bible n.
1. (UK Und.) a large piece of lead, stripped from a roof (cf. prayer book under prayer n.).
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | View of Society II 63: To fly the blue pigeon is cutting off lead from what they call a Prayer Book up to a Bible. | |
| Life’s Painter 175: They will out chif sometimes, that is, their knife, and cut a hundred weight of lead, which they rap round their bodies next to the skin, this they call a Bible, and what they steal and put in their pockets they call a prayer-book. |
2. a peddler’s box of haberdashery items.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Tramping with Tramps 240: ‘We’d been nowhere ’thout the bible.’ [...] The ‘bible’ is tramp slang for the hawker’s little parcel of things which he is supposed to peddle. | |
| Tramping with Tramps 211: Bible – the pedlar’s box of pins, needles, laces, etc. | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 2: Bible: Pedlars Outfit. |
3. the myth that religious superstitions offer a superior truth.
(a) the ultimate authority, the absolute truth; thus torah, a ‘Judaized’ equivalent, based on the Heb. Torah, the Old Testament; also attrib.
| (ed.) Jemmy Twitcher’s Jests 68: I can take my bible ooath [sic] to the bag, and the mony [sic] too. | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Bible-Oath. supposed by the Vulgar to be more binding than an oath taken on the Testament only, — as being the Bigger Book & Generally containing both the Old & New Testament. | |
| Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, PA) 6 Apr. 1/3: The church called on aunt Lizzy [...] to come out and make acknowledgment for violating a bible oath! | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Oct. 3/2: Any one who knows Mr. Edward Walton [...] may take his ‘Bible oath,’ that his apprentices are more likely to be in fault than himself. | |
| General Bounce (1891) 17: Friday’s an unlucky day, Miss Blanche, you may take your Bible oath on it. | |
| Polynesian (Honolulu, HI) 31 May 1/6: If natives take an oath to each other, it is never a Bible oath. They swear by old deities. | |
| Jamestown Alert (ND) 1 Aug. 2/3: If I hadn’t been put upon my Bible oath what was to prevent me telling a lie? | |
| Times & Democrat (Orangeburg, SC) 4 Mar. 6/2: O yes, I am a Chinaman [...] Do I believe in the Bible oath? Yes. | |
| Houndsditch Day by Day 48: He told the doctor, ’onest and shtraitvorward, the torah truth. [Ibid.] 139: Life ain’t in ’oldin’ the biggest cards, but in playin’ a poor ’and well. That’s towrah, ain’t it? | |
| Scarlet City 256: I’ll take my Bible oath I will. | |
| Chicago Eagle (IL) 15 Feb. 11/2: ‘Will yer swear?’ ‘Yus!’ ‘Take yer oath?’ ‘Yus!’ ‘Bible oath?’ ‘Yus!’. | |
| ‘Queen of the Slack Wire’ in McClure’s Mag. Jan. 319/1: Another declared [...] that he had never harmed a woman yet, and was willing, if required, to take his Bible oath that he never would. | |
 | Fair Play (St Genevieve, MO) 6 Aug. 8/4: A real man is dependable. His simple word is as good as his Bible oath. | |
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 28 May 11/1: The line about the Cab Calloways three-ing seen in this corner first can be considered Bible. | |
| New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 253: bible (n.): the gospel truth. Ex., ‘It’s the bible!’. | |
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 21: bible Referring to the taking of an oath; to take the oath. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| No Lights, No Sirens 20: He looked right into my eyes and I was sure not to look away. I wanted him to know that what he was giving me was bible. | |
| (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 Fall 1: BIBLE -- affirmation of the truth of the previous statement: ‘I always go to the mall on the weekends. Bible.’ Popularized by the television program Keeping Up With the Kardashians. |
(b) (US) any authoritative book, catalogue, reference work, listing, varying as to the context.
