1589. Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesie, bk. III., ch. xix.
Many a faire lasse in London towne,
Many a bawdie basket borne vp and downe:
Many a broker in a thridbare gowne,
Many a bankrowte scarce worth a crowne. In London.
1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 86. The
victualers to the campe are women, and to those some are Glymerers,
some bawdy-baskets, some Autem-Morts.
Bawdy House Bottle, subs. phr. (old).—A very small one, 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 of the least
reprehensible, the less they give a man of their infernal beverages for
his money, the kinder they behave to him.—Grose.
Bayard of Ten Toes. To ride Bayard of ten toes, phr. (old).—To go on
foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.—See Marrow bone stage.
1606. Breton, Good and Badde, p. 14. Breton says of the ‘honest
poore man,’—his trauell is the walke of the woful, and his horse
Bayard of ten toes.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, Somerset (ii., 291). At last he [Coryat]
undertook to travail into the East Indies by land, mounted on an
horse with ten toes.
Bay Window, subs. (common).—A slang phrase applied to women when
pregnant, or men who have ‘corporations.’ The allusion is obvious.
B. C., subs. (common).—A name jokingly applied to a person who brings a
trumpery action for libel against another. Dr. Brewer in Phrase and
Fable thus, in effect, explains the allusion:—A young woman complained
to Mr. Ingham [the magistrate at Bow Street Police Court and now (1889)
Sir James Ingham] of having been abused by a woman who called her a b.
c. On being asked the meaning, the young woman said c meant ‘cat’ but
the B——, well, it was too shocking to utter, and the magistrate allowed
her to whisper the word in his ear. It was a well-known word of
sanguinary sound; but, though b.c. was hardly a pretty epithet, yet his
worship could hardly grant a summons for libel against the person of
whom complaint was made for using it.
Beach-Cadger, subs. (old).—A beggar whose ‘pitch’ is at
watering-places, and sea-ports. [From beach, the sea-shore + cadger, a
beggar.]
Beach-Comber, subs. (nautical).—1. One who hangs about the sea-shore on
the look-out for jobs. It was chiefly applied to runaway seamen,
deserters from whalers, who lived along the beach in South America, the
South Sea Islands, etc. It is a term of contempt.—Clark Russell’s
Sailors’ Language.
1847. Blackwood’s Magazine, LXI., 757. A daring Yankee
beech-comber. [M.]
1880. Athenæum, 18 Dec., p. 809, col. 2. The white scamps who, as
beech-combers, have polluted these Edens and debauched their
inhabitants.
1885. A. Lang, in Longm. Mag., VI., 417, note. Beach-comber is the
local term for the European adventurers and long-shore loafers who
infest the Pacific Archipelagoes. There is a well-known tale of an
English castaway on one of the isles, who was worshipped as a deity
by the ignorant people. At length he made his escape, by swimming,
and was taken aboard a British vessel, whose captain accosted him
roughly. The mariner turned aside and dashed away a tear: ‘I’ve
been a god for months and you call me a (something alliterative)
beach-comber!’ he exclaimed, and refused to be comforted.