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babion, baboon. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus); Drayton, Man in the Moon, 331; spelt babyone Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124, l. 163. F. ‘babion, a babion or baboone’ (Cotgr.).

bable, a ‘bauble’, a toy, trick, fancy. ‘Has fill’d my head So full of bables’ (some edd. baubles), Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 7; ‘That bable called love’, Lyly, Endimion, iii. 3 (Epi.). OF. babel, baubel, a child’s plaything (Godefroy); beau + bel, cp. F. bonbon.

bace, (Spenser); see base.

bacharach, backrack, the name of a wine. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Vandunke); Bacrack, Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 300. From Bacharach, on the Rhine. See backrag.

back, a bat. Backes or reermice; Golding, Metam., iv. 415; fol. 49 (1603). The pl. backes is the form used by Wyclif, Coverdale and the Geneva Bible, in Isaiah ii. 20, where AV. has battes, see NED. (s.v. Bat). In Scotland the usual word for the bat is Backie (or Backie-bird), see EDD. (s.v. Backie, sb.¹ 1 and 2).

backare!, go back, keep back. ‘Backare! quod Mortimer to his sow; i.e. keep back, said Mortimer’; an old proverb, often quoted against such as are too forward, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2 (Roister); Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 72. See EDD. (s.v. Baccare).

backcheat, stolen apparel, lit. things from the back. (Thieves’ cant.) ‘Back or belly-cheats’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). See cheat.

backrag, the name of a wine. Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, v. 1 (Bornwell); Mayne, City Match, i. 3 (near the end). See bacharach.

backside, a yard behind a farmhouse. Witch of Edmonton, iv. 1 (Old Banks). Very common in prov. usage, see EDD. (s.v. Backside, 2).

badger-nab, a strong little badger. ‘Meg [a witch] What Beast was by thee hither rid? Mawd [second witch] A Badger-nab’, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., iv. 1, vol. iv. p. 220. Cp. knab, a strong boy, a thickset, strong little animal (EDD.).

baffle, to treat with ignominy and contempt. It was originally a punishment inflicted on recreant knights, one part of it being that the victim was hung up by the heels and beaten. See Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 27; Beaumont and Fl., A King and no King, iii. 2 (Bessus); 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 113; Richard II, i. 1. 170. See Trench, Select Glossary, and NED.

bag: phr. to give the bag, to cheat. Westward Ho, iv. 2 (Honeysuckle).

bagage, refuse, worthless stuff; ‘When brewers put no bagage in their beere’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1082; Tusser, Husbandry, st. 21. An Essex word in this sense, see EDD. (s.v. Baggage, sb.¹). Cp. Port. bagaço, ‘marc; ce qui reste de plus grossier de quelque fruit, qu’on a pressé pour en retirer le suc’ (Roquette).

bagatine, a small Italian coin, worth about the third part of a farthing. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 2 (Vol.). Ital. bagatino, bagattino, ‘a little coyne vsed in Italie’ (Florio).

bagle, a staff, or crosier such as a bishop carries. Bagle-rod, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vii. 188 (see the side-note). Icel. bagall, a crosier, L. baculum, a rod, staff.

bague, baghe, a ring, brooch. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 54, back, 8; lf. 98. 11. F. bague.

baies, scoldings (?). ‘Ill servant ... deserveth hir fee to be paid hir with baies’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 81. 2.

bain, a bath. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, x. 567; to bathe, Greene, The Palmer’s Verses, l. 88 (Capricornus); bayne, Surrey, Desc. of restless state of a Lover, 13. F. bain.

bain, supple, lithe. Golding, Metam. iv. 354 (fol. 48); xv. 202; fol. 182 (1603). In common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Bain, sb. 1). ME. beyn, ‘flexibilis’ (Prompt.). Icel. beinn, straight; also, ready to serve.

bains; see banes.

bait, to stop at an inn to feed the horses, also to stop for refreshment; used fig. ‘Evil news rides post, while good news baits’, Milton, Samson, 1538. In prov. use in the sense of stopping to feed. See EDD. (s.v. Bait, vb.¹ 2).

bald, marked with white upon the head. Hence ‘bald coot’, a coot (Fulica atra); Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, i. 1 (Zanthia). In prov. use (EDD.).

bale, a set of dice; usually three. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 1 (Young Chartley); A Woman never vexed, ii. 1 (Stephen). See NED. (s.v. Bale, sb.³ 4).

ball, a white streak on a horse’s face. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 73. Hence ball, as a horse’s name; orig. one marked with a white streak; Tusser, Husbandry, § 95, st. 2. Prob. of Celtic origin; cp. Gael. ball, spot, mark, Breton bal, a white mark on an animal’s face.

