Obs. [app. f. BUBBLE v. 5 + BEAU as if ‘beau-befooler’: cf. quot. 1712.] A lady’s tweezer-case.
(So explained in Pope’s footnote to quot. 1727; he remarks that the word is ‘in use in this present year.’ Warburton says the passage is quoted from one of Pope’s own juvenile poems, in which case its date would be c. 1704.)
[1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 3. Charles Mather could not bubble a young beau better with a toy.]
1727. Pope, etc., Art Sinking, 94. Lac’d in her Cosins new appear’d the Bride, A Bubble-bow and Tompion at her side.
1807. Month. Mag., XXIV. 550. Why was it called a bubble-boy? Probably the word is a misspelling for bauble-buoy, a support for baubles.