| Wyoming (1908) 105: I see him studying a Wind River Bible* (*A Wind River Bible in the Northwest ranch country is a catalogue of one of the big Chicago department stores). | |
| Job 54: ‘Must be true, though; it’s going to appear in the Gazette, and that’s the motor-dealer’s bible’. | |
| G.I. Laughs 171: Bible, army regulations. | |
| Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: army Bible . . . regulations. [Ibid.] Bible . . . Army Field Manual. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| ‘Lang. of Traffic Policemen’ in AS XXXVII:4 267: bible, n. The California Vehicle Code. | |
| et al. CUSS 79: Bible Commercially published subject outline. | |
| CB Slanguage 10: Bible: log book. |
4. (US, a book of cigarette papers, thus N.Z. prison) bible page, bible paper, a single paper.
| Cowboy Lingo 206: His book of cigarette papers was often spoken of by the cowboy as his ‘prayer book’ or ‘bible’. | |
| Western Words (1968) 18/2: Bible A cowboy’s name for his book of cigarette papers. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 16/1: bible page (also bible paper) n. a cigarette paper [[both cigarette papers and Bible pages are made of rice paper]. |
5. small items, often actual miniature Bibles, sold by carnival perfomers)usually freaks) to boost their earrnings.
| ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Bibles — Items (often, but not always, miniature Bibles) sold for extra income by performers in a ten-in-one. |
6. (N.Z. prison) an item of pornography.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 16/1: Bible, the n. a pornographic magazine. |
In compounds
(UK tramp) a pedlar.
| Hartlepool Mail 4 June 2/4: Female ‘Bible-thumpers’ (hawkers) who beg under the protection of their ‘stiff,’ or license, frequently have more ‘scran’ than they can possibly eat. | |
| ‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 25 Jan. 9/3: ‘[W]hy is Bible-thumpers ser eager ter shake hands with ther chutnee bloke, ther Chow, an’ ther islander?’ . | |
| Beds. Times 3 Mar. 6/7: George and William mason [...] were charged with begging [...] The Inspector said that the defendants were known as ‘Professional Bible-Thumpers’. | |
| Leamington Spa Courier 20 Sept. 7/1: There is ‘Slim’ Poggle the ‘bible thumper’ (pedlar) who always dresses like a navvy. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
see separate entry.
1. (also bible-sharp) a clergyman, a preacher.
| N.E. Farmer (MA) 8 May 4/5: The dean [...] had the satisfaction of hearing one of his own sermons preached by an ignorant ‘Bible banger’. | |
| Cairo Eve. Bull. (IL) 17 May 3/2: John A. Logan, a bible-banger and yellow-legged-chicken-eater - or rather a clerical eater of yellow-legged chickens. | |
| Century mag. (N.Y.) Mar. 678: He kin preach all round any o’ yer Meth’dist bible-bangers. | |
| Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 3 Jan. 6/1: A suburban Bible-banger alluded last Sunday to the ‘hand of God in the County Council’. | |
| Wolfville 231: It seem like that Bible-sharp is right a whole lot? | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 9 Apr. 4/7: The Bible-banger opened with the usual hymn, and droned the responses in a cultivated nasal twang. | |
| Blue Grass Blade (Lexington, KY) 15 July 1/3: Rev. Dr. Atterbury, a Presbyterian Bible-banger. |
2. (Aus./N.Z./US campus) a religious fanatic; thus bible-banging n. and adj.
