Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

=bastard,= a sweet Spanish wine resembling muscatel. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 30; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1. 12.

=bastardeigne,= for =bastard eigné,= firstborn bastard. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iv (Widow). _Eigné_ is a late spelling of _ayné_, _ainé_; from F. _aîné_, OF. _ainsné_; _ains_, before, + _né_, born (Hatzfeld).

=bastone,= a ‘baton’, cudgel. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.). ME. _baston_, a cudgel (Cursor M. 15827). OF. _baston_ (F. _bâton_). See =batoon.=

=batable,= debatable. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § 2. ‘_Batable ground_ seemeth to be the ground in question heretofore whether it belonged to England or Scotland, 23 Hen. VIII, c. 16, as if we should say debatable ground,’ Cowell, Interp. (ed. 1637).

=bate= (short for =abate=), to reduce, diminish, decrease, deduct. Merch. Ven. iii. 3. 32; iv. 1. 72; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 2; Hamlet, v. 2. 23; to blunt, Love’s L. L. i. 1. 6. Phr. _to bate an Ace_, to abate a tittle, to make the slightest abatement, Heywood, Witches of Lancashire iv (Robin); vol. iv, p. 223, l. 2; _Bate me an ace, quod Bolton_, an expression of incredulity, R. Edwards, Damon and P. in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 77 (NED. s.v. Bate, vb.^{2} 6 d).

=bate,= to beat the wings impatiently and flutter away from the fist or perch. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 199; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 99 (old edd. _bayted_). F. _se battre_.

=bate,= bit, a northern form of the pret. of _bite_. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 7. See EDD. (s.v. Bate vb.^{4}).

=batful,= fattening, full of sustenance. Drayton, Pol. iii. 349; vii. 93; &c. See =batten.=

=batoon, battoon,= a stick, cudgel. Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 1 (Rogers); _battoon_, Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, v. 1 (Egremont). See =bastone.=

=battaile,= a body of troops in battle array. Bacon, Essay 58, § 9; _battayle_, Psalm lxxvi. 3 (Bible 1539); _the main battle_, main body of an armed force, Richard III, v. 3. 301. Prov. _batalha_ ‘troupe rangée’ (Levy).

=batten,= to feed gluttonously, Hamlet, iii. 4. 67; to fatten, ‘Battening our flocks’, Milton, Lycidas, 29; to grow fat, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Moon-calf). See Dict.

=battle,= (at Oxford) to have a kitchen and buttery account, to obtain provisions in college. ‘I eat my commons with a good stomach and battled with discretion’, Puritan Widow, i. 2. 42; ‘To battle, as scholars do in Oxford, _Estre debteur au College pour ses vivres_’, Sherwood, Dict. 1672.

=battle, battill,= to grow fat. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 38; _battling_, fattening, nourishing to cattle, Greene, Friar Bacon, scene 9. 4; nutritious to man, Golding, tr. of Ovid Met. xv. 359. See =batten.=

=battle.= See =battaille.=

=battled,= ‘embattled’, furnished with battlements. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Maria).

=battree,= a battle, encounter. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, 16; Pompey, 1. Variant of _battery_.

=baudkin,= a rich embroidered stuff, a rich brocade. Holland, Camden’s Brit. i. 174; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 777. Hence, _cloth of bodkin_, Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iii. 2 (Frederick); B. Jonson, Discoveries, lxviii; Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1. OF. _baudequin_, med. L. _baldakinus_ (Ducange), cp. Ital. _baldacchino_, lit. belonging to _Baldacco_, the Italian name for Bagdad.

=baudricke,= ‘a baldric’, belt, girdle. Spenser calls the zodiac the _baudricke_ (or _bauldricke_) of the heavens, F. Q. v. 1. 11; Prothalamion, 174. ME. _bawdryk_ (Prompt.), MHG. _balderich_, a girdle (Schade). See Dict. (s.v. Baldric).

†=bause= (?). Only in this passage: ‘My spaniel slept, whilst I _baus’d_ leaves’, Marston, What you Will, ii. 2 (Lam.).

=bauson, bawson,= a badger. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 71; _bauzon’s_ skin; Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, st. 10. _Bauson_ is a common north-country word for a badger, see EDD. Cp. OF. _bausen_, _bauzan_, black and white spotted, Ital. _balzano_, a horse with white feet (Florio). See NED. The French word for a badger is _blaireau_.

=baux= (a plural form), the name of a breed of swift hounds used in the chase; ‘Those dogges called Baux of Barbarie, of the whiche Phoebus doeth speake’, Turbervile, Hunting, ch. i. p. 3; ‘White dogges called Baux, and surnamed Greffiers’, id. ch. ii, p. 4; ‘_Greffiers_, a kind of white hounds, the same as Bauds’, Cotgrave; ‘_Souillard_, the name of a dog, between which and a bitch called _Baude_, the race of the _Bauds_ (white and excellent hounds) was begun’ (id.). Comb. _Baux-hound_, Holme’s Academy of Armory, p. 184. F. _baud_, ‘chien courant, originaire de Barbarie’ (Hatzfeld). Probably of Germanic origin, cp. OHG. _bald_, bold (Schade).

=bavian,= a baboon, an occasional character in the old Morris dance. He appears in Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. See Nares. Du. _baviaan_.

=bawcock,= a fine fellow, Hen. V, iii. 2. 27; Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 125. A Lincolnshire word for a foolish person (EDD.). Hence probably the surname ‘Bawcock’, see Bardsley, 475. F. _beau coq_, a fine cock.

=bawn,= a fortified enclosure, outwork of a castle. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed. p. 642, col. 2. Irish _baḋḃḋún_, an enclosure (Dinneen).

=bawson,= see =bauson.=

=bay,= see =beck and bay, at.=

=bayard,= the name of the horse given to Renaud, one of the Four Sons of Aymon (name of a romance), hence, a common name for a horse; ‘Bolde bayarde, ye are to blynde’, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 123, l. 101; _a Bayard’s bun_, horse bread, id. i. 15, l. 8. _Bayard_, lit. of a bay colour, O. Prov. _baiart_, ‘bai; cheval bai’ (Levy).

=bayes,= ‘baize’. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. v, p. 31. A plural form of _bay_, bay coloured, reddish-brown. See Dict. (s.v. Baize).

=beace,= beasts; pl. of _beast_. Golding, Metam. xv. 13. This is the usual pron. of _beast_ (and _beasts_) in the north of England. For various spellings—_beas_, _beece_, _beess_, &c., see EDD. (s.v. Beast).

=beached,= apparently for _beeked_, i.e. seasoned (as wood) by exposure to heat. ‘A coodgell [cudgel] _beached_ or pilled [peeled] lawfully’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 39; p. 106. Cp. ME. _beke_: ‘to beke wandes’ (Cath. Angl.), see NED. (s.v. Beek vb.^{1} 1 b). See =beak.=

=bead,= a prayer, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 872. This is the orig. sense of mod. E. _bead_; a perforated ball was so called because it was used for counting prayers. ME. _bede_ ‘oracio’ (Prompt.). OE. (_ge_)_bed_ prayer.

=bead-roll,= a list, catalogue. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 32;
_bed-roll_, Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 1 (Sir Charles).
Properly, a list of persons to be specially prayed for.

