Verb (American).—To swindle; to deceive; to cheat.
1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Ap. 12. Later he heard of her marriage to
some lawyer or artist named Diss Debar. Previous to this she had
been in Montreal and telegraphed that she was dying. She beat the
hotel out of a hundred dollars.
Daisy beat (American thieves’).—A swindle of the first water; a robbery
of magnitude.
To beat hollow—to sticks—to ribands—to fits—all creation—to shivers,
etc. (popular).—To excel; to surpass.
1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, I., ii. Crab was beat
hollow, Careless threw his rider, and Miss Slammerkin had the
distemper.
1847. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1877), p. 55. Many ladies ... were
beat all to sticks by the lovely Odille. [M.]
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. i. Talk of climate! a
real fine day in England, like a really handsome Englishwoman,
beats creation.
1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. i. I rode a race against
Bob Dashwood the other morning, ... and beat him all to ribands.
1879. Lowell, Poetical Works, 418. And there’s where I shall beat
them hollow.
1889. Modern Society, 19 Oct., p. 1302. (How the Nobility live in
Germany.) Germans beat the English hollow at drinking beer; the
ladies drink it, and the children also, like milk; and it seems to
agree with them, for they are very robust. They are not ceremonious
at any meal, and eat as if in a hurry for a train, cutting up all
on their plate first, then forking it in with the aid of bread or
their fingers.
The French say arriver bon premier, ‘to arrive’ or ‘be a good first.’
Cf., synonyms in A1.
To get a beat on is to get the advantage of. The same idea is expressed
in the phrase to beat one’s way through the world; in other words, to
push one’s interests with vigour and pertinacity. As used by thieves
and their associates, to get a beat on one, besides conveying the idea
of obtaining an advantage, also implies that the point has been scored
by underhand, secret, or unlawful means.
To beat the booby or goose, phr. (nautical).—To strike the hands across
the chest and under the armpits to warm them. Formerly to beat Jonas.
1883. Times, 15 March, p. 9, col. 6. The common labourers at
outdoor work were beating goose to drive the blood from their
fingers. [M.]
To beat the road, phr. (American).—To travel by rail without
paying.—See Dead-heads and To beat, sense 1.
That beat’s the Dutch!—See Dutch.
Beat Daddy Mammy (old military).—To tattoo; to practice the elements of
drum beating.
Beaten Down to Bed-Rock, adv. phr. (American).—See Bedrock.
Beaten Out, ppl. adj. with adv. (common).—Impoverished; in one’s last
straits; hard up.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 351. The beaten
out mechanics and artisans, who, from want of employment in their
own trade, take to making small things. Ibid, p. 400. The last
class of street sellers is the beaten out mechanic or workman.
Beater-Cases, subs. (old).—Boots or shoes. Nearly obsolete.
Trotter-cases (q.v.) is the usual term nowadays.—See Beaters.
Beaters, subs. (American).—The feet. [A transferred sense of beater,
originally signifying one who ‘beat’ or walked the streets. Barclay, in
Shyp of Folys (1509), speaks of ‘night watchers and beters of the
stretes.’] For synonyms, see Creepers.
Beat the Hoof, verbal phr. (popular).—To walk; to plod; to prowl. [From
beat, in the sense of to strike the ground in walking, etc., + hoof, a
humorous term for the foot.] To beat the hoof is an older form of the
modern pad the hoof (q.v.).
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i., Sc. 3.
Falstaff: Hold, sirrah, [to Robin] bear you these letters
tightly;
Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.—
Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go;
Trudge, plod away, o’ the hoof; seek shelter, pack!
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II., 412. They all beated it on the hoof to
London, [M.]
Beat the Rib.—See Rib.
Beau Trap, subs. (old).—1. A loose stone in a pavement, under which
water lodges, and which, on being trodden upon, squirts it up, to the
great damage of clean clothes.
2. (old.)—Also a well-dressed sharper, on the look out for raw country
visitors and such like.
