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 1708. Motteux, Rabelais' Pantagr., Prognost. v. Bonarobaes. Barber's-chairs, hedge whores.

Barber's-Clerk, subs. (common).—A term of reproach generally applied by mechanics and artisans to overdressed and vaunting clerks and shopmen. In a secondary sense it is used of anyone over-particular in his personal appearance. The phrases 'oh, he's just come from the barber's,' and one of Truefitt's young men' are common enough.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 155. 'Tailor!' screamed a third. 'Barber's-clerk!' shouted a fourth. 'Throw him o-ver!' roared a fifth, [d.]

Barber's Music, subs. (old).—Harsh and roughly discordant music. Barber's shops were formerly places of great resort, and the old plays are full of references to the means by which customers, while waiting their turn, wiled away the time. Amongst other things it was usual to provide a cittern, a musical instrument similar to a guitar, upon which any who chose could try their skill. Many of the old proverbs refer to this circumstance. Ben Jonson in The Silent Woman [iii., 5] makes Morose say of his wife whom his barber had recommended, 'I have married his cittern that is common to all men'; and Matheo, in The Honest Whore, speaks of a barber's citterne for every serving man to play upon. Therefore, it is little wonder that barber's music should be synonymous with discord.

1660. Pepys, June 5. My lord called for the lieutenant's cittern, and with two candlesticks with money in them for symbols (cymbals) we made barber's music.

Barefooted on the Top of Ones Head, phr. (American).—Bald-headed. The application of the simile is obvious.

Bargain. Selling a bargain, phr. (old).—A species of low wit, much in vogue about the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, but which is of much more ancient usage. It is frequently alluded to by Swift, who remarks that 'the maids of honor often amused themselves with it.' If so, it seems incredible; and one would say so much the worse for the 'maids of honor.' It is thus described: A person 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? the bargain was sold by the first speaker naming a certain portion of the body. In another, and happily more decent form, this somewhat senseless 'sell' still has a vogue. This slang expression and practice was apparently well known to Shakspeare, who makes Costard use it in Love's Labour Lost [Act iii., Sc. 1], 'The boy hath sold him a bargain.'

Barge, subs. (printers').—1. A 'case' in which there is an undue proportion of some letters, and a corresponding shortness of those which are most valuable.

2. The term is also applied among printers to a card or small box on or in which 'spaces' are put while correcting formes away from 'case.'