Slang & Its Analogues Vol. 1 Revised (1909)

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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 & W. E. HENLEY

REVISED EDITION 1909 (Original Issue 1890)

VOL. I.—A.-B.

PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

mcmix.

Reference

A Dictionary of »lansr annd Its Analogues.

A per se, ///r. (old colloquial).— The best ; firstclass; Al {q.v.) : see Tip-top. The usage became popular and was extended to other vocables ; cf. quots. 1602 and 1603. As stibs. =a paragon.

c. 1470. Blind Harry, Wallace [Jamieson (1869), ²°1The Aperse of Scotland [Wallace].

1475. Henryson (or Henderson), Test. Cresseide [Speght, CJiaucer, v. 78]. The floure and A per se of Troie and Greece.

c. 1488. Crying of A ne Playe [Laing, Early Pop. Poet, Scotland, ii. 16]. The lampe, and A per se of this regioun, in al degre, Of welefair, and of honestie, Renowne, and riche aray.

c. 1500. MS. Cantab, Ff. ii. 38, f. 51. [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., i. 145]. Thow schalt be an apersey, my sone, In mylys ij or thre.

1501. Dunbar, Poems, Suppt. (1865), 277. London, thowe arte of townes A per se.

1567. Drant, Horace Epist., ii. 1. If they make them A per se Aes that none are like to them.

1568. Alex. Scot, Poems (1821), 34. That bird of bliss in beauty is In erd the only A per se.

1602. Shakspeare, Tro. and Cress., i. 2. They say he is a very man per se, And stands alone.

1603. H. Petowe, Eliza's Funeral [Brydges, Restituta, iii. 26]. And singing mourne Eliza's funerall, The E per se of all that ere hath beene.

1610. Mirr.for Mag., 371. Beholde me, Baldwine, A per se of my age.

1699. King, Furmetary, ii. And per se and alone, as poets use.

1797. Inchbald, Wives, etc., ii. 1. She is willing to part and divide her love, share and share alike ; but B will have all or none ; so poor A must remain A by herself A.

Ai, phr. (common).—Prime ; first-class ; of the best (see quot.

1903). Also first class, letter

A ; Ai copper-bottomed ; and

Ai and no mistake : Fr.

marqué à VA (money coined in Paris was formerly stamped with an A). Cf. A per se.

1369. Chaucer, Troilus and Creseide, 171. Right as our first letter is now an A, In beautie first so stood she makeles.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, xliii. Broached molasses, cask No. 1, letter A.

1837. Dickens, Pickwick (1847), 341. ' He must be a first-rater,'said Sam. ' Ai,' replied Mr. Roker.

A per se.

Aaron.

1851. Stowe, Dred., i. 313. An A

number one COok, and no mistake.

1855. Taylor, Still Waters, ii. In short, you're Ai, and I'm nobody.

1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, 11. vi. I want to be Ai at cricket, and football, and all the other games.

1861. Reynolds's, 24 Nov. The Chinese police are certainly Ai at such work.

1869. Trollope, Phineas Finn, xliii. I never heard such a word before from the lips of a young lady. Not as Ai? I thought it simply meant very good. . . . Ai is a ship—a ship that is very good.

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 229. 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.

1882. Punch, lxxxii. 181, 1. I give him a first-rate bottle of claret, a cup of Ai coffee, a glass of old cognac, and the best cigar money can buy, and then I . . . find that his candid opinion coincides with my own.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 46. She sported her number one gloss on her hair, And her very best blush on her cheek.

1900. Nisbet, Sheep's Clothing-, 88. How proud he was of his sweetheart as he listened ! She was Ai at Lloyd's, and no mistake about it.

1903. Lloyd's Register, 'Key.' The character A denotes New Ships, or Ships Renewed or Restored. The Stores of Vessels are denoted by the figures 1 and 2 ; i signifying that the Vessel is well and sufficiently found.

2. (Fenian : obsolete). — See quot. Sometimes (erroneously) No. i.

c. 1866. H. J. Byron, MS. note [Hotten's Slang Diet., now in Brit. Mus.], s.v. Ai. A title for the commander of 900 men.

Not knowing great a (or

a B) from a buli.'s-foot (or

a battledore), phr. (old).— Ignorant ; illiterate. See B.

c. 1401. MS. Digby, 41, f. 5. I know not an A from the wynd-myi.nk, Ne a_B prom a hole-foot, I trowe, nc thiself not her.

1609. Dekker, Guts Home Booke, 3. You shall not neede to buy bookes, no, scorne to distinguish a B from a battledore.

1630. Taylor, On Coryat. ' To the gentlemen readers that understand a B from a battledore ! '

1660. Howell, Eng. Prov., 16. He

knoweth not a B from a battledoor.

1846. Brackenbridge, Mod. Chiv., 43. There were members who scarcely knew B from a bull's-foot.

What with a, and what with B. See What.

To get one's a, verb. phr. (Harrow). — To pass a certain standard in the gymnasium : the next step is to the Gymnasium Eight.

To get a, verb. phr. (Felsted School).—To be (practically) free of all restriction as to bounds : nominally the other bounds were, B = the ordinary limit, the roads about a mile from the school ; C = punishment bounds, confinement to the cricket field and playground ; and D = confinement to the old school-house playground, one of the commonest forms of punishment till 1876, when the present school-house was opened. C and D were also known respectively as Mongrel and Quod.

Aaron, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A

cadger (q.v.); a beggar mountain-guide. [Gesenius : 'prob. Heb. aaron is a derivative of IIäron = a mountaineer.']

2. (thieves').—The leader of a gang: always with 'the' as a prefix.

3. (old). — a leader of the church.

Aaron s-rod. 3 Abbey.

1607. Topsell, Four-footed Beasts, ' Ep. Dedic' Aarons and such as sit at the Helme of the Church ... I mean both Bishops and Doctors.

Aaron's-rod, subs. phr. (venery). —The penis : see Prick.

Aars. See Arse.

A.B., subs. phr. (nautical). — 'An A[ble]-b[odied] ' seaman.

1875. Chambers' Jo., 627. Of all the European sailors by far the most reliable were five stalwart A.B.'s.

abaa, subs, and adj. (common).— A term of contempt : generic. As subs. = a non-unionist : as adj. = vile, silly.

Aback. To take aback, verb, phr. (colloquial).—To surprise ; to check : suddenly and forcibly. [Orig. nautical : in which sense (O.E.D.) dating from 1754.]

1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 21. The boy, in sea phrase, was taken all aback.

1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, 52. I don't think I was ever so taken aback in all my life.

1878. Bosworth Smith, Carthage, 95. For the moment taken aback by the strange appearance.

Abacter (or Abactor), sabs. (old). —See quot. 1691.

1659. Hammond, On Psalms, cxliv. 14. 696. Invaders and abactors, whose breaking in . . is attended with the cattels passing through or going out.

1691. Blount, Law Diet. Abactors (abactores) were stealers of Cattle or Beasts, by Herds, or great numbers ; and were distinguished from Fures.

1818. Annual Register. {Abridged. One of the tricks of the abacters of old Smithfield was the driving a bullock into a jeweller's or other shop, and during the confusion the abacter's confederates would help themselves to any valuables handy . . . one shop was so served three times in the year.]

1829. Lamb, Corr. with Procter, 29 Jan. I thought . . . the abactor or abactor's wife {vide Ainsworth) would suppose she had heard something ; and I have delicacy for a sheep-stealer.

Abaddon, subs, (thieves'). — A thief turned informer ; a snitcher (q.v.). [Obviously a Jew fence's punning reference to Abaddon = the ' angel of the bottomless pit ' : Rev. ix. 11.]

Abandannad (or Abandannaad), subs, (thieves').—i. A handkerchief (or bandanna) thief. Hence (2) a petty thief. [Brewer : ' A contraction (sic) of a bandanna lad.']

Abandoned Habit, szibs. phr. (obsolete). — In pi. =spec. the riding demimonde in Rotten Row.

Abber, subs. (Harrow). — 1. An abstract ; (2) an absit (q.v.).'

Abbess (or Lady Abbess), subs. (old).—A bawd ; a stewardess of the stews (q.v.): cf. Abbot; Nun ; Sacristan, etc. (Grose).

1770. Foote, Lame Lover, i. Who should trip by but an abbess, well known about town, with a smart little nun.

1782. Wolcot [P. Pindar], Odes to the Pope, Ode ii. [IVorks (Dublin, 1795), 11. 492]. So an old abbess, for the rattling rakes, A tempting dish of human nature makes, And dresses up a luscious maid.

1821. Egan, Life in London, 11. 1. Those three nymphs . . . are three nuns ; and the plump female is of great notoriety, and generally designated the abbess.

1840. W. Kidd, London and all Its Dangers. Wretches who traffic in the souls and bodies of their helpless victims are called lady abbesses.

Abbey. To bring an abbey to a grange, verb. phr. (old).—To squander. Also able to buy an abbey (Ray: 'we speak it

Abbey-laird. 4 Abbot.

of an unthrift '). Among kindred expressions are : To bring a noble to ninepence ; to make of a lance a thorn ; to make of a pair of breeches a purse ; to thwite a mill-post to a pudding-prick ; ' His windmill is dwindled into a nut-cracker ' ; from abbess to lay-sister.

Abbey-laird, subs. phr. (old Scots). — An insolvent debtor : spec, of one sheltered in the sanctuary of Holyrood Abbey.

1709. Fountain h all, Decisions, u. 518. If he offered to go back to the Abbey, and was enticed to stay, and hindered to go.

c. 1776. Cock Laird [Herd, Ballads,

ii. 36]. When broken, frae care The fools are set free, When we make them cock lairds in the abbey, quoth she.

1861. Chambers, Dom. Ann. Scot.,

iii. 349. The Abbey lairds . . . were enabled to come forth on that day [Sunday], and mingle in their wonted society.

Abbey-lubber (or Loon), subs. (old).—An idler; a vagabond: orig. (prior to the Reformation) a lazy monk or hanger-on to a religious house. Hence abbeylubber-like = lazy, thriftless, ne'er-do-well. See Lubber.

1509. Barclay, Poems [Percy Soc, xxii. p. xxxvi]. [An] abbey lowne or limnier of a monke.

1538. Stakkky, England (1Z71), 131. The nuryschyng also of a gn.te sorte of idul AliiiEV-i.uwiAKVs wyth are apte to no thyng but ... to ete and drynke.

1563. The Burnynge 0/ Pau Us Church [Hali.iwei.i.J. The most of that which they did bestow was on the riche, and not the poore indedc . . . but lither LumiKKs that might worke and would not. In so much that it came into a commen proverbe to call him an aiiiiav-i.uiiiikk, that was idle, wel fed, a long lewd lither loiterer, that might worke and would not.

1570. IIaknabk Googk, Popish Kingdomc, ii. 21. So aiuiy lubber lvke they liue & Lordes they called bee.

1589. Nashe, Anat. Absur., 7. Those exiled Abbie-lubbers, from whose idle pens, proceded those worne out impressions of the feyned no where acts, of Arthur of the rounde table.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Archimat-initon-erastique, an Abbey-lubber, or Arch-frequenter of the Cloyster beefepot or beefe-boyler.

1648. Herrick, Hesperides, 'The Temple,' i. 128. Of Cloyster-Monks they have enow, I, and their Abby-Lubbers, too.

1655. Fuller, Church History, 1. v. 28. Abbey labourers, not Abbey-lubbers like their Successours in after-Ages.

1680. Dryden, Spanish Friar, iii. 3. This is ... no huge, overgrown abbey lubber ; this is but a diminutive sucking friar.

1693. Robertson, Phras. Gen., 446, A porridge-belly Friar, an abbey lubber.

1705. Hickeringill, Priest-Cr., 11. iv. 45. The Dissolution of Monasteries that fed Abby-Lubbers and wanton Nuns.

Abbot, subs. (old).—A bawd's man; a ponce (q.v.) : see Abbess. Whence abbot on

the cross (or croziered abbot) = the bully {(/.V.) of a brothel.

Abbot (or Lord) ok Misrule, subs. phr. (old).—The leader of the Christmas revels : see quots. Also (Scots) Abbot ok Unreason, and Fr. Abbé de Liesse ( = Abbot of Joy).

1591. Lyly, Endimion, v. 2. No Kpi, love is a lord ok misrule, and keepeth the Christmas in my corps.

1603. Stowe, London, 72. First, at Christmasse, there was in the kinge's house, wheresoever hee was lodged, a i.oKii or misrule, or maysler of merie disporters, and the like had ye in the house of every noble man, of honor or good worshippe, were he spirituall or temporall. —These lordes, beginning their rule on Alhollon eve, continued the same till the morrow after the feast of the Purification, commonly called Candlemas day. In all which space there were fine and subtile disguisings, maskes, and mummeries, etc.

Abbotts' Priory. 5

A bigail.

1822. Nares, Glossary, s.v. Misrule. There is little doubt that all these contrivances for encouraging and enlivening the sports of Christmas, were derived from the more ancient feast of the BoyBishop, which being found superstitious, and liable to various abuses, was put down by proclamation, in 1542.

Abbotts' Priory, subs. phr. (obsolete). — The King's Bench prison : Abbot's Park = the rules thereof (Grose, 1823, Bee). [Sir Charles Abbott, afterwards Lord Tenterden, was Lord C.-J. of the King's Bench, 1818.]

A, B, C (The), subs. phr. (common). — 1. The A, B, C ( = Alphabetical) Railway Guide.

2. (London). — An establishment of the Aerated Bread Company : orig. bakers, now refreshment caterers. Hence A. B.C.GiRL = a waitress therein.

3. (Christ's Hospital). — Ale, -5read and Cheese on ' going home night.'

4. (old).—Generic for beginnings. Thus, like (or as easy as) ABC = facile, as simple as learning the alphabet ; down to the ABC = down to first principles, or the simplest rudiments.

1595. Shakspeare, King John, i. 1. 196. And then comes answer like an Absey book.

1899. Whiteing, John Street, iv. He lacks everything—clothing, flesh to hang it on, all the amenities presumptively down to the ABC.

5. (venery).—The female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

Ab ear, verb, (colloquial or vulgar). —To endure ; to suffer. [O.E.D. : ' A word of honourable antiquity ; widely diffused in the

dialects ; in London reckoned as a vulgarism.' Quots. are given dated 8S5, 1175, and 1230, with a gap to 1836-7 infra.}

1836. Dickens, Sketches (1850), 151. 2. The young lady denied having formed any such engagements at all—she couldn't a bear the men, they were such deceivers.

1855. Atkinson, Whitby Glossary, s.v. She cannot abear that man, very much dislikes him.

1864. Tennyson, Northern Farmer, 64. I couldn abear to see it.

Abel. See Indorse.

Abelwhackets. See Ablewhackets.

Aberdeen Cutlet, subs. phr. (common).—A dried haddock : cf. Billingsgate pheasant.

Abigail, subs. (old).—A waitingwoman ; a lady's maid. [Abigail, a waiting gentlewoman in The Scornful Lady (1616) by Beaumont and Fletcher : also see I Sam. xxv. 24-31.] Hence Abigailship (Grose). Cf Andrew, Acres, etc.

1663. KiLLiGREW, Parsons Wedding, ii. 6 [Dodsley, Old Plays (1780), xi. 390]. The welcomest thing to Mrs. Abigail [a waiting woman], except Tib and Tom in the stock.

1666. Pepys, Diary, iv. 195. By coach to the King's play-house, and there saw ' The Scornful Lady ' well acted ; Doll Common doing Abigail most excellently, and Knipp the widow, very well.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iii. 6. I begin to smoke ye : thou art some forsaken Abigail we have dallied with. Ibid. (1700), Way of the World, v. 1. A botcher of second-hand marriages between Abigails and Andrews.

1694. Reply to Lad. and Bach. Petit. [Harl. Misc., iv. 440]. Whereas they [the chaplains] petition to be freed from any obligation to marry the chamber maid, we can by no means assent to it ; the Abigail, by immemorial custom, being a deodand, and belonging to holy Church.

Abingdon-law. 6 Abracadabra.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, i. 6. It is ten to one but there is an Abigail . . . that must be married.

1709. Ward, Terrœfilius, vi. n. Abigail . . . was Aminidab's servant till happening to uncover her Nakedness . . . he thought it best ... to take the Damsel to Wife.

1715. Addison, Drummer, ii. 1. Here comes Abigail, I must tease the baggage.

1727. Somerville, Fables, ' Officious Messenger.' Her ladyship began to call, For hartshorn and her Abigail.

1749. Smollett, Gil Bias (1812), iv. I know well enough how to behave with Abigails and actresses.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, xi. 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.

1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker (1815), 57. An antiquated Abigail dressed in her lady's cast clothes.

1803. Jane Porter, Thaddeus [Warne], 72. The appellation ' Mistress ' put her in mind of her . . . abigailship.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], iii. This precious Abigail . . . was just as young, just as pretty, and just as loose as her mistress.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, xxiii. At the end of that time the Abigail released me.

1837. Carlyle, Diamond Necklace. Mantua-maker, soubrette, court-beggar, fine lady Abigail, and scion of royalty.

1858. Eliot, Mr. Giljil's Love-Story, iii. Mrs. Sharp, then a blooming Abigail of three-and-thirty, entered her lady's private room.

1900. Lynch, High Stakes, viii. Van Duyn turned to the Abigail. ' May we open the window?' ' If the gentleman pleases,' the woman returned stiffly.

Abingdon-law, subs. phr. (old).— Summary punishment : cf. S'l'AK

FORD-law ; LyDFORD-LAW ;

Scarborough-warning, etc. [In 1645, '^or(l Essex and Waller held Abingdon, in Berks, against Charles I. The town was unsuccessfully attacked by Sir

Stephen Hawkins in 1644, and by prince Rupert in 1645. On these occasions the defenders put every Irish prisoner to death without trial. ]

Ablewhackets (or Abelwhackets), subs, (nautical : obsolete). —See quot. (Grose).

1867. Smyth, Sailors Word Book, s.v. Able-whackets. A popular sea game with cards, wherein the loser is beaten over the palms of the hands with a handkerchief tightly twisted like a rope. Very popular with horny-fisted sailors.

Aboard, adv. (old).—See quot.

1758. Dyche, Diet., s.v. Aboard. In sports and games this phrase signifies that the person or side in the game that was either none, or but few, has now got to be as many as the other.

About. See East (Suppt. ); Right ; Size.

Above. See Bend ; Par (Suppt.) ; Hooks ; Huckleberry ; Persimmon.

Abracadabra, subs. (old).—i. A cabalistic word, formerly used as a charm. Hence (2), any wordcharm, verbal jingle, gibberish, nonsense, or extravagancy.

.... Additional MSS. [Brit. Mus.], 5008. Mr. Banester sayth that he healed 200 in one yer of an ague, by hanging Abracadabra about ther necks, and wold stanch blood, or heal the toothake, althogh the partyes wer 10 myle of.

1687. Aubrey's Rcmaincs 0/ Gentilisme, 124 (1881). [In this work abracadabra is given arranged trianglewise, as a spell.] Ibid. (1696), Misc., 105. Abracadabra, a mysterious word, to which the superstitious in former times attributed a magical power to expel Diseases.

1711. Spectator, No. 22t. 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.

Abraham.

7 Abraham-man.

172-2. Def'oe, Journal 0/ the Plague [Brayley (1835), 56]. 'This mysterious word [abracadabra], which, written in the form of a triangle or a pyramid, was regarded as a talisman or charm of wonderful power. 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 Hemitritams.'

1829. Coleridge, Aids to Rcfl. (1848), i. 130. Leave him . . . to retaliate the nonsense of blasphemy with the abracadabra of presumption.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Lay of St. Dunstan.' The words of power ! ... I know there are three, And Abracadabra ... is one of them.

1879. Literary World, 5 Dec, 358, 2. The new abracadabra of science, ' organic evolution.'

Abraham, sues, (venery).—i. The penis : see Prick and cf. Abraham's bosom = the female pudendum.

2. (East End).—A cheap clothier's ; a slop {q.v.), or handme-down shop {q.v.). Hence, Abraham work = ill-paid work ; sweated labour {see Abrahamman).

Adj. (old). — i. ' Auburn ' : formerly written abern and abron. Also Abram and Abrahamcoloured.

1592. Kyd ['?], Soliman and Perseda [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), v. 363]. Where is the eldest son of Priam, That Abraham-coloured Trojan?

1599. Hall, Satires, m. v. 7. A lustie courtier whose curled head, With abron locks was fairely furnished.

1602. Middleton, Blurt, Master Constable. Over all A goodly, long, thick, Abraham-colour'd beard.

1607. Shakspeare, Coriolanus, ii. 3. 21. Some brown, some black, some Abram [folio 1683 'auburn '], some bald.

1627. Peacham, Complete Gent., 155. I shall pass to the exposition of certain colours—Abram-colour, i.e. brown, auburne or abborne, i.e., brown or brownblack.

1656. Lau. Price, Jack in a Box [Ashton, Humour, etc., 200]. Browne, or Abraham Colour, thats hälfe Nits and half Lice.

2. See Abraham-man.

Abraham Grains, subs, (thieves' : obsolete).—A publican brewing his own beer.

Abraham-man (Abram, Abramman or Ab ram-cove), subs. phr. (Old Cant).—See quots. : also Bedlam beggar {q.v.) and Tom of Bedlam. [These sturdy beggars roamed the country, begging and stealing, down to the period of the Civil Wars. ] Hence to sham (or do) Abram (or to Abraham sham) = (i) to feign madness ; and (2) to sham sick (nautical). Also Abram, adj. = ( i ) naked (Grose), (2) = mad, and (3) = shamming sick ; abrahamwork^ shams of all kinds, false pretences : whence to go on the Abraham su it = to resort to trick or artifice. See Abraham, subs. 2. [The Mad Tom of King Lear is an Abram-man : see Edgar's description, iii. 4.]

1567. Awdeley, Prat, of Vacabondes. An Abraham-man is he that walketh bare-armed, and bare-legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad, and caryeth a packe of wool, or a styck with baken on it, or such lyke toy, and nameth himself poore Tom.

1575. Harman, Caveat (1814), 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.

Abraham-man. 8

A broad.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 36 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Abram madde. He maunds Abram, he begs as a madde man.

1622. Fletcher, Beggars Bush, ii. i. Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon, Frater, or Abram-man ; I speak to all That stand in fair election for the title Of king of beggars.

1625. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, ii. 1. Are they padders or Abram-men that are your consorts?

1632. Dekker, Eng. Villanies. The Abraham cove is a lustie strong rogue who walketh with a slate about his quarrons.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, 1. v. 47 (1874). Abram, naked.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Abram-men, c. the seventeenth Order of the Canting-crew. Beggers antickly trick'd up with Ribbands, Red Tape, Foxtails, Rags, etc., pretending Madness to palliate their Thefts of Poultrey, Linnen, etc.

1724. E. Coles, Eng. Diet. Abram cove, naked or poor man.

1759. Goldsmith, Citizen 0/ the World, cxix. He swore that I understood my business perfectly well, but that I shammed Abraham merely to be idle.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Abram cove. A cant word among thieves, signifying a naked or poor man ; also a lusty strong rogue. Ibid. Abram sham. To pretend sickness.

1822. Nares, Glossary, s.v. Abraham-men. 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.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan s Well, xxi. There is a trick for you to find an Abkamman, and save sixpence when he begs as a disbanded seaman.

1839. Hood, Ode to Rae Wilson. I own I shake my sides at ranters, And treat sham Abk'am saints with wicked banters.

1849. Brönte, Shirley, xxxiii. Matthew, sceptic and scoffer, . . . muttered some words, amongst which the phrase shamming Abraham had been very distinctly audible.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Abraham Cove. A naked or poor man ; a beggar in rags.

1887. Henley, Villon s Good Night. You cadgers on the Abram-sham.

1899. Besant, Orange Girl, 148. Your Cousin Mathew is as mad as an Abram-man.

Abraham Newland, subs.—A bank note (Grose, Bee). [Abraham Newland was chief cashier to the Bank of England, from 1778 to 1807.] Hence to sham Abraham = to forge bank paper (see Abraham-man).

c. 1778-1807. DiBDiN, Song. I have heard people say that sham Abraham you may ; ah, every day ; But you must not sham Abraham Newland.

1829. Scott, Letter [Croker Papers, 11. 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-balm, sues. phr. (old). —Hanging : see Ladder.

Abraham's-bosom, subs. phr. (common). — 1. Dead and gone to heaven : cf. quot. and Luke xvi. 22.

1599. Shakspeare, Henry V., ii. 3. Nay, sure [FalstafFs] not in hell: he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom.

2. (venery).—The female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

Abraham's Eye, subs. phr. (old). —See quot.

15[?]. MS. on Magic. [Here given as a magical charm, the application of which was supposed to deprive a thief, who refused to confess his crime, of eyesight.]

Abraham's Willing, subs. phr. (rhyming). — A shilling: see Rhino.

Abroad, adv. (colloquial). — 1. Wide of the mark ; out of one's reckoning ; perplexed.

A broaded.

Ab sit.

1821. Fancy, 1. 255. In the fourth round he came in all abroad, and got a doubler in the bread-basket.

1837. Harham, Ingolds. Legends, ' Legend of Dover.' To be all abroad— to be 'stumped,' not to know where To go—so disgraced.

1838. Dickens, Nick. Nicklcby, vi. 33. I'm only a little abroad. Ibid. (1840), Old Curiosity Shop, lxi. ' My friend ! ' repeated Kit, ' you're all abroad, seemingly,' returned the other man.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, v. At the twelfth round the latter champion was all abroad . . . had lost all presence of mind, and power of attack or defence.

1876. M. Arnold, Lit. and Dogma, 244. The first deals successfully with nearly the whole of life, while the second is all abroad in it.

To come abroad, verb. phr. (Winchester Coll.).—To return to school work after sickness. When on the sick list he is continent {ç.v. ) : cf. Old Eng. usage = out of one's house or abode (Langland, Udall, Shakspeare). Also to be furked abroad = to be sent back to school after going ' Continent ' : an implication of shamming.

Abroaded, adj. and adv. (old).— See quot. and cf. Abroad.

1876. Manton, Slangiana, 11. Fashionable slang for a noble defaulter on the Continent (sic) to avoid creditors. It was police slang for convicts sent to a colonial or penal settlement, but it is also applied by thieves to imprisonment merely.

Abs, intj. (Winchester Coll.)—1. ' Absent ' : placed against the name of a boy when absent from school.

Verb. — i. To take away. Formerly, circa 1840, to abs a tolly (candle), meant to put it out ; now it = to take it away,

whether lighted or unlighted : the modern notion {q.v.) for putting it out being to ' dump ' it.

2. To get (or put) away ; generally in the imperative : e.g. ' abs ! ' Hence, to abs quickly = to stir one's stumps {q.v.) or to put things away with speed. To have one's wind absed = to get a breather {q.v.) in the stomach.

Abscotchalater, subs, (thieves'). — 'One in hiding from the police' : cf. Absquatulate.

Absence, subs. (Eton). — Namescalling.

1856. Lettsom, Floggawaya, 6. So the Lord of Puggawaugin Laid on them an extra absence.

1865. Pall Mall Gaz., S June, 10. Absence, as it is called at Eton, requiring the presence of the boys to answer their names.

1867. Collins, Public Schools, 174. The elevens were made up, as they best might, out of such adventurous spirits as dared to skip ' roll-calls ' and absence for the purpose.

Absent. Absent without leave, adv. phr. (thieves').— Said of one who has broken prison ; or (common) absconded.

Absentee, subs. (Australian).—A convict.

1837. Jas. Mudie, Felonry 0/ Nczu South IVales, vii. The ludicrous and affected philanthropy . . . advertising runaway convicts under the soft and gentle name of absentees.

Absent-minded Beggar, subs. /^.(common). —Tommy Atkins {q.v): popularised by Kipling's verses in aid of the wives and children of soldiers serving in South Africa during the Boer War.

Absit, subs. (Cambridge).—See quot.

A bskize.

Accident.

1886. Dickens's Dictionary 0/ the University 0/ 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 . . . is called an ' exeat.'

Abskize (or Abschize), verb (American).—To decamp : see Bunk. [Said to be of Western origin, circa 1833.]

Absquatulate (or Absquotilate), verb. (American).—To decamp; to skedaddle (q.v.). See Bunk.

1833. Bernard, The Kentuckian. [It is stated that 'absquatulate' was first used in this play. The 'book,' however, is ' un-get-at-able ' this side of the Atlantic]

1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S. xiv. What's the use of legs but to absquotilate with . . . when traps are sot for you?

1847. New York Herald [Bartlett]. W. was surrendered by his bail . . . fearing he was about to absquatulate.

1856. Dow, Sermons, 1. 247. Hope's brightest visions absquatulate with their golden promises . . . and leave not a shinplaster behind.

1861. Lamont, Seahorses, xi. 179 He . . . heard us . . . and prepared to absquatulate.

1867. Broughton, Cometh Up as a Flower. You'd thank me to absquatulate, as the Yankees say. ... I will in a minute.

1879. Punch, 18 Jan., 23. 1. I hope I may be occasionally permitted to enjoy it again. Bows, and absquatulates.

1884. D. Telegraph, 20 August, 6. 1. In Rabelaisian phrase, 'absquashed and

absquatulated.'

Abuse, subs, (old : now mainly conventional). — 1.— Defloration ; (2) copulation ; and (3) masturbation. As verb = (l) to violate; (2) to copulate ; and (3) to eric (q.v.). Hence abuser = (1) a

seducer, a ravisher ; (2) a mutton monger (q.V.) ; and (3) a masturbât or.

1553. Lyndesay, Monarchie, i. 1236. Quhow men and wemen schamefullye Abusit thame selfis vnnaturallye.

1580. Sidney, Arc, 11. Was it not enough for him to have deceived me, and through the deceit abused me, and after the abuse forsaken me?

1608. Fletcher, FaithfulShcph.,y 230. Retire awhile Behind this Bush, till we have known that vile Abuser of young Maidens.

1611. Bible, Judges xix. 25. And abused her all the night until the morning. Ibid., i Cor. vi. 9. Nor adulterers . . . nor abusers of themselves with mankind.

1751. Oiambers' Cycl., s.v. Abuse. Self-abuse is a phrase used by some late writers for the crime of self-pollution.

1767. Fordyce, Sermons to Young Women, 1. i. 9. He that abuses you dishonours his mother.

Academy, subs, (old). —i. A gang of thieves ; (2) a rendezvous for thieves, harlots, or gamesters; and (3)a prison. Hence academician = (i)a thief ; and (2) a harlot. Also buzzing-academy = a training school for pickpockets ; cantingacademy = (1) a common lodging-house, a dossing-ken (q.v.), or house of call for beggars, and (2) a likely house for

working (q.V.) ; floatingacademy = the hulks; character-academy = a resort of servants without characters, which are there concocted ; and gammoning-academy = a reformatory (B. E., Grose, Bee, Matsell).

1668. Lestrange, Qucvcdo (1678), 143. Gaming Ordinaries are called Academies.

Accident, subs, (conventional).— i. Seduction ; and (2) = a bastard : see By-BLOW.

Accommodate. 11 Account.

Accommodate, verb, (old colloquial : now recognised). — i. To equip ; to supply ; to provide. [Jonson, Discoveries : one of ' the perfumed terms of the time.' Halliwell : the indefinite use is well ridiculed by Bardolph's vain attempt to define it (see quot. ^l597)'^cf(modern) to accommodate with a loan, or with cash for a cheque.]

1597. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., iii. 2. 77. Shal. Accommodated ! it comes of ' accomraodo ' : very good : a good phrase. Bard. Pardon me, sir : I have heard the word . . . Accommodated ; that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated ; or when a man is, being, whereby a' may be thought to be accommodated ; which is an excellent thing.

1598. Jonson, Every Man, i. 4. Hostess, accommodate us with another bed-staff here quickly. Lend us another bed-staffe—the woman does not understand the words of action. Ibid. (1601), Poetaster, iii. 1. Here's all I have, Captain, some five nd twenty ; pray, sir, will you present and accommodate it unto the gentleman ?

1627. Lisander and Calister, iii. 43. To goe unto Paris to accommodate him there of such things as were most necessary.

1672. Jordan, Lond. Triumph. [Heath, Grocers' Comp, (i860), 489.] Three score and six poor men, pensioners, accommodated with Gowns and Caps.

1725. Defoe, Voy. Round World (1840), 269. We had wax candles brought in to accommodate us with light.

1794. Williams, Hist. Vermont, 94. His hind feet are accommodated with webs.

1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words, etc., s.v. Accommodate. A very fashionable word in Shakspeare's time, ridiculed both by him and Ben Jonson.

2. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Accommodate or Accommodation. In the Sporting World it is to part a bet, or to let a person go halves (that is to accommodate him) in a bet that is likely to come off successful. It is also, in an ironical manner, to believe a person when you are well assured he is uttering a lie ; by observing you believe what he is saying, merely to accommodate him.

3. (venery).—To serve (q.v.) a woman : see Greens and Ride. Also lady of accommodating morals = a prostitute : j^Tart ; accommodation house = a

bed-house (q.V.).

1823. Bee, Diet. Turf, s.v. Aunt ... an accommodation-house, where half-modest women resort, as to a relative or aunt's. Ibid. Tubbs (Mrs.)—any lady who's home is 'an accommodation' to persons whose desire of seclusion is temporary.

Accompany, verb. (euphemistic).—To cohabit: see Greens and Ride.

c. 1500. Remédie of Loue [Chalmers, i. 542]. If she be not accompanide, How accompanied, not with yong men, But with maidens, I meane or women.

1634. Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 374. The phasma . . . accompanies her, at least as she imagines.

1660. Coke, Power and Subj., i6r. We teach, that upon Festival and Fasting times every man forbear to accompany his wife.

1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., v. [He] loved her and accompanied with her only, till he married Elfrida.

Account. To cast up accounts (one's gorge, or reckoning), verb. phr. (Old Cant).— i. To vomit; to cat (or shoot the CAt)(<7.z;. ) : orig. to cast, thence by punning extension (Ray, Grose). Also (nautical) to audit one's accounts at the Court of Neptune.

1484. Caxton, Curial, 6. We ete so gredyly . . . that otherwhyle we caste it vp agayn.

1594. Lyi.y, Mother Bombie, ii. 1. I carouse to Prisius . . . wee shall cast up our accounts, and discharge our stomackes, like men that can digest anything.

1597. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., i. 3. 96. Thou beastly feeder, art so full of him That thou provokst thyself to cast him up ?

Account.

Accustom.

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, v. 1. I would not have 'em cast up their accounts here, for more than they mean to be drunk this twelvemonth.

162g. Earle, Micro., 56. 'A Meere Emptie Wit ' [Arber], So. A nauseating stomacke . . . where there is nothing to cast vp.

1633. Rogers, Treat. Sacr., i. 12. Searches himselfe and casts up his gorge.

1674. Hogan-Moganides, 49. She, whilst in Womb the Hogan mounts, Began to cast up her Accounts . . . With gulps and gripes spewing her guts out.

1690. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xxii. Poor Panulfe fairly cast up his accounts, and gave up his halfpenny.

1808. R. Anderson, Cumb. Ball, 26. The breyde she kest up her accounts In Rachel's lap.

2. (thieves').—To turn Queen's evidence.

To go on the account, verb, phr. (old nautical).—To join a filibustering or buccaneering expedition ; to turn pirate. [Ogilvie : '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, xx. The persecuted animals [rats] bolted above ground : the terrier accounted for one, the keeper for another.

1858. Times, 19 Nov., ' Letter from Lahore.' In the course of one week they were hunted up and accounted for ; and you know that in Punjab phraseology accounting kok means the extreme fate due to mutineers.

TO give a GOOD account OF,

verb. phr. (sporting). To be successful ; to do one's duty by : e.g. 'The stable gave a good ACCOUNT of their trainer.'

1684. Scanderbeg Rediznvus, iv. Si. Offering that with an Army of 60,000 . . . he did not doubt but to give a good account of this Summers Campaign.

1809. Mai.kin, Gil Bias IRouti.edge], 92. I will give you a good account of her. ... I long to have a grapple with a beauty.

Accouple, verb, (venery).—To copulate : see Greens and Ride. Hence accouplement = cohabitation.

1483. Caxton, Gold Leg., 347. 4. This excellence that virgynyte had as to the respect of thaccouplement of mariage appiereth by manyfold comparacion.

1525. More, Rich. III. [Works (^x557)i 63. 2]. Lawfull accoupling & . . . other things, which the doctor . . . rather signified than fully explaned.

1576. Lambarde, Peram., 'Kent' (1826), 339. The lawe of God maketh the accouplement honorable amongst all men.

1594. R. Carew, Men's Wits (1616), 318. If the father . . . take to wife a woman cold and moist in the third degree, the sonne borne of such an accouplement, shalbe most vntoward.

1613. Finch, Law (1636), 369. They were never accoupled in lawfull matrimonie.

Accoutrement, subs. (Old Cant. — B. E. ).—In />/. = 'fine rigging (now) for Men or Women, (formerly) only Trappings for Horses. Wellaccoutred, c. gentilly dress'd.' [A recognised usage from the middle of the 16th century.]

Accumulative, subs. (American). —A sort of journalistic sparring match ; a codicil ((/.v.).

Accumulator, subs, (racing).—A backer, successful with one horse, carrying forward the stakes to another event.

Accustom, verb, (euphemistic).— To cohabit : see Ride.

Ace.

Ackman.

1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., iii. Much better do we Britons fulfil the work of nature than you Romans ; we, with the best men, accustom openly ; you, with the basest, commit private adultery.

Ace, subs. (old).—i. The smallest standard of value : also ambsace : see rap, straw, etc. Hence to bate an ace = to make a slight reduction : also ' bate me an ace, quoth Bolton ' = a derisive retort ; within an ace (or amb's-ace) = nearly, within a shade ; see Ames Ace.

1528. More, Heresies [Works (1557), 170. 2]. I will not muche sticke with you for one ace better.

1570. Edwards, Damon andPithias [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), iv. 77]. Nay, there hate an ace (quod Bolton) ; I can wear a horn and blow it not.

1579. Tomson, Calvin s Serin., Tim. 13. 2. Such as did their best to be an ace above Timothie.

1587. Gascoigne, Steele Glas. [Chalmers, Eng. Poet., ii. 559. 2]. Better loke of, than loke an ace to farre.

1592. Shakspeare, Mid. Night's Dream, v. 1. 314. Less than an ace man ; for he is dead : he is nothing.

c. 1600. Camden, Reinains, ' Proverbs ' [Smith (1870), 319]. Bate me an

ace Of that, quoth bolton.

1615. H. P[arrot]. Mastive. A pamphlet was of proverbs penn'd by Polton, Wherein he thought all sorts included were ; Until one told him Bate m'an ace, quoth Bolton : Indeed (said he) that proverb is not there.

r6i6. Haughton, Engl, for my Money, ii. 2. Yet a man may want of his will, and bate an ace of his wish.

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., Dem. (1893), 25. I may be peradventure an ace before thee.

^I633Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1. Go to, I will not bate him an ace on't.

1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke (1875), iv. 60. The exposer has not bated him an ace.

1679. Trial of Langhorn, 18. His Wife was but aumes ace turned from a devil.

r698. Vanbrugh, JEsop, v. 1. [Routledge, 383]. Reduced within ambs-ace of hanging or drowning.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, i. 184. I was within an ace of being talked to death.

1733. North, Lives of Norths (1826), in. 323. Bating him that ace he was truly a great man. Ibid., Examen, i. iii. 158. His Lordship was within Amsace of being put in the plot.

1737. Aquar. Naturalist, ' Dragon of Wantley ' (1858), 355. The Corporation worshipful He valued not an ace.

1800. Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent, 28. Within ames-ace of getting quit . . . of all his enemies.

1824. Irving, Tales of Travel, 11. 43. I came within an ace of making my fortune.

1880. Manchester Guard., 30 Oct. Within an ace of being carried into execution.

2. (venery). — The female pudendum : also ace of spades (q.v.): see Monosyllable. Hence to play one's ace and take the Jack (q. v. ) = to receive a man : see Greens.

See Ames-ace.

Ace of Spades, subs. phr. (old).— i. A widow (Grose, Matsell).

2. (common).—A black-haired woman.

3. See Ace, sense 2.

Ack, intj. (Christ's Hospital).— No ! refusal of a request, e.g., ' Lend me your book.' ' Ack ! '

Ackman (Ackpirate or Ackru ff), subs. (old). — A freshwater thief or pirate (Grose and Clark Russell). [Cf. dialectic Acker = flood-tide, a bore, and Ark.]

Acknowledge. 14

Across.

Acknowledge. To acknowledge the corn, verb. phr. (American). — To confess ; to make an admission : as to a charge, failure, etc.

1846. Nciu York Herald, 27 June. The Evening Mirror very naively comes out and acknowledges the corn.

1848. Pickings from the Picayune, 80. Enough, said the Captain. I'm . . . gloriously hoaxed. I acknowledge the corn.

i860. 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, 361. Acknowledge the corn, to confess a charge or imputation.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, 47. In 1828 . . . Congress discussing the principle of Protection . . . Mr. Wickliffe jumped up and said : ' Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge the corn.'

1883. Sala, Living London, 97. Mr. Porter acknowledges the corn as regards his fourteen days' imprisonment, and is forgiven by his loving consort.

Acock-horse (or Acock), adv. (colloquial). — 1. See quot. 1847 ; also (2) defiantly.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. // est à Cheval, hee is set on cock-horse ; hee is all a hoight, hee now begins to flaunt it.

1658. T. Wall, God's Rev. Enem. Ch., 41. There is no tyrannie like to that of a slave, whom vilany hath set a cockhorse.

1683. E. Hooker [Pordage, Myst. Div., 22, Pref.]. Welth that rideth up a-cock-hors (pass by the term) while Worth holdeth but the stirrup.

1829. Thompson, Exer. (1842), 1. 10. The outbreak of an oppressed party, and setting it a-cock-horse on the oppressing one.

1846. Jf.rrold, Chron. Clovcrn [Works (1864), iv. 379]. A man, who, on his outstart in life, sets his hat acock—a man who defies Hymen and all his wicked wiles.

1847. Hai.liwell, Arch. Words, s.v. A-cock-horse. Triumphant . . . A somewhat slang expression, not quite obsolete.

Acorn. Horse foaled of an acorn, subs. phr. (Old Cant). —The gallows : see Ladder and Nubbing-cheat (Grose).

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xxviii. May I ride on a horse that was foaled of an acorn, if this be not as honest a cod as ever the ground went upon.

1760-61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, viii. I believe as how 'tis ... a devil incarnate. ... 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, Ixxxii. The cove ... is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled bv an acorn.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Shcppard [1889], 8. ... As to this little fellow . . . he shall never mount a horse foaled by an acorn, if I can help it.

Acquisitive, subs, (nonce?).— Plunder ; booty ; pickings.

i8[?]. Leman Rede, Man in Possession [Sunday Ti»ics]. The officers surprised them packing up the acquisitive.

Acreocracy, subs, (common).— The landed interest : cf. Snobocracy, Squattocracy, Mobocracy, Cottonocracy, Slavocracy, etc.

1878. Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine, 622. A plutocracy among the aristocracy and the acreocracy.

Acres, subs. (theatrical).—a coward : see quot.

1775. Sheridan, Rivals, v. 13. Acres . . . My valour is certainly going ! —it is sneaking off!—I feel it oozing out as it were at the palms of my hands.

Acrobat, subs, (music-hall).—A glass [i.e. 'tumbler'].

Across. Across lots, adv. phr. (American). — 1. By the shortest way ; (2) = completely.

Acteon.

Ad.

1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers. Joe looked roun' And see (acrost lots in a pond) ... A goose that on the water sot Ez ef awaitin' to be shot.

1854. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, i. 35 [to a grumbler]:—'You would cut across the lot, like a streak of lightning, if you had a chance.'

1857. Brigham Young, Speech [Bartlett]. I swore in Nauvoo, when my enemies were looking me in the face, that I would send them to hell across lots if they meddled with me.

1887. Scribncrs Magazine. ' I

didn't see Crossby go by.' 'He'd have

had to foot it by the path cross-lots,' replied Ezra, gravely.

1902. Lynch, High Stakes, xxxii. A person leaving ... by this footway ' across lots,' so to speak, can only reach the other street by going through Madame C.'s house.

Acteon, subs. (old).—A cuckold.

As verb = to cuckold, whence Acteon's badge = the stigma of cuckoldom (B. E., Grose, Bee).

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii. i. 122. Pist. Like Sir Action he . . . O, odious is the name ! Ford. What name, sir ? Pist. The horn.

1615. Nichols, Disc. Marr. [Harl. Misc., in. 274]. There is, in marriage, an inevitable destiny . . . which is either to be act^eoned, or not to be.

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., III. in. iv. i. Husband and Cuckold in that age, it seems, were reciprocal terms ; the Emperors themselves did wear Action's badge.

1633. Marmion, Fine Companion, v. 2. I turn'd him into an Act.'f.on at home, set a fair pair of horns on his head, and made him a tame beast.

c. 1658. Cleveland, Vit. Uxoris, x. And thou'lt actveon'd be.

1694 Motteux, Rabelais, v. xxxvii. I already see him, like another Actveon, horned, horny, hornified.

1699. Farquhar, Constant Conple, i. i. S»mg. We'll maintain you no longer. Stand. Then your wives shall, old Action.

1823. Bee, Diet. Turf, s.v. Action . . . There sits my Acteon, ignorant and hornified.

Acting Dicky, subs.phr. (nautical). — i. A temporary appointment which may, or may not, be confirmed by the Admiralty ; an ' acting-order.'

2. (legal).—A man acting in the name of an enrolled solicitor.

Active Citizen, subs, (common).— A louse : see Chates (Grose and Bee).

Act (The), subs, (conventional).— Copulation : see Greens and Ride. Also the act (or deed) of darkness, kind, love, etc.

1598. Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, i. 3. 84. When the work of generation was Between these woolly breeders in the act. Ibid. (1605), Lear, iii. 4. 87. A serving man . . . that . . . served the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her. Ibid. (1609), Pericles, iv. 6. Bawd. If she would— . . . Lys. If she'd do the deed of darkness, thou wouldst say.

1611. Bible, John viii. 4. This woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

d. 1638. Carew, Poems, ' Rapture.' And knows as well as Lais how to move her pliant body in the act of love.

Act of Parliament, subs. (old). —Small beer, five pints of which, by an Act of Parliament, a landlord was formerly obliged to give gratis to each soldier billetled upon him.

Actual, subs, (common).—Money ; generic : see Rhino. Also the actual.

1856. Dow, Sermons. As for happiness in this world without the rhino, the chink, or the actual, you might as soon think of winning a woman's affections in a raffle.

Ad (or Adver), subs, (printers').— An ' advertisement.'

Adam.

16 Adairis-ale.

1854. Dickens, Household Words, xiii. 9. The really interesting ads are in the body of the paper.

1874. Siliad, 200. 'Ads' as numerous as ocean sands.

1888. New York Times, 6 Ap. [The country editor's wife—] . . . reads the ads with the editor, Just to find what each has paid.

1901. Free Lance, 27 Ap. 79. 1. Some big Sheffield firm ought to be able to make a roaring ad out of this.

Adam, subs. (old). — i. See quot. : apparently a punning nonceword. [Sergeants wore buff (q.v.) livery.]

1593. Shakspeare, Comedy 0/ Errors, iv. 3. Not that Adam that kept the Paradise, but that Adam that keeps the prison.

2. See Adam Tiler.

3. (common).—A master man; a foreman.

See Adam's Ale.

The old Adam, subs. phr. (venery).—The penis: see Prick. Hence Adam's-arsenal=/w7?.t and testes ; Adam's own = the female pudendum : see Monosyllable ; to play at adam and Eve (to dance Adam's jig, to Adamise, or to Adam and Eve iT) = to copulate : see Greens and Ride ; adamed = married.

c. 1709. Ward, Merry Observations. Jan. Much Drinking, Kissing . . . and Merriment till Twelve at Night ; and great dancing of Father Adam's Jigg, both in London and the Country all Night after.

1781. Parker, Variegated Characters. ' What, are Moll and you adamed?'

Adam's-ale (-wine, or Adam),

subs. phr. (old).—Water (H. E. and Grose).

English Synonyms. Aqua pura ; aqua pompaginis ; fish broth ; pure element.

French Synonyms. Agout ; anisette de barbillon ; bouillon de canard ; essence de parapluie; lance ; limonade ; sirop (or ratafia) de grenouilles (de Paiguière or de baromètre).

German Synonym. Gänsewem.

1643. Prynne, sozi. Power of Pari., ii. 32. They have been . . . allowed onely a poore pittance of Adam's ale, and scarce a penny bread a day.

1685. Brown, Works, iv. 11. Your claret's too hot. Sirrah, drawer, go bring A cup of cold Adam from the next purling spring.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xlii. Good, harmless, sober Adam's liquor, ... in a word mere element.

1706. Ward, Wooden World, 72. There's no bringing him to his true Temperament again but by . . . the Bilboes, with a Week's Dieting upon Adam's Ale and dry Bisket.

c. 1712. Prior, Wandering Pilgrim. A Rechabite poor Will must live, And drink of Adam's ale.

1786-9. Wolcot [P. Pindar], Lousiad, ii. 453. Old Adam's beverage flows with pride.

183S. Becket, Paradise Lost, 54. On which, and sloes, they'd oft regale, And wash 'em down with Adam's Ale.

c. 1845. Hood, Drinking Song, iv. Will drink Adam's ale, and we'll get it pool measure.

1864. Biot[Davies, Supp. Gloss., s.v. Adam's Ale]. Prof. De Morgan mentioned this as illustrating China ale or beer as applied to tea. The expression was <|uitc new to M. Biot and other Frenchmen. He wrote back, 'L'Adam's ale qui charme tous ceux de nos philologues à oui je la raconte.'

1869. Blackmore, Loma Doone, Ixv. Even at the door of death he could not drink what Adam drank, so I gave him a little more eau-de-vie.

Adam's-apple. 17 Addle-brain.

1884. Daily Telegraph, i April, 5. 2. The spectral banquet graced by Adam's ale, or sick-room toast and water.

1886. John Coleman, Eiße, 1. ii. For my part, I stuck to Adam's ale, which Elfie brought from the spring.

Adam's-apple, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—See quots. Also Adam's-morsel.

1586. Beard, La Primandayc's Fr. Acad. (1594), 11. 94. The knot or joynte of the necke, or Adam's morsel.

^r755Johnson, Diet., s.v. Adam's apple, a prominent part of the throat.

1847. Craig, Diet., s.v. Adam'sapple, so called from a superstitious notion that a piece of the forbidden fruit stuck in Adam's throat and occasioned this prominence.

1865. D. Tcleg., 20 July. Having the noose adjusted and secured by tightening above his Adam's apple.

1872. Huxley, Physiol., vu. 178. The thyroid cartilage . . . constitutes what is commonly known as Adam's apple.

Adam's-ARMS, subs. phr. (common).—A spade; cf. old saw: ' When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman ? ' Hence Adam's profession = spade work (i.e., gardening)

1602. Hamlet, v. 1. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers : They hold up Adam's profession. He was the first that ever bore arms.

Adam Tiler (or Adam), subs. phr. (thieves').— See quots. (B. E. and Grose).

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew. Adam-tiler, c. a Pickpocket's Camerade, who receives Stolen Money or Goods, and scowers off with them.

1848. Sinks of London Laid Open, 96. Adam, a henchman, an accomplice.

Add. To add to the list (racing).—To geld; 'to add to the list of geldings in training.'

Addition, subs, (old colloquial).— See quot.

1704. Centlivre, Platonick Love, iii. i. Milliner. Be pleased to put on the audition, madam . . . Peeper. Addition is only paint, madam.

Addition, Division, and Silence! phr. (American).—A Philadelphia catch phrase : properly multiplication, division, and silence ! a reply given by William (Boss) Tweed when asked the proper qualification for a ring or trust.

1872. W. H. Kemble, Letter [Walsh, Lit. Curios., 16]. He understands addition, division and silence. [The New York Sun . . . interpreted the words as meaning the arts of the lobbyist joined to that kind of honour practised even by thieves.]

Addle. To addle the shoon, verb. phr. (colloquial—North).— To roll on the back from side to side : of horses. [In the South a horse is then said to ' earn a gallon of oats.']

Addle-egg, Addle egg and Idle head, subs. phr. (old colloquial). —Anything worthless ; an abortion.

1589. Pappe luith an Hatchet (1844), 11. These Martins were hatcht of addle egges, els could they not have such idle

heads.

1606. Shakspeare, Troilus and Cress., i. 2. 145. Pan. He esteems her no more than I esteem an addle egg. Cre. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens in the shell.

1617. Minshew, Diet., Ductor. An A'dle Egge q. idle egge, because it is good for nothing.

Addle-brain (-cove, -head, or -pate), subs. phr. (old).—A stupid bungler ; a dullard ; ' one full of Whimsies and Projects, and as empty of Wit ' (B. E. : also Grose). Hence as adj., addlebrained, etc.

Addle-plot. 18

Admiral.

1580. Lyly, Euphues [Arber]. [Oliphant, New English, i. 606. Adjectives are applied in new senses ... a broad jest, adle brainf.s].

1601. Death Huntingdon [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), viii. 219]. I and my mates Like addle-pates.

1630. Taylor, Works, 11. 252. 2. Let every idle addle-pated gull, With stinking sweet Tobacco stuffe his skull.

1641. Smectymnus, Vindic., etc., 16,205. Call them if you will, Popish fooles and addleheads.

1670. Hacket, Williams, 11. 166. Coachman-preachers . . . barberpreachers, and such addle-headedcompanions.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xlvi. Will the addle-pated wight have the grace to sheer off?

1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, v. 2. Oons ! if you with your addle-head don't know your own jewels, I, with my solid one, do.

1830. Warren, Diary Physician, v. I know it was every word composed by that abominable old addlehead, . . . a doodle that he is.

1835. Thompson, Exerc, m. 435. Calculate the addle-headedness of such inveterate old women, as should go about recommending to try Juno for dry nurse.

1848. Dickens, Letters (1880), 1. 202. I was quite addle-headed for the time being.

1849. Craik, Ogilvies, xviii. It is quite too overpowering for such addlepates as this gentleman and myself.

1866. Motley, Dutch Repub., iv. v. 633. The addle-brained Oberstem had confessed . . . the enormous blunder which he had committed.

1880. Disraeli, Endymion, 1. viii. Never mind Lord Waverly and such

addlebrains.

Addle-plot, subs. phr. (common). —A marplot; a spoil-sport; 'a Martin-mar-all' (B. E. and Grose).

Adjective Jerker, subs. phr. (literary).—A writer for the press; ink-slinger (<].v.).

1888. Globe Democrat [St Louis], 29 April. A three-line letter, which she sent to an adjective jerker on a society weekly.

Adjutant's Gig, subs. phr. (military).— The barrack roller: usually drawn by men under punishment.

Admiral. Admiral of the Blue, subs.phr. (old).—A tapster ; from the colour of his apron (Grose).

1731. R. Herrick, Poor Robin's Almanac. As soon as customers begin to stir, The admiral of the blue, cries, ' Coming, sir ! '

Admiral of the Narrow Seas, subs. phr. (nautical).—A man vomiting into the lap of his neighbour or vis-à-vis (Grose).

Admiral of the Red, subs, phr. (common).—A sot : see lushington.

Admiral of the Red, White, and Blue, subs. phr. (old).—A beadle; a hall-porter; and similar functionaries when sporting the livery of office.

Admiral of the White, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A whitefaced person ; a coward ; a woman in a faint.

Yellow Admiral, subs. phr. (naval).—A rear-admiral retired without service afloat after promotion. [Admirals of the red, the white, or the ulue were grades in naval rank prior to 1864, according to the colour of the ensign displayed : all admirals now fly the white ensign, and they rank as Admiral of the Fleet, Admiral, ViceAdmiral, and Rear-Admiral.]

Admiral's Regiment. 19

Adsum.

To tap the Admiral, verb, phr. (nautical).—i. To suck the monkey : see quots. Germ. Den Affen sangen. Also (2) to drink on the sly.

1834. Marryatt, Peter Simple, xxx. Mr. Simple, . . . I'll let you into a secret. Do you know what sucking the monkey means? No! . . . Well ... it is a term used among seamen for drinking rum out of cocoa nuts, the milk having been poured out, and the liquor substituted. Now do you comprehend why your men are tipsy?

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ' The Black Mosquetaire.' What the vulgar call sucking the monkey, Has much less effect on a man when he's funky.

1864. Hotten, Slang Diet., s.v. Admiral (To tap the). To suck liquor from a cask by a straw ... it was first done with the rum-cask in which the body of Admiral Lord Nelson was brought to England, and when the cask arrived the admiral was found ' high and dry.'

1883. Clark Russell, Sailors' Language, s.v. Tap the Admiral. Said of a man who would drink anything.

Admiral's Regiment (The), subs, phr. (military). — The Royal Marines ; also nicknamed ' The Little Grenadiers,' 'The Jollies,' and ' The Globe Rangers.'

Adonis, subs, (old)—1. A dandy ; an exquisite. Hence to adonize = to dandify ; to ' dress to kill ' : of men only.

[1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Adoniser, to adonise it ; to resemble Adonis, to imitate or counterfeit the graces, or beautie of Adonis.]

1623. Mabbe, Spanish Rogue, ii. 21. [A man becomes] an Adonis.

1668. Lestrange, Quevedo (1678), 12. Whatever you may think of a Devil, he passes ... for a very Adonis or Narcissus.

1761. Smollett, Gil Bias (1802), in. 418. Three good hours, at least, in adjusting and adonising myself.

1765. Tucker, Light 0/ Nature, 1. 457. Two such Adonises talking so sweetly of our reciprocal passion !

1818. S. E. Ferrier, Marriage, ix. Venus and the Graces, by Jove ! . . . now I must go and adonise a little myself.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, xl. He positively refused to face the ladies till he had changed ... so I left him up at the hall to adonize.

1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Aug., 9. 2. They may be Adonizing at Truefit's.

2. (obsolete).—A wig.

1760. Wai.pole, Letters, ii. 206. He [Duke of Cumberland] had a dark brown adonis, and a cloak of black cloth.

1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, m. xix. A fine flowing adonis or white periwig.

Adrift, adv. (B. E. and Grose : now accepted). — ' Loose—I'll turn ye adrift, a Tar phrase ; I'll prevent ye doing me any harm ' (B. E., c 1696); also (Grose) ' adrift, discharged.' Hence = astray, puzzled, distracted.

1690. Locke, Human Underst., 11. vii. 3. And so we should ... let _ our Thoughts run adrift without any Direction or Design [The earliest quot. in O. E. D. for the figurative sense : the seaphrase dates from 1624].

Adsum, subs, (old : spec. Charterhouse). —A response in answer to a summons or names-calling.

1821. Scott, Pirate, v. Advancing to the door, he exclaimed, ' Heus tibi Dave ! ' ' Adsum,' answered the youth.

1855. Thackeray, Nczvcomes, -jih,. A sweet smile shone over his face, and he lifted up his head a little and quickly said adsum, and fell back ; ... lo, he whose heart was as that of a little child had answered to his name, and stood in the presence of the Master.

1900. D. Teleg., 23 March, 8. 7. As in the old days of Colonel Newcome, 'adsum,' or 'Always ready,' is still the watchword of the Charterhouse.

1900. Tod, Charterhouse, p. 97. Adsum is the name of a new institution. . . . There was no occasion for it when the school was in London, and none could pass beyond the school precincts. Colonel Newcome must have answered adsum at prayers only.

A dullamites. 20

ALgrotat.

Adullamites, subs, (parliamentary).— i. A nickname for seceding Liberals who in 1866 voted Tory because dissatisfied with a Liberal measure for the extension of the Franchise. [See i Sam. xxii. i.] The political party in question were also known collectively as ' The Cave.' Hence (2) see quot. 1870 ; and Adullamy

— ratting.

1866. Bright, Speeches (1876), 349. The right honourable gentleman ... is the first of the new party who has retired into what may be called his political Cave of Adullam.

1870. Notes &> Queries, 5 March, 241. The . . . 'cave of adullam' has become an adopted byword for a small clique who . . . obstruct the party with which they usually associate.

1878-80. M'Carthy, Hist, of Our Own Times, 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.

1884. New York Times, 19 July. The Conservative party . . . received besides a large reinforcement of adullamites from the Liberal side.

Advantage, subs, (old colloquial).

— i. A thirteenth: added to a dozen of anything ; (2) something in addition : also vantage. See Baker's dozen and Lagniappe.

c. 1641. Milton, Reform. {Works, i. 1847), 10.] If the Scripture be for reformation, and Antiquity to boot, it is but an advantage to the dozen, it is no winning cast.

1648-55. Fuller, c/i. History, in. ix. 27. When his Holinesse created twelve Cardinals at the request of the King of France, he denied to make one at the desire of this King of England. Surely ... his Holinesse giving the whole dozen to the King of Fiance might allow the advantage to the King of England.

1692. Hackf.t, Williams, ii. 91. Three dozen of articles (yet none to the

VANTAGIv)

to play upon advantage, verb. phr. (old).—To cheat.

1592. Warner, Albion's England, vii. xxxvi. Howbeit, on advantage plai'd Gynetta all this while.

1668. Sedley, Mulberry Garden, ii. 2. Your only way is to turn rook and

i'lay upon advantage.

/Egrotat (or ^ger), subs. (University). — i. An excuse for absence on account of sickness ; (2) a medical or other certificate of indisposition (Grose). [^Egritude (old) = sickness ; an
^îgrotant^an invalid.] Hence reading-^:grotat = leave taken to read for a degree ; ^eger-room (Felsted School) = the sick room. [Lat. =:'he is sick.']—Gradus ad Cantab., 1803.

1532. Henry VIII. [Burnet, Hist. Ref., ii. 168]. We have augmented our /egritude and distress.

1610. Healey, City of God (1620), 478. That sorrow which Tully had rather call egritude, and Virgil dolour.

1647. Baron, Cyprian Academy, 34. We symbolize in egritude And simpathize in Cupid's malady.

1794. Gent. Mag., 1085. They |at Cambridge] sported an aegrotat, and they sported a new coat !

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green. A deep-laid scheme of yours to post a heap of /kgers while you're a Freshman, . . . get better and better every term, and make the J)ons think that you are improving the shining hours by doing chapels and lectures more regularly, artful Giglamps !

1864. Bauijage, Life of a Philosopher, 37. I sent my servant to the apothecary for a thing called an /KGRûtat, which I understood . . . meant a certificate that I was indisposed.

1865. Corn/till Mag., Feb., 227. A very common method of escaping the tedium of this duty ... is ' to send in an MGVM ' ; in other words to improvise an attack of illness.

1865. Temple liar, Sept., 262. There is a large class of /egkotants in this country.

1870. Chambers' s Journal, 18 June, 395. I'll get the receipt from him. I often waul a good thing for an /UOLH.

Affair. 21 After-clap.

1S88. H. Smart, in Temple Bar, Feb. 213. Instead of applying for leave to my tutor, I had resorted to the old device of pricking *ger.

1890. Felstcdian, Feb. 2. What's up with Smith? . . . He's not the fellow to go xEGER for nothing. I do hate that

.«ger-room.

Affair, subs, (venery).—1. The petits : see Prick ; (2) the female ptidendtun ; see Monosyllable.

Affidavit-man, subs. phr. (old).— See quots. and Straw.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Affidavit men, Knights of the Post, Mercenary Sweaters for Hire, Inhabitants (formerly) of White Friers, now dispersed.

1785. Grose, P'ulg. Tongue, s.v. Affidavit-Men. Knights of the post, or false witnesses, said to attend Westminster Hall, and other courts of justice, ready to swear anything for hire.

Afflicke, subs. (old).—See quot.

1610. Rowland's Martin Mark-all, 38 [H. Club's Repr., 1874]. Afflicke, a theefe.

Afflicted, adj. (common). — Drunk : see Screwed (Ray).

Afflictions, subs, (drapers').— Mourning goods : e.g., Afflictions are quiet = there is little demand for mourning. Mitigated afflictions = half mourning.

Affygraphy. To an affygraphy, phr. (common).—To a nicety ; to a T. In an affygraphy — in a moment ; directly.

Afloat, adj. (common).—Drunk : see Screwed : also with backteeth well afloat.

1888. Missouri Republican, 25 Jan. His honor once more drank until, as an onlooker put it, his back teeth were

well afloat.

Afraid. Among colloquial and proverbial sayings are : ' He that's afraid of grass must not piss in a meadow ' (Ital., Chi ha patera cCogni urtica non pisci in herba — ' He that's afraid of every nettle must not piss in the grass ') ; ' He that's afraid of leaves must not come in a wood (French, Qui a peur des feuilles ne doit pas aller au bois': Ital., 'Non entri Ira rocca e fuso chi non vuol esser filato' ) ; 'He that's afraid of the wagging of feathers must keep from among wild fowl ' ; ' He that's afraid of wounds must not come near a battle ; ' He's never likely to have a good thing cheap that's afraid to ask the price ' ; ' Afraid of far enough ' ( = fearful of what is not likely to happen) ; ' afraid of him that died last year ' ( = fearful of a shadow) ; ' Afraid of the hatchet lest the helve stick in his arse ' ; ' Afraid of his shadow ' ; ' More afraid than hurt.'

After. A long way after, phr. (artists' and journalists'). —Said of a sketch, cartoon, or burlesque of a classic picture, book, etc.

After-clap, subs. phr. (old : now chiefly American).—(1) Anything unexpected (spec, disagreeable), after the conclusion of a matter. Hence, 2 (modern) a demand made over and above a stipulated price, or for an amount already paid (Grose).

[?]. MS. Lansd., 762, f. 100. To thy frende thowe lovest moste, Loke thowe telle not alle thy worste, Whatesoever behappes ; . . . Beware of afterClappes!

[?]. MS. Douce, 236, f. 14. So that hit was a sory happe, And he was a-gast of after-clappe.

After-dinner Man. 22

Against.

c. 1420. Occleve, De Reg. Princ., 855. That after-clap in my mynde [so depe Ifycched is.

1515. Latimer, Sermons, 1. 27. He can give us an after-clap when we least ween.

1573. More, Ricliard III. (1641), 404. To provide for after clappes that might happen and chance.

1591. Spenser, Motlier Hubbcrd's Tale. For the next morrow's meed they closely went, For fear of afterclaps to prevent.

1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Britain, ix. iii. 31. Who fearing afterclaps, had strongly fortified the Castle.

1624. Massinger, Renegado, i. 3. To spare a little for an afterclap Were not improvidence.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, 1. iii. 4. What plaguy Mischiefs and Mishaps, Do dog him still with Afterclaps.

1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, 91. Not minding Mischiefs, or Mishaps, Nor fearing Dido's Afterclaps.

1715. South, Sermons, vi. 227. Those dreadful afterclaps which usually bring up the rear.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 3. And when you've stormed the Trojan gaps May you escape all after-claps.

c. 1852. Traits of Amer. Humour, 1. 226. I'm for no rues and after-claps.

1862. Lucas, Secularia, 12. The mitigated afterclap of this [the French] Revolution in 1848.

After-dinner Man (or Afternoon's-man), subs. phr. (old). —A man who drinks long into the afternoon : but see quot. 1877.

1614. Overbury, A Wife, etc. (1638), 196. Make him an afternoones man.

1621. Burton, Anat. Mel. Democr. to Reader (1657), 44. Beraldus will have drunkards, afternoon men, and such as more than ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad.

1628. Eakle, Microcos. (A Player). Innes of Court men were undone but for him, hee . . . makes them afternoones

men.

1S30. Dublin Sketch Bk. 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.

1877. Smythe-Palmer [Notes and Queries, 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.

Afternoon-buyer, subs. phr. (provincial). — One who buys not until after the market dinner, thereby hoping to buy cheaper.

Afternoon-farmer, subs. phr. (common).—A laggard ; spec, a farmer late in preparing his land, in sowing or harvesting his crops ; hence one who loses his opportunities.

Afternoon-tea, subs. phr. (Roy. High Sch., Edin.).—Detention after three o'clock.

After Twelve. See Twelve.

Against. Against the grain (collar, or hair), phr. (colloquial).—Contrary to inclination ; unpleasant ; unwillingly done (Grose).

1589. Nashe, Martins Months Minde [Grosart, i. 188]. For hee euer went against the haire.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii. 3. If you should fight, you go against the hair of your profession.

1621. Montague, Diatribe, 168. This translation cannot passe by you, being somewhat against the haire for you.

1661. Mi ddi.eton, Quccnborough, xi. 122. Books in women's hands are as much against the hair . . . as to see men wear stomachers.

Agaze. 23 Agitator.

1673. Dryden, Amboyna, i. This whoresome cutting of throats, . . . goes a little against the grain. Ibid. (1693), Juvenal, 1. 202. Though much against the grain forc'd to retire.

1709. Steele, Taller, No. 2. Nothing in nature is so ungrateful as storytelling against the grain.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 81. My present occupation is much against the grain.

1868. Collins, Moonstone, 1. xi. The other servants followed my lead, sorely against the grain, of course, but all taking the view that I took.

1875. H. Rogers, Superh. Orig. Bible, i. A system of ethics, so much against the grain as that of the Gospel.

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 114. If they owe their governors a few pounds, they are working an uphill game, or

against collar.

1884. Clark Russell, Jack's Courtship, xxiii. It went against my grain to leave the poor little chap alone.

To run against, verb phr. (colloquial).—To meet by accident: e.g., I ran against him the other day in Brighton.

Agaze, adv. (old, and long obsolete : now American thieves').— Astonished ; open-eyed (Matsell, Vocabulum). [Centtoy Did. : The examples cited (infra) are the only ones found.]

c. 1400. Chester Plays, ii. 85. The were so sore agased.

1557. Surrey, Songes and Sonnettes. As ankered faste my spretes doe all resorte To stände agazed.

1591. Shakspeare, i Henry VI. The devil was in armes : All the whole army stood agaz'd on him.

1600. [Farr, Select Poet (1845), 11. 438. Of understanding rob'd I stand agazd.

i6[?]. Percy Folio MSS. [Furnivall]. Whereatt this dreadful conqueror Thereatt was sore agazed.

-agger, insep. suffix (Charterhouse).—As in Combi naggers = a combination suit : esp. of football attire.

Aggravator (Aggerawator, or Haggerawator), subs, (common).—A lock of hair brought down from the forehead, well greased, and twisted in a spiral on the temple, either toward the ear, or conversely toward the outer corner of the eye. Usually in pi., once an aid to beauty: now rare.

English synonyms. Bellropes ; beau-catchers ; cobbler'sknots ; cowlicks ; love-locks ; Newgate knockers ; number sixes ; spit-curls.

French synonyms. Accrochecœurs ; guiches ; rouflaquettes.

1836. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 132. His hair carefully twisted . . . till it formed a variety of . . . semi-curls, usually known as ' aggerawators.'

1859. Fowler, Southern Lights and Shadows, 38. The ladies are addicted to . . . hair, embellished with two or three c's—aggravators they call them—running over the temple.

1885. Burton, Thousand Nights, i. 168. Note 3.—In other copies the fourth couplet swears by the scorpions of his brow, i.e., the accroche-cœurs, or aggravators.

Agility, subs, (common).—The female privity : see Monosyllable.

Agitator, subs, (obsolete).—i. ' In Eng. Hist. An agent, one who acts for others ; a name given to the agents or delegates of the private soldiers in the Parliamentary Army, 1647-9 > ^ⁿwhich use it varied with AdJUtator'(0. E. D.). [J. A. H. Murray : ' Careful investigation satisfies me that Agitator was the actual title, and Adjutator originally only a bad spelling of soldiers familiar with Adjutants and the Adjutors of 1641. ]

Agogare.

Algiers.

2. (common).—A bell-rope, or knocker. To agitate the communicator = tO ring the bell.

Agogare, intj. (American thieves'). —Be quick ! a warning signal [from agog].—New York Slang Dictionaiy.

Agony. To pile up (or on) the

agony, verbal phr. (common). —To exaggerate ; to use the tallest terms in lieu of the simplest ; to cry ' Hell ! ' when all you mean is ' Goodness gracious ! ' : as a newspaper when ' writing up ' murder, divorce, and other sensations. Also to agonize. Hence agony-piler (theatrical) = a player in sensational parts. See Agonycolumn.

1857. C. Bronté [Gaskell's Life, xxv.]. I doubt whether the regular novelreader will consider the 'agony piled sufficiently high "... or the colours dashed on to the canvas with the proper amount of daring.

1865. Athetueum, 1966, 26. 2. Everyone who has no real fancy seems agonizing after originality.

1871. Macdonald, Wilfred Combermcadc, i. xv. I might agonize in words for a day and I should not express the delight . . .

1881. Black, Beautiful Wretch, vi. Sooner or later that organ will shake the Cathedral to bits . . . there was a great deal too much noise. You lose effect when you pile up the agonv like that.

1903. Pall Mall Gaz., 20 April, 6. 3. Mirbeau has made the one mistake he always makes, that—in the language of the gallery gods—of piling up the agony too much.

Agony-column, subs. phr. (popular).—A special column in newspapers devoted to harrowing advertisements of missing friends and private business : orig. the second column of the Times.

1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, 11. 78. The advertisement of the committee, . . . appeared in the agony column of the Times.

1873. Black, Princess of Thüle. And how does she propose to succeed? Pollaky? The agony column ? Placards, or a Bell-man? Ibid. (1881), Beautiful Wretch, xxiii. There were anonymous appeals to the runaways in agony columns.

1880. Times, 28 Dec, 10. 1. A cryptogram in the agony-column.

Agree. To agree like pickpockets in a fair, verb. phr. (common).—To agree not at all. Other similes of the kind are ' To agree like bells, they want nothing but hanging ' ; and ' To agree like cats and dogs ' (or

' like harp and harrow').

Agricultural-implement, subs; phr. (common).—A spade ; ' call a spade a spade and not an agricultural implement' = adirect call to very plain speech.

Aground, adv. (Grose).—'Stuck fast ; stopped ; at a loss ; ruined ; like a boat or vessel aground.' [This accepted figurative use of the nautical phrase was rare prior to the nineteenth century.]

Agreeable Ruts of Life (The),

subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

AlGLERS (The), subs. phr. (military).—The ist battalion of The Royal Irish Fusiliers, late The 87th Foot. [At Barrosa they captured the Eagle of The 8th French Light Infantry, a fact now commemorated in one of the distinctive badges of the regiment, viz., An Eagle with the figure 8 below.]

A im.

Air.

Aim, sups. (B. E., c. 1696).— ' Endeavour or Design ' . . . 'he has missed his Aim or end.'

Ain't (Hain't or An't), verb.

(vulgar).—That is, ' are not,' ' am not," is not,' 'have not,'[O.E.D., ' in the popular dialect of London, Cockney speech in Dickens,' etc.]. See A'nt.

1701. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, i. i. Why, I han't tasted a bit this year and a half.

1706. Ward, Hud. Rcdiv., i. i. 24. But if your Eyes a'n't quick of Motion.

1734. Fielding, Old Man, 1007, 1. Ha, ha, ha ! an't we? no ! How ignorant it is.

1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, i. Ve ha'n't been married a year. Ibid. ii. May be 'tis, and may be 'tan't.

1778. Burney, Evelina, 1. xxi. Those you are engaged to ain't half so near related to you as we are.

c. 1800. DiBDiN, Song, 'Poor Jack.' A tight little boat and good sea-room give me, And t'aint for a little I'll strike.

1812. H. and J. Smith, Rej. Add., 69. No, that a'nt it, says he.

1828. Lytton, Pelham, lxii. A'n't we behind hand?

1829. Lamb, Life and Letters, 1. 348. An't you glad about Burks case?

1864. Tennyson, Northern Farmer, xiii. Joänes, as 'ant a 'aäpoth o' sense.

1865. Dickens, Mutttal Friend, iii. ' You seem to have a good sister.' ' She ain't half bad.'

Air. Castles in the air (the skies, in Spain, etc.), subs. phr. (colloquial).—Generic for (1) the impossible, (2) imagination ; and (3) hope : see Analogous phrases. To build castles, etc. =(1) to attempt the impossible ; (2) to dream of visionary projects ; to indulge in idle dreams ; and (3) to be sanguine of success. Hence in the aik = (1) uncertain, in doubt; and (2)

anticipated (in men's minds) as likely ; air-built = chimerical ; AiR-castle = the land of dreams and fancies ; air-monger = a dreamer. [For many additional and some earlier quots., see Spain.]

Analogous phrases [Avowedly generic, and inserted in this place because as convenient as any other : the senses, too, must obviously sometimes overlap], i (=the impossible). To square the circle ; to wash a blackamore white ; to skin a flint ; to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear ; to make bricks without straw ; to weave a rope of sand ; to extract sunbeams from cucumbers ; to set the Thames on fire ; to milk a he-goat into a sieve ; to catch a weasel asleep ; to be in two places at once ; to plough the air ; to wash the Ethiopian ; to measure a twig ; to demand a tribute of the dead ; to teach a pig to play on a flute ; to catch the wind in a net ; to change a fly into an elephant ; to take the spring from the year ; to put a rope in the eye of a needle ; to draw water with a sieve ; to number the waves. Also (French) prendre la lune avec les dents ; rompre farguille au genou.

2 ( = imagination). To have maggots, or whimseys ; to see an air-drawndagger,theflyingDutchman, the great sea-serpent, the man in the moon ; to dream of Utopia, Atlantis, the happy valley, the isles of the West, the millennium, of fairy land, the land of Prester John, the kingdom of Micomicon ; to set one's wits to work ; to strain (or crack) one's invention ; to rack (ransack, or cudgel) one's brains.

Air.

Ajax.

3 ( =hope). To seek the pot of gold (Fr. pot au lait) ; to dream of Alnaschar ; to live in a fool's paradise ; to see a bit of blue sky, the silver lining of the cloud, the bottom of Pandora's box ; to catch at a straw ; to hope against hope ; to reckon one's chickens before they are hatched.

^I575Gascoigne, Steel Glass [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, ii. 58]. Things are thought, which never yet were wrought, And castels buylt aboue in lofty skies.

1580. North, Plutarch (1696), 171. They built castles in the air and thought to do great wonders.

1590. Greene, Ort. Fur. (1599), 16. In conceite builde castles in the skie.

1594. Shakspeare, Richard III., iii. 4. 100. Who builds his hopes in air of his good looks.

1601. Imp. Consid. (1675), 60. Mr. Saunders (building Castles in the Air amongst his Books).

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., I. m. i. 2. (1651), 187. That castle in the ayr, that crochet, that whimsie.

1627. Feltham, Resolves, 1. xv. Thou air-monger that, with a madding thought, thus chaseth fleeting shadows.

c. 1630. Drummond of Hawth., Poems, 42. 2. Strange castles builded in the skies.

1727. Pope, Dunciad, iii. 10. The air-built Castle and the golden Dream.

1757. Wesley, Works (1872), ix. 304. A mere castle in the air.

c. 1763. Shenstone, Odes (1765), 237. To plan frail castles in the skies.

1797. Jeffreson, Writ. (1859), iv. 186. I consider the future character of our republic as in the air ; indeed its future fortune will be in the air, if war is made on us by France.

1831. Carlyle, Sari. Res. (1858), 32. High Air-castles cunningly built of Words.

1879. Farrar, St. Paul, i. 642. These . . . points . . . were not peculiar to Philo. They were, so to speak, in the air.

'Air of a face or Picture' (B. E., c. 1696), 'the Configuration and Consent of Parts in each.' [For this 18th century quots. are given in O.E.D.].

To air one's vocabulary, verb. phr. (old).—To talk for phrasing's sake ; to flash the gab (q.v.). [One of the wits of the time of George IV., asked what was going on in the House of Commons, answered that Lord Castlereagh was airing his

vocabulary.]

Toaircne's heels, verb. phr. (popular).—-To loiter; to hang about : see Cool and Heels.

Air-and-Exercise, subs. phr. (old). — i. A whipping at the cart's tail ; shoving the tumbler (q.v.). Also (2) the revolving pillory ; and 3 (thieves') = penal servitude (in America = a short term of imprisonment) (Grose).

Airing. & Ouï.

Air-line. See Bee-line.

Airy, adj. (old [B. E.]: now recognised). — ' Light, brisk, pleasant. ... He is an Airy Fellow. '

Ajax (or Jakes), subs. (old).—A privy; a jakes (q.v.): popularised by Sir John Harrington (see quot. 1822). Also a term of abuse. See Jakes and Jakesfarmer.

1551. Still, Gammer Gurions Needle, iii. 3. Thou wert as good kiss my tail ; Thou slut, thou cut, thou rakes, thou

jakes.

1594. Shakspeare, Love's Labour Lost, v. 2. Your lion, that holds his pollax, sitting on a close stool, will be given to Ajax.

Akermaris Hotel. 27

Alderman.

1596. Harrington, The Metam. of Ajax [Title].

1605. Camden, Remains, 117. Inquire, if you understand it not, of Cloacina's chaplains, or such as are well read in Ajax.

1609. Jonson, Epicœnc, iv. 5. A stool were better, sir, of Sir Ajax, his invention. Ibid. (1616), Famous Voyage, vi. 290. And I could wish for their eterniz'd sakes, My muse had plough'd with his that sung A-jax.

c. 1609. Healey, Disc, of New World, 159. John Fisticankoes, Ajax his sonne and heyre.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Retraict. An aiax, priuie, house of Office.

1665. ]■ Cotgrave, Eng. Treasury, p. 16. Which (like the glorious Ajax of Lincoln's Inné, I saw in London) laps up naught but filth and excrements.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. vi. Who of late years have stirred up the

jakes.

1720. Hosp. of Incurab. Foolcs, 6. A patron and protector of Ajax and his commodities.

1822. Nares, Glossary, s.v. Ajax. . . . Sir John Harrington, 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.

Akerman's Hotel,subs, (obsolete). —Newgate prison. [The governor's name was Akerman c. i7⁸7]-— See Cage.

Akeybo, subs. (Hotten).—'A slang phrase used in the following manner :—He beats akeybo, and akeybo beat the devil.'

A-la-Mort. See Amort.

Albany Beef, subs. phr. (American).—The flesh of the sturgeon. [Some parts of the fish have a resemblance, in colour, and taste, to beef. It was caught in large numbers as far up the Hudson River as Albany.]

Albertopolis, subs, (obsolete).— The Kensington Gore district : out of compliment to the late Prince Consort, who was closely identified with the Albert Hall and the Exhibition buildings of 1862.

1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, xxxiii. A composition for the nutriment of the hair, which . . . has an enormous circulation over the infant heads of

albertopolis.

Albonized, adj. (pugilistic).— Whitened [L. albus].

Alcove (The), subs, (venery).— The female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

Alderman, subs, (obsolete). — 1. A half-crown ; 2s. 6d. : see Rhino (Snowden, Mas;. Assist., i857)

2. (old).—A long clay pipe; a churchwarden (q.v.).

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. (old).—See quots. Alderman in chains = garnished with sausages.

1782. Parker, Humorous Sketches, 31. Nick often eat a roast fowl and sausage with me, which in cant is called an alderman, double slang'd.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Alderman. A roasted turkey garnished with sausages ; the latter are supposed to represent the gold chain worn by those magistrates.

4. (thieves').—Ajemaiy (q.v. ) : sometimes alderman jemmy. A weightier tool is the Lord Mayor (q.v.).

1833. D. Teleg., 14 May, 3. 7. Safebreaking tools had been . . . left behind, including wedges, an alderman jemmy, a hammer weighing 14 lbs.

Alderman Lushington. 28

Ale

1888. Sat. Review, 15 Dec, 719. The iron shutters were prised open [by] the alderman ... it would never do to be talking about crowbars in the street.

5. (Felsted School : obsolete). —A qualified swimmer. [The Alders — a deep pool in the Chelmer.] See Farmer, Public School Word Book.

Blood and guts alderman. See Blood and guts.

Alderman Lushington, subs, phr. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Lush. To drink ; speaking of a person who is drunk, they say, Alderman Lushington is concerned, or that he has been voting for the Alderman.

Alderman's Pace, subs phr. (old). See quot. 1611.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Pas d'Abbé. Alderman's pace, a leasurely walking, slow gate.

1629. Gaule, Holy Madness, 94. What an Alderman's pace he comes.

1672. Ray, Proverbs. He is paced like an Alderman.

Aldgate. Draught on the pump at Aldgate, subs. phr. (old).—A worthless bill of exchange (Grose).

Ale, subs, (old colloquial. — 1. A merry-making ; any occasion for drinking: see quots. 1587, 1776, and 1847, and cf. wine; (2) an ale-house. Hence alecie (or alecy) = drunkenness; aleblown (a le-washed or alecied) = drunk ; ale-DRArER (whence ale-drapery) = an innkeeper (Grose: cf. ale-yard); ale-spinner = a brewer; aleknight (ale-stake, or ale

toast) = a tippler, a pot-companion ; ale-post — a maypole

(Grose); ale-PASSiON = a headache ; ale-pock — an ulcered

grog-blossom (q.V.); ale

crummed = grogshot in the face ; ale-dagger (see quot. 1589); ale-swilling = tippling, etc.

1362. Langland, Piers Plowman [Wright], 83. Faiteden for hire foode, Foughten at the ale.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, ' Frere's Tale,' 49. And malien him gret festes at the nale.

1480. Caxton, Descr. Brit., 40. When they drynke atte ale, They telle many a lewd tale.

c. 1500. [Halliwell, Mig. Poet, ' Carp. Tools,' 19]. When thei have wrought an owre or two, Anone to the ale thei wylle g°

1570. Discoverie of the Knights of tlie Poste [Halliwell]. Nowe hee hath . . . become a draper. A draper, quoth Freeman, what draper, of woollin or linnen ? No, qd he, an ale-draper, wherein he hath more skil then in the other.

1544. Supp. Henry VIII., 41. Keepinge of church ales, in the whiche with leapynge, daunsynge, and kyssyng they maynteyne the profeit of their churche.

^I57SEccl. Proc., Chester. [The Vicar of Whalley, Lane, is charged with being a common dronker and ale knight.]

1583. Golding, Cah'in on Deut., Ii. 305. These tauernhaunters or Alehouseknightes.

1583. Babbington, Works, 166. Gadding to this ale or that. Ibid., 104. If he be a drunken ale-stake, a tick-tack tauerner.

1587. Harrison, England, 1. 11. i. 32 (1877). The superfluous numbers of idle waks . . . church-ALEs, helpe-ales, and soule-ales, called also dirge-Ai.ES with the heathenish rioting at bride-Ai.ES are well diminished.

1589. Pappe with Hatchet (1844), S. He that drinks with cutters must not be without his ale-dagger.

1591. Shakspeare, Two Gentlemen ii. 5. 61. Thou hast not so much charity in thee as to go to the ale with a Christian. Ibid. (1599), Henry I'., iii. 6. 82. Ai.e-washt wits. Ibid. (1609 Pericles, i. Introd. On ember-eves and holy ales.

Ale.

29 Alexandra Limp.

1592. Ch ettle, Kinde-H arts Dreame, 15. One in a sweating treble, the other in an ale-dlowen base carowle out . . . ribaudry. Ibid. Two milch maydens that had set up a shoppe of ale-drapery. Ibid. No other occupation have I but to be an ale-draper.

1593. BaccJius Bountie [Harl. Misc. (1809), it. 271]. A passing preseruatiue against the ale-passion, or paine in the pate.

1594. Lylv, 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.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, s.v. Beâne. An ale-knight, a toss-pot.

1598. E. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 55. There brauls an Ale-knight for his fatgrowif score.

1599. Nashe, Piers Pennilesse, Eij. Elderton consumed his ai.e-crummed nose to nothing.

1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), 11. 128. Sauce-fleame, ale-pocks, and suchlike ulcers in the face.

1602. Thomas, Lord Crotmuell, iii. i. O, Tom, that we were now at Putney, at the ale there.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Beste. Our Ale-knights often use this phrase.

1617. Assheton, Journal (1848), 1. Besse, John, wyffe, self, at ale.

1633. Jonson, Talc of a Tub, Prol. And all the neighbourhood, from old records Of antique proverbs, draw from Whitsun lords, And their authorities at wakes and ales.

1635. Taylor, T. Parr, Cij, b. T'a Whitson Ale, Wake, Wedding, or a Faire.

1654. Witt's Recreations. Come all you brave wights, That are dubbed aleknights.

1655. YoUNGE, Charge against Drunkenness, 13. These godlesse Aledrapers.

1656. Trap., Exp. 1 Tim. iii. 3. No Ale-stake, tavern-hunter that sits close at it.

1661. H eylin, Hist. Presb., 2S1. Nor do they speak any better of the Inferiour Clergy ... of whom they tell us . . . That they are Popish Priests, or Monks, or Friars, or Ale-haunters.

1691. Shadwell, Scourers, i. 1. Every night thou clearest the streets of . . . idle rascals, and of all Ale-toasts and sops in brandy.

1747. \i\ Parish Register of Scotter, Litic. [Buried], July 8th, Thomas Broughton, Farmer and Ale Draper.

1776. Brand, Pop. Antig., i. 229. There were bride-Ai.es, church-ales, clerk-ales, give-ales, lamb-ales, leetales, Midsummer-ales, Scot-ales, Whitsun-ales, and several more.

1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words, s.v. Ale-feast. A festival or merrymaking, at which ale appears to have been the predominant liquor, often took place after the representation of an old mystery, as in a curious prologue to one of the fifteenth century in MS. Tanner 407, f. 44.

1863-64. Chambers' Bk. of Days, ii. 597. This man was a regularly dubbed ale-knight, loved barley wine to the full.

1870. D. News, 28 Sep. There was a wining and dining, or better, a beering or ALEiNG and dining of the 'Southern brethren.'

3. (Stock Exchange).—In//. = Messrs. S. Allsopp and Sons Limited Shares.

See Adam's Ale.

Alexander, verb. (old). — 1. To hang. [Rogers, Roy. Hist. Soc., viii. : ' From the harsh and merciless manner in which Sir Jerome Alexander, an Irish judge (1660-1674) and founder of the Alexander Library at Trinity College, Dublin, carried out the duties of his office.']

2. (old).—To extol as an Alexander the Great.

1700. Dryden, 'Talesfrom Chaucer, ' The Cock and Fox,' 660. Ye princes, rais'd by poets to the gods, And Alexander'd up in lying odes.

Alexandra Limp, subs, (obsolete). —An affected lameness: cf. Grecian bend and Roman fall.

Alfred David. 30

AU.

1876. Chambers' Jozernal, No. 629. Your own advocacy of the Grecian bend and the Alexandra limp—both positive and practical imitations of physical affliction.

Alfred David, subs, (common).— An affidavit : also affidavy ; davy ; and (occasionally) after

davy.

1859. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn. He is engaged in receiving the afterda vy of a man who got his head broke by a tinker.

1865. Dickens, Mutual Friend, (C.D. ed.), 94. The visitor . . . doggedly muttered, ' Alfred David.' ' Is that your name ? ' ■,. . . ¹ My name ? . . . No ; I want to take an Alfred David.'

c. 1880. Harry Adams, Music Hall Song, ' Blighted Love.' And I'll take my Alfred David hot, She don't catch me there again.

Algerine, subs, (theatrical).—1. A manager-baiter, espec when the ghost [q.v.) will not walk {q.v.). Also (2) a petty borrower.

Alive, adv. (colloquial).—Alive occurs as an intensive and expletive : e.g., alive and kicking = very sprightly, all there (q.v.); also all alive; man (heart, or sakes) alive ! (an emphatic address) ; to look ALiVE = to make haste; all alivie (tailors') = slovenly made (of garments).

c. 1845. Hood, Agric. Distr., vi. Says he, ' No matter, man alive ! '

1857. Dickens, Christ. Carol, 43. Why, bless my heart alive, my dear, how late you are !

1858. Hughes, Scouring 0/ White Horse, 29. The Squire . . . told the men to look alive and get their job done.

1889. Globe, 4 Oct., i. 3. His mother, the playwright's widow, as well as another son, named Gordon, were— to use a popular phrase—alive and kicking.

All, subs, (workmen's).—In = belongings : spec, tools : also awls : see Bens. Hence to pack up one's alls = to begone ; to desist.

. . . Songs of the London Prentices, 62. I'll pack up my awls and begone.

1674. Cotton, Voy. Ireland, in. 10. I then call to pay, And packing my nawls, whipt to horse, and away.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, ii. 84. I put no confidence in the king . . . should he pack up his awls for the other world I would not trust him.

1728. Bailey, Eng. Diet., s.v. Pack. To pack up his awls ... to march off, to go away in haste.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 70. The devil . . . whispyed in my ear that I should be a great fool to pack up my alls when the prize was falling into my hands.

d. 1859. De Quincey, Herodotus, ii. Old Boreas . . . was required to pack up his alls and be off.

2. See All-nations.

3. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Alls. The five alls is a country sign, representing five human figures, each having a motto under him. The first is a king in his regalia ; his motto, I govern all : the second, a bishop in pontificals ; motto, I pray for all : third, a lawyer in his gown ; motto, I plead for all : fourth, a soldier in his regimentals, fully accoutred ; motto, I fight for all : fifth, a poor countryman with his scythe and rake ; motto, I pay for all.

At all! intj. (old).—'The cry of a gamester full of cash and spirit, meaning that he will play for any sums the company may choose to risk against him ' (Halliwell).

All's quiet on the Potomac, phr. (American).—A period of rest, enjoyment, peace. [The phrase dates from the Civil War ; ils frequent repetition in the bulletins of the War Secretary made it ridiculous to the public]

All.

Alley.

Phrases and Colloquialisms. All about in one's head = light-headed ; all about it = the whole of the matter; all-around (American) — thorough, all-round (q.v.); all at sea = uncertain, vague ; all face = naked ; on all fours =:fairly, equally, exactly ; all holiday at peckham (see quot. 1811 and Peckham) ; all in (Stock Exchange) = slow, flat (q.v.): of a market when there is a disposition to sell : whence all out = improving ; all over = thoroughly, entirely, exactly ; all round my hat = queer, all-overish (q.v.): That's all round my hat = Bosh ! spicy as all round my hat = sensational; all serene = all's well, O.K., ' You know what I'm after ' ; all up with = finished, done for ; all T. H. =of the best, very good indeed (tailors'), all there (q.v.). See also Alive; Allnations ; Along ; Beat Betty Martin ; Blue Bandy ; Bum ; Caboose Cheek; Dickey; Fly; Gam mon ; Gay ; Go ; Heap Hollow ; Hough ; Jaw Lombard-street ; Mops-and brooms ; Mouth ; Out Pieces ; Sheep ; Shop ; Shoot Skittles ; Smash ; Smoke There ; Up ; Way ; Waydown.

1633. Marmion, Antiquary, i. You'll hardly find Woman or beast that trots sound of all four ; There will be some defect.

_ d. 1655. Adams, Works, i. 498. All similitudes run not, like coaches, on four wheels.

1704. Gentleman Instructed, 387. I do not say this comparison runs on all four ; there may be some disparity.

1710. St. Leger [Somer, Tracts (1751), in. 248]. Tho' the comparison should not exactly run upon all four when examined.

1811. Lex. Balatr. All holiday at Peckham . . . signifying that it is all over with the business or person spoken of.

1834. Southey, Doctor, xciv. No prophecy can be expected to go upon all fours.

1857. Trollope, Three Clerks, xiv. 'You're all serene, then, Mr Snape,' said Charley.

1874. Siliad, 130. To whom the emissary, 'All serene,' And took the sovereign with a relish keen.

1877. D. Tel., 15 Mar. It must stand on all fours with that stipulation.

1882. Punch, lxxxii. 177. 1. I am nuts upon Criminal Cases, Perlice News, you know . . . And, thinks I, this will be ' tuppence coloured,' and spicy as all round my hat.

1883. D. News, 8 Feb., 3. 7. The decision I have quoted is on all fours with this case.

Allacompain, subs, (rhyming).— Rain : also alacompain, alicumpane, elecampain : cf. France and Spain.

All(or I'm-) afloat, subs, (rhyming).—A coat.

All-bon es, subs. phr. (old).—A thin bony person.

1602. Heywood, How a Man may Choose, etc., s.v.

Alleviator, subs, (common).—A drink ; refreshment : see Go.

1846. Mark Lemon, Golden Fetters. If any of you feel thirsty ... I shall be happy to stand an alleviator.

Alley (Ally or Alay), subs. (school). — i. A superior kind of marble. [Supposed to = 'alabaster,' of which they are sometimes made.] Also ally tor (or taw) : cf. stoney (q.v.), blood-alley, and commoney (q.v.).

All-fired.

32 A ll-harbour-light.

1720. De Foe, Duncan Campbell, iv. A large bag of marbles and alleys.

1748. Phil. Trans., xlv. 456. Pellets, vulgarly called alleys, which boys play withal.

1807. Coleridge, Own Times, in. 953. While he was playing at marbles would quarrel with the taws and alavs in his mouth, because he had understood it was the way Demosthenes had learned to splutter.

1833. Paris, Philos, in Sport, x. 171. Why, your taw is a brown marble, and your ally ... a very white one, is it not?

1837. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, 358. Inquiring whether he had won any alley tors or commoneys lately.

1865. Craik, Christian's Mistake, 37. An ally taw, that is, a real alabaster marble.

1876. Clemens, Tom Sawyer, 27. Jim, I'll give you a marble. I'll give you a white alley. White alley, Jim ! And it's a bully taw.

2. (venery).—The alley = the female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

The Alley, sues. phr. (Stock Exchange).—Change Alley: cf. House, Lane, Street, etc.

1720. The Bubbler's Medley, Stock Jobbing Cards, or the IIumours of Change Alley [Title].

1775. Ash, Diet., s.v. Alley . . . The place in the City of London where the public funds are bought and sold.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 19. To office with all due despatch through the air, To the Bulls of the Alley, the fate of the Bear.

All-fired, adj. phr. (orig. American).—A general intensive : e.g., all-fiked (= violent) abuse; an all-Fi red ( = tremendous) noise; an all-fired (=very great) hurry, etc. Also as adv. = unusually, excessively. For an apparent origin, see(\\io\.. 1755.

[1755. World, 140. How arbitrary . . . does 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. xxiv. ' Look at that 'ere Dives,' they say, ' what an all-fired scrape he got into by his avarice with Lazarus.' Ibid. I jumps up in an all-fired hurry.

1844. Major Jones's Courtship, 87. The first thing I know'd, my trowsers were plastered all over with hot molasses, which burnt all-fired bad.

1845. Knickerbocker Mag. [Bartlett]. I'm dying—I know I am ! The doctor will charge an all-fired price to cure me.

1850. Porter, Tales of the South7vest, 58. Old Haines sweating like a pitcher with ice-water in it, and looking all-fired tired.

c. i860. Milne, Farm Fence, 8. Wonder if it is rum make potatoes rot so all-firedly.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xl. ' I knows I be so all-fired jealous ; I can't abear to hear o' her talkin', let alone writin' to-'

c. 1866. Pickings from the Picayune, 67. They had a mighty deal to say up in our parts about Orleans, and how allfired easy it is to make money in it ; but it's no ham and all hominy, I reckon.

1883. Payn, Thicker than Water, xvii. You've been an all-fired time, you have, in selling those jars.

Allfou rs. To play at allfours, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate : see RlDE.

See All.

All-get-out. That beats allget-out, phr. (American).—A retort to any extravagant story or assertion.

All-harbour-light, phr. (rhyming). —See quot.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 46. Note. Learned Judges, worthy Magistrates and other Innocents, are informed that 'all harbour light' is cabby's favourite rhyming slang for 'all right.' Ibid. As westward she sailed, she remarked, This is all harbour light.

Allicholly. 33 Allow.

Allicholly, subs. (old).—Melancholy; solemncholly (q.V.).

1595. Shakspeare, Two Cent. Verona, iv. 2. 27. Now, my young guest, methinks you're allycholly. Ibid. (1596), Merry IVives, i. 4. 164. She is given too much to allicholy and musing.

1736. Walpole, Letters (1861), 1. 8. A disconsolate wood-pigeon in our grove ... is so allichoi.lv as any thing.

All Nations, subs, (old).— i. The tap-droppings of spirits and malt liquors : also alls, or all sorts (Grose).

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, vi. A counter perforated . . . allowing the drainings, overflowings, and out-spillings ... to drop through, which, being collected with sundry washings, and a dash, perhaps, of fresh material, is . . . dispensed under the title of all sorts.

2. A parti-coloured or patched garment ; a Joseph's coat.

All-night-man, subs. phr. (obsolete). — A body-snatcher ; a resurrectionist (q.v. ).

1861. Ramsay, Remin.,\\. 133. The body lifters, or all-night-men, as they were wont to be called.

Allot. To allot upon, verb, phr. (American colloquial).—To count upon; to reckon (q.v.) ; to calculate (q.V.).

1816. Pickering, Vocab. U. S., 31. I allot upon going to such a place.

1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker (1862), 93. And I allot we must economise, or we will be ruined.

All-out, subs. phr. (old colloquial). —A bumper ; a carouse. Hence to drink all oUT = to drain a bumper.

1530. Palsgrave, Lang. Francoyse, 676. 2. I quaught, I dkinke all out.

1542. Boorde, Int. Know., 151. There be many good felowes, the wyche

wyll drynke all out.

1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell. (1634), 13. To say drink a Garaus . . . which is to say All-out.

1611. cotgrave, Diet., s.v. alktz,

all-out ; or a carouse fully drunk up.

All-overish, adj. (colloquial).— An indefinite feeling of apprehension or satisfaction. Also to

feel all over alike, and

touch nowhere = to feel confusedly happy. Also as stibs.

1841. John Mills, Old English Gentleman, xxiv. 186. 'Isn't it natural for a body to feel a sort of a queer alloverishness on the eve of a wedding, I should like to know?'

1851. Mayhew, London Lab., in. 52. When the mob began to gather round, I felt all-overish.

1854. Ainsworth, Flitch of Bacon, 11. v. I feel a sort of shivering and alloverishness.

1864. Clarke, Box for Season, 11. 195. That indescribable all-overishness, resulting from too much drink.

1882. Society, 11 Jan., 11.1. 'What's the trouble?' asked the doctor. 'I feel a sort of dislocated all-overishness.'

All-over-pattern, subs. phr. (colloquial) —See quot.

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.

Allow, subs. (Harrow School).—A boy's weekly allowance.

Verb, (chiefly dialectical and colloquial American).—To admit, declare, intend, think.

1580. Baret, Alvearie, A297. To Alowe, to make good or allowable, to declare to be true.

1843. Carlton, New Purchase [Bartlett]. The lady of the cabin seemed kind, and allowed we had better stop where we were.

All-round.

34 All-standing.

1856. Farnham, California [Bartlett]. Gentlemen from Arkansas allowed that California was no better than other countries.

[?]. Dialect Ballad, ' Tom Cladpole's Journey to Lunnun.' He 'lowed he'd ge me half a crown, An treat me wud some beer.

1871. Howell, Suburban Sketches, 58. He said he allowed to work it out.

1872. King, Sierra Nevada, v. 98. I allow you have killed your coon in your day.

1875. Parish, Diet. Sussex Dialect, 13. Master Nappet, he allowed that it was almost too bad.

1880. Harris, Uncle Remus, 48. I 'low'd maybe dat I might ax yo' fur ter butt 'gin de tree. Ibid., 50. Brer Rabbit he 'low he wuz on his way to Miss Meadows.

1880. Scribner's Mag., June, 293. I 'lowed I'd make him sorry fur it, an' I reckon I hev.

All-round (Amer. All-around),

adj. phr. (colloquial).—Generally capable, adaptable, or inclusive ; affecting all alike: e.g., an allround (=average) rent; an all-round (= thorough) scamp ; an all-round cricketer = one good alike at batting, bowling, and fielding. Hence allrounder.

1869. Notes on N. IV. Prov. India, 98. An all round rent of so much per acre charged on the cultivation.

1881. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, xl. He's a bad one all round.

c. 1883. Angler's Souvenir, 230. Very few anglers are all round men—i.e., devote themselves to . . . all branches of angling alike.

1883. Graphic, 11 August, 138. 2. Foremost still as an ¹ all-round ' cricketer stands W. G. Grace.

1884. Shetherd, Prairie Exper., 192. One of the usual all-round men, who considered that he could do most things.

1886. Lowell, Oration at Harvard, 8 Nov. Let our aim be . . . to give an all-round education.

All-rounder,(common). — i. A shirt collar ; spec, one the same height all round the neck, meeting in front, or (as in clerical collars) at the back.

1857. Trollope, Three Clerks, xxii. He had bestowed . . . the greatest amount of personal attention on his collar. . . . Some people may think that an allrounder 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.

i860. All Year Round, 42. 369. That particularly demonstrative type . . . known as the all rounder.

1865. Strangford, Selection (1869), 11. 163. Dressed in full uniform, with high stand-up collar ; the modern all rounder not having got so far into Asia.

1875. Chambers' Journal, No. 586 To present himself in an all rounder hat and coat of formal cut on Sunday.

2. See All-round.

All Saints. See Mother of All Saints, adding quot. infra.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 400. He drinks the mother of all saints : But tho' the toast's the very same, In Greek it bears another name.

Allslops, subs, (common). — Allsopp and Sons' ale. [At one time their brew, formerly of the finest quality, had greatly deteriorated.]

All-sorts. See All-nations.

All Souls. See Mother of All Souls.

Allspice, subs, (common). — A grocer : see trades.

All-standing,adv.phr. (nautical). —Fully dressed : hence to turn in all-standing = to go to bed in one's clothes. Also brought up all-standing = taken unawares.

Alma Mater. 35 Almond-for-a-parrot.

Alma Mater, subs. phr. (colloquial). —Originally (and properly) one's University ; now applied to any place of training : school, college, or University.

1701. Fari.iuhar, Sir Harry Wildair, ii. i. Ay, there [Oxford] have I been sucking my dear Alma Mater these seven years ... in spite of the university, I'm a pretty gentleman.

1718. Pope, Dunciad, iii. 338. Till Isis' elders reel . . . And Alma Mater lye dissolv'd in port.

1762. Foote, Liar, i. 1. Why, then adieu, Alma Mater ! . . . farewell to the schools, and welcome the theatres.

1771. Smollett, Humph. Clinker (1900), i. 34. Some good offices which you know he has done me since I left Alma Mater.

1803. Scott[Lockhart, Life (1839), n. 126]. The literary men of his Alma Mater.

1833. Peirce, Hist. Harvard Univ., App. 57. Benjamin Woodbridge was the eldest son of our Alma Mater.

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, 11. i. The man whose school was the University, whose Alma Mater was Oxonia itself.

1866. Carlyle, Inaug. Address, 170. My dear old Alma Mater.

1874. The Blue, ' Remin. of Christ's Hospital.' Aug. The musical arrangements of our Alma Mater were something exceedingly below par.

Almanack, subs, (venery) —The female pudendum : see monosyllable and Zadkiel.

Alman-comb, subs. phr. (old).— See quot. and Welsh-comb.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. xxi. Afterwards he combed his hair with an Ai man comb, which is the four fingers and the thumb.

Almighty, adj. and adv. (common). —An intensive : mighty, great, exceedingly.

1824. De Quincey, Works (1871), xvi. 261. Such rubbish, such almighty nonsense (to speak transattanticé) no eye has ever beheld. Ibid. [Century]. He is in an almighty fix.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple (1863), 328. An almighty pretty French privateer lying in St. Pierre's.

1853. Lytton, My Novel. The child ... is crumpling up and playing ai mighty smash with that flim-flam book. Ibid. Enough to destroy and drive into 'almighty shivers,' a decent fair-play Britisher like myself. Ibid. Let us cut short a yarn of talk which . . . might last to ' almighty crack.'

1888. New York Mercury, 21 July. I wonder whether the other boys gits as many customers to that place? ... If they do it must be almighty full sometimes.

Almighty • gold (-money, or [American] -dollar), subs. phr. (old).—The power or worship of money ; Mammon.

1616. Jonson, Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland. Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold, And almost every vice, almightie gold.

1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, iii. 2. In what shape was the almighty gold transformed that has bribed you so much in his favour?

183g. Washington Irving, Wolferts Roost : A Creole Village, 40. The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotee in these peculiar villages.

1857. Borthwick, California, 165. The almighty dollar exerted a more powerful influence in California than in the old States ; for it overcame all preexisting false notions of dignity.

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, xxii. Genius ... 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. Sutherland, Australia, 102. The travelling Yankee, with an overwearing confidence in the almighty dollar.

Almond-for-a-parrot, phr. (old).—See quot. 1672.

d. 1529. Skelton, Speake Parrot, 7. Then parrot must haue an almon or a date.

Aloft.

36 Alpha and Omega.

1581. Riche, Farewell Mil. Prof. [Shakspeare Soc], 63. Have you founde your tongue, now pretie peate? then wee most have an almon for parrat.

1590. Nash, Almond for a Parrot [Title].

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, v. 3. Mab. We ... lie laughing ... to remember how we sent you a bat-fowling. Wafer. An almond, parrot ; that's my Mab's voice.

1672. Ray [Hazlitt], Almond for a parrot . . . Some trifle to amuse a silly person.

Aloft. To go aloft, verb. phr. (nautical).—To die : see Hop the Twig.

1692. E. Walker, Morals of Epictetus (1737), Intr. His rich soul aloft did soar.

c. 1800. DiBDiN, Tom Bowling. No more he'll hear the tempest howling, For death has broached him to. . . . Faithful below, Tom did his duty, And now he's

gone aloft.

To come aloft, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—1. To vault ; to play tricks : as a tumbler.

1624. Massinger, Bondman, iii. 3. Do you grumble ? you were ever A brainless ass; but if this hold, I'll teach you To come aloft, and do tricks like an ape.

2. (venery).—To mount

(q.v.).

1590. Spenser, Fairy Queen. . . . That night nine times he came aloft.

Along of, prep. phr. (colloquial or dialectical). — On account of ; owing to ; pertaining to ; about : also (formerly) along on. [The O.E.D. traces the phrase back to Anglo-Saxon times: King Alfred (880). /Elfric(<:. 1000) ; Beket(c. 1300), from which period the history is continued infra],

1369. Chaucer, Troylus, ii. 1001. On me is not along thin evil fare. /bid. (1383), Cant. Tales, 16398. I can not tell whereon it was along, But wel I wot grct strif is us among.

1489. Caxton, Faytes of Armes, 1. _ viii. 19. Whome it is alonge or causeth.

1530. Palsgrave, Langue Francoyse, 427. 2. I am longe of this stryfe : je suis en cause de cest estrif.

c. 1570. Thynne, Pride and Lowl. (1841), 56. The villain sayth it is all long of me.

1581. Stafford, Exam, of Complaints, 16 (New Shaks. Soc). Complaining of general poverty, he says : ' Whereof it is longe, I cannot well tell.'

1601. Holland, Pliny, 25 [Morris, Elem. Hist. Eng. Gram., 198]. And that is long of contrarie causes.

1602. Return from Parnassus [Arber], Prol. 3. It's all long on you.

1611. Shakspeare, Cymbeline, v. 5. 271. Oh, she was naught ; and long of her it was, That we meet here so strangely.

1767. Brooke, Fool of Quality (1792), 11. 88. 'Tis all along of you that I am thus haunted.

1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, v. xxix. Dark Musgrave, it was long of thee.

185S. Dickens, Christmas Stories, Going into Society,' 65. Would he object, to say why he left it? Not at all ; why should he? He left it along of a dwarf.

1881. Black, Beautiful Wretch, xviii. Mayhap the concert didn't come off, along ok the snow.

Along-shore (or Longshore) Boy (or Man), subs. phr. (old).—A landsman (GROSE).

Aloud, adv. (colloquial).—An intensive: e.g. to talk aloud = to rave; to think aloud —to talk ; to walk aloud = to run ; to stink aloud = to overpower.

1872. D. Nezvs, 28 Feb. The stuff, to quote the trenchant expression of an onlooker, stank aloud.

Alpha and Omega (The), subs, phr. (venery). — The female pudendum : see Monusyllaule.

Alphabet. 37

Alsatia.

Alphabet, Through the alphabet, phr. (colioquial).— Completely ; first and last.

Alsatia, subs. (old).—1. Whitefriars : a district adjoining the Temple, between the Thames and Fleet Street. [Formerly the site of a Carmelite convent (founded 1241) and possessing certain privileges of sanctuary. These were confirmed by a charter of James I. in 160S, whereafter the district speedily became a haunt of rascality in general, a Latinised form of Alsace having been jocularly conferred on it as a ' debateable land.' Abuses, outrage, and riot led to the abolition of its right of sanctuary in 1697.] Also Alsatia the higher. Whence Alsatia the lower = the liberties of the Mint in Southwark ; Alsatian = a rogue, debtor or debauchee ; a resident in Alsatia : and as adj. — roguish, debauched ; Alsatia-phrase = a canting term (B. E. and Grose). [See Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, chaps, xvi. and xvii. ].

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of alsatia I. in wks. (1720), iv. 27. He came out of White Fryers : he's some Alsatian bully.

1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), 11. 259. The benchers of the Inner Temple having given orders for bricking up their little gate leading into Whitefryers . . . the Alsatians came and pulled it down.

1691-2. Gentlemen s Journal, Feb., 5. Knights of the post, Alsatian braves.

1704. Gentleman Instructed, 491. He spurr'd to London, and left a thousand curses behind him. Here he struck up with sharpers, scourers, and Alsatians.

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.

1709. Steele, Tatler, 66. Two of [my] supposed dogs [i.e., gamblers or sharpers] are said to be whelped in Alsatia, now in ruins ; but they, with the rest of the pack, are as pernicious as if the old kennel had never been broken down.

1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, etc. (1811), 82. A 'squire of Alsatia. A spendthrift or sharper, inhabiting places formerly privileged from arrests.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xvii. You shall sink a nobleman in the Temple Gardens, and rise an Alsatian at Whitefriars. . . . An extravagantly long rapier and poinard marked the true Alsatian bully.

2. (common). — Hence any rendezvous or asylum for loose characters or criminals, where immunity from arrest is tolerably certain ; a disreputable locality : the term has sometimes been applied (venomously) to the Stock Exchange. Alsatian = an adventurer ; a Bohemian.

1834. Lytton, Last Days of Pomp. The haunt of gladiators and prizefighters— of the vicious and penniless—of the savage and the obscene—the Alsatia of an ancient city.

i8[?]. Greenwood, Ga?nbli>ig Hell. For this ruin the gambling house is responsible. Huntley is but one of the thousands who are stripped annually of all they possess in this modern Alsatia.

1861. Braddon, Trail of Se?pent, 11. i. Blind Peter was the Alsatia of Slopperton, a refuge for crime and destitution.

1865. D. Telegraph, 22 Dec, 4. 6. The two countries are so closely allied that one cannot possibly be turned into an Alsatia for the criminals of the other.

1876. Lord Justice James [ex parte Saflfery re Cooke, Law Times, 35, 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.

a r-"< ;»<w-« P'y JL 1' <w ."W a

Alt.

Altitude.

1882. Besant, All Sorts and Cond. 0/ Men, vii. The road has come to be regarded as one of those Alsatian retreats, growing every day rarer, which are beyond and above the law.

Alt. In alt, adv. phr. (old colloquial).—In the clouds ; highflying ; dignified. [Altissimo = 2l musical term]. Cf. Altitude.

1748. Richardson, Clarissa, v. 145. The fair fugitive was all in alt.

1784. European Mag., v. 425. I know you to be in alt as to your religion.

i7g6. Burney, Camilla, 11. v. Come ... be a little less in alt . . . and answer a man when he speaks to you.

17P]. Colman, Musical Lady, i. Moderato . . . madam ! Your ladyship's absolutely in alt . . . You have raised your voice . . . since you came into the room.

Altar, subs, (venery).—The female pudendum : see monosyllable. Also Altar of Hymen (of

love, of pleasure).

Altemal (or Altumal), subs., adj., etc. (Old Cant.).—See quots. Also as intj. (American thieves') = 'Cut it short,' 'stow it' (q.v.), 'stash it' (q.v.). [O.E.D. : ' Lat. altum, the deep, i.e. the sea + al.' Dutch altermal. ]

c. 1696. B. E. Diet. Cant. Crciu, s.v. Altemall, altogether.

1711. Medleys, 29 Jan. (1712), 186. His altumal cant, a mark of his poor Traffick and Tar-Education.

1753. chamiiv.rs, 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.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Ai.tamel. A verbal or lump account, without particulars, such as is commonly produced at bawdy-houses, spunginghouses, etc. Ibid., s.v. Dutch reckoning or Alle-mal.

1859. Matsell, Rogue's Lexicon, ' On the Trail.' What was the altemal? It only raised fifteen cases. The dummy raked a case and a half, and the thimble was a first, but the slang and onions were bene.

Alter. To alter the jeff's click, verb. phr. (tailors').—To ' make up ' a garment without regard to the cutter's chalkings or instructions.

Altham, subs. (Old Cant).—See quot.

1563. Awdeley, Fratcrnityc of I'acabondes [E. E. T. S.], 4. A curtail 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.

Altitude. In one's altitudes, phr. (old). —Generic for highmindedness. (i) = in lofty mood ; (2) = in high spirits ; (3)='hoitytoity ' ; and (4) = drunk (B. E. and Grose) ; see Screwed.

1616. Beaumont and Fletchek, Laws of Candy, ii. This woman's in the

altitudes.

1630. Jonson, New Inn, i. I have talked . . . above my share, . . . and been in the altitudes, the extravagants.

1668. Dryden, Evening's Love, 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. Vanisrugh, Confed. v. Clar. ' Who makes thee cry out thus, poor Brass?' Brass. 'Why, your husband, madam ; he's in his altitudes here.'

c. 1733. North, Examen, 258. If we would see him in his altitudes, we must go back to the House of Commons . . . there he cuts and slashes at another rate.

1748. Richardson, Clarissa, 1. 252. ' The girl has got into her altitudes, Aunt Hervey,' said my sister. ' You see, Madam, she spares nobody.'

Altocad. 39 Ambassador.

1782. Johnson, Letter 293 (1788), ii. 252. While you were in your altitudes, at the Opera.

1783. Burgoyne, Lord 0/ the Manor, ii. 1. Sophia. Sir, I have tried ... to treat you with respect ; ... re

sentment and contempt are the only

Contrast. Clarissa Harlow in her altitudes !

1785. Grose, Diet. Vulgar Tongue. The man is in his altitudes, i.e., he is drunk.

Altocad, subs. (Win. Coll.).—A

paid member of the choir who takes alto.

Altogether, subs, (oldcolloquial). — A whole ; a toul-ensetnble.

1667. Waterhouse, Fire of London, 141. Her Congregations, Her Citizens, Her altogether has been as orderly . . .

1674. Fairfax, Bulk and Selo, 33. We only call . . . God's Allfillingness an altogether, to loosen it from any thing of sundership.

1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 26 June, 9. American fingers . . . impart a finish and an altogether (this is much better than to steal tout-ensemble from the wicked Emperor) . . .

The altogether, subs. phr. (artists'). Nudity ; ' in the altogether nude ' : popularised by Du Maurier's novel and play, Trilby.

Alybbeg. See Lybbege.

Alycom paine. See Allacom

pain.

Amazon, .rwfo. (colloquial). — 1 A masculine woman ; a virago. Also (the adjectival preceded the figurative substantive usage) Amazonian = manlike, bold, quarrelsome [in quot. 1610 = beardless].

1595. Shakspeare, 3 Henry VI., i. 4. How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex To triumph like an Amazonian trull. Ibid. (1610), Coriolanus, ii. 2. His Amazonian chin.

1609. C. Buller, Monarchia Feminina (1673), 64. These Amazonian dames begin to wax weary of their mates.

1711. Steele, Spectator, 104, 3. This Amazonian Hunting Habit for Ladies.

1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 6, 2. I am far from wishing . . . the Amazon . . . any diminution ... of fame.

1762. Goldsmith, Female Warriors [British Mag., Jan.]. When I see the avenues of the Strand beset every night with fierce Amazons ... I cannot help wishing that such martial talents were converted to the benefit of the public.

1767. Fordyce, Sermons to Young Women, i. iii. 105. To . . . men an Amazon never fails to be forbidding.

1809. Byron, Childc Harold, i. 57. Yet are Spain's maids no race of Amazons, But form'd for all the 'witching arts of love.

1837. HowiTT, Rural Life, in. vi. His Amazonian lady, half the head taller than himself.

1837. Carlyle, French Rev., 1. vii. 5. Him . . . they suspend there ... a horrible end ! Nay, the rope broke, as French ropes often did ; or else an Amazon cut it.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Shepherd (1889), 69. Mistress Poll Maggot was a beauty on a much larger scale—in fact, a perfect Amazon.

1844. Blackwood's Mag., lvi. 214. Caps were dragged off, and nails shown with Amazonian spirit.

1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xlvi. 425. Extremes meet in the Esquimaux of Greenland and the Amazons of Paris.

2. (obsolete chess). — The Queen.

1656. Beale, Chessc-play, 2. The Queen or Amazon is placed in the fourth house from the corner of the field by the side of her King, and alwayes in her own colour.

Ambassador, subs, (nautical).— 'A trick to duck some ignorant fellow or landsman, frequently played on board ship in the warm latitudes. It is thus managed : a large tub is filled with water, and

Ambassador of Commerce. 40

Ambrol.

two stools placed on each side of it. Over the whole is thrown a tarpaulin, or old sail, which is kept tight by two persons seated on the stools, who are to represent the king and queen of a foreign country. The person intended to be ducked plays the ambassador, and after repeating a ridiculous speech dictated to him, is led in great form up to the throne, and seated between the king and queen, who rise suddenly as soon as he is seated, and the unfortunate ambassador is of course deluged in the tub' (Grose).

Ambassador ofCommerce, subs. (common).—A commercial traveller ; a bagman (q.v.).

1903. People, 29 Mar., 12. 5. Ambassadors of commerce. London Commercial Travellers' Benevolent Society [Title].

Ambes-ace. See ames-ace.

Am bi a, subs. (American). —Chewed-tobacco juice (Bartlett): also see quot.

1889. C. J. Leland [SlangJargon and Cant, s.v. Ambia. The word ambia, as generally used at Princeton, which largely represents the solid South, is not applied to saliva, but to the intensely strong nicotine, or thick brown substance which forms in pipes. I have always supposed that it is merely a Southern variation of amber, which exactly represents its colour.

Ambidexter (or Ambodexter).

subs, (old legal).—See quots. Hence (2) a double-dealer ; a vicar of Bray (q.v.). Also as adj. = deceitful, tricky.

1532. Use 0/ Dice Play (1850), 17. Any affinity with our men of law? Never with these that be honest. Marry ! with such as be ambidexters, and used to play in both the hands.

1555. KiDi.KV, Works, 27. They may be called neutrals, ambidkxtkks, or rather such as can shift on both sides.

1589. Golden Mirrour [Nares]. An other sorte began to hyde their head, And many other did ambodexter play.

1598. Florio, Worlde 0/ Wördes, s.v. Destrcggiare.

1599. Peele, Sir Clyonion [Works, iii. 44]. Such shifting knaves as I am the ambodexter must play.

1607. Cowell, Law Diet. s.v. Ambidexter . . . that juror that taketh of both parties for the giving of his verdict.

1613. Finch, Law (1636), 186. To call ... an Attornie Ambodexter, or to say that he dealeth corruptly.

1624. E. S. [Shakspeare Cent. Praise, 154]. These ambi-dexter Gibionites.

1652. Beulowe, Theop., xm. xviii. 238. From costly bills of greedy Emp'ricks free From plea of A.mbodexters fee.

1691. Blount, Law Dictionary. Ambidexter . . . That Juror or Embraceor who takes Money on both sides, for giving his Verdict.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crc.u, s.v. Ambidexter, one that goes snacks in gaming with both Parties ; also a Lawyer that takes Fees of Plaintif and Defendant at once.

1703. De Foe, Manners, 93. Those ambodexters in Religion, who Can any thing dispute, yet any thing can do.

1705. HiCKERiNGiLL, Pricst-cra/t (1721), i. 44. Nor Ambodexter Lawyers take a Fee On both Sides.

1841. Disraeli, Amen. Lit. (1859), i. 362. Spun out of his own crafty ambidexterity.

1856. Dove, Logic, Chr. Faith, 1. ii. Tortuous and ambidexter sophistries.

1864. Pai.crave, Norm, and Eng. m. 278. An ambidexter, owing fealty to both . . . and not faithful to either.

Ambree. Mary Ambree, subs, phr. (old).—Generic for a woman of strength and spirit [Nares],

Ambrol, subs. (B. E.). ' Amukol, among the Tarrs for Admiral.'

Ambush. 41 Ames-ace.

Ambush, subs. (American thieves'). —Fraudulent weights and measures. [A punning allusion : to lie in wait, lying weight.] Cf. Fourbesque (Italian thieves'argot); giusta = s. pair of scales, a balance, which in Italian = correct.

Amen, verb, (colloquial).—To finish a matter : as amen does a prayer ; to approve ; to ratify. To say Yes and Amen = to agree to everything (Grose); amener = a general conformist.

1812. Southey, Letters, ii. 281. Yea verily, this very evening have I amen'd the volume.

1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, lvii. Is there a bishop on the bench that has not amen'd the humbug in his lawn sleeves, and called a blessing over the kneeling pair of perjurers?

Amen-bawler (-curler or -snorter), subs. phr. (old).— A parish clerk : also (military) amen-wallah : see Blackcoat (Grose).

d. 1704. Brown, Works, ii. 16. Lower sells penny prayer-books all the week, and curls an amen in a meeting-house on Sundays.

1858. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, in. ix. He was nicknamed the 'Amen bawler,' and recommended to take to the ' hum-box.'

1888. Bulletin, 24 Nov. In Maoriland it is impossible to swing [a] cat without smiting some variety of amensnorter. Still the saints are not happy.

1899. Whiteinü,/ö/?« St., xxi. 'We represents the Musselbry branch of the Slav'ry Sersiety,' says a sort of Amen-curler, as was at the 'ead on 'em.

ämerace, adv. (American thieves'). —Near at hand ; within call.

America, subs, (venery).—The

female pudendum : see monosyllable ; cf. India.

1613. Donne, Elegy, xix. License my roving hands, and let them go . . . Oh my America . . . safest when with one man man'd.

American Shoulders, subs. phr. (tailors'). = A particular 'cut' in the shoulders of a coat : they are shaped to give the wearer a broad and burly appearance.

American Tweezers, subs. phr. (thieves').—An instrument to unlock a door from the outside, nippers (q.v.).

Ames-ace (Ambs-ace, Ambes

ace, etc.), subs. phr. (old colloquial). — i. Orig. and lit. the throw of two aces ; the lowest cast at dice. Hence (2) misfortune ; bad luck ; nothing. Within ames-ace = nearly, very near (Grose) : an emphasised form of ace, which see for other quots.

1297. Robert of Glouc. 51. Ac he caste per of ambes as.

[?]. MS. Laud, io8,_ f. 107. Ake i-hered beo swete Jhesu Crist, Huy casten aumbes-as.

[?]. Harrowing of Hell, 21 [71/5. Digby, 36, f. 119]. Stille be thou, Sathanas, The ys fallen ambes aas.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, ' Man of Lawes Tale,' 25. O noble, O prudent folk, as in this cas Your bagges ben not filled with ambes as, But with sis cink, that renneth for your chance.

c. 1430. Lydgate, Minor Poems(1840), 166. Whos chaunce gothe neyther on synk nor sice, But withe ambes ace encresithe his dispence.

d. 1529. Skelton, Works, ii. 438. This were a hevy case, A chaunce of ambesase, To se youe broughte so base, To playe without a place.

1598. Shakspeare, AU s Well, etc., ii. 3. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace for my life.

1647. Cartwright, Ordinary [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), 238]. May I At my last stake, when there is nothing else To lose the game, throw ames-ace thrice together !

A minadab.

A movet.

170g. Ward, Terreefilius, 11. 13. 'Tis a meer Scandal for a Man of your Wealth and Reputation, within Ames Ace of a Scarlet Gown, to shew yourself concern'd at such a Trifle.

1721. Centlivre, Gamester, i. 1. My evil genius flings All's Ace before me.

1731. Fielding, Lottery, 1, 249. If I can but nick this time, a.me's ace, I defy thee.

1870. Lowell, Among my Books, 1. 192. a lucky throw of words which may come up the sices of hardy metaphor, or the ambs-ace of conceit.

Aminaoab, subs. (old).—A Quaker : in contempt (Grose).

1709. Ward, Terrcefilhcs, vi. 11. Abigail . . . was Aminidab's servant till happening to uncover her Nakedness . . . he thought it best ... to take the Damsel to Wife.

Ammunition, subs. (old). — 1. Originally applied to every requisite for soldiers' use, as ammunition bread, shoes, hat, etc. : now only of powder, shot, shell, and the like. Whence colloquialisms SUCh as ammunition face = a warlike face; ammunition wife (or whore) = a soldier's trull (Grose) ; ammunition leg = a wooden leg, etc.

c. 1658. Cleveland, Cleveland Vindicated (1677), 97. So much for his warlike or ammunition face.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, 1. i. 314. Link'd with many a piece of ammunition bread and cheese.

1693. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen.,

1320. An ammunition whore, SCOrtUlll

castrense.

1717. Prior, Alma, iii. 215. That great Achilles might employ The strength designed to ruin Troy, He dined on lion's marrow, spread On toasts of ammunitionbread.

1766. Smollett, Travels, v. The king . . . allows them soldiers'pay, that is, five sols or twopence halfpenny a day ; or rather, three sols and ammunition bread.

1827. Lytton, Pclkam, vii. The one milliner's shop was full of fat squiresscs, buying muslin-ammunition.

2. (common). — BUM-fodder

3. (venery). — The seminal fluid : see Cream.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, i. 75. The lavish Hero fir'd too fast . . . That when three poor attacks were past He wanted ammunition.

Mouth-ammunition, subs, phr. (old).—Food : cf. bellytimber.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. vii. If you would consume the mouth-ammunition of this island, you must rise betimes.

Amoret (or Amorette), subs. (old colloquial). — 1. Originally a sweetheart: see quot. 1400; spec. (2) a mistress. [O.E.D: ' Eng. Amoret having become obsolete the word has recently been re-adopted from the French' : see sense 4.] Whence (3) the concomitants of love : e.g. a love-knot, a love-sonnet, lovelooks (see quot. 1590), and (in pi.) 'love-tricks, dalliances' (Cotgrave) [Cf. amoretto (from the Ital.) = a lover, a sonnet, a sheep's eye.]

c. 1400. Rom. 0/ Rose, 4758. Eke as well by amorettes In mourning blacke as bright burnettes. Ibid. 892. Clad . . . alle in floures and in flourettes, Painted alle with amorettes.

1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, c. iv. Thought more to complaire and plese their amorettes . . . than to plese God.

1590. Watson, Poems (1870), 171. Bestow no wealth on wanton amorets.

1590. Lodge, Euphucs' Gold. Leg. Wryting amorets.

c. 1590. Greene, Friar Bacon, xii. 8. Should . . . Phcebus scape those piercing amorets, That Daphne glanced at his deity?

1590. Never too Late, 82. Shee alluring him with such wilie amorettes of a curtizan.

A mpersand. 43 A muse.

1594. Dickenson, Arisbas (1878), 71. Sweete Amorets were chaunted.

1598. Florio, IVorlde of Wördes. Amorctto, an amoret, a little love, a wanton, a paramour.

1646. Hai.l, Poems 35. In each line lie More Amorettoes then in Doris eye.

1651. Sarpi, 92. My amorets and wantonness.

1654. Gayton, Fest. Notes, 47. The amoretto was wont to take his stand at one place where sate his mistress.

1794. Warton, Sappho. When amorets no more can shine, And Stella owns she's not divine.

4. (modern). Amourette = a love-affair ; an intrigue.

1865. Carlyle, Fred. Great, 11. vu. ii. 161. A curious story about one of Prince Fred's amourettes.

1871. Pall Mall Gaz., 7 Feb., 11. Youthful amourettes more or less scandalous.

Ampersand, subs. (American).— i. The posteriors : see Bum.

2. (colloquial). — The sign ' & ' ; ampersand. Variants : And-pussy-and ; Ann Passy Ann ; anpasty ; andpassy ; anparse ; apersie (.q.v.); perse ; ampassy ; am-passy-and ; amperse-and ; ampus-and ; ampussy and; ampazad ; amsiam ; ampus-end ; apperse-and ; empersi-and ;

amperzed ; and zumzy-zan.

1764. Macklin, Man of the World. A shrivelled, cadaverous, neglected piece of deformity, i' the shape of an ezard or an EMPERSi-and, or in short anything.

d. 1843. Southey, Letters, i. 200. The pen commandeth only twenty-six . . . these are its limits—I had forgotten and

pussey-and.

18S9. Eliot, Adam Bede. But he observed in apology, that it [the 'z'] was a letter you never wanted hardly, and he thought it had only been put there ' to finish off th' alphabet, like, though ampus-end ["&"] would ha' done as well,' for what he could see.

Amputate, verb, (common).—To be off; ' to cut (q.v.) and run' :

also to amputate one's mahogany (or timber). o'«BUNK

and Timber-merchant.

Amsterdam-whore, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.

1709. Ward, Tcrraf litis, vi. 28. She has the face of an Angel, the Shape of a Goddess . . . yet . . . she's as False and Perfidious as an Amsterdam Whore.

Amulet (The), subs, (venery).— The female pudendttm ; see Monosyllable.

Amuse, verb. (Old Cant, and literary).—To cheat, beguile, deceive, [O. E. D. . . . ' Not in regular use before 1600. . . . ' the usual sense in 17th and 18th centuries '] : spec. (B. E. and Grose), 'to throw dust in one's eyes by diverting one,' ' to fling dust or snuff in the eyes of the person intended to be robbed ; also to invent some plausible tale to delude shopkeepers and others, thereby to putthemofftheirguard.' Whence amuser = a cheat, a snuff-throwing thief ; ' one that deceives ' (Ash and Grose).

1480. Caxton, OvidMetam., xn. iii. i never amused my husbonde.

1569. Cecil [Strype, Ann. Ref., 1 liv. 582]. He was secretly employed to amuse her.

1583. Whitgift [Fuller, Church Hist., ix. 153]. I doubt not but your Lordship will judge those amusers to deserve just punishment.

1673. Marvell, Reh. Transp., ii. 263. And all to amuse men from observing.

1728. De Foe, Magic, 1. vii. 190. Tools of the Devil to cheat and amuse the world.

1756. Burke, Sublime and Beautiful [Works, i. 155]. Amuse and mislead us by false lights.

A nabaptist.

44 Angel Altogether.

177s. Ash, Diet., s.v. Amuser . . . one that deceives.

1817. Cobbett, Year'sResid.Amer. (1822), 230. It becomes the people of America to guard their minds against ever being, in any case, amused with names.

Anabaptist, subs. (old).—A thief caught in the act and disciplined, at the pump or in the horse-pond (Grose).

Anchor, subs. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Anchor. Bring your a—se to an anchor, i.e., sit down. To let go an anchor to the windward of the law ; to keep within the letter of the law. Sea Wit.

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, 11. iii. ' Hullo, Pet ! . . . bring yourself to an anchor, my man.' The Pet accordingly anchored himself by dropping on to the edge of a chair.

Ancient. See Antient.

Ancient Mariner, subs. phr. (Univ. Oxford).—A rowing don.

Andrew, subs. (old). — i. A broadsword ; also Andrew Ferrara : cf. Gladstone. [Cosmo, Andrea, and Gianantonio Ferara, three Italian cutlers of Belluno in Venetia. ]

1618. Fletcher, Chances, viii. Here's tough old Andrew.

2. (old).—A body-servant ; a valet : cf. Abigail.

1698. Congreve, Way of the World, v.i. I am brought to fine uses, to become a botcher of second-hand marriages between Abigails and Andrews.

3. (old). — A ship, whether trading or man-of-war : also Andrew Millar, and (Grose) Andrew Miller's lugger. Among Australian smugglers — a revenue cutter.

1591. Harington, Orlando Furioso, xv. 23. Famous Andrew D'Orik, That to pyrats so much terror breeds [Littledale].

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.

See Merry-Andrew.

Androgynation (The Work of),

subs. phr. (venery).—Copulation ; ' the beast with two backs ' (q. v. ).

Angel, subs, (nursery).—See quot.

also flying-angel.

1880. Greenwood, Seaside Insanity [Odd People in Odd Places, 45]. With the youngest but one . . . bestriding his shoulder . . . 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.

Angel on horseback, subs, phr. (common).—See quot.

1901. Grand, Babs the Impossible, xv. She would especially like a savoury that evening . . . Angels on horseback, now — those delicious little morsels of oysters rolled in bacon, and served on crisp toast, very hot.

Angel Altogether, subs. phr. (West Indian).—A toper. [A bon-mot (c. 1876) of a sugar planter on the East Coast, Demerara. A negro, notorious for hard drinking, applied for leave ; the manager, suspecting Quashie wanted to go ' on the drink,' bantered him. 'John ! you were drunk on Sunday ? ' ' Yes, massa ! ' ' Monday too ? ' ' Yes, massa !' and the question, being repeated for the rest of the week, elicitating similar responses, 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.]

A ngelic.

Angle.

Angelic (or Angelica), subs. (old). — A young unmarried woman.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry [Dick], 5. This cover-me-decently was all very well at Hawthorn Hall, I daresay ; hut here, among . . . the angelics at Almack's, ... it would be . . . the index of a complete flat.

Angeliferous, adj. (American).— Angelic ; also super-excellent.

1837. Bird, Nick 0/ the Woods [Barti.ett]. Angeliferous madam !

Angel's-food, subs. phr. (old).— Strong ale.

1577. Harrison, England, 11. xviii. (1877), 295. There is such headie ale and beere . . . commonlie called huffe-capp, the mad dog . . . angels food, dragons milke.

Angel's Footstool, subs. phr. (American). — An imaginary square sail, topping the skyscraper {q.V.), the moon-sail (q.V.), and the cloud-cleaner (q.v.).

Angel's Gear, subs. phr. (nautical).—Female attire.

Angel's Oil, subs. phr. (old).—A bribe : also oil of angels. [Angel = a gold coin, value 6s. Sd., first struck by Ed. IV. in 1465.]

Angel's Suit, subs. phr. (obsolete tailors). — A 'combination' garment for men : the trousers were buttoned to coat and waistcoat made in one.

Angel's Whisper, subs. phr. (military).—The call to defaulter's drill : usually extra fatigue duty.

1899. Wyndham, Queen's Service, xxxv. Effective measures are taken to prevent defaulters leaving barracks. . . . All day long, the bugle sounds at unexpected moments the . . . angel's whisper . . . when there is some extra fatigue to be performed.

Angle, subs, (venery).—The penis : see Prick (Rochester).

Verb, (old colloquial).—To get by stratagem ; to fish (q.v.) ; and (in an absolute sense, see Angler) to cheat, to steal. As subs. =(1) a lure or wile ; (2) a victim : hence a simpleton, one easily imposed on ; and (3) a cunning or specious fellow, an adventurer. To angle one on = to lure.

1535. Coverdai.e, Bible, Eccles. vii. 26. A woman is bytterer than death . . . for she is a very angle, hir hert is a nett.

1537. Tindale, Eup. St. John, 45. He can not . . . hyde the angle of his poysoned heresye vnder a bayte of true doctrine.

1586. Sidney [Jamieson]. If he shake courteously, he angled the people's hearts.

1589. Pappe with Hatchet, Pref. 3. I doo but yet angle with a silken flye, to see whether Martine will nibble.

1598. Shakspeare, i Henry IV., iv. 3. By this face, This seeming brow of justice did he win The hearts of all that he did angle for. Ibid. (1601), All's Well, v. 3. 212. She did angle for me, Madding my eagerness with my restraint.

1601. Jonson, Poetaster, ii. 1. I'll go presently and enghle some broker for a poet's gown.

1653. Walton, Compleat Angler, i. You have angled me on with much pleasure to the thatched house.

c. 1683. Oldham, Works, etc.(t6&6), 85. Shooes which . . . angled their Charity.

1750. Chesterfield, Letters, 255. Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

1799. Southev, Love Eleg., iii. 11. 125. The subtile line Wherewith the urchin angled for my heart.

A ngler.

A nkle.

1867. Disraeli [Morn. Star, 12 Feb.]. We are not angling for a policy.

TO angle for farthings, verb. phr. (old). See quot. 1785.

1700. Congreve, Way 0/the World, iii. 6. I hope to see him lodge in Ludgate first, and angle into Blackfriars for brass farthings with an old mitten.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.r. Angler . . . Angling for farthings. Begging out of a prison-window with a cap, or box, let down at the end of a long string.

TO angle with a silver hook, verb. phr. (common).—I. To bribe ; and (2) to buy one's catch in the market.

Angler, subs. (Old Cant.).—See quots. To angle = to steal ;

angling-cove = a fence (ç.V.)

(B. E. and Grose).

1567. Harman, Caveat, 35. These hokers, or Angglers be peryllous and most wicked Knaues . . . they customably carry with them a stafFe of v. or vi. foote long, in which within one ynch of the tope thereof, ys a lytle hole ... in which they putte an yron hoke, and with the same they wyll plucke vnto them quickly anything that they may reche ther with.

1592. Nash, Piers Pennilesse, 28 b. Noble Lord Warden [the devil] of the Wenches and Anglers.

1610. Rowland, Martin Mark-all [Hunt. Club], 8. They are sure to be clyd in the night by the angler, or hooker, or such like pilferers that Hue upon the spoyle of other poore people.

1632. Dekker, English Villanies. An angler for duds 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.

1749. Bamfyldk Moore-Carkw, Oath 0/ Canting Crew. _ No dimber damber, angler, dancer, Prig of cackler, prig of prancer.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Anglers. Pilferers or petty thieves, who, with a stick having a hook at the end, steal goods out of shop windows, grates, etc. : also those who draw in or entice unwary persons to prick at the belt, or such like devices.

c.i 819. Song 0/ the Young Prig [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 83]. The cleanest angler on the pad.

1847. Halliwell, Arch. Words, s.v. Angler. One who begs in the daytime, observing what he can steal at night.

Anglomaniacs, subs. phr. (American).—A club in Boston ; its members are opposed to everything British.

Angry Boy. See Boy and Roaring-Boy.

Angular Party, subs. phr. (common).—A gathering of people where the number is odd ; say three, seven, thirteen, etc.

Animal, subs. (old).—i. A term of contempt ; ' a fool—he is a meer Animal, he is a very silly Fellow ' ( B. E., r. 1696).

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer,

ill.

2. (American) —A new cadet at the United States Military Academy, West Point ; cf. snooker.

See Whole. Animule, subs. (American).—A

mule. [A portmanteau-word {'/.v.): i.e. animal -i-mule.]

1834 (?) Centre-Pole Bill [Overland Monthly]. ' Ten miles to town ! Waal, stranger, I guess I'll stake out here to-night. Them animui.es is too beat to do that.'

Ankle. To sprain one's ankle, verb. phr. (old).—To be got with child (Grose). Fr., avoir mal aux genoux.

Ankle-Beater. 47

Anoint.

Ankle-beater, subs. phr. (old).— A boy-drover : they tended their animals with long wattles, and beat them on the legs to avoid spoiling or bruising the flesh. Also penny-boys (q.v.): they received one penny per head as remuneration.

Ankle-spring Warehouse, subs, phr. (old).—The stocks.

1780. Ireland, Sixty Years Ago, 96. ' Kilmainham Minit.' Oh ! boys, if de mosey was keeper of de ancle-spring warehouse, you cud not help pitying him.

Ananias, subs, (common).—A liar. Hence Ananias-brand = an imposture ; Ananias-club = an imaginary collection of liars ; to play Ananias and Sapphira (thieves') = to keep back part of the swag.

1891. Carew, Auto. 0/ Gipsy, 414 He 'cused me o' playin' Ananias and Sapphira—pinchin' the regulars as we call it.

1896. Lillard, Poker Stories. ' Stories told at the Ananias club ' [Title of chapter].

Anna Maria, subs. phr. (rhyming). —A fire.

1892. Marshall, The Rusher [Sporting Times, 29 Oct.] »My roundthe-houses I tried to dry, By the Anna Maria's heat.

Anne. See Bacon, Sight, and Thumb.

Annex, verb. (American).—To steal ; to convey (q.v.).

Anno Domini Ship, subs. phr. (whaling). — An old-fashioned whaler (Century).

Annual, subs, (colloquial).—A holiday taken once in twelve months: cf. annual (old) = a mass said, or rent paid, and (modern) a book issued, yearly.

Anodyne,subs. (Americanthieves'). —Death: as verb = to kill. Also (Old Cant.), anodyne necklace (or necklace) = a halter (Grose). See Horse-collar, Ladder, and Nubbing-cheat.

[1636. Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iii. 2. Speaks of the hangman's halter as a ' necklace.']

1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield [Works (Globe), xx. 43]. May I die by an anodyne necklace, but I'd rather be an underturnkey in Newgate.

Anoint, verb. (old).—1. To flatter ; to butter (q.v.).

c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1057. These losengeris hem preyse and smylen, And thus the world with word anoynten.

1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, H v b. More worthe is the frend whiche prycketh than the flaterynge frend whiche

enoynteth.

2. (old). — To bribe ; ' to grease the palm' (q.v.); to ' creesh the loof. '

1584. Knox, Hist, of Reformation, [Works (1846), i. 102]. Yea, the handis of our Lordis so liberallie were anoynted.

3. (old).—To beat; to thrash soundly; also, 'to anoint with the sap of a hazel rod ' (North) : cf. strap-oil. Whence anointed = well drubbed (see next entry).

c. 1500. Rom. of Part. (Skeat), 5653. Then thay put hym hout, the kyng away fly, Which so well was anoynted [Fr. Qui anoit este si bien oingt] indede, That no slene ne pane had he hole of brede.

1563. R. B., Appius and Virginia [Dodsley, Old Plays [Hazlitt], iv. 121]. Have at you again : you shall have your anointing.

c. i6[?]. Roxburghe Ballads, ' Dumb Maid ' [B. M., C. 20, fi 8, 112]. And take you the Oyl of Hazel strong, With it anoint her Body round.

1703. Fuller, Bridewell, Ashton, Fleet, 211]. The whipper began to noint me with his instrument, that had . . . about a dozen strings notted at end.

A noinied.

48 A nother.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, v. ' I'll bring him to the gangway, and anoint him with a cat-and-nine-tails.'

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 139. Broomsticks . . . With which themselves they us'd to switch, And call it 'nointing for the itch.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Oil of -Gladness. I will anoint you with the oil of gladness.

1824. Irving, Tales 0/a Traveller, 11. 287. Seize a trusty staff and anoint the back of the aggressor.

Anointed, adj. (old).—Pre

eminent in rascality : see quot. 1866 and anoint, sense 3.

1769. Robertson, Hist, of Reign of Charles V. Their anointed malefactors, as they called them, seldom suffered capitally even for the most enormous crimes.

1820. Duncombe, Flash Diet., s.v. Anointed. Knowing ; ripe for mischief.

1825. Scott, St. Ronans Well, xxxvi. ' But, not being Lord Etherington, and an anointed scoundrel into the bargain, I will content myself with cudgelling him to death.

1866. Skeat [Notes and Queries, 3. S. ix. 422]. In a French MS. ... is an account of a man who had received a thorough and severe beating : 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.

1882. Smyth Palmer, Folk Etymology, s.v. Anointed . . . without doubt, a corruption of the French anoienté (Roquefort), another form of anéanti, brought to nothing, worthless, good for nothing.

Anonyma, subs, (popular: c. i8606). — A fashionable whore : see Tart.

1864. Sala, Quite Alone, i. Isthat anonyma driving twin ponies ... 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, vi. I'm getting tired of Mondes, one confounds . . . with Demi-monde, and aristocrats that are so near allied to anonyma.

1865. Publie Opinion, 30 Sep. These demi-monde people, anonymas, horsebreakers, hetairœ . . . are . . . pushing their way into society.

d. 1868. H. J. Byron [MSS. Additions to Slang Dicty. (Hotten) now in B.M.].

Miss-, said to have been the real

Anonyma, died at Paris.

