B - Dictionary of Shakespeare

Shakespeare's word	Meaning (in the sample usage)	#	Reference(s)	Sample usage
baffle	cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart.	5	1. Rich II 1.1 1 HIV 1.2 2 HIV 5.3	1. I am disgraced, impeach'd and baffled here an I do not, call me villain and baffle me. And shall good news be baffled?
baggage	strumpet, prostitute, woman of loose morals	9	Shrew Ind. MWW 4.2	Ye are a baggage: the Slys are no rogues; you witch, you hag, you baggage, you ...
bags	money-bags, wealth		Shrew
balk	chop		Shrew 1.1
barm	froth on ale	1	Mids 2.1	make the drink to bear no barm
bawcock	fine fellow, literally fine bird	4	TN 3.4	how now, my bawcock! how dost thou, chuck?
bemadding	maddening, infuriating	1	Lear 3.1	Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow The king hath cause to plain.
bestraught	distracted, out of one's mind		Shrew Ind.
bewray	reveal, expose, give away	7	Lear 2.1 3 HVI 1.1	He did bewray his practise. ... the queen, whose looks bewray her anger
blank	center of a target or interest a paper containing the substance of a legal instrument, with spaces left for names, date, etc.	18	Oth 3.4 Lear 1.1 Rich II 2.1	stood within the blank of his displeasure let ... me remain / The true blank of thine eye new exactions are devised, / As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what
bolted, bolt	refined, high quality, sifted, as in flour - the original sense (see unbolted)	11	Henry V 2.2 Cor 3.3 1 HIV 3.3	so finely bolted didst thou seem is ill school'd in bolted language I have given them away to bakers' wives, and they have made bolters of them.
botcher	tailor who does repairs	1	TN 1.4	let the botcher mend him
bottled	swollen (many other uses of 'bottle' in the modern sense)	2	Rich III 1.3 Rich III 4.4	bottled spider That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad!
brach	bitch hound	5	Lear 3.6 1 HIV 3.1	Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink. ... rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish.
brakes	a thicket; a place overgrown with shrubs and brambles, with undergrowth and ferns	16	Mids 2.1	hide me in the brakes
brave	fine, handsome ( the noted references are to this meaning, but WS also used in modern sense of gallant & courageous)	149	Shrew Ind. 1 HIV 1.2 Mids 3.2 Lear 3.2	And brave attendants near him when ... O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge. hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch! This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.
breathe, -ing	live, living breathe, in modern sense say, vocalize	103	Shrew 1.1 Rich III 1.1 3 HVI 4.1	What's here? one dead, or drunk? See, doth he breathe? sent before my time/into this breathing world durst the traitor breathe out so proud words?
breeching	of a young boy		Shrew 3.1
bug	bugbear, hobgoblin	5	Shrew 1.2 3 HVI 5.2	Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs. For Warwick was a bug that fear'd us all.

Shakespeare Dictionary - B

Generate random Shakespearean insults