balloon, a game in which a large ball (like a football) was struck by the arm, which was protected by a stout guard. Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Sir Petronel); Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, iv. 1 (1st Lady). Balloo, in the phr. at the Balloo (B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1: Volpone), must be an error for at the Balloon, i.e. when playing at the game. Also balloon-ball, Middleton, Game at Chess, ii. 1 (B. Knight).

ballow, smooth. ‘Ballowe wood’, i.e. smooth wood without bark, see Nottingham Corporation Records, ed. Stevenson, vol. iv, Glossary (date of entry 1504); ‘The ballow nag’, Drayton, Pol. iii. 24. ME. balhow, smooth, plain (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 136).

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).

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.

buff ne baff, never a word; ‘Saied to hym ... neither buff ne baff’ Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 25. Caxton, Reynard (Arber, 106). Buff nor baff is a phr. in use in Leicestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Buff, sb.⁵ 6).

buffe, to bark gently; ‘Buffe and barke’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 140. A Yorksh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Buff, vb.³ 1).

buffin, a coarse cloth in use for gowns of the middle classes. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 4 (Milliscent); Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Gertrude). See NED.

buffon (búff-on), a buffoon. B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 3. 8. F. bouffon.

bufo, a term in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Subtle). ‘The black tincture of the alchemists’ (Gifford). Only occurs in this passage. L. bufo, lit. a toad.

bug, an object of terror, bogey, hobgoblin. Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 214; Hamlet, v. 2. 22; Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2 (Moor); ‘Thou shalt not nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night’, Coverdale, Ps. xc (xci), 5. ME. bugge, ‘ducius’ (Prompt.).

bug words, pompous, conceited words, Massinger, New Way to Pay, iii. 2 (Marrall); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2 (Huntley). See EDD. (s.v. Bug, adj. 1).

bulch, to stave in the bottom of a ship. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 132. Cp. bulge, the ‘bilge’, bottom of a ship’s hull (NED. s.v. Bulge, sb. 4).

bulch, a bull-calf; used as a term of endearment by a witch. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, v. 1 (Sawyer). Still in prov. use in Scotland: ‘Sic a bonnie bulch o’ a bairn’, a Banffshire expression (EDD.).

bulchin, a bull-calf. Tusser, Husbandry, 33; Drayton, Pol. xxi. 65; used as a term of endearment, Shirley, Gamester, iv. 1 (Young B.); a term of contempt, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). A Shropsh. word for a calf; fig. a stout child (EDD.). See bulkin.

bulcking, a term of endearment. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, i. 671. See NED. (s.v. Bulkin).

bulk, the belly, Lucrece, 467; the trunk, the body; spelt boulke. Elyot, Castle Health (NED.); Richard III, i. 4. 40.

bulk, a framework projecting from the front of a shop. Coriolanus, ii. 1. 226; Othello, v. 1. 1.

bulker, a petty thief; also, a street-walker, prostitute. (Cant.) Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, i. 1 (2 Bully). One who sleeps on a ‘bulk’, one who steals from a ‘bulk’; see bulk (above).

bulkin, a bull-calf; ‘A young white bulkin’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxviii, c. 12. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). See bulchin.

bull, a jest; ‘To print his jests. Hazard. His bulls, you mean’, Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3.

bull-beggar, an object of terror, a hobgoblin. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, i. 4 (near the end); A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (Host); Bull-begger, ‘larva, Terriculamentum,’ Skinner (1671). Perhaps a corruption of bull-boggart. See NED.

bulled, swollen. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (George). Still in use in Northamptonsh. and Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. bolled, swollen (NED.).

bullions. The full form is bullion-hose (NED.), a term applied to trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, in several folds. ‘His bastard bullions’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 4 (Higgen) [bastard is the name of a kind of cloth]; a pair of bullions, The Chances, v. 2 (John); in the bullion, i.e. wearing bullions, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 2 (Pontalier).

bully-rook, a familiar term of endearment, fine fellow. Merry Wives, i. 3. 2; ii. 1. 200; Shirley, Gent. of Venice, iii. 1 (Thomazo). See EDD. (s.v. Bully, sb.¹).

bum, to strike, beat, thump. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); Greene, James IV, iii. 2 (Andrew). See EDD. (s.v. Bum, vb.³ 1).

bum out, to project; ‘What have you bumming out there?’ Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim).

bum vay, a familiar contraction of by my fay, by my faith. Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, iv. 3, near the end; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 364; by my vay, Wily Beguiled, Hazlitt, ix. 328. See EDD. (s.v. Fay, sb.¹ 1). ME. by my fey (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1126).

