Chapter XXIII: Part 23

1803. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary and Letters, vi., 324. No, my dearest
Padre, bumptious! no, I deny the charge in toto. [M.]

1849. Dickens, D. Copperfield, ch. vi., p. 53 (C.D.). I heard that
Mr. Sharp’s wig didn’t fit him, and that he needn’t be so
‘bounceable’—somebody else said ‘bumptious’—about it, because his
own red hair was very plainly to be seen behind.

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. xiii. It was all very well
while he was fresh, and having things pretty much as he liked. So
long he was bumptious enough.

Bumptiousness, subs. (colloquial).—Self-assertiveness; arrogance; self-conceit. [From bumptious (q.v.) + ness.]

1865. Sala, Trip to Barbary, p. 150. Poor Albert Smith, than whom,
with all his occasional bumptiousness, an honester and more
clear-sighted hater of snobbery and shams never lived.

Bum Roll, subs. (old).—A pad or cushion worn by women to extend the dress at the back—an equivalent of the modern bustle or dress-improver. [From bum, the posteriors, + roll, in the sense of pad or cushion.] At one time these were called cork rumps, but for synonyms, see Bird-cage.

1601. Ben Jonson, The Poetaster, II., i. Nor you nor your house was
so much as spoken of, before I disbased myself from my hood and my
farthingal, to these bum-rowls, and your whale-bone bodice.

1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, Old Plays, XI., 460. Those
worthies [of a bawd] rais’d her from the flat petticoat and
kercher, to the gorget and bum-roll.

Bumsquabbled, ppl. adj. (American).—Discomfitted; defeated; stupified. Cf., Bum-fiddled, in first quot.

1620. Fletcher, The Chances, I., v. And am I now bum-fiddled with a
bastard?

1835–40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, p. 251 (ed. 1862). No sooner
said than done, Mount Sheer Bullfrog gave the case in our favour in
two twos, said Eyetaliano had got too much already, cut him off the
other two-thirds, and made him pay all costs. If he didn’t look
bumsquabbled it’s a pity.

Bum Sucker, subs. (general).—A sponger; toady; lick-spittle; hanger-on. [From bum + sucker, allusion obvious.] Cf., Bum. A French equivalent is une lèche-cul.

Bum Trap, subs. (old).—A bailiff. Cf., Bum-bailiff.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VII., ch. iii. The noble bum-trap,
blind and deaf to every circumstance of distress, greatly rises
above all the motives to humanity, and into the hands of the jailor
resolves to deliver his miserable prey.

Bun, subs. (American).—1. A sponger; one who cannot be shaken off.

2. (common).—The female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

To take or yank the bun, verbal phr. (general).—To take first place; to obtain first honours. A variant of take the cake.—See Cake. The French say décrocher la timballe.

Bunce, Bunse or Bunt, subs. (old).—Originally money, a signification which it still retains; more generally, however, profit, gain, anything to the good. [Thought to be a corruption of bonus.]—See quot., 1851. For synonyms in the sense of money, see Actual.

1719. D’Urfey, Pills, 278. If cards come no better. Oh! oh! I shall
lose all my buns. [M.]

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 37.
There are still other ‘agents’ among the costermongers, and these
are the ‘boys’ deputed to sell a man’s goods for a certain sum, all
over that amount being the boys’ profit or bunts. Ibid., p. 526.
There are a great number of boys ... engaged by costermongers or
small tradesmen, to sell upon commission, or, as it is termed, for
bunse (probably a corruption of bonus, bone being the slang for
good).... The mode is this: a certain quantity of saleable
commodities is given to a boy whom a costermonger knows and perhaps
employs, and it is arranged that the young commission-agent is to
get a particular sum for them, which must be paid to the
costermonger; I will say 3s. For these articles the lad may ask and
obtain any price he can, and whatever he obtains beyond the
stipulated 3s., is his own profit or bunse. Ib., p. 36. But you see
the boys will try it on for their bunts.

1881. A Chequered Career, p. 270. In the stable, and particularly
in livery-stables, there is a box into which all tips are placed.
This is called bunt.

Buncer, subs. (common).—One who sells on commission, as described under bunce (q.v.).

Bunch of Fives, subs. (common).—The hand or fist. [An obvious allusion to the five fingers gathered or bunched together on the hand.]

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. vii. ‘Is this a h-arm, and
this a bunch of fives?’

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, ch. xxxiv. ‘Now look at that bunch of
fives,’ continued the master; and laid a hand, white and soft as a
duchess’s, on the table.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 133, col. 1. He smote crashingly down
... with a lead-weighted truncheon he held in his dexter bunch of
fives.

1888. Daily Telegraph, April 30, p. 3, col. 2. The fingers are bent
into such an ungraceful bunch of fives, as to be suggestive both of
chalkstones and of sausages.

English Synonyms. Mauley; cornstealer; fam or fem (this is said to be of Gypsy origin, and to mean five, i.e., five fingers, but see Fehm in German synonyms); famble (see preceding); picker; goll (a seventeenth century term—‘make them hold up their spread golls,’ says Ben Jonson, in the Poetaster); fin; daddle; flipper.

German Synonyms. Fehm or Vehm, or Vehn (more correctly Fem. This appears to be the same word as the English seventeenth century colloquialism for the hand [see preceding], and is most likely derived from the Swedish and Danish fem = five, than from the Gypsy which indeed contains no such word); Griffling or Greifling (from greifen, to seize); Jad (Hebrew jad, the hand); Kaf (from the Hebrew kaph; the [hollow] hand).

Italian Synonyms. Tarantola (an allusion to the many tentacles and close grip of the tarantula spider); cerra; calchi dell’ ala (literally the foot of the arm. Cf., French doigts du pied); grettina (properly a small sandbank).