=beadsman,= one who prays for another, Two Gent. i. 1. 18. ME.
_bedeman_, ‘orator, supplicator’ (Prompt.). OE. (_ge_)_bedmann_
(John iv. 23).

=bead-hook,= a kind of boat-hook. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad xv. 356, 624; Caesar and Pompey, v. 1 (Septimius). Spelt _beede-hook_, Raleigh, Hist. World (NED.).

=beak, beyk,= to expose to the warmth of the fire; to season by heat. ‘Beak ourselves’, Grimald, Metrodorus, 3; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 109. _Beyked_, seasoned, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 24. 3. See EDD. (s.v. Beek vb. 1 and 2). See =beached.=

=beam,= the main trunk of a stag’s horn which bears the antlers, Turbervile, Hunting, 53.

=beam,= see =beme.=

=beamy,= beam-like, massive. Dryden, Palamon, iii. 480; tr. of Aeneid, xii. 641. Cp. 1 Sam. xvii. 7 (massive as a weaver’s beam—the spear of Goliath).

=bear= (the animal). Are you there with your _bears_? are you at it again? ‘Explained by Joe Miller as the exclamation of a man who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha and the bears, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the same preacher and the same discourse’ (NED.). Some think it refers to the bears in a bear-garden; but they do not say why, nor how. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 3 (Silena); Howell, Foreign Travell, p. 20.

=bear-brich,= bear-breech, bear’s-breech; a popular name of the
acanthus; see NED. (s.v. Brank-ursine). Golding, Metam. xiii.
701 (L. acantho); fol. 162 (1603).

=bear-herd,= the keeper of a bear, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 191.

=bear-ward,= B. Jonson, Masque of Angus (Slug). Fletcher,
Beggar’s Bush, iv. 4 (Prigg).

=bear a brain,= to use one’s brains, to be cautious; also, to remember. Romeo, i. 3. 29; Grim the Collier, v. 1. 1; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 457. Cp. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1422.

=bear in hand,= to lead one to believe, to keep in expectation, to amuse with false _pretences_, Meas. for M., i. 4. 51. Hamlet, ii. 2. 67; B. Jonson, Volpone i. 1; ‘_I beare in hande_, I threp upon a man that he hath done a dede, or make hym byleve so’, Palsgrave. See EDD. (s.v. Barenhond). ME. ‘I bar him on honde he hadde enchanted me’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 575).

=bearing.= ‘A standing [upright] bearyng bowe,’ Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 79. _A bearing arrow_ seems to have meant an arrow true in its flight (Nares), though it merely meant stout, or strong; probably _a bearing bow_ was a strong and trusty one, one to be relied upon to shoot straight and well. So also _bearing_ dishes, i.e. solid, substantial dishes or viands; Massinger, New Way to pay, v. 1 (Greedy).

=bearing-cloth,= the cloth in which a child was carried to the font. Winter’s Tale, iii. 3. 119; Beaumont and Fl., Chances, iii. 3 (Landlady).

=beast,= an obsolete game at cards, resembling the modern ‘Nap’. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 1007. See NED. (s.v. Beast, 8).

=beaten,= orig. hammered; hence, overlaid or inlaid; embroidered. ‘Beaten damask’, Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 1 (Firk).

=beath,= to dry green wood by placing it near the fire, to season wood by heat. Tusser, Husbandry, § 23. 9; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 7. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. _bethen_ (Treatyse of Fysshynge). OE. _beðian_, to foment, to warm.

=beauperes,= fair companions. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 35. OF. _beau_ + _per_. F. _pair_, an equal, a peer.

=beaver;= see =bever.=

=becco,= a cuckold. Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole); Massinger, Bondman, ii. 3 (Gracculo). Ital. _becco_, a he-goat, a cuckold (Florio).

=beck and bay, at,= at some one’s command. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 381. The meaning of the word _bay_ in this phrase is uncertain; it is prob. connected with ME. _beien_, to bend; OE. (Anglian), _bēgan_; cp. the phr. _buken and beien_, Juliana, 27. See EDD. (s.v. Bay, vb.^{3}), and NED. (s.v. Bow, vb.^{1} 6, quot. A.D. 1240).

=become;= ‘I know not where my sonne _is become_’, i.e. what has become of him, Gascoigne, Supposes, v. 5 (Philogano); ed. Hazlitt, i. 251. Once very common.

=bed,= to pray. Spenser, F. Q., vi. 5. 35. Cp. ME. _bede_, a prayer. See =bead.=

=bed,= to command, to bid; ‘Until his Captaine _bed_’, until his captain may command, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 41. 3 pr. sing. subj. of ME. _beden_; OE. _bēodan_, to command.

=bedare,= to dare, defy. Peele, David (Salomon); ed. Dyce, p. 484. From _dare_; see NED. (s.v. _Be-_, prefix, p. 720).

=bed-fere,= bed-fellow. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, iii. 542: spelt _bedphere_, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, ii. 5.

=bedlam,= a lunatic; one who had been in Bethlehem hospital; the half-cured patients were licensed to beg for alms for their support. Barnes, Works (1572) p. 294, col. 2; Gammer Gurton’s Needle has, for one of its characters, Diccon _the Bedlam_; Bunyan, Pilgr. i. 123 (NED.); ‘A bedlam, _maniacus_, _insanus_, _furiosus’_, Coles, Lat. Dict. See EDD. (sb.^{1} 4).

=bedrench,= to soak, swamp. Richard II, iii. 3. 46; _bedrent_, pt. s. Sackville, Induction, st. 21.

=bed-staff,= ‘a staff or stick used in some way about a bed’ (NED.). The precise sense is uncertain. Often used as a weapon; B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 4 (Bobadil). ‘With throwing _bed-staves_ at her’, Staple of News, v. 1 (Lickfinger).

=bee,= an armlet, ring. ‘A riche _bee_ of gold’, Morte Arthur, leaf 135 (end); bk. vii, c. 35. The word is still in use in Ireland for a ferule (EDD.). ME. _bee_, an armlet (Paston Letters, iii. 464). OE. _bēah_.

=beech-coal,= charcoal made from beech wood. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face).

=beeld,= to ‘build’. Mirror for Magistrates, Emp. Severus, st. 21. _Beeld_ is the pron. of _build_ in many parts of England and Scotland, see EDD., The Grammar; Index (s.v. Build).

=beer,= a pillow. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. iv. 414. See NED. (s.v. Bear, sb.^{4}). See =pillowbeer.=

=before me,= a form of asseveration. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 194; Oth. iv. 1. 149. Cp. _before heaven_, Meas. ii. 1. 69; _before God_, Much Ado, ii. 3. 192.

=beg for a fool,= to ask for the guardianship of an idiot. The custody of an idiot or witless person could be granted by the king to a subject who had sufficient interest to obtain it. If the ‘fool’ was wealthy, it was a profitable business. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2 (Fustigo).

=begin,= s., a beginning. ‘Of fowr begynns’ (i.e. the four elements), Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 38; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. ‘The hard beginne’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 21.

=beglerbeg,= the governor of an Ottoman province. Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4 (Carazie). Turk. _begler-beg_, bey of beys.

=beglarde,= for _beglaired_, smoothed over, as with a cosmetic. Mirror for Magistrates; Guidericus, st. 43. From _glair_, q.v.

