A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues. (continued 9)

1870. Athenæum, 5 March, p. 328. Non-privileged cabs, which are admitted to stations after all the privileged have been hired, are known as Bluchers.

Bludgeoner, subs. (harlotry).—A bully; pimp; ponce; a man attached to a house of ill-fame for the purpose of terrorising victims, and rendering easier the task of plunder. [From bludgeon, a stout stick or club, + er or eer; i.e., one armed with the weapon in question.]

1852. Blackwood’s Magazine, p. 224. Those brutal bludgeoneers … go out … in gangs to poach. [M.]

1855. Trollope, Warden, xiv., p. 144. Old St. Dunstan with its smiting bludgeoneer has been removed.

Bludger, subs. (thieves’).—A low thief, who does not hesitate to use violence; literally one who will use a bludgeon. Cf., Bludget.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Those who plunder with violence; as … bludgers or ‘stick slingers,’ who rob in company with low women.

Bludget, subs. (American).—This is given in the New York Slang Dictionary [1881] as ‘a low female thief, who decoys her victims into alley-ways, etc., to rob them.’ Cf., Bludger.

Blue.—Few words enter more largely into the composition of slang, and colloquialisms bordering on slang, than does the word blue. Expressive alike of the utmost contempt, as of all that men hold dearest and love best, its manifold combinations, in ever varying shades of meaning, greet the philologist at every turn. A very Proteus, it defies all attempts to trace the why and wherefore of many of the turns of expression of which it forms a part—why true blue should be synonymous with faithful, staunch adherence to one’s faith and principles; or why, on the other hand, to look blue should signify affected with fear, dismayed, and low-spirited. Curiously enough, the historical method helps but little to decide why in one case an exact reversal of meaning should have taken place in the application of the word; for, as far as the evidence is concerned, both the good and bad shades of meaning appear to run contemporaneously. It is also noteworthy that the word enters largely into the slang of nationalities other than our own; indeed, one of the most curious, as well as one of the most interesting facts connected with the comparative study of slang, is that which reveals the oneness of the human race in its modes of thought and speech, the Tower of Babel notwithstanding. This special feature of slang will, to some extent, be found dealt with at the end of this work; but the subject is too wide, and the field too vast, for one student to have accomplished much single-handed. This, however, may be said; that, comparing the slang of one nation with that of another, one finds the same ideas cropping up, revealing, alas! the same follies and foibles, but also showing, let it be said, in the few cases where slang travels beyond the earthy and the sensual, the same aspirations, the same endeavour, and the same hope.

Subs.—1. A policeman. [From the colour of the uniform.] This epithet can be traced back to Elizabethan days [see Blue-bottle], and the uniform seems to have been blue from time immemorial; indeed, this colour appears from the earliest times to have been the badge of servitude. Pliny tells us blue was the colour in which the Gauls clothed their slaves; and, for many ages, blue coats were the liveries of servants, apprentices, and those in humble stations of life—to wit, the blue-clad beadles, the ‘varlets’ who wore the blue, the blue-coat boys, and even harlots in a house of correction, who wore blue as a dress of ignominy. The proverb quoted by Ray, ‘he’s in his better blue clothes,’ i.e., ‘he thinks himself wondrous fine,’ has reference to the livery of a servant. The police more recently have been known collectively as blues, the men in blue, blue-boys, blue bottles, blue-devils, royal regiment of foot-guards blue, all nicknames referring to the colour of the uniform. For general synonyms, see Beak.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 257. He would chatter gaily and enter with great gusto into the details of some cleverly executed ‘bit of business,’ or ‘bilking the blues,’—evading the police.

18(?). Hood, Row at the ‘Oxford Arms.’

Well, that’s the row, and who can guess the upshot after all?

Whether Harmony will ever make the ‘Arms’ her house of call;

Or whether this here mobbing, as some longish heads fortell it,

Will grow to such a riot that the Oxford blues must quell it.

2. A blue is known to licensed victuallers and their customers in certain districts of Wales as a compromise between the half-pint and the pint pot. It is not recognised as a legal measure by the authorities on weights and measures, but it is approaching to something like a status, as it deserves to do in the interests of temperance. Although there is no Board of Trade standard of the blue, and inspectors have no power to stamp measures of this denomination for use in trade, the Board of Trade has pointed out to the local authorities that there is nothing in the Weights and Measures Act to prevent the use of the blue or to make its possessor liable to penalties, always provided of course that the vessel is not used as a measure.

3. A scholar of Christ’s Hospital; a blue-coat boy. [This nickname is also derived from the colour of the clothes—blue drugget gown or body with ample skirts to it, a yellow vest underneath in winter time, small clothes of Russia duck, worsted yellow stockings, a leathern girdle, and a little black worsted cap, usually carried in the hand, being the complete costume. This was the ordinary dress of children in humble life during the reigns of the Tudors.]

1834. W. Trollope (Title), Christ’s Hospital … with memoirs of Eminent Blues.

1877. W. H. Blanch, Blue-Coat Boys, p. 33. To some extent it holds also with regard to Civil Engineers, amongst whom, however, one well-known name is that of a blue.

4. Short for blue-stocking (q.v.); formerly a contemptuous term for a woman having or affecting literary tastes.

1788. Madame D’Arblay, Diary (1876), iv., 219. He was a little the more anxious not to be surprised to-night, but his being too tired for walking should be imputed to his literary preference of reading to a blue. At tea Miss Planta again joined us, and instantly behind him went the book; he was very right, for nobody would have thought it more odd or more blue.

1823. Byron, Don Juan, ch. xi., st. 50. The Blues, that tender tribe, who sigh o’er sonnets.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, p. 76. ‘But she was very clever.…’ ‘Accomplished?’ ‘Oh, far beyond that.…’ ‘A regular blue.’

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant Green, I., p. 7. His Aunt Virginia was as learned a blue as her esteemed ancestress in the court of Elizabeth, the very Virgin Queen of Blues.

5. Female learning or pedantry.

1824. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 47. She also had a twilight tinge of blue. [M.]

6. (University.)—At Oxford and Cambridge a man is said to get his blue when selected as a competitor in inter-university sports. The University colours are, for Oxford, dark blue; and for Cambridge, light blue. Cf., To get one’s silk, said of a barrister when made Queen’s Counsel.

Adj.—1. A contemptuous epithet applied usually to women of literary tastes.—See Blue-stocking. The French have elle est bleue celle-là; en voilà une de bleue; je la trouve bleue.

1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary (1842), iv., p. 219. Nobody would have thought it more odd or more blue.

1834. Southey, The Doctor, ch. lxxxix. Les Dames des Roches, both mother and daughter were remarkable and exemplary women; and there was a time when Poictiers derived as much glory from those blue ladies as from the Black Prince.

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xi. She was a little, a very little blue—rather a babbler in the ‘ologies’ than a real disciple.

1842. Dickens, American Notes, ch. iii., p. 33. Blue ladies there are, in Boston; but like philosophers of that colour and sex in most other latitudes, they rather desire to be thought superior than to be so.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxxiii. She had been growing decidedly blue. Not only had she, under Bray’s auspices, published a series of papers in Blunt’s Magazine, but she had positively written a child’s book.

1864. Spectator, No. 1875, p. 660. A clever, sensible woman, rather blue.

2. Indecent; ‘smutty’; obscene. This may be derived from the blue dress of harlots—see preceding, subs., 1.—although Hotten suggests it as coming from the French Bibliothèque Bleu, a series of books of very questionable character. Books or conversation of an entirely opposite nature are said to be brown or Quakerish, i.e., serious, grave, decent.

3. Gloomy; fearful; depressed; low-spirited. Cf., To look blue, Blue funk, and In the blues. Possibly an allusion to the blueness of cold.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxviii. Charley replied that neither had he any money at home. ‘That’s blue,’ said the man. ‘It is rather blue,’ said Charley.

1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, I., p. 93. It’s blue; uncommon blue.

1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, I., p. 60. ‘My dear Charlie,’ said the girl.… ‘That certainly is a blue look-out,’ she continued—for however earnest was her purpose she would not but express herself in her slang metaphor.

1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. xl. I kept up my blue meditations.

1874. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Gilded Age, ch. xxvii. I had forgotten dear, but when a body gets blue, a body forgets everything.… I am sorry I was blue, but it did seem as if everything had been going against me for whole ages.

Verb.—1. To blush. Cf., subs., sense 3.

1709. Steele and Swift, Tatler, No. 71, p. 8. If a Virgin blushes, we no longer cry she blues. [M.]

2. To pawn; pledge; spend; actually to get rid of money quickly. Cf., Blew. There are two suggested derivations of the word when used in this sense; (1) that it is connected with ‘blown,’ i.e., dissipated or scattered; and (2) that money so squandered has disappeared as effectually as if it had passed into the blue, i.e., the sky or the deep sea. The German has ins blaue hinein, ‘away into the blue,’ equivalent to the French passer au bleu. Faire passer au bleu is to dissipate, spend, or squander. For synonyms, in the sense of to pawn, see Pop.

1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 2. This top coat?—would blue it.

1887. Punch, 10 Sept., p. 111. I never minds blueing the pieces purvided I gets a good spree.

3. To miscalculate; ‘to make a “mess” of anything’; to mull.

4. (thieves’.)—To steal; to plunder. To be blued, to be robbed. For synonyms, see Prig.

By all that’s blue, phr. (popular).—A euphemistic oath; probably meaning ‘by Heaven.’ It may be compared with the French parbleu, synonymous with par Dieu.

1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxiii. ‘The black cat, by all that’s blue!’ cried the Captain.

Men in blue, phr. (popular).—The police.—See Blue, subs., sense 1.

1882. Besant, All Sorts and Cond. of Men, ch. xliii. ‘You must now begin to think seriously about handcuffs and prison, and men in blue.’

1886. G. A. Apperson, Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 137. The police in recent times have been known as the blues and the men in blue.

Till all is blue, phr. (popular).—1. To the utmost; to the end; for an indefinite period. Smyth, in his Sailors’ Word Book, says this phrase is borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port and getting into deep water.

1835. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. xix. [The land] could be made to carry wheat till all’s blue again. Ibid., 3 S., ch. xx. Your mother kickin’ and screamin’ till all was blue again.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, I., p. 184. I’ll have at her again, and dance till all’s blue before I give in.

2. When applied to drinking, till all is blue signifies exceeding tipsy. As will be seen, this usage is somewhat ancient. It is an allusion to the supposed effect of drinking on the eyesight. An analogous French expression is avoir un coup d’bleu (to be slightly tipsy).

1616. R. C., Times’ Whis., v., 1835. They drink … Vntil their adle heads doe make the ground Seeme blew vnto them.

1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv., 2. We can drink till all look blue.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Lay of St. Dunstan).

