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 bulk in the right hand, or of excessive force constantly exerted by the right side of the body. The knees gradually incline inwards until they closely resemble the right side of the letter K.

1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, Act ii., Sc. 2. Will women's tongues, like bakers' legs, never go straight?

1692. L'Estrange, Life of Æsop. Æsop was  flat-nos'd, hunch-*back'd, blabber-lipp'd, a long misshapen head; his body crooked all over, big-belly'd, baker-legg'd, and his complexion so swarthy that he took his very name from 't; for Æsop is the same with Æthiop.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bakes-legg'd, straddling, with the legs bowing outward.

1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 13. His voice had broken to a gruffish squeak. He had grown blear-eyed, baker-kneed, and gummy.

2. Effeminate. Either an attributive usage of the foregoing, or an allusion to the popular belief that a woman's legs are never straight. Compared physiologically with those of a man this is doubtless true; but otherwise most women would resent the imputation as a libel.

1652. GAULE, Hagastrom, 186. Baker-kneed signifies effeminate.

Baker Layer, subs. (Winchester College).—A Junior who used to take a prefect's green baker (q.v.) in and out of 'Hall' at meal times. The term is now obsolete.

Baker's Dozen, subs. (colloquial).—Thirteen reckoned as twelve. Formerly, so careful were 'the powers that be' regarding the supply of bread, that bakers were liable to heavy penalties for any deficiency in the weight of loaves. So hedged in, indeed, was the sale of bread, that the weight of loaves was fixed by law, for every price from eighteenpence down to twopence, but penny loaves or rolls were not specified in the statute. Bakers, therefore, when selling the latter, in order to be on the safe side, gave, for a dozen of bread, an additional loaf, known as 'inbread.' A similar custom of giving extra quantity was formerly observed with regard to coal, and publishers nowadays reckon thirteen copies of a book as twelve. That the term baker's dozen was thoroughly colloquial at the latter end of the sixteenth century is apparent from the first of the following quotations:

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in works III., ii. Conioyning with his aforesaid Doctor Brother in eightie eight browne baker's dozen of Almanackes.

1639. Will of Francis Pynner, of Bury, Gent., dated April 26 [Camden Society's 'Bury Wills']. The yerely sume of ffiue pounds p'cell of the said yerely rents to be bestowed in wheaten bread, to be made into penny loaves, and upon eu'y Lord's day, called Sonday, throughout eu'y yere of the said terme [40 years or thereabouts], fowre and twenty loaves of the said bread, with the inbread allowed by the baker for those twoe dosens of bread, to be timely brought and sett vpon a forme towards the vpp'end of the chancell of the said p'ish church of St. Marie, and the same twoe dosens of bread to be giuen and distributed to and amongst fowre and twentie poore people And they, the said clarke, sexton, and bedell, shall alwaies haue the inbread of all the bread aforesaid ovr and besides their shares in the said twoe dosens of bread.

1733. Fielding, Don Quixote, III., vi. I could not number them. I dare swear there were a good round baker's dozen, at least.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, ch. xxviii. 'As to your lawyer, you get just your guinea's worth from him—not even so much as the baker's bargain, thirteen to the dozen.'