A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues. (continued 11)

Bow-Wow-Mutton, subs. (old).—Dog’s flesh. [From bow-wow, a humorous term for a dog, + mutton, here used generically for meat.]

Bow-Wow-Word, subs. (common).—A term applied sarcastically by Max Müller to words for which it is claimed that they are in imitation of natural sounds, i.e., onomatopoetic words, of which a full list will be found under Cachunk.

Bowyer, subs. (old).—One who draws a ‘long bow’; a dealer in the marvellous; a teller of improbable stories; a liar.—See Long bow.

Box, subs. (thieves’).—A prison cell.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 89.

In a box of the stone-jug I was born,

Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn

Fake away.

1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 214. The box in the stone-jug is doubtless a cell.

Verb (Westminster School).—To take possession of; ‘to bag.’

To be in a box, phr. (common).—To be cornered; in a fix; ‘stuck’ or ‘hung up.’

To be in the wrong box, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To be out of one’s element; to be in a false position; mistaken. Brewer traces this to Lord Lyttelton, who, being of rather a melancholy disposition, used to tell his friends that when he went to Vauxhall he was always supposing pleasure to be in the next box to his, or at least that he himself was so unhappily situated as always to be in the wrong box for it. The only objection to be raised to this story is that the phrase is a very old one, of which the derivation is now lost.

1554. Ridley (‘Foxe,’ 1838), vi., 438. Sir, quoth I, if you will hear how St. Augustine expoundeth that place, you shall perceive that you are in a wrong box.

1588. J. Udall, Distrephes, p. 31. I perceive that you and I are in a wrong box.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xliii. ‘That, I grant you, must be confessed: doctor, I’m afraid we have got into the wrong box.’

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. x. ‘Take care your rights of man don’t get you in the wrong box—there’s no arguing on board of a man-of-war.’

On the box, phr. (workmen’s).—A man when on strike and in receipt of strike pay is said to be on the box.

1889. Daily News, 19 Nov., p. 6, col. 7. The ‘Blackleg’ Question Arising. As these have to be allowed strike pay in order to keep them out of temptation, the number of men on the box, as they say in the North, may be taken to be a thousand.

Box Harry, verbal phr. (commercial travellers’).—Among bag-men to take dinner and tea together; ‘dining out,’ i.e., doing without a meal at all.

Box Hat, subs. (common).—A silk hat. For synonyms, see Cady.

Box-Irons, subs. (old).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 173. Shoes. Hockey-dockies, or Box-irons.

Box of Dominoes, subs. phr. (popular).—The mouth. [From box + dominoes (q.v.), a slang term for the teeth.] For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

Box the Compass, verbal phr. (nautical).—To repeat in succession, or irregularly, the thirty-two points of the compass; beginners on accomplishing this feat are said to be able to box the compass.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. vi. ‘A light, good-humoured, sensible wench, who knows very well how to box her compass.’

1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp. Boxing, among sailors, is used to denote the rehearsing the several points of the compass in their proper order. [M.]

1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xviii. I can raise a perpendicular … and box the compass.

1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. To box the compass. Not only to repeat the names of the thirty-two points in order and backwards, but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its division.

Box the Jesuit, verbal phr. (old).—See Cockroaches.

Boy, subs. (popular).—1. Champagne. [A story, ben trovato, is told by the Sporting Times of June 30, 1882, as regards the origin of the phrase:—At a shooting party in Norfolk once, a youth was told off to supply the company with champagne. The day being hot and the sportsmen thirsty, cries of ‘Boy! Boy! Boy!’ were heard all day long. This tickling the fancy of the royal and noble party, the term ‘boy’ became applied to champagne.] Also called fiz and cham (q.v.). The latter form is nearly reproduced in the French slang, le champ; they also brutally speak of this wine as coco épileptique, another epithet being cidre élégant.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 69, col. 2. ‘The fine young London Gentleman.’

He will say that port and sherry his nice palate always cloy;

He’ll nothing drink but ‘B. and S.’ and big magnums of the boy;

He’s the darling of the Barmaid, and the honest waiter’s joy,

As he quaffs his Pommery ‘Extra Sec,’ his ‘Giesler’ or ‘Ivroy,’

Like a fine young London Gentleman,

Quite of the present style.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 155, col. 1. Dined with Tom and Corky at a new place they had discovered, and raved of. Of course, beastly dinner, but very good boy. Had two magnums of it.

1883. Punch, August 18, p. 84, col. 1. Shall it be B.-and-S., or bumpers of the boy?

2. (common.)—A hump on a man’s back. In low circles it is usual to speak of a humpbacked man as two persons—‘him and his boy,’ and from this much coarse fun and personality are at times evolved.

3. (Anglo-Indian and colonial.)—A servant of whatever age.

Old boy, subs. (popular).—1. A familiar term of address. The old boy is one’s father; the ‘guv’nor,’ or ‘boss.’ Sometimes my boy.

1602. Shaks., Twel. N., ii., 4, 122. But di’de thy sister of her loue my boy? [M.]

1740. Richardson, Pamela, III., 380. Never fear, old boy, said Sir Charles, we’ll bear our Parts in Conversation. [M.]

2. The devil. For synonyms, see Skipper.

1835–40. Haliburton, Clockmaker, (1862), 140. As we invigorate the form of government (as we must do, or go to the old boy).

Yellow boy, subs. (common).—A guinea; also, one pound sterling. [From the colour.] As will be seen the term is an old one. For synonyms, see Canary.

1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act i.

How now, yellow boys, by this good light!

Sirrah, varlet, how came I by this gold?

1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. I., ch. vi. There wanted not yellow boys to fee counsel, hire witnesses, and bribe juries.

1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. xlii. ‘The delight of picking up the money—the bright, shining yellow boys—and sweeping ’em into one’s pocket!’

Boys, subs. (popular).—This word is very generally in use in the plural. Thus, bookmakers speak of their fellows, in the aggregate, as the boys; and it must be noted as a curious fact that on race-courses the whole army of the swindling and thieving fraternity are so designated.

Angry or roaring boys, subs. (old).—A set of young bucks, bloods or blades (q.v.), of noisy manners and ‘fire-eating’ tastes. Nares says ‘like the Mohawks’ (q.v.) described by the Spectator, they delighted to commit outrages and get into quarrels. Early mention is made of such characters. Wilson, in his Life of James I. [1653], gives an account of their origin:—The king minding his sports, many riotous demeanours crept into the kingdom; divers sects of vicious persons, going under the title of roaring boys, bravadoes, roysterers, etc., commit many insolencies; the streets swarm, night and day, with bloody quarrels, private duels fomented, etc.

1599. Greene, Tu Quoque, Old Plays, vii., 25.

This is no angry, nor no roaring boy, but a blustering boy.

1609. Ben Jonson, Epicœne, i., 4. The doubtfulness of your phrase, believe it, sir, would breed you a quarrel once an hour with the terrible boys, if you should but keep ’em fellowship a day.

1610. Ben Jonson, Alchemist, iii., 4.

Sir, not so young, but I have heard some speech

Of the angry boys, and seen ’em take tobacco.

1616. Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady, iv., 1.

Get thee another nose, that will be pull’d

Off, by the angry boys, for thy conversion.

Boys of the Holy Ground, subs. phr. (old).—Formerly [1800–25] bands of roughs infesting a well-known region in St. Giles.—See Holy Land.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 7.

For we are the boys of the holy ground,

And we’ll dance upon nothing and turn us round.

Brace, verb (American thieves’).—To get credit by swagger.

Brace it through, phr. (American).—To succeed by dint of sheer impudence. Cf., Brace up, ‘to gird oneself up,’ ‘to buckle to.’

Bracelets, subs. (familiar).—Handcuffs; fetters for the wrist. [Derivation obvious.] French thieves call them les alliances, properly ‘wedding rings’; also la tartouve and les lacets. For synonyms, see Darbies.

1661. Wit and Drollery, quoted in Disraeli Cur. of Wit. (Tom O’Bedlams.) [Fetters are called bracelets in a song in this work.]

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. lv., p. 371 (1874). Fetters confined my legs from stragling, and bracelets were clapt upon my arms.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 62. ‘Thank you—thank you!’ faltered Jack, in a voice full of emotion. ‘I’ll soon free you from these bracelets.’

1848. W. H. Ainsworth, James the Second, bk. I., ch. ii. ‘It may be, young squire, you’ll have to go … with a pair of bracelets on your wrists, and pay your next reck’nin’ to the gov’nor of Newgate.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. v., p. 359. He travels with other people who are also bound to London, and who, seeing him handcuffed, know very well his steel bracelets are not the insignia of honour.

Brace of Shakes, phr. (popular).—In a moment; ‘jiffy’; ‘twinkling of an eye,’ etc.—See, however, Shakes. The expression is sometimes a couple, instead of a brace of shakes. A French equivalent is far-far.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Babes in the Wood). I’ll be back in a couple of shakes.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. xii. ‘But I’ve a trick with a ’oss that’ll set that sort o’ thing—if it ain’t gone too far, that is to say—right in a brace of shakes.’

1884. Cornhill Mag., Jan., p. 101. ‘If there were any boys at Oppingbury now like those who were here when I was young, they’d break the window in a couple of shakes.’

Brace Up, verb (thieves’).—1. To pawn stolen goods—generally to their utmost value.

2. (American.)—To take a drink. [A transferred sense; from brace-up = to string up; to give firmness to.]

1888. Puck’s Library, Ap., p. 20. Come old boy, let’s brace up; a bumper will pull you together again.

Bracket-Faced, adj. (old).—Ugly; hard-featured.—Grose.

Bracket-Mug, subs. (common).—An ugly face. [From bracket (Cf., Bracket-faced) + mug, a slang term for the face.] For synonyms, see Hatchet-face.

Brads, subs. (common).—A generic term for money. De Vaux (see quot.), though somewhat limiting the meaning, uses the term elsewhere as equivalent to ‘pence’ or ‘coppers.’ It possibly originated among shoemakers, brads being small rivets or nails largely employed by them. Cf., Horse-nails, and for synonyms, Actual.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Brads, halfpence; also money in general.

1855. Punch, XXIX., 10. [Cf., Punch’s suggestion for a ‘fast’ partner in banks who should enquire of customers] ‘Will you take it in flimsies, or will you have it all in tin? Come, look sharp, my downy one, and I’ll fork out the brads like bricksy wicksy.’

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. ‘B Flats.’ Four B’s, essential for social success.—Blood, brains, brass, brads [money].—American.

1888–9. Payne, Eavesdropper, pt. II., ch. ii. They used such funny terms: ‘brads’ and ‘dibbs’ … at last it was borne in upon me that they were talking about money.

Tip the brads.—See quotation and Tip.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 4. [To] tip the brads—and down with the dust, is to be at once good, great, handsome, accomplished, and everything that’s desirable—money, money, is your universal good,—only get into Tip Street, Jerry.

Brag, subs. (thieves’).—A usurer; a Jew. Cf., Sixty-per-cent.

