Chapter XXIV: Part 24

1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, II., p. 9. Sam Weller, in
particular, was displaying that beautiful feat of fancy sliding
which is currently denominated ‘knocking at the cobblers’ door,’
and which is achieved by skimming over the ice on one foot, and
occasionally giving a two-penny postman’s knock upon it, with the
other.

Butter-Bag or Butter-Box, subs. (old).—Opprobrious epithets for a Dutchman. [? In allusion to Holland producing large quantities of butter. Cf., quot., 1811.]

1600. Dekker, Gentle Craft, wks. (1873) I., 21. We have not men
enow, but wee must entertaine every butter-box. [M.]

1650. Howell, Familiar Letters. And for the latter strength we may
thank our countryman Ward, and Dansker the butterbag Hollander,
which may be said to have bin two of the fatallest and most
infamoust men that ever Christendom bred.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Butter-box. A Dutchman, from the great
quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country.

Butter-Boat. To empty the butter-boat, phr. (common).—To lavish praise; to battle. [From butter-boat, a table utensil employed for serving melted butter.]

1865. Sat. Review, 7 Jan., p. 16, col. 2. That kind of praise which
feels like the butter-boat down one’s back. [M.]

1866. J. H. Skinner, After Storm, I., 181. He praised some things
and gave advice about others, using the butter-boat less freely
than is customary at volunteer inspections. [M.]

Butter-Box.—See Butter-bag.

Buttercups, subs. (common).—A graceful pet name for children.

1877. E. L. Linton, World Well Lost, ch. vii. Hilda was still in
the schoolroom, and seldom appeared even at afternoon tea; which in
general is licensed to include ‘buttercups.’

Buttered, ppl. adj. (old).—1. Whipped. Cf., Dusted, Tanned, etc. (q.v.).

2. (common.)—Flattered.—See Butter, sense 1.

Buttered Bun, subs. (old).—A mistress; also a prostitute, especially one who submits to the sexual embrace in quick succession with different men. [In this latter sense, if not in former, from buttered = greased + bun (q.v.), the female pudenda.] For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1679. Cullen, W., Flock of Court Misses, in Roxburgh Ballads
(1884), V., 126. This is the day ... that sets our Monarch free
From Buttered Buns [i.e., Louise de Quérouaille] and Slavery.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. One lying with a woman that has just
lain with another man, is said to have a buttered bun.

Butter-Fingered, comp. ppl. adj. (common).—Apt to let things fall; greasy or slippery-fingered. The nickname of butter-fingers is hence given to those who let things slip easily from their grasp.

1615. Markham, English Housewife, II., ii. (1668), 51. She must not
be butter-fingered, sweet-toothed, nor faint-hearted; for the first
will let everything fall, etc.

1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures, p. 141. He was a slovenly
player, and went among the cricket lovers by the sobriquet of
butter-fingers.

1861. G. Meredith, Evan Harrington. The long-hit-off, he who never
was known to miss a catch—butter-fingered beast!—he has let the
ball slip through his fingers.

1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xiv. ‘I never allow no
butter-fingered girls in this room, except to sweep or scrub, under
my own eye. There’s not many ornaments, but what there is is
precious, and the apple of master’s eye.’

Butter-Flap, subs. (rhyming slang).—A trap—i.e., a light cart.

Butterfly, subs. (nautical).—1. A river barge.

2. (cabmen’s.)—The guard for the reins affixed to the top of a hansom cab.

1883. Standard, March 6, p. 6, col. 3. The box covered the whole
roof of the cab, preventing him [the cabman] from seeing the
butterfly. [M.]

Butternuts, subs. (American.)—The sympathisers with the South in the North and the Middle States during the American Civil War; the term was derived from the colour of the uniforms worn in the early part of the war by Confederate soldiers in the West, which, being homespun, were dyed brown with the juice of the butternut (Juglans cinerea).

Butter-Print, subs. (old).—A child; usually one that is illegitimate. Cf., Buttercup.

1620. Fletcher, Chances, I., v. You will be wiser one day, when you
have purchased A bevy of these butter-prints. [M.]

1639. Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit Without Money, V., iv. I hope she
has brought me no butter-print along with her to lay to my charge.
[M.]

1709. Brit. Apollo, II., No. 46, p. 3, col. 2. Her Girl and her
Boy, For Patterns employ, To make little Butter-Prints by. [M.]

Buttock, subs. (old).—A common prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack, and Cf., File.

