xxvii. They had barnacles on the handles of their faces, or

spectacles at most.

The difference between spectacles and barnacles seems to be indicated in this passage. In the original French the phrase reads ‘bezicles au nez.’ A later quotation illustrative of the usage is:

1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. i. ‘Give me the barnacles, my good youth, and who can say what nose they may bestride in two years hence?’

English Synonyms. ‘Bossers’; ‘gig-lamps’; ‘goggles.’ A man wearing these aids to sight is sometimes called ‘four eyes’ (q.v.).

French Synonyms. Les persiennes (popular: properly ‘venetian shutters’); une vitrine (popular: literally ‘a shop window,’ or glass case in a museum).

2. (old cant.)—See quotation.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Barnacles (s.) ... in the Canting Language, a pair of spectacles; also the irons or fetters worn by felons are so called; also the gratuity or reward that jockies have for buying horses for gentlemen.

Barndoor, subs. (sporting).—1. A facetious term for a target too large to be missed; i.e., as large as a barndoor. Hence barndoor practice as applied to organised battues, in which game is driven within a range from which it is impossible to escape. This can hardly be called sport; rather let it be known as ‘slaughter.’

2. (cricket.)—A player who blocks every ball.

Barnet! intj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Nonsense! humbug! Now obsolete.

Barnet Fair, subs. (thieves’).—The hair; part of the rhyming slang (q.v.). For synonyms see Top dressing.

Barney, subs. (popular).—1. A word which varies in sense according to the predelictions of the person using it. Generally speaking it means a jollification; ‘lark’; pleasurable outing; picnic. The ’Arries and roughs of London, however, always associate it with a certain amount of rowdyism. Its derivation is unknown, although Barrère gives a long dissertation concerning its origin in the Yiddish. As, however, this is founded mainly upon a misreading of a quotation from Punch, it is somewhat beside the mark.

2. Humbug; cheating; a hoax; something pre-arranged—not genuine. In sporting circles it signifies an unfair race of any kind.

1865. B. Brierley, Irkdale, II., 19. I won thee i’ fair powell one toss an’ no barney.

1882. Evening News, 2 Sept., p. 1, col. 6. Blackguardly barneys called boxing competitions. [M.]

Murray gives this last in illustration of the secondary sense which he applies to the word, viz., a prize-fight. Barney, it is true, does signify a prize-fight, but it means more than that. A fair contest would not be so named; there must be an element of chicanery in the matter. Besides which, barney is applied to unfair sporting competitions of any kind. A comparison of the different quotations given under this heading will clearly prove that point.

1884. Referee, April 13, p. 7, col. 4. Who would believe that Mr. Gladstone shammed being ill, and that Sir Andrew Clark issued false bulletins, and that the whole thing was a barney from beginning to end.

1885. Bell’s Life, Jan. 3, p. 3, col. 4. Few genuine matches have taken place this season on the Transatlantic waters, though exhibitions and barney contests have been plentiful.

3. (American.)—At Harvard College, about the year 1810, this word was used to designate a bad recitation. To barney was to recite badly.—Hall’s College Words and Customs.

Barn-Mouse. To be bitten by a barn-mouse, phr. (old).—To be tipsy; ‘screwed.’ The Lexicon Balatronicum says ‘it is probably an allusion to barley,’ presumably as the source of malt liquor. Cf., ‘To have on’ Or ‘wear a barley-cap,’ to be tipsy; also barley-cap = a tippler.

Barn-stormer, subs. (theatrical).—A deprecatory epithet applied to strolling players.

1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 June, p. 5, col. 1. If this be barn-storming, Betterton and Garrick were barn-stormers.

1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. Travelling players who acted short and highly tragic pieces to audiences of clodpoles in any barn or shed they could get, used to be known as barn-stormers, and a ranting, noisy style of acting and speaking is still called ‘barn-storming.’

1887. Referee, 21 August, p. 3, col. 1. Mr. Edward Terry has again been elected at the head of the poll as trustee of the charities of Barnes. He is not the first clever actor who has been known as a Barnes-stormer.

The French term for one of such a troupe is cabotin.

Barnumese, subs. (American).—Barnum, the proprietor of ‘the greatest show upon earth,’ has at any rate one claim to immortal fame in having, like Boycot, Burke, and Balfour, added a new word to the English tongue. The ‘high falutin,’ bombastic style of the great man’s announcements are notorious; as much so, in fact, as is the diction of the great London newspaper which claims ‘the largest circulation in the world.’ From such circumstances we get words like barnumese and telegraphese, to signify exaggeration of style—what in slang parlance is known as the ‘putting on of side.’

Verb.—To Barnumize is to talk or assert oneself in the style popularly attributed to Barnum.

Baronet, subs. (old).—A humorous variation for sirloin [of beef].

1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. IV., ch. x. The sight of the roast beef struck him dumb, permitting him only to say grace, and to declare he must pay his respects to the baronet, for so he called the sirloin.

Barrack-Hack, subs. (familiar).—1. In an inoffensive sense applied to young women who attend garrison balls year after year. So used there is no such imputation of lax morals as occurs in sense 2.

2. A soldier’s prostitute. There are but few classes of persons to whom a greater number of slang epithets have been applied than to the poor wretched creatures, who from choice, bad-treatment, or as a means of subsistence abandon themselves to a life of prostitution. These names are to be found in plenty for all grades of semi-public or public women. They run the gauntlet from the gilded courtezan to the veriest drab in the last stages of destitution and disease. The list of synonyms is both long and grim; the names in many cases speaking volumes on a subject which it would be painful as well as needless to pursue farther in this place, inasmuch as the epithets both in French and English, and, it must be added, those of other languages as well, speak with a brutal cynicism to which it would be out of place to add a comment.

English Synonyms. Ladies of accommodating morals; ladies of more complaisance than virtue; anonyma; pretty horsebreaker; artichoke; columbine; common Jack; convenient; cow; crack; aunt; ladies of easy virtue; bangster; blowen; garrison-hack; bat; bawdy-basket; bed-fagot; fireship; bit o’ muslin; laced mutton; mot; bobtail; bona roba; brevet wife; grass widow; brimstone; black Bess; brown Bessy; bulker; bunter; burick; buttock; cab moll; cat; chauvering donna; chauvering moll; barber’s chair; demi-rep; tartlet; trollop; shake; poll; dolly-mop; gay woman; unfortunate; dress-lodger; mauks; quædam (obsolete); woman; bitch; perfect lady; public ledger; necessary; warming-pan; nun.

French Synonyms. Une persilleuse (familiar); une mal peignée (popular: ‘a dirty ill-dressed woman; drab; or draggletail’); une moellonneuse (a prostitute who frequents builders’ yards); hirondelle de goguenot (military: ‘a barrack-hack’; in French soldiers’ slang un goguenot is a tin can used for making coffee or soup); un chausson (literally ‘a sock’ or ‘stocking’); almanach de trente six mille adresses (popular: literally ‘a directory.’ Cf., English ‘public-ledger’); une génisse (popular: literally ‘a heifer.’ Cf., English ‘cow’); une raccrocheuse (popular: raccrocher, ‘to hook’); une vache à lait (popular: literally ‘a milch cow’); une fleur de macadam (popular: ‘a roadside flower’; ‘a street walker’); une roulante (popular: in old French slang un roulant = a vehicle. Cf., English ‘cab’); une camelote (popular: a prostitute of the lowest class; a draggletail); une morue (popular: literally ‘a cod-fish’); une marcheuse (popular: properly ‘a walker’; in theatrical parlance, a female super); une piqueuse de trains (popular: one who prowls about railway stations. Piqueuse = needlewoman); un pigeon voyageur (familiar: a girl who travels up and down a railway seeking clients; literally ‘a carrier pigeon’); une pieuvre (familiar: a kept woman; properly ‘an octopus’); un carcan à crinoline (popular: carcan, applied to either sex is an opprobrious epithet; the phrase also signifies ‘a gaunt-woman’); un omnibus (popular: i.e., ‘one who may be ridden by all’); un cul crotté (low: properly ‘a dirty bottom’); une trychine (popular: an allusion to trichina spiralis, the disease-germ in bad pork); une fenêtrière (popular: an allusion to the custom of this class to watch at windows and invite passers-by to visit them); une traîneuse (familiar: a prostitute who plies her trade at railway stations); un trumeau (popular: literally ‘a leg of beef’); une crevette (popular: ‘a prawn’ or ‘shrimp’); une boulonnaise (a girl who ‘walks’ the Bois de Boulogne); un matelas ambulant (popular: properly ‘a walking mattress.’ Cf., English ‘bed-fagot’); une demoiselle du Pont-Neuf (popular: this kind haunt the bridge of the name over the Seine); un demi-castor (popular: a woman of the demi-monde); une laqueuse (familiar: a prostitute frequenting the lake in the Bois de Boulogne); une pailletée (common: properly ‘spangled’); un pelican (familiar: a dressy courtesan); une ningle (a literary term); une maquillée (popular: ‘one with painted face’); une gueuse (popular: gueuse = beggarly, wretched); une fille or femme du trottoir (popular: ‘a girl’ or ‘woman of the pavement’); une vieille garde (familiar: an old worn-out prostitute); une biche (popular: ‘a hind’ or ‘roe’); une déhanchée (popular: ‘a waddler’); une demi-mondaine (general: a woman of the demi-monde; a fashionable prostitute); une portion (military: literally ‘a share’ or ‘portion’; one who is shared by many); une limace (popular: properly ‘a slug’); une terrinière (the lowest sort of prostitute; terrine = earthen pan); une terreuse (a woman who prowls about lonely spots); une terrière (popular); une fille à parties (popular); une rivette; une voirie (popular: ‘a common sewer’); une boule rouge (familiar: a frequenter of the Quartier de la Boule Rouge, Fanbourg Montmartre); une vessie (popular: a very low prostitute; vessie applied to either sex is an offensive epithet); une demoiselle de bitume (familiar); un pont d’Avignon (popular); une pontonnière (popular: a prostitute who plies her trade under the arches of bridges; ponton = pontoon, ‘a bridge of boats’; pontonnier = ‘a toll gatherer’); une polisseuse de tuyaux de pipe (literally ‘a polisher of pipe stems’); une pompe funèbre (familiar: properly ‘funeral pomp’); une polisseuse de mâts de cocagne en chambre (popular: an extremely degraded variety of prostitute; literally ‘a polisher of greasy poles in a room’); une punaise (general: ‘a bug’—a public woman of the lowest grade); une dessalée (popular: literally ‘a knowing woman’); une mangeuse de viande crue (popular: ‘a devourer of raw meat’); une cité d’amour (literally ‘a city of love’); autel de besoin (popular: ‘an altar of necessity’; Cf., English ‘necessary’); une vésuvienne (familiar: literally ‘a vesuvian,’ either in allusion to the volcano or the well-known brand of matches; in either case the epithet comes very close to the old English slang ‘fireship,’ an old and diseased prostitute); peau, or peau de chien (popular: literally ‘dog’s skin’); un grenier à coups de sabre (a soldiers’ term: grenier, a granary; coups de sabre, thrusts with a broad sword); une rempardeuse (a woman who frequents the ramparts); une femme de terrain (a draggletailed woman; femme, woman, terrain, ground); une saucisse (popular: i.e., ‘a small sausage’); une trainée (familiar); une baleine (popular: ‘a whale’); une lésé-bombe (popular); une fille en brème (a registered prostitute; la brème is the card given to such women by the police); une fille en carte (a registered woman: see preceding); une boutonnière à pantalons (familiar: a kind of semi-prostitute; a sempstress who walks the streets at night; in their own words, they ‘work for their living, but do the naughty for their clothes’); une fille de maison or une fille à numéro (familiar: these names are given to girls in brothels; Cf., English ‘dress-lodgers’); une fille de tournure (familiar: this also is applied to the inmate of a brothel; literally ‘a girl of figure’); une poupée (popular: ‘a doll’); une mouquette (popular); des poules (popular: the inmates of a brothel are so called; literally ‘hens’); une galvaudeuse (popular: galvauder, ‘to scold’); une planche à boudin (familiar: literally ‘a slice of pudding’; in English harlotry ‘to take one’s pudding’ or ‘greens’ is to have sexual connection); une blanchisseuse en chemise (blanchisseuse = laundress; être dans la chemise de quelqu’un is to be constantly with one); un lard (literally ‘bacon’ or body); une gadoue (properly ‘street refuse’ or ‘mud’); un sommier de caserne (military: sommier means ‘hair-mattress,’ and caserne = ‘barracks’; applied to girls who prowl about barracks); une grivoise (this term is now obsolete, but was formerly applied to a garrison town prostitute. It means, literally, ‘a jolly canteen woman’); une paillasse à soldats (a barrack-hack; literally ‘a straw mattress for soldiers’); un passe-lacet (properly ‘a bodkin’—i.e., ‘something to be threaded’); un chameau (the term was originally applied to a gaunt, ungainly woman; it now signifies a prostitute also); un membre de la caravane (a euphemism for un chameau, q.v.); un lolo (popular); une grue (popular: a kept woman; faire le pied de grue, ‘to dance attendance’); une soupeuse (literally ‘one who takes supper’; an allusion to the ‘cabinets particuliers’ of French restaurants); une belle petite (a young and pretty prostitute of the superior class; literally ‘a pretty darling’); une pêche à quinze sous (a literary term); une boulevardière (a superior class of prostitute frequenting the boulevards); un camélia (a kept woman; a reference to the heroine of La Dame aux camélias by A. Dumas fils); une lorette (a variety of prostitute named after the Quartier Notre Dame de Lorette, the Paris Pimlico); une petite dame (literally ‘a little lady’); une impure (a kept woman; properly ‘an unchaste one’); une agenouillée (journalistic); une verticale; une horizontale de grande marque (a fashionable courtezan); une cocotte (a generic term); une pierreuse (a public woman of the lowest grade who plies her hideous trade in houses in course of building, etc.); une chamègue; un bourdon (thieves’: literally ‘a drone’); une lipète (popular); une magneuse (popular: a woman who depraves herself with members of her own sex. The name is said to be in allusion to a religious community who derived their cognomen from that of their founder, Jeanne Canart, the daughter of Nicholas Colbert, who was the Seigneur de Magneux); une vielle lanterne (popular: an old prostitute; lanterne = ‘window’); une feuille (literally ‘a leaf’; the term is one used at the Saumur School of Cavalry); un blanc (literally ‘blank’ or ‘white’; the derivation is somewhat obscure, but the term is a very ancient one for a public woman. Mangeur de blanc is a man who lives upon the earnings of prostitutes and ruins them. Formerly, the expression mettre à blanc was used in the sense of ‘to ruin’); une vache (this term in its popular signification merely means ‘a woman of indifferent character’; if a prostitute is intended, the expression is une vache à lait, a milch cow); un veau (literally ‘a calf’; the phrase is applied to a young prostitute. Cf., ‘vache à lait’); une retapeuse (popular); un wagon (popular: a dirty prostitute. Cf., wagon, ‘a railway carriage’ and un omnibus); une taupe (familiar: literally a mole, an animal that works in the dark; also ‘a cunning fox’); une Jeanneton (popular: a chambermaid at an inn); une andre (an old word; see Fourbesque landra); une roulure (popular: a public woman of the lowest description. Rouler signifies ‘to roll,’ ‘to wander,’ ‘to stroll,’ ‘to keep going’); une fille de barrière (popular: a prostitute plying her trade at the barriers or gates of the city); une dossière (thieves’: literally ‘a back’); une rouleuse (familiar: an abandoned woman; literally the name of a species of caterpillar); une paillasse à troufion (a soldier’s woman); une paillasse de corps de garde (military: literally ‘a guard-room mattress’); une marneuse (popular: a variety of low class prostitute frequenting the river-side; literally ‘clayey’); une Louis (a bully’s mistress; the allusion is to the fancy which women in brothels often have of powdering and dressing the hair in the fashion of the times of Louis XV.); une ouvrière (also a ‘bully’s’ mistress. The term signifies, literally, ‘a workwoman.’ These wretched creatures support their companions who live and batten on what the woman earns in the sale of her person); une fesse (popular: properly ‘a breech’); une marmite (harlotry: ‘a flesh pot’); un torchon (a low class of woman; torchon = ‘a dish clout’); une sauterelle (familiar: ‘a grass-hopper’); un prat; une femme de cavoisi (thieves’: a well dressed prostitute of the boulevards); une louille; une larque (a registered woman; a corruption of largue); une menesse (a thieves’ term); une larguèpe; une magnuce (see une magneuse); une casserole (thieves’: literally ‘a saucepan’); une goipeuse (thieves’: a name given to prostitutes who wander about the country); une ronfle; une ronfle à grippart; un ronfleur (thieves’: ronfler is properly ‘to snore’); un grippeur (gripper = ‘to nab’; crib; clutch); une panterne; une bourre de soie (a kept woman; bourre = floss + soie = silk); un asticot (a bully’s or thief’s mistress; literally ‘a maggot’; it may be stated that asticot is also used for both the membrum virile, and for vermicelli); une panuche (thieves’: a term applied to showily dressed women who live in brothels); une calège (thieves’: a kept woman; cale, a kind of head-dress); une ponante (thieves’: a low-class prostitute); une môme or mômeresse (thieves’); une lutainpem (thieves’); une laissée (thieves’ and roughs’); une galupe (popular: a street walking prostitute); une ponife, poniffe, or poniffle (thieves’).

