Slang and its analogues past and present, volume 1 [of 7] (part 2 of 3)

Slang and its analogues past and present, volume 1 [of 7] (part 2 of 3)

Below the Belt, adv. phr. (popular).—To strike a man below the belt is to hit him unfairly, a term derived from the pugilistic arena. Hence, underhand dealing, and the taking of mean advantage generally. It is akin with ‘To stab a man in the back.’

Belswagger, subs. (old).—1. A lewd man; a whoremaster; a pimp. [Thought to be a contracted form of belly + swagger, i.e., a man given up to bodily pleasure. Ash has both forms.]

1775. Ash, Dictionary. Belswagger, a whoremaster.

2. A bully; a hectoring fellow. This is the older, but least important usage.

1592. Greene, Defence of Coney-Catching. ... the belswaggers of the country.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bellswagger, a noisy, bullying fellow.

Beltinker, subs. and verb (common).—A beating; a drubbing. To thrash; to beat soundly.—For synonyms, see Tan.

Bemused, ppl. adj. (common).—Fuddled; as in the stupid stage of drunkenness. [From be + muse + ed, originally to be sunk in reverie, or contemplation.] The expression as generally used now is bemused with beer. This phrase, originally used by Pope, was given a new impetus by G. A. Sala (in Gaslight and Daylight). In America, especially, it caught the popular fancy and ran a brief but riotous course throughout the Union to signify one who addicted himself to ‘soaking’ with beer. The transatlantic usage naturally reacted upon the Mother Country, and from being occasionally employed it became much more popular, and was heard on all sides—a striking instance of ‘fashion in words.’

1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 15. A parson much be-mus’d in beer.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. viii. A fat little man, primed with port, but who, when not thus bemused, is an influential member of his committee.

1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, ch. iv., in Longman’s Mag., April, p. 694. So while the Doctor made himself drunk with words, the adopted stable-boy bemused himself with silence.

For synonyms generally, see Screwed.

Ben, subs. (theatrical).—1. A benefit; a performance of which the receipts, after paying expenses, are devoted to one person’s special use or benefit.

1872. Miss Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, I., 190. ‘I have played clown for my ben,’ murmured the great Dr. Mortemas.

1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Forgotten). You saw me as Hamlet, Charley, the night that I had my ben.

2. (old cant.)—A fool.—Grose.—See Benish.

3. (common.)—A shortened form of Benjamin (q.v.), a coat; also of benjy (q.v.), a waistcoat.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 252. Being at Hailsham, a small market town in Sussex, about the year 1846, I attended the club feast, which was held on the common. At that time we used to buy men’s waistcoats of Michael Riley, of Manchester, at £5 per gross, and sell them at 1s. 6d., 1s. 3d., and the lowest price at a shilling each. I had a bale containing twelve dozen arrive that morning, they were red ones; and in offering these bens, the plan was to put them on to show how well they fitted.

To stand ben (popular).—To stand treat.

Benar.—See Bene.

Benbouse, subs. (old cant).—Good beer. [From the Latin bene = good + bouse or booze.]

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 85. The vpright cofe canteth to the Roge: ‘I saye by the Salomon I will lage it of with a gage of benebouse; then cut to my nose watch.’ [‘I sweare by the masse, I wull washe it of with a quart of good drynke; then saye to me what thou wylt.’]

1622. John Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush.

I crown thy nab with a gag of benbouse, And stall thee by the salmon into clowes, To maund on the pad and strike all the cheats, To mill from the Ruffmans, and commission and slates. Twang dell’s, i’ the stiromel, and let the quire cuffin And Herman Beck strine and trine to the Ruffin!

i.e.,

I poure on thy pate a pot of good ale, And by the Rogue’s oath, a Rogue the install, To beg on the way and rob all thou meets, To steal from the hedge both the shirt and the sheets, And lie with thy wench in the straw till she twang, Let the Constable, Justice, and Devil go hang!

Bencher, subs. (old).—A frequenter of taverns; one who hulks about public houses; perhaps with an allusion to the Benchers of the Inns of Court.

Ben Cull or Cove, subs. (thieves’).—A friend; a ‘pall’; a companion. [From old cant bene or ben, good + cull, a man.] For synonyms, see Cove.

Bend, verb (Scotch).—To tipple; to drink hard. Jamieson, the first lexicographer to draw attention to the word in its slang sense, illustrates his example by quotations from Alan Ramsay. Murray suggests that it is derived from that sense of to bend, signifying ‘to pull,’ ‘to strain,’ ‘to apply oneself.’

1758. A. Ramsay, Poems (1800), I., 215. Brawtippony ... which we with greed bended, as fast as she could brew. Ibid, ii., 73. To bend wi’ ye, and spend wi’ ye, an evening, and gaffaw. [1860. Ramsay, Remin., Ser. 1 (ed. 7), 47. Bend weel to the Madeira at dinner, for here ye’ll get little o’t after.]

Above one’s bend, phr. (common).—Above one’s ability, power or capacity; or out of one’s reach. Probably a corruption of ‘above one’s bent.’ Shakspeare puts the expression in the mouth of Hamlet, ‘to the top of my bent’ (iii., 2). In the Southern States [U.S.A.], its place is generally taken by above my huckleberry (q.v.). An English equivalent is ‘above one’s hook.’

1848. J. F. Cooper, The Oak Openings. It would be above my bend to attempt telling you all we saw among the red skins.

Grecian bend (popular).—A craze amongst women which had a vogue from about 1872 to 1880. It consisted in walking with the body bent forward.

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

On the bend, phr. (common).—In an underhand, oblique, or crooked way—not ‘on the square.’

1863. J. C. Jeaffreson, Live It Down, II., 152. I never have paid anything yet on the square, and I never will. When I die, I’ll order my executor to buy my coffin off the square. He shall get it on the bend somehow or other.

Bender, subs. (popular).—1. A sixpence. Thought to be an allusion to the ease with which these coins were liable to be bent in use. At one time the currency was not of such good quality as now.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178. Sixpence. A bender.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xlii., p. 367. ‘Will you take three bob?’ ‘And a bender,’ suggested the clerical gentleman.... ‘What do you say, now? We’ll pay you out for three-and-sixpence a week. Come!’

1869. Whyte Melville, M. or N., p. 66. A ragged boy established, at the crossing, who had indeed rendered himself conspicuous by his endeavours to ferry Puckers over dry-shod, was accosted by a shabby-genteel and remarkably good-looking man, in the following vernacular—‘On this minnit, off at six, Buster; two bob an’ a bender, and a three of eye-water, in?’ ‘Done for another joey,’ replied Buster, with the premature acuteness of youth foraging for itself in the streets of London.

Among synonymous terms for this coin may be mentioned cripple; bandy; crookback; downer; fyebuck; lord of the manor; tanner; sprat; kick; half a borde; tizzy.

2. (Scotch.)—A hard and persistent drinker; a tippler. This should be compared with bend.

1728. Ramsay, Poems (1848), III., 162. Now lend your lugs, ye benders fine, wha ken the benefit of wine.

1810. Tannahill, Poems (1846), 53. Or benders, blest your wizzens weetin’.

3. (public schools’.)—In public school phraseology a bender is a stroke of the cane administered by the master while the culprit bends down his back.

4. (common.)—The arm. In connection with this see the following, and for synonyms, see Chalk Farm.

5. (American.)—A drinking bout or spree, in the course of which, to use another slang expression, ‘the town is painted red,’ and the participants decidedly unbent. This is possibly derived from any one of the three following sources:—(1) from the Scotch usage; (2) from the facetious name given to the arm, which becomes a bender from being so frequently bent or ‘crooked’ to lift the glass to the mouth; (3) from the Dutch bende, an assembly, party, or band.

1854. Putnam’s Monthly, Aug.

I met her at the Chinese room; She wore a wreath of roses, She walked in beauty like the night, Her breath was like sweet posies. I led her through the festal hall, Her glance was soft and tender; She whispered gently in my ear, ‘Say, Mose, ain’t this a bender?’

1864. Richmond Dispatch, 3 Jan. ‘Most of the owners of these names had been tempted by the festivities of the day to go on a regular bender, and had to pay the penalty for their New Year’s frolic by appearing this morning in the police-court.’

1888. Detroit Free Press, 4 Aug. He was a character noted for going on frequent benders until he came very near having the jimjams and then sobering up.

6. (American.)—A euphemism employed by the squeamishly inclined for the leg. A similar piece of prudishness is displayed in an analogous use of ‘limb.’ With a notorious mock-modesty American women decline to call a leg a leg; they call it a limb instead. This tendency is the more remarkable when the great freedom extended to American girls and women is borne in mind; unless, indeed, it arises from guilty knowledge. White, who, perhaps, was rather given to excessive incisiveness of speech, remarked that perhaps such persons think that it is indelicate for women to have legs, and that therefore they are concealed by garments, and should be concealed in speech. Professor Geikie, during one of his Canadian tours, also found out that both sexes had limbs of some sort; the difficulty was to discover whether they were used to stand on or to hold by. Sensible people everywhere, however, have little part in such prudery.

1849. Longfellow, Kavanagh. Young ladies are not allowed to cross their benders in school.

7. (schoolboys’.)—The bow-shaped segment of a paper kite.

1873. Dr. Blackley, Hay Fever, p. 145. The first kite was six feet in length by three feet in width, and was made of the usual form, namely, with a central shaft or ‘standard,’ and a semi-circular top or bender.

Over the bender, phr. (common).—A variant of ‘over the left shoulder’; the connection between bender, a slang term for the arm, and the shoulder is sufficiently apparent. There are many analogous expressions, which see under Over the left.

Intj.—An exclamation of incredulity; also used as a kind of saving clause to a promise which the speaker does not intend to carry into effect. Probably an abbreviated form of over the bender.

Bendigo, subs. (common).—A rough fur cap named after a notorious pugilist.

Bend Over, intj. (Winchester College).—A direction to put oneself into position to receive a ‘spanking.’ This is done by bending over so that the tips of the fingers extend towards the toes, thus presenting a surface as tight as a drum on the part to be castigated.

Bene, Ben, adj. (old cant).—Good. This belongs to the most ancient English cant, and is probably a corruption from the Latin. Benar and benat appear to have been used as comparatives of bene.—(See quots.)

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p, 86. What, stowe your bene, cofe, and sut benat whydds, and byng we to rome vyle to nyp a bong. [i.e. What, hold your peace good fellow and speak better words, and let us go to London to cut, or steal a purse.]

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Ben, good.

1611. Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl or Moll Cut Purse.

A gage of ben Rom-bouse, In a bousing ken of Rom-vile

Is benar than a Caster, Peck, pennam, lay Or popler.

i.e.,

A quart pot of good wine In a drinking house of London Is better than a cloak, meat, bread, butter milk (?) or porridge.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11, list of cant words in. Bien, good.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 265. ‘I’ve brought a couple of bene coves, with lots of the Queen’s pictures in their sacks’ [pockets].

Subs. (old cant).—‘Stowe your bene,’ i.e., ‘hold your tongue.’ See quotation above from Harman’s Caveat.

Bene-Bouze.—See Benbouse.

Bene-Cove.—See Ben-cull.

Bene Darkmans! intj. (old cant).—Good night! French thieves say sorgabon, an inversion of bonne sorgue.

Benedick, subs. (familiar).—1. A sportive name for a newly-married man; especially one who has long been a bachelor. Apparently, however, there is some confusion in the usage (see sense 2). The name was derived from Shakspeare’s character in Much Ado About Nothing.

1599. Shakspeare, Much Ado About Nothing, v., 4, 100. Don Pedro. How dost thou, benedick, the married man?

1805. Rev. J. Marriott, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), I., 239. From what I have seen of his lordship, both as a bachelor and as a benedick.

2. A bachelor. Cf., foregoing.

1843. Life in the West. He is no longer a benedic, but a quiet married man.

1856. C. Bronté, Professor, ch. xxiv. ‘Are you married, Mr. Hunsden?’ asked Frances, suddenly.

‘No. I should have thought you might have guessed I was a benedick by my look.’

Bene Feakers, subs. (cant).—Counterfeiters of bills.—Grose.

Bene Feakers of Gybes, subs. phr. (cant).—Counterfeiters of passes.—Grose.

Bene or Bien Mort, subs. (old cant).—A fine woman; a pretty girl; a hostess. [From bene, old cant for ‘good,’ + mort, a canting term for a woman.]

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 85 (ed. 1869). A bene mort hereby at the sign of the prauncer. [i.e., The Horse.]

1671. Richard Head, The English Rogue.

Bing out, bien morts, and ture and ture, Bing out, bien morts, and toure; For all your duds are bing’d awast, The bien cove hath the loure.

i.e.,

Go forth, brave girls: look out, look out, Look out, I say, good maids, For all your clothes are stole, I doubt, And shar’d among the blades.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. ‘Tour out,’ said the one ruffian to the other; ‘tour the bien mort twiring at the gentry cove.’

1823. Scott, Peveril of the Peak, ch. xxxvi. Why the bien morts will think you a chimney-sweeper on May-day.

1881. New York Slang Dictionary. [See first stanza of canting song on page 80 ante.]

Beneship.—See Benship.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 86. The vpright man canteth to the Roge. Man! ‘That is beneshyp to our watche.’ [That is very good for vs.]

Beneshiply, adv. (old cant).—Worshipfully.—Grose.

Ben-Flake, subs. (thieves’).—A steak.

Bengal Tigers, subs. (military).—The Seventeenth Foot; so nicknamed from its badge of a royal tiger granted for services in India from 1804–1823. Also called ‘The Lily-Whites’ from its facings.

1874. Chambers’ Journal, p. 801. The 17th ... the Bengal Tigers, from their badge—a tiger.

Bengi, subs. (military).—An onion.

Bengy.—See Benjy.

Benish, adj. (old cant.)—Foolish.—See Ben, sense 2.

Benjamin, subs. (Winchester College).—1. A small ruler.

2. (thieves’.)—A coat. It is said to have been derived from a well-known London advertising tailor of the same name. Formerly this garment was called a Joseph, but for synonyms, see Capella. An upper Benjamin = a great coat.

1815. T. Peacock, Nightmare Abbey, p. 159. His heart is seen to beat through his upper Benjamin. [M.]

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. Benjamins, and great-coats, and cloaks of all sorts and sizes.

1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. lix., p. 181 (1888). The coachman ... with narrow-rimmed hat and fashionable Benjamin.

1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 7 March, p. 3, col. 2. [Quoting East-end slang.]

Ben Joltram, subs. (provincial).—Brown bread and skimmed milk; a Norfolk term for a ploughboy’s breakfast.—Hotten.

Benjy, subs. (nautical).—1. A low crowned straw hat having a very broad brim.

1883. W. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, p. 14. Benjie, the name of a straw hat worn by sailors.

2. (common.)—A waistcoat. Also ben (q.v.). For synonyms, see Fan.

1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171. Benjy, a vest.

Bens, subs. (American).—A workman’s slang term for his tools. In England called alls.

Benship or Beenship, subs. (old cant).—Worship; goodness. This word, evidently from beneship (q.v.), is given by Bailey in his Dictionary [1728], and by Coles in 1724.

Adv. (old cant).—Very good.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Benship, very good.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr.). Benship, very good.

1665. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). Benshiply, very well.

Beong, subs. (thieves’ and costermongers’).—A shilling. [From Italian bianco, white; also the name of a silver coin.] For full list of synonyms, see Deaner.

Beray, verb (old cant).—To defile; to befoul; to abuse.

Berkeleys, subs. (common).—A woman’s breasts. [It may be noted that in the gypsy, berk, or burk = breast; plural, berkia.] For synonyms, see Dairies.

Bermudas, subs. (old).—A district in London, similar to Alsatia in Whitefriars (q.v.), and the Mint in Southwark, privileged against arrests. The Bermudas are thought to have been certain narrow and obscure alleys and passages north of the Strand, near Covent Garden, and contiguous to Drury Lane; see, however, the second quotation where the Mint would seem to be indicated.

1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, II., 1. Meercraft. Engine, when did you see my cousin Everhill? keeps he still your quarter in the Bermudas? Eng. Yes, sir, he was writing this morning very hard.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 12. In short, every contrivance that ingenuity could devise was resorted to by this horde of reprobates to secure themselves from danger or molestation. Whitefriars had lost its privileges; Salisbury Court and the Savoy no longer offered places of refuge to the debtor; and it was, therefore, doubly requisite that the Island of the Bermuda (as the Mint was termed by its occupants) should uphold its rights, as long as it was able to do so.

As regards the derivation of the name, Nares suggests it in the actual practice, which obtained of debtors fleeing to the Bermuda Islands, when first discovered, to elude their creditors. This fact is alluded to in the following. Cf., second quotation already given.

1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, III., 3. There’s an old debt of forty, I ga’ my word. For one is run away to the Bermudas.

Berthas, subs. (Stock Exchange).—The nickname in the ‘House’ and among brokers for the ordinary stock of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company.

1889. The Rialto, Mar. 23. The week opened very badly on the Stock Exchange, and two or three days of utter stagnation followed, but yesterday afternoon a revival took place, which was quite dramatic in its suddenness and vigour. Between two o’clock and the closing of the doors at four o’clock, advances were made ranging from 2½ in Berthas to an average of 1 in Americans. Tintos climbed to 12¼, and even Kaffirs raised their sickly heads. All the little bulls went home happier than they have been for three weeks.

Berwicks, subs. (Stock Exchange).—The ordinary stock of the North Eastern Railway.

Bespeak-Night, subs. (theatrical).—A benefit.—See Ben.

Bess.—See Betty.

Bess-o’-Bedlam, subs. (old).—A lunatic vagrant.

1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xxvi. ‘Why, what Bess of Bedlam is this, would ask to see my lord on such a day as the present?’

Best. To best one, verb (common).—1. To obtain an advantage; to secure a superior position in a contest or bargain. The meaning of to best, therefore, is really ‘to worst.’ In this sense, not necessarily to cheat.—See sense 2.

1863. Trafford, World in Ch., II., 77. As I am a staunch Churchman I cannot stand quiet and see the Dissenters best the Establishment. [M.]

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 69. Bob was a good salesman, but of bad temper, who if he could not get rid of any unruly fellow by his chaffing him, would invariably turn to Perdue and say, ‘Look at this man; I shan’t bother with him, why don’t you get him away? He’s interrupting me and the business. I can’t jolly him down, so you must settle and do away with him, or I must “dry up,” for the fellow’s bested me.’

c. 1879. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 92. His intimates were wont to say there was no trusting Cuddie Elliston, while, as for Sam Pearson, it was a current saying that ‘No one had ever bested him.’ Still, Yorkshire has a certain respect for this faculty; and though Pearson was regarded as a man who carried it rather far, and would have skinned his own brother upon occasion, yet public opinion did not get much further regarding him than that ‘Lawyer Pearson knew his away about; and you’d to get up main early in the morning to get a point the best of him.’

1883. Graphic, Feb. 24, p. 191, col. 1. So there are people who will not scruple to best a railway company, who would be loth to wrong a private person.

2. Sometimes, however, passing the ill-defined border line between sharp practice and down-right roguery, to best is an equivalent of to cheat; to swindle.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 234. His game was besting everybody, whether it was for pounds, shillings, or pence. At one time he cheated a poor farming man out of his milch cow in exchange for another. The man was in liquor at the time, and when he came to his senses he went right away to another part of the country, and his poor wife took it so to heart that she died shortly afterwards.

1879. Horsley, in Macmillan’s Magazine, Oct. When I went to the fence he bested (cheated) me because I was drunk, and only gave me £8 10s. for the lot. So the next day I went to him and asked him if he was not going to grease my duke (put money into my hand). So he said, ‘No.’ Then he said, ‘I will give you another half-a-quid’; and said, ‘Do anybody, but mind they don’t do you.’ So I thought to myself, ‘All right, my lad; you will find me as good as my master,’ and left him.

1885. May, in Fortnightly Review, Oct., p. 578. The quack broker who piles up money by besting his clients. [M.]

To give one best (thieves’).—To leave one; to sever companionship.

1879. Horsley, in Macmillan’s Mag., Oct. While using one of those places [concerts], I first met a sparring bloke (pugilist), who taught me how to spar, and showed me the way to put my dukes up. But after a time I gave him best (left him) because he used to want to bite my ear (borrow) too often.

Bester, subs. (common).—A cheat; a swindler.—See Best, sense 2. Generally applied to a turf or gaming blackleg.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 24. Those who cheat the Public ... ‘Bouncers and Besters’ defrauding, by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.

1885. Evening News, 21 September, 4, 1. The complainant called her father a liar, ‘a bester and a crawler.’

Besting the Pistol, phr. (pedestrian).—To get away before the signal for starting is actually given. [From besting, gaining an advantage, + pistol, the firing of which is the signal to ‘Go!’]

1889. Polytechnic Magazine, July 7, p. 330. The third man from scratch was evidently in too great a hurry; twice he tried to best the pistol, and as often the whole start had to be made afresh.

Bet. You bet! intj. (American).—You may depend on it; you may be sure; certainly! be assured! Originally a Californian phrase tacked on to an assertion to give it additional emphasis. So popular is the expression that it has been given as a name in the form of Ubet to a town in the Canadian Northwest. Oftentimes it is amplified into ‘you bet your boots,’ ‘life,’ ‘bottom dollar,’ and so on. The two former were used in New York and Boston as far back as 1840.

c. 1882. Stavely Hill, From Home to Home. We reached the settlement of Ubet. The name had been selected from the slang phrase so laconically expressive of ‘You may be sure I will’.... A night marauder took advantage of a good moon to place a ladder against a window, hoping to secure the property of a gentleman asleep within the chamber. As he lifted the window, and put his head in, the gentleman woke up, and with great promptness presented his six-shooter, shouting out ‘You get!’ With equal promptness the detected thief exclaimed you bet! and slid down the ladder,—et procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram.

1870. Bret Harte, Poems, etc., The Tale of a Pony: Ah, here comes Rosey’s new turn-out! Smart! You bet your life ’twas that!

1872. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. ii. ‘The mosquitoes are pretty bad about here, madam!’ ‘You bet!’ ‘What did I understand you to say, madam?’ ‘You bet!’

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Mar. 7. Congressional Report. Mr. Boutelle—That is the bravery to which you refer? (Applause on the Republican side.) Mr. O’Ferrall—Well, sir, it is the right kind of bravery: you may bet your bottom dollar on that.

(American.)—To bet one’s eyes is a gambler’s term for an onlooker who neither takes part in, nor bets upon the game.

Bethel, verb.—See quotation.

1740. North, Examen, p. 93. In the year 1680 Bethel and Cornish were chosen sheriffs. The former used to walk about more like a corn-cutter than Sheriff of London. He kept no house, but lived upon chops, whence it is proverbial for not feasting to bethel the city.

Be There, verbal phr. (common).—To be there is to be on the qui vive; alive; knowing; in one’s element.

Better, adv. (vulgar).—More; without any idea of superiority. A depraved word; once in good usage, but now regarded as a vulgarism.

1587. Fleming, Cont. Holinshed, III., p. 1382, col. 2. Woorth one hundred and twentie pounds and better. [M.]

1679. Plot, Staffordshire (1686), p. 239. The bodies ... being better than an inch long. [M.]

1769. Gray, in N. Nichols’ Corr. (1843), p. 87. It is better than three weeks since I wrote to you. [M.]

1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. lxx., p. 217 (1888). Following its windings for somewhat better than a furlong.

1854. Ainsworth, Flitch of Bacon, pt. I., ch. v. ‘Pastor of Little Dunmow Church for fifty years and better.’

1857. Dickens, Dorrit, bk. I., ch. x., 75. ‘Yes. Rather better than twelve years ago.’

1860. Dickens, Xmas Stories (Mess. from Sea), p. 89 (H. ed.). ‘He shipped for his last voyage better than three years ago.’

Better Half, subs. (colloquial).—humorous term for a wife. The history of the phrase is thus given by Murray, ‘originally my better half, i.e., the more than half of my being; said of a very close and intimate friend’; (Cf., ‘the better part of me’ Shaks.; ‘meæ partem animæ,’ ‘animæ dimidium meæ,’ Horace; ‘animæ partem ... nostra majorem’ Statius); especially (after Sidney) used for ‘my husband’ or ‘wife’; now, jocularly appropriated to the latter. Formerly also applied to the soul, as the better part of man.

1580. Sidney, Arcadia, III., 280. [Argalus to Parthenia, his wife.] My deare, my better halfe (sayd hee), I find I must now leaue thee. [M.]

Circa 1600. Shakspeare, Sonnets, xxxix., 2.

O how thy worth with manners may I sing, When thou art all the better part of me? What can mine own praise to mine own self bring? And what is’t but mine own when I praise thee.

1720. Sheffield (Duke of Buckingham), wks. (1753) I., 274. My dear and better half is out of danger. [M.]

1842. Theodore Martin, in Fraser’s Magazine, Dec., p. 241, col. 2. I ... shall look out for a better half. [M.]

Betting Round, ppl. adj. (racing).—Laying fairly and equally against nearly all the horses in a race, so that no great risk can be run. Commonly called getting round.—Hotten.

Bettor Round, subs. (racing).—One who is addicted to betting round (q.v.).

1882. ‘Thormanby,’ Famous Racing Men, p. 75. He [John Gully] worked on gradually as a layer of odds—a ‘bettor round,’ or ‘leg,’ as he was called in those days. [c. 1820.]

Betty or Bess, subs. (old).—A small instrument used formerly by burglars to force open doors and pick locks. Now called a jenny; also jemmy; tivvil; twist; or screw. For synonyms, see Thieves, etc.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). Betty, an instrument to break a door.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus. vol. II., pt. IX., p. 7.

So Ruffains, who, with Crows and Betties, Break Houses, when it dark and late is.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bring bess and glym; i.e., bring the instrument to force the door, and the dark lanthorn.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 339. Expert burglars are generally equipped with good tools. They have a jemmy, a cutter, a dozen of betties, better known as picklocks.

Verb (colloquial).—To potter about; to fuss about. Usually said of a man assuming the domestic functions of a woman.

All betty! intj. (thieves’).—cry of warning; ‘it’s all up; the game is lost!’

Betty Martin.—See All my eye.

Betwattled, ppl. adj. (old).—Surprised; confounded; out of one’s senses; also bewrayed.—Grose.

Between You and Me and the Bedpost.—See Bedpost.

Bever, Bevir, Bœver, subs. (Eton, Winchester, and Westminster Colleges).—An afternoon meal served in hall. An old time term for a repast or snack between meals, especially in the afternoon; it is still dialectical in some parts of England. Murray gives examples of its use dating back to 1500.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 83. In summer time we were let out of afternoon school for a short time about four p.m., when there was a slight refection of bread and cheese laid out in Hall. It was called beever-time, and the pieces of bread beevers.

1884. M. Morris, in English Illustrated Magazine, Nov., p. 73. [At Eton, we] came up from cricket in the summer afternoons for beaver.

Beverage or Bevy, subs. (old).—A tip; a vail; equivalent to the French pourboire; money for drink, demanded, says Grose [1785], of any one having a new suit of clothes. For synonyms, see Tip.

Beware, subs. (theatrical).—Explained by quotation.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, vol. III., p. 149. ‘We [strolling actors] call breakfast, dinner, tea, supper, all of them “numyare”; and all beer, brandy, water, or soup, are beware.’

B Flats, subs. (common).—Bugs. Cf., F sharps, and for synonyms, see Norfolk Howards.

1866. Dickens, Household Words, xx., 326. Mrs. B. beheld one night a stout negro of the flat-back tribe—known among comic writers as b flats—stealing up towards the head of the bed.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. B flats.—Bugs. The pun is ‘B’ (the initial letter), and ‘flat,’ from the flatness of the obnoxious insect.

Bib. To nap a bib, or one’s bib, phr. (popular).—To weep; to ‘blubber’; to ‘snivel.’

French Synonyms. Lâcher les écluses (popular: ‘to let loose the floodgates’; the phrase also means ‘to void urine’); pisser des yeux (common: ‘to urinate with the eyes’); pleuvoir des châsses (thieves’: pleuvoir = ‘to rain’; in military slang to void urine; châsse = eye); verver (thieves’: a corrupted form of verser, ‘to pour out,’ to shed); viauper (popular: this argotic verb also means ‘to go molrowing’ or ‘to lead a dissolute life’); chasser des reluits (popular: chasser = ‘to expel,’ ‘to drive out’; reluits = ‘the eyes,’ or ‘ogles’); chier des châsses (popular: a coarse term); chigner (popular); baver des clignots (popular: literally ‘to drivel, slaver’ or ‘slobber the eyes’—cligner signifying ‘to wink’ or ‘blink’; hence clignots, ‘the blinkers’ or ‘winkers’); beugler (popular: properly ‘to bellow’ [like a bull]).

German Synonyms. Echen eichen (from the Hebrew echa, the first word in the Lamentations of Jeremiah); flonen, phlonen, flannen, flaussen, or flennen (to pull one’s mouth awry, either for laughing or crying, but among German thieves mainly in the former sense); jalen jaulen, or jolen machen (from the Hebrew jolal, whining; ‘to howl,’ to whine).

Italian Synonyms. Trignare (this also signifies to ‘rain’: Cf., the French, pleuvoir des châsses); slenzare or slenzire (also ‘to urinate’: Cf., French, lâcher les écluses); ventare (the primary slang sense of ventare is ‘to moisten,’ hence ‘to shed tears’: properly ‘to blow,’ ‘to be windy’); lenzare or lenzire (primarily, in a slang sense, ‘to soak,’ ‘to wet’; from this the meaning is transferred to signify ‘to make water,’ i.e., ‘to urinate,’ and also ‘to shed tears’: the word is properly written l’ance; the derivation will be found under the French synonyms for Adam’s ale, q.v.).

In Spanish there is one expression for ‘to cry’ which is full of poetry—fabricar las perlas, i.e., ‘to make pearls.’ Arabs likewise speak of tears as ‘pearls on the face.’

Bibables or Bibibles, subs. (American).—Drink, as distinguished from food. [A coinage on the model of ‘edibles,’ ‘eatables,’ ‘drinkables,’ etc.; from Latin bib-ĕre, to drink, + able, i.e., able to be drunk.]

1860. William Howard Russell (Special Correspondent of the Times), My Diary in India in the years 1858–9, I., p. 8. Could all the pale-ale, soda-water, sherry, porter, and vin ordinaire, and the feebler bibables be turned into nectar, etc.

1860. Pittsburg Despatch, Aug. The table was loaded and spread with edibles and bibibles of every possible kind. [de v.]

Bib-All-Night, subs. (old).—A toper; a confirmed drunkard. [From bib-ĕre, to drink, + all-night.]

1612. Sylvester, Lacrymæ Lacrymaram, p. 101. Bats, Harpies, Syrens, Centaurs, Bib-all-nights.

Bible, subs. (nautical).—See quotations.

1867. Admiral Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bible, a hand-axe; a small holy-stone [a kind of sand-stone used in cleaning decks], so called from seamen using them kneeling.

1883. W. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, p. 14. Bibles. Small holy-stones, no doubt originally so called because they oblige those who use them to kneel. They are also termed ‘prayer books’ for the same reason.

That’s bible, phr. (common).—That’s the truth; that’s A 1.

Bible-Carrier, subs. (vagrants’).—A person who sell songs without singing them. Often heard in the neighbourhood of Seven Dials.

Bible-Clerk, subs. (Winchester College).—A College prefect in full power, appointed for one week. He keeps order in school, reads the lessons in chapel, takes round rolls (q.v.), and assists at floggings. He is absolved from going up to books (q.v.) during his term of office. The prefect of Hall need not act as Bible-clerk unless he likes, and the prefect of School may choose any week he pleases; the rest take weeks in rotation, in the order of their Chambers in College.—See Bibler and Bibling.

1864. Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. XCV., p. 73. [At dinner] portions of beef were served out to the boys ... the Bible-clerk meanwhile reading a chapter from the Old Testament. Ibid, p. 87. An hour ... is expected to be employed in working under the superintendence of the Bible-Clerk, as the præfect in daily ‘course’ is termed, who is responsible for a decent amount of order and silence at these hours.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 103. Order was kept during school hours by the Bible-clerk and Ostiarus, two of the Præfects, who held these offices in rotation—the former lasting for a week, the latter for one day only. They paraded School armed with sticks, and brought up to the Head and Second Masters (who alone had the power of flogging) the names of the delinquents which had been ‘ordered’ for punishment; the names of the more heinous offenders being confided to the Bible-clerk, the others to the Ostiarus.

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 59. There appears to have been no regular Bible-clerk.... From this it has been inferred that the institution of these offices must have been subsequent, and (some think) long subsequent to the Founder’s time.

Bible-Pounder, subs. (common).—A clergyman. [From bible + pounder, from the practice indulged in by some excitable exponents, of pounding or beating their hands upon the book or desk while preaching.] For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.

Bibler, subs. (Winchester College).—Now called bibling (q.v.).

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 109. The first time a boy’s name was ordered, the punishment was remitted on his pleading ‘Primum tempus.’ For a more serious breach of duty, a flogging of six cuts (a bibler) was administered, in which case the culprit had to ‘order his name to the Bible-clerk,’ and that individual, with the help of Ostiarius, performed the office of Jack Ketch.

Bibler Under Nail, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—See Bibling under nail.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 109. If a boy was detected in a lie, or any very disgraceful proceeding—a rare occurrence, I am happy to say—he had to stand up in the centre of Junior row during the whole of the School time, immediately preceding the infliction of the flogging; this pillory process was called a bibler under the nail.

Bibling, subs. (Winchester College).—Formerly called a bibler (q.v.). A flogging of six cuts on the small of the back, administered by the head or second master. So called because the person to be operated upon ordered (q.v.) his name to the Bible-clerk (q.v.).

1864. Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. XCV., p. 79. Underneath is the place of execution, where delinquents are bibled. Ibid, p. 72. It need hardly be said that it [the rod] is applied in the ordinary fashion: six cuts forming what is technically called a bibling—on which occasions the Bible-Clerk introduces the victim; four being the sum of a less terrible operation called a ‘scrubbing.’

Bibling-Rod, subs. (Winchester College).—The instrument with which a bibling (q.v.) was administered. It consisted of a handle with four apple twigs in the end, twisted together. It is represented on ‘Aut Disce.’ It was invented and first used by Warden Baker in 1454. It is not used now.

Bibling Under Nail, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—A bibling (q.v.) administered for very heinous offences after an offender had stood under nail (q.v.).—See quot. in Bibler under nail.

Biddy, subs. (old).—1. A chicken; sometimes chick-a-biddy. Hence, figuratively.

2. (familiar.)—A young woman, not necessarily Irish. In both these senses the word appears in Grose [1785]. Since that time it would seem to have changed somewhat in meaning as follows.

3. (familiar.)—A woman, whether young or old.

1868. O. W. Holmes, Guardian Angel, ch. xxviii., p. 233 (Rose Lib.). ‘Don’t trouble yourself about Kitty Fagan, for pity’s sake, Mr. Bradshaw. The biddies are all alike, and they’re all as stupid as owls, except when you tell ’em just what to do, and how to do it. A pack of priest-ridden fools!’

1887. Cornhill Mag., May, p. 510. How he gave to one old biddy ‘five guineas to buy a jack,’ and to another substantial help towards her boy’s schooling.

4. (Winchester College.)—See Bidet.

5. (American.)—A servant girl—generally Irish.

Bidet, or Biddy, subs. (Winchester College).—A bath. Juniors fill these for Præfect. The Winchester term is the French word bidet, the name given to the low narrow bedroom bathing stools, used principally by women, but more frequently on the Continent than in England. They are of such a shape that they can be bestridden. In this connection it may be mentioned, that in French bidet also signifies ‘a small horse’ or ‘pony.’

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bidet, commonly pronounced biddy, a kind of tub, contrived for ladies to wash themselves, for which purpose they bestride it like a little French pony or post horse, called in France bidets.

Bien.—See Bene.

Biff, subs. (American).—A blow. ‘To give [one] a biff in the jaw’; Anglicé, ‘to wipe one in the chops.’ Cf., Bang, and for synonyms, see Dig.

Biffin, subs. (familiar).—‘My biffin!’ i.e., ‘my pal!’ A biffin is properly a dried apple: Norfolk biffins especially are considered great delicacies.

Big. To talk or look big, phr. (familiar).—To assume a pompous style or manner with a view to impressing others with a sense of one’s importance; to talk boastingly. A French equivalent is se hancher.

1579. Spenser, Shep. Cal., Sept., 50.

The shepheards swayne you cannot wel ken, But it be by his pryde, from other men: They looken bigge as Bulls.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, Act iv., Sc. 3. Not a more cowardly rogue, in all Bohemia: if you had but looked big, and spit at him, he’d have run.

1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, l. 26. The squire, in all probability, cursed his punctuality in his heart, but he affected to talk big.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xv. ‘You will gain nought by speaking big with me.’

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. viii. ‘He looked big, and talked big, and altogether was a considerable big man in his own consait.’

1855. Anthony Trollope, The Warden, p. 207. The Archdeacon waxed wrath, talked big, and looked bigger.

Big as All Outdoors, phr. (American).—An expression intended to convey an idea of indefinite size; hugeness; enormous capacity.

1838. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. ii. The infarnal villain! Tell me who he is, and if he was big as all outdoors, I’d walk into him. Ibid, ch. iv. He is looking as big as all outdoors gist now, and is waitin’ for us to come to him.

Big-Bellied, adj. (colloquial).—Advanced in pregnancy.

1711. Addison [Referred to by].

1848. John Forster, Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, bk. II., ch. iv. My desires are as capricious as the big-bellied woman’s.

Big Ben, subs. (popular).—A nickname for the clock in the tower of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Commissioner of Works, under whose supervision it was constructed. It was commenced in 1856, and finished in 1857.

1869. The Register or Mag. of Biography, p. 213. With Sir Charles Barry’s sanction he designed the ornament cast on the Westminster Bell, familiarly known as big Ben.

1880. Punch, No. 2039, p. 51. Big Ben struck two, and the house adjourned.

Big Bird. To get or give the big bird, phr. (theatrical).—To be hissed on the stage; or, conversely, to hiss. When an actor or actress gets the big bird, it may be from two causes: either it is a compliment for successful pourtrayal of villainy, in which case the gods (q.v.) simply express their abhorence of the character and not of the actor; or, the hissing may be directed against the actor, personally, for some reason or other. The big bird is the goose. For synonyms, see Goosed.

1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. To be goosed, or, as it is sometimes phrased, to get the big bird, is occasionally a compliment to the actor’s power of representing villainy, but more often is disagreeably suggestive of a failure to please.

Big Bug, subs. (popular).—A person of standing or consequence, either self-estimated or in reality. A disrespectful but common mode of allusion to persons of wealth or with other claims to distinction. Variants are Big-dog, Big-toad, Big-wig, and Great gun (which see for general synonyms).

1854. Widow Bedott Papers, p. 301. Miss Samson Savage is one of the big bugs,—that is, she’s got more money than a’most anybody else in town.

1857. N. Y. Times, February. The free-and-easy manner in which the hair-brained Sir Robert Peel described some of the big bugs at Moscow has got him into difficulty.

1872. Schele de Vere, Americanisms, p. 392. Persons of great wealth and distinction are irreverently called big bugs, and I-street, in Washington, is thus said to be inhabited by the foreign ambassadors and other big bugs. J. C. Neal makes a nice distinction when he says of a rich man without social importance: ‘He is one of your big bugs, with more money than sense.’

1888. Texas Siftings, Sep. 15. Don’t appear unduly surprised or flustrated if, on answering the front door bell, you find Mr. Gladstone wiping his feet on the door mat. Invite him to walk in in a cool, collected tone of voice.... Show him you have entertained big bugs before.

Big Country, subs. (hunting).—The open country.

Big Dog of the Tanyard, phr. (American).—A consequential, pompous individual; one who will neither allow others a voice in any matter, or permit dissent from his own views. The obvious derivation is from the customary guarding of tanyards by ferocious watch-dogs. For synonyms, see Great gun.

Big Dog with the Brass Collar, phr. (American).—The chief in any undertaking or enterprise; a leader. A simile evidently derived from the stable or kennel. The phrase is sometimes shortened to big dog. For synonyms, see Great gun.

1848. J. R. Bartlett, Americanisms, p. 42. In some parts of the country, the principal man of a place or in an undertaking is called the big dog with a brass collar, as opposed to the little curs not thought worthy of a collar.

1882. Alan Pinkerton, The Molly Maguires, p. 24. ‘Yes,’ said Dormer, ‘Lawler is the big dog in these parts now; besides he kapes a good tavern, and will see no old-timer, or young one either, for that matther, sufferin’ from want while he can relieve him!’

Big Drink, subs. (familiar).—1. The ocean; more particularly applied to the Atlantic. Also called the big pond, herring pond, the puddle (q.v.).

1882. Miss Braddon, Mount Royal, ch. xiii. ‘I was coming across the big drink as fast as a Cunard could bring me.’

2. (Western American.)—When a Western plainsman talks of the big drink, he is always understood to mean the Mississippi river.

To take a big or long drink is to partake of liquor from a large glass. It is very customary when calling for refreshment to state whether a long or short drink is required.

Big Figure. To go the big figure, phr. (common).—A variant of ‘to go the whole hog,’ or ‘to go the whole animal.’ It signifies embarking upon an enterprise of magnitude. The phrase is mainly current in the Southern States, and is derived from a term used in poker.

1868. Pickings from the Picayune, p. 226. When I saw that, I thought I might as well go the big figure, you see, and so I grabbed the bag; but mischief would have it, that just then the policeman grabbed me and took me to the caboose.

Biggest, adj. (American).—A superlative often used in the sense of ‘the best’ or ‘the finest.’

1848. Ruxton, Life in Far West, p. 129. The thermal springs are regarded by the trappers as the breathing-places of his Satanic majesty; and considered, moreover, to be the biggest kind of medicine to be found in the mountains.

1888. Washington (Pa.) Review. The Pittsburg Times is as breezy a journal as comes to this office. It is the biggest little paper we are acquainted with.

Biggest Toad in the Puddle, phr. (American).—One of the many bold, if equivocal metaphors to which the West has given rise. The biggest toad in the puddle is the recognised leader or chief whether in politics, or in connection with the rougher avocations of pioneer life. Equivalent to the big dog with the brass collar (q.v.).—See also Big bug, and for synonyms generally, Great gun.

1848. J. R. Bartlett, Americanisms, p. 42. Biggest toad in the puddle. A Western expression for a head-man; a leader of a political party, or of a crowd. Not an elegant expression, though sometimes well applied. Thus a Western newspaper, in speaking of the most prominent man engaged in the political contest for one of the Presidential candidates before Congress, says: ‘Mr. D. D. F.—is the biggest toad in the puddle.’

Biggin, subs. (Winchester College).—A coffee machine in two parts—a strainer, and a coffee-pot for the infusion. It took its name from the inventor, a Mr. Biggin, who received letters patent ‘some years’ previous to 1803. (Gent. Mag., lxxiii., p. 1094.)

Biggity, adv. (American).—Consequential; giving oneself airs. A negro term.

c. 1884. S. L. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi, p. 511. These railroads have made havoc with the steamboat commerce. The clerk of our boat was a steamboat clerk before these roads were built. In that day the influx of population was so great, and the freight business so heavy, that the boats were not able to keep up with the demands made upon their carrying capacity; consequently the Captain was very independent and airy—pretty biggity as Uncle Remus would say.

Big Gun, subs. (familiar).—A person of consequence. Possibly of sporting origin. For synonyms, see Great gun.

1888. Texas Siftings, Oct. 13. ‘Who’s a big gun? You don’t consider that insignificant ink-slinger across the way a big gun, do you?’ ‘My wife can hardly wait to get it out of the mail,’ shouted Jones, desperately.

Big-Head. To have a big-head, phr. (American).—1. To be conceited; bumptious. Also applied to men or youths who are ‘cocksure’ of everything, or affected in manner.—See also Swell-head.

1848. J. R. Bartlett, Americanisms, p. 43. Boys who smoke cigars, chew tobacco, drink strong liquors, gamble, and treat their parents and superiors as their inferiors—of such a boy it is said, ‘He has got the big-head.’

1888. Texas Siftings, Oct. 20. If we were to base our calculation upon the corpulency of his iron hat and helmet, we should say it was a case of big-head, while his legs were long as a pair of duplex pinchers, his arms like the fans of a windmill, his feet like the foot of Mont Blanc, while his digital annex is like an inverted ham.

2. The phrase also signifies the after effect of a debauch.

To get the big-head. To get drunk. For synonyms, see Screwed.

Big House, subs. (common).—The workhouse,—a phrase used by the very poor; sometimes called the large house.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 52. ‘As long as they kept out of the big house (the workhouse), she would not complain.’ Ibid, II., p. 251. The men hate the thought of going to the big house.

Big Mouth, subs. (American).—Excessive talkativeness; loquacity. Cf., All mouth. For synonyms, see Gas.

Big Nuts to Crack, subs. phr. (American).—An undertaking of magnitude; one not easy to perform. [From a presumed difficulty in cracking large nuts.]

Big One or Big ’Un, subs. (old).—A man of note or importance. The current colloquialism is big-wig, but at one time big-one was the more frequently-used expression. For synonyms, see Great gun.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 42. Then up rose Ward, the veteran Joe, And, ’twixt his whiffs, suggested briefly That but a few at first should go, And those, the light-weight Gemmen chiefly; As if too many big ones went, They might alarm the Continent!

Big People, subs. (familiar).—Persons of standing or consequence. Cf., Great gun.

1858. Anthony Trollope, Dr. Thorne, I., p. 43. He would in no way assume a familiarity with bigger men than himself; allowing to the bigger men the privilege of making the first advances. Ibid, p. 81. When one is absolutely in the dirt at their feet, perhaps these big people won’t wish one to stoop any further.

Big Pond, subs. (popular).—The Atlantic. Also called the big drink (q.v.).

1838. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xviii. He [old Clay] is all sorts of a hoss, and the best live one that ever cut dirt this side of the big pond, or t’other side either.

1883. Sala, Living London, p. 204. Next time Miss Ward crosses the big pond, I earnestly hope that she will cross the ‘Rockies,’ and triumphantly descend the Pacific slope.

Big Pot, subs. (familiar).—A person of consequence. For synonyms, see Great gun.

1880. Punch’s Almanac, The Cad’s Calendar. Lor! if I’d the ochre, make no doubt, I could cut no end of big pots out. Call me cad? When money’s in the game, Cad and swell are pooty much the same.

Big-Side, subs. (Rugby School).—The combination of all the bigger fellows in the school in one and the same game or run; also the ground specially used for the game so denominated. Used also at other public schools.

Big-Side Run, subs. (Rugby School).—A paper chase, in which picked representatives of all houses take part, as opposed to a house run.

Big Take, subs. (American).—That which takes the public fancy; a great success, etc.,—in short, anything that ‘catches on.’—See Take.

Big Talk, subs. (popular).—Pompous speech; a pedantic use of long words.

1874. Saturday Review, Feb., p. 280. [With regard to words like ‘psithurism,’ ‘cheirognomy,’ ‘scintillating eyes,’ ‘the phaesimbrotous sun’] perhaps they have been grown so accustomed to big talk that, etc.

Big-Wig, subs. (popular).—A person of consequence; one high in authority or rank. [From big + wig, an allusion to the large and ornate headgear of men of importance in former times.] The term is used both contemptuously and humorously. For synonyms, see Great gun.

1703. English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother of the togati, fresh as a new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements. Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport, in term and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their bull-dogs—the town-raff and the bargees—well-blunted or stiver-cramped—against dun or don—nob or big wig—so may you never want a bumper of bishop.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xx. We live among bankers and city big-wigs, and be hanged to them, and every man, as he talks to you, is jingling his guineas in his pocket.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xlv. So you are going to sit among the big-wigs in the House of Lords.

1876 circa. Broadside Ballad, ‘Justice and Law.’

The Penge Case you know took a curious twist, But how it occurred, we can’t guess, Unless, unexpected, some turn of the wrist, Has got some ‘big-wig’ in a mess. To some folks it seems rather queer, now, you see, When ‘Sentence of Death’ had been passed, That one of the four is allowed to go free, And her prison doors wide open cast. Chorus.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxvi. ‘The Right Honorable gentleman no doubt means,’ said Phineas, ‘that we must carry ourselves with some increased external dignity. The world is bigwigging itself, and we must buy a bigger wig than any we have got, in order to confront the world with proper self-respect.’

Big-Wigged, ppl. adj. (popular).—Pompous; consequential. [From big-wig (q.v.) + [g] ed.]

1851. Carlyle, John Sterling, pt. I., ch. vii. And along with obsolete spiritualisms, he sees all manner of obsolete thrones and big-wigged temporalities.

Big-Wiggery, subs. (popular).—A display of consequence, or pomposity. [From big-wig (q.v.) + [g] ery, a condition.]

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. ii. Whilst Louis XIV., his old squaretoes of a contemporary—the great worshipper of bigwiggery—has always struck me as a most undoubted and Royal Snob.

1855. Household Words, xii., 250. All this solemn bigwiggery—these triumphs, ovations, sacrifices, orations.

Big-Wiggism, subs. (popular).—Pomposity. [From big-wig (q.v.) + [g] ism, a state or condition.]

1871–72. G. Eliot, Middlemarch, ch. xvii. I determined not to try anything in London for a good many years at least. I didn’t like what I saw when I was studying there—so much empty big-wiggism and obstructive trickery.

Big Words, subs. (familiar).—Pompous speech; ‘crack-jaw’ words. Cf., To talk big, and Big talk.

1879. Grenville Murray, Member for Paris, I., p. 103. ‘I don’t like such cynicism!’ ‘Oh, cynicism is a big word.’

Bilbo or Bilboa, subs. (old).—A sword. Bilboa in Spain was once renowned for well-tempered blades. Grose [1785] quotes the term as slang; this, however, is somewhat doubtful.

1592. Greene, Disputation, etc., in wks. X., 236. Let them doe what they dare with their bilbowe blades, I feare them not.

1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act iii., Sc. 7. Tell them, I say, he must refund—or bilbo’s the word, and slaughter will ensue.

1713. Guardian, No. 145. ‘He that shall rashly attempt to regulate our hilts, or reduce our blades, had need to have a heart of oak ... Bilbo is the word, remember that and tremble.’

1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. iv. ‘It was all fair play; your comrade sought a fall, and he has got it.’

‘That is true enough,’ said Bothwell, as he slowly rose; ‘put up your bilbo, Tom.’

2. A kind of stock—a long iron bar with sliding shackles for the ankles of prisoners, and a lock by which to fasten the bar at one end to the ground. The derivation is very uncertain.

1557. Hakluyt, Voy., I., 295. I was also conveyed to their lodgings ... where I saw a pair of bilbowes.

1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, in wks. (Grosart) III., 255. He that is spyced with the gowte or the dropsie, frequently dreameth of fetters and manacles, and being put on the bilbowes.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 2. Ham. ... Methought I lay worse than the mutines in the bilboes.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, Act iii., Sc. 6. Now a Man that is marry’d, has as it were, d’ye see, his Feet in the bilboes, and may-hap mayn’t get ’em out again when he wou’d.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 19. And are those shear’d, or put into bilboes, and handcufft.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bilboes, the punishing a person at sea, by laying or putting the offender in irons, or a sort of stocks, but more severe than the common stocks.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. ‘And now let us talk about our business.’ ‘Your business, if you please,’ said Hatterick; ‘bagel and donner!—mine was done when I got out of the bilboes.’

Bile, subs. (old).—1. The female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

2. (common.)—A vulgarism for ‘boil.’

Bilgewater, subs. (common).—Bad beer. Properly the name given to the drainings to the lowest part of a ship; being difficult to get at, these become, at times, exceedingly foul and offensive. For synonyms, see Swipes.

Bilk, subs. (common).—A word, formerly in general use, to which a certain stigma of vulgarity is now attached. Uncertain in derivation—possibly a corrupted form of ‘balk’—it was first employed technically at cribbage to signify the spoiling of an adversary’s score in the crib. Among obsolete or depraved usages may be mentioned.

Subs. 1. (obsolete.)—A statement or string of words without sense, truth, or meaning, jointly or severally.

1663. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, I., i. Tub. He will have the last word, though he talk bilk for’t. Hugh. Bilk! what’s that. Tub. Why nothing; a word signifying Nothing. [Note refers to Cole’s English Dict. (n.d. given) and to Halliwell, Arch. and Prov. Words, s.v.]

1740. North, Examen, p. 213. Bedloe was sworn, and being asked what he knew against the prisoner, answered, Nothing.... Bedloe was questioned over and over, who still swore the same bilk.

2. (common.)—A hoax; an imposition; a humbug. For synonyms, see Sell. Cf., Bite.

1664. Butler, Hudibras, II., iii., 376. Spells, Which over ev’ry month’s blank-page In th’ Almanack strange bilk’s presage. [M.]

1694. Congreve, Double Deal, III., x. There he’s secure from danger of a bilk. [M.]

1733 circa. North, Lives, i., 260. After this bilk of a discovery was known. [M.]

3. (common.)—A swindler; a cheat. This is the most familiar current use of the word in its substantive form, and is applied mainly to persons who cheat cabmen of their fares, or to men who swindle prostitutes out of their wretched earnings. Also bilker. For synonyms, see Sell. Cf., Bite.

1790. Sheridan, in Sheridaniana, 109. Johnny W[i]lks, Johnny W[i]lks, Thou greatest of bilks.

1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. ix. After a little delay, the wagoner drove off, cursing him for a bilk, and vowing that he’d never have any more to do with a ‘larned man.’

4. (American.)—A strongly offensive term used in the West to signify a person who habitually sponges upon another, and who never by any chance makes a return or even offers to do so. In English slang it means a downright cheat or swindler (see sense 3). It will therefore be seen that the Western American usage has considerably softened its meaning.

1840. McClure, Rocky Mountain, p. 211. The term was entirely novel to me, and I first asked its meaning of a landlord, who explained to me by saying that a bilk is a man who never misses a meal and never pays a cent.

Adj. (obsolete).—Fallacious; without truth or meaning.

1740. North, Examen, p. 129. To that [Oates’s plot] and the author’s bilk account of it I am approaching.

Verb (common).—To cheat; defraud; evade one’s obligations; escape from, etc. (see subs., sense 2, and compare with quotations). For synonyms, see Stick. Cf., Bite.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act v., Sc. 3. 1. Knight: Ay, a great lawyer that shall be nameless bilked me too.

1729. Gay, Polly, Act ii., Sc. 9. Honour plays a bubbles part, ever bilk’d and cheated.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bilk (v.), to cheat, balk, disappoint, deceive, gull, or bubble; also to go out of a publick-house or tavern, without paying the reckoning.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XIV., ch. iv. ‘I promise you,’ answered Nightingale, ‘I don’t intend to bilk my lodgings; but I have a private reason for not taking a formal leave.’

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bilke. ‘Let us bilk the rattling cove’; let us cheat the hackney coachman of his fare: bilking a coachman, a box keeper, or a poor whore, was formerly among men of the town thought a gallant action.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. xix. ‘Are you playing me false? Have you set another man on the track with a view to bilk me of my promised fee?’

To bilk the blues, phr. (thieves’).—To evade the police.—See Blues.

To bilk the schoolmaster, phr. (common).—To obtain knowledge or experience without paying for it.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5. Log. Well, don’t grumble—every one must pay for his learning—and you wouldn’t bilk the schoolmaster, would you? But, come, I’m getting merry; so if you wish for a bit of good truth, come with me, and let’s have a dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land.

Bilker, subs. (common).—A cheat; a swindler. Sometimes abbreviated to bilk (sense 3).

Bilking, subs. (common).—The action of cheating or swindling.

Bill, subs. (Eton College).—1. A list of the boys who have to go to the head master at 12 o’clock; also of those who get off absence (q.v.), or names-calling, e.g., an eleven playing in a match are thus exempt.

1876. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton. Some of the small boys whom this delightful youth tempted to ape his habits, had often occasion to rue it when they staggered back to college giddy and sick, carrying with them a perfume which told its tale to their tutors, and caused them to be put in the bill.

2. (Harrow School.)—Names-calling.

To hang up a bill, phr. (American political).—Explained by quotation.

1887. Cornhill Magazine, June, p. 628. To hang up a bill is to pass it through one or more of its stages, and then to lay it aside and defer its further consideration for a more or less indefinite period.

To rush a bill, phr. (American political).—To expedite the passing of a bill through the Senate and Congress. Cf., Rush.

1887. Cornhill Magazine, June, p. 628. To rush a bill is an expression well known in the American Senate, and occasionally also used here.

Long or short bill, subs. phr. (thieves’).—A long or short term of imprisonment.

To pay a bill at sight, phr. (old).—Said of a man or woman who is always ready for sexual commerce.

Billbrighter, subs. (Winchester College).—A small fagot used for lighting coal fires in Kitchen. So called from a servant, Bill Bright, who was living in 1830.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 89. The Kitchen is a spacious apartment with a vaulted roof, occupying the entire height of the building on the west side of the quadrangle, and at least half its length; here we might see a few Fags endeavouring to coax Jem Sims, John Coward, or Mother Mariner (the cooks), for an extra supply of mashed potatoes, till Kitchen is cleared by the exasperated Manciple, who has just detected a delinquent in the act of secreting under his gown an armful of the small faggots used for lighting the Kitchen fires (called Bill Brighters), an opportunity for purloining which was never allowed to slip by a Junior of a properly regulated mind.

Billed Up, ppl. adj. (military).—In the Guards’ regiments to be billed up signifies to be confined to barracks.

Billet, subs. (popular).—A situation; a ‘berth.’ [From billet, an official military order requiring food and shelter to be provided for the soldier bearing it.]

To get a billet, phr. (thieves’)—When in prison to obtain promotion to duties which carry with them certain privileges.

Billiard Block, subs. (society).—An epithet applied to one who puts up with disagreeables for the sake of pecuniary or other advantages; also, occasionally, to one who acts as ‘jackal’ for another and to tame cats (q.v.).

