine to hire a porter to carry it after them in
+a basket.
+</p>
+<p>5. (American.)—A man who ejects; a ‘<span class="sc">chucker-out</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily News</i>, July 26, p. 4, col. 8. The other fresh American type is less remarkable—the <span class="sc">bouncer</span>. One might suppose that a <span class="sc">bouncer</span> was a noisy braggart; but no. A scientific writer in the <i>Nation</i> describes a <span class="sc">bouncer</span> as a ‘silent, strong man.’ Every one who mixes much in society in Whitechapel will
+understand the functions of the <span class="sc">bouncer</span> when we explain that he is merely the English ‘chucker-out.’
+</p>
+<p>6. (harlotry.)—A prostitute’s companion; ponce; bully. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Ponce</span>.
+</p>
+<p>7. (naval.)—A gun that ‘kicks’ when fired.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bouncing</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Vigorous; lusty; exaggerated; excessive; big. This word has manifold meanings,
+referring, in its various senses, to largeness of size, vigour of action, with the
+idea of ungainliness rather than elegance. It is, as will be seen, of long continued
+use.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1563. <i>Jacke Jugder</i>, p. 42 (ed. Grosart). And made you a banket [banquet], and <span class="sc">bouncing</span> cheare.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1588. <i>Marprelate’s Epistle</i>, p. 14 (ed. Arber). For there must bee orders of ministers in the congregation where
+you meane this <span class="sc">bounsing</span> priest should haue superiortie.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1611. <span class="sc">Middleton</span>, <i>Roaring Girle</i>, Act iii., Sc. 3. The duck that sits is the <span class="sc">bouncing</span> ramp, that roaring girl my mistress.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Rod. Random</i>, ch. xix. While I was at work in the shop, a <span class="sc">bouncing</span> damsel, well dressed, came in.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, ch. ii. By the side of many tall and <span class="sc">bouncing</span> young ladies in the establishment, Rebecca Sharp looked like a child.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bouncing Cheat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A bottle. [<span class="sc">Bouncing</span>, probably, says Grose, an allusion to the explosive noise made in drawing a cork,
++ <span class="sc">cheat</span>, a thing = Anglo Saxon <i lang="ang">ceat</i> of the same meaning.] The French equivalent is <i lang="fr">une rouillarde</i> or <i lang="fr">rouille</i>, said to be derived from <i lang="fr">rouler</i>. Empty bottles, it may be mentioned, are known as <span class="sc">dead-men</span>; <span class="sc">camp-candlesticks</span>; <span class="sc">dead-marines</span>; <span class="sc">fellow-commoners</span>, etc. For other synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dead-men</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb307">[<a href="#pb307">307</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bounder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A four-wheeled cab or <span class="sc">growler</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). [Supposed to be an allusion to the jolting motion caused when travelling over a
+rough road, a fact intensified by the indifferent springs upon which such vehicles
+are often hung.]
+</p>
+<p>2. (University.)—A student whose manners are not acceptable; one whose companionship
+is not cared for.
+</p>
+<p>3. (University.)—A dog-cart. <i>Cf.</i>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p>4. (common.)—A vulgar though well-dressed man; a superior kind of ‘’Arry’; one whose
+dress and personal appearance are correct, but whose manners are of a questionable
+character. The term is very often used in connection with <span class="sc">bally</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). a <span class="sc">bally-bounder</span> is one of the most objectionable of the genus. A synonymous term is <span class="sc">snide</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and French equivalents are <i lang="fr">un mufe</i> and <i lang="fr">un espèce de cafouilleux</i>. A curious instance of French back-slang is found in another name—<i lang="fr">un lof</i>, <i lang="fr">loff</i>, <i lang="fr">loffard</i>, <i lang="fr">loffe</i>; <i lang="fr">lof</i> here is <i lang="fr">fol</i> reversed, <i>i.e.</i>, mad, senseless, foolish.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bound To Be Had</b>, <b>Bound To Shine</b>, etc., <i>ppl. adj.</i> (colloquial).—This expression enters into many slang phrases; for instance, when
+it seems certain that a man will be out-witted, cheated, or ‘bested,’ it is said of
+him that he is <span class="sc">bound to be had</span>; similarly, a man fated or resolved to distinguish himself is <span class="sc">bound to shine</span>. The colloquial use of <span class="sc">bound</span> dates back as far as 1360, but the peculiar expressions which bring it within the
+category of slang, are of much later origin. The following quotation will illustrate
+the usage in question, and further examples will be found under <span class="sc">had</span>, <span class="sc">shine</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Hartford Post</i>, July 14. When the public have an opportunity of examining this beautiful steamer,
+they will pronounce her the finest and most comfortable boat they have ever visited,
+and be satisfied that she is <span class="sc">bound to shine</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boung.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bung</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boung-Nipper.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bung-nipper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bounty-Jumper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A term applied to men who, receiving a bounty when enlisting, desert,
+re-enlist, and receive a second bounty. [From <span class="sc">bounty</span>, a gratuity given to recruits on joining the army or navy, + <span class="sc">jumper</span>, a slang term for one who decamps surreptitiously.] The War of the Rebellion is responsible
+for this, as for many other colloquialisms. As the conflict lengthened out, men became
+in great request, and large bounties were offered by the North for volunteers. This
+bounty was found in many cases to be a direct incitement with unprincipled men to
+bad faith and unfair dealing. Such would enlist, receive their bounty, join their
+regiment, and then decamp, to reappear in another State, to go through the same performance.
+Cases were known where this was done many times over, and the practice was called
+<span class="sc">bounty-jumping</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jumping</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <span class="sc">Higginson</span>, <i>History of United States</i>, p. 306. Bringing into the service many <span class="sc">bounty-jumpers</span>, who enlisted merely for money, and soon deserted to enlist again.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb308">[<a href="#pb308">308</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit"><i lang="la">ante</i> 1880. <i>Song of the Bounty-Jumper</i> (quoted in Bartlett).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">My song is of a fast young man whose name was Billy Wires; </p>
+<p class="line">He used to run with the machine, and go to all the fires: </p>
+<p class="line">But as he lov’d a soldier’s life, and wished strange things to see, </p>
+<p class="line">So the thought struck him that he would go and jump the <span class="sc">bounti-e</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bounty-Jumping</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Obtaining a bounty by enlisting and then deserting. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bounty-jumper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Illus. Lon. News</i>, May 14, 552, 1. In the Civil War in America between the Northern and Southern States,
+<span class="sc">bounty-jumping</span>, or enlisting, and obtaining the bounty in several regiments, and then deserting,
+rose to the dignity of a fine art.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bourbon</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—1. A Democrat of the straitest sect; a fire-eater. Applied, for the most
+part, to the Southern Democrats of the old school. This use of the word probably ante-dates
+the Civil War, but no instance of such use has been found in print. Bourbon County,
+Kentucky, is popularly associated with this kind of Democrat, but we must look to
+the old Bourbon party in France—uncompromising adherents of political tradition—for
+its true paternity.
+</p>
+<p>2. A superior kind of whiskey; originally applied to that manufactured in Bourbon,
+Kentucky. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bouse</b>, <b>Bowse</b>, <b>Booze</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Applied to drink or liquor of any kind. In the sixteenth century <span class="sc">bouse</span> formed part of the cant of beggars and thieves; latterly the word, whether as substantive
+or verb, has become colloquial. [Thought to be derived from the Dutch <i lang="nl">busen</i>, to drink to excess.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1814), p. 65. <span class="sc">Bowse</span>, drinke.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Bowse</span>, drinke.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1633. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>New Way to Pay Old Debts</i>, I., i. <i>Well.</i> No <span class="sc">bouse</span>? nor no tobacco?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bouze</span>, etc., drink.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> As above.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A drinking bout; a carouse. This sense is more frequently current than sense
+1.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To drink to excess; to tipple; to ‘swill.’ Both this and the substantive seem to
+have been known as early as 1300, but neither came into general use until the sixteenth
+century, from which period both forms have become more and more colloquial. For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Lush</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i>, p. 32. They bowle and <span class="sc">bowse</span> one to another, and for the tyme <span class="sc">bousing</span> belly chere.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Pierce Penilesse</i>. Who surmise, if there were no playes, they should have all the companie that resort
+to them bye <span class="sc">bowzing</span> and beere-bathing in their houses everie afternoone.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1615. <span class="sc">Harington</span>, <i>Epigrams</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Yet such the fashion is of Bacchus crue </p>
+<p class="line">To quaffe and <span class="sc">bowze</span>, until they belch and spue. </p>
+<p class="line">Well, leave it, Marcus, else thy drinking health. </p>
+<p class="line">Will prove an eating to thy wit and wealth. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">So also <span class="sc">bouser</span>, a toper; <span class="sc">bousing</span>, hard drinking; and <span class="sc">bousy</span>, intoxicated or ‘screwed.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Bouse the jib</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (nautical).—To tipple; to drink heavily.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Lush</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bousing Ken</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A tavern; inn; or drinking den; <span class="pageNum" id="pb309">[<a href="#pb309">309</a>]</span>now applied to a low public house. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Lush crib</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i>. <i>Man.</i> What, stowe your bene, cofe, and cut benat whydds, and byng we to rome vyle, to nyp
+a bong; so shall we haue lowre for the <span class="sc">bousing ken</span>, and when we byng back to the deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans,
+or myll the ken for a bagge of dudes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1652. <span class="sc">Brome</span>, <i>Jovial Crew</i>, II., wks. (1873) III., 390 … As Tom or Tib When they at <span class="sc">bowsing ken</span> do swill.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 27. But notwithstanding the Protean nature of the <i>Flash</i> or <i>Cant</i> language, the greater part of its vocabulary has remained unchanged for centuries,
+and many of the words used by the Canting Beggars in Beaumont and Fletcher, and the
+Gipsies in Ben Jonson’s Masque, are still to be heard among the <i>Gnostics</i> of Dyot-street and Tothill-fields. To <i>prig</i> is still to steal; to <i>fib</i>, to beat; <i>lour</i>, money; <i>duds</i>, clothes; <i>prancers</i>, horses; <span class="sc">bouzing-ken</span>, an alehouse; <i>cove</i>, a fellow; a <i>sou’s baby</i>, a pig, etc., etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bouzy.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boozy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bow.</b> <span class="sc">Two (or many) strings to one’s bow</span>, <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—To have an alternative; more resources than one. The phrase sometimes
+formerly ran <span class="sc">to have many strings to the bow</span>. Numerous figurative expressions in all languages indicate the dominant pursuits
+of the respective nations; the English abounds in habitual phrases testifying to the
+engrossing avocations in all times. It is in this manner that <span class="sc">to have two strings to one’s bow</span> has passed into proverbial usage. In the fourteenth century—a Frenchman, Gaston de
+Foix, said of our ancestors, ‘Of <span class="sc">bows</span> I know not much, but who would know more, let him go to England, for that is truly
+their business.’ In the olden time, archery, as the dominant pursuit, gave figures
+of speech to the language—with the very pith of wisdom or Saxon sarcasm. If you made
+an enemy’s machinations recoil upon himself, you ‘outshot a man in his own <span class="sc">bow</span>.’ If you are a cautious man, ‘Always have <span class="sc">two strings to your bow</span>,’ and ‘Get the shaft-hand of your adversaries,’ or ‘Draw not thy <span class="sc">bow</span> before thy arrow be fixed.’ Of course, if you can ‘Kill two birds with one shaft,’
+so much the better. Never ‘shoot wide of the mark’—that is, don’t make a foolish guess
+on a subject you know nothing about. Of useless, silly conversation, our ancestors
+said—‘The fool’s bolt is soon shot’; and if a man evidently exaggerated, he was said
+to ‘draw a long <span class="sc">bow</span>.’ If a man’s pretensions were not in accordance with the facts of his case—in other
+words, if he came under the category of ‘false pretences’—it was said that he ‘had
+a famous <span class="sc">bow</span>, but it was up at the Castle.’ Vain military and other boasters were the many who
+‘talked of Robin Hood, but who never shot his <span class="sc">bow</span>.’ ‘An archer is known by his aim, and not by his arrows’; that is, if you are not
+answerable for your materials, at least show your skill in the <i lang="la">modus operandi</i>; or at all events, don’t depend entirely upon your tool.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1562. <span class="sc">Heywood</span>, <i>Prov. and Epigr.</i> (1867), 30. <span class="sc">Ye have many stryngis to the bowe.</span> [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1588. <i>Marprelate’s Epistle</i>, p. 18 (ed. Arber). Doe you not thinke that I haue <span class="sc">two strings to my bow</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb310">[<a href="#pb310">310</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1606. <span class="sc">John Day</span>, <i>Isle of Gulls</i>, Act ii., Sc. 2, p. 39. A wise man’s <span class="sc">bow</span> goes with a <span class="sc">two-fold string</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Rod. Random</i>, ch. xvii. He was resolved to have <span class="sc">two strings to his bow</span>, that in case the one failed, he might use the other.
+</p>
+<p>(?) <span class="sc">T. Brown</span>, wks. IV., 115, ed. 1760. A man in Amsterdam is suffer’d to have but one religion,
+whereas in London he may have <span class="sc">two strings to his bow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">Mrs. Riddell</span>, <i>For Dick’s Sake</i>, ch. iv., p. 11 (S.P.C.K.). She had a <span class="sc">second string to her bow</span>, which suited her far better; and she sent Dick back his letters and his presents,
+and a note beginning, ‘Dear sir,’ and ending ‘Yours truly.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To draw the long bow</span>, <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—To exaggerate; to ‘gas’; to ‘talk up.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819–24. <span class="sc">Byron</span>, <i>Don Juan</i>, xvi., 1. They … <span class="sc">draw the long bow</span> better now than ever.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To draw the bow up to the ear</span>, <i>phr.</i> (colloquial).—To do a thing with alacrity; ‘to put on full steam’; to exert oneself
+to the utmost.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <i>Macmillan’s Mag.</i>, Feb., p. 258. So Miller, the coxswain, took to <span class="sc">drawing the bow up to the ear</span> at once.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bow-Catcher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A kiss-curl. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Aggerawator</span>. [A corruption of ‘beau-catcher.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bell-rope</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowdlerize</b>, <i>verb</i> (colloquial).—To expurgate by removing offensive or questionable words from a book
+or writing. [From Dr. T. Bowdler’s method in editing an edition of Shakspeare, in
+which, to use his own words, ‘Those … expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety
+be read aloud in a family.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Gen. P. Thompson</span>, <i>Let. in Exerc.</i> (1842), IV., 124. Among the names … are many, like Hermes, Nereus, … which modern
+ultra-christians would have thought formidably heathenish; while Epaphroditus and
+Narcissus they would probably have <span class="sc">bowdlerized</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 4 S., vi., p. 47. No profane hand shall dare, for me, to curtail my Chaucer, to
+<span class="sc">bowdlerise</span> my Shakspeare, or to mutilate my Milton.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;L. Linton</span>, <i>Patricia Kemball</i>, ch. iii. Her uncle had not made her read much beside the Bible and Shakspeare, which
+last he had <span class="sc">bowdlerised</span> on his own account with a broad pen and very thick ink.
+</p>
+<p>From this comes <span class="sc">bowdlerization</span>, squeamish emasculation of a work; also <span class="sc">bowdlerizer</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Westm. Review</i>, April, p. 583. The <span class="sc">bowdlerization</span> which the Editor has thought necessary is done in an exceedingly awkward and clumsy
+fashion.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bower</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A prison—a transferred usage of the orthodox word. For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowery Boy</b>, <b>Bowery Girl</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—The ’Arry and ’Arriet of New York of some years ago. The <span class="sc">Bowery</span> is a well known thoroughfare in the American metropolis. [Formerly spelt <i lang="nl">bouwerij</i>, and derived from <i lang="nl">bouw</i>, tillage, or <i lang="nl">bouwen</i>, to till, to cultivate, being equivalent to the modern Dutch word <i lang="nl">boerderij</i>, a farm, or the business of farming. The <span class="sc">Bowery</span> was the farm of Governor Stuyvesant.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blood tub</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowlas</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 208. <span class="sc">Bowlas</span>, or round tarts made of sugar, apple, and bread.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowled</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (Winchester).—<span class="sc">Croppled</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb311">[<a href="#pb311">311</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowler.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boler</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Shoes. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Trotter-cases</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowl Out</b>, <i>verb</i> (popular).—To overcome; to get the better of; to defeat. [Formerly a cricketing term—to
+bowl a man out by displacing the bails.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bowl over</span>. Among thieves it signifies, in a transitive form, to be arrested or ‘lagged.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Bowled out</span>, when he [a thief] is ultimately taken, tried, and convicted [he] is said <span class="sc">to be bowled out</span> at last.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. iii. The polite and accomplished adventurer, who nicked you out of your money
+at White’s, or <span class="sc">bowled you out of it</span> at Marybone.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">F.&nbsp;E. Smedley</span>, <i>Lewis Arundel</i>, ch. xxiv. ‘He’s handsomer than you are; if you don’t mind your play, he’ll <span class="sc">bowl you out</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. ii., p. 121. Now and again a warder does get <span class="sc">bowled out</span>, and comes to grief. At the very least he loses his situation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowl Over</b>, <i>verb</i> (popular).—To defeat; to worst. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bowl out</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>Cornhill Mag.</i>, p. 729. You have <span class="sc">bowled me over</span>, and I know I can’t get up again.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">Stanley</span>, <i>Through the Dark Continent</i>, II., p. 291. I sent in a zinc bullet close to the ear, which <span class="sc">bowled</span> it [the rhinoceros] over, dead.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>The Duke’s Children</i>, ch. xlvii. He confessed to himself that he was completely <span class="sc">bowled over</span>,—‘knocked off his pins!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowl the Hoop</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—Soup.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowman</b>, <i>adv.</i> (old).—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> [1889], p. 11. Help! ejaculated Wood, renewing his cries. Arrest! Jigger closed!
+shouted a hoarse voice in reply. All’s <span class="sc">bowman</span>, my covey. Fear nothing. We’ll be upon the ban-dogs before they can shake their trotters!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowse.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Booze</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowsing Ken.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bousing ken</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowsprit</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The nose.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Boltsprit</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To have one’s bowsprit in parenthesis</span> is to have it pulled. ‘To have one’s head in Coventry’ will occur to mind as another
+English slang phrase very similar in character.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bow-Window</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A stomach of large proportions. [A bay or <span class="sc">bow-window</span> is properly a curved window, hence the transference of the term to a big belly.]
+Also <span class="sc">bow-windowed</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, big-bellied.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Poor Jack</i>, ch. i. He was a very large man … with what is termed a considerable <span class="sc">bow-window</span> in front.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849–50. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, xxxiv. (1884), 334. Look at that very <span class="sc">bow-windowed man</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, May 6. She was what is vulgarly called <span class="sc">bow-windowed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bow-Wow</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A childish name for a dog.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1800. <span class="sc">Cowper</span>, <i>Beau’s Reply</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Let my obedience then excuse </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">My disobedience now, </p>
+<p class="line">Nor some reproof yourself refuse </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">From your aggrieved <span class="sc">bow-wow</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">18(?82). <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘I haven’t for a long time now.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I used to have a sweetheart, once, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A precious little pearl! </p>
+<p class="line">Indeed she was—she really was, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">A very charming girl. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb312">[<a href="#pb312">312</a>]</span></p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I sang outside her door each night </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Till her father bought a big <span class="sc">bow-wow</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">But I haven’t—haven’t— </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I haven’t for a long time now! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">2. (old.)—A Bostonian—a term of contempt.
+</p>
+<p>3. (popular.)—A cavalier; lover; specially applied to a man who dangles after a woman.
+Also <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tame cat</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Chamb. Journal</i>, 12 March, p. 173. Mrs. Brittomart was one of those who never tolerated a <span class="sc">bow-wow</span>—a species of animal well known in India—and never went to the hills as a ‘grass-widow.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bow-Wow-Mutton</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Dog’s flesh. [From <span class="sc">bow-wow</span>, a humorous term for a dog, + <span class="sc">mutton</span>, here used generically for meat.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bow-Wow-Word</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A term applied sarcastically by Max Müller to words for which it is claimed
+that they are in imitation of natural sounds, <i>i.e.</i>, <span class="corr" id="xd33e53884" title="Source: onamatopoetic">onomatopoetic</span> words, of which a full list will be found under <span class="sc">Cachunk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bowyer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—One who draws a ‘long bow’; a dealer in the marvellous; a teller of improbable
+stories; a liar.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Long bow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Box</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A prison cell.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, p. 89.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">In a <span class="sc">box</span> of the stone-jug I was born, </p>
+<p class="line">Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn </p>
+<p class="line xd33e53921">Fake away. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1878. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 5 S., x., p. 214. The <span class="sc">box</span> in the stone-jug is doubtless a cell.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (Westminster School).—To take possession of; ‘to bag.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be in a box</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To be cornered; in a fix; ‘stuck’ or ‘hung up.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be in the wrong box</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (colloquial).—To be out of one’s element; to be in a false position; mistaken. Brewer
+traces this to Lord Lyttelton, who, being of rather a melancholy disposition, used
+to tell his friends that when he went to Vauxhall he was always supposing pleasure
+to be in the next box to his, or at least that he himself was so unhappily situated
+as always <span class="sc">to be in the wrong box</span> for it. The only objection to be raised to this story is that the phrase is a very
+old one, of which the derivation is now lost.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1554. <span class="sc">Ridley</span> (‘Foxe,’ 1838), vi., 438. Sir, quoth I, if you will hear how St. Augustine expoundeth
+that place, you shall perceive that you are <span class="sc">in a wrong box</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1588. <span class="sc">J. Udall</span>, <i>Distrephes</i>, p. 31. I perceive that you and I are <span class="sc">in a wrong box</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. xliii. ‘That, I grant you, must be confessed: doctor, I’m afraid we have got
+<span class="sc">into the wrong box</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Midshipman Easy</i>, ch. x. ‘Take care your rights of man don’t get you <span class="sc">in the wrong box</span>—there’s no arguing on board of a man-of-war.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">On the box</span>, <i>phr.</i> (workmen’s).—A man when on strike and in receipt of strike pay is said to be <span class="sc">on the box</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Daily News</i>, 19 Nov., p. 6, col. 7. The ‘Blackleg’ Question Arising. As these have to be allowed
+strike pay in order to keep them out of temptation, the number of men <span class="sc">on the box</span>, as they say in the North, may be taken to be a thousand.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Box Harry</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (commercial travellers’).—Among bag-men to take dinner and tea together; <span class="pageNum" id="pb313">[<a href="#pb313">313</a>]</span>‘dining out,’ <i>i.e.</i>, doing without a meal at all.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Box Hat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A silk hat. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cady</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Box-Irons</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Shoes. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Trotter-cases</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 173. Shoes. <i>Hockey-dockies</i>, or <span class="sc">Box-irons</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Box of Dominoes</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—The mouth. [From <span class="sc">box + dominoes</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a slang term for the teeth.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Potato-trap</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Box the Compass</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (nautical).—To repeat in succession, or irregularly, the thirty-two points of the
+compass; beginners on accomplishing this feat are said to be able to <span class="sc">box the compass</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. vi. ‘A light, good-humoured, sensible wench, who knows very well how to <span class="sc">box her compass</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <span class="sc">Chambers</span>, <i>Cycl. Supp.</i> <span class="sc">Boxing</span>, among sailors, is used to denote the rehearsing the several points of the compass
+in their proper order. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Midsh. Easy</i>, xviii. I can raise a perpendicular … and <span class="sc">box the compass</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <span class="sc">Smyth</span>, <i>Sailors’ Word Book</i>. <span class="sc">To box the compass.</span> Not only to repeat the names of the thirty-two points in order and backwards, but
+also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its division.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Box the Jesuit</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cockroaches</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. Champagne. [A story, <i lang="it">ben trovato</i>, is told by the <i>Sporting Times</i> of June 30, 1882, as regards the origin of the phrase:—At a shooting party in Norfolk
+once, a youth was told off to supply the company with champagne. The day being hot
+and the sportsmen thirsty, cries of ‘Boy! Boy! Boy!’ were heard all day long. This
+tickling the fancy of the royal and noble party, the term ‘<span class="sc">boy</span>’ became applied to champagne.] Also called <span class="sc">fiz</span> and <span class="sc">cham</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). The latter form is nearly reproduced in the French slang, <i lang="fr">le champ</i>; they also brutally speak of this wine as <i lang="fr">coco épileptique</i>, another epithet being <i lang="fr">cidre élégant.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, vol. LXXXII., p. 69, col. 2. ‘The fine young London Gentleman.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">He will say that port and sherry his nice palate always cloy; </p>
+<p class="line">He’ll nothing drink but ‘B. and S.’ and big magnums of <span class="sc">the boy</span>; </p>
+<p class="line">He’s the darling of the Barmaid, and the honest waiter’s joy, </p>
+<p class="line">As he quaffs his Pommery ‘Extra Sec,’ his ‘Giesler’ or ‘Ivroy,’ </p>
+<p class="line">Like a fine young London Gentleman, </p>
+<p class="line">Quite of the present style. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, vol. LXXXII., p. 155, col. 1. Dined with Tom and Corky at a new place they had discovered,
+and raved of. Of course, beastly dinner, but very good <span class="sc">boy</span>. Had two magnums of it.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Punch</i>, August 18, p. 84, col. 1. Shall it be B.-and-S., or bumpers of the <span class="sc">boy</span>?
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A hump on a man’s back. In low circles it is usual to speak of a humpbacked
+man as two persons—‘him and his <span class="sc">boy</span>,’ and from this much coarse fun and personality are at times evolved.
+</p>
+<p>3. (Anglo-Indian and colonial.)—A servant of whatever age.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Old boy</span>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A familiar term of address. <i>The</i> <span class="sc">old boy</span> is one’s father; the ‘guv’nor,’ or ‘boss.’ Sometimes <span class="sc">my boy</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb314">[<a href="#pb314">314</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1602. <span class="sc">Shaks.</span>, <i>Twel. N.</i>, ii., 4, 122. But di’de thy sister of her loue <span class="sc">my boy</span>? [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1740. <span class="sc">Richardson</span>, <i>Pamela</i>, III., 380. Never fear, <span class="sc">old boy</span>, said Sir Charles, we’ll bear our Parts in Conversation. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. The devil. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Skipper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835–40. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>Clockmaker</i>, (1862), 140. As we invigorate the form of government (as we must do, or go to the
+<span class="sc">old boy</span>).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Yellow boy</span>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A guinea; also, one pound sterling. [From the colour.] As will be seen
+the term is an old one. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Canary</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Wild Gallant</i>, Act i.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">How now, <span class="sc">yellow boys</span>, by this good light! </p>
+<p class="line">Sirrah, varlet, how came I by this gold? </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1712. <span class="sc">Arbuthnot</span>, <i>History of John Bull</i>, pt. I., ch. vi. There wanted not <span class="sc">yellow boys</span> to fee counsel, hire witnesses, and bribe juries.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Old Curiosity Shop</i>, ch. xlii. ‘The delight of picking up the money—the bright, shining <span class="sc">yellow boys</span>—and sweeping ’em into one’s pocket!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Boys</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—This word is very generally in use in the plural. Thus, bookmakers speak
+of their fellows, in the aggregate, as the <span class="sc">boys</span>; and it must be noted as a curious fact that on race-courses the whole army of the
+swindling and thieving fraternity are so designated.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Angry</span> or <span class="sc">roaring boys</span>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A set of young <span class="sc">bucks</span>, <span class="sc">bloods</span> or <span class="sc">blades</span> (<i>q<span>.</span>v.</i>), of noisy manners and ‘fire-eating’ tastes. Nares says ‘like the <span class="sc">Mohawks</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>) described by the <i>Spectator</i>, they delighted to commit outrages and get into quarrels. Early mention is made of
+such characters. Wilson, in his <i>Life of James I.</i> [1653], gives an account of their origin:—The king minding his sports, many riotous
+demeanours crept into the kingdom; divers sects of vicious persons, going under the
+title of <span class="sc">roaring boys</span>, bravadoes, roysterers, etc., commit many insolencies; the streets swarm, night and
+day, with bloody quarrels, private duels fomented, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i lang="la">Tu<span id="xd33e54351"></span> Quoque</i>, Old Plays, vii., 25.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">This is no <span class="sc">angry</span>, nor no <span class="sc">roaring boy</span>, but a blustering boy. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1609. <span class="sc">Ben Jonson</span>, <i>Epicœne</i>, i., 4. The doubtfulness of your phrase, believe it, sir, would breed you a quarrel
+once an hour with the <span class="sc">terrible boys</span>, if you should but keep ’em fellowship a day.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Ben Jonson</span>, <i>Alchemist</i>, iii., 4.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Sir, not so young, but I have heard some speech </p>
+<p class="line">Of the <span class="sc">angry boys</span>, and seen ’em take tobacco. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1616. <span class="sc">Beaumont and Fletcher</span>, <i>Scornful Lady</i>, iv., 1.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Get thee another nose, that will be pull’d </p>
+<p class="line">Off, by the <span class="sc">angry boys</span>, for thy conversion. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Boys of the Holy Ground</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—Formerly [1800–25] bands of roughs infesting a well-known region in St. Giles.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Holy Land</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 7.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">For we are the <span class="sc">boys of the holy ground</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">And we’ll dance upon nothing and turn us round. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Brace</b>, <i>verb</i> (American thieves’).—To get credit by swagger.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Brace it through</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—To succeed by dint of sheer impudence. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Brace up</span>, ‘to gird oneself up,’ ‘to buckle to.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bracelets</b>, <i>subs.</i> (familiar).—Handcuffs; fetters for the wrist. [Derivation obvious.] <span class="pageNum" id="pb315">[<a href="#pb315">315</a>]</span>French thieves call them <i lang="fr">les alliances</i>, properly ‘wedding rings’; also <i lang="fr">la tartouve</i> and <i lang="fr">les lacets</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Darbies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1661. <i>Wit and Drollery</i>, quoted in Disraeli <i>Cur. of Wit</i>. (Tom O’Bedlams.) [Fetters are called <span class="sc">bracelets</span> in a song in this work.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. lv., p. 371 (1874). Fetters confined my legs from stragling, and <span class="sc">bracelets</span> were clapt upon my arms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i> (1889), p. 62. ‘Thank you—thank you!’ faltered Jack, in a voice full of emotion.
+‘I’ll soon free you from these <span class="sc">bracelets</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>James the Second</i>, bk. I., ch. ii. ‘It may be, young squire, you’ll have to go … with a pair of <span class="sc">bracelets</span> on your wrists, and pay your next reck’nin’ to the gov’nor of Newgate.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. v., p. 359. He travels with other people who are also bound to London, and who,
+seeing him handcuffed, know very well his steel <span class="sc">bracelets</span> are not the insignia of honour.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brace of Shakes</b>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—In a moment; ‘jiffy’; ‘twinkling of an eye,’ etc.—<i>See</i>, however, <span class="sc">Shakes</span>. The expression is sometimes <span class="sc">a couple</span>, instead of <span class="sc">a brace of shakes</span>. A French equivalent is <i>far-far</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham, I. L.</span> (<i>Babes in the Wood</i>). I’ll be back in a <span class="sc">couple of shakes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Ouida</span>, <i>Under Two Flags</i>, ch. xii. ‘But I’ve a trick with a ’oss that’ll set that sort o’ thing—if it ain’t
+gone too far, that is to say—right in a <span class="sc">brace of shakes</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Cornhill Mag.</i>, Jan., p. 101. ‘If there were any boys at Oppingbury now like those who were here
+when I was young, they’d break the window in a <span class="sc">couple of shakes</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brace Up</b>, <i>verb</i> (thieves’).—1. To pawn stolen goods—generally to their utmost value.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American.)—To take a drink. [A transferred sense; from <span class="sc">brace-up</span> = to string up; to give firmness to.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Puck’s Library</i>, Ap., p. 20. Come old boy, let’s <span class="sc">brace up</span>; a bumper will pull you together again.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bracket-Faced</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old).—Ugly; hard-featured.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bracket-Mug</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—An ugly face. [From <span class="sc">bracket</span> (<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bracket-faced</span>) + <span class="sc">mug</span>, a slang term for the face.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Hatchet-face</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brads</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A generic term for money. De Vaux (<i>see</i> quot.), though somewhat limiting the meaning, uses the term elsewhere as equivalent
+to ‘pence’ or ‘coppers.’ It possibly originated among shoemakers, <span class="sc">brads</span> being small rivets or nails largely employed by them. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Horse-nails</span>, and for synonyms, <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Brads</span>, halfpence; also money in general.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <i>Punch</i>, XXIX., 10. [<i>Cf.</i>, Punch’s suggestion for a ‘fast’ partner in banks who should enquire of customers]
+‘Will you take it in flimsies, or will you have it all in tin? Come, look sharp, my
+downy one, and I’ll fork out the <span class="sc">brads</span> like bricksy wicksy.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, s.v. ‘B Flats.’ <i>Four B’s, essential for social success.</i>—Blood, brains, brass, <span class="sc">brads</span> [money].—<i>American.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888–9. <span class="sc">Payne</span>, <i>Eavesdropper</i>, pt. II., ch. ii. They used such funny terms: ‘<span class="sc">brads</span>’ and ‘dibbs’ … at last it was borne in upon me that they were talking about money.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Tip the brads</span>.—<i>See</i> quotation and <span class="sc">Tip</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act i., Sc. 4. [To] <span class="sc">tip the brads</span>—and down with the dust, is to be at <span class="pageNum" id="pb316">[<a href="#pb316">316</a>]</span>once good, great, handsome, accomplished, and everything that’s desirable—money, money,
+is your universal good,—only get into Tip Street, Jerry.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brag</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A usurer; a Jew. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Sixty-per-cent.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Braggadocia</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—This is explained in Dickens’ <i>Reprinted Pieces</i> (in a footnote) to mean three months’ imprisonment as reputed thieves. It is difficult
+to trace the connection between this and the ordinary meaning of <span class="sc">braggadocio</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Reprinted Pieces</i> (<i>Three ‘Detective’ Anecdotes</i>, <i>The Artful Touch</i>), p. 253. ‘We don’t take much by this move, anyway, for nothing’s found upon ’em,
+and it’s only the <span class="sc">braggadocia</span> after all.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brain Pan</b>, <i>subs.</i> (sporting).—1. The skull, or skull-cap. Also called <span class="sc">brain-canister</span>. Hotten quotes the term as of pugilistic origin, but it ante-dates the palmy days
+of the ‘Fancy’ by many years. <span class="sc">Brain pan</span> in this sense can, perhaps, hardly be classed as slang; not so, however, sense 2.
+The Scotch equivalent is <span class="sc">harn-pan</span>.—<i>See</i> quotations under sense 2.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—The head itself. For general synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Chump</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1529. <span class="sc">Skelton</span>, <i>Elynoor Rommin</i>, in <i>Hart. Misc.</i> (ed. Park), I., 417.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Upon her <span class="sc">brain pan</span> </p>
+<p class="line">Like an Egyptian </p>
+<p class="line">Capped about. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1608. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Belman of London</i>, in wks. (Grosart) III., 91. The spirit of her owne malt walkt in her <span class="sc">brayne pan</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1609. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Gul’s Hornbook</i>, Prœmium. <i>Tarleton</i>, <i>Kemp</i>, nor <i>Singer</i> … never played the clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot of you all shall
+if hee will but boyle my Instructions in his <span class="sc">braine-pan</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1622. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>Virgin-Martyr</i>, ii., 2.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Oh, sir, his <span class="sc">brain-pan</span> is a bed of snakes, </p>
+<p class="line">Whose sting shoots through his eye-balls. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. xxxiii. ‘Weize a brace of balls through his <span class="sc">harn-pan</span>!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xi. ‘Were I your master, sirrah, … I would make your <span class="sc">brain-pan</span>, as you call it, boil over, were you to speak a word in my presence before you were
+spoken to.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bramble</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial slang).—In Kent a lawyer is so called; obviously a sarcastic allusion
+to the ‘tangles’ of the law.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bramble-Gelder</b> (provincial slang).—A derisive appellation for an agriculturist; a Suffolk term.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bran</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A loaf. [In all likelihood this is a mere abbreviation of <span class="sc">bran-loaf</span>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tommy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Oliver Twist</i>, ch. viii. He purchased a sufficiency of ready-dressed ham and a half-quartern loaf,
+or, as he himself expressed it, ‘a fourpenny <span class="sc">bran</span>!’ <i>Ibid</i>, p. 306. Two half-quartern <span class="sc">brans</span>, pound of best fresh.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Branded Ticket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—Admiral Smyth [1867] quotes this as ‘a discharge given to an infamous
+man, on which his character is given, and the reason he is turned out of the service.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brandy Face</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A tippler; a drunkard, especially one whose favourite drink is brandy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1687. <span class="sc">Cotton</span>, <i>Æneid, II. Burl.</i> (1692), 85. You goodman <span class="sc">brandy-face</span>, unfist her. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb317">[<a href="#pb317">317</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brandy-Faced</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (general).—Red-faced; bloated. [A reference to the effects upon the physiognomy of
+excessive indulgence in intoxicating drinks.] The expression is mentioned by Grose
+as early as 1785, but it is probably still older, for <i>see</i> quotation under <span class="sc">brandy-face</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Tw. Round Clock</i>, 284. Hulking labourers and <span class="sc">brandy-faced</span> viragos, squabbling at tavern doors.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brandy is Latin for Goose</b> or <b>For Fish</b>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—This punning vulgarism appears first in Swift’s <i>Polite Conversation</i>, and Brewer thus states the philological equation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><span class="sc">What is the Latin for Goose?</span> (Answer) <span class="sc">Brandy</span>. The pun is on the word answer. <i>Anser</i> is the Latin for goose, which brandy follows as surely and quickly as an answer follows
+a question.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i> (conv. ii.). <i>Lord Sm.</i> Well, but after all, Tom, can you tell me what’s Latin for a goose? <i>Nev.</i> O my lord, I know that; Why, <span class="sc">brandy is Latin for a goose</span>, and <i>Tace</i> is Latin for a candle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Jacob Faithful</i>, ch. xi. ‘Art thou forward in thy learning? Canst thou tell me <span class="sc">Latin for goose</span>?’ ‘To be sure,’ replied Tom, ‘<span class="sc">brandy</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>As regards the second form, namely, <span class="sc">brandy is Latin for fish</span>, the origin is more obscure, although it is to some extent explained in the following
+quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., 125. We are told that the thirst and uneasy feeling at the stomach, frequently
+experienced after the use of the richer species of fish, have led to the employment
+of spirit to this kind of food. Hence, says Dr. Pereira, the vulgar proverb, <span class="sc">brandy is Latin for fish</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brandy Pawnee</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Anglo-Indian).—Brandy and water. [From <span class="sc">brandy</span> + Hindustan <i>pānī</i>, water. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Parney</span>, also a slang term for water.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1816. <span class="sc">Quiz</span>, <i>Grand Master</i>, pref. And died at last with <span class="sc">brandy pauny</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. i. ‘I’m sorry to see you, gentlemen, drinking <span class="sc">brandy-pawnee</span>,’ says he; ‘it plays the deuce with our youngest men in India.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;H. Russell</span>, <i>My Diary in India</i>, I., p. 120. They had tiffin at two; hot lunch and ale and <span class="sc">brandy-pawnee</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brandy Smash</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—An American drink concocted of brandy and crushed ice. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <span class="sc">E. MacDermott</span>, <i>Popular Guide to International Exhibition</i>, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar,
+where visitors may indulge in ‘juleps,’ ‘cocktails,’ ‘cobblers,’ ‘rattlesnakes,’ ‘gum-ticklers,’
+‘eye-openers,’ ‘flashes-o’-lightning,’ <span class="sc">brandy-smashes</span>, ‘stone-fences,’ and a variety of similar beverages.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">S. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Innocents Abroad</i>. We procured the services of a gentleman experienced in the nomenclature of the American
+bar … a bowing, aproned Frenchman stepped forward and said <i lang="fr">Que veulent les messieurs?</i> Our general said (after naming several other drinks) give us a <span class="sc">brandy smash</span>; the Frenchman began to back away suspicious of the ominous vigour of the last order.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, 2 July, p. 5, col. 3. [<span class="sc">Brandy-smash</span> is mentioned in a list of American drinks.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>New York Evening Post</i>, 24 Feb. Philological.—Gallic Tourist—‘I do not see how any one ever learns the absurd
+English. I read on the menu of drinks, ‘Sherree Cobblair,’ I find in the dictionary—a
+mender of shoes of sherry wine; ‘Santa Cruz Sour,’ <i lang="fr">La Sainte Croix acide</i>; <span class="sc">brandy smash</span>, ‘<i lang="fr">Eau de vie écrasé</i>.’ <i lang="fr">Bête de langue!</i><span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bran-Mash</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—Bread sopped in coffee or tea. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Floating batteries</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb318">[<a href="#pb318">318</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brass</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. Impudence; effrontery; <span class="sc">brass</span> being a type of unblushing hardness, shamelessness, etc. This colloquialism is by
+no means of yesterday, having been used by Shakspeare. Sometimes rendered <span class="sc">bold as brass</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Cheek</span>, which also <i>see</i> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Love’s Labour Lost</i>, v., 2, 395. <i>Biron.</i> Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of <span class="sc">brass</span> hold longer out?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1701. <span class="sc">Defoe</span>, <i>True Born Englishman</i>, pt. II. By my Old Friend [The Devil], who printed in my face A needful competence
+of English <span class="sc">brass</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1703. <span class="sc">Farquhar</span>, <i>Inconstant</i>, Act i., Sc. 2. Thou hast impudence to set a good face upon anything; I would change
+half my gold for half thy <span class="sc">brass</span>, with all my heart.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1740. <span class="sc">North</span>, <i>Examen</i>, p. 256. She in her defence made him appear such a rogue upon record, that the Chief
+Justice wondered he had the <span class="sc">brass</span> to appear in a court of justice.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1773. <span class="sc">O. Goldsmith</span>, <i>She Stoops to Conquer</i>, Act iii., Sc. 1. ‘To me he appears the most impudent piece of <span class="sc">brass</span> that ever spoke with a tongue.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 68. Oh, what a face of <span class="sc">brass</span> was his, Who first at Congress show’d his phyz.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Bleak House</i>, ch. lv., p. 462. ‘I haven’t <span class="sc">brass</span> enough in my composition, to see him in this place and under this charge.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C.&nbsp;H. Wall</span>, trans. <i>Molière</i>, vol. I., p. 18. Gorgibus is a simpleton, a boor, who will readily believe everything
+you say, provided … you have <span class="sc">brass</span> enough.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 199. He started with a lot of tin, but had not sufficient <span class="sc">brass</span> or <i>physique</i> to stand the wear-and-tear of the life.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A generic term for money. At one time money was made of brass, hence
+probably the slang usage. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Tin</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1526. <span class="sc">Tyndale</span>, <i>Matt.</i> x., 9. Posses not golde, nor silver, nor <span class="sc">brasse</span> yn youre gerdels.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1597. <span class="sc">Hall</span>, <i>Satires</i>, IV., v., 12.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Hirelings enow beside can be so base, </p>
+<p class="line">Tho’ we should scorn each bribing varlet’s <span class="sc">brass</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1860. <span class="sc">Mrs. Gaskell</span>, <i>Sylvia’s Lovers</i>, ch. xx. ‘There’ll be Fosters i’ th’ background, as one may say, to take t’ biggest
+share on t’ profits,’ said Bell. ‘Ay, ay, that’s but as it should be, for I reckon
+they’ll ha’ to find the <span class="sc">brass</span> the first.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">M.&nbsp;E. Braddon</span>, <i>Aurora Floyd</i>, ch. xii. ‘Steeve’s a little too fond of the <span class="sc">brass</span> to murder any of you for nothing.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>From Post to Finish</i>, p. 129. ‘It’s noa use they’re telling us afterwards they ain’t collared the <span class="sc">brass</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, June 29. <i>Billy Wells.</i> What the dickens is all this about the hats? We have seventy-two telegrams and letters
+on the subject, and would prefer the <span class="sc">brass</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brass-Bound and Copper Fastened</b>, <i>adj. phr.</i> (nautical).—Said of a lad dressed in a midshipman’s uniform.—<i>W. Clark Russell.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brass-Bounder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A midshipman.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brasser</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Christ’s Hospital).—A bully.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brass Farthing</b> or <b>Farde</b>.—The lowest limit of value.—<i>See</i> quots.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1642. <span class="sc">Rogers</span>, <i>Naaman</i>, 33. As bare and beggarly as if he had not one <span class="sc">brasse farthing</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch’s Almanac</i>, p. 5. Nobby button’-oler very well When one wants to do the ’eavy swell; Otherwise
+don’t care not one <span class="sc">brass farden</span>, For the best ever blowed in Covent Garden.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Seamy Side</i>, x., 78. I care not one <span class="sc">brass farthing</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb319">[<a href="#pb319">319</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brass Knocker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—Broken victuals; the remains of a meal. Specially applied by beggars
+to the scraps often bestowed upon them in place of money.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brass-Plate Merchant</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, II., p. 95. The <span class="sc">brass-plate merchant</span>, as he is called in the trade, being a person who merely procures orders for coal,
+gets some merchant who buys in the coal-market to execute them in his name, and manages
+to make a living by the profits of these transactions.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brassy</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Impudent; impertinent; shameless. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Brass</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1570–76. <span class="sc">Lambarde</span>, <i>Peramb. Kent</i> (1826), 156. To make them blush … were they never so <span class="sc">brassie</span> and impudent.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1661. <span class="sc">T. Middleton</span>, <i>Mayor of Quinborough</i>, iii., 1. There’s no gallant so <span class="sc">brassy</span> impudent durst undertake the words that shall belong to’t.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738–1819. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span>, <i>P. Pindar</i>, p. 73, ed. 1830.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">No. Mr. Gattle—Betty was too <span class="sc">brassy</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">We never keep a servant that is saucy. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1862. <span class="sc">Mrs. H. Wood</span>, <i>Channings</i>, ch. xxxii. ‘I asked him to leave his name, sir, and he said Mr. Rowland Yorke knew
+his name quite well enough without having it left for him.’ ‘As <span class="sc">brassy</span> as that was he! I wish to goodness it was the fashion to have a cistern in your house
+roofs’!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brazen-Faced</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Shameless; impudent; unblushing. With a face as of brass, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Brass</span>. Hotten remarks that such a person is sometimes said to have had his face rubbed
+with a brass candle-stick.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1571. <span class="sc">Golding</span>, <i>Calvin on Ps.</i>, xii., 5. With such <span class="sc">brazenfaste</span> baldnesse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Saffron Walden</i>, in wks. III., 84. Amidst his impudent <span class="sc">brazen-fac’d</span> defamation of Doctor <i>Ferne</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1693. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Juvenal</i>, III., 133. Quick-witted, <span class="sc">brazen-fac’d</span>, with fluent tongues.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 10. Thus with an unparallell’d Impudence every <span class="sc">brazen-fac’d</span> Malefactor is harden’d in his Sin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">Mrs. H. Wood</span>, <i>Johnny Ludlow</i>, 1 S., viii., p. 137. ‘Of all the impudent <span class="sc">brazen-faced</span> rascals that are cheating the gallows, you must be the worst.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Employment; a transferred sense, the idea being—no work; no food.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. Out of <span class="sc">bread</span>, out of employment.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread and Butter Fashion</b>, <i>phr.</i> (harlotry).—An expression descriptive of the sexual embrace.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread and Butter Warehouse</b>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—A nickname given to the old Ranelagh Gardens. An allusion to the scenes of
+infamy and debauchery which once characterized the place.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bread and butter fashion</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread and Meat</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (military).—The commissariat.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread Bags</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—A nickname given in the army and navy to any one connected with the victualling
+department, as a purser or purveyor in the commissariat. At one time called <span class="sc">muckers</span>, and amongst French soldiers <i lang="fr">riz-pain-sel</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread-Barge</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—The distributing basket or tray containing the rations of biscuits.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb320">[<a href="#pb320">320</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread-Basket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The stomach. [An obvious allusion to that part of the body as a receptacle
+of food.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Bread-room; dumpling-depôt; victualling-office; porridge-bowl.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">La panetière</i> (common: properly a bag or satchel wherein shepherds put their bread; a pouch. Akin
+to this is the slang term <i lang="fr">la pantière</i>, the mouth); <i lang="fr">panier au pain</i> (a literal translation of the English term); <i lang="fr">le jabot</i> (popular: formerly heart or breast. <i lang="fr">Se remplir le jabot</i> = to have a ‘blow out’); <i lang="fr">la halle aux croûtes</i> (popular: this may be rendered literally as ‘Crust’ hall; also, a baker’s shop);
+<i lang="fr">la place d’armes</i> (popular: the place of arms, stronghold or arsenal); <i lang="fr">la soute au pain</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">soute</i> = store-room, etc.; thus, the expression would correspond closely to victualling
+office or <span class="sc">bread-basket</span>. ‘Put that in your <span class="sc">bread-basket</span>’ is rendered by <i lang="fr">colle-toi ça dans le Fusil</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘ram that in your gun’).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonym.</span> The Fourbesque has <i lang="it">fagiana</i> (properly a chest or store house for beans.)
