Bilgewater, subs. (common).—Bad beer. Properly the name given to the
drainings to the lowest part of a ship; being difficult to get at,
these become, at times, exceedingly foul and offensive. For synonyms,
see Swipes.
Bilk, subs. (common).—A word, formerly in general use, to which a
certain stigma of vulgarity is now attached. Uncertain in
derivation—possibly a corrupted form of ‘balk’—it was first employed
technically at cribbage to signify the spoiling of an adversary’s score
in the crib. Among obsolete or depraved usages may be mentioned.
Subs. 1. (obsolete.)—A statement or string of words without sense,
truth, or meaning, jointly or severally.
1663. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, I., i. Tub. He will have the last
word, though he talk bilk for’t. Hugh. Bilk! what’s that. Tub. Why
nothing; a word signifying Nothing. [Note refers to Cole’s English
Dict. (n.d. given) and to Halliwell, Arch. and Prov. Words, s.v.]
1740. North, Examen, p. 213. Bedloe was sworn, and being asked what
he knew against the prisoner, answered, Nothing.... Bedloe was
questioned over and over, who still swore the same bilk.
2. (common.)—A hoax; an imposition; a humbug. For synonyms, see Sell.
Cf., Bite.
1664. Butler, Hudibras, II., iii., 376. Spells, Which over ev’ry
month’s blank-page In th’ Almanack strange bilk’s presage. [M.]
1694. Congreve, Double Deal, III., x. There he’s secure from danger
of a bilk. [M.]
1733 circa. North, Lives, i., 260. After this bilk of a discovery
was known. [M.]
3. (common.)—A swindler; a cheat. This is the most familiar current use
of the word in its substantive form, and is applied mainly to persons
who cheat cabmen of their fares, or to men who swindle prostitutes out
of their wretched earnings. Also bilker. For synonyms, see Sell. Cf.,
Bite.
1790. Sheridan, in Sheridaniana, 109. Johnny W[i]lks, Johnny
W[i]lks, Thou greatest of bilks.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. ix. After a little delay, the wagoner
drove off, cursing him for a bilk, and vowing that he’d never have
any more to do with a ‘larned man.’
4. (American.)—A strongly offensive term used in the West to signify a
person who habitually sponges upon another, and who never by any chance
makes a return or even offers to do so. In English slang it means a
downright cheat or swindler (see sense 3). It will therefore be seen
that the Western American usage has considerably softened its meaning.
1840. McClure, Rocky Mountain, p. 211. The term was entirely novel
to me, and I first asked its meaning of a landlord, who explained
to me by saying that a bilk is a man who never misses a meal and
never pays a cent.
Adj. (obsolete).—Fallacious; without truth or meaning.
1740. North, Examen, p. 129. To that [Oates’s plot] and the
author’s bilk account of it I am approaching.
Verb (common).—To cheat; defraud; evade one’s obligations; escape from,
etc. (see subs., sense 2, and compare with quotations). For synonyms,
see Stick. Cf., Bite.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act v., Sc. 3. 1. Knight: Ay, a
great lawyer that shall be nameless bilked me too.
1729. Gay, Polly, Act ii., Sc. 9. Honour plays a bubbles part, ever
bilk’d and cheated.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bilk (v.), to cheat, balk,
disappoint, deceive, gull, or bubble; also to go out of a
publick-house or tavern, without paying the reckoning.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XIV., ch. iv. ‘I promise you,’
answered Nightingale, ‘I don’t intend to bilk my lodgings; but I
have a private reason for not taking a formal leave.’
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bilke. ‘Let us bilk
the rattling cove’; let us cheat the hackney coachman of his fare:
bilking a coachman, a box keeper, or a poor whore, was formerly
among men of the town thought a gallant action.
1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. xix. ‘Are you playing me
false? Have you set another man on the track with a view to bilk me
of my promised fee?’
To bilk the blues, phr. (thieves’).—To evade the police.—See Blues.
To bilk the schoolmaster, phr. (common).—To obtain knowledge or
experience without paying for it.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5. Log. Well,
don’t grumble—every one must pay for his learning—and you wouldn’t
bilk the schoolmaster, would you? But, come, I’m getting merry; so
if you wish for a bit of good truth, come with me, and let’s have a
dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land.
Bilker, subs. (common).—A cheat; a swindler. Sometimes abbreviated to
bilk (sense 3).
Bilking, subs. (common).—The action of cheating or swindling.
Bill, subs. (Eton College).—1. A list of the boys who have to go to the
head master at 12 o’clock; also of those who get off absence (q.v.), or
names-calling, e.g., an eleven playing in a match are thus exempt.
1876. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton. Some of the small
boys whom this delightful youth tempted to ape his habits, had
often occasion to rue it when they staggered back to college giddy
and sick, carrying with them a perfume which told its tale to their
tutors, and caused them to be put in the bill.