Chapter VI: Part 6

Backmarked. To be backmarked, verb. (pedestrian).—In handicapping to receive less start from ‘scratch’ than previously given—even to being put back to ‘scratch.’

Back Out, verb. (colloquial).—To retreat cautiously and tacitly; from stable phraseology; e.g., the backing out of a horse. Very much the same as to back down (q.v.).

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. viii. Jobson, however, was determined
that Morris should not back out of the scrape so easily.

1855. A. Trollope, The Warden, ch. xii. How was he to back out of a
matter in which his name was already so publicly concerned?

1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, pt. IV., p. 152. I am sure that he
had done his best to spread the report of my marriage with his
sister for fear of my backing out.

Back Scuttle, verb. (thieves’).—The same as back-slang (q.v.).

Back-Seam. To be down on one’s back-seam, phr. (tailors’).—To be down on one’s luck; to be unfortunate.

Back Seat. To take a back seat, phr. (American).—Figuratively, to retire into obscurity; it also sometimes implies a silent confession of failure; an inability to accomplish what one has attempted. The colloquialism has gained a world-wide currency; it received an immense ‘send off,’ as the Americans say, from Andrew Johnson’s famous saying in 1868, that in the work of Reconstruction traitors should take back seats.

1885. Society, Feb. 7, p. 9. This great batting achievement must,
however, take a back seat when compared with the enormous total
recently scored by Shaw’s Eleven in Australia, against a powerful
Colonial team.

1888. Daily News, Feb. 24, p. 5, col. 2. Any form of art which is
barred by its very nature from perfection must take what the
Americans call a back seat.

1888. Texas Siftings, p. 426. Who will say the Britishers are not a
forbearing and forgiving race, and the inhabitants of
Stratford-on-Avon don’t by any means take a back seat in that line?
Ignatius Donnelly actually visited the birthplace of Shakespeare,
and wasn’t lynched! Far from it, he was hospitably received and
entertained.

Back-Slum, subs. (colloquial).—The lowest and most disreputable quarters of a town or city; generally applied to the dens and rookeries of the criminal and ‘outcast’ classes.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff’s Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Scene 5. Log. Well,
don’t grumble—every one must pay for his learning—and you wouldn’t
bilk the schoolmaster, would you? But, come, I’m getting merry; so
if you wish for a bit of good truth, come with me, and let’s have a
dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land. Jerry.
Back slums—Holy Land!—I’m at fault again. Log. Why, among the
beggars in Dyot Street, St. Giles’s. Tom. Beggars! ah, we shall be
very good figures for the part.

(Turns out his pockets.)

1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. xx. Not in
fetid alleys and festering London back-slums only is man’s fight
with difficulty a bitter and crushing battle.

(Australian thieves’.)—A back room or entrance.

Backstaircase, subs. (common).—A bustle, or ‘dress improver.’ For synonyms, see Birdcage.

Backstair Influence, subs. (familiar).—Underhand dealing or persuasion; a stab in the dark; intrigue. [From the use of the back or private stairs of a palace, etc., for other than state visitors; hence, a secret mode of approach; and, attributively, applied to indirect, oblique, and unfair intrigue.]

1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, II. He is like a backstair minister at
Court, who, while the reputed favourites are sauntering in the
bed-chamber, is ruling the roast in the closet.

1877. Grenville Murray, Round about France, p. 77. These men are
the most indefatigable retailers of backstairs small talk to the
little fry of journalism.

Back-Stall, subs. (thieves’).—An accomplice who ‘covers’ the actual thief; especially used in relation to garrote-robberies, in which the back-stall has two functions, first to screen his companion, and then, if necessary, to ‘make off’ with the booty.

Back Talk. No back talk! phr. (common).— 1. A slang catch-phrase indicating that the matter in question is closed to discussion; ‘there’s nothing more to be said.’

2. Underhand insinuation.

Back Teeth. To have one’s back teeth well afloat, phr. (popular).—A facetiously brutal way of implying that the subject of such a remark is well primed with liquor—even to the verge of drunkenness.—See Screwed.

1888. Missouri Republican, Jan. 25. When sober on the bench, Judge
Noonan is a model of all the virtues. On Friday night, however, in
company with Dr. Munford, of Kansas City, ex-Speaker Wood, Mr.
Charles Mead and several other gentlemen, his honour once more
drank until, as an onlooker put it, his back teeth were well
afloat.

Back-Timber, subs. (old).—Clothes. A humorous term which dates back to the middle of the seventeenth century. Other slang equivalents are togs and toggery; also war-paint in the sense of fine or showy garb. In French argot, alpague is used synonymously.

b. 1574, d. 1656. Bp. Hall, Works V., 543. Was there ever more riot
and excess in diet and clothes, in belly-cheer and back-timber,
than we see at this day? [d.]

Back Tommy, subs. (tailors’).—A piece of cloth used to cover the ‘stays’ at the waist.

Back-Track. To take the back-track, phr. (American).—To retreat from any assumed position; to back out (q.v.).

Back Up, verb. (Winchester College).—To call out. In ‘College’ various times are called out by Junior in ‘Chambers,’ such as ‘Three quarters!’ ‘Hour!’ ‘Bells go single!’ ‘Bells down!’

Back-Slang, subs. (street and costermonger).—A species of slang, in which every word, as far as possible, is pronounced backwards. See ‘A Comparative and Historical Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.

verb. 1. (thieves’).—To talk in the back-slang lingo.

2. (thieves’).—To go or come stealthily from a place; to sneak by a roundabout way; also, to go away quickly.

3. (Australian).—Up country in Australia, as in most parts a little out of the beaten tracks of civilization, a traveller is welcome at most of the homesteads in his way. Though unknown to the inmates, and bearing no letter of introduction, it is a common thing for a wayfarer to ride or drive up to a house, maybe call for help, and then take up his quarters for the night. This, in Australia, is called back-slanging it, though how the phrase is derived is not quite clear, for there is no suggestion of sneaking or proceeding stealthily in the question.

Backwardation, subs. (Stock Exchange).—A penalty paid for an extension of time, by sellers, when unable to deliver stock or shares which they have contracted to deliver by a certain date. Backwardation is the reverse of contango (q.v.). Obviously this sometimes permits the purchase of stock cheaper on credit than for cash.

