Page:Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant (1889) by Barrere & Leland.djvu/146

 going out for the purpose of stealing pocket-handkerchiefs.

Billy-stink (Anglo-Indian), a name given by Europeans in India to the vile liquids of native manufacture sold in the bazaars.

Bims, bimshise (West Indian). Barbadoes and its inhabitants are so nicknamed throughout the West Indies. A recent traveller hazards the following ingenious explanation—which if not true ought to be so—of these terms, which are confessedly obscure in their derivation. "Barbadoes is known all the world over as the little island that pays her way; it has never been conquered; its people are enterprising and energetic, go-ahead and driving; in short, the business men of these islands (the Caribbees). Barbadian may therefore be said to mean a man with 'go' and grit, energy and vim."

Bing (gypsy), the devil; (old cant) a liquor shop, as a rum bing; to bing, to go, to attack, shoot.

Bing avast (old cant derived from gypsy), an angry command to be off, meaning literally, "go to the devil." Beng English gypsy; Scottish gypsy bing, meaning the devil, and avast from avāva second present indicative and imperative, avāsa or avéssa "thou goest," or "go thou." Full form, bing avas tu! or awaste. It is probable that in Harman's vocabulary a is by accident separated from wast. Bing, the devil, is not to be confounded with the same word in "to bing out," in old cant, nor avast with avast, in its other meaning. It is probable that those who made the old cant, having learned from gypsies that bing avast meant "go to the devil," considered that bing meant "go" or "come" a distance, and used it as such.

Binge (Oxford), a big drinking bout. To binge is a provincialism for to soak a vessel in water to prevent its leaking. It is also a nautical term meaning to rinse a cask. This word seems to be connected with bung, the orifice in the bilge of a cask, through which it is filled.