The Boke of Maid Emlyn, vol. VI., p. 21.
All women be suche,
Thoughe the man wear the breche.
It is curious to note also that the expression has cropped up in most
languages. The Dutch say, ‘De vrouw draagt ’er de broek’; the Germans,
‘Sie hat die Hosen.’ The Germans have also other ‘breeches’ sayings; as
e.g., ‘Das Hertz ist ihm in die Hosen gefallen.’ Other illustrative
quotations are:—
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lxvii. st. 18, 156 (E.D.S.).
Least some should talke, as is the speech,
The good wiues’ husband weares no breech.
1591. Nashe, A Prognostication, in wks. II., 158. Diverse great
stormes are this yere to be feared, especially in houses where the
wives weare the breeches.
1663. T. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, ii., 3, in Dodsley’s O. P.
(1780), xi., 413. Anything that may get rule; I love to wear the
breeches.
1724. Swift, Misc. Poems, in wks. (1824) XIV., 199.
Those men, who wore the breeches least,
Call’d him a cuckold, fool, and beast.
1820. Coombe, Syntax, Consolation, ch. v.
When she doth wear the breeches;
And the poor fool dare not resist
The terrors of her threat’ning fist.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 4. Mrs. T. No,
no—no mischief—harkye, you did me a service just now in the street.
Tom. I know I did, down by the pump. Mrs. T. Well, now, I’ll do you
one—my husband is asleep: I have the keys; and I wear the breeches.
Breeching, verbal subs. (schoolboys’).—A flogging. Like breech (q.v.),
formerly in general use.
1520. Whittington, Vulg. (1527), 26. I studye to-day to-daye
bycause I fere a brechyng.
1594. Nashe, Unfortunate Traveller, in wks. V., 149. Heeres a
stirre thought I to my selfe after I was set at libertie, that is
worse than an vpbrayding lesson after a britching.
Breef.—See Brief.
Breeze, subs. (general).—A row; quarrel; disturbance; coolness. [From
breeze, a cool wind.]
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To kick up a breeze,
to breed a disturbance.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 5. But, though we
must hope for such good times as these, Yet, as something may
happen to kick up a breeze.
1865. Saturday Review, 28 Jan., p. 119. ‘Don’t be angry; we’ve had
our breeze. Shake hands!’ [M.]
Brekker, subs. (Oxford University).—Breakfast. [Formed by phonetically
taking the first syllable of ‘breakfast’ + er, a species of slang
formation, which originated at Harrow.]—See ‘Comparative and Historical
Study of Slang’ at the end of this work.
Brevet Hell, subs. (American).—A nickname for a battle, which
originated during the Civil War. The meaning is obvious enough. The
carnage and bloodshed of a battle-field is only a degree short of the
horrors of the theological ‘hell.’ Compare with brevet-wife,
brevet-rank.
Brevet-Wife, subs. (general).—A woman who, without being married to a
man, lives with him, takes his name, and enjoys all the privileges of a
wife. A transferred figurative sense of the legitimate word.
Brew, verb (Marlborough School).—To make afternoon tea. Almost always
carried on in couples, but sometimes three boys brew together.
Brewer’s Horse, subs. (old).—A drunkard. For synonyms, see Elbow
crooker.
Brewing, verbal subs. (Marlborough College).—The making of afternoon
tea.—See Brew.
Brian o’ Linn, subs. (rhyming slang).—Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks.
Briar, Brier, subs. (popular).—A colloquialism for ‘brier-wood pipe.’
The Erica arborea or White Heath, a native of the Mediterranean
littoral is largely used in the manufacture of pipes. [Cf., Fr. bruyère
= ‘heath.’]
1882. Graphic, Dec. 16, p. 683, col. 2. Nowadays, every third man
you meet has a cigarette or a briar in his mouth.
1886. Harper’s Mag., 27 Dec. There is the ever-ready brier-root
pipe loaded with Caporal.
Brick, subs. (popular).—A good fellow; one whose staunchness and
loyalty commend him to his fellows—a highly eulogistic epithet for one
man to apply to another. Said to be of University origin, the simile
being drawn from the classics. A writer in Hallberger’s Illustrated
Magazine [1878, p. 635], says the expression is logically deduced in
the following amusing manner. A brick is ‘deep-red,’ so a ‘deep-read’
man is a brick. The punning syllogism is carried further. To read like
a brick is to read till you are deep-‘read’; a deep-read man is in
University-phrase a ‘good man’; a good man is a jolly fellow with
non-reading men, ergo a jolly fellow is a brick.
