Chapter XXII: Part 22

1642. Milton, Apol. for Smect., § 6. But that such a poem should be
toothless, I still affirm it to be a bull, taking away the essence
of that which it calls itself. For if it bite neither the persons
nor the vices, how is it a satire? And if it bite either, how is it
toothless?

1673. Dryden, The Assignation, Act iii., Sc. 1. Ben. Faith, lady, I
could not sleep one wink, for dreaming of you. Lan. Not sleep for
dreaming? When the place falls, you shall be bull master general at
court.

1689. Selden, Table Talk, p. 96 (Arber’s ed.). We can make no
notion of it, ’tis so full of intricacy, so full of contradiction:
’tis in good earnest, as we state it, half-a-dozen bulls one upon
another.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. I., p. 6. With Stale
Quibbles, Puns, and Bulls.

1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. i. ‘I have got into such an
infernal habit of making bulls, that I can’t write sense when I
want it.’

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxxix. He was telling the
most outrageous of Irish stories, and making, on purpose, the most
outrageous of Irish bulls.

In this connection it may be noted that in French cavalry regiments portez! and remettez! are mock commands given upon the perpetration of a bull. La calinotade signifies in the popular speech a ludicrous or foolish saying, whilst one given to uttering them is termed un calino.

2. (thieves’.)—A crown or five shilling piece. Formerly bull’s eye (q.v.). [The origin is doubtful. It may be a mere allusion to the circular shape, or it may be of classical derivation, and be a reference to the herds and flocks which at one time constituted a man’s wealth. Cf., Latin pecunia, from pecus, cattle or oxen.]

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bull, a crown, or five
shillings.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 232.
List of patterers’ words. Bull, a crown.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xlvi. Four half-bulls, wot you may
call half-crowns.

1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S., 4 July. And therefore much as a bull
(or a hog) stand arbitrarily for a five-shilling-piece, half-a-bull
for half a-crown, a bob for a shilling, a tanner for sixpence,
etc., with equal propriety might a plum stand for £100,000.

1889. Answers, July 27, p. 136, col. 2. Once found, the ‘lurker’ is
pretty sure to draw a bull (five shillings), or even a ‘counter’
(pound).

3. (Stock Exchange.)—Originally a speculative purchase for a rise; i.e., a man would agree to buy stock at a future day at a stated price with no intention of taking it up, but trusting to the market advancing in value to make the transaction profitable. Bull is the reverse of bear (q.v.). The term is now more frequently applied to the person engaged in the above-mentioned tactics, i.e., to one who tries to enhance the value of stocks by speculative purchases or otherwise. Also used as a verb and adjective.

b. 1671, d. 1757. Cibber, The Refusal, or The Ladies’ Philosophy.
Granger (to Witling, who has been boasting of his gain): And all
this out of ‘Change Alley’? Witling: Every shilling, Sir, all out
of stocks, Pulls, Bulls, Rams, Bears, and Bubbles.

1768. Foote, Devil upon Two Sticks, Act i. A mere bull and bear
booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent foot
bankrupts.

1774. Coleman, Man of Business, IV., i., in wks. (1777) II., 179.
My young master is the bull, and Sir Charles is the bear. He agreed
for stock, expecting it to be up at three hundred by this time;
but, lack-a-day, sir, it has been falling ever since.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iv. The hum and bustle which his approach
was wont to produce among the bulls, bears, and brokers of Stock
Alley.

1860. Peacock, Gryll Grange, ch. xviii. In Stock Exchange slang,
Bulls are speculators for a rise, Bears for a fall.

1881. Mark Lane Express, Aug. 8, p. 1085. The speculative movement
which has, so far, exerted a bull influence on the maize market.

On the French Bourse a bull is called un haussier; in Berlin he is known as liebhaler; and in Vienna the term used is contremine.

4. (nautical.)—See Bull the cask or barrel.

5. (common.)—Explained by quotation.

1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 148. In these places, too,
the lodgers divide their food frequently, and a man, seeing a
neighbour without anything, will hand him his teapot, and say,
‘Here you are, mate; here’s a bull for you.’ A ‘bull’ is a teapot
with the leaves left in for a second brew.

6. (thieves’.)—Prison rations of meat, an allusion to its toughness; also generally used for meat without any reference to its being either tough or tender. A French equivalent is la bidoche. [Its derivation is suggested in the following quot.]

1883. Echo, Jan. 25, p. 2, col. 3. Thus from the French ‘bouilli’
we probably get the prison slang term bull for a ration of meat.

7. (American.)—A locomotive; the word is sometimes lengthened into bullgine.

8. (Winchester College.)—Cold beef, introduced at breakfast about 1873.

Verb (American University).—At Dartmouth College to recite badly; to make a poor recitation. [From the substantive bull, a blunder or contradiction, or from the use of the word as a prefix, signifying large, lubberly, blundering.]

Stale bull, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Stock held over for a long period with profit.

Bull and Cow, subs. (rhyming slang).—A row.

Bull-Bait, verb (? nonce word).—To bully; hector; badger. [Clearly a figurative usage of the legitimate word.]

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xviii., p. 82. ‘Which I
meantersay,’ cried Joe, ‘that if you come into my place
bull-baiting and badgering me, come out!’

Bull-Beef, subs. (old).—A frequently recurring term of contempt. Prisoners apply it to the hard, stringy meat supplied to them, and formerly the expression was in general use. ‘As ugly as bull-beef’; ‘as big as bull-beef’; ‘go and sell yourself for bull-beef’; were common colloquialisms at the end of the last and the beginning of the present century. Sometimes contracted into bull. Cf., Bully beef.

1579. Gosson, Apol. of the Schoole of Abuse, p. 64 (Arber). I
vnderstand they are all in a fustian fume.... They haue eaten
bul-bief, and threatned highly too put water in my woortes
whensoeuer they catche me.

1607. Rowlands, Diogines Lanthorne, p. 8 (H. Cl. Repr., 1873). How
lookes yonder fellow? what’s the matter with him trow? has a eaten
bul-beefe? there’s a lofty slaue indeede, hee’s in the altitudes.

1738–1819. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Rights of Kings, Ode I., in wks.
(Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 219. The Cooks, Bluff on th’ occasion,
put on bull’s-beef looks.

1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. 3, in wks. (1809) I., 62.

Yet thou may’st bluster like bull-beef so big.

1860. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Season Ticket, x. Which look as
cheap as bull-beef at one cent a pound.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, p. 524. To look as big as
bull-beef. To look stout and hearty, as if fed on bull-beef.
Bull-beef was formerly recommended for making men strong and
muscular.

1888. Ashton, Mod. Street Ballads, p. 61.

For soon he will his trial take,
And hard bull-beef be munching.