For German Synonyms, see Tart.

Italian Synonyms. Una sbriso (this term has another cant signification, viz., ‘to be naked’; hence, probably, its attributive usage for a prostitute); una losena (this, like other Fourbesque terms for a woman, also means ‘a woman of the town’; indeed in most argots there seems to be little, if any distinction drawn between women of easy virtue, and the sex as a whole); una guagnastra (i.e., one who acts as a sheath; the allusion is obvious. Cf., English ‘broom’ and ‘broom-handle’ for the female pudenda and the male penis respectively); una marcona (said to be an allusion to a certain incident in the history of the Papal States); una landra (curiously enough this term signifying, in orthodox Italian, a prostitute is, in the Fourbesque, synonymous also with ‘woman.’ The French andre, a woman of the town, dates back to the sixteenth century); una brocca (literally a jug, pitcher, or stupid person); una brocchiera (from Italian brocchiere, ‘a buckler’ or ‘shield’); una baia (i.e., a mistress); una farfoia (also a nun, in which connection compare with English abbess); una chierlera (this term likewise is also used in the sense of a female devotee. Both the English and French slang have ‘nun’ as an equivalent for a prostitute); una carniera or carnifica (cant terms for a ‘sister,’ and ‘fox’ also); una cara (literally ‘dear.’ Cf., French belle petite, ‘little darling.’)

The Spanish Germania has gaya to signify a prostitute. This is an exact equivalent of the French fille de joie or ‘gay girl’; gaya in Spanish signifies ‘gay.’ Another name is found in germana, in explanation of which it may be briefly explained that the Spanish argot or Germania took its name from a band or brotherhood of thieves and robbers; and it would thus appear that germana, the name for a female member of the band was also used generically for a prostitute! Marca, or marquida and marquisa are also all used in the sense of a public woman. It may be noted that in the Italian marchesata stands for a woman when under menstruation, the physiological fact itself being called marchese; mercenario, a street walker, also signifies a nun of the religious order of La Merced.

Barracking, subs. (Australian).—Banter; chaff. Cf., Barrikin.

Barrel-Boarder, subs. (American).—A loafer in low drinking-saloons.

Barrel-Campaign, subs. (American).—Political contests in which bribery and corruption go hand-in-hand with canvassing and voting. A wealthy candidate for office is said to have originated the phrase by remarking, ‘Let the boys know that there’s a bar’l o’ money ready for ’em,’ or words to that effect. The use of the term in this sense became general about 1876.—See Boodle.

1884. Boston (Mass.) Journal, 1 Nov., 1. We are accustomed to barrel-campaigns here. Nobody supposes this district to be Democratic, but the Democrats depend upon carrying it with money.

1888. Florida Times Union, Feb. 11, p. 4. It will be remembered that Mr. Flower was the nominal candidate of the anti-Cleveland men four years ago, and with the aid of his barrel they really did achieve some show of success.

Barrel-Fever, subs. (popular).—An indisposition caused by excessive drinking. ‘He died of barrel-fever’; i.e., ‘he killed himself through drink.’ For synonyms, see Gallon distemper.

Barrel-House, subs. (American).—A low groggery.

1888. Missouri Republican, Feb. 11. The West-Side police are still arresting barrel-house loafers in the hope of catching an expert cracksman among them.

Barrell’s Blues, subs. phr. (military).—A nickname given to the Fourth Foot. [From its facings and Colonel’s name from 1734 to 1739.] They are also called ‘the Lions,’ from the ancient badge of the regiment.

Barres, subs. (gaming).—Money lost at play, but not paid. The term is an old one, and has long been obsolete. A corrupt form of ‘barrace,’ an obsolete plural of ‘bar.’

Barrikin, subs. (common).—Gibberish; jargon; a jumble of words. For usage, see quotation.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 15. ‘The high words in a tragedy we call jaw-breakers, and say we can’t tumble to that barrikin.’ Ibid, p. 25. Can’t tumble to your barrikin [i.e., can’t understand you]. Ibid, p. 27. The rich has all that barrikin to themselves.

Barring.—See To bar.

Barring Out, subs. phr. (old).—Exclusion from a place by means of locks and bars. More particularly applied to a half serious but oftentimes jocular rebellion of schoolboys against the schoolmaster.

1728. Swift, Journal of a Modern Lady.

Not schoolboys at a barring-out, Raised ever such incessant rout.

1847. Tennyson, Princess, conclusion.

Revolts, republics, revolutions, most, No graver than a schoolboys’ barring-out.

Barrow-Bunter, subs. (old).—A barrow-woman; a female costermonger.

1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, i., 140. I saw a dirty barrow-bunter in the street cleaning her dusty fruit with her own spittle.

Barrow-Man, subs. (old).—1. A man who hawks his wares on a barrow; a costermonger. The term dates back to the middle of the seventeenth century. Un marottier is the French equivalent for one species of the fraternity, better known in England as a dudsman (q.v.).

2. Also formerly a man under sentence of transportation.

Barrow-Tram, subs. (familiar).—An ungainly person; one awkward in gait, and coarse and rawboned in feature.

Barter, subs. (Winchester College).—A half volley. From the Warden of that name famous for disposing of them.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 133. What a noble game cricket must be when one loved it so much, notwithstanding the previous training! What genuine excitement when College and Commoners was played; what frantic shouting when Rapid got well hold of a ‘barter’ ... and sent the ball from ‘Spanish Poplar,’ right over Mead’s wall by ‘Log pond.’

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 327. Barter was the most popular boy of his day with his schoolfellows. Wonderful things are told of his scores at cricket at which he is supposed to have been the hardest hitter of his own times, or of any near him.... He was so renowned for the tremendous force with which he was wont to swipe the ball, commonly known to cricketers as a ‘half-volley,’ that it actually changed its name in the Wykehamical vocabulary, and for fully half a century afterwards—and, for all I know, to the present day—bore the name of a Barter.

Verb.—To hit a ball hard at cricket.

Hitting barters.—Practice catching; full pitches hit from the middle of ‘Turf’ towards Ball-Court for catching practice towards the end of ‘Long Meads.’

Bartholomew Baby, subs. (old).—A gaudily dressed doll, such as appears to have been commonly sold at Bartholomew Fair.—See Bartholomew-pig. Also applied to a person gaudily dressed.

1682. Wit and Drollery, p. 343.

Her petticoat of sattin, Her gown of crimson tabby, Lac’d up before, and spangl’d ore, Just like a Bartholomew baby.

Bartholomew-Pig, subs. (old).—Roasted pigs, says Nares, were formerly among the chief attractions of Bartholomew Fair, West Smithfield, London: they were sold piping hot, in booths and on stalls, and ostentatiously displayed, to excite the appetite of passengers. Hence a Bartholomew-pig became a common subject of allusion: the Puritan railed against it.

1614. B. Jons., Bart. Fair, i., 6. For the very calling it a Bartholomew-pig, and to eat it so, is a spice of idolatry.

Falstaff, in coaxing ridicule of his enormous figure, is playfully called by his favourite,

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., ii., 4. Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew-boar-pig.

Dr. Johnson thought that paste-pigs were there meant: but the true Bartholomew-pigs were substantial, real, hot, roasted pigs; as may be seen throughout the above play of old Ben, where Ursula, the pig-woman, is no inconsiderable personage. Gayton also speaks of the pig-dressers.

Like Bartholomew Fair pig-dressers, who look like the dams, as well as the cooks of what they roasted.

Fest. N., p. 57.

The young wife in Jonson’s play pretends a violent longing for pig, that she may be taken to the fair; and it seems that her case was far from uncommon. Davenant speaks of the Bartlemew-pig,

That gaping lies on every stall, Till female with great belly call.

The fair in its later days got to be a place of too much mobbing and riot for ladies in that condition. There might also be paste-pigs, but, if so, they were very inferior objects, and meant only for children. Mrs. Ursula also tells us the price of her pigs; namely, five shillings, five shillings and sixpence, or even six shillings! This was surely as dear in James I.’s time, as a guinea lately. The highest price, of course, was to be asked of a longing woman. The fair was abolished in 1854, having been inaugurated in 1133.—Nares.

Barts., subs. (medical students’).—An abbreviation of ‘St. Bartholomew Hospital.’

Bash, verb (popular).—To beat; thrash; or crush out of shape. Possibly from the Scandinavian bask, a slap; ‘box’ also seems to have the same derivation. Chiefly appearing in the northern dialects, bash is regarded nowadays in the light of a vulgar colloquialism. Thieves use it synonymously with ‘to flog.’—See Bashing. In older writers the word appears as pash, the ‘p’ in this case being simply a harder form than ‘b.’ An alternative onomatopoetic derivation has, however, been suggested, the ‘b’ of such words as ‘beat’ and ‘bang’ being transferred to the terminal letters of ‘dash,’ ‘gash,’ ‘smash,’ etc.

1592. Nashe, Strange Newes, in wks. II., 272. A leane arme put out of the bed shall grind and pash euerie crum of thy booke into pin-dust.

1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, II., ii. Jove’s artillery shot down at once, to pash your gods in pieces.

1882. Daily Telegraph, Dec. 9, p. 2, col. 6. A man ... told witness that he would earn a sovereign if he cared to give a certain woman—the complainant—a couple of black eyes.... His instructions were to follow the man he met in the public-house in Bear Street, and to bash the woman he would point out to him in Portland Street.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. xii. ‘If you have got bashed about pretty well since you came back, it’s been all your own fault, and you know it.’

1883. Standard, March 2, p. 6, col. 7. Mr. Hannay reminded her that when the summons was applied for, the boy’s father had said that the boy was bashed on the floor, and received a black eye and a bruised head.

Amongst synonyms may be mentioned the English verb ‘bang,’ and the French bêcher, which signifies properly to dig or break up ground.—See Tan.

Basher, subs. (pugilistic).—A prize-fighter. For synonyms, see Bruiser.

1882. Daily Telegraph, Dec. 16, p. 2, col. 6. According to the statement of the prosecuting solicitor, this was the man who undertook to point out to Leech, the professed basher, the woman whom he was to assault in Portland Street.

Bashi-Bazouk, subs. (popular).—A ruffian; and used loosely as a more or less mild term of opprobrium; also applied to anything bizarre in character or composition. The expression came into vogue during the period when the Bulgarian atrocities were electrifying the world by their barbarous cruelty. The Bashi-bazouks are properly irregular Turkish soldiery. They are collected hastily in times of emergency; and are, consequently, somewhat impatient of discipline, assuming that such a commodity in its Western sense is known at all to the Tartar-descended Turk—‘the unspeakable Turk’ as he was fitly called during the period above alluded to. So infamous have these levies become at times, that more than once they have been disbanded in deference to pressure brought to bear upon the Turkish authorities by the Western powers.

Bashing, subs. (prison).—A flogging; a taste of the cat-o’-nine-tails. Prisoners condemned to this punishment at the commencement of their term are said by their companions to receive a bashing in; if they also undergo a flogging just previous to their release, it is called a bashing out.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 157. There were the evidences of former floggings, or bashings, as the prisoners call them.

Basils, subs. (old cant).—Fetters on one leg only.

Basin, subs. (American).—A schooner (q.v.).

Basing.—See That’s basing.

Basketed, ppl. adj. (old).—From this cockpit expression used of persons unable or unwilling to pay their losses, and who in consequence were relegated for the rest of the day to a basket hung over the cockpit, is derived the figurative usage in the sense of ‘to be left out in the cold’; not understood; non-plussed; ‘floored.’

b. 1788, d. 1841. Hook, Gerv. Skinner, ch. iii. Skinner was quite enchanted with the brilliancy of his guests, although now and then a little puzzled at their allusions; there jokes were chiefly local or professional, and very frequently my excellent friend Gervase was, to use a modern phrase of general acceptation, basketed.

1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, vol. I., p. 79. The fight was soon over after this circumstance, and the sweaters and trainers were completely in the basket!

1866. E. Yates, Land at Last.... And find you in his den, lighting it up like—like—like—I’m regularly basketed, by jove!

To be brought or to go to the basket, phr. (familiar).—To be imprisoned; to be reduced to poverty. A basket is here the symbol of daily provision, or alms. Formerly prisoners were dependent on charity for daily sustenance, and it was customary for them to let down a basket by a string through the gaol windows, soliciting the alms of passers-by.—See also Angling for farthings.

1632. Massinger and Field, Fatal Dowry, v., 1. Pontalier [to Liladam, who is in custody for debt].

Arrested! this is one of those whose base And abject flattery help’d to dig his grave; He is not worth your pity, nor my anger; Go to the basket, and repent.

1700. Gentleman Instructed [1732], p. 6. God be praised! I am not brought to the basket, though I had rather live on charity than rapine. [d.]

To be left in the basket, phr. (common).—To be rejected; abandoned; unchosen. Cf., second quotation.

1840. Barham, I. L. (House Warning).

Whatever he wants, he has only to ask it, And all other suitors are left in the basket.

1874. Bell’s Life, 26 Dec. The pick of the basket, a compact young greyhound.

Basket-Making, subs. (old).—When enceinte a woman was formerly said ‘to have a kid in the basket.’ [Cf., Bay-window.] Hence basket-making to signify the act of copulation.

Bass, subs. (popular).—A familiar abbreviation for Bass’ ale, brewed at Burton-on-Trent.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant Green, p. 23. The young gentleman exhibited great capacity for the beer of Bass, and the porter of Guiness.

1863. Oudia, Held in Bondage, I., p. 65. Those idle lads in the Temple, who smoke cavendish and drink Bass. Ibid, p. 126. Discussing Bass and a cold luncheon.

1868. Miss Braddon, Only a Clod, I., p. 138. A lot of fellows drinking no end of Bass.

18(?). Annie Thomas, A Passion in Tatters, I., p. 110. Bass that was not worthy of its name.

Baste, verb (colloquial).—To thrash; to beat soundly. This verb is given a place here for the purpose of comparison, as it is somewhat uncertain whether it can with propriety be classed as slang. Of uncertain origin, but dating from the sixteenth century; to baste, properly ‘to sew together loosely,’ or ‘to apply fat or gravy to a joint,’ is, in its figurative usage, of more than passing interest when compared with anoint (q.v.), and other words employed in the same figurative sense. It is curious indeed to note the many synonymous analogues for a good beating or thrashing, all of which pertain more or less to slang. R. W. Hackwood [N. and Q., 7 S., vii., 153] mentions several, amongst others colting (q.v.), used by Marryat in Midshipman Easy. As bearing upon the general idea involved in this class of words, the quotation may be placed side by side with another from the King’s Own by the same writer.

1830. Marryat, King’s Own, ch. vii. ‘He always carried in his pocket a colt (i.e., a foot and a half of rope, knotted at one end and whipped at the other), for the benefit of the youngsters, to whom he was a most inordinate tyrant.’

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xii. ‘Then he colted me for half-an-hour, and that’s all.’

Colting like basting is of uncertain derivation. Comparing it, however, with analogous words, may we not take it, continues the writer referred to, as very closely associated with, if not actually belonging to, the series of synonyms for the operations which derive their origin from the shoemakers, curriers, and allied trades, as we find it in ‘a leathering,’ ‘a strapping,’ ‘a tanning,’ ‘a welting,’ etc. Indeed, it is worth noting in this connection, from the number of epithets applied to the operation, what a deal of chastising has apparently been required in most trades and occupations, for nearly all—except, perhaps, the carpenter’s, where sticks are plentiful—appear to be represented, and even in the domestic circle one can have a choice of ‘a towelling,’ ‘a basting,’ ‘a clouting,’ ‘a rubbing down,’ ‘a dressing,’ ‘a trimming,’ or ‘a wiping’ when occasion requires.

1533. Bellenden, Livy, III. (1822), 223. He departit weil basit and defuleyeit of his clothing.

1599. Greene, George-a-Greene, in wks. (Grosart) XIV., 174. Ile baste you both so well, you were neuer better basted in your liues.

1605. Tryall of Chevalry, III., i., in Bullen’s Old Plays, iii., 305. But, had I knowne as much, I would have basted him till his bones had rattled in his skin.

1611. Beaumont, Knight of Burning Pestle, II., iv.

Look on my shoulders, they are black and blue; Whilst to and fro fair Luce and I were winding, He came and basted me with a hedge-binding.

1660. Pepys, Diary, July 22. One man was basted by the keeper, for carrying some people over on his back, through the water.

1754. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. To baste or bast ... to beat, or bang soundly.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., xix., p. 328. ‘Hold your row, Davvy,’ he roared out, wrathfully: ‘you’d not like me to come back and give you a basting.’

Among some English Synonyms may also be mentioned:—to give a hiding; to give a walloping; to dust one’s jacket; to quilt; to tan; to set about; to walk into; to manhandle; to give one Jesse; to give one gas; to dowse; to pay.

For synonyms generally, see Tan.

Baster, subs. (American thieves’).—A New York cant term for a house thief.

Bastile, subs. (vagrants’).—A workhouse. For synonyms, see Big house. Probably from the Bastile, a famous prison; lock-ups for a long time being generically named Bastiles. Now corrupted into steel.