1831. Mrs. Gore, Mothers and Daughters, p. 75. The Duke of L. was fortunate in somewhat more than the usual apportionments of souffre-douleurs, doubles, billiard-blocks, living hunters, younger brothers, to talk to the young lady nieces, etc.

Billiard-Slum, subs. (Australian thieves’).—False pretences.

To give on the billiard-slum.—See Mace.

Billingsgate, subs. (popular).—Foul, coarse language; scurrilous vituperation. From the evil reputation which the market of the same name has enjoyed for centuries. In the seventeenth century references to the violent and abusive speech of those frequenting the place were very numerous. In French an analogous reference is made to the Place Maubert, long noted for its noisy market.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act iii. Quaint. ... Whose reputation, though never so clear and evident in the eye of the world, yet with sharp invectives—Wid. Alias, Billingsgate. Quaint. With poignant and sour invectives, I say, I will deface.

1711. Defoe, The Review, vol. VII., preface. As long as faction feeds the flame, we shall never want Billingsgate to revile one another with.

1712. Spectator, No. 451. Our satire is nothing but ribaldry, and Billingsgate.

1852. Thackeray, Esmond, ch. ix. If she had come with bowl and dagger, would have been routed off the ground by the enemy with a volley of Billingsgate, which the fair person always kept by her.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack. Messrs. Cannon and Co. defied the surgeon or anybody else to say the fish was bad, and kept jabbering away both at the same time and in elegant Billingsgate, until the constable returned; but he came without the doctor, who had gone to attend an urgent case out of the town, and the people at his house could not say when he would return.

To Billingsgate or talk Billingsgate.—To scold; to talk coarsely, or violently; to ‘slang.’

1678. A. Littleton, Lat. Dict. To Billingsgate it. Arripere maledictum ex trivio.

So also, You’re no better than a Billingsgate fish-fag, i.e., rude and ill-mannered; Billingsgatry, scurrilous language.

Billingsgate Pheasant, subs. (common).—A red herring or bloater. This is also called a two-eyed steak, but for synonyms, see Atlantic-ranger.

Bill of Sale, subs. (old).—Widow’s weeds. Such are also said to have apartments or a house to let (q.v.).

Billy, subs. (thieves’).—1. A pocket or neck-handkerchief, chiefly of silk. The various ‘fancies’ have been thus described:—Belcher, darkish blue ground, large round white spots, with a spot in the centre of darker blue than the ground. This was adopted by Jem Belcher, the pugilist, as his ‘colours,’ and soon became popular amongst ‘the fancy.’ Bird’s-eye wipe, a handkerchief of any colour, containing white spots. The blue bird’s-eye is similar to the Belcher except in the centre. Sometimes a bird’s-eye wipe has a white ground and blue spots. Blood-red fancy, red. Blue Billy, blue ground, generally with white figures. Cream fancy, any pattern on a white ground. King’s man, yellow pattern on a green ground. Randal’s man, green, with white spots; named after the favourite colours of Jack Randal, pugilist. Water’s man, sky coloured. Yellow fancy, yellow with white spots. Yellow man, all yellow. For synonyms generally, see Wipe.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. A silk handkerchief. A billy.

2. (thieves’.)—Stolen metal.—See Billy-hunting.

3. (American thieves’.)—A weapon used by desperadoes, and also by the police when apprehending violence or dangerous resistance on the part of the former when pursued. The construction of a billy varies, but usually it is composed of a piece of untanned cowhide, as hard as horn itself, some six inches in length, twisted or braided into a sort of handle, and covered from end to end with woollen cloth. One extremity is loaded with three quarters of a pound of lead; to the other is firmly attached a loop, large enough to admit a man’s hand, formed of strong linen cord, and intended to allow the billy to hang loose from the wrist, and at the same time prevent it being lost or wrenched from the grasp of its owner. At close quarters, it proves a very savage and formidable arm of defence, resembling, but being much more dangerous than the ordinary slung-shot in use by policemen and others. Twelve ounces of solid lead and raw-hide, dashed against the thickest skull by a strong armed ruffian, would as effectually silence a man as an ounce of the same metal discharged from the bore of a Springfield rifle. It may be remarked that billy in English slang is a policeman’s staff, a very different weapon.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Ap. 4. The condition of the man reported as having been shot twice in the head on Thursday afternoon, is not at all alarming. It transpires that his wounds are not of the gun-shot sort, but were inflicted with a billy in the hands of a Pinkerton man.

4. (popular.)—A policeman’s staff; a truncheon.

1884. Daily News, Ap. 7, p. 5, col. 1. Anderson was first brought down by a pistol shot, and was then corrected with a billy, till he declared himself vanquished.

5. (Australian and New Zealand.)—A bushman’s tea-pot or saucepan.

1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Sept. 3, 5, 5. They got enough flour from Sydney to make their ‘dampers,’ and enough tea to boil in their billies.

1886. G. Sutherland, Australia, p. 104. A billy, or small tin can, for boiling tea or coffee.

1889. Illustrations, Oct., p. 22. Refusing a pressing invitation to stay and spend Christmas with the good people with whom I had been boarding, and heeding lightly their remarks as to ‘new chum,’ ‘dangers of the bush,’ ‘all alone,’ ‘strange country,’ etc., etc., I took a look at the map, and packed my ‘swag.’ Now a ‘swag’ proper, usually contains blankets, towels, ‘billy,’ pannikin, and many other articles ... Ibid, p. 28. The ‘billy’ is off, but the roadman (Irish, of course) gives me a grateful cup of beer, and accompanies me to the hotel another mile down the road.

Billy Barlow, subs. (common).—A street clown; a mountebank—so called from the hero of a slang song. Billy was a real person, semi-idiotic, and though in dirt and rags, fancied himself a swell of the first water. Occasionally he came out with real witticisms. He was a well-known street character about the East-end of London, and died in Whitechapel Workhouse.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 148. Billy Barlow is another supposed comic character, that usually accompanies either the street-dancers or acrobats in their peregrinations. The dress consists of a cocked-hat and red feather, a soldier’s coat (generally a sergeant’s with sash), white trousers with the legs tucked into Wellington boots, a large tin eye-glass, and an old broken and ragged umbrella.

These merry Andrews are otherwise called Jim crows and saltimbancos; among the French, un pitre.

Billy-Boy, subs. (nautical).—A vessel like a galliot, with two masts, the fore-mast square-rigged. They hail mainly from Goole. Also called humber-keels.

Billy-Button, subs. (rhyming slang).—1. Mutton.

2. (tailors’.)—A contemptuous term for a journeyman tailor.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 117. And there I did Jeremiah Stitchem to his Billy Button. Ibid, p. 142. A laughable sketch entitled Billy Button’s ride to Brentford, and I used to be Jeremiah Stitchem, a servant of Billy Button’s, that comes for a ‘situation.’

Billy-Buzman, subs. (thieves’).—A thief whose speciality is silk pocket and neckerchiefs. [From billy, slang for a pocket-handkerchief, + buzman, slang for a thief.]

Billy-Cock, subs. (popular).—A round, low-crowned hat—generally of soft felt, and with a broad brim. Speculation has been rife as to the derivation of the term. Murray says ‘apparently the same as “bully-cocked,” used 1721, probably meaning after the fashion of the “bullies” or hectoring “blades” of the period’ (see quot.). A writer, C. K. C. in Notes and Queries, however [6 S., ii., p. 355], points out that ‘these hats were first made for “Billy Coke”—or to speak more respectfully, Mr. William Coke—a gentleman well known at Melton Mowbray a quarter of a century ago [circa 1853], and used by him at the great shooting parties at Holkham. The old-established hatters in the West-end still call them “Coke hats.”’ Of the reality of the personality of William Coke of Melton fame there is, and can be no doubt, and although the name of the hat may be derived from ‘bully-cock,’ yet the weight of evidence seems to be against it, unless a slight transference of meaning, very common in slang, has taken place.

1721. Amherst, Terræ Filius, No. 46, p. 246. [A description of an Oxford ‘smart’ or dandy.] When he walks the street, he is easily distinguish’d by a stiff silk gown, which rustles in the wind, as he struts along; a flaxen tie-wig, or sometimes a long natural one, which reaches down below his waist; a broad bully-cock’d hat, or a square cap of above twice the usual size; white stockings, thin Spanish leather shoes; his cloaths lined with tawdry silk, and his shirt ruffled down the bosom as well as at the wrists. Besides all which marks, he has a delicate jaunt in his gait, and smells very philosophically of essence.

1862. Life Among Colliers, 35. I was told to take off my bonnet, and tie a billy-cock [wide-awake] tight down.

1872. Farjeon, Griff, p. 14. With the men, mole-skin trousers, pea-jackets, billy-cock hats, and dirty pipes predominated.

1884. Pall Mall G., March 28, p. 11, col. 1. He wore a plaited blouse drawn in at the waist and a dilapidated billy-cock hat.

2. (Australian.)—The billy-cock of the Antipodean colonies differs from the English head-gear known by the name in being made of hard instead of soft felt, and in having a turned up brim.

For synonymous terms of head-gear, see Deerstalker.

Billy-Fencer, subs. (thieves’).—A marine store dealer.—See Fence.

Billy-Goat, subs. (common).—A tufted beard; similar to that of a goat.

1882. Standard, 11 Feb., p. 3, col. 2. Hair turning grey, hazel eyes, billy-goat beard. [M.]

Billy-Hunting, subs. (thieves’).—1. Collecting and buying old metal.—See Billy-fence.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 465. ‘He goes tatling and billy-hunting in the country (gathering rags and buying old metal).’

2. Going out to steal pocket-handkerchiefs.—See Billy, sense 1.

Billy Noodle, subs. (American).—This combination stands in American slang for a fellow whose self-conceit leads him to suppose himself specially attractive to the other sex. [From Billy, a male name, + noodle, a fool.]

Billy-Roller, subs. (common).—See quotations.

1840. Mrs. Trollope, Michael Armstrong, ch. xiv. ‘What is the billy-roller?’... ‘It’s a long stout stick, ma’am, that’s used often and often to beat the little ones employed in the mills when their strength fails.’

1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III., 1166. This is the billy-roller, so much talked of in the controversies between the operatives and masters in the cotton-factories, as an instrument of cruel punishment to children, though no such machine has been used in cotton-mills for half a century at least. [M.]

Bim, Bimshire, subs. (West Indian).—Nicknames for a Barbadian and the island of Barbadoes. This place is also sometimes jeeringly called Little England, and Barbadian is contracted into ’Badian.

1887. Paton, Down the Islands. Barbadoes is known all the world over as the little island that pays her way; it has never been conquered; its people are enterprising and energetic, go-ahead and driving; in short, the business men of these islands (the Caribbees). Barbadian may therefore be said to mean a man with ‘go and grit, energy and vim.’

Bing.—See Bynge a waste.

Binge, subs. (Oxford Univ.)—A drinking bout.

Bingham’s Dandies, subs. (military).—The 17th Lancers. From its Colonel (Lord Bingham) causing the men’s uniforms to fit so well. It is one of the smartest regiments of the service. They were also at one time christened the Horse Marines (q.v.). Two troops of this showy corps were employed as marines on board the ‘Hermione’ frigate during some severe fighting in the West Indies. Hence the sobriquet now almost quite forgotten. But the 17th are still well-known as the Death or Glory Boys, from their badge, which consists of a death’s head, with the words, ‘or glory.’

Bingo, subs. (old cant).—Brandy, or other spirituous liquor. Thought by Dr. Murray to be a humorous formation from B. for ‘brandy’ (Cf., ‘B. and S.’) and stingo.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue. Bingo, brandy.

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 41.

FIGHTING ATTIE’S SONG.

Air.—‘He was famed for deeds of arms ’Rise at six—dine at two— Rob your man without ado- Such my maxims—if you doubt Their wisdom, to the rightabout!’

(Signing to a sallow gentleman on the same side of the table to send up the brandy bowl.)

‘Pass round the bingo,—of a gun, You musty, dusty, husky son!’

(The sallow gentleman in a hoarse voice,)

‘Attie—the bingo’s now with me, I can’t resign it yet, d’ye see!’

(Attie, seizing the bowl,)

‘Resign, resign it—cease your dust!’

(Wresting it away, and fiercely regarding the sallow gentleman.)

‘You have resigned it—and you must.’

CHORUS.

‘You have resigned it—and you must.’

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxxiii. Some soda water with a dash of bingo clears one’s head in the morning.

For all synonyms, see Drinks.

Hence bingo boy, a tippler; a drunkard. Bingo mort, a drunken woman.—See Mort.

Bingy, adj. (trading).—A term largely used in the butter trade to denote bad, ropy butter; nearly equivalent to vinnied. It may be noted that in the English Dialect Society’s Chestere Glossary, bingy is given as a peculiar clouty or frowsty taste in milk—the first stage of turning sour.

1857. Mrs. Gaskell, Life of C. Bronté, ch. iv. The milk, too, was often bingy, to use a country expression for a kind of taint that is far worse than sourness, and suggests the idea that it is caused by want of cleanliness about the milk pans, rather than by the heat of the weather.

1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, ch. xv. I’ve heerd my aunt say as she found out as summat was wrong wi’ Nancy as soon as the milk turned bingy, for there ne’er had been such a clean lass about her milk-cans afore that.

Binnacle Word, subs. (old nautical).—A fine or affected word, which sailors jeeringly offer to chalk up upon the binnacle.—Grose.

Birch-Broom, subs. (rhyming slang).—A room.

Like a birch-broom in a fit, phr. (common).—Said of a rough, towzly head.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 90. I should like to know what looks worse than to see a young man or woman with their hair in an uproar, like a birch-broom in a fit, and some of you chaps down there look as if you hadn’t had your hair combed since last reaping time, when you did it with a field-rake, which is very harrowing to one’s feelings.

Birchin Lane.—To send one to Birchin Lane, phr. (old).—To castigate; to flog. A punning allusion to birch, a rod. Cf., Strap oil, etc.

Bird, subs. (theatrical).—Mr. H. J. Byron says that when a piece is hissed the actors say ‘The bird’s there!’;—the bird alluded to being the goose notorious for its hissing capacities.—See however, Big bird and Goose.

Verb (old).—To thieve; to steal; to look for plunder. So used by Ben Jonson.

Bird-Cage, subs. (common).—1. A bustle, an article of feminine attire, used for extending the skirts of the dress. So called because at one time constructed of such a size and in such a manner as to be not altogether unlike an elongated bird-cage.

1860 circa. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Agricultural Irish Girl,’ verse 3.

She has no great education, for She’s not much past her letters; But for acting like a lady, I Would like to see her betters: She does not read Ouida’s works, Nor Bow Bells’ fashions pages; And she does not wear those things behind, The ladies call bird-cages.

Among English Synonyms may be mentioned canary cage; backstaircase; false hereafter; bishop.

French Synonyms. Un volapuk; un strapontin; un lieutenant (a pun on tenant lieu de ce qui manque); un nuage (parcequ’il cache la lune; lune = the posteriors).

2. (common.)—A four-wheeled cab. For synonyms, see Growler.

3. (racing.)—The paddock at the Newmarket race-course where saddling takes place. It adjoins the grand stand.

1884. St. James’s Gazette, May 1, p. 1. All the favourites were brought into the bird-cage. [M.]

Birdlime, subs. (rhyming slang).—1. Time.

2. (old.)—A thief. From the glutinous substance of the same name spread upon twigs for the purpose of catching birds and holding them fast.

1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, V., 2. That birdlime there stole it.

1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, III., 2. My rogue of a son has laid his birdlime fingers on’t.

Bird’s-Eye, Bird’s-Eye Fogle, Bird’s-Eye Wipe, subs. (common).—A silk handkerchief spotted with eye-like markings.—See also Billy and Wipe.

1665. Pepys, Diary, May 14. To church, it being Whit-Sunday; my wife very fine in a new yellow bird’s-eye hood, as the fashion is now.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xviii. He wore a blue bird’s-eye handkerchief round his neck.

1883. Daily Telegraph, August 7, p. 6, col. 2. His neckerchief was of the same hue [silver grey], with a light crimson bird’s-eye.

Bird-Witted, adj. (old).—Inconsiderate; thoughtless; easily imposed on.—Grose.

1605. Bacon, Adv. Learning, II. (1861), 228. If a child be bird-witted, that is, hath not the faculty of attention, the mathematics giveth a remedy thereunto.

1650. Ussher, Ann., VI., 360. [He] proved ... but a bird-witted man.

Birk, subs. (back slang).—A ‘crib’ (q.v.), i.e., a house. For synonyms, see Diggings.

Birthday Suit, subs. (common).—Naked; in the buff (q.v.); in the suit in which Adam and Eve first saw each other, and ‘were not ashamed.’ A French equivalent is s’habiller en sauvage.

1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, l. 61. I went in the morning to a private place, along with the housemaid, and we bathed in our birth-day soot.

Bishop, subs. (old).—1. A warm decoction of wine, orange or lemon peel, and sugar—but variously compounded. Similar to flip and purl (q.v.).

1703. English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother of the togati, fresh as a new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements. Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport, in term and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their bull-dogs—the town-raff and the bargees—well-blunted or stiver cramped—against dun or don—nob or big-wig—so may you never want a bumper of bishop.

1738. Swift, Women Who Cry Oranges, wks., 1755, IV., i., 278. Well roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup. They’ll make a sweet bishop.

1753. The World, No. 37. Punch, bishop, cool tankard, and negus are equally denied me.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xlviii., p. 421. He and the landlord were drinking a bowl of bishop together.

2. subs. (American).—A bustle—part of feminine attire consisting of a pad worn on the back part of the waist, and designed to give prominence to the skirt. For synonyms, see Bird-cage.

1848. Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, p. 42. Bishop. An appendage to a lady’s wardrobe, otherwise called a bustle.

I sing the bishop, alias the bustle.

1862–75. Saxe, Progress. Imperial Fashion decides the gravest questions which divide the world.

If wrong may not, by circumstance, be right,— If black cravats be more genteel than white,— If, by her bishop, or her ‘grace,’ alone A genuine lady, or a church, is known.

3. (common.)—A chamber utensil; a jerry; jordan; and it (q.v.).

4. (Winchester College.)—The sapling with which a fagot is bound together.

Verb.—1. A term among horse dealers, for burning marks into a horse’s teeth, after he has lost them by age; or, by other deceptive arts to give a good appearance to a bad horse. By bishopping, a horse is made to appear younger than he is. The expression is derived from the name of a person who initiated the practice, and has no connection with ‘to bishop,’ a provincialism for ‘to burn.’ For synonyms, see Fig.

1727. R. Bradley, Family Dict., vol. I., s.v. ‘Horse.’ This way of making a horse look young, is by Horse Coursers called Bishoping.

1884. Ill. Lon. News, 23 August, 171, col. 2. To bishop ... a term ... signifying the use of deceptive arts to make an old horse appear like a young one.

In French the process is called masquer en alezan; also maquiller un gayet.

2. To murder by drowning. The term, now obsolete, is like burke and boycott from the name of an individual. A man named Bishop drowned a boy in Bethnal Green, in 1831, to sell the body for dissecting purposes.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Account of a New Play). I burked the papa, now I’ll bishop the son. [d.]

1864. Athenæum, p. 559, col. 1. We have ‘to burke,’ and ‘to bishop.’ [M.]

Bismarquer, verb (familiar).—To cheat; to play foul at cards or billiards. A word formed from the name of Prince Bismarck, the German Chancellor, whose policy in 1865–6 roused the indignation of a large section of European thought.

Bit, Bite, Byte, subs. (old).—1. An old cant term for money. For synonyms, see Actual.

1532. Use of Dice Play (Percy Soc.). Now waxen is he so proud of his gain, because he hath gotten a new chain, fyer new apparel, and some store of byte.

1592. Defence of Conny-Catching, in Greene’s wks. XI., 44. So some that would not stoope a farthing at cardes, would venter all the byte in their boung at dice.

1607. Dekker, Jests to make you Merie, in wks. (Grosart) II., 328. If they follow you in the street, and once know where the bung and the bit is, as much as to say your purse and the money.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 122. To learne before he play what store of Bit he hath in his Bay, that is, what money he hath in his pursse.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 149. Snack the bit. To share the money.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. He is caught—he must ‘stand and deliver’; then out with the dummy [pocket book], and off with the bit.

2. (colloquial)—The name given to coins varying in value according to locality—usually, however, to the silver piece of the lowest denomination. Fourpenny pieces are still called bits in English slang, but are more popularly known as Joeys (q.v., for synonyms); and in Demerara the term is in general use for the same coin; in America a 12½ cent piece is called a bit, and a defaced 20 cent piece is termed a long bit. A bit is the smallest coin in Jamaica, equal to 6d.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bit (s.) ... In the West Indies, it is the least piece of silver coin, which goes current at 7 pence half-penny.

1875. Scribner’s Magazine, July, p. 277. For a young city, San Francisco is very much wedded to petty traditions. It clings to the bit with a deathlike tenacity; clings to it against all reason and against its own interests. The bit is a mythical quantity. It is neither twelve and a half cents, nor half of twenty-five; it is neither fifteen cents nor ten cents. If you buy a bit’s worth, and throw down twenty-five cents, you get ten cents back; if you offer the same ten cents in lieu of a bit, you are looked upon as a mild sort of a swindler. And yet, the bit is the standard of minimum monetary value.

Bitch, subs. (low).—1. An opprobrious term for a woman, generally containing an implication of lewdness and ‘fastness.’ Not now in literary use, though formerly so. [From its primary sense of a female dog.] It is the most offensive apellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore.

1400. Chester Pl. (1843), 181. Whom calleste thou queine skabde biche? [M.]

1575. J. Still, Gammer Gurton, II., ii. Come out, thou hungry needy bitch. [M.]

1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 9. An extravagant bitch of a wife.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVII., ch. iii. There was my lady cousin Bellaston, and my lady Betty, and my lady Catharine, and my lady I don’t know who; damn me if ever you catch me among such a kennel of hoop-petticoated bitches.

1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1834), 446. You are a ... son of a bitch.

2. (old.)—Applied, opprobriously, as in sense 1, to a man. It has long since passed out of decent usage.

c. 1500. E. E. Misc. (1855), 54. He is a schrewed byche, In fayth, I trow, he be a wyche.

1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, xviii., 310. Ulysses looking sourly answered, You bitch. [M.]

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVII., iii. It is an old acquaintance of above twenty years standing. I can tell you landlord is a vast comical bitch, you will like un hugely.

Verb (low).—1. To go whoring; molrowing; to frequent the company of prostitutes.

2. To yield, or give up an attempt through fear.—Grose.

3. (common.)—To spoil; to bungle.

To stand bitch.—To make tea, or do the honours of the tea table, or to perform a female part. Bitch is here used generically for a woman.

Bitch Booby, subs. (old military).—A country girl.—Grose.

Bitchery, subs. (low).—Harlotry; lewdness. [From bitch, sense 1, + ery.]

1532–3. More, Confut. Tindale, wks., 648, col. 1. Such marriage is very vnlawfull leckery and plain abhominable bychery.

1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I., iv., 188. He will vnline himselfe from bitchery.

1663–1704. Thomas Brown, Works, Serious and Comical, III., p. 94. Thither run Sots purely to be drunk that they may ... forget ... the roguery of their lawyers, the bitchery of their paramours, or the ingratitude of the world.

(?). Stanyhurst, Description of Ireland, p. 14. The quip sat as unseemly in his mouth as for a whore to reprehend bitchery, or for an usurer to condemn simony.

Bitch Party, subs. (popular).—A party composed of women. Originally an Oxford term for a tea-party, tea being considered a beverage only fit for women. [From bitch, a woman, + party.] Also hen party (q.v.). Cf., Stag party.

1889. C. Whibley, In Cap and Gown, Characters of Freshmen, p. 176. ‘The studious freshman ... goeth to a small bitch-party and findeth his gown taken “by mistake.”’

Bite, subs. (old).—1. An old slang term for money.—See Bit.

2. (old.)—The female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

3. An imposition; a piece of humbug; a ‘sell’ or ‘do.’ Cf., Bilk, Bam, Bargain, and Sell, for synonyms. The sense runs through all stages, from jocular hoaxing to downright swindling. Also in the sense of disappointment, as in the old proverb ‘the biter bit.’ A man is bitten when he burns his fingers meddling in matters, which, though promising well, turn out failures.—See also Cross bite.

1711. Steele, Spectator, No. 156, ¶ 2. It was a common bite with him, to lay Suspicions that he was favoured by a Lady’s Enemy.

1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., ix., 43. Sharpers would not frequent gaming-tables, if the men of fortune knew the bite.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. ix. ‘It’s all a bam, ma’am—all a bamboozle and a bite, that affair of his illness.’

1860. Sat. Review, Ap. 14, 475, 2. That form of practical joking, which in the time of ‘The Spectator,’ was known as a bite ... in the popular slang of the day, is designated ‘a sell.’

1883. Daily News, Ap. 18, p. 5, col. 4. Lord Randolph Churchill, we fear, has been making Mr. Gladstone the victim of what, in the slang of Addison’s time, would have been called a bite, and what in the slang of our own time is called a ‘sell.’

4. (old.)—A sharper; cheat; trickster. Cf., Bilk. See Rook for synonyms.

1742. Fielding, Miss Lucy (1762), 176. Is this wench an idiot, or a bite? Marry me, with a pox!

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xcviii. From which circumstance it was conjectured that Peregrine was a bite from the beginning, who had found credit on account of his effrontery and appearance, and imposed himself upon the town as a young gentleman of fortune.

1787. S. Jenyns, in Dodsley, III., 169. The fool would fain be thought a bite.

5. (popular.)—Applied in a transferred sense to anybody or anything suspected of being different to what it appears, but not necessarily in a bad sense.

1846. Brackenridge, Mod. Chiv., 21. The jockeys suspected that the horse was what they call a bite, that under the appearance of leanness and stiffness, was concealed some hidden quality of swiftness.

6. (common.)—One who drives a hard bargain; a ‘close fist.’

7. (familiar.)—A nickname for a Yorkshireman.—See Daily News, Sept. 11, 1883, and Yorkshire Post, Jan. 9, 1884.

1883. Daily News, Sept. 4, p. 5, col. 6. The great and puissant race known indifferently as ‘tykes’ or bites.

8. (printers’.)—An irregular white spot on the edge or corner of a printed page, caused by the frisket not being sufficiently cut out.

1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. in Savage Dict. Print, s.v. Bite. If the frisket is not sufficiently cut away, but covers some part of the form, so that it prints on the frisket, it is called a bite. [M.]

1884. Blades, Caxton, 130. In ‘Speculum Vitæ Christi’ we actually find a bite, half of the bottom line remaining unprinted. [M.]

Verb (old).—1. To deceive; cheat; swindle; to ‘do’ or ‘take in.’ In modern colloquial English to slick or to sell (q.v.). Formerly used both transitively and passively; now only in latter.

1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 109. Then a rook ... follows him close, and engages him in advantageous bets, and at length worries him, that is gets all his money, and then they smile and say, ‘The lamb is bitten.’

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 12. Nay, he has bit you fairly enough, that’s certain.

1724. A Journey through England. Many a poor German hath been bit by an ordinary or his taylor, after this manner; they have suffered the poor wretch to run in debt, made him an extravagant bill, and then arrested him, and so forced him to pay their demands.

1731. Fielding, The Lottery, Sc. 3. However, Madam, you are bit as well as I am; for I am no more a lord, than you are a fortune.

1822. [Nares] Love in a Barn, an old ballad.

He shall not have my maiden-head, I solemnly do swear; But I’ll bite him of a portion, Then marry with Ralph, my dear.

1838. Thackeray, Yellowplush Memoirs, ch. x. ‘You were completely bitten, my boy—humbugged, bamboozled—ay, and by your old father, you dog.’

1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xvii., p. 232. I have no particular pleasure in recalling my Newmarket doings. I was infernally bit and bubbled in almost every one of my transactions there.

Hence 2. (popular.)—To strike a hard bargain.

3. (old.)—To steal; e.g., ‘to bite the roger,’ to steal a portmanteau; ‘to bite the wiper,’ i.e., to purloin a handkerchief.

Intj. (old.)—1. Formerly an equivalent to the modern ‘Sold!’ ‘Done!’ etc.

1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, Act iii.

Ld. Mo. ’Tis possible I may not have the same regard to her frown that your Lordship has.

Ld. Fop. That’s bite, I’m sure; he’d give a joint of his little finger to be as well with her as I am.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. i.).

Miss. I’m sure the gallows groans for you.

Nev. Bite, Miss; I was but in jest.

1714. Addison, Spectator, No. 514. It is a superstition with some surgeons who beg the bodies of condemned malefactors, to go to the gaol and bargain for the carcass with the criminal himself.... The fellow who killed the officer of Newgate, very forwardly, and like a man who was willing to deal, told him, ‘Look you, Mr. Surgeon, that little dry fellow, who has been half starved all his life, is now half dead with fear, cannot answer your purpose.... Come, for twenty shillings I am your man.’ Says the Surgeon, ‘Done, there’s a guinea.’ This witty rogue took the money, and as soon as he had it in his fist, cries, ‘bite, I am to be hanged in chains.’

2. (Charterhouse.)—A warning = Cave!

To do a thing when the maggot bites, phr. (common), is to do it when the fancy takes one; ‘at one’s own sweet will.’ When a person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have ‘a maggot in his head,’ to have ‘a bee in his bonnet’; or, in French, avoir des rats dans la tête; in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of the internal irritation. Cf., Apartments to let.

Bite One’s Hips, verbal phr. (tailors’).—To regret a word or action.

Bite One’s Name In, verbal phr. (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple; also to drink greedily.

Bite on the Bridle, verbal phr. (old).—To be pinched in circumstances; to be reduced; in difficulties.

Biter, subs. (old).—1. A practical joker; a hoaxer; one who deceives; a cheat and trickster. Cf., Bite. The term now only survives in the proverbial expression, ‘the biter bit.’ For synonyms, see Rook.

1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 108. [Biter is given in a list of names of cheats and thieves’.]

1680. Cotton, Complete Gamester, in Singer’s Hist. Playing Cards (1816), p. 333. Hectors, setters, gilts, pads, biters, etc., and these may all pass under the general appellation of rooks.

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 12. A biter, who is a dull fellow, that tells you a lye with a grave face, and laughs at you for knowing him no better than to believe him.

1711. Spectator, No. 47. These gentlemen are commonly distinguished by the name of biters: a race of men that are perpetually employed in laughing at those mistakes which are of their own production.

1712. Spectator, No. 504. A biter is one who tells you a thing you have no reason to disbelieve in itself, and perhaps has given you, before he bit you, no reason to disbelieve it for his saying it; and if you give him credit, laughs in your face, and triumphs that he has deceived you.

1812. Coombe, Syntax, Picturesque, c. xix.

Pray have you travell’d so far north, To think we have so little wit, As by such biters to be bit?

2. (old.)—An amorous woman (sexually). Cf., Athanasian wench.

Bite the Ear, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To borrow. Formerly, a term of endearment; to caress fondly. For synonyms, see Shins.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 502. He used to want to bite my ear (borrow) too often.

Bite the Thumb, verbal phr. (old).—To make a gesture of contempt, which was formerly regarded in the light of an insult. Nares says the thumb in the action represented a fig, and the whole was equivalent to ‘a fig for you.’ There are several gestures of this kind. That best known is probably taking a sight (q.v.). A similar gesture of contempt is used by the lower orders in France which, there is little doubt, is the ‘biting the thumb’ spoken of in Romeo and Juliet. The person using the gesture placed the nail of his thumb under the front teeth of the upper jaw, and then jerked the thumb forward, using at the same time an expression equivalent to ‘I don’t care that for you.’ Another contemptuous action is placing the thumb between the closed fore and middle fingers; while according to Darwin’s Expression of the Emotions, it appears that with the Dakota Indians of North America ‘contempt is shown ... conventionally by the hand being closed and held near the breast; then, as the fore arm is suddenly extended, the hand is opened and the fingers separated from each other. If the person at whose expense the sign is made is present, the hand is moved towards him and the head sometimes averted from him.’ This sudden extension and opening of the hand perhaps indicates the dropping or throwing away a valueless object.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, i., 1. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them if they bear it.

1596. Lodge, Wit’s Miserie. Behold next I see Contempt marching forth, giving me the fies, with his thombe in his mouth.

1638. Randolph, Muses’ L. Glass, O. Pl., ix., 220. Dogs and pistols! To bite his thumb at me! Wear I a sword To see men bite their thumbs?

1678. Rules of Civility, transl. from French, p. 44. ’Tis no less disrespectful to bite the nail of your thumb, by way of scorn and disdain, and drawing your nail from between your teeth, to tell them you value not this what they can do.

Bite Up, subs. (tailors’).—An unpleasant altercation.

Bit-Faker or Turner Out, subs. (thieves’).—Coiner of bad money. [From bit, an old canting term for money, + faker, one who makes, or does.] Also bit-maker.—See Turner out and Faker.

Bit Faking, subs. (thieves’).—Manufacturing base coin; counterfeiting. [From bit + fake + ing.—See preceding.] Cf., Turner out.

Biting Up, subs. (tailors’).—Grieving over a loss or bereavement.

Bit-Maker, subs. (old).—A counterfeiter.—See Bit-faker.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 447. Coiners—bit-makers.

Bit-o’-Bull, subs. (old).—Beef. The French say un gobet; formerly, a dainty morsel.

Bit of Blood, subs. (common).—A high-spirited horse; a thoroughbred. The derivation is obvious. For synonyms, see Prad.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 10.

’Mong the vehicles, too, which were many and various, From natty barouche down to buggy precarious, We twigg’d more than one queerish sort of turn-out, C—n n—g came in a job, and then canter’d about On a showy, but hot and unsound, bit of blood, (For a leader once meant, but cast off, as no good).

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, II., p. 156. Not that we slacken in our pace the while, not we: we rather put the bits of blood upon their mettle.

Bit of Cavalry, subs. (old).—A horse.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 6. Tom. You are now at Tattersal’s, Jerry, a very worthy fellow, who made his fortune by a horse called Highflyer. Jerry. Hum! and if one may judge from the splendour and extent of his premises, he seems to be no small highflyer himself. Tom. You are right, Jerry—I shall here buy a bit of cavalry—that is a prad, on your judgment.

Bit of Ebony, subs. (common).—A negro or negress. For synonyms, see Snowball.

Bit of Fat, subs. (common).—1. An unexpected pecuniary advantage in a transaction.

2. (printers’.)—See Fat.

Bit of Jam.—See Jam.

Bit of Leaf, subs. (thieves’).—Tobacco.

Bit of Muslin, subs. (common).—A young girl; generally applied only to prostitutes. Also bit of stuff. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

Bit of Mutton, subs. (familiar).—A woman; generally, a prostitute is meant. Cf., Laced mutton, and for synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

Bit of Sticks, subs. phr. (sporting).—A corpse. For synonyms, see Dead meat.

Bit of Stiff, subs. (common).—A bank-note, or other paper money; the equivalent of money when not in specie, i.e., a draft or bill of exchange.

1854. Lever, Dodd Family Abroad, I., 313. I’m sorry that bit of stiff, meaning the bill, wasn’t for five thousand francs.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 234. He liked to have the party’s name written across a piece of paper with a stamp attached, commonly called a bit of stiff.

To do a bit of stiff, phr. (common).—To accept a bill.

Bit of Stuff, subs. (familiar).—An overdressed man; a man with full confidence in his appearance and abilities; a young woman; also called a bit of muslin.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xxiii. ‘One night he says to me, “Will, come up and I’ll show you a devilish fine piece of stuff.” So I walks with him, and he takes me to a shop where they dealed in marine stores, and we goes and finds your mother in the back parlour.’

Bit On.—See On.

Bitter, subs. (popular).—A glass of beer.

To do a bitter.—To drink a glass of bitter. Originally, says Hotten, an Oxford term varied by to do a beer.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, 1st., III., ch. x. Mr. Verdant Green and Mr. Bouncer ... turned into the coffee-room of ‘The Mitre’ to do bitters, as Mr. Bouncer phrased the act of drinking bitter beer.

c. 1882. Comic Song, ‘The West End Boys,’ verse 3.

Let fortune frown and friends betray, There’s a class of men that’s ever gay, Where some make troubles, they make joys, And are known by the title of the West End Boys. They commence their evening with cigars, And ‘How-d’ye-do, dear,’ at the bars, ‘Another bitter, I really can’t go, There’s something about you that charms me so.’ Oh, don’t they like, etc.

Bittock, subs. (originally provincial; now common).—A distance of very undecided length. If a North countryman be asked the distance to a place, he will most probably reply, ‘a mile and a bittock.’ The latter may be considered any distance from one hundred yards to ten miles. Also of time. [From bit + ock, a diminutive suffix.]

1802. J. Wilson (‘Congleton’), M.S. Let. to F. Boucher. Bittock, a small Piece or small Bit; Cheshire. [M.]

1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. x. ‘To Chamwood, madam? It’s unco late, and its sax miles an’ a bittock down the water.’

1884. Daily News, April 15, p. 4, col. 7. Edinburgh University is three hundred years old, or rather, three hundred years and a bittock.

Bit You.—A hair of the dog that bit you.—See Hair.

Bivvy or Gatter, subs. (provincial).—Beer; ‘shant of bivvy,’ a pot or quart of beer; probably from the Italian, bevere, bere. Latin, bibere. English, beverage.

Biz, subs. (originally American, now general).—A vulgar corruption for business, employment, or occupation. ‘Good biz’ is profitable business.

1882. Democracy, ch. vii. A number of gentlemen were waiting for interviews with the President, and among them was the whole Pennsylvania delegation, ready for biz, as Mr. Tom Lord remarked, with a wink.

1884. Saturday Review, Jan. 5, p. 13, col. 2. It is satisfactory to learn from the conductor of the circus that biz is very fair.

1889. Ally Sloper, Aug. 17, p. 262, col. 1. We understand, though we cannot vouch for the truth of the statement, that a New York lady, moving in the best society, while twisting some worsted, hit upon the idea of applying a little system of her own to a larger field than mere yarn, so she invented a machine for twisting wire rope, and has sold the patent for £10,000 and a royalty upon future sales. Very good biz, this, eh!

B. K. S., subs. (military).—An abbreviation of ‘barracks’; its usage is explained by quotation.

1887. Standard, 10 Feb., p. 5, col. 2. B. k. s., used by officers ‘in mufti,’ who do not wish to give their address.

Blab, subs. (vulgar).—A revealer of that which should be kept secret; a betrayer; a babbler. A depraved word; once in common use, but rarely employed now, except colloquially. Grose [1785] includes it in his Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue as forming part of the slang of his time. These remarks apply with more or less cogency to blab when used, to signify loose talk or chatter, when employed as a verb, and to the various derivative compounds and allied forms, such as ‘blabber,’ ‘blabbing,’ ‘blabbing-book,’ etc.—a taint of vulgarism now rests upon them all.

Black Act, subs. (American).—A corrupted form of black art (q.v.).

Blackamoor’s Teeth, subs. (old).—Cowrie shells—the currency of some savage tribes.

1700. W. King, Transactioneer, p. 36. He has shells called Blackmoore’s Teeth, I suppose ... from their Whiteness. [M.]

1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, p. 334. Known by the Name of Cowries amongst Merchants, or of Blackamores’ Teeth among other Persons. [M.]

Black-and-Tan, subs. (vagrants’).—Porter or stout and ale, mixed in equal quantities. [From black, in allusion to the dark colour of porter and stout, + and + tan, i.e., of the yellowish brown colour of ale.]

Black-and-Tan Country, subs. phr. (American).—The Southern States of North America. [From black, a sobriquet for a negro, + and + tan, a pun and an allusion to the slang verb ‘to tan,’ to thrash or beat + country; i.e., the country where the negroes were tanned or beaten.]

Black and White, subs. phr. (colloquial).—The black characters of print or writing on white paper. Therefore, to put a thing down in black and white is to preserve it in writing or in print. Black on white is a variant.

1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, IV., ii. I have it here in black and white. [Pulls out the warrant.]

1667. Shirley, Love Tricks, Act ii., Sc. 2. Gov. [with a letter] ... Alas, poor gentleman! Little does he think what black and white is here.

1712. Spectator, No. 286. My desire is, Sir, that you will be pleased to give us, in black and white, your opinion in the matter of dispute between us.

1714. Spectator, No. 616. They had like to have dumfounded the justice; but his clerk came in to his assistance, and took them all down in black and white.

1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, pt. III., bk. II., ch. viii. His accounts lie all ready, correct in black and white to the uttermost farthing.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xii., p. 202. ‘A man can’t so much as put on a pair of clean stockings in the morning, but its laid before high quarters in black and white at mid-day by the secret police!’

Black-Arse, subs. (old).—A kettle; a pot. [From black, from its colour, + arse, the posterior, hinder, or ‘bottom’ part.]

Black Art, subs. (old).—1. Picking of locks; burglary. For synonyms, see Crack.

1591. Greene, Conny-Catch., wks., 1883, II., x., 72. I can set down the subtiltie of the blacke art, which is picking of lockes.

1608. Dekker, Belman of Lond., wks., 1884–5, III., 137. This blacke art ... is called in English, Picking of Lockes.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Black art, the art of picking a lock.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. [The definition given is the same as that of Grose, as above-mentioned.]

2. (undertakers’.)—The business of an undertaker. Cf., Black work.

1861. Sala, Seven Sons of Mammon, i., p. 78. Rich men’s funerals in the first style of black art.

Black-ball, verb (common).—See Pill.

Blackballing, subs. (nautical).—Stealing or pilfering. A sailor’s word. It originated amongst the employees of the old Black Ball line of steamers between New York and Liverpool. The cruelty and scandalous conduct of officers to men—and sailors to each other—were so proverbial, that the line of vessels in question became known all over the world for the cruelty of its officers, and the thieving propensities of its sailors.

Blackbeetles, subs. (old).—The lower strata of society. [Apparently a term of contempt derived from the cockroach, generally called a blackbeetle.] Obsolete.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6. Jerry: Tom, here’s a group of blackbeetles—do you see those lovely mendicants? Tom: Beauty in rags—I do—Cupid imploring charity. I’ll relieve him, for I’ll be after that match-girl directly. Jerry: And I’ll chant a few words to that beautiful ballad-singer. Log: And I’ll take pity on that charming beggar.

Blackberry Swagger, subs. (common).—A person who hawks tapes, boot-laces, etc.

Blackbird, subs. (popular).—Formerly an African captive on board a slaver; now generally understood as referring to a Polynesian indentured labourer, who, if not by name a slave, is often one to all intents and purposes. [Obviously derived from the black or dark-brown colour of these people.]

1881. Chequered Career, p. 180. The white men on board knew that if once the blackbirds burst the hatches ... they would soon master the ship. [M.]

Verb.—To capture negroes or Polynesians; to kidnap (see subs.). Hence the verbal substantive and ppl. adj. blackbirding, in the same sense.

1883. Graphic, April 21, p. 398, col. 1. The day is not far distant when, to avoid blackbirding, and the revengeful massacres which these kidnappers provoke, the whole of Oceania will have to be placed under civilised control.

1883. Academy, 8 Sep., p. 158. [He] slays Bishop Patteson by way of reprisal for the atrocities of some blackbirding crew. [M.]

1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 19 Aug. p. 2, col. 2. Years ago blackbirding scoundrels may have hailed from Fiji. [M.]

Blackbird-Catching.—See Blackbird.

Black-Birders, subs. (popular).—See quotation.

1883. All the Year Round, 22 Sep., p. 355. Blackbirders, the kidnappers for labour purposes on the islands of the Pacific.

Black Box, subs. (old).—A lawyer. So given in Grose [1785]; Lexicon Balatronicum [1811]; and in Duncombe’s Sinks of London [1848]. [From the black tin boxes in which clients’ papers are kept.]

Black-Boy, subs. (old).—See Black-coat.

Black Bracelets, subs. (old).—Handcuffs. For synonyms, see Darbies.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 63.

When the turnkey, next morning, stepped into his room, The sight of the hole in the wall struck him dumb; The sheriff’s black bracelets lay strewn on the ground, But the lad that had worn ’em could nowhere be found. Tol-de-rol!

Black-Cattle, subs. (popular).—1. Clergymen; parsons. [From the prevailing hue of the garments worn by the profession.] Sometimes used in the same way as red-coats for soldiers, e.g., black-coats (q.v.); also devil dodgers, the latter of which, see for synonyms.

2. (old.)—Lice. These are also called active citizens and chates (q.v.).

Black-Cattle Show, subs. (popular).—A gathering of clergymen. [From black-cattle (q.v.) + show, in its slang sense of a party or meeting.]

Black-Coat, subs. (familiar.)—A parson. Cf., Black-cattle and Devil-dodger.

1627. R. Perrot, Jacob’s Vow, 52. Let us take heed how these black-coates get the day of us. [M.]

1671. Eachard, Observations, p. 176. Suppose we should bestow upon a poor low thinking black-coat, one of our best forms, such as follows; it is five to one he would commit some ecclesiastical blunder or other, in setting his name too near.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, i. You are the black-coat’s son of Knocktarlitie.

1870. Emerson, Soc. and Solit., ix., p. 197. The black-coats are good company only for black-coats. [M.]

Black-Cuffs, subs. (military).—The Fifty-eight Foot, from the regimental facings which have been black since 1767. They have also been nicknamed the Steel Backs (q.v.).

Black Diamonds, subs. (popular).—1. Coals. [A simile in allusion to the colour, and also to the fact that both coal and diamonds are carbon.]

1849. T. Miller, in Gabarni in London, p. 43. Were he even trusted with the favourite horse and gig to fetch a sack of black diamonds from the wharf.

2. Also formerly a rough but clever or good person; this sobriquet, however, has given place to rough diamond (q.v.).

Black Dog, subs. (old).—1. Applied, circa 1702–30, to a counterfeit shilling and other base silver coinage. In this connection it may be pointed out that black had long previously been applied to base money. Ruding, in his Annals of the Coinage [London, 1817, vol. I., p. 405], having mentioned black money, appends this note—‘Qy. Turonenses Nigri? Copper money struck at Tours.’ [See Turney’s infra. Qy. corrupted from Tierney, name of maker.] It is introduced in his account of the Statute of Money, passed at York, 1335, 9 cap., Edward III., which recites that all manner of black money which had been commonly current in the king’s realm and obeisance should be utterly excluded, so as not to be current in one month after proclamation, on pain of forfeiture of the same. Later on, in 1339, a certain black money called ‘turneys’ was made by certain persons in Ireland, who circulated it to the injury of the king’s sterling money, and to his no little loss and prejudice. Proclamation had, therefore, been ordered to be made to prohibit the circulation of it, on pain of forfeiture of money and goods. But the king having been informed that great inconvenience had arisen from this prohibition on account of the scarcity of sterling money, it was, therefore, commanded that, provided it should be found on due inquiry more advantageous to the public to allow the currency of the said black money, proclamation should be made to authorise it until a sufficient quantity of other money was provided.

1706. Luttrell, in Ashton’s Reign Queen Anne, II., p. 225. The Art of making black dogs, which are shillings, or other pieces of money made only of Pewter, double wash’d. [M.]

1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., wks., 1755, V., ii., 44. Butcher’s half-pence, black-dogs, and others the like. [M.]

2. (common.)—Delirium tremens; the horrors; ‘jim jams.’ Black dog is a frequent figurative expression dialectically for depression of spirits, and melancholy. Among the ancients a black dog and its pups were considered an evil omen. For synonyms, see Gallon distemper.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxxiii. ‘Yes, sir,’ said the butler, nodding, ‘D.T., sir. After one of his rages the black dog comes, and it’s hawful work; so I hope you’ll go, sir.’

To blush like a black dog, phr. (old).—Not to blush at all; to be shameless.—See also Blush.

1634. Withal, Dictionary, p. 557 [ed. 1634]. Faciem perfricuit. He blusheth like a black dogge, hee hath a brazen face.

Black Doll.—See Dolly shop.

1835. Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 174. [Speaking of a marine-store shop]: imagine, in addition to this incongruous mass, a black doll in a white frock, with two faces—one looking up the street, the other looking down, swinging over the door.

1838. Douglas Jerrold, Men of Character, II., p. 100. Five hundred articles, among which might be found knockers, scrapers, barbers’ poles, black dolls.

1861. Cornhill Magazine, Nov., p. 609. The best price given for old rags—inquire at the sign of the black doll.

Black-Eye. To give a bottle a black eye, phr. (old).—To empty it. Cf., Dead man.

Black-Eyed Susan, subs. (American).—Texan for a revolver. Among other slang equivalents for this weapon current in the Lone Star State may be mentioned meat in the pot, blue lightning, the peace-maker, mr. speaker, a one-eyed scribe, pill box and my unconverted friend. For synonyms, see Meat in the pot.

Black-Fly, subs. (old).—A contemptuous name for a clergyman. For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. The greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i.e., the parson who takes tithe of the harvest.

Blackfriars! intj. (thieves’).—An exclamation of warning; look out! beware!—See Thieves.

Blackguard, subs. (common).—A man coarse in speech, and offensive in manner; a scamp; a scoundrel; a disreputable fellow. The term, as now used, is one of the utmost opprobrium, and although a good deal of uncertainty hangs about its history and derivation, it seems pretty clear that a certain amount of odium has always been attached to the word. Between two of its primary significations, however,—(1) a kitchen knave or scullion, and (2) a guard of attendants, black in person, dress, or character, generally in reference to the devil’s body-guard—and the modern usage, there is a somewhat marked line to be drawn. The earliest mention is as follows:—

1532. MS. Churchwarden’s Accompts. St. Margaret’s, Westminster (Receipts for burials). Item Receyvid for the lycens of iiij. torchis of the blake garde vjd.

What this guard was is not definitely known. Some have suggested that it was a body of soldiers; others that it was a band of torch bearers at funerals; while some incline to the belief that it was comprised of street link-boys.

Better supported by evidence are the senses first mentioned, in which blackguard signifies (1) a scullion, and (2) a member of the devil’s body-guard. But here too, Murray points out that it would be difficult to assign priority. First, however, let the quotations be given in sets:—

Sense 1 = a scullion.

1535. Sir W. Fitzwilliams, 17 Aug., in Cal. State Papers. Two of the ring-leaders had been some time of the black guard of the king’s kitchen. [M.]

1579. Fulke, Refut. Kastel, 779. They ought not, nor yet any of the scullerie or blacke garde. [M.]

Sense 2 = Devil’s body-guard; also other attendants.

1583. Fulke, Defence, x., 386. Pelagius, Celestins, and other like heretics of the devil’s body-guard, [M.]

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, wks. [1884–5] III., 214. The Great Lord of Limbo did therefore commaund all his Blacke guard that stood about him, to bestirre them. [M.]

Comparing these one with the other, we are clearly face to face in one set of quotations with a popular superstition—a belief of an age when witchcraft was prevalent, and when hobgoblins and the like were assigned as black guards to his Satanic Majesty. Whether there was any connection in the popular mind between the King’s scullions and the Devil’s body-guard, cannot now be definitely stated. Still, it is probable; and this view is borne out by later references. It is curious to note the concluding lines of Hudibras’ Address to Ralpho, which may perhaps explain the process by which the term of black guard may have come to be applied to the lowest class of domestics in the royal kitchens or other great establishments. Still, as stated, priority cannot be given to either; moreover, the use of black guard in either sense may have been a mere play on words, whether of 1 on 2, or 2 on 1 is equally uncertain. The quotation from Hudibras is as follows:

1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. III., canto 1, line 1403.

I do believe thee, quoth the knight; Thus far I’m sure thou’rt in the right, And know what ’tis that troubles thee, Better than thou hast guess’d of me. Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite, Condemn’d to drudg’ry in the night; Thou hast no work to do in th’ house, Nor half-penny to drop in shoes; Without the raising of which sum You dare not be so troublesome; To pinch the slatterns black and blue, For leaving you their work to do. This is your business, good Pug Robin, And your diversion, dull dry bobbing.

So also the following:—

1655. Fuller, Church History [1845], vol. V., p. 160. For who can otherwise conceive but such a prince-principal of darkness must be proportionately attended with a black guard of monstrous opinions.

The Black Guard of Satan, argues a writer in Notes and Queries [Sir J. Emmerson Tennent, N. and Q., 1 S., vii., 78], was supposed, in the popular view, to perform the drudgery of the kitchen and servants’ hall in the infernal household.

1588–1628. Hobbes, Microcosmus, vol. II., p. 134. Since my lady’s decay I am degraded from a cook, and I fear the devil himself will entertain me but for one of his blackguards, and he shall be sure to have his roast burnt.

Hence came the popular superstition that these goblin scullions, on their visits to the upper world confined themselves to the servants’ apartments of the houses which they favoured with their presence, and which at night they swept and garnished; pinching those of the maids in their sleep who, by their laziness, had imposed such toil on their elfin assistants; but slipping money into the shoes of the more tidy and industrious servants whose attention to their own duties before going to rest had spared the goblins the task of performing their share of the drudgery. In allusion to this is Gifford’s note on Ben Jonson’s plays [vol. II., p. 170],—

In all great houses, but particularly in the Royal Residences, there were a number of mean dirty dependents, whose office it was to attend the wool-yard, sculleries, etc. Of these, the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, etc. To this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, which, with every other article of furniture, were then removed from palace to palace, the people, in derision, gave the name of black guards; a term since become sufficiently familiar, and never properly explained.

Many other references also go to prove the connection in the popular mind, so far as usage is concerned, between the two significations. In all this, however, the peculiarly contemptuous odium attached to the word in modern times is absent, and between the old and the modern significations a sharp line may, as already stated, be drawn.

The earliest reference to blackguard as applied to a vagabond or loafer occurs in 1683. Since that time the word seems gradually to have become more and more depraved, until its present meaning of a low, worthless fellow, one open to, and ready for any villainy has been reached. The following quotations will well repay comparative study.

1683. MS., in Lord Steward’s Office, Windsor Castle [N. and Q., 1 S., ix., p. 15]. 7 May, Whereas of late a sort of vicious, idle, and masterless boys and rogues, commonly called the blackguard, with divers other lewd and loose fellowes, vagabonds, vagrants, and wandering men and women, do usually haunt and follow the Court.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, Act iii., Sc. 10. Or if that won’t do, I’ll bring a Lawyer that shall out-lye the Devil: and so I’ll try whether my black-guard or his shall get the better of the day.

1744. Nov. 26, Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1833), II., 57. The whole stage filled with blackguards, armed with bludgeons and clubs.

1780. Parody on the Rosciad, etc., p. 13. Like him I’m a blackguard and sot.

1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 59. As black-guards at Newmarket meeting bawl about the lists of horses.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. iii., p. 37. ‘I must request you to be a little more careful in your language. You have come amidst gentlemen here, not blackguards.’

Adj.—Of or pertaining to a blackguard; to the scum or refuse of society; vile; vicious.

1760. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. ix. He is become a blackguard gaol-bird.

1803. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), I., 178. His friends were ill-natured, and behaved like blackguard beasts.

Verb.—To act like a ruffian; to use filthy, scurrilous language; to play the vagabond or scoundrel.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxix. ‘I have been called names, and blackguarded quite sufficiently for one sitting.’

So also with other derivatives and compounds—blackguardism, blackguardize, blackguardly, blackguardy.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 124. The talent of common blackguardism.

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. v. I was awakened by being shoved through the folding-doors of a gin-shop, into a glare of light and hubbub of blackguardism.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xxvi. ‘I beg your pardon, sir, for saying that; I said it in a hurry. It was blackguardly.’

1883. William Morris, reported in Illust. London News, March 10, p. 243, col. 3. Almost all ordinary wares now made by man were shabbily and pretentiously ugly.... Not even the pine-trees and gardens could make the rich men’s houses at Bournemouth tolerable. They were simply blackguardly; and even as he spoke they were being built by the mile.

Black Hole, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—Cheltenham, from the number of retired Anglo-Indians who live there. Cf., Asia Minor.

1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 234, col. 1. Gained for Cheltenham the ... title of The Black Hole.

Black Horse, subs. (military).—A nickname of the Seventh Dragoon Guards, so called from the regimental facings, black on scarlet. Occasionally the epithet is shortened into The Blacks. During the reign of George II., the corps was known as The Virgin Mary’s Guard, and is now often called Strawboots (q.v.).

Black House, subs. (trade).—A place of business where hours are long, and wages at starvation rates; a sweating house.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 234. I have mentioned that the black houses or linen-drapers at the west end of London, were principally supplied from the east end.

Black Indies, subs. (old).—Newcastle-on-Tyne, from its wealth in coal. The term is now obsolete, but it was in common use at the latter part of the eighteenth century.

Black Jack, subs. (Winchester College).—A large leathern jug for beer, holding two gallons. The term was not peculiar to Winchester; in olden times Jacks were common everywhere.

(?) Simon the Cellarer. But oh, oh, oh! his nose doth show, How oft the Black Jack to his lips doth go.

Black job, subs. (common).—A funeral. Mr. H. J. Byron, in his annotated copy of the Slang Dictionary states ‘it was the late Lord Portsmouth’s hobby to attend all the black jobs he could hear of.’ [From black, in reference to the sombre trappings of funerals + job].—See Black work.

1866. Yates, Land at Last, I., p. 101. ‘What, a funeral mute?’ ‘Yes, Sir, black-job business,’ etc.

Black Joke, subs. (old).—The female pudenda.—See Monosyllable for synonyms. Said to have been the burden of an obscene song, circa 1811.

Blackleg, subs. (common).—1. A turf swindler; a rook; a welsher; also one who cheats at cards or billiards. Origin unknown; although many speculations have been hazarded, none are satisfactory.—See Leg.

1771. B. Parsons, Newmarket, II., 163. The frequenters of the Turf, and numberless words of theirs are exotics everywhere else; then how should we have been told of blacklegs, and of town-tops ... taken in ... beat hollow, etc. [M.]

1774. Colman, Man of Business, I., in wks. (1777) II., 133. Countesses and semptresses, lords, aldermen, blacklegs, and Oxonians.

