bodkin; see [baudkin].
bodrag, a hostile incursion, a raid. ‘Nightly bodrags’, Spenser, Colin Clout, 315. Hence bodraging, misspelt bordraging, the same; F. Q. ii. 10. 63. Irish buaidhreadh, molestation, disturbance; buaidhr-im, I vex, bother, trouble (Dinneen).
bog, proud, saucy, bold. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 37. st. 109; Rogers, Naaman, 18. Cp. ME. boggisshe, ‘tumidus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 161).
boggard, a privy, latrina. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iv. 6 (end).
boistous, busteous, bousteous, rough, rustic, coarse, violent, vigorous. Bousteous tree, vigorous tree; Turbervile, Time Conquereth all Things, st. 7. Boystous, rude, coarse, A. Borde, Introd. of Knowledge, bk. i, c. 14; p. 160. ME. boystows, ‘rudis’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 166). See Dict. (s.v. Boisterous).
boll, a rounded seed-vessel or pod, as that of flax or cotton. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 50. Hence bolled, having ‘bolls’, pods; Bible, Ex. ix. 31 (AV.). ‘Boll’, in the sense of the seed-vessel of flax, is in prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, also in Lincolnshire, see EDD. (s.v. Boll, sb.2).
boll, to quaff the bowl, to booze; ‘They might syt bebbinge and bollynge’, Coverdale, Micah, ii. 11. Hence boller, one who lingers at the bowl, a drunkard, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 81.
bollen, swollen. Lucrece, 1417 (in old edd. boln); bolne, Hawes, Past Pleas., p. 135; Surrey, tr. Aeneid ii, 616; bowlne, id. ii. 348. Cp. the E. Anglian bown, swollen (EDD.). ME. bollen, swollen (Cursor M. 12685). Icel. bólgna; Dan. bolne, to swell. See NED. (s.v. Bell, vb.1).
bolt, an arrow for a cross-bow, with a blunt or square head, also gen. an arrow; ‘The bolt of Cupid’, Mids. Night’s D., ii. 1. 165; ‘A fool’s bolt is soon shot’, Hen. V, iii. 7. 132; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 145); ‘I’ll make a shaft or a bolt on’t’, Merry Wives, iii. 4. 24 (i.e. I’ll take the risk, whatever may come of it).
bolt’s-head, a kind of retort used by alchemists. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Mammon); named from its long cylindrical neck.