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Englishman in Paris</i>, Act 1. Another came up to second time, but I let drive at the mark, made the soup-maigre
+rumble in his <span class="sc">bread-basket</span>, and laid him sprawling.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 18. Neat <i>milling</i> this Round—what with <i>clouts</i> on the <i>nob</i>, <i>Home hits</i> in the <span class="sc">bread-basket</span>, <i>clicks</i> in the <i>gob</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act iii., Sc. 1. <i>Jerry.</i> Now, doctor, take care of your <span class="sc">bread-basket</span>—eyes right, look to your napper.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Reade</span>, <i>Never too Late to Mend</i>, ch. lxx. When you can’t fill the <span class="sc">bread-basket</span>, shut it. Go to sleep till the Southern Cross comes out again.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C.&nbsp;H. Wall</span>, trans. <i>Molière</i>, vol. I., p. 194. And get as a reward an ugly piece of cold steel right through my
+<span class="sc">bread-basket</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread-Picker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—The four senior præfects used to appoint ‘Juniors’ to this
+office which was nominal, but which carried with it exemption from fagging at meal
+times. No ‘notion’ book states in what the office consisted, but it is supposed that
+it relates to times when Juniors had to secure the bread, etc., served out for their
+masters.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread-Room</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The stomach. A variant of <span class="sc">bread-basket</span>, which <i>see</i> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1760–61. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Sir L. Greaves</i>, vol. II., ch. v. He ordered the waiter … to … bring along-side a short allowance
+of brandy or grog, that he might cant a slug [dram] into his <span class="sc">bread-room</span>. <i>Ibid</i>, ch. xvii. The waiter … returned with a quartern of brandy, which Crowe, snatching
+eagerly, started into his <span class="sc">bread-room</span> at one cant.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bread-Room Jack</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A purser’s servant.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A collection (of money) usually got up by a prisoner’s friends, either
+to defray the expenses of his defence, or as a ‘lift’ when leaving prison. Formerly
+and more generally applied to a pause in street performances to enable the hat to
+be passed round. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Lead</span>. French slang has <i lang="fr">une bouline</i> with the same meaning; and, to make a collection is, among mountebanks, <i lang="fr">faire la manche</i>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb321">[<a href="#pb321">321</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;W. Horsley</span>, in <i>Macm. Mag.</i>, XL., 502. The mob got me up a <span class="sc">break</span> (collection), and I got between five or six foont (sovereigns).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break Down</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian).—1. A measure of liquor.—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1759. <span class="sc">Frank Fowler</span>, <i>Southern Lights and Shadows</i>, p. 53. To pay for liquor for another is to ‘stand,’ or to ‘shout,’ or to ‘sacrifice.’
+The measure is called a ‘nobbler,’ or a <span class="sc">break-down</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A noisy dance; also, a convivial gathering. The term was, at first, specially
+applied to a negro dance, but is now in general use in England in a humorous sense.
+Also used as a verb, <i>i.e.</i>, <span class="sc">to break down</span>, to dance riotously; to be boisterous and ‘spreeish.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Flare up</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Yates</span>, <i>Broken to Harness</i>, II., p. 54. And Mr. Pingle retired into the next room, where he indulged in the
+steps of a comic dance popular with burlesque actors, and known as a nigger <span class="sc">break-down</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <i>Sat. Review</i>, May, p. 676. We shall not be surprised to learn that they have serious thoughts
+of engaging a few comic singers and <span class="sc">break-down</span> dancers for their next campaign.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily News</i>, March 26, p. 2, col. 4. A patter song … was twice redemanded, chiefly, it appeared,
+for the sake of a comical ‘<span class="sc">break-down</span>’ danced by the demented king.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break o’ Day Drum</b> (American thieves’).—A drinking saloon which keeps its doors open all night.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break One’s Back</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (colloquial).—To become bankrupt; an extension of the figurative usage to overpower;
+render nugatory; crush.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1601. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Henry VIII.</i>, Act i., Sc. 1. <i>Aber.</i> I do know Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have By this so sicken’d their
+estates, that never They shall abound as formerly. <i>Buck.</i> O, many Have <span class="sc">broke their backs</span> with laying manors on ’em For this great journey.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1620. <span class="sc">Middleton</span>, <i>Chaste Maid</i>, iii., 2. [The word is here used in the sense of bankruptcy and ruin.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">Baring Gould</span>, <i>The Game-cocks</i>, ch. xxviii. ‘They are very poor, and have made a hard fight to get on. I fear this
+change would <span class="sc">break their backs</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">Ashton</span>, <i>Mod. Street Ballads</i>, p. 13. The cesses, rates, and tithes nearly <span class="sc">breaks their backs</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break One’s Egg.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Crack one’s egg</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break Out All Over</b> or <b>In a Fresh Spot, etc.</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—Expressions in common use—in the one case conveying an idea of completeness;
+and, in the other, of commencing some new undertaking, or assuming a different position
+whether in an argument or action. These usages may be traced to the phraseology of
+medicine.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break Shins</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (general).—To borrow money. Hotten thinks the term is a variant of ‘to kick,’ formerly
+in use with a similar meaning. This may be so, but it is worthy of note that ‘to shin’
+is colloquial in America in the sense of ‘to walk quickly,’ ‘to gad about’; but having
+particular reference also, in mercantile phraseology, to the action of a man who,
+finding himself short of money to meet his engagements, goes round to his friends
+to borrow what he requires. <span class="sc">To bite the ear</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) has the same signification; but for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Shins</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb322">[<a href="#pb322">322</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break the Balls</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (billiards).—To commence playing; a phrase very much akin to ‘breaking ground’; indeed
+few verbs enter more largely into figurative or colloquial combinations than <span class="sc">break</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break the Molasses Jug</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—To come to grief; to make a mistake.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Break the Neck</b> or <b>Back of Anything</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—To accomplish the major portion of a task; to be near the end of an undertaking;
+to be past the middle of same.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breaky-Leg</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Intoxicating drink of any kind. [A humorous allusion to one of the possible
+effects of confirmed drunkenness, or the weakness produced in one’s legs by tippling.]
+For all synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—A shilling.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 446. A shilling. <span class="sc">Breake-leg</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breast Fleet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Roman Catholics; so called from their practice of crossing themselves on the
+breast as an act of devotion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.</i> He (or she) belongs to the <span class="sc">breast fleet</span>; i.e., is a Roman Catholic; an appellation derived from their custom of beating their
+breasts in the confession of their sins.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breath.</b> <span class="sc">Change your breath</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—An injunction to adopt a different manner or bearing. An offensive, slang
+expression which, originating in California, quickly ran its course through the Union.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breech</b>, <i>verb</i> (schoolboys’).—To flog or be flogged; especially on the posteriors. This verb was
+formerly in literary use, but has now fallen into disuetude.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1557. <span class="sc">Tusser</span>, <i>Husbandrie</i>, ch. lxxiv., st. 6, p. 166 (S.D.S.).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Maides, up I beseech yee </p>
+<p class="line">Least Mistres doe <span class="sc">breech</span> yee. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1637. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>Guardian</i>, i., 1. How he looks! like a school-boy that had play’d the truant, And went to be
+<span class="sc">breech’d</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Kenilworth</i>, ch. xxiv. ‘Go to,’ said Wayland, ‘thou art a prating boy, and should be <span class="sc">breeched</span> for thine assurance.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breeched</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (popular).—1. To be well off; to have plenty of money; ‘to be well <span class="sc">breeched</span>,’ to be in good circumstances. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Ballasted</span>. The French have a similar idiom. If a man is bankrupt he is said to be <i lang="fr">déculotté</i>—unbreeched. Given in this sense by Vaux in his <i>Flash Dictionary</i> [1812].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breeches.</b> <span class="sc">To wear the breeches</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—A phrase said only of women; and signifying to rule; to usurp a husband’s
+prerogative; to be ‘master.’ An analogous phrase is ‘the grey mare is the better horse
+of the two.’ [The derivation is obviously an allusion to <span class="sc">breeches</span> as the symbol of authority, <i>i.e.</i>, of manhood.] Murray traces the expression back to 1553, but it is, in reality, much
+older. It is found in French as early as 1450.
+</p>
+<p lang="fr" class="cit">1450. <i>Les Quinze Joyes de Mariage: La Dixiesme Joye.</i> Edition Elzevirienne, Paris (1853), p. 113. Et sachez qu’il est avenu à aucuns que
+l’en leur faisoit boire de mauvès brouez affin de porter les braies ou pour autres
+choses pires.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb323">[<a href="#pb323">323</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The idea is met with in English at about the same date in a carol, the burden of which
+is founded on it:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">14(?). <i>Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century</i>, Percy Soc. Pub., vol. XXIII., p. 65.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Nova, nova, sawe you ever such, </p>
+<p class="line">The moste mayster of the hows <span class="sc">weryth no brych</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">Also a little later, from the same collection:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>The Boke of Maid Emlyn</i>, vol. VI., p. 21.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e24230">All women be suche, </p>
+<p class="line">Thoughe the man <span class="sc">wear the breche</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">It is curious to note also that the expression has cropped up in most languages. The
+Dutch say, ‘<i lang="nl">De vrouw <span class="corr" id="xd33e56069" title="Source: draagd’er">draagt ’er</span> de broek</i>’; the Germans, ‘<i lang="de">Sie hat die Hosen</i>.’ The Germans have also other ‘breeches’ sayings; as <i>e.g.</i>, ‘<i lang="de">Das Hertz ist ihm in die Hosen gefallen</i>.’ Other illustrative quotations are:—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1557. <span class="sc">Tusser</span>, <i>Husbandrie</i>, ch. lxvii. st. 18, 156 (E.D.S.).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Least some should talke, as is the speech, </p>
+<p class="line">The good wiues’ husband <span class="sc">weares no breech</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1591. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>A Prognostication</i>, in wks. II., 158. Diverse great stormes are this yere to be feared, especially in
+houses where the wives <span class="sc">weare the breeches</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">T. Killigrew</span>, <i>Parson’s Wedding</i>, ii., 3, in Dodsley’s <i>O. P.</i> (1780), xi., 413. Anything that may get rule; I love to <span class="sc">wear the breeches</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1724. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Misc. Poems</i>, in wks. (1824) XIV., 199.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Those men, who <span class="sc">wore the breeches</span> least, </p>
+<p class="line">Call’d him a cuckold, fool, and beast. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1820. <span class="sc">Coombe</span>, <i>Syntax, Consolation</i>, ch. v.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">When she doth <span class="sc">wear the breeches</span>; </p>
+<p class="line">And the poor fool dare not resist </p>
+<p class="line">The terrors of her threat’ning fist. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 4. <i>Mrs. T.</i> No, no—no mischief—harkye, you did me a service just now in the street. <i>Tom.</i> I know I did, down by the pump. <i>Mrs. T.</i> Well, now, I’ll do you one—my husband <span class="corr" id="xd33e56160" title="Source: i">is</span> asleep: I have the keys; and I <span class="sc">wear the breeches</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breeching</b>, <i>verbal subs.</i> (schoolboys’).—A flogging. Like <span class="sc">breech</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), formerly in general use.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1520. <span class="sc">Whittington</span>, <i>Vulg.</i> (1527), 26. I studye to-day to-daye bycause I fere a <span class="sc">brechyng</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Unfortunate Traveller</i>, in wks. V., 149. Heeres a stirre thought I to my selfe after I was set at libertie,
+that is worse than an vpbrayding lesson after a <span class="sc">britching</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breef.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Brief</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Breeze</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—A row; quarrel; disturbance; coolness. [From <span class="sc">breeze</span>, a cool wind.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. To kick up a <span class="sc">breeze</span>, to breed a disturbance.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 5. But, though we must hope for such good times as these, Yet, as something may
+happen to kick up a <span class="sc">breeze</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Saturday Review</i>, 28 Jan., p. 119. ‘Don’t be angry; we’ve had our <span class="sc">breeze</span>. Shake hands!’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brekker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Oxford University).—Breakfast. [Formed by phonetically taking the first syllable
+of ‘breakfast’ + <span class="sc">er</span>, a species of slang formation, which originated at Harrow.]—<i>See</i> ‘Comparative and Historical Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brevet Hell</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A nickname for a battle, which originated during the Civil War. The meaning
+is obvious enough. The carnage and bloodshed of a battle-field is only a degree short
+of the horrors of the theological ‘hell.’ Compare with <span class="sc">brevet-wife</span>, <span class="sc">brevet-rank</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb324">[<a href="#pb324">324</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brevet-Wife</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—A woman who, without being married to a man, lives with him, takes his
+name, and enjoys all the privileges of a wife. A transferred figurative sense of the
+legitimate word.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brew</b>, <i>verb</i> (Marlborough School).—To make afternoon tea. Almost always carried on in couples,
+but sometimes three boys <span class="sc">brew</span> together.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brewer’s Horse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A drunkard. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Elbow crooker.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brewing</b>, <i>verbal subs.</i> (Marlborough College).—The making of afternoon tea.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Brew.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brian o’ Linn</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—Gin. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Briar</b>, <b>Brier</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A colloquialism for ‘brier-wood pipe.’ The <i lang="la">Erica arborea</i> or White Heath, a native of the Mediterranean littoral is largely used in the manufacture
+of pipes. [<i>Cf.</i>, Fr. <i lang="fr">bruyère</i> = ‘heath.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Graphic</i>, Dec. 16, p. 683, col. 2. Nowadays, every third man you meet has a cigarette or a
+<span class="sc">briar</span> in his mouth.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Harper’s Mag.</i>, 27 Dec. There is the ever-ready <span class="sc">brier</span>-root pipe loaded with Caporal.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brick</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A good fellow; one whose staunchness and loyalty commend him to his fellows—a
+highly eulogistic epithet for one man to apply to another. Said to be of University
+origin, the simile being drawn from the classics. A writer in <i>Hallberger’s Illustrated Magazine</i> [1878, p. 635], says the expression is logically deduced in the following amusing
+manner. A brick is ‘deep-red,’ so a ‘deep-read’ man is a <span class="sc">brick.</span> The punning syllogism is carried further. To read like a <span class="sc">brick</span> is to read till you are deep-‘read’; a deep-read man is in University-phrase a ‘good
+man’; a good man is a jolly fellow with non-reading men, <i>ergo</i> a jolly fellow is a <span class="sc">brick.</span>
+</p>
+<p>It has, however, been pointed out that dedicatory columns of various forms have been
+found bearing Greek inscriptions, records of the great and virtuous. Some of these
+were <i>circular</i> and fluted pillars; but the Athenians are said to have dedicated <i>square</i> columns so inscribed, which gave rise to the <i>style</i> <span class="trans" title="tetrag"><span lang="grc" class="grek">τετράγ</span></span> = <span class="trans" title="ōnos anēr"><span lang="grc" class="grek">ωνος ἀνὴρ</span></span> [<i>see</i> Aristotle, <i>Eth.</i>, i., 10], one whose worth entitled him to honorary mention on some monumental stone
+of the <i>form</i> described. The <i>anticipatory</i> distinction might, therefore, be easily accorded to one worthy of such posthumous
+honours. From the meritorious notion of the <i>rectangular</i> stone or pillar we get the living <i>type</i> of genuine or supposititious worth—a regular <span class="sc">brick.</span> A further analogy may be drawn from the clayey basis of the <span class="sc">brick</span>, even in a state of combination with <i>sand</i> and <i>ashes</i>—those types of instability and decay—and we naturally acquire the notion of <i>solidity</i>, consistency, and strength. We are thus enabled to apply the above phrase to the
+<i>child</i> of clay, who may chance to resemble it in its constitution, whose moral materials
+and parts have been originally so carefully formed, so judiciously tempered and <span class="pageNum" id="pb325">[<a href="#pb325">325</a>]</span>skilfully moulded, that, in spite of a frail and infirm nature, he has preserved his
+shape thus early given. The fiery test but determines his solidity; his sound, staunch,
+and unshrinking firmness, constitutes him a regular <span class="sc">brick</span> or hero, the attributes which especially qualify him for that metaphorical appellation.
+<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">On the square</span>; <span class="sc">straight—true—clean as a die</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>Ingoldsby Legends</i> (<i>Brothers of Birchington</i>). In brief I don’t stick to declare, Father Dick, So they called him for short, was
+a regular <span class="sc">brick</span>; A metaphor taken, I have not the page aright, Out of an ethical work by the Stagyrite.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">Smedley</span>, <i>Frank Fairlegh</i>, p. 10. ‘Mr. Fairlegh, let me introduce this gentleman, Mr. George Lawless; he is,
+if he will allow me to say so, one of the most rising young men of his generation,
+one of the firmest props of the glorious edifice of our rights and privileges.’ ‘A
+regular <span class="sc">brick</span>,’ interposed Coleman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. x. ‘But the others are capital. There is that little chap who has just had the
+measles—he’s a dear little <span class="sc">brick</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">T. Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown’s School-days</i>, p. 100. He voted E.’s new crony a <span class="sc">brick</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">George Eliot</span>, <i>Daniel Deronda</i>, ch. xvi. Their brothers’ friend, declared by Hans to be the salvation of him, a
+fellow like nobody else, and, in fine, a <span class="sc">brick</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un bon gniasse</i> (cads’ and thieves’); <i lang="fr">être d’un bon bouchon</i> (to be a brick. Michel gives <i lang="fr">bouchon</i> as ‘cadet’); <i lang="fr">un bon bougre</i> (popular: Barrère says the word <i lang="fr">bougre</i> is often used with a disparaging sense; <i lang="fr">bougre de cochon</i>, ‘you dirty pig’; <i lang="fr">bougre de serin</i>, ‘you ass.’ Littré derives <i lang="fr">bougre</i> from <i lang="la">Bulgarus</i>, Bulgarian; the heretic Albigeois, who shared the religious ideas of some of the
+Bulgarians, received the name of <i lang="fr">bougres</i>); <i lang="fr">un zig</i>, <i lang="fr">zigue</i>, <i lang="fr">zigorneau</i>, <i lang="fr">zigard</i>, or <i lang="fr">zingo</i> (popular: Michel gives <i>zig</i> as <i>camarade</i>, ‘a comrade’; in Italian <i lang="it">zigno</i> or <i lang="fr">petit lézard</i> which latter (<i lang="fr">lézard</i>) signifies in French argot, a ‘bad lot’).
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (American).—To punish a man by bringing the knees close up to the chin, and lashing
+the arms tightly to the knees—a species of trussing.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Like a brick</span>—<span class="sc">like bricks</span>—(and in an intensive form) <span class="sc">like a thousand of bricks</span>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (common).— With energy; alacrity; thoroughly; vehemently and with much display. [Derived
+partly attributively from <span class="sc">brick</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and partly in allusion to the crash of failing bricks.] There are numerous similes
+of a kindred character; <i>e.g.</i>, <span class="sc">Like beans</span>; <span class="sc">Like one o’clock</span>; <span class="sc">Like blazes</span>, all of which <i>see</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Sketches</i>, p. 139. Bump they [cab and horse] cums agin the post, and out flies the fare <span class="sc">like bricks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Ingoldsby Penance</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">For the Friar to his skirts closely sticks, </p>
+<p class="line">‘Running after him,’—so said the Abbot,—<span class="sc">like bricks</span>! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1860. <i>New Orleans Picayune</i>, April 27 (Police Report). ‘When it came to the breakdown, Your Honor, he kicked
+up a row like a drove of contrary mules, and when we wanted to turn him out, he fell
+upon us <span class="sc">like a thousand of bricks</span>, and threatened to make minced meat of the police and every one of us.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Western World</i>, March 5. ‘When Mr. Nye had finished, Mr. Stewart rose, and with his irresistible
+logic and impressive language came down upon him <span class="sc">like a thousand of bricks</span>, till he was utterly crushed and demolished.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb326">[<a href="#pb326">326</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">Brick in the hat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A drunken man is said to have a <span class="sc">brick in his hat</span>, the allusion being to top-heaviness and inability to preserve a steady gait.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brick-duster.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Brickfielder</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brickdusts</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Fifty-third Regiment of Foot, so nicknamed from its facings, which
+are scarlet. Another slang appellation is ‘<span class="sc">The Old Five-and-Threepennies</span>,’ from its number and the daily pay of an ensign.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brickfielder</b> or <b>Brickduster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian colloquial).—In Sydney the name given to a dust or sand-storm brought
+by southerly winds from sand hills locally known as the <span class="sc">Brickfields</span>—hence the name. Also called the <span class="sc">buster</span> or <span class="sc">southerly burster</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?). <span class="sc">Munday</span>, <i>Our Antipodes</i>. In October, 1848, as I find by my diary, I witnessed a fine instance of a nocturnal
+<span class="sc">brickfielder</span>. Awakened by the roaring of the wind I arose and looked out. It was bright moonlight,
+or it would have been bright but for the clouds of dust, which, impelled by a perfect
+hurricane, curled up from the earth, and <span class="corr" id="xd33e56687" title="Source: absolulely">absolutely</span> muffled the fair face of the planet. Pulverised specimens of every kind and colour
+of soil within two miles of Sydney, flew past the house high over the chimney tops
+in lurid whirl-winds, now white, now red. It had all the appearance of an American
+prairie fire, barring the fire.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <i>Fraser’s Mag.</i>, XLVIII., 515. What the Sydney people call a <span class="sc">brickfielder</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <span class="sc">Cowan</span>, <i>Charcoal Sk.</i> The buster and <span class="sc">brickfielder</span>: Austral red-dust blizzard and red-hot simoon.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bricklayer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (clerical).—A clergyman. [It has been hazarded that the term is a familiar corruption
+of <i>Ru</i><span class="sc">bricklayer</span>, to denote general character for Rubrical exactness—said of men who not only lay
+down Liturgical law, but obey it. With more propriety, however, may it be held as
+referring to the important part taken by the mediæval clergy in <i>ecclesiastical</i> architecture. Mr. Thomas Boys, in the course of an interesting article on the subject
+[<i>N. and Q.</i>, 2 S., vii., 115], traces its historical derivation somewhat as follows:—It is well
+known how in former days the building of cathedrals and other sacred edifices was
+patronised and promoted both by the dignitaries and by the clergy generally; but it
+is not, perhaps, matter of equal notoriety that many chapters and collegiate bodies
+had a functionary called a <i>workman</i> (<i lang="la">operarius</i>), on whom devolved the charge of repairing and maintaining the sacred fabric, and
+who was often <i>one of their own number</i>. In fact, he was of the dignitaries of the church. ‘<i lang="la">Operarius, Dignitas, in Collegiis Canonicorum, et Monasteriis, cui operibus publicis
+vacare incumbit</i>’ (Carpenter). The office of this <i lang="la">operarius</i> or workman was called ‘<i lang="la">operaria</i>.’ ‘<i lang="la">Operaria. Dignitas Operarii in collegiis canonicorum et monasteriis</i>’ (<i>ib.</i>). In Spain, the clerical <i lang="la">operarius</i> was called by the corresponding Spanish name, <i lang="es">obrero</i> (a workman). ‘<i lang="es">Obrero. Se llama tambien el que cuida de las obras, en las Iglesias o Comunidades,
+que en algunas Cathedrales es dignidad</i>’ (<i lang="es">Dicc. de la Ac. Esp.</i>); <i>i.e.</i>, in some cathedrals the office made the holder of it a dignitary. Salazar de Mendoza,
+in his ‘Cronica del Cardenal Don R.&nbsp;G. de Mendoça,’ <span class="pageNum" id="pb327">[<a href="#pb327">327</a>]</span>tells us that, the Cardinal having conceded to the Chapter of the cathedral at Toledo,
+the administration of the building-fund, the Chapter in 1485, nominated as <i>workman</i> (<i lang="es">obrero</i>) the Canon Juan de Contreras (<i>Lib.</i> II., cap. 62, par. 2). May we not conjecture, then, that, if clergymen are now provincially
+called <span class="sc">bricklayers</span>, it is because their mediæval predecessors were, with a special reference to <i>building</i>, called ‘workmen’? Possibly, from the appointment of certain ecclesiastics in former
+days under the name of <i lang="la">operarii</i> or workmen, for the repair and maintenance of public edifices in the University of
+Oxford, the title of <span class="sc">bricklayers</span> may have passed, in course of time, to the neighbouring clergy of Oxon and Berks.
+The use of bricks, which ceased in this country after the decline of the Roman power,
+is stated by Hallam to have been reintroduced, probably from Flanders, in the early
+part of the fourteenth century.
+</p>
+<p>With perhaps equal propriety the term [<span class="sc">bricklayer</span>] is thought to refer to the <span class="trans" title="oikodomē tou sōmatos tou Christou"><span lang="grc" class="grek">οἰκοδομὴ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ</span></span> (Eph. iv., 12), trusting that they, like St. Paul, are wise ‘master builders’; builders
+on the only true foundation, ‘which is Jesus Christ.’ Edify, <i>edificare</i> <span class="trans" title="oikodomein"><span lang="grc" class="grek"><span class="corr" id="xd33e56798" title="Source: οὶκοδομεἴυ">οἰκοδομεῖν</span></span></span> have primary reference to houses built with hands, as well as to the spiritual one
+of building up the Church of Christ.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bricklayer’s Clerk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—One of the hundred names given to a lubberly sailor.—<i>W. Clark Russell.</i> For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Strawyarder</span>, and <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bail</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bricks</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Wellington College).—A sort of pudding.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bridge</b>, <i>subs.</i> (cards’).—A cheating trick at cards, by which any particular card is cut by previously
+curving it by the pressure of the hand. Used in France as well as in England, and
+termed in the Parisian <i lang="fr">Argot faire le pont sec</i>, also <i lang="fr">couper dans le pont</i>. The <i lang="la">modus operandi</i> of avoiding, or rather of neutralizing the cut, which is the very backbone of the
+card-sharper’s art, is somewhat difficult, and is generally performed by one of two
+methods, termed respectively the ‘<span class="sc">bridge</span>’ and the ‘pass.’ In the former method the sharper, at the end of his shuffle—the
+cards being still held backs uppermost in the left hand—takes some twelve or fifteen
+of the underneath cards lengthwise between the thumb and first and second fingers
+of the right hand and throws them on the top of the pack, at the same time giving
+them a slight squeeze outwards which causes them to assume an imperceptible curve.
+When placed on the table to be cut, the pack will now, owing to this curve or ‘<span class="sc">bridge</span>,’ present in the middle a very slight gap almost invisible to the eye; and experience
+shows that the odds are twenty to one that the adversary will cut exactly at that
+very spot, thus taking off the twelve or fifteen cards thrown on the top and bringing
+the ‘readied’ portion of the pack back to its original position.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 266. I got my living by card-playing in the low lodging-houses … I worked
+the oracle; they were not up to it. I put the first and seconds on, and the <span class="sc">bridge</span> too.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb328">[<a href="#pb328">328</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Lever</span>, <i>Davenport Dunn</i>, I., p. 251. I’ve found out the way that Yankee fellows does the king. It’s not the
+common <span class="sc">bridge</span> that every body knows.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">Yates</span>, <i>Black Sheep</i>, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to <span class="sc">bridging</span> a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die, talking over a flat, or winning money of a
+greenhorn, was to have its vent in launching a great City Company.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i> To <span class="sc">bridge</span> a person, or to throw him over the bridge, is … to deceive him by betraying the confidence
+he has reposed in you.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bridle-Cull</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A highwayman. [From <span class="sc">bridle</span> + <span class="sc">cull</span>, a ‘man.’] A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">un garcon de campagne</i>; also <i lang="fr">un grinche de cambrouse</i>; <i lang="fr">aller au trimar</i> or <i lang="fr">trimard</i>, ‘to become a highwayman.’ <i lang="fr">Trimar</i> = road or ‘toby.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Jonathan Wild</i>, bk. I., ch. v. A booty of £10 looks as great in the eye of a <span class="sc">bridle-cull</span>, and gives as much real happiness to his fancy, as that of as many thousands to the
+statesman.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bridport</b> or <b>Brydport Dagger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The hangman’s rope. ‘To be stabbed with a <span class="sc">Bridport Dagger</span>’ signifies ‘to be hanged.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Horse’s nightcap</span>, and <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Anodyne necklace</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1662. <span class="sc">Fuller</span>, <i>Worthies, Dorset</i> (I., 310). ‘Stab’d with a <span class="sc">Brydport dagger</span>.’ That is, hang’d or executed at the Gallowes; the best, if not the most, hemp (for
+the quantity of ground) growing about Brydport.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1787. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Prov. Glossary, etc.</i> (1811), p. 67. Stabbed with a <span class="sc">Brydport dagger</span>. That is hanged. Great quantity of hemp is grown about this town; and, on account
+of its superior qualities, Fuller says there was an ancient statute, now disused,
+that the cables for the royal navy should be made thereabouts.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1807. <span class="sc">Southey</span>, <i>Espriella’s Letters</i>, i., 35 (3 ed.). The neighbourhood is so proverbially productive of hemp, that when
+a man is hanged, they have a vulgar saying, that he has been stabbed with a <span class="sc">Bridport dagger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brief</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A ticket of any kind, whether railway pass, pawnbrokers’ duplicate, or
+ticket for a raffle; also a pocket book. Hence <span class="sc">briefless</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;W. Horsley</span>, in <i>Macm. Mag.</i>, XL., 501. I took a <span class="sc">brief</span> (ticket) to London Bridge.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Aug. 18, p. 3, col. 2. His usual line of business was ‘<span class="sc">brief</span>-snatching,’ <i>i.e.</i>, hovering about the crowd that surrounds a small bookmaker, and snatching from the
+hands of the unwary the credential they with rash eagerness exhibit, and which they
+desire to exchange with the man they have bet with for their winnings.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, 6 July. They copped the <span class="sc">briefs</span> at the next station, and he changed carriages.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Briefless</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Ticketless.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Brief</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Bird o’ Freedom</i>, Aug. 7, p. 3. Following close at the heels of Newman, I soon found myself within
+the Aquarium, all <span class="sc">briefless</span> as I was, and without having been asked any questions.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Briefs</b> or <b>Breefs</b>, <i>subs.</i> (card-sharpers’).—Cards tampered with for the purpose of swindling.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bridge</span>, <span class="sc">Concaves</span>, and <span class="sc">Convexes</span>, <span class="sc">Longs</span>, and <span class="sc">Shorts</span>, <span class="sc">Reflectors</span>, etc. [From the German <i lang="de">briefe</i>, which Baron Heinecken says was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm.
+<i lang="de">Brief</i> is also the synonym for a card in the German Rothwalsch dialect, and <i lang="de">briefen</i> is to play at cards.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1529. [Edited by] <span class="sc">Luther</span>, <i lang="la">Liber Vagatorum</i> (1860), p. 47. ‘Item—beware of the Joners (gamblers), who practice Beseflery with
+the <span class="sc">brief</span> (cheating <span class="pageNum" id="pb329">[<a href="#pb329">329</a>]</span>at cards), who deal falsely and cut one for the other, cheat with Boglein and spies,
+pick one <span class="sc">brief</span> from the ground, and another from a cupboard,’ etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1720. <i>Old Book of Games</i>, quoted by Hotten. ‘Take a pack of cards and open them, then take out all the honours
+… and cut a little from the edges of the rest all alike, so as to make the honours
+broader than the rest, so that when your adversary cuts to you, you are certain of
+an honour. When you cut to your adversary cut at the ends, and then it is a chance
+if you cut him an honour, because the cards at the ends are all of a length. Thus
+you may make <span class="sc">breefs</span> end-ways as well as side-ways.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brief-Snatcher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Pocket-book thieves. [From <span class="sc">brief</span> (<i>q.v.</i>, sense 1), slang term for a pocket-book, + <span class="sc">snatcher</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brigh</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A pocket.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;W. Horsley</span>, in <i>Macm. Mag.</i>, XL., 502. Having a new suit of clobber on me, and about fifty blow in my <span class="sc">brigh</span> (pocket).
+</p>
+<p>Some <span class="sc">English Synonyms</span> are:—Cly, skyrocket.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms</span> are <i lang="fr">une grande</i>; <i lang="fr">une profonde</i>, <i lang="fr">parfonde</i> or <i lang="fr">prophête</i> (thieves’: literally deep; also used for ‘cave’ or ‘cellar’); <i lang="fr">une fouillouse</i> (thieves’: this term is an old one. <i lang="fr">Fouille</i> = a ‘digging’ or excavation. There are various forms—<i lang="fr">foulle</i>, <i lang="fr">felouse</i>, <i lang="fr">filoche</i>); <i lang="fr">une gueularde</i> (thieves’: <i lang="fr">gueulard</i> = wallet in slang, but properly signifies a stove); <i lang="fr">une baguenaude</i> (thieves’ and cads’: properly ‘a bladder-nut’); <i lang="fr">une balade</i> or <i lang="fr">ballade</i>; <i lang="fr">une valade</i> (thieves’: from <i lang="fr">avaler</i>, to swallow up); <i lang="fr">une fondrière</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">un four banal</i> (thieves’: either used to signify a ‘pocket,’ a ‘false pocket,’ or an ‘omnibus’);
+<i lang="fr">une sonde</i> (literally <i lang="fr">sonde</i> = probe).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bright in the Eye</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common)<span>.</span>—Slightly tipsy. [An allusion to the sparkling appearance of the eyes at an early
+stage of intoxication; subsequently they become dull and sleepy.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brighton Tipper</b>, <i>subs.</i>—A peculiar kind of ale.—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, I., p. 347. Requiring … a pint of the celebrated staggering ale, or Real Old <span class="sc">Brighton Tipper</span>, at supper. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 447. If they draws the <span class="sc">Brighton Tipper</span> here, I takes that ale at night, my love.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brim</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A prostitute. [A contraction of <span class="sc">brimstone</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1730–6. <span class="sc">Bailey.</span> <span class="sc">Brim</span> [<i>q.</i> a contraction of Brimstone], a common strumpet. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1764. <span class="sc">T. Brydges</span>, <i>Homer Travest.</i> (1797), i., 173. Can mortal scoundrels thee [Hera] perplex, And the great <span class="sc">brim</span> of brimstones vex?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1808. <span class="sc">Jamieson.</span> <span class="sc">Brim</span>, a cant term for a trull.—<i>Loth.</i>
+</p>
+<p>2. (common<span class="corr" id="xd33e57298" title="Source: .)">).</span>—Nowadays the term signifies an angry, violent woman, or a termagant, without reference
+to moral character. An equivalent French term is <i lang="fr">une chipie</i>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Brimstone</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1799. <i>Whim of the Day.</i> She raved, she abused me, and splenetic was; She’s a vixen, she’s a <span class="sc">brim</span>, zounds! She’s all that is bad.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brimstone</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A violent tempered woman; a virago; a spitfire. [A reference to the inflammable
+character of the mineral.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Bp. Burnet</span>, in Walpole’s <i>Reminiscences</i> (1819), p. 75. ‘Oh, madam,’ said the bishop, ‘do not you know what a <span class="sc">brimstone</span> of a wife he had?’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb330">[<a href="#pb330">330</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. vi. ‘She is … not a <span class="sc">brimstone</span>, like Kate Koddle, of Chatham.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1760. <span class="sc">C. Johnston</span>, <i>Chrysal</i>, II., 190. I hate the law damnably ever since I lost a year’s pay for hindering our
+boatswain’s mate’s brother from beating his wife. The <span class="sc">brimstone</span> swore I beat her husband, and so I paid for meddling.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Geoffrey Hamlyn</i>, ch. xxiii. Who seemed, too, to have a temper of her own, and promised, under circumstances,
+to turn out a bit of a <span class="sc">b—mst—ne</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A prostitute. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose.</span> Brim (abbreviation of <span class="sc">brimstone</span>), an abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared
+to <span class="sc">brimstone</span> for its inflammability.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Briney</b> or <b>Briny</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—The sea. A ‘dip in the <span class="sc">briney</span>’ once a year is a great attraction to Cockney excursionists. Hotten tells a story
+of one excursionist saying to another, as they stripped in a double machine, ‘Why,
+’Arry what dirty feet you’ve got!’ ‘’Ave I; well yer see I wasn’t down last year.’
+[From the <i>adj.</i> signifying, ‘of or pertaining to brine or the sea.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Kate Coventry</i>, ch. xiv. The luckless plight in which a stout gentleman had found himself, by the
+temporary loss of all his apparel, while he was disporting in the <span class="sc">briny</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>Punch</i>, Jan. 15, p. 14. <i>Grigsby.</i> Hullo, my Jellaby, you here! Come and take a dip in the <span class="sc">briny</span>, old man. I’m sure you look as if you <i>wanted</i> it. <i>Postlethwaite.</i> Thanks, no. I never bathe. I always see myself so dreadfully foreshortened in the
+Water, you know!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Sporting Times</i>, June 29. Next day bathing, returning from which we beheld a curious sight, three
+nymphs carrying down to the strand a bath in which one of them was, apparently with
+a curious mistrust of the sea, going to try the <span class="sc">briny</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Herring pond; big pond; big drink; the puddle; Davy’s locker.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms</span>. <i lang="fr">La grande tasse</i> (familiar: properly ‘the big cup.’ <i lang="fr">Boire dans la grande tasse</i>, ‘to be drowned’); <i lang="fr">la grande bleue</i> (popular: the great blue—an allusion to the colour of deep sea water); <i lang="fr">le grand salé</i> (popular: literally ‘the great salt’); <i lang="fr">le pré salé</i> (popular: properly the salted or <span class="sc">briny</span> meadow.)
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bring Down the House</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (general).—To elicit loud applause; and, still more figuratively, to be successful.
+[The figure of speech is that demonstrative applause will cause the walls to give
+way. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To raise the roof off</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <i>World</i>, II., No. 76, 125. His apprehension that your statues will <span class="sc">bring the house down</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Adventures of Verdant Green</i>, II., p. 23. Why, it would surpass the British sailor’s broadsword combat for six,
+and <span class="sc">bring down the house</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">Forster</span>, <i>Life of Charles Dickens</i>, ch. xliv. (IV., p. 252). ‘And give us your applause, for that is always just’! which
+<span class="sc">brought down the house</span> with rapture.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">Mrs. Riddell</span>, <i>Her Mother’s Darling</i>, II., p. 61 (ch. xii). I do not fancy she would ever forgive any of us if Honie were
+to <span class="sc">bring down the house</span> at Elm Vale.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Bird o’ Freedom</i>, Aug. 7, p. 3. But Samson’s crowning feat of all was to break with his fist two steel
+chains, suspended from a couple of posts. This fairly <span class="sc">brought down the house</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brisket-Beater</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A Roman Catholic. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Breast fleet</span> and <span class="sc">Craw-thumper</span>, synonymous terms. Quoted by Grose [1785].
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb331">[<a href="#pb331">331</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bristles</b> or <b>Bristle Dice</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A method of ‘cogging’ dice by inserting <span class="sc">bristles</span> into them, and thus influencing the position of the cubes when ‘thrown.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1532. <i>Dice Play</i> (1050), 28. <span class="sc">Bristle dice</span>, be now too gross a practice to be put in use. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1680. <span class="sc">Cotton</span>, in Singer <i>Hist. Cards</i>, 335. This they do by false dice, as … By <span class="sc">bristle-dice</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xxiii. ‘Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams and <span class="sc">bristles</span> … and a hundred ways of rooking besides.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bristol Milk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Sherry. [An allusion to sherry being formerly a large import of the city of
+<span class="sc">Bristol</span>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1644. <span class="sc">Prynne and Walker</span>, <i>Fiennes’ Trial</i>, 78. Good store of <span class="sc">Bristol milk</span>, strong wines and waters. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1662. <span class="sc">Fuller</span>, <i>Worthies, Bristol</i>. ‘<span class="sc">Bristol milk</span>’; this metaphorical milk, whereby Xeres or Sherry Sack is intended.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bristol milk</span>, a Spanish wine called sherry, much drank at that place, particularly in the morning.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849–61. <span class="sc">Macaulay</span>, <i>Hist. Eng.</i>, I., iii. A rich beverage made of the best Spanish wine, and celebrated … as <span class="sc">Bristol milk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broach Claret</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (pugilistic).—To draw blood.—<i>See</i>, however, <span class="sc">Claret</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broad and Shallow</b>, <i>phr.</i> (popular).—An epithet applied to the so-called ‘Broad Church,’ in contradistinction
+to the ‘High’ and ‘Low’ Churches.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">High and dry</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Graphic</i>, 10 April, p. 399. In the Church have we not the three schools of High and Dry, Low
+and Slow, and <span class="sc">Broad and Shallow</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broadbottoms</b>, <i>subs.</i> (political).—A nickname given to two Coalition Governments, one in the last century
+[1741], and the other in 1807.—<i>See</i> quots.
+</p>
+<p>A pamphlet dated April 18, 1807, has reference to the latter. Its full title is:—‘The
+pigs possessed, or the <span class="sc">broadbottom’d</span> litter running headlong into the Sea of Perdition.’ The characters are George III.,
+as the British farmer; Lords Sidmouth, Ellenborough, Howick (‘Test Act’); Mr. Windham;
+Lords Holland, Walpole, Carlisle St. Vincent; Earls Temple (‘Last Stake’), Grenville
+(‘Catholic Bill’), and of Derby; Lords Erskine, Lauderdale (a Scotch pig), H. Petty,
+and Moira; the Duke of Bedford, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, marked ‘Erin go
+Bragh’; Earl Spencer, Marquis of Buckingham (‘Family’), R.&nbsp;B. Sheridan (Harlequin),
+Courtney, Tierney, and Whitbread (‘Entire’). Courtney is placed in profile between
+Ellenborough and Sidmouth. He was an intimate friend of Fox. This is said to be the
+only portrait of him. The print is a supplement to another styled ‘More Pigs than
+Teats.’ The pigs represent the Ministers described commonly by the phrase ‘All the
+Talents,’ or the ‘<span class="sc">Broad-Bottoms</span>’ who were succeeded, April, 1807, by the Duke of Portland and his supporters. The
+former are not to be confounded with an earlier ‘<span class="sc">Broad-Bottom</span>’ Administration. The latter was commemorated in the satirical inscription for Fox’s
+tomb, <i lang="la">Hic jacet Pater Broad-Bottomos</i>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb332">[<a href="#pb332">332</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1742. <span class="sc">Walpole</span>, <i>Lett. to Mann</i> (1833), No. 22, Feb. 18, vol. I., p. 106. The Tories declare against any farther
+prosecution—if Tories there are, for now one heard of nothing but the <span class="sc">broad-bottom</span>; it is the reigning cant word, and means, the taking all parties and people, indifferently,
+into the ministry.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Macaulay</span>, <i>Historical Essays</i>, II., p. 244. The Pelhams had forced the King, much against his will, to part with
+Lord Carteret.… They proceeded, after this victory, to form the Government on that
+basis, called by the cant name of the ‘<span class="sc">broad-bottom</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">Jeaffreson</span>, <i>Live It Down</i>, I., p. 249. The star of Granville is falling, that of Pelham is in the ascendant;
+and the great coalition on ‘The <span class="sc">Br. B.</span>’ is managing the affairs of the State.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Robert Ainsleigh</i>, I., p. 37. A scathing reply from the polished chief of the famous <span class="sc">Br. B.</span> Administration.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Pol. Slang</i>, in <i>Cornhill Mag.</i>, June, p. 628. A Coalition Government in the last century was known by the apt nickname
+of the ‘<span class="sc">Broad Bottom</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broadbrim</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A Quaker. [The origin of this expression is to be found in the hat once
+peculiar to the ‘Society of Friends.’ Hotten says the epithet is now used of any quiet,
+sedate, old man.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <i>Spectator</i>, No. 276. [<span class="sc">Broad-brim</span> is used as the name of a Quaker correspondent.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. VII., ch. x. This the Quaker had observed, and this, added to the rest of his
+behaviour, inspired honest <span class="sc">broad-brim</span> with a conceit that his companion was, in reality, out of his senses.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Reader</i> (quoted in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 5 S., ix., p. 263). <span class="sc">Broadbrim</span>, a Quaker. This word clearly owes its origin to the peculiar hat worn by the Society
+of Friends.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Jas. Grant</span>, <i>One of the Six Hundred</i>, ch. i. The sly <span class="sc">broad-brim</span>, and popularity-hunters of the Peace Society sent a deputation to the Emperor Nicholas.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broad-Cooper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (brewers’).—A person employed by brewers to negotiate with publicans.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broad Coves</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Card-sharpers. [From <span class="sc">broads</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), cards, + <span class="sc">cove</span> (<i>q<span>.</span>v.</i>), a man.] The modern term for swindling at cards is <span class="sc">broad faking</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">un brêmeur</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Rook</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 5.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Your swell <span class="sc">broad coves</span>, with all their airs </p>
+<p class="line">Can’t match the kids near Wapping stairs, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">They are so down and knowing; </p>
+<p class="line">Of lowest life you’ll see the best, </p>
+<p class="line">At Maces’s, All-max, in the East; </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">So let’s at once be going: </p>
+<p class="line">Come, toddle along, toddle along, etc. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Broad-Faking</b>, <i>subs.</i> (card-sharpers’).—Playing at cards. Generally used, however, to denote ‘work’ of
+the three card and kindred descriptions.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broad-Fencer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A ‘k’rect card’ seller at races. [From <span class="sc">broad</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a card, + <span class="sc">fence</span> or <span class="sc">fencer</span>, a ‘tradesman.’]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broads</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—Playing cards.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Stock broads</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 142. Who are continually looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the
+<span class="sc">broads</span>, that is <i>cards</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Broads</span>, cards; a person expert at which is said to be a good <span class="sc">broad-player</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Harrison Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, IV., ii. I nick the <span class="sc">broads</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Five Years’ Penal Servitude</i>, ch. iv., p. 262. He … became one of a gang who practised with the <span class="sc">broads</span> card-sharping and the ‘confidence trick.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broadsman</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A card-sharper. [From <span class="sc">broads</span> = cards + <span class="sc">man</span>.] Formerly called <span class="sc">broad cove</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Rook</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb333">[<a href="#pb333">333</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;W. Horsley</span>, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in <i>Macm. Mag.</i>, XL., 502. <span class="sc">Broadsmen</span> (card-sharpers).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, in <i>Cass. Sat. Journal</i>, 31 March, p. 7. The <span class="sc">broadsman</span> is a card-sharper.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broady</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Cloth. [A corruption of <span class="sc">broad-cloth</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 54. Gentlemen finding their own <span class="sc">broady</span> can be accommodated.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, August 7, p. 6, col. 2. The prospectus further intimated that … gentlemen ‘finding
+their own <span class="sc">broady</span> … could be accommodated.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—Anything worth stealing.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Broady worker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broady Worker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A man who goes round selling vile shoddy stuff under the pretence that
+it is excellent material, which has been ‘got on the cross,’ <i>i.e.</i>, stolen.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brock</b>, <i>verb</i> (Winchester College).—To bully; to tease; to badger. [<span class="sc">Brock</span> is a north country and Hampshire name for a badger.] In French military schools this
+is called <i lang="fr">faire une brimade</i> or <i lang="fr">faire brimer</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brockster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Winchester College).—A bully.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Brock</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brogues</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Christ’s Hospital).—Breeches. This is, in reality, an obsolete old English term
+which has survived among the ‘Blues.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broiled</b> or <b>Boiled Crow</b>. <span class="sc">To eat boiled crow.</span>—A newspaper editor, who is obliged by his ‘party’ or other outside influences, to
+advocate ‘principles’ different from those which he supported a short time before,
+is said to ‘<span class="sc">eat boiled crow</span>.’ Originally the phrase was simply <span class="sc">to eat crow</span>, and the following account is that currently accepted as to its derivation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Atlanta Constitution.</i> During the unpleasantness between the States and England, there were located on opposite
+sides of the Niagara river a British and an American fort, and during an armistice
+the soldiers of both garrisons were accustomed to go hunting. Among the American troops
+was one long, lank, stuttering specimen of the genus Yankee, who would persist, in
+spite of orders to the contrary, in going across the river on his hunting expeditions.
