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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
Trousers. Trousers of an extensive pattern, or exaggerated fashion, have sometimes been termed HOWLING-BAGS, but only when the style has been very "loud." The word is probably an abbreviation of bumbags. "To have the BAGS off," to be of age and one’s own master, to have plenty of money. BAGS OF MYSTERY is another phrase in frequent use, and refers to sausages and saveloys. BAG OF TRICKS, refers to the whole of a means towards a result. "That’s the whole bag of tricks."
(Nath.) Etymological English Dictionary, 2 vols. 8vo. 1737.
Seasoned, "he’s only HALF-BAKED," i.e., soft, inexperienced.
Thirteen items, one more than a standard dozen
One whose knees knock together in walking, as if kneading dough.
Printers’ slang for matter kept in type about monstrous productions of nature, &c., to fill up spaces in newspapers that would otherwise be vacant. The term BALAAM-BOX has often been used as the name of a depository for rejected articles. Evidently from Scripture, and referring to the "speech of an ass."
A term of derision applied to a person with a bald head. Also, still more coarsely, "BLADDER-OF-LARD."
An Australian term equivalent to our "Shell out." A demand for instantaneous payment.
The Straits of BALLAMBANGJANG, though unnoticed by geographers, are frequently mentioned in sailors’ yarns as being so narrow, and the rocks on each side so crowded with trees inhabited by monkeys, that the ship’s yards cannot be squared, on account of the monkey’s tails getting jammed into, and choking up, the brace blocks.—Sea.
Money. A rich man is said to be well-ballasted. If not proud and over-bearing he is said to carry his ballast well.
The testicles of a man or beast; also a vulgar nick name for a parson. His brains are in his ballocks, a cant saying to designate a fool.
Weak-minded or idiotic (not insane).
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
A jocular imposition, the same as a humbug. See HUMBUG.
To deceive, make fun of, or cheat a person; abbreviated to BAM, which is sometimes used also as a substantive—a deception, a sham, a "sell." Swift says BAMBOOZLE was invented by a nobleman in the reign of Charles II.; but this is very likely an error. The probability is that a nobleman then first used it in polite society. The term is derived from the Gipsies.
He beats Banaghan; an Irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories. Perhaps Banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous.
A fanciful and implausible tale
Originally a peculiar kind of silk pocket-handkerchief, now slang used to denote all sorts of "stooks," "wipes," and "fogles," and in fact the generic term for a kerchief, whether neck or pocket.
Mine a-se on a bandbox; an answer to the offer of any thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is proffered, like offering a bandbox for a seat.
Hungry. From the habit hungry folks have of tying themselves tight round the middle.
A bailiff or his follower; also a very fierce mastiff: likewise, a bandbox. CANT.
Or CRIPPLE, a sixpence, so called from this coin being generally bent or crooked; old term for flimsy or bad cloth, temp. Q. Elizabeth.
To excel or surpass; BANGING, great or thumping.
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
(WHIP.) Quite the thing, hellish fine. Well done. Compleat. Dashing. In a handsome stile. A bang up cove; a dashing fellow who spends his money freely. To bang up prime: to bring your horses up in a dashing or fine style: as the swell's rattler and prads are bang up prime; the gentleman sports an elegant carriage and fine horses.
First-rate, in the best possible style.
Or, the Lounger and Sportsman’s Vade-Mecum, containing a copious and correct Glossary of the Language of the Whips, illustrated by a great variety of original and curious Anecdotes, 8vo. 1812.
Great; a fine banging boy.
To put in a place of safety. "BANK the rag," i.e., secure the note. Also "to bank" is to go shares.
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
A horse famous for playing tricks, the property of one Banks. It is mentioned in Sir Walter Raleigh's Hist. of the World, p. 178; also by Sir Kenelm Digby and Ben Jonson.
A child; stated in Bacchus and Venus, 1737, and by Grose, to be a cant term. This is hardly slang now-a-days, and modern etymologists give its origin as that of bands or swaddling clothes.
