Regency Slang B

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babble	confused, unintelligible talk, such as was used at the building the tower of Babel.
babes in the wood	criminals in the stocks, or pillory
back biter	one who slanders another behind his back, i.e. in his absence. His bosom friends are become his back biters, said of a lousy man.
backed	dead. He wishes to have the senior, or old square-toes, backed; he longs to have his father on six men's shoulders; that is, carrying to the grave.
backside	the back yard of a house where the poultry are kept
back slums	low neighborhood. W.
backster	a baker. N.
backstone	a stone or iron which is heated ro baking oaten bread or cakes. N.
back up	His back is up. i.e. he is offended or angry; an expression or idea taken from a cat; that animal, when angry, always raising its back. An allusion also sometimes used to jeer a crooked man; as, So, Sir, I see somebody has offended you, for your back is up.
bacon	He saved his bacon; he has escaped. He has a good voice to beg bacon; a saying in ridicule of a bad voice.
bacon-faced	full-faced.
bacon-fed	Fat, greasy.
back gammon player	a sodomite.
back door	(usher, or gentleman of the) The same as sodomite.
bad bargain	one of his majesty's bad bargains; a worthless soldier, a malingeror. See malingeror.
badge	a term used for one burned in the hand. He has got his badge, and piked; he was burned in the hand, and is at liberty. Cant.
badge-coves	parish pensioners. Cant.
badger	a huckster. N.
badgers	a crew of desperate villains who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered. Cant.
bag	He gave them the bag, i.e. left them.
bag of nails	He squints like a bag of nails; i.e. his eyes are directed in as many ways as the points of a bag of nails. The old Bag of Nails at Pimlico; originally the Bacchanals.
baggage	heavy baggage; women and children. Also a fammiliar epithet for a woman; as, cunning baggage, wanton baggage, &c.
baggáged or bygáged	mad, bewitched. Ex.
bagging time	baiting-time. Lan. and N.
bairn	a child. N.
baked	exhausted
baker-knee'd	one whose knees knock together in walking, as if kneading dough.
bakers dozen	fourteen; that number of rolls being allowed to the purchase of a dozen.
balderdash	adulterated wine.
balk or balk-staff	a quarter-staff. N.
ball in the stable	cash available
ballocks	the testicles of a man or beast; also a vulgar nick name for a parson. His brains are in his ballocks, a cant saying to designate a fool.
ball of fire	glass of brandy
ballum-rankum	a hop or dance, where the women are all prostitutes. N.B. the company dance in their birthday suits.
balsam	money.
bam	a jocular imposition, the same as humbug. See humbug. Also, to bam, to impose on any one by a falsity; also to jeer or make fun of anyone.
bamboozle	to make a fool of any one, to humbug or impose on him.
to ban	to curse. N.
banaghan	He beats Banaghan; an Irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories. Perhaps Banagan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvelous.
band-box	Mine a-se in a bandbox; an answer to the offer of any thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is proffered, like offering a bandbox for a seat.
Banbury story of a cock and bull	a round-about, nonsensical story.
Banbury tale	silly, roundabout story, hence, a lie
bandog	a bailiff or his follower; also a very fierce mastiff: likewise, a bandbox. Cant.
bandy-he-wit	a name given to any dog, when persons intend to use it in making sport of its master. Lan.
band-kitt	a kind of cann with a cover. N.
bang-beggar	a beadle. Der.
banging	great, large. S.
bang-up	first class, most stylish, a la mode
bank	to bank, to beat. Exmore.
ban-net-tree	a walnut tree. Glo.
bannock	an oat cake, kneeeded with water only and baked on embers. N.
bant	a string; probably a corruption of band. Lan.
bar the bubble	to except against the general rule, that he who lays the odds must always be adjuged the loser; this is restricted to betts laid for liquor.
bar-guest	a ghost, all in white, with large saucer eyes, commonly appearing near gates or stiles, there called bars. Yorksh. derived from bar and gheist.
bargain	a parcel, an indefinite quantity or number; as, I have a good bargain of corn this year. Norf.
bargain	to sell a bargain; a species of wit, much in vogue about the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, and frequently alluded to by Dean Swift, who says the maids of honor often amused themselves with it It consisted in the seller naming his or her hinder parts, in answer to to the question, What? which the buyer was artfully led to ask. As a specimen, take the following instance: a lady would come into a room full of company, apparently in a fright, crying out, It is whit, and follows me! On any of the company asking, what? she sold him the bargain by saying, Mine a--e.
bargees	(Cambridge) Barge-men on the river.
bargh	a horseway up a hill. N.
bark	a box for receiving the ends or pieces of candles. N.
barken	a yard of a house, backside or barton. S.
barker	pistol (barking irons)
barker	the shopman of a bow-wow shop, or dealer in second hand clothes, particularly about Monmouth-Street, who walks before his master's door, and deafens every passenger with his cries of--Clothes, coats, or gowns--what d'ye want, gemmen?--what d'ye buy? See bow-wow shop.
barkit	dirt, &c, hardened on hair, perhaps from its adhering like the bark of a tree.
barkshire	a member or candidate for Barkshire, said of one troubled with a cough, vulgarly styled barking.
barking irons	pistols, from their explosion resembling the bow-wow of a barking dog. Irish.
barme	yeast. Kent and S.
barmskin	a leather apron. Lan.
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.
barnaby	an old dance to a quick movement. See Cotton, in his Virgil Travesti; where, speaking of Eolus he has these lines, Bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly, And make the world dance Barnaby.
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 nam'd for spectacles, and also for the gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of horses.
barngun	a breaking out in small pustules in the skin. Exmore
barr	a gate of a town or city. N.
barra, or barrow	a gelt pig. Exmore
barrel fever	he died of the barrel fever; he killed himself by drinking.
barrow man	a man under sentence of transportation; alluding to the convicts of 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. A gaudy person; hence a clown
barsale	barking-time. Norf.
barst	burst. Lanc.
barths	a warm place or pasture for calves and lambs. S.
barton	a yard of a house, or backside. Sussex.
basket	an exclamation frequently made use of in cock-pits, at cock-fightings, where persons refusing or unable to pay for their losings, are adjuged by that respectable assembly to be put into a basket suspended over the pit, there remaining 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-making	the good old trade of basket-making; copulation, or making feet for children's stockings.
bast	a perch. Cumb.; in Hampshire, a sea-perch (fish)
bastard	the child of an unmarried woman.
baste	to beat. I'll give him his bastings, I'll beat him heartily.
basting	a beating.
basterly-gullion	a bastard's bastard. Lanc.
bastonading	beating any one with a stick; from baton, a stick, formerly spelt baston.
bat	to bat the eyes, to wink. Derb.
