A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues. (continued 5)

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

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

For German Synonyms, see Tart.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Barring.—See To bar.

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

1728. Swift, Journal of a Modern Lady.

Not schoolboys at a barring-out,

Raised ever such incessant rout.

1847. Tennyson, Princess, conclusion.

Revolts, republics, revolutions, most,

No graver than a schoolboys’ barring-out.

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

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

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

2. Also formerly a man under sentence of transportation.

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

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

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

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

Verb.—To hit a ball hard at cricket.

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

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

1682. Wit and Drollery, p. 343.

Her petticoat of sattin,

Her gown of crimson tabby,

Lac’d up before, and spangl’d ore,

Just like a Bartholomew baby.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fest. N., p. 57.

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

That gaping lies on every stall,

Till female with great belly call.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Basing.—See That’s basing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arrested! this is one of those whose base

And abject flattery help’d to dig his grave;

He is not worth your pity, nor my anger;

Go to the basket, and repent.

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

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

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

Whatever he wants, he has only to ask it,

And all other suitors are left in the basket.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look on my shoulders, they are black and blue;

Whilst to and fro fair Luce and I were winding,

He came and basted me with a hedge-binding.

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

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

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

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

For synonyms generally, see Tan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Circa 1850, but date uncertain.]

Bates’ Farm.

Good evening pals, how do you do,

I thought I’d give a call,

And introduce myself to you,

For I’m glad to see you all.

I’m up to every little fake,

But in me there’s no harm,

For it was this blooming morning

That I left Old Bates’ Farm.

CHORUS.

Then, here’s success my knowing kids,

I’m filled with ev’ry charm,

I feel so gay this blessed day,

I’ve left Old Bates’ Farm.

Now, every morning when you rise,

You get a starving meal,

And if you don’t eat all they send

You have to work the wheel.

Then so merrily we go,

To chapel to have prayers,

And for a little pastime work

The everlasting stairs.

Chorus.

The last time that I went to see

Old Bates, he shook my hand,

And said, ‘I’m glad to see you,

You’re a chap I understand.’

He said, ‘You’re here for nothing now?’

I said ‘Yes,’ like the rest,

It was only for knocking a bobby down,

And jumping on his chest.

Chorus.

So now I’ve got my liberty,

And once again I’m free,

I mean to ‘crack a crib’ to-night.

But pals don’t ‘crack on me.’

So if I should touch lucre,

For a time I will keep calm,

If I don’t see you here some night,

I shall at Bates’ Farm.

Chorus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Eton.)—See quotation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1698. Howard, All Mistaken, Act i.

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

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

Phil. Hist—now for a battle-royal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Popular.)—A false shot; a mistake.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bawde Phisicke.—See quotation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Many a faire lasse in London towne,

Many a bawdie basket borne vp and downe:

Many a broker in a thridbare gowne,

Many a bankrowte scarce worth a crowne. In London.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. A river boatman.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck,

If we mawnd Pannam, lap or Ruff-peck,

Or poplars of yarum; he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans.

Or else he sweares by the lightmans,

To put our stamps in the Harmans.

The Ruffian cly the ghost of the Harman beck.

If we heaue a booth we cly the Jerke.

If we niggle or mill a bousing ken.

Or nip a bung that has but a win,

Or dup the giger of a gentry cofes ken:

To the quier cuffing we bing,

And then to the quier-Ken to scowre the Cramp-ring,

And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the lightmans,

The Bube and Ruffian cly the Harman beck and Harmans.

[This is thus ‘Englished’ by Dekker].

The Diuell take the Constable’s head,

If we beg Bacon, Butter-milke or bread.

Or Pottage, to the hedge he bids us hie,

Or sweares (by this light) i’th’ stocks we shall lie.

The Deuill haunt the Constable’s ghoast,

If we rob but a booth, we are whip’d at a poast.

If an ale-house we rob or be tane with a whore,

Or cut a purse that has iust a penny, and no more,

Or come but stealing in at a gentleman’s dore:

To the Justice straight we goe,

And then to the Jayle to be shakled: And so

To be hang’d on the gallows i’th’ day time: the pox

And the Deuill take the Constable and his stocks.

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

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

Billy. De beak! oh curse a de beak!

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

Jack. Silence for the chair!

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

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

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

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

For German Synonyms, see Copper.

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

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

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

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

18(?) Hood, Tale of a Trumpet.

The pies and jays that utter words,

And other Dicky gossips of birds,

Who talk with as much good sense and decorum,

As many beaks who belong to the quorum.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1886. Zoological Comparisons, in Broadside Ballad.

Nature and art improves us, the girls with smiles are moving us,

Which very often ruin us there’s no gammon about that;

Then just as we begin to know ‘how many beans make five,’

The ladies call us puppies when we at that age arrive;

You may perchance become a deer, if in favour with some lass,

If not you’re called a donkey, and oftentimes an ass.

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

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

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

F. Hark, does’t rattle?

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

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

They say——

That putting all his words together,

’Tis three blue beans in one blue bladder.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verb.—To act as a bear (q.v.).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bearer-Up.—See Bear up and Bonnet.

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

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

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

Be-Argered, adj. (familiar).—Drunk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And as I almost wanted bread,

I undertook a bear to lead,

To see the brute perform his dance

Through Holland, Italy, and France;

But it was such a very Bruin,

. . . . . . . . .

I took my leave, and left the cub

Some humbler Swiss to pay and drub.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That beat’s the Dutch!—See Dutch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Falstaff: Hold, sirrah, [to Robin] bear you these letters tightly;

Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.—

Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go;

Trudge, plod away, o’ the hoof; seek shelter, pack!

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

Beat the Rib.—See Rib.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The broker here his spacious beaver wears,

Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares.

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

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

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

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

See also Bever.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kitty Crea, some fine day, when I’m laid in the clay,

Put to bed with a spade in the usual way,

And yourself on the shelf a neglected old maid,

Troth, your conscience will sting you, I’m greatly afraid.

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

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

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

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

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

Each one departs to Bedfordshire.

And pillows all securely snort on. [M.]

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

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

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

Col. I’m going to the Land of Nod.

Ner. Faith, I’m for Bedfordshire.

1845. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg.

The time for sleep had come at last,

And there was the bed, so soft, so vast,

Quite a field of Bedfordshire clover.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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