to blow a cloud
To smoke a cigar, pipe, etc. This term was m use m Queen Eliza- beth's reign.
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to blow a trumpet
To sound a trumpet. But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Let us be tigers in our fierce deportment.
to blow great guns
Said of a wind which blows so violently that its noise resembles the roar of artillery.
to blow hot and cold
To be inconsistent. The allusion is to the fable of a traveller who was entertained by a satyr. Being cold, the traveller blew his fingers to warm them, and afterwards blew his hot broth to cool it. The satyr, in great indignation, turned him out of doors, because he blew both hot and cold with the same breath.
to blow off steam
To get rid of super- fluous temper. The allusion is to the forcible escape of superfluous steam no longer required.
to blow one's own trumpet
To publish one's own praises, good deeds, etc. The allusion is to heralds, who used to announce with a flourish of trumpets the knights who entered a list. Similarly, your trumpeter is dead means that you are obliged to sound your own praises because no one will do it for you.
to blow one's top
To lose one's temper. Blown (1), in the phrase "fly-blown/* is a legacy from pre-scientific days, when natura- lists thought that maggots were actually blown on to the meat by blow-flies.
to blow the gab
To confess, or impeach a confederate. Cant.
to blow the gaff
To let out a secret; to inform against a companion; to "peach." Here gaff is a variant of gab (#.v.).
to blow the grounsils
To lie with a woman on the floor. Cant.
to blow up
To inflate, as a bladder; to explode, to burst into fragments ; to censure severely. See I will blow him up, above.
to bluster
To talk big, to hector or bully.
to body forth
To give mental shape to an ideal form. Imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown. SHAKESPEARE: Midsummer Night's Dream, v, 1.
to bolt
To run suddenly out of one's house, or hiding place, through fear; a term borrowed from a rabbit-warren, where the rabbits are made to bolt, by sending ferrets into their burrows: we set the house on fire, and made him bolt. To bolt, also means to swallow meat without chewing: the farmer's servants in Kent are famous for bolting large quantities of pickled pork.
to bolt food
To swallow it quickly without waiting to chew it; hence, to bolt a Bill, a political phrase used of Bills that are passed whole before proper time or opportunity has been given for their consideration.
to book it
To take down an order; to make a memorandum; to enter in a book.
to boot
in addition to something
to bounce
To brag or hector; also to tell an improbable story. To bully a man out of any thing. The kiddey bounced the swell of the blowen; the lad bullied the gentleman out of the girl.
To bow the knee to Rimmon
To palter with one's conscience; to do that which one knows to be wrong so as to save one's face. The allusion is to Naaman obtaining Elisha's per- mission to worship the god when with his master (2 Kings v, 18).
To box Harry
A phrase in use among commercial travellers; applied to one who avoids the table d'hdte and takes something substantial for tea, in order to save expense; also, to cut down one's expenditure after a bout of extravagance. To box a tree is to cut the bark to procure the sap, and these travel- lers dram the landlord by having a cheap tea instead of an expensive dinner. To "box the fox*' is to rob an orchard.
to box the compass
A nautical phrase meaning to name the thirty-two points of the compass m their correct order. Hence, a wind is said "to box the compass" when in^a short space of time it blows from every quarter in succession; hence, the figurative use of the term — to go right round, in political views, etc., or m direction, and to end at one's starting-place.
to box the jesuit, and get cock roaches
A sea term for masturbation; a crime, it is said, much practised by the reverend fathers of that society.
To braid St
Catharine's tresses. To live a virgin. Thou art too fair to be left to braid St. Catharine's tresses.
to brash up
To renovate or revive; to bring again into use what has been neglected as, "I must brush up my French.
to break a bond
To dishonour it. To break a butterfly on a wheel. To employ superabundant effort in the accomplishment of a small matter.
to break a journey
To stop before the journey is accomplished, with the intention of completing it later.
to break bread
To partake of food. Common m Scripture language. Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them. — Acts xx, 7.
to break down
To lose all control of one's feelings; to collapse, to become hysterical. A break-down is a temporary collapse in health; it is also the name given to a wild kind of negro dance.