Braggadocia, subs. (thieves’).—This is explained in Dickens’ Reprinted Pieces (in a footnote) to mean three months’ imprisonment as reputed thieves. It is difficult to trace the connection between this and the ordinary meaning of braggadocio.

1857. Dickens, Reprinted Pieces (Three ‘Detective’ Anecdotes, The Artful Touch), p. 253. ‘We don’t take much by this move, anyway, for nothing’s found upon ’em, and it’s only the braggadocia after all.’

Brain Pan, subs. (sporting).—1. The skull, or skull-cap. Also called brain-canister. Hotten quotes the term as of pugilistic origin, but it ante-dates the palmy days of the ‘Fancy’ by many years. Brain pan in this sense can, perhaps, hardly be classed as slang; not so, however, sense 2. The Scotch equivalent is harn-pan.—See quotations under sense 2.

2. (common.)—The head itself. For general synonyms, see Chump.

b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 417.

Upon her brain pan

Like an Egyptian

Capped about.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 91. The spirit of her owne malt walkt in her brayne pan.

1609. Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, Prœmium. Tarleton, Kemp, nor Singer … never played the clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot of you all shall if hee will but boyle my Instructions in his braine-pan.

1622. Massinger, Virgin-Martyr, ii., 2.

Oh, sir, his brain-pan is a bed of snakes,

Whose sting shoots through his eye-balls.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. xxxiii. ‘Weize a brace of balls through his harn-pan!’

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xi. ‘Were I your master, sirrah, … I would make your brain-pan, as you call it, boil over, were you to speak a word in my presence before you were spoken to.’

Bramble, subs. (provincial slang).—In Kent a lawyer is so called; obviously a sarcastic allusion to the ‘tangles’ of the law.

Bramble-Gelder (provincial slang).—A derisive appellation for an agriculturist; a Suffolk term.

Bran, subs. (common).—A loaf. [In all likelihood this is a mere abbreviation of bran-loaf.] For synonyms, see Tommy.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. He purchased a sufficiency of ready-dressed ham and a half-quartern loaf, or, as he himself expressed it, ‘a fourpenny bran!’ Ibid, p. 306. Two half-quartern brans, pound of best fresh.

Branded Ticket, subs. (nautical).—Admiral Smyth [1867] quotes this as ‘a discharge given to an infamous man, on which his character is given, and the reason he is turned out of the service.’

Brandy Face, subs. (old).—A tippler; a drunkard, especially one whose favourite drink is brandy.

a. 1687. Cotton, Æneid, II. Burl. (1692), 85. You goodman brandy-face, unfist her. [M.]

Brandy-Faced, ppl. adj. (general).—Red-faced; bloated. [A reference to the effects upon the physiognomy of excessive indulgence in intoxicating drinks.] The expression is mentioned by Grose as early as 1785, but it is probably still older, for see quotation under brandy-face.

1859. G. A. Sala, Tw. Round Clock, 284. Hulking labourers and brandy-faced viragos, squabbling at tavern doors.

Brandy is Latin for Goose or For Fish, phr. (popular).—This punning vulgarism appears first in Swift’s Polite Conversation, and Brewer thus states the philological equation.

What is the Latin for Goose? (Answer) Brandy. The pun is on the word answer. Anser is the Latin for goose, which brandy follows as surely and quickly as an answer follows a question.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. ii.). Lord Sm. Well, but after all, Tom, can you tell me what’s Latin for a goose? Nev. O my lord, I know that; Why, brandy is Latin for a goose, and Tace is Latin for a candle.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xi. ‘Art thou forward in thy learning? Canst thou tell me Latin for goose?’ ‘To be sure,’ replied Tom, ‘brandy.’

As regards the second form, namely, brandy is Latin for fish, the origin is more obscure, although it is to some extent explained in the following quotation.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 125. We are told that the thirst and uneasy feeling at the stomach, frequently experienced after the use of the richer species of fish, have led to the employment of spirit to this kind of food. Hence, says Dr. Pereira, the vulgar proverb, brandy is Latin for fish.

Brandy Pawnee, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—Brandy and water. [From brandy + Hindustan pānī, water. Cf., Parney, also a slang term for water.]

1816. Quiz, Grand Master, pref. And died at last with brandy pauny. [M.]

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. i. ‘I’m sorry to see you, gentlemen, drinking brandy-pawnee,’ says he; ‘it plays the deuce with our youngest men in India.’

1860. W. H. Russell, My Diary in India, I., p. 120. They had tiffin at two; hot lunch and ale and brandy-pawnee.

Brandy Smash, subs. (popular).—An American drink concocted of brandy and crushed ice. Cf., Drinks.

1862. E. MacDermott, Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar, where visitors may indulge in ‘juleps,’ ‘cocktails,’ ‘cobblers,’ ‘rattlesnakes,’ ‘gum-ticklers,’ ‘eye-openers,’ ‘flashes-o’-lightning,’ brandy-smashes, ‘stone-fences,’ and a variety of similar beverages.

1869. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents Abroad. We procured the services of a gentleman experienced in the nomenclature of the American bar … a bowing, aproned Frenchman stepped forward and said Que veulent les messieurs? Our general said (after naming several other drinks) give us a brandy smash; the Frenchman began to back away suspicious of the ominous vigour of the last order.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 2 July, p. 5, col. 3. [Brandy-smash is mentioned in a list of American drinks.]

1888. New York Evening Post, 24 Feb. Philological.—Gallic Tourist—‘I do not see how any one ever learns the absurd English. I read on the menu of drinks, ‘Sherree Cobblair,’ I find in the dictionary—a mender of shoes of sherry wine; ‘Santa Cruz Sour,’ La Sainte Croix acide; brandy smash, ‘Eau de vie écrasé.’ Bête de langue!’

Bran-Mash, subs. (military).—Bread sopped in coffee or tea. Cf., Floating batteries.

Brass, subs. (popular).—1. Impudence; effrontery; brass being a type of unblushing hardness, shamelessness, etc. This colloquialism is by no means of yesterday, having been used by Shakspeare. Sometimes rendered bold as brass. Cf., Cheek, which also see for synonyms.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour Lost, v., 2, 395. Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out?

1701. Defoe, True Born Englishman, pt. II. By my Old Friend [The Devil], who printed in my face A needful competence of English brass.

1703. Farquhar, Inconstant, Act i., Sc. 2. Thou hast impudence to set a good face upon anything; I would change half my gold for half thy brass, with all my heart.

1740. North, Examen, p. 256. She in her defence made him appear such a rogue upon record, that the Chief Justice wondered he had the brass to appear in a court of justice.

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act iii., Sc. 1. ‘To me he appears the most impudent piece of brass that ever spoke with a tongue.’

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 68. Oh, what a face of brass was his, Who first at Congress show’d his phyz.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lv., p. 462. ‘I haven’t brass enough in my composition, to see him in this place and under this charge.’

1876. C. H. Wall, trans. Molière, vol. I., p. 18. Gorgibus is a simpleton, a boor, who will readily believe everything you say, provided … you have brass enough.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 199. He started with a lot of tin, but had not sufficient brass or physique to stand the wear-and-tear of the life.

2. (common.)—A generic term for money. At one time money was made of brass, hence probably the slang usage. Cf., Tin.

1526. Tyndale, Matt. x., 9. Posses not golde, nor silver, nor brasse yn youre gerdels.

1597. Hall, Satires, IV., v., 12.

Hirelings enow beside can be so base,

Tho’ we should scorn each bribing varlet’s brass.

1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, ch. xx. ‘There’ll be Fosters i’ th’ background, as one may say, to take t’ biggest share on t’ profits,’ said Bell. ‘Ay, ay, that’s but as it should be, for I reckon they’ll ha’ to find the brass the first.’

1864. M. E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, ch. xii. ‘Steeve’s a little too fond of the brass to murder any of you for nothing.’

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 129. ‘It’s noa use they’re telling us afterwards they ain’t collared the brass.’

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Billy Wells. What the dickens is all this about the hats? We have seventy-two telegrams and letters on the subject, and would prefer the brass.

Brass-Bound and Copper Fastened, adj. phr. (nautical).—Said of a lad dressed in a midshipman’s uniform.—W. Clark Russell.

Brass-Bounder, subs. (nautical).—A midshipman.

Brasser, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—A bully.

Brass Farthing or Farde.—The lowest limit of value.—See quots.

1642. Rogers, Naaman, 33. As bare and beggarly as if he had not one brasse farthing. [M.]

1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 5. Nobby button’-oler very well When one wants to do the ’eavy swell; Otherwise don’t care not one brass farden, For the best ever blowed in Covent Garden.

1880. Besant and Rice, Seamy Side, x., 78. I care not one brass farthing.

Brass Knocker, subs. (vagrants’).—Broken victuals; the remains of a meal. Specially applied by beggars to the scraps often bestowed upon them in place of money.

Brass-Plate Merchant, subs. (common).—Explained by quotation.

1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 95. The brass-plate merchant, as he is called in the trade, being a person who merely procures orders for coal, gets some merchant who buys in the coal-market to execute them in his name, and manages to make a living by the profits of these transactions.

Brassy, adj. (common).—Impudent; impertinent; shameless. Cf., Brass, sense 1.

1570–76. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 156. To make them blush … were they never so brassie and impudent.

1661. T. Middleton, Mayor of Quinborough, iii., 1. There’s no gallant so brassy impudent durst undertake the words that shall belong to’t.

1738–1819. Wolcot, P. Pindar, p. 73, ed. 1830.

No. Mr. Gattle—Betty was too brassy,

We never keep a servant that is saucy.

1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, ch. xxxii. ‘I asked him to leave his name, sir, and he said Mr. Rowland Yorke knew his name quite well enough without having it left for him.’ ‘As brassy as that was he! I wish to goodness it was the fashion to have a cistern in your house roofs’!

Brazen-Faced, ppl. adj. (common).—Shameless; impudent; unblushing. With a face as of brass, see Brass. Hotten remarks that such a person is sometimes said to have had his face rubbed with a brass candle-stick.

1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps., xii., 5. With such brazenfaste baldnesse.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 84. Amidst his impudent brazen-fac’d defamation of Doctor Ferne.

1693. Dryden, Juvenal, III., 133. Quick-witted, brazen-fac’d, with fluent tongues.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 10. Thus with an unparallell’d Impudence every brazen-fac’d Malefactor is harden’d in his Sin.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., viii., p. 137. ‘Of all the impudent brazen-faced rascals that are cheating the gallows, you must be the worst.’

Bread, subs. (old).—Employment; a transferred sense, the idea being—no work; no food.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Out of bread, out of employment.

Bread and Butter Fashion, phr. (harlotry).—An expression descriptive of the sexual embrace.

Bread and Butter Warehouse, phr. (old).—A nickname given to the old Ranelagh Gardens. An allusion to the scenes of infamy and debauchery which once characterized the place.—See Bread and butter fashion.

Bread and Meat, subs. phr. (military).—The commissariat.