1674. R. Head, Canting Academy, 105. The Bawds and the Buttocks
that lived there round.

1688. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, I., wks. (1720) IV., 17. What
ogling there will be between thee and the Blowings!... Every
buttock shall fall down before thee.

1690. B. E., Dictionary of the Canting Crew. Buttock and file, both
whore and pickpocket.

Buttock and File, subs. phr. (old).—A prostitute and her companion; sometimes bulk and file. Occasionally, too, buttock and file is used of a single individual—one who unites the roles of a thief and prostitute. [From buttock (q.v.), a whore, + file (q.v.), a pickpocket.]

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). Bulk
and File the Pickpocket and his mate.

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. I., ch. v. The same capacity
which qualifies a mill-ben, a bridle-cull, or a buttock and file to
arrive at any degree of eminence in his profession would likewise
raise a man in what the world esteem a more honourable calling.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Buttock and file, a common whore and a
pickpocket.

Buttock and Tongue, subs. (old).—A scolding woman; a shrew.

Buttock and Twang, subs. (old).—A common prostitute, but who refrains from theft. Cf., Buttock and file.

Buttock Ball, subs. (old).—1. A dance attended by prostitutes. Cf., Ballum rancum and Buff ball.

1687. T. Brown, Lib., Consc., in Dk. Buckingham’s Wks. (1705), II.,
131. Why not into a Bibbing-house, as well as a Dancing School, a
buttoc-ball, or the like.

2. (old.)—The sexual embrace; cohabitation. Cf., Bawdy banquet and Buttock banquetting.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Buttock-ball, the amorous congress.

Buttock Banquetting, subs. (old).—Harlotry.

1555. Fardle Facions, II., viii., 167. Whiche [wiues] maie
neuerthelesse vse buttocke banquetyng abrode.

Buttock-Broker, subs. (old).—A procuress; a bawd; an abbess (q.v.).

Buttocking Shop, subs. (old).—A brothel; a house of ill fame used by the lowest class of public women.

Button, subs. (old).—1. A shilling. Formerly this applied to good currency; it now only signifies counterfeit coin. For synonyms, see Below.

2. A decoy of any kind, whether the confederate of confidence trick men, or a sham buyer at an auction. Frequently called a buttoner (q.v.). Cf., Bunco-steerer. Fr. un allumé.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 358.
They [cheap Jacks] have a man, or more generally a boy ... at a
fair, to hank, or act as a button (a decoy), to purchase the first
lot of goods put up. Ibid, III., p. 121. Then he (the
thimble-rigger) turns round to the crowd, and pretends to be
pushing them back, and whilst he is saying, ‘Come gentlemen, stand
more backwarder,’ one of the confederates, who is called a
‘button,’ lifts up one of the thimbles with a pea under it, and
laughs to those around, as much as to say, ‘We’ve found it out.’

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, ix. The button, that is the
confederate who egged on the flats.

Verb.—To decoy; to act as confederate in swindles. Fr. aguicher.

Not to care a button—brass button, etc., phr. (common).—A very old colloquialism indicative of small value. It has been in continuous use from the beginning of the fourteenth century down to the present time. Americans say ‘not worth a cent or a red cent,’ while among variants in common use in England may be mentioned ‘not to care a fig—a pin—or a sou.’

Button Burster or Button Buster, subs. (theatrical).—A low comedian. [The derivation is sufficiently obvious, that is, one who causes his auditors to laugh so that by a figure of speech their buttons are regarded as bursting off their clothes.]

Button-Catcher, subs. (general).—A tailor. There may be mentioned among

English Synonyms, snip; cabbage contractor; steel-bar driver; goose persuader; sufferer; ninth part of a man, etc.

French Synonyms. Un gobeprune (thieves’); un emmailloteur (popular); un mangeur de prunes (general); un pique-poux; un pique-prunes; un pique-puces; un croque-prunes; un frus-quineur. (Most of these are offensive terms, as will be seen when it is stated that puces = fleas; poux = lice, and so on.)

Buttoner, subs. (thieves’).—A card-sharper’s decoy, an equivalent of button, subs., sense 2. For synonyms, see Decoy-duck.

1841. Blackwood’s Mag., L., 202. Buttoners are those accomplices of
thimble-riggers ... whose duty it is to act as flat-catchers or
decoys, by personating flats. [M.]

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3 ed.), p. 446. To entice another to
play—buttoner.

