Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

=bought,= a twist, a knot. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 2. 13; used of the coil of a serpent, Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 255. ‘Bought’ is in prov. use in the north country for a curve or bend; the curve of the elbow or knee. See EDD. (s.v. Bought, sb.^{1} 1).

=bounty,= goodness in general, worth, virtue; ‘He is only the true and essential Bounty’, Drummond of Hawthornden, Cypress Grove (Wks. ed. 1711, p. 127); _bountie_, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 4; ‘A lovely lasse, Whose beauty doth her bounty far surpasse’, F. Q. iii. 9. 4; ‘Large was his bounty and his soul sincere’, Gray, Elegy, 121 (The Epitaph). ME. bountee, goodness (Chaucer. An A.B.C., 9). F. _bonté_ ‘goodness, honesty, sincerity, vertue, uprightness’ (Cotgr.); L. _bonitas_, goodness (Vulgate).

=bourd, bord,= a jest. Drayton, Eclogue, vii. 208; _bord_, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 19; iv. 4. 13. F. _bourde_, ‘a jeast, fib, tale of a tub’ (Cotgr.).

=bourd,= to jest. Ford, ’Tis pity, ii. 4 (Peggio).

=bourd,= to accost. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid iv, l. 899. See =board.=

=bourdel,= a brothel. Farquhar, Constant Couple, ii. 2. 4. See =bordello.=

=bout, bowt,= a coil; a circuit, orbit. Sir T. Wyatt, Song of Iopas, 45; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 94. See =bought.=

=boute-feu,= a fire-brand, incendiary. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p. 66, l. 13; Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 786. F. _boute-feu_, ‘a boute-feu, a wilful or voluntary firer of houses; also, a fire-brand of sedition, a kindler of strife and contention’ (Cotgr.).

=bout-hammer,= a heavy two-handed hammer. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, v. 4 (Pergamus). For _about-hammer_, the largest hammer employed by blacksmiths; it is slung round (or _about_) near the extremity of the handle. An East Anglian word (EDD.).

=bouzing-ken,= drinking-house, ale-house. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

=bovoli,= snails, cockles; considered as delicacies. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Ital. _bovolo_ (pl. _bovoli_), ‘a snayle, a cockle, periwinkle’ (Florio).

=bowd,= a weevil, malt-worm. Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 39; ‘A boude, _vermis frumentarius_’, Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. _bowde_, malte-worme (Prompt.). An East Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Boud).

=bow-dye,= a scarlet dye; name from _Bow_, near Stratford, Essex, where the dyers mostly lived, in the 17th cent. Hence, as attrib., ‘My bowdy stockings’, Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Prue).

=bowerly,= comely, portly, ‘burly’. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 8. In common use in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). See Notes on Eng. Etym. (s.v. Burly).

=bow-hand,= the hand that holds the bow, the left hand. In phr. _wide o’ th’ bow-hand_, wide of the mark (towards the left); L. L. L. iv. 1. 135; _much o’ th’ bow-hand_, Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, iv. 2 (end); Coxcomb, i. 3. 2.

=bowlne,= swollen. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, l. 348. See =bollen.=

=bowne,= a bound, limit. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v. ch. 23. st. 45. In the same, st. 1 ‘the former bowne’ seems to mean ‘the preceding chapter’. Norm. Fr. _bowne_ (_bodne_), ‘limite’ (Moisy). Cp. Med. Lat. _bonna_, _bodina_ (Ducange).

=bowne,= a boon, a favour in answer to a request. Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 45; Adam Bel, 509, in Hazlitt’s Pop. Poetry, ii. 160. Icel. _bōn_, a prayer.

=bowrs, bowers,= muscles that bend the joints, strong muscles. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 12. Lit. _bow-er_, i.e. that which bows or bends; see NED.

=box-keeper,= the keeper of the dice and box at a gaming-table; ‘Gettall, _a box-keeper_’, Massinger, City Madam (Dramatis Personae).

=boyn,= to swell. ‘Her heeles behind _boynd_ out’, Golding, Metam. viii. 808; fol. 105 (1603). Cp. _boine_, _bunny_, Essex words for a swelling caused by a blow (EDD.). OF. _buyne_ (now _bigne_); see Hatzfeld.

=brabble,= to wrangle, quarrel, Coles, Dict. (1679); _brabble_, a quarrel, brawl, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 69; Titus And. ii. 1. 62; hence, _brabbler_, a quarreller, King John, v. 2. 162; _brabbling_, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, i. 1 (Colonel); ‘Noe more brabbling with him’ (your old Glasier), Dorothy Wadham, Letter (1614), in T. G. Jackson’s Wadham College (1893, p. 161). Du. ‘_brabbelen_, to brawle or to brabble’ (Hexham).

