Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an illegitimate child.

1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 92: Never ’ad no father to speak of. Kind o’ bachelor’s biby, you know.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

a foetus, presumably of an illegitimate child.

1592		Greene Quip for an Upstart Courtier B2: I saw the Batchelors buttons, whose vertue is to make wanton maidens weepe, when they haue worne it forty weekes under their aprons for a fauour.
1607		Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe V i: Motherly woman hees my husband and no Batchelers buttons are at his doublett.
1810		Bristol Mirror 24 Feb. 4/1: For in less than a year, / The jonquil it is clear, / Lay in of a Batchelor’s Button!).
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 42 172/3: french prints highly coloured [...] bachelor’s buttons Eight Out and Out Facetious Prints. Price, One Shilling.

bread and cheese and kisses.

1733		Laugh and Be Fat 7: He was forc’d [...] to return home Puffing and Blowing, having nothing left but Batchelor’s Fare, viz. Bread and Cheese, and Kisses for his Sunday’s Dinner.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 29: lady answ.: Colonel, some ladies of your Acquaintance have promised to Breakfast with you [...] what will you give us? col.: Why, Faith, Madam, Bachelor’s Fare; Bread and Cheese, and Kisses.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Batchelor’s Fare. Bread and cheese and kisses.
1790		Banquet of Wit 51: [as 1733].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1831		Lancaster Gaz. 5 Feb. 2/4: A numerous and fashionable assembly met at [...] Royal Oak Inn. [...] The company separated well pleased with ‘Bachelors Fare’.

(Aus.) a takeaway roast chicken; its packaging, which contains a slot for the hand which carries it home, resembles a handbag.

2021		Betoota-isms [ebook] [T]the Bachelor's Handbag [...] To the casual observer, it's just a roast chicken in a plastic bag from a supermarket. In our town, it's an accessory. A status symbol.
2022		ladbible.com 30 Nov. 🌐 ‘Bachelor’s Handbag’ has been announced as this year’s people’s choice winner for the Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year.

an illegitimate child.

1657		T. Jordan Tricks of Youth IV:2 F4: You son of a Batchelor, do you throw your Pispots upon my head.
1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 66: The son of a Bachelor. i.e. a bastard.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Batchelor’s son, A bastard.

(US) a metal plunger with a long wooden handle, used for washing clothes in a tub.

1959

Martin Gunbarrel 82: In the morning we [...] reheated the water until it was a little too warm for the hands and washed the clothes with a ‘bachelor’s wife’ — a tin plunger [DARE].

(UK prison) one who has served six months of a prison sentence.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 65: Degrees a jail-bird is said to have taken his degrees who has inhabited one of those ‘academies’ called starts: He is entered and matriculated by a whipping bout; three months quod makes him an under-graduate; six months a batchelor [sic] of arts; twelve months more is the gradu doctoris towards his final promotion.