Butter, or BATTER, praise or flattery. To BUTTER, to flatter, cajole. Same as “soft soap” and “soft sawder.” Soft words generally. Maybe from the old proverb, “Fine words butter no parsneps.”
Butter-Fingered, apt to let things fall; greasy or slippery-fingered.
Button, a decoy, sham purchaser, &c. At any mock or sham auction seedy specimens may be seen. Probably from the connexion of buttons with Brummagem, which is often used as a synonym for a sham.—See [BONNET].
Buttoner, a man who entices another to play.
Buttons, a page,—from the rows of gilt buttons which adorn his jacket.
Buttons, “not to have all one’s BUTTONS;” to be deficient in intellect. To “make BUTTONS” means for some occult reason to look sorry and sad. “He was making BUTTONS,” i.e., he was looking sorrowful. Perhaps because button-making is a sorry occupation.
Butty, a word used in the mining districts to denote a kind of overseer. Also used by the Royal Marines in the sense of comrade; a policeman’s assistant, one of the staff in a mêlée.
Buz, to share equally the last of a bottle of wine, when there is not enough for a full glass to each of the party.
Buz, a well-known public-house game, played as follows:—“The chairman commences saying “one,” the next on the left hand “two,” the next “three,” and so on to seven, when “BUZ” must be said. Every seven and multiple of 7, as 14, 17, 21, 27, 28, &c., must not be mentioned, but “BUZ” instead. Whoever breaks the rule pays a fine, which is thrown on the table, and the accumulation expended in drink for the company. See “SNOOKS and WALKER” for more complicated varieties of a similar game. These “parlour pastimes” are often not only funny, but positively ingenious. But the Licensing Act and a zealous police are fast clearing them all out.
Buz, to pick pockets; BUZZING or BUZ-FAKING, robbing.