Читать книгу A Glossary of Stuart and Tudor Words especially from the dramatists - Walter W. Skeat - Страница 9

ballow, in King Lear, iv. 6. 247, prob. means a quarter-staff made from ballow wood. See above.

ban, to curse, imprecate damnation on. 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 25; a curse, Hamlet, iii. 2. 269. Icel. banna, to prohibit, curse.

band, a collar, lying flat upon the dress, worn round the neck by man or woman. Also called falling-bands, Middleton, Roaring Girl, i. 1 (Mary). The falling band succeeded the cumbersome ruff.

band, to bandy about, like a tennis-ball. Look about You, sc. 32, l. 5; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 490.

banding-ball, a ball to be driven about at tennis or in the game of bandy. Wounds of Civil War; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 116.

bando, a proclamation. Shirley, Sisters, v. 2 (Longino). Ital. bando, a public proclamation (Dante).

bandoleer, bandalier, a broad belt, worn over the shoulder and across the breast. Peele, Polyhymnia, The Third Couple (l. 10). Hence, a wearer of a bandoleer was himself called by the same name. Thus Gascoigne has: ‘Their peeces then are called Petronels, And they themselves by sundrie names are called, As Bandolliers ... Or ... Petronelliers’, Works, i. 408. See Dict.

bandora, a kind of guitar; now called banjo. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 2 (hymn); also pandore, Drayton, Pol. iv. 361. Ital. pandora, a bandora (Florio).

bandrol, a long narrow flag, with a cleft end; a streamer from a lance. Drayton, Pol. xxii. 211. Spelt bannerall, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 26. F. banderole, a little flag or streamer, a penon (Cotgr.).

banes, ‘banns’ of marriage (the usual spelling to 1661); Tam. Shrew, ii, 1. 181; spelt bains, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 36. ME. bane of a play (or mariage, Pynson), ‘banna’ (Prompt.).

bangling, frivolous contention, squabbling. Englishmen for my Money, iv. 1 (Heigham); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 528.

banquerout, bankrout, a bankrupt. Webster, Appius, v. 2 (Virginius); Com. Errors, iv. 2. See Dict. (s.v. Bankrupt).

banquet, a slight refection, a dessert after dinner. Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 9; Timon, i. 2. 160; ‘The Banquet is brought in’, Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 1 (stage direction).

barate, treason. Caxton, Hist. Troye, 327, back, 10; 335. 29. OF. barat, deceit. See NED. (s.v. Barrat).

barathrum, abyss, a bottomless pit. ‘To the lowest barathrum’, Heywood, Silver Age (Pluto), vol. iii. p. 159; used fig. ‘You barathrum of the shambles!’ Massinger, New Way, iii. 2 (Greedy); (cp. barathrumque macelli, Horace, Epist. i. 15. 31). L. barathrum, the underworld; Gk. βάραθρον, the yawning cleft near the Acropolis at Athens, down which criminals were thrown.

baratour, a quarrelsome person, a brawler, a rowdy, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii. c. 12. § 8. ME. baratowre, ‘pugnax, rixosus, jurgosus’ (Prompt.). Norm. F. barateur ‘provocateur, querelleur’ (Moisy), deriv. of barat, ‘lutte, dispute’ (id.).

baratresse, a female warrior. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 500.

†baratto, barrato, a small boat; explained as ‘an Indian boat’. Fletcher, Island Princess, i. 1. 19; ii. 6 (end).

barb, to shave. Turbervile, Trag. T. 53 (NED.); to mow, Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Malevole); to clip money, B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1 (Face). F. barber, to shave, to cut the beard (Cotgr.).

barbed, wearing a barb. From barb, lit. a beard (F. barbe); hence, a piece of white plaited linen, passed over or under the chin, and reaching midway to the waist; chiefly worn by nuns. ‘Barbyd lyke a nonne’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1000.

bard; see barred.

bard cater-tray, for barred cater-tray, a kind of false dice in which the throws cater (four) and tray (three) were barred, or prevented from being likely to appear. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). NED. quotes from Diceplay (1532), ed. 1850, p. 24:—‘a well-favoured die that seemeth good and square, yet is the forehead longer on the cater and tray than any other, way ... Such be also called bard cater-tres, because, commonly, the longer end will, of his own sway, draw downwards, and turn up to the eye sice, sinke, deuis or ace; i.e. 6, 5, 2, or 1, but not 4 or 3’.

baretour, a fighting man, a brawler. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aen. i. 472; id. i. 142. Anglo-F. barettour (Rough List). See baratour.

bargenette, bargynet, the name of a rustic dance, accompanied with a song. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 20. § 12; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 430. Variant of bargaret or bargeret; F. bergerette, ‘chant que les bergers chantaient le jour de Pâques’ (Hatzfeld). See NED. (s.v. Bargeret).

barley-bread, coarse food. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 637.

barley-break, an old country-game; usually one couple, left in a middle den termed ‘hell’, had to catch the other two couples (who were allowed to separate and ‘break’ when hard pressed, and thus to change partners); when caught, they had to take their turn as catchers. Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 3. 34; ‘A course at barley-break’, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, A. i (Clarion). The last couple left were said to be in hell: ‘Barly-break: or Last in Hel’, a poem by Herrick. See EDD.

barley-hood, a fit of ill-temper, brought on by drunkenness. So called because caused by barley, i.e. malt liquor. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 372. See EDD.