Spanish Synonyms. Labradora (this, it is curious to note, is an obsolete Spanish term signifying literally a laborious or hard-working woman, and the inference from this fact is obvious); anclas (literally anchors).

Bunco or Bunco Game, subs. (American).—A swindling game played either with cards or dice, not unlike three card monté. [From the Italian banco, a bench or bank].

1883. Philadelphia Times, No. 289, 2. 2. Tom’s method of bunco was
the well-known lottery game. [M.]

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 2. Robert B. Barnet, a plumber doing
business in Grant Street, this city, was arrested in Allegheny
to-night, on the charge of being implicated in the recent bunco
game in which William Murdoch, an old and prominent citizen, was
robbed of 10,000 dols.

Verb.—1. To rob, cheat, or swindle by means of the bunco game; or by what in England is known as the confidence trick, etc.

1887. Cincinnati Enquirer. Detectives Kirby and Funk last night
spotted J. P. Ramby, the person accused of having bunkoed Ex-County
Commissioner Stephens, of Greene County, out of 2,300 dols. in
Xenia recently.

1888. Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean, April 14. John Brothers, a farmer
living near Canton, Ohio, was bunkoed out of 2,000 dols. to-day by
two sharpers who escaped.

2. From the primary meaning, the verb to bunco has come to be synonymous with any attempt at swindling.

So also with various derivatives, bunco-case, bunco-man, bunco-steerer (q.v.).

Bunco-Steerer, Bunko-Steerer, subs. (American).—A swindler; confidence-trick man. The means these men adopt to win confidence are always varied and sometimes unique. They are extremely wary, and it is oftentimes with considerable difficulty that the arm of the law, long as it is assumed to be, can lay hold of them. A bunco-steerer may be well known to the police as a professional swindler, and he may be seen talking to his intended victim, but, unless caught in an overt act, he cannot be interfered with. People whom bunco-steerers lay their snares for, are generally men who stand high in their communities; consequently it is almost impossible to get victims to become complainants, as they do not care to figure in the police courts, and the thieves get practically a free field for their operations.

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, p. 235. The bunco-steerer
... will find you out the morning after you land in Chicago or St.
Louis. He will accost you—very friendly, wonderful friendly—when
you come out of your hotel, by your name, and he will remind
you—which is most surprising, considerin’ you never set eyes on his
face before—how you have dined together in Cincinnati, or it may be
Orleans, or perhaps Francisco, because he finds out where you came
from last; and he will shake hands with you; and he will propose a
drink; and he will pay for that drink; and presently he will take
you somewhere else, among his pals, and he will strip you so clean,
that there won’t be left the price of a four-cent paper to throw
around your face and hide your blushes. In London ... they do the
confidence trick.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 14. Andrew Carnegie fell into the
hands of a bunco-steerer in Pittsburg, Saturday night, but was
rescued by a detective before he lost anything.

Bundle, verb (old).—To practise bundling (q.v.).

1781. S. Peters, Gen. Hist. Connecticut. It is thought but a piece
of civility to ask [a lady] to bundle.

1797. Sewell. Queeston is an odd way of wooing usual in some sea
towns or Isles of Holland, after this manner. When the wench is
gone to bed, the fellow enters the room and lays himself down in
his clothes upon the blankets, next unto her, with one window of
the room open, and thus he talks with her, very innocently—as it is
reported.

1809. W. Irving, Knickerbocker History of New York. Van Corlear
stopped occasionally in the villages to ... dance at country
frolics, and bundle with the Yankee lasses.

1871. Schele De Vere, Americanisms, p. 448. To bundle, a custom
still prevalent in Wales, and not unfrequently practised in the
West, of men and women sleeping with all their clothes on, when
there is not house-room to provide better accommodation.

Bundling or Bundling Up, subs. (old).—A custom now obsolete, but formerly in vogue where bed accommodation was scarce, of men and women sleeping on the same bed together without having removed their clothes. The practice is mentioned by Wright as having been customary in Wales, and it will be remembered that Washington Irving alludes to it in his Knickerbocker History of New York. Whatever may have been the case in former times, it does not appear to be a habit either in the Mother Country or the New World at the present day, even in the districts most remote from civilization. No question of immodesty seems to have attached to the custom; indeed, attempts were made to prove that bundling was very right and proper. On this point, however, opinions will vary considerably. Also used in verbal form to bundle. Cf., Caulk.

1809. W. Irving, Knickerbocker History of New York. Among other
hideous customs they [the Yankees] attempted to introduce that of
bundling, which the Dutch lasses of the Nederlandts, with their
eager passion for novelty and for the fashions, natural to their
sex, seemed very well inclined to follow, but that their mothers,
being more experienced in the world and better acquainted with men
and things, discountenanced all such outlandish innovations.

1814. Quarterly Review, X., 517. [The custom spoken of in.]

1842. C. Masson, Journal Balochistan, etc., III., 287. Many of the
Afghan tribes have a custom in wooing, similar to what in Wales is
known as bundling-up.

1868. W. H. Dixon, Spiritual Wives, vol. II., p. 31. An old custom,
which exists (I believe) in Wales as well as in parts of
Pennsylvania and New England, permits under the name of ‘bundling,’
certain free, but still innocent endearments to pass between lovers
who are engaged.

1871. H. R. Styles, Bundling; its Origin, Progress, and Decline in
America, title. [Contains also its history in England, Wales,
Holland, curious songs, etc.]

1878. C. Wake, Evol. Moral., I., 401. The custom of bundling ...
among Celtic peoples. [M.]

Bung, Bong, Boung, subs. (old cant.)—1. A purse. [One of the oldest cant terms in the language, the origin of which is entirely unknown, though, says Murray, ‘its resemblance to the O.E. pung, “a purse,” is worth notice.’] Also called skin or poge (q.v.). A French thieves’ term is la plotte.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Boung, a purse. Ibid., p. 86.

