‘You have resigned it—and you must.’
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxxiii. Some soda water with a
dash of bingo clears one’s head in the morning.
For all synonyms, see Drinks.
Hence bingo boy, a tippler; a drunkard. Bingo mort, a drunken
woman.—See Mort.
Bingy, adj. (trading).—A term largely used in the butter trade to
denote bad, ropy butter; nearly equivalent to vinnied. It may be noted
that in the English Dialect Society’s Chestere Glossary, bingy is given
as a peculiar clouty or frowsty taste in milk—the first stage of
turning sour.
1857. Mrs. Gaskell, Life of C. Bronté, ch. iv. The milk, too, was
often bingy, to use a country expression for a kind of taint that
is far worse than sourness, and suggests the idea that it is caused
by want of cleanliness about the milk pans, rather than by the heat
of the weather.
1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, ch. xv. I’ve heerd my aunt say
as she found out as summat was wrong wi’ Nancy as soon as the milk
turned bingy, for there ne’er had been such a clean lass about her
milk-cans afore that.
Binnacle Word, subs. (old nautical).—A fine or affected word, which
sailors jeeringly offer to chalk up upon the binnacle.—Grose.
Birch-Broom, subs. (rhyming slang).—A room.
Like a birch-broom in a fit, phr. (common).—Said of a rough, towzly
head.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 90. I should
like to know what looks worse than to see a young man or woman with
their hair in an uproar, like a birch-broom in a fit, and some of
you chaps down there look as if you hadn’t had your hair combed
since last reaping time, when you did it with a field-rake, which
is very harrowing to one’s feelings.
Birchin Lane.—To send one to Birchin Lane, phr. (old).—To castigate; to
flog. A punning allusion to birch, a rod. Cf., Strap oil, etc.
Bird, subs. (theatrical).—Mr. H. J. Byron says that when a piece is
hissed the actors say ‘The bird’s there!’;—the bird alluded to being
the goose notorious for its hissing capacities.—See however, Big bird
and Goose.
Verb (old).—To thieve; to steal; to look for plunder. So used by Ben
Jonson.
Bird-Cage, subs. (common).—1. A bustle, an article of feminine attire,
used for extending the skirts of the dress. So called because at one
time constructed of such a size and in such a manner as to be not
altogether unlike an elongated bird-cage.
1860 circa. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Agricultural Irish Girl,’ verse
3.
She has no great education, for
She’s not much past her letters;
But for acting like a lady, I
Would like to see her betters:
She does not read Ouida’s works,
Nor Bow Bells’ fashions pages;
And she does not wear those things behind,
The ladies call bird-cages.
Among English Synonyms may be mentioned canary cage; backstaircase;
false hereafter; bishop.
French Synonyms. Un volapuk; un strapontin; un lieutenant (a pun on
tenant lieu de ce qui manque); un nuage (parcequ’il cache la lune; lune
= the posteriors).