bumb-blade. (Cant.) Given in NED. as bum-blade, a large sword, Massinger, City Madam, i. 2 (Page).

bump, to make a noise like a bittern, to boom. Dryden, Wife of Bath, 194. Bumping, the boom of the bittern, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii. c. 27 (4). See EDD. (s.v. Bump, vb.²).

bunch, a company of teal; a technical word in falconry. Drayton, xxv. 63. In E. Anglia they speak of a ‘bunch’ of wild-fowl, see EDD. (s.v. Bunch, sb.¹ ii. 2).

bung, a purse. (Cant.) Dekker, Roaring Girl (Wks., ed. 1873, iii. 217); a pick-pocket, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 138.

bunting, fat, plump. In Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 1. 10. NED. explains it as ‘plump’; but suggests that it may perhaps mean ‘butting’, from the verb bunt, to butt. I was at first inclined to take the same view; but the context decides altogether in favour of the adjective. In l. 7, Faunus brings with him ‘The fattest, fairest fawn in all the chace: I wonder how the knave could skip so fast.’; i.e. because he was so fat. And Pan replies that he has brought with him an equally fat lamb, viz. ‘A bunting lamb; nay, pray you, feel no bones [i.e. you can’t feel his bones]. Believe me now, my cunning much I miss If ever Pan felt fatter lamb than this’. See EDD. (s.v. Bunting, adj.¹).

burble, to bubble. Spelt burbyl, Morte Arthur, leaf 382, back, 8; bk. xviii. c. 21; pres. pt. burbelynge, id. lf. 208. 17; bk. x. c. 2; ‘I boyle up or burbyll up as a water dothe in a spring’, Je bouillonne, Palsgrave. See EDD.

burbolt, a bird-bolt, a kind of blunt-headed arrow used for shooting birds. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 2 (Custance); Marston, What you Will, Induction (Philomuse).

burden, a staff, club. In Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 46. See bordon.

burdseat, a board-seat, i.e. a stool. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 408.

burgh; See burre (2).

burgullian, a term of abuse. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 4 (Cob).

burle, to pick out from cloth knots, loose threads, &c.; ‘Desquamare vestes, to burle clothe’, Cooper, Dict. (1565). Hence Burling-iron, a pair of tweezers used in ‘burling’, Herrick, To the Painter, 10. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Burl, vb. 1). ME. burle clothe, ‘extuberare’ (Cath. Angl.).

Burmoothes, the Bermudas. Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, i. 2 (end). See Bermoothes.

burnish, to grow stout or plump, to fill out; said of the human frame. Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xi, ch. 37; vol. i, p. 345 b (1634); Congreve, Way of the World, iii. 3 (Mrs. Marwood); ‘Femme qui encharge, that grows big on’t, who burnishes, or whose belly increases’, Cotgrave; Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 390. In prov. use, see EDD.

burnt, branded as a criminal. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 2 (Cat. Bountinall).

burnt sack, a particular kind of wine heated at the fire, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 222; burnt wine, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Scapha); burnt claret, The Tatler, no. 36, § 5 (1709).

burre, the lowest of the tines on a stag’s horn. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21, p. 53. Still in use in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.¹ 7), where the word is defined, ‘the ball or knob of a stag’s horn at its juncture with the skull’. See antlier.

burre, an iron ring on a tilting spear, just behind the place for the hand. ‘Burre or yron of a launce, &c.’, Florio, tr. of Montaigne, ii. 37; in form burgh, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Moll). ME. burwhe, sercle, ‘orbiculus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 268). See EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.⁶), and NED. (s.v. Burr, sb.¹).

burrough, borrow, a pledge, a surety. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Pan); v. 2 (Turfe). ME. borwe, a pledge (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1622). OE. borh (dat. borge).

Burse, an Exchange; esp. the Royal Exchange built by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566; it contained shops. Massinger, City Madam, iii. 1. 13; Middleton, The Roaring Girl, iv. 1 (Moll’s Song). F. bourse.

bursmen, (perhaps) shopmen; ‘Welcome, still my merchants of bona speranza [i.e. gamblers]; .. what ware deal you in? .. Say, my brave bursmen’, A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (beginning). I think the reference is to keepers of shops in the Burse; see above.

bursten, ruptured. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 3 (Savil). In common prov. use (with various pronunciations), see EDD. (s.v. Burst, vb. 2).

bushment, an ambush. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 70. ME. buschment (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 269).

busine, a trumpet. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 199. 20; busyne, id., lf. 187, back, 26. Anglo-F. buisine (Ch. Rol., 3523), L. buccina.

buske, a bush. Ralph, Roister Doister, i. 4 (M. Merygreek). ME. buske, or busshe, ‘rubus’ (Prompt.).