=behave,= to manage, govern, control. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 40; Timon, iii. 5. 22. OE. _behabban_, to restrain.

=behight= (in Spenser). Forms: _behight_, pres., pt. t., and pp.; _behot_ (_behote_) pp. Meanings: (1) to promise, Pt. t.: F. Q. iv. 11. 6; Pp.: F. Q. ii. 3. 1; F. Q. i. 11. 38 (behot); (2) to name, call, pronounce, F. Q. i. 10. 64; Pp.: Shep. Kal., April, 120; (3) to order, command, F. Q. vi. 2. 30; Pt. t.: F. Q. ii. 11. 17; (4) to entrust, commit, Pt. t.: F. Q. v. 9. 3; Pp.: F. Q. i. 10. 50; (5) to account, consider, Pp.: F. Q. iv. 1. 44; (6) to adjudge, Pp.: F. Q. iv. 5. 7. The normal ME. forms are: _Behote_ (infin.), _behight_ (pt. t.), _behote_(_n_ (pp.).

=behight,= a promise. Surrey, tr. of Psalm lxxiii, l. 60.

=beholding,= indebted, under obligation. Merry Wives, i. 1. 283; Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Pinac). In common prov. use in many parts of England (Midlands, E. Anglia, Somerset). See EDD.

=beholdingness,= obligation, indebtedness. Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (last speech).

=bel-accoyle,= fair welcome. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 25. OF. _bel acoil_, fair welcome. See =accoyl.=

=belamour,= a lover. Spenser, F. Q. 6. 16; iii. 10. 22. F. _bel amour_.

=belamy,= fair friend. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 52. ME. _bel amy_ (Chaucer, C. T. C. 318). OF. _bel ami_.

=belay,= to beset, encompass. Spenser, Sonnet, 14; _belayd_, pp. set about with ornament; F. Q. vi. 2. 5.

=belee,= to place on the lee, in a position in which the wind has little influence; ‘Beleed and calmed’, Othello, i. 1. 30.

=beleek,= belike, probably. Peele, Arr. of Paris, iii. 1 (Mercury); id. Tale of Troy; ed. Dyce, p. 555. See =belike.=

=belgards,= amorous glances. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25; iii. 10. 52. Ital. _bel guardo_, fair or kindly look.

=belike,= perhaps, no doubt (used ironically). Milton, P. L. ii. 156; Two Gent. ii. 1. 85. In common prov. use (EDD.).

=belive,= quickly. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 227; B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1. Still in use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. _bi life_, lit. with life or liveliness. See =bilive.=

=bell, to bear the,= to take the first place, be the first, be pre-eminent. ‘Win the spurres, and beare the bell’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Aristippus, § 1. From the precedence of the bell-wether; see NED.

=bellibone,= a fair lass. ‘Such a bellibone’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 92. From F. _belle et bonne_, fair and good girl. See =bonnibell.=

=bells,= pl.: in phr. _to take one’s bells_, used _fig._, to be ready to fly away. Ford, Sun’s Darling, iii. 1 (Humour). A hawk had light bells fastened to her legs before she flew off, that her flight might be traced.

=belly-cheat,= an apron. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); ‘A belly-chete, an apern’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83. See =backcheat.=

=belly-cheer,= feasting, gluttony. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 114; also, meat, viands; ‘_Carrelure de ventre_, meat, belly-timber, belly-cheere’, Cotgrave.

=belsire,= grandfather. Drayton, Pol. viii. 73; _beel sire_, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 321. 6; _bele-fader_, id. lf. 344, back, 27; ‘_Belsyre_, grant pere’, Palsgrave. ME. _belsyr_, or belfadyr, ‘Avus’ (Prompt.).

=beme,= a trumpet. _Beames_ (spelt _beaumous_) pl., Morte Arthur, leaf 423, back, 1; bk. xxi. ch. 4. ME. _beme_ (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1240). OE. (Mercian) _bēme_.

=bemoiled,= covered with dirt. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 77. In prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).

=bemol,= B flat, in the musical scale. In the old sets of hexachords, which began with C, G, or F; it was found necessary, in the hexachord beginning with F, to flatten the note B. The new note, thus introduced into the old scale, was called _B-mol_ or _Be-mol_, i.e. B soft; from OF. _mol_, soft; L. _mollis_. Its symbol was _b_, later ♭, which afterwards became a general symbol for a flattened note. ‘La, sol, re, Softly bemole’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 533. Also, a half-note; ‘_Two beemolls_, or halfe-notes’, Bacon, Sylva, § 104.

=ben,= a cant term for good; _ben cove_, a good fellow. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Tearcat).

=ben bouse,= a slang term for good drink. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor).

=bend= (in heraldry), an oblique stripe on a shield. Morte Arthur, leaf 216. 27; bk. x. c. 12; ‘Our bright silver bend’, Drayton, Heroical Epistles, Surrey to Lady Geraldine, 95. The _bend_ is usually the _bend dexter_, from the dexter chief to the sinister base; the _bend sinister_ slopes the other way.

=bend,= a band or company. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 32. F. _bende_ (Cotgr.). See NED.

=bend,= a piece of very thick leather, a piece of sole-leather. ‘A bend of leather’, Heywood, First Part of K. Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. i. p. 40. Also, _bend-leather_ (NED.). The words _bend_, _bend-leather_, _bend of leather_, _leather bend_ are in use in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Bend sb.^{1}).

=bend,= to cock a musket, pistol, or other fire-arms. A transferred use, from bending a bow. ‘Like an engyn bent’, Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 3. 53 [‘With hackbut bent’, Scott, Cadyow Castle, 137]; to direct any weapon (spear, dart, &c.), ‘to bend that mortal dart’, Milton, P. L. ii. 729; ‘so bent his spear’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 34; (figuratively), King Lear, ii. 1. 48.

=bene-bouse, benbouse,= good drink. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman).

=bene whids,= good words; _to cut bene whids_, to speak good words. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen).

=benedicite:= phr. _under ‘benedicite’ I speak it_, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 186). The expression is used by Stubbes, when making a serious charge against the magistrates, as an invocation for deliverance from evil. L. _benedicite_, bless ye.

=benempt,= _pp._ named. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 214. OE. _benemned_, pp. of _benemnan_, to name (Matt. ix. 9, Lind.).

=benjamin,= corruption of _benjoin_, earlier form of benzoin. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer); Herrick, Hesp. (ed. 1869, p. 139).

=benome, benoom,= to deprive. Spelt _benome_, Mirror for Mag., Somerset, st. 9; _benoom_, id. Buckingham, st. 15. _Benome_ due to pret. forms of OE. _beniman_ (_nōm_, sing.; _nōmon_, pl.).

=bent,= a grassy slope. Dryden, Palamon, ii. 544 (from Chaucer, C. T. A. 1981); Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, XX. 9. Still in use in this sense in Scotland and north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Bent, II. 3).

=benting times,= scarce times, times when pigeons have no food but _bent-grass_. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1283.

=bepounced,= ornamented. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 454. See =pounce.=

=beray,= to defile, befoul; ‘Berayde with blots’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 241 (p. 56); Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Firestone); ‘It’s an ill bird that berays its own nest’, Ray’s Proverbs (A.D. 1678); Palsgrave; Sherwood.