bat	a low whore; so called from moving about like bats in the dusk of the evening.
batch	We had a pretty batch of it last night; we had a hearty dose of good liquor. Batch originally means the whole quantity of bread baked at one time in an oven.
batch	a kind of hound. N.
batchelor's fare	bread and cheese and kisses.
batchelor's son	a bastard.
bate, or beawte	without, except. Lanc.
batten	to feed or fatten. N.
battin	the straw of two sheaves folded together. N.
battle-royal	a battle or bout at cudgels or fisty-cuffs, wherein more than two persons are engaged: perhaps from its resemblance, in that particular, to more serious engagements fought to settle royal disputes.
battner	an ox: beef being apt to batten or fatten those that eat it. The cove has hushed the battner, i.e. has killed the ox.
bating with child	breeding, gravid. N.
battles	commons, or board. Oxford and Cambridge
battlings	the loppings of trees, larger than faggots and less than timber. Norf. and Suff.
battle twig	an ear-wig. Derb.
battril	a batting staff used by laundresses. Lan.
bauk	the summer beam, or dorman; also a pole or beam, such as used under the roofs of small buildings; also land left unploughed, to divide the property of different persons in common or open fields. Northumb.
bawbee	a halfpenny. Scotch.
bawbels, or bawbles	trinkets; a man's testicles.
bawd	a female procuress.
bawdy basket	the twenty-third rank of canters, who carry pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to sell, but live mostly by stealing. Cant.
bawdy-house bottle	a very small bottle; short measure being among the many means used by the keepers of those houses, to gain what they call an honest livelihood: indeed this is one ofthe least reprehensible; the less they give a man of their infernal beverages for his money, the kinder they behave to him.
bawks	a hay loft. Cumb.
baurghwans	horse-collars. N.
bautert	See barkit.
baven	a brush, faggot. Kent.
bay fever	a term of ridicule applied to convicts, who sham illness, to avoid being sent to Botany Bay.
Bayard of ten toes	to ride bayard of ten toes, is to walk on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.
beak	a justice of peace, or magistrate. Also a judge or chairman who presides in court. I c lapp'd my peepers full of tears, and so the old beak set me free; I began to weep, and the judge set me free.
beakment	a measure containing four quarts. N.
bean	a guinea. Half bean; half a guinea.
bear	one who contacts to deliver a certain quantity or sum of stock in the public funds, on a future day, and at stated price; or, in other words, sells what he has not got, like the huntsman in the fable, who sold the bear's skin before the bear was killed. As the bear sells the stock he is not possessed of, so the bull purchases what he has not money to pay for; but in case of any alteration in the price agreed on, either party pays or receives the difference. Exchange Alley
bear-garden jaw, or discourse	rude, vulgar language, such as was used at the bear-gardens.
bear leader	a travelling tutor.
beard splitter	a man given to much wenching.
bearings	I'll bring him to his bearings; I'll bring him to reason. Sea term.
beast	to drink like a beast, i.e. only when thirsty.
beast with two backs	a man and woman in the act of copulation. Shakespeare in Othello.
beater cases	boots. Cant.
beau nasty	a slovenly fop; one finely dressed, but dirty.
beau trap	a loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and on being trod upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of white stockings: also a sharper neatly dressed, lying in wait for raw country squires, or ignorant fops.
beathing	beathing wood by the fire, setting or straightening unseasoned wood by heat. Norf. and Suff.
becalmed	a piece of sea wit, sported in hot weather. I am becalmed, the sail sticks to the mast; that is, my shirt sticks to my back. His prad is becalmed; his horse knocked up. Beck a beadle. See hermanbeck.
beck	a rivulet or brook. N.
beclarted	besmeared or bedawbed. N.
bed	put to bed with a mattock, and tucked up with a spade; said of one that is dead and buried. You will go up a ladder to bed, i.e. you will be hanged. In many country places, persons hanged are made to mount up a ladder, which is afterwards turned round or taken away, whence the term, "turned off."
Bedfordshire	I am for Bedfordshire, i.e. for going to bed.
bedizened	dressed out, over-dressed, or awkwardly ornamented.
bed-maker	women employed at Cambridge to attend on the Students, sweep his room, &c. They will put their hands to any thing, and are generally blest with a pretty family of daughters: who unmake the beds, as fast as they are made by their mothers.
beef	to cry beef: to give the alarm. They have cried beef on us. Cant. --To be in a man's beef; to wound him with a sword. To be in a woman's beef; to have carnal knowledge of her. Say you bought your beef of me, a jocular request from a butcher to a fat man, implying that he credits the butcher who serves him.
beef eater	a yeoman of the guards, instituted by Henry VII. Their office was to stand near the bouffet, or cupblard, thence called Bouffetiers, since corrupted to beef eaters. Others suppose they obtain this name from the size of their persons, and the easiness of their duty, as having scarce more to do than to eat the king's beef.
beeld	shelter. N.
been	nimble, clever. Lan.
beent-meed	help on particular occasions. Lanc.
beeos	cows.
beer, or birre	force or might; with aw my beer, with all my force. Chesh.
beer-good	yest. Norf. and Suff.
beest, or beestlings	milk immediately afer the cow has calfed. Lan. and Glou.
beestling pudding	pudding made of beest
bees	cows. Cumb.
beesom, or byssum	a broom. N.
beetle-browed	one having thick projecting eyebrows.
beetle-headed	dull, stupid.
beggar-maker	a publican, or ale-house keeper.
beggars-bullets	stones. The beggars bullets began to fly, i.e. they began to throw stones.
begone	decayed or worn; the thatch of this house is lamentably begone. Norf. and Suff.
beight	bending of the elbow. N.
Beilby's ball	He will dance at Beilby's ball, where the sheriff pays the music; he will be hanged. Who Mr. Beilby was, or why that ceremony was so called, remains with the quadrature of the circle, the discovery of the philosopher's stone, and divers other desiderata yet undiscovered.
behither	on this side; in opposition to beyond. Sussex.
behounch'd	tricked up and made fine; a metaphor taken from an ornament worn by a cart horse, called hounches, which lies spread upon his collar. This term is in general used ironically. Sussex.
belch	beer, porter, etc. All sorts of beer; tha liquor being apt to cause eructation.
belcher	a red silk handkerchief, intermixed with yellow and a little black. The kiddy flashes his belcher; the young fellow wears a silk handkerchief around his neck.
beleakins	i.e. by the lady-kin, or little lady; a Lancashire and Derbyshire interjection.
belike	probably, perhaps. N.
believe	anon, by and by, in the evening, towards night. Northumb. and N.
bell	to bear the bell. To excel or surpass all competitors, to be the principle body or society; an allusion to the forehorse 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 froom a horse- race, or other rural contentions, where bells were frequently given as prizes.
