A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues. (continued 10)

c. 1750. ‘The Hunter’s Wedding,’ quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet, 1888, p. 366.

Sam the grubber, he having had warning,

His wallet and broom down did lay.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 155. The bone-grubber generally seeks out the narrow back streets, where dust and refuse are cast, or where any dust-bins are accessible. The articles for which he chiefly searches are rags and bones,—rags he prefers,—but waste metal, such as bits of lead, pewter, copper, brass, or old iron, he prizes above all.

1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 40. A black-chinned and lanthorn-jawed bone-grubber.

2. A resurrectionist; a violator of graves. Cobbett was therefore called ‘a bone-grubber,’ because he brought the remains of Tom Paine from America. Cf., Bone-house. Latterly, from the quotation which follows, the term seems to have been extended to all having to do with funerals.

1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, essay vii., p. 181 (1864). The crowd in Cheapside declared that I was a mute. They called me bone-grubber.

Bone-House, subs. (familiar).—1. The human body—an obvious allusion.

1870. Emerson, Soc. and Sol., vi., 119. This wonderful bone-house which is called man. [M.]

2. A coffin. The term is also used to signify a charnel-house, and Americans generally call a cemetery a ‘bone-yard.’

1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, II., p. 207. Nothing soon—lie in bed—starve—die—Inquest—little bone-house—poor prisoner.

1846. Walbran, Guide Ripon. The celebrated bone-house no longer exists.

1848. Forster, Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, II., p. 165 (bk. IV., ch. viii.). The body [of a man who had poisoned himself] was taken to the bone-house of St. Andrew’s, but no one came to claim it.

Bone Muscle, verbal phr. (American college).—To practice gymnastics. Cf., Bone, verb, sense 3.

Bone-Picker, subs. (common).—1. A footman. [Evidently a contemptuous allusion to sense 2, a footman’s duties being to pick up and set in order after his employer.] The French term is un larbin.

2. (common.)—A collector of bones, rags, and other refuse from the streets and places where rubbish is placed, for the purpose of sale to marine dealers and bone crushers. The same as bone-grubber, sense 1 (q.v.).

1866. Ruskin, Crown of Wild Olives, p. 25. The deceased was a bone-picker. he was in the lowest stage of poverty, etc.

Boner, subs. (Winchester College).—A sharp blow on the spine.

Bones, subs. (common).—1. Dice, which are also called St. Hugh’s bones (q.v.). [So called because made of bone or ivory.] ‘To rattle the bones,’ i.e., ‘to play at dice.’ The term is a very old one, as also seem to be games played with the little cubes in question.

c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 328. This fruyt cometh of the bicched bones two, fforsweryng, Ire, falsnesse, Homycide.

a. 1529. Skelton, wks. (ed. Dyce) I., 52. On the borde he whyrled a payre of bones.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 123. Who being left by his parents rich in money and possessions, hath to the musicke of square ratling bones danced so long, that hee hath danced himselfe into the company of beggers.

1698. Dryden, Persius, III., 96.

But then my study was to cog the dice,

And dexterously to throw the lucky sice:

To shun ames-ace, that swept my stakes away;

And watch the box, for fear they should convey

False bones, and put upon me in the play.

1772. Foote, Nabob, Act ii. When your chance is low, as tray, ace, or two deuces, the best method is to dribble out the bones from the box.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xviii. ‘I saw you sit down to écarté last week at Trumpington’s, and taking your turn with the bones after Ringwood’s supper.’

1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. xxviii. ‘What with speculations failing, and consols dropping all at once, not to mention a continual run of ill-luck with the bones, I saw no way out of it but to bolt.’

2. (common.)—Pieces of bones held between the fingers and played Spanish castanet fashion. Generally used as an accompaniment to banjo and other ‘negro’ minstrel music.

1592. Shakspeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, iv., 1, line 27. Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 195. Peter rolling about in his chair like a serenader playing the bones, and the young Othello laughing as if he was being tickled. Ibid, p. 201. The bones, we’ve real bones, rib-of-beef bones, but some have ebony bones, which sound better than rib-bones—they tell best, etc.

1865. Times, 17 July. Amateur negro melodists … thumped the banjo and rattled the bones. [M.]

3. (common.)—A member of a ‘negro’ minstrel troupe; generally applied to one of the ‘end’ men who plays the bones (sense 2).

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III. First of all we formed a school of three—two banjos and a tambourine, and after that we added a bones and a fiddle.

1867. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, p. 236. The band clashes out; big fiddle and little fiddle, harp and bones, off they go.

1884. Sat. Review, June 7,740, col. 1. A single row of negro minstrels seated on chairs … while at the end are Bones and Sambo. [M.]

4. (general.)—The bones of the human body, but more generally applied to the teeth. French thieves call these les piloches (f); and les osselots (m). Cf., Bone-box and Bone-house, and for synonyms, see Grinders.

5. (common.)—A surgeon; generally sawbones (q.v.). A list of curious nicknames for the medical profession will also be found under Squirt.

1887. Chamb. Journal, Jan. 8, p. 30. ‘I have sent for the village bones, and if he can but patch me up, it may not yet be too late.’

6. (Stock Exchange.)—(1) The shares of Wickens, Pease and Co.; (2) North British 4% 1st Preference Shares, the 4% 2nd Preference Stock being nicknamed Bonettas.

As dry or hard as a bone, phr. (common), i.e., as free from moisture as a bone after it has been picked and cleaned, as by a dog.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, i. It’s as dry as a bone.

1837. R. Nicoll, Poems (1843), 83. Dubs were hard as ony bane.

One end is pretty sure to be bone, phr. (American).—An old time saying equivalent to an admission that ‘all is not gold that glitters’; that the realization of one’s hopes never comes up to the ideal formed of them.

1888. The World, 13 May. People here (in the west) have to get up and get in order to make both ends meet, and even then one end is pretty sure to be bone.

To be upon the bones, phr. (vulgar).—To attack.

b. 1616, d. 1704. Sir R. L’Estrange (in Annandale). Puss had a month’s mind to be upon the bones of him, but was not willing to pick a quarrel.

To feel a thing in one’s bones.—A simile signifying assurance; conviction.

1887. Scribner’s Magazine. I ain’t a-goin’ to mention no names but I kin feel it in my bones that things ain’t on the square here, there’s a nigger in the fence.

1888. Missouri Republican, 22 Feb. Nat. M. Shelton, of Lancaster, said: ‘I am in the race of attorney-general, and I feel it in my bones that I will get the nomination.’

To make no bones, phr. (familiar).—To make no scruple; to show no hesitation; to commence and finish a work without difficulty—now restricted to colloquial use; it was formerly current literary coin, and is frequently to be met with in our older literature. Its earlier form was, ‘to find bones in,’ which clearly shows the phrase to have originated in a reference to bones in soup, or similar food, regarded as obstacles to swallowing. In this sense it is found as early as the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Paston Letters. It does not occur in its present shape to make bones until a century later; but, from this period on to the end of the seventeenth century it was in constant use.

1459. Paston Lett., 331, I., 444. And fond that tyme no bonys in the matere. [M.]

1542. Udall, Apoph. of Erasmus, p. 133 (1877). Yea, and rather then faill, both whole mainor places, and also whole Lordships, the ‘make no bones, ne sticke not, quite and cleue to swallow doune the narrow lane, and the same to spue up again.’

1565. Shacklock, Hatchet of Heresies. And instede of that whiche he saide, This is my body, they haue made no bones at it, to say, this is my brede.

1590. Greene, Francesco’s Fortune, in wks. VIII., 189. Tricke thy selfe vp in thy best reparrell, and make no bones at it but on a woing [wooing].

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 112. He … would make no bones to take the wall of Sir Philip Sidney.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act iii. Man. How could I refrain? A lawyer talked peremptorily and saucily to me, and as good as gave me the lie. Free. They do it so often to one another at the bar, that they make no bones on’t elsewhere.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxiv. Do you think that the Government or the Opposition would make any bones about accepting the seat if it be offered to them?

To pick a bone or bones with one, phr. (colloquial).—To have an unpleasant matter to settle with one; also, a difficulty to solve; ‘a nut to crack.’

1565. Colfhill, Answ. Treat. Cron. (1846), 277. A bone for you to pick on. [M.]

1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), 1, s.v. Pick, To give one a bone to pick, scrupulum alicui injicere.

1850–68. H. Rogers, Ess., II., ii. (1874), 103. Many a bone in these lectures which a keen metaphysician would be disposed to pick with the author.

Bonesetter, subs. (old).—A hard riding horse; a ricketty conveyance; properly one whose occupation is to set broken and dislocated bones. The sarcastic, punning reference is of course to the dire effects which naturally follow the use of an animal of such a description. The odd way in which slang is often derived, strikes one at times as very curious. Not only are words frequently coined which resemble genuine words, such as ‘solemncholy’ for ‘melancholy,’ and ‘it don’t much magnify’ for ‘it don’t much signify,’ but the meaning of such factitious words is, in many cases, either subtly reversed or endowed with an extremely cynical tinge of humour and sarcasm. The present instance is a case in point. A more modern term is boneshaker (q.v.), which is less subtle in its meaning, bone-setter being certainly far more brutally cynical in its suggestiveness. See second quotation for some curious synonyms formerly in use.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bone Setter, a hard trotting horse.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 7. Jerry. I long to be there,—let’s hasten to dress at once. Log. Aye; call a rattler. Jerry. A rattler! I’m at fault again. Log. A rattler is a rumbler, otherwise a jarvy! better known perhaps by the name of a hack; handy enough in a wet day, or a hurry. Jerry. A hack! If it’s the thing we rattled over the stones in to-day, It might more properly be called a bone-setter. Tom. Or bone-breaker.—But if you dislike going in a hack, we’ll get you a mab. Jerry. A mab! I’m at fault again—never shall get properly broken in. Tom. A mab is a jingling jarvy!—a cabriolet, Jerry.—But we must mind our flash doesn’t peep out at Almack’s. ’Tis classic ground there.

Bone-Shake, verb (popular).—To ride a bone-shaker (q.v.), i.e., a heavy bicycle of a very old type.

1889. Answers, Feb. 23, p. 195, col. 1. Among those who learnt to boneshake was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been a devoted cyclist.

Bone-Shaker, subs. (old).—1. A hard trotting horse.—See Bone-setter.