=brace,= to gird, encompass. ‘Bigge Bulles of Basan brace hem about’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 124. OF. _bracier_, to embrace, deriv. of _brace_, the two arms (Ch. Rol., 1343).

=bracer, braser,= a protection for the arm in archery. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 108, 109.

=brach,= a bitch-hound. Properly a kind of hunting-dog; but it came to be used with reference to a bitch in general. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 48; Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (Belgarde); King Lear, i. 4. 125. OF. _brac_, hunting-dog (Didot). OHG. _bracco_ (Schade).

=brachet,= a small hunting-dog. Morte Arthur, leaf 52, back, 22; bk. iii, c. 5. F. ‘_brachet_, a kind of little hound’ (Cotgr.).

=brachygraphy,= shorthand, stenography. B. Jonson, Paris Anniversary (Fencer); Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Sanitonella). Gk. βραχυγραφία.

=brack,= salt water. Only in Drayton, Pol. xxv. 50; Agincourt, 185 (NED.). Du. _brak_, briny, brackish.

=brack,= a breach, fracture, Oxford City Records, 387; ‘_Breche_, a brack or breach in a wall’, Cotgrave; a flaw, fault, ‘A brack, _vitium_’, Coles, Dict. (1679); Digby, On the Soul, Dedic. (Johnson); a flaw in cloth, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 33); Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii. 249; a rupture, a quarrel, Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, v. 1 (Byron).

=brag,= brisk, lively. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2. 11; ‘the bragge lambs’, G. Fletcher, Christ’s Victory, i (NED.).

=braid,= a sudden or brisk movement. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2 (Marcella). ME. _brayd_: ‘She (Dido) walketh, walweth, maketh many a brayd’ (Chaucer, Leg. G. W., 1166); OE. _bregdan_, to move suddenly to and fro.

=braid,= a sudden outburst of passion, anger. Warner, Alb. England, bk. vii, ch. 37, st. 105; a sudden assault, Golding, Metam., xiii. 240; an adroit turn, trick, deception, Greene, Radagon in Dianam, 62 (ed. Dyce, 302); (?) deceitful, All’s Well, iv. 2. 73.

=braided;= _braided ware_, goods that have changed colour, tarnished, faded. Marston, Scourge Villainie, Sat. v. 73 (cp. Bailey’s Dict., 1721; see NED.).

=brail,= in hawking, to confine a hawk’s wings by means of a _brail_, or soft leather girdle; ‘They _brail_ and hud us’ [confine and hood us], Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 9 (Flavia). OF. _brail_, _braiel_, a girdle. Med. L. _bracale_, deriv. of _bracae_, breeches (Ducange).

=brake,= a powerful bit for horses. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 2 (Cent.).

=brake,= to set one’s face in a brake, to assume an immovable expression of countenance. Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i. 1 (Bussy).

=brame,= longing, desire. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 52. Ital. _brama_, earnest desire; from _bramare_, to desire. Cp. O. Prov. ‘_bramar_, braire, désirer ardemment’ (Levy), F. _bramer_ (Hatzfeld).

=branched,= adorned with a figured pattern in embroidery, &c.; ‘Branched velvet’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 54; Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2 (Frank).

=branded,= brindled; of mixed colour, streaked. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad, xii. 217. A common prov. word (EDD.).

=brandenburg,= a morning gown, with long sleeves. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii. 1 (Olivia). From Brandenburg, in Germany, where there were woollen manufactories.

=brandle,= to shake, endanger, cause to waver. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 155. F. _branler_. See =brangle.=

=brandlet,= a bird; prob. the brand-tail or redstart. Gascoigne, Prol. to Philomene, 31. See EDD. (s.v. Brand-tail).

=brand-wine,= brandy. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1 (Clause). Du. _brande-wijn_, brandy, lit. burnt (i.e. distilled) wine.

=brangle,= to shake, cause to waver; hence, to render uncertain, to confuse. Merry Devil, ii. 2. 6. F. _branler_. Cp. =brandle.=

=brank,= buck-wheat; ‘Brank, Buck, or French-wheat, a summer grain delighting in warm land’, Worlidge; Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 20. An E. Anglian word (EDD.).

=bransle,= a kind of dance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 8. F. ‘_bransle_, a brawl or dance wherein many (men and women) holding by the hands, sometimes in a ring, and other-whiles at length, move all together’ (Cotgr.). Cp. =brawl.=

=brant,= steep. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 58; ‘Even brant agenst Flodon hil’, (perhaps) even on the steep side of Flodden hill; id. p. 88. In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). OE. (Anglian) _brant_.

=brasell;= see =brazil.=

=brast,= to burst. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 2, § 2; Douglas, Eneados, iv. 81; pt. t., Sir T. More, Richard III (ed. Lumby, p. 74); Bunyan, Pilg. Pr. (ed. 1678, p. 73). In common prov. use in the north (EDD.). ME. _breste_(_n_ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 1008). OE. _berstan_.

