Chapter IX: Part 9

2. Hence, to become a beggar. Bath, especially in the latter part of the last century, and at the beginning of the present one, enjoyed a reputation for its fashion and baths: it was also, naturally enough, for this very reason, the resort of countless numbers of beggars. To go to Bath signified, therefore, amongst vagrants, to proceed to what was in reality one of the first centres of beggardom; presumably to solicit alms. Hence also an additional clue to the process of transition into sense 1. What more natural than to bid an importunate applicant to betake himself to Bath to join his fellows? Fuller in his Worthies has a passage which throws some additional light upon the question.

1662. Fuller, History of the Worthies of England. Beggars of
Bath.—Many in that place; some natives there, others repairing
thither from all parts of the land; the poor for alms, the pained
for ease. Whither should flock fowl in a hard frost, but to the
barn-door? Here, all the two seasons, being the general confluence
of gentry. Indeed laws are daily made to restrain beggars, and
daily broken by the connivance of those who make them; it being
impossible when the hungry belly barks, and bowels sound, to keep
the tongue silent. And although oil of whip be the proper plaister
for the cramp of laziness, yet some pity is due to impotent
persons. In a word, seeing there is the Lazar’s bath in this city,
I doubt not but many a good Lazarus, the true object of charity,
may beg therein.

Long previous to 1662, however, stringent vagrant laws were in force.

1588. William Lambard, The Office of the Justices of the Peace, p.
334. Such two Justices may ... License diseased persons (living of
almes) to trauell to Bathe, or to Buckstone [Buxton], for remedie
of their griefe.

Bathing Machines, subs. (nautical).—A name given to the old 10 ton brigs.—Russell’s Sailor’s Language.

Bat-Mugger, subs. (Winchester College).—A wooden instrument used for rubbing oil into cricket bats.

Bats, subs. (thieves’).—A pair of bad or old boots. Elworthy in West Somerset Words gives this as a heavy laced boot with hobnails.

Bats Down? (Winchester and general).—‘How many bats down?’ i.e., how many wickets have fallen?

Battels, subs. (University).—The weekly bills of students at Oxford. The derivation of the term has been the subject of much discussion, and is very uncertain. Murray says much depends on the original sense at Oxford: if this was ‘food, provisions,’ it is natural to connect it with ‘battle,’ to feed, or receive nourishment.—See quotation.

1886–7. Dickens, Dictionary of Oxford and Cambridge, p. 16. Battels
is properly a designation of the food obtained from the College
Buttery. An account of this, and of the account due to the Kitchen,
is sent in to every undergraduate weekly, hence these bills also
are known as battels, and the name, further, is extended to the
total amount of the term’s expenses furnished by the College. In
some Colleges it is made essential to the keeping of an
undergraduates’ term that he should battel, i.e., obtain food in
College on a certain number of days each week.

To quote Dr. Murray again, however, it appears that the word has apparently undergone progressive extensions of application, owing partly to changes in the internal economy of the colleges. Some Oxford men of a previous generation state that it was understood by them to apply to the buttery accounts alone, or even to the provisions ordered from the buttery, as distinct from the ‘commons’ supplied from the kitchen: but this latter use is disavowed by others ... but whether the battels were originally the provisions themselves, or the sums due on account of them, must at present be left undecided.

1853. Cuthbert Bede, Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. vii. The
Michaelmas term was drawing to its close. Buttery and kitchen books
were adding up their sums total; bursars were preparing for
battels.

(Eton.)—See quotation.

1798. H. Tooke, Purley, 390. Battel, a term used at Eton for the
small portion of food which, in addition to the College allowance,
the collegers receive from their dames.

Batter, subs. (common).—Wear and tear; e.g., ‘the batter is more than any human being can stand for long.’ [From one of the ordinary meanings of to batter, to wear or impair by beating or long service, as a battered jade.]

Ppl. adj.—Given up to debauchery; this sense follows upon

To go on the batter, i.e., to walk the streets for purposes of prostitution; but cf., Bat.

Battle of the Nile, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—A ‘tile’ = a hat. For synonyms, see Cady.

Battle Royal, subs. (colloquial).—A vehement quarrel.

1698. Howard, All Mistaken, Act i.

1st Nurse. Your husband is the noted’st cuckold in all our street.

2nd Nurse. You lie, you jade; yours is a greater.

Phil. Hist—now for a battle-royal.

18(?). Thackeray, Shabby Genteel Story, ch. vi. A battle-royal
speedily took place between the two worthy mothers-in-law.

1865. Sketches from Cambridge, p. 137. Our brethren there [in
Oxford] seem to be always indulging in battles-royal.

Battlings, subs. (public schools’).—A weekly allowance of money. At Winchester it is 1s., while at Repton it is only 6d.

1864. Household Words, p. 188. The business of the latter was to
call us of a morning to distribute amongst us our battlings, or
pocket-money.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 184. The
expense was defrayed by the boys subscribing the last three
battlings (i.e., the weekly shilling allowed each boy). This was
rather an illusory coin, for we seldom actually fingered it, as
some one of the College servants generally had a kind of
prescriptive right to a benefit; and whenever Saturday arrived,
Præfect of Hall’s valet was sure to come round to ask the boys if
they would give their battling to Rat Williams, or Dungy, or
Purver, or Long John, or some other equally deserving individual.

1883. Trollope, Autobiogr. (1883), I., 13. Every boy had a shilling
a week pocket-money, which we called battels. [This is probably a
misprint—the Winchester term, as that used at other schools, is
battling. It was advanced out of the pocket of the second master.]

Battner, subs. (old).—An ox; beef being apt to batten or fatten those that eat it. ‘The cove has hushed the battner,’ i.e., has killed the ox.—Grose [1785].

Batty, subs. (general).—Wages; perquisites. Derived from batta, an extra pay given to soldiers while serving in India.—Hotten. Col. Yule says in Indian banking, agio or difference in exchange; discount on coins not current; or of short weight.

1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1 S., Merton, ch. viii. Whether
he could draw full batta in peace-time.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, 5 S., ‘Batta.’ Batta or Batty
(Hindustanee). Perquisites; wages. Properly, an allowance to East
Indian troops in the field.

Baulk, subs. (Winchester College).—A false report (especially that a master is at hand), which is sported (q.v.), not spread.

