Barring Out, subs. phr. (old).—Exclusion from a place by means of locks and bars. More particularly applied to a half serious but oftentimes jocular rebellion of schoolboys against the schoolmaster.
1728. Swift, Journal of a Modern Lady.
Not schoolboys at a barring-out, Raised ever such incessant rout.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, conclusion.
Revolts, republics, revolutions, most, No graver than a schoolboys' barring-out.
Barrow-Bunter, subs. (old).—A
barrow-woman; a female
costermonger.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, i., 140. I saw a dirty barrow-bunter in the street cleaning her dusty fruit with her own spittle.
Barrow-Man, sabs. (old).—1. A
man who hawks his wares on
a barrow; a costermonger. The
term dates back to the middle
of the seventeenth century. Un
marottier is the French equivalent
for one species of the fraternity,
better known in England
as a dudsman (q.v).
2. Also formerly a man under sentence of transportation.
Barrow-Tram, subs. (familiar).—An
ungainly person; one awkward
in gait, and coarse and
rawboned in feature.
Barter, subs. (Winchester College).—A
half volley. From
the Warden of that name famous
for disposing of them.
1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 133. What a noble game cricket must be when one loved it so much, notwithstanding the previous training! What genuine excitement when College and Commoners was played; what frantic shouting when Rapid got well hold of a 'barter' . . . and sent the ball from 'Spanish Poplar,' right over Mead's wall by 'Log pond.'
1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 327. Barter was the most popular boy of his day with his schoolfellows. Wonderful things are told of his scores at cricket at which he is supposed to have been the hardest hitter of his own times, or of any near him. . . . He was so renowned for the tremendous force with which he was wont to swipe the ball, commonly known to cricketers as a 'half-volley,' that it actually changed its name in the Wykehamical vocabulary, and for fully half a century afterwards—and, for all I know, to the present day—bore the name of a Barter.
Verb.—To hit a ball hard at cricket.
Hitting barters.—Practice catching; full pitches hit from the middle of 'Turf' towards Ball-Court for catching practice towards the end of 'Long Meads.'
Bartholomew Baby, subs. (old).—A
gaudily dressed doll, such as
appears to have been commonly
sold at Bartholomew Fair.—See
Bartholomew-pig. Also applied
to a person gaudily
dressed.
1682. Wit and Drollery, p. 343.
Her petticoat of sattin, Her gown of crimson tabby, Lac'd up before, and spangl'd ore, Just like a Bartholomew baby.
Bartholomew-Pig, subs. (old).—Roasted
pigs, says Nares, were
formerly among the chief
attractions of Bartholomew
Fair, West Smithfield, London:
they were sold piping hot, in
booths and on stalls, and ostentatiously
displayed, to excite
the appetite of passengers.
Hence a Bartholomew-pig
became a common subject of
allusion: the Puritan railed
against it.
