and barbed dart, called a leister. I have often seen it practised in an evening, in the River Tees. In Craven, a torch was made of the dry bark of holly, besmeared with pitch. The water was so transparent that the smallest pebbles were visible at the bottom. One man carried the torch (when dark) either on foot or on horseback, while another, advancing with him, struck the salmon on the red, the place where the roe is deposited, with the leister. V. Crav. Gloss. bloazing.

BLEA, a pale bluish colour, often applied to the discolouration of the skin by a blow or contusion. It is also sometimes used to denote a bad colour in linen, indicating the necessity of bleaching.

BLEA-BERRY, BLAY-BERRY, the bilberry, or whortle berry. Isl. blaber, vaccinium vulgare myrtillus.

BLEB, BLOB, a drop of water or bubble; a blister or rising of the skin.

BLEE, colour, complexion. An old word, not obsolete, as stated in Todd's Johnson.

BLEED, to yield, applied to corn, which is said to "bleed well,” when on thrashing it happens to be very productive. BLENDINGS, peas and beans mixed together. BLINK, to smile, to look kindly, but with a modest eye, the word being generally applied to females. Dan. blinke. BLINKARD, BLENKARD, a person near sighted or almost blind.

A fighting cock with only one eye is termed a blenker. BLIRT, BLURT, to cry, to make a sudden indistinct or unpleasant noise.

BLOACHER, any large animal.

BLOUSY, or BLOWsy, wild, disordered, confused. Johnson has blowzy, sun burnt, high coloured.

BLOW, the blossom of fruit trees. Sax. blowan, to bloom. The Crav. Gloss. has blume, blossom, from Germ. blum.

BLOWN-MILK, skimmed milk. I suppose from the custom of blowing the cream off by the breath.

BLUBBER," the part of a whale that contains the oil," Todd's John. But it is the fat of whales.

BLUE. To look blue, is to be disconcerted.

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BLUFFNESS, surliness," Todd's John. Rather arrogance, or a self-confident manner.

BLUSH, resemblance. He has a blush of his brother, i. e. he bears a resemblance.

BLUSTERATION, the noise of a braggart. Blustering.

BOB, to disappoint. Dry bob is an old word for a merry joke or trick.

BOB, a bunch. Isl. bobbi, nodus. Fr. bube.

BOBBEROUS, BOBBERSOME, elated, in high spirits.
BOBBY, smart, neat, tidy.

There was Sam, O zoons!

Wiv's pantaloons,

An' gravat up owre his gobby-o;

An' Willy, thou,

Wi' the jacket blue,

Thou was the varry bobby-o.

Song, Swalwell Hopping.

BODWORD, an ill-natured errand. An old word for an ominous message. Su.-Got. and Isl. bodword, edictum, mandatum. BOGGLE, BOGGLE-BO, a spectre or ghost. Welsh, bugal, fear. BOGGLE about the stacks, a favourite play among young people in the villages, in which one hunts several others. Formerly barley break.

She went abroad, thereby

A barley break her sweet, swift feet to try.-Sidney, Arcadia.

BOILING. The whole boiling means the entire quantity or

whole party.

BOKE, BOUK, to nauseate so as to be ready to vomit, to belch.
Perhaps from Sax. bealc-an. Jam. V. Ray.

BOLL, BOLE, the body or trunk of a tree. Su.-Got. bol.
BO-MAN, a hobgoblin or kidnapper.

I'll rather put on my flashing red nose, and my flam

ing face, and come wrapped in a calf's-skin, and cry bo, bo!-Robin Goodfellow.

BONDAGERS, Cottagers obliged to work for farmers, when called upon, at certain stipulated wages.

BONNY, beautiful, handsome, cheerful. Dr. Johnson derives this word from Fr. bon, bonne, good; but as it is so universally in use in the North, I have little doubt it came originally from the Scotch.-Shakspeare appears to have understood it in its different meanings.

We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,

A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue.

Match to match I have encountered him,

And made a prey for carrion kites and crows,
Ev'n of the bonny beast he lov'd so well.

Then sigh not so but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny.—Shakspeare.
O where is the boatman? my bonny honey!
O where is the boatman? bring him to me-

To ferry me over the Tyne to my honey,
And I will remember the boatman and thee.

Whe's like me Johnny

The Water of Tyne.

Sae leish, sae blythe, sae bonny!
He's foremost 'mang the mony

Keel lads o' coaly Tyne.

Song, The Keel Row.

BOODIES or BABBY-BOODIES, broken pieces of earthen ware or glass, used by female children for decorating a play-house, called a boody-house, made in imitation of an ornamented cabinet.

Then on we went, as nice as owse,
Till nenst au'd Lizzy Moody's;
A whirlwind cam an' myed a' souse,
Like heaps o' babby-boodies.

Song, Jemmy Joneson's Whurry.

BOON, a service or bonus, done by a tenant to his landlord, or a sum of money as an equivalent. BOON-DAYS are those which the tenants are obliged to employ for the benefit of their lord gratis. Vast quantities of land in the Northern counties are held under lords of manors by customary tenure, subject to the payment of fines and heriots, and the performance of various duties and services on the boon days.

BOOR, BOUR, the parlour, or inner room through the kitchen, in which the head person of the family generally sleeps, Isl. bouan, to dwell. Spenser uses bower, a lady's apartFair Rosamond's bower, at Woodstock, is familiar

ment.

to every reader.

BOORLY, boorish, rough, unpolished. Teut. boer, a boor. BOOSE, BUESS, BUSE, an ox or cow stall; properly the place beside the stakes where the fodder lies. Sax. bosig. Isl. bas.

Boor, something given to equalise an exchange. Old Fr. bote.

BOOTED, or BOLTED BREAD, a loaf of sifted wheat meal, mixed with rye; better than the common household bread. V. Skin. bolt.

1

BOOTHER, BOULDER, a hard flinty stone, rounded like a bowl.

BORROWED-DAYS, the three last days of March.

March borrowit fra Averill

Three days and they were ill.

Gloss. Compl. Scotl.

These days being generally stormy, our forefathers, as Dr. Jamieson remarks, have endeavoured to account for this circumstance by pretending that March borrowed them from April, that he might extend his power so much longer. The superstitious will neither borrow nor lend on any of these days, lest the articles should be employed for evil purposes.

BOTHERATION, plague, trouble, difficulty. From bother, to perplex or puzzle.

BOTTOM-ROOM, a single seat in a pew.

BOUGHT, a fold where ewes are put at milking time. Teut. bocht.

Bouk, to wash linen, or rather to steep it or soak it in lye, with a view of whitening and sweetening it.

Then the thread is sod and bleaked, and bucked and oft layed to drieng, &c.-Barthol. 302 b, l. 17, c. 97.

Buck is used by Shakspeare, as well for the liquor in which clothes are washed as for the clothes themselves. Every body remembers Falstaff's ludicrous adventure in the great buck-basket. The process of bouking linen, adopted by the older Northumbrian house-wives, would, I fear, be considered too homely for their more Southern neighbours to imitate, and therefore I refrain from particularizing it.

BOUK, Bowk, bulk, quantity, or size; the body of a tree. Su.Got. bolk. Chaucer uses bouke, for the trunk of the human body, which Mr. Tyrwhitt says, is probably from Sax. buce, venter.