(Popular.)—A false shot; a mistake.

Baum, verb (American Univ.).—To fawn; to flatter; to curry favour.—Hall’s College Words and Phrases.

Bawbels or Bawbles, subs. (old).—A man’s testicles. Originally, a provincialism. For synonyms, see Cods.

Bawcock, subs. (old).—A burlesque term of endearment. [From either French beau, fine, + French coq, cock = a fine or good ‘feller’; or from English boy + cock = a young dandy or strut.]

1599. Shakspeare, Henry V., iii., 2, 25. Pist. Be merciful, great
duke, to men of mould!... Good bawcock ’bate thy rage!

1861. H. Ainsworth, Constable of the Tower, p. 131. One of the
gamesome little bawcock’s jests.

Bawd, subs. (old).—A female procuress. A carted bawd meant one who had been placed in a cart and led through the town to make her person known to the inhabitants. Cf., Abbess. See also Cart and Barrack-hack for synonyms.

Bawde Phisicke.—See quotation.

1560–1. Awdeley, The XXV. orders of Knaues, (ed. 1869), p. 14.
Bawde Phisicke, is he that is a Cocke, when his Maysters meate is
euyll dressed, and he challenging him therefore, he wyl say he wyll
eate the rawest morsel thereof him selfe. This is a sausye knaue,
that wyl contrary his Mayster alway.

Bawdy Banquet, subs. (old).—Whoremongering. [From bawdy, lewd, + banquet.]

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 63. ‘Where haue I bene?’ quoth he,
and began to smyle. ‘Now, by the mas, thou hast bene at some baudy
banquet.’

Bawdy Banquet, subs. (old).—A running after loose women; molrowing.

Bawdy Basket, subs. (old cant).—1. The twenty-third rank of canters (see Harman), who carried pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to sell, but lived mostly by stealing,

1567. Harman, Caveat (ed. 1869), p. 65. These bawdy baskets be also
wemen, and go with baskets and Capeases on their armes, where in
they haue laces, pynnes, nedles, white ynkell, and round sylke
gyrdles of al coulours. These wyl bye conneyskins and steale linen
clothes of on hedges. And for their trifles they will procure of
mayden seruaunts, when [leaf 20, back] their mystres or dame is
oute of the waye, either some good peece of béefe, baken, or
chéese, that shalbe worth xij pens, for ii pens of their toyes. And
as they walke by the waye, they often gaine some money wyth their
instrument, by such as they sodaynely mete withall. The vpright men
haue good acquayntance with these, and will helpe and relieue them
when they want. Thus they trade their lyues in lewed lothsome
lechery. Amongest them all is but one honest woman, and she is of
good yeares; her name is Ione Messenger. I haue had good proofe of
her, as I haue learned by the true report of diuers.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 39 (1874). [In
list of orders of thieves], bawdy-baskets.

2. A prostitute; an alternative and earlier form of bawd (q.v.).

1589. Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesie, bk. III., ch. xix.

Many a faire lasse in London towne,
Many a bawdie basket borne vp and downe:
Many a broker in a thridbare gowne,
Many a bankrowte scarce worth a crowne. In London.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 86. The
victualers to the campe are women, and to those some are Glymerers,
some bawdy-baskets, some Autem-Morts.

Bawdy House Bottle, subs. phr. (old).—A very small one, short measure, being among the many means used by the keepers of those houses, to gain what they call an honest livelihood; indeed, this is one of the least reprehensible, the less they give a man of their infernal beverages for his money, the kinder they behave to him.—Grose.

Bayard of Ten Toes. To ride Bayard of ten toes, phr. (old).—To go on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.—See Marrow bone stage.

1606. Breton, Good and Badde, p. 14. Breton says of the ‘honest
poore man,’—his trauell is the walke of the woful, and his horse
Bayard of ten toes.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Somerset (ii., 291). At last he [Coryat]
undertook to travail into the East Indies by land, mounted on an
horse with ten toes.

Bay Window, subs. (common).—A slang phrase applied to women when pregnant, or men who have ‘corporations.’ The allusion is obvious.

B. C., subs. (common).—A name jokingly applied to a person who brings a trumpery action for libel against another. Dr. Brewer in Phrase and Fable thus, in effect, explains the allusion:—A young woman complained to Mr. Ingham [the magistrate at Bow Street Police Court and now (1889) Sir James Ingham] of having been abused by a woman who called her a b. c. On being asked the meaning, the young woman said c meant ‘cat’ but the B——, well, it was too shocking to utter, and the magistrate allowed her to whisper the word in his ear. It was a well-known word of sanguinary sound; but, though b.c. was hardly a pretty epithet, yet his worship could hardly grant a summons for libel against the person of whom complaint was made for using it.

Beach-Cadger, subs. (old).—A beggar whose ‘pitch’ is at watering-places, and sea-ports. [From beach, the sea-shore + cadger, a beggar.]

Beach-Comber, subs. (nautical).—1. One who hangs about the sea-shore on the look-out for jobs. It was chiefly applied to runaway seamen, deserters from whalers, who lived along the beach in South America, the South Sea Islands, etc. It is a term of contempt.—Clark Russell’s Sailors’ Language.

1847. Blackwood’s Magazine, LXI., 757. A daring Yankee
beech-comber. [M.]

1880. Athenæum, 18 Dec., p. 809, col. 2. The white scamps who, as
beech-combers, have polluted these Edens and debauched their
inhabitants.

1885. A. Lang, in Longm. Mag., VI., 417, note. Beach-comber is the
local term for the European adventurers and long-shore loafers who
infest the Pacific Archipelagoes. There is a well-known tale of an
English castaway on one of the isles, who was worshipped as a deity
by the ignorant people. At length he made his escape, by swimming,
and was taken aboard a British vessel, whose captain accosted him
roughly. The mariner turned aside and dashed away a tear: ‘I’ve
been a god for months and you call me a (something alliterative)
beach-comber!’ he exclaimed, and refused to be comforted.

2. A river boatman.

3. A thief who prowls about the sea-shore; a plunderer of wrecks; a picker-up of waifs and strays. This is derived from sense 4.

4. (American.)—A long wave rolling in from the ocean. Hence applied to those whose occupation it is to pick up, as pirates or wreckers, whatever these waves wash in to them.

