BLA

BLACK FLY. The greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i. e. the parson who takes tithe of the harvest. BLACK GUARD. A shabby, mean fellow; a term said to be derived from a number of dirty, tattered roguish boys,who attended at the Horse Guards, and Parade in St. James's Park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any other dirty offices. These, from their constant attendance about the time of guard mounting, were nick-named the black-guards.

BLACK JACK. A nick name given to the Recorder by the Thieves.

BLACK JACK. A jug to drink out of, made of jacked leather.

BLACK JOKE. A popular tune to a song, having for the burden," Her black joke and belly so white:" figuratively the black joke signifies the monosyllable. See MONOSYL

LABLE.

BLACK INDIES. Newcastle upon Tyne, whose rich coal mines prove an Indies to the proprietors.

BLACKLEGS. A gambler or sharper on the turf or in the cockpit: so called, perhaps, from their appearing generally in boots; or else from game-cocks whose legs are always black. BLACK MONDAY. The first Monday after the school-boys holidays, or breaking up, when they are to go to school, and produce or repeat the tasks set them.

BLACK PSALM. To sing the black psalm; to cry: a saying used to children.

BLACK SPICE RACKET.

their soot, bag and soot.

BLACK SPY. The Devil.

To rob chimney sweepers of

BLACK STRAP. Bene Carlo wine; also port. A task of labour imposed on soldiers at Gibraltar, as a punishment for small offences.

BLANK. To look blank; to appear disappointed or confounded.

The amorous congress.

BLANKET HORNPIPE. BLARNEY. He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller. The blarney stoneis a triangular stone on the very top of an ancient castle of that name in the county of Cork in Ireland, extremely difficult of access; so that to have ascended to it, was considered as a proof of perseverance, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honour, who never atchieved the adventure: and to tip the blarney, is figuratively used telling a marvellous story, or falsity; and also sometimes to express flattery. Irish.

A BLASTED FELLOW or BRIMSTONE. rogue of prostitute. Cant.

An abandoned

TO BLAST,

BLO

TO BLAST. To curse..

BLATER. A calf. Cant.

BLEACHED MORT. A fair-complexioned wench. BLEATERS. Those cheated by Jack in a box. Cant.---See JACK IN A Box.

BLEATING CHEAT. A sheep. Cant.

BLEATING RIG. Sheep stealing. Cant.

BLEEDERS. Spurs. He clapped his bleeders to his prad; he put spurs to his horse.

BLEEDING CULLY. One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely. BLEEDING NEW.

A metaphor borrowed from fish, which

will not bleed when stale.

BLESSING. A small quantity over and above the measure, usually given by hucksters dealing in peas, beans, and other vegetables.

BLIND. A feint, pretence, or shift.

BLIND CHEEKS. The breech. Buss blind cheeks; kiss mine a-se.

BLIND EXCUSE. A poor or insufficient excuse. A blind alehouse, lane, or alley; an obscure, or little known or frequented ale-house, lane, or alley.

BLIND HARPERS. Beggars counterfeiting blindness, playing on fiddles, &c.

BLINDMAN'S BUFF. A play used by children, where one being blinded by a handkerchief bound over his eyes, attempts to seize any one of the company, who all endeavour to avoid him; the person caught must be blinded in his stead.

BLIND CUPID. The backside.

BLINDMAN'S HOLIDAY. Night, darkness.

BLOCK HOUSES. Prisons, houses of correction, &c. BLOCKED AT BOTH ENDS. Finished. The game is blocked at both ends; the game is ended.

BLOOD. A riotous disorderly fellow.

BLOOD FOR BLOOD. A term used by tradesmen for bartering the different commodities in which they deal. Thus a hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.

BLOOD MONEY. The reward given by the legislature on the conviction of highwaymen, burglars, &c.

BLOODY BACK. A jeering appellation for a soldier, alluding to his scarlet coat.

BLOODY. A favourite word used by the thieves in swearing, as bloody eyes, bloody rascal.

BLOSS OF BLOWEN. The pretended wife of a bully, or shoplifter. Cant.

C

"TO BLOT.

BLU

TO BLOT THE SKRIP AND JAR bound for any one. Cant.

IT. To stand engaged or

BLOW. He has bit the blow, i. e. he has stolen the goods.

Cant. BLOWEN.

A mistress or whore of a gentleman of the scamp. The blowen kidded the swell into a snoozing ken, and shook him of his dummee and thimble; the girl inveigled the gentleman into a brothel and robbed him of his pocket book and watch.

BLOWER. A pipe. How the swell funks his blower and lushes red tape; what a smoke the gentleman makes with his pipe, and drinks brandy.

TO BLOW THE GROUNSILS. To lie with a woman on the floor. Cant.

TO BLOW THE GAB. To confess, or impeach a confederate. Cant.

BLOW-UP. A discovery, or the confusion occasioned by one. A BLOWSE, or BLOWSABELLA. A woman whose hair is dishevelled, and hanging about her face; a slattern. BLUBBER. The mouth.-I have stopped the cull's blubber; I have stopped the fellow's mouth,meant either by gagging or murdering him.

TO BLUBBER. To cry.

TO SPORT BLUBBER. Said of a large coarse woman, who exposes her bosom.

BLUBBER CHEEKS. Large flaccid cheeks, hanging like the fat or blubber of a whale.