=berew,= in a row; ‘Mock them all berew’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 246. See =rewe.=

=bergomask,= a rustic dance. Mids. Night’s D. v. 360. Ital. _bergamasca_, ‘sorta di ballo composto tutto di salti e capriole’ (Fanfani); _Bergamasco_, belonging to _Bergamo_, a province in the state of Venice. The inhabitants were ridiculed as being clownish in manners.

=berlina,= a pillory. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 8 (1 Avoc.). Ital. _berlina_, ‘a pillorie’ (Florio). Med. Lat. _berlina_ (Ducange).

=Bermoothes,= the Bermudas. Temp. i. 2. 229. See =Burmoothes.=

=berne,= a herb; ‘The iuyce of Berne or wylde Cresseys’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 8; p. 21. F. _berle_, Med. L. _berula_, the water-pimpernel, see Gerarde, p. 621. See Prompt. EETS. (s.v. Bellerne, note no. 176).

†=berry,= an error for _bevy_, i.e. a number; ‘A _berry_ of fair roses’, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 322. Cp. ‘A Beuy of Roos’, Book of St. Albans, fol. f 6.

=beryels,= a tomb. Morte Arthur, leaf 141, back, 7; bk. viii. c. 6 (end); spelt _buryels_, id. leaf 233, back, 23; bk. x. c. 32. OE. _byrgels_. See Dict. (s.v. Burial).

=besant, besaunte,= a gold coin of Byzantium. Morte Arthur, leaf 78. 15; bk. iv. c. 26. It varied in value from half a sovereign to a sovereign. See Dict.

=bescumber,= to befoul. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 34; B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. (Tibullus); Staple of News, v. 2; Comical History of Francion (Nares); spelt _bescummer_, Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. The word _bescummer_, to besmear with dirt, _fig._ to abuse, calumniate, is in obsolescent use in Somerset and Devon (EDD.). See =scumber.=

=beseen:= in phr. _well beseen_; spelt _well bisene_, Morte Arthur, leaf 22, back, 32; bk. i. c. 8; _well beseene_, well furnished, Spenser, Tears of the Muses, 180; ‘I am besene, I am well or yvell apareyled’, Palsgrave.

=besgue,= stammering. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 271. 5. OF. _besgue_ (F. _bègue_).

=besides himself,= all by himself, alone. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 1 (Violetta).

=besit,= to suit, befit. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; _besitting_, befitting, id. iv. 2. 19; ‘It well besits’, Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, 227. Cp. use of F. _seoir_, to sit, also, to fit, suit, sit properly on (Hatzfeld).

=beslurry,= to sully all over; ‘All beslurried’, Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 32. Prov. E. _slurry_, to soil, bedaub (EDD).

=beso las manos,= a kissing of hands; lit. ‘I kiss your hands’, a common Spanish salutation to a lady. Massinger, Duke of Florence, iii. 1 (Calandrino).

=besogno,= a needy fellow (a term of contempt). B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 2 (Asotus). See =bisogno.=

=bespawl,= to bespatter with saliva. B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); ‘Foam bespawled beard’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 440. OE. _spāld_ (_spādl_, _spāðl_, _spātl_), saliva.

=besprint,= besprinkled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 111. Also _besprent_, _bespreint_. OE. _besprenged_, pp. of _besprengan_, to sprinkle.

=bestead,= pp. _ill bestedded_, ill helped, in a bad plight. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 1. 3; _ill bestad_, id. ii. 1. 52; _strangely bestad_, strangely beset or placed, id. iii. 10. 54; _bestad_, treated, id. vi. 6. 18; circumstanced, Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 23. See Dict.

=bestraught,= distracted. Tam. Shrew, Induction, ii. 26. L. _distractus_ gave _distract_ and _distraught_ on the analogy of ME. _straught_, pp. of _strecchen_, to stretch (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 599); hence the forms _bestraught_, _astraught_. See NED. (s.v. Bestraught).

=betake,= to commit, consign, deliver, hand over. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 25; vi. 11. 51; pt. t. _betook_, id. iii. 6. 28; pp. _betake_, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 62; fol. B ij. ME. _bitaken_; ‘Ich bitake min soule God’ = I commit my soul to God (Rob. Glouc. 475).

=be-tall,= to pay; ‘What is to _be-tall_, what there is to pay; the amount of the reckoning’, Heywood, Fair Maid of the West, ii. 1 (Clem); with a quibble on _to be tall_. Du. _betalen_, to pay (Hexham).

=beteem,= to grant, bestow, concede, indulge with. Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 131; Hamlet, i. 2. 141; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 19. A Gloucestershire word (EDD.). Cp. ME. _temen_, to offer or dedicate (to God), Cursor M. 6170; see NED. (s.v. Teem, vb.^{1} 7).

=betight,= _pp._ for _betid_ or _betided_; happened. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 174.

=betso,= a small Venetian coin; worth about a farthing. Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Bravo). Ital. _bezzo_, a small brass coin in Venice (Florio).

=bett,= better. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 15. OE. _bet_, adv. better.

=beurn,= for _berne_, a warrior. Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 54; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. ME. _burne_, a man (P. Plowman, C. xvi. 163). OE. _beorn_, a brave man.

=bever,= the lower part of the moveable front of a helmet. Bacon, Essay 35, § 1; Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 31; _beaver_, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 120; Hen. V. iv. 2. 44. F. ‘_Bavière d’un armet_, the beaver of a helmet’ (Cotgr.).

=bever,= a short intermediate repast. A supper, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii, l. 10 from end. _Bever_ is in prov. use in many parts of England in the sense of a slight refreshment taken between meals, either at 11 a.m. or 4 p.m. (EDD.). Norm. F. _bever_, ‘boire’ (Moisy); cp. Mod. Prov. _grand-béure_, ‘petit repas que les moissonneurs font vers 10 heures du matin’ (Glossaire, _Mirèio_).

=bever,= to tremble. Morte Arthur, leaf 28, back, 4; bk. i, c. 15. _Bever_ (_biver_), to tremble, is in common prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.).

=bewaile,= to lament over; ‘An hidden rock . . . That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 31. The meaning seems to be: the rock lay in wait so that she would have to bewail her wreck.

=beware,= to spend, bestow money. _Wel bywaryd_, well bestowed. Morte Arthur, leaf 123, back, 18; bk. vii, c. 21. Cp. prov. word _ware_, to spend, to lay out money (EDD.). ME. _waryn_, ‘mercor’ (Prompt.).

=bewared,= made to beware, put on one’s guard. Dryden, Cock and Fox, 799.

=bewet, buet,= a ring or slip of leather for attaching a bell to a hawk’s leg. ‘The letheris that be putt in his bellis, to be fastyned a-boute his leggys, ye shall calle _Bewettis_’, Boke of St. Albans, fol. B 6; ‘That, hauing hood, lines, _buets_, bels of mee,’ Turbervile, To a fickle Dame, 2. Dimin. of OF. _buie_, _bue_, _boie_, a bond, chain, fetter. L. _boia_, sing. of _boiae_, a collar.

=bezoar’s stone,= for =bezoar-stone,= a supposed antidote to poison. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo). See Dict.

