AUNT-SALLY, a favourite game on race-courses and at fairs, consisting
of a wooden head mounted on a stick, firmly fixed in the ground; in
the nose of which, or rather in that part of the facial arrangement of
AUNT SALLY which is generally considered incomplete without a nasal
projection, a tobacco pipe is inserted. The fun consists in standing at
a distance and demolishing AUNT SALLY’S pipe-clay projection with short
bludgeons, very similar to the half of a broom-handle. The Duke of
Beaufort is a “crack hand” at smashing pipe noses, and his performances
two years ago on Brighton race-course are yet fresh in remembrance. The
noble Duke, in the summer months, frequently drives the old London and
Brighton four-horse mail coach, “Age”—a whim singular enough now, but
common forty years ago.
AUTUMN, a slang term for an execution by hanging. When the drop was
introduced instead of the old gallows, cart, and ladder, and a man was
for the first time “turned-off” in the present fashion, the mob were
so pleased with the invention that they spoke of the operation as at
AUTUMN, or the FALL OF THE LEAF (_sc._ the drop), with the man about to
be hung.
AVAST, a sailor’s phrase for stop, shut up, go away,—apparently
connected with the _old cant_, BYNGE A WASTE.
AWAKE, or FLY, knowing, thoroughly understanding, not ignorant of. The
phrase WIDE AWAKE carries the same meaning in ordinary conversation.
AWFUL (or, with the Cockneys, ORFUL), a senseless expletive, used to
intensify a description of anything good or bad; “what an AWFUL fine
woman!” _i.e._, how handsome, or showy!
AXE, to ask.—_Saxon_, ACSIAN.
BABES, the lowest order of KNOCK-OUTS (which see), who are prevailed
upon not to give opposing biddings at auctions, in consideration of
their receiving a small sum (from one shilling to half-a-crown), and a
certain quantity of beer. BABES exist in Baltimore, U.S., where they
are known as blackguards and “rowdies.”
BACK JUMP, a back window.
BACK SLANG IT, to go out the back way.
BACK OUT, to retreat from a difficulty; the reverse of GO AHEAD.
Metaphor borrowed from the stables.
BACON, “to save one’s BACON,” to escape.
BAD, “to go to the BAD,” to deteriorate in character, be ruined.
_Virgil_ has an exactly similar phrase, _in pejus ruere_.
BAGMAN, a commercial traveller.
BAGS, trowsers. Trowsers of an extensive pattern, or exaggerated
fashionable cut, have lately been termed HOWLING-BAGS, but only when
the style has been very “_loud_.” The word is probably an abbreviation
for b—mbags. “To have the BAGS off,” to be of age and one’s own master,
to have plenty of money.
BAKE, “he’s only HALF BAKED,” _i.e._, soft, inexperienced.
BAKER’S DOZEN. This consists of thirteen or fourteen; the surplus
number, called the _inbread_, being thrown in for fear of incurring the
penalty for short weight. To “give a man a BAKER’S DOZEN,” in a slang
sense, means to give him an extra good beating or pummelling.
BALAAM, printers’ slang for matter kept in type about monstrous
productions of nature, &c., to fill up spaces in newspapers that
would otherwise be vacant. The term BALAAM-BOX has long been used in
_Blackwood_ as the name of the depository for rejected articles.
BALL, prison allowance, viz., six ounces of meat.
BALLYRAG, to scold vehemently, to swindle one out of his money by
intimidation and sheer abuse, as alleged in a late cab case (_Evans_ v.
_Robinson_).
BALMY, insane.
BAMBOOZLE, to deceive, make fun of, or cheat a person; abbreviated
to BAM, which is used also as a substantive, a deception, a sham, a
“sell.” _Swift_ says BAMBOOZLE was invented by a nobleman in the reign
of Charles II.; but this I conceive to be an error. The probability is
that a nobleman first _used_ it in polite society. The term is derived
from the _Gipseys_.
BANDED, hungry.
BANDY, or CRIPPLE, a sixpence, so called from this coin being generally
bent or crooked; old term for flimsy or bad cloth, temp. Q. Elizabeth.
BANG, to excel or surpass; BANGING, great or thumping.
BANG-UP, first-rate.
BANTLING, a child; stated in _Bacchus and Venus_, 1737, and by _Grose_,
to be a cant term.
BANYAN-DAY, a day on which no meat is served out for rations; probably
derived from the BANIANS, a Hindoo caste, who abstain from animal
food.—_Sea._
BAR, or BARRING, excepting; in common use in the betting-ring; “I bet
against the field BAR two.” The Irish use of BARRIN’ is very similar.