BLUE. To look blue; to be confounded, terrified, or disappointed. Blue as a razor; perhaps, blue as azure. BLUE BOAR. A venereal bubo.

BLUE DEVILS. Low spirits.

BLUE FLAG. He has hoisted the blue flag; he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, an allusion to the blue aprons worn by publicans. See ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE.

BLUE PIGEONS. Thieves who steal lead off houses and churches. Cant. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off houses or churches.

BLUE PLUMB. A bullet.-Surfeited with a blue plumb; wounded with a bullet. A sortment of George R's blue plumbs; a volley of ball, shot from soldiers' firelocks. BLUE SKIN. A person begotten on a black woman by a white man. One of the blue squadron; any one having a cross of the black breed, or, as it is termed, a lick of the tar brush.

BLUE

BOL

BLUE TAPE, or SKY BLUE. Gin.

BLUE RUIN. Gin. Blue ribband; gin.

BLUFF. Fierce, surly. He looked as bluff as bull beef.
BLUFFER. An inn-keeper. Cant.

BLUNDERBUSS. A short gun, with a wide bore, for carrying slugs; also a stupid, blundering fellow.

BLUNT. Money. Cant.

TO BLUSTER. To talk big, to hector or bully.

BOARDING SCHOOL. Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison, or house of correction.

BOB. A shoplifter's assistant, or one that receives and carries off stolen goods. All is bob; all is safe. Cant. Вов. A shilling.

BOBBED. Cheated, tricked, disappointed.

BOBBISH. Smart, clever, spruce.

BOB STAY. A rope which holds the bowsprit to the stem or cutwater. Figuratively, the frenum of a man's yard. BOB TAIL. A lewd woman, or one that plays with her tail; also an impotent man, or an eunuch. Tag, rag, and bob tail; a mob of all sorts of low people, To shift one's bob; to move off, or go away. To bear a bob; to join in chorus with any singers. Also a term used by the sellers of game, for a partridge.

BODY SNATCHERS. Bum bailiffs.

BODY OF DIVINITY BOUND IN BLACK CALF. A parson. BOG LANDER. An Irishman; Ireland being famous for its large bogs, which furnish the chief fuel in many parts of that kingdom.

BOG TROTTER. The same.

BOG HOUSE. The necessary house. To go to bog; to go to stool.

BOG LATIN. Barbarous Latin. Irish.-See DOG LATIN, and APOTHECARIES LATIN.

BOGY. Ask bogy, i. e. ask mine a-se. Sea wit. Вон. Said to be the name of a Danish general, who so terrified his opponent Foh, that he caused him to bewray himself. Whence, when we smell a stink, it is custoto exclaim, Foh! i. e. I smell general Foh. He cannot say Boh to a goose; i. e. he is a cowardly or sheepish fellow. There is a story related of the celebrated Ben Jonson, who always dressed very plain; that being introduced to the presence of a nobleman, the peer, struck by his homely appearance and awkward manner,exclaimed,as if in doubt, you Ben Johnson! why you look as if you could not say Boh to a goose!" "Boh!" replied the wit.

BOLD. Bold as a miller's shirt, which every day takes a rogue by the collar.

C 2

BOLT.

BOR

BOLT. A blunt arrow.

BOLT UPRIGHT. As erect, or straight up, as an arrow set on its end.

TO BOLT. To run suddenly out of one's house, or hiding place, through fear; a term borrowed from a rabbitwarren, where the rabbits are made to bolt, by sending ferrets into their burrows: we set the house on fire, and made him bolt. To bolt, also means to swallow meat without chewing: the farmer's servants in Kent are famous for bolting large quantities of pickled pork.

BONES. Dice.

BONE BOX. The mouth. Shut your bone box; shut your mouth.

BONE PICKER. A footman.

BONED. Seized,apprehended, taken up by a constable. Cant. BOLUS. A nick name for an apothecary.

BONE SETTER, A hard-trotting horse.

BOOBY, or DOG BOOBY. An awkward lout, clodhopper, or country fellow. See CLODHOPPER and LOUT. A bitch booby; a country wench.

BOOBY HUTCH. A one-horse chaise, noddy, buggy, or leathern bottle.

Books. Cards to play with. To plant the books; to place the cards in the pack in an unfair manner.

BOOK-KEEPER. One who never returns borrowed books, Out of one's books; out of one's favor, Out of his books; out of debt,

BOOT CATCHER, The servant at an inn whose business it is to clean the boots of the guest.

BOOTS. The youngest officer in a regimental mess, whose duty it is to skink, that is,to stir the fire, snuff the candles, and ring the bell. See SKINK.---To ride in any one's old boots; to marry or keep his cast-off mistress.

BOOTY. To play booty; cheating play, where the player purposely avoids winning.

BO-PEEP. One who sometimes hides himself, and some

times appears publicly abroad, is said to play at bo-peep, Also one who lies perdue, or on the watch.

BORACHIO. A skin for holding wine, commonly a goat's; also a nick name for a drunkard.

BORDE, A shilling. A half borde; a sixpence,
BORDELLO. A bawdy house.

BORE. A tedious, troublesome man or woman, one who bores the ears of his hearers with an uninteresting tale; a term much in fashion about the years 1780 and 1781. BORN UNDER A THREEPENNY HALFPENNY PLANET,

NEVER