Baker's dozen is occasionally used in a somewhat more figurative sense, and is not confined to the technicalities of trade. It is employed to signify thirteen or fourteen. It is so quoted in Grose (1785), but the usage is apparently much older than that, for Hudson, the navigator, when he discovered the bay to which his name is given, designated a cluster of thirteen or fourteen islands on the east shore of it. The Baker's Dozen, as may be seen on the charts; and even French atlases exhibit these islands as La Douzaine du boulanger.
To give one a baker's dozen is to pummell a man well; to thrash him soundly—humorous allusion to the good measure implied by the phrase.
Bakes, subs. (American thieves').—schoolboy.
Bakester, subs. (Winchester College).—One
who bakes (see
Bake); a sluggard. The term
is now obsolete.
Baking Leave, subs. (Winchester
College).—Permission to bake
(q.v.) in a study in 'Commoners,'
or in a 'scob' place
in College. In this sense the
term is obsolete; but it is now
used of leave to sit in any
other person's 'toys' (q.v.)—a
sort of bureau.
Baking Place, subs. (Winchester
College).—A kind of sofa in
'Studies' of 'Commoners.'
Balaam, subs. (journalistic).—A
term applied to all kinds of
miscellaneous matter, generally
of a trumpery and indifferent
character, used as 'padding' in
periodical publications. Evidently
from Numbers xxii., 30,
in which the ass spoke 'with
man's voice.' Balaam hence
denotes 'the speech of an ass,'
and is well applied to the
stupid jokes, and silly paragraphs
with which odd corners
and short columns are often
lengthened out. Brewer claims
an American origin, but Webster
only calls it 'a cant term.'
In any case the term has clearly
reference to nonsense to be
thrown in to fill space, or nonsense
thrown out as refuse.
The curious point in the story
of Balaam is that the ass talks
like a philosopher and the prophet
behaves like a donkey.
The term was popularised by
its frequent use in Blackwood's
Magazine.
1826. Scott, Mai. Malagr. III., 3. How much Balaam (speaking technically) I have edged out of your valuable paper.
1839. Lochart, Scott, lxx. (1842), 622. Balaam is the cant name for asinine paragraphs about monstrous productions of nature and the like, kept standing in type to be used whenever the real news of the day leave an awkward space that must be filled up somehow. [m.]
Balaam-Basket or Balaam-Box,
subs. (journalistic).—1. The receptacle
for Balaam (q.v.).
2. When articles or other contributions are rejected they are put in the Balaam-basket, which may either be a pigeon-hole (to await return to the author); the waste paper basket; or, as the readiest mode of extinction, the flames. In any case, the destination is
