to be done brown
To be deceived, taken in; to be "roasted." This is one of many similar expressions connected with cooking. See COOKING.
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to be food for worms
To be dead. Your worm is your only emperor for diet; we fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots. — Hamlet, iv, 3.
to be hammered
A Stock Exchange term, used of one who is in the "House" officially declared a defaulter. This is done by the "Head Waiter," who goes into the rostrum and, be- fore making the announcement, attracts the attention of the members present by striking the desk with a hammer.
to be honest
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
To be in Dulcarnon
To be in a quandary, or on the horns of a dilemma.
to be in the groove
To be in the right mood, tojbe d9ing something successfully. A phrase- originating from the accurate reproduction of music by a needle set in the grooves of a gramo- phone record.
to be in the saddle
To be in a position of authority, in office; also to be ready for work and eager to get on with it.
to be in the same box
To be in the same predicament as somebody else; to be equally embarrassed.
to be in the seventh heaven
Supremely happy. The Cabbalists maintained that there are seven heavens, each rising in happiness above the other, the seventh being the abode of God and the highest class of angels. See also PARADISE.
to be left holding the bag
To have one's comrades decamp or withdraw leaving one with the entire onus of what was originally a group responsibility.
to be no more
To exist no longer; to be dead. Cassius is no more. Julius Ccesar.
to be on one's last legs. (16th century)
To be very tired or near the end of one's strength or usefulness
to be on the qui vive
On the alert; to be quick and sharp; to be on the tiptoe of expecta- tion, like a sentinel. (See above.
to be one's end
The cause or agent of his death. This apoplexie will be his end.
to be open their jacks
To have the advantage over one. The reference is to the jack, or jerkin, a coat of mail quilted with stout leather.
to be pinched for money
To be in financial straits, hard up. Hence, to pinch and scrape, or to pinch it, to economize.
to be ploughed
To be "plucked" at an examination; to fail to pass.
to be raised to the bench
To be made a judge. To be raised to the Episcopal bench.
to be reduced to a shadow
Of pe9ple, to become thoroughly emaciated; of things, to become an empty form from which the sub- stance has departed.
to be run in
To be arrested and taken to the lock-up.
to be struck off the rolfe
To be removed from the official list of qualified solicitors, and so prohibited from practising. This is done in cases of professional misconduct.
to be struck on a person
A colloquialism for to be much interested in him (or her), or to have fallen in love with the person named.
to be sure
to confirm or assure something
To be worn out is to be renewed – Laozi, Chinese philosopher (604 BC – c. 531 BC)
Decline can lead to rebirth or revitalization
to bear a charmed life
To escape accidents in a marvellous manner.
to bear arms
To do military service; to be entitled to heraldic coat of arms and crest.
to bear one company
To be one's com- panion. His faithful dog shall bear him company.
to bear the bell
To excel or surpass all competitors, to be the principal in a body or society; an allusion to the fore horse or leader of a team, whose harness is commonly ornamented with a bell or bells. Some suppose it a term borrowed from an ancient tournament, where the victorious knights bore away the BELLE or FAIR LADY. Others derive it from a horse-race, or other rural contentions, where bells were frequently given as prizes.
to bear the palm
To be the best. The allusion is to the Roman custom of giving the victorious gladiator a branch of the palm tree.
to bear with
To show forbearance, to endure with complacency. To bear the bell. See BELL.
to beat about
A nautical phrase, meaning to tack against the wind.
to beat about the bush
To approach a matter cautiously or in a roundabout way; to shilly-shally; perhaps because one goes carefully when beating a bush to find if any game is lurking within.
to beat down
To make a seller abate his price. To beat or drum a thing into one. To repeat as a drummer repeats his strokes on a drum.
to beat the air
To strike out at nothing, merely to bring one's muscles into play, as pugilists do before they begin to fight; to toil without profit; to work to no purpose.
to beat the band
to do something very loudly or enthusiastically
to beat the booby
A sailors' term for warm- ing the hands by striking them under the armpits.
to beat the bush
To allow another to profit by one's exertions; "one beat the bush and another caught the hare." "Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours" (John iv, 38).
To beat the Dutch
To draw a very long bow; to say something very incredible. To beat the band means the same thing.
to beat the tar out of
To belabour, or beat without mercy. The phrase possibly originated in the attempt to free a sheep's wool from the tar applied to heal any cuts received during shearing.
to beat time
To mark time in music by beating or moving the hands, feet, or a baton.
to beat up against the tyind
To tack against an adverse wind ; to get the better of the wind.
to bed out
To plant what are called "bedding-out plants" in a flower-bed. Bed- ding-out plants are reared in pots, generally m a hothouse, and are transferred into garden- beds early in the summer. Such plants as geraniums, marguerites, fuchsias, pentstemons, petunias, verbenas, lobelias, calceolarias, etc., are meant.
to begin at the wrong end
To attempt to do something unmethodically. To burn the candle at both ends. See BURN.
to beit an alarm
To give notice of danger by beat of drum. To beat a retreat (Fr. battre en retraite); to beat to arms; to beat a charge. Military terms similar to the above.
to best somebody
To get the better of him ; to outwit him and so have the advantage.
to bid against one
To offer or promise a higher price for an article at auction.
to bid fair
To seem likely; as "He bids fair to do well"; "It bids fair to be a fine day.
to bid for
To promise to support in Parliament certain measures, in order to obtain votes.
to bid one's beads
To tell off one's prayers by beads. See BEADS. To bid the (marriage) banns. To ask if anyone objects to the marriage of the persons named. "Si quis" (<y.v.).
to bid to the wedding
In the New Testa- ment is to ask to the wedding feast.
to bilk
To cheat. Let us bilk the rattling cove; let us cheat the hackney coachman of his fare. Cant. Bilking a coachman, a box-keeper, and a poor whore, were formerly, among men of the town, thought gallant actions.
to bishop
There are two verbs, "to bishop, ** both from proper names. One is obsolete and meant to murder by drowning: it is from a man of this name who, in 1831, drowned a little boy in Bethnal Green and sold his body to the surgeons for dissection. The other is slang, and means to conceal a horse's age by "faking" his teeth.
to bitch
To yield, or give up an attempt through fear. To stand bitch; to make tea, or do the honours of the tea-table, performing a female part: bitch there standing for woman, species for genius.
to bite
To over-reach, or impose; also to steal.--Cant.--Biting was once esteemed a kind of wit, similar to the humbug. An instance of it is given in the Spectator: A man under sentence of death having sold his body to a surgeon rather below the market price, on receiving the money, cried, A bite! I am to be hanged in chains.--To bite the roger; to steal a portmanteau. To bite the wiper, to steal a handkerchief. To bite on the bridle; to be pinched or reduced to difficulties.
to bite one's lip
To express vexation and annoyance, or to suppress some unwanted emotion as laughter or anger.
to bite one's thumb at another
To insult or defy a man by putting the thumbnail into the mouth and clicking it against the teeth.
to bite one's thumb at one
To insult him. Formerly a way of expressing defiance and contempt was by snapping the ringer or putting the thumb m the mouth.
to bite upon the bridle
To champ the bit, like an impatient or restless horse.
to blaze abroad
To noise abroad. "Blaze" here is the Icel. blasa, to blow, from O.Teut. blcesan, to blow, and is probably ultimately the same as Lat. flare. Dutch blazen and Ger. blasen are cognate words. See BLAZON.
to blot the skrip and jar it
To stand engaged or bound for any one. Cant.
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