1850. Keyser, Law of the Stock Exchange. The term backwardation is
employed when stock is more in demand than money, and a premium is
given to obtain the loan of stock against its value in money.

1886. Daily News, 14 Dec, p. 6, col. 1. The 1873 loan is, on
balance, about ⅝ lower, at 94, after being 93½. The backwardation
on the stock went off at the close.

Backy, subs. (tailors’).—A shop-mate who works behind another.

Bacon, subs. (popular).—The human body. A reference probably to the fact that the flesh of the pig forms the staple meat diet of the rural population, and lower classes generally. Formerly, no doubt, the term was applied, at first ironically or contemptuously, to a sleek, gross person; hence such compounds as ‘chaw-bacon,’ ‘bacon-brains,’ ‘bacon-face,’ ‘bacon-slicer,’ ‘bacon-picker,’ etc. A transference in sense, and a curtailment in form, in which bacon came to signify the human body was, from this point, easy enough. For synonyms, see Apple-cart.

To save one’s bacon, phr. (popular).—To escape narrowly from loss, danger, or damage; to just get off. The term is here an attributive usage of the slang sense, in which bacon signifies the human body. When it is said that a man has just saved his bacon, it refers to the individual himself. So also in the kindred phrase, ‘Oh, spare my bacon,’ the suppliant asks to be spared in his own person; and the same idea occurs in ‘to sell one’s bacon,’ i.e., one’s flesh or body, as in the case of women of the town. Falstaff, in. I. Henry IV., Act ii., Sc. 2. 93 [1596] thus applies bacon to human beings—‘On! Bacons, on!’ So far the general aspect of the question; in regard to particulars, Mr. Thomas Boys has some curious remarks upon the subject [N. and Q., 2 S., iv., 132] in effect as follows. In connecting the phrase to save one’s bacon with its original meaning, we are carried back to times when imputed heresy was expiated at the stake; and a man was said to have just saved his bacon (i.e., from frying), who had himself narrowly escaped the penalty of being burnt alive. This connection of the two ideas is thus shown. When a pig is killed, it is the custom in some of the southern countries of Europe, as well as in many parts of England, to remove the bristles from the dead pig’s hide, not by scalding but by singeing. This is an operation of some nicety; for too much singeing would spoil the bacon. But practice makes perfect; and by the aid of ignited stubble, straw, or paper, the object is effected. The bristles are all singed off, and the bacon remains intact. This operation of singeing is in Portugal called chamuscar, from chama or chamma, a flame or blaze. Chamuscar, to singe, as pigs, to takeoff the hair (Moraes). Hence the noun chamusco, which is the smell of anything that has been singed. Hence also the phrase cheira a chamusco (he smells of singeing). This last phrase, however, cheira a chamusco, was specially applied to any suspected heretic:—‘o que merece ser queimado, e faz per onde o seja, o que dizião por afronta aos Judeos encobertos.’ That is ‘he who deserved to be burnt, and acted in a way that was very likely to lead to it,’ was said to smell of singeing (‘cheirar a chamusco’), i.e., to smell of the fire. Consequently, the phrase was contumeliously addressed to anyone who was secretly a Jew (Moraes). Thus the persecuted Israelite, who steadfastly adhered to his forefathers’ creed, and lived in daily peril of the stake, was allusively but threateningly and insultingly compared to the abhorred carcass, which, though not yet roasted, boiled or fried, had already the smell of fire. If, after all, he was actually burnt alive, the same allusion was carried out to the end; for he was then said, ‘morrer frito,’ to be fried to death (literally, ‘to die fried’). But even if not burnt he still had the chamusco, or ‘smell of fire’; that is, he had only just saved his bacon.

1691. Weesils, I., 5. No, they’l conclude I do’t to save my bacon.
[M.]

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. II., p. 12.

For could their talent be forsaken,
And they unite truth to save their bacon.

1721. Mrs. Centlivre, The Artifice, v., ii. That pretence shan’t
save your bacon, you old villain you.

1836. M. Scott, Cringle’s Log, ch. v. ‘You know I saved your bacon
in that awkward affair, when through drunkenness you plumped the
Torch ashore.’

1866. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. lii. Jem drew a long breath and
said brutally, yet with something of satisfaction, ‘You have saved
your bacon this time.’

The French equivalent it may be noticed is somewhat analogous—sauver son lard, i.e., ‘to save one’s bacon.’

Possibly, however, most people will be inclined to take the phrase at its face value, without resort to complicated argumentative derivation. In such a case the figurative use of bacon as signifying the body will suffice to explain its origin.

To pull bacon, phr. (popular).—An operation described by the immortal Ingoldsby in the line—

He put his thumb unto his nose and spread his fingers out.

In other words to take a sight (q.v.), or to make Queen Anne’s fan (q.v.).

1886. Household Words, Oct. 2, p. 453. [This] peculiar action has,
I believe, almost invariably been described as ‘taking a sight.’ A
solicitor, however, in a recent police case at Manchester,
described it as pulling bacon.

1887. Leeds Evening News, Sept. 15. ‘Pulling bacon’ at Leeds
policemen.—Before Mr. Goodman and Mr. Farrar Smith, at the Leeds
Police Court to-day, George Evans (50), coachman to the Earl of
Mexborough, Mexborough Hall, near Methley, was summoned under the
Hackney Carriage Bye-laws for having driven on the wrong side of
the road. Police-constables Moody and Lockwood were on duty in Boar
Lane on the 6th inst., when they saw the defendant driving a pair
of horses attached to a carriage on the wrong side of the road for
a distance of one hundred yards. The officers spoke to him, when he
put his fingers to his nose and pulled bacon at them. He had been
previously cautioned, but had not taken the slightest notice.
Defendant said he had been a driver in London for eighteen years,
and knew they had policemen in the road there, but he did not
understand the law of driving in Yorkshire. He was fined 20s.

Bacon-Faced, adj. (colloquial).—With sleek, fat face; full faced. Otway in the Atheist [1684] speaks of one with a ‘bacon face like a cherubim.’

Bacon-Fed, adj. (colloquial).—Fat or greasy. The expression occurs in Shakspeare’s King Henry IV.—See Bacon.