2. (popular.)—An old type of bicycle in use prior to the introduction of india-rubber tires and other manifold improvements. The first bicycle propelled by cranks and pedals was ridden in Paris in 1864. It created enormous excitement. On being introduced into England people went bicycle mad, and the number of persons who suffered in consequence of riding the old bone-shakers was considerable. Among those who learnt to ‘bone-shake’ was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been a devoted cyclist, for he regarded the sport as a grand one, and prophesied a big future for it. In 1868 Mr. Charles Spencer rode to Brighton on a bone-shaker in 14 hours from London. The papers were full of what was then considered an extraordinary feat, but on Aug. 10, 1889, four riders of the Polytechnic Cycling Club covered the distance to Brighton and back, 108 miles, in 7 hours 50 minutes, which is better time than a most perfectly-appointed modern four-in-hand can be driven over the same course by the aid of unlimited relays of horses kept in readiness to be changed at a moment’s notice. Only one machine was used throughout the trial, viz., a safety roadster, weighing 36 lbs.

1874. A. Howard, Bicycle, 10. In 1870 and 1871, the low, long bone-shaker began to fall in public esteem. [M.]

1884. G. L. Hillier, in Longman’s Mag., March, p. 487. The bone-shaker, as the ribald cyclist of the present day designates the ancestor of his present bicycle.

1885. Nineteenth Century, Jan., p. 92. In the Field’s report of the performance of the Cambridge Town Bicycle Club we find this entry: ‘Half Mile Race on bone-shakers, not exceeding 36 in.’

Bone Standing, verbal phr. (American college).—To study hard. [Evidently an allusion to the alertness implied by a standing position.]

Bonettas, subs. (Stock Exchange.)—The 4% 2nd North British 2nd Preference Stock.—See Bones, subs., sense 6, § 2.

Bong.—See Boung.

Boniface, subs. (popular).—The landlord of a tavern or inn. [Derived from Farquhar’s play.]

1707. Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem. [Boniface is here given as the name of landlord of the inn.]

1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, I., 120. To give the characteristic features and to stamp the peculiar traits of honest Boniface.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xvi. The landlord either could not, or would not, give them any actual information as to his guests.… So the blue-coated myrmidons of Scotland Yard got but little information from Boniface.

Boning Adjutant, verbal phr. (American cadets’).—Aping a military bearing. [From bone, to study, to imitate.] So also boning muscle (q.v.) is going in largely for gymnastics. To bone standing, to study hard. Boning demerit, giving no cause for complaint as regards one’s conduct. All West Point cadet slang.

Bonk, subs. (travelling showmens’).—A short, steep hill. [Possibly only a provincialism, or an obsolete form of ‘bank.’]

1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 302. In Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire, the approaches to some of the large works are either up or down some steep, short hill, usually termed bonk, and the drivers of heavily laden carts with two horses have the breeching on the leading chain-horse, as well as the horse in the shafts, so that when they are going down one of these steep bonks, the horse is as useful as a help in drawing up.

Bonnet, subs. (old).—1. A gambling cheat; a decoy at auctions. [So-called because they bonnet or blind the eyes of the victims.—See Bonnet, verb, sense 1.] Hotten says sometimes called a bearer-up. The bonnet plays as though he were a member of the general public, and by his good luck, or by the force of his example, induces others to venture their stakes. Bonneting is often done in much better society than that to be found in the ordinary gaming-rooms. A man who persuades another to buy an article on which he receives commission or percentage, is said to bonnet or bear-up for the seller. Also called a bonneter. The French has bonneteur for one profuse in compliments and bows.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bonnet, a concealment.

1841. Comic Almanack, October. Or a man at a hell, Playing the part of a bonnetter well.

1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. xxi. I began to think my military friend was ‘a bonnet,’—one of those harpies employed by gambling-house keepers to enhance temptation by the influence of example, and generally selected for their respectable and innocent appearance.

(?) 1868. Times (quoted by Brewer, Phrase and Fable, p. 104). A man who sits at a gaming-table, and appears to be playing against the table; when a stranger appears, the bonnet generally wins.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 217. We bid or praised up his goods: in fact, often acted as ‘puffers’ or bonnets, to give him a leg up.

1885. Morning Post, Sept. 5, p. 7, col. 3. There was no distinct evidence to connect him with a conspiracy to defraud.… He might have been used as a sort of bonnet to conceal the utter worthlessness of propositions made by the others.

2. (old.)—A pretext; pretence; or ‘make believe.’

3. A woman. [This sense is analogous to ‘petticoat,’ the names of articles of feminine attire being transferred to the wearer.]

1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 3. Then comes Easter, Got some coin in hand, Trot a bonnet out and do the grand.

Verb (common).—1. To act as a bonnet (q.v.); to cheat; to puff; to ‘bear up’ (q.v.).

1871. ‘Hawk’s-Eye,’ Budget of Turf Notes, p. 2. I could point out now what horses he is bonneting for the 2,000 Guineas and Derby of this year, and the horses whose pretensions he is trying to discredit.

1887. Referee, 15 May, p. 1, col. 3. Nobody can suppose that I am anxious to bonnet for the Times newspaper.

2. (popular.)—To crush a man’s hat down over his eyes.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 229. Two young men, who, now and then, varied their amusements by bonneting the proprietor of this itinerant coffee-house.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, II., p. 216. You are a dutiful and affectionate little boy to come a bonnetin’ your father in his old age.

1843. Dickens, Christmas Carol in Prose, p. 22. Scrooge reverently disclaimed … any knowledge of having wilfully bonneted the Spirit at any period of his life.

1882. Saturday Review, LIV., p. 629. The students hustled and ‘bonnetted’ a new professor.

To have a green bonnet, phr. (common).—To fail in business. [From the green cloth cap formerly worn by bankrupts.]

Bonnet-Builder, subs. (popular).—A milliner. [The derivation is clear.]—See Build.

1839. Song in The Little Melodist, quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 93. Will you go to Bagnigge Wells, Bonnet builder, O!

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. ‘Build.’ A milliner is jestingly called a ‘bonnet-builder.’

Bonneter.—1. See Bonnet, subs., sense 1.

2. (common.)—A crushing blow on the hat.—See Bonnet, verb, sense 2.

Bonnets So Blue, subs. (rhyming slang).—Irish stew.—See Rhyming slang.

Bono, adj. (circus and thieves’).—Good. [From the Latin.]

Booby Hutch, subs. (thieves’).—A police station; so called no doubt from the light in which the criminal classes regard those who are foolish enough or unfortunate enough to get ‘landed’ in such places. [Booby = a fool + hutch, a box or confined space.]

Booby-Trap, subs. (schoolboys’).—An arrangement of books, wet sponges, vessels of water, etc., so arranged on the top of a door set ajar that when the intended victim enters the room, the whole falls upon him.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. iii., p. 28. He had devoted it to the construction of what he called a ‘booby-trap,’ which ingenious piece of mechanism was arranged in the following manner: The victim’s room-door was placed ajar, and upon the top thereof a Greek Lexicon, or any other equally ponderous volume, was carefully balanced, and upon this was set in its turn a jug of water. If all these were properly adjusted, the catastrophe above described was certain to ensue when the door was opened.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. xiv. ‘I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you.’

1883. Sat. Review, Nov. 3, p. 566, col. 2. On his way down to dinner he is suddenly drenched from head to foot by a booby-trap—a sponge soaked in water placed above a half-open door.

Boodle, subs. (American).—1. A crowd; a company; the ‘whole boiling’ (q.v.). With this meaning the form often appears as caboodle (q.v.). [As regards derivation, which is obscure, Murray, speaking of both senses as here treated, says the U.S. boodle, in sense 1, must be the same as Markham’s ‘buddle’ (see quotation given below from New English Dictionary); sense 2 (also only in U.S.) may be a different word. Boodle suggests a Dutch origin from boedel pronounced boodle, and in its primary sense means ‘household stuff,’ and refers to property left by a testator. It is curious to note that bodle was a Scotch coin of the value of one-sixth of a penny.]

1625. F. Markham, Bk. Honour, IV., ii. Men curiously and carefully chosen out (from all the buddle and masse of great ones) for their approoued wisedome. [M.]

1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat, p. 139. He would like to have the whole boodle of them (I remonstrated against this word, but the professor said it was a diabolish good word …) with their wives and children shipwrecked on a remote island.

1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, p. 361. Boodle, ‘the whole boodle of them,’ i.e., all, the whole. [List of Americanisms.]

1884. E. E. Hale, Xmas. in Narragansett, ch. ix., p. 272. At eleven o’clock the ‘whole boodle of them,’ as Uncle Nahum called the caravan … had to boot and spur for church. [M.]

2. (American.)—In its second signification this curious word seems to have come into prominent use in politics during the past five years. Its meaning and usage is thus explained in Americanisms—Old and New. Some elections cannot be conducted without boodle first and last. Boodle does not mean the capital or stock-in-trade, except the business or trade be something secret, peculiar and illegal. Boodle always means money; but money has not always been boodle (see sense 4). Money honestly received and spent, money that circulates in regular and honest channels, that appears in cash-book and ledger and expense account, is never boodle; but when a sum—a thousand dollars, more or less—is given to some one to use in influencing a third party, given perhaps in silence and certainly without requiring any writing of acknowledgment or obligation—that is boodle. Boodle is money used for purposes of bribery and corruption; and the same word is employed to indicate the money that comes as spoils, the result of some secret deal, the profits of which are silently divided. The term is likewise used to cover the ill-gotten gains of the bank robber, or the absconding cashier. ‘He carried away so much boodle.’ In elections the primaries have to be ‘fixed,’ a great many men have to be ‘seen’; in short, the amount of money that it seems necessary in some cases to use to elect a few honest public servants is a thing to wonder at. And when these men are elected, it appears that they often lose the power of distinguishing between ‘straight money’ and boodle. The word seems destined to take its permanent place in the language.—See also Boodlers.

1884. Boston (Mass.) Globe, Oct. 7. ‘Sinews of war,’ and ‘living issues,’ ‘soap,’ and other synonyms for campaign boodle are familiar. [M.]

1888. Philadelphia Bulletin, 24 Feb. The best man in the world cannot make an honest living by being a City Councilman. The office is an unsalaried one, and any money that is made out of it is boodle. This is the new term for plunder, fraud and every form of stealing that can be practised by office-holders, who, in the practice, add the crime of perjury. It is an easy business for men of easy virtue.

1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 3.

In the evening, up the street,

As you see him passing by,

You’re convinced his mind’s replete

With the legal science high;

That he ponders of divorce,

Or, of boodle cases great;

That he spends all day, of course,

Fighting counsel for the State.

3. (American thieves’.)—Amongst the thieving fraternity boodle is used to denote money that is actually spurious or counterfeit, and not merely money used for nefarious purposes, but which as currency is genuine enough.

4. (American general.)—Money. This is the latest sense imported into the word. The transition by which it has come to be synonymous with ‘dust,’ ‘pieces,’ ‘rhino,’ ‘oof,’ etc., is an easy one.—See Actual.

