1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 6
BLARNEY. He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller. The blarney stone is a triangular stone on the very top of an ancient castle of that name in the county of Cork in Ireland, extremely difficult of access; so that to have ascended to it, was considered as a proof of perseverance, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honour, who never atchieved the adventure: and to tip the blarney, is figuratively used telling a marvellous story, or falsity; and also sometimes to express flattery. Irish.
A BLASTED FELLOW or BRIMSTONE. An abandoned rogue or prost.i.tute. Cant.
To BLAST. To curse.
BLATER. A calf. Cant.
BLEACHED MORT. A fair-complexioned wench.
BLEATERS. Those cheated by Jack in a box. CANT.--See JACK IN A BOX.
BLEATING CHEAT. A sheep. Cant.
BLEATING RIG. Sheep stealing. Cant.
BLEEDERS. Spurs. He clapped his bleeders to his prad; be put spurs to his horse.
BLEEDING CULLY. One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely.
BLEEDING NEW. A metaphor borrowed from fish, which will not bleed when stale.
BLESSING. A small quant.i.ty 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.
b.l.o.o.d.y BACK. A jeering appellation for a soldier, alluding to his scarlet coat.
b.l.o.o.d.y. A favourite word used by the thieves in swearing, as b.l.o.o.d.y eyes, b.l.o.o.d.y 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 wh.o.r.e 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 coa.r.s.e 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 ap.r.o.ns 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.