Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a ruffian’s sword; thus bilbo’s the word, it’s time for swords, i.e. fighting.

c.1597		Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor I i: I combat challenge of this latten bilbo. [Ibid.] III v: To be compassed, like a good bilbo, in the circumference of a peck, hilt to the point, head to heel.
1611		Davies of Hereford Vpon Eng. Prouerbes 49/2: Her bumme is no bilbo, and yet it will cutt As keene as a razer that shaues away all.
1627		M. Drayton Battle of Agincourt 8: He scowers an olde Fox, he a Bilbowe blade / Now Shields and Targets only are for sale When down their bows they threw, And forth their bilbows drew.
1693		Congreve Old Bachelor III iii: Tell him, I say he must refund, or Bilbo’s the word, and slaughter will ensue.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Bil-boa c. a Sword.
1713		Guardian 145: He that shall rashly attempt to regulate our hilts, or reduce our blades, had need to have a heart of oak... bilbo is the word, remember that and tremble [F&H].
1725		M. Davys ‘The Modern Poet’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 136: With brazen-hilted Bilbo to attack / All those, who dare to call Names behind his Back.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Bilboa, (cant) a sword. Bilboa in Spain was once famous for well tempered blades: these are quoted by Falstaff, where he described the manner in which he lay in the buck basket.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1816		W. Scott Old Mortality in Waverley II (1855) 386: ‘It was all fair play; your comrade sought a fall, and he has got it.’ ‘That is true enough,’ said Bothwell, as he slowly rose; ‘put up your bilbo, Tom.’.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 145: By spigot and barrel, / By bilboe and buff; / Thou art sworn to the quarrel / Of the blades of the huff.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 79: bilbo and bilboes. The town of Bilboa, in Spain, being famous for the manufacture of iron and steel, a fine Spanish blade was called a bilbo.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 5: Bilboa – a sword, or any pointed instrument.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 11: bilboa A pointed instrument.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

2. in pl., iron ankle shackles, also called ‘iron-garters’.

1703		Hell Upon Earth 8: High Spirited Fellows [...] put into Bilboes, and Handcuffs.
1710		S. Centlivre Bickerstaff’s Burying Act I: E’gad, I always thought the Wedding-sheet the Winding-sheet of Pleasure, after a month [...] Zounds! I had rather sit in the Bilboes all Days of my Life.
1714		T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 254: They have been forced to put him [...] in the bilboes, or else the condemn’d hold.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c 349: He was often whipp’d at the Cap stern, put in the Bilboes, and once Keel-haul’d.
1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 134: An that be all (said he) you shan’t go to the bilboes this bout.
1751		in ‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow (1790) 134: Come away citizens, ye that have long / By tyrots [sic] been held in the biboes.
1791		J. O’Keeffe Wild Oats (1792) 66: I’ll give him a passport to Winchester Bilboas.
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 109: He’d his feet fast in the bilboes.
1829		Australian (Sydney) 12 May 3/5: The constable took him in tow and clapped him in the ‘bilboes’.
1834		Westmorland Gaz. 16 June 1/3: They took me to the bilboes, and here I is.
1855		Bell’s Life in Sydney 10 Mar. 2/5: Well, says I to that gemmnn in the bilboes, ‘come along, old feller, and I’ll stand treat’.
1863		G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 194: The Master Mariner had no power over his crew, and no license to put ’em in the Bilboes.
1874		H. Mayhew London Characters 83: Racks, bilboes, and other ‘hateful and grim things’.

3. in pl., the stocks.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Bilboas, the Stocks.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: bilboes, the stocks.
1791		A. Pasquin Shrove Tuesday 90: Dodd, in the bilboes, ne’er did better.
1800		‘Lovely Nan’ in Jovial Songster 52: In the bilboes I was pen’d / For serving of a worthless friend.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 188: ‘And now let us talk about our business.’ ‘Your business, if you please [...] mine was done when I got out of the bilboes.’.
1816		M. Lewis 4 Mar. in Journal of a West India Proprietor (1834) 205: The most worthless rascal on the estate, whom for manifold offences I was compelled [...] to allow to pass two days in the bilboes.
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 214: The poor landlords are most of them in the bilboes at Winchester.