bad
"to go to the bad," to deteriorate in character, to be ruined. Virgil has an almost similar phrase, in pejus ruere, which means, by the way, to go to the worse.
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.
bad bargain
One of his majesty's bad bargains; a worthless soldier, a malingeror. See MALINGEROR.
bad egg
A scoundrel or rascal.
bad lot
A term derived from auctioneering slang, and now generally used to describe a man or woman of indifferent morals.
bad words
Words not always bad of themselves but unpleasant to "ears polite," from their vulgar associations.
badge
A term used for one burned in the hand. He has got his badge, and piked; he was burned in the hand, and is at liberty. Cant.
badge-coves
Parish Pensioners. Cant.
badger
To tease, to annoy by "chaffing." Suggestive of drawing a badger.
badgers
A crew of desperate villains who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered. Cant.
badminton
Blood,—properly a peculiar kind of claret-cup invented at the Duke of Beaufort’s seat of that name. BADMINTON proper is made of claret, sugar, spice, cucumber peel, and ice, and was sometimes used by the patrons of the Prize Ring as a synonym for blood.
baffaty
Calico. Term used in the drapery trade.
bag
He gave them the bag, i.e. left them.
bag
To seize or steal, equivalent to "collar."
bag of nails
He squints like a bag of nails; i. e. his eyes are directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails. The old BAG OF NAILS at Pimlico; originally the BACCHANALS.
baggage
Heavy baggage; women and children. Also a familiar epithet for a woman; as, cunning baggage, wanton baggage, &c.
bagman
A commercial traveller. This word is used more in reference to the old style of commercial travellers than to the present.
bags
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."
bailey’s
(Nath.) Etymological English Dictionary, 2 vols. 8vo. 1737.
baked
Seasoned, "he’s only HALF-BAKED," i.e., soft, inexperienced.
baker's dozen
Thirteen items, one more than a standard dozen
baker-knee'd
One whose knees knock together in walking, as if kneading dough.
balaam
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."
bald-faced stag
A term of derision applied to a person with a bald head. Also, still more coarsely, "BLADDER-OF-LARD."
bale up
An Australian term equivalent to our "Shell out." A demand for instantaneous payment.
ballambangjang
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.
ballast
Money. A rich man is said to be well-ballasted. If not proud and over-bearing he is said to carry his ballast well.
ballocks
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.
balmy
Weak-minded or idiotic (not insane).
balum rancum
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
bam
A jocular imposition, the same as a humbug. See HUMBUG.
bamboozle
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.
banaghan
He beats Banaghan; an Irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories. Perhaps Banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous.
banbury story of a cock and a bull
A fanciful and implausible tale
bandannah
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.
bandbox
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.
banded
Hungry. From the habit hungry folks have of tying themselves tight round the middle.
bandog
A bailiff or his follower; also a very fierce mastiff: likewise, a bandbox. CANT.
bandy
Or CRIPPLE, a sixpence, so called from this coin being generally bent or crooked; old term for flimsy or bad cloth, temp. Q. Elizabeth.
bang
To excel or surpass; BANGING, great or thumping.
bang straw
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
bang up
(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.
bang-up
First-rate, in the best possible style.
bang-up dictionary
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.
banging
Great; a fine banging boy.
bank
To put in a place of safety. "BANK the rag," i.e., secure the note. Also "to bank" is to go shares.
bankrupt cart
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
banks's horse
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.
bantling
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.
banyan day
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
banyan-day
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.
bar
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.
barber's chair
She is as common as a barber's chair, in which a whole parish sit to be trimmed; said of a prostitute.
barber's sign
A symbol or indication of a person's profession or activity
barber’s cat
A half-starved sickly-looking person. Term used in connexion with an expression too coarse to print.
bargain
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!
barge
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.
bargees
(CAMBRIDGE.) Barge-men on the river.
bark
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.
barker
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.
barker
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.