=brathel,= a malignant scold. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 60. See =brothel.=

=brave,= finely arrayed; showy, splendid; fine, excellent. Tam. Shrew, Ind., i. 40; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); ‘Brave, _splendidus_’, Levins, Manip.; As You Like It, iii. 4. 43. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).

=brawl,= a French dance. L. L. L. iii. 9; the figure is fully described in Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Guerrino). See =bransle.=

=brawn-fall’n,= having arms from which the muscle has fallen away. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 77; Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 127.

=braye,= a brae, a steep bank; ‘Agaynste a rocke or an hye braye’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 159. ‘Bray’ is still in use in Yorksh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Brae). Icel. _brā_, eyebrow, see NED.

=braye,= a military outwork, a mound or bank defended by palisades and watch-towers. Act 4 Hen. VIII. 1. § 1 (NED.). _False braye_, an advanced parapet surrounding the main rampart, Urquhart, Rabelais, iii. Prol. F. _faulses brayes_, ‘issues qui doivent être bouchées, dans une place forte, quand l’ennemi approche’, Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais, iii. Prol. Norm. F. _faulses brayes_, ‘espèce de muraille, établie en dehors d’une forteresse et servant de retranchement’ (Moisy). Med. L. _braca_, ‘moles, agger’ (Ducange).

=brazil, brasell,= a hard wood which yields a red dye. Davenant, The Wits, i. 1. 9; Ascham, Toxophilus (Arber, 133). In popular use in the Yorksh. phrase, ‘As hard as brazzil’, see EDD. (s.v. Brazil, sb.^{1}). Port. and Span. _brasil_. The country in S. America is named from this wood (NED.).

=break:= phr. _to break one’s day_, to fail to make a payment on the day appointed. Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (Prud.).

=break up,= to break open; to open a letter. 1 Hen. VI, i. 3. 13; Merch. Ven. ii. 4. 10. Also, to carve, L. L. L. iv. 1. 56.

=breast,= the source of the voice, the voice in singing. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 20; Fletcher, Pilgrim, iii. 6 (Fool); G. Herbert, The Temper, p. 47.

=breathe:= phr. _to breathe a vein_, to open a vein by lancing it. Dryden, Oliver Cromwell, st. 12; Georgics, iii. 700; Palamon, iii. 755.

=breathely,= worthless. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 36. Cp. ME. _brethel_(_l_, a worthless fellow (York Plays, xxvi. 179). See NED.

=breck,= a breach, gap. Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 16 (p. 40). A north-country word (EDD.). ME. _brekke_ (Chaucer, Bk. Duch., 940).

=breme,= fierce, stormy; ‘Breme winter’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 42; ‘_Froid_, cold, breame, chill’, Cotgrave; Drayton, Heroic. Epist., xvi. 8. ME. _breme_ (Lydgate, Chron. Troy, ii. 16). Still in use in the north country (EDD.). Cp. OE. _brēman_, to rage: _broeman_ ‘fervere’, in Preface Lind. Matthew (ed. Skeat, p. 5, l. 5).

=breme.= Of reports, loudly prevalent; ‘In their talke most breeme Was then Achilles victorie’, Golding, Met. xii. 280. OE. _brēme_, famous, celebrated.

=brended,= brindled. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Puppy). See =brinded.=

=brenne,= to burn. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 45; pt. t. _brent_, id. i. 9. 10; pp. _brent_, id. ii. 6. 49. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. _brennen_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2331). Icel. _brenna_.

=brere,= a briar. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 2; Sackville, Induction, st. 39. A very common prov. pronunc. (EDD.). OE. (Mercian) _brēr_, WS. _brǣr_.

=bret,= the name of a fish like the turbot; ‘The bret, of all [fishes] the slowest’, Lyly, Alexander, ii. 2 (Hephestion). Also called a _birt_ or _burt_. See EDD.

=bretch,= a breach; ‘With careless _bretch_’, Phaer. and Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, x. 467. F. _brèche_.

=brevit,= to hunt about, search, pry, beat about, forage; ‘Breviting by night’, Drayton, The Owl, 179. Prob. from _brevet_, in the sense of taking by ‘brevet’ or written warrant (NED.). In gen. use in the midland counties (EDD.).

=briars:= phr. _in the briars_, in troubles, among thorns; ‘I ought not so to leave Eccho _in_ the bryers’, Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, v. 1.

=bribe,= a thing stolen, Barclay, Shyp of Folys, ii. 85. OF. _bribe_, a piece of bread, F. ‘_bribe_, a peece of bread given unto a beggar’ (Cotgr.).