bellart	a bull or bearward. N.
bell, book, and candle	They cursed him with bell, book, and candle; an allusion to the popish form of ex- communicaiting and anathematizing persons who had offended the church.
bellows	the lungs.
bellower	the town crier.
bellowser	transportation for life: i.e. as long.
belly	His eye was bigger than his belly; a saying of a person at a table, who takes more on his plate than he can eat.
belly cheat	an apron.
bellyfull	a hearty beating, surricient to make a man yield or give out. A woman with child is also said to have got her belly full.
belly plea	the plea of pregnancy, generally adduced by female felons capitally convicted, which they take care to provide for, previous to their trials; every goal having, as the Beggar's Opera informs us, one or more child getters, who qualify the ladies for that expedient to procure a respite.
belly timber	food of all sorts.
bell swagger	a noisy bullying fellow.
bell wether	the chief or leader of a mob; an idea taken from a flock of sheep, where the wether has a bell about his neck.
ben	a fool. Cant.
ben, or bend	to the true ben or bend; to stretch out; to yield to; the purpose, to the purpose, or sufficiently; to the utmost stretch. Exmore.
bend	a border of a woman's cap. N.; perhaps from band.
bender	sixpence
bene	bene, good --benar, better. Cant.
bene bowse	good beer, or other strong liquor. Cant.
bene cove	a good fellow. Cant.
bene darkmans	good night. Cant.
bene feakers	counterfeiters of bills. Cant.
bene feakers of gybes	counterfeiters of passes. Cant.
benefit	a church living, or benefice. N.
beneshiply	worshipfully. Cant.
benish	foolish. Cant.
benison	the beggar's bension: May your **** and your purse never fail you.
benjamin	coat.
bensel	to beat or bang. Vox rustica. Yorksh.
Bermudas	a cant name for certain places in London, privileged against arrests, like the Mint in Southwark. Ben Johnson. These privileges are abolished.
berry	to berry, to thresh out corn. N.
berryer	a thresher
besom	a broom. N.
bess	see brown bess.
bess, or betty	a small instrument used by house-breakers to force open doors. Bring bess and glym; bring the instrument to force the door, and the dark lantern. Small flasks, like those for Florence wine, are also called betties.
best	To the best in Christendom: i.e. the best **** in Christondom; a health formerly much in vogue.
bet	a wager. To bet, to lay a wager.
Betty Martin	That's my eye, Betty Martin; an answer to any one that attempts to impose or humbug.
betwattled	surprised, confounded, out of one's senses; also bewrayed.
bever	an afternoon's luncheon; also a fine hat; beaver's fur making the best hats.
bevering	trembling. N.
bewivered	lost to one's self, bewildered, confounded. Exmore
beverage	garnish money, or money for drink, demanded of any one having a new suit of clothes.
bible	a boatswain's great axe. Sea term.
bible oath	supposed by the vulgar to be more binding than an oath taken on the Testament only, as being the bigger book, and generally containing both the Old and New Testament.
bid	to bid or bede, to pray. N. whence bedesman
bibber	to tremble; I saw his under lip bibber. Kent. See bevering
bide	to stay or abide. C. It will bide billingat, it will bear working at. N. Let un'bide let him stay. W.
bidden	invited, suffered; whence, for bidden. N.
biddy, or chick-a-biddy	a chicken, and figuratively a young wench.
bidet	commonly pronounced biddy. A kind of tub, contrived for ladies to wash themselves, for which purpose they bestride it lika a French poney, or post-horse, called in French bidets.
bienly	excellently. She wheedled so bienly; she coaxed or flattered so cleverly. French.
big	barley. Cumb.
big	to big, to build. Cumb.
bigge	a pap or teat. Essex
biggenning	I wish you a good begginning, i.e. a good getting up after lying in. N.
bilboa	a sword. Bilboa in Spain was once famous for well-tempered blades: these are quoted by Falstaff, where he describes the manner in which he lay in the buck-basket. Bilboes, the stock: prison. Cant.
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.
billard	a bastard capon. Suss.
bill at sight	to pay a bill at sight; to be ready at all times for the venereal act.
bill of sale	a widow's weeds. See house to let.
Billingsgate language	foul language, or abuse. Billingsgate is the market where the fishwomen assemble to purchase fish; and where, in their dealings and disputes, they are somewhat apt to leave decency and good manners a little on the left hand.
bing	to go. Cant. Bing avast; get you gone. Binged avast in a darkmans; stole away in the night. Bing we to Rumeville: Shall we go to London?
bingo	brandy or other spiritous liquor.
bingo boy	a dram drinker. Cant.
bingo mort	a female dram drinker. Cant.
binnacle word	a fine or affected word, which sailors jeeringly offer to chalk up on the binnacle.
bird, or bürd	bread. Exm.
bird and baby	the sign of the eagle and child.
bird of the eye	the pupil or sight of the eye. Suff.
birds of a feather	rogues of the same gang.
bird-witted	inconsiderate, thoughtless, easily imposed upon.
birk	a birch tree. N.
birlady	by our lady. York and Derby.
birth	a place or station; a good birth; mine is the next birth. Kent. This word is used by seamen of all countries in the same sense. To birth a floor, to place or lay down on a floor.
birth-day suit	He was in his birth-day suit, that is, stark naked.
bishop	a mixture of wine and water, into which is put a roasted orange. Also one of the largest of Mrs Philips's purses, used to contain the others.
bishop	the little spotted beetle, commonly called the lady-bird, or lady-cow; in some countries the golden know. S. C. The bishop has set his foot in it, a saying in the North, used for milk that is burnt too in boiling. Formerly, in days of superstition, whenever a bishop passed through a town or village, all the inhabitants ran out in order to receive his blessing; this frequently caused the milk on the fire to be left till burnt to the vessel, and gave origin to the above allusion.
bishop the balls	to bishop the balls, a term used among printers, to water them.
bishoped, or to bishop	a tem used among horse-dealers, for burning the mark into a horse's tooth, after he has lost it by age; by bishoping, a horse is made to appear younger than he is.
bit	money. He grappled the cull's bit; he seized the man's money. A bit is also the smallest coin in Jamaica, equal to about sixpence sterling.
bitch	a she dog, or doggess; the most offensive appelation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore, as may be gathered from the regular Billingsgate or St. Giles's answer---"I may be a whore, but can't be a bitch."
to bitch	to yield, or give up an attempt through fear. To stand bitch; to make tea, or do the honors of the tea-table, performing a female part: bitch there standing for woman, species for genius.
bitch booby	a country wench. Military term.
bite	a cheat; also a woman's privities. The cull wapt the mort's bite; the fellow enjoyed the wench heartily. Cant.
