A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words / Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James.

by John Camden Hotten

BARNACLES, a pair of spectacles; corruption of BINOCULI?

BARNEY, a LARK, SPREE, rough enjoyment; “get up a BARNEY,” to have a “lark.”

BARNEY, a mob, a crowd.

BARN-STORMERS, theatrical performers who travel the country and act in barns, selecting short and frantic pieces to suit the rustic taste.—Theatrical.

BARRIKIN, jargon, speech, or discourse; “we can’t tumble to that BARRIKIN,” i.e., we don’t understand what he says. Miege calls it “a sort of stuff.”

BASH, to beat, thrash; “BASHING a donna,” beating a woman; originally a provincial word, and chiefly applied to the practice of beating walnut trees, when in bud, with long poles, to increase their productiveness. Hence the West country proverb—

“A woman, a whelp, and a walnut tree,

The more you BASH ’em, the better they be.”

BAT, “on his own BAT,” on his own account.—See [HOOK].

BATS, a pair of bad boots.