Читать книгу A Glossary of Stuart and Tudor Words especially from the dramatists - Walter W. Skeat - Страница 10

blanch (a hunting term), to ‘head back’ the deer in his flight. Lyly, Gallathea, ii. 1. 231. Hence blancher, a person or thing placed to turn the deer from a particular direction; Sydney, Arcadia, 64; fig. a hinderer, Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 33 and 36). Blanch still used by huntsmen in Somerset and Devon in this sense (EDD.). See blencher.

blank, the white spot in the centre of a target; now, bull’s eye. Hamlet, iv. 1. 42; at twelve-score blank, at a range of twelve score yards, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Sophocles).

blank, a blank bond, to be filled up at pleasure. Beaumont and Fl., i. 1 (Arbaces). Also, a small French coin, orig. of silver, but afterwards of copper, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez).

blank, to render pale, to blanch. Hamlet, iii. 2. 232; to dismay, Milton, Samson Ag. 471; blanck, disappointed, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 17.

blatant, blattant, bellowing. Spenser, F. Q. v. xii. 37, 41; Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 230. ‘Blate’, to bellow, is in prov. use (EDD.).

blaze, a white mark on an animal’s forehead; (on a black bull), Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 7. Still in prov. use, esp. Yorksh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Blaze, sb.² 1).

blazing star, a comet. All’s Well, i. 3. 91; Middleton, Roaring Girl, i. 1 (Sir Alex.).

bleaking-house, bleaching-house. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iv. 2 (Savourwit). ME. blekyn, blechen clothe (Prompt.).

blear, dim, indistinct, in outline. Milton, Comus, 155.

blear: phr. to blear the eyes, to deceive, throw dust in the eyes. Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 120; ‘He is nat in Englande that can bleare his eye better than I can’, Palsgrave.

bleat (meaning obscure); ‘How the judges have bleated him!’, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Julia).

bleater, a sheep. (Cant.) Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).

blee, colour, complexion, hue. Morte Arthur, leaf 88, back, 32; bk. v. c. 10; Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 100). Occurs in ballad poetry in the north (EDD.). ME. blee (York Plays, xxviii. 259), OE. blēo.

blemish, ‘When they [the huntsmen] find where a deare hath passed and breake or plashe any boughe downewardes for a marke, then we say, they blemish or make blemishes’, Turbervile, Hunting, 244.

blemishes, ‘The markes which are left to knowe where a deare hath gone in or out’, Turbervile, Hunting, 114.

blench, a side glance, glimpse; ‘These blenches gave my heart another youth’, Sh. Sonn. cx. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).

blench, to start aside, to flinch, shrink. Fletcher, False One, iv. 4. ME. blenchen (Anc. Riwle, 242).

blencher, a person stationed to ‘head hack’ the deer, to prevent him from going in a particular direction. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, ii. 1 (Sanchio); spelt bleinchers, pl., scarecrows, things put up to frighten animals away, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 70, 192; ‘which some call shailes, some blenchars, .. to feare away birdes’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § 2. See blanch.

blend, to blind, to dazzle. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 35; blent, pp., F. Q. ii. 4. 7; rendered obscure, Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 1. 521; yblent, F. Q. ii. 7. 1.

blend, to mix, confuse, render turbid, disturb, pollute. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; blent, pp. defiled, F. Q. ii. 12. 7.

blenge, to blend, mix. Tusser, Husbandry, § 100. 3. A ‘portmanteau’ word; combination of blend and menge, to mingle.

blenkard, one who blinks, or has imperfect sight or intelligence. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 610. A north-country pronunc. of blinkard (EDD.).

blent; see blend.

bless, to wound, hurt; ‘When he did levell to shoote, he blessed himselfe with his peece’, Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 237. F. blesser, to wound (Cotgr.), Anglo-F. blecer (Ch. Rol.).

bless, to preserve, save. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 18; iv. 6. 13.

bless, to brandish (a sword), to wave about. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 6; i. 8. 22; vi. 8. 13; to brandish round an object with a weapon, ‘His armed head with his sharpe blade he blest’, Fairfax, Tasso, ix. 67.

blewe point, a blue point, or blue-tagged lace; ‘Not worth a blewe point’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 9. See point.

blin, blinn, to cease, leave off. Turbervile, Poems, in Chalmers’s Eng. Poets, II, 589; to cause to cease, to put a stop to, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 22. Very common in northern ballad poetry (EDD.). ME. blinnen, to cease (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1171); to cause to cease, Towneley Myst. 133. OE. blinnan, to cease. See lin.

blince, (perhaps) to flinch, give way, to ‘blench’; ‘The which will not blince’ riming with prince, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 148.

blindfeld, blindfolded. Spelt blyndefeld, Morte Arthur, leaf 69, back; bk. iv. c. 15; blyndfielde, R. Eden, First Three Books on America, ed. Arber, p. 347, l. 7 from bottom. ‘I blyndefelde one’, Palsgrave. See Dict. (s.v. Blindfold).

blinkard, ‘He that hath such eies that the liddes cover a great parte of the apple’, Baret (1580); ‘a blinkard, caeculus, paetus, strabus’, Coles (1679). Still in use in Northumberland and Lancashire (EDD.).

blive, quickly, soon, immediately. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 18; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii. l. 294. See belive.

blo, bloo, livid, esp. used of the colour caused by a bruise. Bloo and wan, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 141, l. 5; id. Magnyfycence, 2080. A Yorkshire word (EDD.). ME. blo(o, ‘lividus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 195). Icel. blā, livid.