+One day when on the Canada side he had had poor luck and got nothing, but resolved
+not to go back entirely empty handed. While passing through the grounds of an English
+gentleman, he spied a <span class="sc">crow</span>, and, blazing away, brought it down. The Englishman had witnessed the shot and resolved
+to punish the offender for poaching on his private grounds. As the Yankee was loading
+his gun he approached, and, complimenting him on his good shot, asked to look at his
+gun. The unsuspecting Yankee handed it to him, and the Briton, bringing the gun to
+his shoulder and covering the Yankee, abused him for trespassing on his grounds, and
+ordered him, on pain of death, to take a bite out of the <span class="sc">crow</span>. The soldier begged and pleaded, but to no avail. The Englishman had the drop on
+him, so he finally bit a piece from the breast of the <span class="sc">crow</span>. The Englishman, after warning him to keep off his premises in the future, handed
+him back his gun and bade him clear out. No sooner was his rifle returned than he
+covered the Briton and ordered him to finish the <span class="sc">crow</span>. Then it was the Englishman’s turn to beg off, but the Yankee was firm, and the Englishman,
+with many a wry face, did succeed in downing several bites of the unsavoury bird.
+His wounded honour being appeased, the Yankee betook himself back to the fort. The
+Englishman the next day went to the American commander and told his version of the
+affair, and demanded that the culprit be punished. From the description given, the
+American officer knew that the offender must have been the stuttering soldier, and
+ordered him to be brought <span class="pageNum" id="pb334">[<a href="#pb334">334</a>]</span>before them. When he came in the captain asked him if he had ever seen the gentleman
+before. The Yankee shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, and, after several
+attempts, finally answered that he had. ‘When and under what circumstances?’ asked
+the officer. ‘I d-dined with him y-y-yesterday, captin,’ stuttered the soldier. The
+story goes that his wit saved the soldier from punishment.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broke.</b> <span class="sc">Dead broke</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)—<span class="sc">Stone broke</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), <i>adj.</i> (common).—Ruined; decayed; hard up—said of health or pecuniary circumstances. The
+French slang has <i lang="fr">n’avoir pas un radis</i>, literally ‘not to have a radish’; but for all synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dead-broke</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>How the Poor Live</i>, p. 16. ‘How do you do when you’re <span class="sc">stone broke</span>?’ I ask him. ‘Well, sir, sometimes I comes across a gentleman as gives me a bob and
+starts me again.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gaz.</i>, Aug. 14. I see that Sullivan made 21,000 dols. out of his fight, but as he was ‘<span class="sc">dead broke</span>’ before the battle, there won’t be much of it left. Nevertheless, Sullivan has received
+hundreds of begging letters from folks who want him to pay off mortgages on their
+homes or buy them houses and lots and things of that sort.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broken Feather in One’s Wing</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—A blot on one’s character.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Mrs. Oliphant</span>, <i>Phœbe, jun.</i>, ii., 6. If an angel were to walk about, Mrs. Sam Hurst would never rest till she
+had found out where he came from. And perhaps whether he had a <span class="sc">broken feather in his wing</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broken-Kneed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Said of a girl or woman who has been seduced. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Ankle</span> and <span class="sc">Broken legged</span>; for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dock</span> and <span class="sc">Leg</span>. In French theatrical slang, <i lang="fr">avoir mal aux genoux</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broken Legged</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Seduced.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Dock</span> and <span class="sc">Leg</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brolly</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—An umbrella. Term first used at Winchester, being subsequently adopted
+at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Punch</i>, June 6, p. 273. Pair o’ pattens and <span class="sc">brolly</span> are more in your line.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broncho</b>, <i>adj.</i> (American).—Unruly; wild; savage. The epithet is derived from <span class="sc">broncho</span>, the name of the native horse of California, a somewhat tricky and uncertain quadruped.
+The term is familiarly applied to horses that buck and show other signs of vice. The
+Spanish signification of the word is rough and crabbed little beast, and in truth
+he deserves this name.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">Francis</span>, <i>Saddle and Mocassin</i>. Oh! I don’t know. He’d been singing the music to ‘em’ (imitating them). Sam’s too
+<span class="sc">broncho</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broncho-Buster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A breaker-in of <span class="sc">bronchos</span>; also called a <span class="sc">flash-rider</span>. [From <span class="sc">broncho</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">bust</span>, in its slang sense of annihilate, or overcome, + <span class="sc">er</span>.] These men make a profession of their business and perform really marvellous feats,
+riding with ease the most vicious and unbroken beasts that no ordinary rider would
+dare tackle. A favourite feat is to sit out the antics of a bucking-horse with silver
+half-dollars under each knee or in the stirrups under each foot. Their method of breaking-in
+may be described as the exercise of main force, <span class="pageNum" id="pb335">[<a href="#pb335">335</a>]</span>it being a tussle as to which can hold out the longest, man or <span class="sc">broncho</span>. The calling is a dangerous one, and a first-class <span class="sc">broncho-buster</span> can always command high wages and constant employment on large ranches.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bronze John</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Texas name for yellow fever; Englishmen commonly call it <span class="sc">yellow Jack</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broom</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. <i>See</i> quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1815. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Guy Mannering</i>, ch. xxviii. ‘The people got rusty about it, and would not deal, and they had bought
+so many <span class="sc">brooms</span> that——’ <i>Ibid</i>, ch. xxxiii. (II., p. 96). What are you wanting here? Ye’ll be come wi’ a <span class="sc">broom</span> in your pocket frae Ellengowan? Got so many warrants out.
+</p>
+<p>2. (harlotry.)—The female <i>pudenda</i>. The male <i>penis</i> is the <span class="sc">broomstick</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Monosyllable</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—To run away. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, p<span>.</span> 6. <i>Tom.</i> That will do—now then Dicky, mizzle!—be scarce!—<span class="sc">broom!</span> <i>Prime.</i> Wouldn’t intrude a moment, gentlemen, good morning—order my carriage.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broomstick</b>, <i>subs.</i> (athletic).—A sort of rough cricket bat, very narrow in the blade and all of one
+piece of wood.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To jump the broomstick</span>—<span class="sc">hop the broom</span>—<span class="sc">jump the besom</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To live as man and wife without the legal tie. The allusion is to a <i>quasi</i> marriage ceremony performed by both parties jumping over a broomstick.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <span class="sc">Poole</span>, <i>Hamlet Travestied</i>, ii., 3. <span class="sc">Jump o’er a broomstick</span>, but don’t make a farce on The marriage ceremonies of the parson.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i> I., p. 336. The old woman (who kept the ken), when any female, old or young, who
+had no tin, came into the kitchen, made up a match for her with some men. Fellows
+half-drunk had the old women. There was always a <span class="sc">broomstick</span> wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man and wife.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Great Expectations</i>, ch. xlviii., p. 227. ‘They both led tramping lives, and this woman in Gerrard St.
+here, had been married very young, <span class="sc">over the broomstick</span> (as we say), to a tramping man, and was a perfect fury in point of jealousy.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 18(79). <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘David Dove that fell in love.’ By <span class="sc">L.&nbsp;M. Thornton</span>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The girl that I had hoped to hear </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Pronounce my happy doom, sir, </p>
+<p class="line">Had bolted with a carpenter, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">In fact <span class="sc">hopped o’er the broom</span>, sir. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Broomsticks</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Worthless bail. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Straw bail</span> and <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bail</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dictionary</i>. Queer bail are persons of no repute, hired to bail a prisoner in any bailable case.
+These men are to be had in London for a trifling sum, and are called <span class="sc">broomsticks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brosier</b> or <b>Brozier</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Eton College).—A boy when he had spent all his pocket-money. [<span class="sc">Brozier</span> is a Cheshire term for a bankrupt.] A French term for a bankrupt is <i lang="fr">un déculotté</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, one unbreeched; also <i lang="fr">un bauce</i> or <i lang="fr">bausse fondu</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Broziered</span>, <i>ppl. adj.</i>—Cleaned out; done up; ruined; bankrupt.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1796. <span class="sc">Merton</span>, <i>Way to get Married</i> (in Inchbald’s ‘British Theatre,’ vol. XXVI). [The term is so used here].
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Brozier-my-dame</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (Eton College).—Eating one out of house and home. At Eton, when a <span class="sc">dame</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) keeps an unusually bad table, the boys agree together on a day to eat, <span class="pageNum" id="pb336">[<a href="#pb336">336</a>]</span>pocket, or waste everything eatable in the house. The censure is well understood,
+and the hint is generally effective.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, June 15, p. 44. I well remember the phrase <span class="sc">brozier-my-dame</span>, signifying to eat her out of house and home.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">Rev. W. Rogers</span>, <i>Reminiscences</i>, p. 15. Etonians of my standing will remember John Francis Plumptre, one of the Fellows
+… I once behaved very shabbily to him, for I joined a conspiracy to <span class="sc">‘brozier’ him</span>. There were ten or twelve of us [at breakfast], and we devoured everything within
+reach.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother-Blade</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A soldier. Formerly <span class="sc">brother of the blade</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, of the sword; a fellow-soldier. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Mudcrusher</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Brother of the blade</span>, a soldier.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, bk. IV., ch. ii. ‘I heard some devilish good stories of you at D’Osyndar’s t’other
+day; the fellow who told them to me little thought I was a <span class="sc">brother blade</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother Chip</b> (provincial workmen’s).—One of the same calling or trade; formerly a fellow carpenter.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <span class="sc">Clare</span>, <i>Poems of Rural Life</i>, <i>Familiar Epistle</i>, st. 3. And, <span class="sc">brother chip</span>, I love ye dearly, poor as ye be!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother of the Brush</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—An artist; a house-painter.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1687. <span class="sc">Bp. Cartwright</span>, in <i>Hist. Magd. Coll.</i> (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 143. Pray make use of my <span class="sc">brother of the brush</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1759. <span class="sc">Sterne</span>, <i>Tr. Shandy</i> (1793), I., 133. The honourable devices which the Pentagraphic <span class="sc">bretheren of the brush</span> have shewn in taking copies. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Byron</span>, wks. (1846), p. 585, col. 1. A young American <span class="sc">brother of the brush</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother of the Bung</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A brewer; one of the same trade. [<span class="sc">Bung</span> here is used as an emblem of the trade of a brewer.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother of the Buskin</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A player; actor—one of the same profession. [<span class="sc">Buskin</span> is in allusion to the covering for the foot and leg (<i>cothurnus</i>) worn by actors in <span class="corr" id="xd33e58576" title="Source: trag dy">tragedy</span> among the ancients; in contrast to the sock (<i>soccus</i>) worn by comedians. Stage <span class="sc">buskins</span> had very thick soles to give an appearance of height. Hence <span class="sc">buskin</span> as symbolical of tragedy, but used in the phrase <span class="sc">brother of the buskin</span> in a transferred and general sense.] Quoted by Grose [1785]. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Barn-stormer</span> and <span class="sc">Booth-burster</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother of the Coif</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A serjeant-at-law. [The coif was a close-fitting cap worn by the serjeants-at-law—hence
+the term.] Quoted by Grose [1785].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother of the Gusset</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A pimp or <span class="sc">ponce</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bully</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother of the Quill</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—An author. [<span class="sc">Quill</span> = pen.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Ink-slinger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i> (2 ed.). <span class="sc">Brother of the quill</span>, an author, one of the same profession.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother of the String</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A fiddler. [A reference to the violin or fiddle as a stringed instrument.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother of the Whip</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A coachman, the whip <span class="pageNum" id="pb337">[<a href="#pb337">337</a>]</span>being taken, as it were, as an insignia of office.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1756. <i>The World</i>, No. 207. He … had always greased my heels himself, and upon every one of my birthdays,
+had treated all his <span class="sc">brother whips</span> at his own expence.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">T. Miller</span>, in <i>Gabarni in London</i>, p. 39. He is very kind to any poor <span class="sc">brother of the whip</span> whom he sees tugging up-hill in vain, with a weighty load and an ill-fed team.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother-Smut</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (popular).—A term of familiarity. ‘<span class="sc">Ditto</span>, <span class="sc">brother</span> or <span class="sc">sister smut</span>,’ <i lang="la">tu quoque</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brother Starlings</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Men who cohabit with the same mistress.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Brother Starling</span> … one who … builds in the same nest.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broth of a Boy</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (Irish originally, but now common).—A jolly good fellow. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Brick</span>. [The term is thought to originate from the Irish <i>Broth</i>, passion—<i>Brotha</i>, passionate, spirited—its meaning being, ‘He’s a lad of spirit,’ though it may come
+from the ancient Cornish name for the mastiff—<i>brath</i>. Hence a <span class="sc">broth of a boy</span> would then mean ‘a stout dog of a boy—robust.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819–24. <span class="sc">Byron</span>, <i>Don Juan</i>, c. viii., st. 24. But Juan was quite <span class="sc">a broth of a boy</span>, a thing of impulse and a child of song.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Son of Vulcan</i>, ch. xx. You ought to have been a preacher and a boy. Faith, and a <span class="sc">broth of a boy</span>, and a <span class="sc">broth</span> of a preacher you’d have made.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Broughtonian</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A bruiser; boxer; pugilist. [From Broughton, once the best boxer of his day.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brown</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A halfpenny. [Probably an allusion to the colour of the coin in question.]
+For synonyms of money generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Browns</span> and whistlers, bad halfpence and farthings.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 3. <i>Bob.</i> Now then for the stumpy. (<i>Searching about in his pockets for the money.</i>) My tanners are like young colts; I’m obliged to hunt ’em into a corner, afore I
+can get hold on ’em—there!—hand us over three <span class="sc">browns</span> out of that ’ere tizzy; and tip us the heavy. (<i>Landlord receives money, and delivers porter.</i>)
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Black Mousquetaire</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The magic effect of a hand of crowns </p>
+<p class="line">Upon people whose pockets boast nothing but <span class="sc">browns</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 57. If I takes a hat round, they has a plate, and they gets sovereigns
+where we has only <span class="sc">browns</span>. <i>Ibid.</i> We keeps it up for half an hour or an hour … if the <span class="sc">browns</span> tumble in well.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Digby Grand</i>, ch. iv. A shower of <span class="sc">browns</span>, the coppers mingled with silver, from our private box, rewards their exertions.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1884. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Jimmy Johnson’s Holiday.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">But Violet, the Margate pet, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Who always call’d him Teaser, </p>
+<p class="line">Said ‘She would stick like mortar’d brick, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">While Johnson had a <span class="sc">brown</span>.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">2. (old.)—Porter. [Qy. an abbreviation of ‘Brown Stout.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. Glossary at end of Corcoran’s <i>The Fancy</i>. <span class="sc">Brown</span>, porter; <span class="sc">heavy brown</span>, stout.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. A variant of ‘to do brown,’ <i>i.e.</i>, to do to perfection; to get the better of. [The simile is obviously taken from the
+browning process which meat undergoes during roasting.]—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Do brown</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. To understand; comprehend.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb338">[<a href="#pb338">338</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">To do brown</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—To do well; also ‘to take in’; deceive; to exceed bounds. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Brown</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 1. French equivalents for ‘to allow oneself to be <span class="sc">done brown</span>’ are <i lang="fr">godancer</i> and <i lang="fr">être flouè</i>.—<i>See</i> second quotation for variation in usage.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1600. <span class="sc">John Bon</span>, 162 in Hazl. <i>E.&nbsp;P. P.</i>, iv., 16. Ha! <span class="sc">browne done</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1828. <span class="sc">Jon. Bee</span>, <i>Picture of London</i>, p. 5. ‘Those who consider themselves <span class="sc">brown</span> to every move upon the board’ of actual life.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>The Execution</i>). ‘Why, they’d laugh at and quiz us all over the town, We are all of us <span class="sc">done</span> so uncommonly <span class="sc">brown</span>!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <i>Harper’s Monthly</i>, January.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘And some of the greenhorns </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Resolved upon flight, </p>
+<p class="line">And vamosed the ranch </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">In a desperate plight; </p>
+<p class="line">While those who succeeded </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">In reaching the town, </p>
+<p class="line">Confessed they were <span class="sc">done</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Most exceedingly <span class="sc">brown</span>.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1861. <i>Times</i> (on American affairs).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">John Bull, slyly winkin’, then said unto he: </p>
+<p class="line">‘My dear <i>Times</i>, my old covey, go pitch into he; </p>
+<p class="line">Let us wallop great Doodle now when he is down; </p>
+<p class="line">If we wallops him well, we will <span class="sc">do him up brown</span>.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 267. I was once done myself with some pigs—I! and <span class="sc">done brown</span> too, and at a time when I ought to have known better.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brown Bess</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—1. Yes.
+</p>
+<p>2. (military.)—The old regulation musket. Considerable discussion has taken place
+over the origin of this term. It first appears in Grose [1785], but the term ‘brown
+musquet’ occurs at the beginning of the eighteenth century [1708]. The following suggested
+derivation appeared in <i>N. and Q.</i> [2 S., v., p. 259]. <span class="sc">Brown Bess</span>, in its primary meaning, is equivalent to brown barrel. <i lang="nl">Bus</i>, in Dutch is the barrel of a gun; in Low Germ. <i lang="de">büsse</i>, in Swed. <i lang="sv">byssa.</i> Hence our English <span class="sc">Bess</span> as applied to a gun-barrel. (Conf. in Med. Latin—<i lang="la">bus-bas fragor scloporum et certaminis</i>.) The Dutch <i lang="nl">bus</i> appears often in composition. <i lang="nl">Hand-bus</i>, a pistol; literally a hand-barrel. <i lang="nl">Bus-schieter</i>, a gunner; literally a barrel-shooter. We have the Dutch <i lang="nl">bus</i> (a barrel) in three English names of fire-arms: namely arque<i>buse</i>, o<i>bus</i>, blunder<i>buss</i>. At the first of these three, <i>arquebuse</i>, we must look a little more closely would we trace the term <span class="sc">brown Bess</span> to its primæval source. The most formidable of cross-bows before fire-arms came into
+general use, was one which shot a ball or pellet from a <i>barrel</i>. Specimens may yet be seen. Now this was the original <i>arquebuse</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, <i>arc-bus</i>, or <i>arc-et-bus</i>, bow and barrel). In process of time as gunpowder came into use, the <i>arc</i> disappeared, and the <i>buss</i> or <i>barrel</i> remained. Hence <i>arquebuse</i>, though it properly implies a bow fitted with a tube or barrel, came into use as
+the old appellation of a soldier’s firelock. And hence the name of <span class="sc">Bess</span> (<i>bus</i>, <i lang="de">büsse</i> or <i lang="sv">byssa</i>), which the musket has borne more recently. <span class="sc">Bess</span> or <i>bus</i> is the last syllable of the old <i>arquebuse</i> or <i>harquebus</i> cut off for separate use, just as in the more recent instance of <i>bus</i> from <i>omnibus</i>. The barrels of firelocks were sometimes <span class="sc">browned</span>. Sometimes, however, they were required to be kept bright. <span class="pageNum" id="pb339">[<a href="#pb339">339</a>]</span>Could we ascertain who first in mercy ordained the browning of the barrel, we might
+have some prospect of ascertaining the first introduction of the term <span class="sc">brown Bess</span>. Doubtless it was some hero of the fight, not of the field-day. For a further illustration
+of the term <span class="sc">brown Bess</span>, it may be proper to remark that in Northumberland, according to Halliwell, a gun
+is known by the not very elegant title of <i>black-bitch</i>. Now like <i lang="nl">bus</i> in Dutch, <i lang="de">büchse</i> is in German a gun-barrel. (‘<i lang="de">Büchse</i>, 2, <i lang="de">ein eisernes Rohr zum schiessen</i>,’ <i>an iron tube for shooting.</i>) May we not infer, therefore, that <i>black-bitch</i> was originally ‘<i>black büchse</i>,’ <i>i.e.</i>, <i>black barrel</i>, in conformity with <i>brown barrel</i> or <span class="sc">brown Bess</span>? ‘Formerly,’ says Zedler, ‘and before the invention of gunpowder, <i>arquebuse</i> signified <i>a bow with a barrel</i>’ (<i lang="de">Bogen Büchse</i>), which is the literal meaning of the word. Hotten, however, says it is much more
+likely that the phrase is derived from the fact that ‘the soldier is wedded to his
+weapon,’ and some colour is given to this alternative derivation by the fact that
+the Dutch soldier, mindful of all the care he has to bestow upon his gun, calls it
+his wife—<i lang="nl">mijn geweer is mijn vrouw</i>. French soldiers call their weapon <i lang="fr">la clarinette de cinq pieds</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Brown Bess</span>, a soldier’s firelock.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. <span class="sc">Coombe</span>, <i>Dr. Syntax</i>, Tour II., ch. ii.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Religion Jack did never profess, </p>
+<p class="line">Till he had shoulder’d old <span class="sc">Brown Bess</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1854. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>General Bounce</i>, ch. xi. The British soldier, with his clothing and accoutrements, …—not to mention
+<span class="sc">brown Bess</span>, his mainstay and dependence—nothing punishes him so much as wet.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, No. 720. Such may have been the case in the days of <span class="sc">brown Bess</span>, but a spinning conical ball from the Martini-Henry will pierce the largest crocodile.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A prostitute. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1631. <span class="sc">Dore</span>, <i>Polydorun</i>. Things proffered and easie to come by diminish themselves in reputation and price,
+for how full of pangs and dotage is a wayling lover, for it may be some <span class="sc"><span class="corr" id="xd33e59207" title="Source: bbown">brown</span> Bessie</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To hug brown Bess</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To serve as a private soldier.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brown George</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Explained by quotations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>Ingoldsby L.</i>, 3 S. ‘Jerry Jarvis’s Wig.’ He looked disdainfully at the wig; it had once been a
+comely jasey enough, of the colour of over-baked ginger-bread, one of the description
+commonly known during the latter half of the last century by the name of a <span class="sc">brown George</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Globe</i>, 24 July, p. 2, col. 1. The King [George III.] wore a brown wig … known popularly
+a century ago as <span class="sc">brown George</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A jug; generally of brown earthenware. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Black-jack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, <i>Tom Brown at Oxford</i>, ch. xxiv. He … stood behind his oak, holding his <span class="sc">brown George</span>, or huge earthenware receptacle, half full of dirty water, in which his bedmaker
+had been washing up his tea-things.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Chap. of the Fleet</i>, pt. II., ch. iii. His country brother might have been seen at the Crown, over a
+pipe and a <span class="sc">brown George</span> full of strong October.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A coarse brown loaf; or hard biscuit.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1653. <span class="sc">Urquhart</span>, <i>Rabelais</i>, bk. IV. Author’s Prologue. The devil of one musty crust of a <span class="sc">brown George</span> the poor boys had to scour their grinders with.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb340">[<a href="#pb340">340</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1693. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Persius</i>, V., 215.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Cubb’d in a cabin, on a mattrass laid, </p>
+<p class="line">On a <span class="sc">brown George</span>, with lousy swabbers fed. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Brownie</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—The polar bear.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brown Janet</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A knapsack.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brown Joe</b>, <i>intj.</i> (rhyming slang).—No. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Brown Bess</span> for ‘yes.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brown-Papermen</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Low gamblers.—<i>See</i> quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 502. ‘But the Little Nick is what we call only ‘<span class="sc">brown papermen</span>,’ low gamblers—playing for pence, and 1s. being a great go.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brown Stone</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—Beer. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brown Talk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Conversation of an exceedingly ‘proper’ character, Quakerish. Compare <span class="sc">blue</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Browse</b>, <i>verb</i> (Marlborough and Royal Military Academy).—To idle; loll; take things easy. [A transferred
+sense of the legitimate word—to eat lazily.]
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—<i>See</i> foregoing. ‘A <span class="sc">browse</span> morning,’ <i>i.e.</i>, one in which there is little work.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bruise</b>, <i>verb</i> (prize-fighters’).—1. To fight; box—generally with the idea of mauling.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Bruise along</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (hunting).—To pound along.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Dublin University Magazine</i>, II., 19. A majority of those who follow them have … no notion of hunting, but go
+<span class="sc">bruising along</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <i>Anteros</i>, xii., p. 110. The baron hunted his five days … <span class="sc">bruising along</span> determinedly.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bruiser</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—1. A prize-fighter; a boxer. [From <span class="sc">bruise</span>, to maul, + <span class="sc">er</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1744. Nov. 26, <span class="sc">Walpole</span>, <i>Lett. to Mann</i> (1833), II., 57. He let into the pit great numbers of bear-garden <span class="sc">bruisers</span> (that is the term), to knock down everybody that hissed.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Englishman in Paris</i>, Act i. Dick Daylight and Bob Bread-basket the <span class="sc">bruisers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1830. <span class="sc">S. Warren</span>, <i>Diary of a Late Physician</i>, ch. xii. The man last named was short in stature, but of a square iron build; and
+it needed only a glance at his posture to see he was a scientific, perhaps a thorough-bred
+<span class="sc">bruiser</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846–48. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>V. Fair</i>, ch. xi. At college he pulled stroke-oar in the Christchurch boat, and had thrashed
+all the best <span class="sc">bruisers</span> of the ‘town.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Philip</i>, ch. xlii. A jolly wag, a fellow of indifferent character, a frequenter of all the
+ale-houses in the neighbourhood, and rather celebrated for his skill as a <span class="sc">bruiser</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Jas. Greenwood</span>, <i>Flyfaker’s Hotel</i>, in <i>Odd People in Odd Places</i>, p. 58. Nearly every one seemed to have some little job or other that was necessary
+to be done at this almost last moment for the business of to-morrow; even one of the
+two villanous-looking <span class="sc">bruisers</span> had. They were of the very lowest of the ‘rough’ type—broken-nosed, besotted, pimple-visaged,
+and unwholesome-looking fellows, whose foul and blasphemous language seemed to pollute
+the pestilent air of the place more than anything else that contributed thereto.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—A prostitute’s bully or fancy man. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bully</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—One fond of fighting. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Chucker-out</span>, and next sense.
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—A generic name in large cities for a rowdy or bully. Sometimes, however,
+the term has been limited in its application to a particular band <span class="pageNum" id="pb341">[<a href="#pb341">341</a>]</span>of ruffians. This was the case once in Baltimore.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bruising</b>, <i>verbal subs.</i> (prize-fighters’).—Fighting with the fists; boxing.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. c. The combatants were, in point of strength and agility, pretty equally matched;
+but the jailer had been regularly trained to the art of <span class="sc">bruising</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, ch. x. At that time the Sunday newspapers contained many and many exciting reports
+of boxing matches. <span class="sc">Bruising</span> was considered a fine manly old English custom.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Philip</i>, ch. xxxv. Mugford always persisted that he could have got the better of his great
+hulking sub-editor, who did not know the use of his fists. In Mugford’s youthful time,
+<span class="sc">bruising</span> was a fashionable art.
+</p>
+<p><i>Ppl. adj.</i> (hunting).—That pounds along.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <i>Anteros</i>, by the author of <i>Guy Livingstone</i>, I., p. 207. He was a good second-rate shot, and a fair, though by no means <span class="sc">bruising</span> rider to hounds. <i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, p. 234. There were not a few admirers of his <span class="sc">bruising</span> style, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brum</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A counterfeit coin. [Contracted form of <span class="sc">Brummagem</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).] The term appears to have been given specially to some counterfeit groats [about
+1691].
+</p>
+<p>2. (common<span class="corr" id="xd33e59560" title="Source: .)">).</span>—Something counterfeit; not genuine. [A contraction of <span class="sc">Brummagem</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, July 9, p. 3, col. 2. One [earring] might be gold, and the other a <span class="sc">Brum</span>, though exactly alike.
+</p>
+<p>3. (common<span class="corr" id="xd33e59577" title="Source: .)">).</span>—Copper money struck by Boulton and Watt at their works at Soho, Birmingham.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1787. <span class="sc">J. West</span>, <i>Trip to Richmond</i>, in Ashton’s <i>Eighteenth Century Waifs</i>, p. 133. My silver I chang’d for a handful of <span class="sc">Brums</span>.
+</p>
+<p>4. (common<span class="corr" id="xd33e59594" title="Source: .)">).</span>—An inhabitant of Birmingham.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 321. For Nottingham is a rare place for good eating; here you may buy anything
+to eat of the commonest person, or in the commonest place with confidence that it
+is good, clean, and wholesome, very different to dirty Birmingham and the <span class="sc">Brums</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (Winchester College).—Mean; poor; stingy. A superlative form is <span class="sc">dead brum</span>. [There are two derivations suggested; viz. (1) from <i>bruma</i> = winter; and (2) traditional in ‘College’ that it is an abbreviated form of <i lang="la">brevissimum</i>.] A popular French equivalent, used both as a substantive and adjective, is <i lang="fr">rapiat</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brumby</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Australian).—A wild horse. An Antipodean counterpart of the American ‘broncho.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brummagem</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—1. A nickname for Birmingham.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>Cornhill</i>, Nov., p. 648. We have just touched for a rattling stake of sugar (<i>i.e.</i>, a large stake of money) at <span class="sc">Brum</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old<span class="corr" id="xd33e59645" title="Source: .)">).</span>—Base money of various denominations has been so called—especially groats in 17th
+century—hence its application to anything spurious or unreal—as in adjectival sense.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Brummagem buttons</span> and <span class="sc">Brums</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1691. <span class="sc">G. Miege</span>, <i>New State Eng.</i>, 235. <span class="sc">Bromicham</span>, particularly noted a few years ago for the counterfeit groats made here, and from
+hence dispersed all over the kingdom. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i>, 2 ed. <span class="sc">Bromidgham</span>, money of base metal.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">Southey</span>, <i>The Doctor</i>, ch. cxl. He picked it up, and it proved to be a <span class="sc">Brummejam</span> of the coarsest and clumsiest kind, with a head on each side.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb342">[<a href="#pb342">342</a>]</span></p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i>—Counterfeit; unreal; sham; showy; pretentious.—<i>See substantive</i>, senses 1 and 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1637. <i>Calendar Dom. St. Papers</i>, 105. Those swords which he … pretends to be blades of his owne makeing are all <span class="sc">Bromedgham</span> blades and forraine blades.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1686. <span class="sc">D’Urfey</span>, <i>Commonwealth of Women</i>, I., i. A <span class="sc">Brummingham</span>, son of a wh—, affront the Noble Admiral!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">G. Eliot</span>, <i>Felix Holt</i>, ch. v. ‘The most of the middle class are as ignorant as the working people about
+everything that doesn’t belong to their own <span class="sc">Brummagem</span> life.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Echo</i>, March 28, p. 1, col. 5. There is little of a <span class="sc">Brummagem</span> character about the municipal, parochial, and philanthropic work of Birmingham, whatever
+we may think of some of her industrial productions.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brummagem Buttons</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Counterfeit coin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club</i>, I., p. 11. Bad silver, <span class="sc">Brummagem buttons</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <i>Saturday Review</i>, Nov., p. 661. They [<span class="sc">Brummagem buttons</span>] were marvellously inexpensive, and being such ingenious imitations of the spade
+guineas and half-guineas then current that many Englishmen might have failed to detect
+the difference; they must have been of very great ‘use to the Indians’ indeed.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brummish</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Doubtful; counterfeit. [From <span class="sc">Brum</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">ish</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1805. <span class="sc">G. Colman</span>, <i>John Bull Brit. Theat.</i>, 55. Two guineas … one seems light and t’other looks a little <span class="sc">brummish</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brums</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—London and North Western Stock. (Formerly London and Birmingham
+Ry.).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">Atkin</span>, <i>House Scraps</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">We kneel at the feet of our ‘Nancys,’ </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">We load them with ‘cottons’ and ‘tapes.’ </p>
+<p class="line">If anything tickles our fancy, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">We buy them <span class="sc">Brums</span>, ‘Caleys’ or ‘Apes.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Brush.</b>—1. <i>See</i> <span class="sc">Brother of the brush</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. <i>subs.</i> (old).—A hasty departure. For analogous terms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. VIII., ch. xii. ‘I reminded him, not without blushing, of my having no money.
+He answered, <span id="xd33e59828">“</span>That signifies nothing, score it behind the door, or make a bold <span class="sc">brush</span>, and take no notice.<span id="xd33e59834">”</span>’
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A person who decamps hastily, or who evades his creditors.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Brush</span> (v.) … also a canting term for one who goes off privately, or runs away from his
+creditors, or with stolen goods.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (Christ’s Hospital).—1. To flog.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—To have sexual intercourse. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Ride</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—To run away; to decamp. Also to <span class="sc">brush off</span>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. B. E., <i>Dict. Cant. Crew</i>. <span class="sc">Brush</span>, to Fly or Run away. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1706. <span class="sc">E. Coles</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Brush</span>, <i>c.</i>, run away.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1764. <span class="sc">A. Murphy</span>, <i>No One’s Enemy but his Own</i>, Act ii. Rascal, says my Master, do as I bid you, and so off he <span class="sc">brushed</span> to the tune of an old song.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1776. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Bankrupt</i>, I. But I must <span class="sc">brush</span> off, for here comes my lady.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>Ingoldsby Legends</i> (1877), 204. And one Sergeant Matcham had <span class="sc">brush’d</span> with the dibs.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>Dead Drummer</i>). One of their drummers, and one Sergeant Matcham, Had <span class="sc">brush’d</span> with the dibs, and they never could catch’em.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brusher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A full glass.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—<i>See</i> quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Brusher</span> (s.) … also one that gets or steals away privately.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb343">[<a href="#pb343">343</a>]</span></p>
+<p>3. (common and schools’.)—A schoolmaster.
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—To humbug by flattery.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Brushing up a flat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (general).—Using mealy-mouthed words, or, to employ other slang equivalents, ‘laying
+it on thick,’ ‘soft soaping one.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brute</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—<i>See</i> quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, s.v. <span class="sc">Brute</span>, in Cambridge University slang, is a man who has not yet matriculated. The play is
+evident. A ‘man,’ in college phrase, is a collegian; and as matriculation is the sign
+and seal of acceptance, a scholar before that ceremony is not a ‘man,’ and therefore
+only a ‘<span class="sc">biped brute</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Brydport Dagger.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bridport dagger</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>B.&nbsp;T. I.</b>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—An abbreviation of <span class="sc">a big thing on ice</span>. These curtailments of slang phrases are not infrequent in America, and among others
+may be mentioned <span class="sc">p.d.q.</span>; <span class="sc">o.k.</span>; <span class="sc">n.g.</span> and <span class="sc">q.k.</span>, etc. (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bub</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Strong drink of any kind, but usually applied to malt liquor. [It is suggested
+that this term is <span class="corr" id="xd33e60022" title="Source: onamatopoetic">onomatopoetic</span>, an imitation of the sound of drinking; others, however, incline to regard the word
+as a derivative of the Latin <i lang="la">bib-ĕre</i>, to drink. Sometimes spelt <span class="sc">bubb</span>.] A common expression for eating and drinking is ‘to take <span class="sc">bub</span> and grub,’ a French equivalent for which is <i lang="fr">se caresser l’Angoulême</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. iv., p. 36 (1874). In a short time these four return’d laden with <span class="sc">bub</span> and food.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Dodsley</span>, <i>Collection of Poems</i>, III., 262.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Tho’ beef twice boil’d his meal, with P—n’s <span class="sc">bub</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">And sixpence chang’d defrays the frugal club. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1839. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Jack Sheppard</i>, ep. II., ch. xi. ‘Och! many a mug o’ <span class="sc">bubb</span> have I drained wi’ the landlord.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A woman’s breast; generally used in the plural—<span class="sc">bubbies</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A brother.
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—Also <span class="sc">bubby</span>. A term of affection applied to a little boy. [Said to have originated in Pennsylvania
+from the German <i lang="de">Bube</i>.] Likewise used figuratively as a familiar mode of address.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">S. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Roughing It</i>. The cayote turns smiles blandly upon him once more, and with a something about it
+which seems to say: ‘Well, I shall have to tear myself away from you, <span class="sc">bub</span>—business is business, and it will not do for me to be fooling along this way all
+day.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>San Francisco Weekly Examiner.</i> When she was ready to go home, she did so without carriage or baby. Shortly after
+<span class="sc">bubby</span> kicked up high jinks, and the joker clerk was sent for to take him away.
+</p>
+<p>5. (old.)—An abbreviated form of <span class="sc">bubble</span>, <i>subs.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. B. E., <i>Dict. Cant. Crew</i>. <span class="sc">Bub</span> or <span class="sc">bubble</span>, one that is cheated. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—1. To drink.—<i>See substantive.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. vi., p. 54 (1874). We straight betook ourselves to the <i>Boozing Ken</i>; and having <span class="sc">bubb’d</span> rumly, we concluded an everlasting friendship.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—To bribe; to cheat. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bubble</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1719. <span class="sc">D’Urfey</span>, <i>Pills</i>, II., 54. Another makes Racing a Trade.… And many a Crimp Match has made, By <span class="sc">bubbing</span> another Man’s Groom.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb344">[<a href="#pb344">344</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubber</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A hard drinker; a confirmed tippler. [From <span class="sc">bub</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) = drink + <span class="sc">er</span>.] A synonymous French term is <i lang="fr">un bibassier</i>, but for analogous terms generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Elbow crooker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1653. <span class="sc">Middleton</span>, <i>Sp. Gipsy</i>, ii., 1. Though I am no mark in respect of a huge butt, yet I can tell you great
+<span class="sc">bubbers</span> have shot at me. [There is a play in the word ‘butt.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1674. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>Canting Acad.</i>, 191. A <span class="sc">bubber</span> … goes to the Alehouse, and steals there the Plate.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bubber</span>, … a great drinker. A thief that steals plate from publick houses.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A drinking bowl. <i>Cf.</i>, derivation of previous sense.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. B. E., <i>Dict. Cant. Crew</i>. <span class="sc">Bubber</span>, a drinking Bowl; also a great Drinker, and he that used to steal Plate from Publick-houses.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bubber</span>, a drinking bowl, etc.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A public house thief.—<i>See</i> quotation 1690, sense 2; also mentioned by Grose [1785].
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—A nickname for an old woman with large pendulous breasts. Rarely heard.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1848. <span class="sc">Bartlett</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>. <span class="sc">Bubber.</span> A stout or stoutly mammalated old woman. Used in Salem, Mass., in 1820, and since.
+‘<span class="sc">Bubber</span> Jones.’ (Fr. <i lang="fr">poitron</i>, old woman; Old Fr. <i lang="fr">pect. poitron</i>; Lat. <i lang="la">pectus</i>, the breast.)
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubbies</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A woman’s breasts. An old term of which the derivation is somewhat doubtful,
+though it may be noted that the ancient cant has <span class="sc">bub</span> in the sense of ‘to drink,’ and also as an abbreviated form of <span class="sc">bubby</span>. Arber says that ‘bu bu’ is the cry of a child needing its mother’s milk.—For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Dairies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1686. <span class="sc">D’Urfey</span>, <i>New Poems</i> (1690), 206.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The Ladies here may without Scandal shew, </p>
+<p class="line">Face or white <span class="sc">bubbies</span>, to each ogling Beau. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1693. <span class="sc">Congreve</span>, <i>Old Batchelor</i>, Act v., Sc. 7. Did not her eyes twinkle, and her mouth water? Did not she pull up
+her little <span class="sc">bubbies</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Arbuthnot</span>, <i>Hist. of John Bull</i>, pt. III., ch. viii. ‘To see a handsome, brisk, genteel, young fellow so much governed
+by a doating old woman! Why don’t you go and suck the <span class="sc">bubby</span>?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1715. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Country House</i>, II., v. He talked to me of you, and said you had the charmingest <span class="sc">bubbies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Dodsley</span>, <i>Collection of Poems</i>, III., 191. And snowy <span class="sc">bubbies</span> pull’d above the stays.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i>, 2 ed. <span class="sc">Bubbys</span>, a woman’s breasts.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubbing</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Drinking; tippling.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1678. <i>Poor Robin’s Char. of Scold</i>, 6. She clamours at him so long … which makes him seek <span class="sc">Bubbing</span>-schools to hide himself in from her fury. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubble</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A dupe; gull; also <span class="sc">caravan</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); and <span class="sc">rook</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Grose thinks from the party cheated being like an air-<span class="sc">bubble</span> filled with words which are only wind instead of real property. Also apparently used
+of anything not genuine. Applied to persons, it is older than appears from Murray.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>All’s Well</i>, iii., vi., 5. <i>Sec. Lord.</i> On my life, my lord, a <span class="sc">bubble</span>. <i>Ber.</i> Do you think I am so far deceived in him?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1688. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Sq. of Alsatia</i>, III., in wks. (1720) IV., 62. This kinsman a most silly <span class="sc">bubble</span> first, and afterwards a betrayer of young heirs.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1697. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Provoked Wife</i>, V., iii. If her conduct has put a trick upon her virtue, her virtue’s the <span class="sc">bubble</span>, but her husband’s the loser.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb345">[<a href="#pb345">345</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1711. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Conduct of the Allies</i>. We are thus become the dupes and <span class="sc">bubbles</span> of Europe.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1712. <span class="sc">Arbuthnot</span>, <i>History of John Bull</i>, pt. II., ch. iii. He has been my <span class="sc">bubble</span> [tool] these twenty years; and to my certain knowledge, understands no more of his
+own affairs than a child in swaddling clothes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. I., ch. vii. ‘This would be to own herself the meer tool and <span class="sc">bubble</span> of the man.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1788. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Stevens</span>, <i>Adv. of a Speculist</i>, I., 69. He persuades his <span class="sc">bubble</span>, that he will insure him a certain safe way of getting a sum of money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1795. <span class="sc">R. Cumberland</span>, <i>The Jew</i>, Act iii., Sc. 2. If he attempts to raise money upon expectancies, be at their peril
+who are fools enough to trust him: No prudent man will be his <span class="sc">bubble</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1805. <span class="sc">G. Barrington</span>, <i>New London Spy</i> (4 ed.), p. 24. The shame of being thought a <span class="sc">bubble</span>, and exposed to the town, frequently prevents gentlemen from making use of the statute
+provided in such cases.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—To cheat; humbug; delude as with <span class="sc">bubbles</span>; to overreach. <i>Cf.</i>, <i>substantive sense</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1664. <span class="sc">Etheridge</span>, <i>Comical Revenge</i>, II., iii., in wks. (1704), 24. I believe he’s gone down to Receive money; ’twere
+an excellent design to <span class="sc">bubble</span> him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1685. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Prol. to Albion and Albanius</i>, 23.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Freedom and zeal have choused you o’er and o’er; </p>
+<p class="line">Pray give us leave to <span class="sc">bubble</span> you once more. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1711. <i>Spectator</i>, No 89. That she has <span class="sc">bubbled</span> him out of his youth … and that he verily believes she will drop him in his old age,
+if she can find her account in another.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Amelia</i>, bk. XI., ch. iv. He … actually <span class="sc">bubbled</span> several of their money by undertaking to do them services, which, in reality, were
+not within his power.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1777. <span class="sc">Sheridan</span>, <i>Trip to Scarborough</i>, Act ii. Help the gentleman with a chair, and carry him to my house presently—that’s
+the properest place—[<i>aside</i>]—to <span class="sc">bubble</span> him out of his money.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1788. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Stevens</span>, <i>Adv. of a Speculist</i>, I., 75. And this was the language which the pretenders to the Philosopher’s Stone
+used to <span class="sc">bubble</span> their pigeons with.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">McCarthy</span>, <i>Own Times</i>, III., xli., 235. Some critics declared … that the French Emperor had <span class="sc">bubbled</span> him [Mr. Cobden].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubbleable</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old).—That can be duped; gullible. [A very rare form from <span class="sc">bubble</span>, to cheat, + <span class="sc">able</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1669. <i>Nicker Nicked</i>, in <i>Hart. Misc.</i> (ed. Park), II., 109. If the winner be <span class="sc">bubbleable</span>, they will insinuate themselves into his acquaintance, and civilly invite him to
+drink a glass of wine; wheedle him into play, and win all his money.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubble and Squeak</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (common).—A compound of cold meat fried up with potatoes and greens. [From the hissing
+sound produced by the frying; originally nautical.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bubble and squeak</span>, beef and cabbage fried together; it is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking
+whilst over the fire.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1786–89. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> (‘P. Pindar’), <i>Lousiad</i>, ch. i., line 366.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Such is the sound (the simile’s not weak) </p>
+<p class="line">Form’d by what mortals <span class="sc">bubble</span> call, and <span class="sc">squeak</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">When ’midst the frying-pan, in accents savage, </p>
+<p class="line">The beef so sorely quarrels with the cabbage. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1853. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>My Novel</i>, bk. VIII., ch. viii. ‘Rank and title! <span class="sc">bubble and squeak!</span> No, not half so good as <span class="sc">bubble and squeak</span>. English beef and good cabbage.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubble Buff</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A bailiff.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubble Company</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A swindling association, enterprise or project. [From <span class="sc">bubble</span>, to cheat, + company.] The South Sea <span class="sc">Bubble</span> will occur to mind in this connection.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i> (2 ed.). <span class="sc">Bubble</span> … 5 (in Commerce), a cant <span class="pageNum" id="pb346">[<a href="#pb346">346</a>]</span>name given to certain projects for raising money on imaginary grounds.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>Social Sinners</i>, ch. xix. ‘My inheritance disappears as if it had been invested in a <span class="sc">bubble company</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubbled</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Gulled; deceived; befooled. [From <span class="sc">bubble</span>, to cheat, + <span class="sc">ed</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1683. <span class="sc">Oldham</span>, <i>Wks. and Rem.</i> (1686), 66. <span class="sc">Bubled</span> Monarchs are at first beguil’d … at last depos’d, and kill’d. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1701. <span class="sc">Defoe</span>, <i>True Born Englishman</i>, Introd.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Who shall this <span class="sc">bubbled</span> nation disabuse, </p>
+<p class="line">While they, their own felicities refuse? </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1889. <i>Gentleman’s Mag.</i>, June, p. 598. Towards the end of the century [xvii] a person easily gulled, or <span class="sc">bubbled</span> was known as a ‘caravan,’ but earlier the term ‘rook,’ which is now restricted to
+a cheat or sharper, appears to have been applied to the person cheated.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubbling Squeak</b>, <i>subs.</i> (army).—Hot soup.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubbly Jock</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old Scotch).—1. A turkey-cock; a ‘gobbler.’ [Probably in allusion to the cry of
+the bird.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bubbly jock</span>, a turkey-cock.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Irish Sketch Book</i>, ch. xv. He took but one glass of water to that intolerable deal of <span class="sc">bubbly jock</span>.… Three turkey-wings and a glass of water.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Son of Vulcan</i>, pt. II., ch. xviii. Puffing his cheeks like some infuriated <span class="sc">bubbly jock</span> in a stable-yard.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A stupid boaster.