‘I have nothing to do:

And ’fore George, I’ll sit here and I’ll drink till all’s blue!’

To look blue, phr. (popular).—To be confounded; surprised; astonished; annoyed or disappointed. French equivalents are en rester tout bleu; en être bleu; en bailler tout bleu; and baba from ébahi, astounded.

c. 1600. Rob. Hood (‘Ritson’), II., xxxvi., 84. It made the sunne looke blue. [M.]

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. Blue, adj. … 2, blank, or cast down; as, he looked blue upon it.

1884. Cornhill Mag., Jan., p. 111. The prudent (and sagacious) officer looked blue. But he speedily recovered himself.

To make the air blue, phr. (popular).—To curse; to swear; to use profane language. Cf., Blue, adj., sense 2.

True blue, phr. (colloquial).—Faithful; genuine; real; an allusion to blue as the colour of constancy. A reference either to the deep blue of the sky or sea suggestive of interminableness; or, it may be derived as was ‘Coventry blue,’ from a dye that would neither change its colour nor be discharged by washing; hence figuratively, to signify persons or things of sterling character or quality. In neither case is the argument clear or decisive; there is certainly no reason in nature why the colour and cardinal virtue should be thus associated. Blue skies and blue seas are proverbially deceitful, and on the other hand, the expression seems too old a one to owe its origin to the dyer’s skill.

1383. Chaucer, Squiere’s Tale.

And by hire bedde’s hed she made a mew,

And covered it with velouettes blew,

In signe of trouthe that is in woman sene.

Ibid, Court of Love, line 246.

So you dir folke (quod she) that knele in blew,

They were the colour ay and ever shal,

In signe they were, and ever wil be true,

Withoutin change.

Blue Apron, subs. (common).—A tradesman.

1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., xliii., 230. For if any saucy blue-apron dares to affront any venerable person … all scholars are immediately forbid to have any dealing or commerce with him.

1868. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 98. A blue-apron statesman, a lay politician, a tradesman who interferes with the affairs of the nation. The reference is to the blue apron once worn by nearly all tradesmen, but now restricted to butchers, poulterers, fishmongers, and so on.

Bluebacks, subs.—1. The paper money of the Confederates. A cant name, originating, as in the case of United States paper currency greenbacks, in the colour of the printing on the reverse. A more pronounced slang name, subsequently applied to bluebacks, was ‘shucks,’ from their worthlessness after the war. ‘Shucks’ is an old English term for the refuse of peas and similar products when shelled.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 291. The confederate notes bore, for the same reason, the name of bluebacks, which was, however, soon exchanged for the slang term of shucks.

2. The Orange Free State paper money.

1878. Trollope, South Africa, II., p. 206. Bluebacks, as they were called, were printed. Ibid, p. 222. The bluebacks as the Orange Free State banknotes were called.

Blue Bellies.—A nickname bestowed by Southerners, during the Civil War, upon their opponents of the North, whose uniform was blue. They were also called boys in blue, yanks, etc. The Southerners, on the other hand, received such names as the secesh, rebs, and johnny rebs, the latter being sometimes shortened to johnnies. The grey uniform of the Confederates likewise caused them to be styled boys in grey and greybacks, the latter epithet cutting two ways, as the Southern soldiers not only wore grey uniforms, but ‘greyback’ in America as well as England signifies a louse.

1883. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 9, p. 5, col. 4. The Confederate armies during the great Civil War in America … were known … as ‘Greybacks,’ whereas their Federal opponents, from the light-azure gaberdines which they wore, were dubbed ‘blue-bellies.’

Blue Bills, subs. (Winchester College).—The tradesmen’s bills sent home to the parents and guardians of students. [So called from the colour of the envelopes generally used.]

Blue Billy, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A handkerchief (blue ground with white spots) sometimes worn and used as a colour at prize-fights.—See Billy, sense 1.

2. (mining.)—See quotation.

1887. ‘Death of Blue Billy,’ in Chamb. Jour., Dec. 17, p. 812. Blue Billy is the technical name given to the lime rendered foul in the purification of the gas.

Blue Blanket, subs. (common).—1. The sky. This simile is an old one; Defoe’s use of it may probably have been suggested by Shakspeare’s ‘blanket of the dark’ (Macbeth, I., v.).

c. 1720. Defoe, Hist. of Devil, quoted in N. and Q., 7 S., ii., 289; see also 7 S., ii., 492. We must be content till we come on the other side the blue blanket, and then we shall know the whole story.

1877. Greenwood, Under the Blue Blanket. The vagrant brotherhood have several slang terms for sleeping out in a field or meadow. It is called ‘snoozing in Hedge Square’; ‘dossing with the daisies’; and ‘lying under the blue blanket.’

The French say, ‘coucher à l’hotel de l’Etoile,’ i.e., ‘to sleep at the Star Hotel’; while in the Fourbesque, or Italian cant, heaven or the sky is termed copertore, a covering or blanket.

2. (common.)—A rough overcoat made of coarse pilot cloth.

Blue Blazes.—See Blazes.

Blue Boar, subs. (old).—A certain venereal disease.

Blue-Bottle, subs. (popular).—1. A policeman. This epithet, at one time applied generally to all wearers of a dark blue uniform, is now invariably understood to mean a guardian of the peace. It is one of the oldest of the nicknames given to members of the force, and occurs as far back as 1598.

Cf., Blue, sense 1, and see Beak for synonyms.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v., 4. Dall [addressing beadle] … you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. lxiv. ‘Police, indeed!’ muttered Charley, ‘the General can’t remember that he is out of London.… These confounded sulky Austrian officials are rather different customers to deal with from our blue-bottles.—Messrs. Al and Co.’

1864. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Sept. 13. Caught in his own toils by the blue-bottles of Scotland Yard, [M.]

1864. Blackwood’s Mag., p. 15. He who could summon to his aid every alphabetical blue-bottle that ever handled a truncheon.

1888. Middleton, Michaelmas Term. And to be free from the interruption of blue beadles, and other bawdy officers.

2. A serving-man, blue having been the usual habit of servants. Cf., Blue-coat.

1602. Honest Whore, O. Pl., iii., 389. You proud varlets, you need not be ashamed to wear blue, when your master is one of your fellows.

1608. Dekker, Belman, sign E., 3. The others act their parts in blew coates, as (if) they were their serving-men.

Hence blue-bottle is sometimes a term of reproach for a servant. [Case Altered, i., 2. O. Pl., v., 6.] And a serving-man, in B. Jonson, says, ‘Ever since I was of the blue order.’

About 1608, when Middleton’s Comedy of A Trick to catch the Old One was produced, the blue-coats of servants appear to have been changed for cloaks, such as were worn by the upper classes also at that time. Thus, in that comedy [Act ii., Anc. Drama, v., p. 151]:—There’s more true honesty in such a country serving man, than in a hundred of our cloak companions. I may well call ’em companions, for since blue coats have been turned into cloaks, one can scarce know the man from the master. B. Jonson [Mask of Christmas] introduces New Yeares Gift, In a blew coat, serving-man like, with an orange, etc.

1845. G. P. R. James, Arrah Neil, p. 325. The personage to whom he addressed himself, was one of the serving-men of that day, known by the general term of blue-bottles.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. x. (I., p. 173). I fancy you would love to move to court like him, followed by a round score of old blue-bottles. Ibid, ch. xi. My lord, my father … has blue-bottles enough to wait on him.

Blue Boy, subs. (common).—A bubo; a tumour or abscess with inflammation. Specially applied to that kind which is a result of venereal disease.

Blue-Boys, subs. (popular).—The police. The expression is generally used in the plural. Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Help Myself Society, in Odd People in Odd Places, p. 68. The ‘Help Yourselves’ are especially strong in instrumental music. They have a friend in Colonel Fraser, the head of the City police, and the excellent band of that branch of the force is at their service, and Sir E. Henderson shows himself to be at heart a ‘Help Yourself,’ by permitting the instrumental blue boys belonging to several metropolitan divisions to spend a Saturday night there. Besides these, they have the Polytechnic orchestral band when it is required, and an excellent grand piano with a skilled player and accompanyist.

Blue Butter, subs. (common).—Mercurial ointment, used for the destruction of parasites.

Blue-Coat, subs.—A constable; a guardian of public order. This, like many of its congeners, has been applied to serving-men, beadles, tailors, and others wearing a uniform of a dark blue colour. Like blue, blue-bottle, etc., its application to a policeman is of some antiquity. Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 19 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). And being so taken, haue beene carried to places of correction, there wofully tormented by blew-coates, cowardly fellowes, that … haue so scourged vs, that flesh and blood could hardly endure it.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 417. ‘I thinks them Chartists are a weak-minded set … a hundred o’ them would run away from one blue-coat.’

Blued or Blewed, ppl. adj. (common).—Tipsy; drunk. For synonyms, see Screwed.

Blue Dahlia, subs. (common).—A colloquialism for something rare or seldom seen; a rara avis.

Blue Devils, subs. (popular).—1. Dejection; lowness of spirits; hypochondria.

1786. Cowper, Letters, No. 219, vol. II., p. 143 (ed. 1834). I have not that which commonly is a symptom of such a case belonging to me,—I mean extraordinary elevation in the absence of Mr. Blue devil. When I am in the best health, my tide of animal sprightliness flows with great equality.

1790. W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 1.

Or, dropping poisons in the cup of joy,

Do the blue devils your repose annoy?

1871. Planché, King Christmas. There are blue devils which defy blue pills.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge iii. He got discontented and had fits of blue devils.

Two French equivalents for feeling out of sorts are s’emboucaner, and s’éncoliflucheter.

2. (popular.)—Delirium tremens. From the apparitions drunkards often suppose they see. In both this and the foregoing sense blue devils is contracted into blues.

1818–9. Cobbett, Resid. U.S., 42. It was just the weather to give drunkards the blue devils.

1831. Scott, Demonology, i., 18. They, by a continued series of intoxication, became subject to what is popularly called the blue devils.

Hence such derivatives as blue devilage; blue devilry; blue devilism; and an adjectival form blue devilly.

1871. Lockhart, Fair to See, I., p. 208. On the lower hills the pine-trees loomed through stagnant mists with a dejected and blue-devilly aspect.

Blue Fear, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright. [From the ‘blue’ or pallid cast of countenance which fear is supposed to induce. The same as blue funk (q.v.), which is more general.]

1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, in Longman’s Mag., April, p. 683. Anastasie had saved the remainder of his fortune by keeping him strictly in the country. The very name of Paris put her in a blue fear.

Blue Flag, subs. (common).—A blue apron (q.v.). Worn by butchers, publicans, and other tradesmen.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has hoisted the blue flag, he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, alluding to the blue aprons worn by publicans.