3. (old.)—A fop, well-dressed outwardly indeed, but whose linen,
person, and habits generally, are unclean.
Beauty, subs. (American cadet).—A term applied, on the rule of
contrary, to the plainest or ugliest cadet in the class at the United
States Military Academy at West Point. Cf., Snooker and Babe.
Beauty-Sleep, subs. (familiar).—Sleep before midnight, the idea being
that early hours conduce to health and beauty.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, II., p. 120. The fair pupils have
talked themselves to sleep, which, if report does not belie them,
is not until they have forfeited all chance of adding to their
attractions by getting a little beauty-sleep before twelve o’clock.
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. xv. ‘Are you going? it is not
late; not ten o’clock yet.’ ‘A medical man, who may be called up at
any moment, must make sure of his beauty-sleep.’
1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, ch. lxiv. Would I please to remember
that I had roused him up at night, and the quality always made a
point of paying four times over for a man’s loss of his
beauty-sleep. I replied that his loss of beauty-sleep was rather
improving to a man of so high a complexion.
1880. Jas. Payn, Confid. Agent, ch. iii. ‘You must get your
beauty-sleep,’ cried he to his wife when Barlow had departed, ‘or
you will have no colour in your cheeks to-morrow.’
Beaver, subs. (common).—1. An old term for a hat; goss or cady,
however, is more frequently heard nowadays. At one time hats were made
of beaver’s fur—hence the name; the term is still occasionally applied
to tall ‘chimney-pot hats,’ in spite of the fact that for many years
silk has replaced the skin of the rodent in their manufacture.
1528. Roy, Sat. To exalte the thre folde crowne Of anti-christ hys
bever. [M.]
1661. Pepys, Diary, 27 June. Mr. Holden sent me a bever, which cost
me £4 5s.
1712. Gay, Trivia, bk. II., l., 277.
The broker here his spacious beaver wears,
Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. ix. ‘Had you not better take off
your hat?’ asks the Duchess, pointing ... to ‘the foring cove’s’
beaver, which he had neglected to remove.
1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. x. We know
this of our hats, and are always reminded of it when we happen to
put them on wrong side foremost. We soon find that the beaver is a
hollow cast of the skull, with all its irregular bumps and
depressions.
In beaver, phr. (University).—In a tall hat and non-academical garb, as
distinguished from cap and gown.
1840. New Monthly Magazine, lix., 271. He ... went out of College
in what the members of the United Service called mufti, but members
of the University beaver, which means not in his academics—his cap
and gown. [M.]
See also Bever.
Beck, subs. (old cant).—1. A constable.—See Beak and Copper.
2. A parish beadle. Apparently the term was applied to all kinds of
watchmen.—See Harman-beck.
Verb (thieves’).—To imprison. Amongst Dutch thieves bekaan has the same
signification, imprisoned.
1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth ch. lv. The circle with the two
dots was writ by another of our brotherhood, and it signifies as
how the writer ... was becked, was asking here, and lay two months
in Starabin.
Bed. To put to bed with a pickaxe and shovel (common).—To bury. For
analogous expressions, see Ladder.
c. 1881. Broadside Ballad, ‘Hands off’—
Kitty Crea, some fine day, when I’m laid in the clay,
Put to bed with a spade in the usual way,
And yourself on the shelf a neglected old maid,
Troth, your conscience will sting you, I’m greatly afraid.
Bedder, subs. (Cambridge University).—A charwoman; one who makes the
beds and performs other necessary domestic duties for residents in
college.
Bed-Fagot, subs. (familiar).—1. Applied contemptuously to a woman; Cf.,
‘hussy,’ ‘witch,’ etc.
2. Synonymous with prostitute. For full list of analogous terms, see
Barrack-hack.
Bedfordshire, subs. (familiar).—A humorous term for bed. There are
several other phrases of a kindred character; as, for example, Sheet
Alley (q.v.); Blanket Fair (q.v.); The Land of Nod (q.v.), etc.
