1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night, in wks. (Grosart) III., 255. He that is spyced with the gowte or the dropsie, frequently dreameth of fetters and manacles, and being put on the bilbowes.
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 2. Ham. . . . Methought I lay worse than the mutines in the bilboes.
1695. Congreve, Love for Love, Act iii., Sc. 6. Now a Man that is marry'd, has as it were, d'ye see, his Feet in the bilboes, and may-hap mayn't get 'em out again when he wou'd.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 19. And are those shear'd, or put into bilboes, and handcufft.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bilboes, the punishing a person at sea, by laying or putting the offender in irons, or a sort of stocks, but more severe than the common stocks.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. 'And now let us talk about our business.' 'Your business, if you please,' said Hatterick; 'bagel and donner!—mine was done when I got out of the bilboes.'
Bile, subs. (old).—1. The female pudenda. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
2. (common.)—A vulgarism for 'boil.'
Bilgewater, subs. (common).—Bad beer. Properly the name given to the drainings to the lowest part of a ship; being difficult to get at, these become, at times, exceedingly foul and offensive. For synonyms, see Swipes.
Bilk, subs. (common).—A word, formerly in general use, to which a certain stigma of vulgarity is now attached. Uncertain in derivation—possibly a corrupted form of 'balk'—it was first employed technically at cribbage to signify the spoiling of an adversary's score in the crib. Among obsolete or depraved usages may be mentioned.
Subs. 1. (obsolete.)—A statement or string of words without sense, truth, or meaning, jointly or severally.
1663. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, I., i. Tub. He will have the last word, though he talk bilk for't. Hugh. Bilk! what's that. Tub. Why nothing; a word signifying Nothing. [Note refers to Cole's English Diet. (n.d. given) and to Halliwell, Arch. and Prov. Words, s.v.]
1740. North, Examen, p. 213. Bedloe was sworn, and being asked what he knew against the prisoner, answered, Nothing. . . . Bedloe was questioned over and over, who still swore the same bilk.
2. (common.)—A hoax; an imposition; a humbug. For synonyms, see Sell. Cf., Bite.
1664. Butler, Hudibras, II., iii., 376. Spells, Which over ev'ry month's blank-page In th' Almanack strange bilk's presage. [m.]
1694: Congreve, Double Deal, III., x. There he's secure from danger of a bilk. [m.]
1733 circa. North, Lives, i., 260. After this bilk of a discovery was known. [m.]
3. (common.)—A swindler; a cheat. This is the most familiar current use of the word in its substantive form, and is applied mainly to persons who cheat cabmen of their fares, or to men who swindle prostitutes out of their wretched earnings. Also bilker. For synonyms, see Sell. Cf., Bite.
1790. Sheridan, in Sheridaniana, 109. Johnny W[i]lks, Johnny W[i]lks, Thou greatest of bilks.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. ix. After a little delay, the wagoner drove off, cursing him for a bilk, and vowing that he'd never have any more to do with a 'larned man.'
4. (American.)—A strongly offensive term used in the West to signify a person who habitually sponges upon another, and who never by any chance makes