Blue Funk, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright, nervousness, or dread. [Funk is ‘to stink through fear’; Wedgwood connects it with the Walloon funker, ‘to smoke.’]

1856. Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 196. If I was going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk.

1861. Macmillan’s Magazine, p. 211. I was in a real blue funk.

1861. Saturday Review, Nov. 23, 534. We encounter … the miserable Dr. Blandling in what is called a blue funk. [M.]

1871. Maxwell, in Life (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly χλωρὸν θέος is the Homeric for a blue funk.

Blue Hen’s Chickens, subs. (American).—A slang name for the inhabitants of Delaware. The nickname arose thus: Captain Caldwell, an officer of the first Delaware regiment in the American War of Independence, was noted for his love of cock-fighting. Being personally popular, and his regiment becoming famous for their valour, they were soon known as ‘game-cocks’; and as Caldwell maintained that no cock was truly game unless its mother was a blue hen, his regiment, and subsequently Delawareans generally, became known as blue hen’s chickens, and Delaware as the Blue Hen State for the same reason. A boaster is also often brought to book by the sarcasm, ‘Your mother was a blue hen no doubt.’

Blue Horse, subs. (military).—The Fourth Dragoon Horse, from its facings.

Blue Lightning, subs. (American).—One of the grimly facetious names with which Texans have christened revolvers. At times a dispute has literally been a word, a flash of blue lightning and—certain death. For synonyms, see Barker.

Blue Monday, subs. (workmen’s).—A Monday spent in dissipation and absence from work. One often hears the phrase ‘to feel Mondayish.’ The German has der blaue Montag. Cf., Black Saturday.

1885. Harper’s Magazine, p. 873, col. 1. The workman getting sober after his usual blue Monday. [M.]

Blue Moon. Once in a blue moon, phr. (popular).—Extremely seldom; an unlimited time; a rarely recurring period. An old phrase, first used in the sense of something absurd. A blue moon, like the Greek Kalends, is something which does not exist. A variant is ‘when two Sundays come in a week.’ As regards origin nothing is known; barring the extract from Roy and Barlow, authorities give no examples earlier than 1876—a curious fact.

1526. Roy and Barlowe, Rede me and be not wroth, p. 114 [ed. Arber, 1871].

Yf they saye the mone is belewe,

We must beleve that it is true,

Admittynge their interpretacion.

1860. F. W. Robinson, Grandmother’s Money, I., p. 144. If he talked till a blue moon, etc.

1876. Miss Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. xxiv. Why should she stint as to one or two puddings a week … and a fruit pasty once in a blue moon.

1884. R. E. Francillon, Ropes of Sand, ch. xxi. ‘I’ve made bold to take the chance of your being at home for once in a blue moon, Mr. Carew,’ said she.

Blue Murder or Blue Murders, subs. (common).—A term used to describe cries of terror or alarm; a great noise; an unusual racket. Cf., French morbleu.

1887. J. S. Winter, Eng. Ill. Mag., Dec., p. 179. The dingy person dropped his victim and howled what the half-dozen officers … graphically described as blue murder.

Blueness, subs. (common).—Indecency. Smutty talk is described as blue, sense 2 (q.v.).

1840. Carlyle, Diderot, Ess., 240. The occasional blueness of both [writings] shall not altogether affright us.

French Synonyms. Les horreurs; les bêtises; les gueulées. To talk blue is rendered by décravater ses propos.

Blue Noses, subs. (American).—The natives of Nova Scotia. A nickname given them by the Yankees in allusion, it is said, to a potato of that name which Nova Scotians claim to be the best in the world. Proctor, however, thinks differently, and says he would wager that the Nova Scotians were called blue noses before the potato which they rear was so named, and hazards the suggestion that the nickname refers to the blueness of nose resulting from intense cold.

1837–40. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’). Do you know the reason monkeys are no good? Because they chatter all day long,—as do the niggers,—and so do the blue noses of Nova Scotia.

18(?). Sir George Simpson, Overland Journey, vol. I., p. 19. After a run [in the steamer] of fourteen days, we entered the harbour of Halifax, amid the hearty cheers of a large number of blue noses.

Blue [or Blew] One’s Screw, verbal phr. (common).—To waste or squander one’s salary. [From blue or blew (q.v.) + screw (q.v.).]

Blue Peter, subs. (card-players’).—The signal or call for trumps at whist. [Properly a blue flag with white square in centre, hoisted as a signal for immediate sailing.]

1875. Beeton, Handy Book of Games, p. 358. Since the introduction of Blue Peter, the necessity of leading through your adversary’s hand has become less and less.

Blue Pigeon, subs. (thieves’).—Lead used for roofing purposes. Cf., Bluey and Blue pigeon flyer. Of doubtful origin, but possibly a punning allusion. Lead has long been known as ‘bluey,’ and pigeons frequently find a resting-place on house-tops.

1887. Judy, 27 April, p. 200. A burglar whose particular ‘lay’ was flying the blue pigeon, i.e., stealing lead.

(Nautical.)—The sounding lead.

Blue Pigeon Flyer, subs. phr. (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead from the roofs of buildings. Hotten thus explains the modus operandi. Sometimes a journeyman plumber, glazier, or other workman, who, when repairing houses, strips off the lead, and makes away with it. This performance is, though, by no means confined to workmen. An empty house is often entered and the whole of the roof in its vicinity stripped, the only notice given to the folks below being received by them on the occasion of a heavy downfall of rain. The term flyer has, indeed, of late years been more peculiarly applied to the man who steals the lead in pursuance of his vocation as a thief, than to him who takes it because it comes in the way of his work.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 165. Blue pigeon flying. Fellows who steal lead off houses, or cut pipes away.

French equivalents are un limousineur; un gras-doublier; un mastaroufleur.

To fly the blue pigeon, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To steal lead from the roofs of houses.—See Blue pigeon. French equivalents are faire la mastar au gras-double; ratisser du gras double.

1872. J. Doran, in Notes and Queries, 4 S., x., 308. Even at the present day, no rascal would stoop to strip lead from the roof of a house. At least, what honest men would call by that name, he would prettily designate as ‘flying the blue pigeon.’

Blue Pill, subs. (popular).—A bullet; also called blue plum and blue whistler. For synonyms, see Pill.

1861. N. Y. Tribune (Let. from Missouri), Nov. 10. Between blue pills, halters, and the penitentiary, we shall soon work off this element of rascaldom and horse-thieves.

Blue Plum, subs. (thieves’).—A bullet. Cf., Blue pill and Blue whistler.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Surfeited with a blue plumb, wounded with a bullet; a sortment of George R——’s blue plumbs, a volley of ball, shot from soldier’s firelocks.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood (1884), p. 95.

Believe me, there is not a game, my brave boys,

To compare with the game of high toby;

No rapture can equal the toby man’s joys,

To blue devils, blue plumbs give the go by.

Blue Ruin, subs. (common).—Gin, generally of inferior quality. For synonyms, see Drinks.

c. 1817. Keats, A Portrait. He sipped no olden Tom or ruin blue, or Nantz or cherry brandy.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 39.

A few short words I first must spare,

To him, the Hero, that sits there,

Swigging Blue ruin, in that chair.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Log. Here, Landlord, more Blue Ruin, my boy! Sal. Massa Bob, you find me no such bad partner; many de good vill and de power me get from de Jack Tar.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. xx. ‘The littel un … had been abrought up upon spoon-meat, with a dash o’ blue-ruin to make him slim and ginteel.’

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxiii. The stuff itself, which in the western gin-shops goes generally by the name of blue-ruin or ‘short.’

Blues, subs. (popular).—1. Despondency; hypochondria; depression of spirits. [A shortened form of blue devils (q.v.).] A French synonym is se faire des plumes or paumer ses plumes.

1807. Washington Irving, Salmagundi (1824), p. 96. In a fit of the blues. [M.]

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. viii. The moat alone is enough to give one the blues.

1889. John Strange Winter, That Imp, p. 10. ‘Miss Aurora,’ he said suddenly, one evening after dinner, ‘it’s awfully dull at Drive now; does it never strike you so?’ ‘Very often, my dear,’ answered Miss Aurora promptly. ‘It’s as dull as—’ ‘Ditch-water,’ supplied Driver, finding she paused for a word which would express dulness enough. ‘I wonder you and Betty don’t die of the blues.’

2. The police.—See Blue, sense 1.

3. (military.)—The Royal Horse Guards Blue are popularly so known from the blue facings on the scarlet uniform. The corps first obtained the name of ‘Oxford Blues’ in 1690, to distinguish it from a Dutch regiment of Horse Guards dressed in blue, commanded by the Earl of Portland, the former being commanded by the Earl of Oxford. Subsequently the regiment was, during the campaign in Flanders [1742–45], known as the ‘Blue Guards.’

Blue Skin, subs. (old).—1. Formerly a contemptuous term for a Presbyterian. Butler, in Hudibras [I., p. 26], says:—

‘’twas Presbyterian true blue,

For he was of the stubborn crew

Of errant saints, whom all men grant

To be the true Church Militant.’

Blue is still the Presbyterian colour, and is used as an adjective by them in describing books and people.

2. (West Indian.)—A half-breed—the child of a black woman by a white man.

Blue Squadron, subs. (colonial).—One of mixed blood; properly one with a Hindoo strain. Eurasians belong to the blue squadron. Cf., Touch of the tar brush.

Blue Stocking, subs.—A literary lady: applied usually with the imputation of pedantry. The generally received explanation is that the term is derived from the name given to certain meetings held by ladies in the days of Dr. Johnson for conversation with distinguished literary men. One of the most eminent of these literati was a Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings, and whose conversation at these meetings was so much prized, that his absence at any time was felt to be a great loss, so that the remark became common, ‘We can do nothing without the blue stockings,’ hence these meetings were sportively called blue-stocking clubs, and the ladies who attended them blue-stockings. It is stated that the name specially arose in this way. A foreigner of rank refused to accompany a friend to one of these parties on the plea of being in his travelling costume, to which there was the reply, ‘Oh! we never mind dress on these occasions; you may come in bas bleus or blue stockings,’ with allusion to Stillingfleet’s stockings, when the foreigner, fancying that bas bleus were part of the necessary costume, called the meeting ever after the Bas-bleu Society. In modern slang the term blue-stocking is abbreviated into blue. Derivatives are blue-stockingism, blue-stockinger, etc.

b. 1738, d. 1819. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Benevolent Epistle, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 125.

I see the band of blue-stockings arise,

Historic, critic, and poetic dames!

1780. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, i., 326. Who would not be a blue-stockinger at this rate?

1784. Walpole, Letters, iv., 381. [Walpole, writing to Hannah More, playfully makes it a verb = to put on blue stockings.] When will you blue-stocking yourself, and come amongst us?