Bull Calf, subs. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull calf, a great
hulkey or clumsy fellow.

Bull Chin, subs. (old).—Explained by quotation.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull chin, a fat,
chubby child.

Bull-Dance, subs. (nautical).—A dance in which only men take part. Cf., Stag-dance, Gander-party, Hen-party, etc.

1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bull-dance. At sea it is performed
by men only when without women. It is sometimes called a
stag-dance.

1887. Graphic, March 26, p. 315, col. 3. It is obliged to be a
bull-dance. Gentlemen dance with gentlemen, and the pianist is, of
course, a gentleman also.

Bull-Dog, subs. (old).—1. A sheriff’s officer; a bailiff.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iii., 2. Mock. But pray what’s
the matter, Mrs. Lyric?

Lyric. Nothing, sir, but a shirking bookseller that owed me about forty guineas for a few lines. He would have put me off, so I sent for a couple of bull-dogs, and arrested him.

2. (old.)—A pistol; in the naval service a main-deck gun. Cf., Barker and Bull-dog blazer.

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, iii., 2. He whips out his
stiletto, and I whips out my bull-dog.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ii., 191. ‘I have always a brace of
bull-dogs about me.’... So saying, he exhibited a very handsome,
highly-finished, and richly-mounted pair of pistols.

1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word Book. Bull-dog or muzzled bull-dog, the
great gun which stands housed in the officer’s ward-room cabin.
General term for main-deck guns.

1881. Daily News, Oct. 27, p. 6, col. 2. Revolver cartridges of the
ordinary ‘bull-dog’ pattern.

3. (old.)—See quot.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Bull-dog, a sugar-loaf.

4. (University.)—A proctor’s assistant or marshall. Cf., quot. from Brewer’s Reader’s Handbook.

1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, I., x. (1842), 59. Long forgotten
stories about proctor’s bit and bull-dogs baffled. [M.]

1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, bk. III., ch. iii. ‘The proctor
and his bull-dogs came up ... and gave chase to the delinquents ...
the night was dark, and they reached the College in safety.’

1847. Tennyson, Princess, Prologue.

We unworthier told
Of college: he had climb’d across the spikes,
And he had squeezed himself betwixt the bars,
And he had breath’d the Proctor’s dogs.

1880. Brewer, Reader’s Handbook. Bull-dogs, the two servants of a
university proctor, who follow him in his rounds, to assist him in
apprehending students who are violating the university statues,
such as appearing in the streets after dinner without cap and gown,
etc.

5. (University: obsolete.)—A name for a member of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Bull-Dog Blazer, subs. (American).—A revolver. [Probably a mere amplification of the kindred English canting term; bull-dog, a pistol, + blazer, an allusion to the flash attendant upon firing.] For synonyms, see Meat in the pot.

Bull-Dose, subs. (American).—A severe castigation or flogging. Verb.—To thrash; to intimidate; to bully. A term of Southern political origin, originally referring to an association of negroes formed to insure, by violent and unlawful means, the success of an election. The phrase has now passed into general use, political and otherwise, to signify the adoption and use of coercive measures. [The derivation is almost literal—a bull-dose, a flogging with a strip of hide; the action itself being represented by the verb to bulldose. Though indifferently spelt both with single and double ‘l’ and with ‘s’ and ‘z,’ the correct version is bulldose.] Also derivatives bulldoser (q.v.), and bull-dosing, mutatis mutandis, of a kindred meaning.

1876. New York Tribune, Dec. There was a bad case of ‘bulldozing’
in Cincinnati on Monday night. A handful of bold Democrats had
gathered to let out their pent-up desire for Tilden or blood....
Mr. C—— was in the chair, and was warming up the faithful with an
address, when the Republicans crowded around him in so threatening
a manner that he mounted the table, shook his address in their
faces, and declared, like a true hero, that he was not to be
‘intimidated.’

1880. Illust. London News, vol. LXXVII., p. 587, col. 1. The
Americans have lately been using a strange word, ‘bull-dosing,’
which signifies, I believe, political intimidation, but not
personal molestation.

1881. Sat. Review, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. To ‘bull-dose’ a negro in
the Southern States means to flog him to death or nearly to death.

1881. Sat. Review, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. A ‘bull-dose’ means a
large efficient dose of any sort of medicine or punishment.

1887. Cassell’s Mag. (Art. on ‘Americanisms’), June, p. 412. To
‘bulldoze’ is to intimidate, and the word was originally used
respecting the alleged interference with negro voters in Louisiana.

1888. Detroit Evening Journal, 20 Feb. The Democrats complain of
the amounts of money they had to face, but that was not such a
source of trouble as the bulldozing of voters by the mining bosses.
They were driven to the polls, and compelled to vote for Seymour.

A French equivalent is faire son fendart (fendart signifies ‘braggart’ or ‘swaggerer’; fendant in literary French means a hector or bully).

Bull-Doser, subs. (American).—1. A bully; braggart; swaggerer. Cf., Bull-dose. French printers call a bully un mata, an abbreviation of matador. It is curious that this term in the original Spanish not only signifies a killer of bulls (as in a bull-fight), but also a murderer.

1878. N. American Review, vol. CXXVII., p. 426. The great
‘bulldozer’ of Europe.

1882. New York Tribune, 3 May. The hotel where he was staying was
visited ... by a mob of bull-dozers. [M.]

2. A pistol.

1881. Sat. Review, July 9, p. 40, col. 2. A Californian bull-doser
is a pistol which carries a bullet heavy enough to destroy human
life with certainty.

Bullet. To give the bullet, verbal phr. (common).—To discharge an employé. Cf., To give the bag, sense 2, under Bag, and Sack. [Possibly a punning allusion to the word ‘discharge.’] The term is variously used. To shake the bullet at anyone, is to threaten with ‘the sack,’ but not to give actual notice to leave. To get the bullet is to get notice, while to get the instant bullet is to be discharged upon the spot.

1841. Savage, Dict. of Art of Printing. A workman was said to have
got the bullet when he was discharged instanter—without the
customary notice on either side.

1872. Chamb. Jour., March 9, p. 147. When a fellow gets the bullet
from his work, he mostly has a spell at cab-driving.

1887. Punch, Sept. 17, p. 126. I have just got the ‘bullet,’
Mate—sacked without notice.

Bullfinch, subs. (old).—1. A stupid fellow.

2. (hunting.)—A high thick hedge; one difficult to jump or rush through. [Most authorities agree in suggesting the origin of this term in a corruption of ‘bull-fence,’ i.e., a fence capable of preventing cattle from straying.]