1812. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Picturesque, ch. x. The crowd with their commission pleas’d, Rudely the trembling black-leg seiz’d, Who, to their justice forc’d to yield, Soon ran off dripping from the field.

1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xv. ‘Mr. T—— is pursuing quite disgraceful courses all night and day, squandering away his money among sharpers and blacklegs.’

2. A workman who, when his fellows are on strike, is willing to go on working. An opprobrious term. Cf., Black-nob and Scab.

1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 29 Oct., p. 7. If the timber merchants persist in putting on blacklegs, a serious disturbance will ensue. [M.]

3. Also by another transference of meaning applied to any one failing, or refusing to join his fellows in combination for a given purpose.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 21, p. 5, col. 1. It was stated at the meeting that the master bakers were much behind the journeymen in the matter of organisation, and the difficulty of maintaining the price against unscrupulous bakers at ‘a living figure’ was emphasized. The question of the preparation of a list of master baker ‘blacklegs’ was also touched upon. These men are selling bread at 4½d. the quartern, and at even a lower rate.

Verb (tailors’).—Amongst the fraternity of ‘snips,’ to blackleg is used as synonymous with ‘to boycott’—i.e., to make things so uncomfortable for a man that he is compelled to leave his work or the town.

To blackleg it, phr. (trades’).—Amongst trades’ union men to return to work before the causes of a strike have been removed, or settled to the satisfaction of the leaders.

1888. Baltimore Herald, May 6. Early this morning the mountain paths leading to the William Pen colliery were lined with men, dinner in hand, determined to go to work. Some were non-union miners, while the remainder were Knights of Labor who had determined to blackleg it, regardless of the jeers and threats of their companions.

Black-Leggism, Black-Leggery, subs. (common).—Cheating; swindling; the arts and practices of a blackleg (q.v.—sense 1).

1832. Maginn, in Blackwood’s Mag., XXXII., 427. From following any profession save the Army, the Navy, Black-apronry and Black-leggery. [M.]

Black-Man or Black Gentleman, subs. (old).—The devil. For synonyms, see Skipper.

1606. Dekker, in Newes from Hell, in wks. (Grosart) II., 113. [Old Nick called the Black Gentleman.]

1861. G. Meredith, Evan Harrington, ch. iii., p. 23 (1885). ‘Rich as Crœsus, and as wicked as the black man below! as dear papa used to say.’

Blackmans.—See Darkmans.

Black Maria, subs. (popular).—A prison van or omnibus, used for the conveyance of prisoners. The origin of the phrase is unknown, but black is obviously from the dark and sombre colour of Her Majesty’s Carriage as it is sometimes jocularly called. This view is also supported by the fact that a variant is Sable Maria (see quot.). Julian Marshall, in Notes and Queries [6 S., vii., p. 355], suggests that the term Maria may be allied to ‘Marinated,’ transported to some foreign plantation, and ‘married,’ persons chained or handcuffed together, in order to be conveyed to gaol [Grose has this, as also has the Lexicon Balatronicum]. In marinated evident allusion is made to the compulsory voyage; in married to the forced wedlock of convictism. Black Maria may, therefore, possibly be a corruption of one or the other, or both terms. A writer on slang states that the term is said to have originated in Philadelphia in 1838, but gives no evidence in support of the statement.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 61. On alighting from the ‘Sable Maria’ we were ushered through a door into a long white-washed passage, with cells on one side.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge xvii. It is the time when Black Maria, the prison van, stands waiting at the door, and the signal is given that the prisoners are coming out.

1889. Answers, Feb. 9. There are two kinds of Black Marias. One is called the night van and the other the day. The passengers politely term them ‘mails.’ The day van holds eighteen passengers not including the driver and warder, and the night van a dozen. The vans are divided into two halves, and on each side are small compartments about two feet square with a seat and door, which is carefully locked.

Amongst French Synonyms may be mentioned:—Le courrier du Palais (a thieves’ term: courrier, a post or mail + Palais, an abbreviated form of Palais de Justice, a police court or sessions house); un panier à salade (familiar: ‘a salad basket’); le courrier de la prefecture (thieves’: Cf., courrier du Palais. Préfecture = the office of a chief magistrate); l’omnibus pègres (in slang un pègre signifies ‘a thief’); un guimbard (thieves’: une guimbarde is properly ‘a long cart’); le service du château (roughs’ and thieves’: ‘the prison service’; château = prison).

For other synonyms, see Her Majesty’s Carriage.

Black-Monday, subs. (old).—1. A schoolboys’ term for the Monday on which, after holidays, school re-opens. Obviously called black, from the reluctance with which young hopefuls turn their backs upon the sweets of home and play. Black Friday was used of the day on which Overend, Gurney & Co., suspended payment—10 May, 1886. Cf., Blue Monday.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. xi. She now hated my sight, and made home so disagreeable to me, that what is called by school-boys black Monday was to me the whitest in the whole year.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. i. There comes a time when the days are grudgingly counted to a blacker Monday than ever makes a schoolboy’s heart quake within him.

2. (popular.)—The Monday on which the death penalty is carried out; these events are generally arranged to fall on the day in question.

Black-Mummer, subs. (old).—An epithet applied to one unwashed and unshorn.

Black-Nob, subs. (trades’ union).—A non-unionist; one who, while his fellows are on strike, persists in working at his trade; a blackleg (q.v.). [Apparently a humorous variant of blackleg. From black = wicked, atrocious, + nob, the head, in place of leg in blackleg.] They are also called knobsticks and scabs (q.v.).

Black Ointment, subs. (American thieves’).—A term for uncooked meat.

Black-Pot, subs. (old).—A toper; a tippler. [Beer mugs were called black-pots; also black-jacks, hence, probably, a transference of the name from the utensil to the drinker.]

1594. Greene, Fr. Bacon, v., 122. I’ll be Prince of Wales over all the black-pots in Oxford.

1636. Heywood, Love’s Mistr., II. Iugg, what’s shee but sister to a black-pot.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, xxxii. A whole whiskin, or black-pot of sufficient double ale.

Black Psalm. To sing the black psalm, phr. (old).—To cry; a saying used to children.—Grose.

Blacks.—See Black horse.

Black Sal or Suke, subs. (popular).—A kettle.—See Sukey for synonyms.

Black Saturday, subs. (workmen’s).—A Saturday on which an artisan or mechanic has no money to take, having anticipated it by advances. Cf., Black Monday and Blue Monday.

Black-Sheep, subs. (common).—A mildly opprobrious term for a scapegrace; a ‘bad lot’; ‘un mauvais sujet.’ It is also applied like blackleg and black-nob to workmen who persist in working when their comrades are on strike. The word is hardly slang now.

1864. Le Fanu, Uncle Silas, ch. xxvi. ‘Your Uncle Silas had injured himself before that in the opinion of the people of his county. He was a black sheep, in fact. Very bad stories were told and believed of him.’

1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxxvii. ‘In all cities there are black sheep, but in a city like London, sound finance is the rule, I am sure.’

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xxviii. ‘Many companies, perfectly sound in principle, may be ruined by a sudden decrease in the price of shares; a panic sets in, and in a few hours the shareholders may lose all. And if you bring this about by selling without concert with the other favoured allottees, you’ll be called a black sheep.’

Verb (Winchester College).—When a fellow in ‘Junior Part’ got above (or ‘jockeyed’) a fellow in ‘Middle Part.’

Blacksmith’s Daughter, subs. (popular).—A key. Formerly the key with which the doors of sponging houses were unlocked. Also Locksmith’s daughter, which see for synonyms.

1859. C. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities. Place it under the care of the blacksmith’s daughter.

1864. Reader [quoted in N. and Q., 5 S., ix., 263]. Blacksmith’s daughter. A key. I have never met with this word in print, but have heard it frequently in conversation.

Black-Spice Racket, subs. (old).—The practice of robbing chimney sweepers of their tools, bag, and soot.—Lexicon Balatronicum.

Black Spy, subs. (old).—A cant name for the devil. The French equivalent is le dache. For synonyms, see Skipper.

Black-Strap, subs. (common).—1. Thick, sweet port. A contemptuous term, in allusion to its dark colour, strap being an old name for wine.—(See quot.).

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 131. Sometimes likewise this Card-cheating, goes not vnder the name of Bernard’s Lawe, but is called Batt fowling, and then ye Setter is the Beater, the foole that is caught in the net, the bird, the Tauerne to which they repaire to worke the Feate, is the Bush; the wine the Strap, and the cardes the Limetwigs.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 3. Tom (taking his seat): Gentlemen, I beg pardon for being scarce so long; but having to start early, I thought it best to see that the toggery was all right and fly—I never shirk the black strap intentionally, you know. Jerry: Don’t mention it, my dear Tom.

1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. x. The orator gets deeper into his subject, till an extremely abrupt conclusion ... empties every bumper of ‘black strap’ like a shot.

2. (American.)—Properly speaking, gin mixed with molasses, but frequently applied to a compound of any alcoholic liquor with molasses. Beverages of this description were at one time the commonest of drinks among agricultural labourers.

1882. Pinkerton, Molly Maguires and Detectives, p. 84. From the great iron kettle a savory incense arose; it came from an admixture of high-wines and common molasses, in about the proportion of one gallon of the latter to four of the spirit.... The seething blackstrap was pronounced ready for use. It rapidly disappeared, and, as it diminished and was imbibed, the fun and hilarity proportionately increased.

3. (old.)—A task of labour imposed on soldiers at Gibraltar as a punishment for small offences.—Grose.

Black’s Your Eye. To say black’s your eye, phr. (old).—To accuse; to find fault with. The phrase was varied by black’s your eyebrow, nail, etc. A more modern rendering is black is the white of your eye.

1528. Roy, Sat. (1845). They eate their belies full.... And none sayth blacke is his eye. [M.]

1583. Stubbs, Anatomic of Abuses, p. 65. And then no man say blacke is their eye, but all is well, and they as good Christians, as those that suffer them unpunished.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Love’s Cure, iii., 1. I can say black’s your eye, though it be grey; I have conniv’d at this your friend, and you.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, IX., iv. The house is well known to be a house of as good reputation as any on the road, and, though I say it, is frequented by gentry of the best quality, both Irish and English. I defy anybody, to say black is my eye, for that matter.

Black-Teapot, subs. (popular).—A negro footman.

Blackwork, subs. (common).—Undertaking. The waiters met with at public dinners are often employed during the day as mutes, etc. Omnibus and cab drivers regard blackwork as un dernier ressort.—See Black-job.

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxvi. A florid man who officiates as a waiter at the London Tavern o’nights, and sometimes takes a spell in the black work, or undertaking line of business.

Bladder of Lard, subs. (popular).—A bald-headed person. [From the supposed similarity of the smooth, hairless cranium to a bag or bladder of lard.]

1886. Athenæum, July 31, p. 142. An elderly Jew money-lender, whom she afterwards describes to her admiring friends as a bladder of lard, a graceful reference to his baldness and tendency to stoutness.

Blade, subs. (common.)—A roysterer; a gallant; a sharp, keen fellow; a free and easy, good fellow. [Probably from blade, a sword, a soldier. There seems no warrant for supposing the word connected with the Dutch bloed, or with the term ‘blood,’ a dandy, in use in the time of the Georges in a somewhat similar sense; indeed, the following quotations show a much older usage. In French a ‘sly blade’ is called un renaré.]

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes; these new tuners of accents! By Jesu, a very good blade!—a very tall man!

1632. Chapman and Shirley, The Ball, Act iv.

This came first o’ keeping company with the blades, From whom I learnt to roar and run away.

1636. Davenant, The Wits, Act v.

The old blade Skulks there like a tame filcher, as he had New stolen ’bove eggs from market-women.

1637. Fletcher, Elder Brother, I., ii.

If he be that old Rough testy blade he always used to be.

1664. Pepys, Diary, Jan. 4. For suffering his man (a spruce blade) to be so saucy as to strike a ball while his master was playing in the Mall.

1667. Pepys, Diary, June 3. With his hat cocked like a fool behind, as the present fashion among the blades is.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, Act iv., Sc. 2. These London blades are all stark mad; I met one about two hours ago, that had forgot his name, and this fellow would persuade me now, that I had forgot mine.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Blade (s.) ... is sometimes used to signify a beau, spark, or hectoring fellow.

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act i., Sc. 2. ‘A troublesome old blade, to be sure; but a keeps as good wines and beds as any in the whole country.’

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xxiv., p. 115. ‘He forged wills, this blade did, if he didn’t also put the supposed testators to sleep too.’

1883. Broadside Ballad, ‘Happy Thoughts,’ st. 4.

My Uncle Dowle has lots of money; He’s a very knowing looking blade.

Blamed, ppl. adj. (popular).—An expletive used to emphasize a statement. It partakes of the nature of an oath, being often used instead of ‘doomed’ or ‘damned.’ In America the expression is more of a colloquialism than it is in England.—See Oaths.

1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. vi. Yes, John Bull is a blamed blockhead.

1872. S. Clemens, Roughing It, ch. ix. The keeper had fired four times at an Indian, but he said with an injured air, that the Indian had ‘skipped’ around so’s to spile everything—and ammunition’s blamed skurse too.

1873. Carleton, Farm Ballads, p. 18.

And so that pourin’ dissentions in our cup; And so that blamed cow-critter was always coming up.

1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. 6. ‘Did you see any Quakers in Philadelphia?’ was asked of a Detroiter who lately returned from that city. ‘Only one that I was sure of.’ ‘Did he “thee” and “thou” you?’ ‘He did. He got down off his hack and said: “If thee don’t pay me 2 dols. I’ll knock thy blamed head off,” and I paid, although I knew the regular fare was twelve shillings. You don’t want to fool with those Quakers any, and don’t you forget it.’

1888. Portland Transcript, May 9. ‘Why do you object to your daughter marrying?’ ‘Wouldn’t object ef she wuster marry the right sorter man.’ ‘Isn’t Tom the right sort of man?’ ‘Not by a blamed sight.’

Blame it! intj. (common).—A round-about oath. Equivalent to ‘Damn it!’ [A transferred sense of blame.]

Blamenation! intj. (common).—Damnation!—See Oaths.

Blank, Blanked, Blankety, adj. (common).—Euphemistic oaths, the derivation of which is clearly an outcome of the practice of representing an oath, for decency’s sake in printing, by a dash or blank space; e.g., d——d. The terms are used in America in many combinations (see quots.). Cf., Oaths.

1857. C. Dickens, Farce for the Championship, in All the Year Round. Enter a closely shaven, bullet-headed fellow in an ecstasy of excitement at having just seen Cuss, and at the exquisite ‘fitness’ of that worthy. ‘So help me blank, blank!’ he cries delightedly, ‘if he ain’t a blank picter with the weins in his face down ’ere and ’ere, a showin’ out just if a blank hartist ’ad painted him. Tell yer he’s beautiful, fine as a blank greyhound, with a blank heavy air with him that looks blank like winnin’. Take yer two quid to one, guv’nor,’ adds the speaker, suddenly picking out a stout purple-faced farmer in the group of eager listeners.

1873. C. Reade, Simpleton, xxiii. Blank him! that is just like him; the uneasy fool! [M.]

1878. Mrs. Edwardes, Jet, iii., 272. ‘——the colonel of the regiment!’ exclaims Mark.... ‘Blank the colonel of the regiment!’ With slow, unmistakable gusto she lingers over the monosyllable ‘blank.’ [M.]

1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, in Hallberger’s Illustrated Magazine, vol. I., p. 378. Because you’re religious, blank you, do you expect me to starve? Go and order supper first! Stop! Where in blank are you going? Here you’ve been and gone three hours on an errand for me, and blame me if you ain’t runnin’ off without a word about it.

1888. Troy Daily Times, Feb. 3. The captain looked anxious, and an irate fellow-passenger, who had not ceased swearing since we left Tuxpan, declared by all that is sacred and profane that he had known vessels to be hindered thirty days; yes, even three months, by that blankety blankety bar!

1888. Owosso (Mich.) Press, April. ‘Doctor, I’m a dead man!’ ‘Not right now?’ said I, as I kicked his dog out. ‘Just as good as dead,’ said he, ‘or you wouldn’t kick that dog in that way with safety. Not by a blankety blank blank sight.’ ‘Needn’t waste so much profanity, Mr. Starkhill,’ said I.

Blanket. Lawful blanket, subs. (old).—A wife. For synonyms, see Dutch.

Blanket Fair, subs. (popular).—Bed. Cf., Bedfordshire, Sheet Alley, and Land of Nod.

Blanket Hornpipe, subs. (common).—Sexual commerce. The allusion is obvious. Cf., Basket making.

Blarmed, ppl. adj. (common).—A euphemism for blessed (q.v.); ‘damned’; ‘blowed’ (q.v.); or blamed (q.v.), of the last of which it is probably a corruption.—See Oaths.

1867. No Church, I., 104. To be in a blarmed hurry.

1872. John Forster, Life of Dickens, ch. xxxi. (III., p. 191). He saw a strange sensation among the angry travellers whom he had detained so long; heard a voice exclaim, ‘I am blarmed if it ain’t Dickens!’ and stood in the centre of a group of Five Americans!

Blarm Me! intj. (common).—A euphemistic oath.—See Blarmed.

Blarney, subs. (colloquial).—Blandishment; soft speech, or ‘sawder’; gross flattery; ‘gammon.’ [From Castle Blarney in Ireland, in the wall of which, difficult of access, is placed a stone. Whoever is able to kiss this is said thereafter to be able to persuade to anything. Blarney is from bladh-ey, flowery island, and this may have some connection with the curious tradition. On the other hand, according to Brewer, Cormack Macarthy held the Castle of Blarney in 1602, and concluded an armistice with Carew, the lord president, on condition of surrendering the fort to the English garrison. Day after day his lordship looked for the fulfilment of the terms, but received nothing except protocols and soft speeches, till he became the laughing-stock of Elizabeth’s ministers, and the dupe of the lord of Blarney.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller.

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xix. They were as cunning as foxes and could tell blarney from good sense.

c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, ‘A nice young thing.’

Such a nice young thing, such a sweet young thing, Her name was Kate Carney, she came from Killarney, So full of her blarney, but fond of her Barney, Such a fair young thing, a rare young thing, And just for a lark she had dyed her hair dark, And they called her the Colleen Dhu.

1884. Ruskin, in Pall Mall Gazette, 17 Nov., p. 11, col. 2. It was bombastic English blarney—not Irish. [M.]

The French have baliverne and pelotage with the same meaning.

Verb.—1. To wheedle; to coax; to flatter grossly.

2. (American thieves’.)—Besides the English slang signification of ‘to wheedle,’ it also bears the secondary meaning, among the low and criminal classes of America, of ‘to pick locks.’

Blart Out, verb (American, ? nonce word).—A corruption of ‘blurt out’; to utter abruptly.

1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, pref., p. v. It warn’t the part of a gentleman for to go and pump me arter that fashion, and then go right off and blart it out in print. Ibid, ch. viii. And there are others again who blart right out whatever comes uppermost.

Blasé, adj. (common).—Used up; exhausted with enjoyment; satiated. [From French blaser, of unknown derivation.] Its extended colloquial use in England is explained in second quotation.

1823. Byron, Don Juan, ch. xii., st. 81. A little blasé—’tis not to be wondered At, that his heart had got a tougher rind, And though not vainer from his past success, No doubt his sensibilities were less.

1883. G. A. Sala, in Illustrated London News, March 10, p. 235, col. 3. There should be a chronology of slang. It is about forty years ago, I think, that the great popularity of a French farce called ‘L’Homme Blasé’ brought the word into colloquial use in England; indeed the first translation of the French piece (at the Princess’s, Wright, the low comedian, playing the hero,) was called Blasé, with some sub-title that I forget. Subsequently another translation was produced, Charles Mathews playing the principal character. As a title for this version, we borrowed a slang term from the Americans, and ‘L’Homme Blasé’ became ‘Used Up’!

Blast, verb (low).—To curse; to damn. An expression of reprobation and hatred. Used in such combinations as Blast me! Blast you! Blast your eyes! etc.—See Oaths.

1654. Chapman, Revenge for Honour, V., ii. And thus I kiss’d my last breath. Blast you all! Ta. Damn’d desperate villain!

1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. X., ch. v. ‘I don’t know what you mean by ominous,’ cries the colonel; ‘but, blast my reputation, if I had received such a letter, if I would not have searched the world to have found the writer.’

1759. Goldsmith, Cit. of the World, lett., 105. ‘Blast me!’ cries Tibbs, ‘if that be all, there is no need of paying for that.’

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. viii. ‘Hands, Captain MacTurk!’ exclaimed Sir Bingo, in some confusion; ‘no, blast him—not so bad as that neither.’

Blasted, ppl. adj. (low).—Execrable; confounded; often substituted for ‘damned,’ ‘bloody,’ it being thought a milder form. Grose has blasted fellow for an abandoned rogue, and blasted brimstone for a prostitute. [From blast, q.v.]—See Oaths.

1682. Dryden, Medal, 260. What curses on thy blasted Name will fall.

1750. Chesterfield, Letters, 8 Jan. (1870), 169. Colonel Chartres ... who was, I believe, the most notorious blasted rascal in the world. [M.]

1874. Pusey, Lent. Sermons, 79. Balaam after the success of his blasted counsel. [M.]

1884. Good Words, Nov., p. 767, col. 1. Jim Black states that the blasted railway has done away with those journeys.

Blatantation, subs. (? nonce word).—Noisy effusion; swagger. [From blatant, noisy, offensively clamorous, + ation.] Cf., Blatancy.

1833. Graphic, Feb. 24, p. 199, col. 3. On the ground betting men are conspicuous with their books, blatantations, blackguardism, and swell clothes.

Blater, subs. (old).—A calf. [Probably a corruption of ‘bleater,’ from its cry.]

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11 [list of cant words in]. Blater, a calf.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. Don’t be glim-flashy; why you’d cry beef on a blater.

Blather, subs. (familiar).—Noisy talk; voluble nonsense. Cf., Blether.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxix., p. 309 (1873). ‘There’s a letter there from Sir Mordaunt, askin’ for more time, and promisin’ all sorts of things; but I’m sick of him and his blather.’

Verb.—To talk volubly; noisily; nonsensically.—See Blether.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxiv. Mrs. O’Brien was blathering about the pedigree of the O’Briens and the O’Shandrydans to Mrs. Joyce.

Blatherskite, subs. (common).—1. Boastful disputatious swagger. Cf., Bletherskite.

2. A swaggerer; boaster; one who talks volubly and nonsensically. Cf., Bletherskite.

1888. New York Herald, July 29. Every blatherskite republican is filled to the brim and spouting high protection, while the democrats are not prepared to meet them for want of documents.

1888. Chicago Watchman. Dr. Brookes, of St. Louis, must be a nice man to live with. He refers to Dr. R. W. Dale and Dr. Parker as ‘blatant blatherskites,’ and evidently regards Professor Drummond as beyond reformation.

Blayney’s Bloodhounds, subs. (military).—The Eighty-ninth Foot. They obtained this nickname during the Irish Rebellion in 1798. [Blayney, from their Colonel’s name + Bloodhounds from their skill in tracking Irish rebels.] They also earned for themselves the sobriquet of The Rollickers, in allusion to the ‘jolly doggish’ bearing of the corps.

Blaze, subs. and verb (common).—In some of the usages of this word, the precincts of slang are narrowly touched, even if the boundary line is not crossed; as e.g., when a man is said to blaze his way through the labyrinths of the metropolis. The original meaning is well known. The early settlers in traversing the vast forests which abounded on the American continent, found it very necessary to mark their route. This they did by the simple expedient of blazing the trees at convenient distances. Blazing consists merely in chopping a piece of the bark off each tree selected in the desired line of march. The mark itself is called a blaze. In addition to this, blazing was also adopted as an indication that the land within the limits of the trees thus marked had been appropriated by a settler—a rude and informal, but, in early days, a thoroughly well recognised method of securing a title to the land. Some writers affect to derive the word from the old French blazon, the armorial bearing of the Normans, and quote the use of ‘blazen,’ by Shakspeare, in a sense not altogether dissimilar to the meaning conveyed by blazing, as proof to this effect.

It is employed generally in America and all English-speaking colonies. The following quotations will exemplify its use both in the original and more figurative senses.—See Blazes.

1737. Wesley, wks. (1872) I., 68. We then found another blaze and pursued it. [M.]

1883. Bret Harte, In the Carquinez Woods, ch. viii. ‘I made a blaze hereabouts to show where to leave the trail. There it is,’ he added, pointing to a slight notch cut in the trunk of an adjoining tree.... They proceeded cautiously at right angles with the blazed tree for ten minutes more.

Blaze-away, intj. (common).—Look sharp; ‘stir your stumps’—an injunction to renewed and more effective effort.

Blazer, subs. (popular).—Originally applied to the uniform of the Lady Margaret Boat Club of St. John’s College, Cambridge, which was of a bright red and was called a blazer. Now applied to any light jacket of bright colour worn at cricket or other sports. Prof. Skeat [N. and Q., 7 S., iii., 436] speaking of the Johnian blazer, says it was always of the most brilliant scarlet, and thinks it not improbable that the fact suggested the name which subsequently became general.

1880. Times, June 19. Men in spotless flannel, and club blazers. [M.]

1885. Punch, June 27, p. 304. On the morning of the start for our ‘Spin to Brighton,’ Harkaway turns up clad in what he calls a blazer, which makes him look like a nigger minstrel out for a holiday.

1889. Daily News, Aug. 22, p. 6, col. 6. Dress by the Sea. Sir,—In your article of to-day, under the above heading, you speak of ‘a striped red and black blazer,’ ‘the blazer,’ also of ‘the pale toned’ ones. This is worth noting as a case of the specific becoming the generic. A blazer is the red flannel boating jacket, worn by the Lady Margaret, St. John’s College, Cambridge, Boat Club. When I was at Cambridge it meant that and nothing else. It seems from your article that a blazer now means a coloured flannel jacket, whether for cricket, tennis, boating, or seaside wear.—Yours faithfully, Walter Wren.

Blazes, subs. (general).—The infernal regions. This, an allusion to the flames of hell, was the original meaning; constant use, however, has lessened the force of the expression, and as in the case of ‘bloody,’ few who employ such flowers of oratory have any notion of the proper signification. In most cases the word is now a meaningless intensitive, and takes rank with such expressions as like one o’clock, like winkey, etc. The verb to blaze is likewise employed in a manner closely bordering on slang. Thus one says of an action that it is a blazing shame; that he has a blazing headache; that so-and-so is a blazing thief; that such a job is blazing hard work; that it is a blazing hot day—all figurative uses of the legitimate idea. Appended are illustrations of some of its usages.

(Common.)—The brilliant habiliments of flunkeys. Derived from the episode of Sam Weller and the ‘swarry.’

Old Blazes, subs. (common).—The devil. For synonyms, see Skipper.

1849. Southern Literary Messenger, June. He looked, upon my word, like Old Blazes himself, with his clothing all on fire, and rage and despair in his face.

Go to blazes, phr. (common).—Go to the devil; go to hell—expressions of contempt used in imprecations.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 135. He jumps through a trap in the window with a bottle on it, marked ‘Old Tom,’ and a scroll falls down, written gone to blazes.

1861. Thackeray, Adventures of Philip, I., p. 99. Old Parr Street is mined, sir—mined! And some morning we shall be blown into blazes,—into blazes, sir, mark my words!

1862. Mrs. Riddell (‘F. G. Trafford’), Too Much Alone, p. 200. ‘Has no one been here this afternoon?’ ‘Yes, one man, to ask his way to blazes, or some place else.’

1880. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Sketch (Mr. Skae’s Item). I could have told Johnny Skae that I would not receive his communication at such a late hour, and to go to blazes with it.

1882. Jas. Payn, in ‘A Failure of Justice’, in Glow Worm Tales, p. 97. ‘Sir,’ cried I, authoritatively, ‘let me tell you I am a Middlesex magistrate.’ ‘Oh, yes: a likely story!’ was his audacious reply. ‘You’ve got ’Ighbury Barn written on your countenance you have, go to blazes!’ and he slammed down the window.

Like blazes, adv. phr. (popular).—Vehemently; with extreme ardour.—See Anything and Winkey.

1845. B. Disraeli, Sybil or The Two Nations, p. 330. Syllabubs like blazes, and snapdragon as makes the flunkeys quite pale. Ibid, p. 369. ‘They pelted the police....’ ‘And cheered the red-coats like blazes,’ said Mick. Ibid. She sets her face against gals working in mills like blazes.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 159. She liked this very much, in fact so much, that the other little ones used to cry like blazes because I wouldn’t let them have a turn at them [the stilts].

1859. Chas. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, I., p. 15 (in parts). A blazing strange answer.

1864. J. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone or Thorough. They hate each other like blazes.

18(?). De Quincey, Spanish Nun, sect. 24. The horse was so maddened by the wound, and the road so steep, that he went like blazes.

How, Who, or What the blazes, phr. (popular).—A somewhat more intense interrogatory than Who or What or even Who or What the Dickens.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. lv., p. 479. ‘Pell,’ he used to say to me many a time, ‘how the blazes you can stand the head-work you do, is a mystery to me.’

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xvii. ‘Who the blazes would recognise Jack Seymour in those shore-going duds?’

Drunk as blazes or blaizers, phr. (common).—Very drunk; what is vulgarly called ‘beastly’ drunk. Whether this expression follows the derivation of the examples given above, or whether we must seek its origin in a totally different direction, is a matter of some doubt. The alternative derivation suggested is that the phrase is really drunk as blaizers, an expression which dates back at least to 1830 [N. and Q., 6 S., i., 434]. Sir Thomas Wyse, in Impressions of Greece, speaking (see Life of Richard Waldo Sibthorp, by J. Fowler, 1880, p. 227) of the reverence for St. Blaize, in Greece (who is also, as is known, the patron saint of the English woolcombers), and how his feast was observed in the woollen manufactories of the Midland Counties, says, ‘Those who took part in the procession were called Blaizers, and the phrase as drunk as blaizers originated in the convivialities common on those occasions! So good “Bishop and Martyr” Blaize is dishonoured as well as honoured in England, and very probably in Greece.’ Further data may be found in Chambers’ Book of Days, vol. I., pp. 219–20.

Bleach, verb (Harvard University.)—To absent oneself from morning prayers.—Hall’s College Words and Phrases.

Bleached Mort, subs. (old).—A fair complexioned wench.—Grose. [From bleached, white or fair, + mort, a girl or woman.]

Bleak, adj. (American thieves’).—In the phraseology of American thieves, bleak means handsome.

Bleater, subs. (old).—The victim of a sharper or rook. In the following quotation a Jack in the box (q.v.) is an old thieves’ term for a swindler or cheat.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne, wks., 1884–5, III., 290. They that are Cheated by Iacke in a Boxe are called bleaters.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bleaters, those cheated by Jack in a Box.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. (Same definition given.)

Bleating Cheat, subs. (old).—A sheep.—Grose. [In the old cant cheat or chete [from Anglo-Saxon ceat] signified a thing; and the names of animals were frequently formed by adding an adjective descriptive of their peculiar noise or cry. Thus a grunting cheat was a pig; a cackling cheat a fowl; a bleating cheat a sheep.] A sheep is also called a wool-bird (q.v.). Among French thieves this animal is designated une morne.

Bleating Cull, subs. (old).—A sheep stealer. [From bleating, see preceding, + cull, a man, honest or otherwise.]

Bleating Prig or Rig, subs. (old).—Sheep stealing. [From bleating, see Bleating cheat, + prig, or rig, the act of stealing.]

Bleed, verb tr. and intr. (popular).—1. To be victimised; to lose or part with money so that the loss is felt; to be ‘rushed’ (q.v.); to have money drawn or extorted from one. [An allusion to the loss sustained by parting with one’s life blood.]

1668. Dryden, An Evening’s Love, Act iv., Sc. 1. In fine, he is vehement, and bleeds on to fourscore or an hundred; and I, not willing to tempt fortune, come away a moderate winner of two hundred pistoles.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bleed (v.) ... also to part with money freely, upon proposing something agreeable to a person’s disposition, whether it be in gaming or anything else.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxvi. To whom he was particularly agreeable, on account of his person, address, and bleeding freely at play.

1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xxii. The reputed readiness with which she bled, at last brought her the honour of an old countess, who condescended to win from her, at two sittings, very nearly £5,000.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxviii. ‘You have got a bill of sale for her furniture.... By Jove, sir, you’ve bled that poor woman enough.’

1885. Manchester Evening News, 23 June, p. 2, col. 2. Men who give bills have to bleed for the accommodation.

2. (printers’.)—A book bleeds when the margins are ‘planed’ down so that the edge of the printed portion is cut away.

1876. Daily Telegraph, June 9, p. 2, col. 1. So very carelessly has the mechanical part of production been done that, in the phraseology of the craft—half technical, half slang—the pages bleed in many places—i.e., the binder’s knife when cutting the edges has also cut away portions of the printed matter.

Bleeder, subs. (University).—1. A duffer beyond compare; a superlative fool. (common).—A euphemism for ‘bloody fool.’

2. (sporting.)—A sovereign. For synonyms, see Canary.

3. (old.)—A spur; an obvious allusion.

Bleeding, adj.—An expletive, which, if meant, would partake of the nature of an oath; as it is there is little enough, sanguinary, either literally or metaphorically about much that is described as bleeding. It sounds big and weighty to those who use it, and that suffices.

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, pt. II., ch. xxiii. ‘When he isn’t up to one dodge he is up to another. You make no bleeding error.’

Bleeding Cully, subs. (old).—One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely.—Grose.—[See Bleed.]

Bleed the Monkey, verbal phr. (nautical).—To steal rum from the mess tub called ‘the monkey.’ The term is exclusively naval, ‘monkeys’ not being known on merchant ships. The practice is also called sucking the monkey, and tapping the admiral.—See Admiral.

1889. Chambers’ Journal, 3 Aug., p. 495. To suck the monkey is a phrase explained in Peter Simple as having originally been used among sailors for drinking rum out of cocoa-nuts, the milk having been poured out and the liquor substituted. It is now applied to the act of drinking on the sly from a cask by inserting a straw through a gimlet hole, and to drinking generally. Barham, in the legend of the Black Mousquetaire says:

What the vulgar call sucking the monkey, Has much less effect on a man when he’s funky.

Blenker, verb (American).—To plunder. A cant phrase much used during the Civil War. Possibly allied to the northern provincialism ‘blenk,’ a trick or stratagem. ‘Blenk’ was also used in Morte d’Arthur in the sense of ‘to bilk,’ or ‘cheat.’

Bless, verb (popular).—To curse; to damn.—See Blessed.

To bless oneself, verbal phr. (common).—To be surprised; to be vexed; to be mortified. Generally, ‘God bless me!’ or ‘Bless my eyes!’ ‘Bless my soul!’ ‘Lor’ bless me!’

1592. Shakspeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, iv., 2, 11. Quin: Yea, and the best person too: and he is a very paramour, for a sweet voice. Flu: You must say, paragon: a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of nought.

1615. T. Adams, Black Dev., 71. He ... would blesse himselfe to think that so little a thing could extend itself to such a capacity. [M.]

1665. Pepys, Diary, 1 Apr. How my Lord Treasurer did bless himself, crying he could do no more, etc.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. xl. Rub your hands thrice across your foreheads—blow your nose—cleanse your emunctories—sneeze, my good people!—God bless you.

1814. Miss Austen, Mansfield Park, ch. xviii. Could Sir Thomas look in upon us just now, he would bless himself, for we are rehearsing all over the house.

1843. Dickens, Christmas Carol, p. 77. ‘Why, bless my soul,’ cried Fred, ‘who’s that?’

1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, I., p. 307. After they had lain apart for a little while, very silent and sullen, John sneezed. ‘God bless you!’ says Joan, over the bolster.

Not a [penny] to bless oneself with, phr. (popular).—Utterly impecunious; ‘without a sou.’

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 237. He landed there without a penny to bless himself with.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, I., p. 113. I heard that Mr. Mell was not a bad sort of fellow, but hadn’t a sixpence to bless himself with.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 55. The most of ’em ain’t got a farthing to bless themselves with.

1861. George Eliot, Silas Marner, p. 38. I have not a shilling to bless myself with.

To bless one’s stars, verbal phr. (common).—To thank oneself; to attribute one’s good fortune to luck, generally in a ludicrous sense.

1845. Hood, Pauper’s Christmas Carol, iii. Ought not I to bless my stars?

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 230. Forty-eight marks! a week’s remission. The very thought made me savage, but I blessed my stars I had not lost my class, or my good berth.

Blessed, Blest, ppl. adj. (popular).—An ironical euphemism; often used like blazing for ‘cursed,’ ‘damned,’ etc., or as a vow.—See quot. from Hindley and Oaths.

1806. Windham, Let. in Speeches (1812), I., 77. As one of the happy consequences of our blessed system of printing debates, I am described to-day ... as having talked a language directly the reverse of that which I did talk. [M.]

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 139. One Maidstone Fair time, I saw one of the gipsy Lees called ‘Jemmy,’ fighting with a man much bigger than himself. Tom Rosseter, the mumper, was seconding his brother-in-law, Jemmy Lee, when, as Jemmy kept throwing his man very heavily, he said, ‘My dear blessed brother, don’t throw the blessed man like that or you will be sure to kill him.’ ‘Well,’ said Jemmy, ‘but my dear blessed brother, if I don’t kill the dear blessed man, why the big blessed —— will be sure to kill me, and so I must keep on throwing the dear blessed man, for you see what a blessed big dear fellow he is to me.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 245. ‘They called in the coppers, and some feller in the shop twigged my old girl as one he’d a-seen before, and blessed if they didn’t identify her as having lifted some things out of the shop, and she was pinched for seven “stretch.”’

1882. Punch, Aug. 5, p. 49. Sir Pompey Bedell: ‘Oh!—er—Mr. Grigsby, I think! How d’ye do?’ [extending two fingers]. Grigsby: ‘I hope I see you well, Sir Pompey. And next time you give me two fingers, I’m blest if I don’t pull ’em off.’

1889. Sporting Times, July 6. St. Mannock.—Did you ever hear a still, small voice whispering over its morning shrimps, ‘What a pair of blessed fools you are!’

Blether, Blather, subs. (Scotch and U.S.A.).—Nonsense; vapid talk; voluble chatter.

b. 1759, d. 1796. Burns, Tam Samson’s Elegy, st. 12.

Yon auld gray stane, amang the heather, Marks out his head, Whare Burns has wrote in rhyming blether, Tam Samson’s dead!

1886. Pall Mall Gazette, 3 May, 6, 2. Havelock’s florid adjurations to his men, the grim veterans of the 78th, bluntly characterized as blether.

Hence blethering (verb, subs.) used in the same sense as blether, and as an adjective for ‘volubly’ or ‘foolishly talkative.’ Cf., Bletherskate.

b. 1759, d. 1796. Burns, Holy Fair, st. 8.

And some are busy blethrin’ Right loud that day.

1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. xiv. ‘I hae been clean spoilt, just wi’ listening to twa blethering auld wives.’

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. vi. He had brought this blethering Irishman down here, and deluged him with punch for the express purpose of turning him inside out.

Bletherskate, Blatherskite, subs. (provincial and American).—1. Boastful swagger, whether in talk or action.

2. A boaster; noisy talker of blatant nonsense. [From blether, to talk nonsensically, + skate, allied to Scotch skyte, a contemptible fellow.] It occurs in Maggie Lauder, a well-known Scotch song, a fact which Murray says led to its popularisation in the United States. In Ireland it seems to have taken the forms of bladder-skate and bladderum-skate.

Circa 1650. F. Sempill, Maggie Lauder, i. Jog on your gait, ye blether-skate. [M.]

1825. C. Croker, Tradit. S. Ireland, p. 170. He was, as usual, getting on with his bletherumskite about the fairies. [M.]

1870. J. R. O’Flanagan, Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland. ‘Lord Redesdale was speaking of people who learnt to skate with bladders under their arms, to buoy them up if they should fall into a hole and risk being drowned.’ ‘Ah, my Lord,’ said Toler, ‘that is what we call bladderumskate in Ireland.’

Blew, verb (common).—1. To inform; to ‘peach’; to expose; to betray.—See Blow upon, of which it is a variant.

2. (popular.)—To spend; to waste; generally in connection with money. When a man has spent or lost all his money, he is said to have blewed it. [The derivation is uncertain, that most likely being its reference to a corrupt grammatical use of blew, the past tense of ‘to blow.’ Money spent recklessly and wasted vanishes as if blown away by the wind.]

1884. Daily Telegraph, May 28, p. 5, col. 1. ‘Which paid him £1,700 compensation, when he took to horses, and blewed the blooming lot in eighteen months.’

1889. Sporting Times, June 29.

Isabel and Maudie knew the Turf and all its arts— They had often blewed a dollar on a wrong ’un— And Isabel one evening met a mug from rural parts, An attenuated Juggins, and a long ’un.

French Synonyms. Se faire rincer (popular: ‘to be cleared out’ [at a game]. Rincer, properly ‘to drench,’ ‘to serve out,’ also has the slang signification of ‘to thrash’); paumer (thieves’ and vagrants’: this verb is very old, and is derived from palma = empoigner. It also signifies to arrest, lose, etc.); laumir (an old cant term); se faire ratisser (familiar: literally ‘to scrape oneself’); faire rasoir (gaming: ‘to be penniless’); se faire enturer (popular: ‘to cut into oneself’; enture = incision or cut); panner quelqu’un (popular); mettre dans le sac (gamesters’: Cf., ‘be in a hole’); décavage (familiar: a term employed to signify the circumstances of a gamester who has ‘blewed it’; one who is in ‘Queer Street’—from décavé, a ruined gamester); se faire lessiver: ‘to wash oneself.’ Michel gives lessive = defence, and lessiveur = barrister, and remarks that better terms could hardly be given to advocate and speech by those charged with offence, and who wish to return from the same ‘white as snow,’ or, as police phraseology hath it, without a stain upon one’s character. For other synonyms, see Shave.

Blimey, intj. (low).—A corruption of ‘Blind me!’; an expression little enough understood by those who constantly have it in their mouths.

Blind, subs. (common).—1. The night time—an allusion to the absence of light.—See Darkmans.

2. (familiar.)—A pretence; a shift; an action through which one’s real purpose is concealed; that which obstructs; a ‘make-believe.’

1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act iii. He ... took your court to her, only as a blind to your affection for me.

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, Act ii., Sc. 5. I know you don’t love Cynthia, only as a blind for your passion to me.

1703. Mrs. Centlivre, Beau’s Dual, I., i. (1872), i., 70. Am I publish’d to the world as a blind for his designs?

1877. E. L. Linton, World Well Lost, ch. xxviii. The excuse was too palpably a blind to be accepted as a reason.

1889. Answers, July 13, p. 104, col. 3. The Major and the Captain he referred to in his letters were mere ‘blinds.’ The Captain relied upon the fact that not one person in a dozen took the trouble to apply to these gentlemen.

3. (printers’.)—A paragraph [¶] mark is so called; from the eye of the reversed ‘P’ being filled up.

Adj. (old).—Tipsy; in liquor. Nares says this cant term was used with others in the works of Taylor, the water-poet [1630]. For synonyms, see Screwed.

Blind as a brickbat, adv. phr. (colloquial).—A facetious simile for very blind—mentally or physically.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, III., p. 97. The old scholar ... is as blind as a brickbat.

When the devil is blind, adv. phr. (common).—Never. The French have three very graphic—though in one case very vulgar—analogues for this expression—quand les poules pisseront, which need not be translated; le trente six du mois, i.e., ‘on the thirty-sixth day of the month,’ and quand les poules auront des dents, i.e., when cocks and hens have teeth.

To go it blind.—A luminous figure of speech to convey the idea of entering upon an undertaking without thought as to the result, or inquiry beforehand. This is one of the many slang expressions which owe their origin to the American game of poker, the special form of which known as blind poker, where the cards are betted upon before being looked at, being responsible for the phrase now in question. Cf., also Blind (subs.).

1848. J. Russell Lowell, Biglow Papers, II., p. 118—

‘to impress on the popular mind The comfort and wisdom of goin’ it blind.’

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 328. Blind Poker has given rise to the very common phrase, to go it blind, used whenever an enterprise is undertaken without previous inquiry.

1882. General Sherman, Memoirs, vol. I., p. 342. I know that in Washington I am incomprehensible, because at the outset of the war I would not go it blind, and rush headlong into a war unprepared and with an utter ignorance of its extent and purpose.

1888. Chicago Ledger, May 12. ‘And so you’ve married a jewel, have you, Tom?’ ‘I have, for a fact, Dick.’ ‘Lucky dog! You’re a man in a million. Mighty few go it blind and fare as well as you’ve done.’ ‘I didn’t go it blind. I employed a detective, and he managed to get board in the family.’

Blind Cheeks, subs. (common).—The posteriors. [The derivation is from an obvious simile.]

Among English Synonyms are—Two fat cheeks and ne’er a nose; blind Cupid; ampersand; cheeks; arse; corybungo; dopey; droddum; dummock; feak; bum; nock (i.e., ‘a notch’); round mouth; windmill; blind-eye; monocular eye-glass.

French Synonyms. Un borgne (low: ‘a one-eyed person’); un cyclope (the allusion is mythological—from Cyclops, the one-eyed giant, whose optic was placed in the middle of the forehead); la rose des vents; un piffe; un pignard; boite aux ordures. German Synonym. Acherponim (from Hebrew achar ponim; literally ‘the face at the back’). For other synonyms, see Bum.

Blind Drunk, adj. phr. (common).—Very intoxicated; so drunk as to be unable to see better than a blind man. Americans say, ‘So drunk as not to be able to see through a ladder.’ For synonyms, see Screwed.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil or the Two Nations, p. 350. Hang me if I wasn’t blind drunk at the end of it.

Blinder. To take a blinder, phr. (thieves’).—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.

Blind Eye, subs. (common).—The podex.—See Blind cheeks.

Blind Half Hundred, subs. (military).—The Fiftieth Regiment of Foot; from so many men suffering from ophthalmia during the Egyptian campaign [1801]; also the Dirty Half Hundred from the men in action wiping their faces with their black facings during the Peninsula War. Half Hundred is an adaptation of the number of the regiment—the Fiftieth. The corps is also called the ‘Gallant Fiftieth,’ from its gallantry at the battle of Vimiera, 1808.

1871. Chambers’ Journal, No. 417, p. 803. The Dirty Half Hundred was the curious nickname given to the 50th Foot. Two accounts are given of the origin of this. One asserts that it was from their red uniforms being faced with black and silver lace, and thus giving the regiment a dull and sombre appearance; whilst the other tells us that it was from the men wiping their perspiring faces with the black cuffs of their coats, and thus giving their countenances a somewhat swarthy tint. Whatever may be the origin of this sobriquet, they bear a second about which there can be no doubt. From the glorious charge, led by Colonel Walker, at Vimiera, this regiment is known as the ‘Gallant Fiftieth.’

1886. Tinsley’s Magazine, April, p. 322. Most people have heard of the ‘Fighting Fiftieth.’ But the 50th are rich in nicknames. They are, or at least they were, the Blind Half-Hundredth, having been but too literally blinded by the ravages of ophthalmia when in Egypt with Sir Ralph Abercromby. And when on one occasion the men dried the perspiration from their faces with their cuffs, they for a while became the Dirty Half-Hundredth.

Blind Harpers, subs. (old).—Beggars counterfeiting blindness, playing on fiddles, etc.—Grose.

Blind-Man’s Holiday, subs. (familiar).—Formerly this common colloquialism signified the night or darkness; it is now, however, usually applied to the time ‘between lights’ when it is too dark to see, but often not dark enough to light up, and a holiday or rest from work is taken. The blind from their infirmity are in general exempted from labour, and in this view keep holiday; when the twilight hour comes, when those that can work, or read, etc., can no longer see to do so, it is blind-man’s holiday to them, and they of necessity rest accordingly. This derivation, one would think, is sufficiently obvious; but, on the other hand, there are those who think the expression a corruption of ‘blind-man’s all-day.’ The meaning then would be that the gradual departure of light brings one to the state which the blind man endures all day, or which is all the day the blind man has. Whichever derivation be true, it is, however, interesting to note that this ‘household word’ of to-day has been in the mouths of the English people for more than three hundred years. It is the English equivalent of the Scotch in the gloaming, of an equally venerable lineage.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 263. And what will not blinde Cupid doe in the night which is his blindman’s holiday?

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. iii.). Indeed, madam, it is blindman’s holiday; we shall soon be all of a colour.

1824. T. Fielding, Proverbs, etc. (Familiar Phrases), p. 147. Blindman’s holiday.

1866. Aunt Judy’s Mag., Oct., 358. At meal times, or in blindman’s holiday, when no work was to be done. [M.]

Blind Monkeys, subs. (common).—Hotten thus explains this expression:—An imaginary collection at the Zoological Gardens, which are supposed to receive care and attention from persons fitted by nature for such office and for little else. An idle and useless person is often told that he is only fit to lead the blind monkeys to evacuate. Another form this elegant conversation takes, is for one man to tell another that he knows of a suitable situation for him. ‘How much a week? and what to do?’ are natural questions, and then comes the scathing and sarcastic reply, ‘Five bob a week at the doctor’s—you’re to stand behind the door and make the patients sick. They won’t want no physic when they sees your mug.’

Blindo, verb (military).—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.

Blind One’s Trail, verbal phr. (American).—Figuratively, to remove the traces of one’s actions; to conceal one’s intentions. This expression is obviously traceable to the days of Indian warfare, when even the lives of those engaged often depended upon the success with which the trail could be ‘blinded,’ or obliterated. Also to trash one’s trail (q.v.).

Blind Side, subs. (familiar).—The blind side of a person or thing is that which is weakest; the most assailable side. The expression is much older than the example quoted by Murray [1655].

1606. Chapman, Gentleman Usher, Act i., p. 79 (Plays, 1874).

For that, we’ll follow the blind side of him, And make it sometimes subject of our mirth.

1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act iii. Con. My father’s credulous, and this rogue has found the blind side of him.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. III., ch. v. Indeed, if this good man had an enthusiasm, or what the vulgar call a blind side, it was this,—he thought a schoolmaster the greatest character in the world, and himself the greatest of all schoolmasters.

1820. Lamb, Elia (Mrs. Battle). All people have their blind side—their superstitions.

Blink, verb (American).—To drink. [Probably of humorous origin, similar to smile (q.v.).—and alluding to a wink or blink exchanged between friends and comrades before drinking. A frequent toast is ‘I look towards you,’ and the transference of sense in such a phrase as ‘I wink’ or ‘blink to you,’ and then the use of to blink for ‘to drink’ is easy enough. Cf., also To go out and see a man.]

Blinker, subs. (popular).—1. The eye. [From blink, to move the eyelids, to wink; Cf., Winkers; Peepers; Optics, etc.] For synonyms, see Glims.

1816. Quiz, Grand Master, I., ii. A patent pair of goggle winkers, Conceal’d from public view his blinkers. [M.]

1888. American Humorist. ‘Blank your blinkers,’ angrily retorted Brudee, ‘your business was not to fight, but show us the enemy.’

2. (common.)—pl. Spectacles. For synonyms, see Barnacles.

1732. M. Green, Grotto, 10. Bigots who but one way see through blinkers of authority. [M.]

1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, I., 38. A little fellow, with blinkers over his eyes. [M.]

1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., IV. (1858), 205. Who only dare to look up at life through blinkers. [M.]

3. (provincial.)—In Norfolk, a black eye.

4. (pugilistic.)—A hard blow in the eye.

Blank your blinkers.—A euphemistic oath, equivalent to the more common ‘D——n your eyes.’—See Oaths.

Blink-Fencer, subs. (thieves’).—A person who sells spectacles. [From blink, a contracted form of ‘blinkers,’ spectacles + fence, primarily a receiver of stolen goods, but also applied to a tradesman of any kind, + er.]

Blinko, subs. (thieves’ and vagrants’).—An amateur entertainment held, generally, at a public house; a free and easy (q.v.); a sing song (q.v.).

1877. J. Greenwood, Dick Temple. ‘What is a blinko for instance?’ ‘Well, it’s a kind of entertainment, singing, and that,’ replied the old fellow, ‘to which strangers are not invited—least of all the police.’

1883. Daily Telegraph, August 4, p. 2, col. 1. ‘An Harmonic blinko, the proceeds of which will be given towards buying a barrow for Young Duckling, who has got married with no visible means of support.’

Blister, verb (common).—Employed euphemistically for ‘to damn.’ Cf., Blamed.

1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Vox, ch. xxvi. ‘Where can they be hid?’ he exclaimed, with great emphasis. ‘Blister ’em! Where can the scoundrels be got to?’

Blizzard, subs. (popular).—A poser; a stunning blow; an unanswerable argument, etc., etc. This word, recently brought into prominent notice as the name by which sudden and exceptionally severe snowstorms are known in the Western States of America, is one the etymology of which is dubious. Some authorities derive it from the German blitz—lightning, but a correspondent of N. and Q. claims it as of English nationality, asserting that the word has been known in the Midland Counties in its present form, or nearly so, for over thirty years; further stating that ‘may I be blizzered’ is a common oath there. Assuming that the expression is a variation of the more generally familiar ‘May God strike me blind’ (that is, presumably by lightning), there is nothing antagonistic between the two theories of its genesis, and a further light is perhaps thrown upon the subject, tending to support its German origin, by the fact that, in Pennsylvania, it has been familiar, according to a correspondent of the New York Sun, for more than half-a-century, its use and meaning being akin to the instances above mentioned. It appears that in the central counties of the State in question, the word was always used to include the idea of the ‘poser,’ and even of force, violence, spitefulness, or vindictiveness. If one dealt another a hostile blow he ‘gave him a blizzard on the nose,’ ‘on the jaw,’ ‘between the eyes,’ etc. If a magistrate lectured a litigant severely he ‘gave him a blizzard.’ If in debate one dealt mercilessly in ridicule he ‘gave his opponent a blizzard.’ If one man swore at or cursed another he ‘gave him a blizzard.’ If a man’s wife scolded him she ‘gave him a blizzard.’ When it is remembered that Pennsylvania is the State in which the Dutch or German element most largely predominates, it does not seem far fetched to attribute its origin to a Teutonic source, more especially as there is nothing in the English usage to preclude such a derivation. However this may be, the word invariably seems to imply suddenness combined with violence; and, at any rate, it apparently disposes of the supposition that the word is of Western origin, or a coinage of so recent a date as is frequently supposed. Like most words of its class, which have largely struck the popular taste, it has been generally adopted in an idiomatic sense to signify a stunning blow; an overwhelming argument, or a cool reception.

1834. Crockett, Tour Down East, 16. A gentleman at dinner asked me for a toast; and supposing he meant to have some fun at my expense, I concluded to go ahead, and give him and his likes a blizzard.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 443. Blizzard, a term referred back to the German Blitz, means in the West a stunning blow or an overwhelming argument.

1884. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. L. News, Feb. 23, p. 171, col. 2. Blizzard. The philologers in American Slang refer back to the German blitz; and its original meaning in the Western States seems to have been a stunning blow or an overwhelming argument. In the Eastern States a sudden set-in of severe frost is called a ‘cold snap.’ Query, how many ‘cold snaps’ does it take to make a ‘blizzard’?

1888. San Francisco News Letter. I should like to have seen the Colonel’s face when he got that very cold, blizzardy letter. I bet that if Minnie had been near him he would have slapped her real hard.

Bloak.—See Bloke.

Bloat, subs. (American thieves’).—1. A drowned body.

2. A drunkard. The simile which groups the two is, perhaps, not far wrong. [Probably from bloat, an adjective signifying puffed, swollen, inflated. Bloat was also formerly in use in England as a contemptuous name for a human being.]

Bloated Aristocrat, subs. (familiar).—An opprobrious epithet for a man swollen with the pride of rank or wealth; also a general sobriquet applied by ‘the masses’ to ‘the classes.’ ‘Bloated’ has long been employed in a similar sense. Swift spoke of a certain statesman as ‘a bloated minister’ [1731].

1861. Thackeray, Adventures of Philip, I., p. 101. What a bloated aristocrat Thingamy has become since he got his place!

1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, essay I., p. 17 (1864). Of the two most salient English gentlemen represented, one is a bloated aristocrat of a Baronet hopelessly in debt, the other a rapid brainless nobleman.

1869. M. Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. x. We sat down finally, at a late hour, in the great Casino, and called for unstinted champagne. It is so easy to be bloated aristocrats where it costs nothing of consequence!

Bloater.—See My Bloater; also Mild Bloater.

Blob, verb (vagrants’).—To talk; to ‘patter.’ [Probably a corrupted form of blab.] Beggars are of two kinds—those who screeve (introducing themselves with a fakement, or false document) and those who blob, or state their case in their own truly ‘unvarnished’ language. [See, however, second quot.]

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 339. ‘Of professional beggars there are two kinds—those who “do it on the blob” (by word of mouth), and those who do it by “screeving,” that is, by petitions and letters.’

1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. xxvi. ‘Five minutes more and we shall run into him,’ he shouts, sitting well back on his horse, and urging him to his extreme pace, ‘when he blobs like that he’s getting beat. See how Canvas sticks to him, and the yellow dog hangs back waiting for the turn.’

Block, subs. (old).—A stupid person; a hard unsympathetic individual; one of mean, unattractive appearance. [A figurative sense of block, as of wood or stone.]

a. 1534. N. Udall, Roister Doister, III., iii., p. 44 (Arber). Ye are such a calfe, such an asse, such a blocke.

1595. Shakspeare, Two Gentlemen, Act ii., Sc. 5. Speed. What an ass art thou! I understand thee not. Launce. What a block art thou, that thou canst not!

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour. Induct. Cor. Hang him, dull block!

1624. Massinger, Bondman, II., ii. This will bring him on, Or he’s a block.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Block (s) ... sometimes an ignorant, stupid fellow.

1881. Besant and Rice, Chaplain of the Fleet, pt. II., ch. iv. She said that her partner was delightful to dance with, partly because he was a lord—and a title, she said, gives an air of grace to any block—partly because he danced well and talked amiably.