1877. Macmillan’s Mag., May, p. 50. On the airs and graces of the gushing blue stockings who were in vogue in that day … she had no mercy.

1877. Miss Martineau, Autob., vol. I., p. 100. Young ladies (at least in provincial towns) were expected to sit down in the parlour to sew,—during which reading aloud was permitted,—or to practice their music; but so as to fit to receive callers, without any signs of blue-stockingism which could be reported abroad.

Blue Stone, subs. (common).—Gin or whiskey of so bad a quality that it can only be compared to vitriol, of which bluestone is also a nickname in the north of England and Scotland. For all synonyms, see Drinks.

1880. Blackwood’s Mag., June, p. 786. The bar was still thronged, and the effects of the mixture of spirits of wine, bluestone, and tobacco-juice, were to be seen on a miserable wretch who lay stretched in the courtyard.

1882. W. G. Black, in Notes and Queries, 6 S., v., p. 348. A witness was asked in the Northern Police Court, Glasgow, a few weeks ago, a question relative to the quality of certain whiskey said to have been supplied to him. ‘It wasn’t whiskey,’ he said, ‘it was nothing but bluestone.’ ‘But what?’ inquired the magistrate. ‘Bluestone, your honour,’ was the answer—‘poison.’ I heard the question and answer, and there can be no doubt that the word was used as a familiar one.

Blue Tape, subs. (old).—One of the many cant terms for gin. For synonyms, see Drinks.

Blue Whistler, subs. (American).—A bullet. For synonyms, see Pill.

1888. New York Herald, Nov. 4. It was Mr. Barbour’s rifle shot which had hit him in the head and caused him to stagger. The pellet of lead passed deep into the brain. The second shot was from the Atlanta drummer, and his thirteen blue whistlers tore the brute’s liver into shreds and made a great hole in his side. Ibid. After a few moments of reflection, being nearest to the quarry, I lifted my double-barrelled shotgun and let drive a volley of blue whistlers straight at bruin’s yawning jaws.

Bluey, subs. (thieves’).—1. Lead.—See also Blue pigeon. [Supposed to be an allusion to the colour.]

French Synonyms. Du doussin; du noir (noir = black); du saucisson. ‘To dispose of bluey at the fence,’ i.e., the receiver of stolen goods—porter du gras-double au moulin.

2. (Australian.)—A bushman’s bundle, the outside wrapper of which is generally a blue blanket—hence the name. This is also called his swag (q.v.); likewise a drum (q.v.).

Bluey-Hunter, subs. (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead, as described under blue pigeon flyer (q.v.), of which bluey-hunter is a synonym. Cf., Billy-hunter.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 26. Bluey-hunters, or those who purloin lead from the tops of houses.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Bluey-hunters, who take lead from the tops of houses.

Bluff, subs. (vagrants’ and common).—An excuse; a pretence; that which is intended to hoodwink or ‘to blind.’ Probably a transferred usage of the American sense.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 231. [List of patterer’s words.] Bluff, an excuse.

1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, ch. xxxix. There is a strong suspicion among men whose heads are level that this Minstrel Variety Performance is a bluff of the ‘Messenger’ to keep from the public the real motives of the murder.

1884. Boston (U.S.) Journal, Sept. 25. The oiler was only a bluff.

Verb (common).—To turn aside; to stop; to hoodwink; to blind as to one’s real intention. Properly, to brag; to conceal one’s weakness; from the American game of poker.—See subs.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 327. Like its near cousin, suggestively called bluff, poker is a mere hazard game, with which, however, is combined great skill in bragging to a purpose. One man offers a bet on his hand; another doubles the bet and ‘goes one better’; then the first tries to bluff him off by a still higher bet, and thus the stake rises rapidly to often enormous sums.

1883. Echo, April 20, p. 3, col. 5. Subsequently a prominent bookmaker attempted to bluff Captain Machell by laying him 2,000 to 1,000 on Goggles against Sweetbread—a merry little bit of financial diplomacy, which was promptly followed by Goggles being struck out.

1885. Bret Harte, Ship of ’49, ch. v. ‘Far from bluffing, Sleight, I am throwing my cards on the table. Consider that I’ve passed out. Let some other man take my hand.’

It may be remarked that Ray [1674–91] gives bluff as to blindfold, and Bailey [1721] as to hoodwink. The German has blüffen; the Dutch blaffen, ‘to bark at,’ and verblüffen, ‘to put out of countenance.’

So also bluffing in a similar sense.

1889. Answers, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. The youths evidently disagreed as to the nature of my business: one, as far as I could gather, assumed that I was a ‘nark,’ and that I was bluffing (making an excuse), and ‘flamming’ (lying).

Bluffer, subs. (old).—An innkeeper.—Grose. Bailey [1721] also gives the term with the same meaning, and American thieves still retain the word in a similar sense.

2. (nautical).—A bo’sun.

Blunderbuss, subs. (old).—A stupid blundering fellow.—Grose.

Blunt, subs. (popular).—Money, especially ready money. For a long list of synonyms, see Actual. [There are several suggested derivations; (1) that it is from the French blond, sandy or golden colour, and that a parallel may be found in brown or browns, the slang for halfpence. Far-fetched as this etymology seems, say Hotten, it may be correct, as it is borne out by the analogy of similar expressions. Cf., Blanquillo, a word used in Morocco and Southern Spain for a small Moorish coin. The ‘asper’ (ἄσπρόν) of Constantinople is called by the Turks akcheh, i.e., ‘little white’; (2) that it received its name in allusion to the blunt rim of coins. A third is that it received the name from Mr. John Blunt, the chairman of South Sea Bubble.]

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

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. (Holding out his right hand for the money, and keeping the porter away with the other.) Bob. That’s your sort; give us hold on it. (Takes Mace’s empty hand.) Vy, vhere? Mace. (Keeping the porter back.) Vy, here. Bob. Oh, you are afeard of the blunt, are you? Mace. No, it ain’t that; only I’m no schollard—so I alvays takes the blunt vith von hand, and gives the pot vith t’other. It saves chalk and prewents mistakes, you know.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xxxix. ‘It’s all very well,’ said Mr. Sikes; ‘but I must have some blunt from you to-night.’ ‘I haven’t a piece of coin about me,’ replied the Jew.

1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 315. Blunt … is also a well-known slang term for money.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 147, col. 2. ‘The New Almacks.’ ‘It appears, my dear Jerry,’ said the Corinthian, ‘that anybody can enter here who chooses to “sport his blunt” ’—that is, to pay.

Blunted, ppl. adj. (old).—Possessed of money.

18(?). 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.

Blush like a Black or Blue Dog, verbal phr. (old).—Not to blush at all.

1579. Gosson, Apologie of School of Abuse, p. 75. If it bee my fortune too meete with the learned woorkes of this London Sabinus, that can not playe the part without a prompter, nor utter a wise worde without a piper, you shall see we will make him to blush like a blacke dogge, when he is graveled.

ed. 1634. Withal, Dictionary, p. 557. Faciem perfricuit. Hee blusheth like a blacke dogge, hee hath a brazen face.

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

Lord Sp. (to the Maid). Mrs. Betty, how does your body politick?

Col. Fye, my lord, you’ll make Mrs. Betty blush.

Lady Sm. Blush! Ay, blush like a blue dog.

1828. C. K. Sharpe to a lady, in C. K. S.’s Correspondence (1888), II., 421. I send you a pair of blue stockings of my own knitting. I blush like a blue dog about the workmanship, for I fear they are too short.

B.N.C., abbreviation (University).—For Brasenose; initials of Brasen Nose College. In spite of the nose over the gate, the probability is that the real name was Brasinium. It is still famous for its beer.

1885. Daily News, March 13, p. 5, col. 1. As when Corpus bumped b.n.c. years ago, and went head of the river, whereon a spirit of wrath entered into the b.n.c. men, and next night they bumped Corpus back again.

Board, verb (military).—1. To borrow.

2. (nautical.)—To accost; ask of; make a demand; i.e., to come to close quarters. The allusion is to boarding a ship for a hand-to-hand conflict; originally in a forcible or hostile sense, but now used in a modified form for to ‘make up to,’ to ‘make advances to.’ The figure of speech is a very old one, as will be seen from the following examples.

1547. Earl Surrey, Æneid, IV., 395. At length her self bordeth Aeneas thus. [M.]

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, ii., 2. [Enter Hamlet, reading.] Queen. But look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. Pol. … I’ll board him presently:—O, give me leave.

1672–1726. Vanbrugh, False Friend, I., i., 97. What do you expect from boarding a woman … already heart and soul engaged to another.

1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Board him, a colloquialism for I’ll ask, demand, or accost him.

To board in the smoke, phr. (nautical).—To take one unawares, or by surprise. In the midst of a naval fight boarding operations were often successfully carried out under cover of the smoke from a broadside.

On the board, phr. (tailors’).—Enjoying all the privileges and emoluments of a competent workman. When an apprentice becomes a regular journeyman he goes ‘on the board.’ Tailors usually work squatting on a low raised platform—hence possibly the expression.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 146. During the term of his imprisonment he became an excellent working tailor, and was on the board, as it is termed, among those who are efficient hands.

To keep one’s name on the board, phr. (Cambridge Univ.).—To remain a member of a College.

Boarding House or School, subs. (old).—A nickname given by thieves in London to Newgate, but it is equally applicable to any gaol. New York thieves apply it to the Tombs. [From that sense of Boarding School = an establishment where persons are boarded and taught, convicts being likened to scholars.] French thieves call such an institution un collège. For synonyms, see Cage.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Boarding School. Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison or house of correction.

Boardman, subs. (vagrants’).—A standing patterer; explained by quotation. Sometimes called a ‘sandwich man.’

1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 251. I have no doubt that there are always at least twenty standing patterers—sometimes they are called boardmen—at work in London. Ibid, p. 248. They endeavour to attract attention to their papers, or, more commonly, pamphlets … by means of a board with coloured pictures upon it, illustrative of the contents of what they sell.… (This) is what is usually denominated in street technology ‘board work.’

Board of Green Cloth, subs. (familiar).—A card or billiard table. [From board, a table, + green cloth, from the colour of the cloth with which the table is covered.]

1771. P. Parsons, New Newmarket, II., 24. That board of green cloth, the billiard table.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 23. ‘I am going down to F——’ ‘As usual, the board of green cloth, eh? you will go there once too often, if you don’t mind, old fellow.’ ‘That’s my look out,’ replied Cumberland.

1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. vi. Often have I seen him rise from the board of green cloth, and turning his chair thrice, from right to left, reseat himself at the play-table, confident that success would follow the mystical manœuvre.

1886. Miss Braddon, Mohawks, ch. viii. The soft seductive sound of the dice sliding gently on to the board of green cloth.