+</p>
+<p>3. (popular.)—A pert, conceited, pragmatical fellow; a prig; a cad.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Sala</span>, <i>Living London</i>, p. 113. Mr. Benjamin Bunny (Mr. J.&nbsp;L. Toole) is the good-natured husband of a pretty
+young wife (Miss Winifred Emery). Mr. Bunny is, to use a Scotticism, ‘sair owerhanded,’
+not by a ‘<span class="sc">bubbly jock</span>,’ but by his wife’s aunt.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bubby.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bub</span> and <span class="sc">Bubbies</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bucco</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A dandy. [A corruption of <span class="sc">buck</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buck</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. In the first instance a man of spirit or gaiety of conduct; later a
+fop, a dandy. [A transferred sense of <span class="sc">buck</span>, the male of the fallow deer.] In the form ‘old <span class="sc">buck</span>’ it is merely a familiar mode of address. The epithet, as applied to a man about
+town, is somewhat obsolete; <span class="sc">masher</span>, <span class="sc">dude</span>, and <span class="sc">swell</span> having taken its place. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blood</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1725. <i>New Cant. Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Buck</span>, as a bold <span class="sc">buck</span>, is sometimes used to signify a forward daring Person of either Sex.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Amelia</i>, bk. X., ch. ii. A large assembly of young fellows, whom they call <span class="sc">bucks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846–48. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>V. Fair</i>, ch. vi. She had sate by him on the box of his open carriage (a most tremendous <span class="sc">buck</span> he was, as <span class="corr" id="xd33e60855" title="Source: hesat">he sat</span> there, serene, in state, driving his greys).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, Feb. 9. The ancient <span class="sc">buck</span> was last seen (at the age of eighty-four) wearing a wig, a pair of stays, ‘plumpers,’
+rouge, and padding, and he daily anointed his face with a compound called ‘skin-tightener.’
+‘Skin-tightener’ removes wrinkles, and after the face has been washed with ‘bloom
+of roses,’ the wearer can strut forth with the consciousness that all the world takes
+him for a quarter of a century younger than he is.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—An unlicensed cabdriver. Apparently also applied to a sham fare.—<i>See</i> last quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. III., p. 362. The long-day men are the parties who mostly employ the <span class="sc">bucks</span> … they are glad to avail themselves of the services of a <span class="sc">buck</span> for some hours at the end of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb347">[<a href="#pb347">347</a>]</span>day. <i>Ibid.</i> The <span class="sc">bucks</span> are unlicensed cabdrivers, who are employed by those who have a license to take charge
+of the cab while the regular drivers are at their meals or enjoying themselves.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Morning Star</i>, 14 Sept. What is the prisoner? Constable: He is a <span class="sc">buck</span>, who hangs about an omnibus stand. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Daily News</i>, 5 October, 5, 4. At Bow Street something was further heard of the <span class="sc">buck</span>. This person … is the sham fare whom a cabby drives past the police in order to get
+up to the theatre doors out of his proper turn, and so increase his chance of securing
+a legitimate fare.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A sixpence. [Thought to be a corruption of <span class="sc">fyebuck</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).] The word is rarely used by itself, but generally denotes the sixpence attached
+to shillings in reference to cost, as, ‘three and a <span class="sc">buck</span>,’ three shillings and sixpence. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bender</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Household Words</i>, June 20, p. 155. ‘<span class="sc">Buck</span>’ is most likely a corruption of ‘fyebuck,’ a slang name for sixpence, which is now
+almost, if not altogether, obsolete.
+</p>
+<p>4. (schoolboys’.)—A large marble. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Alley</span>, <span class="sc">Bonce</span>, <span class="sc">Mivey</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Household Words</i>, June 20, p. 155. Readers whose school-days are still green in their memories will
+also recognise in <span class="sc">buck</span> the name for the large marble once dear to their boyish hearts.
+</p>
+<p>5. (American.)—A term used in <span class="sc">poker</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Tiger</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (American University).—At Princeton College anything which is of an intensive degree,
+good, excellent, pleasant or agreeable, is called <span class="sc">buck</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (American).—1. To oppose; to run counter to. [Possibly a corruption of butt, or from
+<span class="sc">buck</span> as applied to a horse.—<i>See</i> sense 2.]
+</p>
+<p>2. (Western American.)—As applied to horses this term is used to describe the action
+of plunging forward and throwing the head to the ground in an effort to unseat the
+rider—a motion of which probably no domesticated beast is capable, aside from the
+Texan miserable and treacherous species of horse. A raw hand thus relates his experience:—‘When
+I was told how hard he could <span class="sc">buck</span>, I only laughed, my impression being that no pony standing on four legs could throw
+me off. I mounted my new horse, and waving my bran new hat about my head, galloped
+away in a dignified style. Suddenly the horse stopped. His ears went back, and his
+hind legs went between his front. The motion was a curious one. But I did not fall.
+Realizing that the man on his back could ride a little bit, the pony got right down
+to business. My stomach seemed to fly up into my mouth, and millions of stars floated
+about my head. I am not prepared to state what kind of hold the pony got on me, but
+I went sprawling on the ground, my nose making an irrigating ditch. It was all done
+not more than one hundred yards from where my girl was standing. I stuck on well,
+however, as the saddle, blanket, gun and bridle came off with me. The wild yell that
+greeted my exploit nearly drove me mad. While I spit the dirt and curses out of my
+mouth, I thought that if I had that pony back I’d break him in or break my head. It
+ran out on the prairie and joined the Government herd. When an old-timer tried to
+fix <span class="pageNum" id="pb348">[<a href="#pb348">348</a>]</span>things for me in front of my girl by saying, “It’s no disgrace, pardnr, that horse
+can <span class="sc">buck</span> off a porus plaster,” I thanked him from the bottom of my heart.’
+</p>
+<p>3. (commercial.)—A variant of to <span class="sc">cook</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), as applied to accounts.
+</p>
+<p>4. (Western American.)—To play against the bank, usually ‘to <span class="sc">buck</span> the tiger.’—<i>See</i> following.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Gabriel Conroy</i>, p. 375. I don’t like your looks at all. I’d <span class="sc">buck</span> against any bank you ran, all night.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Brown of Calaveras</i>. (Tales of the Arg., p. 81). Why don’t you say you want to <span class="sc">buck</span> agin’ faro?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Hotel Mail.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A man may hunt the wildest game </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Along the Nile or the Niger, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5088">In woods or ranch; </p>
+<p class="line">But he will find the sport most tame </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Compared with <span class="sc">bucking</span> the tiger </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5088">At dear Long Branch. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">5. (Western American.)—To put forth one’s whole energy. [An extension of meaning from
+sense 4.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>San Antonio Paper.</i> ‘You’ll have to <span class="sc">buck</span> at it like a whole team, gentlemen, or you won’t hear the whistle near your diggings
+for many a year.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To run a buck</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old Irish).—To poll a bad vote at an election.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Buck or fight the tiger</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—To gamble. [There are two derivations suggested:—(1) that the phrase
+is derived from the parti-coloured division or stripes on a gambling table; (2) that
+it is of Chinese origin. A favourite figure of one of the Chinese gods of gambling
+is a <span class="sc">tiger</span> standing on his hind-feet, and grasping a large cash in his mouth or his paws. Sometimes
+the image is made of wood or clay, or drawn on a piece of paper or board. The title
+of the beast, His Excellency the Grasping Cash <span class="sc">Tiger</span>, is frequently written on a piece of paper, and placed in the gambling rooms between
+two bunches of mock-money suspended under the table or on the wall behind it. This
+figure is the sign for a gambling house: ‘The <span class="sc">Fighting Tiger</span>.’<span class="corr" id="xd33e61070" title="Not in source">]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, Feb. 14. Last night and to-day they have succeeded in placing under arrest six of
+the gaming-house keepers of the city and subpœnaed thirty citizens as witnesses, among
+whom are said to be prominent city officials and business men. The affair has caused
+a good deal of talk already, and if reports are anywhere near true, it will create
+a great sensation when the cases are called, and more than one unsuspecting wife will
+have her eyes opened to the fact that the wicked <span class="sc">tiger</span>, and not legitimate business has been detaining her husband out so late at night.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buck Bait</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Bail given by a confederate. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bait</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buck Down</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (Winchester College).—To be sorry; unhappy. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buck up</span> and <span class="sc">Bucksome</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bucked.</b> <span class="sc">To be bucked</span>, <i>verb</i> (Uppingham).—To be tired. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buck up</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckeen</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Irish).—A bully.—<i>Grose.</i> Properly a young man of the poorer aristocracy.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bucket</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—An anonymous letter.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (general).—1. To ride hard; not to spare one’s beast.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb349">[<a href="#pb349">349</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">Whyte Melville</span>, <i>Kate Coventry</i>, ch. xi. ‘I had rather give Brilliant a good <span class="sc">bucketing</span>’ [Aunt Horsingham shuddered—I knew she would, and used the word on purpose] ‘over
+an even heath or a line of grass, than go bodkin in a chariot.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">Yates</span>, <i>Broken to Harness</i>, II., p. 218. There’s room in the Row to give him [the horse] a very good <span class="sc">bucketing</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Tottenham</span>, <i>C. Villars</i>, I., 243. <span class="sc">Bucketing</span> his wretched horse home to Cambridge. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>From Post to Finish</i>, p. 342. ‘Ten thousand pardons, Dollie, dearest; but I only got your message an hour
+or so ago, and am so busy I couldn’t get here before. As it is I have had to <span class="sc">bucket</span> my hack unmercifully.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—To cheat; ruin; deceive.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i>, s.v. <span class="sc">To bucket</span> a person is synonymous with putting him in the well.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1828. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Diary</i>, in <i>Lockhart</i> (1839), ix., 253. Thurtell … must in slang phrase have <span class="sc">bucketed</span> his palls.
+</p>
+<p>3. (rowing.)—To take the water unfairly—with a scoop at the beginning of the stroke
+instead of a steady even pull throughout.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Golden Butterfly</i>, ch. xv., p. 130. He was not so straight in the back as an Oxford stroke; and he
+<span class="sc">bucketed</span> about a good deal, but he got along.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To give the bucket</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To dismiss from one’s employment; to ‘send a person about his business.’—<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bag and Sack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Mrs. Gaskell</span>, <i>Sylvia’s Lovers</i>, ch. xxi. He were sore put about because Hester had <span class="sc">gi’en him the bucket</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To kick the bucket</span>, <i>phr.</i> (general).—To die. [The bucket here is thought to refer to a Norfolk term for a pulley.]
+When pigs are killed they are hung by their hind legs on a <span class="sc">bucket</span>.—For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Aloft</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bucket</span>; <span class="sc">to kick the bucket</span>; to die.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1796. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> (‘P. Pindar’), <i>Tristia</i>, wks. (1812) V., 242. Pitt has <span class="sc">kicked the bucket</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1840. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Poor Jack</i>, xxx. He drained it dry … and <span class="sc">kicked the bucket</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Kingsley</span>, <i>Alton Locke</i>, ch. ii. ‘Fine him a pot’ roared one, ‘for talking about <span class="sc">kicking the bucket</span>. He’s a nice young man to keep a cove’s spirits up, and talk about a short life and
+a merry one.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876(?). <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Ten Little Niggers.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Eight little niggers never heard of heav’n, </p>
+<p class="line">One <span class="sc">kicked the bucket</span>, and then there were seven. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, July 27, p. 141, col. 3. The high-school girl explained to her particular friend
+yesterday that He <span class="sc">kicked the bucket</span> was slang, and that the polite expression was, ‘He propelled his pedal extremities
+with violence against a familiar utensil used for the transportation of water and
+other fluids.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bucket Afloat</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—A coat.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bucket Shop</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—1. Primarily a petty stock gambling den carried on in opposition to regular
+exchange business, and usually of a very doubtful character. The <i>New York World</i> recently investigated the whole question, and gave some very interesting details
+as to the many tortuous ways of these crooked corners of the money world. The conclusion
+arrived at was that Wall Street and its vicinity did not contain a single ‘square
+and honest’ <span class="sc">bucket-shop</span>; all their dealings were nothing but ‘a brace gambling game.’ By <span class="pageNum" id="pb350">[<a href="#pb350">350</a>]</span>their schemes the customer had ‘not the ghost of a chance to win.’ Their quotations
+were obtained surreptitiously, and, in handling them, the <span class="sc">bucket-shop</span> keepers in several ways take unfair advantage of their clients. The term <span class="sc">bucket shop</span> has become common in England, but, fortunately for the community at large, no comparison
+can be drawn between the establishments known by that name in England, and those which
+flourish in America under the same title, though in very truth the proceedings of
+some of the former are scandalous enough. [Possibly from <span class="sc">bucket</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), to cheat, + <span class="sc">shop</span>. As an alternative derivation, the ‘bucket’ into which the tape falls may be suggested.<span class="corr" id="xd33e61348" title="Not in source">]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Daily News</i>, 14 April, 7, 1. Mr. Charles Fisher said that he carried on business as an agent.…
+He did Stock Exchange business, for clients. Mr. Besley: Commonly called a <span class="sc">bucket shop</span>, I think.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Missouri Republican</i>, Feb. 12. New York, Feb. 11.—(Special).—Inspector Brynes was seized with another
+spasm of indignation against the <span class="sc">bucket-shops</span> this morning, and, accompanied by detectives and a squad of officers, he swooped
+down upon the lairs of these enemies of the Stock Exchange that abound on Lower Broadway
+and New Street.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 12 Nov., p. 3, col. 1. ‘The tape is credited with fostering gambling.’ ‘Well, we
+know that there are <span class="sc">bucket-shops</span>, but we have for some time refused to entertain any proposal for a machine if there
+is the least prospect of its being used for <span class="sc">bucket-shop</span> purposes. There is gambling, of course, but it is unfair to say that the tape is
+responsible for it. The tape was not originated for that purpose, but in order to
+inform the public, through the newspapers or otherwise, how securities were going,
+and it does that. In practice it serves as a check between client and broker, and
+broker and jobber.’
+</p>
+<p>2. Also applied generally to low groggeries; lottery offices; gambling dens, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buck Face</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A cuckold; one who in French slang is said to be <i lang="fr">un loger rue du Croissant</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buck Fitch</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An old roué; a lecherous old man.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckhara</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A name given in California to a cattle-driver or cowboy.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckhorse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (pugilistic).—A smart blow or box on the ear. [Derived from the name of a celebrated
+‘bruiser’ of that name. <span class="sc">Buckhorse</span> was a man who either possessed or professed insensibility to pain, and who would
+for a small sum allow anyone to strike him with the utmost force on the side of the
+face. His real name was John Smith, and he fought in public 1732–46.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> (For the blow itself.) <i lang="fr">Une boffete</i> (from the old word <i>buffet</i>); <i lang="fr">une bouffe</i>; <i lang="fr">une châtaigne</i>; <i lang="fr">une accolade</i>; <i lang="fr">une pamure</i>. To receive a <span class="sc">buckhorse</span>, <i lang="fr">encaisser un soufflet</i>; to give a <span class="sc">buckhorse</span>; <i lang="fr">donner la savate</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, II., p. 463 (the Public Schools’ Report, 1864—Westminster School). One of the Seniors
+informs us that the common punishment was <span class="sc">buckhorsing</span>. ‘That was boxing the ears, was it?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘<span class="sc">Buckhorsing</span> was rather severe, was it not?’ etc. ‘I got <span class="sc">buckhorsed</span> pretty often.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Lord Albemarle</span>, <i>Fifty Years of my Life</i>, quoted in <i>Temple Bar</i>, August, 1884, p. 517. He then felled me to the ground by a swinging <span class="sc">buckhorse</span> on my right cheek.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb351">[<a href="#pb351">351</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckish</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old).—Foppish; dandyish. [From <span class="sc">buck</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">ish</span>.] Now colloquial.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1782. <span class="sc">D’Arblay</span>, <i>Diary, etc.</i> (1876), i., 463. A <span class="sc">buckish</span> kind of young man of fashion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> (‘P. Pindar’), <i>Apolog. Postscript to Ode upon Ode</i>, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. I., p. 365. Did not good Nathan tell that <span class="sc">buckish</span> youth, David the King, that he stole sheep?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 57. Having beat the rounds (as <span class="sc">buckish</span> spirits phrase it) of that bustling microcoser, the British metropolis, for eighteen
+months.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">Coombe</span>, <i>Dr. Syntax, Picturesque</i>, ch. xvii.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A <span class="sc">buckish</span> blade, who kept a horse, </p>
+<p class="line">To try his fortune on the course. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1858. <span class="sc">G. Eliot</span>, <i>Janet’s Repentance</i>, ch. v. ‘I’ve made him as neat as a new pin this morning, and he says the Bishop
+will think him too <span class="sc">buckish</span> by half.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;D. Howells</span>, <i>A Chance Acquaintance</i>, ch. xiii. A very <span class="sc">buckish</span> young fellow, with a heavy black moustache and black eyes, who wore a jaunty round
+hat, blue checked trousers, a white vest, and a morning-coat of blue diagonals.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buck-Jump</b>, <i>subs.</i> (stable).—A jump made in <span class="sc">buck</span> (<i>q.v.</i>, <i>verb</i>, sense 2) fashion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Lawrence</span>, <i>Guy Livingstone</i>, ch. ix. The instant the chestnut was mounted he reared, and indulged in two or three
+‘<span class="sc">buck-jumps</span>’ that would have made a weaker man tremble for his backbone.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckle</b>, <i>verb</i>, <i>trans.</i> and <i>intrans.</i> (colloquial).—1. To unite or be united in wedlock—a humorous term. For synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Splice</span>. French thieves call such a union <i lang="fr">l’amadouage</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1693. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>Juvenal</i>, vi., 37. Is this an age to <span class="sc">buckle</span> with a bride?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1751. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>, ch. lxvii. Who … declared himself well satisfied with the young man’s addresses,
+and desired that they might be <span class="sc">buckled</span> with all expedition.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>The Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xxxii.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">‘<span class="sc">Buckle</span> them, my Lord Bishop, as fast as you can.…
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><span id="xd33e61620">‘</span>The Bishop accordingly opened his book and commenced the marriage ceremony.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>Three Clerks</i>, ch. xlvi. ‘We could have half a dozen married couples all separating, getting rid
+of their ribs and <span class="sc">buckling</span> again, helter-skelter, every man to somebody else’s wife.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckle-Beggar</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A Fleet prison ‘clergyman’; one who celebrated marriage ceremonies therein;
+thence, one who celebrated irregular marriages; a hedge priest; one who undertook
+similar offices for gypsies and tramps—a <span class="sc">buckle the beggars</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Couple-beggar</span>. [Of Scotch derivation, but <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buckle</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 1.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1700. <span class="sc">Ld. Fountainhill</span>, <i>Diary</i>, in Larwood, <i>Bk. Cleric. Anecd.</i>, 294. He after turn’d a <span class="sc">buckle-beggar</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, one who married without license. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xvii. (II., p. 86). A hedge parson, or <span class="sc">buckle-beggar</span>, as that order of priesthood has been irreverently termed. <i>Ibid</i>, ch. xxvii. (III., p. 22). Dr. R., who <span class="sc">buckles beggars</span> for a tester [sixpence] and a dram of Geneva.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckled</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (thieves’).—Arrested; taken into custody; ‘scragged.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckle Down</b>, <i>verb</i> (common).—To ‘settle down’; to become reconciled to; a variant of to ‘<span class="sc">knuckle down</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">Jos. Hatton</span>, <i>Clytie</i>, bk. III., ch. iv. ‘But you do not <span class="sc">buckle down</span> to your position,’ said Cuffing … ‘you wrangle, you higgle.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckler</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A collar. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">All-rounder</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Fetters of any kind. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Darbies</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb352">[<a href="#pb352">352</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buckle To</b>, <i>verb</i> (familiar).—To undertake; grapple with; ‘slip in’; work vigorously.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1557. <span class="sc">Tusser</span>, <i>Husbandrie</i>, ch. xcvi., st. 84, p. 187 (E.D.S.).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Then purchase some pelfe, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">by fiftie and three: </p>
+<p class="line">or <span class="sc">buckle</span> thy selfe, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">a drudge for to bee. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1663. <span class="sc">Butler</span>, <i>Hudibras</i>, pt. I., ch. ii., l. 926.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And fitting it for sudden fight, </p>
+<p class="line">Straight drew it up, t’attack the Knight, </p>
+<p class="line">For getting up on stump and huckle, </p>
+<p class="line">He with the foe began to <span class="sc">buckle</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1712. <span class="sc">Arbuthnot</span>, <i>Hist. of John Bull</i>, pt. IV., ch. viii. At last Esquire South <span class="sc">buckled to</span>, to assist his friend Nic.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">James Payn</span>, <i>Thicket than Water</i>, ch. xxvii. ‘Of course it could never have been taken up as a serious occupation;
+the way you <span class="sc">buckled to</span> at it, as I told Mr. Payton, was something amazing.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Modern Society</i>, 19 Oct., p. 1302. (‘How the Nobility live in Germany.’) Though, as a rule, courteous
+to ladies at dinner, when a course is served all <span class="sc">buckle to</span>, and conversation is at an end. Each gentleman forgets his fair neighbour, and minds
+only number one. Between the courses, when nothing better is on, they converse, and
+always everything is served <i lang="fr">à la Russe</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bucksome</b>, <i>adj.</i> (Winchester College).—Happy; in a state of ‘<span class="sc">buck-uppishness</span>.’—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buck-up</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buck Up</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (Winchester College).—To be glad; pleased. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buck down</span>. The usual expression is ‘Oh <span class="sc">buck up</span>,’ a phrase which at Westminster School would have a very different meaning, namely,
+‘exert yourself.’ At Uppingham <span class="sc">to be bucked</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is to be tired.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Budge</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A pickpocket; a general thief.—<i>See</i> quots., and for synonyms, <span class="sc">Area-sneak</span> and <span class="sc">Thieves</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). <span class="sc">Budge</span>, one that steals cloaks.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1674. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>Canting Acad.</i>, 95. The <span class="sc">Budge</span> … his employment is in the dark of the Evening, to go into any door that he seeth
+open, and … take whatever next cometh to hand.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—Also called <span class="sc">sneaking budge</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). In more modern times an accomplice who gains access to a building during the day
+for the purpose of being locked in. When night comes he is thus easily able to admit
+his fellow thieves. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Area-sneak</span>, and <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Standing bridge</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1752. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Amelia</i>, bk. I., ch. iii. ‘I find you are some sneaking <span class="sc">budge</span> rascal’ [cant term for pilfering].
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—Drink; liquor.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>. [Thought to be a corruption of <span class="sc">booze</span>.] There are several derivatives—<span class="sc">Budgy</span>, ‘drunk’; <span class="sc">Budging-ken</span>, ‘a public house’; <span class="sc">Cove of the budging-ken</span>, ‘a publican’; <span class="sc">Budger</span>, ‘a drunkard’—all of which <i>see</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">D. Haggart</span>, <i>Life</i>, Glossary, p. 171. <span class="sc">Budge</span>, drink.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old slang, but now colloquial).—To move; ‘to make tracks.’ For modern synonyms,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>, and <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Budge-a-beake</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Budge-a-Beake</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To run away (presumably from justice). There seems some connection in meaning
+between this expression and a modern phrase—‘<span class="sc">to bilk the blues</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>). [From <span class="sc">budge</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), ‘to move away,’ ‘to decamp,’ + <span class="sc">a</span> + <span class="sc">beak</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a policeman.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Budge-a-beake</span>, runne away.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb353">[<a href="#pb353">353</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Budger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A drunkard. [From <span class="sc">budge</span>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 3, ‘drink’ (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">er</span>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Elbow crooker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Budging-Ken</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A public house.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Budge</span>. [From <span class="sc">budge</span>, drink, + <span class="sc">ken</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a place or house.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Lush crib</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">D. Haggart</span>, <i>Life</i>, Glossary, p. 171. <span class="sc">Budge kain</span>, a public-house.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Budgy</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old).—Drunk; intoxicated. [From <span class="sc">budge</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), sense 3, drink.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bud of Promise</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (American).—A facetious term for a young, unmarried woman.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Rosebud</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Charlestown Enterprise.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The young, unmarried girl, in sport, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Is called a <span class="sc">bud of promise</span>; </p>
+<p class="line">She blooms each year at some resort, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">The weather when it warm is. </p>
+<p class="line">And in the Fall a score of men, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Whose hearts till now have harm missed, </p>
+<p class="line">Compare sad notes, and find out then </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">To each the <span class="sc">bud</span> is promised. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bud Sallogh</b> (Old Irish).—A term applied to one who practises unmentionable vices.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jesuit</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buenos Ayres</b> (provincial).—The Royal Crescent at Margate at the extreme end of the town used to
+be so called. The houses remained unfinished for a very considerable time.—<i>H.&nbsp;J. Byron.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bufe</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant).—A dog. [Murray says, from the sound of its bark.]—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buffer</span>, and <span class="sc">Tike</span> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i>, 84. <span class="sc">Bufe</span>, a dogge.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bufe</span>, a dog; <span class="sc">Bufe’s nob</span>, a dog’s head.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bufe-Nabber</b> or <b>Napper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A dog thief. [From <span class="sc">bufe</span>, old cant for a ‘dog,’ + <span class="sc">nabber</span>, one who steals or ‘nabs.’] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Area-sneak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bufe-nabber</span>, a dog-stealer.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buff</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. The bare skin. [An allusion to the colour.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1654. <span class="sc">Chapman</span>, <i>Revenge for Honour</i>, I., i.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Then for accoutrements you wear the <span class="sc">buff</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">As you believed it heresy to change </p>
+<p class="line">For linen: surely most of yours is spent </p>
+<p class="line">In lint. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1749. <span class="sc">H. Fitzcotton</span>, <i>Homer</i>, I., 38. If you perplex me with your stuff—All that are here shan’t save your <span class="sc">buff</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1760. <span class="sc">Johnston</span>, <i>Chrysal</i>, II., 235. ‘I have got as many clothes and things of all kinds as would serve to
+set up a Monmouth-street merchant: if the place had held out but a few days longer,
+the poor devils must have done duty in their <span class="sc">buff</span>; ha! ha! ha!’ ‘And the properest dress for them,’ returned the admiral; ‘who wants
+any clothes in such a climate as this?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <span class="sc">Hughes</span>, <i>Magic Lay of the One-horse Chay</i> (Blackwood). When our pair were soused enough, and returned in their <span class="sc">buff</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Gt. World of London</i>, p. 223. ‘There’s a fine young chap there, stript to the <span class="sc">buff</span>, and working away hard!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">C. King</span>, <i>Sierra Nev.</i>, viii., 176. Stripping ourselves to the <span class="sc">buff</span>, we hung up our steaming clothes. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A man; a fellow; also <span class="sc">buffer</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1708–15. <span class="sc">Kersey, Buff</span> … a dull Sot, or dronish Fellow. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1709. <i>Brit. Apollo</i>, II, No. 8, p. 3, col. 2. Tell me Grave <span class="sc">Buffs</span>, Partly Gods, partly men. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb354">[<a href="#pb354">354</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1725. <i>New Cant. Dict.</i>, s.v. <span class="sc">Buff</span>, a Newgate Cant Word used in familiar Salutation as, How dost do, my <span class="sc">Buff</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Roderick Random</i>, ch. iv., p. 15. Mayhaps old <span class="sc">buff</span> has left my kinsman here his heir.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1764. <span class="sc">Brydges</span>, <i>Homer Travest.</i> (1797), II., 420. You seem afraid these <span class="sc">buffs</span> will flinch.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Buff it</span>, <i>verb</i> (common).—1. To swear to; to adhere to a statement hard and fast; to stand firm.
+[Query from ‘to bluff.’] <span class="sc">To buff it</span> is sometimes enlarged—<span class="sc">to buff it home</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i>, s.v. <span class="sc">Buff</span>, <span class="sc">To buff</span> to a person or thing, is to swear to the identity of them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>New York Slang Dictionary.</i> <span class="sc">Buffing it home</span> is swearing point-blank to anything, about the same as bluffing it, making a bold
+stand on no backing.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—To strip; to bare oneself to the ‘<span class="sc">buff</span>’ or skin.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, II., p. 416. ‘You had better <span class="sc">buff</span> it, Jim,’ says I; but Jim wouldn’t do it, and kept his trowsers on. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 417. So I locks the door, and <span class="sc">buffs</span> it, and forces myself up, etc.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">In buff</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Naked; in a state of nudity. Among English equivalents are <span class="sc">Abram</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) and <span class="sc">birthday suit</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), but for all synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Nature’s garb</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1602. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Satiro-Mastix</i>. I go in stag, <span class="sc">in buff</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 1 S., xi., p. 467. We say of one in a state of nudity, ‘he is in <span class="sc">buff</span>.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To stand buff</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To stand the brunt; to pay the piper; to endure without flinching. [From <span class="sc">buff</span>, an old pugilistic term for a blow.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1680. <span class="sc">Butler</span>, <i>Hudibras’s Epitaph</i>. And for the good old cause <span class="sc">stood buff</span> ’Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1697. <span class="sc">Vanbrugh</span>, <i>Provoked Wife</i>, I., i. Would my courage come up to a fourth part of my ill-nature, I’d <span class="sc">stand buff</span> to her relations, and thrust her out of doors.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1737. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>The Miser</i>, Act ii., Sc. 2. <i>Love.</i> How! rascal, is it you that abandon yourself to those intolerable extravagancies?
+<i>Fred.</i> I must even <span class="sc">stand buff</span>, and outface him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">To stand Buff</span> (v.), to stand stoutly to a thing, to be resolute and unmoved, though the danger
+be great.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1761. <span class="sc">Colman</span>, <i>Jealous Wife</i>, V., i., 139. Stick close to my advice and you may <span class="sc">stand buff</span> to a tigress.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xii. ‘<span class="sc">Stand buff</span> against the reproach of thine over-tender conscience.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buff-Ball</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vagrants’).—A dancing party in which both sexes dance together naked. [From <span class="sc">buff</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), naked, + <span class="sc">ball</span>.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Ballum rancum</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Greenwood</span>, <i>In Strange Company</i>. The most favourite entertainment at this place is known as <span class="sc">buff-ball</span>, in which both sexes—innocent of clothing—madly join, stimulated with raw whiskey,
+and the music of a fiddle and a tin whistle.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buffer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A dog. [Considerable obscurity surrounds the origin of this term. It occurs
+in varying forms from 1567 down to the present time. Harman gives it as <span class="sc">bufe</span> (1567) and <span class="sc">bufa</span> (1573); Rowlands as <span class="sc">buffa</span> (1610); Head as <span class="sc">bugher</span> (1673); whilst in <i>The Memorials of John Hall</i> it first appears as <span class="sc">buffer</span>.] Synonymous terms will be found under <span class="sc">Tike</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1814), p. 65. <span class="sc">Bufa</span>, a dogge.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Buffa</span>, a Dogge.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 11. <span class="sc">Buffer</span>, a Dog.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb355">[<a href="#pb355">355</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1842. <span class="sc">Lover</span>, <i>Handy Andy</i>, ch. iv. ‘It is not every day we get a badger, you know.… Reilly the butcher has
+two or three capital dogs, and there’s a wicked mastiff below stairs, and I’ll send
+for my ‘<span class="sc">buffer</span>’ and we’d have some spanking sport.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 162. They had a dog belonging to them that would be sure to begin a quarrel with
+another <span class="sc">buffer</span>, whenever his master or mistress found a match.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A man; a fellow—sometimes used with a slightly contemptuous meaning;
+generally speaking a familiar mode of address, as in Old Buffer, although even this
+form may be used disparagingly.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1749. <span class="sc">H. Fitzcotton</span>, <i>Homer</i>, I. (1748), 23. You’re a <span class="sc">buffer</span> always rear’d in The brutal pleasures of Bear-garden, [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Barham</span>, <i>I. L.</i> (<i>The Bagman’s Dog</i>).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">So I’ll merely observe, as the water grew rougher, </p>
+<p class="line">The more my poor hero continued to suffer, </p>
+<p class="line">Till the Sailors themselves cried, in pity, ‘Poor <span class="sc">buffer</span>!’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1882. <span class="sc">F. Anstey</span>, <i>Vice Versâ</i>, ch. xiv. ‘I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow <span class="sc">buffer</span> who came in to see you.’
+</p>
+<p>3. (pugilistic.)—A boxer; one of ‘the fancy.’ [Hotten gives this as of Irish origin,
+but it would rather seem to come from O.E. <span class="sc">buff</span>, a blow.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 7.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Last Tuesday, at Moulsey, the Balance of Power </p>
+<p class="line">Was settled by twelve <i>Tightish</i> Rounds in an hour, </p>
+<p class="line">The <span class="sc">Buffers</span>, both ‘Boys of the <i>Holy Ground</i>.’—Ibid, p. 51:— </p>
+<p class="line">Yet, sprightly <i>to the Scratch</i> both <span class="sc">Buffers</span> came, </p>
+<p class="line">While <i>ribbers</i> rung from each resounding frame, </p>
+<p class="line">And divers <i>digs</i>, and many a ponderous <i>pelt</i>, </p>
+<p class="line">Were on their broad <i>bread-baskets</i> heard and felt. </p>
+<p class="line">With roving aim, but aim that rarely miss’d, </p>
+<p class="line">Round <i>lugs</i> and <i>ogles</i> flew the frequent fist; </p>
+<p class="line">While showers of <i>facers</i> told so deadly well, </p>
+<p class="line">That the crush’d jaw-bones crackled as they fell! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">4. (old.)—<i>See</i> quots.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. B. E., <i>Dict. Cant. Crew</i>. <span class="sc">Buffer</span>, a Rogue that kills good sound Horses only for their Skins.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1737. <i>Bacchus and Venus.</i> <span class="sc">Buffer</span>, a rogue that killed good sound horses for the sake of their skins, by running a
+long wire into them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Buffer</span>, one that steals and kills horses and dogs for their skins.
+</p>
+<p>5. (old.)—One who took a false oath for a ‘consideration.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bail</span>.
+</p>
+<p>6. (old.)—A pistol. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Barker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <span class="sc">Sir W. Scott</span>, <i>Red Gauntlet</i>. ch. iii. Here be a pair of <span class="sc">buffers</span> will bite as well as bark.
+</p>
+<p>7. (old.)—A smuggler; rogue; or cheat.
+</p>
+<p>8. (nautical.)—A navy term for a boatswain’s mate, one of whose duties it is—or was—to
+administer the ‘cat.’ <i>Cf.</i>, O.E. <span class="sc">Buff</span>, a blow.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buff Howards</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Third Regiment of Foot; now contracted into <span class="sc">Buffs</span>. It was nicknamed the <span class="sc">Buff Howards</span>, from its facings and Colonel from 1737 to 1749; also the <span class="sc">Nut-crackers</span> (<i>q.v.</i>); and the <span class="sc">Resurrectionists</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), from its re-appearing at the Battle of Albuera after being dispersed by the Polish
+Lancers; also the ‘Old Buffs,’ from its facings, and to distinguish it from the 31st,
+the ‘Young <span class="pageNum" id="pb356">[<a href="#pb356">356</a>]</span>Buffs’; but the most ancient ‘Old Buffs’ were the ‘Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime
+Regiments,’ raised in 1664, and incorporated into the 2nd or Coldstream Guards in
+1689.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Tinsley’s Mag.</i>, ‘Our Regimental Mottoes and Nicknames,’ April, p. 319. The <span class="sc">Buffs</span>—a corps which enjoys the almost unique privilege of marching through the city of
+London with bayonets fixed. The 3rd Foot owes its immortal cognomen to the fact of
+its having originally been clad in scarlet, lined and faced with <span class="sc">buff</span>; its members also had <span class="sc">buff</span> waistcoats, <span class="sc">buff</span> breeches, and <span class="sc">buff</span> stockings. Being the senior regiment thus clothed, they were occasionally styled
+the ‘<span class="sc">Old Buffs</span>’; and the 31st, raised in 1702, and dressed in a precisely similar fashion, were
+known as the <span class="sc">Young Buffs</span>. The following tradition, however, offers a more circumstantial account of the latter
+appellation. Having earned in some hotly-contested action, the good opinion of a general
+under whom they were serving, and who expressed his approbation by calling out to
+the 31st, ‘Well done, <span class="sc">Old Buffs</span>!’ A few of the men, somewhat excited by close combat, replied, ‘We are not the <span class="sc">Old Buffs</span>, Sir.’ Whereupon the general cried, ‘Then well done, <span class="sc">Young Buffs</span>!’ And so the ‘Young <span class="sc">Buffs</span>’ they became, and have since remained, although the days of <span class="sc">buff</span> waistcoats and stockings have long passed away.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buffle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A fool; a stupid person. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buffle-head</span> and <span class="sc">Buff</span>, sense 2. Murray quotes it as occurring in 1655, but the term is, as will be seen,
+nearly a century older. [After French <i>buffle</i>.] For synonymous terms, <i>see</i> following:—
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Buffle-head; Sammy-soft, often contracted into Sammy; sheep’s head; crock (the original
+meaning is rather concerned with a slow worthless horse, but in sporting phraseology
+it has also come to mean a foolish, good-for-nothing person); duffer; dotty (also
+used by prostitutes of a low class to designate their protector or fancy man); cuckoo;
+calf; cabbage-head; cake; block; greenhorn; old curmudgeon; doddering old sheep’s
+head.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un échappé de Charenton</i> (<i lang="fr">échapper</i> = to escape; <i lang="fr">Charenton</i> is the name of a lunatic asylum in Paris; hence one escaped from Charenton. <i>Cf.</i>, English colloquial use of the names of Hanwell, Colney Hatch, and Bedlam in describing
+idiotic or foolish conversation or behaviour); <i lang="fr">échappé d’Herode</i> (<i>Cf.</i>, foregoing); <i lang="fr">un vieil embaumé</i> (this term is applied to a foolish person well advanced in years; an old curmudgeon);
+<i lang="fr">un actionnaire</i> (literary: properly a shareholder).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms.</span> <i lang="de">Amhorez</i> (literally a countryman; from Hebrew <i lang="und">om</i>, the people, + <i lang="und">erez</i>, country); <i lang="de">Blechseppel</i> (a soldier’s term); <i lang="de">Chammer</i> (a butcher’s or knacker’s word; it also signifies a donkey, and is derived from the
+Hebrew <i lang="und">chamor</i>); <i lang="de">Dilmisch</i>, <i lang="de">Dilledapp</i>, <i lang="de">Dilldapp</i>, <i lang="de">Dilledali</i>, <i lang="de">Dellemelle</i>, <i lang="de">Dirledapp</i>, <i lang="de">Didel</i>, <i lang="de">Tatidel</i>, <i lang="de">Dudeldop</i>, <i lang="de">Dilldan</i> (all these are popular expressions for a stupid fellow. <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="de">dildalfen</i> = to exhaust); <i lang="de">Ewil</i> (from the Hebrew <i lang="und">owal</i>; the term also stands for a sinner); <i lang="de">Godeschaute</i> (a great fool, a perfect fool; from the Hebrew <i lang="und">godol</i>, great, strong, celebrated, + <i lang="und">schoto</i>, a fool); <i lang="de">Gomol</i> (used only as a nickname; from the Hebrew <i lang="und">gamal</i>, a camel); <i lang="de">Hanne</i> or <i lang="de">Hannes</i> (a shortened form of <i>Johannes</i>, the German for the English John; it is curious that in both languages the nicknames
+<i lang="de">Hanne</i> <span class="pageNum" id="pb357">[<a href="#pb357">357</a>]</span>and Jack should, as applied to men, always be used depreciatingly, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Jack</span>); <i lang="de">Harbogen</i>, <i lang="de">Hornickel</i>, <i lang="de">Hornigel</i> (besides signifying a fool or weak-headed one, these words are used to designate
+an ox; they are employed indiscriminately); <i lang="de">Heckel</i>, <i lang="de">Häckel</i>, <i lang="de">Hegel</i> (also a fop; <i lang="de">heckeln</i> = to fool anyone, probably from <i lang="de">hacken</i> or <i lang="de">hecheln</i>, to hew, to hackle); <i lang="de">Koppel</i> (a diminutive of Jacob; sometimes written <i lang="de">Jockel</i>); <i lang="de">Ksil</i> (from the Hebrew <i lang="und">kossal</i>; variations in spelling are <i lang="de">Kessil</i>, <i lang="de">Kessel</i>, and in students’ slang <i lang="de">Theekessel</i>); <i lang="de">Nebbich</i> or <i lang="de">Newich</i> (among thieves employed to designate the clumsy, stupid fellow who is only entrusted
+with unimportant tasks connected with a robbery, such for instance as holding the
+sacks in which the stolen property is placed, or in carrying off the plunder); <i lang="de">Nille</i> or <i lang="de">Knolle</i> or <i lang="de">Nolle</i> (these terms are used to signify a fool, jester, or the male <i>penis</i>); <i lang="de">Nowel</i> or <i lang="de">Newil</i> or <i lang="de">Nebel</i> (also a cunning fellow, a rogue or ‘sly blade’; <i lang="de">das ist ein Newele</i>, the equivalent of the Low German <i lang="de">dat is een Aas vun Kêrl</i> might be rendered by the English ‘he is a devil of a fellow’); <i lang="de">Oochbram</i> or <i lang="de">Ogbrôm</i> (a fool or rather one whose craziness resembles in extent the traditional stature
+of Og, King of Bashan—at least authorities agree in thinking this the most likely
+derivation of the word. Among the Jews Og is taken as an image of gigantic size. When
+the Israelites advanced on Edrëi, Og sat on the wall of the town, and his feet reached
+to the ground, so that Moses at first thought he was part of the wall, but when he
+discovered that it was a man he was seized with terror. <i>Rum</i> = on high, therefore <i>Og b’rum</i> = the [great] Og on high. <i lang="de">Er hat die Grösse von Og Melech haboschon</i>, he has the size of Og, King of Bashan. A corresponding expression is found in the
+Low German, <i lang="de">de lange Rick</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, a tall, slenderly built fellow); <i lang="de">Schote</i> or <i lang="de">Schaute</i> or <i lang="de">Schotte</i> (from the Hebrew <i lang="und">schoto</i>; used especially of one who can be cheated or robbed with his eyes open; a tradesman
+or money changer who can be robbed while transacting business at the counter or while
+exchanging money); <i lang="und">Sonof</i> (a Hebrew word signifying properly a tail, and mostly used proverbially of things
+low and contemptible. It is also employed to designate the male <i>penis</i>; the German Gaunerspräche offers frequent examples in which contemptible names are
+also used synonymously for the male and female organs of generation).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonyms.</span> <i lang="it">Fiadetto</i> (besides its meaning of a dolt or duffer, this term is also applied to a thief, rogue,
+or indeed a villain of any description); <i lang="it">ribeba</i> or <i lang="it">ribecca</i> (a goose or simpleton; properly a violin or Jewish harp); <i lang="it">cordovano</i> (this also means in the Fourbesque, a big man; properly it is the name of Morocco
+or Spanish leather); <i lang="it">furlana</i>; <i lang="it">marietta</i> or <i lang="it">marietto</i> (a dolt or dunce).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Synonym.</span> <i lang="es">Dupa</i> (<i>Cf.</i>, English dupe).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1580. <i>Beehive of the Romish Churche</i>, fo. 66 <i>b</i>. An unlearned <span class="sc">buffle</span> did babble.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb358">[<a href="#pb358">358</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1655. <i>Comic Hist. Francion</i>, iv., 22. He said to the three <span class="sc">buffles</span> who stood with their hats in their hands. Tell me you Waggs, etc. [<span class="asc">M.</span>].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1710. <i>Pol. Ballads</i> (1860), II., 90. To see the chief attorney such a <span class="sc">buffle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buffle-Head</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An ignoramus; a stupid obtuse fellow. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buffle</span>, and which <i>see</i> for synonyms.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1659. <i>Lady Alimony</i>, I., ii., in Hazl. <i>Dodsley</i>, xiv., 278. What a drolling <span class="sc">buffle-head</span> is this!
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, March 17. But my Lord Mayor a talking, bragging, <span class="sc">buffle-headed</span> fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1668. <span class="sc">Pepys</span>, <i>Diary</i>, Jan. 29. He tells me that Townsend, of the Wardrobe, is the veriest knave and <span class="sc">buffle-head</span> that ever he saw.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1677. <span class="sc">Wycherley</span>, <i>Plain Dealer</i>, Act ii. <i>Oliv.</i> You know nothing, you <span class="sc">buffle-headed</span> stupid creature you.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1686. <span class="sc">D’Urfey</span>, <i>Commonwealth of Women</i>, I., i. A damn’d huffing fellow yonder, a Rebel, Whiggy <span class="sc">buffle-head</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i>, 2 ed. <span class="sc">Buffle-head</span>, an ignoramus, or dull sot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Dead Man’s Rock</i>, bk. I., ch. v. ‘Jonathan’s a <span class="sc">buffle-head</span> … a daft fule like Jonathan.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buffleheaded</b>, <i>adj.</i> (old).—Stupid; idiotic; foolish. [From <span class="sc">bufflehead</span>, a foolish fellow (<i>q.v.</i>), + <span class="sc">ed</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Baring Gould</span>, <i>John Herring</i>, vol. II., ch. xxv., p. 275. (Tauchnitz ed.) ‘A <span class="sc">buffleheaded</span> sort of a chap,’ said Joyce.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buffs</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The Third Regiment of Foot in the British army. From their facings.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buff Howards</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Macaulay</span>, <i>Hist. England</i>, I., 295. The third regiment, distinguished by flesh-coloured facings, from which
+it derived the well-known name of the <span class="sc">Buffs</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 232. His father was a captain in the <span class="sc">Buffs</span>, and himself a commissioned officer at seventeen.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <i>Saturday Review</i>, p. 95. This regiment [the First or Grenadier Guards] has almost the longest record
+of any in the service, only yielding, we believe, to the 1st Royals, and to the 3rd
+<span class="sc">Buffs</span>, which were originally raised for the service of the States-General of Holland.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buffy</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Intoxicated. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Screwed</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">Yates</span>, <i>Land at Last</i>, I., p. 85. Flexor was fine and <span class="sc">buffy</span> when he came home last night, after you was gone, sir.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>R.&nbsp;M. Mortiboy</i>, ch. xlii. ‘My ideas take me first of all unawares. They generally begin, like a
+toothache, when I least expect them. Perhaps when I feel a little <span class="sc">buffy</span>, in the morning; mayhap, after an extra go of grog the night before. Then one comes
+all of a sudden.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bug</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—1. A breast pin.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Old Irish.)—A jeering name for an Englishman—Grose says ‘because <span class="sc">bugs</span> were introduced into Ireland by Englishmen!!’
