Green’s Dictionary of Slang

in card-playing, the lower cards, marked two–ten.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 66/2: C.19–20 ob.

an enthusiast, one who is keen on, e.g. a beggar for work, a beggar to argue.

1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 178/2: Father vos allus a rum ’un; – sich a beggar for lush.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 18/3: There was once the son of a Gunn, / A beggar to slog and to run; / He hit ’em so fast / That our boys looked aghast / A groaned ‘He has collared the bun.’.
1900		Sporting Times 10 Feb. 1/3: ‘How much are the grapes?’ ‘Half-a-guinea a pound, sir,’ answered the maiden. ‘Ah, I’m a beggar for fruit. How much are the peaches?’ ‘A guinea a-piece, sir.’ ‘Ah, I’m a beggar for fruit. Have you got any carrots?’.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Feb. 1/3: Like the sailor’s cockatoo, they must be ‘beggars to think’.
1908		G. Seagram Bushman All 164: He’s a beggar to graft, an’ strong as a horse.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 13/2: Anyhow, he never smiled again – and he had been a beggar to smile.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 31 Jan. 9/3: They Say [...] That Teresa C. you are a beggar for the boys.
1918		Boy’s Own Paper XL 5 281: Jack’s a beggar for grub.

a publican.

c.1770		T. Donovan Whimsical Lady 7: He. I’m an Ale Draper, a Retailer of Ale and strong Beer. She. You should say a Beggar-maker.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1800		J. Ebers New Hand-Dict. of the Eng. Lang. n.p.: Beggar-Maker, ein Bier oder Brandeweinschenter.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

a popular toast, i.e. ‘may your prick and purse never fail you’ (Grose, 1785).

1746		W. Dunkin Parson’s Revels (2010) 112: Long may the Parson shake his Leg, / Nor want good-Living, nor the Beg- / -gar’s Benison.
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) II 65: Mr. Fraser proposed the following toasts, which I don’t attempt to explain: – ‘The best in Christendom’ [...] ‘The beggar’s benison’.
1782		O. Reynard Badge of Folly n.p.: Then he deserves the Bastille [...] and is notm worthy of the beggar’s benison.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: The beggar’s benison: May your ***** and purse never fail you.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 218: Sentiments [...] The beggar’s benison — [A thatched cabin, clean straw, and a sound wench; or, That P— and C— may never fail you].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 9: Benison — is derived from the French Benir, to bless, bennissez — bless him (or her), and came over with the first Norman. ‘The Beggar’s Benison’ is a jocose toast or sentiment:— ‘May our p—s or purses never fail us.’ ‘The Devil’s Benison,’ is shocking to relate: ’tis damnatory.

stones.

1584

T. Hudson Judith in Sylvester Du Bartas (1608) 698: A pack of country clowns that them to battail bownes With beggers bolts and levers [OED].

stones.

1740		Caledonian Mercury 13 Mar. 3/1: A numerous Mob of Females, armed with Clubs and Bdeggar-bullets [...] attaked the Revenue-men.
1759		Derby Mercury 8 June 1/3: Large Stones and smaller Pebbles were flung up [and] the House was thus battered with Beggars Bullets.
1776		Hiberian Jrnl 3 Jan. 1/4: But sahould we chance to meet / A tough or stubborn Foe, / Where Crutches can’t assail, / We’ll Beggar’s Bullets throw.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1792		Dublin Eve. Post 7 June 3/3: His Grace and suite were assaulted with a shower of beggars bullets.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 8: Beggars’ bullets — stones, thrown by a mob, who then get fired upon, as a matter of course.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 313/1: beggard’s [sic] bullets, [...] pierres.

used in phrs. such as go home by beggar’s bush to imply that one is ruined.

1562		W. Bullein Dialogue 78: In the ende thei go home [...] by weepyng cross, by beggers barne, and by knaues acre.
1592		Greene Quip for an Upstart Courtier B: They themselves walking home by Beggar’s Bush for a penance.
1599		H. Porter Two Angry Women of Abington G4: They haue daunst a galliard at Beggars bush for it.
1662		Fuller Worthies (1840) II 398: ‘This is the way to Beggar’s-bush.’ It is spoken of such who use dissolute and improvident courses, which tend to poverty; Beggar’s-bush being a tree notoriously known, on the left hand of London road from Huntingdon to Caxton.
1782		Saunders’s News-Letter 26 Dec. 1/4: The Coronation of King Clause (the King of the Beggars) at Beggar’s Bush.
1790		Grose Provincial Gloss. (1811) [as cit. 1662].

(UK prison) a sentence of 90 days’ imprisonment, commonly that meted out for vagrancy.

1950		P. Tempest Lag’s Lex. 15: beggar’s lagging A three months’ sentence of imprisonment.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

corduroy, cotton velvet.

1688

London Gazette 2370 4: A person [...] in a dark grey Cloth Coat [...] Breeches of beggar’s plush [F&H].

(US) chicken fat.

1940

S.J. Perelman letter 26 Apr. in Crowther Don’t Tread on Me (1987) 29: 32 m. chicken fat (also called ‘beggar’s schmaltz’).

particles of lint and similar household dirt that gather behind or beneath sofas, tables or beds (often following the shaking of an eiderdown).

1847–81		Halliwell Dict. Archaic and Provincial Words I 159/1: beggars-velvet. The light particles of down shaken from a feather-bed, and left by a sluttish housemaid to collect under it.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

1. money.

1960

J. Franklyn Dict. of Rhy. Sl. 38/1: beggar boy’s ass, (1) Brass, money; hence the term is associative. It dates from late 19C.

2. Bass ale.

1932		‘P.P.’ Rhy. Sl.
1960		J. Franklyn Dict. of Rhy. Sl.
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 117: Beggar boy’s [ass] is not sexual: it means Bass (ale).

see devil-on-the-coals under devil n.

(US) a Native American.

1966

in DARE.

‘a jocular reproach to a proud man’ (Grose, 1785).

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Eat, like a beggar man, and wag his under jaw, a jocular reproach to a proud man.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

to drink beer after spirits.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 66/2: mid-19C–20.

to be impoverished.

1943

C.B. Driscoll Kansas Irish 263: He was staggering down toward the haystacks, shouting back an occasional defiance, and a threat to go back to Ireland and scratch a beggar’s arse in peace.