barn, a ‘bairn’, a child. Much Ado, iii. 4. 48. ME. barne, ‘infans’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. bearn (Anglian barn).

barnacles, barnacle-geese. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 305 (where the fable is given). See EDD. (s.v. Barnacle, sb.¹).

barratry, vexatious persistence in litigation. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 695. See baratour.

barrèd, misused for barded, i.e. caparisoned. Drayton, Pol. xii. 481. Shortened to bard; Dekker, O. Fortunatus, iii. 1 (Cornwall).

barred gown, a gown marked with stripes or bars of gold lace, like that of a judge or law-officer. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, i. 1 (Rolliardo).

barrendry, a barony, a title of a baron. Chapman, Humorous Day’s Mirth, p. 31. Anglo-F. baronnerie, a baronry, the domain of a baron, the rank or dignity of baron. See NED. (s.v. Baronry).

barriers, lists, as for a tournament. To fight at barriers, to fight within lists. ‘Jeu de Barres, a martial sport of men armed and fighting together with short swords within certain Barres or lists, whereby they are separated from the spectators’, Cowel’s Interpreter (ed. 1701). Webster, White Devil; ed. Dyce, p. 40; at p. 6, the ‘great barriers’ are said ‘to moult feathers’; alluding to the plumes cut from the helmets of the combatants.

barth, a warm place or pasture for calves or lambs. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 26; Coles, Dict., 1677. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). Prob. a derivative of OE. beorgan, to shelter, protect.

basciomani, kissings of the hand. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 56. Ital. basciamano, a kissing of the hand (Florio).

base, or prison-bars, the name of a boys’ game. To bid base, to challenge to pursuit, as in the game, Venus and Adonis, 303; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 5; at bace, id. v. 8. 5. ‘Barres, play at bace, or prison Bars’, Cotgrave. ME. bace, play, ‘barri’ (Prompt. EETS. 24, see note no. 100). ‘Barri sunt ludi, anglicè bace’ (Wright, Vocab. 176; foot-note).

bases, pl. (used like skirts), applied to a plaited skirt of cloth, velvet, or rich brocade, appended to the doublet, and reaching from the waist to the knee, common in the Tudor period. Massinger, Picture, ii. 1 (Sophia); Chapman, Mask of the Inner Temple, § 2. Called ‘a pair of bases’, Pericles, ii. 1. 167.

bash, to be abashed, Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 3; Peele, Arraignment of Paris, iv. 1 (Venus); to make abashed, Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 75 (Rasni). In prov. use in both senses, see EDD. (s.v. vb.³).

basilisk, a species of ordnance. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 3. 56; Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 1. 2; Harrison, Desc. England, bk. ii, ch. 16 (ed. Furnivall, 281).

basket, the, one in which the broken meat and bread from the sheriffs’ table was carried to the counters, for poor prisoners. Middleton, Inner-Temple Masque (Dr. Almanac). Hence, go to the basket, i.e. to prison, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, v. 1 (Pontalier). Cp. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, iii. 4 (Rolliardo). There were three grades of prisoners in each of the counters; they occupied, respectively, the Master’s side, the Twopenny Ward, and the Hole. Those in the Hole paid nothing for their provisions, but depended upon the basket.

baslard, a kind of hanger, or small sword. Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 18. Anglo-F. baselard. For the other French forms, bazelaire, badelaire, beaudelaire, see Ducange (s.vv. Basalardus, Basalaria, Bazalardus, Badelare).

basque, a short skirt. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling). F. basque, a short skirt (Cotgr.); from Basque, name of the ancient race inhabiting both slopes of the western Pyrenees.

bass, to kiss. ‘Bas me’, Skelton, Speke Parrot, 106; ‘I basse or kysse a person, Ie baise’, Palsgrave. F. baiser; L. basiare.

bassa, an earlier form of the Turkish military title ‘Bashaw’. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 306; spelt basso, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 1. 1. Turkish bāshā, prob. fr. bāsh, a head. See NED. (s.v. Pasha).

basta, enough. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 203. Ital. (and Span.) basta, it is enough (Florio); Ital. bastare, and Span. bastar, to suffice.

bastard, a sweet Spanish wine resembling muscatel. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 30; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1. 12.

bastardeigne, for bastard eigné, firstborn bastard. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iv (Widow). Eigné is a late spelling of ayné, ainé; from F. aîné, OF. ainsné; ains, before, + né, born (Hatzfeld).

bastone, a ‘baton’, cudgel. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.). ME. baston, a cudgel (Cursor M. 15827). OF. baston (F. bâton). See batoon.

batable, debatable. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § 2. ‘Batable ground seemeth to be the ground in question heretofore whether it belonged to England or Scotland, 23 Hen. VIII, c. 16, as if we should say debatable ground,’ Cowell, Interp. (ed. 1637).

bate (short for abate), to reduce, diminish, decrease, deduct. Merch. Ven. iii. 3. 32; iv. 1. 72; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 2; Hamlet, v. 2. 23; to blunt, Love’s L. L. i. 1. 6. Phr. to bate an Ace, to abate a tittle, to make the slightest abatement, Heywood, Witches of Lancashire iv (Robin); vol. iv, p. 223, l. 2; Bate me an ace, quod Bolton, an expression of incredulity, R. Edwards, Damon and P. in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 77 (NED. s.v. Bate, vb.² 6 d).