1665. Cotton, Poet. Wks. (1765), 76.
Each one departs to Bedfordshire.
And pillows all securely snort on. [M.]
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. iii.).
Lady Ans. I’m sure ’tis time for all honest folks to go to bed.
Miss. Indeed my eyes draw straws (she’s almost asleep)....
Col. I’m going to the Land of Nod.
Ner. Faith, I’m for Bedfordshire.
1845. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg.
The time for sleep had come at last,
And there was the bed, so soft, so vast,
Quite a field of Bedfordshire clover.
Bed-House, subs. (common).—A place of assignation where beds can be
hired for a longer or shorter period as required—hence the name. For
synonyms generally, see Nanny shop.
Bedoozle, verb (American).—To confuse; to bewilder. Probably a corrupt
form of the old English verb ‘bedazzle,’ used by Shakspeare in Taming
of the Shrew, iv., 5, 46. [1593.]
Bedpost. In the twinkling of a bedpost, phr.
(familiar).—Instantaneously; with great rapidity. Originally in the
twinkling of a bedstaff. This phrase has given rise to not a little
speculation; first, as to what use the bedstaff was put; and, secondly,
as to its possible connection with rapidity of motion. The generally
received explanation is that the staff referred to was, as Johnson puts
it, ‘a wooden pin stuck anciently on sides of the bedstead to hold the
cloaths from slipping on either side.’ Dr. Murray, however, points out
that the great lexicographer gave no authority, and also that ‘no
corroborative evidence has been found.’ Still it seems certain that
bedstaffs were used and kept near beds for some purpose by our
ancestors. Bobadil, in Every Man in his Humour [1596], uses one to
display his skill with the rapier, and the following explanation has
been suggested by Mr. Thomas Boys [Notes and Queries, 2 S., vi., 437].
The bedstaff was an upright peg, fixed into the side of the bedstead
after the manner of a pin, and projecting upwards to keep the bed
clothes in their place. Consequently, as offering the means of
exhibiting the use of the rapier, the wooden bedstaff may have afforded
a very available as well as harmless implement. Suppose then the
bedstaff to have been an upright peg or pin fitting into a hole or
socket in the side of the bedstead, and, in length, about equal to the
rapier. The socket is a few inches deep; and the bedstaff has (to
steady it) a projecting rim which overlays the socket like a lid. The
part of the bedstaff which enters the socket will then be the hilt of
the rapier; the projecting rim will be the guard; and the rest of the
staff will do duty as the blade. In the bedstaff we have then the form
of a rapier; and, with this implement of wood, Captain Bobadil would
have no difficulty in exhibiting his passado and stoccado. The rapier
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, moreover, was by no means
the light and foil-like weapon now known as the small sword. It was of
great length and heavy, and a bedstaff such as that suggested above,
with a species of guard, and most likely about the weight of a heavy
single-stick, would have been no bad instrument wherewith to
indoctrinate a tyro in the noble art of self defence.
Hence, probably, if this be so, the derivation of the expression, in
the twinkling of a bedstaff; more especially if, as would occasionally
be the case, it were used as a weapon of defence against intruders,
when possibly even life itself might hang upon a dexterous use of the
implement.
1660. Charac. Italy, 78. In the twinkling of a Bedstaff he disrobed
himself ... and was just skipping into bed. [M.]
1676. T. Shadwell, Virtuoso, I., i. ’Gad, I’ll do it instantly, in
the twinkling of a bedstaff.
1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XI., 259. Shake ’em off and leap into
bed, in the twinkling of a bedstaff.
1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. i. ‘I’ll adown and be
with you in ... the twinkling of a bedpost.’
Among English Synonyms may be included:—In a jiffy; in two two’s; in a
brace of shakes; before you can say Jack Robinson; in a crack; in the
squeezing of a lemon.
Between you and me and the bedpost, phr. (familiar).—A humorous tag to
an assertion; i.e., ‘between ourselves’;—‘I know what you say, but,
between you and me, etc. ... the thing is absurd.’ Sometimes the last
word is varied by ‘post,’ ‘door post,’ or ‘gate post’—any prop seems to
serve.
