Banded, hungry. From the habit hungry folks have of tying themselves tight round the middle.
Bandy, or [CRIPPLE], a sixpence, so called from this coin being generally bent or crooked; old term for flimsy or bad cloth, temp. Q. Elizabeth.
Bang, to excel or surpass; BANGING, great or thumping.
Bang-up, first-rate, in the best possible style.
Bank, to put in a place of safety. “Bank the rag,” i.e., secure the note. Also “to bank” is to go shares.
Bank, the total amount possessed by any one, “How’s the BANK?” “Not very strong; about one and a buck.”
Bantling, a child; stated in Bacchus and Venus, 1737, and by Grose, to be a cant term. This is hardly slang now-a-days, and modern etymologists give its origin as that of bands or swaddling clothes.
Banyan-Day, a day on which no meat is served out for rations; probably derived from the BANIANS, a Hindoo caste, who abstain from animal food. Quite as probably from the sanitary arrangements which have in hot climates counselled the eating of BANYANS and other fruits in preference to meat on certain days.—Sea.
Bar, or BARRING, excepting; in common use in the betting-ring; “Two to one bar one,” i.e., two to one against any horse with the exception of one. The Irish use of BARRIN’ is very similar, and the words BAR and BARRING may now be regarded as general.
Barber’s Cat, a half-starved sickly-looking person. Term used in connexion with an expression too coarse to print.