1873. Lytton, Kenelm Chillingly. The carefully sealed envelopes containing letters from fair anonymas.

1881. Doran, Drury Lane, 11. 159. Anonymas, who dress with such exquisite propriety lest they should be mistaken for modest women.

1889. Modern Society, 13 July, 852. Matters are . . . complicated when his mother-in-law mistakes his buxom laundress for a fair anonyma.

1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, ii. Hawtrey piloted the innocent cow-boy out of the evening crowd of anonymas.

Another. You're another,phr. (old). A tu qztoque : i.e. another liar, fool, thief—any imaginable term of abuse.

1534. Udal, Roister Doistcr, iii. 5. Roister. If it were an other but thou, it were a knaue. M. Mery. Ye are an other your selfe, sir, the lorde us both sane.

1561. Preston, Cambyses [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), iv. 220]. Thou call'st me knave, thou art another.

1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, ix. vi. ' I did not mean to abuse the cloth ; I only said your conclusion was a non sequitur.' ' You are another,' cries the sergeant, ' an' you come to that ; no more a sequitur than yourself.'

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xv. 'Sir,' said Mr. Tupman, 'you're a fellow.' 'Sir,' said Mr. Pickwick, 'you're another.'

A notherguess. 49

Anser.

1882. Boston Lit. World, 3 June 184. 3. The argument of it is simply, 'You're another,' a retort in dignified manner to . . . British critics.

1888. Sir W. Harcourt, Speech at Eighty Club, 21 Feb. Little urchins in the street have a conclusive argument. They say ' you're another.'

See Nail.

Anotherguess (Anothergets, Anothergaines, Anothergates, Anotherguise, An

oth e r Kl ns), adj. (old colloquial). —That is another 'sort,' 'kind,' 'manner,' ' fashion,'etc. [O. E. D. : A phonetic reduction from

anothergets (for anothergates).] Hence anotherguess sort of man (woman, etc.) =

one 'up to snuff' (q.v.)

1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 152. If my father had not plaid the hasty foole I might have had another-Gaines husband than Dametas.

1594. Lyly, Mother Bombie, i. Bringing up another-gates marriage.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, v. i. He would have tickled you other gates than he did.

1625. Howell, Letters, 1. i.\. 4. I wish you anothergets wife than Socrates had.

1631. Saunderson, 21 Sermons, i. 7. That, I ween, is another-gates matter.

1655. Comical Hist, of Francion. I am constrained to make another guesse divertisement.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 428. Hudibras about to enter Upon another gates adventure.

1664. Flecknoe, Love's Kingdom. I co'd make othergess musick with them.

1682. Dvrfey, Madame Tickle. He has been a student in the temple these three years ; another guess sort of man, I assure you.

1690. Shadwell, Amorous Bigot, iii. 268. She has made another guess choice.

1690. Dryden, Amphitryon, iii. The truth on't is, she's anotherghess Morsel than old Bromia.

1727. Arbuthnot, John Bull, 92 It used to go another-guise manner in my time.

1762. Foote, Orators, iii. (1767), 61 This is anotherguess matter.

1764. Walpole, Otranto, ii. My lady Isabella is of anotherguess mould than you take her for.

1766. Colman, Clandestine Marriage. This is quite another-guess sort of a place than it was when I first took it, my lord.

1837. Hook, Jack Bragg, 196. He was, as they say, ' quite another guess sort of man ' from what he had been.

1837. Mrs. Palmer, Devonshire Courtship, 12. Her's another gess 'oman than Dame.

1844. Tales by a Barrister, ii. 353. You bean't given to walking of a morning — more's the pity—you would be another guess sort of a man if you were.

1868. Browning, Ring and Book, iv. 1498. Anotherguess tribunal than ours here.

1870. Argosy, Dec. 447. Wolfe Barrington came. Quite another guess sort of pupil.

Another Place, subs. phr. (Parliamentary). — The House of Commons.

1883. Lord Granville, Speech, 18 June. I hear that question is to be asked in another place by Mr. Warton,

Anser. Anser is Latin for Goose (Brandy, Candle, Fish, etc.), phr. (old).—A punning catch or retort.

1612. Chapman, Widow's Tears, ii. 4. Tha. I would make your lordship an answer. Arg. Anser's Latin for a goose, an't please your honour. Eu. Well noted, gander, and what of that? Arg. Nothing . . . but that he said he would make his lordship an answer.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, 11. Lord Sm. 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.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongtie, s.v. Tace . . . Tace is Latin for a candle ; a jocular admonition to be silent on any subject.

Anshum-scranchum. 50 Anthony.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, xi. 'Art thou forward in thy learning? Canst thou tell me Latin for goose?' 'To be sure,' replied Tom, 'brandy.'

1851. Mayhew, London Lab., i. 125. The thirst and uneasy feeling . . . frequently experienced after . . . 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.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Brandy. 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.

Anshum-scranchum, subs. phr. (provincial).—A scramble : e.g. when provision is scanty, and each one is almost obliged to scramble for what he can get, it is said to be anshum-scranchum work (Halliwell).

An't (Ai nt) (colloquial or vulgar). —A contraction for ' are not ' ; ' am not ' ; is not ; has not ; have not (han't) : chiefly Cockney ; cf. shan't, won't, can't. See Ain't. Also = ' and may it.'

1612. Chapman, Widow's Tears, ii. 4. An't please your honour.

1706. Ward, Hud. Rediv. 1. i. 24. But if your Eyes a'n't quick of Motion.

1734. Fielding, Old Man, 1007. 1. Ha, ha, ha ! an't we? no !

1778. Burney, Evelina, 1. xxi. 87. Those you are engaged to ain't half so near related.

1812. Smith, Rejected Addresses, 69. No, that a'nt it, says he.

1828. Lytton, Pelham, xlii. A'n't we behind-hand ?

1829. [Lamb, Life and Letters (i860), i. 348.] An't you glad about Burk's case?

1864. Tennyson, Northern Farmer, xiii. Joänes, as 'ant a 'aäpoth o' sense.

1865. Dickens, Mutual Friend, iii. 12. She ain't half bad.

Ant. In an ant's foot, phr. (provincial).—In a short time.

Antagonize, verb. (American colloquial).—To oppose a ball, bill, measure, etc. [Properly, only of contention or opposition between forces or things of the same kind.]

1882. Boston Evening Transcript, 4, 3. Windom did not hesitate openly to antagonise . . . Sherman's bill. Ibid. A determination to antagonise this and all other bills.

Antarctic, verb. (old).—To go to the opposite extreme : cf. 'to lord,' 'to tree,' etc.

1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 47. If it [Majestas Imperii] extends itself beyond its due Artique . . . Salus Populi must Antartique it, or else the world will be Excentrick.

Antechamber (or Room), subs. (B. E., c. 1696).—' Forerooms for receiving of Visits, as the back and Drawing-rooms are for Lodgings, anciently called Diningrooms.' [Not in use in this sense until 18th century, the earliest reference in O.E.D. being 1767 : the orig. meaning = the room admitting to the royal bedchamber.]

Antem. See Autem.

Anthony. To knock Anthony, verb. phr. (old). — i. To walk knock-kneed; to cuff Jonas (q.v.). Hence Anthony Cuffin = a knock-kneed man. Also (2) to keep warm by beating one's sides: see Beating the Booh y (Grose).

Anthony (or Tantony pig), subs. (old). — See Saint and Tantony, adding quots. infra.

Antidote.

Any.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, 'London,' ii. 56. He will follow him like a St. Anthony's Pig. St. Anthonie is notoriously known for the Patron of hogs, having a Pig for his Page in all pictures. . . . There was a fair Hospital built to the honour of St. Anthony in Bennet's Fink in the City ; the Protectors and Proctors whereof claimed a priviledge to themselves to garble the live Pigs in the Markets of the City ; and such as they found starved, or otherwise unwholesome for man's sustenance, they would slit in the ear, tie a bell about their necks, and let them loose about the City. None durst hurt or take them up (having this Livery of St. Anthony upon them); but many would give them bread, and feed them in their passage, whom they used to follow, whining after them.

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's fire, subs, phr. (old). —See quots.

1527. Andrew, Brunswyck's Distyll. Waters, A ij. Sorell water slaketh St. Anthony's fyre.

1607. Topsell, Serpents, 815. The disease called Erisipelas, commonly called St. Anthonies fire.

1834. Penny Cycl., 11. 96. 2. The cure of the distemper called the sacred fire, since that time called St. Anthony's fire.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. From the tradition that those who sought the intercession of St. Anthony recovered from the pestilential erysipelas called the sacred fire which proved extremely fatal in 1089.

Antidote, subs. (B. E.). — 'A very homely Woman.'

Antient, subs. (B. E.).—'At sea, for Ensign or Flag.' [O.E.D. : ' a corruption of ' Ensign,' confounded with ancien.'] Cf. Ancient Pistol, Othello's ancient (i.e. standard-bearers).

Antimony, subs, (printers'). — Type. [Antimony is a constituent part.]

Antipodes, subs, (venery).—The female privity : see monosyllable.

Antrums. See Tantrum.

Anvil. On the anvil, //;;-. (old colloquial).—In preparation ; in hand ; ' on the stocks ' ; and (the usual modern equivalent) ' [an iron] in the fire.' Hence to anvil = to fashion, to prepare.

1607. Dekker, Whore of Babylon, F. iij. Whilest our thunderbolts are an viling abroad.

1612. Chapman, Widow's Tears, ii. i. You know, brother, I have other irons on the anvil.

c. 1623. Fletcher, Lover's Progress, iv. Armour, anvilled in the shop Of passive fortitude.

1623. Howell, Letters (1650), 11. 29. Matters while they are in agitation and upon the anvil.

c. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Rebellion, i. ii. no. The Earl of Strafford . . . whose destruction was then upon the anvil.

c. 1700. Gentleman Instructed, 303. You are now anvilling out some Petty Revenge.

1748. Richardson, Clarissa, vm. 267. A roguery . . . ready anvilled and hammered for execution.

1785. Burke, Nabob of Arcot [Works (1842), i. 319]. He has now on the anvil another scheme.

Anvil-beater (-thresher, -whacker, etc.), subs. phr. (old).—A smith.

1677. Cleveland, Poems, 'Ded.' Venus is again unequally yoaked with a Sooty Anvile-beater.

Any. Any other man, phr. (American).—A call to order : addressed to a prosy or a discursive speaker, or when from lack of continuity in thought the same idea is repeated in synonymous terms.

Anybody. 52 Apartments.

I'm not taking any, phr. (colloquial).—A more or less sarcastic refusal ; ' Not for Joe.'

Anybody, subs, (colloquial).—An ordinary individual : in depreciation ; cf. Nobody, Somebody, etc.

1826. Disraeli, Vivian Grey, n. xv. 78. Everybody was there who is anybody.

1858. Bright, Speeches, 306. Two or three anybodies.

Anyhow. All anyhow, adv. phr. Carelessly ; at random.

1902. Free Lance, 11 Oct., 44. 2. I have seen these particular waistcoats made ' all anyhow ' as regards the matching of the stripe line.

Anyhow you can fix it, phr. ^American).—A form of aquiescence : e.g., 'I don't know if you'll succeed, but anyhow you can

fix it.'

Any-racket, subs. phr. (rhyming). —A penny faggot.

Anything. Like (or as) anything, adv. phr. (colloquial).— An indefinite but comprehensive standard of measurement or value ; like one o'clock (old boots, winking, hell, etc.).

1542. Udal, Erasmus' Apoph., 32. The same maiden . . . daunced without any feare . . emong Sweardesand Knives . . . as sharpe as anything.

1740. Richardson, Pamela, ii. 57. I fear your girl will grow as proud as anything.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 11. 135. His bosom throbb'd with agony, he cried like anything.

1873. Carroll, Through LookingGlass, iv. 73. They wept like anything to see Such quantities of sand.

Anythingarian, subs, (old colloquial).—An indifferentist ; a Jack-of-both-sides. Hence anythingarianism = the creed of ' all things to all men.'

d. 1704. Brown, Works, iii. 97. Bifarious anythingarians, that always make their interest the standard of their religion.

1709. Ward, Terrayilius, 1. 23. Wonderful Benefit the Wavering Anythingarean has at last reap'd by his long Inquiry.

1717. Entertainer, 6 Nov. [Notes and Queries, 7 S. vi. 66]. Nor, which is ten times worse, Free-thinkers, Atheists, Anythingarians.

1718-10. Swift, Pol. Conv., i. Lady Sm. What religion is he of? Ld. Sp. Why, he is an anythingarian. Lady Ans. I believe he has his religion to chuse.

1850. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xxii. They made puir Robbie Burns an anythingarian with their blethers. Ibid. (1851), Life, i. 215. A tone of feeling very common, and which finds its vent in modern Neo-Platonism—Anythingarianism.

Anywhere. Anywhere down there ! (tailors'). A workroom catch-phrase on the falling of anything to the floor.

Apart, adv. (old colloquial [B. E., c. 1699] : now recognised). — ' Apart, severally, asunder. [Except for the anticipation by Langland (see quot. 1399) not in use till long after B. E.'s time.]

1399. Langland, Rich. Rcdcless, iv. 36. Comliche a clerk than pronouncid be poyntis aparte to hem alle.

1728. Newton, Chronol. Amend., 1. 177. The spartans lived in villages apart. [O. E. D. : the first quot. in this sense.]

Apartments. Apartments to let, phr. (common). — i. Emptyheaded ; foolish ; crazy : see Balmy.

Ape. 53 Ape,

2. (old).—Said of a widow ; also of a woman given to prostitution : e.g., ' She lets out her fore room and lies backward ' (Ray and Grose).

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 191. A theatrical lady . . . may change her lover as often as her petticoat . . . and . . . rivals came back in crowds . . . ready to bargain on the mere report of my being to let.

Ape, subs. (old).—1. An antic ; a gull. Hence God's-ape = a natural fool ; TO PLAY THE ape = (i) to mimic; and (2) to play the fool ; TO put an ape

INTO ONE's HOOD (CAP, Or HAND)

= to befool, to dupe : also TO

MAKE ONE HIS APE. As adj. (ot

apish) = foolish : hence APEDRUNK = maudlin ; ape-\VARE = counterfeit ware.

c. 1230. Ancr. R., 248. Ne mei he buten scheawe J>e uorS sumwhat of his apeware.

1370. Wyclif, Works (1879), 4^12,Many sich ape resouns han men herd a3enus crist.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, ' Prioresses Prol.' Aha, felowes, beth ware of swiche a jape, The monk put in the mannes hode an ape. Ibid., Millers Tale, 203. Thus she maketh Absolon hir ape.

c. 1508. Colyn Blowbols Testament, 280. Such as wilbe as drongen as an

ape.

1509. Barclay, Ship of Foolcs (1570), 33. Some are ape dronke, full of laughter and of toyes, Some mery dronke.

1513. Douglas, JEneis, iv., Prol. 21. 3our trew seruandis silly goddis apis.

1532. More, Confut. Barnes, viii. Thys felowes folishe apishnesse and al hys asseheded exclamacions.

1579. Tomson, Calvin's Serm. Tim., 343. i. He playeth the ape, and counterfeteth what God hath ordeined for our salvation.

1596. Spenser, Fairy Queen, in. ix. 31. Two eies him needeth for to watch and wake, Whom lovers will deceive. Thus was the ape By their faire handling put into malbeccoes cape.

1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado, v. 1. Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops. Ibid. (1611), Cymb., iv. 2 194. Jollity for apes and grief for boys.

1634. Withals, Diet. It is hard making a horne of an ates tayle.

1648. Pet. Eastern Ass, 23. Themselves may . . . play the apes in Pulpits.

1741. Richardson, Pamela, 1. 154. That she should instigate the titled ape her husband to write to me.

1884. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, 11. 3. He was my ape, my tool.

2. (old). — An endearment (Malone) : cf. monkey.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii. i. 16. The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.

3. (Stock Exchange). — In pi. = Atlantic and North-western First Mortgage Bonds.

1871. Atkin, House Scraps. If anything tickles our fancy, We buy them— "Brums," "Caleys," or "Apes."

to lead apes in hell, verb.

phr. (old).—To die unmarried: of both sexes. Hence apeleader = an old maid, or bachelor (Grose).

1579" Lylv, Euphues (Arbek), 87. Rather thou shouldest leade a lyfe to thine owne lyking in earthe, than . . . leade apes in hell.

1577. Stanihurst, Desc. Ireland, ii. He seemed to stand in no better steede than to lead apes in hell.

1596. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, ii. 1. 34. She is your treasure . . . I must . . . for your love to her, lead apes in hell.

1598. Florio, Worldc of Wördes, s.v. Mâmmola, an old maide or sillie virgin that will lead apes in hell.

1605. London Prodigal, i. 2. But 'tis an old proverb, and you know it well, That women, dying maids, lead apes in

hell.

Ape.

54 Apostles.

1611. Chapman, Mayday, v. 2. I am beholding to her ; she was loth to have me lead apes in hell.

1648. Brathwayte, Bessy Bell, iii. To lead Apes in Hell, it will not do well, 'Tis an Enemy to Procreation.

1651. Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 372. I will rather hazard my being one of the Devil's ape-leaders than to marry while he is melancholly.

1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. Col. Faith, you'll never lead apes in hell. Nev. No, no, I'll be sworn Miss has not an inch of Nun's Flesh about her.

1710. Duke, Poems [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, ix. 233]. Compar'd to all the plagues in marriage dwell, It were preferment to lead apes in hell.

1717. Centlivre, Bold Stroke, ii. 1. Poor girl ; she must certainly lead apes, as the saying is.

c. 1727. Ramsay, Bonny Tiveedmouth {Works, ii. 245]. To Edinburgh go, Where she that is bonny May catch her a Johnny, And never lead apes below.

1763. Dodsley, Poems, vi. 216. Poor Gratia in her twentieth year, Foreseeing future woe, Chose to attend a monkey here Before an ape below.

c. 1800. Dibden, Song, 'Tack and Tack.' At length cried she, 'I'll marry; what should I tarry for? I may lead apes in hell for ever.'

1830. General P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), i. 198. Joining with other old women, in leading their apes in Tartarus.

TO SAY an ape'S paternoster, verb. phr. (old).—To chatter with cold. Fr. dire des patenôtres de singe.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Grelotter. To shake, tremble, say an Ape's Paternoster.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. xi. He would flay the Fox, say the Ape's Paternoster.

Phrases. ' The ape claspeth her young so long that at last she killeth them'; 'An ape is an Ali:, a varlet's a varlet, Though they be clad in silk or scarlet ' ; 'The higher the ape goes, the more he shows his tail.'

A-PER-SE. See A.

aphrodisian-dame, Sllbs. phr.

(literary). — A courtesan : see Tart.

1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, lvi. They showed me the state nursery for the children of those aphrodisian dames, their favourites.

A-PIGGA-BACK (or A-PISTY-POLL).

See Angel and Pick-a-back.

Apostles (or 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 ; also 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. At Columbia College, D.C., the last twelve on the B.A. list actually receive the personal names of the Apostles.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Apostles (Cambridge). Men who are plucked, refused their degree.

1795. Gent. Mag., Jan., 19. [The last twelve names on the Cambridge list are here called The Twelve Apostles.]

1823. Gradus ad Cantab. The Aiosti.es are the clodhoppers of literature, who have at last scrambled through the Senate House without being plucked, and have obtained the title of B.A. by a miracle. The last twelve names on the list of Bachelor of Arts—those a degree lower than the oi ttoAaoi — are thus designated.

TO manœuvre the apostles,

verb. phr. (old).—To borrow of one to pay another ; to rob Peter to pay Paul (Grose).

Apostles Grove. 55 Apple-pie Bed.

Apostle's Grove, subs, (common). —St. John's Wood ; also the

grove of the evangelist.

Apothecary, subs. (old).—Formerly a term of contempt : prior to 1617 the business of grocer and chemist was combined, and it was not till 1815 that the status of an apothecary, as a medical practitioner, was legally held by licence and examination of the Apothecaries Company. Hence to

talk like an apothecary,

verb. phr. (old).—To talk nonsense ; ' to use (Grose) hard or gallipot words : from the assumed gravity and affectation of knowledge generally put on by the gentlemen of this profession who are commonly as superficialintheir learning as they are pedantic in their language.' Also apothecaries'-latin = gibberish, dog(kitchen-, or raw-)Latin(^.z'.); apothecaries'-bill = a long undetailed account : cf. bawdyhouse reckoning. Likewise proverbial sayings : 'A broken apothecary, a new doctor ' ; ' Apothecaries would not give pills in sugar unless they were bitter.'

Appii (The), subs. (Durham University : obsolete)—The Three Tuns : a celebrated Durham Inn. [A mis-reading of Acts xxviii. 15.]

Apple, subs, (venery).—In pl.=a woman's paps : also appledumpling shop (grose) = the bosom : see Dairies.

d. 1638. Carew, The Rapture. The warm firm apple, tipp'd with coral berries.

Phrases and Proverbial Expressions. ' One rotten apple decays a bushel ' ; ' To take an eye for an apple ' ; ' As

like as an apple is like an oyster ' ; ' There's small choice in rotten apples ' ; ' Won with an apple, lost with a nut ' ; ' How we apples swim ' ( = ' What a good time we're having ' ; a reference to the fable of a posse of horse-turds floating down the river with a company of apples).

1340. Ayenbite, 205. A roted eppel amang be holen, makeb rotie j>e yzounde.

1532. More,Confut. Tindale[ Works, 689. 1]. Let him take mine yie for an apple, if . . .

1579. Fulke, Heskiris Pari., 241. Your argument is as like, as an apple is like an oyster.

1596. Shakspeare, Taming Shrew, i. i. 139. Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten apples.

1623. Sanderson, Sermons [Works (1681) i. 195]. Of a wavering and fickle mind ; as we say of children : won with an apple, and lost with a nut.

1672. Ray, Proverbs. See how we apples swim, quoth the horse-turd.

i860. Cornhill Mag., Dec. 737. While tumbling down the turbid stream, Lord, love us, how we apples swim.

1873. Ireland and Nichols, Hogarth, in. 29. He assumes a consequential air, sets his arms akimbo, and strutting among the historical artists cries, ' How we apples swim.'

See Adam's Apple.

Apple-cart, stibs. phr. (common). —The human body ; cf. beerbarrel. TO upset one's apple-cart = to floor a man ; to thwart (Grose). Also to upset

the old woman's apple-cart ; to upset the apple-cart and spill the gooseberries (or peaches).

Apple-pie Bed, subs. phr. (old).— 'A bed made apple-pie fashion, like what is called a turnover apple-pie, where the sheets are so doubled as to prevent any one from getting at his length between

Apple-pie Day. 56 Apple Squire.

them : a common trick played by frolicsome country lasses on their sweethearts, male relations, or visiters ' (Grose). Fr. lit en portefeuille.

1811. SHARPE[Cor?-espondencc(i888), i. 466]. After squeezing myself up, and making a sort of apple-I'YE bed with the beginning of my sheet.

1883. Sat. Review, 3 Nov. 566, 2. Some ' evil-disposed persons ' have already visited his room, made his bed into an apple-pie, plentifully strewn with hairbrushes and razors.

Apple-pie Day, subs. phr.(obsolete, Winchester Coll.)—The day on which SiX-and-SlX {q.v.) was played. It was 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. (colloquial).—The perfection of neatness and exactness.

1813. Scott [Lockhart, Life, iv. (1839), 131. The children's garden is in apple pie order.

1835. Marryat, J. Faithful, viii. 29. Put the craft a little into apple pie order.

1837. Bakham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Old Woman in Grey.' 1 am just in the order which some folks—though why, I am sure, I can't tell you—would call applepie.

Apples-and-pears, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A flight of stairs.

Apple Squire, subs. phr. (old).— i. A harlot's convenience. Hence (2) a kept-gallant {see Squire, Bully, and Fancy-man); (3) a wittol {q.v.); and (4) a pimp

{q.V.). Also pippin-squire, squire of the body, appleJOHN, apple-monger, apronman, and apron-squire. Applewife = bawd. In quot. 1636 a pron -SQ u i re=groomsman.

c. 1500. Copland, Hye-way to Spittelhouse [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., iv. 60], 832. Apple-squyers, entycers, and ravysshers, These to our place have dayly herbegers.

[?]. MS. Bodl., 30. Such stuffe the divell did not tast, only one little hellhound, a cronie of myne, and one of St. George's

apple-squires.

15 [?].....[Dodsley, Old Plays

(Reed), ix. 162]. Together with my lady's, my fortune fell, and of her gentleman usher I became her apple squire, to hold the door and keep centinel at taverns.

1573. Bullien, Dialogue, 8. His little lackey, a proper yong apple squire, called Pandarus, whiche carrieth the keye of his chamber with hym.

1593. Nash, Christ's Teares, 83 b. They will . . . play the Brokers, Baudes, Apron-squires, Pandars, or anything.

r5g6. Jonson, Every Man in Humour, iv. 10. And you, young apple squire, and old cuckold maker. Ibid. (1599), Eve7-y Man Out of His Humour, iv. 6. Shift. As I am Apple-John, I am to go before the cockatrice you saw this morning. Ibid., ' Characters—Shift. His chief exercises are . . . squiring a cockatrice, and making privy searches for imparters. Ibid. (1614), Bartholomew Fair, i. i. Lit. A fool-John, she calls me ; do you mark that, gentlemen ? . . . Quar. She may call you an Apple-John, if you use this.

1598. Florio, Worlde of IVordcs, s.v. Guatdro.

1599. Hall, Satires, i. 2. Each bush, each bank, and each base applesquire Can serve to sate their beastly lewd desire.

1599. Warning Faire Women, ii. 1158. Trusty Roger, her base apple

squire.

1611. Cotgkave, Diet., s.v. Cucilleur.

1622. Marmion, Hollands Leaguer, iv. 3. Is your niece a leaguer, a suttler, Or laundress to this fort? . . . You are an apple-squire, a rat, and a ferret.

1623. Taylor, Disccrvery by Sea, 11. 21. Are whoremasters decai'd, are bawds all dead, Are panders, pimps, and appi.ksquires all fled? Ibid. (]Vorks, 1630), Lord, who would take him for a pippin squire, Thai's so bedaub'd with lace and rich attire?

Approach. 57 April.

1636. Davenant, Platonic Lovers, iv. A dozen apron squires t'uncloath the husband . . . and lay him on his pillow Tamely to expect the bride two hours before she came.

1675. Cotton, Burlesque on Burlesque, 218. And even of stocks and stones enquire Of Atys, her small apple-squire.

1738. Herrick, Poor Robin . . . Little truth will be found amongst . . . 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.

Approach, verb, (euphemistic).— To possess a woman : see Ride. Hence approachable = willing, ripe (q.v.), coming (q.v.).

1611. Bible, Lev. xviii. 6. None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him.

1798. Colebrooke, Digest Hind. Law (1801), in. 196. If either brother . . . approach the wife he is degraded.

APRIL. This month the poetical type of verdure (see Green) and inconstancy is frequently found in contemptuous combination. Thus April-fool (or Scots April-gowk = cuckoo : Fr. poisson d'Avril) = one who is sent on a sleeveless errand (for ' strap-oil,' 'pigeon's milk,' 'the squad umbrella,' ' the diary of Eve's grandmother,' etc.), or who is the victim of asinine sport on AprilFools' (or All Fools') Day (ist April). This has given rise to the sarcastic April-day = a wedding day; and April-gentleman = a newly-married husband. Also April-fish = a pimp (Fr. maquereau) ; APRiL-SQUlRE = a new made or upstart squire.

1592. Greene, Upstart Courtier [Harl. Misc., 11. 247]. Two pert april esquires ; the one had a murrey cloth gowne on. Ibid. (1871), i. That time when the cuckold's chorister began to beuray April Gentlemen with his neverchanged notes.

1687. Congreve, Old Bachelor, i. 4. That's one of Love's April-fools, is always upon some errand that's to no purpose.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xxx. In the days of yore, two sorts . . . used to abound in our courts of judicature, and rotted the bodies and tormented the souls of those who were at law . . . your April fish . . . your beneficial rémoras.

c. 1710-12. Addison, Spectator [Walsh]. The whole family . . . made April Fools . . . my landlady herself did not escape him.

[1713. Swift, Jour, to Stella, 31 Mar. Dr. Arbuthnot and Lady Masham spent an amusing evening in contriving a lie for the morrow.]

1728. Herrick, Poor Robin. No sooner doth St. All-fool's morn approach But waggs . . . assemble to employ their sense In sending fools to get intelligence.

1769. London Public Advertiser, 13 Mar. The April fool custom arose from the . . .

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 395. We're sent by our wise-looking owls Only to make us April fools.

1777. Brand, Pop. Antiq., 400. We in the North call Persons who are thus deceived April-Güwks.

c. 1830. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), iv. 518. It will be difficult to make Aprilfools of a whole people that can read and write.

1892. Walsh, Pop. Customs, 59. In character though not in point of time All Fools' Day corresponds with the Roman Saturnalia . . . with the mediaeval Feast of Fools . . . and the Feast of Huli in Hindustan.

To smell of April and May, verb. phr. (old).—A simile of youth and courtship.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, iii. 2. 67. What say you to young Master Fenton? ... he smells April and May.

Also Proverbial Sayings : ' A windy March and a rainy April make a beautiful May'; ' April showers bring forth May flowers'; "When April blows his horn it's good for hay and

Apron. 58 Apron.

corn ' ; ' April cling good for nothing'; ' April — borrows three days of March, and they are ill'; 'A cold April the barn will fill' ; 'An April flood carries away the frog and her brood'; 'April and May are the keys of the year.'

Apron, subs. (old). — 1. A woman : generic : cf. Muslin ; Petticoat ; Placket, etc. Hence

tied to one's apron strings

(or apron-led) = (i) under petticoat-rule, hen-pecked ; and (2) in close attendance : apronhold (or apron-string hold, or tenure) = a life interest in a wife's estate (Grose) ; apronsquire (see Apple-squire) ; apron-husband = a domestic meddler ; apron-up = pregnant, lumpy (q.v.). Also (proverbial) : ' Wise as her mother's apronstrings' = dependent on a mother's bidding.

1542. Udal, Erasmus' Apopth., 118. We say in English, As wise as a gooce, or

as wise as her mother's aperen string.

1611. Dekker, RoaringGirl[lVorks (1873), 177]. I cannot abide these aperne husbands : such cotqueanes.

1647. Ward, Simp. Codier, 67. Apron-string tenure is very weak.

1712. Addison, Spectator, No. 506. The fair sex . . . heartily despise one, who ... is always hanging at their apkon-strings.

1744. Ellis, Modern Husbandman, vi. ii. 118. [He] being possessed of a house and large orchard by apron-stringhold, felled almost all his fruit trees, because he every day expected the death of his sick wife.

1753. Richardson, Grand/son, iv. 23. He cursed the apron-string tenure, by which he said he held his peace.

1804. Mrs. Barbauld, Richardson, 1. 160. All lier fortune in her own power-a very apkon-string tenure.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 40. An old devotee, who . . . always keeps her servant at her apronstring.

1834. Edgeworth, Helen, viii. From the moment he slipped his mother's apron-strings, [he] had fallen into folly.

1849. Macaulay, History of England, 11. 649. He could not submit to be tied to the apron-strings even of the best of wives.

2. (old). — Generic for one wearing an apron : e.g. a shopkeeper, a waiter, a workman :

also apron-man, apron-rogue,

aproneer. [Spec, the Parliamentary party (many of whom were of humble origin) during the Civil War : by Cavaliers in contempt]. Hence (3) = a cleric of rank, a bishop or dean (also

apron-and-gaiters). As Verb.

(colloquial) = to cover with (or as with) an apron ; and aproned = of the working-class, mechanic. Hence checkered-apron = a barber ; b lue -apron (q. v. ) ; green-apron = a lay-preacher ;

x white-apron — 3. whore.

1592. Lyly, Mydas, iii. 2. Caper then, And cry up checkerd-apron men.

1607. Shakspeare, Coriol., iv. 6. 96. You have made good work, You and your

apron men.

1609. Rowley, Search for Money [Halliwell]. We had the salute of welcome, gentlemen, presently : Wilt please ye see a chamber? It was our pleasure, as we answered the apron-man, to see.

1611. Chapman, May-Day (1873), 11. 376. We have no wine here methinks, where's this Apkrner? Drawer. Here, sir.

1628. Feltham, Resolves, xx. (1635), 73. Hee prodigals a Mine of Excellcnceie that lavishes a terse Oration to an apron'd Auditory.

1654. Warken, Unbelievers, 145. It more befits a green-apkon preacher, than such a Gamaliel.

Apron-washings. 59

Aqua-vitœ.

1658. Cleveland, Rustic Ra»i/> [Works, 1687], 42g. Apron-men and Plough-joggers.

1659. Gauden, Tears of the Church, 238. He is scared with the menaces of some prating sequestrator or some surly Apronp;er. Ibid. 244, The apron antipathy of a rustick, mechanick, and illiterate breeding.

1663. Killegrew, Parsons Wedding [Dodsley, Old Plays (1780), xi. 382]. Apron-rogues with horn hands.

1688. Randle Holme, Academy of Armoury. A barber is always known by his checque party-coloured apron ; neither can he be termed a barber till his apron be about him.

1690. Durfey, Collins Walk, iii. 107. But every sturdy aproneer, arm'd with battoon, did straight appear.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, iii. 292. The silly and trifling queries of the blue and green apron-mf:n.

1705. Hickeringill, Priestcraft, 1. (1721), 21. Unbeneficed Noncons. (that live by Alms and no Paternoster, no Penny, say the green-aprons).

i7[?]. Pope, Imit. of Horace. And some to hunt white-aprons in the park.

[1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., 11. 451. The gifted priestess amongst the Quakers is known by her green apron.]

1865. Dickens, Mut. Friend, m. iv. 289. I mean to apron it and towel it.

1880. Blackmore, Mary Anerley, in. xvi. 230. The bramble aproned the yellow dup of shale with brown.

Apron-washings, subs, phr, (common). — Porter.

Aqua, subs, (common).—Water: also aqua-pompaginis (Grose : ' Dog-Latin '). Hence, in jocose combination, aquapote, aquarib (Bailey, 173i), and aquatic = a water-drinker; aqua-bob = an icicle.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, ii. 186. But all won't cool his leachery, tho' he be turn'd a perfect aquapote.

c. 1790. Franklin, Autob. The ' American aquatic,' as they used to call me, was stronger than those who drank porter.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 15. We'll lather him with mud, shave him with a rusty razor, and drench him with aqua pompaginis.

1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Feb., 11. 2. ['Water-drinker'] might be known henceforth as an ' aquabibist,' or, if he prefers three syllables, 'aquabib.'

Aquadiente, subs. (American).— Brandy.

1835. Dana, Before the Mast, xx. The aquadiente and annison were pretty well in their heads.

Aquatics, subs. (Eton College).— i. The wet-bob (q.v.) cricketteam ; and (2) the playing-field used by them : see sixpenny.

AQUA-VIT/e, subs. (old).—Formerly an alchemic term ; but long popularly generic for ardent spirits : brandy, whiskey, etc. [L. = water of life. Cf. French eau-de-vie, and Irish usquebaugh.] Hence aqua-vit/E man = (i) a quack, and (2) a dram-seller ; also in various combinations (see quots.).

1542. Boorde, Diet., x. 258. [E.E.T.S.j. To speake of aqua vit^s, or of Ipocras.

1552. Chron. Grey Friars (1852), 74. A woman . . . that made aqwavyte.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii. 2. I will rather trust ... an Irishman with my aqua-vit/E bottle. Ibid. (1602), Twelfth Night, ii. 5. Does it work upon him? Sir To. Like aqua-vit/E upon a midwife.

1599. Chapman, Humourous Day's Mirth [Shepheard (1874), 32. 2]. As if there were not ways enough to die by . . . surfeits, brave carouses, old aqua-vit.-e, and too base wives. Ibid. (1611), May-Day, iii. 4. Le. Methinks 'tis sack. Gi. Let us taste, sir ; 'tis claret, but it has been fetched again with aqua-vit.ie.

c. 1600. Merry Devil of Edmonton, Induct., 64. Some Aqua-vit/e ! The Devil's very sick.

1601. Sherley, Tra-d. Persia (1863), 46. A crue of aqua-vit/E-bellyed fellowes.

Arab.

Arch.

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, ii. 2. Will you have some of my aqua? . . . Come, come, drink this draught of cinnamon water, and pluck up your spirits.

1610. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1. Sell the dole beer to aqua-vit/e men.

d. 1632. Ward, Sermons, 21. An ancient Hebrew . . . put himself into the habit of a mountebank or travelling aquavit.e man, and made proclamation of a sovereign cordial water of life he had to sell.

1634. Howell, Letters (1650), 11. 76. Sacks and Canaries . . . us'd to be drunk in aqua-vitve measures.

c. 1650. Brathwayte, Barnabys J I. (1723), 77. Rivers streaming, Banks resounding . . . Mightily did these delight me ; O, I wished them Aqua vitve.

1678. Butler, Hudibras, m. iii. 298. Restor'd the fainting High and Mighty With Brandy-Wine and Aquavits.

1749. Walpole, Letters, i. 216. Was glad to hear the aqua vit.*; man crying a dram.

1785. Burns, Earnest Cry, iii That curst restriction On Aqua vit,e.

1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xviii. A tass of brandy or aqua vits.

1899. Johnston, Old Dominion, ii. Much sack and aqua vit>e was drunk to king, church, and reigning beauties.

Arab,«(^, (common). — 1. A young street vagrant : also street arab and city arab. Whence (2) an outcast.

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.]

1848. Shaftesbury, Speech in Pari., 6 June. City Arabs . . . are like tribes of lawless freebooters, bound by no obligations and utterly ignorant or utterly regardless of social duties.

1859. Kingsley, Geof. Hamlyn, xlii. Tossed from workhouse to prison, from prison to hulk—every man's hand against him—an Arab of society.

1872. Calveri.ey, Fly Leaves [Title]. The Arab.

1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Oct., 5. The hero and heroine began life as street Arabs of Glasgow.

Arabian-bird, subs. phr. (old).— Anything unique. [Properly = the phoenix.] Also Arabian-nights = the fabulous, the marvellous.

1605. Shakspeare, Cymbeline, i. 7. She is alone the Arabian bird. Ibid. (1608), Antony and Cleop., iii. 2. 12. Oh Antony, oh thou Arabian bird.

1808. Smith, Plymley's Letters [Works (1859), 11. 180. 2. To cram him with Arabian-night stories about the Catholics.

Arbor Vit/e, subs. (old).—The penis : see Prick. [Latin = the Tree of Life.].—Grose.

1886. Burton, Thousand Nights, etc., x. 239. Of the penis succedaneus, that imitation of the arbor-vit/E . . . every kind abounds.

Arbour (The), subs, (venery).— The female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

Arcadian-nightingale (or bird),

subs. phr. (common).—An ass : see Nightingale.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. vii. Note. The country abounds with these Arcadiannightingai.es . Ibid., 'Asyou know, that Arcadian bird's note is very harmonious.'

ARCH, adj. (old colloquial).—Properly chief, pre-eminent : hence (1) = clever, crafty, roguish (B. E.) ; and (2) = extreme, outand-out (q.v.). [O.E.D. : 'In modern use chiefly prefixed intensively to words of bad or odious sense.'] Thus, archBOTCIlER = a clumsy patchworker ; arch-fool (or dolt) = an out-and-out duffer ; archknave = a rascal of parts ; archcove (or rogue) = spec. the ringleader of a band of gypsies or

Arch.

Argal.

thieves : whence arch-dell (or doxy)= ' the same in rank among the female canters or gypsies ' (Grose); arch-whore = a bilking harlot (B. E.), etc. Also = sharp, keen, splenetic: usually with at or upon.

1551. Robinson, Move's Utopia, 39. Thies wysefooles and verye archedoltes.

1594. Merry Knack [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), vi. 528]. When I came to the Exchange, I espied . . . An arch

cosener.

1635. Corbet. [French]. Archbotcher of a Psalm or Prayer.

c. 1650. May, Satyr. Puppy, 46. Some Arch-Rogue . . . hath done her wrong.

1670. Eachard, Contempt Clergy. Lads that are arch knaves at the nominative case.

1678. Bunyan, P. Prog., ii. 147. Greath. By-ends was the arch one. Hon. By-ends; What was he? Greath. A very arch Fellow, a downright Hypocrite.

1712. Steele, Spectator, 432. 5. A Templar, who was very arch upon Parsons.

1741. Richardson, Pamela, 1. 135. Sir Simon . . . you are very arch upon us.

2. (old : now recognised).— Saucy ; waggish. Thus arch ( = witty) fellow (B. E.) ; arch ( = pleasant) wag (B. E.) ; arch duke = ' a comical or eccentric fellow ' (Grose).

1662. More, Antid. Ath. 1. viii. That arch wag . . . ridiculed that solid argument.

1710. Tatler, 193. 1. So arch a leer.

1775. Wesley, Works, iv. 41. Some arch boys gave him such a mouthful of dirt.

1810. Crabbe, Borough, xv. Arch was her look and she had pleasant ways.

1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxiii. Her arch ways and her frank bearing.

1877. Arnold, Poems, 1. 27. The archest chin Mockery ever ambush'd in.

See Ark.

Arch deacon , subs. (Oxford Univ.). —Merton strong ale.

Archwife, subs. (old).—A masterful woman ; a virago.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, ' Clerk's Tale,' 9071. Ye archf.wives, stondeth ay at defence, Sin ye be strong as is a gret camaille, Ne suffreth not that men do you offence.

c. 1530. Pol. Pel. and Love Poems [E.E.T.S.], 46. But archwyfes eger in ther violence, Ferse as a tigre for to make affray.

Ard, adj. (Old Cant).— Hot (Grose) ; ' ardent.'

ärdel 10, subs, (old colloquial).— See quots. Also ardelio.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, s.v. Ardelio . . . one that hath an oare in others boates.

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., I. 11. iv. 7. Striving to get that which we had better be without, ardelios, busybodies as we are.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, in. 20. What is it that this . . . Ardelione doth aim at?

Area-sneak (or Slum), subs.phr. (old).—A petty thief : spec, ore working houses by means of an area-gate (Grose) : see Sneak, Slum, and Thief.

1865. Dickens, Mutual Friend (CD. ed.), 104. Making me Guy Fawkes in the vault, and a Sneak in the area both at once.

r869_. Eng. Mechanic, 14 May, 181. 1. Would infallibly become pickpockets or area-sneaks.

ARG, verb, (vulgar).—To argue ; to grumble : cf. argle.

Argal, adv. (common). —Therefore ; ergo : of which it is a corruption. As subs. = a clumsy argument. See Argle,

A rgent. 62 A rgue.

1602. Shakspeare, Hamlet, v. i. 21. He drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

d. 1535. Sir Thomas More, 24 [Works, folio 1557], s.v.

d. 1627. Middleton, [Works (Dyce), i. 392], s.v.

1861. Times, 23 Aug. Mr. Buckle's argument ... as absurd an argal as ever was invented.

1871. Morley, Crit. Misc., 152. We should not be beaten if we did not deserve it, argal, suffering is a merited punishment.

Argent, subs. (old). — Money : generic : spec. silver money (Bailey) : see Gent. Hence argentocracy = the power of money; Mammon (?.».).

c. 1500. Partenay, 1119. Euery day had ther money and argent.

1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abuses, i. 52. Whether they haue Argente, to mayntaine this geare.

1630. Taylor, Works, ii. 18. 2. Some hound-like senting sergeant . . . tires him out for argeant.

1864. Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 Sept., 470. Les voleurs anglais disent gent pour ' argent.'

1868. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 May, 11. The disease of argentocracy.

Argle, verb, (old colloquial).—To argue disputatiously ; to haggle ; to bandy words : also arglebargle, argol-bargol, or argie-bargie. Whence argol

bargolous = quarrelsome : cf.

arg.

1589. Hay any Work (1844), 11. I will neuer stand argling the matter any more.

1822. Galt, Provost, 194. No doubt his argol-bargoi.ous disposition was an inheritance. Ibid. (1823), Entail, i. 53. ¹ Weel, weel,' said the laird, ' dinna let us argol-bargol about it.'

1827. MoiR, Mansie Wauch, 78. Me and the minister were just argleisargling some few words on the doctrine of the camel and the eye of the needle.

1827. Wilson, Noct. Amb., 1. 336. But I hate a' argling and barglebargling.

1861. Ramsay, Remin., 11. 99. And all argle-bargling, as if at the end of a fire.

Argot, subs, (literary).—See quots. Slang and Cant. Whence argotic = slangy.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Narquois [apparently for narguois]. An impostor, Counterfeit Rogue . . . also the gibbridge or barbarous language used among them.

1843. Quarterly Rev., clxii. 177. Words or expressions in an ancient language, if they happen to coincide with some modern argot or vulgarism, take on a grotesque association which is not due at all to the phrase itself.

i860. Farrar, Origin 0/Language, vi. Leaves an uninviting argot in the place of warm and glowing speech. Ibid. Argot is formed ... by the adoption of foreign words, by the absolute suppression of grammar, by grotesque tropes, wild catachresis, and allegorical metonymy.

1863. Sat. Rev., 149. Argotic locutions.

1869. Earn. Speech, ii. 78. The argots of nearly every nation.

1882. Smythe-Palmer, Folk Etymology, 573. Argot, the French word for slang, cant, was probably at first un nargot, denoting (1) a thief or robber, (2) thieves' language.

1888. Oxford Eng. Diet., s.v. Argot. [Of unknown origin.] The jargon, slang, or peculiar phraseology of a class, orig. that of thieves and rogues.

1888. Barrière, Argot and Slang, s.v. Narquois (old cant), formerly a thievish or vagrant old soldier . . . Parler narquois ... to talk the jargon of vagabonds.

1899. Century Diet., s.v. Argot. The conventional slang of a class, originally that of thieves and vagabonds, devised for purposes of disguise and concealment.

Argue. To argue out of (away, a dog's tail off, etc.), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To get rid of by argument : see Talk,

Argufy. 63 Ark.

1713. Guardian, 60. Which . . . have clearly argued that animal out of the creation.

1719. Young, Revenge, i. 1. We call on wit to argue it awav.

1865. Thompson, Odds and Ends. Men . . . would argue a dog's tail

off.

Argufy, verb, (colloquial). — 1. To argue ; to worry ; to wrangle. Whence (2) to signify ; to prove of consequence ; to follow as a result of argument. Argufier = a contentious talker. See Arg and Argle.

1751. Smollett, Per. Pickle, lxxviii. Howsomever, that don't argufy in reverence of his being in a hurry. Ibid. (1771), Humph. Clinker, jgy. Would you go for to offer for to arguefy me out of my senses.

1758. Murphy, Upholsterer, i. Well, it does not signify akgifying.

d. 1763. Shenstone, To a Friend. I've done (she mutter'd), I was saying It did not argufy my playing ; Some folks will win, they can not choose, P.ut, think or not think, some must lose.

1795. D'arblay, Diary, 9 June, vi. 41. But what argufies all this festivity ? 'tis all vanity and exhalation of spirit.

1800. Edgeworth, Will, ii. I can't stand argufying here about charity.

c. 1800. DiBDiN, Poor Jack, iii. What argufies sniv'ling and piping your eye.

1820. Coombe, Syntax, 11. v. I have no learning, no, not I, Nor do pretend to argufy.

1837. Lytton, Maltravers, iv. vii. I should like to have you on the roadside instead of within these four gimcrack walls . . . the argufying would be all in my favour then.

185s. Haliburton, Nature and Human Nature. I listen to a preacher, and try to be better for his argufying.

1862. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 11. 15. It ain't no use to argerfy nor try to cut up frisky.

d. 1864. Leech, Cartoon. Do you want to argify, you little beggar?

1865. Sat. Rev., 12 Aug., 197. 2. People who are always arguefying are the . . . worst of bores.

1876. Black, Madcap Violet, vii. I am thwarted, crushed, argufied at every turn.

1881. Clark Russell, Sailors Sweetheart', i. I have noticed that your people who are pretty well agreed are always the fiercest argufiers.

Aristippus, subs. (Old Cant).— i. Canary wine.

c. 1627. MiDDLETON [Works (Halliwell), 11. 422]. Rich ARISTIPPUS, sparkling sherry.

1703. De Foe, True Born Englishman. The Sages . . . Praise Epicurus rather than Lysander, and Aristippus more than Alexander.

2. (old).—' A Diet-drink, or Decoction of Sarsa China, etc. Sold at certain Coffee-houses, and drank as T ' (B. E. and Grose).

Ark (or Arch), subs. (Old Cant).— i. A boat ; a wherry : e.g. Let us take an ark and winns = Let us take a sculler (B. E. and Grose). Hence arkman = a waterman: see quot. 1785 and ackman. Also (2), in Western America, a flat-bottomed market-produce boat (Bartlett) : rarely seen since the introduction of steam.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Ark Ruffians. Rogues who, in conjunction with watermen, rob, and sometimes murder, on the water, by picking a quarrel with the passengers in a boat, boarding it, plundering, stripping, and throwing them overboard, etc. A species of badger. Cant.

1799. Descr. Sett I. Genesee Co., N.Y. [Bartlett]. These boats were invented by a Mr. Knyder, of Juniata River, who first tried the experiment, and reached Baltimore in safety. ' They are made of plank, are broken up after discharging their cargo, and sold for lumber, with little or no loss. They are navigated by three or five men, and will float down at the rate of eighty miles a day ; they are called Arks.'

Arkansas-toothpick. 64 Arms-and-Legs.

1884. H. Evans, London Rambler, 'Brighton Beach Loafer' [S. j. and C.]. I goes and sneaks a mikket and a lot of lines of a pal's arch.

3. (military).—A barrack-room chest : a lingering use of an old dialect word.

Arkansas-toothpick, subs. phr. (American). — A large sheathknife : orig. a bowie-knife (?.»•)■

1854. Martin and Aytoun, Bon Gaultier Ballads. ' Straightway leaped the valiant Slingsby Into armor of Seville, With a strong Arkansas toothpick, Screwed in every joint of steel.'

1881. Greenleaf, Ten Years in Texas, 27. All these [men] . . . could be seen with a Navy six-shooter and an Arkansas toothpick suspended to a raw-hide belt tucked around their waists.

1888. Detr. Fr. Pr., Aug. It is not good form to use a toothpick in Arkansas now. A big revolver is the thing.

ark-floater, subs, (theatrical).— An actor well advanced in years.

Arm. Colloquialisms are: To

make a long arm = to exert

oneself ; as long as one's arm = very long ; to work at arm's length = to do awkwardly ; one under the arm (tailors') = an extra job ; in the arms of Murphy (or Morpheus) = asleep: see Murphy.

c. 1836. Edgeworth, Love and Law, I. v. You're no witch if you don't see a cobweb as long as my arm.

1884. D. News, 26 Jan., 6. 2. Monkeys . . . making long arms . . . for stray beans or sweetmeats.

Armful, subs, (colloquial). — A heap ; a large quantity ; spec, (modern), an endearment ; of a ' bouncing ' baby, a big ' cuddlesome ' wench, etc.

1579. Stuubes, Gaping Gulf, Cvij. By armefuls lading [money] out of the exchequer.

c. 1613. Rowlands, More Knaves, 28. I like a handfull of old loue and true, Better than these whole armefuls of your new.

c. 1720. Centlivre, Wonder, i. 1. Thou shalt have an armful of flesh and blood.

Armine, subs. (old).—See quots.

1605. London Prodigal, 122. Luce. O here God, so young an armine ! Flow. Armine, sweetheart, I know not what you mean by that, but I am almost a beggar.

1899. Century Diet., s.v. Armine. [Perhaps for arming (of which, however, no record is found for 400 years preceding) . . . from A.S. ear?ning, a wretched person.]

Armour. In armour, adv. phr. (old). — Pot-valiant ; primed {q.v.); full of Dutch courage (q.v.): Screwed (B. E. and Grose).

Armpits. To work under the armpits, verb. phr. (old).—To escape the halter by the skin of one's teeth : see quot. [On the passing of Sir Samuel Romilly's Act, capital punishment was abolished for highway robberies under 40s. in value. ]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Armpits . . . To practise only such kinds of depredation, as will amount, upon conviction, to whatever the law calls single, or petty, larceny ; the extent of punishment for which is transportation for seven years. By following this system, a thief avoids the halter, which certainly is applied above the armpits.

arm-prop, subs. phr. (old).—A crutch ; a wooden-leg (q.v.).

1825. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii. 6. If any lady or gemman is inclined for a dance, I'll nash my arm-props in a minute. (Throws down his crulc/ies.)

Arms-and-legs, subs. phr. (common). — Small beer : ' because there is no body in it ' (Grose).

Arm-slasher. 65

Arrow.

Arm-slasher (orstabber),«^.

phr. (old).—A gallant who bled his arm to toast his mistress : hence to dagger (or stab) arms = to toast a ' lady-love.'

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Taillebras, a hackster, akme-slasher.

d. 1633. Marston, Works [Nares]. Have I not stabb'd arms, and done all the offices of protested gallantry for your sake ?

Armstrong. See Captain Armstrong.

Arrah, intj. (Irish). —'An expletive, with no special meaning ' (Grose) ; ' an expletive expressing emotion or excitement, common in Anglo-Irish speech O.E.D.). [Farquhar was of Irish birth.]

1705. Farquhar, Twin Rivals, iii. 2. Tcague. Arah, you Fool, ish it not the saam ting. Ibid. (1707), Beaux S trat., v. 2. Arra, Honeys, a clear Caase.

1753. Smollett, Count Fathom, 119. Upon which he bade me turn out, 'Arra, for what?' said I.

1820. Coombe, Syntax, 11. ii. 157 Arrah, my Dears, it does confound me.

array, verb, (old colloquial). — i.

To thrash ; to dress down (q.v.); (2) to afflict; to punish (q.v.); and (3) to defile. Hence as stibs. =a drubbing ; a pickle (q.v.) ; a plight; 'a pretty state of affairs. '

c. 1380. Sir Ferumbras, 417. A man he§ of mod : Sarasyn§ to yule [ = ill]

arraye.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, ' Wife of Bath's Tale,' 46. Thow stündest yet . . . in such array, That of thy lyf hastow no sewerté'.

c. 1400. Beryn, 603. We wolde aray hym so That he [ne] shuld have legge ne foot, to-morow on to go.

c. 1420. Palladius on Husbandry, i. 320. But uppon clay If thou wilt bilde an other is the array.

1470-83. Malory, Arthur (1816), ii. 399. ' Aha ! what array is this ? ' said Sir Launcelot.

148t. Reynard the Fox, 85 (1844). I am so sore arayed, and sore hurte.

c. 1500. Lancelot, 3270. Remembir the, how yhow haith ben araid . . . With love.

1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xviii. xxxix. Hath love suche myght for to aray you so In so short a space?

c. 1529. SkeltON, Elinour Rummyng, 163. Some have no mony—For theyr ale to pay ; That is a shreud aray.

c. 1530. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 131. A ! syr . . . thus hath arayed me two armed knightes.

1530. Calisto and Melib. [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), i. 78]. Indeed age hath arrayed thee.

1530. Palsgrave, Lang. Fran., 435. 2. I araye or fyle with myer. Jemboue. Ibid., 436. 1. You have arrayed your gowne agaynst the wall.

1548. Udal, Erasmus, Par. Luke, xiii. 11. Araied with a disease both incurable and peiteous to see.

1568. Jacob and Esau [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), ii. 252]. Where are we now become? marry, sir, here is array.

1575. Still, Gammer Gurions Needle, i. 2. See, so cham arrayed with dabbling in the dirt.

c. 1600. New Notbrounc Mayd [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., iii. 17]. Vyce . . . Whiche hathe hym so Encombered and arayed.

Arrow (or Arra), (vulgar).—A corruption of 'e'er, a,' or 'ever a.'

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, v. viii. I don't believe . . . arrow a servant in the house ever saw the colour of his money. Ibid., viii. ii. I warrants me there is narrow a one of all those officer fellows but looks upon himself to be as good as arrow a squire of ^500 a year.

1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker, i. 126. I now carries my head higher than arrow private gentlewoman of Vales.

'Arry.

Arse.

'Arry, subs, (common).—That is 'Harry': a popular embodiment of the vulgar, rollicking, yet on the whole good-tempered ' rough' of the metropolis. Whence 'arriet = 'Arry's 'young woman. ' [Popularised by Milliken in a series of ballads in Punch.} 'Arryish = vulgarly jovial.

1874. Punch's Almanack, 'Arry on 'Orseback. [Title.]

1879. Sat. Rez>., 9 Aug. When one has listened to one van-load of 'Arries, one has heard all of them. Ibid. (1881), No. 1318, 148. The local 'Arry has torn down the famous tapestries of the great hall.

1880. Wallace [Academy, 28 Feb., 156. 1]. He has a fair stock of somewhat 'Arryish animal spirits, but no real humour.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Sept., 2. 2. jÊ75o which it abstracts every year from the public funds to go a-'arry-and'arrietting on the river.

Arse, subs, (old literary: now vulgar).— i. The posteriors; the bum (q.v.): see Hole. Hence (2) the fag-end ; the tail (q.v.). As verb. — to jut the bum (Grose). Whence numerous Combinations and Colloquialisms : Arse-board = (i) the tail-board of a cart (whence to follow a cart's arse = to be whipped through the town), and (2) the back flap of a girl's breeches (cf. tail-board); arsecase (or-rug) = breeches ; arsecooler = a bustle (or dress-improver); arse-firker = a flogging pedagogue ; arse-foot (see quots. 1598 and 1774) ; arsegut = the îectum ; arse-hole = the sphincter ani ; arse-hole creeper = a parasite ; arse-hole perisher, a pea-jacket ; arsmusica = crepitation ; arseopener (-wedge, split-arse, or arseometer) = the penis: see Prick ; split-arsed mechanic

= a whore; arse-winnings (or earnings) = socket-money (q.v. 3) ; arse-pipes = the bowels ;

arse-push (or [Scots] arslins

coup) = a back fall ; arse-guts = the guts ; arse smart (see quot.

1617) ; arse-wisp = bumfodder

(q.v.) ; arse-worm = a term of contempt, ' a little diminutive Fellow' (B. E.) ; the gusset of the arse = the inside edge of the buttocks ; heavy-arse = a sluggard : as adj. = lumpish ; openarse = (i) a medlar, and (2) a

girl ; the broad arse-hole =

sodomy; whip-arse = (1) a schoolmaster, and (2) a flogging bawd ; totter-arse = a see-saw : as adj. — unsteady ; arsed (double-arsed, large-arsed, broad-arsed, or triple-arsed) = big-bottomed ; to arsle = (i) to move backwards, and (2) to

fidget ; to hang an arse = to

hold back, to hesitate ; to go

arse over head (or tip) = to fall

sprawling ; to grease a fat sow on the arse = to be insensible of a kindness (Ray); to dance with one's arse to the ceiling = to copulate : also (of women only) to rub one's arse on ; arslings = backwards ; arselong (cf. side-long) ; arse-upwards = in good luck ; arsewards (adj. and adv.) = (1) backwards, (2) contrariwise, and (3)perverse; arsy-varsy = topsyturvy, vice-versa ; merry-arsed = wanton, short-heeled (q.v.); hot-arsed = salacious ; coldarsed = (l) frigid, and (2) chaste:

also tight-arsed ; hard-arsed

= niggardly: also iiard-arse = third-class as opposed to softarse = first-class ; shitten-arse = a contemptible fellow ; arse and arse = side by side; arse to arse = back to back ; arse-first

Arse.

(or foremost) = backwards ; up to the arse = deeply engaged ; over the arse in (love, work, debt, etc. ) = hopelessly entangled ; arse in air = on her knees ; arse about = face round ; arse by arse = one by one; bees (or worms) in the arse = uneasy ; 'Ax (kiss, or suck) my arse ' ! = the most derisive of retorts : also

arse-hole and suck it ;

'Anchor your arse'! = sit down! (Grose); 'My arse in a bandbox'! = an expression of extreme disgust (Grose). Also various Proverbial and other sayings; 'Such a hopo'-my-thumb that a pigeon sitting on her shoulder might pick a pea out of her arse' (Grose); ' Afraid of the hatchet lest the helve stick in his arse' (Ray); ' The kettle calls the pot blackarse' (q.v.); 'A short horse is soon wisp'd, and a bare arse soon kissed' (ray)='He that knows little soon repeats it'; 'You would kiss my arse before my breeches were down'; ¹ Kit Careless, your arse hangs by trumps'; ' Like a Waterford merchant, up to the arse in business'; ' He would lend his a—se and sh—te through his ribs' (Grose : ' a saying of anyone who lends hismoney inconsiderately'); ' She would lose her a—se if it was loose,' or were not tied to her) (Grose : ' said of a careless person'); 'Not a sixpence to scratch his arse with' = utterly poor; ' He doesn't know his arse from his elbow' = ( i ) He is utterly stupid, and (2) absolutely ignorant; ' My arse hangs heavy' = I've no pluck leit; ' She has a heavy arse to drive home a lazy prick ' (said of a solid woman); ' My arse to yours' = ' I'm as good as you are'; ' His

eyes are in his arse ' = (1) to miss the obvious; and (2) to be keen of observation with eyes everywhere; etc.

c. 1000. /Elfric, Glossary [Wright, 44. 2]. Nates, ears-lyre. Ibid., 44. 2. Anus vel verpus, ears ])erl. Ibid., 45. 2. Tergosus, earsode.

c. 1000. Ags. Psalm xxxiv. 5. Syn hi 3ecyrde on earsling.

1377. Langland, Piers Plowman,

B. v. 175. Baleisedon J>e bare ars. Ibid.,

C. vii. 306. An horeof hure erswynninge may hardiloker tythe. Ibid. (Wright), 5857. I wolde his eighe were in his ers.

1382. Wyclif, i Sam. v. 9. The arsroppis of hem goynge out stonken.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, s.v.

1398. Trevisa [Transi. Bartholomaus Anglicus], De Prop. Kerum, vii. liv. (1495), 267. Emoroides ben fuyue veynes whyche stretche out atte the eeres.

c. 1400. [Wright, Vocab., 183.] Arcehoole, podex. Ibid. (c. 1450), 186, 2.

Cirbus, hars-tharme.

c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 7580. Thou shalt for this sinne dwelle Right in the divels arse of hell.

1401. Pol. Poems, 11 64. If 3e taken as Je usen arsewokde this gospel.

1440. Promp. Parv., s.v. Arswyspe, Maniperium, anitergium.

1480. Caxton, Chronicles of England, ccxxvi. 233. They lete hange fox tailles ... to hele and hyde her arses.

c. 1500. Almanack for 1386 (1812), 12. A crab es an arsword best.

iS[?]. How the Plowman Lerncd his Pater Hosier, 120. To cover their arses they had not a hole ragge.

15t?]. Jack Juggler [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), ii. 121]. His arse maketh buttons now. Ibid., 137. Thou wouldest

lese thine arse, if it were loose.

15!?]. Treatise of Galaunt [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, iii. 157]. With longe taters downe to the ars behynde.

^I5l?]. Ttirnament of Totenham, 322. They did but ran ersward, And ilke a man went backward Toppe ouer tayle.

Arse.

c. 1520. WyJ of Auchtermitchty, 88. The fyre burnt aw the pat arss out.

1530. Palsgrave, Lang. Francoyse, 436. 2. What up, heavy-arse, cannest thou nat aryse ? Ibid., 829, 2. All arsewardly, all frowardly, tout a rebours.

1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. ('SS²), 62. Ye set the cart before the horse . . . cleane contrarily, and arsyversy as they say.

1540. Raynald, Byrth Man (1564), 54. [The foetus] proceedeth . . . sidelong, arselong, or backlong.

c. 1541. Sclwle-house of Women [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., iv. 113]. He would not once turn me for to kisse ; Euery night he riseth for to pisse, And when he commeth again vnwarme Dooth turn his arse into my barme.

1542. Udall, Erasmus [Oliphant, Nein Eng., i. 489. Vice versa appears as arsie versee, and this phrase may still be heard].

1547. Boorde, Breviary of Health, xxv. 156. The 25th chapitre dothe shewe of a mannes ars.

1551. Still, Gammer Gurions Needle, i. 2. Fisking with her tail As though there had been in her arse a swarm of bees.

1553. Bale [Gardener, True Obedience), Pref. Hij. Whence he can neuer escape except he com out arsewarde.

1556. Chron. Grey Friars (1852), 73. Whyppyd ... at the carttes arse . . . for vacobondes.

1561. Preston, Cambyses [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), iv. 179]. Let us run his arse against the post.

1562. Heywood, Proverbs (1867), 16, To beg a breeche of a bare arst man.

1565. Golding, Ovid's Met., vii. (^I593), 164. Cerberus . . . dragging arsward still.

1577. Hoi.inshed, Chron., 11. 26. 2. The estate of that flourishing towne was turned arsie versie, topside the other waie.

1579. Tomson, Calvin's Serm. Tim, 127. i. How arseward a thing it is for euery man to be giuen to his owne profiter. Ibid., 8. 2. Behold how arsewardly we goe alwayts when we pray to God.

1592. Marston, Satyres, 'Ad Rythmum.' But if you hang an arse like Tabered When Chrêmes dragged him from his brothel bed.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii. i. Oh, Romeo ! that she were, oh, that she were an open arse, thou a poperin pear !

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, s.v. Giuero ... a bird called a diuer, a didapper, or arsefoote.

1599. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physic, 130. 2. For the comminge out of the Arsegutte.

c. 1600. Timon i. s (1842), 20. This man this daye rose with his arse upwards : To daye a fidler, and at night a noble.

1601. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 4. Valiant? so is mine arse. Ibid., 1609, Epicœne, ii. 1. Go out of the world like a . . . fly, as one said, with a straw in your

arse.

1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, ii.

i. They shall traw you very lustily, as if the devil were in their arses. Ibid., iv. 1. Jesu, are [w]imen so arsy varsy.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s. v. Cut. An arse, bumme, tayle, nockandro, fundament. Ibid.. Fesse-cul. A Pedanticall whip-arse. Ibid., Culant, giuing an arse-posse vnto. Ibid., Cul-pelé, bauldarst.

1612. Passeng. ofBenvenuto[NaresI. Oh, but there's great difference betwixt in deed and being so reputed. Dost thou not know that from the beginning the world goes arsie-versie?

1613. Webster, Devil's Law-case, iv. 2. I am but a young thing, And was drawn arsy varsy into the business. Ibid., v. 4. The Welshman in's play . . . Hung still an arse.

1616. Fletcher, Knight of Malta,

iv. 2. Hang arse-ward.

1617. Minsheu, Ductor, 544. Arsmart . . . because if it [water pepper] touch the taile or other bare skinne, it maketh it smart, as often it doth, being laid into the bed greene to kill fleas.

1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr,

ii. i. The arse, as it were, or fag end of the world. Ibid. (1633), Guardian, v.

v. Nay, no hanging an arse.

1632. Chapman, Ball, v. 5. Kiss my hand ! kiss my arse, noble ladies.

1639-61. Rump Songs, ii. 86. Nay, if it hang an arse We'll pluck it from the stares, And roast it at hell for its grease.

1647-8. Herrick, Hcsperides, ' Upon Skoles.' Cloy'd they arc up with Arse.

Arse.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. vi. Her . . . arse-pipes and conduits were . . . obstructed and contracted. Ibid., xi. This little lecher was always groping his nurses and governesses, upside down, arsiversy, topsiturvy. Ibid. He would sit down betwixt two stools, and his arse to the ground. Ibid., xiii. Of all . . . arsewisps . . . none . . . comparable to the neck of a goose.

165g. Brome, Eng. Moor, iii. 2. It is the Arsivarsiest Aufe that ever crept into the world.

1660. Howell, Lexicon-Tetr., s.v. Arse-push.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, 1. i. 456. Could he stir To active trot one side of s Horse The other would not hang an arse. Ibid., i. iii. 964. Then mounted both upon their Horses, But with their Faces to the arses.

1664. Cotton, Scarronides (1770), 9. Then (at his Ease) Arsing about. Ibid., 89. A wandering Woman that had

scarce A Rag to hang upon her--.

Ibid. (1677). Burlesque upon Burlesque, 154. Never hang an Arse for th' Matter.

1668. Lestrange, Quevedo, 32(1678). Methought the old sluttish Proverb that says There is a great distance between the Pulse and the Arse was much to blame for making such a difference in their Dignities. Ibid., 66. 'Tis the very Arse-Gut, the Drain and Sink of Monarchies.

1672. Phillips, Maronidcs, 120. Some in the next Woods refuge take, For all their Arses buttons make.

1672. Ray, Proverbs, ' Joculatory Proverbs.' He rose with his arse upwards. A sign of good luck. Ibid., ' Proverbial Phrases.' Arsy-versy . . . a pretended spell written upon the door of a house to keep it from burning.

1679-80. Radcliffe, Ovid Travestie, 96. Did I, when Flannel was both dear and scarce, Make you Trunk-hose to your ungrateful Arse.

1683. Hooker, Pordage'sMyst. Div., 'Pref.,' 24. As if everi man went the wrong waie to work ; All Arsi-varsi.

1686. Dorset, Faithful Catalogue [Rochester, Works (1718), 11. 32]. Her rapacious arse Is fitter for thy sceptre than thy tarse.

1686. Stuart, Joco-Ser. Disc., 30. Sae take some pity on your love And do not still so arseward prove.

d. 1691. Baxter, Shove to Heavyarsed Christians [Title].

1692. Dunton, Postboy Robb'd(1706), 173. Go to, let us not enter Rome, that is, not into a Discourse of Arsey-versey Love.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, iv. vi. Your Leominster superfine wool is mine arse to it ; mere flock in comparison. Ibid., ix. A little shitten-arsed girl.

d. 1704. Browne, Works, ii. 11. That's

mine a--in a bandbox. Ibid., 187.

Luscious words ... so intelligibly express'd that a girl of ten . . . may understand the meaning ... ; my lord Rochester's songs are mine arse to it. Ibid., 204. The pious scoundrels of England rose with their arses uppermost. Ibid., i. 68. May . . . Fistulas thy Arse-hole seize by Dozens.

1704. Swift, Tale of a Tub, xi. Honest friend, pray favour me with a handsome kick on the arse. Ibid. (1704), Battle of the Books (1711), 235. Do you think I have nothing else to do but to mend and repair after your arse. Ibid. (c. 1733), Ans. New Simile for the Ladies. Who makes, you think, the clouds he pierces? He pierce the clouds ! he kiss their a—es. Ibid., Problem. Once on a time there was an a-gut.

1705. Ward,Hud. Red., 1. i. 19. His Stings that issue from his Arse and Mouth. Ibid., 28. No Saucebox, sure, by way of farce Will bid his Pastor kiss his Arse. Ibid. (1706), Wooden World, 73. While he has a Rag to his Arse, he scorns to make use of a Napkin. Ibid., 63. So . . . ill-bred a Pimp, as constantly to turn his Arse upon that glorious Benefactor [the sun]. Ibid. (c. 1709), Terrœfilucs, iv. 34. If any . . . Foolish Wench [has] stumbled Arse foremost to the cracking of her Pipkin, . . . Ibid. (i7r?]), Humours of a Cofee-housc. Rightly taken by the Horse Whose Farrier sticks the Pipe into his

A--. Ibid., Lampoon on two Famous

Strumpets. Why should their Arses be idle? Ibid., Vulcan and Venus. I'll run a hot bar in your Goddeship's Arse.

d. 1721. Prior, The Ladle. What should be great, you turn to farce ; I wish the Ladle in your a-.

1725. Bailey, Erasmus, i. 112. [Letters.] . . . are good to wipe your Arse with. Ibid. (1728), Dictionary. Arsy-versey, topsy-turvy, preposterously, perversely, without order.

Arse. 70

A rthur.

1726. Vanbrugh, Provoked Husband, ii. Your mayster may Kiss my

1747. Jonson, Highw. and Pyrates, 254. He came of! with crying carrots and turnips, a term which rogues use for whipping at the cart's arse.

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, vii. A canting scoundrel, who has crept into business by his hypocrisy, and kissing the a—se of everybody. Ibid., x.xxiii. If I durst use such a vulgar idiom . . . the nation did hang an arse at its disappointment. Ibid. (1748), Rod. Random, lxv. My lads, I'm told you hang an arse. Ibid. (1751), Peregrine Pickle, lxxxvii. She . . . applied her hand to that part which was the last of her that disappeared, inviting the company to kiss it, by one of its coarsest denominations. Ibid., Iii. That celebrated English ditty, the burden of which begins with, Tlie pigs they lie with their A-es bare.

1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husb., v. 1. 11. [Lay the sheaves] . . . close together, with their arses outwards.

1768. Ross, Helenore, 43. Then Lindy to stand up began to try ; But—he fell arselins back.

1774. Bridges, Homer Burlesque,

4. And kick your-till kicking's good.

Ibid., 6. For if you hang an athe

least. Ibid., 14. My resolution still is, To bid you kiss my-, Achilles.

1774. Goldsmith, Nat. Hist., II. vu. vii. 217. Our sailors . . . give these birds [penguins] the very homely but expressive name of arse-feet.

1780. Tomlinson, Slang Pastoral, 2. My arse hangs behind me as heavy as lead.

d. 1796. [Burns, Merry Muses (c. 1800), 15. ' Old Song revised.'] I loe my Donald's tartans weel His naked arse and a' that. Ibid., 6. Gif you wad be Strang, and wish to live lang Dance less wi' your arse to the kipples, young man. Ibid., 99-100. An' he grippit her fast by the gusset of her aksk.

1838. Beckett, Paradise Lost, 25. Just like so many pigs of lead, Away they went, a . . e overhead. Ibid., 59. As to

finding rags or clouts, To make a-

cases, I've my doubts. Ibid., 82. And then he with a vacant stare, Cried out, ' By gum, my .... is bare ! '

1877. Peacock, Line.Gloss., Arserd . . . 'Go arserds, cousin Edward, go arserds.'

18S0. R. Holland {Old Farming Words, 2]. In Cheshire the stalk-end of a potato [is called] the arse-end of a tater.

Arst, verb, (vulgar). — 'Asked.'

arter, adv., prep., etc. (vulgar).— 'After.'

Artesian, subs. (Australian).—A Gippsland (Victoria) brew of beer : manufactured with water obtained from an artesian well at Sale — hence artesian (generic) = colonial beer : see Cascade.

Artful Dodger, subs, (rhyming). —i. A lodger.

2. (thieves'). — An expert thief: also see quot. [The Artful Dodger, a character in Dickens' Oliver Twist.]

1881. New York Slang Diet. Artful dodgers, fellows who dare not sleep twice in the same place for fear of arrest.

Arthur. King (or Prince) Arthur, subs. phr. (old).—See quot. 1785 and cf. ambassador.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, xvi. Acting the comedy of Prince Arthur, and other pantomimes as they are commonly exhibited at sea.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. King Arthur. a sailor's game. 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.

Artichoke. Jl Ask.

Artichoke, subs, (old). —i. A term of contempt.

c. 1600. Day, Beggar Bednall Green, iii. 2. Let him alone, you cross-legg'd

haktichoak.

2. (American).—A foundered whore : see Tart.

3. (old). —A hanging: also hearty choak (Grose) ; whence to have an artichoke and caper sauce for breakfast — to be hanged.

Article, subs. (old). — 1. A woman: e.g. a prime article = (Grose) a handsome girl, 'a hell of a goer ' (Lex. Bal.).

1857. Tkollope, Three Clerks, xxxi. ' She'd never have done for you, you know ; and she's the very article for such a man as Peppermint.'

2. (common).—A mildly contemptuous or sarcastic address : usually with such adjectives as 'pretty,' 'nice,' etc. Thus, • You're a pretty article ' = 'You're a beauty' (q.v.); ' What sort of an article do you think you are?'='What's your name when out for a walk? ' Also (Halliwell) ' of a wretched animal.'

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlcwit, xxvi. You're a nice article, to turn sulky on first coming home !

3. (old).—In pl.— a suit of clothes (Grose).

Article of Virtue, subs. phr. (popular).—A virgin. [A play upon ' virtue,' and virtu.']

Artilleryman, subs, (common). —A drunkard : cf. Canon — drunk, and see Lushington.

Artist, subs. (American thieves'). —An adroit rogue ; a skilful gamester.—N. Y.S.D.

As. See Make.

Asia Minor, subs. phr. (popular). —The Kensington and Bayswater district. [Many AngloIndians reside in this locality. The nickname is double-barrelled, for the district is also the headquarters of the Greek community in the metropolis.] Cf. New Jerusalem, Black Hole, etc.

1888. _ Daily News, 9 Feb., 2. 5. Notting-hill ... is the centre of a district where Indians in the British metropolis mostly congregate, . . . Asia Minor fas] it is sometimes called.

Asinego, subs. (old).—i. 'A little ass ' ; hence (2) a fool, donkey (q.V.), duffer (q.V.).

1606. Shakspeare, Troilus and Cressida, ii. 1. 49. Thou hast no more brains than I have in my elbows ; an assinego may tutor thee.

1616. Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady, ii. 1. All this would be forsworn, and I again an asinego, as your sister left me.

1635. Jonson, Expost. with Inigo Jones, 19. Or are you so ambitious 'bove your peers, You'd be an ass-inigo by your ears.

1714. MiLBOURNE, Traitor's Eew., Pref. These asinegoes are like those miserable comforters Job's friends.

Ask, verb, (old literary : now colloquial). — To proclaim in church : as a marriage ; literally to ask for (or the) banns thereto. Formerly also of stray cattle, etc. [O.E.D. : 'The recognised expression is now to " publish " the banns ; but ' ' ask " is the historical word.'] Whence asking = an announcement in church of intended marriage.

Askew. 72

Ass.

1461-73. Paston Letters, m. 46. To axe [a couple] in ehyrehe.

1523. Fitzherbekt, Surveying, 28b. They ought to aske them [stray cattle] thre sondayes in thre or four next parysshe churches and also crye them thre tymes in thre the next market townes.

1606. Wily Beguild [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), ix. 304]. We must be asked in church next Sunday.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, ' Westminster ' (1811), ii. 105. His head was ask'd but never married to the English Crown.

1727-51. Charniers' Ency., s.v. Banns. The publication of banns (popularly called asking in the church).

1824. Byron, Juan, xvi. lxxxviii. At the third asking ... he started.

1841. Orderson, Crcoleana, ii. 14. The fair sex . . . preferring to be ' asked in church.'

1865. B. Brierly, Irkdale, 11. 187. The ' askings ' had been called over three consecutive Sundays.

Ask Another,//;;-, (common). —A jesting or contemptuous retort to a question that one cannot, will not, or ought not, to answer : also ask bogy (q.v.).

Askew, subs. (Old Cant).—A cup : see Skew (Harman, 1567).

aspasia, subs. (common). — A harlot : see quot. 1892 and Tart.

1809. Maty [Riesbeck's Trav. Germ., xx.J. Many an aspasia capable of being classed in the same line with her immortal prototype.

1832. Lytton, Godolphin, xxi. Miss Vernon is another Aspasia, I hear.

1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxxi. He 'ranged himself,' as the French is, shortly before his marriage, just like any other young bachelor ; took leave of Phryne and Aspasie in the coulisses, and proposed to devote himself henceforth to his charming young wife.

1886. M'Carthy and Campb. Praed., iii. Your really great women— the Sapphos, the Aspasias.

1892. Fennell, Stanford Diet., s.v. Aspasia, name of one of the celebrated courtesans of Athens, called Hetaerae (eTcûpai), many of whom were highly accomplished and were faithful to one lover. . . . Representative of a fascinating courtesan, and more rarely, of an accomplished woman.

aspen-leaf, subs. phr. (old).— The tongue.

1532. More, Confut. Barnes, viii. {Works, 769. 1]. For if they myghte be suffred to begin ones in the congregacion to fal in disputing, those aspen-leaves of theirs would never leave waggyng.

1567. T. Howell, Poems (1879), 150. In womens mindes : are diuers winds, which stur their Aspin tunge, to prate and chat.

Aspersing-tool, subs. phr. (venery).—The penis : see Prick (Urquhart).

Ass, subs, (common).—Generic for stupidity, clumsiness, and ignorance. Hence (1) a fool : see Buffle. [O.E.D. : now disused in polite literature and speech.] Also asshead : whence assheaded — stupid ; and asshead

edness = folly. TO make an ass OF = tO Stultify ; to make an

ass of oneself = to play the fool ; Your ass-ship (a mock title : cf. lordship). Also Proverbs and proverbial sayings: 'When a fool is made a bishop then a horned ass is born therein' (1400); 'Perhaps thy ass can tell thee what thou knowest not' (Nash); 'To wrangle for an ass's shadow ' (Thynne) ; ' Go sell an ass ' (Topsell : ' a charge of blockishness to a dull scholar '). ' Angry as an ass with a squib in his breech' (Cotgrave) ; ' Honey is not for an ass's mouth ' (Shelton) ; ' An ass laden with gold will go lightly

Ass.

73 Asses' Bridge.

uphill ' (Shelton) ; ' Asses have ears as well as pitchers ' (Middleton) ; ' He will act the ass's part to get some bran ' (Urquhart); 'An ass in a lion's skin' (Addison); 'An unlettered king is a crowned ass ' (Freeman) ; to plough with ox and ass = to use incongruous means ; ' The ass waggeth his ears' (Cooper, 1563: 'a proverbe applied to theim, whiche, although they lacke learnynge, yet will they babble and make a countenaunce, as if they knewe somewhat ').

1532. More, Confut. Barnes, viii. Thys felowes folishe apishenesse and al hys asseheded exclamacions.

1546. Becon, Early Writings [Parker Soc.]. [A fool is called] asshead.

1550. Bale, Apology, 61. O absolute ass-heads . . . and wytlesse ydyote.

1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 348. Landleapers, roges, and ignorant asses.

1589. Hay any Work, 36. As verye an Assehead as John Catercap.

1590. Shakspeare, Mid. Night's Dream, iii. 1. 124. This is to make an ass of me, to fright me if they could. Ibid. (1598), Merry Wives, i. 1. 176. I am not altogether an ass. Ibid.(i6oi), Twelfth Night, v. i. 212. An assehead and a coxcombe.

1609. Douland, Ornithop. Micrologics, 65. Asse-headed ignorance.

1610. Healey, City of God, 694. Yet had he his humane reason still, as Apuleus had in his asse-ship.

1611. Chapman, Mayday, iv. 4. I shall imagine still I am driving an ox and an ass before me.

1617. Minshew, Diet., s.v. Asseheaddinesse or blockishnesse.

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., II. in. ii. A nobleman ... a proud fool, an arrant ass.

1633. Ford, Love's Sacrifice, ii. 2. If this be not a fit of some violent affection, I am an ass in understanding.

1717. Pope, Lett, to Hon. R. Digby. They think our Doctors asses to them.

1724. Ramsay, Tea-table Misc., 14. The Warld is rul'd by Asses, And the Wise are sway'd by clink.

1729. Cooke, Tales, 87. Ended thus his Ass-ship's Reign.

1828. Scott, Fair Maid, 1. 39. I am but an ass in the trick of bringing about such discourse.

1843. Lever, Jack Hinton, iv. Lord Dudley de Vere, the most confounded puppy, and the emptiest ass.

1865. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (C. D. ed.), 6. As to Twemlow ... he considers the large man an offensive ass.

1865. Trollope, Belton Estate, xx. Don't make such an ass of yourself.

1866. Eraser's Mag., 284. i. They could not be deprived of the common right of Englishmen to make asses ok themselves if they liked it.

2. (printers'). — A compositor : used by pressmen : the titfor-tat = PlG (q.v.): also donkey : Fr. mulet.

Assassin, subs. (old).—See quot. [Century: 'with allusion to its "killing" effect.']

1694. Ladies' Diet. [Century]. A breast-knot, or similar decoration worn in front.

assayes (The), subs, phr. (military).—The 2nd battalion (late 74th) Highland Light Infantry : for distinction at Assaye when ' every officer present, save one, was killed or wounded, and the battalion was reduced to a mere wreck ' (Farmer, Mil. Forces of Gt. and Greater Britain).

Asses' Bridge (The), subs. phr. (common).—The fifth proposition in the First Book of Euclid's Elements ; the pons asinorum.

c. 17S0. Epigram. If this be rightly called the bridge of asses, He's not the fool that sticks, but he that passes.

3860. All Year Round, 560. He never crossed the ass's bridgp.

Assig.

74 Atomy.

Assig., subs. (old).—An 'assignation' (B. E. and Grose).

assmanship (or asswomanship), subs, (colloquial).—The art of donkey-riding : on the model of horsemanship.

1800. Southey, Letters (1856), 1. 119. Edith has made a great proficiency in ass

woman'ship.

1S82. Punch, 24 June. They witch the world with noble assmanship.

Aste, subs. (Old Cant).—Money: generic : see Rhino (Nares).

1612. Passenger 0/ Benvcnuto. These companions, who . . . 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 with a high carriage of the head ; a star-gazer (q.v.).

At. See All ; Breeches ; Hand ; Have ; Pickpurse ; Rest ; That ; You.

Athanasian Wench, subs. phr. (old). — 'A forward girl, ready to oblige every man that shall ask her' (Grose); a quicunque vult (q.v.) : see Tart.

Athen/eum, subs, (venery).—The penis : see prick.

Athens. The Modern Athens, subs. phr. (literary).— i. Edinburgh ; and (2) Boston, Mass. (also The Athens of America).

Atlantic-ranger, subs. phr. (common).—A herring ; a searover (q.v.): sec Glasgow magistrate.

1883. Good Words, 378. Peaspudding, and hard-boiled eggs, rubbing shoulders, as it were, with Atlantic rangers.

Atkins. See Tommy Atkins.

Atomy, subs. (old). — i. An anatomy ; a ' specimen ' ; a skeleton ; also otamy : whence (2) a very lean person ; a walking skeleton.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v. 4. 33. Host. Thou atomy, thou ! Dot. Come, you thin thing, come, you rascal.

1681. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, 124. Consumed to an atomy, having nothing left but skin to cover his bones.

1728. Gay, Beggars Opera, ii. 1. He is among the Otamys at Surgeon's Hall.

1755. Smollett, Quixote (1803), iv. j 48. My bones . . . will be taken up smooth, and white and bare as an atom.

1822. Scott, The Fortunes 0/Nigel, iii. ' He was an atomy when he came up from the North, and . . . died ... at twenty stone weight.'

1823. Cooper, Pioneer, xiii. His sides . . . looked just like an atomy, ribs and all.

1848. Dickens, üombey, 86. Withered atomies of teaspoons.

1864. Mrs. Lloyd, Ladies Polcarrow, 149. We should have wasted to atomies if we had stayed in that terrible bad place any longer.

1866. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ix. A miserable little atomy, more deformed, more diminutive, more mutilated than any beggar in a bowl.

1884. Cornhill Magazine, May, 478. Scarecrow and atomy, what next will you call me ? Yet you want to marry me !

1886. Hraddon, Mohawks, xxii. ' How lovely his young wife looks to-night ; lovely enough to keep that poor old atomy in torment.'

2. (old).—A diminutive person ; a pigmy.

Atrocity.

75 Attic-Salt.

1591. Shakspeare, Romeo andJuliet, iv. i. 57. Queen Mab . . . 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. Ibid. (1600), As You Like It, iii. 5. That eyes that are the frail'st and softest things Who shut their coward gates on atomies Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers.

1599. Davies, Immort. of Soul, 35. Epicures make them swarmes of atomies.

1625. Donne, Anat. of the World, i. 209. And freely men confess that this world's spent, When in the planets and the firmament They seek so many new ; they see that this Is crumbled out again t' his

atomies.

3. (American thieves'). — An empty-headed person.

Atrocity, subs, (colloquial). — Anybody or anything grievously below the ordinary standard or out of the common : e.g. a bad blunder, a flagrant violator of good taste, a very weak pun, etc. Hence atrocious, adj.= shockingly bad, execrable, and as adv. = excessively.

1831. Alford [Life (1873), 67]. The letter had an atrociously long sentence in it.

1878. Hatton, Corr. Pref, 4. Their diction and their spelling and the fearful atrocities committed in the latter.

Attack, subs, (colloquial). — A

commencement of operations : as (jocularly) upon dinner, a problem, correspondence, etc. Also as verb.

1812. Combe, Picturesque, xvii. 62. The Doctor then . . . pronounced the grace . . . The fierce attack was soon begun.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, i. It was a double letter, and the Major commenced perusing the envelope before he attacked the inner epistle.

Attempt, verb, (euphemistic). — To approach (q.v.) a woman ; to attack the chastity ; to try (q.v.). Hence attempter, attemptable, and other derivatives.

1593. Shakspeare, Lucrèce, 491. I see what crosses my attempt will bring. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for Meas., iii. 1. 267. The maid will I frame and make fit for his attempt. Ibid. (1611), i. 4. 65. This gentleman . . . vouching his to be . . . less attemptable than any of the rarest of our ladies in France. Ibid., 122. I durst attempt . . . any lady in the world.

1607. Topsell, Four-footed Beasts, 3. Apes that attempt women.

1611. Guillim, Heraldry, m. vii. (1660), 136. The Judges . . . who attempted Susanna.

1642. Milton, A pol. S mec. [Works (1851), 271]. To secure and protect the weaknesse of any attempted chastity.

1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), i. xviii. 29. When one of our sex finds she is attempted. Ibid. (1748), Clarissa, in. 273. It would be a miracle if she stood such an attempter.

Attic, subs, (common). — 1. The head; the brain; the upper storey (q.v.).

1870. [Alford, Life (1873), 467]. Tolerably well all day, but the noise in the attic unremoved.

2. (venery). — The female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

Attic-salt (style or wit), subs, phr. (literary). — Well-turned phrases spiced with refined and delicate humour.

1633. Batt. Lutzen[Harl Misc., iv. 185]. Written in a stile so attick . . . that it may well be called the French Tacitus.

1738. Pope, Epil., Sat. 11. 83. While Roman Spirit charms, and Attic Wit.

1748. Dvche, 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.

Attleborough. 76 Auld Reekie.

1760. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, v. iii. Triumph swam in my father's eyes, at the repartee : the Attic salt brought water into them.

1779. Sheridan, Critic, i. 2. I . . . only add—characters strongly drawn —fund of genuine humour — mine of invention—neat dialogue—attic-salt.

1848. Hannay, King Dobbs, ix. 129(1856). 'What? is it unlucky to spill attic-salt, as well as the ordinary kind ? '

Attleborough, subs. (American).

— Pinchbeck ; Brummagem {q.v.). [Attleborough is celebrated for its manufacture of trashy jewelry.]

Attorney, subs, (oldcolloquial).— i. A knave ; a swindler : an ancient and still general reproach. Whence attorneydom and attorneyism (in contempt or abuse).

1732. Pope, Moral Essays, in. 274. Vile attornies, now an useless race.

c. 1784. Johnson [Boswell, Life, 1. 385]. Johnson observed that ' he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney.'

1837. Carlyle, French Rev., in. vii. 5. Attornies and Law-Beagles which hunt ravenous on this Earth. Ibid., 258. Vanish, then, thou rat-eyed Incarnation of Attorneyism. Ibid. (1864), Fred, the Great, iv. 2. Instinctively abhorrent of attorneyism and the swindler element.

1881. Standard, 22 Aug., 5. 2. The narrow and captious argument of attorneydom.

1882. Society, 7 Oct., 16. 2. A strong element of what Mr. John Bright has been pleased to call attorneydom.

1884. Sat. Rev., 28 June, 835. 2. The peculiarity, however, of that kind of cleverness which ... is called attorneyism, is that it frequently overreaches itself.

2. (common).—A drumstick of goose, or turkey, grilled and devilled : cf. devil.

1828. Griffin, Collegians, xiii. ' I love a plain beef steak before a grilled

attorney.'

Attorney-General's Devil. See

Devil.

Auctioneer. To tip (or give)

the auctioneer, verb. phr. (pugilists').—To knock a man down : Tom Sayers' right hand was nicknamed the auctioneer.

1863. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, 1. 4 (1864). And who, in return for a craven blow, can deliver the auctioneer well over the face and eyes.

Audit-ale (or Audit), subs. phr. (Univ.).—A special brew of ale : orig. for use on audit days.

1823. Byron, Age of Bronze, xiv. But where is now the goodly audit-ale.

1837. Barham, Ing. Legends (Lay of S. Dunstan). The ' Trinity audit ale ' is not come-at-able, As I've found to my great grief when dining at that table.

1872. Ouida, Gen. Matchm., 34. Are you going to smoke and drink audit on that sofa all day?

1876. Trevei.yan, Life of Macaulay (1884), iv. 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 prosy talker ; a bore (q.v.).

Aught, subs, (vulgar).—A common illiteracy for 'naught,' the cipher 'o.'

Auld Hornie, subs. phr. (Scots). — I. The Devil : see Blackspy.

2. (venery). —The penis : see Prick.

Auld Reekie, subs. phr. (Scots).— The Old Town, ' Edinburgh : i.e. Old Smoky.'

Auly-Auly. 77 Aunt.

1806. Pitman [Sharpe, Correspondence (1888), i. 271]. We are within two hours-and-a-half of Auld Reeky.

1816. Scott, Antiquary, vi. And what news do you bring us from Edinburgh . . . how wags the world in Auld Reekie? Ibid. (1818), Heart Midloth., xl. My best service to all my old friends at and about Auld Reekie.

1889. Colonies and India, 24 July, 10. i. The Australasian Colony in Auld Reekie is prospering apace.

Auly Auly, subs. phr. (Win. Coll. : obsolete).—A game played in ' Grass Court ' on Saturday afternoons after chapel. An indiarubber ball was thrown one to another, and everybody was obliged to join in. The game, though in vogue in 1830, was not played as late as 1845.

Au m bes-ace. See Ames-ace.

Aunt, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A bawd ; a harlot (B. E. and Grose) : hence (old sayings) ' my aunt will feed me ' = (B. E. ) ' the bawd will find me in meat ' ; ' She is one of my aunts that made my uncle go a-begging (or that my uncle never got any good of).'

1604. Shakspeare, Winters Tale, iv. 2. Summer songs for me and my aunts, While we lie tumbling in the hay.

1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, i. 3. Pren. May be she's gone to Brainford. May. Inquire at one of mine aunts. Ibid., v. i. Feath. Ye told me, sir, she was your kinswoman. May. Right, one of mine aunts.

1607. Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. i. She demanded of me whether I was your worship's aunt or no. Out, out, out !

1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch the Old One, 11. 1. 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.

[?]. [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), iii. 260.] To call you one o' mine aunts, sister, were as good as to call you arrant whore.

[?]. [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), vii. 410.] Naming to him one of my aunts, a widow by Fleetditch, her name is Mistress Gray, and keeps divers gentlewomen lodgers.

1663. Killigrew, Parsons Wedding, iii. i. Yes, and follow her, like one of my aunts of the suburbs.

1668. Lestrange, Qucvedo (1778), 133. They . . . gallant the Wife to the Park . . . where forty to one . . . they stumble upon an Aunt ... or some such Reverend Goer-between.

1678. Dryden, Kind Keeper, i. 1. The easiest Fool I ever knew, next my Naunt of Fairies in the Alchymist.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Aunt ... a title of eminence for the senior dells, who serve for instructresses, midwives, etc., for the dells.

2. (old and still colloquial, esp. in U.S.A.).—An endearment or familiar address ; also aunty : spec. (1), in nursery talk, a female 'friend of the family'; and (2) a matronly woman : hence aunthood : cf. uncle.

1592. Mid. Night's Dream, ii. 1. The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Pair, ii. i. Over. Let us drink, boy, with my love, thy aunt here . . . Ale for thine aunt, boy.

1861. Stowe, Pearl ofOrr's Island, 21. These universally useful persons receive among us the title of aunt by _asort of general consent . . . They are nobody's aunts in particular, but aunts to human nature generally.

1862. Craik, Domestic Stories, 373. This sort of universal aunthood to the whole neighbourhood was by no means disagreeable to Miss Milly.

1883. Harper's Mag., Oct., 72S. 2. The negro no longer submits with grace to be called ' uncle ' and ' aunty ' as of yore.

3. (Oxford and Cambridge : obsolete).—The sister university.

1655. Fuller, Church Hist., 11. i. 308. The Sons of our Aunt are loth to consent that one who was taught Cambridge, should teach in Oxford.

Aunt Maria. 78 Autem.

1701. Pepys, Corr., 403. An humble present of mine, though a Cambridge man, to my dear aunt, the University of Oxford.

Phrases. ' If my aunt had been my uncle what would have happened then ' ? (a retort on inconsequent talk) ; to go and see one's au nt = to go to the W.C. (see Mrs. Jones).

1834. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), hi. 45, note. What might have happened afterwards, is only known to those who can tell what would have come to pass

ik your aunt had been your uncle.

Aunt Maria, subs. phr. (venery). —The female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

Aunt Sally, subs. phr. (common). —A game common to race-courses and fairs : a wooden head is mounted on a pole to form a target ; in the mouth is placed a clay pipe, which the player, standing at twenty or thirty yards, tries to smash.

[i860. Motes and Queries, 2 S. x. 117. Aunt Sally is the heroine of a popular negro melody, in which the old lady meets with several ludicrous adventures.]

1861. Times, ' Derby Day.' Aunt Sally ... is rather overdone than otherwise.

1866. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, i. They will . . . create disturbances on the course, and among the 'sticks' and

aunt sallies.

1883. Punch, 2 June, 264. 1. The average number of ' chucks ' at cocoa-nuts before achieving success is six, and of ' shies ' at aunt sally, four.

1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 Aug., 4. 1. Aunt Sallies and skittles for those who prefer such attractions.

Au Reservoir ! intj. phr. (common).—Au revoir.

Aurum Potabile, subs. phr. (Old Cant). — That is, 'drinkable gold ' ; see quots.

1644. Quarles, Judgment and Mercy, 86. Poverty ... is a sickness very catching . . . The best cordial is aurum potabile.

1652. Ashmole, Theat. Chem. Brit., 442. And then the golden oyle called aurum-potabile, A medicine most mervelous to preserve mans health.

1653. Evelyn, Diary, 27 June. Monsr. Roupel sent me a small phial of his aurum potabile, with a letter shewing the way of administering it and y^estupendous cures it hath done at Paris.

1678. Phillips, Diet., s.v. Aurum potabile, a medicine made of the body of gold itself, totally reduced, without corrosive, into a blood-red, gummie, or honylike substance.

1708. Kersey, Diet. Aurum potabile. Gold made liquid, or fit to be drunk ; or some rich Cordial Liquor, with pieces of Leaf-gold in it.

Australian Flag, subs. phr. (Australian).—A rucked-up shirttail.

Australian Grip, subs. phr. (Australian).—A hearty handshake.

Autem (Autum, Autom, or Antem), subs. (Old Cant).—A church (Harman, (B. E., Grose, el passim). As adj. — married ; also in numerous combinations, thus : autem-bawler (-cackler, -jet Orprickear)

= a parson: spec, of Dissenters; autem-cackle tub = (i) a dissenting meeting-house, (2) a pulpit ; autum-covE = a married man ; autum-diiter (or -diver) = (i) a Baptist, (2) a thief working churches or conventicles, and (3) an overseer or guardian of the poor ; autum-gogc.LER='a pretended French prophet ' (Grose) ; autum-mort (see quots. 1567 and c. 1696); autum-quaver — a Quaker; autum-quaver tub = a Quaker's meeting-house.

Autem. 79 Avuncular.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1S14), 49. These Autem Mortes be maried wemen, . . . 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.

1586. Harrison, Dcsc. England,

184.

1592. Greene, Quip, [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, 7 (H. Club's Reprint, 1874). They could not quietly take their rest in the night, nor keepe his autem, or doxie sole vnto himselfe.

1641. Brome, Jovial Crew [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 25]. The autum-mort finds better sport In bowsing than in nigling.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crezv, s.v. Autem mort, c. a Married-woman, also the Twenty fourth Order of the Canting Tribe, Travelling, Begging (and often Stealing) about the Country, with one Child in Arms another on Back, and (sometimes) leading a third in the Hand.

1827. Lytton, Pelham. Job explained . . . his wish to pacify Dawson's conscience by dressing up one of the pals . . . as an autem bawler, and so obtaining him the benefit of the clergy without endangering the gang by his confession.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, in. v. Morts, autem-morts, walking morts, dells, doxies, with all the shades and grades of the canting crew, were assembled.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, ' A Hundred Stretches Hence.' ' Oh ! where will be the culls of the bing A hundred stretches hence? The autumn-cacklers, autumn-coves. . . .

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 260. A Jew was selling cocoa-nut, when the autem-cackler . . . wanted to impart to the Israelite the sin he committed in carrying on his vocation on such a day [Sunday].

1901. Nisbet, Hermes, 268. Autem-diver.

Author-Baiting, subs. phr. (theatrical). — Calling a playwright before the curtain to subject him to annoyance—yelling, hooting, bellowing, etc.

Avast, intj. (nautical). — Hold ! Stop ! Stay !

1681. Otway, Soldiers' Fortune, iv. i. Hoa up, hoa up ; so avast there, sir.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xli. ' Avast there, friend : none of your tricks upon travellers.' Ibid. (1751), Peregrine Pickle, xcvii. ' And upon this scrap of paper—no, avast — that's my discharge from the parish.'

1883. Clark Russell, Sailor's Language, s.v. Avast. An order to stop hauling or heaving ; pronounced 'vast. A word going out of fashion as used among seamen, who would formerly say ' Vast there ! ' meaning, Stop that talking. It is now confined to ship's work. Ibid. (1884), Jack's Courtship, xiv. But avast now ! we've had enough of philosopherising.

Avering, subs. (old).—See quot.

1695. Kennett, Lans. MS., 1033. When a begging boy strips himself and goes naked into a town with a fais story of being cold, and stript, to move compassion and get better cloaths, this is call'd avering, and to goe a avering.

Avoirdupois, subs, (colloquial).— Excess of flesh ; fat.

Avoirdupois-lay, subs.phr. (Old Cant). — ' Stealing brass weights off the counters of shops' (Grose).

Avuncular, adj. (common). — Humorously employed in various combinations : e.g. avuncular relation = a pawnbroker; an uncle {q.V.); avuncular life = pawnbroking. Also avuncular-gig, to avunculize ( = to act as an uncle), etc., etc.

A wake. 80 A way.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, ' Hants,' i. 414. Seeing he was sister's son to blackmouth'd Sanders, it is much that he doth not more avunculize in his bitterness against Protestants.

1831. Landor, Rupert {Works (1846), 11. 571]. Love . . . paternal or avuncular.

1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, v. Clive, in the avuncular gig, is driven over the downs to Brighton, to his maternal aunt there. Ibid., x\. Clive had passed the avuncular banking-house in the city, without caring to face his relations there.

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, iii. 37. If you enter one of these pawnshops . . . you will observe these peculiarities in the internal economy of the avuncular life.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 92. 'A Model Christmas.' (The poet detaches a blanket from his bed and despatches it to an avuncular relative).

Awake, adv. (old).—On the alert ; vigilant ; fully appreciative : see Fly.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Awake ... A thief will say to his accomplice on perceiving the person they are about to rob is aware of their intention, and upon his guard, stow it, the cove's awake. To be awake to any scheme, deception or design, means generally to see through or comprehend it.

1813. Austen, Pride and Prejudice, xi. As much awake to the novelty of attention in that quarter as Elizabeth herself.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry (Dicks), 6. Jerry. Yes, he's up, he's awake, he's fly—Ha ! ha !

1838. Dickens, N. Nicklcby, xxxix. If you hear the waiter coming, sir, shove it in your pocket and look out of the window. . . . ' I'm awake, father,'replied the dutiful Wackford.

1879. Froude, Caesar, x. He was awake to the dangers.

Away, adv. (colloquial).—Away ( = forthwith, continuously) occurs in several colloquialisms, mostly imperative. Thus : FlKK

away ! = Commence immediately ! ; Say away ! = ' Spit it out ' ; Peg away ! = Keep going ; Right away ! = at once; 'Aw^tay the mare ! ' = Adieu to care ! Begone ! far-and-away = altogether; 'who can hold that will away?' ='Who can bind an unwilling tongue'? to mistake away = to pilfer and pretend mistake; away back = (1) long ago; and (2) see w^rayback.

d. 1529. Dunbar [quoted by Gifford]. And Prudence in my eir says ay, Quhy wad you hald that will away"?

1535. Coverdale, John, xvi. 12. I haue yet much to saye vnto you, but ye can not beare it awaye.

c. 1540. Doctour Doubble Ale. Away the mare, quod Walis, I set not a whitinge By all their writing.

[?]. MS. Corp. Christ. Coll. Cantab., 168. Adew, sweteharte, Christe geve the care ! Adew to the, dewll ! Away the mare !

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Pair, i. i. Over. You will not let him go, brother, and lose him? Cokes. Who can hold that will away? Ibid., ii. 1. But your true trick, rascal, must be, to be ever busy, and mistake away the bottles and cans.

d. 1631. Donne, Satires, v. Would it not anger a stoic . . . to see a pursuivant come in, and call all his clothes, copes, books, primers ; and all his plate, chalices ; and mistake them away, and ask a few for coining.

1676. Shadwell, Virtuoso, ii. Come . . . bull away !

1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, ii. I now saw that right away and directly meant the same thing.

1856. Stowe, Dred., i. Get the carriage out for me right away.

1876. Macaulay, Life and Letters, i. 235. I guess I must answer him right slick away.

1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Sep., 10. She told him to report away, that she was not afraid.

Awful.

Ax.

Awful, adj. (colloquial).—Monstrous : hence a generic intensive = great; long; exceedingly good, bad, pretty, etc. Thus an awful ( = very unpleasant) time; awful ( = side-splitting) fun ; awfully( = uncommonly) jolly, etc. Also penny-awful — a blood-curdling tale : cf. dreadful shocker, blood-and-guts

story, etc. As adv. = exceedingly, extremely.

1816. Lambert, Canada and U.S., etc. [Bartlett]. The country people of the New England States make use of many quaint expressions in their conversation. Every thing that creates surprise is awful with them : ¹ What an awful wind ! awful hole ! awful hill ! awful mouth ! awful nose ! ' etc.

i8[?]. Widow Bedott Papers [Bartlett]. I never thought she was so awful handsome as some folks does.

1830. Thompson, Exer. (1842), 1. 338. He will have made an awfully bad choice if he comes to be sentenced to be hanged.

1843. Carlton, New Purchase, 1. 182. Pot-pie is the favorite dish, and woodsmen, sharp set, are awful eaters.

1834. Lamb, Gent. Giantess [Works (1S71), 363]. She is indeed, as the Americans would express it, somethimg awful.

1845. Ford, Handbook to Spain, i. 28. To what an awful extent the Spanish peasant will consume garlic.

1859. Lang, Wand. India, 154. In the way of money-making ... he is awfully clever.

1865. Downing, May-day in New York [Bartlett]. The practice of moving on the first day of May, with one half the New-Yorkers, is an awful custom.

1870. Bridgman, R. Lynne, 11. x. He writes an awful scrawl.

1870. Figaro, 3 June. I like their face, though, to come here ; it's awfully good.

1873. Broughton, Nancy, 1. 26. What an awful duffer I am.

1877. Punch's Pocket Book for 1878, 165. You should have come with us. It's too awfully nice, as I told you I thought it would be.

1878. Black, Green Pastures, ii. 15. You'll be awfully glad to get rid of me.

1878. Braddon, Cloven Foot, 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.

['?]. 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, in. v. 'I'm awful glad you two have made acquaintance.'

1883. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton. The boy . . . was told that what he had done was an awful chouse.

1889. Illustrated Bits, 13 July. ' The ham of the sandwich was awfully tough.'

1898. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxiv. He was awful shook on Madg ; but she wouldn't look at him.

1889. Answers, 23 Feb., 205. 3. He's awfully bad form—a regular cad, you know.

Awkward, adv. (conventional).— Pregnant: lumpy (q.v. ).

Awkward-squad, subs. phr (military and naval).—Recruits at drill.

Awls. See Alls.

Ax, verb. (old).—This archaic form of ask, once and long literary, survives in ax my arse (see quot. 1785) and dialectically. [O.E.D, : Ax, down to nearly 1600, was the regular literary form : it was supplanted in standard English by ask, originally the northern form]. Also ax-my-eye (cheap-jacks') = a cute fellow, a knowing blade.

c. 1380. Chaucer, Tale of Melibeus. Seint Jame eck saith : If eny fellow have neede of sapiens, axe it of God.

Ax.

Ayr s hires.

1461-73. Paston Letters, in. 46. To axe in chyrche.

1474. Caxton, Game of the Chesse, in. viii. He must nedes begge and axe his breed.

1758. Murphy, Upholsterer, i. An old crazy fool-—axing your pardon, ma'am, for calling your father so.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Ask. Ax my a—se. A common reply to any question : still deemed wit at sea, and formerly at Court, under the denomination of selling bargains.

1763. Foote, Mayor of Garr., ii. 2. Mrs Sneak. Where is the puppy ! Sneak. Yes, yes, she is axing for me.

1861. Kingsi.ey, Ravenshoe, vi. ' I axed her would she like to live in the great house, and she said no.'

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 232. Stow your gab and gauffery, To every fakement I'm a fly ; I never takes no fluffery, For I'ma regular axe-my-eye.

Phrases : To have an ax to grind = to have personal nterests to serve ; to put the ax in the helve = to solve a doubt, to unriddle a puzzle ; to send the ax after the helve (or the helve after the hatchet) = to despair ; to hang up one's ax = to desist from fruitless labour, to abandon a useless project ; to open a door with an ax (said of barren or unprofitable labour).

c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xxvii. Zit cowde he not putten the ex in Jje helvc

1547. Heywood, Prov. and Epig. (1867), 80. Here I sende thaxe after the helue awaie.

1815. C. Miner, Who'll turn Grindstones. When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers . . . thinks I, that man has an axe to grind.

1865. Holland, Plain Talk, v. 188. Little cliques and cabals composed of men who have axes to grind.

1881. D. Telegraph, 8 June, 6. 2. Thehandsthat . .. ' grind the axe,' and that ' pull the string.'

1888. Detroit Free Press, 22 Sept. William Black says the only ax a novelist has to grind is the climax.

1898. Pink 'Un and Pelican, 13. The anecdotes and stories have no morals to point, no axes to grind.

Axewaddle, verb, (provincial).—

To wallow. Hence axewaddler (a term of contempt).

Axis, subs, (venery).—The female pudendum : see Monosyllable.

Ayrshires, subs. pi. (Stock Exchange).— Glasgow and Southwestern Railway Stock.

B. 83 B flat.

subs. (Fenian : obsolete).— I. See quot.

d. 1883. H. J. Byron [MS. note to Hotten's Slang Diet. : now in B. Museum]. The title of a captain in the 'army of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.'

2. (Harrow).—A standard in Gymnasium the next below A (q.v. ).

3. (Felsted).—See A.

Not to know B from a bull's foot (a battledore, a broomstick, or any alliterative jingle), phr. (old).—To be illiterate or ignorant ; to be unable to distinguish ' which is which^: : also affirmatively, see A, Battledore, Chalk, etc.

1401. Pol. Poems, 11. 57. I know not an A from the wynd-mylne, ne a B

from a bole foot.

1553-87. Foxe, Acts and Monuments,

ii. 474. He knew not a B from a

battledore nor ever a letter of the book. 1592. Nashe, Pierce Pennilesse, 30b.

Now you talke of a BEE. IlE tell

you a tale of a Battledore and write in prayse of vertue. Ibid. (1599), Lenten Stuffe (1885), v. 197. Every man can say Bee to a Battledore and write in prayse of Vertue.

1609. Dekker, Guls-Hornebooke, 3. You shall not neede to buy bookes ; no, scorne to distinguish a B from a battledore.

1613. King, Halfepennyivorth of Wit, 'Dedication.' Simple honest dunce, as I am, that cannot say B to a battledore, it is very presumptuously done of me to offer to hey-passe and repasse it in print so.

1621. Montagu, Diatriba-, 118. The clergy of this time were . . . not able to

say bo to a battledore.

1630. Taylor, Motto, 'Dedication.' For in this age of criticks are such store,

That of a B will make a battledoor.

Ibid., ' Dedication ' to Odcomb' s Complaint. To the gentlemen readers that understand

a B from a battledoor.

1663. Howell, Eng. Proverbs, 16.

He knoweth not a B from a battledoor.

1672. Ray, Proverb, s.v.

1677. Miege, Diet. Fr. and Eng., 128. Battledore . . . formerly a term for a hornbook, and hence no doubt arose the phrase to know a B from a battledore.

1846. Brackenridge, Modem Chivalry, 43. There were members who scarcely knew B from a bull's-foot.

1877. Peacock, Manly (Line.) Glossary, s.v. Battledore. He does not

know his ABC fra a battledoor.

1884. Black, Judith Shakspeare, xxi. Fools that scarce know a B from a Battledore.

B Flat (or B), subs. phr. (common).—A bed bug; a Norfolk Howard (q.v.): cf. F

sharp.

1853. Dickens, Household Words xx. 326. A stout negro of the flat back tribe—known among comic writers as B flats.

1867. Cornhill Mag., Ap., 450. That little busy B which invariably improves the darkness at the expense of every offering traveller.

Ba.

Babbler.

1SS1. Hughes, Rugby Tenu., 58. An insect suspiciously like a British B Flat.

Ba, verb, (old colloquial).—To kiss : also as subs. : cf. Buss. [O.E.D. : ' probably a nursery or jocular word ' ; Century, ' perhaps the humorous imitation of a smack.']

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 'Wife of Bath's Prol.,' 433. How mekly loketh Wilkyn our scheep ! Com ner, my spouse, let me ba thy cheke.

c. 1529. Skelton, My Darlingdere, 9. With ba-ba-ba, and bas, bas, bas, She cheryshed hym both cheke and chyn. Ibid., 148. Bas me, bultyng, praty Cis.

Baa, subs. (old).—A bleat; also as verb : of a sheep. Hence baaling (diminutive) = a lambkin : also (nursery) BAA-LAMB ; baaing = noisy silliness, and as adj.

1500. Dunbar, Works [Paterson (i860), 323]. Bae [stands for the cry of sheep].

1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), lxix. 77. Still for thy Dam with bea-waymenting crie.

c. 1586. Sidney [Jamieson]. Like a lamb, whose dam way is set, He treble baas for help.

1589. Pappe with Hatchet (1844), 37. They haue no propertie of sheepe but bea.

1594. Shakspeare, Love's Labour Lost, v. i. Moth. What is a, b, spelt backward, with the horn on his head ? Hoi. Ba, puerita, with a horn added. Moth. Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. Ibid. (1607), Coriolanus, ii. 1. 12. He's a Lambe indeed, that baes like a Beare.

1600. Evergreen (1761), 11. 58. With mony a Bae and Bleit.

c. 1649. DrummOND (of Hawthornden), Poems (1711), 4. 2. There p.ea-wailing strays A harmless lamb.

1765. Smart, Phœdrus [Bohn], iii. xiv. 56. You little fool, why, how you baa ! This goat is not your own mamma.

1818. Keats, Endymion^ in. 3. There are . . . who upon Their baaing vanities to browse away The comfortable green and juicy hay from Human pastures.

1832. Marryat, Newton Forster, xxxi. The ba-aing and bleating.

1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, 2. Silly little knock-kneed baah-ling.

1862. Max Müller [Macm. Mag., Nov., 57]. Can we admit . . . that those who imitate the baaing of the sheep name the animal ?

1870. D. News, 11 Oct. We civic sheep have set up so loud a ba-ba that we have terrified the wolves.

1877. Edwards, Up. Nile, vi. 138. Our sacrifice sheep . . . comes baaing in the rear.

1877. Blackie, Wise Men, 264. The snow-white lamb . . . fills the solitude with tremulous baa.

Bab, subs. (old).—See quot. : also babba.

1598. Fi.orio, Worlde of Wördes, s.v. Pappa . . . the first word children vse, as with vs dad or daddie or bab.

1863. Kingsley, Waterbabies, 48. Sitting down and crying for his baba (though he never had any baba to cry for).

Babber-lipped. See Blabberlips.

Babble, subs. (B. E. and Grose : now recognised). — ' Confused unintelligible talk such as was used at the building of the tower of Babel' (Grose). Babbler = ' a great talker ' (B. E.). [O.E.D. : Common to several languages : ' in none can its history be carried far back ; as yet it is known as early in English as anywhere else. . . . No direct connection with Babel can be traced; though association with that may have affected the senses.']

Babbler, subs, (sporting).—1. A hound giving too much tongue.

1732. Berkeley, Works (1732), 1. 169. You shall often see among the Dogs a loud hauler with a bad Nose lead the unskilful.

Babe.

85 Baboon.

^l735SoMERviLLE, Chase [Chalmers, xi. 167. 1], iv. 66. The vain babbler shun, Ever loquacious, ever in the wrong.

1880. Encyclop. Brit., xn. 315. After a fox has been found, the babbler announces the fact for the next ten minutes, and repeats his refrain whenever the least opportunity presents itself.

2. See Babble.

Babe, subs, (parliamentary). — 1. The last elected member of the House of Commons. Cf. father of the house = the oldest representative.

2. (American).—The youngest member of a class at the United States Military College, West Point.

3. (auctioneers').—An auction shark (q.V. ); a knock-out (q.v.) man: for a consideration these men agree not to oppose the bidding of larger dealers, who thus keep down the price of lots.

4. (American).—A Baltimore rowdy: also blood tub (q.v.),

plug-ugly (q.V.).

See Baby.

Babe in the Wood, subs. phr. (old). — i. A culprit in the stocks or pillory (Grose).

2. (old).—In//. = dice.

Baboo (or Babu), subs. (AngloIndian).—See quots. 1886 and 1888. Hence Baboo-English = superfine ; grandiloquent English such as is written by a Baboo ; also Baboodom and Babooism.

c. 1866. Lyall, Old Pindarec. But I'd sooner be robbed by a tall man who showed me a yard of steel, Than be fleeced by a sneaking Baboo with a peon and badge at his heel.

c. 1879. Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days in India, 49. However much we may desire to diffuse Babooism over the Empire.

i8[?j. Pall Mall Gaz. (O.E.D.). Baboodom is making ready for its great protest against education or any other cess.

1886. Yule and Burnett, HobsonJobson, s.v. Baboo. In Bengal, and elsewhere, among Anglo-Indians, it is often used with a slight savour of disparagement as characterising a superficially cultivated, but too often effeminate Bengali ; and from the extensive employment of the class to which the term was applied as a title in the capacity of clerks, in English offices the word has come often to signify a native clerk who writes English.

1886. Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 224. Text-books [Indian] are evidently English works crammed full of hard words such as are found in the metaphysical treatises. This accounts for the wonderful Baboo's English that is sometimes printed for our amusement.

1888. Oxford Eng. Diet., s.v. Baboo. Orig. A Hindoo title of respect, answering to our Mr. or Esquire ; hence, a native Hindu gentleman : also (in Anglo-Indian use) a native clerk or official who writes English.

Baboon, subs, (common).—A term of abuse : see Ape. Whence baboonery ; baboonish ; and baboonize = to monkey (q.v.).

1380-5. Wyclif, Works[V. E. T. S.], 8. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 148. There is the curious babwynrie formed from

baboon.j

c. 1500. Robin Hood [Ritson], xi. 238. He then began to storm, Cries Fool, fanatick, baboon !

1592. Nashe, Piers Pcnnilesse, E. j. b. Is it anie discredit to me, thou great babound . . . to be censured by thee ?

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., ii. 4. He a good wit? Hang him, baboon ! His wit's as thick as Tewkesbury mustard.

1610. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1. Why so, my good baboons ! Shall we go make A sort of sober, scurvy, precise neighbours ?

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Babouïnner, to baboonize it ; to play the monkey ; to use apish or foolish tricks, or knauish prankes.

Baby. 86 Baby.

162S. Wither, Brit. Rememb., i. 977. Such Apes, and such baboones As Parasites, and impudent Buffoones.

1678. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii. i. 25. No chattering, Baboons, instantly be gone !

1848. Marryat, Rattlin the Reefer, xix. The improvement . . . that baboonery had made toward manhood.

1857. Nat. Mag., n. 168. Oranges which he demolished in a style of the most perfect baboonery.

Baby (or Babe), subs, (nursery and colloquial).—i. A childish person :

e.g. 'a great baby,' 'a mere baby,'etc. Hence, to smell of the baby = to be infantine or childish (in character or ability) : cf. Baby-act. Also as ve?-b = to act (or treat) childishly ; babyhood (babydom or babyism) = childishness; baby-bunting — an endearment.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, ii. 2. That great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling clothes.

1603. Patient Grissil, 17. My brisk spangled baby will come into a stationer's shop.

1611. Bible, 'Translator's Preface,' i. Hee was no babe, but a great clearke.

1618. Breton, Courtier and Countryman, 19. There are some that in their childhood are so long in their home booke that, doe what they can, they will smell op' the Baby till they can not see to read.

1637. Fletcher, Elder Brother, iii. 5. Though he be grave with years, he's

a great baby.

1660. Milton, Free Commonwealth [Works (1851), 430]. If we were aught els but Sluggards or Babies.

1667. Dryuen, Martin Marr-all [Oliphant, New English, ii. 113. A grown-up person is called a baby],

1742. Young, Night Thoughts, vi. 521. It babies us with endless toys.

1837. Blackwood, xli. 280. The solemn littleness of Lord John Russell, and the babyisms of Lord Morpeth.

i860. Thompson, Audi. Alt., 111. cxiv. 45. All the malevolence and babyhood of the country rush to display themsclvue.

1864. D. Tel., 14 Sept. The young foal or filly must be raced in its babydom.

1865. Whitney, Gayworthys, 1. 240. I should like to be made much of, and tended—yes babied.

1868. Duff, Pol. Survey (1868), 159. Too babyish even to deserve the semblance of consideration.

2. (old).—In //. = pictures in books. [O.E.D. : pern. orig. the ornamental tail-pieces and borders with Cupids and grotesque figures interworked. ]

1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas (1621), 5. We gaze but on the babies and the cover, The gaudy flowers and edges painted over.

1618. Hales, Gold. Rem. (1673), 11. 8. Provided that, in the Tables and Maps, there were no pictures and babies.

1655. Fuller, Hist. Camb. (1840), 39. More pleased with babies in books than children are.

3. (old colloquial). — The minute reflection of one gazing into another's eye. Hence to look babies (or a boy) in the eyes = to look amorously; to cast sheep's-eyes (q.v.).

d. 1586. Sidney, Astroph. and Stella. So when thou saw'st in nature's cabinet Stella thou straight look'st babies in her eyes.

1593. Donne, The Ecstasy. .And pictures in our eyes to get Was all our propogation.

1593. Tell-trothes New Years Gift, 39. That babie which lodges in women's

eies.

1594. Drayton, Idea, 2. But O, see, see we need enquire no further, Upon your lips the scarlet drops are found, And in your eye the boy that did the murder. Ibid. Sec where little Cupid lies Looking

liABIES in the eyes.

[rj. [F.i.lis, Specimen Eng. Romances, 7]. In each of her two crystal eyes Smileth a naked boy ; It would you all in heart suffice To see that lamp of joy.

1609. Shakspeare, Timon of Athens, i. 2. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, And, at that instant, like a baus sprung up.

Baby. 87 Baby.

c. 1613. Fletcher, Woman's Prize, v. i. No more fool To look gay babies in your eyes, young Roland, And hang about your pretty neck. Ibid. (1618), Loyal Subject. Look babies in your eyes, my pretty sweet one.

1619. Purchas, Microcos., 90. But wee cannot so passe the centre of the Eye, which wee call Pupilla, quasi Puppa, the babie in the eye, the Sight.

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., III. 11. v. 5. (1651), 576. They may kiss and coll, lye and look babies in one another's eyes . . . satiate themselves with love's pleasures.

d. 163s. Randolph, Poems, 124. When I look babies in thine eyes, Here Venus, there Adonis lies.

1636. Heywood, Love's Mistress, 3. She clung about his neck, gave him ten kisses, Toy'd with his locks, looked

babies in his eyes.

1647-8. Herrick, Hesperidcs (1897), i. 12. You blame me too, because I cann't devise Some sport, to please those

babies in your eyes. Ibid. [nares],

138. Or those babies in your eyes, In their christall nunneries.

1668. Lestrange, Qucvedo (1778), 57. Be sure when you come into company that you do not stand staring the men in the face as if you were making babies in

their eyes.

1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., 1. 66. Only to speculate his own Baby in

their eyes.

1682. Behn, City Heiress, iii. 1. Sigh'd, and lookt Babies in his gloating Eyes.

1821. Shelley, Prometheus Unbound. Think ye by gazing on each other's eyes To multiply your lovely selves.

4. (old).—A doll ; a puppet ; a child's plaything : also babyclouts = a rag-doll: see Bartholomew-baby.

1530. Palsgrave, Lang. Franc, 196/1. Babe that children play with, povppee.

1552. Hulvet, Abecedarium. Baby or puppet for chyldren, Pupa.

1563. Homilies, Idolatry, iii. (1844), 238. Puppets and babies for old fools in dotage.

1579. Spenser, S hep. Cal., May, 240. Bearing a truss of trifles, As bells, and babes, and glasses in hys packe.

1595. Shakspeare, K. John, iii. iv. 58. I should forget my sonne Or madly think a babe of clowts were he. Ibid. (1606), Macbeth, iii. 4. 106. If trembling I inhabit then, protest me The baby of a girl.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Muguet. A curiously dressed babie of clowts.

1613. Beaumont and Fletcher, Captain, i. 3. And now you cry for't, As children do for babies, back again.

d. 1631. Drayton, Poems, 243. For bells and babyes, such as children small Are ever us'd to solace them withall.

1631. French Schoole-Maister, f. 98. Shall we buy a babie or two for our children for pastime ?

1640. King and a Poore Northern Man. What gares these babies and babies all '?

1640. Two Lancashire Lovers, 113. And drawing neare the bed to put her daughters armes, and higher part of her body too, within sheets, perceiving it not to be her daughter, but a baby-clouts only to delude her.

1651. Lilly, Charles I. (1774), 219. Whose father sold babies and such pedlary ware in Cheapside.

1700. Congreve, Way 0/ World, v. 5. She was never suffered to play with a male child, though but in coats. Nay, her very babies were of the feminine gender.

1712. Steele, Spectator, 500. 3. Little girls tutoring their Babies. Ibid., 478. These [boxes] are to have Folding Doors, which being open'd you are to behold a Baby dress'd out.

1721. Pope, Letter to Blount, 3 Oct. Sober over her Sampler, or gay over a jointed Baby.

Adj. (colloquial). — Small ; tiny : e.g. a baby-glass, babyengine, etc.

1859. Jephson, Brittany, vii. 88. Turrets beside which the leaning tower of Pisa is a baby.

1864. Realm, 15 June, 5. Ravines from which Jumnus, Indus, and Ganges, yet baby-streams, gush.

Baby Act. 88 Bacca-pipes.

To Kiss the baby, verb. phr. (American).—To take a drink ; to smile (q.v.).

Baby Act, subs.phr. (colloquial).— The legal defence of ' infancy ' :

hence to plead the baby act =

(i) lo plead minority as voiding a contract ; and (2) to excuse oneself on the ground of inexperience.

Baby-farmer, subs. phr. (common).—A professional adopter of infants; a minder (q.v.): spec, in an evil sense : frequently, once the money is paid, the children are gradually done to death. Whence baby-farming.

1884. Christian World, 10 July, 513. 3. Baby-farming was vigorously denounced.

Baby-herder, subs. phr. (American).—A nurse.

Babylon, subs, (colloquial).— Generic for luxury and magnificence Hence (1) the papal power (formerly identified with the mystical Babylon of the Apocalypse) ; (2) any large city : spec. London (also Modern Babylon). Babylonian = (i) a papist ; and (2) an astrologer (Chaldea was the ancient seat of the craft) ; babylonish = popish.

1564. Brief Exam., iij. We dwell not among the Babilonians and Chaldies.

1590. Barron [Confer., i. 10]. The Antichristian yoke of theis Babilonish Bishopps.

1634. Rainbow, Labour (1635), 41. Thy great Babilons which thou hast built.

c. 1650. Brathwayte, Bamaby'sJour. (1723), 61. Whores of Babylon me impalled, And me their Adonis called.

1654. Gage [Title]. A clear Vindication of the . . . Parochial Ministers of England, from the . . . injurious nickname of Babylonish.

1663. Butler, Hud., 1. i. 93. A Babylonish Dialect, Which learned Pedents much affect.

1677. Gilpin, Dœmonol. (1867), 192. For from good bishops . . . they are become incurable Babylonians.

1795. Southey, Letters from Spain ('799)1 76. Here the Babylonian [ = Romish Church] walks the street in full dress scarlet.

1816. Gilchrist, Philos. Etym., 12S. This is the kind of Babylonish lexicography of Johnson's Dictionary, which gives twenty-four meanings, or shadows of meaning to the word from.

1823. Byron, Juan, xi. xxiii. The approach ... to mighty Babylon [London].

Babylonitish, subs. (Winchester College).—A dressing gown. [That is Babylonitish garment. ]

baby-maker, subs. phr. (venery). —The penis : see Prick.

Baby's-pap, subs. phr. (rhyming). —A cap.

Baby Wee-wees, subs. phr. (Stock Exchange).—Buenos Ayres Water Works shares.

1871. Atkins, House Scraps. Oh ! supposing our Cream-jugs were broken, Or Beetles were souring the Babies.

Bacca, subs, (colloquial). — Tobacco. Fr. per lot (from perle). Also Bacco, Baccy, Backer, and Backey.

1833. Markvat, Peter Simple, ii. You must lam to chaw baccy.

1860. All Year Round, 57. 161. His wife has found his bacco-box.

1861. Conway, Forays, 228. I lay on an Affghan goat-rug . . . with a pipe filled with good baccy in my mouth.

1863. H. Kingslev, Austin Elliot, xxi. Bits of backer pipe.

Bacca-pipes, subs.phr. (common). — Whiskers curled in ringlets: obsolete. See Mutton-chops.

Baccare.

89 Bachelor's-fare.

Baccare (or Bakkare), intj. (Old Cant).—Go back ! give place ! Away !

[1473. Markworth, Chronicle, 146174 (Camden), 22. And afiyre ... it aroose north-est, and so bakkere and

bakkere.]

^T5S3Udal, Roister Bolster [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), iii. 65. Ah, sir ! Backare, quod Mortimer to his sow.

d. 1565. Heywood, Epigrams. Shall I consume myself, to restore him now ; Nay Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow. Ibid., Epigrams. Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow, see Mortimer's sow speaketh as good Latyn as hee. Ibid. Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow : Went that sow backe at that bidding, trow you?

1577. Golden Aphroditus [Halliwell]. Both trumpe and drummesounded nothing for their larum but Baccare, Baccare.

1592. Lyly, Midas, v. 2. The masculine gender is more worthy than the feminine. Therefore, Licio, backare.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. Saving your tale, Petruchio, I pray Let us, that are poor petitioners, speak too ; Baccare ! you are marvellous forward.

1660. Howell, Eng. Proverbs, s.v.

1822. Nares, Glossary, s.v. Baccare . . . Used in allusion to a proverbial saying, ' Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow ' ; probably made in ridicule of some man who affected a knowledge of Latin without having it, and who produced his Latinized English words on the most trivial occasions.

Bacchus, subs, (old). — 1. Wine; intoxicating liquor. Whence son of Bacchus = a tippler : see Lushington; and Bacchiplenus = drunk: see Screwed. [Innumerable derivatives and combinations have been and are still in more or less regular and literary use.]

c. 1496. Dunbar, Gold. Terge, 124. Bacus, the gladder of the table.

c. 1640. Waller, Batt. Summer /si., 17. The sweet palmettoes a new Bacchus yield.

1747. Scheme Equip. Men of War, 36. The more corpulent Sons of Bacchus . . . might have Easy-Chairs.

1823. Byron, Island, ii. xi. The palm . . . Within whose bosom infant Bacchus broods.

2. (Eton College).—See quot.

1865. Etoniana, 27. On Shrove Tuesday verses were written (c. 1561) in honour or dispraise of Bacchus—■' because poets were considered the clients of Bacchus.' . . . This custom was continued almost into modern days, and though the subject was changed, the copy of verses was still called a Bacchus.

Bach (or Batch), verb. (American).—To live as a bachelor.

Bachelor. Then the town

bull is a bachelor, phr. (old).

—The retort incredulous on a woman's chastity (Ray).

Bachelor's Baby, subs. phr. (old).—A bastard : see Bye-blow and Bachelor's-wife.

1672. Ray, Proverbs, ' Joculatory Proverbs.' The son of a bachelor ; i.e. a bastard.

1899. Whiteing, John St., x. Never 'ad no father to speak of. Kind o' bachelor's biby, you know.

Bachelor's Buttons. To

wear bachelor's buttons, verb. phr. (old).—To be a bachelor. [Grey, Notes on Shakspeare, i. 107 : 'Country fellows carried the flowers of this plant in their pockets, to know whether they should succeed with their sweethearts, and they judged of their good or bad success by their growing or not growing there.'

Bachelor's-fare, subs. phr. (common). See quot.

Bachelor* s-wife. go

Back.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. Some ladies of your acquaintance have promised to breakfast with you . . . what will you give us ? Col. Why, faith, madam, bachelor's-fare, bread and cheese and kisses.

Bachelor's-wife, subs. phr. (common). — 1. An ideal wife ; and 2. (venery) = a harlot : whence bachelor's-baby = a bastard.

1562. Heywood, Prov. and Epigrams (1867), 61. 7. Bachelers wiues, and maides children be well tought.

1726. Vanbrugh, Provoked Husband, i. i. Ay! ay! bachelors' wives, indeed, are finely governed.

1854. Miller, Schools and Schoolmasters, 503. The ' bachelor's wife ' . . . occupies a large place in our literature, as the mistress of all the poets who ever wrote on love without actually experiencing it.

Back, verb, (colloquial).—1. To espouse, advocate, or support a matter, by money, influence, authority, etc. : usually to back up. Hence (2), in racing = to wager, or bet in support of one's opinion, judgment, or fancy ; to back the field = to bet against all horses save one, usually ' the favourite ' ; backed = betted on ; backer = ( i ) a supporter, a back-friend {q.v.), and (2) a layer of odds : cf. bookie ; backing = support.

1548. Patten, Exp. to Scotland [Arber, Garner, in. 98]. A troup of Demi-lances to back them.

1583. Barrington, Command//!., 380. A backer to beare out my foule expressions.

1589. Pappeivith Hatchet (1844), 15. Art thou so backt that none dare blade it with thee.

d. 1592. Greene, Orl. Fur. (1599), 30. He backt the Prince of Cuba for my foe.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1S77), 77. faithful confederates and backfriends.

c. 1605. Rowley [?], Birth Merlin, iv. 2. 340. The Saxons which thou brought'st To back thy usurpations.

1612. Taylor, Co/nm., Titus, i. 9. Which godly course Augustine backeth.

1684. Bunyan, Pilg., ii. 70. One, that . . . had taken upon him to back the Lions.

1692. Ray, Dissol. World, Pref. Well-backed by Divine Authority.

1697. Dryden, Virgil's Eclogues, iii. 44. Now back your Singing with an equal Stake.

1699. Luttrell, Brief Eel. State Affairs, iv. 503. The lord Wharton's horse Careless has beaten another backt by the duke of Devon, etc., for .£1900.

1722. De Foe, Moll Flanders (1840), 313. He backed his discourses with proper quotations of scripture.

1774. Bridges, Burlesque Ho/ner,

i. ¹ Argument.' Apollo . . . did not fail To back his parson tooth and nail.

1817. Byron, Beppo, xxvii. Most men (till by losing render'd sager) Will back their own opinions with a wager.

1818. Scott, Rob Roy, viii. A quarter whence assuredly he expected no backing. Ibid. (1823), Quentin Durzuard, vi. I had in case of the worst a stout back-friend in this uncle of mine.

1835. Makryat, Jacob Faithful, xxiii. 80. Some one backed me against another man in the ring for fifty pounds a-side.

1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, i. 1. Likened to two principals in a sparring match who when fortune is low and backers scarce.

1850. Lytton, My Novel, ix. ix. ' Take any odds against him that his backers may give,' said L'Estrange.

1853. Rogers, Eel. Faith, 76. Authoritative teaching . . . backed by the performance of miracles?

1865. Arnold, Ess. Crit., i. 32. Let us all stick to each other and back each other up.

1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876),

ii. x. Demands which had been backed by an armed force.

1879. Froude, Ca-sar, xxi. He prolonged Céesar's command, and backed him ur in everything.

Back.

1880. Jeffries, Hodge, 1. 79. The old uncle who had 'backed' him at the bank.

1880. Times, 11 Dec, 9. It is promoted by what appears to be a solid backing of landowners.

1883. Benson {Standard, 28 June, 2. 3. Varied appeals to strengthen and ' back up ' their own long-continued efforts.

3. (venery). —To copulate : properly of animals. Also to

lie on one's back, to make the beast with two backs

(see Beast), to have (or do) a

back-eall (or back-scuttle), to go star-gazing (or studying astronomy) on one's back, etc. Also to earn money on one's

back = to play the whore. See Backward.

1611. Chapman, May-Day, iii. 3. Now hath my soul a thousand fancies in an instant, as what wench dreams not on when she lies on her back.

1658. Rowland, Mouffet's Theat. Ins., 927. When as the female or she Asse would be backt.

1705-7. Ward, Hudib. Rediv., 11. iii. 6.

4. (colloquial).—To endorse ; to countersign : e.g. to back a cheque ; also to back a bill = to become responsible for payment : cf. 'to foot ' an account. Backed = endorsed, 'accepted.' Formerly to ' direct ' or address a letter : prior to the general use of envelopes, the address was written on the back of the folded sheet.

1768. Blackstone, Comm., iv. 238. The warrant of a justice of the peace in one county . . . must be backed, that is, signed by a justice of the peace in another . . . before it can be executed there.

1874. Siliad, 156. And brought the prestige of a lordly name To back a bill.

To be backed, verb. phr. (old).—To be dead : see quot.

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Backt . . . ' he longs to have his Father upon six Mens shoulders' [Grose (1785), Ibid. : ' that is carrying to his grave '].

Phrases and Colloquialisms : TO give one the back = to ignore ; behind one's back = out of sight, hearing, or knowledge ; to give back = to turn tail ; to turn one's (or the) back on = (i) to go, (2) to abandon, and (3)to snub ; back

and side (back and belly, or back and edge) = all over,

completely, through thick and

thin : to take the back on

oneself — to run away; with

back to the wall = hard

pressed, struggling against odds ;

to have BY the back = to seize,

to lay hold of ; to break the BACK = (ij to overburden, (2) to all but finish (a task), and (3) to exhaust one's partner in the act of kind ; to ride on one's back = to deceive; to get the back of = (i) to take in the rear, and (2) to have at an advantage ; on one's back = (i) floored (q.v.), (2) at the end of one's resources, (3) sick or indisposed, and (4) spread (q.v.) ; to have (put, get, or set) one's back up = (i) to resist, to rouse, and (2) to get (or be) angry (B. E. and Grose) : whence, ' don't get your back up !='Keep calm !' or 'Your back's up = a jeer at an angry hunchbacked man ' ; to back out = to retire cautiously, to escape from a dilemma ; to give (or make) a back = (i) to lend a hand, and (2) to bend the body, as at leap-frog ; to back DO\vn=(l) to yield or retire from a matter, and (2) to eat one's words : hence a back-down (or square back-down) = (i) utter collapse, and (2) a severe rebuff ; to be on a man's back

Back.

= to chide, to be severe upon;

to see the back of = to get rid

of. Also ' His back is broad enough to bear jests' (Ray); ' What is got over the devil's back is spent under his belly (see quot. 1694).

c. 1300. Cursor Mundi, 2499. }>e flue gaue bäk to wine away. Ibid., 4390. He drou, sco held, J>e tassel brak, ]Je mantel left, he gafe )>e bak.

c. 1380. Wyclif, Works (1880), 281. pou puttest J>i self behinde J>i bake.

c. 1400. Dest. Troy, xxiii, 9474. )>ai were boun to gyffe bake, & the bent leue. Ibid., iv. 1348. The Troiens . . . turnyt }>e bake, ffleddon in fere.

c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 7318. Til he be slayne, back and side.

c. 1485. Digby MS. (1882), i. 340. I shuld bete you bak and side.

c. 1500. Lancelot, 1488. It haith gart o thousand tak At onys apone themself the bak.

1533. Bellendene, Livy, i. 50. Dredand ... to be inclusit on every side . . . they gaif bakkis.

1535. Stewart, Chron. Scot., 11. 73. That we may haif thair bakis at the wall, Without defend that ar oure commoun fa.

c. 1555. Ridley, Works, 67. Else thou must be had by the back.

1591. Shakspeare, Two Gent., v. 4. 126. Thurio giue backe, or else embrace thy death. Ibid. (1592), Romeo and Jul, iv. 1. 28. It wili be of more price, Being spoke behind your backe, then to your face. Ibid. (1597), 2 Hen. IV.,\. i. 130. The shame Of those that turn'd their backs. Ibid. (1605), Lear, i. 1. 178. To turne thy hated backe Upon our kingdome. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., i. 1. 84. Many Haue hkoke their backes with laying Mannors on 'em For this great Journey.

1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 146. The brother I haue you by the backe.

1610. Wizard [Nares]. Thy father made an asse off, wilt thou goe? And I in triumph riding on his back.

1611. Bible, i Sam. x. 9. When he had turned his backe to go from Samuel.

c. 1624. Smyth, Serm. (1632), 24. They gaue him the back, and became apostates.

1641. Hotham in Long Pari. [Southey, Commonplace Book, 11. (1849), 147]. Mr Speaker ; fall back, fall edge I will go down and perform your commands.

1653. Holcroft, Procopius. John . . . compassed the Trachea, so that he got the Backes of the Enemy.

c. 1655. Gurnall, Christian in Compl. Arm., v. 343. i. They never look up to heaven, till God lays them on their back.

1659. Lady Alimony, iii. They have engaged themselves ours, back and edge.

1661. Davenport, City Night-cap, v. Catch'd at thy word, thou giv'st back.

c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), i. 99. If you turn your backs and refuse to . . . hearken.

1682. Bunyan, Holy War, 236. Emmanuel, their Prince, has given them

the back.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xi. What is got over the devil's back is spent under his belly ; or the goods which they unjustly get, perish with their prodigal heirs.

c. 1709. Ward, Terrœ/ilius, 1. 21. She never gets a man upon the Hug, but she always breaks his Back before she has done with him.

1710. Dame Huddle's Letter. That word set my back up.

1711. Addison, Spectator, 12. 2. The Mistress . . . scolds at the Servants as heartily before my Face as behind my Back. Ibid., 108. 4. Sir Roger's back was no sooner turned but honest Will began.

1716. Behn, Dutch Lover, ii. 3. I'll have no more to do with you back nor edge.

1730. Vaniirugh and Cibber, Provoked Husband, v. 1. O Lud ! how her back will be up then when she meets me.

1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, 66. My uncle's back was up in a moment ; and he desired him to explain his pretensions.

Back.

93 Back-and-belly.

1774. Bridges, Homer Burlesque, 45. And when you've fairly got his back ut, You're always forc'd your deeds to pack up.

1777. Sheridan, School for Scandal, i. i. I cannot bear to hear people attacked behind their backs.

1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Diet., s.v. Back. To give back, Pedetn referre.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, viii. Jobson was determined that Morris should not back out ... so easily.

1830. Marryat, King's Own, xxi. ' Sure your honour's in luck ' . . . replied Barney, grinning, and backing out of the room.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, vii. 57. Stooping ... as if he were ' making a back ' for some beginner at leap-frog.

1841. Cati.in, N. Amer. Indians, ii. xlv. Sick and very feeble, having been for several weeks upon my back.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), ^T4But the other great Whig families . . . set up their backs against this claim of the Egremonts.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, iii. The Major was giving a back to Georgy.

1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 124. 'Twould save some whole cart-loads of fuss, an' three or four months o' jaw, If some illustrious patriot should back out and withdraw.

1848. Bedinger, Speech in H. of Rep., 25 Jan. Would gentlemen be willing to back out, and forsake our rights ? No, no. No turning back. This great country must go ahead.

1854. Miller, Schools and Schoolmasters, 536. I ill liked to see him with his back to the wall.

1855. Troi.lope, Warden, xii. How was he to back out [when] his name was already so publicly concerned.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xvi. ' I know she is flighty, and that ; and Brian's back is up a little.'

1863. Clarke, Shakspear. Char., ix. 226. Octavius backs out ; his caution and reserve come to his rescue.

1864. Sunday Mag., 1. 79. He goes his own way . . . if you put his back up.

1866. Macdonald, Annals Quiet Neigh., xxx. I never turned my back on my leader yet.

c. 1870. Spofford [Casquet Lit. (1877), iv. 9. 1]. The cat used to put up her back at the three.

1870. Oliphant, Piccadilly, iv. 152. He had done his best to spread the report of my marriage with his sister for fear of my backing out.

1874. Mahaffy, Greece, iii. They will censure her behind backs.

1880. St James's Gaz., 11 Oct. Unless the Government back down from their preparations at this point.

1S83. Statist, 21 July. While they were maturing their scheme, the Government went behind their backs and concluded an agreement.

1883. Greenwood, Odd People, 2. ' Don't say it to me. It sets my back up, and when my back's set up I'm sometimes orkard. '

18S4. Harper's Mag., June, 66. 2. Be firm, don't back down.

To back up, verb. phr. (Winchester).—To call out : e.g. 'Why didn't you back up? I would have come and helped you.' In College, times are backed up by Junior in Chambers : such as 'Three quarters,' ' Hour,' ' Bells go single,' ' Bells down.'

See Beyond.

Back-and-belly, adv. phr. (old). —All over ; completely : also back-and-bed and cf. backand-edge (supra, s.v. Back, phrases). Hence to keep one back and belly = to provide everything, to feed and clothe ;

to beat one back-and-belly

= to thrash thoroughly; to give back-and-belly (venery) = to work both ends : said of a doublebarrelled (i/.v.) harlot.

[c. 1300. Cursor Mundi, 5130. Clathing bath for bac and bedd.]

[c. 1375. WicLiF, Serm. [Works (1869), i. 298. Closing bo)j for her bedde and bak.]

Backare. 94

Backdoor.

1549. Latimer, Sermons be/ore Ed. VI. [Arber], 51. Borrow of thy two next neighbours, that is to say, of thy backe

and thi belly.

1603. Shakspeare, Meas./br Meas., iii. 2. 23. What 'tis to cram a maw, or cloath a backe.

1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, 1. 83 (Hoppe). It is from the backs and bellies of other people that savings are made with the greatest constancy.

Backare. See Baccare.

Backbiter, subs. (Grose). — 1. ' One who slanders another behind his back, i.e. in his absence.' Also (2) ' His bosom friends are become his back-biters, said of a lousy man.'

Back-breaker, subs. phr. (colloquial).— i. A hard taskmaster: in quot. = the foreman of a gang of farm labourers ; and (2) any task that requires excessive exertion. Hence back-breaking (adj. ) = arduous : also see i'hrases, s.v. Back.

1867. People's Mag., May, 314. 2. He selects one of his gang as backbreaker.

Back-cap, verb. phr. (American). —To depreciate ; to disparage : also to give a back-cap.

1883. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi, 462. I didn't fear no one giving me a back-cap and running me off the job.

Back-cheat, subs. phr. (Old Cant).—A cloak ; a wrap-rascal (q.V.).

Backdoor, subs, (venery). — The

fundament. Hence backdoortrumpet = ars musica (see Arsk); backdoor-trot = diarrhoea ; backdoor-work (or backgammon) = sodomy ; back

door's-man (backgammon player, backgammoner

[Bee], or gentleman of the backdoor) = a sodomist.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, iv. xliv. Joan's back-door was filthily puffing and roaring : So, for spite he bepiss'd her.

1774. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 59. And Jove, for fear they should not all attend . . . Bid Fame . . . sound both her fore and back-door trumpet.

Adj. (old colloquial).—Clandestine ; speciously secret : also

backstairs: e.g. backdoor counsellor, backstairs influence (or work 1, etc. ; orig. and spec, of underhand intrigue at Court, i.e. when the Sovereign is approached secretly by the private stairs of a palace instead of by the State entrance.