1888. Puck’s Library, Jan., p. 4.

Shakey, take a fader’s plessing,

Take it, for you ket it sheap;

Go in hot for making money,

Go in for to make a heap.

Don’ you do no dings vot’s grooked,

Don’ you do no dings vot’s mean—

Aber rake right in dot boodle,

Qviet, calm, and all serene.

To carry boodle is to utter base coinage.—See Boodler.

Fake-boodle, subs. (American thieves’).—A roll of paper over which, after folding, a dollar bill is pasted, and another bill being loosely wrapped round this it looks as if the whole roll is made up of a large sum of money in bills.

Boodler, subs. (American political).—1. One who bribes or corrupts.—See Boodle, sense 2.

1888. Omaha World. American. ‘As you are a native of Canada I suppose you think that country is all right, but for my part I should hate most awfully to be a subject of a queen.’ Canadian. ‘The queen is a mere figure-head; there is no difference at all between Canada and the United States.’ ‘Come to think, I believe you do have elections there.’ ‘I should say we did. We have elections and campaigns, and political parties, and bosses, and ringsters, and boodlers, and——.’ ‘Boodlers?’ ‘Plenty of ’em.’ ‘Well, well! Why, you are freemen just like us.’

2. (American thieves’.)—Boodlers and shovers are the men who issue false money (see Boodle, sense 3). Swindlers of this type generally hunt in couples; one carrying the bulk of the counterfeit money, and receiving the good change as obtained by his companion, who utters the boodle piece by piece. The game is generally worked so that at the slightest alarm the boodle carrier vanishes and leaves nothing to criminate his confederate.

Booget, subs. (old cant).—A travelling tinker’s basket. Quoted by Harman [1567].

Book, subs. (sporting).—1. In betting, more especially in connection with horse racing, an arrangement of bets made against certain horses, and so calculated that the bookmaker (q.v.) has a strong chance of winning something whatever the result.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, I., p. 400. And Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, entered it (the bet) in a little book with a gold pencil-case; and the other gentleman entered it also, in another little book with another gold pencil-case.

1837. Disraeli, Henrietta Temple, p. 260. Am I to be branded because I have made half a million by a good book?

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. liii. ‘He has backed the Dodona colt for the Derby, and has got a heavier book on the race than he likes.’

1869. Gent. Mag., July, p. 231. He wins your money with a smile, will accommodate his book to suit what bets you may choose to make.

1879. Jas. Payn, High Spirits (Change of Views). He had a knowledge, too, of practical mathematics, which enabled him to make a book upon every great racing event of the year.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Oct. 21, p. 6, col. 1. Every sporting man is flattered if termed a sportsman, but it would be almost an insult to speak to a sportsman as a sporting man. Wherein does the distinction lie? it may be asked. The one is a lover of sport for the sake of the thing itself. The other is a lover of it for what he can get out of the business. The former may bet, but he does not look at sport through the glasses of a book; the latter always bets, and in fact would not care about it at all if he could not take or give odds.

2. (card-players’.)—The first six tricks at whist.

3. (general.)—The copy of words to which music is set; the words of a play; formerly only applied to the libretto of an opera.

1768. Sterne, Sentimental Journey, I., 180. A small pamphlet, it might be the book of the opera.

1889. Answers, 8 June, p. 24. The prompter had a little table on the ‘prompt’ side; that is, the right-hand side looking from the house, and his ‘book’ was one mass of directions, the margins being covered with little pictures and diagrams of the stage, showing the positions of the leading actors in every scene.

To know one’s book, phr. (popular).—To have made up one’s mind; to know what is best for one’s interest.

c. 1879. Broadside Ballad, ‘Ain’t you glad you didn’t.’

Ain’t you glad sometimes to know,

A second thought you took,

About a subject upon which

You thought you knew your book;

Now first of all you think you will,

And then you think you won’t,

While someone says ‘Go in and win!’

And someone else says ‘Don’t.’

To suit one’s book, phr. (common).—To suit one’s arrangements. Cf., Book, subs., sense 1, the allusion being to betting books, in which bets are formally entered.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. vi. ‘By which time he expects to be so hard up that he must marry somebody, and as there will be plenty of the needful, she will suit his book as well as any other.’

Booked, ppl. adj. (common).—Caught; fixed; disposed of; destined, etc. From the book-keeping term—entered in a book, or registered.

1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, p. 6. I am booked for a much longer journey.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. Booked, caught, taken, or disposed of.

1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. xxiii. ‘I don’t remember anyone having given me an “engaged ring” before; and it’s not leap year, neither. However, the lady’s booked, which is a great relief.’

French thieves use être planché for ‘to be booked’; also être mort (i.e., ‘to be dead’); the adjective is rendered by faitré, and the person booked is un gerbable.

Book-Form, subs. (sporting).—The relative powers of speed or endurance of race-horses as set down in the Racing Calendar or ‘book.’

Bookie or Booky, subs. (sporting).—An abbreviated form of bookmaker (q.v.).

1885. Eng. Ill. Mag., April, p. 509. No rowdy ring, but a few quiet and well-known bookies, who were ready enough to lay the odds to a modest fiver.

1889. Sporting Times, 29 June.

He now had occasion to speedily hie

To the bookie who laid him the bet,

Who was one of the small and particular fry,

That at times, when convenient, forget.

Bookmaker, subs. (sporting).—The English Encyclopædia says:—In betting there are two parties—one called ‘layers,’ as the bookmakers are termed, and the other ‘backers,’ in which class may be included owners of horses as well as the public. The backer takes the odds which the bookmaker lays against a horse, the former speculating upon the success of the animal, the latter upon its defeat; and taking the case of Cremorne for the Derby of 1872, just before the race, the bookmaker would have laid 3 to 1, or perhaps £1000 to £300 against him, by which transaction, if the horse won, as he did, the backer would win £1000 for risking £300, and the bookmaker lose the £1000 which he risked to win the smaller sum. At first sight this may appear an act of very questionable policy on the part of the bookmaker; but really it is not so, because so far from running a greater risk than the backer, he runs less, inasmuch as it is his plan to lay the same amount (£1000) against every horse in the race, and as there can be but one winner, he would in all probability receive more than enough money from the many losers to pay the stated sum of £1000 which the chances are he has laid against the one winner, whichever it is.—See also Book, subs., sense 1, and Bookie.

1862. London Review, Aug. 30, p. 188. Betting there seemed to be none … we could not perceive a single book or bookmaker.

1880. W. Day, Racehorse in Training, ch. xxiv., p. 245. Bookmakers pursue a legitimate and lucrative trade by laying against all horses as they appear in the market.

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. iii. Finding … that the bookmaker whom for once they have landed for ‘a thousand to thirty’ is hopelessly insolvent.

Bookmaker’s Pocket, subs. (sporting).—A breast-pocket made inside the waistcoat, for notes of large amount.—Hotten.—See Bookmaker.

Books, subs. (card-players’).—1. A pack of cards. A term used mainly by professional card-players. Also called devil’s books; book of broads; book of briefs. The French equivalent is un juge de paix; while une cartouchière à portées is a prepared pack used by sharpers.

1706. Mrs. Centlivre, Basset Table, IV., ii., wks. (1872) I., 245.

L. Revel. Clean cards here.

Mrs. Sago. Burn this book, ’t has an unlucky air [tears them]. Bring some more books.

2. (Winchester College.)—(a.) The prizes formerly presented by Lord Say and Sele, now given by the governing body, to the ‘Senior’ in each division at the end of ‘Half.’

(b.) The school is thus divided:—Sixth Book—Senior and Junior Division; the whole of the rest of the School is in Fifth Book—Senior Part, Middle Part, Junior Part, each part being divided into so many divisions, Senior, Middle and Junior, or Senior, 2nd, 3rd and Junior, as the case may require. Formerly there was also ‘Fourth Book,’ but it ceased to exist about twenty-five years ago.

1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 104. The school was divided into three classes, or books, as they were called. Of these, the Præfects formed one, Sixth Book; Fifth Book was sub-divided into three parts, called respectively, ‘Senior, Middle, and Junior part of the Fifth’; in speaking of them, the words, ‘of the Fifth’ were generally omitted. The rest of the boys made up ‘Fourth Book.’

(c.) Up at books.—In class; repeating lessons; now called Up to books.

1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 101. At each end of school are three tiers of benches rising gradually one above the other,—that on the ground being called ‘Senior Row,’ and the others ‘Middle,’ and ‘Junior Row’ respectively. On these the Classes sit when ‘up at books,’ i.e., when repeating lessons.

(d.) Books chambers.—Explained by quotation.

1876. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 103. On Remedies (a kind of whole holiday), we also went into School in the morning and afternoon for an hour or two without masters; this was called books chambers; and on Sundays, from four till a quarter to five.

(e) To get or make books.—To make the highest score at anything. Cf., Books, sense 2a.

Bookwork, subs. (University).—Mathematics that can be learned verbatim from books—all that are not problems.

Boom.—This word is a comparatively recent production in its slang sense; and is variously used as a substantive or as a verb. Before particularizing its special usages, it may be interesting to note how, within a few years, it has made its appearance in a variety of combinations; as, ‘the whole State is booming for Smith,’ or ‘the boys have whooped up the State to boom for Smith,’ or ‘the Smith boom is ahead in this State,’ etc., etc. Stocks and money are said to be booming when active; and any particular spot within a flourishing district is regarded as within the boom-belt. A successful team or party is said to be a booming squad, and we even read of boomlets to express progress of a lesser degree. [Its origin is largely a matter of conjecture, but the most probable derivation is from the nautical phrase ‘boom-out,’ signifying a vessel running rapidly before the wind; but Murray points out that as various associations are probable, and as the actual use of the word has not been regulated by any distinct etymological feeling, it is not likely that any derivation will account for all its applications.]

Subs.—Commercial activity; rapid advance in prices; a flourishing state of affairs—in all its applications it is synonymous with extreme vigour and effectiveness. The first quotation carries its use back a few years beyond the earliest date given in the New English Dictionary.

1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 277. Another boom in prices is to be looked for.

1883. Referee, May 6, p. 3, col. 2. ‘The Merry Duchess’ is a big boom, and I understand that money is being turned away nightly.

1883. M. Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 499. I lived here in 1857—an extraordinary year there in real-estate matters. The boom was something wonderful. Everybody bought, everybody sold … anything in the semblance of a town lot, no matter how situated, was saleable.

1888. Boston Daily Globe. After the Sheridan reception, of course John Sherman must come to Boston. The Ohio statesman knows where all the real live booms start. If Mr. Blaine is wise he also will come to the ‘Hub’ without delay.

