Back Teeth. To have one’s back teeth well afloat, phr. (popular).—A
facetiously brutal way of implying that the subject of such a remark is
well primed with liquor—even to the verge of drunkenness.—See Screwed.
1888. Missouri Republican, Jan. 25. When sober on the bench, Judge
Noonan is a model of all the virtues. On Friday night, however, in
company with Dr. Munford, of Kansas City, ex-Speaker Wood, Mr.
Charles Mead and several other gentlemen, his honour once more
drank until, as an onlooker put it, his back teeth were well
afloat.
Back-Timber, subs. (old).—Clothes. A humorous term which dates back to
the middle of the seventeenth century. Other slang equivalents are togs
and toggery; also war-paint in the sense of fine or showy garb. In
French argot, alpague is used synonymously.
b. 1574, d. 1656. Bp. Hall, Works V., 543. Was there ever more riot
and excess in diet and clothes, in belly-cheer and back-timber,
than we see at this day? [d.]
Back Tommy, subs. (tailors’).—A piece of cloth used to cover the
‘stays’ at the waist.
Back-Track. To take the back-track, phr. (American).—To retreat from
any assumed position; to back out (q.v.).
Back Up, verb. (Winchester College).—To call out. In ‘College’ various
times are called out by Junior in ‘Chambers,’ such as ‘Three quarters!’
‘Hour!’ ‘Bells go single!’ ‘Bells down!’
Back-Slang, subs. (street and costermonger).—A species of slang, in
which every word, as far as possible, is pronounced backwards. See ‘A
Comparative and Historical Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.
verb. 1. (thieves’).—To talk in the back-slang lingo.
2. (thieves’).—To go or come stealthily from a place; to sneak by a
roundabout way; also, to go away quickly.
3. (Australian).—Up country in Australia, as in most parts a little out
of the beaten tracks of civilization, a traveller is welcome at most of
the homesteads in his way. Though unknown to the inmates, and bearing
no letter of introduction, it is a common thing for a wayfarer to ride
or drive up to a house, maybe call for help, and then take up his
quarters for the night. This, in Australia, is called back-slanging it,
though how the phrase is derived is not quite clear, for there is no
suggestion of sneaking or proceeding stealthily in the question.
Backwardation, subs. (Stock Exchange).—A penalty paid for an extension
of time, by sellers, when unable to deliver stock or shares which they
have contracted to deliver by a certain date. Backwardation is the
reverse of contango (q.v.). Obviously this sometimes permits the
purchase of stock cheaper on credit than for cash.
1850. Keyser, Law of the Stock Exchange. The term backwardation is
employed when stock is more in demand than money, and a premium is
given to obtain the loan of stock against its value in money.
1886. Daily News, 14 Dec, p. 6, col. 1. The 1873 loan is, on
balance, about ⅝ lower, at 94, after being 93½. The backwardation
on the stock went off at the close.
Backy, subs. (tailors’).—A shop-mate who works behind another.
Bacon, subs. (popular).—The human body. A reference probably to the
fact that the flesh of the pig forms the staple meat diet of the rural
population, and lower classes generally. Formerly, no doubt, the term
was applied, at first ironically or contemptuously, to a sleek, gross
person; hence such compounds as ‘chaw-bacon,’ ‘bacon-brains,’
‘bacon-face,’ ‘bacon-slicer,’ ‘bacon-picker,’ etc. A transference in
sense, and a curtailment in form, in which bacon came to signify the
human body was, from this point, easy enough. For synonyms, see
Apple-cart.
To save one’s bacon, phr. (popular).—To escape narrowly from loss,
danger, or damage; to just get off. The term is here an attributive
usage of the slang sense, in which bacon signifies the human body. When
it is said that a man has just saved his bacon, it refers to the
individual himself. So also in the kindred phrase, ‘Oh, spare my
bacon,’ the suppliant asks to be spared in his own person; and the same
idea occurs in ‘to sell one’s bacon,’ i.e., one’s flesh or body, as in
the case of women of the town. Falstaff, in. I. Henry IV., Act ii., Sc.
2. 93 [1596] thus applies bacon to human beings—‘On! Bacons, on!’ So
far the general aspect of the question; in regard to particulars, Mr.