+</p>
+<p>3. (American.)—The term <span class="sc">bug</span> is, in the United States, not confined merely, as in England, to the domestic pest,
+but is applied to all insects of the Coleoptera order, which includes what in this
+country are generally called beetles. The English <span class="sc">bug</span> (<i lang="la">Cimex lectularius</i>) is, in the Southern States, known as the <span class="sc">chinch</span>. It may be mentioned, however, that at Winchester College a usage akin to that prevailing
+in America exists. There a <span class="sc">bug</span> merely means an insect, whether belonging to the Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, or any
+other order. Synonyms for the English domestic pest will be found under <span class="sc">Norfolk Howards</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb359">[<a href="#pb359">359</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1642. <span class="sc">Rogers</span>, <i>Naaman the Syrian</i>, 74. Do not all as much and more wonder at God’s rare workmanship in the Ant, the
+poorest <span class="sc">bugge</span> that creeps.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Grass Valley</i> (Cal.) <i>Tidings</i>. Entomology, or bugology, is now taught to some extent in our public schools. This
+is well, and is of use. The children ought to learn about the <span class="sc">bugs</span> that are destructive to useful vegetation. It is better to learn much about <span class="sc">bugs</span> than so much about how to solve those arithmetical problems that will never face
+anybody in the practical affairs of life.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, March. The Insane Asylum Board some time ago discontinued a bug-killer’s employment,
+and the doctor avers that the old hospital building is swarming with cockroaches,
+and that these <span class="sc">bugs</span> will soon be large and fat enough to carry out the inmates and take their food and
+clothes.
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—<span class="sc">Bug</span> is also used idiomatically in various combinations, as <span class="sc">big bugs</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a jocose and vulgar name for persons of wealth or distinction. Thence, similarly,
+<span class="sc">cattle-bugs</span>, that is, wealthy stock-raisers; <span class="sc">gold-bugs</span>, or monied men, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>Sam Slick in England</i>, ch. xv. The great guns and <span class="sc">big bugs</span> have to take in each other’s ladies. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 24. Pick out the <span class="sc">big bugs</span> and see what sort of stuff they’re made of.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>St. Louis Globe Democrat</i>, March 5. ‘Would Senator Allison’s well-known views on silver coinage operate materially
+against him in New York.’ ‘I think not; I do not think the feeling against silver
+is anything like as strong as it was. Of course, a few <span class="sc">gold-bugs</span> might fight him, but any of the men I have mentioned are reasonably certain to carry
+New York.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">That beats the bugs</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A phrase conveying a high mead of praise; ‘that beats cock-fighting.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—1. A cant word among journeymen hatters, signifying the exchanging some of
+the dearest materials of which a hat is made for others of less value. Hats are composed
+of the furs and wools of diverse animals, among which is a small portion of bever’s
+fur. <span class="sc">Bugging</span> is stealing the bever, and substituting in lieu thereof an equal weight of some cheaper
+ingredient. Bailiffs who take money to postpone or refrain the serving of a writ,
+are said to <span class="sc">bug</span> the writ.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—To bribe. In old slang, bailiffs accepting money to delay service were
+said <span class="sc">to bug</span> the writ.
+</p>
+<p>3. (thieves’.)—To give; hand over; to deliver. <i>Cf.</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i> ‘He <span class="sc">bug’d</span> me a quid.’ ‘<span class="sc">Bug over</span> the rag.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bugaroch</b>, <i>adj.</i> (Old Irish).—Pretty; comely; handsome.—<i>Grose.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bug-Blinding</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—Whitewashing operations.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bugger</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A thief whose speciality is stealing breast-pins from drunken men. [From
+<span class="sc">bug</span>, a cant term for a breast pin, + (<span class="sc">g</span>) <span class="sc">ger</span>.] Also called a <span class="sc">bug hunter</span>. For synonymous terms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Area-sneak</span> and <span class="sc">Bug-hunter</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (low.)—A man; a fellow. A coarse term of abuse without, however, any reference
+to the legal meaning—a sodomite. The French has an exact equivalent in <i lang="fr">Bougre</i>, which Littré says is <i lang="fr">une terme de mépris et d’injure, usité dans le langage populaire le plus trivial et
+le plus grossier</i>. The term, as applied to a man, is equivalent to <span class="sc">bitch</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), as applied to women. Hence also <span class="sc">buggery</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1719. <span class="sc">D’Urfey</span>, <i>Pills</i>, I., 59. From every trench the <span class="sc">bougers</span> fly. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb360">[<a href="#pb360">360</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1854. <span class="sc">M. Holmes</span>, <i>Tempest and Sun</i>, 203. ‘If I’d known all you city <span class="sc">buggers</span> was comin’, I’d a kivered my bar feet.’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buggery</b>, <i>adj.</i> (low).—An indefinite expression signifying disgust; or disapprobation. Of the same
+type as <span class="sc">bloody</span>, <span class="sc">blamed</span>, <span class="sc">blasted</span>, etc. (<i>q.v.</i>), but conveying a somewhat intenser meaning.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 23. A <span class="sc">buggery</span> fool, why don’t he let people go to hell their own way? <i>Ibid</i>, p. 180. Here mother, give us one of your <span class="sc">buggery</span> trotters.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buggy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A leather bottle.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bugher.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buffer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bug-Hunter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A thief who plunders drunken men. The same as <span class="sc">bugger</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un poivrier</i> (popular and thieves’); <i lang="fr">un allumeur</i> (this term is also applied to an auction room ‘button’ or confederate, and to a card-sharper’s
+decoy); <i lang="fr">faire un louave</i>, or <i lang="fr">faire les gavés</i> (to go bug-hunting. <i lang="fr">Louave</i> and <i lang="fr">gavé</i> = drunkard, the latter from <i lang="fr">gaver</i>, to glut).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Gt. World of London</i>, p. 46. Those who hocus or plunder persons by <i>stupefying</i>; as ‘drummers,’ who drug liquor, and ‘<span class="sc">bug-hunters</span>,’ who plunder drunken men.
+</p>
+<p>2. <i>subs.</i> (old).—An upholsterer.—<i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bug-Juice</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Ginger ale.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American.)—The Schlechter whiskey of the Pennsylvania Dutch—a very inferior spirit.
+Also called <span class="sc">bug-poison</span>. These terms are now applied to bad whiskey of all kinds. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Texas Siftings</i>, 7 July. It is a singular fact, that nearly every character introduced by Charles
+Dickens into his numerous novels, was addicted to drinking … each and every individual
+took his <span class="sc">bug-poison</span> with surprising regularity and eminent satisfaction.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bugle It</b>, <i>verb</i> (American cadets’).—To abstain from going into class until the last moment—<i>i.e.</i>, until the bugle sounds.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bug Walk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A bed. [Derivation obvious.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Bedfordshire; Sheet Alley; Blanket Fair; Land of Nod; doss; rip; Cloth Market.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un portfeuille</i> (familiar: properly ‘a portfolio’); <i lang="fr">la boîte à puces</i> (popular: this almost exactly corresponds to the English ‘<span class="sc">bug walk</span>,’ the French phrase signifying ‘the flea box’); <i lang="fr">le pucier</i> (popular: from <i lang="fr">puce</i> = flea); <i lang="fr">le tremblant</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">le plumard</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">le fournil</i> (popular and thieves’); <i lang="fr">la halle aux draps</i> (popular: literally, Sheet Market or Fair. <i>Cf.</i>, English ‘Blanket Fair’); <i lang="fr">le pagne</i>; <i lang="fr">le panier aux ordures</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Build</b>, <i>subs.</i> and <i>verb</i> (popular).—Properly ‘<span class="sc">to build</span> is to construct,’ says Murray, ‘for a dwelling and by extension of meaning … to construct
+by fitting together of separate parts; chiefly with reference to structures of considerable
+size … (not, <i>e.g.</i>, a watch or a piano).’ Difficult as it may be at times to draw a dividing line between
+a literary, or even a colloquial usage and a slang signification, <span class="pageNum" id="pb361">[<a href="#pb361">361</a>]</span>there can be little doubt that when <span class="sc">build</span> is applied to the make or style of dress, that it is the purest slang—‘It’s a tidy
+<span class="sc">build</span>, who made it?’ A tailor, it may be noted, is sometimes called a ‘trousers’ <span class="sc">builder</span>.’ In the United States, this verb is used with much more latitude than in England.
+There, as Fennimore Cooper puts it, everything is <span class="sc">built</span>. The priest <span class="sc">builds</span> up a flock; the speculator a fortune; the lawyer a reputation; the landlord a town;
+and the tailor, as in England, <span class="sc">builds</span> up a suit of clothes. A fire is <span class="sc">built</span> instead of made, and the expression is even extended to individuals, to be <span class="sc">built</span> being used with the meaning of formed. ‘I was not <span class="sc">built</span> that way’; and hence in a still more idiomatic sense to express unwillingness to
+adopt a specified course or carry out any inconvenient plan.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Not built that way</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Wh. Melville</span>, <i>Digby Grand</i>, ch. xx. That creator of manly beauty, who <span class="sc">builds</span> your coat on the model of an Apollo.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1853. <span class="sc">Rev. E. Bradley</span> (‘Cuthbert Bede’), <i>Verdant Green</i>, pt. I., ch. x. If he forswore the primitive garments that his country-tailor had
+condemned him to wear, and adapted the <span class="sc">build</span> of his dress to the peculiar requirements of university fashion.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">A. Forbes</span>, <i>My Experience of the War, etc.</i>, II., p. 19. I met a gentleman who had got a dress coat <span class="sc">built</span> in the place [Versailles].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch</i>, Jan. 10, p. 6. <span class="sc">The spread of education and liberal ideas.</span>—<i>His Grace the Duke of Poplar and Bermondsey.</i> ‘Just look at these bags you last <span class="sc">built</span> me, Snippe! J’ever see such beastly bags in your life? I shall always be glad to
+come and dine with you, old man; but I’ll be hanged if you shall ever measure me for
+another pair of bags!’ <i>Mr. Snippe (of Snippe and Son, St. James’s Street).</i> ‘You’ve <i>always</i> grumbled about your bags, as you call ’em, ever since you were my fag at Eton; and
+at Christchurch you were just as bad, even though my poor dear old governor used to
+come all the way down and measure you himself. It ain’t the fault of the bags, my
+dear Popsy—it’s the fault of the legs inside ’em! So, shut up, old Stick-in-the-mud,
+and let’s join the ladies—the duchess has promised to give us “Little Billee.” ’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Build a chapel</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (nautical).—To steer badly, and so cause a ship to veer round.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Not built that way</span>, <i>phr.</i> (general).—Not to one’s taste, in one’s line—a general expression of disapproval
+or dissent, whether said of persons or things.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>American Humorist</i>, May 12. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that mankind is passing through a great
+era of change; even womankind is not <span class="sc">built</span> as she was a few brief years ago.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Missouri Republican</i>, Jan. 25.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">‘Why didn’t you roll down?’ </p>
+<p class="line">‘I wasn’t <span class="sc">built</span> that way.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bulgarian Atrocities</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—Varna and Rutschuk Ry. 3 per cent. obligations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">Atkin</span>, <i>House Scraps</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And we’ve really quite a crew </p>
+<p class="line">Of fancy names to represent a share.… </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5088">But fancy, by the way, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e5088">Now, in the present day, </p>
+<p class="line">A Varna’s a <span class="sc">Bulgarian atrocity</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bulge</b>, <i>verb</i> (American).—The legitimate meaning is extended in many odd ways. ‘Bags’ <span class="sc">bulge</span>, but do not get baggy; and in a similar fashion when a man is ‘all attention,’ his
+eyes are said <span class="sc">to bulge</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Puck’s Library</i>, May, p. 31. A Phenomenal Fee. ‘Yes,’ said a pompous young lawyer, on a street-car,
+to a friend: ‘I hadn’t been downtown half an hour this morning, before I got a fee
+of ten dollars!’ Then the eyes of a man who was hanging on to a strap began TO <span class="sc">bulge</span>. ‘I say, young feller,’ he whispered earnestly: ‘what saloon d’ye work at? I’m a
+waiter, myself!’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb362">[<a href="#pb362">362</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">To go</span> or <span class="sc">be on</span> a <span class="sc">bulge</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—To drink to excess.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To get the bulge on one</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American mining slang).—To obtain an advantage over; an equivalent is <span class="sc">to get the drop on one</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Innocents at Home</i>, p. 18. Well, you’ve rather <span class="sc">got the bulge on me</span>. Or maybe we’ve both <span class="sc">got the bulge</span>, somehow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Household Words</i>, Oct. 10, p. 466. ‘Smart chap, that Jacob, for a nig!’ remarked he, as we told him
+the outlines of our story. ‘I guess now he’s <span class="sc">had the bulge on you</span> pretty considerable this trip.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>American Humorist</i>, May 12. ‘Pop! are you up there?’ ‘Yes, my son.’ ‘I saw he <span class="sc">had the bulge on you</span> and I got the gun and dropped him!’ ‘Right, my boy. That’s what I was praying for.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bulger</b>, <i>adj.</i> (common).—Large; synonymous with <span class="sc">buster</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bulk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—<i>See</i> quots.—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">File</span> and <span class="sc">Bulker</span>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1674. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>Canting Acad.</i>, 35. <span class="sc">Bulk</span> and File. The one jostles you, whilst the other picks your pocket.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1725. <i>New Cant. Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Bulk</span>, an assistant to a File or Pickpocket, who jostles a Person up against the Wall,
+while the other picks his Pocket.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bulk</span> and file, two pickpockets; the <span class="sc">bulk</span> jostles the party to be robbed, and the file does the business.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bulker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A prostitute of a low type—generally one who had no settled home; one who
+slept on a ‘bulk,’ a kind of sill projecting from a window. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1691. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Scowerers</i>, Act i., Sc. 1. ‘Every one in a petticoat is thy mistress, from humble <span class="sc">bulker</span> to haughty countess.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1728. <span class="sc">Baily<span id="xd33e64049">,</span></span> <span class="sc">Bulker</span>, a Common Jilt; a Whore.—<i>Canting term.</i> [In a later edition (1790) he adds ‘one who would lay down on a bulk to anyone.<span>’</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A thief. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bulk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1669. <i>Nicker Nicked</i>, in <i>Hart. Misc.</i> (ed. Park), II., 108. <span class="sc">Bulker</span> occurs in a list of names of thieves.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1678. <i>Four for a Penny</i>, in <i>Hart. Misc.</i> (ed. Park), IV., 147. He is the treasurer of the thieves’ exchequer, the common fender
+of all <span class="sc">bulkers</span> and shop-lifts in the town.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bulky</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial).—A police constable. Said to be a northern term. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Beak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <i>Edinburgh Mag.</i>, August, p. 156. This enterprising ruffian boasts of his success in deceiving the
+<span class="sc">bulkies</span> on a search, by concealing his stolen notes in the cape of his coat.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Night and Morning</i>, bk. V., ch. ii. ‘Inquiries about your respectability would soon bring the <span class="sc">bulkies</span> about me.’
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (Winchester College).—Rich or generous, or both. The opposite of <span class="sc">brum</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial.)—1. Formerly a blunder or mistake; now generally understood as an inconsistent
+statement; a ludicrous contradiction, often partaking largely of the nature of a pun.
+[<span class="sc">Bull</span> in M.E. = to befool; to mock.] The term was current long before the form <span class="sc">Irish bull</span> is met with.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1642. <span class="sc">Milton</span>, <i>Apol. for Smect.</i>, § 6. But that such a poem should be toothless, I still affirm it to be a <span class="sc">bull</span>, taking away the essence of that which it calls itself. For if it bite neither the
+persons nor the vices, how is it a satire? And if it bite either, how is it toothless?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1673. <span class="sc">Dryden</span>, <i>The Assignation</i>, Act iii., Sc. 1. <i>Ben.</i> Faith, lady, I could not sleep one wink, for dreaming of you. <i>Lan.</i> Not sleep for dreaming? When the place falls, you shall be <span class="sc">bull</span> master general at court.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb363">[<a href="#pb363">363</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1689. <span class="sc">Selden</span>, <i>Table Talk</i>, p. 96 (Arber’s ed.). We can make no notion of it, ’tis so full of intricacy, so
+full of contradiction: ’tis in good earnest, as we state it, half-a-dozen <span class="sc">bulls</span> one upon another.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>Hudibras Redivivus</i>, vol. II., pt. I., p. 6. With Stale Quibbles, Puns, and <span class="sc">Bulls</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <span class="sc">Lever</span>, <i>Charles O’Malley</i>, ch. i. ‘I have got into such an infernal habit of making <span class="sc">bulls</span>, that I can’t write sense when I want it.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Geoffrey Hamlyn</i>, ch. xxxix. He was telling the most outrageous of Irish stories, and making, on purpose,
+the most outrageous of Irish <span class="sc">bulls</span>.
+</p>
+<p>In this connection it may be noted that in French cavalry regiments <i lang="fr">portez!</i> and <i lang="fr">remettez!</i> are mock commands given upon the perpetration of a <span class="sc">bull</span>. <i lang="fr">La calinotade</i> signifies in the popular speech a ludicrous or foolish saying, whilst one given to
+uttering them is termed <i lang="fr">un calino</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—A crown or five shilling piece. Formerly <span class="sc">bull’s eye</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). [The origin is doubtful. It may be a mere allusion to the circular shape, or it
+may be of classical derivation, and be a reference to the herds and flocks which at
+one time constituted a man’s wealth. <i>Cf.</i>, Latin <i lang="la">pecunia</i>, from <i lang="la">pecus</i>, cattle or oxen.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Bull</span>, a crown, or five shillings.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 232. List of patterers’ words. <span class="sc">Bull</span>, a crown.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Bleak House</i>, ch. xlvi. Four half-<span class="sc">bulls</span>, wot you may call half-crowns.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 2 S., 4 July. And therefore much as a <span class="sc">bull</span> (or a hog) stand arbitrarily for a five-shilling-piece, half-a-<span class="sc">bull</span> for half a-crown, a bob for a shilling, a tanner for sixpence, etc., with equal propriety
+might a plum stand for £100,000.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, July 27, p. 136, col. 2. Once found, the ‘lurker’ is pretty sure to draw a <span class="sc">bull</span> (five shillings), or even a ‘counter’ (pound).
+</p>
+<p>3. (Stock Exchange.)—Originally a speculative purchase for a rise; <i>i.e.</i>, a man would agree to buy stock at a future day at a stated price with no intention
+of taking it up, but trusting to the market advancing in value to make the transaction
+profitable. <span class="sc">Bull</span> is the reverse of <span class="sc">bear</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). The term is now more frequently applied to the person engaged in the above-mentioned
+tactics, <i>i.e.</i>, to one who tries to enhance the value of stocks by speculative purchases or otherwise.
+Also used as a verb and adjective.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>b.</i> 1671, <i>d.</i> 1757. <span class="sc">Cibber</span>, <i>The Refusal, or The Ladies’ Philosophy</i>. <i>Granger</i> (to Witling, who has been boasting of his gain): And all this out of ‘Change Alley’?
+<i>Witling</i>: Every shilling, Sir, all out of stocks, Pulls, <span class="sc">Bulls</span>, Rams, Bears, and Bubbles.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1768. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Devil upon Two Sticks</i>, Act i. A mere <span class="sc">bull</span> and bear booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent foot bankrupts.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1774. <span class="sc">Coleman</span>, <i>Man of Business</i>, IV., i., in wks. (1777) II., 179. My young master is the <span class="sc">bull</span>, and Sir Charles is the bear. He agreed for stock, expecting it to be up at three
+hundred by this time; but, lack-a-day, sir, it has been falling ever since.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. iv. The hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produce among the <span class="sc">bulls</span>, bears, and brokers of Stock Alley.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Peacock</span>, <i>Gryll Grange</i>, ch. xviii. In Stock Exchange slang, <span class="sc">Bulls</span> are speculators for a rise, Bears for a fall.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>Mark Lane Express</i>, Aug. 8, p. 1085. The speculative movement which has, so far, exerted a <span class="sc">bull</span> influence on the maize market.
+</p>
+<p>On the French Bourse a <span class="sc">bull</span> is called <i lang="fr">un haussier</i>; in Berlin he is known as <i lang="de">liebhaler</i>; and in Vienna the term used is <i lang="de">contremine</i>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb364">[<a href="#pb364">364</a>]</span></p>
+<p>4. (nautical.)—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bull the cask</span> or <span class="sc">barrel</span>.
+</p>
+<p>5. (common.)—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>How the Poor Live</i>, p. 148. In these places, too, the lodgers divide their food frequently, and a man,
+seeing a neighbour without anything, will hand him his teapot, and say, ‘Here you
+are, mate; here’s a <span class="sc">bull</span> for you.’ A ‘<span class="sc">bull</span>’ is a teapot with the leaves left in for a second brew.
+</p>
+<p>6. (thieves’.)—Prison rations of meat, an allusion to its toughness; also generally
+used for meat without any reference to its being either tough or tender. A French
+equivalent is <i lang="fr">la bidoche</i>. [Its derivation is suggested in the following quot.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Echo</i>, Jan. 25, p. 2, col. 3. Thus from the French ‘<i lang="fr">bouilli</i>’ we probably get the prison slang term <span class="sc">bull</span> for a ration of meat.
+</p>
+<p>7. (American.)—A locomotive; the word is sometimes lengthened into <span class="sc">bullgine</span>.
+</p>
+<p>8. (Winchester College.)—Cold beef, introduced at breakfast about 1873.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (American University).—At Dartmouth College to recite badly; to make a poor recitation.
+[From the substantive <span class="sc">bull</span>, a blunder or contradiction, or from the use of the word as a prefix, signifying
+large, lubberly, blundering.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Stale bull</span>, <i>subs.</i> (Stock Exchange).—Stock held over for a long period with profit.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull and Cow</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—A row.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Bait</b>, <i>verb</i> (? nonce word).—To bully; hector; badger. [Clearly a figurative usage of the legitimate
+word.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Great Expectations</i>, ch. xviii., p. 82. ‘Which I meantersay,’ cried Joe, ‘that if you come into my place
+<span class="sc">bull-baiting</span> and badgering me, come out!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Beef</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A frequently recurring term of contempt. Prisoners apply it to the hard, stringy
+meat supplied to them, and formerly the expression was in general use. ‘As ugly as
+<span class="sc">bull-beef</span>’; ‘as big as <span class="sc">bull-beef</span>’; ‘go and sell yourself for <span class="sc">bull-beef</span>’; were common colloquialisms at the end of the last and the beginning of the present
+century. Sometimes contracted into <span class="sc">bull</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bully beef</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1579. <span class="sc">Gosson</span>, <i>Apol. of the Schoole of Abuse</i>, p. 64 (Arber). I vnderstand they are all in a fustian fume.… They haue eaten <span class="sc">bul-bief</span>, and threatned highly too put water in my woortes whensoeuer they catche me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1607. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Diogines Lanthorne</i>, p. 8 (H. Cl. Repr., 1873). How lookes yonder fellow? what’s the matter with him
+trow? has a eaten <span class="sc">bul-beefe</span>? there’s a lofty slaue indeede, hee’s in the altitudes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738–1819. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span> (‘P. Pindar’), <i>Rights of Kings, Ode I.</i>, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 219. The Cooks, Bluff on th’ occasion, put
+on <span class="sc">bull’s-beef</span> looks.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1782. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span>, <i>Lyric Odes</i>, No. 3, in wks. (1809) I., 62.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Yet thou may’st bluster like <span class="sc">bull-beef</span> so big. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1860. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>The Season Ticket</i>, x. Which look as cheap as <span class="sc">bull-beef</span> at one cent a pound.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Phrase and Fable</i>, p. 524. To look as big as <span class="sc">bull-beef</span>. To look stout and hearty, as if fed on <span class="sc">bull-beef</span>. <span class="sc">Bull-beef</span> was formerly recommended for making men strong and muscular.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <span class="sc">Ashton</span>, <i>Mod. Street Ballads</i>, p. 61.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">For soon he will his trial take, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And hard <span class="sc">bull-beef</span> be munching. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb365">[<a href="#pb365">365</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bull Calf</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—<i>See</i> quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bull calf</span>, a great hulkey or clumsy fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull Chin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Explained by quotation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bull chin</span>, a fat, chubby child.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Dance</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A dance in which only men take part. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Stag-dance</span>, <span class="sc">Gander-party</span>, <span class="sc">Hen-party</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <span class="sc">Smyth</span>, <i>Sailors’ Word Book</i>. <span class="sc">Bull-dance.</span> At sea it is performed by men only when without women. It is sometimes called a <span class="sc">stag-dance</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Graphic</i>, March 26, p. 315, col. 3. It is obliged to be a <span class="sc">bull-dance</span>. Gentlemen dance with gentlemen, and the pianist is, of course, a gentleman also.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Dog</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A sheriff’s officer; a bailiff.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1698. <span class="sc">Farquhar</span>, <i>Love and a Bottle</i>, iii., 2. <i>Mock.</i> But pray what’s the matter, Mrs. Lyric?
+</p>
+<p><i>Lyric.</i> Nothing, sir, but a shirking bookseller that owed me about forty guineas for a few
+lines. He would have put me off, so I sent for a couple of <span class="sc">bull-dogs</span>, and arrested him.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A pistol; in the naval service a main-deck gun. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Barker</span> and <span class="sc">Bull-dog blazer</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1700. <span class="sc">Farquhar</span>, <i>Constant Couple</i>, iii., 2. He whips out his stiletto, and I whips out my <span class="sc">bull-dog</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, ii., 191. ‘I have always a brace of <span class="sc">bull-dogs</span> about me.’… So saying, he exhibited a very handsome, highly-finished, and richly-mounted
+pair of pistols.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <span class="sc">Smyth</span>, <i>Sailors’ Word Book</i>. <span class="sc">Bull-dog</span> or <span class="sc">muzzled bull-dog</span>, the great gun which stands housed in the officer’s ward-room cabin. General term
+for main-deck guns.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>Daily News</i>, Oct. 27, p. 6, col. 2. Revolver cartridges of the ordinary ‘<span class="sc">bull-dog</span>’ pattern.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—<i>See</i> quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Bull-dog</span>, a sugar-loaf.
+</p>
+<p>4. (University.)—A proctor’s assistant or marshall. <i>Cf.</i>, quot. from Brewer’s <i>Reader’s Handbook</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1823. <span class="sc">Lockhart</span>, <i>Reg. Dalton</i>, I., x. (1842), 59. Long forgotten stories about proctor’s bit and <span class="sc">bull-dogs</span> baffled. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Night and Morning</i>, bk. III., ch. iii. ‘The proctor and his <span class="sc">bull-dogs</span> came up … and gave chase to the delinquents … the night was dark, and they reached
+the College in safety.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1847. <span class="sc">Tennyson</span>, <i>Princess</i>, Prologue.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e27473">We unworthier told </p>
+<p class="line">Of college: he had climb’d across the spikes, </p>
+<p class="line">And he had squeezed himself betwixt the bars, </p>
+<p class="line">And he had breath’d the Proctor’s <span class="sc">dogs</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1880. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>, <i>Reader’s Handbook</i>. <span class="sc">Bull-dogs</span>, the two servants of a university proctor, who follow him in his rounds, to assist
+him in apprehending students who are violating the university statues, such as appearing
+in the streets after dinner without cap and gown, etc.
+</p>
+<p>5. (University: obsolete.)—A name for a member of Trinity College, Cambridge.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Dog Blazer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A revolver. [Probably a mere amplification of the kindred English canting
+term; <span class="sc">bull-dog</span>, a pistol, + <span class="sc">blazer</span>, an allusion to the flash attendant upon firing.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Meat in the pot</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Dose</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A severe castigation or flogging. <i>Verb.</i>—To thrash; to intimidate; to bully. A term of Southern political origin, originally
+referring to an association of negroes formed to insure, by violent and unlawful means,
+the success of an election. The phrase has now <span class="pageNum" id="pb366">[<a href="#pb366">366</a>]</span>passed into general use, political and otherwise, to signify the adoption and use
+of coercive measures. [The derivation is almost literal—a <span class="sc">bull-dose</span>, a flogging with a strip of hide; the action itself being represented by the verb
+<span class="sc">to bulldose</span>. Though indifferently spelt both with single and double ‘l’ and with ‘s’ and ‘z,’
+the correct version is <span class="sc">bulldose</span>.] Also derivatives <span class="sc">bulldoser</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), and <span class="sc">bull-dosing</span>, <i lang="la">mutatis mutandis</i>, of a kindred meaning.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <i>New York Tribune</i>, Dec. There was a bad case of ‘<span class="sc">bulldozing</span>’ in Cincinnati on Monday night. A handful of bold Democrats had gathered to let out
+their pent-up desire for Tilden or blood.… Mr. C—— was in the chair, and was warming
+up the faithful with an address, when the Republicans crowded around him in so threatening
+a manner that he mounted the table, shook his address in their faces, and declared,
+like a true hero, that he was not to be ‘intimidated.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Illust. London News</i>, vol. LXXVII., p. 587, col. 1. The Americans have lately been using a strange word,
+‘<span class="sc">bull-dosing</span>,’ which signifies, I believe, political intimidation, but not personal molestation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>Sat. Review</i>, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. To ‘<span class="sc">bull-dose</span>’ a negro in the Southern States means to flog him to death or nearly to death.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>Sat. Review</i>, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. A ‘<span class="sc">bull-dose</span>’ means a large efficient dose of any sort of medicine or punishment.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Cassell’s Mag.</i> (Art. on ‘Americanisms’), June, p. 412. To ‘<span class="sc">bulldoze</span>’ is to intimidate, and the word was originally used respecting the alleged interference
+with negro voters in Louisiana.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Detroit Evening Journal</i>, 20 Feb. The Democrats complain of the amounts of money they had to face, but that
+was not such a source of trouble as the <span class="sc">bulldozing</span> of voters by the mining bosses. <span class="corr" id="xd33e64871" title="Source: There">They</span> were driven to the polls, and compelled to vote for Seymour.
+</p>
+<p>A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">faire son fendart</i> (<i lang="fr">fendart</i> signifies ‘braggart’ or ‘swaggerer’; <i lang="fr">fendant</i> in literary French means a hector or bully).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Doser</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—1. A bully; braggart; swaggerer. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bull-dose</span>. French printers call a bully <i lang="fr">un mata</i>, an abbreviation of <i lang="es">matador</i>. It is curious that this term in the original Spanish not only signifies a killer
+of bulls (as in a bull-fight), but also a murderer.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <i>N. American Review</i>, vol. CXXVII., p. 426. The great ‘<span class="sc">bulldozer</span>’ of Europe.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>New York Tribune</i>, 3 May. The hotel where he was staying was visited … by a mob of <span class="sc">bull-dozers</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. A pistol.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>Sat. Review</i>, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. A Californian <span class="sc">bull-doser</span> is a pistol which carries a bullet heavy enough to destroy human life with certainty.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bullet.</b> <span class="sc">To give the bullet</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—To discharge an employé. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To give the bag</span>, sense 2, under <span class="sc">Bag</span>, and <span class="sc">Sack</span>. [Possibly a punning allusion to the word ‘discharge.’] The term is variously used.
+<span class="sc">To shake the bullet</span> at anyone, is to threaten with ‘the sack,’ but not to give actual notice to leave.
+<span class="sc">To get the bullet</span> is to get notice, while <span class="sc">to get the instant bullet</span> is to be discharged upon the spot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <span class="sc">Savage</span>, <i>Dict. of Art of Printing</i>. A workman was said to have <span class="sc">got the bullet</span> when he was discharged <i>instanter</i>—without the customary notice on either side.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <i>Chamb. Jour.</i>, March 9, p. 147. When a fellow <span class="sc">gets the bullet</span> from his work, he mostly has a spell at cab-driving.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb367">[<a href="#pb367">367</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Punch</i>, Sept. 17, p. 126. I have just <span class="sc">got the ‘bullet,’</span> Mate—sacked without notice.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bullfinch</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A stupid fellow.
+</p>
+<p>2. (hunting.)—A high thick hedge; one difficult to jump or rush through. [Most authorities
+agree in suggesting the origin of this term in a corruption of ‘bull-fence,’ <i>i.e.</i>, a fence capable of preventing cattle from straying.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1832. <i>Quart. Rev.</i>, Mar., 226. The <span class="sc">bull-finch</span> fence … is a quickset hedge of perhaps fifty years’ growth, with a ditch on one side
+or the other, and so high and strong that [one] cannot clear it. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1864. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;A. Lawrence</span>, <i>Guy Livingstone</i>, ch. ix. The third is a teaser—an ugly black <span class="sc">bull-finch</span> with a ditch on the landing side, and a drop into a ploughed field.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>The Times</i>, Nov. 2, p. 4, col. 5. They are almost invariably attired in double-stitched shooting
+coats, that will stand the ordeal of ‘<span class="sc">bull-finches</span>’ and brambles.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Man of the World</i>, June 29. See Harrington, the belted earl, bear down an opponent in the jousts, charging
+with lance or sword as if he were riding at a South Notts <span class="sc">bull-finch.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Jine</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—A sailor’s term for a locomotive. [Thought to be of American origin,
+New York thieves using the same term, as also an abbreviated form—<span class="sc">bull</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull Money</b>, <i>subs.</i> (harlotry).—Money extorted from or given by those who in places of public resort
+have been detected <i lang="la">in flagrante delicto</i> with a woman, as a bribe to silence.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Nurse</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—<i>See</i> quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Graphic</i>, April 4, p. 326, col. 3. <span id="xd33e65060">‘</span><span class="sc">Bull-nurses.</span>’ Perhaps we ought to apologise for using this word; but years ago (it may be so still)
+it was the sailors’ phrase to indicate a male-attendant on the sick.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bullock</b>, <i>subs.</i> (schoolboys’).—1. <i>See</i> quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. J. K., in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 1 S., v., 12, 3 Nov., p. 344. <span class="sc">Bullock</span>, a cheat; but as I think, only when cheating at marbles.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Australian.)—A countryman or bushman. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bullock-puncher</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To bully; to bounce over; to intimidate. [Query from <span class="sc">bully</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1716. <span class="sc">M. Davies</span>, <i>Ath. Brit.</i>, I., 272. Upon the evidence of that <span class="sc">bullocking</span> Fryer Campanella. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. II., ch. vi. ‘And then you have charged me with <span class="sc">bullocking</span> you into owning the truth.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1763. <span class="sc">Foote</span>, <i>Mayor of Garratt</i>, Act ii., Sc. 2. She shan’t think to <span class="sc">bullock</span> and domineer over me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bullock</span>, to hector, bounce, or bully.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bullock’s Heart.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Token</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bullock’s Horn</b>, <i>verb</i> (rhyming slang).—To pawn. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Pop</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull Party</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A party of men only. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bull-dance</span>, <span class="sc">Stag-party</span>, <span class="sc">Hen-tea</span>, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Puncher.</b>—A variant of <span class="sc">cow-puncher</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull’s Eye</b>, <i>subs.</i> (schoolboys’).—1. A sweetmeat of which peppermint is an important ingredient. [It
+received its name in allusion to its globular shape.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Hone</span>, <i>Every-day Bk.</i>, I., 51. Hardbake, brandy-balls, and <span class="sc">bull’s-eyes.</span> [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb368">[<a href="#pb368">368</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, vol. LXXXII., p. 83. <i>Dr. Switcher</i> (<i>who had discovered</i> <span class="sc">bull’s eyes</span> <i>about, and traced them to the original donor</i>). ‘Don’t you know, Muggins, there’s an old proverb that “Fools give feasts and Wise
+men eat them” ’? <i>Muggins.</i> ‘Yes, Sir, and there’s another one, sir.’ <i>The Doctor.</i> ‘What’s that, sir? Now, Sir?’—(<i>noticing a reticence</i>)—‘What is it, Sir?’—(<i>sternly</i>)—‘or else—!’ <i>Muggins</i> (<i>seeing no escape</i>). ‘Please, Sir, “W—— wise men make proverbs and F—— Fools repea——.<span id="xd33e65229">” ’</span> [Catches it!]
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A five-shilling piece, otherwise known as a <span class="sc">bull</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. B. E., <i>Dict. Cant. Crew</i>. [Mentioned as a cant term for a crown.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1714. <i>Memoirs of John Hall</i> (4 ed.), p. 11. <span class="sc">Bull’s-eye</span>, a Crown.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bull’s-eye</span>, a crown piece.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull’s-eye Villas</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—A nickname given to the small open tents used by the Volunteers at their
+annual gathering. [An allusion to <span class="sc">bull’s-eye</span> in its meaning of the centre of a target.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull’s Feather.</b> <span class="sc">To give</span> [or <span class="sc">get</span>] <span class="sc">the bull’s feather</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To be made, or be a cuckold. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Acteon</span>. The French say also <i lang="fr">planter des plumes de bœuf</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">16(?). <i>Song of the 17th Century</i>, quoted by Nares—‘The <span class="sc">Bull’s Feather</span>.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">It chanced not long ago as I was walking, </p>
+<p class="line">An echo did bring me where two were a talking, </p>
+<p class="line">’Twas a man said to his wife, dye had I rather, </p>
+<p class="line">Than to be cornuted and wear a <span class="sc">bull’s feather</span>. </p>
+<p class="line">Then presently she reply’d sweet, art thou jealous? </p>
+<p class="line">Thou canst not play Vulcan before I play Venus; </p>
+<p class="line">Thy fancies are foolish, such follies to gather, </p>
+<p class="line">There’s many an honest man hath worn the <span class="sc">bull’s feather</span>— </p>
+<p class="line">Though it be invisible, let no man it scorn, </p>
+<p class="line">Though it be a new feather made of an old horn, </p>
+<p class="line">He that disdains it in heart or mind either, </p>
+<p class="line">May he be the more subject to wear the <span class="sc">bull’s feather</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1748. <span class="sc">Richardson</span>, <i>Cl. Harlowe</i>, v., 295. A good whimsical instrument, take it altogether! But what, thinkest thou,
+are the arms to this matrimonial harbinger?… Three crooked horns, smartley top-knotted
+with ribands; which being the ladies’ wear, seem to intimate that they may very probably
+adorn, as well as bestow, the <span class="sc">bull’s-feather</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull the Cask</b> or <b>Barrel</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (nautical).—To pour water into a rum cask when empty, with a view to keeping the
+wood moist and preventing leakage. The water, receiving after some time a strong impregnation,
+is very intoxicating. The authorities, not looking with much favour upon a wholesale
+brewing of grog in this way, sometimes use salt water as a deterrent, though even
+this ‘<span class="sc">salt water bull</span>’ as it is called, when again poured out, has often proved too attractive for seamen
+to resist. Again it is common to talk in the same way of ‘<span class="sc">bulling</span> a teapot,’ ‘coffee-pot,’ etc.; that is; after the first ‘brew’ has been exhausted,
+by adding fresh water, and boiling over again, to make a second brew from the old
+materials. This probably was derived from <span class="sc">bulling the cask</span>, but whether the <span class="sc">bulling</span> originally applied to the preserving the water-tight qualities of the cask, or to
+the making of the second brew is not quite certain. Taking, however, the present acceptation
+of the term, together with its probable derivation (see below), the latter would appear
+to be the case. [Thought to have its origin in French <i lang="fr">boullir</i>, whence <i lang="fr">bouilloire</i>, a tea-kettle; <i lang="fr">bouillon</i>, a decoction <span class="pageNum" id="pb369">[<a href="#pb369">369</a>]</span>of meat to which vegetables, salt and pepper have been added.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1824. <span class="sc">Cochrane</span>, <i>Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and Siberian Tartary</i>, p. 225. My liquor was at end from the effects of a very common sort of leak—it had
+been tapped too often. I could do nothing but <span class="sc">bull the barrel</span>, that is, put a little water into it, and so preserve at least the appearance of
+vookey.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Jacob Faithful</i>, ch. xx. ‘Why, Jacob, a <span class="sc">bull</span> means putting a quart or two of water into a cask which has had spirits in it.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <span class="sc">G.&nbsp;R. Sims</span>, <i>How the Poor Live</i>, p. 148. In these places, too, the lodgers divide their food frequently, and a man,
+seeing a neighbour without anything, will hand him his teapot, and say, ‘Here you
+are, mate; here’s a <span class="sc">bull</span> for you.’ A ‘<span class="sc">bull</span>’ is a teapot with the leaves left in for a second brew.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bull-Trap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American thieves’).—A personator of a police constable.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A ‘protector’ of a prostitute; a ‘fancy man.’ The name is often well applied,
+inasmuch as violence and swagger form the main staple of the stock-in-trade of such
+men in levying blackmail upon the victims enticed by their women companions.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1706. <span class="sc">Defoe</span>, <i lang="la">Jure Divino</i>, i., 8. Mars the celestial <span class="sc">bully</span> they adore, And Venus for an everlasting whore.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Poisson</i> (familiar and popular: one who subsists on the gains of a prostitute, the latter
+being known as his <i lang="fr">marmite</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘flesh-pot’; <i lang="fr">poisson</i> signifies literally ‘a fish,’ and Michel says such a one was formerly known as <i lang="fr">poisson d’avril</i>, a punning variation of <i lang="fr">maquereau</i> [which <i>see</i>], mackerel being fit for food about that month. <i lang="fr">Poisson d’avril</i> properly means a trick or fool’s errand; <i lang="fr">recevoir un poisson d’avril</i> is to be made an April-fool); <i lang="fr">Alphonse</i> (a French form of Alphonso, a ‘fancy name’ for a ‘fancy man.’ <i>Cf.</i>, Adonis for a dandy. <i lang="fr">Alphonsisme</i> is the calling of an <i lang="fr">Alphonse</i>); <i lang="fr">baigne-dans-le-beurre</i> (popular: another allusion to mackerel which is generally served with butter); <i lang="fr">barbise</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">barbe</i> (popular: lit. ‘beard’); <i lang="fr">barbille</i> or <i lang="fr">barbillon</i> (a young hand at the business); <i lang="fr">barbeau</i> (popular: properly <i lang="fr">barbel</i>, from L.&nbsp;L. <i lang="la">barbellus</i>, dim. from <i lang="fr">barbus</i>, a barbel, <i>i.e.</i>, the fish, from <i lang="fr">barba</i>, a beard); <i lang="fr">marlou</i> or <i lang="fr">marlousier</i> (general: the second term is the oldest, and Michel derives it from <i lang="fr">marlier</i>, formerly used in the sense of <i lang="fr">marguillier</i>, signifying properly ‘churchwarden.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">Sacristain</i>); <i lang="fr">benoît</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">brochet</i> (popular: properly this is ‘pike’ or ‘jack’); <i lang="fr">dos</i>, <i lang="fr">dos vert</i>, and <i lang="fr">dos d’azur</i> (general: <i lang="fr">dos</i> = back); <i lang="fr">casquette à trois ponts</i> (popular: so called from a cap often worn by such persons); <i lang="fr">chevalier du bidet</i> (<i lang="fr">bidet</i> = pony; <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Omnibus</span>); <i lang="fr">chevalier de la guiche</i> (familiar); <i lang="fr">chiqueur de blanc</i> (<i lang="fr">chiqueur</i> = glutton, and <i lang="fr">blanc</i>, a street-walker. <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">mangeuse de viande crue</i>); <i lang="fr">bouffeur de blanc</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">costel</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">cravate verte</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">guiche</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">dessous</i> (thieves’: a man for whom ‘love’ is cherished by a prostitute); <i lang="fr">écaillé</i> (literally ‘one with scales,’ like those of a fish—allusive of <i lang="fr">maquereau</i>; <i>fish</i>, another reference to <i lang="fr">maquereau</i>); <i lang="fr">foulard rouge</i> (popular: lit. ‘red silk handkerchief’); <i lang="fr">gentilhomme sous marin</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">ambassadeur</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">gonce à écailles</i> (<i lang="fr">gonce</i> = man; <i lang="fr">à écailles</i> = with scales, an allusion to <i lang="fr">maquereau</i>); <i lang="fr">goujon</i> (general: <span class="pageNum" id="pb370">[<a href="#pb370">370</a>]</span>? does this come from the Gascon <i lang="fr">gouie</i>, whence comes <i lang="fr">gouge</i>, a prostitute); <i lang="fr">lacromuche</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">retrousseur</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">retrousser</i> properly means ‘to turn up,’ ‘to cock’); <i lang="fr">dauphin</i> (popular: lit. dolphin); <i lang="fr">macchoux</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">machabée</i> (popular: lit. a corpse); <i lang="fr">mac</i> or <i lang="fr">macque</i> (popular; abbreviations of <i lang="fr">maquereau</i>); <i lang="fr">macrottin</i> (familiar); <i lang="fr">poisson frayeur</i> (<i lang="fr">frayer</i> [of fishes] signifies ‘to milt’); <i lang="fr">releveur de fumeuse</i> (popular: <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">relever le chandelier</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, to lift up the candlestick; from a practice of placing the fees of a prostitute
+under a candlestick); <i lang="fr">maquignon à bidoche</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">maquignon</i> is properly a ‘horsedealer,’ and <i lang="fr">bidoche</i> = meat); <i lang="fr">mangeur de blanc</i> (general: a devourer of prostitutes. <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">chiqueur de blanc</i>); <i lang="fr">tête de patère</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">marloupatte</i>, <i lang="fr">marloupin</i> (<i>see</i> <i lang="fr">marlou</i>); <i lang="fr">marquant</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">mec</i> (popular and thieves’); <i lang="fr">mec de la guiche</i> (so called from his kiss-curls—<i lang="fr">des guiches</i> = kiss-curls); <i lang="fr">monsieur à nageoires</i> (lit. gentleman with fins); <i lang="fr">monsieur à rouflaquettes</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">rouflaquettes</i> = aggerawators, <i>q.v.</i>); <i lang="fr">neg en viande chaude</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">neg</i> is an abbreviation of <i lang="fr">négociant</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, merchant, dealer; <i lang="fr">viande chaude</i> = hot meat); <i lang="fr">patenté</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">patente</i> is the name of a cap worn by the fraternity); <i lang="fr">porte-nageoires</i> (<i>see</i> <i lang="fr">monsieur à nageoires</i>); <i lang="fr">roi de la mer</i> (popular: lit. king of the sea. <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">maquereau</i>, <i lang="fr">poisson</i>, etc.); <i lang="fr">rouflaquette</i> (<i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">monsieur à rouflaquettes</i>); <i lang="fr">roule-en-cul</i>, <i lang="fr">soixante-six</i> (popular: insulting terms which might be translated by ‘pensioner,’ with an obscene
+prefix); <i lang="fr">un qui va aux épinards</i> (popular: one who receives money from a prostitute, <i lang="fr">épinards</i> = spinach. <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to take one’s greens’); <i lang="fr">valet de cœur</i> (popular: the lover of a prostitute); <i lang="fr">visqueux</i> (properly this signifies ‘viscous,’ ‘slimy,’ ‘clammy’; the term is applied to the
+lowest type of <span class="sc">bullies</span>); <i lang="fr">bibi</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">bras de fer</i> (lit. ‘arm of iron’).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1729. <span class="sc">Gay</span>, <i>Polly</i>, Act ii., Sc. 7. <i>Jimmy</i>: Sure never was such insolence! how could you leave me with this bawdy-house <span class="sc">bully</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <i>Adventurer</i>, No. 100. I learned to pack cards and to cog a die; became a <span class="sc">bully</span> to whores.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1766. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Vicar of Wakefield</i>, ch. xx. The lady was only a woman of the town, and the fellow her <span class="sc">bully</span> and a sharper.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act. ii., Sc. 4. <i>M’L.</i> Plaise your honour, I have brought before your worship a most notorious prostitute
+and common street walker, who, for her foul doings, has been cooped up in the Poultry
+Comptor, as often as there are years in a week.—I caught her charging these honest
+gentlemen (<i>pointing to Tom and Jerry</i>) in a most impositious manner, and when I civilly axed her, how she could think of
+getting drunk, and acting so, she called her <span class="sc">bullies</span> here. (<i>Pointing to Kate and Sue.</i>)
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">A. Dobson</span>, <i>Fielding</i>, p. 129. Probably a professed <i>sabreur</i>, if not a salaried <span class="sc">bully</span> like Captain Stab in the <i>Rake’s Progress</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Daily News</i>, 15 July, 6, 5. It was not an uncommon thing for a prostitute to solicit a man, and
+if he refused her importunities, to call upon a ‘<span class="sc">bully</span>,’ and complain that she had been assaulted.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Eton College.)—A <i>melée</i> at football; the equivalent of the Rugby ‘scrimmage’ and the Winchester ‘hot.’ It
+is where the majority of players play.