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
A day on which no meat is served out for rations; probably derived from the BANIANS, a Hindoo caste, who abstain from animal food. Quite as probably from the sanitary arrangements which have in hot climates counselled the eating of BANYANS and other fruits in preference to meat on certain days.—Sea.
Or BARRING, excepting; in common use in the betting-ring; "Two to one bar one," i.e., two to one against any horse with the exception of one. The Irish use of BARRIN’ is very similar, and the words BAR and BARRING may now be regarded as general.
She is as common as a barber's chair, in which a whole parish sit to be trimmed; said of a prostitute.
A symbol or indication of a person's profession or activity
A half-starved sickly-looking person. Term used in connexion with an expression too coarse to print.
To sell a bargain; a species of wit, much in vogue about the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, and frequently alluded to by Dean Swift, who says the maids of honour often amused themselves with it. It consisted in the seller naming his or her hinder parts, in answer to the question, What? which the buyer was artfully led to ask. As a specimen, take the following instance: A lady would come into a room full of company, apparently in a fright, crying out, It is white, and follows me!
A term used among printers (compositors) to denote a case in which there is an undue proportion of some letters and a corresponding shortness of those which are most valuable.
(CAMBRIDGE.) Barge-men on the river.
An Irish person of either sex. From this term, much in use among the London lower orders, but for which no etymology can be found, Ireland is now and then playfully called Barkshire.
The shopman of a bow-wow shop, or dealer in second hand clothes, particularly about Monmouth-Street, who walks before his master's door, and deafens every passenger with his cries of--Clothes, coats, or gowns--what d'ye want, gemmen?--what d'ye buy? See BOW-WOW SHOP.
A man employed to cry at the doors of "gaffs," shows, and puffing shops, to entice people inside. Among touting photographers he is called a doorsman.
Pistols, from their explosion resembling the bow-wow or barking of a dog. IRISH.
Or BARKER, a pistol. Term used by footpads and thieves generally.
A member or candidate for Barkshire, said of one troubled with a cough, vulgarly styled barking.
A parson's barn; never so full but there is still room, for more. Bit by a barn mouse, tipsey, probably from an allusion to barley.
Theatrical performers who travel the country and act in barns, selecting short and tragic pieces to suit the rustic taste.
An old dance to a quick movement. See Cotton, in his Virgil Travesti; where, speaking of Eolus he has these lines,
A good job, or snack easily got: also shellfish growing at the bottoms of ships; a bird of the goose kind; an instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the noses of vicious horses whilst shoeing; a nick name for spectacles, and also for the gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of horses.
Spectacles; possibly a corruption of binoculi; but derived by some from the barnacle (Lepas Anatifera), a kind of conical shell adhering to ships’ bottoms. Hence a marine term for goggles, which they resemble in shape, and for which they are used by sailors in case of ophthalmic derangement.
An unfair race of any kind: a sell or cross. Also a lark, jollification, or outing. The word BARNEY is sometimes applied to a swindle unconnected with the sporting world.
He died of the barrel fever; he killed himself by drinking.
Jargon, speech, or discourse; "We can’t tumble to that BARRIKIN," i.e., we don’t understand what he says. "Cheese your BARRIKIN," shut up. Miege calls it "a sort of stuff;" Old French, BARACAN.
A man under sentence of transportation; alluding to the convicts at Woolwich, who are principally employed in wheeling barrows full of brick or dirt.
A person dressed up in a tawdry manner, like the dolls or babies sold at Bartholomew fair.
Dictionary of Americanisms; a Glossary of Words and Phrases colloquially used in the United States, 8vo. New York, 1859.
To beat, thrash; "BASHING a dona," beating a woman; originally a provincial word, applied to the practice of beating walnut trees, when in bud, with long poles, to increase their productiveness. Hence the West country proverb—
An exclamation frequently made use of in cock-pits, at cock-fightings, where persons refusing or unable to pay their losings, are adjudged by that respectable assembly to be put into a basket suspended over the pit, there to remain during that day's diversion: on the least demur to pay a bet, Basket is vociferated in terrorem. He grins like a basket of chips: a saying of one who is on the broad grin.