1860. Cornhill Mag., II., 334. Enticer of another to play—buttoner.
[M.]

Button-On. To have a button on, phr. (printers’).—To have a fit of the blues; to be despondent.—See Chopper on.

Button Pound, subs. (provincial).—Money. For synonyms generally, see Actual.

Buttons, subs. (common).—A page; sometimes rendered by boy in buttons. [In allusion to the numerous buttons which usually adorn the front of a page’s jacket.]

1860. Thackeray, Lovel the Widower, p. 289. [Herein quoted as the
name of a page.]

1873. Chambers’ Jour., p. 605. Even the smallest boy in buttons
would have been a retainer too costly for us.

1874. H. Mayhew, London Characters, p. 311. Others limit their
views to a page, or ‘buttons.’

1885. Ill. Lon. News, April 11, p. 376, col. 1. Such a man is only
fit to be dressed like a buttons, and set to open the door to
visitors who come to call on his family.

Dash or damn my buttons—wig, etc., phr. (general).—A mild oath, the word ‘damn’ often being represented by a dash. Ordinarily employed to express vexation or surprise.—See Oaths.

1860. Wm. Howard Russell, My Diary in India, I., p. 26. Darn my
buttons if I haven’t jest a mind to....

Not to have all one’s buttons, phr. (common).—To be deficient in intellect; slightly cracky; to have a bee in one’s bonnet.—See Apartments to let.

To have a soul above buttons, phr. (common).—To be above one’s work or duty; to think one’s ability superior to one’s position. [The quotation for 1795 to which Murray calls special attention would seem to indicate the possible origin of the phrase.]

1795. G. Colman, Sylv. Daggerwood, I. (1808), 10. My father was an
eminent Button-Maker ... but I had a soul above buttons ... I
panted for a liberal profession. [m.].

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. i. But my father, who was a
clergyman of the Church of England, and the youngest brother of a
noble family, had a lucrative living and a soul above buttons, if
his son had not.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, III., p. 93. If I were to say to Captain
Crackthorpe, ‘What pretty buttons!’ he would be delighted. But
you—you have a soul above buttons, I suppose.

To make buttons, phr. (old).—To look sorry; sad; to be in great fear.

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Supererog., in wks. II., 238. Thy witt
already maketh buttons.

1653. Middleton, Sp. Gipsy, IV., iii. Sam. O Soto, I make buttons!

Button Up, verb (American stockbrokers’).—When a broker has bought stock on speculation and it falls suddenly on his hands, whereby he is a loser, he keeps the matter to himself, and is reluctant to confess the ownership of a share. This is called buttoning up.

Butty, subs. (common).—A comrade or partner. Properly and specifically a miner who raises coal or ore by contract at a special price per ton, employing others to do the actual work. Perhaps more provincial than slang, although a writer in Notes and Queries, July 30, 1870, suggests its origin in the Romany: he says in the gipsy dialect booty is the term for work. Booty-pal is a fellow-workman (literally work-brother). As usual when a polysyllable is imported into ordinary use, it loses its tail; so booty-pal, in the mouths of navvies ignorant of its origin, would soon be cut down to booty or butty.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, wks. III., ch. i. Suppose we were to make a
shift for a month or six weeks, ... and have no tommy out of the
shop, what would the butty say to me? [A note to foregoing explains
that a butty in the mining districts is a middleman: a Doggy is his
manager. The butty generally keeps a Tommy or Truck shop and pays
the wages of the labourers in goods.] Ibid, p. 385. The butty has
given notice to quit in Parker’s field this se’nnight. Ibid, p.
389. The enemies of the people: all butties, doggies, dealers in
truck and tommy.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxxi. ‘He and I cottoned
together, and found out that we had been prisoners together
five-and-twenty years agone. And so I shouted [stood drinks] for
him, and he for me, and at last I says, “Butty,” says I, “who are
those chaps round here on the lay?”’

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 101.
William Carrol was his partner, or butty, in the ‘lollipop’
business—a dismal looking man, who had always a burnt short clay
pipe in his mouth.

Buvare, subs. (strolling players’).—Explained by quotation. Cf., also Beware.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 201.
[Ethiopian serenader loq.] ‘We could then, after our “nunyare” and
“buvare” (that’s what we call eat and drink, and I think it’s
broken Italian), carry home our 5/– or 6/– each, easy.’

Buy a Prop, phr. (Stock Exchange).—A term used to signify that the market has gone flat, and that there is no one to support it.