| White Cloud Kansas Chief (KS) 18 June 2/2: The Bible-bangers do delight to labor with the nymphs, who are profanely called beer-jerkers. | |
| Semi-Wkly Louisianan (N.O.) 3 Aug. 2/4: As for the itinerant bible banger we suppose a bible banging that has brought him to the front rank of his race. | |
| Stark Co. Democrat (Canton, OH) 25 Aug. 4/6: Methodist Bible bangers and puplit pounders. | |
| Sedalia Wkly Bazoo (MO) 9 Sept. 4/3: A dynamiter named Damon, a single-footed bible-banger. | |
| Sun (NY) 13 Sept. 5/1: Th’ain’t no cause f’r to use a bungstarter onto a Bible banger. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 17 July 2nd sect. 10/3: The Reverend Worrall, one of the most notorious of the kill-sports in the East, was completely squelched by Prime Minister Andy Fisher [...] who gave the disgruntled bible-banger no peace. | |
| Broad Ax (Salt Lake City) 19 Aug. 4/1: Rev. Abraham L. Murray [...] the wild and noisy bible pounder of Bethel Church. | |
| Truth (Melbourne) 18 May 8/2: [headline] Billy Sunday / A Blasphemous Bible-Banger. | |
| letter in Edmond Letters (1981) 21 July 5: Either you become one of these, or you must turn yourself into a blasted bible-banging Baptist. [Ibid.] 11: Even the bible-banger is preferable to the human fungi they stand for. | |
| in Partridge Sl. Today and Yesterday 287: I might even go to the Sallies; they have the shortest service. You can take my word that I am no Bible-banger. | |
| Honey in the Horn 38: Her pa was red-eyed on Bible-bangin’. I remember well. He heerd heavenly voices, or claimed to. | |
| Canoe in Aus. 64: ‘Ar cripes, what else is there to do in this dump on a Sunday – bar go bible-bangin’’ one boy said. | |
| Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 25: Hey, the Bible-banger’s here! | |
| Pagan Game (1969) 73: The Chairman, a notorious bible-banger, was demanding a Christian revival in the College. | |
| Prisoner 45: What’s that Bible-banging old bastard doing back here? | |
| ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 56: Bible banger n Religious fanatic, person of evangelical beliefs and practices. | |
| Lily on the Dustbin 183: My father perfected a formula for dealing with ‘Bible bangers’ (or ‘Bible bashers’) which I use with success. | |
| Cracking the Communications Code 241: She Didn’t Want a ‘Bible Banger’ for a Husband . |
a clergyman; a religious fanatic; thus bible-bash, bash the bible v., to act in an overly pious fashion; bible-bashing, sanctimonious, fanatical.
| Freethinker 85 154: A tirade in the old ‘Bible-bashing’ style. | |
| (con. WW1) Patrol 71: [of a dead soldier] ‘Why the — hell [...] should he click before a — like that choot of a Jew-boy, or that tin-faced Bible-thrasher?’. | |
| We Were the Rats 124: I doan want any bible-bashing bastard who’s never seen me before mumblin’ any bull— over me. | |
| Behind Bamboo 395/1: Bible basher, padre, priest. | |
| Power Without Glory 32: The ‘bible bashers’ [...] wrote to the press demanding action against the gambling mania. | |
| (con. c.1935) London E1 (2012) 81: ‘I’m not frightened of any old bible-basher’. | |
| Bunch of Ratbags 163: Argles hooked a kid for slinging off at Richie and calling him a Bible-basher’s son. | |
| Holy Smoke 33: You’re the bible-bashing expert around here. | |
| Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 37: Shut up, you old bible basher. | |
| Lily on the Dustbin 183: My father perfected a formula for dealing with ‘Bible bangers’ (or ‘Bible bashers’) which I use with success. | |
| Real Thing 131: Sanctimonious, Bible-bashing wombats like the Festival of Light. | |
| That Eye, The Sky 104: Now you’re a born-again, bashing the Bible and Holy Jesus. I think you’re crap. | |
| About Face (1991) 213: This modern-day Sodom made Columbus [OH] look like a proper Bible-bashing town. | |
| Chopper From The Inside 188: Anyone thinking that Haig is just a bible-bashing poofter is making a big mistake. | |
| Indep. Rev. 18 June 8: Ordinary blokes, not wide-eyed, teetotal Bible-bashers. | |
| Chopper 3 37: The screws in jail are always a strange mix of [...] bible bashers, drunks and the classic Aussie bar-room story tellers. | |
| Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] You Bible-bashing hypocrite’. | |
| Observer New Review 27 Feb. 44/5: Bath’s Bible bashers have Bragg on their side. | |
| Observer New Rev. 5 Feb. 16/3: Bushby, who is no ‘Bible basher,’ looks appalled . | |
| Widespread Panic 1126: She Bible-bashed me. The Book of Revelation 3:8. | |
| Opal Country 40: ‘[H]e [...] became a bible basher, did a lot of good works. |
(US campus) an evangelizing, fundamentalist Christian.