It has, however, been pointed out that dedicatory columns of various
forms have been found bearing Greek inscriptions, records of the great
and virtuous. Some of these were circular and fluted pillars; but the
Athenians are said to have dedicated square columns so inscribed, which
gave rise to the style τετράγ = ωνος ἀνὴρ [see Aristotle, Eth., i.,
10], one whose worth entitled him to honorary mention on some
monumental stone of the form described. The anticipatory distinction
might, therefore, be easily accorded to one worthy of such posthumous
honours. From the meritorious notion of the rectangular stone or pillar
we get the living type of genuine or supposititious worth—a regular
brick. A further analogy may be drawn from the clayey basis of the
brick, even in a state of combination with sand and ashes—those types
of instability and decay—and we naturally acquire the notion of
solidity, consistency, and strength. We are thus enabled to apply the
above phrase to the child of clay, who may chance to resemble it in its
constitution, whose moral materials and parts have been originally so
carefully formed, so judiciously tempered and skilfully moulded, that,
in spite of a frail and infirm nature, he has preserved his shape thus
early given. The fiery test but determines his solidity; his sound,
staunch, and unshrinking firmness, constitutes him a regular brick or
hero, the attributes which especially qualify him for that metaphorical
appellation. Cf., On the square; straight—true—clean as a die.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Brothers of Birchington). In brief
I don’t stick to declare, Father Dick, So they called him for
short, was a regular brick; A metaphor taken, I have not the page
aright, Out of an ethical work by the Stagyrite.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 10. ‘Mr. Fairlegh, let me
introduce this gentleman, Mr. George Lawless; he is, if he will
allow me to say so, one of the most rising young men of his
generation, one of the firmest props of the glorious edifice of our
rights and privileges.’ ‘A regular brick,’ interposed Coleman.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. ‘But the others are capital.
There is that little chap who has just had the measles—he’s a dear
little brick.’
1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 100. He voted E.’s new
crony a brick.
1876. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, ch. xvi. Their brothers’
friend, declared by Hans to be the salvation of him, a fellow like
nobody else, and, in fine, a brick.
French Synonyms. Un bon gniasse (cads’ and thieves’); être d’un bon
bouchon (to be a brick. Michel gives bouchon as ‘cadet’); un bon bougre
(popular: Barrère says the word bougre is often used with a disparaging
sense; bougre de cochon, ‘you dirty pig’; bougre de serin, ‘you ass.’
Littré derives bougre from Bulgarus, Bulgarian; the heretic Albigeois,
who shared the religious ideas of some of the Bulgarians, received the
name of bougres); un zig, zigue, zigorneau, zigard, or zingo (popular:
Michel gives zig as camarade, ‘a comrade’; in Italian zigno or petit
lézard which latter (lézard) signifies in French argot, a ‘bad lot’).
Verb (American).—To punish a man by bringing the knees close up to the
chin, and lashing the arms tightly to the knees—a species of trussing.
Like a brick—like bricks—(and in an intensive form) like a thousand of
bricks, adv. phr. (common).— With energy; alacrity; thoroughly;
vehemently and with much display. [Derived partly attributively from
brick (q.v.), and partly in allusion to the crash of failing bricks.]
There are numerous similes of a kindred character; e.g., Like beans;
Like one o’clock; Like blazes, all of which see.
1835. Dickens, Sketches, p. 139. Bump they [cab and horse] cums
agin the post, and out flies the fare like bricks.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Ingoldsby Penance).
For the Friar to his skirts closely sticks,
‘Running after him,’—so said the Abbot,—like bricks!
1860. New Orleans Picayune, April 27 (Police Report). ‘When it came
to the breakdown, Your Honor, he kicked up a row like a drove of
contrary mules, and when we wanted to turn him out, he fell upon us
like a thousand of bricks, and threatened to make minced meat of
the police and every one of us.’