Beach-Tramper, subs. (nautical).—A coastguardsman. [From beach, the shore of the sea + tramp, to walk along + er.]

Bead. To draw a bead [on one], phr. (American).—To attack an opponent by speech or otherwise. The phrase has passed into colloquial use from backwoods parlance, where it signifies the process of taking aim and firing. The front sight of a gun is in appearance like a bead.

1841. Catlin, North American Indians (1844), I., x., 77. I made
several attempts to get near enough to draw a bead upon one of
them.

1870. Bret Harte, Society on the Stanislaus (in Poems and Prose).
It is not a proper plan, to lay for that same member for to put a
bead on him.

188(?) S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
p. 48. I was pretty close to the Shanty, and I thought I heard the
old man coming all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and
looked around a bunch of willows, and there was the old man down
the path apiece just drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.

1889. Albany Journal, Aug. 6. If Jake’s not careful I’ll draw a
bead on him. Very little more will make me go for him tooth and
nail.

To raise a bead.—To bring to the point; to ensure success. The figure is taken from brandy, rum, or other liquors, which will not ‘raise a bead,’ unless of the proper strength.

1846. N. Y. Tribune, Letter from Ohio. The result was, if the
convention had been then held, the party wouldn’t have been able to
raise a bead. [b.]

Beagle, subs. (old).—A spy; informer; man-hunter; policeman; also a general term of contempt. [From beagle, a small hound, which tracks by scent, formerly used for hunting.]

1599. Myrr. Mag., Jack Cade, xix., 2. That restless begle sought
and found me out. [M.]

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, Act iii., Sc. 4. Mon. I beseech you,
Mistress Tenterhook,—before God, I’ll be sick, if you will not be
merry. Mist. Ten. You are a sweet beagle.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Beagle (s.) ... also a
contemptuous name given to a boy or man, as to say, you are a
special beagle, is the same as, you are good for nothing.

1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, III., vii., v., 377. Attorneys
and Law-beagles, which hunt ravenous on this Earth.

Beak, subs. (old cant).—1. A policeman or guardian of the peace. As far as is known, this (as ‘beck’) is the oldest cant term for a member of a class of men, who, perhaps, above all others, have been the recipients of nicknames and epithets, and these, be it noted, not always of a complimentary character. In Harman’s Caveat (1573), harman beck is explained as ‘the counstable,’ harmans being ‘the stockes.’ The derivation of beck or beak is doubtful. Especially vague seems that which finds its source in the Saxon beag, a gold collar worn by civic magistrates, and an emblem of authority. This genesis appears to be based on the later and secondary sense of beak, a magistrate, a meaning which it still retains. But, against this must be placed the fact that, as the name for a watchman or guardian of the peace, beak boasts a much older usage. Sir John Fielding, half brother of the author of Tom Jones, and an active Middlesex Justice in the last century, was popularly known as the ‘Blind Beak’ [c. 1750]; but beyond this date no instance of this sense has been found. If, therefore, beak originally signified a policeman, it is difficult to discover any connection with the Saxon beag, inasmuch as watchmen are not known to have been decorated with gold collars. The following quotations will give other illustrations, and also show that, meaning a policeman, the term has not long been obsolete.

1609. Dekker, a Gypsy song, in Lanthorne and Candlelight, etc.

The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck,
If we mawnd Pannam, lap or Ruff-peck,

Or poplars of yarum; he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans.
Or else he sweares by the lightmans,
To put our stamps in the Harmans.
The Ruffian cly the ghost of the Harman beck.
If we heaue a booth we cly the Jerke.
If we niggle or mill a bousing ken.
Or nip a bung that has but a win,
Or dup the giger of a gentry cofes ken:
To the quier cuffing we bing,
And then to the quier-Ken to scowre the Cramp-ring,
And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the lightmans,
The Bube and Ruffian cly the Harman beck and Harmans.

[This is thus ‘Englished’ by Dekker].

The Diuell take the Constable’s head,
If we beg Bacon, Butter-milke or bread.
Or Pottage, to the hedge he bids us hie,
Or sweares (by this light) i’th’ stocks we shall lie.
The Deuill haunt the Constable’s ghoast,
If we rob but a booth, we are whip’d at a poast.
If an ale-house we rob or be tane with a whore,
Or cut a purse that has iust a penny, and no more,
Or come but stealing in at a gentleman’s dore:
To the Justice straight we goe,
And then to the Jayle to be shakled: And so
To be hang’d on the gallows i’th’ day time: the pox
And the Deuill take the Constable and his stocks.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 6.

Land. Gentlemen vagabonds; the traps are abroad, and half a
thousand beadles and beaksmen are now about the door.

Billy. De beak! oh curse a de beak!

Jemmy. Gemmen!—gemmen! (Knocking on table to command attention.)

Jack. Silence for the chair!

Jemmy. Put out the lights, put out the lights, every one shift for
himself. Here, Bob, carry me up the ladder, good luck to you do,
Bob.

1840. Thackeray, Catherine, ch. x. But Mrs. Polly, with a wonderful
presence of mind, restored peace by exclaiming, ‘Hush, hush! the
beaks, the beaks!’ Upon which, with one common instinct, the whole
party made a rush for the garden gates, and disappeared into the
fields. Mrs. Briggs knew her company: there was something in the
very name of a constable which sent them all a-flying.

English Synonyms. ‘Blue’ (traceable to Queen Elizabeth’s days when the colour of the uniform was the same as now); ‘men in blue’; ‘Royal Regiment of Footguards Blue’; ‘bluebottle’ (used by Shakspeare); ‘blew coate’ (also a Shakspearian term, and still in use); ‘Dogberry’ (an allusion to Much Ado about Nothing); ‘charley’ (one of the old watchmen); ‘bobby’; ‘peeler’; ‘copper’ (a thieves’ term, from ‘to cop’ to lay hold of); ‘crusher’ (thieves’); ‘slop’ (a back slang corruption of ‘police’ = esclop, with c not sounded and shortened to ‘slop’); ‘scufter’ (a northern term, as also is the example next following); ‘bulky’ (used by Bulwer Lytton); ‘philip’ (from a thieves’ signal); ‘cossack’; ‘philistine’; ‘frog’ (from pouncing upon criminals); ‘Johnnie Darby’ (a corruption of gendarme); ‘Johnnie’; ‘pig’ (a plain clothes man); ‘worm’; ‘nose’; ‘nark’; ‘dee’ (a detective); ‘tec’; the C.T.A. (a circus man’s term); ‘demon’ (Australian thieves’); ‘reeler’; ‘raw lobster’ (this like ‘blue,’ etc., would appear to be a reference to the colour of the uniform).