1883. Cuthbert Bede, in Graphic, June 2, p. 558, col. 2. Mister Corbyn had always called the workhouse by the opprobrious epithet of the basteel.

(Thieves’.)—A prison.—See Cage. Bastile in this sense is mentioned by Captain Grose [1785].

Bat, subs. (old slang).—1. A prostitute who plies her trade by night; an allusion to the nocturnal habits of the flying mammal—indeed, another old term for a woman of the town was literally a fly-by-night. The equivalent French term, hirondelle de nuit, i.e., ‘a night swallow,’ is more poetic. For full lists of synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

2. (American.)—A spree; frolic; and sometimes a drunken bout. A contracted form of ‘batter.’

1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 1. Mr. Pote: ‘I see in the evening paper that a woman has been bitten by a bat, and afterwards died of lockjaw.’ Mrs. P. (tartily): ‘If she had been bitten by the kind of bat you went on when I was away last Saturday week, she would probably have died of delirium tremens.’

3. (athletic.)—Pace; speed (in walking, rowing, etc.). Partly also dialectical, especially Scotch, Craven, and Lincolnshire.

1887. Daily News, 18 August, p. 6, col. 3. Here they come, a mixed flock of birds full bat overhead.

To bat one’s eyes, phr. (American).—1. A South-western term which is explained by quotation.

1846. Overland Monthly, p. 79. The ox whip has both parts as long as they can be managed. I have seen a poor fellow from Ohio, totally unused to this enormous affair, swing it round his head in many an awkward twist, while the Texans stood by and laughed to see him knock off his hat and bat his eyes at every twitch, to avoid cutting them out.

Cf., Italian batter d’occhio, twinkling of an eye.

2. (American gaming.)—To look on but not to play. Cf., Bet.

Off or on one’s own bat, phr. (popular).—On one’s own account; by one’s own exertions. A figurative usage of a cricketing term; ‘off one’s own bat,’ is said of a score made by a player individually.

1845. Sydney Smith, Fragm. Irish Ch., wks. II., 340, 1. He had no revenues but what he got off his own bat. [M.]

1855. Lord Lonsdale, in Croker Papers (1884), vol. III., p. 325. Derby ... would not make a Ministry from his own friends or his own bat.

1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. xxiii. ‘You have a weakness for the great world? Good. Score off your own bat, and it is the great world comes to you.’

1884. Sat. Review, March 8, p. 308, col. 2. He has in the most workmanlike manner, and off his own bat, lost for the Government an important seat by a crushing majority.

To carry out one’s bat, phr. (popular).—This also is derived from a cricketing expression. In the game it means to be not out, i.e., the last man in. Figuratively, therefore, to carry out one’s bat is to persevere and carry through an undertaking; to outlast all other opponents; and thus to secure the result aimed at.

1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxviii. The General defended his stumps as he would have defended a fortress, and carried his bat out with a score of a hundred and seven.

Batchelor’s Son, subs. (old).—A bastard.

Bates’ Farm or Garden, subs. (thieves’).—Coldbath Fields prison. [From a warder of that name + a certain appropriateness in the initials, C.B.F., the prison initials, and used as a stamp = Charley Bates’ Farm.] When, formerly, the convicts were put to the treadmill in this prison, they were said to be ‘feeding the chickens on Charley Bates’ Farm.’ Newgate was also called Akerman’s Hotel, from a former governor, and a similar reason has caused the Melbourne gaol to be nicknamed Castilan’s Hotel by Australian thieves.

[Circa 1850, but date uncertain.]

Bates’ Farm.

Good evening pals, how do you do, I thought I’d give a call, And introduce myself to you, For I’m glad to see you all. I’m up to every little fake, But in me there’s no harm, For it was this blooming morning That I left Old Bates’ Farm.

CHORUS.

Then, here’s success my knowing kids, I’m filled with ev’ry charm, I feel so gay this blessed day, I’ve left Old Bates’ Farm.

Now, every morning when you rise, You get a starving meal, And if you don’t eat all they send You have to work the wheel. Then so merrily we go, To chapel to have prayers, And for a little pastime work The everlasting stairs.

Chorus.

The last time that I went to see Old Bates, he shook my hand, And said, ‘I’m glad to see you, You’re a chap I understand.’ He said, ‘You’re here for nothing now?’ I said ‘Yes,’ like the rest, It was only for knocking a bobby down, And jumping on his chest.

Chorus.

So now I’ve got my liberty, And once again I’m free, I mean to ‘crack a crib’ to-night. But pals don’t ‘crack on me.’ So if I should touch lucre, For a time I will keep calm, If I don’t see you here some night, I shall at Bates’ Farm.

Chorus.

Bath. Go to Bath! phr. (familiar).—This popular saying appears to have two distinct readings, both of which, however, are traceable to the same source.

1. Go to Bath! i.e., an injunction to desist; to be gone; get out of my sight, or hearing, for you are mad or cracked—a forcible expression of incredulity, sometimes intensified by ‘and get your head shaved.’ The saying is applied to those who either relate crack-brained stories, or propose undertakings that raise a doubt as to sanity. The allusion is to the fact that, in former days, persons who showed symptoms of insanity were sent to Bath to drink the medicinal waters; the process of shaving the head being previously resorted to.

1840. Barham, I. L. (Grey Dolphin). ‘Go to Bath!’ said the baron. A defiance so contemptuous roused the ire of the adverse commanders.

1885. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Oct. 16, p. 362. You tell a disagreeable neighbour to go to Bath in the sense in which a Roman would have said abi in malam rem.

2. Hence, to become a beggar. Bath, especially in the latter part of the last century, and at the beginning of the present one, enjoyed a reputation for its fashion and baths: it was also, naturally enough, for this very reason, the resort of countless numbers of beggars. To go to Bath signified, therefore, amongst vagrants, to proceed to what was in reality one of the first centres of beggardom; presumably to solicit alms. Hence also an additional clue to the process of transition into sense 1. What more natural than to bid an importunate applicant to betake himself to Bath to join his fellows? Fuller in his Worthies has a passage which throws some additional light upon the question.

1662. Fuller, History of the Worthies of England. Beggars of Bath.—Many in that place; some natives there, others repairing thither from all parts of the land; the poor for alms, the pained for ease. Whither should flock fowl in a hard frost, but to the barn-door? Here, all the two seasons, being the general confluence of gentry. Indeed laws are daily made to restrain beggars, and daily broken by the connivance of those who make them; it being impossible when the hungry belly barks, and bowels sound, to keep the tongue silent. And although oil of whip be the proper plaister for the cramp of laziness, yet some pity is due to impotent persons. In a word, seeing there is the Lazar’s bath in this city, I doubt not but many a good Lazarus, the true object of charity, may beg therein.

Long previous to 1662, however, stringent vagrant laws were in force.

1588. William Lambard, The Office of the Justices of the Peace, p. 334. Such two Justices may ... License diseased persons (living of almes) to trauell to Bathe, or to Buckstone [Buxton], for remedie of their griefe.

Bathing Machines, subs. (nautical).—A name given to the old 10 ton brigs.—Russell’s Sailor’s Language.

Bat-Mugger, subs. (Winchester College).—A wooden instrument used for rubbing oil into cricket bats.

Bats, subs. (thieves’).—A pair of bad or old boots. Elworthy in West Somerset Words gives this as a heavy laced boot with hobnails.

Bats Down? (Winchester and general).—‘How many bats down?’ i.e., how many wickets have fallen?

Battels, subs. (University).—The weekly bills of students at Oxford. The derivation of the term has been the subject of much discussion, and is very uncertain. Murray says much depends on the original sense at Oxford: if this was ‘food, provisions,’ it is natural to connect it with ‘battle,’ to feed, or receive nourishment.—See quotation.

1886–7. Dickens, Dictionary of Oxford and Cambridge, p. 16. Battels is properly a designation of the food obtained from the College Buttery. An account of this, and of the account due to the Kitchen, is sent in to every undergraduate weekly, hence these bills also are known as battels, and the name, further, is extended to the total amount of the term’s expenses furnished by the College. In some Colleges it is made essential to the keeping of an undergraduates’ term that he should battel, i.e., obtain food in College on a certain number of days each week.

To quote Dr. Murray again, however, it appears that the word has apparently undergone progressive extensions of application, owing partly to changes in the internal economy of the colleges. Some Oxford men of a previous generation state that it was understood by them to apply to the buttery accounts alone, or even to the provisions ordered from the buttery, as distinct from the ‘commons’ supplied from the kitchen: but this latter use is disavowed by others ... but whether the battels were originally the provisions themselves, or the sums due on account of them, must at present be left undecided.

1853. Cuthbert Bede, Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. vii. The Michaelmas term was drawing to its close. Buttery and kitchen books were adding up their sums total; bursars were preparing for battels.

(Eton.)—See quotation.

1798. H. Tooke, Purley, 390. Battel, a term used at Eton for the small portion of food which, in addition to the College allowance, the collegers receive from their dames.

Batter, subs. (common).—Wear and tear; e.g., ‘the batter is more than any human being can stand for long.’ [From one of the ordinary meanings of to batter, to wear or impair by beating or long service, as a battered jade.]

Ppl. adj.—Given up to debauchery; this sense follows upon

To go on the batter, i.e., to walk the streets for purposes of prostitution; but cf., Bat.

Battle of the Nile, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—A ‘tile’ = a hat. For synonyms, see Cady.

Battle Royal, subs. (colloquial).—A vehement quarrel.

1698. Howard, All Mistaken, Act i.

1st Nurse. Your husband is the noted’st cuckold in all our street.

2nd Nurse. You lie, you jade; yours is a greater.

Phil. Hist—now for a battle-royal.

18(?). Thackeray, Shabby Genteel Story, ch. vi. A battle-royal speedily took place between the two worthy mothers-in-law.

1865. Sketches from Cambridge, p. 137. Our brethren there [in Oxford] seem to be always indulging in battles-royal.

Battlings, subs. (public schools’).—A weekly allowance of money. At Winchester it is 1s., while at Repton it is only 6d.

1864. Household Words, p. 188. The business of the latter was to call us of a morning to distribute amongst us our battlings, or pocket-money.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 184. The expense was defrayed by the boys subscribing the last three battlings (i.e., the weekly shilling allowed each boy). This was rather an illusory coin, for we seldom actually fingered it, as some one of the College servants generally had a kind of prescriptive right to a benefit; and whenever Saturday arrived, Præfect of Hall’s valet was sure to come round to ask the boys if they would give their battling to Rat Williams, or Dungy, or Purver, or Long John, or some other equally deserving individual.

1883. Trollope, Autobiogr. (1883), I., 13. Every boy had a shilling a week pocket-money, which we called battels. [This is probably a misprint—the Winchester term, as that used at other schools, is battling. It was advanced out of the pocket of the second master.]

Battner, subs. (old).—An ox; beef being apt to batten or fatten those that eat it. ‘The cove has hushed the battner,’ i.e., has killed the ox.—Grose [1785].

Batty, subs. (general).—Wages; perquisites. Derived from batta, an extra pay given to soldiers while serving in India.—Hotten. Col. Yule says in Indian banking, agio or difference in exchange; discount on coins not current; or of short weight.

1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1 S., Merton, ch. viii. Whether he could draw full batta in peace-time.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, 5 S., ‘Batta.’ Batta or Batty (Hindustanee). Perquisites; wages. Properly, an allowance to East Indian troops in the field.

Baulk, subs. (Winchester College).—A false report (especially that a master is at hand), which is sported (q.v.), not spread.

(Popular.)—A false shot; a mistake.

Baum, verb (American Univ.).—To fawn; to flatter; to curry favour.—Hall’s College Words and Phrases.

Bawbels or Bawbles, subs. (old).—A man’s testicles. Originally, a provincialism. For synonyms, see Cods.

Bawcock, subs. (old).—A burlesque term of endearment. [From either French beau, fine, + French coq, cock = a fine or good ‘feller’; or from English boy + cock = a young dandy or strut.]

1599. Shakspeare, Henry V., iii., 2, 25. Pist. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould!... Good bawcock ’bate thy rage!

1861. H. Ainsworth, Constable of the Tower, p. 131. One of the gamesome little bawcock’s jests.

Bawd, subs. (old).—A female procuress. A carted bawd meant one who had been placed in a cart and led through the town to make her person known to the inhabitants. Cf., Abbess. See also Cart and Barrack-hack for synonyms.

Bawde Phisicke.—See quotation.

1560–1. Awdeley, The XXV. orders of Knaues, (ed. 1869), p. 14. Bawde Phisicke, is he that is a Cocke, when his Maysters meate is euyll dressed, and he challenging him therefore, he wyl say he wyll eate the rawest morsel thereof him selfe. This is a sausye knaue, that wyl contrary his Mayster alway.

Bawdy Banquet, subs. (old).—Whoremongering. [From bawdy, lewd, + banquet.]

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 63. ‘Where haue I bene?’ quoth he, and began to smyle. ‘Now, by the mas, thou hast bene at some baudy banquet.’

Bawdy Banquet, subs. (old).—A running after loose women; molrowing.

Bawdy Basket, subs. (old cant).—1. The twenty-third rank of canters (see Harman), who carried pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to sell, but lived mostly by stealing,

1567. Harman, Caveat (ed. 1869), p. 65. These bawdy baskets be also wemen, and go with baskets and Capeases on their armes, where in they haue laces, pynnes, nedles, white ynkell, and round sylke gyrdles of al coulours. These wyl bye conneyskins and steale linen clothes of on hedges. And for their trifles they will procure of mayden seruaunts, when [leaf 20, back] their mystres or dame is oute of the waye, either some good peece of béefe, baken, or chéese, that shalbe worth xij pens, for ii pens of their toyes. And as they walke by the waye, they often gaine some money wyth their instrument, by such as they sodaynely mete withall. The vpright men haue good acquayntance with these, and will helpe and relieue them when they want. Thus they trade their lyues in lewed lothsome lechery. Amongest them all is but one honest woman, and she is of good yeares; her name is Ione Messenger. I haue had good proofe of her, as I haue learned by the true report of diuers.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 39 (1874). [In list of orders of thieves], bawdy-baskets.

2. A prostitute; an alternative and earlier form of bawd (q.v.).

1589. Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesie, bk. III., ch. xix.

Many a faire lasse in London towne, Many a bawdie basket borne vp and downe: Many a broker in a thridbare gowne, Many a bankrowte scarce worth a crowne. In London.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 86. The victualers to the campe are women, and to those some are Glymerers, some bawdy-baskets, some Autem-Morts.

Bawdy House Bottle, subs. phr. (old).—A very small one, short measure, being among the many means used by the keepers of those houses, to gain what they call an honest livelihood; indeed, this is one of the least reprehensible, the less they give a man of their infernal beverages for his money, the kinder they behave to him.—Grose.

Bayard of Ten Toes. To ride Bayard of ten toes, phr. (old).—To go on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.—See Marrow bone stage.

1606. Breton, Good and Badde, p. 14. Breton says of the ‘honest poore man,’—his trauell is the walke of the woful, and his horse Bayard of ten toes.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Somerset (ii., 291). At last he [Coryat] undertook to travail into the East Indies by land, mounted on an horse with ten toes.

Bay Window, subs. (common).—A slang phrase applied to women when pregnant, or men who have ‘corporations.’ The allusion is obvious.

B. C., subs. (common).—A name jokingly applied to a person who brings a trumpery action for libel against another. Dr. Brewer in Phrase and Fable thus, in effect, explains the allusion:—A young woman complained to Mr. Ingham [the magistrate at Bow Street Police Court and now (1889) Sir James Ingham] of having been abused by a woman who called her a b. c. On being asked the meaning, the young woman said c meant ‘cat’ but the B——, well, it was too shocking to utter, and the magistrate allowed her to whisper the word in his ear. It was a well-known word of sanguinary sound; but, though b.c. was hardly a pretty epithet, yet his worship could hardly grant a summons for libel against the person of whom complaint was made for using it.

Beach-Cadger, subs. (old).—A beggar whose ‘pitch’ is at watering-places, and sea-ports. [From beach, the sea-shore + cadger, a beggar.]

Beach-Comber, subs. (nautical).—1. One who hangs about the sea-shore on the look-out for jobs. It was chiefly applied to runaway seamen, deserters from whalers, who lived along the beach in South America, the South Sea Islands, etc. It is a term of contempt.—Clark Russell’s Sailors’ Language.

1847. Blackwood’s Magazine, LXI., 757. A daring Yankee beech-comber. [M.]

1880. Athenæum, 18 Dec., p. 809, col. 2. The white scamps who, as beech-combers, have polluted these Edens and debauched their inhabitants.

1885. A. Lang, in Longm. Mag., VI., 417, note. Beach-comber is the local term for the European adventurers and long-shore loafers who infest the Pacific Archipelagoes. There is a well-known tale of an English castaway on one of the isles, who was worshipped as a deity by the ignorant people. At length he made his escape, by swimming, and was taken aboard a British vessel, whose captain accosted him roughly. The mariner turned aside and dashed away a tear: ‘I’ve been a god for months and you call me a (something alliterative) beach-comber!’ he exclaimed, and refused to be comforted.

2. A river boatman.

3. A thief who prowls about the sea-shore; a plunderer of wrecks; a picker-up of waifs and strays. This is derived from sense 4.

