BORN with a Silver Spoon in his Mouth. Said of a person who, by birth or connection, has all the usual obstacles to advancement cleared away for him. Those who toil unceasingly for preferment, and toil in vain, are said to have been born with a wooden ladle. Again, the silver-spoon gentry are said to come on board through the cabin windows; those less favoured, over the bows, or through the hawse-holes.
BORNE. Placed on the books for victuals and wages; also supernumerary and "for rank."
BORROW, To. To approach closely either to land or wind; to hug a shoal or coast in order to avoid adverse tide.
BORT. The name given to a long fishing-line in the Shetland Isles.
BOSS. A head of water, or reservoir. Also the apex of a shield.
BOTARGA. The roe of the mullet pressed flat and dried; that of commerce, however, is from the tunny, a large fish of passage which is common in the Mediterranean. The best kind comes from Tunis; it must be chosen dry and reddish. The usual way of eating it is with olive-oil and lemon-juice.
BOTCH, To. To make bungling work.
BOTE'S-CARLE. An old term for the coxswain of a boat.
BOTHERED. Getting among adverse currents, with shifting winds.
BOTH SHEETS AFT. The situation of a square-rigged ship that sails before the wind, or with the wind right astern. It is said also of a half-drunken sailor rolling along with his hands in his pockets and elbows square.