1832. Quart. Rev., Mar., 226. The bull-finch fence ... is a
quickset hedge of perhaps fifty years’ growth, with a ditch on one
side or the other, and so high and strong that [one] cannot clear
it. [M.]

1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. ix. The third is a
teaser—an ugly black bull-finch with a ditch on the landing side,
and a drop into a ploughed field.

1880. The Times, Nov. 2, p. 4, col. 5. They are almost invariably
attired in double-stitched shooting coats, that will stand the
ordeal of ‘bull-finches’ and brambles.

1889. Man of the World, June 29. See Harrington, the belted earl,
bear down an opponent in the jousts, charging with lance or sword
as if he were riding at a South Notts bull-finch.

Bull-Jine, subs. (nautical).—A sailor’s term for a locomotive. [Thought to be of American origin, New York thieves using the same term, as also an abbreviated form—bull.]

Bull Money, subs. (harlotry).—Money extorted from or given by those who in places of public resort have been detected in flagrante delicto with a woman, as a bribe to silence.

Bull-Nurse, subs. (nautical).—See quot.

1885. Graphic, April 4, p. 326, col. 3. ‘Bull-nurses.’ Perhaps we
ought to apologise for using this word; but years ago (it may be so
still) it was the sailors’ phrase to indicate a male-attendant on
the sick.

Bullock, subs. (schoolboys’).—1. See quot.

1855. J. K., in Notes and Queries, 1 S., v., 12, 3 Nov., p. 344.
Bullock, a cheat; but as I think, only when cheating at marbles.

2. (Australian.)—A countryman or bushman. Cf., Bullock-puncher.

Verb.—To bully; to bounce over; to intimidate. [Query from bully.]

1716. M. Davies, Ath. Brit., I., 272. Upon the evidence of that
bullocking Fryer Campanella. [M.]

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. II., ch. vi. ‘And then you have
charged me with bullocking you into owning the truth.’

1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, Act ii., Sc. 2. She shan’t think to
bullock and domineer over me.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bullock, to hector,
bounce, or bully.

Bullock’s Heart.—See Token.

Bullock’s Horn, verb (rhyming slang).—To pawn. For synonyms, see Pop.

Bull Party, subs. (old).—A party of men only. Cf., Bull-dance, Stag-party, Hen-tea, etc.

Bull-Puncher.—A variant of cow-puncher (q.v.).

Bull’s Eye, subs. (schoolboys’).—1. A sweetmeat of which peppermint is an important ingredient. [It received its name in allusion to its globular shape.]

1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I., 51. Hardbake, brandy-balls, and
bull’s-eyes. [M.]

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 83. Dr. Switcher (who had discovered
bull’s eyes about, and traced them to the original donor). ‘Don’t
you know, Muggins, there’s an old proverb that “Fools give feasts
and Wise men eat them”’? Muggins. ‘Yes, Sir, and there’s another
one, sir.’ The Doctor. ‘What’s that, sir? Now, Sir?’—(noticing a
reticence)—‘What is it, Sir?’—(sternly)—‘or else—!’ Muggins (seeing
no escape). ‘Please, Sir, “W—— wise men make proverbs and F—— Fools
repea——.”’ [Catches it!]

2. (old.)—A five-shilling piece, otherwise known as a bull (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. [Mentioned as a cant term for a
crown.]

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Bull’s-eye, a Crown.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull’s-eye, a crown
piece.

Bull’s-eye Villas, subs. (military).—A nickname given to the small open tents used by the Volunteers at their annual gathering. [An allusion to bull’s-eye in its meaning of the centre of a target.]

Bull’s Feather. To give [or get] the bull’s feather, verbal phr. (old).—To be made, or be a cuckold. Cf., Acteon. The French say also planter des plumes de bœuf.

16(?). Song of the 17th Century, quoted by Nares—‘The Bull’s
Feather.’

It chanced not long ago as I was walking,
An echo did bring me where two were a talking,
’Twas a man said to his wife, dye had I rather,
Than to be cornuted and wear a bull’s feather.
Then presently she reply’d sweet, art thou jealous?
Thou canst not play Vulcan before I play Venus;
Thy fancies are foolish, such follies to gather,
There’s many an honest man hath worn the bull’s feather—
Though it be invisible, let no man it scorn,
Though it be a new feather made of an old horn,
He that disdains it in heart or mind either,
May he be the more subject to wear the bull’s feather.

1748. Richardson, Cl. Harlowe, v., 295. A good whimsical
instrument, take it altogether! But what, thinkest thou, are the
arms to this matrimonial harbinger?... Three crooked horns,
smartley top-knotted with ribands; which being the ladies’ wear,
seem to intimate that they may very probably adorn, as well as
bestow, the bull’s-feather.

Bull the Cask or Barrel, verbal phr. (nautical).—To pour water into a rum cask when empty, with a view to keeping the wood moist and preventing leakage. The water, receiving after some time a strong impregnation, is very intoxicating. The authorities, not looking with much favour upon a wholesale brewing of grog in this way, sometimes use salt water as a deterrent, though even this ‘salt water bull’ as it is called, when again poured out, has often proved too attractive for seamen to resist. Again it is common to talk in the same way of ‘bulling a teapot,’ ‘coffee-pot,’ etc.; that is; after the first ‘brew’ has been exhausted, by adding fresh water, and boiling over again, to make a second brew from the old materials. This probably was derived from bulling the cask, but whether the bulling originally applied to the preserving the water-tight qualities of the cask, or to the making of the second brew is not quite certain. Taking, however, the present acceptation of the term, together with its probable derivation (see below), the latter would appear to be the case. [Thought to have its origin in French boullir, whence bouilloire, a tea-kettle; bouillon, a decoction of meat to which vegetables, salt and pepper have been added.]

1824. Cochrane, Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia
and Siberian Tartary, p. 225. My liquor was at end from the effects
of a very common sort of leak—it had been tapped too often. I could
do nothing but bull the barrel, that is, put a little water into
it, and so preserve at least the appearance of vookey.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xx. ‘Why, Jacob, a bull means
putting a quart or two of water into a cask which has had spirits
in it.’

1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 148. In these places, too,
the lodgers divide their food frequently, and a man, seeing a
neighbour without anything, will hand him his teapot, and say,
‘Here you are, mate; here’s a bull for you.’ A ‘bull’ is a teapot
with the leaves left in for a second brew.

Bull-Trap, subs. (American thieves’).—A personator of a police constable.

Bully, subs. (old).—1. A ‘protector’ of a prostitute; a ‘fancy man.’ The name is often well applied, inasmuch as violence and swagger form the main staple of the stock-in-trade of such men in levying blackmail upon the victims enticed by their women companions.