Bread Bags, subs. (military).—A nickname given in the army and navy to any one connected with the victualling department, as a purser or purveyor in the commissariat. At one time called muckers, and amongst French soldiers riz-pain-sel.

Bread-Barge, subs. (nautical).—The distributing basket or tray containing the rations of biscuits.

Bread-Basket, subs. (popular).—The stomach. [An obvious allusion to that part of the body as a receptacle of food.]

English Synonyms. Bread-room; dumpling-depôt; victualling-office; porridge-bowl.

French Synonyms. La panetière (common: properly a bag or satchel wherein shepherds put their bread; a pouch. Akin to this is the slang term la pantière, the mouth); panier au pain (a literal translation of the English term); le jabot (popular: formerly heart or breast. Se remplir le jabot = to have a ‘blow out’); la halle aux croûtes (popular: this may be rendered literally as ‘Crust’ hall; also, a baker’s shop); la place d’armes (popular: the place of arms, stronghold or arsenal); la soute au pain (popular: soute = store-room, etc.; thus, the expression would correspond closely to victualling office or bread-basket. ‘Put that in your bread-basket’ is rendered by colle-toi ça dans le Fusil, i.e., ‘ram that in your gun’).

Italian Synonym. The Fourbesque has fagiana (properly a chest or store house for beans.)

1753. Foote, Englishman in Paris, Act 1. Another came up to second time, but I let drive at the mark, made the soup-maigre rumble in his bread-basket, and laid him sprawling.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 18. Neat milling this Round—what with clouts on the nob, Home hits in the bread-basket, clicks in the gob.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 1. Jerry. Now, doctor, take care of your bread-basket—eyes right, look to your napper.

1856. Reade, Never too Late to Mend, ch. lxx. When you can’t fill the bread-basket, shut it. Go to sleep till the Southern Cross comes out again.

1876. C. H. Wall, trans. Molière, vol. I., p. 194. And get as a reward an ugly piece of cold steel right through my bread-basket.

Bread-Picker, subs. (Winchester College).—The four senior præfects used to appoint ‘Juniors’ to this office which was nominal, but which carried with it exemption from fagging at meal times. No ‘notion’ book states in what the office consisted, but it is supposed that it relates to times when Juniors had to secure the bread, etc., served out for their masters.

Bread-Room, subs. (old).—The stomach. A variant of bread-basket, which see for synonyms.

1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. v. He ordered the waiter … to … bring along-side a short allowance of brandy or grog, that he might cant a slug [dram] into his bread-room. Ibid, ch. xvii. The waiter … returned with a quartern of brandy, which Crowe, snatching eagerly, started into his bread-room at one cant.

Bread-Room Jack, subs. (nautical).—A purser’s servant.

Break, subs. (thieves’).—A collection (of money) usually got up by a prisoner’s friends, either to defray the expenses of his defence, or as a ‘lift’ when leaving prison. Formerly and more generally applied to a pause in street performances to enable the hat to be passed round. Cf., Lead. French slang has une bouline with the same meaning; and, to make a collection is, among mountebanks, faire la manche.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. The mob got me up a break (collection), and I got between five or six foont (sovereigns).

Break Down, subs. (Australian).—1. A measure of liquor.—See quotation.

1759. Frank Fowler, Southern Lights and Shadows, p. 53. To pay for liquor for another is to ‘stand,’ or to ‘shout,’ or to ‘sacrifice.’ The measure is called a ‘nobbler,’ or a break-down.

2. (common.)—A noisy dance; also, a convivial gathering. The term was, at first, specially applied to a negro dance, but is now in general use in England in a humorous sense. Also used as a verb, i.e., to break down, to dance riotously; to be boisterous and ‘spreeish.’ For synonyms, see Flare up.

1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, II., p. 54. And Mr. Pingle retired into the next room, where he indulged in the steps of a comic dance popular with burlesque actors, and known as a nigger break-down.

1873. Sat. Review, May, p. 676. We shall not be surprised to learn that they have serious thoughts of engaging a few comic singers and break-down dancers for their next campaign.

1883. Daily News, March 26, p. 2, col. 4. A patter song … was twice redemanded, chiefly, it appeared, for the sake of a comical ‘break-down’ danced by the demented king.

Break o’ Day Drum (American thieves’).—A drinking saloon which keeps its doors open all night.

Break One’s Back, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To become bankrupt; an extension of the figurative usage to overpower; render nugatory; crush.

1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., Act i., Sc. 1. Aber. I do know Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have By this so sicken’d their estates, that never They shall abound as formerly. Buck. O, many Have broke their backs with laying manors on ’em For this great journey.

1620. Middleton, Chaste Maid, iii., 2. [The word is here used in the sense of bankruptcy and ruin.]

1887. Baring Gould, The Game-cocks, ch. xxviii. ‘They are very poor, and have made a hard fight to get on. I fear this change would break their backs.’

1888. Ashton, Mod. Street Ballads, p. 13. The cesses, rates, and tithes nearly breaks their backs.

Break One’s Egg.—See Crack one’s egg.

Break Out All Over or In a Fresh Spot, etc., verbal phr. (American).—Expressions in common use—in the one case conveying an idea of completeness; and, in the other, of commencing some new undertaking, or assuming a different position whether in an argument or action. These usages may be traced to the phraseology of medicine.

Break Shins, verbal phr. (general).—To borrow money. Hotten thinks the term is a variant of ‘to kick,’ formerly in use with a similar meaning. This may be so, but it is worthy of note that ‘to shin’ is colloquial in America in the sense of ‘to walk quickly,’ ‘to gad about’; but having particular reference also, in mercantile phraseology, to the action of a man who, finding himself short of money to meet his engagements, goes round to his friends to borrow what he requires. To bite the ear (q.v.) has the same signification; but for synonyms, see Shins.

Break the Balls, verbal phr. (billiards).—To commence playing; a phrase very much akin to ‘breaking ground’; indeed few verbs enter more largely into figurative or colloquial combinations than break.

Break the Molasses Jug, verbal phr. (American).—To come to grief; to make a mistake.

Break the Neck or Back of Anything, verbal phr. (common).—To accomplish the major portion of a task; to be near the end of an undertaking; to be past the middle of same.

Breaky-Leg, subs. (common).—1. Intoxicating drink of any kind. [A humorous allusion to one of the possible effects of confirmed drunkenness, or the weakness produced in one’s legs by tippling.] For all synonyms, see Drinks.

2. (thieves’.)—A shilling.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. A shilling. Breake-leg.

Breast Fleet, subs. (old).—Roman Catholics; so called from their practice of crossing themselves on the breast as an act of devotion.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He (or she) belongs to the breast fleet; i.e., is a Roman Catholic; an appellation derived from their custom of beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.

Breath. Change your breath, phr. (American).—An injunction to adopt a different manner or bearing. An offensive, slang expression which, originating in California, quickly ran its course through the Union.

Breech, verb (schoolboys’).—To flog or be flogged; especially on the posteriors. This verb was formerly in literary use, but has now fallen into disuetude.

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxxiv., st. 6, p. 166 (S.D.S.).

Maides, up I beseech yee

Least Mistres doe breech yee.

1637. Massinger, Guardian, i., 1. How he looks! like a school-boy that had play’d the truant, And went to be breech’d.

1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xxiv. ‘Go to,’ said Wayland, ‘thou art a prating boy, and should be breeched for thine assurance.’

Breeched, ppl. adj. (popular).—1. To be well off; to have plenty of money; ‘to be well breeched,’ to be in good circumstances. Cf., Ballasted. The French have a similar idiom. If a man is bankrupt he is said to be déculotté—unbreeched. Given in this sense by Vaux in his Flash Dictionary [1812].

Breeches. To wear the breeches, phr. (common).—A phrase said only of women; and signifying to rule; to usurp a husband’s prerogative; to be ‘master.’ An analogous phrase is ‘the grey mare is the better horse of the two.’ [The derivation is obviously an allusion to breeches as the symbol of authority, i.e., of manhood.] Murray traces the expression back to 1553, but it is, in reality, much older. It is found in French as early as 1450.

1450. Les Quinze Joyes de Mariage: La Dixiesme Joye. Edition Elzevirienne, Paris (1853), p. 113. Et sachez qu’il est avenu à aucuns que l’en leur faisoit boire de mauvès brouez affin de porter les braies ou pour autres choses pires.

The idea is met with in English at about the same date in a carol, the burden of which is founded on it:—

14(?). Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century, Percy Soc. Pub., vol. XXIII., p. 65.

Nova, nova, sawe you ever such,

The moste mayster of the hows weryth no brych.

Also a little later, from the same collection:—

The Boke of Maid Emlyn, vol. VI., p. 21.

All women be suche,

Thoughe the man wear the breche.

It is curious to note also that the expression has cropped up in most languages. The Dutch say, ‘De vrouw draagt ’er de broek’; the Germans, ‘Sie hat die Hosen.’ The Germans have also other ‘breeches’ sayings; as e.g., ‘Das Hertz ist ihm in die Hosen gefallen.’ Other illustrative quotations are:—

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxvii. st. 18, 156 (E.D.S.).

Least some should talke, as is the speech,

The good wiues’ husband weares no breech.

1591. Nashe, A Prognostication, in wks. II., 158. Diverse great stormes are this yere to be feared, especially in houses where the wives weare the breeches.

1663. T. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, ii., 3, in Dodsley’s O. P. (1780), xi., 413. Anything that may get rule; I love to wear the breeches.

1724. Swift, Misc. Poems, in wks. (1824) XIV., 199.

Those men, who wore the breeches least,

Call’d him a cuckold, fool, and beast.

1820. Coombe, Syntax, Consolation, ch. v.

When she doth wear the breeches;

And the poor fool dare not resist

The terrors of her threat’ning fist.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 4. Mrs. T. No, no—no mischief—harkye, you did me a service just now in the street. Tom. I know I did, down by the pump. Mrs. T. Well, now, I’ll do you one—my husband is asleep: I have the keys; and I wear the breeches.

Breeching, verbal subs. (schoolboys’).—A flogging. Like breech (q.v.), formerly in general use.

1520. Whittington, Vulg. (1527), 26. I studye to-day to-daye bycause I fere a brechyng.

1594. Nashe, Unfortunate Traveller, in wks. V., 149. Heeres a stirre thought I to my selfe after I was set at libertie, that is worse than an vpbrayding lesson after a britching.

Breef.—See Brief.

Breeze, subs. (general).—A row; quarrel; disturbance; coolness. [From breeze, a cool wind.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To kick up a breeze, to breed a disturbance.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 5. But, though we must hope for such good times as these, Yet, as something may happen to kick up a breeze.

1865. Saturday Review, 28 Jan., p. 119. ‘Don’t be angry; we’ve had our breeze. Shake hands!’ [M.]

Brekker, subs. (Oxford University).—Breakfast. [Formed by phonetically taking the first syllable of ‘breakfast’ + er, a species of slang formation, which originated at Harrow.]—See ‘Comparative and Historical Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.