[1611. Shakspeare, Cymbcline, v. 3.

45. Hauing found the backe doore open Of the vnguarded hearts.]

1618-21. Hore, Hist. Newmarket, i. 203. [A courtier] plies the backestaires.

1641. Dering, Sp. on Relig., xi. 40. I hope we are not going up the backstairs to Socinianisme.

1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, 11. 1. Like a backstair minister at Court, who, while favourites are sauntering in the bedchamber, is ruling in the closet.

1700. Law, Prop, for Counc. Trade in Scott. (1751), 276. Their back door to let in mischief.

1768. Goldsmith, Goodnatured Man, ii. Is he not a backstairs favourite—one that can do what he pleases with those that do what they please.

1770. Burke, Pres. Disc. [Works (1842), i. 131). A backstairs influence and clandestine government.

1805. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), iv.

46. Our back-door counsellors.

1809. Malkin, Gil Blas | Routledge], 291. You are no novice in backstairs influence.

Back-end.

95 Back-friend.

1877. Grenvii.le Murray, Round about France, 77. These men are the most indefatigable retailers of backstairs small talk.

1882. Stephen, Szvift, no. The back-stairs plots by which the administration of his friends was hampered.

1888. Truth, 26 Ap. There is no rule of the service so strict that it will not yield to backstairs, or other influence.

iqoi. Referee, 7 Ap.,i. 1. The Paul Prys of the Press—who used to be in the back-stairs line, . . . now are generally recruited from the carriage company.

Back-end, subs. phr. (racing).— The last two months of the racing season, commencing with October : also as adj. [Properly (Scots) = the latter part of autumn.] Hence back-ender = a horse entered for a race late in the season.

1820. Blackw. Mag., Oct., 3. When you did me the honour to stop a day or two at last back-end.

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, xxix. ' Most of what I got over that steeplechase I dropped at the back-end over the October handicaps.'

1883. D. Telegraph, 30 April, 3. 6. And neither [horse] could beat Palermo on back-end form.

c. 1889. Sporting Times [S. J. & C.]. Lord Bradford's horse evidently likes the Doncaster course, and he is undoubtedly a

back-en der.

Backfall, subs. phr. (wrestlers'). — i. A trip or fall on the back, as also backheel and backlock. Also as verb.

1713. Parkyns, Inn-Play (1727), 53. Stand with that Toe out and Leg bent, over which he intends to take the Buttock or Back-lock.

1838-9. Hoods Own, 3. No wrestler . . . ever received half so many backfalls as I.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, xxv. He will throw him an argumentative back-fall presently.

1881. Sportsman's Year Book, 314. Cowan scored with a very neat backheel.

1883. Standard, 24 Mar., 3. 7. J. Hodgson back-heeled J. Wilson.

2. (venery).—The act of kind : of women only : see Greens and Ride.

Back-friend, subs.phr.(common). — i. A secret-enemy ; one who holds back in time of need. Also (2) = an ally (see Back, verb. 2).

1472. Paston, Letters, in. 40. I harde somewhat by hym off a bakke F'FREnde of yowr.

1574. Newton, Health Mag., 75. Corrupte and unpure Ayre is unto all age a greate backefriende and enimie.

1598. Florio, lVo?-ldeoflVordes,s.v. Inimico and Nemico.

1593. Shakspeare, Comedy of Errors, iv. 2. 36. A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff ; A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper.

1606. Sir G. Goosecap [Old Plays (1884), iii. 25]. I will preferre thee backwards (as many friends do) and leave their friends worse than they found them.

1611. Speede, Hist. Gt. Britain, ix. xv. 772. Westmorland thought it safest to checke the Scots as the nearer and continuall backfriends.

1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. i. Let him take heed I prove not his back-friend.

1684. Burnet, Th. Earth, n. 180. As S. Jerome was an open enemy to this doctrine, so Eusebius was a back friend to it.

1725. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), in. 108. My back friend, Mr. Bruce, has now another and heavier author to deal with than I, Bishop Burnet.

1827. Southey, Life (1850), v. 321. But I have had back-friends ... as well as enemies.

3. (common).—See quot.

1864. Holes and Queries, 3 S. v. 25. i. The troublesome splinters of skin which are often formed near the roots of the nails are called stepmother's blessings . . . back-friends.

Back-gammon. 96 Back-scuttle.

Back-gammon. See Backdoor.

Back-handed Turn (Stock Exchange).—An unprofitable bargain.

Back-hander, subs. phr. (common).— i. A glass of wine out of turn, the bottle being passed back or retained for a second glass instead of ' following the sun ' round the table. Hence backhand (verb.) and backhanding ( subs. ).

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xliii. Thank you, Mr. Binnie, I will take a backhander, as Clive don't seem to drink.

1857. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, viii. Livingstone, if you begin backhanding already, you'll never be able to hold that great raking chestnut.

1873. Sat. Rev., 798. A kindly host affects not to notice a valued guest, who . . . helps himself to an innocent backhander.

2. (common). — A blow on the face delivered with the back of the hand ; hence an unexpected rebuff, a set-down (q.v.).

1836. M arry at, Midshipman Easy, 11. ' Go away, Sarah,' said Johnny, with a backhander.

c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life (1870). The doctor . . . finds Tibbs mopping the rosy . . . with a rueful countenance, having just received a sharp backhander.

1856. Wh. Melville, Kate Coventry, i. This was ... a back handek at me, but I . . . only said . . . Ibid. (1862), Inside Bar, x. This—was obviously a back-hander at James.

1862. Farrar, St. Winifred s, xxxiii. He administered a backhander to Elgood,. . . and the next minute Charlie . . . had knocked him down.

1880. World, 21 Aug., 7. The Lieutenant-General got a prompt backhander when he asked for a return of the contributions.

1881. Worboise, Sissie, xxii. A heavy backhander by way of punishment.

Backing and Filling, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Shifty; irresolute ; shilly-shally : orig. nautical.

1854. iV. Y. Herald, 15 June. There has been so much backing and filling, that no confidence can be placed in the declaration which either General Pierce or his cabinet may make.

1865. Major Downing [Bartlett]. a backin' and fillin' and wrigglin' policy will never fetch any thing about.

Backing On. See Turning-on.

Backings up, subs. (Winchester College). — The unconsumed ends of half-burned fagots : obsolete.

Back Jump, subs, (thieves').—A back window : see Jump (Grose).

Backmarked. To be backmarked, verb, (pedestrian). In handicapping to receive less start from ' scratch ' than previously given.

Back-paternoster. See Backwards.

Back-scratcher, subs. phr. — i. A wooden toy on the principle of a watchman's rattle, which, drawn down the back, sounds like the ripping up of cloth : much in favour at fairs and in crowds ; its use (in London) is now (1903) prohibited by police order.

2. (colloquial).—A flatterer:

hence back-scratching =

flattery : cf. Ka me, Ka thee.

Back-scuttle. To have (or do) a back-SCUTTLE, verb. phr. (venery).—To possess a woman

dog-FASHION (q.V.).

See Back-slang.

Back-seam. 97

Back-slang.

Back-seam. To be down on one's back-seam, verb. phr. (tailors').—To be down on one's luck.

1899. Whiteing, John St., ix. I . . . lost a shillin' . . . and couldn't go to market for the stock. I tell yer I was

down on my back seam then.

Back Seat. To take a back seat, phr. (American). — To retire into obscurity ; to confess failure ; to be left behind. [The colloquialism received an immense ' send off' by Andrew Johnson in 1868 : ' in the works of Reconstruction traitors should take back seats.']

1885. Society, 7 Feb., 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.

1888. D. News, 24 Feb., 5. 2. Any form of art which is barred by its very nature from perfection must take ... a back seat.

1890. Sportsman, 6 Dec. The idea has been worked to death, and ... it will have to take a back seat.

Back-set (modern = S et-back).

subs. phr. (colloquial). — A rebuff ; any untoward circumstance ; a relapse. Hence to set back = to check.

Backside, subs, (vulgar).—The posteriors ; the bum (q.v.).

c. 1500. Rodin Hood ( Ritson), ii. 4. 236. With an arrowe so broad, he shott him into the back-syde.

1651. H. More, See. Lash. Alaz. To Reader.' As if his senses lay in his back-side, and had left his brain destitute.

1668. Lestrange, Quevedo (1678), 184. I have hardly allowed myself a Rag to my Backside.

1699. Vanbrugh, False Friend [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 139.] There are the new substantives backsidk. (pars posterior), backwardness. . . ,

1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv., 1. v. 20-1. These wicked Papers . . . doom'd t' illuminate our Pipes Or give our Backsides cleanly Wipes.

1713. Addison, Guardian, 156(1756), 11. 288. A poor ant . . . with her head downwards, and her backside upwards.

1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 'Scholastic Studies.' Wo to our Back-sides, he's a greater Whip-Master than Busby himself.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xxxiii. Between two stools the backside falls to the ground. Ibid. (1777), Humph. Clinker (1900), i. 67. Some clapped their hands and some their backsides. Ibid., i. 105. Without a shirt to cover your backside from the view of the ladies.

1774. Bridges, Homer Burlesque, 92. Not one . . . could know ... on which side his backside hung. Ibid., 543. Agapas large and wide As lady . . . .'s broad back-side.

1827. Gcntl. Mag., xcvii. 522. He shall fall on his backside.

1838. Beckett, Paradise Lost, 58. What you found out I now discover, viz., that our backsides want a cover.

Back-slang, subs. phr. (common). —i. See quots. and Terminal Essay. Also, as verb = io talk in the back-slang lingo.

1862. Wheatley, Anagrams, 141. Back Slang ... is formed by the costermongers upon anagrammatical principles ; thus look is cool.

1899. Century Diet., s.v. Back-slang. A species of slang in which the words are pronounced or written backward, or as nearly so as the skill of the speaker or writer, or the possibility of pronouncing the word, will permit.

2. (old).—See quot. and Slum.

1875. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Back-slum. A back-room; also the backentrance to any house or premises ; thus, we'll give it 'em on the back slum, means we'll get in at the backdoor. Ibid., s.v. Back slang. To enter or come out of a house by the backdoor ; or to go a circuitous or private way through the streets, in order to avoid any particular place in the direct road, is termed back-slanging it.

Back-slum. 98 Backward.

Verb. (Australian).—I. To ask for hospitality on the road : a common and recognised up-country practice.

1898. Morris,Austral-English. . . Where hotels are naturally scarce and inferior, the traveller asks for hospitality [and] is always made welcome. There is no idea of anything underhand on the part of the traveller.

Back-slum, subs. phr. (old).—See Slum 2, adding quots. infra. Also see Back-slang.

1821. Moncrieff's Tom and Jerry, ii. 5. Let's have a dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land. Jer?y. Back slums — Holy Land ! — I'm at fault again. Log. Why, among the beggars in Dyot Street, St. Giles's.

1865. Athenœum, 28 Jan., 124. 1. Imprisoned in the back slums of Westminster.

1876. Braddon, Joshua Haggard's Daughter, xx. Not in fetid alleys and festering London back-slums only is man's fight with difficulty a bitter and crushing battle.

Backstair. See Backdoor.

Backstaircase, subs, (common).

— A bustle ; a ' dress improver ' : see Birdcage.

Back-Stall. See Stale, subs. 5.

Back-Talk, subs. phr. (common \

— I. a rude answer; (2) contradiction ; (3) an insinuation ; and (4) withdrawal from a promise 01 an accepted invitation (Lane): also back-word and backanswer. Hence backwardanswer = a perverse reply ; ' No back talk ! ' = ' Shut up ! '

c. 1605. Mei.vil, Mem. (1683), 5. Who was so glad as he, to return with this backward answer.

1884. Hull Herald, 28 Feb., 6. 6. The boy was a civil boy, and never gave a back answer.

BackTeeth. To have one's back teeth afloat, verb. phr. (common). — To be drunk : see Screwed.

1888. Missouri Republican, 25 Jan. His honour . . . drank until, as an onlooker put it, his back teeth were well

AFLOAT.

Back-timber, subs. phr. (common).—Clothes: cf. belly-timber.

d. 1656. 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?

Back Tommy, subs phr. (tailors'). —Cloth to cover the ' stays ' at the waist.

Backtrack. To take the backtrack, verb. phr. (American).— To retreat ; to back out (q.v.).

1857. Nein York Herald, 26 Dec. Mr. Douglas . . . has gone as far in the slavery concessions to the South as he can possibly go, and that if he would save himself at home he must take the backtrack.

1887. MoRi.ey Roberts, Western Aziernus. ' Come, Mac, what's the use of fooling; come with me.' 'No backtracks, Texas, I'll stay here.'

Back-trade, subs. phr. (old).—A backward course.

T640. Law, Exp. into England, 4. He hath followed the back-trade of our defection . . . The Lord therefore is still on the back-trade.

Back-trick, subs. phr. (old).—A caper backwards in dancing.

1601. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, i. 3. 133. I have the back-trick simply as strong as any man in Illyria.

Backward. A few phrases 'fall into alphabet ' here : To say (or sing)Tili'. Te Deum (the Lord's

Backward.

99 Backwardation.

Prayer or to spell) backwards = to mutter, to curse : also as a charm : hence back-paternoster (or -prayer) = an imprecation ; to go backwards = to go to the W.C. : see Mrs, Jones ; to piss backwards — to shit {q.v.) ; to blow backwards = to fart {q.v.); to lie (or fall) backwards = to

play the whore : frequently extended as in quots. (Ray : 1694 and 1823) ; to do a backward

fall = (l) to spread {q.v.).,

and (2) to copulate : see Greens and Ride ; ' If I were to fall backwards, I should break my nose ' (Ray : It. i.e. ' I am so foiled in everything I undertake'). See Back-talk.

c. 1575. Parker, Corresp., 158. Prayers for the Queen's Majesty's prosperity and continuance ; where others say their back-paternosters for her in corners.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. ' Dost thou fall upon thy face ? Thou wilt fall backward when thou has more wit' [Repetition . . . ] when thou comest to age. Ibid. (1600), Much Ado, iii. 1. 60. I never yet saw man . . . But she would spell him backward ... So turns she every man the wrong side out.

1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1770), 9. Could backward blow . . . And, by his Farting, make foul Weather.

1672. Phillips, Maronides, 120. Seeing the jades prancks they had plaid, For Iris then they backward pray'd.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, iv. lxiv. Are these . . . maids or married . . . Will they lie backwards and let out their fore-rooms. Ibid., v. xxi. Yet more apt to fall backwards whenever any man happened to touch them.

c. 1709. Ward, Terrœfilius, vi. ¹ Divertisements.' Anew safe-guard to a Woman's Chastity, called Diana's Clogs : In which any Citizen's Wife may walk securely to a Beau's Chamber in the Temple . . . and never fall backwards upon the joyful Bed of unlawful Love. Ibid., Merry Observations, May. Many

a backward prayer . . . will be given the brave and inobliviated Monk, for bringing in his Royal Master, causing the Rump to be roasted, and making the Oliverian Party piss backwards.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xi. My companion's bowels being disordered he got up in order to go backward.

i77i. J. S., Le Dran s Obs. Surg., 164. The Patient being pressed to go backwards went behind his tent.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [RoutledgeJ, 113. Just as I was singing the Te Deum backwards for his campaigns I heard the clock strike ten.

1823. Bee, Diet Turf, s.v. Parlour. Mrs Tubbs's front parlour is no part of any building . . . she who is said to let out her parlour and lie backward, cannot be supposed to repose with her face downwards.

i8[?]. Norton, Travel in Italy, 47. The Gospel of Christ is read backwards, when that world which he came to save is regarded as a world which it is a merit to abandon.

Backwardation,subs.phr. (Stock Exchange).—See quots. and cf. Contango. Also backwardization.

1850. Keyser, Lazv of the Stock E-vchange. 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.

c. i860. Fenn, Eng. and For. Funds (1883), 127. Backwardation is paid by the speculator for the fall, or the Bear, in order to postpone delivery until the following account.

1865. Pub. Opinion, 18 Nov., 541. 2. ' Backwardization ' expresses . . . the sum which a seller pays for not being obliged to deliver the shares at the time before agreed upon, but to carry them over to the following account.

1880. Society, 3 Sep., 16. The Bear a good contango loves, The Bull a Backwardation.

1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Sep., 9. 2. At the opening J backwardation to \ contango was charged.

Back-word. ioo

Bacon.

1886. D. News, 14 Dec, 6. 1. The 1873 loan is, on balance, about § lower, at 94, after being 932. The backwardation on the stock, went off at the close.

Back-word. See Back-talk.

backy, subs, (tailors').—A shopmate working behind another.

Bacon, sues, (common). — 1. Generic for rusticity. Thus

bacon-slicer (bacon-chops or

chaw-bacon) = a rustic ; baconbra i ns — a stupid clodhopper: hence bacon-brained (-faced, or -fed) = clownish, dull (Bee and Grose) : also bacon-faced (or -side) = fat-jowled, fat, sleek ; bacon-picker = a glutton.

1596. Shakspeare, i Hen. IP'., ii. 2. 89. Bacon-fed knaves . . . down with them. Ibid., ii. 2. 93. On, bacons, on ! what ye knaves? Young men must live.

c. 1600. Day, Beggar Bednell Green (1881), 37. I'de hang this bacon-fac'd slave orethwart his shanks.

c. 1634. Randolph, Ans. Ben Jonson [Poems (1668), 56]. Their bacon-brains have such a tast As more delights in mast.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. Prol. A certain gulligut Fryer and true bacon picker. Ibid., i. xv. Account me a very clounch, and bacon-slicer of Brene.

1684. Otway, Atheist, i. A broad shining, pufft Bacon-face, like a Cherubim.

1711. Ward, Quixote, i. 81. So cocking by his Bacon-side An Elbow, thus the Host reply'd.

1731. Pol. Ballads (i860), 11. 223. He opulent grew As bacon-face Jew.

2. (common).—The human body. Whence to save one's bacon = to save appearances, to escape injury or loss (B. E., Grose, Bee) : Fr. sauver son lard; to sell one's bacon =(l) to work for hire, and spec. (2) to play the harlot for bread ; to rub, F rot, or scrape bacon = to

copulate : see Greens and Ride.

1362. Langland, Piers Plowman, 2859. As a letheren purs Lolled his chekes . . . And as a bonde-man of his bacon his berd was bi-draveled.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. iii. These two did oftentimes do the twobacked beast together, joyfully rubbing and frotting their bacon against one another. Ibid., 11. xxi. How happy shall that man be to whom you will grant the favour to embrace her, to kiss her, and to rub his bacon with hers. Ibid., Motteux (1694), iv. ix. Those . . . must needs stink damnably . . . when they have rubbed their bacon one with the other. Ibid., v. iv. Your gaol birds, who . . . warily scour off, and come here to save their bacon.

1674. Hogan-Moganides, 31. A Buxom Wench, and Jolly Pug, Who oft together scraping Bacon At length they found that she had taken. Ibid. 89. Melting his Bacon in the Sun.

1691. Weesils, 1. 5. No, they'l conclude I do't to save my bacon.

1693. England's Jests [Ashton, Humour, etc., 23]. She was resolved to go [to church] once a month to save her bacon.

1693. Catalogue of Books [Harl. Misc. (1745), v. 269. 2]. In dubiis tutior pars ; Or the broad Way to save a Man's Bacon, and damn his soul.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, 1. 150. E'en get your Friends, the Jews, to save your Bacon.

1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv., 1. ii. 12. For could their talent be forsaken, And they unite truth to save their bacon.

1721. Centlivre, Artifice, v. ii. That pretence shan't save your bacon, you old villain you.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, xxv. The other, who refused any other satisfaction but that which an officer ought to claim . . . asked if Perry was afraid of his bacon.

1774. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 20. In haste I hither come, says Pallas, To save your bacon from the gallows.

1796. H01.man, Abroad and at Home, ii. 4. 'Tis Heaven's mercy I was a likely lad. My beauty has sav'd my bacon.

1812. Combe, Picturesque, vi. 22. But as he ran to save his bacon By hat and wig he was forsaken.

Bad.

loi Bad Crowd.

1823. Byron, Don Juan, vn. xlii. But here I say the Turks were much mistaken, who, hating hogs, yet wished to

save their bacon.

1825. Carlyle, Schiller, m. (1845), 163. To the Kaiser, therefore, I sold my bacon, And by him good charge of the whole is taken.

1836. Scott, Cringle's Log., v. You know I saved your bacon in that awkward affair.

1856. Reade, Never Too Late, Hi. Jem drew a long breath and said brutally . . . 'You have saved your bacon this time.'

To pull bacon, verb. phr. (popular).—Described in the Ingoldsby Legetids : 'He put his thumb unto his nose and spread his fingers out.' To take a sight q.V.), to make queen

Anne's fan {q.v.).

1886. Hotisehold Words, Oct. 2, p. 453. [This] action has been described as ' taking a sight.' A solicitor, however, at Manchester, described it as pulling bacon.

1887. Leeds Ev. News, 15 Sep., 'Police Report.' The officers spoke to him, when he put his fingers to his nose and pulled bacon at them.

Phrases. A good voice to beg bacon ('Said in jear of an ill voice' (B. E. and Grose); ' When the devil is a hog, you shall eat bacon' (Ray).

Bad (or Badly), adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Very much ; greatly.

Also colloquial phrases : to

go to the bad = to go to ruin {cf. Virgil: in pejus ruere = to go to the worse) ; to be [anything] to the bad = to show a deficit, to be on the wrong side of an account; to come back again like a bad penny = (i) of anything unwelcome, and (2) a jocular assurance of return ; not half bad = fairly good ; bad to

beat = difficult to excel ; to want badly = the superlative of desire; cruel bad = very bad. Also ' Give a dog a bad name and you may hang him.'

1816. Quiz, Grand Master, viii. 25. I've really to the bad Some thousands of rupees to add.

1835. Dana, Be/ore the Mast, xv. The captain took a dislike to him, thought he was surly and lazy ; and, ' if you once give a dog a bad name '—as the sailor phrase is—'he may as well jump overboard.'

1864. Trollope, Lindisfarne Chase, i. 46. [He] went, as the common saying expressively phrases it, to the bad.

1864. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, xi. A reckless man, ready to go to the bad by any road that can take me there.

1880. Sims, Ballads of Babylon 'Beauty and Beast). Let him go to the bad at his own mad pace.

1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Feb., 4. He was between ^70 and j£8o to the bad.

1884. H aw ley Smart, Post to Finish, xi. When they are in the mood, their very temper makes them bad to beat.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 9 March. Myers' absence is seriously annoying to the defense, [they] want Myers, and

want him bad.

Bad Bargain, subs. phr. (military). —See q. H. B., adding quot. infra.

1899. Wyndham, Queen's Service, 240. Many of these bad bargains promptly transfer their services elsewhere, without . . . mentioning the cause which led to their discharge.

Bad-break, subs.phr. (American). —A corruption of ' bad outbreak.'

Bad Crowd Generally, subs, phr. (Western American).—In sing. — a. mean wretch ; no great shakes (q.v.).

Bad-egg. 102

Badger.

Bad-egg (-halfpenny, -hat, -lot, -penny, etc.), subs phr. (common). — i. A ne'er-do-well ; a ' loose fish ' : in America more indefinitely used than in England. Also (old)=a bad or risky speculation, Fr. mauvais gobet. [Cf. provincial (Cumb.) bad = a strumpet.]

1363. Langland, Piers Plowman, c. xviii. 73. [Men may lykne letterid men . . . to a badde peny.]

1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Bad Halfpenny. When a man has been upon any errand, or attempting any object which has proved unsuccessful or impracticable, he will say on his return, It is a bad halfpenny, meaning that he has returned as he went.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, lx. ' He's a bad'un, Mr. Lightfoot—a bad lot, sir, and that you know.'

1866. Sala, Trip to Barbary, 130The man in black baize with the felt képi, . . . looked from head to heel a bad egg.

1867. Leland, Breitmann Ballads. But one gray-haired old veller shmiled crimly und bet Dat Breitmann vould prove a pad egg for dem yet.

1868. Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, ii. I am a bad lot. I wonder they don't hang such men as me. Ibid. (1872), Dead Sea Fruit, i. So bad a lot that he dare not give himself a decent character.

1877. Blackmore, Erema. A very handsome girl she may be, but a bad lot, as her father was.

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude

ii. Many of the officials of the convict prisons . . . are what the Yankees call bad eggs.

1883. Besant, Captains Room, 11. ix. There may be one or two bad hats among eldest sons ; but . . . there cannot be one who would dare to take his wife's salary and deprive her of her son.

1885. Staveley Hill, From Home to Home. A considerable feeling . . . that he was a bad egg, and they even went so far as to suggest that the sooner he had a bullet in him the better.

1899. Hyne, Furth. Capt. Kettle,

iii. We've a good deal in common : we're all bad eggs, and we're none of us fit for our billets.

1900. Boothby, Maker of Nations, i. That French chap is a bad hat.

Bad Form, subs. phr. (society).— Conduct not in keeping with a conventional standard ; vulgarity.

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 !

1886. N. Amer. Rev., cxlii. 621. They are taught that to become emotional or enthusiastic over anything is bad form.

1889. Answers, 23 Feb., 205. 3. He's awfully bad form—a regular cad, you know.

Badge, subs. (Old Cant). — 'A mark of Distinction among poor People ; as Porters, Water-men, Parish-Pensioners, and Hospitalboys, Blew-coats and Badges being the ancient Liveries' (B. E. ). Hence badge-cove (or-man) = a parish pensioner (Grose).

1809. Crabbe, Tales, 16. With thick-set coat of Badge-man's blue.

To have one's badge, verb, phr. (old).—To be burned in the hand : e.g. ' He has got his badge and piked ' = He has been burned in the hand and set at liberty (Grose).

Badger, subs. (B. E.). —i. 'They that buy up a quantity of Corn and hoard it up in the same Market, till the price rises ; or carry it to another where it bears a better.' [O.E.D. : Origin unknown : Fuller derived it from L. bajutare, to carry (as if a cant contraction baj. , cf. the modern zoo, cab, etc.), but evidence is required before this can be admitted for the 15c. ... By Act 5 and 6 Ed. VL c. 14. 7, Badgers were required to be licensed by the Justices (the origin of the hawker's license. ]

Badger. 103 Badgerly.

2. (Old Cant).—A river desperado; 'villains who rob near rivers, into which they throw the bodies of those they murder' (Grose) : see Ark-ruffian.

3. (American thieves'). — A panel-thief {'].v.)\ hence badger-crib.

4. (schoolboy).—A red-haired individual.

5. (harlotry). — A common prostitute : see Tart.

6. (nautical).—-The impersonator of Neptune in the festivities incident to ' crossing the line ' : also badger-bag ; see Ambassador and Arthur.

9. (Wellington School).—A member of the 2nd XV. at football. [A badge is worn by each individual : see sense I.]

8. (artists').—A brush : spec, when made of badgers' hair.

9. See Badger State.

Verb, (colloquial).—To worry unceasingly : as a badger when baited ; to pester : usually of a helpless victim (Bee). Hence badgered = worried, teased ; badgering = 'heckling,' persecution. Fr. aguigner.

1794. Wolcot, Rowt. for Oliver [Works, 11. 163]. Therefore I tremble for his badger'd bacon.

1796. Burke, Letter to Lawrence, 16 Dec. He would rather be defeated on the Rhine or Po than suffer a badgering every day in the House of Commons.

1798. O. Keefe, // ild Oats, i. i. At home, abroad, you will still badger me.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xxxiv. Each was driven to the verge of desperation by excessive badgering. Ibid. (1840), Barnaby Rudge (1866), 1. xii. 59. The constant badgering and worrying of his venerable parent.

1850. Thackeray, Pedennis [Works (1869), iv. 59]. I'm so pressed and badgered, I don't know where to turn.

1855. Wood, Anec. Animal Life. 238. A ' brock ' . . . led such a persecuted life, that to ' badger ' a man came to be the strongest possible term for irritating, persecuting, and injuring him in every way.

1862. Sat. Rev. 8 Feb., 154. The coarse expedients by which the Old Bailey advocate badgers and confuses a nervous witness.

1862. Troli.ope, Orley Farm [Century]. When one has to be badgered like this one wants a drop of something more than ordinary.

d. 1871. Caroline Fox, Journal, 542. Inconsistent professors . . . badgered him out of Methodism into scepticism.

TO overdraw the badger,

verb. phr. (popular).—To overdraw a banking account.

1843-4. Hood, Miss Kilmanscgg. His cheeks no longer drew the cash, Because, as his comrades explain'd in flash, He had overdrawn his badger.

Badger-box, subs. phr. (Australian).—See quot.

1875. Proceedings Royal Society Tasmania, Sept., 99. The dwellings . . . are . . . known as ' Badger-boxes,' in distinction from huts, which have perpendicular walls, while the Badger-box is like an inverted V in section. They are covered with bark, with a thatch of grass along the ridge, and are on an average about 14 x 10 feet at the ground, and 9 or 10 feet high.

Badgerly, adv. (old colloquial).— Elderly ; grey-haired : cf. ' Grey as a badger.'

!753Richardson, Grandison, v. xliii. Badgerly virgins fond of a parrot, a squirrel, a monkey, or a lapdog.

Badger State. 104

Bag.

Badger State, subs. phr. (American).—The Slate of Wisconsin. [Badgers once abounded there.] Whence badger = an inhabitant of Wisconsin.

1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, iv. 54. Our ' Hoosiers, '¹ Suckers ' and ' Badgers ' of the American woods.

Bad Give-away. See Give

away.

Bad-halfpenny. See Bad-egg.

Bad Job, subs, phr. (old : B. E.). —' An ill bout, bargain, or business.'

Bad Man, subs. phr. (Western American).—See quot.

1888. Roosevelt, Ranch Life. [A bad man] is generally understood to mean a professional fighter or man-killer, but who is sometimes perfectly honest. These men who do most of the killing in frontier communities : yet the men who are killed generally deserve their fate. They are used to brawling, are sure shots, and able to ¹ draw ' their weapon with marvellous quickness. They think nothing of murder, are the terror of their associates, yet are very chary of taking the life of a man of good standing, and will often ' weaken ' and ¹ back down ' at once if confronted fearlessly. Stockmen have united to put down these dangerous characters, and many localities once infested by bad men are now perfectly law-abiding. [Abridged.]

Bad Match Twist, subs. phr. (hairdressers'). — Red (or carotty) hair and black whiskers.

Badminton, subs, (common).—1. i. A kind of claret-cup : claret, sugar, spice, soda-water, and ice. [Invented at the Duke of Beaufort's seat of the same name.]

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, 1. i. Waiter, bring me a tumbler of Badminton. Ibid. (1870), Lothair, xxx. Soothed or stimulated by fragrant cheroots or beakers of Badminton.

1853. Wiivte Melville, Digby Grand, ix. An enormous measure of Badminton, that grateful compound.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ix. A great silver flagon of Badminton, with which he was ending his breakfast.

2. (pugilistic). — Blood : cf. claret, rosy, etc..

Bad Shot. See Shot.

Bad Slang, subs. phr. (circus and showmen's). — Faked up monstrosities ; spurious curiosities : see Slang, subs. 7.

1876. Hindley, Clieap Jack, 206. The best showman of a bad slang that ever travelled. He would get hold of any black girl . . . dress her up, and then show her as one of the greatest novelties.

Bad Way. See Way. Baff. See Buff.

Bag, subs. (old). — 1. The womb.

Hence as verb (or to be bagged) = to become pregnant, to get big with child ; bagged = lumpy (q.v.): properly of animals ; bagpudding = pregnancy: cf. ' Sweet-heart and bag-pudding ' (Ray).

1598. Florio, Worlde 0/ Wördes,

s.v.

1606. Warner, Albion's England, vi. 148. Well, Venus shortly bagged, and ere long was Cupid bred.

1608. Day, Hum. out 0/ Br., ii. 1. 25. Farewell, sweet heart—God a mercy, bag-pudding.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet, s.v.

1676. Rochester, Hist. 0/Insipids, 14. Had haughty Holms but call'd in Spragg, Hans had been put into a bag.

2. (common).—The stomach : hence as verb = to feed, to fill the stomach; bagging = food : spec. (North) food eaten between meals, or (Lane.) a substantial afternoon repast, ' high tea ' ; hence bagging-time.

Bag. 105

Bag.

1750. Collier [Lancashire Glossary (E.D.S.)]. Hoo'l naw cum agen till baggin' time.

1787. Burns, Auld Mare Maggie. A guid New-year I wish thee, Maggie ! Hae, there's a ripp to thy auld baggie.

1835. Ure, Philos. Manu/., 387. Thurst must be quenched with tea at

bagging-time.

1863. Waugh, Lane. Songs, 29. The baggin' were ready, an' o' lookin' sweet.

1870. Chambers's Jour., Oct., p. 661. There are all the varieties of board and lodging, dinner of potatoes and bacon with buttermilk, bagging in the forenoon and afternoon, dirmer and lunch, and rations allowed for women.

1879. Temple Bar, 4 Jan. Baggin' is not only lunch, but any accidental meal coming between two regular ones.

1899. Wynuham, Queen's Service, 14. Now, you youngsters, don't sit there blowing your bags out any longer, like a couple of blooming young pigs.

3. (common). — In =the paps; dugs (<].v.): properly of animals.

1642. More, Pre-Existencc Soul, xlvii. Those wicked hags . . . whose writhled bags Foul fiends oft suck.

4. (Stock Exchange).—Buenos ayres great .Southern Railway Bonds.

1903. Westminster Gazette, 28 Mar., 9. 3. Bags Dividend [Title].

5. (common).—In pl.— looselyfitting clothes : spec, trousers : also bumbags : whence howling bags = breeches of ' loud ' pattern or cut, and go-to-meeting bags = ' Sunday clothes,' one's best wear : see Kicks. Hence baggy = stretched by wear; baggily = loosely; to bag = to sag; bagsleeve = a sleeve baggy above, and tight at, the wrist.

c. 1350. William o/Palerne [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 44. The curious word bakkes (vestes) appears in p. 72 ; it seems to be Salopian ... we still have the slang term bags for an important part of our raiment ; Lord Eldon was called [1801-27] ' Old Bags '].

1598. Fi.orio, Worlde of Wördes, s.v. Socchi, a kind of socke ... or bagging shooe vsed in old time.

1824. Irving, Tales of a Traveller, i. 265. A coat which bagged loosely about him.

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, 51. Just jump into a pair of bags and Wellingtons. Ibid., 5. His black go-to-meeting bags.

1858. Hawthorn, Fr. and It. Journals (1872), i. 22. Red baggy trousers.

1859. Taylor, Logic in Theol, 205. Dingy embroidered trappings . . . seen bagging upon the wooden effigies.

1860. Smiles, Self-Help, vii. He . . . only appears stout because he puts himself into those bags.

1862. Gronow, Remin., 1. 113. Black coats . . . baggily made.

1868. Lessons Mid. Age, 123. A baggy cotton umbrella.

1870. Chambers's /o«r«a/(Christmas Number). Holloa ! Parsons don't wear light tweed bags ! . . . Jack had to unpack his portmanteau and get out his evening inexpressibles.

1874. Collins, Frances, xv. His well-shapen hip and calf were hidden in loose-fitting bags of corduroy.

1878. Bosworth Smith, Carthage, 434. Jews with their bagging pantaloons.

1880. Punch, 10 Jan., 6. Just look at these bags you last built me, Snippe ! J'ever see such beastly bags in your life?

1882. Nat. Baptist, xvin. 6. A bagginess about the trousers.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 40. For he noticed that his bags had developed into rags. Ibid., 109. His bags have faded at the knees.

_ 1899. Whiteing, John St., xxi. Chinymen . . . They're fly, and no mistike. Pretends to wear petticoats ; got bags on underneath.

1900. Kipling, Stalky Co., 44. ' Confound you ! You haven't been popping my Sunday bags?'

Bag.

106 Bag.

6. (Westminister School).— In sing. = milk.

7. (sporting).—The contents of a game bag ; the result of sport : said of racing as of fishing, shooting, etc., and alike of a big game expedition as of a day in the stubble. As verb (or to bring to bag) = to shoot, to kill, to catch.

1814. Month. Mag., xxxvn. 238. To allow the royal sportsman to bag more birds than himself.

1844. Hawker, Znstr. Young Sportsman, 148. To bag a dozen head of game without missing.

1859. Jephson, Brittany, ix. 150. My friend, thus bagged two wolves.

1863. Speke, Disc. Nile, 36. The bags we made counted two, brindled gnu, four water-boc, one pallah-boc, and one pig

1864. Lowell, Fireside Travels, 245. The disputes of Italians are very droll things, and I will accordingly bag the one which is now imminent as a specimen. Ibid. (1870), Study Windows, i. Stopping ... to bag a specimen.

1867. Francis, Angling, i. (1880), 29. The artist in roach-fishing alone will make a fair bag on an indifferent day.

1881. Sir W. Harcourt, Speech at Glasgow, 26 Oct. Lord Salisbury and Sir S. Northcote . . . had a rattling day at Newcastle and Beverly—but I ask myself what is their bag.

1880. Forest and Stream, xxi. 2. The bag is not the sole aim of a day afield.

1885. Smart, Tie and Trick, ii. A Markee . . . whose bag consisted of a fox, a boy, half a pheasant, and the fragments of a rabbit.

Verb. ( I ). See subs, senses.

2. (common).—To acquire ; to secure : i.e. to seize, catch, or steal : cf. nab, cop, bonk, etc. Whence (old) bagger = a miser ; bagged = (1) got, and (2) quodded ((J.V.).

1740. Collect. Sir T. Scot [Peck, Cromwell}. He spent, and lookt for no reward, He could not play the bagger.

1818. Moore, Fudge Family in Paris, vi. Who can help to bag a few, When Sidmouth wants a death or two?

1824. Bryon, Don Juan, xvi. lxii. The constable . . . Had bagged this poacher upon Nature's manor.

1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, 11. iii. 268. The idea of being led up to the Doctor ... for bagging fowls.

1861. Müller, Chips (iS&o), ii. xxiv. 243. A stray story may thus be bagged in the West-End of London.

1862. Farrar, St. Winifred"s, xxxv. They would not call it stealing but bagging a thing, or, at the worst, ' cribbing it '—concealing the villainy under a new name.

1878. 5c«^[Hindley, LifeCalnach]. Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, And finely hunt the dummy.

1880. M. Collins, My Garden, 1. 163. The word beggar itself is from bag —meaning a man who carries a bag ; and the modern commercial slang reproduces the phrase, saying of a clever man of business that he has bagged a good thing.

1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip. The merry little dibbs you'll bag.

1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xlv. I've bagged one of your lot, and you've done your best to pot me.

Intj. (schoolboy).—Bags ! or bags I ! to assert a claim to some article or privilege. Cf. fains or fain it (q.v.)-a. demand for a truce during a game, which is always granted : pike i or prior pike likewise serves to lay claim to anything, or to assert priority. Also bar ! e.g. ' He wanted me to do so and so, but I barred not.'

Phrases. To turn to bag and WAi.let = to turn beggar;

to give one the bag to hold

(Kay) — to slip off: also to leave in the lurch ; to give the bag = (1) to leave without warning (grose), also (2) to dismiss, and

Bag.

107 Bag-and-Baggage.

(3) to cheat (Webster) : see Canvas, Sack, and Wallet ;

to let the cat out of the

bag = to disclose a trick or secret (see Cat) ; to empty the bag = to tell all: also to close an argument (Fr. vider le sac) ; to put one in a bag (see quot. 1662) ; to put (or get) one's head in a bag (printers') = to drink : bag = pot of beer ;

to take the bag = to play the

hare in ' Hare and Hounds ' ; to

have the bags = (l) to Come of

age, and (2) = to be flush of money ; to bag the over (see Jockey).

1592. Greene, Quij> [Works, ix. 263]. You shall be . . . lighte witted upon every small occasion to geue your maister the bagge. Ibid. (1592), Defence of Conny Catching, xi. 86. If he meane to GtUE her the bagge, he selleth whatsoever he can, and so leaues hir spoild both of hir wealth and honestie.

1599. Hakluvt, Voy., 11. i. 161. The turning to bag and wallet of the infinite number of the poore people imploied in clothing.

1607. Dekker, Westward Ho, iv. 2 [Works (1873), 11. 340]. I fear our oares haue giuen us the bag.

1647. Speedy Hue and Crie, i. . . . He being sometime an Apprentice on London Bridge . . . gave his master the bag.

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 but him up in a bagge.'

1793. Jefferson, Writings (1859), '^v7. She will leave Spain the bag to

HOLD.

1823. Scott, Pcz>eril, vii. She gave me the bag to hold and was smuggling in a corner with a rich old Puritan.

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

See Blue-bag; Carpet-bagger ; Cat ; Green-bag ; nosebag ; Wind-bag.

Bag-and-Baggage, subs. phr. (colloquial).—One's belongings: hence to clear (or turn) out bag-and-baggage = to make a good riddance : in depreciation. [O.E.D. : Originally a military phrase denoting all the property of an army collectively, and of the soldiers individually ; hence the phrase, orig. said to the credit of an army or general, ' To march out with bag-andbaggage ' ( Fr. vie et bagues sauves) ; i.e. with all belongings saved ... to make an honourable retreat. ] Bag-and-baggage policy = wholesale surrender, general scuttling, ' peace at any price. '

[1600. Shakspeare, As You Like It, iii. 2. 170. Let us make an honourable retreit, though not with bagge and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage.]

C. 1620. MlDDLETON, Witcll (1778),

35. To kick this fellow . . . And send him downe stayres with his bag and baggage.

1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iv. i. The doxy to march round the circuit With bag and baggage.

1741. Richardson, Pamela, n. 34. Bag and Baggage, said she, I'm glad you're going.

1853. Reade, Gold, i. Well, then, next Lady-day you turn out bag-andbaggage.

1870. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Psalm cxix. 115. The king sent him packing bag and baggage.

r876. Gladstone, Bulg. Horrors, 61. The Turks . . . their Taptiehs and their Mudirs . . . their Haimakams, and their Pashas, one and all, bag and baggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province they have desolated and profaned.

1882. D. News,p% May, 5. 6. Cites the famous Bulgarian pamphlet, precognising the bag-and-baggage policy as evidence that Mr. Gladstone will never be a party to restoring Turkish authority.

Bag and Bottle. 108

Baggage.

Bag and Bottle, subs.phr. (old). — Provisions ; food and drink :

cf. back and belly.

[____ Old Ballad, ' Robin Hood and

Shepherd ' [Nares]. Arise, arise, said jolly Robin, And now come let me see What's in thy bag and bottle, I say? Come tell it unto me],

1671. Eachwrd, 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.

Bagatelle, subs, (old colloquial). —A trifle ; a matter of little worth or consequence. As adj. = trumpery, trifling. [O.E.D. : ' Formerly quite naturalised ; now scarcely so.']

1637. Bastwick, Litany, i. 17. All which they haue . . . overthrowne with their bagatelle invention.

c. 1645. Howell, Fam. Letters, 11. xxi. Your trifles and bagatells are ill bestowed upon me, therfore heerafter I pray let me have of your best. Ibid. I rummag'd all my stores, and search'd my cells, Wher nought appear'd, God wot, but bagatells.

1658. Robinson, Eudoxa, i. 4. Every particular thing . . . even unto the smallest bagatello's.

1659. Gauden, Tears of the Church, 102. To please themselves with toyes and

BAGATELLOES.

1679. Behn, Feigned Court, ii. 1. Ah Baggatelles, Seignior, Bagga

telles.

c. 1733. North, Examen, 11. v. 100. He makes a mere Bagatel of it.

1786. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), 1. 566. As to the satisfaction for slaves carried off, it is a bagatelle.

1872. Baker, Nile Trib., iv. 53. The bona fide tax is a bagatelle to the amounts squeezed from him by the soldiery.

Baggage, subs, (once literary ; now American).—i. Luggage,portable property; belongings {q.v.): spec, (still in use) = the equipment

of an army. Hence bag-andbaggage($7.7'.). Whence (American) baggage-check = (i) a luggage-ticket, (2) a cloak-room

ticket; baggage-man (or master) = a guard in charge of ^wgg^age ; baggage-room = a

parcels office or cloak-room ;

baggage-smasher = ( i ) a porter,

and (2) a station thief. {See quot. 1861.)

c. 1430. Pol. Pel. Poems [E.E.T.S.], 18. To gete hem Bagage, put hem sylffe in prees.

^.1450. Chaucer [?], Dreme {Works (Bell), 101]. Was left not one, Horse, male, trusse, ne baggage.

1530. Palsgrave, Lang. Franc, 196. 2. Baggage, Bagniage.

1S78. T. N. [tr. Conq. W. India]. Indians ... to serve and to cary baggage.

1703. Maundrell, Jour. Jerus. (^I73²)j ii. Arrived with all our Baggage on the other side of the River.

1740. Smollett, Gil Bias (1812), vu. xi. I sole study being ... to escape with my household goods, I mean ray

baggage.

1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, vu. xi. The portmanteau . . . being put up into

the baggage-cart.

1766. Goldsmith, Vicar Wakefield, xx. Mrs. Arnold politely offered to send ... for my son's baggage.

1791. Boswell, Johnson (1831), m. 13. Intrusted to a fellow to be delivered to our baggage-man.

1854. Taylor, Lands of the Saracen, 18. We were told to get our baggage in order and embark for quarantine.

i8[?]. Thackeray [Century]. Mounting the baronet's baggage on the roof of the coach.

i8[?]. Supreme Court Reports, 1. 52. A passenger having lost her baggage check.

1861. New York Tribune. 23 Nov. Gamblers, . . . robbers, baggage-smashers, and all the worst classes of the city.

Baggage. 109 Baggage.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, 358. The baggage-smasher . . . handles his burdens with appalling recklessness, and responsibility there is none.

1880. New Virginians, i. 37. Called baggage-smashers.

1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 June. The Saratoga trunks are hurled recklessly by the ' baggage smashers ' on to the deck.

1883. Crane [Leis. Hour, 282. 1]. The baggage-masters leapt from their wide doors.

1883. Longman's Mag., July, 285. The wretched little booking-office, and the

baggage-room.

1883. Pember [Harp. Mag., Dec, no. 1]. Keep a sharp look out on your

baggage.

1888. Texas Siftings, 3 Nov. The baggage-smasher is indeed a terror.

2. (old colloquial). — Generic for trash : e.g. encumbrances, rubbish, dirt, pus. Whence (spec, post-Reformation) = the rites and accessories of Catholic ritual : cf. sense 3. As adj. = trumpery (also baggagely), corrupt, vile.

1538. Bale, Thre Lawes, 1716. And shall thys baggage put by the word of God?

1545. Ascham, Toxoph. [Arber], 83. A boke . . . wherein he . . . settes oute much rifraffe, pelfery, trumpery, baggage, and beggerie ware.

1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. N. T., Pref. 10. The trashe and bagguage stuf . . . this man hath sifted out.

1549. Olde, Erasm. Par. Eph., Prol. Ciiij. This popyshe bagguage of dumme ceremonies.

1566. Knox, Hist. Ref. [Works (1846), i. 191]. Pilgremage, pardonis, and otheris sic baggage.

1570. Elderton, Lenton Stuffe. But he that seekest to set to sale, Suche baggage as ys olde and stale Heys lyke to tell another tale.

1573. Tusser, Huso. (1878), 35. No storing of pasture with baggedlie tit.

1576. Newton, Lemnie's Complex. (1633), ^I77Affected with this baggage phlegme and distilling humour. Ibid., 118. Naughty baggage and hurtful phlegme.

1576. Gascoigne, Steele Glas, 79. When brewers put no bagage in their beere.

1579. Fulke, Heskin's Pari., 240. To read such beastly baggage.

1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 458. Hyccara, a baggage Village of the barbarous People. Ibid. (1580), 1003. This baggage fellow Burrus.

1583. GoLDiNG, Calvin on Deut. xcix. 613. The things . . . are baggagely trifles. Ibid. (1587), De Mornay, xviii. Dust, Coales, Ashes and such other baggage.

1592. Wyrley, Armorie, 147. His badgage mind to craft was whole disposd.

1603. Crosse, Vertues Commonw. (1878), 117. The very scum, rascallitie, and baggage of the people.

1610. Barrough, Physick, v. vi. The abscession being already come to suppuration ... if the matter or any other baggage therein contained, be not discussed, etc.

1640. Dyke, Worthy Commun., 203. Thistles, nettles, and such like baggage trash.

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.

1757. Smollett, Reprisal (1777), 1. viii. 160. I never burden my brain with unnecessary baggage.

3. (old).—A good-for-nothing : man or woman : spec. = strumpet (B. E. : cf. Fr. bagasse, Sp. bagaza. Port, bagasa, It. bagascia = harlot). Also (4) a familiar address to a woman, esp. a young woman : usually qualified by cunning, saucy, pretty, little, sly, etc. (Grose) : cf. puss, rogue, wench, drab, etc. As adj. = worthless (see sense 2), vile ; baggagery = the rabble, the scum of society. Heavy baggage = (Grose and Bee) women and children,

Baggage. no Baggage.

1582. Stanyhurst, /Eneis [Arber], 101. Whilst the sun is shyning the bagage close lodgeth in houseroofs.

d. 1586. Sidney [Century]. A spark of indignation did rise in her not to suffer such a baggage to win away anything of hers.

1589. Nashe, Martins Month's Mind, 26. Men of the best sorte (an vnfit match for these of the basest bagagerie).

1593. Harvey, Pierees Super. [Grosart, Works, 11. 273]. Bibbing Nash, baggage Nash, swaddish Nash, rogish Nash, the bellweather of the scribling flocke.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming Shrew, Induct, i. 3. Y'are a baggage, the Slies are no Rogues. Ibid. (1593), Coviedy 0/ Errors, iii. 1. Thou baggage ; let me in. Ibid. (1595), Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5. Out, you green-sickness carrion ! out you baggage . . . Hang thee young bagcage ! disobedient wretch. Ibid. (1596), Merry Wives 0/ Windsor, iv. 2. Out of my door, you witch, you hag, you baggage ... ! out, out. Ibid. (1609), Pericles, iv. 2. The poor Transylvanian is dead that lay with the little baggage. Ibid., iv. 6. We should have both lord and lown if the peevish baggage would but give way to customers.

1594. Lylv, Mother Bombie, v. 3. The baggage begins to blush.

1594. Carew, Huarte's Exam. Wits (1616), 209. They might soundly sleepc on his eyes, although by Nature he were a baggage.

1599. Chapman, Humourous Day's Mirth [Shepheard, 34. 2]. Enter the Maid. . . . Must you control us, you proud baggage, you?

1601. Holland, Pliny, 1. m. Catamites and shame-full baggages that king Alexander the Great left there.

1601. R. Johnson, Kingdom and Commonw., 81. Every common soldier carrying with him his she-iiAGGAGE.

1605. Jonson, Eastward Ho, iii. 2. Now, out upon thee, baggage !

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Bagasse, a baggage, quean, jyll, punke, flirt.

1613. Webster, DeviTs Law-Case, iv. 2. Conlil. Where is our solicitor With the waiting woman? Ari. Room for the bag and baggage.

1625. Shirley, Love Tricks, i. i. You are a baggage and not worthy of a man. Ibid. (1626), Maid's Rev., iv. 2. That baggage Ambitious girl, Berinthia

1636. Davenant, Wits, iii. 3. Eld. Pal. A concealed retirement, which her wisdom safely chose To hide her loose love. Thwack. Give me a baggage that has brains ! Ibid. (Revised at Revival, 1673), ii. i. The baggages About you are able to earn their own living . . . Too easily ; the more's the shame.

1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1770), 69. Nan in her answer was not long, For nimble Baggage of her Tongue She was.

1687. Congreve, Old Batchelor, 1. 3. I believe the baggage loves me. Ibid. (1694), Double Dealer, iv. 3. You fib, you baggage, you do understand. Ibid. (1695), Love for Love, v. 2. Odd, you're cunning, a wary baggage !

1693. Robertson, Phrascol. Gen., 197. A baggage, or Souldier's Punk, Scortum Castrcnse.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, i. 257. A silly raw Baggage that is . . . far from knowing how to perform her Part in the Chorus of Love.

c. 1709. Ward, Terrœfdius, ii. 20. Being a Docible Young Baggage, she had pick'd up as much fashionable gentility . . . as if she had been Bred at a Boarding-School.

1712. Steele, Spectator, 450. 5. That Wife dying, I took another, but both proved to be idle Baggages.

1732. Fielding, Miser, i. 9. Here's a baggage of a daughter, who refuses the most advantageous match that ever was offered.

1749. Smollett, Gil Bias (1812), vii. vii. Ah, baggage, how many cavaliers wilt thou charm, if thou turnest actress ! Ibid. (1751), Peregrine Pickle, xxxvii. Adsooks ! you baggage . . . you shouldn't want a smock nor a petticoat neither, if you could have a kindness for a true-hearted sailor.

1766. Goldsmith. Vicar Wakefield, xxviii. Tell them they are two arrant little baggages.

1796. Holm an, Abroad and at Home, ii. 5. Don't hurry me, you young baggage . . . who are you with that pretty face ?

Baggy.

111

Bag-of-bones.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 37. Mark my spirit, I carried off the little baggage.

1822. Irving, Bracebridge Hall, iii. 24. She has an orphan niece, a pretty, soft-hearted baggage.

1850. Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, xii. He only swore the gal was a baggage, and that he was devilish unlucky.

1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., ii. She was a disreputable, daring, laughing, painted French baggage, that comic muse.

1863. Smith, Dreamthorpe, 12. And Beauty, who is something of a coquette . . . goes off in a huff. Let the

baggage go !

Baggy, adj. (colloquial).—Inflated; high-falutin' (q.v.).

1866. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 Dec. The professor's diction was verbose, and—if we may use a homely figure—baggy.

See Bag, subs. 3.

BAGLE, subs. (provincial).—A whore : see Tart (Halliwell).

Bagman, stibs. (sporting).—1. A bag-fox ; a fox caught and preserved alive to be hunted another day, when it is brought in a bag and turned out before the hounds.

1875. ' Stonehenge,' Brit. Sports, I. 11. iv. 5. If . . . wild cubs cannot be found, a bagman or two must be obtained.

2. (trading). — A commercial traveller ; an ambassador of commerce (q.v.) : formerly the usual epithet, but now in depreciation.

1765. Goldsmith, Essays, 1. The bagman was telling a better story.

1808. Wolcot, Peep round Academy [IVorks (1812), v. 360]. The bag-men as they travel by.

1815. Peacock, Headl. Hall, 2. In later days when commercial bagsmen began to scour the country.

1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, 20. After a forty hours' coachjourney, a bagman appears as gay and spruce as when he started.

1865. D. Telegraph, 13 Dec, 5. 4. A traveller—I mean a bagsman, not a tourist—arriving with his samples at a provincial town.

1867. Collins, Public Schools, 363. Here a certain set of boys . . . used to sit (ç. 1793) and 'chaff' the passing bagsmen, for the commercial travellers to Rugby then rode with actual saddlebags.

Bagnio, subs, (old).—A brothel ; a stew (q.v.). [Orig. a bathinghouse]. Also baines.

1541. Elyot, Image Gov. (1549), 6. In common baines and bordell houses.

1599. Hall, Satires, vi. i. 27. As pure as olde Labulla from the baynes.

1624. Massinger, Parliament of Love, 11. 2. To be sold to a brothel or a common bagnio.

1747. Hoadley, Susp. Husband, ii. 4 (^l756), 27. Carry her to Bagnio, and there you may lodge with her.

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. (common).—An emaciated person or animal ; a walking skeleton (q.v.); shapes (q.v.). Also(old) bedfull of bones and bagful of skin and bones : Fr.

sacdos (i.e. sac à dos).

1Ü21. Burton, Anat. Melan., III. ni. i. i. I have an old grim sire to my husband ... a bedfull of bones.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], s.v.

1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, iv. 64. There, get down stairs, little bag o' bones.

Bag of Nails. 112

Bah.

1848. Kingsley, Saints' Tragedy, iv. iii. 204. I am almost ashamed to punish a bag of skin and bones.

1902. Le Queux, Temptress, ii. Drive on, cabby, as fast as you can make that bag of bones travel.

Bag of Nails, subs.phr. (American thieves'). — Confusion ; topsyturveydom. [Qy. from ' bacchanals.'] Also, He squints like a bag of nails, i.e. his eyes are directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails (Grose).

Bag o' Moonshine, subs phr. (common). — Nonsense : see Moonshine.

Bag of Mystery, subs. phr. (common).—A sausage or saveloy : a chamber of horrors (q.V. ).

1899. Whiteing, John St., xi. The words ' doorstep and sea-rover . . . ' bag o' mystery.'

BAG-of-tricks, subs. phr. (common).—I. Usually the whole bag-of-tricks = every shift or expedient. [See fable of ' The Fox and the Cat.'] Hence the

bottom of the bag of tricks

(or the bag) = a last resource; 'a card up one's sleeve.'

1659. Reynolds [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.

2. (venery). — The penis and testes.

Bagpipe, subs. (old).—A chatterbox; a wind-bag (q.v.): cf. ' He's like a bagi'H'E, he never talks till his belly's full.' As adj. — empty-headed, gutless (q.v. ) ; and as verb = TO gas (q.v.).

1603. Crosse, P'ertues Commonw. (1878), 103. The Seruingman, the Image of sloath, the bagge-hpe of vanitie, like a windie Instrument, soundeth nothing but prophanenesse.

1612. Chapman, Widow's Tears, i. 2. Whoreson bagpipe lords !

1884. Christian World, 19 June, 463. 4. Two fresh sermons a week . . . from the one poor droning theological bagpipe.

1850. Carlyle, Latterday Pamph., v. 169. Such parliamentary bagpipes I myself have heard play tunes.

Bag-pudding, subs. phr. (old).— A clown : cf. jack-pudding.

See Bag, subs. 1.

Bag-wig, subs. phr. (old).—An eighteenth century wig : the back hair was enclosed in an ornamental bag : hence bag-wigged = wearing a bag-wig.

1760. Foote, Minor [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 179. There are the new substantives], bag wig. . . .

1766. Anstey, Bath Guide, x. 60. Bag-wig, and lac'd Ruffles, and black Solitaire.

1775. Sheridan, St. Patrick's Day, ii. 4. (1883), 236. Pig-tailed lawyers and bag-wigged attorneys.

1850. Irving, Goldsmith, xxv. 252. Walking the Strand in grand array with bag-wig and sword.

1866. Howells, Venetian Life, xxi. Expect at every turn to come upon intriguing spectres in bag-wigs, immense hoops and patches.

Ba-ha, subs. phr. (tailors').— Bronchitis.

bah, inlj. and verb, (colloquial).— An exclamation of contempt or disgust : Fr. bah !

[1600. Dkkker, Gentle Craft I Works, i. 40]. Away she flung . . . nor said bih nor bail]

1817. Byron, Beppo, xxxii. Dreading the deep damnation of his ' bah.'

Bail up.

113 Bairns-bed.

1838. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop (CD. ed.), 33. Mr Richard . . . spends all his money on his friends and is Bah I'd for his pains.

1848. Kingsley, Saints' Tragedy. iii. 3. Bah ! priest ! What can this Marpurg-madness do for me?

d. 1859. De Quincey, Works (Century). Twenty-five years ago the vile ejaculation Bah ! was utterly unknown to the British public.

Bail. Straw-bail (or strawshoes), subs. phr. (old). —I. Professional bail : see Straw. Also (2) insufficient bail (modern).

To give (or take) legbail, verb. phr. (common).—To escape ; to be indebted to one's legs for safety : see Bunk. Also

to take leg-bail and give land-security.

1775. Adair, American Indians, I had concluded to use no chivalry, but give them leg-bail instead of it, by . . . making for a deep swamp.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, iii. ¹ I e'en cae them leg-bail, for there's nae ease in dealing wi' quarrelsome fowk.'

1841. Marryat, Poacher, xxii. Given them leg-bail, I swear.

Bail up (or Bale up), verb. Australian).—See quots. 1898 and 1888.

1844. Meredith, Notes and Sketches 0/ Neiv South Wales, 132. The bushrangers . . . walk quickly in, and ' bail up,' i.e. bind with cords, or otherwise secure, the male portion.

1847. Marjoribanks, Travels in New South Wales, -]?. There were eight or ten bullock-teams baled up by three mounted bushrangers. Being baled up is colonial for those who are attacked, who are afterwards all put together, and guarded by one of the party of the bushrangers when the others are plundering.

1855. Howitt, Two Years in Victoria, ii. 309. So long as that is wrong, the whole community will be wrong,—in colonial phrase, ' bailed up ' at the mercy of its own tenants.

1862. Lloyd, Thirty-three Years, etc., 192. 'Come, sir, immediately, . . . bail up in that corner, and prepare to meet the death you have so long deserved.'

1879. Barry, Up and Down, 112. She bailed me up and asked me if I was going to keep my promise and marry her.

1880. Senior, Travel and Trout, 36. His troutship, having neglected to secure a line of retreat, was, in colonial parlance, 'bailed up.'

1880. Walch, Victoria in 1880, 133. The Kelly gang . . . bailed up some forty residents in the local public house.

1880. Blackwoods Mag., July, 91. 'Bail up! Bail up!' shout the two redveiled attackers, revolvers in hand.

1885. Finch-Hatton, Advance Australia, 105. A little further on the boar ' bailed up ' on the top of a ridge.

1888. Boldrewood, Robbery under Arms, 368. A rum go . . . same talk for cows and Christians. That's how things get stuck into the talk in a new country. Some old hand like father, . . . assigned to a dairy settler . . . had taken to the bush and tried his hand at sticking up people. When ... he wanted 'em to stop, ' Bail up, d—yer,'would come a deal quicker and more natural-like to his tongue than 'Stand.' So 'bail up' it was from that day to this.

1890. Nisbet, Bail Up I [Title].

1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 210. An ' agent ' entered the car with an order to ' bail up.'

1898. Morris, Austral-English, s.v. Bail up ! (1) To secure the head of a cow in a bail for milking. (2) By transference, to stop travellers in the bush, used of bushrangers. . . It means generally to stop. Like stick up (q.v.), it is often used humorously of a demand for subscriptions, etc.

Bain. See Bagnio.

Bairn's-bed, subs. phr. (Scots).— The womb.

1549. Compl. Scot., 67. And vomans bayrnis bed.

1863. Provinc. Glos., ' Danby, s.v. She's got a swelling on the bairn-bed.

Bait.

114

Bake.

Bait, subs, (common).—1. Anger ; a wax (q.v.).

1882. Anstey, Vice-Versa, v. I went calmly on ... as if nothing was the matter. That put the Proctor in a bait.

2. (old legal). —A fee ; a refresher (q.v.).

1603. Florio, Montaigne, 11. xii. Have you paid him [a Lawyer] well, have you given him a good bait or fee ?

Welsh (or Scotch) bait, subs. phr. (common).—A rest, given to a horse, at the top of a hill ; a breather (q.v.).

1662. Fuller, Worthies, iv. 7.

Baiting-stock, subs. phr. (old).— A laughing-stock.

1630. Taylor, Works, [Nares]. I a common reproach, a scorne, a bye-word, and bayting-stocke to the poysonous teeth of envy and slander.

Baitland, subs, (nautical).—See quots.

1725. De Foe, Voy. Round World (1840), 122. A bait-land, or post of refreshment.

1867. Smyth, Sailors' Word Book, s.v. Baitland. An old word, formerly used to signify a port where refreshments could be procured.

Bake, verb. (Winchester College). —To rest ; to sit (or lie) at case. Hence baker=(i) a cushion; and (2) anything to sit (or kneel) upon, as a blotting-book, etc. [Bakers were of two kinds ; that used in ' College ' was large, oblong and green : whilst the ¹ Commoners' baker was thin, narrow, much smaller, and red.] Whence baker-layer (obs.) = a Junior who carried a Prefect's green baker in and out of Hall at meal-times. Also bakester (obs.) = a sluggard ; bakingi.kave (obs.) = (1) permission TO

bake (spec, on a kind of sofa) in a study in ' Commoners ' or in a scob-place (q.v.)in College, and (2) leave to sit in another's toys (q.v.) ; baking-place = any place in which to bake, or in connection with which baking leave was given. [North, dial : beek (or beak) = to expose oneself to the genial warmth of sun. fire, etc., to bask. Jamieson : beik beke, beek — to bask].

c. 1230. Wohunge [Colt Ho?>i., 269]. Al pat pinende J>ik ne walde ham punche bote a softe bekinde bag.

1375. Barbour, Bruce, xix. 552. Ane ynglish man, that lay bekand Hym by a fyre.

c. 1400. Bone Flor., 99. A gode fyre . . . To beyke hys boones by.

c. 1400. Ywaine and Gaw., 145. 9. That Knyght es nothing to set by That . . . legges bekeand in his bed.

^I553Brende, Quintius Curtius, 11. ii. Diogenes . . . was beking of hymself in y* sunne.

c. 1568. Wife Auchtcrmuchty [Laing, ii. 52], 12. And saw the wyf baith dry and clene, And sittand at ane fyre, beikand bawld.

1577. Kendall [Wrench]. At home we take our ease and beake ourselves in rest.

1648. Symmons, Vindication Chas.

1. [Wrench]. Bearing himself in the midst of his luxuries.

c. 1052. Brome, Qucenc's E.xch., ii.

2. Our Masters grudge to give us wood Enough to make a beaking Bonfire.

1730. Ramsay, Gentle Slupherd [Works, 11. 95]. She and her cat sit beeking in her yard.

Phrases. To bake one's bread = to punish (q.v.), to do for (q.v. ) ; 'As they brew, so let them bake' (prov. saying) = ' Let them go on as they have begun ; ' i must go and bake some bread ' (a jocular excuse for departure).

Baked.

115 Baker-kneed.

c. 1380. Sir Eerumbras, 577. For euere my bred had be bake ; myn lyf dawes had be tynt.

1599. Porter, Two Angry Women (1841), 82. Euen as they brew, so let them bake.

1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scofft, 150. I should do very imprudently . . . Either to meddle or to make : But as they brew,

so let 'um bake.

Baked, ppl. adj. (common).— Collapsed ; exhausted ; done up ; e.g. ' toward the end of the course the crew were regularly

baked. '

Half(or dough-) baked, adj. phr. (colloquial). — I. Inconclusive ; imperfect. Also (2) dull-witted, soft (q.v.): see Half-baked, adding quots. 1864 and 1866.

1592. Lilly, Midas, ii. 2. A reason dow-baked.

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.

d. 1866. Fairholt [Lilly, Works, ii. 264. Note]. The peasantry in the midlands say of an idiotic person, ' he is only half-baked.'

Baker, sues. (old).—i. Bakers, against whom severe penalties for impurity of bread or shortness of weight were enacted from very early times, have been the subject of much colloquial sarcasm : see quots.

1562. Heywood, Proverbs (1867), 47. I feare we parte not yéet, Quoth the baker to the pyloric

1598. Stow, Survey (1633), 208. A Pillorie for the punishment of Bakers, offending in the assize of bread.

1602. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iv. 5. 42. They say the owl was a baker's daughter.

1604. Dekker, Honest Whore [Works (1873), 11. 122]. Are not Bakers' armes the skales of Iustice? yet is not their bread light.

1660. Howell, Proverbs, 11. lie take no leave of you, quoth the Baker to the Pillory.

1675. Ray, Proverbs, ' Miscellaneous.' Three dear years will raise a baker's daughter to a portion. ' Tis not the smallness of the bread, but the knavery of the baker. Ibid., ' Relating to . . . Trades.' Take all, and pay the

BAKER.

1857. Notes and Queries, 21 Mar. Pull Devil, Pull Baker, in England's the cry.

1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxxvii. It's all fair pulling, ' pull devil, pull baker'; someone has to get the worst of it. Now it's us [bushrangers], now it's them [the police] that gets . . . rubbed out.

2. (American).—A loafer. [The word is generally attributed to Baron de Mandat Grancey, who, . in Cowboys and Colonels, innocently translated the word ' loafer ' as baker.]

To spell baker (colloquial). —To attempt a difficult task. [In old spelling books 'baker' was often the first word of two syllables to which a child came when learning to spell.]

1869. Longfellow, New England Tragedies. If an old man will marry a young wife, why then—why then—why then—he must spell baker.

Baker-kneed, (or Bakerlegged), adj. phr. (common).— i. Knock-kneed ; bow-legged : hence (2) effeminate (Grose).

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoc, ii. 2. Will women's tongues, like bakers' legs, never go straight ?

1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. farrctier . . . Baker-legd, that goes in at the knees.

1652. Gaule, Hagastrom, 186. Baker-kneed signifies effeminate.

1656. Du Gard, Gate Lai. Uni., 292. He that is baker-legged rubs his knees against one another.

Baker's Dozen.

1656. Artif. Handsom. (1662), 79. The unhandsome warpings of bow Leggs and baker Feet.

1659. Lady Alimony [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), xiv. 361]. His puny baker-legs.

1675. Ray, Proverbs, ' Relating . . . to trades.' He should be a baker by his bow-i.egs.

1692. L'Estrange, Life of /Esop. jEsop . . . was . . . flat-nosed, hunchback'd, blabber-lipp'd, . . . big-belly'd, baker-legg'd.

1754. Martin, Eng. Diet. (2 ed.). Baker-legg'd, straddling, with the legs bowing outward.

1784. Barry, Lect. Art., 11. (1848), 94. Knocked or baker knees.

1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, 13. His voice had broken to a gruffish squeak. He had grown blear-eyed, bakerkneed, and gummy.

1S71. Figure Training, 39. Baker's knee, as it is called, or an inclining inwards of the right knee-joint until it closely resembles the right side of a letter K, is the almost certain penalty of habitually bearing any burden of bulk in the right hand.

Baker's Dozen (or Bargain),

subs. phr. (old). —i. Thirteen counted as twelve : sometimes fourteen (Grose and Bee). Hence (2) = good measure : e.g. to give

a man a baker's dozen = tO

trounce him well. Also browndozen (q.v.); devil's-dozen (cf. Baker i, and Fr. boulanger— devil) ; and round-dozen (see Round). [Bakers were (and are) liable to heavy penalties for deficiency in the weights of loaves : these were fixed for every price from eighteenpence down to twopence, but penny loaves or rolls were not specified in the statute. Bakers, therefore, to be on the safe side, gave, for a dozen of bread, an additional loaf, known as 'inbread.' A similar custom was formerly observed with regard to coal, and publishers nowadays reckon thirteen copies of a book as twelve.

1596 Nashe, Saffron Waiden [Works, in. ii.]. Conioyning with his aforesaid Doctor Brother in eightie eight browne baker's dozen of Almanackes.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, s.v. Serqua, a dozen, namely of egges, or as we say, a baker's dozen, that is thirteene to the dozen.

1599. Cooke, Tu Quoque [Dodsi.ey, Old Plays (Reed), vii. 49. Mine's a baker's dozen : Master Bubble, tell your money.

1610. Hudson [naming a group of thirteen or fourteen islands on the east shore of Hudson's Bay], La Douzaine du Boulanger.

d. 1623. Fletcher, Poems, 131. This strings the baker's dozen, christens all The cross-legd hours of time since Adam's fall.

1651. Cleaveland, Poems [Nares]. Pair-royall headed Cerberus his cozen ; Hercules labours were a baker's dozen.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xxii. We saw a knot of others, about a baker's dozen in number, tippling under an arbour.

1706. Ward, Wooden World, 67. The King ... is the only Almanackmaker for his Money, who honestly stretches them out to a Baker's Dozen.

1733. Fielding, Don Quixote, m. vi. I dare swear there were a good round baker's dozen, at least.

1774. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 444. The moment that this loving cousin Awak'd he saw a baker's dozen Of Thracians kill'd.

1822. Nares, Glossary, s.v. Baker'sdozen . . . originally devil's dozen . . . the number of witches at table together in their sabbaths. Hence thirteen at table. The baker . . . a very unpopular character in former times, seems to have been substituted for the devil. [Abridged.]

1825. Scott,St. Ronans Well,xxviii. ' As to your lawye^ you get just your guinea's worth from him—not even so much as the baker's bargain, thirteen to the dozen.'

1850. Riley, Sibcr Albus, Pref. 68. These dealers . . . [Hucksters] on purchasing their bread from the bakers, were privileged by law to receive thirteen batches for twelve, and this would seem to have been the extent of their profits. Hence the expression, still in use, 'A baker's

dozen.'

Baker's Light Bobs. 117

Batbus.

1902. d. Mail, 6 Mar., 4. 3. Quite a baker's dozen of would-be testifiers . . . to the marvellous story of their ' cures.'

Baker's Light Bobs (military).— The 10th Hussars.

Bakes, subs. (American thieves').— A schoolboy.

2. (American). — An original stake : chiefly schoolboys' : e.g. ' When i get my bakes back i shall stop playing. ' [Bartlett : in reference possibly to a baker not always getting his bake safely out of the oven.]

Bakester, Baking-leave, Baking-place, etc. See Bake.

Balaam, subs, (printers').—Miscellaneous paragraphs for filling up a column of type : padding (q.v.): applied either to MS. copy or stereo. Hence

balaam-box (or -basket) = (l)

a receptacle for such matter ; and (2) a waste-paper basket. [Webster : ' a cant term ' : popularised by Blaclmiood, in which Nodes Ambrosianœ appeared. See Numbers xxii. 30.]

1822-36. Wilson, Nodes Ambrosianœ, 11. xxvi. Bring in Balaam, and place him on the table.

1826. Scott, Mai. Malagr., iii. 3. How much Balaam (speaking technically) I have edged out of your valuable paper.

1827. Blackw. Mag., xxi. 340. Several dozen letters on the same subject now in our Balaam-box.

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 leaves an awkward space that must be filled up somehow.

1861. A.K.H.B., Reer. Country Parson, 2. 59 S. Rubbishing articles which are at present consigned to the Balaam-box.

1873. Hall, Modern English, 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.

Balaclava-day, subs, (military). —A soldier's pay day. [Balaclava in 1854-6 was a base of supply for English troops : as pay was drawn, the men went down to make their purchases.]

Balance, subs, (commercial : orig. American, now general).—The remainder ; the rest : cf. ' lave ' (Scots) and 'shank' (as 'in the shank of the evening ').

1846. Albany Jo., 7 Jan. 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.

1861. Boston Transcript, 27 Dec. We listened to Wendell Phillips, [but] having an engagement elsewhere, we were forced to leave, and so lost the balance of his oration.

1864. Webster, Diet., s.v. [The first dictionary to record the usage.]

1875. Blackzvood's Mag., 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.' 1

1883. Fitzgerald, Reer. Liter. Man, 170. Everyone is away shooting or riding ; a balance of the ladies is left.

Balbus, subs. (University).—A Latin prose composition. [Erom the frequency with which Balbus is mentioned in Arnold's Latin Prose Composition.]

1870. Quarterly Review. Balbus was in constant use.

Baldcoot. 118 Balderdash.

Baldcoot, subs. (old).—i. A term of contempt : cf. baldhead. [The frontal plate of the coot is destitute of feathers.] Hence bald as a coot — as bald as may be [Tyndale, Works (1530), ii. 224, s.v.].

[1616. Beaumont and Fletcher, Kn. of Malta, i. 1. Unfledge them of their . . . perriwigs, And they appear like bald-cootes in the nest.]

1823. Byron, Juan, xiv. lxxxiii. The bald-coot bully, Alexander.

1S48. Kingsley, Saints' Tragedy, in. iv. 176. Your princesses, that . . . demean themselves to hob and nob with these black baldicoots [i.e. monks with shaven crowns] !

2. (old).—See quot.

1823. Bee, Diet. Turf, s.v. Pigeon. A . . . [young man] who parts with his blunt freely at gambling, and is rooked ; older persons also stay and get plucked sometimes, until they have not a feather to fly with. Such men, after the plucking, become bald-coots.

Balderdash, subs, (old and still colloquial).—(1) Froth or frothy liquid ; (2) a jumble of liquors (B. E. and Grose) : e.g. brandy (or milk) and beer, milk and rum, etc. : also as verb = to ' dash ' with another liquid, and hence to adulterate (Grose) ; (3) a jumble of words, nonsense, trash ; and (4) ' lewd conversation ' (Grose), obscenity, scurrility. [O.E.D. : From the evidence at present the inference is that the current sense was transferred . . . with the notion of 'frothy talk.' Century : Of obscure origin, apparently dial, or slang.]

1598. Nasi lie, SaJfron Waiden. To Reader. Two blunderkins, hauing their braines stuft with nought but balderdash. Ibid. (1599), Lenten Stuffe, 8. They would no more . . . have their heads washed with his bubbly spume or barbers' balderdash.

1611. Chapman, Mayday, iii. 4. S'fut winesucker, what have you fild us heere? Balderdash?

1629. Jonson, New hin, i. 2. Beer, or butter-milk, mingled to-gether . . . To drink such balderdash !

1637. Taylor, Drink and Welc. [Worcester]. Beer, by a mixture of wine hath lost both name and nature, and is called Balderdash.

1641. Heywood, Reader, Here you'll, etc., 6. Where sope hath fayl'd without, Balderdash wines within will worke no doubt.

1674. Marvell, Reh. Transp., ii. 243. Did ever Divine rattle out such prophane Balderdash !

1674. Durfey, Pills, iii. 304. When Thames was balderdashed with Tweed.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xlvi. Will he ... go shite out his nasty rhyming balderdash in some bog-house ? Ibid. (1702) Prologue to Farquhar's Inconstant. Poets, like vintners, balderdash and brew Your surly scenes.

1714. MiLBOURNE, Traitors Rew., Pref. Was ever God's word so balderdash'd ?

1766. Smollett, Travels, xix. The wine merchants of Nice brew and balderdash and even mix it with pigeon's dung and quicklime. Ibid. (1771), Humph. Clinker (1890), 1. 156. Wine ... a vile, unpalatable, and pernicious sophistication, balderdashed with cider, corn-spirit, and the juice of sloes.

1777. Horne Tooke, Trial, 25. I heard him charge this publication with ribaldry, scurrility, billingsgate, and balderdash.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Smollett], 147. Nothing but flimsy balderdash in their talk. Ibid., 197. i was a walking budget of balderdash.

1812. Edin. Rev., xx. 419. The balderdash which men must talk at popular meetings.

1821. Irving [Warner, Life (1882), 136]. A fostered growth of poetry and romance, and balderdashed with false sentiment.

1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., 1. 351. I am almost ashamed to quote such nauseous balderdash.

1854. Thackeray, Ncwcomes, 1. 10. To defile the ears of young boys with this wicked balderdash.

Bald-face.

119 Balductum.

1865. Carlyle, Fred. Great, 11. vii. v. 287. No end florid inflated tautologie ornamental balderdash.

1900. Griffiths, Fast and Loose, xxix. He had heard amidst much balderdash something that might be useful.

Bald-face, subs. phr. (American). —New whiskey ; ' warranted to kill at forty rods.' Baldfaced

= neat [q.V.).

Bald-faced Shirt, subs. (American).—A white shirt: cf. Boiled shirt.

Bald-faced Stag, subs. phr. (common).—A bald-headed man ; Bladder of lard.

Baldhead (or pate), subs. (old). —A term of contempt (cf. first section of quot. 1603) : also baldy. [Of Biblical origin.] Hence baltitude = a state of baldness ; his balditude = a mock title ; and baldheadedro\v = the first row of stalls at theatres, especially at leg-shops (q.v.).

1535. Coverdale, Bible, 2 Kings ii. 23. Come vp here thou balde heade

[WyCLIF = BALLARD].

1601. Dent, Pathway to Heaven, 131. Mocked . . . Elisha calling him

bald-head, bald-pate.

1603. Shakspeare, Meas. for Meas., v. i. Come hither, good man baldpate. [bid. You baldpated, lying rascal.

1821. Byron, Foscari, iii. 1. 244. Held in the bondage of ten bald-heads.

1865. Noel, Richter s Flower Pieces (1871), i. v. 141. But had solicited the bald-pates in vain.

1882. Clemens, Huck. Finn, 187. Trouble has done it ; trouble has brung these gray hairs and this premature

balditude.

1900. Flynt, Tramp, with Tramps, 384. The baldy 'e comes himself 'n' asted what I wanted.

Baldheaded, adj. (American).— Eagerly ; with might and main. [Bartlett : as when one rushes out without his hat.]

1848. Lowell, Big-tow Papers, 6. 1 scent which pays the best, an' then Go into it baldheaded.

1869. Our Young-[•'oiks [De Vere|. Whenever he had made up his mind to do a thing he went at it baldheaded.

1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 June. The Chicago Republicans . . . have gone baldheaded for protection.

TO snatch baldheaded,^;'/;.

phr. (American).—To defeat a person in a street fight.

1871. Grant White, lVo?-ds 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.

Baldheaded-hermit , subs, phr. (venery).—The penis: see Prick.

Baldober (or Baldower), subs. (thieves').—A leader ; a spokesman [Ger.].

Bald-rib, subs. phr. (common).— A lean person; a walkingskeleton (q.v.).

1621. Middleton, Mayor of Quin, iii. 3. Thou art such a spiny baldrib, all the mistresses in the town will never get thee up.

Balductum, subs. (old).—Nonsense ; rubbish : as adj. = affected, trashy (in quot. 1595 = an affected writer).

1577. Holinshed, Chron., 11. 29. 2. The Irish doubtlesse repose a great affiance in this balducktum dreame.

1583. Stanyhukst, .-Eneis, ' Dad.' [Arber], 10. Their rude rythming and balducketome ballads.

1593. Harvey, Pierces Supcrog., 139. The stalest dudgen or absurdest balductum that they or their mates can invent.

Balfour's Maiden. 120

Ball.

1595. Polimanteia [Nares]. Every balductum makes divine poetrie to be but base rime.

1596. Harrington, Ulysses upon Ajax. Besides, what balductum play is not full of them?

1617. Collins, De/. Bp. Ely, it. viii. 295. Will this balductum neuer be left?

Balfour's Maiden, suas, (obsolete Parliamentary). — A covered battering-ram : used by the Royal Irish Constabulary in carrying out evictions in Ireland (1888-9).

1889. Sir Wm. Vernon Harcourt, Speech {Daily News, 11 April]. Now at Letterkenny, Mr. Balfour has introduced a new invention ... an iron-headed spiked battering-ram to be used in carrying out the evictions. Why, really, gentlemen, . . . you find instruments called ' The Scavenger's Daughter,' and 'The Maiden,' ... 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.'

Ball, subs, (old). —1. The head:

also ball in the hood ;

billiard-ball, etc.

c. 1300. King Alis, 6481. Mony of his knyghtisgode Loren theo balles in heore

kode.

c. 1325. Cœur de L., 4523. Men of armes the swerdes outbreyde ; Balles out of hoodes, soone they pleyde.

c. 1460. Townley Myst., 17. I shrew thi balle under tiii hooe.

c. 1500. Robin Hood (Ritson), i. 1454. He ne shall lese his hede, That is the best

ball in his hode.

2. (prison).—A ration : food or drink.

3. (vulgar).— See Ballocks.

4. (Winchester).—In pi.=3. Junior in College : his duty is to collect footballs from lockers in school and take them through to the Ball-keeper in Commoners to be blown or repaired. The Ball-keeper is an Inferior who,

for service in looking after cricket and fool-balls, is exempted from

kicking-in {(/.V.) and watching out (q.v.).

Phrases. To catch (or take) the ball before the bound = to anticipate ; to have

the ball at one's foot (or

before one) = to have in one's power (or at one's finger-ends) ;

to open the ball = to lead off,

to make a start ; to keep the

ball rolling (or keep up the

ball) = to prevent a matter flagging or hanging fire ; to take up the ball = to take one's turn ; whence ' the ball's with you ' = you're next.

1589. Putten h am, Eng. Poesy, iii. xix. We do preuent them . . . and do catch the ball (as they are wont to say)

before it come to the ground.

1645. Howell, Letters, iv. 9. It concerns you not to be over-hasty herein

not to take the ball before the bound.

1661. Papers on Alt. Prayer-Book,

24. You have the ball before you,

and have the wind and sun, and the power of contending without controll.

1781. Bentham, To G. Wilson {Works (1843), x. 104]. I put a word in now, and then to keep the ball up.

c. r8oo. Auckland, Corresp. (1862), in. 416. We have the ball at our feet, and if the Government will allow us . . . the rebellion will be crushed.

1809. Wellington {Gutiv. Dispatches, v. 365]. If the Spaniards had not lost two armies lately, we should keep up the ball for another year.

1812. Byron, Waltz, xiii. Note. Waltz and the battle of Austerlitz are . . . said to have opened the ball together.

1876. Eton Chronicle, 20 July. He who opened the ball and who saw them all fall, Scarce deserved that defeat in one innings.

1878. Eliot, Coll. Breakfast P., 345. Louder Rosencranz Took up the ball.

■ 887. Haggard, Allan Quaterm., xi. Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three-parts grown young one.

Ballad-basket.

121 Ballock.

Call the ball, intj. phr. (Stonyhurst).— The ' Foul ! ' of Association football.

Three brass (or golden) balls. See Three balls.

Ballad -basket, subs. phr. (old). —A street singer : see Street pitcher. Fr. braillard.

Ballad-monger, subs. phr. (old colloquial). — i. A ballad-maker : in contempt : hence balladmongering.

1596. Shakspeare, i Hen. IV., iii. i. 130. 1 had rather be a Kitten, and cry mew, Then one of these same Meeter Balladmongers.

1756. Wharton, Ess. Pope (1782), 1. vii. 356. Villon was merely a pert and insipid ballad-monger.

1778. Sheridan, Rivals, ii. 1. To make herself the pipe and balladmonger of a circle !

1809. Bryon, Bards and Rev., xii. Behold the ballad-monger Southey rise ! Ibid., Argt. (MS.). The poet . . . revileth Walter Scott for . . . ballad-mongering.

Ballahou, subs, (nautical). — 'A term of derision applied to an ill-conditioned slovenly ship ' (Century) ; 'a West Indian clipper schooner : apparently she may also be a brig to judge from The Cruise of the Midge'' (Clark Russell).

Ballambangjang—The Straits of Ballambangjang, subs. phr. (nautical). — ' 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 monkeys' tails getting jammed into, and choking up, the brace blocks.'—Hotten.

Ballast, subs. (common).— Money : generic : see Rhino. Hence well-ballasted = rich.

Ball Face, subs. (American negro). —A white man [Bartlett : applied at Salem, Mass., 18101820].

Ball-keeper. See Ball, subs. 4.

Ball-my-nag, subs. phr. (venery). —The penis : see Prick. [Ball = a generic name for a horse.]

c. 1707. Old Ballad, 'The Trooper Watering His Nag ' [Farmer, Merry Songs and Ballads (1896), i. 192J. When Night came on to Bed they went, . . . What is this so stiff and warm, . . . 'Tis Bali, my nag—he will do you harm.

Ballock, subs, (once literary : not now in polite use).—A testicle : also ballock-stone ; and (short) ball. Hence ballock-cod = the scrotum ; ballocks ! (or all balls !) = a derisive retort (cf. Co/ones = a Spanish oath). As verb (to go ballocking, or do a ballocking) = to copulate : see Ride : also (of women) to

get a pair of balls against one's butt. Also to get up to

one's balls = to effect intromission. Whence to make balls of = to make a mistake ;

go to wrong (q.v.), to bugger

(or bitch) up (q.v. ). Ballocksstones = a term of endearment (Palsgrave, Acolastius, 1540).

c. 1000. Glossary [Wrigkt, Vocab.,265. Testiculi, beallucas. Ibid., 539. Oinembrana, balluc cod. Ibid., 677. Piga, balloke code.

[?] MS. Bib. Reg-., 17 A. iii. f. 149. For swellinge of ballokis [a medical receipt].

1382. Wyclif, Bible, Levit. xxii. 24. Al beeste that . . . kilt and taken away the eallokes is. [Auth. Ver. = 'that is . . . cut.']

Ball of Fire.

122 Bally.

c. 1460. To-wnelty My st., 236. I have brysten both my balOK stones, So fast hyed I hedyr.

1486. Bk. St. Albans, ¹ Hawking,' C. viii. Geue hir the balockes of a Hue.

1579. Baker, Guydons Quest. Cyrurg, 33, s.v.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. xiii. Who his foul tail with paper wipes, Shall at his ballocks leave some chips. Ibid., 11. i. True ballockeering blades.

1721-1800. Bailey, Diet., s.v.

d. 1796. [Burns, Merry Muses (c. 1800), 15]. ' For a' that and a' that.' His hairy balls . . . hang like a beggar's wallet. Ibid. ' As I looked o'er yon castle wa' [quoted by Burns in a letter to George Thomson]. He plac'd his Jacob whare she did piss, An' his balls where the wind did blaw.

Ball of Fire, suns.phr. (popular). —A glass of cheap brandy (Grose.)

Ball of Honour. see Beggar's Ace.

Ball of Wax, subs., (common). —A snob, or shoe-maker.

Balloon, verb. (American).—To brag; to gas {q.v.). Also colloquial : e.g. Balloonacy (cf. lunacy) = a mania for ballooning ; BALLOONATic (cf. lunatic) = balloon-mad ; ballooning, subs. (Stock Exchange) = inflating prices by fictitious means, and as adj. =high falutin' (q.v.).

d. 1826. Jeffreson, Correspond., 1. 323. Ballooning indeed goes on.

1864. D. Teleg., 19 Feb. We live in an age of halloonacv. Ibid. (1865), 22 Nov., 5. 3. That Nadar, the balloonatic, has sold his balloon.

1878. Sinclair, Mount; 33. Gasbrained, ballooning wandering men.

1882. Western Daily Press, 27 Mar., 3. i. A sharp epidemic of halloonacv.

1882. Moonshine, v. 163. Another BALLOONATic attempt to cross the Channel.

Ballot-box Stuffing, subs. phr. (American). — Tampering with election returns : ' a box is constructed with false bottom and compartments so as to permit spurious ballots to be introduced by the teller in charge. The most outrageous frauds have been committed by this means ' [Bartlett].

1876. New York Tribune, Oct. [Bartlett]. Detectives sent on to look after the Democratic roughs and ballotbox stuffers. Ibid., 7 Nov. Several experts at ballot-box stuffing were spotted here to-day.

Ball's-bull. Like Ball's bull, phr. (provincial). — Said of a person with no ' ear ' for music : Ball's bull had so little that he ' kicked the fiddler over the bridge' (Halliwell).

Ballum Rancum, subs.phr. (old). —A buff-ball (q.v.): 'the company dance in their birthdaysuits ' (Grose and Bee).

Bally, adj. (common).—A generic intensive : very ; great ; excessive : cf. bloody ; fucking, etc. [A comparatively recent coinage, it is said, of The Sporting Times (see Terminal Essay) from ' ballyhooly '.]

1889. Sporting Times, 6 July (Answers to Correspondents). H. G. Steele. —Thanks. What a bally idiot you must be.

1889. Bird o' Freedom, 7 Aug., 5. You can bally well take it yourself.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, ig. They lump the bally lot in one. Ibid., 39. If I meet the bally old bounder.

1901. Troddles, 77. He . . . asked Murray plaintively if we wanted all the bally carriage to ourselves.

Bally hack. 123 Bam.

Ballyhack. Go to ballyhack, phr. (American). — 'Get along,' ' Go to hell ! '

1870. Judd, Margaret, 55. Let Obed go to ballyhack. Come along out.

Ballyrag. See Bullyrag.

Balm, subs, (old).—A lie (Duncombe).

Balmy. The balmy, subs. phr. (common). — Sleep : as adj. — sleepy : cf. ' balmy slumbers ' (Shakspeare) and 'balmy sleep' (Young). To have a dose (or wink) of the balmy = to go to sleep. See Bedfordshire.

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.

See Barmy.

Balsam, subs, (thieves'). Generic for money (Grose and Bee). See Rhino.

1871. New York Slang Diet. It was no great quids, J im—only six flimseys and three beans. But I'm flush of the balsam now, and i ain't funked to flash it.

Bam (or Bamboozle), subs. (old). —A hoax ; a cheat : as verb (bamboo, boozle, or bambooze) = tO victimize, outwit, mystify, or deceive (Grose) ; also (Halliwell) to threaten : cf. hum from humbug. [Swift (1710), Taller, ' Refinements of Twenty Years Past ' : ' Certain words such as banter, bamboozle . . . now struggling for the vogue ' ; Johnson (1755): 'a cant word'; Boucher (1833) : 'haslong . . . had a place in the gypsy or canting dictionaries'; O.E.D.: ' probably of cant origin ' ; Cen

tury : ' a slang word of no definite origin.'] Whence numerous combinations, colloquialisms and

phrases : e.g. to bamboozle

away = to get rid of speciously; to bamboozle into = to persuade artfully ; to bamboozle out of = to obtain by trick ; bamboozled = mystified, tricked ; bamboozlement = tricky deception; bamboozler = a mystifier; bambost = deceptive humbug ;

to bamblustercate = to bluster,

embarrass, or confuse : cf. conglomerate and comflogisticate ; bamsquabbled (or bumsquabbled) = discomfited, defeated, squelched. See Banter.

1703. Cibber, She Would and She Would Not, ii. i. Sham proofs, that they propos'd to bamboozle me with. Ibid., iv. i. The old Rogue . . . knows how to Bamboozle . . . I'll have a touch of the Bamboozle with him. Ibid. (1707), Double Gallant, i. 2. Pray, Sir, what is't you do understand '? ' Sound. Bite, Bam, and the best of the Lay, old Boy.'

1709. Steele, Tatter, No. 31. I perceive this is to you all bamboozling.

1710. Swift, Polite Conv., 'Introd.' The exquisite refinements . . . kam for bamboozle and bamboozle for, God knows what. Ibid., i. Her ladyship was plaguily bamb'd.

1712. Arbuthnot,/o/»j Bull, m. vi. Fellows that they call banterers and bamboozlers, that play such tricks ; but . . . these fellows were in earnest ! Ibid., 89. After Nie had bambouzi.ed John a while about the iS,ooo and the 28,000.

1715. Addison, Drummer, i. 1. All the people upon earth, excepting these . . . worthy gentlemen, are . . . cheated, bubbled, abused, bamboozled.

1716. Rowe, Biter, i. 1. You intend

to bambouzle me out of a Beef Stake.

1728. Earbery [tr. Burnet's St. Dead, 1. 89]. The Gnosticks bambouzled away all the Corporeal resurrection.

1747. Garrick, Miss in Teens, ii. 1. I'll break a lamp, bully a constable, bam a justice, or bilk a box-keeper with any man.

Bam. 124 Banbury.

1762. Foote, Orators, ii. Why I know that man, he is all upon his fun ; he lecture—why 'tis all but a bam. Ibid. ('777)> [Webster]. Some conspiracy . . . to bam, to chouse me out of my money.

1774. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 104. My little girl, if folks don't bam me, Cries bitterly to see her mammy.

c. 1787. Kilmainham Minit [Ireland, Sixty Years Ago, 86]. To boozle the bulldogs and pinners.

1803. Sharpe [Correspondence (1888), i. 17]. Billy Bamboozle, a quizzer and wit.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, iii. What were then called bites and bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes. Ibid. (1817), Rob Roy, ix. ' It's all a bam, ma'am—all a bamboozle and a bite.

1S27. Lytton, Pelham, xxxvi. One does not like to be bamboozled out of one's right of election.

1830. Marryat, King's Own, xlix. ' Now, you're bamming me — don't put such stories off on your old granny.'

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 S. ii. If he didn't look bumsquabbled it's a pity.

1842. Barham, Ingolds. Leg., ' St. Cuthbert,' 217. It's supposed by this trick he bamboozled Old Nick.

1855. Scot. Rev., 188. Washington Irving . . . exercises . . . his rare powers of bamboozlement and laughter-stirring.

1859. Massey [Sat. Rev., 5 Mar.]. Our greatest of men is Harlequin Pam, 'The Times' says so, and 'the Times' cannot bam !

1861. Sat. Rev., 16 Feb., 6. 2. Government by bamboozle always presents considerable advantages at first sight.

1865. Day of Rest., Oct., 585^ I was deaf to all that bam bosh.

1874. Linton, Patricia Kemball, xxxix. That tale of Gordon Frere was all a bam.

1878. Black, Green Pastures, xii. 326. Who has bamboozled himself into the erroneous belief that . . .

1886. Sat. Rev., No. 1587, 423. The public is a great bamboozahle body.

Banaghan. He beats Banaghan, phr. (old).—An Irish saying of one who tells travellers' tales. [Banaghan (Grose) was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous.]

Ban ag h er, verb. (old).—To bang.

Bananaland, Bananalander,

subs. (Australian).—Queensland ; a native of Queensland. [A large portion of Queensland lies within the tropics to which the banana (Musa sapientum) is indigenous.]

1886. Chamb. Journal, 20 Feb., 124. Booted and spurred ' Cornstalks ' and Banana-men.

1887. Melbourne (Victoria) Sportsman, 23 March, 7. 2. Paddy Slavin came from Queensland with the reputation of having beaten all the Bananalanders.

1887. Sydney (N.S.W.) Bulletin, 26 Feb., 6. His friends rallied up to congratulate him, . . . after the custom of the simple Bananalander.

Banbury. The inhabitants of this Oxfordshire town (now noted for its cakes) seem to have been the subjects of ridicule and sarcasm from very early times ; chiefly on account of their zeal for the Puritan cause. Thus Banbury-man (-blood or -saint) = a hypocrite (cf. popular saying, ' A Banbury man will hang his cat on Monday for catching mice on Sunday'); Banbury-wife — a whore ; Banbury-story (or Banbury tale of a cock-anda-bull) = an extremely improbable yarn (Grose), 'silly chat' (B. e.); Banbury-gloss = a specious reading ; banburyvapours = the stock-in-trade of a Puritan agitator ; Banburycheese = the thinnest of poor cheese (Heywood : ' I never saw Banbury cheese thick enough'):

Banbury. 125 Bandanna.

hence a term of contempt. Also proverbs (Howell, 1660) : ' Like Banbury tinkers, who in stopping one hole make two ' ; ' As wise as the mayor of Banbury, who would prove that Henry III. was before Henry II.'

c. 1535. Latimer, Sermons and Remains (1845), 11. 299. In this your realm they have sore blinded your liege people and subjects with their laws, customs, ceremonies, and Banbury glosses, and punished them with cursings.

1598. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, i. i. 10. [To Slender.] You Banbury cheese !

1601. Pasquil and Kath., in. 178. Put off your clothes, and you are like a Banbery cheese, Nothing but paring.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair. ' Dram. Pers.' Zeal-of-the-Land Busy . . . a Banbury man . . . [i. 3], I knew divers of those Banburians when I was in Oxford . . . [i. 3] Rabbi Busy ... a prophet ... he was a baker, but he does dream now and see visions ; he has given over his trade. [Ibid., iii. 1.] These are Banbury-bloods o' the sincere stud, come a pig-hunting. [Ibid., v. 3], Busy. I look for a bickering ere long, and then a battle. Knoek. Good Banbury vapours. [Ibid.] Masque of Gypsies. From the loud pure wives of Banbury . . . Bless the sov'reign and his hearing.

1636. Davenant, Wits, i. 1. She is more devout Than a weaver of Banbury, that hopes To intice heaven, by singing, to make him lord Of twenty looms.

1647. Corbet [Harl. Misc., i. 274]. The malignants do compare this commonwealth to an old kettle with here and there a crack or flaw ; and that we (in imitation of our worthy brethren of Banbury), like deceitful and cheating knaves, have, instead of stopping one hole, made three or four score.

1648. Braithwaite, Barnabys Jo. Through Banbury I passed, O profane one, And there I saw a Puritane one Hanging of his Cat on Monday For killing of a Rat on Sunday.

1863. Sala, Capt. Dangler, i. 1. 15. I did ever hate your sanctimonious Banbury man.

Banco, subs. (Charterhouse School).—Evening preparation at ' house,' under the superintendence of a monitor ; the Winchester toy-time (q. v. ). [See Farmer : Public School WordBook.]

1900. Tod, Charterhouse, 81. The visit of a house master to banco was intensely resented . . . The term banco was suggested by H. W. Phillot, afterwards Canon of Hereford ... in 1832, or a little later.

Banco-Steerer. See Buncosteerer.

Band. Our Lady's bands, subs, phr. (old colloquial).—Accouchement ; ' confinement ' (an old abstract meaning).

1495. Festival [Strype, Eccles. Mem., i. ii., Appen, xxxvii. 99]. Pray . . . for al women which be in our Ladyes

bandes.

See Banded.

Bandanna, subs, (common).— Orig. a silk handkerchief with white, yellow, or other coloured spots on a dark ground. Also (loosely) a handkerchief of any kind : see Wipe.

1752. Long, Bengal (1870), 31. Plain taflfaties, ordinary kandannoes, and chappas.

1824. Annual Register, 140. 2. Bandana handkerchiefs.

1843. Carlyle, Past and Present (1858), 285. Beautiful bandanna webs.

1855. Thackeray, Ncwcomes, iv. The Colonel was striding about the room . . . puffing his cigar fiercely anon, and then waving his yellow bandanna.

1875. Bird, Hawaii, 134. Many had tied bandanas in a graceful knot over the left shoulder.

Bandbox. 126

Bang.

Bandbox (or Bandboxical), adj. (colloquial).—(i) Precisely neat; fussy ; finical ; and (2) frail or small (as is a bandbox) : e.g. a bandbox thing ; ' She's just come out of a bandbox (or glass case) ' ; ' You ought to be put in a bandbox (of anyone over particular). See Bandog.

1774. West. Mag-., 11. 454. The good man . . . turned the eye of contempt upon the Band-box Thing, and . . . said, ' I believe 'tis a Doll.'

1787. Beckford, Italy (1834), 11. 175. Cooped up in close, bandboxical apartment.

c. 1852. Moore, Country Dance and Quad., xiii. 51. A band-box thing, all art and lace, Down from her nose-tip to her shoe-tie.

1873. Braddon, Strangers and Pilgrims, in. i. 240. Square bandboxical rooms.

See Arse.

Banded, adj. (Old Cant). — Hungry : also to wear the bands (Grosk and Vaux).

Bandero, subs. (American).— Widows' weeds. [Cf. Littré : bandeau, anciennement coiffure des veuves; Ken nett : bandore — a widow's veil, and B. E., 'a widow's mourning Peak ' ; Eng. ' banderol ' = a streamer carried on the shaft of a lance near the head.]

Bandog, subs. (Old Cant). — i. ' A bailiff, or his Follower, a Sergeant, or his Yeoman ' (B. E. and Grose). [Properly a ' bound 'dog, because ferocious ; hence a mastiff or bloodhound.] To speak like a bandog (or bandog and Bedlam) = to rave; to bluster.

1600. Dekker, Gentle Craft [Works (1873), i. 19]. O master, is it you that speak bandog and Bedlam this morning ?

1610. Chester's Tri. Envie, 12. Thou envious Bandogge, sPEAKEand doe thy worst.

1839. AiNSWORTH, Jack Shcppard, [1889], 12. ' But where are the lurchers?' ' Who ? ' asked Wood. ' The traps ! ' responded a bystander. ' The shoulderclappers ! ' added a lady. . . . ' The bandogs ! ' thundered a tall man.

2. (old).—A bandbox (Grose).

B. and S. (common). — Brandy and soda.

1868. Whyte Melville, White Rose, xiii. Before the b. and s. could make its appearance.

1881. Black, Beautiful Wretch, v. I will get you some tea, though what would be better for you still, would be some b. and s.

1882. Punch, lxxxii. 69. 1. He'll nothing drink but ' b. and s.' and big magnums of ' the boy.'

1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, iv. ' How will you put in your time ? ' ' Whist, the smoking-room, and B and S.,' was Julian's answer.

Bandy. See Bender.

Bandy-legged, adj. phr. (B. E., c. 1696: now recognised). — 'Crooked.' [The earliest quot. in O.E.D. is dated 1787; but the word did not come into general use until the second quarter of the eighteenth century.]

Bang, subs, (old colloquial : now recognised in some senses). — Generic for energy and dash : a blow, thump, sudden noise, go {'/-v.). As verb = to drub (B. E. and Grose), strike, explode, or shut with violence. Hence TO bang iTOUT(or about) = to come to blows (or fisticuffs), to fight it out ; to bang ( =slam) a door ; TO bang ( = fire) a gun ; TO bang ( = play loudly) a n ano ; TO bang into one's head = to convince by force ; to bang against = to bump (or thump) ;

Bang.

127 Bang.

BANG. To Bang away at = to make a violent and continuous noise ; to bang out = to go with a flourish; to bang up = to throw oneself upon suddenly, to spring up; bang (or bang off) = at once, abruptly: eg. bang went saxpence; in a bang, in a hurry; bang out, completely; banging = violent, noisy, and as subs. = a drubbing: see Wipe, (see also sense 2).

c. 155°Robin Hood (Ritson), vi. 79. AU the wood rang at every bang. Ibid.,

ix. 95. Either yield to me the daie, Or I will bang thy back and sides. Ibid, (c. 1600). xvii. 85. With a but of sack we will bang it about, To see who wins the day.

1560. Disob. Child [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), ii. 282]. What banging, what cursing, Long-tongue, is with thee.

1582. Stanyhurst, Aineis f Arber], 68. Thow must with surges bee banged.

1588. Mar prelate¹ s Epistle [Arber], 4. His grace ... was loth to have any other so banged as he himselfe was to his woe.

1592. Day, Blind Beggar, ii. 2. I'll have it again, or I'll bang it out of the coxcombs of some of them.

1593. Nashe, Four Lett. Con fut., 37. A bigge fat lusty wench it is, ... will bang thee abhominationly if euer she catch thee. Ibid. (1595), Saffron Waiden,

x. ij. b. The banginest things ... which I can pick out ... are these.

1601. Shakspeare, Julius Ccesar, iii. 3. 20. You'l bear me a bang for that I feare. Ibid. (1602), Twelfth Night, iii. 2. Have banged the youth. Ibid. (1604), Othello, ii. 1. 21. The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks, That their designment halts.

1616. Holyday, Juvenal, 185. Then th' axe their chariot-wheels with banging stroak Splits out.

1644. Radcliffe [Carte, Collect. (^I735). 3²9]After a shrewd bang Prince Rupert is recruiting gallantly.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, i. ii. 831. With many a stiff thwack, many a bang, Hard crab-tree and old iron rang.

1675. Cotton. Scoffer Scofft, 44. With my Battoon I'le bang his sconce.

1709. Steele, Taller, 70. So neither is banging a Cushion Oratory.

1719. Carey, Sally in our Alley, st. 3. My master comes, like any Turk, And bangs me most severely.

1768. Ross, Helenore, 143. (Jamieson.) Then I'll bang out my beggar dish.

1784. Cowper, Works (1876), 183. You are a clergyman, and I have banged your order.

c. 1787. Beckford, Italy, 11. 136. A most complicated sonata, banged off on the chimes.

1794. Burns, Works, 133. Oh aye my wife she dang me, And aft my wife did bang me.

1795. Macneill, Will and Jean, i. Bang! cam in Mat Smith and's brither.

1813. Examiner, 18 Jan., 43. 1. The mob ... called out, 'Bang up lads, in with you.'

1814. Scott, Waverley, in. 238. Twa unlucky red-coats .. . banged off a gun at him. Ibid. (1816), Old Mortality, 80. It's not easy to bang the soldier with his bandoleers.

1816. Austen, Emma, 1. i. 5She always turns the lock of the door the right way and never bangs it.

1840. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxvi. The watch on deck were banging away at the guns every few minutes.

1855. Browning, Works (1863J, 1. 53. Bang, whang, whang goes the drum.

1870. Kaye, Sepoy War, 11. vi. 4. 554. An unwonted amount of confidence and bang.

Bang.

128

Bang.

1877. D. News, i Nov., 6. 1. This is now being banged into the heads that have planned ... this campaign.

1884. Cornhill Mag., April, 442. 'Davis,' ... 'you haven't had a banging this term, and you're getting cocky.'

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 28. Having saved up enough siller to encourage him in banging just a saxpence or twa.

2. (orig. American). A fringe of hair (usually curled or frizzled) cut squarely across the forehead. As verb, to cut (or wear) the hair in this fashion. Also bang-tail, bang-tailed, bang-tail muster (of horses): see quot. 1887.

1887. Tyrwhitt, New Chum in Queensland Bush, 62. Every third or fourth year on a cattle station, they have what is called a bang tail muster; that is to say, all the cattle are brought into the yards, and have the long hairs at the end of the tail cut off square, with knives or sheep-shears. . . . The object of it is ... to find out the actual number of cattle on the run, to compare with the number entered on the station books.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, vi. 'These bang-tailed little sinners any good?' said Drysdale, throwing some cock-a-bondies across the table.

1870 D. News, 19 July, 6. A good mare with a bang-tail.

1880. Howell, Undiscovered Conntry, viii. When one lifted his hat . .. he showed his hair cut in front like a young lady's bang.

1880. Ev. Standard, 3 Ap., 4. 4. The present style of banged girl.

1882. Century Mag., xxv. 192. He was bareheaded, his hair banged even with his eyebrows in front.

1883. Pall Mall Gazette, 19 Dec, 4. i. 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.

1883. Harper's Mag., Mar., 492. 2. They wear their ... hair 'banged' low on their foreheads.

1888. Detroit Free Press. Bang, Sister, bang with care; If your poker's too hot you'll lose your hair.

Verb, (common).— I. To excel, surpass, beat: cf. (Irish) that bangs Bannagher and Banuagher bangs the world. Hence (2) to outwit, puzzle, deceive. Also banging = great, large, thumping (q-v.J: e.g. a banging boy, wench, lie etc. ; banger = anything exceptioual _;bang-up = fine, first-rate, of the best (the root idea is completeness combined with energy and dash) : see subs., sense I and quot. 1785. occasionally (as verb.) = to smarten up.

1731. Fielding, Lottery, 2. Ah, think, my lord ! how I should grieve to see your lordship bang'd.

1785, Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Bang-up. (Whip.) Quite the thing. Well done. Complete. Dashing. In a handsome stile. A bang-up cove: a dashing fellow who spends his money freely. To bang up prime: to bring your horses up in a dashing or fine style: as the swell's rattler and prads are bang up prime : the gentleman sports an elegant carriage and fine horses. A man who has behaved with extraordinary spirit and resolution in any enterprise he has been engaged in is also said to have come bang up to the mark; any article which is remarkably good or elegant, or any fashion, act, or measure which is carried to the highest pitch is likewise illustrated by the same emphatical phrase.

1808. Cumb. Ball, iv. 13. Cocker Wully lap bawk-heet ... But Tamer in her stockin feet, She bang'd him out and out.

1812. Smith, Rejected Addresses (1833), 163. Dance a bang-up theatrical cotillion.

1814. Hanger, Sporting 'Flyleaf.' A sportsman entire—who says nay, tells

a danger.

Bang-beggar. 129

Bangster.

1S21. CooMBE, Syntax, iii. 5. Thus banged-up, sweeten'd, and clean shav'd, The sage the dinner-table braved.

1837. Dickens, Life, 11. i. 34. The next Pickwick will bang all the others.

1842. Lever, Jack Hinton, vii. His hat set jauntily ... his spotted neckcloth knotted in bang-up mode.

1844. Whateley [Quart. Rev., xxiv. '368]. We could not resist giving a specimen of John Thorpe . . . altogether the best portrait of .. . the bang-up Oxonian.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, i, xxxiv. In a tax cart, drawn by a bang-up pony . . . his friends, the Sutbury Pet and the Rottingdean Fibber.

1851-61. Mayhew, London Lab., 47. 'It was good stuff and good make at first, and that's the reason why it always bangs a slop, because it was good to begin with.'

1864. Denison [D. Tel., 31 Aug.]. They could win it with a great banging majority.

1882. Punch, Lxxxii. 115. i. 'These then are the dandies, the fops, the goes and the bang-ups, these the Corinthians of to-day.' These fellows are very 'good form,' and as to being bang-up, a good many poor old chappies are deuced hard-up.

1899. Whiteing, John St., viii. They earn halfpence by well-told bangers. They are sent out to lie.

3. (Stock Exchange).—To offer stock loudly with the intention of lowering the price.

1884. Marten and Christopherson, Monthly Circ, 31 Mar. Speculators for the fall are as usual taking the opportunity to bang the market by heavy sales.

Phrases. To be banged up to the eyes = to be drunk: see screwed; to bang (or beat)

the hoof: see Hoof.

Bang-beggar, subs. phr. (common). —I. A stout cudgel. 2. (old) =

a constable or beadle. 3. (old) = a vagabond : a term of reproach.

1865. Waugh, Barrel Organ, 29. Owd Pudge, th' bang-beggar, coom runnin' into th' pew.

BANGER, subs. (American).—A heavy cane ; a bludgeon. [Hall : one of the Yale vocables.]

i8[?]. Yale Lit. Mag., xx. 75. A Sophomore gang . .. Who, with faces masked and bangers stout, Had come resolved to smoke him out.

The Bangers, subs.phr. (military). —The First Life Guards. See Bang, verb.

Bang-pitcher, subs. phr. (old).— A tippler: see Lushington. Hence

to bang the pitcher = to

guzzle : see Lush.

1639. Clarke, Parcemiol., 102. A notable bang-pitcher, Silenus alter.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xvii. He loved heartily ... to bang the pitcher, and lick his dish.

Bangster, subs. (old), i. A bully _;a braggart : also as adj., — turbulent. Hence bangstry = violence.

c. 1570. Leg. Bp. St. Andrews [Scot. Poems 16th C. (1801); 11. 326]. Proude ambitious bangsters.

1594. Acts James VI. (1597), 217. Persones wrangously intrusing themselves in the rowmes and possessiones vtheris be bangstrie and force.

1651. Calderwood, Hist. Kirk (1843), 11. 516. My lord, mak us quite of thir Matchiavelian and bangester lords.

1755. Ross, Helenore [Jamieson]. That yet have bangsters on their boddom set.

2. (Scots').—A victor; winner : cf. bang, verb.

Bangstraw.

130 Bank.

1820. Scott, Abbot, xix. If the Pope's champions are to be bangsters in our very change houses, we shall soon have the changelings back again. Ibid. (1824), St. Ronan's Well, xxiii. If you are so certain of being the bangster—so very certain, I mean, of sweeping stakes...

3. (common).—A wanton; a harlot: see Tart.

bangstraw, subs, (common).—A thresher: also (Grose) 'applied to all the servants of a farmer.'

Bang-tail. (See Bang) subs. 2.

bangy, subs. (Winchester College). —Brown sugar. Also as adj. = brown. Hence bangy bags (or bangies) = brown-coloured trousers. [Wrench: 'the strong objection to these in former times probably arose from Tony Lumpkin coming to school incorduroys.] Also Bangy-gate = (1) a brown gate leading from Grass Court to Sick House Meads ; and (2) a gate by Racquet Court into Kingsgate St.

Banian (or Banyan) -day, subs, phr. (old nautical).—One day (originally two, but see quot. 1748) in the week on which, in the Royal Navy, meat was withheld from the crews ; hence, a bad day, a disagreeable day. [Grose and O.E.D.: in reference to the Banian's abstinence from flesh.]

1690. Ovington [Yules, AngloIndian Glossary], Of kilcheney (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.

1706. Ward, Wooden World, 42. He gets more by one Bannian-Day than many others.

1748. Smoli.ktt, Rod. Random, xx, On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays

the ship's company had no allowance of meat, ... these meagre days were called banyan-days.

1820. Lamb, Elia (Christ's Hospital). We had three banyan to four meat days in the week.

1855. Thackeray, Nezvcomes, lxiii. Knowing the excellence of the Colonel's claret and the splendour of his hospitality, he would prefer a cocoa-nut day at the Colonel's to a banyan-day anywhere else.

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack. [From Strolling Players' bill.] Mr. Wooldridge, with all due respects to his brother Tars, hopes they may never have short allowance —banyan days; or a southerly wind in the Bread Basket.

1885. Household Words, 25 July, 260. There were often six upon four aboard ship, and two banyan days in a week, which being translated is, the rations of four men were served out amongst six, in addition to which, on two days in the week no rations were served out at all.

Banister, subs, (old: now recognised).—Usually banisters = a balustrade. O. E. D. : a corruption of ' baluster' condemned by Nicholson as ' improper', by Stuart and Gwilt (Diet. Archit. 1830) as ' vulgar', the term had already taken literary rank, and has now acquired general acceptance.

banjo, subs, (common).—A bedpan ; a fiddle (q.v.)-, a slipper (q.v.).

bank, subs, (thieves').— 1. A lump sum ; the total amount possessed : e.g. 'Mow's the bank?' = 'Not very strong, about one and a buck.' As verb (a) = to steal, make sure of: e.g. ' Bank the rags ' = ' Take the notes' ; (b) = to place in safety; and (e) = to share the booty, ' to nap the regulars ' (q.v.).

2. (thieves' and obsolete).— Spec. The Bank; i.e. Milbank prison: part of the site is now (1905) occupied by an Art gallery.

Banker.

131 Banquet-beagle.

1889. Answers, 25 May, 412. We approached our destination, Millbank— the bank in a convict's parlance.

1900. Griffiths, Fast and Loose, xxxii. 'The blokes from Dorchester were seen coming out of the bank—' 'What bank?' interrupted Meggit. 'Not one of your kind; Millbank, I mean.

banker, subs, (sporting).—I. A horse, good at jumping on and off banks too high to be cleared.

2. (old).—In pl., clumsy boots and shoes _; beetle-crushers (q.v.): see Trotter-cases.

bankrupt-cart, subs. phr. (old).— 'A one-horse chaise—of a Sunday' (Bee) -, ' said to be so called by a Lord Chief Justice through their being so frequently used on Sunday jaunts by extravagant shopkeepers and tradesmen' (Grose).

Bankruptcy List. To be put on

the bankruptcy list, verb. phr. (old).—To be completely knocked out of time (Grose).

1823. Egan, Randall's Diary, ' Farewell to the Prize-ring.' For Turner I've cleaned out; and Martin the baker, I'd very near fut on the bankruptcy list.

bank-shaving, subs. phr. (American).—Usury: before banks were regulated by Act of Congress, the least reputable purchased notes of hand and similar documents at enormously usurious rates of discount: he who thus raised the wind was said to get his paper shaved.

bankside-lady (or wench), subs, phr. (old).—A harlot: see Tart. In old London the neighbourhood of the theatres was likewise the quarter of the stews (q.v.)— notably Bankside, Southwark _;and in later days, Covent Garden and Drury Lane.

1599. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. v. Some cunning woman here o' the bank-side. Ibid. (1614), Bartholomew Fair, v. 3. Leander I make a dyer's son about Puddle-wharf: and Hero a wench of the Bankside.

1633. Massinger, New Way, iv. 2. You lodged upon the Bankside.

1638. Randolph, Muses' LookingGlass, [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), ix, 206]. Come, I will send for a whole coach or two of Bankside ladies, and we will be jovial.

1721. Strype, Eccl, Mem. 11. i. 17. 142. The Bank-side where the Stews were.

bank-sneak, subs.phr. (common).— A bank thief (q.v.): j« Sneak.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 16 Feb. 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 newsboys').—Money paid for board and lodging : the origin of the term is unknown.

bannister, subs, (old).—A traveller in distress. [Halliwell: the term occurs in the ancient accounts of the parish of Chudleigh, co. Devon.]

Banquet. Running banquet, subs, phr. (old).—A snack, a slight repast between meals: running banquet between beadles, a whipping.

1613. Shakspeare, Henry VIII, nr. 4. 69. Besides the running banquet of two beadles which is to come.

^lf>57. Jordan, Walks Islington. Prologue. A Play of Walks, or you may please to rank it With that which Ladies love, a running banquet.

Banquet-beagle, subs.phr. (old).— A glutton, a smellkeast (q.v.).

Banter. 132

Banter.

^rS99. Jonson, Ev. Man Out of Humour, Dram. Pers. A good feasthound Or banquet-beagle, that will

scent you out a supper some three miles off.

banter, subs, (old : now recognised).—Nonsense; raillery; pleasantry; a jest or matter of jest. As verb, with numerous derivatives: e.g. banterer, banteree, bantering, bantery, etc. [swift says the word was ' first borrowed from the bullies in White Friars, then it fell among the footmen, and at last retired to the pedants' {Tale of a Tub, 1710); O. E. D. : ' of unknown etymology : it is doubtful whether the verb or the sb. was the earlier: existing evidence is in favour of the verb : the sb. was treated as slang in 1688].

1676. Durfev, Mad. Fickle, v. I. ('677) 50. Banter him, banter him Toby. 'Tis a conceited old Scarab, and will yield us excellent sport.

1678. Wood, Life, 6 Sep. The Banterers of Oxford (a set of scholars so called, some M. A.) who make it their employment to talk at a venture, lye and prate what nonsense they please; if a man talk seriously, they talk floridly nonsense, and care not what he says.

1687. Brown, Saints in Uproar [ Works, i. 74]. To banter folks out of their senses.

1688. Shadwell, Sq.Alsatia, i. 1. 15. He shall cut a sham, or banter with the best wit or poet of 'em all.

1690. Locke, Hum. Underst., m, ix. 7. He that first brought the word banter in use, put together as he thought fit, those Ideas he made it stand for

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Banter, a pleasant way of prating, which seems in earnest, but is in jest, a sort of ridicule, What, do you banter vie? i.e. do you pretend to impose upon me, or to expose me to the Company, and I not know your meaning.

1700. Ch. Eng. Loyalty [Somers, Tracts, 11, 562]. 'Tis such a jest, such

a Banter, to say, we did take up Arms, but we did kill him; Bless us, kill our King, we wou'd not have hurt a Hair on his Head.

1705. Whately [Perry, Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. 1. 172]. I know no better way of answering bombast, than by banter.

1709. Steele, Tat 1er, 12. 1. Gamesters, banterers, biters are, in their several species, the modern men of wit.

1710. Swift, Tatler, 230. 7. I have done my utmost for some years past to stop the Progress of Mobb and Banter. Ibid. Tale of a Tub (Apology), 11. Peter's Banter (as he calls it in his Alsatic phrase)upontransubst?ntiatior. ... If this bantering as they call it be so despicable.

1722. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), 11, 659. Such plain raillery, that unless I should learn Banter and Billingsgate, which I still thought below a historian, there is no answering it.

1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), i, 11a. ' You delight to banter your poor servant,' said I.

1754. Chatham, Lett. Nephe-ii', iv. 24. If they banter your regularity, order, and love of study, banter in return their neglect of them.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, Ii. Somebody had been bantering him with an imposition.

1823. Blackwood's Mag., xin, 269. Fixing the attention of the Banteree ... and amusing the company with his perplexity.

1844. Dickens, Martin Chnzzlewit (C D.), 249. She took it for banter, and giggled excessively.

1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng. iii. 369. An excellent subject for the operations of swindlers and banterers.

1865. Carlyle, Fred. Great, ix, xx. vi. 116. PoorQuintuswasBANTEREDabout it, all his life after, by this merciless King.

1865. Carlyle, Fred. Great, iv, ii. iii. 54. Its wit is very copious, but slashy, bantery. Ibid. (1867), Remin. 11. 51. Cooing bantery, lovingly, quizzical.

Bant. 13 3 Bar.

1883. Harper's Mag. Oct. 702. 1. 'Perhaps you intend to embark for Australia?' she added bantekingly.

2. (American).—A challenge to a race, shooting-match, etc. [Bartlett, (1848)]. Also as verb.

bant, verb (common).—Orig. to follow the dietary prescribed by Dr. Banting for corpulence; hence to diet oneself, train.

1864. Times, 12 Aug., 4, The'classics seemed to have undergone a successful course of banting.

1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 June G. If he is ... gouty, obese, and nervous, we strongly recommend him to 'bant'.

1868. Braddon, Only a Clod, 113. A parlour where all the furniture seemed to have undergone a prolonged course of banting.

1881. Echo, 24 June. There'are fewer persons Bantingised in America than in England.

1883. Knowledge, 27 July, 49, 2. Bantingism excludes beer, butter, and sugar.

bantling, subs. (Old Cant: now colloquial or recognised).—A bastard: cf. brat; hence (modern), a child (B. E., Grose): spec, a young or undersized child; usually in depreciation. [Mahn : ' with great probability, a corruption of Ger. bänkling, bastard, from bank, bench, i.e. a child begotten on a bench and not in the marriagebed'].

1593. Drayton, Eclog., vii., 102, Lovely Venus ... smiling to see her wanton bantlings game.

^l(>35Quarles, Emblems, 11., viii. (1718), 93. See how the dancing bells turn round ... to please my bantling.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xlvii. That he may at once deliver himself from the importunities of the mother and the suspense of her bantling.

1756. Connoisseur, 123 (1774), iv, 142. Their base-born bantlings.

1758. Goldsmith, Essays, x. Who follow the camp, and keep up with the line of march, though loaded with bantlings and other baggage.

1809. Irving, Knickerbocker, (1861), 48. A tender virgin, accidentally and unaccountably enriched with a bantling.

1812. Smith, Rejected Addresses. It's a rickety sort of bantling, I'm told, That'll die of old age when it's seven years old.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xiji. Sell me to a gipsy, to carry pots, pans, and beggars bantlings.

banty, adj. (American thieves').— Saucy; impudent.

banyan-day. See Banian-day.

baptised, adj. (old).—Mixed with water, christened (q.v.) (Grose, Bee): spec, of spirits when not taken neat (q.v.): Fr. chrétien, baptisé.

1636. Healey, Theophrastu-, 46. He will give his best friends his baptized wine.

baptist, subs. (old).—' A pickpocket caught and ducked' (Bee).

bar, subs, (old gaming: various).— See quots.

1545. Ascham, 7V.ro/Ai7wfARBER ], 55. Certayne termes .. . appropriate to theyr playing; whereby they wyl drawe a mannes money, but paye none whiche they cal barres.

1592. Nobody and Somebody, 4to, G. 3. Those Demi-bars ... Those bar Sizeaces.

1753. Chambers, Cyclopedia 'Suppt.' Barr Dice, a species of false dice, so formed that they will not easily lie on certain sides.

Verb, and prep., (of respectable lineage, but now more or less colloquial).—1. Except, excluding, save, but for: mostly used in racing, e.g. Four to one bar one, Four to one on the field; that is, on all

Bar.

134 Bar abb as.

the horses entered except ing only the favourite. As verb (2), to exclude from consideration, take exception to.

1598. Shakspeare, M. of Venice, ii., 2, 207. Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge me by what we do tonight.

1611. Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, ii. 25. Good Prince, be not bawdy, nor do not brag; these two I bar.

1648. Herrick, Hesperides, 1. 223. When next thou do'st invite, barre state, And give me meate.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood [Works (1712), in, 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, AZsop, ii. What I have in my mind, out it comes: but bar that; I'se an honest lad as well as another.

1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1725), i, 306. Charity boys ... that swear and curse . .. and, bar the cloaths, are as much blackguard as ever Towerhill... produc'd.

1718. Freethinker, 95. 287. I once more bar all Widowers.

1727. Swift, To Sheridan [Works (1745), viii, 348]. I intended to be with you at Michaelmas, bar impossibilities.

1752. Foote, Taste, ii. Barring the nose, Roubillac could cut as good a head every whit.

1808. Wolcot, Works, v. (1812), 355. They call thee a fine China jar, But I humbly beg to bar.

1809. Smith, Works (1859), 1. 176. i. We bar in this discussion, any objections which proceed....

1818. Scott, Rob Roy, iii. 'I should like to try that daisy-cutter ... upon a . . . level road (barring canter) for a quart. . . at the next inn.'

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, lv. '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. 'Perhaps he may hang himself.'

1870. Standard, 14 Dec. Thissortie, bar miracles, has decided the fate of Paris.

3. (American thieves').—To stop _; to cease. Obviously an attributive meaning of the legitimate word.

4. (American).—To frequent drinking-bars ; to tipple. To bar too much, to get drunk: see Screwed.

BARABBAS, subs, (journalists').—A publisher. [Usually, but erroneously, attributed to Lord Byron, who is said to have applied it to John Murray the elder, having sent him a Bible in which the famous passage in John xviii., 40, was altered to 'Now Barabbas was a publisher'. The reigning John Murray (1905) writes: 'I have it on the authority of my father, who was alive during all the time of his father's dealings with Byron, that there is not a word of truth in any detail of the story'. The joke was in reality made by Thomas Campbell in regard to another publisher, the Mr. Longman of his day].

1891. Smiles, John Murray, n, 336.

s.v.

1901. Free Lance, 9 March, 558. 1. Occasionally, of course, Barabbas catches a Tartar, who threatens legal proceedings, and demands to inspect the publisher's books.

1902. Pall Mall Gaz., 10 May, 1. 3. It is a capital time for the writers of histories, works of erudition, and other books of the class to bring forward their wares. Barabbas will be enabled to give his whole mind to their production before he leaves his splendid mansion in Parklane for his moor in Scotland.

Baragan-tailor. 13 5

Barber.

Baragan-tailor, subs. phr. (tailor's).—A rough-working tailor.

Barathrum, subs, (old colloquial). —An extortioner; a glutton.

1609. Man in the Moon (1849), 27. A bottomlesse Barathrum, a mercilesse monger.

1633. Massinger, New Way etc. iii. 2. You barathrum of the shambles !

barb, verb. (old).—To shave; trim the beard : also to barber : cf. Butch.

1587. Turberville. Tragical Tales C1837), 53. Doe barbe that boysterous beard.

1615. Stafford, Heav. Dogge, 64. I will stare my headsman in the face with as much confidence as if he came to barbe mee.

1663. Cowley, Cutter, Coleman St. ii. 5. Neat Gentlemen ... tho' never wash'd nor barb'd.

1665. Pepys, Diary, 27. Nov. Sat talking, and I barbing against to-morrow.

1864. D. Tel. 15 Feb. Where you can be shaved or 'barbed', as the locution is, shampooed, tittivated, curled.

2. (Old Cant.)—To clip gold, sweat (ç.v.): also applied to clipping wool, cloth, etc.

1610. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1. Ay, and perhaps thy neck within a noose, for laundring gold, and barbing it.

1863. Sala, Capt. Dangerous, n, vii. 226. Gambling bullies ... throwing their Highman, or barbing gold.

barbadoes, verb, (old colloquial). —To transport (as a convict): Barbadoes was formerly a penal settlement.

1635. Gouge [Thurloe, State Papers (1742), in. 49s]. The prisoners of the Tower shall, 'tis said; be Barbadozz'd.

1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), iv, 115. Be barbadoesed or worse.

barbar, subs. (Durham School).— A candidate for scholarship hailing from another school : i.e. barbar-ian, stranger.

barber, subs. (Winchester).—1. A thick fagot or bough: one was included in each bundle of firewood. 2. Any large piece of timber.

3. A generic reproach : thus, barber's-block (clerk, or barber-monger) = a fop; one who spends much time in barbers' shops ; spec, (mechanics) an overdressed shopman or clerk ; barber's cat = a weak, sickly-looking person ; barber's-chair = a strumpet (because common to all comers); barber's-music = rough music. Also (proverbial) 'Nostrils wider than barber's basins.'

1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, ii. 2. A barber's chair that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or any buttock. Hid. (1605). Lear, ii. 2. Draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw.

1621. Burton, Anatomv of Melancholy, III. iv., i, 3. (1651), 665. A notorious strumpet as common as a barber'schair.

1643. Randolph, Muse's Looking Classe. Eyes as big as sawcers, nostrils wider Than barbers basons!

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 barbers music.

1708. Motteux, Rabelais, Pantagr., Prognost. Barber's-chairs, hedge whores.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Barber's chair—as common as a barber's chair in which a whole parish sat to be trimmed.

1835. Dickens, Boz, 155. 'Tailor!' screamed a third. 'Barber's-clerk!' shouted a fourth.

Barberize.

136

Bar'd.

Verb (University).—To work off an imposition by deputy ; also barberise : tradition says that a learned barber was at one time employed as a scapegoat in working off this species of punishment.

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, xii. As for impositions, why . . . Ain't there coves to barberise 'em for you?

3. See barb and barberize. That's the barber, phr. (old).— ' That's well done' ; ' It's all O.K.' (q.v.): 'a street catch-phrase about the year 1760' (Grose).

BARBERIZE, verb. (American).—To shave ; cut hair ; play the barber : cf. Barb.

BARBER'S-KNOCK, subs. phr. (old).— A double knock : the first hard, and the second soft as if by accident.

BARBER'S-SIGN, subs.phr. (venery).— The penis and testes: i.e. (Grose) ' a standing pole and two washbowls'.

bard, subs. (old).—A term of contempt: see quot. 1888.

1449. Act 6 James II (1597), 22. Gif there be onie that makes them fuilis and are bairdes, or vthers sic like rinnares about. Hid. (1457), 80. Sornares, bairdes, maister-full beggers or feinziet fuiles.

c. 1500. Kenneth, Stat. [Balfour, Practicks 680]. All vagabundis, fulis, bardis, scudlaris, and siclike idill pepill, sal be brint on the cheek.

c. 1505. Dunbar, Fly ting, 49. Irsche brybour baird, wyle beggar with thy bratlis.

1609. Skene, Rcj. Mag. 135. Feinzied fooles, bairdes, rynners about . . . after sundrie punishments, may be hanged.

1888. Oxford Eng. Diet., s.v. Bard. In early Lowland Scotch used for a strolling

musician or minstrel, into which the Celtic bard had degenerated, and against whom many laws were enacted; in 16th cent., a term of contempt, but idealised by Scott to mean an epic poet, a singer.

bardash, subs, (venery).—A catamite; an ingle (q.v.). Also as verb = to bugger (q.v.).

1548. Thomas, Ital. Diet. s.v. Zanzeri. .. bardasses.

1598. Florio, IVorlde of Wördes, s.v. Cinedo .., aBARDARSH abuggringboy, a wanton boy, an ingle. Ibid. s.v. Cinedulare, to bugger, to bardarsh, to ingle.

Camer. Hist. Med. 171. Cato, among other things, hit him in the teeth with a certain bardash, whom he had enticed from Rome into France with promise of rich rewards. This womanly youth being at a feast, etc.

1678. Butler, Hudibras in, i. 278. Raptures of Platonick Lashing, And chast Contemplative Bardashing.

1721. Centlivre, Platonic Lady, Essil. With your false Calves, Bardash, and Fav'rites.

bar'd cater tra, phr. (old).— False dice: so constructed that the quatre and trois were seldom cast: cf. fullams, high-men, low-men, etc.

1602. Dekkf.r, Honest Whore, ii. [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed) iii, 437]. I have suffered your tongue, like a bar'd cater tra, to run all this while and have not stopt it.

c. 1608. Rowland, Humors Ordinarie. He hath a stocke whereon his living stayes. And they are fullams and bardquartertrayes.

1612. Art of Juggling, C4. Such be also cal I'd bard cater trcas, because commonly the longer end will of his own sway drawe downewards, and turne up to the eie sice, sinckc, deuce, or ace. The principal use of them is at Novum, for so long a paire of bard cater trcas be walking on the bourd, so long can ye not cast five nor nine unless it be by a great chance.

Bare-board. 137 Bargain.

1630. Taylor, Trav. of 12 pence, 72. Where fullam high and low men bore great sway With the quicke helpe of a

bard cater trey.

Bare-board. To go on bare-board, verb. phr. (gaming).—To play without putting down the stake.

1648-55. Fuller, Church Hist., vi, vii. 3. She was not onely able to lay down her stake, but also to vye ready silver with the King of Spaine, when he, notwithstanding both his Indies, was fain

to go on bare board.

BARE-bones, subs. phr. (old).—A lean person; a walking skeleton; a rack of bones: also (in Commonwealth times) a term of contempt.

1596. Shakspeare, / Henry IV, ii, 4. 358. Heere comes leane Jacke, heere

COmeS bare-bones.

BARE-FOOTED, adj. (American).— Variously applied : e.g. to take tea barefooted = to dispense with sugar and milk; to take a dram barefooted = to drink spirits neat (q.v.), or naked (q.v.)-, barefooted on the top of the head = bald.

Bargain, subs, (old).— A catch, sell (q.v.). Hence, to sell a bargain = to humbug, hoax, banter: a species of low wit, of ancient usage, but much in vogue about the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne. Swift remarks that, ' The maids of honour often amused themselves with it.' A typical example is given by Grose : a person coming into a room full of company, apparently in a fright, cries out, ' It is white, and follows me ! ' On any of the company asking what? the bargain was sold by the first speaker retorting 'My arse.' Dutch (or wet) bargain = a deal clinched

by a drink; Dutch-bargain also means a deal the advantage of which is all on one side. Also in various proverbial phrases: thus, 'To make the best of a bad bargain' (Ray) _; ' At a great bargain make a pause' ; ' More words tiian one go to a bargain'; 'A good bargain is a pick-purse' (i.e.) tempts people to buy what they need not.

1588. Shakspeare, Love's Laiour Lost, in. i. 102. The boy hath sold him

a BARGA1NE.

1623. Mabbe, Guzman [Oliphant, New English, ii. 83. Among the verbs we see ... make the best of a bad bargain.

1640. Braithwait, Boidster Lectures, 81. You may suspect mee that I relate these purposely to sell you a Bargaine.

1678. Otway, Friendship in F. 16. I hate a Dutch bargain that's made in heat of Wine.

c. 1680. Earl of Dorset, Song [Chalmers, E'/g. Poets viii, 345. 1. If a lord should but whisper his love in a crowd, She'd sell him a bargain, and laugh out aloud.

1690. Dryden, Prophetess, Prologue. Then think on that bare bench my servant sat. I see him ogle still, and hear him chat. Selling facetious bargains, and propounding That witty recreation called dumbfounding.

1727. Pope, Bathos, m. The principal branch the alamode in the Prurient ...It consists ... of ... selling the bargains, and double entendre.

1731. Swift, Strephon and Chloc. No maid at Court is less asham'd. Howe'er for selling bargain fam'd.

1790. Boswell, Johnson (i8n), 11, 341. Mrs. Thrale was all for ... according to the vulgur phrase, 'making the best of a bad bargain.'

1805. Windham, Speeches (1812), 11, 271. The recruit took the condition of a soldier, with a guinea to make it a wet bargain.

Barge. 138 Bark.

180g. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 10. I made the best of a bad bargain, finding the luck ran against me.

1876. Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv, xvii. 7. Men had made up their minds to submit what they could not help, and to make the best of a bad bargain.

Barge (or Barge-arse), subs. (old).

I. A fat, heavy person ; one broad in the beam: in contempt. Hence,

as adj. broad-arsed.

2. (printers) (a) A case unduly loaded with ' stamps' not in frequent request, with a shortness of those most in use. Also (b) a card or small box for spaces ; used while correcting away from case.

3. (Sherborne School). Small cricket: played against a wall with a stump for bat.

Verb, (common).—To abuse ; to slang; cf. Bullyrag. Also (Charterhouse and Uppingham) to hustle; to mob up; to brick.

1861. Albert Smith, Medical Student, 102. 'Whereupon they all began to barge the master at once; one saying "his coffee was all snuff and chickweed." '

bargee, subs. (old).—A barge-man or barger (the dictionary terms). [Grose: Cambridge wit.]

1666. Pepys, Diary (187g), vi, 89. Spent the evening on the water, making sport with the Westerne bargees.

1703. English. Spy, 255. The townraff and the bargees.

1831. Hone, Year Book, 672. A great sum is gained by the 'bargees (bargemen, Eton phraseology.)

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxxiil. A country gentleman with the tongue of a Thames bargee and the heart of a Jew pawnbroker.

1861. Kingslev, Ravenshoe, xlii. The bargees nicknamed Lord Welter "the sweep", and said he was a good fellow, but a terrible blackguard.

barge-pole, subs.phr. (Winchester). A large stick or thick bough, of which there was one in each fagot: also any large piece of wood: cf. Barber.

Not fit to be touched with the end of a barge-pole (a pair of tongs, etc.), phr. (common).—Unapproachable through filth, disease, prejudice, or the like.

i663. Lestrange. Quevedo (1678), 22. Your Beauties can never want gallants to lay their Appetites ... Whereas Nobody will touch the ill-favoured without a pair of toncs.

1884. Gould, Dark Horse, xxiv. Such a respectable man . . . wouldn't

touch anything pitchy with a tenfoot pole, eh?

1903. Hvne, Filibusters, xii. You aren't fit for any decent man to touch

except with an execution axe.

bark, subs, (common).—I. A native of Ireland: hence Barkshire = Ireland.

1869. Notes and Queries, 4 S., iii., 406. In Lancashire an Irishman is vulgarly called a bark.

1876. C. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 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.'

1893. Emerson, Lippo, xviii. Thin bad scran to her. Is the 'onerable Mrs. Putney in town? The bark again consulted his book.

1891. Carf.w, A11 tob. of Gipsy, 413. I slung my hook and joined some travelling Barks. Ibid, 434. It ain't no manner 'o use goin' to the expense of bringing a fust class cracksman hall the way from Start to Barkshire,

2. (old).—The skin. Hence, as verb = to abrade (scrape, or rub off) the skin ; to bruise.

Bark.

139

Bark.

c. 1758. Ramsay, Poems (1844), 88. And dang bark Aff's shin.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xx. 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.

1853. Bradley, Further Adv. of Verdant Green, 31. That'll take the bark from your nozzle and distil the Dutch pink for you, won't it?

1856. Hughes, Tom Br-own''s Schooldays, 227. Down they came slithering to the ground, barking their arms and faces.

1859. Macmillan's Magazine, Nov., 18. The knuckles of his right hand were barked.

1S72. Clements, Roughing It, 16. It barked the Secretary's elbow.

1876. Family Herald, 2 Dec, 80, 1. With the bark all off his shins from a blow with a hockey stick.

1884. Harper's Mag., Jan. 305. 2. A barked shin.

3. (old).—A cough : spec, when persistent and hacking : persons thus troubled are said to ' have been to Barking Creek (or Barkshire) (Grose). Also as verb = to cough incessantly. Barker, one with a churchyard cough {q.v.) or notice to quit {q.v.).

1813. Examiner, Feb. 75. 1. The play went on, amidst croaking, squeaking, barking.

4. See Barker.

Phrases. To bark against (or at) the moon (see Barker) _;

to take the bark off == to

reduce in value, to rub the gilt

Off; the word with the bark

on it = without circumlocution, no mincing matters, the straighttip (q.V.); between the bark and the wood (or tree) (of a

well-adjusted bargain where neith

er party has the advantage (Halliwell); to bark through the fence = to take advantage of adventitious shelter or protection to say or do that which would otherwise entail unpleasant consequences; to bark up the wrong tree = to blunder, to mistake one's object or the right course to pursue, 'to get the wrong sow by the ear' ; to go between bark and tree = to meddle: spec, in family matters; the bark is worse than the bite (of one who threatens but fails to do as he vows).

1562. Heywood, Proverls and Epigrams, 67. It were a foly for mee, To put my hande betweene the barke and tree ... Betweene you.

1600. Holland, Livy, xxxvi. v. 921. To deale roundly and simply with no side,

but to gO between the bark and the tree.

1630. Taylor's Workes. 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.

1642. Rogers, Naaman, 303. So audacious as to go betweene barke and tree, breeding suspitions .. . betweene man and wife.

1804. Edgeworth, Mod. Griselda [Works (1832), v. 299]. An instigator of quarrels between man and wife, or according to the plebeian but expressive apophthegm, one who would come between the bark and the tree.

1835. Richmond Enquirer, 8. Sep. '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.

1836. Crockett, Tour down East, 205. When people try to hunt [office] for themselves, .. . and seem to be barking up the wrong sapling, I want to put them on the right trail.

Barker. 140

Barker.

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.

1855. Haliburton, Human Nature, 124. If you think to run a rig on me, you have made a mistake in the child, and barked up the wrong tree.

1872. Clemens, Roughing It, xv. If ever another man gives a whistle to a child of mine, and I get my hand on him, I will hang him higher than Hainan! That is the word with the bark on it.

1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. We ain't rich or pretty, but we are good, and the Professor is barking up the wrong tree.

BARKER, sues, (old).—I. 'A Salesman's Servant that walks before the Shop, and cries, Cloaks, Coats, or Gowns, what d'ye lack, sir ? ' (B. E.). 2. A tout of any description; a doorsman (q.v.): Fr. a bo y eu r.

1822. Hazlitt, Men and Manners, 11, XI. (1869), 232. As shopmen and barkers tease you to buy goods.

1828. Bee, Picture of London, 109. Mock-auctions and 'selling-off ' shops are not the only pests wheie barkers are kept at the doors to invite unwary passengers to 'walk in, walk in, sale just begun.'

1866. London Miscellatiy, 5 May, 201. He said he had been in the habit of frequenting mock auctions .. . They had a barker to entice people in.

1888. Texas Siftings, 13 Oct. 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.

3. (old).—See quot.

1879. Greenwood, Outcasts 0/London. But what was barking? I ... 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.

i. (common).—A noisy (or assertive) disputant; a spouting demagogue; a querulous faultfinder. As verb, to clamour ; to menace ; to abuse. Spec. (5) a big swell (i.e. one asserting himself or putting on side (q.v.) -, and (6) a noisy coward ; a blatant bully ; a lamb (q.v.). Whence to bark at (or against) the moon = to clamour uselessly ; to agitate to no effect ; to labour in vain ; cf. proverb, 'Barking dogs bite not.'

14S3. Caxton, Golden Legend, 273. 4. Whiche sometyme had ben a barker, bytter, and blynde, ayenst the lettres.

1549. Olde, Erasm. Par., 1 Tim. iv. 11. Feare not any mens barkinges.

c. 1553. Latimer, Serin, and Remin. (1845) 320. It is the scripture and not the translation, that ye bark against.

1581. Bell, Maddon's Ansiu. Osor., Si<5. Neither Jerome Osorius nor any other braulyng barker can., molest him.

1599. Greene, George-a-Greene [Doddsley], Old Rays (Reed), iii. 43. That I will try. Barking dogs bite not the sorest.

1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, Ep. Ded. 8. The aduersaries and barkers against Soueraignty.

1655. Heywood, Foot, by Load, i. 1. He hath such honourable friends to guard him, We should in that but bark against the moon.

1663. Lauderd. Papers (1844) i, 131. It ... is intended that that letter shall be a great bark if not a byt.

1672. Ray, Proverb, 76. The greatest barkers bite not sorest; or, dogs that bark at a distance bite not at hand.

1763. Churchill, Apol. [Poems 1, 68J. Though Mimics bark, and Envy split her cheek.

Barker. 141 Barley.

1842. De Duincey, Cicero [ Works vi, 184]. The dark of electioneering mobs is worse than their bite.

1857. Ruskin, Pol, Econ. Art. 35. To launch out into sudden barking at the first faults you see.

1862. Helps, Organ. Daily Life, 123. A review which I delight in . .. because it always barks on the other side to the great barker.

5. See Bark subs. 3.

6. (old).—Generic for firearms. Spec, (in navy), a duelling pistol ; also a lower deck gun. Barking iron is, historically, the older term (Grose).

English synonyms, blue lightning, dag, meat-in-the-pot, my unconverted friend, one-eyed scribe, pop, peacemaker, whistler.

French synonyms. Aboyeur; bayafe ; burettes ; crucifix (or crucifix à ressort); mando let ; pétouze, pied de cochon; pitroux; soufflant.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, 173. Pistols, barking-irons.

1815. Scott, Guy Man tiering,■x.xx.m. 'Had he no arms?' asked the Justice. ' Ay, ay, they are never without barkers and slashers.'

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, 11, vi. 'And look you, prick the touch-hole, or your barking-iron will never bite for you.'

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, xxii. •Barkers for me, Barney,' said Toby Crackit. ' Here they are,' replied Barney, producing a pair of pistols.

1842. Cooper, Jack O'Lanthorne, 1., 151. Four more carronades with two barkers for'ard.

1847. Le Fanu, T. O'Brien, 63. Put up your barking-iron and no more noise.

1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xxiv. 1*11 give you five for those pistols . .. being rather a knowing one about the pretty little barkers.

1871. Echo, 9 Jan. 5. r. The deep bark of our monster war-dogs.

1884. Gould, Dark Horse, xviii. 'This little fellow will bark to more purpose next time' and he handled his revolver tenderly.