Buz or Buzz, subs. (common).—A parlour game which is thus described by Hotten, who, however, erroneously limited it to public-houses:—The leader commences saying ‘one,’ the next on the left hand ‘two,’ the next ‘three,’ and so on to seven, when ‘buz’ must be said. Every seven and multiple of 7, as 14, 17, 21, 27, 28, etc., must not be mentioned, but ‘buz’ instead. Whoever breaks the rule pays a fine.

1868. Miss Alcott, Little Women, ch. iii. They ... were in the
midst of a quiet game of ‘buzz’ with two or three other young
people who had strayed in, when Hannah appeared.

Verb (general).—1. Some uncertainty exists as to whether to buz signifies to drain a bottle or decanter to the last drop, or whether it means to share equally the last of a bottle of wine, when there is not enough for a full glass to each of the party. [See, however, quot. 1795.] Annandale and Hotten incline to the latter; Grose and Murray to the former view, and the following quotations appear to favour the explanation of the word first noticed as buzza by the burly lexicographer of the ‘Vulgar Tongue.’ [? A corruption of booze or bouze, i.e., to drink a bumper or to excess.] The Scotch say bouse a’, drink all.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To buzza one, is to
challenge him to pour out all the wine in the bottle into his
glass, undertaking to drink it, should it prove more than the glass
would hold; it is commonly said to one who hesitates to empty a
bottle that is nearly out.

1795. Gent. Mag., p. 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter
containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you:
come, no heel taps!’

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 1. Cribb. ...
I’ll give you, ‘May the best man win.’ (All drink.) May the best
man win. Green. May the best man vin. Log. With all my heart; but,
zounds! we’ve almost buzz’d the bowl. Let’s have another, and d’ye
hear, Tom, serve it up in your prize cup; Jerry hasn’t seen it, and
we mustn’t omit that.

1846–48. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., 138. ‘Get some more port,
Bowls, old boy, whilst I buzz this bottle here—what was I saying?’
‘I think you were speaking of dogs killing rats,’ Pitt remarked
mildly, handing his cousin the decanter to buzz.

1871. Archibald Forbes, My Experiences of the War between France
and Germany, I., p. 234. The Hotel which I had seen a few days
before, where Von Tümpling’s staff were buzzing the bottles.

2. To pick pockets. [Probably an allusion to buzz in the sense of to talk busily. The victim in buzzing or buz-faking (q.v.) is generally engaged in conversation with a confederate, while the buzzer (q.v.) is committing the robbery.] For synonyms, see Prig.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 158. In order to give them an
opportunity of working upon the prig and buz, that is, picking of
pockets.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 445. To pick pockets—to
buzz.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 261. In
my young days there used to travel about in gangs, like men of
business, a lot of people called ‘Nobblers,’ who used to work the
‘thimble and pea rig’ and go buzzing, that is, picking pockets,
assisted by some small boys.

3. (American thieves’.)—To search for; to look about one.

Buz-Bloke.—See Buz-napper.

Buz-Cove.—See Buz-napper.

Buz-Gloak.—See Buz-napper.

Buz-Man, subs. (thieves’).—1. A pickpocket. Cf., Buz-napper.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 111. The London buzman
(swell mobsman) can keep his pony by abstracting ‘skins’ (purses)
from gentlemen’s pockets.

2. (thieves’.)—An informer. [From buzz, to talk or whisper, + man.] For synonyms, see Nark.

1877. W. Black, Green Past. and Picc., ch. xi. What was all this
about ‘Billy Rowland,’ ‘Scotland Yard,’ ‘Spy,’ ‘Buzman,’ and the
rest?

Buz-Napper, subs. (old).—1. A pickpocket. [From buz, to pick pockets, + napper or nabber, one who seizes or snatches. ‘Buz-bloke,’ ‘buz-cove,’ ‘buz-gloak,’ ‘buz-man,’ and ‘buzzer,’ are all variants of buz-napper; ‘bloke,’ ‘cove,’ and ‘gloak,’ are old canting terms for a man.] For synonyms, see Area-sneak.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 174. A young fry of boys ...
follow the profession of a buz-napper.

1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs of Convict Life in Australia. Buz-cove or
buz-gloak, a pickpocket; a person who is clever at this practice is
said to be a ‘good buz.’

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v.