=bribe,= to take dishonestly, to purloin, to steal or rob; ‘They do deceive the needy, bribe and pill from them’, Cranmer, Instr. of Prayer; ‘I bribe, I pyll’, Palsgrave. ME. _brybyn_ (_briben_) ‘latrocinor’ (Prompt.).

=bribery,= robbery with violence, extortion, Geneva Bible (Matt. xxiii. 25).

=bribour,= a thief or robber, Berners, tr. of Froissart, ii. 10. 21. ME. _brybowre_ (Prompt.).

=brickle,= fragile, easily broken; ‘Brickle vessels’, BIBLE (AV.), Wisdom, xv. 13; ‘brickle, _fragilis_’, Levins, Manip.; Spenser, Ruins of Time, 499; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. 8. OE. _brycel_, see NED. (s.vv. Britchel, Brickle). See =brokle, bruckle.=

=bride-house,= the house where a wedding is held. ‘A public hall for celebrating marriages’, Nares. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 22.

=bride-lace,= a piece of gold, silk, or other lace, used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly used at weddings. Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3 (Hazard).

=bridling-cast,= a glass taken when the horse is bridled; a stirrup-glass, stirrup-cup. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo. Loveless).

=brigand-harness,= a brigandine, a piece of armour worn by a ‘brigand’ or foot-soldier. World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 251. See =brigandine.=

=brigandine,= a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.); also _brigantine_, Baret, Alvearie. F. _brigandin_ (_brigantin_).

=brigandine,= a coat-of-mail, corslet. Milton, Samson, 1120.

=briggen-yrons,= brigand-irons, armour for the arms. Thersites, ed. Pollard, l. 169. See =brigand-harness.=

=brim,= fierce, esp. an epithet of the boar; ‘Never bore so brymme’, Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 6. 5; ME. _brym_ (_brim_) fierce (Prompt.). See =breme= (1).

=brim,= (of reports, rumours) loudly current, much spoken of. Throgmorton (NED., s.v. Breme 4); _brimme_, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iv. ch. 20, st. 35. See =breme= (2).

=brimse,= a gadfly. Gosson, School of Abuse (Arber, 64); _brimsees_, pl., Topsell, Serpents, 769. A Kentish word, ‘You have a brims in your tail’, see EDD. (s.v. Brims). G. _bremse_; Icel. _brims_ (Fritzner). Norw. dialect _brims_ (Aasen); Swed. _brems_.

=brinch,= to pledge in drinking. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Halfpenie); also written _brince_, to offer drink: ‘Luther first brinced to Germany the poisoned cup’, Harding, in Jewel’s Works, IV, 335 (NED.). Cp. the German expression, _Ich bring’s_ (_euch_), i.e. I drink to you, lit. I bring it (to you). Cp. Ital. _brindisi_ (Florio).

=brinded,= brindled, streaked; ‘The brinded cat’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 1. In prov. use (EDD.).

=bring:= phr. _to be with one to bring_: a phrase of various application, but usually implying getting the upper hand in some way. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 304; Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady and Welford); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 503); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Y. Chartley); Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12. 22.

=brist:= phr. _full brist_, full burst, with sudden violence. Golding, Metam. xi. 510; fol. 138 (1603). A northern form of OE. _berstan_, to burst (EDD.).

=brize,= a breeze, a gadfly. Spenser, Visions of the World’s Vanity, ii. 10; spelt _bryze_, F. Q. vi. 1. 24. The gadfly is called _briz_ in Cheshire, Shropsh., and Gloucestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Breeze, sb.^{1}). OE. _briosa_ (_breosa_).

=brocage,= procuracy in immorality. Spenser, Introd. to Shep. Kal. (beginning); Mother Hubbard’s Tale, 851. Also, bribery, mean practice, Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 7. ME. _brocage_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3375). Anglo-F. _brocage_, the action of an intermediary.

=broche,= the ‘first head’ of a hart. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21; p. 52. OF. _broche_. Med. L. _broca_, ‘cornu’ (Ducange).

=broche, broach,= a spit. Morte Arthur, leaf 84. 34; bk. v, c. 5; ‘hazel broach’, spit made of hazel-wood, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georg. ii. 545; to pierce with a spit, to pierce, Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 92. F. _broche_, a spit; _brocher_, to broach, to spit (Cotgr.).

=brock,= a badger. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Tuck); ‘Brocke or badger’, Huloet; applied as a term of contempt to a dirty stinking fellow, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 114. ME. _broke_, ‘taxus’ (Prompt.). OE. _broc_, cp. O. Irish _brocc_. In prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland for the animal, and in Scotland in its transferred sense (EDD.).

=broken beer,= remnants or leavings of beer in pots and glasses. Founded on the phrases _broken meat_, _bread_, or _victuals_, meaning fragments of meat, &c. Cartwright, The Ordinary, i. 4 (Slicer). So also _broken bread_, The London Chanticleers, sc. 1 (Heath).