4. (American.)—A long wave rolling in from the ocean. Hence applied to those whose occupation it is to pick up, as pirates or wreckers, whatever these waves wash in to them.

Beach-Tramper, subs. (nautical).—A coastguardsman. [From beach, the shore of the sea + tramp, to walk along + er.]

Bead. To draw a bead [on one], phr. (American).—To attack an opponent by speech or otherwise. The phrase has passed into colloquial use from backwoods parlance, where it signifies the process of taking aim and firing. The front sight of a gun is in appearance like a bead.

1841. Catlin, North American Indians (1844), I., x., 77. I made several attempts to get near enough to draw a bead upon one of them.

1870. Bret Harte, Society on the Stanislaus (in Poems and Prose). It is not a proper plan, to lay for that same member for to put a bead on him.

188(?) S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p. 48. I was pretty close to the Shanty, and I thought I heard the old man coming all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and looked around a bunch of willows, and there was the old man down the path apiece just drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.

1889. Albany Journal, Aug. 6. If Jake’s not careful I’ll draw a bead on him. Very little more will make me go for him tooth and nail.

To raise a bead.—To bring to the point; to ensure success. The figure is taken from brandy, rum, or other liquors, which will not ‘raise a bead,’ unless of the proper strength.

1846. N. Y. Tribune, Letter from Ohio. The result was, if the convention had been then held, the party wouldn’t have been able to raise a bead. [b.]

Beagle, subs. (old).—A spy; informer; man-hunter; policeman; also a general term of contempt. [From beagle, a small hound, which tracks by scent, formerly used for hunting.]

1599. Myrr. Mag., Jack Cade, xix., 2. That restless begle sought and found me out. [M.]

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, Act iii., Sc. 4. Mon. I beseech you, Mistress Tenterhook,—before God, I’ll be sick, if you will not be merry. Mist. Ten. You are a sweet beagle.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Beagle (s.) ... also a contemptuous name given to a boy or man, as to say, you are a special beagle, is the same as, you are good for nothing.

1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, III., vii., v., 377. Attorneys and Law-beagles, which hunt ravenous on this Earth.

Beak, subs. (old cant).—1. A policeman or guardian of the peace. As far as is known, this (as ‘beck’) is the oldest cant term for a member of a class of men, who, perhaps, above all others, have been the recipients of nicknames and epithets, and these, be it noted, not always of a complimentary character. In Harman’s Caveat (1573), harman beck is explained as ‘the counstable,’ harmans being ‘the stockes.’ The derivation of beck or beak is doubtful. Especially vague seems that which finds its source in the Saxon beag, a gold collar worn by civic magistrates, and an emblem of authority. This genesis appears to be based on the later and secondary sense of beak, a magistrate, a meaning which it still retains. But, against this must be placed the fact that, as the name for a watchman or guardian of the peace, beak boasts a much older usage. Sir John Fielding, half brother of the author of Tom Jones, and an active Middlesex Justice in the last century, was popularly known as the ‘Blind Beak’ [c. 1750]; but beyond this date no instance of this sense has been found. If, therefore, beak originally signified a policeman, it is difficult to discover any connection with the Saxon beag, inasmuch as watchmen are not known to have been decorated with gold collars. The following quotations will give other illustrations, and also show that, meaning a policeman, the term has not long been obsolete.

1609. Dekker, a Gypsy song, in Lanthorne and Candlelight, etc.

The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck, If we mawnd Pannam, lap or Ruff-peck,

Or poplars of yarum; he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans. Or else he sweares by the lightmans, To put our stamps in the Harmans. The Ruffian cly the ghost of the Harman beck. If we heaue a booth we cly the Jerke. If we niggle or mill a bousing ken. Or nip a bung that has but a win, Or dup the giger of a gentry cofes ken: To the quier cuffing we bing, And then to the quier-Ken to scowre the Cramp-ring, And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the lightmans, The Bube and Ruffian cly the Harman beck and Harmans.

[This is thus ‘Englished’ by Dekker].

The Diuell take the Constable’s head, If we beg Bacon, Butter-milke or bread. Or Pottage, to the hedge he bids us hie, Or sweares (by this light) i’th’ stocks we shall lie. The Deuill haunt the Constable’s ghoast, If we rob but a booth, we are whip’d at a poast. If an ale-house we rob or be tane with a whore, Or cut a purse that has iust a penny, and no more, Or come but stealing in at a gentleman’s dore: To the Justice straight we goe, And then to the Jayle to be shakled: And so To be hang’d on the gallows i’th’ day time: the pox And the Deuill take the Constable and his stocks.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6.

Land. Gentlemen vagabonds; the traps are abroad, and half a thousand beadles and beaksmen are now about the door.

Billy. De beak! oh curse a de beak!

Jemmy. Gemmen!—gemmen! (Knocking on table to command attention.)

Jack. Silence for the chair!

Jemmy. Put out the lights, put out the lights, every one shift for himself. Here, Bob, carry me up the ladder, good luck to you do, Bob.

1840. Thackeray, Catherine, ch. x. But Mrs. Polly, with a wonderful presence of mind, restored peace by exclaiming, ‘Hush, hush! the beaks, the beaks!’ Upon which, with one common instinct, the whole party made a rush for the garden gates, and disappeared into the fields. Mrs. Briggs knew her company: there was something in the very name of a constable which sent them all a-flying.

English Synonyms. ‘Blue’ (traceable to Queen Elizabeth’s days when the colour of the uniform was the same as now); ‘men in blue’; ‘Royal Regiment of Footguards Blue’; ‘bluebottle’ (used by Shakspeare); ‘blew coate’ (also a Shakspearian term, and still in use); ‘Dogberry’ (an allusion to Much Ado about Nothing); ‘charley’ (one of the old watchmen); ‘bobby’; ‘peeler’; ‘copper’ (a thieves’ term, from ‘to cop’ to lay hold of); ‘crusher’ (thieves’); ‘slop’ (a back slang corruption of ‘police’ = esclop, with c not sounded and shortened to ‘slop’); ‘scufter’ (a northern term, as also is the example next following); ‘bulky’ (used by Bulwer Lytton); ‘philip’ (from a thieves’ signal); ‘cossack’; ‘philistine’; ‘frog’ (from pouncing upon criminals); ‘Johnnie Darby’ (a corruption of gendarme); ‘Johnnie’; ‘pig’ (a plain clothes man); ‘worm’; ‘nose’; ‘nark’; ‘dee’ (a detective); ‘tec’; the C.T.A. (a circus man’s term); ‘demon’ (Australian thieves’); ‘reeler’; ‘raw lobster’ (this like ‘blue,’ etc., would appear to be a reference to the colour of the uniform).

French Synonyms. Un rousse (popular and thieves’: roux signifies ‘red,’ and red hair has always been held in contempt as indicative of treachery and craft; hence its application by the criminal classes to their natural enemies); un roussin (thieves’: of same derivation as foregoing); un bâton de réglisse (popular: ‘a stick of liquorice’); un baladin (properly ‘a mountebank, juggler, or buffoon’); une cagne (popular: ‘a dog,’ i.e., ‘a worthless fellow,’ ‘a slut’; cagne or caigne in Old French signified ‘dog,’ and was derived from the Latin canis, whence caignot, ‘a little dog.’ It may also be noted that, prior to the establishment of the modern gendarmerie, the archers of the watch were known as chiens-courants); un cogne (thieves’: another form of cagne); un balai (hawkers’: properly ‘a broom, brush, or besom’); un serin (popular: properly ‘a canary’; serin is also slang for ‘a foolish fellow,’ ‘a greenhorn’); un pousse (thieves’: the guardians of public order formerly known in Paris as serjents or archers de l’écuelle were called pousse-culs); une vache (literally ‘a cow’); un arnif (thieves’); une peste (thieves’: literally ‘a plague’ or ‘torment’); une tronche â la manque; un flaquadard; un cabestan (thieves’: properly ‘a hand-winch’; Michel thinks this is derived either from cabe, ‘a dog’; or from capitan, ‘a captain.’ The latter, be it noted, has also the signification of ‘hector’ or ‘braggadocio’); un raille or railleux (thieves’: a detective. Michel derives it from raillon, a weapon with which the police were formerly armed. Victor Hugo thought it came from the English word ‘rascal,’ but there seems little, if any, authority for this); un sacre (Nicot gives this as ‘a bird of prey,’ but Henri Estienne adds that it was used to denote ‘one who lays hands on everything that comes in his way’; also ‘a gourmand’); un grive (thieves’: ‘a warder’ or ‘military patrol’); un laune (thieves’); un flique (popular: also a petty police magistrate. Thought to be a corruption of friquet, another opprobrious term for a police man); un bec du gaz; un estaffier (familiar: also, among thieves, ‘a cat’); une bourrique (thieves’: also ‘an informer’); un pousse trottoir (pousse from pousser, ‘to push’; trottoir, a footpath); un lampion rouge (thieves’); un escargot de trottoir (popular: literally ‘a snail of the footpath’); un cierge (thieves’: properly ‘a wax taper’); un sergo (popular); un grippe-Jesus (a term used by thieves in the north of France, and by seafaring men which, says Michel, might lead one to suppose that gendarmes only arrested innocent persons); un pince sans rire (thieves’: a sly, malicious person); un pot â tabac (popular: ‘a tobacco jar’); un singe de la rousse (singe = monkey, de la rousse, ‘of the police force’).

For German Synonyms, see Copper.

Italian Synonyms. Un’ zaffo (literally ‘a bung’ or ‘tipstaff’); un’ foco or un’ fuoco (literally ‘fire’).

Spanish Synonyms. Uno mastin (literally ‘a mastiff’ or ‘bulldog’; ‘a clumsy fellow’; ‘a clown’); una harpia (un harpeo = ‘grapnel’ or ‘grappling-iron’); una fiera (properly ‘a wild beast’).

2. (popular.)—A magistrate. Cf. foregoing, much of which has reference to this secondary meaning of beak. Sometimes Called a beak of the law.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. ‘My eyes, how green!’ exclaimed the young gentleman. ‘Why a beak’s a madgst’rate.’

18(?) Hood, Tale of a Trumpet.

The pies and jays that utter words, And other Dicky gossips of birds, Who talk with as much good sense and decorum, As many beaks who belong to the quorum.

1881. Punch, Dec. 3, 258. A pair of anti-vivisectionists. Sir Slangsby Jaunter. ‘See that old fellow, Miss Diana? That’s Doctor Katchett, who swears he’s going to find a cure for lunatics! Just got into trouble. Been trying the effects of extreme terror and bodily fatigue on a rabbit, and without chloroform, too, the old ruffian! And then he killed it, and dissected its brain. Going to be had up before the beak for it! Bow St., you know!’ Miss Diana. ‘Serve him right, horrid man! Don’t want to know about such people. But talking of rabbits, what a splendid run that second Hare gave us to-day! Thirty minutes gallop without a check!—Wasn’t it lovely!—And I was in at the death!’

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Oct. 12, p. 5, col. 2. Taken before some French beak whom he did not know, and an interpreter brought, the ‘cotched’ culprit was made to pay 20 f., his friend escaping because he was not caught red-handed.

An English Synonym is ‘queer cuffin’ (old cant).

French Synonyms. Un sapeur (thieves’: properly ‘a sapper,’ i.e., ‘one who undermines’ [one’s chances of wrong doing]); un pante en robe (pante in French slang is equivalent to ‘a man’ or ‘cove’; en robe = ‘in a robe’); un endormi (popular: properly ‘a sleepy-head’); un grignon (thieves’: probably from grigner les dents, ‘to show one’s teeth threateningly’; or from grognon, ‘grumbler,’ ‘growler’); un gerbier; un curieux (thieves’: i.e., ‘the curious one’; from the adj. curieux. Michel, however, adds that curieux formerly signified ‘a courtier’); un singe à rabat (thieves’: possibly rabat is an abbreviated form of rabat-joie, ‘a wet blanket.’ The phrase would then mean ‘a baboon with a wet blanket,’ ‘a damper’; or it may be derived from singe, a monkey + rabat, slang for ‘a cloak.’ Cf., singe de la rousse); un lustre (thieves’: properly ‘renown’; ‘distinction’); un pant’ de la magistrat’ muche (thieves’).

Italian Synonym. Un antigo (literally ‘an old one’; also ‘a master,’ ‘a boss’).

Spanish Synonym. Sombrador (thieves’ and popular: from sombra, ‘shade’; i.e., one who puts in the shade. Poner â la sombra is ‘to imprison’).

3. (popular.)—The nose. For synonyms, see Conk.

1598. Florio. Naso adunco, a beake-nose. [M.]

1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I., 296. The well-known hooked beak of the old countess. [M.]

1865. E. C. Clayton, Cruel Fort, I., 143. A large, fat, greasy woman, with a prominent beak.

1876. E. C. Grenville Murray, The Member for Paris, I., p. 80. It was not the most agreeable thing in the world to be suddenly interrupted in a mantel-shelf conversation by a gentleman with a firm beak-nose and a red rosette in his button-hole.

4. (Eton and Marlborough Schools.)—A master.

Beaker, subs. (thieves’).—A fowl. Sometimes shortened into beak. The derivation is obviously an illusion to the beak or horny mandibles of poultry. Formerly called cackling-cheat (q.v.), and by French thieves une estable, or une estaphle.

Beaker-Hunter, subs. (thieves’).—A poultry yard thief. Also beak-hunter.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 445. A poultry stealer. A beaker-hunter.

Beak-Gander, subs. (common).—A judge of the Superior Courts. [From beak (q.v.), a magistrate + gander, a humorous term for an old man.]

Beaksman, subs. (old).—See Beak (sense 1), of which it is an alternative form.

Beam Ends. To be thrown on one’s beam ends, phr. (nautical).—1. To be in bad circumstances; to be at one’s last shift; hard-up; a metaphor drawn from sea-faring life. A ship is said to be on her beam ends when she is so prostrated on her side by stress of weather, or shifting of cargo, as to submerge her lee rail.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xl. In short, he laughed the idea down completely; and Tom, abandoning it, was thrown upon his beam ends again for some other solution. [h.]

1851. Henry Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., 121. When a fellow is on his beam ends, as I was then, he must keep his eyes about him, and have impudence enough for anything, or else he may stop and starve. [h.]

2. Also, less figuratively, to be thrown to the ground; to be reduced to a sitting or lying posture.

1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxvi. Our first lieutenant was ... on his beam ends, with the rheumatiz.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant Green. You get on stunningly, gig-lamps, and haven’t been on your beam ends more than once a minute.

Bean or Bien, subs. (popular).—A sovereign. Formerly a guinea. In America five-dollar gold pieces are now called beans. See also Half-bean and Haddock of beans. In the old French cant, biens meant money or property. For synonyms, see Canary.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Bean, a guinea. Half-bean.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. ix. Zoroaster took long odds that the match was off; offering a bean to half a quid (in other words, a guinea to a half guinea).

1885. D. C. Murray, Rainbow Gold, bk. V., ch. vi. ‘Here’s some of the beans,’ he continued figuratively, as he drew five sovereigns from the same pocket, and surveyed them in his great brown palm.

Full of beans, phr. (society).—In good form or condition; as full of health, spirits, or capacity as a horse after a good feed of beans. Among the ancients the word signified venery; possibly, therefore, a more esoteric meaning may be attached to it than commonly supposed.—See Beany.

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. The tennis-ground [was] a pretty place, overlooking the harbour, and surrounded by trees and female beauty. The game began. ‘Ich dien,’ shouted Jack, as full of beans as the Prince of Wales’ plume, and immediately sent a ball which went bang through the window of an adjoining house.

To give beans, phr. (common).—To chastise; to give a good drubbing. For synonyms, see Tan.

Like beans, adv. phr. (common).—In good form, style, time, etc.; with force; a general expression of approval and praise. Cf., Like blazes, bricks, or one o’clock.

Not to care, or be worth a bean.—To hold in little esteem; to think lightly of; to be of little value. The allusion is to the small worth, or value of a bean, or ‘the black of a bean.’ A variant is not worth a straw (q.v.). Both phrases are old, not worth a bean being traced back to 1297.

To be beany, phr. (common).—To be in good humour—a metaphor also drawn from the stable.

To know beans, phr. (American).—To be well informed. The phrase is incorporated into many expressions in a very strange way; and is an allusion to the fondness of New Englanders in general, and Bostonians in particular, for baked beans and pork, combined with a sly hit at the assumption of superior culture on which they are supposed to insist. To know beans, therefore, is to be sharp and shrewd; to be within the charmed circle of the ‘cultured elect’—in short to be fully equipped in the ‘upper storey.’

1888. Portland Transcript, March 7. The pudding was pronounced a success by each member of the assembled family, including a dainty Boston girl who, of course, knows beans.

1888. Chicago Herald. One has to know beans to be successful in the latest Washington novelty for entertainment at luncheons.

An alternative derivation may, however, be found in the English form.

To know how many blue beans make five white ones, phr. (common).—This is generally put in the form of a question, the answer to which is ‘Five, if peeled,’ and those who fail to get tripped by the ‘catch’ are said ‘to know how many,’ etc.; in other words to be cute; knowing; wide awake.

