1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 399. The best
sort of rings for fawney dropping is the belchers. They are a good
thick looking ring, and have the crown and V.R. stamped upon them.
3. (circus and showmen.)—A drinker of beer; generally a hard drinker.
Cf., Belch.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 99. Now it
is well known that travelling mummers are all rare belchers ... I
kept them in conversation ... until the drink took the desired
effect, and one by one the princes and kings dropped on the grass
floor, and were sound drunk and asleep.
Belial, subs. (Oxford University).—A nickname of Balliol College.
Believe. I believe you, phr. (common).—This phrase is frequently
employed to signify general assent; ‘yes.’ Sometimes colloquially ‘I
believe you my boy’; once a favourite catch-phrase of a well-known
actor.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 286. ‘Now confess: were you not
a little surprised?’—‘I believe you,’ replied that illustrious
person.
1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 140. ‘Miss Rouney, I gather,
was the confidante of the other.’ ‘Confidant? I believe you.’
1860. George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, p. 199. ‘Is she a cross
woman?’—‘I believe you.’
1879. Dudley Costello, The Millionaire of Mincing Lane, p. 204.
‘And she hates that fellow?’—‘Hates him? I believe you.’
Bell, subs. (vagrants’).—A song. Tramps’ term. Simply diminutive of
bellow.—Hotten.
Verb (schoolboy).—To bell a marble is to run away with it, but the
action scarcely amounts to actual theft.
To ring one’s own bell, phr. (American).—A variation of ‘to blow one’s
trumpet’; to sound one’s praises personally.
Bell-Bastard, subs. (provincial slang).—In the West of England the
illegitimate child of a woman who is herself illegitimate; why and
wherefore is obscure, though possibly a corruption of ‘double bastard.’
Bellmare, subs. (American).—A political leader, mostly used
contemptuously. The term is a slang appropriation from the terminology
of Western life, where it seems to be used in regard to mules much in
the same way as bell-wether is employed in England in reference to
sheep. Why the grey mare, says the author of A Ride with Kit Carson,
should be the better horse in the estimation of mules I cannot say, but
such is certainly the fact. Though very cautious animals when relying
solely on their own judgment, they would appear to have a consciousness
of their own inferiority, which induces them to entertain a great
regard for the sagacity of the horse, and especially for that of a
white mare. The wily Californians, taking advantage of this amiable
weakness, employ a steady, old, white mare of known gentleness and good
character, to act as a kind of mother and guide to each drove of unruly
mules.
Bellows, subs. (popular).—The lungs. This, etymologically, is the same
as ‘belly,’ both words having passed through a most complicated
history. Properly speaking a bellows is an instrument constructed to
produce a strong current of air, and the word itself can be traced back
to about A.D. 800. Its figurative and slang signification is recorded
as follows:—
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 115. The lungs doe draw a breath....
When these bellowes doe decay, then health from both doth fade
away, [M.]
1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act v., Sc. 2., p. 75 (2
ed.). Heark you, madam, don’t abuse my wife—slut quotha! i’gad let
me tell you, she has done a cleaner thing than you’ll ever do while
your bellows blow, old lady.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3.
A plague on those malty cove fellows,
Who’d have us in spirits relax;
Drink, they say, and you’ll ne’er burn the bellows,
Half water instead of all max;
A glass of good max, had they twigg’d it,
Would have made them, like us, lads of wax;
For Sal swigg’d, and Dick swigg’d,
And Bob swigg’d, and Nick swigg’d,
And I’ve swigged, and we’ve all of us swigg’d it,
And, by Jingo, there’s nothing like max.
All Max!
By Jingo, there’s nothing like max!
1843. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), Sam Slick in England, ch. xxii. He
[the servant] is so fat and lazy ... walkin’ put him out o’
breath.... How I would like to lick him ... round the park ... to
improve his wind, and teach him how to mend his pace. I’d repair
his old bellowses for him, I know.
Though regarded as slang in England, the word is colloquially used in
many parts of America, in the duplicated plural form—bellowses.
1848. J. R. Lowell, in Biglow Papers, I., p. 23. His bellowses is
sound enough.
Bellowsed, ppl. adj. (old).—Transported; lagged. Cf., Bellowser, sense
2.
Bellowser, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A blow in the pit of the stomach, or
wind—one that takes the breath away.