=broken music,= concerted music, music arranged for parts. As You Like It, i. 2. 150; Hen. V, v. 2. 263; Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 52.

=brokle,= brittle, frail. Sir T. Elyot, bk. iii, c. 19, § 1. See =bruckle.=

=bronstrops,= a prostitute. ‘A bronstrops is in English a hippocrene’, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Col.’s Friend); id. iv. 4 (Chough); Webster, Cure for Cuckold, iv. 1.

=brothel,= an abandoned wretch; ‘Go hence, thou brothel’, Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 82; ‘bitched brothel’, World and Child, in the same, i. 254. ME. _brothell_, a worthless fellow (Gower, C. A. vii. 2595).

=brouse, brouze,= young shoots of trees, eaten by cattle. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 132. 3; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 45.

=brown bill,= a weapon, a kind of halbert. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 10. 13; King Lear, iv. 6. 92.

=bruckel’d,= begrimed, dirty. Herrick, The Temple, 58. In use in the north country and in East Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bruckle, vb.^{2}).

=bruckle,= brittle, fragile. Puttenham, E. Poesie, p. 219. In prov. use in various parts of England, and in Scotland and Ireland (EDD.). OE. _brucol_. See =brokle, brickle.=

=bruit,= a rumour, report. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 64; Timon, v. 1. 198; to noise abroad, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 114; 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 68. F. _bruit_, noise, rumour.

†=brusle= (meaning doubtful), to crack (?). Fletcher, A Wife for a Month ii. 6 (Camillo). Perhaps the same word as =brustle.=

=brustle,= to parch, scorch, to crackle in cooking or burning, as in Gower, C. A. iv. 2732. ‘He . . . brustleth as a monkes froise (pancake)’. Hence, to make a noise like the waves of the sea, spelt _brussel_, Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (Lopez). In prov. use in the north, also in Kent and Sussex, in the sense of scorching, crackling; see EDD. (s.v. Brustle, vb.^{2}).

=brustle, brusle,= to raise the feathers, like a bird. Herrick, Hesp. (ed. 1859, p. 122).

=brutel,= brittle. Spelt _brutyll_, Morte Arthur, leaf 65, end; bk. iv, c. 8 (end). ME. _brutel_, _brotel_ (Chaucer).

=bub,= to bubble. Sackville, Induction, st. 69.

=bubber,= a drinker of wine. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Costanza).

=bubble,= to delude with _bubbles_, or unsubstantial schemes; to cheat. Etheredge, Love in a Tub, ii. 3 (Wheedle).

=bubble,= one who can be easily ‘bubbled’; a dupe. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

=buck,= to steep or boil (clothes) in lye; ‘Bucke these shyrtes’, Palsgrave; Puritan Widow, i. 1. 150; the quantity of clothes washed at once, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 2. 52; _buck-basket_, basket for dirty linen, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 2. Phr. _to beat a buck_, to beat clothes when being washed, Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); _to drive a buck_, to wash clothes, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii (end). See EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.^{2}). ME. _bouken_, to steep in lye (P. Plowman). OE. type *_būcian_, cp. G. _bäuchen_, to steep in lye; also Ital. _bucata_, F. _buée_, lye, a wash of clothes.

=buckall,= the point of a horn; ‘You all know the device of the horn, where the young fellow slips in at the butt-end, and comes squeezed out at the _buckall_’, Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Touchstone). Here _buckall_ = _buckle_, meaning the twisted or curled end of the horn, i.e. the smaller end. Cp. prov. E. _buckle-horn_, a crooked or bent horn; _buckle-mouthed_, having a twisted mouth (EDD.).

=bucke,= the body of a chariot; ‘The axletree was massie gold, the _bucke_ was massie golde’, Golding, Metam., ii. 107; fol. 16 (1603). In E. Anglia ‘buck’ is still in use for the body of a cart or wagon; esp. the front part, see EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.^{6} 3); also pronounced _bouk_ (Bouk, sb.^{1} 5). See NED. (s.v. Bulk, sb.^{1} 3. c).

=buckle,= to prepare oneself, esp. by buckling on armour; ‘To teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them’, Bacon, Essay 21. _Buckle with_, to cope with, join in close fight with, 1 Hen. VI, i. 2. 95; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 3. 19. Also _buckle_, to bow, give way, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 141; _buckled_, doubled up, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1. 4.

=bud,= said of children; or used as a term of endearment. King John, iii. 4. 82; ‘O my dear, dear bud’, Wycherley, Country Wife, ii. 1 (Mrs. Pinchwife). A transferred sense of _bud_ (of a flower).

†=bud;= ‘’Tis strange these varlets . . . should thus boldly Bud in your sight, unto your son’, Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2 (Thomas). Meaning unknown.