BARKER, a man employed to cry at the doors of “gaffs,” shows, and
puffing shops, to entice people inside.
BARKING IRONS, pistols.
BARNACLES, a pair of spectacles; corruption of BINOCULI?
BARNEY, a LARK, SPREE, rough enjoyment; “get up a BARNEY,” to have a
“lark.”
BARNEY, a mob, a crowd.
BARN-STORMERS, theatrical performers who travel the country and act
in barns, selecting short and frantic pieces to suit the rustic
taste.—_Theatrical._
BARRIKIN, jargon, speech, or discourse; “we can’t tumble to that
BARRIKIN,” _i.e._, we don’t understand what he says. _Miege_ calls it
“a sort of stuff.”
BASH, to beat, thrash; “BASHING a donna,” beating a woman; originally a
provincial word, and chiefly applied to the practice of beating walnut
trees, when in bud, with long poles, to increase their productiveness.
Hence the West country proverb—
“A woman, a whelp, and a walnut tree,
The more you BASH ’em, the better they be.”
BAT, “on his own BAT,” on his own account.—_See_ HOOK.
BATS, a pair of bad boots.
BATTER, “on the BATTER,” literally “on the streets,” or given up to
roistering and debauchery.
BATTLES, the students’ term at Oxford for rations. At Cambridge,
COMMONS.
BAWDYKEN, a brothel.—_See_ KEN.
BAZAAR, a shop or counter. _Gipsey and Hindoo_, a market.
BEAK, a magistrate, judge, or policeman; “baffling the BEAK,” to get
remanded. _Ancient cant_, BECK. _Saxon_, BEAG, a necklace or gold
collar—emblem of authority. Sir John Fielding was called the BLIND-BEAK
in the last century Query, if connected with the Italian BECCO, which
means a (bird’s) _beak_, and also a _blockhead_.
BEAKER-HUNTER, a stealer of poultry.
BEANS, money; “a haddock of BEANS,” a purse of money; formerly BEAN
meant a guinea; _French_, BIENS, property; also used as a synonyme for
BRICK, which see.
BEAR, one who contracts to deliver or sell a certain quantity of stock
in the public funds on a forthcoming day at a stated place, but who
does not possess it, trusting to a decline in public securities to
enable him to fulfil the agreement and realise a profit.—_See_ BULL.
Both words are slang terms on the Stock Exchange, and are frequently
used in the business columns of newspapers.
“He who sells that of which he is not possessed is proverbially said
to sell the skin before he has caught the BEAR. It was the practice
of stock-jobbers, in the year 1720, to enter into a contract for
transferring South Sea Stock at a future time for a certain price;
but he who contracted to sell had frequently no stock to transfer,
nor did he who bought intend to receive any in consequence of his
bargain; the seller was, therefore, called a BEAR, in allusion to the
proverb, and the buyer a BULL, perhaps only as a similar distinction.
The contract was merely a wager, to be determined by the rise or fall
of stock; if it rose, the seller paid the difference to the buyer,
proportioned to the sum determined by the same computation to the
seller.”—_Dr. Warton on Pope._
BEARGERED, to be drunk.
BEAT, or BEAT-HOLLOW, to surpass or excel.
BEAT, the allotted range traversed by a policeman on duty.
BEAT-OUT, DEAD-BEAT, tired or fagged.
BEATER-CASES, boots: _Nearly obsolete_.
BEAVER, old street term for a hat; GOSS is the modern word, BEAVER,
except in the country, having fallen into disuse.
BE-BLOWED, a windy exclamation equivalent to an oath.—_See_ BLOW-ME.
BED-POST, “in the twinkling of a BED-POST,” in a moment, or very
quickly. Originally BED-STAFF, a stick placed vertically in the frame
of a bed to keep the bedding in its place.—_Shadwell’s Virtuoso_, 1676,
act i., scene 1. This was used sometimes as a defensive weapon.
BEE, “to have a BEE in one’s bonnet,” _i.e._, to be not exactly sane.
BEERY, intoxicated, or fuddled with beer.
BEESWAX, poor soft cheese.
BEETLE-CRUSHERS, or SQUASHERS, large flat feet.
BELCHER, a kind of handkerchief.—_See_ BILLY.
BELL, a song.
BELLOWS, the lungs.
BELLOWSED, or LAGGED, transported.
BELLOWS-TO-MEND, out of breath.
BELLY-TIMBER, food, or “grub.”
BELLY-VENGEANCE, small sour beer, apt to cause gastralgia.
BEMUSE, to fuddle one’s self with drink, “BEMUSING himself with beer,”
&c.—_Sala’s Gas-light and Day-light_, p. 308.