bloat, blote, to smoke-dry (herrings); ‘Fumer, to bloat, besmoake, hang or drie in the smoake’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Island Princess, ii. 5 (1 Citizen). Hence, bloat-herring, a smoked herring, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Groom); Pepys, Diary (Oct. 5, 1661). A Suffolk word (EDD.).

block, a mould for a hat; a fashion of hat. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, iv. 1 (Cunningham); Much Ado, i. 1. 77.

blonk, fair, blond; said of hair. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270. 13. See NED. (s.v. Blank).

blore, a blast of wind. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 122; ix. 5; xiv. 330. ME. blore (York Plays, xxvi. 188).

blot in the tables, an exposed piece or ‘man’ in the game of backgammon, liable to be taken; hence, a weak point. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Gerardine); Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 276. See Dict. (s.v. Blot (2)).

blother, to gabble nonsense; to babble. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1049; Colyn Cloute, 779. A west Yorks. word, see EDD. (s.v. Blather, vb.¹). Icel. blaðra, to talk indistinctly, to talk nonsense.

blow-boll, one who ‘blows in a bowl’, an habitual tippler. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 23; l. 25.

blowen, a wench, a trull. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). [Cp. blowing, in Byron’s Don Juan, xi. 19.]

blow-point, a game ‘played by blowing an arrow through a trunk at certain numbers by way of lottery’, Strutt (quoted in NED.). Sidney, Arcadia, ii. 224; Brewer, Lingua, iii. 2 (Anamnestes); Marmion, The Antiquary, i. 1 (Leonardo). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 531.

blue, the usual colour of the dress of servants, or of beadles. Blue-coat, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). The blue order, i.e. of servants, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 2 (Onion). Women condemned to Bridewell wore blue gowns, Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Luke); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 1 (Lodovico).

blue-bottle rogue, a term applied to a beadle, with reference to his blue uniform. 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 22.

blunket, blonket, grey, greyish blue. ‘Bloncket liveries’, glossed by ‘gray coats’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 5.

blurt, an exclamation of contempt, pish!, pooh!; ‘Blurt, Master Constable’, the title of a play by Middleton, Dekker, Honest Wh., i. 5 (Fluello); to treat contemptuously, Fletcher, Wild-goose Chase, ii. 2 (last speech).

blushet (only used by B. Jonson), a little blusher, a modest girl, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy senior); The Penates (Pan).

board, bord, to accost, address. Hamlet, ii. 2. 171; Merry Wives, ii. 1. 92; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 5; boorded, addressed, id. ii. 4. 24. F. aborder, to approach, accost (Cotgr.) A metaph. expression from boarding a ship; see Nares.

board, bord, a shilling. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll); a bord, a shylling; Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

bob, a blow that does not break the skin, a rap; ‘Pinches, nippes and bobbes’, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 47); a taunt, a bitter jibe, As You Like It, ii. 7. 55; Wycherley, Dancing-master, i. 2 (Monsieur); ‘Ruade seiche, a drie bob, jeast or nip’, Cotgrave. ‘Bob’, in the sense of a slight blow, is in prov. use in the Midlands and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, sb.² 1).

bob, to fish (for eels) with a bob, or grub for bait. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, ii. 4. 9. In use in the Norfolk Broads, see NED. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁴), and EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁶ 1).

bob, to deceive, cheat. Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 75; ‘Avoir le moine, to be gleekt, bobbed’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Span. Curate, v. 2 (Bartolus); Little French Lawyer, ii. 1. 24. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁵). OF. bober.

bobber, a cheat, deceiver. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 12.

bobance, bobaunce, arrogance, vanity. Morte Arthur, leaf 262. 12; bk. x, c. 63; id. lf. 376. 25; bk. xviii, c. 15. F. bobance, ‘excessive spending; insolency, surquedrie, proud or presumptuous boasting’ (Cotgr.). O. Prov. bobansa, ‘faste, ostentation’ (Levy).

bob-fool: in phr. to play bob-fool, to flout, make sport. Greene, Alphonsus, iv (Amurack).

Bocardo, the name of the prison above the old North Gate of the city of Oxford, where Cranmer was confined, Strype, Archbp. Cranmer, iii. 11. 341; Oxford Records, 414; a prison, Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 126); Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Club). ‘Bocardo’ is a mnemonic word used in Logic.

bodge, an odd measure of corn. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host). In Kent the word bodge means an odd measure of corn, left over after the bulk has been measured into quarters and sacks; bodge also means in Kent a flat oblong basket used for carrying produce of garden or field, see EDD. (s.v. Bodge, sb.¹ 1 and 2).

bodkin, a dagger. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, ii. 3 (Duarte); Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, ii. 2 (Aphobus); cp. Hamlet, iii. 1. 76.

bodkin; see baudkin.

bodrag, a hostile incursion, a raid. ‘Nightly bodrags’, Spenser, Colin Clout, 315. Hence bodraging, misspelt bordraging, the same; F. Q. ii. 10. 63. Irish buaidhreadh, molestation, disturbance; buaidhr-im, I vex, bother, trouble (Dinneen).

bog, proud, saucy, bold. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 37. st. 109; Rogers, Naaman, 18. Cp. ME. boggisshe, ‘tumidus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 161).

boggard, a privy, latrina. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iv. 6 (end).