1888. Missouri Republican, 16 Feb. ‘Jim, they say thar is a big bum up at Rome.’ ‘What’s that?’ said Jim. ‘It’s a kind of new tradin’ business what swells and shrinks, and the sweller and shrinker stays down in a celler and works the machine. They trade in stock.’ ‘Horses and mules?’ said Jim. ‘No, hit’s all on paper, and nobody can see what he’s buyin’. You put your money in and wait for a swell. If it comes you are all right, but if a shrink comes you are busted, and you feel so ashamed that you don’t say anything about it, and it never gets into the papers—nothing but the swells gits into the papers.

Verb, intr.—To go off with a boom.—See subs. To make rapid and vigorous progress; to advance by leaps and bounds; trans. to push; to puff; to bring into prominence with a rush.

1874. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Gilded Age, ch. xxvii. There’s 200,000 dollars coming, and that will set things booming again.

1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 272. Stocks may boom to-day, but droop to-morrow, and with the crash come remorse and repentance. Ibid, p. 277. When stocks are active they are said to be booming.

1884. M. Twain, Huckleberry Finn, xiii., 3. We boomed along down the river, watching for lights and watching for our raft.

1888. Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean. The city of Paris is said to be diminishing instead of increasing in population. They don’t know how to boom a town over there.

As already stated, boom enters into many combinations; boomer (q.v.), boom-belt, booming-squad, etc.

1888. New Orleans Picayune. A boom in North Carolina is not the kind of phenomenon to which we are accustomed here. Sales of land at from 2 dols. to 10 dols. an acre in a boom belt are not of record hereabout.

1888. Chicago Herald. Ben Butterworth, of Ohio, one of the mainstays of John Sherman’s booming squad, has just had the title of boss Republican tariff debater conferred upon him by the culture of Boston.

To top one’s boom off, phr. (nautical).—To be off, or to start in a certain direction.

1871. G. Meredith, Harry Richmond, ch. xxxviii., p. 346 (1886). ‘And now top your boom, and to bed here.’

Boomer, subs. (American).—1. One who booms or causes an enterprise to become flourishing, active or notorious. [From boom, subs., + er.]

1888. Times, Sept. 26, p. 8. [He] is a North-Western boomer of great earnestness. [M.]

1885. Boston (Mass.) Journal, Aug. 19, p. 2, col. 4. The Oklahoma boomers. [M.]

2. Attributively applied to anybody or anything considerably above the average. Thus, what English people would call a bouncing lie, an American, if given to slang, would call a boomer; so also a fine woman, a horse with extra good points, etc., etc.

Boomerang, subs. (American).—Figuratively used to signify acts or words, the results of which recoil upon the person from whom they originate. The boomerang is properly an Australian missile weapon which, when thrown, can be made to return to the thrower; or which, likewise, can be caused to take an opposite direction to that in which it is first thrown.

1845. Holmes, Modest Request, Poems (1884), 42. Like the strange weapon, which the Australian throws, Your verbal boomerang slaps you on the nose. [M.]

1870. Lowell, Among My Books, 1 S. (1873), 219. The boomerang of argument, which one throws in the opposite direction of what he means to hit. [M.]

Booming, ppl. adj. (American).—Flourishing; active; in good form; large; astonishing.—See Boom and Boomer in all senses.

Boom-Passenger, subs. (nautical).—A sailor’s slang term for a convict on board ship. Derived from the circumstance that prisoners on board convict ships were chained to, or were made to crawl along or stand on the booms for exercise or punishment.—Hotten.

Boon-Companion, subs. (colloquial).—A comrade in a drinking bout; a good fellow. [Boon is evidently a corruption of the French bon.]

1566. Drant, Med. Morall, A. v. He is my bone companion, it’s he that cheares up me. [M.]

1592. Greene, Quip, in wks. XI., 220. To seeke good consortes and boone companions to passe away the day withall.

1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, in wks. III., 228. Our Poets or boone companions they are out of question.

1600. W. Kemp, Nine Days’ Wonder, in Arber’s English Garner, vol. VII., p. 27. And coming to my inn, where the host was a very boon companion, I desired to see him.

1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. I., ch. v. This was occasioned by his being a boon companion, loving his bottle and his diversion.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxiii. The morning after a debauch is usually one of reflection, even to the most customary boon companion.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxvii. We went downstairs to our dinner, as charmed with each other as boon companions always should be.

Boon-Companionship, subs. (colloquial).—Jollity; conviviality.—See Boon-companion.

1592. Nashe, Strange Newes, in wks. II., 176. Thinke not, though vnder correction Of your boone-companionship, I am disposd to be a little pleasant, I condemne you of anie immoderation, either in eating or drinking.

1849. Lytton, Caxtons, pt. XII., ch. iv. A little society, and boon-companionship … would take Roland out of those gloomy reveries.

Boong.—See Bung.

Boorde.—See Bord.

Boost, subs. (American).—A hoisting; a ‘shove’; a ‘lift’; a ‘push up’—a New England vulgarism.

1858. Dow, Sermons. Office seekers ask you to give them a boost into the tree of office. [M.]

1866. T. A. Richards, Rice Fields of the South. [A negro-preacher in South Carolina, loq.] ‘For, my bredderen, little Zaccheus was bound to see the Lord for once, dough he had to climb up de tree to do it. And how did he get up der tree? Ah, how did he get up der tree, my bredderen? Did he wait for some lazy nigger to bring him a ladder? Ah, no, my bredderen. Did he wait to be boosted? Ah, no, my bredderen. Not a boost! He climbed right straight up der tree hisself, like de possum, by his own hands and feet and de grace of God!’

1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 11. A genius took hold of the business, and gave it a little boost. He was a man of the times, and he applied his reasoning faculties to the problem presented to him. ‘What,’ he asked, ‘is the chief means of success?’

Verb.—To hoist; to lift up; to shove.—See subs.

1848–64. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers, II., 106. Whereas ole Abram ’d sink afore he’d let a darkie boost him.

1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. vii. You ought to have seen that spider-legged old skeleton go! and you ought to have seen the bull cut out after him, too—head down, tongue out, tail up, bellowing like everything, and actually mowing down the weeds, and tearing up the earth, and boosting up the sand like a whirlwind!

1884. Harper’s Magazine, Aug., p. 481, col. 1. To boost a jurist of so much helpless avoirdupois in through the carriage door.

Boosy.—See Boozy.

Boot, verb (military).—To beat; to punish with a strap. The punishment is irregular and unconventional, being inflicted by soldiers on a comrade discovered guilty of some serious breach of the unwritten law of comradeship, such as theft, etc. The beating was formerly inflicted with a bootjack—hence the name.

Booth, subs. (thieves’).—A house; ‘to heave a booth,’ i.e., ‘to rob a house.’

Booth-Burster, subs. (theatrical).—A loud and noisy actor. A variant of barn-stormer (q.v.).

Booting, subs. (military).—A punishment administered with a strap. Cf., Colting.

Boot-Joe, subs. (military).—Musketry drill.

Boot-Leg Plan.—See On the boot-leg plan.

Bootlick, subs. (American).—A flunkey; hanger-on; or doer of dirty work. [In England such a one is called a ‘bootlicker,’ of which bootlick is probably an abbreviated form.]

Verb.—To toady; to hang on; to undertake ‘dirty’ work.

Boots, subs. (colloquial).—1. The servant at hotels and places of a kindred character who cleans the boots of visitors. Formerly called boot-catchers, because in the old riding and coaching days part of their duty was to divest travellers of their footgear.

2. (military.)—The youngest officer in a regimental mess.

Like old boots—beans—bricks—blazes, etc., phr. (common).—Thoroughly; vigorously. A simile as general in its application as it is irrelevant. It may mean anything, everything, and nothing. Why old boots and not new boots is beyond comprehension.

1868. Miss Braddon, Sir Jasper, ch. xxvii., p. 282. I’ll stick to you like old boots.

1874. Saturday Review, Jan., p. 55. An Oxford man, nay even a Balliol man … introduced in the story a pleasing change by such a phrase as jawing away like old boots.

To buy old boots, phr. (old).—To marry or keep the cast-off mistress of another man.

To die in one’s boots (q.v.).

Boots and Leathers.—See Commoner peal.

Booty. To play booty, phr. (old).—To play falsely; dishonestly; or unfairly; this with the object of not winning, a previous arrangement having been made with a confederate to share the spoils resulting from the bogus play. Sometimes it takes the form of permitting the victim to win small stakes in order to encourage him to hazard larger sums which, naturally, he is not allowed to win.—See quotation from Dyche.

1575. Frat. of Vacabondes, p. 13. They wil make as much as they can, and consent as though they wil play booty againt him.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 133. They … haue still an eare how the layes [bets] are made, and according to that leuell doe they throw their bowles, so that be sure the bowlers play booty.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. I., ch. ii. The best gamesters, before they laid their money, always inquired which horse little Joey was to ride; and the bets were rather proportioned by the rider than by the horse himself; especially after he had scornfully refused a considerable bribe to play booty on such an occasion.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Booty (s.), plunder, spoil, prize; also a cant word signifying a pretence to one thing, and at the same time intends and does the contrary, in order to cheat, impose upon, and draw in a person to lay wagers, play at some game, etc.

1776. Colman, The Spleen, in wks. (1777) IV., 276. Jubilee started and stumbled but, by-the-bye, I believe his rider played booty—Duenna won the stakes, and the knowing ones were all taken in.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. vii. ‘Were he caught playing booty, he would be disarmed, and probably dismounted.’

1831. Disraeli, Young Duke. One thing remained to be lost—what he called his honour, which was already on the scent to play booty.

So also booty = playing booty, and booty-fellow, a sharer in the plunder.

Booze, subs. (popular).—1. Drink; a draught. The older forms are bouse or bouze (q.v.), but booze in its present form appears as early as 1714. For synonyms, see Drinks.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Booze, Drink. [List of cant words.]

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6. Jemmy. Gemmen, have you ordered the peck and booze for the evening? Sold. Suke. Aye, aye, I’ve taken care of that—shoulder of veal and garnish—Turkey and appendleges—Parmesan—Filberds—Port and Madery.

1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. Kid. The Music Hall Sports are at Alexandra Park on the 23rd, and there will be rare doings on that occasion. Master and Shifter both give prizes, and there will be booze in our drag.

2. A drinking bout; a tipsy frolic. Murray’s first quote for this form and sense is dated 1864; but, from the following, it will be seen to be at least thirty years older. For synonyms, see Jamboree.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. ‘We’ll have a jolly boose when all’s over.’