+</p>
+<p>3. (nautical.)—A term of endearment in use amongst sailors. Equivalent to ‘pal,’ ‘mate,’
+and similar terms. In this sense it has long been in use, Shakspeare often employing
+it. Probably hence arose the American <span class="pageNum" id="pb371">[<a href="#pb371">371</a>]</span>and colonial adjectival use of the word in the sense of fine, ‘crack.’
+</p>
+<p>4. (American thieves’.)—A weapon formed by tying a stone or a piece of lead in a handkerchief.
+This is used knuckleduster fashion.
+</p>
+<p><i>Adj.</i> (American).—Fine; capital; crack; ‘spiff.’ Applied to persons only, this adjective
+is traceable as far back as 1681; it seems, however, to have fallen into disuetude
+and to have been subsequently revived in a much more extended sense in the U.S.A.,
+whence it has made the circuit of the English speaking world. Now applied to anything
+deserving of commendation, and used very much in the same way and with the same shades
+of meaning as ‘crack.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> <i>See</i> A1.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> In addition to those given under A1 may be mentioned the following:—<i lang="fr">muche</i>; <i lang="fr">pas piqué des hannetons</i> (popular: literally not bitten or stung by May-bugs or cockchafers).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1681. <span class="sc">Chetham</span>, <i>Anglers’ Vade Mecum</i> (1689), pref. From such <span class="sc">bully</span> fishers this book expects no other reception.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <i>Cairo City Times.</i> The <span class="sc">bully</span> steamboat ‘Crystal Palace’ passed up to St. Louis on Monday. We have no doubt she
+left papers.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <span class="sc">Meade</span>, <i>New Zealand</i>, p. 331. The roof fell in, there was a ‘<span class="sc">bully</span>’ blaze.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>N. Amer. Review</i>, vol. CXX., p. 128. ‘That,’ replied Earney, ‘is Mercury, the god of merchants and
+thieves.’ ‘Good! that’s <span class="sc">bully</span>!’ exclaimed Tweed.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>A Lonely Ride</i>. ‘I thought you changed horses on the road?’ ‘So we did. Two hours ago.’ ‘That’s
+odd. I didn’t notice it.’ ‘Must have been asleep sir. Hope you had a pleasant nap.
+<span class="sc">Bully</span> place for a nice quiet snooze,—empty stage, sir!’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">That’s bully for you</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—Grand or fine; this phrase, during the Civil War, had a remarkably popular
+run.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>, <i>Fair Saxon</i>, ch. xix. ‘Darling boy! I had thought of this already.’ ‘<span class="sc">Bully for you</span>, mamma! Of course you did.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Bully boy</span> or <span class="sc">bully boy with the glass eye</span>, <i>phr.</i> (American).—A good fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1815. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Guy Mannering</i>, ch. xxxiv. ‘Well said, my hearty captain!’ cried Glossin, endeavouring to catch
+the tone of revelry.… ‘That’s it, my <span class="sc">bully boy</span>! Why, you’re alive again now!—’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1817. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, ch. viii. ‘And you, Mr. Frank Osbaldistone, are not the first <span class="sc">bully-boy</span> that has said stand to a true man.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Innocents at Home</i>, p. 20. You ought to seen him get started once. He was a <span class="sc">bully boy with a glass eye</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully-Back</b> or <b>Bully-Buck</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Thus described by Grose: A bully to a bawdy house, one who is kept in pay,
+to oblige the frequenters of the house to submit to the impositions of the mother
+abbess or bawd, and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies,
+and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant young men, whom
+he finds with her. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bully-boss</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1626. <span class="sc">Amherst</span>, <i>Terræ Fil.</i>, xxxiii., 179. They have spirtual bravves on their side, and old lecherous <span class="sc">bully-backs</span> to revenge their cause. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully Beef</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—Tinned meat. Also called <span class="sc">iron ration</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). In the navy by <span class="pageNum" id="pb372">[<a href="#pb372">372</a>]</span><span class="sc">bully-beef</span> is meant boiled salt beef. [This may either be a corruption of <span class="sc">bull beef</span> or from the French <i lang="fr">bouilli</i>, boiled meat.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Clark Russell</span>, <i>Sailors’ Language</i>, pref., xii. Soup-and-bouilli is another standing sea dish, and, taking it all round,
+is the most disgusting of the provisions served out to the merchant sailor. I have
+known many a strong stomach, made food-proof by years of pork eaten with molasses,
+and biscuit alive with worms, to be utterly capsized by the mere smell of soup-and-bouilli.
+Jack calls it ‘soap and bullion, one onion to a gallon of water,’ and thus fairly
+expresses the character of the nauseous compound.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Daily News</i>, July 9, p. 6, col. 4. The rations will be of the kind known to Tommy Atkins as ‘<span class="sc">bully beef</span>.’ There may be in it a considerable proportion of mutton, but that makes no difference
+to him.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully-Boss</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—The landlord of a brothel or thieves’ den. [From <span class="sc">bully</span>, sense 1 (<i>q.v.</i>), + <span class="sc">boss</span>, a master.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully-Buck.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bully-back</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully Cock</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. <i>See</i> quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bully-cock</span>, one who foments quarrels in order to rob the persons quarrelling.
+</p>
+<p>2. <i>subs.</i> (old).—A low round hat with broad brim.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Billy-cock</span>.
+</p>
+<p>3. (old.)—A man who sets other people by the ears, so that, while they quarrel, he
+may rob them with impunity.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bullyrag</b> or <b>Ballyrag</b>, <i>verb</i> (colloquial).—To revile; abuse; scold vehemently—usually in vulgar or obscene language;
+also to swindle by means of intimidation. [The etymology is unknown.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Arranger aux petits oignons</i>; <i lang="fr">monter une gamme</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">gamme</i> = thrashing or ‘walloping’); <i lang="fr">habiller quelqu’un de taffetas</i> (popular: <i>i.e.</i>, to clothe anyone with fear; <i>Cf.</i>, ‘clothed with shame’); <i lang="fr">agonir</i> (popular: ‘to haul over the coals’; properly ‘to pull to pieces’); <i lang="fr">secouer les puces à quel-qu’un</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">secouer</i> = to shake; <i lang="fr">puces</i> = fleas. <i>Cf.</i>, ‘to send one away with a flea in the ear’).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1760. <span class="sc">T. Warton</span>, <i>Oxford Newsman’s Verses</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">On Minden’s plains, ye meek Mounseers! </p>
+<p class="line">Remember Kingsley’s grenadiers. </p>
+<p class="line">You vainly thought to <span class="sc">ballarag</span> us, </p>
+<p class="line">Like your fine squadron off Cape Lagos. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1861. <span class="sc">Charles Lever</span>, <i>One of Them</i>, p. 36. He <span class="sc">bullyragged</span> me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">S. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Tom Sawyer</i>, p. 118. I don’t want nothing better ’n this; I don’t git enough to eat gin’ally,—and
+here they can’t come and pick a feller and <span class="sc">bullyrag</span> him so.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Jas. Greenwood</span>, <i>Maids in Waiting</i>, in <i>Odd People in Odd Places</i>, p. 143. You should have heard the <span class="sc">bullyragging</span> I got, ma’am, from the mistress and the master as well, and I was turned out in the
+shameful way I’ve already explained to you, for doing what was no wrong at all, but
+only what me good-nature tempted me to.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <span class="sc">Jas. Payn</span>, <i>Talk of the Town</i>, ch. v. He had never been ‘<span class="sc">bally-ragged</span>’ in his own house for ‘nothing’—except by his wife—before.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bullyragging</b>, <i>verb, subs.</i> (colloquial).—Scolding; abuse; and sometimes swindling. [From <span class="sc">bullyrag</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">ing</span>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Wigging</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Austin Elliot</i>, ch. xviii. ‘It would be a good thing for <i>she</i> … if she could bully Miss Eleanor into marrying Captain Hertford, and then that the
+pair on ’em should have the bullying and <span class="sc">bally-ragging</span> of nine thousand a year.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Mrs. Parr</span>, <i>Adam and Eve</i>, xxi., 292. There’ll be more set to the score o’ my coaxin’ than ever ‘all be to
+Adam’s <span class="sc">bully-ragging</span>.’ [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb373">[<a href="#pb373">373</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Oct. 19, p. 3, col. 1. ‘And you should have heard the <span class="sc">bully-ragging</span> I got, ma’am, from the mistress and the master as well.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully-Rook</b> or <b>Bully-Rock</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Originally this term seems to have been applied to a pleasant or boon-companion;
+later, however, to a swaggerer, a bully, a bravo. [Thought by most etymologists to
+be a combination of <span class="sc">bully</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">rook</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a sharper.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1596. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, Act i., Sc. 3. Why says my <span class="sc">bully-rook</span>?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1633. <span class="sc">Shirley</span>, <i>Wittie Faire One</i>, Act iii., Sc. 4. Such in the spirit of sack, till we be delphic, and prophesy, my
+<span class="sc">bully-rook</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1697. <i>Praise of Yorkshire Ale.</i> My <span class="sc">bully-rocks</span>, I’ve been experienced long <span class="sic">In</span> most of Liquors. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">B. Martin</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i> (2 ed.). Bully, or <span class="sc">bully-rock</span>, 1. a boisterous, hectoring fellow.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully Ruffian</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A footpad or highwayman, who, to the injury of robbery, added the insult of
+coarse invective. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bridle-cull</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully Trap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A man who, though of mild outside demeanour, is a match for any ruffian who
+may attack him. Quoted by Grose [1785].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bully Up</b> (Uppingham School), <i>verb</i>.—To hurry up. Mostly used in the imperative.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vulgar).—1. The posteriors; or, as Jamieson puts it, ‘the part on which we sit.’
+[Considerable doubt exists as to the origin of this familiar term. Murray thinks the
+guess that <span class="sc">bum</span> is an abbreviation of ‘bottom’ is at variance with the historical fact that the latter,
+in this sense, is found only from the eighteenth century; besides which there are
+phonetic difficulties. The origin is probably <span class="corr" id="xd33e66382" title="Source: onamatopoetic">onomatopoetic</span>.] Besides the synonyms mentioned under <span class="sc">Blind cheeks</span>, the following may be cited:
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Bum-fiddle; bumpkin.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Le foiron</i> (popular: from <i lang="fr">foire</i> = diarrhœa); <i lang="fr">le tal</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">le garde-manger</i> (popular: Michel says this expression is an old one and is to be found in ‘<i lang="fr">Curiositez françoises</i>’ in the sense of ‘a necessary house’); <i lang="fr">le naze</i> (equivalent to ‘smeller,’ or ‘smelling cheat’); <i lang="fr">le soufflet</i> (popular: literally ‘a pair of bellows’); <i lang="fr">le prouas</i> (the same as <i lang="fr">le prose</i>, of nautical origin); <i lang="fr">la contre-basse</i> (popular: the ‘double bass.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="la">Ars musica</i>); <i lang="fr">le schaffouse</i> (popular: a play of words, the town of that name being situated on the Lower Rhine—<i lang="fr">chute du Rhein</i>, and <i lang="fr">chute du rein</i>, the lower part of the back); <i lang="fr">le gingin</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">la tabatière</i> (popular: literally ‘the snuff-box’); <i lang="fr">la tire-lire</i> (popular: Rigaud says this term is in allusion to the means of subsistence [daily
+bread] of prostitutes); <i lang="fr">la giberne</i> (literally ‘cartridge-box’); <i lang="fr">le proye</i> (an old canting term); <i lang="fr">le cadet</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">la figure</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘the face.’ <i>Cf.</i>, ‘cheeks’); <i lang="fr">la canonnière</i> (literally ‘a drain pipe’ or ‘pop-gun’); <i lang="fr">l’oignon</i> (literally ‘the onion’); <i lang="fr">la machine à moulures</i>; <i lang="fr">le département du bas Rhin</i> (‘the department of the Lower Rhine<span>’</span>; <i lang="fr">rein</i> = back—a play upon words); <i lang="fr">le démoc</i>; <i lang="fr">le schelingophone</i>; <span class="pageNum" id="pb374">[<a href="#pb374">374</a>]</span><i lang="fr">le Prussien</i> (from the Gypsy <i>prusiatin̆i</i>, translated by Borrow as ‘pistol’); <i lang="fr">le panier aux crottes</i> (<i lang="fr">panier</i> = basket; <i lang="fr">crottes</i> = dung); <i lang="fr">le visage de campagne</i>; <i lang="fr">le fignard</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘a one-eyed cheek’); <i lang="fr">le visage sans nez</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘the face without a nose’); <i lang="fr">le pétrouskin</i>; <i lang="fr">le face du grand Turc</i>; <i lang="fr">le tortillon</i>; <i lang="fr">le fleurant</i> (popular: also ‘a nose-gay’); <i lang="fr">le pedzouille</i> (familiar: ‘a peasant’ or ‘clod’); <i lang="fr">le cadran</i> or <i lang="fr">le cadran lunaise</i> (<i lang="fr">cadran</i> = dial); <i lang="fr">le piffe</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">le médaillon</i> (popular: literally ‘a medallion’ or ‘locket’); <i lang="fr">l’arrière-train</i> (familiar: lit. ‘after-carriage’); <i lang="fr">le trèfle</i> (popular: this also signifies ‘tobacco’); <i lang="fr">messire Luc</i> (familiar: ‘Mr. Luke,’ sometimes also ‘<i lang="fr">Nancy</i>.’ <i>Cf.</i>, Mrs. Jones); <i lang="fr">le moulin à vent</i> (lit. the ‘windmill’); <i lang="fr">le ponant</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">la lune</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">lune</i> in slang means a large full face); <i lang="fr">le bienséant</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">le pétard</i> (popular and thieves’: it also stands for <i lang="fr">sou</i>; in the Normandy patois <i lang="fr">pétra</i> is used interchangeably with <i lang="fr">pétard</i>); <i lang="fr">le ballon</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">ballon</i> = balloon; the analogy is obvious); <i lang="fr">le moutardier</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, the mustard-pot); <i lang="fr">le baril de moutarde</i> (cads’: the mustard barrel); <i lang="fr">l’obusier</i> (lit. the howitzer).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms.</span> <i lang="de">Tochas</i>; <i lang="de">Toges</i>; <i lang="de">Doges</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonym.</span> <i lang="it">Rioppo.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1387. <span class="sc">Trevisa</span>, <i>Higden Rolls</i>, 6 S., 357. It semeth that his <span class="sc">bom</span> is oute that hath that euel [<i>ficus</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, piles]. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Mids. Night’s Dream</i>, ii., 1, l. 51.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale, </p>
+<p class="line">Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; </p>
+<p class="line">Then slip I from her <span class="sc">bum</span>, down topples she, </p>
+<p class="line">And <i>tailor</i> cries, and falls into a couch; </p>
+<p class="line">And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1600. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Shoemaker’s Holiday</i>, in wks. (1873) I., 39. Art thou acquainted with neuer a fardingale-maker, nor a
+French-hood maker, I must enlarge my <span class="sc">bumme</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1609. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>Timon of Athens</i>, Act i., Sc. 2.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e31485">What a coil’s here! </p>
+<p class="line">Serving of becks, and jutting out of <span class="sc">bums</span>! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1614. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>Bartholomew Fair</i>, iv., 4. Your breeches sit close enough to your <span class="sc">bum</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1729. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Intelligencer</i>, No. 8, p. 83 (2 ed.).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And first his <span class="sc">bum</span> you see him clap </p>
+<p class="line">Upon the Queen of Sheba’s lap. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1742. <span class="sc">Shenstone</span>, <i>Schoolmistress</i>, st. 18.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">All, but the wight of <span class="sc">bum</span> y-galled, he </p>
+<p class="line">Abhors both bench, and stool, and fourm, and chair. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1782. <span class="sc">Wolcot</span>, <i>Lyric Odes</i>, No. i., in wks. (1809) I., 12. That lazy <span class="sc">bum</span>-delighting thing, Ridly the Chancellor.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—An abbreviated form Of <span class="sc">bum bailiff</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">Butler</span>, <i>Hudibras</i>, I., i., 393.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">It had appeared with courage bolder, </p>
+<p class="line">Then Sergeant <span class="sc">Bum</span>, invading shoulder. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1698–1700. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>London Spy</i>, pt. VII., p. 153.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The Vermin of the Law, the <span class="sc">Bum</span>, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Who gladly kept his distance, </p>
+<p class="line">Does safely now in Triumph come. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1845. <span class="sc">Disraeli</span>, <i>Sybil</i>, bk. III., ch. i. ‘Juggings has got his rent to pay, and is afeard of the <span class="sc">bums</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>3. (public schools’.)—A birching; ‘hiding’ or ‘tanning.’ For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tanning</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, also <span class="sc">Bash</span> and <span class="sc">Baste</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (old).—To arrest. [An obvious allusion to the duty of a <span class="sc">bum</span> or <span class="sc">bum-bailiff</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Cherry Bums</span>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—The 11th Hussars. <span class="sc">Cherry-bum</span> is a corruption of Cherubim; but the obvious reference is to the scarlet trowsers
+worn by this branch of the service. A similar <span class="pageNum" id="pb375">[<a href="#pb375">375</a>]</span>nickname is given to the French Chasseurs—<i lang="fr">Culs rouges</i>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cherubim</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To toe one’s bum</span>, <i>phr.</i> (low).—An implied threat of physical castigation, rarely, however, carried out literally;
+to put or ‘chuck’ out; to show the door to—either will explain the meaning. Sometimes
+the phrase occurs as ‘<span class="sc">to hoof one’s bum</span>.’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Sauter sur la contrebasse</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">filer un coup de trottinet dans l’oignon</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">boucher la lumière</i> (popular: properly ‘to stuff up the touch-hole’); <i lang="fr">enlever le ballon à quelqu’un</i> (popular: the allusion is to raising an air balloon with the foot); <i lang="fr">donner un coup de pied juste au bon endroit</i> (popular: ‘to give a kick just in the right part’); <i lang="fr">botter</i> (popular: literally ‘to make’ or ‘supply anyone with boots’); <i lang="fr">détacher un coup de pinceau dans la giberne</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">coup de pinceau</i> = ‘a kick,’ or ‘a blow with the foot’; <i lang="fr">giberne</i> = cartridge-box or, in slang, the breech); <i lang="fr">crever un œil à quelqu’un</i> (popular: ‘to stave in one’s eye.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Cyclops</span>); <i lang="fr">graisser le train derrière</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘to grease the hinder carriage.’ <i>Cf.</i>, Eng. <span class="sc">Basting</span>); <i lang="fr">détruire le faubourg à quelqu’un</i> (popular: properly <span class="sc">faubourg</span> = suburb or outskirt); <i lang="fr">enlever le schelingophone à quelqu’un</i> (popular).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Bags</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Trowsers. [From <span class="sc">bum</span>, the posteriors, + <span class="sc">bags</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Bailiff</b>, also <b>Bum Baily</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An opprobrious name for a bailiff or sheriff’s officer. Frequently contracted
+into <span class="sc">bum</span> or <span class="sc">bummy</span>. [Thought to be derived from <span class="sc">bum</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), an allusion to the proximity of such gentry to debtors’ backs, + <span class="sc">bailiff</span>; there is no reason to suppose, as suggested, that the term is a corruption of <span class="sc">bound-bailiff</span>. The French have <i lang="fr">pousse cul</i>, and it is curious that this term is also, in common use, abbreviated to <i lang="fr">cul</i>, answering to the English contraction, <span class="sc">bum</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1602. <span class="sc">Shakespeare</span>, <i>Twelfth Night</i>, Act iii., Sc. 4. <i>Sir Jo.</i> Go, Sir Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the orchard like a <span class="sc">bum-baily</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1628. <span class="sc">H. Shirley</span>, <i>Martyr’d Souldier</i>, Act v. I was first a Varlet, then a <span class="sc">Bum-baily</span>, now an under Jailor.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1761. <span class="sc">Dr. Hawkesworth</span>, <i>Edgar and Emmeline</i>, ii., 1. By the heavens! she has the gripe of a <span class="sc">bum-bailiff</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xvii. ‘We are in right opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, serjeant
+and tipstaff, catch-poll and <span class="sc">bum-bailey</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">Mrs. H. Wood</span>, <i>Roland Yorke</i>, ch. xxxii. ‘You know the state we were in all the summer: Gerald next to penniless,
+and going about in fear of the <span class="sc">bum-bailies</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Bass</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Explained by quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1809. <span class="sc">S. Pegge</span>, <i>Anonymiana</i>, p. 415 (ed. 1809). The humble-bee ought rather, perhaps, to be called the bumble-bee
+as it is in some parts, from the deepness of the note, just as the violoncello is
+called by the vulgar a <span class="sc">bum-bass</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumble</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A beadle. [This term originated in the name of the beadle in Dickens’ <i>Oliver Twist</i>, although it may be noted that in the seventeenth century <span class="sc">bumble</span> signified a confusion, a jumble. Hence <span class="sc">bumbler</span>, an idle fellow, or blunderer. A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">chasse-coquin</i> (literally a beggar driver). <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bumble-crew</span> and <span class="sc">Bumbledom</span>.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb376">[<a href="#pb376">376</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Punch</i>, August 4, p. 51, col. 1.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A helpless ‘nuisance’ shunned by the Inspector, </p>
+<p class="line">Ignored by <span class="sc">bumbles</span> and by Boards of Works. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bumble-Crew</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A collective name for corporations, vestries, and other official bodies.
+[From <span class="sc">bumble</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">crew</span>.]—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bumbledom</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumbledom</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—A term applied to the spirit of collective petty officialism; red tape
+fussiness and pomposity. [From <span class="sc">bumble</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">dom</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <i>Saturday Review</i>, II., p. 12, col. 1. The collective <span class="sc">Bumbledom</span> of Westminster. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Daily News</i>, Dec. 27, p. 6, col. 1. Our scheme is unfolded to the chief officer—not the slightest
+trace of <span class="sc">bumbledom</span> about him—a kind-hearted, genial, happy-faced individual.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumble Puppy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Family whist, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘unscientific’ whist. Also applied, says Hotten, to a game played in public houses
+on a large stone, placed in a slanting direction, on the lower end of which holes
+are made, and numbered like the holes in a bagatelle-table. The player rolls a stone
+ball, or marble, from the higher end, and according to the number of the hole it falls
+into the game is counted. It is undoubtedly the very ancient game of <i>Troule-in-madame</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Daily News</i>, Dec. 25, p. 5, col. 2. Christmas cards, and mince-pies, and another helping of turkey,
+and family whist, or <span class="sc">bumble puppy</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumbles</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—Coverings for the eyes of horses that shy in harness. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Blinkers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumbo</b>, <i>subs.</i> (West Indian.)—1. The female <i>pudenda</i>; a term applied by negroes. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Monosyllable</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—Smollett, in a note to the first quotation as follows, says <span class="sc">bumbo</span> was a liquor composed of ‘rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.’ Grose gives it as ‘brandy,
+water, and sugar’—the component parts seem to vary according to taste.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Rod. Random</i>, ch. xxxiv. Who were making merry in the ward-room, round a table well stored with
+<span class="sc">bumbo</span> and wine.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1756. <i>Diary of a Sussex Tradesman</i>, in Sussex <i>Arch. Coll.</i>, IX., 188, quoted in <i>N. and Q.</i>, 7 S., i., 194. 1756, April 28. I went down to Jones’, where we drank one bowl of
+punch and two muggs of <span class="sc">bumboo</span>, and I came home again in liquor.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Northumbrian Minstrelsy</i>, etc., p. 113, quoted in <i>N. and Q.</i>, 7 S., i., 195.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The pitmen and the keelmen trim, </p>
+<p class="line">They drink <span class="sc">bumbo</span> made of gin. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bum-Brusher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (schoolboys’).—A schoolmaster; also applied to an usher. [From <span class="sc">bum</span>, the posteriors, + <span class="sc">brusher</span>, in allusion to the office a schoolmaster is sometimes called upon to perform by
+way of punishment.<span class="corr" id="xd33e67213" title="Not in source">]</span>
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Flaybottom; haberdasher of pronouns.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un marchand de soupe</i> (<i lang="fr">marchand</i> = merchant; <i lang="fr">soupe</i> = soup); <i lang="fr">un chien de cour</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘a watch-dog’); <i lang="fr">un fouette-cul</i> (a literal translation of <span class="sc">bum-brusher</span>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1704. <span class="sc">T. Brown</span>, wks. (1760) II., 86. [Dionysius] was forced to turn <span class="sc">bum-brusher</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1788. <i>New London Magazine</i>, p. 137. A successor was immediately called from that great nursery of <span class="sc">bum-brushers</span>, Appleby School.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb377">[<a href="#pb377">377</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1832. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, Oct., p. 426. To protract existence … in the shape of <span class="sc">bum-brushers</span>, and so forth, after the fashion of the exalted emigrés of 1792?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <i>Comic Almanac</i>, Dec. [School-master’s Letter signed] Barnabas <span class="sc">Bom-brush</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Charter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Explained by quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Memoirs</i>. <span class="sc">Bum-charter</span> is the name given to bread steeped in hot water by the first unfortunate inhabitants
+of the English Bastile, where this miserable fare was their daily breakfast, each
+man receiving with his scanty portion of bread a quart of boiled water from the Cook’s
+Coppers.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumclink</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial).—In the Midland counties the inferior beer brewed for hay-makers and
+harvest labourers. [Derivation obvious.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Curtain</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Cambridge Univ.).—1. An academical gown when worn scant and short; especially applied
+to the short black gown worn till 1835 by members of Caius College. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bum-perisher</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. (Quoted in Whibley’s <i>Three Centuries of Cambridge Wit</i> [1889].)
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">’Tis the College of Caius—’tis the land where the ‘<span class="sc">Bum</span> </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Curtain</span>’ lately was sported by each jolly chum, </p>
+<p class="line">But now black and blue are the gowns that they wear </p>
+<p class="line">Like the eye of a drunkard returned from a fair. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bumf</b>, <i>subs.</i> (schooboys’).—Paper. [An abbreviation of <span class="sc">bum-fodder</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), an obvious allusion to toilet paper.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumfhunt</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Wellington College).—A paper-chase. [Derived from the popular schoolboy name for
+paper, <i>i.e.</i>, <span class="sc">bumf</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Fiddle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—The posteriors. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Blind cheeks</span> and <span class="sc">Bum</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Fidget</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A restless individual. [Obviously from <span class="sc">bum</span>, the posterior, + <span class="sc">fidget</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, one who cannot sit still.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Fodder</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Low class worthless literature; a term once in literary use.—<i>See</i> sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1653. <span class="sc">Urquhart</span>, <i>Rabelais</i>, I., xiii. Torche-culs, arsewisps, <span class="sc">bum fodders</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <i>Scots’ Magazine</i>, April, p. 208, col. 1 (title). <span class="sc">Bum fodder</span> for the ladies. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p>2. (low.)—Toilet paper, otherwise known as <span class="sc">curl paper</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). <i>Cf.</i> <span class="sc">Bumf</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Bum fodder</span>, soft paper for the necessary house, or torche-cul.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bummaree</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A Billingsgate middle-man. These men, who are not recognised as regular
+salesmen by the trade, are speculative buyers of large quantities of fish, which they
+re-sell in smaller lots. [The origin of the name is unknown, though some have speculated
+that it may be from the French <i lang="fr">bon marée</i>; others, however, think that it is akin to <i lang="fr">bomerie</i>, a French word for what in England is known as ‘bottomry,’ <i>i.e.</i>, the act of borrowing money and pledging the bottom of the ship, <i>i.e.</i>, the ship itself, for the re-payment of the money. It is argued that the leading
+idea in thus borrowing money on a ship’s keel is the hazarding all on a single venture:
+hence possibly its application to other transactions, especially those connected with
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb378">[<a href="#pb378">378</a>]</span>the sea; such as wholesale purchases of fish, in which a large risk is run with an
+uncertain prospect of return—which is, it must be confessed, a somewhat far-fetched
+derivation.] This wholesale retailing of fish is also called <span class="sc">bummareeing it</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1786. <i>Report of Committee of City of London on Price of Provisions</i>, 31. The <span class="sc">bomarees</span> will buy up half the fish the Salesmen have, and sell to the Fishmongers. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., 71. In Billingsgate the ‘forestallers’ or middle men are known as <span class="sc">bummarees</span>.… The <span class="sc">bummaree</span> is the jobber or speculator on the fish exchange.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Twice Round the Clock</i>, 4 a.m., p. 17. Any one can be a <span class="sc">bumbaree</span>.… The process of <span class="sc">bumbareeing</span> is very simple. It consists in buying as largely as your means will afford of an
+auctioneer, hiring a stall for sixpence, and retailing the fish at a swingeing profit.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bummed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Arrested. <i>Cf.</i> <i>verb</i>, <span class="sc">Bum</span> and <span class="sc">Bum-bailiff</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bummer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old.)—1. A <span class="sc">bum-bailiff</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>2. (turf.)—A heavy loss; a severe pecuniary reverse.
+</p>
+<p>3. (American.)—An idler; loafer; sponger; looter (<i>see</i> quots.). [From the German <i lang="de">bummler</i>, with a somewhat similar meaning, save that the term is used good naturedly, and
+has not altogether the offensive meaning of the American equivalent.] The term came
+into general use at the time of the Civil War, when it was specially applied to a
+straggler, hanger-on, or free-lance, particularly in connection with General Sherman’s
+famous march from Atlanta to the sea. Besides its political signification, <span class="sc">bummer</span> is used as a general term of reproach in the same way as rascal, blackleg, etc.,
+are used in England. Other equivalents are <span class="sc">heeler</span>, <span class="sc">striker</span>, <span class="sc">stuffer</span>, and <span class="sc">practical politician</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>a.</i> 1865. <span class="sc">Major Nichols</span>, <i>Sherman’s Great March</i>. Look hyar, Captain, we <span class="sc">bummers</span> ain’t so bad after all. We keep ahead of the skirmish line allers; we let’s ’em know
+when an enemy’s a comin’, and then we ain’t allus away from the regiment. We turns
+over all we don’t want ourselves, and we can lick five times as many Rebs as we are
+any day.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <span class="sc">S.&nbsp;L. Clemens</span> (‘Mark Twain’), <i>Roughing It</i>, ch. xxiv. The auctioneer stormed up and down the streets on him for four days, dispersing
+the populace, interrupting business, and destroying children, and never got a bid—at
+least never any but the eighteen-dollar one he hired, a notoriously substanceless
+<span class="sc">bummer</span>, to make. The people only smiled pleasantly, and restrained their desire to buy,
+if they had any.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1872. <i>Sacramento Weekly Union</i>, Feb. 24, p. 2. All the boys to be trained as scriveners, tape-measurers, counter-hoppers,
+clerks, pettifoggers, polite loafers, street-hounds, hoodlums, and <span class="sc">bummers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <i>Scribner’s Magazine</i>, p. 274. San Francisco is the Elysium of <span class="sc">bummers</span>. Nowhere can a worthless fellow, too lazy to work, too cowardly to steal, get on
+so well. The climate befriends him, for he can sleep out of doors four-fifths of the
+year. He can gorge himself daily for a nominal sum, and get a dinner that a king might
+envy for fifty cents.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">W. Black</span>, <i>Green Past. and Picc.</i>, ch. xiii. Then the great crowd of <span class="sc">bummers</span> and loafers, not finding the soil teeming with nuggets, stampeded off like a herd
+of buffalo.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Philadelphia Press</i>, Jan. 29. Coy is the chairman of the Democratic Central Committee in Marion County,
+and has wielded great power in politics as the boss of the <span class="sc">bummers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, May 16. He finds that ten per cent. of the men who patronise these places have a
+collegiate education; forty per cent. are self-supporting, but prefer this precarious
+mode of living to anything more <span class="pageNum" id="pb379">[<a href="#pb379">379</a>]</span>respectable; ten per cent. earn excellent wages, and twenty per cent. are chronic
+<span class="sc">bums</span>, who beg or steal the price of their lodgings.
+</p>
+<p>Hence <span class="sc">bummerism</span>, to express habits of loafing and petty stealing, and <span class="sc">bummerish</span> (<i>adj.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumming</b>, <i>verb, subs.</i> (Wellington College).—A thrashing, or licking. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bum</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bump</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—When one boat touches another in a race it is said to ‘make a <span class="sc">bump</span>,’ and technically beats its opponent. <i>Cf.</i>, <i>verbal</i> sense, and <span class="sc">Bumping race</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To overtake and touch an opposing boat, thus winning the heat or race.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, ch. iii. He listened, and with respect too, to Mr. Foker’s accounts of what the
+men did at the University of which Mr. F. was an ornament, and encountered a long
+series of stories about boat-racing, <span class="sc">bumping</span>, College grass-plats, and milk-punch.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, March, p. 331. The chances of St. Ambrose’s making a <span class="sc">bump</span> the first night were weighed.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Sketches from Cambridge</i>, p. 7. I can still condescend to give our boat a stout when it makes a <span class="sc">bump</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886–7. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Dictionary of Cambridge</i>, p. 11. Any boat which overtakes and <span class="sc">bumps</span> another … before the winning post is reached, changes place with it for the next
+race.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. Anything of superlative size, whether a ‘big lie,’ horse, house, or
+woman. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Corker</span>, <span class="sc">Whopper</span>, and <span class="sc">Thumper</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (theatrical<span class="corr" id="xd33e67698" title="Source: .)">).</span>—A full or crowded house.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Nich. Nickleby</i>, ch. xxiv., p. 192. ‘In the confidence that our fellow-towsmen have not lost that
+high appreciation of public utility and private worth, for which they have long been
+so pre-eminently distinguished, we predict that this charming actress will be greeted
+with a <span class="sc">bumper</span>.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p>3. (cards’.)—When, in long whist, one side has scored eight before the other has scored
+a point, a <span class="sc">bumper</span> is the result.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum-Perisher</b>, <b>Bum-Shaver</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A short-tailed coat; a jacket. [From <span class="sc">bum</span>, the posteriors, + <span class="sc">perisher</span>, a slang variant of that which ‘perishes,’ or fails to protect (from cold, etc.).]
+<i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bum curtain</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumping Race</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—Eight-oared inter-Collegiate races, rowed in two divisions of fifteen
+and sixteen boats respectively, including a <span class="sc">sandwich boat</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), <i>i.e.</i>, the top boat of the second division, which rows bottom of the first. The boats in
+each division start at a distance apart of 175 feet from stern to stern in the order
+at which they left off at the last preceding race, and any boat which overtakes, and
+bumps another (<i>i.e.</i>, touches it in any part) before the winning post is reached, changes place with it
+for the next race.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumpkin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A humorous term for the posteriors.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1658. [In Nares] <i>Wit Restored</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And so I take my leave; prithee, sweet Thumkin, </p>
+<p class="line">Hold up thy coats, that I may kisse thy <span class="sc">bumkin</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Bump-Supper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (University).—A supper to commemorate the fact of the boat of the college having,
+in the annual races, ‘<span class="sc">bumped</span>’ or touched the boat of another college immediately in front. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bumping race</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb380">[<a href="#pb380">380</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumptious</b>, <i>adj.</i> (colloquial).—<span class="corr" id="xd33e67792" title="Source: Arrogrant">Arrogant</span>; self-sufficient; on good terms with oneself. [Murray puts this down as a formation
+from <span class="sc">bump</span> on the model of ‘fractious.’ It is of recent introduction.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1803. <span class="sc">Mad. D’Arblay</span>, <i>Diary and Letters</i>, vi., 324. No, my dearest Padre, <span class="sc">bumptious</span>! no, I deny the charge <i>in toto</i>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1849. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>D. Copperfield</i>, ch. vi., p. 53 (C.D.). I heard that Mr. Sharp’s wig didn’t fit him, and that he
+needn’t be so ‘bounceable’—somebody else said ‘<span class="sc">bumptious</span>’—about it, because his own red hair was very plainly to be seen behind.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Hawley Smart</span>, <i>Hard Lines</i>, ch. xiii. It was all very well while he was fresh, and having things pretty much
+as he liked. So long he was <span class="sc">bumptious</span> enough.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumptiousness</b>, <i>subs.</i> (colloquial).—Self-assertiveness; arrogance; self-conceit. [From <span class="sc">bumptious</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) + <span class="sc">ness</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Trip to Barbary</i>, p. 150. Poor Albert Smith, than whom, with all his occasional <span class="sc">bumptiousness</span>, an honester and more clear-sighted hater of snobbery and shams never lived.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Roll</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A pad or cushion worn by women to extend the dress at the back—an equivalent
+of the modern bustle or dress-improver. [From <span class="sc">bum</span>, the posteriors, + <span class="sc">roll</span>, in the sense of pad or cushion.] At one time these were called <span class="sc">cork rumps</span>, but for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Bird-cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1601. <span class="sc">Ben Jonson</span>, <i>The Poetaster</i>, II., i. Nor you nor your house was so much as spoken of, before I disbased myself
+from my hood and my farthingal, to these <span class="sc">bum-rowls</span>, and your whale-bone bodice.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1663. <span class="sc">Killigrew</span>, <i>Parson’s Wedding</i>, <i>Old Plays</i>, XI., 460. Those worthies [of a bawd] rais’d her from the flat petticoat and kercher,
+to the gorget and <span class="sc">bum-roll</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bumsquabbled</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (American).—Discomfitted; defeated; stupified. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bum-fiddled</span>, in first quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1620. <span class="sc">Fletcher</span>, <i>The Chances</i>, I., v. And am I now <span class="sc">bum-fiddled</span> with a bastard?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835–40. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>The Clockmaker</i>, p. 251 (ed. 1862). No sooner said than done, Mount Sheer Bullfrog gave the case
+in our favour in two twos, said Eyetaliano had got too much already, cut him off the
+other two-thirds, and made him pay all costs. If he didn’t look <span class="sc">bumsquabbled</span> it’s a pity.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Sucker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—A sponger; toady; lick-spittle; hanger-on. [From <span class="sc">bum</span> + <span class="sc">sucker</span>, allusion obvious.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bum</span>. A French equivalent is <i lang="fr">une lèche-cul</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bum Trap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A bailiff. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bum-bailiff</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1750. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, bk. VII., ch. iii. The noble <span class="sc">bum-trap</span>, blind and deaf to every circumstance of distress, greatly rises above all the motives
+to humanity, and into the hands of the jailor resolves to deliver his miserable prey.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bun</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—1. A sponger; one who cannot be shaken off.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common).—The female <i>pudenda</i>. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Monosyllable</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To take</span> or <span class="sc">yank the bun</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (general).—To take first place; to obtain first honours. A variant of <span class="sc">take the cake</span>.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Cake</span>. The French say <i lang="fr">décrocher la timballe</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunce</b>, <b>Bunse</b> or <b>Bunt</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Originally money, a signification which it still retains; more generally,
+however, profit, gain, anything to the good. [Thought to be a corruption of <span class="pageNum" id="pb381">[<a href="#pb381">381</a>]</span><i>bonus</i>.]—<i>See</i> quot., 1851. For synonyms in the sense of money, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1719. <span class="sc">D’Urfey</span>, <i>Pills</i>, 278. If cards come no better. Oh! oh! I shall lose all my <span class="sc">buns</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 37. There are still other ‘agents’ among the costermongers, and these
+are the ‘boys’ deputed to sell a man’s goods for a certain sum, all over that amount
+being the boys’ profit or <span class="sc">bunts</span>. <i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, p. 526. There are a great number of boys … engaged by costermongers or small tradesmen,
+to sell upon commission, or, as it is termed, for <span class="sc">bunse</span> (probably a corruption of <i>bonus</i>, bone being the slang for good).… The mode is this: a certain quantity of saleable
+commodities is given to a boy whom a costermonger knows and perhaps employs, and it
+is arranged that the young commission-agent is to get a particular sum for them, which
+must be paid to the costermonger; I will say 3s. For these articles the lad may ask
+and obtain any price he can, and whatever he obtains beyond the stipulated 3s., is
+his own profit or <span class="sc">bunse</span>. <i>Ib.</i>, p. 36. But you see the boys will try it on for their <span class="sc">bunts</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <i>A Chequered Career</i>, p. 270. In the stable, and particularly in livery-stables, there is a box into which
+all tips are placed. This is called <span class="sc">bunt</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buncer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—One who sells on commission, as described under <span class="sc">bunce</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunch of Fives</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—The hand or fist. [An obvious allusion to the five fingers gathered or
+bunched together on the hand.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1847. <span class="sc">Lytton</span>, <i>Lucretia</i>, pt. II., ch. vii. ‘Is this a h-arm, and this a <span class="sc">bunch of fives</span>?’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <span class="sc">C. Reade</span>, <i>Hard Cash</i>, ch. xxxiv. ‘Now look at that <span class="sc">bunch of fives</span>,’ continued the master; and laid a hand, white and soft as a duchess’s, on the table.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Punch</i>, vol. LXXXII., p. 133, col. 1. He smote crashingly down … with a lead-weighted truncheon
+he held in his dexter <span class="sc">bunch of fives</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, April 30, p. 3, col. 2. The fingers are bent into such an ungraceful <span class="sc">bunch of fives</span>, as to be suggestive both of chalkstones and of sausages.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> Mauley; cornstealer; fam or fem (this is said to be of Gypsy origin, and to mean
+five, <i>i.e.</i>, five fingers, but <i>see</i> <i lang="de">Fehm</i> in German synonyms); famble (<i>see</i> preceding); picker; goll (a seventeenth century term—‘make them hold up their spread
+<span class="sc">golls</span>,’ says Ben Jonson, in the <i>Poetaster</i>); fin; daddle; flipper.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">German Synonyms.</span> <i lang="de">Fehm</i> or <i lang="de">Vehm</i>, or <i lang="de">Vehn</i> (more correctly <i lang="de">Fem</i>. This appears to be the same word as the English seventeenth century colloquialism
+for the hand [<i>see</i> preceding], and is most likely derived from the Swedish and Danish <i lang="sv">fem</i> = five, than from the Gypsy which indeed contains no such word); <i>Griffling</i> or <i lang="de">Greifling</i> (from <i lang="de">greifen</i>, to seize); <i lang="de">Jad</i> (Hebrew <i lang="und">jad</i>, the hand); <i lang="de">Kaf</i> (from the Hebrew <i lang="und">kaph</i>; the [hollow] hand).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Synonyms.</span> <i lang="it">Tarantola</i> (an allusion to the many tentacles and close grip of the tarantula spider); <i lang="it">cerra</i>; <i lang="it">calchi dell’ ala</i> (literally the foot of the arm. <i>Cf.</i>, French <i lang="fr">doigts du pied</i>); <i lang="it">grettina</i> (properly a small sandbank).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Spanish Synonyms.</span> <i lang="es">Labradora</i> (this, it is curious to note, is an obsolete Spanish term signifying literally a
+laborious or hard-working woman, and the inference from this fact is obvious); <i lang="es">anclas</i> (literally anchors).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunco</b> or <b>Bunco Game</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A swindling game <span class="pageNum" id="pb382">[<a href="#pb382">382</a>]</span>played either with cards or dice, not unlike three card monté. [From the Italian <i lang="it">banco</i>, a bench or bank].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Philadelphia Times</i>, No. 289, 2. 2. Tom’s method of <span class="sc">bunco</span> was the well-known lottery game. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, Feb. 2. Robert B. Barnet, a plumber doing business in Grant Street, this city, was
+arrested in Allegheny to-night, on the charge of being implicated in the recent <span class="sc">bunco game</span> in which William Murdoch, an old and prominent citizen, was robbed of 10,000 dols.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—1. To rob, cheat, or swindle by means of the <span class="sc">bunco game</span>; or by what in England is known as the confidence trick, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Cincinnati Enquirer.</i> Detectives Kirby and Funk last night spotted J.&nbsp;P. Ramby, the person accused of having
+<span class="sc">bunkoed</span> Ex-County Commissioner Stephens, of Greene <span class="corr" id="xd33e68273" title="Source: Cotnty">County</span>, out of 2,300 dols. in Xenia recently.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, April 14. John Brothers, a farmer living near Canton, Ohio, was <span class="sc">bunkoed</span> out of 2,000 dols. to-day by two sharpers who escaped.
+</p>
+<p>2. From the primary meaning, the verb <span class="sc">to bunco</span> has come to be synonymous with any attempt at swindling.
+</p>
+<p>So also with various derivatives, <span class="sc">bunco-case</span>, <span class="sc">bunco-man</span>, <span class="sc">bunco-steerer</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunco-Steerer</b>, <b>Bunko-Steerer</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—A swindler; confidence-trick man. The means these men adopt to win confidence
+are always varied and sometimes unique. They are extremely wary, and it is oftentimes
+with considerable difficulty that the arm of the law, long as it is assumed to be,
+can lay hold of them. A <span class="sc">bunco-steerer</span> may be well known to the police as a professional swindler, and he may be seen talking
+to his intended victim, but, unless caught in an overt act, he cannot be interfered
+with. People whom <span class="sc">bunco-steerers</span> lay their snares for, are generally men who stand high in their communities; consequently
+it is almost impossible to get victims to become complainants, as they do not care
+to figure in the police courts, and the thieves get practically a free field for their
+operations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Golden Butterfly</i>, p. 235. The <span class="sc">bunco-steerer</span> … will find you out the morning after you land in Chicago or St. Louis. He will accost
+you—very friendly, wonderful friendly—when you come out of your hotel, by your name,
+and he will remind you—which is most surprising, considerin’ you never set eyes on
+his face before—how you have dined together in Cincinnati, or it may be Orleans, or
+perhaps Francisco, because he finds out where you came from last; and he will shake
+hands with you; and he will propose a drink; and he will pay for that drink; and presently
+he will take you somewhere else, among his pals, and he will strip you so clean, that
+there won’t be left the price of a four-cent paper to throw around your face and hide
+your blushes. In London … they do the confidence trick.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, Feb. 14. Andrew Carnegie fell into the hands of a <span class="sc">bunco-steerer</span> in Pittsburg, Saturday night, but was rescued by a detective before he lost anything.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bundle</b>, <i>verb</i> (old).—To practise <span class="sc">bundling</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1781. <span class="sc">S. Peters</span>, <i>Gen. Hist. Connecticut</i>. It is thought but a piece of civility to ask [a lady] <span class="sc">to bundle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1797. <span class="sc">Sewell.</span> <i>Queeston</i> is an odd way of wooing usual in some sea towns or Isles of Holland, after this manner.
+When the wench is gone to bed, the fellow enters the room and lays himself down in
+his clothes upon the blankets, next unto her, with one window of the room open, and
+thus he talks with her, very innocently—as it is reported.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb383">[<a href="#pb383">383</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1809. <span class="sc">W. Irving</span>, <i>Knickerbocker History of New York</i>. Van Corlear stopped occasionally in the villages to … dance at country frolics,
+and <span class="sc">bundle</span> with the Yankee lasses.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">Schele De Vere</span>, <i>Americanisms</i>, p. 448. <span class="sc">To bundle</span>, a custom still prevalent in Wales, and not unfrequently practised in the West, of
+men and women sleeping with all their clothes on, when there is not house-room to
+provide better accommodation.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bundling</b> or <b>Bundling Up</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A custom now obsolete, but formerly in vogue where bed accommodation was scarce,
+of men and women sleeping on the same bed together without having removed their clothes.
