Chapter Bowie Knife to Brag of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Boy Bachelor William Wotton, D.D., was admitted at St. Catherine's Hall before he was ten, and took his B.A. when he was twelve and a half. (1666-1726.)

Boy Bishop St. Nicholas. From his cradle he is said to have manifested marvellous indications of piety, and was therefore selected for the patron saint of boys. (Fourth century.)
   Boy Bishop. The custom of choosing a boy from the cathedral choir, etc., on St. Nicholas Day (December 6th), as a mock bishop, is very ancient. The boy possessed episcopal honour for three weeks, and the rest of the choir were his prebendaries. If he died during the time of his prelacy, he was buried in pontificalibus. Probably the reference is to Jesus Christ sitting in the Temple among the doctors while He was a boy. The custom was abolished in the reign of Henry VIII.
   Boy in buttons (A). (See Buttons.)

Boycott (To ). To boycott a person is to refuse to deal with him, to take any notice of him, or even to sell to him. The term arose in 1881, when Captain Boycott, an Irish landlord, was thus ostracised by the Irish agrarian insurgents. The custom of ostracising is of very old standing. St. Paul exhorts Christians to “boycott” idolaters (2 Cor. vi. 17); and the Jews “boycotted” the Samaritans. The French phrases, Damner une boutique and Damner une ville, convey the same idea; and the Catholic Church anathematises and interdicts freely.

“One word as to the way in which a man should be boycotted. When any man has taken a farm from which a tenant has been evicted, or is a grabber, let everyone in the parish turn his back on him; have no communication with him, have no dealings with him. You need never say an unkind word to him; but never say anything at all to him. If you must meet him in fair, walk away from him silently. Do him no violence, but have no dealings with him. Let every man's door be closed against him; and make him feel himself a stranger and a castaway in his own neighbourhood.”- J. Dillon, M.P. (Speech to the Land League, Fch. 26, 1881).

Boyle Controversy A book-battle between the Hon. Charles Boyle, third Earl of Orrery, and the famous Bentley, respecting the Epistles of Phalaris. Charles Boyle edited the Epistles of Phalaris in 1695. Two years later Bentley published his celebrated Dissertation, to prove that the epistles were not written till the second century after Christ instead of six centuries before that epoch. In 1699 he published another rejoinder, and utterly annihilated the Boyleists.

Boyle's Law “The volume of a gas is inversely as the pressure.” If we double the pressure on a gas, its volume is reduced to one-half; if we quadruple the pressure, it will be reduced to one-fourth; and so on; so called from the Hon. Robert Boyle. (1627-1691.)

Boyle Lectures Eight sermons a year in defence of Christianity, founded by the Hon. Robert Boyle.

Boz Charles Dickens (1812-1870).

“Boz, my signature in the Morning Chronicle, ” he tells us, “was the nickname of a pet child, a younger brother, whom I had dubbed Moses, in honour of the Vicar of Wakefield, which, being pronounced Bozes, got shortened into Boz. ”

“Who the dickens `Boz' could be
Puzzled many a learned elf;
But time revealed the mystery,
For `Boz' appeared as Dickens' self”
Epigram in the Carthusian.

Bozzy James Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Johnson (1740-1795).

Brabanconne A Belgian patriotic song, composed in the revolution of 1830, and so named from Brabant, of which Brussels is the chief city.

Brabancons Troops of adventurers and bandits, who made war a trade and lent themselves for money to anyone who would pay them; so called from Brabant, their great nest. (Twelfth century.)