bench, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bench n.

SE in slang uses

In derivatives

bencher (n.)

(US Und.) one who visits opium dens, but only to observe, not smoke.

1935

A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 7/1: Bencher a person who goes to opium joints for entertainment, but does not smoke.

In compounds

bench-legged (adj.) [legs that could straddle a bench]

(US) of people, but more usu. of dogs, bowlegged.

1855		Fayetteville Obs. (TN) 8 Mar. 4/1: He had had his bench-legged fice with him, asleep [...] The dog had a very large body, and legs proportioned like those of a dinner-pot.
1878		Bolivar Bulletin (TN) 19 Dec. 2/3: A benchlegged fice [...] rigning tinware of many patterns with his tail.
1884		Easley Messenger (SC) 28 Mar. 4/1: Cap Dewsberry’s little bench-leg fice got crippled.
1890		Wkly Thibodaux Sentinel (LA) 21 June 4/2: How old Bench-Leg Bob was forced to vote for a Demcorat.
1892		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 4 Dec. 11/1: He saw old Snip, his favorite bench-legged fice dog, making the leaves fly.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 70: Bench-legged cur, dog, fiste, n. A dog whose forelegs are far apart and not straight, like a bulldog and the bull-terrier.
1908		Blue Grass Blade (Lexington, KY) 12 Jan. 3/2: Love [...] can make a bench-legged farmer boy a perfect Apollo.
1915		Bisbee Dly Rev. (AZ) 28 Nov. 4/1: It may have been [...] like a certain bench-legged fice: ‘When he didn’t wag it, why, the tail wagged him’.

bench-man (n.) (also bench nibs) [the SE bench on which they sit + man]

(US Und.) a judge.

1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 219: bench nibs—A judge.
[1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 26/1: Bench nibs. (Very rare) A judge].
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 398: If I go to court and the bench man throws a dime on me I’ll walk with that too, Sonny.

bench-points (n.) [used of people but f. dog and cat shows where the animals are placed on a bench for judging]

physical advantages.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

bench-warmer (n.) [orig. sporting use] (US)

1. any idle or ineffectual person.

1887		St Paul Dly Globe (MN) 25 Apr. 1/3: Get around among your audience and pick out an old bench-warmer that has been doing nothing [...] and pitch him out.
1892		N.Y. Sporting Times 9 Jan. 5: The days for ‘bench warmers’ with salaries are also past.
1904		Pacific Commercial Advertiser (HI) 9 July 1/5: A dozen Democratic bench-warmers who waited [...] for the cablegram [...] that never came.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 124: Now ring up one of them bench-warmers and show us the Baron!
1916		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 7 June [synd. col.] ‘No,’ said the bench-warmer, ‘I’d rather be working’.
1977		Yeshiva 2 333: He was poorly dressed and had all the earmarks of a forlorn bench warmer.
1986		Yale Law Jrnl 95:1 87: Although she lacks initiative, the bench warmer is willing to pull her weight, so long as others pull theirs.

2. (also bench-flopper) a tramp, a vagrant.

1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 90: This meant a lot of local interchange of traffic that, in turn, would give rise to no end of disturbances which would seriously interfere with the presence of ‘bench floppers’.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 438: Bench warmer, A weary hobo whose home is a park bench.
1932		L.E. Lawes Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing 270: Their liberty was worth more to these ‘bench warmers’ than all confinement could offer them.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

In phrases

on the anxious bench (adj.) (also on the anxious seat) [ecclesiastical jargon anxious bench/seat, a seat at the front of the church, near the pulpit, where those particularly concerned about their spiritual status – and willing to admit it – would sit at revival meetings]

(US) worried, nervous.

1873		Idaho World 20 Nov. 1/4: A young man named Bruce [...] was convicted [...] Another one has since pleaded guilty, and others are yet on the anxious bench.
1882		Arizona Sentinel 23 Sept. 2/1: The Prescott Democrat gets on the anxious bench and says the least said about the affairs of the campaign the sooner it will be mended.
1890		Kansas Agitator (Garnet, KS) 8 Sept. 1/3: Benny’s on the anxious bench wond’ring what to do / To build a little boomlet for 1892.
1904		Herald & News (Newberry, SC) 22 Mar. 6/1: All the women of Washington are on the anxious bench to learn whether or no they will be invited.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 354: on the anxious bench, adj. phr. In a state of anxiety or uneasiness. ‘His girl keeps him on the anxious bench half the time.’.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 12 June 11/1: The ‘anxious bench’ [...] is occupied by persons who wish to be converted [...] They hold an ‘anxious meeting’, when they are exhorted and prayed over.
1921		Edgefield Advertiser (SC) 6 Aug. 5/5: When reminded that many people were doubtless on the anxious bench as regards these appointments, Mr Tolbert said [...] ‘Let them linger on the anxious bench a while longer’.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 256: Terry Malloy on trial in absentia and his glib brother Charley on the anxious seat.