2. The head. Possibly an abbreviated form of barber’s block (q.v.). For synonyms, see Crumpet.

1637. Shirley, Lady of Pleas, II., i. Buy a beaver For thy own block.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xxxv. ‘I cleaned a groom’s boots on Toosday, and he punched my block because I blacked the tops.’

Barber’s Block, subs. (common).—1. A transferred sense [from a wooden head for showing off a wig] applied to a showy, over-dressed man; a fop.

1876. E. Lynn Linton, Hallberger’s Illus. Mag., p. 72. No, not to men worthy of the name of men—men, not barber’s blocks.

2. The head.—See Block, sense 2.

1823. Scott, Peveril of the Peak, ch. v. (I., p. 67). Were I not to take better care of the wood than you, brother, there would soon be no more wood about the town than the barber’s block that’s on your own shoulders.

A chip of the same old block, phr. (common).—A man or thing exhibiting the same qualities as he or that with which a comparison is made.

1627. Sanderson, Serm., I., 283. Am not I a child of the same Adam, a vessel of the same clay, a chip of the same block, with him. [M.]

1655. L’Estrange, Charles I., 126. Episcopacy, which they thought but a great chip of the old block Popery. [M.]

To cut a block with a razor, phr. (old).—Inconsequent argument; futile endeavour; incongruous application of means or ability to the end in view.

1774. Goldsmith, Retaliation, 42. ’Twas his fate unemployed or in place, sir, to eat mutton cold and cut blocks with a razor.

To block a hat, phr. (popular).—To crush a man’s hat over the eyes by a blow; to bonnet (q.v.).

Blockers.—See Block Ornaments.

Block House, subs. (old).—A prison; the house of detention. For synonyms, see Cage.

1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III., xi., 85. To stop the disorders of our disorderly Theeues ... built a Block-house. [M.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Block-houses, Prisons, houses of correction, etc.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. [Same definition given as in Grose.]

1889. Murray, New English Dictionary. [Common since c. 1500: of uncertain history. The Ger. equivalent blockhaus (‘einen steinen Blockhaus’) is quoted by Grimm, 1557 and 1602; the Du. blokhuis is in Kilian, 1599; Fr. blocus, generally considered to be the same word, and orig. in same sense, is quoted by Littré in the 16th c. (Cf., Bloccuz). So far as evidence goes, the Eng. is thus the earliest; but we should expect it to be of Du. or Ger. origin. In any case the sense was not originally (as in modern notion) a house composed of blocks of wood, but one which blocks or obstructs a passage. The history and age of the Ger. blockhaus and Fr. blocus require more investigation.]

Block Island Turkey, subs. (American).—Salted cod-fish. Connecticut and Rhode Island. Slang delights in naming fish as flesh. For some curious examples, see Two-eyed steak.

Block Ornaments, or Blockers, subs. (common).—1. Small pieces of meat of indifferent quality, trimmings from the joints, etc. Exposed for sale on the blocks or counters of butcher’s shops in cheap neighbourhoods.

1848. Fraser’s Mag., XXXVII., 396. Forced to substitute a blocker of meat, with its cheap accompaniment of bread and vegetables ... for poultry and rump steaks. [M.]

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 54. For dinner ... they buy block ornaments, as they call the small, dark-coloured pieces of meat exposed on the cheap butchers’ blocks or counters. Ibid, p. 516. What they consider a good living is a dinner daily off good block ornaments (small pieces of meat, discoloured and dirty, but not tainted, usually set for sale on the butcher’s block).

1884. Punch, No. 2063, p. 29. And eager-faced women must bargain for tainted block ornaments still.

1887. Standard, Jan. 20, The Poor at Market. Watching a man who stands with his wife and little girl before a butcher’s shop, let us see what they have to choose from in buying for the next day’s dinner. On the shelves set out in front of the shop meat scraps are offered at 3½d. the lb.; better scraps (or block ornaments, as they are termed) at 4d.; somewhat shapeless small joints of beef from inferior parts at 5d., one coarse shoulder of mutton at the same; tolerably good-looking meat at 6d.; mutton chops at 7d. and 8d.; and rump steak at 10d.

2. Applied to individuals, a block ornament signifies a queer looking man or woman—one odd in appearance.

Bloke or Bloak, subs. (common).—A man; a fellow. In saying ‘not strictly “a man” as Hotten defines it, but a man in a contemptuous sense,’ Barrère is himself wide of the mark. The word may sometimes be used contemptuously; but, generally speaking, any idea of reproach or praise is absent, and a bloke means a man pure and simple. In witness whereof are the following examples of its use.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 397. If we met an old bloke (man) we propped him.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. A gentleman.—A bloak.

1860. Sala, The Baddington Peerage, II., p. 49. My old bloke!

1862. Kingsley, in Macmillan’s Mag., Dec, 96. Little better than blokes and boodles after all. [M.]

1863. Ouida, Held in Bondage, bk. I., p. 245. The girl is stunning, the blokes say, so we must forgive you.

1865. Miss Braddon, in Temple Bar, XIII., 483. The society of the aged bloke is apt to pull upon the youthful intellect.

1869. J. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. It came out in the course of the evidence that the meaning of the word bloke was ‘a man whom a woman might pick up in the street.’

1873. Robinson, Little Kate Kirby, I., p. 136. ‘Give us a horder then, old bloke,’ shrieked another gamin.

c. 1875. Broadside Ballad, ‘Keep it Dark.’

I have heard though may be it isn’t a fact, Keep it dark! That the present Lord Chancellor’s going to be sacked, Keep it dark! And Dr. Kenealy, that popular bloke, That extremely warm member, the member for Stoke, Is about to succeed him, the lawyers to choke— But, keep it dark!

c. 1869. Broadside Ballad, ‘Shooting the Moon.’ Spoken—Yes, and I used to do very well, until some ragged young urchin said to his pal, don’t you varder, don’t you know that ere bloke, that’s the bloke we saw the other day with a barrow.

1883. Daily News, May 15, p. 7, col. 2. ‘When you are coming out into the yard ask the next bloke to change numbers with you.’

In each case the ‘face value’ of the word appears to be simply ‘a man,’ and in spite of Barrère’s assertion that ‘in the police newspapers twenty-five years ago a bloke was a victim of sharps, a stupid person, a greenhorn,’ the evidence is all the other way; in one instance, indeed, the individual in question is reported to be ‘a gentleman.’ As regards derivation, its origin is uncertain. Hotten and Ogilvie compare it with the Hindustanee loke, a man; while Leland traces it to ‘the Dutch blok, a log, a fool.’ For synonyms, see Cove.

Blood, subs. (old).—1. A fop; dandy; buck; or ‘fast’ man. Originally in common use, but now obsolete. [From that legitimate sense of the word which attributes the seat of the passions and emotions to the blood. Hence, a man of spirit; one who is worth mention, and, in an inferior sense, he who makes himself notorious, whether by dress or rowdyism.] In the last century, especially during the regency of George IV., the term was largely in vogue to denote a young man of good birth or social standing about town; subsequently, it came to mean a riotous, disorderly fellow.

1562. Bulleyn, Sicke Men, etc., 73a. A lustie blood, or a pleasaunte brave young roister. [M.]

1606. John Day, Ile of Gulls, Act i., p. 9. Basil. Welcome gallants, welcome honord bloods. Ibid. To which effect we have sent a generall challenge to all the youthfull bloods of Africa.

1752. Adventurer, No. 15. Our heroes of liberty, whether Bucks or Bloods, or of whatever other denomination, when by some creditor of slavish principles they have been locked up in a prison, never yet petitioned to be hanged.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 21. ‘Trenchard!’ he muttered—‘Aliva Trenchard. They were right, then, as to the name. Well, if she survives the accident—as the blood who styles himself Sir Cecil fancies she may do—this ring will make my fortune by leading to the discovery of the chief parties concerned in this strange affair.’

1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, ch. x. A perfect and celebrated blood, or dandy about town, was this young officer.

1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. ii., p. 36. The modern bloods have given up the respectful ceremonies which distinguished a gentleman in my time.

2. (old.)—Money. [A comparison of blood, as the vital principle, to money, as that upon which the sustenance of life depends—the ‘sinews of war,’ the ‘needful,’ etc.] For all synonyms, see Actual.

1748. Dodsley, Collection of Poems, III., 199.

He sticks to gaming, as the surer trade; Turns downright sharper, lives by sucking blood.

1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. iv. ‘A man who ought to consider himself uncommonly fortunate never to have known what it was to be hard up, or to have a pack of extravagant sons sucking his blood, like so many modern vampires.’

Verb (familiar).—To deplete of money; to victimise; a figurative usage of ‘to bleed’; i.e., surgically, to let or draw blood by opening a vein. Cf., subs., sense 2, and Bleed.

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 187. ‘He is very likely to want a thousand pounds at any moment. There’s a leaven of the old squire in his composition, and I recollect hearing that he was blooded over the Phaeton Leger.’ ‘You surely can’t mean that he has taken to racing? Why, you must be aware that he has no money for anything of that sort.’

Blood and Entrails, subs. (American).—The British ensign is so nicknamed by Yankee sailors; English salts return the compliment by jokingly speaking of the American flag as the gridiron and doughboys (q.v.).

Blood and Thunder, subs. (common).—A beverage of port wine and brandy mixed. Port is the blood, from its colour; brandy the thunder—the combined effects being, it is held, provocative of ‘thundering’ head-aches.

Blood and Thunder Tales, subs. phr. (originally American, now common).—Low class fiction, the term being generally applied to works dealing with the exploits of desperadoes, cut-throats, and other criminals. Also called Awfuls, Penny dreadfuls, Gutter literature, Shilling shockers, etc., all of which see for further illustrations.

1876. Portland Transcript, May. Here let me say one word to the Transcript mothers. Look carefully to your child’s reading matter. Beware of the cheap, trashy romances, the blood and thunder tales by Tom, Dick and Harry, which fill the counters of so many of our bookstores.

1883. Daily News, March 26, p. 2, col. 3. The blood and thunder tragedies generally associated with the transpontine drama.

Blood-an’-’Ouns, phr. (old).—An abbreviated form of an old and blasphemous oath—‘God’s blood and wounds!’

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 58. ‘Och! if he’s a friend o’ yours, my dear joy, there’s no more to be said; and right sorry am I I struck him. But, blood-an’-’ouns! man, if ould Nick himself were to hit me a blow, I’d be afther givin’ him another.’

Blood-Curdler or Blood-Freezer, subs. (common).—A narration or incident which ‘makes the flesh creep’; that which stirs one’s feelings strongly, and generally repulsively. Said of a sensational murder, a thrilling ghost-story, etc. Cf., Blood and thunder tales.

Blood for Blood, phr. (trade).—When tradesmen exchange wares, setting the cost of one kind off against another instead of making payment in currency, they are said to give blood for blood. Cf., Blood. (1) the vital fluid; (2) money—hence applied to that upon the sale of which a man is dependent for a livelihood.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. A hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.

Blood-Freezer.—See Blood-curdler.

Blood-Red Fancy, subs. (pugilistic).—A particular kind of handkerchief sometimes worn by pugilists and frequenters of prize fights.—See Billy.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. Red silk handkerchief. Blood-red fancy.

Blood Suckers, subs. (military).—The Sixty-third Regiment of Foot.

Blood-Tub, subs. (American).—A rowdy; a blustering bully; a rough. This nickname was peculiar to Baltimore, which city, perhaps of all cities in the Union, enjoyed, for a time, an unenviable reputation on account of the rowdyism of a section of its inhabitants. More or less, however, these turbulent gangs infest all the more important centres of population, and answer in many respects to the English ‘roughs.’ They are recruited largely from the labouring and commercial population; they drink, and swear, but commit no crime, save an occasional deed of violence in times when excitement runs unusually high, and are for the most part affiliated with one or other of the two political parties, the Republicans or Democrats. They are known as Dead Rabbits in New York, Moyamensing Hounds in Philadelphia, Blood-tubs in Baltimore, where at other times they have also been designated Babes, Plug-uglies, and Ashlanders. The Blood-tubs are reported to have been mostly butchers, and to have got their epithet from having, on an election day, dipped an obnoxious German’s head in a tub of warm blood, and then driven him running through the town.

18(?). Song of the Irish Legion.

Blood-tubs and plug-uglies, and others galore, Are sick for a thrashing in sweet Baltimore; Be jabers! that same I’d be proud to inform Of the terrible force of an Irishman’s arm.

Bloody, adj. (low).—An epithet difficult to define, and used in a multitude of vague and varying senses. Most frequently, however, as it falls with wearisome reiteration every two or three seconds from the mouths of London roughs of the lowest type, no special meaning, much less a sanguinary one, can be attached to its use. In such a case it forms a convenient intensitive, sufficiently important as regards sound to satisfy those whose lack of language causes them to fall back upon a frequent use of words of this type. Bloody occasionally carries with it a suspicion of anger, resentment, or detestation. [For suggested derivations, and some incidental illustrative examples, see adverbial usage, which follows.]

1840. R. Dana, Bef. Mast, ii., 2. You’ll find me a bloody rascal. Ibid, xx., 61. They’ve got a man for a mate of that ship, and not a bloody sheep about decks. [M.]

1880. Ruskin, Fiction, Fair and F., § 29. The use of the word bloody in modern low English is a deeper corruption, not altering the form of the word, but defiling the thought in it. [M.]

Adv. (low).—Among the vulgar at the present day bloody, used adverbially, says G. A. Sala [Notes and Queries, 4 S., i., Feb. 8, 1868], simply qualifies the superlative and excessive. Admiral Gambier, who is said to have introduced ‘tea and piety’ into the navy, very properly discountenanced the practice so long common to naval officers of d——g the sailors’ eyes while they were reefing topsails. His tars, scarcely grateful, nicknamed the admiral ‘Old Bloody Politeful.’ The lower classes use bloody indifferently as a term of depreciation or appreciation. Thus, it’s a bloody shame; and per contra in a flash song, the poet (supposed to be languishing in prison) recounts that the chaplain discoursed to the inmates—

‘How Jonah lived inside of a whale, ’Twas a bloody sight better than county gaol.’

As regards derivation, dual causes seem to have operated in the evolution of bloody in its depraved sense. The various stages are summarised by Murray, in so far as evidence will permit, as follows. The origin is not quite certain; but there is good reason to think that it was at first a reference to the habits of the ‘bloods’ or aristocratic rowdies of the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th c. The phrase ‘bloody drunk’ was apparently = ‘as drunk as a blood’ (Cf., ‘as drunk as a lord’); thence it was extended to kindred expressions, and at length to others; probably in later times, its associations with bloodshed and murder (Cf., a bloody battle, a bloody butcher) have recommended it to the rough classes as a word that appeals to their imagination. We may compare the prevalent craving for impressive or graphic intensives, seen in the use of jolly, awfully, terribly, devilish, deuced, damned, ripping, rattling, thumping, stunning, thundering, etc. There is no ground for the notion that bloody, offensive as from association it now is to ears polite, contains any profane allusion, or has connection with the oath ‘’sblood!’ In this particular it may be noted that Mr. C. G. Leland is in error when he says ‘Mr. Hotten thinks this is an expletive without reference to any [italics not in original] meaning.’ Mr. Hotten neither said nor implied anything of the kind, but just the reverse; and Mr. Leland has hung his remarks upon a misquotation. Hotten’s exact words are ‘bloody, an expletive used, without reference to meaning, as an adjective and an adverb, simply for intensification’—a very different thing; ergo as far as Hotten goes he is absolutely correct.

There seems little doubt, however, that the association of bloody with bloodshed and murder has had a very large influence in determining its present bad signification in the mouth of a cockney of the lower classes. It is noteworthy, too, that the German blutig is sometimes used, says H. Tiedeman [N. and Q., 4 S., i., Feb. 8, 1868], in the same manner as the London bloody:—While living in Dresden, I heard many times uttered such phrases as—

‘Ich habe keinen blutigen Heller mehr,’ [I have no bloody penny or ‘red cent’ more],

for ‘I have not a single penny left,’ etc. Was, then, the Dresden blutig introduced to the London mob in the shape of bloody? The Dutch bloedig may be used figuratively, just as the French sanglant. Une injure sanglante might be translated by ‘een bloedige beleediging.’ It might, and it is in fact, sometimes used to qualify an adjective. To say ‘bloedig schoon’ (literally, ‘bloody beautiful’), would be perfectly correct, but then it has not the sense of exceedingly; it keeps its original meaning. ‘Bloedig schoon’ could not be rendered otherwise than by sanguinary and beautiful.

1676. Sir G. Etheredge, Man of Mode (Act i., Sc. 1), p. 186, ed. 1723.

Dor. Give him half-a-crown.

Med. Not without he will promise to be bloody drunk.

1684. Dryden, Prol. Southerne’s Disappointment, line 59. The doughty bullies enter bloody drunk. [M.]

1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, Act iv., Sc. 1. Plume. Thou art a bloody impudent fellow. [There is no question of fighting in the context.]

1711. Swift, Journal to Stella, 8 May, letter 22. It was bloody hot walking to-day.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. ‘I’ve a bloody great mind to go down with him,’ stuttered another.

From the foregoing examples the word would appear to have been once in literary use; it is not now customary to print it in full, but thus, b——y. In passing it may be mentioned that there is no ground for attributing its derivation to ‘By’r Our Lady.’

Bloody Back, subs. (old).—A soldier; a nickname alluding to the colour of his coat. [From bloody = of the colour of blood, i.e., scarlet or blood-red + back.]

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Bloody back. A jeering appellation for a soldier.

Bloody Chasm. To bridge the bloody chasm, phr. (American).—A favourite expression with orators who, during the years immediately succeeding the Civil War, sought to obliterate the memory of the struggle. The antithetical phrase is to wave the bloody shirt (q.v.).

Bloody Eleventh, subs. (military). The Eleventh Regiment of Foot. At the battle of Salamanca, fought with the French, the corps was nearly cut to pieces, whence its sanguinary sobriquet. At Fontenoy and Ostend also, it was hard-pressed and nearly annihilated.

Bloody Jemmy, subs. (common).—An uncooked sheep’s head.—See Sanguinary James for synonyms.

Bloody Shirt. To wave the bloody shirt.—A phrase which is only one of many of a similar character, variants such as ‘to wave the crimson banner,’ ‘the ensanguined under garment,’ etc., being quite frequently met with in American journalism. Its origin and history is thus explained in Americanisms, Old and New:—It is a political phrase used in the States to signify the opening anew or keeping alive of factious strife on party questions. Primarily it was the symbol of those who, during the Reconstruction period at the close of the rebellion of the Southern or Confederate States, would not suffer the Civil War to sink into oblivion out of consideration for the feelings of the vanquished. Perhaps a more odious term never crept into politics than the bloody shirt; it is alike distasteful to the sense, brutal and vulgar, and capable of misuse. There are still those who, in American politics, in the thousand and one points of difference which continually and inevitably must arise between institutions so diverse in origin, tradition, and practice as those of the North and South, seek for party purposes to estrange the one from the other by keeping alive the exciting memories of the old bitter struggle. When a man is said to have waved the bloody shirt it is known that he has gone back in spirit and intent to the sorrowful days of the Republic, when the blue and the grey, each confident of battling for the right, were slaying each other in the valleys of the South. He ignores the peace which has settled over the old fields of war, and does not assent to the hand clasp of Federal with Confederate. He tries to open the strife anew, mocks the spirit of forgiveness, and rakes the old ashes over in the hunt for a burning coal. He scoffs at those who fought against the Union, and, because they have come back to it, calls them insincere. He rebukes the veteran who forgave them when together they laid down their arms. This is called waving the bloody shirt, and to-day, when many of those now in active life cannot remember the time when the Rebellion had closed, and the boys were marching home, there are legislators and journalists who devote their efforts to stirring up a sectional hatred which without these efforts would be but a tradition. Many Southerners keenly resent the spirit which thus traduces the now loyal South, and declares it hypocritical. The bloody shirters, as they are called, rail at the decency which forgives and forgets, and with venomous tongues revile alike those who fell in the lost cause, those who lived to repent, and those who would grant pardon. So long as men lost to honour will do this the action must have a name—it will be called waving the bloody shirt. From this special meaning it is now passing into general use to indicate similar tactics in regard to any cause. It has recently been introduced into English journalism in connection with the Irish struggle, and the ‘Unionist Party’ has been accused of waving the bloody shirt—with how much truth or the reverse there is here no concern. The origin of the expression is to be sought in a Corsican custom now nearly, if not quite, obsolete. In the days of the fierce vendette—the feuds which divided the Corsicans, family from family, bloodshed was a common occurrence. Before the burial of a murdered man, the gridata was celebrated. This word, which literally means a crying aloud, may be translated ‘a wake.’ The body of the victim was laid upon a plank; his useless firearms were placed near his hand, and his blood-stained shirt was hung above his head. Around the rude bier sat a circle of women, wrapped in their black mantles, who rocked themselves to and fro with strange wailings. The men, relatives and friends of the murdered man, fully armed stood around the room, mad with thirst for revenge. Then one of the women—the wife or mother or sister of the dead man—with a sharp scream would snatch the bloody shirt, and waving it aloft begin the vocero—the lamentation. This rhythmic discourse was made up of alternate expressions of love for the dead, and hatred of his enemies; and its startling images and tremendous curses were echoed in the faces and amidst the mutterings of the armed mourners. Its application to American politics is credited to Mr. Oliver P. Morton, who, elected United States senator in 1867, and again in 1873, took a prominent part as a leader of the more radical Republicans, favouring a stern policy of coercion in the reconstruction of the Southern States. He was one of the Presidential Candidates at the Cincinnati Convention of 1876, his name standing second on the first ballot. Happily, however, his opinions were too pronounced to unite the factions of his party, and the ultimate choice fell upon Mr. Hayes.

1888. Coldwater (Mich.) Sun, Jan. The bloody shirt is gradually fading away. The white-winged dove of peace spreads her wings here and there, patriotism forgets and forgives old differences, sectionalism is gradually giving way to love of country—the whole country. In fact the ill-feeling between the North and South would have died out years ago among the veterans of both sections, had they been left to themselves, and the politicians been as patriotic as they.

1888. New York Weekly Times, Mar. 21. It is reprehensible to the last degree for the Bourbons of the South to continue to play on the colour line—the Southern bloody shirt—and then denounce Republican extremists for doing the same thing at the North.

Bloomer, subs. (Australian prison slang).—A mistake. Said to be an abbreviated form of ‘blooming error.’—See Blooming.

Blooming, often Bloomin’, ppl. adj. (common).—This word, similar in type to ‘blessed,’ ‘blamed,’ and other words of the kind, is, as used by the lower classes, a euphemism for bloody (q.v.), but it is also frequently employed as a mere meaningless intensitive. Like the last-named word, little count is taken of its exact primary meaning. Its slang use may be traced to that figurative sense of the orthodox word, which signifies ‘in the bloom of health and beauty,’ ‘in the prime,’ ‘flourishing,’ etc. Some uncertainty exists as to the origin of this not over-ornamental addition to our expletive vocabulary. If the word is used by Granvil (see quot.) in its modern sense, then the phrase is very much older than has hitherto been imagined. Barring this, it would seem that we are indebted for it to the Californian coast, although there is little doubt that the chief instrument in its acclimatization in England was Mr. Alfred G. Vance, the comic singer, well-known in connection with ‘Jolly dogs,’ and other extensively popular music-hall songs. As before stated, it has very largely supplanted ‘bloody’; bally (q.v.) is also used in the same manner. Its applications are manifold. One is requested not to make any blooming mistake or error; another ‘showing off,’ or ‘putting on side,’ is told not to be so blooming flash; an excessively stupid man is spoken of as a blooming idiot; and an inquisitive individual is told more forcibly than politely, perhaps, ‘you asks me no bloomin’ imper’int questions, an’ I tells yer no bloomin’ lies.’

1726. Rev. J. Granvil, Sadducismus triumphatus [under the head of ‘The Demon of Tedworth’ (1661). Granvil makes mention that on one occasion the spirit came into a room panting like a dog, and] company coming up, the room was presently filled with a blooming noisome smell.

18(?). Colonel John Hay, Ballad, ‘The Mystery of Gilgal.’

He went for his ’leven inch bowie knife: I tries to foller a Christian life, But I’ll drop a slice of liver or two, My bloomin’ shrub, with you.

1887. G. R. Sims, Dagonet Ballads (Told to the Missionary). ‘I feels like a bloomin’ babby—I gets so infernal weak.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 222. ‘Afore that I worked in the galleries, a making the casemates for the guns, and blooming hard work it was.’

1882. Punch’s Almanac, p. 4. The Steam Launch in Venice (‘Sic Transit Gloria Mundi’)—’Andsome ’Arriet: ‘Ow my! If it ’yn’t that bloomin’ old Temple Bar, as they did aw’y with out o’ Fleet Street!’ Mr. Belleville (referring to guide book): ‘Now it ’yn’t. It’s the fymous Bridge o’ Sighs, as Byron went and stood on; ’im as wrote ‘Our Boys,’ yer know!’ ’Andsome ’Arriet: ‘Well, I never!’

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Flyfaker’s Hotel, in Odd People in Odd Places, p. 59. ‘Who’s got any music?’ presently exclaimed the dirty scoundrel who had been mending the boxing-glove; ‘—— me, let’s have a bloomin’ lark! Let’s have a tune and a song. Who’s got any bloomin’ music?’

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxxviii. ‘And if there’s fire there ought to be nothen to stop us from cooking a bloomin’ old goat.’

1889. Ally Sloper, July 6. Injured Innocence: Indignant Son of Labour. Well, I’m blowed! If that ’ere bloomin’ swell ain’t a-himitatin’ me!

Bloss, subs. (old, and American thieves’).—A generic name for a woman, whether girl, wife, or mistress. Probably from an attributive sense of ‘blossom.’ For example, Shakspeare, in Titus Andronicus [1588, iv., 2, 72], employs it in the sense of one lovely and full of promise. ‘Sweet blowse you are a beautious blossome sure.’ Tennyson also [1847] in the Princess [v., 79] uses the expression, ‘My babe, my blossom, ah, my child!’ Cf., Blowen.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bloss (cant), the pretended wife of a bully or shop-lifter.

1881. New York Slang Dictionary, ‘Slang Stories,’ p. 42. ‘Why, Bell, is it yourself? Tip us your daddle, my bene mort. May I dance at my death, and grin in a class-case, if I didn’t think you had been put to bed with a shovel....’ ‘No, Jim, I only piked into Grassville with a dimber-damber, who couldn’t pad the hoof for a single darkman’s without his bloss to keep him from getting pogy.’

Blot the Scrip, verbal phr. (old).—To put an undertaking into writing; the modern phrase is ‘to put it in black and white.’ Hence

To blot the scrip and jark it (old), i.e., to stand engaged, or bound for anyone.—Grose. Jark means a seal, and in Oxford slang, a safe conduct pass; in the former sense it is retained in the patter of modern American thieves, a synonym being jasker. Jarkman is the name given in America to a begging letter writer, whose accomplishments in this respect are varied by the production of false characters for servants, and other documents of a kindred nature. This is a case, like many others, in which old English cant terms have, across the Atlantic, been invested with a new meaning. Formerly a jarkman was equivalent to an ‘Abram-man,’ i.e., a licensed beggar.

Bloviate, verb (American).—To talk aimlessly and boastingly; to indulge in ‘high falutin’. [A factitious word probably founded on the verb blow, sense 1, on the model of ‘deviate.’] Said to have been in use since 1850.

Blow, subs. (common).—1. A shilling.

Amongst Synonyms for this coin are beong; borde; button; deaner or deener; bob; bobstick (old slang); breaky-leg; gen (this forms part of the so-called back slang); hog; levy; peg; stag; teviss; twelver; touch-me (this is an abbreviated form of touch-me-on-the-nob, rhyming slang for bob or shilling); Abraham’s willing (also rhyming slang for a shilling).

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. But afterwards I got 3s. 9d., and then four blow. Ibid. I went to the Steel (Bastile—Coldbath Fields Prison), having a new suit of clobber on me and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).

1885. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 5, p. 2, col. 6. They said they could sell some for five blows (shillings), and that he could easily make £158 of the stuff.

2. (Old University.)—A drunken frolic; a spree. Cf., Blow-out, subs. For synonyms, see Jamboree.

Verb.—1. To boast; to brag; to ‘gas’—generally to talk boastfully or self-assertingly of oneself or one’s affairs. In this sense to blow, long dialectically current, is now regarded as slang. It is also associated with the idea of angry speech, ‘storming,’ ‘fuming.’ Cf., Blow up, and for synonyms, see Gas.

c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 97. Blouing veynly wip fleschli wit. [M.]

1519. Four Elements, in Hazl. Dodsley, I., 41. Why, man, what aileth thee so to blow? [M.]

1785. Burns, Epistle to J. Lapraik, st. 16. I winna blaw about mysel; As ill I like my fauts to tell.

1883. Graphic, Jan. 27, p. 79, col. i. The whole team has taught Australia not to blow (as they say)—a not unneeded lesson.

1883. Mrs. Campbell Praed, Sketches of Australian Life, p. 45. ‘He was famous for his coolness and daring, and for blowing, in Australian parlance, both of his exploits and of his “bonnes fortunes.”’

2. (general.)—To inform; to expose; to betray; to peach. Cf., also Blow upon and Blow the gab. [This is a transferred sense of blow = to breathe out; to give forth by breathing; hence, to sound a signal on an instrument; to blaze abroad as by a trumpet.] For synonyms, see Peach.

1575. Appius and Virg., in Hazl. Dodsley, IV., 136. Was all well agreed? did nobody blow ye? [M.]

1721. Defoe, History of Colonel Jack. ‘As for that,’ says Will, ‘I could tell it well enough, if I had it, but I must not be seen anywhere among my old acquaintances, for I am blown, and they will all betray me.’

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Blow (v.) ... also to discover the secrets of another; also when a person undervalues or slights a person or thing, he is said to blow upon it.

a. 1859. L. Hunt, Country Lodgings, in Casquet Lit. (1877), I., p. 42, col. 1. D—n me, if I don’t blow ... I’ll tell Tom Neville, [M.]

3. (American.)—To lie; and in a slightly less opprobrious sense to ‘gas’ so much as to be perilously near the border-line which separates boasting exaggeration from absolute untruth.

4. (general.)—Frequently employed euphemistically for ‘to damn’—generally in the imperative.—Blow it! i.e., ‘hang it’! or damn it! Cf., Blowed, with which it is closely allied in all senses.

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. ii. ‘Well, if you won’t stand a pot,’ quoth the tall man, ‘I will, that’s all, and blow temperance.’

1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xxvi. ‘Blow his station in life! If he was a duke I shouldn’t want him.’

5. (general.)—To lose or spend money. Cf., Blue.

6. (University.)—To indulge in a frolic or spree. Cf., Blow out; also To go on the blow.

7. (Winchester School.)—To blush.

To bite the blow, phr. (old cant).—To steal goods; to Prig, which see for synonyms.

Blow a Cloud, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To smoke a cigar or pipe; Hotten says, ‘a phrase used two centuries ago’ but gives no authority, and Murray’s earliest example only dates from 1855, but as will be seen below, it occurs in Tom Crib in 1819.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 39.

... His fame I need not tell, For that, my friends, all England’s loud with; But this I’ll say, a civiller Swell I’d never wish to blow a cloud with.

1870. M. Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. vii. And blowing suffocating ‘clouds’ and boisterously performing at dominoes in the smoking-room at night.

French Synonyms. Tubons en une (popular: ‘let’s blow a cloud’; tuber = to smoke); piper; la fumerie (popular: smoking); faire du brouillard (‘to produce or make a fog or mist’); en bourrer une; bouffarder. A German Synonym is Esef schwächen, or schweihen.

Blow-Book, subs. (old).—A book containing indelicate or ‘smutty’ pictures.

1708. Post Man, 8 June. Last Sunday a person did pennance in the Chapter-House of St. Paul’s, London, for publickly shewing in Bartholomew Fair a book called a blow-book, in which were many obscene and filthy pictures: the book was likewise burnt, and the person paid costs.

Blowed. To be blowed, verb (familiar).—Blowed is here a euphemism for ‘damned’; to all intents and purposes, it is frequently little more than a thinly-veiled oath. Hotten says that Tom Hood used to tell the following story:—‘I was once asked to contribute to a new journal, not exactly gratuitously, but at a very small advance upon nothing—and avowedly because the work had been planned according to that estimate. However, I accepted the terms conditionally—that is to say, provided the principle could be properly carried out. Accordingly, I wrote to my butcher, baker, and other tradesmen, informing them that it was necessary, for the sake of cheap literature and the interest of the reading public, that they should furnish me with their several commodities at a very trifling per-centage above cost price. It will be sufficient to quote the answer of the butcher:—“Sir,—Respectin’ your note, Cheap literater be blowed! Butchers must live as well as other pepel—and if so be you or the readin’ publick wants to have meat at prime cost, you must buy your own beastesses, and kill yourselves.—I remain, etc., John Stokes.”’

Cf., Blow me!

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 50. Others remonstrating with the said Thomas Sludberry, on the impropriety of his conduct, the said Thomas Sludberry repeated the aforesaid expression, ‘You be blowed.’

1863. Jeaffreson, Live It Down, III., p. 249. (Cries of ‘Chair, Chair,’ and ‘Order, order.’) ‘Order be blowed!’ exclaimed the infuriated Mr. H.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. II., ch. v. ‘Holiday be blowed!’ said Fledgely, entering, ‘What have you got to do with holidays?’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 244. ‘No,’ says she, ‘we’ve got some more besides that, and enough, too, to take us to France. Blowed, old man, if we don’t go to Paris, and there we can get £300 for them.’

1879. Punch’s Almanac, p. 7. Seasonable Slang. For Spring.—You be blowed! For Summer.—I’ll warm yer! For Autumn.—Not so blooming green! For Winter.—An ice little game all round.

1889. Ally Sloper’s H. H., Aug. 3, p. 242, col. 2. ‘Blowed if I’d have made her Mrs. Juggins, if I’d have known she wor going to make a footstool of me!’

Blowen or Blowing, subs. (old.)—This word appears to have passed through a series of ups and downs in the course of its career. Originally signifying a woman, without special reference to moral character, it subsequently came to mean a showy courtesan, or a prostitute. It still retains the latter meaning, but is frequently used in a more complimentary sense than heretofore to signify a finely built handsome girl. In America among the criminal classes it is only used to designate a mistress. Its derivation is extremely uncertain, the two most important suggestions being that it comes (1) from the reputation having been ‘blown upon’; and (2) that in Wilts blowen signifies a blossom—hence blowen a flower; a pet.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, I., in wks. (1720) IV., 17. What ogling there will be between thee and the blowings!

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143. Blowen, a woman.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Blowen, a prostitute: a woman who cohabits with a man without marriage.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. ii. ‘If she’s a good girl, and loves you, she’ll not let you spend your money on her.’ ‘I haint such a ninny as that,’ said Beck, with majestic contempt. ‘I ’spises the flat that is done brown by the blowens.’

1848. C. Kingsley, Yeast, ch. xi. Why don’t they have a short simple service now and then, that might catch the ears of the roughs and the blowens, without tiring out the poor thoughtless creatures’ patience, as they do now?

For synonyms in the sense of prostitute, see Barrack-hack.

Blower, subs. (old).—1. A girl; a contemptuous name in opposition to jomer (q.v.); given by Grose [1785].

2. (American and Colonial.)—A good talker; a boaster; a ‘gas-bag.’ Cf., Blow, verb, sense 1.

1863. Manhattan, in Evening Standard, 10 Dec. General Grant ... is not one of the blower generals. [M.]

1864. Spectator, 22 Oct., 1202, col. 1. Notorious among our bar and the public as a blower. [M.]

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 584. ‘You need not blow so, my friend. I don’t believe a word of what you say.’ Hence also the noun blower, a braggart, with special reference to his success in imitating Baron Munchausen.

3. A pipe. Cf., Blow a cloud.

Blow Great Guns, verbal phr. (popular).—To blow a hurricane; a violent gale. Sometimes varied by to blow great guns and small arms.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 23. ‘Curse me, if I don’t think all the world means to cross the Thames this fine night!’ observed Ben. ‘One’d think it rained fares as well as blowed great guns. Why, there’s another party on the stair-head inquiring arter scullers; and, by the mass! they appear in a greater hurry than any of us.’

1854. H. Miller, Sch. and Schm. (1858), 14. It soon began to blow great guns. [M.]

Blowhard, subs. (American).—A Western term of revilement, the precise meaning of which it would be difficult to explain, since a newcomer may, in one and the same breath, be called a blarsted Britisher, a Coyote, and a blowhard. If all these are synonymous, then indeed the Englishman in America is in a bad way. Cf., Blower, sense 2.

Blow Hot and Cold, verbal phr. (familiar).—To be treacherous; inconsistent; vacillating. There is an allusion in the expression to one of Æsop’s fables.

1577. W. Bullinger, Decades (1592), 176. One which out of one mouth, doeth blowe both hoat and colde. [M.]

1756. The World, No. 185. This old fellow is of a most capricious, unequal temper, and, like the satyr in the fable, blows hot and cold in the same breath.

1856. Motley, Dutch Rep., V., v., 750. Being constantly ordered ‘to blow hot and cold with the same breath.’

Blowing Up, subs. (colloquial).—A scolding; a severe reprimand; a jobation.—See Blow up. The French equivalent is affres (fem. pl.), i.e., ‘agonies.’

1839. Haliburton, Letter-Bag Gt. West, IV., 42. I would give him a good blowing-up. [M.]

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xxv., p. 448. The waves dashed over the pier, ducking the three or four venturesome spirits who went on there. I was one—and received a good blowing up from Mr. Brandon for my pains.

Blow in One’s Pipe, verbal phr. (American).—A transatlantic equivalent of to blow or blew [one’s money]; i.e., to spend it.

Blow Me! Blow Me Up! Blow Me Tight! intj. phr. (popular).—Expressions which, like blowed (q.v.), serve either as half-veiled oaths or as merely big sounding but meaningless exclamations.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 48. ‘Blow me up (says he) if I have had a fellow with such rum toggys cross my company these many a day.’

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress.

Says Bill ‘there’s nothing like a Bull And blow me tight’—Bill Gibbons ne’er In all his days was known to swear, Except light oaths, to grace his speeches, Like ‘dash my wig’ or ‘burn my breeches,’ ‘Blow me——’

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 25. Here blow me, I’ll do such a thing I never did before, I’ll say thirty—yes, thirty shillings buys the lot, and I’ll have no more nor take no less.

Blow One’s Bazoo, verbal phr. (American).—To boast; to swagger; to gasconade. [From the Dutch bazu, an abbreviation of bazuin, a trumpet; hence an equivalent of the English ‘to blow one’s own trumpet’.]

Blow Oneself Out, verb (common).—To eat heartily; to gorge oneself.—See Blow out.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Babes in the Wood).

In the dog-days, don’t be so absurd As to blow yourselves out with green-gages!

Blow Out, subs. (common).—A gluttonous feast, a heavy ‘feed,’ or entertainment. Also called a Tuck in, which see for synonyms. Cf., Blow oneself out.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, II., 264. ‘She sent me a card for her blow-out,’ said Mowbray, ‘and so I am resolved to go.’

1847. Th. Hook, Man of Many Friends. The giving good feeds is, with many of these worthies, the grand criterion by which the virtues and talents of mankind are measured ... these persons call a similar favour either a ‘spread’ or a ‘blow-out.’

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. ‘Get us hot water, and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the real stuff, and we’ll have a blow-out.’

Verb (thieves’).—To steal. For synonyms, see prig.

Blowse, Blowsy, Blouze, Blowzy, subs. (old).—1. A beggar’s trull; a wench.

2. A slatternly woman, especially one with dishevelled hair. Thought to be of canting origin. In Grose’s time the term was humorously varied by Blowsabella, in reference to the country girl in Gay’s pastoral poem, ‘The Shepherd’s Week,’ which depicts rural life in its character of poverty and rudeness, rather than as clothed in the colours of romance.

We, fair, fine ladies, who park out our lives From common sheep-paths, cannot help the crows, From flying over; we’re as natural still As Blousalinda.

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. xvi., st. 37, p. 43 (E.D.S.). Whiles Gillet, his blouse, is a milking thy cow.

1605. Chapman, All Fooles, Act iv., p. 68 (Plays, 1874).

Wed without my advice, my love, my knowledge, Ay, and a beggar, too, a trull, a blowse!

1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, III., i. Wench is your trull, your blouze, your dowdie.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. VII., p. 20.

So the old Babylonian Blouze, And her demure fanatick Spouse.

1851. Thackeray, English Humorists, p. 167. Are not the Rosalindas of Britain as charming as the Blousalindas of the Hague?

Blow the Gab or Gaff, verbal phr. (common).—To reveal, or ‘let out’ a secret; to peach. Cf., Gaff, Gag and Gab. For synonyms, see Peach.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To blow the gab (cant), to confess, or impeach a confederate.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xliii. ‘One of the French officers, after he was taken prisoner, axed me how we had managed to get the gun up there; but I wasn’t going to blow the gaff.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 122. The prisoner, burning for revenge, quietly bides his time till the chief warder comes round, then asks to speak to him, and ‘blows the gaff.’

Blow the Grampuse, verbal phr. (nautical).—To throw cold water on a man who has fallen asleep when on duty.

Blow the Groundsels, verbal phr. (old).—To have sexual commerce on the ground.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To blow the groundsils (cant), to lie with a woman on the floor.

Blow Together, verbal phr. (tailors’).—To make garments in a slovenly manner.

Blow Up, subs. (colloquial).—A scolding; a ‘wigging’; a railing.

1809. Sir W Gell, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1883), I., 355. There won’t be any quarrel, so you need not fear. The only chance is Keppel making a blow up when she abuses me.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxviii. Morgan had had ‘a devil of a blow hup with his own guv’nor, and was going to retire from the business haltogether.’

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. vii. ‘Mind the hice is here in time; or they’ll be a blow up with your governor.’

Verb (colloquial).—To scold.

1809. Sir W. Gell, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), I., 355. I have heard her daughter blow up Lady Salisbury when she had quarrelled with Lady Sefton.

1883. G. A. S[ala], in Illust. L. News, June 16, p. 599, col. 1. That the ’aughty nobleman should blow up the clerk for presuming to take a seat in his presence.

To blow up sky-high, phr. (American).—The American, fond of doing everything with unusual energy, likes to blow up sky-high, an addition which lends colour to the supposition that probably the phrase is originally a nautical one, and really borrowed from the blowing up of a vessel, much as the meaning of the words must have evaporated before it reached the present stage.

Blow upon (old).—To betray; to tell tales of; to discredit; to defame.—See Blow, verb, sense 2. Used also with indirect passive.

1402. [? T. Occleve], Letter of Cupid, in Arber’s Garner, vol. IV., p. 61.

Thus they despisèd be, on every side, Dislanderèd and blown upon full wide.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. X., ch. ii. ‘That the reputation of her house, which was never blown upon before, was utterly destroyed.’

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, II., p. 239. It fortunately occurred to me, that if I gave it him myself, I could be of no farther use. I should have been blown upon immediately.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. xii. ‘The condition of our affairs is desperate, and may be blown upon at any moment.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 4. Both desisted from their own recriminations as to ‘rounding’ and ‘blowing’ on each other.

1882. Jas. Payn, in Glow Worm Tales, p. 301. ‘An Improvement on a System.’ If Mr. Prince had caught me before his establishment had got ‘blown upon’ in the public prints, he might have persuaded me to become an inmate of the Agapemone. I hope I should not have approved of the manner of life in vogue at that institution, but I make no doubt that I should have fallen in with it without much resistance.

Blub.—See Blubber, verb.

Blubber, subs. (common).—1. The mouth. From the figurative use of the word, especially of anything swollen or protruding, as of the lips. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. I have stopped the cull’s blubber, I have stopped the fellow’s mouth.

2. A woman’s breasts.—See Sport blubber, and for synonyms, Dairies.

Verb (familiar).—To cry; to weep—used contemptuously. Also shortened into blub.

1400. Test. Love, II. (1560), 283, 1. Han women none other wrech ... but blober and wepe till hem list stint. [M.]

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, xliv. (1804), 202. He blubbered like a great school-boy who had been whipped.

1826. Scott, Woodstock, IV. Phœbe Mayflower blubbered heartily for company. [M.]

To sport blubber, phr. (common).—To show one’s breasts, said of women, especially those with large and prominent bosoms.

Blubber and Guts, subs. (common).—Obesity; a low term.

Blubber-Belly, subs. (common).—A fat person.

Blubber Head, subs. (common).—A foolish, empty-headed individual.—See Apartments to let.

Blucher (ch. hard), subs. (Winchester College).—1. A College præfect in half power. Their jurisdiction does not extend beyond ‘Seventh Chamber passage,’ though their privileges are the same as those of other præfects. They are eight in number.

1864. Blackwood, p. 86. The remaining eight college præfects (called in Winchester tongue, bluchers) have a more limited authority, confined to Chambers and the Quadrangle.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 30. The eight senior præfects were said to have ‘full power,’ and had some slight privileges not enjoyed by the remaining ten, who were generally called bluchers.

2. A non-privileged cab plying at railway stations. The origin of the name and its application, as far as known, is given in the two following quotations.

1864. Soc. Sc. Review, I., p. 406. The railway companies recognise two other classes of cabs, called the ‘privileged’ ... and the ‘Bluchers,’ named after the Prussian Field-Marshal who arrived on the field of Waterloo only to do the work that chanced to be undone.

1870. Athenæum, 5 March, p. 328. Non-privileged cabs, which are admitted to stations after all the privileged have been hired, are known as Bluchers.

Bludgeoner, subs. (harlotry).—A bully; pimp; ponce; a man attached to a house of ill-fame for the purpose of terrorising victims, and rendering easier the task of plunder. [From bludgeon, a stout stick or club, + er or eer; i.e., one armed with the weapon in question.]

1852. Blackwood’s Magazine, p. 224. Those brutal bludgeoneers ... go out ... in gangs to poach. [M.]

1855. Trollope, Warden, xiv., p. 144. Old St. Dunstan with its smiting bludgeoneer has been removed.

Bludger, subs. (thieves’).—A low thief, who does not hesitate to use violence; literally one who will use a bludgeon. Cf., Bludget.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Those who plunder with violence; as ... bludgers or ‘stick slingers,’ who rob in company with low women.

Bludget, subs. (American).—This is given in the New York Slang Dictionary [1881] as ‘a low female thief, who decoys her victims into alley-ways, etc., to rob them.’ Cf., Bludger.

Blue.—Few words enter more largely into the composition of slang, and colloquialisms bordering on slang, than does the word blue. Expressive alike of the utmost contempt, as of all that men hold dearest and love best, its manifold combinations, in ever varying shades of meaning, greet the philologist at every turn. A very Proteus, it defies all attempts to trace the why and wherefore of many of the turns of expression of which it forms a part—why true blue should be synonymous with faithful, staunch adherence to one’s faith and principles; or why, on the other hand, to look blue should signify affected with fear, dismayed, and low-spirited. Curiously enough, the historical method helps but little to decide why in one case an exact reversal of meaning should have taken place in the application of the word; for, as far as the evidence is concerned, both the good and bad shades of meaning appear to run contemporaneously. It is also noteworthy that the word enters largely into the slang of nationalities other than our own; indeed, one of the most curious, as well as one of the most interesting facts connected with the comparative study of slang, is that which reveals the oneness of the human race in its modes of thought and speech, the Tower of Babel notwithstanding. This special feature of slang will, to some extent, be found dealt with at the end of this work; but the subject is too wide, and the field too vast, for one student to have accomplished much single-handed. This, however, may be said; that, comparing the slang of one nation with that of another, one finds the same ideas cropping up, revealing, alas! the same follies and foibles, but also showing, let it be said, in the few cases where slang travels beyond the earthy and the sensual, the same aspirations, the same endeavour, and the same hope.

Subs.—1. A policeman. [From the colour of the uniform.] This epithet can be traced back to Elizabethan days [see Blue-bottle], and the uniform seems to have been blue from time immemorial; indeed, this colour appears from the earliest times to have been the badge of servitude. Pliny tells us blue was the colour in which the Gauls clothed their slaves; and, for many ages, blue coats were the liveries of servants, apprentices, and those in humble stations of life—to wit, the blue-clad beadles, the ‘varlets’ who wore the blue, the blue-coat boys, and even harlots in a house of correction, who wore blue as a dress of ignominy. The proverb quoted by Ray, ‘he’s in his better blue clothes,’ i.e., ‘he thinks himself wondrous fine,’ has reference to the livery of a servant. The police more recently have been known collectively as blues, the men in blue, blue-boys, blue bottles, blue-devils, royal regiment of foot-guards blue, all nicknames referring to the colour of the uniform. For general synonyms, see Beak.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 257. He would chatter gaily and enter with great gusto into the details of some cleverly executed ‘bit of business,’ or ‘bilking the blues,’—evading the police.

18(?). Hood, Row at the ‘Oxford Arms.’

Well, that’s the row, and who can guess the upshot after all? Whether Harmony will ever make the ‘Arms’ her house of call; Or whether this here mobbing, as some longish heads fortell it, Will grow to such a riot that the Oxford blues must quell it.

2. A blue is known to licensed victuallers and their customers in certain districts of Wales as a compromise between the half-pint and the pint pot. It is not recognised as a legal measure by the authorities on weights and measures, but it is approaching to something like a status, as it deserves to do in the interests of temperance. Although there is no Board of Trade standard of the blue, and inspectors have no power to stamp measures of this denomination for use in trade, the Board of Trade has pointed out to the local authorities that there is nothing in the Weights and Measures Act to prevent the use of the blue or to make its possessor liable to penalties, always provided of course that the vessel is not used as a measure.

3. A scholar of Christ’s Hospital; a blue-coat boy. [This nickname is also derived from the colour of the clothes—blue drugget gown or body with ample skirts to it, a yellow vest underneath in winter time, small clothes of Russia duck, worsted yellow stockings, a leathern girdle, and a little black worsted cap, usually carried in the hand, being the complete costume. This was the ordinary dress of children in humble life during the reigns of the Tudors.]

1834. W. Trollope (Title), Christ’s Hospital ... with memoirs of Eminent Blues.

1877. W. H. Blanch, Blue-Coat Boys, p. 33. To some extent it holds also with regard to Civil Engineers, amongst whom, however, one well-known name is that of a blue.

4. Short for blue-stocking (q.v.); formerly a contemptuous term for a woman having or affecting literary tastes.

1788. Madame D’Arblay, Diary (1876), iv., 219. He was a little the more anxious not to be surprised to-night, but his being too tired for walking should be imputed to his literary preference of reading to a blue. At tea Miss Planta again joined us, and instantly behind him went the book; he was very right, for nobody would have thought it more odd or more blue.

1823. Byron, Don Juan, ch. xi., st. 50. The Blues, that tender tribe, who sigh o’er sonnets.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, p. 76. ‘But she was very clever....’ ‘Accomplished?’ ‘Oh, far beyond that....’ ‘A regular blue.’

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant Green, I., p. 7. His Aunt Virginia was as learned a blue as her esteemed ancestress in the court of Elizabeth, the very Virgin Queen of Blues.

5. Female learning or pedantry.

1824. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 47. She also had a twilight tinge of blue. [M.]

6. (University.)—At Oxford and Cambridge a man is said to get his blue when selected as a competitor in inter-university sports. The University colours are, for Oxford, dark blue; and for Cambridge, light blue. Cf., To get one’s silk, said of a barrister when made Queen’s Counsel.

Adj.—1. A contemptuous epithet applied usually to women of literary tastes.—See Blue-stocking. The French have elle est bleue celle-là; en voilà une de bleue; je la trouve bleue.

1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary (1842), iv., p. 219. Nobody would have thought it more odd or more blue.

1834. Southey, The Doctor, ch. lxxxix. Les Dames des Roches, both mother and daughter were remarkable and exemplary women; and there was a time when Poictiers derived as much glory from those blue ladies as from the Black Prince.

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xi. She was a little, a very little blue—rather a babbler in the ‘ologies’ than a real disciple.

1842. Dickens, American Notes, ch. iii., p. 33. Blue ladies there are, in Boston; but like philosophers of that colour and sex in most other latitudes, they rather desire to be thought superior than to be so.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxxiii. She had been growing decidedly blue. Not only had she, under Bray’s auspices, published a series of papers in Blunt’s Magazine, but she had positively written a child’s book.

1864. Spectator, No. 1875, p. 660. A clever, sensible woman, rather blue.

2. Indecent; ‘smutty’; obscene. This may be derived from the blue dress of harlots—see preceding, subs., 1.—although Hotten suggests it as coming from the French Bibliothèque Bleu, a series of books of very questionable character. Books or conversation of an entirely opposite nature are said to be brown or Quakerish, i.e., serious, grave, decent.

3. Gloomy; fearful; depressed; low-spirited. Cf., To look blue, Blue funk, and In the blues. Possibly an allusion to the blueness of cold.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxviii. Charley replied that neither had he any money at home. ‘That’s blue,’ said the man. ‘It is rather blue,’ said Charley.

1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, I., p. 93. It’s blue; uncommon blue.

1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, I., p. 60. ‘My dear Charlie,’ said the girl.... ‘That certainly is a blue look-out,’ she continued—for however earnest was her purpose she would not but express herself in her slang metaphor.

1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. xl. I kept up my blue meditations.

1874. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Gilded Age, ch. xxvii. I had forgotten dear, but when a body gets blue, a body forgets everything.... I am sorry I was blue, but it did seem as if everything had been going against me for whole ages.

Verb.—1. To blush. Cf., subs., sense 3.

1709. Steele and Swift, Tatler, No. 71, p. 8. If a Virgin blushes, we no longer cry she blues. [M.]

2. To pawn; pledge; spend; actually to get rid of money quickly. Cf., Blew. There are two suggested derivations of the word when used in this sense; (1) that it is connected with ‘blown,’ i.e., dissipated or scattered; and (2) that money so squandered has disappeared as effectually as if it had passed into the blue, i.e., the sky or the deep sea. The German has ins blaue hinein, ‘away into the blue,’ equivalent to the French passer au bleu. Faire passer au bleu is to dissipate, spend, or squander. For synonyms, in the sense of to pawn, see Pop.

1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 2. This top coat?—would blue it.

1887. Punch, 10 Sept., p. 111. I never minds blueing the pieces purvided I gets a good spree.

3. To miscalculate; ‘to make a “mess” of anything’; to mull.

4. (thieves’.)—To steal; to plunder. To be blued, to be robbed. For synonyms, see Prig.

By all that’s blue, phr. (popular).—A euphemistic oath; probably meaning ‘by Heaven.’ It may be compared with the French parbleu, synonymous with par Dieu.

1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxiii. ‘The black cat, by all that’s blue!’ cried the Captain.

Men in blue, phr. (popular).—The police.—See Blue, subs., sense 1.

1882. Besant, All Sorts and Cond. of Men, ch. xliii. ‘You must now begin to think seriously about handcuffs and prison, and men in blue.’

1886. G. A. Apperson, Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 137. The police in recent times have been known as the blues and the men in blue.

Till all is blue, phr. (popular).—1. To the utmost; to the end; for an indefinite period. Smyth, in his Sailors’ Word Book, says this phrase is borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port and getting into deep water.

1835. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. xix. [The land] could be made to carry wheat till all’s blue again. Ibid., 3 S., ch. xx. Your mother kickin’ and screamin’ till all was blue again.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, I., p. 184. I’ll have at her again, and dance till all’s blue before I give in.

2. When applied to drinking, till all is blue signifies exceeding tipsy. As will be seen, this usage is somewhat ancient. It is an allusion to the supposed effect of drinking on the eyesight. An analogous French expression is avoir un coup d’bleu (to be slightly tipsy).

1616. R. C., Times’ Whis., v., 1835. They drink ... Vntil their adle heads doe make the ground Seeme blew vnto them.

1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv., 2. We can drink till all look blue.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Lay of St. Dunstan).

‘I have nothing to do: And ’fore George, I’ll sit here and I’ll drink till all’s blue!’

To look blue, phr. (popular).—To be confounded; surprised; astonished; annoyed or disappointed. French equivalents are en rester tout bleu; en être bleu; en bailler tout bleu; and baba from ébahi, astounded.

c. 1600. Rob. Hood (‘Ritson’), II., xxxvi., 84. It made the sunne looke blue. [M.]

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. Blue, adj. ... 2, blank, or cast down; as, he looked blue upon it.

1884. Cornhill Mag., Jan., p. 111. The prudent (and sagacious) officer looked blue. But he speedily recovered himself.

To make the air blue, phr. (popular).—To curse; to swear; to use profane language. Cf., Blue, adj., sense 2.

True blue, phr. (colloquial).—Faithful; genuine; real; an allusion to blue as the colour of constancy. A reference either to the deep blue of the sky or sea suggestive of interminableness; or, it may be derived as was ‘Coventry blue,’ from a dye that would neither change its colour nor be discharged by washing; hence figuratively, to signify persons or things of sterling character or quality. In neither case is the argument clear or decisive; there is certainly no reason in nature why the colour and cardinal virtue should be thus associated. Blue skies and blue seas are proverbially deceitful, and on the other hand, the expression seems too old a one to owe its origin to the dyer’s skill.

1383. Chaucer, Squiere’s Tale.

And by hire bedde’s hed she made a mew, And covered it with velouettes blew, In signe of trouthe that is in woman sene.

Ibid, Court of Love, line 246.

So you dir folke (quod she) that knele in blew, They were the colour ay and ever shal, In signe they were, and ever wil be true, Withoutin change.

Blue Apron, subs. (common).—A tradesman.

1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., xliii., 230. For if any saucy blue-apron dares to affront any venerable person ... all scholars are immediately forbid to have any dealing or commerce with him.

1868. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 98. A blue-apron statesman, a lay politician, a tradesman who interferes with the affairs of the nation. The reference is to the blue apron once worn by nearly all tradesmen, but now restricted to butchers, poulterers, fishmongers, and so on.