Brevet Hell, subs. (American).—A nickname for a battle, which originated during the Civil War. The meaning is obvious enough. The carnage and bloodshed of a battle-field is only a degree short of the horrors of the theological ‘hell.’ Compare with brevet-wife, brevet-rank.

Brevet-Wife, subs. (general).—A woman who, without being married to a man, lives with him, takes his name, and enjoys all the privileges of a wife. A transferred figurative sense of the legitimate word.

Brew, verb (Marlborough School).—To make afternoon tea. Almost always carried on in couples, but sometimes three boys brew together.

Brewer’s Horse, subs. (old).—A drunkard. For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.

Brewing, verbal subs. (Marlborough College).—The making of afternoon tea.—See Brew.

Brian o’ Linn, subs. (rhyming slang).—Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks.

Briar, Brier, subs. (popular).—A colloquialism for ‘brier-wood pipe.’ The Erica arborea or White Heath, a native of the Mediterranean littoral is largely used in the manufacture of pipes. [Cf., Fr. bruyère = ‘heath.’]

1882. Graphic, Dec. 16, p. 683, col. 2. Nowadays, every third man you meet has a cigarette or a briar in his mouth.

1886. Harper’s Mag., 27 Dec. There is the ever-ready brier-root pipe loaded with Caporal.

Brick, subs. (popular).—A good fellow; one whose staunchness and loyalty commend him to his fellows—a highly eulogistic epithet for one man to apply to another. Said to be of University origin, the simile being drawn from the classics. A writer in Hallberger’s Illustrated Magazine [1878, p. 635], says the expression is logically deduced in the following amusing manner. A brick is ‘deep-red,’ so a ‘deep-read’ man is a brick. The punning syllogism is carried further. To read like a brick is to read till you are deep-‘read’; a deep-read man is in University-phrase a ‘good man’; a good man is a jolly fellow with non-reading men, ergo a jolly fellow is a brick.

It has, however, been pointed out that dedicatory columns of various forms have been found bearing Greek inscriptions, records of the great and virtuous. Some of these were circular and fluted pillars; but the Athenians are said to have dedicated square columns so inscribed, which gave rise to the style τετράγ = ωνος ἀνὴρ [see Aristotle, Eth., i., 10], one whose worth entitled him to honorary mention on some monumental stone of the form described. The anticipatory distinction might, therefore, be easily accorded to one worthy of such posthumous honours. From the meritorious notion of the rectangular stone or pillar we get the living type of genuine or supposititious worth—a regular brick. A further analogy may be drawn from the clayey basis of the brick, even in a state of combination with sand and ashes—those types of instability and decay—and we naturally acquire the notion of solidity, consistency, and strength. We are thus enabled to apply the above phrase to the child of clay, who may chance to resemble it in its constitution, whose moral materials and parts have been originally so carefully formed, so judiciously tempered and skilfully moulded, that, in spite of a frail and infirm nature, he has preserved his shape thus early given. The fiery test but determines his solidity; his sound, staunch, and unshrinking firmness, constitutes him a regular brick or hero, the attributes which especially qualify him for that metaphorical appellation. Cf., On the square; straight—true—clean as a die.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Brothers of Birchington). In brief I don’t stick to declare, Father Dick, So they called him for short, was a regular brick; A metaphor taken, I have not the page aright, Out of an ethical work by the Stagyrite.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 10. ‘Mr. Fairlegh, let me introduce this gentleman, Mr. George Lawless; he is, if he will allow me to say so, one of the most rising young men of his generation, one of the firmest props of the glorious edifice of our rights and privileges.’ ‘A regular brick,’ interposed Coleman.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. ‘But the others are capital. There is that little chap who has just had the measles—he’s a dear little brick.’

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 100. He voted E.’s new crony a brick.

1876. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, ch. xvi. Their brothers’ friend, declared by Hans to be the salvation of him, a fellow like nobody else, and, in fine, a brick.

French Synonyms. Un bon gniasse (cads’ and thieves’); être d’un bon bouchon (to be a brick. Michel gives bouchon as ‘cadet’); un bon bougre (popular: Barrère says the word bougre is often used with a disparaging sense; bougre de cochon, ‘you dirty pig’; bougre de serin, ‘you ass.’ Littré derives bougre from Bulgarus, Bulgarian; the heretic Albigeois, who shared the religious ideas of some of the Bulgarians, received the name of bougres); un zig, zigue, zigorneau, zigard, or zingo (popular: Michel gives zig as camarade, ‘a comrade’; in Italian zigno or petit lézard which latter (lézard) signifies in French argot, a ‘bad lot’).

Verb (American).—To punish a man by bringing the knees close up to the chin, and lashing the arms tightly to the knees—a species of trussing.

Like a brick—like bricks—(and in an intensive form) like a thousand of bricks, adv. phr. (common).— With energy; alacrity; thoroughly; vehemently and with much display. [Derived partly attributively from brick (q.v.), and partly in allusion to the crash of failing bricks.] There are numerous similes of a kindred character; e.g., Like beans; Like one o’clock; Like blazes, all of which see.

1835. Dickens, Sketches, p. 139. Bump they [cab and horse] cums agin the post, and out flies the fare like bricks.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Ingoldsby Penance).

For the Friar to his skirts closely sticks,

‘Running after him,’—so said the Abbot,—like bricks!

1860. New Orleans Picayune, April 27 (Police Report). ‘When it came to the breakdown, Your Honor, he kicked up a row like a drove of contrary mules, and when we wanted to turn him out, he fell upon us like a thousand of bricks, and threatened to make minced meat of the police and every one of us.’

1864. Western World, March 5. ‘When Mr. Nye had finished, Mr. Stewart rose, and with his irresistible logic and impressive language came down upon him like a thousand of bricks, till he was utterly crushed and demolished.’

Brick in the hat, phr. (American).—A drunken man is said to have a brick in his hat, the allusion being to top-heaviness and inability to preserve a steady gait.

Brick-duster.—See Brickfielder.

Brickdusts, subs. (military).—The Fifty-third Regiment of Foot, so nicknamed from its facings, which are scarlet. Another slang appellation is ‘The Old Five-and-Threepennies,’ from its number and the daily pay of an ensign.

Brickfielder or Brickduster, subs. (Australian colloquial).—In Sydney the name given to a dust or sand-storm brought by southerly winds from sand hills locally known as the Brickfields—hence the name. Also called the buster or southerly burster.

18(?). Munday, Our Antipodes. In October, 1848, as I find by my diary, I witnessed a fine instance of a nocturnal brickfielder. Awakened by the roaring of the wind I arose and looked out. It was bright moonlight, or it would have been bright but for the clouds of dust, which, impelled by a perfect hurricane, curled up from the earth, and absolutely muffled the fair face of the planet. Pulverised specimens of every kind and colour of soil within two miles of Sydney, flew past the house high over the chimney tops in lurid whirl-winds, now white, now red. It had all the appearance of an American prairie fire, barring the fire.

1853. Fraser’s Mag., XLVIII., 515. What the Sydney people call a brickfielder.

1886. Cowan, Charcoal Sk. The buster and brickfielder: Austral red-dust blizzard and red-hot simoon.

Bricklayer, subs. (clerical).—A clergyman. [It has been hazarded that the term is a familiar corruption of Rubricklayer, to denote general character for Rubrical exactness—said of men who not only lay down Liturgical law, but obey it. With more propriety, however, may it be held as referring to the important part taken by the mediæval clergy in ecclesiastical architecture. Mr. Thomas Boys, in the course of an interesting article on the subject [N. and Q., 2 S., vii., 115], traces its historical derivation somewhat as follows:—It is well known how in former days the building of cathedrals and other sacred edifices was patronised and promoted both by the dignitaries and by the clergy generally; but it is not, perhaps, matter of equal notoriety that many chapters and collegiate bodies had a functionary called a workman (operarius), on whom devolved the charge of repairing and maintaining the sacred fabric, and who was often one of their own number. In fact, he was of the dignitaries of the church. ‘Operarius, Dignitas, in Collegiis Canonicorum, et Monasteriis, cui operibus publicis vacare incumbit’ (Carpenter). The office of this operarius or workman was called ‘operaria.’ ‘Operaria. Dignitas Operarii in collegiis canonicorum et monasteriis’ (ib.). In Spain, the clerical operarius was called by the corresponding Spanish name, obrero (a workman). ‘Obrero. Se llama tambien el que cuida de las obras, en las Iglesias o Comunidades, que en algunas Cathedrales es dignidad’ (Dicc. de la Ac. Esp.); i.e., in some cathedrals the office made the holder of it a dignitary. Salazar de Mendoza, in his ‘Cronica del Cardenal Don R. G. de Mendoça,’ tells us that, the Cardinal having conceded to the Chapter of the cathedral at Toledo, the administration of the building-fund, the Chapter in 1485, nominated as workman (obrero) the Canon Juan de Contreras (Lib. II., cap. 62, par. 2). May we not conjecture, then, that, if clergymen are now provincially called bricklayers, it is because their mediæval predecessors were, with a special reference to building, called ‘workmen’? Possibly, from the appointment of certain ecclesiastics in former days under the name of operarii or workmen, for the repair and maintenance of public edifices in the University of Oxford, the title of bricklayers may have passed, in course of time, to the neighbouring clergy of Oxon and Berks. The use of bricks, which ceased in this country after the decline of the Roman power, is stated by Hallam to have been reintroduced, probably from Flanders, in the early part of the fourteenth century.

With perhaps equal propriety the term [bricklayer] is thought to refer to the οἰκοδομὴ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ (Eph. iv., 12), trusting that they, like St. Paul, are wise ‘master builders’; builders on the only true foundation, ‘which is Jesus Christ.’ Edify, edificare οἰκοδομεῖν have primary reference to houses built with hands, as well as to the spiritual one of building up the Church of Christ.]

Bricklayer’s Clerk, subs. (nautical).—One of the hundred names given to a lubberly sailor.—W. Clark Russell. For synonyms, see Strawyarder, and Cf., Bail.

Bricks, subs. (Wellington College).—A sort of pudding.

Bridge, subs. (cards’).—A cheating trick at cards, by which any particular card is cut by previously curving it by the pressure of the hand. Used in France as well as in England, and termed in the Parisian Argot faire le pont sec, also couper dans le pont. The modus operandi of avoiding, or rather of neutralizing the cut, which is the very backbone of the card-sharper’s art, is somewhat difficult, and is generally performed by one of two methods, termed respectively the ‘bridge’ and the ‘pass.’ In the former method the sharper, at the end of his shuffle—the cards being still held backs uppermost in the left hand—takes some twelve or fifteen of the underneath cards lengthwise between the thumb and first and second fingers of the right hand and throws them on the top of the pack, at the same time giving them a slight squeeze outwards which causes them to assume an imperceptible curve. When placed on the table to be cut, the pack will now, owing to this curve or ‘bridge,’ present in the middle a very slight gap almost invisible to the eye; and experience shows that the odds are twenty to one that the adversary will cut exactly at that very spot, thus taking off the twelve or fifteen cards thrown on the top and bringing the ‘readied’ portion of the pack back to its original position.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 266. I got my living by card-playing in the low lodging-houses … I worked the oracle; they were not up to it. I put the first and seconds on, and the bridge too.