1830. Galt, Laurie, T. (1849), II., i. 42. Few men who better knew how many blue beans it takes to make five. [M.]

1886. Zoological Comparisons, in Broadside Ballad.

Nature and art improves us, the girls with smiles are moving us, Which very often ruin us there’s no gammon about that; Then just as we begin to know ‘how many beans make five,’ The ladies call us puppies when we at that age arrive; You may perchance become a deer, if in favour with some lass, If not you’re called a donkey, and oftentimes an ass.

1889. Daily News, 4 Nov., p. 6, col. 5. Mr. Gladstone and The Saturday Review. Sir,—My master, who is a good Conservative, lends me The Saturday Review to improve my mind.... It says that there were eighty-six Parnellites, and that if Mr. Gladstone, by his wickedness, could make them leave off voting for the Tories, and vote for him, instead of being in a minority of four, he would have had a majority of 80. Why, Sir, the dunce of the school knows that if you take 80 from one side and add it on to the other, the difference is not 80, but 160. It is as simple as how many blue beans make five. I think some people are losing their wits faster than Mr. Gladstone.—I am, Sir, yours respectfully, A Schoolboy.

Three blue beans in a blue bladder.—Nares confesses his inability to discover the origin of this whimsical combination of words, but points out that it is at least of long standing. The subjoined quotations would seem to indicate the meaning as noisy, frothy talk; clap-trap.

1600. Dekker, Old Fortunatus, iii., p. 128.

F. Hark, does’t rattle?

S. Yes, like three blue beans in a blue bladder, rattle, bladder, rattle.

1717. Mathew Prior, Alma (cant), I., v., 25.

They say—— That putting all his words together, ’Tis three blue beans in one blue bladder.

Bean Belly, subs. (old).—A nickname for a Leicestershire man; from a real or supposed fondness of the inhabitants of this county for beans.

Bean-Feast, subs. (common).—An annual feast given by employers to their work-people. The derivation is uncertain, and, at present, their is little evidence to go upon. Some have suggested its origin in the prominence of the bean goose, or even beans at these spreads; others refer it to the French bien, good, i.e., a good feast (by-the-bye, tailors call all good feeds bean-feasts); whilst others favour its derivation from the modern English bene, a request or solicitation, from the custom of collecting subscriptions to defray the cost. All three suggestions are, at the best, unsatisfactory, and numerous objections crop up at every turn to each of them. An annual outing of this kind is also called a wayzgoose (q.v.).

1882. Printing Times, 15 Feb., 26, 2. A bean-feast dinner served up at a country inn. [M.]

1884. Bath. Jour., 26 July, 6, 1. The annual grant of £20 for their bean-feast. [M.]

Bean-Feaster, subs. (common).—One who takes part in a bean-feast (q.v.).

1884. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 621. For the delectation of the bold bean-feasters. [M.]

Beano, subs. (printers’).—The same as bean-feast (q.v.).

Bean Traps, subs. (American thieves’).—A swell mobsman, or stylish sharper. Beans (q.v.) are five-dollar gold pieces, and the insinuation is obvious. In old English cant a bean meant a guinea, probably from the French biens, property.

Beany, adj. (common).—Full of vigour; fresh, like a bean-fed horse. Or, it may be an allusion to the meaning of venery, which Aristotle says was attached to the word beans.

1852. Kingsley, in Life (1876), I., 278. The very incongruity keeps one beany and jolly.

1870. Daily News, 27 July, 5. The horses ... looked fresh and beany. [M.]

Bear, subs. (Stock Exchange).—1. Applied, in the first instance, to stock sold by jobbers for delivery by a certain date on the chance of prices falling in the meantime, thus allowing the seller to re-purchase at a profit. The phrase was probably at first ‘to sell the bear-skin,’ the buyers of such bargains being called bear-skin jobbers (see quot.), in allusion to the proverb, ‘To sell the bear’s skin before one has caught the bear.’ So far, the origin of the phrase seems pretty clear; of the date of its introduction, however, nothing is known. It was a common term in Stock Exchange circles, at the time of the bursting of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, but it does not seem to have become colloquial until much later. In these transactions no stock was passed, the ‘difference’ being settled according to the quotation of the day, as is the practice now in securities dealt with for ‘the account.’ At present the term for such an arrangement is time-bargain.

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 38, p. 3. Being at that General Mart of stock-jobbers called Jonathans ... he bought the bear of another officer. [M.]

1719. Anatomy of Change Alley (N. and Q., 5 S., vi., 118). Those who buy Exchange Alley bargains are styled ‘buyers of bear-skins.’ [M.]

1778. Bailey, Dictionary (24 ed.). To sell a bear, to sell what one hath not.

2. Hence a dealer who speculates for a fall. The earliest instance noted of this transferred usage is in

1744. London Magazine, 86. These noisy devotees were false ones, and in fact were only bulls and bears. [M.]

1768. Foote, Devil upon Two Sticks, Act i. A mere bull and bear booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent bankrupts.

1774. Colman, Man of Business, iv., i., in wks. (1777) II., 179. My young master is the bull, and Sir Charles is the bear. He agreed for stock expecting it to be up at three hundred by this time; but, lack-a-day, sir, it has been falling ever since.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iv. The hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produce among the bulls, bears, and brokers of Stock-alley.

1860. Peacock, Gryll Grange, ch. xviii. In Stock Exchange slang, bulls are speculators for a rise, bears for a fall.

1889. Ally Sloper’s H. H., Aug. 3, p. 242, col. 3. Mrs. Spingles says she doesn’t wonder that the Stock Exchange at times resembles a menagerie let loose, seeing what a lot of bulls, bears and stags they have at Capel Court.

The French Bourse equivalent is un baissier. See the analogous terms bull; stag; and lame duck.

3. (old.)—The pupil of a private tutor, the latter being called a bear-leader (q.v.). From the general roughness and uncouthness of boys; a reference to the heavy build and ungainliness of the plantigrade in question. Even now the youth of the rising generation are sometimes called ‘unlicked cubs.’ Also called formerly bridled-bear.

1832. Legends of London, II., 247. When I was the youthful bear—as the disciple of a private tutor is called at Oxford. [M.]

Verb.—To act as a bear (q.v.).

1861. New York Tribune, Nov. 29. There is no truth in the startling developments, implicating British officials, in the Herald’s despatch.... His Lordship is wholly guiltless of the charge which the Herald, in its anxiety to bear the market, has brought against him.

Are you there with your bears? phr. (colloquial).—A greeting of surprise at the reappearance of anybody or anything; are you there again; or, in the words of its most recent slang equivalent, ‘What, again! so soon?’ The phrase is explained by Joe Miller, as the exclamation of a man who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha and the bears, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the same preacher and the same discourse.

1642. James Howell, Instructions for Forreine Travell, sec. 3. Another when at the racket court he had a ball struck into his hazard, he would ever and anon cry out, estes vous là avec vos ours? Are you there with your bears? which is ridiculous in any other language but English.

1740. Richardson, Pamela, III., 335. O no, nephew! Are you thereabouts with your bears?

1820. Scott, Abbot, xv. Marry, come up. ‘Are you there with your bears?’ muttered the dragon.

To play the bear, phr. (common).—To behave in a rough and rude manner.

1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., p. 473, col. 1. When we haue so turned all order vpsidowne ... there is nothing but ... playing the beare amongst vs.

Bear a bob, verbal phr. (nautical).—1. To lend a hand; look sharp! look alive!

2. (popular.)—To aid, to assist, to take part in anything.

Bearded Cad, subs. (Winchester College).—A porter, employed by the College to convey luggage from the railway station to the school. The term originated in an extremely hirsute individual, who, at one time, acted in the capacity.

Beard-Splitter, subs. (old).—A man much given to the company of prostitutes; nowadays called a hot member, or molrower, which see for synonyms. [From beard, a tuft of hair + splitter, one who divides. The allusion is obvious.]

Bearer-Up.—See Bear up and Bonnet.

Bear-Garden Jaw, subs. (old).—Rough, unmannerly speech; talk akin to that used in bear gardens and other places of low resort. Quoted by Grose, 1785. [From bear-garden, a place set apart for bear baiting and other rough sports + jaw, talk or speech.]

1848. John Forster, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, bk. IV., chap. xi. He called Burke a bear-garden railer.

1871. Archibald Forbes, My Experience of the War between France and Germany, p. 301. The bear-garden-like Babel was rather more noisy than usual.

Be-Argered, adj. (familiar).—Drunk.

Bearing, ppl. adj. (Stock Exchange).—Acting as a bear (q.v.); or using artifices to lower the price of stock to suit a ‘bear’ account.

Bearings. To bring one to one’s bearings, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To bring one to reason; to act as a check. A nautical term.

Bear-Leader, subs. (old).—A travelling tutor. In the days when it was customary to send ‘young hopefuls’ on the Grand Tour, the expression was much more common and significant than is nowadays the case. The simile is taken from a person who leads about a tame bear for exhibition.

1749. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 4 June (1883), vol. II., p. 392. I shall not wonder if she takes me for his bear-leader, his travelling governor!

1756. Foote, Englishman Returned from Paris, Act i.

Serv. My young master’s travelling tutor, sir, just arrived.

Crab. ... Shew him in. This bear-leader, I reckon now, is either the clumsy curate of the knight’s own parish church, or some needy highlander.

1812. Combe, Dr. Syntax, Tour I ch. xxiii.

And as I almost wanted bread, I undertook a bear to lead, To see the brute perform his dance Through Holland, Italy, and France; But it was such a very Bruin,

. . . . . . . . .

I took my leave, and left the cub Some humbler Swiss to pay and drub.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. vii. They pounced upon the stray nobility, and seized young lords travelling with their bear-leaders.

Bearskin-Jobber, subs. (Stock Exchange).—See Bear, subs., sense 1.

Bear Up, verb (common).—To cheat; to swindle in any way; more particularly applied to the action of ‘decoys’ and confederates.—See Bonnet. The derivation is obviously from that sense of to bear up, signifying support or backing up.

1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 40. The billiard-marker refused to make any division of the spoil, or even to return the £10 which had been lost to him in bearing up the cull.

1883. Referee, Dec. 2, p. 2, col. 4. This looks as if the bearing up and ‘bonneting’ which has been done by friendly writers in response to my remarks is all thrown away.

Beast, subs. (common).—1. Applied to anything unpleasant; or, to that which displeases; e.g., ‘It’s a perfect beast of a day,’ for ‘it’s an unpleasant day.’—See Beastly.

2. (American cadet.)—A name given to new cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.—See Snooker.

3. (Cambridge University.)—Anyone who has left school and come up to Cambridge for study, before entering the University, is called a beast, because ‘he is neither man nor boy.’

Beastly, adv. (popular).—In modern colloquial usage applied to whatever may offend the taste. Akin also to ‘awful,’ ‘everlasting,’ etc.—when used as mere intensitives, i.e., ‘very,’ ‘exceedingly.’ [Originally from beastly, of, or pertaining to the nature of a beast; hence, figuratively, brutish, irrational, unmanly; whence, through a series of transitions, its slang significations.]

1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks., 1873, III., 159. I thought ’twould bee a beastly iourney.

1778. Johnson, in D’Arblay Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I., p. 37. ‘It moves my indignation to see a gentleman take pains to appear a tradesman. Mr. Braughton would have written his name with just such beastly flourishes!’

1865. Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct., p. 5, col. 3. He was in good health ... looked almost ‘beastly well,’ as I once heard it described. [M.]

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. i. He had a troublesome dryness in his throat, and a general sensation of dull heaviness, which he himself would have described—expressively enough, if not with academical elegance—as ‘feeling beastly.’

Beast with Two Backs, subs. phr. (old).—Explained in second quotation.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, Act i., Sc. 1. Brabantio: What profane wretch art thou? Iago: I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with the two backs.

1785. Grose, Classical Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue. Beast with two backs, a man and woman in the act of copulation.

Beat, subs. (American).—1. This word is used in many ways, its precise meaning often depending on its qualifying adjective. It is said of both men and things; for example, a live beat is anybody or anything that surpasses another, and the sense is not derogatory in the least. A dead beat, on the other hand, is the name given to a man who sponges on his fellows. [Probably from that sense of beat signifying to overcome; to show oneself superior to, either in a good or bad sense].

1888. New York Tribune, May 16. As we pay big money for our special news, we can’t afford to throw it away on account of a little mistake in the name. So we shove her in with the single remark that it is better to have a Carrot for a President than a dead beat for a son-in-law. In this way, we again score a live beat on the galoot ‘The Rip-snorter.’ Whoopee! Now is the time to subscribe.

1888. New York Mercury, Aug. 7. But not only steamboats and locomotives were used by reporters for beats, but one newspaper man named Monroe F. Gale made a trip across the Atlantic in a pilot-boat, to get some peculiar news in his own fashion. All things taken into consideration, there never was a bolder voyage over the Atlantic than this made by the ‘Romer,’ all for the sake of a few ‘points’ in news.

2. (popular.)—The round of a policeman or watchman when on duty; one’s daily round of duty, work, etc.; and, figuratively, one’s sphere of influence.

1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 211. The first evening I took my stand in Fleet Street, to look out for a fare, I was drove from street to street by women of my own profession, who swore I should not come in their beats until I had paid my ‘footing.’

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 31. The costermongers repaired to their ordinary beats in the suburbs.

1862. Saturday Review, 15 March, 295. Ask him why anything is so-and-so, and you have got out of his beat. [M.]

Faire sa nouveauté is said of a French prostitute when seeking fresh fields and pastures new.

Ppl. adj. (popular).—1. Overcome; exhausted; ‘done up.’ Generally dead-beat (q.v.). [A shortened form of beaten.]—See Beaten out.

1832. Moore, Jerome, etc., wks. II. (1862), 558. Till fairly beat, the saint gave o’er, [M.]

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffery Hamlyn, ch. xxxvii. ‘The lad was getting beat, and couldn’t a’gone much further.’

2. Hence also, figuratively, to be baffled; defeated.

Verb (American).—To swindle; to deceive; to cheat.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Ap. 12. Later he heard of her marriage to some lawyer or artist named Diss Debar. Previous to this she had been in Montreal and telegraphed that she was dying. She beat the hotel out of a hundred dollars.

Daisy beat (American thieves’).—A swindle of the first water; a robbery of magnitude.

To beat hollow—to sticks—to ribands—to fits—all creation—to shivers, etc. (popular).—To excel; to surpass.

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, I., ii. Crab was beat hollow, Careless threw his rider, and Miss Slammerkin had the distemper.

1847. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1877), p. 55. Many ladies ... were beat all to sticks by the lovely Odille. [M.]

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. i. Talk of climate! a real fine day in England, like a really handsome Englishwoman, beats creation.

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. i. I rode a race against Bob Dashwood the other morning, ... and beat him all to ribands.

1879. Lowell, Poetical Works, 418. And there’s where I shall beat them hollow.

1889. Modern Society, 19 Oct., p. 1302. (How the Nobility live in Germany.) Germans beat the English hollow at drinking beer; the ladies drink it, and the children also, like milk; and it seems to agree with them, for they are very robust. They are not ceremonious at any meal, and eat as if in a hurry for a train, cutting up all on their plate first, then forking it in with the aid of bread or their fingers.

The French say arriver bon premier, ‘to arrive’ or ‘be a good first.’ Cf., synonyms in A1.

To get a beat on is to get the advantage of. The same idea is expressed in the phrase to beat one’s way through the world; in other words, to push one’s interests with vigour and pertinacity. As used by thieves and their associates, to get a beat on one, besides conveying the idea of obtaining an advantage, also implies that the point has been scored by underhand, secret, or unlawful means.

To beat the booby or goose, phr. (nautical).—To strike the hands across the chest and under the armpits to warm them. Formerly to beat Jonas.

1883. Times, 15 March, p. 9, col. 6. The common labourers at outdoor work were beating goose to drive the blood from their fingers. [M.]

To beat the road, phr. (American).—To travel by rail without paying.—See Dead-heads and To beat, sense 1.

That beat’s the Dutch!—See Dutch.

Beat Daddy Mammy (old military).—To tattoo; to practice the elements of drum beating.

Beaten Down to Bed-Rock, adv. phr. (American).—See Bedrock.

Beaten Out, ppl. adj. with adv. (common).—Impoverished; in one’s last straits; hard up.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 351. The beaten out mechanics and artisans, who, from want of employment in their own trade, take to making small things. Ibid, p. 400. The last class of street sellers is the beaten out mechanic or workman.

Beater-Cases, subs. (old).—Boots or shoes. Nearly obsolete. Trotter-cases (q.v.) is the usual term nowadays.—See Beaters.

Beaters, subs. (American).—The feet. [A transferred sense of beater, originally signifying one who ‘beat’ or walked the streets. Barclay, in Shyp of Folys (1509), speaks of ‘night watchers and beters of the stretes.’] For synonyms, see Creepers.

Beat the Hoof, verbal phr. (popular).—To walk; to plod; to prowl. [From beat, in the sense of to strike the ground in walking, etc., + hoof, a humorous term for the foot.] To beat the hoof is an older form of the modern pad the hoof (q.v.).

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i., Sc. 3.

Falstaff: Hold, sirrah, [to Robin] bear you these letters tightly; Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.— Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go; Trudge, plod away, o’ the hoof; seek shelter, pack!

