barrel fever
He died of the barrel fever; he killed himself by drinking.
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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.
bat
"on his own BAT," on his own account. Evident modification of the cricket term, "off his own bat," though not connected therewith.—See HOOK.
bat a thousand
to succeed perfectly in every attempt
bat an eyelid
remain completely calm and unemotional
bat around
To have each of a team's batting line-up positions complete an at-bat in the same half-inning.
bat five hundred
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
bat for the other team
to be homosexual, typically when it is not openly acknowledged
bat of an eye
very quickly, almost instantly
bat one's eyes
to flirt or show attraction by blinking or moving one's eyes
bat the breeze
to chat casually and pointlessly
Bat-cat Club
A club formed about the beginning of the 18th century by the leading Whigs of the day, and held in the house of Christopher Catt, a pastrycook of Shire Lane, which used to run north from Temple Bar to Carey Street (its site is now covered by the Law Courts). Christopher Catt's mutton pies, which were eaten at the club, were also called kit- cats, and in the Spectator (No. IX) we are told that it was from these the club got its name.
batch
We had a pretty batch of it last night; we had a hearty dose of liquor. Batch originally means the whole quantity of bread baked at one time in an oven.
batchelor's fare
Bread and cheese and kisses.
bate an ace
to do something exceptionally well
bath brick
Alluvial matter compressed to the form of a brick, and used for cleaning knives, polishing metals, etc. It is made at Bridgwater, the material being dredged from the river Parrett, which runs through Bridg- water.
bath bun
The Sun.
bath chair
A chair mounted on wheels and used for invalids. First used at Bath, which for long has been frequented by in- valids on account of its hot springs.
Bath Oliver
A special kind of biscuit in- vented by Dr. William Oliver (1695-1764), physician to the Bath Mineral Water Hospital, and an authority on gout.
bath post
A letter paper with a highly glazed surface, used by the ultra-fashionable visitors of Bath when that watering-place was at its prime. See POST-PAPER.
bath stone
A limestone used for building, and f9und in the Lower Oolite, near Bath. It is easily wrought in the quarry but hardens on •exposure to the air.
bathroom singer
Someone who sings well in private but not in public
Batman and Robin
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
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