French Synonyms. Un rousse (popular and thieves’: roux signifies ‘red,’ and red hair has always been held in contempt as indicative of treachery and craft; hence its application by the criminal classes to their natural enemies); un roussin (thieves’: of same derivation as foregoing); un bâton de réglisse (popular: ‘a stick of liquorice’); un baladin (properly ‘a mountebank, juggler, or buffoon’); une cagne (popular: ‘a dog,’ i.e., ‘a worthless fellow,’ ‘a slut’; cagne or caigne in Old French signified ‘dog,’ and was derived from the Latin canis, whence caignot, ‘a little dog.’ It may also be noted that, prior to the establishment of the modern gendarmerie, the archers of the watch were known as chiens-courants); un cogne (thieves’: another form of cagne); un balai (hawkers’: properly ‘a broom, brush, or besom’); un serin (popular: properly ‘a canary’; serin is also slang for ‘a foolish fellow,’ ‘a greenhorn’); un pousse (thieves’: the guardians of public order formerly known in Paris as serjents or archers de l’écuelle were called pousse-culs); une vache (literally ‘a cow’); un arnif (thieves’); une peste (thieves’: literally ‘a plague’ or ‘torment’); une tronche â la manque; un flaquadard; un cabestan (thieves’: properly ‘a hand-winch’; Michel thinks this is derived either from cabe, ‘a dog’; or from capitan, ‘a captain.’ The latter, be it noted, has also the signification of ‘hector’ or ‘braggadocio’); un raille or railleux (thieves’: a detective. Michel derives it from raillon, a weapon with which the police were formerly armed. Victor Hugo thought it came from the English word ‘rascal,’ but there seems little, if any, authority for this); un sacre (Nicot gives this as ‘a bird of prey,’ but Henri Estienne adds that it was used to denote ‘one who lays hands on everything that comes in his way’; also ‘a gourmand’); un grive (thieves’: ‘a warder’ or ‘military patrol’); un laune (thieves’); un flique (popular: also a petty police magistrate. Thought to be a corruption of friquet, another opprobrious term for a police man); un bec du gaz; un estaffier (familiar: also, among thieves, ‘a cat’); une bourrique (thieves’: also ‘an informer’); un pousse trottoir (pousse from pousser, ‘to push’; trottoir, a footpath); un lampion rouge (thieves’); un escargot de trottoir (popular: literally ‘a snail of the footpath’); un cierge (thieves’: properly ‘a wax taper’); un sergo (popular); un grippe-Jesus (a term used by thieves in the north of France, and by seafaring men which, says Michel, might lead one to suppose that gendarmes only arrested innocent persons); un pince sans rire (thieves’: a sly, malicious person); un pot â tabac (popular: ‘a tobacco jar’); un singe de la rousse (singe = monkey, de la rousse, ‘of the police force’).

For German Synonyms, see Copper.

Italian Synonyms. Un’ zaffo (literally ‘a bung’ or ‘tipstaff’); un’ foco or un’ fuoco (literally ‘fire’).

Spanish Synonyms. Uno mastin (literally ‘a mastiff’ or ‘bulldog’; ‘a clumsy fellow’; ‘a clown’); una harpia (un harpeo = ‘grapnel’ or ‘grappling-iron’); una fiera (properly ‘a wild beast’).

2. (popular.)—A magistrate. Cf. foregoing, much of which has reference to this secondary meaning of beak. Sometimes Called a beak of the law.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. ‘My eyes, how green!’
exclaimed the young gentleman. ‘Why a beak’s a madgst’rate.’

18(?) Hood, Tale of a Trumpet.

The pies and jays that utter words,
And other Dicky gossips of birds,
Who talk with as much good sense and decorum,
As many beaks who belong to the quorum.

1881. Punch, Dec. 3, 258. A pair of anti-vivisectionists. Sir
Slangsby Jaunter. ‘See that old fellow, Miss Diana? That’s Doctor
Katchett, who swears he’s going to find a cure for lunatics! Just
got into trouble. Been trying the effects of extreme terror and
bodily fatigue on a rabbit, and without chloroform, too, the old
ruffian! And then he killed it, and dissected its brain. Going to
be had up before the beak for it! Bow St., you know!’ Miss Diana.
‘Serve him right, horrid man! Don’t want to know about such people.
But talking of rabbits, what a splendid run that second Hare gave
us to-day! Thirty minutes gallop without a check!—Wasn’t it
lovely!—And I was in at the death!’

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Oct. 12, p. 5, col. 2. Taken before some
French beak whom he did not know, and an interpreter brought, the
‘cotched’ culprit was made to pay 20 f., his friend escaping
because he was not caught red-handed.

An English Synonym is ‘queer cuffin’ (old cant).

French Synonyms. Un sapeur (thieves’: properly ‘a sapper,’ i.e., ‘one who undermines’ [one’s chances of wrong doing]); un pante en robe (pante in French slang is equivalent to ‘a man’ or ‘cove’; en robe = ‘in a robe’); un endormi (popular: properly ‘a sleepy-head’); un grignon (thieves’: probably from grigner les dents, ‘to show one’s teeth threateningly’; or from grognon, ‘grumbler,’ ‘growler’); un gerbier; un curieux (thieves’: i.e., ‘the curious one’; from the adj. curieux. Michel, however, adds that curieux formerly signified ‘a courtier’); un singe à rabat (thieves’: possibly rabat is an abbreviated form of rabat-joie, ‘a wet blanket.’ The phrase would then mean ‘a baboon with a wet blanket,’ ‘a damper’; or it may be derived from singe, a monkey + rabat, slang for ‘a cloak.’ Cf., singe de la rousse); un lustre (thieves’: properly ‘renown’; ‘distinction’); un pant’ de la magistrat’ muche (thieves’).

Italian Synonym. Un antigo (literally ‘an old one’; also ‘a master,’ ‘a boss’).

