much further regarding him than that 'Lawyer Pearson knew his away about; and you'd to get up main early in the morning to get a point the best of him.'
1883. Graphic, Feb. 24, p. 191, col. 1. So there are people who will not scruple to best a railway company, who would be loth to wrong a private person.
2. Sometimes, however, passing the ill-defined border line between sharp practice and down-right roguery, to best is an equivalent of to cheat; to swindle.
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 234. His game was besting everybody, whether it was for pounds, shillings, or pence. At one time he cheated a poor farming man out of his milch cow in exchange for another. The man was in liquor at the time, and when he came to his senses he went right away to another part of the country, and his poor wife took it so to heart that she died shortly afterwards.
1879. Horsley, in Macmillan's Magazine, Oct. When I went to the fence he bested (cheated) me because I was drunk, and only gave me £8 10s. for the lot. So the next day I went to him and asked him if he was not going to grease my duke (put money into my hand). So he said, 'No.' Then he said, 'I will give you another half-a-quid'; and said, 'Do anybody, but mind they don't do you.' So I thought to myself, 'All right, my lad; you will find me as good as my master,' and left him.
1885. May, in Fortnightly Review, Oct., p. 578. The quack broker who piles up money by besting his clients, [m.]
To give one best (thieves').—To leave one; to sever companionship.
1879. Horsley, in Macmillan's Mag., Oct. While using one of those places [concerts], I first met a sparring bloke (pugilist), who taught me how to spar, and showed me the way to put my dukes up. But after a time I gave him best (left him) because he used to want to bite my ear (borrow) too often.
Bester, subs. (common).—A cheat;
a swindler.—See Best, sense 2.
Generally applied to a turf or
gaming blackleg.
1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 24. Those who cheat the Public . . . 'Bouncers and Besters' defrauding, by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.
1885. Evening News, 21 September, 4, 1. The complainant called her father a liar, 'a bester and a crawler.'
Besting the Pistol, phr. (pedestrian).—To
get away before the
signal for starting is actually
given. [From besting, gaining
an advantage, + pistol, the
firing of which is the signal to
'Go!']
1889. Polytechnic Magazine, July 7, p. 330. The third man from scratch was evidently in too great a hurry; twice he tried to best the pistol, and as often the whole start had to be made afresh.
Bet. You bet! intj. (American).—You
may depend on it; you
may be sure; certainly! be
assured! Originally a Californian
phrase tacked on to an
assertion to give it additional
emphasis. So popular is the
expression that it has been given
as a name in the form of Ubet
to a town in the Canadian
Northwest. Oftentimes it is
amplified into 'you bet your
boots,' 'life,' 'bottom dollar,'
and so on. The two former were
used in New York and Boston
as far back as 1840.
c. 1882. Stavely Hill, From Home to Home. We reached the settlement of Ubet. The name had been selected from the slang phrase so laconically expressive of 'You may be sure I will' . . . A night marauder took advantage of a good moon to place a ladder against a window, hoping to secure the property of a gentleman asleep within the chamber. As he lifted the window, and put his head in, the gentleman woke up, and with great promptness presented his six-shooter, shouting out 'You get!' With equal promptness the detected thief exclaimed you bet! and slid down the ladder,—et procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram.