buskets, a spray, as of hawthorn. May buskets, sprays of ‘May’ or hawthorn, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 10. See Dict. (s.v. Bouquet).

buskined, wearing the buskins of tragedy; hence tragic, dignified. ‘The buskin’d scene’, Massinger, Roman Actor, i. 1. 6; ‘buskin’d strain’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 333.

busking, an attiring; esp. the dressing of the head. Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. i. (ed. Arber, p. 54). ME. busken, to get oneself ready (Cursor M., 11585). See Dict.

buskle, to prepare oneself; hence, to set out, start on a journey, set to work, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid iii. 359 (ed. Arber, 81); to hurry about, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 6, st. 51. Freq. of busk, vb.; see above.

busk-point, the lace, with its tag (or point), which secured the end of the ‘busk’, or strip of wood in the front of the stays. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 2 (Hodge); Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (Maquerelle); How a Man may Choose, i. 3 (Fuller).

busky, bushy. 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 2. See bosky.

bustain, (prob.) clothed in bustian or busteyn, a cotton fabric of foreign manufacture; used as a term of derision; ‘Penthesilea with her bustain troopes’ (i.e. her Amazons). Heywood, Iron Age, pt. ii; vol. iii, p. 368. OF. bustanne, ‘sorte d’étoffe fabriquée à Valenciennes’ (Godefrey).

but, except, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 82; Massinger, Renegado, i. 2; unless, Bible, Amos iii. 17; but if, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 16; iv. 8. 33. In prov. use in Cheshire (EDD.). ME. Wyclif, John xii. 24: ‘But a corn of whete falle in to the erthe, and be deed, it dwellith alone.’

but-bolt, butt-bolt, an unbarbed arrow used in shooting at the butts. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Cuddy). See butt-shaft.

butin, booty. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 277, back, 18. F. butin.

butter-box, a contemptuous term for a (fat) Dutchman. Massinger, Renegado, ii. 5. 8; Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Fulgoso).

butter-print, a humorous expression for a child, as bearing the stamp of the parents’ likeness. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 10; The Chances, i. 5 (Don John); Span. Curate, ii. 1 (Diego).

buttery-bar, the horizontal ledge on the top of the buttery-hatch, or half-door, to rest tankards on, Twelfth Nt., i. 3. 75. Buttery-hatch, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Robin). A ‘buttery-hatch’ is still to be seen opposite the entrance to the dining-hall in every college in Oxford. See NED.

button, a bud. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 1. 6. ME. botoun (Rom. Rose, 1721). OF. bouton, a bud (Rom. Rose); see Bartsch, 412.

buttons, to make, to be in great fear. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Sancho). See EDD. (s.v. Button, sb.¹ 8 and 12).

butt-shaft, an arrow (without a barb), for shooting at the butts. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Cupid); L. L. L. i. 2. 181.

buxom, yielding, obedient; blithe, lively. Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 626; Henry V, iii. 6. 28; Milton, L’Allegro, 24. See Dict.

buzzes, for burrs-es, double pl. of burr; burrs; used of the rough seed-vessels of some plants. Field, Woman a Weathercock, ii. 1 (Scudmore).

by and by, immediately. Bible, Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9; Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 2. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

by-blow, a bastard. Ussher, Annals, 499 (NED.); Cox, Registers, Lambeth, A.D. 1688, p. 75. In common prov. use in the north of England and the Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. By(e, 8 (4)).

by-chop, a bastard. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iv. 2 (Chair).

bye, a secondary object; bye and main, a term orig. used in dicing, expressing different ways of winning. To bar bye and main, to prevent entirely, stop altogether, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalura).

bye, to pay the penalty for, atone for. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 1. 30. Cp. ME. abyen, to buy off (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4393). See aby.

bynempt, declared solemnly, promised with an oath. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 60; Shep. Kal., July, 214. See benempt.

by’r lakin, by our Lady-kin or little Lady (with reference to the Virgin Mary). Temp. iii. 3. 1; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 14. So also Byrlady, Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 2 (1 Gent.). In prov. use from Yorksh. to Derbysh., see EDD. (s.v. Byrlakins).

byse, greyish; light blue, or azure. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1158. See Dict. (s.v. Bice).

bysse, fine linen; also, a vague name for any fine or costly material. Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales, ed. Dyce, v. 558; Peele, Honour of the Garter, l. 88. OF. bysse, L. byssus, Gk. βύσσos, ‘fine linen’ (Luke xvi. 19); Heb. būts, applied to the finest and most precious stuffs as worn by persons of high rank or honour (1 Chron. iv. 21).