Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a boyfriend.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U.

2. a sexy-looking boy.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U. 34: beauhunk [...] 2. studly looking guy, specially one with a seventies appearance.

a lock of hair equivalent to the modern kiss-curl.

1815		Providence Patriot (RI) 14 Oct. n.p.: If they should see her get it on, with her hair combed t’other way into Cupid’s nests, and beau-catchers, with cossets and short petticoats, faith.
1818		Public Ledger (Phila.) 18 Apr. 3/2: A girl [...] twisting her hair into rings, which they term ‘beau-catchers’ .
1830		Owl (NY) 14 Aug. n.p.: She had for ten years been conspicuous for her dress, airs, and ‘beau catchers’; but, alas! she [...] had caught no beau.
1839		H. Mann (ed.) Common School Jrnl I 208: It is [...] for every damsel to keep the grease spots from her clothes, darn the heels of her stockings, remove beau-catchers from her head and novels from her library.
1853		Ladies’ Repository July 8/1: Every stranger to the great mystery of marriage has a ‘beau-catcher’ twisted with exceeding nicety about the temple, whether she has a beau or not.
1858		Boston Transcript 30 Oct. n.p.: Bow-Catchers, or KISS-CURLS small curls twisted on the cheeks or temples of young ? and often old ? girls, adhering to the face as if gummed or pasted. Evidently a corruption of BEAU-CATCHERS.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1865		Jrnl & Confederate (Camden, SC) 22 May 1/3: Her hair was smoothly combed, without curls or frimles, or beau catchers.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 613: Kiss-curl, a name for the little curls on ladies’ temples, also known as ‘beau-catchers’.
1876		Dundee Courier 29 June 4/3: A man with grey locks and an old maid with beaucatchers and false teeth.
1880		Aberdeen Jrnl 12 Apr. 2/6: A sweet maiden of seventeen summers [...] whose blonde beau-catchers and switches have their natural root in the cuticle enveloping her classic-shaped head.
1892		St Paul Dly Globe (MN) 29 May 12/3: One eccentric maiden [...] tired of wearing her ‘beau-catcher’ down her back, has turned it around [...] down the front of the dress.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 7: Beau Catchers, or Kiss Curls, a small curl on the foreheads of young girls.
1908		St Tammany (Covington, LA) 16 May 2/2: Others are wearing great waves that come down well on the face, with plenty of beau catchers.
1909		(ref. to mid-19C) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 23/2: Beau-catcher (Peoples’, 1854–60). A flat hook-shaped curl, after the Spanish manner, gummed on each temple, and made of the short temple hair, sometimes spelt bow-catcher. It is synonymous with ‘Kiss-curl.’.
1917		Wash. Times (DC) 31 July 16/3: That sort of woman went out with hoop skirts and beau-catchers.
1922		Dly Ardmoreite (OK) 26 Sept. 2/1: ‘Beau catchers’ adorn many a Mexican girl’s cheeks or foreheads just as they do many of the American shop girls.

(US black) a silver dollar.

1944		Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 10 9: A reader inquired about the origin of the term ‘bo-dollar’ meaning silver dollars. The expression is widely used by negroes in the Mid-South, particularly at lumber camps along the Mississippi River [...] One [reader] suggested that ‘bo-dollar’ is a corruption of ‘boat-dollar’ [...] Another reader said the term was a corruption of [...] ‘hobo dollar’.
[1950		PADS 14 15: Boer dollar [...] A silver dollar, carried as a lucky piece. Said to have originated among British soldiers during the Boer War].
1966		(con. 1920s) V. Spivey in Record Research May 9: The more money the house lady made the more we made [...] Plus stacks of those Bo dollars (silver dollars) which people would lay as tips across the piano board.
2000		www.centercoin.com 🌐 My understanding is that a Bo Dollar is a coin – silver dollar – as opposed to a paper dollar. However; I don’t know the derivation of the term and would be interested in finding out.

a well-dressed, but ill-kempt and grubby dandy.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Beau-Nasty. A slovenly fop; one finely dressed, but dirty.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

1. a confidence trickster, esp. a card-sharp.

a.1674		‘The Thief-Ketcher’s Song’ in Head Canting Academy (1674) 145: The twelfth is a Beautrap, if a Cull he does meet, / He nips all his Cole.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1712		‘Black Procession’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 38: The twelfth is a beau-trap, if a cull he does meet, / He nips all his cole, and turns him into the street.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: beau-traps; the Fortieth Order of Villains, Genteel-dress’d Sharpers, who lie in wait to insnare and draw in young Heirs, raw Country ’Squires, and ignorant Fops.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Beau trap, [...] a sharper neatly dressed, lying in wait for raw country squires, or ignorant fops.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 5: Beau traps – genteel dressed sharpers, fortune hunters.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 10: beau traps. Well-dressed sharpers; fortune-hunters.
1869		‘The Thief-Catcher’s Prophecy’ in W.H. Logan A Pedlar’s Pack of Ballads 143: [as cit. a.1674].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 7: Bean [sic] Traps, stylish confidence men.

2. a badly laid paving stone that traps water beneath it and, when it is stepped on, squirts that water onto the dandy’s finery.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Beau trap, a loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and upon being trod upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of white stockings.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

a dandy who takes especial care of his (? ageing) complexion, often with cosmetics.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Crusty-beau, one that lies with a Cover over his face all Night, and uses Washes, Paints, &c.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

a would-be dandy.

c.1698

B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Sub-beau, or Demibeau, a wou’d-be-fine.

a slovenly man, who poses as a dandy despite his outward appearance.

c.1698

B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Dirty Beau a slovenly Fellow, yet pretending to Beauishness.