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 market price, on receiving the money, cried, A bite! I am to be hanged in chains. -- To bite the roger; to steal a port- manteau. To bite the wiper, to steal a handkerchief. To bite on the bridle; to be pinched or reduced to difficulties. Hark ye, friend, whether do they bite in the collar or the cod- piece? Water wit to anglers.
biter	a wench whose **** is ready to bite her a--se: a lascivious, rampant wench.
bizend, beezen, or bison	blind. Northum.
blab	a tell-tale, or one incapable of keeping a secret.
black art	the art of picking a lock. Cant.
black a-se	a copper or kettle. The pot calls the kettle black a-se. Cant.
Black Beetles	lower orders.
black book	he is down in the black book, i.e. has a stain in his character. A black book is kept in most regiments, wherein the names of all persons sentenced to punishment are recorded.
black box	a lawyer. Cant.
black diamond	coal porter.
black eye	We gave the bottle a black eye, i.e. drank it almost up. he cannot say black is the white of my eye; he cannot point out a blot in my character.
black fly	the greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i.e. the parson who takes tithe of the harvest.
black guard	a shabby, mean fellow; a term said to be derived from a number of dirty, tattered roguish boys, who attend at the Horse Guards, and parade in St. James's Park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any other dirty offices. These, from their constant attendance about the time of guard mounting, were nick-named the black-guards.
black Indies	Newcastle upon Tyne, whose rich coal mines prove an Indies to the proprietors.
black jack	a nick-name given to the Recorder by thieves.
black jack	a jug to drink out of, made of jacked leather.
black joke	a popular tune to a song, having for the burden, "Her black joke and belly so white:" figuratively the black joke signifies the monosyllable. See monosyllable.
blacklegs	a gambler or sharper on the turf or in toe cock-pit: so called, perhaps, from their appearing generally in boots; or else from game-cocks whose legs are always black.
black-letter gentry	writers.
black Monday	the first Monday after the school-boys holidays, or braking up, when they are to go to school, and produce or repeat the tasks set them.
black psalm	to sing the black psalm; to cry: a saying used to children.
black spice racket	to rob chimney sweepers of their soot, bag and soot.
black spy	the devil.
black strap	Bene Carlo wine: also port. A task of labour imposed on soldiers at Gibraltar, as a punishment for small offences.
black and white	in writing, I have it in black and white; I have written evidence.
blade	a gallant
blake	yellow; spoken of butter and cheese; as blake as a paigle. N. Cow blakes, cow-dung driew for fewel
blaking	crying, out of breath. Exmore.
blank	to look blank; to appear disappointed or confounded.
blanket hornpipe	the amorous congress.
blaring	the crying of a child, also the bleating of a sheep, or lowing or an ox or cow. Suff.
blarney	he has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller. The blarney stone is a triangular stone on the very top of an ancient castle of that name in the county of Cork in Ireland, extremely difficult of access; so that to have ascended to it, was considered as a proof of perseverance, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honor, who never achieved the adventure: and to tip the blarney, is figuratively used telling a marvellous story, or falsity; and also sometimes to express flattery. Irish.
blashy	thin, poor; blashy milk or beer. Northumb.
blast	to blast, to curse.
blatchy	black or dirty. Glou.
blate	frightened.
blater	a calf. Cant.
blazing	spreading abroad news or scandal. Ex.
bleached mort	a fair-complexioned wench.
bleare	to roar or cry. N.
bleaters	those cheated by Jack in a box. Cant. ---See Jack in a box.
bleating cheat	a sheep. Cant.
bleating rig	sheep stealing. Cant.
bleb	a blister, also a bubble in the waer. N.
blee	blueish, pale, blue. N.
bleed	to yield or produce well; the corn bleeds well.
bleeders	spurs. He clapped his bleeders to his prad; he put his spurs to his horse.
bleeding cully	one who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely.
bleeding new	a metaphor borrowed from fish, which will not bleed when stale.
bleit, or blate	bashful. N.
blenches	faults. N
blen-corn	wheat mixed with rye, i.e. blended corn. York.
blendings	beans and pease mixed together. N.
blessing	a small quantity over and above the measure, usually given by hucksters dealing in peas, beans, and other vegetables.
bligh	a faint rememberance; methinks he has a bligh of his father. K.
blind	a feint, pretence, or shift.
blind cheeks	the breech. Buss blind cheeks; kiss mine a-se.
blind cupid	the backside.
blind excuse	a poor or insufficient excuse. A blind ale-house, lane, or alley; an obscure, or little known or frequented ale-house, lane, or alley.
blind harpers	beggars counterfeiting blindness, playing on fiddles, &c.
blindman's buff	a play used by children, where one being blinded by a handkerchief over his eyes, attempts to seize any one of the company, who all endeavour to avoid him; the person caught must be blinded in his stead.
blindman's holiday	night, darkness.
blind suit	blind alley
blind-worm	the snake called a slow-worm. N. and S.
blirt	to cry. N.
bloacher	any large animal. Northumb.
blockhouses	prisons, houses of correction, &c.
blocked at both ends	finished. The game is blocked at both ends; he game is ended.
bloggy	to bloggy, to sulk or be sullen. Ex.
bloten-fond	the kind of affection shewn by a child for its nurse; the child is bloten of her. Ches.
blood	a riotous disorderly fellow
blood for blood	a term used by tradesmen for bartering the different commodities in which they deal. Thus a hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.
blood money	the reward given by the legislature on the conviction of highwaymen, burglars, &c.
bloody	a favorite word used by the thieves in swearing, as bloody eyes, bloody rascal.
bloody back	a jeering appellation for a soldier, alluding to his scarlet coat.
bloss, or blowen	the pretended wife or a bully, or shoplifter. Cant.
blot the skrip and jarit	to stand engaged or bound for anyone. Cant.
blow	he has bit the blow, i.e. he has stolen the goods. Cant.
blow	a cloud smoke (a pipe).
blow the gab	to confess, or impeach a confederate. Cant.
blow the groundsills	to lie with a woman on the floor.
blow-up	a discovery, or the confusion occasioned by one.
blowed up	ruined.
blowen	a mistress or whore of a gentleman of the scamp. The blowen kidded the swell into a snoozing ken, and shook him of his dummee and thimble; the girl inveigled the gentleman into a brothel and robbed him of his pocket book and watch.
blower	a pipe. How the swell funks his blower and lushes red tape: what a smoke the gentleman makes with his pipe, and drinks brandy.
blowmaunger	a fat full-faced person, one whose cheeks seem puffed out. Ex.
blow-milk	skimmed milk, perhaps blue milk; milk when closely skimmed geing of a blueish colour. N.