1864. Western World, March 5. ‘When Mr. Nye had finished, Mr.
Stewart rose, and with his irresistible logic and impressive
language came down upon him like a thousand of bricks, till he was
utterly crushed and demolished.’
Brick in the hat, phr. (American).—A drunken man is said to have a
brick in his hat, the allusion being to top-heaviness and inability to
preserve a steady gait.
Brick-duster.—See Brickfielder.
Brickdusts, subs. (military).—The Fifty-third Regiment of Foot, so
nicknamed from its facings, which are scarlet. Another slang
appellation is ‘The Old Five-and-Threepennies,’ from its number and the
daily pay of an ensign.
Brickfielder or Brickduster, subs. (Australian colloquial).—In Sydney
the name given to a dust or sand-storm brought by southerly winds from
sand hills locally known as the Brickfields—hence the name. Also called
the buster or southerly burster.
18(?). Munday, Our Antipodes. In October, 1848, as I find by my
diary, I witnessed a fine instance of a nocturnal brickfielder.
Awakened by the roaring of the wind I arose and looked out. It was
bright moonlight, or it would have been bright but for the clouds
of dust, which, impelled by a perfect hurricane, curled up from the
earth, and absolutely muffled the fair face of the planet.
Pulverised specimens of every kind and colour of soil within two
miles of Sydney, flew past the house high over the chimney tops in
lurid whirl-winds, now white, now red. It had all the appearance of
an American prairie fire, barring the fire.
1853. Fraser’s Mag., XLVIII., 515. What the Sydney people call a
brickfielder.
1886. Cowan, Charcoal Sk. The buster and brickfielder: Austral
red-dust blizzard and red-hot simoon.
Bricklayer, subs. (clerical).—A clergyman. [It has been hazarded that
the term is a familiar corruption of Rubricklayer, to denote general
character for Rubrical exactness—said of men who not only lay down
Liturgical law, but obey it. With more propriety, however, may it be
held as referring to the important part taken by the mediæval clergy in
ecclesiastical architecture. Mr. Thomas Boys, in the course of an
interesting article on the subject [N. and Q., 2 S., vii., 115], traces
its historical derivation somewhat as follows:—It is well known how in
former days the building of cathedrals and other sacred edifices was
patronised and promoted both by the dignitaries and by the clergy
generally; but it is not, perhaps, matter of equal notoriety that many
chapters and collegiate bodies had a functionary called a workman
(operarius), on whom devolved the charge of repairing and maintaining
the sacred fabric, and who was often one of their own number. In fact,
he was of the dignitaries of the church. ‘Operarius, Dignitas, in
Collegiis Canonicorum, et Monasteriis, cui operibus publicis vacare
incumbit’ (Carpenter). The office of this operarius or workman was
called ‘operaria.’ ‘Operaria. Dignitas Operarii in collegiis
canonicorum et monasteriis’ (ib.). In Spain, the clerical operarius was
called by the corresponding Spanish name, obrero (a workman). ‘Obrero.
Se llama tambien el que cuida de las obras, en las Iglesias o
Comunidades, que en algunas Cathedrales es dignidad’ (Dicc. de la Ac.
Esp.); i.e., in some cathedrals the office made the holder of it a
dignitary. Salazar de Mendoza, in his ‘Cronica del Cardenal Don R. G.
de Mendoça,’ tells us that, the Cardinal having conceded to the Chapter
of the cathedral at Toledo, the administration of the building-fund,
the Chapter in 1485, nominated as workman (obrero) the Canon Juan de
Contreras (Lib. II., cap. 62, par. 2). May we not conjecture, then,
that, if clergymen are now provincially called bricklayers, it is
because their mediæval predecessors were, with a special reference to
building, called ‘workmen’? Possibly, from the appointment of certain
ecclesiastics in former days under the name of operarii or workmen, for
the repair and maintenance of public edifices in the University of
Oxford, the title of bricklayers may have passed, in course of time, to
the neighbouring clergy of Oxon and Berks. The use of bricks, which
ceased in this country after the decline of the Roman power, is stated
by Hallam to have been reintroduced, probably from Flanders, in the
early part of the fourteenth century.