Thomas Boys has some curious remarks upon the subject [N. and Q., 2 S.,
iv., 132] in effect as follows. In connecting the phrase to save one’s
bacon with its original meaning, we are carried back to times when
imputed heresy was expiated at the stake; and a man was said to have
just saved his bacon (i.e., from frying), who had himself narrowly
escaped the penalty of being burnt alive. This connection of the two
ideas is thus shown. When a pig is killed, it is the custom in some of
the southern countries of Europe, as well as in many parts of England,
to remove the bristles from the dead pig’s hide, not by scalding but by
singeing. This is an operation of some nicety; for too much singeing
would spoil the bacon. But practice makes perfect; and by the aid of
ignited stubble, straw, or paper, the object is effected. The bristles
are all singed off, and the bacon remains intact. This operation of
singeing is in Portugal called chamuscar, from chama or chamma, a flame
or blaze. Chamuscar, to singe, as pigs, to takeoff the hair (Moraes).
Hence the noun chamusco, which is the smell of anything that has been
singed. Hence also the phrase cheira a chamusco (he smells of
singeing). This last phrase, however, cheira a chamusco, was specially
applied to any suspected heretic:—‘o que merece ser queimado, e faz per
onde o seja, o que dizião por afronta aos Judeos encobertos.’ That is
‘he who deserved to be burnt, and acted in a way that was very likely
to lead to it,’ was said to smell of singeing (‘cheirar a chamusco’),
i.e., to smell of the fire. Consequently, the phrase was contumeliously
addressed to anyone who was secretly a Jew (Moraes). Thus the
persecuted Israelite, who steadfastly adhered to his forefathers’
creed, and lived in daily peril of the stake, was allusively but
threateningly and insultingly compared to the abhorred carcass, which,
though not yet roasted, boiled or fried, had already the smell of fire.
If, after all, he was actually burnt alive, the same allusion was
carried out to the end; for he was then said, ‘morrer frito,’ to be
fried to death (literally, ‘to die fried’). But even if not burnt he
still had the chamusco, or ‘smell of fire’; that is, he had only just
saved his bacon.
1691. Weesils, I., 5. No, they’l conclude I do’t to save my bacon.
[M.]
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. II., p. 12.
For could their talent be forsaken,
And they unite truth to save their bacon.
1721. Mrs. Centlivre, The Artifice, v., ii. That pretence shan’t
save your bacon, you old villain you.
1836. M. Scott, Cringle’s Log, ch. v. ‘You know I saved your bacon
in that awkward affair, when through drunkenness you plumped the
Torch ashore.’
1866. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. lii. Jem drew a long breath and
said brutally, yet with something of satisfaction, ‘You have saved
your bacon this time.’
The French equivalent it may be noticed is somewhat analogous—sauver
son lard, i.e., ‘to save one’s bacon.’
Possibly, however, most people will be inclined to take the phrase at
its face value, without resort to complicated argumentative derivation.
In such a case the figurative use of bacon as signifying the body will
suffice to explain its origin.
To pull bacon, phr. (popular).—An operation described by the immortal
Ingoldsby in the line—
He put his thumb unto his nose and spread his fingers out.
In other words to take a sight (q.v.), or to make Queen Anne’s fan
(q.v.).
1886. Household Words, Oct. 2, p. 453. [This] peculiar action has,
I believe, almost invariably been described as ‘taking a sight.’ A
solicitor, however, in a recent police case at Manchester,
described it as pulling bacon.
1887. Leeds Evening News, Sept. 15. ‘Pulling bacon’ at Leeds
policemen.—Before Mr. Goodman and Mr. Farrar Smith, at the Leeds
Police Court to-day, George Evans (50), coachman to the Earl of
Mexborough, Mexborough Hall, near Methley, was summoned under the
Hackney Carriage Bye-laws for having driven on the wrong side of
the road. Police-constables Moody and Lockwood were on duty in Boar
Lane on the 6th inst., when they saw the defendant driving a pair
of horses attached to a carriage on the wrong side of the road for
a distance of one hundred yards. The officers spoke to him, when he
put his fingers to his nose and pulled bacon at them. He had been
previously cautioned, but had not taken the slightest notice.
Defendant said he had been a driver in London for eighteen years,
and knew they had policemen in the road there, but he did not
understand the law of driving in Yorkshire. He was fined 20s.
