Bury. Go bury yourself! phr. (American).—A Californianism which has
more of the fortiter than the suaviter in its composition. Equivalent
to ‘Go! hide your diminished head.’ Cf., Carry me out and bury me
decently.
To bury or dig up the hatchet, verbal phr. (American).—Amongst Indian
tribes certain symbolic ceremonies are connected with the war-hatchet
or tomahawk, which are equivalent to a declaration of war, or a compact
of peace.—To bury the hatchet is the emblem of the putting away of
strife and enmity; on the other hand, the red skin, before he commences
hostilities, digs up afresh the fateful symbol. This picturesque
imagery has passed into the colloquial inheritance of the American
people, and the expressions of burying or digging up the hatchet are
frequently applied to the affairs of everyday life. This symbolism
though new in form is old in idea. Shakspeare in The Tempest, v., 1,
55, says, ‘I’le breake my staffe, bury it certaine fadomes in the
earth.’
1855–59. Washington Irving, Life of Washington, I., p. 361. ‘They
smoked the pipe of peace together, and the colonel claimed the
credit of having, by his diplomacy, persuaded the sachem to bury
the hatchet.’
1855. Longfellow, Hiawatha, 13.
Buried was the bloody hatchet;
Buried was the dreadful war-club;
Buried were all warlike weapons,
And the war-cry was forgotten;
Then was peace among the nations.
1873. Carleton Ballads.
I don’t know what you’ll think, sir—I didn’t come to inquire—
But I picked up that agreement and stuffed it in the fire;
And I told her we’d bury the hatchet alongside of the cow;
And we struck an agreement never to have another row.
To bury a moll, phr. (general).—To desert or forsake a wife or
mistress. [Moll = woman, wife, or prostitute.]
French Synonyms. Envoyer une ouistiti (ouistiti signifies properly a
striated monkey); lâcher une femme (literally to cast off a woman);
balancer une largue.
To bury a Quaker, phr. (Irish slang).—To evacuate; to ease oneself.
English Synonyms. To go to the crapping castle, casa, or ken (castle,
casa, and ken are old canting terms for a place or house); to the West
Central (a punning allusion to the initials W.C. for water closet); to
Mrs. Jones; to the chapel-of-ease; to Sir Harry; to the bog-house,
rear, dunnock, coffee-shop; to see one’s aunt; to crap; to go and sing
‘sweet violets’; to go where the queen always goes on foot.
French Synonyms. Mousser (popular: literally to foam or effervesce);
enterrer son colonel (Cf., to bury a Quaker); aller faire une ballade à
la lune (i.e., ‘to go and sing to the moon’; also ballade = stroll,
walk, or lounge; likewise in French slang lune = posteriors); mouler un
sénateur (popular); mouler une Venus (artists’); gazonner (literally to
‘cover with turf’); aller au numero cent (a play upon the word sent);
déponer (Michel thinks that though at first sight this word would seem
to be directly derived from the Latin deponere, yet it really either
comes from the old French ponant, signifying posteriors, or from the
verb poner, used in the thirteenth century in the sense of pondre,
i.e., to lay eggs); débourrer sa pipe (popular); défalquer (popular);
tarter or tartir (popular and thieves’: in Latin alvum deponere. Cf.,
Italian Fourbesque tartire); faire une moulure (moulure in architecture
= moulding); aller quelque part (lit. to go somewhere); aller à ses
affaires (lit. ‘to go to one’s business’); aller où le roi va à pied
(i.e., to go where the king goes on foot. Cf., to go where the queen
always goes on foot); filer (properly to spin); aller chez Jules (to go
to Julius. Cf., to go and see one’s aunt); ierchem (low: chier, a
disguised obscenity, + em); flasquer (thieves’); touser (this word
comes from tourtouse and signifies properly faire de la corde); faire
corps neuf (properly to take a new lease of one’s life); déposer une
médaille de papier volant, or des Pays-Bas (obsolete); faire des cordes
(des cordes = strings); mettre une lettre à la poste (lit. to go and
post a letter); faire le grand (grand = an opprobrious epithet); faire
une commission (to run an errand); fogner (popular); flaquer (popular:
literally ‘to dash’ [water or any other liquid]); écrire à un Juif
(literally to write to a Jew); déposer une pêche (popular); poser une
pépin (popular: poser = to place or cast down; pépin, in botany a
kernel or pip); poser un factionnaire (popular: factionnaire is
properly a sentinel or sentry); poser une sentinelle (popular: with
same meaning as foregoing); envoyer une depèche à Bismarck (popular:
this may be a contemptuous usage of the German Chancellor’s name,
although in French slang couleur Bismarck = brown colour); aller où le
roi n’envoie personne (lit. to go where the king sends no one);
flaquader (flaque = excrement); fuser (properly to dissolve); gâcher du
gros (popular); galipoter (another slang meaning of this word is ‘to
smear’); pousser son rond (popular); faire ronfler la chaire
percée—Thomas—le bourrelet—la chaise percée (faire ronfler = to cause
to or make snore, chaire = Bishop’s throne, chaire percée =
close-stool, and bourrelet = padded cushion with hole in centre, Thomas
= bedroom chamber); aller voir Bernard (Cf., aller chez Jules); aller
au buen-retiro (buen retiro properly = a private place of retirement,
but in this sense is an ironical allusion to a W.C.); faire un pruneau
or poser un pruneau (Michel thinks this expression is derived from clos
Bruneau, a facetious name given to the posteriors about the sixteenth
century); filer le cable de proue (Michel gives this as of nautical
origin—seamen’s latrines being situated in the fo’cas’le).
Italian Fourbesque. Tartire (properly to lighten or ease one’s
conscience by confessing to a Priest).
To bury a wife, verbal phr. (old).—To feast and make merry, an
expression used in connection with the jollifications frequently
indulged in by apprentices on the completion of their term of
indenture, when they became ‘full blown’ craftsmen.
Bus or Buss, subs. (theatrical).—1. A variant of business (q.v.), of
which it is an abbreviation. Pronounced biz.