Boat, subs. (old).—Formerly applied to the hulks; latterly to any prison. [The derivation is obvious, old dismasted ships having long served as places of detention for convicts.] For synonyms, see Cage.

1856. H. Mayhew, Great World of London, p. 82, note. [List of thieves’ names of prisons.] The Hulks, or any Public Works—The Boat.

Verb (old).—1. Originally to transport; the term is now applied to penal servitude. To ‘get the boat,’ or to ‘be boated,’ is to be sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, equivalent to transportation under the old system. Cf., Boat, subs., and for synonyms, see Cop.

2. (American thieves’.)—To join as partner; evidently a corruption of ‘to be in the same boat,’ i.e., to be in the same position or circumstances.

To bail one’s own boat, phr. (American).—To be self-reliant. A variant is ‘to paddle one’s own canoe.’—See Canoe.

Bob, subs. (popular).—1. A shilling. [The derivation is obscure, but there are several suggested explanations. Murray points out that there was an old French coin called a bobe, but he thinks its survival in English slang is very unlikely. Others think it a corruption of ‘baubee’ or ‘bawbee,’ a debased Scotch coin, issued in the reign of James VI. of Scotland, equal in value to a halfpenny. A more likely origin than either of the foregoing is from bob, a grub used as bait for fish, the allusion being to money as a bribe.] The old cant had bobstick (q.v.) as a synonym, and a spurious plural is sometimes formed of bob, thus bobber—two bobber = a two-shilling piece. Cf., Blow for synonyms.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bob or bobstick, a shilling.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Tom. Now then, what’s to pay, landlord? Mace. All out, vill be fourteen bob and a kick, your honour. Tom. Well, there’s a flimsy for you; serve the change out in max to the covies. (Gives money.)

1837. Barham, I. L. (Misadventures at Margate). I changed a shilling—(which in town the people call a bob).

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 74, col. 1. Accommodation. Swell. ‘Haw—no small change about me.’ Minstrel. ‘Oh, don’t mention ’t sar. A bob will do sar, and if you’ll call at my club tomorrow, sar, the hall portar will give you sixpence back, sar. My kyard, sar, etc.!!’

2. (old.)—A shoplifter’s assistant; one who receives and carries off stolen goods. In French he is called un nonne or un noune.

3. (old.)—Gin.—See quotations in Bobstick, and Drinks for synonyms.

1749. ‘Honours of the Fleet,’ quoted in Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 286. H’ had strain’d his credit for a Dram of Bob.

4. (military.)—An infantry soldier; generally light-bob, i.e., a soldier of the light infantry. [This is probably an allusion to their being enlisted with the Queen’s shilling or bob.] For synonyms, see Mudcrusher.

1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports and Adventures in Scotland, xxxv., 282. Me, that never … listened to a light-bob.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xxiv. Mr. Stubble, as may be supposed from his size and slenderness, was of the light-bobs.

5. (Winchester College).—A large white jug containing about a gallon in measure, and used for beer.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 85. Each end and Præfect’s mess had their beer served up in a large white jug, or ‘bob.’ The vessel used for the same purpose in Commoners’ was called a ‘Joram.’

1888. T. A. Trollope, What I Remember. Only those ‘Juniors’ attended whose office it was to bring away the portions of bread and cheese and bobs of beer for consumption in the afternoon.

Adj. (old).—Lively; nice; in good spirits.

1721. Cibber, Refusal, I., sp. 109. Yesterday at Marybone, they had me all Bob as a Robin. [M.]

1864. Miss Yonge, Trial, I., 113. ‘That’s a nice girl’.… ‘Bobber than bobtail.’ [M.]

Verb (old).—To cheat; to trick; to disappoint. Also to bob out of.

1605. Tryall Chev., I., in Bullen’s O. Plays, iii., 273. I had rather dye in a ditch than be bobd of my fayre Thomasin.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bob (v.), to jog, touch, or give notice by some such like sign; also a cant word for to trick or cheat.

Intj. (familiar).—Stop! That’s enough!

1889. Modern Society, June 6. ‘Say when,’ said Bonko, taking up a flagon of whiskey and commencing to pour out the spirit into my glass. ‘Bob!’ replied I.

Dry bob, phr. (old).—Fruitless coition.

Dry bob, Wet bob, subs. (Eton College).—The first-named is one who devotes himself to cricket or football and other land sports; the latter one who goes in for rowing and aquatics generally. The origin of the term is doubtful.—See Dry bob and Wet bob.

1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, p. 42. ‘It is settled, the match to-morrow shall be between Aquatics and Dry bobs,’ said a senior boy.

1874. Saturday Review, Aug., p. 212. The friendly rivalry between England and America led some while ago to a contest between the wet bobs, to use an Eton phrase, of either country, and it was only fair that the dry bobs should show what they could do.

All is bob, phr. (old).—All’s safe; ‘serene’; ‘gay.’ For synonyms, see O.K.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. [All’s bob is defined as foregoing.]

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 12. A moment afterwards, the street was illumined by a blaze of torchlight, and a tumultuous uproar announced the arrival of the first detachment of Minters. Mr. Wood rushed instantly to meet them. ‘Hurrah!’ shouted he, waving his hat triumphantly over his head. ‘Saved!’ ‘Ay, ay, it’s all bob, my covey! You’re safe enough, that’s certain!’ responded the Minters.

Bear a bob! phr. (common).—Be brisk! look sharp!

Bob a nod, phr. (common.)—A shilling a head. [From bob, slang for shilling, + nod, the head.]

To give the bob, phr. (old).—To give the door. An old term used by Massinger—‘It can be no other but to give me the bob.’

S’help me bob, phr. (low).—A street oath, equivalent to ‘So help me God’; a corrupted form of the legal oath. ‘So help’ is pronounced swelp. There are several variants, such as s’help the cat—my greens—the taturs, etc.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Dead Drummer).

For his jaw-work would never, I’m sure, s’elp me bob,

Have come for to go for to do sich a job!

1880. Jas. Payn, Confid. Agent, ch. xix. ‘Not another word will I say, s’help me bob.’ And John rolled over in his bed like an indignant porpoise.

To shift one’s bob, phr. (common).—To go away. Cf., Bobbing around, ‘to go expeditiously from place to place.’

Bobber, subs. (common).—1. A fellow-workman; mate; or ‘chum’ (q.v. for synonyms).

1860. W. White, Round Wrekin, 34. Bobber being the equivalent of chum. [M.]

1871. Daily News, May 19. As he sells these, the buyers or their bobbers carry them off. [M.]

2. A spurious plural of bob (q.v.) = a shilling.

Bobbery, subs. (popular).—A noise; squabble; disturbance; or ‘racket.’ [An Anglo-Indian representation of Bāp re! O father! a common exclamation of surprise or grief.—Yule. Murray thinks the evidence for its origination in India is decisive, other plausible derivations to the contrary notwithstanding.] The first of the following quotations shows an earlier use by thirteen years than that given by the New English Dictionary.

1803. Kenney, Raising the Wind, II., i. If I don’t go back, and kick up such a bobbery—

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. ii. I’ll bet a wager there’ll be a bobbery in the pigsty before long, for they are ripe for mischief.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xix. ‘I can do nothing but there’s a bobbery at the bottom of it.’

1879. Punch, 17 May, 227. I might in quiet hold my own, And not go kicking up a bobbery. [M.]

Bobbish, adj. (common).—Frequently pretty bobbish, i.e., hearty; in good health and spirits; clever; spruce. Cf., Bob, adj. So also bobbishly, adv.

1819. Scott, in Lockhart, xliv. (1842), 394. I trust you will find me pretty bobbish. [M.]

1857. Dickens, The Detective Police, in Reprinted Pieces, p. 247. ‘Halloa, Butcher! is that you?’ ‘Yes, it’s me, How do you find yourself?’ ‘Bobbish,’ he says.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. iv., p. 13. Every Christmas Day, he retorted, as he now retorted, ‘It’s no more than your merits. And now are you all bobbish, and how’s sixpennorth of halfpence?’ meaning me.

1881. W. D. Howells, Dr. Breen’s Practice, ch. vii. ‘I didn’t know that I mustn’t look downcast. I didn’t suppose it would be very polite, under the circumstances, to go round looking as bobbish as I feel.’

Bobbles, subs. (common).—The testicles—a corrupted form of bawbells. For synonyms, see Cods.

Bobby, subs. (popular).—A policeman. This nickname, though possibly not derived from, was certainly popularised by the fact that the Metropolitan Police Act of 1828 was mainly the work of Mr., afterwards Sir Robert Peel. Long before that statesman remodelled the police, however, the term ‘bobby the beadle’ was in use to signify a guardian of a public square or other open space. There seems, however, a lack of evidence, and examples of its literary use prior to 1851 have not been discovered. For synonyms, see Beak, sense 1.

At the Universities the Proctors are or used to be called bobbies.

1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 16. It is often said in admiration of such a man that he could muzzle half a dozen bobbies before breakfast!

1880. Punch, No. 2038. Going round a corner and crying, Bobby! bobby! bobby! when he saw a Proctor.

1884. Punch, July 26, p. 41, col. 2.

But oh, for the grip of the ‘Bobby’s’ hand

Upon his neck that day.

1889. The Mirror, Aug. 26, p. 7, col. 2. On the back seat was perched the perfidious Amelia Ann, the lust of conquest clearly written upon her sinful and perspiring face. She had put her cat in the birdcage, its former occupant being, I presume, inside the cat.… In this order the ghastly procession moved off, to the evident amusement of a ‘bobby,’ whose beat seems to include nothing beyond the area-railings of the opposite house.

Bobby-Twister, subs. (thieves’).—A burglar or thief, who, when resisting pursuit or capture, uses violence. Of obvious derivation.—See Thieves.

Bob-Cull, subs. (thieves’).—A good fellow; a pleasant companion. [From bob (adj.) = nice, lively + cull, old cant for a man.]

Bob My Pal, subs. (rhyming slang).—A girl, i.e., ‘gal.’

Bobstick, subs. (old).—A shilling’s worth. Cf., Bob, sense 1.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 162. Bobstick of rum slim. That is, a shilling’s worth of punch.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5. Tom. Allons donc—Waiter, bring some wine. Log. Hang cards! bring me a bobstick of rum slim, or a glass of Barsac—stay, on second thoughts, I’ll have a sniker of green tea punch.

Bob Tail, subs. (old).—1. A lewd woman. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

2. An impotent man or eunuch.

Tag, rag, and bobtail; a mob of all sorts of low people; the common herd; the rabble.

1659–60. Pepys, Diary, Mar. 6. The dining-room … was full of tag, rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking. [M.]

1785. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Ode to R. A.’s, ii., wks. (1812) I., 80. Tag-rags and Bobtails of the sacred Brush. [M.]