=budge,= lamb’s fur. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 65. _Budge-bachelor_, a bachelor or younger member of a company, who wore a gown trimmed with _budge_ on Lord Mayor’s day (NED.). Hence, _budge doctor_, a consequential person, Milton, Comus, 707.

=buff ne baff,= never a word; ‘Saied to hym . . . neither buff ne baff’ Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 25. Caxton, Reynard (Arber, 106). _Buff nor baff_ is a phr. in use in Leicestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Buff, sb.^{5} 6).

=buffe,= to bark gently; ‘_Buffe_ and barke’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 140. A Yorksh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Buff, vb.^{3} 1).

=buffin,= a coarse cloth in use for gowns of the middle classes. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 4 (Milliscent); Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Gertrude). See NED.

=buffon= (búff-on), a buffoon. B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 3. 8. F. _bouffon_.

=bufo,= a term in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Subtle). ‘The black tincture of the alchemists’ (Gifford). Only occurs in this passage. L. _bufo_, lit. a toad.

=bug,= an object of terror, bogey, hobgoblin. Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 214; Hamlet, v. 2. 22; Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2 (Moor); ‘Thou shalt not nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night’, Coverdale, Ps. xc (xci), 5. ME. _bugge_, ‘ducius’ (Prompt.).

=bug words,= pompous, conceited words, Massinger, New Way to Pay, iii. 2 (Marrall); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2 (Huntley). See EDD. (s.v. Bug, adj. 1).

=bulch,= to stave in the bottom of a ship. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 132. Cp. _bulge_, the ‘bilge’, bottom of a ship’s hull (NED. s.v. Bulge, sb. 4).

=bulch,= a bull-calf; used as a term of endearment by a witch. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, v. 1 (Sawyer). Still in prov. use in Scotland: ‘Sic a bonnie bulch o’ a bairn’, a Banffshire expression (EDD.).

=bulchin,= a bull-calf. Tusser, Husbandry, 33; Drayton, Pol. xxi. 65; used as a term of endearment, Shirley, Gamester, iv. 1 (Young B.); a term of contempt, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). A Shropsh. word for a calf; _fig._ a stout child (EDD.). See =bulkin.=

=bulcking,= a term of endearment. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, i. 671. See NED. (s.v. Bulkin).

=bulk,= the belly, Lucrece, 467; the trunk, the body; spelt _boulke_. Elyot, Castle Health (NED.); Richard III, i. 4. 40.

=bulk,= a framework projecting from the front of a shop. Coriolanus, ii. 1. 226; Othello, v. 1. 1.

=bulker,= a petty thief; also, a street-walker, prostitute. (Cant.) Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, i. 1 (2 Bully). One who sleeps on a ‘bulk’, one who steals from a ‘bulk’; see =bulk= (above).

=bulkin,= a bull-calf; ‘A young white bulkin’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxviii, c. 12. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). See =bulchin.=

=bull,= a jest; ‘To print his _jests_. _Hazard._ His _bulls_, you mean’, Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3.

=bull-beggar,= an object of terror, a hobgoblin. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, i. 4 (near the end); A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (Host); Bull-begger, ‘_larva_, _Terriculamentum_,’ Skinner (1671). Perhaps a corruption of _bull-boggart_. See NED.

=bulled,= swollen. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (George). Still in use in Northamptonsh. and Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. _bolled_, swollen (NED.).

=bullions.= The full form is _bullion-hose_ (NED.), a term applied to trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, in several folds. ‘His bastard bullions’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 4 (Higgen) [_bastard_ is the name of a kind of cloth]; _a pair of bullions_, The Chances, v. 2 (John); _in the bullion_, i.e. wearing bullions, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 2 (Pontalier).

=bully-rook,= a familiar term of endearment, fine fellow. Merry Wives, i. 3. 2; ii. 1. 200; Shirley, Gent. of Venice, iii. 1 (Thomazo). See EDD. (s.v. Bully, sb.^{1}).

=bum,= to strike, beat, thump. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); Greene, James IV, iii. 2 (Andrew). See EDD. (s.v. Bum, vb.^{3} 1).

=bum out,= to project; ‘What have you bumming out there?’ Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim).

=bum vay,= a familiar contraction of _by my fay_, by my faith. Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, iv. 3, near the end; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 364; _by my vay_, Wily Beguiled, Hazlitt, ix. 328. See EDD. (s.v. Fay, sb.^{1} 1). ME. _by my fey_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1126).

=bumb-blade.= (Cant.) Given in NED. as _bum-blade_, a large sword, Massinger, City Madam, i. 2 (Page).

=bump,= to make a noise like a bittern, to boom. Dryden, Wife of Bath, 194. _Bumping_, the boom of the bittern, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii. c. 27 (4). See EDD. (s.v. Bump, vb.^{2}).