| Wkly Caucasian (Lexington, MO) 20 July 2/8: A Cold-Spring, New York, Methodist Bible-beater has gone insane. | |
| Broad Ax (Salt Lake City, UT) 14 Feb. 1/2: Diastrict Attorney Bethea informed [the] crowd of old time Bible-beaters that ‘he could do nothing for them’. | |
| Kansas City Sun (MO) 30 Dec. 1/4: He felt he could accomplish more good [...] by ‘denaturing empryotic Bible beaters’. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 1: Bible-beater – a religious fanatic. | |
| in Sex Work (1988) 134: To think of us thriving on lust is another myth created by [...] two-faced religious enthusiasts and Bible-beaters. | |
| Sl. and Sociability 42: Alliteration marks [...] Bible beater ‘evangelizing fundamentalist Christian’. |
a native of those (mainly southern) US states where fundamentalist Christianity dominates social mores.
| Standard Union (Brooklyn, NY) 12 Sept. 8/5: [headline] Bible Belter ‘De-Bunks’ B’way / Oklahoman Scores ‘Boobs’ Along White Way as ‘Cocksure Egotists’. | |
| Hutchinson News (KS) 30 Apr. 4/1: Belabored with such epithets as ‘babbit,’ ‘wowser,’ and ‘bible belter’. | |
| On Broadway [sund. col.] It [i.e. a denunciation] was planned months ago to discredit the Vice-Prez with the Bible Belters. | |
| Williamsport Sun-Gaz. (PA) 3 Dec. 8/5: The bible belt may be considered narrow-minded [...] but the Bible-belters have plenty of votes [etc]. | |
| Dly Republic (Mitchell, SD) 8 Feb. 4/3: A marvellous commonwealth, full of [...] Black Angus, bounce, Bible-belters, and bootleggers. | |
| N-W Arkansas Times (Fayetteville, AR) 24 Jan. 5: [headline] Bible Belters Want Go-Go Gone. | |
| Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 151: Bible-belter [...] Applied chiefly to poor whites of the sort attending revival meetings; implies ignorance, gullibility, and backwardness. Sometimes also applied to blacks, especially black Baptists. | |
| Star-Gaz. (Elmira, NY) 15 jan. 32/1: Few Bible Belters are familiar with the Yiddish ‘kvetch’. | |
| L.A. Times 23 jan. F27/6: Some of the most bodacious Bible belters this side of the heavenly choir. | |
| Santa Fe New Mexican (NM) 18 Sept. A005/1: Conceding Southern New Mexico to Bush and his Bible Belters [...] wasn’t a good move. | |
| Philadelphia Dly News (PA) 13 Feb. 30/5: A set piece built around racist Bible Belters. |
(US) a clergyman, a religious fanatic; thus bible-busting fanatical.
| Truth (Sydney) 22 June 8/4: But the game were forced upon me / By this Bible-bustin' crew. | |
| Blue-Grass Blade (Lexington, KY) 14 Feb. 2/2: Alack! I was only whoopin’ for a Bible Buster and a Toe Kisser! | |
| Ocala Eve. Star (FL) 10 Feb. 7/5: The bible buster, the pulpit smasher. | |
| Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 154: If a man does ’is work and looks arter ’is ’ome and ’is young ’uns [...] I reckon ’e stands as much chance of getting into ’eaven – if there is sich a place – as some of these ’ere Bible-busters, whether ’e ever goes to church or chapel or not. |
a streetseller of songs who offers the sheet-music but does not give a performance to encourage sales.
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
(US) a clergyman.
| Warrenton Banner (MS) 5 July 2/2: A few office-seeking ‘dead-beats,’ and one or two gilt-edge ‘bible maulers’ composed the crows. | |
| Wkly Caucasian (Lexington, MO) 31 Aug. 4/5: From Nastychusetts [...] flows that holy stream of white-choke-ragged [...] twang-proboscised, cursed hypocritical bible maulers. | |
| Interior Jrnl (Stanford, KY) 4 Aug. 1/5: Stop puffing ignoramus pulpit stampers, bible-maulers and ranters, with neither pity [...] nor common sense. |
a public house.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
a clergyman, a preacher.