Bluebacks, subs.—1. The paper money of the Confederates. A cant name, originating, as in the case of United States paper currency greenbacks, in the colour of the printing on the reverse. A more pronounced slang name, subsequently applied to bluebacks, was ‘shucks,’ from their worthlessness after the war. ‘Shucks’ is an old English term for the refuse of peas and similar products when shelled.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 291. The confederate notes bore, for the same reason, the name of bluebacks, which was, however, soon exchanged for the slang term of shucks.

2. The Orange Free State paper money.

1878. Trollope, South Africa, II., p. 206. Bluebacks, as they were called, were printed. Ibid, p. 222. The bluebacks as the Orange Free State banknotes were called.

Blue Bellies.—A nickname bestowed by Southerners, during the Civil War, upon their opponents of the North, whose uniform was blue. They were also called boys in blue, yanks, etc. The Southerners, on the other hand, received such names as the secesh, rebs, and johnny rebs, the latter being sometimes shortened to johnnies. The grey uniform of the Confederates likewise caused them to be styled boys in grey and greybacks, the latter epithet cutting two ways, as the Southern soldiers not only wore grey uniforms, but ‘greyback’ in America as well as England signifies a louse.

1883. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 9, p. 5, col. 4. The Confederate armies during the great Civil War in America ... were known ... as ‘Greybacks,’ whereas their Federal opponents, from the light-azure gaberdines which they wore, were dubbed ‘blue-bellies.’

Blue Bills, subs. (Winchester College).—The tradesmen’s bills sent home to the parents and guardians of students. [So called from the colour of the envelopes generally used.]

Blue Billy, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A handkerchief (blue ground with white spots) sometimes worn and used as a colour at prize-fights.—See Billy, sense 1.

2. (mining.)—See quotation.

1887. ‘Death of Blue Billy,’ in Chamb. Jour., Dec. 17, p. 812. Blue Billy is the technical name given to the lime rendered foul in the purification of the gas.

Blue Blanket, subs. (common).—1. The sky. This simile is an old one; Defoe’s use of it may probably have been suggested by Shakspeare’s ‘blanket of the dark’ (Macbeth, I., v.).

c. 1720. Defoe, Hist. of Devil, quoted in N. and Q., 7 S., ii., 289; see also 7 S., ii., 492. We must be content till we come on the other side the blue blanket, and then we shall know the whole story.

1877. Greenwood, Under the Blue Blanket. The vagrant brotherhood have several slang terms for sleeping out in a field or meadow. It is called ‘snoozing in Hedge Square’; ‘dossing with the daisies’; and ‘lying under the blue blanket.’

The French say, ‘coucher à l’hotel de l’Etoile,’ i.e., ‘to sleep at the Star Hotel’; while in the Fourbesque, or Italian cant, heaven or the sky is termed copertore, a covering or blanket.

2. (common.)—A rough overcoat made of coarse pilot cloth.

Blue Blazes.—See Blazes.

Blue Boar, subs. (old).—A certain venereal disease.

Blue-Bottle, subs. (popular).—1. A policeman. This epithet, at one time applied generally to all wearers of a dark blue uniform, is now invariably understood to mean a guardian of the peace. It is one of the oldest of the nicknames given to members of the force, and occurs as far back as 1598.

Cf., Blue, sense 1, and see Beak for synonyms.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v., 4. Dall [addressing beadle] ... you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. lxiv. ‘Police, indeed!’ muttered Charley, ‘the General can’t remember that he is out of London.... These confounded sulky Austrian officials are rather different customers to deal with from our blue-bottles.—Messrs. Al and Co.’

1864. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Sept. 13. Caught in his own toils by the blue-bottles of Scotland Yard, [M.]

1864. Blackwood’s Mag., p. 15. He who could summon to his aid every alphabetical blue-bottle that ever handled a truncheon.

1888. Middleton, Michaelmas Term. And to be free from the interruption of blue beadles, and other bawdy officers.

2. A serving-man, blue having been the usual habit of servants. Cf., Blue-coat.

1602. Honest Whore, O. Pl., iii., 389. You proud varlets, you need not be ashamed to wear blue, when your master is one of your fellows.

1608. Dekker, Belman, sign E., 3. The others act their parts in blew coates, as (if) they were their serving-men.

Hence blue-bottle is sometimes a term of reproach for a servant. [Case Altered, i., 2. O. Pl., v., 6.] And a serving-man, in B. Jonson, says, ‘Ever since I was of the blue order.’

About 1608, when Middleton’s Comedy of A Trick to catch the Old One was produced, the blue-coats of servants appear to have been changed for cloaks, such as were worn by the upper classes also at that time. Thus, in that comedy [Act ii., Anc. Drama, v., p. 151]:—There’s more true honesty in such a country serving man, than in a hundred of our cloak companions. I may well call ’em companions, for since blue coats have been turned into cloaks, one can scarce know the man from the master. B. Jonson [Mask of Christmas] introduces New Yeares Gift, In a blew coat, serving-man like, with an orange, etc.

1845. G. P. R. James, Arrah Neil, p. 325. The personage to whom he addressed himself, was one of the serving-men of that day, known by the general term of blue-bottles.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. x. (I., p. 173). I fancy you would love to move to court like him, followed by a round score of old blue-bottles. Ibid, ch. xi. My lord, my father ... has blue-bottles enough to wait on him.

Blue Boy, subs. (common).—A bubo; a tumour or abscess with inflammation. Specially applied to that kind which is a result of venereal disease.

Blue-Boys, subs. (popular).—The police. The expression is generally used in the plural. Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Help Myself Society, in Odd People in Odd Places, p. 68. The ‘Help Yourselves’ are especially strong in instrumental music. They have a friend in Colonel Fraser, the head of the City police, and the excellent band of that branch of the force is at their service, and Sir E. Henderson shows himself to be at heart a ‘Help Yourself,’ by permitting the instrumental blue boys belonging to several metropolitan divisions to spend a Saturday night there. Besides these, they have the Polytechnic orchestral band when it is required, and an excellent grand piano with a skilled player and accompanyist.

Blue Butter, subs. (common).—Mercurial ointment, used for the destruction of parasites.

Blue-Coat, subs.—A constable; a guardian of public order. This, like many of its congeners, has been applied to serving-men, beadles, tailors, and others wearing a uniform of a dark blue colour. Like blue, blue-bottle, etc., its application to a policeman is of some antiquity. Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 19 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). And being so taken, haue beene carried to places of correction, there wofully tormented by blew-coates, cowardly fellowes, that ... haue so scourged vs, that flesh and blood could hardly endure it.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 417. ‘I thinks them Chartists are a weak-minded set ... a hundred o’ them would run away from one blue-coat.’

Blued or Blewed, ppl. adj. (common).—Tipsy; drunk. For synonyms, see Screwed.

Blue Dahlia, subs. (common).—A colloquialism for something rare or seldom seen; a rara avis.

Blue Devils, subs. (popular).—1. Dejection; lowness of spirits; hypochondria.

1786. Cowper, Letters, No. 219, vol. II., p. 143 (ed. 1834). I have not that which commonly is a symptom of such a case belonging to me,—I mean extraordinary elevation in the absence of Mr. Blue devil. When I am in the best health, my tide of animal sprightliness flows with great equality.

1790. W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 1.

Or, dropping poisons in the cup of joy, Do the blue devils your repose annoy?

1871. Planché, King Christmas. There are blue devils which defy blue pills.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge iii. He got discontented and had fits of blue devils.

Two French equivalents for feeling out of sorts are s’emboucaner, and s’éncoliflucheter.

2. (popular.)—Delirium tremens. From the apparitions drunkards often suppose they see. In both this and the foregoing sense blue devils is contracted into blues.

1818–9. Cobbett, Resid. U.S., 42. It was just the weather to give drunkards the blue devils.

1831. Scott, Demonology, i., 18. They, by a continued series of intoxication, became subject to what is popularly called the blue devils.

Hence such derivatives as blue devilage; blue devilry; blue devilism; and an adjectival form blue devilly.

1871. Lockhart, Fair to See, I., p. 208. On the lower hills the pine-trees loomed through stagnant mists with a dejected and blue-devilly aspect.

Blue Fear, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright. [From the ‘blue’ or pallid cast of countenance which fear is supposed to induce. The same as blue funk (q.v.), which is more general.]

1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, in Longman’s Mag., April, p. 683. Anastasie had saved the remainder of his fortune by keeping him strictly in the country. The very name of Paris put her in a blue fear.

Blue Flag, subs. (common).—A blue apron (q.v.). Worn by butchers, publicans, and other tradesmen.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has hoisted the blue flag, he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, alluding to the blue aprons worn by publicans.

Blue Funk, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright, nervousness, or dread. [Funk is ‘to stink through fear’; Wedgwood connects it with the Walloon funker, ‘to smoke.’]

1856. Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 196. If I was going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk.

1861. Macmillan’s Magazine, p. 211. I was in a real blue funk.

1861. Saturday Review, Nov. 23, 534. We encounter ... the miserable Dr. Blandling in what is called a blue funk. [M.]

1871. Maxwell, in Life (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly χλωρὸν θέος is the Homeric for a blue funk.

Blue Hen’s Chickens, subs. (American).—A slang name for the inhabitants of Delaware. The nickname arose thus: Captain Caldwell, an officer of the first Delaware regiment in the American War of Independence, was noted for his love of cock-fighting. Being personally popular, and his regiment becoming famous for their valour, they were soon known as ‘game-cocks’; and as Caldwell maintained that no cock was truly game unless its mother was a blue hen, his regiment, and subsequently Delawareans generally, became known as blue hen’s chickens, and Delaware as the Blue Hen State for the same reason. A boaster is also often brought to book by the sarcasm, ‘Your mother was a blue hen no doubt.’

Blue Horse, subs. (military).—The Fourth Dragoon Horse, from its facings.

Blue Lightning, subs. (American).—One of the grimly facetious names with which Texans have christened revolvers. At times a dispute has literally been a word, a flash of blue lightning and—certain death. For synonyms, see Barker.

Blue Monday, subs. (workmen’s).—A Monday spent in dissipation and absence from work. One often hears the phrase ‘to feel Mondayish.’ The German has der blaue Montag. Cf., Black Saturday.

1885. Harper’s Magazine, p. 873, col. 1. The workman getting sober after his usual blue Monday. [M.]

Blue Moon. Once in a blue moon, phr. (popular).—Extremely seldom; an unlimited time; a rarely recurring period. An old phrase, first used in the sense of something absurd. A blue moon, like the Greek Kalends, is something which does not exist. A variant is ‘when two Sundays come in a week.’ As regards origin nothing is known; barring the extract from Roy and Barlow, authorities give no examples earlier than 1876—a curious fact.

1526. Roy and Barlowe, Rede me and be not wroth, p. 114 [ed. Arber, 1871].

Yf they saye the mone is belewe, We must beleve that it is true, Admittynge their interpretacion.

1860. F. W. Robinson, Grandmother’s Money, I., p. 144. If he talked till a blue moon, etc.

1876. Miss Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. xxiv. Why should she stint as to one or two puddings a week ... and a fruit pasty once in a blue moon.

1884. R. E. Francillon, Ropes of Sand, ch. xxi. ‘I’ve made bold to take the chance of your being at home for once in a blue moon, Mr. Carew,’ said she.

Blue Murder or Blue Murders, subs. (common).—A term used to describe cries of terror or alarm; a great noise; an unusual racket. Cf., French morbleu.

1887. J. S. Winter, Eng. Ill. Mag., Dec., p. 179. The dingy person dropped his victim and howled what the half-dozen officers ... graphically described as blue murder.

Blueness, subs. (common).—Indecency. Smutty talk is described as blue, sense 2 (q.v.).

1840. Carlyle, Diderot, Ess., 240. The occasional blueness of both [writings] shall not altogether affright us.

French Synonyms. Les horreurs; les bêtises; les gueulées. To talk blue is rendered by décravater ses propos.

Blue Noses, subs. (American).—The natives of Nova Scotia. A nickname given them by the Yankees in allusion, it is said, to a potato of that name which Nova Scotians claim to be the best in the world. Proctor, however, thinks differently, and says he would wager that the Nova Scotians were called blue noses before the potato which they rear was so named, and hazards the suggestion that the nickname refers to the blueness of nose resulting from intense cold.

1837–40. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’). Do you know the reason monkeys are no good? Because they chatter all day long,—as do the niggers,—and so do the blue noses of Nova Scotia.

18(?). Sir George Simpson, Overland Journey, vol. I., p. 19. After a run [in the steamer] of fourteen days, we entered the harbour of Halifax, amid the hearty cheers of a large number of blue noses.

Blue [or Blew] One’s Screw, verbal phr. (common).—To waste or squander one’s salary. [From blue or blew (q.v.) + screw (q.v.).]

Blue Peter, subs. (card-players’).—The signal or call for trumps at whist. [Properly a blue flag with white square in centre, hoisted as a signal for immediate sailing.]

1875. Beeton, Handy Book of Games, p. 358. Since the introduction of Blue Peter, the necessity of leading through your adversary’s hand has become less and less.

Blue Pigeon, subs. (thieves’).—Lead used for roofing purposes. Cf., Bluey and Blue pigeon flyer. Of doubtful origin, but possibly a punning allusion. Lead has long been known as ‘bluey,’ and pigeons frequently find a resting-place on house-tops.

1887. Judy, 27 April, p. 200. A burglar whose particular ‘lay’ was flying the blue pigeon, i.e., stealing lead.

(Nautical.)—The sounding lead.

Blue Pigeon Flyer, subs. phr. (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead from the roofs of buildings. Hotten thus explains the modus operandi. Sometimes a journeyman plumber, glazier, or other workman, who, when repairing houses, strips off the lead, and makes away with it. This performance is, though, by no means confined to workmen. An empty house is often entered and the whole of the roof in its vicinity stripped, the only notice given to the folks below being received by them on the occasion of a heavy downfall of rain. The term flyer has, indeed, of late years been more peculiarly applied to the man who steals the lead in pursuance of his vocation as a thief, than to him who takes it because it comes in the way of his work.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 165. Blue pigeon flying. Fellows who steal lead off houses, or cut pipes away.

French equivalents are un limousineur; un gras-doublier; un mastaroufleur.

To fly the blue pigeon, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To steal lead from the roofs of houses.—See Blue pigeon. French equivalents are faire la mastar au gras-double; ratisser du gras double.

1872. J. Doran, in Notes and Queries, 4 S., x., 308. Even at the present day, no rascal would stoop to strip lead from the roof of a house. At least, what honest men would call by that name, he would prettily designate as ‘flying the blue pigeon.’

Blue Pill, subs. (popular).—A bullet; also called blue plum and blue whistler. For synonyms, see Pill.

1861. N. Y. Tribune (Let. from Missouri), Nov. 10. Between blue pills, halters, and the penitentiary, we shall soon work off this element of rascaldom and horse-thieves.

Blue Plum, subs. (thieves’).—A bullet. Cf., Blue pill and Blue whistler.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Surfeited with a blue plumb, wounded with a bullet; a sortment of George R——’s blue plumbs, a volley of ball, shot from soldier’s firelocks.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood (1884), p. 95.

Believe me, there is not a game, my brave boys, To compare with the game of high toby; No rapture can equal the toby man’s joys, To blue devils, blue plumbs give the go by.

Blue Ruin, subs. (common).—Gin, generally of inferior quality. For synonyms, see Drinks.

c. 1817. Keats, A Portrait. He sipped no olden Tom or ruin blue, or Nantz or cherry brandy.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 39.

A few short words I first must spare, To him, the Hero, that sits there, Swigging Blue ruin, in that chair.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Log. Here, Landlord, more Blue Ruin, my boy! Sal. Massa Bob, you find me no such bad partner; many de good vill and de power me get from de Jack Tar.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. xx. ‘The littel un ... had been abrought up upon spoon-meat, with a dash o’ blue-ruin to make him slim and ginteel.’

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxiii. The stuff itself, which in the western gin-shops goes generally by the name of blue-ruin or ‘short.’

Blues, subs. (popular).—1. Despondency; hypochondria; depression of spirits. [A shortened form of blue devils (q.v.).] A French synonym is se faire des plumes or paumer ses plumes.

1807. Washington Irving, Salmagundi (1824), p. 96. In a fit of the blues. [M.]

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. viii. The moat alone is enough to give one the blues.

1889. John Strange Winter, That Imp, p. 10. ‘Miss Aurora,’ he said suddenly, one evening after dinner, ‘it’s awfully dull at Drive now; does it never strike you so?’ ‘Very often, my dear,’ answered Miss Aurora promptly. ‘It’s as dull as—’ ‘Ditch-water,’ supplied Driver, finding she paused for a word which would express dulness enough. ‘I wonder you and Betty don’t die of the blues.’

2. The police.—See Blue, sense 1.

3. (military.)—The Royal Horse Guards Blue are popularly so known from the blue facings on the scarlet uniform. The corps first obtained the name of ‘Oxford Blues’ in 1690, to distinguish it from a Dutch regiment of Horse Guards dressed in blue, commanded by the Earl of Portland, the former being commanded by the Earl of Oxford. Subsequently the regiment was, during the campaign in Flanders [1742–45], known as the ‘Blue Guards.’

Blue Skin, subs. (old).—1. Formerly a contemptuous term for a Presbyterian. Butler, in Hudibras [I., p. 26], says:—

‘’twas Presbyterian true blue, For he was of the stubborn crew Of errant saints, whom all men grant To be the true Church Militant.’

Blue is still the Presbyterian colour, and is used as an adjective by them in describing books and people.

2. (West Indian.)—A half-breed—the child of a black woman by a white man.

Blue Squadron, subs. (colonial).—One of mixed blood; properly one with a Hindoo strain. Eurasians belong to the blue squadron. Cf., Touch of the tar brush.

Blue Stocking, subs.—A literary lady: applied usually with the imputation of pedantry. The generally received explanation is that the term is derived from the name given to certain meetings held by ladies in the days of Dr. Johnson for conversation with distinguished literary men. One of the most eminent of these literati was a Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings, and whose conversation at these meetings was so much prized, that his absence at any time was felt to be a great loss, so that the remark became common, ‘We can do nothing without the blue stockings,’ hence these meetings were sportively called blue-stocking clubs, and the ladies who attended them blue-stockings. It is stated that the name specially arose in this way. A foreigner of rank refused to accompany a friend to one of these parties on the plea of being in his travelling costume, to which there was the reply, ‘Oh! we never mind dress on these occasions; you may come in bas bleus or blue stockings,’ with allusion to Stillingfleet’s stockings, when the foreigner, fancying that bas bleus were part of the necessary costume, called the meeting ever after the Bas-bleu Society. In modern slang the term blue-stocking is abbreviated into blue. Derivatives are blue-stockingism, blue-stockinger, etc.

b. 1738, d. 1819. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Benevolent Epistle, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 125.

I see the band of blue-stockings arise, Historic, critic, and poetic dames!

1780. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, i., 326. Who would not be a blue-stockinger at this rate?

1784. Walpole, Letters, iv., 381. [Walpole, writing to Hannah More, playfully makes it a verb = to put on blue stockings.] When will you blue-stocking yourself, and come amongst us?

1877. Macmillan’s Mag., May, p. 50. On the airs and graces of the gushing blue stockings who were in vogue in that day ... she had no mercy.

1877. Miss Martineau, Autob., vol. I., p. 100. Young ladies (at least in provincial towns) were expected to sit down in the parlour to sew,—during which reading aloud was permitted,—or to practice their music; but so as to fit to receive callers, without any signs of blue-stockingism which could be reported abroad.

Blue Stone, subs. (common).—Gin or whiskey of so bad a quality that it can only be compared to vitriol, of which bluestone is also a nickname in the north of England and Scotland. For all synonyms, see Drinks.

1880. Blackwood’s Mag., June, p. 786. The bar was still thronged, and the effects of the mixture of spirits of wine, bluestone, and tobacco-juice, were to be seen on a miserable wretch who lay stretched in the courtyard.

1882. W. G. Black, in Notes and Queries, 6 S., v., p. 348. A witness was asked in the Northern Police Court, Glasgow, a few weeks ago, a question relative to the quality of certain whiskey said to have been supplied to him. ‘It wasn’t whiskey,’ he said, ‘it was nothing but bluestone.’ ‘But what?’ inquired the magistrate. ‘Bluestone, your honour,’ was the answer—‘poison.’ I heard the question and answer, and there can be no doubt that the word was used as a familiar one.

Blue Tape, subs. (old).—One of the many cant terms for gin. For synonyms, see Drinks.

Blue Whistler, subs. (American).—A bullet. For synonyms, see Pill.

1888. New York Herald, Nov. 4. It was Mr. Barbour’s rifle shot which had hit him in the head and caused him to stagger. The pellet of lead passed deep into the brain. The second shot was from the Atlanta drummer, and his thirteen blue whistlers tore the brute’s liver into shreds and made a great hole in his side. Ibid. After a few moments of reflection, being nearest to the quarry, I lifted my double-barrelled shotgun and let drive a volley of blue whistlers straight at bruin’s yawning jaws.

Bluey, subs. (thieves’).—1. Lead.—See also Blue pigeon. [Supposed to be an allusion to the colour.]

French Synonyms. Du doussin; du noir (noir = black); du saucisson. ‘To dispose of bluey at the fence,’ i.e., the receiver of stolen goods—porter du gras-double au moulin.

2. (Australian.)—A bushman’s bundle, the outside wrapper of which is generally a blue blanket—hence the name. This is also called his swag (q.v.); likewise a drum (q.v.).

Bluey-Hunter, subs. (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead, as described under blue pigeon flyer (q.v.), of which bluey-hunter is a synonym. Cf., Billy-hunter.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 26. Bluey-hunters, or those who purloin lead from the tops of houses.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Bluey-hunters, who take lead from the tops of houses.

Bluff, subs. (vagrants’ and common).—An excuse; a pretence; that which is intended to hoodwink or ‘to blind.’ Probably a transferred usage of the American sense.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 231. [List of patterer’s words.] Bluff, an excuse.

1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, ch. xxxix. There is a strong suspicion among men whose heads are level that this Minstrel Variety Performance is a bluff of the ‘Messenger’ to keep from the public the real motives of the murder.

1884. Boston (U.S.) Journal, Sept. 25. The oiler was only a bluff.

Verb (common).—To turn aside; to stop; to hoodwink; to blind as to one’s real intention. Properly, to brag; to conceal one’s weakness; from the American game of poker.—See subs.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 327. Like its near cousin, suggestively called bluff, poker is a mere hazard game, with which, however, is combined great skill in bragging to a purpose. One man offers a bet on his hand; another doubles the bet and ‘goes one better’; then the first tries to bluff him off by a still higher bet, and thus the stake rises rapidly to often enormous sums.

1883. Echo, April 20, p. 3, col. 5. Subsequently a prominent bookmaker attempted to bluff Captain Machell by laying him 2,000 to 1,000 on Goggles against Sweetbread—a merry little bit of financial diplomacy, which was promptly followed by Goggles being struck out.

1885. Bret Harte, Ship of ’49, ch. v. ‘Far from bluffing, Sleight, I am throwing my cards on the table. Consider that I’ve passed out. Let some other man take my hand.’

It may be remarked that Ray [1674–91] gives bluff as to blindfold, and Bailey [1721] as to hoodwink. The German has blüffen; the Dutch blaffen, ‘to bark at,’ and verblüffen, ‘to put out of countenance.’

So also bluffing in a similar sense.

1889. Answers, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. The youths evidently disagreed as to the nature of my business: one, as far as I could gather, assumed that I was a ‘nark,’ and that I was bluffing (making an excuse), and ‘flamming’ (lying).

Bluffer, subs. (old).—An innkeeper.—Grose. Bailey [1721] also gives the term with the same meaning, and American thieves still retain the word in a similar sense.

2. (nautical).—A bo’sun.

Blunderbuss, subs. (old).—A stupid blundering fellow.—Grose.

Blunt, subs. (popular).—Money, especially ready money. For a long list of synonyms, see Actual. [There are several suggested derivations; (1) that it is from the French blond, sandy or golden colour, and that a parallel may be found in brown or browns, the slang for halfpence. Far-fetched as this etymology seems, say Hotten, it may be correct, as it is borne out by the analogy of similar expressions. Cf., Blanquillo, a word used in Morocco and Southern Spain for a small Moorish coin. The ‘asper’ (ἄσπρόν) of Constantinople is called by the Turks akcheh, i.e., ‘little white’; (2) that it received its name in allusion to the blunt rim of coins. A third is that it received the name from Mr. John Blunt, the chairman of South Sea Bubble.]

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. [List of cant words.] Blunt, money.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. (Holding out his right hand for the money, and keeping the porter away with the other.) Bob. That’s your sort; give us hold on it. (Takes Mace’s empty hand.) Vy, vhere? Mace. (Keeping the porter back.) Vy, here. Bob. Oh, you are afeard of the blunt, are you? Mace. No, it ain’t that; only I’m no schollard—so I alvays takes the blunt vith von hand, and gives the pot vith t’other. It saves chalk and prewents mistakes, you know.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xxxix. ‘It’s all very well,’ said Mr. Sikes; ‘but I must have some blunt from you to-night.’ ‘I haven’t a piece of coin about me,’ replied the Jew.

1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 315. Blunt ... is also a well-known slang term for money.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 147, col. 2. ‘The New Almacks.’ ‘It appears, my dear Jerry,’ said the Corinthian, ‘that anybody can enter here who chooses to “sport his blunt”’—that is, to pay.

Blunted, ppl. adj. (old).—Possessed of money.

18(?). English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps,—permit me to introduce a brother of the togati, fresh as a new-blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements. Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether for spree or sport, in term and out of term,—against the Inquisition and their bull-dogs—the town-raff and the bargees—well-blunted or stiver-cramped—against dun or don—nob or big wig—so may you never want a bumper of bishop.

Blush like a Black or Blue Dog, verbal phr. (old).—Not to blush at all.

1579. Gosson, Apologie of School of Abuse, p. 75. If it bee my fortune too meete with the learned woorkes of this London Sabinus, that can not playe the part without a prompter, nor utter a wise worde without a piper, you shall see we will make him to blush like a blacke dogge, when he is graveled.

ed. 1634. Withal, Dictionary, p. 557. Faciem perfricuit. Hee blusheth like a blacke dogge, hee hath a brazen face.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. i.).

Lord Sp. (to the Maid). Mrs. Betty, how does your body politick?

Col. Fye, my lord, you’ll make Mrs. Betty blush.

Lady Sm. Blush! Ay, blush like a blue dog.

1828. C. K. Sharpe to a lady, in C. K. S.’s Correspondence (1888), II., 421. I send you a pair of blue stockings of my own knitting. I blush like a blue dog about the workmanship, for I fear they are too short.

B.N.C., abbreviation (University).—For Brasenose; initials of Brasen Nose College. In spite of the nose over the gate, the probability is that the real name was Brasinium. It is still famous for its beer.

1885. Daily News, March 13, p. 5, col. 1. As when Corpus bumped b.n.c. years ago, and went head of the river, whereon a spirit of wrath entered into the b.n.c. men, and next night they bumped Corpus back again.

Board, verb (military).—1. To borrow.

2. (nautical.)—To accost; ask of; make a demand; i.e., to come to close quarters. The allusion is to boarding a ship for a hand-to-hand conflict; originally in a forcible or hostile sense, but now used in a modified form for to ‘make up to,’ to ‘make advances to.’ The figure of speech is a very old one, as will be seen from the following examples.

1547. Earl Surrey, Æneid, IV., 395. At length her self bordeth Aeneas thus. [M.]

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, ii., 2. [Enter Hamlet, reading.] Queen. But look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. Pol. ... I’ll board him presently:—O, give me leave.

1672–1726. Vanbrugh, False Friend, I., i., 97. What do you expect from boarding a woman ... already heart and soul engaged to another.

1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Board him, a colloquialism for I’ll ask, demand, or accost him.

To board in the smoke, phr. (nautical).—To take one unawares, or by surprise. In the midst of a naval fight boarding operations were often successfully carried out under cover of the smoke from a broadside.

On the board, phr. (tailors’).—Enjoying all the privileges and emoluments of a competent workman. When an apprentice becomes a regular journeyman he goes ‘on the board.’ Tailors usually work squatting on a low raised platform—hence possibly the expression.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 146. During the term of his imprisonment he became an excellent working tailor, and was on the board, as it is termed, among those who are efficient hands.

To keep one’s name on the board, phr. (Cambridge Univ.).—To remain a member of a College.

Boarding House or School, subs. (old).—A nickname given by thieves in London to Newgate, but it is equally applicable to any gaol. New York thieves apply it to the Tombs. [From that sense of Boarding School = an establishment where persons are boarded and taught, convicts being likened to scholars.] French thieves call such an institution un collège. For synonyms, see Cage.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Boarding School. Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison or house of correction.

Boardman, subs. (vagrants’).—A standing patterer; explained by quotation. Sometimes called a ‘sandwich man.’

1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 251. I have no doubt that there are always at least twenty standing patterers—sometimes they are called boardmen—at work in London. Ibid, p. 248. They endeavour to attract attention to their papers, or, more commonly, pamphlets ... by means of a board with coloured pictures upon it, illustrative of the contents of what they sell.... (This) is what is usually denominated in street technology ‘board work.’

Board of Green Cloth, subs. (familiar).—A card or billiard table. [From board, a table, + green cloth, from the colour of the cloth with which the table is covered.]

1771. P. Parsons, New Newmarket, II., 24. That board of green cloth, the billiard table.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 23. ‘I am going down to F——’ ‘As usual, the board of green cloth, eh? you will go there once too often, if you don’t mind, old fellow.’ ‘That’s my look out,’ replied Cumberland.

1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. vi. Often have I seen him rise from the board of green cloth, and turning his chair thrice, from right to left, reseat himself at the play-table, confident that success would follow the mystical manœuvre.

1886. Miss Braddon, Mohawks, ch. viii. The soft seductive sound of the dice sliding gently on to the board of green cloth.

Boat, subs. (old).—Formerly applied to the hulks; latterly to any prison. [The derivation is obvious, old dismasted ships having long served as places of detention for convicts.] For synonyms, see Cage.

1856. H. Mayhew, Great World of London, p. 82, note. [List of thieves’ names of prisons.] The Hulks, or any Public Works—The Boat.

Verb (old).—1. Originally to transport; the term is now applied to penal servitude. To ‘get the boat,’ or to ‘be boated,’ is to be sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, equivalent to transportation under the old system. Cf., Boat, subs., and for synonyms, see Cop.

2. (American thieves’.)—To join as partner; evidently a corruption of ‘to be in the same boat,’ i.e., to be in the same position or circumstances.

To bail one’s own boat, phr. (American).—To be self-reliant. A variant is ‘to paddle one’s own canoe.’—See Canoe.

Bob, subs. (popular).—1. A shilling. [The derivation is obscure, but there are several suggested explanations. Murray points out that there was an old French coin called a bobe, but he thinks its survival in English slang is very unlikely. Others think it a corruption of ‘baubee’ or ‘bawbee,’ a debased Scotch coin, issued in the reign of James VI. of Scotland, equal in value to a halfpenny. A more likely origin than either of the foregoing is from bob, a grub used as bait for fish, the allusion being to money as a bribe.] The old cant had bobstick (q.v.) as a synonym, and a spurious plural is sometimes formed of bob, thus bobber—two bobber = a two-shilling piece. Cf., Blow for synonyms.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bob or bobstick, a shilling.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Tom. Now then, what’s to pay, landlord? Mace. All out, vill be fourteen bob and a kick, your honour. Tom. Well, there’s a flimsy for you; serve the change out in max to the covies. (Gives money.)

1837. Barham, I. L. (Misadventures at Margate). I changed a shilling—(which in town the people call a bob).

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 74, col. 1. Accommodation. Swell. ‘Haw—no small change about me.’ Minstrel. ‘Oh, don’t mention ’t sar. A bob will do sar, and if you’ll call at my club tomorrow, sar, the hall portar will give you sixpence back, sar. My kyard, sar, etc.!!’

2. (old.)—A shoplifter’s assistant; one who receives and carries off stolen goods. In French he is called un nonne or un noune.

3. (old.)—Gin.—See quotations in Bobstick, and Drinks for synonyms.

1749. ‘Honours of the Fleet,’ quoted in Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 286. H’ had strain’d his credit for a Dram of Bob.

4. (military.)—An infantry soldier; generally light-bob, i.e., a soldier of the light infantry. [This is probably an allusion to their being enlisted with the Queen’s shilling or bob.] For synonyms, see Mudcrusher.

1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports and Adventures in Scotland, xxxv., 282. Me, that never ... listened to a light-bob.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xxiv. Mr. Stubble, as may be supposed from his size and slenderness, was of the light-bobs.

5. (Winchester College).—A large white jug containing about a gallon in measure, and used for beer.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 85. Each end and Præfect’s mess had their beer served up in a large white jug, or ‘bob.’ The vessel used for the same purpose in Commoners’ was called a ‘Joram.’

1888. T. A. Trollope, What I Remember. Only those ‘Juniors’ attended whose office it was to bring away the portions of bread and cheese and bobs of beer for consumption in the afternoon.

Adj. (old).—Lively; nice; in good spirits.

1721. Cibber, Refusal, I., sp. 109. Yesterday at Marybone, they had me all Bob as a Robin. [M.]

1864. Miss Yonge, Trial, I., 113. ‘That’s a nice girl’.... ‘Bobber than bobtail.’ [M.]

Verb (old).—To cheat; to trick; to disappoint. Also to bob out of.

1605. Tryall Chev., I., in Bullen’s O. Plays, iii., 273. I had rather dye in a ditch than be bobd of my fayre Thomasin.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bob (v.), to jog, touch, or give notice by some such like sign; also a cant word for to trick or cheat.

Intj. (familiar).—Stop! That’s enough!

1889. Modern Society, June 6. ‘Say when,’ said Bonko, taking up a flagon of whiskey and commencing to pour out the spirit into my glass. ‘Bob!’ replied I.

Dry bob, phr. (old).—Fruitless coition.

Dry bob, Wet bob, subs. (Eton College).—The first-named is one who devotes himself to cricket or football and other land sports; the latter one who goes in for rowing and aquatics generally. The origin of the term is doubtful.—See Dry bob and Wet bob.

1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, p. 42. ‘It is settled, the match to-morrow shall be between Aquatics and Dry bobs,’ said a senior boy.

1874. Saturday Review, Aug., p. 212. The friendly rivalry between England and America led some while ago to a contest between the wet bobs, to use an Eton phrase, of either country, and it was only fair that the dry bobs should show what they could do.

All is bob, phr. (old).—All’s safe; ‘serene’; ‘gay.’ For synonyms, see O.K.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. [All’s bob is defined as foregoing.]

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 12. A moment afterwards, the street was illumined by a blaze of torchlight, and a tumultuous uproar announced the arrival of the first detachment of Minters. Mr. Wood rushed instantly to meet them. ‘Hurrah!’ shouted he, waving his hat triumphantly over his head. ‘Saved!’ ‘Ay, ay, it’s all bob, my covey! You’re safe enough, that’s certain!’ responded the Minters.

Bear a bob! phr. (common).—Be brisk! look sharp!

Bob a nod, phr. (common.)—A shilling a head. [From bob, slang for shilling, + nod, the head.]

To give the bob, phr. (old).—To give the door. An old term used by Massinger—‘It can be no other but to give me the bob.’

S’help me bob, phr. (low).—A street oath, equivalent to ‘So help me God’; a corrupted form of the legal oath. ‘So help’ is pronounced swelp. There are several variants, such as s’help the cat—my greens—the taturs, etc.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Dead Drummer).

For his jaw-work would never, I’m sure, s’elp me bob, Have come for to go for to do sich a job!

1880. Jas. Payn, Confid. Agent, ch. xix. ‘Not another word will I say, s’help me bob.’ And John rolled over in his bed like an indignant porpoise.

To shift one’s bob, phr. (common).—To go away. Cf., Bobbing around, ‘to go expeditiously from place to place.’

Bobber, subs. (common).—1. A fellow-workman; mate; or ‘chum’ (q.v. for synonyms).

1860. W. White, Round Wrekin, 34. Bobber being the equivalent of chum. [M.]

1871. Daily News, May 19. As he sells these, the buyers or their bobbers carry them off. [M.]

2. A spurious plural of bob (q.v.) = a shilling.

Bobbery, subs. (popular).—A noise; squabble; disturbance; or ‘racket.’ [An Anglo-Indian representation of Bāp re! O father! a common exclamation of surprise or grief.—Yule. Murray thinks the evidence for its origination in India is decisive, other plausible derivations to the contrary notwithstanding.] The first of the following quotations shows an earlier use by thirteen years than that given by the New English Dictionary.

1803. Kenney, Raising the Wind, II., i. If I don’t go back, and kick up such a bobbery—

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. ii. I’ll bet a wager there’ll be a bobbery in the pigsty before long, for they are ripe for mischief.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xix. ‘I can do nothing but there’s a bobbery at the bottom of it.’

1879. Punch, 17 May, 227. I might in quiet hold my own, And not go kicking up a bobbery. [M.]

Bobbish, adj. (common).—Frequently pretty bobbish, i.e., hearty; in good health and spirits; clever; spruce. Cf., Bob, adj. So also bobbishly, adv.

1819. Scott, in Lockhart, xliv. (1842), 394. I trust you will find me pretty bobbish. [M.]

1857. Dickens, The Detective Police, in Reprinted Pieces, p. 247. ‘Halloa, Butcher! is that you?’ ‘Yes, it’s me, How do you find yourself?’ ‘Bobbish,’ he says.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. iv., p. 13. Every Christmas Day, he retorted, as he now retorted, ‘It’s no more than your merits. And now are you all bobbish, and how’s sixpennorth of halfpence?’ meaning me.

1881. W. D. Howells, Dr. Breen’s Practice, ch. vii. ‘I didn’t know that I mustn’t look downcast. I didn’t suppose it would be very polite, under the circumstances, to go round looking as bobbish as I feel.’

Bobbles, subs. (common).—The testicles—a corrupted form of bawbells. For synonyms, see Cods.

Bobby, subs. (popular).—A policeman. This nickname, though possibly not derived from, was certainly popularised by the fact that the Metropolitan Police Act of 1828 was mainly the work of Mr., afterwards Sir Robert Peel. Long before that statesman remodelled the police, however, the term ‘bobby the beadle’ was in use to signify a guardian of a public square or other open space. There seems, however, a lack of evidence, and examples of its literary use prior to 1851 have not been discovered. For synonyms, see Beak, sense 1.

At the Universities the Proctors are or used to be called bobbies.

1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 16. It is often said in admiration of such a man that he could muzzle half a dozen bobbies before breakfast!

1880. Punch, No. 2038. Going round a corner and crying, Bobby! bobby! bobby! when he saw a Proctor.

1884. Punch, July 26, p. 41, col. 2.

But oh, for the grip of the ‘Bobby’s’ hand Upon his neck that day.

1889. The Mirror, Aug. 26, p. 7, col. 2. On the back seat was perched the perfidious Amelia Ann, the lust of conquest clearly written upon her sinful and perspiring face. She had put her cat in the birdcage, its former occupant being, I presume, inside the cat.... In this order the ghastly procession moved off, to the evident amusement of a ‘bobby,’ whose beat seems to include nothing beyond the area-railings of the opposite house.

Bobby-Twister, subs. (thieves’).—A burglar or thief, who, when resisting pursuit or capture, uses violence. Of obvious derivation.—See Thieves.

Bob-Cull, subs. (thieves’).—A good fellow; a pleasant companion. [From bob (adj.) = nice, lively + cull, old cant for a man.]

Bob My Pal, subs. (rhyming slang).—A girl, i.e., ‘gal.’

Bobstick, subs. (old).—A shilling’s worth. Cf., Bob, sense 1.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 162. Bobstick of rum slim. That is, a shilling’s worth of punch.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5. Tom. Allons donc—Waiter, bring some wine. Log. Hang cards! bring me a bobstick of rum slim, or a glass of Barsac—stay, on second thoughts, I’ll have a sniker of green tea punch.

Bob Tail, subs. (old).—1. A lewd woman. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

2. An impotent man or eunuch.

Tag, rag, and bobtail; a mob of all sorts of low people; the common herd; the rabble.

1659–60. Pepys, Diary, Mar. 6. The dining-room ... was full of tag, rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking. [M.]

1785. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Ode to R. A.’s, ii., wks. (1812) I., 80. Tag-rags and Bobtails of the sacred Brush. [M.]

1820. Byron, Blues, ii., 23. The rag, tag, and bobtail of those they call ‘Blues.’ [M.]

1841. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, xxxv. ‘We don’t take in no tagrag and bobtail at our house.’ [M.]

Boco, subs. (originally pugilistic, now common).—1. The nose. [Probably from beak, sense 3.] The form employed by American thieves is boke. For synonyms, see Conk.

1880. Besant and Rice, Seamy Side, ch. i. ‘A common keeper, who was in the lot, got a heavy oner on the boko for his share.’ ‘Boys,’ said Mr. Hamblin, ‘who use slang come to the gallows. Boko is—’ ‘Conk or boko,’ said Nicolas the vulgar. ‘It’s all the same.’

1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, July 6. Dear Old Blistered Boko,—I trust you will allow me to thank you and your Graphologist for my character I received this morning. My friends say it is correct. I am saving up my pocket-money for a bottle of nose bloomer. I can see your boko blushing at the prospect.

1889. Sporting Times, July 6. The Gnat, with the Cunning peculiar to the Wicked flew up the Lion’s boko and Stung him so Badly, that the Great Beast rent himself to Death with his Own Claws.

2. Nonsense; ‘bosh.’ [Of unknown derivation, and it seems to have no connection with sense 1.]

1886. Punch, 25 Sept., p. 145. Lop-sided Free Trade is all boko.

Bodier, subs. (pugilistic).—A blow on the side of the body.—See Rib-roaster.

Bodkin, subs. (sporting).—Amongst sporting men, a person who takes his turn between the sheets on alternate nights, when an hotel has twice as many visitors as it can comfortably lodge; as, for instance, during a race-week. A transferred sense from

To ride or sit bodkin, phr. (common).—To take a place and be wedged in between other persons when the accommodation is intended for two only.

1638. Ford, Fancies, IV., i. (1811), 186. Where but two lie in a bed, you must be—bodkin, bitch-baby—must ye? [M.]

1798. Loves of the Triangles, 182. While the pressed bodkin, punched and squeezed to death, Sweats in the mid-most place.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxxiv. The writer supposes Aubrey to come to town in post-chaise and pair, sitting bodkin probably between his wife and sister.

Body-Cover, subs. (American thieves’).—A coat. One is almost tempted to ask whether this is the only garment known to the criminal classes. Cf., Wrap-rascal.

Body of Divinity Bound in Black Calf, phr. (old).—A parson. So quoted in the Lexicon Balatronicum [1811]. For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.

Body-Slangs, subs. (thieves’).—Fetters. [From slang (q.v.), a chain.]—See quot. and for synonyms, Darbies.

1819. Vaux, Memoirs. Body-slangs are of two kinds. Each consists of a heavy iron ring to go round the waist, to which are attached in one case two bars or heavy chains, connected with the fetters round the ankles, in the other case a link at each side attached to a handcuff. Into these the wrists are locked, and thus held down to the prisoner’s sides. The latter are now only to be found in museums.

Body-Snatcher, subs. (old).—1. A bailiff or runner. [The snatch was the trick by which the bailiff captured the delinquent.] These terms are now obsolete, so far as the pursuits mentioned are concerned. They are mentioned by Parker [1781] in his View of Society, II., 70.

2. A policeman. For synonyms, see Beak, sense 1.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. i., p. 254. ‘Now, if you or I was to do such a dodge as that, we should have the body-snatchers (police officers) after us.’

3. (American.)—A generally objectionable individual. This variety is especially known as a mean body-snatcher (q.v.).

4. (popular.)—A violator of graves; a ‘resurrectionist.’

1833. Sir F. Head, Bubbles from the Brunnen, 126. Any one of our body-snatchers would have rubbed his rough hands. [M.]

1863. Reader, Aug. 22. At that time (1827–28) ... body-snatching became a trade.

5. (common.)—An undertaker. For synonyms, see Cold cook.

Bog, subs. (prison).—1. The works at Dartmoor, on which convicts labour; during recent years a large quantity of land has been reclaimed in this way.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 158. These were the men destined for outdoor work, the bogs, as the places where the different outside gangs worked were called [at Dartmoor].

2. (low.)—An abbreviated form of bog-house (q.v.), or bog-shop.

Verb.—To ease oneself; to evacuate.—See Bury a Quaker.

Bogey.—See Bogy.

Boggle-De-Botch, Boggledy-Botch, subs. (colloquial).—A bungle; ‘mess’; ‘hash.’ [From boggle, ‘to fumble,’ ‘to bungle,’ + botch, ‘to bungle’ or ‘to construct clumsily.’] Boggle by itself is more frequently employed.

1834. Miss Edgeworth, Helen, ch. xxvi. A fine boggle-de-botch I have made of it.... I am aware it is not a canonical word,—classical, I mean; nor in nor out of any dictionary perhaps—but when people are warm, they cannot stand picking terms.

Bog-House, Bog-Shop, subs. (low).—A privy; a necessary house. The term, as will be seen, is an old one. [The derivation is probably from bog, a morass of decaying matter; a soft, spongy place.] For synonyms, see Bury a Quaker and Mrs. Jones.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. xii., p. 123 (1874). Fearing I should catch cold, they out of pity covered me warm in a bogg-house.

1703. Ward, London Spy, pt. III., p. 47. Its walls being adorn’d with as many unsavoury Finger-dabs as an Inns of Court Bog-house.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bog-house, a privy, or necessary-house.

Boglander, subs. (old).—An Irishman. [From the boggy and marshy character of a considerable portion of the Emerald Isle.] Cf., Bog-trotter.

1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. XVI., p. 383. [Boglander is the name applied to an Irishman in this work.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bog Lander, an Irishman. Ireland being famous for its large bogs which furnish the chief fuel in many parts of that kingdom.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. [The same definition given as in Grose.]

Bog Latin, subs. (Irish).—A spurious mode of speech simulating the Latin in construction.—See Dog Latin.

Bog-Oranges, subs. (popular).—Potatoes. The phrase is an allusion to the vegetable in question forming a very substantial food staple of the Irish peasantry, with whom, in the popular mind, potatoes are largely associated. Hence probably the nickname. Cf., Murphy. [Oranges, from the shape, + bog = Irish, Bogland being a humorous nick-name for the Emerald Isle.]

Bog-trotter, subs. (familiar).—A satirical name for an Irishman. Camden, however [c. 1605], speaking of the ‘debateable land’ on the borders of England and Scotland, says, ‘both these dales breed notable bog-trotters.’ From this the original sense would appear to have been one accustomed to walk across bogs. As a nickname for an Irishman, it dates at least from 1671.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. xxvii. (Repr. 1874), p. 232. [Irishmen are spoken of as bog-trotters in this work.]

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxix. Gaunt reapers and bog-trotters in those traditional blue body-coats, leathern smalls, and bell-crowned hats, that seem to be manufactured nowhere save in Ireland.

Bog-trotting, adj. (familiar).—A contemptuous epithet applied to one living among bogs; e.g., a bog-trotting Irishman.

1758–65. Goldsmith, On Quack Doctors (Essays and Poems, 1836), p. 127. Rock advises the world to beware of bog-trotting quacks.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 169. The impudent, bog-trotting scamp dare not threaten me!

1876. C. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 191. ‘What do you mean by calling me Irish? it is you that are Irish, you——.’ ‘Ha! ha! ha! ha!’ jerked out Fagan. ‘There, I tould you so. He can’t stand to be called by his true name; the bog-trotting rascal denies his Ould Ireland for a mother.’

Bogus, adj. (American, now common).—Spurious: fictitious; a term applied to anything sham, or to that which is not what it professes to be. Various accounts, some of them of a circumstantial character, are given as to the genesis of this word. One thing only seems certain; and that is its American origin. The generally received derivation, hitherto, has been that given by the Boston Courier (12 June, 1857) to the effect that the word is a vile corruption of the Italian name Borghese, a notorious swindler, who about the year 1837 literally flooded the Western and South-western States with fictitious cheques, notes, and bills of exchange and similar securities to an enormous amount. It is said that the name was gradually corrupted first to borges and then to bogus, and the man Borghese being associated in the popular mind with doubtful money transactions, his name so corrupted into bogus became applied to fraudulent papers and practices, and latterly to any spurious or counterfeit object, as bogus money, hair, diamonds, accusations, etc. Yet another suggestion is one put forward by Mr. Jas. Russell Lowell. He thinks it has descended in a corrupted form from the French Bagasse, the refuse of the sugar cane after the juice has been expressed. This worthless product has, it is suggested, given the name to other worthless things having travelled from Louisiana up the Mississippi, and thence throughout the Union, finally spreading itself over the English speaking world. A few, however, affect to regard it as a corruption of [hocus] pocus, and say that it refers to the German ‘Hocus Pocus Imperatus, wer nicht sieht ist blind.’

The latest light upon the history of the word is thrown, as usual, by the indefatigable Dr. Murray, who, while slily satirising the ‘bogus derivations circumstantially given,’ makes another attempt to solve the riddle. He says: ‘Dr. S. Willard, of Chicago, in a letter to the editor of this Dictionary, quotes from the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph of July 6 and Nov. 2, 1827, the word bogus as a subs., applied to an apparatus for coining false money. Mr. Eber D. Howe, who was then editor of that paper, describes in his Autobiography (1878) the discovery of such a piece of mechanism in the hands of a gang of coiners at Painesville, in May, 1827; it was a mysterious looking object, and some one in the crowd styled it a bogus, a designation adopted in the succeeding numbers of the paper. Dr. Willard considers this to have been short for tantrabogus, a word familiar to him from his childhood, and which in his father’s time was commonly applied in Vermont to any ill-looking object; he points out that tantarabobs is given in Halliwell as a Devonshire word for the devil.’ [Bogus seems thus to be related to bogy, etc.]

1825. Hughes, in J. Ludlow’s Hist. U.S., 338. This precious house of representatives—the bogus legislature as it was at once called.

1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’) Innocents at Home, ch. xvii. Nobody had ever received his bogus history as gospel before; its genuineness had always been called in question either by words or looks; but here was a man that not only swallowed it all down, but was grateful for the dose.

1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxxv. ‘They’ve got some good money, as well as bogus notes.’

1883. Saturday Review, March 31, p. 399, col. 2. M. Soleirol had probably a number of forged autographs of Molière; his whole collection was a bogus assortment of frauds.

Bogy, Bogey, subs. (common).—A landlord. An attributive usage of the more familiar meanings—(1) the devil; (2) a person much dreaded. The transition from sense 2 to that which signifies a landlord is easy. A French equivalent is Monsieur Vautour; vautour = a vulture; and the term is applied to a hard-hearted landlord. In passing, it may perhaps be mentioned (having in view the uncertainty which Murray confesses hangs round the history of this word in its primary meanings) that ask Bogy, as a reply to a question, occurs in Grose [1785]. It is true it is there associated with a vulgarism which, however, on the face of it, appears to have had little to do with the expression, except perhaps in the not over clean mind of the burly bon-vivant who compiled the dictionary in question. It seems to have been used much as the modern ‘God knows’! or ‘Bramah knows’ under similar circumstances. This, at any rate, would carry it back, in very much its present form, much earlier than 1825, Murray’s earliest trace of it. Grose says it was ‘sea wit,’ whatever that may mean.

Adj. (studios’).—Sombre, or dark in tint. Said of a painting exhibiting these characteristics.

Bohn, subs. (American College).—A translation; a pony (q.v.). The volumes of Bohn’s Classical Library are in such general use among undergraduates in American Colleges, that Bohn has come to be a common name for a translation.

1855. Songs, Biennial Jubilee, Yale College. ’Twas plenty of skin with a good deal of bohn.

Boil, verb (old).—To betray; ‘to Peach,’ which see for synonyms.

1602. Rowlands, Greene’s Coney Catchers, 16. His cloyer or follower fortwith boyles him, that is, bewrayes him. [M.]

1611. Middleton and Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks., 1873, III., 220. Wee are smoakt ... wee are boyl’d, pox on her! [M.]

Boil Down, verb (popular).—To reduce in bulk by condensing or epitomizing. When a literary work is reduced to smaller compass by the presentation only of the main or salient features, it is said to be boiled down. [The expression is a figurative use (quite recent by-the-bye) of boiling down in the sense of lessening the bulk by boiling.]

1880. Sat. Review, No. 1288, 28. It is surprising to see how much research Mr. S. has sometimes contrived to boil down into a single line. [M.]

1885. G. Dolly, Dickens as I Knew Him, p. 125. The newspaper and political elements having been consulted, and their opinions having been boiled down.

1887. H. Frederic, in Scribn. Mag., I., 479. ‘To boil down’ columns of narrative into a few lines of bald, cold statement.

1888. Polytechnic Mag., 25 Oct., p. 258.

Whatever you have to say, my friend, Whether witty, or grave, or gay— Condense as much as ever you can, And say in the readiest way; And whether you write on rural affairs, Or particular things in town, Just a word of friendly advice—boil it down.

Boiled Shirt, Biled Shirt or Boiled Rag, subs. (American).—In the West, biled shirt is the odd name given to a shirt of white linen, and it is not difficult to see the line of reasoning from which the term derives its significance. In the active stirring life of the West little count is taken of the convenances of civilization, and only on Sundays and festive occasions would the woollen undergarment be discarded for the white linen article. Indeed, in many cases, the former would be worn until it literally dropped to pieces. Now white shirts are facetiously known as biled shirts all over the States, and only recently (May, 1888) a question in dispute between the employés of the Chicago Tramway Companies and the managers of the same was whether the former should wear, when on duty, coloured or biled shirts. Cf., Bald-faced shirt.

1854. McClure, Rocky Mountains, p. 412. In order to attend the Governor’s reception, I borrowed a boiled shirt, and plunged in with a Byron collar, and polished boots, and also the other necessary apparel.

1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, ch. xii. But they were rough in those times! ... if a man wanted a fight on his hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was to appear in public in a white shirt or a stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated. For those people hated aristocrats. They had a particular and malignant animosity toward what they called a biled shirt.

1872. Dublin Univ. Mag., Feb., p. 219. Every man arrays himself in ‘store-clothes’ and boiled shirts.

1888. New York World, 13 May. Is it possible that the Chicagoans never heard of white shirts before this spring? May be the street-railway presidents never saw a starched shirt (I must deplore the use of the word biled as applied to shirts) until this year.

Boiler, subs. (Winchester College).—1. A plain coffee-pot used for heating water. Called fourpenny and sixpenny boilers, not from their price, but from the quantity of milk they will hold: τὸ παν boilers were large tin saucepan-like vessels in which water for hot bidets (q.v.) was heated.

2. See Pot boiler.

Boiler-Plated, adj. (American).—Imperturbable; stolid; stoical. [The simile is akin to that contained in expressions like iron-clad, copper-bottomed, etc., drawn mainly from marine phraseology.]

Boilers or Brompton Boilers, subs. (popular).—1. A name originally given to the new Kensington Museum and School of Art, in allusion to the peculiar form of the buildings, and the fact of their being mainly composed of, and covered with, sheet iron. This has been changed since the extensive alterations in the building, or rather pile of buildings, and the term boilers is now applied to the Bethnal Green Museum.—See Pepper-boxes.

1885. Daily News, July 9, p. 5, col. 1. The building is merely a fragment of the old ‘Brompton boilers,’ set up originally for the South Kensington Museum.

2. (Royal Military Academy.)—Boiled potatoes. Fried potatoes are called greasers.

Boiling or Biling. Whole boiling or biling, subs. phr. (common).—The whole lot; entire quantity. [A figurative usage, from a quantity boiled at one time.] Variants are the whole gridiron (q.v.) and all the shoot.

1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xviii. The last mile, he said, tho’ the shortest one of the whole bilin’, took the longest [time] to do it by a jug full.

1837. Marryat, Dog Fiend, xiii. [He] may ... whip the whole boiling of us off to the Ingees.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lix., p. 496. ‘And the whole bileing of people was mixed up in the same business, and no other.’

1874. E. L. Linton, Patricia Kemball, ch. xxii. ‘He have Dora? No, not if he licked my foot for her, and I broke the whole boiling of them—as I will!’

Boil One’s Lobster, verbal phr. (old).—To enter the army after having been in the church. [From lobster, a slang term for a soldier, the allusion being to the change in colour which lobsters undergo in the process of boiling, turning from a bluish black to red.] Cf., Black coat and Red coat.

Boke, subs. (American thieves’).—The nose. [This may either be derived directly from beak, sense 3, or indirectly from boko (q.v.).] For synonyms, see Conk.

Bold as Brass, adv. phr. (popular).—Audaciously forward; presumptuous; without shame. The simile, or at least the general idea, seems to be an old one. Shakspeare (see quot.) uses the expression ‘a face of brass,’ and even to this day brass, sense 1 (q.v.), is synonymous with impudence or ‘cheek.’

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour Lost, v., 2.

Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out?——

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., p. 12. He came in as bold as brass.

1854. Thackeray, Lovel the Widower, p. 195. ‘A nursery governess at the wages of a housemaid’ I continued, bold as Corinthian brass.

c. 1882. Broadside Ballad, ‘Timothy Titus.’

The name belongs to brave men, and I’m as bold as brass, I do not wear the lion’s skin and show myself an ass; I’m full of pluck and can defy, like Ajax, anything, And if you put me to the test, a proof I soon can bring.

Boler, also Bowler, subs. (popular).—A stiff felt hat. For synonyms, see Cady.

1861. Sat. Review, Sept. 21, 297. We are informed that he ... wore, or rather carried in his hand, a white bowler hat.

1882. Pebody, Eng. Journalism, xxi., 158. The ministers, in bowlers and pea-jackets, are to be found upon the shore of highland locks.

1889. Answers, June 8, p. 24. Most of the men were clothed in loud and greasy suits of tweed, and wore what are known as bowler hats, many of them much the worse for wear. The ladies affected fine and smart costumes, but as the greater part of their dresses had seen long months of service, the smartness was somewhat of the bedraggled order.