1884. St. James’s Gazette, 19 Dec., p. 4, col. 1. There was a great booze on board.

Verb (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple; to guzzle. An old term employed in some sense of ‘to drink’ as early as 1300. Also booze (q.v.). For synonyms, see Swill.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 5. The buriall was tourned to bousing and belly cheere.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in wks. II., 91. They should haue all the companie that resort to them, bye bowzing and beere-bathing in their bouses every after-noone.

1777. Colman, Epilogue to Sheridan’s School for Scandal. While good Sir Peter boozes with the squire.

1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xiii., p. 173. ‘I wonder, Sir Charles Lyndon, a gentleman who has been the King’s ambassador, can demean himself by gambling and boozing with low Irish black-legs!’

So also boozed (ppl. adj.), drunk, fuddled; boozy (adj.), drunken, ‘screwed’; boozing (verbal subs.), the act of drinking hard; and boozer (subs.), a drunkard, a tippler—examples of which respectively will be found hereunder in sections.

b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 416.

Droupy and drowsie,

Scurvy and lousie

Her face all bowsie.

1592. Greene, Quip, in wks. XI., 253. To marke the bowsie drunkard to dye of the dropsy.

1611. Cotgrave, Piailleur: m … a tipler, bowser.

1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, V., 4. And in the meantime, to be greasy, and bouzy.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. iv., p. 36 (1874). Most part of the night we spent in boozing, pecking rumly … that is drinking, eating.

1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x., 288. Which in his cups the bowsy poet sings.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. IV., p. 14. Amongst a Crowd of Sots, half boozy.

c. 1819. Wolcot, P. Pindar, p. 303, ed. 1830.

This landlord was a boozer stout,

A snuff-taker and smoker. [d.]

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxiii. The boozy unshorn wretch is seen hovering round quays as packets arrive, and tippling drams in inn bars where he gets credit.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxxiii. The quantity of brandy-and-water that Jack took showed what a regular boozer he was.

1850. P. Crook, War of Hats, 50. Boozed in their tavern dens, The scurril press drove all their dirty pens.

1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. xi. ‘Till they can show there’s something they love better than swilling themselves with ale, entension of the suffrage can never mean anything for them but entension of boozing.’

1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, Aug. 24, p. 267, col. 2.

In Canton gardens I have boozed;

Beneath the palm-trees I have snoozed;

I’ve seen the alligator smile,

And peppered at the crocodile.

Boozing Cheat, subs. (thieves’).—A bottle. [From booze (q.v.), drink, + cheat, from A.S. ceat, a thing.]

Boozing-Ken, subs. (old).—A drinking den. [From booze (q.v.), drink, + ken, a place.] A term of long standing. A French equivalent is une bibine, but for general synonyms, see Lush crib.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. A bowsing-ken, a ale house.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Bowsing-ken, an Ale-house.

1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, II., i.

When last in conference at the boozing-ken,

This other day we sat about our dead prince.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Boozing-ken, an Ale-house. [List of cant words in.]

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. The hovel which they termed their boozing-ken.

Boozington, subs. (Australian thieves’).—A drunkard. [Apparently a formation from booze (q.v.), to drink, on the model of lushington (q.v.), an English equivalent.] For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.

Borachio, subs. (old).—A nickname for a drunkard; formerly a skin for holding wine. For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.

Borak. To poke borak, verbal phr. (colonial).—To pour fictitious news into credulous ears; to ‘stuff’; to ‘kid.’

1587. Notes and Queries, 7 S., iii., 476. Poke borak, applied in Colonial conversation to the operations of a person who pours fictitious information into the ears of a credulous listener.

Bord, Borde, Boorde, subs. (old cant).—A shilling. The origin is unknown. For synonyms, see Blow.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 85. Roge, but bouse there a bord, i.e., but drink there a shilling.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Boord, a shilling; Halfe a Boord, sixepence.

1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks. (1873) III., 219. My Lord Noland … bestowes vpon you two, two boordes and a half.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47 (1874). Borde, a shilling.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. [The same definition.]

Bordeaux, subs. (pugilistic).—Blood [an allusion to the colour of the wine. Cf. Claret and Badminton]. For synonyms, see Claret.

Bord You! phr. (nautical).—An expression used to claim the next turn in drinking.

Bore, subs. and verb (old slang, but now recognised).—Anybody or anything wearisome or annoying; to weary or to be wearied. [The derivation is unknown, and the word does not appear in English literature prior to 1750. Hotten’s reference to Shakspeare, King Henry VIII., i., 1,

At this instant

He bores me with some trick,

is a misreading, ‘bore’ in this instance signifying ‘to stab,’ as the context clearly shows.]

Verb (sporting).—To push or thrust out of the course; and boring, subs., the practice of ‘boring.’ Amongst pugilists it signifies to drive an opponent on to the ropes of the ring by sheer weight, whilst amongst rowing men it denotes the action of a coxswain in so steering a boat as to force his opponent into the shore, or into still water, thus obtaining an unfair advantage; also analogously applied to horse-racing. The term, as so used, is a very old one, and is derived from the persistency of motion of a boring tool.

1672. Vanbrugh, Lover’s Quarrels, 317 in Hazl. E. P., pt. II., 266. He bor’d him out of the saddle fair.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress. M—rl—y, that very great Count, stood deploring, He hadn’t taught Georgy his new modes of boring.

1821. The Fancy, vol. I., p. 255. Evans bored in, and upset his man in the first round.

1870. Dickens, Edwin Drood, ch. xvii., p. 129. Their fighting code stood in great need of revision, as empowering them not only to bore their man to the ropes, but … also to hit him when he was down.

Born Days. All One’s Born Days, phr. (colloquial).—One’s lifetime.

1740. Richarsdon, Pamela, III., 383. He never was so delighted in his born days.

1758. Richardson, Grandison, I., 103. There was one Miss Byron, a Northamptonshire lady, whom I never saw before in my born days.

1809. Miss Edgeworth, Ennui, ch. ix. Craiglethorpe will know just as much of the lower Irish as the Cockney who has never been out of London, and who has never in all his born days seen an Irishman but on the English stage.

Born Weak, phr. (nautical).—Said of a vessel feebly built.—Clark Russell’s Sailors’ Language.

Bosh, subs. (common).—Nonsense; rubbish; ‘stuff’; ‘rot’—anything beneath contempt. [The derivation is uncertain. Murray says the word became current in England from its frequent occurrence in Morier’s Persian novels, Ayesha [1834], etc., most of them extremely popular productions. Its source has been suggested in the Turkish bosh lakerdi, ‘empty talk’; in the German bosh or bossch, an equivalent of ‘swipes’; and in the Gypsy bosh, ‘a noise,’ ‘a fiddle,’ from which latter it has been thought that there may be some connection between the exclamation bosh! and fiddle-de-dee (q.v.).]

1834. Morier, Ayesha, I., 219. This firman is bosh—nothing, [M.]

1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. x. I always like to read old Darwin’s Loves of the Plants, bosh as it is in a scientific point of view.

1880. Punch, 10 Jan., p. 9, col. 2. ‘Prophet,’ said I, ‘of things evil!’ ‘Things are going to the devil’ Is the formula of fogies, I have heard that bosh before.

Verb.—To humbug; to spoil; to mar.

1870. Macmillan’s Magazine, XXI, 71. You bosh his joke [a man’s] by refusing to laugh at it; you bosh his chance of sleep by playing on the cornet all night in the room next to him. [M.]

1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xiv. ‘And wouldn’t he make a jolly schoolmaster?’ exclaimed Reginald. ‘Boys would get on capitally with Jardine. They’d never try to bosh him.’

Intj.—Nonsense! Rubbish! It’s all my eye!—See All my eye.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxi. Bosh! It’s all correct.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, October 30, p. 3, col. 1. ‘You always learn in front of the looking-glass, do you not, Mr. Brandram?’—‘Bosh!’ was the laughing reply. ‘I generally learn my plays and recitations whilst I am dressing; but you don’t think I deliberately stand and make monkey-faces in the looking-glass.’

Bosh Faker, subs. (vagrants’).—A violin player. [From Gypsy bosh, a violin, + faker, a performer or player.]

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 231.

Can you rocker Romanie

Can you patter flash,

Can you rocker Romanie

Can you fake a bosh.

Boshing, subs. (American thieves’).—A flogging. [Apparently a corrupted form of bashing.]—See Bash.

Boshy, adj. (common).—Trumpery; nonsensical.—See Bosh.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. iv. ‘There was no dancing, only boshy games and a conjuror.’

Bos-Ken, subs. (vagrants’).—A farmhouse. An old canting term. [From L. bos = ox + ken, a house.] Cf., Ken.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 472. ‘Up at a bosken (farm-house) they’ll get among the servant girls.’

Boskiness, subs. (popular).—The quality of being fuddled with drink; bemused; a state of drunkenness.

1887. Judy, 31 August, p. 101. The Town Councillor had a squabble with his parent … and accused him of boskiness.

Bosky, adj. (popular).—Drunk; tipsy; fuddled. [Derivation uncertain; bosky = ‘wooded,’ or ‘bushy,’ and there may be an allusion to the obscurity and overshadowing, peculiar to a wooded country. Bailey [1728] has also bosky = swelled, but does not give the slang sense of the word, although it appears in the editions 1730–6. It may, therefore, be a figuratively humorous reading of ‘swelled,’ i.e., ‘tight.’] For synonyms, see Screwed.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bosky (a.), fuddled, half or quite drunk.

1824. Blackw. Mag., XVI., 573. He may be tipsy, bosky, cut, or anything but drunk.

1886. Punch, 17 April, p. 185. I got a bit bosky last night. Has the ’eadache got into my rhymes?

Bosman, subs. (vagrants’).—A farmer. [From the Dutch bosch-man, one who lives in the woods; otherwise Boschje-man, or bushman.] Cf., Bosken.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 471. ‘I’ve seen the swell bosmen (farmers) buy the pills to give the people standing about.’

Boss, subs. (American and English).—1. A master; a head man; one who directs. [From the Dutch baas, a master.] Few words have acquired a greater hold on American life than this term, and the primitive meaning of master, overseer, or superior of any kind, though in a large measure retained to this day, has been widened out in every direction. The political boss is the leader whose word is law to his henchman. Boss Tweed, of New York, is believed to have been the first to bear the title in a semi-official way. The phrase boss rule is said to have been invented by Mr. Wayne MacVeagh, and employed by him in political speeches in Chicago. It is now in common use in this sense. In the two first quotations the word appears to be used much as in the modern sense. For synonyms, see Governor.

1590. Marlowe, Tamburlaine, pt. I., Act iii., Sc. 3. Zab. Base concubine, must thou be placed by me, That am the empress of the mighty Turk? Zen. Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss!

