Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/172

 confederates.—See Bonnet. The derivation is obviously from that sense of to bear up, signifying support or backing up.

1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 40. The billiard-marker refused to make any division of the spoil, or even to return the £10 which had been lost to him in bearing up the cull.

1883. Referee, Dec. 2, p. 2, col. 4. This looks as if the bearing up and 'bonneting' which has been done by friendly writers in response to my remarks is all thrown away.

Beast, subs, (common).—1. Applied to anything unpleasant; or, to that which displeases; e.g., 'It's a perfect beast of a day,' for 'it's an unpleasant day.'—See Beastly.

2. (American cadet.)—A name given to new cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.—See Snooker.

3. (Cambridge University.)—Anyone who has left school and come up to Cambridge for study, before entering the University, is called a beast, because 'he is neither man nor boy.'

Beastly, adv. (popular).—In modern colloquial usage applied to whatever may offend the taste. Akin also to 'awful,' 'everlasting,' etc.—when used as mere intensitives, i.e., 'very,' 'exceedingly.' [Originally from beastly, of, or pertaining to the nature of a beast; hence, figuratively, brutish, irrational, unmanly; whence, through a series of transitions, its slang significations.]

1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, wks., 1873, III., 159. I thought 'twould bee a beastly iourney.

1778. Johnson, in D'Arblay Diary, etc. (1876), vol. I., p. 37. 'It moves my indignation to see a gentleman take pains to appear a tradesman. Mr. Braughton would have written his name with just such beastly flourishes!'

1865. Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct., p. 5, col. 3. He was in good health looked almost 'beastly well,' as I once heard it described. [m.]

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. i. He had a troublesome dryness in his throat, and a general sensation of dull heaviness, which he himself would have described—expressively enough, if not with academical elegance—as 'feeling beastly.'

Beast with Two Backs, subs. phr. (old).—Explained in second quotation.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, Act i., Sc. 1. Brabantio: What profane wretch art thou? Iago: I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with the two backs.

1785. Grose, Classical Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue. Beast with two backs, a man and woman in the act of copulation.

Beat, subs. (American).—1. This word is used in many ways, its precise meaning often depending on its qualifying adjective. It is said of both men and things; for example, a live beat is anybody or anything that surpasses another, and the sense is not derogatory in the least. A dead beat, on the other hand, is the name given to a man who sponges on his fellows. [Probably from that sense of beat signifying to overcome; to show oneself superior to, either in a good or bad sense].

1888. New York Tribune, May 16. As we pay big money for our special news, we can't afford to throw it away on account of a little mistake in the name. So we shove her in with the single remark that it is better to have a Carrot for a President than a dead beat for a son-in-law. In this way, we again score