1591. Greene, Second Part Conny-catching, in wks., vol. X., p. 96.
The Nip vseth his knife, and if he see a Boung lie faire, strikes
the stroke.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
Bung is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse.

c. 1658. Cleveland, Cleivelandi Vindiciæ, p. 99 (ed. 1677). He is
in the Inquisition of the Purse an Authentick Gypsie, that nips
your Bung with a canting Ordinance.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47. Boung, a
Purse.

1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Bung, a purse.

2. (old.)—A pickpocket. Cf., Bung, sense 1. Bung-nipper (q.v.) was in general usage later.

1598. Shakspeare, King Henry IV., ii., 4. Doll. Away, you cut-purse
rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this wine, I’ll thrust my knife
in your mouldy chaps, an’ you play the saucy cuttle with me.

1658. An Age for Apes, p. 232. My bung observing this, takes hold
of time, Just as this lord was drawing for a prime, And smoothly
rims his purse that lay beside him.

3. (common.)—A brewer; landlord of a public house, etc. [An allusion to the bungs, or large corks used in the ‘mouths’ of beer barrels.]

1863. Cornhill Magazine (The Inner Life of a Man-of-War), Feb. From
time immemorial these gentlemen [master’s assistants] have had to
stand at the grog-butt and see the grog served out—an important
duty, the discharge of which has invested them, such is the
playfulness of naval humour, with the title of bungs.

1884. Graphic, Feb. 23, p. 170, col. 1. That Sir Wilfrid Lawson had
turned bung, and applied for a spirit licence.

Verb (pugilistic).—1. Generally bung up, i.e., to close or shut up the eyes by means of a blow that causes a swelling. Formerly used of the mouth, ears, etc., and in literary use, but now regarded as a vulgarism. Cf. verb, sense 2.

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in wks. (Grosart) II., 128. That
will bung-up their mouthes with a Collyrium of all the stale iestes
in a country.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 247. The waies beyond sea
were so bungd vp with your dayly oratours or Beadsmen and your
crutchet or crout-chant friers ... that a snaile coulde not wriggle
in her homes betwixt them.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xix. ‘I bunged up both eyes
for him.’

2. (old.)—To give; pass; hand over; drink; or to perform almost any action. ‘Bung over the rag,’ hand over the money. Used by Beaumont and Fletcher, and Shakspeare. Also, to deceive one by a lie, to Cram, which see.

Bungay. Go to Bungay! phr. (general).—A euphemistic objurgation equivalent to consignment to a region the climate of which is tropical in character. For analogous phrases, see Go to hell.

Bung-Eyed, comp. ppl. adj. (common).—1. Drunk; fuddled; Screwed, which see for synonyms. [Derivation uncertain: possibly from the Scotch ‘bung,’ a low word quoted by Jamieson as meaning tipsy or fuddled, with perhaps an indirect allusion to the bunged or crooked distorted eye, the result of a fight or squabble.—See sense 2.]

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 268. One
coarse-featured fellow, who was nearly bung-eyed over his beer (as
they call being drunk).

2. Cross-eyed; unable to see straight; ‘boss-eyed’ or ‘squinny-eyed’ (q.v.).

Bungfunger, verb (American).—To startle; to confuse. Compare with bumbsquabbled. Also used as an adjective for ‘confounded.’

1835–40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, p. 91 (ed. 1862). ‘Well,
father, I thought he’d a fainted too, he was so struck up all of a
heap; he was completely bung-fungered.’

Bung-Juice, subs. (thieves’).—Porter, or beer. [From bung, a stopper for casks in which beer is kept, + juice. Cf., Cow-juice for milk, etc.] For synonyms, see Drinks and Swipes.

Bung Knife or Boung Knife, subs. (old).—Considerable uncertainty exists as to the nature or use of this implement. It has however been conjectured that as boung was an old cant word for a purse, that boung knife may therefore have been a knife kept in the purse or girdle, but concerning this nothing definite can be stated.

1592. Greene, Quip for Upstart Courtier (Hart. Misc., V., 407). One
of them had on ... a skeine like a bruer’s boung-knife.

Bung Nipper or Boung Nipper, subs. (old).—A cut-purse; a sharper. [From bung (q.v.), an old canting term for a purse, + nipper, a thief, i.e., one who nips or steals.] In French, to nip a bung is couper une queue de rat, i.e., literally to cut off a rat’s tail; but for synonyms, see Area-sneak and Thieves.

Bung Upwards, adv. phr. (old).—Said of a person lying on his face.

Bunk, subs. (common).—Hasty departure. Cf., Bunk, verb. [Of unknown derivation.]

c. 1870. Broadside Ballad, ‘Peck’s Bad Boy.’

Of course you’re heard of Peck’s bad boy, that dreadful Yankee
lad,
Who’s bothered his poor parents so they’ve both gone raving
mad,

He put a pound of old Scotch snuff into poor Buddha’s trunk,
The keeper tried to catch him, but the bad boy did a bunk.

Verb (common).—1. To be off; to decamp. For synonyms, see Amputate.

c. 1872. Broadside Ballad, ‘Oh, we are a getting on.’

A stocking used a ‘bank’ to be,
In the good old days of old,
They didn’t run such risks as we
Do now of getting sold.
No sooner does a bank go queer,
You hear the same old strain,
There’s another bald-headed Manageer,
Has bunked across to Spain.

1885. Referee, Feb. 16, p. 7, col. 3.

It was just such a parcel, bless him! he’d clasped to his noble
breast,
And bunked with out o’ the building.