Spanish Synonym. Sombrador (thieves’ and popular: from sombra, ‘shade’; i.e., one who puts in the shade. Poner â la sombra is ‘to imprison’).

3. (popular.)—The nose. For synonyms, see Conk.

1598. Florio. Naso adunco, a beake-nose. [M.]

1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I., 296. The well-known hooked beak of
the old countess. [M.]

1865. E. C. Clayton, Cruel Fort, I., 143. A large, fat, greasy
woman, with a prominent beak.

1876. E. C. Grenville Murray, The Member for Paris, I., p. 80. It
was not the most agreeable thing in the world to be suddenly
interrupted in a mantel-shelf conversation by a gentleman with a
firm beak-nose and a red rosette in his button-hole.

4. (Eton and Marlborough Schools.)—A master.

Beaker, subs. (thieves’).—A fowl. Sometimes shortened into beak. The derivation is obviously an illusion to the beak or horny mandibles of poultry. Formerly called cackling-cheat (q.v.), and by French thieves une estable, or une estaphle.

Beaker-Hunter, subs. (thieves’).—A poultry yard thief. Also beak-hunter.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 445. A poultry stealer. A
beaker-hunter.

Beak-Gander, subs. (common).—A judge of the Superior Courts. [From beak (q.v.), a magistrate + gander, a humorous term for an old man.]

Beaksman, subs. (old).—See Beak (sense 1), of which it is an alternative form.

Beam Ends. To be thrown on one’s beam ends, phr. (nautical).—1. To be in bad circumstances; to be at one’s last shift; hard-up; a metaphor drawn from sea-faring life. A ship is said to be on her beam ends when she is so prostrated on her side by stress of weather, or shifting of cargo, as to submerge her lee rail.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xl. In short, he laughed the idea
down completely; and Tom, abandoning it, was thrown upon his beam
ends again for some other solution. [h.]

1851. Henry Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., 121. When
a fellow is on his beam ends, as I was then, he must keep his eyes
about him, and have impudence enough for anything, or else he may
stop and starve. [h.]

2. Also, less figuratively, to be thrown to the ground; to be reduced to a sitting or lying posture.

1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxvi. Our first lieutenant was ... on
his beam ends, with the rheumatiz.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
Green. You get on stunningly, gig-lamps, and haven’t been on your
beam ends more than once a minute.

Bean or Bien, subs. (popular).—A sovereign. Formerly a guinea. In America five-dollar gold pieces are now called beans. See also Half-bean and Haddock of beans. In the old French cant, biens meant money or property. For synonyms, see Canary.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Bean, a guinea. Half-bean.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. ix. Zoroaster took long
odds that the match was off; offering a bean to half a quid (in
other words, a guinea to a half guinea).

1885. D. C. Murray, Rainbow Gold, bk. V., ch. vi. ‘Here’s some of
the beans,’ he continued figuratively, as he drew five sovereigns
from the same pocket, and surveyed them in his great brown palm.

Full of beans, phr. (society).—In good form or condition; as full of health, spirits, or capacity as a horse after a good feed of beans. Among the ancients the word signified venery; possibly, therefore, a more esoteric meaning may be attached to it than commonly supposed.—See Beany.

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. The tennis-ground [was] a pretty
place, overlooking the harbour, and surrounded by trees and female
beauty. The game began. ‘Ich dien,’ shouted Jack, as full of beans
as the Prince of Wales’ plume, and immediately sent a ball which
went bang through the window of an adjoining house.

To give beans, phr. (common).—To chastise; to give a good drubbing. For synonyms, see Tan.

Like beans, adv. phr. (common).—In good form, style, time, etc.; with force; a general expression of approval and praise. Cf., Like blazes, bricks, or one o’clock.

Not to care, or be worth a bean.—To hold in little esteem; to think lightly of; to be of little value. The allusion is to the small worth, or value of a bean, or ‘the black of a bean.’ A variant is not worth a straw (q.v.). Both phrases are old, not worth a bean being traced back to 1297.

To be beany, phr. (common).—To be in good humour—a metaphor also drawn from the stable.

To know beans, phr. (American).—To be well informed. The phrase is incorporated into many expressions in a very strange way; and is an allusion to the fondness of New Englanders in general, and Bostonians in particular, for baked beans and pork, combined with a sly hit at the assumption of superior culture on which they are supposed to insist. To know beans, therefore, is to be sharp and shrewd; to be within the charmed circle of the ‘cultured elect’—in short to be fully equipped in the ‘upper storey.’

1888. Portland Transcript, March 7. The pudding was pronounced a
success by each member of the assembled family, including a dainty
Boston girl who, of course, knows beans.

1888. Chicago Herald. One has to know beans to be successful in the
latest Washington novelty for entertainment at luncheons.

An alternative derivation may, however, be found in the English form.

To know how many blue beans make five white ones, phr. (common).—This is generally put in the form of a question, the answer to which is ‘Five, if peeled,’ and those who fail to get tripped by the ‘catch’ are said ‘to know how many,’ etc.; in other words to be cute; knowing; wide awake.

1830. Galt, Laurie, T. (1849), II., i. 42. Few men who better knew
how many blue beans it takes to make five. [M.]

1886. Zoological Comparisons, in Broadside Ballad.

Nature and art improves us, the girls with smiles are moving
us,
Which very often ruin us there’s no gammon about that;
Then just as we begin to know ‘how many beans make five,’
The ladies call us puppies when we at that age arrive;
You may perchance become a deer, if in favour with some lass,
If not you’re called a donkey, and oftentimes an ass.

1889. Daily News, 4 Nov., p. 6, col. 5. Mr. Gladstone and The
Saturday Review. Sir,—My master, who is a good Conservative, lends
me The Saturday Review to improve my mind.... It says that there
were eighty-six Parnellites, and that if Mr. Gladstone, by his
wickedness, could make them leave off voting for the Tories, and
vote for him, instead of being in a minority of four, he would have
had a majority of 80. Why, Sir, the dunce of the school knows that
if you take 80 from one side and add it on to the other, the
difference is not 80, but 160. It is as simple as how many blue
beans make five. I think some people are losing their wits faster
than Mr. Gladstone.—I am, Sir, yours respectfully, A Schoolboy.

