1693. Dryden, Persius, V., 215. Cubb'd in a cabin, on a mattrass laid, On a brown George, with lousy swabbers fed.
Brownie, subs. (nautical).—The polar bear.
Brown Janet, subs. (nautical).—A knapsack.
Brown Joe, intj. (rhyming slang).—No. Cf., Brown Bess for 'yes.'
Brown-Papermen, subs. (thieves').—Low gamblers.—See quot.
1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 502. 'But the Little Nick is what we call only 'brown papermen,' low gamblers—playing for pence, and 1s. being a great go.'
Brown Stone, subs. (American thieves').—Beer. For synonyms, see Swipes.
Brown Talk, subs. (common).—Conversation of an exceedingly 'proper' character, Quakerish. Compare blue.
Browse, verb (Marlborough and Royal Military Academy).—To idle; loll; take things easy. [A transferred sense of the legitimate word—to eat lazily.]
Adj.—See foregoing. 'A browse morning,' i.e., one in which there is little work.
Bruise, verb (prize-fighters').—1. To fight; box—generally with the idea of mauling.
Bruise along, verbal phr. (hunting).—To pound along.
1865. Dublin University Magazine, II., 19. A majority of those who follow them have . . . no notion of hunting, but go bruising along.
1872. Anteros, xii., p. 110. The baron hunted his five days . . . bruising along determinedly.
Bruiser, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A prize-fighter; a boxer. [From bruise, to maul, + er.]
1744. Nov. 26, Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1833), II., 57. He let into the pit great numbers of bear-garden bruisers (that is the term), to knock down everybody that hissed.
1753. Foote, Englishman in Paris, Act i. Dick Daylight and Bob Bread-basket the bruisers.
1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xii. The man last named was short in stature, but of a square iron build; and it needed only a glance at his posture to see he was a scientific, perhaps a thorough-bred bruiser.
1846-48. Thackeray, V. Fair, ch. xi. At college he pulled stroke-oar in the Christchurch boat, and had thrashed all the best bruisers of the 'town.'
1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xlii. A jolly wag, a fellow of indifferent character, a frequenter of all the ale-houses in the neighbourhood, and rather celebrated for his skill as a bruiser.
1880. Jas. Greenwood, Flyfaker's Hotel, in Odd People in Odd Places, p. 58. Nearly every one seemed to have some little job or other that was necessary to be done at this almost last moment for the business of to-morrow; even one of the two villanous-looking bruisers had. They were of the very lowest of the 'rough' type—broken-nosed, besotted, pimple-visaged, and unwholesome-looking fellows, whose foul and blasphemous language seemed to pollute the pestilent air of the place more than anything else that contributed thereto.
2. (thieves'.)—A prostitute's bully or fancy man. For synonyms, see Bully.
3. (common.)—One fond of fighting. Cf., Chucker-out, and next sense.
4. (American.)—A generic name in large cities for a rowdy or bully. Sometimes, however, the term has been limited in its application to a particular band