1887. Fun, 9 Nov., p. 201. ‘What is a vanishing point?’ said the
schoolmaster to little Billy. ‘The corner you bunks round when the
“slops” after yer,’ warbled the golden-haired child.

2. (Wellington College.)—To expel [from the school].

Bunker, subs. (common).—Beer. For synonyms, see Drinks and Swipes.

Bunkum, Buncombe, Buncome, subs. (American).—Talking merely for talking’s sake; claptrap of all kinds; gas; tall talk. The employment of the word in its original sense of insincere political speaking or claptrap is ascribed to a member of Congress, Felix Walker, from Buncombe County, North Carolina, who explained that he was merely talking for buncombe, when his fellow members could not understand why he was making a speech. Judge Haliburton (Sam Slick) in explaining this word says that ‘all over America, every place likes to hear of its member of Congress, and see their speeches; and, if they don’t, they send a piece to the paper, inquirin’ if their members died a natural death, or was skivered with a bowie-knife, for they hante seen his speeches lately, and his friends are anxious to know his fate. Our free and enlightened citizens don’t approbate silent members; it don’t seem to them as if Squashville, or Punkinsville, or Lumbertown was right represented, unless Squashville, or Punkinsville, or Lumbertown makes itself heard and known, ay, and feared too. So every feller, in bounden duty, talks, and talks big too, and the smaller the State, the louder, bigger, and fiercer its members talk. Well, when a critter talks for talk’s sake, jist to have a speech in the paper to send to home, and not for any other airthly puppus but electioneering, our folks call it bunkum.’

The term is now universal on both sides of the water, and, indeed, wherever English is spoken. So much is this the case that the expression may now fairly claim a permanent place in the language. The primary meaning has been somewhat enlarged. ‘That’s all buncombe’ is equivalent to ‘That’s all nonsense’ or ‘an absurdity.’

Also used attributively; for example, a bunkum proclamation, bunkum logic, bunkum politicians, etc.

1841. Richmond Compiler, Aug. 17. He was not speaking to the House
but to bunkum.

1859. Sala, Tw. Round the Clock, 2 a.m., par. 9. These tales, full
of sound and fury, told by honourable idiots full of unutterable
‘bunkum’ (an Americanism I feel constrained to use, as signifying
nothingness, ineftably inept and irremediably fire-perforated
windbaggery, and sublimated cucumber sunbeams hopelessly eclipsed
into Dis)—

1861. Blackwood’s Mag., April. ‘This parable, explaining the origin
of buncombe, would form a very useful text to set up, handsomely
illustrated, over the Speaker’s chair in Parliament.’

1862. New York Tribune, Feb. 11. Despatch from Kansas. General
Sibley was within thirty miles of Fort Craig, with twenty-five
hundred Texans, with artillery, and had issued a bunkum
proclamation.

1884. Echo, May 12, p. 4, col. 2. It will be seen that the
wonderful tales about the favourites were like the reports about
Richmond’s lameness, all bunkum.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, March 3. This thing of trying to rule a
husband is all buncombe; it can’t be done. You can coax most men,
bribe some, and govern a very few, but that vulgar rubbing of the
fur the right way wins every time.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 18 Oct., p. 6, col. 2. His explanation was
contained in the three words, ‘Bosh, rubbish, and bunkum.’ Was it
not time, asked the speaker, that the ‘great unwashed’ should
declare that the ‘great unpaid’ were no longer at liberty to
oppress them?

Bunky, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Awkward; ill-finished.

Bunnick, verb (common).—To settle; to dispose of.

1886. Punch, 17 July, p. 25. ’Owsom-ever we’ve bunnicked up
Gladsting, a barney all patriots enjoy.

Bunny Grub, subs. (Cheltenham College).—Green vegetables, such as cabbage, lettuce, and the like. [Obviously from bunny, a pet name for a rabbit, + grub, a slang term for provender, i.e., food akin to that upon which rabbits are fed.] At the Royal Military Academy and other schools an equivalent is grass (q.v.).

Bunse.—See Bunce.

Bun-Struggle or Bun-Worry, subs. (military).—A tea meeting given to soldiers. For synonymous terms, see Tea fight.

Bunt.—See Bunce.

Bunter, subs. (harlotry).—1. A prostitute; one who adds theft to her other vocation; also a term of contempt for any low woman. See, however, quot. from Dyche, 1748, and Mayhew, 1851. For analogous terms, see Barrack-hack.

1705–7. E. Ward, Hudibras Rediv., II., ii. (1715), 25. Punks,
Strolers, Market Dames, and Bunters. [M.]

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xlvii. And asked with some heat,
if he thought I had spent the evening in a cellar with chairmen and
bunters.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bunter (s.), one who goes about
the streets to gather rags, bones, etc.

1759. Walpole, Parish Register.

Here Fielding met his bunter Muse,
And, as they quaff’d the fiery juice,
Droll Nature stamp’d each lucky hit,
With unimaginable wit.

1763. British Magazine, vol. IV., p. 542. I heard a bunter at the
Horse-Guards ... swear she would not venture into the Park.

1765. Goldsmith, Essays, x. The bunters who swagger in the streets
of London.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 158.
They were known by the name of bunters, which signifies properly
gatherers of rags.

2. Explained by quotation. [Bunter here may be a confused variant of bunker, one who runs away or ‘slopes.’]

1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 223. There is a
class of women technically known as bunters, who take lodgings, and
after staying some time run away without paying their rent.

Burdon’s Hotel, subs. (thieves’).—Whitecross Street Prison, of which the Governor was a Mr. Burdon. Almost every prison has a nickname of this kind, either from the name of the Governor, or from some local circumstance. The Queen’s Bench has an immense number of names—spike, park, etc.; and every Chief-Justice stands godfather to it. For full list of such names, see Cage.

