Bleating Cheat, subs. (old).—A sheep.—Grose. [In the old cant cheat or
chete [from Anglo-Saxon ceat] signified a thing; and the names of
animals were frequently formed by adding an adjective descriptive of
their peculiar noise or cry. Thus a grunting cheat was a pig; a
cackling cheat a fowl; a bleating cheat a sheep.] A sheep is also
called a wool-bird (q.v.). Among French thieves this animal is
designated une morne.
Bleating Cull, subs. (old).—A sheep stealer. [From bleating, see
preceding, + cull, a man, honest or otherwise.]
Bleating Prig or Rig, subs. (old).—Sheep stealing. [From bleating, see
Bleating cheat, + prig, or rig, the act of stealing.]
Bleed, verb tr. and intr. (popular).—1. To be victimised; to lose or
part with money so that the loss is felt; to be ‘rushed’ (q.v.); to
have money drawn or extorted from one. [An allusion to the loss
sustained by parting with one’s life blood.]
1668. Dryden, An Evening’s Love, Act iv., Sc. 1. In fine, he is
vehement, and bleeds on to fourscore or an hundred; and I, not
willing to tempt fortune, come away a moderate winner of two
hundred pistoles.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bleed (v.) ... also to part
with money freely, upon proposing something agreeable to a person’s
disposition, whether it be in gaming or anything else.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxvi. To whom he was
particularly agreeable, on account of his person, address, and
bleeding freely at play.
1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xxii. The reputed
readiness with which she bled, at last brought her the honour of an
old countess, who condescended to win from her, at two sittings,
very nearly £5,000.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxviii. ‘You have got a bill of
sale for her furniture.... By Jove, sir, you’ve bled that poor
woman enough.’
1885. Manchester Evening News, 23 June, p. 2, col. 2. Men who give
bills have to bleed for the accommodation.
2. (printers’.)—A book bleeds when the margins are ‘planed’ down so
that the edge of the printed portion is cut away.
1876. Daily Telegraph, June 9, p. 2, col. 1. So very carelessly has
the mechanical part of production been done that, in the
phraseology of the craft—half technical, half slang—the pages bleed
in many places—i.e., the binder’s knife when cutting the edges has
also cut away portions of the printed matter.
Bleeder, subs. (University).—1. A duffer beyond compare; a superlative
fool. (common).—A euphemism for ‘bloody fool.’