1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, I., p. 251. I’ve found out the way that Yankee fellows does the king. It’s not the common bridge that every body knows.

1866. Yates, Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die, talking over a flat, or winning money of a greenhorn, was to have its vent in launching a great City Company.

Verb (old).—Explained by quotation.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. To bridge a person, or to throw him over the bridge, is … to deceive him by betraying the confidence he has reposed in you.

Bridle-Cull, subs. (old).—A highwayman. [From bridle + cull, a ‘man.’] A French equivalent is un garcon de campagne; also un grinche de cambrouse; aller au trimar or trimard, ‘to become a highwayman.’ Trimar = road or ‘toby.’

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. I., ch. v. A booty of £10 looks as great in the eye of a bridle-cull, and gives as much real happiness to his fancy, as that of as many thousands to the statesman.

Bridport or Brydport Dagger, subs. (old).—The hangman’s rope. ‘To be stabbed with a Bridport Dagger’ signifies ‘to be hanged.’ For synonyms, see Horse’s nightcap, and Cf., Anodyne necklace.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Dorset (I., 310). ‘Stab’d with a Brydport dagger.’ That is, hang’d or executed at the Gallowes; the best, if not the most, hemp (for the quantity of ground) growing about Brydport.

1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, etc. (1811), p. 67. Stabbed with a Brydport dagger. That is hanged. Great quantity of hemp is grown about this town; and, on account of its superior qualities, Fuller says there was an ancient statute, now disused, that the cables for the royal navy should be made thereabouts.

1807. Southey, Espriella’s Letters, i., 35 (3 ed.). The neighbourhood is so proverbially productive of hemp, that when a man is hanged, they have a vulgar saying, that he has been stabbed with a Bridport dagger.

Brief, subs. (thieves’).—A ticket of any kind, whether railway pass, pawnbrokers’ duplicate, or ticket for a raffle; also a pocket book. Hence briefless (q.v.).

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I took a brief (ticket) to London Bridge.

1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18, p. 3, col. 2. His usual line of business was ‘brief-snatching,’ i.e., hovering about the crowd that surrounds a small bookmaker, and snatching from the hands of the unwary the credential they with rash eagerness exhibit, and which they desire to exchange with the man they have bet with for their winnings.

1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. They copped the briefs at the next station, and he changed carriages.

Briefless, adj. (common).—Ticketless.—See Brief.

1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 3. Following close at the heels of Newman, I soon found myself within the Aquarium, all briefless as I was, and without having been asked any questions.

Briefs or Breefs, subs. (card-sharpers’).—Cards tampered with for the purpose of swindling.—See Bridge, Concaves, and Convexes, Longs, and Shorts, Reflectors, etc. [From the German briefe, which Baron Heinecken says was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm. Brief is also the synonym for a card in the German Rothwalsch dialect, and briefen is to play at cards.]

1529. [Edited by] Luther, Liber Vagatorum (1860), p. 47. ‘Item—beware of the Joners (gamblers), who practice Beseflery with the brief (cheating at cards), who deal falsely and cut one for the other, cheat with Boglein and spies, pick one brief from the ground, and another from a cupboard,’ etc.

1720. Old Book of Games, quoted by Hotten. ‘Take a pack of cards and open them, then take out all the honours … and cut a little from the edges of the rest all alike, so as to make the honours broader than the rest, so that when your adversary cuts to you, you are certain of an honour. When you cut to your adversary cut at the ends, and then it is a chance if you cut him an honour, because the cards at the ends are all of a length. Thus you may make breefs end-ways as well as side-ways.’

Brief-Snatcher, subs. (thieves’).—Pocket-book thieves. [From brief (q.v., sense 1), slang term for a pocket-book, + snatcher.]

Brigh, subs. (thieves’).—A pocket.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. Having a new suit of clobber on me, and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).

Some English Synonyms are:—Cly, skyrocket.

French Synonyms are une grande; une profonde, parfonde or prophête (thieves’: literally deep; also used for ‘cave’ or ‘cellar’); une fouillouse (thieves’: this term is an old one. Fouille = a ‘digging’ or excavation. There are various forms—foulle, felouse, filoche); une gueularde (thieves’: gueulard = wallet in slang, but properly signifies a stove); une baguenaude (thieves’ and cads’: properly ‘a bladder-nut’); une balade or ballade; une valade (thieves’: from avaler, to swallow up); une fondrière (thieves’); un four banal (thieves’: either used to signify a ‘pocket,’ a ‘false pocket,’ or an ‘omnibus’); une sonde (literally sonde = probe).

Bright in the Eye, subs. (common).—Slightly tipsy. [An allusion to the sparkling appearance of the eyes at an early stage of intoxication; subsequently they become dull and sleepy.] For synonyms, see Screwed.

Brighton Tipper, subs.—A peculiar kind of ale.—See quotation.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 347. Requiring … a pint of the celebrated staggering ale, or Real Old Brighton Tipper, at supper. Ibid, p. 447. If they draws the Brighton Tipper here, I takes that ale at night, my love.

Brim, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. [A contraction of brimstone (q.v.)] For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1730–6. Bailey. Brim [q. a contraction of Brimstone], a common strumpet. [M.]

1764. T. Brydges, Homer Travest. (1797), i., 173. Can mortal scoundrels thee [Hera] perplex, And the great brim of brimstones vex?

1808. Jamieson. Brim, a cant term for a trull.—Loth.

2. (common).—Nowadays the term signifies an angry, violent woman, or a termagant, without reference to moral character. An equivalent French term is une chipie. Cf., Brimstone.

1799. Whim of the Day. She raved, she abused me, and splenetic was; She’s a vixen, she’s a brim, zounds! She’s all that is bad.

Brimstone, subs. (old).—1. A violent tempered woman; a virago; a spitfire. [A reference to the inflammable character of the mineral.]

1712. Bp. Burnet, in Walpole’s Reminiscences (1819), p. 75. ‘Oh, madam,’ said the bishop, ‘do not you know what a brimstone of a wife he had?’

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. vi. ‘She is … not a brimstone, like Kate Koddle, of Chatham.’

1760. C. Johnston, Chrysal, II., 190. I hate the law damnably ever since I lost a year’s pay for hindering our boatswain’s mate’s brother from beating his wife. The brimstone swore I beat her husband, and so I paid for meddling.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxiii. Who seemed, too, to have a temper of her own, and promised, under circumstances, to turn out a bit of a b—mst—ne.

2. (old.)—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1785. Grose. Brim (abbreviation of brimstone), an abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared to brimstone for its inflammability.

Briney or Briny, subs. (popular).—The sea. A ‘dip in the briney’ once a year is a great attraction to Cockney excursionists. Hotten tells a story of one excursionist saying to another, as they stripped in a double machine, ‘Why, ’Arry what dirty feet you’ve got!’ ‘’Ave I; well yer see I wasn’t down last year.’ [From the adj. signifying, ‘of or pertaining to brine or the sea.’]

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. xiv. The luckless plight in which a stout gentleman had found himself, by the temporary loss of all his apparel, while he was disporting in the briny.

1881. Punch, Jan. 15, p. 14. Grigsby. Hullo, my Jellaby, you here! Come and take a dip in the briny, old man. I’m sure you look as if you wanted it. Postlethwaite. Thanks, no. I never bathe. I always see myself so dreadfully foreshortened in the Water, you know!

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Next day bathing, returning from which we beheld a curious sight, three nymphs carrying down to the strand a bath in which one of them was, apparently with a curious mistrust of the sea, going to try the briny.

English Synonyms. Herring pond; big pond; big drink; the puddle; Davy’s locker.

French Synonyms. La grande tasse (familiar: properly ‘the big cup.’ Boire dans la grande tasse, ‘to be drowned’); la grande bleue (popular: the great blue—an allusion to the colour of deep sea water); le grand salé (popular: literally ‘the great salt’); le pré salé (popular: properly the salted or briny meadow.)

Bring Down the House, verbal phr. (general).—To elicit loud applause; and, still more figuratively, to be successful. [The figure of speech is that demonstrative applause will cause the walls to give way. Cf., To raise the roof off.]

1754. World, II., No. 76, 125. His apprehension that your statues will bring the house down.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant Green, II., p. 23. Why, it would surpass the British sailor’s broadsword combat for six, and bring down the house.

1872. Forster, Life of Charles Dickens, ch. xliv. (IV., p. 252). ‘And give us your applause, for that is always just’! which brought down the house with rapture.

1877. Mrs. Riddell, Her Mother’s Darling, II., p. 61 (ch. xii). I do not fancy she would ever forgive any of us if Honie were to bring down the house at Elm Vale.

1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 3. But Samson’s crowning feat of all was to break with his fist two steel chains, suspended from a couple of posts. This fairly brought down the house.

Brisket-Beater, subs. (old).—A Roman Catholic. Cf., Breast fleet and Craw-thumper, synonymous terms. Quoted by Grose [1785].

Bristles or Bristle Dice, subs. (old).—A method of ‘cogging’ dice by inserting bristles into them, and thus influencing the position of the cubes when ‘thrown.’

1532. Dice Play (1050), 28. Bristle dice, be now too gross a practice to be put in use. [M.]

1680. Cotton, in Singer Hist. Cards, 335. This they do by false dice, as … By bristle-dice. [M.]

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. ‘Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams and bristles … and a hundred ways of rooking besides.’

Bristol Milk, subs. (old).—Sherry. [An allusion to sherry being formerly a large import of the city of Bristol.] For synonyms, see Drinks.

1644. Prynne and Walker, Fiennes’ Trial, 78. Good store of Bristol milk, strong wines and waters. [M.]

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Bristol. ‘Bristol milk’; this metaphorical milk, whereby Xeres or Sherry Sack is intended.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bristol milk, a Spanish wine called sherry, much drank at that place, particularly in the morning.

1849–61. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I., iii. A rich beverage made of the best Spanish wine, and celebrated … as Bristol milk.

Broach Claret, verbal phr. (pugilistic).—To draw blood.—See, however, Claret.

Broad and Shallow, phr. (popular).—An epithet applied to the so-called ‘Broad Church,’ in contradistinction to the ‘High’ and ‘Low’ Churches.—See High and dry.

1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. In the Church have we not the three schools of High and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?

Broadbottoms, subs. (political).—A nickname given to two Coalition Governments, one in the last century [1741], and the other in 1807.—See quots.