Three blue beans in a blue bladder.—Nares confesses his inability to discover the origin of this whimsical combination of words, but points out that it is at least of long standing. The subjoined quotations would seem to indicate the meaning as noisy, frothy talk; clap-trap.

1600. Dekker, Old Fortunatus, iii., p. 128.

F. Hark, does’t rattle?

S. Yes, like three blue beans in a blue bladder, rattle, bladder,
rattle.

1717. Mathew Prior, Alma (cant), I., v., 25.

They say——
That putting all his words together,
’Tis three blue beans in one blue bladder.

Bean Belly, subs. (old).—A nickname for a Leicestershire man; from a real or supposed fondness of the inhabitants of this county for beans.

Bean-Feast, subs. (common).—An annual feast given by employers to their work-people. The derivation is uncertain, and, at present, their is little evidence to go upon. Some have suggested its origin in the prominence of the bean goose, or even beans at these spreads; others refer it to the French bien, good, i.e., a good feast (by-the-bye, tailors call all good feeds bean-feasts); whilst others favour its derivation from the modern English bene, a request or solicitation, from the custom of collecting subscriptions to defray the cost. All three suggestions are, at the best, unsatisfactory, and numerous objections crop up at every turn to each of them. An annual outing of this kind is also called a wayzgoose (q.v.).

1882. Printing Times, 15 Feb., 26, 2. A bean-feast dinner served up
at a country inn. [M.]

1884. Bath. Jour., 26 July, 6, 1. The annual grant of £20 for their
bean-feast. [M.]

Bean-Feaster, subs. (common).—One who takes part in a bean-feast (q.v.).

1884. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 621. For the delectation of the bold
bean-feasters. [M.]

Beano, subs. (printers’).—The same as bean-feast (q.v.).

Bean Traps, subs. (American thieves’).—A swell mobsman, or stylish sharper. Beans (q.v.) are five-dollar gold pieces, and the insinuation is obvious. In old English cant a bean meant a guinea, probably from the French biens, property.

Beany, adj. (common).—Full of vigour; fresh, like a bean-fed horse. Or, it may be an allusion to the meaning of venery, which Aristotle says was attached to the word beans.

1852. Kingsley, in Life (1876), I., 278. The very incongruity keeps
one beany and jolly.

1870. Daily News, 27 July, 5. The horses ... looked fresh and
beany. [M.]

Bear, subs. (Stock Exchange).—1. Applied, in the first instance, to stock sold by jobbers for delivery by a certain date on the chance of prices falling in the meantime, thus allowing the seller to re-purchase at a profit. The phrase was probably at first ‘to sell the bear-skin,’ the buyers of such bargains being called bear-skin jobbers (see quot.), in allusion to the proverb, ‘To sell the bear’s skin before one has caught the bear.’ So far, the origin of the phrase seems pretty clear; of the date of its introduction, however, nothing is known. It was a common term in Stock Exchange circles, at the time of the bursting of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, but it does not seem to have become colloquial until much later. In these transactions no stock was passed, the ‘difference’ being settled according to the quotation of the day, as is the practice now in securities dealt with for ‘the account.’ At present the term for such an arrangement is time-bargain.

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 38, p. 3. Being at that General Mart of
stock-jobbers called Jonathans ... he bought the bear of another
officer. [M.]

1719. Anatomy of Change Alley (N. and Q., 5 S., vi., 118). Those
who buy Exchange Alley bargains are styled ‘buyers of bear-skins.’
[M.]

1778. Bailey, Dictionary (24 ed.). To sell a bear, to sell what one
hath not.

2. Hence a dealer who speculates for a fall. The earliest instance noted of this transferred usage is in

1744. London Magazine, 86. These noisy devotees were false ones,
and in fact were only bulls and bears. [M.]

1768. Foote, Devil upon Two Sticks, Act i. A mere bull and bear
booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent bankrupts.

1774. Colman, Man of Business, iv., i., in wks. (1777) II., 179. My
young master is the bull, and Sir Charles is the bear. He agreed
for stock expecting it to be up at three hundred by this time; but,
lack-a-day, sir, it has been falling ever since.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iv. The hum and bustle which his approach
was wont to produce among the bulls, bears, and brokers of
Stock-alley.

1860. Peacock, Gryll Grange, ch. xviii. In Stock Exchange slang,
bulls are speculators for a rise, bears for a fall.

1889. Ally Sloper’s H. H., Aug. 3, p. 242, col. 3. Mrs. Spingles
says she doesn’t wonder that the Stock Exchange at times resembles
a menagerie let loose, seeing what a lot of bulls, bears and stags
they have at Capel Court.

The French Bourse equivalent is un baissier. See the analogous terms bull; stag; and lame duck.

3. (old.)—The pupil of a private tutor, the latter being called a bear-leader (q.v.). From the general roughness and uncouthness of boys; a reference to the heavy build and ungainliness of the plantigrade in question. Even now the youth of the rising generation are sometimes called ‘unlicked cubs.’ Also called formerly bridled-bear.

1832. Legends of London, II., 247. When I was the youthful bear—as
the disciple of a private tutor is called at Oxford. [M.]

Verb.—To act as a bear (q.v.).

1861. New York Tribune, Nov. 29. There is no truth in the startling
developments, implicating British officials, in the Herald’s
despatch.... His Lordship is wholly guiltless of the charge which
the Herald, in its anxiety to bear the market, has brought against
him.

Are you there with your bears? phr. (colloquial).—A greeting of surprise at the reappearance of anybody or anything; are you there again; or, in the words of its most recent slang equivalent, ‘What, again! so soon?’ The phrase is explained by Joe Miller, as the exclamation of a man who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha and the bears, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the same preacher and the same discourse.

1642. James Howell, Instructions for Forreine Travell, sec. 3.
Another when at the racket court he had a ball struck into his
hazard, he would ever and anon cry out, estes vous là avec vos
ours? Are you there with your bears? which is ridiculous in any
other language but English.

1740. Richardson, Pamela, III., 335. O no, nephew! Are you
thereabouts with your bears?

1820. Scott, Abbot, xv. Marry, come up. ‘Are you there with your
bears?’ muttered the dragon.

To play the bear, phr. (common).—To behave in a rough and rude manner.

1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., p. 473, col. 1. When we haue so
turned all order vpsidowne ... there is nothing but ... playing the
beare amongst vs.