1706. Defoe, Jure Divino, i., 8. Mars the celestial bully they
adore, And Venus for an everlasting whore.

French Synonyms. Poisson (familiar and popular: one who subsists on the gains of a prostitute, the latter being known as his marmite, i.e., ‘flesh-pot’; poisson signifies literally ‘a fish,’ and Michel says such a one was formerly known as poisson d’avril, a punning variation of maquereau [which see], mackerel being fit for food about that month. Poisson d’avril properly means a trick or fool’s errand; recevoir un poisson d’avril is to be made an April-fool); Alphonse (a French form of Alphonso, a ‘fancy name’ for a ‘fancy man.’ Cf., Adonis for a dandy. Alphonsisme is the calling of an Alphonse); baigne-dans-le-beurre (popular: another allusion to mackerel which is generally served with butter); barbise (popular); barbe (popular: lit. ‘beard’); barbille or barbillon (a young hand at the business); barbeau (popular: properly barbel, from L. L. barbellus, dim. from barbus, a barbel, i.e., the fish, from barba, a beard); marlou or marlousier (general: the second term is the oldest, and Michel derives it from marlier, formerly used in the sense of marguillier, signifying properly ‘churchwarden.’ Cf., Sacristain); benoît (popular); brochet (popular: properly this is ‘pike’ or ‘jack’); dos, dos vert, and dos d’azur (general: dos = back); casquette à trois ponts (popular: so called from a cap often worn by such persons); chevalier du bidet (bidet = pony; Cf., Omnibus); chevalier de la guiche (familiar); chiqueur de blanc (chiqueur = glutton, and blanc, a street-walker. Cf., mangeuse de viande crue); bouffeur de blanc (popular); costel (popular); cravate verte (popular); guiche (popular); dessous (thieves’: a man for whom ‘love’ is cherished by a prostitute); écaillé (literally ‘one with scales,’ like those of a fish—allusive of maquereau; fish, another reference to maquereau); foulard rouge (popular: lit. ‘red silk handkerchief’); gentilhomme sous marin (popular); ambassadeur (popular); gonce à écailles (gonce = man; à écailles = with scales, an allusion to maquereau); goujon (general: ? does this come from the Gascon gouie, whence comes gouge, a prostitute); lacromuche (popular); retrousseur (popular: retrousser properly means ‘to turn up,’ ‘to cock’); dauphin (popular: lit. dolphin); macchoux (popular); machabée (popular: lit. a corpse); mac or macque (popular; abbreviations of maquereau); macrottin (familiar); poisson frayeur (frayer [of fishes] signifies ‘to milt’); releveur de fumeuse (popular: Cf., relever le chandelier, i.e., to lift up the candlestick; from a practice of placing the fees of a prostitute under a candlestick); maquignon à bidoche (popular: maquignon is properly a ‘horsedealer,’ and bidoche = meat); mangeur de blanc (general: a devourer of prostitutes. Cf., chiqueur de blanc); tête de patère (popular); marloupatte, marloupin (see marlou); marquant (thieves’); mec (popular and thieves’); mec de la guiche (so called from his kiss-curls—des guiches = kiss-curls); monsieur à nageoires (lit. gentleman with fins); monsieur à rouflaquettes (popular: rouflaquettes = aggerawators, q.v.); neg en viande chaude (popular: neg is an abbreviation of négociant, i.e., merchant, dealer; viande chaude = hot meat); patenté (popular: patente is the name of a cap worn by the fraternity); porte-nageoires (see monsieur à nageoires); roi de la mer (popular: lit. king of the sea. Cf., maquereau, poisson, etc.); rouflaquette (Cf., monsieur à rouflaquettes); roule-en-cul, soixante-six (popular: insulting terms which might be translated by ‘pensioner,’ with an obscene prefix); un qui va aux épinards (popular: one who receives money from a prostitute, épinards = spinach. Cf., ‘to take one’s greens’); valet de cœur (popular: the lover of a prostitute); visqueux (properly this signifies ‘viscous,’ ‘slimy,’ ‘clammy’; the term is applied to the lowest type of bullies); bibi (popular); bras de fer (lit. ‘arm of iron’).

1729. Gay, Polly, Act ii., Sc. 7. Jimmy: Sure never was such
insolence! how could you leave me with this bawdy-house bully?

1753. Adventurer, No. 100. I learned to pack cards and to cog a
die; became a bully to whores.

1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xx. The lady was only a
woman of the town, and the fellow her bully and a sharper.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act. ii., Sc. 4. M’L. Plaise
your honour, I have brought before your worship a most notorious
prostitute and common street walker, who, for her foul doings, has
been cooped up in the Poultry Comptor, as often as there are years
in a week.—I caught her charging these honest gentlemen (pointing
to Tom and Jerry) in a most impositious manner, and when I civilly
axed her, how she could think of getting drunk, and acting so, she
called her bullies here. (Pointing to Kate and Sue.)

1883. A. Dobson, Fielding, p. 129. Probably a professed sabreur, if
not a salaried bully like Captain Stab in the Rake’s Progress.

1887. Daily News, 15 July, 6, 5. It was not an uncommon thing for a
prostitute to solicit a man, and if he refused her importunities,
to call upon a ‘bully,’ and complain that she had been assaulted.

2. (Eton College.)—A melée at football; the equivalent of the Rugby ‘scrimmage’ and the Winchester ‘hot.’ It is where the majority of players play.

3. (nautical.)—A term of endearment in use amongst sailors. Equivalent to ‘pal,’ ‘mate,’ and similar terms. In this sense it has long been in use, Shakspeare often employing it. Probably hence arose the American and colonial adjectival use of the word in the sense of fine, ‘crack.’

4. (American thieves’.)—A weapon formed by tying a stone or a piece of lead in a handkerchief. This is used knuckleduster fashion.

Adj. (American).—Fine; capital; crack; ‘spiff.’ Applied to persons only, this adjective is traceable as far back as 1681; it seems, however, to have fallen into disuetude and to have been subsequently revived in a much more extended sense in the U.S.A., whence it has made the circuit of the English speaking world. Now applied to anything deserving of commendation, and used very much in the same way and with the same shades of meaning as ‘crack.’

English Synonyms. See A1.

French Synonyms. In addition to those given under A1 may be mentioned the following:—muche; pas piqué des hannetons (popular: literally not bitten or stung by May-bugs or cockchafers).

1681. Chetham, Anglers’ Vade Mecum (1689), pref. From such bully
fishers this book expects no other reception.

1855. Cairo City Times. The bully steamboat ‘Crystal Palace’ passed
up to St. Louis on Monday. We have no doubt she left papers.