bate, to beat the wings impatiently and flutter away from the fist or perch. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 199; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 99 (old edd. bayted). F. se battre.

bate, bit, a northern form of the pret. of bite. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 7. See EDD. (s.v. Bate vb.⁴).

batful, fattening, full of sustenance. Drayton, Pol. iii. 349; vii. 93; &c. See batten.

batoon, battoon, a stick, cudgel. Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 1 (Rogers); battoon, Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, v. 1 (Egremont). See bastone.

battaile, a body of troops in battle array. Bacon, Essay 58, § 9; battayle, Psalm lxxvi. 3 (Bible 1539); the main battle, main body of an armed force, Richard III, v. 3. 301. Prov. batalha ‘troupe rangée’ (Levy).

batten, to feed gluttonously, Hamlet, iii. 4. 67; to fatten, ‘Battening our flocks’, Milton, Lycidas, 29; to grow fat, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Moon-calf). See Dict.

battle, (at Oxford) to have a kitchen and buttery account, to obtain provisions in college. ‘I eat my commons with a good stomach and battled with discretion’, Puritan Widow, i. 2. 42; ‘To battle, as scholars do in Oxford, Estre debteur au College pour ses vivres’, Sherwood, Dict. 1672.

battle, battill, to grow fat. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 38; battling, fattening, nourishing to cattle, Greene, Friar Bacon, scene 9. 4; nutritious to man, Golding, tr. of Ovid Met. xv. 359. See batten.

battle. See battaille.

battled, ‘embattled’, furnished with battlements. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Maria).

battree, a battle, encounter. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, 16; Pompey, 1. Variant of battery.

baudkin, a rich embroidered stuff, a rich brocade. Holland, Camden’s Brit. i. 174; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 777. Hence, cloth of bodkin, Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iii. 2 (Frederick); B. Jonson, Discoveries, lxviii; Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1. OF. baudequin, med. L. baldakinus (Ducange), cp. Ital. baldacchino, lit. belonging to Baldacco, the Italian name for Bagdad.

baudricke, ‘a baldric’, belt, girdle. Spenser calls the zodiac the baudricke (or bauldricke) of the heavens, F. Q. v. 1. 11; Prothalamion, 174. ME. bawdryk (Prompt.), MHG. balderich, a girdle (Schade). See Dict. (s.v. Baldric).

†bause (?). Only in this passage: ‘My spaniel slept, whilst I baus’d leaves’, Marston, What you Will, ii. 2 (Lam.).

bauson, bawson, a badger. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 71; bauzon’s skin; Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, st. 10. Bauson is a common north-country word for a badger, see EDD. Cp. OF. bausen, bauzan, black and white spotted, Ital. balzano, a horse with white feet (Florio). See NED. The French word for a badger is blaireau.

baux (a plural form), the name of a breed of swift hounds used in the chase; ‘Those dogges called Baux of Barbarie, of the whiche Phoebus doeth speake’, Turbervile, Hunting, ch. i. p. 3; ‘White dogges called Baux, and surnamed Greffiers’, id. ch. ii, p. 4; ‘Greffiers, a kind of white hounds, the same as Bauds’, Cotgrave; ‘Souillard, the name of a dog, between which and a bitch called Baude, the race of the Bauds (white and excellent hounds) was begun’ (id.). Comb. Baux-hound, Holme’s Academy of Armory, p. 184. F. baud, ‘chien courant, originaire de Barbarie’ (Hatzfeld). Probably of Germanic origin, cp. OHG. bald, bold (Schade).

bavian, a baboon, an occasional character in the old Morris dance. He appears in Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. See Nares. Du. baviaan.

bawcock, a fine fellow, Hen. V, iii. 2. 27; Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 125. A Lincolnshire word for a foolish person (EDD.). Hence probably the surname ‘Bawcock’, see Bardsley, 475. F. beau coq, a fine cock.

bawn, a fortified enclosure, outwork of a castle. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed. p. 642, col. 2. Irish baḋḃḋún, an enclosure (Dinneen).

bawson, see bauson.

bay, see beck and bay, at.

bayard, the name of the horse given to Renaud, one of the Four Sons of Aymon (name of a romance), hence, a common name for a horse; ‘Bolde bayarde, ye are to blynde’, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 123, l. 101; a Bayard’s bun, horse bread, id. i. 15, l. 8. Bayard, lit. of a bay colour, O. Prov. baiart, ‘bai; cheval bai’ (Levy).

bayes, ‘baize’. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. v, p. 31. A plural form of bay, bay coloured, reddish-brown. See Dict. (s.v. Baize).

beace, beasts; pl. of beast. Golding, Metam. xv. 13. This is the usual pron. of beast (and beasts) in the north of England. For various spellings—beas, beece, beess, &c., see EDD. (s.v. Beast).

beached, apparently for beeked, i.e. seasoned (as wood) by exposure to heat. ‘A coodgell [cudgel] beached or pilled [peeled] lawfully’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 39; p. 106. Cp. ME. beke: ‘to beke wandes’ (Cath. Angl.), see NED. (s.v. Beek vb.¹ 1 b). See beak.

bead, a prayer, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 872. This is the orig. sense of mod. E. bead; a perforated ball was so called because it was used for counting prayers. ME. bede ‘oracio’ (Prompt.). OE. (ge)bed prayer.