=bunch,= a company of teal; a technical word in falconry. Drayton, xxv. 63. In E. Anglia they speak of a ‘bunch’ of wild-fowl, see EDD. (s.v. Bunch, sb.^{1} ii. 2).

=bung,= a purse. (Cant.) Dekker, Roaring Girl (Wks., ed. 1873, iii. 217); a pick-pocket, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 138.

=bunting,= fat, plump. In Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 1. 10. NED. explains it as ‘plump’; but suggests that it may perhaps mean ‘butting’, from the verb _bunt_, to butt. I was at first inclined to take the same view; but the context decides altogether in favour of the adjective. In l. 7, Faunus brings with him ‘The _fattest_, fairest fawn in all the chace: I wonder how the knave could skip so fast.’; i.e. because he was so fat. And Pan replies that he has brought with him an equally fat lamb, viz. ‘A _bunting_ lamb; nay, pray you, feel no bones [i.e. you can’t feel his bones]. Believe me now, my cunning much I miss If ever Pan felt _fatter_ lamb than this’. See EDD. (s.v. Bunting, adj.^{1}).

=burble,= to bubble. Spelt _burbyl_, Morte Arthur, leaf 382, back, 8; bk. xviii. c. 21; pres. pt. _burbelynge_, id. lf. 208. 17; bk. x. c. 2; ‘I boyle up or burbyll up as a water dothe in a spring’, _Je bouillonne_, Palsgrave. See EDD.

=burbolt,= a bird-bolt, a kind of blunt-headed arrow used for shooting birds. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 2 (Custance); Marston, What you Will, Induction (Philomuse).

=burden,= a staff, club. In Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 46. See =bordon.=

=burdseat,= a board-seat, i.e. a stool. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 408.

=burgh;= See =burre= (2).

=burgullian,= a term of abuse. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 4 (Cob).

=burle,= to pick out from cloth knots, loose threads, &c.; ‘_Desquamare vestes_, to burle clothe’, Cooper, Dict. (1565). Hence _Burling-iron_, a pair of tweezers used in ‘burling’, Herrick, To the Painter, 10. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Burl, vb. 1). ME. _burle clothe_, ‘extuberare’ (Cath. Angl.).

=Burmoothes,= the Bermudas. Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, i. 2 (end). See =Bermoothes.=

=burnish,= to grow stout or plump, to fill out; said of the human frame. Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xi, ch. 37; vol. i, p. 345 b (1634); Congreve, Way of the World, iii. 3 (Mrs. Marwood); ‘_Femme qui encharge_, that grows big on’t, who burnishes, or whose belly increases’, Cotgrave; Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 390. In prov. use, see EDD.

=burnt,= branded as a criminal. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 2 (Cat. Bountinall).

=burnt sack,= a particular kind of wine heated at the fire, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 222; _burnt wine_, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Scapha); _burnt claret_, The Tatler, no. 36, § 5 (1709).

=burre,= the lowest of the tines on a stag’s horn. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21, p. 53. Still in use in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.^{1} 7), where the word is defined, ‘the ball or knob of a stag’s horn at its juncture with the skull’. See =antlier.=

=burre,= an iron ring on a tilting spear, just behind the place for the hand. ‘Burre or yron of a launce, &c.’, Florio, tr. of Montaigne, ii. 37; in form _burgh_, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Moll). ME. _burwhe_, sercle, ‘orbiculus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 268). See EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.^{6}), and NED. (s.v. Burr, sb.^{1}).

=burrough, borrow,= a pledge, a surety. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Pan); v. 2 (Turfe). ME. _borwe_, a pledge (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1622). OE. _borh_ (dat. _borge_).

=Burse,= an Exchange; esp. the Royal Exchange built by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566; it contained shops. Massinger, City Madam, iii. 1. 13; Middleton, The Roaring Girl, iv. 1 (Moll’s Song). F. _bourse_.

=bursmen,= (perhaps) shopmen; ‘Welcome, still my merchants of _bona speranza_ [i.e. gamblers]; . . what ware deal you in? . . Say, my brave bursmen’, A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (beginning). I think the reference is to keepers of shops in the Burse; see above.

=bursten,= ruptured. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 3 (Savil). In common prov. use (with various pronunciations), see EDD. (s.v. Burst, vb. 2).

=bushment,= an ambush. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 70. ME. _buschment_ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 269).

=busine,= a trumpet. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 199. 20; _busyne_, id., lf. 187, back, 26. Anglo-F. _buisine_ (Ch. Rol., 3523), L. _buccina_.

=buske,= a bush. Ralph, Roister Doister, i. 4 (M. Merygreek). ME. _buske_, or busshe, ‘rubus’ (Prompt.).