Bacon-Slicer, subs. (old).—A rustic.—See Chawbacon.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xv. (Bohn), I., 149. If he
have not a better judgment, a better discourse, and that expressed
in better terms than your son, with a complete carriage and
civility to all manner of persons, account me for ever hereafter a
very clounch, and bacon-slicer of Brene.

Bad, adj. (popular).—Hard; difficult. Used as in quotation.

1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, ch. xi. ‘I have heard you say
over and over again that, when they are in the mood, their very
temper makes them bad to beat.’

To go to the bad, phr. (colloquial).—To be ruined; to become depraved. Virgil has a similar phrase in pejus ruere, ‘to go to the worse.’

1864. M. E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, ch. xi. ‘A reckless man, ready
to go to the bad by any road that can take me there; worthless
alike to myself and to others.’

1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Beauty and Beast). Let him go
to the bad at his own mad pace.

To the bad, i.e., on the wrong side of the account; in deficit.

1816. ‘Quiz,’ Grand Master, viii., 25. I’ve really to the bad some
thousand of rupees to add. [M.]

1884. Pall Mall G., 6 Feb., 4. He was between £70 and £80 to the
bad. [M.]

Want ’em or him bad, phr. (American).—A humorous manner of expressing strong desire.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, March 9. Myers’ absence is seriously
annoying to the defense, and does not appear quite as funny as it
did when the prosecution called for him on Saturday last. It is not
probable that the Court will very long suspend the trial if Myers
does not appear. As the case now stands, the defense want Myers,
and want him bad.

Bad ’Apenny.—See Bad halfpenny.

Bad-Bargain, subs. (old).—Formerly a worthless soldier; a malingerer. Nowadays the term is applied to any worthless person or scapegrace.

Bad-Break, subs. (American).—A corruption of ‘bad outbreak,’ i.e., riotous conduct, generally attributable to drink.

Bad Crowd Generally, phr. (American).—Of Western origin, and equivalent to the English no great shakes (q.v.). ‘Crowd,’ it may be remarked, in America, signifies either one or more individuals.

Bad-Egg, subs. (familiar).—A scoundrel; a blackguard; a ‘loose fish.’ In America the meaning attached to the term does not necessarily involve such an idea of depravity as on this side of the Atlantic. In the States the term is also applied to a worthless speculation.

1866. Sala, Trip to Barbary, p. 130. The man in black baize with
the felt képi, and who had a hatchet face desperately scarred with
the small-pox, looked from head to heel a bad egg.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 123. There is no
doubt, but there are many of the officials of the convict prisons
who are what the Yankees call bad eggs.

English Synonyms. Bad-lot; bad halfpenny; bad-hat. In Australia ‘ne’er-do-wells’ are termed sundowners; dry hash; or, a stringy bark.

French Synonyms. Malfrat (popular); mauvais gobet (popular: mauvais, bad; gobet, properly a mouthful, morsel, lump, or piece); ferlampier or ferlandier (thieves’: ferlampié formerly signified a dunce); clique (popular); mariasse (popular).

Bad Form, subs. (society).—He who, or that which fails to conform to the shifting fads and fancies of Society, with a big S; and, in a more general sense, anybody or anything vulgar or lacking polish.

1882. Punch. Eton boy. What an awful lot of energy you’ve got
uncle! Uncle. Pretty well, my boy, for my time of life, I think! e.
b. Yes! but energy’s such awful bad form, you know!

Badge, subs. (old).—Used in the canting sense, for one branded in the hand. ‘He has got his badge, and piked’; i.e., ‘he was burned in the hand, and is at liberty.’—Grose.

Badge-Cove, subs. (old).—A parish pensioner; also in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries a licensed beggar or almsman. The remarks under Abram man and Abram sham are to the point in this connection.

Badger, subs. (old).—1. A river thief. A good account of these gentry appears in Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard.

2. (American thieves’).—In the cant language of the American criminal classes a badger or panel thief (q.v.) is one who robs a man after a woman accomplice has enticed the victim into her den.

3. (schoolboy).—A red haired individual.

4. (harlotry).—A common prostitute.—See Barrack-hack.

5. (nautical).—Sometimes badger-bag. The fictitious individual personating Neptune in the festivities incident to ‘crossing the line.’—See Ambassador and Arthur.

6. (Wellington School).—A fellow who has got his ‘badge’ for play in the 2nd XV. at football.

verb. (popular).—To tease; to annoy; to confound.

1798. O. Keefe, Wild Oats, I., i. At home, abroad, you will still
badger me.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxiv., p. 299. Tracy Tupman, and
Augustus Snodgrass, were severally called into the box; both
corroborated the testimony of their unhappy friend; and each was
driven to the verge of desperation by excessive badgering.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xviii., p. 82. ‘Which I
meantersay,’ cried Joe, ‘that if you come into my place
bull-baiting and badgering me, come out!’

The popular French equivalent of to badger is aguigner.

To overdraw the badger, phr. (popular).—A figurative use of ‘drawing the badger’; to overdraw one’s banking account.

1843–4. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg.

His cheeks no longer drew the cash,
Because, as his comrades explain’d in flash,
He had overdrawn his badger.

Badger State, subs. (American).—A popular name for the State of Wisconsin, and so called because of the badgers which once abounded there.

Bad Give-Away.—See Give away.

Bad-Halfpenny, subs. (popular).—A ne’er-do-weel; an allusion to the frequency with which, like bad coins, they are always ‘turning up.’ Cf., Bad-egg.

(Australian).—A failing speculation; a risky venture.

Bad Hat, subs. (popular).—The same as bad egg (q.v.).

1883. Besant, They Were Married, p. II., ch. ix., in Captain’s
Room, etc. There may be one or two bad hats among eldest sons; but
there is not one, I am sure—there cannot be one—who would dare to
take his wife’s salary and deprive her of her son.

Bad Lot.—A term derived from auctioneering slang, and now generally used to describe a man or woman of indifferent morals.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lx. ‘He’s a bad’un, Mr. Lightfoot—a
bad lot, sir, and that you know.’

1868. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. I., ch. ii. ‘I am
good for nothing,’ he said, ‘I am a bad lot. I wonder they don’t
hang such men as me.’

1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. i. ‘The impracticable
Daniel has a certain kind of influence; and though he rarely cares
to use it on his own account—being so bad a lot that he dare not
give himself a decent character—he will employ it to the uttermost
for a spotless nephew.’