1861. Dutton Cook, Paul Foster’s Daughter, ch. ii. ‘David, be
respectable, whatever you are, be respectable, and Burdon’s hotel
is not for you to sojourn at.’

Burick or Burerk, subs. (old).—Latterly applied to any woman or ‘lady,’ especially one showily dressed, but formerly a thief’s term for a prostitute.

1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. Burick is a prostitute, or common woman.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 262. If they
can meet with the burerk (mistress) or the young ladies, etc.

1889. Answers, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. Let him ask the loafer what
his ‘Monekear’ (name) is; whether he can drink a ‘shant of patter’
(pint of beer); whether he finds the ‘bone’ or ‘gammy’—that is good
or bad as regards begging; and which sex gives him most—the
‘burerks’ (ladies), or the ‘Toffs’ (gentlemen).

Amongst French equivalents for a well-dressed woman may be mentioned une panuche (this name is also applied to a prostitute living in a brothel); une dubuge; une faraude (the masculine form, un faraud, signifies a vulgar fellow proud of smart clothes—a snob, a swell).

Burke, verb (military).—To dye the moustache and whiskers. [Burke properly is to smother or hush up, and the allusion in the military term is to the practice which once prevailed in smart regiments of dyeing or smothering the natural colour of the hair for the sake of uniformity. The regulations at one time as regards the style of wearing the hair were very stringent and precise.]

Burn, verb (thieves).—To cheat; to swindle.

Burnanded, verb (? nonce word).—To pilfer plots (of plays, novels, etc.). [Probably only a nonce word; a formation on the same lines as ‘Burke,’ ‘Boycott,’ etc., from the name of Mr. F. Burnand, the editor of Punch.]

1882. Echo, Feb. 11, p. 3. The American papers continue to attack
the play [The Colonel] vigorously. One of the journals there has
invented a new verb to signify the pilfering of plots. ‘Burnanded’
is the term.

Burn Crust, subs. (old).—A jocular name for a baker. Cf., Master of the mint for a gardener; Bung for a brewer; Ball of wax for a shoemaker; Quill-driver for a clerk; Snip for a tailor, etc.

Burned. To be burned, verb (old).—To be infected with a venereal disease.—See Burning.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He was sent out a
sacrifice, and came home a burnt offering; saying of seamen who
have caught the venereal disease abroad.

Burner, subs. (old).—1. A card-sharper.

2. (old.)—The same as burning (q.v.).

Burning, verb, subs. (old).—A venereal disease. Shakspeare alludes to it in King Lear, ‘No heretics burn’d, but wenches’ suitors.’

Burning Shame.—An obscene practice.—See Grose.

Burning the Parade, phr. (old).—Thus explained by Grose: ‘Warning more men for a guard than were necessary, and excusing the supernumeraries for money. This was a practice formerly winked at in most garrisons, and was a very considerable perquisite to the adjutants and sergeant majors; the pretence for it was to purchase coal and candle for the guard, whence it was called burning the parade.’

Burn My Breeches! phr. (old).—A mild kind of oath. A few latter day ‘fancies’ of the same kind will be found under Oaths.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 46.

... (Bill Gibbons ne’er
In all his days was known to swear,
Except light oaths, to grace his speeches,
Like ‘dash my wig,’ or ‘burn my breeches.’)

Burn the Ken, verbal phr. (old).—To live at an inn or tavern without paying for one’s quarters. [From burn (q.v.), to cheat, + ken, an inn, tavern, or place.]

Burr, subs. (old).—A hanger on; a dependent; one who sponges. [An allusion to field burrs or prickly seed pods, which when once attached to the clothing are difficult to remove.]

Verb (Marlborough College).—To fight; scrimmage or ‘rag.’

Burst, subs. (general).—1. A spree; drunken frolic; big feed; blow out (q.v.). Usually on the burst, an extension of the figurative usage of the word signifying a violent outburst.—See Bust.

1880. Blackwood’s Mag., June, p. 775. He became a madman when
drunk. Once ‘on the burst,’ as he phrased it, money, horses, cows,
furniture, even his wife’s wearing apparel, went to feed the
insatiable and cruel demon who possessed him.

1881. Praed, Policy and Passion, vol. I., p. 228. When his men go
on the burst, what can he do but make his daughters help?

2. (sporting.)—A sudden and vigorous access or display of energy; a lively pace or spurt.

Bursted, ppl. adj. (general).—Hard up. [From burst, failure or collapse, + ed.]

1873. Chicago Daily Tribune, June 30. At the far end [of the room]
four lank and bursted frontiersmen sang with a doleful want of
melody or attention the celebrated ballad by John Hay on the fate
of Little Breeches.

Burster, subs. (racing).—1. A heavy fall; a ‘cropper.’

1863. Evening Standard, 24 April. Benedict came down a burster, and
was out of the race.

2. See also Buster, sense 1.

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.

2. (common.)—A contraction of ‘omnibus.’

1832. Ht. Martineau, Weal and Woe, i., 14. If the station offers me
a place in a buss. [M.]

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, p. 93. He proposed that they should go,
per buss, a little way into the country.

1861. Thackeray, Adventures of Philip, II., p. 316. We were
mortified to see that of the five persons conveyed by the ’bus, one
was a tradesman, etc.

1869. Black, In Silk Attire, II., p. 205. Annie Brunel got out of
the Hampstead ’bus, and found herself in the muddy highway.

Verb (American).—To punch [one’s head].

Bush or Be Bushed, verb (Australian).—Primarily to camp out in the bush; or to get lost in the bush. Hence a slang usage in which the expression is applied to a person in any mental or physical difficulty or muddle.

