ballow, smooth. ‘Ballowe wood’, i.e. smooth wood without bark, see Nottingham Corporation Records, ed. Stevenson, vol. iv, Glossary (date of entry 1504); ‘The ballow nag’, Drayton, Pol. iii. 24. ME. balhow, smooth, plain (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 136).
ballow, in King Lear, iv. 6. 247, prob. means a quarter-staff made from ballow wood. See above.
ban, to curse, imprecate damnation on. 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 25; a curse, Hamlet, iii. 2. 269. Icel. banna, to prohibit, curse.
band, a collar, lying flat upon the dress, worn round the neck by man or woman. Also called falling-bands, Middleton, Roaring Girl, i. 1 (Mary). The falling band succeeded the cumbersome ruff.
band, to bandy about, like a tennis-ball. Look about You, sc. 32, l. 5; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 490.
banding-ball, a ball to be driven about at tennis or in the game of bandy. Wounds of Civil War; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 116.
bando, a proclamation. Shirley, Sisters, v. 2 (Longino). Ital. bando, a public proclamation (Dante).
bandoleer, bandalier, a broad belt, worn over the shoulder and across the breast. Peele, Polyhymnia, The Third Couple (l. 10). Hence, a wearer of a bandoleer was himself called by the same name. Thus Gascoigne has: ‘Their peeces then are called Petronels, And they themselves by sundrie names are called, As Bandolliers . . . Or . . . Petronelliers’, Works, i. 408. See Dict.
bandora, a kind of guitar; now called banjo. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 2 (hymn); also pandore, Drayton, Pol. iv. 361. Ital. pandora, a bandora (Florio).
bandrol, a long narrow flag, with a cleft end; a streamer from a lance. Drayton, Pol. xxii. 211. Spelt bannerall, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 26. F. banderole, a little flag or streamer, a penon (Cotgr.).