basket-making
The good old trade of basket-making; copulation, or making feet for children's stockings.
English · UK & Ireland 1634
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
bastard
The child of an unmarried woman.
bastardly gullion
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
baste
To beat, properly to pour gravy on roasting meat to keep it from burning, and add to its flavour. Also a sewing term.
bastile
The workhouse. General name for "the Union" amongst the lower orders of the North. Formerly used to denote a prison, or "lock-up;" but its abbreviated form, STEEL, is now the favourite expression with the dangerous classes, some of whom have never heard of BASTILE, familiar as they are with "steel."
bastonading
Beating any one with a stick; from baton, a stick, formerly spelt baston.
bat
A low whore: so called from moving out like bats in the dusk of the evening.
bat
"on his own BAT," on his own account. Evident modification of the cricket term, "off his own bat," though not connected therewith.—See HOOK.
batch
We had a pretty batch of it last night; we had a hearty dose of liquor. Batch originally means the whole quantity of bread baked at one time in an oven.
batchelor's fare
Bread and cheese and kisses.
bats
A pair of bad boots.
battells
The weekly bills at Oxford. Probably originally wooden tallies, and so a diminutive of bâton.—University.
batter
Wear and tear; "can’t stand the BATTER," i.e., not equal to the task; "on the BATTER," "on the streets," "on the town," or given up to roystering and debauchery.
battle of the nile
A tile—vulgar term for a hat. "Cool his BATTLE, Bill."
battle-royal
A battle or bout at cudgels or fisty-cuffs, wherein more than two persons are engaged: perhaps from its resemblance, in that particular, to more serious engagements fought to settle royal disputes.
battner
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.
batty
Wages, perquisites. Derived from BATTA, an extra pay given to soldiers while serving in India.
batty-fang
To beat; BATTY-FANGING, a beating; also BATTER-FANG. Used metaphorically as early as 1630.
bawbee
A halfpenny. Scotch.
bawdy basket
The twenty-third rank of canters, who carry pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to sell, but live mostly by stealing. Cant.
be-argered
Drunk. (The word is divided here simply to convey the pronunciation.)
be-blowed
A derisive instruction never carried into effect, as, "You BE-BLOWED." Used similarly to the old "Go to." See BLOW ME.
beach-comber
A fellow who prowls about the sea-shore to plunder wrecks, and pick up waifs and strays of any kind.—Sea.
beak
A justice of-peace, or magistrate. Also a judge or chairman who presides in court. I clapp'd my peepers full of tears, and so the old beak set me free; I began to weep, and the judge set me free.
beak
Originally a magistrate, judge, or policeman; now a magistrate only; "to baffle the BEAK," to get remanded. Ancient Cant, BECK. Saxon, BEAG, a necklace or gold collar—emblem of authority. Sir John Fielding was called the BLIND-BEAK in the last century. Maybe connected with the Italian BECCO, which means a (bird’s) beak, and also a blockhead.—See WALKER.
beaker-hunter
Or BEAK-HUNTER, a stealer of poultry.
bean
A guinea. Half bean; half a guinea.
beans
Money; "a haddock of BEANS," a purse of money; formerly, BEAN meant a guinea; French, BIENS, property.
bear
One who contracts to deliver a certain quantity of sum of stock in the public funds, on a future day, and at stated price; or, in other words, sells what he has not got, like the huntsman in the fable, who sold the bear's skin before the bear was killed. As the bear sells the stock he is not possessed of, so the bull purchases what he has not money to pay for; but in case of any alteration in the price agreed on, either party pays or receives the difference. Exchange Alley.
bear
One who contracts to deliver or sell a certain quantity of stock in the public funds on a forthcoming day at a stated place, but who does not possess it, trusting to a decline in public securities to enable him to fulfil the agreement and realize a profit.—See BULL. Both words are slang terms on the Stock Exchange, and are frequently used in the business columns of newspapers.
bear-leader
A tutor in a private family. In the old days of the "grand tour" the term was much more in use and of course more significant than it is now.
bear-up
And ~Bearer-up~.—See BONNET.
beard splitter
A man much given to wenching.
bearings
I'll bring him to his bearings; I'll bring him to reason. Sea term.
beast
To drink like a beast, i.e. only when thirsty.
beast with two backs
A couple engaged in intimate physical activity
beat
The allotted range traversed by a policeman on duty.
beater-cases
Boots. Nearly obsolete. TROTTER CASES is the term nowadays.
beau trap
A loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and on being trod upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of white stockings; also a sharper neatly dressed, lying in wait for raw country squires, or ignorant fops.
beau-nasty
A slovenly fop; one finely dressed, but dirty.
beaumont and fletcher’s
Comedy of The Beggar’s Bush, 4to, 1661.
beaver
Old street term for a hat; GOSS is the modern word, BEAVER, except in the country, having fallen into disuse.
bebee
A lady.—Anglo-Indian.
becalmed
A piece of sea wit, sported in hot weather. I am becalmed, the sail sticks to the mast; that is, my shirt sticks to my back. His prad is becalmed; his horse knocked up.
beck
A beadle. See HERMANBECK.
bed
Put to bed with a mattock, and tucked up with a spade; said of one that is dead and buried. You will go up a ladder to bed, i.e. you will be hanged. In many country places, persons hanged are made to mount up a ladder, which is afterwards turned round or taken away, whence the term, "Turned off."
bed-fagot
A contemptuous term for a woman; generally applied to a prostitute.—See FAGOT.
bed-maker
Women employed at Cambridge to attend on the Students, sweep his room, &c. They will put their hands to any thing, and are generally blest with a pretty family of daughters: who unmake the beds, as fast as they are made by their mothers.
bed-post
"in the twinkling of a BED-POST," in a moment, or very quickly. Originally BED-STAFF, a stick placed vertically in the frame of a bed to keep the bedding in its place, and used sometimes as a defensive weapon.
bedfordshire
I am for Bedfordshire, i.e. for going to bed.
bedizened
Dressed out, over-dressed, or awkwardly ornamented.
bee
"to have a BEE in one’s bonnet," i.e., to be not exactly sane; to have a craze in one particular direction. Several otherwise sensible and excellent M.P.’s are distinguished by the "BEE in his bonnet" each carries.
beef
To cry beef; to give the alarm. They have cried beef on us. Cant.--To be in a man's beef; to wound him with a sword. To be in a woman's beef; to have carnal knowledge of her. Say you bought your beef of me, a jocular request from a butcher to a fat man, implying that he credits the butcher who serves him.
beef eater
A yeoman of the guards, instituted by Henry VII. Their office was to stand near the bouffet, or cupboard, thence called Bouffetiers, since corrupted to Beef Eaters. Others suppose they obtained this name from the size of their persons, and the easiness of their duty, as having scarce more to do than to eat the king's beef.
beef-headed
Stupid, fat-headed, dull.
beefy
Unduly thick or fat, commonly said of women’s ankles; also rich, juicy, plenteous. To take the whole pool at loo, or to have any particular run of luck at cards generally is said by players to be "very BEEFY."
beeline
The straightest possible line of route to a given point. When a bee is well laden, it makes a straight flight for home. Originally an Americanism, but now general.
beery
Intoxicated, or fuddled with beer.
beeswax
Poor, soft cheese. Sometimes called "sweaty-toe cheese."
beeswing
The film which forms on the sides of bottles which contain good old port wine. This breaks up into small pieces in the process of decanting, and looks like BEES’ WINGS. Hence the term.