Bearded Cad, subs. (Winchester College).—A porter, employed by the
College to convey luggage from the railway station to the school. The
term originated in an extremely hirsute individual, who, at one time,
acted in the capacity.
Beard-Splitter, subs. (old).—A man much given to the company of
prostitutes; nowadays called a hot member, or molrower, which see for
synonyms. [From beard, a tuft of hair + splitter, one who divides. The
allusion is obvious.]
Bearer-Up.—See Bear up and Bonnet.
Bear-Garden Jaw, subs. (old).—Rough, unmannerly speech; talk akin to
that used in bear gardens and other places of low resort. Quoted by
Grose, 1785. [From bear-garden, a place set apart for bear baiting and
other rough sports + jaw, talk or speech.]
1848. John Forster, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, bk. IV., chap. xi. He
called Burke a bear-garden railer.
1871. Archibald Forbes, My Experience of the War between France and
Germany, p. 301. The bear-garden-like Babel was rather more noisy
than usual.
Be-Argered, adj. (familiar).—Drunk.
Bearing, ppl. adj. (Stock Exchange).—Acting as a bear (q.v.); or using
artifices to lower the price of stock to suit a ‘bear’ account.
Bearings. To bring one to one’s bearings, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To
bring one to reason; to act as a check. A nautical term.
Bear-Leader, subs. (old).—A travelling tutor. In the days when it was
customary to send ‘young hopefuls’ on the Grand Tour, the expression
was much more common and significant than is nowadays the case. The
simile is taken from a person who leads about a tame bear for
exhibition.
1749. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 4 June (1883), vol. II., p. 392. I
shall not wonder if she takes me for his bear-leader, his
travelling governor!
1756. Foote, Englishman Returned from Paris, Act i.
Serv. My young master’s travelling tutor, sir, just arrived.
Crab. ... Shew him in. This bear-leader, I reckon now, is either
the clumsy curate of the knight’s own parish church, or some needy
highlander.
1812. Combe, Dr. Syntax, Tour I ch. xxiii.
And as I almost wanted bread,
I undertook a bear to lead,
To see the brute perform his dance
Through Holland, Italy, and France;
But it was such a very Bruin,
. . . . . . . . .
I took my leave, and left the cub
Some humbler Swiss to pay and drub.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. vii. They pounced upon the
stray nobility, and seized young lords travelling with their
bear-leaders.
Bearskin-Jobber, subs. (Stock Exchange).—See Bear, subs., sense 1.
Bear Up, verb (common).—To cheat; to swindle in any way; more
particularly applied to the action of ‘decoys’ and confederates.—See
Bonnet. The derivation is obviously from that sense of to bear up,
signifying support or backing up.
1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 40. The billiard-marker
refused to make any division of the spoil, or even to return the
£10 which had been lost to him in bearing up the cull.
1883. Referee, Dec. 2, p. 2, col. 4. This looks as if the bearing
up and ‘bonneting’ which has been done by friendly writers in
response to my remarks is all thrown away.
Beast, subs. (common).—1. Applied to anything unpleasant; or, to that
which displeases; e.g., ‘It’s a perfect beast of a day,’ for ‘it’s an
unpleasant day.’—See Beastly.
2. (American cadet.)—A name given to new cadets at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point.—See Snooker.
3. (Cambridge University.)—Anyone who has left school and come up to
Cambridge for study, before entering the University, is called a beast,
because ‘he is neither man nor boy.’
Beastly, adv. (popular).—In modern colloquial usage applied to whatever
may offend the taste. Akin also to ‘awful,’ ‘everlasting,’ etc.—when
used as mere intensitives, i.e., ‘very,’ ‘exceedingly.’ [Originally
from beastly, of, or pertaining to the nature of a beast; hence,
figuratively, brutish, irrational, unmanly; whence, through a series of
transitions, its slang significations.]
1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks., 1873, III., 159. I thought
’twould bee a beastly iourney.
1778. Johnson, in D’Arblay Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I., p. 37. ‘It
moves my indignation to see a gentleman take pains to appear a
tradesman. Mr. Braughton would have written his name with just such
beastly flourishes!’
1865. Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct., p. 5, col. 3. He was in good health
... looked almost ‘beastly well,’ as I once heard it described.
[M.]
1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. i. He had a troublesome dryness in
his throat, and a general sensation of dull heaviness, which he
himself would have described—expressively enough, if not with
academical elegance—as ‘feeling beastly.’
Beast with Two Backs, subs. phr. (old).—Explained in second quotation.
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, Act i., Sc. 1. Brabantio: What profane
wretch art thou? Iago: I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you, your
daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with the two backs.
1785. Grose, Classical Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue. Beast with two
backs, a man and woman in the act of copulation.
Beat, subs. (American).—1. This word is used in many ways, its precise
meaning often depending on its qualifying adjective. It is said of both
men and things; for example, a live beat is anybody or anything that
surpasses another, and the sense is not derogatory in the least. A dead
beat, on the other hand, is the name given to a man who sponges on his
fellows. [Probably from that sense of beat signifying to overcome; to
show oneself superior to, either in a good or bad sense].
1888. New York Tribune, May 16. As we pay big money for our special
news, we can’t afford to throw it away on account of a little
mistake in the name. So we shove her in with the single remark that
it is better to have a Carrot for a President than a dead beat for
a son-in-law. In this way, we again score a live beat on the galoot
‘The Rip-snorter.’ Whoopee! Now is the time to subscribe.
1888. New York Mercury, Aug. 7. But not only steamboats and
locomotives were used by reporters for beats, but one newspaper man
named Monroe F. Gale made a trip across the Atlantic in a
pilot-boat, to get some peculiar news in his own fashion. All
things taken into consideration, there never was a bolder voyage
over the Atlantic than this made by the ‘Romer,’ all for the sake
of a few ‘points’ in news.
2. (popular.)—The round of a policeman or watchman when on duty; one’s
daily round of duty, work, etc.; and, figuratively, one’s sphere of
influence.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 211. The first
evening I took my stand in Fleet Street, to look out for a fare, I
was drove from street to street by women of my own profession, who
swore I should not come in their beats until I had paid my
‘footing.’
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 31. The costermongers repaired
to their ordinary beats in the suburbs.
1862. Saturday Review, 15 March, 295. Ask him why anything is
so-and-so, and you have got out of his beat. [M.]
Faire sa nouveauté is said of a French prostitute when seeking fresh
fields and pastures new.
Ppl. adj. (popular).—1. Overcome; exhausted; ‘done up.’ Generally
dead-beat (q.v.). [A shortened form of beaten.]—See Beaten out.
1832. Moore, Jerome, etc., wks. II. (1862), 558. Till fairly beat,
the saint gave o’er, [M.]
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffery Hamlyn, ch. xxxvii. ‘The lad was
getting beat, and couldn’t a’gone much further.’