1831. Bulwer Lytton, Eugene Aram, p. 234. Ah, sir, all very well to
say so; but, between you and me and the bedpost, young master’s
quarrelled with old master.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, p. 127. And between you and me
and the post, sir, it will be a very nice portrait too.
1879. Punch, March 8, p. 108. Discussing an absent friend. ‘Yes,
Robinson’s a clever feller, and he’s a modest feller, and he’s a
honest feller; but betwixt you and i and the post, Mr. Jones,’ said
Brown, confidentially, picking his wisdom tooth with his little
finger nail, ‘Robinson ain’t got neither the Looks, nor yet the
Language, nor yet the Manners of a Gentleman.’
‘Right you are, sir!’ said Jones, shovelling the melted remains of his
Ice Pudding into his Mouth with a Steel Knife (which he afterwards
wiped on the Table Cloth). ‘You’ve ’it ’im orf t’ a T!’
Bedrock. To get down to bedrock [in anything; whether in an enquiry, or
in one’s circumstances, etc.].—To the bottom; to the lowest level. A
miner’s term, alluding to the solid rock underlying superficial and
other formations. Therefore, metaphorically, ‘to reach bedrock’ is to
attain a solid basis or foundation; bedrock facts are the ‘chiels that
winna ding’—the incontestible and uncontrovertible truth.
1870. Bret Harte, Poems and Prose, p. 113. ‘No! no!’ continued T.
hastily. ‘I play this yer hand alone. To come down to the bedrock
it’s just this,’ etc.
1875. Scribner’s Magazine, p. 277. Getting to the real character of
a man is coming to the bedrock.
1888. Louisiana Press, March 31. Thomas J. Whiteman, of Carrol
county, is a Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri. You can
bet your bedrock dollar that the next governor of Missouri will be
a white man, although his first name isn’t apt to be Thomas.
Bee. To have a bee in the head or bonnet, phr. (familiar).—To be
possessed of queer ideas; ‘half-cracked’; flighty. This phrase is of
considerable antiquity, being traced back to a Scotch writer, Gawin
Douglas by name [1474–1521], Bishop of Dunkeld, who used it in a
translation of Virgil’s Æneid.
1512–3 (translated: published in 1553). Gawin Douglas, Æneis,
VIII., Prol. 120. Quhat bern be thou in bed with heid full of beis.
1657. Samuel Colvil, Whigg’s Supplication, or Scotch Hudibras
[1710]. Which comes from brains which have a bee.
1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s, ch. xvii. ‘Maybe ye think the puir lassie
has a bee in her bonnet; but ye ken yoursell if naebody but wise
folk were to marry, the warld wad be ill peopled.’
1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, III., 307. It is not an uncommon
crochet amongst benevolent men to maintain that wickedness in
necessarily a sort of insanity, and that nobody would make a
violent start out of a straight path unless stung to such disorder
by a bee in his bonnet.
For synonyms, see Apartments to let.
1868. Dr. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 77, col. 2.
You have a bee in your bonnet or your head is full of bees; [i.e.]
full of devices, crotchets, fancies, inventions, and dreamy
theories. The connection between bees and the soul was once
generally maintained ... the moon was called a bee by the
priestesses of Cerës, and the word lunatic or moon-struck still
means one with ‘bees in his head.’
Beef, subs. (common).—1. Human flesh (a transferred sense); i.e.,
obese; stolid; or fleshy like an ox.
1862. Cork Examiner, March 28. Chelmsford stood higher in the leg,
and showed less beef about him. [M.]
2. (nautical.)—By a further transition beef has also come to signify
men; strength; or ‘hands’; ‘More beef!’ a bo’sun’s exhortation to extra
exertion.
1863. Cornhill Magazine. Feb., ‘Life on Board a Man of War.’ Useful
at the heavy hauling of braces, etc., where plenty of beef is
required. [M.]