Chapter XVI: Part 16

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.