broganier
One who has a strong Irish pronunciation or accent.
English · UK & Ireland 1634
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
brogue
A particular kind of shoe without a heel, worn in Ireland, and figuratively used to signify the Irish accent.
brolly
An umbrella. Term used at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
brome’s
(Rich.) Joviall Crew; or, The Merry Beggars. Presented in a Comedie at the Cockpit, in Drury Lane, in the Year (4to) 1652.
brosier
A bankrupt.—Cheshire. BROSIER-MY-DAME, school term, implying a clearing of the housekeeper’s larder of provisions, in revenge for stinginess.—Eton.
broth of a boy
An Irish term for a jolly good fellow.
brother of the blade
A soldier BUSKIN. A player. BUNG. A brewer QUILL. An author. STRING. A fiddler. WHIP. A coachman.
brother starling
One who lies with the same woman, that is, builds in the same nest.
brother-chip
Originally fellow carpenter. Almost general now as brother tradesman of any kind. Also, BROTHER-WHIP, a fellow coachman; and BROTHER-BLADE, of the same occupation or calling—originally a fellow-soldier.
brother-smut
A term of familiarity. "Ditto, BROTHER SMUT," tu quoque.
broughtonian
A boxer: a disciple of Broughton, who was a beef-eater, and once the best boxer of his day.
brown
A halfpenny.—See BLUNT.
brown bess
A soldier's firelock. To hug brown Bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier.
brown george
An ammunition loaf, A wig without powder; similar to the undress wig worn by his majesty.
brown study
a state of deep thought or daydreaming
brown talk
Conversation of an exceedingly proper character, Quakerish. Compare BLUE.
brown to
To understand, to comprehend.
brown’s
(Rev. Hugh Stowell) Lecture on Manliness, 12mo. 1857.
bruiser
A boxer; one skilled in the art of boxing also an inferior workman among chasers.
bruiser
A fighting man, a pugilist. Shakspeare uses the word BRUISING in a similar sense.
brum
A counterfeit coin. Nearly obsolete. Corruption of Brummagem, for meaning of which see Introductory Chapter.
brush
A fox’s tail, a house-painter. Also a scrimmage.
brusher
A bumper, a full glass. See BUMPER.
brydges’
(Sir Egerton) British Bibliographer, 4 vols. 8vo. 1810-14.
bub
Drink of any kind.—See GRUB. Middleton, the dramatist, mentions BUBBER, a great drinker.
bubber
A drinking bowl; also a great drinker; a thief that steals plate from public houses. CANT.
bubble
To over-reach, deceive, to tempt by means of false promises.—Old. (Acta Regia, ii. 248, 1726.)
bubble and squeak
A Greek.
bubble-and-squeak
A dish composed of pieces of cold roast or boiled meat and greens, afterwards fried, which have thus first BUBBLED in the pot, and then SQUEAKED or hissed in the pan.
bubble-company
A swindling association.
bubbley-jock
A turkey, or silly boasting fellow; a prig.—Scottish. In the north of England the bird is called a BOBBLE-COCK. Both names, no doubt, from its cry, which is supposed by imaginative persons to consist of the two words exactly.
bubbly jock
A turkey cock. SCOTCH.
bube
The venereal disease.
buck
A blind horse; also a gay debauchee.
buck
A gay or smart man; an unlicensed cabman; also a large marble used by schoolboys.
buck bail
Bail given by a sharper for one of the gang.
buck fitch
A lecherous old fellow.
bucket
To kick the bucket; to die.
bucket afloat
A coat. This is also called I’m AFLOAT, and is generally contracted to "cool his Imer," or "nark his bucket." There is no necessity to particularize all contractions. With the key already given they will be evident.
buckhorse
A smart blow or box on the ear; derived from the name of a celebrated "bruiser" of that name. Buckhorse was a man who either possessed or professed insensibility to pain, and who would for a small sum allow anyone to strike him with the utmost force on the side of the face.
buckinger's boot
The monosyllable. Matthew Buckinger was born without hands and legs; notwithstanding which he drew coats of arms very neatly, and could write the Lord's Prayer within the compass of a shilling; he was married to a tall handsome woman, and traversed the country, shewing himself for money.
buckle
To bend; "I can’t BUCKLE to that." I don’t understand it; to yield or give in to a person. Shakspeare uses the word in the latter sense, Henry IV., i. 1; and Halliwell says that "the commentators do not supply another example."
buckle-beggar
A COUPLE-BEGGAR, which see.
buckle-to
To bend to one’s work, to begin at once, and with great energy—from buckling-to one’s armour before a combat, or fastening on a bundle.
buckled
To be married. Also to be taken in custody. Both uses of the word common and exchangeable among the London lower classes.
buckley
"Who struck BUCKLEY?" a common phrase used to irritate Irishmen. The story is that an Englishman having struck an Irishman named Buckley, the latter made a great outcry, and one of his friends rushed forth screaming, "Who struck Buckley?" "I did," said the Englishman, preparing for the apparently inevitable combat. "Then," said the ferocious Hibernian, after a careful investigation of the other’s thews and sinews, "then, sarve him right."
buckra
A white man. The original of this term is a "flogging man," from the Hebrew, and the application of it to the whites by the West Indian negroes is, therefore, rather interesting. They probably first learned it from a missionary.
budge
To move, to "make tracks."
budget
A wallet. To open the budget; a term used to signify the notification of the taxes required by the minister for the expences of the ensuing year; as To-morrow the minister will go to the house, and open the budget.
bufe
A dog. Bufe's nob; a dog's head. CANT.
bufe nabber
A dog stealer. CANT.
buff
All in buff; stript to the skin, stark naked.
buff
The bare skin; "stripped to the BUFF."
buffer
One that steals and kills horses and dogs for their skins; also an inn-keeper: in Ireland it signifies a boxer.
buffer
A navy term for a boatswain’s mate, one of whose duties it is—or was—to administer the "cat."
buffle-head
A stupid or obtuse person.—Miege. German, BUFFELHAUPT, buffalo-headed. Occurs in Plautus’ Comedies made English, 1694.
buffs
The Third Regiment of Foot in the British army. From their facings.
bug
A nick name given by the Irish to Englishmen; bugs having, as it is said, been introduced into Ireland by the English.
bug-hunter
A low wretch who plunders drunken men.
bug-walk
A coarse term for a bed.