bulk in the right hand, or of excessive force constantly exerted by the right side of the body. The knees gradually incline inwards until they closely resemble the right side of the letter K.
1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, Act ii., Sc. 2. Will women's tongues, like bakers' legs, never go straight?
1692. L'Estrange, Life of Æsop. Æsop . . . was . . . flat-nos'd, hunch-*back'd, blabber-lipp'd, a long misshapen head; his body crooked all over, big-belly'd, baker-legg'd, and his complexion so swarthy that he took his very name from 't; for Æsop is the same with Æthiop.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bakes-legg'd, straddling, with the legs bowing outward.
1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 13. His voice had broken to a gruffish squeak. He had grown blear-eyed, baker-kneed, and gummy.
2. Effeminate. Either an attributive usage of the foregoing, or an allusion to the popular belief that a woman's legs are never straight. Compared physiologically with those of a man this is doubtless true; but otherwise most women would resent the imputation as a libel.
1652. GAULE, Hagastrom, 186. Baker-kneed signifies effeminate.
Baker Layer, subs. (Winchester
College).—A Junior who used
to take a prefect's green baker
(q.v.) in and out of 'Hall' at
meal times. The term is now
obsolete.
Baker's Dozen, subs. (colloquial).—Thirteen
reckoned as twelve.
Formerly, so careful were 'the
powers that be' regarding the
supply of bread, that bakers were
liable to heavy penalties for any
deficiency in the weight of
loaves. So hedged in, indeed,
was the sale of bread, that the
weight of loaves was fixed
by law, for every price from
eighteenpence down to twopence,
but penny loaves or rolls
were not specified in the statute.
Bakers, therefore, when selling
the latter, in order to be on the
safe side, gave, for a dozen of
bread, an additional loaf, known
as 'inbread.' A similar custom
of giving extra quantity was
formerly observed with regard
to coal, and publishers nowadays
reckon thirteen copies of a
book as twelve. That the term
baker's dozen was thoroughly
colloquial at the latter end of
the sixteenth century is apparent
from the first of the
following quotations:
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in works III., ii. Conioyning with his aforesaid Doctor Brother in eightie eight browne baker's dozen of Almanackes.
1639. Will of Francis Pynner, of Bury, Gent., dated April 26 [Camden Society's 'Bury Wills']. The yerely sume of ffiue pounds p'cell of the said yerely rents to be bestowed in wheaten bread, to be made into penny loaves, and upon eu'y Lord's day, called Sonday, throughout eu'y yere of the said terme [40 years or thereabouts], fowre and twenty loaves of the said bread, with the inbread allowed by the baker for those twoe dosens of bread, to be timely brought and sett vpon a forme towards the vpp'end of the chancell of the said p'ish church of St. Marie, and . . . the same twoe dosens of bread to be giuen and distributed . . . to and amongst fowre and twentie poore people. . . . And they, the said clarke, sexton, and bedell, shall alwaies haue the inbread of all the bread aforesaid ovr and besides their shares in the said twoe dosens of bread.
1733. Fielding, Don Quixote, III., vi. I could not number them. I dare swear there were a good round baker's dozen, at least.
1825. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, ch. xxviii. 'As to your lawyer, you get just your guinea's worth from him—not even so much as the baker's bargain, thirteen to the dozen.'