+The practice is mentioned by Wright as having been customary in Wales, and it will
+be remembered that Washington Irving alludes to it in his <i>Knickerbocker History of New York</i>. Whatever may have been the case in former times, it does not appear to be a habit
+either in the Mother Country or the New World at the present day, even in the districts
+most remote from civilization. No question of immodesty seems to have attached to
+the custom; indeed, attempts were made to prove that <span class="sc">bundling</span> was very right and proper. On this point, however, opinions will vary considerably.
+Also used in verbal form <span class="sc">to bundle</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Caulk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1809. <span class="sc">W. Irving</span>, <i>Knickerbocker History of New York</i>. Among other hideous customs they [the Yankees] attempted to introduce that of <span class="sc">bundling</span>, which the Dutch lasses of the Nederlandts, with their eager passion for novelty
+and for the fashions, natural to their sex, seemed very well inclined to follow, but
+that their mothers, being more experienced in the world and better acquainted with
+men and things, discountenanced all such outlandish innovations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1814. <i>Quarterly Review</i>, X., 517. [The custom spoken of in.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1842. <span class="sc">C. Masson</span>, <i>Journal Balochistan, etc.</i>, III., 287. Many of the Afghan tribes have a custom in wooing, similar to what in
+Wales is known as <span class="sc">bundling-up</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;H. Dixon</span>, <i>Spiritual Wives</i>, vol. II., p. 31. An old custom, which exists (I believe) in Wales as well as in
+parts of Pennsylvania and New England, permits under the name of ‘<span class="sc">bundling</span>,’ certain free, but still innocent endearments to pass between lovers who are engaged.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">H.&nbsp;R. Styles</span>, <span class="sc">Bundling</span>; <i>its Origin, Progress, and Decline in America</i>, title. [Contains also its history in England, Wales, Holland, curious songs, etc.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1878. <span class="sc">C. Wake</span>, <i>Evol. Moral.</i>, I., 401. The custom of <span class="sc">bundling</span> … among Celtic peoples. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bung</b>, <b>Bong</b>, <b>Boung</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old cant.)—1. A purse. [One of the oldest cant terms in the language, the origin
+of which is entirely unknown, though, says Murray, ‘its resemblance to the O.E. <i lang="ang">pung</i>, “a purse,” is worth notice.’] Also called <span class="sc">skin</span> or <span class="sc">poge</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). A French thieves’ term is <i lang="fr">la plotte</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i> (1814), p. 65. <span class="sc">Boung</span>, a purse. <i>Ibid<span>.</span></i>, p. 86.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1591. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Second Part Conny-catching</i>, in wks., vol. X., p. 96. The Nip vseth his knife, and if he see a <span class="sc">Boung</span> lie faire, strikes the stroke.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Bung</span> is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1658. <span class="sc">Cleveland</span>, <i>Cleivelandi Vindiciæ</i>, p. 99 (ed. 1677). He is in the Inquisition of the Purse an Authentick Gypsie, that
+nips your <span class="sc">Bung</span> with a canting Ordinance.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47. <span class="sc">Boung</span>, a Purse.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1706. <span class="sc">E. Coles</span>, <i>Eng. Dict.</i> <span class="sc">Bung</span>, a purse.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—A pickpocket. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bung</span>, sense 1. <span class="sc">Bung-nipper</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) was in general usage later.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb384">[<a href="#pb384">384</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1598. <span class="sc">Shakspeare</span>, <i>King Henry IV.</i>, ii., 4. <i>Doll.</i> Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy <span class="sc">bung</span>, away! By this wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an’ you play the
+saucy cuttle with me.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1658. <i>An Age for Apes</i>, p. 232. My <span class="sc">bung</span> observing this, takes hold of time, Just as this lord was drawing for a prime, And
+smoothly rims his purse that lay beside him.
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—A brewer; landlord of a public house, etc. [An allusion to the <span class="sc">bungs</span>, or large corks used in the ‘mouths’ of beer barrels.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <i>Cornhill Magazine</i> (<i>The Inner Life of a Man-of-War</i>), Feb. From time immemorial these gentlemen [master’s assistants] have had to stand
+at the grog-butt and see the grog served out—an important duty, the discharge of which
+has invested them, such is the playfulness of naval humour, with the title of <span class="sc">bungs</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Graphic</i>, Feb. 23, p. 170, col. 1. That Sir Wilfrid Lawson had turned <span class="sc">bung</span>, and applied for a spirit licence.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (pugilistic).—1. Generally <span class="sc">bung up</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, to close or shut up the eyes by means of a blow that causes a swelling. Formerly
+used of the mouth, ears, etc., and in literary use, but now regarded as a vulgarism.
+<i>Cf.</i> <i>verb</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1593. <span class="sc">G. Harvey</span>, <i>Pierces Super.</i>, in wks. (Grosart) II., 128. That will <span class="sc">bung-up</span> their mouthes with a Collyrium of all the stale iestes in a country.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1599. <span class="sc">Nashe</span>, <i>Lenten Stuffe</i>, in wks. V., 247. The waies beyond sea were so <span class="sc">bungd vp</span> with your dayly oratours or <i>Beadsmen</i> and your crutchet or crout-chant friers … that a snaile coulde not wriggle in her
+homes betwixt them.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>Clockmaker</i>, 1 S., ch. xix. ‘I <span class="sc">bunged up</span> both eyes for him.’
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—To give; pass; hand over; drink; or to perform almost any action. ‘<span class="sc">Bung</span> over the rag,’ hand over the money. Used by Beaumont and Fletcher, and Shakspeare.
+Also, to deceive one by a lie, to <span class="sc">Cram</span>, which <i>see</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bungay.</b> <span class="sc">Go to Bungay!</span> <i>phr.</i> (general).—A euphemistic objurgation equivalent to consignment to a region the climate
+of which is tropical in character. For analogous phrases, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Go to hell</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bung-Eyed</b>, <i>comp. ppl. adj.</i> (common).—1. Drunk; fuddled; <span class="sc">Screwed</span>, which <i>see</i> for synonyms. [Derivation uncertain: possibly from the Scotch ‘bung,’ a low word
+quoted by Jamieson as meaning tipsy or fuddled, with perhaps an indirect allusion
+to the bunged or crooked distorted eye, the result of a fight or squabble.—<i>See</i> sense 2.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1858. <span class="sc">A. Mayhew</span>, <i>Paved with Gold</i>, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 268. One coarse-featured fellow, who was nearly <span class="sc">bung-eyed</span> over his beer (as they call being drunk).
+</p>
+<p>2. Cross-eyed; unable to see straight; ‘boss-eyed’ or ‘<span class="sc">squinny-eyed</span>’ (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bungfunger</b>, <i>verb</i> (American).—To startle; to confuse. Compare with <span class="sc">bumbsquabbled</span>. Also used as an adjective for ‘confounded.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835–40. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span>, <i>The Clockmaker</i>, p. 91 (ed. 1862). ‘Well, father, I thought he’d a fainted too, he was so struck
+up all of a heap; he was completely <span class="sc">bung-fungered</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bung-Juice</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Porter, or beer. [From <span class="sc">bung</span>, a stopper for casks in which beer is kept, + <span class="sc">juice</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Cow-juice</span> for milk, etc.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span> and <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb385">[<a href="#pb385">385</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bung Knife</b> or <b>Boung Knife</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Considerable uncertainty exists as to the nature or use of this implement.
+It has however been conjectured that as <span class="sc">boung</span> was an old cant word for a purse, that <span class="sc">boung knife</span> may therefore have been a knife kept in the purse or girdle, but concerning this
+nothing definite can be stated.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1592. <span class="sc">Greene</span>, <i>Quip for Upstart Courtier</i> (<i>Hart. Misc.</i>, V., 407). One of them had on … a skeine like a bruer’s <span class="sc">boung-knife</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bung Nipper</b> or <b>Boung Nipper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A cut-purse; a sharper. [From <span class="sc">bung</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), an old canting term for a purse, + <span class="sc">nipper</span>, a thief, <i>i.e.</i>, one who nips or steals.] In French, to nip a bung is <i lang="fr">couper une queue de rat</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, literally to cut off a rat’s tail; but for synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Area-sneak</span> and <span class="sc">Thieves</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bung Upwards</b>, <i>adv. phr.</i> (old).—Said of a person lying on his face.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Hasty departure. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bunk</span>, <i>verb</i>. [Of unknown derivation.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1870. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Peck’s Bad Boy.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Of course you’re heard of Peck’s bad boy, that dreadful Yankee lad, </p>
+<p class="line">Who’s bothered his poor parents so they’ve both gone raving mad, </p>
+</div>
+<hr class="tb">
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">He put a pound of old Scotch snuff into poor Buddha’s trunk, </p>
+<p class="line">The keeper tried to catch him, but the bad boy did a <span class="sc">bunk</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><i>Verb</i> (common).—1. To be off; to decamp. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Amputate</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1872. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Oh, we are a getting on.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A stocking used a ‘bank’ to be, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">In the good old days of old, </p>
+<p class="line">They didn’t run such risks as we </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Do now of getting sold. </p>
+<p class="line">No sooner does a bank go queer, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">You hear the same old strain, </p>
+<p class="line">There’s another bald-headed Manageer, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Has <span class="sc">bunked</span> across to Spain. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1885. <i>Referee</i>, Feb. 16, p. 7, col. 3.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">It was just such a parcel, bless him! he’d clasped to his noble breast, </p>
+<p class="line">And <span class="sc">bunked</span> with out o’ the building. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1887. <i>Fun</i>, 9 Nov., p. 201. ‘What is a vanishing point?’ said the schoolmaster to little Billy.
+‘The corner you <span class="sc">bunks</span> round when the “slops” after yer,’ warbled the golden-haired child.
+</p>
+<p>2. (Wellington College.)—To expel [from the school].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Beer. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Drinks</span> and <span class="sc">Swipes</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunkum</b>, <b>Buncombe</b>, <b>Buncome</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American).—Talking merely for talking’s sake; claptrap of all kinds; gas; tall talk.
+The employment of the word in its original sense of insincere political speaking or
+claptrap is ascribed to a member of Congress, Felix Walker, from Buncombe County,
+North Carolina, who explained that he was merely talking for <span class="sc">buncombe</span>, when his fellow members could not understand why he was making a speech. Judge Haliburton
+(Sam Slick) in explaining this word says that ‘all over America, every place likes
+to hear of its member of Congress, and see their speeches; and, if they don’t, they
+send a piece to the paper, inquirin’ if their members died a natural death, or was
+skivered with a bowie-knife, for they hante seen his speeches lately, and his friends
+are anxious to know his fate. Our free and enlightened citizens don’t approbate silent
+members; it don’t seem to them <span class="pageNum" id="pb386">[<a href="#pb386">386</a>]</span>as if Squashville, or Punkinsville, or Lumbertown was right represented, unless Squashville,
+or Punkinsville, or Lumbertown makes itself heard and known, ay, and feared too. So
+every feller, in bounden duty, talks, and talks big too, and the smaller the State,
+the louder, bigger, and fiercer its members talk. Well, when a critter talks for talk’s
+sake, jist to have a speech in the paper to send to home, and not for any other airthly
+puppus but electioneering, our folks call it <span class="sc">bunkum</span>.’
+</p>
+<p>The term is now universal on both sides of the water, and, indeed, wherever English
+is spoken. So much is this the case that the expression may now fairly claim a permanent
+place in the language. The primary meaning has been somewhat enlarged. ‘That’s all
+<span class="sc">buncombe</span>’ is equivalent to ‘That’s all nonsense’ or ‘an absurdity.’
+</p>
+<p>Also used attributively; for example, a <span class="sc">bunkum</span> proclamation, <span class="sc">bunkum</span> logic, <span class="sc">bunkum</span> politicians, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <i>Richmond Compiler</i>, Aug. 17. He was not speaking to the House but to <span class="sc">bunkum</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Tw. Round the Clock</i>, 2 a.m., par. 9. These tales, full of sound and fury, told by honourable idiots full
+of unutterable ‘<span class="sc">bunkum</span>’ (an Americanism I feel constrained to use, as signifying nothingness, ineftably
+inept and irremediably fire-perforated windbaggery, and sublimated cucumber sunbeams
+hopelessly eclipsed into Dis)—
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, April. ‘This parable, explaining the origin of <span class="sc">buncombe</span>, would form a very useful text to set up, handsomely illustrated, over the Speaker’s
+chair in Parliament.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>New York Tribune</i>, Feb. 11. Despatch from Kansas. General Sibley was within thirty miles of Fort Craig,
+with twenty-five hundred Texans, with artillery, and had issued a <span class="sc">bunkum</span> proclamation.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Echo</i>, May 12, p. 4, col. 2. It will be seen that the wonderful tales about the favourites
+were like the reports about Richmond’s lameness, all <span class="sc">bunkum</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Daily Inter-Ocean</i>, March 3. This thing of trying to rule a husband is all <span class="sc">buncombe</span>; it can’t be done. You can coax most men, bribe some, and govern a very few, but
+that vulgar rubbing of the fur the right way wins every time.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, 18 Oct., p. 6, col. 2. His explanation was contained in the three words, ‘Bosh,
+rubbish, and <span class="sc">bunkum</span>.’ Was it not time, asked the speaker, that the ‘great unwashed’ should declare that
+the ‘great unpaid’ were no longer at liberty to oppress them?
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunky</b>, <i>adj.</i> (Christ’s Hospital).—Awkward; ill-finished.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunnick</b>, <i>verb</i> (common).—To settle; to dispose of.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1886. <i>Punch</i>, 17 July, p. 25. ’Owsom-ever we’ve <span class="sc">bunnicked</span> up Gladsting, a barney all patriots enjoy.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunny Grub</b>, <i>subs.</i> (Cheltenham College).—Green vegetables, such as cabbage, lettuce, and the like. [Obviously
+from <span class="sc">bunny</span>, a pet name for a rabbit, + <span class="sc">grub</span>, a slang term for provender, <i>i.e.</i>, food akin to that upon which rabbits are fed.] At the Royal Military Academy and
+other schools an equivalent is <span class="sc">grass</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunse.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bunce</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bun-Struggle</b> or <b>Bun-Worry</b>, <i>subs.</i> (military).—A tea meeting given to soldiers. For synonymous terms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Tea fight</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunt.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bunce</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb387">[<a href="#pb387">387</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bunter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (harlotry).—1. A prostitute; one who adds theft to her other vocation; also a term
+of contempt for any low woman. <i>See</i>, however, quot. from Dyche, 1748, and Mayhew, 1851. For analogous terms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1705–7. <span class="sc">E. Ward</span>, <i>Hudibras Rediv.</i>, II., ii. (1715), 25. Punks, Strolers, Market Dames, and <span class="sc">Bunters</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">Smollett</span>, <i>Rod. Random</i>, ch. xlvii. And asked with some heat, if he thought I had spent the evening in a
+cellar with chairmen and <span class="sc">bunters</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">Bunter</span> (s.), one who goes about the streets to gather rags, bones, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1759. <span class="sc">Walpole</span>, <i>Parish Register</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Here Fielding met his <span class="sc">bunter</span> Muse, </p>
+<p class="line">And, as they quaff’d the fiery juice, </p>
+<p class="line">Droll Nature stamp’d each lucky hit, </p>
+<p class="line">With unimaginable wit. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1763. <i>British Magazine</i>, vol. IV., p. 542. I heard a <span class="sc">bunter</span> at the Horse-Guards … swear she would not venture into the Park.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1765. <span class="sc">Goldsmith</span>, <i>Essays</i>, x. The <span class="sc">bunters</span> who swagger in the streets of London.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. II., p. 158. They were known by the name of <span class="sc">bunters</span>, which signifies properly gatherers of rags.
+</p>
+<p>2. Explained by quotation. [<span class="sc">Bunter</span> here may be a confused variant of <span class="sc">bunker</span>, one who runs away or ‘slopes.’]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, IV., 223. There is a class of women technically known as <span class="sc">bunters</span>, who take lodgings, and after staying some time run away without paying their rent.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burdon’s Hotel</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Whitecross Street Prison, of which the Governor was a Mr. Burdon. Almost
+every prison has a nickname of this kind, either from the name of the Governor, or
+from some local circumstance. The Queen’s Bench has an immense number of names—<span class="sc">spike</span>, <span class="sc">park</span>, etc.; and every Chief-Justice stands godfather to it. For full list of such names,
+<i>see</i> <span class="sc">Cage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Dutton Cook</span>, <i>Paul Foster’s Daughter</i>, ch. ii. ‘David, be respectable, whatever you are, be respectable, and <span class="sc">Burdon’s hotel</span> is not for you to sojourn at.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burick</b> or <b>Burerk</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Latterly applied to any woman or ‘lady,’ especially one showily dressed, but
+formerly a thief’s term for a prostitute.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Memoirs</i>. <span class="sc">Burick</span> is a prostitute, or common woman.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, I., p. 262. If they can meet with the <span class="sc">burerk</span> (mistress) or the young ladies, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <i>Answers</i>, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. Let him ask the loafer what his ‘Monekear’ (name) is; whether
+he can drink a ‘shant of patter’ (pint of beer); whether he finds the ‘bone’ or ‘gammy’—that
+is good or bad as regards begging; and which sex gives him most—the ‘<span class="sc">burerks</span>’ (ladies), or the ‘Toffs’ (gentlemen).
+</p>
+<p>Amongst French equivalents for a well-dressed woman may be mentioned <i lang="fr">une panuche</i> (this name is also applied to a prostitute living in a brothel); <i lang="fr">une dubuge</i>; <i lang="fr">une faraude</i> (the masculine form, <i lang="fr">un faraud</i>, signifies a vulgar fellow proud of smart clothes—a snob, a swell).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burke</b>, <i>verb</i> (military).—To dye the moustache and whiskers. [<span class="sc">Burke</span> properly is to smother or hush up, and the allusion in the military term is to the
+practice which once prevailed in smart regiments of dyeing or smothering the natural
+colour of the hair for the sake of uniformity. The regulations at one time as regards
+the style of wearing the hair were very stringent and precise.]
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb388">[<a href="#pb388">388</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burn</b>, <i>verb</i> (thieves).—To cheat; to swindle.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burnanded</b>, <i>verb</i> (? nonce word).—To pilfer plots (of plays, novels, etc.). [Probably only a nonce
+word; a formation on the same lines as ‘Burke,’ ‘Boycott,’ etc., from the name of
+Mr. F. Burnand, the editor of <i>Punch</i>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <i>Echo</i>, Feb. 11, p. 3. The American papers continue to attack the play [<i>The Colonel</i>] vigorously. One of the journals there has invented a new verb to signify the pilfering
+of plots. ‘<span class="sc">Burnanded</span>’ is the term.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burn Crust</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A jocular name for a baker. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Master of the mint</span> for a gardener; <span class="sc">Bung</span> for a brewer; <span class="sc">Ball of wax</span> for a shoemaker; <span class="sc">Quill-driver</span> for a clerk; <span class="sc">Snip</span> for a tailor, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burned.</b> <span class="sc">To be burned</span>, <i>verb</i> (old).—To be infected with a venereal disease.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Burning</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. He was sent out a sacrifice, and came home a <span class="sc">burnt</span> offering; saying of seamen who have caught the venereal disease abroad.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burner</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A card-sharper.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—The same as <span class="sc">burning</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burning</b>, <i>verb, subs.</i> (old).—A venereal disease. Shakspeare alludes to it in <i>King Lear</i>, ‘No heretics <span class="sc">burn’d</span>, but wenches’ suitors.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burning Shame.</b>—An obscene practice.—<i>See</i> Grose.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burning the Parade</b>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—Thus explained by Grose: ‘Warning more men for a guard than were necessary,
+and excusing the supernumeraries for money. This was a practice formerly winked at
+in most garrisons, and was a very considerable perquisite to the adjutants and sergeant
+majors; the pretence for it was to purchase coal and candle for the guard, whence
+it was called <span class="sc">burning the parade</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burn My Breeches!</b> <i>phr.</i> (old).—A mild kind of oath. A few latter day ‘fancies’ of the same kind will be found
+under <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial</i>, p. 46.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e24230">… (Bill Gibbons ne’er </p>
+<p class="line">In all his days was known to swear, </p>
+<p class="line">Except light oaths, to grace his speeches, </p>
+<p class="line">Like ‘<i>dash my wig</i>,’ or ‘<span class="sc">burn my breeches</span>.’) </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first main"><b>Burn the Ken</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To live at an inn or tavern without paying for one’s quarters. [From <span class="sc">burn</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), to cheat, + <span class="sc">ken</span>, an inn, tavern, or place.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burr</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A hanger on; a dependent; one who sponges. [An allusion to field burrs or
+prickly seed pods, which when once attached to the clothing are difficult to remove.]
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (Marlborough College).—To fight; scrimmage or ‘rag.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burst</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—1. A spree; drunken frolic; big feed; <span class="sc">blow out</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). Usually <span class="sc">on the burst</span>, an extension of the figurative usage of the word signifying a violent outburst.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bust</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb389">[<a href="#pb389">389</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, June, p. 775. He became a madman when drunk. Once ‘<span class="sc">on the burst</span>,’ as he phrased it, money, horses, cows, furniture, even his wife’s wearing apparel,
+went to feed the insatiable and cruel demon who possessed him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1881. <span class="sc">Praed</span>, <i>Policy and Passion</i>, vol. I., p. 228. When his men go <span class="sc">on the burst</span>, what can he do but make his daughters help?
+</p>
+<p>2. (sporting.)—A sudden and vigorous access or display of energy; a lively pace or
+spurt.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bursted</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (general).—Hard up. [From <span class="sc">burst</span>, failure or collapse, + <span class="sc">ed</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <i>Chicago Daily Tribune</i>, June 30. At the far end [of the room] four lank and <span class="sc">bursted</span> frontiersmen sang with a doleful want of melody or attention the celebrated ballad
+by John Hay on the fate of Little Breeches.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Burster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (racing).—1. A heavy fall; a ‘cropper.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1863. <i>Evening Standard</i>, 24 April. Benedict came down a <span class="sc">burster</span>, and was out of the race.
+</p>
+<p>2. <i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Buster</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bury.</b> <span class="sc">Go bury yourself!</span> <i>phr.</i> (American).—A Californianism which has more of the <i>fortiter</i> than the <i>suaviter</i> in its composition. Equivalent to ‘Go! hide your diminished head.’ <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Carry me out and bury me decently</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bury</span> or <span class="sc">dig up the hatchet</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (American).—Amongst Indian tribes certain symbolic ceremonies are connected with
+the war-hatchet or tomahawk, which are equivalent to a declaration of war, or a compact
+of peace.—<span class="sc">To bury the hatchet</span> is the emblem of the putting away of strife and enmity; on the other hand, the red
+skin, before he commences hostilities, digs up afresh the fateful symbol. This picturesque
+imagery has passed into the colloquial inheritance of the American people, and the
+expressions of <span class="sc">burying</span> or <span class="sc">digging up the hatchet</span> are frequently applied to the affairs of everyday life. This symbolism though new
+in form is old in idea. Shakspeare in <i>The Tempest</i>, v., 1, 55, says, ‘I’le breake my staffe, bury it certaine fadomes in the earth.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855–59. <span class="sc">Washington Irving</span>, Life of Washington, I., p. 361. ‘They smoked the pipe of peace together, and the
+colonel claimed the credit of having, by his diplomacy, persuaded the sachem to <span class="sc">bury the hatchet</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. Longfellow, <i>Hiawatha</i>, 13.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">Buried</span> was the bloody <span class="sc">hatchet</span>; </p>
+<p class="line">Buried was the dreadful war-club; </p>
+<p class="line">Buried were all warlike weapons, </p>
+<p class="line">And the war-cry was forgotten; </p>
+<p class="line">Then was peace among the nations. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1873. <i>Carleton Ballads.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I don’t know what you’ll think, sir—I didn’t come to inquire— </p>
+<p class="line">But I picked up that agreement and stuffed it in the fire; </p>
+<p class="line">And I told her we’d <span class="sc">bury the hatchet</span> alongside of the cow; </p>
+<p class="line">And we struck an agreement never to have another row. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first"><span class="sc">To bury a moll</span>, <i>phr.</i> (general).—To desert or forsake a wife or mistress. [<span class="sc">Moll</span> = woman, wife, or prostitute.]
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Envoyer une ouistiti</i> (<i lang="fr">ouistiti</i> signifies properly a striated monkey); <i lang="fr">lâcher une femme</i> (literally to cast off a woman); <i lang="fr">balancer une largue</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bury a Quaker</span>, <i>phr.</i> (Irish slang).—To evacuate; to ease oneself.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms.</span> To go to the crapping castle, casa, or ken (castle, casa, and ken are old canting
+terms for a place or <span class="pageNum" id="pb390">[<a href="#pb390">390</a>]</span>house); to the West Central (a punning allusion to the initials W.C. for water closet);
+to Mrs. Jones; to the chapel-of-ease; to Sir Harry; to the bog-house, rear, dunnock,
+coffee-shop; to see one’s aunt; to crap; to go and sing ‘sweet violets’; to go where
+the queen always goes on foot.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Mousser</i> (popular: literally to foam or effervesce); <i lang="fr">enterrer son colonel</i> (<i>Cf.</i>, to bury a Quaker); <i lang="fr">aller faire une ballade à la lune</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘to go and sing to the moon’; also <i lang="fr">ballade</i> = stroll, walk, or lounge; likewise in French slang <i lang="fr">lune</i> = posteriors); <i lang="fr">mouler un sénateur</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">mouler une Venus</i> (artists’); <i lang="fr">gazonner</i> (literally to ‘cover with turf’); <i lang="fr">aller au numero cent</i> (a play upon the word <i>sent</i>); <i lang="fr">déponer</i> (Michel thinks that though at first sight this word would seem to be directly derived
+from the Latin <i lang="la">deponere</i>, yet it really either comes from the old French <i lang="fr">ponant</i>, signifying posteriors, or from the verb <i lang="fr">poner</i>, used in the thirteenth century in the sense of <i lang="fr">pondre</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, to lay eggs); <i lang="fr">débourrer sa pipe</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">défalquer</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">tarter</i> or <i lang="fr">tartir</i> (popular and thieves’: in Latin <i lang="la">alvum deponere</i>. <i>Cf.</i>, Italian Fourbesque <i lang="it">tartire</i>); <i lang="fr">faire une moulure</i> (<i lang="fr">moulure</i> in architecture = moulding); <i lang="fr">aller quelque part</i> (lit. to go somewhere); <i lang="fr">aller à ses affaires</i> (lit. ‘to go to one’s business’); <i lang="fr">aller où le roi va à pied</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, to go where the king goes on foot. <i>Cf.</i>, to go where the queen always goes on foot); <i lang="fr">filer</i> (properly to spin); <i lang="fr">aller chez Jules</i> (to go to Julius. <i>Cf.</i>, to go and see one’s aunt); <i lang="fr">ierchem</i> (low: <i lang="fr">chier</i>, a disguised obscenity, + <i lang="fr">em</i>); <i lang="fr">flasquer</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">touser</i> (this word comes from <i lang="fr">tourtouse</i> and signifies properly <i lang="fr">faire de la corde</i>); <i lang="fr">faire corps neuf</i> (properly to take a new lease of one’s life); <i lang="fr">déposer une médaille de papier volant</i>, or <i lang="fr">des Pays-Bas</i> (obsolete); <i lang="fr">faire des cordes</i> (<i lang="fr">des cordes</i> = strings); <i lang="fr">mettre une lettre à la poste</i> (lit. to go and post a letter); <i lang="fr">faire le grand</i> (<i lang="fr">grand</i> = an opprobrious epithet); <i lang="fr">faire une commission</i> (to run an errand); <i lang="fr">fogner</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">flaquer</i> (popular: literally ‘to dash’ [water or any other liquid]); <i lang="fr">écrire à un Juif</i> (literally to write to a Jew); <i lang="fr">déposer une pêche</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">poser une pépin</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">poser</i> = to place or cast down; <i lang="fr">pépin</i>, in botany a kernel or pip); <i lang="fr">poser un factionnaire</i> (popular: <i lang="fr">factionnaire</i> is properly a sentinel or sentry); <i lang="fr">poser une sentinelle</i> (popular: with same meaning as foregoing); <i lang="fr">envoyer une depèche à Bismarck</i> (popular: this may be a contemptuous usage of the German Chancellor’s name, although
+in French slang <i lang="fr">couleur Bismarck</i> = brown colour); <i lang="fr">aller où le roi n’envoie personne</i> (lit. to go where the king sends no one); <i lang="fr">flaquader</i> (<i lang="fr">flaque</i> = excrement); <i lang="fr">fuser</i> (properly to dissolve); <i lang="fr">gâcher du gros</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">galipoter</i> (another slang meaning of this word is ‘to smear’); <i lang="fr">pousser son rond</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">faire ronfler la chaire percée—Thomas—le bourrelet—la chaise percée</i> (<i lang="fr">faire ronfler</i> = to cause to or make snore, <i lang="fr">chaire</i> = Bishop’s throne, <i lang="fr">chaire percée</i> = close-stool, and <i lang="fr">bourrelet</i> = padded cushion with hole in centre, <i lang="fr">Thomas</i> = bedroom chamber); <i lang="fr">aller voir Bernard</i> (<i>Cf.</i>, <i lang="fr">aller chez Jules</i>); <i lang="fr">aller au <span class="pageNum" id="pb391">[<a href="#pb391">391</a>]</span>buen-retiro</i> (<i lang="fr">buen retiro</i> properly = a private place of retirement, but in this sense is an ironical allusion
+to a W.C.); <i lang="fr">faire un pruneau</i> or <i lang="fr">poser un pruneau</i> (Michel thinks this expression is derived from <i lang="fr">clos Bruneau</i>, a facetious name given to the posteriors about the sixteenth century); <i lang="fr">filer le cable de proue</i> (Michel gives this as of nautical origin—seamen’s latrines being situated in the
+fo’cas’le).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Italian Fourbesque.</span> <i lang="it">Tartire</i> (properly to lighten or ease one’s conscience by confessing to a Priest).
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To bury a wife</span>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (old).—To feast and make merry, an expression used in connection with the jollifications
+frequently indulged in by apprentices on the completion of their term of indenture,
+when they became ‘full blown’ craftsmen.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bus</b> or <b>Buss</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—1. A variant of <span class="sc">business</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), of which it is an abbreviation. Pronounced <i>biz</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—A contraction of ‘omnibus.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1832. <span class="sc">Ht. Martineau</span>, <i>Weal and Woe</i>, i., 14. If the station offers me a place in a <span class="sc">buss</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Bleak House</i>, p. 93. He proposed that they should go, per <span class="sc">buss</span>, a little way into the country.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Adventures of Philip</i>, II., p. 316. We were mortified to see that of the five persons conveyed by the <span class="sc">’bus</span>, one was a tradesman, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <span class="sc">Black</span>, <i>In Silk Attire</i>, II., p. 205. Annie Brunel got out of the Hampstead <span class="sc">’bus</span>, and found herself in the muddy highway.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (American).—To punch [one’s head].
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bush</b> or <b>Be Bushed</b>, <i>verb</i> (Australian).—Primarily to camp out in the bush; or to get lost in the bush. Hence
+a slang usage in which the expression is applied to a person in any mental or physical
+difficulty or muddle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>All the Year Round</i>, July 30, p. 68. An Australian says that he is <span class="sc">bushed</span> just as an Englishman, equally characteristically, declares that he is fogged.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1889. <span class="sc">B.&nbsp;L. Farjeon</span>, <i>In Australian Wilds</i>. ‘We shall have <span class="sc">to bush</span> it, mate,’ I said. ‘That’s so,’ said Lilly Trot, unconcernedly; but looking about
+him sharply, despite his apparent carelessness, for a suitable spot to camp on. <i>Ibid.</i> We were on horseback, with blankets before us on our saddles, to provide for our
+getting <span class="sc">bushed</span>. We were prepared for rough times. I carried my revolver, and Lilly Trot had a villainous-looking
+black life-preserver up his sleeve, ready at a moment’s notice for any emergency.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bushed</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—Hard up; without money; destitute.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Bush’d</span>, poor; without money.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bushed On</b>, <i>verbal phr.</i> (common).—Pleased; delighted.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bushel Bubby</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A full and large breasted woman. [From <span class="sc">bushel</span>, a (large) measure, + <span class="sc">bubby</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a breast.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bubber</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bushwhacker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American political).—In politics, as in war, simply a ‘free-lance.’ During the Rebellion
+deserters from the ranks of both armies infested the country, bands of these marauders
+making raids upon defenceless houses and even going the length of sacking whole towns.
+Originally the term was harmless enough in meaning. At a time when <span class="pageNum" id="pb392">[<a href="#pb392">392</a>]</span>water-communication was the chief means of locomotion, and the rivers, streams, and
+creeks of densely wooded regions were alive with the advance guards of civilization,
+<span class="sc">bushwhacking</span> was the name given to the means by which lumbermen propelled their craft up and down
+stream. This was accomplished by pulling the bushes growing by the water side; or,
+on land, by the cutting away of a thicket in order to obtain a passage. The man who
+did this, and the instrument—a kind of scythe or cutlass with which, in the latter
+case, he thus forced his way—were alike called <span class="sc">bushwhackers</span>. The word has gone through yet another transition. Since the war it has also come
+to mean a ‘country bumpkin,’ a ‘clod-pole,’ or any other person of a ‘verdant’ character.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bushy Park</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—A lark.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To be in Bushy Park</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To be poor.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Business</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. Sexual intercourse. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Greens</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1630. <span class="sc">Taylor</span>, <span class="sc">Workes</span>. And Lais of Corinth, ask’d Demosthenes One hundred crownes for one night’s <span class="sc">businesse</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1654. <i>Wits Recreations.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">What Crispulus is that in a new gown, </p>
+<p class="line">All trim’d with loops and buttons up and down, </p>
+<p class="line">That learns there on his arm in private chat </p>
+<p class="line">With thy young wife, what Crispulus is that? </p>
+<p class="line">He’s proctor of a court, thou say’st and does </p>
+<p class="line">Some <span class="sc">business</span> of my wives: thou brainless goose, </p>
+<p class="line">He does no <span class="sc">business</span> of thy wives, not he, </p>
+<p class="line">He does thy <span class="sc">business</span> (Coracine) for thee. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">2. (theatrical.)—Dramatic action; bye-play.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1753. <i>The World</i>, No. 26. We are too much enamoured with what is called intrigue, <span class="sc">business</span>, and bustle, in our plays.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1820. Scott, <i>The Abbot</i>, ch. xxvii. (III., p. 6). The … went, came, and returned, mingling in every scene
+of the piece, and interrupting the <span class="sc">business</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, Dec., p. 749. So well do performers understand this principle, that they give the
+literary composition the utmost contemptuous title of ‘words,’ while they dignify
+the movements of the characters with the name of <span class="sc">business</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 282. Tom observed, I never saw such <span class="sc">business</span> before; how do you do it with that board thing, for I can’t manage it? I have knocked
+and bruised some of my people about so that they swear they would sooner leave than
+have such another day.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>Punch</i>, Sept. 18, 130. ‘Quite in his Line.’ <i>Stout Major</i> (<i>to Professional Actor, who has been asked down to coach the Garrison Amateurs</i>): ‘Aw—we played <i>The Bells</i> at our last Theatricals, of which I’ve the Management. I—aw—played Irving’s part
+myself. Aw—immense Success!’ <i>Professional</i> (<i>drily</i>): ‘Of course you’ve seen him in it?’ <i>Major</i>: ‘Ya-as—but—aw—I didn’t copy him in the least—aw—my own ‘<span class="sc">Business</span>.’ Aw—Entirely different reading. In fact, every one said it wasn’t a bit like him!<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">H. Irving</span>, in <i>Good Words</i>, Jan., p. 34. Then consider what scope the ‘<span class="sc">business</span>’ of the scene gives to the actor’s purpose.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To do one’s business for one</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To kill; to cause one’s death.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Jas. Greenwood</span>, <i>Grandmother Cooper</i>, in <i>Odd People in Odd Places</i>, p. 4. ‘They said it was his hurts as killed him,’ said the old lady, ‘but it was
+no use ’em telling me that. It was the bricks and mortar that <span class="sc">did his business</span>, poor chap.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb393">[<a href="#pb393">393</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Business End</b> [of a thing], <i>subs.</i> (American).—The practical part.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Busk It</b>, <i>verb</i> (vagrants’).—To sell obscene songs and books at the bars and in the tap-rooms of
+public houses. Sometimes it implies selling other articles. Also to ‘work’ public
+houses and certain spots as an itinerant musician or vocalist. So also <span class="sc">busking</span>, <i>verb subs.</i> and <i>ppl. adj.</i> and <span class="sc">busker</span>, a man who thus sings and performs in public houses: an itinerant.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>London Labour and London Poor</i>, III., p. 234. From a furniture-carter of this description I received some most shocking
+details of having to <span class="sc">busk it</span>, as this taking about goods for sale is called by those in the trade. <i>Ibid</i>, I., p. 229. They obtained a livelihood by <span class="sc">busking</span>, as it is termed, or in other words, by offering their goods for sale only at the
+bars or in the tap-rooms and parlours of taverns. <i>Ibid</i>, III., p. 216. <span class="sc">Busking</span> is going into public houses and playing and singing and dancing. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 222. I now thought I’d try what is termed <span class="sc">busking</span>, that is going into public houses and cutting likenesses of the company.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. Advt. in <i>Echo</i>, May 10, p. 4, col. 6. <span class="sc">Busking.</span>—A player on the harp and violin wants a mate.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1887. <i>Referee</i>, August 21, p. 3, col. 2. Mac himself … will appear in the Racecourse scene as a
+<span class="sc">busker</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Busker.</b>—<i>See</i> under <span class="sc">Busk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Busking.</b>—<i>See</i> under <span class="sc">Busk</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Busnapper.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buz-napper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Busnapper’s Kinchin.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buz-napper’s Kinchin</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buss.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bus</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buss Beggar</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An old prostitute of the lowest type; a beggar’s trull.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bust</b>, <i>subs.</i> (vulgar).—A corrupted form of <span class="sc">burst</span>. So also <span class="sc">busting</span> (<i>adj.</i>); <span class="sc">busted</span> (<i>ppl. adj.</i>), etc., etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1837. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Oliver Twist</i>, p. 219. A kind of <span class="sc">busting</span> noise.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—A burglary.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">18(?79). <span class="sc">Horsley</span>, <i>Jottings from Jail</i>. ‘Fatty Bill, from City Road, rem. for a <span class="sc">bust</span> ex. two years,’ means that William … has been compelled to leave his congenial haunts
+in the City Road, as he is remanded for a burglary, and anticipates two years’ hard
+labour.
+</p>
+<p>3. (general.)—A frolic; a spree; a drunken debauch. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To go on the bust</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Bartlett</span> (quoted in), <i>A Californian Song</i>.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">And when we get our pockets full </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">Of this bright, shinin’ dust, </p>
+<p class="line">We’ll travel straight for home again, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">And spend it on a <span class="sc">bust</span>. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">4. (American.)—A failure; a fizzle.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (vulgar).—1. To burst; explode.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1838. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>, II., p. 366. His genius would have <span class="sc">busted</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1843. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, I., p. 286. Keep cool, Jefferson … don’t <span class="sc">bust</span>! <i>Ibid</i>, II., p. 124. If the biler of this vessel was Toe <span class="sc">bust</span><span id="xd33e70410">,</span> Sir<span id="xd33e70413">,</span> … and Toe <span class="sc">bust</span> now, it would be a festival day in the calendar of despotism.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—To commit a burglary.
+</p>
+<p>3. (thieves’.)—To inform against an accomplice. A slang variant of ‘split’ (turn king’s
+evidence, impeach). The person who does this <span class="sc">splits</span> or <span class="sc">bursts</span> the whole concern.
+</p>
+<p>4. (American.)—To fail in business or transactions of any kind.
+</p>
+<p>5. (general.)—To put out of breath; to ‘wind.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb394">[<a href="#pb394">394</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1880. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘Taking out the Baby.’ Spoken—And they had all been taking out the baby, and all
+had had such a doing—that boy o’ mine nearly <span class="sc">busted</span> me—and of course they all think they deserve a glass of beer.
+</p>
+<p>6. (American.)—To indulge in a drunken frolic; to go on the spree. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">To go on the bust</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1869. <i>New Orleans Picayune</i>, Feb. 14. ‘Because I was a good-natured fellow, I had to go with them, rollicking,
+teaparting, excursioning, and <span class="sc">busting</span> generally.’
+</p>
+<p>7. (American.)—To destroy; to commit suicide; to ‘set aside’; to expose.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>, <i>Chiquita</i>, p. 22. Did you know Briggs of Tuolumne? <span class="sc">Busted</span> hisself in White Pine, and blew out is brains.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>North of England Advertiser</i>, Sept. 1. Then he got the Moabite pottery which Mr. Clement Ganneau <span class="sc">busted</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Bust me!</span> <i>phr.</i> (common).—A mild oath—<span class="sc">blow me!</span> <span class="sc">jigger me!</span> (<i>q.v.</i>)—<i>See</i> also <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Tale of Two Cities</i>, bk. I., ch. iii. ‘<span class="sc">Bust me</span> if I don’t think he’d been a drinking!’
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To go on the bust</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To go on a frolic or spree. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Paint the town red</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A small new loaf; also a coarse cake or bun of large size that fills
+or blows out the stomach of the eater. [From <span class="sc">bust</span>, a vulgar form of ‘burst,’ + <span class="sc">er</span>.] <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Starver</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 3. <i>Bob</i>: Now, landlord, ‘arter that ere drap of max, suppose we haves a <i>drain o’ heavy wet</i>, just by way of cooling our <i>chaffers</i>—mine’s as <i>dry as a chip</i>—and, I say, do you hear, let’s have a twopenny <span class="sc">burster</span>, half a quartern of <span class="sc">beesvax</span>, a ha’p’orth o’ ingens, and a dollop o’ salt along vith it, vill you? <i>Mace</i>: Bellay! a <span class="sc">burster</span> and beesvax—and salt here. (<i>Calling as he fetches the porter from the side wing</i>, <span class="sc">l.</span>) Now, then, here you are, Master Grimmuzzle.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <i>Comic Almanacks</i>, 1835–43 (Hotten), p. 295.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line"><span id="xd33e70569">‘</span>Cut us a slap-up slice of Cheshire cheese, </p>
+<p class="line">And tip’s a twopenny <span class="sc">burster</span> if you please.’ </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1849. <i>Bell’s Life.</i> [From Baumann.] A <span class="sc">burster</span> with a slice of beeswax.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 192. Mo and his man were having a great breakfast one morning at Newcastle, off
+a twopenny <span class="sc">buster</span> and a small bit of butter, with some wishy-washy coffee.…
+</p>
+<p class="cit"><i>c.</i> 1882. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘I can’t get at it.<span>’</span>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">I can’t get at it, I can’t get at it, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">I like the faggots tho’ they smell, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">But now the penny’s down the well, </p>
+<p class="line">I can’t get at it, I can’t get at it, </p>
+<p class="line">I thought I’d have a ‘<span class="sc">buster</span>’ but it’s all no go! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">2. (thieves’.)—A burglar. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Area-sneak</span>. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bust</span>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 2, and <i>verb</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1879. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;W. Horsley</span>, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in <i>Macm. Mag.</i>, XL., 582. <span class="sc">Busters</span> and screwsmen (burglars).
+</p>
+<p>3. (common.)—Anything of superior size; that has unusual capacity; that causes admiration;
+a spurt. Hence to ‘<span class="sc">come an awful buster</span>,’ ‘to fall heavily,’ ‘to come a cropper’; ‘<span class="sc">in for a buster</span>,’ prepared, ready or determined for a spree.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">H.&nbsp;B. Stowe</span>, <i>Uncle Tom’s Cabin</i>, ch. x. ‘Lor, Pete,’ said Mose, triumphantly, ‘han’t we got a <span class="sc">buster</span> of a breakfast!’ at the same time catching at a fragment of the chicken.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Great Expectations</i>, ch. vii., p. 28. ‘At such time as when your sister is on the Ram-page, Pip,’ Joe
+sank his voice to a whisper, and glanced at the door, ‘candour compels fur to admit
+that she is a <span class="sc">Buster</span>.’
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb395">[<a href="#pb395">395</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1870. <i>Popular Song on Franco-German War.</i>
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">… Thank God, my dear Augusta, </p>
+<p class="line">We’ve had another awful <span class="sc">buster</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Ten thousand Frenchmen sent below, </p>
+<p class="line">Praise God from whom all blessings flow! </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit"><i>c.</i> 1880. <i>Broadside Ballad</i>, ‘I’ll never go courting again.’
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">A lawyer’s niece, next, I admired, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">But brief he made my wooing spec; </p>
+<p class="line">To a banker’s ward then, I aspired, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">But got from the banker a check (cheque). </p>
+<p class="line">A publican said, other measures </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">For his girl he’d to carry out, </p>
+<p class="line">And a baker he gave me a ‘<span class="sc">buster</span>,’ </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">With a ‘brick,’ sent me rolling about. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first">4. (Australian.)—A heavy storm from the south. Otherwise called in Sydney a <span class="sc">brick fielder</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Household Words</i>, 10 Oct., p. 463. In anxious expectation we now awaited the result of this curious
+phenomenon of darkest night in day, which, accustomed to the portents that sometimes
+herald in the terrific <span class="sc">busters</span> of these southern seas, as most of us were, all declared they had never seen it equalled.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Busting</b>, <i>verb, subs.</i> (thieves’.)—Informing against accomplices; turning Queen’s evidence. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bust</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 3. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Peaching</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bustle</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—1. A pad, roll, or wire contrivance worn by women at the back in order
+to extend the dress, and also with a view to setting off the smallness of the waist.
+[Origin uncertain.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Birdcage</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1788. <span class="sc">T. Monro</span>, in <i>Olla Podrida</i>, No. 40. Such locks the nymphs now wear (in silks who rustle), In rich luxuriance
+reaching to the <span class="sc">bustle</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1835. <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, p. 323. Whether she was pretty, whether she wore much <span class="sc">bustle</span>, etc. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 488. ‘Did you ever,’ said a little coquette with a large <span class="sc">bustle</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Trollope</span>, <i>Barchester Towers</i>, ch. xlv., p. 384. Bertie finished off the countess’s <span class="sc">bustle</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—Money. A full list of synonyms will be found under <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1812. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Flash Dictionary</i>. <span class="sc">Bustle</span>, a cant term for money. <i>Ibid.</i> Any object effected very suddenly, or in a hurry, is said to be done on the <span class="sc">bustle</span>.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (general).—To confuse; confound; perplex.—<i>See</i> previous quot.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 237. ‘Now <span class="sc">bustle</span> him,’ said Tom Maley; ‘you have got him to-rights now. Let go your left straight.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bust-Maker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A molrower; a ‘loose fish’; a seducer. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Molrower</span>. [From <span class="sc">bust</span>, a protuberance, + <span class="sc">maker</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Busy-Sack</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A carpet bag. Called in America a <span class="sc">grip-sack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butcher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (cards’).—1. The king in playing-cards. When card-playing in public houses was common,
+the kings were called butchers, the queens bitches, and the knaves jacks. The latter
+term is now in general use. In French slang the king is <i lang="fr">un bœuf</i>.
+</p>
+<p>2. (American.)—A peripatetic ‘small-boy’ vendor of ‘varieties’ and ‘notions’ on railway
+cars—at once a convenience and a ‘terror.’