bead-roll, a list, catalogue. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 32; bed-roll, Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 1 (Sir Charles). Properly, a list of persons to be specially prayed for.

beadsman, one who prays for another, Two Gent. i. 1. 18. ME. bedeman, ‘orator, supplicator’ (Prompt.). OE. (ge)bedmann (John iv. 23).

bead-hook, a kind of boat-hook. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad xv. 356, 624; Caesar and Pompey, v. 1 (Septimius). Spelt beede-hook, Raleigh, Hist. World (NED.).

beak, beyk, to expose to the warmth of the fire; to season by heat. ‘Beak ourselves’, Grimald, Metrodorus, 3; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 109. Beyked, seasoned, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 24. 3. See EDD. (s.v. Beek vb. 1 and 2). See beached.

beam, the main trunk of a stag’s horn which bears the antlers, Turbervile, Hunting, 53.

beam, see beme.

beamy, beam-like, massive. Dryden, Palamon, iii. 480; tr. of Aeneid, xii. 641. Cp. 1 Sam. xvii. 7 (massive as a weaver’s beam—the spear of Goliath).

bear (the animal). Are you there with your bears? are you at it again? ‘Explained by Joe Miller as the exclamation of a man who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha and the bears, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the same preacher and the same discourse’ (NED.). Some think it refers to the bears in a bear-garden; but they do not say why, nor how. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 3 (Silena); Howell, Foreign Travell, p. 20.

bear-brich, bear-breech, bear’s-breech; a popular name of the acanthus; see NED. (s.v. Brank-ursine). Golding, Metam. xiii. 701 (L. acantho); fol. 162 (1603).

bear-herd, the keeper of a bear, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 191.

bear-ward, B. Jonson, Masque of Angus (Slug). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 4 (Prigg).

bear a brain, to use one’s brains, to be cautious; also, to remember. Romeo, i. 3. 29; Grim the Collier, v. 1. 1; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 457. Cp. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1422.

bear in hand, to lead one to believe, to keep in expectation, to amuse with false pretences, Meas. for M., i. 4. 51. Hamlet, ii. 2. 67; B. Jonson, Volpone i. 1; ‘I beare in hande, I threp upon a man that he hath done a dede, or make hym byleve so’, Palsgrave. See EDD. (s.v. Barenhond). ME. ‘I bar him on honde he hadde enchanted me’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 575).

bearing. ‘A standing [upright] bearyng bowe,’ Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 79. A bearing arrow seems to have meant an arrow true in its flight (Nares), though it merely meant stout, or strong; probably a bearing bow was a strong and trusty one, one to be relied upon to shoot straight and well. So also bearing dishes, i.e. solid, substantial dishes or viands; Massinger, New Way to pay, v. 1 (Greedy).

bearing-cloth, the cloth in which a child was carried to the font. Winter’s Tale, iii. 3. 119; Beaumont and Fl., Chances, iii. 3 (Landlady).

beast, an obsolete game at cards, resembling the modern ‘Nap’. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 1007. See NED. (s.v. Beast, 8).

beaten, orig. hammered; hence, overlaid or inlaid; embroidered. ‘Beaten damask’, Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 1 (Firk).

beath, to dry green wood by placing it near the fire, to season wood by heat. Tusser, Husbandry, § 23. 9; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 7. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. bethen (Treatyse of Fysshynge). OE. beðian, to foment, to warm.

beauperes, fair companions. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 35. OF. beau + per. F. pair, an equal, a peer.

beaver; see bever.

becco, a cuckold. Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole); Massinger, Bondman, ii. 3 (Gracculo). Ital. becco, a he-goat, a cuckold (Florio).

beck and bay, at, at some one’s command. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 381. The meaning of the word bay in this phrase is uncertain; it is prob. connected with ME. beien, to bend; OE. (Anglian), bēgan; cp. the phr. buken and beien, Juliana, 27. See EDD. (s.v. Bay, vb.³), and NED. (s.v. Bow, vb.¹ 6, quot. A.D. 1240).

become; ‘I know not where my sonne is become’, i.e. what has become of him, Gascoigne, Supposes, v. 5 (Philogano); ed. Hazlitt, i. 251. Once very common.

bed, to pray. Spenser, F. Q., vi. 5. 35. Cp. ME. bede, a prayer. See bead.

bed, to command, to bid; ‘Until his Captaine bed’, until his captain may command, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 41. 3 pr. sing. subj. of ME. beden; OE. bēodan, to command.

bedare, to dare, defy. Peele, David (Salomon); ed. Dyce, p. 484. From dare; see NED. (s.v. Be-, prefix, p. 720).

bed-fere, bed-fellow. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, iii. 542: spelt bedphere, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, ii. 5.

bedlam, a lunatic; one who had been in Bethlehem hospital; the half-cured patients were licensed to beg for alms for their support. Barnes, Works (1572) p. 294, col. 2; Gammer Gurton’s Needle has, for one of its characters, Diccon the Bedlam; Bunyan, Pilgr. i. 123 (NED.); ‘A bedlam, maniacus, insanus, furiosus’, Coles, Lat. Dict. See EDD. (sb.¹ 4).

bedrench, to soak, swamp. Richard II, iii. 3. 46; bedrent, pt. s. Sackville, Induction, st. 21.