1900. Griffiths, Fast and Loose, xxxiii. The barkers may shoot, but they'll hardly hit me.

1901. Walker, In the Blood, 156. Never use a barker unless you're bailed up and there's no other way out.

1902. Oppenheim, False Evidence, xv. 'Put your barker down, you fool,' he shouted.

BARKEY, subs, (nautical).—Any kind of vessel : an endearment. [Clark Russell : Bark for vessel is never used by sailors.]

1847. Barham, Ingolds. Leg. (1877), 87. 'Hookers', barkeys and craft.

1867. Smyth, Sailors WordBook,s.v.

BARLA-FUMBLE! intj. (old Scots).— A call for truce or quarter: also barley.

c. 1550. Christis Kirk Green, xvi. Quhile he cryed barlafummil, I am slane.

1657. CoLViL, Whigs Supplie. (1751), no. When coach-men drink and horses stumble, It's hard to miss a barlafumble.

1814. Scott, Waverley, xiii. A proper lad o' his quarters, that will not cry barley in a brulzie.

BARLEY, subs. (old).—In general colloquial use: thus, oil of barley (or barley-bree, -broth, -juice, -water, or -wine) = (1) strong ale ; and (2) = whisky (Grose) ; barley-island =r an alehouse; John Barley (or Barleycorn) = the personification of malt liquor: cf. proverb, 'Sir John Barleycorn's the strongest knight'; barley-cap = a tippler ; barleymood (or sick) = (1) drunk ; and

Barley. 142 Barmecide.

(2) = ill-humour caused by tippling; also to have (or wear) a barley-hat (-cap, or -hood).

c. 1500. Blowbols Test. [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet, i, 105]. They that be manly in dronkenesse for to fyte, Whan one ther hede is sett a barly-hate.

c. 1529. Skelton, Elinour Ritmmyng, 372. And as she was drynkynge; She fyll in a wynkynge Wyth a barly-hood.

1593. Bacchus Bountie [Harl. Misc. (1809) 11,273]. The barley-broath aboue all other, did beare away the bell, and ... neither grape nor berry might be compared to the maiestie of the mault.

1598. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 67. Some weeuil, mault-worme, barly-cap.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet. s.v. Forbeu. Forbeu ... pot shotten, whose fudling or barley-cap is on.

c. 1620. Pepysian Library. A pleasant new ballad ... of the bloody murther of Sir John Barleycorn. [Title.]

1625. Hart, Anat. Ur. 1, v. 46. The women ... are not so busie ... with the strong barley-water as our British women.

c. 1640. Day, Peregr. Schal. (1881), 72. Goeing to take in fresh water at the Barlie Iland.

c. 1650. Bad Husband [Collier, Roxburghe Ballads (184), 300J. She'd tell me it was too early, Or else it was too late, Until by the oyle of barley They had gotten my whole estate.

1679. Heywood [YorkshireDiaries (Surtees) ii, 262]. He never wore a cap, unlesse it was a barley-cap.

1725. Ramsay, Gentle Shepherd, i. 2. In his barlickhoods, ne'er stick, To lend his loving wife a loundering lick.

1786. Burns, Scotch Drink, iii. John Barley-corn, Thou king o'grain. Ibid. xiii. How easy can the Barley-bree Cement the quarrel.

1727. John Barleycorn [Percy, Reliqucsj John Barlev-corn has got a beard Like any other man.

1790. Morrison, Poems, 151. (Jamieson). Hame the husband comes just roarin'fu'; Nor can she please him in his barlic mood.

1805. A. Scott, Poems, 51. When e'er they take their barley-hoods, And heat of fancy fires their bludes.

1884. Black, Judith Shakspeare, xxxi. A cupful of barley-broth will do thee no harm.

BARLEY-BUN GENTLEMAN, subs. phr. (old).—'A gent, (although rich) yet lives with barley bread, and otherwise barely and hardly.' (Alinsheu).

BARLEY-STRAW, subs. phr. (old).— A trifle.

c. 1721. Prior, Turtle and Sp. She... could plead the law, And quarrel for a barley-straw.

BARMECIDE, subs. (1 iterary).—Usually in the phrase a Barmecide feast = short commons; lenten entertainment. [From the Arabian Nights story of a prince of that name who put a series of empty dishes before a beggar pretending that they formed a sumptuous repast, the beggar facetiously assenting.] Also as adj.

1713. Guardian, 162. The Barmecide was sitting at his table that ready covered for an entertainment.

1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 81. It is a Barmecide Feast; a pleasant field for the imagination to rove in.

c. 1845. Hood, Turtles, xiv. Having tho' one delighted sense, at least, Enjoy'ed a sort of Barmecidal feast.

1854. Mozley, Blanco White, Ess. (1878) 11., 115. To reason simply on the superficies is a Barmecidal proceeding.

1854. Thackeray, Ncwcomes, 11, 103. My dear Barmecide friend.

1863. Reader, 11, 506. Sharing the boundless hospitality of a Barmecide.

Barmy. 143 Barnaby.

BARMY (or BALMY), adj. (common). —Excited; flighty; empty-headed (i.e. full of nothing but froth) _;

barmy-brained = crazy ; barmyfroth = a simpleton; muddlehead ; to put on the balmy stick (prison) = to feign madness.

English synonyms, to be dotty; off one's chump ; sappy ; spoony ; touched ; wrong in the upper story ; half-baked ; have a screw loose; a bee in one's bonnet; no milk in the cocoanut; rats in the upper storey (or cockloft); a tile (screw or slate) loose.

French Synonyms, avoir une écrevisse dans la tourte (or dans le vol-au-veni) ; la boule (or le trognon détraquée; le coco felé; un asticot dans la noisette; un bœuf gras dans le char ; un cancrelat dans la boule; un hanneton dans le reservoir (or plafond) ; un 7tioustique dans la boîte au sel ; un voyageur dans l'omnibus ; une araignée dans le plafond ; une grenouille dans l'aquarium ; une hirottdelle dans le soliveau; une Marsellaise dans le Kiosque; une

punaise dans le soufflet ; une sardine dans l'armoire à glace; une trichinne dans le jambonneatt ; sauterelle dans la guitare; une

pomme de canne fêlée ; une fissure ; un grain; and être un peu toc.

159g. Marston, Sco. l'illanie, 166. Each odde puisne of the Lawyers Inné, Each barmy-froth, that last day did beginne To read his little.

1602. Ret. fr. Ramassas, i, ii [Arber] 9. Such barmy heads wil alwaies be working.

c. 1605. MoNTGOMERIE, PoeillS (1821) 49.

Hope puts that hast into zour hein, Quhilk boyl's zour barmy-brain.

1785. Burns, Works, in, 85. Just now I've taen the fit o' rhyme, My barmie noddle's working prime.

1824. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, xxxii. Corkheaded barmy-brained gowks!

1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. i-i 231. List of patterers' words. Balmy— Insane.

1877. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. I had hardly got outside when he came out like a man balmy.

c. 1888. Music Hall Song 'Salvation Sally.' The people in our alley call me Salvation Sally, They say I must be balmy to go and join the Army.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 6g. You're balmy, mater, off your nut. Ibid. 73. Called the beak " a balmy Kipper," dubbed him "soft about the shell."

1901. Free Lance, 2 Nov. 123. 2 They say, " The folk who made that toque Were ' balmy on the crumpet.' "

Barn. See Parson's barn.

barnaby. TO dance BARNABY, verb phr. (old).—To move expeditiously, irregularly (Grose): [An old dance to a quick movement was so named: but cf. Richard Braithwaite's Drunken Barnaby's fournal, narrating a frolicsome tour through England.] Barnaby-bright (or Long Barnaby) = St. Barnabas's Day, nth June, O.S. : cf. old rhyme—Barnaby Bright ! Barnaby Bright : The longest day and the shortest night.

1595. Spenser, Epiihal. 266. This day the sunne is in his chiefest hight. With Barnaby the bright.

1645. Daniel, Poems (1878) 11, 49. This short December day, It would spin out, to make my Readers say, Long Barnabie was never hälfe so gay.

1650. Fuller, Pisgah, 11, xii. 255.

Staying the Sun in Gibeon. This

was the Barnaby day of the whole world.

Barnacle. 144

Barnard.

1664. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, 15. Bounce cries the port-hole, out they fly, And make the world dance Barnabv.

1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 32. Barnabv-bright would be much too short for him to tell you all that he could say.

1714. Spectator, No. 623. The steward, after having perused their several pleas, adjourned the court to Barnabybright, that they might have day enough before them.

1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, iv. 4. It was but last St. Barnabright They seized him a whole summer night.

barnacle, subs. (old).—i. A close companion; a follower that will not be dismissed, a leech; spec. = a decoy swindler cf. barnard.

1591. Greene, Notable Discovery of Coosnage (1859), 23. Thus doth the Verser and the Setter feign a kind friendship to the Coney... As thus they sit tippling, corns the barnackxe 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.'

1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, in. lie cashiere all my young barnicles. Ibid. (1806) Bel/nan of London [Gros art, Works (1885) 111,131.] He that... before counterfeited the dronken Bernard is now sober and called the barnacle.

1868. Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, i., i., 7. Slopper found him a species of barnacle rather difficult to shake off.

d. 1870. Lemon, Leyton Hall. The man that stood beside thee is old Crookfinger, the most notorious setter, barnacle and foist in the city.

2. (old).—See quot.

1591. Percivall, Sp. Dictionary, s.v. Gango, a barnacle, one that speaketh through the nose, Chenolopex. [Chenalopex in Pliny, a species of goose.]

3. (old).—a good job, or snack easily got (B.E. and Grose).

4. (old).—A gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of horses (B.E. and Grose).

5. (old).—In pi. = spectacles;

bossers (q.v.) goggles (^.7'.). Fr. persiennes. [Formerly applied only to spectacles with side pieces of coloured glass, and used more as protectors from wind, dust &c. than as an aid to the sight.]

1572. Edwards, Damon and Pythias [Dodsley Old Plays (Hazlett) iv., 81]. These spectales put on. Grim. They be gay barnacles, yet I see never the better.

1593 Munday, Def. Contraries, 39. Eye-glasses, otherwise called bernacles.

1693. Motteux, Rabelais, v., xxvii. They had barnacles on the handles of their faces, or spectacles at most.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, i. ' Give me the barnacles, my good youth, and who can say what nose they may bestride in two years hence ? ' Ibid. (1823), Peveril, viii. No woman above sixteen ever did white-seam without Barnacles.

1878. Stephenson, Inland Joy, 6. A gleam of spectacles. For though handsome lads, they were all (in the Scotch phrase) barnacled.

6. (old).—' A Brake for unruly Horses Noses' (B.E.).

7. (Old Cant.).—'The Irons Fellons wear in Gaol' (B.E.; Dyche, Grose).

barnard, subs. (old).—A sharper's confederate; a decoy: cf. Barnacle.

1532. Dice Play (1850), 37. Another oily theft... is the barnards law : which, to be exactly practised asketh four persons at least, each of them to play a long several part by himself.

1562. Bclleyn [Babees Booke (186S), 242]. With a Barnards blowe lurkying in some lane, woode, or hill top.

Barnburner. 145 Barney.

1591. Greene, Disc. Cozenage (1859), 8. Foure persons were requited . .. the Taker up, the Verser, the Barnard, and Rutter. Ibid. [IYorhs[i8S$), x, 10]. Comes in the Barnard stumbling into your companie, like some aged Farmer of the countrey . .. and is so carelesse of his money, that out he throweth some fortie Angels on the boords end.

1608. Dekker, Belman Lond.\}Vorks (1S85) in, 126]. The Bernard ... counterfets many parts in one, and is now a drunken man, anon in another humour . . onely to blind the cozen .. the more easily to beguile him. [See the whole passage.]

barnburner, subs. (American political).—A member of the radical section of the Democratic party (U.S.A.).

c. 1848. New York Tribune [Bartlett]. This school of Democrats was termed Barnburners, in allusion to the story of an old Dutchman, who relieved himself of rats by burning down his barns which they infested,—just like exterminating all banks and corporations, to root out the abuses connected therewith.

barndoor, i. A target too large to be easily missed : cf. quot. 1547. Hence barndoor practice, a battue : the quarry is driven within a radius from which it is impossible for it to escape.

1547. Heywood, Four F's [Dodsley], Old Plays (Reed), i, 87. Bendynge his browes as brode as barne durres.

1679. 'Tom Ticklefoot,' Trials of Wakeinan, 9. My Old Master Clodpate would have been hanged before he would have missed such a Barn-dore.

2. (cricket).—A player who blocks every ball.

barndoor-savage. A country yokel; farm-labourer; clodhopper.

barnet! intj. (Christ's Hospital: obsolete). Nonsense! humbug!

barnet-FAIR (or barnet), subs.phr. (rhyming).—The hair.

18S7. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. Come, cows-and-Kisses, put the battle-ofthe Nile on your Barnet-fair.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, no. And the start was all Sir Garnet, Jenny went for Emma's Barnet.

barney, subs, (common).— i. Generic for humbug or deceit: spec, (sporting) an unfair competition of any kind—a race, prize fight, or game; the term is never applied to a fair contest. Hence a free fight, or rough and tumble, in which the 'rules of the game' are not too strictly observed.

1865. B. Brierley, Irkdale, n., 19. I won thee i' fair powell one toss an' no barney.

1882. Evening News, 2 Sept., 1, 6. Blackguardly barneys called boxing competitions.

1884. Referee, 13 April, 7, 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, 3 Jan., 3, 4. Few genuine matches have taken place this season on the Transatlantic waters, though exhibitions and barney contests have been plentiful.

1888. Boldrewood, Squatter's Dream, ii. We had a sair barney, well nigh a fight you might be sure.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 115. The morning the Derby was run for, the barney was well understood, Old Feet gave the jockey the cough drop, which I'd fated for the animal's good.

1901. Walker, hi the Blood, 20. And now if I don't knock Poss Stevens out, there'll be a barney an' a scrap between 'is push an' my push.

2. (common).—A spree; a lark (q.v.); a picnic (q.v.).

1899. Whiteing, John St., xxi. I darkly hint at a barney in the provinces. It is enough for them, as it is for me.

Barn-mouse. 146 Barrack.

3. Harvard College.—A bad recitation (c. 1810); whence to barney = to recite badly. (HALL, College Words and Customs.')

Barn-mouse. Bitten ey a barnmouse, phr. (old).—Tipsy ; screwed (q.v.): see Barley (Grose).

barnstormer, subs, (theatrical).— A strolling player: spec, a mouthing actor {see quot. 1886): also barnstorming.

1834. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 June, 5, i. If this be barn-storming, Betterton and Garrick were barn-stormers.

1886. Graphic, 10 April, 309. 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 earn-stormers, and a ranting, noisy style of acting and speaking is still called 'barn-storming.'

18C7. Referee, 21 August, 3, 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-stormek. Ibid. (1:901), 28 Ap. 3,4. The new drama at the Ambigu—" Le Petit Muet"—by Henri Kcroul, is slightly of the barn-storming order.

barnumese, subs, (journalist's).— The high-faluting (q.v.) language so lavishly used by the late P. T. Barnum in advertising the greatest show on earth ; exaggeralion of slyle: cf. Telegraphese. Hence tobarnumi/.e = (1) to exhibit wilh a lavish display of puffing advertisement; (2) = lo talk of (or arscil) oneself bombastically in the siyle of Barnum.

1831. Hodgson \T.ife , (iC8-:), vi, 87]. Barnumised .'inil pufi< d as Napo'eon has been, lie is not popular.

1852. Blackwood's Mag. Ixxii, 307. Barnumizing the prodigy through Europe.

1862. D. Tel. 20 Oct. It is Barnumism that prompts clergymen to tell their flocks that they must fight the Confederates till Hell freezes, and then fight them on the ice.

barnwell-ague, subs. phr. (venery). — Venereal disease: see ladiesfever.

baronet, subs. (old). — A sirloin of beef: cf. baron.

17.19. Fielding, Tom Jones, iv., x. To say grace, and to declare he must pay his respects to the baronet, for so he called the sirloin.

barrack, verb. (Australian). — To jeer at opponents, interrupt noisily, make a disturbance ; also, with for, to support as a partisan, generally wilh clamour: an Australian football term dating from about 1880: the verb has been ruled unparliamentary by the Speaker in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, but it is in veiy common colloquial use: it is from the aboriginal word borak (q.v.), and Ihe sense of jeering is earlier than that of supporting, but jeering at one side is akin to cheering for the other (Morris). Hence barracking and barracker.

1890. Melbourne Punch, 14 Aug., 106, 3. "To 11 e a football phrase, they to a man barrack for the British Lion."

1893. Age, 17 June, 15, 4. [The boy] goes much to football matches, where he barracks, and in a gênerai w;;y makes himself intolernhle. Ibid, r.7 June, 6, 6. His worship remarked that the barracking... at football mutches was a mean and contemptible system ... people were afraid lo go to thein on account of the ' bai rnckcrs.' It took all the interest out of the game to see young men acting like a gang of larrikin^,:.

1893. Argus, 5 July, 9, 4. He hoped ibis barracking would not be continu» d. Ibid. 79 Nov., 4, 9. The Pieni er, who was Mr. Roger's principal dakkacker

Barrack-hack. 147 Barrel-bellied.

during the elections, turned his back upon the prophet and did not deign to discuss his plan.

1893. Herald (Melbourne), 9 Sept. i, 6. He noticed witli pleasure the decrease of disagreeable barracking by spectators at matches during last season.

BARRACK(or GARRISON)-HACK, subs, phr. (military).—I. A young woman attending garrison balls year after year. 2. A soldiers' trull: see Hackney.

BARRED-GOWN, subs. phr. (old). — An officer of the law ; spec, a judge: broad stripes or bars of gold lace ran across the front of the gown.

BARREL,subs, (common).— I. A confirmed tippler : also beer-barrel. Whence barrel-house (American) = a low gi'oggery ; barrelfever = drunkenness(or disease caused by tippling): see Gallondistemper _; barrel-boarder = a bar loafer.

1888. Missouri Republican, 11 Feb. The West-Side police are still arresting barrel-house loafers in the hope of catching an expert cracksman among them.

2. (American political).— Money used in a political campaign ; spec, that expended for corrupt purposes : cf. boodle. Hence barrel-campaign = an election in which bribery is a leading feature. [A wealthy candidate for office (c. 1876) is said to have remarked, ' Let the boys know that there's a bar'l o' money ready for 'em,' or words to that effect.]

1884. Boston (Mass.) Journal, 1 Nov., i. We are accustomed to barrel-campaigns here ... the Democrats depend upon carrying it with money.

1888. Florida Times Union, 11 Feb., 4. Mr. Flower was the nominal candidate of the anti Cleveland men four years ago, and with the aid of his barrel they achieved some show of success.

Never (or the devil) a barrel the ee'j'ti'.r herring, phr. (old). —Much alike, not a pin to choose between them ; six of one and half a dozen of the other. Also

neither (or like) barrel nor

herring = neither; the same

herring (or br an) and barrel —

identical ; the same kidney (q.v.).

1542. Udal, Erasmus Apoph. 187. Two feloes being like flagicious, and neither barrel better herring, accused either other.

1579. Gosson, School of Abuse, 32. Therefore of both barrelles I judge Cookes and Painters the better hearing.

1582. Stanihurst, Kneid, ii, 56. I lyk not barrel or hearing.

[1659. Ganden, Tears of the Church, 245. They disdain to pay any more civility or outward respect to their minister than they challenge to themselves, or than they give to their meanest comrades, which are of the same bran and barrell with themselves.]

1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 373, Similes habebaut " The devil a barrel the better herring," (labra laciucas = 'like lips, like lettuce').

1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, x, v. "Never a barrel the better herring," cries he... the lady in the fine garments is the civiler of the two; but I suspect neither of them are a bit better than they should be."

1789. Walpole, Letters, iv. 490. Vive la reine Billingsgate! the Thalestris who has succeeded Louis Quatorze. A committee of those Amazons stopped the Duke of Orleans, who, to use their style, I believe is not a barrel the better herring.

BARREL-BELLIED, adj.phr. (common). —Well-rounded in stomach ; corpulent (1694).

Barrell's Blues. 148 Barter.

1694-7. Dryden, Virgil. G. iii. Dauntless at empty noises, lofty neck'd, Sharpheaded, barrel-belly'd, broadly-back'd.

barbell's blues, (military).—The Fourth Foot, now The King's Own (Royal Lancashire Regiment): from its facings and Colonel's name from 1734 to 1739

barres, subs, (gaming).—Money lost at play, But not paid: a corruption of 'barrace', an obsolete plural of bar.

1544. Ascham, Toxophilus. Whereby they wyl drawe a mannes money but pay none, which they call barres.

barrikin, subs, (common),—Gibberish; jargon; jumble of words: e.g. ' Stash ' (' stow ' or ¹ cheese ') your barrikin ' = Hold your jaw! Do you 'tumble' to that barrikin ? r= Do you understand ? Do you ' twig ' ?

1831-61. Mryhew, Loudon Lab. 1., 15. 'The high words in a tragedy we call jaw-breakers, and say we can't tumble to that barrikin.' Ibid. 23. Can't tumble to your barrikin [i.e., can't understand you]. Ibid. 27. The rich have all that barrikin to themselves.

Barring Out, subs. phr. (old).— A half serious but oftentimes jocular rebellion of schoolboys against their schoolmaster. [Halliwell: An ancient custom at schools : the boys, a few days before the holidays, barricade the school room from the master, and stipulate for the discipline of the next half year. According to Dr. Johnson, Addison, in 1683, was the leader in an affair of this kind at Lichfield.]

1728. Swift, Journal 0/ a Modern Lady. Not schoolboys at a barring-out, Raised ever such incessant rout.

1847. Tennyson, Princess, 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. phr. (old).—A man under sentence of transportation.

barrow-tram, subs.phr. (common). —A raw-boned person : properly the shaft of a wheelbarrow.

barter, subs. (Winchester College). —A half volley: as verb, to hit hard. [From the Warden of thai name famous for disposing of them.] Hitting barters = practice catching, full pitches hit from the middle of Turf towards Ball Court for catching practice towards the end of Long Meads.

c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life, 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, H'rkeliamica, 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.

Bartholomew-baby. 149 Bash.

Bartholomew-baby (or puppet), subs. phr. (old.— I. A gaudily dressed doll, such as appears to have been commonly sold at Bartholomew Fair. 2. A person gaudily dressed.

1670. Brooks, Works(\%dj)v\,ç₁ T.,%.v.

1682. Wit and Drollery, 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.phr. (old). — Roasted pigs 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 ; pregnant women were supposed to long violently for roastpig. Hence a Bartholomewpig became a common subject of allusion: the Puritan railed against it. The fair was founded in 1133 and abolished in 1854.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., ii., 4. Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomewboar-pio.

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.

1630. Gayton, Festivious Notes, 57. Like Bartholomew Fair pic-dressers, who look like the dams, as well as the cooks of what they roasted.

1636. Davenant, The Wits, iii. 1. The gaping lies on every stall, Till female with great belly call.

barts, subs, (medical).—St. Bartholomew Hospital.

bar-wig, subs. phr. (B.E.).—'Between a bob and a long one.'

Bas. See Buss.

bash (or pash), verb, (popular).— To beat; thrash; crush out of shape. Also as subs, (or b) Bashing = a flogging, spec, with the 'cat'; BASHiNG-iN = a flogging just after conviction, and bashing out == a flogging just before release from prison ; basher = (1) a rough ; and (2) = a prize-fighter: see Lamb.

1592. Nashe, Strange Neives, in wks. 11., 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.

1790. A. Wilson, Pack, s.v. 1805. J. NicoL, Poems, s.v. c. 1817. Hogg, Tales, s.v. 1833. Scott, Tom Cringle, s.v.

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, iii., 157. There were the evidences of former floggings, or bashings, as the prisoners call them.

1882. Daily Telegraph, 9 Dec, 2. 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 publichouse in Bear Street, and to bash the woman he would point out to him in Portland Street.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versa, xii. 'If you have got bashed about pretty well since you came back, it's been all your own fault, and you know it.'

1882. Daily Telegraph, 16 Dec. 2. 6. According to the statement of the proecuting 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.

18S3. Standard, 2 March, 6, 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.

1896. Griffiths, Fast and Loose, M3s-^v-

Bashaw. 150 Basket.

BASHAW, subs, (common).—I. A pasha. 2. A great (or imperious) man; a grandee.

1593. Nashe, Christ's Tears (1613) 85, s.v.

c. 1670. Hacket, Life of Williams, i, 82. In every society of men there will be some Bashawes, who presume that there are many rules of law from which they should be exempted.

c. 1704. Gentleman Instructed, 203. He desired my company to a minister of state upon business, but the Bashaw was indisposed, i.e. not to be accosted.

1749. Walpole, Letters, i. 213. The fair Mrs. Pitt has been mobbed in the park, and with difficulty rescued by some gentlemen, only because this bashaw (Duke of Cumberland) is in love with her.

1794. Godwin, Cal. Williams, 16, s.v. 1872. Eliot, Middlemarch, liii. s.v.

BASHI BAZOUK, subs, (common).— A ruman: 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 when Bulgarian atrocities were electrifying the world by their barbarous cruelty.

1855. Wynter, Cur. Civilis., 11, 404. s.v. 1861. Sala, Twice Round Clock, 33, s.v.

BASH-RAG, subs, phr. (old).—A ragamuffin, (c. 1600. j. Davies, Extasie, 35 s.v.).

BASIL, subs. (Old Cart).—A fetter: usually fastened on the ankle of one leg only, (1592, Greene).

BASIN (or BASON), subs, (old).— I. It was customary when bawds and other infamous persons were carted, for a mob to precede them, beating metal basins, pots, and other sounding vessels, to

increase the tumult, and call more spectators together. (Nares): See Brass-Bacon.

1578. Whetstone, Promos and Cassandra, 11, iv. 2, s.v.

159t. Harington, Ariosto, xvii. 89. With scornful sound of basen, pot, and pan, They thought to drive him thence, like bees in swarmes.

1602. Dekker, Honest Whore, [Dodsley], Old Plays (Reed), iii. Why before her does the bason ring?

1613. Browne, Brit. Past, i. 4. Then like a strumpet drove me from their cells, With tinkling pans, and with the noise of bells.

1630. Jonson, New Inn, iv. 3. And send her home Divested to her flannel in a cart. Lat. And let her footman beat the bason afore her.

2. (American).—A schooner [q.v.).

Basing. That's Basing, phr. (old gaming).—An expression used when clubs are turned up trumps. [The siege of Basing House was one of the most memorable of the incidents of the Parliamentary War, the usual explanation of the phrase being that " Clubs were trumps when Basing was taken."]

basinite, subs. (Charterhouse: nearly obsolete).—A hot-water fag: he has to get hot water and towels ready for a monitor when he descends to wash in cocks (q.v.).

baskefyske, subs, (venery).—Copulation: See Greens ; Co/avoids Daunec, 116 ; and Hazlitt's Early Pop, Poetry i. 43.

basket, subs, (tailors').—Stale news.

Intj. (cocking).—An exclamation frequently made use of in cockpits where persons, unable

Basket. i S i

Bass.

to pay their losings, are adjudged to be put into a basket suspended over the pit, there to remain till the sport is concluded (Grose). Phrases— To go to the basket = to go to prison: poor prisoners in public gaols were mainly dependen on the almsbasket for sustenance ; to pin the basket = to conclude a matter ; to be left in the basket — to remain unchosen, to be rejected (or abandoned); left to the last; the pick of the basket = the best, choicest ; to bring to the basket = (i) to reduce to poverty, (2) to imprison; to leave in the basket = to leave in the lurch ; in the basket — pregnant, lumpy (q.v.). See Eggs and Basket-making.

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.

c. 1659 Osborn, Observ. Turks, s.v. 1670. Ray, Proverbs [Bolin], 149, s.v.

1700. Gentlemen Instructed [1732], 6. God be praised ! I am not brought to the basket, though I had rather live on charity than rapine.

d. 1841. Hook, Gerv. Skinner, iii Skinner was quite enchanted with the brilliancy of his guests, although now and then a little puzzled at their allusions; their jokes were chiefly local or professional and very frequently my excellent friend Gervase was, to use a modern phrase of general acceptation, basketed.

1818. Egan, Boxiana, 1, 79. The fight was soon over after this circumstance, and the sweaters and trainers were completely in the basket!

1840. Barham, Ingoldsby Leg. (House Warming). Whatever he wants, he has only to ask it, And all other suitors are left in the basket.

1866. Yates, Land at Last... . And find you in his den, lighting it up like—like —like—I'm regularly basketed by jove !

1874. Bell's Life, 26 Dec. The pick of the basket, a compact young greyhound.

Basket-justice, subs. phr. (old).—

i860. Wyntf.r, Curios. Civiliz. 493» s.v.

basket-making, subs. phr. (old).— Copulation : see Greens and Ride.

TO have a kid in the basket =

to be pregnant ; to be lumpy (q.v.).

basket-meeting, subs. phr. (American).—A camp meeting serving also as a picnic : each one or party contributing their own basket.

basket-scrambler, subs. phr.— One living on charity, in receipt of alms : see Basket.

1647. Stapylton, Juvenal, 40, s.v.

bass, subs, (common).— I. Bass' ale : brewed at Burton-on-Trent.

1853. Bradley ('Cuthbert Bede'), Adventures of Verdant Green, 23. The young gentleman exhibited great capacity for the beer of Bass, and the porter of Guinness.

1863. Oudia, Held in Bondage, I., 65. Those idle lads in the Temple, who smoke cavendish and drink Bass. Ibid. 126. Discussing Bass and a cold luncheon.

1868. Braddon, Only a Clod, 1., 138. A lot of fellows drinking no end of Bass.

i8(?). Thomas, A Passion in Tatters, i., no. Bass that was not worthy of its name.

2. (old).—A kiss: also buss (q.v.). Also as verb.

c. 1450. Court Love, cxiv., s.v. ; c. 1500. Bk. 3/ayd Emlin, 26, s.v.; c. 1529. Skelton, My darling dere, 9, s.v.

1530. Calisto and Mel. [Dodsley], Old Plays (Hazutt), i., 74. Thus they kiss and bass.

Basta. 152

Bat.

1562. Heywood, Prov. and Epig. (1867), 57. He must nedes basse hir.

1570. Wit and Science, (1848), 13. Wyt. Ye, let hym bee, I doo not passe! Cum now, a basse! Hon. Ree. Nay, syr, as for bassys, From hence none passys, But as in gage Of maryage.

basta! intj. (old).—It is enough! No more! No matter!

1596. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, i. 1. Basta, content thee, for I have it full.

1632. Brome, Court Beggar, iv. 1, s.v.; 1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, 11, iii, 40, s.v.

bastard-brig, j«^5.//;r.(nautical).— A coasting vessel : also schoonyorgy and hermaphrodite brig.

baste, verb (common).—To thrash = beat soundly: e.g., 'I'll baste your sides, Sirrah, He bang you bastely' (B.E.): also to baste

one's jacket; anoint ( q.V.).

Basting = a cudgelling, tanning (q.v.) : also dry-basting _; basting = (1) a heavy blow, (2) a stick or cudged, and (3) one who thrashes or bastes.

1533. Bellenden, Livy, in. (1822), 223. He départit weil basit and defuleyeit of his clothing.

1590. Shakspeare, Com. Errors, ii. 2. 64. Ant. S. I pray you eat none of it . . . Lest it make you choleric, and purchase me another dry basting.

1509. Greene, George-a-Greene, [Grosart (Works) xiv. 174]. He baste you both so well, you were neuer better basted in your Hues.

1605. Tryall of Chevalry, iii. 1. [Bullen, Old Plays, in. 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. 4. 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.

1720. Swift, Irish Feast, s.v.; 1726. Wagstaffe, Misc. Works, s.v.; 1770. Smith, Bk. Rainy Day (1861). 14.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 2. He daily, aye, and nightly, Took pains to baste their jackets tightly.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, i S., xix., 328. ' Hold your row, Davvy,' he roared out, wrathfully; 'you'd not like me to come back and give you a basting.'

baster, subs. (American).—1. A house thief (q.v.).

2. (old).—A stick; a cudgel.

3. See Baste.

basterly-cullion, subs. phr. (old). —A bastard's bastard: Fr. couillon.

bastile, subs, (old).—I. A workhouse.

1883. Cuthbert Bede, in Graphic, 2 June, 558, 2. Mister Corbyn had always called the workhouse by the opprobrious epithet of the basteel.

2. (old).—A prison: see Cage-, also steel (q.v.).

bat, subs. (old).— I. A prostitute: cf. fly-by-night : Fr. hirondelle de nuit : see Tart. For full lists of synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1612, Sylvester, Lacrymce Lacrymar it m, 101. Bats, Harpies, Syrens, Centaurs, Bib-all-nights.

[ ? ] Old Ballad, ' Long Live the King,' 52, s.v.

2. (American).—A spree: a frolic; a drunken bout: see Batter.

1889. Bird o' Freedom, 7 Aug., t. Mr. Pote: If she had been bitten by the

Bat.

153

Bate.

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.) ; rate ; manner; style: e.g. 'going off at a lively bat.'

1880. D. Teleg. 11 Mar. Going off at a lively bat of 34 . . . the boat travelled at a good pace.

1887. Daily News, 18 August, 6, 3. Here they come, a mixed flock of birds full bat overhead.

To bat one's eyes, phr. (American and dialectical in England). — I. To wink _; toblink; a Southwestern term.

1846. Overland Monthly, 79. 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.

1883. J. Harris [Century Mag. May, 146]. You hoi' your head high; don't you bat your eyes to please none of'em.

2. (American gaming).—To look on ; watch : of a bystander not playing.

To bat one on the head, verb. phr. (American).—To strike one on the head.

Off or on one's own bat, phr. (popular).—By oneself ; through one's own exertions ; unaided : a figurative usage of a cricketing term.

1845. Sydney Smith, Fragm. Irish Ch., wks. 11., 340, i. He had no revenues but what he got off his own bat.

1855. Lord Lonsdale, [Croker Papers (1884), vol. in., 325.] Derby ... would not make a ministry from his own friends or his own bat.

1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, 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, 8 March, 308. 2. He has in the most workmanlike manner, and off his own bat, lost for the Government an important seat by a crushing majority.

1899. Whiteing, John St., 123. I mean to do this little bit off my own bat.

To carry out one's bat, phr. (popular).—To carry through an undertaking; to outlast all opponents ; to secure the result aimed at.

1874. M. Collins, Frances, 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.

BATCH, verb (common).—To live single : of both sexes : a corruption of 'batchelor'.

BATCHELOR's SON, subs. phr. (old). —A bastard.

Bate. Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton ! phr. (old).—An expression of credulity; 'Excuse me! You're going it too strong!' Hence to bate an ace = to hesitate; to show reluctance.

d. 1535. Sir Thomas More, U'orks, 18. liar. I use all to George Philpots at Dowgate; hees the best backswordeman in England. Kit. Bate an ace of that, quoth Bolton. Har. lie not bate ye a pinne on't, sir; for, by this cudgell, 'tis true.

1563. Edwards, Damon and Pythias [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), i., 224]. Grimme. Nay there, bate me an ace, quoth Boulton.

1578. Whetstone, Promos and Cassandra, iv., 7. Bate me an ^ce, quoth Boulton: Tush, your mind I know: Ah sir, you would belike let my cock sparrows goe.

c. 1600. Camden, Remains, ' Proverbs ' [Smith (1870), 319]. Bate me an ace of that, quoth Bolton.

Bate's Farm. 154

Bathing

c. 1600. Day, Beggar Bed. Green (1S81), no. Bate me an ace of that, quod Bolton.

1615. H. P[arrot]. Mastive. A pamphletwasof proverbspenn'dby Polton, Wherein he thought all sorts included were; Until one told him Bate m'an ace, quoth Bolton: Indeed (said he) that proverb is not there.

1616. Haughton, Engl, for my Money, ii. 2. Yet a man may want of his will, and bate an ace of his wish.

1633. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1. Go to, I will not bate him an ace on't.

1670. Ray, Proverbs, 177. Queen Elizabeth, by aptly citing this proverb, detected that it was wanting in a collection presented to her. It was asserted, that all the proverbs in the English language were there; "Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton," answered the queen, implying that the assertion was probably too strong; and, in fact, that very proverb was wanting.

1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke (1875), iv. 60. The exposer has not bated him an ace.

1733. North, Lives of Norths (1826), 111. 323. Bating him that ace he was truly a great man. Ibid., Examen, 1. iii. 138. His Lordship was within Ams-ace. of being put in the plot.

A ROUSING BATE, Slibs. phr. (Eton).—A great rage.

bate's farm (or garden) (thieves: obsolete).—Coldbath Fields prison : from an official of that name and a certain appropriateness in the initials, C.B.F., the prison initials, and used as a stamp. TO FEED THE CHICKENS ON

Charley Bates' Farm = to be put to the tread-mill.

i8[?]. Broadside Ballad, • Old Bates's Farm'. So if I should touch lucre, For a time 1 will keep calm, If I don't see you here some night,I shall at Bates' Farm.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 72. On a holiday to Bates' Farm his gentle Maud he sent.

bat-FOWLER, subs. phr. (old).—A swindler; sharper; victimiser of the unwary. Bat-fowling = swindling ; rookery.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London [Grosart, Works, iii. 131]. Sometimes likewise this Card-cheating goes not under the name of Bernard's Lawe, but is called Batt fowling.

bath. Go to Bath ! phr. (old).— A contemptuous injunction to be off; Go to blazes; Hull, Halifax —anywhere : the injunction was intensified by ' and get your head shaved,' a suggestion of craziness. To go to Bath = to go begging : Bath in the latter days of the 17th century was infested with the cadging fraternity.

1588. Lambard, The Oftice of the Justices of the Peace, 334. Such two Justices may. ... License diseased persons (living of almes) to trauell to Bathe, or to Buckstoue [Buxton], for remédie of their griefe.

[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.]

1840. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, (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, 16 Oct., 362. You tell a disagreeable neighbour to go to Bath in the sense in which a Roman would have said abi in malam rem.

bathing-machine, subs. phr. (nautical).— i. A 10 ton brig. Also (2. London busmen) a four-wheeled cab, or GROWLER {q.v.).

Batie-brim

155

Batter.

Batie-brim (oi-Batie-brimmil), subs, phr. (old).—A useless bungler; slow-coach ; inactive helpless fellow.

c. 1550. Christis Kirk; 1572. Ar

butiinot.

BAT-MUGGER, subs.phr. (Winchester College). A wooden instrument used for rubbing oil into cricket bats.

BATTELS, subs, (old University).— The weekly bills of students at Oxford. [Murray : 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. It appears that the word has apparently undergone progressive extensions of application, owing partly to changes in the external 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 fom the kitchen : but this latter use is disavowed by others]. Also as verb, and Battler = an Oxford student _;formerly used in contradistinction to a gentleman commoner. See Battlings.

1570. Levins, Manip. Vocab. 38. [Oliphant, New English, i. 579. Then battle commons; the terms are still wellknown at Oxford].

1607. Puritan [Malone, Suppt, ii. 543]. Eat my commons with a good stomach, and battle with discretion.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet. [Nares]. To battle (as scholars do in Oxford), être débiteur au collège pour ses vivres. Mot usé seulement jeunes écoliers de l'université d'Oxford.

1617. Minshen, Guide unto Tongues, Cue, hälfe a farthing, so called because they set down in the Battling or Butterie Bookes in Oxford and Cambridge the letter q for hälfe a farthing, and in Oxford when they make that Cue or q a farthing, they say Cap my q, and make

it a farthing thus *

1678. Phillips, Worldof'Words,s.v.

1706. Hearne; 1733. North; 1744. Salmon; 1791, 1824. D'Israeli; 1792. Gentleman's Mag.; 1824. Heber; 1824. Arnold.

1798. H. Tooke, Pur ley, 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.

1853. Cuthert Bede, Verdant Green 11., vii. The Michaelmas term was drawing to its close. Butter)' and kitchen books were adding up their sums total ; bursars were preparing for battels.

d. 1S59. De Quincey, Life and Memoirs, 274. Many men battel at the rate of guinea a week and wealthier men more expensive, and more careless men even battelled much higher."

1886-7. Dickens, Dictionary of Oxford and Cambridge, 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.

BATTEN, verb. (B.E.).—¹ To Fatten' (1696).

BATTER, subs, (common).—I. Wearand tear; e.g., 'the batter is more than can be stood for long'; 'battered-bully, an old wellcudgell'd and bruis'd huffing Fellow' (B.E.). To go on the

B atterfang.

156 Battledore.

batter = to indulge in debauchery of any kind—drunkenness, whoring, etc. Battered = drunk : see Screwed.

1899. Whiteing, John St., xxi. D'ye call that goin' on the batter?

2. (printers').—In pi. = broken and battered type _; these find their way to the hell-box (q.v.) and are eventually melted down.

BATTERFANG, verb. (old).—To beclaw _; attack with fists and nails.

1630. Taylor, Works. A poore labouring man was married and matched to a creature that so much used to scold waking, that she had much adoe to refraine it sleeping, so that the poore man was so batterfang'd and belabour'd with tongue mettle, that he was weary of his life.

c. 1709. ward, England'sReformation. The Pastor lays on lusty bangs, Whitehead the Pastor batter-fangs.

BATTERING-PIECE, subs. phr. (venery). —The penis: see Prick (Clelland).

BATTERY, subs. (B.E.).—Beating, assault, also, striking with the Edge and feble of one's Sword, upon the edge and feble of his Adversaries' (c. 1696).

BATTLE, subs. (old).— 1. 5^Battels. Phrases, To give the battle = to acknowledge defeat _; grant the

victory ; to have the battle

= to be the victor; half the battle (of anything that contributes largely to success).

BATTLEDORE. not to know B (or a B) from A battledore (or bull's foot) = to be utterly illiterate, to be ignorant; to say b (or bo) to A battledore =

to open one's mouth, to speak:

cf. bo to A goose.

1401. Pol. Poems, 11. 57. I know not an A from the wynd-mylne, ne a B from a bole foot.

^r553'87. Foxe, Acts and Monuments,

ii. 474. He knew not a B from a

battledore nor ever a letter of the book. 1592. Nashe, Pierce Pennilesse, 30&

Now you talke of a BEE. ile tell

you a tale of a Battledore and write in prayse of vertue. Ibid. (1599), Lenten Stnffe (1885), v. 197. Every man can say Bee to a Battledore and write in prayse of Vertue.

1609. Dekker, Gids-Hornebooke, 3. You shall not neede to buy bookes; nor scorne to distinguish a B from a battledore.

1621. Montagu, Diatribœ, 118. The clergy of this time were ... not able to say bo to a battledore.

1613. King, Halfepennyzvorth of Wit, 'Dedication.' Simple honest dunce, as I am, that cannot say B to a battledore, it is very presumptuously done of me to offer to hey-passe and repasse it in print so.

1630. Taylor, Motto, 'Dedication.' For in this age of criticks are such store,

That of a B will make a battledoor.

Ibid., ' Dedication ' to Odcomb'sComplaint. To the gentlemen readers thatl'nderstand

a B from a battledoor.

1663. Howell, Eng. Proverbs, 16.

He knoweth not a B from a battledoor.

1672. Ray, Proverbs, s.v.

1677. Miege, Diet. Er. and Eng., 128. Battledore ... formerly a term for a hornbook, and hence no doubt arose the phrase to know a B from a battledore.

1846. Brackenbridge, ß/odem Chivalry, 43. There were members who

scarcely knew B from a bulls-foot.

1877. Peacock, Manly (Line.) Glossary, s.v. Battledore. He does not

knows his ABC fra a battledoor.

1884. Black, Judith Shakspeare. xxi. Fools that scarce know a B from a Battledore.

Battledore-boy. 157 Baud.

Battledore-boy, subs.phr. (old).— An abecedarian. [Battledore = a hornbook—W. Robertson

(1693)]

battle-of-the-NlLE, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A 'tile'; a hat:^. ' Kool his battle, Bill ' = ' Look at his hat, Bill': see Cady.

1887. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. Come, cows-and-kisses, put the battle of the Nile on your Barnet fair, and a rogue and villain in your sky-rocket.

Battle-royal, subs. phr. (old colloquial). A general squabble ; a ' free fight ' : spec, of two termagant women.

1672. Howard, All Mistaken, i. ist 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.

1687. Dryden; 1804. Nelson; i860. Thompson.

1853. Thackeray, Shabby Genteel Story, vi. A battle-royal speedily took took place between the two worthy mothers-in-law.

1865. Sketches from Cambridge, 137. Our brethren there [in Oxford] seem to be always indulging in battles-royal.

battle-wright, subs. phr. (old).— A soldier.

c. 1300. Cursor Mundi, 7495. You es a stalworth batail wright.

battlings, j-ttfo.(public schools').— A weekly allowance of money: at Winchester it is is., while at Repton it is only 6d.: also see Battels.

battner, subs, (old).—An ox : ' The cove has hushed the battner,' i.e., has killed the ox (B. E.).

batty (or batta), subs, (military). —Wages : perquisites : from batta,

an extra pay given to soldiers while serving in India. Col. Yule says in Indian banking batty means difference in exchange, discount on coins not current (or of short weight).

1824. Hook, Sayings and Doings, viii. Whether he could draw full batta in peace-time.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, Batta or Batty (Hindustanee). Perquisites; wages. Properly, an allowance to East Indian troops in the field.

baubee. See Bawbee.

bauble. (bable or bawbell), subs. (old).— i. A toy, trinket, trifle (B.E.). To deserve the baubel = to be foolish: the 'baubel' being the Court jester's baton surmounted by a carved head with asses' ears ; to give the baubel = to befool. [Broughton(i599)_;Day (1606)].

2. (venery).—The penis: see Prick. Also in pi. — the testes: see Cods.

1395. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4. This drielling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv, 1. vi. 10. Your poor Deserts would scarce be able. To find you Trowzers to your Bauble.

baud (bawdstrot or bawd), subs. (old).— i. A procurer or procuress; a brothelkeeper ; a go-between (in a bad sense) whether male or female ; a match-maker (see quot. 1634); a harlot. Also as verb = to pander to sexual debauchery, Hence numerous derivatives : thus bawdily = lasciviously; bawdiness = lewdness, obscenity _; bawding = the practice of a bawd ; bawdish = obscene, filthy; bawdry or baw

Baud.

158

Baud.

dreminy = unchastity, lewdness (in word or deed) _; bawdy-basket = a hawking vendor of obscene literature; bawdy-house = a brothel; bawdy-batchelors = ' that live long Unmarried' (B.E.) ; bawdy-banquet = whoremongering; bawdy-house-bottle = < a very small one (B.E.). [O.E.D. : Bawdstrot "is probably the full word from which bawd was shortened "].

1362. Langland, Piers Plowman; Gesta Romanorum, 432; 1374, Chaucer ; 1447, Stillingford; 1483, Caxton; 1513, Broadshaw; 1552, Huleot.

1560-1. Awdeley, The XXF. orders of Knaves, (ed. 1896), 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 he wyll eate the rawest morsel thereof him selfe. This is a sausye kaaue, that wyl contrary his Mayster alway.

1567. Harman, Caveat (ed. 1869), 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 co?ineyski«s and steale line« clothes of on hedges. And for their trifles they will procure of mayden seruaunts, whew [leaf 20, back] their mystres or dame is oute of the waye, either some good peece of béefe, baken or cheese, 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 man haue good acquayntance with those, 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 lone Messenger. ] haue had good proofe of her, as I haue learned by the true report of diuers. Ibid. 63. 'Where haue I bene?' quoth he, and began to smyle. 'Now, by the mas, thou hast bene at some baudy banquet.'

1569. Sandford; 1572, Arbuthnot; 1589, Pappe with a Hatchel.

1589. Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesie, m., xix. Many a faire lasse in London towne, Many a bawdie basket borne vp and downe.

1593. Nash, Christ's Teares, 83 b. They will... play the Brokers, Baudes, Apron-squires, Pandars, or anything.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4. Mer. 'Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now on the prick of noon. Nurse. Out upon you! what a man are you? Ibid. (1596). Shakspeare, ii. 2. He's for a jigg, or a tale of bawdry.

1596. Nashe, Have with You to Saffron Waiden (Grosart, iii., 106). Any hot-house or bawdy-house of them all.

1605. Verstegen, Restitution (1634) 333. Bawd ... a name now given in our language to such as are the makers or furtherers of dishonest matches.

1608. Middleton, Works, s.v. Bawdreminy.

1608. Dekker, Belman. of London, [Grosart, Works, m, 86]. The victualers to the campe are women, and to those some are Glymerers, some bawdy-baskets, some Antem-Morts. Ibid. 140. And he delivers it either to a Broker or some Bawd (for they all are of one feather).

1623. Taylor, Discovery by Sea, 11. 21. Are whoremasters decai'd, are bawds all dead, Are panders, pimps, and applesquires all fled ?

1621. Burton, Anal. Melau., III. u. ii. 5. I perceived ... by the naked queans, that I was come into a bawdy-house.

1633. Ford; 1634, Jonson; 1642, Rogers; 1651, Weldon; 1651, Ceveland; 1656, Sanderson.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, 1., v., 39 (1874). [In list of orders of thieves], bawdy-baskets. Ibid. (1674). Canting Academy, 105. The Bawds and the Buttocks that lived there round.

1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scofft [ Works (1725), 208]. And mankind must in darkness languish Whilst he his bawdy launce does brandish.

Baulk. 159

Bayard.

j6j6. Shadwell; 1688, Ravenscroft; 1698, Vanbrugh; 1702, De Foe.

1703. Ward, London Spy, xv. 365. Some loose shabroon in Bawdy-Houses bred.

1708. London Bewitched, 6. This month hedges . .. will be the teacher's bawdy-house; the padder's ambuscade; . . and the farmer's security.

1711. Steele; 1726, Ayliffe.

1729. Gay, Polly, ii. 7. Sure never was such insolence! how could you leave me with this baudy-house bully.

1760. Sterne, Tristram Shandy; 1763, Churchill; 1765, Burke; 1771, Smollett; 1792, Young.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [RoutledgeJ. 87. We passed the night in drinking and talking bawdy.

1811. LexiconBalatronicum. Freeand-easy Johns. A society which meets at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet Street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.

2. (old).—In pl.=fine clothes Hence pretentiousness.

1647. Herrick, Hesperides, 144. And have our roofe, Although not archt, yet weather prnofe, And seeling free From that cheape candle baudery.

baulk, subs. (Winchester).— 1. A false report (especially that a master is at hand), which is sported (q.v.), not spread.

2. (common).—A false 'shot'; a mistake.

baum, verb. (American University). —To fawn; to flatter; to curry favour.—Hall, College IVords and Phrases.

bawbee (or bawubee), subs, (chiefly Scots).—A copper coin of the value of a halfpenny; whence a halfpenny (B.E.).

bawcock, subs, (old).—A burlesque term of endearment; 'my good

fellow'; 'my fine fellow.' [Cf beau coq ; also boy cock, with an eye on chuck].

1599. Shakspeare, Henry V., iii., 2, 25. ...Good bawcock, 'bate thy rage! use lenity, sweet chuck. Also (1602), Twelfth Night, iii.4; and (1604), Winter's Tale, i. 2. Why, that's my bawcock. What has smatch'd thy nose ?

1861. H. AiNSwoRTH, Constable of the Tower, 131. One of the gamesome little bawcock's jests.

bawson, subs, (old).—A clumsy, unwieldy person.

1580. Lingua, [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), v. 232]. Peace, you fat bawson, peace !

baw-waw, intj. (old).—An exclamation of contempt or derision. Hence (proverbial), 'Baw-waw, Quoth Bagshaw (the lie direct). As adj. = contemptibly noisy.

1570. Levins, Manip. Vocab. s.v.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Harl. Music.) vi. 174. All this may passe in the queene's peace, and no man say bo to it; but "Bawwaw," quoth Bagshaw— to that which drawlacheth behinde, of the first taking of herrings there.

c. 1600. Dist. Emp., s.v.

bay, subs. (old).—See quot.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London [Grosart, Works, in, 122]. Learne before he play what store of Bit he hath in his Bay, that is what money he hath in his pursse.

bayard (or bayard of ten toes),

subs, (old),—Generic for a horse; spec, a bay horse. [Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.] Hence (proverbial), as bold as blind Bayard (of those who act unthinkingly, and look not before they leap, whence generic for blindness, ignorance, recklessness ; To ride Bayard of ten toes = to go on foot: cf Shank's mare.

Bayonet. 160 Beach-comber.

c. 1337. Manning, Tr. Fr. Poem, [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 21. The French words are (quash)... bayard (of ahorse)...]

1350. Tour», of Tottenham [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, iii. 87]. BaYARDE the blynde.

1369. Chaucer, Troilus, i. 218. As proud Bayard beginneth for the skippe.

1393. Gower, M.S. Soc. Antic., 134, f. 185. Ther is no God, ther is no lawe Of whom that he taketh eny hede, But as Bavarde the blynde stede, Tille he falle in the diche amidde, He goth ther no man wol him bidde.

c. 1586. Cavil [Mirr. for Magistrates], Who is more bold than is the bayard blind ?

1399. Hall, Virgil [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, v. 268]. s.v.

1606. Breton, Good and Badde, 14. Breton says of the 'honest poore man,'— his trauell is the walke of the woful, and his horse Bayard of ten toes.

1614. Letter, [quoted by Nares]. But the boldest bayard of all was Wentworth, who said that the just reward of the Spaniard's imposition was the loss of the Low Countries.

1633. Rowley, Match at Midnight. [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed) vii. 435]. Do you hear, Sir Bartholomew Bayard, that leap before you look?"

1752. Bernard Gilpin, Sermon Life. I marvel not so much at blind bayards, which never take God's book in hand.

bayonet, subs, (venery).—Thepenis : See Prick _; cf. Sheath = female pudendum.

bay state, subs.phr. (American).— The State of Massachusetts : orig. the Colony of Massachusetts Bay.

Bayswater Captain, subs.phr. (old). —A sponger (q.v.); an adventurer: cf. Dryland sailor.

Bay-windowed, adj. phr. (common). —Fat; pregnant; lumpy {q.v.).

Beach-cadger, subs. phr. (old).— A beggar whose ' pitch ' is at watering-places, and sea-ports.

Beach-comber, subs. phr. (nautical).— I. A long wave rolling in from the ocean. 2. A settler on islands in the Pacific, living by means more or less reputable: comprising runaway seamen, deserters from whalers &c. : always in contempt. 3. A sea-shore loafer, one on the look-out for odd jobs. 4. A river boatman. 5. A wrecker, water-rat (q.v.).

1833. Dana, Before the Mast, xix. In the twinkling of an eye I was transformed from a sailor into a beach-comber, and a hide-curer.

i8[?]. Melville, Omoo, 109. A term " applied to certain roving characters, who, without attaching themselves permanently to a vessel, ship now and then for a short cruise in a whaler, but upon condition only of being honorably discharged the very next time the anchor takes hold of the bottom, no matter where they are. They are, mostly, a reckless, rollicking set, wedded to the Pacific, and never dreaming of ever doubling Cape Horn again on a homeward-bound passage. Hence their reputation is a bad one."

1847. Black-wood's Magazine, lxi., 757. A daring Yankee beech-comber.

1880. Athenäum, 18 Dec, 809, 2. The white scamps who, as beech-combers, have polluted these Edens and debauched their inhabitants.

1880. j. S. Cooper, Coral Lands, 1., xx, 242. The beach-combing pioneers of the Pacific.

1885. A. Lang, [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

Beach-tramper. 161 Beak.

turned aside and dashed away a tear: ' I've been a god for months and you call me a (something alliterative) beachcomber!' he exclaimed, and refused to be comforted.

Beach-tramper, subs. phr. (nautical).—A coastsguardsrnan ; shingle smasher (q.V.).

Bead. Phrases (various).—To draw a bead = to attack an opponent by speech or otherwise : from backwoods parlance; to raise a bead = to bring to the point, to ensure success: from brandy, rum, or other liquors, which will not 'raise a bead,' unless of the proper strength ; to bid a bead = to offer prayer ; beads-bidding = prayer; to say (tell, or count) one's beads = to say prayers _; to pray without one's beads = to be out of one's reckoning.

1841. Catlin, North American Indians (1844), 1., x., 77. I made several attempts to get near enough to draw a bead upon one of them.

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.

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.

1884. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Huckleberry Finn, 48. There was the old man down the path apiece just drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.

1889. Albany Journal, 6 Aug. If Jake's not careful I'll draw a bead on him. Very little more will make me go for him tooth and nail.

Bead-counter, subs. phr. (old).— A term of contempt—cleric, recluse, or worshipper: in allusion to the rosary in use in the Roman Communion.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias, [Routledge], 166. Signor Don Raphael... the

old bead-counter.

Beadledom, subs.phr. (common).— Red-tapeism ; formality; stupid officiousness. (i860.)

beady, adj. (colloquial).—Full of bubbles ; frothy.

1881. Harper's Mag., lxiii. 488. Creamy and beadv scum.

beagle, subs, (old).—A spy; informer ; man-hunter ; policeman ; also a general term of contempt.

1559. Myrr. Mag., Jack Cade, xix., 2. That restless begle sought and found me out.

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, iii., 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. 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 Lawbeagles, which hunt ravenous on this Earth.

beak, szibs. (Old Cant).— 1. A constable: (also beaksman and harman beck) ; policeman, guardian of the peace: as far as is known, ' beck ' is the oldest cant term for this class of men. In Harman's Caveat (1573), harman beck is explained as ' the constable,' harmans being ' the stockes.' Also (2) a magistrate: sometimes beak of the law (Grose).

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight [Grosart, Wks. (1S86), iii., 203]. The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck.

Beak.

162

Beakering

1610. Rowlands, Mat-tin Mark-All, 'Toure Out Ben Morts.' For all the Rome Coues are budged a beake.

1818. Maginn, l'idocq's Song. Tramp it, tramp it, my jolly blowen, Or be grabbed by the beaks we may.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 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!

1824. Egan, Boxiana, iv., 150. The Pope being nippered and brought to face the Beak.

1834. AlNSWORTH, Rookwood, 116 (ed. 1864). But my nuttiest blowen, one fine day, To the beaks did her fancyman betray.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, viii. 'My eyes, how green!' exclaimed the young gentleman. ' Why a beak's a madgst'rate.'

c. 1845. 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.

1840. Thackeray, Catherine, x. But Mrs. Polly, with a wonderful presence of mind,restored peaceby exclaiming, ' Hush, hush ! the beaks, the beaks ! ' Mrs. Briggs knew her company: there was something in the very name of a constable which sent them all a-flying.

1855. Taylor, Still Waters, ii. 2. A fellow who risks . . . the spinning of a roulette wheel is a gambler, and may be quodded by the first beak that comes handy.

1881. Punch, 3 Dec, 258. 'A pair of anti-vivisectionists.' Just got into trouble ... Going to be had up before the beak for it! Bow St., you know!'

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Oct.. 5, 2. Taken before some French beak whom he did not know, and an interpreter brought, the 'cotched' culprit was made to pay 20 f.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 73. Called the beak "a balmy Kipper," dubbed him "soft about the shell."

3. (common).—The nose: see Conk.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes. Naso Aduuco, a beake-nose.

1854. Thackerav, Newcomes, i.,296. The well-known hooked beak of the old countess.

1865. Clayton, Cruel Fort, 1., 143. A large, fat, greasy woman, with a prominent beak.

1876. Grenville Murray, The Member for Paris, i. 80. It was not the most agreeable thing in the world to be suddenly interrupted in a mantelshelf conversation by a gentleman with a firm beak-nose and a red rosette in his button-hole.

4. (Eton and Marlborough Schools). A master.

5. (old).—A thrust; a poke (1592).

6. (venery).—The penis: see Prick. Hence to strop one's beak = to copulate : see Greens and Ride.

7. Sec Beaker.

Birds of a beak. Sec Birds of a feather.

Beaker, subs, (thieves').— A fowl _;cackling-cheat (q-T.) : also beak. Whence beaker-hunter (or beak-hunter) = a poultry thief. Fr. estable, or estaphle.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, (3 ed.) 445. A poultry stealer. A beakerhunter.

beakering-party, subs. phr. (old University).—A drinking-party.

1794. Gent. Mag., 1085. And was very near rustication [at Cambridge], merely for kicking up a row after a

bf.akering party.

Beak-gander.

163

Bean.

Beak-gander, subs, (old).—A judge

of the Superior (or High) Courts.

beaksman, subs. (old). See beak.

be-all, subs.phr. (Colloquial).—The whole; everything; the blooming lot (q.v.) : a Shakspearean phrase in common modern use—' the be-all and end-all'.

1605. Shakspeare, Macbeth, i. 7. 5. This blow might be the be-all and the end-all here.

1830. Thompson; 1854 Neal.

beam, Wv.(colloquial).—An authorised standard of criticism, manners, morals, etc. To kick (or strike) the beam = to be overpowered ; to be in a tight place (or corner).

beam-ends. TO be thrown ON one's beam ends, verb. phr. (colloquial). — 1.T0 be in a bad circumstances ; 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 on her side by stress of weather, or shifting of cargo, as to be submerged. 2. Also less figuratively, to be thrown to the ground ; reduced to a sitting or lying posture.

1830. Marryat, King's Own, xxvi. Our first lieutenant was ... on his beam ends, with the rheumatiz.

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.

1851. Mayhew, London Lab., m., 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.

1833. 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. (Old).—1. A sovereign, 20s. : formerly a guinea : in America five-dollar gold pieces : see Half Bean and Haddock of Beans : in old French cant, biens — money or property: see Rhino.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Bean, a guinea. Half-Bean.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, in. ix. Zoroaster took long odds that the match was off; offering a bean to half a

QUID.

1885. Christie Murray, Rai?ibmu Gold, bk. v., vi. 'Here's some of the beans,' he continued figuratively, as he drew five sovereigns from the same pocket.

2. (Newcastle-on-Tyne).—Small coal.

3. (old).—A small standard of value : cf. map, straw, dam, etc. Hence not to care (or be worth a bean = to hold in little esteem, think lightly of, be of little value: the allusion is to the small worth, or value of a bean, or 'the black of a bean' (= something very minute).

1297. Rob. Gloucester; 1377, Langland, Piers Plowman; 1413, Lydgate; 1548, Hall; 1656, Hobbes.

Phrases:—Full of beans, = (1) in good form (or condition), full of health, spirits, or capacity as a horse after a good feed of beans ; and (2), sexually excited, warm (q.v.), hot (q.v.): also blazy {q.v.) The black of a bean = something very minute. To give beans = to chastise,

Bean.

164 Bean.

to give a good drubbing. Like beans = in good form (style, time, etc.), with force : a general expression of approval and praise :

cf. like blazes (bricks, or one

o'clock).beany=:ingood humour —a metaphor drawn from the stable. To know beans = to be well-informed, sharp and shrewd, within the charmed circle of the ' cultured elect,' fully equipped in the upper storey.'

TO know how many blue beans make five white ones — 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. To draw a bean = to get elected : an allusion to the former use of beans in ballotting. To have the bean — to be first and foremost ; in reference to the custom of appointing, as king of the company on Twelfth Night, the man in whose portion of the cake the bean was found (1556). Also proverbial, ' Hunger maketh hard beans sweet' (1652); 'Always the bigger eateth the beane ' (1652); 'It is not for idleness that men saw beans in the wind (i.e., labour in vain) (1624); 'like a bean in a monk's hood (Cotcrave) ; ' Every bean hath its black ( 1568). Three blue beans in a blue bladder =: noisy talk, clap-trap, froth (1600).

c. 1559. Marriage Wit and Wisdom, 45. It is not for idlenis that men sowe

beans in the wind.

1600. Dekker, Old Fortunatas, iii., 128. F. Hark, does't rattle? S. Yes, like

three buir beans in a blue bladder,

rattle, bladder, rattle.

1651. Cartwright, Ordinary. Mo. I do not reche One bean for all. This buss is a blive guerdon. Hence carlishnesse yferre.

d. 1663. Bramhall, Works, ii., 9r. Neither will this uncharitable censure, if it were true, advantage his cause the

black of a bean.

1717. Mathew Prior, Alma (cant),

I., v., 25. They say--That putting

all his words together, 'Tis three blue

beans in one blue bladder.

1830. Galt, Laurie, T. (1849), II., i. 42. Few men who better knew how many

blue beans it takes to make five.

1886. Zoological Comparisons, in Broadside Ballad. Then just as we begin to know ' how many beans make five,' The ladies call us puppies when we at that age arrive.

1888. Chicago Herald. One has to know beans to be successful in the latest Washington novelty for entertainment at luncheons.

1888. Portland Transcript, 7 March. The pudding was pronounced a success by each member of the assembled family, including a dainty Boston girl who, of course, knows beans.

1889. Daily News, 4 Nov., 6, 5. 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.

1889. Sporting Times, 29 June. The game began. 'Ich dien,' snouted Jack, as full of beans as the Prince of Wales' plume.

1900. Kipling, Stalky and Co., 53, 'Wonder what King will get.' 'Beans,' said the Emperor. Number Five generally pays in full.

bean belly, subs, (old).—A Leicestershire man ; from a real or supposed fondness of the inhabitants of this county for beans. (Leigh, 1659.)

Bean-feast. 165 Bear.

Bean-feast, subs. phr. (common).— I. An annual feast given by employers to their work-people. [The derivation is uncertain, and, at present, there 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); others favour its derivation from the modern English bene, a request or solicitation from the custom of collecting subscriptions to defray the cost : also called a wayzgoose (q.v.). Hence bean-feaster = one who takes part in a beanfeast.

1882. Printing Times, 15 Feb., 26. 2. A bean-feast dinner served up at a country inn.

1884. Bath. Jour., 26 July, 6. 1. The annual grant of £20 for their bean-feast.

1884. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 621. For the delectation of the bold bean-feasters.

2. (venery).—An act of kind : see Greens and Ride: also beanfeast in bed.

Beano, subs, (printers').—I. A beanfeast (q.v.).

2. (common).—A spree; a jollification.

Bean-pole (stick or wood), subs, phr. (A lanky "person"; a LAMPPOST (q.V.)—(HaLIBURTON, 1837)—

bean-shatter, subs. phr. (old.—A scarecrow.

1632. Chapman and Shirley, Ball, iv. i. To fright away crows, and keep the corn, bean shatter.

bean-tosser, subs. phr. (venery).— The penis: see Prick.

beany, adj. (common).—Full of vigour; fresh; like a bean-fed horse.

1852. Kingsley, [in Life -(1876), I., 278.] The very incongruity keeps one beany and jolly.

1870. Daily Nezvs, 27 July, 3. The horses . . . looked fresh and beany.

Bear, subs. (Stock Exchange).— I. Applied, in the first instance, to stock sold by jobbers for delivery at a certain date, on the chance of prices falling in the meantime, thus allowing the seller to re-purchase at a profit. At first the phrase was probably ' to sell the bear-skin,' the buyers of such bargains being called bearskin jobbers 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 delivered, 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. 2. Hence a dealer who speculates for a fall. Fr. baissier : see Bull, Stag and Lame Duck. Also as verb. = to act as a bear to speculate for a fall.

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 38, 3 Being at the General Mart of stockjobbers called Jonathans ... he bought the bear of another officer.

Bear. 166 Bear.

1719. Anatomy of Change Alley (N. and Q., 5 S., vi., 118). Those who buy Exchange Alley bargains are styled 'buyers of bear-skins.'

1744. London Magazine, 86. These noisy devotees were false ones, and in fact were only bulls and bears.

i7[?] Cibber, Refusal, i. Gran. And all this out of Change-Alley ? Wit. Every shilling, Sir; all out of Stocks, Putts, Bulls, Rams, Bears, and Bubbles.

1768. Foote, Devil upon two Sticks, i. A mere bull and bear booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent bankrupts.

1774. Colman, Man of Business, iv., i., [Works^ .(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.

1778. Bailey, Dictionary (24 ed.). To sell a bear, to sell what one hath not.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, iv. The hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produce among the bull, bears, and brokers of Stock-alley.

18 ... Reynolds, Romance of Smoke, 22. A few lucky hits, when the bears were all short,

And a twist of my own, where the bulls were all caught.

i8[?]. Warton, [on Pope]: quoted by Bartlett. It was the practice of stock-jobbers, in the year 1720 to enter into a contract for transferring South Sea stock at a future time for a certain price; but he who contracted to sell had frequently no stock to transfer, nor did he who bought intend to receive any in consequence of his bargain; the seller was therefore called a bear, in allusion to the proverb, and the buyer a bull, perhaps only as a similar distinction. The contract was merely a wager, to be determined by the rise or fall of stock; if it rose, the seller paid the difference to the buyer, proportioned to the sum determined by the same computation to the seller.

i860. Peacock, Gryll Grange, xviii. In Stock Exchange slang, bulls are speculators for a rise, bears for a fall.

1861. New-York Tribune, 29 Nov., His Lordship is wholly guiltless of the charge which the Herald, in its anxiety to bear the market,has brought against him.

1862. A Week in Wall St., 90. A broker, who had met with heavy losses, exclaimed: 'I'm in a bear-trap, — this won't do. But I'll turn the scale; I'll help the bulls operate for a rise, and draw in the flunkies.'

1889. Ally Sloper's H. H., 3 Aug., 242. 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.

1901. Free Lance, 9 Febr. 470. 2. There is now a stockbroker in every drawing-room, so to speak, and to-day a well-born lady will buy a thousand "Milks" for the rise, or run a "Bear" of Lake Views with as much nonchalance as she would formerly have put a fiver on the favourite for the Derby.

1902. D. Mail, 17 Nov., 2. 5. This decline is an engineered business by certain well-known and somewhat influential mining cliques, who have been selling through Germany in order to depress prices and cover their "bear" commitments.

3. (common).—A rough, unmannerly, or uncouth person ; hence the pupil of a private tutor, the latter being called a bearleader (q.v.) ; also called formerly brindled-bear. To play the bear = to behave roughly and uncouthly.

1579. Tomson, Calvin's Servi. Tim., 473. i. When we haue so turned all order vpsidowne ... there is nothing but... playing the beare amongst vs.

1751. Chesterfield, Letters, s.v.

1832. Legends of London, 11., 247. When I was the youthful bear—as the disciple of a private tutor is called at Oxford.

To bear up, verb.phr. (thieves'), —To cheat _; to swindle in any

Bear.

167

Beard.

way; more particularly applied to 'decoys' and confederates: see Bonnet. Hence bearer-up = a swindler.

1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, 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.

2. (common).—To logroll (q.v.); to spoof (q.v.)

1883. Referee, 2 Dec, 2, 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.

Phrases :—Are you there with your bears? A greeting of surprise at the reappearance of anybody or anything : ' Are you there again ? ' ' What again ! so soon ? ' The phrase is explained by Joe Millar, 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). To bear the bell (coals, palm, etc.), see the

nouns; to bear low sail, to

demean oneself humbly (1300);

to bear a blow, to Strike; to

bear up, to cheat, swindle: see bonnet. Bear a bob, (i) lend a hand, look sharp ! look alive ! (2) To aid, to assist, to take part in anything. Also proverbial: 'With as good will as a bear goeth to the stake ' ; ' As handsomely as a bear picks mussels ' ; 'To swarm like bears to a honey pot'; 'To take a bear by the tooth'; 'A man should divide honey with a bear'; 'As savage as a bear with a sore head ' ; 'Not fit to carry garbage to a bear'; 'You must not sell the

skin till you have sold the bear ' ; 'If it had been a bear, it would have bit you': 'As many tricks as a dancing bear '.

1300. Cursor Muudi, 12353. pa ober leones . .. wip paire heued bai bare logh saile.

1642. Howell, Forreine Travel!, 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 vou there with your bears ? which is ridiculous in any other language but English.

1740. North, Examen, 220. O, quoth they, here is an accident may save the man; are you there with your bears? we will quit the exercise of the House's right rather than that should be.

1740. Richardson, Pamela, in., 335. O no, nephew! Are you thereabouts

with your bears?

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 213. With all my heart, I'll bear a bob.

1820. Scott, Abbot, xv. Marry, come up. 'Are you there with your bears'? muttered the dragon.

1901. Troddles, 90. About as amiable

as a bear with a sore head Stood

Murray.

Bear-college, subs. phr. (old).—A

bear-garden (q.V.).

i6i[?]. Jonson, Masque of Gip [Works, vi., 113]. From the diet and the knowledge Of the students in bearscollege. Ibid. Famous I 'oyage, [vi., 287]. The meat-boat of bear's-college, Paris-garden, Stunk not so ill.

BEARD, subs, (venery).—The female pubic hair: see Fleece. Hence beard-splitter = (i) the penis: see Prick ; and (2) 'an enjoyer of women ' (B.E.) _; a womanizer, a molrower (q.v.).

d. 1640. Drcm.mond [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, v. 695], 'Epigrams' xii. She should just penance suffer . , . that ere long . .

Bearded-cad. 168 Bear-leader.

horse's hair between her thighs should grow . . . But that this phrenzy should no more her vex, She swore thus bearded were their weaker sex.

See Greybeard.

Phrases.—In spite of one's beard = in opposition or defiance to a purpose; to one's beard = openly; to one's face; to run in one's beard = to oppose openly; face out; to take by the beard = to attack resolutely ;

to make (or play with) one's

beard = to outwit; delude; to

make one's beard without a

razor = to behead; to put

against the beard = to taunt.

[?] 71/. S. Laud 622. f. 65. Mery it is in the halle, When berdes wagg alle.

1566. Edwards, Danton and Pythias, [Nares]. Yet have I plavd with his beard, in knitting this knot I promist friendship, but... I meant it not.

1809. Malkin, 6V/2>/tf j[Routledge], 168. There is nothing like taking scandal by the beard.

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.

Bear-garden, subs.phr.(colloquial). —A scene of strife and tumult : e.g. the Stock Exchange, a noisy meeting etc.: also bear-college {q.v.). Hence bear-garden jaw (or play) = 'common, filthy, nasty talk ' (B.E.) ; rough unmannerly speech or play; talk (or rough and tumble) akin to that used in bear gardens and other places of low resort (Grose).

1833. Marry at, Peter Simple, xxxii. I'll marry some of you young gentlemen to the gunner's daughter before long. Quarterdeck's no better than a bear-garden.

1848. John Forster, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, iv., xi. He called Burke a bear-garden railer.

1863. Bristed, Pcd. Tour, 11., 543. Squabbles and boxings rendering the place more like a bear garden than a hall of instruction.

1871. Archibald Forbes, War between prance and Germany, 301. The bear-garden-like Babel was rather more noisy than usual.

1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 June. That the university would not degrade itself in the eyes of visitors by bear-play.

Be-ARGERED, adj. phr. (common).— Drunk: see Screwed.

Bearings. To bring one to one's bearings, verb. phr. (colloquial). —To bring one to reason ; to act as a check.

Bear-leader, subs. phr. (old).—A travelling tutor: an echo of days when 'young hopefuls' were sent on the Grand Tour. See Bear subs. 2.

1749. Walpole, Lett, to Mann, 4 June (1883), ii., 392. I shall not wonder if she takes me for his bear-leader, his travelling governor !

1756. Foote, Englishman Returned from Paris, 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, Syntax|i., 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.

1848. Thackera.y Book of Snobs, vii. They pounced upon the stray nobility, and seized young lords travelling with their bear-leaders.

Beard-splitier.

169

Beastly.

1888. Ouida, Massarenes, 26. "lam not a bear-leader,*' said Lady Kenilworth, with hauteur.

Beard-splitter. See Beard.

Bearskin-jobber. See Bear, subs. i.

BEAR STATE, subs. phr. (American). —The State of Arkansas.

beast, subs, (common).— I. Applied to anything unpleasant ; or displeasing; e.g., 'It's a perfect beast of a day' = ' it's an unpleasant day' : see Beastly.

1603. Shakspeare, Meas. for Mens., iii. i. 137. Oh you beast ... oh dishonest wretch.

1772. NicHOLLS, [Gray, Corresp. (1843), 170]. This moment only that I have received nine letters... from that cursed beast.

1841. Warren, Ten Thousand, 1., v. Mr. Sharpey ... is coming down from dinner, directly, the beast!

1875. Broughton, Nancy, ii. 12. 'You beast!" cried I... turning sharply round.

1901. Troddles, 90. Had a beast of a night altogether.

2. (American cadet).—A new cadet at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point.

3. (Cambridge University).— One who has left school and come up to Cambridge for study, before entering the University: ' because he is neither man nor boy' (Grose).

Beast with two backs, subs, phr. (venery).—A man and woman piled in the act : see Greens and Ride.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, i. 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.

beastly, adv. (colloquial).—Applied to whatever may offend the taste; cf. 'awful,' 'everlasting,' etc. Also = very ; exceedingly.

1509. Barclay, Ship of Fools (1874) ii. 177. [There is the phrase] bestely dronken.

1561. Norton, Calvin's Inst., i. 25. So beastly folish are men. Hid. 236. They are so much beastly witted.

161 x. Dekker, Roaring Girle [ Works (1873), 'iL r59]1 thought 'twould bee a beastly iourney.

1763. Mr. Harris [Lord Malmesbury's Letters, i., 93]. We had a beastly walk through the Borough.

1778. Johnson in D'Arblay Diary etc. (1876), i., 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 !

1798. Lord ChARE[Lord Auckland's Corresp. (1862), in. 395]. The pamphlet is full... of beastly blunders committed in the printing office.

1803. Bristed, Fed. Tour, 1., 298. He comes home ... quite beastly drunk.

1830. Disraeli, Home Letters (1885), 3. The steam-packet is a beastly conveyance.

1844. Dickens, Letters, 1., 130. I was so beastly dirty when I got to this house.

1865. Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct., 5, 3. He was in good health., .looked almost 'beastly well,' as I once heard it described.

1878. Broughton, Cometh Up as a Flower, xiv., 150. That beastly hole, London.

1882. Anstey, I'ice Versa, i. He had a troublesome dryness in his throat, and a general sensation of dull heaviness, which he himself would have described as ' feeling beastly.'

Beat.

170

Beat.

1883. American, vi., 245. This beastly English weather, you know.

1900. Boothby, Across World, iv. How do you do, Mr. Brudenell ? Beastly weather, ain't it ?

1903. Globe, 24 Oct., i., 4. "Please God," prayed a little girl the other night, " take away my beastly cold to-morrow morning." She was instantly pulled up by an orthodox nurse. "Never mind, Nannie," cried an elder sister, "God understands baby language."

beat, subs, (common).— 1. A round (q.v.) of duty, work, and the like ; a sphere of influence.

1788. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 211. 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.'

1825. Hood, Ode to Graham,

xxxvii., s.v.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 31. The costermongers repaired to their ordinary beats in the suburbs.

1862. Saturday Review, 13 March, 293. Ask him why anything is so-andso, and you have got out of his beat.

2. (American).—A superior; one who (or that which) surpasses (or beats) another: often spec, qualified. As verb = to excel ; to surpass: as in a contest, in

rivalry ; to beat all creation (to sticks—to ribands—to fits—to blazes—to shivers,

etc.) = to surpass everything; to get a beat on = to get the advantage of; to beat

one's way through = to push

one's interests with vigour and pertinacity.

1664. Pepys Diary, s.v.

1759. Townlev, Nigh Life Below Stairs, i. 2. Crab was beat hollow, Careless threw his rider, and Miss Slammerkin had the distemper.

c. 1800. Southey, Devil's Walk, s.v.

i8[?]. Bedott Papers, 77. The widow Bedott is the brazen-facedest critter t' ever lived,—it does beat all. I never see her equal.

i8[?]. Yankee Hill's Stories [Bartlett], Sam Slick was a queer chap. I never see the beat of him.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, i. Talk of climate ! a real fine day in England, like a really handsome English woman, beats creation. Ibid. (1856) Kate Coventry, i. I rode a race against Bob Dashwood the other morning, ... and beat him all to ribands.

1879. Lowell, Poetical Wo?-ks, 418. And there's were I shall beat them hollow.

1888. New York Mercury, 7 Aug. 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.

1888. New York Tribune, 16 May. It is better to have a Carrot for a President than a dead beat for a son-inlaw. In this way, we again score a life beat on the galoot ¹ The Ripsnorter.'

1889. Modem Society, 19 Oct., 1802. Germans beat the English hollow at drinking beer.

Adj.—I. Overcome ; exhausted ; done up (q.v.).

1832. Moore, Jerome, [Works, 11. (1862), 558.] Till fairly beat, the saint gave o'er.

1859. Kingslev, Geoffery Hamlyn, xxxvii. 'The lad was getting beat, and couldn't a'gone much further.'

1868. Dickens, Letters (1880), 11., 334. I was again dead beat at the end.

1879. Howells, Lady of Aroostook (1882), i. 20. 'Is the lady ill?' 'No... a little beat out, that's all.'

2. (common).—Baffled _; defeated.

Beat.

171 Beater.

Verb. (American).--I. See subs.

2. (colloquial).—To amaze ; to astound ; to overcome with surprise.

3. (American).—To swindle; to deceive ; to cheat.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 12 Ap. She beat the hotel out of a hundred dollars.

Phrases.—To beat the air (the wind, the water) = to strive to no purpose (1375); TO BEAT THE heels = to walk to and fro ;

TO BEAT OVER THE OLD ground =z

to discuss topics already treated ;

to BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH = to act

cautiously, approach warily or in a roundabout way (1572) ; to beat up =z to visit unceremoniously ; to

BEAT THE BRAIN, (HEAD etc.) =

to think persistently; TO BEAT THE BOOBY (or goose) = to strike the hands across the chest and under the armpits to warm them : formerly to beat Jonas _; to beat the road = to travel by rail without paying. That beats the Dutch see Dutch. To beat daddy mammy = to tattoo, practice the elements of drum beating. To beat down to bed-rock see Bedrock). Beat out = impoverished, in one's last straits, hard up. To beat out = to exhaust, overpower; to be beaten out = to be impoverished, hardup, at one's last straits; to beat the hoof = to walk, go on foot; plod, prowl (1596); to beat the rib see Rib.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. Trudge, plod away, o' the hoof; seek shelter, pack!

1630. Howell, Letters, 1. i. 17 [1726]. The Secretary was put to beat the hoof himself, and foot it home.

1665. Head, Eng. Rogue, i. vi. 59. Beating the hoof we overtook a cart.

1687. Brown, Saints in Up., 82. [Wks. (1730), i. 78.] We beat the hoof as pilgrims.

1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., 11. 412. They all beated it on the hoof to London.

1748. Dyche, Did., s.v. Hoof. To beat the hoof to walk much up and down, to go a-foot.

1771. B. Parsons, Nen.vmarket, 11., 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 towntops ... taken in ... beat hollow, etc.

c. 1824. Egan, Boxiana, iii. 621-2. For Dick had beat the hoof upon the pad.

1847. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1S77), 55. Many ladies . . . were beat all to sticks by the lovely Odille.

1883. Times, 15 March, 9, 6. The common labourers at outdoor work were beating goose to drive the blood from their fingers.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour, 1., 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, subs. (American).—A foot. [Cf. beater, one who 'beat' or walked the streets. Barclay, in Shyp of Folys (1509), speaks of 'night watchers and beters of the stretes.'] Creepers. Hence beater-cases = boots or shoes, trotter-cases (q.v.).

2. (old).—See quot.

1608. Dekker, Behnan of London [Grosart, Works, in., 131]. Sometimes likewise this Card-cheating, goes not under the name of Bernard's Laive, 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

Beating-stock. 172 Beaver.

they repaire to worke the Feate, is the Bush; the wine the Strap, and the cardes the Limetwigs.

beating-stock, subs. phr. (old).— A subject of frequent chastisement: cf. Laughing-stock.

beau, subs. (B.E.)—'A silly Fellow that follows the Fashions nicely, Powdering his Neck, Shoulders etc'

beauetry, subs, (old).—Dandyism _;dandy outfit. [A humorous imitation of coquetry.]

Beauchamp. As bold as beauchamp, phr. (old).—A proverbial expression, said to have originated in the valour of one of the Earls of Warwick of that name. [See Nares, 48 _; Middleton's Works, ii. 411; Brit. Bib/, i. 533.]

Beau Trap, subs. (old).—1. A loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and which, on being trodden upon, squirts it up.

2. (old).—A well-dressed sharper, on the look out for raw country visitors and such like (B.E.).

3. (old).—A fop, well-dressed outwardly indeed, but whose linen, person, and habits 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 and West Point. Cf., Snooker and Babe.

Phrases.—It was great beauty = it was a fine sight. That's the beauty of it = That's just as it should be! (of anything affording special pleasure or satisfaction).

beauty-sleep, subs, (colloquial).— Sleep before midnight: on the assumption that early hours conduce to health and beauty.

1850. Smedley, FrankFairleigh,\\., 120. The fair pupils have talked themselves to sleep ... not until they have forfeited all chance of... getting a little beauty-sleep before twelve o'clock.

1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, 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, Lcrna Doone, 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, 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.'

1901; Pall Mall Gaz., 15 May, 3. 1. In point of fact, Hebe is too valuable not to be allowed her beauty-sleep.

Beauty-spot, subs.phr. (colloquial). —Ironically of a pimple or other blemish on the face or other exposed parts of the person.

beaver, subs, (common).— i. A hat; a goss (q.v.)-, a cady (q.v.). [At one time hats were made of beaver's fur; 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.] Hence in beaver (Univ.) = in a tall hat and non-academicals: as distinguished from 'cap and gown'.

1528. Roy, Sat. To exalte the three folde crowne Of anti-christ hys bevek.

Be ceo.

173

Bed.

1661. Pepys, Diary, 27 June. Mr. Holden sent me a bever which cost me £4 S*.

1712. Gay, Trivia, 11. 277. The broker here his spacious beaver wears, Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares.

1840. Nem 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.

1855. Thackeray, Newcotnes, 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.

1S57. Holmes, Autocrat of Breakfast Table, 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.

2. See Bever.

BECCO, subs, (old).—A cuckold [It. = goat; but with Drayton = cuckoo].

1604. Marston and Webster [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), iv. 20. Duke, thou art a becco, a cornuto. P. How ? M. Thou art a cuckold.

1624. Massinger. Bondman, ii. 3. They'll all make Sufficient beccos, and with their brow-antlers Bear up the cap of maintenance.

d. 1631. Drayton, Works, 1315. Th' Italians call him becco (of a nod) With all the reverence that belongs a god.

BECK, subs. (Old Cant).—I. A constable (Harman): see Beak and Copper.

2. A beadle (B.E.) : apparently the term was applied to all kinds of watchmen.

Verb (thieves').—To imprison : cf. bekaan = imprisoned (Dutch thieves ').

1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, Iv. 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, subs, (venery).—Generic for sexual union. Hence as verb

(or to go to bed with) = to

take a woman to bed ; to copulate: see Greens, Ride and cf. (proverbial) ' to wed and to bed ; bed-company (-game, -work, -rite) = the act of kind, copulation; bed-fellow (-mate, or -brother) = (1) the penis: see Prick_; and (2) = a whore: also

bed-sister, bed-presser, bedpiece and bed-fagot : see Tart _;bed-house = (1) a brothel, and (2) a house of accommodation (q.v.): see Nanny-shop _; bed-vow = a promise of chastity to marriage-vow ; bed-minion = a bardash; sister (or bed-suster) = one who shares the bed of a husband, the concubine of a married man in relation to the legitimate wife; bedswerver = an adulteress; bed-ale = groaning ale, brewed for a christening ; bedbroker = a pander, a pimp.

1297. Bob. Giouc., 27. Astrilde hir bedsuster (hire lordes concubine).

c. 1315. Shokeham, 76. Zef thou thother profreth. Wyth any other to beddy.

c. 1555. Latimer, Serm. and Rem. (1845), 101. The lawful bed-company that is between married folks.

15S3 Stanyhurst, sEneis, iii [Arber], 79. Andromachee dooth bed with a countrye man husband.

Bed.

174 Bedfordshire.

1592. Daniel, Cotnpl. Rosamund (1717), 58. And fly ... these Bed-brokers unclean.

1602. Warner, Alb. Eng. xi. lxi. (1612) 268. But deified swore he him her bed-game sweets might taste.

1598. Shakspeare, I Henry IV. ii. 4. 268. This sanguine coward, this bedpresser. Ibid. (1610) Tempest, iv. 1. 96. No bed-rite shall be paid Till Hymen's torch be lighted. Ibid. (1611) Winter's Tale, ii. 1. 93. She's a bed-swerver. Ibid. (1600) Sonnets', Thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn,

1668. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), 11. 37. Sir Samuel Tuke Bart., and the lady he had married this day, came and bedded at night at my house.

1740. Caret, Sally in our Alley, vn. And then we'll wed, and then we'll bed, But not in our Alley.

1763. C. Johnston, Reverie, ii. 6. No man can bear to bed with such an ugly filthy brute.

To put to bed with a pickaxe and shovel verb. phr. (common).—To bury: see Ladder.

c. 1881. Broadside Ballad, ' Hands off'— Kitty Créa, some fine day, when I'm laid in the clay. Put to bed with a spade in the usual way.

TO have got out on the right (or wrong) side of the bed, verb. phr. (common).—To be good-tempered (or peevish).

1551. Still, Gammer Gurtou's Needle, ii. 1. Thou rose not on thy right side, or else blessed thee not well.

1607. Marston, What you Will [Works (1633), sig. Rb]. You rise on tour right side to-day, marry.

1614. Terence in English [Nares].

C. What doth shee keepe house alreadie?

D. Alreadie. C. O good God : we rose on the right side to-day.

c. 1620. Fletcher, Women Pleased, i. [s.v., near end of act].

1633. Machin, Dumb Knight, iv. 1. Sure I said my prayers, ris'd on my right side . .. No hare did cross me, nor no bearded witch, Nor other ominous sign.

TO go to bed in one's boots, verb. phr. (common).—To be drunk : see Screwed.

bedder (or bedmaker), subs. (Cambridge University).—A charwoman ; one who makes the beds and performs other necessary domestic duties for residents in college.

1623-30. Court and Times Charles I, ii. 76. [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 74. There are the new substantives . .. bedmaker; this last is found at Cambridge.

1691. Case of Exeter College, 18. For fear she should... lose her place of Bedmaker.

1716. Cibber, Love Makes Man, i. 1, 21. He never spoke six Words to any Woman in his Life but his Bed-maker.

1789. Piozzi, Journ. France, ii., 118. A person not unlike an Oxford or Cambridge bedmaker.

Bedfordshire, subs, (familiar).— Bed: cf. Sheet Alley (q.v.)-, Blanket Fair (q.v.)-, The Land of Nod (q.v.), etc.

1663. Cotton, Poet. Wks. (1765), 76. Each one departs to Bedfordshire, And pillows all securely snort on.

1706. Ward, Wooden World. 26. By the Time he has unloaded his Pockets, he is floated off his Legs and then drives upon the Coast of Bedfordshire, and there he sticks fast till next morning.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, iii. 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.

Bedful-of-bones.

175

Bedlam.

Bedful-of-bones, subs. phr. (common).—A skinny, bony, bedfellow; also bedfellow of bones.

1611. Burton, Anat. Mel., in m, i, i. I have an old grim sire to my husband... a bedful of bones. Ibid. lit in iv, 2. Sophocles... was a very old man, as cold as January, a bedfellow of bones and doted upon Archippe, a young courtesan.

BEDLAM. (That is'Bethlehem')««^, (old).—The ancient priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem, founded in 1247, mentioned (Murray) in 1330 as 'an hospital', and in 1402 as 'a hospital for lunatics', and incorporated as a royal foundation in 1547. Hence as subs. (1) — a lunatic asylum, a madhouse; (2) = madness, frenzy; (3) — an uproar, scene of mad confusion; (4) a inmate of Bethlehem hospital, but spec, a discharged patient,half-cured, wearing a tin plate on the left arm licensinghim to beg: also called bedlambeggar, abram-man (q.v.), bedlamer, bedlamite, tom (or jack) of bedlam, etc.; (5) =

generic for a fool, or one fit for Bedlam. Whence Bedlam-madness = anger, fury, folly, wantonness; with obvious derivatives such as Bedlam-ripe (-mad, or -witted) etc. (B.E. Grose).

1522. Skelton, Why not to Court. Such a madde bedlame for to rewle this reame.

1525. Tindale, New Test., Prol. Who ys so bedlem madde to affyrm that good is the naturall cause of yuell. Ibid. (152S), Obed. Ch. ^««(1848), 184. Things which they of Bedlam may see they are but madness.

c. 1535. More [Works. (1557),16]. The rauing of Bethlem people.

1541. Barnes [Works (1573), 294. 2]. A scorge to tame those bedlames with.

^ISS3"87Foxe, Acts and Monuments 996. i. To speake as undiscreetlie and bedlemly, as ye doe.

1562. Heywood, Prov. and Epig. (1867), 107. Lyke Iacke of Bedlem in and out whipping.

1581. Riche, Farewell to Mil. Prof. But his wife (as he had attired her) seemed indeede not to be well in her wittes, but, seeyng her housbandes maners, shewed herself in her conditions to bee a right bedlem.

1585. Nomenclator. Furor... Outrage; furie; bedlem madnesse.

1593. Shakspeare, 2 Henry vi. v. i. To Bedlam with him! Is the man grown mad? K. H. Ay, Clifford; a bedlam and ambitious humour Makes him oppose himself against his king. Ibid. (1605), King Lear, ii. 3. 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... Enforce their charity.

1598. Marston, Pygmal, iii, 149. Bedlame, Frenzie, Madnes, Lunacie, I challenge all your moody Empery.

1621. Burton. Anat. Melau., 11. iv. i. 5. Such raging bedlamites as are tied in chains.

[.?..]. Aubrey, Nat. Hist. Wills. [Royal Soc. MS. 259. Note]. "Till the breaking out of the civill warres Tom ô Bedlams did travell about the countrey; they had been poore distracted men that had been putt into Bedlam, where recovering to some sobernesse, they were licentiated to goe a begging, e g. they had on their left arm an armilla of tinn printed in some workes, about four inches long; they could not gett it off. They wore about their necks a great horn of an oxe in a string or bawdrie, which when they came to an house for almes, they did wind; and they did putt the drink given them into this horn, whereto they did putt a stopple. Since the warres I doe not remember to have seen any one of them." [In a later hand is added, "I have seen them in Worcestershire within these thirty years, 1756."]

1646. Daniell, [Works (1878), 1. 60]. All Bedlam-witted walke in Bedlam-wise.

Bedoozle. 176 Bedpost.

1663. Aron-bimnticha, 32. The Bedlam... the skrewes... are the best instances of our Kindness.

1665. Homer a la Mode. Thus like a Bedlam to and fro She frisk'd, and egg'd 'era on to goe.

c. 1667. Cowley, Cromwell [Works (1710), 11, 627]. Thou dost... A Babel and a Bedlam grow.

c. 1675. W. Blundell, Crogsby Ree. 137. A gentleman who passed as a

bedlamer.

1678. Bunyan, Pilgrim, i, 123. Some [averred] they were Bedlams.

1678. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), 11, 156. I went to see new Bedlam Hospital... most sweetly placed in Moorfields since the dreadful fire. [Orig. in Bishopsgate, rebuilt (1676) in Moorfields near London Wall, and 1815 in Lambeth, its present site. Eds.}.

1701. Swift, Mrs. Harris' Pet il. [Works (1755), in, ii, 61]. She roar'd like a Bedlam.

1742-4. North, Life Lord Guildford, i. 271. This country [the Border] was then much troubled with Bedlamers.

c. 1743. Hervey, Beauties Eng. (1804), i, 106. Those virgins act a wiser part Who hospitals and bedlams would explore.

1751. Smollett, Pereg. Pickle, lxxxi. Lord B... raved like a bedlamite.

1788. Cowper, Table-talk, 609. Anacreon, Horace, Play'd... This Bedlam Part.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, lui. The devil take the bedlamite old woman.

1837. Carlyle, Fr. Revol. III, vi, vii, 346. Hardly audible amid the Bedlam-storm. Ibid. (1850), Latter-day Pamph. viii, (1872), 276. That all this was a Donnybrook bedlam.

bedoozle, verb. (American).—To confuse; to bewilder. [Probably old English 'bedazzle': cf. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, iv., 5, 46].

bedpost, In the twinkling of a bed post, phr. (old).—Instantaneously ; with geat rapidity: originally in

the twinkling of a beüstaff.

English synonyms. 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.

1600. Charac. Italy, 78. In the twinkling of a Bedstaff he disrobed himself... and was just skipping into bed.

1676. T. Shadwell, Virtuoso, 1., i. 'Gad I'll do it instantly, in the twinkling of a bedstaff.

1698. Ward, London Spy, xi., 259. Shake 'em off and leap into bed, in the twinkling of a bedstaff.

1854. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, i. 'I'll adown and be with you in... the

twinkling of a bedpost.'

1871. M. Collins, Mrq. and Merck. in, iii. 78. In the twinkling of a bedpost Is each savoury platter clean.

between you and me and the bedpost, phr. (common).— A humorous tag ; i.e., ' between ourselves '; entre nous, e.g. ' 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 will serve.

1831. Lytton, Eugene Aram, 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, 127. And between you and me and the post, sir, it will be a very nice portrait too.

1855. Taylor, Still Waters, ii. Betwixt you and me and the post, if you and me and the direction generally does'nt look mighty sharp the two-and-ahalf will be foive tomorrow.

Bedouin.

177

Bedtime.

1879. Punch, 8 March, 108. 'betwixt you and I and the post, Mr. Jones', said Brown, confidentially... 'Robinson ain't got neither the Looks, nor yet the Language, nor yet the Manners of a Gentleman.'

bedouin, subs, (colloquial).—A wanderer, a gipsy : cf. Arab. Also as adj.

1861. Sala, Twice round Clock, 45. Half-starved Bedouin children, mostly Irish.

1863. Times, 2 May. Where are all the dingy bedouins of England who travel through to this great gathering?

bedpresser, subs, (venery).— i. See Bed.

2. (colloquial).—A dull heavy fellow.

bedrock, subs. (American).—The bottom ; lowest level ; the last. To

get down to bedrock = to

get at the bottom of matters ; to thoroughly understand ; to get in on the ground floor (q.v.) [a miner's term, alluding to the solid rock underlying superficial and other formations]. Bedrock fact =: 'a chiel that winna ding,' the incontestable and uncontrovertable truth. Bed-rock dollar = the last dollar.

1870. Bret Harte, Poems and Prose, 113. 'No! no!' continued T. hastily. ■I play this yer hand alone. To come down to the bedrock it's just this,' etc.

1875. Scribuer's Magazine, 277. Getting to the real character of a man

IS coming to the bedrock.

1881. Chicago Times, n June. The transactions... having been based on bedrock prices.

1883. Century, 581. The family is

about down to bedrock.

1888. Louisiana Press, 31 March. You can bet your bedrock dollar that the next governor of Missouri will be, etc.

Bedtime, subs, (colloquial).—The hour of death.

1870. Alford, Life (1893), 457. I only hope the Masters' work may be got done by bedtime.

bee, subs.(colloquial).— i. A 'sweet' writer, singer etc.

1753. Chambers Cycl. Suppl., s. v. Bee. Xenophon is called the Attic bee.

2. (colloquial).—A busy worker.

1791-1824. Disraeli, Cur. Lit. (1866), 319, 2. A complete collection of classical works, all the bees of antiquity... may be hived in a single glass case.

3. (American).—A working party of neighbours and friends for the benefit of one of their number ; as when a party of settlers combine to erect a log-house for a newcomer, or when farmers unite to gather one another's harvests in succession: e.g. apple

bee, raising-bee, stone-bee,

quilting-bee, husking-bee, etc. ; hence, a social gathering for some specific purpose, as spelling-bee.

1809. Irving, Knickerb. [Works. 1, 238]. Now were instituted quilting-bees and husking-bees, and other rural assemblages.

i8[?]. Goodrich, Remin. 1. 75. At Ridgefield, we used to have stone-bees, when all the men of a village or hamlet came together with their draft cattle, and united to clear some patch of earth which was covered with an undue quantity of stones and rocks.

1830. Galt, Laurie T. (1849), in, v. 98. I made a bee; that is I collected as many of the most expert and able-bodied of the settlers to assist at the raising.

1864. Yonge, Trial, 11, 281. She is gone out with Cousin Deborah to an apple-bee.

1876. Lubbock, Educ. [Cont. Rev., June, 91]. He may be invincible at a spelling-bee.

Bedtime.

178

Beef.

1884. Harper's Mag. Sep. 510. 2. This execution... in Idaho phrase was

a hanging-bee.

TO have a bee in the head

(brain or bonnet), verb phr. (old).—To have queer ideas ; to be 'half-cracked'; flighty, eccentric, crazy, with a screw loose &c: cf. Fr. grille and Maggot. Hence bee-bonnetted = somewhat crazed ; bee-head = a crazypate: hence bee-headed.

1312-3. Gawin Douglas, Mneis, viii., Prol. 120. Quhat bern be thou in bed with heid full of beis.

c. 1533. Udal, Roist. Doister [Arber] 29. Who so hath suche bees as your maister in hys head.

1571. Edwards, Damon and Pithias [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), i. 180]. But, Wyll, my maister hath bees in his head, If he find mee heare pratinge, I am but deade.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, i. 4. If he meet but a carman in the street, and I find him not talk to keep him off on him, he will whistle him and all his tunes at overnight in his sleep! he has a head full of bees.

1657. Samuel Colvil, Whigg's Supplication, or Scotch Hudibras (1710). Which comes from brains which have a bee.

1724. Ramsay, Tea-table Mise, 11. 119. But thy wild bees I canna please.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan's, 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.'

1843. De Quincey, Coleridge etc. [Works xii. 91]. John Hunter, notwithstanding he had a bee in his bonnet was really a great man.

1833. Lytton, My Novel, 111. 307. It is not an uncommon crochet amongst benevolent men to maintain that wickedness is 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.

1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, i. 1097. Whom men judge hardly as bee-bonnetted.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, 77, 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 tbe priestesses of Ceres, and the word lunatic or moonstruck still means one with 'bees in his head.'

1879. Jamieson, s.v. Yeneednamind him, he's a bee-headit bodie.

BEEF, subs, (colloquial).— 1. Human flesh; beefy = obese, stolid, fleshy like an ox_; beefiness = fleshly development. Hence (2) men, strength, 'hands': e.g. 'More beef,' a bo'sun's call to extra exertion; 'Beef up!' = 'Now for a long pull and a strong pull ' : see Phrases.

1396. Shakspeare, / Hen. IV. iii. 3. 199. O, my sweet Beefe, I must still be good Angell to thee.

1839. Smiles, Self Help, 160. It is the one pull more of the oar that proves the beefiness of the fellow, as Oxford men say. Ibid. 291. This dunce had a dull enegy and a sort of beefy tenacity of purpose.

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight xi. To see hiin in his huge shirt-sleeves, with his awkward beefy hands hanging inanely by his side, and his great foolish mouth open.

1860. All Year Round, No. 66, 367. There are no beefy boys at these schools.

1862. Cork Examiner, 28 Mar. Chelmsford stood higher in the leg, and showed less beef about him.

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.

1876. Braddon, J. Haggard's Daughter, x. 134. Added the farmer in his beefy voice.

Beef brained. 179 Beef-eater.

3. (venery).—The penis-, see Prick. Whence to be in (have or do a bit of) beef (of women only) = to have carnal knowledge of men, to copulate: see Greens and Ride for beef, &c: also to

take in beef, to give mutton.

1603. Shakspeare, Meas. for Meas. Ill, z. 59. Troth, sir, she has eaten up all her beef, and is herself in the tub.

TO cry (or give) beef (or hot

beef), phr. (thieves').—To give an alarm ; to pursue ; to set hue and cry. [It has been suggested that beef is a rhyming synonym to 'thief']. Hence to make beef = to run away ; to decamp ; Beef! = 'Stop thief.'

Phrases. To be in a man's beef = to wound with a sword (Grose); to be dressed like Christmas beef =r to be decked out in one's best raiment; beef

to the heels, like a mul

lingar Heifer =: a laudation of 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 ; to beef it (originally a provincialism, but now common, in the East End of London) = to lake a meat meal, more particularly of beef.

c. 1880. Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, 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.

See Albany beef.

Beef-brained (or beef-witted), adj. phr. (common).—Doltish ; obtuse ; thickheaded.

1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, [Grosart, Works, in, 257]. Liues there anie such slowe yce-braind beefe-wittkd gull.

1606. Shakspeare, Troil. Cressida, ii. i. 14. Thou mongrel beef-witted lord.

1627. Feltham, Resolves, 1, ix (1647), 28. A beefe-brained fellow that hath only impudence enough to shew himself a foole.

1863. Reader, 22 Aug. This British bull-neckedness, this British beef-wittedness.

Beef-head, subs. (old).— A dolt: a stupid, thick-headed person.

1775. Cavendish, [Burke, Corresp. (1844), 11, 86]. The petition should be framed so as to... draw off some of the beef-heads who are disposed against it.

beefment. On the beefment,/Ar. (thieves').—On the alert; on the look out: cf. beef.

beef-dodger, subs.phr. (American). —A meat biscuit: cf. Corn

dodger.

1853. Col. Benton, Speech [Bartlett]. It is a small party [with]... Pinole, pemmican, and beef-dodgers for their principal support.

beef-eater, subs. (old).— I. A wellfed menial: in contempt.

1610. Histrio-m. iii. 99. Awake drowsie drones that long have suckt the honney from my lives; Begone yee greedy

beefe-eaters.

1628. Greville, Sidney (1652), 109. We conquered France, more by such factions and ambitious assistances than by any odds of our Bows, or Beef-eaters as the French were then scornfully pleased to terme us.

1854. BA.DHAM, Halicut, 516. Amongst immortal gluttons, Hercules the beefeater was chief.

2. (old).—The Yeoman of the guard, household wardens of the Sovereign of Great-Britain : instit. by Henry VII (1485), were subsequently appointed Warders of the Tower of London by Ed. VI:

Beef-stick.

180

Bee-line.

the present uniform is the same as that of the orig. Beefeaters of the guard.

1671. Crowne, Juliana, iv. 44. The Beef-eaters o' the guard. Ibid. You Beef-eater, you saucy cur.

1736. Fielding, Pasçuin, ii. 1. If your lordship please to make me a beefeater.

1779. Sheridan, Critic, iii, 1. (1883), 175. Enter Beef-eater, with his halbert.

1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng. 1, 293. Without some better protection than that of the trainbands and beef-eaters.

1864. Spencer, Illust. Univ. Prog. 63. The Beefeaters at the Tower wear the costume of Henry vnth's body guard.

beef-stick, subs. phr. (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-witted. See Beef-brained.

beefy, adj. (common).—I. See Beef.

2. (common). — Fortunate; lucky.

bee-line, subs. phr. (American).— A straight line between two points : as a bee returning laden to its hive. Hence to take (or make) a bee-line (or air-line) = to go direct, ' as the crow flies ', without circumlocution. One of the American railways is popularly known as the Bee Line Road from the direct route it takes between its termini. Also straight shot (q.v.).

1836. Americans at Home, i. The sweetened whiskey I had drank made me so powerful thick-legged, that when I started to walk my track warn't any thing like a bee-line.

1848. 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.

i8[?]. Mrs. Clavers, Forest Life [Bartlett]. This road is one of nature's laying. It goes determinedly straight up and straight down the hills, and in beeline, as we say.

1849. Poe, Gold Beetle [Tales 1, 44]. A bee-line, or, in other words, a straight line drawn... to a distance of fifty feet.

1852. Grote, Greece, ix, ii, lxx. 160. If we measure on Kiepert's map... the air-line is 170 English miles.

1836. Dow, Sermons, 1, 215Sinners, you are making a bee-line from time to eternity; and what you have once passed over you will never pass again.

i860. Kane, Arctic Exploration, 1, 198. We moved on like men in a dream. Our foot-marks, seen afterwards, showed that we had steered a bee-line for the brig.

1870. Emerson, Soc. and Solit. x. 219. Men, who, almost as soon as they are born, take a bee-line to the rack of the inquisitor.

1874. M. Collins, Frances, v. How they could follow an enemy's trail or strike a bee-line through unpathed woods to the point they sought!

1875. Bird, Six Mos. in Sandwich Islands, xxix., 275 (1886). Horses cross the sand and hummocks as nearly as possible on a bee-line.

1882. J. Hawthorne, Fort. Fool, I, viii. This disreputable clergyman would make a bee-line for Castlemere.

1884. Aldridge, Ranch Notes, 78. The cattle are in great dread of this pest [the heel-fly], and the instant an animal feels one, it takes a bee-line for the nearest water.

1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, 24 Jan. The obese style once admired is now disliked. Many old English authors had too much rhetoric for our age. An author must take the air-line or we will not travel.

Beelzebub 's Paradise. 181

Beer.

1888. Florida Times Union Advertisement, 11 Febr. Ask for tickets via Augusta or Atlanta and the Piedmont air line.

1900. Gunter, Deacon and Actress, viii. His service eye struck a bee-line for the Deacon.

1901. Troddles,i3o. A certain inn. . . in great request by yachtsmen and cyclists, we made a bee-line for that.

Beelzebub's Paradise, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Hell, the infernal regions.

been. Among colloquialisms are.— Been in the sun = drunk: see Screwed. Been measured for a new umbrella = a sportive allusion to 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. Oh, yes, I've been there ! — ' I know what I am about': when it is said of a man that he has been there, shrewdness, pertinacity, and experience are implied ; when said of women secret prostitution or adultery is meant.

1888. Atlanta Constitution, 4 May. 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.'

beer, subs, (common).—Generic for malt-liquor ; spec, a drink of beer. As verb (or to do a beer) = to drink malt-liquor; in beer (or on a beer) = drunk: see Screwed; beer-barrel (q.V.); beerbathing =gUZZÜng;beer-street

= the throat, gutter-alley^.^.); small-beer = (i) weak beer, and (2) trifling matter, small things:

as in phrase, to think no small beer of oneself = to possess a good measure of self-esteem ; to think small beer of anything = to have a poor opinion of it; to chronicle small beer = (1) to engage in trivial occupations, and (2) to retail petty scandal; also numerous combinations for which see infra. As adj. small beer = petty.

1592. Nashe, Piers Penniless. Bouzing and beere-bathing in their houses everie afternoone.

1604. Shakspeare, Othello, ii, 1, 161. To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.

1631. J. Rous, Diary (1856) 66. Warren (that was in beere)... urged upon the maide to ride behinde him.

d. 1666. A Brome, Works [Chalmers, vi. 648, i], A dull small-beer sinner.

1712. Addison, Spectator, 269, 8. I allow a double quantity of malt to my

small beer.

1780-6. Wolcot ('P. Pindar*) Odes R. Acad., [Whs., (1794), 1., 105.] He surely had been brandying it or beering, that is, in plainer English, he was drunk.

1824. Mitford, Village (1863), 11, 242. A cart and a waggon watering (it would be more correct, perhaps to say beering) at the Rose.

1832. Southey. The Doctor, Interch., xvi. He thought small beer at that time of some very great patriots and Queenites.

1840. De Quincey, Style [Works, xi. 174]. Should express her self-esteem by the popular phrase, that she did not 'think small beer of herself.'

1844. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, xiv. All the news of sport, assize, and quarter-sessions were detailed by this worthy chronicler of small beer. Ibid. (1855). Newcomes, xxxix. She thinks small beer of painters, J.J.—well, well, we don't dont think small beer of ourselves, my noble friend.

Beer and Bible. 182 Beerhandel.

1853. Lytton, My Novel, iv. xii. When I say that sum un is gumptious, I mean—though that's more vulgar like— sum un who does not think small beer of hisself.

1874. Siliad, 82. Stired to shout, and primed with countless beers.

1880. Punch's Almanac, 3. Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear, Two d. left \—must go and do a beer !

1880. Academy, 25 Sep., 219. Two such chroniclers of small beer as Boswell and Erskine.

1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. 'Pitcher,' said Shifter, brushing the dust off his tongue, 'got enough for a beer?'

1902. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 Sep., 1. 3. Vogler had reason to think no small things of himself. He was emphatically the popular man of his day; he was followed by enthusiastic admirers.

Beer and Bible, phr. (political).—

An epithet applied sarcastically to a political party which first came into prominence during the last Beaconsfield Administration, and which 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, 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 Burton), 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 sobriquet of the Gin and Gospel Gazette.

Beer-and-skittles. Notallbeerand-skittles, phr. (common).— Not altogether pleasant, or couleur de rose: a tap room simile: cf. Oatmeal.

c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, 138. Football wasn't all beer and skittles to the Fags.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 13 Aug. 6. Prince George of Wales is 'learning his profession,' and finds it is not all beer and skittles.

Beerbarrel (or -vat), subs. phr. (common).— I. The human body: cf. Bacon. Hence (2) = a tippler: see Lushington.

Beeriness.

183 Beeswing.

1584. [? Monday], Weakest to Wall, iii. 4. Now, mine host rob-pot, emptycan, beer-barrel.

1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. 11, vi. vi. 356. Thou laggard sonorous Beer-vat. .. is it time now to palter.

Beeriness (and Beery), subs, and adj. (common).—A state of (or approaching to) drunkenness ; intoxicated ; fuddled with beer : see Screwed.

1857. Dickens, Dorrit, 1., viii., 56. The stranger was left to the... beert atmosphere, sawdust, pipe-lights, spittoons, and repose.

1861. Eliot, Silas Marner, 67. A beery and bungling sort.

1877. D. C. Murray, [in Belgravia, July, 73]. There was a beery and bloated captain, resident in the inn.

1889. Modern Society, 13 July, 838. 'Damn'd be he that first cries, Hold, enough,' which is vulgary translated by the beery oracle of the kerbstone, 'Put yer shirt on 'im, cuffs an' all.'

bber-jerker (or SLINGER), subs. (American).—A tippler: j-^Lush

ington.

beerocracy, subs, (common).—The brewing and beer-selling interest : cf. Cottonocracy, Mobocracy, Slaveocracy in imitation of 'aristocracy', etc.

1881. World, 19 Jan., 10. 2. The startling mixture of peerage and beerocracy... was absent this time.

beeswax, subs, (old).—I. Poor, soft cheese: also sweaty-toe cheese (q.v.).

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 3. 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 r

1849. BeWs 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 to render them supple]. Pronounced Beswaxers.

c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, 157. Our costume consisted of a jersey, flannel trousers, beeswaxers (lace-up boots), or 'Highlows' (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 and some other wines, the result of age. Hence beeswinged.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, \n„ 26. Scott from under bushy eyebrows winked at the apparition of a beeswing.

1850. D. Jerrold, The Catspaw, i. Whereupon, the animal spirits are held in suspense, like—like the beeswing in port.

i860. Thompson, Audi Alt. in, cxiv. 44. His richer or more showy neighbour... is curious in bee's wing.

1864. Tennyson, Aylmer's Field, 403. Fetched His richest beeswing from a binn reserved.

1873. Fitzedward Hall, Modern English, 32. This port is not presentable unless beeswinged.

1880. Browning, Dram. Idylls 11. 47. Too much beeswing floats my figure.

Old beeswing, subs. phr. (common).—One who ' takes to his liquor kindly ' : also a generally jocular address.

i8[?]. Mark Lemon, Golden Fetters, ii., p. 74. Mr. Clendon did not call Mr. Barnard 'old cock,' 'old fellow,' or old beeswing.

Beetle.

Beg.

beetle, subs, (old colloquial).— Generic for dullness, stupidity, blockishness: e.g. ' As deaf (dumb, dull, quick or blind) as a beetle';

beetle-brain (or head) = a

dolt, a fool, a blockhead (B.E.); also numerous derivatives.

1424. Leg: St. Edith, 81. Blind as a betulle.

1520. Whittington, Vulg. (1527), 2. Tendre wyttes... be made as dull as

a betell.

1548. Udal, Erasmus Par. Mark 1. 5. Jerusalem albeit she were in very dede aj blynde as a betell,

1566. Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewell, iii, 91. With such Betle arguments as you make.

1566. Knox, Hist. Ref. [Works (1846) i, 164]. That dolt hath not a word to say for himself but was as doume as a bitle in that mater.

1579. Tomson, Calvin s Serm. Tim. 471. 2. Wee cease not to bee bruite beasts, as blinde as betles. Ibid, 931. 2. They that had charge to guyde other, were poore blinde betels themselves.

1634. Withals, Diet., 554. Celerius elephanti pariunt: as quicke as a beetle.

1642. Rogers, Naaman., 4. Our faculty to understand is still left... we are not meere blockes and beetles.

1692. Washington Milfoils' Def. Pop. v (1851), 132. They confute such a Beetle as you are.

1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat. 1, 475. A blockhead, yea a numskull, not to say a beetle.

Beetle-crusher (or Squasher), subs, (common).— i. A large foot: the term was popularised by Leech in Punch. Hence (2) = a large boot or shoe: also beetle-case ; and (3) an infantry soldier (a cavalry term): cf. mudcrusher. Whence beetle-crushing (military) = route-marching.

1869. Brad wood, The O. V. H., xxi. Writhing yet striving to look pleasant on the infliction which the beetlecrusher of a recent arrival had just inflicted on his pet corn.

1880. Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, 11., p. 200. Yes, but what horrible boots! Whoever could have had the atwocity to fwame such beetle crushers.

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 mining shares.

1887. Atkins, House Scraps. Oh, supposing our creamjugs were broken, Or beetles were sowing the babies.

beetle-sticker, subs. phr. (common).—An entomologist.

Before. Before the wind, phr. (colloquial).—In prosperous circumstances; out of debt or difficulty.

Beg. To beg (or beg a person for a fool), verb. phr. (old).— i. To petition the Court of Wards for the Custody of an idiot. [This Court was instituted by Henry VIII and suppressed under Charles II; under a writ de idiota inquirendo a man if legally proved an idiot, the profits of his land and the custody of his person might be granted by the king to any subject: the Court also dealt in a similar manner with minors and heiresses]. Hence (2) = to take a man for (or set him down as) a fool.

1584. Fenner, Def. Min. (1587), 51. Then would you have proured vs asses not begged for innocents.

1589. Hay any Work, 71. It is time to begg vs the for a swagg.

Begad. 185 Beggar.

1609. Dekker Honest Whore[Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), iii, 261]. If I fret not his guts, beg me for a fool.

1598. Harrington, Epigrams, i. 10. Leave begging, Lynus, for such poor rewards, Else some will beg thee, in

the court of wards.

1609. Jonson, Barthol. Fayre, iii. Faith, through a common calamity, he bought me, sir; and now he will marry me to his wife's brother, this wise gentleman, that you see; or else I must pay the value of my land.

1604. Wright, Passions, iii, 1. 81. He may be begd for an ideot.

1636. Davenant, The Wits, [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed) viii. 509.J

I fear you will Be begg'd at court, unless you come

off thus.

1639. Mayne, City Match [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed) ix. 314.] And that a great man Did mean to beg you for— his daughter.

1696. Stillingfleet, 12 Sermons, ii. sq. That we may not therefore seem to beg all wicked men for fools.

1736. Hervey, Mem. II. 143. Moyle letter deserved to be... begged por a fool, or hanged for a knave.

begad ! intj. (common).-A corruption of 'By God!' such a euphemistic oath.

1742. Fielding, J. Andrews. Begad! madam... 'tis the very same I met.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 11., iv., 39. Only one, begad! in the world!

bejant. (bejan or baijan) subs. (Aberdeen university).— A student of the first year. [A corruption of the French bJjaune {becjaune), unsophisticated young man, compared to an unfledged blackbird]. Second year students are semi-BEjANTS, third year students 'tertians', and fourth year, ' magistrands '.

1611. Cotgrave. Bejaune, a novice ... or young beginner, in a trade or art.

1865. G. Macdonald, Alec Forbes, xxxiv. The benches were occupied by about two hundred students, most of the freshmen or B3JANS in their red gowns.

1887. Standard, Feb. ro, 5, 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 bil s of this hue.

beggar, subs, (common).— I. A generic term of abuse and contempt: spec, a mean, or low fellow; and (2) in pi. = the small cards from the deuce to the ten. Hence beggar's-broun = scotch snuff (made of the stem of tabacco leaf); beggar's-bullet = a stone: also beggar's-bolt _; beggar-maker = a publican; beggar-niggler = one who toys with a beggar-woman _; beggar's-plush = corduroy-, beggar's-velvet = downy particles which accumulate under furniture, otherwise called sluts'-wool(^.z\). Also in phrases, to go home by beggar's-bush = to go to ruin: also beggar'sstaff : according to Miège, beggar's-bush = a rendezvous for beggars: see quot 1868, but there are other places so-named, e.g. Russell Hill near Croydon is locally so-known, and many punning allusions depend on the name of a place: cf. Peckham, Holloway, Clapham.Needham and many others. to swear by no beggars = to swear hard, to pledge one's word solemnly. Likewise in many contemptuous proverbs.—'A beggar's wallet is never filled' (1539); 'Beggars should not be choosers' (1562); ' A beggar may sing before a thief (1562); 'I know him as well as a beggar knows his bag (or dish ') ; ' Beggars mounted run

Beggar.

their horses to death ' ; ' Rich when young, a beggar when old'; 'As great as beggars'; ' Sue a beggar and catch a louse ' ; ' Set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the devil' (or the jakes), i.e. sudden accession to wealth often induces pride that will not allow of walking, to the place where even the king goes on foot; and many others (see quots.)

c. 1300. Cursor Mundi, 13662. Herd yee his lurdan, coth thai, that-beggar that in sin was goten.

c. 1460. Townley Myst. 70. If siehe a beggere shold my Kyngdom thus reyf me.

[?]. Ms. Adit. 5008. So that dyvers of our saylors were much offended, and sayd, set a begger on horsbacke and he wyl ryde unreasonablye.

1506. Plumpton Correspondence, 199, We are brought to beggar staffs.

1539. Taverner, Eras. Prov. (1322), 9. One beggar byddeth wo that another by the dore shuld go. Ibid. 39. A beggars scryp is never fylled.

1562. Heywood, Prov. and Epig. (1867) 23. Beggers should be no choosers. Ibid. 38. The beggar maie

syng before the theefe. Ibid. 171. I know him as well as the begger knowth his bag.

1581. Riche, Farewell to Mil. Prof. This letter brought mistres Doritie into suche a furie, when she had perused it, that she sware by no beggers she would be revenged upon the doctor.

1584. Hudson, Judith [Sylvkster, Du Bartas (1608) 698]. A pack of country clowns... that them to battail bownes with beggers bolts and levers.

1592. Greene, Upst. Court. (1891), 6. Walking home by Begger's Bush for a pennance.

1594. Contention (1843) 2nd Pt. 132. Beggers mounted run their horse to death.

1613. Uncasing Machiavil's Instr. Sonne, 7. Proue the proverbe often told, 'A carelesse Courtier yong, a Begger olde.'

1614. Terence in English. For even this Pamphilus, how often did he sware deepely by no beggers unto Bacchis, even so, that anybody in the world might have beleeved him, that so long as shee lived, he would not take him a wife; but loe he is married.

1617. Morison, Hin. III. ii. i. 6. Who know the way as well as a begger knows his dish.

c. 1640. Day, Peregr. Schol. (1881), 73. Notwithstanding... Industry... he was forct to take a napp at Beggars Bushe.

c. 1652. Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. Do we look like Beggar-nigglers ?

1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv. 99. We are almost at Beggars-bush, snd we cannot tell how to help our selves.

1682. Bunyan, Holy lVar,i6o. When Cerberus and Mr. Profane met, they were presently as great as beggars.

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.

1688. London Gazette, No. 2370, page 4. A person... in a dark grey Cloth Coat... Breeches of Beggar's Plush.

i6[?]. Cleaveland, Midsummer Moon, 188. If a man be a tree invers'd, hee's beggar's bush.

1690. Walker, Idiom. Anglo-Latin. 46. Sue a beggar and catch a louse.

1710. Swift, Polite Conv. i. Lady Ans. Do you know him, Mr. Neverout ? Nev. Know him? Ay, Madam, as well

as a beggar knows his dish.

1711. Land. Gaz. 4888. 3. a green Beggars Velvet Trock with Metal Buttons.

Beggar. 187 Be gosh.

i7[?]. Prior, Conversation, 80. Know him! d'ye question it? Odds fish! Sir,

does a beggar know his dish?

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. 'The beggars bullets began to fly ; i.e., they began to throw stones.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge]. 43. I would have made a man of him, but the beggar on horseback gave himself airs to Dame Jacintha.

1809. Cobbett, Pol. Reg. xv, xii, 429. Our own old saying, 'Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil.

1868. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 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.

1869. Broughton, Not Wisely, 121. A sulky ill conditioned sort of beggar.

2. (Colloquial).—An endearment: e.g. little beggar, saucy

beggar, etc. : cf. baggage, dog, rogue, monkey, etc. Also in jocular or familiar speech generally.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, xxxiii Sir John left Sir \V. Parker... to watch the Spanish beggars.

1857. Hughes, To m Brown, i. You're uncommon good-hearted little beggars.

1873. Black, Princess of Thüle, xvii. The cheekiest young beggar I have the pleasure to know.

Verb, (colloquial).—To confound : e.g. ' Beggar the thing ' ! = Hang it! 'I'll be beggared if I do ' ! = an emphatic asservation; i.e. 'Ill give up everything, even to being reduced to beggary, if, etc.: often with an eye on bugger (q.v.)

Sturdy beggar, subs.phr. (old). —An able-bodied man, begging without cause, and frequently by violence and menace: cf. Abramman and Bedlam.

1538. Starkey, England, 176. Thys grete nombur of sturdy beggarys therby chold utturly be taken away.

1597. Act 3Q Eliz. iv. i., For the

suppressing of rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggers.

i 711. Steele, Spectator, 48. 5. The Heroes appear only like Sturdy Beggars.

i860. Vaughan, Mystics 1, 143. There are some sturdy beggars who wander about the country availing themselves of the name of Beghard to lead an idle life.

BEGIN. In phrases, to begin to one := to pledge a person first in drinking; to begin on ONE = to attack; to assault.

1628. Earle, Microcosm, lxxvi. That is kind o'er his beer, and protests he loves you, And begins to you again.

1633. Bishop Hall, Hard Texts, 36. Can yee drinke of that better cup wherein I shall begin to you.

1651. Cartwright, Siedge. You shall have This lord come profer you his daughter, this Burgesse his wife, and that unskilfull youth Pray you begin to him in's trembling bride.

1715. Burnet, Own Times, 11, 117. At Sandcroft's Consecration dinner, he began a health to the confusion of all that were not for a war with France.

1825. Sherwood, Houlston Tr. 11., xxxii. All the company began upon her, and bade her mind her own affairs.

BEGOSH ! or BlGOSH ! intj. (American).—An expletive, probably of negro origin; a half veiled oath; a corruption of 'By God!'

1888. The Epoch, 5 May. If the drawin's free an you don't tax me too much for the frame b'gosh I'll take it.

BeJiind.

188 Belcher.

BEHIND, subs, (vulgar).—The posterior; the rump; bum (q.v.); arse (q.v.). Also (2) = the back or hinder part of a garment.

1551. Still, Gammer Gurton'sNeedle, ii. 4. I would thou hadst kiss'd me I wot where: (she meant I know behind).

1786. Lounger, 54. 17. Two young Ladies... with new Hats on their heads, new Bosoms, and new Behinds in a band-box.

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.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple (1863), 49. That I might not have the front of my trowsers torn as well as the behind.

3. (Eton and Winchester.— 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 (Winchester College), is used 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 hanging.

1785. Grose, 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.

BELCH (or BELSH), subs, once literary; now vulgar.—Beer; spec.

' small beer ' : see Drinks (B.E.). As verb. = to eructate: spec, the result of hard drinking. [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]. Hence belcher = (1) a hard beer drinker; spec, one drinking to such excess that he vomits.

1598. Florio, Rottatore, a belcher, a spuer, a rasper.

1698. Ward, London Spy, xv., 347. Those Poor Sots who are gussling belch at his own Ale-hozcse. Ibid. (1705). Hi/dibras Redivivus, i., pt. vii., 18. I sneak'd into a little house, Where porters do their belch carouse.

1748. Dyche, Dictionary (sed.). Belch (s.), common beer or ale sold in publick houses is so called.

1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue. Belch, all sorts of beer, that liquor being apt to cause eructation.

1858. Mayhew, Paved with gold, in., iii., 265. Let's have a pot of that fourpenny English Burgundy of yours, and, whilst my mates are drinking the belch, I want to told business with you.

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 99. Now it is well known that traveling mummers are all rare belchers.

Belcher, subs, (pugilistic).—i. A neckerchief named after Jim Belcher, a noted pugilist. The ground is blue, with large white spots having a dark-blue spot or eye in the centre of each. Hence any handkerchief of a parti-colour round the neck.

1812. Examiner, 21 Sept., 607, 1. The traverser... tied a belcher handkerchief round his neck.

1825. Lister, Granby, xxxix. 261. Instead of the Belcher he has a loose black handkerchief round his neck.

Belle-Chose. 189

Believe.

1834. AiNSwoRTH, Rockwood, iv. i. What we now call a belcher bound his throat.

1836. Dickens, Sketches, 'Pawnbroker's Shop'. The silver fork and the fiat iron, the muslin cravat and the Belcher neckerchief, would but ill assort together. Hid. 'Miss Evans and the Eagle'. Mr. Wilkins had brought a pint of shrimps neatly folded up in a clean belcher to give a zest to the meal.

1844. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, xvii. Now every man has the same coachman-like look in his belcher and caped coat.

1846. Lytton, Lucretia, 154. The lower part of [the face] was enveloped in an enormous belcher.

i8(?). Dickens, The Ghost of Art, [in Reprinted Pieces, 215.] I saw that the lower part of his face was tied up, in what is commonly called a belcher handkerchief.

1862. Burton, Book Hunter, i. 31. The fragments of a parti-coloured belcher handkerchief.

1874. Macmillan's Magazine, April, 506. The spotted blue and white neckerchief, still called a belcher, bears the name of a famous prize-fighter.

2. (thieves').—See quot.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour, 1., 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. See Belch.

BELLE-CHOSE, subs. phr. (venery).— The kmalepudendum : cf. Pretty and see Monosyllable.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales. Wif of Bathes Prologue. 6029. Is it for ye wold have my quein't alone... For if I wolde sell my belle chose, I coude walke as freshe as is a rose.

BELDAM, subs. (old).—Formerly a term of respect, now only in depreciation. The original and suc

cessive usages are—(1) a grandmother; (2) a great-grandmother (Plot used it of a woman who has lived to see five generations of descendants); (3) a woman advanced in years (spec. 16th c. of nurses); and (4) a loathsome old woman, a hag, a furious woman, 'a scolding old woman' (B.E.). [Quotations are given for last and degraded sense only].

c. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia (1613), 10. a beldame... accused for a witch.

1608. Johnson, Seven Champions, 212. Come all you witches beldames, and Fortunetellers.

c. 1641. Montagu,ActsandMon.(1642), 77. Tarquinius taking her to be some frantick Beldame.

1706. Addison, Rosamund, i. 3. Fly from my passion, Beldame, fly !

1822. Scott, Nigel, xxxv. That accursed beldam whom she caused to work upon me.

1857. F. Locker, Land. Lyrics (1862) 100. The beldams shriek, the caldron bubbles.

BELIAL, subs. (University).—Balliol College, Oxford.

Believe. I believe you, phr. (common).—A general assent ; ' yes ' : sometimes, 'I believe you my boy'. [Once a favourite catchphrase of a well-known actor].

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Bcz, 2S6. 'Now confess: were you not a little surprised?'—'I believe you,' replied that illustrious person.

1849-50. Thackeray, Pendennis, 1., 140. 'Miss Rouney, I gather, was the confidante of the other.' 'Confidante? I believe you.'

i860. George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, 199. 'Is she a cross woman?'— 'I believe you.'

Bell.

190

Bell.

1870. Dudley Costello, The Millionaire of Mincing Lane, 204. 'And she hates that fellow ? '—' Hates him ?

I believe you.'

bell, subs, (vagrants').—A song: 'a diminutive of bellow'.— (Hotten).

Phrases.—To bear the bell = to take first place (or foremost rank), to be of the best ;

to bear (or carry away) the

bell = to win the prize: at races a silver or golden bell was sometimes the object of contention: hence to deserve (or lose) the

bell ; by bell and book (or book

and bell) — an emphatic asseveration : in the Middle Ages (in reference to the service of the Mass); to curse by bell, book and candle = a reference to a form of excommunication which ended, ' Doe to the book, quench the candle, ring the bell ' ; to hang (or tie) a bell about a cat's neck = to ensure warning of approach ; to bell the cat = to undertake a perilous task, to act as ringleader: in both these phrases there is allusion to the fable of the mice and the cats, but see quot 1888); to ring one's own bell = to sound one's own praises, to blow one's own trumpet ; to bell a marble = to run away with it, but the action scarcely amounts to actual theft.

c. 1300. Cursor Mundi, 17110. Curced in kirc than sal thai be wid Candil,

boke and bell.

c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, iii. 149. And, let se which of yow shal bere the belle, To speke of love aright.

1377. Langland, Piers Plowman, B. Prol. 168. Bugge a belle of brasse... And hangen it vpon the cattes hals; thanne here we mowon where he ritt or rest.

c. 1400. Ywaine and Gaw. 3023. So bus the do, by bel and boke.

c. 1420. Anters. Arth. iii. That borne was in Burgoyne, by boke and by belle.

c. 1460. Tozvneley. Myst. 88. Of alle the foies I can telle... Ye thre bere the belle.

1470. Harding Chron, lxxxi, xi. At the last the Brytons bare the bell. And had the felde and all the victorye.

c. 1529. Skelton, Colin Cloute, 164, Loth to hang the bell aboute the

cattes necke.

1594. Barnfield, Aff. Shep, n, xxxix. For pure white the Lilly beares the Bell.

1594. Carew, Huarte's Exam. Wits, xiii (1596), 215. Iulius Caesar... bare away the bell. ., from all other captaines.

1595. Shakspeare, K. John, iii, 3.12. Bell, Book, and candle shall not drive me back.

1600. Fairfax, Tasso, xvn, lxix. When in single fight he lost the bell.

1611. Barry, Ram Alley [Dodsley], I have a priest will mumble up a marriage, Without bell, book, or candle.

1617-8. Assheton, Diary. Said drinking some wyne: soe to a summer game: Sherburne's mare run, and lost the bell: made merrie.

c. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom. 1, iv. 4. The follie of the Romanes doth well

deserve the bell.

c. 1604. Camden, Remains, 348. Here lyes the man whose horse did gaine the bell, in race on Salisbury plain.

1616. saltonshall,CAar.23. Among the Romans it [a horse race] was an Olympic exercise, and the prize was a garland, but now they beare the bell away.

1621. Burton, Anat. Afelan. To Rdr. 49. True merchants, they carry away the bell from all other nations.

1627. E. F. Hist. Ed. II (1680), 14. Wishing some one would shew undaunted valour to Tye the Bell about the cat's neck.

Bell. 191 Bellows.

1680. 5/. Pop. 45. The FuldPreachers damned this Bond with Bell, Book, and Candle.

1686. Aglionby, Paint. Illustr. 278. Which gave him the Bell above all modern Artists.

1713. Land, and Count'r. Brew. iv. (1743), 295. A very heady Malt Liguor, which... Carries the Bell, by having the Name of the best Drink for and near.

1762. J. Man, Buch. Hist. Scot. xn. 41. 39. Note. Earl Archibald hearing the parable answered sadly, 'I shall bell the cat, meaning Cochrane, the great and terrible minion.

1773. Pennant, Tour North Wales. A little golden bell was the reward of victory in 1607 at the races near York, whence came the proverb for success of any Kind, to bear the bell.

1791. Disraeli, Cur. Lit. 169. 2. He would be glad to see who would bell the Cat, alluding to the fable.

1817. Byron, Beppo, x. Venice the bell from every city bore.

1828. Scott, Fair Maid, 1, 155. Hold thy hand, on pain of bell, book, and candle.

1840. Arnold, Life and Orr. (1844). 11, ix. 186. I was willing to bell the cat, hoping that some who were able might take up what I had begun.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, i, xii 232. As nobody was afraid of him, there was no difficulty in finding the man to bell the cat.

1888. Murray, Oxf. Diet., s.v. Bell the cat. In the latter use, there is immediate reference to the story or legend, related by Lindsay of Pittscottie, that when certain of the Scottish barons formed a secret conspiracy to put down the obnoxious favourites of James III in 1482, a moment of grave suspense followed the enquiry, 'Who would undertake to enter the royal presence and seize the victims?' which was terminated by the exclamation of Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, 'I will bell the cat, whence his historical appellation of Archibald Bell-the-Cat.'

Bell-bastard, subs. phr. (old).— The illegitimate child of a woman who is herself illegitimate.

Bell-bottoms, subs. phr. (old).— A mode in trousers in the sixties: they were cut bell-bottomed shape over the shoes. Fashion travels slowly, and Morris in AustralEnglish says they are still affected by the larrikin (q.v.).

1891. Argus, 5 Dec. 13, 2: Can it be that the pernicious influence of the House is gradually tingeing the high priests of the bell bottomed ballottée with conservatism !"

bellarmin, subs. (old).—A large glazed drinking-jug with capacious belly and narrow neck, originally designed by the Protestant party in the Netherlands as a burlesque likeness of their great opponent, Cardinal Bellarmine.

1719. Durfey, Pills (1872) vi, 201. With Jugs, Mugs, and Pitchers, and Bellarmines of State.

1861. Our English Home, 170. The capacious bellarmine was filled to the brim with foaming ale.

belle, subs. (B.E.)—'A nice, gay, fluttering foolish Woman that follows every Fashion, also fair.'

bellmare, subs. (American).A political leader, mostly in contempt. [From Western life, where it is used in regard to mules much in the same way as bell-wether in England in reference to sheep].

bellows, subs, (common).—The lungs. Hence bellows to mend, of a broken-winded horse or one out of breath; winded (q.v.). Also (American) bellowses.

1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 115. The lungs doe draw a breath... When these bellowes doe decay, then health from both doth fade away.

Bellows-blower. 192 Bells.

1631. Donne, Elegy [Farr, S. P. (1848) 21]. We, to live, our bellows wear, and breath.

1711. Vind. Sach. 91. He would be insufferably noisy in Company, if his Bellows would hold.

1730. Miller, Humours of Oxford, v., 2. 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.

c. 1777. Kilmainham Minute [Ireland Sixty Years Ago, 88]. You'd bring back de puff to my belows, And set me once more on my pins.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 3. Drink, they say, and you'll ne'er burn the bellows.

1843. Haliburton ('Sam Slick'),

Sam Slick in England, xxii.....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.

1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 1., 23. His bellowses is sound enough.

1856. Cuthbert Bede, Verdant Green, 11., iv. To one gentleman he would pleasantly observe, as he tapped him on the chest, ' Bellows to mend for you, my buck!'

1875. Whitney, Life Lang. iv. 59. The lungs are, as it were, the bellows of the organ.

Bellows-blower, subs. phr. (colloquial).—i. One exciting to strife.

c. 1849. Southey, Common-place Book ii. 191. The trumpeters and drummers and bellows-blowers of rebellion were Conformable Episcopalians.

2. (colloquial).—An unskilled assistant; a mere hodman.

1865. Times, 2 Feb. The prelates play the new organ; the lay members

are the mere bellows-bloweks.

bellowser, subs, (pugilists').—I. A blow in the pit of the stomach ; a winder ; that which takes the breath away.

1856. Novels and Tales (from Household Words), Tauchn. ed. vi, 187. A sigh of the kind which is called by the lower classes a bellowser.

2. (old).—A sentence of transportation for life. Hence bellowsed = transported ; lagged.

bell-rope, subs, (common).—The same as aggerawator {q.v.)

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v., 'Love lock.' When men indulge in a curl in front of their ears, the lovelock is called a bell-rope—i.e., a rope to pull the belles after them.

bells, subs. (Winchester College).— See quots.

c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College 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 !

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, 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 Praefect of Chapel ; while the Commoners hurried in, keeping up a continuous stream from their more distant quarters.

Give her the bells, and let her fly, phr. (old).—An old proverb taken from hawking, meaning that when a hawk is good for nothing, the bells are taken off, and it is suffered to escape, applied to

Bellswagger. 193 Belly.

the dismissal of any one that the owner has no longer occasion for. See Reliq. Antiq. i. 27 _; Patient Grissel, p. 16. (Halliwell).

Bellswagger. See Belswagger.

Bell-topped (or Bell-knobbed),

adj. phr. (venery).—Said of a man whose penis is considerably thicker at the meatus than at root or middle.

Bell-topper, subs. phr. (common,) —a silk hat: see Golgatha.

i860. Kelly, Life in Victoria, 268. [Footnote]. Bell-topper was the derisive name given by diggers to old style hat, supposed to indicate the dandy swell.

1885. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 5 Aug. s, 4. His very bell-topper hat had been garlanded with flowers.

Bell-wether, subs. phr. (old).—1.

A chief; a leader 'chief or leader of the Flock, master of misrule, also a clamorous noisy man' (B.E.): cf. bell-mare: in contempt.

1430. Lydgate, Bochas (1554), 224. a. I was cleped in my countrey The belweather.

1577. Holinshed, Chron. 11, 40. 2. Thomas being the ringleader of the one sect, and Scotus the belweadder of the other.

1687. Brown, Saints in Uproar, [Whs. (1730) i, 73]. The principal belweathers of this mutiny.

1794. Southey, Wat Tyler, iii. 1. You bell-wether of the mob.

1848. Lowell, Bigloiv Papers, i. 'Tain't afollerin' your bell-wethers will excuse ye in His sight.

2. (old colloquial).—A clamourist ; a mouther. Hence bellwethering and bell-wether

ishness.

c. 1460. Towneley Myst. 80. Go now, belle weder.

1598. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, iii. 5. iii. To be detected with a jealous rotten bell-wether.

1620. Shelton, Quixote, iv, xiii. 109. She made me weep, that am no bellweather.

1882. Spectator, 25 Mar, 381. But for the bell-wethering there could have been no crinoline at all. Ibid. 387. The gregariousness and bell-wethrrishness of the English people who must all do the same thing at once.

belly, subs, (vulgar). — I. The womb ; the uterus. 2. The female Pudendwn : see Monosyllable. Hence belly ruffian = the penis: see Prick_; belly-full =: pregnancy ; belly-up =z pregnant; lumpy (q.v.): cf. apronup ; belly-piece = a mistress, a bed-mate; belly-plea =; a plea of pregnancy: urged by female felons capitally convicted : it still holds good, execution of female convicts in ' an interesting condition' being deferred until after accouchment : in practice, it really means a commutation of the death penalty for life imprisonment. itch in the belly = sexual desire; to lay one's belly =2 to be brought to bed;

to get up the belly = to

impregnate; to get a bellybumper (or belly-buster) = to be got with child; hence to belly-bump == to copulate : also to have (do, or perform) a belly-bumper (-warmer, -buster, etc.) ; to play at belly to belly = to Copulate; to get a bellyful marrow pudding =

to be got with child, to take (q.v.) : see Greens and Ride _;belly-holding = crying out in labour; belly work = copulation,

c. 1440. Prompt. Parv. 30. 1. Bely uterus.

Belly-bender. 194 Belly-can.

1549-50. Plumpton Correspondence, 254. As yet my wife hath not laid her

bellv.

1596. Shakspeare, Merck. Venice, iii. 5. 41. I shall answer that better than you can the getting up of the negro's belly: the Moor is with child by you.

1602. Warner, Alb. Eng. ix, xlvii. 222. My belly did not blab, so I was still a Mayde.

1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673) 472. While they smell and taste of their dam's belly.

1632. Randolph, Jealous Lovers [Works (1668), 37J. Blush not, backful belly-piece... I will requite that jewel with a richer.

1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv. 1. viii. 20. She wish'd with all her soul To have a Woman's belly full Of what young Harry gave to Doll.

1720. Durfey, Pills to Purge, vi. 324. Each has an itch in her belly, To play with the scarlet hue.

1728. Gay, Beggar's Op. i. Why she may plead her belly at worst.

1853. Stonehenge, Greyhound, 178. Flirt ran second for the same cup with War Eagle in her belly.

Belly-ache, subs, (vulgar).—A colic; a grumbling pain in the bowels. Hence (American) to belly ache = to grumble.

1552. Huloet. Disceased with bealye ache, or frealynge in the bealye.

1804. Southey, Letters (1856) 1,268. A supper so hearty that it gave him a sad belly-ache.

1881. New York Times, 18 Dec. [quoted in N. and Q., 6 S., v., 65.]. Bellyache. To grumble without good cause. Employes 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.

1607. Topsell. Foitr-f. Beasts, 302. of Costiveness or Belly-bound when a Horse... cannot dung.

belly-bump, verb. phr. (venery).— To copulate: see Greens and Ride. Hence Belly-bumper = a whoremonger, a performer (q.v.); belly-bumper = the act of kind.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, Pantag. Prognos, v. Smockers, stallions and belly-bumpers.

Belly-bumper (or Belly-buster).

To take a belly-buster, phr. (American).— 1. To ride down hill in a sled lying on one's stomach : an amusement of young America. The idea of toboganning was derived from this pastime. Also belly-bumbo, bellyguts or gutter, belly-flounders, belly-flumps, and bellyplumper.

1888. Chicago hiter-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.

2. See Belly-bump.

belly-button, subs. (American). =. The navel.

Belly-can (political).—See quotation.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 28 Mar. 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

Belly-cheat. 195 Belly-fui.

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).— I. An apron: see cheat (B. E.).

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, [Wks. (1885) in., 196.] A belly-chete, an apron.

2. (old).—Food: c.f. bellytimber, belly-furniture, backtimber, etc.

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.

BELLY-CHEER (or BELLY-CHERE),

subs. (old).=Food ; feasting _;gluttony. Also as verb. = to gormandize, feast luxuriously. Hence belly cheering = eating and drinking, see Grub and

cf. belly-chete, belly-furnitures, belly-timber, etc.

1549. Udal, Erasm. Par. Eph. Prol. Onely for pelfe, bely-Ciieare, ease and lucre...

1549. Udal, Eras. Par. Eph. Prol. (R.) Riotous bankettyng, potte-companyoning, and belychearynGE.

1559. Eliote Dictionarie. Abdomini indulgere, to geve hym selfe to bealychere.

1579. Fulke, Refut. Rastel. 712. Prophane banquets of bellie cheare.

1580. Lupton, Siquila, 56. That gave himself to nothing but to drincking, bybbing, and bellycheare.

1606. Holland, Sueton. 235. Given most of all to excessive bellie-cheere (luxuria).

1611. Cotgrave, Diet. s.v. Carrelure de ventre, belly timber, belly cheere.

1612. Rowlands, Knaves of Spades, etc. Gluttonie mounted on a greedie beare, To belly-cheere and banquets lends his care.

1648. Milton, Tenure King's, 41. A pack of Clergie men... to belly cheare in their presumptuous Sion, or to promote désignes.

1699. Coles, English Dictionary, s.v. Belly-cheer, Cibaria.

belly-chete. See Belly-cheat.

belly-clapper, subs. phr. (old).— A dinner bell? See Florio, in v. Battâglio, Battifôlle.

Belly-critic, subs. phr. (old).— An artist in good living.

c. 1711. Ken, Urania [Works (1721), iv. 468]. The Belly-Criticks study how to eat.

Belly-friend, subs. phr. (old).—A

parasite; a sponger (q.v.)-, 'an insincere friend ; a person who pretends friendship for purposes of his own.' (Miege).

BellY-FUL, subs, (old colloquial: now vulgar).— 1. A sufficiency; spec, (in sarcasm) = more than one wants or cares to take or get of anything : e.g. a sound drubbing ; anything unpleasant or undesired.

1370. Rom. Rich. Coeur de Lion [Weber] [Oliphant, Ncvj. Eng., i. 86. Richard pays the Saracens their rent; like our 'give them their bellyfull.'J

1535. Coverdale, Ezek. xxvi. 2. haue destroyed my bely full.

Belly-furniture. 196 Belly-hedges.

1583. Golding, Calv. on Deut. ci. 684. Let him thunder his belly full.

159g. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, [Grosart, Works, v., 265.] The churlish frampild waues gaue him his bellyfull of fish broath.

1605. Chapman, All Fooles, ii. 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 bellyfulls, and were fain to go aside.