A pamphlet dated April 18, 1807, has reference to the latter. Its full title is:—‘The pigs possessed, or the broadbottom’d litter running headlong into the Sea of Perdition.’ The characters are George III., as the British farmer; Lords Sidmouth, Ellenborough, Howick (‘Test Act’); Mr. Windham; Lords Holland, Walpole, Carlisle St. Vincent; Earls Temple (‘Last Stake’), Grenville (‘Catholic Bill’), and of Derby; Lords Erskine, Lauderdale (a Scotch pig), H. Petty, and Moira; the Duke of Bedford, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, marked ‘Erin go Bragh’; Earl Spencer, Marquis of Buckingham (‘Family’), R. B. Sheridan (Harlequin), Courtney, Tierney, and Whitbread (‘Entire’). Courtney is placed in profile between Ellenborough and Sidmouth. He was an intimate friend of Fox. This is said to be the only portrait of him. The print is a supplement to another styled ‘More Pigs than Teats.’ The pigs represent the Ministers described commonly by the phrase ‘All the Talents,’ or the ‘Broad-Bottoms’ who were succeeded, April, 1807, by the Duke of Portland and his supporters. The former are not to be confounded with an earlier ‘Broad-Bottom’ Administration. The latter was commemorated in the satirical inscription for Fox’s tomb, Hic jacet Pater Broad-Bottomos.

1742. Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1833), No. 22, Feb. 18, vol. I., p. 106. The Tories declare against any farther prosecution—if Tories there are, for now one heard of nothing but the broad-bottom; it is the reigning cant word, and means, the taking all parties and people, indifferently, into the ministry.

1843. Macaulay, Historical Essays, II., p. 244. The Pelhams had forced the King, much against his will, to part with Lord Carteret.… They proceeded, after this victory, to form the Government on that basis, called by the cant name of the ‘broad-bottom.’

1863. Jeaffreson, Live It Down, I., p. 249. The star of Granville is falling, that of Pelham is in the ascendant; and the great coalition on ‘The Br. B.’ is managing the affairs of the State.

1871. Miss Braddon, Robert Ainsleigh, I., p. 37. A scathing reply from the polished chief of the famous Br. B. Administration.

1887. Pol. Slang, in Cornhill Mag., June, p. 628. A Coalition Government in the last century was known by the apt nickname of the ‘Broad Bottom.’

Broadbrim, subs. (common).—A Quaker. [The origin of this expression is to be found in the hat once peculiar to the ‘Society of Friends.’ Hotten says the epithet is now used of any quiet, sedate, old man.]

1712. Spectator, No. 276. [Broad-brim is used as the name of a Quaker correspondent.]

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VII., ch. x. This the Quaker had observed, and this, added to the rest of his behaviour, inspired honest broad-brim with a conceit that his companion was, in reality, out of his senses.

1864. Reader (quoted in Notes and Queries, 5 S., ix., p. 263). Broadbrim, a Quaker. This word clearly owes its origin to the peculiar hat worn by the Society of Friends.

1876. Jas. Grant, One of the Six Hundred, ch. i. The sly broad-brim, and popularity-hunters of the Peace Society sent a deputation to the Emperor Nicholas.

Broad-Cooper, subs. (brewers’).—A person employed by brewers to negotiate with publicans.

Broad Coves, subs. (old).—Card-sharpers. [From broads (q.v.), cards, + cove (q.v.), a man.] The modern term for swindling at cards is broad faking (q.v.). A French equivalent is un brêmeur. For synonyms, see Rook.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5.

Your swell broad coves, with all their airs

Can’t match the kids near Wapping stairs,

They are so down and knowing;

Of lowest life you’ll see the best,

At Maces’s, All-max, in the East;

So let’s at once be going:

Come, toddle along, toddle along, etc.

Broad-Faking, subs. (card-sharpers’).—Playing at cards. Generally used, however, to denote ‘work’ of the three card and kindred descriptions.

Broad-Fencer, subs. (thieves’).—A ‘k’rect card’ seller at races. [From broad (q.v.), a card, + fence or fencer, a ‘tradesman.’]

Broads, subs. (general).—Playing cards.—See Stock broads.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is cards.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Broads, cards; a person expert at which is said to be a good broad-player.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, IV., ii. I nick the broads.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 262. He … became one of a gang who practised with the broads card-sharping and the ‘confidence trick.’

Broadsman, subs. (common).—A card-sharper. [From broads = cards + man.] Formerly called broad cove (q.v.). For synonyms, see Rook.

1879. J. W. Horsley, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. Broadsmen (card-sharpers).

1888. G. R. Sims, in Cass. Sat. Journal, 31 March, p. 7. The broadsman is a card-sharper.

Broady, subs. (common).—1. Cloth. [A corruption of broad-cloth.]

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 54. Gentlemen finding their own broady can be accommodated.

1883. Daily Telegraph, August 7, p. 6, col. 2. The prospectus further intimated that … gentlemen ‘finding their own broady … could be accommodated.’

2. (thieves’.)—Anything worth stealing.—See Broady worker.

Broady Worker, subs. (thieves’).—A man who goes round selling vile shoddy stuff under the pretence that it is excellent material, which has been ‘got on the cross,’ i.e., stolen.

Brock, verb (Winchester College).—To bully; to tease; to badger. [Brock is a north country and Hampshire name for a badger.] In French military schools this is called faire une brimade or faire brimer.

Brockster, subs. (Winchester College).—A bully.—See Brock.

Brogues, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—Breeches. This is, in reality, an obsolete old English term which has survived among the ‘Blues.’

Broiled or Boiled Crow. To eat boiled crow.—A newspaper editor, who is obliged by his ‘party’ or other outside influences, to advocate ‘principles’ different from those which he supported a short time before, is said to ‘eat boiled crow.’ Originally the phrase was simply to eat crow, and the following account is that currently accepted as to its derivation.

1888. Atlanta Constitution. During the unpleasantness between the States and England, there were located on opposite sides of the Niagara river a British and an American fort, and during an armistice the soldiers of both garrisons were accustomed to go hunting. Among the American troops was one long, lank, stuttering specimen of the genus Yankee, who would persist, in spite of orders to the contrary, in going across the river on his hunting expeditions. One day when on the Canada side he had had poor luck and got nothing, but resolved not to go back entirely empty handed. While passing through the grounds of an English gentleman, he spied a crow, and, blazing away, brought it down. The Englishman had witnessed the shot and resolved to punish the offender for poaching on his private grounds. As the Yankee was loading his gun he approached, and, complimenting him on his good shot, asked to look at his gun. The unsuspecting Yankee handed it to him, and the Briton, bringing the gun to his shoulder and covering the Yankee, abused him for trespassing on his grounds, and ordered him, on pain of death, to take a bite out of the crow. The soldier begged and pleaded, but to no avail. The Englishman had the drop on him, so he finally bit a piece from the breast of the crow. The Englishman, after warning him to keep off his premises in the future, handed him back his gun and bade him clear out. No sooner was his rifle returned than he covered the Briton and ordered him to finish the crow. Then it was the Englishman’s turn to beg off, but the Yankee was firm, and the Englishman, with many a wry face, did succeed in downing several bites of the unsavoury bird. His wounded honour being appeased, the Yankee betook himself back to the fort. The Englishman the next day went to the American commander and told his version of the affair, and demanded that the culprit be punished. From the description given, the American officer knew that the offender must have been the stuttering soldier, and ordered him to be brought before them. When he came in the captain asked him if he had ever seen the gentleman before. The Yankee shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, and, after several attempts, finally answered that he had. ‘When and under what circumstances?’ asked the officer. ‘I d-dined with him y-y-yesterday, captin,’ stuttered the soldier. The story goes that his wit saved the soldier from punishment.

Broke. Dead broke (q.v.)—Stone broke (q.v.), adj. (common).—Ruined; decayed; hard up—said of health or pecuniary circumstances. The French slang has n’avoir pas un radis, literally ‘not to have a radish’; but for all synonyms, see Dead-broke.

1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 16. ‘How do you do when you’re stone broke?’ I ask him. ‘Well, sir, sometimes I comes across a gentleman as gives me a bob and starts me again.’

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Aug. 14. I see that Sullivan made 21,000 dols. out of his fight, but as he was ‘dead broke’ before the battle, there won’t be much of it left. Nevertheless, Sullivan has received hundreds of begging letters from folks who want him to pay off mortgages on their homes or buy them houses and lots and things of that sort.

Broken Feather in One’s Wing, subs. phr. (popular).—A blot on one’s character.

1880. Mrs. Oliphant, Phœbe, jun., ii., 6. If an angel were to walk about, Mrs. Sam Hurst would never rest till she had found out where he came from. And perhaps whether he had a broken feather in his wing.

Broken-Kneed, ppl. adj. (common).—Said of a girl or woman who has been seduced. Cf., Ankle and Broken legged; for synonyms, see Dock and Leg. In French theatrical slang, avoir mal aux genoux.

Broken Legged, ppl. adj. (common).—Seduced.—See Dock and Leg for synonyms.

Brolly, subs. (general).—An umbrella. Term first used at Winchester, being subsequently adopted at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

1885. Punch, June 6, p. 273. Pair o’ pattens and brolly are more in your line.

Broncho, adj. (American).—Unruly; wild; savage. The epithet is derived from broncho, the name of the native horse of California, a somewhat tricky and uncertain quadruped. The term is familiarly applied to horses that buck and show other signs of vice. The Spanish signification of the word is rough and crabbed little beast, and in truth he deserves this name.

1888. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. Oh! I don’t know. He’d been singing the music to ‘em’ (imitating them). Sam’s too broncho.

Broncho-Buster, subs. (American).—A breaker-in of bronchos; also called a flash-rider. [From broncho (q.v.) + bust, in its slang sense of annihilate, or overcome, + er.] These men make a profession of their business and perform really marvellous feats, riding with ease the most vicious and unbroken beasts that no ordinary rider would dare tackle. A favourite feat is to sit out the antics of a bucking-horse with silver half-dollars under each knee or in the stirrups under each foot. Their method of breaking-in may be described as the exercise of main force, it being a tussle as to which can hold out the longest, man or broncho. The calling is a dangerous one, and a first-class broncho-buster can always command high wages and constant employment on large ranches.

Bronze John, subs. (American).—Texas name for yellow fever; Englishmen commonly call it yellow Jack (q.v.)

Broom, subs. (old).—1. See quot.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. ‘The people got rusty about it, and would not deal, and they had bought so many brooms that——’ Ibid, ch. xxxiii. (II., p. 96). What are you wanting here? Ye’ll be come wi’ a broom in your pocket frae Ellengowan? Got so many warrants out.

2. (harlotry.)—The female pudenda. The male penis is the broomstick. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Verb (old).—To run away. For synonyms, see Amputate.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 6. Tom. That will do—now then Dicky, mizzle!—be scarce!—broom! Prime. Wouldn’t intrude a moment, gentlemen, good morning—order my carriage.

Broomstick, subs. (athletic).—A sort of rough cricket bat, very narrow in the blade and all of one piece of wood.

To jump the broomstick—hop the broom—jump the besom, phr. (common).—To live as man and wife without the legal tie. The allusion is to a quasi marriage ceremony performed by both parties jumping over a broomstick.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, ii., 3. Jump o’er a broomstick, but don’t make a farce on The marriage ceremonies of the parson.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor I., p. 336. The old woman (who kept the ken), when any female, old or young, who had no tin, came into the kitchen, made up a match for her with some men. Fellows half-drunk had the old women. There was always a broomstick wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man and wife.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xlviii., p. 227. ‘They both led tramping lives, and this woman in Gerrard St. here, had been married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping man, and was a perfect fury in point of jealousy.’

c. 18(79). Broadside Ballad, ‘David Dove that fell in love.’ By L. M. Thornton.