1679. M. Philipse, Early Voyage to New Netherlands (quoted by De Vere). Here they had their first interview with the female boss or supercargo of the vessel.

1848. Bartlett, Americanisms. I have never known a second wife but what was boss of the situation.

1850. New York Herald, May 24. The Eternal City is in a very curious position. The Pope has returned to his ancestral home; but he has nothing in his pocket, and Rothschild refuses to let him have any more money. A thousand years ago, and the boot would have been on t’other leg.… To-day it is very different. The Father of Holiness is the dependent of the Jew, and Rothschild is the real Pope and boss of all Europe.

1888. New York Herald, Jan. 12. Alderman Campbell—I move an amendment to make Hamline the general superintendent and chief boss of this whole gas business.

2. (popular.)—A short-sighted person; also one who squints. Cf., Boss-eyed and Boss, verb, sense 2.

3. (popular.)—A miss; a blunder. Cf., Boss, verb, sense 2.

Adj.—Pleasant; first rate; chief.

1884. Echo, March 3, p. 1, col. 4. The Americans are acknowledged to be the boss artificers in wood.

1888. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 18. Take it all together, with scarcity of food and little sleep, we had a hard but a boss time.

Verb.—1. To manage; direct; control.—See subs., sense 1.

1856. National Intelligencer, Nov. 3. The little fellow that bosses it over the crowd.

1872. Athenæum, March 9. A child wishing to charge his sister with being the aggressor in a quarrel for which he was punished, exclaimed, ‘I did not boss the job; it was sister.’

1883. Saturday Review, April 28, p. 515, col. 1. It is long since the more respectable inhabitants of America have been divided between the convenience of the Irish as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and as voters easily bossed or bribed on the one hand, and the manifold nuisance of them on the other.

1885. Sporting Times, July 6. The Shah has fairly bossed everything this week—he has been chief actor in our social system.

1888. Texas Siftings, July.

When lovely woman hires a servant

And bosses her around all day,

What makes the girl pray half so fervent

As her desire to run away.

2. (popular.)—To miss one’s aim; to make such a shot as a boss-eyed (q.v.) person would be expected to make. Boss-shot is a common phrase.

1887. N. and Q., 7 S., iii., 236. To boss is schoolboy slang for ‘to miss.’

So also derivatives—bossing, acting as a boss; bossism, a system of management or wire-pulling; bossy, pertaining to the qualities of a leader.

Bossers, subs. (common).—Spectacles.—See Barnacles.

Boss-Eyed, adj. (common).—Said of a person with one eye, or rather with one eye injured; a person with an obliquity of vision. In this sense sometimes varied by squinny-eyed and swivel-eyed (q.v.). Also used as a subs.—Boss-eye.

c. 1884. Broadside Ballad, ‘Put me some Jam Roll by, Jenny.’

Come where the waves roll high, Jenny,

Come where the waves roll high,

Jenny, old girl, I love you,

Come where the waves roll high.

Come where the waves roll high, Jenny,

Come where the sea-sick lie,

Come where we eat salt-junk, love,

Come with your old bos-eye.

French Synonyms. Borgniat; cligner des œillets (a military term, ‘to be boss-eyed’); boiter des calots (‘to be boss-eyed’); calorgne.

Bostruchyzer, subs. (Oxford University).—A small kind of comb for curling the whiskers.—Hotten. Obsolete.

Bot, Bott, Botts, subs. (common).—The colic; belly-ache; gripes. Properly a name given to maggots found in the intestines of horses, under the hides of oxen, and in the nostrils of sheep. A French equivalent is la tourmente, i.e., ‘the torment.’

1787. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 27.

A countra Laird had ta’en the batts,

Or some curmurring in his guts.

1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. viii. ‘I ne’er gat ony gude by his doctrine, as ye ca’t, but a sour fit o’ the batts wi’ sitting amang the wet moss-hays for four hours at a yoking.

Botanical Excursion, subs. (old).—A thief’s circumlocution for transportation—the allusion being to Botany Bay (q.v.).

Botany Bay, subs. (University).—1. At Oxford, Worcester College is so designated on account of its remote situation as regards the bulk of the collegiate buildings. It will be seen that a similar reason has caused a certain portion of Trinity College, Dublin, to receive an identical nickname. The general idea underlying the term is obviously that to get to the places in question one has figuratively to go almost as far as if transported to the real Botany Bay, formerly a convict settlement in New South Wales.

1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. xx., note. Botany Bay was the slang name given by college men to a new square rather remotely situated from the remainder of the college [i.e., Trinity, Dublin].

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant Green, I., p. 63. A name given to W. College, from its being the most distant college.

2. (thieves’ and prison.)—Penal servitude. Formerly convicts [1787–1867] were transported to Botany Bay, a convict settlement at the Antipodes. Hence to go to Botany Bay was in popular use for a long term of imprisonment.

Botany-Bay Fever, subs. (old).—Transportation; penal servitude. Convicts condemned to transportation were said to have died of, or to have Botany-Bay fever. Cf., Hempen fever for hanging.

Botch, subs. (old).—A tailor. [An abbreviated form of ‘botcher,’ which has been used for a very long period in all the following senses—a cobbler, tailor who does repairs, jobber, and an unskilful workman.] Also called a Snip, which see for synonyms.

Bottle. To turn out no bottle, phr. (sporting).—Not to turnout well; to fail.

Bottle-Ache, subs. (common).—Drunkenness; also applied to an attack of delirium tremens. [From bottle, in allusion to drink causing indisposition, + ache, a pain or sickness.] There are many curious terms for this effect of intemperance, such as Jim-jams, barrel-fever, quart-mania; but for full list of synonyms, see Gallon distemper.

Bottle-Arsed, adj. phr. (printers’).—Type thicker at one end than the other—a result of wear and tear.

Bottle-holder, subs. (common).—A second at a prize-fight, hence—

2. One who gives moral support; a backer; an adviser. In the Times of 1851, Lord Palmerston was reported to consider himself the bottle-holder of oppressed states: and in Punch of the same year, a cartoon appeared representing that statesman as the ‘judicious bottle-holder.’

1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (l.). An old bruiser makes a good bottle-holder.

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxix. Petrie … recommends, upon his own experience, as tutor in a family of distinction, this attitude to all led captains, tutors, dependents, and bottle-holders of every description.

1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. ii. Cold water, and a little vinegar, applied according to the scientific method practised by the bottle-holders in a modern ring.

1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xl. ‘Do you remember his tremendous fight with Biggs?’ ‘Remember? who didn’t? Marston was Berry’s bottle-holder.’

Bottle-Holding, verbal subs. (common).—Backing; supporting.

1878–80. Justin MacCarthy, History of Our Own Times, II., p. 115. The noble lord (Palmerston) told the deputation that the past crisis was one which required on the part of the British Government much generalship and judgment, and that a good deal of judicious bottle-holding was obliged to be brought into play.

Bottle of Brandy in a Glass, phr. (common).—A glass of beer; a recent and absurd slang introduction.

Bottle of Spruce, subs. (rhyming slang).—Twopence. The play of words is upon ‘deuce’ = two.

Bottles, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Barrett’s Brewery and Bottling Co. Shares.

Bottle-Sucker, subs. (nautical).—An able-bodied seaman; the abbreviation is A.B.S., and a bottle-sucker is supposed to be a humorous rendering.

Bottle-Up, verb (old).—To restrain (temper, feelings, etc.); to keep or hold back.

1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 53. Vapours … botteled up in cloudes.

1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. xi. Austin played very bad, trumped his partner’s … knave, led out strong suits of trumps without any suit to follow, bottled them when his partner led them first time round.

1871. Cincinnati Commercial, April, p. 637. He will bottle up his wrath, having had some experience in the line of bottling up during the war, and pour out his vials upon General Farnsworth’s head, whenever the occasion offers.

Bottom, subs. (colloquial).—1. The posteriors; not now in literary use. For synonyms, see Blind-cheeks and Bum.

1794–6. E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), III., 253. So as to have his head and shoulders much lower than his bottom.

1822–36. J. Wilson, Noctes Ambr., xxxix. (1864), iv., 79. The Dunghill cock … hides his head in a hole … unashamed of the exposure of his enormous bottom.

1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II., iv., i., 185. Patriot women take their hazel wands, and fustigate … broad bottom of priests.

2. (popular.)—Capital; resources; stamina; ‘grit.’

1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II., 451. Beginning on a good bottom left him by his father.

1747. Captn. Godfrey, Science of Defence, p. 34. I have mentioned strength and art as the two ingredients of a boxer. But there is another, which is vastly necessary; that is, what we call a bottom.… There are two things required to make this bottom, that is, wind and spirit, or heart, or wherever you can fix the residence of courage.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, pref., p. xv. The peculiarities of this boxer discussed—his power of standing with his arms extended for two whole days, without any rest, by which means he wore out his adversaries’ bottom, and conquered without either giving or taking.

1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, vol. II., ch. xiv. He did not like to dine with Steyne now. They had run races of pleasure together in youth when Bareacres was the winner. But Steyne had more bottom than he, and had lasted him out.

3. (popular.)—Spirit placed in a glass prior to the addition of water. [From bottom, the lowest surface or part of anything, the foundation, the basis. See peculiar American usage in 1883 quot.] Also used as a verb.

1854. Sir Theo. Martin, Bon Gaultier Ballads. Bottomed well with brandy.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxxi. Gin and water was the ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one of its denizens inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours, generally did so with a bottom of brandy.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 2 July, p. 5, col. 3. Soda and dark bottom is mentioned in a list of American drinks in this article.

To knock the bottom out of one, phr. (American).—To overcome; to defeat, etc.

1888. Cleveland Leader. The declination of Mr. Blaine, has knocked the bottom out of Mugwumpery.

Bottom Dollar, subs. phr. (American).—The last dollar. The phrase ‘to bet one’s bottom dollar’ is frequently heard.

Bottom Facts, subs. phr. (American).—The exact truth about any matter. To ‘get to the bottom facts’ concerning a subject, is to arrive at an unquestionable conclusion concerning it; or, as is said in England, to get to the root of the question.

1877. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Life on the Mississippi, p. 393. You take a family able to emba’m, and you’ve got a soft thing. You can mention sixteen different ways to do it—though there aint only one or two ways when you come down to the bottom facts of it—and they’ll take the highest priced way every time. It’s human nature—human nature in grief.

The phrase is also varied by bottom rock.

1888. Omaha World. Bottom Rock. Conductor (on California train some years hence)—‘All out for Pitholeville.’ Real Estate Agent (entering car)—‘Orange groves and apple orchards, two for a penny.’

