B — Button-hole to Byzantines (Part 1 of 2)

Button-hole To button-hole a person. To bore one with conversation. The French have the same locution: Serrer le bouton [á quel qu'un].

“He went about button-holing and boring everyone.”- H. Kingsley: Mathilde.

   To take one down a button- hole. To take one down a peg; to lower one's conceit.

“Better mind yerselves, or I'll take ye down a button-hole lower.”- Mrs. B. Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin, iv.

Button-hole (A). A flower inserted in the button-hole of a coat.

“In fine weather he [the driver of a hansom] will sport a button-hole- generally a dahlia, or some flower of that ilk.”- Nineteenth Century (March, 1893, p. 473).

Buy in (To). To collect stock by purchase; to withhold the sale of something offered at auction, because the bidding has not reached the “reserve price.”

Buy Off (To). To give a person money to drop a claim or put an end to contention, or to throw up a partnership.

Buy Out (To). To redeem or ransom.

“Not being able to buy out his life ...
Dies ere the weary sun set.”
Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors, i.2.

Buy Over (To). To induce one by a bribe to renounce his claim; to gain over by bribery.
   To buy over a person's head. To outbid another.

Buy Up (To). To purchase stock to such an amount as to obtain a virtual monopoly, and thus command the market; to make a corner, as “to buy up corn,” etc.

Buying a Pig in a Poke (See Pig , etc.)

Buzfuz (Serjeant). A driving, chaffing, masculine bar orator, who twists “Chops and Tomato Sauce” into a declaration of love. (Dickens: Pickwick Papers.)

Buzz Empty the bottle. A corruption of bouse (to drink).

“In bousing a bout `twas his gift to excel
And of all jolly topers he bore off the bell.”

(See Boozy.)

Buzz (A). A rumour, a whispered report.

“Yes, that, on every dream,
Each buzz, each fancy ...
He may enguard his dotage.”
Shakespeare: King Lear, i. 4.

Buzzard (The) is meant for Dr. Burnett, whose figure was lusty.

“The noble Buzzard ever pleased me best.”
Dryden: Hind and Panter, part iii. 1121.

   Buzzard called hawk by courtesy. It is a euphemism- a brevet rank- a complimentary title.

“Of small renown, 'tis true; for, not to lie,
We call [your buzzard] “hawk” by courtesy.”
Dryden: Hind and Panther, iii. 1122-3.

   Between hawk and buzzard. Not quite a lady or gentleman, nor quite a servant. Applied to tutors in private houses, bear-leaders, and other grown-up persons who are allowed to come down to dessert, but not to be guests at the dinner-table.

By Meaning against. “I know nothing by myself, yet am I not thereby justified.” (1 Cor. iv. 4.)

By-and-by now means a little time hence, but when the Bible was translated it meant instantly. “When persecution ariseth ... by-and-by he is offended” (Matt. xiii. 21); rendered in Mark iv. 17 by the word “immediately.” Our presently means in a little time hence, but in French présentement means now, directly.