blowse, or blowsabella	a woman whose hair is dishevelled, and hanging about her face; a slattern.
blubber	the mouth.--I have stopped the cull's blubber: I have stopped the fellow's mouth, meant either by gagging or murdering him.
blubber	to cry.
blubber cheeks	large flaccid cheeks, hanging like the fat or blubber of a whale.
to sport blubber	said of a large coarse woman, who exposes her bosom.
blue	to look blue; to be confounded, terrified, or disappointed. Blue as a razor; perhaps, blue as azure.
blue boar	a venereal bubo.
blue devils	low spirits.
blue flag	he has hoisted the blue flag; he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, an allusion to the blue aprons worn by publicans. See Admiral of the blue.
blue pigeons	thieves who steal lead off houses and churches. Cant. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off houses or churches.
blue plumb	a bullet--Surfeited with a blue plumb; wounded with a bullet. A sortment of George R---s blue plumbs: a volley or ball, shot from soldiers' firelocks.
blue skin	a person begotten on a black woman by a whiteman. One of the blue squadron; any one having a cross of the black breed, or, as it is termed, a lick of the tar brush.
blue ruin	gin. Blue ribband; gin.
blue tape, or sky blue	gin.
bluff	fierce, surly. He looked as bluff as bull beef.
bluffe	to bluffe, to blindfold. Northumb.
bluffer	an inn-keeper. Cant.
blunderbuss	a short gun, with a wide bore, for carrying slugs; also a stupid, blundering fellow.
blunt	money, cash. Cant.
blush	to blush, to resemble. N.
bluster	to talk big, to hector or bully.
boarding school	Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison, or house of correction.
bob	a shoplifter's assistant, or one that receives and carries off stolen goods. All is bob; all is safe. Cant.
bob	a shilling.
bobbed	cheated, tricked, disappointed.
bobbish	smart, clever, spruce.
bobby	a pony
bob stay	a rope which holds the bowsprit to the stem or cutwater. Figuratively, the frenum of a man's yard.
bob-stick	a shillingsworth.
bob tail	a lewd woman, or one that plays with her tail; also an impotent man, or an eunuch. Tag, rag, and bob-tail; a mob of all sorts of low people. To shift one's bob; to move off, or go away. To bear a bob; to join in a chorus with singers. Also a term used by the sellers of game, for a partridge.
bodle	a Scotch coin, one sixth of a penny. N.
body	a simpleton. N.
body snatchers	bum bailiffs.
body of divinity bound in black calf	a parson.
bog lander	an Irishman; Ireland being famous for its large bogs, which furnish the chief fuel in many parts of that kingdom.
bog trotter	the same as above.
bog house	the necessary house. To go to bog; to go to stool.
bog Latin	barbarous Latin. Irish.---see dog Latin, and Apothecaries Latin.
boggart	a spectre; to take boggart, said of a horse that starts at any objet in the hedge or road. N.
bogge	bold, forward, saucy. S. A very bog fellow
boggle, or bogle	a ghost. N.
bogy	ask bogy, i.e. ask mine a-se. Sea wit.
boh	said to be the name of a Danish general, who so terrified his opponent Foh, that he caused him to bewray himself. Whence, when we smell a stink, it is customary to to exclaim Foh! i.e. I smell general Foh. He cannot say Boh to a goose; i.e. he is a cowardly, sheepish fellow. There is a story related of the celebrated Ben Johnson, who always dressed very plain; that being introduced to the presence of a nobleman, the peer, struck by his homely appearance and awkward manner, exclaimed, as if in doubt, "you Ben Johnson! why you look as if you could not say Boh to a goose!" "Boh!" replied the wit.
boke	to boke, to point at. Chesh.
bold	bold as a miller's shirt, which every day takes a rogue by the collar.
bolders	round flint stones used in buildings. Sus.
bole	a bole new, a measure; four kennings and thre new boles make an old bole, in barley and oats only. N.
boll of salt	two bushels. Northumb.
boll of a tree	the stem, trunk, or body. N.
bollings	pollards; trees whose heads and branches are cut off.
bolt	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.
bolt	a blunt arrow.
bolt upright	as erect, or straight up, as an arrow set on its end.
bolus	a nick-name for an apothecary.
bone box	the mouth. Shut your bone box; shut your mouth.
bone picker	a footman.
bone setter	a hard-trotting horse.
boned	seized, apprehended, taken up by a constable. Cant.
bones	dice
bones	bobbins for making lace, probably first made of bones; hence bone lace. N.
boneshave	a bony or horny excresence or tumour, growing on horses heels, perhaps so called from a distant resemblance to the substance of a bone spavin; also the scratches. Exmore.
boniface	a publican.
booby, or dog booby	an awkward lout, clodhopper, or country fellow. See clodhopper and lout. A bitch booby; a country wench.
booby hutch	a one-horse chaise, noddy, buggy, or leathern bottle.
booke and bane	lusty and strong. N.
books	cards to play with. To plant the books; to place the cards in the pack in an unfair manner.
book-keeper	one who never returns borrowed books. Out of one's books; out of one's favor. Out of his books; out of debt.
boon	to boon or buen, to do service to another as a landlord. N.
boon	a gratuitous day's work. N.
boor	the parlor, bed-chamber, or inner room. Cumb.
boose	an ox or cow-stall. N.
boose, or bouse	drink.
boosey	drunk.
boot catcher	the servant at an inn whose business it is to clean the boots of the guest.
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.
bo-peep	one who sometimes hides himself, and sometimes appears publicly abroad, is said to play at bo-peep. Also one who lies perdue, or on the watch.
borachio	a skin for holding wine, commonly a goat's; also a nick-name for a drunkard.
borde	a shilling. A half borde; a sixpence
bordello	a bawdy house.
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-tree	an elder tree. N. From the great pith in the younger branches which children commonly bore out to make pop-guns of them.
born under a threepenny halfpenny planet, never to be worth a groat.	said of any person remarkably unsucessful in his attempts or profession.
borse	a calf of half a year old. Hamp.
bosh	to cut a bosh. Norf. To make a figure.
bostal	a way up hill. Suss.
boostering	labouring busily so as to sweat. Ex.
botch	a nick-name for a taylor.
bothered, or both- eared	talked to at both ears by different persons at the same time, confounded, confused. Irish phrase.
Botherams	a convivial society.
bottle-headed	void of wit.
bottle-man	second
bottom	a polite term for the posteriors. Also, in the sporting sense, strength of spirits to support fatigue; as a bottomed horse. Among bruisers it is used to express a hardy fellow, who will bear a good beating.
bottom	pluck, grit, guts, courage.
bottomless pit	the monosyllable.
bouds	weevils, an insect in bread in malt. Norf.
boughs	wide in the boughs, with large hips and posteriors.
boughs	He is up in the boughs; he is in a passion.
bouk	a pail for holding water; whence bouket or bucket. Staff. A whilr-bouk, a churn, which is worked by turning round.
boulder	a large round stone. C.
boun	to boun and unboun, to dress and undress. Northumb.