boistous, busteous, bousteous, rough, rustic, coarse, violent, vigorous. Bousteous tree, vigorous tree; Turbervile, Time Conquereth all Things, st. 7. Boystous, rude, coarse, A. Borde, Introd. of Knowledge, bk. i, c. 14; p. 160. ME. boystows, ‘rudis’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 166). See Dict. (s.v. Boisterous).

boll, a rounded seed-vessel or pod, as that of flax or cotton. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 50. Hence bolled, having ‘bolls’, pods; Bible, Ex. ix. 31 (AV.). ‘Boll’, in the sense of the seed-vessel of flax, is in prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, also in Lincolnshire, see EDD. (s.v. Boll, sb.²).

boll, to quaff the bowl, to booze; ‘They might syt bebbinge and bollynge’, Coverdale, Micah, ii. 11. Hence boller, one who lingers at the bowl, a drunkard, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 81.

bollen, swollen. Lucrece, 1417 (in old edd. boln); bolne, Hawes, Past Pleas., p. 135; Surrey, tr. Aeneid ii, 616; bowlne, id. ii. 348. Cp. the E. Anglian bown, swollen (EDD.). ME. bollen, swollen (Cursor M. 12685). Icel. bólgna; Dan. bolne, to swell. See NED. (s.v. Bell, vb.¹).

bolt, an arrow for a cross-bow, with a blunt or square head, also gen. an arrow; ‘The bolt of Cupid’, Mids. Night’s D., ii. 1. 165; ‘A fool’s bolt is soon shot’, Hen. V, iii. 7. 132; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 145); ‘I’ll make a shaft or a bolt on’t’, Merry Wives, iii. 4. 24 (i.e. I’ll take the risk, whatever may come of it).

bolt’s-head, a kind of retort used by alchemists. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Mammon); named from its long cylindrical neck.

bolt, a roll of a woven stuff. B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Subtle).

boltered, clotted, coagulated. ‘Blood-boltered’, having the hair clotted with blood, Macbeth, iv. 1. 123. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).

bolting-hutch, a trough into which meal is sifted. Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, v. 1 (Simon). A Lincolnshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Bolting, 2 (3)).

bombard, ‘a great gun or piece of ordnance’ (Bullokar). Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 58). F. bombarde, a bumbard, or murthering-piece (Cotgr.).

bombard, a large leathern vessel to carry liquors. Tempest, ii. 2. 21; Hen. VIII, v. 4. 85. Hence bombard-man, one who provides liquor. B. Jonson, Masque of Love Restored (Robin).

bombast, cotton wadding. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 359; Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, ii. 2. 8. OF. bombace, cotton (Godefroy). See Dict.

bonair(e, gentle, courteous. Holland, Livy, iv. 2. 446; bonerly, in debonnaire fashion, World and Child, l. 2, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 243. F. bonnaire and bonnairement (Cotgr.).

bona roba, a handsome wench, a wanton. 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 26. Ital. buonaroba, ‘as we say, good stuffe, a good wholesome plum-cheeked wench’ (Florio).

bone; ‘Look not upon me as I am a woman, But as a bone, thy wife, thy friend’, Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 2 (Belvidera). Meaning doubtful.

bones: in phr. to make bones, to make scruples about, find difficulty in; ‘Who make no bones of the Lord’s promises, but devoure them all’, Rogers, Naaman, 579; ‘He made no manier bones ... but went in hande to offer up his only son Isaac’, Udall, Erasm. Par., Luke i. 28. Formerly also, to find bones in (Paston Letters, 331), referring to the occurrence of bones in soup, &c., as an obstacle to its being easily swallowed, see NED. (s.v. Bone, 8).

bones, dice. A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Stephen). A common expression.

bonfacion, of good fashion, fashionable. Three Ladies of London; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 251, 311.

bongrace, a shade worn on the front of a woman’s bonnet as a protection from the sun. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 4 (Song). F. ‘bonnegrace, the uppermost flap of the downhanging taile of a French hood; whence belike our Boongrace’ (Cotgr.).

bonnibell, a fair lass. Spenser, Shep. Kal., August, 62; B. Jonson, The Satyr, l. 21. From F. bonne et belle, good and fair girl. See bellibone.

bonny-clabber, sour buttermilk. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2. 8. ‘Bonny-clabber’ in Ireland means thick milk. Irish bainne [pronounc. bonny], milk, and clabair, anything thick or half-liquid. In use in the United States wherever Irishmen forgather. See Joyce, English in Ireland, 219.

bookholder, a prompter in a theatre. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, Induct.

books: phr. to be in a person’s books; ‘I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books’, Much Ado, i. 1. 179 (the probable meaning is, he is not in favour, not in the lady’s ‘book of memory’, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 101).

boon, good; esp. in French phrases. ‘On a boon voyage’, Conflict of Conscience; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 63. ‘Nature boon’, Milton, P. L. iv. 242; cp. ix. 793.

boord, bord; see board, and bourd.

boot-carouse, a carousing out of a bombard or black-jack, which was likened to a boot. Marston, Sat., ii. 154.

boot-hale, to carry off booty. Heywood, Sallust, 33. Hence, boot-haler, a freebooter, highwayman, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (J. Dapper); Holland, Livy, xxii. 41. 458; boot-haling, the carrying away of booty, Florio, Montaigne, ii. 31; Fletcher, The Chances, i. 4 (Frederic); Maid in the Mill, ii. 2 (Antonio).

booty: in phr. to play booty, to play so as to lose, in order to draw the opponent on, and get some ‘booty’ in the end’, Dryden, Pref. to Don Sebastian, § 7; Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 2 (Frankford). Also, to bowl booty, to play at bowls so as to lose at first, Webster, White Devil (Camillo), ed. Dyce, p. 7. See Nares.