1687. A. Lovell, Bergerac Com. Hist. ii. 42. The Spectators, having had their Belly-fuls of Laughing.

1705. HiCKERiNGiLL, Priest-cr. 11, vi. 61. Take your Belly fuls of Sermons.

1706. Ward, Wooden World, 26. 'A Sea Lieutenant'. When he has got his belly-full of both [claps and drubbings] he puts aboard again.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., xvi. Bunker's Hill, where, Mr. Slick observed, 'the British first got a taste of what they afterwards got, a belly-full."

1852. Thackeray, Esmond 111, v. (i3g6) 359. The nation had had its BELLY full of fighting.

2. (venery),—See Belly.

belly-furniture, subs.phr. (old).— Food ; something wherewith to furnish the belly ; cf. belly-timber, back-timber, etc.

1653. UrquhaRT, Rabelais, I., v. (Bohn), i., no. Then did they fall upon the victuals, and some belly-furniture to be snatched at in the very same place.

Belly-god, subs. phr. (old).—A glutton. As adj. = gluttonish.

c. 1540. Compl. Rodk Mors xxii. T. iv. b. A sort of bellygods and ydle stoute and strong lorrels.

c. 1590. [Scot. Poems, 11, 507.] Fais Pharisianis, Belly god bischopis.

1620. Venner, Via Recta, vi. 102. Mixt sauces... which of ingurgitating bellygods are greatly esteemed.

1634-46. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 344. Bellie-god bishops hes little will of that work.

1683. Triyon, Way to Health, 395. Many of our English Belly-gods suppose Flesh to be most mighty in its operation.

1818. Scott, Rob-Roy, xxviii. To see thae English belly-gods.

belly-go-firster, subs. phr. (pugilistic).—An initial blow, generally given, say some authorities, in the stomach—whence its classic name!

Belly-grinding, subs. phr. (common).—Pain in the bowels ; colic.

1579. Langham, Gard. Health(i6?,-s), 529. [To cure] Belly-grinding, take a cake of Rye flower... and apply it as hot as may be suffered.

belly-gut, subs.phr. (old).—A lazy, greedy fellow; a stothful glutton.

1540. Morysine, [transi., Vives Introd. Wisd., viii.] Such as be skoffers, swell feastes... bely guts.

1733. Bailey, Erasmus, 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. phr. (American schoolboys').— 1. In Pennsylvania = molasses candy.

2. (American), — Belly-bumper (q.v.).

Belly-harm, subs. phr. (old).—The cholic.

belly-hedges, subs. phr. (Shrewsbury School).—In school steeplechases, obstructions of such a height that they can easily be cleared—i.e., about ' belly-high '.

Belly-holding. 197 Belly-timber

Belly-holding, subs.phr. (common). Crying out in labour.

BELLY-JOY, subs. phr. (old).—Gluttony: cf. womb-joy (WYCLIF).

BELLY-LOVE, subs. phr. (old).—Gluttony (Tyndale).

BELLY-MOUNTAINED, adj. phr. (old). —Fat-bellied; paunchefied; having a large prominent belly or corporation (q.v.).

1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol. 65. A man of puf-past, like that fat belliemountained Bishop.

BELLY-NAKED, adj.phr. (old).—Starknaked ; nude.

1525. Basyn [Hazlitt, Early P. P. m. 51J. Upstert the wench... And ran to hir maistrys all baly naked.

1540. Acolastus [HalliwellJ. I am all together lefte bare, or I am lefte Starke bely-naked, or lefte as naked as my nayle, sory wretche that I am! Wyll ye not leave me a lyttell garment, or a sory wede, to hyde my tayle withal.

1611. Cotgrave. Diet. s.v. Tout fin mere nu, all discouered... starke bellie naked.

BELLY-PAUNCH, subs. phr. (old).— A glutton.

^IS39^-87Foxe, Acts and Mon. (1596) 28. 2. Heliogabalus that monsterous

bellipaunch.

Belly-piece, subs.phr. (old).—i. An apron: cf. Belly-cheat.

1689. Shadwell, Bury Pair. 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. See Belly.

Belly-pinched, subs. phr. (old).— Hungry ; pinched with fasting.

Belly-plea. See Belly.

Belly-Plumper, subs. (American). See Belly-bumper.

Belly-sacrifice, subs. phr. (old).— A gluttonous feast; eating and drinking.

1555. Fardle, Facions, 11, ix. 200. Acquaintaunce and Kindesfolke... make a bealie sacrifice of hym.

bellyship, subs, (old).—The belly personified.

1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood vii. 84. His belliship containes th'insatiate gutt.

belly-slave, subs. phr. (old).—A glutton.

1562. Homilies, 11. 300. These beastly belly-slaves... give themselves wholly to bibbing and banqueting.

belly-swain, subs. phr. (old).—A glutton.

c. 1587. Campion, Hist. Ireland, 11. i. 67. Proud belly-Swaines fed with extortion and bribery.

belly-timber, subs. phr. (once in serious use).—Food ; provisions of all kinds. [Like many words of this class (e.g.) Back-timber, (q.v.), once literary, but now a thorough-going vulgarism, only surviving dialectically, and as slang].

1607. Mis. Enforc.Marr. [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), ix. 519]. We had some belly timber at your table.

1614. Terence in English, Annona car a est. Come is at a high price; victuals are deare; belly-timber is hard to come by.

1625. Purchas, Pilgrims, ii. They make Florentines and verie good bellytimber.

1637. Massinger, Guardian, iii. 3. Ador. Haste you unto my villa, and take all provisions along with you... Car. Trust me for belly-timber.

Belly up. 198 Belongings.

1663-78. Bvri.¥.r,Hudibras. Through deserts vast, And regions desolate they passd'd. Where belly-timber, above ground or under, was not to be found.

1670. Cotton, Virgil. Travestie, 29. Lay thinking now his guts grew limber, How they might get more belly-timber.

1706. Ward, Wooden World, 54. A c.oss-grain'd Wind, when at Sea, that runs him out in his Cargo of BellyTimber.

1717. Prior, Alma, iii. The strength of every other member Is founded on your belly-timber.

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.

1749. Smollett, Gil Bias (1812) 11. vi. I don't trouble myself with useless baggage; but... fill my knap-sack with belly-timber, my razors, and a wash-ball.

1772. Bridges, Homer Burlesque, 183. They have their uses, let me tell ye, when timber's wanting for the belly.

1820. Scott, Monastery, xv. I hope a'gad, they have not forgotten my trunkmails of apparel amid the ample provision they made for their own bellytimber.

Belly up. See Belly.

Belly-vengeance, subs. phr. (common).—Small beer : as apt to cause gastralgia: Yx.pissin de cheval {i.e., 'horse urine'): see Swipes. Also (2) = sour cider, vinegary wine etc.

1826. Blackwood, xix. 631. A diet of outlandish soups and belly-vengeance.

Belly-work, subs. phr. (old).—i. Cholic; belly-ache.

2. See Belly.

Belongings, subs.phr. (old and still colloquial).— i. Circumstances; surroundings; accessories: qualities; endowments; faculties. 2.

Possessions; goods; effects. 3. Relations ; household ; one's kindred.

1603. Shakspeare, Meas. for Meas. i. 1.30. Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper.

1817. Bunsen [Hare, Life 1, v. 117.] [They] did the honours of their belongings with ease.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House. I have been trouble enough to my belongings in my day.

1854-5. thackeray,AVzt)fi3W«,XXxiii.

When Lady Kew said, Sic volo, sic jubeo, I promise you few persons of her ladyship's belongings stopped, before they did her biddings, to ask her reasons.

1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art. Add. 3 8. Jewels, liveries, and other such common belongings of wealthy people.

1863. Mitchell, Farm Edgew. 196. When I have shown some curious city visitor all these belonging of the farm.

1866. Saturday Rev. 24 Feb., 244, 2. The rich uncle whose mission is to bring prosperity to his belongings.

1867. Furnivall, Percy Folio, Pref. 5. Eech information... as he would wish... in order to understand the belongings of it.

1868. Lockyer, Heavens, 26. These are the sun-spots, real movable belongings of the surface of the Sun.

1871. Hope. Schoolboy Fr. (1875), 138. Rushing about collecting their belongings.

1873. Browning, Red Cott. Night— c. 220. All my belongings, what is summed in life, I have submitted wholly... to your rule.

1879. Whitney, Skr. Gram. 275. There remain, as cases of doubtful belonging, etc.

1883. Harper's Mag. Mar. 533. 2. She had shown us the rest of the château with a sense of being a belonging of the place.

Belsh. 199

Ben.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 69. These 'village lasses', as you call them—please excuse these rude 'Ha-ha's'—are mostly mothers with belongings.

Belsh. See Belch.

BEL-SHANGLES, subs. phr. (old).— A cant term, used by Kemp, in his Nine Daies Wonder, 1600, where he mentions himself as "head-master of Morrice-dauncers, high head-borough of heighs, and onely tricker of your trilllilles, and best bel-shangles betweene Sion and mount Surrey." (Halliwell).

BELSWAGGER, subs, (old).—i. A whoremonger; a pimp.

1775. Ash, Dictionary. Belswagger, a whoremaster.

2. (old).—A swaggering bully ; a hector. (q.v.).

1592. Greene, Defence of ConeyCatching. .. the belswaggers of the country.

i6[?]. Fletcher, Wit without Money iii. i. Let Mims be angry at their St. Bel-swagger, And we pass in the heat on't, and be beaten.

1680. Dryden, Kind Keeper, iv. i.

[Works iv, 337]. Fifty guineas! Dost

thou think I'll sell my self?... thou impudent Belswagger.

1697. World in the Moon. Mean ? why here has been a young belswagger, a great he-rogue, with your daughter, sir.

1721. Bailey, Diet. s.v. Bellswagger, a swaggering Fellow, a hectoring Blade, a Bully.

1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue. Bellswagger, a noisy, bullying fellow.

Belt. To hit below (or under)

the belt, verb. phr. (common).— To act unfairly ; to take mean advantage; to stab a man in the back.

Belter, subs. (old).—A prostitute: see Tart.

BeltinKER, subs, (common). — A beating ; a drubbing. As verb. = to thrash ; to beat soundly.

bemuse, verb. (old).—To stupify, confuse, or muddle: as with intoxicants ; usually (modern) in phrase ' bemused in beer '. [The 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].

1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 15. A parson much be-mus'd in beer.

1847. H. Muller, First Impr. xix. (1861) 265. The bad metaphysics with which they bemuse themselves.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, viii. A fat little man, primed with port, but who, when not thus bemused, is an influential member of this committee.

1880. M'Carthy, Owu Times, xxx. iii. 2. A Prussian was regarded in England as a dull beer-bemused creature.

1883. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, iv. So while the Doctor made himself drunk with words, the adopted stable-boy bemused himself with silence.

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. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, 1., 190. ' I have played clown for my ben,' murmured the great Dr. Mortemas.

1880. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Forgotten). You saw me as Hamlet, Charley, the night that I had my ben.

Benar. 200

Bend.

2. (old cant.)—A fool (B.E. and Grose). Hence benish = foolish.

3. (common). — A benjamin (q.v.), a coat; also benjy (u.V.), sl waistcoat.

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 252. In offering these bens, the plan was to put them on to show how well they fitted.

3. (workmen's). — In pi. = tools.

To stand ben verb. phr. (common).—To stand treat.

See Bene.

Benar (or Benat). See Bene.

Benbouse. See Bene and Bouze.

Bench-babbler, (-whistler or Bencher), subs. phr. (old).—A tavern loafer: spec, one rollicking idly on a tavern bench: a reproach.

1542. Boorde, Dyetary, viii. 245. Fye on the, benche-whystler, wylt thou sterte away nowe.

1546. Leland, I tin of England. [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 517.] He applies fanatycal to the Anabaptists, calling them chymney prechers and benche-bablersj.

1606. Ret. from Parnassus. Phil. Their spendthrift heires will those firebrands quench, Swaggering full moistly on a tavernes bench.

1607. Chapman, All Fools. [Plays (1873) i. 137]. Y'are but bench-whistlers now a dayes to them that were in our times.

1618. Hornby, Sco. Drunk (1859). 17. He that will not drinke off his whole scowre Is a bench-whistler.

[?]. Nares, Scourge of Folly. Hee's a bench-whistler; that is but anynche, Whistling an hunt's-up in the King's Bench.

Bench-hole, subs. phr. (old).—A privy: see Mrs. Jones.

1553. Fardle, Facions, 19. Whiche dreamed not their knowledge in the benchehole at home.

1606. Shakspeare, Ant. and Cleop. iv. 7. 9. We'll beat 'em into benchholes.

c. 1656. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660) 231. The stoutest Atheist turnes pale and is ready to creep into a bench-hole.

Ben-cull. See Bene and Cull.

bend, verb. (Scotch).—To tipple: to drink hard. [Jamieson: 'a cant-term.' Murray : from bend, 'to pull,' 'to strain,' 'to apply oneself']. Hence as subs. = (1) a long draught, a pull of liquor, a go (q.v.) ; (2) a drinking bout (American) : whence on the bend, on the spree, a round of dissipation. Bender = a hard and persistent tippler.

1728. Ramsay, Poems (1848), in., 162. Now lend your lugs, ye benders fine, wha ken the benefit of wine.

1758. Ramsay, Poems (1800), 1., 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. [i860. Ramsay, Remin., Ser. 1 (ed. 7), 47. Bend weel to the Madeira at dinner, for here ye'll get little o't after.]

1810. Tannahill, Poems (1846), 53. Or benders, blest your wizzens weetin".

1855. Haliburton, Nature and Human Nature. The friends of the newmarried couple did nothing for a whole month but smoke and drink metheglin during the bender they called the honeymoon.

1854. Putnam's Monthly, Aug. She whispered gently in my ear, 'Say, Mose, ain't this a bender?'

1857. Ntivspaper Cutting [BartLETT]. A couple of students of Williams College went over to North Adams on a bender. This would have been a serious matter under the best of circumstances, but each returned with 'a brick in his hat,' etc.

Bend. 201 Bender.

1864. Richmond Dispatch, 3 Jan. Most... had beem tempted by the festivities of the day to go on a regular bender, and had to pay the penalty for their New Years's frolic by appearing this morning in the police-court.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 4 Aug. He was noted for going on frequent benders until he came very near having the jimjams and then sobering up.

Above one's bend, phr. (common). — Beyond one's ability, power or capacity; out of one's reach _; above one's hook (q.v.). [Propably 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 of America,

above my huckleberry (q.V.),

1848. Cooper, The Oak Openings. It would be above my bend to attempt telling you all we saw among the redskins.

On the bend, phr. (common). —In an underhand, oblique, or crooked way—not ' on the square.'

1863. 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.

2. See Bend, subs.

Grecian bend (popular).—A craze amongst some women which had a vogue from about 1S72 to 1880 : it consisted in walking with the body bent forward : cf. earlier quot. 1529.

[1529. Lyndesay, Complaint 181. With bendis and beckis For wantones.]

1876. Chambers Journal, No. 629 Your own advocacy for the Grecian bend and the Alexandra limp—both positive and practical imitations of physical affliction.

To bend over, intj. (Winchester College).—A direction to put oneself into position to receive a 'spanking' by bending over so that the tips of the fingers extend towards the toes, presenting a surface as tight as a drum on the part to be castigated.

bender, subs, (common).—i. A sixpence; a cripple (q.v.); also bendy, bandy: see Rhino. (Grose). [Thought to be an allusion to the ease with which these coins were liable to be bent in use at one time, the currency not being of such good quality as now].

1789. Parker, Life's Painter, 178. Sixpence. A bender.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Manorial, 25, note. A bandy or cripple, a sixpence.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xlii. '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 ! '

1854-5. Thackeray, Newcomes, xi. How much a glass think you? By cock and pye it is not worth a bender.

1869. Melville, M. or N. Two bob an' a bender, and a three of eyewater, in? 'Done for another joey,' replied Buster, with the premature acuteness of youth foraging for itself in the streets of London.

1885. Household Words, 20 June. 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.'

2. See Bend, subs.

3. (public schools').—A stroke of the cane administered while the culprit bends down his back : see Bend.

4. (common).—The arm.

Bendigo.

202

Bene.

5. (American).— A leg.

1849. LoNGKELLOw.Ärtz'rtrtrtg-A.Young ladies are not allowed to cross their benders in school.

6. (schoolboys').—The bowshaped segment of a paper kite,

1873. Blackley, Hay Fever, 145. The first kite was six feet in length bythree feet in width, and was made of the usual form, namely, with a central shaft or 'standard,' and a semicircular

tOp Or bender.

Over the bender, phr. (common).—A variant of ' over the left shoulder ' : an exclamation of incredulity, but also used as a kind of saving clause to a promise which the speaker does not intend to carry into effect.

BENDIGO, sups, (common),—A rough fur cap : named after a famous pugilist.

BENE (BEN or BIEN), adj. (Old Cant). —Good. [Probably a corruption from the Latin]. Benar and benat appear to have been used as comparatives of bene: cf. Rum (= good) which quickly supplanted bene. Hence bene-bovze = strong drink, good liquor; bene Rom-bovse = good wine ; benecove = good fellow, a pall (q.v.) -, bene darkmans ! = good night! bene ship = very good: also worship, e.g. Your bene ship = Your worship: bene shiply = worship fully; bene-feaker = a counterfeiter (B. E. and Grose:? faker); bene most = a fine woman, a pretty girl, a hostess. Also to cut benle = to speak gently ; Stow your bene = Hold your tongue, etc. (Harman ; B.E. ; Grose).

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 86. The vpright man canteth to the Roge. Man! 'That is beneshyp to our watche.'

[That is very good for us.] Ibid. 85 (ed. 1869). A bene mort hereby at the sign of the prauncer. [i.e., The Horse]. Ibid. 85. The vpright cofe canteth to the Roge: 'I saye by the Salomon I will läge 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.'] Ibid. 85. I will läge it of with a gage of benebouse; then cut to my nose watch. I wull washe it off with a quart of good drynke ; then say to me what thou wylt. Ibid. 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.] Ibid. 86. Now I tower that bene bouse makes nase nabes. Ibid. 85. A bene mort hereby at the sign of the prauncer.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-All, 'The Maunder's Wooing.' O Ben mort wilt thou pad with me.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Ben, good.

1611. MiDDLETON and Dekker, Roaring Girl, v. 1. A gage of ben Rombouse... Is benar than... Peck, pennant, lap, or popler.

1612. Dekker, O per se O [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896) 11]. And frig and cloy so benshiply, All the dewseavile within.

1622. Fletcher, Beggar's Bush. 'The Maunder's Initiation.' I crown thy nab with a gage of ben bouse.

1671. Head, The English Rogue. Bing out, bien morts, and turc and ture, Bing out, bien morts, and ture; For all your dudi are bing'd awast, The bien cove hath the loure.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.L p. 11, list of cant words in. Bien, good.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xvii. 'Tour out,' said the one ruffian to the other; 'tour the bien mort twiring at the gentry cove.'

1823. Scott, Fever il of the Peak, xxxvi. Why the bien morts will think you a chimney-sweeper on May-day.

Benedick.

203

Benship.

1858. Mayhevv, Paved with Gold, iii, iii. 'I've brought a couple of bene coves, with lots of the Queen's pictures in their sacks.'

Benedick (or Benedict), subs, (common).—A newly-married man ; especially one who has long been a bachelor. [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), 1., 239. From what I have seen of his lordship, both as a bachelor and as a benedick.

1821. Scott, [Lockhart (1839), vi. 313]. Wish the veteran joy of his entrance into the band of Benedicts.

1843. Life in the West. He is no longer a benedick, but a quiet married man.

1856. Bronte, Professor, 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.'

1897. Kenn ard, Girl in Brown Habit, i. A fellow may as well have a bit of a fling first, till he spots the right figure, and is perpared to settle down as a Benedict.

ben-flake, subs, (rhyming). — A steak.

bengal tigers, subs, (military).— The Seventeenth Foot, now The Leicestershire Regiment. [From its badge of a royal tiger, granted for services in India from 18041S23]. Also called 'The LilyWhites' from its facings.

bengi, subs, (military).—An onion.

Bengy. See Benjy.

Benish. See Ben, sense 2.

benjamin, subs. (Winchester College).—I. A small ruler.

2. (thieves').—A coat _; spec, an overcoat (also upper benjamin) of a particular cut formerly worn by men: said to have been derived from a well-known London advertising tailor of the same name: formerly called a Joseph.

1837. Lockhart, Scott (1839) v, 59. A vastly scientific and rather grave professor in a smooth drab benjamin.

1815. Peacock, Nightmare Abbey, 139. His heart is seen to beat through his upper Benjamin.

1836. Scott, Tom Cringle's Log, ii. Benjamins, and great-coats, and cloaks of all sorts and sizes.

1851. Borrow, Lavengro, lix. The coachman... with narrow-rimmed hat and fashionable Benjamin.

1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 7 March, 3, 2. [Quoting East-end slang.]

3. (Australian).See quot.

1870. Chas. H. Allen, A visit to Queensland, 182. With the black people a husband is now called a benjamin, probably because they have no word in their own language to express this relationship.

ben joltram, subs, (provincial).— Brown bread and skimmed milk ; a Norfolk term for a ploughboy's breakfast.—Hotten.

benjy, subs, (nautical),— 1. Ä^quot.

1883. W. Clark Russell, Sailors' Language, 14. Benjie, the name of a straw hat worn by sailors.

2. (common), — A waistcoat. Also ben (q.v.).

1821. Haggart, Life, 25. The screaves were in his benjy cloy.

benship (or beenship), subs. (Old Cant.)—Worship ; goodness. This word, evidently from bene (q.v.), is given by Bailey and Coles. As adj. = very good.

Benvenue. 204

Berwicks.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), 65. Bknship, very good.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, yj (H. Club's Repr.). Benship, very good.

1665. Head, English Rogue, 1., v., 47 (1874). Benshiply, very well.

Benvenue (or Bienvenue), subs. (old).—' Half-a-crown : a fee paid by every new workman at a printing-house.' (Holme).

1793. Ann Reg. 251. i. The compositors demanded of me Bienvenue afresh.

beong (or beonck), subs, (thieves' and costermongers').—A shilling: see Rhino. [Italian bianco, white; also the name of a silver coin].

1893. Emerson, Signer Lippo, xiv. Alright, give me due beonck quatro soldi per run and I'll bring you the duckets.

berkeley, subs, (common).— A woman's breast : see Dairies.

Bermoothes (or Bermudas), (Old Cant.).—Certain obscure and intricate alleys, in which persons lodged who had occasion to live cheap or concealed. They are supposed to have been the narrow passages north of the Strand, near Covent Garden (but see quot. 1839): see .Straights. [Nares: a practice of running away ac ^fually to the Bermuda Islands, when they were first settled, to defraud creditors, probably gave rise to the expression].

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.

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.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, 12. 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.

Bermuda Exiles (The).—The Grenadier Guards. [For insubordination a portion of this regiment were sent (189-) to the West Indies].

Bernard (or Barnard), subs. (Old Cant.)—A swindling decoy; lurking sharper; a scoundrel. Hence Bernard's law = villany, sharping.

1532. Dice Play (1850), 37. Another oily theft... is the barnards law: which to be exactly practised asketh four persons at least, each of them to play a long several part by himself.

1562. Bulleyn [Babees Book (1868) 242]. With a Barnard's blowe, lurkyng in some lane, wodde, or hill top.

1591. Greene, Disc. Cozenage (1859) 8. Foure persons were required... the Taker up, the Verser, the Barnard, and the Rutter. Hid. [Works (1885), x. 10]. Comes in the Barnard stumbling into your companie, like some aged Farmer of the Countrey... and is so carelesse of his money that out he throweth some fortie Angels on the boords end.

1608. Dekker, Beliuan of London [Works (1885) hi, 126.] The Bernard. .. counterfets many parts in one, and is now a drunken man... anon in another humour... onely to blind the Cozen... the more easily to beguile him.

berthas, subs. (Stock Exchange).— The ordinary stock of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company.

1889. The /V/a/ro, 23 Mar. Advances were made ranging from 2^2 in Berthas to an average of 1 in Americans.

berwicks, subs. (Stock Exchange).— The ordinary stock of the North Eastern Railway.

Besom. 205

Best.

besom, subs. (Scots).—A low woman [Murray : apparently quite a distinct word from besom = a broom].

1816. Scott, Old Mort. viii. Toset up to be sae muckle better than ither folk, the auld besom.

besom-head, subs. phr. (common).— A fool, blockhead. Hence besom headed = foolish, stupid.

besonio (or besognio), subs. (old).— A raw recruit (soldier). Hence a generic term of contempt: a needy beggar ; a worthless fellow.

1591. Garrard, Art of Warre, 170. a raw souldier and Bisognio.

1598. Barret, Tkeor. Warres. 11. i. 17. Many inconueniences and disorders which rawe Bisognios will commit.

1603. Johnson, Kingd. and Commonw. 55. A base Besonio, fitter for the spade than the sword.

1611. Fletcher, Four Plays, 28. Draw my sword of Fate on a Pesant, a Besognio!

1612. Chapman, Widdowe'sT. [Plays (1873) iii. 17J. Spurn'd out by Groomes like a base bisognio.

1622. Hawkins, Voy. S Sea (1847) 78. The souldiers... who after the common custome of their profession (except when they be besonios) sought to pleasure him.

1820. Scott, Monast. xvi. Base and pilfering besognios and marauders.

bespeak-night, subs, (theatrical).— A benefit. See Ben.

bess. See Betty.

Bess-O'-Bedlam (or bessy), subs. (old).—A lunatic vagrant; see Tom-o'-Bedlam. 'Don't be a Bessy,' said to a man who interferes with women's business : see Betty. Bessy-bad = a person who is fond of childish amusements.

1821. SiCOiT,Kenilworth,xxvi. 'Why, what Bess of Bedlam is this, would ask to see my lord on such a day as the present ? '

best, verb, (common).— 1. To get the better of; to floor (q.v.): really 'to work', and, in this sense not necessarily to cheat.

1863. Trafford, World in Ch. 11., 77. As I am a staunch Churchman I cannot stand quiet and see the Dissenters best the Establishment.

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jach, 69. You must settle and do away with him, or I must 'dry up', for the fellow's bested me.

1879. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, 92. It was a current saying that no one had ever bested him.

2. (common).—To cheat; to swindle.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 234. His game was besting everybody, whether it was for pounds, shillings, or pence.

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.

1883. May, in Fortnightly Review, Oct., 578. The quack broker who piles up money by besting his clients.

To give one best, verb phr. (thieves').— 1. To leave one, sever companionship. 2. To acknowledge superiority.

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. 206

Better.

To best the pistol, verb phr. (sporting).—To get away before the signal for starting is actually given.

1889. Polytechnic Magazine, 7 July, 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.

The best (or the best in Christendom, subs. phr. (old).— The female pudendum : see Monosyllable: a common 18th century toast in this sense.

The best leg of three, subs, phr. (venery).—The penis: see Prick.

bester, subs, (common).—A cheat, swindler: generally applied to a turf 01 gaming blackleg.

1851. 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, i. The complainant called her father a liar, 'a bester and a crawler.'

bestrid, adj. (B.E.)—'Mounted or got up astride.'

beside, adv. (B.E.)—In this old dictionary occur the following phrases :—Beside-himself, distracted; beside the Cushion, a mistake; beside the Lighter, in a bad condition.

bet. To bet one's eyes, verb phr. (old).—To look on, but to take no part in, nor bet upon the game.

You bet, phr. (American).— Be assured ! Certainly. [Originally a Californianism to give additional emphasis. It has been given as a name in the form of übet

to a town in the Canadian Northwest], Oftentimes it is amplified into 'you bet your boots,' 'life,' 'bottom dollar,' and soon. The two former were used in New York and Boston as far back as 1840.

1870. Bret Harte, Poems, etc., The Tale of a Pony: Ah, here comes Rosey's new turn-out! Smart! You bet your life 't was that !

1872. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Roughing It, ii. ' The mosquitoes are pretty bad about here, madam!' 'You bet!' 'What did I understand you to say, madam?' 'You bet!'

c. 1882. Stavely Hill, From Home to Home. We reached the settlement of Übet. The name had been selected from the slang phrase, so laconically expressive of 'You may be sure I will'.,.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 7 Mar. Congressional Report. It is the right kind of bravery: you may bet your

bottom dollar On that.

To bet round, verb phr. (racing).—To lay fairly and equally against nearly all the horses in a race, so that no great risk can be run : commonly called getting round (Hotten').

bethel, verb (old).—See quotation.

1740. North, Examen, 93. In the year 1680 Bethel and Cornish were chosen sherifs. 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.

Little Bethel, subs. phr. (common).—A place of worship other than those of the established church : in contempt.

better, adv.(vulgar).—More: there is no idea of superiority. A depraved word ; once in good usage, but now regarded as a vulgarism.

Better half. 207 Better Horse.

1587. Fleming, Cont. Holinshed, in., 1382, 2. Woorth one hundred and twentie pounds and better.

1679. Plot, Staffordshire (1686), 239. The bodies... being better than an inch long.

1769. Gray, in N. Nichoils' Corr. (1843), 87. It is better than three weeks since I wrote to you.

1851. Borrow, Laveugro, lxx., 217 (1888). Following its windings for somewhat better than a furlong.

1854. Ainsworth, Flitch of Bacon, i., v. Pastor of Little Dunmow Church fifty years and better.

1857. Dickens, Dorrit, 1., x., 75. Yes. Rather better than twelve years ago.

i860. Dickens, Xmas Stories Mess, from Sea), 89 (H. ed.). He shipped for his last voyage better than three years ago.

Better than a dig in the

eye with a blunt stick, phr.

(common).—'Things might be worse'; 'if the value is small, it might be smaller'; 'half a loaf is better than none.'

better half, subs, (colloquial).— A wife : originally my better half, i.e., the more than half of my being ; said of a very close and intimate friend ; 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 in., 280. [Argalus to Parthenia, his wife.] My deare, my better hälfe (sayd hee), I find I must now leaue thee.

c. 1600. Shakespeare, Sonnets, xxxix.,2. O how thy worth with manners may I sing,

When thou art all the better part of me ?

1720. Sheffield (Duke of Buckingham), Wks. (1753), i., 274. My dear and better half is out of danger.

1842. Theodore Martin, [in Fraser''s Magazine, Dec, 241, 2.] I... shall look out for a better half.

1897. Kennard, Girl in Brown Habit, ii. Between matrimony and ruin there's mighty little to choose. Directly a man saddles himself with a betterhalf etc.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, -jv. His better half one summer day was crossing Regent Street.

Better Horse. The grey mare is the better horse, phr. (old).—The wife is master: of a breeches-wearing (q.v.) wife : a tradition, perhaps, from the time when clerics were forbidden to carry arms or ride a male horse. Lord Macaulay's Explanation (see quot. 1849) is the merest guess work.

1546. John Haywood, Proverbs [Sharman's Reprint, 1874]. She is (quoth he) bent to force you perforce, To know that the grey mare is the better horse.

1550. A Treatyse, Shewing and Declaring the Pryde and Abuse oj Women No%u a Day es (Hazlitt's Early Popular Poetry, iv., 237). What ! shall

the graye mayre be the better horse,

And be wanton styll at home?

1605. Camden, Remains Concerning Britain [1870, 532]. In list of proverbs. (Is said to be the earliest in English.)

1670. Ray, Proverbs, s.v.

c 1709. Ward, London Spy 11., 40. Another as dull as if the grey mare was the better Horse; and deny'd him Enterance for keeping late Hours. Ibid. Hudibras Redivivus. 11., iv., 5. There's no resisting Female Force, Grey mare will prove the better Horse.

1717. Prior, Epilogue to Mrs. Mauley's Lucius. Yield, or she-Pegasus will gain her course, And the grey mare

will prove the better horse.

Betting. 208 Between.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., 240. The

grey mare has proved the better horse.

1738. Swift, Pol. Convers., iii. I wish she were married; but I doubt the gray mare would prove the better horse.

1748. Smollett, Pod. Random, xix. By the hints they dropped, I learned the gray mare was the better horse— she was a matron of a high spirit.

1849. Macaulay, Hist. England. The vulgar proverb, that the grey mare is the better horse, originated, I suspect, in the preference generally given to the grey mares of Flanders over the finest coach-horses of England.

1883. S[ala], [fllustr. London Neivs, 14 Apr., 359, 2.] She [Mrs. Romford], did not over-accentuate either her strong mindedness or her jealousy of her flighty husband ; but she let him and the audience unmistakably know that she was in all respects the grey mare in the Romford stable.

Betting (or getting) round, subs.

phr. (racing).—Laying fairly and equally against nearly all the horses in a race, so that no great risk can be run.—Hotten. Hence

better-round (agent).

c. 1820. [' Thormanby,' FamousRacing Men, 75.] He [John Gully] worked on gradually as a layer of odds—a 'bettor round,' or 'leg,' as he was called in those days.

betty, subs, (common).— I. A man who occupies himself with household matters: in contempt: see verb.

2. A small instrument used by burglars to force open doors and pick locks: also Bess (q.v.), now called a Jenny (q.v.).

1671. Head, English Rogue, i., v., 47 (1874). Betty, an instrument to break a door.

c. 1696. B. E. Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Bess, c. bring bess and glym, c. forget not the Instrument to break open the

Door and the Dark-lanthorn. Betty, c. a small Engin to force open the Doors of Houses; also, a quarter Flask of Wine.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, 11., ix. 7. So Ruffains, who, with Crows and Betties, Break Houses, when it dark and late is.

1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue. Bring bess and glym; i.e., bring the instrument to force the door, and the dark lanthorn.

1851. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. iv., 339. Expert burglars are generally equipped with good tools. They have a jemmy, a cutter, a dozen of betties, better known as picklocks.

3. A 'Florence flask' as used for olive oil.

Verb (colloquial).—To potter about; fuss about: see subs. 1.

All betty ! i?itj. (thieves').— A cry of warning; 'it's all up; the game is lost ! '

Betty Martin. See All my eye.

betwattled, adj. (old).—Surprised; confounded: out of one's senses; also bewrayed.—Grose.

Between. Phrases : Between the

beetle and the block = in a

parlous state ; between the cup and the lip = as near as a

toucher (q.V.); between the desert and the dead (or deep blue) sea = at one's last resource,

cornered (q.V.); between the bark and the wood (or tree) See tree; between you and me and the bedpost See bedpost ; between hay and grass = neither one thing nor another: e.g. manhood and boyhood, two stages of existence, of progress, age, development, etc. ; between two days = night-time.

1836. Dana, Be/ore the Mast, xxviii. Some rascally deed sent him off between two days with men on horseback, dogs, and Indians in full cry after him.

Bever. 209 Bezonian.

bever, subs. (old).—i. Drink; liquor: see Drinks, Go, Lush, and Screwed.

2. (old).—A potation; a drinking bout ; a time for drinking.

3. (old).—A small repast between meals ; a snack: especially a snack between mid-day dinner and supper: see quots. Also as verb. Besides quots. see Ford, i. 392 ; FLORIO, in v. Mercnda ; Cooper, in v. Anteccenium ; StaNIHURST's Descr. of Ireland, p. 18 ; Sir John Oldcastle, 42 _; Howell, sect. 43; Middleton's Works, iv. 427, v. 141.

1580. Brewer, Lingua [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), v. 148]. Appetitus. Your gallants never sup, breakfast, nor bever without me.

1585. Nomenclaior, 79. sv. A middaies meale: an undermeale: a boire or beaver: a refreshing betwixt meales.

1607. Beaumont and Fletcher, Woman Hater, i. 3. He is none of those same ordinary eaters, that will devour three breakfasts aad as many dinners, without any prejudice to their bevers, drinkings, or suppers.

c. 1696. B. E. E. Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Bever, an afternoon's Lunchion.

c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, 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 beevertime, and the pieces of bread beevers.

1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words etc. s.v. Bever. An intermediate refreshment between breakfast and dinner. The term is now applied to the afternoon snack of harvestmen and other labourers, and perhaps may be explained more correctly as any refreshment taken between the regular meals.

1884. M. Morris [in English Illustrated Magazine, Nov. 73.] [At Eton, we] came up from cricket in the summer afternoons for beaver.

Beverage (or Bevy), subs, (old),— i. A tip; a vail: equivalent to Fr. pourboire: 'money for drink, demanded of anyone having a new suit of clothes ' (Grose).

c. 1696. B. E. Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Beveridge, a Garnishmoney, for any thing; also Wine and Water.

2. (common).—Beer : see quot. 1696, sense 1.

beware, subs, (theatrical).—See quot.

1851-61. Mayhew Land. Lab, iii, 149. We strolling actors, a breakfast, dinner, tea, supper, all of them ' numyare ' ; and all beer, brandy, water, or soup, are beware.

Bewitched, adj. (Old Cant).— Tipsy: see Screwed (Taylor, 1630).

Beyond. The back of beyond, subs. phr. (common).—An out of the way place; ever so far off.

i88[?]. Paton, Down the Islands I sat down. . . with no more notion that I should find myself at dinner-time that day at sea, than I have... of setting out before to-morrow to seek my fortune in the uttermost part of the mysterious country known as the Back of Beyond.

bezonian, subs. (old).—A beggar; a scoundrel: a term of reproach frequently used by the old dramatists.

1598. Shakspeare, 2. Hen. IV. v. 3. Under which king, Bezonian, speak or die. Ibid, iv. 1. Great men oft die by vile Bezonians.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet. s.v. Bisogne. A bison. Also a filthie knave, or clowne, a raskall, bisonian. &c.

MiDDLET0N,5/«r/,&cWhat Bezonian is that?

1612. Chapman, Widow's Tears. What blanqueted? O the Gods! spurn'd out by groomes like a base bisogno? thrust out by th'head and shoulders.

Bezzle.

2io

Bib.

[?]. Jonson, Fox, ii. 3. Heart, ere to-morrow I shall be new

christen'd

And called the Pantalone di besogniosi, About the town.

[?]. Brome, Covent Garden Weeded, v. 3. Beat the bessognes that lie hid in the carriages.

bezzle, subs. (old).—A drunkard _;

lushington (q.v.)'. also puzzle

and bizzler. Hence, as verb.—■ To drink hard; to tipple: see lush ; bezzled =: drunk : see Screwed. [See Webster, Works, iv. 55; Middleton, iii. 152; Beaumont and Fletcher,ii.149].

1598. Marston, Sc. of Vil. ii. 7. That divine part is soakt away in sinne, In sensual lust and midnight bezeling.

1599. Hall, Satires, v. 2. Oh me! what odds there seemeth 'twixt their cheer And the swoln bezzle at an alehouse fire.

1602. Dekker, Honest Whore, ii. 'Sfoot, I wonder how the inside of a tavern looks now. Oh ! when shall I bizle, bizle?

1604. Marston and Webster[Dodsley. Old Plays (Reed) iv. 42.

Time will come When wonder of thy error will strike dumb Thy bezel'd sense.

[?]. Kersey, Works. [Nares]. For when he was told of he was fallen into this filthie vice and abominable beazeling, O (saith hee) youth may be wanton, and heerafter staydnes may reduce him; puft up with pride that may be moderated by conversation, or religious advise ; given to gaming.

2. (old).—To squander riotously: spec, in drinking; to waste; to embezzle.

b Flat, subs, (common).—A bug: cf. F sharp, and see Norfolk Howard.

1836. Tail's Mag. Nov. 694. The author's greatest suffering arose from Carlist fleas, and those insects known in polite life by the delicate name of b flats.

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 (or bibble), verb (old).—To tipple: see lush: also as sitbs. =. drink. Hence bibacity = drunkenness; bibation (or bibbery) = drinking; bibbed = drunk: see screwed; bibber (or bibbler) = a tippler: see lushington.

d. 1577. Gascoigne, Works^ C. 1. I perceive you are no great bybler, (i. e. reader of the Bible) Pasiphilo. Pas. Yes, sir, an excellent good bibbler, 'specially in a bottle.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, s.v. Bombo... bibbe is a child's term for drink.

[?] Thynne, Deb. betw. Pride and Lowliness.

Your lycour is so mighty and so strong, And therewithall it goeth down so soft, That of your guests some bibb therof so

long

Till from the ground it lifteth them aloft.

1600. Phaed, Virgil. What horses Diomedes brought, how great

Achilles was, She learned all too soone, and of love she

BiBBES (alas).

1578. North, Plutarch, 1047. And that the common people did nothing all day long unto darke night, but bybbe, and drink drunke.

1G33. Fletcher, Purple Island, v. 17. And through a wide mouth'd tunnel duly

strains

Unto a bibbing substance down conveying.

1650. Howell, Fam. Epist. As soon a little little ant

Shall bib the ocean dry, A snail shall creep about the world,

Ere these affections dye.

Bibables. 211 Bible-clerk.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I., xl. I never eat any confections, page, whilst I am at the bibbery.

18.. Nayler, Reynard the Fox, 4. Royal cheer and deep bibation.

TO nap a bib (or one's bib), verb phr. (common).—To weep ;

to blubber (q.V.) ; to snivel (q.V.).

1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, 153. Napt a couple of bird's eye wipes. Ibid., 163. Nap the bib, a person crying.

1819. Vaux, Memoirs, 1., 190. s.v. Nap the bib, to cry; as, The mollisher nap'd her bib, the woman fell a-crying.

1821. Egan, Life in London, 227. Dirty Suke began now to nap her bib. Ibid., Boxiana (1824), iv., 145. Josh napped again on the other eye.

1838. Comic Almanac, April. Don't nab the bib, my Bet, this chance must happen soon or later.

Best bib and tucker, subs, phr. (common).—Best clothes.

bibables (or Bibibles), subs. (American).—Drink, as distinguished from food. [A coinage on the model of 'edibles,' 'eatables,' ' drinkables,' etc. ; from Latin BiB-ëre, to drink.

i860. William Howard Russell (Special Correspondent of the Times), My Diary in India in the years 1858-9, I., 8. Could all the pale-ale, soda-water, sherry, porter, and vin ordinaire, and the feebler bibables be turned into nectar, etc.

i860. Pittsburg Despatch, Aug. The table was loaded and spread with edibles and bibibles of every possible kind.

Bib-All-Night, subs.(old).—A toper; a confirmed drunkard. [From BiB-êre, to drink, + allnight].

1612. Sylvester, Lacrymce Lacrymaram 101. Bats, Harpies, Syrens, Centaurs, Bib-all-nights.

bibble-babble, subs. phr. (old).— Inconsequent chatter; nonsense: spec, drunken babbling. (Shakspeare).

Bible, subs, (nautical).—See quots.

1867. Admiral Smyth, Sailors' Word Book. Bible, a hand-axe; a small holystone [a kind of sand-stone used in cleaning decks], so called from seamen using them kneeling.

1883. W. Clark Russell, Sailors' Language, 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.

2. (thieves').—See quot.

1789. Parker, Life's Painter, Thieves who fly the blue pigeon, that is, who steal lead off houses, or cut pipes away... cut a hundredweight of lead, which they wrap round their bodies next to the skin. This they call a bible (q.v.), and what they steal and put in their pockets, they call a testament (q.v.).

That's bible,///?-, (common).— That's the truth; that's A 1.

Bible-carrier, subs. phr. (old).— A running stationer (q.v.), who sells songs without singing them: once often heard in the neighbourhood of Seven Dials (Hotten).

bible-clerk, subs. phr. (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. Hence bibler (or

Bible-clerk.

212 Bible-pounder.

bibling), 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.). Bibling-rod = 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 1475. It is ^D0(; ^used now. Bibling under nail = a bibling (q.v.) administered for a very heinous offences after an offender had stood under nail (q.v.).

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, 103. Order was kept during school hours by the Bible-clerk and Ostiarus, two of the Praefects, who held these offices in rotation—the former lasting for a week, the latter for one day only. They paraded Shool 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.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, iog. 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 Bibleclerk,' and that individual, with the help of Ostiarus, performed the office of Jack Ketch.

1866. Mansfield, Sch. Life Winchester, s.v. Nail. To stand up under the nail. The punishment inflicted on a boy detected in a lie; he was ordered to stand up on Junior Row, just under the centre sconce, during the whole of school time. At the close of it he received

a 'bibler.'

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College 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.

1864. Blackwood's Magazine, xcv., 73. [At dinner] portions of beef were served out to the boys... the Bible-clerk meanwhile reading a chapter from the Old Testament. Hid, 87. An hour. .. is expected to be employed in working under the superintendence of the BibleClerk, as the praefect in daily 'course' is termed, who is responsible for a decent amount of order and silence at these hours.

1864. Blackwood's Magazine, xcv., 79. Underneath is the place of execution, where delinquents are bibled.

Ibid, 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 BibleClerk introduces the victim; four being the sum of a less terrible operation called a 'scrubbing.'

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, 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.

1887. Adams, Wykehamica,s.v. Nail, the central sconces at the east and west ends of the school were so-called. A boy who had committed some unusually disgraceful offence, was placed there during school, previously tobeing ' bibled.'

Bible-oath, subs. phr. (common).— The strongest of asseverations : usually in phrase, 'I'll take my Bible oath on it.'

BlBLE-POUNDER (SHARP or THUMPER", subs. phr. (common).—A clergyman: see Devil-dodger.

Biddy. 213 Big.

6iddy, subs. (old).—I. A chicken; sometimes chick-A-BiDDY (B.E.) and Grose.

2. (common).—A young woman, not necessarily Irish.(Grose).

3. (common). — A woman, whether young or old.

1868. Holmes, Guardian Angel, xxviii., 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. CornhillMag., May, 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. (common).—A diminutive of Bridget; hence:

6. (American).—A servant girl —generally Irish.

bidet (or BIDDY), subs. (Winchester College).—A bath. Juniors fill these for Prefects. The Winchester term is the French 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 : cf. Fr. slang bidet = ' 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.

Bid-stand, subs. phr. (old.)—A highwayman. (Jonson).

Bien. See Bene.

BlFF, subs. (American).—A blow. To give a biff in the jaw: to wipe one in the chops. Bang, and see Dig = to smack one's face; cf.

biffin, subs .(familiar).—'My biffin !' = ' my pal ! '

1877. Greenwood, Under the Blue Blanket. 'Ain't that up to dick, my Biffin ? ' 'I never said it warn't.'

Big. To talk (or look) big verb phr. (old).—To assume a pompous style or manner to impress others with a sense of one's importance but with nothing to support it ; to talk loudly, boastingly : Fr. se handier.

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, iv., 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, 1. 26. The squire, in all probability, cursed his punctuality in his heart, but he affected to talk big.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xv. 'You will gain nought by speaking big with me.'

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2. viii. He looked big and talked big and altogether was a considerable big man in his own cotisait.'

■ 1855. Anthony Trollope, The Warden, 237. The Archdeacon waxed wrath, talked big, and looked bigger.

Big as all outdoors, phr. (American).—A simile of indefinite size, hugeness, enormous capacity.

Big-bellied.

214

Big bug.

1838. Haliburton ('Sam Slick'), The Clockmaker, 2., ii. The infarnal villain! Tell me who he is, and if he was big as all Outdoors, I'd walk into him. Ibid, iv. He is looking as big as all outdoors, gist now, and is waitin' for us to come to him.

Big-bellied, adj.,phr. (colloquial).— Advanced in pregnancy; humpy (q.v.)

1711. Addison [Referred to by].

1848. John Forster, Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, 11, iv. My desires are as capricious as the bigbellied woman's.

BIG BEN, subs. phr. (common).— The clock in the tower of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster : named after SirBenjamin 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, 213. With Sir Charles Barry's sanction he designed the ornament cast on the Westminster Bell, familiarly known as big Ben.

1880. Punch, 2039, 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 boards; or conversely, to hiss. [The big bird is the goose.] Fr. appeler Azor (= to call the dog).

1886. Graphic, 10 April, 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 authority, or office. Variants are Big-dog, Big-gun, Big-one (or Big-un), Big-pot, Big-toad, Big-wig, etc.

1703. English Spy, 255. Be untohim ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport, in term and out of term... against dun or don—nob or big-wig—so may you never want a bumper of bishop.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib''s Memorial to Congress, 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!

[?]. Dickens, Oliver Twist, xliii. 'We'll have a big-wig, Charley; one that's got the greatest gift of the gab to carry on his defence.'... 'What a game! what a regular game ! All the big-wigs trying to look solemn, and Jack Dawkins addressing of 'em as intimate and comfortable as if he was the judge's own son making a speech arter dinner.'

1843. Haliburton, Sam Slick in England, xv. The great guns and big bugs have to take in each other's ladies. Ibid., 24. Pick out the big bugs and see what sort of stuff they're made of.

i8(?). Carltoe, New Purchase, 11., 240. These preachers dress like big bugs, and go ridin* about on hundred-dollar horses, a-spungin' poor priest-ridden folks, and a-eaten chicken-fixius so powerful fast that chickens has got scarce in these diggins.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xx. We live among bankers and city bigwigs, and be hanged to them, and every man, as he talks to you, is jingling his guineas in his pocket. Ibid. Newcomes, xlvi. Her husband was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, a Conseiller d'Etat, or other French big-wig.

1848. J.R. Bartlett, Americanisms, 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.

Ibid 42, Bll.gest 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

Big bug.

215

Big Drink.

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.'

1854. Widow Bedott Papers, 301. Miss Samson Savage is one of the big bugs,—that is, she's got more money than a'most anybody else in town.

185g. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn. xlv. So you are going to sit among the big-wigs in the House of Lords.

1857. N. Y. Times, February. The free-and-easy manner in which the hairbrained Sir Robert Peel described some of the big bugs at Moscow has got him into difficulty.

1872. Schele de Vere, Americanisms, 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.'

c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, 'Justice and Law.' Unless, unexpected, some turn of the wrist. Has got some 'big-wig' in a mess.

1880. Trollos'E, TheDuke's Children, 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.

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.

1882. Alan Pinkerton, The Molly Maguires, 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 ! '

1888. Texas Siptings, 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.

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.

1900. Nisbet, Sheep's Clothing, 131. He is rather a big pot as a preacher I hear.

Big Country, suàs.p/ir. (hunting).— The open country.

Big-dog of the tanyard (or with

the brass collar). See BlG-bug.

big drink, subs. phr. (common).— I. The ocean; spec, the Atlantic. Also big pond, herring pond, the puddle (q.v.).

1882. Miss Braddon, Mount Royal, xiii. 'I was coming across the big drink as fast as a Cunard could bring me.'

2. (Western American.)—The Mississippi river.

i8[?]. New York Spirit of the Times [Bartlett], Well, as I was sayin', off I sot, went through Mississippi, crossed the big drink, come too now and then, when the chill come it too strong, but couldn't git shut of the ager.

TO take a big (or long)

drink,phr. (common).—To liquor from a large glass.

Big figure. To go the big figure, verb. phr. (common).—A variant of ' to go the whole hog ' ; embark upon an enterprise of magnitude ; to do things on a large scale : from a term used in poker.

1868. Pickings from the Picayune, 226. When I saw that, I thought I might as well go the big figure, you see,

Biggest.

216

Big pond.

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': e.g. the biggest artist, woman, criticism, etc.

1848. Ruxton, Life in Far West, 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 conies to this office. It is the biggest little paper we are acquainted with.

BlGGITY, adv. (American).—Consequential ; giving oneself airs : negroism.

c. 1884. S. L. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi, 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. See Big-isug.

BlG-HEAD. To have a big-head, phr. (American).— I. To be conceited; bumptious; 'cocksure'; affected in manner: alsoswelledhead.

1848. J. R.Bartlett, Americanisms, 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. (Common).—The after effect of a debauch. To get a bighead = to get drunk: see Screwed.

1888. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. All the Colonel's tact and diplomacy were necessary to preserve peace now.., The 'boys' got the big head, and displayed effervescence scarcely less remarkable than that of the champagne itself.

Big (or Large) house, subs. phr. (common).—The workhouse.

1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, i„ 52. As long as they kept out of the big house (the workhouse), she would not complain. Ibid, 11., 251. The men hate the thought of going to the big house.

big mouth, subs. (American).— Excessive talkativeness; loquacity : cf. All mouth.

Big nuts. A big nut to crack, phr. (colloquial).—An undertaking of magnitude ; one not easy to perform.

BIG people, subs.phr. (colloquial).— Persons of standing or consequence.

1858. Anthony Trollope, Dr. Thome, i., 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, 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. phr. (common).— The Atlantic ; the big drink (</.v.).

1838. Haliburton ('Sam Slick'), The Clockmaker. 3 S., xviii. He [old Clay] is all sorts of a hoss, and the best live one that ever cut dirt this side of the big i'OND, or t'other side either.

Big-pot.

217

Bike.

1883. Sala, Living London, 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. See Big-bug.

Big-side, j«^.//ir.(RugbySchool).— I. The combination of all the bigger fellows in the school in one and the same game or run ; the ground specially used for the game. Also used at other public schools. Whence big side run — a paper chase in which picked representatives of all houses take part, as opposed to a house run.

big take, subs. phr. (American).— That which takes the public fancy ; a great success ; anything that ' catches on.' See Take.

Big (or Tall) talk (story or

yarn), subs. phr. (common.— Extravagant speech ; a pedantic use of long words ; high-falutin (q.v.). Also as verb.

1874. Saturday Review, Feb., 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.

1891. New York Times, 26 Jan. A tall yarn about the Jews wanting to buy the Vatican copy of the Hebrew Bible.

1900. Kernahan, Scoundrels, xv. Public men who talk tall about the sacredness of labour.

big-wig, subs. phr. (common).— A person of consequence, one high in authority or rank : used both contemptuously and humourously : see Big-bug. Big-wigged = pompous, consequential. Bigwiggery = a display of consequence or side (q.v.). Bigwiggism pomposity.

1703. English Spy, 255. Dun or don—nob or big wig—so may you never want a bumper of bishop.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xx. We live among bankers and city bigwigs, and be hanged to them, and every man, as he talks to you, is jingling his guineas in his pocket. Ibid. (1848) Book of Snobs, 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.

1851. Carlyle, fohn Sterling, 1., vii. And along with obsolete spiritualisms, he sees all manner of obsolete thrones and big-wigged temporalities.

1855. Household Words, xii., 250. All this solemn bigwiggery—these triumphs, ovations, sacrifices, orations.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, xlv. So you are going to sit among the big-wigs in the House of Lords.

1871-72. G. Eliot, Middlemarch, 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.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke's Children, xxvi. 'The Right Honorable gentleman no doubt means,' said Phineas, ' that we must carry ourselves with some increased external dignity. The world is BIGWIGG1NG itself, and we must buy a bigger wig than any we have got, in order to confront the world with proper self-respect.'

bike, subs, (colioquial).—Short for bicycle: see Trike, Pram, Bus, Cab, Mob, etc.

1901. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 May, 1. 2. The commercial 'bike' is perhaps, the least supportable of the various tyrannies on wheels which it is the perambulating Londoner's lot to endure.

1901. Free Lance, 30 Nov., 227. 1. At first, the learner, Mounted on sorry bike, awry i' saddle, and with elbows out, "Scraping" acquaintance with the wall betimes.

Bilbo. 218 Bilk.

Bilbo (or Bilboa), subs, (old: B.E. and Grose).—1. A sword. Bilbao in Spain was once renowned for well-tempered blades: cf. Toledo, Fox, etc. Hence (2) a sword personified, especially that of a bully. Bilbo's the word = Beware, a blow will follow the word. Bilbo-lord = a bully.

1592. Greene, Disputation, etc., in Wks. x., 236. Let them doe what they dare with their bilbowe blades, I feare them not.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, iii, 5. Next, to be compass'd like a good bilbo in the circumference of a peck, hilt to point.

1627. Drayton, Agincourt [Works, ^I379> When down their bows they threw, And forth their bilbows drew.

1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, iii., 7. Teil 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, 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.'

3. (old).—A kind of stocks: it consisted of a long iron bar with sliding shackles for the ankles, and a lock by which to fasten the bar at one end to the ground.

1557. Hakli'yt, l'oy i., 295. I was also conveyed to their lodgings... where I saw a pair of bilbowes.

1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Nicht, in Wks. (Grosart) iii., 255. He that is spyced with the gowte or the dropsic, frequently dreamcth of fetters and manacles, and being put on the bilbowes.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, v., 2. Ham... Methought I lay worse than the mutines in the bilboes.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, iii., 6. Now a Man that is marry'd, has as it were, d'ye see, his Peet in the bilboes, and may-hap mayn't get 'em out again when he wou'd.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), 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, xxxiv. 'And now let us talk about our business.' ' Your business, if you please,' said Hatterick; 'hagel and donner!—mine was done when I got out of the bilboes.'

BILE, subs. (old).— i. The female pudendum: see Monosyllable.

2. (vulgar).—A boil. Hence biling = boiling (q.v.); the whole bilin = the lot.

BlLGEWATER, subs, (common).—Bad beer: properly drainings to the lowest part of a ship: see Swipes.

BILK, subs, and verb (once literary : now vulgar.)—A word, formerly in general use, but 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. 1. A statement or string of words without sense, truth, or meaning ; nothing. 2. A hoax ; an imposition ; a humbug: see Sell and Bite. 3. A swindler; a cheat: current use of the word in its substantive form, and applied mainly to persons who cheat cabmen of their fares.

Bilk.

219

Bilk.

or prostitutes of their earnings: also bilker. 4. A person who habitually sponges upon another; one who never by any chance makes a return or even offers to return a courtesy, drink or the like. As adj. = fallacious ; without truth or meaning. As verb — to cheat ; to defraud ; to evade one's obligations; to disappoint; to escape from, etc. Hence to bilk the blues = to evade the

police; to bilk the schoolmaster = to obtain knowledge or experience without paying for it.

1633. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, 1., 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 Diet, (n.d. given) and to Halliwell, Arch, and Prov. Words, s.v.]

1664. Butler, Hudibras, 11., iii.,

376. Spells, Which over ev'ry month's blank-page. In th' Almanack strange bilk's presage.

1677. Wycherlev, Plain Dealer, v., 3. i Knight: Ay, a great lawyer that shall be nameless bilked me too.

1681. Blount, Glossographia, 85. Bilk is said to be an Arabick word, and signifies nothing; cribbidge-players understand it best.

d. 1680. Rochester, Works. And all the vile companions of a street Keep a perpetual bawling at the door: Who beat the bawd last night? who bilkt the whore ?

1694. Congreve, Double Deal, in., x. There he's secure from danger of a bilk.

c. 1696. [B. E.] Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Bilk, c. to cheat. Bilk the Ratlingcove, c. to sharp the Coach-man of his hire. Ibid. Bilk'd, c. defeated, disappointed.

1729. Gay, Polly, ii., 9. Honourplays a bubbless part, ever bilk'd and cheated.

c. 1733. North, Lives, i., 260. After this bilk of a discovery was known.

1740. North, Examen, 129. To that [Oates's plot] and the author's bilk account of it I am approaching.

1740. North, Examen, 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.

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, xiv., 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.'

1772. Bridges. Burlesque Homer, 208. He... not only bilk'd him of his due, But prov'd an ill-tongu'd rogue like you.

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.

1790. Sheridan, in Sheridan iana, 109. Johnny W[i]lks, Johnny W[i]lks, Thou greatest of bilks.

1821. W. T Moncrieff, Tom a?id Jerry, ii., 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, the Holy Land.

1836. Marryat, Japhet, ix. After a little delay, the waggoner drove off, cursing him for a bilk, and vowing that he'd never have any more to do with a 'larned man.'

1840. McCluke, Rocky Mountain, 2ii. 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.

Bill.

220 Billiard Block.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, 11., xix. 'Are you playing me false? Have you set another man on the track with a view to bilk me of my promised fee?'

1877. Five Years' Penal Seri'itude, 'v-i ²57He 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.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 47. It's the easiest bilk that I ever have done.

BILL, suas. (Eton College).—1. A list of the boys who go to the head master at 12 o'clock; also of those who get off absence (q.v.), or namescalling : match e.g., an eleven are 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.)—Namescalling.

To hang up a bill, verb phr. (American political).—See quot. Hence to rush a bill = To expedite through the Senate and Congress.

1887. Corn/till Magazine, Jun., 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 hold with bill in the water, verb. phr. (common).— To keep in suspense.

To pay a bill at sight, verb phr. (venery).—To be always ready for sexual commerce ; to be hot (q.v.) or warm (q.v.) on it; to have a must (q.v.).

To bill up, verb phr. (military). —To confine to barracks.

Long (or short) bill, subs, phr. (thieves').—A long or short term of imprisonment.

BlLLBRIGHTER, 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.

c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, 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 taggots used for lightning the Kitchen fires (called Bill Brighteks), an opportunity for purloining which was never allowed to slip by a Junior of a properly regulated mind.

billet, subs, (colloquial).—A situation: a berth. To get a billet (prison) = to obtain promotion to duties which carry with them certain privileges.

1890. Hornung, A Bride from the Bush, 267. If ever she went back to Australia, she'd remember my young man, and get him a good billet.

Billiard Block, subs, (society).— One who puts up with disagreeables for the sake of pecuniary or other advantages ; occasionally, a jackal (q.V.); a tame cat (q.V.).

1831. Mrs. Gore, Mothers and Daughters, 75. The Duke of L. was fortunate in somewhat more than the usual opportionments of souffre-douleurs, doubles, billiard-blocks, living hunters, younger brothers, to talk to the young lady nieces, etc.

Billiard-slum. 2 21

Billy.

Billiard-slum, subs. (Australian thieves')=False pretences. Hence

to give on the billiard-slum

(see Mace) = to obtain goods on credit without intention of paying ; to sponge upon an acquaintance by continually begging or borrowing (Vaux's Memoirs').

Billingsgate, subs, (common).— Coarse language, scurrilous abuse : 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, also long noted for its noisy market. To Billingsgate (or talk Billingsgate) = to scold, talk coarsely (or violently) ; to slang (q.v.). So also, You're no better than a Billingsgate fishfag (or fishwife) = rude and ill-mannered ; Billingsgatry, scurrilous language.

1598. Floric, A Worlde of Wördes, s.v. Caualleressa, a roucinall woman, a huge bosse of Billingsgate.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, 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.

1678. A. Littleton, Lat. Diet. To Billingsgate it. Arripere maledictum ex trivio.

c. 1696. [B. E.] Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Billincsgate-dialect, Scolding, ill Language, foul Words.

1706. Ward, Wooden World, 20. In this kind of unmanly Billingsgate clashing he is a... great.. . master. Ibid 56. He has a thousand pretty phrases and Expressions pickt up at Billingsgate.

1711. Defoe, The Review, vu., preface. As long as faction feeds the flame, we shall never want Billingsgate to revile one another with.

1712. Spectator, 451. Our satire is nothing but ribaldry, and Billingsgate.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer. 1. The brangling ward of Billingsgate.

1852Thackeray, Esmond, 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.

i860. Hindley, Cheap-Jack, 100. Ever and anon bawling out in a billinsgate voice, 'Two ounces a penny again— lolli-pop and pop-lolly.

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.

Billingsgate-pheasant, subs. phr.

(common).—A red herring (or bloater) ; a two-eyed steak (q.v.): see Glasgow-magistrate.

BlLL-of-sale, subs. phr. (old).— Widow's weeds; 'a Bandore or Widow's Peak.' (B. E.)

Bill Sykes (or Sikes).—A burglar personified. [From Dickens' character of that name].

1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, ii. The little boys look up half with awe and half with admiration at the burly sikes with his flash style, and delight in gossip concerning his talents as a crib-cracker, and his adventures as a pickpocket.

BILLY, subs, (thieves').— 1. A pocket or neck-handkerchief, chiefly of silk. The various ' fancies ' are :— belcher, darkish blue ground,

Billy.

222

Billy.

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 : the favourite colours of Jack Randal, water's man, sky coloured, yellow fancy, yellow wiih white spots. yellow man, all yellow : see sense 2.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3. 444. A silk handkerchief. A billy.

2. (thieves'.)—Stolen metal. Hence Billy-hunting = (1) Collecting and buying old metal; and (2) on the prowl for stealing handkerchiefs : cf. sense 1. Billyfencer = a marine store dealer.

1851-61. H. Mayiiew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, i., 465. ' He goes tatling and billy-hunting in the country (gathering rags and buying old metal).'

3. A weapon: usually apiece ot 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 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 lose from the wrist, and at the same time prevent it being lost or wrenched from the grasp of its holder.

i8[?j. New York Herald [Bartlett]. A day or two since a poor German was taken to prison, and, on examining him, it was discovered that he was a victim to the billy.

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 Neius, Ap. 7, v. 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 tin pot, kettle or saucepan. [Morris:— The word comes from the proper name, used as abbreviation for William. Compare the common uses of 'Jack,' 'Long Tom,' 'Spinning Jenny.' It came into use about 1850. About 1850, the billy superseded the quartpot (q.v.), chiefly because of its top-handle and its lid. Another suggested derivation is that billy is shortened from billy-can, which is said to be bully-can (sc. Fr. bouilli). In the early days 'bœuf bouilli' was a common label on tins of preserved meat in ship's stores. These tins, called 'bully-tins,' were used by diggers and others as the modern billy is (see quotation 1835). A third explanation gives as the origin the aboriginal word BiLLA (river or water)]. Also

(town's) BILLY-CAN.

Billy.

223 Billy Barlow.

1830. r. Dawson, Present State of Australia, 48. He then strikes a light and makes a fire to boil his kettle and fry his bacon.

1835. Wilson, Voyage Round the World, 238. An empty preserved meatcanister serving the double purpose of tea-kettle and tea-pot. [The word billy is not used, but its origin is described].

1857. W. HowiTT, Tallangetta, 202. A tin pan bearing the familiar name of

a BILLY.

1871. J. J. Simpson, Recitations, 5. He can't get a billy full for many a mile round.

1881. A. C. Grant, Bush 'Life in Queensland, v. i. p. 41 :

A billy (that is a round tin pitcher with a lid) in his hand.

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. CasselVs Picturesque Australasia, v. iv. p. 69:

A tin can, which the connoisseurs call for some reason or other a billy.

1889. Illustrations, Oct., p. 21. 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.

1890. RolfBoldrewood, Squatter's Dream, p. 24:

A very black camp-kettle, or billy, of hot tea.

189a. The Australasian, April, 9, p. 707, col. 4 :

How we praised the simple supper

(we prepared it each in turn), And the tea! Ye gods! 'twas nectar. Yonder billy was our urn.

1892. The Australasian, April 9, 7°7. 4:

But I said, 'Dear friend and brother,

yonder BlLLY-can is mine; You may confiscate the washing that

is hanging on the line. You may depredate the larder, take

your choice of pot and pan; But, I pray thee, kind sundowner,

spare, oh spare, my BlLLY-can.'

1902. Pall Mall Gaz., 26 July, 2.1. He starts, the scent of the gums in his nostrils, in the cool of early morning; and ceases with sunset glow, to boil his billy of tea by the precious 'creek.'

6. A companion ; a comrade ; a mate; a pal (q.v.): an endearment. Also (7) = 'fellow' (1774).

7. A brother; hence Billyhood = brotherhood (1724).

8. (Schools'). — A removal, or flying off. This term is used by boys when playing at marbles, and refers to shifting the place of a marble.

Billy Barlow, subs. phr. (common). —A street clown : a mountebank : from the hero of a slang song. Billy was a real person, semiidiotic, 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. These merry Andrews are otherwise called Jim crows and saltimbancos ; French, pitre, saltimbanque.

1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Loh. 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.

Billy-boy.

224

Billy-ruffian.

BILLY-BOY, subs. phr. (nautical). — A vessel like a galliot, with two masts,the fore-mast square-rigged : they hail mainly from Goole : also Humber-keels.

BILLY-BUTTON, subs, (rhyming).— I. Mutton.

2. (tailors'.)—A journeyman tailor: in contempt.

1851. Mathew, 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 'sitiation.'

BlLLY-BUZMAN, subs, (thieves').—A thief, whose speciality is silk pocket and neckerchiefs : see billy subs. i.

Billy-cock, subs, (popular).—A round, low-crowned hat—generally of soft felt, and with a broad brim. [Murray:—'apparently the same as "bully-cocked," used 1721, probably meaning after the fashion of the "bullies," or hectoring " blades" of the period '.] —The billy-cock of the Antipodes 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.

1721. Amhekst, Terra 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 tic-wig, or sometimes a long natural one, which reaches down below his waist; a broad rully-cock'u 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.

1S62. 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. i. He wore a plaited blouse drawn in at the waist, and a dilapidated billycock hat.

Billy-fences. See Billy, subs, i and 2,

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, billygoat beard.

Billy-hunting. See Billy subs, i and 2.

billy noodle,subs.phr.(American). —A ladykiller; a conceited ass.

Billy-roller, subs, (common),— See quots.

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. U^KE. Diet. Arts, iii., 1166. This is the iiillv-rollkk, so much talked of in the controversies between the operatives and masters in the cottonfactories, as an instrumeat of cruel punishment to children, though no such machine has been used in cotton-mills for half a century at least.

Billy-ruffian, subs. phr. (venery). —The penis: see prick.

Bim.

225 Birch-broom.

Bim, Bimshire (West Indian).— A Barbadian; the island of Barbadoes : also, jeeringly, Little England.

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 bim.'

Bing. See Bynge a waste.

Binge, subs. (Oxford Univ.)—A drinking bout.

Bingham's Dandies, subs, (military). —The 17th Lancers, Its Colonel (Lord Bingham) was particular as to uniform and style. Also 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 soubriquet, now almost 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.'

BlNGO, subs, (old cant).—Brandy ; also spirits of any Kind. [Thought by Dr. Murray to be a humorous formation from B. for ' brandy ' (cf., 'B. and S.') and stingo (q.v.)] (B. E. and Grose), with a glance at Sir BiRGO Binks, the Scottish baronet in St. Ronans Well. Hence bingo boy, a tippler; a drunkard ; bingo mort, a drunken woman.

1696. B. E. Did. Cant. Crew., q.v. Bikgo-club, c. a set of Rakes, Lovers of that Liquor. Bingo-boy, c. a great Drinker of Lover thereof.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, 41. ' Pass round the bingo,—of a gun, You musty, dusty, husky son!'

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxxiii. Some soda water with a dash of bingo clears one's head in the morning.

BlNGY, adj. (trading).—Bad, ropy butter ; nearly equivalent to V1Nnied: in the English Dialect Society's Chester Glossary, bingy = a peculiar clouty or frowsty taste in milk—the first stage of turning sour.

1857. Mrs. Gaskell, Life of C. Bronte, 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.

i860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, xv. I've heerd my aunt say as she found out as summat was wrong wi' Nancy as loon 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, verb, (common).—To flog; to strike with a birch. Hence birch-oil = a thrashing: cf., strap oil, hazel-oil, etc.

i83[?]. Hood, Ode Clapham Acad. There I was birchV, there I was bred. There like a little Adam fed

From Learning's woeful tree!

Clean birch, subs. (old).—a pretended conjuror.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 1S0. So this clean birch was by the devil left i'th'lurch.

BlRCH-BROOM, subs, (rhyming).—A room.

Birching Lane. 226

Bird.

Like a birch-broom in a fit, phr. (common).—Said of a rough, towzly head.

1S76. 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.

Birching Lane.—To send one to Birchin Lane, phr. (old).—To castigate-, to flog: cf. strap oil, etc.

1544. Ascham, Scholemaster, 69. A common proverb of Birching-lane.

[?]. Royal King [Ancient Drama], vi. 235. It had not been amiss if we had gone to Burchen-lane first to have suited us; and yet it is a credit for a man of the sword to go thread-bare.

1614. Overbvry, Charact., 17, 'Of a fine gent.' His discourse makes not his behaviour, but he buyes it at court, as countreymen their clothes in birchinlane. Ibid. If all men were of his mind, all honesty would be out of fashion; he withers his cloaths on the stage, as a salesman is forced to do his suits in birchin-lane, and when the play is done, if you mark his rising, 'tis with a kind of walking epilogue between the two candles.

1654. Wills Reer. 'Tis like appareil made in birchen-lane,If any please to suit themselves and

wear it,

The blame's not mine, but theirs that needs will bear it.

bird, sups, (old colloquial).— 1. A lady. [Halliwell: The term is very common in early English poetry, and is occasionally applied to the other sex, as in Amis and Amiloun, 15].

[?]. Leg. Catkol. 35. His ost spac and --af aniware, And r,ede forth with the bird so bold.

2. (Colloquial).—The pupil of the eye, or perhaps the little reflected image on the retina, or that of a very near spectator reflected from the cornea: cf. babies in the eyes.

3. (provincial).—An endearment: spec, any pet animal: also birdie.

4. (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.

1886. Graphic, 10 Apr., 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.

5. (venery).—The penis: see Prick.

Verb (old.)—To thieve _; to steal ; to look for plunder. So used by Ben Jonson.

As bare as a bird's tail,phr. (old).—Stripped; as bare as may be.

1614. Terence in English. Despoliavit nos omnibus. He hath not left us a dish to eate our meat in. He hath stript us of al. We are spoiled of all that we have by him. He hath left us as bare

as a birds taile.

Like a bird, phr. (common).— Easily ; facile ; with as little trouble as a bird in flying.

Bird in hand, subs. phr. (old), —Someting certain or practical : as opposed to a bird in the bush = something remote or uncertain.

1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, i. 163. The Prince knew well where he was now; when all their capitulation, were held to be star-shootings, flashes, and meteors, without the bird in thr hand.

Bird.

227 Bird s-Eye.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 70. Donna Mergelina was sorry for the delay, as well knowing that a bird in

the hand is worth two in the bush.

1877. Tennyson, Harold, 11, ii. Simple! let fly the bird within the hand, To catch the bird again within the bush.

Phrases. The bird in the bosom = one's secret pledge, conscience. Birds of a feather = of like character. Also proverbs and proverbial sayings :—' Some beat the bush and others take the bird'; 'A child's bird and a knave's wife lead a sore life ' ; ' The bird that fouleth its own nest is not honest'; 'An old bird is not caught with chaff'; To kill two birds with one stone'; 'The early bird catches the worm.'

[?]. Hist. Edward II, 58. These, for distinction, and that they might be known all birds of a feather, are suited in cassocks with a white guard athwart, which gave this the name of the Parliament of white bends.

d. 1618. Sylvester, The Schisme, 80. Reboam, scorning these old senators, Leans to his younglings, minions, flatterers, Birds of a feather that with one accord Cry out, importune, and persuade their lord Not sillily to be by such disturb'd.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew., q.v. Birds of a Feather, c. Rogues of the same gang; also, those of the same Profession, Trade orEmployment. To kill

two birds with one stone, tO dispatch

two Businesses at one Stroke.

1706. Ward, Wooden World, 25. Birds of a feather that always aque together.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 180. Thus swimmingly the knave went on, And kill'd two birds with every stone.

1836. Southey, Doctor, lxv. The idle and dissipated like birds of a feather flock together.

Bird-cage, subs, (common),—i. A bustle : once modish for extending the skirts of the dress: because at one time constructed of such a size and in such a manner as to be not altogether unlike an elongated bird-cage. AIsocanarv

cage; backstaircase ; false

hereafter ; bishop. Fr. volapuk ; strapontin; lieutenant (a pun on tenant lieu de ce qui manque) ; nuage (parceqiiil cache la lune; haie = the posteriors).

c. i860. Broadside Ballad 'The Agricultural Irish Girl,' 3. She does not wear those things behind, The ladies call birdcages.

2. (common.)—A four-wheeled cab : see growler.

3. (racing.)—The paddock at the Newmarket race-course where saddling takes place: it adjoins the grand stand.

18S4. St. James's Gazette, May 1, p.

1. All the favourites were brought into the bird-cage.

birdlime, subs, (rhyming).— I. Time

2. (old.)—A thief. As adj. = thievish ; lime-fingered (q.v.) and as verb =. to steal ; to purloin; to convey (q.V.).

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.

1809. Malkin. Gil Bias [RoutledgeJ 37. I went . . . spending ... all the loose cash remaining from the rape of my Indian princess; for we had both of us bird-limed our fingers at our departure.

Bird's-eye, Bird's-eye fogle, Bird's-eye wipe, subs, (common). A handkerchief of any colour spotted with eye-like markings: see Billy.

BircT s-nest.

228

Bishop.

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.

1801. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xviii. He wore a blue bird'seye handkerchief round his neck.

1876. Greenwood, In Strange Company. Were they lurking at this secluded spot until what they thought was a good time to sheer off with the 'swag'? Was that the swag tied up in the blue birdseye?—

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.

1901. People, April 13, 1. The tie is rather a pretty blue bird's eye pattern.

BlRD'S-NEST, subs. phr. (venery).— The female pudendum : see monosyllable: also magpie's nest. Hence to go birdnesting, to whore; to grouse (q.v.): see Greens and Ride.

BlRDSNlE, subs, (old).—An Endearment: cf. PlGSNIE.

1661. Davenport, City Night-Cap, ii. Oh my sweet birdsnie, what a wench have I of thee !

BlRD-witted, adj. (old).—Inconsiderate; thoughtless; easily imposed on-, 'Wild-headed, not Solid or Stayed, opposed to a Sober Wit,' (B. E. and 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: see Diggings.

Birmingham. See Brummagem.

Birthday suit, subs, (common).— Nakedness ; buff (q.v.) ; in nature's garb (q.v.)—the suit in which Adam and Eve first saw each other, and ' were not ashamed ' : s'habiller en sauvage.

1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, 1. 61. I went in the morning to a private place, along with the housemaid, and we bathed in our birthday soot.

1809. Malkin Gil ^/^^[Routledge], 16. I will strip this holy father to his birthday suit.

bishop, subs. (old).— I. A warm drink : spec, 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 townraff 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., 27S. 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, xlviii., p. 421. He and the landlord were drinking a bowl of bishop together.

2. subs. (American).—A bustle : see Bird-cage.

1848. The Bustle [quoted in Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, p. 4-2J. I sing the bishop, alias the bustle.

Bishop.

229 Bishop.

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-pot ; a jerry ; a Jordan '. see it.

4. (Winchester College.)—The sapling with which a fagot is bound together.

5. (Old).—See quot.

1598. Florio, Worlde 0/ Wördes, s. v. Far/alla, a Aie that hovering about a candle burnes itselfe, of some called a bishop, which is probably a smaller insect.

6. (common).—A mushroom growth in the wick of a burning candle _; a waster {q.v.) ; a thief (q.V.),

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, s. v. Fitugo, that firy round in a burning candle called the bishop.

6. (provincial).—A pinafore or bib.

Verb, (horse-copers')—1. To burn 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' = ' to burn.' Fr. masquer en alezan-, also maquiller un gayet.

1727. R. Bradley, Family Diet., vol. l, s. v. 'Horse.' This way of making a horse look young, is by Horse Coursers called Bishoping.

1884. Don. 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.

2. (common). 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 disssecting purposes.

1837. Barham, Dig. Leg. (Account of a New Play). I burked the papa, now I'll bishop the son.

1864. Athenœum, p. 559, col. 1. We have 'to burke', and 'to bishop.'

3. (printers').—To water the balls (Halliwell).

4. (old).—To Confirm.

[>] M. S. Cantab, Ff v. 48, f. 2. And also within the fyfte ^jere, Do that thei bischoped were.

5. (old).—To burn milk, porridge or the like; to over-roast meat etc. ; usually ' the bishop has put his foot in it' (see quot. 1520).

1520. Tyndale, Wör&r, i. 304. When a thing speedeth not well, we borrow speech, and say, 'the bishop hath blessed it'; because that nothing speedeth well that they meddle withal. If the porridge be burnt too, or the meat over-wasted, we say, 'the bishop hath put his foot in the pot', or 'the bishop hath played the cook'; because the bishops burn whom they lust.

1659. Milton, Def. Humb.Remon. 1. Spare your ladle, sir; it will be as the bishop's foot in the broth.

c. 1710. Swift, Polite Conv. i. Lady Ans. Why sure, Betty, thou art bewitcht; this cream is burnt too. Lady Snt. Why, Madam, the bishop has set his foot in it.

1863. Mrs.Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, iv. Have an eye to th' milk, and see as it doesna' boil o'er, for she canna stomach it if it's bishopped e'er so little.

Bishop's-finger. 230

Bit.

BlSHOP'S-finger, subs. phr. (old).— A guide-post _; so called, according to Pegge, because it shows the right way, but does not go. (Halliwell): cf finger-post = a parson.

BlSMARQUER, verb (obsolete).—To cheat; to play foul at cards or billiards. [From 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 Cant). — I. Money: generic: also bite and byte: see rhino.

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 e-f 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 yon 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) in., 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, 149. Snack the bit. To share the money.

1834. H. Ainswortii, Rook-wood, bk. m., ch. v. He is caught—he must'stand and deliver'; then out with the dummy [pocket book!, and off with the bit.

2. (colloquial.)—A coin varying in value according to locality—usually, however, to the silver piece of the lowest denomination. Fourpenny pieces were

called bits until withdrawn from circulation, and in Demerara the term is in general use for the same coin ; in America bit = a I2§ cent piece; a defaced 20 cent piece being a long bit. A bit is the smallest coin in Jamaica, equal to 6d.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bit (s.j... In the West Indies, it is the least piece of silver coin, which goes current at 7 pence half-penny.

1875. Serielleres Magazine, July, 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 quantiiy. 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.

3. (common).—In disparagement—bits of girls, bits of children, bit of a place, bit of one's mind = candid (and uncomplimentary) criticism, Expression of opinion etc. Originally, piece (see quot.)

1630. Mem. Sir R. Carey, 283. A good piece of a scholar.

4. See greens and infra.

5. (thieves').—A term of imprisonment. Hence to do a bit — to do time (q.v.)

1869. Temple Bar, xxvi, 75. The next bit I did was a sixer.

A bit on (racing).—I. A stake; a bet.

1894. George Moore, Esther Waters, ii. Oh, we did have a fine time then, for we all had a bit on.

Bit. 231 Bitch.

1899. Whiteing, John St. xxi. He does a bit now and then.

1900. White, West End, 73. Said he, it's about a horse and important. Oh. put a little bit on for me, Dickie, there's a dear! i lost a tenner over your last tip, said Mr. Delane.

2. (common).—Drunk : see screwed; also bit. Hence, 'he has bit his grannum' = he is very drunk (B. E.)

A bit of snug (or staff), subs. phr. (venery).— 1. The deed of kind: also a bedward bit. 2. The penis: see prick.

A bit in the know, subs. phr. (common).—Well-informed ; upto-date.

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 8, A Fleetstreet 'pro', who on Monday, being a bit in the know.

To take or get the bit (or

bridle between the teeth, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To run riot; to cast aside discretion, caution, or scruple; to do one's will at all costs, or without consideration for others.

1546. Heywood, Proverbs. To take the bridle in the teeth.

The devil a bit ! phr. (old).— An exclamation of dissent : originally, the devil have the bit that etc.

1528. Roy, Rede me, etc. [Arber], 65. The devil of [have], the whit that.

A bit off. See Off. See Bite, verb.

A hair of the dog that bit you. See Hair.

BITCH, subs, (old literary : now low). = 1. A man or woman: an epithet of extreme contempt : applied to a man it has became absolete (see Bitch-son), indeed in any sense it has long since passed out of decent usage, and in modern parlance (see quot. 1546) bitch = whore, as verb. = to whore ; mobrow (q.v.): hence bitchery — whoredom, harlotry ; also see separate entry.

1400. Chester PI. (1843), 181. Whom calleste thou queine skabde biche?

c. 1500. E. E. Misc. (1855), 54. He is a schrewed byche, In fayth, I trow, he be a wyche.

1532-3. More, Confut. Tindale, wks., 648, col. i. Such marriage is very vnlawfull leckery and plain abhominable bychery.

1546. Heywood, Proverbs, 158. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 500. A wife complains that her goods are wasted on "a sort of dogs and sawte bitches" ; the last word here takes the sense of meretrix],

1575. j. Still, Gammer Gurton, 11., ii. Come out, thou hungry needy bitch.

1598. Marston, Sco. V'Manie, i , iv., 188. He will vnline himselfe from bitchery.

[?]. 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.

1663-1704. Thomas Brown, Works, Serious and Comical, 111., 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.

1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, xviii., 310. Ulysses looking sourly answered, You

bitch.

1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv. 1, iv, ir. One Sempstress in her Hut a stitching, Another just strol'd out a Bitching.

Bitch-booby. 232

Bite.

1707. Ward, Hud. Rediv., n, ii, 17. Will... give him a lascivious Itching To ramble o'er the Town a Bitching.

1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 9. An extravagant eitch of a wife.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. xvil., 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.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. xvil, 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.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 181. Some damn'd old bitch, A Lancashire or Lapland witch.

Verb. (low).—I. See supra.

2. To yield to give up an attempt through fear. (grose).

3. (common.)—To spoil ; to bungle.

To stand bitch.—To make tea ; to do the honours of the tea table; generally to perform a female part.

AS drunk as a fiddler's bitch, phr. (old). = Very drunk indeed (Piers Plowman, 98).

BlTCH-BOOBY, subs, (old military).— A country girl (grose).

BITCH-CLOUT, subs. phr. (old).—A worthless woman: see Bitch (Cov. Myst. 218).

BITCH-DAUGHTER, subs. phr. (halliwell).—The night-mare.

BITCH-PARTY, subs. phr. (old).—A parly of women. Originally an Oxford term for a tea-party, tea being considered (grose) a beverage only fit for women: cf. hen party and 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."¹

BITCH-SON (mod. son of a bitch), subs. phr. (old).—A term of reproach or contempt.

[?]. Arlhour and Merlin, 312. Biche-sone! thou drawest amis, Thou schalt abigge it y-wis!

1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1S34), 446. You are a... son of a bitch.

BITE, subs, (old Cant).—I. See Bit.

2. (old.)—The female pudendum: see Biter and Monosyllable (B.E.).

c. 1696. B. E. Diet. Car.t. Crew, s.v. Bite. The Cull wapt the Morts bite, c. the Fellow' enjoyed the Whore briskly.

3. (old).—Imposition ; humbug ; a sell ; a do : cf. Bilk, Bam, Bargain, and Sell. The sense runs through all stages, from jocular hoaxing to downright swindling. Also a 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. 136. 2. It was a common bite with him, to lay Suspicions that he was favoured by a Lady's Enemy.

1721. Amherst, Terrœ Fil., ix., 43. Sharpers would not frequent gamingtables, if the men of fortune knew the bite.

1749. Smollet, Gil Bias (1812) 1, ii. I was as much affected by this bite as I have since been by misfortunes of far greater Consequence.

Bite.

233

Bite.

1749. Smollett, Gil Bias (1812) viii, vii I don't want a valet of such a religious deportment; I have been already bit by such another.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 177. He boasted, but it prov'd a bite.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ix. 'It's all a bam, ma'am—all a bamboozle and a bite, that affair of his illness.'

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.

1S60. 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 ; a cheat ; a trickster: also biter, bilk (B.E. c. 1696).

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. Thesegentlemen 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.

171». 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.

1742. Fielding, Miss Lucy (1762), 176. Is this wench an idiot, or a bite? Marry me, with a pox!

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle., 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, in,, 169. The fool would fain be thought.a bite.

1812. Coombe, Syntax Picturesque,

xix.

Pray have you travell'd so far north, To think we have so little wit, As by such biters to be bit?

5. (common).—One who drives a hard bargain; a 'close fist.'

6. (common).—A Yorkshireman. See Daily tVetvs, Sept. 11,

1883, and Yorkshire Post,]z.x\. g,

1884. See Tike.

1883. Daily News, Sept. 4, p. 5, col. 6. The great and puissant race known indifferently as ' tykes ' or bites.

7. (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 Diet. 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.

1884. Blades, Caxton, 130. In ' Speculum Vitas Christi' we actually find a bite, half of the bottom line remaining unprinted.

Bite.

234

Bite.

Verb (old).— 1. To deceive; 10 cheat; to swindle; to do (q.v.'); to take IN (q.V.) ; to sell (q.V.).

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.'

c. 1696. B. E. Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Bit, c. Robb'd, Cheated or Out-witted. Also Drunk, as, he has bit his Grannam; he is very Drunk, bit the Blow, c. accomplish'd the Theft, plaied the Cheat, or done the Feat : You have bit a great Blow, c. you have Robb'd somebody of a great deal, or to a considerable value. Ibid, bite the Bil from the Cull c. whip the Sword from the Gentleman's side. Ibid, bite the Cully, c. to put the cheat on the silly Fellow. Ibid, bite the Biter, c. to Rob the Rogue, Sharp the Sharper, or Cheat the Cheater.

1709. Steele, Toiler, No. 12. Nay, he has bit you fairly enough, that's certain.

1724. A Journey throughEngland. 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.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 314. When Vulcan saw his dad was bit.

1822. [NaresJ 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, x. 'You were completely bitten, my boy—humbugged, bam-boozlcd—ay, and by your old father, you dog.'

1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, xvii., 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.

1854. Martin and Aytoun, Bon Gaultier Ballads. 'The biter bit.' And if you'd please, my mother dear, your poor desponding child. Draw me a pot of beer, mother, and mother! draw it mild.

2. (common).—To strike a hard bargain.

3. (old).—To steal ; e.g., to bite the roger = to steal a portmanteau; to bite the wiper = to purloin a handkerchief. (B. E. and grose).

4. (old).—To grieve.

1614. Terence in English. Male habet virum. It grieveth him, it biteth him.

Intj. (old).— I. An equivalent of the modern sold ! (q.v.) done ! (q.v.) etc.

1704. Gibber, 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, can

Bite.

235

Bite.

not 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!

When the maggot bites, phr. (common).—When the fancy takes one ; at one's own sweet will. When a person acts from no apparent motive, he is said to have 'a maggot in his head,' ' a bee in his bonnet ' ; or (in French) des rats dans la tète-, in Platt-Deutsch, a mouse-nest in his head.

To bite one's hips, verb. phr. (tailors').—To regret a word or action.

To bite one's name in, verb, phr. (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple : see screwed.

To bite on the bridle (or bit), verb. phr. (old).—To be pinched in circumstances ; to be reduced ; to be in difficulties.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Bite, to bite on the bit; to be pinched, or reduced to hard Meat, a scanty or sorry sort of Living.

TO bite the ear (or nose),

verb. phr. (old).—1. An endearment : also bite.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo, ii. 4. Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.

1610. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 3. Thou hast witch'd me, rogue; take, go.

Slave, I could bite thine ear. Away, thou dost not care for me!

1636. Suckling, Goblins [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed)], x. 147. Rare rogue in buckram, let me bite thee.

2. (common).—To borrow.

1879. J. W. Horsley, Macm. Mag., xl. 502. He used to want to bits my ear (borrow) too often.

TO bite the thumb, verb. phr. (old).—To make a gesture of contempt: formerly regarded as a gross insult. [Nares: 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 in France.— The ' biting the thumb ' spoken of in Romeo and Juliet: the nail of the thumb is placed under the front teeth of the upper jaw, the thumb being jerked forward. Another contemptuous action is placing the thumb between the closed fore and middle fingers ; while according to Darwin's Expression of the Emotions, the Dakota Indians of North America show ' contempt 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, valueless object.

1595. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, i., i. 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.

Biter.

236 Bit-of-muslin.

1638. Randolph, Muses' L. Glass, Old. 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, transi, 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.

To make two bites of a

Cherry, verb. phr. (common).— To make more ado than is necessary.

1823. Scott, St. Ronan*s IVell, x. I reckon you'll be selling out the whole—it's needless making two bites of a cherry.

General phrases:—To bite upon the bridle = to wait impatiently like a restless horse ; to bite the dust (ground, sand), etc, = to die; to bite the tongue = to repress speech.

Biter, See Bite.

2. (old).—An amorous woman.

BITE-SHEEP, subs. phr. (old).—A bishop.

1555. Bradford [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 541. (He) seems to have first used the favourite pun of bite-sheep for bishop.].

1659. Gauden, Tears of the Church, 617 'who called the Bishops, the Popes, the Antichrists, the Bite-Sheeps, the Oppressors,' etc. and goes on to say, 'These foule glosses first made by Martin Marprelate.'

BlTE-UP, subs. phr. (tailors').—An unpleasant altercation. Hence to bite up = to grieve ; to lament loss or absence.

BlT-FAKER (or MAKER), subs. phr. (thieves').—A coiner: also turner-out (7 .î'.); whence bitfaking = counterfeiting.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 447. Coiners = bit-makers.

BlT-o'-bull, subs. phr. (old).— Beef : Fr. gobet (properly, a dainty morsel).

BlT-of-BLOOD, subs. phr. (common).—A high-spirited horse; a thoroughbred.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial 10. C—n n—g came in a job, and then canter'd about On a showy, but hot and unsound, bit of blood.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, 11., p. 156. Not that we slacken in our pace the while, not we: we rather put the bits of blood upon their mettle.

BlT-of-cavalry, subs. phr. (old).— A horse.

1S21. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, i., 6. I shall here buy a bit of cavalry —that is a prad, on your judgment.

BlT-of-EBONY, subs. phr. (common).—A negro or negress : see Snowball.

BlT-of-FAT, subs. phr. (common).— I. An unexpected advantage : also

bit of pudding.

2. (printers'). See fat.

BlT-of-HARD (or stiff), subs. phr. (venery).—The penis: see prick,

Bit-OF-JAM. See jam.

BlT-of-leaf, subs. phr. (thieves').— tobacco: cf. weed.

1876. Greenwood, Gaol Birds at Large. The same rigid rule is in force at Portland. I suppose it is because the convicts almost to a man set such a high value on a bit of leaf, regarding it as the greatest luxury of their lives, that the authorities are so severe in their endeavours to keep it from them. But they get it for all that.

Bit-of-muslin, subs. phr. (common).—A young girl ; spec, a prostitute: also BIT OF STUFF : see tart.

Bit-of-mutton.

237

Biz.

1899. Whiteing, John St., vi. She's a neat little bit o' muslin, ain't she now ?

BlT-of-mutton, subs. phr. (common).—A woman ; spec, a prostitute, laced mutton, see tart.

BlT-of-sticks, subs. phr. (sporting).—A copse.

BlT-of-stiff, subs.phr. (common).— A bank-note, or other paper money ; the equivalent of money when not in specie, i.e., a draft or bill of exchange. Hence, to do a bit of stiff = to accept

a bill.

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, 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.

BlT-of-stuff, subs. phr. (common). —An overdressed man ; one who fancies himself! with full confidence in his appearance and abilities. 2. A young woman ; also bit of muslin.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xxiii. 'One night he says tome, "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.'

Bitter, subs, (colloquial).—A glass of bitter ale : cf. bass etc. Hence to do a bitter = to drink beer.

1S53. Rev. E. Bradley ('Cuthbert Bede'), Verdant Green, ist., ni., 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 i>oug, 'The West End Boys,' 3. 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.*

1893. Crackanthorpe, Wreckage, 125. Mary, two bitters and a small Scotch to the Commercial Room, and a large Irish for Mr. Hays here.

BlTTOCK, 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 BlTTOCK.' The latter may be considered any distance from one hundred yards to ten miles. Also of time.

1802. J. Wilson ('Congleton ') M. S. Let. to F. Boucher. Bittock, a small piece or small bit; Cheshire.

1816. Scott, Old Mortality. To Chamwood, madam? It's unco late, and it's sax miles an' a bittock down the water.

1884. Daily News, April 15, 4, 7. Edinburgh University is three hundred years and a bittock.

BITWISE, adv. (colloquial).—Little by little,

BIVVY (or GATTER) subs. (provincials—Beer, SHANT OF bivvy = a pot of beer _; probably from the Italian, bevere, bere. Latin,

BIBERE.

BlZ, subs, (originally American, now general).—Business ; employment; occupation. Good biz = profitable business.

1882. Democracy, 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.

Bizzle.

238 Black.

1884. Saturday Review, Jan. 5, 13. 2. It is satisfactory to learn from the conductor of the circus that biz is rery fair.

1889. Ally Sloper, Aug. 17, 262, i. 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 !

1897. Marshall, Pomes, 64. It will be much the best biz If you keep all your dreams in the family, Liz.

1902. S p. Times, 1 Feb. i. 4. She says for the lawyer there'll soon

be some biz, Because his ways ain't her ways, and her

ways ain't his.

Bizzle. See Bezzle.

B. K. S., subs, (military).—Barracks ; see quot.

1887. Standard, 10 Feb., 5. 2. B. k. s., used by officers 'in mufti,' who do not wish to give their address.

blab, subs, (vulgar). i. A babbler: a depraved word, once in common use, but rarely employed now,colloquially. (Grose). Hence, 2. loose talk, chatter. Also as verb., and in various compounds and allied forms, such as blabber = (a) to talk idly, and (b) to put out the tongue loosely; blabbing = inconsequent chatter and revealing of secrets; blabbingbook = a tell-tale.

[?]. M. S. Digby, 41, f 3. Whi presumyst thou so proudli to pro

phecie these thingis, And wost no more what thou blaberest

than Balames asse.

1402. Occleve [Arbbr, Eng. Garner iv. 54]. [The old blaber is cut down to blab].

1629. Schoole of good Planners. To mocke anybody by blabboring out the tongue is the part of waghalters and lewd boyes, not of well mannered children.

1641. Milton, Animad. upon the Renions. Def., etc. But these are the nettlers these are the blabbing books that tell.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew, 8. v. Blab, a Sieve of Secrets, a very prating Fellow that tells all he knows.

1809. .Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 43. Of which I should never have known, but for that blab Inésilla. Ibid. 94. That blab, the sun.

183S. Dickens, Oliver Twist. "He has not peached so far," said the Jew... " If he means to blab us among his new friends, we may slap his mouth yet."

blabber-lipped, adj. phr. (old).— Having thick lips. Huloet translates it by Achilles. Cf. Florio, in v. Chilene.

1606. Chapman, Möns. d'Olive, v. 1. Van. My poore cosin that attends the Dutchesse, Lady Jeronime. Eur. What, that blaberlipt blouse?

BLACK, subs. (old).— I. A poacher working with a blackened face (1722).

2. (old).—A mute (1619).

3. (old).—Generic for mischief and malign influence: e.g. a black (= unfortunate, or unpropitious) day; a black (= very great) shame; a black {= unfeeling)

heart; a black (= mischief

working) witch _; black (— foul) mouthed ; etc.

Phrases:—To look black = to frown, to scowl, to look angrily ; to say black is anyone's eye, (eyebrow, nail, etc.) = to find fault, to lay to charge: a modern rendering is black is the white 01" your eye; blackbabbling = malicious talk.

Black Act.

239 Black-and-white.

c. 1400. Occleve, MS. Soc. Antiq. 134, f. 267. To riche and myjty man, thouje he trespace, No man sayeth onis

that BLAK is his vze.

[?]. The Tell Tale, Duhvich College MS. Why, yow have named yt a fooles, madam. A foole may doe all things, and no man say black's his eye.

1528. Roy, Sat. (1845). They eate their belies full.... And none sayth blacke is his eye.

1583. Stubbs, Anatomie of Abuses, 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.

1625. Jonson, Staple of Neivs, ist Intermean. He is the very justice o' peace of the play, and can commit whom he will, and what he will, error, absurdity, as the toy takes him, and no man say black is his eye, but laugh at him.

1633. Shirley, Bird in Cage [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed) viii. 233]. If you have a mind to rail at 'em, or kick some of their loose flesh out, they sha' not say black's your eye, nor with all their lynx's eyes discover you.

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 eve, for that matter.

Black Act. See black art.

blackamoor, subs. (old).— i. a negro ; any darkskinned person: originally not in depreciation, but used as a nickname (1547).

2. (Old).—A devil ; a demon ; an evil spirit (1663).

blackamoor's-teeth, subs. phr. (old).—Cowrie shells—the currency of some savage tribes.

1700. W. King, Transactioneer, 36. He has shells called blackmoore's teeth, I suppose... from their whiteness.

1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 334. Known by the Name of Cowries amongst Merchants, or of blackamores' teeth among other Persons.

black-and-blue, subs. phr. (old).— The result of violent beating. Huloet has, "beaten blacke and bloo, suggillatus."

[?] M.S. Coll. Jes. Cantab. Q.y.3. Dismember hym naght, that on a tre For the was made bothe blak and blö.

black-and-tan, subs, (vagrants').— Porter (or stout) and ale, mixed in equal quantities.

Black-and-tan Country, subs.phr. (American).=:The Southern States of North America.

Black-and-white, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Writing _; printing ; the black characters of print or writing on white paper. Hence, to put a thing down in black and white =r 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, ii., 2. Gov. [with a letter]... Alas, poor gentleman! Little does he think what black and white is here.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Black and white, under one's Hand, or in Writing.

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 whits.

Black-Apr only. 240

Blackbird.

1753. Richardson, Grandison, ii. 69. Now am I down in black and white for a tame fool; is it not so?

1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, ill., bk. ii., viii. His accounts lie all ready, correct in black and white to the uttermost farthing. Ibid. Misc. iii. 79. The original covenant, stipulating to produce Paradise Lost on the one hand and five pounds sterling on the other still lies (we have been told) in black-on-white, for inspection and purchase by the curious, at a bookshop in Chancery Lane.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlev, i S., No. xii., 202. A man can't so much as put on a pair of clean stockings in the morning, but it's laid before high quarters in black and white at mid-day by the secret police!

black-apronly, subs. phr. (old).— The clerical and legal professions (1832).

black-arse, subs. phr. (old).—A kettle; a pot.

black art, subs. phr. (old).—i. Picking of locks ; burglary.

1591. Greene, Conny-Catch., Wks.i 1883, 11., 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, I"-. 137This 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., 78. Rich men's funerals in the first style of black art.

black-bag, subs. phr. (old).—A pleader in the Law Courts : also green-bag {q.v.).

1654. Witts Reer. If souldiers may obtain four terms of war, Muskets should be the pleaders, pikes the bar ;

For black-bags, bandeliers, jackets for gowns,

Angels for fees, we'll take no more crackt crowns.

black-ball. See pill.

blackballing, subs, (nautical).-Stealing, pilfering: the word 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. pi. (old)— The lower strata of society: obsolete.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 6. Jerry: Tom, here's a group of blackbeetles—do you see those lovely mendicants ?

blackberry-swagger, subs. phr. (common).—A hawker of 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. Hence black-birder = a slave (or coolie) hunting vessel ; and, as verb. = To capture negroes or Polynesians ; to kidnap.

Black-Bitch. 241 Black-coat.

i88i. Chequered Career, 180. The white men on board knew that if once the elackbirds burst the hatches... they would soon master the ship.

1883. Graphic, April 21, 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. All the Year Round, 22 Sep., 355. Blackbirders, the kidnappers for labour purposes on the islands of the Pacific.

1883. Academy, 8 Sep., 158. [He] slays Bishop Patteson by way of reprisal for the atrocities of some blackbirding crew.

1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 19 Aug.

2, col. 2. Years ago blackbirding scoundrels may have hailed from Fiji.

Black-bitch, subs.phr. (provincial). —A gun.

Black-book, rafa./^.(common).— An imaginary record of offences and sins. Hence to be in the black books = to be in disgrace: to have incurred displeasure ; to be out of favour.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales [Aldine, ii. 208]. [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 124. A promise is made to strike a man out of our lettres blake; this is the source

of OUr black books].

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias, [Routledge], 154. Play and gallantry are equally in her black books.

Black-box, subs. phr. (old).—A lawyer (B.E. and Grose): also

black-bag (q.V.),

Black-boy. See black-coat.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, 'On the Trail.' My blowen kidded a bloke into a panel crib and shook him off his thimble to put up for a black-boy, but it wouldn't fadge. i took two stretches of air and exercise.

Black-bracelets, subs. phr. (old).— Handcuffs : see darbies.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 63.

The sheriff's black bracelets lay strewn on the ground,

But the lad that had worn 'em could nowhere be found.

Black-bug, subs. phr. (old).—A hobgoblin.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, s. v. Lemûri, the ghostes or spirits of such as dye before their time, hobgoblins, black-bugs, or night-walking spirits.

Black-cattle, subs. phr. (common).—!. Clergymen; parsons. [From the hue of clerical attire]. Hence black-cattle show = a gathering of clergymen.

2. Lice, active citizens(i7.f.) ; chates (q.v.)

black-choler, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—Melancholy.

1585. Nomenclature, Bilis atra. Mélancolie. Melancholie : blacke choller.

Black-coat, subs. phr. (old).—A parson. (B.E. and Grose).

1627. R. Perrot, Jacob's Vow, 52. Let us take heed how these blackcoates get the day of us.

1671. Eachard, Observations, 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., 197. The black-coats are good company only for black-coats.

Black-country. 242 Black-eyed Susan.

Black-country, subs. phr. (colloquial). Parts of Staffordshire and Warwickshire blackened by the coal and iron industries.

black-cuffs, subs.phr. (military).— The Fifty-eighth Foot: now the second battalion of the Northamptonshire regiment; from the regimental facings which have been black since 1767: also nicknamed the steel backs (q.V.).

black-diamonds, sttbs, phr. (common).— I. Coals.

1S49. T. Miller, Gabarni in London, 43. Were he even trusted with the favourite horse and gig to fetch a sack of black diamonds from the wharf.

2. (Old).—A rough but clever (or good) person ; this has given place to rough diamond (q.v.).

black-dog,subs.phr.(old).— I. Applied, circa 1702—30, to a counterfeit shilling and other base silver coinage: see Rhino.

1706. Luttrell, in Ashton's Reign Queen Anne, 11., 225. The art of making black dogs, which are shillings, or other pieces of money, made only of Pewter, double wash'd.

1724. Swift, Drapier" s Lett., Wks., 1755, v., ii., 44. Piutcher's half-pence, black-dogs, and others the like.

2. (Old).-Delirium tremens _;

the horrors (q.V.); jim jams

(q.v.). black dog also = depression of spirits, and melancholy: when a child is sulky, it is said the black dog is on its back: among the ancients a black dog and pups were considered an evil omen.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxxiii. 'Yes, sir,' said the butler, nodding, 'D.T., sir. After one of hi", rages the black dog comes, and it's hawful work; so I hope you'll go, sir.'

TO blush like a black DOG, verb phr. (old). To blush not at all; to be shameless.

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, and quots.

1835. Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 174. [Speaking of a marinestore 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, 11., 100. Five hundred articles, among which might be found knockers, scrapers, barbers' poles, black dolls.

1861. Cornhill Magazine, Nov., 609. The best price given for old rags— inquire at the sign of the black doll.

Black-donkey. To ride the black donkey, verb. phr. (Costers'),— i. To cheat in weight.

2. (Common).—To sulk _; to be in ill-humour. Also j^quot, l8[?]

i8[?]. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Ride the black Donkey. To be pigheaded, obstinate like a donkey. Black is added, not so much to designate the colour, as to express what is bad.

1888. Dauphin, The Chameleon, 182. We ourselves describe a man in the sulks

as riding the black donkey.

Black-eye. To give a bottle a black eye, phr. (old).—To empty

it: cf. dead man.

Black-eyed Susan, subs. phr. (Texan).— 1. 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, one-eyed scribe, pill box, and my unconverted friend.

Black-fellow. 243 Blackguard.

2. (provincial).—A well pudding, with plums or raisins in it.

black-fellow, subs. phr. (Australian).—An aboriginal (1831).

Black-fly, subs. phr. (old).—A clergyman.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. The greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i.e., the parson who takes tithe of the harvest.

black-foot, subs.phr. (provincial). —A go-between; a match-maker [Halliwell:—The person who attends the principal on a courting expedition, to bribe the servant, ingratiate himself with the sister, put any friend off his guard, or in certain cases to introduce his friend formally.]

blackford-swell (-toff, -block

etc), subs. phr. (London).—A man (or woman) well dressed on occasion : in derision of supposed borrowed plumage. [Blackford's is a well-known misfit tailor's and outfitting establishment which also lets out evening and other garments on hire].

i8[?]. Music Hall Song, ' The Boy about Town.'

He looks very well that's beyond all dispute

For at Blackford's he's rigged up and down,

For Blackford lends suits, from the hat to the boots, And that just suits the Boy about Town.

blackfriars, intj. (thieves'),—A warning; look out! beware!

black-gentleman (the), subs.phr. (old).—The devil ; old nick (?.£'.).

black-gown, subs. phr. (old).— A collegian ; a learned man ( 1710).

blackguard, subs, (common). a man coarse in speech, and offensive in manner ; a scamp ; a scoundrel ; a disreputable fellow: the the term, as now used, is one of 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.—As adj. =. of, or pertaining to, a blackguard, to the scum or refuse of society; vile; vicious. As verb = to act like a ruffian; to use filthy (or scurrilous) language; to play the vagabond (or scoundrel). Also derivatives and compounds—

blackguardism, blackguardize, blackguardly, blackguardry,

etc.

1532. M,S. Churchwarden'sAccompts. St. Margaret's, Westminster (Receipts for burials). Item Receyvid for the lycenS of iiij. torchis of the blake garde vjd.

1535. Sir W. Fitzwilliams, 17 Aug., in Cal. State Papers. Two of the ringleaders had been some time of the black guard of the king's kitchen.

1558. Foxe, Acts and Monuments [Cattlev], iv. 169. The black guard of the Dominies (Black Friars).

1579. Fulke, Refut. Kastel, 779. They ought not, nor yet any of the scullerie or blacke garde.

1583. Fulke, Defence, x., 380. Pelagius, Celestins, and other like heretics of the devil's body-guard.

Black-guard. 244 Blackguard.

1637. Nabbes, Microcos.[ Dodslev, Old Plays (Reed), ix. 162]. I am degraded from a cook, and I fear the devil himself will entertain me but for one of his black-guard, and he shall be sure to have his roast burnt.

1609. Smith, Sermons. When iniquitie hath played her part, vengeance leapes upon the stage, the comédie is short, but the tragédie is longer: the blacke gard shall attend upon you, you shall eate at the table of sorrow, and the crowne of death shall bee upon your heads, many glistring faces looking on you, and this is the feare of sinners.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, Wks. [1S84-5] in., 214. The Great Lord of Limbo did therefore commaund all his Blacke guard that stood about him, to bestirre them.

16... Jonson, Merc. Vind. So the black-guard are pleased with any lease of life, especially those of the boiling-house.

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., 42. Though some of them are inferior to those of their own ranke, as the blacke guard, in a prince's court.

1637. Beaumont and Fletcher Elder Brother, v. 1.

It is a faith, That we will die in, since from the black guard. To the grim sir in office, there are few Hold other tenets.

1655. Fuller, Church History [1845], V., 160. For who can otherwise conceive but such a prince-principal of darkness must be proportionately attended with a black guard of monstrous opinions.

1678. Butler, Hudibras, 111., 1. 1. 1403.

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.

16S3. MS., in Lord Steward's Office Windsor Castle [N. and Q., 1 S., ix., 15]. 7 May, Whereas of late a sort of vicious, idle, and masterless boys and rogues, commonly called the black-guard, with divers other lewd and loose fellowes, vagabonds, vagrants, and wandering men and women, do usually haunt and follow the Court.

1695. Congreye, Love for Love, iii., 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.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Black-guard, Dirty. Nasty, Tatter'd, roguish Boys, that attend (at the HorseGuards) to wipe Shoes, Clean Boots, water Horses, or run of Errands.

1744. Nov. 26. Walpole, Lett, to Mann (1833), ii., 57. The whole stage filled with blackguards, armed with bludgeons and clubs.

1760. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, 11., ix. He is become a blackguard gaolbird.

1780. Parody on the Rosciad, etc., p. 13. Like him I'm a blackguard and sot.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, i., 124. The talent of common blackguardism.

1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 59. As black-guards at Newmarket meeting bawl about the lists of horses.

1803. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), i., 178. His friends were ill-natured, and behaved like blackguard beasts.

1816. GlFloRD, Johnson's Plays, 11. 170. Note. 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 woolyard, 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,

Black Hole (The). 245

Black-jack.

the people, in derision, gave the name of black guards; a term since become sufficiently familiar, and never properly explained.

1821. Nares, Diet, s. v. The blackguard. Originally a jocular name given to the lowest menials of the court, the carriers of coals and wood, turnspits, and labourers in the scullery, who all followed the court in its progresses, and thus became observed. Such is the origin of this common term.

1840. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, v. I was awakened by being shoved through the folding-doors of a gin-shop, into a glare of light and hubbub of black-guardism.

1S55. Thackeray, Newcoiues. xxix. 'I have been called names, and blackguarded quite sufficiently for one sitting.'

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xxvi. ' I beg your pardon, sir, for saying that; I said it in a hurry. It was blackguardly.'

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludtow, i, iii., 37. 'I must request you to be a little more careful in your language. You have come amidst gentlemen here, not blackguards.'

1883. William Morris, reported in Must. London News, March 10, 243, col. 3. Almost all ordinary wares now made by man were shabbily and pretentiously ugly . . . Not even the pinetrees 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 (The), subs. phr. (common).— I. Cheltenham : from the number of retired Anglo-Indians who live there: cf., asia minor.

1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., 234, col. i. Gained for Cheltenham the . . . title of The Black Hole.

2. (Military).—A barrack punishment-cell (or lock-up), guardroom : the official designation till 1868.

Blrck Horse (The) subs. phr. (military).—The Seventh Dragoon Guards : so called from the regimental facings, black on scarlet: occasionally the blacks. During the reign of George II., the corps was known as the virgin mary's guard, and is 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, in., 234. I have mentioned that the black houses or linendrapers at the West end of London, were principally supplied from the East end.

Black-humour, subs. phr. (old).— Melancholy.

Black Indies (The), subs.phr. (old). —Newcastle-on-Tyne : from its trade, coal : the term is now obsolete, but it was common in use at the latter art of the eighteenth century: cf. black diamonds.

c. 1696. B. E. Diet. Cant. Crew. s. v. black-indies, Newcastle, from whence the Coals are brought.

black-jack, subs. phr. (Winchester College) — I. A large leathern j ug 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.

1630. Taylor, Works, i. 113. Nor of blacke jacks at gentle buttry bars, Whose liquor oftentimes breeds houshold

wars.

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v, black-jack, a leather jug to drink in.

Black-job. 246

Blackleg.

2. (old).—A black leather jacket (1512).

3. (American).—Rum sweetened with molasses: with or without water.

4. (American).—A face blackened by difficulty of breathing; as the cause of such a face, hanging (Bartlett).

1S62. New York Observer, 5 June. If the rebel troops become guerillas, they will have to be hung. The blackjacks will be far more fatal to them than yellow jack was to our troops.

black-job, subs. phr. (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: see black work.

1866. Yates, Land at Last, 1., 101. 'What, a funeral mute?' 'Yes, Sir, f lack-job business,' etc.

Black-joke, subs. phr. (old).—The female pudendum: see monosyllable.

Blackleg, subs, (common).—i. A turf swindler, rook, welsher; also one who cheats at cards or billiards. Origin unknown: although many speculations have been hazarded, none are satisfactory. 2. (workmen's). A workman who, when his fellows are on strike, is willing to go on working. 3. Also any one failing or refusing to join his fellows in combination for a given purpose. As verb, to boycott ; to make things so uncomfortable for a man that he is compelled to leave his work or the town. To blackleg it = (trades' union) to return to work before the causes of a

strike have been removed (or settled), to the satisfaction of the leaders. Hence black-leggism, black-leggery = cheating _;swinding; the arts and practices of a blackleg, Now frequently shortened to leg.

1771. B. Farsons, Newmarket, 11., 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 ?

1774. Colman*, Man of Business, 1., in Wks. (1777) 11., 133. Countesses and sempstresses, lords, aldermen, blacklegs, and Oxonians.

1812. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Picturesque, x. The crowd with their commission pleas'd, Rudely the trembling black-leg seiz'd, W^rho, to their justice forc'd to yield, Soon ran off dripping from the field.

1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, xv. ' Mr. T--is pursuing quite disgraceful courses all night and day, squandering away his money among sharpers and blacklegs.'

1832. Maginn, Blackwood's Mag., xxxn., 427. From following any profession save the Army, the Navy, Blackapronry and black-leggery.

1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 29 Oct., p. 7. If the timber merchants persist in putting on blacklegs, a serious disturbance will ensue.

1888. Baltimore Herald, May 6. Early this morning the mountain paths leading to the William Penn colliery were lined with men, dinner in hand, determined to go to work. Some were non-union miners, while the remainder weie Knights of Labor who had determined to blackleg it, regardless of the jeers and threats of their companions.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 2r, 5, i. 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

Black-letter Day.

247

Black-Monday.

the preparation of a list of master baker blacklegs was also touched upon. These men are selling bread at 4^ d. the quartern, and at even a lower rate.

Black-letter Day, subs. phr. (old). —An inauspicious day: cf. redletter day.

black-lion, subs. phr. (old).—A rapidly-sloughing ulcer which affected the British soldiers when in Portugal.

Black Literature, subs. phr. (colloquial).—That printed in black letter (1797).

Black-man (or Black-gentleman),

subs. phr. (old).—The devil.

1606. Dekker, Newes from Hell, in Wks. (Grosart) n., 113. Old Nick, called the black gentleman.

1861. G. Meredith, Evan Harrington, iii., 23 (1885). 'Rich as Croesus, and as wicked as the black man below¹ ' as dear papa used to say. blackmans. Sec darkmans.

Black Maria, subs, (popular).—A

prison van or omnibus, used for the conveyance of prisoners : also her (or his) majesty's carriage and sable maria(Grose). [Julian Marshall, in Notes and Queries (6 S., vii., 355), suggests that maria may be marinated, transported] = Fr. courrier du Palais ; panier a salade {— salad basket) ; courrier de la prefecture ; omnibus des pègres (in slang pègre = thief); guimbard (=. long cart); service du château.

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, ii., 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.

1002. D. Telegraph, 11 Feb., 10.7. Upon inquiry, it is not crime, as it is commonly understood, which fills all the black marias, or prison vans, that find their way to the goal.

black-men, subs. phr. (old).—Fictitious men, enumerated in mustering an army, or in demanding coin and livery. See the State Papers, ii. no. (Halliwell).

Black-Monday, subs. phr. (old school).— i. The Monday on which, after holidays, school reopens. An early example of the usage is found in the fact that Easter Monday was so called, from the severity of that day in 1360, when many of Edward III.'s soldiers, then before Paris, died from the cold. This is Stowe's explanation, Annales, 264, but another account is given by Fordun. The term is found in Shakespeare. See also Stanihurst's Description of Ireland 21 ; Shaip's Chron. Mirab. 9. black friday was used of the day on which Overend, Gurney & Co., suspended payment—10 May, 1886: cf. blue monday.

1740. North, Examen, 505. The darkness was greater than under the great solar eclipse that denominated

black monday.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, viii., 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.

Black-money. 248 Black-sanctus.

1882. F. AnSTEY, Vice Versa, 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. (common).—The Monday on which the death penalty was carried out ; hangings were generally arranged to fall on the day in question.

Black-money, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—Money taken by the harbingers or servants, with their master's knowledge, for abstaining from enforcing coin and livery in certain places, to the prejudice of others. See the State Papers, ii, 510. (Halliwell).

Black-mouth, subs. phr. (common).—A foul-mouthed person ; a slanderer. Hence black-mouthed = calumnious.

Black-mummer, subs. phr. (old).— One unwashed and unshorn.

blackmuns, subs. (B.E.).—' c.

Hoods and Scarves of Alamode and Lustrings.'

black-neb, subs. phr. (old).—A person of democratic sympathies at the time of the French Revolution.

black-nob, subs.phr. (trades' union). —A non-unionist; one, who while his fellows are on strike, persists in working at his trade; a blackleg (a.v.): also knobstick (q.v.) and scab (q.v.).

black-ointment, subs. phr. (American thieves').—Uncooked meat.

Black-ox. The black ox has

trod on his foot, phr. (old).—

Said of one worn with age, care, or misfortune: see quot.

1748 Richardson, Clarissa, i. 344" Was he not known to have been as wild a man, when he was at first introduced into our family, as he now is said to be? Yet then the common phrase of wild oats, and black oxen, and such-like were qualifiers.—

Black-pot, subs. phr. (old).—A toper; a tippler; a lushington (q.v.), [Beer mugs were called

black-POTS; alsO black-JACKS.]

1594. Greene, Fr. Bacon, v., 122. I'll be Prince of Wales over all the black-pots in Oxford.

1636. Heiwood, Love's Mistr.. 11. Tugg, what's she 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_; of children. (Grose).

blacks, subs.phr.(old).—Mourning: 16th and 17th centuries.

Blacks (The). See black horse.

Black sal (or suke), subs. phr. (common).—A kettle.

black-sanctus (or saunt), subs, phr. (old).—A burlesque hymn or anthem, performed with all kinds of discord; any confused or hideous noise; rough music.

1546. Heywood, Epigrams. And she hath leisure now, (By tying fast her garters to a bow) Her selfe to strangle. There she dangling hung; At which the curre a new blacke santus sung.

i5[?]. Heywood, Hier. Bl. Angels, Lib. ix. 576. Others more terrible, like lions rore; Some grunt like hogs, the like ne're heard before; Like bulls those bellow, those like asses bray, Some barke like ban-dogs, some like horses ney; Some howl like wolves, others like furies yell; Scarce that blacke sanctus could be match'd in hell.

Black Saturday. 249 Black-spice Racket.

1578. Lupton, Mar. All for Money, I will make him sing the black sanctus, I hold you a groat.

1591. Lyly, Endymion, iv., 2. It is set to the tune of the blacke saunce, ratio est, because Dipsas is a blacke saint.

1598. Marston, Satires, ii., 7. 205. The language that they speake Is the pure barbarous blacksaunt of the Geate.

1609. Rowley, Search for Money. At the entrie we heare a confused noise, like a blacke sanctus, or a house haunted with spirits, such hollowing, shouting, dauncing, and clinking of pots, etc.

1611. Cotgrave, Diet. sv. Tintamarre a blacke santus, the lowd wrangling, or jangling outcryes of scoulds, or scoulding fellowes; any extreame or horrible dinne.

1620. Tarleton, News out of Purg. 7. Upon this there was a general mourning through all Rome, the cardinals wept, the abbots howled, the monks rored, the friars cried, the nuns puled, the curtezans lamented, the bells rang, the tapers were lighted, that such a black sanctus was not seene a long time afore in Rome

i6[?] Beaumont and Fletcher, Mad Lover, iv. 1. Prithee, Let's sing him a black santis, then, let's all howl. In our own beastly voices.

i6[?l Jonson, Masque of Time, \ Works, vi., 144]. Let's have the giddy world turn'd the heels upward, And sing a rare black sanctus on his head, Of all things out of order.

black saturday, subs. phr. (workmen's).—A Saturday on which an artisan or mechanic has no money to take, having anticipated it by advances: cf. black monday,

blue monday, black friday,etC.

BLACK-SHEEP,subs.phr. (common).— A scapegrace ; a bad lot ; a mauvais sujet: also applied like blackleg {q.v.) and black-nob (q.v.) to workmen who persist in working when their comrades are on strike.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, ii., 312. Jekyl.. is not such a black sheep neither but what there are some white hairs about him.

1834-5. Thackerav, Newcomes, v. Their father had never had the courage to acquaint them with his more true, kind, and charitable version of Tom's story. So he passed at home for no better than a black sheep.

1864. Le Fanu, Uncle Silas, 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, 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, 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.phr. (common).—A key : formerly the key with which the doors of sponging-houses were unlocked : also locksmith's daughter.

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. phr. (old).—Robbing chimney sweepers of their tools, bag and soot.— Lexicon Balatronicum.

Black-spy.

250 Bladder-of-lard.

Black-spy, subs. phr. (old).—The devil : Fr. dache. (B.E. and Grose).

black-strap,j«3j-.//;r.(common).— i. Thick, sweet port: strap is an old name for wine.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in Wks. (Grosart) m., 131. Sometimes likewise this Card-cheating, goes not under 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, 3. Tom (taking his seat): Gentlemen, 1 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.

i8[?]. Falconer, Marine Dictionary, s.v. blackstrap. The English sailors call the common wines of the Mediterranean blackstrap.

2. (American). — Properly speaking, gin mixed with molasses, but frequently applied to a compound of any alcoholic liquor with molasses.

1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, x. The orator gets deeper into his subject, till an extremely abrupt conclusion. . . empties every bumper of 'black strap' like a shot.

1876. Judd, Margaret, 300. Come, Molly, dear, no blackstrap to-night, switchel or ginger pop.

i8[?]. Hill, Yankee Stories. Mister, I guess you never drink'd no blackstrap, did you? Why, bless you, it's the sweetest drink that ever streaked down a gullet.

1882. Pinkerton, Molly Maguires and Detectives, 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-tan, subs.phr. (provincial)— Spoken of gipsies, dogs, etc. ' Dat dere pikey is a reglar blacktan.' (Halliwell).

black-teapot, subs. phr. (common).—A negro footman.

black Watch (The), subs. phr. (military).—The 42nd Foot, now the Gordon Highlanders : from the sombre colour of the dress.

blackwork, subs, (common).—Undertaking: waiters at public dinners are often employed during the day as mutes : see black-job.

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, 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.

Blacky (or blackie), subs, (old colloquial).—A negro: cf. darky.

i8[?]. Old Song, ' Ching-a-King Chaiv.' Our son no more he serve; no more play de lackey. No more our daughter weep, cos wite man call dem blackie.

bladder, subs, (common).—A pretentious person ; a windbag (q.v.). Hence bladder-headed = stupid; frothy.

bladderdash, subs, (common).— Nonsense; bunkum (q.v.)-, spoof (q.v.) ; a portmanteau word—bladder -\balderdash (q.V.).

Bladder-of-lard, subs. phr. (common).—A bald-headed person.

Bladderskate. 251 Blamed.

1886. Athenäum July 31, 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.

Bladderskate. See bletherskate.

blade, suis, (common).—A roysterer ; a gallant ; a sharp, keen fellow ; a free and easy, good fellow. [Probably from blade, a sword, a soldier: i.e. a man of the world: cf. Fr. bonne lamé]. In the 17th century, roaringboyj (q.v.) were called blades.

159S. 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, iv.

This came first o'keeping company with the blades, From whom I learnt to roar and run away.

1636. Davenant The Wits, v. The old blade, Skulks there like a tame filcher, as he had New stolen 'bove eggs from market-women.

1637. Fletcher, Elder Brother, 1., ii. If he be that old, Rough testy blade he always used to be.

1637. Shirley Gamester, i. I do not all this while account you in, The list of those are called the blades that roar In brothels, and break windows ; fright the streets, At midnight, worse than constables; and sometimes, Set upon innocent bell-men to beget Discourse for a week's diet ; that swear dammes To pay their debts, and march like walking armories, With poniard, pistol, rapier and batoon, As they would murder all the king's liege people, And blow down streets.

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. Farquhak, Love and a Bottle iv., 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, i., 2. A troublesome old blade, to be sure; but a keeps as good wines and beds as any in the whole country.

i860. Dickens, Great Expectations, xxiv., 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.

BLADGE, subs, (provincial).—A low, vulgar woman. (Halliwell).

BLAMED, adj. (common).—An expletive or emphasis: of the nature of an oath, being often used iustead of ' doomed ', or ' damned.' In America the expression is more of a colloquialism than it is in England. Hence blame it! = Damn it! blamenation = Damnation !

1835. Haliburton (' Sam Slick'), The Clockmaker. 3 S., vi. Yes, John Bull is a blamed blockhead.

1872. S. Clemens, Roughing It, 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 Ballade, 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

Blandiloquence. 252 Blanket.

was sure of.' ¹ Did he " thee " and " thou " your' 'He did. He got down off his hack and said: "If thee don't pay me 2 dois 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 wüster marry the right sorter man.' 'Isn't Tom the right sort of man?' 'Not by a blamed sight.'

Blandiloquence, subs. Flattery; soft words. Blandiloquous = smooth-speaking ; flattering(i6i5).

Blank, blanked, blankety,

Euphemistic oaths ; 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.

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, ¹ if he ain't a blank picter with the weins in his face down 'ere and 'ere, a showin' out just as 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 !

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.'

1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, in Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine, vol. I., 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 !

18S8. Owosso (Mich.) Press, April. 'Doktor, 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.

1892. Anstey, l'oces Populi, 'In the Mall on Drawing Room Day,' 84. All I was goin' to see was a set o' blanky nobs shut up in their blankdash kerridges.

Blank-charter, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Liberty to do as one likes.

Blank-cheque, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Unlimited credit.

Blanket, lawful-blanket, subs, phr. (old).—A wife. See dutch. Hence born on the wrong side of the blanket = illegitimate _;bastard.

1771. Smollett, Humph. Clinker, ii., 185. Tho' my father wan't a gentleman, my mother was an honest woman; I didn't come on the wrong side of the

blanket, girl.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering,\. ,83. This person was natural son to a gentleman of good family... * Frank Kennedy,' h« said, 'was a gentleman, though on the wrong side of the blanket.'

Wet(or damp-) blanket, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Anything or any person that discourages ; a damper (q.v.).

Blanket-fair. 253

Blasé.

Blanket-fair, subs, (common).—

Bed. cf. bedfordshire, sheet alley and land of nod.

Blanket-hornpipe, subs. phr. (common).—Sexual commerce : see

greens and ride.

Blanket-love, subs. phr. (old).— Illicit amours (1649).

Blanket-pudding, subs, pfa. (common).—A long, round pudding made of flour and jam, which is spread over the paste, and then rolled into the proper shape : cf. dog-in-the-blanket.

blanks-and-prizes, subs, phr. (provincial).—Beans withboiled bacon, chopped up and mixed together; the vegetable being termed a blank, and the meat a prize: cf. dog-in-the-blanket.

b l a r m e d, 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. Hence, Blame me! Damme!

1867. No Church, 1., 104. To be in a blarmed hurry.

1872. John Forster, Life of Dickens, xxxi., (in., 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.'

blarney, subs, (colloquial).—Blandishment ; soft Speech ; sawder (q.v.) : gross flattery ; gammon (q.v.): [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. 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 protocol and soft speeches, till he became the laughing-stock of Elizabeth's ministers, and the dupe of the lord of Blarney.] Fr. baliverne and pelotage. As verb — (1) to wheedle; to coax; to flatter; to natter grossly; (2) to pick locks (American).

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, xix. They were as cunning as foxes, and could tell blarney from good sense.

c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, 'A nice young thing.'

Her name was Kate Carney, she came

from Killarney, So full of her blarney, but fond of her

Barney.

1884. Ruskin, Pall Mall Gazette, 17 Nov., 11, col. 2. It was bombastic English blarney—not Irish.

blase, 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, 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, illustrated London News, March 10, 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

Blast. 254 Blather.

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 Blase, 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, subs, (common).—Erysipelas in the face.

Verb, (low).—To curse; to damn : e.g. blast me ! blast you! blast your eyes! etc.

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, x., 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.'

1772. Bridges, Homer, 20. Yet, blast my eves, if I don't whack him.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, viii. 'Hands, Captain MacTurk! ' exclaimed Sir Bingo, in some confusion; 'no, blast him—not so bad as that neither.'

BLASTED, adj. (old).—Execrable ; confounded ; often substituted for 'damned,' 'bloody,' as a milder form, blasted fellow = an abandoned rogue, blasted brimstone = a prostitute (Grose).

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.

1874. Pusey, Lent. Sermons, 79. Balaam after the success of his blasted counsel.

1884. Good Words, Nov., 767, col. i. Jim Black states that the blasted railway hasdone away with those journeys.

BLATANTATION, subs, (old).—Noisy effusion _; swagger (q.v.).

1883. Graphic, Feb. 24, 199, col. 3. On the ground betting men are conspicuous with their books, blatantations, blackguardism, and swell clothes.

BLATANT BEAST, subs. phr. (old).— The multitude; the mob (Spencer).

1606. Ret. from Parnassus. Faith, we are fully bent to be lords of misrule in the worlds wide heath; our voyage is to the He of Dogges, there where the blattant beast doth rule and raigne, Renting the credit of whom it please.

BLATER, subs, (old).—A calf. [Probably a corruption of 'bleater,' from its cry]. Hence to cry beef on a blater = to make a fuss about nothing.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), 11 [list of cant words in]. Blater, a calf.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxxxii. Don't be glim-flashy; why you'd cry iiebf on

a blater.

BLATHER, subs, (common).—Noisy talk; voluble nonsense: cf. Blether. Hence, as verb = to talk volubly-, noisily and to little purpose. Also blathering hash = a person who foams (q.v.), highfalutes(<7.7'.)etC. ; blattering = chatter.

i6[?]. Beaumont and Fletcher [Halliwell]. There's nothing gain'd by being witty; fame Gathers but wind to blather up a name.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, xxix., 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 blathhr.'

Blatherskite. 255

Blazer.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack's Courtship, xxiv. Mrs. O'Brien was blathering about 'he pedigree of the O'Briens and the O'Shandrydans to Mrs. Joyce.

Blatherskite, subs, (common).—

1. Boastful disputations swagger: cf. bletherskite. Hence

2. A swaggerer • a boaster ; one who talks volubly and nonsensically.

1888. Nezv 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, phr. (military).—The eighty-ninth Foot ; now the second battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers; they obtained this nick-name during the Irish Rebellion in 1798. [Blayney was their Colonel.] Also the rollickers, in allusion to the 'jolly doggish' bearing of the corps.

blaze, subs, and verb (common).— 1. In some usages slang is narrowly touched: 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 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. Blazing also indicated that the land thus marked had been appropriated by a set

tler—a rude and informal, but, in early days, a thoroughly well recognised method of securing a title to the land.

1737. Wesley, Wk*. (1872) 1., 68. We then found another blaze and pursued it.

1883. Bret Harte, In the Caryuines Woods, 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, (common).—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 [A^r. 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 flannels, and club blazers.

1885. Punch, June 27, 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 A^re:us, Aug. 22, 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.

Blazes. 256 Blazes.

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.

2. (nautical).—A term applied to mortar or bomb vessels, from the great emission of flame to throw a 13-inch shell.—Admiral Smyth.

BLAZES, subs, (common).— I. The infernal regions. This allusion to the flames of hell, by constant use has been lessened in force, and like ' bloody,' few who employ such flowers of oratory have any notion of the proper signification. Jn most cases the word is now a meaningless intensitive, and takes rank with such expressions as like one o'clock, like winkey, etc. 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. Old Blazes = The devil : see skipper. Go to blazes ! = Go to the devil _;go to hell. Like blazes = vehemently ; with extreme ardour. How (Who, or What) the blazes ! =r Who (or What) the Dickens. Drunk as blazes (or blaizers) = very drunk : see screwed.

1836. Michael Scott Cruise of the Midge. [Ry. ed. 18..] p. 292. Several flying fish had come on board that morning, and just as I was helping Dicky "to a little water... a very large one flew right against Dennis Donovan's check and dropped, walloping and floundering, into his plate, 'blazes, what is that?' Oh, what a beautiful little fish! ' said the child.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, lv., 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.'

i8(?). De Quincey, Spanish Kur., sect. 24. The horse was so maddened by the wound, and the road so steep, that he went like blazes.

1845. B. Disraeli, Sybil, or The Ttco Nations, 330. Syllabubs like blazes, and snapdragon as makes the flunkeys quite pale. Ibid, 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.

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.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, in., 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.

Ibid, in., 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., 15 (in parts). A blazing strange answer.

1861. Thackeray, Adventures of Philip, i., 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, 200. ' Has no one been here this afternoon?' 'Yes one man, to ask his way to blazes, or some place else.'

1864. J. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, or Thorough. They hate each other like blazes.

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.

Bleach. 257 Bleed.

1882. Jas. Payn, in 'A Failure of Justice ', in Glow Worm Tales, 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.

1884. \V. C. Russell, Jack's Courtship, xvii. 'Who the blazes would recognise Jack Seymour in those shoregoing duds?'

1891. Harry Fludyer at Cambridge, 31. The cunning old rascal found me out, and barked like blazes for joy.

1899. Whiteing, John St., xiv. Our Yea was 'Yes, mum,' if our Nay was ' Go to blazes.'

2. (Common). — Flunkey clothes: see episode of Sam Weiler and the 'swarry.'

bleach, verb (Harvard Untversity). To absent oneself from morningprayers.—Hall, College Words and Phrases.

bleached-mort, subs. phr. (old Cant.). — A fair complexioned wench. (Grose).

bleak, adj. (American thieves').— Handsome.

bleat, zw£.(colloquial).—To whineto prate ; to bemoan.

c. 1650. Brathwayte, Barnaby's Jl. (1723), 47. Where I heard a woful bleating, A curst wife her Husband beating.

bleater, subs, (old).—The victim of a sharper or rook: jack in the box = a swindler or cheat.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne, Wks., 1884-5, in., 290. They that are Cheated by lacke in a Boxe are called bleaters.

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant Crew. Idem.

1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue. Idem.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Idem.

2. (old Cant.). — A sheep^;mutton: also bleating-cheat(B.E. and Grose). Hence bleating-cull == a sheep stealer.

bleating-prig (or rig) =: sheep

stealing.

1652. Brome, Jovial Crew, s.v.

bleed, verb (old).—i. To victimise ; to milk (q.v.). ; to extort money so that the loss is felt ; to rush (q.v.).

1668. Dryden, An Evening's Love, iv., i. 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, Ixvi. 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, 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, \x\n\ . 'You have got a bill of sale for her furniture... By Jove, sir, you've bled that poor woman enough.'

1885. Manchester Evening Hews, 23 June, 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, 2, col. i. So very carelessly has the mechanical part of production been done that, in the phraseology of the craft— half technical, hal f 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. 258 Bless.

3, (nautical). — To let out water.

TO bleed the monkey, Verbal phr. (nautical).—To steal rum from the mess-tub 'the monkey': exclusively naval, ' monkeys ' not being known on merchant ships : also sucking the monkey, and tapping the admiral.

1889. Chambers' Journal, 3 Aug., 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.

BLEEDER, subs. (University).—1. A duffer beyond compare ; a euphemism for ' bloody fool.'

2. (sporting).—A sovereign ; 20/: see rhino.

3. (old).—A spur.

BLEEDING, adj. (common).—An expletive of long standing: cf. Shakspeare's 'bleeding men,' etc. See bloody: 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, Sou of Vulcan, 11., xxiii. 'When he isn't up to one dodge he is up to another. You make no iileeuing error.'

BLEEDING-CULLY, subs. phr. (old).— One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds (q.v.) freely. (Grose).

BLENKER, verb (American).—To plunder: much used during the Civil War.

BLESS, verb (common).—To curse ; to damn; hence 'blest if I do' = 'damned if I will'. Also blessed (or blest) often used ironically, and = 'cursed.'

1806. Windham, Let. in Speeches (1812), i., 77. As one of the happy consequences of our blessed system of printing debates, I am described today ...as having talked a language directly the reverse of that which I did talk.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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, iii., 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, 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 oft*.'

1889. Sporting 'finies, 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!'

Bless.

259

Blether.

189g. Whiteing, John St., iv. Git out with yer; I don't want no blessed tea.

TO bless oneself from, verb, phr. (old).—To have nothing to do with.

c. 1659. Massinger, City Madam, ii. i. Since my master longs to be undone, The great fiend be his steward; I will pray, And bless myself from him.

[?] Adams, Works, ii. 322. Simeon and Levi seemed to have just cause, the whoredom of their own sister, yet their father calls them brethren in evil for it, blesseth his honour from their company, and his soul from their secrecy.

TO bless one self, verb. phr. (common).—To be surprised; to be vexed ; to be mortified : e.g. God bless me! bless my eyes! bless my soul ! Lor' bless me !

1592. Shakespeare, 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.

1656. Hacket, Williams, i. 84. Sir Francis bless'd himself to find such mercy from one whom he had so grievously provok'd.

1665. Pepys, Diary, 1 Apr. How my Lord Treasurer did bless himself, crying he could do no more, etc.

c. 1702. Gentleman Instructed, 476. 'Sirrah,' says the youngster, 'make me a smart wig, a smart one, ye dog.' The fellow blest himself; he had heard of a smart nag, a smart man, etc., but a smart wig was Chinese to the tradesman.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, 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, 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, 77. 'Why bless my soul,' cried Fred, 'who's that?'

1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, l, 307. After they had lain apart for a little while, very silent and sullen, John sneezed. ' God bless you ! ' says Joan, over the bolster.

Nota penny [sixpence, farthing, etc.] to bless oneself with, phr. (common).—Utterly impecunious ; ' without a sou.'

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzleivit, i., 237. He landed there without a penny to bless himself with.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, i., 113. i heard that Mr. Meli was not a bad sort of fellow, but hadn't a sixpence to bless himself with.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, m., 55. The most of 'em ain't got a farthing to bless themselves with.

1861. George Eliot, Silas Marner, 38. I have not a shilling to bless myself with.

TO bless one's stars, verb, 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, iii., 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). See bless, verb.

blether (or blather), subs. (Scots and U.S.A.).—Nonsense; vapid talk ; voluble chatter. Hence also blethering, and as adjective = volubly, foolishly talkative: cf. bletherskate.

Bletherskate. 260

Blind.

3. 1759, d. 1796. Burns, Tarn Samson's Elegy, st. 12.

Yon auld gray stane, amang the heather

Marks out his head, Whare Burns has wrote in rhyming

blether,

Tarn Samson's dead!

do. Burns, Holy Fair, st. 8. And some are busy blethrin' Right loud that day.

1816. Scott, Old Mortality, xiv. 'I hae been clean spoilt, just wi' listening to twa blethering auld wives.'

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, vi. He had brought this blethering Irishman down here, and deluged him with punch for the express purpose of turning him inside out.

1886. Fall Mall Gazette, 3 May, 6, 2. Havelock's florid adjurations to his men, the grim veterans of the 78th, bluntly characterized as blether.

Bletherskate (or Blatherskite),

subs, (provincial and American).— I. Boastful swagger: in talk or action. Also (2) a boaster; a noisy talker of blatant nonsense. 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 bladderskate and bladderdmskate.

c. 1650. F. Sempill, Maggie Lander, i. Jog on your gait, ye bletherskate.

1825. C. Croker, Tradit. S. Ireland, 170. He was, as usual, getting on with his bletherumskite about the fairies.

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 pladdekumskate in Ireland.'

BLEW (or BLUE) verb (common).— I. To inform; to peach (q.v.); to expose ; to betray : see Blow upon.

2. (common).—To spend ; to waste ; generally of money : when a man has spent or lost all his money, he is said to have

blewed it.

1884. Daily Telegraph, May 28, 5, i. 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—

BLUE-BALLS, subs. phr. (old).—A money-lender; a pawnbroker; uncle (q.V.),

1809. Malkin, l~7/z%i.?[Routledge], 85. I do not wonder. . . [at]. .. prejudice against money-lenders. .. If all my brethren of the blue-balls were like me, &c...

BLIMEY, intj. (low).—That is 'Blind me ! '

BLIND, subs, (common).— I. The night time ; in the blind = at night.

2. (colloquial).—A pretence ; a shift ; an action by which one's real purpose is concealed ; that which obstructs; a 'make believe.'

1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, iii. He... took your court to her, only as a blind to your affection for me.

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, ii., 5. I know you don't love Cynthia, only as a blind for your passion to me.

1703. Mrs. Centlivre, Beau's Duel, 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, xxviii. The excuse was too palpably a blind to be accepted as a reason.

Blind.

261 Blind-alley.

1889. Answers, July 13, 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 paragragh [•||] mark is so called; from the eye of the reversed 'P' being filled up.

Adj. (old).— I. Tipsy ; in liquor : see screwed.

1630. Taylor, Works, s.v.

2. (old).—Transient ; not durable : as writing in ink that quickly faded; obscure: cf. Nares' Anonymous manuscripts, supported by quot. 1613.

1563. Foxe, Acts and Mon. [Cattley], iv. 613. [What we call a lame excuse appears as a blind excuse].

1579. Gosson, Schoole of Abuse. A blind village in comparison of Athens.

1611. Nomenclator, 9. A blind letter that will in short time be worne out.

1613. Fenton Treat, of Ustirie, 11. These fantasies we finde in certain blinde manuscripts, without name or author, which walke under hand like the pestilence in the darke.

Blind as a brickbat, adv. phr. (colloquial).—As blind as may be—mentally or physically; dense.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ni., 97. The old scholar... is as blind as a brickbat.

When the devil is blind, adv. phr. (common).—Never: see queen dick.

1772. Bridges, Homer, 83. But such queer sort of prayr's you'll find, I'll grant you when the devil's blind.

To go it blind, verb. phr. (common).—To enter upon an undertaking without thought as to the result, or inquiry beforehand : from 'blind poker', where the cards are betted upon before being looked at.

1848. J. Russell Lowell, Biglow Papers, 11., 118—'to impress on the popular mind, The comfort and wisdom of goin' it blind.'

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, 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, i, 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.

18S8. Chicago Ledger, May 12. 'And so yon'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.'

The blind eat many a fly, (old).—An old proverb ; Heywood wrote a play under this title. The elder Heywood introduces it in his collection, and it also occurs in Northbrooke's Treatise, ed. Collier, 60, 117,

To blind a trail, verb phr. (American).— To conceal a person's foot-prints, or to give them the appearance of going in a different direction ; and figuratively, to deceive a person by putting him on the wrong track.

BLIND-ALLEY, subs. phr. (venery).— The female pudendum : see monosyllable.

Blind bayard. 262

Blind-hookey.

blind bayard. See bayard.

blind-cheeks, subs. phr. (common). —The posteriors. Hence, Kiss my Blindcheeks (B.E.) = Kiss my Arse.

English synonyms are—Two fat cheeks and ne'er a nose ; blind Cupid; ampersand; cheeks; arse; corybungo; dopey; droddumdommock _; feak ; bum ; nock (i.e., ' a notch') _; round mouth ; windmill ; blind-eye ; monocular eyeglass.

French Synonyms, borgne (low = a one-eyed person) ; cyclope (Cyclops = the one-eyed giant, whose optic was placed in the middle of the forehead); rose des vents ; pipje ; pignard _; boite aux ordures.

German Synonym. Acherponim — (the face at the back). Arsch.

1607. Dekker and Webster, Northward Hoe, ii. i. If I take master pricklouse ramping so high again... I'll make him know how to kiss your blind cheeks sooner.

blind drunk, adj.phr. (common).— Very intoxicated ; so drunk as to be unable to see better than a blind man; So drunk as not to be able to see through a ladder (American): see screwed.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, or the Two Nations, 350. Hang me if I wasn't blind drunk at the end of it.

1900. Kitling, Stalky of Co., 28. Stalky & Co. had... fallen by drink... They had returned blind-drunk from a hut.

Blinder. To take a blinder, verb, phr. (thieves').—To die: see hop the twig.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, 'On the Trail.'

Some rubber to wit had napped a winder, And some were scragged and took a blinder.

Blind eye, subs, (common).—The podex; see blind cheeks.

Blind half hundred (The), subs, phr. (military).—The FiftiethRegiment of Foot : now the first battalion of the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment): many men suffered from ophthalmia during the Egyptian campaign (1801); also the dirty half hundred: the men in action wiped their faces with their black facings during the Peninsula War.

1871. Chambers' Journal, No. 417, 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, 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-harper, subs.phr. (old B.E.).— A beggar counterfeiting blindness, playing on a fiddle (Grose).

blind-hookey, J7<^.r.////-.(Hotten).— A game at cards which has no recommendation beyond the rapidity with which money can be won and lost at it; called also wilful murder.

Blind-liorse. 263 Blind-side.

Blind-horse. A nod is as good

as a wink to a blind horse,

phr. (colloquial).—Said of a covert hint—an allusion not put into plain words.

1831. Buckstone, Beggar Boy, i. i. Jean (laughing). You understand him by that ? Bart. To be sure I do ! A nod's as good as a wink for a bund horse, you know, master.

1837. Richard Brinsley Peake, A Quarter To Nine, ii. A nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse.

1889. Evg. Standard, 25 June. A wink was as good as a nod, and trainers and jockeys,., easily gathered whether a particular horse was only out for an airing, &c.

1893. Nineteenth Century, July, 6. A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse; and there are certain understandings, in public as well as in private life, which it is better for all parties not to put into writing.

Blind-man's holiday, subs. phr. (familiar).—Formerly the night ; darkness: now the time 'between lights ' when it is too dark to see, but often not dark enough to light up, and a rest from work may be taken. On the other hand some think the expression a corruption of ' blind-man's all-day '.