| Lincoln Co. Herald (MO) 19 Nov. 2/1: That pluperfectly loyal swindler, bible pounder, so styled Reverend T.J. Stanler. | |
| Bismarck Trib. (ND) 30 Dec. 1/4: [headline] Montana's Bible Pounder. J.X. Biedler, Montana’s frontier evangelist. | |
| Arizona Champion (Peach Springs, AZ) 2 Feb. 3/3: Some good old zealous bible pounder. | |
| Newcastle Morn. Herald (NSW) 20 Aug. 2/4: The pious Bible-pounder slid out of the office. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 28 Jan. 4/5: The blacking-bottle bible-pounder jumps out of the pulpit. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dundee Eve. Teleg. 23 may 2/2: He [i.e. a popular preacher] is not a Bible pounder. | |
| Broad Ax (Salt Lake City) 23 Apr. 5/1: He became a shouting bible pounder. | |
| Broad Ax (Salt Lake City) 20 Sept. 1/2: Mr Stewart’s managers had actually bought three pulpit ranters and bible pounders. | |
| Navy Explained 130: The navy generally calls a very religious person a bible pounder or bible back [HDAS]. |
(orig. milit.) a religious person, usu. one who wishes to thrust their beliefs on any who will listen and many who would rather not; thus bible-punching n. and adj., preaching.
| Clipper (Hobart, Tas.) 1 May 6/2: One I thinks when I am out— / Wot the bible punchers doin? / Wot their wimmen are about. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Nov. 11/2: Anyone who asks applicants for a billet to state the lowest salary they will take might as well advertise at once: ‘Tenders invited from persons willing to carry out the duties of Bible-puncher’. | |
| Tiki Talk (N.Z.) 10: Synonyms: clergyman, parson [...] preacher, bible-puncher [OED]. | |
| ‘Contract of Corporal Twing’ in O’Brien & Cournos Best Short Stories 328: Me favver an’ me muvver was bible punchers. | |
| Spring in Tartarus 301: Good hand-out, usually. No bible-punching. | |
| Capricornia (1939) 486: Grows up to what? — you horse-faced bible-puncher. | |
| letter 26 Apr. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 260: The bible-punching old bastard. | |
| Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 80: [He] pushed his way through crowds gathered around Slab Square Bible-punchers and soap-box orators. | |
| (con. 1940s) Dark Sea Running 216: I guess I’m no phonier than half the other Bible-punchers around here. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Bandiet 124: Thys Jakobs was assaulted by the mad boer du Plessis. Head-Warder du Plessis was boss of Moulders [...] and was an avowed Bible-puncher. He also had an uncontrollably violent temper. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
(US) a clergyman, a preacher.
| Interior Jrnl (Stanford, KY) 4 Aug. 1/5: Stop puffing ignoramus pulpit stampers, bible-maulers and ranters, with neither pity [...] nor common sense. | |
| Hobo 23: All their enemies [...] are town clowns, sky pilots, Bible ranters, bulls, politicians, home guards, hicks, stool pigeons, systems, scissor bills, and capitalists. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 26: bible ranter: A preacher or evangelist. A logical term for many of these ‘inspired,’ uneducated and over-zealous individuals. |
(US prison) a Protestant preacher.
| ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 197: Bible salesman, n. – a Protestant preacher. |
see bible-banger
see bible-basher
1. (also bible-swinger, God-thumper, goodie-book thumper) a notably religious person, esp. a clergyman; thus bible-thumping, bible-swinging, fanatical preaching; as adj., preaching fanatically.
