1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse. But cucullus non facit monachum—’tis
not their newe bonnets will keepe them from the old boan-ack.
1606. Shakspeare, Tro. and C., ii., 3. After this the vengeance on
the whole camp! or rather the bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the
curse dependent on those that war for a placket.
Bone-Box, subs. (common).—The mouth. [The teeth are here represented as
the ‘bones.’ The latter are now more commonly called ‘ivories.’] For
synonyms, see Potato-trap, and compare with Bone-house.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Shut your bone-box;
shut your mouth.
Bone-Crusher, subs. (sporting).—A heavy bore rifle used for killing big
game. [Literally that which crushes or breaks bones by force. Cf.,
Bone-shaker.]
1872. H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone (2 ed.), p. 63.
African game require bone-crushers; for any ordinary carbine
possesses sufficient penetrative qualities, yet has not the
disabling qualities which a gun must possess to be useful in the
hands of an African explorer. Ibid, p. 342. What is wanted for this
country is a heavy bore—No. 10 or 12 is the real bone-crusher, that
will drop every animal shot.
Boned.—See Bone, verb, sense 1.
Bone-Grubber, subs. (common).—One who lives by collecting bones from
heaps of refuse, selling his spoils at the marine stores or to bone
grinders. [From bone + grub, to seek by burrowing, + er.] Also called
bone-picker (q.v.), and tot-pickers (q.v.). See first quotation and cf.
bone-picker form. The French term is un biffin, which also signifies a
foot-soldier, his knapsack being compared to a rag or bone-picker’s
basket; also un chifferton or un chiffortin; un cupidon (an ironical
allusion to his hook and basket); un graffin. For other synonyms, see
Tot-picker.
c. 1750. ‘The Hunter’s Wedding,’ quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet,
1888, p. 366.
Sam the grubber, he having had warning,
His wallet and broom down did lay.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 155. The
bone-grubber generally seeks out the narrow back streets, where
dust and refuse are cast, or where any dust-bins are accessible.
The articles for which he chiefly searches are rags and bones,—rags
he prefers,—but waste metal, such as bits of lead, pewter, copper,
brass, or old iron, he prizes above all.
1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 40. A black-chinned and lanthorn-jawed
bone-grubber.
2. A resurrectionist; a violator of graves. Cobbett was therefore
called ‘a bone-grubber,’ because he brought the remains of Tom Paine
from America. Cf., Bone-house. Latterly, from the quotation which
follows, the term seems to have been extended to all having to do with
funerals.
1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, essay vii., p. 181 (1864). The
crowd in Cheapside declared that I was a mute. They called me
bone-grubber.
Bone-House, subs. (familiar).—1. The human body—an obvious allusion.
1870. Emerson, Soc. and Sol., vi., 119. This wonderful bone-house
which is called man. [M.]
2. A coffin. The term is also used to signify a charnel-house, and
Americans generally call a cemetery a ‘bone-yard.’
1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, II., p. 207. Nothing soon—lie in
bed—starve—die—Inquest—little bone-house—poor prisoner.
1846. Walbran, Guide Ripon. The celebrated bone-house no longer
exists.
1848. Forster, Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, II., p. 165 (bk.
IV., ch. viii.). The body [of a man who had poisoned himself] was
taken to the bone-house of St. Andrew’s, but no one came to claim
it.
Bone Muscle, verbal phr. (American college).—To practice gymnastics.
Cf., Bone, verb, sense 3.
Bone-Picker, subs. (common).—1. A footman. [Evidently a contemptuous
allusion to sense 2, a footman’s duties being to pick up and set in
order after his employer.] The French term is un larbin.
2. (common.)—A collector of bones, rags, and other refuse from the
streets and places where rubbish is placed, for the purpose of sale to
marine dealers and bone crushers. The same as bone-grubber, sense 1
(q.v.).
1866. Ruskin, Crown of Wild Olives, p. 25. The deceased was a
bone-picker. he was in the lowest stage of poverty, etc.
Boner, subs. (Winchester College).—A sharp blow on the spine.
Bones, subs. (common).—1. Dice, which are also called St. Hugh’s bones
(q.v.). [So called because made of bone or ivory.] ‘To rattle the
bones,’ i.e., ‘to play at dice.’ The term is a very old one, as also
seem to be games played with the little cubes in question.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 328. This fruyt cometh of the bicched
bones two, fforsweryng, Ire, falsnesse, Homycide.
a. 1529. Skelton, wks. (ed. Dyce) I., 52. On the borde he whyrled a
payre of bones.