borachio, a large leather bottle or bag used in Spain (borracha). B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer); Greene, Looking Glasse (Works, ed. 1861, 133); fig. a drunkard, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 1. 7. Span. borracho, a drunkard.

bord, rim, circumference. ‘He plants a brazen piece of mighty bord’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). The reference is to a barber’s basin. F. bord, edge, border.

bordello, a brothel. B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 1 (Knowell). Ital. ‘bordello, a bawdy-house’ (Florio).

bordon, a staff. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 132, back, 24. ME. bordun, a pilgrim’s staff (P. Plowman, A. vi. 8). F. bourdon (Cotgr.). O. Prov. bordon, bâton de pèlerin.

bordraging; see bodrag.

bore, to trick, cheat, overreach. Hen. VIII, i. 1. 128; Life T. Cromwell, ii. 2. 103 (NED.).

boree, bouree, a rustic dance, orig. of Auvergne. Etheridge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Steele, Tender Husband, i. 2 (Tipkin). F. bourrée (Hatzfeld).

borrel, unlearned, rude, rough, rustic. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 95; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 28. ME. borel, in Chaucer: coarse woollen clothes, C. T. D. 356; borel men, laymen, C. T. B. 3145.

borrow, borow, a pledge, surety. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 131, 150; ‘Dear Pan bought with dear borrow’, id. Sept., 96. ME. borwe, a surety (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2998). OE. borh (borge) a pledge, surety.

borrow, to give security for, to assure, warrant. Greene, Isabel’s Ode, 33; ed. Dyce, p. 296.

bosky, full of thickets. Peele, Chron. Edw. I (ed. 1874, p. 407); Tempest, iv. 1. 81; Milton, Comus, 312. A Cheshire and Yorkshire word, from bosk, an underwood thicket (EDD.). ME. boske, a bush.

boss, a fat woman, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Zenocrate); ‘A fat boss, femme bien grasse et grosse, une Coche’, Sherwood. A Lancashire word for a fat lazy woman, see EDD. (s.v. Boss, sb.¹ 6).

bosse, supposed to mean a water-conduit; esp. used of the Bosse of Billingsgate, W. de Worde, Treatyse of a Galaunt (see Title of the Play); B. Jonson, Time Vindicated (Eyes); ‘Bosse Alley, so called of a Bosse of Spring-water continually running, which standeth by Billingsgate against this alley’, Stow, Survey (ed. 1842, p. 79). See NED. (s.v. Boss, sb.²).

botcher, a mender of old clothes; or (disrespectfully) a tailor. All’s Well, iv. 3. 211; Cor. ii. 1. 93; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, i. 1 (Fortune).

bottom of packthread, a ball of string. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv, 4 (Brainworm); Tam. Shrew, iv. 3. 138. Properly the clew or nucleus on which the ball was wound. [‘I wish I could wind up my bottom handsomely’, Sir W. Scott, Diary, March 17, 1826.] See EDD. (s.v. Bottom, 8). ME. botme of threde (Prompt.).

bouche: in phr. bouche in court, an allowance of victual granted by a king or noble to his household; ‘A good allowance of dyet, a bouche in court, as we use to call it’, Puttenham, English Poesie, bk. i, c. 27 (ed. Arber, 70). F. avoir bouche à Court, ‘to eat and drinke scotfree, to have budge-a-Court, to be in ordinarie at Court’ (Cotgr.). See bouge.

bouffage, a satisfying meal. ‘No bouffage, but a light bit’, Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 9. F. bouffage, ‘any meat that (eaten greedily) fills the mouth and makes the cheeks to swell; cheek-puffing meat’ (Cotgr.). F. bouffer, to swell.

bouge, to flinch. Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 44; boudge, Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius). See Dict. (s.v. Budge (1)).

bouge, to ‘bilge’, to stave in a ship’s side; intr., to suffer fracture, as a ship. ‘My barke was boug’d’, Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 44. ‘Least thereupon Our shippe should bowge’, Gascoigne, Voyage into Holland, ed. Hazlitt, i. 390. See NED. See Dict. (s.v. Bilge).

bouge, provisions; ‘A bombard man, that brought bouge for a country lady’, B. Jonson, Love Restored (Robin).

bouge of court, court-rations; ‘The Bowge of Courte’ (the title of a poem written by Skelton); ‘Every of them to have lyke bouge of courte’, State Papers, Hen. VIII, i. 623 (NED.). See bouche.

bouget, a budget, wallet. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 29; a water-vessel of skin, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt, iv. 72. F. bougette (Cotgr.); dimin. of OF. bouge, a water-skin; cp. ME. bowge, ‘I am maad as a bowge in frost’ (Wyclif, Ps. cxix. 83). See Dict. (s.v. Budget).

bough-pot, a flower-pot, a vase for boughs or cut flowers. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. (Rhoderique). A Lincolnsh. and Northamptonsh. word (EDD.).

bought, a twist, a knot. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 2. 13; used of the coil of a serpent, Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 255. ‘Bought’ is in prov. use in the north country for a curve or bend; the curve of the elbow or knee. See EDD. (s.v. Bought, sb.¹ 1).

