Germ. bossen, 'to emboss,' is connected with bausch, ‘a tuft, hump' (Wedgwood).

A knob or protuberant ornament; generally applied to the knob of a shield, but not exclusively, as will appear by the instances which follow:

A broch sche bar upon hir loue coleer,

As brod as is the bos of a bocleer.

Chaucer, Miller's Tale, 3266.

And every bosse of bridle and of paitrell

That they had, was worth, as I would wene,

A thousand pound.

Id. Flower and Leaf, 246.

Spenser, F. Q. I. 2. § 13.

Whose bridle rung with golden bels and bosses braue.

'Boss,' also occurs as a verb, equivalent to 'emboss ;' Fine linen, Turkey cushions, boss'd with pearl.

Shakespeare, Tam. of Shrew, II. I.

And thicken'd so their targets boss'd.

Chapman, Hom. Il. XV1. 213.

The noun is now chiefly used to denote ornaments placed at the intersection of ribs and groins in the roof of a building.

Botch, sb. (Deut. xxviii. 27, 35). From It. bozza; connected with boccia, a bubble, bud.' Mr Wedgwood derives it from the Dutch botsen or butsen, 'to strike' (comp. Eng. butt); whence botse, butse, ‘a contusion, bump, boil, botch; observing (s.v. Boss) that 'the words signifying a lump or protuberance have commonly also the sense of striking, knocking. A boil; as the Hebrew word is elsewhere translated (Exod. ix. 9-11, &c.). The original properly denotes a burning ulcer, or carbuncle, breaking out in pustules or blains: it is applied to the ulcerous eruptions which accompany the elephantiasis (Job ii. 7). The Prompt. Parv. gives 'bohche, sore, ulcus.'

For he was all full of sores and botches in his bodye, euen suche an other in manier as it is read in scripture, yt Job was. Udal's Erasmus, Luke, fol. 138 r.

Bosse: f. A bunch, or lumpe; any round swelling, vprising or puffing vp; hence a wen, botch, bile, or plague sore. Cotgrave, Fr. Dict.

Bough, v.t. (Deut. xxiv. 20 m.). "Thou shalt not bough it after thee' is the literal rendering of the Hebrew, which our translators have given thou shalt not go over the boughs again.'

I

Bought of a sling. This phrase which occurs in N. the margin of 1 Sam. xxv. 29 is so completely gone out of use, that in ordinary editions of the English Bible 'bow of a sling' is unnecessarily, if not ignorantly, substituted for it. It means the bowed or bent part of a sling on which the stone was laid.

Cambreure: f. A bought, vault, arch. Cotgrave, Fr. Dict. Courbe: f. A bought; also, a crooked, or bowing peece of tymber. Id.

Flechissure: f. A bought, or crookednesse. Id.

Johnson gives several instances of the word 'bought' not only in this sense, but in that of the curvature of the knee or elbow, and the folds or bends of a serpent.

The following is from Spenser (F. Q. I. II. § 11):

His huge long tayle, wound up in hundred foldes,
Does overspred his long bras-scaly back,
Whose wreathed boughtes whenever he unfoldes,
And thick-entangled knots adown does slack,
Bespotted as with shieldes of red and blacke,
It sweepeth all the land behind him farre.

Bounden, pp. This old form of the participle of the verb 'to bind' occurs more than once in the PrayerBook. The termination en has disappeared from many similar words, whilst it keeps its place in others, there being no rule but caprice to account for the retention or rejection in each case.

There is no earthly creature to whom I am so much bounden as to your Majesty. Grindal, Remains, p. 376.

I am much bounden to your majesty.

Shakespeare, K. John, III. 3. See also the example from Hall, quoted under BONNET.

Bow, v.t. (Ps. lxii. 3; Mark xv. 19). To bend; still used in Devonshire.

After that, hauing by good happe gotten Bessus into his hands, he tare him in peces with two high straight trees which he bowed downewards, and tyed his legs to each of them.

North's Plutarch, Alex. p. 741.

For it is a rare thing, except it be from a perfect and entire frend, to have counsell given, but such as shalbe bowed and crooked to some ends, which he hath that giveth it.

Bacon, Ess. XXVII. p. 113.

Bowels, sb. (Phil. i. 8; ii. 1 &c.). Compassion. The 'bowels' were supposed by the old anatomists to be the seat of the affections. The usage was transferred to our language from the translations of the Bible. Thus in the letter of Hen. V. to the French King, given by Hall (Hen. V. fol. 11b);

We exhort you in the bowelles of our sauiour Jesu Christe, whose euangelicall doctrine willeth that you ought to render to al men that whiche you ought to do.

