lar nickname is given to the French Chasseurs—Culs rouges.—See CHERUBIM.
To TOE ONE'S BUM, phr. (low).—An implied threat of physical castigation, rarely, however, carried out literally; to put or 'chuck' out; to show the door to—either will explain the meaning. Sometimes the phrase occurs as 'TO HOOF ONE'S BUM.'
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Sauter sur la contrebasse (popular); filer un coup de trottinet dans l'oignon (thieves'); boucher la lumière (popular: properly 'to stuff up the touch-hole'); enlever le ballon à quelqu'un (popular: the allusion is to raising an air balloon with the foot); donner un coup de pied juste au bon endroit (popular: 'to give a kick just in the right part'); botter (popular: literally 'to make' or 'supply anyone with boots'); détacher un coup de pinceau dans la giberne (popular: coup de pinceau = 'a kick,' or 'a blow with the foot'; giberne = cartridge-box or, in slang, the breech); crever un œeil à quelqu'un (popular: 'to stave in one's eye.' Cf., CYCLOPS); graisser le train derrière (i.e., 'to grease the hinder carriage.' Cf., Eng. BASTING); détruire le faubourg à quelqu'un (popular: properly FAUBOURG = suburb or outskirt); enlever le schelingophone à quelqu'un (popular).
BUM BAGS, subs, (popular).—Trowsers. [From BUM, the posteriors, + BAGS (q.v.).]
BUM BAILIFF, also BUM BAILY, subs. (old).—An opprobrious name for a bailiff or sheriff's officer. Frequently contracted into BUM or BUMMY. [Thought to be derived from BUM (q.v.), an allusion to the proximity of such gentry to debtors' backs, + BAILIFF; there is no reason to suppose, as suggested, that the term is a corruption of BOUND-BAILIFF. The French have pousse cul, and it is curious that this term is also, in common use, abbreviated to cul, answering to the English contraction, BUM.]
1602. SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, Act iii., Sc. 4. Sir Jo. Go, Sir Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the orchard like a BUM-BAILY.
1628. H. SHIRLEY, Martyr'd Souldier, Act v. I was first a Varlet, then a BUM-BAILY, now an under Jailor.
1761. DR. HAWKESWORTH, Edgar and Emmeline, ii., 1. By the heavens! she has the gripe of a BUM-BAILIFF.
1822. SCOTT, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. 'We are in right opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, serjeant and tipstaff, catch-poll and BUM-BAILEY.'
1869. Mrs. H. WOOD, Roland Yorke, ch. xxxii. 'You know the state we were in all the summer: Gerald next to penniless, and going about in fear of the BUM-BAILIES.'
BUM BASS, subs. (old).—Explained by quot.
1809. S. PEGGE, Anonymiana, p. 415 (ed. 1809). The humble-bee ought rather, perhaps, to be called the bumble-bee as it is in some parts, from the deepness of the note, just as the violoncello is called by the vulgar a BUM-BASS.
BUMBLE, subs, (common).—A beadle. [This term originated in the name of the beadle in Dickens' Oliver Twist, although it may be noted that in the seventeenth century BUMBLE signified a confusion, a jumble. Hence BUMBLER, an idle fellow, or blunderer. A French equivalent is chasse-coquin (literally a beggar driver). Cf., BUMBLE-CREW and BUMBLEDOM.]
