A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues. (continued 7)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. (common.)—A vulgarism for ‘boil.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. (Harrow School.)—Names-calling.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For synonymous terms of head-gear, see Deerstalker.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bing.—See Bynge a waste.

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

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

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

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

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

FIGHTING ATTIE’S SONG.

Air.—‘He was famed for deeds of arms

’Rise at six—dine at two—

Rob your man without ado-

Such my maxims—if you doubt

Their wisdom, to the rightabout!’

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

‘Pass round the bingo,—of a gun,

You musty, dusty, husky son!’

(The sallow gentleman in a hoarse voice,)

‘Attie—the bingo’s now with me,

I can’t resign it yet, d’ye see!’

(Attie, seizing the bowl,)

‘Resign, resign it—cease your dust!’

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

‘You have resigned it—and you must.’

CHORUS.

‘You have resigned it—and you must.’

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

For all synonyms, see Drinks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She has no great education, for

She’s not much past her letters;

But for acting like a lady, I

Would like to see her betters:

She does not read Ouida’s works,

Nor Bow Bells’ fashions pages;

And she does not wear those things behind,

The ladies call bird-cages.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I sing the bishop, alias the bustle.

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

If wrong may not, by circumstance, be right,—

If black cravats be more genteel than white,—

If, by her bishop, or her ‘grace,’ alone

A genuine lady, or a church, is known.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. (common.)—To spoil; to bungle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He shall not have my maiden-head,

I solemnly do swear;

But I’ll bite him of a portion,

Then marry with Ralph, my dear.

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

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

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

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

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

1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, Act iii.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. (Charterhouse.)—A warning = Cave!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pray have you travell’d so far north,

To think we have so little wit,

As by such biters to be bit?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

’Mong the vehicles, too, which were many and various,

From natty barouche down to buggy precarious,

We twigg’d more than one queerish sort of turn-out,

C—n n—g came in a job, and then canter’d about

On a showy, but hot and unsound, bit of blood,

(For a leader once meant, but cast off, as no good).

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

Bit of Cavalry, subs. (old).—A horse.

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

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

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

2. (printers’.)—See Fat.

Bit of Jam.—See Jam.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bit On.—See On.

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

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

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

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

Let fortune frown and friends betray,

There’s a class of men that’s ever gay,

Where some make troubles, they make joys,

And are known by the title of the West End Boys.

They commence their evening with cigars,

And ‘How-d’ye-do, dear,’ at the bars,

‘Another bitter, I really can’t go,

There’s something about you that charms me so.’

Oh, don’t they like, etc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black-ball, verb (common).—See Pill.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blackbird-Catching.—See Blackbird.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When the turnkey, next morning, stepped into his room,

The sight of the hole in the wall struck him dumb;

The sheriff’s black bracelets lay strewn on the ground,

But the lad that had worn ’em could nowhere be found.

Tol-de-rol!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black Doll.—See Dolly shop.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sense 1 = a scullion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I do believe thee, quoth the knight;

Thus far I’m sure thou’rt in the right,

And know what ’tis that troubles thee,

Better than thou hast guess’d of me.

Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite,

Condemn’d to drudg’ry in the night;

Thou hast no work to do in th’ house,

Nor half-penny to drop in shoes;

Without the raising of which sum

You dare not be so troublesome;

To pinch the slatterns black and blue,

For leaving you their work to do.

This is your business, good Pug Robin,

And your diversion, dull dry bobbing.

So also the following:—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blackmans.—See Darkmans.

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

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

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

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

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

For other synonyms, see Her Majesty’s Carriage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blacks.—See Black horse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This came first o’ keeping company with the blades,

From whom I learnt to roar and run away.

1636. Davenant, The Wits, Act v.

The old blade

Skulks there like a tame filcher, as he had

New stolen ’bove eggs from market-women.

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

If he be that old

Rough testy blade he always used to be.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Uncle Dowle has lots of money;

He’s a very knowing looking blade.

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

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

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

1873. Carleton, Farm Ballads, p. 18.

And so that pourin’ dissentions in our cup;

And so that blamed cow-critter was always coming up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1888. Troy Daily Times, Feb. 3. The captain looked anxious, and an irate fellow-passenger, who had not ceased swearing since we left Tuxpan, declared by all that is sacred and profane that he had known vessels to be hindered thirty days; yes, even three months, by that blankety blankety bar!

1888. Owosso (Mich.) Press, April. ‘Doctor, I’m a dead man!’ ‘Not right now?’ said I, as I kicked his dog out. ‘Just as good as dead,’ said he, ‘or you wouldn’t kick that dog in that way with safety. Not by a blankety blank blank sight.’ ‘Needn’t waste so much profanity, Mr. Starkhill,’ said I.

Blanket. Lawful blanket, subs. (old).—A wife. For synonyms, see Dutch.

Blanket Fair, subs. (popular).—Bed. Cf., Bedfordshire, Sheet Alley, and Land of Nod.

Blanket Hornpipe, subs. (common).—Sexual commerce. The allusion is obvious. Cf., Basket making.

Blarmed, ppl. adj. (common).—A euphemism for blessed (q.v.); ‘damned’; ‘blowed’ (q.v.); or blamed (q.v.), of the last of which it is probably a corruption.—See Oaths.

1867. No Church, I., 104. To be in a blarmed hurry.

1872. John Forster, Life of Dickens, ch. xxxi. (III., p. 191). He saw a strange sensation among the angry travellers whom he had detained so long; heard a voice exclaim, ‘I am blarmed if it ain’t Dickens!’ and stood in the centre of a group of Five Americans!

Blarm Me! intj. (common).—A euphemistic oath.—See Blarmed.

Blarney, subs. (colloquial).—Blandishment; soft speech, or ‘sawder’; gross flattery; ‘gammon.’ [From Castle Blarney in Ireland, in the wall of which, difficult of access, is placed a stone. Whoever is able to kiss this is said thereafter to be able to persuade to anything. Blarney is from bladh-ey, flowery island, and this may have some connection with the curious tradition. On the other hand, according to Brewer, Cormack Macarthy held the Castle of Blarney in 1602, and concluded an armistice with Carew, the lord president, on condition of surrendering the fort to the English garrison. Day after day his lordship looked for the fulfilment of the terms, but received nothing except protocols and soft speeches, till he became the laughing-stock of Elizabeth’s ministers, and the dupe of the lord of Blarney.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller.

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xix. They were as cunning as foxes and could tell blarney from good sense.

c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, ‘A nice young thing.’

Such a nice young thing, such a sweet young thing,

Her name was Kate Carney, she came from Killarney,

So full of her blarney, but fond of her Barney,

Such a fair young thing, a rare young thing,

And just for a lark she had dyed her hair dark,