Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/328

 I sang outside her door each night Till her father bought a big bow-wow, But I haven't—haven't— I haven't for a long time now!

2. (old.)—A Bostonian—a term of contempt.

3. (popular.)—A cavalier; lover; specially applied to a man who dangles after a woman. Also see Tame cat.

1877. Chamb. Journal, 12 March, p. 173. Mrs. Brittomart was one of those who never tolerated a bow-wow—a species of animal well known in India—and never went to the hills as a 'grass-widow.'

Bow-Wow-Mutton, subs. (old).—Dog's flesh. [From bow-wow, a humorous term for a dog, + mutton, here used generically for meat.]

Bow-Wow-Word, subs. (common).—A term applied sarcastically by Max Müller to words for which it is claimed that they are in imitation of natural sounds, i.e., onamatopoetic words, of which a full list will be found under Cachunk.

Bowyer, subs. (old).—One who draws a 'long bow'; a dealer in the marvellous; a teller of improbable stories; a liar.—See Long bow.

Box, subs. (thieves').—A prison cell.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 89. In a box of the stone-jug I was born, Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn Fake away.

1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 214. The box in the stone-jug is doubtless a cell.

Verb (Westminster School).—To take possession of; 'to bag.'

To be in a box, phr. (common).—To be cornered; in a fix; 'stuck' or 'hung up.'

TO BE IN THE WRONG BOX, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To be out of one's element; to be in a false position; mistaken. Brewer traces this to Lord Lyttelton, who, being of rather a melancholy disposition, used to tell his friends that when he went to Vauxhall he was always supposing pleasure to be in the next box to his, or at least that he himself was so unhappily situated as always to be in the wrong box for it. The only objection to be raised to this story is that the phrase is a very old one, of which the derivation is now lost.

1554. Ridley ('Foxe,' 1838), vi., 438. Sir, quoth I, if you will hear how St. Augustine expoundeth that place, you shall perceive that you are in a wrong box.

1588. J. Udall, Distrephes, p. 31. I perceive that you and I are in a wrong box.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xliii. 'That, I grant you, must be confessed: doctor, I'm afraid we have got INTO THE WRONG BOX.'

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. x. 'Take care your rights of man don't get you in the wrong box—there's no arguing on board of a man-of-war.'

On the Box, phr. (workmen's).—A man when on strike and in receipt of strike pay is said to be on the box.

1889. Daily News, 19 Nov., p. 6, col. 7. The 'Blackleg' Question Arising. As these have to be allowed strike pay in order to keep them out of temptation, the number of men on the box, as they say in the North, may be taken to be a thousand.

Box Harry, verbal phr. (commercial travellers').—Among bag-men to take dinner and tea together;