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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
Or BONNETER, a gambling cheat. Sometimes called a "bearer-up." The BONNET plays as though he were a member of the general public, and by his good luck, or by the force of his example, induces others to venture their stakes. Bonneting is often done in much better society than that to be found in the ordinary gaming rooms. A man who persuades another to buy an article on which he receives commission or per-centage is said to BONNET or bear-up for the seller.
A one-horse chaise, noddy, buggy, or leathern bottle.
A favourite amusement of boys at school. It consists in placing a pitcher of water on the top of a door set ajar for the purpose; the person whom they wish to drench is then made to pass through the door, and receives the pitcher and its contents on his unlucky head. Books are sometimes used.
One who never returns borrowed books. Out of one's books; out of one's fevor. Out of his books; out of debt.
Caught, fixed, disposed of.—Term in Book-keeping.
A breast-pocket made inside the waistcoat, for notes of large amount.
Cards to play with. To plant the books; to place the cards in the pack in an unfair manner.
A pack of cards. Term used by professional card-players.—See DEVIL’S BOOKS.
"to top one’s BOOM off," to be off or start in a certain direction.—Sea.
A sailor’s slang term for a convict on board ship. Derived from the circumstance that prisoners on board convict ships were chained to, or were made to crawl along or stand on the booms for exercise or punishment.
A comrade in a drinking bout. BOON evidently corruption of BON.
Besides, Pope assures us, that "VICE TO BE HATED NEEDS BUT
The servant at an inn whose business it is to clean the boots of the guest.
The youngest officer in a regimental mess, whose duty it is to skink, that is, to stir the fire, snuff the candles, and ring the bell. See SKINK.--To ride in any one's old boots; to marry or keep his cast-off mistress.
To play booty; cheating play, where the player purposely avoids winning.
Drink. Ancient Cant, BOWSE. BOOZE, or SUCK-CASA, a public-house.
A beer-shop, a low public-house.—Ancient.
Intoxicated or fuddled.
A skin for holding wine, commonly a goat's; also a nick name for a drunkard.
A shilling. A half borde; a sixpence.
A tedious, troublesome man or woman, one who bores the ears of his hearers with an uninteresting tale; a term much in fashion about the years 1780 and 1781.
A troublesome friend or acquaintance, perhaps so called from his unvaried and pertinacious pushing; a nuisance; anything which wearies or annoys. The Gradus ad Cantabrigiam suggests the derivation of BORE from the Greek Βάρος, a burden. Shakspeare uses it, King Henry VIII., i. 1—
A farmhouse. Ancient.—See KEN.
Nonsense, stupidity.—Gipsy and Persian. Also pure Turkish, BOSH LAKERDI, empty talk. The term was used in this country as early as 1760, and may be found in the Student, vol. ii. p. 217. It has been suggested, with what reason the reader must judge for himself, that this colloquial expression is from the German BOSH, or BOSSCH, answering to our word "swipes."
A violin player. Term principally used by itinerants.
Inebriated. Not much in use now.
A farmer: "faking a BOSMAN on the main toby," robbing a farmer on the highway. BOSS, a master.—American. Both terms from the Dutch, BOSCH-MAN, one who lives in the woods; otherwise Boschjeman, or Bushman.
Said of a person with one eye, or rather with one eye injured, a person with an obliquity of vision. In this sense sometimes varied by the term "swivel-eyed."
A small kind of comb for curling the whiskers.—Oxford University.
Worcester Coll. Oxon., so called from its remote situation.
A nick name for a taylor.
Trouble or annoyance. Any one oppressed with business cares is said to be BOTHERED. "Don’t BOTHER," is a common expression. BLOTHER, an old word, signifying to chatter idly.
A convivial society.
Trouble, annoyance; "BOTHERATION to it!" "confound it!" or "deuce take it!"—an exclamation when irritated.
A deuce,—slang for twopence.
Originally a term in prize ring parlance for the second who took charge of the water-bottle, which was an essential feature in all pugilistic arrangements. This second used to hold the combatant on his knee between the rounds, while the other or principal second sponged, instructed, and advised; an abettor; also the bridegroom’s man at a wedding.
A polite term for the posteriors. Also, in the sporting sense, strength and spirits to support fatigue; as a bottomed horse. Among bruisers it is used to express a hardy fellow, who will bear a good beating.
Stamina in a horse or man. Power to stand fatigue; endurance to receive a good beating and still fight on. "A fellow of pluck, sound wind, and good BOTTOM is fit to fight anything." This was an old axiom among prize fighters. Pierce Egan was very fond of the word.
The colic or bellyache.—Stable Slang. Burns uses it. See Death and Dr. Hornbook.
Conceited, swaggering.—Stable. An infant’s posteriors.—Nursery.
Wide in the boughs; with large hips and posteriors.
Impudence, cheek. A showy swindler, a bully.
Prone to bouncing or boasting.
A large man or woman; also a great lie.
A person who steals whilst bargaining with a tradesman, a swindler, or a lie of more than ordinary dimensions.
A bottle; from the explosion in drawing the cork. CANT.
A four-wheeled cab. Because of its jumping motion over the stones. Also a University term for a TRAP, which generally has a very rough time of it on the country roads.
A cut purse. CANT.--Formerly purses were worn at the girdle, from whence they were cut.
The childish name for a dog; also a jeering appellation for a man born at Boston in America.
A salesman's shop in Monmouth-street; so called because the servant barks, and the master bites. See BARKER.
A term used in literary circles to signify undue strictness of treatment caused by over-modesty in editing a classic. To BOWDLERIZE is to emasculate through squeamishness. From the name (Bowdler) of one of Shakspeare’s "purifiers."
Round tarts made of sugar, apple, and bread, sold in the streets, especially at the East-end of London.
An ale-house or gin-shop.
The nose, from its being the most projecting part of the human face, as the bowsprit is of a ship.
One that draws a long bow, a dealer in the marvellous, a teller of improbable stories, a liar: perhaps from the wonderful shots frequently boasted of by archers.
To know or understand something thoroughly
A term with bagmen or commercial travellers, implying dinner and tea at one meal; also dining with "Duke Humphrey," i.e., going without—which see.
Or, Sketches of Modern Pugilism, by Pierce Egan (an account of the prize-ring), 3 vols. 8vo. 1820.
A hump on a man’s back. In low circles it is usual to speak of a humpbacked man as two persons—"him and his BOY," and from this much coarse fun and personality are at times evolved.
The Brace tavern; a room in the S.E. corner of the King's Bench, where, for the convenience of prisoners residing thereabouts, beer purchased at the tap-house was retailed at a halfpenny per pot advance. It was kept by two brothers of the name of Partridge, and thence called the Brace.