Bear a bob, verbal phr. (nautical).—1. To lend a hand; look sharp! look alive!

2. (popular.)—To aid, to assist, to take part in anything.

Bearded Cad, subs. (Winchester College).—A porter, employed by the College to convey luggage from the railway station to the school. The term originated in an extremely hirsute individual, who, at one time, acted in the capacity.

Beard-Splitter, subs. (old).—A man much given to the company of prostitutes; nowadays called a hot member, or molrower, which see for synonyms. [From beard, a tuft of hair + splitter, one who divides. The allusion is obvious.]

Bearer-Up.—See Bear up and Bonnet.

Bear-Garden Jaw, subs. (old).—Rough, unmannerly speech; talk akin to that used in bear gardens and other places of low resort. Quoted by Grose, 1785. [From bear-garden, a place set apart for bear baiting and other rough sports + jaw, talk or speech.]

1848. John Forster, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, bk. IV., chap. xi. He
called Burke a bear-garden railer.

1871. Archibald Forbes, My Experience of the War between France and
Germany, p. 301. The bear-garden-like Babel was rather more noisy
than usual.

Be-Argered, adj. (familiar).—Drunk.

Bearing, ppl. adj. (Stock Exchange).—Acting as a bear (q.v.); or using artifices to lower the price of stock to suit a ‘bear’ account.

Bearings. To bring one to one’s bearings, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To bring one to reason; to act as a check. A nautical term.

Bear-Leader, subs. (old).—A travelling tutor. In the days when it was customary to send ‘young hopefuls’ on the Grand Tour, the expression was much more common and significant than is nowadays the case. The simile is taken from a person who leads about a tame bear for exhibition.

1749. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 4 June (1883), vol. II., p. 392. I
shall not wonder if she takes me for his bear-leader, his
travelling governor!

1756. Foote, Englishman Returned from Paris, Act i.

Serv. My young master’s travelling tutor, sir, just arrived.

Crab. ... Shew him in. This bear-leader, I reckon now, is either
the clumsy curate of the knight’s own parish church, or some needy
highlander.

1812. Combe, Dr. Syntax, Tour I ch. xxiii.

And as I almost wanted bread,
I undertook a bear to lead,
To see the brute perform his dance
Through Holland, Italy, and France;
But it was such a very Bruin,

. . . . . . . . .

I took my leave, and left the cub
Some humbler Swiss to pay and drub.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. vii. They pounced upon the
stray nobility, and seized young lords travelling with their
bear-leaders.

Bearskin-Jobber, subs. (Stock Exchange).—See Bear, subs., sense 1.

Bear Up, verb (common).—To cheat; to swindle in any way; more particularly applied to the action of ‘decoys’ and confederates.—See Bonnet. The derivation is obviously from that sense of to bear up, signifying support or backing up.

1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 40. The billiard-marker
refused to make any division of the spoil, or even to return the
£10 which had been lost to him in bearing up the cull.

1883. Referee, Dec. 2, p. 2, col. 4. This looks as if the bearing
up and ‘bonneting’ which has been done by friendly writers in
response to my remarks is all thrown away.

Beast, subs. (common).—1. Applied to anything unpleasant; or, to that which displeases; e.g., ‘It’s a perfect beast of a day,’ for ‘it’s an unpleasant day.’—See Beastly.

2. (American cadet.)—A name given to new cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.—See Snooker.

3. (Cambridge University.)—Anyone who has left school and come up to Cambridge for study, before entering the University, is called a beast, because ‘he is neither man nor boy.’

Beastly, adv. (popular).—In modern colloquial usage applied to whatever may offend the taste. Akin also to ‘awful,’ ‘everlasting,’ etc.—when used as mere intensitives, i.e., ‘very,’ ‘exceedingly.’ [Originally from beastly, of, or pertaining to the nature of a beast; hence, figuratively, brutish, irrational, unmanly; whence, through a series of transitions, its slang significations.]

1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks., 1873, III., 159. I thought
’twould bee a beastly iourney.

1778. Johnson, in D’Arblay Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I., p. 37. ‘It
moves my indignation to see a gentleman take pains to appear a
tradesman. Mr. Braughton would have written his name with just such
beastly flourishes!’

1865. Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct., p. 5, col. 3. He was in good health
... looked almost ‘beastly well,’ as I once heard it described.
[M.]

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. i. He had a troublesome dryness in
his throat, and a general sensation of dull heaviness, which he
himself would have described—expressively enough, if not with
academical elegance—as ‘feeling beastly.’

Beast with Two Backs, subs. phr. (old).—Explained in second quotation.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, Act i., Sc. 1. Brabantio: What profane
wretch art thou? Iago: I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you, your
daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with the two backs.

1785. Grose, Classical Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue. Beast with two
backs, a man and woman in the act of copulation.

Beat, subs. (American).—1. This word is used in many ways, its precise meaning often depending on its qualifying adjective. It is said of both men and things; for example, a live beat is anybody or anything that surpasses another, and the sense is not derogatory in the least. A dead beat, on the other hand, is the name given to a man who sponges on his fellows. [Probably from that sense of beat signifying to overcome; to show oneself superior to, either in a good or bad sense].

1888. New York Tribune, May 16. As we pay big money for our special
news, we can’t afford to throw it away on account of a little
mistake in the name. So we shove her in with the single remark that
it is better to have a Carrot for a President than a dead beat for
a son-in-law. In this way, we again score a live beat on the galoot
‘The Rip-snorter.’ Whoopee! Now is the time to subscribe.

1888. New York Mercury, Aug. 7. But not only steamboats and
locomotives were used by reporters for beats, but one newspaper man
named Monroe F. Gale made a trip across the Atlantic in a
pilot-boat, to get some peculiar news in his own fashion. All
things taken into consideration, there never was a bolder voyage
over the Atlantic than this made by the ‘Romer,’ all for the sake
of a few ‘points’ in news.

2. (popular.)—The round of a policeman or watchman when on duty; one’s daily round of duty, work, etc.; and, figuratively, one’s sphere of influence.

1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 211. The first
evening I took my stand in Fleet Street, to look out for a fare, I
was drove from street to street by women of my own profession, who
swore I should not come in their beats until I had paid my
‘footing.’

