~Bottom~, stamina in a horse or man. Power to stand fatigue; endurance to receive a good beating and still fight on. "A fellow of pluck, sound wind, and good BOTTOM is fit to fight anything." This was an old axiom among prize fighters. Pierce Egan was very fond of the word.
~Bottom~, spirit placed in a glass before aërated water is poured in. As, "a soda and a BOTTOM of brandy," "soda and dark BOTTOM," is American for soda and brown brandy.
"BOTTOMED well with brandy."--_Bon Gaultier Ballads._
~Botts~, the colic or bellyache.--_Stable Slang._ _Burns_ uses it. _See Death and Dr. Hornbook._
~Botty~, conceited, swaggering.--_Stable._ An infant's posteriors.--_Nursery._
~Bounce~, impudence, cheek. A showy swindler, a bully.
~Bounce~, to boast, cheat, or bully.--_Old Cant._ Also to lie.
~Bounceable~, prone to bouncing or boasting.
~Bouncer~, a person who steals whilst bargaining with a tradesman, a swindler, or a lie of more than ordinary dimensions.
~Bounder~, a four-wheeled cab. Because of its jumping motion over the stones. Also a University term for a TRAP, which generally has a very rough time of it on the country roads.
~Bow-Catcher~, or KISS-CURL, a small curl which a few years back used to be, and probably will be again some day, twisted on the cheeks or temples of young--and often old--girls, adhering to the face as if gummed or pasted. Evidently a corruption of BEAU-CATCHER. In old times this was called a lovelock, when it was the mark at which all the Puritan and ranting preachers levelled their pulpit pop-guns, loaded with sharp and virulent abuse. Hall and Prynne looked upon all women as strumpets who dared to let the hair depart from a straight line upon their cheeks. The French prettily termed these adornments _accroche-coeurs_, whilst in the United States they were plainly and unpleasantly called "spit-curls." Bartlett says: "Spit-curl, a detached lock of hair curled upon the temple; probably from having been at first plastered into shape by the saliva." It is now understood that the mucilage of quince seed is used by the ladies for this purpose. When men twist the hair on each side of their faces into ropes they are sometimes called "bell-ropes," as being wherewith to _draw the belles_. Whether BELL-ROPES or BOW-CATCHERS, it is singular they should form part of a prisoner's adornment, and that a jaunty little kiss-curl should, of all things in the world, ornament a jail dock; yet such was formerly the case. Hunt, "the accomplice after the fact and King's evidence against" the murderer of Weare, on his trial appeared at the bar with a highly pomatumed love-lock sticking tight to his forehead. In the days of the Civil Wars, the very last thing a Cavalier would part with was his love-lock.