Bottomless Pit, subs. (old slang).—A coarse and vulgar name for the female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Botty, subs. (popular).—An infant’s posteriors; the French say tu tu.

Adj. (popular).—Conceited; swaggering. To look botty is in French, faire sa merde; faire son matador.

Bough, subs. (old).—The gallows. Tree (q.v.) is used in a similar sense.

1590. Swinburn, Testaments, 53. Or in Kent in Gauelkind … for there it is said, the father to the boughe, and the son to the ploughe. [M.]

1596. Spenser, State Irel., wks. (1862), p. 553, col. 2. Some … have beene for their goods sake caught up, and carryed straight to the bough.

1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III., iv., 77. If she doom thee to the bough.

Boughs. Up in the boughs, phr. (old).—In a passion. Quoted by Grose.

Bounce, subs. (common).—Brag; swagger; boastful falsehood and exaggeration.

1714. Steele, Lover (1723), 93. This is supposed to be only a bounce.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (s.) … also the huff, brag, or swaggering of a bully or great pretender.

1765. Goldsmith, Haunch of Venison, l. 14. But hold—let me pause—don’t I hear you pronounce this tale of the bacon a damnable bounce?

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. i. Only tell a man you think him good-looking, and he falls in love with you directly; or if that is too great a bounce—and indeed very few of them have the slightest pretensions to beauty—you need only hint that he rides gallantly.

1880. Blackwood’s Mag., May, p. 670. The whole heroic adventure was the veriest bounce, the merest bunkum!

2. Impudence; cheek; brass (q.v.).

1872–4. John Forster, Life of Dickens, ch. lx. It is the face of the Webster type, but without the bounce of Webster’s face.

3. A boaster; swaggerer; showy swindler; bully. Cf., Bouncer.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Bounce, a person well or fashionably drest is said to be a rank bounce.

Verb.—1. To boast; bluster; hector; bully; blow up.

1633. Fletcher, Nt. Walkers, IV., i. I doe so whirle her to the Counsellors’ chambers … and bounce her for more money.

1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XVIII., p. 428. With lies he tells his Bloody Feats, And Bounces like a Bully.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (v.), to swagger, boast, crack, stump, or pretend to great matters.

1749. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 3 May (1833), vol. II., p. 374. The Lords had four tickets a-piece, and each Commoner at first but two, till the Speaker bounced and obtained a third.

1760. Colman, Polly Honeycombe, in wks. (1777) IV., 55. Nay, nay, old gentleman, no bouncing; you’re mistaken in your man, sir!

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. ‘He’ll be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to bounce me.’

1883. Daily News, July 26, p. 4, col. 8. To bounce is simply to prevail on persons whose mirth interferes with the general enjoyment to withdraw from society which they embarrass rather than adorn.

2. To lie; to cheat; to swindle.

1762. Foote, Liar, II., i. If it had come to an oath, I don’t think he would have bounced.

1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. x. ‘It’s them gals, Mr. Austin, got a shilling of mine among un somewhere, and wants to bounce me out of it.’

On the bounce, phr. (common).—In a state of spasmodic movement; general liveliness.

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Funny to a degree was it to watch some of the select and chosen of Lord Coventry, Major Clements, and those that rule the interior of the Invited Enclosure at Ascot. Several well known defaulters would be observed going to and fro ‘on the bounce,’ including one young gentleman who once signed his surname uninitialled to a cheque which was cashed by a confiding tradesman, who took the said endorsement for that of his baronial parent.

To get the grand bounce, phr. (American).—This is equivalent, in political parlance, to dismissal, especially in reference to government appointments.

Bounceable, adj. (common).—Prone to bouncing or boasting; ‘uppish’; ‘bumptious.’ [From bounce (q.v.) + able.]

1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xvi. As soon as we had exhibited sundry doses of Irish cordial to our friend Tip—under the effects of which he became quite bouncible, and ranted about the feat he was to take a prominent part in.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. iv. I heard that Mr. Sharp’s wig didn’t fit him; and that he needn’t be so bounceable—somebody else said ‘bumptious’—about it.

Bouncer, subs. (common).—1. A bully; hector; blusterer; one who talks swaggeringly. [From the verb bounce, senses 1 and 2, + er.]

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (4 ed.). Bouncer (s.), a bully or hectoring bravado.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 24. Those who cheat the Public … Bouncers and Besters defrauding, by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.

2. (thieves’.)—A thief who steals goods from shop counters while bargaining with the tradesman. The exact French equivalent is dégringoleur, and the practice itself is termed dégringoler à la carre.

3. (common.)—A lie; a liar. For synonyms, see Whopper. [This usage in many instances completely overlaps sense 4.]

1762. Foote, Liar, II., i. He will tell ye more lies in an hour, than all the circulating libraries put together will publish in a year … he was always distinguished by the facetious appellation of the bouncer.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xxxi. ‘He’s … such a bouncer!!… I mean that he’s the greatest liar that ever walked a deck.’

1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xxii. ‘In that case, I should say wait, and put your trust in Time—Time, the father of Truth, as Mary Stuart called him when she wanted to go in for a bouncer,—and oh, what an incredible number of royal bouncers were carried to and fro in the despatches of that period!’

4. (common.)—Anything large of its kind; a ‘whopper’; a ‘thumper’; a ‘corker.’

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 140. My Book will grow such a bouncer, that those which buy it must bee faine to hire a porter to carry it after them in a basket.

5. (American.)—A man who ejects; a ‘chucker-out’ (q.v.).

1883. Daily News, July 26, p. 4, col. 8. The other fresh American type is less remarkable—the bouncer. One might suppose that a bouncer was a noisy braggart; but no. A scientific writer in the Nation describes a bouncer as a ‘silent, strong man.’ Every one who mixes much in society in Whitechapel will understand the functions of the bouncer when we explain that he is merely the English ‘chucker-out.’

6. (harlotry.)—A prostitute’s companion; ponce; bully. For synonyms, see Ponce.

7. (naval.)—A gun that ‘kicks’ when fired.

Bouncing, ppl. adj. (common).—Vigorous; lusty; exaggerated; excessive; big. This word has manifold meanings, referring, in its various senses, to largeness of size, vigour of action, with the idea of ungainliness rather than elegance. It is, as will be seen, of long continued use.

c. 1563. Jacke Jugder, p. 42 (ed. Grosart). And made you a banket [banquet], and bouncing cheare.

1588. Marprelate’s Epistle, p. 14 (ed. Arber). For there must bee orders of ministers in the congregation where you meane this bounsing priest should haue superiortie.

1611. Middleton, Roaring Girle, Act iii., Sc. 3. The duck that sits is the bouncing ramp, that roaring girl my mistress.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xix. While I was at work in the shop, a bouncing damsel, well dressed, came in.

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. ii. By the side of many tall and bouncing young ladies in the establishment, Rebecca Sharp looked like a child.

Bouncing Cheat, subs. (old).—A bottle. [Bouncing, probably, says Grose, an allusion to the explosive noise made in drawing a cork, + cheat, a thing = Anglo Saxon ceat of the same meaning.] The French equivalent is une rouillarde or rouille, said to be derived from rouler. Empty bottles, it may be mentioned, are known as dead-men; camp-candlesticks; dead-marines; fellow-commoners, etc. For other synonyms, see Dead-men.

Bounder, subs. (popular).—1. A four-wheeled cab or growler (q.v.). [Supposed to be an allusion to the jolting motion caused when travelling over a rough road, a fact intensified by the indifferent springs upon which such vehicles are often hung.]

2. (University.)—A student whose manners are not acceptable; one whose companionship is not cared for.

3. (University.)—A dog-cart. Cf., sense 1.

4. (common.)—A vulgar though well-dressed man; a superior kind of ‘’Arry’; one whose dress and personal appearance are correct, but whose manners are of a questionable character. The term is very often used in connection with bally (q.v.). a bally-bounder is one of the most objectionable of the genus. A synonymous term is snide (q.v.), and French equivalents are un mufe and un espèce de cafouilleux. A curious instance of French back-slang is found in another name—un lof, loff, loffard, loffe; lof here is fol reversed, i.e., mad, senseless, foolish.

Bound To Be Had, Bound To Shine, etc., ppl. adj. (colloquial).—This expression enters into many slang phrases; for instance, when it seems certain that a man will be out-witted, cheated, or ‘bested,’ it is said of him that he is bound to be had; similarly, a man fated or resolved to distinguish himself is bound to shine. The colloquial use of bound dates back as far as 1360, but the peculiar expressions which bring it within the category of slang, are of much later origin. The following quotation will illustrate the usage in question, and further examples will be found under had, shine, etc.

1864. Hartford Post, July 14. When the public have an opportunity of examining this beautiful steamer, they will pronounce her the finest and most comfortable boat they have ever visited, and be satisfied that she is bound to shine.

Boung.—See Bung.

Boung-Nipper.—See Bung-nipper.

Bounty-Jumper, subs. (American).—A term applied to men who, receiving a bounty when enlisting, desert, re-enlist, and receive a second bounty. [From bounty, a gratuity given to recruits on joining the army or navy, + jumper, a slang term for one who decamps surreptitiously.] The War of the Rebellion is responsible for this, as for many other colloquialisms. As the conflict lengthened out, men became in great request, and large bounties were offered by the North for volunteers. This bounty was found in many cases to be a direct incitement with unprincipled men to bad faith and unfair dealing. Such would enlist, receive their bounty, join their regiment, and then decamp, to reappear in another State, to go through the same performance. Cases were known where this was done many times over, and the practice was called bounty-jumping.—See Jumping.

1875. Higginson, History of United States, p. 306. Bringing into the service many bounty-jumpers, who enlisted merely for money, and soon deserted to enlist again.

ante 1880. Song of the Bounty-Jumper (quoted in Bartlett).

My song is of a fast young man whose name was Billy Wires;

He used to run with the machine, and go to all the fires:

But as he lov’d a soldier’s life, and wished strange things to see,

So the thought struck him that he would go and jump the bounti-e.

Bounty-Jumping, subs. (American).—Obtaining a bounty by enlisting and then deserting. Cf., Bounty-jumper.

1887. Illus. Lon. News, May 14, 552, 1. In the Civil War in America between the Northern and Southern States, bounty-jumping, or enlisting, and obtaining the bounty in several regiments, and then deserting, rose to the dignity of a fine art.

Bourbon, subs. (American).—1. A Democrat of the straitest sect; a fire-eater. Applied, for the most part, to the Southern Democrats of the old school. This use of the word probably ante-dates the Civil War, but no instance of such use has been found in print. Bourbon County, Kentucky, is popularly associated with this kind of Democrat, but we must look to the old Bourbon party in France—uncompromising adherents of political tradition—for its true paternity.

