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diff --git a/78263-0.txt b/78263-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35278bf --- /dev/null +++ b/78263-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,30449 @@ +*** 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 *** |