Bacon-Faced, adj. (colloquial).—With sleek, fat face; full faced. Otway
in the Atheist [1684] speaks of one with a ‘bacon face like a
cherubim.’
Bacon-Fed, adj. (colloquial).—Fat or greasy. The expression occurs in
Shakspeare’s King Henry IV.—See Bacon.
Bacon-Slicer, subs. (old).—A rustic.—See Chawbacon.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xv. (Bohn), I., 149. If he
have not a better judgment, a better discourse, and that expressed
in better terms than your son, with a complete carriage and
civility to all manner of persons, account me for ever hereafter a
very clounch, and bacon-slicer of Brene.
Bad, adj. (popular).—Hard; difficult. Used as in quotation.
1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, ch. xi. ‘I have heard you say
over and over again that, when they are in the mood, their very
temper makes them bad to beat.’
To go to the bad, phr. (colloquial).—To be ruined; to become depraved.
Virgil has a similar phrase in pejus ruere, ‘to go to the worse.’
1864. M. E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, ch. xi. ‘A reckless man, ready
to go to the bad by any road that can take me there; worthless
alike to myself and to others.’
1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Beauty and Beast). Let him go
to the bad at his own mad pace.
To the bad, i.e., on the wrong side of the account; in deficit.
1816. ‘Quiz,’ Grand Master, viii., 25. I’ve really to the bad some
thousand of rupees to add. [M.]
1884. Pall Mall G., 6 Feb., 4. He was between £70 and £80 to the
bad. [M.]
Want ’em or him bad, phr. (American).—A humorous manner of expressing
strong desire.
1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, March 9. Myers’ absence is seriously
annoying to the defense, and does not appear quite as funny as it
did when the prosecution called for him on Saturday last. It is not
probable that the Court will very long suspend the trial if Myers
does not appear. As the case now stands, the defense want Myers,
and want him bad.
Bad ’Apenny.—See Bad halfpenny.
Bad-Bargain, subs. (old).—Formerly a worthless soldier; a malingerer.
Nowadays the term is applied to any worthless person or scapegrace.
Bad-Break, subs. (American).—A corruption of ‘bad outbreak,’ i.e.,
riotous conduct, generally attributable to drink.
Bad Crowd Generally, phr. (American).—Of Western origin, and
equivalent to the English no great shakes (q.v.). ‘Crowd,’ it may be
remarked, in America, signifies either one or more individuals.
Bad-Egg, subs. (familiar).—A scoundrel; a blackguard; a ‘loose fish.’
In America the meaning attached to the term does not necessarily
involve such an idea of depravity as on this side of the Atlantic. In
the States the term is also applied to a worthless speculation.
1866. Sala, Trip to Barbary, p. 130. The man in black baize with
the felt képi, and who had a hatchet face desperately scarred with
the small-pox, looked from head to heel a bad egg.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 123. There is no
doubt, but there are many of the officials of the convict prisons
who are what the Yankees call bad eggs.
English Synonyms. Bad-lot; bad halfpenny; bad-hat. In Australia
‘ne’er-do-wells’ are termed sundowners; dry hash; or, a stringy bark.
French Synonyms. Malfrat (popular); mauvais gobet (popular: mauvais,
bad; gobet, properly a mouthful, morsel, lump, or piece); ferlampier or
ferlandier (thieves’: ferlampié formerly signified a dunce); clique
(popular); mariasse (popular).
Bad Form, subs. (society).—He who, or that which fails to conform to
the shifting fads and fancies of Society, with a big S; and, in a more
general sense, anybody or anything vulgar or lacking polish.
1882. Punch. Eton boy. What an awful lot of energy you’ve got
uncle! Uncle. Pretty well, my boy, for my time of life, I think! e.
b. Yes! but energy’s such awful bad form, you know!
Badge, subs. (old).—Used in the canting sense, for one branded in the
hand. ‘He has got his badge, and piked’; i.e., ‘he was burned in the
hand, and is at liberty.’—Grose.
Badge-Cove, subs. (old).—A parish pensioner; also in the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries a licensed beggar or almsman. The
remarks under Abram man and Abram sham are to the point in this
connection.
Badger, subs. (old).—1. A river thief. A good account of these gentry
appears in Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard.
2. (American thieves’).—In the cant language of the American criminal
classes a badger or panel thief (q.v.) is one who robs a man after a
woman accomplice has enticed the victim into her den.