Bolly, subs. (Marlborough College).—Pudding.

Bolt, subs. (old).—The throat. [This curious term would seem to be derived from bolt = to gulp down.]

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Tom. Here, Dusty, my prince, now then, sluice your bolt. (Gives Bob gin.) Bob. Vell, your honours, here’s luck. (Bolts gin.) That’s a regular kwortern, I knows by my mouth.

Verb (at one period slang, now recognised).—1. To escape; to leave suddenly. Bolt is an instance of a word which once orthodox, subsequently fell into disrepute, but which, after having for generations served as a mere slang term, is now nearly as respectable as when Dryden wrote: ‘I have reflected on those who, from time to time, have shot into the world, some bolting out on the stage with vast applause, and others hissed off.’ The following are a few examples of its use. For synonyms, see Amputate.

1668. Etherege, She Would if She Could, I., i. (1704), p. 94. Is he gone? Court. Ay, ay! you may venture to bolt now.

1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. vi. Then, of a sudden, bolting into the room, he began to tell....

1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. XI., ch. vii. In his way home, Booth was met by a lady in a chair, who immediately upon seeing him ... bolted out of it.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc, 7. Log. Come along, then. Now, Jerry, chivey! Jerry. Chivey? Log. Mizzle? Jerry. Mizzle? Log. Tip your rags a gallop! Jerry. Tip my rags a gallop? Log. Walk your trotters! Jerry. Walk my trotters? Log. Bolt! Jerry. Bolt? oh, aye! I’m fly now. You mean go.

1837. Barham, I. L. (M. of Venice). Jessy ransack’d the house, popp’d her breeks on, and when so Disguis’d, bolted off with her beau—one Lorenzo.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. ix., p. 90. He was more strongly tempted ... to make excursive bolts into the neighbouring alleys when he answered the door.

2. (American).—The usage in the United States indicates the right of the independently minded to revolt against partisan rule, as ‘He bolted the party nominations.’ Also substantively, as ‘He has organized a bolt.’ The word derived this meaning from its sporting application to a horse when it becomes unmanageable on the race-course. Cf., Bolter. It is rarely used with its dictionary meaning in political connections; and, when so used, is generally misunderstood by the average reader.

1871. St. Louis Democrat, 3 April. ‘Several of our contemporaries have announced it as a well-established fact, that Carl Schurz has bolted from the Republican party. We have the very best authority for denying the report.’

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 3 Feb. What the Register does object to are the fellows who bolt the ticket and support the opposition candidate when they can not control nominations.

3. (colloquial.)—To eat hurriedly without chewing; to swallow whole; to gulp down. Wolcot in a note to the first quotation hereunder appended, explains bolt as a Hampshire word. ‘A rapid deglutition of bacon, without the sober ceremony of mastication.’

1794. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Ode to Tyrants, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 527.

Bold push’d the Emp’ror on, with stride so noble, Bolting his subjects with majestic gobble.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvi., p. 171. Dyspeptic individuals bolted their food in wedges.

1857. Dickens, Dorrit, bk. I., ch. xiii., 101. ‘Give me as short a time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it.’

1883. Daily Telegraph, Jan. 10, p. 5, col. 3. The dangerous habit of bolting a light luncheon in two or three minutes.

Getting the bolt, phr. (thieves’).—Being sentenced to penal servitude. Cf., Boat.

To turn the corner of Bolt Street, phr. (popular).—A humorous expression for running away. Cf., Bolt, sense 1, also Queer Street, and for synonyms, see Amputate.

Bolter, subs. (old).—1. Explained by quotation. The privileged places referred to were such as Whitefriars, the Mint, Higher and Lower Alsatia, etc.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bolter (s.), a cant name for one who hides himself in his own house, or some privileged place, and dares only peep, but not go out of his retreat.

2. One who ‘bolts’; especially applied to horses, but figuratively to persons in the sense of one given to throwing off restraint; in American parlance one who ‘kicks’ (q.v.).

1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk. Bk. (1872), 244. The engine may explode ... or be a bolter. [M.]

1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. xiii. ‘Three of the horses had never been in harness before, and the fourth was a bolter.’

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lviii., p. 483. This sparkling sally is to the effect that, although he always knew she was the best-groomed woman in the stud, he had no idea she was a bolter. It is immensely received in turf-circles.

1881. C. J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, p. 17. It is better to ride a steady old plodder than to trust your neck to a bolter.

3. (American.)—One who exercises the right of abstention in regard to his political party. See Bolt, verb, sense 2.

1883. Atlantic Monthly, LII., 327. To whom a ‘scratcher’ or a bolter is more hateful than the Beast. [M.]

1884. American, VIII., 100. To denounce the twenty-seven as bolters from their party.

Bolt-in-Tun, phr. (London thieves’).—Bolted; run away.

1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. A term founded on the cant word ‘bolt,’ and merely a fanciful variation very common among flash persons, there being in London a famous inn so called. It is customary when a man has run away from his lodgings, broken out of jail, or made any other sudden movement, to say ‘the Bolt-in-tun is concerned,’ or ‘he’s gone to the Bolt-in-tun’ instead of simply saying, ‘he has bolted,’ etc.

Boltsprit, Boltspreet, Bowsprit, subs. (common).—An old and humorous term for the nose. [The analogy is between the spar or boom extending beyond the stem of a vessel and the nose as a prominent and projecting feature of the face.] For synonyms, see Conk.

1690. Shadwell, Amorous Bigot, Act v. As thou lovest thy ears, or nose, that bolt-sprit of thy face. [M.]

1691. Shadwell, Scowerers, Act v. They do not consider the tenderness of my bolt-sprit. [M.]

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Boltsprit (s.), a cant name for the nose.

Bolt the Moon, verbal phr.—To remove one’s goods and chattels under cover of night with a view of evading the payment of rent. A variant of shoot the moon (q.v.); the act itself is called a moonlight flitting (q.v.).

Bolus, subs. (common).—An apothecary; a doctor. [From bolus, a large pill frequently prescribed by physicians.]

1878. Hatton, Cruel London, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘The doctor, up from the Indian bar, came and said I was wanted in London’ ... ‘good for old Bolus,’ said Kernan; ‘and I believe him.’

Boman, subs. (old).—A gallant fellow. This is mentioned by Nares, who, however, could find no example illustrating its use.

Bombay Ducks, subs. (old).—1. The Bombay regiments of the East India Company’s army were so called.

2. A well known delicacy, the exact nature of which is explained by G. A. Sala in the second quotation.

1865. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 14 August, 5, 4. His cuisine was, with the occasional interpolation of a not entirely objectionable curry, accompanied by Bombay ducks, exclusively old-fashioned English.

1886. G. A. Sala, in Ill. Lon. News, 7 August, 138, 2. The Bombay duck is the Anglo-Indian relation of the Digby chick. Alive, it is a fish called the bummelo; dead and dried, it becomes a duck.

Bombo, Bumbo, subs. (common).—A nickname given to various mixtures, but chiefly to cold punch. Smollett, in a note in Roderick Random, speaks of it as ‘a liquor composed of rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.’

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, ch. xxxiv. A table well stored with bumbo and wine.

1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bombo, weak cold punch.

a. 1886. Northumb. Song, in N. and Q., 6 March, 195. The pitmen and the keelman ... drink bumbo made of gin.

Bona, subs. (popular).—A girl; young woman; a belle.

c. 18(?). Broadside Ballad, ‘Oh, Fred, don’t be so frivolous.’

Girls are in vulgar called donas, Some are called Miss and some Mrs., The best of them all are called bonas, The whole jolly lot’s fond of kisses. I kiss pretty lips, and I squeeze finger tips, No matter what I have to pay,

If I meet a dear maid who is somewhat afraid, She’ll blush like a virgin and say, ‘Oh my.’

Chorus.

Adj. (theatrical).—Good. [From the Latin.]—See Rumbo.

Bonanza, subs. (American).—A happy hit; a stroke of fortune; success. [From the Spanish, a fair wind, fine weather, prosperous voyage.] Bonanza was originally the name of a mine in Nevada, which once, quite unexpectedly, turned out to be a big thing, and of enormous value; now applied to any lucky hit or successful enterprise.

1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 272. But a bonanza with millions in it is not struck every week.

1888. San Francisco News Letter, 4 Feb. The mines along the veins running north and south, of which North Belle Isle is the center, are all stayers, and in the east and west ledge Grand Prize has entered a body of ore which may develop into a bonanza as big as the one which paid millions in dividends in years gone by.

Bona-Roba, subs. (old).—A courtesan; a showy prostitute. [From Italian buona, good, + roba = a robe or dress.] The term was much in use among the older dramatists. Ben Jonson speaks of a bouncing bona-roba; and Cowley seems to have considered it as implying a fine, tall figure. Bona in modern times is frequently employed to signify a girl or young woman, without reference to morals.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., iii., 2. We knew where the bona-robas were; and had the best of them all at commandment.

b. 1618, d. 1667. Cowley, Essay on Greatness (quoted by Nares). I would neither wish that my mistress nor my fortune should be a bona-roba;—but as Lucretius says, Parvula, pumilio, tota merum sal.

1822. Scott, Nigel, xvi. Your lordship is for a frolic into Alsatia? ... there are bona-robas to be found there. [M.]

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 69. The other bona-roba, known amongst her companions as Mistress Poll Maggot, was a beauty on a much larger scale—in fact, a perfect Amazon.

Bonce, subs. (popular).—1. The head; [probably a derivative of sense 2, from the analogy between them.] For synonyms, see Crumpet.

2. A large marble [origin unknown, but see Alley].

Bone, subs. (American).—When a traveller, in passing his luggage through the Custom House, tips the officer in the expectation that the latter’s examination of his impedimenta will be more or less superficial, the fee thus given is termed a bone. The practice, is, of course, contrary to all regulations; but, human nature being human nature all the world over, it is believed that similar expedients for evading the law are not altogether unknown in England.

Adj. (thieves’).—Good; excellent; ◇ is the vagabonds’ hieroglyphic for bone, or good, chalked by them on houses and street corners as a hint to succeeding beggars. [Probably from French bon, good. Cf., Boon.]

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. He [beggar] mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. I give one or two instances. ◇ ‘Bone,’ meaning good.

1883. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. L. News, Nov. 10, p. 451, col. 3. It is well known that the lozenge-shaped diagram chalked by beggars and tramps on doors and walls in ‘promising’ neighbourhoods stands for ‘bone,’ a corruption of the French ‘bon,’ as a hint to succeeding vagabonds that they will find the happiest of hunting-grounds in the locality.

Verb (popular).—1. To filch; to steal; to make off with; to take into custody. [There are two suggested derivations:—(1) that the figure of speech is drawn from the manner in which a dog makes off with a bone; (2) that bone is a corruption of ‘bonnet’ (a gambling cheat who ‘sharks’ one’s money slyly).] For synonyms in sense of to steal, see Prig; in sense of to apprehend, see Nab.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bone (v.), a cant word to seize or arrest; also to cheat or strip a person of his money or goods.

1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs, II., 157. Tell us how you was boned, signifies tell us the story of your apprehension, a common request among fellow-prisoners in a jail, which is readily complied with as a rule; and the various circumstances therein related afford present amusement, and also useful hints for regulating their future operations, so as to avoid the like misfortune.

1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, ch. lvii., p. 467. ‘And why you were living so quiet here, and what you had boned, and who you had boned it from, wasn’t it?’

1861. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. II., ch. ii. ‘I’m blest if he hasn’t been and boned my mug. I hope it’ll do him more good than it’s done me.’

1871. Chambers’ Journal, Dec. 9, A Double Event, p. 774. It would be a breach of confidence to tell you how it was arranged, but, after some haggling, it was arranged that, on the understanding that I gave up the securities, I was to bone the reward which the detectives had missed.

2. (American.)—To bribe; to ‘grease the palm.’—See Bone, subs.

3.(American cadets’.)—To study hard. [From bohn (q.v.).]

To have a bone in the leg—arm—throat, etc., phr. (common).—A humorous reason for declining to use the member spoken of; a feigned obstacle.

1542. Nicholas Udall, Erasmus’s Apophthegmes (1877, Reprint of ed. 1562). p. 375. He refused to speake, allegeing that he had a bone in his throte, and he could not speake.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. iii.). Nev. Miss, come, be kind for once, and order me a dish of coffee. Miss. Pray go yourself; let us wear out the oldest first; besides, I can’t go, for I have a bone in my leg.

Bone-Ache, subs. (old).—The lues venerea. [The allusion is obvious.]

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse. But cucullus non facit monachum—’tis not their newe bonnets will keepe them from the old boan-ack.

1606. Shakspeare, Tro. and C., ii., 3. After this the vengeance on the whole camp! or rather the bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse dependent on those that war for a placket.

Bone-Box, subs. (common).—The mouth. [The teeth are here represented as the ‘bones.’ The latter are now more commonly called ‘ivories.’] For synonyms, see Potato-trap, and compare with Bone-house.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Shut your bone-box; shut your mouth.

Bone-Crusher, subs. (sporting).—A heavy bore rifle used for killing big game. [Literally that which crushes or breaks bones by force. Cf., Bone-shaker.]

1872. H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone (2 ed.), p. 63. African game require bone-crushers; for any ordinary carbine possesses sufficient penetrative qualities, yet has not the disabling qualities which a gun must possess to be useful in the hands of an African explorer. Ibid, p. 342. What is wanted for this country is a heavy bore—No. 10 or 12 is the real bone-crusher, that will drop every animal shot.

Boned.—See Bone, verb, sense 1.

Bone-Grubber, subs. (common).—One who lives by collecting bones from heaps of refuse, selling his spoils at the marine stores or to bone grinders. [From bone + grub, to seek by burrowing, + er.] Also called bone-picker (q.v.), and tot-pickers (q.v.). See first quotation and cf. bone-picker form. The French term is un biffin, which also signifies a foot-soldier, his knapsack being compared to a rag or bone-picker’s basket; also un chifferton or un chiffortin; un cupidon (an ironical allusion to his hook and basket); un graffin. For other synonyms, see Tot-picker.

c. 1750. ‘The Hunter’s Wedding,’ quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet, 1888, p. 366.

Sam the grubber, he having had warning, His wallet and broom down did lay.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 155. The bone-grubber generally seeks out the narrow back streets, where dust and refuse are cast, or where any dust-bins are accessible. The articles for which he chiefly searches are rags and bones,—rags he prefers,—but waste metal, such as bits of lead, pewter, copper, brass, or old iron, he prizes above all.

1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 40. A black-chinned and lanthorn-jawed bone-grubber.

2. A resurrectionist; a violator of graves. Cobbett was therefore called ‘a bone-grubber,’ because he brought the remains of Tom Paine from America. Cf., Bone-house. Latterly, from the quotation which follows, the term seems to have been extended to all having to do with funerals.

1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, essay vii., p. 181 (1864). The crowd in Cheapside declared that I was a mute. They called me bone-grubber.

Bone-House, subs. (familiar).—1. The human body—an obvious allusion.

1870. Emerson, Soc. and Sol., vi., 119. This wonderful bone-house which is called man. [M.]

2. A coffin. The term is also used to signify a charnel-house, and Americans generally call a cemetery a ‘bone-yard.’

1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, II., p. 207. Nothing soon—lie in bed—starve—die—Inquest—little bone-house—poor prisoner.

1846. Walbran, Guide Ripon. The celebrated bone-house no longer exists.

1848. Forster, Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, II., p. 165 (bk. IV., ch. viii.). The body [of a man who had poisoned himself] was taken to the bone-house of St. Andrew’s, but no one came to claim it.

Bone Muscle, verbal phr. (American college).—To practice gymnastics. Cf., Bone, verb, sense 3.

Bone-Picker, subs. (common).—1. A footman. [Evidently a contemptuous allusion to sense 2, a footman’s duties being to pick up and set in order after his employer.] The French term is un larbin.

2. (common.)—A collector of bones, rags, and other refuse from the streets and places where rubbish is placed, for the purpose of sale to marine dealers and bone crushers. The same as bone-grubber, sense 1 (q.v.).

1866. Ruskin, Crown of Wild Olives, p. 25. The deceased was a bone-picker. he was in the lowest stage of poverty, etc.

Boner, subs. (Winchester College).—A sharp blow on the spine.

Bones, subs. (common).—1. Dice, which are also called St. Hugh’s bones (q.v.). [So called because made of bone or ivory.] ‘To rattle the bones,’ i.e., ‘to play at dice.’ The term is a very old one, as also seem to be games played with the little cubes in question.

c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 328. This fruyt cometh of the bicched bones two, fforsweryng, Ire, falsnesse, Homycide.

a. 1529. Skelton, wks. (ed. Dyce) I., 52. On the borde he whyrled a payre of bones.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 123. Who being left by his parents rich in money and possessions, hath to the musicke of square ratling bones danced so long, that hee hath danced himselfe into the company of beggers.

1698. Dryden, Persius, III., 96.

But then my study was to cog the dice, And dexterously to throw the lucky sice: To shun ames-ace, that swept my stakes away; And watch the box, for fear they should convey False bones, and put upon me in the play.

1772. Foote, Nabob, Act ii. When your chance is low, as tray, ace, or two deuces, the best method is to dribble out the bones from the box.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xviii. ‘I saw you sit down to écarté last week at Trumpington’s, and taking your turn with the bones after Ringwood’s supper.’

1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. xxviii. ‘What with speculations failing, and consols dropping all at once, not to mention a continual run of ill-luck with the bones, I saw no way out of it but to bolt.’

2. (common.)—Pieces of bones held between the fingers and played Spanish castanet fashion. Generally used as an accompaniment to banjo and other ‘negro’ minstrel music.

1592. Shakspeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, iv., 1, line 27. Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 195. Peter rolling about in his chair like a serenader playing the bones, and the young Othello laughing as if he was being tickled. Ibid, p. 201. The bones, we’ve real bones, rib-of-beef bones, but some have ebony bones, which sound better than rib-bones—they tell best, etc.

1865. Times, 17 July. Amateur negro melodists ... thumped the banjo and rattled the bones. [M.]

3. (common.)—A member of a ‘negro’ minstrel troupe; generally applied to one of the ‘end’ men who plays the bones (sense 2).

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III. First of all we formed a school of three—two banjos and a tambourine, and after that we added a bones and a fiddle.

1867. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, p. 236. The band clashes out; big fiddle and little fiddle, harp and bones, off they go.

1884. Sat. Review, June 7,740, col. 1. A single row of negro minstrels seated on chairs ... while at the end are Bones and Sambo. [M.]

4. (general.)—The bones of the human body, but more generally applied to the teeth. French thieves call these les piloches (f); and les osselots (m). Cf., Bone-box and Bone-house, and for synonyms, see Grinders.

5. (common.)—A surgeon; generally sawbones (q.v.). A list of curious nicknames for the medical profession will also be found under Squirt.

1887. Chamb. Journal, Jan. 8, p. 30. ‘I have sent for the village bones, and if he can but patch me up, it may not yet be too late.’

6. (Stock Exchange.)—(1) The shares of Wickens, Pease and Co.; (2) North British 4% 1st Preference Shares, the 4% 2nd Preference Stock being nicknamed Bonettas.

As dry or hard as a bone, phr. (common), i.e., as free from moisture as a bone after it has been picked and cleaned, as by a dog.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, i. It’s as dry as a bone.

1837. R. Nicoll, Poems (1843), 83. Dubs were hard as ony bane.

One end is pretty sure to be bone, phr. (American).—An old time saying equivalent to an admission that ‘all is not gold that glitters’; that the realization of one’s hopes never comes up to the ideal formed of them.

1888. The World, 13 May. People here (in the west) have to get up and get in order to make both ends meet, and even then one end is pretty sure to be bone.

To be upon the bones, phr. (vulgar).—To attack.

b. 1616, d. 1704. Sir R. L’Estrange (in Annandale). Puss had a month’s mind to be upon the bones of him, but was not willing to pick a quarrel.

To feel a thing in one’s bones.—A simile signifying assurance; conviction.

1887. Scribner’s Magazine. I ain’t a-goin’ to mention no names but I kin feel it in my bones that things ain’t on the square here, there’s a nigger in the fence.

1888. Missouri Republican, 22 Feb. Nat. M. Shelton, of Lancaster, said: ‘I am in the race of attorney-general, and I feel it in my bones that I will get the nomination.’

To make no bones, phr. (familiar).—To make no scruple; to show no hesitation; to commence and finish a work without difficulty—now restricted to colloquial use; it was formerly current literary coin, and is frequently to be met with in our older literature. Its earlier form was, ‘to find bones in,’ which clearly shows the phrase to have originated in a reference to bones in soup, or similar food, regarded as obstacles to swallowing. In this sense it is found as early as the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Paston Letters. It does not occur in its present shape to make bones until a century later; but, from this period on to the end of the seventeenth century it was in constant use.

1459. Paston Lett., 331, I., 444. And fond that tyme no bonys in the matere. [M.]

1542. Udall, Apoph. of Erasmus, p. 133 (1877). Yea, and rather then faill, both whole mainor places, and also whole Lordships, the ‘make no bones, ne sticke not, quite and cleue to swallow doune the narrow lane, and the same to spue up again.’

1565. Shacklock, Hatchet of Heresies. And instede of that whiche he saide, This is my body, they haue made no bones at it, to say, this is my brede.

1590. Greene, Francesco’s Fortune, in wks. VIII., 189. Tricke thy selfe vp in thy best reparrell, and make no bones at it but on a woing [wooing].

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 112. He ... would make no bones to take the wall of Sir Philip Sidney.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act iii. Man. How could I refrain? A lawyer talked peremptorily and saucily to me, and as good as gave me the lie. Free. They do it so often to one another at the bar, that they make no bones on’t elsewhere.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxiv. Do you think that the Government or the Opposition would make any bones about accepting the seat if it be offered to them?

To pick a bone or bones with one, phr. (colloquial).—To have an unpleasant matter to settle with one; also, a difficulty to solve; ‘a nut to crack.’

1565. Colfhill, Answ. Treat. Cron. (1846), 277. A bone for you to pick on. [M.]

1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), 1, s.v. Pick, To give one a bone to pick, scrupulum alicui injicere.

1850–68. H. Rogers, Ess., II., ii. (1874), 103. Many a bone in these lectures which a keen metaphysician would be disposed to pick with the author.

Bonesetter, subs. (old).—A hard riding horse; a ricketty conveyance; properly one whose occupation is to set broken and dislocated bones. The sarcastic, punning reference is of course to the dire effects which naturally follow the use of an animal of such a description. The odd way in which slang is often derived, strikes one at times as very curious. Not only are words frequently coined which resemble genuine words, such as ‘solemncholy’ for ‘melancholy,’ and ‘it don’t much magnify’ for ‘it don’t much signify,’ but the meaning of such factitious words is, in many cases, either subtly reversed or endowed with an extremely cynical tinge of humour and sarcasm. The present instance is a case in point. A more modern term is boneshaker (q.v.), which is less subtle in its meaning, bone-setter being certainly far more brutally cynical in its suggestiveness. See second quotation for some curious synonyms formerly in use.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bone Setter, a hard trotting horse.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 7. Jerry. I long to be there,—let’s hasten to dress at once. Log. Aye; call a rattler. Jerry. A rattler! I’m at fault again. Log. A rattler is a rumbler, otherwise a jarvy! better known perhaps by the name of a hack; handy enough in a wet day, or a hurry. Jerry. A hack! If it’s the thing we rattled over the stones in to-day, It might more properly be called a bone-setter. Tom. Or bone-breaker.—But if you dislike going in a hack, we’ll get you a mab. Jerry. A mab! I’m at fault again—never shall get properly broken in. Tom. A mab is a jingling jarvy!—a cabriolet, Jerry.—But we must mind our flash doesn’t peep out at Almack’s. ’Tis classic ground there.

Bone-Shake, verb (popular).—To ride a bone-shaker (q.v.), i.e., a heavy bicycle of a very old type.

1889. Answers, Feb. 23, p. 195, col. 1. Among those who learnt to boneshake was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been a devoted cyclist.

Bone-Shaker, subs. (old).—1. A hard trotting horse.—See Bone-setter.

2. (popular.)—An old type of bicycle in use prior to the introduction of india-rubber tires and other manifold improvements. The first bicycle propelled by cranks and pedals was ridden in Paris in 1864. It created enormous excitement. On being introduced into England people went bicycle mad, and the number of persons who suffered in consequence of riding the old bone-shakers was considerable. Among those who learnt to ‘bone-shake’ was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been a devoted cyclist, for he regarded the sport as a grand one, and prophesied a big future for it. In 1868 Mr. Charles Spencer rode to Brighton on a bone-shaker in 14 hours from London. The papers were full of what was then considered an extraordinary feat, but on Aug. 10, 1889, four riders of the Polytechnic Cycling Club covered the distance to Brighton and back, 108 miles, in 7 hours 50 minutes, which is better time than a most perfectly-appointed modern four-in-hand can be driven over the same course by the aid of unlimited relays of horses kept in readiness to be changed at a moment’s notice. Only one machine was used throughout the trial, viz., a safety roadster, weighing 36 lbs.

1874. A. Howard, Bicycle, 10. In 1870 and 1871, the low, long bone-shaker began to fall in public esteem. [M.]

1884. G. L. Hillier, in Longman’s Mag., March, p. 487. The bone-shaker, as the ribald cyclist of the present day designates the ancestor of his present bicycle.

1885. Nineteenth Century, Jan., p. 92. In the Field’s report of the performance of the Cambridge Town Bicycle Club we find this entry: ‘Half Mile Race on bone-shakers, not exceeding 36 in.’

Bone Standing, verbal phr. (American college).—To study hard. [Evidently an allusion to the alertness implied by a standing position.]

Bonettas, subs. (Stock Exchange.)—The 4% 2nd North British 2nd Preference Stock.—See Bones, subs., sense 6, § 2.

Bong.—See Boung.

Boniface, subs. (popular).—The landlord of a tavern or inn. [Derived from Farquhar’s play.]

1707. Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem. [Boniface is here given as the name of landlord of the inn.]

1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, I., 120. To give the characteristic features and to stamp the peculiar traits of honest Boniface.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xvi. The landlord either could not, or would not, give them any actual information as to his guests.... So the blue-coated myrmidons of Scotland Yard got but little information from Boniface.

Boning Adjutant, verbal phr. (American cadets’).—Aping a military bearing. [From bone, to study, to imitate.] So also boning muscle (q.v.) is going in largely for gymnastics. To bone standing, to study hard. Boning demerit, giving no cause for complaint as regards one’s conduct. All West Point cadet slang.

Bonk, subs. (travelling showmens’).—A short, steep hill. [Possibly only a provincialism, or an obsolete form of ‘bank.’]

1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 302. In Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire, the approaches to some of the large works are either up or down some steep, short hill, usually termed bonk, and the drivers of heavily laden carts with two horses have the breeching on the leading chain-horse, as well as the horse in the shafts, so that when they are going down one of these steep bonks, the horse is as useful as a help in drawing up.

Bonnet, subs. (old).—1. A gambling cheat; a decoy at auctions. [So-called because they bonnet or blind the eyes of the victims.—See Bonnet, verb, sense 1.] Hotten says sometimes called a bearer-up. The bonnet plays as though he were a member of the general public, and by his good luck, or by the force of his example, induces others to venture their stakes. Bonneting is often done in much better society than that to be found in the ordinary gaming-rooms. A man who persuades another to buy an article on which he receives commission or percentage, is said to bonnet or bear-up for the seller. Also called a bonneter. The French has bonneteur for one profuse in compliments and bows.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bonnet, a concealment.

1841. Comic Almanack, October. Or a man at a hell, Playing the part of a bonnetter well.

1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. xxi. I began to think my military friend was ‘a bonnet,’—one of those harpies employed by gambling-house keepers to enhance temptation by the influence of example, and generally selected for their respectable and innocent appearance.

(?) 1868. Times (quoted by Brewer, Phrase and Fable, p. 104). A man who sits at a gaming-table, and appears to be playing against the table; when a stranger appears, the bonnet generally wins.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 217. We bid or praised up his goods: in fact, often acted as ‘puffers’ or bonnets, to give him a leg up.

1885. Morning Post, Sept. 5, p. 7, col. 3. There was no distinct evidence to connect him with a conspiracy to defraud.... He might have been used as a sort of bonnet to conceal the utter worthlessness of propositions made by the others.

2. (old.)—A pretext; pretence; or ‘make believe.’

3. A woman. [This sense is analogous to ‘petticoat,’ the names of articles of feminine attire being transferred to the wearer.]

1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 3. Then comes Easter, Got some coin in hand, Trot a bonnet out and do the grand.

Verb (common).—1. To act as a bonnet (q.v.); to cheat; to puff; to ‘bear up’ (q.v.).

1871. ‘Hawk’s-Eye,’ Budget of Turf Notes, p. 2. I could point out now what horses he is bonneting for the 2,000 Guineas and Derby of this year, and the horses whose pretensions he is trying to discredit.

1887. Referee, 15 May, p. 1, col. 3. Nobody can suppose that I am anxious to bonnet for the Times newspaper.

2. (popular.)—To crush a man’s hat down over his eyes.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 229. Two young men, who, now and then, varied their amusements by bonneting the proprietor of this itinerant coffee-house.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, II., p. 216. You are a dutiful and affectionate little boy to come a bonnetin’ your father in his old age.

1843. Dickens, Christmas Carol in Prose, p. 22. Scrooge reverently disclaimed ... any knowledge of having wilfully bonneted the Spirit at any period of his life.

1882. Saturday Review, LIV., p. 629. The students hustled and ‘bonnetted’ a new professor.

To have a green bonnet, phr. (common).—To fail in business. [From the green cloth cap formerly worn by bankrupts.]

Bonnet-Builder, subs. (popular).—A milliner. [The derivation is clear.]—See Build.

1839. Song in The Little Melodist, quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 93. Will you go to Bagnigge Wells, Bonnet builder, O!

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. ‘Build.’ A milliner is jestingly called a ‘bonnet-builder.’

Bonneter.—1. See Bonnet, subs., sense 1.

2. (common.)—A crushing blow on the hat.—See Bonnet, verb, sense 2.

Bonnets So Blue, subs. (rhyming slang).—Irish stew.—See Rhyming slang.

Bono, adj. (circus and thieves’).—Good. [From the Latin.]

Booby Hutch, subs. (thieves’).—A police station; so called no doubt from the light in which the criminal classes regard those who are foolish enough or unfortunate enough to get ‘landed’ in such places. [Booby = a fool + hutch, a box or confined space.]

Booby-Trap, subs. (schoolboys’).—An arrangement of books, wet sponges, vessels of water, etc., so arranged on the top of a door set ajar that when the intended victim enters the room, the whole falls upon him.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. iii., p. 28. He had devoted it to the construction of what he called a ‘booby-trap,’ which ingenious piece of mechanism was arranged in the following manner: The victim’s room-door was placed ajar, and upon the top thereof a Greek Lexicon, or any other equally ponderous volume, was carefully balanced, and upon this was set in its turn a jug of water. If all these were properly adjusted, the catastrophe above described was certain to ensue when the door was opened.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. xiv. ‘I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you.’

1883. Sat. Review, Nov. 3, p. 566, col. 2. On his way down to dinner he is suddenly drenched from head to foot by a booby-trap—a sponge soaked in water placed above a half-open door.

Boodle, subs. (American).—1. A crowd; a company; the ‘whole boiling’ (q.v.). With this meaning the form often appears as caboodle (q.v.). [As regards derivation, which is obscure, Murray, speaking of both senses as here treated, says the U.S. boodle, in sense 1, must be the same as Markham’s ‘buddle’ (see quotation given below from New English Dictionary); sense 2 (also only in U.S.) may be a different word. Boodle suggests a Dutch origin from boedel pronounced boodle, and in its primary sense means ‘household stuff,’ and refers to property left by a testator. It is curious to note that bodle was a Scotch coin of the value of one-sixth of a penny.]

1625. F. Markham, Bk. Honour, IV., ii. Men curiously and carefully chosen out (from all the buddle and masse of great ones) for their approoued wisedome. [M.]

1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat, p. 139. He would like to have the whole boodle of them (I remonstrated against this word, but the professor said it was a diabolish good word ...) with their wives and children shipwrecked on a remote island.

1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, p. 361. Boodle, ‘the whole boodle of them,’ i.e., all, the whole. [List of Americanisms.]

1884. E. E. Hale, Xmas. in Narragansett, ch. ix., p. 272. At eleven o’clock the ‘whole boodle of them,’ as Uncle Nahum called the caravan ... had to boot and spur for church. [M.]

2. (American.)—In its second signification this curious word seems to have come into prominent use in politics during the past five years. Its meaning and usage is thus explained in Americanisms—Old and New. Some elections cannot be conducted without boodle first and last. Boodle does not mean the capital or stock-in-trade, except the business or trade be something secret, peculiar and illegal. Boodle always means money; but money has not always been boodle (see sense 4). Money honestly received and spent, money that circulates in regular and honest channels, that appears in cash-book and ledger and expense account, is never boodle; but when a sum—a thousand dollars, more or less—is given to some one to use in influencing a third party, given perhaps in silence and certainly without requiring any writing of acknowledgment or obligation—that is boodle. Boodle is money used for purposes of bribery and corruption; and the same word is employed to indicate the money that comes as spoils, the result of some secret deal, the profits of which are silently divided. The term is likewise used to cover the ill-gotten gains of the bank robber, or the absconding cashier. ‘He carried away so much boodle.’ In elections the primaries have to be ‘fixed,’ a great many men have to be ‘seen’; in short, the amount of money that it seems necessary in some cases to use to elect a few honest public servants is a thing to wonder at. And when these men are elected, it appears that they often lose the power of distinguishing between ‘straight money’ and boodle. The word seems destined to take its permanent place in the language.—See also Boodlers.

1884. Boston (Mass.) Globe, Oct. 7. ‘Sinews of war,’ and ‘living issues,’ ‘soap,’ and other synonyms for campaign boodle are familiar. [M.]

1888. Philadelphia Bulletin, 24 Feb. The best man in the world cannot make an honest living by being a City Councilman. The office is an unsalaried one, and any money that is made out of it is boodle. This is the new term for plunder, fraud and every form of stealing that can be practised by office-holders, who, in the practice, add the crime of perjury. It is an easy business for men of easy virtue.

1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 3.

In the evening, up the street, As you see him passing by, You’re convinced his mind’s replete With the legal science high; That he ponders of divorce, Or, of boodle cases great; That he spends all day, of course, Fighting counsel for the State.

3. (American thieves’.)—Amongst the thieving fraternity boodle is used to denote money that is actually spurious or counterfeit, and not merely money used for nefarious purposes, but which as currency is genuine enough.

4. (American general.)—Money. This is the latest sense imported into the word. The transition by which it has come to be synonymous with ‘dust,’ ‘pieces,’ ‘rhino,’ ‘oof,’ etc., is an easy one.—See Actual.

1888. Puck’s Library, Jan., p. 4.

Shakey, take a fader’s plessing, Take it, for you ket it sheap; Go in hot for making money, Go in for to make a heap. Don’ you do no dings vot’s grooked, Don’ you do no dings vot’s mean— Aber rake right in dot boodle, Qviet, calm, and all serene.

To carry boodle is to utter base coinage.—See Boodler.

Fake-boodle, subs. (American thieves’).—A roll of paper over which, after folding, a dollar bill is pasted, and another bill being loosely wrapped round this it looks as if the whole roll is made up of a large sum of money in bills.

Boodler, subs. (American political).—1. One who bribes or corrupts.—See Boodle, sense 2.

1888. Omaha World. American. ‘As you are a native of Canada I suppose you think that country is all right, but for my part I should hate most awfully to be a subject of a queen.’ Canadian. ‘The queen is a mere figure-head; there is no difference at all between Canada and the United States.’ ‘Come to think, I believe you do have elections there.’ ‘I should say we did. We have elections and campaigns, and political parties, and bosses, and ringsters, and boodlers, and——.’ ‘Boodlers?’ ‘Plenty of ’em.’ ‘Well, well! Why, you are freemen just like us.’

2. (American thieves’.)—Boodlers and shovers are the men who issue false money (see Boodle, sense 3). Swindlers of this type generally hunt in couples; one carrying the bulk of the counterfeit money, and receiving the good change as obtained by his companion, who utters the boodle piece by piece. The game is generally worked so that at the slightest alarm the boodle carrier vanishes and leaves nothing to criminate his confederate.

Booget, subs. (old cant).—A travelling tinker’s basket. Quoted by Harman [1567].

Book, subs. (sporting).—1. In betting, more especially in connection with horse racing, an arrangement of bets made against certain horses, and so calculated that the bookmaker (q.v.) has a strong chance of winning something whatever the result.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, I., p. 400. And Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, entered it (the bet) in a little book with a gold pencil-case; and the other gentleman entered it also, in another little book with another gold pencil-case.

1837. Disraeli, Henrietta Temple, p. 260. Am I to be branded because I have made half a million by a good book?

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. liii. ‘He has backed the Dodona colt for the Derby, and has got a heavier book on the race than he likes.’

1869. Gent. Mag., July, p. 231. He wins your money with a smile, will accommodate his book to suit what bets you may choose to make.

1879. Jas. Payn, High Spirits (Change of Views). He had a knowledge, too, of practical mathematics, which enabled him to make a book upon every great racing event of the year.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Oct. 21, p. 6, col. 1. Every sporting man is flattered if termed a sportsman, but it would be almost an insult to speak to a sportsman as a sporting man. Wherein does the distinction lie? it may be asked. The one is a lover of sport for the sake of the thing itself. The other is a lover of it for what he can get out of the business. The former may bet, but he does not look at sport through the glasses of a book; the latter always bets, and in fact would not care about it at all if he could not take or give odds.

2. (card-players’.)—The first six tricks at whist.

3. (general.)—The copy of words to which music is set; the words of a play; formerly only applied to the libretto of an opera.

1768. Sterne, Sentimental Journey, I., 180. A small pamphlet, it might be the book of the opera.

1889. Answers, 8 June, p. 24. The prompter had a little table on the ‘prompt’ side; that is, the right-hand side looking from the house, and his ‘book’ was one mass of directions, the margins being covered with little pictures and diagrams of the stage, showing the positions of the leading actors in every scene.

To know one’s book, phr. (popular).—To have made up one’s mind; to know what is best for one’s interest.

c. 1879. Broadside Ballad, ‘Ain’t you glad you didn’t.’

Ain’t you glad sometimes to know, A second thought you took, About a subject upon which You thought you knew your book; Now first of all you think you will, And then you think you won’t, While someone says ‘Go in and win!’ And someone else says ‘Don’t.’

To suit one’s book, phr. (common).—To suit one’s arrangements. Cf., Book, subs., sense 1, the allusion being to betting books, in which bets are formally entered.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. vi. ‘By which time he expects to be so hard up that he must marry somebody, and as there will be plenty of the needful, she will suit his book as well as any other.’

Booked, ppl. adj. (common).—Caught; fixed; disposed of; destined, etc. From the book-keeping term—entered in a book, or registered.

1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, p. 6. I am booked for a much longer journey.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. Booked, caught, taken, or disposed of.

1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. xxiii. ‘I don’t remember anyone having given me an “engaged ring” before; and it’s not leap year, neither. However, the lady’s booked, which is a great relief.’

French thieves use être planché for ‘to be booked’; also être mort (i.e., ‘to be dead’); the adjective is rendered by faitré, and the person booked is un gerbable.

Book-Form, subs. (sporting).—The relative powers of speed or endurance of race-horses as set down in the Racing Calendar or ‘book.’

Bookie or Booky, subs. (sporting).—An abbreviated form of bookmaker (q.v.).

1885. Eng. Ill. Mag., April, p. 509. No rowdy ring, but a few quiet and well-known bookies, who were ready enough to lay the odds to a modest fiver.

1889. Sporting Times, 29 June.

He now had occasion to speedily hie To the bookie who laid him the bet, Who was one of the small and particular fry, That at times, when convenient, forget.

Bookmaker, subs. (sporting).—The English Encyclopædia says:—In betting there are two parties—one called ‘layers,’ as the bookmakers are termed, and the other ‘backers,’ in which class may be included owners of horses as well as the public. The backer takes the odds which the bookmaker lays against a horse, the former speculating upon the success of the animal, the latter upon its defeat; and taking the case of Cremorne for the Derby of 1872, just before the race, the bookmaker would have laid 3 to 1, or perhaps £1000 to £300 against him, by which transaction, if the horse won, as he did, the backer would win £1000 for risking £300, and the bookmaker lose the £1000 which he risked to win the smaller sum. At first sight this may appear an act of very questionable policy on the part of the bookmaker; but really it is not so, because so far from running a greater risk than the backer, he runs less, inasmuch as it is his plan to lay the same amount (£1000) against every horse in the race, and as there can be but one winner, he would in all probability receive more than enough money from the many losers to pay the stated sum of £1000 which the chances are he has laid against the one winner, whichever it is.—See also Book, subs., sense 1, and Bookie.

1862. London Review, Aug. 30, p. 188. Betting there seemed to be none ... we could not perceive a single book or bookmaker.

1880. W. Day, Racehorse in Training, ch. xxiv., p. 245. Bookmakers pursue a legitimate and lucrative trade by laying against all horses as they appear in the market.

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. iii. Finding ... that the bookmaker whom for once they have landed for ‘a thousand to thirty’ is hopelessly insolvent.

Bookmaker’s Pocket, subs. (sporting).—A breast-pocket made inside the waistcoat, for notes of large amount.—Hotten.—See Bookmaker.

Books, subs. (card-players’).—1. A pack of cards. A term used mainly by professional card-players. Also called devil’s books; book of broads; book of briefs. The French equivalent is un juge de paix; while une cartouchière à portées is a prepared pack used by sharpers.

1706. Mrs. Centlivre, Basset Table, IV., ii., wks. (1872) I., 245.

L. Revel. Clean cards here.

Mrs. Sago. Burn this book, ’t has an unlucky air [tears them]. Bring some more books.

2. (Winchester College.)—(a.) The prizes formerly presented by Lord Say and Sele, now given by the governing body, to the ‘Senior’ in each division at the end of ‘Half.’

(b.) The school is thus divided:—Sixth Book—Senior and Junior Division; the whole of the rest of the School is in Fifth Book—Senior Part, Middle Part, Junior Part, each part being divided into so many divisions, Senior, Middle and Junior, or Senior, 2nd, 3rd and Junior, as the case may require. Formerly there was also ‘Fourth Book,’ but it ceased to exist about twenty-five years ago.

1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 104. The school was divided into three classes, or books, as they were called. Of these, the Præfects formed one, Sixth Book; Fifth Book was sub-divided into three parts, called respectively, ‘Senior, Middle, and Junior part of the Fifth’; in speaking of them, the words, ‘of the Fifth’ were generally omitted. The rest of the boys made up ‘Fourth Book.’

(c.) Up at books.—In class; repeating lessons; now called Up to books.

1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 101. At each end of school are three tiers of benches rising gradually one above the other,—that on the ground being called ‘Senior Row,’ and the others ‘Middle,’ and ‘Junior Row’ respectively. On these the Classes sit when ‘up at books,’ i.e., when repeating lessons.

(d.) Books chambers.—Explained by quotation.

1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 103. On Remedies (a kind of whole holiday), we also went into School in the morning and afternoon for an hour or two without masters; this was called books chambers; and on Sundays, from four till a quarter to five.

(e) To get or make books.—To make the highest score at anything. Cf., Books, sense 2a.

Bookwork, subs. (University).—Mathematics that can be learned verbatim from books—all that are not problems.

Boom.—This word is a comparatively recent production in its slang sense; and is variously used as a substantive or as a verb. Before particularizing its special usages, it may be interesting to note how, within a few years, it has made its appearance in a variety of combinations; as, ‘the whole State is booming for Smith,’ or ‘the boys have whooped up the State to boom for Smith,’ or ‘the Smith boom is ahead in this State,’ etc., etc. Stocks and money are said to be booming when active; and any particular spot within a flourishing district is regarded as within the boom-belt. A successful team or party is said to be a booming squad, and we even read of boomlets to express progress of a lesser degree. [Its origin is largely a matter of conjecture, but the most probable derivation is from the nautical phrase ‘boom-out,’ signifying a vessel running rapidly before the wind; but Murray points out that as various associations are probable, and as the actual use of the word has not been regulated by any distinct etymological feeling, it is not likely that any derivation will account for all its applications.]

Subs.—Commercial activity; rapid advance in prices; a flourishing state of affairs—in all its applications it is synonymous with extreme vigour and effectiveness. The first quotation carries its use back a few years beyond the earliest date given in the New English Dictionary.

1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 277. Another boom in prices is to be looked for.

1883. Referee, May 6, p. 3, col. 2. ‘The Merry Duchess’ is a big boom, and I understand that money is being turned away nightly.

1883. M. Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 499. I lived here in 1857—an extraordinary year there in real-estate matters. The boom was something wonderful. Everybody bought, everybody sold ... anything in the semblance of a town lot, no matter how situated, was saleable.

1888. Boston Daily Globe. After the Sheridan reception, of course John Sherman must come to Boston. The Ohio statesman knows where all the real live booms start. If Mr. Blaine is wise he also will come to the ‘Hub’ without delay.

1888. Missouri Republican, 16 Feb. ‘Jim, they say thar is a big bum up at Rome.’ ‘What’s that?’ said Jim. ‘It’s a kind of new tradin’ business what swells and shrinks, and the sweller and shrinker stays down in a celler and works the machine. They trade in stock.’ ‘Horses and mules?’ said Jim. ‘No, hit’s all on paper, and nobody can see what he’s buyin’. You put your money in and wait for a swell. If it comes you are all right, but if a shrink comes you are busted, and you feel so ashamed that you don’t say anything about it, and it never gets into the papers—nothing but the swells gits into the papers.

Verb, intr.—To go off with a boom.—See subs. To make rapid and vigorous progress; to advance by leaps and bounds; trans. to push; to puff; to bring into prominence with a rush.

1874. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Gilded Age, ch. xxvii. There’s 200,000 dollars coming, and that will set things booming again.

1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 272. Stocks may boom to-day, but droop to-morrow, and with the crash come remorse and repentance. Ibid, p. 277. When stocks are active they are said to be booming.

1884. M. Twain, Huckleberry Finn, xiii., 3. We boomed along down the river, watching for lights and watching for our raft.

1888. Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean. The city of Paris is said to be diminishing instead of increasing in population. They don’t know how to boom a town over there.

As already stated, boom enters into many combinations; boomer (q.v.), boom-belt, booming-squad, etc.

1888. New Orleans Picayune. A boom in North Carolina is not the kind of phenomenon to which we are accustomed here. Sales of land at from 2 dols. to 10 dols. an acre in a boom belt are not of record hereabout.

1888. Chicago Herald. Ben Butterworth, of Ohio, one of the mainstays of John Sherman’s booming squad, has just had the title of boss Republican tariff debater conferred upon him by the culture of Boston.

To top one’s boom off, phr. (nautical).—To be off, or to start in a certain direction.

1871. G. Meredith, Harry Richmond, ch. xxxviii., p. 346 (1886). ‘And now top your boom, and to bed here.’

Boomer, subs. (American).—1. One who booms or causes an enterprise to become flourishing, active or notorious. [From boom, subs., + er.]

1888. Times, Sept. 26, p. 8. [He] is a North-Western boomer of great earnestness. [M.]

1885. Boston (Mass.) Journal, Aug. 19, p. 2, col. 4. The Oklahoma boomers. [M.]

2. Attributively applied to anybody or anything considerably above the average. Thus, what English people would call a bouncing lie, an American, if given to slang, would call a boomer; so also a fine woman, a horse with extra good points, etc., etc.

Boomerang, subs. (American).—Figuratively used to signify acts or words, the results of which recoil upon the person from whom they originate. The boomerang is properly an Australian missile weapon which, when thrown, can be made to return to the thrower; or which, likewise, can be caused to take an opposite direction to that in which it is first thrown.

1845. Holmes, Modest Request, Poems (1884), 42. Like the strange weapon, which the Australian throws, Your verbal boomerang slaps you on the nose. [M.]

1870. Lowell, Among My Books, 1 S. (1873), 219. The boomerang of argument, which one throws in the opposite direction of what he means to hit. [M.]

Booming, ppl. adj. (American).—Flourishing; active; in good form; large; astonishing.—See Boom and Boomer in all senses.

Boom-Passenger, subs. (nautical).—A sailor’s slang term for a convict on board ship. Derived from the circumstance that prisoners on board convict ships were chained to, or were made to crawl along or stand on the booms for exercise or punishment.—Hotten.

Boon-Companion, subs. (colloquial).—A comrade in a drinking bout; a good fellow. [Boon is evidently a corruption of the French bon.]

1566. Drant, Med. Morall, A. v. He is my bone companion, it’s he that cheares up me. [M.]

1592. Greene, Quip, in wks. XI., 220. To seeke good consortes and boone companions to passe away the day withall.

1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, in wks. III., 228. Our Poets or boone companions they are out of question.

1600. W. Kemp, Nine Days’ Wonder, in Arber’s English Garner, vol. VII., p. 27. And coming to my inn, where the host was a very boon companion, I desired to see him.

1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. I., ch. v. This was occasioned by his being a boon companion, loving his bottle and his diversion.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxiii. The morning after a debauch is usually one of reflection, even to the most customary boon companion.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxvii. We went downstairs to our dinner, as charmed with each other as boon companions always should be.

Boon-Companionship, subs. (colloquial).—Jollity; conviviality.—See Boon-companion.

1592. Nashe, Strange Newes, in wks. II., 176. Thinke not, though vnder correction Of your boone-companionship, I am disposd to be a little pleasant, I condemne you of anie immoderation, either in eating or drinking.

1849. Lytton, Caxtons, pt. XII., ch. iv. A little society, and boon-companionship ... would take Roland out of those gloomy reveries.

Boong.—See Bung.

Boorde.—See Bord.

Boost, subs. (American).—A hoisting; a ‘shove’; a ‘lift’; a ‘push up’—a New England vulgarism.

1858. Dow, Sermons. Office seekers ask you to give them a boost into the tree of office. [M.]

1866. T. A. Richards, Rice Fields of the South. [A negro-preacher in South Carolina, loq.] ‘For, my bredderen, little Zaccheus was bound to see the Lord for once, dough he had to climb up de tree to do it. And how did he get up der tree? Ah, how did he get up der tree, my bredderen? Did he wait for some lazy nigger to bring him a ladder? Ah, no, my bredderen. Did he wait to be boosted? Ah, no, my bredderen. Not a boost! He climbed right straight up der tree hisself, like de possum, by his own hands and feet and de grace of God!’

1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 11. A genius took hold of the business, and gave it a little boost. He was a man of the times, and he applied his reasoning faculties to the problem presented to him. ‘What,’ he asked, ‘is the chief means of success?’

Verb.—To hoist; to lift up; to shove.—See subs.

1848–64. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers, II., 106. Whereas ole Abram ’d sink afore he’d let a darkie boost him.

1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. vii. You ought to have seen that spider-legged old skeleton go! and you ought to have seen the bull cut out after him, too—head down, tongue out, tail up, bellowing like everything, and actually mowing down the weeds, and tearing up the earth, and boosting up the sand like a whirlwind!

1884. Harper’s Magazine, Aug., p. 481, col. 1. To boost a jurist of so much helpless avoirdupois in through the carriage door.

Boosy.—See Boozy.

Boot, verb (military).—To beat; to punish with a strap. The punishment is irregular and unconventional, being inflicted by soldiers on a comrade discovered guilty of some serious breach of the unwritten law of comradeship, such as theft, etc. The beating was formerly inflicted with a bootjack—hence the name.

Booth, subs. (thieves’).—A house; ‘to heave a booth,’ i.e., ‘to rob a house.’

Booth-Burster, subs. (theatrical).—A loud and noisy actor. A variant of barn-stormer (q.v.).

Booting, subs. (military).—A punishment administered with a strap. Cf., Colting.

Boot-Joe, subs. (military).—Musketry drill.

Boot-Leg Plan.—See On the boot-leg plan.

Bootlick, subs. (American).—A flunkey; hanger-on; or doer of dirty work. [In England such a one is called a ‘bootlicker,’ of which bootlick is probably an abbreviated form.]

Verb.—To toady; to hang on; to undertake ‘dirty’ work.

Boots, subs. (colloquial).—1. The servant at hotels and places of a kindred character who cleans the boots of visitors. Formerly called boot-catchers, because in the old riding and coaching days part of their duty was to divest travellers of their footgear.

2. (military.)—The youngest officer in a regimental mess.

Like old boots—beans—bricks—blazes, etc., phr. (common).—Thoroughly; vigorously. A simile as general in its application as it is irrelevant. It may mean anything, everything, and nothing. Why old boots and not new boots is beyond comprehension.

1868. Miss Braddon, Sir Jasper, ch. xxvii., p. 282. I’ll stick to you like old boots.

1874. Saturday Review, Jan., p. 55. An Oxford man, nay even a Balliol man ... introduced in the story a pleasing change by such a phrase as jawing away like old boots.

To buy old boots, phr. (old).—To marry or keep the cast-off mistress of another man.

To die in one’s boots (q.v.).

Boots and Leathers.—See Commoner peal.

Booty. To play booty, phr. (old).—To play falsely; dishonestly; or unfairly; this with the object of not winning, a previous arrangement having been made with a confederate to share the spoils resulting from the bogus play. Sometimes it takes the form of permitting the victim to win small stakes in order to encourage him to hazard larger sums which, naturally, he is not allowed to win.—See quotation from Dyche.

1575. Frat. of Vacabondes, p. 13. They wil make as much as they can, and consent as though they wil play booty againt him.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 133. They ... haue still an eare how the layes [bets] are made, and according to that leuell doe they throw their bowles, so that be sure the bowlers play booty.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. I., ch. ii. The best gamesters, before they laid their money, always inquired which horse little Joey was to ride; and the bets were rather proportioned by the rider than by the horse himself; especially after he had scornfully refused a considerable bribe to play booty on such an occasion.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Booty (s.), plunder, spoil, prize; also a cant word signifying a pretence to one thing, and at the same time intends and does the contrary, in order to cheat, impose upon, and draw in a person to lay wagers, play at some game, etc.

1776. Colman, The Spleen, in wks. (1777) IV., 276. Jubilee started and stumbled but, by-the-bye, I believe his rider played booty—Duenna won the stakes, and the knowing ones were all taken in.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. vii. ‘Were he caught playing booty, he would be disarmed, and probably dismounted.’

1831. Disraeli, Young Duke. One thing remained to be lost—what he called his honour, which was already on the scent to play booty.

So also booty = playing booty, and booty-fellow, a sharer in the plunder.

Booze, subs. (popular).—1. Drink; a draught. The older forms are bouse or bouze (q.v.), but booze in its present form appears as early as 1714. For synonyms, see Drinks.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Booze, Drink. [List of cant words.]

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6. Jemmy. Gemmen, have you ordered the peck and booze for the evening? Sold. Suke. Aye, aye, I’ve taken care of that—shoulder of veal and garnish—Turkey and appendleges—Parmesan—Filberds—Port and Madery.

1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. Kid. The Music Hall Sports are at Alexandra Park on the 23rd, and there will be rare doings on that occasion. Master and Shifter both give prizes, and there will be booze in our drag.

2. A drinking bout; a tipsy frolic. Murray’s first quote for this form and sense is dated 1864; but, from the following, it will be seen to be at least thirty years older. For synonyms, see Jamboree.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. ‘We’ll have a jolly boose when all’s over.’

1884. St. James’s Gazette, 19 Dec., p. 4, col. 1. There was a great booze on board.

Verb (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple; to guzzle. An old term employed in some sense of ‘to drink’ as early as 1300. Also booze (q.v.). For synonyms, see Swill.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 5. The buriall was tourned to bousing and belly cheere.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in wks. II., 91. They should haue all the companie that resort to them, bye bowzing and beere-bathing in their bouses every after-noone.

1777. Colman, Epilogue to Sheridan’s School for Scandal. While good Sir Peter boozes with the squire.

1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xiii., p. 173. ‘I wonder, Sir Charles Lyndon, a gentleman who has been the King’s ambassador, can demean himself by gambling and boozing with low Irish black-legs!’

So also boozed (ppl. adj.), drunk, fuddled; boozy (adj.), drunken, ‘screwed’; boozing (verbal subs.), the act of drinking hard; and boozer (subs.), a drunkard, a tippler—examples of which respectively will be found hereunder in sections.

b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 416.

Droupy and drowsie, Scurvy and lousie Her face all bowsie.

1592. Greene, Quip, in wks. XI., 253. To marke the bowsie drunkard to dye of the dropsy.

1611. Cotgrave, Piailleur: m ... a tipler, bowser.

1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, V., 4. And in the meantime, to be greasy, and bouzy.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. iv., p. 36 (1874). Most part of the night we spent in boozing, pecking rumly ... that is drinking, eating.

1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x., 288. Which in his cups the bowsy poet sings.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. IV., p. 14. Amongst a Crowd of Sots, half boozy.

c. 1819. Wolcot, P. Pindar, p. 303, ed. 1830.

This landlord was a boozer stout, A snuff-taker and smoker. [d.]

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxiii. The boozy unshorn wretch is seen hovering round quays as packets arrive, and tippling drams in inn bars where he gets credit.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxxiii. The quantity of brandy-and-water that Jack took showed what a regular boozer he was.

1850. P. Crook, War of Hats, 50. Boozed in their tavern dens, The scurril press drove all their dirty pens.

1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. xi. ‘Till they can show there’s something they love better than swilling themselves with ale, entension of the suffrage can never mean anything for them but entension of boozing.’

1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, Aug. 24, p. 267, col. 2.

In Canton gardens I have boozed; Beneath the palm-trees I have snoozed; I’ve seen the alligator smile, And peppered at the crocodile.

Boozing Cheat, subs. (thieves’).—A bottle. [From booze (q.v.), drink, + cheat, from A.S. ceat, a thing.]