Bowman, sb. (Jer. iv. 29). An archer.

And the bow-men being pressed so neare by the Romaines, that their bowes would do no good: tooke their arrowes in their handes in stead of swordes. North's Plutarch, Sylla, p. 511.

Bow shoot, sb. (Gen. xxi. 16). The old form of 'bow shot' in the ed. of 1611.

A shot a fine shoote: Iohn a Gaunt loued him well. Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. III. 2 (4t0, 1600).

The ditches, and the keepe hill of Thong Castell appears on a little wood a two flight shoote by south from Thong Church. Stow, Annals, p. 55.

Brag, v.i. (Jud. xvi. 5; 2 Macc. ix. 7). Fr. braguer. Mr Wedgwood says its primary meaning was 'to crack, make a noise;' hence, to boast.' In the same sense

'crack' is used in Old English. He traces it through both the Romance and Teutonic dialects, and if the pedigree which he assigns it be correct it is connected with break. Brag is used in Wiclif (Josh. vi. 5, 20) in the sense of to bray as a trumpet. The word can hardly be called obsolete, though it is considered colloquial. It is very common in old writers:

But when Christ asked him his name, he calleth himself Legion, which imports a multitude, as if he should brag of his number; and here he calleth himselfe the possesser of the earth, as if he should brag of his possessions; and in the same he calleth himselfe the giuer of the earth, as if he should brag of his liberalitie. H. Smith, Sermons (1594), p. 516.

Stow uses the word as an adjective:

In this yeare (1189) the Jewes were very brag here in thys realme, for that theyr number was so great. fol. 69.

And Skelton (1. 125, ed. Dyce) as an adverb:

Ye bere you bold and brag

With othyr menys charge.

Brag, sb. (2 Macc. xv. 32). A boast.

The eorle purveyede him an ost,

And com in at another cost,

Wyth his brag and his bost,

Wyth many a fferres knyght.

Sir Degrevant, 231.

The kynge of Englande nothynge vexed nor yet moued with the presumptuous saiynges and proude bragges of the vnordered and vnmanerly Bysshop...coldely and soberly answered the bysshop saiyng.

Hall, Hen. V. fol. 10 b.

But for my part, I take it neither for a brag, nor for a wish; but for a truth as he limiteth it. Bacon, Adv. touching an Holy War.

In Lewis's Herefordshire Glossary we find,

'To make his brags' is to brag, to boast, to threaten to do great things, in a presumptuous and confident manner.

Brake, Broke; past tense of 'break.'

Alla and Cissa his sonne, after long siege, brake into the citie of Andredsester, and slew the inhabitants from the greatest to the smallest. Stow, Annals, p. 58.

Brakest, 2 sing. past tense of 'break.'. (Ex. xxxiv. 1, &c). So also 'satest,' 'spakest,' 'thoughtest,' &c., which are now antiquated forms and seldom used.

Y

Brass, sb. (Matt. x. 9). Copper or brass money. Both Greeks and Romans used this idiom, which still prevails in many parts of England. In Lewis's Herefordshire Glossary 'Brass' is explained as 'copper coins.' In Yorkshire, 'brass' is a common term among poor people for money in general. In some parts it is used as a slang word for money. Withouten pité, pilour,

Povere men thow robbedest;

And bere hire bras at thi bak
To Caleis to selle.

Piers Ploughman's Vis. 1749.

Bravery, sb. (Is. iii. 18). From Fr. braver; It. bravare, to swagger, vaunt; connected with brag, Fr. braguer, Scotch braw. Finery, splendid attire.

Doting upon their mother's beauty...haue laboured to restore her all her robes and iewells againe, especially her looking-glasse the Masse, in which she may behold all her bravery. Serm. by P. Smart, p. II.

With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery.

Shakespeare, Tam. of Shrew, IV. 3. The glories of them, are chiefly in the chariots,...or in the bravery of their liveries. Bacon, Ess. XXXVII. p. 158.

So Massinger, The Picture, 11. 2:

Have done

More hurt to the kingdom by superfluous bravery,
Which the foolish gentry imitate, than a war,

Or a long famine.

Nares gives several instances. Bacon uses the word also for 'ostentation, display.'

"The decked herself travely," Judith

x.4.