1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 123. Who
being left by his parents rich in money and possessions, hath to
the musicke of square ratling bones danced so long, that hee hath
danced himselfe into the company of beggers.
1698. Dryden, Persius, III., 96.
But then my study was to cog the dice,
And dexterously to throw the lucky sice:
To shun ames-ace, that swept my stakes away;
And watch the box, for fear they should convey
False bones, and put upon me in the play.
1772. Foote, Nabob, Act ii. When your chance is low, as tray, ace,
or two deuces, the best method is to dribble out the bones from the
box.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xviii. ‘I saw you sit down to
écarté last week at Trumpington’s, and taking your turn with the
bones after Ringwood’s supper.’
1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. xxviii. ‘What with
speculations failing, and consols dropping all at once, not to
mention a continual run of ill-luck with the bones, I saw no way
out of it but to bolt.’
2. (common.)—Pieces of bones held between the fingers and played
Spanish castanet fashion. Generally used as an accompaniment to banjo
and other ‘negro’ minstrel music.
1592. Shakspeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, iv., 1, line 27. Tita.
What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? Bot. I have a
reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 195. Peter
rolling about in his chair like a serenader playing the bones, and
the young Othello laughing as if he was being tickled. Ibid, p.
201. The bones, we’ve real bones, rib-of-beef bones, but some have
ebony bones, which sound better than rib-bones—they tell best, etc.
1865. Times, 17 July. Amateur negro melodists ... thumped the banjo
and rattled the bones. [M.]
3. (common.)—A member of a ‘negro’ minstrel troupe; generally applied
to one of the ‘end’ men who plays the bones (sense 2).
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III. First of all we
formed a school of three—two banjos and a tambourine, and after
that we added a bones and a fiddle.
1867. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, p. 236. The band
clashes out; big fiddle and little fiddle, harp and bones, off they
go.
1884. Sat. Review, June 7,740, col. 1. A single row of negro
minstrels seated on chairs ... while at the end are Bones and
Sambo. [M.]
4. (general.)—The bones of the human body, but more generally applied
to the teeth. French thieves call these les piloches (f); and les
osselots (m). Cf., Bone-box and Bone-house, and for synonyms, see
Grinders.
5. (common.)—A surgeon; generally sawbones (q.v.). A list of curious
nicknames for the medical profession will also be found under Squirt.
1887. Chamb. Journal, Jan. 8, p. 30. ‘I have sent for the village
bones, and if he can but patch me up, it may not yet be too late.’
6. (Stock Exchange.)—(1) The shares of Wickens, Pease and Co.; (2)
North British 4% 1st Preference Shares, the 4% 2nd Preference Stock
being nicknamed Bonettas.
As dry or hard as a bone, phr. (common), i.e., as free from moisture as
a bone after it has been picked and cleaned, as by a dog.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, i. It’s as dry as a bone.
1837. R. Nicoll, Poems (1843), 83. Dubs were hard as ony bane.
One end is pretty sure to be bone, phr. (American).—An old time saying
equivalent to an admission that ‘all is not gold that glitters’; that
the realization of one’s hopes never comes up to the ideal formed of
them.
1888. The World, 13 May. People here (in the west) have to get up
and get in order to make both ends meet, and even then one end is
pretty sure to be bone.
To be upon the bones, phr. (vulgar).—To attack.
b. 1616, d. 1704. Sir R. L’Estrange (in Annandale). Puss had a
month’s mind to be upon the bones of him, but was not willing to
pick a quarrel.
To feel a thing in one’s bones.—A simile signifying assurance;
conviction.
1887. Scribner’s Magazine. I ain’t a-goin’ to mention no names but
I kin feel it in my bones that things ain’t on the square here,
there’s a nigger in the fence.
1888. Missouri Republican, 22 Feb. Nat. M. Shelton, of Lancaster,
said: ‘I am in the race of attorney-general, and I feel it in my
bones that I will get the nomination.’