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.
bouncer	a large man or woman; also a reat lie.
bouncing cheat	a bottle; from the explosion in drawing the cork. Cant.
boung	a purse. Cant.
boung nipper	a cut-purse. Cant-- Formerly purses were worn at the girdle, from whence they were cut.
bourd	to bourd, to jest. N.
bourn	yest. Ex.
bout	without. Northumb.
bouted-bread	bread made of wheat and rye. Northumb.
bown	swelled. Norf.
bowke	to nauseate, to be ready to vomit; also to belch, sometimes pronounced boke. N.
bowsing ken	an ale-house or gin-shop.
bowsprit	the nose, from its being the most projecting part of the human face, as the bowsprit of a ship.
bow-wow	the childish name for a dog; also a jeering appellation for a man born at Boston in America.
bow-wow mutton	dog's flesh.
bow-wow shop	a salesman's shop in Monmouth-street; so called because the servant barks, and the master bites. See barker.
bowyer	one that draws a long bow, a dealer in the marvellous, a teller of improbable stories, a liar: perhaps frm the wonderful shots frequently boasted of by archers.
boxing a charli	e trapping a watchman in his box.
box the compass	to say or repeat the mariner's compass, not only backwards or forwards, but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its divisions. Sea term.
box the Jesuit and get cock roaches	a sea term for masturbation; a crime, it is said, much practised by the revered fathers of that society.
Brace	the Brace tavern; a room in the S.E. corner of the King's Bench, where, for the convenience of prisoners residing thereabouts, beer purchased at the tap-house was retailed at a halfpenny per pot advance. It was kept by two brothers of the name of Partridge, and thence called the Brace.
bracket-faced	Ugly, hard-featured.
braggadocia	a vain-glorious fellow, a boaster.
bragget, or bracket	a compound drink made of honey and spices. N., or, mead and ale sweetened with honey.
brains	if you had as much brains as guts, what a clever fellow you would be! A saying to a stupid fat fellow. To have some guts in his brains, to know something.
braken, or brakes	fern. N.
bran-faced	freckled. He was christened by a baker, he carries the bran in his face.
brand-irons	corruption of andirons. N.
branders	the supporters of a corn-stack. N.
brandrith, or brander	a trivet or other iron stand to set a vessel over the fire. N. Brandire. Ex.
brandy	Brandy is Latin for a goose; a memento to prevent the animal from rising in the stomach by a glass of the good creature.
brandy-faced	Red-faced, as if from drinking brandy.
brank	buckwheat, called in some counties crap. Ess. Suff. and Norf.
brant	steep, a brant hill. Northumb.
brash	a fit, or tumbling one about. Northumb.
brat	a coarse apron, a rag. Linc.
brat	a child or infant.
braunds, or broans	i.e. brands, cleft or split wood for the fire. A seam of braunds, a horse-load of billet wood. A rick of braunds, a stack of wood cleft for the fire. Woaken or elmer braunds, oaken or elm timber.
brauche, or brawche	rakings of straw to kindle fires. Kent.
brauchin	a collar for a horse, made of old stockings stuffed with straw. Cumb.
braughwham	a dish made of cheese, eggs, bread and butter, boiled together. Lanc.
brawn	a boar. Cumb. The brawn's head, the boar's head.
bray	to bray, to neigh; the horse brays. Berks.
Bray	a vicar of Bray; one who frequently chaneges his principles, always siding with the strongest party; an allusion to a vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, commemorated in a well- known ballad for the pliability of conscience.
brazen-faced	bold-faced, shameless, impudent.
bread	Employment. Out of bread; out of employment. In bad bread; in a disagreeable scrape, or situation.
bread-basket	the stomach; a term used by boxers. I took him a punch in his bread-basket, i.e. I gave him a blow in the stomach.
bread-and-butter	one slice upon the other. John and his maid were caught lying bread and butter fashion.-- To quarrel with one's bread and butter; to act contrary to one's interest. To know on which side one's bread is buttered; to know one's interest, or what is best for one. It is no bread and butter of mine; I have no business with it; or rather, I won't intermeddle, because I shall get nothing by it.
breade	to spread or make broad. Northumb.
break	to break, to tear. Hamp. In this country break is used for tear, and tear for break; as, I have-a-torn my best decanter or china dish; I have-a-broke my fine cambric apron
break	a break is a land that has lain long fallow, or in sheep-walks, is so-called the first year after it has been ploughed or broken up. Norf.
break-teeth	words hard words, difficult to pronounce.
breaking shins	borrowing money; perhaps from the figurative operation being, lik the real one, extremely disagreeable to the patient.
breast fleet	he or she belongs to the breast fleet; i.e. is a Roman Catholic; an appellation derived from their custom of beating their breasts in confession of their sins.
breathing	exercising
breckins	fern. N.
bree	to bree, to frighten
breech	backside.
breeched	money in the pocket: the swell is well breeched, let's draw him; the gentleman has plenty of money in his pocket, let's rob him.
breeches	to wear the breeches; a woman who governs her husband is said to wear the breeches.
breeches bible	an edition of the Bible printed in 1598, wherein it is said that Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves breeches.
breeched well	well-off.
breeze	to raise a breeze; to kick up dust or breed a disturbance.
breide, or brade	to breide, or brade of any one, that is to resemble them in disposition, as if of the same breed. Northumb.
breeds	the breeds of a hat, the brims of a hat. Glouc.
breeks	breeches. N.
brent-brow	a steep hill. metaph. N.
brewes, or browes	the fat scum from the pot in which salted beef is boiled.
brian	to brian an oven, to keep fire at the mouth of it, either to give light or preserve the heat. Northumb. Elsewhere this fire is called a spruzzing.
bricken	to bricken, to bridle up, or hold up the head.
bridle cull	highwayman.
bride-wain	a custom in Cumberland, where all the friends of a new married couple assemble together, and are treated with cold pies, furmity and ale; at the conclusion of the day, the bride and bridegroom are placed in two chairs, in the open air, or in a large barn, the bride with a pewter dish on her knee, half covered with a napkin, into this dish the company present put their offerings, the amount of which is sometmes forty or fifty pounds.
bridge	to make a bridge of one's nose; to push the bottle past him, so as to deprive him of his turn of filling his glass; to pass one over. Also to play booty, or purposely to avoid winning.
brigg	a bridge. N.
brim (abbreviation of brimstone)	An abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared to brimstone for its inflammability.
brine	to brine, to bring; brine it hither, bring it hither. Norf.
brimme	a sow goes to brimme, that is to boar. Sl.
brisket beater	a Roman Catholic. See breast fleet, and craw thumper.
briss	dust. Exmore.