1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II., 412. They all beated it on the hoof to London, [M.]

Beat the Rib.—See Rib.

Beau Trap, subs. (old).—1. A loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and which, on being trodden upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of clean clothes.

2. (old.)—Also a well-dressed sharper, on the look out for raw country visitors and such like.

3. (old.)—A fop, well-dressed outwardly indeed, but whose linen, person, and habits generally, are unclean.

Beauty, subs. (American cadet).—A term applied, on the rule of contrary, to the plainest or ugliest cadet in the class at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Cf., Snooker and Babe.

Beauty-Sleep, subs. (familiar).—Sleep before midnight, the idea being that early hours conduce to health and beauty.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, II., p. 120. The fair pupils have talked themselves to sleep, which, if report does not belie them, is not until they have forfeited all chance of adding to their attractions by getting a little beauty-sleep before twelve o’clock.

1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. xv. ‘Are you going? it is not late; not ten o’clock yet.’ ‘A medical man, who may be called up at any moment, must make sure of his beauty-sleep.’

1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, ch. lxiv. Would I please to remember that I had roused him up at night, and the quality always made a point of paying four times over for a man’s loss of his beauty-sleep. I replied that his loss of beauty-sleep was rather improving to a man of so high a complexion.

1880. Jas. Payn, Confid. Agent, ch. iii. ‘You must get your beauty-sleep,’ cried he to his wife when Barlow had departed, ‘or you will have no colour in your cheeks to-morrow.’

Beaver, subs. (common).—1. An old term for a hat; goss or cady, however, is more frequently heard nowadays. At one time hats were made of beaver’s fur—hence the name; the term is still occasionally applied to tall ‘chimney-pot hats,’ in spite of the fact that for many years silk has replaced the skin of the rodent in their manufacture.

1528. Roy, Sat. To exalte the thre folde crowne Of anti-christ hys bever. [M.]

1661. Pepys, Diary, 27 June. Mr. Holden sent me a bever, which cost me £4 5s.

1712. Gay, Trivia, bk. II., l., 277.

The broker here his spacious beaver wears, Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. ix. ‘Had you not better take off your hat?’ asks the Duchess, pointing ... to ‘the foring cove’s’ beaver, which he had neglected to remove.

1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. x. We know this of our hats, and are always reminded of it when we happen to put them on wrong side foremost. We soon find that the beaver is a hollow cast of the skull, with all its irregular bumps and depressions.

In beaver, phr. (University).—In a tall hat and non-academical garb, as distinguished from cap and gown.

1840. New Monthly Magazine, lix., 271. He ... went out of College in what the members of the United Service called mufti, but members of the University beaver, which means not in his academics—his cap and gown. [M.]

See also Bever.

Beck, subs. (old cant).—1. A constable.—See Beak and Copper.

2. A parish beadle. Apparently the term was applied to all kinds of watchmen.—See Harman-beck.

Verb (thieves’).—To imprison. Amongst Dutch thieves bekaan has the same signification, imprisoned.

1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth ch. lv. The circle with the two dots was writ by another of our brotherhood, and it signifies as how the writer ... was becked, was asking here, and lay two months in Starabin.

Bed. To put to bed with a pickaxe and shovel (common).—To bury. For analogous expressions, see Ladder.

c. 1881. Broadside Ballad, ‘Hands off’—

Kitty Crea, some fine day, when I’m laid in the clay, Put to bed with a spade in the usual way, And yourself on the shelf a neglected old maid, Troth, your conscience will sting you, I’m greatly afraid.

Bedder, subs. (Cambridge University).—A charwoman; one who makes the beds and performs other necessary domestic duties for residents in college.

Bed-Fagot, subs. (familiar).—1. Applied contemptuously to a woman; Cf., ‘hussy,’ ‘witch,’ etc.

2. Synonymous with prostitute. For full list of analogous terms, see Barrack-hack.

Bedfordshire, subs. (familiar).—A humorous term for bed. There are several other phrases of a kindred character; as, for example, Sheet Alley (q.v.); Blanket Fair (q.v.); The Land of Nod (q.v.), etc.

1665. Cotton, Poet. Wks. (1765), 76.

Each one departs to Bedfordshire. And pillows all securely snort on. [M.]

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

Lady Ans. I’m sure ’tis time for all honest folks to go to bed.

Miss. Indeed my eyes draw straws (she’s almost asleep)....

Col. I’m going to the Land of Nod.

Ner. Faith, I’m for Bedfordshire.

1845. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg.

The time for sleep had come at last, And there was the bed, so soft, so vast, Quite a field of Bedfordshire clover.

Bed-House, subs. (common).—A place of assignation where beds can be hired for a longer or shorter period as required—hence the name. For synonyms generally, see Nanny shop.

Bedoozle, verb (American).—To confuse; to bewilder. Probably a corrupt form of the old English verb ‘bedazzle,’ used by Shakspeare in Taming of the Shrew, iv., 5, 46. [1593.]

Bedpost. In the twinkling of a bedpost, phr. (familiar).—Instantaneously; with great rapidity. Originally in the twinkling of a bedstaff. This phrase has given rise to not a little speculation; first, as to what use the bedstaff was put; and, secondly, as to its possible connection with rapidity of motion. The generally received explanation is that the staff referred to was, as Johnson puts it, ‘a wooden pin stuck anciently on sides of the bedstead to hold the cloaths from slipping on either side.’ Dr. Murray, however, points out that the great lexicographer gave no authority, and also that ‘no corroborative evidence has been found.’ Still it seems certain that bedstaffs were used and kept near beds for some purpose by our ancestors. Bobadil, in Every Man in his Humour [1596], uses one to display his skill with the rapier, and the following explanation has been suggested by Mr. Thomas Boys [Notes and Queries, 2 S., vi., 437]. The bedstaff was an upright peg, fixed into the side of the bedstead after the manner of a pin, and projecting upwards to keep the bed clothes in their place. Consequently, as offering the means of exhibiting the use of the rapier, the wooden bedstaff may have afforded a very available as well as harmless implement. Suppose then the bedstaff to have been an upright peg or pin fitting into a hole or socket in the side of the bedstead, and, in length, about equal to the rapier. The socket is a few inches deep; and the bedstaff has (to steady it) a projecting rim which overlays the socket like a lid. The part of the bedstaff which enters the socket will then be the hilt of the rapier; the projecting rim will be the guard; and the rest of the staff will do duty as the blade. In the bedstaff we have then the form of a rapier; and, with this implement of wood, Captain Bobadil would have no difficulty in exhibiting his passado and stoccado. The rapier of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, moreover, was by no means the light and foil-like weapon now known as the small sword. It was of great length and heavy, and a bedstaff such as that suggested above, with a species of guard, and most likely about the weight of a heavy single-stick, would have been no bad instrument wherewith to indoctrinate a tyro in the noble art of self defence.

Hence, probably, if this be so, the derivation of the expression, in the twinkling of a bedstaff; more especially if, as would occasionally be the case, it were used as a weapon of defence against intruders, when possibly even life itself might hang upon a dexterous use of the implement.

1660. Charac. Italy, 78. In the twinkling of a Bedstaff he disrobed himself ... and was just skipping into bed. [M.]

1676. T. Shadwell, Virtuoso, I., i. ’Gad, I’ll do it instantly, in the twinkling of a bedstaff.

1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XI., 259. Shake ’em off and leap into bed, in the twinkling of a bedstaff.

1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. i. ‘I’ll adown and be with you in ... the twinkling of a bedpost.’

Among English Synonyms may be included:—In a jiffy; in two two’s; in a brace of shakes; before you can say Jack Robinson; in a crack; in the squeezing of a lemon.

Between you and me and the bedpost, phr. (familiar).—A humorous tag to an assertion; i.e., ‘between ourselves’;—‘I know what you say, but, between you and me, etc. ... the thing is absurd.’ Sometimes the last word is varied by ‘post,’ ‘door post,’ or ‘gate post’—any prop seems to serve.

1831. Bulwer Lytton, Eugene Aram, p. 234. Ah, sir, all very well to say so; but, between you and me and the bedpost, young master’s quarrelled with old master.

1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, p. 127. And between you and me and the post, sir, it will be a very nice portrait too.

1879. Punch, March 8, p. 108. Discussing an absent friend. ‘Yes, Robinson’s a clever feller, and he’s a modest feller, and he’s a honest feller; but betwixt you and i and the post, Mr. Jones,’ said Brown, confidentially, picking his wisdom tooth with his little finger nail, ‘Robinson ain’t got neither the Looks, nor yet the Language, nor yet the Manners of a Gentleman.’

‘Right you are, sir!’ said Jones, shovelling the melted remains of his Ice Pudding into his Mouth with a Steel Knife (which he afterwards wiped on the Table Cloth). ‘You’ve ’it ’im orf t’ a T!’

Bedrock. To get down to bedrock [in anything; whether in an enquiry, or in one’s circumstances, etc.].—To the bottom; to the lowest level. A miner’s term, alluding to the solid rock underlying superficial and other formations. Therefore, metaphorically, ‘to reach bedrock’ is to attain a solid basis or foundation; bedrock facts are the ‘chiels that winna ding’—the incontestible and uncontrovertible truth.

1870. Bret Harte, Poems and Prose, p. 113. ‘No! no!’ continued T. hastily. ‘I play this yer hand alone. To come down to the bedrock it’s just this,’ etc.

1875. Scribner’s Magazine, p. 277. Getting to the real character of a man is coming to the bedrock.

1888. Louisiana Press, March 31. Thomas J. Whiteman, of Carrol county, is a Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri. You can bet your bedrock dollar that the next governor of Missouri will be a white man, although his first name isn’t apt to be Thomas.

Bee. To have a bee in the head or bonnet, phr. (familiar).—To be possessed of queer ideas; ‘half-cracked’; flighty. This phrase is of considerable antiquity, being traced back to a Scotch writer, Gawin Douglas by name [1474–1521], Bishop of Dunkeld, who used it in a translation of Virgil’s Æneid.

1512–3 (translated: published in 1553). Gawin Douglas, Æneis, VIII., Prol. 120. Quhat bern be thou in bed with heid full of beis.

1657. Samuel Colvil, Whigg’s Supplication, or Scotch Hudibras [1710]. Which comes from brains which have a bee.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s, ch. xvii. ‘Maybe ye think the puir lassie has a bee in her bonnet; but ye ken yoursell if naebody but wise folk were to marry, the warld wad be ill peopled.’

1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, III., 307. It is not an uncommon crochet amongst benevolent men to maintain that wickedness in necessarily a sort of insanity, and that nobody would make a violent start out of a straight path unless stung to such disorder by a bee in his bonnet.

For synonyms, see Apartments to let.

1868. Dr. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 77, col. 2. You have a bee in your bonnet or your head is full of bees; [i.e.] full of devices, crotchets, fancies, inventions, and dreamy theories. The connection between bees and the soul was once generally maintained ... the moon was called a bee by the priestesses of Cerës, and the word lunatic or moon-struck still means one with ‘bees in his head.’

Beef, subs. (common).—1. Human flesh (a transferred sense); i.e., obese; stolid; or fleshy like an ox.

1862. Cork Examiner, March 28. Chelmsford stood higher in the leg, and showed less beef about him. [M.]

2. (nautical.)—By a further transition beef has also come to signify men; strength; or ‘hands’; ‘More beef!’ a bo’sun’s exhortation to extra exertion.

1863. Cornhill Magazine. Feb., ‘Life on Board a Man of War.’ Useful at the heavy hauling of braces, etc., where plenty of beef is required. [M.]

3. (common.)—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

To be in beef, phr. (old)—Said only of women. It means to have carnal knowledge.

To be in a man’s beef, phr. (old).—To wound with a sword.—Grose.

To cry or give beef, or hot beef, phr. (thieves’).—To give an alarm; to pursue; to set up a hue and cry. It has been suggested that beef in this case is a rhyming synonym to ‘thief.’ For synonyms, see To guy.

To be dressed like Christmas beef, phr. (common).—To be decked out in one’s best raiment; in allusion to the ‘dressing’ of Christmas beef by butchers.

To make beef, phr. (thieves’).—To run away; to decamp. For synonyms, see Amputate.

Beef! intj. (Australian).—‘Stop thief.’ Cf., To cry or give beef.

Beef up! phr. (common).—‘Put on your strength!’ ‘Give a long pull and a strong pull!’

Beef-Brained, adj. (common).—Doltish; obtuse; thickheaded; a reference to the heavy, dullness of appearance of oxen.

Beef-Head, subs. (common).—A dolt; a stupid, thickheaded person. Cf., Beef-brained.

Beef It, verb (common).—Considered originally a provincialism, but now common. The lower classes in the East End of London frequently speak of beefing it, either in reality or anticipation (mostly latter), when referring to a meat meal, more particularly when it happens to be beef.

Beefment. On the beefment, adv. phr. (thieves’).—On the alert; on the look out.

Beef-Stick, subs. (military).—The bone in a joint of beef. At mess it is ‘first come, best served’; and those who come last sometimes get little more than the beef-stick.

Beef Straight.—See Straight.

Beef to the Heels, like a Mullingar Heifer, phr. (Irish).—A stalwart man, or a fine woman; i.e., one whose superiority is manifest from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot; literally, all beef down to the heels.

c. 1880. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, p. 193. Dolly was not a fine woman as they say, at all; not beef to the heels, by any means; in a grazier’s eye she would have had no charm whatsoever.

Beef-Witted, adj. (common).—See Beef-brained.

1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, in wks. (Grosart) III., 257. Liues there anie such slowe yce-braind beefe-witted gull.

1863. Reader, 22 Aug. This British bull-neckedness, this British beef-wittedness. [M.]

Beefy, adj. (common).—Fleshy; unduly thick, or obese. [From beef + y: a transferred sense.] Also beefiness, subs., fleshy development. The ankles of women are sometimes ungallantly spoken of as beefy, with which compare beef to the heels. A run of luck and good fortune, generally, is likewise referred to as beefy.

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xi. To see him in his huge shirt-sleeves, with his awkward beefy hands hanging inanely by his side, and his great foolish mouth open.

Bee-Line. To take or make a bee-line [for a place or object], phr. (originally American; now common).—To go direct; ‘as the crow flies’; without circumlocution. Bees, when fully laden with pollen, make for the hive in a straight, or bee-line. One of the American railways is called the Bee-Line Road from the direct route it takes between its termini. Cf., Straight shoot.

1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers.

The field of Lexin’ton where England tried The fastest colors thet she ever dyed. An’ Concord Bridge, thet Davis, when he came, Found was the bee-line track to heaven an’ fame, Ez all roads be by natur’, ef your soul Don’t sneak thur shun-pikes so’s to save the toll.

1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. v. How they could follow an enemy’s trail, or strike a bee-line through unpathed woods to the point they sought!

1875. Miss Bird, Six Mos. in Sandwich Islands, Lett. xxix., p. 275 (1886). Horses cross the sand and hummocks as nearly as possible on a bee-line.

1884. Aldridge, Ranch Notes, p. 78. The cattle are in great dread of this pest [the heel-fly], and the instant an animal feels one, it hoists its tail in the air, and takes a bee-line for the nearest water.

Beelzebub’s Paradise, subs. (popular).—Hell; the infernal regions. Beelzebub is a frequent mis-reading for Beelzebul, the name given by the Jews to the prince of demons. The usage occurs in the New Testament at Matthew x., 25, and xii., 24–27, where Beelzebub should read Beelzebul. The former is properly the god of the Philistines, worshipped as the destroyer of flies [from Hebrew baal, lord + zebub, a fly]; whilst the latter is an opprobrious change on the former [from Hebrew baal, lord + zebul, dung].

Been in the Sun, adv. phr. (common).—A synonym for ‘drunk,’ in connection with which see Screwed. An allusion to a flushed, heated appearance.

Been Measured for a New Umbrella, phr. (American).—Said sportively of anyone appearing in new, ill-fitting clothes, or who has struck out a new line of action, the wisdom of which is doubtful. The joke is an old one and refers to a man of whom it was said that nothing fitted him but his umbrella.

Been There. Oh, yes, I’ve been there, phr. (American), i.e., ‘I know what I am about.’ A popular exclamation. When it is said of a man that he has been there, shrewdness, pertinacity, and experience are implied. A variant may be found in the equally slang expression, ‘he got there all the same.’—See Got there.

1888. Atlanta Constitution, May 4. The Japanese say: ‘A man takes a drink; then the drink takes a drink, and next the drink takes the man.’ Evidently the Japanese ‘have been there.’

2. Another and more invidious meaning, however, is attached to the phrase. Women suspected of clandestine meetings with men are said to have been there.

Beer, subs. (familiar).—To do a beer, i.e., to take a drink of beer.

1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 3.

Quarter-day, too, no more chance of tick, Fancy I shall ’ave to cut my stick. Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear, Two d. left!—must go and do a beer!

1889. Sporting Times, July 6. It was the old tale of stony, pebble-beached, block granite Wednesday, and money on the staff there was none. ‘Pitcher,’ said Shifter, brushing the dust off his tongue, ‘got enough for a beer?’ ‘Enough for a beer?’ repeated Pitcher. ‘Good heavens, I wish I had. If Bass’s ale was a ha’penny a barrel I couldn’t buy enough to soak a fly-paper!’