=bezonian,= needy beggar, rascal. 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 115; 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 134; spelt _bisognion_, Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv. 1. 13; see Dict. See =bisogno.=

=bezzle,= to besot, stupefy, to drink immoderately. Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Malevole). ‘To bezzle, _pergraecor_’, Coles, Dict. Hence, _bezeling_, tippling, Marston, Scourge, ii. 7. In prov. use in the sense of drinking immoderately, in various parts of England; see EDD. (s.v. Bezzle, vb.^{1} 2). Norm. F. ‘_besiller_, s’user, s’épuiser, se perdre, dépérir’ (Moisy). See Ducange (s.v. Besilium).

=bias, from the,= out of the way, off the track. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 1 (Hodge). Prov. _biais_, ‘manière, façon’; _de biais_, ‘obliquement’ (Levy).

=bibble, bible,= to drink frequently. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 478; Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 550. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

=bidcock,= a bird; said to be the water-rail. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 100.

=biddell,= a beadle. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 28. OE. _bydel_.

=bidene,= in one body or company, together, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 268 (NED.); straightway, at once, forthwith, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 956; Douglas, Aeneid, I. ii. 33 (NED.). Often used in Scottish poetry as a rime word, or to fill up the line, or as a mere expletive, see EDD. (s.v. Bedene). Cp. ME. phrase _all_(_e bidene_, continuously, one after another (Cursor M. 1457); in one body, all together (Ormulum, 4793).

=bid-stand,= a highwayman. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Sogliardo). Because he _bids_ men _stand and deliver_.

=bienvenu, benvenu,= a welcome. A Woman never vext, v. 1 (King); Massinger, The Picture, ii. 2. 4. F. _bienvenuë_, a welcome (Cotgr.).

=big,= a pap or teat. Tusser, Husbandry, 74; Shadwell Witches (EDD.), Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xviii. ch. 7; ‘_Bigge_, a country word for a pap or teat’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. See EDD.

=big,= a boil, small tumour. Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxxii. ch. 9; Gaule Cases Consc. 6 (NED.).

=biggin,= a child’s cap. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 5 (Mosca); Proverb, ‘From the biggen to the nightcap’ (i.e. from infancy to old age), B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Haughty); the saying is still in use in Cornwall (EDD.). F. ‘_beguin_, a biggin for a child’ (Cotgr.).

=biggon,= a barrister’s cap. Mayne, City Match, iv. 7 (Aurelia).

=bilander,= a coasting vessel, a by-lander. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 128. Du. _bijlander_.

=bilbo,= a sword of excellent quality. Merry Wives, iii. 5. 112. Hence, one who wears a bilbo, id. i. 1. 165. From _Bilbao_ (E. Bilboa) in Spain.

=bilboes,= pl., an iron bar, with sliding shackles, for securing prisoners. Hamlet, v. 2. 6; Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, ii. 2 (near the end). Perhaps from Bilbao; see above.

=bilive,= soon, quickly. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., ii. 1 (Lord). See =belive.=

=bilk,= a statement having nothing in it. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (Tub); a cheat, a fraud, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 376.

=bill,= an advertisement. Much Ado, i. 1. 39; B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1. 1; a doctor’s prescription, Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 603.

=billed,= _pp._ enrolled. North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antony, § 3 (Shak. Plut. p. 157, note 3).

=billiments,= pl., habiliments, apparel. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Tibet); _billements_, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 4 (Song). Short for _habiliments_.

=bill-men,= watchmen, armed with a pike or halbert. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).

=bind with,= to grapple with, seize; said of a hawk. Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo).

=bing,= to go. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. I (Song); _bynge a waste_, go you hence, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; _bing awast_, go away, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

=bird-bolt,= a short blunt arrow, usually shot from a cross-bow at birds. Much Ado, i. 1. 42; L. L. L. iv. 3. 25.

=birle,= to pour out liquor. Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 269; Levins Manip. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. _byrle_ (Cath. Angl.); OE. _byrlian_, to give to drink; _byrel_, a cup-bearer.

=bisa, bise,= a north wind. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1339); p. 134, col. 2. F. _bise_, a north wind (Cotgr.). O. Prov. _biza_, ‘bise, nord’ (Levy).

=bisogno, bisognio,= a needy fellow, a term of contempt. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Alguazier); Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i. (Lysander). Ital. _bisogni_, pl. new-levied soldiers, needy men; _bisogno_, need, want. Cp. =bezonian.=

=bitched,= a term of opprobrium; ‘Bitched brothel’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 254.

=bite on the bridle,= to be impatient of restraint. Gascoigne, i. 449, l. 25.

=bitter, bittour,= a bittern. _Bitter_, Middleton, Triumph of Love, ed. Dyce, v. 289; _bittour_, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 89; Dryden, Wife of Bath’s Tale, 194; Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. _bitore_ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 972); OF. _butor_, a bittern (Hatzfeld).

=bizzle,= to become drunk, to drink to excess. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Matheo). See =bezzle.=

=black:= phr. _black is your eye_. To say ‘black is your eye’, to find fault with one, to lay something to his charge. ‘I can say, _black’s your eye_, though it be grey’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 1 (Alguazier); ‘black’s mine eye’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).

=black guard,= orig. a jocular name given to the lower menials of a noble house, esp. those who had charge of kitchen utensils, and carried them about when required; ‘A lousy slave, that within this twenty years rode with the black guard in the duke’s carriage [i.e. among his baggage], ’mongst spits and dripping-pans’, Webster, White Devil, ed. Dyce, p. 8; Fletcher, Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo).

=black jack,= a leathern jug for beer, tarred outside. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Savil); Middleton, The Witch, i. 1 (Gasparo).

=black-mack,= a blackbird; ‘A leane birde of the kind of _blacke-mackes_’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 34; ‘_Merula_, a birde called a black-mack, an owzell, a mearle, or black-bird’, Florio.

=black ox;= ‘The Black Ox has trod on his foot, he has fallen on misfortune or sorrow’, Lyly, Sapho and Phao, iv. 1; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 112). See Nares, and EDD. (s.v. Black, 5 (11)).

=black-pot,= a beer-mug; hence, a toper. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 2 (scene 5, W.), at the end; p. 160, col. 2 (D.).

=blacks,= mourning clothes. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iii. 1 (Francisco); Maid in a Mill, iv. 2 (Bustopha); Bacon, Essay 2; Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 1 (Charalois); Herrick, Hesperides, 379. In prov. use; see EDD. (s.v. Black, sb.^{1} 4).

=Black Sanctus,= or =Black Saunce;= see =Sanctus.=

=blanch,= to give a fair appearance to by artifice or suppression of the truth. Bacon, Essays 20 and 26; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 222; Od. xi. 492; Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 37).

=blanch= (a hunting term), to ‘head back’ the deer in his flight. Lyly, Gallathea, ii. 1. 231. Hence _blancher_, a person or thing placed to turn the deer from a particular direction; Sydney, Arcadia, 64; _fig._ a hinderer, Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 33 and 36). _Blanch_ still used by huntsmen in Somerset and Devon in this sense (EDD.). See =blencher.=

=blank,= the white spot in the centre of a target; now, bull’s eye. Hamlet, iv. 1. 42; _at twelve-score blank_, at a range of twelve score yards, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Sophocles).

=blank,= a blank bond, to be filled up at pleasure. Beaumont and Fl., i. 1 (Arbaces). Also, a small French coin, orig. of silver, but afterwards of copper, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez).

