Butcher's Mourning, subs. (common).—A white hat with a black mourning hat-band.
Butteker, subs. (old).—A shop.
Butter, subs. (popular).—Fulsome flattery; unctuous praise; 'soft soap.' A French equivalent is le cirage. Cf., verb, sense 1. Also buttering-up.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, p. 40.
For, knowing how, on Moulsey's plain, The champion fibb'd the Poet's nob, This buttering-up against the grain, We thought was curs'd genteel in Bob.
1823 Blackwood's Magazine, XIV., p. 309. You have been daubed over by the dirty butter of his applause.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. i. The quantity of butter which he poured over Mr. Hardline's head and shoulders with the view of alleviating the misery which such a communication would be sure to inflict, was very great.
1880. World, 13 Oct. A lavish interchange of compliments, the butter being laid on pretty thick.
Verb (common).—1. To flatter fulsomely; to indulge in rhodomantic praise. French cirer.
1700. Congreve, Way of World, prol. (1866), 259. The squire that's buttered still is sure to be undone. [m.]
1725. New Canting Dictionary. To butter signifies also to cheat or defraud in a smooth and plausible manner.
1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxviii. 'Keep him employed, man, for half-an-hour or so—butter him with some warlike terms—praise his dress and address.'
1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xii. 'He first butthers them up and then slithers them down!'
1857. C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago. I'll butter him, trust me. Nothing comforts a poor beggar like a bit of praise when he is down.
1884. Saturday Review, 5 July, p. 27, col. 1. The Lord Chief Justice of England made a tour through America, and generously buttered the natives.
2. (old.)—Jamieson says, 'to increase the stakes every throw or every game.'
1690. B. E., Dictionary of Canting Crew. Butter, to double or treble the bet or wager to recover all losses.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Butter a bet, to double or triple it.
To look as if butter would not melt in one's mouth, phr. (old).—A contemptuous saying of a person of somewhat simple demeanour. Murray traces back this familiar phrase to 1530, but a reference to it appears in French literature at a much earlier date.
1475. Les Evangiles des Quenouilles—Vme Journée. Edition Elzevirienne. Paris (1855), p. 72. A cette parolle mist dame Mehault ses mains à ses costez et en grant couroux luy respondy que, etc., et que, Dieu merci, aincoires fondoit le burre en sa bouche, combien qu'elle ne peust croquier noisettes, car elle n'avoit que un seul dent.
1530. Palgrave, 620, 1. He maketh as thoughe butter wolde not melte in his mouth. [m.]
1562. Latimer, Serm. Lord's Prayer, V., ii., 79. These fellows . . . can speak so finely, that a man would think butter should scant melt in their mouths.
1687. Sedley, Bellamira. Sil. He look'd so demurely, I thought butter wou'd not have melted in his mouth, I hope you will make sure work with him before you send him again.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. she looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, but I warrant cheese won't choak her.
1825. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, ch. xxviii. (III., p. 26). I am beginning to think ye are but a queer ane, ye look as if butter wadna melt in your mouth, but I sall warrant cheese no choak ye.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 149. Telling her landlady how . . . the Mayor was . . . a nice, soft-spoken old gentleman; that butter would'nt melt in his mouth, etc.