1598. Florio, IVorlde of Wördes, s.v. Feriàto, vacancy from labour, rest from worke, blindman's holyday.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Staffe, in Wks. V., 263. And what will not blinde Cupid doe in the night which is his blindman's

holiday ?

c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Creiv, s.v. Blind-man's-holiday, when it is too dark to see to work.

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), 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.

blind-mares, subs.phr. (provincial). —Nonsense (Halliwell).

blind monkeys, subs.phr. (Hotten). 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, wfc.(common).—A drunken spree ; a boozing bout. As verb. =: to die: see hop the twig.

Blind-side, subs. phr. (colloquial).— The side that is weakest ; the most assailable side ; ' every man's weak Part' (B.E. c. 1696).

1393. Gower, Confessio Amant is [Oliphant, New English, i. 174. Here are expressions like. .. upon the blind side].

1576. Gascoigne, Steele Glass. 69. [An official may have a] blinde side.

1606. Chapman, Gentleman Usher, Act. i., 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.

Blind story. 264

Blizzard.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. in., 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.

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 279. Of one can but get on the blind side of a man... it must be want of skill... if the game is lost.

1820. Lamb, Elia (Mrs. Battle). All people have their blind side—their superstitions.

1857. Whitty, Er. Bohemia, 169. You have been fighting one another, each to get on the old man's blind side; and he's rather too cute for that.

BLIND STORY, subs. phr. (colloquial). — A story without point.

BLINK, verb (American).—To drink; to lush (q.v.): cf. smile (q.v.).

BLINKER, subs, (colloquial).— I. The eye: Winker_; Peeper; Optics, etc. Hence ' blank your blinkers ! ' = Damn your eyes !

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 175. The master appeared in person; which stretched the old fellow's blinkers into a stare.

1816. Quiz, Grand Master, 1., ii. A patent pair of goggle winkers, Conceal'd from public view his blinkers.

1888. American Humorist. 'Blank your blinkers,' angrily retorted Brudee, 'your business was not to fight, but show us the enemy.'

2; (common).—In pi. = spectacles: see barnacles.

1732. M. Green, Grotto, 10. Bigots who but one way see through blinkers of authority.

1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, 1., 38. A little fellow, with blinkers over his eyes.

1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., iv. (1858), 205. Who only dare to look up at life through blinkers.

3. (provincial).—A black eye.

4. (pugilistic).—A hard blow (or dig, q.v.) in the eye.

5. (provincial).—A term of contempt. (Halliwell).

Blink-fencer, subs. phr. (thieves').— A spectacle vendor.

blinko, subs, (thieves' and vagrants'). An amateur entertainment held 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.'

18S3. Daily Telegraph, August 4, 2, col. i. '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).—Euphemistic for ' damn ' cf. : blamed.

1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Vox, xxvi. ' Where can they be hid ? ' he exclaimed, with great emphasis. ' Blister 'em! Where can the scoundrels be got to?'

blizzard, subs. (American).— I. A poser; a stunning blow; an unanswerable argument; a cool reception, etc., etc.

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 Verb, Americanisms, 443. Blizzard, a term referred back to the German Blitz, means in the West a stunning blow or an overwhelming argument.

Bloak. 265 Block.

1884. G. A. S[ala], in III. L. Neivs, Feb. 23, 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.

2. (colloquial).—A snow-gale ; furious storm of frost-wind, and blinding snow.

Bloak. See bloke.

bloat, subs. (American thieves').— I. A drowned body.

2. A drunkard _; a lushington {q.v.).

3. (common).—A man ; a fellow ; a bloke (q.v.) : in contempt.

Bloated Aristocrat, subs, (colloquial).—A man swollen with the pride of rank or wealth ; 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]: cf. quot. 1696].

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. bloated, one puffed or swelled with false Fat, and has not a Healthy Complexion.

1861. Thackeray, Adventures of Philip, i., 101. What a bloated aristocrat Thingamy has become since he got his place!

1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed essay 1., 17 (1864). Of the two most salient English gentlemen represented, one is a bloated aristocrat of a Baronet hopelessly in debt, the other a vapid brainless nobleman.

1869. M. Twain, Innocents Abroad, x. We sat down finally, at a late hour, in the great Casino, and called for unstinted champagne. It is so esay to be bloated aristocrats where it costs nothing of consequence !

Bloater. See my bloater.

BLOB, verb (vagrants').—To talk, to patter (q.V.).

1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, 1., 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 'screening' that is, by petitions and letters.'

1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, 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).— 1. A stupid person ; a hard unsympathetic individual ; one of mean, unattractive appearance.

c. 1534. N. Udall, Roister Doister, in., iii., 44 (Arber). Ye are such a calfe, such an asse, such a blocke.

1595. Shakspeare, Two Gentlemen, ii., 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, 11., ii. This will bring him on, Or he's a block.

c. 1696. B. E. Diet. Cant. Creiv, s.v. Block, a silly Fellow.

Block.

266 Barber's Block.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Block (s). . . sometimes an ignorant, stupid fellow.

1881. Besant and Rice, Chaplain of the Fleet, 11., 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. (common).—The head : see

crumpet.

1637. Shirley, Lady of Pleas, 11., i. Buy a beaver for thy own block.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xxxv. 'I cleaned a groom's boots on Toosday, and he punched my block because I blacked the tops.'

Chip of the same, (or the same old) block (sometimes abbreviated to cm?)phr. (common). I. A person reproducing certain familiar or striking characteristics.

1623. Mabbe, Spanish Rogue (1630), 229. [Certain lads are called] chips of

the same block.

c. 1626. Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen's Old Plays, ii., 60. Your father used to come home to my mother, and why may not I be a chip of the same blocke, out of which you two were cutt?

1627. Sanderson, Serm., 1., 283. Am not I a child of the same Adam, a vessel of the same clay, a CHicof the same block, with him.

1655. L'Estrange, Charles I., 126. Episcopacy, which they thought but a great chip of the old block, Popery

1762. Colman, Musical Lady, 11., iii. You'll find him his father's own son, I believe; a chip of the old block, I promise you !

1809. Walker, <7-75fos[RouTLEDGE], 176. In vulgar phrase to prove myself a chip from the old block.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlnuit xviii., 189. 'Yes, yes, Chuffey, Jonas is a chip of the old block. It's a very old block now, Chuffey,' said the old man.

i860. Funny Felloiu, May 7, 1. Hollo, my kiddy, stir your stumps. And chuck yourself about ; Make haste, young chip, my boots to shine, Or your shine I'll quick take out.

1865. M. E. Br addon, Henry Dunbar, xxxviii. I was in love myself once, though I do seem such a dry old chip.

BARBER'S BLOCK, subs. phr. (common).— I. A showy, over-dressed man ; a fop.

1876. E. Lynn Linton. Hallberger's lllus. Mag., 72. No, not to men worthy of the name of men—men, not barber's

blocks.

2. (common).—The head : see block, sense 2.

1823. Scott, P ever il of the Peak, v. (1., 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.

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, ///*'. (popular).—To crush a man's hat over the eyes by a blow; to bonnet (q.v.).

To do the block, verb. phr. (Australian). — To promenade. The block, the fashionable promenade in Melbourne, is the block of buildings in Collin's Street lying between Swanston Street and Elizabeth Street.

AS deaf AS A block, phr. (old).—As deaf as may be.

Blockers.

267 Bloke.

Blockers. See block ornaments, Blockhead (or Blockpate), subs. (old).—A stupid fellow; awooDEN

head (q.V.); See buffle.

1706. Hudibras Redivivus, 1. vii. 6° Old friend, said I, to tell you truth, I have not heard from block head's mouth Such worthless cant, such senseless blunders, Such frothy quibbles and cunnunders, Such wicked stuff, such poys'nous babble, Such uncouth, wretched ribble rabble.

Block house, subs.(o\S).—k prison; the house of detention : see cage.

1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, in., xi., 85. To stop the disorders of our disorderly Theeues... built a blockhouse.

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 ('ein Steines 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., BloccuzJ. 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.

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 : as opposed to meat hung on hooks.

1848. Fraser s Mag., xxxvil., 396. Forced to substitute a blocker of meat, with its cheap accompaniment of bread and vegetables... for poultry and rump steaks.

1851-61. H: Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, 1., 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, 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 3^d. the lb.; better scraps (or block ornaments, as they are termed) at 4d.; somewhat shapeless small joints of beef from inferior parts at sd., one coarse shoulder of mutton at the same; tolerably good-looking meat at 6d.; mutton chops at 7d. and 8d.; and rump steak at rod.

1899. Whiteing, John St., iii. Dinner, two penn'orth o' block ornaments , and a penn'orth o' bread.

2. (colloquial).—A queer look ing man or woman—one odd in appearance (Hotten).

bloke(or bloak), subs, (common). A man ; a fellow : sometimes in contempt: e.g. 'a bloke with a jasey ' = judge {i.e. with a wig) ; 'what's that bloke, up to?' = What's that man doing? etc.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, hi., 397, If we met an old bloke (man) we propped him.

1857. Skowden,Mag. Assistant 3 ed., 446. A gentleman.—A bloak.

Blood. 268 Blood.

i860. Sala, The Baddington Peerage, 11., 49. My old bloke!

1862. Kingsley, in Mactnillan'sMag., Dec, 96. Little better than blokes and boodles after all.

1863. Ouida, Held in Bondage, 1., 245. The girl is stunning, the blokes say, so we must forgive you.

1865. Miss Braddon, in Temple Bar, xili., 483. The society of the aged bloke is apt to pall 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.'

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.

1873. Robinson, Little Kate Kirby, i., 136. ' Give us a horder then, old bloke,' shrieked another gamin.

c. 1875. Broadside Ballad '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—

1883. Daily News, May 15, 7, 2. 'When you are coming out into the yard ask the next bloke to change numbers with you.'

1899. Whiteing, John St., v. I thought I should ha' bust when I heerd that old cure lettin out at the aristocracy arter I had floored the bloke.

Blood, subs, (old).—i. 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 has blood 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 and social standing about town • subsequently, it came to mean a riotous, disorderly fellow.

1519 Four Elements. [Dodsley, Old Plays [Hazlitt], i., 43. I shall bring hither another sort Of lusty bloods to make disport.

1562. Bulleyn, Siehe Men, etc., 73a. A lustie blood, or a pleasaunte brave young roister.

1606. John Day, He of Gulls i., 9. Basil. Welcome gallants, welcome honord bloods. Ibid. To which effect we have sent a generali 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.

1753. Adventurer, No. 98. I am, in short, one of those heroic Adventurers, who have thought proper to distinguish themselves by the titles of Buck, blood, and nerve.

1751. Smollet, Peregrine Pickle, xvi. [It is stated that the senior boys at Winchester 'were distinguished by the appellation of bloods.' The term is now unknown in the school, even by tradition].

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 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, x. A perfect and celebrated BLOOD or dandy about town, was this young officer.

Blood for blood. 269

Blood-Freezer.

1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ii., 36. The modern bloods have given up the respectful ceremonies which distinguished a gentleman in my time.

2. (old).—Money : generic, see

rhino.

1748. Dodsley, Collection of Poems, in., 199.

He sticks to gaming, as the surer trade; Turns downright sharper, lives by sucking blood.

1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, 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 (colloquial).—To deplete of money; to victimise; to bleed (q.v.).

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, 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 for blood, phr. (trade).— When tradesmen exchange wares, setting the cost of one kind off against another instead of making payment in money, they are said

tO give blood for blood.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. A hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.

Blood-alley, subs. phr. (schoolboy's).—A red marble taw : see alley.

blood-and-entrails, subs. phr. (American).—The British ensign : English salts return the compliment by jokingly speaking of the American flag as the gridiron and doughboys (q.V.).

blood-and-thunder, subs. phr. (common).—Port wine and brandy mixed.

blood-and-thunder tales, subs, phr. (originally American, now common).—Low class fiction: generally applied to works dealing with the exploits of desperadoes, cut-throats, and other criminals:

also avvfuls, penny dreadfuls, gutter literature, shilling

shockers, etc., all of which see.

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 book-stores.

1883. Daily News, March 26, 2, col. 3. The blood and thunder tragedies generally associated with the transpontine drama.

blood-an'-'ouns, phr. (old).—An old oath—'God's blood and wounds ! '

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 58. ' Och ! if he's a friend o' yours, my dear boy, 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-boat, subs. phr. (naval).— A tally-boat; bum-boat (q.v.).

blood-curdler (or blood-freezer), subs. phr. (common).—A narration or incident which ' makes the flesh creep ' ; which stir's one's feelings strongly, and is generally repulsive: of a sensational murder, a thrilling ghost-story, etc. : cf. blood and thunder tales.

Blood-freezer. See blood

curdler.

Blood-money. 270 Bloody.

Blood-money, subs. phr. (colloquial).— i. Money paid as the price of blood : as a sum given to compass the life of another, either murder or hanging ; also (military) compensation for wounds.

1901 Free Lance, 9 Feb. 460, 2. The vagaries of our War Office were never better exemplified than by its erratic behaviour in the matter of what officers call blood-money.

Blood-red fancy, subs. phr. (pugilistic).—A red silk handkerchief: see billy.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. s.v.

Blood suckers (The), subs. phr. (military).—The Sixty-third Regiment of Foot, now the first battalion of the Manchester Regiment.

2. (old).—A leech ; hence a murderous or bloodthirsty person : also see quot. 15.

15.. Fish, Supplie, for Beggars, 6. A cruell deuelisshe bloudsupper dronken in the bloude of the sayntes and marters of Christ.

3. (colloquial).—An extortioner; sponger (q.V.); cadger (q.v. : in modern sense).

4. (nautical).—A lazy fellow, who by skulking, throws his proportion of labour on the shoulders of ship-mates (Smyth) ; a

scrim-shanker (q.V.).

blood-tub, subs.phr. (American).— A rowdy, blustering bully ; a rough : this nickname was peculiar to Baltimore ; the blood-tubs were said 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: see plugugly.

1861. 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 intensitive, difficult to define, and used in a multitude of vague and varying senses, but frequently with no special meaning, much less a sanguinary one: generally an emphathic very : in general colloquial use from 1650—1750, but now vulgar or profane : cf. fucking. [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' (q.v.) or aristocratic rowdies of the end of the 17th. and beginning of the 18th. c. The phrase bloody drunk 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. Compare the prevalent craving for impressive or graphic intensitives as seen in the use of jolly, awfully, terribly, devilish, deuced, damned, ripping, rattling, thumping, stunning, thundering, etc.]: but see Tiedman, quot. 1868, with an eye on the early quotations and the proba

Bloody. 271 Bloody-bones.

bility of the Flanders campaigns influencing the introduction of the word in the modern colloquialism.

1676. Sir G. Etheredge, Man of Mode i., i, p. 186, ed. 1723.

Dor. Give him half-a-crown.

Med. Not without he will promise to be bloody drunk.

1684. Dryden, Prol. Southerners Disappointment, line 59. The doughty bullies enter bloody drunk.

1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, iv., i. 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.

1772. Bridges, Homer, 98. May soberly both drink and funk And soberly get bloody drunk.

i8[?]. Old Flash Song. How Jonah lived inside of a whale, 'Twas a bloody sight better than'county

gaol.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle's Log, ii. 'I've a bloody great mind to go down with him,' stuttered another.

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.

1868. Sala [Notes and Queries, 4 S. i.]. Bloody... simply qualifies the superlative and excessive. Admiral Gambier, who is said to have introduced ' tea and piety' into the navy, discountenanced the practice... of d—g the sailors' eyes while they were reefing topsails. His tars, scarcely grateful, nicknamed the admiral 'Old bloody Politeful.'

1868. H. Tiedman, [Notes and Queries'], 4 S. i. It is noteworthy, that the German blutig is sometimes used 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.

1880. Ruskin, Fiction, Fair and F., g 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.

Bloody-back, subs. phr. (old).— A soldier; in allusion to the colour of his coat.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Bloody back. A jeering appellation for a soldier.

bloody bones (usually raw-head and bloody-bones) subs. phr. (old).—A spectre; 'a scare-child' (B. E., Grose) : also raw-flesh

and bloody-bones.

1550. Jyl of Brentford's Test. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 524. The Devil's secretary bears the name of blooddybone . . . whom we now couple with raw-head.J

____ Wyll of the Devyll [Halliwell]. Written by our faithful secretaryes, hobgoblen, rawhed, and bloddybone, in the spitefull audience of all the Court of hell.

1398. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, Caccianemico, a bragging craking boaster, a bugbeare, a rawe-flesh and bloodie bone.

1622. Fletcher, Prophetess, iv. 4. I was told before my face was bad enough; but now I look Like bloodybones and raw-head to fright children.

1693. Locke, Education, 138. Servants . . . awe children, and keep them in subjection, by telling them of rawhEad

AND bloody bones.

1870. Figaro, 19 Oct. We have sometimes heard of a school of literature called "The raw-head and bloodybones School.''

Bloody-chasm. 272 Blooming.

Bloody chasm. To bridge the bloody chasm,///r.(American).— A favourite expression with orators who, during the years immediately succeeding the Civil War, sought to obliterate the memory of the struggle : cf. to wave the bloody shirt (q.v.).

Bloody eleventh (The), subs. phr. (military).—The Eleventh Regiment of Foot, now the Devonshire Regiment : at the battle of Salamanca, fought with the French, the corps was nearly cut to pieces ; at Fontenoy and Ostend also, it was hard-pressed and nearly annihilated.

bloody jemmy, subs.phr. (common). —An uncooked sheep's head :

See sanguinary james.

Bloody shirt. To wave the bloody shirt, verb. phr. (American).—To keep alive 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.

188S. Cold-water (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 th"y been left to themselves, and the politicans been as patriotic as they.

1888. New York IVeekly 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.

18SS. Farmer, Americanisms, s.v. Bloody-Shirt. Its introduction [in allusion to the fierce days of the Corsican vendette~\ into 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.

bloody king's, subs. phr. (Cambridge University).—A red-brick church in Barnwell (St. Mary's the Less), resembling King's College Chapel in architecture: see Bloody Mary's.

bloody mary's, subs. phr. (Cambridge University).—The redbrick church, St. Paul's, resembling St. Mary's in Cambridge, the University church.

bloomer, subs. (Australian prison). — I. A mistake: i.e., a 'blooming error.'

2. (American: obsolete).—A costume devised by aMrs.Bloomer, and worn by some of the more ardent advocates of woman's rights: it consisted of a short gown, reaching a little below the knees, and pantalettes. Mrs. Bloomer celebrated her golden wedding in 1890. Died 1907.

blooming, 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,' ' damned,' etc. ; but it is also frequently a mere meaningless intensitive. [Originating as a modern colloquialism (see quot. 1726) on the Californian coast, chief instrument of its acclimatization in England was Mr. Alfred G. Vance^

Blooming.

273 Blossom-nose.

the comic singer, well-known in connection with 'Jolly dogs,' and other extensively popular musichall songs.]

1726. Rev. J. Glanvil, Sadducismus triumphatus. Under the head of 'The Demon of Tedworth' (1661). Glanvil 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.

i8(?). 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, Dag-inet Ballads (told to the Missionary). 'I feels like a bloomin' babby—I gets so infernal weak.'

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, iii., 222. 'Afore that I worked in the galleries, a-making the casemates for the guns, and blooming hard work it was.'

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Flyfaker's Hotel, in Odd People in Odd Places, 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?'

1882. Punch's Almanac, 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!' Mir. 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\'

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack's Courtship, 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 !

1899. Ouida, Massarenes, 15" Sweet little babies ! Precious little poppets ! Damm 'em, the whole blooming lot.

BlOOMSBURY-BIRD, subs phr. (old). See quot.

1636. Hacket, Williams, i. 134. Our corner-miching priests, with the bloomesberry-birds their disciples, and other hot-spirited recusants, cut out the way with the complaints of their (nogrievous) sufferings, which involved us in distractions.

bloomy,j-«3j.(American).—Flowers: from the Dutch.

bloss, subs, (old, and American thieves').—Generic for a woman— girl, wife, or mistress : probably an attributive sense of'blossom': cf. blowen, and see quot. 1696.

1588. Shakspeare, Titus Andren, iv. 2. 72. Sweet blowse you are a beautious blossome sure.

c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Bloss, c. a Thief or Shop-lift, also, a Bulhes pretended Wife, or Mistress, whom he guards, and who by her Trading supports him, also a Whore.

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,' 42. 'Why, Bell, is it yourself? Tip us your daddle, my bene mort. May I dance at my death, and grin in a glass-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.'

[1847. Tennyson, Princess, v. 79. My babe, my blossom, ah, my child!]

Blossom-faced, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Bloated ; red-faced.

Blossom-nose, subs. phr. (common).—A tippler (q.V.); a lushington (q.v.). Blossom-nosed = red with tippling : cf. grog-blossom, rum-bud etc.

Blot.

274 Blow.

Blot. To blot the scrip, verb, phr. (old).—To put an undertaking into writing: the modern 'put in black and white.' Hence, To blot the scrip and jark it = to Stand engaged and bound for anyone (B.E. and Grose): see jark.

BLOTHER, verb, (provincial).—To chatter; talk idly. Hence blotherment z= superfluous verbiage ; and blotherkd = stupid, confused.

1423. Skelton, Works, i. 259. I blunder, i bluster, I blow, and I blother ; I make on the one day, and I marre on the other.

BLOUSE. See Blowze.

BLOVIATE, verb. (old).—To talk aimlessly and boastingly ; to indulge in 'high falutin': said to have been in use since 1550.

BLOW, subs, (common).—i. A shilling: see rhino.

1870. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. But afterwards I got 3s. qd., 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, 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. blowout. Hence as verb (or to go on the blow) = to indulge in a drinking-bout.

Verb (old).— 1. To boast; to brag; to gas (q.v.)-, to talk big (q.v.) and self-assertingly of oneself or one's affairs,

c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 97. Blouing veynly with fleschli wit.

1519. Four Elements, in Hazl. Dodsley I., 41. Why, man, what aileth thee so to blow?

1785. Burns, Epistle to J. Lapraik, St. 16. I winna blaw about mysel; As ill I like my fauts to tell.

1888. Graphic, Jan. 27, 79, col. 1. The whole team has taught Australia not to blow (as they say)—a not unneeded lesson.

1883. Mrs. Campbell. Praed, Sketches of Australian Life, 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 (or gaf): also blow upon, and blow

THE gaff.

t575. Appius and Virg., in Hazl. Dodsley. IV., 136. Was all well agreed? did nobody blow ye?

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.

c. 1859. L. Hunt, Country Lodgings, in Casquet Lit. (1877), I., 42, col. 1. D—n me, if I don't blow . . . I'll tell Tom Neville.

3. (American).—To lie.

4. (general).—Frequently euphemistic for 'damn': generally in the imperative: e.g. blow it! i.e., ' hang it ' ! or damn it !

1849. C. Kinosley, Alton Locke, ii. ' Well, if you won't stand a pot, quoth the tall man, 'I will, that's all, and blow temperance.'

Blow. 275 Blow.

1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, xxvi. 'Blow his station in life! If he was a duke I shouldn't want him.'

5. (general).—To lose or spend money: cf. blew (or blue).

6. See subs. 2.

7. (Winchester School).—To blush.

Phrases : To bite the blow = to steal goods ; to prig (q.v.)-to blow a cloud, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To smoke: cigar or pipe. [Hotten: '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]; to blow hot and cold — to vacillate; to be inconsistent; to

blow the bellows = to Stir Up passion; to blow off = to relieve one's feelings, to get rid of superfluous energy ; also (2) to explode, refute; to blow into one's ear = to whisper privily;

to blow one's own trumpet =

to brag, to sound one's own praises ; to blow the coals (or the fire) = to fan the flame of discord, to promote strife; to blow up = to scold, to rate, to rail at ; To blow great guns = to blow a hurricane, (or a violent gale): sometimes great

guns and small arms ; to blow

one's bazoo = to boast, to swagger; to gasconade: cf. blow one's own trumpet (Dutch bazu — bazuin = trumpet) ; to blow up = to scold : also to blow up skyhigh = (1) to rate vigorously; and (2) to speak or act with unusual energy: hence blowingup — a scolding, a severe reprimand, a jobation: Fr. affres (—

agonies); and (3) to cause to

Swell ; TO BLOW in one's pipe =.

to spend money _; blow me ! (blow

me UP! or BLOW me TIGHT !) =

like blowed (q.v.) these serve either as half-veiled oaths, or as big-sounding but meaningless exclamations; to blow oneself out = to eat heartily, to gorge oneself, TO wolf (q.v.): hence Blow out = a heavy feed, a gorge, a tuck-IN (q.v.); to blow out = (1) to steal, to prig (q.v.); a thiefs' term ; and (2) to talk violently; to abuse; to carry on:

Cf. to BLOW UP; to BLOW the

grampus = to throw cold water on a man who has fallen asleep when on duty; to blow the groundsels = to have sexual commerce on the ground, cf. flyer, perpendicular, and see greens and ride_; to blow together = to make garments in a slovenly manner; to BLOW UPON (old) = to betray; to tell tales of; to discredit; to defame; to flout at ; to reproach _; to censure ; 3. Used also with indirect passive _; to blow to the winds = to cast away utterly.

1402. Occleve, sc. Letter of Cupid, [Arber, Garner, IV., 54.]

Thus they despised be, on every side, Dislanderèd and blown upon full wide.

^I577W. Bullinger, Decades (1592), 176. One which out of one mouth, doeth

blowe both hoat and colde. [lH.]

1612. PasquiVs Night-Cap. But who had blowne her up, and made her swell?

Mother, quoth she, in truth I cannot tell?

1630. Taylor, Works, Virgin Widow. IV. 5.

I could not lightly agitate and fan The airier motions of an amorous fancy, And by a skill in blowing hot and cold, And changeful dalliance, quicken you with doubts.

Blow.

276 Blow.

1636. Hacket, Williams, i. 180. Though she acknowledged she had power from the Emperor to cause cessation of arms in the Palatinate, and undertook to put that power forth, yet with the same breath she blew hot and cold.

1650. Howell, Letters. I thank you for the good opinion you please to have of my fancy of trees : it is a maiden one, and not blown upon by any yet.

1651. Cartwright Royall Slave. Peace, the king approaches; stand in your ranks orderly, and shew your breeding; and be sure you blow nothing on the lords.

c. 1655. Adams, Works, i. 169. The hermit turned his guest out of doors for this trick, that he could warm his cold hands with the same breath wherewith he cooled his hot pottage.

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. blown upon, seen by several, or slighted; not blown upon, a secret piece of News or Poetry, that has not taken air, spick and span-new. To blow hot and cold with a Breath, or play fast and loose. Ibid. s.v. blow-off-on the groundsills, c. to lie with a Woman on the Floor or Stairs.

d. 1716. South, Sermons, iii, 222. A gross fallacy and inconsequence, concluding ab imparibus tanquam paribus, and more than sufficiently confuted and blown off.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, X., ii. That the reputation of her house, which was never blown upon before, was utterly destroyed.

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.

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.

1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue. To blow the groundsils (cant), to lie with a woman on the floor. Ibid. sv. To blow the gaf (cant), to confess, or impeach a confederate.

1809. Gell, [C. K. Sharpe, Correspondence (1888), 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. ... I have heard her daughter blow up Lady Salisbury when she had quarrelled with Lady Sefton.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib. And blow me tight—Bill Gibbons ne'er In all his days was known to swear. Ibid. 39. But this I'll say, a civiller Swell, I'd never wish to blow a cloud with.

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.' Ibid. But I will blow her, he said, I will blow her ladyship's conduct in the business.

1833. Marrvat, Peter Simple, 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.

1835. Dana, Before the Mast, xx. We lived, like fighting-cocks, and had .. . a blow-out on sleep, not turning out in the morning until breakfast was ready.

1836. Scott, Cruise of the Midge [Ry. ed. 18..], 119. At length the infection caught me, when BLOWinG all my manners to the winds, off I went at score after our friend.

1837. Barham, /. L. (Babes in the Wood).

In the dog-days, don't be so absurd As to blow yourselves out with greengages !

1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist. Depend upon it that they're on the scent down here, and that if he moved, he'd blow upon the thing at once. Id. (1843). 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. Id. (1864). Our Mutual Friend, III., xii. The condition of our affairs is desperate, and may be blown upon at any moment.

1839. Haliburton, Letter-Bag Gt. West., IV., 42. I would give him a good blowing-up. Ibid. You wouldn't blow an old chum among his friends, would you?

Blow.

277 Blozu-book.

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.

1847. Th. Hook, Mail 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.'

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, 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, vii. 'Mind the hice is here in time; or ther'll be a blow up with your governor.'

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, viii. 'Get us hot water, and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the real stuff, and we'll have a blow-out.' Ibid. (1856), i, 276. Dere's de Methodists, dey cuts up de Presbyterians; de Presbyterians pitch into de Methodists, and both are down on de Episcopals; while de Baptists tink dey none on dem right; and while dey's all blowing out at each other dat ar way, I's wondering whar's de way to Canaan.

1854. H. Miller, Sch. and Schtn. (1858), 14. It soon began to blow great

guns.

1856. Motley, Dutch Rep., V., v.. 750. Being constantly ordered to blow hot and cold with the same breath.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, i S., xxv., 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.

1870. M. Twain, Innocents Abroad, vii. And blowing suffocating clouds and boisterously performing at dominoes in the smoking-room at night.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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.

1876. Greenwood, Dick Temple. And she ain't got nobody but me to keep a secret for her, and I've been and blowed on her.

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, i., 4. Both desisted from their own recriminations as to 'rounding' and 'blowing' on each other.

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, 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.

1882. Jas. Payn, Glow Worm Tales, 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.

1883. G. A. S[ala], Illust. L. News, June 16, 599, col. 1. That the 'aughty nobleman should blow up the clerk for presuming to take a seat in his presence.

1889. Philadelphia Press, 8 Dec. Mac Clarty objected; giving the young man a warning look, he said, "Nixey Toohey.get out flash—blow it, man, blow it! " which meant that Mr. Mac Clarty thought that Mr. Toohey ought not to talk so much.

1899. Whiteing, John Str. xxi. The gaff was blowed by a set o' fools.

BLOWBOUL(orBLOWBOLL),j-«3.;(old). —A tippler: see lushington.

1423. Skelton [Dyce], i. 22. Thou blynkerd blowboll, thou wakyst to late.

Blow-book, subs. phr. (old)—-A book containing indelicate or ' smutty ' pictures.

Blow-basted. 278 Blowen.

1708. Post-Man, 8 June. Last Sunday a person did pennance in the Chapterhouse 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.

blow-basted, adj. phr.—Flogged.

1614. Copley, Wits and Fancies. [Nares]. The earle of Urenia asked one that came from the court, what was reported of him there? who answered: Neither good nor bad, my lord, that I could heare. With that the earle commanded him to be thoroughly blowebasted and beaten: and then afterward gave him fiftie duckets, saying, Now maist thou report of Urenia both good and bad.

blowed. to be blowed, verb, phr.—To be cursed, to be sent about one's business. Blowed is euphemismic for ' damned ' ; to all intents and purposes little more than a thinly-veiled oath. Hotten says that Tom Hood used to tell the following story, which tho' long is worth immortality:— '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, 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., 249. (Cries of 'Chair, Chair,' and 'Order, order.') 'Order be blowed!' exclaimed the infuriated Mr. H.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, II., v. ' Holiday be blowed ! ' said Fledgely, entering, 'What have you got to do with holidays?'

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, iii., 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, 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. II., Aug. 3, 242, 2. 'Blowed if I'd have made her Mrs. Juggins, if I'd have known she wor going te make a footstool of me ! '

rgoo. Kipling, Stalky and Co. 4. Turkey, you'd better covet a butterflynet from somewhere. I'm blowed if I do, said McTurk simply, with immense feeling.

1900. White, West End, III. I'll see the letters blowed before I look at one of them.

Blowen (or Blowing), subs. (old). —A woman (like mort q.v.). Chaste or not: Subsequently = a showy courtesan, or common

Blower. 279 Blow se.

prostitute: it still retains the latter meaning, but is still frequently used, in a more complimentary sense than heretofore, to signify a finely built handsome, and, as the old barrel-organ man says, fuckable (q.v.) girl : in America (criminal classes) = a mistress.

Derivation uncertain, two suggestions: (1) from 'blown upon'; and (2) a blossom—a pet: see petticoat and tart.

16S8. Shadwell, Sç. of Alsatia, I., in Wks. (1720) IV., 17. What ogling there will be between thee and the blowings!

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1789. Geo Parker, Life's Fainter, 143. Blowen, a woman.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash. Diet., Blowen, a prostitute: a woman who cohabits with a man without marriage.

1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue [Egan], s.v. Nuts. The cove's nutting the blowen; the man is trying to please the girl.

1847. Lttton, Lucretia, II., 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, 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?

Blower, subs. (old).—1. A girl; contemptuous, in opposition to jomer (q.v.); see Grose (1785): see quot 1696.

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Blower, c. a mistress, also a whore.

2. (American and colonial.)— A good talker; a boaster; a 'gasbag': cf. blow, verb, sense I.

1863. Manhattan, in Evening Standard, jo Dec. General Grant ... is not one of the blower generals.

1864. Spectator, 22 Oct., 1202, col. I. Notorious among our bar and the public as a blower.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, 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.

blowhard, subs. (American)—A Western term of abuse: a newcomer may, in one and the same breath, be called a blarsted britisher, a coyote, and a

blowhard.

blowse, (blowsy, blouze, blowzy, etc.). subs. (old).—A beggar's trull ; a wench ; a slatternly woman: also personified as blows

abella.

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, xvi., 37, 43 (E. D. S). Whiles Gillet, his blouse is a milking thy cow.

1605. Chapman, All Fooles, iv., 68 (Plays, 1874).

Wed without my advice, my love, my

knowledge. Ay, and a beggar, too, a trull, a blowse!

163S. Ford, Lady's Trial, III., i. Wench is your trull, your blouze, your dowdie.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, IL, VII., 20.

So the old Babylonian blouze, And her demure fanatic Spouse.

1706. Ward, Hud. Red., I. x. 10. Such red-fae'd blouzabellas.

17.. Gay, Shepherd's Week. We fair, fine ladies, who park out our lives

From common sheep-paths, cannot help crows,

From flying over; we're as natural still As blousalinda.

Bloxford. 280 Blubber-belly.

184. Halliwell, Archaic Phrases, etc. s.v. blouse... a woman with hair or head-dress loose and disordered, or decorated with vulgar finery. (East.) Thoresby has, "a blowse or blawze, proper to women, a blossom, a wild rinish girl, proud light skirts;" and Kennett, MS. Lansd. 1033, "a girl or wench whose face looks red by running abroad in the wind and weather, is called a blouz, and said to have a blouzing colour.'' The word occurs in this last sense in Tusser, 24 ; Heywood's Edward IV. 62; Clarke's Phraseologia Puerilis, 1655, 380; Kennett's Glossary, 30. Blowesse, Hall's Satires, 4. To be in a blouze, to look red from heat, a phrase that is used by Goldsmith in the Vicar of Wakefield. In some glossaries, blousy, wild, disordered, confused.

1851. Thackeray, English Humorists, 167. Are not the Rosalindas of Britain as charming as the blousalindas of the Hague ?

BLOXFORD, subs., (old).—A jocular and satirical corruption of the name of Oxford, quasi Block'sford, or the ford of Blockheads. (Nares.)

[?]. Corbet, Poems, What was the jest, d'ye ask? I dare repeat it,

And put it home before you shall entreat it ; He call'd me bloxford-man, confess I must 'Twas bitter; and it grieved me in a thrust That most ungrateful word bloxford to hear,

From him whose breath yet stunk of Oxford beer.

i6[?]. Healey, Disc. Hew World. [Blockford is the capital of Fooliana].

blub.—See blubber, verb.

Blubber, subs, (common),—i. The mouth. 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. (Common). A woman's breasts; the paps: see dairies. Hence to sport (or flash the)

blubber phr. (common) = To expose the breasts : especially of women with large and fully developed bosoms.

Verb (colloquial).—To cry; to nap the bib (q.v.): in contempt: also blub : see blubberation.

1360. Sir Gawayn [E.E.T.S.]. [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 59. Akin to the Dutch and German are waist, tap, blubber..,]

1400. Test. Love, II. (1560), 283, 1. Han women none other wrech... but blober and wepe till hem list stint.

[?]. Dido, Queen of Carthage, 56 [Halliwell]. By these blubbered cheeks.

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, xliv. (1804), 202. He blubbered like a great school-boy who had been whipped.

1772. Bridges, Homer, 6. Thus did this waring red-nos'd dubber Make a great noise, and pray, and blubber.

1826. Scott, Woodstock, IV., Phcebe Mayflower blubbered heartily for company.

1888. Sims, Ballads of Babylon. Don't be a fool and blub, Jim, it's a

darned good thing for you, You'll find a mate as can carry and I'll

play the music too.

blubber-and-guts, subs.phr. (common).—Obesity: hence all blubber-and-guts = very fat: also as an address, 'old blubber-andguts.'

Blubberation, subs. (commonsCrying: see blubber.

18.. H. and J. Smith, Rejected Addresses, 177.

They sang a quartetto in grand blubberation.

The stranger cried, Oh! Mrs. Haller cried, Ah!

Blubber-belly, subs.phr. (common). —A fat person ; forty-guts (q.v.).

Blubber-cheeks. 281 Bludgeoner.

Blubber-cheeks, subs. phr. (common).—Fat, flaccid cheeks: also ' Old Blubber-cheeks ' = a jeering address. Hence blubber(or blub) cheeked = swollen cheeked ; so also with other obvious combinations such as blubberlips, etc.

1606. Sylvester, The Lawe, 1004. Rough-blustering Boreas, nurst with Ri

phean snowe, And blub cheekt Auster, puft with fumes

before,

Met in the midst, justling for room, do roar.

Blubber-head, subs. phr. (common). —A fool; an empty-headed individual; a stupid (q.v.).

blucher (ch. hard) subs. (Winchester College).— I. A College prœfect in half power. Their jurisdiction does not extend beyond ' Seventh Chamber passage,' though their privileges are the same as those of other prefects. They are eight in number.

1864. Blackwood, 86. The remaining eight college prasfects (called in Winchester tongue, bluchers) have a more limited authority, confined to Chambers and the Quadrangle.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, 30. The eight senior prefects 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 : see quots.

1864. Soc. Sc. Review, I., 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. Athenäum, 5 March, p. 328. Non-privileged cabs, which are admitted to stations after all the privileged have been hired, are known as Bluchers.

3. (colloquial).—A trade term for 'boots of somewhat common and clumsy description ' (Halliwell).

1836. Dickens, Boz, 'Bloomsbury Christening.' Islington clerks . . walked to town in the conscious pride of white stockings and cleanly-brushed bluchers.

1854-5. Thackeray, Netvcomes, xi. It will not unfrequently happen that a pair of trowsers inclosing a pair of boots with iron heels, and known by the name of the celebrated Prussian General who came up to help the other christener of boots at Waterloo, will be flung down from the topmost story.—Ibid. xiii. I wouldn't have come in these bluchers, if I had known it. Confound it, no. Hoby himself, my own bootmaker, wouldn't have allowed poor F. B. to appear in bluchers if he had known that I was going to meet the Duke.

bludder, verb (old).—To talk nonsensically.

15J?] Bale, Select Works, 193. Ye are much better overseen than learned in the Scriptures of God, as your blind blubbering predecessors hath been.— Ibid. Bonner's Arts, xxxvi, this bussard this beast, and this bluddering papiste.

bludgeoner (or bludger) subs. (venery).—A thief using violence : spec, a bully; a ponce (q.v.) attached to a house of ill-fame for the purpose of terrorising victims :

Cf. bludget.

1852. Blackwood's Magazine, 224. Those brutal bludgeoneers ... go out ... in gangs to poach.

1855. Trollope, Warden, xiv., 144. Old St. Dunstan with its smiting bludgeoneer has been removed.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, 46. Those who plunder with violence; as . . . bludgers or 'stick slingers,' who rob in company with low women.

Sludge t. 282 Blue.

BLUDGET, subs. (American)—' A low female thief, who decoys her victims into alley-ways, etc., to rob them.' New York Slang Dictionary [1881], cf. Bludge.

BLUE, subs, (common)—1. A policeman formerly a beadle, or, indeed, a serving-man, traceable to Elizabethan days (see Bluebottle), the uniform seems to have been blue from time immemorial ; the colour from the earliest times has 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-coats boys, and even harlots, in a house of correction, 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.] Also, collectively, the

blues, the men in blue, blueboys, blue-bottles, blue-devils, royal regiment of foot-guards blue.

d. 1631. Donne, Satires, i, 21. Come a velvet justice with a long Great train of BLEW coats, twelve or fourteen strong.

1609. Dekker, Honest Whore [Dodsley], Old Plays (Reed), iii. 389. You proud varlets, you need not be ashamed to wear blue, when your master is one of your fellows.—Ibid, Belm an, E. 3. The other act their parts in blew coates, as (if) they were their serving men.

1608. MiDDLETON, Trick to Catch etc. ii. 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.— Ibid. Mich. Term. And to be free from the interruption of blue beadles, and other bawdy officers.

1616. Jonson, Case Altered, i. 2. Ever since I was of the blue order.— Ibid, Mask of Christmas. In a blew coat, serving-man like, with an orange, &c.

1637. Nabbes, Microcos. [Dodsley], Old Plays (Reed), ix. 161. The whips of furies are not half so terrible as a blue coat.

i8(?). Hood, Row at the ' Oxford Arms.'

This here mobbing, as some longish heads foretell it,

Will grow to such a riot that the Oxford blues must quell it.

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, iv., 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.

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Help Myself Society, in Odd People in Odd Places, 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.

1882. Besant, All Sorts and Cond, of Men, xliii. ' You must now begin to think seriously about handcuffs and prison, and men in blue.'

1886. G. A. Apperson, Graphic, 30 Jan., 137. The police in recent times have been known as the blues and the

men in blue.

2. (licensed victuallers').—In certain districts of Wales a compromise between the half-pint and the pint pot. It is not recognised as a legal measure by the authori

Blue.

283

Blue.

ties, but it has something like a status: 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, but 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. (common).—A scholar of Christ's Hospital • a blue-coat boy. A 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, 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. ^wH. Blanch, Blue-Coat Boys, 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. (old),—Short for bluestocking (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, xi., 50. The Blues, that tender tribe, who sigh o'er sonnets.

1834. Southey, The Doctor, Ixxxix. Mad. D'Arblay, Diary, IV, 219. 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.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, 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., 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. (old). Female learning or pedantry.

1824. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 47. She also had a twilight tinge of blue.

6. (University).—At Oxford and Cambridge a man is said to get his blue when selected as a competitor in inter-university sports. The Varsity colours are, for Oxford, dark blue ; and for Cambridge, light blue: cf. to get one's silk, said of a barrister when made King's Counsel.

Adj. (old).—I. Applied in contempt to women of literary tastes: see Blue-stocking _; Fr. elle est bleue celle-là; en voila une de bleue ; je la trouve bleue.

1788. Mad. D'Arblay, Diary (1876), iv., p. 219. Nobody would have thought it more odd or more blue.

Blue.

284

Blue.

1834. Southey, The Doctor, 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, xi. She was a little, a very little blue— rather a babbler in the ' ologies ' than a real disciple.

1842. Dickens, American Notes, ii'-> 333Blue 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, 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, 660. A clever, sensible woman, rather blue.

2. (venery).—Indecent ; smutty {q.v.) ; obscene. [The dress of harlots under discipline (see bluegown) was blue ; cf., however, the French Bibliothèque Bleue, a series of books of questionable character.] See brown, Quakerish ; serious ; grave _; decent.

3. (colloquial).—Gloomy ; fearful; depressed; low-spirited e.g. to look blue: which also = to be confounded; surprised ; astonished ; annoyed ; disappointed : Fr. en rester tout bleu; en être bleu; en bailler tout bleu; and baba from ébahi, astounded, blue funk, and in the blues: hence bluely = badly.

c. 1600. Rob. Hood ('Ritson'), II., xxxvi., 84. It made the sunne looke blue.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, iv, xxxv. He still came off but bluely.

i6[?]. T. Brown, Works, i. 284. Our cavalier had come off but bluely, had the lady's rigour continu'd.

1761. Ward, England's Reformation, i. 67.

Wise sir, I fear

We shall come off but blewly here.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Diet. Blue, adj. ... 2, blank, or cast down; as, he looked blue upon it.

1760. Warton, Newsman's Verses. But when Boscawen came, La Clue Sheer'd off, and look'd confounded blue.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, xxviii. Charley replied, that neither had he any money at home. ' That's blue,' said the man. ' It is rather blue,' said Charley.

1848. Carlyle, Fr. Revol. 1., v. i. The cunningest engineers can do nothing, Necker himself, were he ever listened, to. begins to look blue.

1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, I., 93. It's blue; uncommon blue.

1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, I., 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, xl. I kept up my blue meditations.

1874. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Gilded Age, 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.

1884. Cornhill Mag,, Jan., 111. The prudent (and sagacious) officer looked blue. But he speedily recovered himself.

Verb. (old).—To blush: also to disconcert.

1709. Steele and Swift, Tatler, No. 71, 8. If a virgin blushes, we no longer cry she blues.

[?] Misson, Travels in Eng. 170. King Edward III., who was deeply in love with the Countess of Salisbury, was very forward to take up a (blue) garter which happened to drop from a lady's leg while she was dancing at a ball... This action set many of the company laughing, which very much BLEW'd the Countess.

Blue.

285

Blue.

2. (common).—To pawn; to pledge; to spend; actually to get rid of money quickly: j^blew: Fr. faire passer au bleu = dissipate, spend, or squander.

1880. Punch's Almanac, 2. This top coat?—would blue it.

1887. Punch, 10 Sept., iii. i never minds blueing the pieces purvided i gets a good spree.

1896. Farjeon, Betray. John Fordham, in, 280. 'Arf a quid was all i 'ad, and that was soon blooed.

1899. Whiteing, John St., xxviii. You've blued everything 'cept the gold what's in yer 'art.

3. (colloquial).—To miscalculate; to make a mess (q.v.) of anything; to mull (q.v.).

4. (thieves').—To steal; to plunder. Hence to be blued = to be robbed: see prig.

By all that's blue! phr. (common)—A euphemistic oath ; ' by Heaven ! ' cf. Fr. parbleu = par Dieu.

1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxiii. 'The black cat, by all that's blue!' cried the Captain.

till all is blue. phr. (common).—To the utmost ; to the end; for an indefinite period. [Smyth, Sailor s Word Book:—'borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port and getting into deep water.']

1835. Haliburton, The Clockmaker,

2 S., xix. [The land] could be made to carry wheat till all's blue again. Ibid,

3 S., xx. Your mother kickin' and screamin' till all was blue again.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, I., 184. i'll have at her again, and dance till all's blue before i give in.

1901. People, 7 April, 13, 2. And argue in a didactic, not to say opinionated, manner till all was blue.

2. (common).—Exceeding tipsy : see screwed and cf. Fr. 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 J.

'I have nothing to do: And 'fore George, I'll sit here, and I'll drink till all's blue!'

to make the air blue, verb, phr. (common).—To curse; to swear; to use obscene language : also, in a milder sense, to talk slang.

true blue. phr. (colloquial).— —Faithful ; genuine ; real blue is the colour of constancy, and Coventry blue a dye that would neither change its colour nor be discharged by washing. Also (proverbial) ' true blue will never stain.'

1383. Chaucer, Squieres 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.

i6[?] Lines beneath an Old Portrait. A true blue Priest, a Lincey Woolsey Brother,

One legg a pulpit holds, a tub the other.

i8[?] New York 7>-7>k«f [Bartlett]. The bluest description of old Van Rensselaer Federalists have followed Colonel Prentiss (in Otsego County).

Blue-apron. 286 Blue-blanket.

Blue-apron, subs, (common)-—A tradesman.

1721. Amherst, Terrœ 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, 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. pi. (American: obsolete)—1. The paper money of the Confederate States: cf. greenbacks = the United States paper currency : the colour of the printing on the reverse is blue and green respectively.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, 291. The Confederate notes bore, for the same reason, the name of bluebacks, which was, however, soon exchanged for the slang term of 'shucks.'

1890. Family Herald, 8 Feb. 227. If you obey me you shall have a blueback.

2. (S. African: obsolete).— The late Orange Free State paper money.

1878. TrOLLOPe, South Africa, II., 206. Bluebacks, as they were called, were printed. Ibid., p. 222. The bluebacks as the Orange Free State banknotes were called.

blue-belly. A nickname bestowed by Southerners, during the Civil War, upon their opponents of the North, whose uniform was blue; also 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.

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-bill, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—A tradesman's bill : as sent home to parents and guardians. [The colour of the envelope was blue.]

blue-billy, subs. phr. (pugilistic.— I. A handkerchief (blue ground with white spots) sometimes worn and used as a colour at prizefights and boxing-matches : see billy.

2. (mining).—See quot.

18S7. 'Death of blue billy,' in Chamb. your., Dec. 17, 812. blue billy is the technical name given to the lime rendered foul in the purification of the gas.

blue-blanket, subs. phr. (common). — i. The sky: Defoe's use of this simile 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.' [Fr. 'coucher à I'ho tel de l'Etoile,' — 'to sleep at the Star Hotel'; Fourb. copertore — sky ~ a covering or blanket].

Blue Blazes. 287 Blue-coat.

2. (common).— A rough overcoat made of coarse pilot cloth.

Blue blazes. See blazes.

Blue boar, subs. (old).—A venereal disease.

blue-bottle, subs. phr. (old).—I. A policeman; a beadle; a guardian of the peace: see blue, sense 1.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v., 4. Dall [addressing beadle] ... you bluebottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner.

1888. Middleton, Michaelmas Term. And to be free from the interruption of blue beadles, and other bawdy officers.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, 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 bluebottles.'—Messrs. Ai and Co.

1864. Sala, Daily Telegraph, Sept. 13. Caught in his own toils by the blue-bottles of Scotland Yard.

1864. Blackwood's Mag., 15. He who could summon to his aid every alphabetical blue-bottle that ever handled a truncheon.

2. (old).—A serving-man : blue was the usual habit of servants: cf. blue-coat, hence a term of reproach.

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.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, 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, xi. My lord, my father . . . has bluebottles enough to wait on him.

1845. G. P. R. James, Arrah Neil, 325. The personage to whom he addressed himself, was one of the servingmen of that day, known by the general term of blue-bottles.

blue-boy, subs. phr. (common).— I. A bubo ; a tumour, or abscess with inflammation : spec, applied to a result of venereal disease.

2. (common).—A policeman: see blue, sense 1.

blue-butter, subs. phr. (common). —Mercurial ointment.

blue-cap, subs.phr. (old).—A Scotsman.

i4[?]. Hist. Edward II., 39. A rabble multitude of despised blue-caps encounter, rout, and break ':he flower of Englard.

1660. Merry Drollery, 93. Although he could neither write nor read, yet our General Lashby cross'd the Tweed, With his gay gang of blue-caps all.

2. (old).—A kind of ale (1822).

blue-cheek, subs. phr. (obsolete).— See quot.

1879. Greenwood, Outcasts of London. There were three fashions for whiskers when I was a child, and they were variously known as blue cheek, the whisker shaved off and leaving the cheek blue; "bacca pipe," the whisker curled in tiny ringlets; and " touzle," or whisker worn bushy.

blue-coat, subs. phr. (old).—A constable ; a guardian of the peace : see blue, sub 1.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 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.

Blued.

288 Blue Funk.

1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, II., 417. 'I thinks them Chartists are a weak-minded set ... a hundred o' them would run away from one blue-coat.'

1890. Family Herald, 8 Feb. 327. The blue-coats... may turn up at any moment.

2. See Blue, in several senses.

blued (or blewed), adj. phr. (common). — i. Tipsy; drunk: see screwed.

2. See Blue, verb.

BLUE-DAHLl." subs. phr. (common). —Something ~^re or seldom seen; a rara avis.

BLUE-DEVILS, subs, phr. (common).— I. Dejection; lowness of spirits; hypochondria; Fr. s'emboucaner, and s'encoliflucheter. Hence such derivatives as blue devilage, blue devilry, bi.l e devilism ; and blue devilly.

1786. Cowper, Letters, No. 219, II., 143 (ed. 1834). I have not that which commonly is a s'mptom of such a case belonging to me. -I mean extraordinary elevation in the absence of Mr. blue devil. When I a n in the best health, my tide of ani; îal sprightliness flows with great equality.

1790. W. B. Rh g des, Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 1.

Or, dropping poisons i^|r the cup of joy, Do the blue devils y'ur repose annoy?

1809. Malkin, GU Bias [Routledge], 105. What blue ur.viL has perched upon your shoulder in n y absence? You look gloomy and out c temper.

1871. Planché, King Christmas. There are blue i;evils which defy blue pills.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge iii. He got discontented and had

fits of blue devils.

2. (common).—Delirium tremens: also blues with derivatives as in sense 1.

1818-9. Cobbett, Resid. U. S., 45. 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.

1871. Lockhart, Fair to See, I., 208. On the lower hills the pine-trees loomed through stagnant mists with a dejected and blue-devilly aspect.

Blue-dog. See Blush.

blue fear, subs. phr. (colloquial). —Extreme fright ; blue funk (q.v.).

1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, in Longman's Mag., April, 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. phr. (old).—a blue apron (q.v.): as 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. phr. (colloquial). —Extreme fright; nervousness; or dread. [funk = to stink through fear; Wedgwood connects it with the Walloon funker = to smoke].

1856. Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School-days, 196. If I was going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk.

1861. Macmillau's Magazine. 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.

1871. Maxwell, Life (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly %*\wfov Seoç is the Homeric for a blue funk.

Blue Gozv?t. 289 Blue-laws.

1900. Kipling, Stalky & Co, 16. Even suppose we were miles out of bounds, no one could get at us through this wussy, unless he knew the tunnel. Isn't this better than lyin' up just behind the coll.—in a blue funk every time we had a smoke ?

Blue-gown. i. A loose woman; a wanton: see tart. [Nares: a blue-gown was the dress of ignominy for a harlot in the house of correction].

is[?]. Edward, Promos, and Cass. iii. 6.

Lam. Teare not my clothes, my friends, they cost more than you are aware.

Bedell. Tush, soon you shall have a blew gown ; for these take you no care.

1609. Dekker, Honest Whore [Dodsley], Old Plays (Reed), iii, 464. Your puritanical honest whore sits in a blue gown.—Where!—do you know the brick house of castigation?

2. (old).—A beggar: especially a licensed beggar who wore the dress as a badge.

BLUE HEN'S CHICKENS, subs. phr. (American).—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 'gamecocks'; 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 chicken's, 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. phr. (military). —The Fourth Dragoon Horse : from its facings (1746—88).

blueism, sub. (old).—The possession or affectation of learning in a woman.

18.. Hook. Man of Many Friends. He had seen the lovely, learned Lady Frances Bellamy, and had fallen a victim to her beauty and blueism.

Blue-jacket, subs. phr. (naval).— A sailor; especially used to distinguish seamen from the marines.

blue-laws, subs. phr. (American). —Puritanic laws of extreme severity: orig. of enactments at New Haven, Conn., U.S.A. [Kingsley (Hist. Disc):—Where and how the story of the New Haven blue laws originated is a matter of some curiosity. According to Dr. Peters, the epithet blue was applied to the laws of New Haven by the neighbouring colonies, because these laws were thought peculiarly sanguinary; and he says that blue is equivalent to bloody. It is a sufficient refutation of this account of the matter to say that, if there was any distinction between the colony of New Haven and the other united colonies of New England in the severity of their punishments, New Haven was the last of the number to gain this bad preeminence. Others have said that certain laws of New Haven, of a more private and domestic kind, were bound in a blue cover; and hence the name. This explanation has as little probability as the preceding for its support. It is well known that, on that restoration of Charles II., the Puritans became the subject of every

Blue-Lightning. 290 Blue-noses.

kind of reproach and contumely. Not only what was deserving of censure in their deportment, but their morality, was especially held up to scorn. The epithet blue was applied to any one who looked with disapprobation on the licentiousness of the times. The Presbyterians, under which name all dissenters were often included, as they still dared to be the advocates of decency, were more particularly designated by this term ; their religion and their morality being marked by it as mean and contemptible. Thus Butler:—

'For his religion, it was fit To match his learning and his wit; 'T was Presbyterian true blue.' (Hudib., Canto I.)

That this epithet of derision should find its way to the colonies was a matter of course. It was here applied, not only to persons, but to customs, institutions, and laws of the Puritans, by those who wished to render the prevailing system ridiculous. Hence probably a belief with some, that a distinct system of laws, known as the Bleu Laws, must have somewhere a local habitation.]

Blue lightning, subs. (American).

—A revolver.

blue-milk, subs. phr. (provincial).— Old skimmed milk: cf. sky-blue.

blue monday, subs. phr. (workmen's).—A Monday spent in dissipation and abscence from work. Hence Mondayish = disinclined for work : Ger. blauer Montag: cf. black saturday.

1885. Harper's Magazine, 873, 1. The workman getting sober after his usual

blue monday.

blue-moon, subs. phr. (common).— An unlimited period : hence once in a blue moon = extremely seldom: see queen dick.

1526. Roy and Barlowe, Rede me and be not wroth, 114 [ed. Arber, 1871]. Yf they saye the mone is belewe, We must beleve that it is true, Admittynge their interpretacion.

i860. F. W. Robinson, Grandmother's Money, I., 144. If he talked till a blue moon, etc.

1876. Miss Braddon, Joshua Haggard's Daughter, 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, xxi. 'I've made bold to take the chance of your being at home for once in a blue moon, Mr. Carew,' said she.

1901. People, 7 April, 13, 1. As a matter of fact, some of the inmates have a bath once in a blue moon, and give their faces and hands a cat-lick once a week.

blue-murder (or blue-murders),

subs. phr. (common).—A term used to describe cries of terror or alarm; a great noise; an unusual racket: cf. Fr. morbleu.

1887. j. S. Winter, Eng. III. Mag., Dec, 179. The dingy person dropped his victim and howled what the halfdozen officers . . . graphically described as blue murder.

blueness, subs, (common).—Indecency; smut (q.v.): see blue, subs., sense 2. Fr. horreurs ; bêtises -, gueulées _; and décravater ses propos = to talk blue.

1840. Carlyle, Diderot Ess., 240. The occasional blueness of both [writings] shall not altogether affright us.

blue-noses, subs. phr. (American). —The natives of Nova Scotia. [In allusion, it is said, to a potato of that name which Nova Scotians

Blue-peter. 291 Blue-pill.

claim to be the best in the world. Proctor, however, would wager that the Nova Scotians were called blue nos ,s 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 blub noses of Nova Scotia.

1846. Lowell, Biglow Papers. The sort o' trash a feller gits to eat doos

beat all nater. I 'd give a year's pay for a smell o' one

good blue-nose tater.

i8[?]. Sir George Simpson Overland Journey, I., 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-peter,^^.///r.(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. Breton, Handy Book of Games, 358. Since the introduction of Blue Peter, the necessity of leading through your adversary's hand has become less and less.

bull-pigeon, subs, phr (thieves'),— I. Lead used for roofing purposes: cf. bluey = (lead) and blue

pigeon flyer.

1887. Judy, 27 April, 200. A burglar whose particular 'lay' was flying the blue pigeon, i.e., stealing lead.

2 (nautical).—The sounding lead.

Blue-pigeon flyer, subs. phr. (thieves').—I. A thief who steals

lead from the roofs of buildings. [Hotten :—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].

2. Fr. limousineur ; gras-doublier; mastaroußeur. Hence to

fly the blue pigeon = to Steal

lead from the roofs of houses. Fr. fain la mastar au gras-double ; ratisser du gras double.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, 165. Blue pigeon flying. Fellows who steal lead off houses, or cut pipes away.

1872. j. Doran, 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 '.

1901. Daily Telegraph, 21 Mar. 11. 5. Persons addicted to what is known among the criminal classes as ' flying the blue pigeon ', usually mount on to the roofs of buildings that are covered with the metal, and this they do at times when they are least likely to be observed or interrupted.

Blue-pill, subs. phr. (colloquial).— A bullet: also blue plumb and blue whistler: see pill.

Blue-point. 292

Blues (the).

1785. Grose, Dictionary ofthe 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), 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.

1861. TV". Y. Tribune (Let. from Missotiri), Nov. 10. Between blue pills, halters, and the penitentiary, we shall soon work off this element of rascaldom and horse-thieves.

Blue-point, subs., phr., (old).—A small standard of value; something worthless: cf. rap, straw, Curse, damn. [A point was a tag of lace, and blue was the usual colour of a servant's livery; also blue point = some coarse lace or string on a servant's coat. Point by itself was used in this disparaging sense].

1543. Udal, Erasmus, 8. In matters not worth a blewe poinct... we will spare for no cost. Hid, 187. He was, for the respect of his qualities not to be estemed worth a blewe point or a good lous.

1598. Breton, Dream Str. Effects, 17. I am sworn servant to Virtue; therefore a blue point for thee and villanies.

Blue-ribbon, subs. phr. (common). — i. Gin: see drinks.

2. (colloquial).—A first-prize, the greatest distinction. Hence, the blue ribbon of the turf = the Derby (racing).

blue-ruin, subs. phr. (common).— Gin: see drinks.

[1753. Tract. [Notes and Queries, 1 S. ii. 246.] [The English are here spoken of as 'expensive in blew bebr' (.'blue ruin)].

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, 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., 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.

1836. Southev, Doctor, Int. xvi. Some of the whole-hoggery in the House of Commons he would designate by Deady, or Wet and Heavy, some by weak tea, others by blue ruin, Old Tom, which rises above blue ruin to the tune of threepence a glass, and, yet more fiery than Old Tom, as being a fit beverage for another Old One who shall be nameless, gin and brimstone.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Bagman's Dog.'

He conceived she referr'd to a delicate brewing,

Which is almost synonymous, namely, blue ruin.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, II., 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 ond Daylight, xxiii. The stuff itself, which in the western gin-shops goes generally by the name of blue ruin, or 'short.'

blues (the), subs, (common).—i. Despondency ; hypochondria ; depression of spirits. [A shortened form of blue devils (q.v.).] Fr. se faire des plumes or paumer ses plumes.

1807. Washington Irving, Salmagutidi (1824), 96. In a fit of the blues.

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, viii. The moat alone is enough to give one the blues.

Blue-skin.

293 Blue-stocking.

1889. John Strange Winter, That Imp, 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. (common).—The police : see Blue, subs, sense 1.

1836. 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.

3. (military).—The Royal Horse Guards Blue: 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.'

4. (old).—Blue clothes: cf.

smalls (q.V.); dittoes (q.V.).

1412. Occleve, De Reg. Prin. [Roxburgh].26. [There is the phrase] my blewes (blue clothes)].

Blue-skin, subs. phr. (old).—1. a Presbyterian : in contempt, blue is still the Presbyterian colour, and with them, as an adjective, describes books and people.

1620. Butler, Hudibras, Sc. I. 26. 'Twas Presbyterian true blue.

2. (West Indian).—a halfbreed—the child of a black woman by a white man : cf. blue squadron.

BLUE-squadron, subs. phr. (colonial).—One of mixed blood; properly one with a Hindoo strain. Eurasians belong to the blue squadron: cf. blue-skin and touch of the tar brush.

Blue-stocking, subs. phr. (old).— a literary lady: applied usually with the imputation of pedantry. The generally recived 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 bluestocking 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

Blue-stone. 294 Bluey.

the foreigner, fancing that bas bleus were p^rt of the necessary costume, called the meeting ever after the Bas-bleu Society. Also (modern) blue. Derivatives are blue-stockingism, blue-stock

INGER, etc.

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?

b. 1738, d. 1819. Wolcot ('P. Pindar'), Benevolent Epistle, in Wks. (Dublin, i795)> ii., 125.

I see the band of blue-stockings arise, Historic, critic, and poetic dames!

1824. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, ii., 245. That d—d, vindictive, blue stocking'd wild cat.

1836. Southey, Doctor, xxxiv. Madame de Staél collected round her a circle of literati, the blue legs of Geneva.

d. i860. De Quincev, Auto Sk., i., 358. He refers it to an old Oxford Statute enjoining the wearing of blue stockings on the students.

1877. Macmillan's Mag., May, 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., I., 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 practise their music; but so as to be fit to récrive callers, without any signs of blubstockingism which could be reported abroad.

blue-stone, subs. phr. (common). Spirits so bad in quality that they can only be compared to vitriol, of which blue-stone is also a nickname in the north of England and Scotland.

1880. Blackwood's Mag., June, 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, Notts and Queries, 6 S., v., 348. A witness was asked in the Northern Police Court, Glaigow, 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. phr. (old).—Gin: see drinks.

Blueth, adj. (Walpole: nonce word).—Blueness.

1754. Walpole, Letters, i., 347. [Strawberry Hill] is now in the height of its greenth, blueth, gloomth, honeysuckle. Ibid, i., 363. I will not, however, tell you that I am content with your being there, till you have seen it in all its greenth and blueth.

blue-water, subs. phr. (nautical).— The open sea.

blue-whistler, suis. phr. (American)—A bullet: see pill.

1888. New York Herald, Nov. 4. It was Mr. Barbour's rifle shot which had hit hiin 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: also blue pigkon (ç-v.). Fr. doussin ; noir ; saucisson; porler du gras-double au moulin = to dispose of bluey at the fence.

Bluey-Hunter. 295 Blunderbuss.

2. (Australian).—A bushman's bundle, the outside wrapper of which is generally a blue blanket —hence the name: also called his swag {q.v.); and drum (q.v.).

BLUEY-HUNTER, subs. phr. (thieves'). —A thief who steals lead, as described under blue pigeon flyer (q.v.).

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, 46. Bluey-hunters, who take lead from the tops of houses.

BLUFF, subs, (common).—An excuse ; a pretence; that which is intended to hoodwink or 'to blind.' Hence bluffer.

c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Bluffer, to look bluff, to look big, or like Bull-beef.

1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, I., 231. [List of patterer's words.] Bluff, an excuse.

1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, 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 offer was only a bluff.

1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 26. How a New Jersey Congressman once made a leather bluff is a good one. A certain very well known New Jersey politician—an old man, whose fame extends far beyond the borders of his own State —is celebrated as a great bluffer.

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 poker. Ray (1674-91) gives bluff = blindfold, and Bailey (1721) c= hoodwink.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, 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, 3, col. 5. Subsequently a prominent bookmaker attempted to bluff Captain Machel 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. 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.'

1889. Answers, July 20, 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. phr. (old).—An innkeeper. Bailey and Grose.

i. c. 1696. B.E. Did. Cant. Crew., s.v. bluffer, c. a Host, Innkeeper or Victualler.

2. (nautical).—A bo'sum.

See bluff.

BLUNDERBUSS, subs, (old).—A stupid blundering fellow. (Grose).

1694. Plautus made English, Preface. If any man can shew me a greater Lyer, or a more bragging coxcomb than this blunderbuss, he shall take me, make me his slave, and starve me with whey and buttermilk.

c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., blunderbuss, a Dunce, an unganely Fellow.

1729. Woolston, Sixth Disc, on Miracles, 50. No wise man hardly ever reprehends a blunderbuss for his bulle, any ether way than by laughing at him.

Blunt. 296 Blurt.

1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker, i., 122. He too pronounced ex cathedra, upon the characters of his cotemporaries... One is a blunderbuss, as being a native of Ireland, another a half-starved louse of literature from the banks of the Tweed.

18.. Notes and Queries, 4 S., iii., 561. [An old story is related of a lady in a cathedral town asking the schoolmaster, " Is my son in a fair way to be a canon?" "A very fair way, madam; he is a blunderbuss already."j

blunt, subs, (common).—Generic for money: especially ready money : see Rhino. [There are several suggested derivations; (1) blond = sandy or golden colour, and of that a parallel may be found in brown or browns = halfpence ; (2) in allusion to the blunt rim of coins; (3) from Mr. John Blunt, the chairman of the South Sea Bubble]. Hence blunted = possessed of money; in comfortable circumstances; warm (q.v.).

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.) 11. [List of cant words.] blunt, money

i8(?). English Spy 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother of the togati, fresh as a newblown 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 bulldogs—the townraff and the bargees—we 11-blunt ed or stiver-cramped—against dun or don—nob or big wig—so may you never want a bumper of bishop.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 3. (Holding out his right hand for the money, and keeping the porter aiuay 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, xxxix. 'It's all very well,' said Mr. Sikes; 'but I must have some blunt from you tonight.' ' I haven't a piece of coin about me,' replied the Jew.

1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., 315. Blunt ... is also a well-know slang term for money.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., 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.

Blunt-worker, stibs. phr. (old).—

A blunderer (1440). blunt-WORKing = blundering.

blunty, subs. (old).—A stupid fellow, one slow-witted : see buffle.

Blur-paper, subs. phr. (old).—A

scribbler (1603).

blurt ! intj. (old).—An exclamation of contempt. 'Blurt, master constable,' a fig for the constable, seems to have been a proverbial phrase. To blurt at, to hold in contempt.

1598. Florio, IVorlde of Wördes, s.v. Boccheggiare, to make mouthes or blurt with ones lips; Ibid s.v. chicchere, a Hurt with ones fingers, or blurt with ones mouth in scorne or derision.

i₅ [?l Edward III, iv. 6. And all the world will blurt and scorn at us.

1602. MiDDLETON, Blurt, Master Constable [Tille] Blirt! a rime; blirt! a rime.

1606. Shakspeare, Pericles, iv. 4. But cast their gazes on Marina's face, While ours was blurted at.

1606. Puritan, iv. 2. blurt, blurt ! there's nothing remains to put thee to pain now, captain.

1607. Jests to Make you Merry, 6. Yes, that 1 am for fault of a better, quoth he. Why then, blurt! maistek Constable, saies the other, and clapping spurres to his horse, gallop'd away amaine.

Blush. 297

Board.

Blush. To blush like a black

(or blue) dog, verb. phr. (old). —Not to blush at all.

157g. Gosson, Apologie of School of Abuse, 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, 557. Faciein perfricuit. Hee blusheth like a blacke dogge, hee hath a brazen face.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation [Couv.. 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.

BLUSHET, subs.phr. (old).—A modest girl; a little blusher (1625).

BLUSTERATION, subs, (colloquial).— Blustering.

B.N.C., (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, 5, i. 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.

BO (or BOH). To cry (or say) bo

to a goose (battledore, bull,

etc.), verb. phr. (old).—To open one's wouth ; to speak ; to gainsay a matter.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stufte [Hart. Misc. vi. 174J. All this may passe in the Queene's peace, and no man SAY Bo to it.

c. 1600. Heywood, Woman Killed with Kindness [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), iv. 113]. We have such a household of serving creatures, unless it be Nick and I, there's not one amongst them all can say Bo to a goose.

1709. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. s v. Ibid, Hamilton's Bawn. A scholard, when just from his college broke loose, Can hardley tell how to cry bo to a goose.

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, liv. The soldier with great vociferation swore I was either dumb or deaf, if not both, and that I looked as if I could not boh! to a goose. Aroused at this observation, I fixed my eyes upon him, and pronounced with emphasis the interjection, boh!

Boanerges, subs, (colloquial).—A loud, vociferous speaker: i.e. 'a son of thunder' (Mark iii., 17).

BOARD, verb (military).—I. To borrow.

2. (nautical).—To accost; to address; to ask of; to make a demand ; i.e., to come to close quarters.

1547. Earl Surrey, Mneid, IV., 395. At length her self bokdeth Aeneas thus.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, ii., 2. [Enter Hamlet, reading.] Queen. But look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. Pol.... I'll board him presently :—Ü, 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.

See bord.

To board in the smoke, phr. (nautical).—To take one unawares, or by surprise; in the

Boards.

298 Board-of-green-cloth.

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.'

1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, iii., 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.

To sweep the board, verb, phr. (colloquial).—To pocket all the stakes.

To begin the board, verb, phr. (colloquial).—To take precedence.

To go by the board, verb, phr. (colloquial).—To go for ' good and all ' ; be completely done for ; to be ruined.

To sail on another board, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To change one's tactics.

boards (the), subs. phr. (theatrical)— The theatrical possession: hence to go on the boards =. to become an actor.

1809. Malkin, Gil ^/(«[Roiitledge], 73. It is no easy matter to get upon the boards.

Boarding-house school, subs. phr.

(old).—Newgate gaol, but equally applicable to any goal. New York thieves apply the term to the Tombs: Fr. collège: see cage.

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Boarding-school, c. Bridewell.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Boarding School. Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison or house of correction.

Boarding-scholar, subs. phr. (old). —A gaol bird.

c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Boarding-scholars, c. Bridewell-birds.

boardman, subs, (vagrants').—A standing patterer: see quot. Also: sandwich man (q.v.).

1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 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. phr. (colloquial).—A card (or billiard) table.

1771. P. Parsons, New Newmarket, II., 24. That board of green cloth, the billiard table.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh,

33. ' I am going down to F-' ' As

usual, the board of grben 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 Melvillb, Digby Grand, 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, viii. The soft seductive sound of the dice sliding gently on to the board of green cloth.

Boat.

299

Bob.

BOAT, subs. (old).—Formerly the hulks; now applied to any prison: see cage.

1856. H. Mayhew, Great World of London, 82, note. [List of thieves' names of prisons.] The Hulks, or any Public Works—The boat.

Good boat, subs. phr. (military).—A soldier who spends his money freely with his poorer eomrades.

Verb (old).— I. Originally to transport ; the term is now applied to penal servitude. To get the boat (or to be boated) = to be sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, equivalent to transportation under the old system.

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.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. 'On the Trail.' 'Does he boat with you?' 'Yes, and he's an artist. Only last night, down at the Albany break-up, he buzzed a bloke and a shakester of a reader.'

To sail one's own boat, verb, phr. (Americ).—To be self-reliant ;

to paddle one's own canoe^.-y.).

To row in the boat, verb, phr. (old).—To go snacks ; to have a share in any transaction. To let a person row with you = to admit to a share (Faux).

To sail (or row) in the same boat, verb, phr. (colloquial).—To pursue the same course; to be in the same condition ; to be subject to the same circumstances.

i5[?] Hudson, Judith, sc. Ill, 352. What! haue ye pain? so likewise pain haue we ;

For in one boat we both imbarked be; Upon one tide one tempest doth us tosse; Your common ill, it is our common losse.

To have an oar in another's boat, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To meddle ; to busybody.

bob, subs, (popular).— 1. A shilling: :« Rhino, [Murray : There was an old French coin called a bobe, but 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 spurious plural is sometimes formed of bob, thus bobber—two bobber = a two-shilling piece.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bob or bobstick, a shilling.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, iii., 3. Tom. Now then, what's to pay, landlord? Mace. All out, will 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, /. L. (Misadventures at Margate). I changed a shilling—(which in town the people call a bob).

18.. Lytton, My Novel, IV., v., 'Well, please yourself,'quoth the tinker; 'you shall have the books for four bob, and you can pay me next month.' 'Four bobs—four shillings: it is a great sum,' said Lenny.

1882. Punch, LXXXII., 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.:!

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xx. I gets sixteen bob a week . . . and I get my kip for nenti here for helping old Blower tidy up.

2. (old).—A shoplifter's assistant; one who received and carried off stolen goods: Fr. nonne (or noune).

Bob.
300
Bob.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Bob, c. a. Shop-lift's camrade, assistant, or receiver.
3. (old).—Gin : see quots. under bobstick and drinks.
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.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports and Adventures in Scotland, xxxv., 282. Me, that never . . . listened to a light-bob.
1848. Thackeray, Vanitv Fair, xxiv. Mr. Stubble, as may be supposed from his size and slenderness, was of the light-bobs.
5. (Winchester College).—A large white jug used for beer, and containing about a gallon in measure.
1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College. 85. Each end and Praefect's mess had their beer served up in a large white jug, or 'bob.' The vessel used for the same purpose in Commoner's was called a 'Jorum.'
188S. 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.
6. (old).—'A very short periwig' (B.E.).
7. (old).—'For Robert (B.E.).
8. (old).—A thump : also as verb.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Glas [Arber], 80. [Apes rewards are] a peece of breade and therewithal a bobbe (modern 'kicks and halfpence'= monkey's allowance).
1608. Armin, Nest of Ninnies. In an envious spleene, smarting ripe, runes after him, fais at fistie cuffes with him; but the fellow belaboured the foole cunningly, and got the fooles head under his arme, and bob'd his nose.
1655. Francion [Nares]. Suppose then you see Francion enter into the school, his lynings hanging out of his breeches down unto his shoes, his gown wrapped about him, his book under his arm, undertaking to give a fillip to one, and a bob unto an other.
9. (old).—A taunt ; a scoff : hence to give the bob =2 to give one the door; to dismiss summarily and without ceremony : see Bobber 2.
1591. Lyly, Alex, and Campaspe [Dodsley, Old Plays'] (Reed) ii., 113. I have drawn blood at one's brains with a bitter bob.
1600. Shakspeare, As You Like It, ii., 7. He that a fool doth very wisely hit, Doth very foolishly, altho' he smart, Not to seem senseless of the bob.
1632. Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv., 5. C. I guess the business. 5. It can be no other But to give me the bob, that being a matter of main importance.
1633. Fletcher, Purple Island, vii., 25. Oft' takes (his mistress by) the bitter
bob.
Adj. (old).—Generic for O.K. (q.v.); nice; in good spirits; safe; secure; as right as may be.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v.
bob.
1721. Cibber, Refusal, I., sp. 109 Yesterday at Marybone, they had me all bob as a Robin.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. [All's bob is defined as foregoing]
1839. Harkisson Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard. 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.

Bob.
301
Bob.
1864. Miss Yonge, Trial, I., 113. 'That's a nice girl' . . . 'Bobber than bobtail.'
Verb (old).—I. To cheat; to trick; to disappoint: also to bob out of.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, ii. 203. Let him be bob'd that bobs will have; But who by means of wisdom hie Hath sav'd his charge?—It is even I.
1602. Shakespeare, Othello, v. 1. He calls me to a restitution large Of gold and jewels that I bobb'd from him.
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.
1613. Tailor, Hog hath Lost, etc. [Dodsley, Old Play (Reed), vi. 386]. Disgrace me on the open stage, and bob me off with ne'er a penny.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., sv. Bob'd, c. Cheated, Trick'd, Disappointed, or Baulk'd.
1707. Ward, Hud. Rediv. II. ii. 19. They would bob their Ladies of a merry Job.
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.
2. (old).—See subs. 8.
Intj. (common).—Stop, That's enough ! a dovetail to the phrase, ' Say when ', in helping to water, etc.
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, subs. phr. (venery). —I. Coition without emission: a single drop (or blob) = a snowball (q.v.).
d. 1680. Rochester, Works. Resolved to win, like Hercules, the prize . . .
The cheating jilt, at the twelfth, a dry bob cries.
2. (Eton College).—A cricketer or footballer: that is one addicted to land sports as distinguished from a wet-bob who favours rowing and aquatics.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, 42. 'It is settled, the match to-morrow, shall be between Aquatics and dry bobs,' said a senior boy.
1874. Saturday Review, Aug., 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.
Bear a bob ! phr. (common). —Be brisk ! look sharp !
1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv. 1. vi. 6. All strain'd their throats to bear a bob.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 85. Shelugg'd the Fainting Grecian hearts... Out of their breeks... Stroak'd 'em and plac'd 'em where they should be. For wives they now no longer sob, Finding that they must bear a bob At other work.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 94. The conversation became general, lively, jovial... We all of us bore a bob.
Bob a nod, phr. (common).A shilling a head.
S'help me bob, phr. (low).— A street oath: 'So help me God.' 'So help' is pronounced swelp.
Also s'help the cat ; my greens ; the taturs, etc.
1S37. 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. Pain, Confid. Agent, xix. 'Not another word will I say, s'help me bob.' And John rolled over in his bed like an indignant porpoise.

Bobber. 302 Bobby.
To shift one's bob, verb. phr. (common).—To go away: cf. to bob around = to go expeditiously from place to place.
BOBBER, subs, (common).—I, A fellow-workman; a mate; a chum (q.v.).
i860. W. White, Round Wrekin, 34. Bobber being the equivalent of chum.
1871 Daily News, May 19. As he sells these, the buyers or their bobbers carry them off.
2. (old).—A scoffer: see bob, sub 9.
1575. Touchstone of Complexions, 99. The Cholérique are bitter taunters, dry bobbers, nyppinge gybers and skornefull mockers of others.
3. (common).—A spuriousplural of bob (q.v.) = a shilling.
i8[?]. Sporting Times [S.J. and C.]. So down I gets and finds a two bobber. My mate gives me the wink, but the slavey's on the job, so I say, 'Oh, miss, if I ain't found a two bobber.'
BOBBEROUS, adj. (provincial).— Saucy; forward (Halliwell).
BOBBERY, subs, (popular).—A noise; a squabble ; a disturbance ; a racket (q.v.). [Yule: An AngloIndian representation of Biipre! O father ! a common exclamation of surprise or grief. Murray: the evidence for its origination in India is decisive, other plausible derivations to the contrary notwithstanding.]
1803. Kenney, Raising the Wind, II., i. If I don't go back, and kick up such a bobbery.
1833. Marry at, Peter Simple, 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, xix. 'I can do nothing, but there's a bobbery at the bottom of it.'
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, (Hermann). Kicking up all sorts of shindies aud bobberies.
1879. Punch, 17 May, 227. I might in quiet hold my own, And not go kicking up a bobbery.
BOBBING-BLOCK, subs. phr. (old).— A block that persons can strike; an unresisting fool.
1576. Gascoigne, Devises, 337. Became a foole, yea more then that, an asse, A bobbing-bloke, a beating stock, an owle.
BOBBISH, adj. (common).—Hearty; in good health and spirits ; clever; spruce : cf. Bob, adj. also pretty bobbish and bobbishly, adv.
1819. Scott, in Lockhart, xliv (1842), 394. I trust you will find me pretty bobbish.
1857. Dickens, The Detective Police, in Repainted Pieces, 247. 'Halloa, Butcher! is that you?' 'Yes, it's me, How do you find yourself?' 'bobbish,' he says.
i860. Dickens, Great Expectations, iv., 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, 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.'
BOBBLE, sub. (venery).— In pi. = the testes-, bawbells (q.v.), see
cods.
BOBBY, subs, (popular).—A policeman. Though possibly not derived from, popularised by the fact that the Metropolitan Police Act of

Bobby-twister. 303
Bobstick.
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. At the Universities the Proctors are, or used to be, called bobbies.
1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 16. It is often said in admiration of such a man that he could muzzle half a dozen bobbies before breakfast !
1851-61. Mayhew, Loud. Lab. etc.
1. 40. 'But the worst of hair is,' they add, 'that it is always getting cut off in quod, all along of muzzling the bobbies.'
i860. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, iii. They don't go a headerin' down here wen there an't no bobby nor gen'ral Cove fur to hear the splash.
1880. Punch, No. 2038. Going round a corner and crying, bobby! bobby! bobby! when he saw a Proctor.
1884. Punch, July 26, 41, 2. But oh, for the grip of the 'bobby's' hand Upon his neck that day.
1899. The Mirror, Aug. 26, 7,
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.
1899. Whiteing, John St., xxi. Thai's why they always have so many lobsters an' bobbies abaht.
bobby-twister, stibs. phr. (thieves'). —A burglar or thief, using violence: see thief.
bob-cull, subs. phr. (thieves').—A good fellow ; a pleasant companion.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford 'Where be you going, you imp of the world : ' cried the dame. ' Get in with you, and say no more on the matter; be a boiicull—drop the bullies, and you shall have the blunt!'
bob-fool, verb. phr. (old).—To mock ; to fool (q.v.).
1594. Greene, Alph. K. of Arragon, iv. What, do they think to play bobfool with me ?
bob-jerom, subs. phr. (old).—A short, unfashionable wig.
1782. D'Arblay, Cecilia, ix. 1. 'Hate a plaistered pate; commonly a numscull ; love a good bob jerom.' 'Why, this is talking quite wide of the mark,' said Mr. Hobson, 'to suppose a young lady of fortune would marry a man with a bob ;ero.m.' Ibid (1796) Camilla, in, xiii. The effect of this full-buckled bob jerom which stuck hollow from the young face and powdered locks of the ensign was irresistibly ludicrous.
bob-my-pal, subs. phr. (rhyming). —A girl; gal (q.v.).
Bob's-horse. Off like bob'shorse ; phr. (nautical).—See quot.
1836. Dana, Bcf. the Mast, 239. Going off to sea again, leaving his wife half pay, like a fool, coming home and finding her 'off, like bob's horse, with nobody to pay the reckoning'; furniture gone,—flag-bottomed chairs and all; —and with it, his 'long togs,' the half pay, his beaver hat, white linen shirts, and everything else.
bobstick, subs, (old).—A shilling's worth: see bob. Cf., bob, sense 1.
17S9. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, 162. Bobstick of rum slim. That is, a shilling's worth of punch.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., 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.
U

Bobtail.
304 Bocardo.
bob-tail, subs. phr. (old).—i. A wanton : see tart (B.E.).
2. (old).—An impotent man; a eunuch.
3. (old archery).—The steel of a shaft or arrow that is smallbreasted, and big towards the head. (Kersey) _; a short arrowhead (B.E.).
1544. Ascham, Toxophilus [arber] 126. Those that be lytle brested and big toward the hede called by theyr lykenesse taper fashion, reshe growne, and of some merrye fellowes bobtayles, be fit for them whiche shote vnder hande.
Kindred by bobtail, subs, phr. (old).—See quot.
i6[?]. Nomenclator, 533. Cousins by mariage, or kinred (as they commonly terme it) by bobtaile.
Tag, rag, and bobtail _; a mob of all sorts of low people ; the common herd; the rabble: bobtail is a comparatively modern usage, the orig. phrase having been tag and rag and 'longtail.'
1535. Bvgod [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 481. Bygod has 'your fathers were wyse, both tagge and rag'; that is one and alt].
1597. Heywood, Timon [Five Plays in One, 10]. I am not of the raggs or fagg end of the people.
d. 1599. Spencer, State of Ireland. They all came in both tagge and ragge cutte and long tayle.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 5. Gallants, men and women, and All sorts, tag-rag.
1637. Hevwood, Royal King [Pearson, Works (1894), vi. 14]. Stood 1 but in the midst of my followers, I might say I had nothing about me but tagge and ragge.
1659-60. Pepys, Diary, Mar. 6. The dining-room... was full of tag, rag, and hobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking.
1785. Wolcot (*P. Pindar'), Ode to R. A.'s ii., Wks. (1812) I., 80. Tagrags and bobtails of the sacred Brush.
1S00. Colquhoun, Comm. Thames, ii. 75. That lowest class of the community who are vulgarly denominated the
tag rag and bobtail.
1820. Byron, Blues, ii., 23. The rag, tag, and bobtail of those they call 'Blues.'
i8s[?]. Greville, Memoirs, 19 Jan. He [William IV.j lives a strange life at Brighton, with tag, rag and bobtail about him, and always open house.
1837. Barham, Ingolds. Leg. 11. 109. tag, rag, and bobtail are capering there.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxxv. We don't take in no tag, rag and bobtail at our house.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxxv. Old hags. . . draped in majestic raggery.
Bocardo, subs. (old).—A prison : see cage: specially the prison in the old North Gate of Oxford, demolished in 1771.
1548. Latimer, Sermons, fol. 105 C. Was not this [Achab] a seditious fellow ? —Was he not worthy to be cast in bocardo or little-ease?
1582. Stanyhurst, Aeneis, [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 604. Virgil's words are Englished by such terms as bocardo... Bedlam, limbo].
1596. Lodge, Incarnate Devils. There are many in London now adaies that are besotted with this sinne, one of whom I saw on a white horse in Fleet street, a tanner knave I never lookt on, who with one figure (cast out of a schollers Studie for a necessary servant at bocardo) promised to find any man's oxen were they lost, restore any man's goods if they were stolne, and win any man love, where or howsoever he settled it.
1772. Warton, Newsman's Verses. Rare tidings for the wretch whose ling'ring score
Remains unpaid, bocardo is no more.

Boco. 305 Body-slangs.
boco (or boko), subs, (originally pugilistic, now common).—I. The nose: set conk.
1880. Besant and Rice, Seamy Side, 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 pocketmoney 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. (colloquial). — Nonsense ; bosh {q.v.). [Of unknown derivation, and, apparently, no connection with sense 1].
1886. Punch, 25 Sept., 145. Lopsided Free Trade is all boko.
boctail, subs, (old).—A bad woman, (Coles).
bode-ill, phr. (old colloquial).—To presage or betoken ill. (B.E.).
Bodge. See botch.
bodier, subs, (pugilistic).—A blow on the side of the body : see ribroaster.
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 next entry.
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.
163S. Ford, Fancies, IV., i. (1811), 186. Where but two lie in a bed, you must be—bodkin, bitch-baby—must ye?
1798. Loves of the Triangles, 182. While the pressed bodkin, punched and squeezed to death, Sweats in the midmost place.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, xxxiv. The writer supposes Aubrey to come to town in post-chaise and pair, sitting bodkin probably between his wife and sister.
bodle, subs. (B.E.).—'Six make a penney, Scotch coin.'
body, subs, (old ; now colloquial). —A person, poor body = a simpleton.
d. it<)6. Burns, Contin' thro' the Bye. If a body kiss a body, Need a body cry?
body of divinity bound in black calf = a parson (Lexicon Balatronicum).
body-cover, subs. phr. (American thieves').—A coat: cf. wraprascal.
body-slangs, subs. phr. (thieves').— Fetters: darbies.
1S19. 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. 306 Boggy-bo.
Body-snatcher, subs.phr. (old).—1. A bailiff _; a Bow-street runner. [The snatch was the trick by which the bailiff captured the delinquent: now obsolete].
2. (common).—A policeman.
1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, Bk. III., i., 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; a snide (q.v.): also : mean body-snatcher.
4. (common).—A violator of graves, a resurrectionist (q.v.).
1833. Sir F. Head, Bubbles from the Brunnen, 126. Any one of our bodysnatchers would have rubbed his rough hands.
1863. Reader, Aug. 22. At that time (1827-28) . . . body-snatching became a trade.
5. (common).—An undertaker; a cold cook (q.v.).
BOER, subs. (b.e.).—A country-fellow or clown. Hence (B.E.). ' boerish, rude, unmannerly, clownish.'
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, iii., 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). a bog-house (y.z/.): also bog-shop. Hence, as verb = to ease oneself ; to evacuate ; to shit (q.v.): see bury a quaker.
3. (old).—A simile of softness and tenderness (Nares).
1633. Marmyon, Fine Companion. Car. I will not raile at you, but I will cudgell you, and kicke you, you man of valour.
Cap. Hold as thou art a man of renowne, thou wilt strike thy foote into me else, my body is as tender as a bogg.
To take bog. See boggle.
Bogey. See bogy.
boggle, subs, (colloquial). — A bungle; mess (q.v.); hash (q.v.): generic for clumsy disorder: also boggle-de-botch and boggledybotch. Also as verb (and to take bog) = (1) to bungle,to make a mess of; and (2) to scruple, to hesitate ; to fight shy of. Also boggler.
c. 1400 [Ellis, Letters, 2S. i. 15. To BOG1L us (delay)].
d. 1663. Sanderson, Works, ii, 230. Daily experience showeth that many men who make no conscience of a lie, do yet take some bog at an oath.
1706. Ward, Wooden World, 10. He boggles at no imaginary quicksands.
1749. Smollett Gil Bias (1812) i, v. I don't believe thee fool enough to boggle at living with robbers . . . dost thou think there are any honester people in the world than we?
1834. Miss Edgeworth, Helen, 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.
boggler, subs. (old).—i. A vicious woman [Nares].
1607. Shakespeare, Ant. and Cleop. iii. 11. You have been a boggler ever.
2. See boggle.
boggy-bo. See bugabo.

Bog-house. 307 Bogus.
bog-house or bog-shop, subs. phr. (low).-A privy ; a necessary house : see Mrs. Jones, and my aunt.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., xii., 123 (1S74). Fearing I should catch cold, they out of pity covered me warm in a bogg-house.
1689. Gen. Ac. Book, Oct. 1689— Oct. 1690 [Cal. Inner Temple, III.] 'To Browne, the watchman, for burying the old man that kept the bog-house, 16s.'
c. 1696 B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Bog-houses, privies.
1703. Ward, London Spy, pt. III., 47. Its walls being adorn'd with as many unsavoury Finger-dabs as an Inns of Court bog-house.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Diet., 2 ed. Bog-house, a privy, or necessary-house.
boglander, subs, (old).—An Irishman: see bog-trotter.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bog-landers, Irishmen.
1698-1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. XVI., 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 Balatronicuvi. [The same definition given as in Grose.].
bog latin, subs. phr. (Irish).—A spurious mode of speech simulating the Latin in construction: see dog latin.
bog-oranges, subs. phr. (common). —A potato: a murphy (q.v.): see Bogland, with an eye to the vegetable in question forming a substantial food staple.
bog-trotter, subs. phr. (old).— An Irishman. Camden, however, (c. 1605), speaking of the 'debate
able land ' on the borders of England and Scotland, says, ' both these dales breed notable bogtrotters : hence the original sense appears to = one accustomed to walk across bogs : a nickname for an Irishman, it dates at least from 1671. Hence bogtrotting (in contempt) and bog-trot, verb.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., xxvii. (Repr. 1874), 232. [Irishmen are spoken of as bog-trotters in this work.]
1677. Miege, Diet. s.v. bog-trotter. An Irish robber.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Creiu., s.v. Bog-trotters, Scotch or North Country Mosstroopers or High-way Men formerly, and now Irish Men.
1740. North, Examen, 323. It is a thousand times better, as one would think, to bogtrot in Ireland, than to pirk it in preferment no better dressed.
1758-65. Goldsmith, On Quack Doctors (Essays and Poems, 1836), 127. Rock advises the world to beware of bog-trotting quacks.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., 169. The impudent, bog-trotting scamp dare not threaten me !
1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, xxix. Gaunt reapers and bog-trotters in those traditional blue bodycoats, leathern smalls, and bell-crowned hats, that seem to be manufactured nowhere save in Ireland.
1876. C. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 191. 'W^That 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. (orig. American: now common).—Spurious ; fictitious ; sham ; not what it professes to be. [Murray, who, while slily

Bogus. 308 Bogue.
satirising the ' bogus derivations circumstantially given,' 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 illlooking object ; he points out that lantrabogus 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.
18.. North, Slave of the Lamp, 33. ' Look at these bank-bills,' said the stranger; 'keep those that are good, and return me the bad.' ' I guess the whole pile are bogus,' said Confidence Bob, as he turned over his roll.
i8[?] Boston Atlas [Bartlett]. Not one cent should be given to pay the members of the bogus legislature of Kansas, or for the support of the bogus laws passed by them.
i8[?]. New York Herald [Bartlett]. The Know-Nothings of Massachusetts must behave themselves better than they
did in their visit to the Catholic nunnery, or they will be repudiated by their brethren in other States, as bogus members of the order.
1857. Amer. Notes and Queries, July. The wide-awake citizens of Boston have been sadly bitten by a bogus issue of the old 'Pine-Tree Shilling currency,' got up by a smart Gothamite.
1862. New York Herald, 2 May, 'Washington Letter.' I and my assistants [in Tennessee] are loyal to the United States; that when this office came under the rebel government, and the oath was sent to us, we filed it bogouslv [sic], and sent it to Richmond without swearing to it.
1869. S. L. Clemens ('MarkTwain'), Innocents at Home, 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, xxxv. 'They've got some good money, as well as bogus notes.'
1883. Saturday Review, March 31, 399, 2. M. Soleirol had probably a number of forged autographs of Molière; his whole collection was a bogus assortment of frauds.
BOGY (or BOGEY), subs, (common).—A landlord : Fr. Monsieur \^rautottr (= a vulture.)
Adj. (studios').—Sombre ; dark in tint : said of a painting exhibiting these characteristics.
Ask bogy, phr. (old).—An inconsequent answer to a question: 'sea-wit' (Grose): cf. bra
mah knows.
BOGUE, verb. (American).—To apply oneself; * put the best foot foremost'; 'use plenty of elbowgrease ! ' e.g., ' I don't git much done without I bogue right in along with my men.'

Bohemian.
309 Boiled-Shirt.
Bohemian, subs, (colloquial).—A
gipsy of society; one who either cuts himself off, or is by his habits cut off, from society for which he is otherwise fitted ; especially an artist, literary man, or actor, who leads a free, vagabond, or irregular life, not being particular as to the society he frequents, and despising conventionality generally ; used with considerable latitude, with or without reference to morals (O.E.D.).
BOHN, subs. (American college).— A translation; a pony (q.v.): see blue-ruin. [The volumes of Bonn's Claszical 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.
1602. Rowlands, Greene's Coney Catchers, 16. His cloyer or follower fortwith bovles him, that is, bewrayes him.
J.61I. MlDDLETON AND DEKKER,
Roaring Girle, Wks., 1873, III., 220. Wee are smoakt . . . wee are boyl'd, pox on her !
to boil down, verb. phr. (common).—To reduce in bulk by condensing or epitomizing.
1SS0. 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.
1885. G. Dolly, Dickens as I knew Him, 125. The newspaper and political elements having been consulted, and their opinions having been boiled down.
1887. H. Frederick, [Scribuer, I., 479]. To boil down columns of narrative into a few lines of bald, cold statement.
1888. Polytechnic Mag., 35 Oct., 258. Whatever you have to say, my friend, Just a word of friendly advice— boil it down.
Phrases.—To boil the pot = to gain (or supply) one's livelihood: hence to keep the pot boiling = to keep going. The blood boils (of strong emotion or resentment). To boil one's lobster = to enter the army after having been in the church.
Boiled-shirt (biled-shirt or boiled-rag), subs. phr. (American).— A white shirt: cf. bald-faced shirt.
1854. McClure, Rocky Mountains, 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.
i8[?]. Burton, Songs [Bartlett]. 'T was only last night, sure, they gave me a call
To deliver a lecture at Hibernia Hall. I put on a biled shirt, and hastened
there quick, But the blackguards did serve me the
divil's own trick.
1869. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Innocents at Home, xii. They had a particular and malignant animosity toward what they called a biled shirt.
1872. Dublin Univ. Mag., Feb., 219. Every man arrays himself in 'storeclothes' 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.
310
Bold.
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 : to t«v boilers were large tin saucepan-like vessels in which water for hot bidets (q.v.) was heated.
2. See pot boiler.
3. (Royal Military Academy). —A boiled potato: fried potatoes are called greasers.
The boilers (or bromptonboilers), subs. phr. (old).—The 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 is now applied to the Bethnal Green Museum : see pepper-boxes.
1885. Daily News, July 9, 5, 1. The building is merely a fragment of the old 'Brompton boilers,' set up originally for the South Kensington Museum.
BOILER-PLATED, adj.phr. (American). —Imperturbable ; stolid _; stoical.
BOILING (or BILING), subs. phr. (common).—A lot; a quantity ; a number of persons or things: also gridiron (q.V.) and shoot (q.V.).
1833. Haliburton (' Sam Slick '), Clcckmakcr, 3 S., xviii. The last mile, he said, tho' the shortest one of the whole bilin', took the longest [timej to do it by a jug-full.
1S37. Marry at, Dog Fiend, xiii. [He] may... whip the whole boiling of us off to the Ingees.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, lix., 496. 'And the whole bileing of people was mixed up in the same business, and no other.'
1874. E. L. Linton, Patricia Keinball, xxii. 'He have Dora? No, not if he licked my foot for her, and I broke the whole boiling of them—as I will!'
2. (Old cant.).—A discovery (Dekker).
BOILING-HOUSE, subs. phr. (old).— An eating-house: see History of Co/one/ yack, 1723.
BoiNARD, sub. (old).—A low person : in reproach : see Depos. Rich. II. 8, 13; Wright, Ane cd. Lit. 9.
BOISTEROUS-FELLOW (or SEA), subs, phr. (B.E).—' Blustering, rude, rough.'
BOKE, subs. (American thieves').— The nose: see boco.
1593. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xx. I was knocked silly and taken to the same 'orspital, and when I woke I was in bed, my boko all plastered up like a broken arm, and a gal in a white hat and blue dress a-waiting on me—a real lady, no kid.
BOLD. Bold as brass, adv.phr. (colloquial).—Audaciously forward ; presumptuous; without shame. Shakspeare uses the expression ' a face of brass ' : see brass.
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?-

Boldruniptious. 311
Bolt.
1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., 12. He came in as bold as brass.
1854. 1'hackeray, Lovel the Widdower, 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.
boldrumptious, adj. (colloquial), —Presumptious.
boler (also bowler), subs, (common).—A stiff felt hat : see Golgotha.
1861. Sat. Review, Sept. 21, 297. We are informed that he . . . wore, or rather carried in his hand, a white bowler hat.
1882. Peabody, Eng. Jourualism,xx\., 158. The ministers, in bowlers and pea-jackets, are to be found upon the shores of highland lochs.
1889. Answers, June 8, 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.
boller, (i.e. bowler), subs. (old). —A tippler; lushington (q.v.); one fond of the flowing bowl.
15.. Udal. Erasmus, 36. A feloe hauying sight in Phisiognomie, .. when he had well vewed Socrates gaue plain sentence that he was... a greate boller of wine, and a vicious foloer of all naughtie appetites.
bolly, subs. (Marlborough College).—Pudding.
bolster-lecture, subs. phr. (old). —a jobation from a wife when in bed ; a curtain-lecture (q.v.).
Bolster-pudding, subs. phr. (common).—A long round jam pudding; a roly-poly (q.v.): no doubt from its shape.
BOLT, subs, (old).—The throat. As verb = to eat hurriedly without chewing ; to swallow whole ; to gulp down.
1794. Wolcot ('P. Pindar'), Ode to Tyrants, in Wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., 527.
Bold push'd the Emp'ror on, with stride so noble.
Bolting his subjects with majestic gobble.
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. Veil, your honours, here's luck. (Bolts gin.) That's a regular kwortern, I knows by my mouth.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chtczzlewit, xvi., 171. Dyspeptic individuals bolted their food in wedges.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, bk. I., 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, 5, col. 3. The dangerous habit of bolting a light luncheon in two or three minutes.
Verb (old: now recognised).— i. To escape; to leave suddenly.
t.668. Etherege, She Would if She Could, I., i. (1704), 94. Is he gone? Court. Ay, ay ! you may venture to bolt now.
1712. Arbuthnot, Hist, of John Bull, pt. IV., vi. Then, of a sudden, bolting into the room, he began to tell...
1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. XI., 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

Bolter. 312
Bolt-in-tun.
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, /. L. (AI. of Venice). Jessy ransack'd the house, popp'd her hreeks on, and when so Disguis'd, bolted oft with her beau—one Lorenzo.
1843. Dickens, Martin Clutzzle-wit, ix., 90. He was more strongly temped .. . to make excursive bolts into the neighbouring alleys when he answered the door.
2. (American). — To revolt against party rule, as 'He bolted the party nominations.' Also substantively, as ' He has organized a bolt.'
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.
To get the bolt,///;-. (thieves'). —To be sentenced to penal servitude: cf. boat.
To turn the corner of bolt street, phr. (common).—To run away: cf. bolt and queer street.
TO bolt (or shoot) the moon. See moon.
BOLTER,j«/\f.(old).-i. &*quot. 1748 : the privileged places referred to were such as YVhitefriars, the Mint, Higher and Lower Alsatia, etc.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bolter of White Friers, c. one that Peeps out, but dares not venture abroad, as a Coney bolts out of the Hole in a Warren, and starts back again.
1748. T. Dvche, 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. (common).—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.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Prank Fail'legh, xiii. 'Three of the horses had never been in harness before, and the fourth was a bolter.'
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, lviii., 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.
1851. C.J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, 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 party requirements.
1883. Atlantic Alonthly, LIL, 317. To whom a 'scratcher' or a bolter is more hateful than the Beast.
1884. American, VIII., 100. To denounce the twenty-seven as bolters from their party.
BOLT-IN-TUN,/// r. (London thieves'). —Bolted ; run away.
1S19. J. H. Vaux, Alemoirs. 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.

Bolsprit.
313
Bombo.
boltsprit (boltspreet or bov7sprit,«'^.f.(common).—The nose : see conk.
1690. Shadwei.l, Amorous Bigot, Act v. As thou lovest thy ears, or nose, that bolt-sprit of thy face.
1691. Shadwell, Scowerers, Act v. They do not consider the tenderness of my bolt-sprit.
c. 1696. B.E. Vict. Cant. Crew. s.v. Boltsprit, a Nose. He has broke his Boltsprit, he has lost his Nose with the Pox.
1748. T. Dvche, Victionary (5 ed.). Boltsprit (s.), a cant name for the nose.
bolus, subs, (common).—An apothecary ; a doctor.
1878. Hattok, Cruel London, bk. vi., 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). i. A gallant fellow.
2. (old).—A hobgoblin, or kidnapper.
bombard-phrase, subs.phr. (old).— Grandiloquence; high-faluting
(q.V.); fleet-streetese (q.V.).
15.. Puttenham, Art of Poes. vii. 173. Their bombard phrase, their foot and half foot words.
1601. Death of R. Earle of Huntingdon. Remember, once You brav'd us with your bombard boasting words.
1650. Howell, Letters. A warrior appointed by heaven in the edge of the sword, a persecutor of his enemies, a most perfect Jewell of the blessed tree, the chiefest keeper of the crucified God, etc., with other such bombardicall titles.
bombast, subs, (old).—Inflated language; barnumese (q.v.)-, high.faluting (q.v.). Also as verb: cf. bombard-phrase.
1622. Drayton, Polyolb. xxi. Give me those lines (whose touch the
skilful ear to please) That gliding slow in state, like swelling
Euphrates, In which things natural be, and not in
falsely wrong, The sounds are fine and smooth, the sense
is full and strong: Not bombasted with words, vain ticklish
ears to feed, But such as may content the perfect
man to read.
1622. Taylor, Motto. To flourish o're, or bumbast out my stile, To make such as not understand me smile.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bombast-poetry, in Words of lofty Sound and humble Sense.
See bumbaste.
Bombay-ducks, subs. phr. (old).—i. The Bombay regiments of the East India Company's army.
2. A well known delicacy : see
qUOtS.
1865. G. A. Sala, 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 III. 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 (or 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, xxxiv. A table well stored with bumbo and wine.
1867. Smyth, Sailors' Word Book. Bombo, weak cold punch.

Bonanza.
3H
Bona-roba.
a. 1886. Northamb. Song, in N. and Q., 6 March, 195. The pitmen and the keelman . . . drink bumbo made of gin.
Bona. See bona-roba.
Adj. (theatrical).—Good : see rumbo. [Latin.]
bonanza, subs. (American). — A happy hit • a stroke of fortune ; a success. [Spanish = a fair wind, fine weather, prosperous voyage.] Bonanza was originally the name of a mine in Nevada, which once, quite unexpectly, turned out to be a big thing, and of enormous value ; now applied to any lucky hit or successful enterprise.
1847. Northern Mexico. The principal place for mining is at the foot of a naked granite mountain, the so called Bonanza—Wizlizenus.
1875. Scribner's Mag., July, 272. But a bonanza with millions in it is not struck every week.
1875. Boston Herald, Mar. The huyer of the lottery tickets is ever hopeful of a big bonanza, that he may recover the thousands of dollars sunk during many years of indulging in this folly.
1876. Boston Post, 5 May. The recent rapid decline in bonanza stocks in the San Francisco market has occasioned considerable uneasiness among the holders of these securities ... A reporter interviewed Mr. Flood on the subject. The bonanza king was bitterly indignant at the means employed to depreciate his mines.
1876. New York Tribune, 2 MarThe contract for the Legislative printing, awarded by the Controller to Parmenter, of Troy, has been generally regarded here as in the nature of a big bonanza.
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 cast 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 (or boza), subs. phr. (old).—A courtesan ; a showy prostitute. [Ital. 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 (modern) = a girl or young woman, without reference to morals.
Mis. of Inf. M. [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed) v. 75]. Wenches, bona-robas, blessed beauties, without colour or counterfeit.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV"., iii., 2. We knew where the bona-robas were; and had the best of them all at commandment.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., iii., 2. Shallow. And is Jane Nightwork alive ? . . . She was a bona-roba . . . certain she's old, and had Robin Nightwork by old Nightwork before I came to Clement's Inn.
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, pnmilio, tola Hierum sal.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xvi. Your lordship is for a frolic into Alsatia ? . . . there are bona-robas to be found there.
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1888], 69. The other bonaroua, known amongst her companions as Mistress Poll Maggot, was a beauty on a much larger scale—in fact, a perfect Amazon.
c. i8[?]. 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.
1611. Cotgrave, Diet. s.v. Robbe, x.
16.. Tarleton, Jests, s.v.
c. 1650. Brathwaite, Drunken Barnabys Jl. (1723). 93. Once a bona-roba, trust me, though now buttock-shrunk and rusty.

Bona-socias. 315
Bone.
1309. Malkin, Gil Blas [R utledge], 72. As eccentric as any bona-roba of the Green-room.
bona-socias, subs. phr. (old).— Good companions, properly bon socios.
c. 1600. Merry Devil of Edmonton, [Dodslev, Old Plays (Reed), v. 268]. The Knaves Keepers are my bona-socias, and my pensioners.
bonce, subs, (popular).—I. The head: see crumpet.
2. (schoolboys'). — A large marble: see alley.
Bond. Our lady's bond, subs, phr. (old).—Pregnancy confinement.
bone, subs. (American).—1. A bribe to a custom's officer: of a traveller, in passing his luggage through the Custom House, in the expectation that the latter's examination will be superficial.
2. (colloquial). — Something relished (1884).
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.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., 232. He [beggar] mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. I give one or two instances. <"> 'bone,' meaning good.
Verb (old).—i. To filch; to steal; to make off with; to take into custody.
c. 1696. B.E, Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Bone, c. to Apprehend, Seize, Take or Arrest. I'll bonne ye, c. I'll cause you to be Arrested. We shall be bon'd c. we shall be Apprehended for the Robbery. The Cove is bon'd and gone to the Whit, c. the Rogue is taken up and carried to Newgate, or any other Goal. The Cull has bon'd the Fen, (for Fence) or Bloss that bit the Blow, c. the Man has Taken the Thief that Robb'd his House, Shop, or Pickt his Pocket. He has bit his Blow, but if he be bon'd, he must shove the Tumbler, c. he has Stole the Goods, or done the Feat, but if he be Taken, he'll be Whipt at the Cart-tail. / have bon'd her Dudds Fagg'd, and Brush'd, c. I have took away my Misstress Cloathes, Beat her, and am troop'd off. Boning the Fence, c. finding the Goods where Conceal'd, and Seizing, he made no bones of it, he swallow'd it without Drinking after it.
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 lvii., 467. ' And why you were living so quiet here and what you had boned, and who you had boned it from, wasn't it ?'
1S61. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. II., 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. Chamber's Journal, Dec. 9, A Double Event, 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.

Bone. 316
Bone.
2. (American).—To bribe; to grease the palm : see bone, subs.
3. (American cadets'). — To study : see bohn. Hence to bone
into it (or bone standing) = to apply oneself closely ; to study hard.
The ten bones (or commandments), subs. phr. (old).—The fingers : spec, of a woman as in the asseveration, 'By these ten bones': once a common oath in reference to the Decalogue.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), 4, note. By thes bonys ten thei be to you vntrue.
c. 1540. Heywood. Four P's [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), i. 92]. Now ten tymes I beseche hym that hye syttes, Thy wives ten commandements may serch thy five wyttes.
1542. Udal, Erasmus, 27. [Socrates is advised to use his tenne commaundementes in a brawl.]
1562. Jacke Juggcler Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), ii. 125]. I am a servant of this house, by these ten bones.
c. 1575. Ane Ballat of Matrymonie [Laing, Early Pop. Poet. Scotland, ii. 76]. She . . . pylled the barke even of hys face With her commaundements ten.
1589. Pappe with Hatchet, Ciiij. b. Martin swears by his ten bones.
1593. Shakspeare, 2 Henry VI., i. 3. Could I come near your beauty with my nails, I'd set my ten commandments in your face. Ibid., i. 4. By these ten bones, my lord [holding up his hands], he did speak to me in the garret one night.
1595. Locrine [Shaks., Suppt., ii. 242]. I trembled, fearing she would set her ten commandments in my face.
1597. Lyly, Woman in Moon, v. Now he swears nv his ten bones.
1607. Dekker, Westw. Hoe, v. 3. Your harpy that set his ten commandments upon my back.
1609. Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2. By these ten bones, sir, if these eyes and ears Can hear and see. Ibid, (c. 1613), Woman's Prize, i. 3. I'll devil em, by these ten bones, I will.
1621. Jonson, Masque of Gipsies, vi. 84. I swear by these ten You shall have it again.
1648. Herrick, Hesperides [Hazlitt, i. 209]. Skurffe by his nine-bones swears, and well he may, All know a fellon eat the tenth away.
1814. Scott, Wavcrley, xxx. I'll set my ten commandments in the face of the first loon that lays a finger on him
1830. Marryat, King's Own, xl. I'll write the ten commandments on your face.
1842. Longfellow, Sp. Student, iii. 3. In with you, and be busy with the ten commandments, under the sly.
1903. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Ap. 2. 3. The mother attacked the unfortunate master, and began the time-honoured but painful ceremony of setting her ten commandments in his face, while her hopeful offspring got the school cane and belaboured his instructor.
A bone in the arm (leg, throat, etc.), phr. (common).— A feigned obstacle; a humorous reason for declining to do anything.
1542. Nicholas Udall, Erasmus's Apophthegmes (1877, Reprint of ed. 1562), 375. He refused to speake, allegeing
that he had a bone in his throte, and
he could not speake.
1709. 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. 317
Bone.
A bone to pick with one, phr. (old).—A difficulty to solve, nut to crack, a matter of dispute, something disagreeable needing explanation, a settlement to make.
1565. Colfhtxl, Answ. Treat. Cron. (1846), 277. A bone for you to pick on.
1580. Lyly, Euphucs. When the company was dissolved, Camilla not thinking to receive an answere, but a lecture, went to her Italian booke, where she found the letter of Philautus, who without any further advise, as one very much offended, or in a great heate, sent him this bone to gnaw on.
1581. Rich, Fareu. mil. Prof. My maide, who shall of purpose be readie to waite for your commyng at the houre, shall make no bones to deliver you this male.
1614. Terence in English. C. This is strange as God helpe me. T. I have given them a bone to picke.
1665. Homer à la Mode. This when she said, her wall-ey'd maid Made no more bones on't, but obey'd.
1749. Smollett, Gil Bias (1812), III., iii. If you are dextrous enough to acquire his confidence, he may give you some pretty bone to pick.
1783. AiNSwoRTH, Lat. Diet. (Morell), i s.v. Pick, To give one a bone to pick, scrupuhim 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.
A bone in the month, phr. (nautical).—A ship is said to carry a bone in her mouth, and cut a feather, when she makes the water foam before her (Howell).
A bone of contention, Sllbs.
phr. (colloquial).—A source of contention or discord.
1766. Brooke, Fool of Quality, i., 249. While any flesh remains on a bone, it continues a bone of contention.
1836. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg. Now the precious leg while cash was flush, Or the Count's acceptance worth a rush,
Had never excited dissension; But no sooner the stocks began to fall, Than, without any ossification at all, The limb became what people call
A perfect bone of contention.
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,
1S33. Marry at, Peter Simple i. It's as dry as a bone.
1837. R. NicoLL, Poems (1843), 83. Dubs were hard as ony bane.
Phrases and colloquialisms : —To make bones of = to make objection to, have scruples of, hestitate. To find bones in = to be unable to credit, believe, or ' swallow.' To put a bone to one's hood = to break one's head. One end is pretty sure to be bone = 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. To be upon the bones = to attack (1616). To feel a thing in one's bones = assurance: conviction.
1459. Paston Lett., 331, I., 444. And fond that tyme no bonys in the matere.
1542. Udall, Apoph. of Erasmus, 133 (1877). Yea, and rather then faill, both whole mainor places, and also whole Lordships, the 'make no bones, ne sticke not, quite and clene to swallow doune the narrow lane, and the same to spue up again.'

Bone-ache. 318 Boned.
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].
1396. Nashe, Sa fron Waiden, in Wks. iii., ii2. He . . . would make no bones to take the wall of Sir Philip Sidney.
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.
1677. Wvcherlev, 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. Thackerav, Pendennis, lxiv. Do you think that the Government or the Opposition would make any bones about accepting the seat if it be offered to them ?
1887. Scribner's Magazine.. i ain't a-goin' to mention no names but i kin keel 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 for attorney-general, and i feel it in my bones that i will get the nomination.
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.
Bone-ache, subs. phr. (old).—The lues venerea: also Neapolitan
bone-ache and bone-ague; see ladies fever.
1392. Nashe, Pierce Pcnilesse. Uut cucullus non facit monachum—' tis not their newe bonnets will kecpe them from ths 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.
1659. Clobery, Divine Glimpses. Which they so dearly pay for, that oft times
They a bone-ague get to plague their crimes.
bone-baster, subs. phr. (colloquial). —A staff; a cudgel (1600).
bone-box, subs. phr. (common).— The mouth: see potato-trap.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Shut your bone-box; shut your mouth.
bone-breaker, subs.phr. (common). —Fever and ague.
bone-cart, subs. phr. (common). The body. Moor gives it as a verb, to carry on the shoulder articles more fitted from their weight to be moved in a cart (Halliwell).
bone-cleaner, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A servant.
bone-crusher, subs.phr. (sporting). —A heavy-bore rifle used for killing big game : cf. bone-shaker.
1872. H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone (2 ed.), 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 walls in 'promising' neighbourhoods stands for ' bone,' a corruption of the French 'bon,' as a hint to succeeding vagebonds that they will find the happiest of huntinggrounds in the locality.
bone-dry, adj. phr. (colloquial).— Perfectly dry.
boned. See bone, verb, sense 1

BoneGrubber. 319 Bones.
Bone-grubber, subs. phr. (common).
— I. One who lives by collecting bones from heaps of refuse, selling his spoils at the marine stores, or to bone grinders. Fr. biffin (which also = a foot-soldier, his knapsack being compared to a rag or bone-picker's basket); chifferton (or chiffortin) -, cupidon (an ironical allusion to his hook and basket) grappin.
c. 1750. 'The Hunter's Wedding,' quoted in J. Ashton's The Fleet, 1888, 366.
Sam the grubber, he having had warning,
His wallet and broom down did lay.
1831-61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, II., 155. The bone-grubber generally seeks out the narrow back streets, where dust and refuse are cast, 01 where any dust-bins are accessible. The articles for which he chiefly searches are rags and bones,—rags he prefers,— but waste metals, 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 bonegrubber.
2. (old).A resurrectionist ; a violator of graves : Cobbett was called 'a bone-grubber,' because he brought the remains of Tom Paine from America. Latterly the term includes all having to do with funerals.
1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, essay vii., 181 (1864). The crowd in Cheapside declared that I was a mute. They called me a bone-grubber.
Bone-house, subs. phr. (colloquial).
— I. The human body.
1870. Emerson, Soc. and Sol., vi., 11g. This wonderful bone-house which is called man.
2. (common).—A coffin : also a charnel-house. Americans generally call a cemetery a bone-yard.
1836. Dickens, Pickivick Papers' ii., 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, 11., 165 (bk. IV., ch. viii). The body [of a man who had poisoned himself] was taken to the bonehouse of St. Andrew's, but no one came to claim it.
bone-lazy, adj. phr. (colloquial).— Excessively indolent.
bone muscle, verb. phr. (American college).—To practice gymnastics: see bone, verb, sense 3.
bone-picker, subs. phr. (common). — I. A footman: Fr. 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 ; a bone-grubber (q.v.).
1866. Ruskin, Crown of WildOlives, 25. The deceased was a bone-picker. He was in the lowest stage of poverty, etc.
bone-polisher, subs. phr. (common). The cat-o'-nine-tails.
boner, subs. (Winchester College). —A sharp blow on the spine.
bones, subs, (common).—1. Dice: also St. Hugh's bones (q.v.). Hence, to rattle the bones = to play at dice.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 328. This fruyt cometh of the bicched bones two, Forsweryng, Ire, Falsnesse, Homycide.
a. 1529. Skelton, Wks. (ed. Dyce) i., 52. On the borde he whyrled a payre of bones.
V

Bones. 3 20 Bonesetter.
1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in Wks. (Grosart) m., 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.
1662. Rump Songs, ii., 152. Crispin and he were near of Kin, The gentle craft had a noble Twin, But he'd give St. Hugh's bones to save his skin.
1698. Dryden, Fersius, 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.
1767. Ray, Proverbs, 65. sv.
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, 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, xxviii. 'What with speculations falling, 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, used as an accompaniment to banjo and other 'negro' minstrel music: In minstrel 'shows' one of the 'lud' men is called bones.
1592. Shakspeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, iv., 1, 1. 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 anct London Poor, in., 195. Peter rolling about in his chair like a serenader play
ing the bones, and the young Othello laughing as if he was being tickled. Ibid, 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.
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, in. 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, 236. The band clashes out; big fiddle and little fiddle, harp and bones, off they go.
1884. Sat. Review, June 7, 740, 1. A single row of negro minstrels, seated on chairs . . . while at the end are bones and Sambo.
4. (common).—The bones of the human body, but more generally applied to the teeth: Fr. piloches (/.); and osselots (»/.): cf. bone-box, bone-house and grinders.
5. (common).—A surgeonsawbones (q.v.).
1887. Chamb. Journal, Jan. 8, 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).—(i). The shares of Wickens, Pease and Co. ; (2) North British 4% ist Preference Shares ; the 4% 2nd Preference Stock are Bonetas.
Bonesetter, subs, (old).—A hard riding horse; a rickety conveyance: cf. boneshaker.

Bone-shake. 321 Bonk.
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 ajarvey! 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 bonesetter. 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 jarvey,—a cabriolet, Jerry.—But we must mind our flash doesn't peep out at Almack's. 'Tis classic ground there.
BONE-SHAKE, verb. phr. (popuiar).— To ride a bone-shaker (q.v.).
BONE-SHAKER, subs. (old).— I. A hard trotting horse: see bonesetter.
2. (cycling).—An ' ordinary,' as distinguished from a ' safety,' a type of bicycle in use prior to the introduction of india-rubber tyres and other manifold improvements.
1889. Answers, Feb. 23, 19s, 1. Among those who learnt to boneshake was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been a devoted cyclist.
1874. A. Howard, Bicycle, 10. In 1870 and 1871, the low, long bone-shaker began to fall in public esteem.
1884. G. L. HiLLiER, in Longman's Mag., March, 4S7. The bone-shaker, as the ribald cyclist of the present day designates the ancestor of his present bicycle.
1885. Nineteenth Century, Jan., 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.'
1901. Troddles, 44. Fetch out your trusty untamed steeds, furbish up your bone-shakers, and come along of I. I have got invitations to the meet at Wimbledon.
BONE-SORE, adj. phr. (colloquial). —Very idle: sometimes bonetired is used in the same sense.
BONE-STANDiNG, verbal phr. (American college): see bone, verb.
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. [From Farquhar's play].
1707. Farquhar, Beaux' Stratagem. [Boniface is here given as the name of the 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, 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 : see Bone, verb.
BONK, subs, (travelling show-men's). —A short, steep hill. [Possibly only a provincialism, or an obsolete form of 'bank'].
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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

Bonnering. 322 Bonnet.
have the breeching on the leading chainhorse, 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.
BONNERING, subs. (old).—Burning for heresy (1612): cf. boycott,
burke, maffick, etc.
BONNET, subs. (old).— 1. A gambling cheat; a decoy at auctions; a bearer-up (q.v.): 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 bonneter: Fr. bonneteur = 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, Dig-by Grand, 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, 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. Hinplry, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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, 7 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 ; a pretence ; a make-believe (q.v..).
3. A woman: cf. petticoat (q.V.).
1880. Punch's Almanac, 3. Then comes Easter, Got some coin in hand, Trot a bonnet out, and do the grand.
Verb (common).— I. To act as a bonnet (q.v.)-, to cheat; to
puff ; to ' bear up ' (q.V.).
1871. ' Hawk's-Eye,' Budget of Turf Notes. 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, 1, 3. Nobody can suppose that I am anxious to bonnet for the Times newspaper.
2. (common). — To crush a man's hat down over his eyes.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 229. Two young men, who, now and then, varied their amusements by bonneting the proprietor of this itinerant coffee-house.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, 11., 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, 22. Scrooge reverently disclaimed . . . any knowledge of having wilfully bonneted the Spirit at any period of his life.
1882. Saturday Revieiu, liv., 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.
323
Booby-hutch.
Bonnet-builder, subs. phr. (common).—A milliner.
1S39. Song in The Little Melodist, qnoted in J. Ashton's The Fleet, 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.—I. See bonnet, subs., sense 1.
2. (common). — A crushing blow on the hat: See bonnet, verb, sense 2.
BONNET-MAN, subs. phr. (Scots).— A Highlander.
BONNET-LAIRD, subs. phr. (Scots).— A petty proprietor in Scotland : as wearing a bonnet, like humbler folk.
BONNETS-so-BLUE, subs. phr. (rhyming).—Irish stew.
BONNY, adj. (colloquial).—(1) Looking well; plump. Hence (2) fine; good ; very : thus to give a bonny penny for = to pay a long price; a bonny row = a jolly uproar.
BONNY-CLABBER, subs. phr. (old).— Sour buttermilk : but see quots. (B.E.) [Nares: an Irish term].
1630. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1. To drink such balderdash, or bonny-clabber.
1633. Harington, Epigrams, of the Warres in Ireland.
That warre is sweet to those that have not try'd it;
For I have prov'd it now, and plainly see't,
It is so sweet it maketh all things sweet.
Here milk is nectar, water tasteth toothsome ;
There, without bak'd, rost, boyl'd, it is
no cheere; Bisket we like, and bony-clabo here.
1634. Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii., 2. The healths in usquebaugh, and bonny
clabbore.
1688. Randal Holme, Acad. Arm. 173. Boniclatter, cream gone thick; and in another place, boni thlobuer is good milk gone thick.
BONO, adj. (colloquial).—Good. [Latin].
BONO-JOHNNY, subs. phr. (East End). —An Englishman, (S. J. & C.).
BOOBY, «(k(common).— 1. A stupid fellow ; a clown. Whence boobyism = stupidity, clownishness ; and to play the booby (or to booby) = to act the fool.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. booby, a dull heavy lob. Ibid. s.v. booberkin, the same.
1749. Smollett, Gil Bias (1812), 1., xvii. When I reflected that in so doing I should ... be looked upon as a booby, I relinquished that thought.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias. [RoutledgeJ, 84. It was that booby just gone out. .. just such another scarecrow.
1807 8. Irving, Salmagundi, in. Those sprigs of the town who run decency down ;
Who lounge, and who loot, and who booby about.
1836. ~DicKMtiS,Skefches by Boz, 'A private theatre.' The donkeys who are prevailed upon to pay for permission to exhibit their lamentable ignorance and bOOByiSM on the stage of a private theatre.
2. (schools).—A dunce; the last in a class.
To beat the booby. See beat.
BOOBY-HUT, subs. phr. (American). —A carriage-body put upon sleighrunners : also booby-hutch (q.v.).
BOOBY-HUTCH, subs.phr. (common). — i. A police-station; a palace (q.V.).

Booby-trap. 324 Boodle.
2. (common).—A clumsy and ill-contrived covered carriage or seat (Halliwell).
3. (American). — See boobyhut.
booby-trap,^j.///r.(schoolboys'). —An arrangement of books, wet sponges, vessels of water, etc., arranged on the top of a door set ajar: when the victim enters the room, the whole falls upon him.
1850. Smedlev, Frank Fairlegh, iii., 28. He had devoted it to the construction of what he called a boobytrap. . . . 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. Anstey. Vice Versa, 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, 3 Nov. 566, 2. 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.): also caboodle (q.v.). [Murray; the same as Markham's ' buddle ' (see quot.) : boodle — money (see sense 2), may be a different word].
1625. Markham, Bk. Honour, IV., ii. Men curiously and carefully chosen out (from all the buddle and masse of great ones) for their approoved wisedome.
1857. Holmes, Autocrat, 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 . . . ).
1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, 361. Boodle, ' the whole boodle of them.' [List of Americanisms.]
1884. Hale, Xtnas. in Karragansett, ix., 272. At eleven o'clock the 'whole boodle of them,' as Uncle Nahum called the caravan . . . had to boot and spur for church.
2. (American). — Generic for illicit gain or contraband profit: e.g. money used for bribery; the result of some secret deal ; a secret commission; the booty of a bank thief or absconding cashier; also (thieves') money that is actually spurious or counterfeit ; also (loosely) generic for money: see rhino. Hence boodler = one who bribes or is bribed, who gets (or gives) a secret commission—the whole army of shady workers on the cross (q.v.); spec, the utterer of base money, who
carries boodle(or a fakeboodle)
= 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.
1884. Boston (Mass.) Globe, 7 Oct; 'Sinews of war,' and 'living issues,' 'soap,' and other synonyms for campaign boodle are familiar.
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, Jan. 4. Aber rake right in dot boodle, Quiet, calm, and all serene.

Booget. 325 Book.
1888. Pitch's Library, May, 3. In the evening, up the street, As you see him passing by, You're convinced ... he ponders of divorce, Or of boodle cases great.
1888. Omaha World. We have elections and campaigns, and political parties, and bosses, and ringsters, and
boodlers.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 76. As the "yaller pine" raked in the boodle, Sam started out to have his whack out of the pile.
3. (common). — A fool ; a
noodle (q.V.).
BOOGET, subs. (Old Cant).—A travelling tinker's basket. Harman, 1567.
BOOHOO, verb, (colloquial).—To cry _;to bawl; to bellow: nap the bib (q.v.): onomatopoeia.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Babes in the wood.' The babes.. . pass'd all that day and that night In wandering about and boohooing.
1856. Dow, Sermons, 11., 277. You will go down to your graves boo-hooing like a kicked booby.
i8[?]. Field, Drama in Pokerville. The little woman boo-hoo'd right out.
BOOK, subs, (sporting).— 1. A record of bets : see bookmaker, and book, sense 3.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, 1., 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, 260. Am I to be branded because I have made half a million by a good book?
1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, liii. ' He has backed the Dodona colt for the Derby, and has got a heavier book on the race than he likes.'
1864. Hotten, Diet. s.v. Book . . . The principle of making a book, or betting round, as it is sometimes termed, is to lay a previously-determined sum against every horse in the race, or as many horses as possible; and should the bookmaker 'get round,' i.e., succeed in laying against as many horses as will more than balance the odds laid, he is certain to be a winner.
1869. Gent. Mag., July, 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, 6, i. 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 who looks at sport through the glasses of a book.
2. (gaming).— The first six tricks at whist : see books.
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. [Halliwell: formerly used for any composition from a volume to a single sheet, particularly where a list is spoken of; Shakespeare uses it for 'articles of agreement'].
1513-25. State Papers, iv. 66. [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 387. A merchant in our days would shudder if he found his clerk making a book; but this phrase is used for casting up accounts].
1598. Shakspeare, i Henry IV, iii. 1. By that time will our book, I think, be drawn. Ibid. By this our book is drawn, we will but seal, And then to horse immediately.
1768. Sterne, Sentimental Journey, i., 180. A small pamphlet, it might be the book of the opera.

Book.
326 Book-learn ing.
1889. Answers, 8 June, 24. The prompter had a little table on the ' prompt ' side; 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, verb, phr. (popular).—To make 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.
To suit one's book, verb.phr. (common).—To suit one's arrangements, fancy, or wish.
1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, vi. As there will be plenty of the needful, she will suit his book as well as any other.
Phrases : to say off book = to repeat. By the book = formally ; in set phrase. In a person's good (or bad) books = in favour (or disfavour). Out of one's book = mistaken ; out of one's reckoning. Without one's book = (1) unauthorised; (2) by rote.
TO drive the book =: to Compel
to give evidence on oath. To bring to book = to bring to account. To speak like a book — to speak with authority. To talk like a book = to speak in set terms, as a precision. To take a leaf out of a person's book = to take example by him.
Verb, (colloquial).—To catch ; to fix (q.v.), to dispose of : that is entered or registered ; Fr. être
planché, cire mort (to be booked) _;
faitre (= booked) and gerbable (= the subject).
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 6. I am booked for a much longer journey.
1837. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3, ed. 446. Booked, caught, taken, or disposed of.
1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, xxiii. ' 1 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.'
book-form, subs. phr. (sporting).— The relative power of speed or endurance of race-horses, as set down in the Racing Calendar, or ' book.' Also extended to all records of 'form.'
BOOKIE (or BooKY), subs, (racing). — A book-maker (q.v.),
1885. Eng. III. Mag., April, 509. No rowdy ring, but a few quiet and wellknown 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.
1902. D. Telegraph, ii Feb. 10. 7. He knew of a case in which a bookie made £5,846 in five months, without ever coming near his office.
BOOKING, subs, (provincial).—A scolding; a flogging (Halliwell).
Book-learning, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Education ; scholarship : a common phrase among the poor.
18 . . Southey, Doctor, c. The common wish of advancing their children in the world made most parents in this station desire to obtain the advantage of what they called book-learning for any son who was supposed to manifest a disposition likely to profit by it.

Bookmaker. 327 Books.
Bookmaker, suis, (common).—A professional betting-man. [English Encyclopaedia :—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 i, or perhaps £1000 to £300 against him, by which transaction, if the horse won, as he did, the backer would win Jiooo for risking £300, and the bookmaker lose 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].
1862. London Review, Aug. 30, 188. Betting there seemed to be none . . . we could not perceive a single book or
bookmaker.
1880. W. Day, Racehorse in Training, xxiv., 245. bookmakers pursue a legitimate and lucrative trade by laying against all horses as they appear in the market.
1883. Hawley Smart. Hard Lines, iii. Finding . . . that the bookmaker whom for once they have landed for 'a thousand to thirty ' is hopelessly insolvent.
bookmaker's-pocket, subs. phr. (racing).—A breast-pocket made inside the waistcoat, for notes of large amount (Hotten).
book-monger, subs. phr. (old).— A writer of books ; an author.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, ' Wills', ii., 468. He was a great book-monger ; and on that score Bale (no friend to Friers) giveth him a large testimonial.
book-oath, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—A bible-oath (q.v.).
d. 1563. Bale, Works. 'Exam. W. Thorpe,' in. He that layeth his hand upon a book in this wise, and maketh there a promise to do that thing that he is commanded, is obliged there, by bookoath, then to fulfil his charge.
books, subs, (card-players').— i. A pack of cards : used mainly by professional card-players : also
devil's books; book of boards;
book of briefs; Fr.juge de paix.
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

Bookwork. 328 Boom.
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 (1840). (V). Up at books = in class, repeating lessons: now called up to books, (d). Books chambers, on Remedies (a kind of whole holiday).
1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, 104. The school was divided into three classes, or books, as they were called. Of these, the Praefects 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.' Ibid. 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. Ibid. 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.
To get or make books, verb, phr. (colloquial).—To make the highest score at anything.
bookwork, subs. (University).— Mathematics that can be learned verbatim from books—all that are not problems.
book-wright, subs.phr. (colloquial). —An author: cf. book-monger.
1857. Kingslev Two Years Ago, xi. In London, at this moment, any young man of real power will find friends enough and too many among his fellow bookwrights.
BOOM, subs, (common).—Commercial activity; rapid advance in
prices ; a flourishing state of affairs —in all its applications it is synonymous with extreme vigour and effectiveness. [A comparatively recent production. Within a few years, it has made its appearance in a variety of combinations : e.g. ' the whole State is booming for Smith;' 'the boys have whooped up the State to boom for Smith ;' ' the Smith boom is ahead in this State,' etc., etc. Stocks and money are 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 boomlets express progress of a lesser degree. Murray:—The most probable derivation is from the nautical phrase 'boom-out,' signifying a vessel running rapidly before the wind; but as, however, 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.] As verb = to make rapid and vigorous progress ; to advance by leaps and bounds ; to push ; to puff _; to bring into prominence with a rush.
1874. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Gilded Age, xxvii. There's 200,000 dollars coming, and that will set things booming again.
1875. Scribner's Mag., July, 277. Another boom in prices is to be looked for.
1875. Scribner's Mag., July. 272. Stocks may boom to-day, but droop tomorrow, and with the crash come remorse and repentance. Ibid, 277. When stocks are active they are said to be booming.

Boom. 329 Boon.
1883. Referee. May 6, 3, 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, lvii., 499. I lived here in 1857 —an extraordinary year there in realestate matters. The boom was something wonderful. Everybody bought, everybody sold . . . anything in the semblance of a town lot, no matter how situated, was saleable. Ibid. (1884) 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.
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 dois, to 10 dois, 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.
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.
To top one's boom off, verb, phr. (nautical).—To be off, or to start in a certain direction.
1871. G Meredith, Harry Richmond, xxxviii., 346 (1886). 'And now top your boom, and to bed here.'
To boom the census, verb.phr. (common).—To get with child.
BOOMER, subs. (American).— 1. One who booms or causes an enterprise to become flourishing, active or notorious.
1883. Times, Sept. 26, 8. [He] is a North-Western boomer of great earnestness.
1885. Boston (Mass.) Journal, Aug. 19, 2. 4. The Oklahoma boomers.
2. (common).—Anybody (or anything) considerably above the average: a fine woman, a horse with extra good points, etc., etc.
BOOMERANG, subs. (American).— Acts or words, the results of which recoil upon the person from whom they originate: 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.
184s. Holmes, Modest Request, Poems (1884), 42. Like the strange weapon, which the Australian throws, Your verbal boomerang slaps you on the nose.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, i S. (1873), ^2I9The boomerang of argument, which one throws in the opposite direction of what he means to hit.
BOOM-PASSENGER, subs. phr. (nautical).—A convict on board ship : 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, subs. (B. E.).—'A gift, reward, or gratification.'

Boon-companion. 330
Boot.
Boon-companion, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A comrade in a drinking bout ; a convivialist ; a good fellow. Hence boon-companionship = jollity; conviviality.
1566. Drant, Med. Morall, A. v. He is my bone companion, it's he that cheares up me.
1592. Greene, Quip, in Wks. XL, 220. To seeke good consortes and boone companions to passe away the day withall.
1592. Nashe, Strange Newes, in Wks. II., 176. Thinke not, though vnder correction of your boone-companionship, I am disposed to be a little pleasant, I condemne you of anie immoderation, either in eating or drinking.
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, VU., 27. And coming to my inn, where the host was a very boon companion, I desired to see him.
c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. boon-companion, a merry drinking fellow.
1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, I., v. This was occasioned by his being a boon cOMPANion, loving his bottle and his diversion.
1825. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, xxiii. The morning after a debauch is usually one of reflection, even to the most customary boon companion.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxvii. We went downstairs to our dinner, as charmed with each other as boon companions always should be.
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, XII., iv. A little society, and boon-companionship. .. would take Roland out of those gloomy reveries.
Boong. See bung. boorde. See bord.
Boose, boosy, etc. See Booze.
boost, subs, (American).—A hoisting ; a shove _; a lift ; a push up —a New England vulgarism. As verb = to hoist ; to lift up ; to shove.
1856. Dow, Sermons. Office seekers ask you to give them a boost into the tree of office. Ibid. It is just as difficult to boost a sinner up to heaven without corresponding effort on his part, as it would be for a child to shoulder a sack of Turk's Island salt.
t8[?]. Field, Drama in Pokerville. He clambered back into the box (in the theatre), the manager assisting to boost him with the most friendly solicitude.
i8[?]. New York Herald [Bartlett]. Lord Palmerston was boosted into power by the agricultural interests of England.
1866. T. A. Richards, Rice Fields of the South. For, my bredderen, little Zaccheus was bound to see the Lord for once, dough he had to climb up de tree. Did he wait to be boosted? Ah, no, my bredderen. Not a boost! He climbed right straight up der tree hisself.
1888. Puck's Library, May, 11. A genius took hold of the business, and gave it a little boost.
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, vii. You ought to have seen that spider-legged old skeleton go... boosting up the sand like a whirl-wind !
1884. Harper's Magazine, Aug., 481, i. To boost a jurist of so much helpless avoirdupois in through the carriage door.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 25. The old General . . . remarked as he dropped in an extra blue chip: 'As you all seem to be in a raising mood I'll boost her myself.' To make a long story short, they kept boosting each other for a long time.
boot, subs, (colloquial).— 1. In pi. a servant, at hotels and places of a kindred character, who cleans

Boot. 331 Booth-burster.
the boots of visitors ; formerly 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.
3. (old: B. E.).—'A Scotch torture, or rack, for the leg, to draw to confession.'
4. (colloquial).—In humorous (or sarcastic) combination ; e.g., clumsy-boots, lazy-boots, slyboots, smooth-boots, etc.
c. 1680. North, Lives ofthe Norths, 169. [Lord Guildford was nicknamed]
slyboots.
1729. Addison, Adv. of Abdalla, 32. The frog call'd . . . several times, but in vain . . . though the sly-boots heard well enough all the while.
Verb (military).— 1. To beat; to 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.: formerly inflicted with a bootjack.
2. (common).—To kick; to hoop a man.
What boots it ? phr. (B. E.). —What avails it?
Phrases:—To make one boot
serve for either leg = to Speak
with double meaning. The boot is on the other leg = the case is altered, responsibility is shifted. To have one's heart in one's boots = to be in extreme fear. Over shoes, over boots = reckless continuance of a course begun; in for a lamb, in for a
sheep. Like old boots=:vigorously, thorough-going. To die in one's boots or shoes = to be hanged. To buy old boots = to marry or keep another man's cast-off mistress. In one's boots = very drunk : see screwed. To give the boots = to jeer at ; to make a laughing-stock of. To bet one's boots = a fanciful bet.
1595. Shakspeare, Two Gent. i. 1.
Nay give me not the boots.
1630. Taylor, Works, ii. 145. For where true courage roots, The proverb says, once over shoes, o'er boots.
1653. UrQUHArt, Rabelais, iv., xlv. [Bohn]. Whoever refused to do this should presently swing for it and die in his shoes.
d. 1734. North, Life of Lord Guildford, ii. 96. He used to say George (his son) would die in his shoes.
1742. Branston [Walpole, Lett, to Mann (1833), 1. 180]. At the end of the walk hung a rogue on a gibbet! He beheld it and wept, for it caus'd him to muse on Full many a Campbell, that
died with his shoes on.
1816. Kennet, Glossary, 32. 'A country proverb'.
1840. Barham, Ingold. Leg. And there is Sir Carnaby Jenks, of the Blues, All come to see a man die in his shoes.
1868. Miss Braddon, Sir Jasper, xxvii., 2S2. I'll stick to you like old boots.
1874. Saturday Review, Jan., 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.
BOOTH, subs, (old cant).—A house ; to have a booth = to rob a house (Harman).
Booth-burster, subs.phr. (theatrical).—A loud and noisy actor; a barn-stormer (q.v.).

Boot-Joe.
332 Booty-haler.
boot-joe, subs. phr. (military).— Musketry drill.
bootlick, subs. (American).—A flunkey; a hanger-on; a lick spittle (q.v.). As verb = to toady; to jackal (q.v.).
Boots. See boot.
Boots and Leathers. See commoner peal.
booty, subs, (old : now recognised). —Plunder; spoils; swag (q.v.). To play (cry or bowl) booty = to play falsely, dishonestly, or unfairly, with the object of not winning, a previous arrangement having been made with a confederate to share the spoils : also booty = playing booty, and booty-fellow, a sharer in the plunder.
1575. Frat. of Vacabondes, 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 Iayes [bets] are made, and according to that leuell doe they throw their bowles, so that be sure the bowlers play booty.
1614. Overbury, Characters. She divides it so equally between the master and the serving man, as if she had cut out the getting of it by a thread, only the knave makes her bowl booty and overreach the master.
1631. Cartwright, Royall Slave. No envy then or faction fear we, where All like yourselves is innocent and clear; The stage being private then, as none must sit,
And, like a trap, lay wait foi sixpence wit; So none must cry up booty, or cry down; Such mercenary guise fits not the gown.
c 1696. B. E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Booty-play, False, Cheating, also Plunder, he bowls booty, when great Odds are laid, and he goes Halves, his Cast is designed by Bad.
1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, I., 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 (s ed.). Booty (s.), plunder, spoil, prize; also a cant word signifying a pretence to one thing, and at the same time an intention to do 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, 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 eooty.
1822. Nares, Glossary sv. booty. To play, or bowl, or cry booty, appears to have meant to give people an advantage at first in order to draw them on to their loss.
1847. Halliwell, Arch. Words,sv. booty. To play booty, to allow one's adversary to win at first, in order to induce him to continue playing afterwards.
Booty(Boot-) haler, subs. phr. (old). — A robber ; freebooter. Hence boot-haling =a plundering expedition, a knavish adventure.
1592. Nashe, Piers Pennilesse. How, when all supply of victualls fayled them, they went a boot-haling one night to sinior Greedinesse bed-chambers.
1611. MlDDLETON, Roaring Girl [Dodslby, Old Plays (Reed), vi, 103]. My own father laid these London boothalers the catch-poles in ambush to set upon me.

Booze. 333 Booze.
1620. Fletcher, Chances, i, 4. Well don John, If you do spring a leak, or get an itch, 'Till ye claw off your curl'd pate, thank your nightwalks, You must be still a -300T-haling.
Booze (Bouse, Bowse, etc.), subs. (old cant.).— 1. Drink ; lap (q.v.): generic. Also (2) = a drinking bout, a carouse ; (3) = a draught, a go (q.v.). As verb (or to bouse the jib) = to drink _; drink heavily, to tipple, to guzzle : employed in some sense of ' to drink' as early as 1300: See lush. Whence boozed=drunk, fuddled; boozy == drunken, screwed (q.v.) ; boozing = the act of drinking hard ; and boozer = a confirmed tippler. Also derivatives, and in combination: e.g. boozing-cheat = a bottle; boozing-ken = a drinking-den : see lush-crib ; boozington (or mr. boozington) =
a mock adress : see lushington.
c. 1303. Friar Michael of Kildare [Oliphant, New Eng. i, 3. We have the phrase drink dep, and the verb bouse].
b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 416. Droupy and drowsie, Scurvy and lousie Her face all bowsie.
1536. Copland, Spittel-hous [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet. (1866), iv. 69J. With bousy cove maimed nace.
1567. Harman, Caveat. 86. Now I tower that bene bouse makes nase nahes. Ibid. 5. The buriall was tourned to bousing and belly cheere. Ibid. 32. They bowle and bowse one to another, and for the tyme bousing belly chere. Ibid. 65. A BOwsiNG-KEN, a ale house. Ibid. 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. Ibid. 65. Bowse, drinke.
1590. Spenser, Fairy Queen, 1, iv, 22. And in his hand did beare a bouzing can.
1592. Nashe, Pierce Pennilesse, in Wks. II., 91. They should haue all the companie that resort to them, bye bowzing and beere-bathing in their houses every after-noone.
1592. Greene, Quip, in Wks. XL, 253. To marke the bowsie drunkard to dye of the dropsy.
1608. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight [Grosart, Works (1886), iii., 203]. If we niggle, or mill a bowzing-ken.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Bowse, drinke. Ibid. Bowsing-ken, an Ale-house.
1611. Cotgrave, Diet. Piailleur s.v. ... a tipler, bowser.
1611. MiDDLETON and Dekker, Roaring Girl, v. 1. So my bousv nab might skew some bouse.
1615. Harington, Epigrams. Yet such the fashion is of Bacchus crue To quaffe and bowze, until they belch and spue.
1616. Jonson, Devil's an Ass, v., 4. And in the meantime, to be greasy, and bouzv.
1622. Fletcher, Beggar's Busk, 'The Maunder's Initiation.' I crown thy nab with a gage of ben bouse. Ibid. II., i. When last in conference at the boozing-ken, This other day we sat about our dead prince.
1633. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, I., i. Well. No bouse ? nor no tobacco ?
1639. Optick Glasse of Humors. For drinkes, we must not like bouzers carouse boule after boule to Bacchus his diety, like the Grecians, nor use smaller cups in the beginning of our banquet, more large and capacious bouls at the later end.
c. 1650. Brathwayte, Barnaby's Jl. (1723), 47. Hence to Ridgeley, where a Blacksmith . . . bouzed with me.
1652. Brome, Jovial Crtzv, II., Wks. (1873) III., 390 .. . As Tom or Tib When they at bowsing-ken do swill.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, I., iv., 36 (1874). Most part of the night we spent in boozing, pecking rumly . . . that is drinking, eating.