Bad Man, subs. (American).—A bad man, in the West, is a somewhat mixed character. The term is generally understood to mean a professional fighter or man-killer, but who, despite this drawback, is said by Roosevelt, in Ranch Life in the Far West, to be sometimes, according to his light, perfectly honest. These are the men who do most of the killing in frontier communities; yet it is a noteworthy fact that the men who are killed generally deserve their fate. These men are, of course, used to brawling, and are not only sure shots, but, what is equally important, able to ‘draw’ their weapon with marvellous quickness. They think nothing whatever of murder, and are the dread and terror of their associates; yet they are very chary of taking the life of a man of good standing, and will often ‘weaken’ and ‘backdown’ at once if confronted fearlessly. With many of them their courage arises from confidence in their own powers and knowledge of the fear in which they are held; and men of this type often show the white feather when they get into a ‘tight place.’ Others, however, will face any odds without flinching, and when mortally wounded, have been known to fight with a cool ferocious despair that was terrible. During the last two or three years, stockmen have united to put down these dangerous characters, often by the most summary exercise of lynch law; and, as a consequence, many localities once infested by bad men are now perfectly law-abiding.

Bad Match Twist, subs. phr. (hairdressers’).—A man who has red, or carotty hair and black whiskers is said to have a bad match twist.

Badminton, subs. (common).—1. A cooling drink; a kind of claret-cup, so called because invented at the Duke of Beaufort’s seat of the same name. Composed of claret, sugar, spice, soda-water, and ice.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, bk. I., ch. i. ‘Waiter, bring me a tumbler
of Badminton.’

1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. ix. An enormous measure of
Badminton, that grateful compound of mingled claret, sugar, and
soda-water.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. ix. Looking up out of a great
silver flagon of Badminton, with which he was ending his breakfast.

2. (pugilistic).—Blood; from the similarity in colour to the summer drink of the same name. Claret (q.v.), for a like reason, is also, in the language of the prize-ring, synonymous with blood.

Bad Record.—See Record.

Bad Shot, subs. (popular).—An abortive attempt; a woman’s guess.

1844. Kinglake, Eothen, viii., 137. I secretly smiled at this last
prophecy as a bad shot.

1859. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’) in Notes and Queries, 2 S.,
viii., p. 492. A bad shot is one of the worst exposures of his
ignorance that a University man when up for examination can make.

See, however, Shot.

Bad Slang, subs. (circus and showmen’s).—Faked up monstrosities; spurious curiosities.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 206.
Roderick Palsgrave was considered by all who knew him to be the
best showman of a bad slang that ever travelled. He would get hold
of any black girl or woman, dress her up, and then show her as one
of the greatest novelties ever seen.

Bag, subs. (old slang).—1. A woman when enceinte was said ‘to have a bag.’ Cf., To bag. Sense 3.

2. (Westminster School).—Milk.

To empty the bag, phr. (old).—To tell, or disclose the whole truth; to wind up an argument or discussion.

To give the bag, phr. (old).—1. Formerly used in varying senses. In the following quotation it conveys, says Nares, the idea of chicanery and cheating. This, however, is doubtful, but compare ‘to give the bag to hold.’

1592. Greene, Quip, in works IX., 263. You shall be ... lighte
witted upon every small occasion to geue your maister the bagge.

2. In another respect to give the bag was used in a sense analogous to that conveyed in to give the sack (q.v.), i.e., to dismiss a person from one’s employment, with this important difference that primarily the ‘bag’ or ‘sack’ was not given by the master or mistress to the servant, but vice versâ, and, therefore, the expression meant ‘to leave without warning.’ This was the earliest usage.

1592. Defence of Conny Catching, in Greene’s works XI., 86. If he
meane to giue her the bagge, he selleth whatsoever he can, and so
leaues hir spoild both of hir wealth and honestie.

1647. Speedy Hue and Crie, I.... He being sometime an Apprentice on
London Bridge ... gave his master the bag. [M.]

Gradually the meaning of to give the bag changed to that which, even to-day, is dialectically current, i.e., ‘to dismiss a person from one’s employment,’ though in large centres of population to give or receive the sack is, at present, the more popular equivalent. While dealing with variations of this kind, it is noteworthy that ‘bag’ was, in the seventeenth century, varied by ‘canvas,’ as Shirley has it——

1652. Shirley, The Brothers, Act ii. I have promis’d him as much as
marriage comes to, and I lose my honour, if my don receive the
canvas.

Gifford and Dyce in a note say ‘the phrase is taken from the practice of journeymen mechanics who travel in quest of work, with the implements of their profession. When they are discharged by their masters, they are said to receive the canvas, or the bag; because in this their tools and necessaries are packed up, preparatory to their removal.’ This suggested derivation would possibly pass muster were it not that, treated historically, the phrase though identical in form is shown to have had an earlier usage, and one, moreover, of an entirely antagonistic character; unless indeed, in the first instance, it was customary for employers to find ‘bags’ of tools and working implements for their employees, in which case the workman or servant in leaving his work would naturally give the master the bag. The transition in sense which the phrase has undergone would then become perfectly clear, as far as the why and wherefore of the change is concerned. Cf., Sack.

To give one the bag to hold, phr. (old).—To leave in the lurch; to engage a person’s attention in order to deceive. Cf., To give the bag, sense 1.

1793. T. Jefferson, Writings (1859), iv., 7. She will leave Spain
the bag to hold. [M.]

1823. Scott, Peveril of the Peak, vii. She gave me the bag to hold
and was smuggling in a corner with a rich old Puritan.

In the bottom of the bag, phr. (old).—An expression equivalent to what, in modern slang, is termed ‘having a trump card in reserve’; something in hand as a last resource or expedient.

1659. Reynolds, in Burton Diary (1828), iv., 447. If this be done
which is in the bottom of the bag, and must be done, we shall ...
be able to buoy up our reputation, [M.]

To let the cat out of the bag, phr. (familiar).—To disclose a trick or secret.—See Cat.

To put one in a bag, phr. (old).—Usage and derivation explained, as far as known, in quotation.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Cardigan (ii., 579). They (the Welsh) had a
kind of play wherein the stronger who prevailed put the weaker into
a sack; and hence we have borrowed our English by-word to express
such, betwixt whom there is apparent odds of strength. ‘He is able
to put him up in a bagge.’ [d.]