=blank,= to render pale, to blanch. Hamlet, iii. 2. 232; to dismay, Milton, Samson Ag. 471; _blanck_, disappointed, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 17.

=blatant, blattant,= bellowing. Spenser, F. Q. v. xii. 37, 41; Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 230. ‘Blate’, to bellow, is in prov. use (EDD.).

=blaze,= a white mark on an animal’s forehead; (on a black bull), Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 7. Still in prov. use, esp. Yorksh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Blaze, sb.^{2} 1).

=blazing star,= a comet. All’s Well, i. 3. 91; Middleton, Roaring Girl, i. 1 (Sir Alex.).

=bleaking-house,= bleaching-house. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iv. 2 (Savourwit). ME. _blekyn_, blechen clothe (Prompt.).

=blear,= dim, indistinct, in outline. Milton, Comus, 155.

=blear:= phr. _to blear the eyes_, to deceive, throw dust in the eyes. Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 120; ‘He is nat in Englande that can bleare his eye better than I can’, Palsgrave.

=bleat= (meaning obscure); ‘How the judges have bleated him!’, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Julia).

=bleater,= a sheep. (Cant.) Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).

=blee,= colour, complexion, hue. Morte Arthur, leaf 88, back, 32; bk. v. c. 10; Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 100). Occurs in ballad poetry in the north (EDD.). ME. _blee_ (York Plays, xxviii. 259), OE. _blēo_.

=blemish,= ‘When they [the huntsmen] find where a deare hath passed and breake or plashe any boughe downewardes for a marke, then we say, they blemish or make blemishes’, Turbervile, Hunting, 244.

=blemishes,= ‘The markes which are left to knowe where a deare hath gone in or out’, Turbervile, Hunting, 114.

=blench,= a side glance, glimpse; ‘These blenches gave my heart another youth’, Sh. Sonn. cx. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).

=blench,= to start aside, to flinch, shrink. Fletcher, False One, iv. 4. ME. _blenchen_ (Anc. Riwle, 242).

=blencher,= a person stationed to ‘head hack’ the deer, to prevent him from going in a particular direction. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, ii. 1 (Sanchio); spelt _bleinchers_, pl., scarecrows, things put up to frighten animals away, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 70, 192; ‘which some call _shailes_, some _blenchars_, . . to feare away birdes’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § 2. See =blanch.=

=blend,= to blind, to dazzle. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 35; _blent_, pp., F. Q. ii. 4. 7; rendered obscure, Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 1. 521; _yblent_, F. Q. ii. 7. 1.

=blend,= to mix, confuse, render turbid, disturb, pollute. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; _blent_, pp. defiled, F. Q. ii. 12. 7.

=blenge,= to blend, mix. Tusser, Husbandry, § 100. 3. A ‘portmanteau’ word; combination of _blend_ and _menge_, to mingle.

=blenkard,= one who blinks, or has imperfect sight or intelligence. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 610. A north-country pronunc. of _blinkard_ (EDD.).

=blent;= see =blend.=

=bless,= to wound, hurt; ‘When he did levell to shoote, he blessed himselfe with his peece’, Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 237. F. _blesser_, to wound (Cotgr.), Anglo-F. _blecer_ (Ch. Rol.).

=bless,= to preserve, save. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 18; iv. 6. 13.

=bless,= to brandish (a sword), to wave about. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 6; i. 8. 22; vi. 8. 13; to brandish round an object with a weapon, ‘His armed head with his sharpe blade he blest’, Fairfax, Tasso, ix. 67.

=blewe point,= a blue point, or blue-tagged lace; ‘Not worth a blewe point’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 9. See =point.=

=blin, blinn,= to cease, leave off. Turbervile, Poems, in Chalmers’s Eng. Poets, II, 589; to cause to cease, to put a stop to, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 22. Very common in northern ballad poetry (EDD.). ME. _blinnen_, to cease (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1171); to cause to cease, Towneley Myst. 133. OE. _blinnan_, to cease. See =lin.=

=blince,= (perhaps) to flinch, give way, to ‘blench’; ‘The which will not _blince_’ riming with _prince_, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 148.

=blindfeld,= blindfolded. Spelt _blyndefeld_, Morte Arthur, leaf 69, back; bk. iv. c. 15; _blyndfielde_, R. Eden, First Three Books on America, ed. Arber, p. 347, l. 7 from bottom. ‘I blyndefelde one’, Palsgrave. See Dict. (s.v. Blindfold).

=blinkard,= ‘He that hath such eies that the liddes cover a great parte of the apple’, Baret (1580); ‘a blinkard, _caeculus_, _paetus_, _strabus_’, Coles (1679). Still in use in Northumberland and Lancashire (EDD.).

=blive,= quickly, soon, immediately. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 18; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii. l. 294. See =belive.=

=blo, bloo,= livid, esp. used of the colour caused by a bruise. _Bloo_ and wan, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 141, l. 5; id. Magnyfycence, 2080. A Yorkshire word (EDD.). ME. _blo_(_o_, ‘lividus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 195). Icel. _blā_, livid.

=bloat, blote,= to smoke-dry (herrings); ‘_Fumer_, to bloat, besmoake, hang or drie in the smoake’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Island Princess, ii. 5 (1 Citizen). Hence, _bloat-herring_, a smoked herring, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Groom); Pepys, Diary (Oct. 5, 1661). A Suffolk word (EDD.).

=block,= a mould for a hat; a fashion of hat. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, iv. 1 (Cunningham); Much Ado, i. 1. 77.

=blonk,= fair, blond; said of hair. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270. 13. See NED. (s.v. Blank).

=blore,= a blast of wind. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 122; ix. 5; xiv. 330. ME. _blore_ (York Plays, xxvi. 188).

=blot in the tables,= an exposed piece or ‘man’ in the game of backgammon, liable to be taken; hence, a weak point. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Gerardine); Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 276. See Dict. (s.v. Blot (2)).

=blother,= to gabble nonsense; to babble. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1049; Colyn Cloute, 779. A west Yorks. word, see EDD. (s.v. Blather, vb.^{1}). Icel. _blaðra_, to talk indistinctly, to talk nonsense.

=blow-boll,= one who ‘blows in a bowl’, an habitual tippler. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 23; l. 25.

=blowen,= a wench, a trull. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). [Cp. _blowing_, in Byron’s Don Juan, xi. 19.]

=blow-point,= a game ‘played by blowing an arrow through a trunk at certain numbers by way of lottery’, Strutt (quoted in NED.). Sidney, Arcadia, ii. 224; Brewer, Lingua, iii. 2 (Anamnestes); Marmion, The Antiquary, i. 1 (Leonardo). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 531.

=blue,= the usual colour of the dress of servants, or of beadles. _Blue-coat_, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). _The blue order_, i.e. of servants, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 2 (Onion). Women condemned to Bridewell wore _blue gowns_, Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Luke); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 1 (Lodovico).

=blue-bottle rogue,= a term applied to a beadle, with reference to his blue uniform. 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 22.

=blunket, blonket,= grey, greyish blue. ‘Bloncket liveries’, glossed by ‘gray coats’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 5.

=blurt,= an exclamation of contempt, pish!, pooh!; ‘Blurt, Master Constable’, the title of a play by Middleton, Dekker, Honest Wh., i. 5 (Fluello); to treat contemptuously, Fletcher, Wild-goose Chase, ii. 2 (last speech).

