Lexicon Balatronicum | Page 5

are
directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails. The old BAG OF
NAILS at Pimlico; originally the BACCHANALS.
BAGGAGE. Heavy baggage; women and children. Also a familiar
epithet for a woman; as, cunning baggage, wanton baggage, &c.
BAKERS DOZEN. Fourteen; that number of rolls being allowed to the
purchasers of a dozen.
BAKER-KNEE'D. One whose knees knock together in walking, as if
kneading dough.
BALDERDASH. Adulterated wine.
BALLOCKS. The testicles of a man or beast; also a vulgar nick name
for a parson. His brains are in his ballocks, a cant saying to designate a
fool.
BALUM RANCUM. A hop or dance, where the women are all
prostitutes. N. B. The company dance in their birthday suits.
BALSAM. Money.
BAM. A jocular imposition, the same as a humbug. See HUMBUG.
TO BAM. To impose on any one by a falsity; also to jeer or make fun
of any one.
TO BAMBOOZLE. To make a fool of any one, to humbug or impose
on him.
BANAGHAN. He beats Banaghan; an Irish saying of one who tells
wonderful stories. Perhaps Banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing
in the marvellous.
BANDBOX. Mine a-se on a bandbox; an answer to the offer of any
thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is proffered, like offering a
bandbox for a seat.
BANBURY STORY OF A COCK AND A BULL. A roundabout,
nonsensical story.
BANDOG. A bailiff or his follower; also a very fierce mastiff: likewise,
a bandbox. CANT.
BANG UP. (WHIP.) Quite the thing, hellish fine. Well done. Compleat.
Dashing. In a handsome stile. A bang up cove; a dashing fellow who
spends his money freely. To bang up prime: to bring your horses up in
a dashing or fine style: as the swell's rattler and prads are bang up

prime; the gentleman sports an elegant carriage and fine horses.
TO BANG. To beat.
BANGING. Great; a fine banging boy.
BANG STRAW. A nick name for a thresher, but applied to all the
servants of a farmer.
BANKRUPT CART. A one-horse chaise, said to be so called by a Lord
Chief Justice, from their being so frequently used on Sunday jaunts by
extravagant shop-keepers and tradesmen.
BANKS'S HORSE. A horse famous for playing tricks, the property of
one Banks. It is mentioned in Sir Walter Raleigh's Hist. of the World, p.
178; also by Sir Kenelm Digby and Ben Jonson.
BANTLING. A young child.
BANYAN DAY. A sea term for those days on which no meat is
allowed to the sailors: the term is borrowed from the Banyans in the
East Indies, a cast that eat nothing that had life.
BAPTIZED, OR CHRISTENED. Rum, brandy, or any other spirits,
that have been lowered with water.
BARBER'S CHAIR. She is as common as a barber's chair, in which a
whole parish sit to be trimmed; said of a prostitute.
BARBER'S SIGN. A standing pole and two wash balls.
BARGAIN. To sell a bargain; a species of wit, much in vogue about
the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, and frequently alluded to by
Dean Swift, who says the maids of honour often amused themselves
with it. It consisted in the seller naming his or her hinder parts, in
answer to the question, What? which the buyer was artfully led to ask.
As a specimen, take the following instance: A lady would come into a
room full of company, apparently in a fright, crying out, It is white, and
follows me! On any of the company asking, What? she sold him the
bargain, by saying, Mine a-e.
BARGEES. (CAMBRIDGE.) Barge-men on the river.
BARKER. The shopman of a bow-wow shop, or dealer in second hand
clothes, particularly about Monmouth-Street, who walks before his
master's door, and deafens every passenger with his cries of--Clothes,
coats, or gowns--what d'ye want, gemmen?--what d'ye buy? See
BOW-WOW SHOP.
BARKSHIRE. A member or candidate for Barkshire, said of one
troubled with a cough, vulgarly styled barking.

BARKING IRONS. Pistols, from their explosion resembling the
bow-wow or barking of a dog. IRISH.
BARN. A parson's barn; never so full but there is still room, for more.
Bit by a barn mouse, tipsey, probably from an allusion to barley.
BARNABY. An old dance to a quick movement. See Cotton, in his
Virgil Travesti; where, speaking of Eolus he has these lines,
Bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly, And make the world dance
Barnaby.
BARNACLE. A good job, or snack easily got: also shellfish growing at
the bottoms of ships; a bird of the goose kind; an instrument like a pair
of pincers, to fix on the noses of vicious horses whilst shoeing; a nick
name for spectacles, and also for the gratuity given to grooms by the
buyers and sellers of horses.
BARREL FEVER. He died