Bristol man	the son of an Irish thief and a Welch whore.
British champaigne	porter.
Bristol milk	a Spanish wine called sherry, much drunk at that place, particularly in the morning.
broach	a spit, also a piercer; whence to broach a cask. Kent and N.
broach-steeple	a pyramidical spire, from its being pointed like a broach of spit. N.
brock	a badger, or grey. N.
brogue	a particular kind of shoe without a heel, worn in Ireland, and figuratively used to signify the Irish accent.
brook	to brook up, spoken of the clouds when the draw together, and threaten rain. S.
broom	to depart or run away.
browden	to browden on a thing; to be fond of it. N.
browns and whistlers	browns are coppers whistlers are counterfeit coppers.
brother of the	BLADE: a soldier; BUSKIN: a player, BUNG: a brewer, COIF: a serjeant at law, GUSSET: a pimp, QUILL: an author, STRING: a fiddler, WHIP: a coachman.
brother starling	one who lies with the same woman, that is, builds in the same nest.
Broughtonian	a boxer: a disciple of Broughton, who was a beef-eater, and once the best boxer of his day.
brown Bess	a soldier's firelock. To hug brown Bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier.
brown madam, or Miss Brown	the monosyllable.
brown study	said of one absent, in a reverie, or thoughtful.
brucke	to brucke, to make dirty. Northumb.
bruckled	dirty
bruiser	boxer; one skilled in the art of boxing; also an inferior workman among chasers.
brush	go away quickly. 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. Toe cove cracked the peter and brought a brush; the fellow broke open the trunk, and then ran away.
brusher	a bumper, a full glass. See bumper.
brusle	to dry; the sun brusles the hay; brusled peaase. Northumb.
brutte	to brit or brutte, to browse; the cow bruttes the young wood. Kent.
bub	strong beer or drink.
bubber	a drinking bowl; also a great drinker; a thief that steals plate from public houses. Cant.
bubbies	a woman's breasts.
bubble	to cheat. The party cheated, perhaps from his being like an air bubble, filled with words, which are only wind, instead of real property.
bubble and squeak	beef and cabbage fried together,. It is so called frm its bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire.
bubbley	snotty; the bairn has a bubbley nose. N.
bubbly jock	a turkey cock. Scotch.
bube	the venereal disease.
buck	a blood or dandy.
buck	a blind horse; also a gay debauchee.
buck bail	bail given by a sharper for one of the gang.
a buck of the first head	one who in debauchery surpasses the rest of his companions, a blood of choice spirit. there are in London divers lodges or societies of Bucks, formed in imitation of the Free Masons: one was held at the Rose, in Monkwell-street, about the year 1705. The president is styled the Grand Buck. A buck sometimes signifies a cuckold.
to run a buck	to poll a bad vote at an election.---Irish term.
buck of a cart or wagon	the body. Hamp.
buck	the breast. Suss.
buckard, or bucked	spoken of milk scoured by keeping too long in the milk-bucket, or by a foul bucket. Exmore.
bucket	to kick the bucket: to die.
Buckinger's boot	the monosyllable. Matthew Buckinger was born without hands or legs; notwithstanding which he drew coats or arms very neatly, and could write the Lord's Prayer within the compass of a shilling; he was married to a tall handsome woman, and traversed the country, shewing himself for money.
bucksome	blithe, jolly. S.
buck's face	a cuckold.
buck fitch	a lecherous old fellow.
buckeen	a bully. Irish.
buckles	fetters.
bud	a weaned calf of the first year, the horns then beginning to bud. Suss.
budge	brisk, jocund: budge also means to stir, move, or walk away; do not budge from hence, stay here.
budge, or sneaking budge	one that slips into houses in the dark, to steal cloaks or other clothes. Also lambs' fur formerly used for doctors' robes, whence they were called budge doctors. Standing budge; a thirf's scout or spy.
budget	a wallet. To open the budget; a term used to signify the notification of the taxes required by the minister for the expences of the ensuing year; as Tomorrow the minister will go to the house, and open the budget.
buer	a gnat. Northumb.
bufe	a dog. Bufe's nob; a dog's head. Cant.
bufe nabber	a dog stealer. Cant.
buff	all in buff; stript to the skin, stark naked.
buff	to stand buff; to stand the brunt. To swear as a witness. He buffed it home; and I was served; he swore hard against me, and I was found guilty.
buffer	one that steals and kills horses and dogs for their skins; also an inn-keeper; in Ireland it signifies a boxer.
buffer	a man who takes an oath; generally applied to Jew bail.
buffet	a stool. Derb.
buffle-headed	confused, stupid.
bug	to bend. Kent. Bug up.
bug	a nick-name given by the Irish to Englishmen; bugs having, as it is said, been introduced into Ireland by the English.
bug	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 wools of divers animals among which is a small portion of beaver's 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.
bug hunter	an upholsterer.
bug a boe	a scare-babe, or bully beggar.
bugaroch	comely, handsome. Irish.
buggy	a one horse chaise.
bugger	a blackguard, a rascal, a term of reproach. Mill the bloody bugger; beat the damned rascal.
buldering	(weather) hot, sultry. Exm.
bulk and file	two pickpockets; the bulk jostles the party to be robbed, and the file does the business.
bulkar	a beam.
bulker	one who lodges all night on a bulk or projection before old-fashioned shop windows.
bull	an Exchange Alley term for one who buys stock on speculation for time, i.e. agrees with the seller, called a Bear, to take a certain sum of stock at a future day, at a stated price; if at that day stock fetches more than the price agreed upon, he receives the difference; if it falls or is cheaper, he either pays it, or becomes a lame duck, and waddles out of the Alley. See lame duck, and bear.
bull	a blunder; from one Obadiah Bull, a blundering lawyer of London, who lived in the reign of Henry VII.: by a bull is now always meant a blunder made by an Irishman. A bull was also the name of false hair formerly much worn by women. To look like bull beef, or as bluff as bull beef; to look fierce or surly. Town bull, a great whore-master.
bull	a crown-piece. A half bull; half a crown.
bull beggar, or bully beggar	an imaginary being with which children are threatened by servants and nurses, like raw head and bloody bones.
bull calf	a great hulkey or clumsy fellow. See hulky.
bull chin	a fat chubby child.
bull dogs	pistols.
bull hankers	persons who over-drive bulls, or frequent bull-baits.
bull's eye	a crown-piece.
bull's feather	a horn: he wears the bull's feather; he is a cuckold.
