barking dogs seldom bite
People who threaten or complain loudly often don't take action.
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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.
barrel fever
He died of the barrel fever; he killed himself by drinking.
barrel of laughs
A very funny person or thing
barrel of monkeys
a fun and lively situation
Barren's Blues
The 4th Foot ; so called from the colour of their facings, and William Barrel!, colonel of the regiment (1734-9). Now called "The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regi- ment)." They were called "Lions" from their badge, the Lion of England.
Barrier Treaty
A treaty . fixing frontiers; especially that of November 15th, 1715, signed by Austria, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, by which the Low Countries were guaranteed to the House of Austria, and the Dutch were to garrison certain fortresses.
barrikin
Jargon, speech, or discourse; "We can’t tumble to that BARRIKIN," i.e., we don’t understand what he says. "Cheese your BARRIKIN," shut up. Miege calls it "a sort of stuff;" Old French, BARACAN.
barring oat
In the brave days when schoolboys played pranks on their masters, they occasionally vented their humour — and sometimes their spleen — on one by barricading windows- and doors to prevent his entering the school. Miss Edgeworth has a story thus entitled.
barrow man
A man under sentence of transportation; alluding to the convicts at Woolwich, who are principally employed in wheeling barrows full of brick or dirt.
bartholomew baby
A person dressed up in a tawdry manner, like the dolls or babies sold at Bartholomew fair.
bartholomew doll
A tawdry, over-dressed woman; like one of the flashy, bespangled dolls offered for sale at Bartholomew Fair.
Bartholomew Fair
A fair held for centuries from its institution in 1133 at Smithfield, London, on St. Bartholomew's Day: after the change of the calendar in 1752 it was held on September 3rd. While it lasted the Fair was the centre of London life; Elizabethan and Restoration playwrights and story-tellers are full of its amusements and dissipations.
bartholomew pig
A very fat person. At Bartholomew Fair one of the chief attractions used to be a pig, roasted whole, and sold piping hot. Falstaff calls himself— A little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig.— 2 Henry IV, ii, 4.
bartholomew pigs
See BARTHOLOMEW. He has brought his pigs to a pretty market. He has made a very bad bargain; he has managed his business in a very bad way. Pigs were for long a principal article of sale with rustics, and till recently the cottager looked to pay his rent by the sale of his pigs.
Bartlett Pear
Sweet william is an old English name for an old English flower, Dianthus barbatus, a member of the pink family.
bartlett’s
Dictionary of Americanisms; a Glossary of Words and Phrases colloquially used in the United States, 8vo. New York, 1859.
base of operations
In military parlance, the protected place from which operations are conducted, where magazines of all sorts are formed, and upon which (in case of reverse) the army can fall back.
base off of
To base on.
base over apex
to have a lower part higher than the upper part
Base Tenure
Originally, tenure not by military ', but by base, service, such as a serf or villein might give: later, a tenure in fee-simple that was determinate on the fulfilment of some contingent qualification.
base upon
To base on.
based on something
Founded or dependent on something
basement battler
Someone who spends excessive time playing video games
bash
To beat, thrash; "BASHING a dona," beating a woman; originally a provincial word, applied to the practice of beating walnut trees, when in bud, with long poles, to increase their productiveness. Hence the West country proverb—
bash into shape
to forcefully or violently make something or someone into a desired form
bash someone's face in
to severely beat or injure someone's face
bash someone's head
to strongly criticize or attack someone
bash the bishop
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
bask in the sunshine
Enjoy a pleasant and happy situation
basket
An exclamation frequently made use of in cock-pits, at cock-fightings, where persons refusing or unable to pay their losings, are adjudged by that respectable assembly to be put into a basket suspended over the pit, there to remain during that day's diversion: on the least demur to pay a bet, Basket is vociferated in terrorem. He grins like a basket of chips: a saying of one who is on the broad grin.
basket house
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
basket-making
The good old trade of basket-making; copulation, or making feet for children's stockings.
basques toberac
A ceremony which takes place after sunset, when the performers, to show their indignation against some man or woman who has outraged propriety, assemble before the house, and make an appalling din with bells, horns, tin pans, and other noisy instruments.
bassy
A knife.
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.
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