1870. Meade, New Zealand, p. 331. The roof fell in, there was a
‘bully’ blaze.

1875. N. Amer. Review, vol. CXX., p. 128. ‘That,’ replied Earney,
‘is Mercury, the god of merchants and thieves.’ ‘Good! that’s
bully!’ exclaimed Tweed.

1880. Bret Harte, A Lonely Ride. ‘I thought you changed horses on
the road?’ ‘So we did. Two hours ago.’ ‘That’s odd. I didn’t notice
it.’ ‘Must have been asleep sir. Hope you had a pleasant nap. Bully
place for a nice quiet snooze,—empty stage, sir!’

That’s bully for you, phr. (American).—Grand or fine; this phrase, during the Civil War, had a remarkably popular run.

1873. Justin McCarthy, Fair Saxon, ch. xix. ‘Darling boy! I had
thought of this already.’ ‘Bully for you, mamma! Of course you
did.’

Bully boy or bully boy with the glass eye, phr. (American).—A good fellow.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. ‘Well said, my hearty
captain!’ cried Glossin, endeavouring to catch the tone of
revelry.... ‘That’s it, my bully boy! Why, you’re alive again
now!—’

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. viii. ‘And you, Mr. Frank Osbaldistone,
are not the first bully-boy that has said stand to a true man.’

1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, p. 20. You
ought to seen him get started once. He was a bully boy with a glass
eye.

Bully-Back or Bully-Buck, subs. (old).—Thus described by Grose: A bully to a bawdy house, one who is kept in pay, to oblige the frequenters of the house to submit to the impositions of the mother abbess or bawd, and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies, and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant young men, whom he finds with her. Cf., Bully-boss.

1626. Amherst, Terræ Fil., xxxiii., 179. They have spirtual bravves
on their side, and old lecherous bully-backs to revenge their
cause. [M.]

Bully Beef, subs. (military).—Tinned meat. Also called iron ration (q.v.). In the navy by bully-beef is meant boiled salt beef. [This may either be a corruption of bull beef or from the French bouilli, boiled meat.]

1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, pref., xii.
Soup-and-bouilli is another standing sea dish, and, taking it all
round, is the most disgusting of the provisions served out to the
merchant sailor. I have known many a strong stomach, made
food-proof by years of pork eaten with molasses, and biscuit alive
with worms, to be utterly capsized by the mere smell of
soup-and-bouilli. Jack calls it ‘soap and bullion, one onion to a
gallon of water,’ and thus fairly expresses the character of the
nauseous compound.

1887. Daily News, July 9, p. 6, col. 4. The rations will be of the
kind known to Tommy Atkins as ‘bully beef.’ There may be in it a
considerable proportion of mutton, but that makes no difference to
him.

Bully-Boss, subs. (American).—The landlord of a brothel or thieves’ den. [From bully, sense 1 (q.v.), + boss, a master.]

Bully-Buck.—See Bully-back.

Bully Cock, subs. (old).—1. See quot.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bully-cock, one who
foments quarrels in order to rob the persons quarrelling.

2. subs. (old).—A low round hat with broad brim.—See Billy-cock.

3. (old.)—A man who sets other people by the ears, so that, while they quarrel, he may rob them with impunity.

Bullyrag or Ballyrag, verb (colloquial).—To revile; abuse; scold vehemently—usually in vulgar or obscene language; also to swindle by means of intimidation. [The etymology is unknown.]

French Synonyms. Arranger aux petits oignons; monter une gamme (popular: gamme = thrashing or ‘walloping’); habiller quelqu’un de taffetas (popular: i.e., to clothe anyone with fear; Cf., ‘clothed with shame’); agonir (popular: ‘to haul over the coals’; properly ‘to pull to pieces’); secouer les puces à quel-qu’un (popular: secouer = to shake; puces = fleas. Cf., ‘to send one away with a flea in the ear’).

1760. T. Warton, Oxford Newsman’s Verses.

On Minden’s plains, ye meek Mounseers!
Remember Kingsley’s grenadiers.
You vainly thought to ballarag us,
Like your fine squadron off Cape Lagos.

1861. Charles Lever, One of Them, p. 36. He bullyragged me.

1876. S. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Tom Sawyer, p. 118. I don’t want
nothing better ’n this; I don’t git enough to eat gin’ally,—and
here they can’t come and pick a feller and bullyrag him so.

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Maids in Waiting, in Odd People in Odd
Places, p. 143. You should have heard the bullyragging I got,
ma’am, from the mistress and the master as well, and I was turned
out in the shameful way I’ve already explained to you, for doing
what was no wrong at all, but only what me good-nature tempted me
to.

1884. Jas. Payn, Talk of the Town, ch. v. He had never been
‘bally-ragged’ in his own house for ‘nothing’—except by his
wife—before.

Bullyragging, verb, subs. (colloquial).—Scolding; abuse; and sometimes swindling. [From bullyrag (q.v.) + ing.] For synonyms, see Wigging.

1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. xviii. ‘It would be a good
thing for she ... if she could bully Miss Eleanor into marrying
Captain Hertford, and then that the pair on ’em should have the
bullying and bally-ragging of nine thousand a year.’

1880. Mrs. Parr, Adam and Eve, xxi., 292. There’ll be more set to
the score o’ my coaxin’ than ever ‘all be to Adam’s bully-ragging.’
[M.]

1882. Daily Telegraph, Oct. 19, p. 3, col. 1. ‘And you should have
heard the bully-ragging I got, ma’am, from the mistress and the
master as well.’

Bully-Rook or Bully-Rock, subs. (old).—Originally this term seems to have been applied to a pleasant or boon-companion; later, however, to a swaggerer, a bully, a bravo. [Thought by most etymologists to be a combination of bully (q.v.) + rook (q.v.), a sharper.]

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i., Sc. 3. Why says
my bully-rook?

1633. Shirley, Wittie Faire One, Act iii., Sc. 4. Such in the
spirit of sack, till we be delphic, and prophesy, my bully-rook.

1697. Praise of Yorkshire Ale. My bully-rocks, I’ve been
experienced long In most of Liquors. [M.]

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Bully, or bully-rock, 1. a
boisterous, hectoring fellow.

Bully Ruffian, subs. (old).—A footpad or highwayman, who, to the injury of robbery, added the insult of coarse invective. Cf., Bridle-cull.

Bully Trap, subs. (old).—A man who, though of mild outside demeanour, is a match for any ruffian who may attack him. Quoted by Grose [1785].

Bully Up (Uppingham School), verb.—To hurry up. Mostly used in the imperative.