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 31. The costermongers repaired
to their ordinary beats in the suburbs.

1862. Saturday Review, 15 March, 295. Ask him why anything is
so-and-so, and you have got out of his beat. [M.]

Faire sa nouveauté is said of a French prostitute when seeking fresh fields and pastures new.

Ppl. adj. (popular).—1. Overcome; exhausted; ‘done up.’ Generally dead-beat (q.v.). [A shortened form of beaten.]—See Beaten out.

1832. Moore, Jerome, etc., wks. II. (1862), 558. Till fairly beat,
the saint gave o’er, [M.]

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffery Hamlyn, ch. xxxvii. ‘The lad was
getting beat, and couldn’t a’gone much further.’

2. Hence also, figuratively, to be baffled; defeated.

Verb (American).—To swindle; to deceive; to cheat.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Ap. 12. Later he heard of her marriage to
some lawyer or artist named Diss Debar. Previous to this she had
been in Montreal and telegraphed that she was dying. She beat the
hotel out of a hundred dollars.

Daisy beat (American thieves’).—A swindle of the first water; a robbery of magnitude.

To beat hollow—to sticks—to ribands—to fits—all creation—to shivers, etc. (popular).—To excel; to surpass.

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, I., ii. Crab was beat
hollow, Careless threw his rider, and Miss Slammerkin had the
distemper.

1847. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1877), p. 55. Many ladies ... were
beat all to sticks by the lovely Odille. [M.]

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. i. Talk of climate! a
real fine day in England, like a really handsome Englishwoman,
beats creation.

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. i. I rode a race against
Bob Dashwood the other morning, ... and beat him all to ribands.

1879. Lowell, Poetical Works, 418. And there’s where I shall beat
them hollow.

1889. Modern Society, 19 Oct., p. 1302. (How the Nobility live in
Germany.) Germans beat the English hollow at drinking beer; the
ladies drink it, and the children also, like milk; and it seems to
agree with them, for they are very robust. They are not ceremonious
at any meal, and eat as if in a hurry for a train, cutting up all
on their plate first, then forking it in with the aid of bread or
their fingers.

The French say arriver bon premier, ‘to arrive’ or ‘be a good first.’ Cf., synonyms in A1.

To get a beat on is to get the advantage of. The same idea is expressed in the phrase to beat one’s way through the world; in other words, to push one’s interests with vigour and pertinacity. As used by thieves and their associates, to get a beat on one, besides conveying the idea of obtaining an advantage, also implies that the point has been scored by underhand, secret, or unlawful means.

To beat the booby or goose, phr. (nautical).—To strike the hands across the chest and under the armpits to warm them. Formerly to beat Jonas.

1883. Times, 15 March, p. 9, col. 6. The common labourers at
outdoor work were beating goose to drive the blood from their
fingers. [M.]

To beat the road, phr. (American).—To travel by rail without paying.—See Dead-heads and To beat, sense 1.

That beat’s the Dutch!—See Dutch.

Beat Daddy Mammy (old military).—To tattoo; to practice the elements of drum beating.

Beaten Down to Bed-Rock, adv. phr. (American).—See Bedrock.

Beaten Out, ppl. adj. with adv. (common).—Impoverished; in one’s last straits; hard up.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 351. The beaten
out mechanics and artisans, who, from want of employment in their
own trade, take to making small things. Ibid, p. 400. The last
class of street sellers is the beaten out mechanic or workman.

Beater-Cases, subs. (old).—Boots or shoes. Nearly obsolete. Trotter-cases (q.v.) is the usual term nowadays.—See Beaters.

Beaters, subs. (American).—The feet. [A transferred sense of beater, originally signifying one who ‘beat’ or walked the streets. Barclay, in Shyp of Folys (1509), speaks of ‘night watchers and beters of the stretes.’] For synonyms, see Creepers.

Beat the Hoof, verbal phr. (popular).—To walk; to plod; to prowl. [From beat, in the sense of to strike the ground in walking, etc., + hoof, a humorous term for the foot.] To beat the hoof is an older form of the modern pad the hoof (q.v.).

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i., Sc. 3.

Falstaff: Hold, sirrah, [to Robin] bear you these letters
tightly;
Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.—
Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go;
Trudge, plod away, o’ the hoof; seek shelter, pack!

1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II., 412. They all beated it on the hoof to
London, [M.]

Beat the Rib.—See Rib.

Beau Trap, subs. (old).—1. A loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and which, on being trodden upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of clean clothes.

2. (old.)—Also a well-dressed sharper, on the look out for raw country visitors and such like.

3. (old.)—A fop, well-dressed outwardly indeed, but whose linen, person, and habits generally, are unclean.

Beauty, subs. (American cadet).—A term applied, on the rule of contrary, to the plainest or ugliest cadet in the class at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Cf., Snooker and Babe.

Beauty-Sleep, subs. (familiar).—Sleep before midnight, the idea being that early hours conduce to health and beauty.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, II., p. 120. The fair pupils have
talked themselves to sleep, which, if report does not belie them,
is not until they have forfeited all chance of adding to their
attractions by getting a little beauty-sleep before twelve o’clock.

1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. xv. ‘Are you going? it is not
late; not ten o’clock yet.’ ‘A medical man, who may be called up at
any moment, must make sure of his beauty-sleep.’

1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, ch. lxiv. Would I please to remember
that I had roused him up at night, and the quality always made a
point of paying four times over for a man’s loss of his
beauty-sleep. I replied that his loss of beauty-sleep was rather
improving to a man of so high a complexion.

1880. Jas. Payn, Confid. Agent, ch. iii. ‘You must get your
beauty-sleep,’ cried he to his wife when Barlow had departed, ‘or
you will have no colour in your cheeks to-morrow.’

Beaver, subs. (common).—1. An old term for a hat; goss or cady, however, is more frequently heard nowadays. At one time hats were made of beaver’s fur—hence the name; the term is still occasionally applied to tall ‘chimney-pot hats,’ in spite of the fact that for many years silk has replaced the skin of the rodent in their manufacture.

1528. Roy, Sat. To exalte the thre folde crowne Of anti-christ hys
bever. [M.]

1661. Pepys, Diary, 27 June. Mr. Holden sent me a bever, which cost
me £4 5s.

1712. Gay, Trivia, bk. II., l., 277.