1820. Byron, Blues, ii., 23. The rag, tag, and bobtail of those they call ‘Blues.’ [M.]

1841. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, xxxv. ‘We don’t take in no tagrag and bobtail at our house.’ [M.]

Boco, subs. (originally pugilistic, now common).—1. The nose. [Probably from beak, sense 3.] The form employed by American thieves is boke. For synonyms, see Conk.

1880. Besant and Rice, Seamy Side, ch. i. ‘A common keeper, who was in the lot, got a heavy oner on the boko for his share.’ ‘Boys,’ said Mr. Hamblin, ‘who use slang come to the gallows. Boko is—’ ‘Conk or boko,’ said Nicolas the vulgar. ‘It’s all the same.’

1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, July 6. Dear Old Blistered Boko,—I trust you will allow me to thank you and your Graphologist for my character I received this morning. My friends say it is correct. I am saving up my pocket-money for a bottle of nose bloomer. I can see your boko blushing at the prospect.

1889. Sporting Times, July 6. The Gnat, with the Cunning peculiar to the Wicked flew up the Lion’s boko and Stung him so Badly, that the Great Beast rent himself to Death with his Own Claws.

2. Nonsense; ‘bosh.’ [Of unknown derivation, and it seems to have no connection with sense 1.]

1886. Punch, 25 Sept., p. 145. Lop-sided Free Trade is all boko.

Bodier, subs. (pugilistic).—A blow on the side of the body.—See Rib-roaster.

Bodkin, subs. (sporting).—Amongst sporting men, a person who takes his turn between the sheets on alternate nights, when an hotel has twice as many visitors as it can comfortably lodge; as, for instance, during a race-week. A transferred sense from

To ride or sit bodkin, phr. (common).—To take a place and be wedged in between other persons when the accommodation is intended for two only.

1638. Ford, Fancies, IV., i. (1811), 186. Where but two lie in a bed, you must be—bodkin, bitch-baby—must ye? [M.]

1798. Loves of the Triangles, 182. While the pressed bodkin, punched and squeezed to death, Sweats in the mid-most place.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxxiv. The writer supposes Aubrey to come to town in post-chaise and pair, sitting bodkin probably between his wife and sister.

Body-Cover, subs. (American thieves’).—A coat. One is almost tempted to ask whether this is the only garment known to the criminal classes. Cf., Wrap-rascal.

Body of Divinity Bound in Black Calf, phr. (old).—A parson. So quoted in the Lexicon Balatronicum [1811]. For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.

Body-Slangs, subs. (thieves’).—Fetters. [From slang (q.v.), a chain.]—See quot. and for synonyms, Darbies.

1819. Vaux, Memoirs. Body-slangs are of two kinds. Each consists of a heavy iron ring to go round the waist, to which are attached in one case two bars or heavy chains, connected with the fetters round the ankles, in the other case a link at each side attached to a handcuff. Into these the wrists are locked, and thus held down to the prisoner’s sides. The latter are now only to be found in museums.

Body-Snatcher, subs. (old).—1. A bailiff or runner. [The snatch was the trick by which the bailiff captured the delinquent.] These terms are now obsolete, so far as the pursuits mentioned are concerned. They are mentioned by Parker [1781] in his View of Society, II., 70.

2. A policeman. For synonyms, see Beak, sense 1.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. i., p. 254. ‘Now, if you or I was to do such a dodge as that, we should have the body-snatchers (police officers) after us.’

3. (American.)—A generally objectionable individual. This variety is especially known as a mean body-snatcher (q.v.).

4. (popular.)—A violator of graves; a ‘resurrectionist.’

1833. Sir F. Head, Bubbles from the Brunnen, 126. Any one of our body-snatchers would have rubbed his rough hands. [M.]

1863. Reader, Aug. 22. At that time (1827–28) … body-snatching became a trade.

5. (common.)—An undertaker. For synonyms, see Cold cook.

Bog, subs. (prison).—1. The works at Dartmoor, on which convicts labour; during recent years a large quantity of land has been reclaimed in this way.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 158. These were the men destined for outdoor work, the bogs, as the places where the different outside gangs worked were called [at Dartmoor].

2. (low.)—An abbreviated form of bog-house (q.v.), or bog-shop.

Verb.—To ease oneself; to evacuate.—See Bury a Quaker.

Bogey.—See Bogy.

Boggle-De-Botch, Boggledy-Botch, subs. (colloquial).—A bungle; ‘mess’; ‘hash.’ [From boggle, ‘to fumble,’ ‘to bungle,’ + botch, ‘to bungle’ or ‘to construct clumsily.’] Boggle by itself is more frequently employed.

1834. Miss Edgeworth, Helen, ch. xxvi. A fine boggle-de-botch I have made of it.… I am aware it is not a canonical word,—classical, I mean; nor in nor out of any dictionary perhaps—but when people are warm, they cannot stand picking terms.

Bog-House, Bog-Shop, subs. (low).—A privy; a necessary house. The term, as will be seen, is an old one. [The derivation is probably from bog, a morass of decaying matter; a soft, spongy place.] For synonyms, see Bury a Quaker and Mrs. Jones.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. xii., p. 123 (1874). Fearing I should catch cold, they out of pity covered me warm in a bogg-house.

1703. Ward, London Spy, pt. III., p. 47. Its walls being adorn’d with as many unsavoury Finger-dabs as an Inns of Court Bog-house.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bog-house, a privy, or necessary-house.

Boglander, subs. (old).—An Irishman. [From the boggy and marshy character of a considerable portion of the Emerald Isle.] Cf., Bog-trotter.

1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. XVI., p. 383. [Boglander is the name applied to an Irishman in this work.]

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bog Lander, an Irishman. Ireland being famous for its large bogs which furnish the chief fuel in many parts of that kingdom.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. [The same definition given as in Grose.]

Bog Latin, subs. (Irish).—A spurious mode of speech simulating the Latin in construction.—See Dog Latin.

Bog-Oranges, subs. (popular).—Potatoes. The phrase is an allusion to the vegetable in question forming a very substantial food staple of the Irish peasantry, with whom, in the popular mind, potatoes are largely associated. Hence probably the nickname. Cf., Murphy. [Oranges, from the shape, + bog = Irish, Bogland being a humorous nick-name for the Emerald Isle.]

Bog-trotter, subs. (familiar).—A satirical name for an Irishman. Camden, however [c. 1605], speaking of the ‘debateable land’ on the borders of England and Scotland, says, ‘both these dales breed notable bog-trotters.’ From this the original sense would appear to have been one accustomed to walk across bogs. As a nickname for an Irishman, it dates at least from 1671.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. xxvii. (Repr. 1874), p. 232. [Irishmen are spoken of as bog-trotters in this work.]

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxix. Gaunt reapers and bog-trotters in those traditional blue body-coats, leathern smalls, and bell-crowned hats, that seem to be manufactured nowhere save in Ireland.

Bog-trotting, adj. (familiar).—A contemptuous epithet applied to one living among bogs; e.g., a bog-trotting Irishman.

1758–65. Goldsmith, On Quack Doctors (Essays and Poems, 1836), p. 127. Rock advises the world to beware of bog-trotting quacks.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 169. The impudent, bog-trotting scamp dare not threaten me!

1876. C. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 191. ‘What do you mean by calling me Irish? it is you that are Irish, you——.’ ‘Ha! ha! ha! ha!’ jerked out Fagan. ‘There, I tould you so. He can’t stand to be called by his true name; the bog-trotting rascal denies his Ould Ireland for a mother.’

Bogus, adj. (American, now common).—Spurious: fictitious; a term applied to anything sham, or to that which is not what it professes to be. Various accounts, some of them of a circumstantial character, are given as to the genesis of this word. One thing only seems certain; and that is its American origin. The generally received derivation, hitherto, has been that given by the Boston Courier (12 June, 1857) to the effect that the word is a vile corruption of the Italian name Borghese, a notorious swindler, who about the year 1837 literally flooded the Western and South-western States with fictitious cheques, notes, and bills of exchange and similar securities to an enormous amount. It is said that the name was gradually corrupted first to borges and then to bogus, and the man Borghese being associated in the popular mind with doubtful money transactions, his name so corrupted into bogus became applied to fraudulent papers and practices, and latterly to any spurious or counterfeit object, as bogus money, hair, diamonds, accusations, etc. Yet another suggestion is one put forward by Mr. Jas. Russell Lowell. He thinks it has descended in a corrupted form from the French Bagasse, the refuse of the sugar cane after the juice has been expressed. This worthless product has, it is suggested, given the name to other worthless things having travelled from Louisiana up the Mississippi, and thence throughout the Union, finally spreading itself over the English speaking world. A few, however, affect to regard it as a corruption of [hocus] pocus, and say that it refers to the German ‘Hocus Pocus Imperatus, wer nicht sieht ist blind.’

The latest light upon the history of the word is thrown, as usual, by the indefatigable Dr. Murray, who, while slily satirising the ‘bogus derivations circumstantially given,’ makes another attempt to solve the riddle. He says: ‘Dr. S. Willard, of Chicago, in a letter to the editor of this Dictionary, quotes from the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph of July 6 and Nov. 2, 1827, the word bogus as a subs., applied to an apparatus for coining false money. Mr. Eber D. Howe, who was then editor of that paper, describes in his Autobiography (1878) the discovery of such a piece of mechanism in the hands of a gang of coiners at Painesville, in May, 1827; it was a mysterious looking object, and some one in the crowd styled it a bogus, a designation adopted in the succeeding numbers of the paper. Dr. Willard considers this to have been short for tantrabogus, a word familiar to him from his childhood, and which in his father’s time was commonly applied in Vermont to any ill-looking object; he points out that tantarabobs is given in Halliwell as a Devonshire word for the devil.’ [Bogus seems thus to be related to bogy, etc.]

1825. Hughes, in J. Ludlow’s Hist. U.S., 338. This precious house of representatives—the bogus legislature as it was at once called.

1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’) Innocents at Home, ch. xvii. Nobody had ever received his bogus history as gospel before; its genuineness had always been called in question either by words or looks; but here was a man that not only swallowed it all down, but was grateful for the dose.

1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxxv. ‘They’ve got some good money, as well as bogus notes.’

1883. Saturday Review, March 31, p. 399, col. 2. M. Soleirol had probably a number of forged autographs of Molière; his whole collection was a bogus assortment of frauds.