With perhaps equal propriety the term [bricklayer] is thought to refer
to the οἰκοδομὴ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ (Eph. iv., 12), trusting that
they, like St. Paul, are wise ‘master builders’; builders on the only
true foundation, ‘which is Jesus Christ.’ Edify, edificare οἰκοδομεῖν
have primary reference to houses built with hands, as well as to the
spiritual one of building up the Church of Christ.]
Bricklayer’s Clerk, subs. (nautical).—One of the hundred names given to
a lubberly sailor.—W. Clark Russell. For synonyms, see Strawyarder, and
Cf., Bail.
Bricks, subs. (Wellington College).—A sort of pudding.
Bridge, subs. (cards’).—A cheating trick at cards, by which any
particular card is cut by previously curving it by the pressure of the
hand. Used in France as well as in England, and termed in the Parisian
Argot faire le pont sec, also couper dans le pont. The modus operandi
of avoiding, or rather of neutralizing the cut, which is the very
backbone of the card-sharper’s art, is somewhat difficult, and is
generally performed by one of two methods, termed respectively the
‘bridge’ and the ‘pass.’ In the former method the sharper, at the end
of his shuffle—the cards being still held backs uppermost in the left
hand—takes some twelve or fifteen of the underneath cards lengthwise
between the thumb and first and second fingers of the right hand and
throws them on the top of the pack, at the same time giving them a
slight squeeze outwards which causes them to assume an imperceptible
curve. When placed on the table to be cut, the pack will now, owing to
this curve or ‘bridge,’ present in the middle a very slight gap almost
invisible to the eye; and experience shows that the odds are twenty to
one that the adversary will cut exactly at that very spot, thus taking
off the twelve or fifteen cards thrown on the top and bringing the
‘readied’ portion of the pack back to its original position.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 266. I got my
living by card-playing in the low lodging-houses ... I worked the
oracle; they were not up to it. I put the first and seconds on, and
the bridge too.
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, I., p. 251. I’ve found out the way
that Yankee fellows does the king. It’s not the common bridge that
every body knows.
1866. Yates, Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto
been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die,
talking over a flat, or winning money of a greenhorn, was to have
its vent in launching a great City Company.
Verb (old).—Explained by quotation.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. To bridge a person, or to throw him
over the bridge, is ... to deceive him by betraying the confidence
he has reposed in you.
Bridle-Cull, subs. (old).—A highwayman. [From bridle + cull, a ‘man.’]
A French equivalent is un garcon de campagne; also un grinche de
cambrouse; aller au trimar or trimard, ‘to become a highwayman.’ Trimar
= road or ‘toby.’
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. I., ch. v. A booty of £10 looks
as great in the eye of a bridle-cull, and gives as much real
happiness to his fancy, as that of as many thousands to the
statesman.
Bridport or Brydport Dagger, subs. (old).—The hangman’s rope. ‘To be
stabbed with a Bridport Dagger’ signifies ‘to be hanged.’ For synonyms,
see Horse’s nightcap, and Cf., Anodyne necklace.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, Dorset (I., 310). ‘Stab’d with a Brydport
dagger.’ That is, hang’d or executed at the Gallowes; the best, if
not the most, hemp (for the quantity of ground) growing about
Brydport.
1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, etc. (1811), p. 67. Stabbed with a
Brydport dagger. That is hanged. Great quantity of hemp is grown
about this town; and, on account of its superior qualities, Fuller
says there was an ancient statute, now disused, that the cables for
the royal navy should be made thereabouts.
1807. Southey, Espriella’s Letters, i., 35 (3 ed.). The
neighbourhood is so proverbially productive of hemp, that when a
man is hanged, they have a vulgar saying, that he has been stabbed
with a Bridport dagger.
Brief, subs. (thieves’).—A ticket of any kind, whether railway pass,
pawnbrokers’ duplicate, or ticket for a raffle; also a pocket book.
Hence briefless (q.v.).
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I took a brief
(ticket) to London Bridge.
1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18, p. 3, col. 2. His usual line of
business was ‘brief-snatching,’ i.e., hovering about the crowd that
surrounds a small bookmaker, and snatching from the hands of the
unwary the credential they with rash eagerness exhibit, and which
they desire to exchange with the man they have bet with for their
winnings.
1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. They copped the briefs at the next
station, and he changed carriages.
Briefless, adj. (common).—Ticketless.—See Brief.