Bum, subs. (vulgar).—1. The posteriors; or, as Jamieson puts it, ‘the part on which we sit.’ [Considerable doubt exists as to the origin of this familiar term. Murray thinks the guess that bum is an abbreviation of ‘bottom’ is at variance with the historical fact that the latter, in this sense, is found only from the eighteenth century; besides which there are phonetic difficulties. The origin is probably onomatopoetic.] Besides the synonyms mentioned under Blind cheeks, the following may be cited:

English Synonyms. Bum-fiddle; bumpkin.

French Synonyms. Le foiron (popular: from foire = diarrhœa); le tal (popular); le garde-manger (popular: Michel says this expression is an old one and is to be found in ‘Curiositez françoises’ in the sense of ‘a necessary house’); le naze (equivalent to ‘smeller,’ or ‘smelling cheat’); le soufflet (popular: literally ‘a pair of bellows’); le prouas (the same as le prose, of nautical origin); la contre-basse (popular: the ‘double bass.’ Cf., Ars musica); le schaffouse (popular: a play of words, the town of that name being situated on the Lower Rhine—chute du Rhein, and chute du rein, the lower part of the back); le gingin (popular); la tabatière (popular: literally ‘the snuff-box’); la tire-lire (popular: Rigaud says this term is in allusion to the means of subsistence [daily bread] of prostitutes); la giberne (literally ‘cartridge-box’); le proye (an old canting term); le cadet (popular); la figure (i.e., ‘the face.’ Cf., ‘cheeks’); la canonnière (literally ‘a drain pipe’ or ‘pop-gun’); l’oignon (literally ‘the onion’); la machine à moulures; le département du bas Rhin (‘the department of the Lower Rhine’; rein = back—a play upon words); le démoc; le schelingophone; le Prussien (from the Gypsy prusiatin̆i, translated by Borrow as ‘pistol’); le panier aux crottes (panier = basket; crottes = dung); le visage de campagne; le fignard (i.e., ‘a one-eyed cheek’); le visage sans nez (i.e., ‘the face without a nose’); le pétrouskin; le face du grand Turc; le tortillon; le fleurant (popular: also ‘a nose-gay’); le pedzouille (familiar: ‘a peasant’ or ‘clod’); le cadran or le cadran lunaise (cadran = dial); le piffe (thieves’); le médaillon (popular: literally ‘a medallion’ or ‘locket’); l’arrière-train (familiar: lit. ‘after-carriage’); le trèfle (popular: this also signifies ‘tobacco’); messire Luc (familiar: ‘Mr. Luke,’ sometimes also ‘Nancy.’ Cf., Mrs. Jones); le moulin à vent (lit. the ‘windmill’); le ponant (popular); la lune (popular: lune in slang means a large full face); le bienséant (popular); le pétard (popular and thieves’: it also stands for sou; in the Normandy patois pétra is used interchangeably with pétard); le ballon (popular: ballon = balloon; the analogy is obvious); le moutardier (i.e., the mustard-pot); le baril de moutarde (cads’: the mustard barrel); l’obusier (lit. the howitzer).

German Synonyms. Tochas; Toges; Doges.

Italian Synonym. Rioppo.

1387. Trevisa, Higden Rolls, 6 S., 357. It semeth that his bom is
oute that hath that euel [ficus, i.e., piles]. [M.]

1592. Shakspeare, Mids. Night’s Dream, ii., 1, l. 51.

The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And tailor cries, and falls into a couch;
And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe.

1600. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, in wks. (1873) I., 39. Art thou
acquainted with neuer a fardingale-maker, nor a French-hood maker,
I must enlarge my bumme.

1609. Shakspeare, Timon of Athens, Act i., Sc. 2.

What a coil’s here!
Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums!

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv., 4. Your breeches sit close
enough to your bum.

1729. Swift, Intelligencer, No. 8, p. 83 (2 ed.).

And first his bum you see him clap
Upon the Queen of Sheba’s lap.

1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistress, st. 18.

All, but the wight of bum y-galled, he
Abhors both bench, and stool, and fourm, and chair.

1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. i., in wks. (1809) I., 12. That lazy
bum-delighting thing, Ridly the Chancellor.

2. (old.)—An abbreviated form Of bum bailiff (q.v.).

1663. Butler, Hudibras, I., i., 393.

It had appeared with courage bolder,
Then Sergeant Bum, invading shoulder.

1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. VII., p. 153.

The Vermin of the Law, the Bum,
Who gladly kept his distance,
Does safely now in Triumph come.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, bk. III., ch. i. ‘Juggings has got his rent
to pay, and is afeard of the bums.’

3. (public schools’.)—A birching; ‘hiding’ or ‘tanning.’ For synonyms, see Tanning. Cf., also Bash and Baste.

Verb (old).—To arrest. [An obvious allusion to the duty of a bum or bum-bailiff (q.v.).]

Cherry Bums, subs. (military).—The 11th Hussars. Cherry-bum is a corruption of Cherubim; but the obvious reference is to the scarlet trowsers worn by this branch of the service. A similar nickname is given to the French Chasseurs—Culs rouges.—See Cherubim.

To toe one’s bum, phr. (low).—An implied threat of physical castigation, rarely, however, carried out literally; to put or ‘chuck’ out; to show the door to—either will explain the meaning. Sometimes the phrase occurs as ‘to hoof one’s bum.’

French Synonyms. Sauter sur la contrebasse (popular); filer un coup de trottinet dans l’oignon (thieves’); boucher la lumière (popular: properly ‘to stuff up the touch-hole’); enlever le ballon à quelqu’un (popular: the allusion is to raising an air balloon with the foot); donner un coup de pied juste au bon endroit (popular: ‘to give a kick just in the right part’); botter (popular: literally ‘to make’ or ‘supply anyone with boots’); détacher un coup de pinceau dans la giberne (popular: coup de pinceau = ‘a kick,’ or ‘a blow with the foot’; giberne = cartridge-box or, in slang, the breech); crever un œil à quelqu’un (popular: ‘to stave in one’s eye.’ Cf., Cyclops); graisser le train derrière (i.e., ‘to grease the hinder carriage.’ Cf., Eng. Basting); détruire le faubourg à quelqu’un (popular: properly faubourg = suburb or outskirt); enlever le schelingophone à quelqu’un (popular).

Bum Bags, subs. (popular).—Trowsers. [From bum, the posteriors, + bags (q.v.).]

Bum Bailiff, also Bum Baily, subs. (old).—An opprobrious name for a bailiff or sheriff’s officer. Frequently contracted into bum or bummy. [Thought to be derived from bum (q.v.), an allusion to the proximity of such gentry to debtors’ backs, + bailiff; there is no reason to suppose, as suggested, that the term is a corruption of bound-bailiff. The French have pousse cul, and it is curious that this term is also, in common use, abbreviated to cul, answering to the English contraction, bum.]

1602. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act iii., Sc. 4. Sir Jo. Go, Sir
Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the orchard like a
bum-baily.

