a return or even offers to do so. In English slang it means a downright cheat or swindler (see sense 3). It will therefore be seen that the Western American usage has considerably softened its meaning.
1840. McClure, Rocky Mountain, p. 211. The term was entirely novel to me, and I first asked its meaning of a landlord, who explained to me by saying that a bilk is a man who never misses a meal and never pays a cent.
Adj. (obsolete).—Fallacious; without truth or meaning.
1740. North, Examen, p. 129. To that [Oates's plot] and the author's bilk account of it I am approaching.
Verb (common).—To cheat; defraud; evade one's obligations; escape from, etc. (see subs., sense 2, and compare with quotations). For synonyms, see Stick. Cf., Bite.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act v., Sc. 3. 1 Knight: Ay, a great lawyer that shall be nameless bilked me too.
1729. Gay, Polly, Act ii., Sc. 9. Honour plays a bubbles part, ever bilk'd and cheated.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bilk (v.), to cheat, balk, disappoint, deceive, gull, or bubble; also to go out of a publick-house or tavern, without paying the reckoning.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XIV., ch. iv. 'I promise you,' answered Nightingale, 'I don't intend to bilk my lodgings; but I have a private reason for not taking a formal leave.'
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bilke. 'Let us bilk the rattling cove'; let us cheat the hackney coachman of his fare: bilking a coachman, a box keeper, or a poor whore, was formerly among men of the town thought a gallant action.
1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. xix. 'Are you playing me false? Have you set another man on the track with a view to bilk me of my promised fee?'
To bilk the blues, phr. (thieves').—To evade the police.—See Blues.
To bilk the schoolmaster, phr. (common).—To obtain knowledge or experience without paying for it.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5. Log. Well, don't grumble—every one must pay for his learning—and you wouldn't bilk the schoolmaster, would you? But, come, I'm getting merry; so if you wish for a bit of good truth, come with me, and let's have a dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land.
Bilker, subs. (common).—A cheat; a swindler. Sometimes abbreviated to bilk (sense 3).
Bilking, subs. (common).—The action of cheating or swindling.
Bill, subs. (Eton College).—1. A list of the boys who have to go to the head master at 12 o'clock; also of those who get off absence (q.v.), or names-calling, e.g., an eleven playing in a match are thus exempt.
1876. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton. Some of the small boys whom this delightful youth tempted to ape his habits, had often occasion to rue it when they staggered back to college giddy and sick, carrying with them a perfume which told its tale to their tutors, and caused them to be put in the bill.
2. (Harrow School.)—Names-calling.
To hang up a bill, phr. (American political).—Explained by quotation.
1887. Cornhill Magazine, June, p. 628. To hang up a bill is to pass it through one or more of its stages, and then to lay it aside and defer its further consideration for a more or less indefinite period.
To rush a bill, phr. (American political).—To expedite the passing of a bill through the Senate and Congress. Cf., Rush.
