BUB, drink of any kind.—_See_ GRUB. _Middleton_, the dramatist,
mentions BUBBER, a great drinker.
BUB, a teat, woman’s breast.
BUCK, a gay or smart man, a cuckold.
BUCKHORSE, a smart blow or box on the ear; derived from the name of a
celebrated “bruiser” of that name.
BUCKLE, to bend; “I can’t BUCKLE to that,” I don’t understand it; to
yield or give in to a person. _Shakespere_ uses the word in the latter
sense, Henry IV., i. 1; and _Halliwell_ says that “the commentators
do not supply another example.” How strange that in our own streets
the term should be used every day! Stop the first costermonger, and he
will soon inform you the various meanings of BUCKLE.—_See Notes and
Queries_, vols. vii., viii., and ix.
BUCKLE-TO, to bend to one’s work, to begin at once, and with great
energy.
BUDGE, to move, to inform, to SPLIT, or tell tales.
BUFF, to swear to, or accuse; to SPLIT, or peach upon. _Old_ word for
boasting, 1582.
BUFF, the bare skin; “stripped to the BUFF.”
BUFFER, a dog. Their skins were formerly in great request—hence the
term, BUFF meaning in old English _to skin_. It is still used in the
ring, BUFFED meaning stripped to the skin. In Irish cant, BUFFER is a
_boxer_. The BUFFER of a railway carriage doubtless received its very
appropriate name from the old pugilistic application of this term.
BUFFER, a familiar expression for a jolly acquaintance, probably from
the _French_, BOUFFARD, a fool or clown; a “jolly old BUFFER,” said
of a good humoured or liberal old man. In 1737, a BUFFER was a “rogue
that killed good sound horses for the sake of their skins, by running a
long wire into them.”—_Bacchus and Venus._ The term was once applied to
those who took false oaths for a consideration.
BUFFLE HEAD, a stupid or obtuse person.—_Miege._ _German_,
BUFFEL-HAUPT, buffalo-headed.
BUFFY, intoxicated.—_Household Words_, No. 183.
BUGGY, a gig, or light chaise. Common term in America and in Ireland.
BUG-HUNTERS, low wretches who plunder drunken men.
BUILD, applied in fashionable slang to the make or style of dress, &c.;
“it’s a tidy BUILD, who made it?”
BULGER, large; synonymous with BUSTER.
BULL, term amongst prisoners for the meat served to them in jail.
BULL, one who agrees to purchase stock at a future day, at a stated
price, but who does not possess money to pay for it, trusting to a rise
in public securities to render the transaction a profitable one. Should
stocks fall, the bull is then called upon to pay the difference.—_See_
BEAR, who is the opposite of a BULL, the former selling, the latter
purchasing—the one operating for a _fall_ or a _pull down_, whilst the
other operates for a _rise_ or _toss up_.
BULL, a crown piece; formerly, BULL’S EYE.
BULL-THE-CASK, to pour hot water into an empty rum puncheon, and let it
stand until it extracts the spirit from the wood. The result is drunk
by sailors in default of something stronger.—_Sea._
BULLY, a braggart; but in the language of the streets, a man of the
most degraded morals, who protects prostitutes, and lives off their
miserable earnings.—_Shakespere_, Midsummer Night’s Dream, iii. 1; iv.
2.
BUM, the part on which we sit.—_Shakespere._ BUMBAGS, trowsers.
BUM-BAILIFF, a sheriff’s officer,—a term, some say, derived from the
proximity which this gentleman generally maintains to his victims.
_Blackstone_ says it is a corruption of “bound bailiff.”
BUM-BOATS, shore boats which supply ships with provisions, and serve as
means of communication between the sailors and the shore.
BUM-BRUSHER, a schoolmaster.
BUMMAREE. This term is given to a class of speculating salesmen at
Billingsgate market, not recognised as such by the trade, but who
get a living by buying large quantities of fish of the salesmen and
re-selling it to smaller buyers. The word has been used in the statutes
and bye-laws of the markets for upwards of 100 years. It has been
variously derived, but is most probably from the _French_, BONNE MAREE,
good fresh fish! “Marée signifie toute sorte de poisson de mer qûi
n’est pas salé; bonne marée—_marée fraiche_, vendeur de marée.”—_Dict.
de l’Acad. Franc._ The BUMMAREES are accused of many trade tricks. One
of them is to blow up cod-fish with a pipe until they look double their
actual size. Of course when the fish come to table they are flabby,
sunken, and half dwindled away. In Norwich, TO BUMMAREE ONE is to run
up a score at a public house just open, and is equivalent to “running
into debt with one.”
BUNCH OF FIVES, the hand, or fist.
BUNDLE, “to BUNDLE a person off,” _i.e._, to pack him off, send him
flying.
BUNG, the landlord of a public-house.
BUNG, to give, pass, hand over, drink, or indeed to perform any action;
BUNG UP, to close up—_Pugilistic_; “BUNG over the rag,” hand over the
money—_Old_, used by _Beaumont and Fletcher_, and _Shakespere_. Also,
to deceive one by a lie, to CRAM, which see.
BUNKER, beer.
BUNTS, costermonger’s perquisites; the money obtained by giving light
weight, &c.; costermongers’ goods sold by boys on commission. Probably
a corruption of _bonus_, BONE being the slang for good. BUNCE, _Grose_
gives as the cant word for money.
BURDON’S HOTEL, Whitecross-street prison, of which the Governor is or
was a Mr. Burdon.
BURERK, a lady. _Grose_ gives BURICK, a prostitute.
BURKE, to kill, to murder, by pitch plaster or other foul means. From
Burke, the notorious Whitechapel murderer, who with others used to
waylay people, kill them, and sell their bodies for dissection at the
hospitals.
BURYING A MOLL, running away from a mistress.