Verb.—To drink beer; also, to get drunk.

1780–6. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’) Odes R. Acad., wks., 1794, I., 105. He surely had been brandying it or beering, that is, in plainer English, he was drunk. [d.]

To think no small beer [of oneself], phr. (common).—Small beer is weak beer; hence, figuratively equivalent to a trifle. The expression, to think no small beer of oneself, indicates, therefore, a good measure of self-esteem.

1840. De Quincey, Style, wks. XI., 174. [I] should express her self-esteem by the popular phrase, that she did not think small beer of herself.

Beer and Bible, phr. (political).—An epithet applied sarcastically to a political party which first came into prominence during the last Beaconsfield Administration. It was called into being by a measure introduced by the moderate Liberals in 1873, with a view to placing certain restrictions upon the sale of intoxicating drinks. The Licensed Victuallers, an extremely powerful association, whose influence extended all over the kingdom, took alarm, and turned to the Conservatives for help in opposing the bill. In the ranks of the latter were numbered the chief brewers; the leaders of the association, moreover, had mostly strong high church tendencies, while one of them was president of the Exeter Hall organization. The Liberals, noting these facts, sarcastically nicknamed this alliance the Beer and Bible Association; the Morning Advertiser, the organ of the Licensed Victuallers, was dubbed the Beer and Bible Gazette; and lastly, electioneering tactics ascribed to them the war cry of beer and bible! This so-called beer and bible interest made rapid strides: in 1870 the Conservatives were at their low water mark among the London constituencies; but, in 1880, they had carried seats in the City, Westminster, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, and Southwark. A notable exception to this strange fellowship was Mr. Bass [afterwards Lord Bass], of pale-ale fame, who held aloof from opposition to the measure in question. Anent the nickname Beer and Bible Gazette given to the Morning Advertiser, it may be mentioned that it had already earned for itself a somewhat similar sobriquet. For a long time this paper devoted one-half of its front page to notices of publicans and tavern-keepers; while the other half was filled up with announcements of religious books, and lists of preachers at the London churches and chapels. This gained for the paper the equally singular sobriquet of the ‘Gin and Gospel Gazette.’

Beer and Skittles. Generally, Not all beer and skittles, phr. (familiar), i.e., not altogether pleasant, or couleur de rose. A tap room simile, the allusion being to drinking beer and playing at skittles at one and the same time.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 138. But football wasn’t all beer and skittles to the Fags. There was an institution called ‘Kicking in,’ which, while it lasted, was much worse than ‘watching out’ at cricket, although it had the very great merit of not continuing so long; for, even on a whole holiday, we seldom had more than two hours of it.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Aug. 13, p. 6. Prince George of Wales is ‘learning his profession,’ and finds it is not all beer and skittles. That run across the Channel into Queenstown harbour showed our young naval officer the difference between an ironclad and a torpedo boat. The latter is an uncommonly lively craft, and in a choppy sea under a fresh breeze was surprisingly nimble. The commander of No. 79 arrived in the harbour, having shown that at least in one respect he has already something in common with the late admiral, Lord Nelson. The officers of the Revenge had the honour to request the pleasure of the company of the Prince and his brother officers to breakfast. The brother officers went, His Royal Highness spent the day in his hammock, and towards evening wrote to his Royal Father a description of the perils of the deep.

Beer-Barrel, subs. (common).—The human body. Cf., Bacon.

Beeriness, subs., Beery, adj. (common).—Pertaining to a state of, or approaching to drunkenness; intoxicated; fuddled with beer. For synonyms, see Screwed.

1857. Dickens, Dorrit, bk. I., ch. viii., p. 56. The stranger was left to the ... beery atmosphere, sawdust, pipe-lights, spittoons, and repose.

1877. D. C. Murray, in Belgravia, July, p. 73. There was a beery and bloated captain, resident in the inn, who had left the army, as the rumour ran, under disreputable auspices.

1889. Modern Society, July 13, p. 838. It is a fact that does not seem to have struck anyone, that Shakspeare’s first appearance as a sporting tipster was in the words, ‘Lay on Macduff.’ We believe, however, that they could at that time have got five to one against him. So sure was the bard of his tip, that he added, in his own classical language, ‘Damn’d be he that first cries, Hold, enough,’ which is vulgarly translated by the beery oracle of the kerbstone, ‘Put yer shirt on ’im, cuffs an’ all.’

Beer-Jerker, subs. (American).—A tippler.—See Jerker and Slinger.

Beerocracy, subs. (common).—The brewing and beer-selling interest. [A humorous appellation in imitation of aristocracy. From beer + [o] cracy, from Greek κρατέω, to rule, to hold.]

1881. World, 19 Jan., p. 10, col. 2. The startling mixture of peerage and beerocracy ... was absent this time. [M.]

Beer-Slinger.—See Slinger; also Jerker.

Beeswax, subs. (old).—1. Poor, soft cheese. Sometimes called sweaty-toe cheese (q.v.).

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. Bob: Now, landlord, ’arter that ’ere drap of max, suppose we haves a drain o’ heavy wet, just by way of cooling our chaffers—mine’s as dry as a chip—and, I say, do you hear, let’s have a twopenny burster, half a quartern of beesvax, a ha’p’orth o’ ingens, and a dollop o’ salt along vith it, vill you? Mace: Bellay! a burster and beesvax—ingens and salt here. (Calling as he fetches the porter from the side wing, l.). Now, then, here you are, Master Grimmuzzle.

1849. Bell’s Life. [From Baumann.] A burster with a slice of beeswax.

2. A bore; one who ‘buttonholes’ another. Generally, Old beeswax.

Beeswaxers, subs. (Winchester College).—Thick boots used for football. Probably from being smeared with beeswax or other substitute for rendering footgear supple. Pronounced Bĕswaxers.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 137. Our costume consisted of a jersey, flannel trousers, beeswaxers (lace-up boots), or ‘High-lows’ (low shoes), with two or three pairs of ‘Worsteders’ (thick worsted stockings), the feet of all but one pair being cut off.

Beeswing, subs. (common).—A gauzy film or ‘crust,’ in port wines, the result of age. [From bees + wing; so called from its appearance when broken up in the process of decanting.] Hence also beeswinged.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, III., p. 26. Scott from under bushy eyebrows winked at the apparition of a beeswing.

1850. D. Jerrold, The Catspaw, Act i. Whereupon, the animal spirits are held in suspense, like—like the beeswing in port.

1873. Fitzedward Hall, Modern English, p. 32. This port is not presentable unless beeswinged.

Old beeswing, subs. (common).—A nickname for anyone, but especially for one who ‘takes to his liquor kindly’ as the saying goes.

18(?). Mark Lemon, Golden Fetters, II., p. 74. Mr. Clendon did not call Mr. Barnard ‘old cock,’ ‘old fellow,’ or old beeswing.

Beetle-Crusher or Beetle Squasher, subs. (popular).—1. A large foot. The term was popularised by Leech in the pages of Punch. For synonyms, see Hoof.

2. In a transferred and now more common sense to that originally obtaining, a large boot or shoe. Also Beetle-cases. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

1869. W. Bradwood, The O.V.H., ch. xxi. Writhing yet striving to look pleasant on the infliction which the beetle-crusher of a recent arrival had just inflicted on his pet corn.

c. 1880. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, II., p. 200. Yes, but what horrible boots! Whoever could have had the atwocity to fwame such beetle-crushers.

3. (military.)—An infantry soldier; the term is applied to them by the cavalry. A variant is Mud-crusher, which see for synonyms.

Beetle-Crushing, adj. (popular).—With solid tread, such as comes from large heavy feet encased in boots or shoes to match; e.g., the marching of infantry. Cf., Beetle-crusher, sense 3.

1876. Anteros, I., p. 188. The possibility floated before him, now, of sending all his live and dead stock into the market,—of exchange into a sedate beetle-crushing corps.

Beetles, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Colorado mine shares.

1887. Atkins, House Scraps.

Oh supposing our creamjugs were broken, Or beetles were sowing the babies.

Beetle-Sticker, subs. (common).—An entomologist.

Before the Wind, phr. (colloquial).—In prosperous circumstances; out of debt or difficulty. From the nautical expression.

Begad! intj. (common).—A corruption of ‘By God!’ and, as such a euphemistic oath.—See Oaths.

1742. Fielding, J. Andrews. Begad! madam ... ’tis the very same I met.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., iv., 39. Only one, begad! in the world.

Beggared. I’ll be beggared if, etc., phr. (common).—An emphatic form of asseveration; i.e., ‘I’ll give up everything, even to being reduced to beggary, if,’ etc.

Beggar-Maker, subs. (old).—A publican.

Beggars, subs. (cards’).—The small cards from the deuce to the ten are so called.

Beggar’s Bolts.—See Beggar’s bullets.

Beggar’s Bullets or Bolts (old).—Stones.

1584. Hudson, Judith, in Sylvester’s Du Bartas (1608), 698. A pack of country clowns ... that them to battail bownes, with begger’s bolts and levers. [M.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. ‘The beggar’s bullets began to fly’; i.e., they began to throw stones.

Beggar’s Bush. To go home by beggar’s bush, phr. (old).—To go to ruin; otherwise explained as follows.

1686. Twelve Ingenious Characters. He throws away his wealth as heartily as young heirs, or old philosophers, and is so eager of a goal, or a mumper’s wallet, that he will not wait fortune’s leisure to undo him, but rides post to beggar’s bush, and then takes more pains to spend money than day-labourers to get it. [N.]

1868. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 78. Beggar’s Bush. To go by beggar’s bush (or) go home by beggar’s bush, i.e., to go to ruin. Beggar’s bush is the name of a tree which once stood on the left hand of the London road from Huntingdon to Caxton, so called because it was a noted rendezvous for beggars. These punning phrases and proverbs are very common.

Russell Hill, near Croydon, where the Warehousemen’s and Clerks’ Schools are, is locally known as Beggar’s Bush.

Beggar’s Plush, subs. (old)?—Corduroy.—See quotation.

1688. London Gazette, No. 2379, page 4. A person ... in a dark grey Cloth Coat.... Breeches of Beggar’s Plush. [M.]

Beggar’s Velvet, subs. (common).—Downy particles which accumulate under furniture from the negligence of housemaids. Otherwise called sluts’-wool (q.v.).

Beggar the Thing! intj. (common).—Equivalent to ‘confound’ or ‘hang the thing’—used to give additional emphasis to a word or action.

Begin Upon [a Person], verb (common).—To attack; to assault.

Begosh! B’gosh! intj. (American).—An expletive, probably of negro origin; a half veiled oath; a corruption of ‘By God!’—See Oaths.

1888. The Epoch, May 5. Art dealer (descanting on the virtues of the picture). ‘You will observe, sir, that the drawing is free, that—’ Agriculturist. ‘Well, if the drawin’s free an’ you don’t tax me too much for the frame b’gosh I’ll take it.’

Behind, subs. (common).—1. The posterior; the rump.

c. 1830. George IV., in Saturday Review (1862), 8 Feb. Go and do my bidding—tell him he lies, and kick his behind in my name. [M.]

2. (Eton and Winchester Colleges.)—A back at football. At Eton called short behind and long behind, usually abbreviated to ‘short’ and ‘long.’ At Winchester, second behind and last behind. These answer to the half-back and back of Association football. At Winchester, in the Fifteens, there is also a third behind.

Behind One’s Side, adv. phr. (Winchester College).—Said of a man when nearer the opponent’s goal than the player of his team who last touched the ball.

Beilby’s Ball, subs. (old).—An Old Bailey execution.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Beilby’s Ball,—‘he will dance at Beilby’s Ball, where the sheriff pays [for] the musick: he will be hanged. Who Mr. Beilby was, or why that ceremony was so called remains with the quadrature of the circle, the discovery of the philosopher’s stone, and diverse other desiderata yet undiscovered.’

Bejan, Baijan, etc., subs. (Scotch University).—A freshman; a student of the first year at the Universities of St Andrew’s and Aberdeen: it is now obsolete at Edinburgh. [From the French bec jaune, yellow beak, in allusion to the color of the mandibles of young birds.] The term was adopted from the University of Paris; but, signifying ‘a novice’ it has been in more or less general use for nearly three hundred years. At Aberdeen, the second-class students are ‘semi-bejans’; in the third ‘tertians’; while those in the highest rank are ‘magistrands.’ In the University of Vienna the freshman is called beanus, and in France ‘footing money’ is bejaunia. For synonymous terms for freshmen and raw recruits, see Snooker.

1611. Cotgrave. Bejaune, a novice ... or young beginner, in a trade or art.

1865. G. Macdonald, Alec Forbes, ch. xxxiv. The benches were occupied by about two hundred students, most of the freshmen or bejans in their red gowns.

1887. Standard, Feb. 10, p. 5, col. 2. The term baijan, used in one of the Scottish universities to designate a freshman, is from the French bec jaune, yellow beak—young birds having usually bills of this hue.

Belch, subs. (common).—Beer, especially poor beer. So called because of its liability to cause eructation. The term is probably much older than indicated by quotations. One of Shakspeare’s characters in Twelfth Night is Sir Toby Belch, a reckless, roystering, jolly knight of the Elizabethan period. For synonyms, see Swipes.

1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XV., p. 347. Those Poor Sots who are gussling belch at his own Ale-house.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. VII., p. 18.

I sneak’d into a little house, Where porters do their belch carouse.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Belch (s.), common beer or ale sold in publick houses is so called.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Belch, all sorts of beer, that liquor being apt to cause eructation.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 265. ‘Let’s have a pot of that fourpenny English Burgundy of yours, and, whilst my mates are drinking the belch, I want to talk business with you.’

Belcher, subs. (pugilistic).—A neckerchief named after Jim Belcher, a noted pugilist. The ground is blue, with white spots. Also, attributatively, to any handkerchief of a similar pattern. For synonyms, see Fogle.

1812. Examiner, 21 Sept., 607, 1. The traverser ... tied a belcher handkerchief round his neck.

18(?). Dickens, The Ghost of Art, in Reprinted Pieces, p. 215. I saw that the lower part of his face was tied up, in what is commonly called a belcher handkerchief.

1874. Macmillan’s Magazine, April, p. 506. The spotted blue and white neckerchief, still called a belcher, bears the name of a famous prize fighter.

2. (thieves’.)—A ring. Described in quotation.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 399. The best sort of rings for fawney dropping is the belchers. They are a good thick looking ring, and have the crown and V.R. stamped upon them.

3. (circus and showmen.)—A drinker of beer; generally a hard drinker. Cf., Belch.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 99. Now it is well known that travelling mummers are all rare belchers ... I kept them in conversation ... until the drink took the desired effect, and one by one the princes and kings dropped on the grass floor, and were sound drunk and asleep.

Belial, subs. (Oxford University).—A nickname of Balliol College.

Believe. I believe you, phr. (common).—This phrase is frequently employed to signify general assent; ‘yes.’ Sometimes colloquially ‘I believe you my boy’; once a favourite catch-phrase of a well-known actor.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 286. ‘Now confess: were you not a little surprised?’—‘I believe you,’ replied that illustrious person.

1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 140. ‘Miss Rouney, I gather, was the confidante of the other.’ ‘Confidant? I believe you.’

1860. George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, p. 199. ‘Is she a cross woman?’—‘I believe you.’

1879. Dudley Costello, The Millionaire of Mincing Lane, p. 204. ‘And she hates that fellow?’—‘Hates him? I believe you.’

Bell, subs. (vagrants’).—A song. Tramps’ term. Simply diminutive of bellow.—Hotten.

Verb (schoolboy).—To bell a marble is to run away with it, but the action scarcely amounts to actual theft.

To ring one’s own bell, phr. (American).—A variation of ‘to blow one’s trumpet’; to sound one’s praises personally.

Bell-Bastard, subs. (provincial slang).—In the West of England the illegitimate child of a woman who is herself illegitimate; why and wherefore is obscure, though possibly a corruption of ‘double bastard.’

Bellmare, subs. (American).—A political leader, mostly used contemptuously. The term is a slang appropriation from the terminology of Western life, where it seems to be used in regard to mules much in the same way as bell-wether is employed in England in reference to sheep. Why the grey mare, says the author of A Ride with Kit Carson, should be the better horse in the estimation of mules I cannot say, but such is certainly the fact. Though very cautious animals when relying solely on their own judgment, they would appear to have a consciousness of their own inferiority, which induces them to entertain a great regard for the sagacity of the horse, and especially for that of a white mare. The wily Californians, taking advantage of this amiable weakness, employ a steady, old, white mare of known gentleness and good character, to act as a kind of mother and guide to each drove of unruly mules.

Bellows, subs. (popular).—The lungs. This, etymologically, is the same as ‘belly,’ both words having passed through a most complicated history. Properly speaking a bellows is an instrument constructed to produce a strong current of air, and the word itself can be traced back to about A.D. 800. Its figurative and slang signification is recorded as follows:—

1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 115. The lungs doe draw a breath.... When these bellowes doe decay, then health from both doth fade away, [M.]

1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act v., Sc. 2., p. 75 (2 ed.). Heark you, madam, don’t abuse my wife—slut quotha! i’gad let me tell you, she has done a cleaner thing than you’ll ever do while your bellows blow, old lady.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3.