1628. H. Shirley, Martyr’d Souldier, Act v. I was first a Varlet,
then a Bum-baily, now an under Jailor.

1761. Dr. Hawkesworth, Edgar and Emmeline, ii., 1. By the heavens!
she has the gripe of a bum-bailiff.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. ‘We are in right
opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, serjeant and
tipstaff, catch-poll and bum-bailey.’

1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xxxii. ‘You know the state we
were in all the summer: Gerald next to penniless, and going about
in fear of the bum-bailies.’

Bum Bass, subs. (old).—Explained by quot.

1809. S. Pegge, Anonymiana, p. 415 (ed. 1809). The humble-bee ought
rather, perhaps, to be called the bumble-bee as it is in some
parts, from the deepness of the note, just as the violoncello is
called by the vulgar a bum-bass.

Bumble, subs. (common).—A beadle. [This term originated in the name of the beadle in Dickens’ Oliver Twist, although it may be noted that in the seventeenth century bumble signified a confusion, a jumble. Hence bumbler, an idle fellow, or blunderer. A French equivalent is chasse-coquin (literally a beggar driver). Cf., Bumble-crew and Bumbledom.]

1883. Punch, August 4, p. 51, col. 1.

A helpless ‘nuisance’ shunned by the Inspector,
Ignored by bumbles and by Boards of Works.

Bumble-Crew, subs. (popular).—A collective name for corporations, vestries, and other official bodies. [From bumble (q.v.) + crew.]—See Bumbledom.

Bumbledom, subs. (popular).—A term applied to the spirit of collective petty officialism; red tape fussiness and pomposity. [From bumble (q.v.) + dom.]

1856. Saturday Review, II., p. 12, col. 1. The collective Bumbledom
of Westminster. [M.]

1884. Daily News, Dec. 27, p. 6, col. 1. Our scheme is unfolded to
the chief officer—not the slightest trace of bumbledom about him—a
kind-hearted, genial, happy-faced individual.

Bumble Puppy, subs. (popular).—Family whist, i.e., ‘unscientific’ whist. Also applied, says Hotten, to a game played in public houses on a large stone, placed in a slanting direction, on the lower end of which holes are made, and numbered like the holes in a bagatelle-table. The player rolls a stone ball, or marble, from the higher end, and according to the number of the hole it falls into the game is counted. It is undoubtedly the very ancient game of Troule-in-madame.

1886. Daily News, Dec. 25, p. 5, col. 2. Christmas cards, and
mince-pies, and another helping of turkey, and family whist, or
bumble puppy.

Bumbles, subs. (general).—Coverings for the eyes of horses that shy in harness. Cf., Blinkers.

Bumbo, subs. (West Indian.)—1. The female pudenda; a term applied by negroes. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

2. (old.)—Smollett, in a note to the first quotation as follows, says bumbo was a liquor composed of ‘rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.’ Grose gives it as ‘brandy, water, and sugar’—the component parts seem to vary according to taste.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxxiv. Who were making merry in
the ward-room, round a table well stored with bumbo and wine.

1756. Diary of a Sussex Tradesman, in Sussex Arch. Coll., IX., 188,
quoted in N. and Q., 7 S., i., 194. 1756, April 28. I went down to
Jones’, where we drank one bowl of punch and two muggs of bumboo,
and I came home again in liquor.

1882. Northumbrian Minstrelsy, etc., p. 113, quoted in N. and Q., 7
S., i., 195.

The pitmen and the keelmen trim,
They drink bumbo made of gin.

Bum-Brusher, subs. (schoolboys’).—A schoolmaster; also applied to an usher. [From bum, the posteriors, + brusher, in allusion to the office a schoolmaster is sometimes called upon to perform by way of punishment.]

English Synonyms. Flaybottom; haberdasher of pronouns.

French Synonyms. Un marchand de soupe (marchand = merchant; soupe = soup); un chien de cour (i.e., ‘a watch-dog’); un fouette-cul (a literal translation of bum-brusher).

1704. T. Brown, wks. (1760) II., 86. [Dionysius] was forced to turn
bum-brusher.

1788. New London Magazine, p. 137. A successor was immediately
called from that great nursery of bum-brushers, Appleby School.

1832. Blackwood’s Mag., Oct., p. 426. To protract existence ... in
the shape of bum-brushers, and so forth, after the fashion of the
exalted emigrés of 1792?

1838. Comic Almanac, Dec. [School-master’s Letter signed] Barnabas
Bom-brush.

Bum Charter, subs. (thieves’).—Explained by quot.

1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. Bum-charter is the name given to bread
steeped in hot water by the first unfortunate inhabitants of the
English Bastile, where this miserable fare was their daily
breakfast, each man receiving with his scanty portion of bread a
quart of boiled water from the Cook’s Coppers.

Bumclink, subs. (provincial).—In the Midland counties the inferior beer brewed for hay-makers and harvest labourers. [Derivation obvious.] For synonyms, see Swipes.

Bum Curtain, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—1. An academical gown when worn scant and short; especially applied to the short black gown worn till 1835 by members of Caius College. Cf., Bum-perisher.

1835. (Quoted in Whibley’s Three Centuries of Cambridge Wit
[1889].)

’Tis the College of Caius—’tis the land where the ‘Bum
Curtain’ lately was sported by each jolly chum,
But now black and blue are the gowns that they wear
Like the eye of a drunkard returned from a fair.

Bumf, subs. (schooboys’).—Paper. [An abbreviation of bum-fodder (q.v.), an obvious allusion to toilet paper.]

Bumfhunt, subs. (Wellington College).—A paper-chase. [Derived from the popular schoolboy name for paper, i.e., bumf (q.v.).]

Bum Fiddle, subs. (old).—The posteriors. For synonyms, see Blind cheeks and Bum.

Bum Fidget, subs. (old).—A restless individual. [Obviously from bum, the posterior, + fidget, i.e., one who cannot sit still.]

Bum Fodder, subs. (old).—1. Low class worthless literature; a term once in literary use.—See sense 2.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I., xiii. Torche-culs, arsewisps, bum
fodders.

1753. Scots’ Magazine, April, p. 208, col. 1 (title). Bum fodder
for the ladies. [M.]

2. (low.)—Toilet paper, otherwise known as curl paper (q.v.). Cf. Bumf.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bum fodder, soft
paper for the necessary house, or torche-cul.