The girl that I had hoped to hear

Pronounce my happy doom, sir,

Had bolted with a carpenter,

In fact hopped o’er the broom, sir.

Broomsticks, subs. (old).—Worthless bail. For synonyms, see Straw bail and Cf., Bail.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Queer bail are persons of no repute, hired to bail a prisoner in any bailable case. These men are to be had in London for a trifling sum, and are called broomsticks.

Brosier or Brozier, subs. (Eton College).—A boy when he had spent all his pocket-money. [Brozier is a Cheshire term for a bankrupt.] A French term for a bankrupt is un déculotté, i.e., one unbreeched; also un bauce or bausse fondu.

Broziered, ppl. adj.—Cleaned out; done up; ruined; bankrupt.

1796. Merton, Way to get Married (in Inchbald’s ‘British Theatre,’ vol. XXVI). [The term is so used here].

Brozier-my-dame, verbal phr. (Eton College).—Eating one out of house and home. At Eton, when a dame (q.v.) keeps an unusually bad table, the boys agree together on a day to eat, pocket, or waste everything eatable in the house. The censure is well understood, and the hint is generally effective.

1850. Notes and Queries, June 15, p. 44. I well remember the phrase brozier-my-dame, signifying to eat her out of house and home.

1888. Rev. W. Rogers, Reminiscences, p. 15. Etonians of my standing will remember John Francis Plumptre, one of the Fellows … I once behaved very shabbily to him, for I joined a conspiracy to ‘brozier’ him. There were ten or twelve of us [at breakfast], and we devoured everything within reach.

Brother-Blade, subs. (old).—A soldier. Formerly brother of the blade, i.e., of the sword; a fellow-soldier. For synonyms, see Mudcrusher.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brother of the blade, a soldier.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. ii. ‘I heard some devilish good stories of you at D’Osyndar’s t’other day; the fellow who told them to me little thought I was a brother blade.’

Brother Chip (provincial workmen’s).—One of the same calling or trade; formerly a fellow carpenter.

1820. Clare, Poems of Rural Life, Familiar Epistle, st. 3. And, brother chip, I love ye dearly, poor as ye be!

Brother of the Brush, subs. phr. (old).—An artist; a house-painter.

1687. Bp. Cartwright, in Hist. Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 143. Pray make use of my brother of the brush. [M.]

1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1793), I., 133. The honourable devices which the Pentagraphic bretheren of the brush have shewn in taking copies. [M.]

1833. Byron, wks. (1846), p. 585, col. 1. A young American brother of the brush. [M.]

Brother of the Bung, subs. phr. (old).—A brewer; one of the same trade. [Bung here is used as an emblem of the trade of a brewer.]

Brother of the Buskin, subs. phr. (old).—A player; actor—one of the same profession. [Buskin is in allusion to the covering for the foot and leg (cothurnus) worn by actors in tragedy among the ancients; in contrast to the sock (soccus) worn by comedians. Stage buskins had very thick soles to give an appearance of height. Hence buskin as symbolical of tragedy, but used in the phrase brother of the buskin in a transferred and general sense.] Quoted by Grose [1785]. Cf., Barn-stormer and Booth-burster.

Brother of the Coif, subs. (old).—A serjeant-at-law. [The coif was a close-fitting cap worn by the serjeants-at-law—hence the term.] Quoted by Grose [1785].

Brother of the Gusset, subs. (old).—A pimp or ponce (q.v.). For synonyms, see Bully.

Brother of the Quill, subs. phr. (old).—An author. [Quill = pen.] For synonyms, see Ink-slinger.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Brother of the quill, an author, one of the same profession.

Brother of the String, subs. phr. (old).—A fiddler. [A reference to the violin or fiddle as a stringed instrument.]

Brother of the Whip, subs. phr. (old).—A coachman, the whip being taken, as it were, as an insignia of office.

1756. The World, No. 207. He … had always greased my heels himself, and upon every one of my birthdays, had treated all his brother whips at his own expence.

1849. T. Miller, in Gabarni in London, p. 39. He is very kind to any poor brother of the whip whom he sees tugging up-hill in vain, with a weighty load and an ill-fed team.

Brother-Smut, subs. phr. (popular).—A term of familiarity. ‘Ditto, brother or sister smut,’ tu quoque.

Brother Starlings, subs. (old).—Men who cohabit with the same mistress.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brother Starling … one who … builds in the same nest.

Broth of a Boy, subs. phr. (Irish originally, but now common).—A jolly good fellow. Cf., Brick. [The term is thought to originate from the Irish Broth, passion—Brotha, passionate, spirited—its meaning being, ‘He’s a lad of spirit,’ though it may come from the ancient Cornish name for the mastiff—brath. Hence a broth of a boy would then mean ‘a stout dog of a boy—robust.’]

1819–24. Byron, Don Juan, c. viii., st. 24. But Juan was quite a broth of a boy, a thing of impulse and a child of song.

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, ch. xx. You ought to have been a preacher and a boy. Faith, and a broth of a boy, and a broth of a preacher you’d have made.

Broughtonian, subs. (old).—A bruiser; boxer; pugilist. [From Broughton, once the best boxer of his day.]

Brown, subs. (common).—1. A halfpenny. [Probably an allusion to the colour of the coin in question.] For synonyms of money generally, see Actual.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Browns and whistlers, bad halfpence and farthings.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. Bob. Now then for the stumpy. (Searching about in his pockets for the money.) My tanners are like young colts; I’m obliged to hunt ’em into a corner, afore I can get hold on ’em—there!—hand us over three browns out of that ’ere tizzy; and tip us the heavy. (Landlord receives money, and delivers porter.)

1837. Barham, I. L. (Black Mousquetaire).

The magic effect of a hand of crowns

Upon people whose pockets boast nothing but browns.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 57. If I takes a hat round, they has a plate, and they gets sovereigns where we has only browns. Ibid. We keeps it up for half an hour or an hour … if the browns tumble in well.

1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. iv. A shower of browns, the coppers mingled with silver, from our private box, rewards their exertions.

c. 1884. Broadside Ballad, ‘Jimmy Johnson’s Holiday.’

But Violet, the Margate pet,

Who always call’d him Teaser,

Said ‘She would stick like mortar’d brick,

While Johnson had a brown.’

2. (old.)—Porter. [Qy. an abbreviation of ‘Brown Stout.’]

1820. Glossary at end of Corcoran’s The Fancy. Brown, porter; heavy brown, stout.

Verb.—1. A variant of ‘to do brown,’ i.e., to do to perfection; to get the better of. [The simile is obviously taken from the browning process which meat undergoes during roasting.]—See Do brown.

2. To understand; comprehend.

To do brown, verbal phr. (common).—To do well; also ‘to take in’; deceive; to exceed bounds. Cf., Brown, verb, sense 1. French equivalents for ‘to allow oneself to be done brown’ are godancer and être flouè.—See second quotation for variation in usage.

a. 1600. John Bon, 162 in Hazl. E. P. P., iv., 16. Ha! browne done. [M.]

1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 5. ‘Those who consider themselves brown to every move upon the board’ of actual life.

1837. Barham, I. L. (The Execution). ‘Why, they’d laugh at and quiz us all over the town, We are all of us done so uncommonly brown!’

1854. Harper’s Monthly, January.

‘And some of the greenhorns

Resolved upon flight,

And vamosed the ranch

In a desperate plight;

While those who succeeded

In reaching the town,

Confessed they were done,

Most exceedingly brown.’

1861. Times (on American affairs).

John Bull, slyly winkin’, then said unto he:

‘My dear Times, my old covey, go pitch into he;

Let us wallop great Doodle now when he is down;

If we wallops him well, we will do him up brown.’

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 267. I was once done myself with some pigs—I! and done brown too, and at a time when I ought to have known better.

Brown Bess, subs. (rhyming slang).—1. Yes.

2. (military.)—The old regulation musket. Considerable discussion has taken place over the origin of this term. It first appears in Grose [1785], but the term ‘brown musquet’ occurs at the beginning of the eighteenth century [1708]. The following suggested derivation appeared in N. and Q. [2 S., v., p. 259]. Brown Bess, in its primary meaning, is equivalent to brown barrel. Bus, in Dutch is the barrel of a gun; in Low Germ. büsse, in Swed. byssa. Hence our English Bess as applied to a gun-barrel. (Conf. in Med. Latin—bus-bas fragor scloporum et certaminis.) The Dutch bus appears often in composition. Hand-bus, a pistol; literally a hand-barrel. Bus-schieter, a gunner; literally a barrel-shooter. We have the Dutch bus (a barrel) in three English names of fire-arms: namely arquebuse, obus, blunderbuss. At the first of these three, arquebuse, we must look a little more closely would we trace the term brown Bess to its primæval source. The most formidable of cross-bows before fire-arms came into general use, was one which shot a ball or pellet from a barrel. Specimens may yet be seen. Now this was the original arquebuse (i.e., arc-bus, or arc-et-bus, bow and barrel). In process of time as gunpowder came into use, the arc disappeared, and the buss or barrel remained. Hence arquebuse, though it properly implies a bow fitted with a tube or barrel, came into use as the old appellation of a soldier’s firelock. And hence the name of Bess (bus, büsse or byssa), which the musket has borne more recently. Bess or bus is the last syllable of the old arquebuse or harquebus cut off for separate use, just as in the more recent instance of bus from omnibus. The barrels of firelocks were sometimes browned. Sometimes, however, they were required to be kept bright. Could we ascertain who first in mercy ordained the browning of the barrel, we might have some prospect of ascertaining the first introduction of the term brown Bess. Doubtless it was some hero of the fight, not of the field-day. For a further illustration of the term brown Bess, it may be proper to remark that in Northumberland, according to Halliwell, a gun is known by the not very elegant title of black-bitch. Now like bus in Dutch, büchse is in German a gun-barrel. (‘Büchse, 2, ein eisernes Rohr zum schiessen,’ an iron tube for shooting.) May we not infer, therefore, that black-bitch was originally ‘black büchse,’ i.e., black barrel, in conformity with brown barrel or brown Bess? ‘Formerly,’ says Zedler, ‘and before the invention of gunpowder, arquebuse signified a bow with a barrel’ (Bogen Büchse), which is the literal meaning of the word. Hotten, however, says it is much more likely that the phrase is derived from the fact that ‘the soldier is wedded to his weapon,’ and some colour is given to this alternative derivation by the fact that the Dutch soldier, mindful of all the care he has to bestow upon his gun, calls it his wife—mijn geweer is mijn vrouw. French soldiers call their weapon la clarinette de cinq pieds.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Brown Bess, a soldier’s firelock.

1820. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Tour II., ch. ii.