bounty, goodness in general, worth, virtue; ‘He is only the true and essential Bounty’, Drummond of Hawthornden, Cypress Grove (Wks. ed. 1711, p. 127); bountie, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 4; ‘A lovely lasse, Whose beauty doth her bounty far surpasse’, F. Q. iii. 9. 4; ‘Large was his bounty and his soul sincere’, Gray, Elegy, 121 (The Epitaph). ME. bountee, goodness (Chaucer. An A.B.C., 9). F. bonté ‘goodness, honesty, sincerity, vertue, uprightness’ (Cotgr.); L. bonitas, goodness (Vulgate).

bourd, bord, a jest. Drayton, Eclogue, vii. 208; bord, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 19; iv. 4. 13. F. bourde, ‘a jeast, fib, tale of a tub’ (Cotgr.).

bourd, to jest. Ford, ’Tis pity, ii. 4 (Peggio).

bourd, to accost. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid iv, l. 899. See board.

bourdel, a brothel. Farquhar, Constant Couple, ii. 2. 4. See bordello.

bout, bowt, a coil; a circuit, orbit. Sir T. Wyatt, Song of Iopas, 45; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 94. See bought.

boute-feu, a fire-brand, incendiary. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p. 66, l. 13; Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 786. F. boute-feu, ‘a boute-feu, a wilful or voluntary firer of houses; also, a fire-brand of sedition, a kindler of strife and contention’ (Cotgr.).

bout-hammer, a heavy two-handed hammer. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, v. 4 (Pergamus). For about-hammer, the largest hammer employed by blacksmiths; it is slung round (or about) near the extremity of the handle. An East Anglian word (EDD.).

bouzing-ken, drinking-house, ale-house. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

bovoli, snails, cockles; considered as delicacies. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Ital. bovolo (pl. bovoli), ‘a snayle, a cockle, periwinkle’ (Florio).

bowd, a weevil, malt-worm. Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 39; ‘A boude, vermis frumentarius’, Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. bowde, malte-worme (Prompt.). An East Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Boud).

bow-dye, a scarlet dye; name from Bow, near Stratford, Essex, where the dyers mostly lived, in the 17th cent. Hence, as attrib., ‘My bowdy stockings’, Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Prue).

bowerly, comely, portly, ‘burly’. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 8. In common use in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). See Notes on Eng. Etym. (s.v. Burly).

bow-hand, the hand that holds the bow, the left hand. In phr. wide o’ th’ bow-hand, wide of the mark (towards the left); L. L. L. iv. 1. 135; much o’ th’ bow-hand, Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, iv. 2 (end); Coxcomb, i. 3. 2.

bowlne, swollen. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, l. 348. See bollen.

bowne, a bound, limit. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v. ch. 23. st. 45. In the same, st. 1 ‘the former bowne’ seems to mean ‘the preceding chapter’. Norm. Fr. bowne (bodne), ‘limite’ (Moisy). Cp. Med. Lat. bonna, bodina (Ducange).

bowne, a boon, a favour in answer to a request. Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 45; Adam Bel, 509, in Hazlitt’s Pop. Poetry, ii. 160. Icel. bōn, a prayer.

bowrs, bowers, muscles that bend the joints, strong muscles. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 12. Lit. bow-er, i.e. that which bows or bends; see NED.

box-keeper, the keeper of the dice and box at a gaming-table; ‘Gettall, a box-keeper’, Massinger, City Madam (Dramatis Personae).

boyn, to swell. ‘Her heeles behind boynd out’, Golding, Metam. viii. 808; fol. 105 (1603). Cp. boine, bunny, Essex words for a swelling caused by a blow (EDD.). OF. buyne (now bigne); see Hatzfeld.

brabble, to wrangle, quarrel, Coles, Dict. (1679); brabble, a quarrel, brawl, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 69; Titus And. ii. 1. 62; hence, brabbler, a quarreller, King John, v. 2. 162; brabbling, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, i. 1 (Colonel); ‘Noe more brabbling with him’ (your old Glasier), Dorothy Wadham, Letter (1614), in T. G. Jackson’s Wadham College (1893, p. 161). Du. ‘brabbelen, to brawle or to brabble’ (Hexham).

brace, to gird, encompass. ‘Bigge Bulles of Basan brace hem about’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 124. OF. bracier, to embrace, deriv. of brace, the two arms (Ch. Rol., 1343).

bracer, braser, a protection for the arm in archery. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 108, 109.

brach, a bitch-hound. Properly a kind of hunting-dog; but it came to be used with reference to a bitch in general. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 48; Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (Belgarde); King Lear, i. 4. 125. OF. brac, hunting-dog (Didot). OHG. bracco (Schade).

brachet, a small hunting-dog. Morte Arthur, leaf 52, back, 22; bk. iii, c. 5. F. ‘brachet, a kind of little hound’ (Cotgr.).

brachygraphy, shorthand, stenography. B. Jonson, Paris Anniversary (Fencer); Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Sanitonella). Gk. βραχυγραφία.

brack, salt water. Only in Drayton, Pol. xxv. 50; Agincourt, 185 (NED.). Du. brak, briny, brackish.

brack, a breach, fracture, Oxford City Records, 387; ‘Breche, a brack or breach in a wall’, Cotgrave; a flaw, fault, ‘A brack, vitium’, Coles, Dict. (1679); Digby, On the Soul, Dedic. (Johnson); a flaw in cloth, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 33); Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii. 249; a rupture, a quarrel, Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, v. 1 (Byron).

brag, brisk, lively. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2. 11; ‘the bragge lambs’, G. Fletcher, Christ’s Victory, i (NED.).

braid, a sudden or brisk movement. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2 (Marcella). ME. brayd: ‘She (Dido) walketh, walweth, maketh many a brayd’ (Chaucer, Leg. G. W., 1166); OE. bregdan, to move suddenly to and fro.

