bouncer
A person who steals whilst bargaining with a tradesman, a swindler, or a lie of more than ordinary dimensions.
English · UK & Ireland 17968
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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.
bouncing cheat
A bottle; from the explosion in drawing the cork. CANT.
bounder
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.
boung nipper
A cut purse. CANT.--Formerly purses were worn at the girdle, from whence they were cut.
bow-wow
The childish name for a dog; also a jeering appellation for a man born at Boston in America.
bow-wow shop
A salesman's shop in Monmouth-street; so called because the servant barks, and the master bites. See BARKER.
bowdlerization
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."
bowlas
Round tarts made of sugar, apple, and bread, sold in the streets, especially at the East-end of London.
bowsing ken
An ale-house or gin-shop.
bowsprit
The nose, from its being the most projecting part of the human face, as the bowsprit is of a ship.
bowyer
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.
box the compass
To know or understand something thoroughly
box-harry
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.
boxiana
Or, Sketches of Modern Pugilism, by Pierce Egan (an account of the prize-ring), 3 vols. 8vo. 1820.
boy
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.
brace
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.
bracket-faced
Ugly, hard-featured.
brads
Money. Properly a small kind of nails used by cobblers.—Compare HORSE NAILS.
braggadocia
Vain-glorious fellow, a boaster.
bragget
Mead and ale sweetened with honey.
brain-pan
The skull, and BRAIN-CANISTER, the head. Both pugilistic and exchangeable terms.
brains
If you had as much brains as guts, what a clever fellow you would be! a saying to a stupid fat fellow. To have some guts in his brains; to know something.
bramble-gelder
A derisive appellation for an agriculturist.—Suffolk.
bran-faced
Freckled. He was christened by a baker, he carries the bran in his face.
bran-new
Quite new. Properly Brent, BRAND or Fire new, i.e., fresh from the anvil, or fresh with the manufacturer’s brand upon it.
brandon
Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime; or, The Facts, Examinations, &c., upon which the Report was founded, presented to the House of Lords by W. A. Miles, Esq., to which is added a Dictionary of the Flash or Cant Language, known to every Thief and Beggar, edited by H. Brandon, Esq., 8vo. 1839.
brandy
Brandy is Latin for a goose; a memento to prevent the animal from rising in the stomach by a glass of the good creature.
brandy pawnee
Brandy and water.—Anglo-Indian.
brandy smash
One of the 365 American drinks, made of brandy and crushed ice.
brandy-faced
Red-faced, as if from drinking brandy.
brass
Money. "Tin" is also used, and so are most forms of metal.
brass-knocker
Broken victuals. Used by tramps and cadgers.
brat
A child of either sex. Generally used in an offensive sense.
bray
A vicar of Bray; one who frequently changes his principles, always siding with the strongest party: an allusion to a vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, commemorated in a well-known ballad for the pliability of his conscience.
brazen-faced
Bold-faced, shameless, impudent.
brazen-faced
Impudent, shameless. From BRASS. Such a person is sometimes said "to have rubbed his face with a brass candlestick."
brazil
A hard red wood; "HARD AS BRAZIL," a common expression. Quarles in his Emblems says—
bread
Employment. Out of bread; out of employment. In bad bread; in a disagreeable scrape, or situation.
bread and butter fashion
One slice upon the other. John and his maid were caught lying bread and butter fashion.--To quarrel with one's bread and butter; to act contrary to one's interest. To know on which side one's bread is buttered; to know one's interest, or what is best for one. It is no bread and butter of mine; I have no business with it; or rather, I won't intermeddle, because I shall get nothing by it.
bread basket
The stomach; a term used by boxers. I took him a punch in his bread basket; i.e. I gave him a blow in the stomach.
bread-bags
A nickname given in the army and navy to any one connected with the victualling department, as a purser or purveyor in the Commissariat.
break one's back
to work extremely hard
break up
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
break-down
A noisy dance, almost violent enough to break the floor down; a jovial, social gathering, a "flare up;" in Ireland, a wedding—American so far as the dance is concerned.
break-teeth words
Hard words, difficult to pronounce.
breaking shins
Borrowing money; perhaps from the figurative operation being, like the real one, extremely disagreeable to the patient.
breaky-leg
Strong drink; "he’s been to Bungay fair, and broke both his legs," i.e., got drunk. In the ancient Egyptian language the determinative character in the hieroglyphic verb "to be drank," has the significant form of the leg of a man being amputated. "Tangle Leg" is the name given to New England rum.
breast fleet
He or she belongs to the breast fleet; i.e. is a Roman catholic; an appellation derived from their custom of beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.
breeched
Money in the pocket: the swell is well breeched, let's draw him; the gentleman has plenty of money in his pocket, let us rob him.
breeched
Or TO HAVE THE BAGS OFF, to have plenty of money; "to be well BREECHED," to be in good circumstances. Also among schoolboys to be well flogged.
breeches
To wear the breeches; a woman who governs her husband is said to wear the breeches.
breeches
"to wear the BREECHES," said of a wife who usurps the husband’s prerogative. Equivalent to the remark that "the grey mare is the better horse."
breeches bible
An edition of the Bible printed in 1598, wherein it is said that Adam and Eve sewed figleaves together, and made themselves breeches.
breeching
A flogging. Term in use among boys at several private schools.
breef
Probably identical with BRIEF, a shortened card used for cheating purposes; thus described in an old book of games of about 1720—
breeks
Breeches.—Scotch, now common.
breeze
To raise a breeze; to kick up a dust or breed a disturbance.
brick
A "jolly good fellow;" "a regular BRICK," a staunch fellow. About the highest compliment that in one word can be paid one man. Said to be derived from an expression of Aristotle’s—τετραγωνος ἀνηρ.
bridge
To make a bridge of any one's nose; to push the bottle past him, so as to deprive him of his turn of filling his glass; to pass one over. Also to play booty, or purposely to avoid winning.
bridge
A cheating trick at cards, by which any particular card is cut by previously curving it by the pressure of the hand. Used in France as well as in England, and termed in the Parisian Argot FAIRE LE PONT.