1887. All the Year Round, July 30, p. 68. An Australian says that
he is bushed just as an Englishman, equally characteristically,
declares that he is fogged.

1889. B. L. Farjeon, In Australian Wilds. ‘We shall have to bush
it, mate,’ I said. ‘That’s so,’ said Lilly Trot, unconcernedly; but
looking about him sharply, despite his apparent carelessness, for a
suitable spot to camp on. Ibid. We were on horseback, with blankets
before us on our saddles, to provide for our getting bushed. We
were prepared for rough times. I carried my revolver, and Lilly
Trot had a villainous-looking black life-preserver up his sleeve,
ready at a moment’s notice for any emergency.

Bushed, ppl. adj. (old).—Hard up; without money; destitute.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bush’d, poor; without money.

Bushed On, verbal phr. (common).—Pleased; delighted.

Bushel Bubby, subs. (old).—A full and large breasted woman. [From bushel, a (large) measure, + bubby (q.v.), a breast.] Cf., Bubber.

Bushwhacker, subs. (American political).—In politics, as in war, simply a ‘free-lance.’ During the Rebellion deserters from the ranks of both armies infested the country, bands of these marauders making raids upon defenceless houses and even going the length of sacking whole towns. Originally the term was harmless enough in meaning. At a time when water-communication was the chief means of locomotion, and the rivers, streams, and creeks of densely wooded regions were alive with the advance guards of civilization, bushwhacking was the name given to the means by which lumbermen propelled their craft up and down stream. This was accomplished by pulling the bushes growing by the water side; or, on land, by the cutting away of a thicket in order to obtain a passage. The man who did this, and the instrument—a kind of scythe or cutlass with which, in the latter case, he thus forced his way—were alike called bushwhackers. The word has gone through yet another transition. Since the war it has also come to mean a ‘country bumpkin,’ a ‘clod-pole,’ or any other person of a ‘verdant’ character.

Bushy Park, subs. (rhyming slang).—A lark.

To be in Bushy Park, phr. (old).—To be poor.

Business, subs. (old).—1. Sexual intercourse. For synonyms, see Greens.

1630. Taylor, Workes. And Lais of Corinth, ask’d Demosthenes One
hundred crownes for one night’s businesse.

1654. Wits Recreations.

What Crispulus is that in a new gown,
All trim’d with loops and buttons up and down,
That learns there on his arm in private chat
With thy young wife, what Crispulus is that?
He’s proctor of a court, thou say’st and does
Some business of my wives: thou brainless goose,
He does no business of thy wives, not he,
He does thy business (Coracine) for thee.

2. (theatrical.)—Dramatic action; bye-play.

1753. The World, No. 26. We are too much enamoured with what is
called intrigue, business, and bustle, in our plays.

1820. Scott, The Abbot, ch. xxvii. (III., p. 6). The ... went,
came, and returned, mingling in every scene of the piece, and
interrupting the business.

1860. Cornhill Magazine, Dec., p. 749. So well do performers
understand this principle, that they give the literary composition
the utmost contemptuous title of ‘words,’ while they dignify the
movements of the characters with the name of business.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 282. Tom
observed, I never saw such business before; how do you do it with
that board thing, for I can’t manage it? I have knocked and bruised
some of my people about so that they swear they would sooner leave
than have such another day.

1880. Punch, Sept. 18, 130. ‘Quite in his Line.’ Stout Major (to
Professional Actor, who has been asked down to coach the Garrison
Amateurs): ‘Aw—we played The Bells at our last Theatricals, of
which I’ve the Management. I—aw—played Irving’s part myself.
Aw—immense Success!’ Professional (drily): ‘Of course you’ve seen
him in it?’ Major: ‘Ya-as—but—aw—I didn’t copy him in the
least—aw—my own ‘Business.’ Aw—Entirely different reading. In fact,
every one said it wasn’t a bit like him!’

1883. H. Irving, in Good Words, Jan., p. 34. Then consider what
scope the ‘business’ of the scene gives to the actor’s purpose.

To do one’s business for one, phr. (common).—To kill; to cause one’s death.

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Grandmother Cooper, in Odd People in Odd
Places, p. 4. ‘They said it was his hurts as killed him,’ said the
old lady, ‘but it was no use ’em telling me that. It was the bricks
and mortar that did his business, poor chap.’

Business End [of a thing], subs. (American).—The practical part.

Busk It, verb (vagrants’).—To sell obscene songs and books at the bars and in the tap-rooms of public houses. Sometimes it implies selling other articles. Also to ‘work’ public houses and certain spots as an itinerant musician or vocalist. So also busking, verb subs. and ppl. adj. and busker, a man who thus sings and performs in public houses: an itinerant.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 234. From a
furniture-carter of this description I received some most shocking
details of having to busk it, as this taking about goods for sale
is called by those in the trade. Ibid, I., p. 229. They obtained a
livelihood by busking, as it is termed, or in other words, by
offering their goods for sale only at the bars or in the tap-rooms
and parlours of taverns. Ibid, III., p. 216. Busking is going into
public houses and playing and singing and dancing. Ibid, p. 222. I
now thought I’d try what is termed busking, that is going into
public houses and cutting likenesses of the company.

1883. Advt. in Echo, May 10, p. 4, col. 6. Busking.—A player on the
harp and violin wants a mate.

1887. Referee, August 21, p. 3, col. 2. Mac himself ... will appear
in the Racecourse scene as a busker.

Busker.—See under Busk.

Busking.—See under Busk.

Busnapper.—See Buz-napper.

Busnapper’s Kinchin.—See Buz-napper’s Kinchin.

Buss.—See Bus.

