boom or bust
Succeeding greatly or failing completely
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boom-passenger
A sailor’s slang term for a convict on board ship. Derived from the circumstance that prisoners on board convict ships were chained to, or were made to crawl along or stand on the booms for exercise or punishment.
boon and bane
Something that is both beneficial and harmful
Boon Companion
A convivial or congenial companion. A ban vivant is one fond of good living. "Who leads a good life is sure to live well." (Fr. bon, good.
boon-companion
A comrade in a drinking bout. BOON evidently corruption of BON.
booner
A person who takes particular pride in their car and enjoys showing it off.
boonies
Boondocks.
boost
To steal.
boot
Besides, Pope assures us, that "VICE TO BE HATED NEEDS BUT
boot and saddle
The order to cavalry for mounting. It is a corruption of the Fr. boute selley put on the saddle, and has nothing to do with boots.
boot camp
a rigorous training program
boot catcher
The servant at an inn whose business it is to clean the boots of the guest.
bootie
A soldier.
bootjack
to steal
bootleggers and Baptists
Unlikely allies unite for a common goal
bootless errand
An unprofitable or futile message. I sent him Bootless home and weather-beaten back.
boots
A condom.
boots
The youngest officer in a regimental mess, whose duty it is to skink, that is, to stir the fire, snuff the candles, and ring the bell. See SKINK.--To ride in any one's old boots; to marry or keep his cast-off mistress.
booty
To play booty; cheating play, where the player purposely avoids winning.
bootyhole
The anus.
bootylicious
Voluptuously attractive, especially of a woman's buttocks.
booze
Drink. Ancient Cant, BOWSE. BOOZE, or SUCK-CASA, a public-house.
booze can
a place where people drink alcohol
boozebag
A drunkard.
boozing-ken
A beer-shop, a low public-house.—Ancient.
boozy
Intoxicated or fuddled.
bop the bishop
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
borachio
A skin for holding wine, commonly a goat's; also a nick name for a drunkard.
boracic
penniless
boracic lint
skint
borde
A shilling. A half borde; a sixpence.
borderline case
A situation or decision that is not clearly one thing or another
bore
A tedious, troublesome man or woman, one who bores the ears of his hearers with an uninteresting tale; a term much in fashion about the years 1780 and 1781.
bore
A troublesome friend or acquaintance, perhaps so called from his unvaried and pertinacious pushing; a nuisance; anything which wearies or annoys. The Gradus ad Cantabrigiam suggests the derivation of BORE from the Greek Βάρος, a burden. Shakspeare uses it, King Henry VIII., i. 1—
Bore of the Severn
In the Severn and other river estuaries certain winds cause a bore, or great tidal wave that rushes up the channel
Bore: a person who talks when you wish him to listen. (Ambrose Bierce)
A person who talks excessively and annoyingly
bored out of one's mind
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
bored shitless
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
borky
broken
born and bred
Raised from birth in a particular place or environment
born in a barn
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
born in the purple
Said of the child of a king or emperor (see PORPHYROGENITUS), hence of anyone of exalted birth or "born with a silver spoon in his mouth." The expression comes from a Byzantine custom which ordained that the empress should be brought to bed in a chamber the walls of which were lined with porphyry, or purple.
Born on Good Friday
According to old superstition, those born on Christmas Day or Good Friday have the power of seeing and commanding spirits.
born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
Born into a wealthy or privileged family
Borough English
A custom by which real estate passes to the youngest instead of the eldest son. It is of English, as opposed to French, origin, and was so called to distinguish it from the Norman custom.
borrow trouble
To create or look for problems that do not exist yet
borrowed time
A period of time that is extended beyond what is normally expected
bos-ken
A farmhouse. Ancient.—See KEN.
bosh
A figure.
bosh
Nonsense, stupidity.—Gipsy and Persian. Also pure Turkish, BOSH LAKERDI, empty talk. The term was used in this country as early as 1760, and may be found in the Student, vol. ii. p. 217. It has been suggested, with what reason the reader must judge for himself, that this colloquial expression is from the German BOSH, or BOSSCH, answering to our word "swipes."
bosh-faker
A violin player. Term principally used by itinerants.
bosky
Inebriated. Not much in use now.
bosman
A farmer: "faking a BOSMAN on the main toby," robbing a farmer on the highway. BOSS, a master.—American. Both terms from the Dutch, BOSCH-MAN, one who lives in the woods; otherwise Boschjeman, or Bushman.
Bosom Friend
A very dear friend. Nathan says, "It lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter" (2 Sam. xii, 3). Bosom friend, ami de coeur. St. John is represented in the New Testament as the "bosom fnend" of Jesus.
bosom sermons
Sermons committed to memory and learnt by heart; not extempore ones or those delivered from notes.
boss-eyed
Said of a person with one eye, or rather with one eye injured, a person with an obliquity of vision. In this sense sometimes varied by the term "swivel-eyed."
Boston Tea-party
An incident leading up to the American War of Independence. The British Parliament had passed laws which favoured the London East India Company at the expense of American traders. Three cargoes of tea which arrived at Boston Har- bour in 1773, shortly after the legislation, were thrown overboard as a protest by a party of colonists dressed as Indians. This act of defiance is known as the Boston Tea-party.
bostruchyzer
A small kind of comb for curling the whiskers.—Oxford University.
bot
To bugger.
botany bay
Worcester Coll. Oxon., so called from its remote situation.
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