braid, a sudden outburst of passion, anger. Warner, Alb. England, bk. vii, ch. 37, st. 105; a sudden assault, Golding, Metam., xiii. 240; an adroit turn, trick, deception, Greene, Radagon in Dianam, 62 (ed. Dyce, 302); (?) deceitful, All’s Well, iv. 2. 73.

braided; braided ware, goods that have changed colour, tarnished, faded. Marston, Scourge Villainie, Sat. v. 73 (cp. Bailey’s Dict., 1721; see NED.).

brail, in hawking, to confine a hawk’s wings by means of a brail, or soft leather girdle; ‘They brail and hud us’ [confine and hood us], Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 9 (Flavia). OF. brail, braiel, a girdle. Med. L. bracale, deriv. of bracae, breeches (Ducange).

brake, a powerful bit for horses. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 2 (Cent.).

brake, to set one’s face in a brake, to assume an immovable expression of countenance. Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i. 1 (Bussy).

brame, longing, desire. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 52. Ital. brama, earnest desire; from bramare, to desire. Cp. O. Prov. ‘bramar, braire, désirer ardemment’ (Levy), F. bramer (Hatzfeld).

branched, adorned with a figured pattern in embroidery, &c.; ‘Branched velvet’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 54; Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2 (Frank).

branded, brindled; of mixed colour, streaked. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad, xii. 217. A common prov. word (EDD.).

brandenburg, a morning gown, with long sleeves. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii. 1 (Olivia). From Brandenburg, in Germany, where there were woollen manufactories.

brandle, to shake, endanger, cause to waver. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 155. F. branler. See brangle.

brandlet, a bird; prob. the brand-tail or redstart. Gascoigne, Prol. to Philomene, 31. See EDD. (s.v. Brand-tail).

brand-wine, brandy. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1 (Clause). Du. brande-wijn, brandy, lit. burnt (i.e. distilled) wine.

brangle, to shake, cause to waver; hence, to render uncertain, to confuse. Merry Devil, ii. 2. 6. F. branler. Cp. brandle.

brank, buck-wheat; ‘Brank, Buck, or French-wheat, a summer grain delighting in warm land’, Worlidge; Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 20. An E. Anglian word (EDD.).

bransle, a kind of dance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 8. F. ‘bransle, a brawl or dance wherein many (men and women) holding by the hands, sometimes in a ring, and other-whiles at length, move all together’ (Cotgr.). Cp. brawl.

brant, steep. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 58; ‘Even brant agenst Flodon hil’, (perhaps) even on the steep side of Flodden hill; id. p. 88. In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). OE. (Anglian) brant.

brasell; see brazil.

brast, to burst. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 2, § 2; Douglas, Eneados, iv. 81; pt. t., Sir T. More, Richard III (ed. Lumby, p. 74); Bunyan, Pilg. Pr. (ed. 1678, p. 73). In common prov. use in the north (EDD.). ME. breste(n (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 1008). OE. berstan.

brathel, a malignant scold. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 60. See brothel.

brave, finely arrayed; showy, splendid; fine, excellent. Tam. Shrew, Ind., i. 40; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); ‘Brave, splendidus’, Levins, Manip.; As You Like It, iii. 4. 43. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).

brawl, a French dance. L. L. L. iii. 9; the figure is fully described in Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Guerrino). See bransle.

brawn-fall’n, having arms from which the muscle has fallen away. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 77; Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 127.

braye, a brae, a steep bank; ‘Agaynste a rocke or an hye braye’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 159. ‘Bray’ is still in use in Yorksh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Brae). Icel. brā, eyebrow, see NED.

braye, a military outwork, a mound or bank defended by palisades and watch-towers. Act 4 Hen. VIII. 1. § 1 (NED.). False braye, an advanced parapet surrounding the main rampart, Urquhart, Rabelais, iii. Prol. F. faulses brayes, ‘issues qui doivent être bouchées, dans une place forte, quand l’ennemi approche’, Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais, iii. Prol. Norm. F. faulses brayes, ‘espèce de muraille, établie en dehors d’une forteresse et servant de retranchement’ (Moisy). Med. L. braca, ‘moles, agger’ (Ducange).

brazil, brasell, a hard wood which yields a red dye. Davenant, The Wits, i. 1. 9; Ascham, Toxophilus (Arber, 133). In popular use in the Yorksh. phrase, ‘As hard as brazzil’, see EDD. (s.v. Brazil, sb.¹). Port. and Span. brasil. The country in S. America is named from this wood (NED.).

break: phr. to break one’s day, to fail to make a payment on the day appointed. Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (Prud.).

break up, to break open; to open a letter. 1 Hen. VI, i. 3. 13; Merch. Ven. ii. 4. 10. Also, to carve, L. L. L. iv. 1. 56.

breast, the source of the voice, the voice in singing. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 20; Fletcher, Pilgrim, iii. 6 (Fool); G. Herbert, The Temper, p. 47.

breathe: phr. to breathe a vein, to open a vein by lancing it. Dryden, Oliver Cromwell, st. 12; Georgics, iii. 700; Palamon, iii. 755.

breathely, worthless. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 36. Cp. ME. brethel(l, a worthless fellow (York Plays, xxvi. 179). See NED.

breck, a breach, gap. Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 16 (p. 40). A north-country word (EDD.). ME. brekke (Chaucer, Bk. Duch., 940).