1676. Earl of Rochester, Hist. of Insipids, st. 14.

Had haughty Holms but call’d in Spragg,
Hans had been put into a bag.

To put or get one’s head in a bag, phr. (printers’).—A ‘bag’ here signifies a pot of beer; hence, to drink. Also in use amongst seafaring men.

1887. Sat. Review, 14 May, p. 700. It is slang, and yet purely
trade slang, when one printer says of another that he has got his
head in the bag.

To turn to bag and wallet (old).—To become a beggar.

Verb. (popular).—1. To secure for oneself. Most probably a mere extension of the colloquial sporting usage of to bag (properly, to put or enclose in a bag), in the sense of to seize, capture, entrap, or otherwise bring within one’s reach.

1880. Mortimer Collins, Thoughts in my Garden, vol. I., p. 163. The
word beggar itself is from bag—meaning a man who carries a bag; and
modern commercial slang reproduces the phrase, saying of a clever
man of business that he has bagged a good thing.

2. To steal; or to catch (a thief or man). Sometimes rendered by to collar (q.v.).

1818. Moore, Fudge Family in Paris, VI. Who can help to bag a few,
When Sidmouth wants a death or two?

1862. Farrar, St. Winifred’s, ch. xxxv. They would not call it
stealing but bagging a thing, or, at the worst, ‘cribbing
it’—concealing the villainy under a new name.

3. (old).—To beget; to conceive; to breed. Also to be bagged. This usage dates from about A.D. 1400, and was colloquial until about the middle of the seventeenth century. Warner [in Alb. Eng. VI., 148] has the line

Well, Venus shortly bagged, and ere long was Cupid bred.

To get baggy, phr. (common).—Said of clothes when loosened by the stretching which arises from wear and tear. Trousers get baggy at the knees.

Bag and Baggage, phr. (common).—To clear one out bag and baggage is to get quit of one entirely. A deprecatory expression indicating complete riddance.

Bag and Bottle, subs. phr. (old).—Food and drink. The former from being carried in a bag as by beggars and vagrants; the latter also being of similar derivation.

1671. Eachard, Observations. An ill-contriving rascal that in his
younger years should choose to lug the bag and the bottle a mile or
two to school; and to bring home only a small bit of Greek or Latin
most magisterially construed.

Baggage. Heavy baggage, subs. phr. (old).—1. Women and children.—Grose.

2. Baggage is also a familiar colloquialism for a pert, saucy, young woman; like ‘wench,’ ‘rogue,’ ‘gypsy,’ it is often used endearingly.

1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, I., iii. I believe the baggage loves
me.

1732. Fielding, The Miser, Act i., Sc. 9. Here’s a baggage of a
daughter, who refuses the most advantageous match that ever was
offered.

1863. Alex. Smith, Dreamthorpe, p. 12. And Beauty, who is something
of a coquette ... goes off in a huff. Let the baggage go!

3. (old).—A whore or strumpet; a woman of loose morals.

4. (old).—Rubbish; ‘rot.’

1575. Touchstone of Complexions, p. 118. For throughe cruditye and
lacke of perfect concoction in the stomacke is engendered great
abundance of naughty baggage and hurtful phlegme.

1576. Gascoigne, The Steele Glas, p. 79. When brewers put no bagage
in their beere.

Adj. (old).—Used contemptuously of individuals and things. Cf., Baggage—a worthless, good-for-nothing woman.

1593. G. Harvey, Pierees Superero, in works (Gresart) II., 273.
Bibbing Nash, baggage Nash, swaddish Nash, rogish Nash, the
bellweather of the scribling flocke.

1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, ii., 128. For four cellars of wine,
syder, ale, beer, with wood, hay, corn, and the like, stored up for
a year or two, he gave not account of sixpence, but spent it upon
baggage, and loose franions. Ibid., p. 123. Booth himself confest,
in the hearing of those witnesses, that Pregion had nothing to do
with that baggage woman.

Baggage-Smasher, subs. (American).—1. A railway porter. The why and wherefore of this nickname is abundantly apparent from the following quotations.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 358. The baggage-smasher, as the
porter is commonly called, handles his burdens with appalling
recklessness, and responsibility there is none.

1880. New Virginians, i., 37. ‘Called baggage-smashers.’ [M.]

1888. Texas Siftings, Nov. 3. Fashionable people who have spent the
summer at the watering places or at the seaside, but have now
returned to the cities, assert that the baggage-smasher has become
more destructive than ever. The baggage-smasher is indeed a terror.
In fact there are two of them: the one who flits from station to
station and dumps your poor dumb trunk with force enough to drive
piles in a government breakwater, and the one who loiters around
the depôt watching for his chance to shatter your baggage. The
depôt baggageman is the most culpable of the two species. In his
long and dark career of smashing trunks, he has, evidently, knocked
the hoops off his conscience, and there is no remorse brave,
foolhardy and reckless enough to tackle his heart-strings and play
on them.

2. Also a thief who hangs about ‘depôts,’ with a view to robbery of luggage.

1861. New York Tribune, Nov. 23. Gamblers, ticket-swindlers,
emigrant robbers, baggage-smashers, and all the worst classes of
the city.

Bagged, ppl. adj. (American).—A term used to signify imprisonment and victimization—probably only an extension of the idea of capture as derived from sport, through the slang ‘to bag,’ i.e., to steal. Cf., To bag.

Bagging, subs. (provincial slang).—In the first instance, food taken between regular meals; now generally applied, especially in Lancashire, to what is known in the South of England as ‘high tea.’

1750. J. Collier, in Lancashire Glossary (E.D.S.). Hoo’l naw cum
agen till baggin’ time. [M.]

1870. Chambers’ Journal, Oct., p. 661. Lancashire adopts the
whole-board or partial-board system very extensively. The local
term of bagging implies bread and cheese, or pies; and there are
all the varieties of board and lodging, dinner of potatoes and
bacon with buttermilk, bagging in the forenoon and afternoon,
dinner and lunch, and rations allowed for women.

1879. In Temple Bar Mag., 4 Jan. Baggin’ is not only lunch, but any
accidental meal coming between two regular ones.

Bagging the Over.—See Jockeying the over.

Bagman, subs. (popular).—1. A commercial traveller. Formerly of respectable usage; now only employed contemptuously.

