Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) referring to a type of false or ‘barred’ dice, with one of the sides fractionally longer than the others so that they will not easily lie on certain sides; such dice might be barred sice-aces (six-aces), barred cater-treys/trea/tra (four-threes) etc.

1552		G. Walker Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play 27: Be sure to have in store of such as these be: a bale of hard sinke deusis, a flat sink deusis, a bale of bard vi easis, and flat vi easis, a bale of bard quarter tres and flat quarter tres. The advantage whereof is all on the one side, and consisteth in the forging.
1592		Greene Defence of Conny-Catching 6: I had cheates for the very sise, of the squariers, langrets, gourds, stoppe-dice, high-men, low-men, and dice barde for all aduantages.
1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) IV i: I have suffered your tongue, like a bar’d cater tra, to run all this while and have not stopt it.
1612		S.R. Art of Juggling C4: Such be also call’d bard cater treas, because commonly the longer end will of his own sway drawe downewards, and turne up to the eie sice, sincke, deuce, or ace. The principal use of them is at Novum, for so long a paire of bard cater treas be walking on the bourd, so long can ye not cast five nor nine unless it be by a great chance [N].
1630		J. Taylor ‘Travels of Twelve-pence’ in Works (1869) I 73: Where Fullam high and Low-men bore great sway, / With the quick helpe of a Bard Cater Trey.
1714		T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 188: He us’d the false dice [...] wherefore such as play must have a special care that they have not Cinque-Deuces and Quarter-Treys put upon them.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: A bale of bard cater traes.
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 99/1: [as cit. 1785].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 54: bar’d cater tra, or more properly, barr’d quatre trois. The name for a sort of false dice, so constructed that the quatre and trois shall very seldom come up.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 167: My dice [...] are longs for odd and even, a bale of bar’d cinque deuces.