2. A superior kind of whiskey; originally applied to that manufactured in Bourbon, Kentucky. For synonyms, see Drinks.

Bouse, Bowse, Booze, subs. (old).—1. Applied to drink or liquor of any kind. In the sixteenth century bouse formed part of the cant of beggars and thieves; latterly the word, whether as substantive or verb, has become colloquial. [Thought to be derived from the Dutch busen, to drink to excess.] For synonyms, see Drinks.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Bowse, drinke.

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

1633. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, I., i. Well. No bouse? nor no tobacco?

1785. Grose, Dictionary Vulgar Tongue. Bouze, etc., drink.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. As above.

2. (old.)—A drinking bout; a carouse. This sense is more frequently current than sense 1.

Verb.—To drink to excess; to tipple; to ‘swill.’ Both this and the substantive seem to have been known as early as 1300, but neither came into general use until the sixteenth century, from which period both forms have become more and more colloquial. For synonyms, see Lush.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 32. They bowle and bowse one to another, and for the tyme bousing belly chere.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse. Who surmise, if there were no playes, they should have all the companie that resort to them bye bowzing and beere-bathing in their houses everie afternoone.

1615. Harington, Epigrams.

Yet such the fashion is of Bacchus crue

To quaffe and bowze, until they belch and spue.

Well, leave it, Marcus, else thy drinking health.

Will prove an eating to thy wit and wealth.

So also bouser, a toper; bousing, hard drinking; and bousy, intoxicated or ‘screwed.’

Bouse the jib, verbal phr. (nautical).—To tipple; to drink heavily.—See Lush.

Bousing Ken, subs. (old).—A tavern; inn; or drinking den; now applied to a low public house. For synonyms, see Lush crib.

1567. Harman, Caveat. Man. What, stowe your bene, cofe, and cut benat whydds, and byng we to rome vyle, to nyp a bong; so shall we haue lowre for the bousing ken, and when we byng back to the deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll the ken for a bagge of dudes.

1652. Brome, Jovial Crew, II., wks. (1873) III., 390 … As Tom or Tib When they at bowsing ken do swill.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 27. But notwithstanding the Protean nature of the Flash or Cant language, the greater part of its vocabulary has remained unchanged for centuries, and many of the words used by the Canting Beggars in Beaumont and Fletcher, and the Gipsies in Ben Jonson’s Masque, are still to be heard among the Gnostics of Dyot-street and Tothill-fields. To prig is still to steal; to fib, to beat; lour, money; duds, clothes; prancers, horses; bouzing-ken, an alehouse; cove, a fellow; a sou’s baby, a pig, etc., etc.

Bouzy.—See Boozy.

Bow. Two (or many) strings to one’s bow, phr. (colloquial).—To have an alternative; more resources than one. The phrase sometimes formerly ran to have many strings to the bow. Numerous figurative expressions in all languages indicate the dominant pursuits of the respective nations; the English abounds in habitual phrases testifying to the engrossing avocations in all times. It is in this manner that to have two strings to one’s bow has passed into proverbial usage. In the fourteenth century—a Frenchman, Gaston de Foix, said of our ancestors, ‘Of bows I know not much, but who would know more, let him go to England, for that is truly their business.’ In the olden time, archery, as the dominant pursuit, gave figures of speech to the language—with the very pith of wisdom or Saxon sarcasm. If you made an enemy’s machinations recoil upon himself, you ‘outshot a man in his own bow.’ If you are a cautious man, ‘Always have two strings to your bow,’ and ‘Get the shaft-hand of your adversaries,’ or ‘Draw not thy bow before thy arrow be fixed.’ Of course, if you can ‘Kill two birds with one shaft,’ so much the better. Never ‘shoot wide of the mark’—that is, don’t make a foolish guess on a subject you know nothing about. Of useless, silly conversation, our ancestors said—‘The fool’s bolt is soon shot’; and if a man evidently exaggerated, he was said to ‘draw a long bow.’ If a man’s pretensions were not in accordance with the facts of his case—in other words, if he came under the category of ‘false pretences’—it was said that he ‘had a famous bow, but it was up at the Castle.’ Vain military and other boasters were the many who ‘talked of Robin Hood, but who never shot his bow.’ ‘An archer is known by his aim, and not by his arrows’; that is, if you are not answerable for your materials, at least show your skill in the modus operandi; or at all events, don’t depend entirely upon your tool.

1562. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (1867), 30. Ye have many stryngis to the bowe. [M.]

1588. Marprelate’s Epistle, p. 18 (ed. Arber). Doe you not thinke that I haue two strings to my bow.

1606. John Day, Isle of Gulls, Act ii., Sc. 2, p. 39. A wise man’s bow goes with a two-fold string.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xvii. He was resolved to have two strings to his bow, that in case the one failed, he might use the other.

(?) T. Brown, wks. IV., 115, ed. 1760. A man in Amsterdam is suffer’d to have but one religion, whereas in London he may have two strings to his bow.

1886. Mrs. Riddell, For Dick’s Sake, ch. iv., p. 11 (S.P.C.K.). She had a second string to her bow, which suited her far better; and she sent Dick back his letters and his presents, and a note beginning, ‘Dear sir,’ and ending ‘Yours truly.’

To draw the long bow, phr. (colloquial).—To exaggerate; to ‘gas’; to ‘talk up.’

1819–24. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 1. They … draw the long bow better now than ever.

To draw the bow up to the ear, phr. (colloquial).—To do a thing with alacrity; ‘to put on full steam’; to exert oneself to the utmost.

1860. Macmillan’s Mag., Feb., p. 258. So Miller, the coxswain, took to drawing the bow up to the ear at once.

Bow-Catcher, subs. (common).—A kiss-curl. For synonyms, see Aggerawator. [A corruption of ‘beau-catcher.’ Cf., Bell-rope.]

Bowdlerize, verb (colloquial).—To expurgate by removing offensive or questionable words from a book or writing. [From Dr. T. Bowdler’s method in editing an edition of Shakspeare, in which, to use his own words, ‘Those … expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.’]

1836. Gen. P. Thompson, Let. in Exerc. (1842), IV., 124. Among the names … are many, like Hermes, Nereus, … which modern ultra-christians would have thought formidably heathenish; while Epaphroditus and Narcissus they would probably have bowdlerized.

1870. Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 47. No profane hand shall dare, for me, to curtail my Chaucer, to bowdlerise my Shakspeare, or to mutilate my Milton.

1874. E. L. Linton, Patricia Kemball, ch. iii. Her uncle had not made her read much beside the Bible and Shakspeare, which last he had bowdlerised on his own account with a broad pen and very thick ink.

From this comes bowdlerization, squeamish emasculation of a work; also bowdlerizer, etc.

1882. Westm. Review, April, p. 583. The bowdlerization which the Editor has thought necessary is done in an exceedingly awkward and clumsy fashion.

Bower, subs. (American thieves’).—A prison—a transferred usage of the orthodox word. For synonyms, see Cage.

Bowery Boy, Bowery Girl, subs. (American).—The ’Arry and ’Arriet of New York of some years ago. The Bowery is a well known thoroughfare in the American metropolis. [Formerly spelt bouwerij, and derived from bouw, tillage, or bouwen, to till, to cultivate, being equivalent to the modern Dutch word boerderij, a farm, or the business of farming. The Bowery was the farm of Governor Stuyvesant.] Cf., Blood tub.

Bowlas, subs. (common).—Explained by quotation.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 208. Bowlas, or round tarts made of sugar, apple, and bread.

Bowled, ppl. adj. (Winchester).—Croppled (q.v.).

Bowler.—See Boler.

Bowles, subs. (common).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

Bowl Out, verb (popular).—To overcome; to get the better of; to defeat. [Formerly a cricketing term—to bowl a man out by displacing the bails.] Cf., Bowl over. Among thieves it signifies, in a transitive form, to be arrested or ‘lagged.’

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bowled out, when he [a thief] is ultimately taken, tried, and convicted [he] is said to be bowled out at last.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iii. The polite and accomplished adventurer, who nicked you out of your money at White’s, or bowled you out of it at Marybone.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxiv. ‘He’s handsomer than you are; if you don’t mind your play, he’ll bowl you out.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 121. Now and again a warder does get bowled out, and comes to grief. At the very least he loses his situation.

Bowl Over, verb (popular).—To defeat; to worst. Cf., Bowl out.

1862. Cornhill Mag., p. 729. You have bowled me over, and I know I can’t get up again.

1878. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, II., p. 291. I sent in a zinc bullet close to the ear, which bowled it [the rhinoceros] over, dead.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xlvii. He confessed to himself that he was completely bowled over,—‘knocked off his pins!’

Bowl the Hoop, subs. (rhyming slang).—Soup.

Bowman, adv. (old).—See quotation.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 11. Help! ejaculated Wood, renewing his cries. Arrest! Jigger closed! shouted a hoarse voice in reply. All’s bowman, my covey. Fear nothing. We’ll be upon the ban-dogs before they can shake their trotters!

Bowse.—See Booze.

Bowsing Ken.—See Bousing ken.

Bowsprit, subs. (popular).—The nose.—See Boltsprit.

To have one’s bowsprit in parenthesis is to have it pulled. ‘To have one’s head in Coventry’ will occur to mind as another English slang phrase very similar in character.

Bow-Window, subs. (common).—A stomach of large proportions. [A bay or bow-window is properly a curved window, hence the transference of the term to a big belly.] Also bow-windowed, i.e., big-bellied.

1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, ch. i. He was a very large man … with what is termed a considerable bow-window in front.

1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxxiv. (1884), 334. Look at that very bow-windowed man. [M.]

1889. Daily Telegraph, May 6. She was what is vulgarly called bow-windowed.

Bow-Wow, subs. (common).—1. A childish name for a dog.

1800. Cowper, Beau’s Reply.

Let my obedience then excuse

My disobedience now,

Nor some reproof yourself refuse

From your aggrieved bow-wow.

18(?82). Broadside Ballad, ‘I haven’t for a long time now.’

I used to have a sweetheart, once,

A precious little pearl!

Indeed she was—she really was,

A very charming girl.

I sang outside her door each night

Till her father bought a big bow-wow,

But I haven’t—haven’t—

I haven’t for a long time now!

2. (old.)—A Bostonian—a term of contempt.

3. (popular.)—A cavalier; lover; specially applied to a man who dangles after a woman. Also see Tame cat.

1877. Chamb. Journal, 12 March, p. 173. Mrs. Brittomart was one of those who never tolerated a bow-wow—a species of animal well known in India—and never went to the hills as a ‘grass-widow.’