Tag, rag, and bobtail; a mob of all sorts of low people; the common
herd; the rabble.
1659–60. Pepys, Diary, Mar. 6. The dining-room ... was full of tag,
rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking. [M.]
1785. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Ode to R. A.’s, ii., wks. (1812) I.,
80. Tag-rags and Bobtails of the sacred Brush. [M.]
1820. Byron, Blues, ii., 23. The rag, tag, and bobtail of those
they call ‘Blues.’ [M.]
1841. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, xxxv. ‘We don’t take in no tagrag and
bobtail at our house.’ [M.]
Boco, subs. (originally pugilistic, now common).—1. The nose. [Probably
from beak, sense 3.] The form employed by American thieves is boke. For
synonyms, see Conk.
1880. Besant and Rice, Seamy Side, ch. i. ‘A common keeper, who was
in the lot, got a heavy oner on the boko for his share.’ ‘Boys,’
said Mr. Hamblin, ‘who use slang come to the gallows. Boko is—’
‘Conk or boko,’ said Nicolas the vulgar. ‘It’s all the same.’
1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, July 6. Dear Old Blistered
Boko,—I trust you will allow me to thank you and your Graphologist
for my character I received this morning. My friends say it is
correct. I am saving up my pocket-money for a bottle of nose
bloomer. I can see your boko blushing at the prospect.
1889. Sporting Times, July 6. The Gnat, with the Cunning peculiar
to the Wicked flew up the Lion’s boko and Stung him so Badly, that
the Great Beast rent himself to Death with his Own Claws.
2. Nonsense; ‘bosh.’ [Of unknown derivation, and it seems to have no
connection with sense 1.]
1886. Punch, 25 Sept., p. 145. Lop-sided Free Trade is all boko.
Bodier, subs. (pugilistic).—A blow on the side of the body.—See
Rib-roaster.
Bodkin, subs. (sporting).—Amongst sporting men, a person who takes his
turn between the sheets on alternate nights, when an hotel has twice as
many visitors as it can comfortably lodge; as, for instance, during a
race-week. A transferred sense from
To ride or sit bodkin, phr. (common).—To take a place and be wedged in
between other persons when the accommodation is intended for two only.
1638. Ford, Fancies, IV., i. (1811), 186. Where but two lie in a
bed, you must be—bodkin, bitch-baby—must ye? [M.]
1798. Loves of the Triangles, 182. While the pressed bodkin,
punched and squeezed to death, Sweats in the mid-most place.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxxiv. The writer supposes
Aubrey to come to town in post-chaise and pair, sitting bodkin
probably between his wife and sister.
Body-Cover, subs. (American thieves’).—A coat. One is almost tempted to
ask whether this is the only garment known to the criminal classes.
Cf., Wrap-rascal.
Body of Divinity Bound in Black Calf, phr. (old).—A parson. So quoted
in the Lexicon Balatronicum [1811]. For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.
Body-Slangs, subs. (thieves’).—Fetters. [From slang (q.v.), a
chain.]—See quot. and for synonyms, Darbies.
1819. Vaux, Memoirs. Body-slangs are of two kinds. Each consists of
a heavy iron ring to go round the waist, to which are attached in
one case two bars or heavy chains, connected with the fetters round
the ankles, in the other case a link at each side attached to a
handcuff. Into these the wrists are locked, and thus held down to
the prisoner’s sides. The latter are now only to be found in
museums.
Body-Snatcher, subs. (old).—1. A bailiff or runner. [The snatch was the
trick by which the bailiff captured the delinquent.] These terms are
now obsolete, so far as the pursuits mentioned are concerned. They are
mentioned by Parker [1781] in his View of Society, II., 70.