Until at last there was none so knowing,
No such sneaksman or buz-gloak going.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Those who plunder by
stealth, as ... ‘buzzers,’ who pick gentlemen’s pockets.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 3 p.m., par. 10. Where these
ruffiani, these copper captains and cozening buz-gloaks, are to be
found during the day, or even up to midnight ... must remain a
secret.

1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 46. Buzzers who pick gentlemen’s
pockets, and ‘wires’ who pick ladies’ pockets.

1867. Galaxy, p. 634. While the [New York] police had no right to
arrest pickpockets unless they caught them committing a theft, yet
as they had the power to do so, they exercised it, and many were
the car-buzzers they led captives to police headquarters.

Buz-Napper’s Academy, subs. (old).—A school in which young thieves were trained. Figures were dressed up, and experienced tutors stood in various difficult attitudes for the boys to practise upon. When clever enough they were sent on the streets. Dickens gives full particulars of this old style of ‘business’ in Oliver Twist.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 173. [A Buz-napper’s Academy
is named and described in this work.]

Buz-Napper’s Kinchin, subs. (old).—A watchman. Synonymous terms in the sense of police will be found under beak (q.v.).

Buzzer.—See Buz-napper.

Buzzing or Buz-Faking, subs. (thieves’).—Pocket-picking. Cf., Buz, verb, sense 2.

By-Blow, subs. (old).—An illegitimate child. [An allusion to the unacknowledged status of the mother, and the ‘accident’ of the birth of such children.] Also called by-chop and by-slip.

1594. Barnfield, Affectionate Shepherd. In such a ladies lappe, at
such a slipperie by-blow, That in a world so wide could not be
found such a wilie Lad; in an age so old, could not be found such
an old lad.

1625. Massinger, Parl. of Love, II., i. Give to each by-blow, I
know mine, a farm.

1678. C. Cotton, Scarronides, bk. I., p. 21 (ed. 1725).

Now Venus was Æneas Mother,
In the behalf then of her by-blow,
Which had endured many a dry-Blow,
She weeping came, sighing and throbbing.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. II., p. 19.

The poor Man’s House abound with Brats,
As country Barn with Mice and Rats;
And Parishes be fill’d with by-blows
As thick as Butchers’ Stalls with Fly-blows.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). By-blow (s.), a bastard or
illegitimate child.

1868. Browning, Ring and Bk., iv., 612. A drab’s brat, A beggar’s
bye-blow.

1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. I., ch. iii., p. 34. The one who held the
child turned his light on the little wet face;... ‘And whose
by-blow is this?’ said he. ‘The devil knows,’ said he who knelt by
the mother. ‘But it is Pippa.’

By-Chop.—See By-blow.

1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iv., 2.

First I have sent
By-chop away; the cause gone, the fame ceaseth.

By Cracky! intj.—A meaningless ejaculation conveying no idea beyond that of general surprise.—See Oaths.

1888. Superior Inter-Ocean. Say, haint Tubbs a Methodist? By
cracky! here’s where it is, and in we walked.

Bye-Drink, subs. (common).—Liquid refreshment taken at other than meal-times. [From bye = not in regular course + drink.]

1766. Kenrick, Falstaff’s Wedding, i., 1. I could wish,
nevertheless, old white wine stood higher in his lordship’s favour;
that I may not be stinted at table, or in my by-drinkings.

1883. Daily Telegraph, Jan. 10, p. 5, col. 3. Our business men—and
many others who are not men of business—take, as it is, a great
many more ‘bye-drinks’ in the way of ‘sherry’ and ‘whiskey cold’
than is good for them.

By George! intj. phr. (popular).—An ejaculation signifying either surprise, or anger, or used without any special meaning. Phrases of the kind are very numerous, and are mainly employed by those whose poverty of language is otherwise very marked. [By George! may either be a reference to St. George, the patron saint of England, or to the predominant Christian name of the early sovereigns of the Brunswick dynasty.]

1731. Fielding, Grub Street Opera, Act iii., Sc. 7. By George, I’ll
make an example of him.

1737. Bacchus and Venus, p. 117. ’Fore George, I’d knock him down.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxxviii. ‘I—er—a little subject to
this sort of thing—er—By George!’

By Goldam! intj. phr. (American).—A semi-veiled oath. The Yankee is peculiarly fertile in variations on the name of God, and gives a striking proof of his ingenuity in inventing new forms for the forbidden I swear. He has his by Gorram! by Goldam! and by Goshdang! by the side of the English oath by Golly! which occurs as early as 1743.—See Oaths.

By Golly! intj. phr. (popular).—A euphemistic phrase for by God!—See Oaths.