to break faith
To violate one's word or pledge; to act traitorously.
to break ground
To commence a new project. As a settler does.
to break in
To interpose a remark. To train a horse to the saddle or to harness, or to train any animal or person to a desired way of life.
to break off short
Abruptly, without warning, but completely.
to break on the wheel
To torture on a "wheel" by breaking the long bones with an iron bar. Cf. COUP DE GRACE.
to break one's fast
To take food after long abstinence; to eat one's breakfast after the night's fast.
to break the back of
To finish the hardest part of one's work.
to break the camel's back
To pile on one thing after another till at last the limit is reached and a catastrophe or break-down caused. The proverb is "It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back." See STRAW.
to break the ice
To prepare the way; to cause the stiffness and reserve of intercourse with a stranger to relax; to impart to another bit by bit distressing news or a delicate subject.
to break up
To discontinue classes at the end of term time and go home; to separate. Also, to become rapidly decrepit or infirm. "Old So-and-so is breaking up; he's not long for this world.
to break up housekeeping
To discontinue keeping a separate house.
to break your back
To make you bank- rupt; to reduce you to a state of impotence. The metaphor is from carrying burdens on the back.
to bridle up
In Fr. se rengorger, to draw in the chin and toss the head back in scorn or pride. The metaphor is to a horse pulled up suddenly and sharply.
to bring down the house
To cause raptur- ous applause in a theatre.
to bring grist to the mill
To bring profitable business or gain; to furnish supplies.
to bring him to book
To make him prove his words; to call him to account. Make him show that what he says accords with what is written down in the indentures, the written agreement, or the book which treats of the subject.
to bring home the bacon
To bring back the prize; to succeed. This phrase may have originated in reference to the contest for the Dunmow flitch, or to the sport of catching a greased pig at country fairs.
to bring round
To restore to consciousness or health; to cause one to recover (from a fit, etc.).
to bring to
To restore to consciousness; to resuscitate. There are other meanings.
to bring to light
To discover and expose. The duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answered; he would never bring them to light; would he were returned! — Measure for Measure, iii, 2.
to bring to terms
To force a person to accept one's conditions.
to bring up
To rear from birth or an early age Also numerous other meanings
to brush
To run away. Let us buy a brush and lope; let us go away or off. To have a brush with a woman; to lie with her. To have a brush with a man; to fight with him. The cove cracked the peter and bought a brush; the fellow broke open the trunk, and then ran away.
to budge
To move, or quit one's station. Don't budge from hence; i.e. don't move from hence, stay here.
to bug
A cant word among journeymen hatters, signifying the exchanging some of the dearest materials of which a hat is made for others of less value. Hats are composed of the furs and wool of divers animals among which is a small portion of beavers' fur. Bugging, is stealing the beaver, and substituting in lieu thereof an equal weight of some cheaper ingredient.--Bailiffs who take money to postpone or refrain the serving of a writ, are said to bug the writ.
to bullock
To hector, bounce, or bully.
to bum
To arrest a debtor. The gill bummed the swell for a thimble; the tradesman arrested the gentleman for a watch.
to burke a question
To smother it in its birth. The publication was burked, sup- pressed before it was circulated.
to burn one's boats
To cut oneself off from all means of hope of retreat. The allusion is to Julius Csesar and other generals, who burned- their boats or ships when they invaded a foreign country, in order that their soldiers might feel that they must either con- quer the country or die, as retreat would be impossible.
to burn one's fingers
To suffer loss by speculation or mischance. The allusion is to taking chestnuts from the fire.
To burn the Thames
To set the Thames afire. See THAMES. You cannot burn the candle at both ends. You cannot do two opposite things at one and the same time; you cannot exhaust your energies in one direction, and yet reserve them unimpaired for something else. If you go to bed late you cannot get up early.
to buttonhole a person
To detain him in] conversation; to apprehend, as, "to take) fortune by the button." The allusion is to at custom, now discontinued, of holding a> person by the button or buttonhole in con-1* versation. The French have the same locution : Serrer le bouton (a quelqu'un).
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