+</p>
+<p>3. (thieves’.)—The prison doctor. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Crocus</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butcher About</b>, <i>verb</i> (Wellington College).—To make a great noise; to humbug about.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb396">[<a href="#pb396">396</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butcher’s Mourning</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A white hat with a black mourning hat-band.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butteker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A shop.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butter</b>, <i>subs.</i> (popular).—Fulsome flattery; unctuous praise; ‘soft soap.’ A French equivalent is
+<i lang="fr">le cirage</i>. <i>Cf.</i>, <i>verb</i>, sense 1. Also <span class="sc">buttering-up</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">Moore</span>, <i>Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress</i>, p. 40.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">For, knowing how, on Moulsey’s plain, </p>
+<p class="line xd33e2810">The champion <i>fibb’d</i> the Poet’s <i>nob</i>, </p>
+<p class="line">This <span class="sc">buttering-up</span> against the grain, </p>
+<p class="line">We thought was curs’d genteel in Bob. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1823<span>.</span> <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>, XIV., p. 309. You have been daubed over by the dirty <span class="sc">butter</span> of his applause.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">A. Trollope</span>, <i>Three Clerks</i>, ch. i. The quantity of <span class="sc">butter</span> which he poured over Mr. Hardline’s head and shoulders with the view of alleviating
+the misery which such a communication would be sure to inflict, was very great.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1880. <i>World</i>, 13 Oct. A lavish interchange of compliments, the <span class="sc">butter</span> being laid on pretty thick.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (common).—1. To flatter fulsomely; to indulge in rhodomantic praise. French <i>cirer</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1700. <span class="sc">Congreve</span>, <i>Way of World</i>, prol. (1866), 259. The squire that’s <span class="sc">buttered</span> still is sure to be undone. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1725. <i>New Canting Dictionary.</i> <span class="sc">To butter</span> signifies also to cheat or defraud in a smooth and plausible manner.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1816. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Antiquary</i>, ch. xxxviii. ‘Keep him employed, man, for half-an-hour or so—<span class="sc">butter</span> him with some warlike terms—praise his dress and address.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1839. <span class="sc">Lever</span>, <i>Harry Lorrequer</i>, ch. xii. ‘He first <span class="sc">butthers</span> them up and then slithers them down!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">C. Kingsley</span>, <i>Two Years Ago</i>. I’ll <span class="sc">butter</span> him, trust me. Nothing comforts a poor beggar like a bit of praise when he is down.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1884. <i>Saturday Review</i>, 5 July, p. 27, col. 1. The Lord Chief Justice of England made a tour through America,
+and generously <span class="sc">buttered</span> the natives.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—Jamieson says, ‘to increase the stakes every throw or every game.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. B. E., <i>Dictionary of Canting Crew</i>. <span class="sc">Butter</span>, to double or treble the bet or wager to recover all losses.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Butter a bet</span>, to double or triple it.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To look as if butter would not melt in one’s mouth</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—A contemptuous saying of a person of somewhat simple demeanour. Murray traces
+back this familiar phrase to 1530, but a reference to it appears in French literature
+at a much earlier date.
+</p>
+<p lang="fr" class="cit">1475. <i>Les Evangiles des Quenouilles—Vme Journée.</i> Edition Elzevirienne. Paris (1855), p. 72. A cette parolle mist dame Mehault ses
+mains à ses costez et en grant couroux luy respondy que, etc., et que, Dieu merci,
+aincoires <span class="sc">fondoit le burre en sa bouche</span>, combien qu’elle ne peust croquier noisettes, car elle n’avoit que un seul dent.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1530. <span class="sc">Palgrave</span>, 620, 1. He maketh as thoughe <span class="sc">butter wolde not melte in his mouth</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1562. <span class="sc">Latimer</span>, <i>Serm. Lord’s Prayer</i>, V., ii., 79. These fellows … can speak so finely, that a man would <span class="sc">think butter should scant melt in their mouths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1687. <span class="sc">Sedley</span>, <i>Bellamira</i>. <i>Sil.</i> He look’d so demurely, I thought <span class="sc">butter wou’d not have melted in his mouth</span>, I hope you will make sure work with him before you send him again.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1738. <span class="sc">Swift</span>, <i>Polite Conversation</i>, i. She <span class="sc">looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth</span>, but I warrant cheese won’t choak her.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1825. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>St. Ronan’s Well</i>, ch. xxviii. (III., p. 26). I am beginning to think ye are but a queer ane, ye <span class="sc">look as if butter wadna melt in your mouth</span>, but I sall warrant cheese no choak ye.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1850. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Pendennis</i>, I., p. 149. Telling her landlady how … the Mayor was … a nice, soft-spoken old gentleman;
+that <span class="sc">butter <span class="corr" id="xd33e71102" title="Source: would’nt">wouldn’t</span> melt in his mouth</span>, etc.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb397">[<a href="#pb397">397</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="sc">Will cut butter when it’s hot</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—Said of a knife when blunt. An obvious allusion.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Butter and eggs</span>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Explained by quotations.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <i>Macmillan’s Mag.</i>, Jan., p. 238. And I can do <span class="sc">butter-and-eggs</span> all down the slide.… The feat of <span class="sc">butter-and-eggs</span> consists in going down the slide on one foot and beating with the heel and toe of
+the other at short intervals.
+</p>
+<p>Compare the foregoing with the following.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1836. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Pickwick Papers</i>, II., p. 9. Sam Weller, in particular, was displaying that beautiful feat of fancy
+sliding which is currently denominated ‘knocking at the cobblers’ door,’ and which
+is achieved by skimming over the ice on one foot, and occasionally giving a two-penny
+postman’s knock upon it, with the other.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butter-Bag</b> or <b>Butter-Box</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Opprobrious epithets for a Dutchman. [? In allusion to Holland producing large
+quantities of butter. <i>Cf.</i>, quot., 1811.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1600. <span class="sc">Dekker</span>, <i>Gentle Craft</i>, wks. (1873) I., 21. We have not men enow, but wee must entertaine every <span class="sc">butter-box</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1650. <span class="sc">Howell</span>, <i>Familiar Letters</i>. And for the latter strength we may thank our countryman Ward, and Dansker the <span class="sc">butterbag</span> Hollander, which may be said to have bin two of the fatallest and most infamoust
+men that ever Christendom bred.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> <span class="sc">Butter-box.</span> A Dutchman, from the great quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butter-Boat.</b> <span class="sc">To empty the butter-boat</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To lavish praise; to battle. [From <span class="sc">butter-boat</span>, a table utensil employed for serving melted butter.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1865. <i>Sat. Review</i>, 7 Jan., p. 16, col. 2. That kind of praise which feels like the <span class="sc">butter-boat</span> down one’s back. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1866. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Skinner</span>, <i>After Storm</i>, I., 181. He praised some things and gave advice about others, using the <span class="sc">butter-boat</span> less freely than is customary at volunteer inspections. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butter-Box.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Butter-bag</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttercups</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A graceful pet name for children.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">E.&nbsp;L. Linton</span>, <i>World Well Lost</i>, ch. vii. Hilda was still in the schoolroom, and seldom appeared even at afternoon
+tea; which in general is licensed to include ‘<span class="sc">buttercups</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttered</b>, <i>ppl. adj.</i> (old).—1. Whipped. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Dusted</span>, <span class="sc">Tanned</span>, etc. (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p>2. (common.)—Flattered.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Butter</span>, sense 1.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttered Bun</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A mistress; also a prostitute, especially one who submits to the sexual embrace
+in quick succession with different men. [In this latter sense, if not in former, from
+<span class="sc">buttered</span> = greased + <span class="sc">bun</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), the female <i>pudenda</i>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1679. Cullen, W., <i>Flock of Court Misses</i>, in <i>Roxburgh Ballads</i> (1884), V., 126. This is the day … that sets our Monarch free From <span class="sc">Buttered Buns</span> [<i>i.e.</i>, Louise de Quérouaille] and Slavery.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> One lying with a woman that has just lain with another man, is said to have a <span class="sc">buttered bun</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butter-Fingered</b>, <i>comp. ppl. adj.</i> (common).—Apt to let things fall; greasy or slippery-fingered. The nickname of <span class="sc">butter-fingers</span> is hence given to those who let things slip easily from their grasp.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb398">[<a href="#pb398">398</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1615. <span class="sc">Markham</span>, <i>English Housewife</i>, II., ii. (1668), 51. She must not be <span class="sc">butter-fingered</span>, sweet-toothed, nor faint-hearted; for the first will let everything fall, etc.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Hood</span>, <i>Pen and Pencil Pictures</i>, p. 141. He was a slovenly player, and went among the cricket lovers by the sobriquet
+of <span class="sc">butter-fingers</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1861. <span class="sc">G. Meredith</span>, <i>Evan Harrington</i>. The long-hit-off, he who never was known to miss a catch—<span class="sc">butter-fingered</span> beast!—he has let the ball slip through his fingers.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <span class="sc">Miss Braddon</span>, <i>Golden Calf</i>, ch. xiv. ‘I never allow no <span class="sc">butter-fingered</span> girls in this room, except to sweep or scrub, under my own eye. There’s not many
+ornaments, but what there is is precious, and the apple of master’s eye.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butter-Flap</b>, <i>subs.</i> (rhyming slang).—A trap—<i>i.e.</i>, a light cart.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butterfly</b>, <i>subs.</i> (nautical).—1. A river barge.
+</p>
+<p>2. (cabmen’s.)—The guard for the reins affixed to the top of a hansom cab.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Standard</i>, March 6, p. 6, col. 3. The box covered the whole roof of the cab, preventing him
+[the cabman] from seeing the <span class="sc">butterfly</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butternuts</b>, <i>subs.</i> (American.)—The sympathisers with the South in the North and the Middle States during
+the American Civil War; the term was derived from the colour of the uniforms worn
+in the early part of the war by Confederate soldiers in the West, which, being homespun,
+were dyed brown with the juice of the <span class="sc">butternut</span> (<i lang="la">Juglans cinerea</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butter-Print</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A child; usually one that is illegitimate. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buttercup</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1620. <span class="sc">Fletcher</span>, <i>Chances</i>, I., v. You will be wiser one day, when you have purchased A bevy of these <span class="sc">butter-prints</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1639. <span class="sc">Beaumont and Fletcher</span>, <i>Wit Without Money</i>, V., iv. I hope she has brought me no <span class="sc">butter-print</span> along with her to lay to my charge. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1709. <i>Brit. Apollo</i>, II., No. 46, p. 3, col. 2. Her Girl and her Boy, For Patterns employ, To make little
+<span class="sc">Butter-Prints</span> by. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttock</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A common prostitute. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Barrack-hack</span>, and <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">File</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1674. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>Canting Academy</i>, 105. The Bawds and the <span class="sc">Buttocks</span> that lived there round.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1688. <span class="sc">Shadwell</span>, <i>Squire of Alsatia</i>, I., wks. (1720) IV., 17. What ogling there will be between thee and the Blowings!…
+Every <span class="sc">buttock</span> shall fall down before thee.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1690. B. E., <i>Dictionary of the Canting Crew</i>. <span class="sc">Buttock and file</span>, both whore and pickpocket.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttock and File</b>, <i>subs. phr.</i> (old).—A prostitute and her companion; sometimes <span class="sc">bulk and file</span>. Occasionally, too, <span class="sc">buttock and file</span> is used of a single individual—one who unites the <i>roles</i> of a thief and prostitute. [From <span class="sc">buttock</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a whore, + <span class="sc">file</span> (<i>q.v.</i>), a pickpocket.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1671. <span class="sc">R. Head</span>, <i>English Rogue</i>, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). <span class="sc">Bulk and File</span> the Pickpocket and his mate.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1754. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Jonathan Wild</i>, bk. I., ch. v. The same capacity which qualifies a mill-ben, a bridle-cull, or a
+<span class="sc">buttock and file</span> to arrive at any degree of eminence in his profession would likewise raise a man
+in what the world esteem a more honourable calling.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> <span class="sc">Buttock and file</span>, a common whore and a pickpocket.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttock and Tongue</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A scolding woman; a shrew.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttock and Twang</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A common prostitute, but who refrains from theft. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buttock and file</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb399">[<a href="#pb399">399</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttock Ball</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A dance attended by prostitutes. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Ballum rancum</span> and <span class="sc">Buff ball</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1687. <span class="sc">T. Brown</span>, Lib., <i>Consc.</i>, in <i>Dk. Buckingham’s Wks.</i> (1705), II., 131. Why not into a Bibbing-house, as well as a Dancing School, <span class="sc">a buttoc-ball</span>, or the like.
+</p>
+<p>2. (old.)—The sexual embrace; cohabitation. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bawdy banquet</span> and <span class="sc">Buttock banquetting</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1811. <i lang="la">Lexicon Balatronicum.</i> <span class="sc">Buttock-ball</span>, the amorous congress.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttock Banquetting</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—Harlotry.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1555. <i>Fardle Facions</i>, II., viii., 167. Whiche [wiues] maie neuerthelesse vse <span class="sc">buttocke banquetyng</span> abrode.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttock-Broker</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A procuress; a bawd; an <span class="sc">abbess</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttocking Shop</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A brothel; a house of ill fame used by the lowest class of public women.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Button</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A shilling. Formerly this applied to good currency; it now only signifies
+counterfeit coin. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Below</span>.
+</p>
+<p>2. A decoy of any kind, whether the confederate of confidence trick men, or a sham
+buyer at an auction. Frequently called a <span class="sc">buttoner</span> (<i>q.v.</i>). <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Bunco-steerer</span>. Fr. <i lang="fr">un allumé</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. I., p. 358. They [cheap Jacks] have a man, or more generally a boy … at a fair,
+to hank, or act as a <span class="sc">button</span> (a decoy), to purchase the first lot of goods put up. <i>Ibid</i>, III., p. 121. Then he (the thimble-rigger) turns round to the crowd, and pretends
+to be pushing them back, and whilst he is saying, ‘Come gentlemen, stand more backwarder,’
+one of the confederates, who is called a ‘<span class="sc">button</span>,’ lifts up one of the thimbles with a pea under it, and laughs to those around, as
+much as to say, ‘We’ve found it out.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">Besant and Rice</span>, <i>Son of Vulcan</i>, ix. The <span class="sc">button</span>, that is the confederate who egged on the flats.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb.</i>—To decoy; to act as confederate in swindles. Fr. <i>aguicher</i>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Not to care a button</span>—<span class="sc">brass button</span>, etc., <i>phr.</i> (common).—A very old colloquialism indicative of small value. It has been in continuous
+use from the beginning of the fourteenth century down to the present time. Americans
+say ‘not worth a cent or a red cent,’ while among variants in common use in England
+may be mentioned ‘not to care a fig—a pin—or a sou.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Button Burster</b> or <b>Button Buster</b>, <i>subs.</i> (theatrical).—A low comedian. [The derivation is sufficiently obvious, that is, one
+who causes his auditors to laugh so that by a figure of speech their buttons are regarded
+as bursting off their clothes.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Button-Catcher</b>, <i>subs.</i> (general).—A tailor. There may be mentioned among
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">English Synonyms</span>, snip; cabbage contractor; steel-bar driver; goose persuader; sufferer; ninth part
+of a man, etc.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">French Synonyms.</span> <i lang="fr">Un gobeprune</i> (thieves’); <i lang="fr">un emmailloteur</i> (popular); <i lang="fr">un mangeur de prunes</i> (general); <i lang="fr">un pique-poux</i>; <i lang="fr">un pique-prunes</i>; <i lang="fr">un pique-puces</i>; <i lang="fr">un croque-prunes</i>; <i lang="fr">un frus-quineur</i>. <span class="pageNum" id="pb400">[<a href="#pb400">400</a>]</span>(Most of these are offensive terms, as will be seen when it is stated that <i lang="fr">puces</i> = fleas; <i lang="fr">poux</i> = lice, and so on.)
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttoner</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—A card-sharper’s decoy, an equivalent of <span class="sc">button</span>, <i>subs.</i>, sense 2. For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Decoy-duck</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1841. <i>Blackwood’s Mag.</i>, L., 202. <span class="sc">Buttoners</span> are those accomplices of thimble-riggers … whose duty it is to act as flat-catchers
+or decoys, by personating flats. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i> (3 ed.), p. 446. To entice another to play—<span class="sc">buttoner</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <i>Cornhill Mag.</i>, II., 334. Enticer of another to play—<span class="sc">buttoner</span>. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Button-On.</b> <span class="sc">To have a button on</span>, <i>phr.</i> (printers’).—To have a fit of the blues; to be despondent.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Chopper on</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Button Pound</b>, <i>subs.</i> (provincial).—Money. For synonyms generally, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Actual</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buttons</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A page; sometimes rendered by <span class="sc">boy in buttons</span>. [In allusion to the numerous <span class="sc">buttons</span> which usually adorn the front of a page’s jacket.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Lovel the Widower</i>, p. 289. [Herein quoted as the name of a page.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1873. <i>Chambers’ Jour.</i>, p. 605. Even the smallest <span class="sc">boy in buttons</span> would have been a retainer too costly for us.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1874. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Characters</i>, p. 311. Others limit their views to a page, or ‘<span class="sc">buttons</span>.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1885. <i>Ill. Lon. News</i>, April 11, p. 376, col. 1. Such a man is only fit to be dressed like a <span class="sc">buttons</span>, and set to open the door to visitors who come to call on his family.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Dash</span> or <span class="sc">damn my buttons</span>—<span class="sc">wig</span>, etc., <i>phr.</i> (general).—A mild oath, the word ‘damn’ often being represented by a dash. Ordinarily
+employed to express vexation or surprise.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Wm. Howard Russell</span>, <i>My Diary in India</i>, I., p. 26. <span class="sc">Darn my buttons</span> if I haven’t jest a mind to.…
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Not to have all one’s buttons</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To be deficient in intellect; slightly cracky; to have a bee in one’s bonnet.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Apartments to let</span>.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To have a soul above buttons</span>, <i>phr.</i> (common).—To be above one’s work or duty; to think one’s ability superior to one’s
+position. [The quotation for 1795 to which Murray calls special attention would seem
+to indicate the possible origin of the phrase.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1795. <span class="sc">G. Colman</span>, <i>Sylv. Daggerwood</i>, I. (1808), 10. My father was an eminent Button-Maker … but I <span class="sc">had a soul above buttons</span> … I panted for a liberal profession. [<span class="sc">m<span>.</span></span>].
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1833. <span class="sc">Marryat</span>, <i>Peter Simple</i>, ch. i. But my father, who was a clergyman of the Church of England, and the youngest
+brother of a noble family, had a lucrative living and <span class="sc">a soul above buttons</span>, if his son had not.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1855. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Newcomes</i>, III., p. 93. If I were to say to Captain Crackthorpe, ‘What pretty buttons!’ he
+would be delighted. But you—you <span class="sc">have a soul above buttons</span>, I suppose.
+</p>
+<p><span class="sc">To make buttons</span>, <i>phr.</i> (old).—To look sorry; sad; to be in great fear.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1593. <span class="sc">G. Harvey</span>, <i>Pierces Supererog.</i>, in wks. II., 238. Thy witt already <span class="sc">maketh buttons</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1653. <span class="sc">Middleton</span>, <i>Sp. Gipsy</i>, IV., iii. <i>Sam.</i> O Soto, I <span class="sc">make buttons</span>!
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Button Up</b>, <i>verb</i> (American stockbrokers’).—When a broker has bought stock on speculation and it falls
+suddenly on his hands, whereby he is a loser, he keeps the matter to himself, and
+is <span class="pageNum" id="pb401">[<a href="#pb401">401</a>]</span>reluctant to confess the ownership of a share. This is called <span class="sc">buttoning up</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Butty</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—A comrade or partner. Properly and specifically a miner who raises coal
+or ore by contract at a special price per ton, employing others to do the actual work.
+Perhaps more provincial than slang, although a writer in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, July 30, 1870, suggests its origin in the <span class="sc">Romany</span>: he says in the gipsy dialect <span class="sc">booty</span> is the term for work. <span class="sc">Booty</span>-pal is a fellow-workman (literally work-brother). As usual when a polysyllable is
+imported into ordinary use, it loses its tail; so <span class="sc">booty</span>-pal, in the mouths of navvies ignorant of its origin, would soon be cut down to <span class="sc">booty</span> or <span class="sc">butty</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1845. <span class="sc">Disraeli</span>, <i>Sybil</i>, wks. III., ch. i. Suppose we were to make a shift for a month or six weeks, … and
+have no tommy out of the shop, what would the <span class="sc">butty</span> say to me? [A note to foregoing explains that a <span class="sc">butty</span> in the mining districts is a middleman: a Doggy is his manager. The <span class="sc">butty</span> generally keeps a Tommy or Truck shop and pays the wages of the labourers in goods.]
+<i>Ibid</i>, p. 385. The <span class="sc">butty</span> has given notice to quit in Parker’s field this se’nnight. <i>Ibid</i>, p. 389. The enemies of the people: all <span class="sc">butties</span>, doggies, dealers in truck and tommy.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">H. Kingsley</span>, <i>Geoffrey Hamlyn</i>, ch. xxxi. ‘He and I cottoned together, and found out that we had been prisoners
+together five-and-twenty years agone. And so I shouted [<i>stood drinks</i>] for him, and he for me, and at last I says, <span id="xd33e72048">“</span><span class="sc">Butty</span>,<span id="xd33e72053">”</span> says I, <span id="xd33e72057">“</span>who are those chaps round here on the lay?<span id="xd33e72060">”</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 101. William Carrol was his partner, or <span class="sc">butty</span>, in the ‘lollipop’ business—a dismal looking man, who had always a burnt short clay
+pipe in his mouth.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buvare</b>, <i>subs.</i> (strolling players’).—Explained by quotation. <i>Cf.</i>, also <span class="sc">Beware</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. III., p. 201. [Ethiopian serenader <i>loq.</i>] ‘We could then, after our “nunyare” and “<span class="sc">buvare</span>” (that’s what we call eat and drink, and I think it’s broken Italian), carry home
+our 5/– or 6/– each, easy.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buy a Prop</b>, <i>phr.</i> (Stock Exchange).—A term used to signify that the market has gone flat, and that
+there is no one to support it.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buz</b> or <b>Buzz</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common)<span>.</span>—A parlour game which is thus described by Hotten, who, however, erroneously limited
+it to public-houses:—The leader commences saying ‘one,’ the next on the left hand
+‘two,’ the next ‘three,’ and so on to <i>seven</i>, when ‘<span class="sc">buz</span>’ must be said. Every seven and multiple of 7, as 14, 17, 21, 27, 28, etc., must not
+be mentioned, but ‘<span class="sc">buz</span>’ instead. Whoever breaks the rule pays a fine.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Miss Alcott</span>, <i>Little Women</i>, ch. iii. They … were in the midst of a quiet game of ‘<span class="sc">buzz</span>’ with two or three other young people who had strayed in, when Hannah appeared.
+</p>
+<p><i>Verb</i> (general).—1. Some uncertainty exists as to whether <span class="sc">to buz</span> signifies to drain a bottle or decanter to the last drop, or whether it means to
+share equally the last of a bottle of wine, when there is not enough for a full glass
+to each of the party. [<i>See</i>, however, quot. 1795.] Annandale and Hotten incline to the latter; Grose and Murray
+to the former view, and the following quotations appear to favour the explanation
+of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb402">[<a href="#pb402">402</a>]</span>word first noticed as <span class="sc">buzza</span> by the burly lexicographer of the ‘Vulgar Tongue.’ [? A corruption of <span class="sc">booze</span> or <span class="sc">bouze</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, to drink a bumper or to excess.] The Scotch say <span class="sc">bouse a’</span>, drink all.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">To buzza one</span>, is to challenge him to pour out all the wine in the bottle into his glass, undertaking
+to drink it, should it prove more than the glass would hold; it is commonly said to
+one who hesitates to empty a bottle that is nearly out.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1795. <i>Gent. Mag.</i>, p. 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter containing a tolerable <i>bumper</i>, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll <span class="sc">buzz</span> you: come, no <i>heel taps</i>!’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1821. <span class="sc">W.&nbsp;T. Moncrieff</span>, <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, Act ii., Sc. 1. <i>Cribb.</i> … I’ll give you, ‘<i>May the best man win</i>.’ (<i>All drink.</i>) May the best man win. <i>Green.</i> May the best man vin. <i>Log.</i> With all my heart; but, zounds! we’ve almost <span class="sc">buzz’d</span> the bowl. Let’s have another, and d’ye hear, Tom, serve it up in your prize cup;
+Jerry hasn’t seen it, and we mustn’t omit that.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1846–48. <span class="sc">Thackeray</span>, <i>Vanity Fair</i>, II., 138. ‘Get some more port, Bowls, old boy, whilst I <span class="sc">buzz</span> this bottle here—what was I saying?’ ‘I think you were speaking of dogs killing rats,’
+Pitt remarked mildly, handing his cousin the decanter to <span class="sc">buzz</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1871. <span class="sc">Archibald Forbes</span>, <i>My Experiences of the War between France and Germany</i>, I., p. 234. The Hotel which I had seen a few days before, where <i>Von Tümpling’s</i> staff were <span class="sc">buzzing</span> the bottles.
+</p>
+<p>2. To pick pockets. [Probably an allusion to <span class="sc">buzz</span> in the sense of to talk busily. The victim in <span class="sc">buzzing</span> or <span class="sc">buz-faking</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is generally engaged in conversation with a confederate, while the <span class="sc">buzzer</span> (<i>q.v.</i>) is committing the robbery.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Prig</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1789. <span class="sc">Geo. Parker</span>, <i>Life’s Painter</i>, p. 158. In order to give them an opportunity of <i>working</i> upon the <i>prig</i> and <span class="sc">buz</span>, that is, picking of pockets.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1857. <span class="sc">Snowden</span>, <i>Mag. Assistant</i>, 3 ed., p. 445. To pick pockets—to <span class="sc">buzz</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1876. <span class="sc">C. Hindley</span>, <i>Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack</i>, p. 261. In my young days there used to travel about in gangs, like men of business,
+a lot of people called ‘Nobblers,’ who used to work the ‘thimble and pea rig’ and
+go <span class="sc">buzzing</span>, that is, picking pockets, assisted by some small boys.
+</p>
+<p>3. (American thieves’.)—To search for; to look about one.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buz-Bloke.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buz-napper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buz-Cove.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buz-napper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buz-Gloak.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buz-napper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buz-Man</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—1. A pickpocket. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buz-napper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1856. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Gt. World of London</i>, p. 111. The London <span class="sc">buzman</span> (swell mobsman) can keep his pony by abstracting ‘skins’ (purses) from gentlemen’s
+pockets.
+</p>
+<p>2. (thieves’.)—An informer. [From <span class="sc">buzz</span>, to talk or whisper, + <span class="sc">man</span>.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Nark</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">W. Black</span>, <i>Green Past. and Picc.</i>, ch. xi. What was all this about ‘Billy Rowland,’ ‘Scotland Yard,’ ‘Spy,’ ‘<span class="sc">Buzman</span>,’ and the rest?
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buz-Napper</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—1. A pickpocket. [From <span class="sc">buz</span>, to pick pockets, + <span class="sc">napper</span> or <span class="sc">nabber</span>, one who seizes or snatches. ‘Buz-bloke,’ ‘buz-cove,’ ‘buz-gloak,’ ‘buz-man,’ and
+‘buzzer,’ are all variants of <span class="sc">buz-napper</span>; ‘bloke,’ ‘cove,’ and ‘gloak,’ are old canting terms for a man.] For synonyms, <i>see</i> <span class="sc">Area-sneak</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1781. <span class="sc">G. Parker</span>, <i>View of Society</i>, II., 174. A young fry of boys … follow the profession of a <span class="sc">buz-napper</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb403">[<a href="#pb403">403</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="cit">1819. <span class="sc">J.&nbsp;H. Vaux</span>, <i>Memoirs of Convict Life in Australia</i>. <span class="sc">Buz-cove</span> or <span class="sc">buz-gloak</span>, a pickpocket; a person who is clever at this practice is said to be a ‘good buz.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1834. <span class="sc">H. Ainsworth</span>, <i>Rookwood</i>, bk. III., ch. v.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Until at last there was none so knowing, </p>
+<p class="line">No such sneaksman or <span class="sc">buz-gloak</span> going. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1856. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>Gt. World of London</i>, p. 46. Those who plunder by <i>stealth</i>, as … ‘<span class="sc">buzzers</span>,’ who pick gentlemen’s pockets.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1859. <span class="sc">Sala</span>, <i>Twice Round the Clock</i>, 3 p.m., par. 10. Where these <i>ruffiani</i>, these copper captains and cozening <span class="sc">buz-gloaks</span>, are to be found during the day, or even up to midnight … must remain a secret.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1862. <span class="sc">Mayhew</span>, <i>Crim. Prisons</i>, 46. <span class="sc">Buzzers</span> who pick gentlemen’s pockets, and ‘wires’ who pick ladies’ pockets.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1867. <i>Galaxy</i>, p. 634. While the [New York] police had no right to arrest pickpockets unless they
+caught them committing a theft, yet as they had the power to do so, they exercised
+it, and many were the car-<span class="sc">buzzers</span> they led captives to police headquarters.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buz-Napper’s Academy</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A school in which young thieves were trained. Figures were dressed up, and
+experienced tutors stood in various difficult attitudes for the boys to practise upon.
+When clever enough they were sent on the streets. Dickens gives full particulars of
+this old style of ‘business’ in <i>Oliver Twist</i>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1781. <span class="sc">G. Parker</span>, <i>View of Society</i>, II., 173. [A <span class="sc">Buz-napper’s Academy</span> is named and described in this work.]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buz-Napper’s Kinchin</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A watchman. Synonymous terms in the sense of police will be found under <span class="sc">beak</span> (<i>q.v.</i>).
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buzzer.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Buz-napper</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Buzzing</b> or <b>Buz-Faking</b>, <i>subs.</i> (thieves’).—Pocket-picking. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">Buz</span>, <i>verb</i>, sense 2.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By-Blow</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—An illegitimate child. [An allusion to the unacknowledged status of the mother,
+and the ‘accident’ of the birth of such children.] Also called <span class="sc">by-chop</span> and <span class="sc">by-slip</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1594. <span class="sc">Barnfield</span>, <i>Affectionate Shepherd</i>. In such a ladies lappe, at such a slipperie <span class="sc">by-blow</span>, That in a world so wide could not be found such a wilie Lad; in an age so old, could
+not be found such an old lad.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1625. <span class="sc">Massinger</span>, <i>Parl. of Love</i>, II., i. Give to each <span class="sc">by-blow</span>, I know mine, a farm.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1678. <span class="sc">C. Cotton</span>, <i>Scarronides</i>, bk. I., p. 21 (ed. 1725).
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">Now <i>Venus</i> was <i>Æneas</i> Mother, </p>
+<p class="line">In the behalf then of her <span class="sc">by-blow</span>, </p>
+<p class="line">Which had endured many a dry-Blow, </p>
+<p class="line">She weeping came, sighing and throbbing. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1705–7. <span class="sc">Ward</span>, <i>Hudibras Redivivus</i>, vol. II., pt. II., p. 19.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line">The poor Man’s House abound with Brats, </p>
+<p class="line">As country Barn with Mice and Rats; </p>
+<p class="line">And Parishes be fill’d with <span class="sc">by-blows</span> </p>
+<p class="line">As thick as Butchers’ Stalls with Fly-blows. </p>
+</div>
+<p class="first cit">1748. <span class="sc">T. Dyche</span>, <i>Dictionary</i> (5 ed.). <span class="sc">By-blow</span> (s.), a bastard or illegitimate child.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1868. <span class="sc">Browning</span>, <i>Ring and Bk.</i>, iv., 612. A drab’s brat, A beggar’s <span class="sc">bye-blow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1875. <span class="sc">Ouida</span>, <i>Signa</i>, vol. I., ch. iii., p. 34. The one who held the child turned his light on the little
+wet face;… ‘And whose <span class="sc">by-blow</span> is this?’ said he. ‘The devil knows,’ said he who knelt by the mother. ‘But it is
+Pippa.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By-Chop.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">By-blow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1632. <span class="sc">Jonson</span>, <i>Magnetic Lady</i>, iv., 2.
+</p>
+<div class="lgouter cit">
+<p class="line xd33e5086">First I have sent </p>
+<p class="line"><span class="sc">By-chop</span> away; the cause gone, the fame ceaseth. </p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb404">[<a href="#pb404">404</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="first main"><b>By Cracky!</b> <i>intj.</i>—A meaningless ejaculation conveying no idea beyond that of general surprise.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1888. <i>Superior Inter-Ocean.</i> Say, haint Tubbs a Methodist? <span class="sc">By cracky!</span> here’s where it is, and in we walked.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Bye-Drink</b>, <i>subs.</i> (common).—Liquid refreshment taken at other than meal-times. [From <span class="sc">bye</span> = not in regular course + <span class="sc">drink</span>.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1766. <span class="sc">Kenrick</span>, <i>Falstaff’s Wedding</i>, i., 1. I could wish, nevertheless, old white wine stood higher in his lordship’s
+favour; that I may not be stinted at table, or in my <span class="sc">by-drinkings</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1883. <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, Jan. 10, p. 5, col. 3. Our business men—and many others who are not men of business—take,
+as it is, a great many more ‘<span class="sc">bye-drinks</span>’ in the way of ‘sherry’ and ‘whiskey cold’ than is good for them.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By George!</b> <i>intj. phr.</i> (popular).—An ejaculation signifying either surprise, or anger, or used without any
+special meaning. Phrases of the kind are very numerous, and are mainly employed by
+those whose poverty of language is otherwise very marked. [<span class="sc">By George!</span> may either be a reference to St. George, the patron saint of England, or to the predominant
+Christian name of the early sovereigns of the Brunswick dynasty.]
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1731. <span class="sc">Fielding</span>, <i>Grub Street Opera</i>, Act iii., Sc. 7. <span class="sc">By George</span>, I’ll make an example of him.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1737. <i>Bacchus and Venus</i>, p. 117. <span class="sc">’Fore George</span>, I’d knock him down.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1852. <span class="sc">Dickens</span>, <i>Bleak House</i>, ch. xxxviii. ‘I—er—a little subject to this sort of thing—er—<span class="sc">By George!</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By Goldam!</b> <i>intj. phr.</i> (American).—A semi-veiled oath. The Yankee is peculiarly fertile in variations on
+the name of God, and gives a striking proof of his ingenuity in inventing new forms
+for the forbidden <i>I swear</i>. He has his <span class="sc">by Gorram!</span> <span class="sc">by Goldam!</span> and <span class="sc">by Goshdang!</span> by the side of the English oath <span class="sc">by Golly!</span> which occurs as early as 1743.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By Golly!</b> <i>intj. phr.</i> (popular).—A euphemistic phrase for <span class="sc">by God!</span>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1743. <span class="sc">W. Warren</span>, <i>Five Arguments against Tythes</i>. ‘The first person consulted a gentleman-farmer, and declared that he never read
+anything so good in his life. <span id="xd33e72769">“</span><span class="sc">By golly</span>,<span id="xd33e72774">”</span> says he, <span id="xd33e72777">“</span>he ’as mauled the parsons.<span id="xd33e72781">”</span>’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1851–61. <span class="sc">H. Mayhew</span>, <i>London Lab. and Lon. Poor</i>, vol. III., p. 204. Then I turn round to him and say, ‘<span class="sc">By golly</span>, if you don’t leave off, I’ll broke you over de jaw.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By Gorram!</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">By Goldam!</span>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By Gosh!</b> <i>intj. phr.</i> (popular).—A compromise for <span class="sc">By God!</span>
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1804. <span class="sc">C.&nbsp;K. Sharpe</span>, in <i>Correspondence</i> (1888), I., 210. I promise, <span class="sc">by Gosh</span> (which is the most elegant and classical oath imaginable).
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1877. <span class="sc">W. Black</span>, <i>Green Past. and Picc.</i>, ch. xxxv. ‘If this goes on,’ said he suddenly, ‘<span class="sc">by Gosh</span>, I’ll heave!’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By Gum!</b> <b>By Gummy!</b> <i>intj. phr.</i> (American).—Both these expletives are extracts from the great American <i>Dictionary of Oaths and Cuss Words</i>, compiled by descendants of the Puritan Fathers.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1860. <span class="sc">Haliburton</span> (‘Sam Slick’), <i>The Season Ticket</i>, No. ix. ‘<span class="sc">By gum</span>, Squire Shegog, we have had the greatest bobbery of a shindy in our carriage you
+ever knowed in all our born days.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By Hook or By Crook.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Hook</span>.
+<span class="pageNum" id="pb405">[<a href="#pb405">405</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="main"><b>By Hooky</b>, <i>intj. phr.</i> (popular).—A mild form of swearing.—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Oaths</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1882. <span class="sc">Jas. Payn</span>, <i>For Cash Only</i>, ch. xxii. ‘Pay me what you owe me,’ says I, ‘or, <span class="sc">by hooky</span>, I’ll tell your father.’
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Byng</b>, <b>Bing</b>, <i>verb</i> (old).—To go. <span class="sc">Bynge-awaste</span>, to go away.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1567. <span class="sc">Harman</span>, <i>Caveat</i>, or <i>Warening for Commen Cursetors</i>, p. 86. <i>Man.</i> What, stowe your bene, cofe, and cut benat whydds, and <span class="sc">byng</span> we to rome vyle, to nyp a bong; so shall we haue lowre for the bousing ken and when
+we <span class="sc">byng</span> back to the deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll the
+ken for a lagge of dudes. [<i>i.e.</i>] What, holde your peace, good fellowe, and speake better wordes, and go we to London,
+to cut a purse; then shall we haue money for the ale house, and when wee come backe
+agayne into the country, we wyll steale some lynnen clothes of one hedges, or robbe
+some house for a bucke of clothes.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1610. <span class="sc">Rowlands</span>, <i>Martin Mark-all</i>, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). <span class="sc">Bing a wast</span>, get you hence.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1785. <span class="sc">Grose</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i>. <span class="sc">Binged avast</span> in a darkmans, stole away in the night. <span class="sc">Bing</span> we to Rumeville, shall we go to London?
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1815. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Guy Mannering</i>, ch. xxviii. ‘<span class="sc">Bing</span> out and tour [go out and watch] ye auld devil, and see that nobody has scented.’
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1822. <span class="sc">Scott</span>, <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, ch. xvii. ‘I smell a spy,’ replied the other, looking at Nigel.… ‘<span class="sc">Bing avast, bing avast!</span>’ replied his companion.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By-Scape</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A bastard. <i>Cf.</i>, <span class="sc">By-blow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1646. <span class="sc">Earl Monm.</span>, <i>Biondi’s List.</i>, VI., ix., 197. For his being God-son to her Brother, and … for that (being very
+fair) she thought him a <span class="sc">by-scape</span> of his. [<span class="asc">M.</span>]
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By-Slip</b>, <i>subs.</i> (old).—A bastard. <i>See</i> <span class="sc">By-blow</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="cit">1692. <span class="sc">Hacket</span>, <i>Life of Williams</i>, ii., 37. As Pope Paul the Third carried himself to his ungracious <span class="sc">by-slips</span> (an Incubus could not have begot worse), who made no further inquisition after their
+horrid facts but to say, They learnt it not of him.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>Byte.</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Bit</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By the Ever-Living Jumping Moses!</b> <i>intj. phr.</i>—An effective ejaculation and moral waste-pipe for interior passion or wrath is seen
+in the exclamation, <span class="sc">by the ever-living jumping Moses!</span>—a harmless phrase, that for its length expends a considerable quantity of fiery anger.—<i>Hotten.</i>
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By the Living Jingo!</b> or <b>By Jingo!</b>—<i>See</i> <span class="sc">Jingo</span>.
+</p>
+<p class="main"><b>By the Wind</b>, <i>phr.</i> (nautical).—Hard up; in difficulties. [In reference to the wind being formerly the
+most important element of success in a sailor’s calling.]
+</p>
+<p class="trailer center"><span class="sc">End of Vol. I.</span></p>
+<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb406">[<a href="#pb406">406</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="back">
+<div class="div1 abbreviations">
+<div class="divHead">
+<h2 class="main">List of Abbreviations, Signs, etc.</h2>
+<table class="splitListTable">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<ul>
+<li><i>Adj.</i> = Adjective. </li>
+<li><i>Adj. phr.</i> = Adjectival phrase. </li>
+<li><i>Adv.</i> = Adverb. </li>
+<li><i>Adv. phr.</i> = Adverbial phrase. </li>
+<li><i>C. c.</i> = <i>Circa</i>, about. </li>
+<li><i>Cf.</i> <i>cf.</i> = <i lang="la">Confer</i>, compare. </li>
+<li><i>f.</i> = feminine. </li>
+<li>F. or Fr. = French. </li>
+<li>Heb. = Hebrew. </li>
+<li><i>imp.</i> = imperative. </li>
+<li><i>int.</i> = interjection. </li>
+<li><i>intr.</i> = intransitive. </li>
+<li>It. = Italian. </li>
+<li>lit. = literally. </li>
+<li>[<span class="asc">M.</span>] = Murray (quoted from <i>New English Dictionary</i>). </li>
+</ul>
+</td>
+<td>
+<ul>
+<li><i>m.</i> = masculine. </li>
+<li><span class="asc">M.E.</span> = Middle English. </li>
+<li><span class="asc">M.H.G.</span> = Middle High German. </li>
+<li>[<span class="asc">N.</span>] = Nares (quoted from). </li>
+<li><span class="asc">O.E.</span> = Old English. </li>
+<li><span class="asc">O.H.G.</span> = Old High German. </li>
+<li><i>ppl.</i> = participial or participle. </li>
+<li><i>phr.</i> = phrase. </li>
+<li><i>pl.</i> = plural. </li>
+<li>pop. = popular. </li>
+<li><i>ppl. adj.</i> = participial adjective. </li>
+<li>(<i>q.v.</i>) = <i lang="la">quod vide</i>, which see. </li>
+<li><i>subs.</i> = substantive. </li>
+<li><i>trans.</i> = transitive. </li>
+<li><span class="asc">U.S.</span> or <span class="asc">U.S.A.</span> = United States of America. </li>
+</ul>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<div class="divBody">
+<p>When a word is printed in small capitals it should be referred to for further information.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div1 imprint">
+<div class="divBody">
+<p class="first center small">THOS. POULTER AND SONS, LIMITED, 6, ARTHUR STREET WEST, LONDON BRIDGE, E.C.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="transcriberNote">
+<h2 class="main">Colophon</h2>
+<p>The new cover art included with this eBook is hereby granted to the public domain.</p>
+<h3 class="main">Revision History</h3>
+<ul>
+<li>2026-02-08 Started. </li>
+</ul>
+<h3 class="main">Corrections</h3>
+<p>The following 229 corrections have been applied to the text:</p>
+<table class="correctionTable">
+<tr>
+<th>Page</th>
+<th>Source</th>
+<th>Correction</th>
+<th>Edit distance</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e268">x</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e293">x</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="de">Gaunerspräche</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="de">Gaunersprache</td>
+<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e303">x</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e2761">19</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e10665">69</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="pt">Calaõ</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="pt">Calão</td>
+<td class="bottom">2 / 0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e434">2</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">”</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e542">3</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Hélöise</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Héloïse</td>
+<td class="bottom">2 / 0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><i title="48 occurrences">Passim.
+</i></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e988">7</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e37927">226</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e72053">401</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e72774">404</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">”</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1109">8</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Greeek</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Greek</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1130">8</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Semetic</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Semitic</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1426">10</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e3272">22</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e18383">116</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e24502">154</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e40442">240</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e47363">278</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">,</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1496">11</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1654">12</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e52200">303</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e54351">314</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Deleted</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1503">11</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">t oits</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">to its</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1807">13</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e5062">34</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e6299">43</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e9131">60</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e44477">264</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Deleted</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><i title="38 occurrences">Passim.
+</i></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1828">13</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e8422">56</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e26569">166</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e36741">220</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e37176">222</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e61070">348</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e61348">350</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e67213">376</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">]</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e1977">14</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">;</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e2030">14</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e11208">72</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e12947">82</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e19028">120</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">)</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e2551">18</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">(</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Deleted</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e2783">19</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e2843">19</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e3427">23</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e10313">67</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e12580">80</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e37025">221</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e43494">259</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e70410">393</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e70413">393</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">,</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e3390">23</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e11092">71</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e12146">77</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e17742">113</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e38513">229</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e64049">362</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">,</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e3545">24</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">[</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e4070">28</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">(</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e4331">30</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">subst.</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">subs.</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e4586">31</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">, subs.</td>
+<td class="bottom">7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e4831">32</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">synomyous</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">synonymous</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e5065">34</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e6427">44</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e7545">50</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e11057">71</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e17474">111</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e18020">114</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e20918">133</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e43264">257</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e51334">299</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e61620">351</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e65060">367</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e70569">394</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">‘</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e5767">39</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e44711">265</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e47170">277</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e57298">329</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e59560">341</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e59577">341</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e59594">341</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e59645">341</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e67698">379</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.)</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">).</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e5884">39</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">adaptibility</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">adaptability</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e6323">43</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">judical</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">judicial</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e6470">44</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’)</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e7525">50</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">onself</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">oneself</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e7926">52</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">scintilation</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">scintillation</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e8427">56</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’]</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">]’</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e9105">60</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">refering</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">referring</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e9483">63</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Etymolygists</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Etymologists</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e10735">69</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e11545">73</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e53884">312</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e60022">343</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e66382">373</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">onamatopoetic</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">onomatopoetic</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e10772">70</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">philsopher</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">philosopher</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e12306">78</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Montkbarns</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Monkbarns</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e12930">82</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">,</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Deleted</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e15434">98</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">1881</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">1818</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e15630">99</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Viginians</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Virginians</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e16601">106</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">engagment</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">engagement</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e17012">109</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="fr">Etre</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="fr">Être</td>
+<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e17528">111</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">calle</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">called</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e18790">119</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Palœotheria</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Palæotheria</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e20163">128</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">spectales</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">spectacles</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e21995">140</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">?</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e23269">147</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">o hers</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">others</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e24579">154</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’?</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">?’</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e31321">191</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">n</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">in</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e31819">193</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">:</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e37924">226</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e59828">342</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e72048">401</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e72057">401</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e72769">404</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e72777">404</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">‘</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">“</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e38312">228</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Tristam</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Tristram</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e38609">229</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">deluyed</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">deluged</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e40974">245</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Andromicus</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Andronicus</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e42543">254</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en"> </td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e44681">265</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="nl">bloffen</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="nl">blaffen</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e44685">265</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="de">verlüffen</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="de">verblüffen</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e46004">271</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">hin</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">him</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e47756">280</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">S [<span class="sc">ala</span>]</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en"><span class="sc">S[ala]</span></td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e48997">287</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">pretex</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">pretext</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e52723">306</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">.’</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’.</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e56069">323</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="nl">draagd’er</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="nl">draagt ’er</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e56160">323</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">i</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">is</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e56687">326</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">absolulely</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">absolutely</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e56798">327</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="grc">οὶκοδομεἴυ</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="grc">οἰκοδομεῖν</td>
+<td class="bottom">3 / 1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e58576">336</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">trag dy</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">tragedy</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e59207">339</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">bbown</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">brown</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e59834">342</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e72060">401</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd33e72781">404</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">”</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e60855">346</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">hesat</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">he sat</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e64871">366</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">There</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">They</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e65229">368</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">’ ”</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">” ’</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e67792">380</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Arrogrant</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Arrogant</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e68273">382</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">Cotnty</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">County</td>
+<td class="bottom">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd33e71102">396</a></td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">would’nt</td>
+<td class="width40 bottom" lang="en">wouldn’t</td>
+<td class="bottom">2</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78263 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #78263
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78263)