BONES, “he made no BONES of it,” he did not hesitate, i.e., undertook and finished the work without difficulty, “found no BONES in the jelly.”—Ancient, vide Cotgrave.
BONNET, a gambling cheat. “A man who sits at a gaming-table, and appears to be playing against the table; when a stranger enters, the BONNET generally wins.”—Times, Nov. 17, 1856. Also, a pretence, or make-believe, a sham bidder at auctions.
BONNET, to strike a man’s cap or hat over his eyes and nose.
BONNETTER, one who induces another to gamble.
BOOK, an arrangement of bets for and against, chronicled in a pocket-book made for that purpose; “making a BOOK upon it,” common phrase to denote the general arrangement of a person’s bets on a race. “That does not suit my BOOK,” i.e., does not accord with my other arrangements. Shakespere uses BOOK in the sense of “a paper of conditions.”
BOOM, “to tip one’s BOOM off,” to be off, or start in a certain direction.—Sea.
BOOKED, caught, fixed, disposed of.—Term in Book-keeping.
BOOZE, drink. Ancient cant, BOWSE.
BOOZE, to drink, or more properly, to use another slang term, to “lush,” viz, to drink continually, until drunk, or nearly so. The term is an old one. Harman, in Queen Elizabeth’s days, speaks of “BOUSING (or boozing) and belly-cheere.” The term was good English in the fourteenth century, and comes from the Dutch, BUYZEN, to tipple.
BOOZE, or SUCK-CASA, a public-house.