Boozing-Ken, subs. (old).—A drinking den. [From booze (q.v.), drink, + ken, a place.] A term of long standing. A French equivalent is une bibine, but for general synonyms, see Lush crib.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. A bowsing-ken, a ale house.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Bowsing-ken, an Ale-house.

1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, II., i.

When last in conference at the boozing-ken, This other day we sat about our dead prince.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Boozing-ken, an Ale-house. [List of cant words in.]

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. The hovel which they termed their boozing-ken.

Boozington, subs. (Australian thieves’).—A drunkard. [Apparently a formation from booze (q.v.), to drink, on the model of lushington (q.v.), an English equivalent.] For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.

Borachio, subs. (old).—A nickname for a drunkard; formerly a skin for holding wine. For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.

Borak. To poke borak, verbal phr. (colonial).—To pour fictitious news into credulous ears; to ‘stuff’; to ‘kid.’

1587. Notes and Queries, 7 S., iii., 476. Poke borak, applied in Colonial conversation to the operations of a person who pours fictitious information into the ears of a credulous listener.

Bord, Borde, Boorde, subs. (old cant).—A shilling. The origin is unknown. For synonyms, see Blow.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 85. Roge, but bouse there a bord, i.e., but drink there a shilling.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Boord, a shilling; Halfe a Boord, sixepence.

1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks. (1873) III., 219. My Lord Noland ... bestowes vpon you two, two boordes and a half.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). Borde, a shilling.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. [The same definition.]

Bordeaux, subs. (pugilistic).—Blood [an allusion to the colour of the wine. Cf. Claret and Badminton]. For synonyms, see Claret.

Bord You! phr. (nautical).—An expression used to claim the next turn in drinking.

Bore, subs. and verb (old slang, but now recognised).—Anybody or anything wearisome or annoying; to weary or to be wearied. [The derivation is unknown, and the word does not appear in English literature prior to 1750. Hotten’s reference to Shakspeare, King Henry VIII., i., 1,

At this instant He bores me with some trick,

is a misreading, ‘bore’ in this instance signifying ‘to stab,’ as the context clearly shows.]

Verb (sporting).—To push or thrust out of the course; and boring, subs., the practice of ‘boring.’ Amongst pugilists it signifies to drive an opponent on to the ropes of the ring by sheer weight, whilst amongst rowing men it denotes the action of a coxswain in so steering a boat as to force his opponent into the shore, or into still water, thus obtaining an unfair advantage; also analogously applied to horse-racing. The term, as so used, is a very old one, and is derived from the persistency of motion of a boring tool.

1672. Vanbrugh, Lover’s Quarrels, 317 in Hazl. E. P., pt. II., 266. He bor’d him out of the saddle fair.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress. M—rl—y, that very great Count, stood deploring, He hadn’t taught Georgy his new modes of boring.

1821. The Fancy, vol. I., p. 255. Evans bored in, and upset his man in the first round.

1870. Dickens, Edwin Drood, ch. xvii., p. 129. Their fighting code stood in great need of revision, as empowering them not only to bore their man to the ropes, but ... also to hit him when he was down.

Born Days. All One’s Born Days, phr. (colloquial).—One’s lifetime.

1740. Richarsdon, Pamela, III., 383. He never was so delighted in his born days.

1758. Richardson, Grandison, I., 103. There was one Miss Byron, a Northamptonshire lady, whom I never saw before in my born days.

1809. Miss Edgeworth, Ennui, ch. ix. Craiglethorpe will know just as much of the lower Irish as the Cockney who has never been out of London, and who has never in all his born days seen an Irishman but on the English stage.

Born Weak, phr. (nautical).—Said of a vessel feebly built.—Clark Russell’s Sailors’ Language.

Bosh, subs. (common).—Nonsense; rubbish; ‘stuff’; ‘rot’—anything beneath contempt. [The derivation is uncertain. Murray says the word became current in England from its frequent occurrence in Morier’s Persian novels, Ayesha [1834], etc., most of them extremely popular productions. Its source has been suggested in the Turkish bosh lakerdi, ‘empty talk’; in the German bosh or bossch, an equivalent of ‘swipes’; and in the Gypsy bosh, ‘a noise,’ ‘a fiddle,’ from which latter it has been thought that there may be some connection between the exclamation bosh! and fiddle-de-dee (q.v.).]

1834. Morier, Ayesha, I., 219. This firman is bosh—nothing, [M.]

1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. x. I always like to read old Darwin’s Loves of the Plants, bosh as it is in a scientific point of view.

1880. Punch, 10 Jan., p. 9, col. 2. ‘Prophet,’ said I, ‘of things evil!’ ‘Things are going to the devil’ Is the formula of fogies, I have heard that bosh before.

Verb.—To humbug; to spoil; to mar.

1870. Macmillan’s Magazine, XXI, 71. You bosh his joke [a man’s] by refusing to laugh at it; you bosh his chance of sleep by playing on the cornet all night in the room next to him. [M.]

1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xiv. ‘And wouldn’t he make a jolly schoolmaster?’ exclaimed Reginald. ‘Boys would get on capitally with Jardine. They’d never try to bosh him.’

Intj.—Nonsense! Rubbish! It’s all my eye!—See All my eye.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxi. Bosh! It’s all correct.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, October 30, p. 3, col. 1. ‘You always learn in front of the looking-glass, do you not, Mr. Brandram?’—‘Bosh!’ was the laughing reply. ‘I generally learn my plays and recitations whilst I am dressing; but you don’t think I deliberately stand and make monkey-faces in the looking-glass.’

Bosh Faker, subs. (vagrants’).—A violin player. [From Gypsy bosh, a violin, + faker, a performer or player.]

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 231.

Can you rocker Romanie Can you patter flash, Can you rocker Romanie Can you fake a bosh.

Boshing, subs. (American thieves’).—A flogging. [Apparently a corrupted form of bashing.]—See Bash.

Boshy, adj. (common).—Trumpery; nonsensical.—See Bosh.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. iv. ‘There was no dancing, only boshy games and a conjuror.’

Bos-Ken, subs. (vagrants’).—A farmhouse. An old canting term. [From L. bos = ox + ken, a house.] Cf., Ken.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 472. ‘Up at a bosken (farm-house) they’ll get among the servant girls.’

Boskiness, subs. (popular).—The quality of being fuddled with drink; bemused; a state of drunkenness.

1887. Judy, 31 August, p. 101. The Town Councillor had a squabble with his parent ... and accused him of boskiness.

Bosky, adj. (popular).—Drunk; tipsy; fuddled. [Derivation uncertain; bosky = ‘wooded,’ or ‘bushy,’ and there may be an allusion to the obscurity and overshadowing, peculiar to a wooded country. Bailey [1728] has also bosky = swelled, but does not give the slang sense of the word, although it appears in the editions 1730–6. It may, therefore, be a figuratively humorous reading of ‘swelled,’ i.e., ‘tight.’] For synonyms, see Screwed.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bosky (a.), fuddled, half or quite drunk.

1824. Blackw. Mag., XVI., 573. He may be tipsy, bosky, cut, or anything but drunk.

1886. Punch, 17 April, p. 185. I got a bit bosky last night. Has the ’eadache got into my rhymes?

Bosman, subs. (vagrants’).—A farmer. [From the Dutch bosch-man, one who lives in the woods; otherwise Boschje-man, or bushman.] Cf., Bosken.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 471. ‘I’ve seen the swell bosmen (farmers) buy the pills to give the people standing about.’

Boss, subs. (American and English).—1. A master; a head man; one who directs. [From the Dutch baas, a master.] Few words have acquired a greater hold on American life than this term, and the primitive meaning of master, overseer, or superior of any kind, though in a large measure retained to this day, has been widened out in every direction. The political boss is the leader whose word is law to his henchman. Boss Tweed, of New York, is believed to have been the first to bear the title in a semi-official way. The phrase boss rule is said to have been invented by Mr. Wayne MacVeagh, and employed by him in political speeches in Chicago. It is now in common use in this sense. In the two first quotations the word appears to be used much as in the modern sense. For synonyms, see Governor.

1590. Marlowe, Tamburlaine, pt. I., Act iii., Sc. 3. Zab. Base concubine, must thou be placed by me, That am the empress of the mighty Turk? Zen. Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss!

1679. M. Philipse, Early Voyage to New Netherlands (quoted by De Vere). Here they had their first interview with the female boss or supercargo of the vessel.

1848. Bartlett, Americanisms. I have never known a second wife but what was boss of the situation.

1850. New York Herald, May 24. The Eternal City is in a very curious position. The Pope has returned to his ancestral home; but he has nothing in his pocket, and Rothschild refuses to let him have any more money. A thousand years ago, and the boot would have been on t’other leg.... To-day it is very different. The Father of Holiness is the dependent of the Jew, and Rothschild is the real Pope and boss of all Europe.

1888. New York Herald, Jan. 12. Alderman Campbell—I move an amendment to make Hamline the general superintendent and chief boss of this whole gas business.

2. (popular.)—A short-sighted person; also one who squints. Cf., Boss-eyed and Boss, verb, sense 2.

3. (popular.)—A miss; a blunder. Cf., Boss, verb, sense 2.

Adj.—Pleasant; first rate; chief.

1884. Echo, March 3, p. 1, col. 4. The Americans are acknowledged to be the boss artificers in wood.

1888. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 18. Take it all together, with scarcity of food and little sleep, we had a hard but a boss time.

Verb.—1. To manage; direct; control.—See subs., sense 1.

1856. National Intelligencer, Nov. 3. The little fellow that bosses it over the crowd.

1872. Athenæum, March 9. A child wishing to charge his sister with being the aggressor in a quarrel for which he was punished, exclaimed, ‘I did not boss the job; it was sister.’

1883. Saturday Review, April 28, p. 515, col. 1. It is long since the more respectable inhabitants of America have been divided between the convenience of the Irish as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and as voters easily bossed or bribed on the one hand, and the manifold nuisance of them on the other.

1885. Sporting Times, July 6. The Shah has fairly bossed everything this week—he has been chief actor in our social system.

1888. Texas Siftings, July.

When lovely woman hires a servant And bosses her around all day, What makes the girl pray half so fervent As her desire to run away.

2. (popular.)—To miss one’s aim; to make such a shot as a boss-eyed (q.v.) person would be expected to make. Boss-shot is a common phrase.

1887. N. and Q., 7 S., iii., 236. To boss is schoolboy slang for ‘to miss.’

So also derivatives—bossing, acting as a boss; bossism, a system of management or wire-pulling; bossy, pertaining to the qualities of a leader.

Bossers, subs. (common).—Spectacles.—See Barnacles.

Boss-Eyed, adj. (common).—Said of a person with one eye, or rather with one eye injured; a person with an obliquity of vision. In this sense sometimes varied by squinny-eyed and swivel-eyed (q.v.). Also used as a subs.—Boss-eye.

c. 1884. Broadside Ballad, ‘Put me some Jam Roll by, Jenny.’

Come where the waves roll high, Jenny, Come where the waves roll high, Jenny, old girl, I love you, Come where the waves roll high. Come where the waves roll high, Jenny, Come where the sea-sick lie, Come where we eat salt-junk, love, Come with your old bos-eye.

French Synonyms. Borgniat; cligner des œillets (a military term, ‘to be boss-eyed’); boiter des calots (‘to be boss-eyed’); calorgne.

Bostruchyzer, subs. (Oxford University).—A small kind of comb for curling the whiskers.—Hotten. Obsolete.

Bot, Bott, Botts, subs. (common).—The colic; belly-ache; gripes. Properly a name given to maggots found in the intestines of horses, under the hides of oxen, and in the nostrils of sheep. A French equivalent is la tourmente, i.e., ‘the torment.’

1787. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 27.

A countra Laird had ta’en the batts, Or some curmurring in his guts.

1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. viii. ‘I ne’er gat ony gude by his doctrine, as ye ca’t, but a sour fit o’ the batts wi’ sitting amang the wet moss-hays for four hours at a yoking.

Botanical Excursion, subs. (old).—A thief’s circumlocution for transportation—the allusion being to Botany Bay (q.v.).

Botany Bay, subs. (University).—1. At Oxford, Worcester College is so designated on account of its remote situation as regards the bulk of the collegiate buildings. It will be seen that a similar reason has caused a certain portion of Trinity College, Dublin, to receive an identical nickname. The general idea underlying the term is obviously that to get to the places in question one has figuratively to go almost as far as if transported to the real Botany Bay, formerly a convict settlement in New South Wales.

1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. xx., note. Botany Bay was the slang name given by college men to a new square rather remotely situated from the remainder of the college [i.e., Trinity, Dublin].

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant Green, I., p. 63. A name given to W. College, from its being the most distant college.

2. (thieves’ and prison.)—Penal servitude. Formerly convicts [1787–1867] were transported to Botany Bay, a convict settlement at the Antipodes. Hence to go to Botany Bay was in popular use for a long term of imprisonment.

Botany-Bay Fever, subs. (old).—Transportation; penal servitude. Convicts condemned to transportation were said to have died of, or to have Botany-Bay fever. Cf., Hempen fever for hanging.

Botch, subs. (old).—A tailor. [An abbreviated form of ‘botcher,’ which has been used for a very long period in all the following senses—a cobbler, tailor who does repairs, jobber, and an unskilful workman.] Also called a Snip, which see for synonyms.

Bottle. To turn out no bottle, phr. (sporting).—Not to turnout well; to fail.

Bottle-Ache, subs. (common).—Drunkenness; also applied to an attack of delirium tremens. [From bottle, in allusion to drink causing indisposition, + ache, a pain or sickness.] There are many curious terms for this effect of intemperance, such as Jim-jams, barrel-fever, quart-mania; but for full list of synonyms, see Gallon distemper.

Bottle-Arsed, adj. phr. (printers’).—Type thicker at one end than the other—a result of wear and tear.

Bottle-holder, subs. (common).—A second at a prize-fight, hence—

2. One who gives moral support; a backer; an adviser. In the Times of 1851, Lord Palmerston was reported to consider himself the bottle-holder of oppressed states: and in Punch of the same year, a cartoon appeared representing that statesman as the ‘judicious bottle-holder.’

1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (l.). An old bruiser makes a good bottle-holder.

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxix. Petrie ... recommends, upon his own experience, as tutor in a family of distinction, this attitude to all led captains, tutors, dependents, and bottle-holders of every description.

1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. ii. Cold water, and a little vinegar, applied according to the scientific method practised by the bottle-holders in a modern ring.

1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xl. ‘Do you remember his tremendous fight with Biggs?’ ‘Remember? who didn’t? Marston was Berry’s bottle-holder.’

Bottle-Holding, verbal subs. (common).—Backing; supporting.

1878–80. Justin MacCarthy, History of Our Own Times, II., p. 115. The noble lord (Palmerston) told the deputation that the past crisis was one which required on the part of the British Government much generalship and judgment, and that a good deal of judicious bottle-holding was obliged to be brought into play.

Bottle of Brandy in a Glass, phr. (common).—A glass of beer; a recent and absurd slang introduction.

Bottle of Spruce, subs. (rhyming slang).—Twopence. The play of words is upon ‘deuce’ = two.

Bottles, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Barrett’s Brewery and Bottling Co. Shares.

Bottle-Sucker, subs. (nautical).—An able-bodied seaman; the abbreviation is A.B.S., and a bottle-sucker is supposed to be a humorous rendering.

Bottle-Up, verb (old).—To restrain (temper, feelings, etc.); to keep or hold back.

1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 53. Vapours ... botteled up in cloudes.

1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. xi. Austin played very bad, trumped his partner’s ... knave, led out strong suits of trumps without any suit to follow, bottled them when his partner led them first time round.

1871. Cincinnati Commercial, April, p. 637. He will bottle up his wrath, having had some experience in the line of bottling up during the war, and pour out his vials upon General Farnsworth’s head, whenever the occasion offers.

Bottom, subs. (colloquial).—1. The posteriors; not now in literary use. For synonyms, see Blind-cheeks and Bum.

1794–6. E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), III., 253. So as to have his head and shoulders much lower than his bottom.

1822–36. J. Wilson, Noctes Ambr., xxxix. (1864), iv., 79. The Dunghill cock ... hides his head in a hole ... unashamed of the exposure of his enormous bottom.

1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II., iv., i., 185. Patriot women take their hazel wands, and fustigate ... broad bottom of priests.

2. (popular.)—Capital; resources; stamina; ‘grit.’

1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II., 451. Beginning on a good bottom left him by his father.

1747. Captn. Godfrey, Science of Defence, p. 34. I have mentioned strength and art as the two ingredients of a boxer. But there is another, which is vastly necessary; that is, what we call a bottom.... There are two things required to make this bottom, that is, wind and spirit, or heart, or wherever you can fix the residence of courage.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, pref., p. xv. The peculiarities of this boxer discussed—his power of standing with his arms extended for two whole days, without any rest, by which means he wore out his adversaries’ bottom, and conquered without either giving or taking.

1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, vol. II., ch. xiv. He did not like to dine with Steyne now. They had run races of pleasure together in youth when Bareacres was the winner. But Steyne had more bottom than he, and had lasted him out.

3. (popular.)—Spirit placed in a glass prior to the addition of water. [From bottom, the lowest surface or part of anything, the foundation, the basis. See peculiar American usage in 1883 quot.] Also used as a verb.

1854. Sir Theo. Martin, Bon Gaultier Ballads. Bottomed well with brandy.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxxi. Gin and water was the ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one of its denizens inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours, generally did so with a bottom of brandy.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 2 July, p. 5, col. 3. Soda and dark bottom is mentioned in a list of American drinks in this article.

To knock the bottom out of one, phr. (American).—To overcome; to defeat, etc.

1888. Cleveland Leader. The declination of Mr. Blaine, has knocked the bottom out of Mugwumpery.

Bottom Dollar, subs. phr. (American).—The last dollar. The phrase ‘to bet one’s bottom dollar’ is frequently heard.

Bottom Facts, subs. phr. (American).—The exact truth about any matter. To ‘get to the bottom facts’ concerning a subject, is to arrive at an unquestionable conclusion concerning it; or, as is said in England, to get to the root of the question.

1877. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Life on the Mississippi, p. 393. You take a family able to emba’m, and you’ve got a soft thing. You can mention sixteen different ways to do it—though there aint only one or two ways when you come down to the bottom facts of it—and they’ll take the highest priced way every time. It’s human nature—human nature in grief.

The phrase is also varied by bottom rock.

1888. Omaha World. Bottom Rock. Conductor (on California train some years hence)—‘All out for Pitholeville.’ Real Estate Agent (entering car)—‘Orange groves and apple orchards, two for a penny.’

Bottomless Pit, subs. (old slang).—A coarse and vulgar name for the female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Botty, subs. (popular).—An infant’s posteriors; the French say tu tu.

Adj. (popular).—Conceited; swaggering. To look botty is in French, faire sa merde; faire son matador.

Bough, subs. (old).—The gallows. Tree (q.v.) is used in a similar sense.

1590. Swinburn, Testaments, 53. Or in Kent in Gauelkind ... for there it is said, the father to the boughe, and the son to the ploughe. [M.]

1596. Spenser, State Irel., wks. (1862), p. 553, col. 2. Some ... have beene for their goods sake caught up, and carryed straight to the bough.

1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III., iv., 77. If she doom thee to the bough.

Boughs. Up in the boughs, phr. (old).—In a passion. Quoted by Grose.

Bounce, subs. (common).—Brag; swagger; boastful falsehood and exaggeration.

1714. Steele, Lover (1723), 93. This is supposed to be only a bounce.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (s.) ... also the huff, brag, or swaggering of a bully or great pretender.

1765. Goldsmith, Haunch of Venison, l. 14. But hold—let me pause—don’t I hear you pronounce this tale of the bacon a damnable bounce?

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. i. Only tell a man you think him good-looking, and he falls in love with you directly; or if that is too great a bounce—and indeed very few of them have the slightest pretensions to beauty—you need only hint that he rides gallantly.

1880. Blackwood’s Mag., May, p. 670. The whole heroic adventure was the veriest bounce, the merest bunkum!

2. Impudence; cheek; brass (q.v.).

1872–4. John Forster, Life of Dickens, ch. lx. It is the face of the Webster type, but without the bounce of Webster’s face.

3. A boaster; swaggerer; showy swindler; bully. Cf., Bouncer.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Bounce, a person well or fashionably drest is said to be a rank bounce.

Verb.—1. To boast; bluster; hector; bully; blow up.

1633. Fletcher, Nt. Walkers, IV., i. I doe so whirle her to the Counsellors’ chambers ... and bounce her for more money.

1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XVIII., p. 428. With lies he tells his Bloody Feats, And Bounces like a Bully.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (v.), to swagger, boast, crack, stump, or pretend to great matters.

1749. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 3 May (1833), vol. II., p. 374. The Lords had four tickets a-piece, and each Commoner at first but two, till the Speaker bounced and obtained a third.

1760. Colman, Polly Honeycombe, in wks. (1777) IV., 55. Nay, nay, old gentleman, no bouncing; you’re mistaken in your man, sir!

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. ‘He’ll be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to bounce me.’

1883. Daily News, July 26, p. 4, col. 8. To bounce is simply to prevail on persons whose mirth interferes with the general enjoyment to withdraw from society which they embarrass rather than adorn.

2. To lie; to cheat; to swindle.

1762. Foote, Liar, II., i. If it had come to an oath, I don’t think he would have bounced.

1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. x. ‘It’s them gals, Mr. Austin, got a shilling of mine among un somewhere, and wants to bounce me out of it.’

On the bounce, phr. (common).—In a state of spasmodic movement; general liveliness.

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Funny to a degree was it to watch some of the select and chosen of Lord Coventry, Major Clements, and those that rule the interior of the Invited Enclosure at Ascot. Several well known defaulters would be observed going to and fro ‘on the bounce,’ including one young gentleman who once signed his surname uninitialled to a cheque which was cashed by a confiding tradesman, who took the said endorsement for that of his baronial parent.

To get the grand bounce, phr. (American).—This is equivalent, in political parlance, to dismissal, especially in reference to government appointments.

Bounceable, adj. (common).—Prone to bouncing or boasting; ‘uppish’; ‘bumptious.’ [From bounce (q.v.) + able.]

1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xvi. As soon as we had exhibited sundry doses of Irish cordial to our friend Tip—under the effects of which he became quite bouncible, and ranted about the feat he was to take a prominent part in.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. iv. I heard that Mr. Sharp’s wig didn’t fit him; and that he needn’t be so bounceable—somebody else said ‘bumptious’—about it.

Bouncer, subs. (common).—1. A bully; hector; blusterer; one who talks swaggeringly. [From the verb bounce, senses 1 and 2, + er.]

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (4 ed.). Bouncer (s.), a bully or hectoring bravado.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 24. Those who cheat the Public ... Bouncers and Besters defrauding, by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.

2. (thieves’.)—A thief who steals goods from shop counters while bargaining with the tradesman. The exact French equivalent is dégringoleur, and the practice itself is termed dégringoler à la carre.

3. (common.)—A lie; a liar. For synonyms, see Whopper. [This usage in many instances completely overlaps sense 4.]

1762. Foote, Liar, II., i. He will tell ye more lies in an hour, than all the circulating libraries put together will publish in a year ... he was always distinguished by the facetious appellation of the bouncer.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xxxi. ‘He’s ... such a bouncer!!... I mean that he’s the greatest liar that ever walked a deck.’

1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xxii. ‘In that case, I should say wait, and put your trust in Time—Time, the father of Truth, as Mary Stuart called him when she wanted to go in for a bouncer,—and oh, what an incredible number of royal bouncers were carried to and fro in the despatches of that period!’

4. (common.)—Anything large of its kind; a ‘whopper’; a ‘thumper’; a ‘corker.’

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 140. My Book will grow such a bouncer, that those which buy it must bee faine to hire a porter to carry it after them in a basket.

5. (American.)—A man who ejects; a ‘chucker-out’ (q.v.).

1883. Daily News, July 26, p. 4, col. 8. The other fresh American type is less remarkable—the bouncer. One might suppose that a bouncer was a noisy braggart; but no. A scientific writer in the Nation describes a bouncer as a ‘silent, strong man.’ Every one who mixes much in society in Whitechapel will understand the functions of the bouncer when we explain that he is merely the English ‘chucker-out.’

6. (harlotry.)—A prostitute’s companion; ponce; bully. For synonyms, see Ponce.

7. (naval.)—A gun that ‘kicks’ when fired.

Bouncing, ppl. adj. (common).—Vigorous; lusty; exaggerated; excessive; big. This word has manifold meanings, referring, in its various senses, to largeness of size, vigour of action, with the idea of ungainliness rather than elegance. It is, as will be seen, of long continued use.

c. 1563. Jacke Jugder, p. 42 (ed. Grosart). And made you a banket [banquet], and bouncing cheare.

1588. Marprelate’s Epistle, p. 14 (ed. Arber). For there must bee orders of ministers in the congregation where you meane this bounsing priest should haue superiortie.

1611. Middleton, Roaring Girle, Act iii., Sc. 3. The duck that sits is the bouncing ramp, that roaring girl my mistress.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xix. While I was at work in the shop, a bouncing damsel, well dressed, came in.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. ii. By the side of many tall and bouncing young ladies in the establishment, Rebecca Sharp looked like a child.

Bouncing Cheat, subs. (old).—A bottle. [Bouncing, probably, says Grose, an allusion to the explosive noise made in drawing a cork, + cheat, a thing = Anglo Saxon ceat of the same meaning.] The French equivalent is une rouillarde or rouille, said to be derived from rouler. Empty bottles, it may be mentioned, are known as dead-men; camp-candlesticks; dead-marines; fellow-commoners, etc. For other synonyms, see Dead-men.

Bounder, subs. (popular).—1. A four-wheeled cab or growler (q.v.). [Supposed to be an allusion to the jolting motion caused when travelling over a rough road, a fact intensified by the indifferent springs upon which such vehicles are often hung.]

2. (University.)—A student whose manners are not acceptable; one whose companionship is not cared for.

3. (University.)—A dog-cart. Cf., sense 1.

4. (common.)—A vulgar though well-dressed man; a superior kind of ‘’Arry’; one whose dress and personal appearance are correct, but whose manners are of a questionable character. The term is very often used in connection with bally (q.v.). a bally-bounder is one of the most objectionable of the genus. A synonymous term is snide (q.v.), and French equivalents are un mufe and un espèce de cafouilleux. A curious instance of French back-slang is found in another name—un lof, loff, loffard, loffe; lof here is fol reversed, i.e., mad, senseless, foolish.

Bound To Be Had, Bound To Shine, etc., ppl. adj. (colloquial).—This expression enters into many slang phrases; for instance, when it seems certain that a man will be out-witted, cheated, or ‘bested,’ it is said of him that he is bound to be had; similarly, a man fated or resolved to distinguish himself is bound to shine. The colloquial use of bound dates back as far as 1360, but the peculiar expressions which bring it within the category of slang, are of much later origin. The following quotation will illustrate the usage in question, and further examples will be found under had, shine, etc.

1864. Hartford Post, July 14. When the public have an opportunity of examining this beautiful steamer, they will pronounce her the finest and most comfortable boat they have ever visited, and be satisfied that she is bound to shine.

Boung.—See Bung.

Boung-Nipper.—See Bung-nipper.

Bounty-Jumper, subs. (American).—A term applied to men who, receiving a bounty when enlisting, desert, re-enlist, and receive a second bounty. [From bounty, a gratuity given to recruits on joining the army or navy, + jumper, a slang term for one who decamps surreptitiously.] The War of the Rebellion is responsible for this, as for many other colloquialisms. As the conflict lengthened out, men became in great request, and large bounties were offered by the North for volunteers. This bounty was found in many cases to be a direct incitement with unprincipled men to bad faith and unfair dealing. Such would enlist, receive their bounty, join their regiment, and then decamp, to reappear in another State, to go through the same performance. Cases were known where this was done many times over, and the practice was called bounty-jumping.—See Jumping.

1875. Higginson, History of United States, p. 306. Bringing into the service many bounty-jumpers, who enlisted merely for money, and soon deserted to enlist again.

ante 1880. Song of the Bounty-Jumper (quoted in Bartlett).

My song is of a fast young man whose name was Billy Wires; He used to run with the machine, and go to all the fires: But as he lov’d a soldier’s life, and wished strange things to see, So the thought struck him that he would go and jump the bounti-e.

Bounty-Jumping, subs. (American).—Obtaining a bounty by enlisting and then deserting. Cf., Bounty-jumper.

1887. Illus. Lon. News, May 14, 552, 1. In the Civil War in America between the Northern and Southern States, bounty-jumping, or enlisting, and obtaining the bounty in several regiments, and then deserting, rose to the dignity of a fine art.

Bourbon, subs. (American).—1. A Democrat of the straitest sect; a fire-eater. Applied, for the most part, to the Southern Democrats of the old school. This use of the word probably ante-dates the Civil War, but no instance of such use has been found in print. Bourbon County, Kentucky, is popularly associated with this kind of Democrat, but we must look to the old Bourbon party in France—uncompromising adherents of political tradition—for its true paternity.

2. A superior kind of whiskey; originally applied to that manufactured in Bourbon, Kentucky. For synonyms, see Drinks.

Bouse, Bowse, Booze, subs. (old).—1. Applied to drink or liquor of any kind. In the sixteenth century bouse formed part of the cant of beggars and thieves; latterly the word, whether as substantive or verb, has become colloquial. [Thought to be derived from the Dutch busen, to drink to excess.] For synonyms, see Drinks.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Bowse, drinke.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Bowse, drinke.

1633. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, I., i. Well. No bouse? nor no tobacco?

1785. Grose, Dictionary Vulgar Tongue. Bouze, etc., drink.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. As above.

2. (old.)—A drinking bout; a carouse. This sense is more frequently current than sense 1.

Verb.—To drink to excess; to tipple; to ‘swill.’ Both this and the substantive seem to have been known as early as 1300, but neither came into general use until the sixteenth century, from which period both forms have become more and more colloquial. For synonyms, see Lush.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 32. They bowle and bowse one to another, and for the tyme bousing belly chere.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse. Who surmise, if there were no playes, they should have all the companie that resort to them bye bowzing and beere-bathing in their houses everie afternoone.

1615. Harington, Epigrams.

Yet such the fashion is of Bacchus crue To quaffe and bowze, until they belch and spue. Well, leave it, Marcus, else thy drinking health. Will prove an eating to thy wit and wealth.

So also bouser, a toper; bousing, hard drinking; and bousy, intoxicated or ‘screwed.’

Bouse the jib, verbal phr. (nautical).—To tipple; to drink heavily.—See Lush.

Bousing Ken, subs. (old).—A tavern; inn; or drinking den; now applied to a low public house. For synonyms, see Lush crib.

1567. Harman, Caveat. Man. What, stowe your bene, cofe, and cut benat whydds, and byng we to rome vyle, to nyp a bong; so shall we haue lowre for the bousing ken, and when we byng back to the deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll the ken for a bagge of dudes.

1652. Brome, Jovial Crew, II., wks. (1873) III., 390 ... As Tom or Tib When they at bowsing ken do swill.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 27. But notwithstanding the Protean nature of the Flash or Cant language, the greater part of its vocabulary has remained unchanged for centuries, and many of the words used by the Canting Beggars in Beaumont and Fletcher, and the Gipsies in Ben Jonson’s Masque, are still to be heard among the Gnostics of Dyot-street and Tothill-fields. To prig is still to steal; to fib, to beat; lour, money; duds, clothes; prancers, horses; bouzing-ken, an alehouse; cove, a fellow; a sou’s baby, a pig, etc., etc.

Bouzy.—See Boozy.

Bow. Two (or many) strings to one’s bow, phr. (colloquial).—To have an alternative; more resources than one. The phrase sometimes formerly ran to have many strings to the bow. Numerous figurative expressions in all languages indicate the dominant pursuits of the respective nations; the English abounds in habitual phrases testifying to the engrossing avocations in all times. It is in this manner that to have two strings to one’s bow has passed into proverbial usage. In the fourteenth century—a Frenchman, Gaston de Foix, said of our ancestors, ‘Of bows I know not much, but who would know more, let him go to England, for that is truly their business.’ In the olden time, archery, as the dominant pursuit, gave figures of speech to the language—with the very pith of wisdom or Saxon sarcasm. If you made an enemy’s machinations recoil upon himself, you ‘outshot a man in his own bow.’ If you are a cautious man, ‘Always have two strings to your bow,’ and ‘Get the shaft-hand of your adversaries,’ or ‘Draw not thy bow before thy arrow be fixed.’ Of course, if you can ‘Kill two birds with one shaft,’ so much the better. Never ‘shoot wide of the mark’—that is, don’t make a foolish guess on a subject you know nothing about. Of useless, silly conversation, our ancestors said—‘The fool’s bolt is soon shot’; and if a man evidently exaggerated, he was said to ‘draw a long bow.’ If a man’s pretensions were not in accordance with the facts of his case—in other words, if he came under the category of ‘false pretences’—it was said that he ‘had a famous bow, but it was up at the Castle.’ Vain military and other boasters were the many who ‘talked of Robin Hood, but who never shot his bow.’ ‘An archer is known by his aim, and not by his arrows’; that is, if you are not answerable for your materials, at least show your skill in the modus operandi; or at all events, don’t depend entirely upon your tool.

1562. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (1867), 30. Ye have many stryngis to the bowe. [M.]

1588. Marprelate’s Epistle, p. 18 (ed. Arber). Doe you not thinke that I haue two strings to my bow.

1606. John Day, Isle of Gulls, Act ii., Sc. 2, p. 39. A wise man’s bow goes with a two-fold string.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xvii. He was resolved to have two strings to his bow, that in case the one failed, he might use the other.

(?) T. Brown, wks. IV., 115, ed. 1760. A man in Amsterdam is suffer’d to have but one religion, whereas in London he may have two strings to his bow.

1886. Mrs. Riddell, For Dick’s Sake, ch. iv., p. 11 (S.P.C.K.). She had a second string to her bow, which suited her far better; and she sent Dick back his letters and his presents, and a note beginning, ‘Dear sir,’ and ending ‘Yours truly.’

To draw the long bow, phr. (colloquial).—To exaggerate; to ‘gas’; to ‘talk up.’

1819–24. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 1. They ... draw the long bow better now than ever.

To draw the bow up to the ear, phr. (colloquial).—To do a thing with alacrity; ‘to put on full steam’; to exert oneself to the utmost.

1860. Macmillan’s Mag., Feb., p. 258. So Miller, the coxswain, took to drawing the bow up to the ear at once.

Bow-Catcher, subs. (common).—A kiss-curl. For synonyms, see Aggerawator. [A corruption of ‘beau-catcher.’ Cf., Bell-rope.]

Bowdlerize, verb (colloquial).—To expurgate by removing offensive or questionable words from a book or writing. [From Dr. T. Bowdler’s method in editing an edition of Shakspeare, in which, to use his own words, ‘Those ... expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.’]

1836. Gen. P. Thompson, Let. in Exerc. (1842), IV., 124. Among the names ... are many, like Hermes, Nereus, ... which modern ultra-christians would have thought formidably heathenish; while Epaphroditus and Narcissus they would probably have bowdlerized.

1870. Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 47. No profane hand shall dare, for me, to curtail my Chaucer, to bowdlerise my Shakspeare, or to mutilate my Milton.

1874. E. L. Linton, Patricia Kemball, ch. iii. Her uncle had not made her read much beside the Bible and Shakspeare, which last he had bowdlerised on his own account with a broad pen and very thick ink.

From this comes bowdlerization, squeamish emasculation of a work; also bowdlerizer, etc.

1882. Westm. Review, April, p. 583. The bowdlerization which the Editor has thought necessary is done in an exceedingly awkward and clumsy fashion.

Bower, subs. (American thieves’).—A prison—a transferred usage of the orthodox word. For synonyms, see Cage.

Bowery Boy, Bowery Girl, subs. (American).—The ’Arry and ’Arriet of New York of some years ago. The Bowery is a well known thoroughfare in the American metropolis. [Formerly spelt bouwerij, and derived from bouw, tillage, or bouwen, to till, to cultivate, being equivalent to the modern Dutch word boerderij, a farm, or the business of farming. The Bowery was the farm of Governor Stuyvesant.] Cf., Blood tub.

Bowlas, subs. (common).—Explained by quotation.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 208. Bowlas, or round tarts made of sugar, apple, and bread.

Bowled, ppl. adj. (Winchester).—Croppled (q.v.).

Bowler.—See Boler.

Bowles, subs. (common).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

Bowl Out, verb (popular).—To overcome; to get the better of; to defeat. [Formerly a cricketing term—to bowl a man out by displacing the bails.] Cf., Bowl over. Among thieves it signifies, in a transitive form, to be arrested or ‘lagged.’

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bowled out, when he [a thief] is ultimately taken, tried, and convicted [he] is said to be bowled out at last.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iii. The polite and accomplished adventurer, who nicked you out of your money at White’s, or bowled you out of it at Marybone.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxiv. ‘He’s handsomer than you are; if you don’t mind your play, he’ll bowl you out.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 121. Now and again a warder does get bowled out, and comes to grief. At the very least he loses his situation.

Bowl Over, verb (popular).—To defeat; to worst. Cf., Bowl out.

1862. Cornhill Mag., p. 729. You have bowled me over, and I know I can’t get up again.

1878. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, II., p. 291. I sent in a zinc bullet close to the ear, which bowled it [the rhinoceros] over, dead.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xlvii. He confessed to himself that he was completely bowled over,—‘knocked off his pins!’

Bowl the Hoop, subs. (rhyming slang).—Soup.

Bowman, adv. (old).—See quotation.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 11. Help! ejaculated Wood, renewing his cries. Arrest! Jigger closed! shouted a hoarse voice in reply. All’s bowman, my covey. Fear nothing. We’ll be upon the ban-dogs before they can shake their trotters!

Bowse.—See Booze.

Bowsing Ken.—See Bousing ken.

Bowsprit, subs. (popular).—The nose.—See Boltsprit.

To have one’s bowsprit in parenthesis is to have it pulled. ‘To have one’s head in Coventry’ will occur to mind as another English slang phrase very similar in character.

Bow-Window, subs. (common).—A stomach of large proportions. [A bay or bow-window is properly a curved window, hence the transference of the term to a big belly.] Also bow-windowed, i.e., big-bellied.

1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, ch. i. He was a very large man ... with what is termed a considerable bow-window in front.

1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxxiv. (1884), 334. Look at that very bow-windowed man. [M.]

1889. Daily Telegraph, May 6. She was what is vulgarly called bow-windowed.

Bow-Wow, subs. (common).—1. A childish name for a dog.

1800. Cowper, Beau’s Reply.

Let my obedience then excuse My disobedience now, Nor some reproof yourself refuse From your aggrieved bow-wow.

18(?82). Broadside Ballad, ‘I haven’t for a long time now.’

I used to have a sweetheart, once, A precious little pearl! Indeed she was—she really was, A very charming girl.

I sang outside her door each night Till her father bought a big bow-wow, But I haven’t—haven’t— I haven’t for a long time now!

2. (old.)—A Bostonian—a term of contempt.

3. (popular.)—A cavalier; lover; specially applied to a man who dangles after a woman. Also see Tame cat.

1877. Chamb. Journal, 12 March, p. 173. Mrs. Brittomart was one of those who never tolerated a bow-wow—a species of animal well known in India—and never went to the hills as a ‘grass-widow.’

Bow-Wow-Mutton, subs. (old).—Dog’s flesh. [From bow-wow, a humorous term for a dog, + mutton, here used generically for meat.]

Bow-Wow-Word, subs. (common).—A term applied sarcastically by Max Müller to words for which it is claimed that they are in imitation of natural sounds, i.e., onomatopoetic words, of which a full list will be found under Cachunk.

Bowyer, subs. (old).—One who draws a ‘long bow’; a dealer in the marvellous; a teller of improbable stories; a liar.—See Long bow.

Box, subs. (thieves’).—A prison cell.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 89.

In a box of the stone-jug I was born, Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn Fake away.

1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 214. The box in the stone-jug is doubtless a cell.

Verb (Westminster School).—To take possession of; ‘to bag.’

To be in a box, phr. (common).—To be cornered; in a fix; ‘stuck’ or ‘hung up.’

To be in the wrong box, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To be out of one’s element; to be in a false position; mistaken. Brewer traces this to Lord Lyttelton, who, being of rather a melancholy disposition, used to tell his friends that when he went to Vauxhall he was always supposing pleasure to be in the next box to his, or at least that he himself was so unhappily situated as always to be in the wrong box for it. The only objection to be raised to this story is that the phrase is a very old one, of which the derivation is now lost.

1554. Ridley (‘Foxe,’ 1838), vi., 438. Sir, quoth I, if you will hear how St. Augustine expoundeth that place, you shall perceive that you are in a wrong box.

1588. J. Udall, Distrephes, p. 31. I perceive that you and I are in a wrong box.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xliii. ‘That, I grant you, must be confessed: doctor, I’m afraid we have got into the wrong box.’

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. x. ‘Take care your rights of man don’t get you in the wrong box—there’s no arguing on board of a man-of-war.’

On the box, phr. (workmen’s).—A man when on strike and in receipt of strike pay is said to be on the box.

1889. Daily News, 19 Nov., p. 6, col. 7. The ‘Blackleg’ Question Arising. As these have to be allowed strike pay in order to keep them out of temptation, the number of men on the box, as they say in the North, may be taken to be a thousand.

Box Harry, verbal phr. (commercial travellers’).—Among bag-men to take dinner and tea together; ‘dining out,’ i.e., doing without a meal at all.

Box Hat, subs. (common).—A silk hat. For synonyms, see Cady.

Box-Irons, subs. (old).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 173. Shoes. Hockey-dockies, or Box-irons.

Box of Dominoes, subs. phr. (popular).—The mouth. [From box + dominoes (q.v.), a slang term for the teeth.] For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

Box the Compass, verbal phr. (nautical).—To repeat in succession, or irregularly, the thirty-two points of the compass; beginners on accomplishing this feat are said to be able to box the compass.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. vi. ‘A light, good-humoured, sensible wench, who knows very well how to box her compass.’

1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp. Boxing, among sailors, is used to denote the rehearsing the several points of the compass in their proper order. [M.]

1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xviii. I can raise a perpendicular ... and box the compass.

1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. To box the compass. Not only to repeat the names of the thirty-two points in order and backwards, but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its division.

Box the Jesuit, verbal phr. (old).—See Cockroaches.

Boy, subs. (popular).—1. Champagne. [A story, ben trovato, is told by the Sporting Times of June 30, 1882, as regards the origin of the phrase:—At a shooting party in Norfolk once, a youth was told off to supply the company with champagne. The day being hot and the sportsmen thirsty, cries of ‘Boy! Boy! Boy!’ were heard all day long. This tickling the fancy of the royal and noble party, the term ‘boy’ became applied to champagne.] Also called fiz and cham (q.v.). The latter form is nearly reproduced in the French slang, le champ; they also brutally speak of this wine as coco épileptique, another epithet being cidre élégant.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 69, col. 2. ‘The fine young London Gentleman.’

He will say that port and sherry his nice palate always cloy; He’ll nothing drink but ‘B. and S.’ and big magnums of the boy; He’s the darling of the Barmaid, and the honest waiter’s joy, As he quaffs his Pommery ‘Extra Sec,’ his ‘Giesler’ or ‘Ivroy,’ Like a fine young London Gentleman, Quite of the present style.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 155, col. 1. Dined with Tom and Corky at a new place they had discovered, and raved of. Of course, beastly dinner, but very good boy. Had two magnums of it.

1883. Punch, August 18, p. 84, col. 1. Shall it be B.-and-S., or bumpers of the boy?

2. (common.)—A hump on a man’s back. In low circles it is usual to speak of a humpbacked man as two persons—‘him and his boy,’ and from this much coarse fun and personality are at times evolved.

3. (Anglo-Indian and colonial.)—A servant of whatever age.

Old boy, subs. (popular).—1. A familiar term of address. The old boy is one’s father; the ‘guv’nor,’ or ‘boss.’ Sometimes my boy.

1602. Shaks., Twel. N., ii., 4, 122. But di’de thy sister of her loue my boy? [M.]

1740. Richardson, Pamela, III., 380. Never fear, old boy, said Sir Charles, we’ll bear our Parts in Conversation. [M.]

2. The devil. For synonyms, see Skipper.

1835–40. Haliburton, Clockmaker, (1862), 140. As we invigorate the form of government (as we must do, or go to the old boy).

Yellow boy, subs. (common).—A guinea; also, one pound sterling. [From the colour.] As will be seen the term is an old one. For synonyms, see Canary.

1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act i.

How now, yellow boys, by this good light! Sirrah, varlet, how came I by this gold?

1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. I., ch. vi. There wanted not yellow boys to fee counsel, hire witnesses, and bribe juries.

1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. xlii. ‘The delight of picking up the money—the bright, shining yellow boys—and sweeping ’em into one’s pocket!’

Boys, subs. (popular).—This word is very generally in use in the plural. Thus, bookmakers speak of their fellows, in the aggregate, as the boys; and it must be noted as a curious fact that on race-courses the whole army of the swindling and thieving fraternity are so designated.

Angry or roaring boys, subs. (old).—A set of young bucks, bloods or blades (q.v.), of noisy manners and ‘fire-eating’ tastes. Nares says ‘like the Mohawks’ (q.v.) described by the Spectator, they delighted to commit outrages and get into quarrels. Early mention is made of such characters. Wilson, in his Life of James I. [1653], gives an account of their origin:—The king minding his sports, many riotous demeanours crept into the kingdom; divers sects of vicious persons, going under the title of roaring boys, bravadoes, roysterers, etc., commit many insolencies; the streets swarm, night and day, with bloody quarrels, private duels fomented, etc.

1599. Greene, Tu Quoque, Old Plays, vii., 25.

This is no angry, nor no roaring boy, but a blustering boy.

1609. Ben Jonson, Epicœne, i., 4. The doubtfulness of your phrase, believe it, sir, would breed you a quarrel once an hour with the terrible boys, if you should but keep ’em fellowship a day.

1610. Ben Jonson, Alchemist, iii., 4.

Sir, not so young, but I have heard some speech Of the angry boys, and seen ’em take tobacco.

1616. Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady, iv., 1.

Get thee another nose, that will be pull’d Off, by the angry boys, for thy conversion.

Boys of the Holy Ground, subs. phr. (old).—Formerly [1800–25] bands of roughs infesting a well-known region in St. Giles.—See Holy Land.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 7.

For we are the boys of the holy ground, And we’ll dance upon nothing and turn us round.

Brace, verb (American thieves’).—To get credit by swagger.

Brace it through, phr. (American).—To succeed by dint of sheer impudence. Cf., Brace up, ‘to gird oneself up,’ ‘to buckle to.’

Bracelets, subs. (familiar).—Handcuffs; fetters for the wrist. [Derivation obvious.] French thieves call them les alliances, properly ‘wedding rings’; also la tartouve and les lacets. For synonyms, see Darbies.

1661. Wit and Drollery, quoted in Disraeli Cur. of Wit. (Tom O’Bedlams.) [Fetters are called bracelets in a song in this work.]

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. lv., p. 371 (1874). Fetters confined my legs from stragling, and bracelets were clapt upon my arms.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 62. ‘Thank you—thank you!’ faltered Jack, in a voice full of emotion. ‘I’ll soon free you from these bracelets.’

1848. W. H. Ainsworth, James the Second, bk. I., ch. ii. ‘It may be, young squire, you’ll have to go ... with a pair of bracelets on your wrists, and pay your next reck’nin’ to the gov’nor of Newgate.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. v., p. 359. He travels with other people who are also bound to London, and who, seeing him handcuffed, know very well his steel bracelets are not the insignia of honour.

Brace of Shakes, phr. (popular).—In a moment; ‘jiffy’; ‘twinkling of an eye,’ etc.—See, however, Shakes. The expression is sometimes a couple, instead of a brace of shakes. A French equivalent is far-far.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Babes in the Wood). I’ll be back in a couple of shakes.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. xii. ‘But I’ve a trick with a ’oss that’ll set that sort o’ thing—if it ain’t gone too far, that is to say—right in a brace of shakes.’

1884. Cornhill Mag., Jan., p. 101. ‘If there were any boys at Oppingbury now like those who were here when I was young, they’d break the window in a couple of shakes.’

Brace Up, verb (thieves’).—1. To pawn stolen goods—generally to their utmost value.

2. (American.)—To take a drink. [A transferred sense; from brace-up = to string up; to give firmness to.]

1888. Puck’s Library, Ap., p. 20. Come old boy, let’s brace up; a bumper will pull you together again.

Bracket-Faced, adj. (old).—Ugly; hard-featured.—Grose.

Bracket-Mug, subs. (common).—An ugly face. [From bracket (Cf., Bracket-faced) + mug, a slang term for the face.] For synonyms, see Hatchet-face.

Brads, subs. (common).—A generic term for money. De Vaux (see quot.), though somewhat limiting the meaning, uses the term elsewhere as equivalent to ‘pence’ or ‘coppers.’ It possibly originated among shoemakers, brads being small rivets or nails largely employed by them. Cf., Horse-nails, and for synonyms, Actual.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Brads, halfpence; also money in general.

1855. Punch, XXIX., 10. [Cf., Punch’s suggestion for a ‘fast’ partner in banks who should enquire of customers] ‘Will you take it in flimsies, or will you have it all in tin? Come, look sharp, my downy one, and I’ll fork out the brads like bricksy wicksy.’

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. ‘B Flats.’ Four B’s, essential for social success.—Blood, brains, brass, brads [money].—American.

1888–9. Payne, Eavesdropper, pt. II., ch. ii. They used such funny terms: ‘brads’ and ‘dibbs’ ... at last it was borne in upon me that they were talking about money.

Tip the brads.—See quotation and Tip.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 4. [To] tip the brads—and down with the dust, is to be at once good, great, handsome, accomplished, and everything that’s desirable—money, money, is your universal good,—only get into Tip Street, Jerry.

Brag, subs. (thieves’).—A usurer; a Jew. Cf., Sixty-per-cent.

Braggadocia, subs. (thieves’).—This is explained in Dickens’ Reprinted Pieces (in a footnote) to mean three months’ imprisonment as reputed thieves. It is difficult to trace the connection between this and the ordinary meaning of braggadocio.

1857. Dickens, Reprinted Pieces (Three ‘Detective’ Anecdotes, The Artful Touch), p. 253. ‘We don’t take much by this move, anyway, for nothing’s found upon ’em, and it’s only the braggadocia after all.’

Brain Pan, subs. (sporting).—1. The skull, or skull-cap. Also called brain-canister. Hotten quotes the term as of pugilistic origin, but it ante-dates the palmy days of the ‘Fancy’ by many years. Brain pan in this sense can, perhaps, hardly be classed as slang; not so, however, sense 2. The Scotch equivalent is harn-pan.—See quotations under sense 2.

2. (common.)—The head itself. For general synonyms, see Chump.

b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 417.

Upon her brain pan Like an Egyptian Capped about.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 91. The spirit of her owne malt walkt in her brayne pan.

1609. Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, Prœmium. Tarleton, Kemp, nor Singer ... never played the clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot of you all shall if hee will but boyle my Instructions in his braine-pan.

1622. Massinger, Virgin-Martyr, ii., 2.

Oh, sir, his brain-pan is a bed of snakes, Whose sting shoots through his eye-balls.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. xxxiii. ‘Weize a brace of balls through his harn-pan!’

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xi. ‘Were I your master, sirrah, ... I would make your brain-pan, as you call it, boil over, were you to speak a word in my presence before you were spoken to.’

Bramble, subs. (provincial slang).—In Kent a lawyer is so called; obviously a sarcastic allusion to the ‘tangles’ of the law.

Bramble-Gelder (provincial slang).—A derisive appellation for an agriculturist; a Suffolk term.

Bran, subs. (common).—A loaf. [In all likelihood this is a mere abbreviation of bran-loaf.] For synonyms, see Tommy.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. He purchased a sufficiency of ready-dressed ham and a half-quartern loaf, or, as he himself expressed it, ‘a fourpenny bran!’ Ibid, p. 306. Two half-quartern brans, pound of best fresh.

Branded Ticket, subs. (nautical).—Admiral Smyth [1867] quotes this as ‘a discharge given to an infamous man, on which his character is given, and the reason he is turned out of the service.’

Brandy Face, subs. (old).—A tippler; a drunkard, especially one whose favourite drink is brandy.

a. 1687. Cotton, Æneid, II. Burl. (1692), 85. You goodman brandy-face, unfist her. [M.]

Brandy-Faced, ppl. adj. (general).—Red-faced; bloated. [A reference to the effects upon the physiognomy of excessive indulgence in intoxicating drinks.] The expression is mentioned by Grose as early as 1785, but it is probably still older, for see quotation under brandy-face.

1859. G. A. Sala, Tw. Round Clock, 284. Hulking labourers and brandy-faced viragos, squabbling at tavern doors.

Brandy is Latin for Goose or For Fish, phr. (popular).—This punning vulgarism appears first in Swift’s Polite Conversation, and Brewer thus states the philological equation.

What is the Latin for Goose? (Answer) Brandy. The pun is on the word answer. Anser is the Latin for goose, which brandy follows as surely and quickly as an answer follows a question.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. ii.). Lord Sm. Well, but after all, Tom, can you tell me what’s Latin for a goose? Nev. O my lord, I know that; Why, brandy is Latin for a goose, and Tace is Latin for a candle.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xi. ‘Art thou forward in thy learning? Canst thou tell me Latin for goose?’ ‘To be sure,’ replied Tom, ‘brandy.’

As regards the second form, namely, brandy is Latin for fish, the origin is more obscure, although it is to some extent explained in the following quotation.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 125. We are told that the thirst and uneasy feeling at the stomach, frequently experienced after the use of the richer species of fish, have led to the employment of spirit to this kind of food. Hence, says Dr. Pereira, the vulgar proverb, brandy is Latin for fish.

Brandy Pawnee, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—Brandy and water. [From brandy + Hindustan pānī, water. Cf., Parney, also a slang term for water.]

1816. Quiz, Grand Master, pref. And died at last with brandy pauny. [M.]

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. i. ‘I’m sorry to see you, gentlemen, drinking brandy-pawnee,’ says he; ‘it plays the deuce with our youngest men in India.’

1860. W. H. Russell, My Diary in India, I., p. 120. They had tiffin at two; hot lunch and ale and brandy-pawnee.

Brandy Smash, subs. (popular).—An American drink concocted of brandy and crushed ice. Cf., Drinks.

1862. E. MacDermott, Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar, where visitors may indulge in ‘juleps,’ ‘cocktails,’ ‘cobblers,’ ‘rattlesnakes,’ ‘gum-ticklers,’ ‘eye-openers,’ ‘flashes-o’-lightning,’ brandy-smashes, ‘stone-fences,’ and a variety of similar beverages.

1869. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents Abroad. We procured the services of a gentleman experienced in the nomenclature of the American bar ... a bowing, aproned Frenchman stepped forward and said Que veulent les messieurs? Our general said (after naming several other drinks) give us a brandy smash; the Frenchman began to back away suspicious of the ominous vigour of the last order.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 2 July, p. 5, col. 3. [Brandy-smash is mentioned in a list of American drinks.]

1888. New York Evening Post, 24 Feb. Philological.—Gallic Tourist—‘I do not see how any one ever learns the absurd English. I read on the menu of drinks, ‘Sherree Cobblair,’ I find in the dictionary—a mender of shoes of sherry wine; ‘Santa Cruz Sour,’ La Sainte Croix acide; brandy smash, ‘Eau de vie écrasé.’ Bête de langue!’

Bran-Mash, subs. (military).—Bread sopped in coffee or tea. Cf., Floating batteries.

Brass, subs. (popular).—1. Impudence; effrontery; brass being a type of unblushing hardness, shamelessness, etc. This colloquialism is by no means of yesterday, having been used by Shakspeare. Sometimes rendered bold as brass. Cf., Cheek, which also see for synonyms.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour Lost, v., 2, 395. Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out?

1701. Defoe, True Born Englishman, pt. II. By my Old Friend [The Devil], who printed in my face A needful competence of English brass.

1703. Farquhar, Inconstant, Act i., Sc. 2. Thou hast impudence to set a good face upon anything; I would change half my gold for half thy brass, with all my heart.

1740. North, Examen, p. 256. She in her defence made him appear such a rogue upon record, that the Chief Justice wondered he had the brass to appear in a court of justice.

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act iii., Sc. 1. ‘To me he appears the most impudent piece of brass that ever spoke with a tongue.’

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 68. Oh, what a face of brass was his, Who first at Congress show’d his phyz.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lv., p. 462. ‘I haven’t brass enough in my composition, to see him in this place and under this charge.’

1876. C. H. Wall, trans. Molière, vol. I., p. 18. Gorgibus is a simpleton, a boor, who will readily believe everything you say, provided ... you have brass enough.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 199. He started with a lot of tin, but had not sufficient brass or physique to stand the wear-and-tear of the life.

2. (common.)—A generic term for money. At one time money was made of brass, hence probably the slang usage. Cf., Tin.

1526. Tyndale, Matt. x., 9. Posses not golde, nor silver, nor brasse yn youre gerdels.

1597. Hall, Satires, IV., v., 12.

Hirelings enow beside can be so base, Tho’ we should scorn each bribing varlet’s brass.

1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, ch. xx. ‘There’ll be Fosters i’ th’ background, as one may say, to take t’ biggest share on t’ profits,’ said Bell. ‘Ay, ay, that’s but as it should be, for I reckon they’ll ha’ to find the brass the first.’

1864. M. E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, ch. xii. ‘Steeve’s a little too fond of the brass to murder any of you for nothing.’

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 129. ‘It’s noa use they’re telling us afterwards they ain’t collared the brass.’

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Billy Wells. What the dickens is all this about the hats? We have seventy-two telegrams and letters on the subject, and would prefer the brass.

Brass-Bound and Copper Fastened, adj. phr. (nautical).—Said of a lad dressed in a midshipman’s uniform.—W. Clark Russell.

Brass-Bounder, subs. (nautical).—A midshipman.

