1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Boarding School. Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison or house of correction.
Boardman, subs. (vagrants').—A
standing patterer; explained by
quotation. Sometimes called
a 'sandwich man.'
1851. H. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 251. I have no doubt that there are always at least twenty standing patterers—sometimes they are called boardmen—at work in London. Ibid, p. 248. They endeavour to attract attention to their papers, or, more commonly, pamphlets . . . by means of a board with coloured pictures upon it, illustrative of the contents of what they sell . . . (This) is what is usually denominated in street technology 'board work.'
Board of Green Cloth, subs. (familiar).—A
card or billiard table.
[From board, a table, + green
cloth, from the colour of the
cloth with which the table is
covered.]
1771. P. Parsons, New Newmarket, II., 24. That board of green cloth, the billiard table.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 23. 'I am going down to F-' 'As usual, the board of green cloth, eh? you will go there once too often, if you don't mind, old fellow.' 'That's my look out,' replied Cumberland.
1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, ch. vi. Often have I seen him rise from the board of green cloth, and turning his chair thrice, from right to left, reseat himself at the play-table, confident that success would follow the mystical manœuvre.
1886. Miss Braddon, Mohawks, ch. viii. The soft seductive sound of the dice sliding gently on to the board of green cloth.
Boat, subs. (old). — Formerly
applied to the hulks; latterly
to any prison. [The derivation
is obvious, old dismasted
ships having long served as
places of detention for convicts.]
For synonyms, see Cage.
1856. H. Mayhew, Great World of London, p. 82, note. [List of thieves' names of prisons.] The Hulks, or any Public Works—The Boat.
Verb (old).—I. Originally to transport; the term is now applied to penal servitude. To 'get the boat,' or to 'be boated,' is to be sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, equivalent to transportation under the old system. Cf., Boat, subs., and for synonyms, see Cop.
2. (American thieves'.)—To join as partner; evidently a corruption of 'to be in the same boat,' i.e., to be in the same position or circumstances.
TO bail one's own boat, phr. (American).—To be self-reliant. A variant is 'to paddle one's own canoe.'—See Canoe.
Bob, subs. (popular).—I. A shilling.
[The derivation is obscure,
but there are several suggested
explanations. Murray points
out that there was an old
French coin called a bobe, but
he thinks its survival in English
slang is very unlikely. Others
think it a corruption of
'baubee' or 'bawbee,' a debased
Scotch coin, issued in the
reign of James VI. of Scotland,
equal in value to a halfpenny.
A more likely origin than either
of the foregoing is from bob, a
grub used as bait for fish, the
allusion being to money as a
bribe.] The old cant had bobstick
(q.v.) as a synonym, and a
spurious plural is sometimes
formed of bob, thus bobber—two
bobber = a two-shilling
piece. Cf., Blow for synonyms.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Bob or bobstick, a shilling.
