bubble n.1
1. a victim, one who is ripe for being fooled.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Look About You I i: Thou worm of majesty, thou froth, thou bubble! | |
| Greenes Tu Quoque Scene xvi: Sonne Bubble, where did you two buy your Felts? | |
| Island Princess I iii: Am I in competition with such bubbles? | |
| Mercurius Fumigosus 18 27 Sept.–4 Oct. 155: Avant ye empty-pated Bubbles, that with mole-eyes at me do look asquint. | |
| Epsom Wells III i: What admirable Cuckolds and Bubbles have we met with. | |
| Squire of Alsatia III i: Should I always be kept a country bubble, caravan, a mere put? | |
| She-Gallants I i: [O]ne is call'd Vaunter, and the other Sir Iohn Airy, Fops, with great Estates; Cullies to the Women, and Bubbles to the Men. | |
| Answer to the Fifteen Comforts of Whoring 3: For as I was by fickle Man betray’d, / So Men by me too shall be Bubbles made. | |
| Vulgus Britannicus I 8: So he that does a fraud intend / First treats the Bubble like Friend. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy III 94: Not one who to noose, / Some young Bubble bestows, / Her whole slender Fortune / In Trifles and Cloaths. | |
| Penkethman’s Jests 101: Why, says he, Betty, you can’t want, you had a good Bubble last Night. | |
| Hist. of Col. Francis Charteris 24: Honest Frank, being at a Hazard Table, and having a Dispute with a Gentleman [...] who had already been a very great Bubble to him, and who he hop’d would prove yet better. | |
| Tom Jones (1959) 13: This would be to own herself the mere tool and bubble of a man. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Love à la Mode II i: He is taking him in—the bubble’s bit. | |
| Life of Richard Nash in Coll. Works (1966) III 347: The two pickers up, or Money-Droppers, [...] bring in Flats or Bubbles. | |
| Frauds of London 28: The shame of being thought a bubble, [...] frequently prevents gentlemen from making use of the statute provided. | |
 | Country Girl II i: Wrong him! [...] he’s beneath an injury; a bubble, a coward, a senseless idiot. | |
| Adventures of a Speculist II 182: These foreigners could pick every stiver out of a Bubble’s pocket with such extreme politeness. | |
| Sporting Mag. Oct. III 52/2: Each strives to be foremost, and get the first in, / For he’s just a bubble who don’t wish to win. | |
| ‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 100/2: Game. – Bubbles, or Pigeons, drawn to be cheated. | |
| New London Spy 24: The shame of being thought a bubble, and exposed to the town, frequently prevents gentlemen from making use of the statutes provided in such cases. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: The bubble, the party cheated; perhaps from his being like an air bubble, filled with words, which are only wind, instead of real property. | |
| Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 334: Bubble, Addlepate, Snip, Bumpkin, / Dog-heart, is it thus you bark? |
2. a sham or otherwise dubious company; thus any dubious scheme.
| Maid the Mistress V i: Honour is a meer Bubble, made use of by all the World. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy III 122: Belzebub Scratch’d, and was in great trouble, / For he thought it would prove a two Hours Bubble. | |
| Refusal 13: Hey-day! What is Marriage a Bubble too? | |
| Lottery 28: Damn you, Fool, Idiot. – Blood! Blunders! Blanks! Bubbles! | |
| Eng. Dict. (2nd edn). | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Revenge I ii: What is love? an air-blown bubble, / Only silly fools receive it. | |
| Bankrupt in Works (1799) II 116: The people of this country are always ready to bite at a bubble. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 15-22 Dec. n.p.: The Isle of Skey plate which provided such keen sport is likely to prove a Bubble at last. | |
| ‘Bubble public companies’ in (1979) II 256: Blow bubbles blow they’re rising fast / There’s room for many more. | |
| Satirist (London) 25 Nov. 382/3: The electors would do well to take care, and not allow him [i.e. a political candidate] to soap them [...] It is natural that a soapboiler should be an advocate for bubbles. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 21 Mar. 2/5: I hates Bounce, for Bounce is got by Bubble Scheme out of Cross Match, and runs at murder, robber, and all manners of crime ! | |
| Paul Pry 19 Mar. 1/2: [W]e have ever had a most solid contempt for, and suspicion of anything approximating to bubbles. | |
| New and Improved Flash Dict. | |
| Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Jan. 4/1: Unmask a quack? or trace the ways / Of bubble Projector’s awful maze? | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor III 228/2: Just after the railway bubble; nobody wanted anything at all then. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Wanderings of a Vagabond 56: We find in Washington Irving’s tale of the great Mississippi bubble, a description of John Law, a Scotchman, who was the prime mover in that celebrated swindle. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 12: Bubble Company, land and ruining syndicates; a swindling association. | |
| Brought to Bay 179: He’s a cad – and a bubble promoter! | |
| White Moll 213: ‘I’m getting sick of bubbles!’ she announced insolently. ‘What’s this one?’. |
3. attrib. use of sense 2, fraudulent.