Religion Jack did never profess,

Till he had shoulder’d old Brown Bess.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xi. The British soldier, with his clothing and accoutrements, …—not to mention brown Bess, his mainstay and dependence—nothing punishes him so much as wet.

1877. Chambers’ Journal, No. 720. Such may have been the case in the days of brown Bess, but a spinning conical ball from the Martini-Henry will pierce the largest crocodile.

3. (old.)—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1631. Dore, Polydorun. Things proffered and easie to come by diminish themselves in reputation and price, for how full of pangs and dotage is a wayling lover, for it may be some brown Bessie.

To hug brown Bess, verbal phr. (old).—To serve as a private soldier.

Brown George, subs. (old).—1. Explained by quotations.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby L., 3 S. ‘Jerry Jarvis’s Wig.’ He looked disdainfully at the wig; it had once been a comely jasey enough, of the colour of over-baked ginger-bread, one of the description commonly known during the latter half of the last century by the name of a brown George.

1882. Globe, 24 July, p. 2, col. 1. The King [George III.] wore a brown wig … known popularly a century ago as brown George.

2. (common.)—A jug; generally of brown earthenware. Cf., Black-jack.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxiv. He … stood behind his oak, holding his brown George, or huge earthenware receptacle, half full of dirty water, in which his bedmaker had been washing up his tea-things.

1881. Besant and Rice, Chap. of the Fleet, pt. II., ch. iii. His country brother might have been seen at the Crown, over a pipe and a brown George full of strong October.

3. (old.)—A coarse brown loaf; or hard biscuit.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. IV. Author’s Prologue. The devil of one musty crust of a brown George the poor boys had to scour their grinders with.

1693. Dryden, Persius, V., 215.

Cubb’d in a cabin, on a mattrass laid,

On a brown George, with lousy swabbers fed.

Brownie, subs. (nautical).—The polar bear.

Brown Janet, subs. (nautical).—A knapsack.

Brown Joe, intj. (rhyming slang).—No. Cf., Brown Bess for ‘yes.’

Brown-Papermen, subs. (thieves’).—Low gamblers.—See quot.

1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 502. ‘But the Little Nick is what we call only ‘brown papermen,’ low gamblers—playing for pence, and 1s. being a great go.’

Brown Stone, subs. (American thieves’).—Beer. For synonyms, see Swipes.

Brown Talk, subs. (common).—Conversation of an exceedingly ‘proper’ character, Quakerish. Compare blue.

Browse, verb (Marlborough and Royal Military Academy).—To idle; loll; take things easy. [A transferred sense of the legitimate word—to eat lazily.]

Adj.—See foregoing. ‘A browse morning,’ i.e., one in which there is little work.

Bruise, verb (prize-fighters’).—1. To fight; box—generally with the idea of mauling.

Bruise along, verbal phr. (hunting).—To pound along.

1865. Dublin University Magazine, II., 19. A majority of those who follow them have … no notion of hunting, but go bruising along.

1872. Anteros, xii., p. 110. The baron hunted his five days … bruising along determinedly.

Bruiser, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A prize-fighter; a boxer. [From bruise, to maul, + er.]

1744. Nov. 26, Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1833), II., 57. He let into the pit great numbers of bear-garden bruisers (that is the term), to knock down everybody that hissed.

1753. Foote, Englishman in Paris, Act i. Dick Daylight and Bob Bread-basket the bruisers.

1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xii. The man last named was short in stature, but of a square iron build; and it needed only a glance at his posture to see he was a scientific, perhaps a thorough-bred bruiser.

1846–48. Thackeray, V. Fair, ch. xi. At college he pulled stroke-oar in the Christchurch boat, and had thrashed all the best bruisers of the ‘town.’

1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xlii. A jolly wag, a fellow of indifferent character, a frequenter of all the ale-houses in the neighbourhood, and rather celebrated for his skill as a bruiser.

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Flyfaker’s Hotel, in Odd People in Odd Places, p. 58. Nearly every one seemed to have some little job or other that was necessary to be done at this almost last moment for the business of to-morrow; even one of the two villanous-looking bruisers had. They were of the very lowest of the ‘rough’ type—broken-nosed, besotted, pimple-visaged, and unwholesome-looking fellows, whose foul and blasphemous language seemed to pollute the pestilent air of the place more than anything else that contributed thereto.

2. (thieves’.)—A prostitute’s bully or fancy man. For synonyms, see Bully.

3. (common.)—One fond of fighting. Cf., Chucker-out, and next sense.

4. (American.)—A generic name in large cities for a rowdy or bully. Sometimes, however, the term has been limited in its application to a particular band of ruffians. This was the case once in Baltimore.

Bruising, verbal subs. (prize-fighters’).—Fighting with the fists; boxing.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. c. The combatants were, in point of strength and agility, pretty equally matched; but the jailer had been regularly trained to the art of bruising.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. At that time the Sunday newspapers contained many and many exciting reports of boxing matches. Bruising was considered a fine manly old English custom.

1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xxxv. Mugford always persisted that he could have got the better of his great hulking sub-editor, who did not know the use of his fists. In Mugford’s youthful time, bruising was a fashionable art.

Ppl. adj. (hunting).—That pounds along.

1872. Anteros, by the author of Guy Livingstone, I., p. 207. He was a good second-rate shot, and a fair, though by no means bruising rider to hounds. Ibid., p. 234. There were not a few admirers of his bruising style, etc.

Brum, subs. (old).—1. A counterfeit coin. [Contracted form of Brummagem (q.v.).] The term appears to have been given specially to some counterfeit groats [about 1691].

2. (common).—Something counterfeit; not genuine. [A contraction of Brummagem (q.v.).]

1883. Daily Telegraph, July 9, p. 3, col. 2. One [earring] might be gold, and the other a Brum, though exactly alike.

3. (common).—Copper money struck by Boulton and Watt at their works at Soho, Birmingham.

1787. J. West, Trip to Richmond, in Ashton’s Eighteenth Century Waifs, p. 133. My silver I chang’d for a handful of Brums.

4. (common).—An inhabitant of Birmingham.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 321. For Nottingham is a rare place for good eating; here you may buy anything to eat of the commonest person, or in the commonest place with confidence that it is good, clean, and wholesome, very different to dirty Birmingham and the Brums.

Adj. (Winchester College).—Mean; poor; stingy. A superlative form is dead brum. [There are two derivations suggested; viz. (1) from bruma = winter; and (2) traditional in ‘College’ that it is an abbreviated form of brevissimum.] A popular French equivalent, used both as a substantive and adjective, is rapiat.

Brumby, subs. (Australian).—A wild horse. An Antipodean counterpart of the American ‘broncho.’

Brummagem, subs. (popular).—1. A nickname for Birmingham.

1862. Cornhill, Nov., p. 648. We have just touched for a rattling stake of sugar (i.e., a large stake of money) at Brum.

2. (old).—Base money of various denominations has been so called—especially groats in 17th century—hence its application to anything spurious or unreal—as in adjectival sense.—See also Brummagem buttons and Brums.

1691. G. Miege, New State Eng., 235. Bromicham, particularly noted a few years ago for the counterfeit groats made here, and from hence dispersed all over the kingdom. [M.]

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bromidgham, money of base metal.

1834. Southey, The Doctor, ch. cxl. He picked it up, and it proved to be a Brummejam of the coarsest and clumsiest kind, with a head on each side.

Adj.—Counterfeit; unreal; sham; showy; pretentious.—See substantive, senses 1 and 2.

1637. Calendar Dom. St. Papers, 105. Those swords which he … pretends to be blades of his owne makeing are all Bromedgham blades and forraine blades.

1686. D’Urfey, Commonwealth of Women, I., i. A Brummingham, son of a wh—, affront the Noble Admiral!

1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. v. ‘The most of the middle class are as ignorant as the working people about everything that doesn’t belong to their own Brummagem life.’

1883. Echo, March 28, p. 1, col. 5. There is little of a Brummagem character about the municipal, parochial, and philanthropic work of Birmingham, whatever we may think of some of her industrial productions.

Brummagem Buttons, subs. (common).—Counterfeit coin.

1836. Dickens, Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, I., p. 11. Bad silver, Brummagem buttons, etc.

1873. Saturday Review, Nov., p. 661. They [Brummagem buttons] were marvellously inexpensive, and being such ingenious imitations of the spade guineas and half-guineas then current that many Englishmen might have failed to detect the difference; they must have been of very great ‘use to the Indians’ indeed.

Brummish, adj. (common).—Doubtful; counterfeit. [From Brum (q.v.) + ish.]

1805. G. Colman, John Bull Brit. Theat., 55. Two guineas … one seems light and t’other looks a little brummish. [M.]

Brums, subs. (Stock Exchange).—London and North Western Stock. (Formerly London and Birmingham Ry.).

1887. Atkin, House Scraps.

We kneel at the feet of our ‘Nancys,’

We load them with ‘cottons’ and ‘tapes.’

If anything tickles our fancy,

We buy them Brums, ‘Caleys’ or ‘Apes.’

Brush.—1. See Brother of the brush.

2. subs. (old).—A hasty departure. For analogous terms, see Amputate.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. xii. ‘I reminded him, not without blushing, of my having no money. He answered, “That signifies nothing, score it behind the door, or make a bold brush, and take no notice.”’

3. (old.)—A person who decamps hastily, or who evades his creditors.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Brush (v.) … also a canting term for one who goes off privately, or runs away from his creditors, or with stolen goods.

Verb (Christ’s Hospital).—1. To flog.

2. (old.)—To have sexual intercourse. For synonyms, see Ride.

3. (old.)—To run away; to decamp. Also to brush off. For synonyms, see Amputate.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Brush, to Fly or Run away. [M.]

1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Brush, c., run away.

1764. A. Murphy, No One’s Enemy but his Own, Act ii. Rascal, says my Master, do as I bid you, and so off he brushed to the tune of an old song.

1776. Foote, Bankrupt, I. But I must brush off, for here comes my lady.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1877), 204. And one Sergeant Matcham had brush’d with the dibs.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Dead Drummer). One of their drummers, and one Sergeant Matcham, Had brush’d with the dibs, and they never could catch’em.

Brusher, subs. (old).—A full glass.

2. (old.)—See quotation.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Brusher (s.) … also one that gets or steals away privately.

3. (common and schools’.)—A schoolmaster.

4. (American.)—To humbug by flattery.

Brushing up a flat, phr. (general).—Using mealy-mouthed words, or, to employ other slang equivalents, ‘laying it on thick,’ ‘soft soaping one.’

Brute, subs. (University).—See quot.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Brute, in Cambridge University slang, is a man who has not yet matriculated. The play is evident. A ‘man,’ in college phrase, is a collegian; and as matriculation is the sign and seal of acceptance, a scholar before that ceremony is not a ‘man,’ and therefore only a ‘biped brute.’

Brydport Dagger.—See Bridport dagger.

B. T. I., phr. (American).—An abbreviation of a big thing on ice. These curtailments of slang phrases are not infrequent in America, and among others may be mentioned p.d.q.; o.k.; n.g. and q.k., etc. (q.v.).