bene bowse
English
Alternative forms
- benbouse, ben-bouze, bene bouse, bien bowse
Noun
bene bowse
- (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Good beer.
- 1566, Harman, Thomas, A Caveat Or Warning for Common Cursetors, Vulgarly Called Vagabonds, London: Reeves and Turner, published 1871, page 118:
- Why, where is the ken that hath the bene bowse.
- 1641–42, Brome, Richard, A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, Act 2:
- This is bene bowse, this is bene bowse, / Too little is my skew. / I bowse no lage, but a whole gage / Of this I'll bowse to you
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References
- [Francis Grose] (1788), “Bene bowse”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, London: […] S. Hooper, […], OCLC 1179630700.
- Farmer, John Stephen (1890) Slang and Its Analogues, volume 1, pages 176–179