1889. Bird o’ Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 3. Following close at the heels
of Newman, I soon found myself within the Aquarium, all briefless
as I was, and without having been asked any questions.
Briefs or Breefs, subs. (card-sharpers’).—Cards tampered with for the
purpose of swindling.—See Bridge, Concaves, and Convexes, Longs, and
Shorts, Reflectors, etc. [From the German briefe, which Baron Heinecken
says was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm. Brief is also
the synonym for a card in the German Rothwalsch dialect, and briefen is
to play at cards.]
1529. [Edited by] Luther, Liber Vagatorum (1860), p. 47.
‘Item—beware of the Joners (gamblers), who practice Beseflery with
the brief (cheating at cards), who deal falsely and cut one for the
other, cheat with Boglein and spies, pick one brief from the
ground, and another from a cupboard,’ etc.
1720. Old Book of Games, quoted by Hotten. ‘Take a pack of cards
and open them, then take out all the honours ... and cut a little
from the edges of the rest all alike, so as to make the honours
broader than the rest, so that when your adversary cuts to you, you
are certain of an honour. When you cut to your adversary cut at the
ends, and then it is a chance if you cut him an honour, because the
cards at the ends are all of a length. Thus you may make breefs
end-ways as well as side-ways.’
Brief-Snatcher, subs. (thieves’).—Pocket-book thieves. [From brief
(q.v., sense 1), slang term for a pocket-book, + snatcher.]
Brigh, subs. (thieves’).—A pocket.
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. Having a new suit of
clobber on me, and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).
Some English Synonyms are:—Cly, skyrocket.
French Synonyms are une grande; une profonde, parfonde or prophête
(thieves’: literally deep; also used for ‘cave’ or ‘cellar’); une
fouillouse (thieves’: this term is an old one. Fouille = a ‘digging’ or
excavation. There are various forms—foulle, felouse, filoche); une
gueularde (thieves’: gueulard = wallet in slang, but properly signifies
a stove); une baguenaude (thieves’ and cads’: properly ‘a
bladder-nut’); une balade or ballade; une valade (thieves’: from
avaler, to swallow up); une fondrière (thieves’); un four banal
(thieves’: either used to signify a ‘pocket,’ a ‘false pocket,’ or an
‘omnibus’); une sonde (literally sonde = probe).
Bright in the Eye, subs. (common).—Slightly tipsy. [An allusion to the
sparkling appearance of the eyes at an early stage of intoxication;
subsequently they become dull and sleepy.] For synonyms, see Screwed.
Brighton Tipper, subs.—A peculiar kind of ale.—See quotation.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 347. Requiring ... a pint
of the celebrated staggering ale, or Real Old Brighton Tipper, at
supper. Ibid, p. 447. If they draws the Brighton Tipper here, I
takes that ale at night, my love.
Brim, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. [A contraction of brimstone (q.v.)]
For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.
1730–6. Bailey. Brim [q. a contraction of Brimstone], a common
strumpet. [M.]
1764. T. Brydges, Homer Travest. (1797), i., 173. Can mortal
scoundrels thee [Hera] perplex, And the great brim of brimstones
vex?
1808. Jamieson. Brim, a cant term for a trull.—Loth.
2. (common).—Nowadays the term signifies an angry, violent woman, or a
termagant, without reference to moral character. An equivalent French
term is une chipie. Cf., Brimstone.
1799. Whim of the Day. She raved, she abused me, and splenetic was;
She’s a vixen, she’s a brim, zounds! She’s all that is bad.
Brimstone, subs. (old).—1. A violent tempered woman; a virago; a
spitfire. [A reference to the inflammable character of the mineral.]
1712. Bp. Burnet, in Walpole’s Reminiscences (1819), p. 75. ‘Oh,
madam,’ said the bishop, ‘do not you know what a brimstone of a
wife he had?’
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. vi. ‘She is ... not a
brimstone, like Kate Koddle, of Chatham.’
1760. C. Johnston, Chrysal, II., 190. I hate the law damnably ever
since I lost a year’s pay for hindering our boatswain’s mate’s
brother from beating his wife. The brimstone swore I beat her
husband, and so I paid for meddling.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxiii. Who seemed, too, to
have a temper of her own, and promised, under circumstances, to
turn out a bit of a b—mst—ne.