you shall not gauge me by what we do to-night.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, wks. III. (1712), 382. That were as hard as to bar a young parson in the pulpit, the fifth of November,—railing at the Church of Rome.
1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, Act ii. What I have in my mind, out it comes: but bar that; I'se an honest lad as well as another.
1752. Foote, Taste, Act ii. I don't suppose now, but, barring the nose, Roubiliac could cut as good a head every whit.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iii. 'I should like to try that daisy-cutter of yours upon a piece of level road (barring canter) for a quart of claret at the next inn.'
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. lv., E. 483. 'I'll bet you ten guineas to five, he cuts his throat,' said Wilkins Flasher, Esquire. 'Done,' replied Mr. Simmery. 'Stop! I bar,' said Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, thoughtfully. 'Perhaps he may hang himself.'
2. (American thieves'.)—To stop; to cease. Obviously an attributive meaning of the legitimate word.
3. (American colloquial.)—A spurious verb, the signification of which is derived from the drinking-bar. Thus a tippler is said to bar too much when given to inordinate drinking.
Baragan Tailor, subs. (tailors').—A
rough-working tailor.
Barb, verb (old cant).—To barb
gold was heretofore a cant term
for clipping or shaving it. The
modern term is to sweat (q.v.).
[Apparently from to barber, to
shave or trim.]
1610. Ben Jonson, Alchemist, I., i. Ay, and perhaps thy neck within a noose, for laundring gold, and barbing it.
Barber, verb. (University).—When
impositions are worked
off by deputy they are said to
be barberised. Tradition relates
that a learned barber was
at one time frequently employed
as a scapegoat in working off
this species of punishment inflicted
on peccant students—hence
the expression. A story
ben trovato esd non e vero!
That's the barber.—A street catch-phrase, says Grose, about the year 1760. There is nothing new under the sun; not even idiotic and wearisome street cries, which so many good philologists deplore as a sign of the depravity of the times. That's the barber, like 'Who's your hatter?' and 'How's your poor feet?' meant nothing, save a general and indefinite comment on any action, measure, or thing. 'All serene!' (q.v.) is presumably its nearest modern street equivalent.
Barber's-Cat, subs. (old).—A weak,
sickly looking individual. In
French such a person is called
un faiblard and un astec, the
latter an allusion to the Mexican
dwarfs. According to
Hotten, the term is also 'used
in connexion with an expression
too coarse to print.'
Barber's-Chair, subs. (old).—A
prostitute; a drab; a strumpet.
So called from a barber's-chair
being common to all
comers. It will be remembered
that Shakspeare in All's Well
[ii., 2.] likens an all-embracing
answer to a question to 'a
barber's-chair that fits all
buttocks; the pin-buttock, the
quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock,
or any buttock.'
1621. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, III. iv., I, iii. (1651), 665. A notorious strumpet as common as a barber's-chair. [m.]