breme, fierce, stormy; ‘Breme winter’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 42; ‘Froid, cold, breame, chill’, Cotgrave; Drayton, Heroic. Epist., xvi. 8. ME. breme (Lydgate, Chron. Troy, ii. 16). Still in use in the north country (EDD.). Cp. OE. brēman, to rage: broeman ‘fervere’, in Preface Lind. Matthew (ed. Skeat, p. 5, l. 5).

breme. Of reports, loudly prevalent; ‘In their talke most breeme Was then Achilles victorie’, Golding, Met. xii. 280. OE. brēme, famous, celebrated.

brended, brindled. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Puppy). See brinded.

brenne, to burn. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 45; pt. t. brent, id. i. 9. 10; pp. brent, id. ii. 6. 49. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. brennen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2331). Icel. brenna.

brere, a briar. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 2; Sackville, Induction, st. 39. A very common prov. pronunc. (EDD.). OE. (Mercian) brēr, WS. brǣr.

bret, the name of a fish like the turbot; ‘The bret, of all [fishes] the slowest’, Lyly, Alexander, ii. 2 (Hephestion). Also called a birt or burt. See EDD.

bretch, a breach; ‘With careless bretch’, Phaer. and Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, x. 467. F. brèche.

brevit, to hunt about, search, pry, beat about, forage; ‘Breviting by night’, Drayton, The Owl, 179. Prob. from brevet, in the sense of taking by ‘brevet’ or written warrant (NED.). In gen. use in the midland counties (EDD.).

briars: phr. in the briars, in troubles, among thorns; ‘I ought not so to leave Eccho in the bryers’, Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, v. 1.

bribe, a thing stolen, Barclay, Shyp of Folys, ii. 85. OF. bribe, a piece of bread, F. ‘bribe, a peece of bread given unto a beggar’ (Cotgr.).

bribe, to take dishonestly, to purloin, to steal or rob; ‘They do deceive the needy, bribe and pill from them’, Cranmer, Instr. of Prayer; ‘I bribe, I pyll’, Palsgrave. ME. brybyn (briben) ‘latrocinor’ (Prompt.).

bribery, robbery with violence, extortion, Geneva Bible (Matt. xxiii. 25).

bribour, a thief or robber, Berners, tr. of Froissart, ii. 10. 21. ME. brybowre (Prompt.).

brickle, fragile, easily broken; ‘Brickle vessels’, Bible (AV.), Wisdom, xv. 13; ‘brickle, fragilis’, Levins, Manip.; Spenser, Ruins of Time, 499; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. 8. OE. brycel, see NED. (s.vv. Britchel, Brickle). See brokle, bruckle.

bride-house, the house where a wedding is held. ‘A public hall for celebrating marriages’, Nares. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 22.

bride-lace, a piece of gold, silk, or other lace, used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly used at weddings. Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3 (Hazard).

bridling-cast, a glass taken when the horse is bridled; a stirrup-glass, stirrup-cup. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo. Loveless).

brigand-harness, a brigandine, a piece of armour worn by a ‘brigand’ or foot-soldier. World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 251. See brigandine.

brigandine, a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.); also brigantine, Baret, Alvearie. F. brigandin (brigantin).

brigandine, a coat-of-mail, corslet. Milton, Samson, 1120.

briggen-yrons, brigand-irons, armour for the arms. Thersites, ed. Pollard, l. 169. See brigand-harness.

brim, fierce, esp. an epithet of the boar; ‘Never bore so brymme’, Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 6. 5; ME. brym (brim) fierce (Prompt.). See breme (1).

brim, (of reports, rumours) loudly current, much spoken of. Throgmorton (NED., s.v. Breme 4); brimme, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iv. ch. 20, st. 35. See breme (2).

brimse, a gadfly. Gosson, School of Abuse (Arber, 64); brimsees, pl., Topsell, Serpents, 769. A Kentish word, ‘You have a brims in your tail’, see EDD. (s.v. Brims). G. bremse; Icel. brims (Fritzner). Norw. dialect brims (Aasen); Swed. brems.

brinch, to pledge in drinking. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Halfpenie); also written brince, to offer drink: ‘Luther first brinced to Germany the poisoned cup’, Harding, in Jewel’s Works, IV, 335 (NED.). Cp. the German expression, Ich bring’s (euch), i.e. I drink to you, lit. I bring it (to you). Cp. Ital. brindisi (Florio).

brinded, brindled, streaked; ‘The brinded cat’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 1. In prov. use (EDD.).

bring: phr. to be with one to bring: a phrase of various application, but usually implying getting the upper hand in some way. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 304; Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady and Welford); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 503); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Y. Chartley); Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12. 22.

brist: phr. full brist, full burst, with sudden violence. Golding, Metam. xi. 510; fol. 138 (1603). A northern form of OE. berstan, to burst (EDD.).

brize, a breeze, a gadfly. Spenser, Visions of the World’s Vanity, ii. 10; spelt bryze, F. Q. vi. 1. 24. The gadfly is called briz in Cheshire, Shropsh., and Gloucestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Breeze, sb.¹). OE. briosa (breosa).

brocage, procuracy in immorality. Spenser, Introd. to Shep. Kal. (beginning); Mother Hubbard’s Tale, 851. Also, bribery, mean practice, Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 7. ME. brocage (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3375). Anglo-F. brocage, the action of an intermediary.

broche, the ‘first head’ of a hart. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21; p. 52. OF. broche. Med. L. broca, ‘cornu’ (Ducange).

