1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

BLEEDING NEW. A metaphor borrowed from fish, which will not bleed when stale.

BLESSING. A small quantity over and above the measure, usually given by hucksters dealing in peas, beans, and other vegetables.

BLIND. A feint, pretence, or shift.

BLIND CHEEKS. The breech. Buss blind cheeks; kiss mine a-se.

BLIND EXCUSE. A poor or insufficient excuse. A blind ale-house, lane, or alley; an obscure, or little known or frequented ale-house, lane, or alley.

BLIND HARPERS. Beggars counterfeiting blindness, playing on fiddles, &c.

BLINDMAN'S BUFF. A play used by children, where one being blinded by a handkerchief bound over his eyes, attempts to seize any one of the company, who all endeavour to avoid him; the person caught, must be blinded in his stead.

BLIND CUPID. The backside.

BLINDMAN'S HOLIDAY. Night, darkness.

BLOCK HOUSES. Prisons, houses of correction, &c.

BLOCKED AT BOTH ENDS. Finished. The game is blocked at both ends; the game is ended.

BLOOD. A riotous disorderly fellow.

BLOOD FOR BLOOD. A term used by tradesmen for bartering the different commodities in which they deal. Thus a hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.

BLOOD MONEY. The reward given by the legislature on the conviction of highwaymen, burglars, &c.

BLOODY BACK. A jeering appellation for a soldier, alluding to his scarlet coat.

BLOODY. A favourite word used by the thieves in swearing, as bloody eyes, bloody rascal.

BLOSS or BLOWEN. The pretended wife of a bully, or shoplifter. Cant.

TO BLOT THE SKRIP AND JAR IT. To stand engaged or bound for any one. Cant.

BLOW. He has bit the blow, i.e. he has stolen the goods. Cant.

BLOWEN. A mistress or whore of a gentleman of the scamp. The blowen kidded the swell into a snoozing ken, and shook him of his dummee and thimble; the girl inveigled the gentleman into a brothel and robbed him of his pocket book and watch.

BLOWER. A pipe. How the swell funks his blower and lushes red tape; what a smoke the gentleman makes with his pipe, and drinks brandy.

TO BLOW THE GROUNSILS. To lie with a woman on the floor. Cant.

TO BLOW THE GAB. To confess, or impeach a confederate. Cant.

BLOW-UP. A discovery, or the confusion occasioned by one.

A BLOWSE, or BLOWSABELLA. A woman whose hair is dishevelled, and hanging about her face; a slattern.

BLUBBER. The mouth.—I have stopped the cull's blubber; I have stopped the fellow's mouth, meant either by gagging or murdering him.

TO BLUBBER. To cry.

TO SPORT BLUBBER. Said of a large coarse woman, who exposes her bosom.

BLUBBER CHEEKS. Large flaccid cheeks, hanging like the fat or blubber of a whale.

BLUE, To look blue; to be confounded, terrified, or disappointed. Blue as a razor; perhaps, blue as azure.

BLUE BOAR. A venereal bubo.

BLUE DEVILS. Low spirits.

BLUE FLAG. He has hoisted the blue flag; he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, an allusion to the blue aprons worn by publicans. See ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE.

BLUE PIGEONS. Thieves who steal lead off houses and churches. Cant. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off houses or churches.

BLUE PLUMB. A bullet.—Surfeited with a blue plumb; wounded with a bullet. A sortment of George R—'s blue plumbs; a volley of ball, shot from soldiers' firelocks.

BLUE SKIN. A person begotten on a black woman by a white man. One of the blue squadron; any one having a cross of the black breed, or, as it is termed, a lick of the tar brush.

BLUE TAPE, or SKY BLUE. Gin.

BLUE RUIN. Gin. Blue ribband; gin.

BLUFF. Fierce, surly. He looked as bluff as bull beef.

BLUFFER. An inn-keeper. Cant.

BLUNDERBUSS. A short gun, with a wide bore, for carrying slugs; also a stupid, blundering fellow.

BLUNT. Money. Cant.

TO BLUSTER. To talk big, to hector or bully.

BOARDING SCHOOL. Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison, or house of correction.

BOB. A shoplifter's assistant, or one that receives and carries off stolen goods. All is bob; all is safe. Cant.

BOB. A shilling.

BOBBED. Cheated, tricked, disappointed.

BOBBISH. Smart, clever, spruce.

BOB STAY. A rope which holds the bowsprit to the stem or cutwater. Figuratively, the frenum of a man's yard.

BOB TAIL. A lewd woman, or one that plays with her tail; also an impotent man, or an eunuch. Tag, rag, and bobtail; a mob of all sorts of low people. To shift one's bob; to move off, or go away. To bear a bob; to join in chorus with any singers. Also a term used by the sellers of game, for a partridge.