Brasser, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—A bully.

Brass Farthing or Farde.—The lowest limit of value.—See quots.

1642. Rogers, Naaman, 33. As bare and beggarly as if he had not one brasse farthing. [M.]

1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 5. Nobby button’-oler very well When one wants to do the ’eavy swell; Otherwise don’t care not one brass farden, For the best ever blowed in Covent Garden.

1880. Besant and Rice, Seamy Side, x., 78. I care not one brass farthing.

Brass Knocker, subs. (vagrants’).—Broken victuals; the remains of a meal. Specially applied by beggars to the scraps often bestowed upon them in place of money.

Brass-Plate Merchant, subs. (common).—Explained by quotation.

1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 95. The brass-plate merchant, as he is called in the trade, being a person who merely procures orders for coal, gets some merchant who buys in the coal-market to execute them in his name, and manages to make a living by the profits of these transactions.

Brassy, adj. (common).—Impudent; impertinent; shameless. Cf., Brass, sense 1.

1570–76. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 156. To make them blush ... were they never so brassie and impudent.

1661. T. Middleton, Mayor of Quinborough, iii., 1. There’s no gallant so brassy impudent durst undertake the words that shall belong to’t.

1738–1819. Wolcot, P. Pindar, p. 73, ed. 1830.

No. Mr. Gattle—Betty was too brassy, We never keep a servant that is saucy.

1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, ch. xxxii. ‘I asked him to leave his name, sir, and he said Mr. Rowland Yorke knew his name quite well enough without having it left for him.’ ‘As brassy as that was he! I wish to goodness it was the fashion to have a cistern in your house roofs’!

Brazen-Faced, ppl. adj. (common).—Shameless; impudent; unblushing. With a face as of brass, see Brass. Hotten remarks that such a person is sometimes said to have had his face rubbed with a brass candle-stick.

1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps., xii., 5. With such brazenfaste baldnesse.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 84. Amidst his impudent brazen-fac’d defamation of Doctor Ferne.

1693. Dryden, Juvenal, III., 133. Quick-witted, brazen-fac’d, with fluent tongues.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 10. Thus with an unparallell’d Impudence every brazen-fac’d Malefactor is harden’d in his Sin.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., viii., p. 137. ‘Of all the impudent brazen-faced rascals that are cheating the gallows, you must be the worst.’

Bread, subs. (old).—Employment; a transferred sense, the idea being—no work; no food.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Out of bread, out of employment.

Bread and Butter Fashion, phr. (harlotry).—An expression descriptive of the sexual embrace.

Bread and Butter Warehouse, phr. (old).—A nickname given to the old Ranelagh Gardens. An allusion to the scenes of infamy and debauchery which once characterized the place.—See Bread and butter fashion.

Bread and Meat, subs. phr. (military).—The commissariat.

Bread Bags, subs. (military).—A nickname given in the army and navy to any one connected with the victualling department, as a purser or purveyor in the commissariat. At one time called muckers, and amongst French soldiers riz-pain-sel.

Bread-Barge, subs. (nautical).—The distributing basket or tray containing the rations of biscuits.

Bread-Basket, subs. (popular).—The stomach. [An obvious allusion to that part of the body as a receptacle of food.]

English Synonyms. Bread-room; dumpling-depôt; victualling-office; porridge-bowl.

French Synonyms. La panetière (common: properly a bag or satchel wherein shepherds put their bread; a pouch. Akin to this is the slang term la pantière, the mouth); panier au pain (a literal translation of the English term); le jabot (popular: formerly heart or breast. Se remplir le jabot = to have a ‘blow out’); la halle aux croûtes (popular: this may be rendered literally as ‘Crust’ hall; also, a baker’s shop); la place d’armes (popular: the place of arms, stronghold or arsenal); la soute au pain (popular: soute = store-room, etc.; thus, the expression would correspond closely to victualling office or bread-basket. ‘Put that in your bread-basket’ is rendered by colle-toi ça dans le Fusil, i.e., ‘ram that in your gun’).

Italian Synonym. The Fourbesque has fagiana (properly a chest or store house for beans.)

1753. Foote, Englishman in Paris, Act 1. Another came up to second time, but I let drive at the mark, made the soup-maigre rumble in his bread-basket, and laid him sprawling.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 18. Neat milling this Round—what with clouts on the nob, Home hits in the bread-basket, clicks in the gob.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 1. Jerry. Now, doctor, take care of your bread-basket—eyes right, look to your napper.

1856. Reade, Never too Late to Mend, ch. lxx. When you can’t fill the bread-basket, shut it. Go to sleep till the Southern Cross comes out again.

1876. C. H. Wall, trans. Molière, vol. I., p. 194. And get as a reward an ugly piece of cold steel right through my bread-basket.

Bread-Picker, subs. (Winchester College).—The four senior præfects used to appoint ‘Juniors’ to this office which was nominal, but which carried with it exemption from fagging at meal times. No ‘notion’ book states in what the office consisted, but it is supposed that it relates to times when Juniors had to secure the bread, etc., served out for their masters.

Bread-Room, subs. (old).—The stomach. A variant of bread-basket, which see for synonyms.

1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. v. He ordered the waiter ... to ... bring along-side a short allowance of brandy or grog, that he might cant a slug [dram] into his bread-room. Ibid, ch. xvii. The waiter ... returned with a quartern of brandy, which Crowe, snatching eagerly, started into his bread-room at one cant.

Bread-Room Jack, subs. (nautical).—A purser’s servant.

Break, subs. (thieves’).—A collection (of money) usually got up by a prisoner’s friends, either to defray the expenses of his defence, or as a ‘lift’ when leaving prison. Formerly and more generally applied to a pause in street performances to enable the hat to be passed round. Cf., Lead. French slang has une bouline with the same meaning; and, to make a collection is, among mountebanks, faire la manche.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. The mob got me up a break (collection), and I got between five or six foont (sovereigns).

Break Down, subs. (Australian).—1. A measure of liquor.—See quotation.

1759. Frank Fowler, Southern Lights and Shadows, p. 53. To pay for liquor for another is to ‘stand,’ or to ‘shout,’ or to ‘sacrifice.’ The measure is called a ‘nobbler,’ or a break-down.

2. (common.)—A noisy dance; also, a convivial gathering. The term was, at first, specially applied to a negro dance, but is now in general use in England in a humorous sense. Also used as a verb, i.e., to break down, to dance riotously; to be boisterous and ‘spreeish.’ For synonyms, see Flare up.

1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, II., p. 54. And Mr. Pingle retired into the next room, where he indulged in the steps of a comic dance popular with burlesque actors, and known as a nigger break-down.

1873. Sat. Review, May, p. 676. We shall not be surprised to learn that they have serious thoughts of engaging a few comic singers and break-down dancers for their next campaign.

1883. Daily News, March 26, p. 2, col. 4. A patter song ... was twice redemanded, chiefly, it appeared, for the sake of a comical ‘break-down’ danced by the demented king.

Break o’ Day Drum (American thieves’).—A drinking saloon which keeps its doors open all night.

Break One’s Back, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To become bankrupt; an extension of the figurative usage to overpower; render nugatory; crush.

1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., Act i., Sc. 1. Aber. I do know Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have By this so sicken’d their estates, that never They shall abound as formerly. Buck. O, many Have broke their backs with laying manors on ’em For this great journey.

1620. Middleton, Chaste Maid, iii., 2. [The word is here used in the sense of bankruptcy and ruin.]

1887. Baring Gould, The Game-cocks, ch. xxviii. ‘They are very poor, and have made a hard fight to get on. I fear this change would break their backs.’

1888. Ashton, Mod. Street Ballads, p. 13. The cesses, rates, and tithes nearly breaks their backs.

Break One’s Egg.—See Crack one’s egg.

Break Out All Over or In a Fresh Spot, etc., verbal phr. (American).—Expressions in common use—in the one case conveying an idea of completeness; and, in the other, of commencing some new undertaking, or assuming a different position whether in an argument or action. These usages may be traced to the phraseology of medicine.

Break Shins, verbal phr. (general).—To borrow money. Hotten thinks the term is a variant of ‘to kick,’ formerly in use with a similar meaning. This may be so, but it is worthy of note that ‘to shin’ is colloquial in America in the sense of ‘to walk quickly,’ ‘to gad about’; but having particular reference also, in mercantile phraseology, to the action of a man who, finding himself short of money to meet his engagements, goes round to his friends to borrow what he requires. To bite the ear (q.v.) has the same signification; but for synonyms, see Shins.

Break the Balls, verbal phr. (billiards).—To commence playing; a phrase very much akin to ‘breaking ground’; indeed few verbs enter more largely into figurative or colloquial combinations than break.

Break the Molasses Jug, verbal phr. (American).—To come to grief; to make a mistake.

Break the Neck or Back of Anything, verbal phr. (common).—To accomplish the major portion of a task; to be near the end of an undertaking; to be past the middle of same.

Breaky-Leg, subs. (common).—1. Intoxicating drink of any kind. [A humorous allusion to one of the possible effects of confirmed drunkenness, or the weakness produced in one’s legs by tippling.] For all synonyms, see Drinks.

2. (thieves’.)—A shilling.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. A shilling. Breake-leg.

Breast Fleet, subs. (old).—Roman Catholics; so called from their practice of crossing themselves on the breast as an act of devotion.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He (or she) belongs to the breast fleet; i.e., is a Roman Catholic; an appellation derived from their custom of beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.

Breath. Change your breath, phr. (American).—An injunction to adopt a different manner or bearing. An offensive, slang expression which, originating in California, quickly ran its course through the Union.

Breech, verb (schoolboys’).—To flog or be flogged; especially on the posteriors. This verb was formerly in literary use, but has now fallen into disuetude.

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxxiv., st. 6, p. 166 (S.D.S.).

Maides, up I beseech yee Least Mistres doe breech yee.

1637. Massinger, Guardian, i., 1. How he looks! like a school-boy that had play’d the truant, And went to be breech’d.

1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xxiv. ‘Go to,’ said Wayland, ‘thou art a prating boy, and should be breeched for thine assurance.’

Breeched, ppl. adj. (popular).—1. To be well off; to have plenty of money; ‘to be well breeched,’ to be in good circumstances. Cf., Ballasted. The French have a similar idiom. If a man is bankrupt he is said to be déculotté—unbreeched. Given in this sense by Vaux in his Flash Dictionary [1812].

Breeches. To wear the breeches, phr. (common).—A phrase said only of women; and signifying to rule; to usurp a husband’s prerogative; to be ‘master.’ An analogous phrase is ‘the grey mare is the better horse of the two.’ [The derivation is obviously an allusion to breeches as the symbol of authority, i.e., of manhood.] Murray traces the expression back to 1553, but it is, in reality, much older. It is found in French as early as 1450.

1450. Les Quinze Joyes de Mariage: La Dixiesme Joye. Edition Elzevirienne, Paris (1853), p. 113. Et sachez qu’il est avenu à aucuns que l’en leur faisoit boire de mauvès brouez affin de porter les braies ou pour autres choses pires.

The idea is met with in English at about the same date in a carol, the burden of which is founded on it:—

14(?). Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century, Percy Soc. Pub., vol. XXIII., p. 65.

Nova, nova, sawe you ever such, The moste mayster of the hows weryth no brych.

Also a little later, from the same collection:—

The Boke of Maid Emlyn, vol. VI., p. 21.

All women be suche, Thoughe the man wear the breche.

It is curious to note also that the expression has cropped up in most languages. The Dutch say, ‘De vrouw draagt ’er de broek’; the Germans, ‘Sie hat die Hosen.’ The Germans have also other ‘breeches’ sayings; as e.g., ‘Das Hertz ist ihm in die Hosen gefallen.’ Other illustrative quotations are:—

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxvii. st. 18, 156 (E.D.S.).

Least some should talke, as is the speech, The good wiues’ husband weares no breech.

1591. Nashe, A Prognostication, in wks. II., 158. Diverse great stormes are this yere to be feared, especially in houses where the wives weare the breeches.

1663. T. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, ii., 3, in Dodsley’s O. P. (1780), xi., 413. Anything that may get rule; I love to wear the breeches.

1724. Swift, Misc. Poems, in wks. (1824) XIV., 199.

Those men, who wore the breeches least, Call’d him a cuckold, fool, and beast.

1820. Coombe, Syntax, Consolation, ch. v.

When she doth wear the breeches; And the poor fool dare not resist The terrors of her threat’ning fist.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 4. Mrs. T. No, no—no mischief—harkye, you did me a service just now in the street. Tom. I know I did, down by the pump. Mrs. T. Well, now, I’ll do you one—my husband is asleep: I have the keys; and I wear the breeches.

Breeching, verbal subs. (schoolboys’).—A flogging. Like breech (q.v.), formerly in general use.

1520. Whittington, Vulg. (1527), 26. I studye to-day to-daye bycause I fere a brechyng.

1594. Nashe, Unfortunate Traveller, in wks. V., 149. Heeres a stirre thought I to my selfe after I was set at libertie, that is worse than an vpbrayding lesson after a britching.

Breef.—See Brief.

Breeze, subs. (general).—A row; quarrel; disturbance; coolness. [From breeze, a cool wind.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To kick up a breeze, to breed a disturbance.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 5. But, though we must hope for such good times as these, Yet, as something may happen to kick up a breeze.

1865. Saturday Review, 28 Jan., p. 119. ‘Don’t be angry; we’ve had our breeze. Shake hands!’ [M.]

Brekker, subs. (Oxford University).—Breakfast. [Formed by phonetically taking the first syllable of ‘breakfast’ + er, a species of slang formation, which originated at Harrow.]—See ‘Comparative and Historical Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.

Brevet Hell, subs. (American).—A nickname for a battle, which originated during the Civil War. The meaning is obvious enough. The carnage and bloodshed of a battle-field is only a degree short of the horrors of the theological ‘hell.’ Compare with brevet-wife, brevet-rank.

Brevet-Wife, subs. (general).—A woman who, without being married to a man, lives with him, takes his name, and enjoys all the privileges of a wife. A transferred figurative sense of the legitimate word.

Brew, verb (Marlborough School).—To make afternoon tea. Almost always carried on in couples, but sometimes three boys brew together.

Brewer’s Horse, subs. (old).—A drunkard. For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.

Brewing, verbal subs. (Marlborough College).—The making of afternoon tea.—See Brew.

Brian o’ Linn, subs. (rhyming slang).—Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks.

Briar, Brier, subs. (popular).—A colloquialism for ‘brier-wood pipe.’ The Erica arborea or White Heath, a native of the Mediterranean littoral is largely used in the manufacture of pipes. [Cf., Fr. bruyère = ‘heath.’]

1882. Graphic, Dec. 16, p. 683, col. 2. Nowadays, every third man you meet has a cigarette or a briar in his mouth.

1886. Harper’s Mag., 27 Dec. There is the ever-ready brier-root pipe loaded with Caporal.

Brick, subs. (popular).—A good fellow; one whose staunchness and loyalty commend him to his fellows—a highly eulogistic epithet for one man to apply to another. Said to be of University origin, the simile being drawn from the classics. A writer in Hallberger’s Illustrated Magazine [1878, p. 635], says the expression is logically deduced in the following amusing manner. A brick is ‘deep-red,’ so a ‘deep-read’ man is a brick. The punning syllogism is carried further. To read like a brick is to read till you are deep-‘read’; a deep-read man is in University-phrase a ‘good man’; a good man is a jolly fellow with non-reading men, ergo a jolly fellow is a brick.

It has, however, been pointed out that dedicatory columns of various forms have been found bearing Greek inscriptions, records of the great and virtuous. Some of these were circular and fluted pillars; but the Athenians are said to have dedicated square columns so inscribed, which gave rise to the style τετράγ = ωνος ἀνὴρ [see Aristotle, Eth., i., 10], one whose worth entitled him to honorary mention on some monumental stone of the form described. The anticipatory distinction might, therefore, be easily accorded to one worthy of such posthumous honours. From the meritorious notion of the rectangular stone or pillar we get the living type of genuine or supposititious worth—a regular brick. A further analogy may be drawn from the clayey basis of the brick, even in a state of combination with sand and ashes—those types of instability and decay—and we naturally acquire the notion of solidity, consistency, and strength. We are thus enabled to apply the above phrase to the child of clay, who may chance to resemble it in its constitution, whose moral materials and parts have been originally so carefully formed, so judiciously tempered and skilfully moulded, that, in spite of a frail and infirm nature, he has preserved his shape thus early given. The fiery test but determines his solidity; his sound, staunch, and unshrinking firmness, constitutes him a regular brick or hero, the attributes which especially qualify him for that metaphorical appellation. Cf., On the square; straight—true—clean as a die.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Brothers of Birchington). In brief I don’t stick to declare, Father Dick, So they called him for short, was a regular brick; A metaphor taken, I have not the page aright, Out of an ethical work by the Stagyrite.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 10. ‘Mr. Fairlegh, let me introduce this gentleman, Mr. George Lawless; he is, if he will allow me to say so, one of the most rising young men of his generation, one of the firmest props of the glorious edifice of our rights and privileges.’ ‘A regular brick,’ interposed Coleman.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. ‘But the others are capital. There is that little chap who has just had the measles—he’s a dear little brick.’

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 100. He voted E.’s new crony a brick.

1876. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, ch. xvi. Their brothers’ friend, declared by Hans to be the salvation of him, a fellow like nobody else, and, in fine, a brick.

French Synonyms. Un bon gniasse (cads’ and thieves’); être d’un bon bouchon (to be a brick. Michel gives bouchon as ‘cadet’); un bon bougre (popular: Barrère says the word bougre is often used with a disparaging sense; bougre de cochon, ‘you dirty pig’; bougre de serin, ‘you ass.’ Littré derives bougre from Bulgarus, Bulgarian; the heretic Albigeois, who shared the religious ideas of some of the Bulgarians, received the name of bougres); un zig, zigue, zigorneau, zigard, or zingo (popular: Michel gives zig as camarade, ‘a comrade’; in Italian zigno or petit lézard which latter (lézard) signifies in French argot, a ‘bad lot’).

Verb (American).—To punish a man by bringing the knees close up to the chin, and lashing the arms tightly to the knees—a species of trussing.

Like a brick—like bricks—(and in an intensive form) like a thousand of bricks, adv. phr. (common).— With energy; alacrity; thoroughly; vehemently and with much display. [Derived partly attributively from brick (q.v.), and partly in allusion to the crash of failing bricks.] There are numerous similes of a kindred character; e.g., Like beans; Like one o’clock; Like blazes, all of which see.

1835. Dickens, Sketches, p. 139. Bump they [cab and horse] cums agin the post, and out flies the fare like bricks.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Ingoldsby Penance).

For the Friar to his skirts closely sticks, ‘Running after him,’—so said the Abbot,—like bricks!

1860. New Orleans Picayune, April 27 (Police Report). ‘When it came to the breakdown, Your Honor, he kicked up a row like a drove of contrary mules, and when we wanted to turn him out, he fell upon us like a thousand of bricks, and threatened to make minced meat of the police and every one of us.’

1864. Western World, March 5. ‘When Mr. Nye had finished, Mr. Stewart rose, and with his irresistible logic and impressive language came down upon him like a thousand of bricks, till he was utterly crushed and demolished.’

Brick in the hat, phr. (American).—A drunken man is said to have a brick in his hat, the allusion being to top-heaviness and inability to preserve a steady gait.

Brick-duster.—See Brickfielder.

Brickdusts, subs. (military).—The Fifty-third Regiment of Foot, so nicknamed from its facings, which are scarlet. Another slang appellation is ‘The Old Five-and-Threepennies,’ from its number and the daily pay of an ensign.

Brickfielder or Brickduster, subs. (Australian colloquial).—In Sydney the name given to a dust or sand-storm brought by southerly winds from sand hills locally known as the Brickfields—hence the name. Also called the buster or southerly burster.

18(?). Munday, Our Antipodes. In October, 1848, as I find by my diary, I witnessed a fine instance of a nocturnal brickfielder. Awakened by the roaring of the wind I arose and looked out. It was bright moonlight, or it would have been bright but for the clouds of dust, which, impelled by a perfect hurricane, curled up from the earth, and absolutely muffled the fair face of the planet. Pulverised specimens of every kind and colour of soil within two miles of Sydney, flew past the house high over the chimney tops in lurid whirl-winds, now white, now red. It had all the appearance of an American prairie fire, barring the fire.

1853. Fraser’s Mag., XLVIII., 515. What the Sydney people call a brickfielder.

1886. Cowan, Charcoal Sk. The buster and brickfielder: Austral red-dust blizzard and red-hot simoon.

Bricklayer, subs. (clerical).—A clergyman. [It has been hazarded that the term is a familiar corruption of Rubricklayer, to denote general character for Rubrical exactness—said of men who not only lay down Liturgical law, but obey it. With more propriety, however, may it be held as referring to the important part taken by the mediæval clergy in ecclesiastical architecture. Mr. Thomas Boys, in the course of an interesting article on the subject [N. and Q., 2 S., vii., 115], traces its historical derivation somewhat as follows:—It is well known how in former days the building of cathedrals and other sacred edifices was patronised and promoted both by the dignitaries and by the clergy generally; but it is not, perhaps, matter of equal notoriety that many chapters and collegiate bodies had a functionary called a workman (operarius), on whom devolved the charge of repairing and maintaining the sacred fabric, and who was often one of their own number. In fact, he was of the dignitaries of the church. ‘Operarius, Dignitas, in Collegiis Canonicorum, et Monasteriis, cui operibus publicis vacare incumbit’ (Carpenter). The office of this operarius or workman was called ‘operaria.’ ‘Operaria. Dignitas Operarii in collegiis canonicorum et monasteriis’ (ib.). In Spain, the clerical operarius was called by the corresponding Spanish name, obrero (a workman). ‘Obrero. Se llama tambien el que cuida de las obras, en las Iglesias o Comunidades, que en algunas Cathedrales es dignidad’ (Dicc. de la Ac. Esp.); i.e., in some cathedrals the office made the holder of it a dignitary. Salazar de Mendoza, in his ‘Cronica del Cardenal Don R. G. de Mendoça,’ tells us that, the Cardinal having conceded to the Chapter of the cathedral at Toledo, the administration of the building-fund, the Chapter in 1485, nominated as workman (obrero) the Canon Juan de Contreras (Lib. II., cap. 62, par. 2). May we not conjecture, then, that, if clergymen are now provincially called bricklayers, it is because their mediæval predecessors were, with a special reference to building, called ‘workmen’? Possibly, from the appointment of certain ecclesiastics in former days under the name of operarii or workmen, for the repair and maintenance of public edifices in the University of Oxford, the title of bricklayers may have passed, in course of time, to the neighbouring clergy of Oxon and Berks. The use of bricks, which ceased in this country after the decline of the Roman power, is stated by Hallam to have been reintroduced, probably from Flanders, in the early part of the fourteenth century.

With perhaps equal propriety the term [bricklayer] is thought to refer to the οἰκοδομὴ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ (Eph. iv., 12), trusting that they, like St. Paul, are wise ‘master builders’; builders on the only true foundation, ‘which is Jesus Christ.’ Edify, edificare οἰκοδομεῖν have primary reference to houses built with hands, as well as to the spiritual one of building up the Church of Christ.]

Bricklayer’s Clerk, subs. (nautical).—One of the hundred names given to a lubberly sailor.—W. Clark Russell. For synonyms, see Strawyarder, and Cf., Bail.

Bricks, subs. (Wellington College).—A sort of pudding.

Bridge, subs. (cards’).—A cheating trick at cards, by which any particular card is cut by previously curving it by the pressure of the hand. Used in France as well as in England, and termed in the Parisian Argot faire le pont sec, also couper dans le pont. The modus operandi of avoiding, or rather of neutralizing the cut, which is the very backbone of the card-sharper’s art, is somewhat difficult, and is generally performed by one of two methods, termed respectively the ‘bridge’ and the ‘pass.’ In the former method the sharper, at the end of his shuffle—the cards being still held backs uppermost in the left hand—takes some twelve or fifteen of the underneath cards lengthwise between the thumb and first and second fingers of the right hand and throws them on the top of the pack, at the same time giving them a slight squeeze outwards which causes them to assume an imperceptible curve. When placed on the table to be cut, the pack will now, owing to this curve or ‘bridge,’ present in the middle a very slight gap almost invisible to the eye; and experience shows that the odds are twenty to one that the adversary will cut exactly at that very spot, thus taking off the twelve or fifteen cards thrown on the top and bringing the ‘readied’ portion of the pack back to its original position.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 266. I got my living by card-playing in the low lodging-houses ... I worked the oracle; they were not up to it. I put the first and seconds on, and the bridge too.

1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, I., p. 251. I’ve found out the way that Yankee fellows does the king. It’s not the common bridge that every body knows.

1866. Yates, Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die, talking over a flat, or winning money of a greenhorn, was to have its vent in launching a great City Company.

Verb (old).—Explained by quotation.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. To bridge a person, or to throw him over the bridge, is ... to deceive him by betraying the confidence he has reposed in you.

Bridle-Cull, subs. (old).—A highwayman. [From bridle + cull, a ‘man.’] A French equivalent is un garcon de campagne; also un grinche de cambrouse; aller au trimar or trimard, ‘to become a highwayman.’ Trimar = road or ‘toby.’

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. I., ch. v. A booty of £10 looks as great in the eye of a bridle-cull, and gives as much real happiness to his fancy, as that of as many thousands to the statesman.

Bridport or Brydport Dagger, subs. (old).—The hangman’s rope. ‘To be stabbed with a Bridport Dagger’ signifies ‘to be hanged.’ For synonyms, see Horse’s nightcap, and Cf., Anodyne necklace.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Dorset (I., 310). ‘Stab’d with a Brydport dagger.’ That is, hang’d or executed at the Gallowes; the best, if not the most, hemp (for the quantity of ground) growing about Brydport.

1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, etc. (1811), p. 67. Stabbed with a Brydport dagger. That is hanged. Great quantity of hemp is grown about this town; and, on account of its superior qualities, Fuller says there was an ancient statute, now disused, that the cables for the royal navy should be made thereabouts.

1807. Southey, Espriella’s Letters, i., 35 (3 ed.). The neighbourhood is so proverbially productive of hemp, that when a man is hanged, they have a vulgar saying, that he has been stabbed with a Bridport dagger.

Brief, subs. (thieves’).—A ticket of any kind, whether railway pass, pawnbrokers’ duplicate, or ticket for a raffle; also a pocket book. Hence briefless (q.v.).

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I took a brief (ticket) to London Bridge.

1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18, p. 3, col. 2. His usual line of business was ‘brief-snatching,’ i.e., hovering about the crowd that surrounds a small bookmaker, and snatching from the hands of the unwary the credential they with rash eagerness exhibit, and which they desire to exchange with the man they have bet with for their winnings.

1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. They copped the briefs at the next station, and he changed carriages.

Briefless, adj. (common).—Ticketless.—See Brief.

1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 3. Following close at the heels of Newman, I soon found myself within the Aquarium, all briefless as I was, and without having been asked any questions.

Briefs or Breefs, subs. (card-sharpers’).—Cards tampered with for the purpose of swindling.—See Bridge, Concaves, and Convexes, Longs, and Shorts, Reflectors, etc. [From the German briefe, which Baron Heinecken says was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm. Brief is also the synonym for a card in the German Rothwalsch dialect, and briefen is to play at cards.]

1529. [Edited by] Luther, Liber Vagatorum (1860), p. 47. ‘Item—beware of the Joners (gamblers), who practice Beseflery with the brief (cheating at cards), who deal falsely and cut one for the other, cheat with Boglein and spies, pick one brief from the ground, and another from a cupboard,’ etc.

1720. Old Book of Games, quoted by Hotten. ‘Take a pack of cards and open them, then take out all the honours ... and cut a little from the edges of the rest all alike, so as to make the honours broader than the rest, so that when your adversary cuts to you, you are certain of an honour. When you cut to your adversary cut at the ends, and then it is a chance if you cut him an honour, because the cards at the ends are all of a length. Thus you may make breefs end-ways as well as side-ways.’

Brief-Snatcher, subs. (thieves’).—Pocket-book thieves. [From brief (q.v., sense 1), slang term for a pocket-book, + snatcher.]

Brigh, subs. (thieves’).—A pocket.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. Having a new suit of clobber on me, and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).

Some English Synonyms are:—Cly, skyrocket.

French Synonyms are une grande; une profonde, parfonde or prophête (thieves’: literally deep; also used for ‘cave’ or ‘cellar’); une fouillouse (thieves’: this term is an old one. Fouille = a ‘digging’ or excavation. There are various forms—foulle, felouse, filoche); une gueularde (thieves’: gueulard = wallet in slang, but properly signifies a stove); une baguenaude (thieves’ and cads’: properly ‘a bladder-nut’); une balade or ballade; une valade (thieves’: from avaler, to swallow up); une fondrière (thieves’); un four banal (thieves’: either used to signify a ‘pocket,’ a ‘false pocket,’ or an ‘omnibus’); une sonde (literally sonde = probe).

Bright in the Eye, subs. (common).—Slightly tipsy. [An allusion to the sparkling appearance of the eyes at an early stage of intoxication; subsequently they become dull and sleepy.] For synonyms, see Screwed.

Brighton Tipper, subs.—A peculiar kind of ale.—See quotation.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 347. Requiring ... a pint of the celebrated staggering ale, or Real Old Brighton Tipper, at supper. Ibid, p. 447. If they draws the Brighton Tipper here, I takes that ale at night, my love.

Brim, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. [A contraction of brimstone (q.v.)] For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1730–6. Bailey. Brim [q. a contraction of Brimstone], a common strumpet. [M.]

1764. T. Brydges, Homer Travest. (1797), i., 173. Can mortal scoundrels thee [Hera] perplex, And the great brim of brimstones vex?

1808. Jamieson. Brim, a cant term for a trull.—Loth.

2. (common).—Nowadays the term signifies an angry, violent woman, or a termagant, without reference to moral character. An equivalent French term is une chipie. Cf., Brimstone.

1799. Whim of the Day. She raved, she abused me, and splenetic was; She’s a vixen, she’s a brim, zounds! She’s all that is bad.

Brimstone, subs. (old).—1. A violent tempered woman; a virago; a spitfire. [A reference to the inflammable character of the mineral.]

1712. Bp. Burnet, in Walpole’s Reminiscences (1819), p. 75. ‘Oh, madam,’ said the bishop, ‘do not you know what a brimstone of a wife he had?’

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. vi. ‘She is ... not a brimstone, like Kate Koddle, of Chatham.’

1760. C. Johnston, Chrysal, II., 190. I hate the law damnably ever since I lost a year’s pay for hindering our boatswain’s mate’s brother from beating his wife. The brimstone swore I beat her husband, and so I paid for meddling.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxiii. Who seemed, too, to have a temper of her own, and promised, under circumstances, to turn out a bit of a b—mst—ne.

2. (old.)—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1785. Grose. Brim (abbreviation of brimstone), an abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared to brimstone for its inflammability.

Briney or Briny, subs. (popular).—The sea. A ‘dip in the briney’ once a year is a great attraction to Cockney excursionists. Hotten tells a story of one excursionist saying to another, as they stripped in a double machine, ‘Why, ’Arry what dirty feet you’ve got!’ ‘’Ave I; well yer see I wasn’t down last year.’ [From the adj. signifying, ‘of or pertaining to brine or the sea.’]

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. xiv. The luckless plight in which a stout gentleman had found himself, by the temporary loss of all his apparel, while he was disporting in the briny.

1881. Punch, Jan. 15, p. 14. Grigsby. Hullo, my Jellaby, you here! Come and take a dip in the briny, old man. I’m sure you look as if you wanted it. Postlethwaite. Thanks, no. I never bathe. I always see myself so dreadfully foreshortened in the Water, you know!

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Next day bathing, returning from which we beheld a curious sight, three nymphs carrying down to the strand a bath in which one of them was, apparently with a curious mistrust of the sea, going to try the briny.

English Synonyms. Herring pond; big pond; big drink; the puddle; Davy’s locker.

French Synonyms. La grande tasse (familiar: properly ‘the big cup.’ Boire dans la grande tasse, ‘to be drowned’); la grande bleue (popular: the great blue—an allusion to the colour of deep sea water); le grand salé (popular: literally ‘the great salt’); le pré salé (popular: properly the salted or briny meadow.)

Bring Down the House, verbal phr. (general).—To elicit loud applause; and, still more figuratively, to be successful. [The figure of speech is that demonstrative applause will cause the walls to give way. Cf., To raise the roof off.]

1754. World, II., No. 76, 125. His apprehension that your statues will bring the house down.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant Green, II., p. 23. Why, it would surpass the British sailor’s broadsword combat for six, and bring down the house.

1872. Forster, Life of Charles Dickens, ch. xliv. (IV., p. 252). ‘And give us your applause, for that is always just’! which brought down the house with rapture.

1877. Mrs. Riddell, Her Mother’s Darling, II., p. 61 (ch. xii). I do not fancy she would ever forgive any of us if Honie were to bring down the house at Elm Vale.

1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 3. But Samson’s crowning feat of all was to break with his fist two steel chains, suspended from a couple of posts. This fairly brought down the house.

Brisket-Beater, subs. (old).—A Roman Catholic. Cf., Breast fleet and Craw-thumper, synonymous terms. Quoted by Grose [1785].

Bristles or Bristle Dice, subs. (old).—A method of ‘cogging’ dice by inserting bristles into them, and thus influencing the position of the cubes when ‘thrown.’

1532. Dice Play (1050), 28. Bristle dice, be now too gross a practice to be put in use. [M.]

1680. Cotton, in Singer Hist. Cards, 335. This they do by false dice, as ... By bristle-dice. [M.]

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. ‘Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams and bristles ... and a hundred ways of rooking besides.’

Bristol Milk, subs. (old).—Sherry. [An allusion to sherry being formerly a large import of the city of Bristol.] For synonyms, see Drinks.

1644. Prynne and Walker, Fiennes’ Trial, 78. Good store of Bristol milk, strong wines and waters. [M.]

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Bristol. ‘Bristol milk’; this metaphorical milk, whereby Xeres or Sherry Sack is intended.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bristol milk, a Spanish wine called sherry, much drank at that place, particularly in the morning.

1849–61. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I., iii. A rich beverage made of the best Spanish wine, and celebrated ... as Bristol milk.

Broach Claret, verbal phr. (pugilistic).—To draw blood.—See, however, Claret.

Broad and Shallow, phr. (popular).—An epithet applied to the so-called ‘Broad Church,’ in contradistinction to the ‘High’ and ‘Low’ Churches.—See High and dry.

1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. In the Church have we not the three schools of High and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?

Broadbottoms, subs. (political).—A nickname given to two Coalition Governments, one in the last century [1741], and the other in 1807.—See quots.

A pamphlet dated April 18, 1807, has reference to the latter. Its full title is:—‘The pigs possessed, or the broadbottom’d litter running headlong into the Sea of Perdition.’ The characters are George III., as the British farmer; Lords Sidmouth, Ellenborough, Howick (‘Test Act’); Mr. Windham; Lords Holland, Walpole, Carlisle St. Vincent; Earls Temple (‘Last Stake’), Grenville (‘Catholic Bill’), and of Derby; Lords Erskine, Lauderdale (a Scotch pig), H. Petty, and Moira; the Duke of Bedford, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, marked ‘Erin go Bragh’; Earl Spencer, Marquis of Buckingham (‘Family’), R. B. Sheridan (Harlequin), Courtney, Tierney, and Whitbread (‘Entire’). Courtney is placed in profile between Ellenborough and Sidmouth. He was an intimate friend of Fox. This is said to be the only portrait of him. The print is a supplement to another styled ‘More Pigs than Teats.’ The pigs represent the Ministers described commonly by the phrase ‘All the Talents,’ or the ‘Broad-Bottoms’ who were succeeded, April, 1807, by the Duke of Portland and his supporters. The former are not to be confounded with an earlier ‘Broad-Bottom’ Administration. The latter was commemorated in the satirical inscription for Fox’s tomb, Hic jacet Pater Broad-Bottomos.

1742. Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1833), No. 22, Feb. 18, vol. I., p. 106. The Tories declare against any farther prosecution—if Tories there are, for now one heard of nothing but the broad-bottom; it is the reigning cant word, and means, the taking all parties and people, indifferently, into the ministry.

1843. Macaulay, Historical Essays, II., p. 244. The Pelhams had forced the King, much against his will, to part with Lord Carteret.... They proceeded, after this victory, to form the Government on that basis, called by the cant name of the ‘broad-bottom.’

1863. Jeaffreson, Live It Down, I., p. 249. The star of Granville is falling, that of Pelham is in the ascendant; and the great coalition on ‘The Br. B.’ is managing the affairs of the State.

1871. Miss Braddon, Robert Ainsleigh, I., p. 37. A scathing reply from the polished chief of the famous Br. B. Administration.

1887. Pol. Slang, in Cornhill Mag., June, p. 628. A Coalition Government in the last century was known by the apt nickname of the ‘Broad Bottom.’

Broadbrim, subs. (common).—A Quaker. [The origin of this expression is to be found in the hat once peculiar to the ‘Society of Friends.’ Hotten says the epithet is now used of any quiet, sedate, old man.]

1712. Spectator, No. 276. [Broad-brim is used as the name of a Quaker correspondent.]

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VII., ch. x. This the Quaker had observed, and this, added to the rest of his behaviour, inspired honest broad-brim with a conceit that his companion was, in reality, out of his senses.

1864. Reader (quoted in Notes and Queries, 5 S., ix., p. 263). Broadbrim, a Quaker. This word clearly owes its origin to the peculiar hat worn by the Society of Friends.

1876. Jas. Grant, One of the Six Hundred, ch. i. The sly broad-brim, and popularity-hunters of the Peace Society sent a deputation to the Emperor Nicholas.

Broad-Cooper, subs. (brewers’).—A person employed by brewers to negotiate with publicans.

Broad Coves, subs. (old).—Card-sharpers. [From broads (q.v.), cards, + cove (q.v.), a man.] The modern term for swindling at cards is broad faking (q.v.). A French equivalent is un brêmeur. For synonyms, see Rook.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5.

Your swell broad coves, with all their airs Can’t match the kids near Wapping stairs, They are so down and knowing; Of lowest life you’ll see the best, At Maces’s, All-max, in the East; So let’s at once be going: Come, toddle along, toddle along, etc.

Broad-Faking, subs. (card-sharpers’).—Playing at cards. Generally used, however, to denote ‘work’ of the three card and kindred descriptions.

Broad-Fencer, subs. (thieves’).—A ‘k’rect card’ seller at races. [From broad (q.v.), a card, + fence or fencer, a ‘tradesman.’]

Broads, subs. (general).—Playing cards.—See Stock broads.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is cards.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Broads, cards; a person expert at which is said to be a good broad-player.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, IV., ii. I nick the broads.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 262. He ... became one of a gang who practised with the broads card-sharping and the ‘confidence trick.’

Broadsman, subs. (common).—A card-sharper. [From broads = cards + man.] Formerly called broad cove (q.v.). For synonyms, see Rook.

1879. J. W. Horsley, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. Broadsmen (card-sharpers).

1888. G. R. Sims, in Cass. Sat. Journal, 31 March, p. 7. The broadsman is a card-sharper.

Broady, subs. (common).—1. Cloth. [A corruption of broad-cloth.]

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 54. Gentlemen finding their own broady can be accommodated.

1883. Daily Telegraph, August 7, p. 6, col. 2. The prospectus further intimated that ... gentlemen ‘finding their own broady ... could be accommodated.’

2. (thieves’.)—Anything worth stealing.—See Broady worker.

Broady Worker, subs. (thieves’).—A man who goes round selling vile shoddy stuff under the pretence that it is excellent material, which has been ‘got on the cross,’ i.e., stolen.

Brock, verb (Winchester College).—To bully; to tease; to badger. [Brock is a north country and Hampshire name for a badger.] In French military schools this is called faire une brimade or faire brimer.

Brockster, subs. (Winchester College).—A bully.—See Brock.

Brogues, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—Breeches. This is, in reality, an obsolete old English term which has survived among the ‘Blues.’

Broiled or Boiled Crow. To eat boiled crow.—A newspaper editor, who is obliged by his ‘party’ or other outside influences, to advocate ‘principles’ different from those which he supported a short time before, is said to ‘eat boiled crow.’ Originally the phrase was simply to eat crow, and the following account is that currently accepted as to its derivation.

1888. Atlanta Constitution. During the unpleasantness between the States and England, there were located on opposite sides of the Niagara river a British and an American fort, and during an armistice the soldiers of both garrisons were accustomed to go hunting. Among the American troops was one long, lank, stuttering specimen of the genus Yankee, who would persist, in spite of orders to the contrary, in going across the river on his hunting expeditions. One day when on the Canada side he had had poor luck and got nothing, but resolved not to go back entirely empty handed. While passing through the grounds of an English gentleman, he spied a crow, and, blazing away, brought it down. The Englishman had witnessed the shot and resolved to punish the offender for poaching on his private grounds. As the Yankee was loading his gun he approached, and, complimenting him on his good shot, asked to look at his gun. The unsuspecting Yankee handed it to him, and the Briton, bringing the gun to his shoulder and covering the Yankee, abused him for trespassing on his grounds, and ordered him, on pain of death, to take a bite out of the crow. The soldier begged and pleaded, but to no avail. The Englishman had the drop on him, so he finally bit a piece from the breast of the crow. The Englishman, after warning him to keep off his premises in the future, handed him back his gun and bade him clear out. No sooner was his rifle returned than he covered the Briton and ordered him to finish the crow. Then it was the Englishman’s turn to beg off, but the Yankee was firm, and the Englishman, with many a wry face, did succeed in downing several bites of the unsavoury bird. His wounded honour being appeased, the Yankee betook himself back to the fort. The Englishman the next day went to the American commander and told his version of the affair, and demanded that the culprit be punished. From the description given, the American officer knew that the offender must have been the stuttering soldier, and ordered him to be brought before them. When he came in the captain asked him if he had ever seen the gentleman before. The Yankee shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, and, after several attempts, finally answered that he had. ‘When and under what circumstances?’ asked the officer. ‘I d-dined with him y-y-yesterday, captin,’ stuttered the soldier. The story goes that his wit saved the soldier from punishment.

Broke. Dead broke (q.v.)—Stone broke (q.v.), adj. (common).—Ruined; decayed; hard up—said of health or pecuniary circumstances. The French slang has n’avoir pas un radis, literally ‘not to have a radish’; but for all synonyms, see Dead-broke.

1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 16. ‘How do you do when you’re stone broke?’ I ask him. ‘Well, sir, sometimes I comes across a gentleman as gives me a bob and starts me again.’

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Aug. 14. I see that Sullivan made 21,000 dols. out of his fight, but as he was ‘dead broke’ before the battle, there won’t be much of it left. Nevertheless, Sullivan has received hundreds of begging letters from folks who want him to pay off mortgages on their homes or buy them houses and lots and things of that sort.

Broken Feather in One’s Wing, subs. phr. (popular).—A blot on one’s character.

1880. Mrs. Oliphant, Phœbe, jun., ii., 6. If an angel were to walk about, Mrs. Sam Hurst would never rest till she had found out where he came from. And perhaps whether he had a broken feather in his wing.

Broken-Kneed, ppl. adj. (common).—Said of a girl or woman who has been seduced. Cf., Ankle and Broken legged; for synonyms, see Dock and Leg. In French theatrical slang, avoir mal aux genoux.

Broken Legged, ppl. adj. (common).—Seduced.—See Dock and Leg for synonyms.

Brolly, subs. (general).—An umbrella. Term first used at Winchester, being subsequently adopted at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

1885. Punch, June 6, p. 273. Pair o’ pattens and brolly are more in your line.

Broncho, adj. (American).—Unruly; wild; savage. The epithet is derived from broncho, the name of the native horse of California, a somewhat tricky and uncertain quadruped. The term is familiarly applied to horses that buck and show other signs of vice. The Spanish signification of the word is rough and crabbed little beast, and in truth he deserves this name.

1888. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. Oh! I don’t know. He’d been singing the music to ‘em’ (imitating them). Sam’s too broncho.

Broncho-Buster, subs. (American).—A breaker-in of bronchos; also called a flash-rider. [From broncho (q.v.) + bust, in its slang sense of annihilate, or overcome, + er.] These men make a profession of their business and perform really marvellous feats, riding with ease the most vicious and unbroken beasts that no ordinary rider would dare tackle. A favourite feat is to sit out the antics of a bucking-horse with silver half-dollars under each knee or in the stirrups under each foot. Their method of breaking-in may be described as the exercise of main force, it being a tussle as to which can hold out the longest, man or broncho. The calling is a dangerous one, and a first-class broncho-buster can always command high wages and constant employment on large ranches.

Bronze John, subs. (American).—Texas name for yellow fever; Englishmen commonly call it yellow Jack (q.v.)

Broom, subs. (old).—1. See quot.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. ‘The people got rusty about it, and would not deal, and they had bought so many brooms that——’ Ibid, ch. xxxiii. (II., p. 96). What are you wanting here? Ye’ll be come wi’ a broom in your pocket frae Ellengowan? Got so many warrants out.

2. (harlotry.)—The female pudenda. The male penis is the broomstick. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Verb (old).—To run away. For synonyms, see Amputate.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 6. Tom. That will do—now then Dicky, mizzle!—be scarce!—broom! Prime. Wouldn’t intrude a moment, gentlemen, good morning—order my carriage.

Broomstick, subs. (athletic).—A sort of rough cricket bat, very narrow in the blade and all of one piece of wood.

To jump the broomstick—hop the broom—jump the besom, phr. (common).—To live as man and wife without the legal tie. The allusion is to a quasi marriage ceremony performed by both parties jumping over a broomstick.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, ii., 3. Jump o’er a broomstick, but don’t make a farce on The marriage ceremonies of the parson.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor I., p. 336. The old woman (who kept the ken), when any female, old or young, who had no tin, came into the kitchen, made up a match for her with some men. Fellows half-drunk had the old women. There was always a broomstick wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man and wife.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xlviii., p. 227. ‘They both led tramping lives, and this woman in Gerrard St. here, had been married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping man, and was a perfect fury in point of jealousy.’

c. 18(79). Broadside Ballad, ‘David Dove that fell in love.’ By L. M. Thornton.

The girl that I had hoped to hear Pronounce my happy doom, sir, Had bolted with a carpenter, In fact hopped o’er the broom, sir.

Broomsticks, subs. (old).—Worthless bail. For synonyms, see Straw bail and Cf., Bail.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Queer bail are persons of no repute, hired to bail a prisoner in any bailable case. These men are to be had in London for a trifling sum, and are called broomsticks.

Brosier or Brozier, subs. (Eton College).—A boy when he had spent all his pocket-money. [Brozier is a Cheshire term for a bankrupt.] A French term for a bankrupt is un déculotté, i.e., one unbreeched; also un bauce or bausse fondu.

Broziered, ppl. adj.—Cleaned out; done up; ruined; bankrupt.

1796. Merton, Way to get Married (in Inchbald’s ‘British Theatre,’ vol. XXVI). [The term is so used here].

Brozier-my-dame, verbal phr. (Eton College).—Eating one out of house and home. At Eton, when a dame (q.v.) keeps an unusually bad table, the boys agree together on a day to eat, pocket, or waste everything eatable in the house. The censure is well understood, and the hint is generally effective.

1850. Notes and Queries, June 15, p. 44. I well remember the phrase brozier-my-dame, signifying to eat her out of house and home.

1888. Rev. W. Rogers, Reminiscences, p. 15. Etonians of my standing will remember John Francis Plumptre, one of the Fellows ... I once behaved very shabbily to him, for I joined a conspiracy to ‘brozier’ him. There were ten or twelve of us [at breakfast], and we devoured everything within reach.

Brother-Blade, subs. (old).—A soldier. Formerly brother of the blade, i.e., of the sword; a fellow-soldier. For synonyms, see Mudcrusher.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brother of the blade, a soldier.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. ii. ‘I heard some devilish good stories of you at D’Osyndar’s t’other day; the fellow who told them to me little thought I was a brother blade.’

Brother Chip (provincial workmen’s).—One of the same calling or trade; formerly a fellow carpenter.

1820. Clare, Poems of Rural Life, Familiar Epistle, st. 3. And, brother chip, I love ye dearly, poor as ye be!

Brother of the Brush, subs. phr. (old).—An artist; a house-painter.

1687. Bp. Cartwright, in Hist. Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 143. Pray make use of my brother of the brush. [M.]

1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1793), I., 133. The honourable devices which the Pentagraphic bretheren of the brush have shewn in taking copies. [M.]

1833. Byron, wks. (1846), p. 585, col. 1. A young American brother of the brush. [M.]

Brother of the Bung, subs. phr. (old).—A brewer; one of the same trade. [Bung here is used as an emblem of the trade of a brewer.]

Brother of the Buskin, subs. phr. (old).—A player; actor—one of the same profession. [Buskin is in allusion to the covering for the foot and leg (cothurnus) worn by actors in tragedy among the ancients; in contrast to the sock (soccus) worn by comedians. Stage buskins had very thick soles to give an appearance of height. Hence buskin as symbolical of tragedy, but used in the phrase brother of the buskin in a transferred and general sense.] Quoted by Grose [1785]. Cf., Barn-stormer and Booth-burster.

Brother of the Coif, subs. (old).—A serjeant-at-law. [The coif was a close-fitting cap worn by the serjeants-at-law—hence the term.] Quoted by Grose [1785].

Brother of the Gusset, subs. (old).—A pimp or ponce (q.v.). For synonyms, see Bully.

Brother of the Quill, subs. phr. (old).—An author. [Quill = pen.] For synonyms, see Ink-slinger.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Brother of the quill, an author, one of the same profession.

Brother of the String, subs. phr. (old).—A fiddler. [A reference to the violin or fiddle as a stringed instrument.]

Brother of the Whip, subs. phr. (old).—A coachman, the whip being taken, as it were, as an insignia of office.

1756. The World, No. 207. He ... had always greased my heels himself, and upon every one of my birthdays, had treated all his brother whips at his own expence.

1849. T. Miller, in Gabarni in London, p. 39. He is very kind to any poor brother of the whip whom he sees tugging up-hill in vain, with a weighty load and an ill-fed team.

Brother-Smut, subs. phr. (popular).—A term of familiarity. ‘Ditto, brother or sister smut,’ tu quoque.

Brother Starlings, subs. (old).—Men who cohabit with the same mistress.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brother Starling ... one who ... builds in the same nest.

Broth of a Boy, subs. phr. (Irish originally, but now common).—A jolly good fellow. Cf., Brick. [The term is thought to originate from the Irish Broth, passion—Brotha, passionate, spirited—its meaning being, ‘He’s a lad of spirit,’ though it may come from the ancient Cornish name for the mastiff—brath. Hence a broth of a boy would then mean ‘a stout dog of a boy—robust.’]

1819–24. Byron, Don Juan, c. viii., st. 24. But Juan was quite a broth of a boy, a thing of impulse and a child of song.

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, ch. xx. You ought to have been a preacher and a boy. Faith, and a broth of a boy, and a broth of a preacher you’d have made.

Broughtonian, subs. (old).—A bruiser; boxer; pugilist. [From Broughton, once the best boxer of his day.]

Brown, subs. (common).—1. A halfpenny. [Probably an allusion to the colour of the coin in question.] For synonyms of money generally, see Actual.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Browns and whistlers, bad halfpence and farthings.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. Bob. Now then for the stumpy. (Searching about in his pockets for the money.) My tanners are like young colts; I’m obliged to hunt ’em into a corner, afore I can get hold on ’em—there!—hand us over three browns out of that ’ere tizzy; and tip us the heavy. (Landlord receives money, and delivers porter.)

1837. Barham, I. L. (Black Mousquetaire).

The magic effect of a hand of crowns Upon people whose pockets boast nothing but browns.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 57. If I takes a hat round, they has a plate, and they gets sovereigns where we has only browns. Ibid. We keeps it up for half an hour or an hour ... if the browns tumble in well.

1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. iv. A shower of browns, the coppers mingled with silver, from our private box, rewards their exertions.

c. 1884. Broadside Ballad, ‘Jimmy Johnson’s Holiday.’

But Violet, the Margate pet, Who always call’d him Teaser, Said ‘She would stick like mortar’d brick, While Johnson had a brown.’

2. (old.)—Porter. [Qy. an abbreviation of ‘Brown Stout.’]

1820. Glossary at end of Corcoran’s The Fancy. Brown, porter; heavy brown, stout.

Verb.—1. A variant of ‘to do brown,’ i.e., to do to perfection; to get the better of. [The simile is obviously taken from the browning process which meat undergoes during roasting.]—See Do brown.

2. To understand; comprehend.

To do brown, verbal phr. (common).—To do well; also ‘to take in’; deceive; to exceed bounds. Cf., Brown, verb, sense 1. French equivalents for ‘to allow oneself to be done brown’ are godancer and être flouè.—See second quotation for variation in usage.

a. 1600. John Bon, 162 in Hazl. E. P. P., iv., 16. Ha! browne done. [M.]

1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 5. ‘Those who consider themselves brown to every move upon the board’ of actual life.

1837. Barham, I. L. (The Execution). ‘Why, they’d laugh at and quiz us all over the town, We are all of us done so uncommonly brown!’

1854. Harper’s Monthly, January.

‘And some of the greenhorns Resolved upon flight, And vamosed the ranch In a desperate plight; While those who succeeded In reaching the town, Confessed they were done, Most exceedingly brown.’

1861. Times (on American affairs).

John Bull, slyly winkin’, then said unto he: ‘My dear Times, my old covey, go pitch into he; Let us wallop great Doodle now when he is down; If we wallops him well, we will do him up brown.’

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 267. I was once done myself with some pigs—I! and done brown too, and at a time when I ought to have known better.

Brown Bess, subs. (rhyming slang).—1. Yes.

2. (military.)—The old regulation musket. Considerable discussion has taken place over the origin of this term. It first appears in Grose [1785], but the term ‘brown musquet’ occurs at the beginning of the eighteenth century [1708]. The following suggested derivation appeared in N. and Q. [2 S., v., p. 259]. Brown Bess, in its primary meaning, is equivalent to brown barrel. Bus, in Dutch is the barrel of a gun; in Low Germ. büsse, in Swed. byssa. Hence our English Bess as applied to a gun-barrel. (Conf. in Med. Latin—bus-bas fragor scloporum et certaminis.) The Dutch bus appears often in composition. Hand-bus, a pistol; literally a hand-barrel. Bus-schieter, a gunner; literally a barrel-shooter. We have the Dutch bus (a barrel) in three English names of fire-arms: namely arquebuse, obus, blunderbuss. At the first of these three, arquebuse, we must look a little more closely would we trace the term brown Bess to its primæval source. The most formidable of cross-bows before fire-arms came into general use, was one which shot a ball or pellet from a barrel. Specimens may yet be seen. Now this was the original arquebuse (i.e., arc-bus, or arc-et-bus, bow and barrel). In process of time as gunpowder came into use, the arc disappeared, and the buss or barrel remained. Hence arquebuse, though it properly implies a bow fitted with a tube or barrel, came into use as the old appellation of a soldier’s firelock. And hence the name of Bess (bus, büsse or byssa), which the musket has borne more recently. Bess or bus is the last syllable of the old arquebuse or harquebus cut off for separate use, just as in the more recent instance of bus from omnibus. The barrels of firelocks were sometimes browned. Sometimes, however, they were required to be kept bright. Could we ascertain who first in mercy ordained the browning of the barrel, we might have some prospect of ascertaining the first introduction of the term brown Bess. Doubtless it was some hero of the fight, not of the field-day. For a further illustration of the term brown Bess, it may be proper to remark that in Northumberland, according to Halliwell, a gun is known by the not very elegant title of black-bitch. Now like bus in Dutch, büchse is in German a gun-barrel. (‘Büchse, 2, ein eisernes Rohr zum schiessen,’ an iron tube for shooting.) May we not infer, therefore, that black-bitch was originally ‘black büchse,’ i.e., black barrel, in conformity with brown barrel or brown Bess? ‘Formerly,’ says Zedler, ‘and before the invention of gunpowder, arquebuse signified a bow with a barrel’ (Bogen Büchse), which is the literal meaning of the word. Hotten, however, says it is much more likely that the phrase is derived from the fact that ‘the soldier is wedded to his weapon,’ and some colour is given to this alternative derivation by the fact that the Dutch soldier, mindful of all the care he has to bestow upon his gun, calls it his wife—mijn geweer is mijn vrouw. French soldiers call their weapon la clarinette de cinq pieds.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brown Bess, a soldier’s firelock.

1820. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Tour II., ch. ii.

Religion Jack did never profess, Till he had shoulder’d old Brown Bess.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xi. The British soldier, with his clothing and accoutrements, ...—not to mention brown Bess, his mainstay and dependence—nothing punishes him so much as wet.

1877. Chambers’ Journal, No. 720. Such may have been the case in the days of brown Bess, but a spinning conical ball from the Martini-Henry will pierce the largest crocodile.

3. (old.)—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1631. Dore, Polydorun. Things proffered and easie to come by diminish themselves in reputation and price, for how full of pangs and dotage is a wayling lover, for it may be some brown Bessie.

To hug brown Bess, verbal phr. (old).—To serve as a private soldier.

Brown George, subs. (old).—1. Explained by quotations.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby L., 3 S. ‘Jerry Jarvis’s Wig.’ He looked disdainfully at the wig; it had once been a comely jasey enough, of the colour of over-baked ginger-bread, one of the description commonly known during the latter half of the last century by the name of a brown George.

1882. Globe, 24 July, p. 2, col. 1. The King [George III.] wore a brown wig ... known popularly a century ago as brown George.

2. (common.)—A jug; generally of brown earthenware. Cf., Black-jack.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxiv. He ... stood behind his oak, holding his brown George, or huge earthenware receptacle, half full of dirty water, in which his bedmaker had been washing up his tea-things.

1881. Besant and Rice, Chap. of the Fleet, pt. II., ch. iii. His country brother might have been seen at the Crown, over a pipe and a brown George full of strong October.

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