broche, broach, a spit. Morte Arthur, leaf 84. 34; bk. v, c. 5; ‘hazel broach’, spit made of hazel-wood, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georg. ii. 545; to pierce with a spit, to pierce, Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 92. F. broche, a spit; brocher, to broach, to spit (Cotgr.).

brock, a badger. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Tuck); ‘Brocke or badger’, Huloet; applied as a term of contempt to a dirty stinking fellow, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 114. ME. broke, ‘taxus’ (Prompt.). OE. broc, cp. O. Irish brocc. In prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland for the animal, and in Scotland in its transferred sense (EDD.).

broken beer, remnants or leavings of beer in pots and glasses. Founded on the phrases broken meat, bread, or victuals, meaning fragments of meat, &c. Cartwright, The Ordinary, i. 4 (Slicer). So also broken bread, The London Chanticleers, sc. 1 (Heath).

broken music, concerted music, music arranged for parts. As You Like It, i. 2. 150; Hen. V, v. 2. 263; Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 52.

brokle, brittle, frail. Sir T. Elyot, bk. iii, c. 19, § 1. See bruckle.

bronstrops, a prostitute. ‘A bronstrops is in English a hippocrene’, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Col.’s Friend); id. iv. 4 (Chough); Webster, Cure for Cuckold, iv. 1.

brothel, an abandoned wretch; ‘Go hence, thou brothel’, Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 82; ‘bitched brothel’, World and Child, in the same, i. 254. ME. brothell, a worthless fellow (Gower, C. A. vii. 2595).

brouse, brouze, young shoots of trees, eaten by cattle. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 132. 3; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 45.

brown bill, a weapon, a kind of halbert. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 10. 13; King Lear, iv. 6. 92.

bruckel’d, begrimed, dirty. Herrick, The Temple, 58. In use in the north country and in East Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bruckle, vb.²).

bruckle, brittle, fragile. Puttenham, E. Poesie, p. 219. In prov. use in various parts of England, and in Scotland and Ireland (EDD.). OE. brucol. See brokle, brickle.

bruit, a rumour, report. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 64; Timon, v. 1. 198; to noise abroad, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 114; 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 68. F. bruit, noise, rumour.

†brusle (meaning doubtful), to crack (?). Fletcher, A Wife for a Month ii. 6 (Camillo). Perhaps the same word as brustle.

brustle, to parch, scorch, to crackle in cooking or burning, as in Gower, C. A. iv. 2732. ‘He ... brustleth as a monkes froise (pancake)’. Hence, to make a noise like the waves of the sea, spelt brussel, Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (Lopez). In prov. use in the north, also in Kent and Sussex, in the sense of scorching, crackling; see EDD. (s.v. Brustle, vb.²).

brustle, brusle, to raise the feathers, like a bird. Herrick, Hesp. (ed. 1859, p. 122).

brutel, brittle. Spelt brutyll, Morte Arthur, leaf 65, end; bk. iv, c. 8 (end). ME. brutel, brotel (Chaucer).

bub, to bubble. Sackville, Induction, st. 69.

bubber, a drinker of wine. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Costanza).

bubble, to delude with bubbles, or unsubstantial schemes; to cheat. Etheredge, Love in a Tub, ii. 3 (Wheedle).

bubble, one who can be easily ‘bubbled’; a dupe. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

buck, to steep or boil (clothes) in lye; ‘Bucke these shyrtes’, Palsgrave; Puritan Widow, i. 1. 150; the quantity of clothes washed at once, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 2. 52; buck-basket, basket for dirty linen, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 2. Phr. to beat a buck, to beat clothes when being washed, Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); to drive a buck, to wash clothes, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii (end). See EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.²). ME. bouken, to steep in lye (P. Plowman). OE. type *būcian, cp. G. bäuchen, to steep in lye; also Ital. bucata, F. buée, lye, a wash of clothes.

buckall, the point of a horn; ‘You all know the device of the horn, where the young fellow slips in at the butt-end, and comes squeezed out at the buckall’, Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Touchstone). Here buckall = buckle, meaning the twisted or curled end of the horn, i.e. the smaller end. Cp. prov. E. buckle-horn, a crooked or bent horn; buckle-mouthed, having a twisted mouth (EDD.).

bucke, the body of a chariot; ‘The axletree was massie gold, the bucke was massie golde’, Golding, Metam., ii. 107; fol. 16 (1603). In E. Anglia ‘buck’ is still in use for the body of a cart or wagon; esp. the front part, see EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.⁶ 3); also pronounced bouk (Bouk, sb.¹ 5). See NED. (s.v. Bulk, sb.¹ 3. c).

buckle, to prepare oneself, esp. by buckling on armour; ‘To teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them’, Bacon, Essay 21. Buckle with, to cope with, join in close fight with, 1 Hen. VI, i. 2. 95; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 3. 19. Also buckle, to bow, give way, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 141; buckled, doubled up, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1. 4.

bud, said of children; or used as a term of endearment. King John, iii. 4. 82; ‘O my dear, dear bud’, Wycherley, Country Wife, ii. 1 (Mrs. Pinchwife). A transferred sense of bud (of a flower).

†bud; ‘ ’Tis strange these varlets ... should thus boldly Bud in your sight, unto your son’, Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2 (Thomas). Meaning unknown.

budge, lamb’s fur. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 65. Budge-bachelor, a bachelor or younger member of a company, who wore a gown trimmed with budge on Lord Mayor’s day (NED.). Hence, budge doctor, a consequential person, Milton, Comus, 707.