To make no bones, phr. (familiar).—To make no scruple; to show no
hesitation; to commence and finish a work without difficulty—now
restricted to colloquial use; it was formerly current literary coin,
and is frequently to be met with in our older literature. Its earlier
form was, ‘to find bones in,’ which clearly shows the phrase to have
originated in a reference to bones in soup, or similar food, regarded
as obstacles to swallowing. In this sense it is found as early as the
middle of the fifteenth century, in the Paston Letters. It does not
occur in its present shape to make bones until a century later; but,
from this period on to the end of the seventeenth century it was in
constant use.
1459. Paston Lett., 331, I., 444. And fond that tyme no bonys in
the matere. [M.]
1542. Udall, Apoph. of Erasmus, p. 133 (1877). Yea, and rather then
faill, both whole mainor places, and also whole Lordships, the
‘make no bones, ne sticke not, quite and cleue to swallow doune the
narrow lane, and the same to spue up again.’
1565. Shacklock, Hatchet of Heresies. And instede of that whiche he
saide, This is my body, they haue made no bones at it, to say, this
is my brede.
1590. Greene, Francesco’s Fortune, in wks. VIII., 189. Tricke thy
selfe vp in thy best reparrell, and make no bones at it but on a
woing [wooing].
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 112. He ... would make
no bones to take the wall of Sir Philip Sidney.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act iii. Man. How could I refrain? A
lawyer talked peremptorily and saucily to me, and as good as gave
me the lie. Free. They do it so often to one another at the bar,
that they make no bones on’t elsewhere.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxiv. Do you think that the
Government or the Opposition would make any bones about accepting
the seat if it be offered to them?
To pick a bone or bones with one, phr. (colloquial).—To have an
unpleasant matter to settle with one; also, a difficulty to solve; ‘a
nut to crack.’
1565. Colfhill, Answ. Treat. Cron. (1846), 277. A bone for you to
pick on. [M.]
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), 1, s.v. Pick, To give one a
bone to pick, scrupulum alicui injicere.
1850–68. H. Rogers, Ess., II., ii. (1874), 103. Many a bone in
these lectures which a keen metaphysician would be disposed to pick
with the author.
Bonesetter, subs. (old).—A hard riding horse; a ricketty conveyance;
properly one whose occupation is to set broken and dislocated bones.
The sarcastic, punning reference is of course to the dire effects which
naturally follow the use of an animal of such a description. The odd
way in which slang is often derived, strikes one at times as very
curious. Not only are words frequently coined which resemble genuine
words, such as ‘solemncholy’ for ‘melancholy,’ and ‘it don’t much
magnify’ for ‘it don’t much signify,’ but the meaning of such
factitious words is, in many cases, either subtly reversed or endowed
with an extremely cynical tinge of humour and sarcasm. The present
instance is a case in point. A more modern term is boneshaker (q.v.),
which is less subtle in its meaning, bone-setter being certainly far
more brutally cynical in its suggestiveness. See second quotation for
some curious synonyms formerly in use.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bone Setter, a hard
trotting horse.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act i., Sc. 7. Jerry. I long
to be there,—let’s hasten to dress at once. Log. Aye; call a
rattler. Jerry. A rattler! I’m at fault again. Log. A rattler is a
rumbler, otherwise a jarvy! better known perhaps by the name of a
hack; handy enough in a wet day, or a hurry. Jerry. A hack! If it’s
the thing we rattled over the stones in to-day, It might more
properly be called a bone-setter. Tom. Or bone-breaker.—But if you
dislike going in a hack, we’ll get you a mab. Jerry. A mab! I’m at
fault again—never shall get properly broken in. Tom. A mab is a
jingling jarvy!—a cabriolet, Jerry.—But we must mind our flash
doesn’t peep out at Almack’s. ’Tis classic ground there.
Bone-Shake, verb (popular).—To ride a bone-shaker (q.v.), i.e., a heavy
bicycle of a very old type.
1889. Answers, Feb. 23, p. 195, col. 1. Among those who learnt to
boneshake was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been a
devoted cyclist.
Bone-Shaker, subs. (old).—1. A hard trotting horse.—See Bone-setter.