Booze. 334 Borak.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x., 288. Which in his cups the bowsy poet sings.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. bowle, c. Drink, or to Drink, see benbowle and rumbowle. Bowlingken, c. an Alehouse. The Cut tipt us a Hog, which we melted in Rumbowle c. the Gentleman gave us a Shilling, which we spent in Strong Drink. Bowsy. c. Drunk. IVe bows'd it about, we Drank damn'd hard.
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, IL, IV., 14. Amongst a Crowd of Sots, half boozy.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), 11. Boozing-ken, an Ale-house. [List of cant words in.]
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.). 11. Booze, Drink. [List of cant words].
1772. Bridges, Homer, 403. Booze it about to drown all sorrow, Boxing will make us cool tomorrow.
1777. Colman, Epilogue to Sheridan's School for Scandât. While good Sir Peter boozes with the squire.
1785. Grose, Dictionary Vulgar Tongue. Bouze, etc., drink.
d. 1796. Burns, Tant o' Shanter. While we sit bousing at the nappy.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum s.v.
c. 1819. Wolcot, P. Pindar, 303, (ed. 1830). This landlord was a boozer stout, A snuff-taker and smoker.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib''s Memorial to Congress, 27. 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 Tothillfields. To prig is still to steal; bouzingken, an alehouse; cove, a fellow....
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 6 Jemmy. Gemmen, have you ordered the peck and booze for the evening?
1834. H. AiNSWORTH, Rookwood, III., v. ' We'll have a jolly boose when all's over.' Ibid. The hovel which they termed their boozing-ken.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, xxiii. The boozy unshorn wretch is seen hovering round quays as packets arrive, and tippling drams in inn bars where he gets credit. Ibid, xxxiii. The quantity of brandy-and-water that Jack took showed what a regular boozer he was. Ibid. (1853). Barry Lyndon, xiii., 173. 'I wonder, Sir Charles Lyndon . . . can demean himself by gambling and boozing with low Irish black-legs!'
1830. P. Crook, War of Hats, 50. Boozed in their tavern dens, The scurril Press drove all their dirty pens.
1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, iii. Ere the Doctor could be stirred out of his boozy slumbers, and thrust into his clothes by his wife, the schoolmistress was safe in bed.
1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, 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.'
1884. St James's Gazette, 19 Dec, 4., I. There was a great booze on board.
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.
1889. Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, Aug. 24, 267, 2. In Canton gardens I have boozed.
BORACHIO, subs, (old).—A drunkard: see LUSHINGTON,
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Boracho, a But, a Drunkard, and a Hogskin.
BORAK. To POKE BORAK, verb. phr. (colonial). — To pour fictitious news into credulous ears ; to
STUFF (q.V.); to KID (q.V.).
1857. 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.
335
Bore.
Bord (Borde or Boorde), suas. (old cant).—A shilling: see rhino. The origin is unknown. For synonyms, see blow.
1567. Harman, Caveat, 85. Roge, But bouse there a bord, i.e., but drink there a shilling.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 37 (H. Club's repr., 1874). Boord, a shilling; Hälfe a boord, sixepence.
161 x. Dekker, Roaring Girl, Wks. (1873) III., 219. My Lord Noland . . . bestowes vpon you two, two boordes and a half.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, I., v., 47 (1874). Borde, a shilling.
c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Creiv, s.v. borde, c. a shilling, half a borde, c. sixpence.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the I'ulcar Tongue. [The same definition.]
bord you! phr. (nautical).—An expression used to claim the next turn in drinking.
Bordel (or Bordello), subs. (old). A brothel: see nanny-shop.
d. 1402. Gower, MS. Soc. Antic., 134. f 238.
He ladde hire to the bordel thoo, No wondir is thouze sehe be wo.
1596. Jonson, Ev. Man in Humour,
i. 2.
From the windmill! From the bordello, it might come as well.
d. 1617. Coryat, Works, ii. 175. Also crept into all the stewes, all the brothell-houses, and burdelloes of Italy.
c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Bordel-lo, a bawdy-house.
Bordeaux, subs, (pugilists'). — Blood, ^/.claret and badminton.
bore, subs, (old : now recognised). —Anybody or anything wearisome or annoying. As verb =. to weary, or to be wearied (in
quot. 1781= a slow clumsy fellow): cf. Shakspeare, King Henry VIII., i., I, ' At this instant he bores me with some trick, i.e. wound, and hence metaphorically to torment) ; possibly an eye should be kept on boor = Hollander, but see quots.
1602. Cromwell, iii, 2. One that hath gulled you, that hath bored [? sense] you, sir.
1661. Merry Drollery [Ebsworth], 282. [The word boor is used in scorn],
1682. Suppl. to Last Will. . . of Anthony, Earl of Shaftesiury (Davies). My Lungs (my Ignoramus Friends) is yours;
But for my leights, I leave 'em to the Bores [? sense; possibly a pun on boer = Hollander].
1782. Burgoyne, Lord of Manor, i. A spring of the chaise broke at the bottom of the hill; the boy was quite a bore in tying it up, so I took out my luggage, and determined to walk home.
1781. D'Arblay, Cecilia, 1, viii. He is known by fifty names, said Mr. Monckton; his friends call him the moralist; the young ladies, the crazy man, the macaronis, the bore.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Bore . . . much in fashion about the year 1780—81; it vanished of a sudden without leaving a trace behind[!J.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias (Routledge), 84. You are a very great bore.
1812. Combe, Syntax, 1, vi. Learning's become a very bore; That fashion long since has been o'er.
1814. Austen, Mansfield Park, ix. Seeing a great house ... is generally allowed to be the greatest bore in the world.
1859. Prince Consort, Speech at Aberdeen, 14 Sep. Men who will bring the well-considered and understood wants of science before the public and the Government, who will even hand round the begging-box, and expose themselves to refusals and rebuffs, to which all beggars are liable, with the certainty besides of being considered great bores. Please to recollect that this species of bore is a most useful animal.

Born.
336
Bosh.
Verb. I. See subs.
2. (sporting). — To push (or thrust) out of a course; boring = the practice of'boring.' Amongst pugilists, it signifies to drive an opponent on to the ropes of the ring by sheer weight; amongst rowing men it denotes the action of coxswain in so steering a boat as to force his opponent into the shore, or into still water, thus obtaining an unfair advantage ; also applied to horse-racing.
1672. Vanbrugh, Lover's Quarrels, 317, in Hazl. E.P., 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, I., 255. Evans bored in, and upset his man in the first round.
1870. Dickens, Edwin Drood, xvii., 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.
3. (venery). — To possess a woman ; see greens and ride, and cf. puncture.
BORN. All one's born vws.pkr. (colloquial).—One's lifetime.
1740. Richardson, Pamela, III., 383. He never was so delighted in his born days.
1753. Richardson, Grandison, I., 103. There was one Miss Byron, a Northamptonshire lady, whom I never saw before in my born davs.
1809. Miss Edgeworth, Ennui, 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, adv. phr. (nautical).—Said of a vessel feebly laid down. Also born tired = a humourous confession of fatigue, or a feigned excuse : See bone in leg.
1899. Whiteing, John St., xxi. The fact is I was born tired.
BORN-FOOL, subs. phr. (provincial). An idiot (Halliwell).
BOSH, subs, (common).—Nonsense ; rubbish; stuff (q.v.); ROT (q.v.) —anything beneath contempt. [Murray : 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 '].
1834. Morier, Ayesha, I., 219. This firman is bosh—nothing.
1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, 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., 9, 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, (colloquir.l).—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.
1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, 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? All my eye!

Bosh-faker. 337 Boss.
185a. Dickens, Bleak Hozise, xxi. Bosh! It's all correct.
1889. Pall Mall Cazette, October 30, ?, i. 'You always learn in front of the looking-glass, do you not, Mr. Brandram?'—'Bosh!' was the laughing reply.
bosh-faker, sues. phr. (vagrants'). —A violinist.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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 corruption of bashing.
boshy, adj. (common). — Trumpery; nonsensical.
1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versa, iv. There was no dancing, only boshy games and a conjuror.
bos-ken, subs. phr. (old cant.)— A farmhouse : cf. bos = ox + ken, a house.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, I., 472. Up at a bosken (farm-house) they'll get among the servant girls.
boskiness, subs, (common). — A state of drunkenness ; hence bosky = fuddled with drink ; bemused : 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, 185. I got a bit bosky last night. Has the 'eadache got into my rhymes?
1887. Judy, 31 August, 101. The Town Councillor had a squabble with his parent . . . and accused him of
boskiness.
bosman, subs, (vagrants')—A farmer; cf. bosken.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, i., 471. i've seen the swell bosmen (farmers) buy the pills to give the people standing about.
boss, subs, (common).—I. A master; a head man; one who directs. Dutch baas = a master. Whence bossing = acting as a boss ; bossism = a system of management or wire-pulling; bossy = pertaining to the qualities of a leader
1679. M. Philipse, Early Voyage New Netherlands (quoted by De Vere). Here they had their first interview with the female boss or supercargo of the vessel.
1848. Bartlett, Ajnericanisms. I have never known a second wife but what was boss of the situation.
1850. New York Herald, May 24. The Father of Holiness is the dependent of the Jew, and Rothschild is the real Pope and boss of all Europe.
1856. Nat. Intelligencer, 3 Nov. 'Well, squire,' said he, 'the little fellow that sits up in the pulpit, and kinder bosses it over the crowd, gin us a talk; but I don't know whether he charged any thing or not.'
1859. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, xxiii. 'So, boss,' began the ruffian, not looking at him, 'we ain't fit company for the likes of that kinchin, eh?
1888. New York Herald, Jan. 12. Alderman Campbell — i move an amend ment, to make Hamline the general superintendent and chief boss of this whole gas business.
1901. Free Lance, 27 April, 75, 1. Our tight little island does not often produce railway bosses of the masterful American type.
2. (common).—A short-sighted person; a squinter ; also bosser : cf. boss-eyed, and verb.
3. (common). — A miss ; a blunder.
4 (old).—A term of contempt.

Boss. 338 Botany Bay.
1590. Marlowe, Tamburlaine, I., iii., 3. Zab. Base concubine, must thou be placed by me. That am the empress of the mighty Turk? Zen. Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss!
1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. A fat bosse. Femme bien grasse et grosse ; une coche.
Adj. (common).—Pleasant ; first rate; chief.
1884. Echo, March 3, 1, 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, (common).—I. To manage ; to direct; to control.
1856. National Intelligencer, Nov. 3. The little fellow that bosses it over the crowd.
1872. Athenceum, 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, 515, i. 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 Si/tings, 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 aim ; to make such a shot as a bosseyed (q.v.) person would be expected to make. Boss-shot =r a shot failing of its mark.
1887. N. and Q., 7 S., iii., 236. To boss is schoolboy slang for ' to miss.'
BOSSER, subs, (common).— 1. Id pi. spectacles: see barnacles.
2. See boss.
BOSS-EYED, adj. phr. (common).— One-eyed; oblique of vision; squinny-eyed (q.v.): also subs. boss-eye.
c. 1884. Broadside Ballad, 'Put me some Jam Roll by, Jenny.' Come where the waves roll high, Jenny, Come with your old boss-eye.
BOSTRUCHYZER, subs. (Oxford University: obsolete).—A small kind of comb for curling the whiskers. (Hotten).
BOT (BOTT or BOTTS), subs, (common).— The colic ; belly-ache; gripes : tourmente.
1787. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook, 27. A countra Laird had ta'en the batts, Or some curmurring in his guts.
1816. Scott, Old Mortality, viii. ¹1 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). —Transportation to botany bay phr. sense 3 (q.v.).
BOTANY BAY, subs.phr. (University). — I. Worcester College Oxford: on account of its remote situation as regards other collegiate buildings. A certain portion of Trinity College, Dublin: for the same reason.
1841. Lever, Charles O'Malley, 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].

Botany-Bay fever. 339 Bottle-boy.
1853. Rev. E. Bradley ('Cuthbert Bede'), Adventures of Verdant Green, I., 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 = to be in for a long term of imprisonment.
botany-bay fever, subs. phr. (old). —Transportation _; penal servitude : see Botany Bay, and cf. hempen fever = hanging.
botch, subs, (old).—A tailor : i.e. a botcher: see snip. To pass the bottle of smoke, verb. phr. (old). —To countenance a lie; to cant (q.v.).
bottle, subs. (Stock Exchange). —In pi. Barrett's Brewery and Bottling Co. shares.
To turn out no bottle, verb, phr. (sporting). — To turn out badly; to fail.
TO look for a needle in a bottle of hay, verb. phr. (common).—To seek what it is impossible (or at lest, difficult) to find, Yr.botte. [bottle=bundle]. Also, pin's head in a cartload of hay, and needle in a haystack.
1565. Calfhill on Marshall's, Treatise of the Cross [Parker Soc] 173. Pinshead in a cartload of hay.
159a. Greene, Upstart Courtier (1871), 4. He. . . . gropeth in the dark
to find a needle in a bottle of hay.
1661. Merry Drollery [Ebsworth],
79. As SOOn find A needle in A bottle of hay..
c. 1845. Hood, Lost Heir, ii. A child as is lost about London streets .... is
a needle in a bottle of hay.
c. 1880. W. M. Baker, New Timothy, 300. How in the world will we manage to find you afterwards? After we get into the thick of the bush, it'll be like lookin' for a needle in the biggest sort
Of a haystack.
To bottle up, verb.phr. (old). —To restrain temper (or feelings) ; to hold (or keep) back; to treasure in one's memory.
1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 53. Vapours . . . botteled up in cloudes.
1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, 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, 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.
bottle of br \ndy in a glass, phr. (common).—A long drink (q.v.) of beer.
bottle-ache, subs. phr. (common). —Drunkenness ; also delirium tremens-, see gallon distemper.
bottle-arse, subs. phr. (common).—A full-breeched man or woman. Whence bottle-arsed = broad in the beam ; full-buttocked : also see next entry.
bottle-arsed, adj. phr. (printers').
— i. Type thicker at one end than the other: a result of wear and tear.
2. See bottle-arse.
bottle-boy, subs. phr. (common).
— An apothecary's assistant; a doctor's page.

/
Bottle-companion. 340 Bottom.
1857. Kingslev, Two Years Ago, i. He . . . utterly fulfilled the ideal of a bottle-boy, for of him too as of all things, I presume, an ideal exists eternally in the supra-sensual Platonic universe.
bottle-companion, subs.phr. (common).—Atippling-brother; abooncompanion : See lushington.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 1S8. I was determined no longer to open either my cellar or my soul in the presence of Arabian or Jew. My bottlecompaniOn henceforward was a young gentleman from Leghorn.
bottle-head, subs. phr. (colloquial). — A fool. As adj. =z stupid.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bottle-head, void of Wit.
bottle-holder, subs. phr. (pugilists').— i. A second at a prizefight.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (l.). An old bruiser makes a good bottleholder.
1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ii. Cold water, and a little vinegar, applied according to the scientific method practised by the bottle-holders in a modern ring.
i85o. Thackeray, Philip, xl. 'Do you remember his tremendous fight with Biggs?' 'Remember? who didn't? Marston was Berry's bottle-holder.'
2. (common).—One who gives moral support; a backer; an adviser. [In The Times of 1851, Lord Palmerston was reported to consider himself the bottleholder of oppressed States ; and in Punch of the same year a cartoon appeared representing that statesman asthe 'judiciousBOTTLEholder.'] Hence bottle-holding = backing; supporting.
1816. Scott, Antiquary, xxxix. Pétrie . . . 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.
1878-80, Justin MacCarthy, History of Our Own Times, II., 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-nose, subs. phr. (common). A person with a large nose. Also as adj.
1568. Falwell, Like Will to Like [DodsleyJ, Old Plays [There occurs] bottle-nosed.
1899. Besant, Orange Girl, 66. At forty-five his circumference is great: his neck is swollen; his cheek is red: perhaps his nose has become what is called
bottle.
bottle-of-spruce,5?/^./Ar. (rhyming).—Twopence: i.e. deuce=two.
Bottle-sucker, subs. phr. (nautical).—An able-bodied seaman, colloquially A.B.S.
Bottle-washer, subs. phr. (common).—A scullion. Hence headcook and bottle-washer = a general servant; a slavey {q.v.): in contempt.
1876. Hindley, Adv. of a CheapJack, 66. Fred Jolly being the headcook and bottle-washer.
bottom, subs, (colloquial).— I. The posteriors; not now in polite literary use: see blind-cheeks, and bun.
1794-6. E. Darwin, Zoon (i8or), III., 353. So as to have his head and shoulders much lower than his bottom.

Bottom. 341 Bottom-facts.
1823-36. J. Wilson, Nodes, Amir., 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. (colloquial). — Capital; resources ; stamina _; grit (q.v.).
1662. Fuller, Worthies, (1840), II., 451. Beginning on a good bottom left him by his father.
c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Bottom, a man of no bottom, of no basis of principles, or no settlement of fortune, or oi no ground in his art.
1747. Captn. Godfrey, Science of Defence, 54. 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., 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, I'. Fair, II., 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. (common).—Spirit placed in a glass prior to the addition of water or other fluid : e.g. soda and dark bottom = soda and brown brandy; also as verb.
1854. Sir Theo. Martin, Bon Gaultier Ballads. Bottomed well with brandy.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, 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, 5, 3. Soda and dark bottom is mentioned in a list of American drinks in this article.
TO knock the bottom out of one, verb. phr. (American). —To overcome: to defeat, etc.
1888. Cleveland Leader. The declination of Mr. Blaine, has knocked the bottom out of Mugwumpery.
TO stand on one's own bottom (or every tub on its own
bottom), verb. phr. (old).—To act for oneself, to be independent.
1630-40. Court and Times Charles I', 11, 159. Every man must stand on his own bottom.
BOTTOM-DOLLAR, subs. phr. (American).—The last dollar: cf. bedrock. TO bet one's bottom dollar = to risk all.
1877. Miss Kate Field [Truth, 8 Feb.]. I saw the whole play; admired the Queen's dignity, and you may bet your bottom dollar I don't want to go again.
BOTTOM-FACTS, subs. phr. (American).—The exact truth about a matter. To get to the bottom facts (or bottom-rock), to arrive at an unquestionable conclusion, to get to the root of a question.
i8[?]. Methodist [Bartlett]. Take it altogether, there is no way to raise money for the church without giving it. And here is the 'bottom fact' in the trouble: we want the church to have the money; but we want somebody else to pay it.

Bottomless-Pit. 342
Bounce.
1877. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Life on the Mississippi, 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.
1877. New York Tribune, 17 Mar. The public has a large interest in the case of the election of Senator Grover [of Oregon]. Curiosity has been on the tiptoe these many weeks to know the bottom facts in it.
1888. Omaha World. Bottom rock. Conductor (on California train some years hence)—'All out for Pitholeville.' Real Estate Agent (entering car) — 'Orange groves and appie orchards, two for a penny.'
bottomless-pit, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. See monosyllable.
botty, subs, (common).—An infant's posteriors. Fr. tutu.
Adj. (colloquial).—Conceited ; swaggering. Fr. faire sa merde, or faire son matador = to look botty.
bough, subs. (Old).—The gallows. See tree.
1590. Swinburn, Testaments, s3Or in Kent in Gauelkind . . . for there it is said, the father to the boughe, and the son to the ploughe.
1596. Spenser, State frei., Wks. (1862), 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.
Up in the boughs, phr. (old). —In a passion.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Boughs, he is up in the boughs, or a top of the house, of one upon the Rant, or in a great Ferment.
Bought,bought and soLD,^r.(old.) —Entirely overreached, utterly made away with.
1591. Harrington, Ariosto, xvi. 33. Then were the Roman empire bought and sold, The holy church were spoyl'd, and quite undone.
1593. Shakespeare, Com. of Errors, iii. i. It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and sold. Ibid. 1597. Richard III, v. 3. Jockey of Norfolk be not too bold, For Diccon thy master is bought and sold.
Bougour. See bugger.
bounce, subs, (common).— i.Brag; swagger; boastful falsehood; exaggeration.
1714. Steele, Lover (1723), 93. This is supposed to be only a bounce.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (s.) . . . also the bluff, brag, or swaggering of a bully or great pretender.
1765. Goldsmith, Haunch of Venison, 1. 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, 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 . . . you need only hint that he rides gallantly.
1880. Blackwood's Mag., May, 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, lx. It is the face of the Webster type, but without the bounce of Webster's face.
3. A boaster ; swaggerer; showy swindler; bully: also cf. bouncer (q.v.).
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Diet. Bounce, a person well or fashionably drest is said to be a rank bounce.

Bounce. 343 Bouncer.
4. (common).—Cherry brandy.
Verb, (common).— I. 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.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Bounce, to boast and vapour. A meer bounce, a swaggering fellow.
1698. Ward, London Spy, XVIII., 428. With lies he tells his Bloody Feats, And bounces like a Bully.
1707. Ward, Hud. Red. ii. 3. The bouncing Quack's alluring Babble.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (v.), to swagger, boast, crack, stump, or pretend to great manners.
1749. Walpolb, Lett, to Mann, 3. May (1833), II., 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, v. 'He'll be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to bounce me.'
1883. Daily News, July 26, 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. (common).—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, x. It's them gals, Mr. Austin, got a shilling of mine among un somewhere, and wants to bounce me out of it.'
3. (venery). — To possess a woman: see greens and kids.
To get the grand bounce, phr. (American).—To be summarily dismissed _; to be chucked out (q.v.): also, in political parlance ; to be thrown out of office.
On the bounce, phr. (common).—In a state of spasmodic movement; general liveliness.
1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Several well known defaulters would be observed going to and fro on the bounce.
bounceable, adj. (common). — Given to bouncing (q.v.)\ boasting ; uppish ; bumptious.
1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, 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, 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, (old).—i. A bully _;hector; blusterer; one who talks swaggeringly.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Bouncer, c. a bully.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (4 ed.). Bouncer (f.), 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; a shoplifter (q.v.). Fr. dégringo leur, the practice being dégringoler h la carre.
3. (common).—A lie ; a liar.

Bouncing.
344 Bounder.
1762. Foote, Liar, 11., 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. Marrvat, Peter Simple, 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, 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 or uncommon, a whopper (q.v.) ;
a thumper (q.V.) ; a corker (q.V.).
1596. Nashe, Saffron Waiden, 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 chuckerout (q.v.).
1883. Daily News, July 26, 4, 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.' Everyone 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. (venery). — A prostitute's
bully (q.V.); a ponce (q.V.).
7. (naval).—A gun that kicks (q.v.) when fired.
BOUNCING, adj. (common).—Vigourous; lusty; exaggerated; excessive; big.
c. 1563. Jacke Jugder, 42 (ed. Grosart). And made you a banket [banquet], and bouncing cheare.
1588. Afarprelate's Epistle, 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, iii-, 3. The duck that sits is the bouncing ramp, that roaring girl, my mistress.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xix. While I was at work in the shop, a bouncing damsel, well dressed, came in.
1846. Thackerav, I'anitv Fair, ii. By the side of many tall and bouncing young ladies in the establishment, Rebecca Sharp looked like a child.
bouncing-cheat, subs.phr.(o\à cant). —A bottle: see cheat. Fr. rouillardc (or rouillé). See dead-men.
Bound. See had _; shine _; go ; get
there, etc.
bounder, subs, (common).—I. A four-wheeled cab ; a growler (q.v.).
2. (University). — A dog-cart.
3. (University). — A student whose manners are not acceptable ; one whose companionship is not cared for. Hence a vulgar, though well-dressed, man ; a superior kind of 'Arry'; one whose dress and personal appearance are correct, but whose manners are questionable ; a snide (q.v.) : often bally bounder. Fr. mufe and espèce de cafouilleux.
i8[?]. St. James's Gaz., 'Culture of the Masses' (S.J. & C). I said something one day about my own attire, and she remarked that if I ordered the particular hat 1 desired I should be taken for a bounder; and when I asked what that meant, she said, 'Oh, a toft", you know.' Feeling that my ignorance had better be displayed no further, I departed by the next train.

Boung. 345 Bow.
1892. Ally Sloper, 19 Mar., 90, 3. When death of Uncle John bereft us, We said we mourned because he'd left us; Our mourning was a lot profounder To find he'd left us nix—the bounder!
1900. White, West End, 39. ' Dignity, courtesy, and self-restraint are the signs of an English gentleman. Let . . . the newly acquired splendours . . . leave you at least outwardly unimpressed.' ' You mean . . . that I'm not to be a bounder because the mater's been presented, and the guv'nor's built a jolly new big house ? '
boung. See bung.
boung-nipper. See bung-nipper.
bounty-jumper, sues. (American). —A man who, receiving a bounty when 'listing, deserts, re-enlists, and receives a second bounty. [The War of the Rebellion is responsible for this colloquialism. As the conflict lengthened out, men were in request, and large bounties were offered by the North for volunteers]. Hence derivatives, such as bountyjumping, etc.
c. i860. Song of the BountyJumper (Bartlett).
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.
1875. HiGGiNSON, History of United States, 306. Bringing into the service many bounty-jumpers, who enlisted merely for money, and soon deserted to enlist again.
1887. Jllus. Lon. News, May 14, 552, i. 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. i. (Americanpolitical).—A Democrat of the straitest sect; a fire-eater: applied, for the most part, to Southern Democrats
of the old shool who like the old Bourbon party in France were uncompromising adherents of political tradition.
2. (American). — A superior kind of whiskey: originally manufactured in Bourbon, Kentucky.
bouse (or bowse). See booze.
bout, subs. (B.E.).—'A tryal, act, essay '.
Bouzy.—See boozy.
bow. two (or many) strings to
one's bow, phr. (colloquial).— An alternative; more resources than one. Of old, archery, as the dominant pursuit, gave many figures of speech to the language : e.g. ' Get the shaft-hand of your adversaries'; 'Draw not thy bow before thy arrow be fixed ' ; ' Kill two birds with one shaft ' ; ' Never shoot wide of the mark'; 'The fool's bolt is soon shot'; 'Draw a long bow'; 'Many talk of Robin Hood, who never shot his bow'; 'An archer is known by his aim, and not by his arrows ' ; etc.
1562. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (1867), 30. Ye have many stryngis to
the bowe.
1588. Marprelate's Epistle, 18 (ed. Arber). Doe you not thinke that I haue
two strings to my bow.
1606. John Day, Isle of Gulls, ii., 2, 39. A wise man's bow goes
with a two-fold string.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xvii He was resolved to have two strings to his bow, that in case the one failed, he might use the other.
(?) T. Brown, 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.

Bow. 346 Bow-catcher.
1886. Mrs. Riddell, For Dick's Sake, iv., 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 (or pull) the long bow, phr. (colloquial).—To exaggerate; to gas (q.V.); to talk up (q.v.); to tell improbable stories. Hence long-bow man = a liar.
English synonyms, to climb a steep hill, to come (or cut) it strong (or fat, or thick), to embroider, to gammon (q.V.), to lay it on thick, to put on the pot, to pull a leg, to slop over.
French synonyms. La faire a l'oseille ; en voila une severe ; c'est plus fort que de jouer au bouchon.
[1662. Fuller, Worthies, 'Notts'. Surely the poet gives a twang to the loose of his arrow, making him [Robin Hood] shoot one a cloth-yard long at full forty-score mark, for compass never higher than the breast, and within less than a foot of the mark].
1653 Urquhart, Rabelais, v., 30. 'Twas ^Elian, that long-bow man, that told you so, never believe him, for he lies as fast as a dog can trot.
1767. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), 64], s.v.
1798-1821. Poetry, Anti-Jacobin, 63. But still, howe'er you draw your bow, Your charms improve, your triumphs grow.
1819-24. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 1. They . . . draw the long bow better now than ever.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxx. What is it makes him pull the long bow in that wonderful manner? Ibid. (1854-5). Newcomes, i. King of Corpus (who was an incorrigible wag) was on the point of pulling some dreadful long pow, and pointing out a half dozen of people in the room as K. and H. and L.etc, the most celebrated wits of that day.
1871. Daily News, 29 Dec. If now and then he appears to draw the long bow, or rather to shoot with an extraordinary rifle, he does not abuse the reader's faith unmercifully.
1883. A. Dobson, OldWorld Idylls, 134. The great Gargilius, then, behold! His long bow hunting-tales of old Are now but duller.
To draw the bow up to the ear, phr. (colloquial).—To do a thing with alacrity; to put on full steam (q.v.) ; to exert oneself to the utmost.
i860. Macmillan's Mag., Feb., 25S. So Miller, the coxswain, took to drawing the bow up to the ear at once.
TO shoot in another's bow, verb. phr. (old).—To undertake another's work ; to practise an art or profession other than one's own.
BY the string rather than the bow, verb. phr. (old).—In a direct fashion ; by the straightest way to an end.
The bent of one's bow, phr. (old).—One's intention, inclination, disposition.
To bend (or bring) to one's bow, verb. phr. (old).—To control ; to compel to one's will or inclination.
To come to one's bow, verb, phr. (old) —To be complaisant _;become compliant.
Bow-bell, subs. phr. (old). — A Cockney; one born within the sound of bow-bells.
1605. London Prodigal, 15. s.v.
bow-catcher, subs.phr. (common). —A kiss-curl : see aggerawator. [A corruption of beau-catcher: cf. bell-rope].

Bowdikite.
347
Bowie.
Bowdikite, subs, (provincial).—A contemptuous name for a mischievous child ; an insignificant or corpulent person. [Halliwell].
Bowdlerize, verb, (colloquial).— To expurgate; to remove anything offensive or questionable from a book or writing. [Dr. T. Bowdler's method in editing an edition of Shakspeare, was, to use his own words, ' Those . . . expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.'] Hence bowdlerization = squeamish emasculation of a work ; and bowdlerizer = a prudish editor, etc.
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 ard Narcissus they would probably have bowdlerized.
1870. Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., 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 Kentball, iii. Her uncle had not made her read much beside the Bible and Shakspeare, which last he had bowdi.erised on his own account with a broad pen and very thick ink.
1882. Westm. Review, April, 583. The bowdlerization which the editor has thought necessary is done in an exceedingly awkward and clumsy fashion.
bower, subs. (American thieves'). —A prison: see cage.
bowery-boy, bowery-girl.-rwfo./'AV. (American).—The 'Arry and 'Arriet of New York of some years ago. [The Bowery is a well known thoroughfare in the American metropolis and is situated on what was formerly the farm of Governor Stuyvesant.
i8[?j Chicago Tribune (S. J. & C.) When I first knew it, both the old Bowery Theatre and the old bowerv bov were in their glory. It was about that time that Thackeray, taking some notes in Gotham, had an encounter with the bowery boy that seems to have slipped into history. The caustic satirist had heard of the bowery boy, as the story goes, and went to see him on his native heath. He found him leaning on a fire hydrant, and accosted him with, 'My friend, I want to go to Broadway.' Whereupon the bowery Boy, drawing up his shoulders and taking another chew
on his cigar, 'Well, why the--don't
yer go, then ? '
bow-hand, subs. phr. (old).—The left hand. To be too much of the bow-hand = to fail in any design.
bowie, subs. (American).—A large clasp-knife: a knife (Bartlett) from ten to fifteen inches long, and about two inches broad, so named after its inventor, Colonel Bowie ; they are worn as weapons by persons in the South and South-western States only, and concealed in the back part of the coat or in the sleeve : see Arkansan-toothpick.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xxxiii. ' No stakes, no dungeons, no blocks, no racks, no scaffolds, no thumbscrews, no pikes, no pillories,' said Chollop. 'Nothing but revolvers and bowie knives,' returned Mark; 'and what are they? not worth mentioning.'
1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xxvii. I took the precaution of bringing my bowie and revolver with me, in case the worst came to the worst.
i8[?] Song of Border Ruffian (Bartlett). There's some men here as I have got to shoot, There's some men here as I have got to stick, Let any on you jest my words dispute, I'll put this bowieknife into him, slick.

Bowl. 348 Bow-wow.
18[?j. General Stringfellow, Speech in Kansas Legislature (Bartlett). I advise you, one and all, to enter every election district in Kansas, and vote at the point of the Bowie knife and revolver. Neither give nor take quarter, as our case demands it.
1854. Martin and Aytoun, Bon Gualtier Ballads. And in his hand, for deadly strife, a bowie-knife he bears.
1862. New York Tribune, 12 June. He has already made 12,000 pikes and a number of bowies.
BOWL. To bowl out, verb. phr. (common).—To overcome _; to get the better of; to defeat. Also thieves' = to arrest, to lag (q.v ).
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, 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, xxiv. 'He's handsomer than you are; if you don't mind your play, he'll bowl you out.'
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, ii., 121. Now and again a warder does get bowled out, and comes to grief. At the very least he loses his situation.
To bowl over, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To defeat ; to worst.
1862. Cornhill Mag., 729. You have bowled me over, and I know I can't get up again.
1878. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, II., 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, xlvii. He confessed to himself that he was completely bowled over,—'knocked off his pins!'
BOWLAS, subs, (common).—See quot.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, I., 208. Bowlas, or round tarts made of sugar, apple, and bread.
Bowled, adj. (Winchester).—Croppled (q.v.).
Bowler. See Boler.
Bowles, subs, (common).—Shoes: see trotter-cases.
bowl-the-hoop, subs. phr. (rhyming).—Soup.
Bowman. All's bowman! phr (old).—All's well!
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 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.
bowsprit, subs, (common).—The nose: see Boltsprit. Hence to
have one's bowsprit in parenTHESiSz=to have it pulled : cf. to HAVE one's HEAD in coventry.
bow-window, subs.phr. (common). —A large stomach : spec, that of a pregnant woman. Hence bowwindowed = big-bellied _; lumpy (q.V.).
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, 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.
1889. Daily Telegraph, May 6. She was what is vulgarly called bowwindowed.
BOW-WOW, subs. phr. (nursery).— I. A dog.

Bowwow-mutton. 349
Box.
i8qo. Cowper, Beau's Reply. Let my obedience then excuse My disobedience now, Nor some reproof yourself refuse From your aggrieved bow-wow.
1839. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, lxiv. It's all up with its handsome friend; he has gone to the demnition bow-wows.
i8(?8z). Broadside Ballad, 'I haven't for a long time now.' I sang outside her door each night Till her father bought a big bow-wow.
2. (old).—a Bostonian : in contempt.
3. (common).— a cavalier; lover: spec, a petticoat-dangler: see tame cat.
1877. Chamb. Journal, 12 March, 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.'
Bowwow-mutton, subs. phr. (old). — Dog's flesh.
bowwow-word, subs. phr. (common).—A word claimed to be in imitation of natural sounds, i.e., onomatopoetic words: a sarcastic coinage of Max Midler's.
1570. Lambarde, Peram. Kent, 233. [Bawwaw is used when reference is made to Erasmus comparing the English tongue, abounding in monosyllables, to a dog's bark—Oliphant].
bowyer, subs. (old).—One who draws a long bow (q.v.) ; a dealer in the marvellous ; a teller of improbable stories: a liar: see long bow.
box, subs, (thieves').— I. a prison cell: cf. jug.
1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, 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., 214. The box in the stone-jug is doubtless a cell.
2. (old : now recognised).— See quot.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Box... A pretty box, a Compleat little House, also a small drinking place.
Verb. (Westminster School).— i. To take possession; to bag (q.v.).
2. (pugilists').—'To fight with the fists' (B.E. c. 1696).
To be in a box, phr. (common).—To be cornered (q.V.);
in a fix (q.v.); to be stuck (q.v.)-, to be hung up (q.v.).
To be in the wrong box, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be out of one's element ; to be in a false position.; to be mistaken.
1554. Ridley (Foxe, 1838), vi., 348. Sir, quoth I, if you will hear how St. Augustine expoundeth that place, you shall perceive that you are in a wrong box.
158S. J. Udall, Distrephes, 31. I perceive that you and I are in a wrong
box.
1639. Optick Glasse of Humors. Brit Socrates said, Laugh not, Zophirus is not in a wrong box.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Box... In a wrong box, of one that has taken wrong measures, or made false steps.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, xliii. 'That, I grant you, must be confessed: doctor, I'm afraid we have got
into the wrong box.'
1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, 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.'

Box.
Boy.
On the BOX, phr. (workmen's). On strike, and in receipt of strike pay.
1889. Daily News, 19 Nov., 6, 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.
To box about, verb.phr. (old). —See quot.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Box... Box it about boys, Drink briskly round.
To box the fox, verb. phr. (provincial).—To rob an orchard. (Halliwell).
To box the compass, verb, phr. (old). To repeat in succession, or irregularly, the thirtytwo points of the compass; beginners, on accomplishing this feat, are said to be able to box the compass.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, 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.
1836. Marrvat, 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.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, xlii. After a week or so, the wind would regularly box the compass (as the sailors call it) in the course of every day, following where the sun should be, as if to make a mock of him.
To box Harry, verb. phr. (commercial travellers').— I. To take dinner and tea together _;(2) to dine out (q.v.) i.e., to do without a meal at all (but see quot.).
1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words, s.v. box-harry. To dine with Duke Humphrey; to care after having been extravagant.
To box the jesuit, verb. phr. (venery). —To masturbate: see frig and cockroaches.
BOX-HAT, subs. phr. (common).— A silk hat : see cady.
BOX-IRONS, subs.phr. (old).—Shoes :
see trotter-cases.
1789. Geo Parker, Life's Painter, 173. Shoes. Hock.'y-dockies, or boxirons.
BOX-OF-DOMINOES, subs. phr. (common).—The mouth : properly the teeth: see potato-trap.
BOY, subs, (common).—I. Champagne: see quot. 1882.
1882. Punch, LXXXII., 69, 2. 'The fine young London Gentleman.' He'll nothing drink but ' B. and S.', and big magnums of the boy.
1882. Punch, LXXXII., 155, 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, 84, 1. Shall it be B. and S., or bumpers of the boy ?
1898. Pink 'Un and Pelican, 63. Half a dozen bottles of the choicest boy to be found in Fleet St... (The young bucks of the present day, by the way, generally allude to a bottle of champagne erroneously as 'the boy,' in evident ignorance of the origin of the term, which is as follows: At a shooting party of His Royal Highness's, the guns were

Boy. 351 Boy.
followed at a distance by a lad who wheeled a barrow-load of champagne, packed in ice. The weather was intensely close and muggy, and whenever anybody fell inclined for a drink he called out 'Boy!'... the frequency with which this happened led to the adoption of the term.
2. (common).—A hump on a man's back ; it is frequently usual to speak of a humpbacked man as two persons—' him and his boy ' : cf. lord and lady.
3. (Anglo-Indian and colonial.) —A servant of whatever age.
4. (old colloquial).—A torturer; a hangman.
1280. [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 99. It is curious that boy had been used for a torturer or hangman since 1280, reminding us of the Italian boja].
1377. Langland, Piers Plowman, [E.E.T.S.], 37s.v.
Verb. (old).—To beget (or give birth) to boys.
d. 1635. Corbet, Death of Lady Haddington. Nor hast thou in his nuptial arms enjoy'd Barren embraces, but wast girl'd and boy'd.
Old boy (or my boy), subs. (popular).— I. A familiar address : spec, (modern) one's father; the guv'nor (q.v.) ; the boss (q.v.).
1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales (Maine), ii. 214. Min owen boy.
1567. Edwards, Damon and Pithias [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), iv. 28]. My boy! (in addressing a servant).
1602. Shaks., Twelfth. N. ,ii., 4, 122. But di'de the sister of her loue, my boy ?
1740. Richardson, Pamela, in.,
380. Never fear, old boy, said Sir
Charles, we'll bear our Parts in Conversation.
1749. Smollett, Gil Bias (1812) iv. vii. One of the old boys... great-rakes in their youth.. . not a whit more sedate in their age.
1854. Otir Cruise in the Undine, 142. Here's a go, Bill! said the Doctor. Never mind, old boy, replied the Captain; we'll get the other side of him yet.
1871. The Echo, 16 March. Are you going to have a wet, old boy ? one familiarly remarked.
1889. Illus. London News, Summer Number, 26, 2 You are right there, old boy, said Eustace.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, 165. Now for business, old boy.
2. (common).—The devil.
1835-40. Haliburton, Clockmaker, (1862), 140. As we invigorate the form of government (as we must do, or go to the old boy).
The boys, subs. phr. (turf). — Race-course rogues; rampers
(q.V.); br1ef-snatchers (q.V.); magsmen (q.V); lumberers (q.V.)
and the like.
i8[?] Bird o' Freedom. I should think that there is hardly a bookmaker in Tattersall's, or even one of the readymoney fraternity, who would not willingly subscribe to a fund for the laudable purpose of cleansing the rings from those foul abominations, those criminal scoundrels known as the boys. These vermin rob the public annually of thousands of pounds, and divert from the pockets of the bookmakers a perfect river of gold.
Yellow-boy (or hammer), subs. phr. (common).—Formerly a guinea, 21/; now one pound sterling, 20/ : see rhino.
1633. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. Is that he that has gold enough ? would I had some of his yellow-hammers.
1661. Middleton, Mayor of Quinborough, ii. Simon the Tanner. Now, by this light, a nest of yellow-hammers. . . . I'll undertake, sir, you shall have all the skins in our parish at this price.
1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, i. How now, yellow boys, by this good light ! Sirrah, varlet, how came I by this gold?
x

Boy. 352 Boy.
1706. Ward, Wooden World, 24. No Liquor could overcome him, the last Remedy then was, to bring out some yellow boys.
1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, i., vi. There wanted not yellow boys to fee counsel, hire witnesses, and bribe juries.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, viii. I wish both their necks were broke, though the two cost me forty good yellow boys.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford. Fighting Attie, my hero, I saw you to-day A purse full of yellow boys seize.
1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, xiii. 'The delight of picking up the money—the bright, shining yellow boys —and sweeping 'em into one's pocket!'
1884. Clemens, Huckleberry Finn. When they found the bag they spilt it out on the floor, and it was a lovely sight, all them yaller boys.
Angry (or roaring) boys, subs, phr. (old). — A set of young bucks, bloods, or blades, all of which see, of noisy manners and fire-eating tastes ; who, like the mohawks {q.v.) delighted to commit outrages and get into quarrels, also roaring-girls, roarers, etc. : see oatmeal and roaring-boys.
1599. Greene, Tu Quoque, Old Plays, vii, 25. This is no angry, nor no roaring boy, but a blustering boy.
c. 1600. Brave English Gypsey [Collier, Ro x burghe-Ballad s (1847), 185]. Our knockers make no noise, We are
no roaring boyes.
1603. Dekker, London's Tempe. The gallant roars; roarers drink oathes and gall.
1609. Shakspeare, Tempest, i. 1. What care these roarers for the name of King?
1609. Ben Jonson, Epiccene, 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. Ibid. (1610). Philaster, v. 4. We are thy myrmidons, thy guard, thy roarers. Ibid. (1616), Widow, ii. 3. Two roaring-boys of Rome that made all split.
1611. Middleton, The Roaring Girl [Title]. Ibid. (1617), A Faire Quarrell, v. i. I saw a youth, a gentleman, a roarer.
c. 1620. Court and Times James I. [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 58. The new cant word roaring boy comes up in p. 322].
1630. Taylor, Works [Nares], Virago roaring girles, that to their middle, To know what sexe they were, was hälfe a riddle.
1640. Humphry Mill, Night's Search, 8, 42. Two roaring blades being on a time in drink.
1640. The Wandering Jew. 'I am a man of the Sword; a Battoon Gallant, one of our Dammees, a bouncing Boy, a kicker of Bawdes, a tyrant over Puncks, a terrour to Fencers, a mewer of Playes, a jeerer of Poets, a gallon-pot-flinger ; in rugged English, a roarer.'
1653. Wilson, James I. 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.
1658. Rowley [Nares], i. 2. One of the country roaring lads; we have such, as well as the city, and as arrant rakehells as they are.

Boycott. 353 Bracelet.
1822. Scott, Fort, of Nigel, xvii. The tarnished doublet of bald velvet... will best suit the garb of a roaring boy.
Boys of the holt ground, subs.phr. (old).—Formerly (180025) bands of roughs, infesting a well-known region in St. Giles: see holy-land.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, 7. For we are the boys of the holy ground, And we'll dance upon nothing and turn us round.
boycott, verb, (common). — To combine in refusing to hold relations of any kind, social or commercial, public or private, with a person on account of political or other differences, so as to punish or coerce him. The word arose in the autumn of 1880—Capt. Boycott, an Irish landlord, was the original victim —to describe the action instituted by the Irish Land League towards those who incurred its hostility. It was speedily adopted into every European language.
boykin, subs. (old).—A boy : spec, of tender years: an endearment.
1540. Palsgrave, Acolastus, s.v.
1600. John Oldcastle, 38. s.v.
1675. Cotton, Scarronides, 80. But now I'm fixt to go along With thee, my boykin, right or wrong.
brace, verb. (American thieves'). —To get credit by swagger.
brace of shakes, subs. phr. (common).—A moment; a jiffy; the twinkling of an eye: also a couple of shakes. Fr. far-far.
1837. Barham, /. L. (Babes in the Wood). I'll be back in a couplï of shakes.
1841. Punch, i. 135. A couple of agues, caught, to speak vulgarly, in k
brace of shakes.
1854. Martin and Aytoun, Bon Gaultier Ballads, 'Jupiter and the Indian Ale.' Quick! invent some other drink, Or, in a brace of shakes, thou standest On Cocytus' sulph'ry brink.
1866. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, xciii. Now Dragon could kill a wolf in
a brace of shakes.
1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, 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., 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.'
To brace it through, verb, phr. (American).—To succeed by sheer impudence : cf. brace up, to gird oneself up, to buckle to.
To brace up, verb. phr. (thieves').— 1. To pawn stoleD goods: spec, to pledge their utmost value.
2. (American).—To take a drink.
1888. Puck's Library, Ap., 20. Come old boy, let's brace up; a bumper will pull you together again.
Bracelet, subs, (common). — A handcuff, Fr. alliances = wedding rings : tartouve -, lacets ; 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, I., lv-> 37¹ (^r874). Fetters confined my legs from stragling, and bracelets were clapt upon my arms.

Bracket-face. 354 Brain.
1839. W. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), 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, I., 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.'
1871. Braddon, Roi. Ainsleigh. You'd better slip the bracelets on him, Jim. The fellow on my left produced a pair of handcuffs.
1877. Five Years Penal Servitude, v., 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.
1885. Sims, Rogues and Vagebonds. 'Ah, but I do!' exclaimed the detective, suddenly seizing the trembling wretch. 'Come, let's slip the bracelets on.'
Bracket-face (or -mug), subs. phr. (common).—An ugly face; hatchet-face {q.V.) ; bracket-face = ugly_; hard-featured (B.E. and Grose).
brads, subs, (common).—Generic for money: see rhino.
To tip the brads = to pay; to shell out (q.V.).
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Diet. Brads, halfpence ; also money in general.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, 'Pom and Jerry, i., 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.
1853. 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, 11., ii. They used such funny terms: 'brads' and 'dihbs'... at last it was borne in upon me that they were talking about money.
i8[?]. Sporting Times. Get anything? Not a brad, s'welp my never.
brag, subs. (B.E.)—i. A vapouring, swaggering, bullying fellow; i.e. braggadocio (q.v.).
2. (thieves').— A usurer; a Jew: cf. sixty-per-cent.
braggadocia, subs, (thieves'). — See quot.
1857. Dickens, Reprinted Pieces (Three 'Detectiz>e' Anecdotes, The Artful Touch), 253. ' We don't take much by this move, anyway, for nothing's found upon 'em, and it's only the braggadoCia after all.' [Footnote. Three months imprisonment, as reputed thieves].
Bragging-Jack, subs. phr. (old).— A boaster; swaggerer (q.v.): see Jack.
1372. Higgins, Did. 532. s.v. Thraso, a vaine-glorious fellow, a craker, a boaster, a bragging Jacke.
brain, subs, (colloquial).—Cuteness; cleverness _; nous (q.v.). Hence brainy — smart ; clever; up-todate (q "'.).
Phrases. To beat (break, busy, cudgel, drag, or puzzle) one's brains = to exert oneself to thought or contrivance. To crack one's brains = to become crazy. On the brain = crazy about (a matter). To turn one's brain = to bewilder, to flummox (q.V.). A dry brain := silly (stupid or barren) brain. A hot braun = an inventive fancy.

Brain-brat.
355 Branch.
Boiled brains — a hot-headed person. To bear a brain = to be cautious. To suck (or pick) a person's brains = to get and appropriate information. Of the same brain = indentical in conception or doing.
BRAIN-brat, subs. phr. (old).—A creature of the fancy (1630).
Brain-crack, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A craze, crotchell, 'bee' (1851).
Brain-foolery, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—Folly.
1606. Chapman, Möns. D'Olive, v. The very essence of his soule is pure villany; the substance of his brainfoolery; one that beleeues nothing from the starres upward.
Brain-pan (-box, -canister, -mill), subs. phr. (common).—1. The skull, or skull-cap. Hence (2) the head.
b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 417. Upon her brain pan Like an Egyptian Capped about.
1594. Shakspeare, 2 Henry VI, iv. 10. Many a time, but for a sallet, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown-bill.
1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in Wks. (Grosart) III., 91. The spirit of her owne malt walkt in her brayne pan.
1609. Dekker, Gull's Hornbook, Prcemium. Tarleton, Kemp, nor Singer . . . never played the clownes more naturally then the airantest 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 eyeballs.
1692. Hacket, Williams, i, 102. Had the Gensdarmery of our great writers no other enemy to fight with? nothing to grind in their brain-mill but orts?
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxiii. ' Weize a brace of balls through his harn-pan!' Ibid. (1822), Fortunes of Nigel, 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.'
Brain-sick, subs.phr. (old).—A fool _;a madman. As adj. z=. foolish ; crazy.
1603. Sylvester, Du Bartas, 'fourth day, first week,' 150. Even so, some brainsicks Hue there now-a-daies, That lose themselves still in contrary waies.
brain-squrt, subs. phr.—Childish reasoning (1654).
brain-trick, subs. phr. (old).—A cunning device.
Brain-worm, subs. phr. (old).—A
wriggling disputant (1645).
brain-wright, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—The creator of the brain.
1602. Davies, Mirum in Modum, 7. In this part of the Brayn the braynwright's skill, And wisdome infinite do most appeare.
bramble, stibs. (provincial: Kent). A lawyer; a 'tangle of the law.'
bramble-gelder, (provincial).—An agriculturist; spec, a hedger and ditcher: a Suffolk term.
BRAN, subs, (common).—A loaf; i.e. a bran-loaf.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, viii. He purchased a sufficiency of readydressed ham and a half-quartern loaf, or, as he himself expressed it, 'a fourpenny bran!' Ibid, 306. Two half-quartern brans, pound of best fresh.
Branch, branch of red coral, sitbs. phr. (venery).— The penis: see prick.

Brandedticket.
356
Brandy-smash.
Branded-ticket, subs. phr. (nautical).—A discharge given to an infamous man, on which his character is given, and the reason he is turned out of the service (Smyth).
brand-fire-new, adj.phr. (common). —Quite new: also bran-new, bran-span-new, and brandspander-new.
brandy, verb, (colloquial). — To drink brandy: cf. to beer, to WINE, etc.
c. 1796. Wolcot (Peter Pindar), Works, 138. He surely had been brandying it, or beering. That is, in plainer English, he was drnnk.
All brandy, adv. phr. (common). A.i. ; the pure quill (q.v.) -, O.K (q.v.).
Brandy is latin for goose, phr. (old).—See quots.
1710. Swift, Polite 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.
1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Brandy is Latin for goose (or fish), this punning vulgarism appears first in Swift's Polite Conversation : 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.
1881. Davies, Supp. Glossary, s.v. brandy is latin for a goose, probably because people took a dram after eating goose. There may be a catch in this way. 'What is the Latin for a goose?' 'Ans(w)er, Brandy'; anser being the Latin word for goose.
brandy-face, subs. phr. (old).—A tippler; espec.one whose favourite drink is brandy: see lushington. HenceBRANDY-FACED=red-faced; bloated.
a. 1687. Cotton, /Eneid, II. Burl. (1692), 85. You goodman brandy-face, unfist her.
1859. G. A. Sala, Tw. Round Clock, 284. Hulking labourers and brandyfaced viragos, squabbling at tavern doors.
brandy-pawnee, subs. phr. (AngloIndian).—Brandy and water.
1816. Quiz, Grand Master, pref. And died at last with brandy pauny.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, i. 'I'm sorry to see you, gentlemen, drinking brandy-pawnee,' says he; 'it plays the deuce with our young men in India.'
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xv. I took up natural history in India years ago to drive away thought, as other men might take to opium, or to brandy-pawnee.
1860. W. H. Russell, My Diary in India, i., 120. They had tiffin at two; hot lunch, and ale, and brandy-pawnee.
brandy-smash, subs. phr. (American).—Brandy and crushed ice : see drinks.
1862. E. MacDermott, Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, 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,' ¹ flashes-o'lightning,' brandy-smashes, 'stone-fences,* and a variety of similar beverages.
1869. S. Clemens, ('Mark Twain'), Innocents Abroad. 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, 5, 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.'' Bite de langue.''

Br angle-buttock. 357
Brass.
brangle-buttock. to play at
brangle-buttock, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate: .^greens and ride (Urquhart).
bran-mash, subs. phr. (military). — Bread sopped in coffee or tea: cf. floating batteries.
brass, subs, (common).— i. Impudence ; effrontery ; unblushing hardness ; shamelessness, etc. : also bold as brass: see cheek.
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, 11. By my Old Friend [The Devil], who printed in my face A needful competence of English brass.
1703. Farquhar, Inconstant, i., 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, 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.
1772. Bridges, Homer. 164. You'll then convince each Grecian ass, That tho' his face is made of brass...
1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, iii., 1. 'To me he appears the most impudent piece of brass that ever spoke with a tongue.'
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 171. There was brass in his forehead for an inexhaustible coinage.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, 68. Oh, what a face of brass was his, Who first at Congress show'd his phiz.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, lv., 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, I., 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, 199. He started with a lot of tin, but had not sufficient brass or physique to stand the wear-andtear of the life.
2. (old).—Generic for money: see rhino: formerly the baser mintage was of brass instead of copper.
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.
1796. Reynolds, Fortune's Fool, iii. He expects to finger the brass, does he?
i860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, xx. 'There'll be Fosters i' th' background, as one may say, to take t' biggest share on t' profits,' said Bell. ' Av, 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, xii. 'Steeve's a little too fond of the brass to murder any of you for nothing.'
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, 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 seventytwo telegrams and letters on the subject, and would prefer the brass.
1898. Pink 'Un and Pelican, 25. Always woefully short of brass, and instead of being able to stick to work with the clear mind that a tenner in the inside pocket assures, had to go hedging and ditching... to square the hotel bill.

Brass-basm. 358
Bratful.
Brass-bound and copper fastened, adj. phr. (nautical).— Said of a lad dressed in a midshipman's uniform. See brassbounder.
Brass-basin, subs. phr. (old).—A barber; a surgeon-barber (1599).
brass-bounder, subs. phr. (nautical).—A midshipman: see brass.
brasser, subs. (Christ's Hospital). —A bully.
brass-face, subs. phr. (old).—An impudent person.
brass farthing (or farde), stibs. phr. (old).—The lowest limit of value.
1642. Rogers, A^raaman, 33. As bare and beggarly as if he had not one brasse farthing.
1880. Punch's Almanac, 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. phr. (vagrants').—Broken victuals; the remains of a meal: spec, scraps given to beggars.
brass-nail. See nail.
Brass-plate merchant, subs.phr. (common).—See quot.
1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., 95. The brassplate 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: see brass, sense 1.
1570-76. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826)1 156. 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, 73, 1830. No, Mr. Gattle—Betty was too brassy, We never keep a servant that is saucy.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, 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'!
brat, subs. (old).— I. A child: in modern use almost invariably in contempt.
1566. Gascoigne, Flowers, etc., 'De Profundis ' O Abrahams brattes, O broode of blessed seede.
1596. Gosson, Quippes for Up. Gentlewomen [Hazlitt, Pop. Poet, iv. 250]. And when proud princoks, rascals bratte, In fashion will be princes mate.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew. s.v. Brat, a little Child.
1809. Malkin, 6Tz7i>/«j[RouTLEDGE], 168. A father's pride in the brat.
1868. Browning, Ring and Bk., iv., 612. A drab's brat, A beggar's byeblow.
2. (common).—A rag; shabby clothes; articles that are 'mere rags ' : see bratful.
bratchet, subs, (provincial).— A term of contempt.
Bratful, subs, (colloquial).—An apronful: see brat, sense 2.

Brattery. 359
brattery, subs, (common). — A nursery (1788).
bravado, subs. (B.E.).—A vapouring, or bouncing.
bravo, subs. (B.E.).—A mercenary murderer, that will kill anybody.
brawl, subs. (B.E.).—See quot.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. brawl, squabble, quarrel, to brangle, and brawl, to squabble and scold.
Brazen-faced, adj. phr. (common). —Shameless ; impudent ; unblushing ; with a face as of brass : see brass: sometimes a face rubbed
with a brass candle-stick.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps., xii., 5. With such brazenfaste baldnesse.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Waiden, in Wks. III., 84. Amidst his impudent brazen-fac'd d efamation of Doctor Feme.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. brazen-fac'd, bold, impudent, audacious.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, III., 133. Quick-witted, brazen-fac'd, with fluent tongues.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), 10. Thus with an unparallell'd Impudence every brazen-fac'd Malefactor is harden'd in his Sin.
1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, i S., viii., 137. 'Of all the impudent brazen-faced rascals that are cheating the gallows, you must be the worst.'
Brazil. Hard as brazil, phr. (old).—As hard as may be.
^lf>35Quarles, Emblems. Thou know'st my brittle temper's prone to break. Are my bones brazil or my flesh of oak?
bread, subs. (old).—Employment, cf. bread and cheese = a bare subsistence; plain living; needful food. Whence a bread-andcheese book (publishers') = a
Bread.
book that has a steady sale; one that year in and out has a certain even if small demand. Breadand-scrape = the poorest of living.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. bread and cheese bowling-green, a very ord'nary one, where they play for drink and tobacco, all wet, as 'tis called.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Out of bread, out of employment.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 235. I was not such a fool as to quarrel with my bread-and-butter. Ibid. 26. I should want for nothing in the bread and water way.
1858. Trollope, Dr. Thome, xxxv. He's got what will buy him bread and cheese, when the Rads shut up the church.
1873. Broughton, Nancy, xlvii. Some people have their happiness thinly spread over their whole lives, like bread and scrape !
TO take bread and salt, verb. phr. (old).—To swear; to take an oath : formerly the eating of bread and salt were parts of the act.
1586-1606. Warner, Albion's England, iv. 22.
The traitrous earle took bread and said,
so this digested be As I am guiltlesse of his death; these
words he scarcely spoke, But that in presence of the king the
bread did Goodwyn choke.
1602. Dekker, Honest Whore [Dodsley, Old Plays], iii. 350. And there be no faith in men, if a man shall not believe oaths. He took bread and salt, by this light, that he would never open his lips. Ibid. (1605), Dekker, Eastward Hoe, Ibid. (Reed), iv. 278. Our hostess, profane woman ! has sworn by bread and salt she will not trust us another meal.

Bread-and-Butter. 360 Bread-basket.
d. 1612. B. Rich, Descr. of Ireland, 29. I will trust him better that offereth to sweare by bread and salt, than him that offereth to sweare by the Bible.
1613. Beaumont and Fletcher, Honest Man's Fort. ii. My friends, no later than yesternight, Made me take bread and eat it, that I should not Do it for any man breathing in the world.
TO know on which side
one's bread is buttered, verb, phr. (common).—To recognise one's interests.
1546. Heywood, Proverbs, s.v.
TO take the bread out OF one's mouth, verb. phr. (common).—To deprive of the means of livelihood.
Bread buttered on both sides, phr. (common). — The height of good fortune ; the best of luck.
Bread-and-butter, adj.phr. (colloquial).—Immature ; spec, in contempt of young and shy girls: e.g. a bread-and-butter miss.
1818. Byron, Beppo, 39. The Nursery still lisps out in all they utter—Besides, they always smell of bread-and-butter.
1837. Trollope, Barchester To-.uers, xii. One was a middle-aged clergyman, and the other a lady at any rate past the wishy-washy bread-and-butter period of life.
NO bread and butter of mine, phr. (common).—No concern (or business) of mine (1764).
Bread and butter fashion, phr. (venery).—A posture in coition : i.e. one on top of the other: see greens and ride. Also breadand-butter warehouse (q.V.).
Bread-and-butter Warehouse.
subs. phr. (old).—The old Ranelagh Gardens: see bread-andbutter fashion.
Bread-and-cheese. See bread.
Bread-and-cheese constable,
subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. bread and cheese constables, that trats their neighbors and friends at their coming into office with such mean food only.
bread-and-crow, subs. phr. (old). —See quot. 1847.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Harl. Misc. vi. 168). The gods and goddesses, all on a rowe, bread and crow, from Ops to Pomona (the first apple-wife), were so dumpt with this miserable wracke that they begänne to abhorre all moysture for the sea's sake.
1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words, s.v. Bread and crow seems to be used proverbially for 'every one.' Perhaps there is some allusion to yEsop's fable, as though the fox ate not only the crow's bread, but the crow herself.
bread-and-meat, subs. phr. (military).—The commissariat.
Bread-artist, subs. phr. (artists'). One working merely to gain a
living; cf. potboiler.
bread bags, subs.—(military).—In contempt, of any one connected wilh the victualing department: e.g. a purser or purveyor in the commissariat: also called muckers : Fr. riz-pain-sel.
bread-barge, subs. phr. (nautical). —The distributing basket (or tray) containing rations of biscuit.
bread-basket, subs.phr, (common). —The stomach : see bread-room.

Bread-picker. 361 Break.
English Synonyms. Breadroom; dumpling-depôt; victualling-office ; porridge-bowl.
French Synonyms. Panetière (cf.pantiere — the mouth):panier au pain (a literal translation); jabot: se remplir le jabot = to have a ' blow out ') : halle aux croûtes =: Crust Hall ; also, a baker's shop) ; place d'armes ; soute au pain.
1753. FoOTE, Englishman in Paris, I. Another came up to second time, but I let drive at the mark, made the soupmaigre rumble in his bread-basket, and laid him sprawling.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 165. Then threw his stick, which with a thump On his bread-basket hit him plump.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, 18. Neat milling this Round — what with clouts on the nob, Home hits in the bread-basket, clicks in the gob.
1821. Fancy, I. 255. In the fourth round he came in all abroad, and got a doubler in the bread-basket.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, iii., 1. Jerry. Now, doctor, take care of your bread-basket—eyes right, look to your napper.
1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xxxiii. A heavy blow was struck on the panel from the inside, and the point of a sharp instrument driven right throught, close to my knees, with the exclamation, 'What do you think o' that now in a policeman's bread-basket? '
1856. Reade, Never too Late to Mend, 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, I., 194. And get as a reward an ugly piece of cold steel right through my
bread-basket.
bread-picker, subs.phr. (Winchester College).—The four senior prefects used to appoint a 'Junior' 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.phr. (old).—The stomach: see basket.
1760-61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, II., 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, 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. phr. (nautical).—A purser's servant.
break, subs, (thieves').—A collection (of money) got up by a prisoner's friends, either to defray the expenses of his defence, or as a 'lift' when leaving prison: orig. a pause in street-performances to enable the hat to be passed round : see lead. Fr. bouline.
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).
Verb, (old cant).—To deflower; to CRACK the ring (q.v.) : to
PUNCTURE(i/.W.) : JWDOCK, GREENS,
and ride: also to broke (q.v.).
1567. Harman, Caveat, 75. A dell is a yonge wenche, able for generation, and not yet knowen or broken by the upright man.
1606. Dariel, Queen's Arcadia, iii. 3. 'Tis as I tell you, Colax, she's as coy, And hath as shrewd a spirit, as quicke conceipt, As ever wench I brok'd in all my life.

Break. 362 Break.
A break in the stock-market,
subs. phr. (American Stock-Exchange).—See quot.
1870. Medberg, Men and Mysteries, [Bartlett]. a break in the stockmarket. A Wall Street phrase: where stock is kept up by artificial means, and a money stringency, or similar cause, makes it difficult to carry a load, the attack of a bear clique or the actual inability to holders will produce a decline in value. The market breaks down.
TO break one's back, verb, phr. i. (colloquial).—To be overburdened ; to become bankrupt.
1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., i., i. O, many have broke their backs with laying manors on 'em For this great journey.
1620. MiDDLETON, Chaste Maid, iii., 1. [The word is here used in the sense of bankruptcy and ruin.]
1887. Baring Gould, The Gamecocks, 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, 13. The cesses, rates, and tithes nearly breaks their backs.
2. (venery).—To exhaust oneself in the act of kind.
e. 1709. Ward, Terrcefilius, i. 21. She never gets a man upon the Hug, but she always breaks his back before she has done with him.
3. See to break the neck. TO break the balls, verb.
phr. (billiards).—To commence playing.
TO break the brains, verb, phr. (old).—To drive mad.
1630. Taylor, Works. Let fortunes mounted minions sinke or swim,
Hee never breakes his braines; all's
one to him. He's free from fearefull curses of the
poore,
And lives, and dies content, with lesse or more.
1661. Pepys, Diary. Nor his papers so well sorted as I would have had them, but all in confusion, that break my brains to understand them.
To break down, verb. phr. I. (colloquial).—To show strong emotion; to be deeply affected.
2. (colloquial).—To fail; to withdraw.
1877. Ne%v York Tribune, 11 May. The District Attorney entered a nolle prosequi in its [a court's] indictment of ... It would be interesting after this flat break-down.
3. See break-down.
To break one's egg. See crack.
To break the ice, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To commence; to lead the way.
TO break the molasses jug, verb.phr. (American).—To come to grief; to make a mistake.
TO break the neck, verb.
phr. (old).—To disconcert.
[?]. Select Lives of English Worthies. Yet did not this break the neck of Henries design, but having by his fair deportment gained forces from the duke of Brittaiii, and some other princes envious of the prosperity of the house of York, Richmond puts forth to sea, and lands at Milford Haven in Wales.
TO break the neck (or back) of anything, verb. phr. (common).—To accomplish the major

Break. 363 Break-down.
portion of a task _; to be near the end of an undertaking ; to be past the middle of same,
To break out all over (or in a fresh spot), verb. phr. (American).—To commence some new undertaking; to assume a different position in argument or action; to do something else.
To break shins, verb. phr. (old).—To borrow money. See shin.
c. 160.6. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. breaking shins, c. borrowing of money.
To break with, verb. phr. (old).— i. To open a secret to. Also —2. (modern) = to cease friendly relations: also to break off with.
1607. Shakspeare, Julius Casar,\\. i.
0 name him not, let us not break with him; For he will never follow anything That other men begin.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 138. It may be, you will repent hereafter of having broken off with Isabella.
TO break no squares, verb, phr. (old).—To do no harm. To break (or heed) squares =
to give offence.
1696. Lestrange, Aîsop. I will break no squares whether it be so or not.
TO break a straw with, verb. phr. (old).—To fall out with ; to quarrel.
1564. Udal, Erasmus's Apoph., 68.
1 prophecie (quoth he) that Plato and Dyonysius wil erre many daies to an ende breake a strawe betwene them.
TO break a lance with, verb, phr. (colloquial).—To enter into competition; to try conclusions.
TO break PrISCIAN'-S head,
verb. phr. (old).—To violate the laws of grammar. [Lat. diminucre Prisciani caput. Priscian a famous grammarian of the 5th century],
^I5²7"37Ellis, Orig. Letters . . . [The well-known Father Forrest being ungrammatical is said to] breke master precyens hede.
1664. Butler, Hudibras, 11. ii. 219. And hold no sin so deeply red As that
of breaking PRISCIAn's head.
1728. Pope, Dnnciad, iii. 161. Some, free from rhyme or reason, rule or check, break priscian's head,and Pegasus's neck.
1819. Byron {Life, 'To Moore']. Also if there be any further breaking of priscian's head, will you supply the plaster.
BREAKBONE-FEVER,subs.phr. (American.—-The ' Dengue,' a malarious fever of the South: either from the 'pain in the bones,' of which the patients complain, or from the great debility which follows the attack ; both reasons have been assigned for the appellation (Bartlett.)
1862. N. V. Tribune, 16 May. 'Letter from Cincinnati.' The warm weather is adding to this the typhoid, the bilious, and another fever, to which the natives [of the South-western States] give the name (said to be very graphic) of breakbone, in which every bone in the body feels as if it were broken. It is a cousin-german to the typhus.
BREAK-DOWN, subs.phr. (Australian). — I. A measure of liquor.
1759. Frank Fowler, Southern Lights and Shadows, 53. To pay for liquor for another is to 'stand,' or to 'shout,' or to 'sacrifice.' The measure is called a 'nobbier,' or a break-down.
2. (common).—A noisy dance; a convivial gathering; spec, a negro dance. Also as verb = to dance riotously; to be boisterous; to be 'spreeish.'

Break o'day drum. 364 Breath.
1850. Southern Sketches, 60. Take up the carpet—move the bed—call the fiddler, and let's have a regular breakdown.
i8(7] New England Z#/^[Bartlett], Come, hold on_} boys, don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a break-down to wind up with.
1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, II, 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, 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 Neivs, March 26, 2, 4. A patter song . . . was twice redemanded, chiefly, it appeared, for the sake of a comical 'break-down' danced by the demented king.
1885. D. Telegraph, 16 Nov. Provide comic actors, pantomimes, rallies, and breakdowns.
3. See break.
break o'day drum, subs.phr. (American thieves').—A night saloon.
breaky-leg, subs.phr. i.(common). Intoxicating drink: see drinks.
2. (thieves').—A shilling.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., 446. A shilling. Breake-leg.
Breast. To make a clean breast, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To tell everything.
1871-2. Eliot, Middlemarch, lxvi. You know all about it; . . . I made a clean breast to you.
breast-fleet, subs. phr. (old).— See quot.
1785Grose, 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, verb, (venery).—To copulate: see greens and ride.
1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, ii. 3. Methinks, thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee. I think thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon. Ibid. (1609), Pericles,
ii. 3. Here is a lady that wants breathing too.
1609. Lyly, Man in the Moone. It seemed some gentleman's mannor, but I could espie no wagges watching, nor wantons wagging out to breath themselves when their maddam was covered.
1637. Heywood, Royall King, sig. F.
iii. And think'st thou to breath me on trust ?
Change your breath, verb.phr. (American).—An injunction to adopt a different manner or bearing.
To keep (or save) one's breath (or wind) to cool one's broth (or porridge), verb. phr. (old).—To desist from useless argument, doing, or remonstrance.
1608. Machin, Dumb Knight, ii. My lord, save your breath for your broth ; I am not now at leisure to attend you.
1660. Howell, Parly of Beasts, 85. Truly, sir, you may please, as the proverb
runs, to keep your breath to cool
your pottage, and spend it no longer upon me.
1706. Ward, Wooden World, 3«. He makes no long-winded graces, because he loves to keep his breath to cool his
pottage.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 312. You have no reason to fear a peace for these ten years: the pope is the only man that persuades them to come to an agreement among themselves, but he had as good keep his breath to cool his porridge.

Breath-bubble. 365 Breeches.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 539. But might as well have sav'd his wind to
cool HIS pottage.
1896. Boothly, Maker of Nations, viii. If it's wanting to be let out ye are, let me tell ye ye may as well save
yer breath to cool yer porridge.
Breath-bubble, subs. phr. (colloquial).—An empty thing, trifle
(1835)
Breath-seller, subs. phr. (old). — i. A perfumer (1601).
2. (colloquial).—A paid speaker.
breech, verb, (once literary : now vulgar).—To flog on the posteriors. Hence breeching = a flogging,
1510. Whittington, Vulg. (1527), 26. I studye to-daye bycause I fere a brechyng.
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, Ixxiv., 6, 166 (S.D.S.). Maides, up I beseech yee, Least Mistress doe breech yee.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, iii. 1. I am no breeching scholar in the schools, 111 not be ty'd to hours, nor 'pointed times. Ibid, (1596), Merry Wives, iv. 1. If you forget your kies, your kas, and your cods, you must be
preeches.
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 upbrayding lesson after a britching.
1613. Tailor, Hog hath Lost his Pearl [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed) vi. 421]. Had not a courteous serving-man convey'd me away, whilst he went to fetch whips, I think in my conscience he would have breech'd me.
1637. Massinghr, Guardian, i., 1. How he looks! like a school-boy that had play'd the truant, And went to be breech'd.
1647. FLZTCHER^ittleFrench Lawyer, v. i. Kneeling and whining like a boy new-breech'd.
1647. Beaumont and Fletcher» Humourous Lieut, iv. 4. With sighs as though his heart would break: Cry like a breech'd boy, not eat a bit.
1821. Scott, Kenilworth, xxiv. 'Go to,' said Wayland, ' thou art a prating boy, and should be breeched for thine assurance.'
breeched, adj. (common).— Well off; plenty of money; hence to
be well breeched = to be in
good circumstances: cf. déculotté —unbreeched = bankrupt.
breeches, subs, (old).—Ironically applied to the Commonwealth coinage : suggested by the arrangement of two shields on the reverse of the coin.
TO wear the breeches, verb, phr. (common), — To rule; to usurp a husband's prerogative ; to be ' master ' :cf. ' The grey mare is the better horse.' [An allusion to breeches as the symbol of authority, i.e., of manhood _; the expression is found in French as early as 1450.] Dutch ' De vrouw draagd'er de brock' -, German, 'Sie hat die Hosen.'
1450. Les Quinze Joyes du Mariage: La Dixiesme Joye. Edition Elzévirienne, Paris (1853), 113. Et sachez qu'il est avenu à aucuns que l'en leur faisoit boire de mauves brouez affin de porter les braies ou pour autres choses pires.
i4[?]. Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century, Percy Soc. Pub., XXIII., 65. Nova, nova, sawe you ever such, The moste mayster of the hows weryth no brych.
The Boke of Maid Emlyn, VI., 21. All women be suche, Thoughe the man
wear the breche.
1557. Tusser. Husbandrie, lxvii. 18, 156 (E.D.S.). Least some should talke, as in the speech, The good wiues' husband
weares no breech.

Breeding-cage. 366
Brian-o '-Linn.
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. Killegrew, Parson's Wedding, ii., 3, [Dodsley, Old Plays (x^^d) 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, 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, ii., 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.
TO wrong one's breeches, verb. phr. (common).—To shit (q.v.) to be taken short (q.v.) :
c. 1650. Brathwayte, Barnaby's Jl. (1723), 59. And like two mishapen Wretches, Made me, ay me, wrong my Bretches.
Breeding-cage, subs.phr. (common). —A bed: see kip.
Breef. See brief.
Breeze, subs, (general).—A row; a quarrel ; a disturbance ; coolness.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To kick up a breeze, to breed a disturbance.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, 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., 119. 'Don't be angry; we've had our breeze. Shake hands!'
brekker, subs. (Schools and University).—Breakfast: cf. er a species of slang formation, which originated at Harrow.
Brevet-hell, subs. phr. (American). —A battle : the term originated during the Civil War: cf. brevetwife, brevet-rank etc.
Brevet-wife, subs. phr. (common). —A woman who, lives with a man, takes his name, and enjoys all the privileges of a wife ; cf. bed-sister. A transferred figurative sense of the legitimate word.
brew, verb. (Marlborough School). —To make afternoon tea.
Brewer. To fetch the brewer, verb. phr. (common).—To get drunk: see screwed.
brewer's-basket. a loaf out of
a brewer's-basket, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
162?. Taylor, A Very Merry Wherry-Ferry (Hindley, Works, 1872), 19. Hull-cheese, is much like a loafe out of a brewers basket, it is composed of two simples, mault and water, in one compound, and is cousin germane to the mightiest ale in England.
brewer's-horse, subs. phr. (old). —A drunkard _; a tippler _; lushington (q.v.): also one which
the brewer's horse has bit.
1598. Shakspeare, Henry IV. iii. 3. I am brewer's horse . . . Company, villainous company hath been the spoil of me.
brian-o'-linn, subs.phr. (rhyming). —Gin: see drinks.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 76. Nothing mean about uncle—he squandered the tin—For the gals he had gallons of Bryan o'-Lynn.

Briar.
367 Brick.
briar (or brier), subs, (colloquial). —A brier-wood pipe.
1882. Graphic, Dec. 16, 683, 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 BRlER-root pipe, loaded with Caporal.
TO be in the briars, subs, phr. (old).—To be in difficulty or misfortune.
1614. Terence in English, Davus interturbat omnia. Davus brings all out of square: he marres all; he brings all into the briars. Ibid, Nummam perimus ? Are we not in ill case? be we not in
the briars ?
c. 1696. B.E, Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Briers, in the briers in trouble.
1723. History of Colonel Jack. The wonders of that merciful Providence, which, when it has mercy in store for a man, often brings him into the briers, into sorrow and misery for lesser sins, that men may be led to see how they are spared from the punishment due to them for the greater guilt which they know lies upon them.
bribble-brabble, subs. phr. (old). —Chattering _; quarrelling.
1670. Howard, Committee, iii. You are a foolish bribble-brabble woman, that you are.
brick, subs, (common).—A good fellow ; a staunch and loyal man : said to be of University origin, the simile being drawn from Aristotle (Eth. i. 10) rerpdyuvoc;
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.
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, xi, v. 'I may say,' continued Mr. Peacock emphatically, 'that he was a regular trump —trump!' he reiterated with a start, as if the word had stung him—'trump! he was a brick.'
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, 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, Kewcomes, 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 Brozun's School-days, 100. He voted E.'s new crony a brick.
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xvii. Never mind me, but mind yourself, and mind that curate ; he is a noble brick.
1876. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, xvi. Their brothers' friend, declared by Hans to be the salvation of him, a fellow like nobody else, and, in fine, a brick.
1878. Hallberger's Mag., 635. The expression is logically deduced in the following amusing manner. A brick is 'deep-red,' so a 'deep-read' man is a brick. The syllogism may be 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 nonreading men, ergo a jolly fellow is a brick.
1891. Harry Fludyer at Cambridge. 16. She's a real brick about letters.
Verb (American).—To bring a man's knees close up to the chin, and lash the arms tightly to the knees—a species of trussing.
Like a brick (bricks, or a thousand of bricks), adv. phr. (common).—With energy ; alacrity ; thoroughly ; vehemently and with much display : cf. subs. and see like.
1835. Dickens, Sketches, 139. Bump they [cab and horse] cums agin the post, and out flies the fare like bricks.
Y

Brick-duster. 368 Brickfielder.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Ingoldsby Penance). For the Friar to his skirts closely sticks, 'Running after him,'—so said the Abbot,—' like bricks ! '
1847. Robb, Squatter Life, 37. He lit upon the upper town and its member like a thousand of brick!
i860. Ne%v Orleans Picayune, April 27 (Police Report). 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.
A brick in the hat, phr. (American).—Drunk ; top-heavy : see screwed.
Brick-duster.—See brickfielder.
brickdusts (the), subs, (military). —The Fifty-third Regiment of Foot, now the King's (Shropshire Light Infantry): its facings were brick-red: also the old five
and-threepennies, (from its
number and the daily pay of an ensign).
Brickfielder (or Brickduster),
subs. (Australian).—A dust or sand-storm brought by cold southerly winds from sand hills, locally known in Sydney as the brickfields: also buster (or southerly burster): see quot. 1898.
1833. Lt. Breton, R.N., Excursions in New South Wales and Van Diemen*s Land, 293. It sometimes happens that a change takes place from a hot wind to a brickfielder, on which occasions the thermometer has been known to fall, within half an hour, upwards of fifty degrees !
1839. Leigh, Reconnoitering Voyages, Travels, and Adventures in the ne%u Colony of South Australia, 184. Whirlwinds of sand come rushing upon the traveller, half blinding and choking him,—a miniature sirocco, and decidedly cousin-german to the delightful sandy puffs so frequent at Cape Town. The inhabitants call these miseries brickfielders, but why they do so I am unable to divine; probably because they are in their utmost vigour on a certain hill here, where bricks are made.
1844. John Rae, Sydney Illustrated, 26. The brickfielder is merely a colonial name for a violent gust of wind, which, succeeding a season of great heat, rushes in to supply the vacuum, and equalises the temperature of the atmosphere.
1844. Mrs. Meredith, Notes and Sketches of New South Wales, 44. These dust winds are locally named brickfielders, from the direction in which they come.
1S45. J. O. Balfour, Sketch of New South Wales, 4. The greatest peculiarity in the climate is what is called by colonists a brickfielder. This wind has all the characteristics of a sirocco in miniature...
1853. Eraser's Mag., XLVIII., 51SWhat the Sydney people call a brickfielder.
i8[?]. 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.
1861. T. McCombie, Australian
Sketches, 79. She passed a gang of
convicts, toiling in a broiling brickfielder.

Brickfielder. 369
Bride-ale.
1862. F. j. jobson, Australia with Notes by the Way, 155. The brickfielders are usually followed, before the day closej, with 'south-busters' [sic.].
1863. Frank Fowler, The Athenäum, Feb. 21, 264, i. The brickfielder is not the hot wind at all; it is but another name for the cold wind or southerly buster, which follows the hot breeze, and which, blowing over an extensive sweep of sandhills called the Brickfields, semi-circling Sydney, carries a thick cloud of dust (or brickfielder) across the city.
1886. Cowan, Charcoal Sk. The buster and brickfielder : Austral reddust blizzard ard red-hot simoon.
1890. Lyth, Golden South, ii., 11. A dust which covered and penetrated everything and everywhere. This is generally known as a brickfielder.
1896. Three Essays on Australian Weather, ' On Southerly Buster,' by H. A. Hunt, 17. In the early days of Australian settlement, when the shores of Port Jackson were occupied by a sparse population, and the region beyond was unknown wilderness and desolation, a great part of the Haymarket was occupied by the brickfields from which Brickfield Hill takes its name. When a 'Southerly Burster' struck the infant city, its approach was always heralded by a cloud of reddish dust from this locality, and in consequence the phenomenon gained the local name of brickfielder. The brickfields have long since vanished, and with them the name to which they gave rise, but the wind continues to raise clouds of dust as of old under its modern name of 'Southerly Burster.'
1898. Morris, Austral English, s.v. Brickfielder. The brickfields lay to be south of Sydney, and when, after a hot wind from the west or north-west, the wind went round to the south, it was accompanied by great clouds of dust, brought up from the brickfields. These brickfields have long been a thing of the past, surviving only in 'Brickfield Hill,' the hilly part of George Street, between the Cathedral and the Railway Station. The name, as denoting a cold wind, is now almost obsolete, and its meaning has been very curiously changed and extended to other colonies to denote a very hot wind.
Bricklayer, subs, (clerical).—A clergyman.
bricklayer's-clerk,JM^.//?r. (nautical).—A lubberly sailor. (Clark Russell).
bricks, subs. (Wellington College). —A sort of pudding.
brick wall. To run one's head against a brick wall Verb. phr.
(common).—To pursue a course distinctly to certain disaster, ruin, or death.
To make brick walls, verb, phr. (common).—To bolt one's foot without masticating it.
bride-ale, subs. phr. (old).—A wedding feast : see ale.
1587. Harrison, England, 1. 11. i. 32 (1877). The superfluous numbers of idle waks... church-ales, helpe-ales, and soule-ales, called also dirge-ales, with the heathenish rioting at bride-ales are well diminished.
1589. Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, 4to M. 1. Romances or historical rimes made on purpose for recreation of the common people, at Christmasse dinner or bride-ales.
1609. Smith, Sermons. How happy are those, in whom faith, and love, and godlinesse are maried together, before they marry themselves? For none of these martiall, and cloudy, and whining mariages can say, that godlines was invited to their bride-ale; and therefore the blessings which are promised to godlinesse, doe flie from them.
1633. Jonson. Tale of a Tub, ii. 1. A man that's bid to bride-ale, if he ha' cake And drink enough, he need not vear (fear) his stake.
1776. Brand, Pop. Antiq., i. 229. There were bride-ales, church-ales, clerk-ales, give-ales, lamb-ales, leet-ales, Midsummer-ales, Scot-ales, Whitsun-ales, and several more.

Bride-door. 3 70
Bridge.
Bride-door. To run for the bride-door, verb.phr. (provincial). —To start for a favour given by a bride to be run for by the youth of the neighbourhood, who wait at the church-door until the marriage is over, and then run to the bride's door. The prize, a riband, is worn for the day in the hat of the winner. (Halliwell).
Bridewell, subs, (old).—A prison : see cage. [Bridewell was once (Nares) a royal palace, rebuilt by Henry VIII in 1522, for the reception of Charles V, and called Bridewell, from a famous well in the vicinity of St. Bride's church. Cardinal Campeius had his first audience there. Edward VI gave it to the City for a house of correction, endowing it with lands and furniture from the Savoy. All this history is, by a curious licence, transferred to Milan, by Decker, in the second part of the Honest Whore, O. Pl., iii, 465. The account is very exact, compared with Entick's Hist, of Lond., iv, 284].
bridge, subs, (cards').—A cheating trick at cards; any particular card is cut by previously curving it by the pressure of the hand: Ft.pont sec. [The modus operandi of avoiding, or rather of neutralizing the cut—the very backbone of the card-sharper's art—is somewhat difficult, and is generally performed by one of two methods, 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., 266. I got my living by card-playing in the low lodginghouses . . . I worked the oracle; they were not up to me. I put the first and seconds on, and the bridge too.
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, I., 251I've found out the way that Yankee fellows does the king. It's not the common bridge that everybody knows.
1866. Yates, Black Sheep, I., 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),—See quot.
• 1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Diet. To bridge a person, or to throw him over the bridge, is . . . to deceive him by betraying the confidence he has reposed in you.
TO throw a l'erson OVER the bridge, verb.phr. (common). —To betray confidence.

Bridle.
371
Brief.
A gold (or silver) bridge, subs. phr. (colloquial).—An easy way cf escape.
Beside the bridge, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Off the track; astray.
Bridle, subs. (old).—An instrument formerly in use to punish a scold.
Verb, (venery).—To be sexually excited ; on heat ; hot (q.v.) : properly of bitches.
TO BITE on THE BRIDLE, verb, phr. (old).—To suffer hardship.
Bridle-cull, subs. phr. (old).—A highwayman : Fr. garçon de campagne ; grinche de cambrouse ; cf.
snaffling-lay.
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, I., v. A booty of f 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. phr. (old).—The hangman's rope. To be stabbed with a BRiDPORT-DAGGER=to be hanged: see horse's nightcap and hempen-fever.
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), 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, J-> 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').—1. A ticket of any kind—railway pass, pawnbrokers' duplicate, raffle voucher (or bookie's); also a pocket book. Hence briefless =: ticketless ; brief-snatching, stealing pocketbooks, also see quot. 1885.
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I took a brief (ticket) to London Bridge
1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18, 3, 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. Bird 0' Freedom, Aug. 7, 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.
1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. They copped the briefs at the next station, and he changed carriages.
2. (gaming).—Chiefly in pi. — cards tampered with for swindling purposes. Bridge, concaves, and convexes, longs, and shorts, reflectors, etc. German Briefe, Baron Heinecken says, was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm.
1529. [Edited by] Luther, Liber Vagatorum (i860), 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

Brief-snatcher. 372
Brimmer.
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.
Brother of the brief, sues, phr. (old).—An advocate.
1749. Smollett, Gil Bias [Routledge], 193. My husband's brethren
of the quill and brief.
To get one's brief, verb.phr. (prison),—To get one's ticket-ofleave.
Brief-snatcher, (or -snatching). —See brief.
Brier, See briar.
brigh, subs, (thieves').—A pocket; a cly (q.v.); a sky-rocket (q.v.)
French Synonyms: grande; profonde, (parfonde or prophète) ; fouilleuse ; gueularde ; baguenaude; balade (or ballade) ; fondi 1ère ; four banal; sonde.
1879. J. W. HoRSLEV, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. Having a new suit of clobber on me, and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).
Bright, bright in theeye,^'.///;-. (common).—Tipsy : see screwed.
Brighton-tipper, subs. phr. — A particular brew of ale.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., 347. Requiring ... a pint of the celebrated staggering ale, or Real Old Brighton tipper, at supper. Ibid, 447. If they draws the Brighton tipper here, I takes that ale at night, my love.
Brim, subs. (old).—A prostitute: spec, a termagant whore ; occasionally used, without reference to moral character, for an angry, shrewish, woman: also brimstone, of which BKiM is a contraction. See tart. As adj. = wanton; shrewish: also brimstone. As verb. =to whore.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Brimming, a Boor's copulating with a Sow, also now us'd for a Man's with a
brim.
c. 1696. B.E.,. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. brim, or Brimstone, a very Impudent, Lew'd Woman.
1712. Bp. Burnet, in Walpole's Reminiscences (1819), 75. 'Oh, madam,' said the bishop, 'do not you know what a brimstone of a wife he had?'
1730-6. Bailey. Brim \q. a contraction of Brimstone], a common strumpet.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, 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.
1764. T. Brydges, Homer Travest. (1797), i., 173. Can mortal scoundrels thee [Hera] perplex, And the great brim of brimstones vex ? Ibid, (1772) 16. Hither we came, 'tis shame I'm sure, To fight, for what? a brimstone whore. Ibid. 17. For some brimstone always jangling.
1785. Grose. Brim (abbreviation of brimstone), an abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared to brimstone for its inflammability.
1789. Parker, Banter's Christening, [Life's Painter]. A queer procession of seedy brims and kids.
1799. IVhim 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.
1S08. Jamieson. Brim, a cant term for a trull.—Loth.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, xxiii. Who seemed, too, to have a temper of her own, and promised, under circumstances, to turn out a bit of a n—mst—ne.
brimmer, subs, (old).—I. A broadbrimmed hat: see golgotha.

Brimstone.
373 Bristle-dice.
1661. Brome, Songs. Now takes his brimmer off, and to her flyes, Singing thy rhimes, and straight she is his prize.
1671. Eachard, Obserz'ations. I cannot forget (before sashes and broad hats came into fashion) how much I have seen a small puny wit delight in himself, and how horribly he has thought to have abused a divine, only in twisting the ends of his girdle, and asking him the price of his brimmer.
2. (old).—A full glass ; a bumper (q.v.)
1706. Dryden, Juvenal, vi. Full brimmers to their fuddled noses thrust.
Brimstone. See brim.
BRINEY (or BRINY), subs, (common). —The sea.
English synonyms. Herringpond; big pond; big drink; the puddle ; Davy's locker.
French Synonyms. Grande tasse (boire dans la grande tasse — to be drowned); grande bleu; grand sale'; pré salé.
1S56. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, 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, 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.
bring. TO bring down the house, verb. phr. (theatrical).—To elicit loud applause; to be successful.
1754. World, II., 76, 125. His apprehension that your statues will bring the house down.
1853. Rev. E. Bradley ('Cuthbert Bede'), Adventures of Verdant Green, II., 23. Why, it would surpass the British sailor's broadsword combat for six, and bring down the house.
1872. Forster, Life of CharUs Dickens, xliv. (IV., 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., 61 (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, 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.
Brisk. Brisk as a body-louse, adj. phr. (common).—As lively as may be.
Brisket-beater, subs. phr. (old). —A Roman Catholic: cf., breast
fleet and craw-thumper
(Grose).
Bristle. To set up one's bristles, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To show anger. To raise bristles = to anger ; to irritate.
bristle-dice (or bristles), subs, phr. (old gaming).—A method of 'cogging' dice into which bristles have been inserted, thus influencing the position of the cubes when 'thrown.'
1532. Dice Play, 28. Bristle dice, be now too gross a practice to be put in use.
1680. Cotton, in Singer, Hist. Cards, 333. This they do by false dice, as. . . By bristle-dice.

Bristol-milk. 374
Broad.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xxiii. 'Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams, and bristles . . . and a hundred ways of rooking besides.'
Bristol-milk (or -rack) subs, phr. (old).—Sherry. [Sherry was formerly a large import of the city of Bristol].
1644. Prynne and Walker, Fiennes' Trial, 78. Good store of bristol milk, strong wines and waters.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, Bristol'Bristol milk'; this metaphorical milk, whereby Xeres or Sherry Sack intended.
1668. Pepys, Diary, 13 June. Enjoyed plenty of brave wine, and above
all bristol milk.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. bristol-milk, Sherry.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bristol milk, a Spanish wine called sherry, much drank at that place, particularly in the morning.
1809. Byron, Eng. Bards, (ist ed.) To much in turtle Bristol's sons delight, Too much o'er bowls of rack prolong the night [altered in subsequent editions].
1849-61. M ac Aul ay, Hist. Eng., I., iii. A rich beverage made of the best Spanish wine, and celebrated ... as Bristol milk.
Bristol-stone, subs. phr. (old).— A paste diamond (B.E., c. 1696).
british constitution. unable to say british constitution, phr. (common).—Gibberishly, if not speechlessly drunk : see screwed and national intelligencer.
broach, verb, (venery).—To deflower: see dock; greens; and ride (MlEGE).
TO broach (or tap) claret, verb. phr. (pugilistic),—To draw blood : see claret.
broad, subs, (gaming).—In pi. = playing cards : see stock broads. Hence broadsman (or broadcove) = a card-sharper: Fr. brémeur ; cf. broad-fencer; broad-faking = card-playing, but spec, work of the three card and kindred character.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, 142. Who are continually looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is cards.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash. Diet. Broads, cards; a person expert at which is said to be a good broadplayer.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 5. Your swell broad coves, with all their airs Can't match the kids near Wapping stairs.
1S34. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, iv., ii. I nick the broads.
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, iv., 262. He . . . became one of a gang who practised with the broads cardsharping and the 'confidence trick.'
1879. J. W. Horsley, 'Autobiography of a Thief,' Mactn. Mag., XL., 502. Broadsmen (card-sharpers).
1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip, i. Or fake the broads, or fig a nag.
1888. G. R. Sims, in Cass. Sat. Journal, 31 March, 7. The broadsman is a card-sharper.
Adj. (colloquial).—i. Knowing
(q.V.); cute (q.V.); smart (q.V.) I Cf. wide.
2. (colloquial) —Bordering on the indecent; smutty (q.v.).
1902. Free Lance, 19 July, 364, 2. 'In all my repertory,' says the lady, 'there is, I think, but one expression which is a little broad, and I always deliver that with an apologetic glance at my audience.' Well all we can say is this, an audience who jibbed at an expression a 'little broad,' accompanied by an ' apologetic glance,' must be more than a little narrow. It is glances such as those that disarm criticism, and are apt to cause smiles even broader than the expression.

Broad-and-shallow. 375 Broadbrim.
Phrases—In the broad or the long — in one way or another. It's as broad as it's long = there's no difference, there's not a pin to choose between them.
Broad-and-shallow, subs. phr. (clerical). — Broad Church, in contra-distinction to ' High ' and 'Low' Church.
1886. Graphic, 10 April, 399. In the Church have we not the three schools of High and Dry, Low and Slow, and broad and shallow?
broad-arse, subs. phr. (common). —A man (or woman) broad in the beam ; a barge-arse (q.v.). As adj. = big-bottomed.
broadbottoms (the), subs, (political).—A nickname given to two Coalition Governments, one in the last century (1741), and the other in 1807.
1742. Walpole, Lett, to Maun (1833), No. 22, Feb. 18, I., 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.
1807. The Pigs possessed, or the broad-bottom'd Litter running headlong into the Sea of Perdition. [The characters are George III., as the British farmer; Lords Sidmouth, Ellenborough, Howiek ('Test Act'); Mr. Wyndham; 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 'AH the Talents,' or the 'broadbottoms' who were succeeded, April, 1807, by the Duke of Portland and his supporters. An earlier 'broad-bottom' Administration was commemorated in the satirical inscription for Fox's tomb, Hie jacet Pater Broad-Pottomos.]
1843. Mac aula v, Historical Essays, II., 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., 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.
1S71. Miss Braddon, Robert Ainsleigh, I., 37. A scathing reply from the polished chief of the famous br. b. Administration.
1887. Pol. Slang, in Cornhill Mag., June, 628. A Coalition Government in the last century was known by the apt nickname of the 'broad bottom.'
Broadbrim, subs, (common).—A Quaker. [An allusion to the hat once peculiar to the 'Society of Friends'].
1712. Spectator, 276. [Broad-brim is used as the name of a Quaker correspondent.]
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, VII., x. This the Quaker had observed, and this, added to the rest of his behaviour, inspired honest broadbrim with a conceit that his companion was, in reality, out of his senses.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 4S3. Therefore the broad-brims for the Knave, Upon this hillock dug a grave.
1864. Reader (quoted in Notes and Queries, 5, ix., 263) Broadbrim, a Quaker. This word clearly owes its origin to the peculiar hat worn by the Society of Friends.

Broad-cooper. 376
Broke.
1876. Jas. Grant, One of the Six Hundred, i. The sly broad-brim, and popularity-hunters of the Peace Society sent a deputation to the Emperor Nicholas.
Broad-cooper, subs.phr. (brewers'). —A brewer's agent in negotiating with publicans.
Broad-cove. See broad.
Broad-ditch, subs. phr. (old).— The English Channel : also the ditch (q.V.)\ cf. herring-pond.
1585. Putten ham, Art of Eng. Poesie, 'z-j-j. [Charles V spoke of the English Channel as] the broad ditch.
Broad-fencer, subs. phr. (thieves'). —A 'k'rect card' vendor.
Broadsman. See broad.
broady, sttbs. (common).— I. Cloth, i.e., broad-cloth.
1851. Mayhew, London Laiour and London Poor, I., 54. Gentlemen finding their own broady can be accommodated.
1883. Daily Telegraph, August 7, 6, 2. The prospectus further intimated that... gentlemen 'finding their own broady... could be accommodated.'
2. (thieves').—Anything worth stealing: see broady worker.
broady-worker,j«fo.//;/'.(thieves'). —A peddlar of shoddy as excellent material, got ' on the cross,' i.e., stolen.
brock, subs. (old). — A term of contempt (see verb).
1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, ii, 5. Marry, hang thee, brock.
1606. Day, He of Guis, 4to H. 2. What, with a brace of wenches, I'faith, old brock, have I tane you?
d. 1637. Jonson, Sad Shepherd. Or, with pretence of chacing thence the brock, Send in a cur to worry the whole flock.
Verb. (Winchester College).— To bully ; to tease ; to badger. [Brock is North Country and Hampshire for badger.] Fr. (military) faire une brimade (or faire brimer).
brockster, subs. (Winchester College).—A bully : see brock.
brogues, subs. (Christ's Hospital). —Breeches: a piece of obsolete English which has survived among the 'Blues.'
broiled(or boiled-) crow. To eat boiled-crow, verb. phr. (American).—To advocate ' principles ' different from those already advanced : of newspaper editors and others who are coerced by 'party' or other outside pressure: originally to eat crow.
broke, verb. (old).—To procure ; to pander (q.v.): cf. break (or broke = to deflower.
1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, iii. 5. And brokes with all that can, in such a suit, Corrupt a maid.
1612. Beaumont and Fletcher, Coxcomb, ii. And I shall hate my name, worse than the matter, for this base
broking.
1655. Fanshaw, Lusiad, ix. 44. But we do want a certain necessary Woman, to broke between them, Cupid said.
Broke (dead-broke, clear-broke or stone-broke), adj. phr. (common).—Ruined ; decayed _; hard up—of health or pecuniary circumstances : Fr. pas un radis. Hence the broke = the world of the needy; also broker (q.v.).
English Synonyms. Wound up ; settled _; coopered ; smashed up; under a cloud; cleaned out; cracked up ; done up ; on one's

Broke. 377 Broker.
back ; floored _; on one's beam ends ; gone to pot ; brokenbacked _; all U. P.; in the wrong box; stumped; feathered; squeezed ; dry ; gutted ; burnt one's fingers ; dished ; in a bad way ; gone up ; gone by the board ; made mince meat of; broziered ; willowed ; not to have a feather to fly with ; burst; fleeced; stony; pebblebeached; in Queer Street; stripped ; rooked_; hard up ; hoopedup ; strapped ; gruelled.
1561-7. Stow, Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles, [Camden Soc], 127. [A merchant braky (broke, became bankrupt)].
1641. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, [Arber, Eng. Garner, vi. Broken (ruined) Knaves.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Broke, Officers turn'd out of Commission, Traders Absconding, Quitting their Business and Paying no Debts.
1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, iv., Gripe. Dead? Brass. No . . . worse . . . broke . . . She is, poor lady, in the most unfortunate situation of affairs.
1840. American Song.. . The banks are all clean broke, Their rags are good for naught.
1866. Cincinnatti Enquirer, 1 June. When he left the gambling-house, he was observed to turn toward a friend with the words, dead-broke! and then to disappear round the corner.
1878. J. H. Beadle, Western Wilds, 46. He... staked a pile of 'chips' and won; then made and lost, and made and lost alternately, selling his stock, when broke, and scarcely ate or drank till the tail of his last mule was coppered on the jack.
1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, 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 dois, 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.
1S99. Whiteing, John St., xxviii. You're a toff, stone-broke—that's what you are.
1891. Harry Fludyer, 122. Pat said he was stoney or broke or something, but he gave me a sov., which was ripping of him.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 106. Full of fixes, assets 'nixes,' stoney-broke, and hence these tears. Ibid., 120. On his right a stoney-broke-er In bad financial health. Ibid., 62. Such forgetfulness is frequent in the annals of the broke.
1901. Walker, In the Blood, 159. 'Twon't be a bad lay fer us when we're stoney broke down 'ere.
Broken-feather. A broken
feather in one's wing, Sit OS.
phr. (colloquial).—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 (or -legged), adj. phr. (common).—Seduced : Fr. mal aux genoux. See dock, greens, and ride.
Broker, subs, (old).—i. A pander (q.v.) -, a go-between _; a BAWD(p.).
1595. Shakspeare, Two Gentlemen, i., 2. Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker! Dare you presume to harbour wanton lines? Ibid., (1602), Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2. Let all inconstant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers between, pandars.

Brolly. 378 Broomstick.
1617. Fletcher, Valentin, ii., 2. Madam, I am no broker.—Nor base procurer of men's lusts.
2. (common).—A ruined man : also stony-broker: see broke.
1891. The Australasian. Nov. 21, 1014. We're nearly 'dead brokers,' as they say out here. Let's harness up Eclipse and go over to old Yamnibar.
A crafty knave needs no
broker, phr. (old). — A rogue needs no go-between.
BROLLY, subs, (general).—An umbrella: first used at Winchester, and subsequently adopted at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
1885. Punch, June 6, 273. Pair o' pattens and brolly are more in your line.
1900. Kipling, Stalky £^J Co., 81. 'An' I'm catty all over,' said M'Turk, 'though I washed twice.' 'An' I nearly broke Beetle's brolly plantin' her where she would blossom ! '
BROMIGHAM. See brummagem.
BRONCHO, adj. (American).—Unruly; wild; savage. [The broncho — the native horse of California, a somewhat tricky and uncertain quadruped ; Spanish broncho = 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. phr. (American).—A breaker-in of a broncho
(q.V.); also flash-rider.
BRONZE-JOHN, subs.phr. (American). —A Texan name for yellow Jack (q.v.).
BROOM, subs. (old).—I. See quot.
1815. Scott, Guy Maunering, xxviii. The people got rusty about it, and would not deal, and they had bought so many
brooms thatIbid, xxxiii. (II., 96).
What are you wanting here ? Ye'll be come wi' a broom in your pocket frae Ellengowan ? Got so many warrants out.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum : see monosyllable. Hence broomstick (or broomhandle) = the penis : see prick.
Verb. (old).—To run away.
1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, 6. Tom. That will do—now then Dicky, mizzle !—be scarce ! — broom ! Prime. Wouldn't intrude a moment, gentlemen, good morning—order my carriage.
A new broom sweeps clean, phr. (old).—Zeal is to be expected of one new to an office.
1546. Heywood, Proverbs. New brome swepth cleene.
1571. Edwards, Damon andPithias [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), i., 233.] For wot you what? a new broome
sweepes cleane.
BROOM-SQUIRE, subs.phr. (common). —See quot.
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xiv. 'Did you ever,' said Tom, 'hear the story of the two Sandhurst broomsquires?' 'Broom-squires?' 'So we call in Berkshire, squatters on the moor who live by tying heath into brooms.'
BROOMSTICK, subs, (athletic).— I. A sort of cricket-bat, roughly made from one piece of word, and shaped narrow in the blade.
2. (venery). — The fenis: see broom and prick.
3. (old).—In pi. =z worthless bail : see straw bail.

Broomstick. 379 Br osier.
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
4. (colloquial)-—An awkward, dull, impotent, or stupid person : also stick, poor stick, etc.
1803. Edgeworth, Belinda, xx. 'You . . . will go and marry, I know you will, some stick of a rival.'. . . 'I hope I shall never marry a broomstick.'
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas[RouTLKDGK], 32. It is hard if you cannot turn the head of some rich widow, or handsome wife with a broomstick for her husband.
1814. Austen, Mansfield Park, xiii. I was surprised to see Sir Henry such a stick; luckily the strength of the piece did not depend upon him.
1847. Bronte, Jane Eyre, xvii. The poor old stick used to cry out, 'Oh you villains childs,' and then we sermonised her on the presumption of attempting to teach such clever blades as we were, when she was herself so ignorant.
1855. New York Tribune, 4 Sep. About the poorest stick for a legislator ever elected.
1886. D. Teleg., 13 July. A great actor may not exhibit himself as a stick for half-an-hour together, and claim to redeem his fame by a few magnificent moments.
1899. Kernahan, Scoundrels, xxi. The stick will find himself . . . coldshouldered, and the assumer of 'side' may think himself lucky if he be allowed to depart unbaited.
1900. White, West End, 131. 'Elsenham's a stick.' 'He is rather,' said my aunt. 'But he is heir to one of the oldest earldoms in the kingdom.'
TO jump the broomstick (hop the broom, Or jump the besom),
vrrb. phr. (common).—To live as man and wife without the legal tie: formerly 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.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ('S. Romwold.')
Young ladies had fain single women remain,
And unwedded dames to the last crack
of doom stick, Ere marry by taking a jump o'er a
broomstick.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 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.
1800. Dickens, Great Expectations, xlviii., 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.
BROSIER (or BROZIER). subs. (Eton College). A boy when he had spent all his pocket-money. [Brozier is Cheshire for a bankrupt.] Broziered = cleaned out _;done up ; ruined ; bankrupt. Brozier-my-dame = 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.

Broth. 380 Brother.
1796. Merton, Way to get Married (in Inchbald's 'British Theatre,' vol. XXVI). [The term is so used herej.
1850. Notes and Queries, June 15, 44. I well remember the phrase broziermy-dame, signifying to eat her out of house and home.
1888. Rev. W. Rogers, Reminiscences, 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.
BROTH, subs, (common).—Breath.
To make white broth of, verb. phr..( old).—To boil to death.
A f.roth of a boy, Subs. phr.
(common).—A downright good fellow.
1819-24. Byron, Don Juan, viii., 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, 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.
BROTH-BELLY, subs.phr. (provincial). —A glutton (Halliwell).
In lunatic's broth, adj. phr. (colloquial).—See quot.
1902. D. Tel., 20 June, ii., 1. He explained his action by saying that he was in lunatic's broth—otherwise drunk —at the time.
BROTHEL, subs, (old).—A wretch; a worthless person. As adj. = lewd, wanton ; hence brotheliiouse (now shortened to brothel) = a bawdy-house (q.V.).
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Brothel-house, a bawdy-house.
1847. Halliwell, Arch. JVords,s.v. Brothel . . . The term was often applied to a harlot, especially by later writers. Elyot translates meretrix, 'an harlot, a brothel,' and the word also occurs in Skelton and Piers Ploughman.
BROTHER. Like knight (q.v.), brother is largely found in combination. Thus brother-blade = a fellow-soldier: also brother of the blade: see mudcrusher_;brother-chip = a fellow carpenter; brother-of-the-brush = an artist ; a house-painter ; brother-of-the-bung = a
brewer ; brother-of-the-buskin = a player; an actor (buskin = 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) _; brother-of-thecoif r= a serjeant-at-law (the coif was a close-fitting cap worn by the serjeants-at-law); brotherof-the-gusset = a pimp; a
ponce (q.V.); brother-of-the
quill = an author; brothersmut = a term of familiarity -, 'ditto, brother (or sister) smut,' a tu quoque; brotherstarling = a man who shares his mistress with another; brotherof-the-string = a fiddler ; brother-of-the-whip = a coachman.
1687. Bp. Cartwright, in Hist. Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc), 143. Pray make use of my brother of the brush.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Brother of the blade, a swordman or soldier.
Brother of the gussit, a pimp,procurer, also, whore-master.
Brother of the quill, of the scribbling tribe.
Brother of the string, a fidler, or musician.
Brother-starling, that lies with the same woman, or builds in the same nest.

Broughtonian. 381
Brown.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Diet. (2 ed.). Brother of the quill, an author, one of the same profession.
1756. The World, 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.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1793) I., 133. The honourable devices which the Pentagraphic bretheren of the brush have shewn in taking copies.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brother starling . . . one who . . . builds in the same nest.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brother of the blade, a soldier.
1820. Clare, Poems of Rural Life, Familiar Epistle, 3. And, brother chip, I love ye dearly, poor as ye be!
1833. Byron, Wks. (1846), 585, 1. A young American brother of the brush.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rockwood, IV., 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.
1849. T. Miller, Gabarni in London, 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.
Broughtonian, subs. (old).— A bruiser ; a boxer ; a pugilist. [Broughton was once the best boxer of his day.]
Brow. Honest as the skin on his brow(or between his brows), adj. phr. (old).—As honest (i.e. chaste : see honest) or otherwise (in sarcasm) as may be : the allusion is to the presence (or absence) of the horns of cuckoldry.
1551. Still, Gammer Gurton [Dodsley, Old Plays, (Reed) ii., 67]. 1 am as true, I wold thou knew, as skin betwene thy browes.
1599. Jonson, Ev. Man out of His Humour, ii., 2. Punt. Is he magnanimous ? Gent, as the skin between your brows, sir.
1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado, iii. 5. An old man, sir, and his wits are not so blunt, as, God help, I would desire they were, but in faith honest, as the skin between his brows.
1611. Jonson, Bartholomew Fayre, iv., 5. It shall be justified to thy husband's faish, now : tou shalt be as honesht as
the skin between his hornsh, la.
1647. Cari wright, Ordinary [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), x., 308]. I am as honest as the skin that is Between thy brows. Constable. What
skin between my brows ?
What skin, thou knave? I am a Christian; And what is more, a constable ! What skin ?
Brow-beat, verb. phr. (B. E.).— ' To cow, to daunt, to awe with big looks, or snub' (c. 1696).
brown, subs, (common).— i. A halfpenny : see rhino and cf. quot 1812. To flutter a brown = to spin a coin.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Diet. Browns and whistlers, bad halfpence and farthings.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 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.)
1836. Milner, Turpins Ride to York, ii. 5. Sam. Peel my skin and dub up the browns! What do you mean? Bal. Just this—that if you do not hand over your money I shall blow out your brains !

Brown. 382
Brown.
1837. Barham, /. L. [Black Mousquetaire). The magic effect of a handful of crowns Upon people whose pockets boast nothing but browns.
1851, Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., 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. WhvteMelville,/?2^<5)' Grand, 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.'
1899. Whiteing, John St., xi. At your elbow to cadge 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, (common).— 1. To get the better of; to outwit; to roast (q.v.): also to do brown.
c. 1600. John Bon, 162 in Hazl. E. P. P., iv., 16. Ha! browne done.
1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, 5. 'Those who consider themselves brown to every move upon the board ' of actual life.
1837. Barham, /. 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. ... those who succeeded In reaching the town, Confessed they were done, Most exceedingly brown..'
1861. Times (on American affairs). 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, 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.
2. (common).—To understand ; comprehend.
i8[?]. I. K. Symns, The Age of Betting. And when they ask me if I brown such language, I ne'er hear or read as to browning; I'm done done brown instead.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 38. You will easily brown that the case was dismissed by the beak, with a frown. Ibid., 74. You'll brown to the hint—she'd red hair and a squint.
To do up (or it) brown, verb, phr. (common).—To do to perfection ; to prolong a drinking bout ; to go the whole hog (q.V.).
1850. Southern Sketches, 57. Well, I think Ellen's a doin' it up brown! There '11 be another weddin' soon, guess.
1861. I'anitv Fair, ' Parody Jefferson Davis's Proclamation.' To pay his best in duty bound each faithful rebel knave is, So let the thing be done up brown, for things look black.
1871. Atkin, House Scraps.
To send the market either up or down, In aerated ' Breads,' Or 'Shores,' or 'Yanks,' or 'Reds,'
In slang we really do it rather brown.
To roast brown, verb. phr. (thieves').—To watch closely.
1888. Sims, Plank Bed Ballad [Referee, 12 Feb.], A Peeler was roasting
mi brown.

Brown-bess. 383 Brown George.
AS brown as a berry, phr. (old).—As brown as may be (Chaucer).
Brown-bess, subs. phr. (rhyming). — I. Yes.
2. (military).—The old regulation musket (1708). Hence to hug (or marry) brown Bess = to serve as a private soldier.
1785. Grose, Dictionary ofthe Vulgar Tongue. Brown bess, a soldier's firelock.
1820. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Tour II., ii. Religion Jack did never profess, Till he had shoulder'd old brown bess.
1844. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, iv. You can tell her that you are safe,
and married to brown bess.
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, 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, 720. Such may have been the case in the days of brown bess, but a spinning conical ball from tho Martini-Henry will pierce the largest crocodile.
3. (old).—A prostitute: sit tart.
1631. Dore, Polydorum. 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.
BROWN-bread, adj. phr. (old).— Ordinary; homely.
1606. Wily Beguild [Hawkins], Eng. Drama, iii, 313. He's a very idiot and brown-bread clown, and one I know the wench does deadly hate.
d. 1635. Corbet, Great Tom of Christ Church. They drew his brown-bread face on pretty gins, And made him stalk upon two rolling-pins.
brown-day, subs. phr. (provincial). —A gloomy day (Halliwell).
brown-deep, adj. phr. (provincial). —Lost in reflection : cf. brownstudy (Halliwell).
Brown (or round) -dozen, subs, phr. (old).—A simile of completeness : see round.
1820. Byron, Blues, I. 26. A round dozen of authors and others.
brownetta, subs, (old colloquial). —A brunette.
1582. Stanyhurst, AZneis [Arber] 141. A brave brownetta.
Brown George, subs. phr. (old).— I. See quot.
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, 2, 1. The King [George III.] wore a brown wig. .. known popularly a century ago as brown george.
2. (common).—A jug; a brown earthenware pitcher: cf. blackjack.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, 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, II., 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 ; hard brown biscuit.
z

Browfiie.
384
Bruise.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 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, Perseus, V., 215. Cubb'd in a cabin, on a mattrass laid, On a brown george, with lousy swabbers fed.
1694. Plaut us's Comedies made English. Faith, I've great designs i' my head; but first and foremost, let me hide
this portmantle.-After all, this monarch
here, must dine to day with a brown george, and only salt and vineagersawce.
brownie, subs, (nautical).—A polar bear.
brown janet, subs.phr. (nautical). —A knapsack.
brown-joe, intj. (rhyming).—No ! cf. brown Bess = Yes !
brown-papermen, subs. phr. (thieves').—See quot.
1S51, H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, I., 502. But the Little Nick is what we call only brown-papermen, low gamblers—playing for pence, and Is. .. being a great go.
brown-skin, subs.phr. (American). —A North American Indian _; a red-skin : cf. paleface = a white man.
1848. RuXTON, Life in the Far West 14. 'Yep, old gal ! and keep your nose open; thar's brown-skin about.
Brown-paper warrant, subs. phr. (nautical).—A warrant given by a captain : this he can cancel (Smyth).
brown-stone, subs.phr. (American). —Beer: see swipes.
brown-study, subs.phr. (colloquial). —Mental abstraction _; musing ; thoughtful absentmindedness _; idle reverie: cf. brown-deep.
1559. Mariage of Wit and Wisdome. I must be firme to bring him out of his broune stodie, on this fashion, I will turne my name from Idlenes To Honest Recreation.
[?] Tales and Quieke Answers [Nares]. And in the mornynge when every man made hym redy to ryde, and some were on horsebacke setting forwarde, John Reynoldes founde his companion syttynge in a Browne study at the inne gate.
1609. Jonson, Case Altered, iv., 1. Why how now, sister, in a motley muse? Faith, this brown study suits not with your black, Your habit and your thoughts are of two colours.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Creiu., s.v. Brown-study, a deep thought or speculation.
1809. Malkin, Gil Pias [ Routledge], 61. My uncle was evidently in a brown study.
brown-talk, subs. phr. (common). —Conversation of an exceedingly ' proper ' character ; quakerish speech : cf. blue.
browse, verb. (Marlborough and Royal Military Academy).—To idle; to loll; to take things easy. Also as adj. : e.g. A browse morning = one in which there is little work.
Bruise, verb, (pugilistic).—.1 To fight; to box: the idea is that of mauling: see bruiser.
To bruise along, verb. 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., no. The baron hunted his five days... bruising along determinedly.

Bruiser. 385 Brummagem.
1872. Anteros, by the author of Guy Livingstone, I., 207. He was a good second-rate shot, and a fair, though by no means bruising rider to hounds. Ibid, 234. There were not a few admirers of his bruising style, etc.
Bruiser, subs, (pugilistic).—i. A prize-fighter '■ a boxer: see Hittite and Lamb. Hence (common), a fighting-man ; a chucker-out (q.v.). Also bruising = prizefighting, boxing ; and bruise (q.v.).
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.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, 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.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom, 1. An old bruiser makes a good bottleholder.
1753. Foote, Englishman in Paris, i. Dick Daylight and Bob Breadbasket, the bruisers.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 2. And in a manner quite uncivil, Sent fifty bruisers to the devil.
1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, 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. Thackerav, V. Fair, xi. At college he pulled stroke-oar in the Christchurch boat, and had thrashed all the best bruisers of the 'town.'
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, 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.
1855. Taylor, Still Waters. Mrs. S. If a man gave you a blow, what would you do? Mild. Hit him again. Mrs. S. Yes, if he were a bruiser.
i860. Thackeray, Philip, xlii. A jolly wag, a fellow of indifferent character, a frequenter of all the alehouses in the neighbourhood, and rather celebrated for his skill as a bruiser.
i860. Thackeray, Philip, 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.
1880. Jas. Greenwood, Flyfaker's Hotel, in Odd People in Odd Places, 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.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 87.' A bruiser . . . socked her in the eye . . . and stars she'd often view.
2. (thieves'). — A prostitute's bully; a fancy man (q.V.).
1877. Da vitt, Leaves from a Prison Diary. The bruiser is the nearest approach to Dickens' hero, Bill Sykes.
BRUM, adj. (Winchester College).— I. Mean ; poor _; stingy : also dead brum. [Two derivations are suggested; viz. (1) from bruma = winter; and (2) traditional in 'College' that it is an abbreviated form of brevissimum.] Fr. (subs. and adj.) — rafiat.
2. See brummagem.
Brummagem (or Brum), subs. (old). —Birmingham. Hence contemptously in allusion to the evil reputation of the city for spurious and shoddy manufacture (1) = base money of various denominations: spec. (e. 1691 ) counterfeit groats : see brummagem-buttons ;

Brummagem. 3 86 Brumby.
(2) anything spurious, showy, or pretentious: e.g. 'That's brummagem: also as adj. (or brummish); (3) copper money struck by Boulton and Watt at their works at Soho, Birmingham (i 787); (4) an inhabitant of Birmingham ; usually brum. See brums.
1637. Calendar Dom. St. Papers, 105. Those swords which he. . . pretends to be blades of his owne makeing are all Bromkdgham blades and forraine blades.
1686. D'Urfey, Commonwealth of Women, I., i. A Brummingham, son of a wh—, affront the Noble Admiral!
1691. G. Miege, New State Eng., 235. Bkomicham, particularly noted a few years ago for the conterfeit groats made here, and from hence dispersed all over the kingdom.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. BROMIGHam-conscience, very bad, BROMiGHAM-protestants, Dissenters or Whiggs. BROMiGHAM-wine, Balderdash, Sophisticate Taplash.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Diet., 2ed. Bromidgham, money of base metal.
1737. j. West, Trip to Richmond, in Ashton's Eighteenth Century Waifs, 133. My silver I chang'd for a handful of Brums.
1805. G. Colman, John Bull Brit. Theal., 55. Two guineas . . . one seems light, and t'other looks a little brummish.
1834. Southev, The Doctor, cxl. He picked it up, and it proved to be a Brummejam of the coarsest and clumsiest kind, with a head on each side.
1836. Dickens, Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, I., 11. Bad silver, Brummagem buttons, etc.
1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words, s v. Bromidgham. A corruption of Birmingham. A bromidgham groat, a spurious fourpennypicce. A person neither Whig nor Tory, but between both.
1861. New York Tribune, 28 Nov. This silence on the part of the Rebel President as to the cause of the war, and the sole reason for setting up his brummagem government, etc.
1862. Cornhill, Nov., 648. We have just touched for a rattling stake of sugar (i.e., a large stake of money) at Brum.
i856. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, 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. Ibid. xix. If anybody says the Radicals are a set of sneaks, Brummagem halfpennies, scamps who want to play pitch-and-toss with the property of the country, you can say, Look at the member for North Loamshire.
1873. Saturday Review, Nov., 661. They [Brummagem buttons] were marvellously inexpensive, and being such ingenious imitations of the spade guineas and half-guineas then current that may Englishmen might have failed to detect the difference; they must have been of very great 'use to the Indians' indeed.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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.
1867. Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower. Those may be Brummagem or Manchester manners, but they won't go down here.
1883. Echo, March 28, 1, 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.
1883. Daily Telegraph, July 9, 3, 2. One [earring] might be gold, and the other a Brum, though exactly alike.
BRUMBY, subs. (Australian).—A wild horse: the Antipodean counterpart of the American broncho (q.v.).

Brums. 387 Brüsker.
brums, subs. (Stock Exchange).— London and North Western Stock. (Formerly the London and Birmingham Ry.).
1887. Atktn, House Scraps. We kneel at the feet of our 'Nancys.' We load them with 'cottons' and 'tapes.' If anything tickles our fancies, We buy them, brums, ' Caleys ' or 'Apei.'
brush, subs, (old).—i. A hasty departure. As verb = to run away ; to decamp: also to brush off: see brusher.
1690. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew. Brush, to Fly or Run away. The cully is brusht or rub'd, c. the Fellow is march'd off, or Broke, bought a brush, c. Run away.
1706. E. Coles, Eng. Diet. Brush, c, run away.
1726. Vanbrugh, Provoked Husband, ii. I don't like his looks ... I believe I had as good brush off.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, VIII., 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.'
1764. a. Murphy, No One's Enemy but his Own, 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.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias, [Routledge], 136. The old lady brushed off to go and usher him in.
1837. Barham, /. L. (Dead Drummer). One of their drummers, and one Sergeant Matcham, Had brush'd with the dibs, and they never could catch'em.
2. (old). — A person who decamps hastily ; one 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.
3. (old).—An encounter: either a heated argument, bout of fisticuffs; or skirmish: e.g. a brush with the enemy.
1749. Smollett, Gil Bias, (1812), vu, vii. Scarce . . . time to sit before we began to chatter. We had a severe brush... questions and replies succeeding one another with surprising volubility.
Verb, (common).— 1. To flog; to thrash: e.g. to brush one's jacket : see dust, tan., etc. : see brusher.
2. (venery).—To copulate : see
greens and ride.
Knight of the brush, subs, phr. (common).—(1) An artist; (2) a house-painter: see brother.
1785. Wolcot ('P. Pindar'), Ode to P. A.'s, ii., Wks. (1812) I., 80. Tagrags and bobtails of the sacred brush.
1885. John Coleman, in Longm. Mag., vu. 78. Occasionally however, the author has his nose put out of joint by the scene-painter. I once heard a distinguished knight of the brush exclaim . ..
To brush up, verb. phr. (common).—To humbug; to flatter: e.g. to brush up a flat = to cajole a victim; to lay it on thick (q.V.) ; to soft-soap (q.V.).
Brusher, subs. (old).—i. A full glass.
c. 1696. B.E. Diet. Cant. Creiu., s.v. Brusher, c. an exceeding full Glass,
2. (old).—See quot.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Brusher (s.) . . . also one that gets or steals away privately.

Brute. 388
Bub.
3. (common and schools').—A schoolmaster: also bumbrusher.
4. (Australian).—A small wallaby which hops about in the bush or scrub with considerable speed. Hence to give brusher — to leave without paying one's debts: e.g. ' Has so-and-so left the township?' 'Oh yes, he gave them brusher.'
BRUTE, subs. (University).—See quot.
1868. Erewer, 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: cf. p.d.q.; o.k.; n.g. and Q. k., etc. (q.v.).
BUB, subs. (old).— I. Strong drink of any kind : spec, malt liquor. As verb (or to bub and grub) = (1) to eat and drink; (2) see verb sense: to knock about the bub = to pass round the drink: bubber and bubbing.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, I., iv., 36 (1874). In a short time these four return'd laden with bub and food. Ibid, vi., 54 (1874). We straight betook ourselves to the Boozing Ken; and having bubb'd rumly, we concluded an everlasting friendship.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bub, c. Drink. Rumbub, c. very good Tip.
d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems, etc., ( The Fortune-Hunter), canto iii. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 221.) Drinks double bub with all his might And hugs his doxy every night.
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.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, i. 212. They went away seemingly very well satisfied, leaving master and man
knocking about the bub.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 171. How did you procure your grub and Bub ?
1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, 149. Bub and Grub. A mighty low expression, signifying victuals and drink.
1837. Barham, /. L. ( The Wedding Day). A mighty magnificent tub Of what men, in our hemisphere, term Humming Bub, But which gods—who, it seems, use a different lingo From mortals, are wont to denominate 'Stingo.'
1839. H. AinswORTH, Jack Sheppard, II., xi. Och! many a mug o' bubb have I drained wi' the landlord.
d. 1842. Maginn, Vidocq's Song. Any
bubby and grub, I Say?
2. See bubby.
3. (old).—A brother.
4. (American). — An endearment: also bubby : of a little boy. [Said to have originated in Pennsylvania from the German Bubc.\ Also (5) a familiar 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.

Bubber. 389 Bubble.
6. (old).—Bubble (q.v.). Verb. (old).—I. See subs.
2. (old).—To bribe; to cheat: see bubble.
3. See subs., supra.
bubber, subs. (old).—I. A hard drinker; a confirmed tippler: see lushington : Fr. bibassier.
1653. Middleton, Sp. Gipsy, ii., i. 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.']
c. 1696. B.E , Did. Cant. Crew., s.v. bubber, c. a drinking bowl; also a great drinker, and he that used to steal plate from publick-houses.
2. (old).—A drinking bowl.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bubber, a drinkingbowl, etc.
3. (old).—A public house thief (q.v.).
1674. R. Head, Canting Acad., 191. The tenth is a shop-lift that carris a bob, When he ranges the city the shops for
to rob;
Th' eleventh's a bubber, much used of late,
He goes to the alehouse and there steals the plate.
c. 1696. B. E., Did. Cant. Crew., s.v.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bubber, ... a great drinker. A thief that steals plate from public houses.
4. (American). —An old woman with large pendulous breasts : see bubby.
1848. Bartlett, Americanisms Bubber. A stout or stoutly mammalated old woman. Used in Salem, Mass., in 1820, and since. ' Bubbkr Jones.' (Fr. poitron, old woman ; Old Fr. pect, poitron ; Lat. pectus, the breast.)
bubbies, See bubby.
bubbing, subs. (old).—Drinking ; tippling: see bub.
1678. Poor Robin's Char, of Scold, 6. She clamours at him so long.. . which makes him seek BUBBiNO-schools to hide himself in from her fury.
Bubble (or Bub), subs, (old).—A
dupe; a gull; a caravan (q.V.); a rook (q.v.) ; also, as verb = to cheat; to humbug; to delude as with bubbles ; to overreach (cf. South Sea bubble). Also bubbleable = easy to dupe ; gullible.
1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, iii., vi., 5. Sec. Lord. On my life, my lord, a bubble. Der. Do you think I am so far deceived in him?
1614. J. Cooke, Green's Tu Quoque, in Anc. Brit. Drama (1810), ii., 567. Sir Lion. Aye, but son bubble, where did you two buy your felts? Scat. Felts! by this light mine is a good beaver.
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.
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.
c. 1683. Oldham, Wks. and Rem. (1686), 66. Bubled Monarchs are at first beguil'd ... at last depos'd, and kill'd.
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.

Bubble. 390 Bubble.
1686. Twelve Ingenious Characters. The tincture of the sun's-beard; the powder of the moon's-horns ; or a quintessence extracted from the souls of the heathen gods; will go off rarely for an universal medicine, and bubble the simple out of their money first, and their lives afterwards.
1688. Shadwell, So. of Alsatia, III., in Wks. (1720) IV., 62. This kinsman a most silly bubble first, and afterwards a betrayer of young heirs.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bub, or bubble, c. one that is Cheated; also an Easy, Soft Fellow. Ilia, s.v. setters, or Setting-dogs, they that draw in bubbles for old Gamesters to Rook; also a Sergeant's Yeoman, or Bailiff's Follower, or Second, and an Excize-Officer to prevent the Brewers defrauding the King.
1697. Country Gentleman's Vade Mecum. And here begins the fatal catastrophe; if they think that he has too much regard for his reputation, or too much modesty to make use of the statute for his defence, or perhaps (what's more prevalent with him than either) will be unwilling that the town should know he has been a bubble, then they stick him in earnest, so deep, it may be, that he must be fore'd to cut off a limb of his estate to get out of their clutches.
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.
1701. Defoe, Trite Born Englishman. Introd. Who shall this bubbled nation disabuse, While they, their own felicities refuse ?
1703. Town-Misses Catechism. Q. Which are your best sort of customers ? A. Either your city-aprentice that robs his master for me, or your country-gentleman that sells his estate, or else your young extravagant shop-keeper, that is newly set up: these I bubble till they grow weary of me, and never leave them till I have ruin'd them, and if they leave me, I either force them to purchase my silence at a dear rate, or swear a bastard to th«m, tho' I was never with child.
1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, i. An old dangling cheat, that hobbles abo.ut from house to house to bubble the ladies of their money.
1706. Ward, Wooden World, 10. Bubling, he says, is the result of sound reasoning.
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.
1711. Swift, Conduct of the Allies. We are thus become the dupes and bubbles of Enrope.
1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, II., 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.
1719. D'Urfey, Pills, II., 54. Another makes Racing a Trade... And many a Crimp Match has made, By bubbing another Man's Groom.
1724. Journey through England. Adjoyning to this village, the duke of Argyle had a fine seat called Caen-wood. You remember him at the head of the English at the famous battel of Blaregnies; but I shall do him wrong to mention him till I come to his own country, where his ancient and noble family have been very conspicuous for so many ages, and where his personal character will be best placed. It now belongs to one Dale, an upholsterer, who bought it out of the bubbles (i.e. of the bubbles of the Southsea year, 1720)
1729. Gay, Polly,ii.,g Honourplays a bubble's part, ever bilk'd and cheated.
1731. Poor Robin. Towards the latter end of this month there will be more people in Smithfield than in Westminster Hall; Jack Pudding and Harlequin telling stories in jest to get money in earnest, and have much better luck than those who, while they are making a play day, lose one half of their money at gaming, and have the other half pick'd out of their pocket; such people are in more danger of going home mad than drunk; and it is hard to say which of the two looks more like a fool, he that wants wit, or he that has so foolishly been bubbled out of his money.

Bubble. 391 Bubble-company.
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, I., vii. This would be to own herself the mere tool and bubble of the man.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, XI., iv. He... actually bubbled several of their money by undertaking to do them services, which, in reality, were not within his power.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Diet. (2nd ed.), s.v. 'Setter' ... (3) an associate of sharpers to get them bubbles.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 241. What could the bubbl'd King do better Than cheat him with Uriah's letter.
1777. Sheridan, TriptoScarborough, ii. Help the gentleman with a chair, and carry him to my house presently—that's the properest plaça—[aside]—to bubble him out of his money.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Spcculist, I., 69. He persuades his bubble that he will insure him a certain safe way of getting a sum of money. Ibid., I., 75. And this was the language which the pretenders to the Philosopher's Stone used to bubble their pigeons with.
1795. R.Cumberland, The Jew, iii., 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.), 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.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 37. Far from being point, quint, and quatorze with the ladies . . . you are to know, my friend, that I am their complete bubble.
i860. The Druid, 'Post and Paddock.' Alas! my innocent rural police, Your fondest hopes were a bubble.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, III., xii., 235. Some critics declared . . . that the French Emperor had bubbled him [Mr. Cobden].
1889. Gentleman's Mag., June, 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.
bubble-and-squeak, subs.phr.(common).— Cold meat fried with potatoes and greens, originally nautical.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 507. Bubble,! they call this dish, and squeak. Note.\ Fried beef and cabbage is a dish so well known in town by the name of bubble and squeak, that it is only for the sake of my country readers I insert this note.
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.
17S6-89. Wolcot, ('P. Pindar'), Lousiad, i., 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, VIII., viii. 'Rank and title! bubble and squeak ! No, not half so good as bubble and squeak. English beef and good cabbage.'
Bubble-buff, subs. phr. (old).—a bailiff.
Bubble-company, subs. phr. (common).—A swindling association, enterprise or project. The South Sea bubble will occur to mind in this connection: see bubble.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Diet. (2 ed.). Bubble ... (5) (in Commerce), a cant name given to certain projects for raising money on imaginary grounds.

Bubbling-squeak. 392 Bucephalus.
1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, xix. My inheritance disappears as if it had been invested in a bubble
company.
bubbling-squeak, subs.phr. (army). —Hot soup.
Bubbly-jock, subs.phr. (old Scotch). — I. A turkey-cock; a 'gobbler.'
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bubbly jock, a turkeycock.
1843. X h a c k er ay, Irish Sketch Book, 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, II., xviii. Puffing his cheeks like some infuriated bubbly jock in a stable-yard.
2. (common).—A stupid braggart.
3. (popular).— A pert, conceited, pragmatical fellow ; a prig ; a cad.
1883. G. A. Sala, Living London, 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.
The bubbly jocks, subs. phr. (military).
bubby (or bub).—A teat ; the breast ; in pi. = the paps: see dairies. To
flast the bubbies = to expose
one's meat (q.v.).
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, v., 7. Did not her eyes twinkle, and her mouth water? Did not she pull up her little bubbies ?
c. 1707. Old Ballad, Wooburn Fair [Farmer, Merry Songs and Ballads (1897), i S. iv. 179J. And tho* I let Loobies Oft finger my bubbies: Who think when they kiss me, That they shall possess me.
c. 1707. Broadside Ballad, The Harlot Unmask'd [Farmer, Merry Songs and Ballads (1897), iv. in], Tho' her Hands they are red, and her bubbies are coarse, Her quim, for all that, may be never the worse.
1707. Ward, Hud. Rediv, 11., iii. 17. Her bubbies, which she forward thrust, Boil'd o'er her Stays with very Lust.
1708. King, Art of Love, iv. The bubbies then are beat again, Women in passion feel no pain.
1712. Arbuthnot, Hist, of John Bull, III., 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. Did., 2 ed. Bubbys, a woman's breasts.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon's GoodNight. Likewise you molls that flash your bubs, For swells to spot and stand you sam.
BUBE, subs, (venery).—See quot.
c. 1696. B.E., Did. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bube, c. the Pox. The Mort has tipt the Bube upon the Cully, c, the Wench has clapt the Fellow.
BUCANEER, subs. (B.E.). — WestIndian pirates, of several nations ; also the rude rabble in Jamaica.
BUCCO, subs. (American thieves'). —A dandy; a buck (q.v.).
BUCEPHALUS, subs, (common).—A horse ; a mount (q.v.) -, a prad (q.V.).

Buck. 393
Buck.
BUCK, subs, (common).— I. A man of spirit or gaiety of conduct; hence a fop, a dandy. Old buck = a familiar address : cf. masher, dude, swell, and blood. As
merry as a buck = as gay and merry as may be.
? MS. Harl. 1701, f. 22. Arid of these herded buckts also, With himself they moche mysdo.
1637. Billingsi.v, Brachy-Martyrologia, 187. s.v.
1725. New Cant. Diet. Buck, as a bold buck, is sometimes used to signify a forward daring Person of either Sex.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, X., ii. A large assembly of young fellows, whom they call bucks
1772, Bridges, Homer, 17. Militia bucks that know no fears.
1S25. Scott, St. Roman's Well, xxi. 'Come, none of your quizzing, my old buck,' said Sir Bingo—'what the devil has a ship to do with horse's furniture?— Do you think we belong to the horsemarines?'
1844. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, xvi. They had some friend of their own in view for the young lady, and had scornfully rejected the proposal of Ulick Brady, the ruined gentleman; who was quite unworthy, as these rustic bucks thought, of the hand of such a prodigiously wealthy heiress as their sister.
1846-48. Thackeray, V. Fair, 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).
1865. Kingsley, H illy ar s and Burtons, xix. My pad-clinking . . . bucks, Good day.
1889. Answers, Feb. 9. The ancient buck was last seen (at the age of eightyfour) 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: also a sham fare: see last quot.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, III., 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 ther meals or enjoying themselves.
1865. Morning Star, 14 Sept. What is the prisoner? Constable: He is a buck, who hangs about an omnibus stand.
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 : cf. fyebuck: rarely used by itself, but generally denoting the sixpence attached to shillings in reference to cost; e.g. three and a buck = three shillings and sixpence: see rhino.
1885. Household Words, June 20, 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, etc.
1885. Household Words, June 10, 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.

Buck.
394 Buck.
5. (American).—A term used in poker (q.v.): cf. TIGER.
Adj. (American University).— An intensive: good; excellent; pleasant ; agreeable (Princetown College).
Verb. (American). — 1. To oppose; to run counter to.
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; also as subs, and bucking: see buckjumper.
i8[?]. Newspaper Cutting. 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, and galloped away in a dignified style. Suddenly the horse stopped. His ears went back, and his hinds legs went between his front. 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 stuck on well, however, as the saddle, blanket, gun and bridle came off with me. When an oldtimer tried to fix things for me by saying. 'It's no disgrace, pardner, that horse can buck off a porus plaster,' I thanked him from the bottom of my heart.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, xxvili. 'He can sit some bucking horses which very few men will attempt to mount.' 'And that same bucking, Miss Brentwood,' said Ualbert, 'is just what puzzles me utterly. I got on a bucking horse in Sydney the other day, and had an ignominious tumble in the sale-yard, to everybody's great amusement.'
18J?]. McClure, Rocky Mountains, 301. As if some devilish infection pervaded the atmosphere, one of our horses, a
Kiyuse, or native pony, took a fit of bucking soon after we left, and was particular to select the most dangerous portions of the road for the display of his skill in that line.
1868. Lady Barker, Station Life in New Zealand, 224. I never saw such bucks and jumps into the air as she [the mare] performed.
18S1. A. C. Grant, Bush Life in Queensland, i., 131. 'Well,' said one, 'that fellow went to market like a bird.' 'Yes,' echoed another, 'bucked a blessed hurricane.' 'Buck a town down,' cried a third. 'Never seed a horse strip himself quicker,' cried a fourth.
1882. Baillie-Grohman, Camps in the Rockies, iv., 102 ('Standard'). There are two ways, I understand, of sitting a bucking horse . . . one is ' to follow the buck,' the other 'to receive the buck.'
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, Advance Australia, 55. The performance is quite peculiar to Australian horses, and no one who has not seen them at it would believe the rapid contortions of which they are capable. In bucking, a horse tucks his head right between his forelegs, sometimes striking his jaw with his hind feet. The back meantime is arched like a boiled prawn's; and in this position the animal makes a series of tremendous bounds, sometimes forwards, sometimes sideways and backwards, keeping it up for several minutes at intervals of a few seconds.
188C. H. C. Kendall, Poems, 206. For, mark me, he can sit a buck For hours and hours together; And never horse has had the luck To pitch him from the leather.
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, A Colonial Reformer, 94. ' I should say that buckjumping was produced in this country by bad breaking,' said Mr. Neuchamp oracularly. 'Don't you believe it, sir. Bucking is like other vices—runs in the blood.'
i8[?]. Chicago Tribune [BartlettJ. 'In this event,' writes he, 'do not select a mustang , . . unless you want to be initiated into the mysteries of bucking.

Buck. 395 Buck-jumper.
The mustang is the only animal in the world that can suck, and it ought to be a source of thanksgiving that such is the case. The buck consists of the mustang's springing forward with quick, short, plunging leaps, and coming down stiff-legged, with his head between his forelegs, and as near the ground as possible.'
3. (commercial).—To manipulate figures; to cook (q.v.) accounts ; TO window-dress (q.V.).
4. (Western American).—To play against the bank; to gamble heavily, usually to buck the tiger.
1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Couroy, 375. I don't like your looks at all. I'd buck against any bank you ran, all night. Ibid (1880). Brown of Calaveras. (Tales of the Arg., 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.
1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 14. 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.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 8. The gambler who was indicted for running a game of chance, and was triumphantly acquitted on his counsel's plea that the players who bucked against his bank didn't have any chance ?
5. (Western American).— To rouse oneself ; to put forth one's whole energy : also to buck up.
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.
1898. Pink 'Un and Pelican, 11. Who was it then, that . . . Soothed the sobbing girl, bade her dry her tears, and buck-up 'poor old dear!' and his gov'nor would take up the case and make a fortune for her! Why, Swears.
1900. White, West End, 48. suppose you know there's an examination to pass,' said his sister. ' I know that, 'Randa, and of course I'd have to buck-up.
1901. Troddles, 36. Buck-up, Bobby! We'll attend to your portion if you are captured, and you can pay us when you're out again.
6. (venery).—To copulate : see greens and ride.
To run a buck, verb. phr. (old Irish).—To poll a bad vote at an election (Grose).
To buck down, verb. phr. (Winchester College). — To be sorry ; to feel unhappy.
To be bucked, verb. phr. (Uppingham).—To be tired.
To buck up, verb. phr. (Winchester College).—To be glad, to be pleased ; the usual expression is 'Oh, buck up,' a phrase which at Westminster School would have a very different meaning, namely, exert yourself.
7. (colloquial).—See buck verb. 5.
buck-bail, subs. phr. (thieves').— Bail given by a confederate.
buckeen, subs. (Irish).— I. A bully (Grose).
2. (Irish).—A young man of the poorer aristocracy ; a squireen (q.v.).
1809-12. Edgeworth, Absentee, vn. There were several squireens or little squires, a race of men who have succeeded to the buckeens described by Young and Crumpe. Ibid, Love and Law. The spalpeen ! turned into a buckeen, that would be a squireen, but can't.
Buck-jumper (or Bucker), subs.
phr. (American and colonial).— A horse given to buck (q.v.). Also buck-JUMP, subs, and verb.

Bucket. 396 Bucket.
1853. H. Berkeley Jones, Adventures in Australia in 1852 and 1853, [Footnote] 143. A 'bucker' is a vicious horse, to be found only in Australia.
1855. W. HowiTT, Two Years in J'ictoria, i., 43. At length it shook off all its holders, and made one of those extraordinary vaults that they call buckjumping.
1859. Rev. J. D. Mereweather, Diary of a Working Clergyman in Australia and Tasmania, kept during the years 1850-1853, 177. I believe that an inveterate buck-jumper can be cured by slinging up one of the four legs, and lunging him about severely in heavy ground on the three legs. The action they must needs make use of on such an occasion somewhat resembles the action of bucking; and after some severe trials of that sort, they take a dislike to the whole style of thing. An Irishman on the Murrumbidgee is very clever at this schooling. It is called here 'turning a horse inside out.'
1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, 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.
1884. Harper's Magazine, July, 301, i. If we should... select a 'bucker,' the probabilities are that we will come to grief.
1885. Forman (Dakota), item 26, May 6, 3. The majority of the horses there [in Australia] are vicious and given to the trick of buck-jumping. [It may be worth while to add that this is not strictly accurate.]. 1893. Ibid, 187. 'Were you ever on a buck-jumper." I was asked by a friend, shortly after my return from Australia.
1893. Haddon Chambers, Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life, 64. No buck-jumper could shake him off.
Bucket, subs. (American). — An anonymous letter.
Verb, (common).—I. To ride hard _; not to spare one's beast.
1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, 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., 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.
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, 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; to ruin; to deceive: see bucket-shop.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Diet., s.v. To bucket a person is synonymous with putting him in the well.
3. (rowing).—To take the water unfairly—with a scoop at the beginning of the stroke instead of a steady even pull throughout.
1828. Scott, Diary, in Lockhart (1839), ix., 253. Thurtell . . . must in slang phrase have bucketed his palls.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, xv., 130. He was not so straight in the back as an Oxford stroke and he bucketed about a good deal, but he got along.
1891. Harry Fludyer at Cambridge. . . 62. He kept muttering something about three (that's me) bucketing.
To give the bucket, verb.phr. (old).—To dismiss ; to send a person about his business : cf. bag, and sack.
i860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, xxi. He were sore put about because Hester had gi'en him the bucket.

Bucket-afloat. 397
Buckeye.
To kick the bucket, verb. phr. (common).—To die : see hop the twig. [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.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bucket; to kick the bucket; to die.
1796. Woi.cotC P. Pindar'), Tristia, Wks. (1812) V., 242. Pitt has kicked
the bucket.
i8[?J Colman, Poetical Vagaries, 55. If the bucket come not down, Soon shall I be doom'd to kick it.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxx. He drained it dry . . . and kicked the
bucket.
1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, 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 (r). 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, 141, 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 phr. (rhyming). —A coat.
bucketsful. coming down
bucketsful, phr. (colloquial).— Falling heavily; in torrents: of heavy rain.
Bucket-shop, subs. phr. (common). — i. A stock-gambling den carried on in opposition to regular exchange business ; usually of a more than doubtful character: cf. bucket = to cheat.
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 bucketshops 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, Nov. 12, 3, i. 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.
i8[?] New York World. 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.
2. (American).—A low groggy ; a lottery office; a gambling den, etc.
buckeye, subs. (American).—A native of Ohio. Buck-eye State-Ohio.
1877. Pres. Hayes, Speech [Providence, 28 June]. I ask every lady and gentleman to consider that here and now I give you a hearty buckeye shake.

Buck-face. 398 Buckle.
Buck-face, subs. phr. (old). — A cuckold ; Fr. un loger rue du Croissant.
buck-fitch, subs. phr. (old).—An old roué; a lecherous old man.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Buck-fitches, c. old leacherous, nasty, stinking Fellows; also he Polecats, and their Fur.
buckhara, subs. (American). — A cattle-driver; a cowboy.
buckhorse, subs, (pugilistic).—A smart blow on the ear. [Buckhorse, a celebrated 'bruiser' 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.]
1864. Blackwood's Mag., II., 463 (the Public Schools' Report, 1864—Westminster School). One of the Seniors informs us that the common punishment was buck horsing. ' 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, 517. He then felled me to the ground by a swinging buckhokse on my right cheek.
buckish, adj. (old). — Foppish ; dandyish.
1782. D'Arblay, Diary, etc. (1876), i., 463. A buckish kind of young man of fashion.
1785. Wolcot, ('P.Pindar'), Apolog. Postcript to Ode upon Ode, in IVks. (Dublin, 1795), I., 36s. Did not good Nathan tell that buckish youth, David the King, that he stole sheep?
1789. Geo Parker, Life's Painter, 57. Having beat the rounds (as buckish spirits phrase it) of that bustling microcosm, the British metropolis, for eighteen months.
1812. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Picturesque, xvii. A buckish blade, who kept a horse, To try his fortune on the course.
1858. G. Eliot, Janet's Repentance, 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, 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.
Buckle, subs. (old). — In pi. = fetters : see darbies.
Verb (colloquial).— I. To marry; to splice (q.V.) ; to hitch (q.V.).
1594. Lyly, Mother Bombie. Good silly Stellio, we must buckle shortly.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, vi., 37. Is this an age to buckle with a bride?
1731. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, 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, 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, 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.
2. (old).—To bend ; to yield to pressure; to give way.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Buckle, to bend or give way. He'll buckle to no man, he won't yield to stoop to any man.