Bummaree, subs. (common).—A Billingsgate middle-man. These men, who are not recognised as regular salesmen by the trade, are speculative buyers of large quantities of fish, which they re-sell in smaller lots. [The origin of the name is unknown, though some have speculated that it may be from the French bon marée; others, however, think that it is akin to bomerie, a French word for what in England is known as ‘bottomry,’ i.e., the act of borrowing money and pledging the bottom of the ship, i.e., the ship itself, for the re-payment of the money. It is argued that the leading idea in thus borrowing money on a ship’s keel is the hazarding all on a single venture: hence possibly its application to other transactions, especially those connected with the sea; such as wholesale purchases of fish, in which a large risk is run with an uncertain prospect of return—which is, it must be confessed, a somewhat far-fetched derivation.] This wholesale retailing of fish is also called bummareeing it.

1786. Report of Committee of City of London on Price of Provisions,
31. The bomarees will buy up half the fish the Salesmen have, and
sell to the Fishmongers. [M.]

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., 71. In
Billingsgate the ‘forestallers’ or middle men are known as
bummarees.... The bummaree is the jobber or speculator on the fish
exchange.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 4 a.m., p. 17. Any one can be a
bumbaree.... The process of bumbareeing is very simple. It consists
in buying as largely as your means will afford of an auctioneer,
hiring a stall for sixpence, and retailing the fish at a swingeing
profit.

Bummed, ppl. adj. (old).—Arrested. Cf. verb, Bum and Bum-bailiff.

Bummer, subs. (old.)—1. A bum-bailiff (q.v.).

2. (turf.)—A heavy loss; a severe pecuniary reverse.

3. (American.)—An idler; loafer; sponger; looter (see quots.). [From the German bummler, with a somewhat similar meaning, save that the term is used good naturedly, and has not altogether the offensive meaning of the American equivalent.] The term came into general use at the time of the Civil War, when it was specially applied to a straggler, hanger-on, or free-lance, particularly in connection with General Sherman’s famous march from Atlanta to the sea. Besides its political signification, bummer is used as a general term of reproach in the same way as rascal, blackleg, etc., are used in England. Other equivalents are heeler, striker, stuffer, and practical politician.

a. 1865. Major Nichols, Sherman’s Great March. Look hyar, Captain,
we bummers ain’t so bad after all. We keep ahead of the skirmish
line allers; we let’s ’em know when an enemy’s a comin’, and then
we ain’t allus away from the regiment. We turns over all we don’t
want ourselves, and we can lick five times as many Rebs as we are
any day.

1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ch. xxiv. The
auctioneer stormed up and down the streets on him for four days,
dispersing the populace, interrupting business, and destroying
children, and never got a bid—at least never any but the
eighteen-dollar one he hired, a notoriously substanceless bummer,
to make. The people only smiled pleasantly, and restrained their
desire to buy, if they had any.

1872. Sacramento Weekly Union, Feb. 24, p. 2. All the boys to be
trained as scriveners, tape-measurers, counter-hoppers, clerks,
pettifoggers, polite loafers, street-hounds, hoodlums, and bummers.

1875. Scribner’s Magazine, p. 274. San Francisco is the Elysium of
bummers. Nowhere can a worthless fellow, too lazy to work, too
cowardly to steal, get on so well. The climate befriends him, for
he can sleep out of doors four-fifths of the year. He can gorge
himself daily for a nominal sum, and get a dinner that a king might
envy for fifty cents.

1877. W. Black, Green Past. and Picc., ch. xiii. Then the great
crowd of bummers and loafers, not finding the soil teeming with
nuggets, stampeded off like a herd of buffalo.

1888. Philadelphia Press, Jan. 29. Coy is the chairman of the
Democratic Central Committee in Marion County, and has wielded
great power in politics as the boss of the bummers.

1888. Detroit Free Press, May 16. He finds that ten per cent. of
the men who patronise these places have a collegiate education;
forty per cent. are self-supporting, but prefer this precarious
mode of living to anything more respectable; ten per cent. earn
excellent wages, and twenty per cent. are chronic bums, who beg or
steal the price of their lodgings.

Hence bummerism, to express habits of loafing and petty stealing, and bummerish (adj.).

Bumming, verb, subs. (Wellington College).—A thrashing, or licking. Cf., Bum, sense 1.

Bump, subs. (University).—When one boat touches another in a race it is said to ‘make a bump,’ and technically beats its opponent. Cf., verbal sense, and Bumping race.

Verb.—To overtake and touch an opposing boat, thus winning the heat or race.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. iii. He listened, and with respect
too, to Mr. Foker’s accounts of what the men did at the University
of which Mr. F. was an ornament, and encountered a long series of
stories about boat-racing, bumping, College grass-plats, and
milk-punch.

1860. Macmillan’s Magazine, March, p. 331. The chances of St.
Ambrose’s making a bump the first night were weighed.

1865. Sketches from Cambridge, p. 7. I can still condescend to give
our boat a stout when it makes a bump.

1886–7. Dickens, Dictionary of Cambridge, p. 11. Any boat which
overtakes and bumps another ... before the winning post is reached,
changes place with it for the next race.

Bumper, subs. (common).—1. Anything of superlative size, whether a ‘big lie,’ horse, house, or woman. Cf., Corker, Whopper, and Thumper.

2. (theatrical).—A full or crowded house.

1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, ch. xxiv., p. 192. ‘In the
confidence that our fellow-towsmen have not lost that high
appreciation of public utility and private worth, for which they
have long been so pre-eminently distinguished, we predict that this
charming actress will be greeted with a bumper.’

3. (cards’.)—When, in long whist, one side has scored eight before the other has scored a point, a bumper is the result.

Bum-Perisher, Bum-Shaver, subs. (common).—A short-tailed coat; a jacket. [From bum, the posteriors, + perisher, a slang variant of that which ‘perishes,’ or fails to protect (from cold, etc.).] Cf., Bum curtain.

Bumping Race, subs. (University).—Eight-oared inter-Collegiate races, rowed in two divisions of fifteen and sixteen boats respectively, including a sandwich boat (q.v.), i.e., the top boat of the second division, which rows bottom of the first. The boats in each division start at a distance apart of 175 feet from stern to stern in the order at which they left off at the last preceding race, and any boat which overtakes, and bumps another (i.e., touches it in any part) before the winning post is reached, changes place with it for the next race.

Bumpkin, subs. (old).—A humorous term for the posteriors.

1658. [In Nares] Wit Restored.

And so I take my leave; prithee, sweet Thumkin,
Hold up thy coats, that I may kisse thy bumkin.

Bump-Supper, subs. (University).—A supper to commemorate the fact of the boat of the college having, in the annual races, ‘bumped’ or touched the boat of another college immediately in front. Cf., Bumping race.

Bumptious, adj. (colloquial).—Arrogant; self-sufficient; on good terms with oneself. [Murray puts this down as a formation from bump on the model of ‘fractious.’ It is of recent introduction.]