bed-staff, ‘a staff or stick used in some way about a bed’ (NED.). The precise sense is uncertain. Often used as a weapon; B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 4 (Bobadil). ‘With throwing bed-staves at her’, Staple of News, v. 1 (Lickfinger).

bee, an armlet, ring. ‘A riche bee of gold’, Morte Arthur, leaf 135 (end); bk. vii, c. 35. The word is still in use in Ireland for a ferule (EDD.). ME. bee, an armlet (Paston Letters, iii. 464). OE. bēah.

beech-coal, charcoal made from beech wood. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face).

beeld, to ‘build’. Mirror for Magistrates, Emp. Severus, st. 21. Beeld is the pron. of build in many parts of England and Scotland, see EDD., The Grammar; Index (s.v. Build).

beer, a pillow. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. iv. 414. See NED. (s.v. Bear, sb.⁴). See pillowbeer.

before me, a form of asseveration. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 194; Oth. iv. 1. 149. Cp. before heaven, Meas. ii. 1. 69; before God, Much Ado, ii. 3. 192.

beg for a fool, to ask for the guardianship of an idiot. The custody of an idiot or witless person could be granted by the king to a subject who had sufficient interest to obtain it. If the ‘fool’ was wealthy, it was a profitable business. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2 (Fustigo).

begin, s., a beginning. ‘Of fowr begynns’ (i.e. the four elements), Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 38; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. ‘The hard beginne’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 21.

beglerbeg, the governor of an Ottoman province. Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4 (Carazie). Turk. begler-beg, bey of beys.

beglarde, for beglaired, smoothed over, as with a cosmetic. Mirror for Magistrates; Guidericus, st. 43. From glair, q.v.

behave, to manage, govern, control. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 40; Timon, iii. 5. 22. OE. behabban, to restrain.

behight (in Spenser). Forms: behight, pres., pt. t., and pp.; behot (behote) pp. Meanings: (1) to promise, Pt. t.: F. Q. iv. 11. 6; Pp.: F. Q. ii. 3. 1; F. Q. i. 11. 38 (behot); (2) to name, call, pronounce, F. Q. i. 10. 64; Pp.: Shep. Kal., April, 120; (3) to order, command, F. Q. vi. 2. 30; Pt. t.: F. Q. ii. 11. 17; (4) to entrust, commit, Pt. t.: F. Q. v. 9. 3; Pp.: F. Q. i. 10. 50; (5) to account, consider, Pp.: F. Q. iv. 1. 44; (6) to adjudge, Pp.: F. Q. iv. 5. 7. The normal ME. forms are: Behote (infin.), behight (pt. t.), behote(n (pp.).

behight, a promise. Surrey, tr. of Psalm lxxiii, l. 60.

beholding, indebted, under obligation. Merry Wives, i. 1. 283; Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Pinac). In common prov. use in many parts of England (Midlands, E. Anglia, Somerset). See EDD.

beholdingness, obligation, indebtedness. Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (last speech).

bel-accoyle, fair welcome. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 25. OF. bel acoil, fair welcome. See accoyl.

belamour, a lover. Spenser, F. Q. 6. 16; iii. 10. 22. F. bel amour.

belamy, fair friend. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 52. ME. bel amy (Chaucer, C. T. C. 318). OF. bel ami.

belay, to beset, encompass. Spenser, Sonnet, 14; belayd, pp. set about with ornament; F. Q. vi. 2. 5.

belee, to place on the lee, in a position in which the wind has little influence; ‘Beleed and calmed’, Othello, i. 1. 30.

beleek, belike, probably. Peele, Arr. of Paris, iii. 1 (Mercury); id. Tale of Troy; ed. Dyce, p. 555. See belike.

belgards, amorous glances. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25; iii. 10. 52. Ital. bel guardo, fair or kindly look.

belike, perhaps, no doubt (used ironically). Milton, P. L. ii. 156; Two Gent. ii. 1. 85. In common prov. use (EDD.).

belive, quickly. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 227; B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1. Still in use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. bi life, lit. with life or liveliness. See bilive.

bell, to bear the, to take the first place, be the first, be pre-eminent. ‘Win the spurres, and beare the bell’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Aristippus, § 1. From the precedence of the bell-wether; see NED.

bellibone, a fair lass. ‘Such a bellibone’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 92. From F. belle et bonne, fair and good girl. See bonnibell.

bells, pl.: in phr. to take one’s bells, used fig., to be ready to fly away. Ford, Sun’s Darling, iii. 1 (Humour). A hawk had light bells fastened to her legs before she flew off, that her flight might be traced.

belly-cheat, an apron. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); ‘A belly-chete, an apern’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83. See backcheat.

belly-cheer, feasting, gluttony. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 114; also, meat, viands; ‘Carrelure de ventre, meat, belly-timber, belly-cheere’, Cotgrave.

belsire, grandfather. Drayton, Pol. viii. 73; beel sire, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 321. 6; bele-fader, id. lf. 344, back, 27; ‘Belsyre, grant pere’, Palsgrave. ME. belsyr, or belfadyr, ‘Avus’ (Prompt.).

beme, a trumpet. Beames (spelt beaumous) pl., Morte Arthur, leaf 423, back, 1; bk. xxi. ch. 4. ME. beme (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1240). OE. (Mercian) bēme.

bemoiled, covered with dirt. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 77. In prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).