Buckle-beggar. 399
Buckler.
18... Thom, Anecdotes and Traditions, 54. Ninepences a little buckled.
3. (thieves').—To arrest _; to scrag (q.v.). Hence buckled= arrested.
To buckle down, verb. phr. (common).—To settle down ; to become reconciled to; to knuckle down (q.v.).
1874. Jos. Hatton, Clytie, III., iv. 'But you do not buckle down to your position,' said Cuffing... 'you wrangle, you higgle.'
To buckle to verb. phr. (colloquial).—To undertake; to grapple with ; to slip in ; to work vigorously.
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, xcvi., 84, 187 (E.D.S.). Then purchase some pelfe, by flftie and three: or buckle thy selfe, a drudge for to bee.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, I., ii., 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, IV., viii. At last Esquire South buckled to, to assist his friend Nie.
1883. James Payn, Thicker than Water, 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., 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.
Buckle-beggar, subs.phr. (old).— A Fleet clergyman ; one who celebrated marriage ceremonies therein ; hence, one who celebrat
ed irregular marriages ; a hedge priest ; one who undertook similar offices for gypsies and tramps, i.e., a buckle the beggars: see couple-beggar, and 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.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xvii. (II., 86). A hedge parson, or bucklebeggar, as that order of priesthood has been irreverently termed. Ibid, xxvii. (III., 22). Dr. R., who buckles beggars for a tester [sixpence] and a dram of Geneva.
Buckle-bosom, subs. phr. (old).— A catchpoll; a constable.
Buckle-mouthed, adj.phr. (provincial).—Having large straggling teeth (Halliwell).
buckler, subs. (American thieves'). — i. A collar: cf. all-rounder.
2. (old).—In pi. fetters: see buckle and darbies.
To give bucklers, verb. phr. (old)—To yield; to give way; to submit. Hence to take (bang, snatch, or hold) up the bucklers = to contend; to fight; to
carry bucklers from = to
conquer.
1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado, v., 2. A most manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman; and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give thee the bucklers.
1602. Dekker, Satiromastix[Nares] Charge one of them to take up the bucklers Against that hair-monger Horace.
1609. Jonson, Case is Altered\$Kii&s\. Play an honest part, and bear away the bucklers.
AA

Buckram. 400 Budge.
16.. Every Woman in her Humour [Nares]. If you lay down the bucklers, you lose the victory.
16.. Old Meg of Heref., 3. Age is nobodie—when youth is in place, it
gives the other the bucklers.
1644. Heylin, Life of Laud, 64. They found the king to be well affected [to Bp. Andrewes] for taking up the bucklers for him against Cardinal Bellarmine.
1648-53. Fuller. Church Hist., x., iii., 20. Were it not for God's marvellous blessing on our studies, and the infinite odds of truth on our side, it were impossible, in human proability, that we should hold up the bucklers against [the Papists].
d. 1663. Sanderson, Works, i., 289. These great undertakers have snatched up the bucklers, as if they would make it good against all comers.
1696. Aubrey, Misc., 214. Their servants at market, or where they met (in that slashing age), did commonly bang one another's bucklers.
Buckram. Men in buckram, subs, phr. (old).—Non-existent persons : in allusion to Falstaff's ' four men in buckram.'
buckram-bag, subs. phr. (old).— An attorney of small standing : cf. green-bag.
1592. Nashe, Piers Pennilesse. To Westminster Hall i went, and made a search of enquirie, from the blacke gowne to the buckram bag, if there were anie such Serjeant, bencher, counsailer, atturney, or pettifogger.
buck's-face, subs, phr (old).—A cuckold (B.E., c. 1696).
Buckskin, subs. phr. (old).—In pi. = A term applied to the American troops (luring the Revolutionary war. The Marquis de C'hastellux, in his Travels in North America, in 1780-82, says: 'The name of buckskin is given to
the inhabitants of Virginia, because their ancestors were hunters, and sold buck or rather deer skins.' As applied to certain American soldiers, we are inclined to believe that from their wearing garments made of dressed deerskins the term was applied to them (Bartlett).
BUCKSOME, ad/. (Winchester College).— I. Happy; in a state of buck-uppishness: see buck-up.
2. (old).—See quot.
c 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bucksom, wanton, merry.
BUCKTAILS, subs. phr. (American). —The name of a political party in the State of New York, about the year 1815. [Hammond Polit. Hist, of New York, i. 450: There was an order of the Tammany Society who wore in their hats, as an insignia, on certain occasions, a portion of the tail of the deer. They were a leading order, and from this circumstance the friends of De Witt Clinton gave those who adopted the views of the members of the Tammany Society, in relation to him, the name of bucktails _; which name was eventually applied to their friends and supporters in the country. Hence the party opposed to the administration of Mr.Clinton were for a long time called the Bucktail Party.
BUD, subs. (American).—An endearment of children: cf. bud-ofpromise and rosebud.
Budge, subs. (old).—i. A thief (q.v.): spec, (also sneaking-budge) = an accomplice who gains access

Budge-a-beake. 401
Buff.
to a building during the day, to be locked in, so that at night he is able to admit his fellows: but see quots.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, I., v., 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.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Budge, c. one that slips into an house in the dark, and taketh cloaks, coats, or what comes next to hand, marching off with them; also lambs-fur, and to stir, or move. Standing budge, c. the thieves scout or perdu.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, I., iii. I find you are some sneaking budge rascal fcant term for pilfering].
2. (old).—Drink ; liquor. Hence, budgy = drunk ; budging-ken = a public house; cove of the budging-ken = a publican; budger = a drunkard.
1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, 171. Budge, drink. Ibid. 171. Budge kain, a public-house.
Verb, (old colloquial). — To move; to make tracks (q.v.): cf. budge-a-beake.
BUDGE-A-BEAKE, verb. phr. (old).— To run away (presumably from
justice) ; to bilk the blues (q.V ).
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Budge-aBeake, runne away.
BUDGEREE, adj. (Australian).—Good: an aboriginal word common colloquially in the bush (Morris).
1793. J. Hunter, Port Jackson, 195. They very frequently, at the conclusion of the dance, would apply to us . . .
for marks of our approbation . . . which we never failed to give by often repeating the word boojeky, good ; or boojerv caribber1e, a good dance.
BUD-OF-PROMISE, subs.phr. (American).—A young,unmarried woman: see bud and rosebud.
1889. Charlesiown Enterprise. The young, unmarried girl, in sport, Is called
a bud of promise.
BUDGET. To open one's budget, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To speak one's mind.
BUD-SALLOGH, (old Irish). —A masturbator: 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 : see buffer. [Murray: from the sound of its bark.]
1567. Harman, Caveat, 84. Bufe, a dogge.
c. 1696. B.E., Did. Cant. Crew., s.v. bufe, c. a dog.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bufe, a dog; bufb's nob, a dog's head.
BUFE-NABBER (or -NAPPER), subs.phr. (old).—A dog thief (B.E. and Grose).
c. 1696. B.E., Did. Cant. Crew., s.v. buffenapper, c. a dogstealer, that trades in setters, hounds, spaniels, lap, and all sorts of dogs, selling them at a round rate, and himself or partner stealing them away the first opportunity.
BUFF, subs, (common).— i. The bare skin; nakedness. Hence as verb =z to strip: also to buff it_; in buff = naked : see nature's garb.

Buff. 402 Buff.
1602. Dekker, Satire-Mastix. I go in stag, in buff.
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.
1760. Johnston, Ckrysal, II., 23s. '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 ? '
1772. Bridges, Homer, 26. Yèt, tho' you'll box the devil in buff . . . Ibia. 54. As in buff the gen'ral lay. Ibid. 297. Trimming her bewitching buff.
1824. Hughes, Magic Lay of the Onehorse Shay (Blackwood). When our pair were soused enough, and returned in their buff.
i8[?] Colman, Poet. Vagar, 145. Titian's famed Goddess, in luxurious buff, Was the first piece the Parson thrust his nose on.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., 416. 'You had better buff it, Jim,' says I; but Jim wouldn't do it, and kept his trowsers on. Ibid, 417. So I locks the door, and buffs it, and forces myself up, etc.
.... Jarvis, Don Quixote, 1, 111, viii. The slaves . . . had stripped the commissary to his buff.
1855. Notes and Queries, 1., xi., 467. We say of one in a state of nudity, 'he is in buff.'
1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, 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.
2. (old).—A man ; a fellow _;also buffer (q.v.).
1708-15. Kersey. Buff ... a dull Sot, or drcnish Fellow.
1709. Brit. Apollo, II, 8, 3, 2. Tell me Grave Buffs, Partly Gods, partly men.
1725. New Cant. Diet., s.v. buff, a Newgate Cant Word used in familiar salutation as, How dost do, my buff?
1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, iv., 15. Mayhaps old buff has left my kinsman here his heir.
1764. Bridges, Homer Travest. (1797), ii., 420. You seem afraid these buffs will flinch.
To buff it, verb. phr. (common) — I. To swear to ; to adhere to a statement hard and fast; to stand firm : also to buff it home.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Diet., 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. See buff, subs. I.
To stand buff, verb. phr. (old). —To stand the brunt ; to pay the piper; to endure without flinching.
c. 1680. Butler, Hudibras' Epitaph. And for the good old cause stood buff 'Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. buff, to stand buff, to stand tightly or resolutely to any thing.
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.

Buffard. 403 Buffer.
1737. Fielding, The Miser, ii., 2. Love. How! rascal, is it you that abandon yourielf 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, xii. 'Stand buff against the reproach of thine over-tender conscience.'
The buffs. See buff Howards.
Phrases :—To say neither buff nor baff (not to say buff to a wolf's shoulder, or to know neither buff nor stye) = to say neither one thing nor another; to know nothing at all.
1542. Udall, Apophth,g. A certaine persone being of hym [Socrates] bidden good speede, saied to him againe neither buffe ne baff [that is, made him no kind of answer]. Neither was Socrates therewith any thing discontented.
Buffard, subs. (old). — A foolish fellow : see buffle.
buff-ball, subs.phr. (vagrants').—See quot. and 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.
buff-coat, subs.phr. (old).—A soldier: Cf. red-coat (B.E. C. 1696).
1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, ii., 170. Schismatical depravity will grow up under the licentiousness of war; some profane buff-coats will authorize such
incendiaries. Hid. ii., 224. 'Tis a buffcoat objection that his Majesty consum'd as much in embassies to settle differences by accord, and did no good, as would have maintain'd a noble war, and made him sure of his demands.
Buffer, subs, (old).—i. A dog. [Considerable obscurity surrounds the origin of this term : for varying forms see quots].
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), 65. Bufe, a dogge. Hid, (1575) bufa.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Buffa, a Dogge.
1673. Head, Eng. Rogue, s.v. bugher.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. bugher, c. a Dog.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), 11. Buffer, a Dog.
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, 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, 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 contemptuously, but generally speaking a familiar address: eg. old buffer.
1749. H. Fitzcotton, Homer, I. (1748), 23. You're a buffer always rear'd in The brutal pleasures of Beargarden.
1760. Old Song, 'Come All You Buffers Gay ' [ The Humourist, 2]. Come all you buffers gay, That rumly do pad the city.

Buffer.
404 Buff Howards.
1837. Barham, /. 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 Versa, xiv. I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you.
1893. MiLLlKEN, 'Arry Ballads, 14. Bald buffers seem fair in the run.
3. (pugilistic).—A boxer; one of the fancy (q.v.).
1819. Moore, Torn Crib's Memorial to Congress, 7. The buffers, both ' Boys of the Holy Ground.' Ibid, 51. Sprightly to the scratch both buffers came.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookzvood, iv. ii. Bold came each buffer to the scratch.
4. (old).—See quots.
1690. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew. Buffer, a Rogue that kills good sound Horses only for their Skins, by running a long Wyre into them, and semetimes knocking them on the Head, for the quicker Dispatch.
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).—A hired false witness; a strawshoes (q.V.).
6. (old).—A pistol.
1824. Sir W. Scott, Red Gauntlet, iii. Here be a pair of buffers will bite as well as bark.
7. (old).—A smuggler ; a rogue ; a cheat.
8. (nautical).—A boatswain's mate: his duty it is—or was—to administer the cat (q.v.).
buffer's-nab, subs. phr. (old cant). —See quot.
c. 1696. B.E, Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. buffers-nab, c. a Dog's Head, used in a Counterfeit Seal to a false Pass.
Buff Howards (The, or The Buffs),
subs. phr. (military).—The Third Regiment of Foot, now the East Kent Regiment ; from its facings and Colonel's name from 1737
to 1749; also the nut-crackers (q.V.); and the resurrectionists
(q.v.), from its reappearing 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 Regiment, raised in 1664, and incorporated into the 2nd or Coldstream Guards in 1689.
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., 232. His father was a captain in the buffs, and himself a commissioned officer at seventeen.
1874. Saturday Review, 95. This regiment [the First or Grenadier Guard-.] has almost the longest record of any in the service, only yielding, we believe, to the ist Royals, and to the 3rd Buffs, which were originally raised for the service of the States-General of Holland.
1886. Tinsley's Mag., 'Our Regimental Mottoes and Nicknames,' April, 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 ils immortal cognomen to the fact of ils having originally been clad in scarlet, lined and faced with buff; its members also had buff waistcoats, buff breeches, and büff stockings. Being the senior

Buße.
405 Bug.
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 blunderer a conceited puppy (q.v): also buefle-head and buff. Hence buffle (or buffleheaded) = stupid _; idiotic; foolish; blundering; conceited.
1580. Beehive of the Romish Churehe, fo. 666. An unlearned buffle did babble.
1635. Comic Hist. Francion, iv., 22. He said to the three buffles who stood with their hats in their hands. Tell me, you Waggs, etc. -»*
1659. Lady Alimony, I., ii., [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt) xiv., 278.] What a drolling buffle-head is this!
1663. Pepys, Diary, March 17. But my Lord Mayor, a talking, bragging,
buffle-heaoed fellow.
1668. Pepys, Diary, Jan. 29. He tells me that Townsend, of the Wardrobe, is the veriest knave and bufflehead that ever he saw.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii. Oliv. You know nothing, you buffleheaded stupid creature you.
1686. D'Urfey, Commonwealth of Women, I., i. A damn'd huffing fellow yonder, a Rebel, Whiggy buffle-head.
1694. Plautus's Comedies made English. Why, you blockhead, you've almost thrown the door off the hinges.
D'ye think our doors are made at the publick charge?—Whit makes you stare so, bufilehead? What's your business, I say? And who are ye?
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. buffle-head, a Foolish Fellow.
1710. Pol. Ballads (i860), II., 90. To see the chief attorney such a buffle.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Diet., 2 ed. buffle-head, an ignoramus, or dull sot.
1883. Baring Gould, John Herring, II., xxv., 273. (Tauchnitz ed.) 'A buffleheaded sort of a chap,' said Joyce.
1887. Dead Man's Rock, I., v. Jonathan's a buffle-head. . .a daft fuie like Jonathan.
Buffle-head and Buffleheaded.
See buffle.
buffo, subs. (old).—A comic actor, singer in comic opera, or burlesque (1764): cf. buffoon.
buffoon (and buffoonery), subs. (B.E.).—' Buffoon, a great man's jester or fool.' 'Buffoonery, jesting, or playing the fool's part.'
Buffs (The). See buff Howards.
buffy, adj. (common).—Intoxicated : see screwed.
1866. Yates, Land at Last, I., 85. Flexor was fine and buffy when he came home last night, after you was gone, sir.
1872. Besant and Rice, R. M. Mortiboy, 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.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue s Lexicon, 124 And where . . . The Chips, the Fawneys, Chatty-feeders, The bugs, the boungs, and well-filled readers.

Bug. 406 Bug.
2. (Old Irish).—An Englishman. [Grose: 'because bugs were introduced into Ireland by Englishmen ! ! ']
3. (American).—A beetle : the term is not confined, as in England, to the domestic pest, but is applied to all insects of the Coleoptera order _; the Cimex lectularius is, in the Southern States, known as the chinch : cf. the Winchester usage of bug = an insect, whether of the Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, or any other order. Hence bug-hunting = entomology; and bug-hunter = an entomologist.
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.
1900. Kipling, Stalky &> Co., 3. i conciliated Hartopp. Told him that you'd read papers to bug-hunters if he let you join, Beetle. Told him you liked butter-flies, Turkey. Anyhow, i soothed the Hartogges, and we're bug-hunters now.'
4. (American). — In various combinations, as big bug (//.v.), a man of wealth or distinction _;cattle-bug = a wealthy stockraiser; gold-bug, a rich man_;fire-bug = an incendiary, etc.
1567. Edwards, Dame: andPithias [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), iv. 72.] [Here it is said a man may seemj a great bug.
1843. Haliburton, Sam Slick in England, xv. The great guns and big bugs have to take in each other's ladies. Ibid, 24. Pick out the big bugs and see what sort of stuff they're made of.
1854. Widow Bedott Papers, 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 hairbrained Sir Robert Peel described some of the big bugs at Moscow has got him into difficulty.
1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, March 5. ' Would Senator Allison's wellknown 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.'
5. (old).—(a) An object 01 terror; a goblin: also bugbear, bugaboo (q.v.) and (provincial) boggy-bo. Bug-words = ugly words; disgusting language. Hence (b), in modern usage bugbear = anything causing fright, annoyance, or even inconvenience.
1544. Ascham, Toxophilus, 61. Which be the very bugges that the Psalme meaneth on, walking in the night and in corners.
1572. Lavaterus de Speetris, 31. Afterwards they tell them, that those which they saw, were bugs, witches, and hags.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, i. 2. Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs. Ibid. (1605) Cymbeline, v. 3. Those that would die or ere resist, are grown The mortal bugs o' the field.
1599. Hall, Satires, iv. Care we for all these bugs of idle fears.

Bug.
407
Bugaboo.
1603. Kvd, Spanish Tragedy [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), iii, 234]. This hand shall hale them down to deepest hell, Where none but furies, bugs, and tortures dwell.
16... Fleming, Nomenclator, 471a. s.v. Lémures. Hobgoblins, or night-walking spirits, black bugs.
i6ii. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Cheval de trompette, one that's not afraid of shadows, one whom no big, nor bugswords can terrifie.'
1687. Sedley, Bellamira. Merry. You are resolved to go to her again ; notwithstanding the damn'd trick she serv'd you with the sea captain, and your noble resolution to the contrary ? I'll see her hang'd first ! No, tho' she beg it a thousand times, and with a thousand tears, I'll n'e'rgo near her ! Keepw. Did I say such bug-words ?
1696. Behn, Younger Brother. Tere. But heark ye, my fellow-adventurer, are you not marry'd? Geo. Marry'd?—that's a bug-word—prithee, if thou hast any such design, keep on thy mask, lest I be tempted to wickedness.
1704. Ward, Hudibras Rediv. ii, v. I tell you, sir, I know your creature; I say, sir, she's a whore, no better. And you're a pimp to vindicate her. At these provoking bugbear words, Amidst the crowd, both drew their swords.
1704. 10. Mathew Henry, Bible, Psalm xci, 5. Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs by night.
d. 1711. Duke, To a Roman Catholic on Marriage. Censure and penances, excommunication, Are bugbear words to fight a bigot nation.
17... Coles, Diet, s.v bugabo. formerly.. .an ugly wide-mouthed picture, carried about at the May games.
Adj. (old).—Proud _; conceited : e.g. ' bug as a lord.'
Verb(o\<$).— I. Among journeymen hatters = to exchange the dear material for that of less value: e.g. when hats were made
of fur and wool with a small portion of beaver's fur to steal the beaver, and substitute an equal weight of some cheaper ingredient.
2. (thieves').—To bribe : bailiffs accepting money to delay service were said to bug the writ.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. bugging, c. taking Money by Bailiffs and Serjeants of the Defendant not to Arrest him.
3. (thieves').—To give; to hand over; to deliver.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Diet. 'He bug'd me a quid.' 'Bug over the rag.'
To take bug, verb. fhr. (old;. —To take offence.
That beats the bugs, fhr. (American).—A high meed of praise; cf. that beats cockfighting.
TO swear by no bugs, verb, fhr. (old).—To swear earnestly {i.e. by no mere empty things) : also to swear by no beggars.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah Sight, 11.,ix., 8. Caligula... bid his horse to supper, gave him wine to drink in cups of estate, set barlygraines of golde before him to eate, and swore by no bugs that lice would make him a Consul.
AS snug AS A bug IN A rug (or blanket), phr. (common).— As snug as may be.
BUGABOO, subs. (old).— I. A sheriff's officer (Grose).
1827. Lytton, Pelham^ xxix. We have done many a mad prank together, which I should not like the bugaboos and bulkies to know.
2. (provincial).—A tally-man.
3. (common).—A weekly creditor: e.g. a landlord's agent or the like.

Bugaroch. 408 Bug-walk.
bugaroch, adj. (Old Irish).—Pretty ; comely ; handsome (Grose).
Bugbear. See bug 5.
Bug-blinder, subs. phr. (trade).—A whitewashes bug-blinding = whitewashing operations.
Bugger, subs. (old).—1. A thief (q.v.) whose speciality is stealing breast-pins from drunken men : also bug hunter (q.v.)'. see bug.
2. (low).—A man; a fellow: coarse abuse without, as a rule, any reference to the legal meaning of sodomite. Fr. bougre (which Littré says is une terme de mépris et d'injure, usité dans le langage populaire le plus trivial et le plus grossier). Applied to a man == bitch (q.v.), applied to women : hence buggery = bloody (q.v.) ;
blasted (q.V.); blamed (q.V.) ;
fucking (q.v.) ; and the usual derivatives.
1562—77. Gascoigne, Fruités of Warre, 128. Yet still the bowgers (Burghers should I saye) Encreast their doubtes and watcht me day by day.
1719. D'Urfey, Pills, I., 59. From every trench the bougers fly.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, i., 23. a buggery fool, why don't he let people go to hell their own way? Ibid, 180. Here mother, give us one of your buggery trotters.
1854. M. Holmes, Tempest and Sun, 203. If I'd known all you city buggers was comin', I'd a kivered my bar feet.
Verb, (common).—To cheat at play.
To bugger up, verb. phr. (common).—To spoil; to disappoint; to nullify: cf. to bitch up: e.g. ' He buggered (or bitched) up all his chances.'
buggy, subs, (old).—A leather bottle.
bugher. See buffer.
Bug-hunter, subs.phr.(ûà&vts').—A thief q.v.) who plunders drunken men, see bugger, sense 1.
1.56. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, 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).
3. See bug, sense 3.
bug-juice, subs. phr. (common).— I. Ginger ale.
2. (American).—The Schlechter whiskey of the PennsylvaniaDutch —a very inferior spirit : also called bug-poison: now applied to bad whiskey of every brand.
18... Osborne (Kansas) Farmer [Bartlett]. We have taken wood, eggs, cabbages, lumber, saur krout, coon-skins, and bug juice on subscriptions in our time, and now a man writes us to know if we would like lo send our paper six months, for a large owl. If we come across any fellow who is out of owl we'll do it.
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. To bugle it, verb. phr. (American cadets').—To abstain from going into class until the last moment—i.e., until the bugle sounds.
bug-walk, subs. phr. (common).— A bed.

Build.
409
Build.
English Synonyms. Bedfordshire; Sheet Alley; Blanket Fair; Fearers Inn ; Land of Nod ; Cloth Market. Also Breeding-cage; Bunk; Cage; Clothmarket; Dab; Doss; Dossing crib ; Downy _; Fleapasture ; Latty ; Letty ; Libb _;Lypken _; Perch ; Rip _; Ruggins ; Shake-down ; Snooze.
French Synonyms. Portfeuille-, boîte a puces (= Flea-pasture); pucier ; tremblant; plumard; halle aux draps (= Cloth-market : cf. Blanket Fair) ; pagne ; panier aux ordures; bâche-, flac-, flacul; fournil.
BUILD, zwv$.(colloquial).—[Murray : Properly to construct 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, a dress, or a piano.)] In the United States, build (like fix, (q.v.) ) 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.
c. 1640. [Shirley], Capt. Underwit [Bullen, Old Plays, ii. 323]. I can teach you to build a sconce, Sir.
d. 1704. T. Brown, Works, ii. 28z. I never parted with any of my favours, nay, not ... a clap gratis, except a lieutenant and ensign . . . once . . . built up a sconce, and left me in the lurch.
1853. Wh. Melville, Digiy Grand, xx. That creator of manly beauty, who builds your coat on the model of an Apollo.
1853. Rev. E. Bradley ('Cuthbert Bede 'j, Verdant Green, I., 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.
1864. Vance, Chickaleary Cove. My downy kicksies... built on a plan werry naughty.
1871, A. Forbes, My Experience of the War, etc., II., 19. I met a gentleman who had got a dress coat built in the place [Versailles].
1880. Punch, Jan. 10, 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." '
Trouser's builder, subs. phr. (American).—A tailor.
To build a chapel, verb.phr. (nautical).—To steer badly, and so cause a ship to veer round.

Build.
Bulge.
Not built that way, phr. (general).—Not to one's taste, out of one's line—a general expression of disapproval or dissent : 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.'
TO build (have, plan Or own) a castle in spain (in the air, the skies, Or to build a castle),
verb. phr. (old).—To indulge in visionary projects or schemes ; to romance : Fr. château en Espagne, en Asie, en Albanie, &c. Hence A castle in Spain (etc.) = a day dream ; air-built = chimerical ; etc.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 2573. Thou shalt make castels thanne in spayne, And dreme of joye, aile but in vayne.
1475. Caxton, Jason, 19. He began to make castellis in spaygne as louers doo.
1575. Gascoigne, Steel Glass [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, ii. 58]. Things are thought, which never yet were wrought, And castels built aboue in lofty skies.
1580. North, Plutarch (1696). 171. They built castles in the air and thought to do great wonders.
1586. T. B., La Primand Fr. Acad.,
ii. 182. Some . . . have their wittes a wool gathering, and as wee use commonly to say, are building of castles in spaine.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur. (159.), 16. In conceite builde castles in the skie.
1594. Shakspeare, Richard III.,
iii. 4. 100. Who builds his hopes in air of his good looks.
1601. Imp. Consid. (1675), 60. Mr. Saunders (building castles in the air amongst his Books).
1611. Cotgrave, Diet., s.v. Faire des chasteaux en Espaigne, to build
castles in the aire (say We).
c. 1630. DRUMMONDof Hawth., Poems, 42.2. Strange castles builded in the
skies.
1621. Burton, Anat Melan., I. m. i. 2. (1651), 187. That castle in the ayr, that crochet, that whimsie.
1727. Pope, Dunciad, iii. 10. The air-built castle and the golden Dream.
'757Wesley, Works (1872), ix. 304. A mere castle in the air.
c. 1763 Shenstone, Odes (1765), 237. To plan frail castles in the skies.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias (1812), vu. x. I was gradually lulled with so much wealth, and fell asleep in the very act of building castles in Spain.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 32. High air-castles cunningly built of Words.
i860. Motley, Netherlands, iv. 282. The explosion of the Gunpowder Plot blowing the castles in Spain into the air.
1871. M. Collins, Marquis and Merchant, 11. vii. 203. We have all had our castles in Spain.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, i. 642. These.. .points.. .were not peculiar to Philo. They were, so to speak, in the air.
bulgarian-atrocities, subs. phr. (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 old 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.

Bulger. 411 Bulky.
1888. Puck's Library, May, 31. '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.
To go or be on a bulge, verb, fhr. (American).—To drink to excess: see screwed.
TO get the bulge on one,
verb. phr. (orig. American mining slang).—To obtain an advantage,
to get the drop on one (q.V.).
1869. S. L. Clemens (' Mark Twain '), Innocents at Home, 18. Well, you've rather got the bulge on me. Or may be we've both got the bulge, somehow.
1885. Household Words, Oct. 10,466. '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 vou 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. As subs. = buster (q.v.).
1835. Crockett, Tour down East, 37. We soon came to New York, and a bulger of a place it is.
Bulk. See bulker.
bulker (or bulk), subs. (old).— i. 'One that lodges all Night on Shopwindows and Bulkheads.' (B.E.) [Bulk = the stall (or window sill) of a shop].
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wördes, s.v., balcone.
2. A low prostitute: lit. one with no settled home who slept on a 'bulk,' a kind of sill projecting from a window: see tart.
1670. Ravenscroft [S. J. and C.]. She must turn bulker (when her cloathes are worn out), at which trade I hope to see you suddenly.
1691. Shadwell, Scowerers, Act i., Sc. i. Every one in a petticoat is thy mistress, from humble bulker to haughty countess.
1690 D'Urfey, Collins Walk, 4. For all your majors scarce will make, Me think what's past for Virtue's sake; Or that this bulker of the town Came only here to rub ye down.
1728. Baily. Bulker, a Common Jilt; a Whore.—Canting term. [In a later edition ^790) he adds 'one who would lay down on a bulk to anyone.']
bulk, subs. (old).—See quots: also bulker: see file and bulker, sense 2.
3. See quots., and file.
1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), II., 108. Bulker occurs in a list of names of thieves.
1674. R. Head, Canting Acad., 35. Bulk and File. The one jostles you, whilst the other picks your pocket.
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 shoplifts in the town.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet Cant Creiu, s.v. Bulk and file, c. one jostles while the other Picks the Pocket.
d. 1704. Brown, Works, iii., 60. In comparison of whom (cheating gamesters) the common bulkers and pickpockets are a very honest society.
1725. New Cant. Diet. 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.
bulky, subs, (provincial).—A police constable.

Bull.
412
Bull.
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, V., ii. Inquiries about your respectability would soon bring the bulkies about me.
1886. Graphic, 30 Jan., 130, 1. In the North a constable is, or was, known as a scufter and a bulky.
Adj. (Winchester College).— I. Rich or generous, or both: the opposite of brum (q.v.).
2. (old: B.E.).—'Strong like common Oyl, also of large bulk or size.'
BULL, suds, (colloquial). — 1. A blunder; a mistake; hence an inconsistent statement; a ludicrous contradiction, often partaking largely of the nature of a pun : the term was current long before the form Irish bull is met with. In French cavalry regiments portez! and remettez! are mock commands given upon the perpetration of a bull.
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?
i6[?l Selden, Table Talk, 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.
1673. Dryden, The Assignation, iii., i. 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.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bull, an absurd contradiction or incongruity.
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, IL, I., 6. With Stale Quibbles, Puns, and bulls.
1841. Lever, Charles O'Malley, 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 xxxix. He was telling the most outrageous of Iri*h stories, and making, on purpose, the most outrageous of Irish bulls.
2. (thieves').—A crown ; 5/: formerley bull's eye (q.v.)'. see rhino.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bull, a crown, or five shillings.
1823. Bee, Diet. Turf, etc., s.v. Nibble. I only nibbled half a bull for my regulars.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, I., 232. List of patterers' words. Bull, a crown.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, xlvi. Four half-bulls, wot you may call halfcrowns.
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, 136, 2. Once found, the Murker' is pretty sure to draw a bull (five shillings), or even a 'counter' (pound).
1901. Referee, 14 Ap., 9., a. I am not versed in the technicalities of the trade, so I don't quite know to what portion of their task such remarks as 'second,' 'five to one,' 'odds on,' 'two non-starters and a third,' 'a deaner each way and all on for the four-thirty,' and 'half a bull out on the day' referred. I strolled along.

Bull.
413
Bull.
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 : the reverse of bear {q.v,) : now more frequently applied to the person who tries to enhance the value of stocks by speculative purchases or otherwise. Also as verb and adjective. Fr. a haussier-, in Berlin liebhaber-, and in Vienna contremine. Hence stale bull = stock held over for a long period with profit.
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. Foots, Devil upon Two Sticks, A mere bull and bear booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent foot bankrupts.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 281. Ye Grecian bulls and Trojan bears.
1774. Coleman, Man of Business, IV., i., 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, iv. The hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produce among the bulls, bears, and brokers of Stock Alley.
1845. Neiu York Tribune, 10 Dec. There was a sauve qui peut movement to-day in the stock-market ; and the clique of bulls, finding it impossible to stem the rush, gave up the attempt to sustain the market, and let things go down with a run. . . . Such a state of the market as is now exhibited is nearly as bad for the bears as the bulls.
i860. Peacock, Gryll Grange, xviii. In Stock Exchange slang, bulls are speculators for a rise, bears for a fall.
1881. Mark Lane Express, Aug. 8, 1085. The speculative movement which has, so far, exerted a bull influence on the maize market.
4. (common).—See quot.
1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, 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.
5. (prison).—Rations of meat: an allusion to its toughness; also generic for meat: Fr. bidoche.
1883. Echo, Jan. 25, 2, 3. Thus from the French 'bouilli' we problably get the prison slang term bull for a ration of meat.
6. (American).—A locomotive:
also bullgine.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, 'On the Wail.' . .. Had just touched a bloke's leather as the bull bellowed for the last time.
7. (Winchester College).—Cold beef, introduced at breakfast about 1873 : see sense 5.
8. (old).—See quot.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet Cant. Crew, s.v. Bull... also false Hair worn (formerly much) by Women.
9. (old).—A bubble.
d. 1602. Nowell, Lit. Serv., 301. This life is as a vapour, as a shadow passing and fleeing away, as a fading flower, as a bull rising on the water.
10. (common). — A brokenwinded horse; a roarer (q.v.).

Bull.
414 Bull-and-coiv.
Verb. (American : Dartmouth College).— I. To recite badly; to make a poor recitation.
2. (venery).—To copulate : see greens and ride : a cow maris appetens is said to be bulled. Hence town-bull = a whoremaster (B.E.).
To take the bull by the horns (or tail), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To meet a difficulty with resolution or courage.
1835. Dana, Two Years, ii. I felt tempted to tell him that I had rather wait till after breakfast; but I knew that I must take the bull bv the horns, and that if I showed any sign of want of spirit or of backwardness, I should be ruined at once.
TO trust one as far as one could fling a bull by the
tail, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To have no confidence whatever.
1853. Reade, Gold, i. Levi. This is not enmity, sir; it is but a matter of profit and loss, trust me. Mea. I'd trust
you as far as I could fling a bull by the tail!
TO bull the cask (or barrel), verb. phr. (nautical).—To pour water into an empty rum cask to keep the wood moist and prevent leakage; the water after some time is intoxicating, and the authorities, not looking with much favour upon wholesale brewing of grog, sometimes use salt water as a déterrant, though even this salt water bull as it is called, has often proved too attractive for seamen; hence to
bull a teapot, coffeepot, etc.;
that is, after the first brew has been exhausted, to add water and make a second brew.
1824. Cochrane, Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and Siberian Tartary, 11$. 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.
1S35. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, xx. Why, Jacob, a bull means putting a quart or two of water into a cask which has had spirits in it.
TO look like bull-beef, verb.
phr. (old).—'To look big and grim' (B.E.).
To show the bull horn, verb. phr. (old).—To make a show of resistance.
HE may bear a bull that hath borne a calf, phr. (old). — After little, big things are possible.
A bull in a china shop, subs, phr. (common). — A simile of reckless destruction.
The bull-lion, subs. phr. (American).—John Bull ; England [a pun on John Bull with an eye on the Lion of England].
1862. New-York Tribune, 1 June. This profuse magnanimous Lion, or Bull lion, [talks| as if it were glory to adore guineas, and shame to be fond of dollars.— As if, bull lion, as he is, he would not give Magna Charta, Milton, Shakspeare, and even Bacon, for the convenience and profit of a single cotton crop.
BULLACE, subs, (old).—A black eye (1659).
BULL-AND-COW, subs.phr. (rhyming). —A row.
1879. Marshall, Pomes, 86. I know they had a rare old bull and-COW one sunny day.

Bull-back. 415 Bull-dance.
Bull-back, adj. phr. Pickaback
(q.v.) (1600).
bull-bait, verb.phr. (? nonce word). —To bully; to hector; to badger.
i860. Dickens, Great Expectations, xviii., 82. 'Which I meantersay,' cried Joe, 'that if you come into my placï bull-baiting and badgering me, come out ! '
bull-beef, subs. phr. (old).—Hard, stringy meat: formerly in general use : now mainly of prison rations.
Also bully-beef.
1579. Gosson, Apol. of the Schoole of Abuse, 64 (Arber). I understand 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, Diogenes Lanthorne, 8 (H. CI. Repr., 1873). How loolces 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), II., 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.
i860. Haliburton ('Sam Slick'), The Season Ticket, x. Which look as cheap as bull-beef at one cent a pound.
1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, 524. To look as big as bull-beef. To look stout and hearty, as if fed on bullbeef. Bull-beef was formerly recommended for making men strong and muscular.
18S8. Ashton, Mod. Street Ballads, 61. For soon he will his trial take, And hard bull-beef be munching.
TO bluster like bull-beef,
verb. phr. (old).—To tear round like mad.
GO, sell yourself for bullbeef ! phr. (old).—Go to the devil !
AS ugly (or as big) as bullbeef, phr. (old).—Uninviting (or as ungainly) as bull-beef; as ugly (or as clumsy) as may be.
Bull-Beggar, subs. phr. (old).—A hobgoblin : hence anything to terrify or disconcert.
1580. Scot, Disc. Witehcraft, 152. And they have so fraid us with bullbeggers, spirits, witches, urchens, elves, etc.—and such other bugs, that we are afraid of our own shadowes.
16... Fleming, Nomenclator, s.v. terriculamentum, A scarebug, a bullbegger, a sight that frayeth, and frighteth.
1612. Shelton, Don Quixote, 190. Look what a troop of hobgoblins oppose themselves against me; look what ugly visages play the bull-beggers with us.
1677. Coles, Lat. Eng. Diet., s.v. Bull-beggar, Larva, terriculamentum.
bull-calf (or -dog), subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull-calf, a great hulkey or clumsy fellow.
bullchin (or bulchin), subs. (old). —i. A bull calf: often in contempt: cf. calf.
2. (old).—See quots.
c. 1696. B.E. Bulchin, subs. A Chubbingly Boy or Lad.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull chin, a fat, chubby child.
bull-dance, subs. phr. (nautical).— A dance in which men only take part: cf. stag-dance, gander
party, hen-party, etc.
1867. Smyth, Sailor's Word Book. Bull-dance. At sea it is performed by men only, when without women. It is sometimes called a stag-dance.
BB

Bull-dog.
416 Bulldose.
1887. Graphic, March 26, 315, 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. phr. (old).—i. 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 bulldogs about me.' ... So saying, he exhibited a very handsome, highly-finished, and richly-mounted pair of pistols.
1867. Smyth, Sailor's Word Book. Bull-dog or muzzled bull-dog, the great gun which stands housed in the officers' ward-room cabin. General term for main-deck guns.
1881. Daily News, Oct. 27, 6, 2. Revolver cartridges of the ordinary bull-dog pattern.
3. (old).—See quot.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Diet. Bulldog, a sugar-loaf.
4. (University).—A proctor's assistant or marshall
1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, I„ x. (1842), 59. Long forgotten stories about proctors bit and bull dogs baffled.
1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, III., 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 hau 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 statutes, such as appearing in the streets after dinner without cap and gown, etc.
1882. F. Anstey, Vice J'ersâ, v. Who should we see coming straight down on us but a Proctor with his bull-bogs (not dogs, you know, but the strongest gyps in the college).
5. (University: obsolete).—A member of Trinity College, Cambridge.
bull-dog blazer, subs. phr. (American).— A revolver: see barker and bull-dog.
bull-dogism, subs.phr. (colloquial). —Tenacity; courage: qualities such are usually associated with bulldogs,
i8[?] Savage, R. Medlicott, Ii., vi. He possessed the element of bull-dogism also.
bulldose, subs. (American). — A severe castigation _; a flogging. As verb. = to thrash ; to intimidate by violent and unlawful means; to bully. [Of Southern political origin : originally the method of an association of negroes formed to insure, by violent and unlawful means, the success of an election; the derivation is almost literal—a bulldose, a flogging with a strip of hide.] Hence bulldoser (q.v.).
1859. Bartlett, Americanisms, s.v. Bulldoze. The origin of this term hps been furnished me by Dr. J. Dickson Burns, of New Orleans. Bulldose originated in Louisiana with the 'Union

Bulldose. 417 Bullet.
Rights Stop' Leagues (Negro), whose enthusiasm on the suffrage question led them to form oath-bound societies, which scrutinized closely the politics of disaffected brethren; and if any Negro were found voting, or was suspected of an intention to vote the Democratic ticket, he was first warned, then flogged, and, if these milder measures failed to convert him to the true faith, shot.
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. Cwas 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.' Ibid. 23 Dec. 'Not to be bulldozed' [Title].
1877. Providence Press. Louisiana, too, was mixed,
And ere they got the matter fixed,
Bulldozing had been introduced,
And many from their homes vamoosed.
1880. Illust. London News, LXXVII., 587, i. 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, 40, 2. To bull-dose a negro in the Southern States means to flog him to death or nearly to death. Ibid. A bull-dose means a large efficient dose of any sort of medicine or punishment.
1887. Cassell's Mag. (Art. on 'Americanisms'). June, 412. To bull-doze is to intimidate, and the word was orginally 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.
BULLDOSER, subs. (American).— 1. A bully _; a braggart _; a swaggerer : cf. bull-dose.
1878. N. American Review, CXXVIL, 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.
2. (common).—A pistol: see bulldog and barker.
1881. Sat Review, July 9, 40, 2. A Californian eull-doser is a pistol which carries a bullet heavy enough to destroy human life with certainty.
BULLET, subs, (venery).—1. In pi. = testes: see cods.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV, ii., 4, 121. I will discharge upon her, sir, with two bullets.
2. (American).—In pi. = aces : see quot.
1890. Leland. [Slang Jargoi. and Cant., s.v. bullets]. In American brag, are aces; sometimes called white aces, in contradistinction to aces made up by holding braggers. The highest hand in the game is three white (or real) aces, the next highest is two bullets and a bragger, which cannot, of course, occur in the same round in which th. ee real aces are held, though another player may hold two other bullets and a bragger at the same time. Hence the expression 'the serene confidence which a Christian feels in the three white aces.'
To give the bullet, verb.phr. (common).—To discharge an employé; to give the bag (q.V.); to sack (q.V.). TO shake the
bullet = to threaten (but not to give actual notice to leave). To
get the bullet = to get notice ; to get the instant bullet = to be discharged upon the spot.
1841. Savage, Diet, 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.

Bullet-head. 418 Bullion State.
1S72. Chamb. Jour., March g, 147. When a fellow gets the bullet from his work, he mostly has a spell at cabdriving.
1SS7. Punch, Sept. 17, 126. I have just got the bullet, Mate—sacked without notice.
Every bullet has its billet. See billet.
1562-77. Gascoigne, Fruités of Warre, 67. Suffiseth this to prooue my theame withall. That every bullet hath a lighting place.
Bullet in mouth, phr. (old). —Ready for action.
Full bullet, phr. (old).— Full size.
Bullet-head, subs.phr. i. A person
with a round head like a bullet. 2. An obstinate, fellow, pig-headed fool, dull silly fellow (B.E.). Hence
BULLET-HEADEDNESS — Stolid
obstinacy.
Bullfinch, subs, (old).—i. A stupid fellow.
16... Jests of George Peele [Nares]. He, after a distracted countenance, and strange words, takes this bulfinch by the wrist, and carried him into the privy, and there willed him to put in his head but while he had written his name and told forty.
2. (hunting).—A high thick hedge ; one difficult to jump or rush through, [Most authorities agree this term = ' bull-ferce,' i.e., a fence capable of preventing cattle from straying.] Hence, as verb. =. to leap a horse through such a fence.
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.
1804. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, 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.
1868. Ouida, Two Flags, iii. Right in front of that Stand was an artificial bullfinch that promised to treat most of the field to a purler, a deep ditch dug and filled with water, with two towering black-thorn fences on either side of it.
i8[?]. C. Kingsley, Life, 11., 56. Sit down in your saddles and race at the brook, then smash at the bullfinch.
1880. The Times, Nov. 2, 4, 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-flesh, subs. phr. (colloquial). —Brag (q.v.) ; swagger (q.v.) (1820).
Bull-head, subs. phr. (old).— i. Hair, curled and frizzled, worn on a woman's forehead (1672).
2. (old).—A fool; a blockhead. BuLL-HEADED=pig-headedly impetuous, blockheaded.
Bullion State (The), subs. phr. (American).—Missouri. [In consequence of the exertions made by its Senator, Mr. Benton, in favour of gold and silver currency, in opposition to banks and a paper currency. The honorable Senator was hence often nicknamed Old Bullion, and the State herepresented theBULLioN state.]
1848. New York Herald, 13 June. Thank God, in my own State, in the bullion state, they did not succeed in depreciating our majority.

Bull-jine. 419 Bull-puncher.
BULL-JINE, subs. phr. (nautical).— A locomotive: see bull.
BULL-MONEY, subs. phr. (venery).— Blackmail : the price of being caught in flagrante delicto with a woman in public.
BULL-NECK. TO tumble A bullneck, verb. phr. (provincial).— To place the hands under the thighs, and the head on the ground between the feet, and tumble over (Halliwell).
BULL-NURSE, subs.phr. (nautical).— See quot.
1885. Graphic, April 4, 326, 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').—I. See quot.
1855. J. k., in Notes and Queries, s.v., 12, 3 Nov., 344. Bullock, a cheat; but as i think, only when cheating at marbles.
2. (Australian). — A countryman, a bushman : cf. bullockpuncher.
3. (old).—A papal brief.
d. 1555. Latimer, Sermons, 11, 378. i send you here a bullock which i did find amongst my bulls, that you may see how closely in the time past the foreign prelates did practise about their prey.
Verb, (old). —To bully; to bounce (q.v.) ; to intimidate. [Query bully.]
171.6. M. Davies, Ath. Brit., I., 272. Upon the evidence of that bullocking Fryer Campanella.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, ii., vi. And then you have charged me with bullocking you into owning the truth.
1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, ii, 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, subs. phr. (printers').—See quot., and token.
1890. Jacobi, [Slang Diet., s.v.]. bullock's heart. This is a term of contempt that pressmen apply to a single 'token,' or order to print, of two hundred and fifty copies only, the lowest paying number in the scale of prices. This expression is due to the circumstance that it is not a 'fat' but a 'lean' job, hence the comparison to a bullock's heart, which, unless suffering from 'fatty degeneration,' is the essence of leanness.
BULLOCK'S-HORN, verb. phr. (rhyming).—To pawn: see pop.
BULLOCKY. See bull-puncher.
BULL-PARTY, subs. phr. (old).—A party of men : cf. bull-dance,
stag-party, hen-tea, etc.
BULL-PUNCHER (BULLOCK-PUNCHER or BULLOCKY), subs.phr. (colonial). —A bullock-driver ; a cow-punch
er(<7.z'.).bullocky,ötfy.=zthickset;
bovine.
1872. C. H. Eden, My Wife and I in Queensland, 49. The bullpuncher, as bullock-drivers are familiarly called.
1873. J. Mathew, Hawking, in Queenslander, Oct. 4. The stockmen, and the bushmen, and the shepherds leave the station, And the hardy bullockpunchers throw aside their occupation.
1889. Cassell's Picturesque Australasia, iv. 143. These teams would comprise from five to six pairs of bullocks each, and were driven by a man euphoniously termed a bull-puncher. Armed with a six-foot thong, fastened to a supple stick seven feet long....
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, Colonial Reformer, xii., 121. By George, Jack, you're a regular bullocky boy.

Bull's-eye. 420 Bull-speaking.
bull's-eye, subs.phr. (schoolboys'). — I. A sweetmeat of which peppermint is an important ingredient. [In allusion to its globular shape and markings.]
1825. Hone, Everyday Bk., I., 51. Hardbake, brandy balls, and bull's-eyes.
1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xv. He had just arranged a master-piece; half-a-dozen of the prettiest children sitting beneath a broken boat,... while the black-bearded sea-kings round were promising them rock and bull's-eyes if they would only sit still like gude maids.
1882. Punch, LXXXII., 83. Dr. Switcher (who had discovered bull's eyes about, and traced them to the original donor).
2. (old).—A five-shilling piece ; a bull (a.v.); see rhino.
c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. bulls-eve, c. a Crown, or Five shilling Piece.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), 11. Bull's-eye, a Crown.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull's-eye, a crown piece.
3. (common).—A policeman's lantern.
1856. C. Kingsley, Letter, May. We don't see but half the bull's-eye yet, and don't see at all the policeman which is a-going on his beat behind the bull's eye.
4. (old).—A small and thick old-fashioned watch; a turnip (q.v.).
bull's-eye villas, subs. phr. (military).—The small open tents used by Volunteers at the annual gathering.
Bull's Feather (or Horn). To
give (or get) the bull's feather (or horn), verb. phr. (old).—To cuckold or be cuckolded : cf. acteon: also to stick a bull's
feather.in one's cap: see horn. Fr. plumes de bœuf. Hence knight of the bull's-feather = a cuckold.
1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado about Nothing, v., 1. But when shall we see the savage bull's horns on the sensible Benedict's head.
1660. Merry Drollery, 264. The bull's feather (Title). Ibid. Dye had I rather, Than to be cornuted and wear a bull's feather.
1662. Wilson, The Cheats, v., 2. How ? Stick a bull's feather in my cap! Make me a knight of the Forked Order! Ibid. iv. 1.
1664. Cotton, Works (1734), 234. And this same huffing Ironside Stuck a bull's feather in his cap.
1748. Richardson, CI. Harlowe, v., 295. A good whimsical instrument, take it altogether! But what, thinkest thou, are the arms to this matrimonial harbinger? . . . Three crooked horns, smartly 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's-head, subs. phr. (Scots).— A signal of condemnation, and prelude of immediate execution, said to have been actually used in Scotland (Jamieson).
bull's-noon, subs. phr. (common). —Midnight (1839).
bull-speaking, subs. phr. (old).— Boasting language (Nares).
16.. Brome, Northern Lass. Luc. He is doubtful, but yet he is sure
he knows him. What a bulfinch is this! Sure 'tis his
language they call bull-speaking.

Bull-trap. 421 Bully.
BULL-TRAP, subs. phr. (American thieves').—A thief (q.v.) shamming constable.
BULL-WEEK, subs. phr. (provincial). —The week before Christmas, when work-people at Sheffield, allow themselves scarcely any rest, and earn more than usual to prepare for the rest and enjoyment of Christmas: see calf, cow,
and bull week.
BULLWORKS, subs.phr. (provincial). —Boisterous behaviour (Halliwell).
BULLY, subs. (old).— 1. A prostitute's man; a fancy man (q.v.): also bully-back (or buck) and bullyboss (q.v.).
1626. Amherst, Terra Fil., xxxiii., 179. They have spirtual bravves on their side, and old lecherous bully-backs to revenge their cause.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew, s.v. Bully, c. a supposed Husband to a Bawd, or Whore; also a huffing Fellow. Ibid. s.v. bully buff, c. a poor sorry Rogue that haunts Bawdy-houses, and pretends to get Money out of Gentlemen and others, ratling and swearing the Whore is his Wife, calling to his assistance a parcel of Hectors.
1706. Defoe, Jure Divino, i., 8. Mars the celestial bully they adore, And Venus for an everlasting whore.
1720. Gay, Polly, ii., 7. Jimmy; Sure never was such insolence! how could you leave me with this bawdyhouse 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, xx. The lady was only a woman of the town, and the fellow her bully and a sharper.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 216. As to that copper-nosed rabscallion, Venus's bully-back and stallion.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. bully-back. 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.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias, [Routledge]. 147. Women of light character ...play the comedy of love in many masks,.., as they fall in with the quiz, the coxcomb, or the bully.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 4. When I civilly axed her, how she could think of getting drunk, and acting so, she called her bullies here.
1883. A. Dobson, Fielding, 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 mellay at football; the Rugby scrimmage (q.v.)-, the Winchester hot (q.v.).
1864. Eton School Days, 23 223. He possessed good wind, and was a very good 'kick-off,' and he could bully a ball as well as any one. He was a little too heavy for ' flying-man,* but he made a decent 'sidepost,' and now and then he officiated as 'corner.'
3. (nautical).—An endearment : originally of either sex (=: sweetheart, darling) _; now of men only
= a pal (q.V.) ; a mate (q.V.).
Hence (Halliwell) a familiar term of address, as bully Jack, bully Bob, etc., formerly in very common use, and not quite obsolete in the provinces, where butty is perhaps now more generally heard.

Bully. 422 Bully.
1590, Play of Sir Thomas More, [Shakspeare Soc], 19. [We have bullie used as an endearing phrase].
1592. Shakspeare,Mid. Sum. Night's Dream, iii., 1. What sayst thou bully Bottom ? Ibid, iv. 2. O sweet bully Bottom.
c. 1600. Merry Devil of Edmonton, iv., i. Mine host, my bully, my precious consul.
4. (American thieves'). — A weapon formed by tying a stone or a piece of lead in a handkerchief, and used knuckleduster fashion.
5. (common).—A bravo ; a
hector (q.V.); a swashbuckler
(q.v.) ; spec, a tyrannical coward : see sense 1.
1684. Dryden, The Disappointment. 'Prologue.' The doughty bullies enter bloody drunk, Invade and grubble one another's punk.
1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia I. in Wks. (1720), iv. 27. He came out of White Fryers: he's some Alsatian bully.
c. 1696. B. E., Diet. Cant Crew, s.v. Bully, a huffing Fellow.
1657-1733. John Dennis, Letters, ii., 407. Shadwell is of opinion, that your bully, with his box and his false dice, is an honester fellow.. . .
1772. Bridges, Homer, 2. Some men were knaves, and some were bullies.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xvii. You shall sink a robleman in the Temp'e Gardens, and rise an Alsatian at Whitefriars. . . . An extravagantly long rapier and poinard marked the true Alsatian bully.
1885. Chamb. Journal, 28 Feb., 136. He is a ramper and bully to a couple of outside betting-men.
Adj. (orig. American : now common).—Fine _; capital ; crack (q.v.); spiff (q.v.): see fizzing. Hence that's bully for you,
phr. (American).—That's O.K. ; it's just as it should be: during the Civil War the phrase had a remarkably popular run.
1681. Chetham, Anglers' Vade Mecum (1689), Pref. From such bully fishers this book expects no other reception.
17.. Swift, City Shower. Those bully [heroic] Greeks, who, as the moderns do, Instead of paying chairmen, run them thro'.
1846. Carlton, Home Ballads, 86. You're doin' the politics bully, as all our family agree; Just keep your old goose quill a-floppin, and give 'em a good one for me.
1855. Cairo City Times. The bully steamboat 'Crystal Palace' pas-ed up to St. Louis on Monday. We have no doubt she left papers.
i8[?] Poem on American Affairs [Bartlett]. So he sent not a vessel across the broad sea, Vich vas hawful 'ard times for poor Jefferson D., And wrote unto Doodle, 'Hold on, and be true ! ' And Jonathan answered Bull,
'bully for you.'
1872. Clemens, ['Mark Twain'] Roughing It, 333. I don't want no better friend than Buck Fanshaw. . . . Take him all round, pard, there never was a bullier man in the mines. . . . No man ever know'd Buck to go back on a friend.
i8[?] Boatman's Song [Bartlett]. Now is the time for a bully trip, So shake her up and let her rip.
i8[?] Shanley, The Brier-wood Pipe. Ha! Bully for me again, when my turn
for picket is over; And now for a smoke, as I lie, with the
moonlight in the clover.
1870. Meade, New Zealand, 331. The roof fell in, there was a bully blaze.
1873. Justin McCarthy, Fair Saxon, xix. 'Darling boy! I had thought of this already.' ' Bully for you, mamma ! Of course you did.'

Bully-back. 423 Bullyrag.
1875. N. Amer. Review, CXX., 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!'
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 178. The/ go around with a sign hanging out, 'I'm out of sorts this morning,' or 'I'm just feeling bully—got my deal through.'
Bully boy (or bully boy
with the glass eye), subs.phr.
(American).—A good fellow.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering,xxxiv. 'Well said, my hearty captain!¹ 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, viii. And you, Mr. Frank Osbaldistone, are not the first bully-boy that has said stand to a true mn.
1869. S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain). Innocents at Home, 20. You ought to seen him get started once. He was a bully boy with a glass eye.
To bully up, verb. phr. (Uppingham School).—To hurry up: mostly in the imperative.
Bully-back (or buck). See bully.
bully-beef, subs. phr. (military).— Tinned meat; iron ration (q.v.)'. also (navy) = boiled salt beef.
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, 6, 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. phr. (American). —The landlord of a brothel, or thieves' den.
Bully-buck. See bully.
Bully-cock, subs. phr. (old).—i. See quot.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bully-cock, one who foments quarrels in order to rob the persons quarrelling.
2. See billy-cock.
Bully-huff. See bully.
Bullyrag (or Ballyrag), verb, (colloquial).—To revile; to abuse; to scold in vulgar or obscene language; also to swindle by means of intimidation: also ballyragging.
1760. T. Warton, Oxford N'ewsman'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, 36. He bullyragged me.
1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, 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.

Bully-rook. 424 Bum.
1876. S. Clemens (Mark Twain), Tom Sawyer, 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. 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.'
1S80. Jas. Greenwood, Maids in Waiting, (in Odd People in Odd Places), 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 goodnature tempted me to.
1882. Daily Telegraph, Oct. 19, 3, i. And you should have heard the bully-ragging I got, ma'am, from the mistress and the master as well.
1884. J as. Payn, Talk of the Town, v. He had never been bally-ragged in his own house for 'nothing'—except by his wife—before.
Bully-rook (or Bully-rock), subs, phr. (old).—Originally a booncompanion; later, however = a swaggerer, a bully, a bravo.
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, i., 3. Why says my bullyrook ?
1633. Shirley, Wit tie Faire One, iii., 4. Such in the spirit of sack, till we be delphic, and prophesy, my bullyrook.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bully-rock, c, a Hector, or Bravo.
1697. Praise of Yorkshire Ale. My bully-rocks, I've been experienced long In most of Liquors.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Diet. (2 ed.). Bully, or bully-rock, i. a boisterous, hectoring fellow.
Bully-ruffian, subs. phr. (old).— a footpad, or highwayman, who, robbed with menace.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bully-ruffins, c. Highway-men, or Padders.
Bully-sop, subs. phr. (B.E.),—'a maggot-pated, huffing, silly tatling fellow.'
Bully-trap, subs. phr. (old).—i. 'A sharper or cheat' (B.E.); (2) ' a man who, though of mild outside demeanour, is a match for any ruffian who may attack him.' Quoted by Grose (1785).
bulrush, subs. (old).—A slender person; a lampost (ç.v.): also a simile of delusive strength.
1614. Terence in English. These therefore they diet, albeit that the nature of the gyrles is to be ful and fatte; neverthelesse by this, their diligent dressing and trimming of them, they make them as small as a bulrush; and hereupon it falls out that young men are enamoured of them.
TO seek a knot in a bulrush, verb. phr. (old).—To cavil ; to find difficulties where there are none: also (in sarcasm) to take
away every knot in a bulrush.
bum, subs, (vulgar).— i. The posteriors; or (Jamieson) 'the part on which we sit.' Murray: 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 onamatopoetic. Also bumkin. Hence to toe one's bum =: to put or ' chuck ' out ; to show the door to: also to hoof one's bum.
1387. Trevisa, Higden Rolls, 6, 357. It semeth that his bom is oute that hath that euel [feus, i.e., piles].

Bum.
425 Bum-Bailiff.
1592. Shakspeare, Mids. Night's Dream, ii., 1, 51. The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; Then slip I from her bum, down topples she.
1600. Dekker, Shoemakers 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, i., 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.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Bum... one's Breech.
1706. Ward, Hud. Redivivus, vi., 10. Thought I, for all your pulpit-drumming, Had you no Hose to hide your bum in.
1729. Swift, Intelligencer, 8, 83 (2 ed.). And first his bum you see him clap Upon the Queen of Sheba's lap.
1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistress, 18. All, but the wight of bum y-galled, he Abhors both bench, and stool, and fourni, and chair.
1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, i., in Wks. (1809) i., 12. That lazy bum-delighting thing, Ridly, the Chancellor.
Verb, (venery).—(a) To copulate : see greens and ride ; (b)
to bugger (q.V.). Also to go bum-fighting, bum-working, bum-tickling or bum-faking ; to do (or have) a bit of bum (or bum-dancing) ; to bum-board, and to bum-fiddle.
2. See bum-bailiff (or-baillie).
3. (public schools').—A birching ; a hiding (q.V.) ; a tanning (q.V.).
Verb. See bum-bailiff.
Cherry bums subs, (military). —The nth Hussars: the obvious reference is to the scarlet trowsers: a similar nickname is given to the French Chasseurs—Oils rouges.
TO say neither ba nor bum, subs. fhr. (old).—To say not a word.
Bum-bags (or Bum-curtain), subs, phr. (common). — Trowsers : see
kicks.
Bum Bailiff (Bum Baily, or Bummy bum), subs. phr. (old).—A bailiff or sheriff's officer. As verb. — to arrest.
1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, iii., 4. Sir Jo. Go, Sir Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the orchard like a bum-baily.
1628. H. Shirley, Martyrd Souldier, v. I was first a Varlet, then a bumbaily, now an under Jailor.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, I., i., 393. It had appeared with courage bolder, Then Sergeant Bum, invading shoulder.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. bum, a Bailiff, or Serjeant.
1698-1700. Ward, London Spy, vu., 153. The Vermin of the Law, the bum, Who gladly kept his distance, Does safely now in Triumph come.
1761. Dr. Hawkesworth, Edgar and Emmeline, ii., i. By the heavens! she has the gripe of a bum-bailiff.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xvii. We are in right opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, Serjeant and tipstaff, catch-poll and bum-bailey.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, in., i. Juggings has got his rent to pay, and is afeard of the bums.

Bum bard.
426 Bumble-puppy.
1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, xxxii. You know the state we were in all the summer; Gerald next to penniless, and going about in fear of the
bum-bailies.
bumbard. See bum, verb. bum-bass, subs.phr. (old).—.SV<?quot.
1809. S. Pegge, Anonyniiana, 415. 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.
bumbaste, verb, (old).—I. To flog: spec, on the bum (q.v.).
1571. Edwards, Damon andPithias [Dodsle/, Otd Plays (Reed) i. 209]. I shall bumbaste you, you mocking knave.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark All, 40 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). The muggill will tip you fat scraps and glorious bits, the Beadle will well bumbast you.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. bumbaste, to Beat much, or hard, on the Breech.
2. (venery).—To copulate : see greens, and ride.
bum-beating, subs. phr. (old).— Jostling; pushing others off the pavement (1616).
bumbee, subs.(old).—A bailiff (1653).
bum-blade, subs.phr. (old).—A large sword (1632).
bumble, subs, (common).— I. A beadle. [The name of the beadle in Dicken.,' Oliver Twist.] Hence bumble-crew (q.v.) and bumbledom (q.v.).
1883. Punch, August 4, 51, 1. A helpless 'nuisance' shunned by the Inspector, Ignored by bumbles and by Boards of Works.
2. (old: B.E.).—'Cloaths setting in a heap, or ruck.'
3. (common).—A shade for the eye of a horse given to shy in harness : cf. blinkers.
bumble-crew, subs. phr. (popular). Corporations, vestries, and other official bodies.
Bumbledom, subs, (popular).—The w^Torld of collective petty officialism ; red tape fussiness and pomposity.
1856. Saturday Review, II., 12, 1. The collective bumbledom of Westminster.
1884. Daily News, Dec. 27, 6, 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-bath (or broth), subs. phr. (old).—A mess; a pickle (q.v) ; a confusion ; as adj. = clumsy ( 1595).
[?]. 77»* Unluckie Firmentie [Halliwell] The olde woman to her p-yne In such a bumble-broth had layne.
bumble-foot, subs. phr. (common). —A thick heavy foot ; a club-foot.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xii. She died mostly along of Mr. Malone's bumble-foot, I fancy. Him and old Biddy were both drunk, a fighting on the stairs, and she was a step below he; and he being drunk and bumble footed too, lost his balance, and down they came together.
bumble-puppy, subs.phr. (common). — I. Family whist, i.e., 'unscientific'whist. Also (2) = nineholes, a game played 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 bagatelletable; 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-inmadame.

Bumbler. 427 Bum-creeper.
1886. Daily News, Dec. 25, 5, 2. Christmas cards, and mince-pies, and another helping of turkey, and family whist, or bumble puppy.
bumbler, subs. (old).—i. An idle fellow.
2. (old).—A blunderer.
3. (provincial).—A Tyneside artillery-rnan.
bumble-staff, subs. phr. (common). —A thick staff ; a cudgel.
bumbo, subs. (West Indian).— 1. The female pudendum: a negro term: see monosyllable.
2. (old).—A liquor, composed of rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg (Smollett); brandy, water, and sugar (Grose).
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xxxiv; Who were making merry in the wardroom, round a table well stored with bumbo and wine.
1756. Diary of aSussex Tradesman, in Sussex Arch. Coll., IX., 188, quoted in N. and Q., 7, i., 194. 1756, April 28. We drank one bowl of punch and two muggs of bumboo.
1882. Northumbrian Minstrelsy, etc., 113, quoted in N. and Q., 7, i., 195. The pitmen and the keelmen trim, They drink bumbo made of gin.
bum-boat, subs. phr. (nautical).— A boat attending ships on their coming into harbour, to retail greens, spirits, etc.
bum-brusher, subs. phr. (schoolboys').—A schoolmaster; also an usher. Hence to brush the bum = to flog.
English Synonyms. Flay-bottom ; haberdasher of pronouns.
French Synonyms. Marchand de soupe-, chien de cour-, fouette-cul.
d. 1742. Somewille, Fables, xiv. His bum was often brushed, you'll say.
1704. T. Brown, Wks. (1760) 11., 86. [Dionysius] was forced to turn bumbrusher.
1788. New London Magazine, 137. A successor was immediately called from that great nursery of bum-brushers, Appleby School.
1832. Blackwood's Mag., Oct., 426. To protract existence ... in the shape of bum-brushers, and so forth, after the fashion of the exalted emigres of 1792?
1838. Comic Almanac, Dec. [Schoolmaster's Letter signed] Barnabas Bom
brush.
Bum-card, subs. phr. (old). — A marked playing card.
1577. Northbrook, Treat, against Dicing. Eyther by pricking of a carde, or pinching of it, cutting at the nicke; eyther by a bumbe carde finely under, over, or in the middes, etc., and what not to deceyve?
1608. Rowland, Humour's Ordinarie. To those exployts he ever stands prepar'd ; A villaine excellent at a bumcard.
Bum-charter, subs.phr. (thieves'). —See quot.
1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. Bumcharter 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.
bumclinck, subs, (provincial).—The inferior beer brewed in the Midland counties for haymakers and harvest labourers; swipes (q.v.).
Bum-court, subs. phr. (old).—The Eccleciastical Court (1544)
Bum-creeper, subs. phr. (common). —One who walks bent almost double.

Bum-curtain. 428 Bummaree.
bum-curtain, subs.phr. (Cambridge Univ.).— I. An academical gown: worn scant and short, and especially applied to the short black gown worn till 1835 by members of Caius College : cf. bum
perisher.
¹%35(Quoted in Whibley's Three Centuries of Cambridge Wit [1889].) 'Tis the College of Caius—'tis the land •where the 'bum curtain' lately was spoiled by each jolly chum.
2. Trowsers : see kicks.
bum-dagger, subs. phr. (old).—A large dagger formerly worn at the side, as bayonets were later.
1636. Sampson, Vow Breaker. Two thousand hardy Scots, with glaved blades, bum-daggers, and white kerchers, such as will fight and face the fiery French.
bumf, subs, (schoolboys').—Paper; ammunition (q.V.); toilet-paper (q.V.); curl-papers (q.V.).
Bumfeague (Bumfeagle, Bumfeg),
verb. (old).—To flog; to thrash
(1589).
bumfhunt, subs. (Wellington College).—A paper-chase: see bumf.
bum-fiddle, subs. phr. (old).—The posteriors : see bum.
1709. Ward, Clubs. (1756). 14. To keep their laxative bumfiddles from dishonouring their sheets.
Verb, (venery).—To copulate: also bumfiddledumdick : see
greens, and ride. bumfiddled = (1) deflowered ; (2) = pregnant.
1620. Fletcher, The Chances, I., v. And am I now bum-fiddled with a bastard ?
bum-fidget, subs. phr. (old).—A restless individual.
bumfighting, subs, (venery).—Copulation : see greens, and ride. Hence bum-fighter = a whoremaster.
1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii. *Hey! for Richmond Call'! Fortune-biters, Hags, bum-fighters, Nymphs of the Woods, And stale City goods.
bum-fodder, subs. phr. (old).—I. Low class literature; a bloodand-thunder (q.v.) stuff ; a halfpenny rag (q.v.): once in literary uie.
1753. Scots' Magazine, April, 208, i (title). Bum fodder for the ladies.
2. (low).—Sanitary paper: see
bumf.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I., xiii. Torche-culs, arsewisps, bum fodders.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. bumfodder, what serves to wipe the tail.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bum fodder, soft paper for the necessary house, or torche-cul.
bum-jerker, subs. phr. (common).— A schoolmaster : jwbum-brusher.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas[RouTLKDGE], 75. Each scholar. .. went humbly to receive a book from the hands of the bumjerker.
bumkin. See bumpkin.
bum-leaf, subs.phr. (old).—See quot.
1611. Cotgrave, Diet., 89. At each bum leaf, or high inch of paper seven leaves distant [in a book].
Bummaree, subs, (common). — A Billingsgate middle-man. These men, who are not recognised by the trade, are speculative buyers of fish. Hence, to bummaree it = to speculate in fish.

Bummed. 429
Bummer.
1660. Public Intelligencer, 25 June, 17. Touching advice from the office, you are desired to give and take notice as followeth:— Of monies to be taken up, or delivered on botto-maria, commonly called BOMARiE. Of money to be put out or taken upon interest, etc.
1786. ReJort of Committee of City of Lo/idon on Price of Provisions, 31. The bomarees will buy up half the f sh the Salesmen have, and sell to the fishmongers.
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.
185g. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 4 a.m., 17. Anyone can be a bum? \ree. .. 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 swinging profit.
185g. Hotten, Slang Diet., s.v. bummarees. The bummarees are accused of many trade tricks. One of them is to blow up codfish with a pipe until they look double their actual size. Of course when the fish come to table they are flabby, sunken, and half dwindled away. In Norwich, to bummaree one is to run up a score at a public-house just open, and is equivalent to running into debt with one.
bummed, (i^'.(common).— 1. Drunk : see screwed (Piers Plozuman).
2. (old). — Arrested. Also (modern) =2 served with a countycourt summons : see bum-bailiff.
Bummer, subs, (old).—i. A bum
bailiff (q.V.).
2. (turf).—A heavy loss ; a severe pecuniary reverse.
3. (American).—An idler; a
loafer (q,V.) ; 3. sponger (q.V.) ; a
looter (q.v.) (see quots). [German Bf.mmler, of somewhat similar meaning, but used good naturedly, and without the offensive meaning
of the American equivalent.] The term came into general use during the Civil War, and was specially applied to a straggler, hangeron, or free-lance, particularity in connection with General Sherman's famous march from Atlanta to the sea : now a general reproach :
cf. rascal, blackleg, etc.:
also see heeler, striker,stuffer, and practical politician. Hence bummerism = loafing, petty pilfering, and bummerism (adj.).
ca. 1865. Major Nichols, Sherman's Great March. Look hyar, Captain, we bummers ain't so bad after all.
1870. Philadelphia Press, 5 Jan. Bummerism. If Deputy Sheriffs might attend without scandal, if beautiful bummerism, feminine and fair etc.
1872. S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain), Roughing It, xxiv. The auctioneer stormed up and down... and never got a bid— at least never any but the eighteen-dollar one he hired a notoriously substanceless fummer to make.
1872. Sacramento Weekly Union, Feb. 24, 2. All the boys to be trained as scriveners, tape-measurers, counterhoppers, clerks,pettifoggers, polite loafers, street-hounds, hoodlums, and bummers.
1874. N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, g Sept. So long as substantial citizens choose to leave po'itics to shoulder-hitters, rum-sellers and bummers of every degree, so long will they be robbed at every turn.
1875. Scribner's Magazine, 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.
1C75. A^Tew York Herald, 'Letter to Gov. of Tennessee.' We thought that the war would thereby sooner come to an end, with less destruction of life... and reduce the number of army followers, bummers, etc. who were the curse of all armed invasions. Ibid, 2 May. The army bummer is usually a ' General ' who has been in the Quartermaster's or Commissary Department, and whose rank represents influence about the War Office.

Bumming.
430 Bumper.
1877. Boston, Herald, 8 April. A bill is before the Legislature of Illinois, with a view to control the operations of the bummer element in the primary meetings of political parties.
1877. W. Black, Green Past, and Pice., xiii. Then the great crowd of bummers and loafers, not finding the soil teeming with nuggets, stampeded off like a herd of buffalo.
1888. Denver Republican, 29 Feb. The heelers and strikers, bummers and stuffers, otherwise known as practical politicians, who do the work at the Democratic polls, and manipulate the primaries and local conventions.
1887. Morley Roberts, The Western Avernus. Some of the boys said it was a regular hand-out, and that we looked like a crowd of old bummers.
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. Ten per cent earn excellent wages, and twenty per cent, are chronic bums, who beg or steal the price of their lodgings.
BUMMING, subs. (Wellington College). A thrashing _; a licking (q.v.) : see bum, bum-bailiff and bummer.
BUMP, subs. (Oxford University).— I. When one boat touches another in a race it is said to make a bump, and technically to beat its opponent: see bumping race.
1865. Sketches from Cambridge, 7. I can still condescend to give our boat a stout when it makes a bump.
i860. Macmillnn's Magazine, March, 331. The chances of St. Ambrose's making a bump the first night were weighed.
Verb. (University).— I. To overtake and touch an opposing boat, thus winning the heat or race (figuratively used in quot. 1897).
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, 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 milkpunch.
1885. Daily A'e-ws, March, 13, 5, 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.
1886-7. Dickens, Dictionary of Cambridge, 11. Any boat which overtakes and bumps another . . . before the winning post is reached, changes place with it for the next race.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 63. Little thinking that on such a course he'd end by being bumped.
1899. Whiteing, John St., xi. The Eights have come out at Oxford, and my old college has been bumped to the general consternation—even of the victors.
2. (venery).—To copulate: see greens, and ride.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 188. Faith, it odd is. For mortal to bump a goddess... Yeh... I'll try if I ca'nt get a stroke [and make] the light-heeled gipsy grin.
Now she bumps,///r. (common). —An expression of satisfaction. That's O.K.! Things will go now ! Now, we shan't be long !
BUMPER, subs, (old and still colloquial).—I. A full glass (B.E.): e.g. 'bumpers round, and no heeltaps' (q.V.).
1703. English Spy, 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps, or sport, in term and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their bulldogs—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.

Bum-perisher. 431
Bumpsie.
1795. Gent. Mag., 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ' *r ir, I'll buzz you: come, no heel-taps!'
1796. Reynolds, Fortune's Fool, iv. Let's steer to the club, and drink Juliana's health in a thousand bumpers.
1888. Puck's Library, Apr., 20. Come old boy, let's brace up; a bumper will pull you together again.
2. (common),—Anything superlative: a big lie, thorou^bred horse, large house, or fine woman : see whopper.
3. (theatrical). — A full or crowded house.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, xxiv., 192. In the confidence that our fellowtowsmen have not lost that high appreciation of public utility and private worth, for which they have long been so preeminently distinguished, we predict that this charming actress will be greeted with a bumper.
4. (cards'h—When, in long whist, one side has scored eight before the other has scored a point, a bumper is the result.
'bum-perisher (or bum-shaver),subs, phr. (common).—A short-tailed coat; a jacket: cf. bum-curtain.
•bumping, adj. (common).—Large. Also as subs. = a mode of punishment in schools.
sumping-race, subs. phr. (Oxford University). — Eight-oared intercollegiate 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 (te., touches it in any part) before the winning post is reached, changes place with it for the next race: see bump.
Bumpkin (or Bumkin), subs, (old).— i. The posteriors: see bum.
1658. [In Nares] Wit Restored. And so I take my leave; prithee, sweet Thumkin, Hold up thy coats, that I may kisse thy bumkin.
2. (common).—A countryman _;a loutish fellow ; a clodhopper {q.v.).
1692. Dryden, Juvenal, iii. The country bumpkin the same livery wears.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet Cant. Crew., s.v. bumpkin, a country fellow or clown.
1705. Ward, Works (ed. 1717), ii., 3. When ready we adjourned to an Alehouse..., And there I uiade the bumkin fuddle Till muddy ale had seized his noddle.
1796. Holman, Abroad and at Home, i., i. Old Tesiy's stupid bumpkin of a son is to be introduced to you this morning.
1819. Chas. Lamb, Letter to Mr. Manning. I hate the joskins, a name for Hertfordshire bumpkins.
1861. Reade, CloUter and Hearth, lv. What with my crippledom and thy piety, a wheeling of thy poor old dad, we'll bleed the bumpkins of a dacha-saltee.
bumpology, subs, (common). — Phrenology. Bumposopher = a phrenologist.
bumpsie (or bumpsy), adj. (old).— Drunk: see screwed.
1611. Tarleton's Jests [Halliwell]. Tarlton being one Sunday at court all day, caused a paire of oares to tend him, who at night called on him to be gone. Tarlton, being a carousing, drunk so long to the watermen, that one of them was bumpsie; and so, indeede, were all three for the most part.
cc

Bump-supper. 432 Bum-troth.
Bump-supper, subs. phr. (Oxford 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 : see bumping race.
bumptious, adj. (colloquial).—Arrogant; self-sufficient; on good terms with oneself. [Murray : a formation from bump on the model of ' fractious.'] Hence bumptiousness = self-assertiveness ; arrogance ; self-conceit.
1803. Mad. D'Arblay, Diary and Letters, vi., 324. No, my dearest Padre, bumptious ! no, I deny the charge in toto.
1849. Dickens, D Copperfield, vi., 53 (CD.). 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.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, iv, xii. 'She was always... what I calls gumptious'
' I never heard that word before,' said the Parson..." bumptious, indeed, though I believe it is not in the dictionary, has crept into familiar parlance, especially amongst young folks at school and college.'
' Bumptious is bumptious, and gumptious is gumptious,' said the landlord.
1865. Sala, Trip to Barbary, 150. Poor Albert Smith, than whom, with all his occasional bumptiousness, an honester and more clear-sighted hater of snobbery and shams never lived.
1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, xiii. It was all very well... having things pretty much as he liked. So long, he was bumptious enough.
BUM-roll, suh. phr. (old).—A pad or cushion worn by women to extend the dress at the back _; the equivalent of the modern bustle, or dress-improver : also cork rumps {q.v.), but 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), XL, 460. Those worthies [of a bawd] rais'd her from the flat petticoat and kercher, to the gorget and bum-roll.
1824. Nares, Glossary, s.v. bumrolls. Stuffed cushions, used by women of middling rank, to make their petticoats swell out, in lieu of the farthingales, which were more expensive.
bum-shop, subs. phr. (venery).—I. The female pudendum: see monosyllable. Hence (2) a brothel: see nanny-shop.
Bum-squabbled, adj. (American).— Discomfitted ; defeated ; stupified.
1835-40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 251 (ed. 1862). Gave the case in our favour in two twos... and made him pay all costs. If he didn't look bumsquabbled it's a pity.
Bum-sucker, subs. phr. (common). —A sponger; a toady (qv.); a
lick-spittle (q.V.); a hangeron (q.v.): Fr. lèche-cul.
bum-trap, subs. phr. (old). — a bailiff: see bum-bailiff.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, VIL, iii. The noble bum-trap, blind and deaf to every circumstance of distress... into the hands of the jailor resolves to deliver his miserable prey.
bum-troth (or -lady), phr. (old). — By my troth. Bum-ladie = by my lady.
1571. Edwards, Damon and Pithias [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), i., 211J. No, bum troth, gond man Grumbe, his name is Stephano. Ibid, 220. Bum tkotii, but few such roystevs come to my yeares at this day.

Bun.
433 Bunch-of-fives.
1578. Whelstone, Promos and Cassandra, iv, 7. Nay, dum-ladie, I will not by St. Anne.
BUN, subs. (American).—I. A parasite ; a SPONGER {q.V.).
2. (venery).—The female pudendum: see monosyllable.
3. (common).—A knob of hair worn at the back of the head : modish in the late Eighties, following the more elaborate and cumbrous chignon.
4. (old).—An endearment (i 587).
5. See bonny.
To take (or yank) the bun, verb. phr. (common).—To take first place ; to obtain first honours a variant of take THE cake (q.v.) : Fr. décrocher la timballe,
1901. Troddles, 96. 'I think this takes the bun,' observed Murray frankly.
BUNCE, bunse or bunt, subs. (old). — Originally money: see rhino ; but more generally, profit, gain, anything to the good: see quot, 1851. Hence buncer = one who sells on commission.
1719. D'Urfey, Pills, 278. If cards come no better. Oh ! oh ! I shall lose all my buns.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and London Poor, I., 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, 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. Ibid, 36. But you see the boys will try it on for their
bunts.
1859, Hotten, Slang Diet., s.v. Bunce, costermongers' perquisites ; the money obtained by giving light weight, etc.; costermongers' goods sold by boys on commission. In fact anything which is clear profit or gain is said to be 'all bunce.' Probably a corruption of bonus; bone, or boner, being the slang for good.
1881. A Chequered Career, 270. In the stable, and particularly in liverystables, there is a box into which all tips are placed. This is called bunt.
1901. Sporting Times, 17 Aug., 1, 4. There's no bunce in letting lodgings, when the lodgers only pay In their tancy !
bunch, subs. (old).—A worthless woman.
Verb. (old).—To thump; to beat; to strike.
1608. Withals, Diet., 354. That is worthie to bee beaten, bunched, battered, punished, etc.
Bunch-back, subs. phr. (old).—A humped-back man or woman ; a hunchback (Shakspeare).
Bunch-clod, subs. phr. (old).—A lad; a clodhopper.
1740. Poor Robin [Nares], There are a great many bunch-clods in the world, that had rather have a belly full of victuals than a handsome sweetheart.
bunch-of-fives, n^j.^r.(common). —The hand ; the fist.
1847. Lytton, Lucretia, II., vii. Is this a h-arm, and this a bunch op nvES?

Bunch of Onions. 434
Bundle.
1863. C. Readk, Hard Cash, 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.
1883. Daily Telegraph, April 30, 3, 2. The fingers are bent into such an ungraceful bunch of fives, as to be suggestive both of chalkstones and of sausages.
1882, Punch, LXXXII., 133, 1. He smote crashingly down... with a leadweighted truncheon he held in his dexter
bunch of fives.
BUNCH-of-onions,.r«Ac.//tf-.(thieves': obsolete).—A bunch of seals : see
onion.
Bunco (Bunco-game and Buncosteerer), subs. phr. (American). — I. A swindling game played with cards or dice, not unlike three card monté. [From the Italian banco, a bench or bank]. Hence as verb, (or to play the bunco-game) =. to work the confidence-trick ; and in a less offensive sense, to bluff ; whence to rob ; to cheat, to swindle. Also bunco-case = a confidence-trick bunco-man (or bunco-steerer) = a swindler; a confidence-trick man.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, 235. The bunco-steerer... will find vou 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, considevin' 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.
1883. Philadelphia Times, 289 2, 2. Tom's method of bunco was the wellknown lottery game.
1887. Cincinnati Enquirer. Detectives Kirby and Funk last night spotted J. P. Ramby, the person accused of hav ing bunkoed Ex-county Commissioner Stephens, of Greene Cointy, out of 2,300 dois, in Xenia recently.
1888. Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, April 14. John Brothers, a farmer living near Canton, Ohio, was bunkoed out of 2,000 dois, to-day by two sharpers who escaped.
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.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 165. Hoping to bunco the bone-man to make a foolish play.
1898. Pink 'Un and Pelican, 8. Men would rather be bunkoed and bested by a polished, well-dressed villain . . . than be taken out for a whole evening by one who makes no attempt to circumstances.
buncome. See bunkum.
Bundle, subs. (old).—A worthless woman.
Verb. (old).—See quots.
1759-60. Rev. Andrew Barnably, Travels, 144. [Travelling in New England he notices this custom of bundling which then prevailed. He thinks that though it may at first] appear to be the effects of grossness of character, it will, upon deeper research, be found to proceed from simplicity and innocence.
18.. Rev. Dr. Emmons, Works, 1, 81. Is not this custom, which has no name in the dictionary, but which is commonly called bundling, a sinful custom t

Bundle. 435 Bung.
1781. S. Peters, Gen. Hist. Connecticut. Notwithstanding the great modesty of the females is such that it would be accounted the greatest rudeness for a gentleman to speak before a lady of a garter or leg, yet it is thought but a piece of civility to ask her to bundle.
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. Ibid. Van Corlear stopped occasionally in the villages to . . . dance at country frolics, and bundle with the Yankee lasses.
1814. Quarterly Review, X., 517. [The custom spoken of].
18.. Masson, Journeys in Beloochistan, Afghanistan, etc, in., 287. Many of the Afghan tribes have a custom in wooing similar to what in Wales is known as bundling-up, and which they term namzat bazé. The lover presents himself at the house of his betrothed with a suitable gift, and, in return, is allowed to pass the night with her, on the understanding that innocent endearments are not to be exceeded.
1868. W. H. Dixon, Spiritual Wives, II., 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. Schele De Verb, Americanisms, 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 houseroom to provide better accommodation.
1871. H. R. Styles, Bundling; its Origin, Progrès-, audDecline 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.
1888. Proctor, Americanisms [in 'Knowledge']. One young woman who, so the story goes, had been properly bundled up overnight by having her nether limbs securely tied in a bolster-case, on being asked by her moiher next morning whether the fastenings had remained intact, replied that 'only one leg had slipped out ! '
To bundle off, verb. phr. (colloquial).— To set off in a hurry; to decamp with alacrity.
Bundle (or rack) of bones, subs. phr. (common).—A sorry looking man or animal; a walking-skeleton (q.V.) ; shapes (q.V.). Hence, old bundle of bones = a jeering address.
1836. Dana, Before the Mast, xxviii. 'What's that?' said one of the crew; 'has the bloody agent slipped off the hooks? Has the old bundle of bones got him at last?'
1862. New York Tribune, 13 June. He is a little afraid that this mettlesome charger cannot be trusted going down hill ; otherwise he would let go of the old rackabones that hobbles behind.
bundletail, subs, (old).—' A short fat or squat lass ' (B.E.).
Bun-feast (-struggle or-worry), subs.phr. (common).—A tea-drinking: see tea-fight.
bung, subs, (old cant).— I. A purse ; a skin (q.v.)-, a poge (q.v.): also bong and boung : Fr. plotte. [Murray : ' its resemblance to the O.E. pung, "a purse," is worth notice.'] Hence to nip a bung = to cut a purse.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), 65. Boung, a purse. Ibid, 86. Ibid, (1573) 66. To nyp a boung, to cut a purse.

Bung. 436
Bung.
1591. Greene, Connycatching, (Second Part) in Works., X., 96. The Nip yseth his knife, and if he see a boung lie faire, strikes the stroke. Ibid, (1592) Connycatching, [Third Part) in Works, x., 157. Oft this crew of mates met together, and said there was no hope of nipping the boung fpursel because he held open his gowne so wide, and walked in such an open place.
1592. Greene, Quip [Grosart, Works (18..) xi., 283]. You can lift 01 nip a bounge like a quire coue, if you want pence.
1600. Sir John Oldcastle, v., 2. Be lusty, my lass; come, for Lancashire: we must nip the bung for these crowns.
1607. Dekker, Jests to make you Merie, in Wks. (Grosart), ii., 308. A rum cove's bung (so called in their canting use of speech) (and as much as to say in ours, a rich chuffe's purse).
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Bung is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse.
1620. Descr. of Love [Farmer, Musa Pcdestris (1896), 15]. Then in a throng, I nip his bung.
1621. Braithwaite, Clitus's Whim.zies, 12. His nipps, ints, bungs, and prinados, of whom he holds in fee, oft times prevent the lawyer by diving too deep into his client's pocket.
c. 1636. London Chanticleers, i. I mean to be as perfect a pick pocket, as good as ever nipped the judge's BUNG while he was condemning him.
c. 1658. Cleveland, Cleivelaudi Vindicice, 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, I., v., 47. Boung, a Purse.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s,v. Bung, a purse, pocket, or fob.
1706. E. Coles, Eng. Diet. Bung, a purse.
1740. Poor Robin. Meanwhile the cut-purse in the throng, Hath a fair means to nyp a bung.
2. (old).— A pickpocket: also bung-nipper (q.V.).
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, 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: the landlord of a public house, etc.
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, 170, 1. That Sir Wilfrid Lawson had turned bung, and applied for a spirit licence.
4. (vulgar).—The anus: also bunghole (q.v.). Bung-upwards = arse-upwards : of one lying on his face.
Adj. (common).—Tipsy; fuddled; screwed (q.v.).
Verb, (pugilistic).—I. To close; to shut up : usually to bung up.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in Wks. (Grosart) IL, 128. That will buncup their mouthes with a Collyrium of all the stale iestes in a country.
1509. Nashe, Lenten Stufe, in Wks. V., 247. The waies beyond sea were so bungd vp with your dayly oratours 01 Beadsmen and your crutchet or croutchant friers.. . that a snaile coulde not wriggle in her homes betwixt them.
1835. Haliburton, Clock-maker, 1 s., xix. I bunged up both eyes for him.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 76. She bunged up his left just to steady his phir.

Bung. 437 Bung-eyed.
2. (old).—To give; to pass; to hand over; to drink; to perform almost any action. Bung over the rag = hand over the money.
3. (old).—To deceive by lying : see CRAM.
To go bung, subs.phr. (Australian).— I. To become bankrupt; to fail.
1885. Australian Printers' Keepsake, 40. He was importuned to desist, as his musical talent had 'gone bung,' probably from over-indulgence in confectionery.
1893. The Argus, April 15 (by Oriel), 13, 2. All flesh is grass... like grass it is withered away, And we gaze on a bank in the evening, and lo, in the morn 'tis bung.
1893. Professor Gosman, The Argus, April 24, 7, 4. Banks might fail, but the treasuresof thought could never ' go bung.'
1893. The Herald (Melbourne), April a5, 2, 4. One member of the mischiefmaking brotherhood wrote the words 'gone bung' urder a notice on the Government ^avirgs Bank, and he was brought before Lhe Police Court charged with damaging the bank's property to the extent of ■xd.
1896. Morris, Austral-English, s.v. bung. In Melbourne in the times that followed the collapse of the landboom, it was a common expression to say that Mr. So-and-so had 'gone bung,' sc. filed his schedule, or made a composition with creditors; or that an institution had 'gone bung,' sc. closed its doors, collapsed. In parts of Australia, in New South Wales and Queensland, the word bung is an aboriginal word meaning 'dead,' and even though the slang word be of English origin, its frequency of use in Australia may be due to the existence of the aboriginal word, which forms the last syllable in Billabong (q v ), and in the aboriginal word milbung, blind, literally, eye-dead.
2. (Australian).—To die: see quot 1896. Subs. I, and hopthe-twig.
1847. JD. Lang, Cooksland, 430. A place called Umpie bung, or the dead houses. [It is now a suburb of Brisbane, Humpy-bong.]
1881. A. C. Grant, Bush Life in Queensland ii., 175 [in Blacks' pigeon English]. Missis bail bong, ony cawbawn prighten. (Missis not dead, only dreadfully frightened.)
1882. A. J. Boyd, Old Colonials, 73. But just before you hands 'im [the horse] over and gets the money, he goes bong on you (i.e. he dies).
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, Advance Australia, 142. Their [the blacks'] ordinary creed is very simple. ' Directly me bung (die) me jump up white feller,' and this seems to be the height of their ambition.
To go bung into, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To fall (or be pitchforked) stap into.
1900. Kipling, Stalky à? Co., 30. We mayn't be aware you were followin' us this afternoon mayn't we ? Thought you were stalkin' us, eh? Why, we led you bung into it, of course.
. Bungay. Go to bungay ! phr. (common).—Go to hell.
bungay-PLAY, subs.phr. (provincial). —In playing whist, to lead all the winning cards in succession, without endeavouring to make the best of the hand: see bumblepuppy.
bung-dock, subs. phr. (provincial). — A curtail; a bob-tailed dog (Halliwell).
bung-eyed, adj. (common).— 1. Drunk ; fuddled ; screwed [q.v.).
1858. A. Mayhew, Pavedivith Gold, III., iii , 268. One coarse featured fellow, who was nearly bung-eyed over his beer (as they call being drunk).
2. Cross-eyed ; unable to see StraightjBc >SS-EYED(f .J/.); SQUINNYEYED (q.v.).

Bungfunger. 438 Bunk.
bungfunger, verb. (American) — To startle: to confuse: cf. bumb
squabbled. bungfungered =
confounded.
1835-40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 91 (ed. 1862). Well, lather, I thought he'd a fainted too, he was so struck up all of a heap; he was completely bung fungered.
bung-hole, subs.phr. (common).— The anus.
bung-juice, subs. phr. (thieves').— Porter; beer: cf. cow-juice = milk : see drinks.
Bung-knife (or Boung-knife), subs.
phr. (old).— I. Considerable uncertainty exists as to the nature or use of this implement: see bung = a purse, whence boung knife may therefore have been a knife kept in the purse or girdle, or (see bung-nipper) it may have been a knife used for cutting purses: see next sense.
1592. Greene, Quip for Upstart Courtier (Hart. Misc., V., 407). One of them had on ... a skeine like a bruer's boung-knife.
2. (old). — A cut-purse ; a sharper: see bung-nipper.
bungler, subs. (B E.).—■ An unperforming husband, or mechanic'
bung-nipper (boung-nipper, bungknife or bung), subs. phr. (old). —A cut-purse; a sharper: Fr. couper une queue de rat (i.e., to cut off a rat's tail) = to nip a
rung.
c. 1696. B.E, Diet. Cant. Crew , s.v. bung-nipper, c. a Cutpurse, or Pickpocket. Claying the hung, c. cutting the Purse, or Picking the Pocket.
bungtown. subs, (old).—Birmingham.bungtown-coppers=monej coined for the government by private Birmingham firms: hence counterfeit coin. Also (American) see quot 1859.
1848. Lowell, Siglow Papers, 147. Anti-slavery professions ju-.t before an election ain't worth a bungtown copper.
i8[?] Doesticks, 62, [Bartlett]. The last thing I remember [having been tipsy] was trying to pay my fare with a bungtown copper.
1859. Bartlett, Americanisms, s.v. Bungtown copper A spurious coin, of base metal, a very clumsy counterfeit of the English halfpenny or copper. It derived its name from the place where it was first manufactured, then called bungtown, now Barneysville, in the town of Rehoboth, Mass. The bungtown copper never was a legal coin. The British halfpenny or copper was. The term is used only in New England.
1870. Judd, Margaret, 19. These flowers wouldn't fetch a bungtown copper.
bungy, adj. (provincial). — Intoxicated : see screwk.d(IIalliwell).
bunk, verb, (common).—I. To be off ; to decamp : also to do a bunk.
c. 1870. Broadside Ballad. 'Peck's Bad Boy.' The keeper tried to catch him, but the bad boy did a bunk. Ibid, 1872. ' Oh, we are a getting on.' There's another bald-headed Manageer, Has bunked across to Spain.
1885. Referee, Feb. 16, 7, 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. 201. 'What is a vanishing point?' said the schoolmaster to little Billy. 'The corner jou bunks round when the "slops'" after yer,' warbled the golden-haired child.
1901. Troddles, 35. You can bunk a bit, when its forty shillings or a month at stake, with sweet liberty as the crown of the award.

Bunker. 439 Bunny.
1900. Kipling, Stalky &* Co., 45. Any fool could hive told you where Manders would bunk to.
2. (Wellington College).—To expel [from the school].
bunker, subs, (common).—Beer : see
DRINKS.
Bunkum (Buncombe or Buncome), subs. (American). — Talking for talking's sake -, claptrap _; gas -, tall talk : orig. insincere political discussion. Hence, as adj. = bogus, insincere, etc.: e.g., a bunkum proclamation, bunkum logic, bunkum politicians, etc. That's all bunkum = that's all nonsense! The thing's absurd !
18.. Wheeler, Hist. North Carolina. Several years ago, in Congress, the member from this district arose to iddress the House, without any extraordinary powers, in manner or matter, to interest the audience. Many members left the hall. Very naively, he told those who remained that they might go too; he should speak for some time, but 'he was only talking for buncombe.'
1841. Richmond Compiler, Aug. 17. He was not speaking to the House, but
to bunkum.
1855. Haliburton, Human Nature, 175. Our people talk a great deal of nonsense about emancipation, but they know it's all buncombe.
1857. New York Tribune, 2 March. The House of Representatives broke down upon the Corruption committee's bill to protect the integrity of members of Congress, having first passed it for buncombe. Ibid., Here is an amusing biography of General Houston, bulky in size, capital in paper, and evidently got up for buncombe. Ibid., (1862) Feb. n. 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.
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xxv. Talk plain truth, and leave bunkum for right honourables who keep their places thereby.
1859. Sala, Tw. Round the Clock, 2 A.M., 9. These tales.full of sound and fury, told by honourable idiots full of unutterable bunkum (an Americanism 1 feel constrained to use, as signifying nothingness, ineffably 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.
18.. Bigelow, Am. Rejected Addresses, 'American Congress.' Come on, ye stump men eloquent, in neverending stream, Let office be your glorious goal, and bunkum be your theme.
18.. Saxe, Progress Here, wouldbe Tullys pompously parade Their tumid tropes for simple buncombe made.
18.. Goodrich, Reminiscences, 1, 101. On every side the ear was saluted by the mocking screams of the red-headed woodpecker, the cawing of congresses of crows, clamorous as if talking to buncombe.
1884. Echo, May 12, 4, 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.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 18 Oct., 6. 2. His explanation was contained in the three words, 'Bosh, rubbish, and bunkum.'
bunky, adj. (Christ's Hospital).— Awkward ; ill-finished.
bunnick, verb, (common).—To settle; to dispose of.
1886. Punch, 17 July, 25. 'Owsomever we've bunnicked up Gladsting, a barney all patriots enjoy.
bunny (or bun), subs, (common). — I. a rabbit (B.E.).

Bunny-grub. 440 Burford-bait.
1900. Kipling, Stalky a? Co., 71. 'This is pining', said McTurk. ' Let's get our sallies, and go and shoot bunnies.'
2. (old),—An endearment: of women and children.
3. (venery).—The female pudendum : i.e., coney (cunny ; cunt, q.v.): see monosyllable.
c. 1720. Old Song [Dukfey, Pills, etc. ,1720) vi. 324]. Old musty Maids that have Money . . . May have a Hit for their Bunny, To pleasure them in their Beds.
bunny-grub, subs.phr. (Cheltenham College). — Green vegetables ; grass (q.v.) : e.g. cabbage, lettuce, and the like.
bunse. Sec bunce.
bun-struggle (or bun-worry). See
bun-feast.
Bunt. See bunce.
bunter, subs, (venery).— 1. A prostitute; spec, a whore-thief: also a generic contempt: see tart.
1705-7. E. Ward, Hudibras Rediv., IL, ii. (1715), 25. Punks, Stiolers, Market Dames, and Bunters.
1748. Smollett. Rod. Random, 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, IV., 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.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 85. As thick as bunters in the Strand. Ibid., 188. This bunter Venus.
1851. H. Mayhew, London Lai. and Lon. Poor, II., 158. They were known by the name of bunters, which signifies properly gatherers of rags.
2. (common).—See quot : and
cf. bunker.
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.
bunting, subs, (common). — An endearment to a child : as in ' baby bunting.'
bunting-time, subs. phr. (B.E.).— ' When the grass is high enough to hide the young men and maids ' : cf. pulling-about time.
buntling, subs. (B.E.).—In pi. =z 'Pettycoats. Hale up the mainbuntlings, take up the woman's pettycoats.'
bur, subs. (B.E.).—' A cloud, or dark circle about the moon, boding wind and rain.'
burdon's hotel, subs.phr.(ih\eycs'). —YVhitecross Street Prison, of which a one-time Governor was Mr. Burdon: see cage.
1861. Dutton Cook, Paul Poster's Daughter, ii. David, be respectable, whatever you are, be respectable, and burdon's hotel is not for you to sojourn at.
burford-bait, subs. par. (old).— See quot.
1657. Howell, Lexicon, 20. A BURFort bait, when one sipps or drinks but part, they still fill his cupp uatill ha drinketh all.

Burgullian. 441
Burn.
Burgullian, subs. (old).—A bully
(q.V.); a braggadocio (q.V.).
1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, iv., 2. When was Bobadill here, your captain ? that rogue, that foist, that fencing burgullian.
1824. Nares, Glossary, s.v. burgullian. Supposed to mean a bully or braggadocio; and conjectured to be a term of contempt, invented upon the overthrow of the Bastard of Burgundy in a contest with Anthony Woodville, in Smithfield, 1467.
burick (or burerk), subs, (old).— A woman : spec, a showily dressed one: formerly a thief's term for a prostitute.
1819. J H. Vaux, Memoirs. Burick is a prostitute, or common woman.
1851. Mayhew, London Laiour and London Poor, I., 262. If they can meet with the burerk (mistress) or the young ladies, etc.
1889. Answers, July 20, 121, 2. Let him ask the loafer... which sex gives him most—the burerks, or the 'Toffs.'
burgle, verb. (American). — To commit burglary ; to break into ; to rob.
1870. Philadelphia Press, 15 Mar. The Waverly National Bank burgled [Title].
burke, verb, (colloquial).—i. To murder by strangling: as Burke for the sake of bodies for dissection: cf. bishop; boycott; müller; etc.
2. (colloquial).—To hush up ; to smother a matter, or thing.
1874. Siliad, 2. Which did essayto tax poor misery's work, And helpless poverty to strike and bukke.
3. (military). — To dye the moustache and whiskers : a practice 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 being very stringent and precise.
burlesque, subs. (B.E.).—' Raillery in verse, or verse in ridicule.'
burn, verb, (old)—1. To cheat; to swindle: spec, gaming. Hence burner = a card-sharper.
2. (nursery).—At hide-and-seek to be very near indeed to the hidden object: cf. warm.
3. (venery). — To infect; to pox (q.v.). Whence as subs. (burning or burner) = the lues venerea, a dose of clap or pox ; burned = infected.
[?]. Bod. MS. e. Mus., 229. 'Regulations of the stews in Southwark.' Item that no stueholder kepe noo womman withynne his hows that hath any sikenes of brennynge, but that she be putte out.
1605. Shakspeare, Lear, iii, 2. No heritics burn'd, but wenches' suitors.'
1630. Taylor, Laugh and Be Fat, 89. No sooner had he found that she had burnt his Pope.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. 'burnt, Poxt, or swingingly Clapt.'
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.
TO burn daylight (or time), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To light up before darkness renders it necessary: hence proverbial for superfluous or absurd action.
1594. Lyly, Mother Bo-mbit (163a). Wee burns time.

Burn.
442 Burn-crust.
1595. SnAKSr-eare, Romeo and Juliet, i., 4. Come, we burn daylight, ho! Rom. Nay, that's not so. Merc. I mean, sir, in delay We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day. Ibid, (1595) Merry Wives, ii., 1. We burn daïlight: here, read, read.
1587. Churchyard, Worth, of Wales, 96. Tyme rouleth on, I doo but daylight burne, And many things indeede to doe I have.
1647. Carturight, The Ordinary, i., 2. Hearsay. Her nose the candle... Shape. How bright it flames ! Put out your nose, good lady, you burn daylight.
1710 Swift, Polite Conv., iii. Lady Sm. Here, take away the tea-table, and bring up candles. Lady Ans. O, Madam, no candles yet, I beseech you ; don't let us burn daylight. Hev. I dare swear, Miss for her part will never burn daylight, if she can help it.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, ii., 364. 'Your story,' said the stalwart Churchman; * burn not daylight about it ; we have short time to spare.'
TO burn a hole in one's pocket, verb. phr. (colloquial).— To be eager to spend money: which is said to burn a hole in a spendthrift's pocket if not disbursed.
1573. Tusser, Five Hundred Good Points, 19. [Money is said to burn the bottom of the purse].
To burn the parade, verb, phr. (old military). — To warn more men for a guard than are 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 (grose).
Burn my breeches ! phr. (old) —A mild oath.
1819. Moore, 1om Crib's Memorial, 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.')
TO burn the town (or ken),
verb.phr. (old military).—To leave a town (or inn) without paying one's reckoning.
c. 1696. B E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. burnt the town, when the Soldiers leave the Place without paying their Quarters.
Phrases: to burn one's boats behind one = to cut off all chance of retreat. To birn the Thames = to perform some prodigy. To
burn fine weather = to fail to
use it to advantage. To burn
the candle at both ends (see candle). TO burn the planks
= to remain long sitting. To burn one's fingers = to suffer through meddling. To rurn a stone = to displace by accident.
burnand, 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. 11,3. The American papers continue to attack the play ['Jhe 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. phr. (old).—A baker: cf. master of the mint = a gardener _; bung = a brewer ball of wax = a shoemakei
QU1LI-driver = a clerk ; snip xt
a tailor, etc.

Burning-shame. 443 Bury.
Burning-shame, subs. phr. (old).— ' A lighted candle, stuck in a woman's vulva or podex ' (Grose).
burnish, verb. (B.E.).—* To spread, or grow broad.'
burr, subs. (old).—A hanger on; a dependent; a sponger (q.v.).
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Cmu., s.v. burre, a Hanger on, or Dependant.
Verb. (Marlborough College).
—To fight; to scrimmage (q .V.) ;
to rag (q.v.).
burr castle, subs.phr. (provincial). —Newcastle, so called from the burr, a particular sound made by the natives of that place in pronouncing the letter R.
burst, subs, (common).—1. A spree; a drunken frolic ; a big feed ; a blow out (q.v.): also on the burst : see bust.
1880. Blackwood's Mag., June, 775. He became a madman when drunk. Once 'on the bukst,' . . . 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, I., 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.
3. (colloquial). — To laugh immoderately.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 41. I thought old Chalkstone would have burst, for as he laughed with all his mighc, so violent a cough laid hold of him, as went very near to have carried him off.
bursted, adj. (common).—Hard
Up; stony-broke (q.V.).
1873. Chicago Daily Tribune, June 30. At the far end [of the roomj four lank and mursted 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). — i. A heavy fall; a cropper (q.v.).
1863. Evening Standard. ^4 April. Benedict came down a burster, and was out of the race.
2. See buster, sense 1.
Bury. Go bury yourself! phr. (American).—A Californianism — go to hell !
TO bury (or big up) the
hatchet, verb. phr. (American). —Amongst Indian tribes certain symbolic ceremonies areconnected 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.
[1609. S'IAKSpeare, Tempest, v., 1, 53. I'le breake my staffe, bury it certaine fadomes in the earth.]
1855-59. Washington Irving, Life of Washington, I., 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. Burieo 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 told her we'd bury the hatchet alongside of the cow; And we struck an agreement never to have another row.

Bus.
444 Bush.
To bury a moll, verb. phr. (common).—To desert or forsake a wife or mistress.
To bury a quaker, phr. (Irish slang).—To evacuate: to rear (q.v!): see Mrs. Jones.
To bury a wife, verb. phr. (old) —To feast and make merry: spec, used of the jollifications frequently indulged in by apprentices on the completion of their term of indenture, and become 'full blown' craftsmen.
1847. Halliwell, Arch. Words,etc., s.v. Outing. A feast given to his friends by an apprentice, at the end of his apprenticeship: when he is out of his time. In some parts of the kingdom, this ceremony is termed by an apprentice and his friends ' burying his wife.'
BUS (or BUSS), subs, (theatrical).—I. Business (q.v.): 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.
1837. Dickens, Sketches (The Last Cabdriver) Rumours were rife on the hackney-coach stands that a buss was building to run from Lisson-Grove to the Bank, down Oxford Street and Holborn.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (S. Romwold). There was no taking refuge too then, as with us, On a slipsloppy day, in a cab or a bus.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, 93. He proposed that they should go, per buss, a little way into the country.
1860. Arthur Smith, Thames Angler, ii. On busses' kniteboards slretch'd, The City clerks all tongue-protruded lay.
1861. Thackrray, Adventures of Philifi, II. 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., 205. Annie Brunei got out of the Hampstead 'bus, and found herself in the muddy highway.
Verb. (American).—To punch the head.
See buss.
BUSH, verb. (Australian).—To camp out in the bush; hence to be bushed = (\) to get lost in the bush : whence also to be in a mental or physical difficulty or muddle; (2) to be hard up; to be destitute.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary, bush'd, poor; without money.
1887. All the Year Round, July 30, 68. An Australian says that he is bushed, just as an Englishman, euually 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. Ibid. We were on horseback, with blankets before us on our saddles, to provide for our getting bushed.
To be bushed on, verb. phr. (common).—To be pleased ; to be delighted.
TO beat about the bush,
verb.phr. (colloquial).—To prevaricate ; to avoid coming to the point ; to go indirectly to one's object.
1546. Heywood, Proverbs, s.v.
1589. Puttenham, Art. of Eng. Poesie, 111. xviii Then have ye the figure Periphrasis ... as when we go about the bush, and will not in one or a few words expresse that thing which we desire to have knowen, but do choose rather to do it by many words.
1602. Breton, Mother's Blessing, 12. Stand not too long in beating of a bush, For feare the bird beguile thee with hor flight.

Bushel. 445 Bushwhacker.
1623. Mabbe, English Rogue, (1630),
S.T.
1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, iii, 2, Vou must know I went round the bush, and round the bush, before I came to the matter.
The nest in the bush, subs, phr. (venery).— The female pudendum: see monosyllable. the
bush (or bushy-park) = the female pubic hair : see fleece.
1782. Stevens, Songs Comic and Saiyrical, 124. Here's the nest in that bush, and the bird-nesting lover.
BUSHEL, adj. (colloquial).—Large: thus a bushel-wig _; bushelbubbies; bushel-breeches, etc.
1796. Wolcot, Peter Pindar [ Works, ,?26.] When judges a campaigning go, And on their benches look so big, What gives them consequence, I trow, Is nothing but a bushel wig.
1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, II, I, xi. The snowy linen and delicate pantaloon alternates with the soiled check shirt and bushel bbeeches.
BUSH-LAWYER, subs. phr. (colonial and nautical).—An argumentative ignoramus : see quots., and cf. sealawyer.
1901. Referee. 7 Ap., 1, 2. Great care should be exercised so as to minimise chances of their being able to take two chances for their money, one in the game, and the other by 'sea-lawyering.'
1896. H. G. Turner, Lecture on "J. P. Faivkner. For some years he cultivated and developed his capacity for rhetorical argument by practising in the minor courts of law in Tasmania as a paid advocate, a position which in those days, and under the exceptional circumstances of the Colony, was not restriced to members of the legal profession, and the term bush lawyer probably takes its origin from the practice of this period.
1896. Morris, Austral-English, s.v. bush-lawyer. Name often used for a layman who fancies he knows all about the law without consulting a solicitor. He talks a great deal, and Mays down the law.'
1899. Hyne, Furth. Adv. Captain Kettle, v. Robinson's a sea-lawyer, is he? Courts, he talks about.
BUSHRANGING, subs, (venery).—The act of kind: cf. hush = female pubic hair: see greens and ride
and cf. birdsnesting.
BUSH-SCRUBBER, subs.phr. (Australian).— A boor; a bumpkin; a slattern.
1896. [Modern. Up-country manservant on seeing his new mistress]. My word ! a real lady ! she's no bush-scrubber !
BUSH-TELEGRAPH, subs.phr. (Australian).—-Confederates of bushrangers, who supply them with secret information of the movements of the police (Morris).
1878. The Australian, i., 507. The police are baffled by the false reports of the confederates, and the number and activity of the bush telegraphs.
1893. Kenneth Mackay, Out Back, 74. A hint dropped in this town set the bush telegraphs riding in all directions.
BUSHWHACKER, subs. (American political).— I. 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. Hence bushwhack = to fight in guerilla style.
1862. Col. Deitzler [in New York Herald, 29 June]. The fiends, in small parties, select a position behind fences, trees, etc., fire upon the Union troops as they pass, and then run. . . . This infernal bushwhacking shall not be practised on the men of my command, without my enforcing the severest retaliation.

Bushy-park. 446 Business.
1864. Gen. Shhrman, Field Order, 9 Nqv. >hould guerillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless,
2. (American). — A country bumpkin (q.V.); a clodhopper (q.V.).
1809. Irving, Knickerèocker Hist, of New York. The Van B—s of Nyack were the first that did ever kick with the left foot; they were gallant bushwhackers, and hunters of raccoons by moonlight.
1843. Carlton, New Purchase, ii, 87. Do you think all our eastern dignitaries combined could have compelled young bushwhackers to wear coats and shoes in recitation-rooms?
1855. Haliburton, Human Nature, 15. Every bushwhacker and forest ranger thought he knew where to find the trees.
bushy-park, suis. phr. (rhyming), i.—A lark.
2. (venery).—The female pubic hair: see fleece. Hence the nest
in cushy-park (or the bush)
= the female pudendum : see monosyllable; to take a turn in bushy-park = to possess a woman: see greens and ride.
To be in bushy park, phr. (old).—To be poor.
Business, su>>s. (old).—i. Sexual intercourse: see greens and ride.
1630, Taylor, IVorkes. And Lais of Corinth, ask'd Demosthenes One hundred crownes for one night's businesse
1654. Wit's Recreations. He's proctor of a court, thou say'st, and does Some business of my wives: thou brainless goose, He do-s no business of thy wives, not he, He does thy business (Coracine) for thee.
1692. Dryden, Juvenal, vi. The sotted moon-calf gapes, and staring on, Sees his own business by another done.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 33. But that's as sure as cits of London Oft leave their spouses' business undone; And trudge away to Russel-street Some little dirty whore to meet.
2. (theatrical).—Dramatic action; bye-play.
1753. The World, 26. We are too much enamoured with what is called intrigue, business, and bustle, in our plays.
1820. Scott, The Abbot, xxvii. (III., 6). The . . . went, came, and returned, mingling in every scene of the piece, and interrupting the business.
i860. Cornhill Magazine, Dec, 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, 282. Tom observed, ' I never saw such business before; how do you do it?'
1880. Punch, Sept. 18, 130. Ya-as —but—aw—I didn't copy him in the least—aw-my own 'Business.' Aw— Entirely different reading.
1883. H. Irving, in Good Words, Jan., 34. Then consider what scope the 'business' of the scene gives to the actor's purpose.
1902 D. Telegraph, 14 Jan., 7., 3. By Mr. Smith: On Dec. 21 she told me to get ready, she was not going to play any more, and she added, ' Don't do any of my business^! shall be in front to see.'
TO do one's business FOR one, phr. (common).—To kill. to cause one's death.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, viii., x. He concluded he had pretty well done theik business, for both of them, as they ran off, cried out with bitter oaths, that they were dead men.

Business-end. 447
Bust.
184g. Thackeray, Pendennis, xii. Then he took down his venerable and murderous duelling-pistols, with flint locks, that had done the business of many a pretty fellow in Dublin.
1836. C. Reade, Never Too Late, xvi. She was stronger than he was for a moment or two, and that moment would have done his business. She meant killing.
1880. Jas. Greenwood, Grandmother Cooper, (in Odd People in Odd Places). They said it was his hurts killed him. It was the bricks and mortar that did his business, poor chap.
Business-end [of a thing], subs, phr. (American).—The practical part.
Busk. To busk it, verb. phr. (tramps').—To sell obscene songs and books at bars and in taprooms; sometimes it implies selling other articles; also to 'work' public houses and certain spots as in itinerant musician, or vocalist, hence so also, busking, and busker = a man who sings and performs in public houses ; an itinerant.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 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 taprooms and parlours of taverns. Ibid, 234. From a furniturecarter 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, III., 216. Busking is going into public houses and playing and singing and dancing. Ibid, 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. Echo, May 10, 4, 6. Busking.—A player on the harp and violin wants a mate.
1887. Referee, August 21, 3, 2. Mac himself... will appear in the Racecourse scene as a busker.
Free of both ends of ttte busk, phr. (venery). — Free c " everything even to the last favour (q.v.).
d. i7g6. Burns, Merry Muses (1800), 7. 'Bonny Lass o' Liviston': old song revised by Burns. Wi baith ends o' the busk, I made me free.
BUSNAPPER. See buz-napper.
Buss (or Bus), verb, (once literary: now colloquial).—To kiss: also as subs. = a kiss.
1500-13. Skelton, Works [Dyce], 148. Bas me, buttyng, pratyCis!
1596. Shakspeare, King John, iii., 4. Come grin on me; and I will think thou smil'st, And buss thee as thy wife.
■ 1596. Drayton, Baron's Wars, c 3. And we by signs sent many a secret buss.
c. 1650. Brathwavte, Barnabys' Jl. (1723), 61. With me toy'd they, buss'd me, cull'd me.
1647-8. Herrick, Works, 219. Kissing and bussing differ both in this, We bussb our wantons, but our wives we kiss.
BUSS-BEGGAR, subs. phr. (old).—A beggar-whore ; a trull (q.v.).
BUST, subs.(vulgar)—I. A corrupted form of burst: hence busting, busted, etc.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, 219. A kind of busting noise.
2. (thieves').—A burglary.
i8(?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. (common).—-A frolic; a spree ; a drunken debauch : see to go on the bust.
DD

Bust.
448 Buster.
i S 60. Bartlett (quoted in), A Callfcrnian Song. And when we get our pockets full Of his bright, shinin' dust, We'll travel straight for home again, And spend it on a bust.
1862. New York Herald, 11 Jan. In old times, Joshua sent Jericho on a bust with his horns.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 65. I'm resolv'd, don't you see, to go in for a bust On the forthcoming Derby.
4. (American).—A failure; a fizzle.
1859. Bartlett, Americanisms, s.v. bust. The following conundrum went the rounds of the papers at the time the Whig party failed to elect Mr. Clay to the Presidency : 'Why is the Whig party like a sculptor? Because it takes Clay, and makes a bust.'
Verb, (vulgar).— I. To burst; to explode.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nicklehy, II., 366. His genius would have busted.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., 286. Keep cool, Jefferson... don't bust! Hid, II., 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 ; to split ; to peach (q.v.); to turn king's evidence.
4. (American). — To fail in business or other transactions.
i8[?]. J. C. Neal, Dolly Jones [Bartlett]. I was soon fotch'd up in the victualling line—and I busted for the benefit of my creditors.
5. (general).—To put out of breath; to WIND (q.v.).
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, 22. Did you know Briggs of Tuolumne? Busted hisself in White Pine, and blew out is brains.
1883. North of England Advertiser, Sept. i. Then he got the Moabite pottery which Mr. Clement Ganneau busted.
Bust me! phr. (common).—A mild oath ; blow me ! jigger me! (q.v.).
1859. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, I., 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.
BUSTER, subs, (common).— I. A small new loaf; also a coarse cake or bun of large size: cf. starver.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 3. 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?
1841. Comic Almanacks, 1835-43
1Hotten) 295. Cut us a slap-up slice of Cheshire cheese, And tip's a twopenny burster if you please.

Buster. 449 Buster.
1849. BelVs Life. [From BaumannJ. A burster with a slice of beeswax.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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 like the faggots tho' they smell, But now the penny's down the well, I thought I'd have a buster but it's all no go!
1899. Whiteing, John St., ix. A formidable kind of bun which here circulates under the name of buster.
2. (thieves').—A burglar: see bust and thief.
1879. J. \V. Horsley, 'Autobiography of a Thief,' in Macin. Mag., XL., 582. Busters and screwsmen (burglars).
3. (common). — Anything of superior size, unusual capacity, or the highest quality. Hence to come AN awful buster = to fall heavily, to come a cropper; IN for a buster = prepared, ready, determined for a spree, or any matter.
18.. Thorpe, Bear of Arkansas. I went on, laming something every day, until I was reckened a buster, and allowed to be the best bar-hunter in my district.
1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, 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.
i860. Dickens, Great Expectations, vii., 28. 'At such time as when your sister is on the Ram-page, Pip,¹ Joe sank his voice to a whisper, and glanced at the door, 'candour compels fur to admit that she is a busier.'
1859. Bartlett, Diet. Americanisms, s.v. buster. Applied also to any large person, especially to overgrown children. ' Ain't he a buster.' ' Come here, buster,' in the sense of 'sonny,' 'who's your daddy?'
1870. Popular Song on. FrancoGerman 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. i83o. Broadside Ballad, ' I'll never go courting again.' And a baker he gave me a buster, With a 'brick,' sent me rolling about.
4. (Australian).—A heavy dust storm from the south : also southerly-buster and brick-fielder (q.v.).
1863. F. Fowler, in Athenäum, Feb. 21, 264, i. The cold wind or southerly buster which . . . carries a thick cloud of dust . . . across the city.
1878. The Australian, i., 587. Southerly Busters by 'Ironbark.'
1885. Household Words, 10 Oct., 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.
1886. F. Cowan, Australia, a Charcoal Sketch. The buster and brickfielder : austral red-dust blizzard ; and red-hot Simoom.
1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, Australian Life, 40. Generally these winds end in what is commonly called a southerly buster. This is preceded by a lull in the hot wind; then suddenly (as it has been put) it is as though a bladder of cool air were exploded, and the strong cool southerly air drives up with tremendous force. However pleasant the change of temperature may be, it is no mere pastime to be caught in a southerly buster, but the drifting rain which always follows soon sets matters right, allays the dust, and then follows the calm fresh bracing wind which is the more delightful by contrast with the misery through which one has passed for three long dreary days and nights.

Bust-head. 450 Busy-head.
1893. The Australian, Aug. 12, 302, I. You should see him with Commodore Jack out in the teeth of the 'hard glad weather,' when a southerly buster sweeps up the harbour.
1896. H. A. Hunt, in Three Essays on Australian Weather (Sydney) 16. An Essay on southerly bursters, . . . with Four Photographs and Five Diagrams. [Title].
5. (common).—A frolic, a spree.
6. (common). — A roistering blade; a dashing fellow.
Bust-head, subs. phr. (common).— Common whiskey: see drinks.
busting, subs, (thieves').—Informing against accomplices ; turning King's evidence: see bust.
bustle, subs, (common).— I. A pad, roll, or wire contrivance worn by women at the back in order to extend the dress : see bum-roll and bird-cage.
1788. T. Monro, in Olla Podrida, 40. Such locks the nymphs now wear (in silks who rustle), In rich luxuriance reaching to the bustle.
1835. Sketches by Boz, 323. Whether she was pretty, whether she wore much bustle, etc. Ibid, 488. 'Did you ever,' said a little coquette with a large bustle.
1857. Trollope, Barchestcr Tozvers, xlv., 384. Bertie finished off the countess's bustle.
2. (old).—Money : generic : see
rhino.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Plash 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.
3. (B.E.).—'A fray, stir, tumult in the streets; also a noise in any place. What a bustle you
make? What a hurry or rattle you cause? Bustle about, to be very stirring, or bestir one's stumps.'
Verb (common).—To confuse; to confound _; to perplex.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 237. 'Now bustle him,' said Tom Maley; 'you have got him to-rights now. Let go your left straight.'
bust-maker, subs. phr. (venery).— A whoremonger: spec, a seducer.
Busy. Busy as a hen with one chick, adj.phr. (old).—See quot.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Busy-bodies, as busy as a hen with one chick, of one that has a great deal of business and nothing to do.
To be busy, verb. phr. (venery). —I. To have sexual intercourse: see greens and ride.
1612. PasquiVs Night-Cap. Thou hast beene too busy with a man, And art with child; deny it, if thou can.
2. (nursery).—To defecate ; to shit (q.v.).
Busy-head (-good or -body), subs, phr. (old.)—A meddler. Hence busy-bodiness = a meddling disposition.
1603. Davies, Microcosinus, 57. Many a busie-head by words and deeds put in their heads how they may compassé crownes.
1648. Fuller, Church Hist., II., ix., 23... If I chance to make an excursion into the matters of Commonwealth, it is not out of curiosity or busy-bodinesse to be medling in other men's lines.
1659. Howell, Lexicon. He is such a busy-body as deserves to be hitt in the teeth.

Busy-idler.
451 Butter.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. Busy-bodies, pryers into other folks concerns, such as thrust their sickle in another's harvest; and will have an oar in every boat.
Busy-idler, subs. phr. (old).—A person busy about trifles.
busy-sack, subs. phr. (common).— A carpet bag : in America a grip-sack.
butch, verb, (common).—To follow the trade of a butcher.
Butcher, subs, (cards').—1 The king: Fr. bœuf : when card-playing in public houses was common, the kings were called butchers, the queens, bitches, and the knaves, jacks: this last is now in general use.
2. (American).—A small-boy vendor of 'varieties' and 'notions' on railway cars—at once a convenience and a ' terror.'
3. (thieves').—The prison doctor : also (general) = a poxdoctor.
4. (South Australian). — A long drink of beer, so-called (it is said) because the men of a certain butchery in Adelaide used this refreshment regularly; cf. 'porter' in England, after the drink of the old London porters.
5. (literary).—A slashing critic. As verb=io murder a reputation ; to mangle an author's lines.
To butcher about, verb phr. (Wellington College).—To make a great noise ; to humbug about.
butchered, adj. (B.E.).—' Barbarously murder'd on the ground, or kill'd before his sword is out; also in cold blood.'
butcher's-bill, subs. phr. (colloquial). The list of those killed in battle.
butcher's-mourning, subs. phr. (common).—A white hat with a black mourning hat-band.
butler's-grace, subs. phr. (old). —No thanks.
[?]. Melton, Sixej"oldPolitician, 33. The respect which the wantonest and vainest heads have of them is as of fidlers, who are regarded but for a baudy song, at a merry meeting, and when they have done, are commonly sent away with butler's grace.
butteker, subs. (old).—A shop.
butter, subs, (common).—Fulsome flattery; unctuous praise; soft soap (q.v.): Hence as verb to
empty the butter boat = to
flatter fulsomely; to indulge in rhodomantic praise; to softsayvder (q-v.); Fr. cirer: also buttering-up.
1700. Congreve, Way of World, prol. (1866), 259. The squire that's buttered still is sure to be undone.
1725. New Canting Dictionary. To butter signifies also to cheat or defraud in a smooth and plausible manner.
1816. Scott, Antiquary, xxxviii. Keep him employed, man, for half-anhour or so—butter him with some warlike terms—praise his dress and address.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, 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., 309. You have been daubed over by the dirty butter of his applause.
1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, xii. He first butthers them up and then slithers them down !

Butter. 452 Butter.
1S37. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, 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.
1S57. 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.
1S80. World, 13 Oct. A lavish interchange of compliments, the butter being laid on pretty thick.
18S4. Saturday Review, s July, 27, i. The Lord Chief Justice of England made a tour through America, and generously buttered the natives.
iQoi. Free Lance, 14 Dec, 272, 1. Speaking of my book, you say that I fall back on 'the chance offence of a critic that no amount of butter or ointment can soothe.'
1902, Pall Mall Gaz., 19 Sept., 7, 1. The Mayor was dined by his friends in grateful recognition of his continuance in office at a critical juncture. Having been duly toasted and buttered, he returned thanks. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'i rejoice that you have assembled in such large numbers to pay honour to whom honour is due.'
Verb (old).— I. Jamieson says, ' to increase the stakes every throw or every game.'
1690. B.E., Did. Cant. Crew., s.v. 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.
2. See subs.
To know on which side one's bread is buttered (or ought to be spread), verb fhr. (old). —To recognise one's interests.
1637. Breton, A Speedy Post and a Packet of Letters. For I have of late heard much talk (but to little purpose) of him: Some say he is a very wise
man for he knows on which side of
H:S bread to spread his butter: Others
say he is a good man, for his word will be taken with the best in the town.
c. 1696. B.E., Did. Cant. Crew., s.v. butter, he knows on which side his bread is butter'd, or the stronger side, and his own interest.
to look as if butter would not melt in one's mouth, a contemptuous saying, of persons of simple demeanour.
1475. Les Evangiles des Quenouilles — Vine Journée. Edition Elzévirienne. Paris (1855), 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 bl'rre 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.
1538. Lambert [Foxe, vi., 37]. [Gardiner cares not to talk] as butter would not melt in his mouth.
1546. Heywood, Proverbs. She looketh as butter will not melt in her mouth.
1362. 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, \. 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, xxviii (iii., 26). i am beginning te think ye are but a queer ane, ye look as if
butter wanda melt in your mouth,
but I sail warrant cheese no choak ye.

Butter-bag.
453 Buttercup.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., 149. Telling her landlady how... the Mayor was... a nice, soft-spoken old gentleman; that butter would'nt tbelt in
his mouth, etc.
Will cut butter when it's hot, phr. (common).—Said of a knife when blunt.
NO butter will stick on His bread, phr. (old).—See quot.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v.
butter. . . no butter will stick on his
bread, nothing thrives or goes forward in his hand.
Butter and eggs, phr. (common).—Going down a slide on one foot, and beating with the heel and toe of the other at short intervals: cf. quot. 1836.
[1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, II., 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.]
1862. Macmillan's Mag., Jan., 238. And I can do butter-and-eggs all down the slide... The feat of butter andeggs consists in going down the slide on one foot, and beating with the heel and toe of the other at short intervals.
Butter-bag (or Butter-box), sues, phr. (old).— i. A Dutchman.
1600. Dekker, Gentle Craft, Wks. (1873) I., 21. We have not men enow, but wee must entertaine every butter-box.
i6[?j. Westward for Smelts [Nares]. At this time of the yeere, the puddinghouse at Brooke's wharfe is watched by the Hollanders eeles-ships, lest the inhabitants, contrarie to the law, should spill the bloud of innocents, which would be greatly to the hinderance of these butter-boxes.
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.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crnv. Butter-boxes, Dutchmen.
1707. Ward, Hud. Rediv., ii., iv. The fro believing from my joaks, I fancy'd not her butter-box, Cock d up her head, took leave in scorn, To seek one fitter for her turn.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Butterbox. A Dutchman, from the greatquantity of butter eaten by the people of that country.
butter-boat. To empty the butter-boat, verb. phr. (common). — To lavish praise ; to butter (q.V.).
1865. Sat. Rcvie-.v, 7 Jan., 16, 2. That kind of praise which feels like the butter-boat down one's back.
1866. J. H. Skinner, After Storm, I., 181. He praised some things and gave advice about others, using the butterboat less freely than is customary at volunteer inspections.
butter-box. I. See butter-bag. 2. (nautical).—See quot.
1835. Dana, Before the Mast, ix. The crew of the brig's boat were Sandwich Islanders, but one of them, who spoke a little English, told us that she was the Loriotte, Captain Nye, from Oahu, and was engaged in this trade. She was a lump of a thing—what the sailors call a butter-box.
buttercup, subs, (common).—An endearment: of children.
1S77. E. L. Linton, World Well Lost, vii. Hilda was still in the schoolroom, and seldom appeared, even at afternoon tea; which in general is licensed to include 'buttercups.'

Buttered. 454 Butter-whore.
BUTTERED, adj. (old).—I. Whipped: cf. dusted, tanned.
2. (common).—Flattered : see
BUTTER.
BUTTERED-BUN, subs. phr. (old).—
A prostitute: spec, as in quots: see tart.
1679. Ci'llen, W., Flock of Court Misses, in Roxburgh Ballads (1884), V., 126. This is the day . . . that sets our Monarch free From butteked buns [i.e., Louise de Quérouaille] and Slavery.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. eutter'd bun, Lying with a Woman that has been just Layn with by another Man.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 180. Two pretty lads, old Priam's sons, Both very
fond Of buttered buns.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. One lying with a woman that has just lain with another man, is said to have a
buttered bun.
BUTTER-FINGERED, adj. phr. (common).—Apt to let things fall ; greasy ; slippery. Hence, butterFiNGERS=a sarcastic address.
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, 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, 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.phr. (rhyming). —A trap, 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, 6, 3. The box covered the whole roof of the cab, preventing him [the cabman] from seeing the butterfly.
BUTTERNUT, subs. (American).— I. A Confederate soldier. Also (2) a Northern and Middle State sympathiser with the South in the American Civil War: the uniforms worn in the early part of the war by Confederate soldiers in the West were homespun, dyed brown with the juice of the butternut {jfuglans cinerea).
1862. Independent, 22 Mar. The butternut gentry . . . about four hundred of them [here prisoners] are in the camp hospitals.
1862. New York Tribune, 11 June. We marvelled as we went by that no ambitious butternut discharged his rifle or shot-gun at the fleet as it passed; but he did not.
Butter-print, subs. phr. (old).— A child; spec, a bastard.
1620. Fletcher, Chances, I., v. You will be wiser one day, when you have purchased A bevy of these buttcrpkints.
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.
1709. Brit. Apollo, II., 46, 3, 2. Her Girl and her Boy, For Patterns employ, To make little Butter-Prints by.
Butter-whore, subs.phr. A scold. (Halliwell).

Buttery.
455 Buttocking-shop.
1642. Howell, Fam. Letters, 20. They scold like so many butter-whores or oyster-women at Billingsgate.
Buttery. Tyb of the buttery, subs. phr. (old cant).—A goose.
buttock, subs, (old).—I. A common whore _; see buttock-andfile, and tart. 'Like a barber'schair, open to all.' ,
1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, ii. 2, 18. Like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, ... or any buttock.
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.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. buttock, c. a Whore.
Verb, (or to bang the buttocks), verb phr. (venery).—To possess a woman: see greens and
ride.
d. 1796. Burns, Merry Muses (1800), 31. 'Cuddie the Cooper,' He bang'd her buttocks agen the wa'.
buttock-and-file, subs. phr. (old). —A prostitute and her companion; sometimes bulk and file: occasionally, buttock and file—an individual who is both thief and whore.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, I., v., 48 (1874). Bulk and file, the Pickpocket and his mate.
1696. B.E., Dictionary 0/the Canting Crew. Buttock and file, both whore and pickpocket.
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, i., 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 esteems a more honourable calling.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Buttock and file, a common whore and a pickpocket.
buttock-and-tongue, subs. phr. (old).—A shrewish whore.
buttock-and-twang, s-ubs. phr. (old).—A common prostitute, but no thief: cf. buttock-and-file.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. buttock and twang, or a downright buttock and sham file, c. a common whore, but no pickpocket.
buttock-ball, subs. phr. (old).— I. A dance frequented by prostitutes: cf. ball um rancum and buff ball.
1687. T. Brown, Lib., Cotise, in 'Dk. Buckingham's Wks. (1705), II., 131. Why not into a Bibbing-house, as well as a Dancing School, a buttoc-ball, or thejike.
2. (old).—The sexual embrace :
cf.bawdy-banquet and buttockbanquetting.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Buttock-ball, the amorous congress.
buttock-banquetting, subs. phr. (old).—Harlotry
1555. Fardle Facions, II., viii., 167. Whiche [wiues] maie neuerthelesse vse buttocke banquetvng abrode.
buttock-broker, subs. phr. (old). —A procuress; a bawd; abbess {q.v).
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v. butteck-broker, a bawd, also a matchmaker.
buttocking-shop, subs. par. (old). —A brothel ; a house of ill fame.

Buttock-shrank. 456
Button.
Buttock-shrank, adj. phr. (old). —Foundered; past service of man.
c. 1650. Brathwayte, Barnabas Jl. (1723), 03. Once a Bona-roba trust me, Tho' now buttock-shrank and rusty.
button, subs.(old) —I. A shilling; is: see rhino: formerly of good currency; now only of counterfeit coin.
2. (common).—A decoy or confederate of any kind: e.g. a confederate of a confidence trick man, a sham buyer at an auction, etc.: also buttoner {q.v.): Fr. a Humé.
1742-4. North, Lives of the Norths. And herein she served herself another way, for her adversary defamed her for swearing and unswearing, and it was not amiss to have a button in the room.
1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, ix. The button, that is the confederate who egged on the flats.
3. (common).—In pl.=a place : also boy in buttons.
i860. Thackeray, Lovel the Widower, 289. [Herein quoted as the name of a page.]
1873. Chambers' Jour., 605. Even the smallest boy in buttons would have been a retainer too costly for us.
1874. H. Mayhew,London Characters, 311. Others limit their views to a page, or buttons.
1885. III. Lon. News, April 11, 376, i. 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.
Verb, (common).—To decoy ; to act in confederacy : Fr. aguicher.
Button of Naples, subs. phr. (old).—A syphylitic bubo.
[?]. Extract (no reference) quoted by Nares. Specially because hissouldiers were much given to vénerie. The French
men at that siege got the buttons of Naples (as we terme them) which doth much annoy them at this day. But the first finding of this grievous sickness, was brought into Spaine, by Columbus at his coming home, so that all Christendome may curse the king and Columbus.
Not to care (or be worth) a button (or brass-button), phr. (old).—To care (or be worth) nothing at all.
1630. Taylor, Works, 7. A lawyer hath but a bad trade there, for any cause or controversie is tryed and determined in three dayes, quirks, quiddits, demurs, habeas corposes, sursararaes, procedendoes, or any such dilatory lawtricks are abolished, and not worth a button.
1654. Witt's Recreations. As cid and goat, and great goats mother, And runt, and cow, and good cows uther: And once but taste of the Welse mutton, Your Englis sheep's not worth a button.
c. 1816. Old Song, 'The Night Before Larry was Stretched,' [Farmer, M usee Pedestris (1806), 79]. For the neckcloth I don't care a button.
TO drink one's button's off, verb phr. (old).—To tipple heavily: see lush, and cf. ' to gamble one's shirt off one's back.'
1640. Glapthorne, Ladies Priviledge. As, in the common proverb, The Dutchman drinks his buttons off, the English Doublet and all away.
TO have a button ON, verb.
phr. (old).—To have a fit of the blues {q.v.) to be despondent.
TO have lost a button (or be a button short) verb. phr. (common).—To be slightly crazy ; to have a tile {q.v.) loose.
To button up, verb phr. (American Stock Exchange).—When a broker has bought stock on speculation and it falls suddenly

Button. 457 Button-hole.
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.
Dash (or damn) my buttons (wig), phr. (common).—A mild oath.
i860. Wm. Howard Russell, My Diary in India, I., 26. Darn my buttons if I haTen't jest a mind to . . .
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: see quot. 1795.
1795. G. Colman, Sylv. Dagger-wood, I. (1808), 10. My father was an eminent Button-Maker . . . but I had a soul above buttons ... I panted for a liberal profession.
1821. Egan, Life in London, i. Few, if any, writers, out of the great mass of living scribblers, whether of Grub-Street fabrication, or of University passport . . . possess souls above buttons.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, 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., 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). — I. To look sorry; to be sad; to be in great fear. Hence (2)= to shit (q.v.) through fear e.g. 'His tail makes buttons'=He is in great fear.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Supererog., in IVks. II., 238. Thy witt already maketh buttons.
1653. Middleton, Sp. Gipsy, IV., iii. Sam. O Soto, I make buttons!
BUTTON-BUNG, subs. phr. (old).— A button thief: see BUNG.
BUTTON-BURSTER (or BUTTONBUSTER), subs. phr. (theatrical).— A low comedian.
BUTTON-CATCHER, subs. phr. (common).—A tailor.
English Synonyms, snip _; cabbage contractor ; steel-bar driver ; goose persuader; sufferer; ninth part of a man, etc.
French Synonyms. Gobe-prune (thieves') ; emmailloteur (popular) -, mangeur de prunes (genera.!) ; piquepoux ; pique-prunes -, pique-puces ; croque-prunes ; frusquineur.
BUTTONER, subs, (thieves'). — A card-sharper's decoy: see button, subs., sense 2.
1841. Blackwood's Mag., L., 302. Buttoners are those accomplices of thimble-riggers . . . whose duty it is to act as flat-catchers, or decoys, by personating flats.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3 ed.), 446. To entice another to play— buttoner.
i860. Cornhill Mag., II., 334. Enticer of another to play—buttoner.
BUTTON-HOLE, subs.phr. (venery).— The female pudendum : see monosyllable. Button-hole worker =(l) the penis: see prick _; and (2)=a performer (q.v.). Buttonhole woRKiNG=copulation: see greens and ride. Button-hole factory = (1) a brothel: see nanny-shop ; and (2)=a bed.
Verb, (colloquial).—(i)To stop; to detain : with such mild coercion as putting a finger in the buttonhole of a coat would imply. Hence (2)=to mildly coerce.

Button-pound. 458 Buz.
1902. D. Mail 13 Nov., 3, 4. The houses must also be places where the members would no more be buttonholed to join any particular religious sect or political organisation than a bishop was buttonholed at the Athenaeum to join the Land League.
Button-pound, subs.phr. (provincial).—Money : generic : see rhino.
butty, subs, (common).—A comrade ; a partner : see Bully.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, IVks. III., 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 eutty 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, 385. The butty has given notice to quit in Parker's field this se'nnight. Ibid, 389. The enemies of the people: all butties, doggies, dealers in truck and tommy.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, 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?¹
buvare, subs, (strolling players'). —See quot. and beware.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, III., 201. [Ethiopian serenader log.] '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.'
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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.
buy. To buy a prop, verb. phr. (Stock Exchange).—To seek support when the market has gone flat with no one to support it.
BU2 or buzz, subs, (common).— A parlour game: — 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. (Hotten).
1868. Miss Alcott, Little Women, 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. (old).— I. See quot.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vnlgar Tongue. To buzz a 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., 118. Eriskly 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, ii., 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., 234. The Hotel which I had seen a few days before, where Von Turnfling's staff were buzzlng the bottles.

Buz-bloke. 459 Buz-wig.
2. To pick pockets: the victim is engaged in conversation by a confederate, while the buzzer is committing the robbery : see buz
NAPPER.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, 158. In order to given them an opportunity of working upon the prig, and buz, that is, picking of pockets.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3ed„ 445. To pick pockets—to buzz.
1876. C. Hindlev, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 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. (-cove, -gloak, -man, etc.). See Buz-napper.
Buz-man, suas, (thieves').—I. See Buz-napper.
2. (thieves'). — An informer: see nark.
1877. W. Black, Green Past, and Pice., xi. What was all this about ' Billy Rowland,' 'Scotland Yard,' 'Spy,' 'buzman,' and the rest ?
Buz-napper, (Buzzer, Buz-man, etc.). suas. phr. (old).— I. A pickpocket: see buz, verb, 2.
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 buzgloak, a pickpocket; a person who is clever at this practice is said to be a 'good buz.'
1834. H. AiNSwoRTH, Rookwood, III., v. Until at last there was none so knowing, No such sneaksman or buzGLOAK going.
1856. H. Mayhkw, Gl. World of London, 46. Those who plunder by stealth, as... buzzers, who pick gentlemen's pockets.
1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, in. The London buzman (swell mobsman) can keep his pony by abstracting 'skin' (purses) from gentlemen's pockets.
1839. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 3 p.m., 10. Where these rufjiani, these copper captains and cozening buzgloaks, 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, 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. phr. (old).—A school in which yonng thieves were trained : figures were dressed up, and experienced thieves 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, Viezu of Society, II., 173. [A buz-napper's academy is named and described in this work.]
Buz-napper's kinchin, subs. phr. (old).—A watchman.
buz-wig, subs. phr. (common).—A pompous fool.
18.. De Quincey, Spanish Nun, 21. All was upset by two witnesses, whom the reader . . . will at once know to be false witnesses, but whom the old Spanish buz-wigs doated on as models of all that could be looked for in the best.

Buzzard. 460
By-blow.
Buzzard, subs, (old). —A stupid
fellow; a buffe (q.v.).
e. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crezi:, s.v. buzzard, c. a foolish soft fellow, easily drawn in and cullied or trickt.
Buzzer. Set buz-napper.
BY. Frequently used in combination for oaths : among semi-veiled imprecations are:—By cracky ; By George _; By Goldam_; By Golly _; By Gorram_; By Gosh _;By Gum _; By Hooky ; By the ever-living jumping Moses ; By the living Jingo, etc.
1731. Fielding, Grub Street Opera, iii., 7. By george, I'll make an example of him.
1737. Bacchus and Venus, 117, 'Fore George, I'd knock him down.
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.'
1772. Bridges, Homer, 256. I will, by george; so there's an end on't.
1804. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), I., 210. I promise, by gosh (which is the most elegant and classical oath imaginable].
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, III., 204. Then I turn round to him and say, 'By golly, if you don't leave off, I'll broke you over de jaw.'
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, xxxviii. I—er—a little subject to this sort of thing—er—by george!
i860. Haliburton ('Sam Slick'), The Season Ticket, 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.
1877. W. Black, Green Past, and Pice, xxxv. 'If this goes on,' said he suddenly, 'by gosh, I'll heave!'
_ 1882. Jas. Payn, For Cash Only, xxii. 'Pay me what you owe me,' says I, 'or, by hooky, I'll tell your father.'
1887. Francis, Saddle and Moccasin, He's a high roller, by gum!
1888. American Humorist. 'Bill, are you hurt? ' ' Yes, by gum ; I've broke my goldarned neck.'
1888. Superior Inter-Ocean. Say, haint Tubbs a Methodist? By cracky! here's where it is, and in we walked.
1900. Kipling, Stalky &r~ Co., 18. Loco parentis, by gum ! But what's the odds, as long as you're 'appy.' We're all right.
By the wind, phr. (nautical). —Hard up ; in difficulties.
By-blow, (or by-scape), by-chop, by-slip, subs. phr. (old) = a bastard ; a side-slip (q.v.) : in by-scape an eye may be kept on bloody-escape (q.v.) from a
french letter (q.V.).
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, Pari, cf Love, II., i. Give to each by-blow, I know mine, a farm.
1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iv., 2. First I have sent by-chop away; the cause gone, the fame ceaseth.
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.
1663. Stapylton, Slighted Maid, 27. The English Drakes, great Captain Drake (That sail'd the world round) left in Spain a by-blow, Of whom I come
1678. C. Cotton, Scarronides, I., 21 (ed. 1725). Now Venus was sEneas' Mother,'In the behalf then of her byblow, Which had endured many a dryBlow.

By-by. 461
Byte.
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.
c. 1696. B.E., Diet. Cant. Crew., s.v by-blow, a bastard.
1705-7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, II., II., 19. The poor Man's House abounds 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.
1772. Bridges, Homer, 175. One of old Antenor's by-blows: His wife Theano, 'tis well known, nurs'd this young bastard like her own.
i863. Browning, Ring and Bk., iv., 612. A drab's brat, A beggar's bye-blow.
1S75. Ouida, Signa, I., iii., 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-BY, suds. phr. (nursery).—Bed.
BYE-DRINK, subs. phr. (common).— Liquid refreshment taken between meals.
1766. Kenrick, Falstaff's Wedding, i., i. 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-dkinkings.
1883. Daily Telegraph, Jan. 10, 5. 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-JOB, subs. phr. (old).—A matter outside the ordinary run of business.
1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, 11., ii. Dorothy kept the cash, and by that means kept Jerry within tolerable bounds, unless when he could secrete a tester for some bye-job.
A lassie'S BY-JOB, subs. phr. (Scots').—The act of kind: see greens and ride.
d. 1796. Burns, Court of Equity. The sneak wha' at a lassie's by-job Defrauds her wi' a frig or dry-bob.
BYNG (BING), verb (old cant).—To go. BYNGE-AWASTE=to go away.
1567. Harman, Caveat, or Waren ing for Commen Cursetors, 86. Man. What, stowe your bene, cofe, and cut benat whydds, and byng we to romevyle, 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. Bowlands, Martin Mark-all, 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 Manneriug,xxvm. Bing out and tour [go out and watch] ye auld devil, and see that nobody has scented.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xvii. 'I smell a spy,' replied the other, looking at Nigel.... 'Bing avast, bing avast!' replied his companion.
BYSCAPE. See by-blow.
BYTE. See bit.