1743. W. Warren, Five Arguments against Tythes. ‘The first person
consulted a gentleman-farmer, and declared that he never read
anything so good in his life. “By golly,” says he, “he ’as mauled
the parsons.”’

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 204.
Then I turn round to him and say, ‘By golly, if you don’t leave
off, I’ll broke you over de jaw.’

By Gorram!—See By Goldam!

By Gosh! intj. phr. (popular).—A compromise for By God!

1804. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), I., 210. I promise,
by Gosh (which is the most elegant and classical oath imaginable).

1877. W. Black, Green Past. and Picc., ch. xxxv. ‘If this goes on,’
said he suddenly, ‘by Gosh, I’ll heave!’

By Gum! By Gummy! intj. phr. (American).—Both these expletives are extracts from the great American Dictionary of Oaths and Cuss Words, compiled by descendants of the Puritan Fathers.—See Oaths.

1860. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Season Ticket, No. ix. ‘By gum,
Squire Shegog, we have had the greatest bobbery of a shindy in our
carriage you ever knowed in all our born days.’

By Hook or By Crook.—See Hook.

By Hooky, intj. phr. (popular).—A mild form of swearing.—See Oaths.

1882. Jas. Payn, For Cash Only, ch. xxii. ‘Pay me what you owe me,’
says I, ‘or, by hooky, I’ll tell your father.’

Byng, Bing, verb (old).—To go. Bynge-awaste, to go away.

1567. Harman, Caveat, or Warening for Commen Cursetors, p. 86. Man.
What, stowe your bene, cofe, and cut benat whydds, and byng we to
rome vyle, to nyp a bong; so shall we haue lowre for the bousing
ken and when we byng back to the deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some
duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll the ken for a lagge of dudes.
[i.e.] What, holde your peace, good fellowe, and speake better
wordes, and go we to London, to cut a purse; then shall we haue
money for the ale house, and when wee come backe agayne into the
country, we wyll steale some lynnen clothes of one hedges, or robbe
some house for a bucke of clothes.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
Bing a wast, get you hence.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Binged avast in a
darkmans, stole away in the night. Bing we to Rumeville, shall we
go to London?

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. ‘Bing out and tour [go out
and watch] ye auld devil, and see that nobody has scented.’

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. ‘I smell a spy,’ replied
the other, looking at Nigel.... ‘Bing avast, bing avast!’ replied
his companion.

By-Scape, subs. (old).—A bastard. Cf., By-blow.

1646. Earl Monm., Biondi’s List., VI., ix., 197. For his being
God-son to her Brother, and ... for that (being very fair) she
thought him a by-scape of his. [M.]

By-Slip, subs. (old).—A bastard. See By-blow.

1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, ii., 37. As Pope Paul the Third
carried himself to his ungracious by-slips (an Incubus could not
have begot worse), who made no further inquisition after their
horrid facts but to say, They learnt it not of him.

Byte.—See Bit.

By the Ever-Living Jumping Moses! intj. phr.—An effective ejaculation and moral waste-pipe for interior passion or wrath is seen in the exclamation, by the ever-living jumping Moses!—a harmless phrase, that for its length expends a considerable quantity of fiery anger.—Hotten.

By the Living Jingo! or By Jingo!—See Jingo.

By the Wind, phr. (nautical).—Hard up; in difficulties. [In reference to the wind being formerly the most important element of success in a sailor’s calling.]

END OF VOL. I.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, SIGNS, ETC.

Adj. = Adjective.
Adj. phr. = Adjectival phrase.
Adv. = Adverb.
Adv. phr. = Adverbial phrase.
C. c. = Circa, about.
Cf. cf. = Confer, compare.
f. = feminine.
F. or Fr. = French.
Heb. = Hebrew.
imp. = imperative.
int. = interjection.
intr. = intransitive.
It. = Italian.
lit. = literally.
[M.] = Murray (quoted from New English Dictionary).
m. = masculine.
M.E. = Middle English.
M.H.G. = Middle High German.
[N.] = Nares (quoted from).
O.E. = Old English.
O.H.G. = Old High German.
ppl. = participial or participle.
phr. = phrase.
pl. = plural.
pop. = popular.
ppl. adj. = participial adjective.
(q.v.) = quod vide, which see.
subs. = substantive.
trans. = transitive.
U.S. or U.S.A. = United States of America.

When a word is printed in small capitals it should be referred to for further information.