Buss Beggar, subs. (old).—An old prostitute of the lowest type; a beggar’s trull.

Bust, subs. (vulgar).—A corrupted form of burst. So also busting (adj.); busted (ppl. adj.), etc., etc.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 219. A kind of busting noise.

2. (thieves’.)—A burglary.

18(?79). Horsley, Jottings from Jail. ‘Fatty Bill, from City Road,
rem. for a bust ex. two years,’ means that William ... has been
compelled to leave his congenial haunts in the City Road, as he is
remanded for a burglary, and anticipates two years’ hard labour.

3. (general.)—A frolic; a spree; a drunken debauch. Cf., To go on the bust.

1860. Bartlett (quoted in), A Californian Song.

And when we get our pockets full
Of this bright, shinin’ dust,
We’ll travel straight for home again,
And spend it on a bust.

4. (American.)—A failure; a fizzle.

Verb (vulgar).—1. To burst; explode.

1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, II., p. 366. His genius would
have busted.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 286. Keep cool, Jefferson
... don’t bust! Ibid, II., p. 124. If the biler of this vessel was
Toe bust, Sir, ... and Toe bust now, it would be a festival day in
the calendar of despotism.

2. (thieves’.)—To commit a burglary.

3. (thieves’.)—To inform against an accomplice. A slang variant of ‘split’ (turn king’s evidence, impeach). The person who does this splits or bursts the whole concern.

4. (American.)—To fail in business or transactions of any kind.

5. (general.)—To put out of breath; to ‘wind.’

c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘Taking out the Baby.’ Spoken—And they
had all been taking out the baby, and all had had such a doing—that
boy o’ mine nearly busted me—and of course they all think they
deserve a glass of beer.

6. (American.)—To indulge in a drunken frolic; to go on the spree. Cf., To go on the bust.

1869. New Orleans Picayune, Feb. 14. ‘Because I was a good-natured
fellow, I had to go with them, rollicking, teaparting,
excursioning, and busting generally.’

7. (American.)—To destroy; to commit suicide; to ‘set aside’; to expose.

1880. Bret Harte, Chiquita, p. 22. Did you know Briggs of Tuolumne?
Busted hisself in White Pine, and blew out is brains.

1883. North of England Advertiser, Sept. 1. Then he got the Moabite
pottery which Mr. Clement Ganneau busted.

Bust me! phr. (common).—A mild oath—blow me! jigger me! (q.v.)—See also Oaths.

1859. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, bk. I., ch. iii. ‘Bust me if I
don’t think he’d been a drinking!’

To go on the bust, phr. (common).—To go on a frolic or spree. For synonyms, see Paint the town red.

Buster, subs. (common).—1. A small new loaf; also a coarse cake or bun of large size that fills or blows out the stomach of the eater. [From bust, a vulgar form of ‘burst,’ + er.] Cf., Starver.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 3. Bob: Now,
landlord, ‘arter that ere drap of max, suppose we haves a drain o’
heavy wet, just by way of cooling our chaffers—mine’s as dry as a
chip—and, I say, do you hear, let’s have a twopenny burster, half a
quartern of beesvax, a ha’p’orth o’ ingens, and a dollop o’ salt
along vith it, vill you? Mace: Bellay! a burster and beesvax—and
salt here. (Calling as he fetches the porter from the side wing,
l.) Now, then, here you are, Master Grimmuzzle.

1841. Comic Almanacks, 1835–43 (Hotten), p. 295.

‘Cut us a slap-up slice of Cheshire cheese,
And tip’s a twopenny burster if you please.’

1849. Bell’s Life. [From Baumann.] A burster with a slice of
beeswax.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 192. Mo and
his man were having a great breakfast one morning at Newcastle, off
a twopenny buster and a small bit of butter, with some wishy-washy
coffee....

c. 1882. Broadside Ballad, ‘I can’t get at it.’

I can’t get at it, I can’t get at it,
I like the faggots tho’ they smell,
But now the penny’s down the well,
I can’t get at it, I can’t get at it,
I thought I’d have a ‘buster’ but it’s all no go!

2. (thieves’.)—A burglar. For synonyms, see Area-sneak. Cf., Bust, subs., sense 2, and verb, sense 2.

1879. J. W. Horsley, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macm. Mag.,
XL., 582. Busters and screwsmen (burglars).

3. (common.)—Anything of superior size; that has unusual capacity; that causes admiration; a spurt. Hence to ‘come an awful buster,’ ‘to fall heavily,’ ‘to come a cropper’; ‘in for a buster,’ prepared, ready or determined for a spree.

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. x. ‘Lor, Pete,’ said
Mose, triumphantly, ‘han’t we got a buster of a breakfast!’ at the
same time catching at a fragment of the chicken.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. vii., p. 28. ‘At such time
as when your sister is on the Ram-page, Pip,’ Joe sank his voice to
a whisper, and glanced at the door, ‘candour compels fur to admit
that she is a Buster.’

1870. Popular Song on Franco-German War.

... Thank God, my dear Augusta,
We’ve had another awful buster,
Ten thousand Frenchmen sent below,
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘I’ll never go courting again.’

A lawyer’s niece, next, I admired,
But brief he made my wooing spec;
To a banker’s ward then, I aspired,
But got from the banker a check (cheque).
A publican said, other measures
For his girl he’d to carry out,
And a baker he gave me a ‘buster,’
With a ‘brick,’ sent me rolling about.

4. (Australian.)—A heavy storm from the south. Otherwise called in Sydney a brick fielder (q.v.).

1885. Household Words, 10 Oct., p. 463. In anxious expectation we
now awaited the result of this curious phenomenon of darkest night
in day, which, accustomed to the portents that sometimes herald in
the terrific busters of these southern seas, as most of us were,
all declared they had never seen it equalled.