| Male-Coquette II ii: There shall be none, lesse it wou’d be a bubble Bet. | |
| ‘Jack in Capel Court’ in House Scraps (1887) 108: Then the director, Full of strange schemes [...] and sudden growing rich, / Getting a bubble reputation. | |
| What I Heard, Saw, and Did 224: I trust they will not patronize any bubble schemes [...] but support bona fide ones. | |
| ‘The Daily News’ Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 46: Bubble companies spring up [...] While Jeremy Diddlers do it brown. | |
| John Ploughman’s Talk 67: Bubbles are fine fun for boys, but bubble companies are edged tools that none should play with. | |
| Social Sinners II 99: My inheritance disappears as if it had been invested in a bubble company. | |
| in House Scraps 115: At about the time the bubble schemes were flourishing, in 1825, Mr. Abernethy met some friends who had risked a large sum of money in one of those fraudulent speculations. | |
| Grafter (1922) 99: The ‘game’ was a bubble with Skinny. |
4. see bubble-gum machine n. (1)
In compounds
one who promotes fraudulent companies.
| Great World of London I 46: Bubble men, who institute sham annuity offices or assurance companies. | |
| London Labour and London Poor IV 25: Bubble-Men, defrauding by instituting pretended companies — as Sham Next-of-Kin-Societies, Assurance and Annuity Offices, Benefit Clubs, and the like. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
see bubblehead n.
1. large, protruding, rounded buttocks; thus bubble-assed adj.
| Blue Knight 240: My partner [...] was laying up in a hotel room knocking a chunk off some bubble-assed taxi dancer. | |
| Sl. U. | |
| Pugilist at Rest 146: Window had a bubble butt and short feet. | |
| ‘Kristen’ 🌐 I found that her sweet little bubble butt was ticklish, and she didn’t seem to have any problem with me occasionally groping her breasts and ass as we played and tickled. | |
| in Vibe (Boulder, CO) Mar. 143/1: ‘Hispanics want a bubble butt like J.Lo.’. | |
| Poet X 92: I smile over my shoulder at me bubble butt in the mirror. |
2. the person who has such a physique.
| Sl. U. | |
| ‘University Euphemisms in Calif. Today’ 🌐 There is a great number of euphemistic expressions for someone stupid or someone who is not like everyone else [...] ‘bubblebutt’ (a large rear end) and ‘pizza-face’ (a person with severe acne). |
(US) washing up; thus bubble dancer n., a washer-up.
| ‘Army Sl.’ in AS XVI:3 164: Bubble Dancing, Dishwashing. | |
| G.I. Laughs 171: Bubble dancer, dishwasher. | |
| Jive and Sl. |
see see separate entries.
see see separate entries.
see bubbly n.
1. (US, also bubble) a police car [the flashing lights on its roof].
| in DARE. |
2. an electric sun roof in a car; also attrib.
| Dealer 142: He nodded at an Eldorado stopped for a light. ‘See that car? That bubbletop? White tires? Fuckin nigger Cadillac’. | |
| (con. 1971) Times Square 57: It was him and Fast Buck drove in together. They both had these bubble-top Caddies and seven girls each. |
3. (US campus) a woman with a bouffant hairdo.
| Current Sl. I:4. |
see bubbly n.