1765. Goldsmith, Essays, I. The bagman was telling a better story.
[M.]

1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, p. 20. When all the rest of
mankind look hideous, dirty, peevish, wretched, after a forty
hours’ coach-journey, a bagman appears as gay and spruce as when he
started.

The term bagman took its rise in the saddle-bags in which the commercial traveller of the past century carried his patterns and goods. These saddle-bags being of larger dimensions than those usually carried by travellers on horseback, would designate the commercial traveller par excellence as the bagman.

2. In sporting slang, a ‘bag-fox.’

1875. Stonehenge, Brit. Sports, I., II., iv., § 5. If ... wild cubs
cannot be found, a bagman or two must be obtained. [M.]

Bagnio, subs. (old).—A brothel. [From Italian bagno, a bath, properly a hot bath; whence an application as in the case of stew (q.v.), for a house of prostitution.]

1624. Massinger, Parliament of Love, II., ii. To be sold to a
brothel or a common bagnio.

1851. Thackeray, English Humour, V. (1858), 243. How the prodigal
drinks and sports at the bagnio.

1861. Wright, Domestic Manners in England during the Middle Ages,
491. They were soon used to such an extent for illicit intrigues,
that the name of a hothouse or bagnio became equivalent to that of
a brothel.

Bag of Bones, subs. phr. (familiar).—A lean, attenuated person; sometimes called a ‘walking skeleton.’ The French have un sac à os (often contracted into sacdos)—a literal translation. The term is quite modern, being traced by Murray no further back than 1838, when Dickens used it [in Oliver Twist, iv., 64].

Bag o’ Moonshine, subs. phr. (common).—Nonsense.—See All moonshine.

Bag of Nails, subs. phr. (American thieves’).—A state of confusion or topsy-turveydom. [Qy. from ‘bacchanals.’]

Bag of Tricks, phr. (common).—Generally, the whole bag of tricks; i.e., every expedient.

Bagpipe, subs. (common).—A windy talker; a senseless chatter-box. The derivation is obviously from the musical instrument of the same name.

Verb. (old).—A lascivious practice; too indecent for explanation.

Bags, subs. (popular).—An ironical nickname for trousers, thought by some to be of University origin, and borrowed from ‘the variegated bags’ of Euripides—τους θυλάκους τους ποικίλους (Cyclops., 182).

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
Green, p. 51. Just jump into a pair of bags and Wellingtons. Ibid.,
p. 5. His black go-to-meeting bags.

1870. Chambers’ Journal (Christmas Number). ‘But, holloa!’ he
cried, as he caught sight of his legs. ‘Parsons don’t wear light
tweed bags!’... Jack had to unpack his portmanteau and get out his
evening inexpressibles.

1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xv. His well-shapen hip and calf
were hidden in loose-fitting bags of corduroy.

1880. Punch, Jan. 10, p. 6. The spread of education and liberal
ideas.—His Grace the Duke of Poplar and Bermondsey. ‘Just look at
these bags you last built me, Snippe! J’ever see such beastly bags
in your life? I shall always be glad to come and dine with you, old
man; but I’ll be hanged if you shall ever measure me for another
pair of bags!’ Mr. Snippe (of Snippe and Son, St. James’s Street).
‘You’ve always grumbled about your bags, as you call ’em, ever
since you were my fag at Eton; and at Christchurch you were just as
bad, even though my poor dear old governor used to come all the way
down and measure you himself. It ain’t the fault of the bags, my
dear Popsy—it’s the fault of the legs inside ’em! So, shut up, old
Stick-in-the-mud, and let’s join the ladies—the duchess has
promised to give us “Little Billee.”’

When made of startling material, or ‘cut’ in an exaggerated style of fashion they become howling bags.

English Synonyms. Dittoes; kicks; kicksies; bum-bags; sit-upons; unmentionables; continuations; hams; inexpressibles; abridgements; drumstick-cases; and ducks (when made of white material).

French Synonyms. Dalzar; falzar.

Intj. (schoolboy).—Bags! or bags I! is frequently used to assert a claim to some article or privilege. Analogous schoolboy slang is fains or fain it (q.v.) for demanding a truce during the progress of a game, and which is always granted by the opposing party. In other schools pike I or prior pike serve to lay claim to anything, or for asserting priority of claim. Also bar! e.g., ‘He wanted me to do so and so, but I barred not.’ Cf., Fain, Pike, and Bar.

To have the bags, phr. (popular).—This phrase is erroneously given by Hotten (and Barrère has followed suit), as to have the bags off. The meaning is to be of age, and thus to possess all the rights and privileges of adultship; also to have plenty of money. Obviously an allusion to the transition from child’s attire to the garments of manhood.

Bags of mystery, subs. phr. (common).—Sausages and saveloys are so called—from the often mysterious character of their compounds. Presumably composed of minced ‘meat,’ but so highly flavoured and seasoned that no man can tell whereof they are made.

To take the bags (athletic).—To act as ‘hare’ in ‘Hare and Hounds,’ a game too well known to need description in this place.

(Stock Exchange).—Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway Bonds.—Formed from the initial letters, thus B-A-G-S.

Baijan.—See Bejan.

Bail. Straw-bail or straw-shoes, subs. (common).—A nickname for a person willing for a consideration, to give evidence, or act as bail. Formerly men were much more ostentatious in plying a vocation of perjury than is now happily possible. It was no uncommon thing for such openly to perambulate the entrances to the law-courts ready for any chance customer. They made known their occupation by wearing a piece of straw just sticking out of their shoes. The Quarterly Review (xxxiii., 344) points out that the practice is a very ancient one, Athens having abounded in straw-shoes. The modus operandi was much the same then as in later days. When it was ‘desirable’ to season Attic testimony with bribery and perjury, the scene outside a Greek court of justice might be thus described. An advocate or lawyer who wanted a convenient witness knew by these signs [the straws in the sandals] where to find one, and the colloquy between the parties was brief. ‘Don’t you remember’ said the advocate—(the party looked at the fee and gave no sign: but the fee increased and the powers of memory increased with it). ‘To be sure I do!’ ‘Then come into the court and swear it.’ And straw-shoes went into the court and swore it. As b.c., so A.D. 1754—before and after.