bemol, B flat, in the musical scale. In the old sets of hexachords, which began with C, G, or F; it was found necessary, in the hexachord beginning with F, to flatten the note B. The new note, thus introduced into the old scale, was called B-mol or Be-mol, i.e. B soft; from OF. mol, soft; L. mollis. Its symbol was b, later ♭, which afterwards became a general symbol for a flattened note. ‘La, sol, re, Softly bemole’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 533. Also, a half-note; ‘Two beemolls, or halfe-notes’, Bacon, Sylva, § 104.

ben, a cant term for good; ben cove, a good fellow. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Tearcat).

ben bouse, a slang term for good drink. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor).

bend (in heraldry), an oblique stripe on a shield. Morte Arthur, leaf 216. 27; bk. x. c. 12; ‘Our bright silver bend’, Drayton, Heroical Epistles, Surrey to Lady Geraldine, 95. The bend is usually the bend dexter, from the dexter chief to the sinister base; the bend sinister slopes the other way.

bend, a band or company. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 32. F. bende (Cotgr.). See NED.

bend, a piece of very thick leather, a piece of sole-leather. ‘A bend of leather’, Heywood, First Part of K. Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. i. p. 40. Also, bend-leather (NED.). The words bend, bend-leather, bend of leather, leather bend are in use in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Bend sb.¹).

bend, to cock a musket, pistol, or other fire-arms. A transferred use, from bending a bow. ‘Like an engyn bent’, Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 3. 53 [‘With hackbut bent’, Scott, Cadyow Castle, 137]; to direct any weapon (spear, dart, &c.), ‘to bend that mortal dart’, Milton, P. L. ii. 729; ‘so bent his spear’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 34; (figuratively), King Lear, ii. 1. 48.

bene-bouse, benbouse, good drink. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman).

bene whids, good words; to cut bene whids, to speak good words. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen).

benedicite: phr. under ‘benedicite’ I speak it, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 186). The expression is used by Stubbes, when making a serious charge against the magistrates, as an invocation for deliverance from evil. L. benedicite, bless ye.

benempt, pp. named. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 214. OE. benemned, pp. of benemnan, to name (Matt. ix. 9, Lind.).

benjamin, corruption of benjoin, earlier form of benzoin. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer); Herrick, Hesp. (ed. 1869, p. 139).

benome, benoom, to deprive. Spelt benome, Mirror for Mag., Somerset, st. 9; benoom, id. Buckingham, st. 15. Benome due to pret. forms of OE. beniman (nōm, sing.; nōmon, pl.).

bent, a grassy slope. Dryden, Palamon, ii. 544 (from Chaucer, C. T. A. 1981); Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, XX. 9. Still in use in this sense in Scotland and north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Bent, II. 3).

benting times, scarce times, times when pigeons have no food but bent-grass. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1283.

bepounced, ornamented. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 454. See pounce.

beray, to defile, befoul; ‘Berayde with blots’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 241 (p. 56); Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Firestone); ‘It’s an ill bird that berays its own nest’, Ray’s Proverbs (A.D. 1678); Palsgrave; Sherwood.

berew, in a row; ‘Mock them all berew’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 246. See rewe.

bergomask, a rustic dance. Mids. Night’s D. v. 360. Ital. bergamasca, ‘sorta di ballo composto tutto di salti e capriole’ (Fanfani); Bergamasco, belonging to Bergamo, a province in the state of Venice. The inhabitants were ridiculed as being clownish in manners.

berlina, a pillory. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 8 (1 Avoc.). Ital. berlina, ‘a pillorie’ (Florio). Med. Lat. berlina (Ducange).

Bermoothes, the Bermudas. Temp. i. 2. 229. See Burmoothes.

berne, a herb; ‘The iuyce of Berne or wylde Cresseys’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 8; p. 21. F. berle, Med. L. berula, the water-pimpernel, see Gerarde, p. 621. See Prompt. EETS. (s.v. Bellerne, note no. 176).

†berry, an error for bevy, i.e. a number; ‘A berry of fair roses’, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 322. Cp. ‘A Beuy of Roos’, Book of St. Albans, fol. f 6.

beryels, a tomb. Morte Arthur, leaf 141, back, 7; bk. viii. c. 6 (end); spelt buryels, id. leaf 233, back, 23; bk. x. c. 32. OE. byrgels. See Dict. (s.v. Burial).

besant, besaunte, a gold coin of Byzantium. Morte Arthur, leaf 78. 15; bk. iv. c. 26. It varied in value from half a sovereign to a sovereign. See Dict.

bescumber, to befoul. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 34; B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. (Tibullus); Staple of News, v. 2; Comical History of Francion (Nares); spelt bescummer, Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. The word bescummer, to besmear with dirt, fig. to abuse, calumniate, is in obsolescent use in Somerset and Devon (EDD.). See scumber.

beseen: in phr. well beseen; spelt well bisene, Morte Arthur, leaf 22, back, 32; bk. i. c. 8; well beseene, well furnished, Spenser, Tears of the Muses, 180; ‘I am besene, I am well or yvell apareyled’, Palsgrave.

besgue, stammering. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 271. 5. OF. besgue (F. bègue).

besides himself, all by himself, alone. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 1 (Violetta).

besit, to suit, befit. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; besitting, befitting, id. iv. 2. 19; ‘It well besits’, Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, 227. Cp. use of F. seoir, to sit, also, to fit, suit, sit properly on (Hatzfeld).

