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.
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Banks's Horse
A horse trained to do all manner of tricks, called Marocco, and be- longing to one Banks about the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. One of his exploits is said to have been the ascent of St. Paul's steeple. A favourite story of the time is of an apprentice who called his master to see the spectacle.
Bannatyne Club
A literary club, named after George Bannatyne (d.
banner of
Sanjaksherif, kept in the Eyab mosque, at Constantinople. Bible of. The Koran.
banner year
A year that is exceptionally successful or productive
banners in churches
These are suspended as thank offerings to God. Those in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster, etc., are to indicate that the knight whose banner is hung up avows himself devoted to God's service.
Banns of Marriage
The publication in the parish church for three successive Sundays of an intended marriage. It is made after the Second Lesson of the Morning Service. To announce the intention is called "Publishing the banns," from the words "I publish the banns of marriage between . . ." The word is from the same root as BAN fa.v.).
banoodles
Crazy.
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
An old English nautical phrase to describe a day in which no meat came in the rations. In Australia it found its way to out- stations where the hands were likely to have eaten all their meat before the last day of the ration period, thus becoming involuntary vegetarians. In Australia it is found in official documents in the later 18th century.
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.
bap
A woman's breast.
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.
bar none
without exception or comparison
bar sinister
a mark of illegitimacy or disrepute
bar sinister
A phrase popularly used to imply bastardy, though the heraldic sign intended is a bend sinister (g.v.).
bar star
Someone who frequently visits bars and is well-known there
Barbed Steed
A horse in armour. Barbed -should properly be barded\ it is from the Fr. barde, horse-armour. Horses* ** bards " were the metal coverings for the breast and flanks. And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber, To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
Barber of Seville
The comedy by this name (Le Barbier de Seville) was written by Beaumarchais and produced in Paris in 1775. In it appeared for the first time the famous character of Figaro.
Barber Poet
Jacques Jasmin (1798-1864), a Proven£al poet, who was also known as " the last of the Troubadours," was so called. He was a barber.
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 pole
This pole, painted spirally with two stripes of red and white, and dis- played outside barber's shops as a sign, is a relic of the days when the callings of barber and surgeon were combined," it is symbolical of the winding of a bandage round the arm previous to blood-letting. The gilt knob at its end represents the brass basin which is sometimes actually suspended on the pole.
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.
Barclays Bank
A wank.
bare one's soul
Share one's deepest feelings or thoughts honestly
bare one's teeth
Show anger or aggression
bare poles
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
barefoot and pregnant
Confined to domestic duties
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!
bargain and sale
A contract where something is sold, often with conditions
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.
Barisal Guns
A name given to certain mysterious booming sounds heard in many parts of the world as well as Barisal (Bengal), generally on or near water. They resemble the sound of distant cannon, and are probably of subterranean origin. At Seneca Lake, New York, they are known as Lake guns, on the coast of Holland and Belgium as mistpoeffers, and in Italy as bombiti, baturho marina, etc.
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.
bark up the wrong tree
To pursue a mistaken or misguided line of thought or action
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.
barking dogs seldom bite
People who threaten or complain loudly often don't take action.
barking dogs seldom bite
Huffing, bounc- ing, hectoring fellows rarely possess cool courage. Similar proverbs are found in Latin, French, Italian, and German.
barking dogs seldom bite. (16th century)
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
barking iron
A pistol.
barking irons
Pistols, from their explosion resembling the bow-wow or barking of a dog. IRISH.
barking-iron
Or BARKER, a pistol. Term used by footpads and thieves generally.
barkis is willin'
The message sent by Barkis to Peggotty by David Copper-field, expressing his desire to marry. It has passed into a pro- verbial expression indicating willingness. Barlaam and Josaphat (bar' lam, Jos' a f£t). An Eastern romance telling how Barlaam, an ascetic monk of the desert of Sinai, converted Josaphat, son of a Hindu king, to Christianity.
barkshire
A member or candidate for Barkshire, said of one troubled with a cough, vulgarly styled barking.
Barmecide's Feast
An illusion: particularly one containing a great disappoint- ment. The reference is to the Story of the Barber s Sixth Brother in the Arabian Nights.
barn
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.
barn find
a rare or valuable item discovered in a neglected or unexpected place
barn stormers
Theatrical performers who travel the country and act in barns, selecting short and tragic pieces to suit the rustic taste.
barnaby
An old dance to a quick movement. See Cotton, in his Virgil Travesti; where, speaking of Eolus he has these lines,
Barnaby Lecturers
Four lecturers in the University of Cambridge, elected annually on
Barnaby Rudge
The principal interest in this book is the picture it gives of the Gordon Riots of 1780. For the general impression he gives and some of the particulars Dickens relied upon the descriptions given to him by those who remembered the event clearly. The book came out in parts in 1840, only sixty years after the riots.
barnacle
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.
barnacles
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.
Barnard's Inn
One of the old Inns of Chan- cery, formerly situated on the south side of Holborn, east of Staple Inn, It was once known as "Mackworth's Inn," because Dean Mackworth of Lincoln (d. 1454) lived there.
barney
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.
Barney Rubble
Trouble.
baron of beef
Two sirloins left uncut at the backbone. The baron is the backpart of the ox, called in Danish, the rug. Jocosely, but wrongly, said to be a pun upon baron and sir loin.
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