Chapter Bicorn to Bill of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

(Icelandic, bifa, tremble, and rost, path.)
    The keeper of the bridge is Heimdall. It leads to Doomstead, the palace of the Norns or Fates.

Big To look big. To assume a consequential air.
   To talk big. To boast or brag.

“The archdeacon waxed wroth, talked big, and looked bigger.”- Trollope: The Warden, chap. 20.

Big Bird To get the big bird (i.e. the goose). To be hissed on the stage. A theatrical expression.

Big-endians A religious party in the empire of Lilliput, who made it a matter of conscience to break their eggs at the big end; they were looked on as heretics by the orthodox party, who broke theirs at the small end. The Big-endians are the Catholics, and the Little-endians the Protestants.

Big Gooseberry Season (The ). The time when Parliament is not assembled. It is at such times that newspapers are glad of any subject to fill their columns and amuse their readers; monster gooseberries will do for such a purpose for the nonce, or the seaserpent.

Big-wig (A ). A person in authority, a “nob.” Of course, the term arises from the custom of judges, bishops, and so on, wearing large wigs. Bishops no longer wear them.

Bigaroon Incorrectly spelt Bicaroon. A white-heart cherry. (French, bigarreau; Latin, bigarelia; i.e. bis varellus, double-varied, red and white mixed. The French word, bigarrure, means party-colour, bigarrer).

Bighes (pron. bees ). Jewels, female ornaments. (Also written bie.)
   She is all in her bighes to-day- i.e. in full fig, in excellent spirits, in good humour.

Bight To hook the bight- i.e. to get entangled. The bight is the bend or doubled part of a rope, and when the rope of one anchor gets into the “bight” of another, it gets “hooked.”

Bigorne (2 syl.). A corruption of “Bicorn” (q.v. ).

Bigot means simply a worshipper (Anglo-Saxon, bigan, to worship; German, bigott). Various explanations have been given from time to time, but none are well supported.

Bigot and his Castle of Bungay (See Castle, etc.)

Bilbo A rapier or sword. So called from Bilba'o, in Spain, once famous for its finely-tempered blades. Falstaff says to Ford:

“I suffered the pangs of three several deaths; first, an intolerable fright, to be detected ... next, to be compassed, like a good bilbo ... hilt to point, heel to head; and then ...”- Merry wives iii: 5.

Bilboes A bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous sailors are linked together. The word is derived from Bilba'o, in Spain, where they were first made. Some of the bilboes taken from the Spanish Armada are still kept in the Tower of London.

Bile It rouses my bile. It makes me angry or indignant. In Latin, biliosus (a bilious man) meant a choleric one. According to the ancient theory, bile is one of the humours of the body, and when excited abnormally it produces choler or rage.

“It raised my bile to see him so reflect their grief aside.”- Hood: Plea of Midsummer Fairies, stanza 54.

    Black bile is melancholy.

Bilge Water Filthy drainings. The bilge is the lowest part of a ship, and, as the rain or sea-water which trickles down to this part is hard to get at, it is apt to become foul and very offensive.