A plague on those malty cove fellows, Who’d have us in spirits relax; Drink, they say, and you’ll ne’er burn the bellows, Half water instead of all max; A glass of good max, had they twigg’d it, Would have made them, like us, lads of wax; For Sal swigg’d, and Dick swigg’d, And Bob swigg’d, and Nick swigg’d, And I’ve swigged, and we’ve all of us swigg’d it, And, by Jingo, there’s nothing like max. All Max! By Jingo, there’s nothing like max!

1843. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), Sam Slick in England, ch. xxii. He [the servant] is so fat and lazy ... walkin’ put him out o’ breath.... How I would like to lick him ... round the park ... to improve his wind, and teach him how to mend his pace. I’d repair his old bellowses for him, I know.

Though regarded as slang in England, the word is colloquially used in many parts of America, in the duplicated plural form—bellowses.

1848. J. R. Lowell, in Biglow Papers, I., p. 23. His bellowses is sound enough.

Bellowsed, ppl. adj. (old).—Transported; lagged. Cf., Bellowser, sense 2.

Bellowser, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A blow in the pit of the stomach, or wind—one that takes the breath away.

2. (old.)—A sentence of transportation for life.

1856. Novels and Tales (from Household Words), Tauch. ed. vi., p. 187. A sigh of the kind which is called by the lower classes a bellowser.

Bellows to Mend, phr. (common).—It is said of a broken-winded horse that it has bellows to mend; likewise of a man whose lungs are affected, or one who from any cause is ‘out of health.’

1856. Cuthbert Bede, Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. iv. To one gentleman he would pleasantly observe, as he tapped him on the chest, ‘Bellows to mend for you, my buck!’

Bell-Rope, subs. (common).—The same as aggerawators (q.v.).

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v., ‘Love lock.’ When men indulge in a curl in front of their ears, the love-lock is called a bell-rope—i.e., a rope to pull the belles after them.

Bells Down! intj. (Winchester College).—See quotation and Bells go single!

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 62. The junior in chamber had a hard time of it; ... while endeavouring to get through his multifarious duties, he had to keep a sharp ear on the performance of the chapel bell, and to call out accordingly, ‘first peal!’ ‘second peal!’ and bells down!

Bells go Single! intj. (Winchester College).—A single bell is rung for five minutes before the hour at which chapel commences. For College evening chapel three three’s are rung, and then follows a ‘bell,’ one for every man in College—70.

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 256. At a quarter to six the peal again rang out, and the cry of bells go was sounded in shrill tones through every chamber of College and Commoners.... After ten minutes the peal changed, and only a single bell continued to ring. This was notified by the cry bells go single, and five minutes afterwards, by that of ‘bells down.’... Presently the head-master ... would descend from his library: or the second master ... would appear at the archway near Sixth Chamber, and the warning voice would be heard ‘Gabell’ or ‘Williams through,’ ‘Williams,’ or ‘Ridding in.’ Straightway there would be a general rush, the college-boys darting across the quadrangle in the rear of the Præfect of Chapel; while the Commoners hurried in, keeping up a continuous stream from their more distant quarters.

Bellswagger.—See Belswagger.

Bell-Topped, Bell-Knobbed, ppl. adj. (harlotry).—Said of a man whose penis is considerably thicker at the top end than at the root or middle.

Bell-Topper, subs. (popular).—A silk hat. [From bell, alluding to the shape, + top, from its position when worn, in relation to the rest of the body + er.] For synonyms, see Golgotha.

1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Aug. 5, p. 5, col. 4. His very bell-topper hat had been garlanded with flowers.

Belly-Ache, subs. (vulgar).—A pain in the bowels; a colic.

1881. New York Times, Dec. 18, quoted in N. and Q., 6 S., v., 65. Bellyache. To grumble without good cause. Employés bellyache at being overworked, or when they fancy themselves underfed, etc.

Belly-Bender, subs. (American).—A boy’s term for weak and unsafe ice.

Belly-Bound, adj. (vulgar).—Constipated; costive.

Belly-Bumper or Belly-Buster. To take a belly-buster, phr. (American).—To ride down a hill in a sled lying on one’s stomach, an amusement confined, it hardly needs saying, to young America. The idea of toboganning was derived from this boyish pastime, and the oaken board has been succeeded by the fleet-winged toboggan, made of seasoned maple with handsomely upholstered seats. With the advent of improved ice vehicles the interest in these sports has increased, and instead of being confined to the vulgar boys who used to ride down hill belly-buster fashion, men and even the most fashionable women now partake of this pleasant and invigorating pastime. Also belly-bumbo, belly-guts, or gutter, belly-flounders, belly-flumps, and belly-plumper.

1888. Chicago Inter-Ocean. Barney has a sled, on which he hauls the fish in snowy weather. Barney had his sled out yesterday, belly-bumping on a little patch of ice and snow.

Belly-Button, subs. (American).—The navel.

Belly-Can (political).—Explained by quotation.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Mar. 28. Whatever ultimately comes of the Sunday Closing movement, it will at any rate leave behind it a curious addition to the English language. This is the word ‘belly-can,’ which is (according to the opponents of Sunday Closing) the plebeian counterpart of the more genteel ‘small cask’—both things being, of course, contrivances for getting round the legal prohibition of Sunday drinking. Lexicographers may perhaps be glad to have the definitions of the two phrases as given yesterday afternoon by Mr. Cavendish Bentinck:—The ‘belly-can’ was a tin vessel not unlike a saddle in shape, which men and women, generally the latter—let hon. members note that—got filled with beer and secreted about their clothes, an averaged-sized can holding about four quarts. A more aristocratic method of private Sunday drinking was by means of the ‘small cask.’ The small cask industry was said to be an exceedingly prosperous one in certain districts. Grocers advertised for casks as a speciality, and one grocer advertised on a Saturday fifty and sixty and sometimes even 100 empty casks.

Belly-Cheat or Belly-Chete, subs. (old).—An apron; also food. [From belly + slang cheat, a thing; from Anglo-Saxon ceat, a thing.]

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, wks. (1885) III., 196. A belly-chete, an apron.

1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, II., i. Each man shall eat his own stol’n eggs and shall possess what he can purchase—back or belly-cheats.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Belly-cheat, an apron.

Belly-Cheer or Belly-Chere, subs. (old).—Food. This term is of considerable antiquity, as also is belly-cheering for eating and drinking. For synonyms, see Grub.

1559. Eliotes Dictionarie. Abdomini indulgere, to geve hym selfe to bealy-chere.

1612. Rowlands, Knaves of Spades, etc. Gluttonie mounted on a greedie beare, To belly-cheere and banquets lends his care.

1699. Coles, English Dictionary. Belly-cheer, Cibaria.

Belly-chere.—See Belly-cheer.

Belly-Chete.—See Belly-cheat.

Belly-Full, subs. (old).—1. A sound drubbing; a thrashing.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 265. The churlish frampild waues gaue him his belly-full of fish broath.

1605. Chapman, All Fooles, Act ii., p. 58 (Plays, 1874). Walk not too boldly; if the serjeants meet you, you may have swaggering work your belly-full.

1666. Pepys, Diary, Oct. 28. He says that in the July fight, both the Prince and Holmes had their belly-fulls, and were fain to go aside.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xvi. Bunker’s Hill, where, Mr. Slick observed, ‘the British first got a taste of what they afterwards got, a belly-full.’

2. A woman with child was also formerly said to have her belly-full.—See Belly-up.

Belly-Furniture, subs. (old).—Food; something wherewith to furnish the belly. Cf., Belly-timber, Back-timber, etc.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. I., ch. v. (Bohn’s), i., 110. Then did they fall upon the victuals, and some belly-furniture to be snatched at in the very same place.

Belly-go-Firster, subs. (pugilistic).—An initial blow, generally given, say some authorities, in the stomach—whence its classic name!

Belly-Gut, subs. (old).—A lazy, greedy fellow.

1540. Morysine, transl., Vives’ Introd. Wisd., viij. Such as be skoffers, swell feastes ... bely guts. [M.]

1733. Bailey, Erasmus, p. 346. Since then thou would’st not have a belly-gut for thy servant, but rather one brisk and agile, why then dost thou provide for thyself a minister fat and unwieldy?

Belly-Guts, subs. (American schoolboys’).—1. In Pennsylvania, molasses candy.

2. (American.)—Equivalent to belly-bumper (q.v.).

Belly-Hedges, subs. (Shrewsbury School).—In school steeple-chases, obstructions of such a height that they can easily be cleared—i.e., about ‘belly-high.’

Belly-Piece, subs. (old).—1. An apron. Cf., Belly-cheat.

1689. Shadwell, Bury Fair. If thou shoulds cry, it would make streaks down thy face; as the tears of the tankard do upon my fat host’s belly-pieces.

2. A mistress; a concubine; a whore.

1630. Randolph, Jealous Lovers. Asot: Come, blush not, bashfull belly-piece—I will meet thee: I ever keep my word with a fair lady. I will requite that jewell with a richer.

Belly Plea, subs. (old).—A plea of pregnancy, generally adduced by female felons capitally convicted. This they took care to provide for, previous to trial; every gaol had, as the Beggars’ Opera informs us, one or more child-getters, who qualified the ladies for that expedient. The plea still holds good, execution of female convicts in ‘an interesting condition’ being deferred until after accouchement. In practice, it really means a commutation of the death penalty for life imprisonment. All chances, however, of becoming enceinte after arrest are sedulously guarded against by the rules of modern prison life.

Belly-Plumper, subs. (American).—See Belly-bumper.

Belly-Timber, subs. (old).—Food; provisions of all kinds. [From belly + timber.] This, like many other words of its class (e.g., back-timber, q.v.), was once in serious use, but for a long period it has been going down hill, and it is now a thorough-going vulgarism, only surviving dialectically, and as slang. Massinger and the older dramatists employed it seriously; toward the end of the seventeenth century it began to be used in a ludicrous and vulgar sense. Butler employs it thus, and in Charles Cotton’s Scarronides (1678), the hero we are told—

Lay thinking now his guts grew limber, How they might get more belly-timber.

For synonyms generally, see Grub.

1614. Terence in English, Annona cara est. Corne is at a high price; victuals are deare; belly-timber is hard to come by.

1637. Massinger, Guardian, III., iii.

Ador. Haste you unto my villa, and take all provisions along with you....

Car. Trust me for belly-timber.

1663–78. S. Butler, Hudibras.

Through deserts vast, And regions desolate they pass’d, Where belly-timber, above ground Or under, was not to be found.

1719. Poor Robin’s Almanack, Feb. On the 10th day of this month, being Shrove-Tuesday, is like to be a great innundation of belly-timber.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Belly-timber (s.), all sorts of food.

1820. Scott, Monastery, ch. xv. ‘Yonder comes the monkish retinue ... I hope a’gad, they have not forgotten my trunk-mails of apparel amid the ample provision they have made for their own belly-timber.’

Belly-Up, adv. phr. (old).—Applied to women when enceinte. From the protrusion of the abdomen which takes place under such circumstances.—See Belly-full.

Belly-Vengeance, subs. (common).—Sour beer, apt to cause gastralgia. The French call this pissin de cheval, i.e., ‘horse urine.’ For synonyms, see Swipes.

Belongings, subs. (colloquial).—1. Qualities; endowments; faculties.

2. Relations; one’s kindred.

3. One’s effects; or possessions. In sense 1 belongings has long been an accepted word; senses 2 and 3 are given by Annandale as ‘colloquial and vulgar.’

1852. Dickens, Bleak House. I have been trouble enough to my belongings in my day.

1866. Saturday Review, 24 Feb., p. 244, col. 2. The rich uncle whose mission is to bring prosperity to his belongings. [M.]

4. (American.)—Used by the prudishly inclined for trousers.—See Bags.

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

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

1775. Ash, Dictionary. Belswagger, a whoremaster.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For synonyms generally, see Screwed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Benar.—See Bene.

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

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

1622. John Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush.

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

i.e.,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1854. Putnam’s Monthly, Aug.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

i.e.,

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

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

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

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

Bene-Bouze.—See Benbouse.

Bene-Cove.—See Ben-cull.

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

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

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

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

2. A bachelor. Cf., foregoing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1671. Richard Head, The English Rogue.

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

i.e.,

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

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

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

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

Beneship.—See Benship.

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

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

Ben-Flake, subs. (thieves’).—A steak.

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

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

Bengi, subs. (military).—An onion.

Bengy.—See Benjy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adv. (old cant).—Very good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bess.—See Betty.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bethel, verb.—See quotation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Betty Martin.—See All my eye.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. (Winchester College.)—See Bidet.

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

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

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

Bien.—See Bene.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1711. Addison [Referred to by].

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. (common.)—A vulgarism for ‘boil.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. (Harrow School.)—Names-calling.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For synonymous terms of head-gear, see Deerstalker.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bing.—See Bynge a waste.

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

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

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

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

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

FIGHTING ATTIE’S SONG.

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

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

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

(The sallow gentleman in a hoarse voice,)

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

(Attie, seizing the bowl,)

‘Resign, resign it—cease your dust!’

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

‘You have resigned it—and you must.’

CHORUS.

‘You have resigned it—and you must.’

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

For all synonyms, see Drinks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I sing the bishop, alias the bustle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. (common.)—To spoil; to bungle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, Act iii.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. (Charterhouse.)—A warning = Cave!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bit of Cavalry, subs. (old).—A horse.

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

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

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

2. (printers’.)—See Fat.

Bit of Jam.—See Jam.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bit On.—See On.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black-ball, verb (common).—See Pill.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blackbird-Catching.—See Blackbird.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black Doll.—See Dolly shop.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sense 1 = a scullion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So also the following:—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blackmans.—See Darkmans.

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

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

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

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

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

For other synonyms, see Her Majesty’s Carriage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blacks.—See Black horse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1636. Davenant, The Wits, Act v.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1873. Carleton, Farm Ballads, p. 18.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1888. Troy Daily Times, Feb. 3. The captain looked anxious, and an irate fellow-passenger, who had not ceased swearing since we left Tuxpan, declared by all that is sacred and profane that he had known vessels to be hindered thirty days; yes, even three months, by that blankety blankety bar!

1888. Owosso (Mich.) Press, April. ‘Doctor, I’m a dead man!’ ‘Not right now?’ said I, as I kicked his dog out. ‘Just as good as dead,’ said he, ‘or you wouldn’t kick that dog in that way with safety. Not by a blankety blank blank sight.’ ‘Needn’t waste so much profanity, Mr. Starkhill,’ said I.

Blanket. Lawful blanket, subs. (old).—A wife. For synonyms, see Dutch.

Blanket Fair, subs. (popular).—Bed. Cf., Bedfordshire, Sheet Alley, and Land of Nod.

Blanket Hornpipe, subs. (common).—Sexual commerce. The allusion is obvious. Cf., Basket making.

Blarmed, ppl. adj. (common).—A euphemism for blessed (q.v.); ‘damned’; ‘blowed’ (q.v.); or blamed (q.v.), of the last of which it is probably a corruption.—See Oaths.

1867. No Church, I., 104. To be in a blarmed hurry.

1872. John Forster, Life of Dickens, ch. xxxi. (III., p. 191). He saw a strange sensation among the angry travellers whom he had detained so long; heard a voice exclaim, ‘I am blarmed if it ain’t Dickens!’ and stood in the centre of a group of Five Americans!

Blarm Me! intj. (common).—A euphemistic oath.—See Blarmed.

Blarney, subs. (colloquial).—Blandishment; soft speech, or ‘sawder’; gross flattery; ‘gammon.’ [From Castle Blarney in Ireland, in the wall of which, difficult of access, is placed a stone. Whoever is able to kiss this is said thereafter to be able to persuade to anything. Blarney is from bladh-ey, flowery island, and this may have some connection with the curious tradition. On the other hand, according to Brewer, Cormack Macarthy held the Castle of Blarney in 1602, and concluded an armistice with Carew, the lord president, on condition of surrendering the fort to the English garrison. Day after day his lordship looked for the fulfilment of the terms, but received nothing except protocols and soft speeches, till he became the laughing-stock of Elizabeth’s ministers, and the dupe of the lord of Blarney.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller.

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xix. They were as cunning as foxes and could tell blarney from good sense.

c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, ‘A nice young thing.’

Such a nice young thing, such a sweet young thing, Her name was Kate Carney, she came from Killarney, So full of her blarney, but fond of her Barney, Such a fair young thing, a rare young thing, And just for a lark she had dyed her hair dark, And they called her the Colleen Dhu.

1884. Ruskin, in Pall Mall Gazette, 17 Nov., p. 11, col. 2. It was bombastic English blarney—not Irish. [M.]

The French have baliverne and pelotage with the same meaning.

Verb.—1. To wheedle; to coax; to flatter grossly.

2. (American thieves’.)—Besides the English slang signification of ‘to wheedle,’ it also bears the secondary meaning, among the low and criminal classes of America, of ‘to pick locks.’

Blart Out, verb (American, ? nonce word).—A corruption of ‘blurt out’; to utter abruptly.

1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, pref., p. v. It warn’t the part of a gentleman for to go and pump me arter that fashion, and then go right off and blart it out in print. Ibid, ch.