Bogy, Bogey, subs. (common).—A landlord. An attributive usage of the more familiar meanings—(1) the devil; (2) a person much dreaded. The transition from sense 2 to that which signifies a landlord is easy. A French equivalent is Monsieur Vautour; vautour = a vulture; and the term is applied to a hard-hearted landlord. In passing, it may perhaps be mentioned (having in view the uncertainty which Murray confesses hangs round the history of this word in its primary meanings) that ask Bogy, as a reply to a question, occurs in Grose [1785]. It is true it is there associated with a vulgarism which, however, on the face of it, appears to have had little to do with the expression, except perhaps in the not over clean mind of the burly bon-vivant who compiled the dictionary in question. It seems to have been used much as the modern ‘God knows’! or ‘Bramah knows’ under similar circumstances. This, at any rate, would carry it back, in very much its present form, much earlier than 1825, Murray’s earliest trace of it. Grose says it was ‘sea wit,’ whatever that may mean.

Adj. (studios’).—Sombre, or dark in tint. Said of a painting exhibiting these characteristics.

Bohn, subs. (American College).—A translation; a pony (q.v.). The volumes of Bohn’s Classical Library are in such general use among undergraduates in American Colleges, that Bohn has come to be a common name for a translation.

1855. Songs, Biennial Jubilee, Yale College. ’Twas plenty of skin with a good deal of bohn.

Boil, verb (old).—To betray; ‘to Peach,’ which see for synonyms.

1602. Rowlands, Greene’s Coney Catchers, 16. His cloyer or follower fortwith boyles him, that is, bewrayes him. [M.]

1611. Middleton and Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks., 1873, III., 220. Wee are smoakt … wee are boyl’d, pox on her! [M.]

Boil Down, verb (popular).—To reduce in bulk by condensing or epitomizing. When a literary work is reduced to smaller compass by the presentation only of the main or salient features, it is said to be boiled down. [The expression is a figurative use (quite recent by-the-bye) of boiling down in the sense of lessening the bulk by boiling.]

1880. Sat. Review, No. 1288, 28. It is surprising to see how much research Mr. S. has sometimes contrived to boil down into a single line. [M.]

1885. G. Dolly, Dickens as I Knew Him, p. 125. The newspaper and political elements having been consulted, and their opinions having been boiled down.

1887. H. Frederic, in Scribn. Mag., I., 479. ‘To boil down’ columns of narrative into a few lines of bald, cold statement.

1888. Polytechnic Mag., 25 Oct., p. 258.

Whatever you have to say, my friend,

Whether witty, or grave, or gay—

Condense as much as ever you can,

And say in the readiest way;

And whether you write on rural affairs,

Or particular things in town,

Just a word of friendly advice—boil it down.

Boiled Shirt, Biled Shirt or Boiled Rag, subs. (American).—In the West, biled shirt is the odd name given to a shirt of white linen, and it is not difficult to see the line of reasoning from which the term derives its significance. In the active stirring life of the West little count is taken of the convenances of civilization, and only on Sundays and festive occasions would the woollen undergarment be discarded for the white linen article. Indeed, in many cases, the former would be worn until it literally dropped to pieces. Now white shirts are facetiously known as biled shirts all over the States, and only recently (May, 1888) a question in dispute between the employés of the Chicago Tramway Companies and the managers of the same was whether the former should wear, when on duty, coloured or biled shirts. Cf., Bald-faced shirt.

1854. McClure, Rocky Mountains, p. 412. In order to attend the Governor’s reception, I borrowed a boiled shirt, and plunged in with a Byron collar, and polished boots, and also the other necessary apparel.

1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, ch. xii. But they were rough in those times! … if a man wanted a fight on his hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was to appear in public in a white shirt or a stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated. For those people hated aristocrats. They had a particular and malignant animosity toward what they called a biled shirt.

1872. Dublin Univ. Mag., Feb., p. 219. Every man arrays himself in ‘store-clothes’ and boiled shirts.

1888. New York World, 13 May. Is it possible that the Chicagoans never heard of white shirts before this spring? May be the street-railway presidents never saw a starched shirt (I must deplore the use of the word biled as applied to shirts) until this year.

Boiler, subs. (Winchester College).—1. A plain coffee-pot used for heating water. Called fourpenny and sixpenny boilers, not from their price, but from the quantity of milk they will hold: τὸ παν boilers were large tin saucepan-like vessels in which water for hot bidets (q.v.) was heated.

2. See Pot boiler.

Boiler-Plated, adj. (American).—Imperturbable; stolid; stoical. [The simile is akin to that contained in expressions like iron-clad, copper-bottomed, etc., drawn mainly from marine phraseology.]

Boilers or Brompton Boilers, subs. (popular).—1. A name originally given to the new Kensington Museum and School of Art, in allusion to the peculiar form of the buildings, and the fact of their being mainly composed of, and covered with, sheet iron. This has been changed since the extensive alterations in the building, or rather pile of buildings, and the term boilers is now applied to the Bethnal Green Museum.—See Pepper-boxes.

1885. Daily News, July 9, p. 5, col. 1. The building is merely a fragment of the old ‘Brompton boilers,’ set up originally for the South Kensington Museum.

2. (Royal Military Academy.)—Boiled potatoes. Fried potatoes are called greasers.

Boiling or Biling. Whole boiling or biling, subs. phr. (common).—The whole lot; entire quantity. [A figurative usage, from a quantity boiled at one time.] Variants are the whole gridiron (q.v.) and all the shoot.

1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xviii. The last mile, he said, tho’ the shortest one of the whole bilin’, took the longest [time] to do it by a jug full.

1837. Marryat, Dog Fiend, xiii. [He] may … whip the whole boiling of us off to the Ingees.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lix., p. 496. ‘And the whole bileing of people was mixed up in the same business, and no other.’

1874. E. L. Linton, Patricia Kemball, ch. xxii. ‘He have Dora? No, not if he licked my foot for her, and I broke the whole boiling of them—as I will!’

Boil One’s Lobster, verbal phr. (old).—To enter the army after having been in the church. [From lobster, a slang term for a soldier, the allusion being to the change in colour which lobsters undergo in the process of boiling, turning from a bluish black to red.] Cf., Black coat and Red coat.

Boke, subs. (American thieves’).—The nose. [This may either be derived directly from beak, sense 3, or indirectly from boko (q.v.).] For synonyms, see Conk.

Bold as Brass, adv. phr. (popular).—Audaciously forward; presumptuous; without shame. The simile, or at least the general idea, seems to be an old one. Shakspeare (see quot.) uses the expression ‘a face of brass,’ and even to this day brass, sense 1 (q.v.), is synonymous with impudence or ‘cheek.’

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour Lost, v., 2.

Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury.

Can any face of brass hold longer out?——

1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., p. 12. He came in as bold as brass.

1854. Thackeray, Lovel the Widower, p. 195. ‘A nursery governess at the wages of a housemaid’ I continued, bold as Corinthian brass.

c. 1882. Broadside Ballad, ‘Timothy Titus.’

The name belongs to brave men, and I’m as bold as brass,

I do not wear the lion’s skin and show myself an ass;

I’m full of pluck and can defy, like Ajax, anything,

And if you put me to the test, a proof I soon can bring.

Boler, also Bowler, subs. (popular).—A stiff felt hat. For synonyms, see Cady.

1861. Sat. Review, Sept. 21, 297. We are informed that he … wore, or rather carried in his hand, a white bowler hat.

1882. Pebody, Eng. Journalism, xxi., 158. The ministers, in bowlers and pea-jackets, are to be found upon the shore of highland locks.

1889. Answers, June 8, p. 24. Most of the men were clothed in loud and greasy suits of tweed, and wore what are known as bowler hats, many of them much the worse for wear. The ladies affected fine and smart costumes, but as the greater part of their dresses had seen long months of service, the smartness was somewhat of the bedraggled order.

Bolly, subs. (Marlborough College).—Pudding.

Bolt, subs. (old).—The throat. [This curious term would seem to be derived from bolt = to gulp down.]

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Tom. Here, Dusty, my prince, now then, sluice your bolt. (Gives Bob gin.) Bob. Vell, your honours, here’s luck. (Bolts gin.) That’s a regular kwortern, I knows by my mouth.

Verb (at one period slang, now recognised).—1. To escape; to leave suddenly. Bolt is an instance of a word which once orthodox, subsequently fell into disrepute, but which, after having for generations served as a mere slang term, is now nearly as respectable as when Dryden wrote: ‘I have reflected on those who, from time to time, have shot into the world, some bolting out on the stage with vast applause, and others hissed off.’ The following are a few examples of its use. For synonyms, see Amputate.

1668. Etherege, She Would if She Could, I., i. (1704), p. 94. Is he gone? Court. Ay, ay! you may venture to bolt now.

1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. vi. Then, of a sudden, bolting into the room, he began to tell.…

1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. XI., ch. vii. In his way home, Booth was met by a lady in a chair, who immediately upon seeing him … bolted out of it.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc, 7. Log. Come along, then. Now, Jerry, chivey! Jerry. Chivey? Log. Mizzle? Jerry. Mizzle? Log. Tip your rags a gallop! Jerry. Tip my rags a gallop? Log. Walk your trotters! Jerry. Walk my trotters? Log. Bolt! Jerry. Bolt? oh, aye! I’m fly now. You mean go.

1837. Barham, I. L. (M. of Venice). Jessy ransack’d the house, popp’d her breeks on, and when so Disguis’d, bolted off with her beau—one Lorenzo.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. ix., p. 90. He was more strongly tempted … to make excursive bolts into the neighbouring alleys when he answered the door.

2. (American).—The usage in the United States indicates the right of the independently minded to revolt against partisan rule, as ‘He bolted the party nominations.’ Also substantively, as ‘He has organized a bolt.’ The word derived this meaning from its sporting application to a horse when it becomes unmanageable on the race-course. Cf., Bolter. It is rarely used with its dictionary meaning in political connections; and, when so used, is generally misunderstood by the average reader.

1871. St. Louis Democrat, 3 April. ‘Several of our contemporaries have announced it as a well-established fact, that Carl Schurz has bolted from the Republican party. We have the very best authority for denying the report.’

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 3 Feb. What the Register does object to are the fellows who bolt the ticket and support the opposition candidate when they can not control nominations.

3. (colloquial.)—To eat hurriedly without chewing; to swallow whole; to gulp down. Wolcot in a note to the first quotation hereunder appended, explains bolt as a Hampshire word. ‘A rapid deglutition of bacon, without the sober ceremony of mastication.’

1794. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Ode to Tyrants, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 527.

Bold push’d the Emp’ror on, with stride so noble,

Bolting his subjects with majestic gobble.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvi., p. 171. Dyspeptic individuals bolted their food in wedges.

1857. Dickens, Dorrit, bk. I., ch. xiii., 101. ‘Give me as short a time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it.’

1883. Daily Telegraph, Jan. 10, p. 5, col. 3. The dangerous habit of bolting a light luncheon in two or three minutes.

Getting the bolt, phr. (thieves’).—Being sentenced to penal servitude. Cf., Boat.

To turn the corner of Bolt Street, phr. (popular).—A humorous expression for running away. Cf., Bolt, sense 1, also Queer Street, and for synonyms, see Amputate.