beslurry, to sully all over; ‘All beslurried’, Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 32. Prov. E. slurry, to soil, bedaub (EDD).

beso las manos, a kissing of hands; lit. ‘I kiss your hands’, a common Spanish salutation to a lady. Massinger, Duke of Florence, iii. 1 (Calandrino).

besogno, a needy fellow (a term of contempt). B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 2 (Asotus). See bisogno.

bespawl, to bespatter with saliva. B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); ‘Foam bespawled beard’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 440. OE. spāld (spādl, spāðl, spātl), saliva.

besprint, besprinkled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 111. Also besprent, bespreint. OE. besprenged, pp. of besprengan, to sprinkle.

bestead, pp. ill bestedded, ill helped, in a bad plight. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 1. 3; ill bestad, id. ii. 1. 52; strangely bestad, strangely beset or placed, id. iii. 10. 54; bestad, treated, id. vi. 6. 18; circumstanced, Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 23. See Dict.

bestraught, distracted. Tam. Shrew, Induction, ii. 26. L. distractus gave distract and distraught on the analogy of ME. straught, pp. of strecchen, to stretch (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 599); hence the forms bestraught, astraught. See NED. (s.v. Bestraught).

betake, to commit, consign, deliver, hand over. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 25; vi. 11. 51; pt. t. betook, id. iii. 6. 28; pp. betake, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 62; fol. B ij. ME. bitaken; ‘Ich bitake min soule God’ = I commit my soul to God (Rob. Glouc. 475).

be-tall, to pay; ‘What is to be-tall, what there is to pay; the amount of the reckoning’, Heywood, Fair Maid of the West, ii. 1 (Clem); with a quibble on to be tall. Du. betalen, to pay (Hexham).

beteem, to grant, bestow, concede, indulge with. Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 131; Hamlet, i. 2. 141; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 19. A Gloucestershire word (EDD.). Cp. ME. temen, to offer or dedicate (to God), Cursor M. 6170; see NED. (s.v. Teem, vb.¹ 7).

betight, pp. for betid or betided; happened. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 174.

betso, a small Venetian coin; worth about a farthing. Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Bravo). Ital. bezzo, a small brass coin in Venice (Florio).

bett, better. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 15. OE. bet, adv. better.

beurn, for berne, a warrior. Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 54; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. ME. burne, a man (P. Plowman, C. xvi. 163). OE. beorn, a brave man.

bever, the lower part of the moveable front of a helmet. Bacon, Essay 35, § 1; Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 31; beaver, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 120; Hen. V. iv. 2. 44. F. ‘Bavière d’un armet, the beaver of a helmet’ (Cotgr.).

bever, a short intermediate repast. A supper, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii, l. 10 from end. Bever is in prov. use in many parts of England in the sense of a slight refreshment taken between meals, either at 11 a.m. or 4 p.m. (EDD.). Norm. F. bever, ‘boire’ (Moisy); cp. Mod. Prov. grand-béure, ‘petit repas que les moissonneurs font vers 10 heures du matin’ (Glossaire, Mirèio).

bever, to tremble. Morte Arthur, leaf 28, back, 4; bk. i, c. 15. Bever (biver), to tremble, is in common prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.).

bewaile, to lament over; ‘An hidden rock ... That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 31. The meaning seems to be: the rock lay in wait so that she would have to bewail her wreck.

beware, to spend, bestow money. Wel bywaryd, well bestowed. Morte Arthur, leaf 123, back, 18; bk. vii, c. 21. Cp. prov. word ware, to spend, to lay out money (EDD.). ME. waryn, ‘mercor’ (Prompt.).

bewared, made to beware, put on one’s guard. Dryden, Cock and Fox, 799.

bewet, buet, a ring or slip of leather for attaching a bell to a hawk’s leg. ‘The letheris that be putt in his bellis, to be fastyned a-boute his leggys, ye shall calle Bewettis’, Boke of St. Albans, fol. B 6; ‘That, hauing hood, lines, buets, bels of mee,’ Turbervile, To a fickle Dame, 2. Dimin. of OF. buie, bue, boie, a bond, chain, fetter. L. boia, sing. of boiae, a collar.

bezoar’s stone, for bezoar-stone, a supposed antidote to poison. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo). See Dict.

bezonian, needy beggar, rascal. 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 115; 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 134; spelt bisognion, Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv. 1. 13; see Dict. See bisogno.

bezzle, to besot, stupefy, to drink immoderately. Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Malevole). ‘To bezzle, pergraecor’, Coles, Dict. Hence, bezeling, tippling, Marston, Scourge, ii. 7. In prov. use in the sense of drinking immoderately, in various parts of England; see EDD. (s.v. Bezzle, vb.¹ 2). Norm. F. ‘besiller, s’user, s’épuiser, se perdre, dépérir’ (Moisy). See Ducange (s.v. Besilium).

bias, from the, out of the way, off the track. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 1 (Hodge). Prov. biais, ‘manière, façon’; de biais, ‘obliquement’ (Levy).

bibble, bible, to drink frequently. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 478; Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 550. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

bidcock, a bird; said to be the water-rail. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 100.

biddell, a beadle. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 28. OE. bydel.