bullen	hemp-stalks, pilled. N.
bullimong	oats, pease, and vetches, mixed. Ess.
bullock	a heifer. Berks.
to bullock	to hector, bounce, or bully
bull-segg	a gelded bull. N.
bull-stang	a dragon-fly. Cumb.
bully	a cowardly fellow, who gives himself airs of great bravery. A bully huff cap; a hector. See hector.
bully back	a bully to a bawdy-house; one who is kept in pay, to oblige the frequenters of the house to submit to the impositions of the mother abbess, or bawd; and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies, and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant young men, whom he finds with her. See greenhorn.
bully cock	one who forments quarrels in order to rob the person quarreling.
bully ruffians	highwaymen who attack passengers with oaths and imprecations.
bully trap	a brave man with a mild or effeminate appearance, by whom bullies are frequently taken in.
bum	the breech, or backside.
bum	to bum, to arrest a debtor. The gill bummed the swell for a thimble; the tradesman arrested the gentleman for a watch.
bum bailiff	a sherrif's officer who arrests debtors; so called perhaps from following his prey, and being at their bums, or, as the vulgar phrase is, hard at their a-ses. Blackstone says, it is a corruption of bound bailiff, frm their being obliged to give bond for their good behaviour.
bum boat	a boat attending ships to retail greens, drams, &c. commonly rowed by a woman; a kind of floating chandler's shop.
bum brusher	a schoolmaster.
bum fiddle	the backside, the breech. See ars musica.
bum fodder	soft paper for the necessary house or torchecul.
bum trap	a sheriff's officer who arrests debtors. Ware hawke! the bum traps are fly to our panney; keep a good look out, the bailiffs know where our house is situated.
bumbo	brandy, water, and sugar; also the negro name for the private parts of a woman.
bumby	a quagmire, from stagnant water, dung &c. such as is often seen in a farm-yard. Norf. and Suff.
bumkin	a raw country fellow.
bummed	arrested.
bumper	a full glass; in all likelihood from its convexity or bump at the top; some derive it from a full glass formerly drink to the health of the pope--au bon pere.
bumping	a ceremony performed on boys perambulating the bounds of the parish on Whit-Monday, when they have their posteriors bumped against the stones marking the boundaries, in order to fix them in their memory.
bun	a common name for a rabbit, also for the monosyllable. To touch bun for luck; a practice observed among sailors going on a cruize.
bundling	a man and woman sleeping in the same bed, he with his small clothes, and she with her petticoats on; an expedient practised in America on a sarcity of beds, where, on such occasion, husbands and parents frequently permitted travellers to bundle with their wives and daughters. This custom is now abolished. See Duke of Rochefoucalt's Travels in America.
bung upwards	said of a person lying on his face.
bung your eye	drink a dram; strictly speaking, to drink till one's eye is bunged up or closed.
bungersome	clumsy. Berks.
bummel, or bumble-kite	a bramble or blackberry. Cumb. So called also in Hampshire; perhaps a corruption of bramble kates.
bunch of fives	fist
bunnel	a dried hemp-stalk, used by smoakers to light their pipes. Cumb.
bunney	a swelling from a blow. Norf. and Suff.
bunt	an apron.
bunter	a low dirty prostitute, half whore and half beggar.
buntlings	petticoats. Cant.
burr	the sweetbread. Derb.
burn crust	a jocular name for a baker.
burn the ken	strollers living in an alehouse without paying their quarters, are said to burn the ken. Cant.
burne	a brook, a small stream of water. N.
burned to the socket	dying, done for; hence, penniless.
burning shame	a lighted candle stuck into the parts of a woman, certainly not intended by nature for a candlestick.
burner	a clap. The blowen tipped the swell a burner; the girl gave the gentleman a clap.
burner	He is no burner or navigable rivers; i.e. he is no conjuror, or man of extraordinary abilities; or rather, he is but a simple fellow. See Thames.
burnt	poxed or clapped. he was sent out a sacrifice, and came home a burnt offering; a saying of seamen who have caught the venereal disease abroad. He has burnt his fingers; he has suffered by meddling.
burnish	to burnish, to grow fat or increase in flesh, look jolly, or rosy. Exmore.
burr	a hanger on, or dependant; an allusion to the field burrs, which are not easily got rid of. Also the Northumbrian pronuciation; the people of that country, but chiefly Newcastle and Morpeth, are said to have a burr in their throats, particularly called the Newcastle burr.
burrick	prostitute.
burtle	a sweetning. Northumb.
bur-tree	an elder-tree. N.
bus	to bus, to dress. N.
bushed	poor, without resources.
bushel bubby	a full breasted woman.
bushy	fat, swelled, N.
busk	a piece of whalebone or ivory, formerly worn by women, to stiffen the forepart of their stays; hence the toast---both ends of the busk.
bus-napper	a constable. Cant.
bus-napper kenchin	a watchman. Cant.
buss beggar	an old superannuated fumbler, whom none but beggars will suffer to kiss them.
busy	as busy as the devil in a high wind; as busy as a hen with one chick.
butcher's dog	to be like a butcher's dog, i.e. lie by the beef without touching it; a simile often applicable to married men.
butcher's horse	That must have been the butcher's horse, by his carrying calf so well; a vulgar joke on an awkward rider.
butt	a dependant, poor relation, or simpleton, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off; and who serves as a butt for all the shafts of wit and ridicule.
butt	a bee-but or hive. Exmore.
butter box	a Dutchman, from the great quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country.
buttered bun	one lying with a woman that has just lain with another man, is said to have a buttered bun.
butter and eggs trot	a kind of short jogg trot, such as is used by women going to market, with butter and eggs.---She looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, yet I warrant your cheese would not choak her; a saying of a demure looking woman, of suspected character. Don't make butter dear; a gird at the patient angler.
butter-jags	the flowers of trifolium siliquâ cornutâ
butter-shag	a slice of bread and butter. Cumb.
buttal, or butter-bump	a bittern. S. Called in the North a Mire-drum
buttock	a whore. Cant.
buttock ball	the amorous congress. Cant.
buttock broker	a bawd, or match-maker. Cant.
buttock and file	a common whore and a pickpocket. Cant
buttock and tongue	a scolding wife.
buttock and twang, or down buttock and sham file	. a common whore, but no pickpocket.
*buttocking shop*	a brothel.
button	a bad shilling, among coiners. His a-se makes buttons; he is ready to bewray himself through fear. Cant.
buz-gloak, or buzma	n a pickpocket. Cant.
buzz	talk, rumor.
buzzard	a simple fellow. A blind buzzard: a purblind man or woman.
bye blow	a bastard.
byer	a cow-house. Cumb.

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