1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, I., p. 251. I've found out the way that Yankee fellows does the king. It's not the common bridge that every body knows.
1866. Yates, Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or 'securing' a die, talking over a flat, or winning money of a greenhorn, was to have its vent in launching a great City Company.
Verb (old).—Explained by quotation.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. To bridge a person, or to throw him over the bridge, is . . . to deceive him by betraying the confidence he has reposed in you.
Bridle-Cull, subs. (old).—A highwayman. [From bridle + cull, a 'man.'] A French equivalent is un garcon de campagne; also un grinche de cambrouse; aller au trimar or trimard, 'to become a highwayman.' Trimar = road or 'toby.'
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. I., ch. v. A booty of £10 looks as great in the eye of a bridle-cull, and gives as much real happiness to his fancy, as that of as many thousands to the statesman.
Bridport or Brydport Dagger, subs. (old).—The hangman's rope. 'To be stabbed with a Bridport Dagger' signifies 'to be hanged.' For synonyms, see Horse's nightcap, and Cf., Anodyne necklace.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, Dorset (I., 310). 'Stab'd with a Brydport dagger.' That is, hang'd or executed at the Gallowes; the best, if not the most, hemp (for the quantity of ground) growing about Brydport.
1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, etc. (1811), p. 67. Stabbed with a Brydport dagger. That is hanged. Great quantity of hemp is grown about this town; and, on account of its superior qualities, Fuller says there was an ancient statute, now disused, that the cables for the royal navy should be made thereabouts.
1807. Southey, Espriella's Letters, i., 35 (3 ed.). The neighbourhood is so proverbially productive of hemp, that when a man is hanged, they have a vulgar saying, that he has been stabbed with a Bridport dagger.
Brief, subs. (thieves').—A ticket of any kind, whether railway pass, pawnbrokers' duplicate, or ticket for a raffle; also a pocket book. Hence briefless (q.v).
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I took a brief (ticket) to London Bridge.
1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18, p. 3, col. 2. His usual line of business was 'brief-snatching,' i.e., hovering about the crowd that surrounds a small book-*maker, and snatching from the hands of the unwary the credential they with rash eagerness exhibit, and which they desire to exchange with the man they have bet with for their winnings.
1889. Sporting Times, 6 July. They copped the briefs at the next station, and he changed carriages.
Briefless, adj. (common).—Ticketless.—See Brief.
1889. Bird o' Freedom, Aug. 7, p. 3. Following close at the heels of Newman, I soon found myself within the Aquarium, all briefless as I was, and without having been asked any questions.
Briefs or Breefs, subs. (card-sharpers').—Cards tampered with for the purpose of swindling.—See Bridge, Concaves, and Convexes, Longs, and Shorts, Reflectors, etc. [From the German briefe, which Baron Heinecken says was the name given to the cards manufactured at Ulm. Brief is also the synonym for a card in the German Rothwalsch dialect, and briefen is to play at cards.]
1529. [Edited by] Luther, Liber Vagatorum (1860), p. 47. 'Item—beware of the Joners (gamblers), who practice Beseflery with the brief (cheat-