=blushet= (only used by B. Jonson), a little blusher, a modest girl, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy senior); The Penates (Pan).

=board, bord,= to accost, address. Hamlet, ii. 2. 171; Merry Wives, ii. 1. 92; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 5; _boorded_, addressed, id. ii. 4. 24. F. _aborder_, to approach, accost (Cotgr.) A metaph. expression from boarding a ship; see Nares.

=board, bord,= a shilling. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll); _a bord_, a shylling; Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

=bob,= a blow that does not break the skin, a rap; ‘Pinches, nippes and bobbes’, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 47); a taunt, a bitter jibe, As You Like It, ii. 7. 55; Wycherley, Dancing-master, i. 2 (Monsieur); ‘_Ruade seiche_, a drie bob, jeast or nip’, Cotgrave. ‘Bob’, in the sense of a slight blow, is in prov. use in the Midlands and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, sb.^{2} 1).

=bob,= to fish (for eels) with a _bob_, or grub for bait. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, ii. 4. 9. In use in the Norfolk Broads, see NED. (s.v. Bob, vb.^{4}), and EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.^{6} 1).

=bob,= to deceive, cheat. Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 75; ‘_Avoir le moine_, to be gleekt, bobbed’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Span. Curate, v. 2 (Bartolus); Little French Lawyer, ii. 1. 24. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.^{5}). OF. _bober_.

=bobber,= a cheat, deceiver. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, §
12.

=bobance, bobaunce,= arrogance, vanity. Morte Arthur, leaf 262. 12; bk. x, c. 63; id. lf. 376. 25; bk. xviii, c. 15. F. _bobance_, ‘excessive spending; insolency, surquedrie, proud or presumptuous boasting’ (Cotgr.). O. Prov. _bobansa_, ‘faste, ostentation’ (Levy).

=bob-fool:= in phr. _to play bob-fool_, to flout, make sport. Greene, Alphonsus, iv (Amurack).

=Bocardo,= the name of the prison above the old North Gate of the city of Oxford, where Cranmer was confined, Strype, Archbp. Cranmer, iii. 11. 341; Oxford Records, 414; a prison, Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 126); Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Club). ‘Bocardo’ is a mnemonic word used in Logic.

=bodge,= an odd measure of corn. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host). In Kent the word _bodge_ means an odd measure of corn, left over after the bulk has been measured into quarters and sacks; _bodge_ also means in Kent a flat oblong basket used for carrying produce of garden or field, see EDD. (s.v. Bodge, sb.^{1} 1 and 2).

=bodkin,= a dagger. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, ii. 3 (Duarte); Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, ii. 2 (Aphobus); cp. Hamlet, iii. 1. 76.

=bodkin;= see =baudkin.=

=bodrag,= a hostile incursion, a raid. ‘Nightly _bodrags_’, Spenser, Colin Clout, 315. Hence _bodraging_, misspelt _bordraging_, the same; F. Q. ii. 10. 63. Irish _buaidhreadh_, molestation, disturbance; _buaidhr-im_, I vex, bother, trouble (Dinneen).

=bog,= proud, saucy, bold. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 37. st. 109; Rogers, Naaman, 18. Cp. ME. _boggisshe_, ‘tumidus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 161).

=boggard,= a privy, _latrina_. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iv. 6 (end).

=boistous, busteous, bousteous,= rough, rustic, coarse, violent, vigorous. _Bousteous_ tree, vigorous tree; Turbervile, Time Conquereth all Things, st. 7. _Boystous_, rude, coarse, A. Borde, Introd. of Knowledge, bk. i, c. 14; p. 160. ME. _boystows_, ‘rudis’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 166). See Dict. (s.v. Boisterous).

=boll,= a rounded seed-vessel or pod, as that of flax or cotton. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 50. Hence _bolled_, having ‘bolls’, pods; BIBLE, Ex. ix. 31 (AV.). ‘Boll’, in the sense of the seed-vessel of flax, is in prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, also in Lincolnshire, see EDD. (s.v. Boll, sb.^{2}).

=boll,= to quaff the bowl, to booze; ‘They might syt bebbinge and bollynge’, Coverdale, Micah, ii. 11. Hence _boller_, one who lingers at the bowl, a drunkard, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 81.

=bollen,= swollen. Lucrece, 1417 (in old edd. _boln_); _bolne_, Hawes, Past Pleas., p. 135; Surrey, tr. Aeneid ii, 616; _bowlne_, id. ii. 348. Cp. the E. Anglian _bown_, swollen (EDD.). ME. _bollen_, swollen (Cursor M. 12685). Icel. _bólgna_; Dan. _bolne_, to swell. See NED. (s.v. Bell, vb.^{1}).

=bolt,= an arrow for a cross-bow, with a blunt or square head, also _gen._ an arrow; ‘The bolt of Cupid’, Mids. Night’s D., ii. 1. 165; ‘A fool’s bolt is soon shot’, Hen. V, iii. 7. 132; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 145); ‘I’ll make a shaft or a bolt on’t’, Merry Wives, iii. 4. 24 (i.e. I’ll take the risk, whatever may come of it).

=bolt’s-head,= a kind of retort used by alchemists. B. Jonson,
Alchemist, ii. 1 (Mammon); named from its long cylindrical neck.

=bolt,= a roll of a woven stuff. B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Subtle).

=boltered,= clotted, coagulated. ‘Blood-boltered’, having the hair clotted with blood, Macbeth, iv. 1. 123. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).

=bolting-hutch,= a trough into which meal is sifted. Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, v. 1 (Simon). A Lincolnshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Bolting, 2 (3)).

=bombard,= ‘a great gun or piece of ordnance’ (Bullokar). Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 58). F. _bombarde_, a bumbard, or murthering-piece (Cotgr.).

=bombard,= a large leathern vessel to carry liquors. Tempest, ii. 2. 21; Hen. VIII, v. 4. 85. Hence _bombard-man_, one who provides liquor. B. Jonson, Masque of Love Restored (Robin).

=bombast,= cotton wadding. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 359; Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, ii. 2. 8. OF. _bombace_, cotton (Godefroy). See Dict.

=bonair=(=e,= gentle, courteous. Holland, Livy, iv. 2. 446; _bonerly_, in debonnaire fashion, World and Child, l. 2, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 243. F. _bonnaire_ and _bonnairement_ (Cotgr.).

=bona roba,= a handsome wench, a wanton. 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 26. Ital. _buonaroba_, ‘as we say, good stuffe, a good wholesome plum-cheeked wench’ (Florio).

=bone;= ‘Look not upon me as I am a woman, But as a bone, thy wife, thy friend’, Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 2 (Belvidera). Meaning doubtful.

=bones:= in phr. _to make bones_, to make scruples about, find difficulty in; ‘Who make no bones of the Lord’s promises, but devoure them all’, Rogers, Naaman, 579; ‘He made no manier bones . . . but went in hande to offer up his only son Isaac’, Udall, Erasm. Par., Luke i. 28. Formerly also, _to find bones in_ (Paston Letters, 331), referring to the occurrence of bones in soup, &c., as an obstacle to its being easily swallowed, see NED. (s.v. Bone, 8).

=bones,= dice. A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Stephen). A common expression.

=bonfacion,= of good fashion, fashionable. Three Ladies of London; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 251, 311.