bidene, in one body or company, together, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 268 (NED.); straightway, at once, forthwith, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 956; Douglas, Aeneid, I. ii. 33 (NED.). Often used in Scottish poetry as a rime word, or to fill up the line, or as a mere expletive, see EDD. (s.v. Bedene). Cp. ME. phrase all(e bidene, continuously, one after another (Cursor M. 1457); in one body, all together (Ormulum, 4793).

bid-stand, a highwayman. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Sogliardo). Because he bids men stand and deliver.

bienvenu, benvenu, a welcome. A Woman never vext, v. 1 (King); Massinger, The Picture, ii. 2. 4. F. bienvenuë, a welcome (Cotgr.).

big, a pap or teat. Tusser, Husbandry, 74; Shadwell Witches (EDD.), Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xviii. ch. 7; ‘Bigge, a country word for a pap or teat’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. See EDD.

big, a boil, small tumour. Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxxii. ch. 9; Gaule Cases Consc. 6 (NED.).

biggin, a child’s cap. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 5 (Mosca); Proverb, ‘From the biggen to the nightcap’ (i.e. from infancy to old age), B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Haughty); the saying is still in use in Cornwall (EDD.). F. ‘beguin, a biggin for a child’ (Cotgr.).

biggon, a barrister’s cap. Mayne, City Match, iv. 7 (Aurelia).

bilander, a coasting vessel, a by-lander. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 128. Du. bijlander.

bilbo, a sword of excellent quality. Merry Wives, iii. 5. 112. Hence, one who wears a bilbo, id. i. 1. 165. From Bilbao (E. Bilboa) in Spain.

bilboes, pl., an iron bar, with sliding shackles, for securing prisoners. Hamlet, v. 2. 6; Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, ii. 2 (near the end). Perhaps from Bilbao; see above.

bilive, soon, quickly. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., ii. 1 (Lord). See belive.

bilk, a statement having nothing in it. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (Tub); a cheat, a fraud, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 376.

bill, an advertisement. Much Ado, i. 1. 39; B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1. 1; a doctor’s prescription, Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 603.

billed, pp. enrolled. North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antony, § 3 (Shak. Plut. p. 157, note 3).

billiments, pl., habiliments, apparel. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Tibet); billements, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 4 (Song). Short for habiliments.

bill-men, watchmen, armed with a pike or halbert. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).

bind with, to grapple with, seize; said of a hawk. Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo).

bing, to go. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. I (Song); bynge a waste, go you hence, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; bing awast, go away, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

bird-bolt, a short blunt arrow, usually shot from a cross-bow at birds. Much Ado, i. 1. 42; L. L. L. iv. 3. 25.

birle, to pour out liquor. Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 269; Levins Manip. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. byrle (Cath. Angl.); OE. byrlian, to give to drink; byrel, a cup-bearer.

bisa, bise, a north wind. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1339); p. 134, col. 2. F. bise, a north wind (Cotgr.). O. Prov. biza, ‘bise, nord’ (Levy).

bisogno, bisognio, a needy fellow, a term of contempt. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Alguazier); Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i. (Lysander). Ital. bisogni, pl. new-levied soldiers, needy men; bisogno, need, want. Cp. bezonian.

bitched, a term of opprobrium; ‘Bitched brothel’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 254.

bite on the bridle, to be impatient of restraint. Gascoigne, i. 449, l. 25.

bitter, bittour, a bittern. Bitter, Middleton, Triumph of Love, ed. Dyce, v. 289; bittour, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 89; Dryden, Wife of Bath’s Tale, 194; Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. bitore (Chaucer, C. T. D. 972); OF. butor, a bittern (Hatzfeld).

bizzle, to become drunk, to drink to excess. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Matheo). See bezzle.

black: phr. black is your eye. To say ‘black is your eye’, to find fault with one, to lay something to his charge. ‘I can say, black’s your eye, though it be grey’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 1 (Alguazier); ‘black’s mine eye’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).

black guard, orig. a jocular name given to the lower menials of a noble house, esp. those who had charge of kitchen utensils, and carried them about when required; ‘A lousy slave, that within this twenty years rode with the black guard in the duke’s carriage [i.e. among his baggage], ’mongst spits and dripping-pans’, Webster, White Devil, ed. Dyce, p. 8; Fletcher, Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo).

black jack, a leathern jug for beer, tarred outside. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Savil); Middleton, The Witch, i. 1 (Gasparo).

black-mack, a blackbird; ‘A leane birde of the kind of blacke-mackes’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 34; ‘Merula, a birde called a black-mack, an owzell, a mearle, or black-bird’, Florio.

black ox; ‘The Black Ox has trod on his foot, he has fallen on misfortune or sorrow’, Lyly, Sapho and Phao, iv. 1; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 112). See Nares, and EDD. (s.v. Black, 5 (11)).

black-pot, a beer-mug; hence, a toper. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 2 (scene 5, W.), at the end; p. 160, col. 2 (D.).

blacks, mourning clothes. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iii. 1 (Francisco); Maid in a Mill, iv. 2 (Bustopha); Bacon, Essay 2; Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 1 (Charalois); Herrick, Hesperides, 379. In prov. use; see EDD. (s.v. Black, sb.¹ 4).

Black Sanctus, or Black Saunce; see Sanctus.

blanch, to give a fair appearance to by artifice or suppression of the truth. Bacon, Essays 20 and 26; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 222; Od. xi. 492; Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 37).