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, book I., chap. ii. Charity took to
husband an eminent gentleman whose name I cannot learn; but who was
famous for so friendly a disposition, that he was bail for above a
hundred persons in one year. He had likewise the remarkable honour
of walking in Westminster Hall with a straw in his shoe.

At present lawyers use straw-bail to designate insufficient bail. Closely allied to this term, and used much in the same manner, is ‘a man of straw.’ The figure is the effigy of a man, stuffed with straw; hence, ‘a man of straw,’ the semblance of a man—a person of neither substance nor responsibility; or one put forward to screen a real delinquent. A curious usage, akin to the foregoing, is also sometimes heard among sailors. For example, a strike for wages having taken place amongst the crew of a ship, ‘blacklegs’ (q.v.), or ‘straw-yarders’ as they were called in nautical phraseology, took the place of the strikers. On the meaning of the expression being asked, it was explained that a ‘straw-yarder’ was a man about the docks who had never been to sea, and knew little or nothing of the duties of a seaman.

To give or take leg-bail, phr. (common).—To escape, either from arrest, or from prison; literally, to be indebted to one’s legs for flight. For exhaustive list of synonyms, see Amputate.

1775. Adair, American Indians, 277. I had concluded to use no
chivalry, but give them leg-bail instead of it, by ... making for a
deep swamp. [M.]

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. iii. ‘I e’en gae them leg-bail, for
there’s nae ease in dealing wi’ quarrelsome fowk.’

1848. Marryat, Poacher, xxii. Given them leg-bail, I swear.

The phrase is sometimes amplified thus:—to take leg-bail and give land security.

Bail Up! also Bale Up! intj. (Australian).—A bushranger’s phrase for ‘stand and deliver’! ‘Shell out’!

1880. Blackwood’s Mag., July, p. 91. [Australian loq.] ‘Bail up!
Bail up!’ shout the two red-veiled attackers, revolvers in hand.

1887. G. L. Apperson, All the Year Round, July 30, p. 68, col. 1.
In times gone by, it was by no means an uncommon occurrence [in
Australia] for a coach to be ‘stuck up’ by a band of bushrangers,
whose shouts of bail up, an invitation equivalent to our ‘shell
out,’ supported by revolver barrels, terrified the hearts of the
passengers. But a coach is now seldom interfered with, and to
‘stick up’ is applied to less daring attempts to rob.

2. Hence, colloquially, a demand for instant payment. Equivalent to the English fork out! stump up! etc. For synonyms, see Shell out.

Bait, subs. (common).—Anger; rage; indignation. Derived from the figurative sense of ‘to bait,’ i.e., to worry; harass; or tease.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice-Versâ, ch. v. ‘I went calmly on, smoking my
cigar as if nothing was the matter. That put the Proctor in a bait,
I can tell you!’

Baitland, subs. (nautical).—Admiral Smyth in his Sailors’ Word Book quotes this as ‘an old word, formerly used to signify a port where refreshments could be procured.’

Bake, verb. (Winchester College).—To rest, or lie down.

Baked, ppl. adj. (common).—Collapsed; exhausted; done up; e.g., ‘toward the end of the course the crew were regularly baked.’ A common colloquialism at the beginning of the present century; but the punning idea involved is very ancient. To bake one’s bread in the sense of ‘to do for one’ occurs as early as 1380, as will be seen from the following quotation.

1380. Sir Ferumb, 577. For euere my bred had be bake; myn lyf dawes
had be tynt.

Half-baked (common) is said of a dull-witted or imbecile person, i.e., one who is ‘soft’ or inexperienced, in contrast to one who is baked in the sense of ‘seasoned,’ quick-witted, etc.

1864. Notes and Queries, 3 S., vi., 494, 2. He is only
half-baked—put in with the bread, and taken out with the cakes.

Baker, subs. (Winchester College).—A cushion. These were of two kinds; that used in ‘College’ was of large size, oblong in shape, and green in colour. The other used in ‘Commoners’ was thin, narrow, much smaller, and of red colour. The term baker is also applied to anything placed upon a form to sit upon, e.g., a blotting book or other article; in short, anything comfortable to sit upon.

(American).—A loafer. The word is generally attributed to Baron de Mandat Grancey, who, in his work Cowboys and Colonels, innocently translated the word ‘loafer’ as baker.

To spell baker (colloquial).—To attempt a difficult task. In the old spelling books ‘baker’ was frequently the first word of two syllables to which a child came when learning to spell.

Baker-Kneed, also Baker-legged, adj. (common).—1. Knock-kneed; disfigured by crooked legs. This deformity, incident to bakers, arising from the constrained position in which they knead bread, is said to be the almost certain penalty of habitually bearing any burden of bulk in the right hand, or of excessive force constantly exerted by the right side of the body. The knees gradually incline inwards until they closely resemble the right side of the letter K.

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, Act ii., Sc. 2. Will women’s tongues,
like bakers’ legs, never go straight?

1692. L’Estrange, Life of Æsop. Æsop ... was ... flat-nos’d,
hunch-back’d, blabber-lipp’d, a long misshapen head; his body
crooked all over, big-belly’d, baker-legg’d, and his complexion so
swarthy that he took his very name from ’t; for Æsop is the same
with Æthiop.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bakes-legg’d, straddling, with
the legs bowing outward.

1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 13. His voice had broken to a
gruffish squeak. He had grown blear-eyed, baker-kneed, and gummy.

2. Effeminate. Either an attributive usage of the foregoing, or an allusion to the popular belief that a woman’s legs are never straight. Compared physiologically with those of a man this is doubtless true; but otherwise most women would resent the imputation as a libel.

1652. Gaule, Hagastrom, 186. Baker-kneed signifies effeminate.

Baker Layer, subs. (Winchester College).—A Junior who used to take a prefect’s green baker (q.v.) in and out of ‘Hall’ at meal times. The term is now obsolete.