=bongrace,= a shade worn on the front of a woman’s bonnet as a protection from the sun. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 4 (Song). F. ‘_bonnegrace_, the uppermost flap of the downhanging taile of a French hood; whence belike our Boongrace’ (Cotgr.).

=bonnibell,= a fair lass. Spenser, Shep. Kal., August, 62; B. Jonson, The Satyr, l. 21. From F. _bonne et belle_, good and fair girl. See =bellibone.=

=bonny-clabber,= sour buttermilk. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2. 8. ‘Bonny-clabber’ in Ireland means thick milk. Irish _bainne_ [pronounc. _bonny_], milk, and _clabair_, anything thick or half-liquid. In use in the United States wherever Irishmen forgather. See Joyce, English in Ireland, 219.

=bookholder,= a prompter in a theatre. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, Induct.

=books:= phr. _to be in a person’s books_; ‘I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books’, Much Ado, i. 1. 179 (the probable meaning is, he is not in favour, not in the lady’s ‘book of memory’, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 101).

=boon,= good; esp. in French phrases. ‘On a boon voyage’, Conflict of Conscience; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 63. ‘Nature boon’, Milton, P. L. iv. 242; cp. ix. 793.

=boord, bord;= see =board,= and =bourd.=

=boot-carouse,= a carousing out of a bombard or black-jack, which was likened to a boot. Marston, Sat., ii. 154.

=boot-hale,= to carry off booty. Heywood, Sallust, 33. Hence, _boot-haler_, a freebooter, highwayman, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (J. Dapper); Holland, Livy, xxii. 41. 458; _boot-haling_, the carrying away of booty, Florio, Montaigne, ii. 31; Fletcher, The Chances, i. 4 (Frederic); Maid in the Mill, ii. 2 (Antonio).

=booty:= in phr. _to play booty_, to play so as to lose, in order to draw the opponent on, and get some ‘booty’ in the end’, Dryden, Pref. to Don Sebastian, § 7; Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 2 (Frankford). Also, _to bowl booty_, to play at bowls so as to lose at first, Webster, White Devil (Camillo), ed. Dyce, p. 7. See Nares.

=borachio,= a large leather bottle or bag used in Spain (_borracha_). B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer); Greene, Looking Glasse (Works, ed. 1861, 133); _fig._ a drunkard, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 1. 7. Span. _borracho_, a drunkard.

=bord,= rim, circumference. ‘He plants a brazen piece of mighty bord’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). The reference is to a barber’s basin. F. _bord_, edge, border.

=bordello,= a brothel. B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 1 (Knowell). Ital. ‘_bordello_, a bawdy-house’ (Florio).

=bordon,= a staff. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 132, back, 24. ME. _bordun_, a pilgrim’s staff (P. Plowman, A. vi. 8). F. _bourdon_ (Cotgr.). O. Prov. _bordon_, bâton de pèlerin.

=bordraging;= see =bodrag.=

=bore,= to trick, cheat, overreach. Hen. VIII, i. 1. 128; Life T. Cromwell, ii. 2. 103 (NED.).

=boree, bouree,= a rustic dance, orig. of Auvergne. Etheridge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Steele, Tender Husband, i. 2 (Tipkin). F. _bourrée_ (Hatzfeld).

=borrel,= unlearned, rude, rough, rustic. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 95; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 28. ME. _borel_, in Chaucer: coarse woollen clothes, C. T. D. 356; _borel men_, laymen, C. T. B. 3145.

=borrow, borow,= a pledge, surety. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 131, 150; ‘Dear Pan bought with dear borrow’, id. Sept., 96. ME. _borwe_, a surety (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2998). OE. _borh_ (_borge_) a pledge, surety.

=borrow,= to give security for, to assure, warrant. Greene, Isabel’s Ode, 33; ed. Dyce, p. 296.

=bosky,= full of thickets. Peele, Chron. Edw. I (ed. 1874, p. 407); Tempest, iv. 1. 81; Milton, Comus, 312. A Cheshire and Yorkshire word, from _bosk_, an underwood thicket (EDD.). ME. _boske_, a bush.

=boss,= a fat woman, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Zenocrate); ‘A fat boss, _femme bien grasse et grosse, une Coche_’, Sherwood. A Lancashire word for a fat lazy woman, see EDD. (s.v. Boss, sb.^{1} 6).

=bosse,= supposed to mean a water-conduit; esp. used of _the Bosse of Billingsgate_, W. de Worde, Treatyse of a Galaunt (see Title of the Play); B. Jonson, Time Vindicated (Eyes); ‘_Bosse Alley_, so called of a Bosse of Spring-water continually running, which standeth by Billingsgate against this alley’, Stow, Survey (ed. 1842, p. 79). See NED. (s.v. Boss, sb.^{2}).

=botcher,= a mender of old clothes; or (disrespectfully) a tailor. All’s Well, iv. 3. 211; Cor. ii. 1. 93; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, i. 1 (Fortune).

=bottom of packthread,= a ball of string. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv, 4 (Brainworm); Tam. Shrew, iv. 3. 138. Properly the clew or nucleus on which the ball was wound. [‘I wish I could wind up my bottom handsomely’, Sir W. Scott, Diary, March 17, 1826.] See EDD. (s.v. Bottom, 8). ME. _botme_ of threde (Prompt.).

=bouche:= in phr. _bouche in court_, an allowance of victual granted by a king or noble to his household; ‘A good allowance of dyet, a bouche in court, as we use to call it’, Puttenham, English Poesie, bk. i, c. 27 (ed. Arber, 70). F. _avoir bouche à Court_, ‘to eat and drinke scotfree, to have budge-a-Court, to be in ordinarie at Court’ (Cotgr.). See =bouge.=

=bouffage,= a satisfying meal. ‘No bouffage, but a light bit’, Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 9. F. _bouffage_, ‘any meat that (eaten greedily) fills the mouth and makes the cheeks to swell; cheek-puffing meat’ (Cotgr.). F. _bouffer_, to swell.

=bouge,= to flinch. Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 44; _boudge_, Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius). See Dict. (s.v. Budge (1)).

=bouge,= to ‘bilge’, to stave in a ship’s side; intr., to suffer fracture, as a ship. ‘My barke was _boug’d_’, Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 44. ‘Least thereupon Our shippe should _bowge_’, Gascoigne, Voyage into Holland, ed. Hazlitt, i. 390. See NED. See Dict. (s.v. Bilge).

=bouge,= provisions; ‘A bombard man, that brought bouge for a country lady’, B. Jonson, Love Restored (Robin).

=bouge of court,= court-rations; ‘The Bowge of Courte’ (the
title of a poem written by Skelton); ‘Every of them to have lyke
bouge of courte’, State Papers, Hen. VIII, i. 623 (NED.). See
=bouche.=

=bouget,= a budget, wallet. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 29; a water-vessel of skin, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt, iv. 72. F. _bougette_ (Cotgr.); dimin. of OF. _bouge_, a water-skin; cp. ME. _bowge_, ‘I am maad as a bowge in frost’ (Wyclif, Ps. cxix. 83). See Dict. (s.v. Budget).

=bough-pot,= a flower-pot, a vase for boughs or cut flowers. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. (Rhoderique). A Lincolnsh. and Northamptonsh. word (EDD.).