at West Point. Cf., Snooker and Babe.
Beauty-sleep, subs. (familiar).—Sleep
before midnight, the idea
being that early hours conduce
to health and beauty.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, II., p. 120. The fair pupils have talked themselves to sleep, which, if report does not belie them, is not until they have forfeited all chance of adding to their attractions by getting a little beauty-sleep before twelve o'clock.
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, ch. xv. 'Are you going? it is not late; not ten o'clock yet.' 'A medical man, who may be called up at any moment, must make sure of his beauty-sleep.'
1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, ch. lxiv. Would I please to remember that I had roused him up at night, and the quality always made a point of paying four times over for a man's loss of his beauty-sleep. I replied that his loss of beauty-sleep was rather improving to a man of so high a complexion.
1880. Jas. Payn, Confid. Agent, ch. iii. 'You must get your beauty-sleep,' cried he to his wife when Barlow had departed, 'or you will have no colour in your cheeks to-morrow.'
Beaver, subs. (common).—1. An
old term for a hat; goss or
cady, however, is more frequently
heard nowadays. At
one time hats were made of
beaver's fur—hence the name;
the term is still occasionally
applied to tall 'chimney-pot
hats,' in spite of the fact that
for many years silk has replaced
the skin of the rodent in their
manufacture.
1528. Roy, Sat. To exalte the thre folde crowne Of anti-christ hys bever. [m.]
1661. Pepys, Diary, 27 June. Mr. Holden sent me a bever, which cost me £4 5s.
1712. Gay, Trivia, bk. II., 1., 277. The broker here his spacious beaver wears, Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. ix. 'Had you not better take off your hat?' asks the Duchess, pointing . . . to 'the foring cove's' beaver, which he had neglected to remove.
1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. x. We know this of our hats, and are always reminded of it when we happen to put them on wrong side foremost. We soon find that the beaver is a hollow cast of the skull, with all its irregular bumps and depressions.
In beaver, phr. (University).—In a tall hat and non-academical garb, as distinguished from cap and gown.
1840. New Monthly Magazine, lix., 271. He . . . went out of College in what the members of the United Service called mufti, but members of the University beaver, which means not in his academics—his cap and gown. [m.]
See also Bever.
Beck, subs. (old cant).—1. A constable.—See
Beak and Copper.
2. A parish beadle. Apparently the term was applied to all kinds of watchmen.—See Harman-beck.
Verb (thieves').—To imprison. Amongst Dutch thieves bekaan has the same signification, imprisoned.
1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth ch. lv. The circle with the two dots was writ by another of our brotherhood, and it signifies as how the writer . . . was becked, was asking here, and lay two months in Starabin.
Bed. To put to bed with a
pickaxe and shovel (common).—To
bury. For analogous expressions,
see Ladder.
c. 1881. Broadside Ballad, 'Hands off'— Kitty Crea, some fine day, when I'm laid in the clay, Put to bed with a spade in the usual way,