Baker’s Dozen, subs. (colloquial).—Thirteen reckoned as twelve. Formerly, so careful were ‘the powers that be’ regarding the supply of bread, that bakers were liable to heavy penalties for any deficiency in the weight of loaves. So hedged in, indeed, was the sale of bread, that the weight of loaves was fixed by law, for every price from eighteenpence down to twopence, but penny loaves or rolls were not specified in the statute. Bakers, therefore, when selling the latter, in order to be on the safe side, gave, for a dozen of bread, an additional loaf, known as ‘inbread.’ A similar custom of giving extra quantity was formerly observed with regard to coal, and publishers nowadays reckon thirteen copies of a book as twelve. That the term baker’s dozen was thoroughly colloquial at the latter end of the sixteenth century is apparent from the first of the following quotations:

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in works III., ii. Conioyning with his
aforesaid Doctor Brother in eightie eight browne baker’s dozen of
Almanackes.

1639. Will of Francis Pynner, of Bury, Gent., dated April 26
[Camden Society’s ‘Bury Wills’]. The yerely sume of ffiue pounds
p’cell of the said yerely rents to be bestowed in wheaten bread, to
be made into penny loaves, and upon eu’y Lord’s day, called Sonday,
throughout eu’y yere of the said terme [40 years or thereabouts],
fowre and twenty loaves of the said bread, with the inbread allowed
by the baker for those twoe dosens of bread, to be timely brought
and sett vpon a forme towards the vpp’end of the chancell of the
said p’ish church of St. Marie, and ... the same twoe dosens of
bread to be giuen and distributed ... to and amongst fowre and
twentie poore people.... And they, the said clarke, sexton, and
bedell, shall alwaies haue the inbread of all the bread aforesaid
ovr and besides their shares in the said twoe dosens of bread.

1733. Fielding, Don Quixote, III., vi. I could not number them. I
dare swear there were a good round baker’s dozen, at least.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxviii. ‘As to your lawyer, you
get just your guinea’s worth from him—not even so much as the
baker’s bargain, thirteen to the dozen.’

Baker’s dozen is occasionally used in a somewhat more figurative sense, and is not confined to the technicalities of trade. It is employed to signify thirteen or fourteen. It is so quoted in Grose (1785), but the usage is apparently much older than that, for Hudson, the navigator, when he discovered the bay to which his name is given, designated a cluster of thirteen or fourteen islands on the east shore of it. The Baker’s Dozen, as may be seen on the charts; and even French atlases exhibit these islands as La Douzaine du boulanger.

To give one a baker’s dozen is to pummell a man well; to thrash him soundly—a humorous allusion to the good measure implied by the phrase.

Bakes, subs. (American thieves’).—A schoolboy.

Bakester, subs. (Winchester College).—One who bakes (see Bake); a sluggard. The term is now obsolete.

Baking Leave, subs. (Winchester College).—Permission to bake (q.v.) in a study in ‘Commoners,’ or in a ‘scob’ place in College. In this sense the term is obsolete; but it is now used of leave to sit in any other person’s ‘toys’ (q.v.)—a sort of bureau.

Baking Place, subs. (Winchester College).—A kind of sofa in ‘Studies’ of ‘Commoners.’

Balaam, subs. (journalistic).—A term applied to all kinds of miscellaneous matter, generally of a trumpery and indifferent character, used as ‘padding’ in periodical publications. Evidently from Numbers xxii., 30, in which the ass spoke ‘with man’s voice.’ Balaam hence denotes ‘the speech of an ass,’ and is well applied to the stupid jokes, and silly paragraphs with which odd corners and short columns are often lengthened out. Brewer claims an American origin, but Webster only calls it ‘a cant term.’ In any case the term has clearly reference to nonsense to be thrown in to fill space, or nonsense thrown out as refuse. The curious point in the story of Balaam is that the ass talks like a philosopher and the prophet behaves like a donkey. The term was popularised by its frequent use in Blackwood’s Magazine.

1826. Scott, Mal. Malagr. iii., 3. How much Balaam (speaking
technically) I have edged out of your valuable paper.

1839. Lochart, Scott, lxx. (1842), 622. Balaam is the cant name for
asinine paragraphs about monstrous productions of nature and the
like, kept standing in type to be used whenever the real news of
the day leave an awkward space that must be filled up somehow. [M.]

Balaam-Basket or Balaam-Box, subs. (journalistic).—1. The receptacle for Balaam (q.v.).

2. When articles or other contributions are rejected they are put in the Balaam-basket, which may either be a pigeon-hole (to await return to the author); the waste paper basket; or, as the readiest mode of extinction, the flames. In any case, the destination is said to be the Baalam-basket or box.

1827. Blackw. Mag., xxi., 340. Several dozen letters on the same
subject now in our Balaam-box.

1873. Hall, Modern English, p. 17. An essay for the Edinburgh
Review, in ‘the old unpolluted English language,’ would have been
consigned by the editor to his Balaam-basket.

1877. Notes and Queries, 5 S., vii., 270, 2. At the risk of getting
into your Balaam-box, I venture to record the whole contents of my
bundle as they lie before me.

Balaclava-Day, subs. (military).—A soldier’s pay day. Balaclava, in the Crimean War [1854–6], was the base of supply for the English troops; and, as pay was drawn, the men went down to make their purchases.

Balance, subs. (American).—A balance properly is that which balances or produces equilibrium. It is the difference between two sides of an account—the amount of which is necessary to make the one equal to the other. It is not the rest or the remainder, yet we continually hear of the balance of this or that thing. In the sense of ‘rest,’ ‘residue,’ or ‘remainder,’ balance is the purest slang.

1846. Albany Journal, Jan. 7. The yawl returned to the wreck, took
ten or eleven persons and landed them, and then went and got the
balance from the floating cabin. [b.]

1861. Boston Transcript, Dec. 27. ‘We listened to Wendell Phillips
for about half an hour, and having an engagement elsewhere, we were
forced to leave, and so lost the balance of his oration.’ [de v.]

The word is thus used very much like the Scottish lave (what is left), employed by Burns in the line—

‘I’ll get a blessing with the lave,
And never miss it.’

In some parts of Virginia the word ‘shank’ is quaintly used for the same purpose, and one friend will say to another, ‘Suppose you come in and spend the shank of the evening with me?’ The vulgarism is becoming common in England, as witness the following:—

1875. Blackwood’s Magazine, April, 443. Balance, long familiar to
American ears, is becoming so to ours. In an account of a ship on
fire we read ‘Those saved remained the balance of the night
watching the burning wreck.’ [M.]

1883. P. Fitzgerald, Recreations of a Literary Man, 170. Everyone
is away shooting or riding; a balance of the ladies is left. [M.]