Busting, verb, subs. (thieves’.)—Informing against accomplices; turning Queen’s evidence. Cf., Bust, verb, sense 3. For synonyms, see Peaching.

Bustle, subs. (common).—1. A pad, roll, or wire contrivance worn by women at the back in order to extend the dress, and also with a view to setting off the smallness of the waist. [Origin uncertain.] For synonyms, see Birdcage.

1788. T. Monro, in Olla Podrida, No. 40. Such locks the nymphs now
wear (in silks who rustle), In rich luxuriance reaching to the
bustle. [M.]

1835. Sketches by Boz, p. 323. Whether she was pretty, whether she
wore much bustle, etc. Ibid, p. 488. ‘Did you ever,’ said a little
coquette with a large bustle.

1857. Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. xlv., p. 384. Bertie
finished off the countess’s bustle.

2. (old.)—Money. A full list of synonyms will be found under Actual.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bustle, a cant term for money.
Ibid. Any object effected very suddenly, or in a hurry, is said to
be done on the bustle.

Verb (general).—To confuse; confound; perplex.—See previous quot.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 237. ‘Now
bustle him,’ said Tom Maley; ‘you have got him to-rights now. Let
go your left straight.’

Bust-Maker, subs. (common).—A molrower; a ‘loose fish’; a seducer. For synonyms, see Molrower. [From bust, a protuberance, + maker.]

Busy-Sack, subs. (common).—A carpet bag. Called in America a grip-sack.

Butcher, subs. (cards’).—1. The king in playing-cards. When card-playing in public houses was common, the kings were called butchers, the queens bitches, and the knaves jacks. The latter term is now in general use. In French slang the king is un bœuf.

2. (American.)—A peripatetic ‘small-boy’ vendor of ‘varieties’ and ‘notions’ on railway cars—at once a convenience and a ‘terror.’

3. (thieves’.)—The prison doctor. For synonyms, see Crocus.

Butcher About, verb (Wellington College).—To make a great noise; to humbug about.

Butcher’s Mourning, subs. (common).—A white hat with a black mourning hat-band.

Butteker, subs. (old).—A shop.

Butter, subs. (popular).—Fulsome flattery; unctuous praise; ‘soft soap.’ A French equivalent is le cirage. Cf., verb, sense 1. Also buttering-up.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 40.

For, knowing how, on Moulsey’s plain,
The champion fibb’d the Poet’s nob,
This buttering-up against the grain,
We thought was curs’d genteel in Bob.

1823. Blackwood’s Magazine, XIV., p. 309. You have been daubed over
by the dirty butter of his applause.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. i. The quantity of butter
which he poured over Mr. Hardline’s head and shoulders with the
view of alleviating the misery which such a communication would be
sure to inflict, was very great.

1880. World, 13 Oct. A lavish interchange of compliments, the
butter being laid on pretty thick.

Verb (common).—1. To flatter fulsomely; to indulge in rhodomantic praise. French cirer.

1700. Congreve, Way of World, prol. (1866), 259. The squire that’s
buttered still is sure to be undone. [M.]

1725. New Canting Dictionary. To butter signifies also to cheat or
defraud in a smooth and plausible manner.

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxviii. ‘Keep him employed, man, for
half-an-hour or so—butter him with some warlike terms—praise his
dress and address.’

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xii. ‘He first butthers them up
and then slithers them down!’

1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago. I’ll butter him, trust me.
Nothing comforts a poor beggar like a bit of praise when he is
down.

1884. Saturday Review, 5 July, p. 27, col. 1. The Lord Chief
Justice of England made a tour through America, and generously
buttered the natives.

2. (old.)—Jamieson says, ‘to increase the stakes every throw or every game.’

1690. B. E., Dictionary of Canting Crew. Butter, to double or
treble the bet or wager to recover all losses.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Butter a bet, to
double or triple it.

To look as if butter would not melt in one’s mouth, phr. (old).—A contemptuous saying of a person of somewhat simple demeanour. Murray traces back this familiar phrase to 1530, but a reference to it appears in French literature at a much earlier date.

1475. Les Evangiles des Quenouilles—Vme Journée. Edition
Elzevirienne. Paris (1855), p. 72. A cette parolle mist dame
Mehault ses mains à ses costez et en grant couroux luy respondy
que, etc., et que, Dieu merci, aincoires fondoit le burre en sa
bouche, combien qu’elle ne peust croquier noisettes, car elle
n’avoit que un seul dent.

1530. Palgrave, 620, 1. He maketh as thoughe butter wolde not melte
in his mouth. [M.]

1562. Latimer, Serm. Lord’s Prayer, V., ii., 79. These fellows ...
can speak so finely, that a man would think butter should scant
melt in their mouths.

1687. Sedley, Bellamira. Sil. He look’d so demurely, I thought
butter wou’d not have melted in his mouth, I hope you will make
sure work with him before you send him again.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. She looks as if butter would
not melt in her mouth, but I warrant cheese won’t choak her.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxviii. (III., p. 26). I am
beginning to think ye are but a queer ane, ye look as if butter
wadna melt in your mouth, but I sall warrant cheese no choak ye.

1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 149. Telling her landlady how
... the Mayor was ... a nice, soft-spoken old gentleman; that
butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, etc.

Will cut butter when it’s hot, phr. (common).—Said of a knife when blunt. An obvious allusion.

Butter and eggs, subs. (common).—Explained by quotations.

1862. Macmillan’s Mag., Jan., p. 238. And I can do butter-and-eggs
all down the slide.... The feat of butter-and-eggs consists in
going down the slide on one foot and beating with the heel and toe
of the other at short intervals.

Compare the foregoing with the following.