BITE, a cheat; “a Yorkshire BITE,” a cheating fellow from that
county.—_North_; also _old slang_, used by _Pope_. Swift says it
originated with a nobleman in his day.
BITE, to cheat; “to be BITTEN,” to be taken in or imposed upon.
Originally a Gipsey term.—_See Bacchus and Venus._
BIVVY, or GATTER, beer; “shant of BIVVY,” a pot, or quart of beer. In
Suffolk, the afternoon refreshment of reapers is called BEVER. It is
also an old English term.
“He is none of those same ordinary eaters, that will devour three
breakfasts, and as many dinners, without any prejudice to their
BEVERS, drinkings, or suppers.”—_Beaumont and Fletcher’s Woman Hater_
1–3.
Both words are probably from the Italian, _bevere_, _bere_. Latin,
_bibere_. English, _beverage_.
BLACK AND WHITE, handwriting.
BLACKBERRY-SWAGGER, a person who hawks tapes, boot laces, &c.
BLACK-LEG, a rascal, swindler, or card cheat.
BLACK-SHEEP, a “bad lot,” “_mauvais sujet_;” also a workman who refuses
to join in a strike.
BLACK-STRAP, port wine.
BLADE, a man—in ancient times the term for a soldier; “knowing BLADE,”
a wide awake, sharp, or cunning man.
BLACKGUARD, a low, or dirty fellow.
“A cant word amongst the vulgar, by which is implied a dirty fellow
of the meanest kind, Dr. Johnson says, and he cites only the modern
authority of Swift. But the introduction of this word into our
language belongs not to the vulgar, and is more than a century prior
to the time of Swift. Mr. Malone agrees with me in exhibiting the
two first of the following examples. The _black-guard_ is evidently
designed to imply a fit attendant on the devil. Mr. Gifford, however,
in his late edition of Ben Jonson’s works, assigns an origin of the
name different from what the old examples which I have cited seem
to countenance. It has been formed, he says, from those ‘mean and
dirty dependants, in great houses, who were selected to carry coals
to the kitchen, halls, &c. To this smutty regiment, who attended
the progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles,
which, with every other article of furniture, were then moved from
palace to palace, the people, in derision, gave the name of _black
guards_; a term since become sufficiently familiar, and never
properly explained.’—Ben Jonson, ii. 169, vii. 250”—_Todd’s Johnson’s
Dictionary._