| Carlisle Jrnl 20 Nov. 2/6: On Sunday week a young man as fluent and gesticulatory as any ‘Bible-thumper’ [...] gave us a lively sermon. | |
| Lancaster Gaz. 4 Dec. 2/5: The witty Dean of St Paul’s was no Bible-thumper. Neither friend nor foe ever suspected him of religious enthusiasm. | |
| Northern Argus (Rockhampton, Qld) 26 Sept. 3/1: Your first title seemed to grate on the ears of the Bible-thumpers and [...] you were advised [...] to alter it. | |
| Cincinnati Dly Star (OH) 23 Oct. 6/5: The census takers of New Zealand found no less than 127 denominational distinctions, among whcih [was] ‘Bible Thumpers’. | |
| Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 5 Sept. 7/3: Kin any o’ you salaried liars put me onto the trail of a Gospel sharp that’s out of a job? I’m [...] on the lookout for a Bible thumper to touch us up occasionally on the Jerusalem racket. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 10/4: Not satisfied with this, she climbed into the pulpit, shot the legally-ordained Bible-thumper out on his head and then informed the crowd that she was God, and hoped they wouldn’t forget that fact in the future. | |
| Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 5 Sept. 7/3: I’m just [...] on the lookout for a Bible thumper to touch us up [...] on the Jerusalem racket. | |
| Cornishman 24 Mar. 8/1: A diamond in the rough [...] the leading spirit in a large circle of Derbyshire ‘Ranters’ — a ‘Bible-thumper’. | |
| [ | | ‘Short Creek Dave’ Sandburrs 73: I now introdooces to you a gent who is liable to be as good a preacher as ever thumps a Bible]. |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Jan. 8/2: This blatant, bowelless, bible-thumping bigot. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 21 May 1/1: Two anti-gambling bible-thumpers have gone back on the godly Dreyer. | |
| Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 45: These Bible-thumpers are all the same; no one ever knew one to be any good yet. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 30/3: Bible-thumping and journalism are joint income-producers in Australia, just as in England. As a rule, the Rev. Penpusher doesn’t now do much for the city press [...]; but there was a time when three Methodies used to flood one of the Adelaide dailies with leaders and such-like. | |
| Down Donkey Row 108: The Bible-thumpers and ’ymn-singing pooftahs step in and say you’re exploitin’ the public! | |
| (con. 1920s) Wabash 294: The Bible-thumping preacher was there in those hillside gatherings. | |
| Black City 54: All those sanctimonious, bible-thumping, hymn-singing rump-faced pussyfoots. | |
| ‘Mattress’ Casey and Co. (1978) 18: The more I look at the Bible-swinging preacher the more I’m convinced I saw him drinking like a fish at Aunt Peggy’s shebeen. [...] Some woman whom I reckon is Mr Bible-Swinger’s illegally married wifey. | |
| Great White Hope III i: Shame on evvy Goodie-Book thumper like you! | |
| Union Dues (1978) 92: Hunter and the boys [...] learned to tolerate whichever new Bible-thumper had become their regular Saturday night dinner guest. | |
| Southern Discomfort (1983) 79: Looks like Linton’s coming this way with an army of Bible-thumpers. | |
| High Cotton (1993) 7: He was a cut above the usual jackleg Bible thumpers. | |
| Observer Rev. 2 Apr. 1: The Reverend Grund and his friends are Bible-thumping holy rollers. | |
| Constant Gardener 407: There’s this crazy Boer who runs a food station [...] Bit of a God-thumper. | |
| Call of the Weird (2006) 93: The community had been founded by gun nuts and Bible thumpers. | |
| ‘Chasing Atlantis’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] The remnants of the counter culture faced off against [...] hard-core Bible thumpers. | |
| Orphan Road 13: [as cite 2012]. |
2. a street preacher.
| (con. 1981) East of Acre Lane 210: They could hear the shouts coming from the bible thumpers at the entrance of the tube station. |
3. (US prison) an inmate who adopts religious beliefs – whether genuinely or as a way of dealing with prison life – during their sentence.
| Prison Sl. 35: Bible Thumper An inmate who becomes consumed by religion during incarceration. |
a clergyman, a preacher; thus bible-walloping, preaching.
| Hawkesbury Chron. (Windsor, NSW) 14 Jan. 2/5: A thinking Socialist or Freethinker [...] would most likely say that most of the professional Bible-wallopers that have been imported to this country are all arrant humbugs. | |
| (con. 1900s) Elmer Gantry 155: Strikes me we ought to know if this Bible-walloper is going to play straight with her. | |
| Guardian Guide 22–28 May 22: There is a perverse satisfaction to be garnered from the sound of this collection of tombstone-toothed, Bible-walloping hicks. |
In phrases
(orig. printing) to get a pair of black eyes.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
(US) to lie.
| NDAS. |
that’s excellent.
| DSUE (1984) 74/1: C.19–early 20. |