=buskets,= a spray, as of hawthorn. _May buskets_, sprays of ‘May’ or hawthorn, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 10. See Dict. (s.v. Bouquet).

=buskined,= wearing the buskins of tragedy; hence tragic, dignified. ‘The buskin’d scene’, Massinger, Roman Actor, i. 1. 6; ‘buskin’d strain’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 333.

=busking,= an attiring; esp. the dressing of the head. Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. i. (ed. Arber, p. 54). ME. _busken_, to get oneself ready (Cursor M., 11585). See Dict.

=buskle,= to prepare oneself; hence, to set out, start on a journey, set to work, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid iii. 359 (ed. Arber, 81); to hurry about, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 6, st. 51. Freq. of _busk_, vb.; see above.

=busk-point,= the lace, with its tag (or point), which secured the end of the ‘busk’, or strip of wood in the front of the stays. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 2 (Hodge); Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (Maquerelle); How a Man may Choose, i. 3 (Fuller).

=busky,= bushy. 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 2. See =bosky.=

=bustain,= (prob.) clothed in _bustian_ or _busteyn_, a cotton fabric of foreign manufacture; used as a term of derision; ‘Penthesilea with her bustain troopes’ (i.e. her Amazons). Heywood, Iron Age, pt. ii; vol. iii, p. 368. OF. _bustanne_, ‘sorte d’étoffe fabriquée à Valenciennes’ (Godefrey).

=but,= except, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 82; Massinger, Renegado, i. 2; unless, BIBLE, Amos iii. 17; _but if_, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 16; iv. 8. 33. In prov. use in Cheshire (EDD.). ME. Wyclif, John xii. 24: ‘But a corn of whete falle in to the erthe, and be deed, it dwellith alone.’

=but-bolt, butt-bolt,= an unbarbed arrow used in shooting at the butts. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Cuddy). See =butt-shaft.=

=butin,= booty. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 277, back, 18. F. _butin_.

=butter-box,= a contemptuous term for a (fat) Dutchman. Massinger, Renegado, ii. 5. 8; Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Fulgoso).

=butter-print,= a humorous expression for a child, as bearing the stamp of the parents’ likeness. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 10; The Chances, i. 5 (Don John); Span. Curate, ii. 1 (Diego).

=buttery-bar,= the horizontal ledge on the top of the _buttery-hatch_, or half-door, to rest tankards on, Twelfth Nt., i. 3. 75. _Buttery-hatch_, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Robin). A ‘buttery-hatch’ is still to be seen opposite the entrance to the dining-hall in every college in Oxford. See NED.

=button,= a bud. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 1. 6. ME. _botoun_ (Rom. Rose, 1721). OF. _bouton_, a bud (Rom. Rose); see Bartsch, 412.

=buttons, to make,= to be in great fear. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Sancho). See EDD. (s.v. Button, sb.^{1} 8 and 12).

=butt-shaft,= an arrow (without a barb), for shooting at the butts. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Cupid); L. L. L. i. 2. 181.

=buxom,= yielding, obedient; blithe, lively. Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 626; Henry V, iii. 6. 28; Milton, L’Allegro, 24. See Dict.

=buzzes,= for _burrs-es_, double pl. of _burr_; burrs; used of the rough seed-vessels of some plants. Field, Woman a Weathercock, ii. 1 (Scudmore).

=by and by,= immediately. BIBLE, Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9; Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 2. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

=by-blow,= a bastard. Ussher, Annals, 499 (NED.); Cox, Registers, Lambeth, A.D. 1688, p. 75. In common prov. use in the north of England and the Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. By(e, 8 (4)).

=by-chop,= a bastard. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iv. 2 (Chair).

=bye,= a secondary object; _bye and main,_ a term orig. used in dicing, expressing different ways of winning. _To bar bye and main_, to prevent entirely, stop altogether, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalura).

=bye,= to pay the penalty for, atone for. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 1. 30. Cp. ME. _abyen_, to buy off (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4393). See =aby.=

=bynempt,= declared solemnly, promised with an oath. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 60; Shep. Kal., July, 214. See =benempt.=

=by’r lakin,= by our Lady-kin or little Lady (with reference to the Virgin Mary). Temp. iii. 3. 1; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 14. So also _Byrlady_, Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 2 (1 Gent.). In prov. use from Yorksh. to Derbysh., see EDD. (s.v. Byrlakins).

=byse,= greyish; light blue, or azure. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1158. See Dict. (s.v. Bice).

=bysse,= fine linen; also, a vague name for any fine or costly material. Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales, ed. Dyce, v. 558; Peele, Honour of the Garter, l. 88. OF. _bysse_, L. _byssus_, Gk. βύσσos, ‘fine linen’ (Luke xvi. 19); Heb. _būts_, applied to the finest and most precious stuffs as worn by persons of high rank or honour (1 Chron. iv. 21).