Bingo (old cant), probably of gypsy origin. Spirits or brandy.
Pass round the bingo, son of a gun,
You musty, dusky, husky son!
Some soda-water, with a dash of bingo, clears one's head in the morning.—T. Hughes: Tom Brown at Oxford.
"Bingo boy," a drunkard; "bingo mort," female dram-drinker.
Bing (gypsy), the devil, an evil spirit, probably suggested the word. Puns on spirit in its twofold meaning have always been common both in English and gypsy. Bengalo pani (gypsy), rum.
Bingy (trade), a term largely used in the butter trade to denote bad, ropy butter (Hotten).
Binnacle-word (nautical), any learned or affected word used in the navy, which the sailors jeeringly offer to chalk upon the binnacle.
Binni (tinker), small; binny soobli, a boy; lit., small man.
Birch broom (thieves), rhyming slang for room.
Birdcage, a slang term in vogue among the lower orders for a bustle, or in more modern slang a "dress improver." This part of a lady's toilet is a kind of pad or cushion worn at the back of the dress for the purpose of expanding the skirts, and, in some cases, making up for certain deficiencies in the wearer's form. Those now in fashion are immensely elongated structures, little suggestive of the human form; some are built on the principle of the old crinoline, with wire or steel ribs, hence the appellation of birdcage.
She was walking in her best clothes on Bank Holiday, when a crossing sweeper knocked up against her, and being a perfect lady she was all over his chevy before he'd time to turn round, and they took her by the chignon and the birdcage and waltzed her into Vine Street quicker than a wink.—Sporting Times.
Me and Jane was at Greenwich last week. The hill's very nice, but Jane quite spiled her birdcage rollin' down. A new dress, too.—Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday.
Not long ago there was an action relating to patents in the High Court of Justice. The court was strewn with various specimens of these articles, and considerable amusement was caused by the spectacle of a judge and several leading counsel arguing gravely on the intricacies of the various designs for dress-improvers. The judge, after looking at several designs, said, "I hope you are going to produce another of these articles, Mr. , which I do not see here. It is called the Jubilee ... it is one which, when a lady sits down, plays the 'National Anthem.'" An old lawyer would have his feeble joke, too, and remarked that he had attended the sittings of the court for many years, but that never had he witnessed so much "bustle."
