Chapter Balderdash to Bambino of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Balderdash to Bambino

Balderdash Ribaldry, jargon. (Danish balder , tattle, clatter.)

Baldwin The youngest and comeliest of Charlemagne's paladins; and the nephew of Sir Roland.

Baldwin. (in Jerusalem Delivered). The restless and ambitious Duke of Bologna, leader of 1,200 horse in the allied Christian army. He was Godfrey's brother; not so tall, but very like him.

Baldwin, the Ass (in the tale of Reynard the Fox). In the third part of the Beast-epic he is called "Dr. Baldwin." (Old German, bold friend.)

Bale When bale is highest, boot is nighest. When things have come to the worst they must needs mend.

Balearica Tormenta Here tormenta means instruments for throwing stones. Cæsar (Gallic War , iv. 25) says: "Fundis, tormentis, sagittis hostes propellere." The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands were noted slingers, and indeed owe their name to this skill. (Greek, ballo, to cast or hurl.) Pronounce Bale-e-ari- ca.

Balfour of Burley Leader of the Covenanters in Scott's Old Mortality, a novel (1816).

Balios (See Horse .)

Balisarda or Balisardo. Rogero's sword, made by a sorceress, and capable of cutting through enchanted substances.

"With Balisarda's slightest blow
Nor helm, nor shield, nor cuirass could avail,
Nor strongly-tempered plate, nor twisted mail." Ariosto Orlando Furioso, book xxiii.

Balistraria Narrow apertures in the form of a cross in the walls of ancient castles, through which cross- bowmen discharged their arrows.

Baliverso (in Orlando Furioso). The basest knight in the Saracen army.

Balk means the high ridge between furrows (Anglo-Saxon balca, a beam, a ridge); hence a rising ground.

A balk of timber is a beam running across the ceiling, etc., like a ridge. As the balk is the part not cut by the plough, therefore "to balk" means to leave untouched, or to disappoint.

To make a balk. To miss a part of the field in ploughing. Hence to disappoint, to withhold deceitfully.

To make a balk of good ground To throw away a good chance.

Balker One who from an eminence balks or directs fishermen where shoals of herrings have gathered together. (Anglo-Saxon, bælc-an to shout.)

Balkis The Queen of Sheba or Saba, who visited Solomon. (Al Koran, c. ii.)

Ball To strike the ball under the line. To fail in one's object. The allusion is to the game of tennis, in which a line is stretched in the middle of the court, and the players standing on each side have, with their rackets, to knock it alternately over the line.

"Thou hast stricken the ball under the line." - John Heywoode's Works (London, 1566).

To take the ball before the bound. To anticipate an opportunity; to be overhasty. A metaphor from cricket, as when a batsman runs up to meet the ball at full pitch, before it bounds. (See Balle.)