Bolter, subs. (old).—1. Explained by quotation. The privileged places referred to were such as Whitefriars, the Mint, Higher and Lower Alsatia, etc.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bolter (s.), a cant name for one who hides himself in his own house, or some privileged place, and dares only peep, but not go out of his retreat.

2. One who ‘bolts’; especially applied to horses, but figuratively to persons in the sense of one given to throwing off restraint; in American parlance one who ‘kicks’ (q.v.).

1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk. Bk. (1872), 244. The engine may explode … or be a bolter. [M.]

1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. xiii. ‘Three of the horses had never been in harness before, and the fourth was a bolter.’

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lviii., p. 483. This sparkling sally is to the effect that, although he always knew she was the best-groomed woman in the stud, he had no idea she was a bolter. It is immensely received in turf-circles.

1881. C. J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, p. 17. It is better to ride a steady old plodder than to trust your neck to a bolter.

3. (American.)—One who exercises the right of abstention in regard to his political party. See Bolt, verb, sense 2.

1883. Atlantic Monthly, LII., 327. To whom a ‘scratcher’ or a bolter is more hateful than the Beast. [M.]

1884. American, VIII., 100. To denounce the twenty-seven as bolters from their party.

Bolt-in-Tun, phr. (London thieves’).—Bolted; run away.

1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. A term founded on the cant word ‘bolt,’ and merely a fanciful variation very common among flash persons, there being in London a famous inn so called. It is customary when a man has run away from his lodgings, broken out of jail, or made any other sudden movement, to say ‘the Bolt-in-tun is concerned,’ or ‘he’s gone to the Bolt-in-tun’ instead of simply saying, ‘he has bolted,’ etc.

Boltsprit, Boltspreet, Bowsprit, subs. (common).—An old and humorous term for the nose. [The analogy is between the spar or boom extending beyond the stem of a vessel and the nose as a prominent and projecting feature of the face.] For synonyms, see Conk.

1690. Shadwell, Amorous Bigot, Act v. As thou lovest thy ears, or nose, that bolt-sprit of thy face. [M.]

1691. Shadwell, Scowerers, Act v. They do not consider the tenderness of my bolt-sprit. [M.]

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Boltsprit (s.), a cant name for the nose.

Bolt the Moon, verbal phr.—To remove one’s goods and chattels under cover of night with a view of evading the payment of rent. A variant of shoot the moon (q.v.); the act itself is called a moonlight flitting (q.v.).

Bolus, subs. (common).—An apothecary; a doctor. [From bolus, a large pill frequently prescribed by physicians.]

1878. Hatton, Cruel London, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘The doctor, up from the Indian bar, came and said I was wanted in London’ … ‘good for old Bolus,’ said Kernan; ‘and I believe him.’

Boman, subs. (old).—A gallant fellow. This is mentioned by Nares, who, however, could find no example illustrating its use.

Bombay Ducks, subs. (old).—1. The Bombay regiments of the East India Company’s army were so called.

2. A well known delicacy, the exact nature of which is explained by G. A. Sala in the second quotation.

1865. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 14 August, 5, 4. His cuisine was, with the occasional interpolation of a not entirely objectionable curry, accompanied by Bombay ducks, exclusively old-fashioned English.

1886. G. A. Sala, in Ill. Lon. News, 7 August, 138, 2. The Bombay duck is the Anglo-Indian relation of the Digby chick. Alive, it is a fish called the bummelo; dead and dried, it becomes a duck.

Bombo, Bumbo, subs. (common).—A nickname given to various mixtures, but chiefly to cold punch. Smollett, in a note in Roderick Random, speaks of it as ‘a liquor composed of rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.’

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, ch. xxxiv. A table well stored with bumbo and wine.

1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bombo, weak cold punch.

a. 1886. Northumb. Song, in N. and Q., 6 March, 195. The pitmen and the keelman … drink bumbo made of gin.

Bona, subs. (popular).—A girl; young woman; a belle.

c. 18(?). Broadside Ballad, ‘Oh, Fred, don’t be so frivolous.’

Girls are in vulgar called donas,

Some are called Miss and some Mrs.,

The best of them all are called bonas,

The whole jolly lot’s fond of kisses.

I kiss pretty lips, and I squeeze finger tips,

No matter what I have to pay,

If I meet a dear maid who is somewhat afraid,

She’ll blush like a virgin and say, ‘Oh my.’

Chorus.

Adj. (theatrical).—Good. [From the Latin.]—See Rumbo.

Bonanza, subs. (American).—A happy hit; a stroke of fortune; success. [From the Spanish, a fair wind, fine weather, prosperous voyage.] Bonanza was originally the name of a mine in Nevada, which once, quite unexpectedly, turned out to be a big thing, and of enormous value; now applied to any lucky hit or successful enterprise.

1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 272. But a bonanza with millions in it is not struck every week.

1888. San Francisco News Letter, 4 Feb. The mines along the veins running north and south, of which North Belle Isle is the center, are all stayers, and in the east and west ledge Grand Prize has entered a body of ore which may develop into a bonanza as big as the one which paid millions in dividends in years gone by.

Bona-Roba, subs. (old).—A courtesan; a showy prostitute. [From Italian buona, good, + roba = a robe or dress.] The term was much in use among the older dramatists. Ben Jonson speaks of a bouncing bona-roba; and Cowley seems to have considered it as implying a fine, tall figure. Bona in modern times is frequently employed to signify a girl or young woman, without reference to morals.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., iii., 2. We knew where the bona-robas were; and had the best of them all at commandment.

b. 1618, d. 1667. Cowley, Essay on Greatness (quoted by Nares). I would neither wish that my mistress nor my fortune should be a bona-roba;—but as Lucretius says, Parvula, pumilio, tota merum sal.

1822. Scott, Nigel, xvi. Your lordship is for a frolic into Alsatia? … there are bona-robas to be found there. [M.]

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 69. The other bona-roba, known amongst her companions as Mistress Poll Maggot, was a beauty on a much larger scale—in fact, a perfect Amazon.

Bonce, subs. (popular).—1. The head; [probably a derivative of sense 2, from the analogy between them.] For synonyms, see Crumpet.

2. A large marble [origin unknown, but see Alley].

Bone, subs. (American).—When a traveller, in passing his luggage through the Custom House, tips the officer in the expectation that the latter’s examination of his impedimenta will be more or less superficial, the fee thus given is termed a bone. The practice, is, of course, contrary to all regulations; but, human nature being human nature all the world over, it is believed that similar expedients for evading the law are not altogether unknown in England.

Adj. (thieves’).—Good; excellent; ◇ is the vagabonds’ hieroglyphic for bone, or good, chalked by them on houses and street corners as a hint to succeeding beggars. [Probably from French bon, good. Cf., Boon.]

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. He [beggar] mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. I give one or two instances. ◇ ‘Bone,’ meaning good.

1883. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. L. News, Nov. 10, p. 451, col. 3. It is well known that the lozenge-shaped diagram chalked by beggars and tramps on doors and walls in ‘promising’ neighbourhoods stands for ‘bone,’ a corruption of the French ‘bon,’ as a hint to succeeding vagabonds that they will find the happiest of hunting-grounds in the locality.

Verb (popular).—1. To filch; to steal; to make off with; to take into custody. [There are two suggested derivations:—(1) that the figure of speech is drawn from the manner in which a dog makes off with a bone; (2) that bone is a corruption of ‘bonnet’ (a gambling cheat who ‘sharks’ one’s money slyly).] For synonyms in sense of to steal, see Prig; in sense of to apprehend, see Nab.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bone (v.), a cant word to seize or arrest; also to cheat or strip a person of his money or goods.

1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs, II., 157. Tell us how you was boned, signifies tell us the story of your apprehension, a common request among fellow-prisoners in a jail, which is readily complied with as a rule; and the various circumstances therein related afford present amusement, and also useful hints for regulating their future operations, so as to avoid the like misfortune.

1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, ch. lvii., p. 467. ‘And why you were living so quiet here, and what you had boned, and who you had boned it from, wasn’t it?’

1861. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. II., ch. ii. ‘I’m blest if he hasn’t been and boned my mug. I hope it’ll do him more good than it’s done me.’

1871. Chambers’ Journal, Dec. 9, A Double Event, p. 774. It would be a breach of confidence to tell you how it was arranged, but, after some haggling, it was arranged that, on the understanding that I gave up the securities, I was to bone the reward which the detectives had missed.

2. (American.)—To bribe; to ‘grease the palm.’—See Bone, subs.

3.(American cadets’.)—To study hard. [From bohn (q.v.).]

To have a bone in the leg—arm—throat, etc., phr. (common).—A humorous reason for declining to use the member spoken of; a feigned obstacle.

1542. Nicholas Udall, Erasmus’s Apophthegmes (1877, Reprint of ed. 1562). p. 375. He refused to speake, allegeing that he had a bone in his throte, and he could not speake.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. iii.). Nev. Miss, come, be kind for once, and order me a dish of coffee. Miss. Pray go yourself; let us wear out the oldest first; besides, I can’t go, for I have a bone in my leg.

Bone-Ache, subs. (old).—The lues venerea. [The allusion is obvious.]

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse. But cucullus non facit monachum—’tis not their newe bonnets will keepe them from the old boan-ack.

1606. Shakspeare, Tro. and C., ii., 3. After this the vengeance on the whole camp! or rather the bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse dependent on those that war for a placket.

Bone-Box, subs. (common).—The mouth. [The teeth are here represented as the ‘bones.’ The latter are now more commonly called ‘ivories.’] For synonyms, see Potato-trap, and compare with Bone-house.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Shut your bone-box; shut your mouth.

Bone-Crusher, subs. (sporting).—A heavy bore rifle used for killing big game. [Literally that which crushes or breaks bones by force. Cf., Bone-shaker.]

1872. H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone (2 ed.), p. 63. African game require bone-crushers; for any ordinary carbine possesses sufficient penetrative qualities, yet has not the disabling qualities which a gun must possess to be useful in the hands of an African explorer. Ibid, p. 342. What is wanted for this country is a heavy bore—No. 10 or 12 is the real bone-crusher, that will drop every animal shot.

Boned.—See Bone, verb, sense 1.

Bone-Grubber, subs. (common).—One who lives by collecting bones from heaps of refuse, selling his spoils at the marine stores or to bone grinders. [From bone + grub, to seek by burrowing, + er.] Also called bone-picker (q.v.), and tot-pickers (q.v.). See first quotation and cf. bone-picker form. The French term is un biffin, which also signifies a foot-soldier, his knapsack being compared to a rag or bone-picker’s basket; also un chifferton or un chiffortin; un cupidon (an ironical allusion to his hook and basket); un graffin. For other synonyms, see Tot-picker.