Bono, adj. (circus and thieves').—Good. [From the Latin.]
Booby Hutch, subs. (thieves').—A police station; so called no doubt from the light in which the criminal classes regard those who are foolish enough or unfortunate enough to get 'landed' in such places. [Booby = a fool + hutch, a box or confined space.]
Booby-Trap, subs. (schoolboys').—An arrangement of books, wet sponges, vessels of water, etc., so arranged on the top of a door set ajar that when the intended victim enters the room, the whole falls upon him.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. iii., p. 28. He had devoted it to the construction of what he called a 'booby-trap,' which ingenious piece of mechanism was arranged in the following manner: The victim's room-door was placed ajar, and upon the top thereof a Greek Lexicon, or any other equally ponderous volume, was carefully balanced, and upon this was set in its turn a jug of water. If all these were properly adjusted, the catastrophe above described was certain to ensue when the door was opened.
1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. xiv. 'I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you.'
1883. Sat. Review, Nov. 3, p. 566, col. 2. On his way down to dinner he is suddenly drenched from head to foot by a booby-trap—a sponge soaked in water placed above a half-open door.
Boodle, subs. (American).—1. A crowd; a company; the 'whole boiling' (q.v.). With this meaning the form often appears as ca-*boodle (q.v). [As regards derivation, which is obscure, Murray, speaking of both senses as here treated, says the U.S. boodle, in sense 1, must be the same as Markham's 'buddle' (see quotation given below from New English Dictionary); sense 2 (also only in U.S.) may be a different word. Boodle suggests a Dutch origin from boedel pronounced boodle, and in its primary sense means 'house-*hold stuff,' and refers to property left by a testator. It is curious to note that bodle was a Scotch coin of the value of one-sixth of a penny.]
1625. F. Markham, Bk. Honour, IV., ii. Men curiously and carefully chosen out (from all the buddle and masse of great ones) for their approoued wisedome. [m.]
1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat, p. 139. He would like to have the whole boodle of them (I remonstrated against this word, but the professor said it was a diabolish good word . . .) with their wives and children shipwrecked on a remote island.
1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, p. 361. Boodle, 'the whole boodle of them,' i.e., all, the whole. [List of Americanisms.]
1884. E. E. Hale, Xmas. in Narragansett, ch. ix., p. 272. At eleven o'clock the 'whole boodle of them,' as Uncle Nahum called the caravan . . . had to boot and spur for church. [m.]
2. (American.)—In its second signification this curious word seems to have come into prominent use in politics during the past five years. Its meaning and usage is thus explained in Americanisms—Old and New. Some elections cannot be conducted without boodle first and last. Boodle does not mean the capital or stock-in-trade, except the business or trade be something secret, peculiar and illegal. Boodle always means money; but money has not always been boodle (see sense 4). Money honestly received and spent, money that circulates in regular and honest channels, that appears in cash-book and