2. (popular.)—An old type of bicycle in use prior to the introduction
of india-rubber tires and other manifold improvements. The first
bicycle propelled by cranks and pedals was ridden in Paris in 1864. It
created enormous excitement. On being introduced into England people
went bicycle mad, and the number of persons who suffered in consequence
of riding the old bone-shakers was considerable. Among those who learnt
to ‘bone-shake’ was Charles Dickens, who, had he lived, would have been
a devoted cyclist, for he regarded the sport as a grand one, and
prophesied a big future for it. In 1868 Mr. Charles Spencer rode to
Brighton on a bone-shaker in 14 hours from London. The papers were full
of what was then considered an extraordinary feat, but on Aug. 10,
1889, four riders of the Polytechnic Cycling Club covered the distance
to Brighton and back, 108 miles, in 7 hours 50 minutes, which is better
time than a most perfectly-appointed modern four-in-hand can be driven
over the same course by the aid of unlimited relays of horses kept in
readiness to be changed at a moment’s notice. Only one machine was used
throughout the trial, viz., a safety roadster, weighing 36 lbs.
1874. A. Howard, Bicycle, 10. In 1870 and 1871, the low, long
bone-shaker began to fall in public esteem. [M.]
1884. G. L. Hillier, in Longman’s Mag., March, p. 487. The
bone-shaker, as the ribald cyclist of the present day designates
the ancestor of his present bicycle.
1885. Nineteenth Century, Jan., p. 92. In the Field’s report of the
performance of the Cambridge Town Bicycle Club we find this entry:
‘Half Mile Race on bone-shakers, not exceeding 36 in.’
Bone Standing, verbal phr. (American college).—To study hard.
[Evidently an allusion to the alertness implied by a standing
position.]
Bonettas, subs. (Stock Exchange.)—The 4% 2nd North British 2nd
Preference Stock.—See Bones, subs., sense 6, § 2.
Bong.—See Boung.
Boniface, subs. (popular).—The landlord of a tavern or inn. [Derived
from Farquhar’s play.]
1707. Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem. [Boniface is here given as the
name of landlord of the inn.]
1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, I., 120. To give the characteristic
features and to stamp the peculiar traits of honest Boniface.
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xvi. The landlord either
could not, or would not, give them any actual information as to his
guests.... So the blue-coated myrmidons of Scotland Yard got but
little information from Boniface.
Boning Adjutant, verbal phr. (American cadets’).—Aping a military
bearing. [From bone, to study, to imitate.] So also boning muscle
(q.v.) is going in largely for gymnastics. To bone standing, to study
hard. Boning demerit, giving no cause for complaint as regards one’s
conduct. All West Point cadet slang.
Bonk, subs. (travelling showmens’).—A short, steep hill. [Possibly only
a provincialism, or an obsolete form of ‘bank.’]
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 302. In Lancashire,
Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire, the approaches to some of
the large works are either up or down some steep, short hill,
usually termed bonk, and the drivers of heavily laden carts with
two horses have the breeching on the leading chain-horse, as well
as the horse in the shafts, so that when they are going down one of
these steep bonks, the horse is as useful as a help in drawing up.
Bonnet, subs. (old).—1. A gambling cheat; a decoy at auctions.
[So-called because they bonnet or blind the eyes of the victims.—See
Bonnet, verb, sense 1.] Hotten says sometimes called a bearer-up. The
bonnet plays as though he were a member of the general public, and by
his good luck, or by the force of his example, induces others to
venture their stakes. Bonneting is often done in much better society
than that to be found in the ordinary gaming-rooms. A man who persuades
another to buy an article on which he receives commission or
percentage, is said to bonnet or bear-up for the seller. Also called a
bonneter. The French has bonneteur for one profuse in compliments and
bows.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bonnet, a concealment.
1841. Comic Almanack, October. Or a man at a hell, Playing the part
of a bonnetter well.
1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. xxi. I began to think my
military friend was ‘a bonnet,’—one of those harpies employed by
gambling-house keepers to enhance temptation by the influence of
example, and generally selected for their respectable and innocent
appearance.
(?) 1868. Times (quoted by Brewer, Phrase and Fable, p. 104). A man who
sits at a gaming-table, and appears to be playing against the table;
when a stranger appears, the bonnet generally wins.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 217. We bid
or praised up his goods: in fact, often acted as ‘puffers’ or
bonnets, to give him a leg up.
1885. Morning Post, Sept. 5, p. 7, col. 3. There was no distinct
evidence to connect him with a conspiracy to defraud.... He might
have been used as a sort of bonnet to conceal the utter
worthlessness of propositions made by the others.