subs. (common).—1. Generic for rusticity. Thus BACON-SLICER (BACON-CHOPS or CHAW-BACON) = a rustic; BACON-BRAINS = a stupid clodhopper: hence BACON-BRAINED (-FACED, or -FED) = clownish, dull (BEE and GROSE): also BACON-FACED (or -SIDE) = fat-jowled, fat, sleek; BACON-PICKER = a glutton.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., ii. 2. 89. BACON-FED knaves … down with them. Ibid., ii. 2. 93. On, BACONS, on! what ye knaves? Young men must live.
c. 1600. JOHN DAY, The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green (1881), 37. I’de hang this BACON-FAC’D slave orethwart his shanks.
d. 1635. RANDOLPH, Answer to Ben Jonson [Poems (1668), 56].
| Their BACON-BRAINS have such a Taste | |
| As more delights in Mast? |
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, I. Prol. A certain gulligut Fryer and true BACON-PICKER. Ibid., I. xv. Account me a very clounch, and BACON-SLICER of Brene.
1684. OTWAY, The Atheist, i. A broad shining, pufft BACON-FACE, like a Cherubim.
1711. WARD, Don Quixote, i. 81.
| So cocking by his BACON-SIDE | |
| An Elbow, thus the Host reply’d. |
1731. Political Ballads (ed. Wilkins, 1860), II. 223.
| He opulent grew | |
| As BACON-FACE Jew. |
2. (common).—The human body. Whence TO SAVE ONE’S BACON = to save appearances, to escape injury or loss (B. E., GROSE, BEE): Fr. sauver son lard; to SELL ONE’S BACON = (1) to work for hire, and spec. (2) to play the harlot for bread; TO RUB, FROT, or SCRAPE BACON = to copulate: see GREENS and RIDE.
1362. LANGLAND, Piers Plowman, 2859.
| As a letheren purs | |
| Lolled hise chekes … | |
| And as a bonde-man of his BACON | |
| His berd was bi-draveled. |
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, I. iii. These two did oftentimes do the two-backed beast together, joyfully rubbing and FROTTING THEIR BACON against one another. Ibid., II. xxi. How happy shall that man be to whom you will grant the favour to embrace her, to kiss her, and to RUB his BACON with hers. Ibid., MOTTEUX (1694), IV. ix. Those … must needs stink damnably … when they have RUBBED their BACON one with the other. Ibid., V. iv. Your gaol birds, who … warily scour off, and come here TO SAVE THEIR BACON.
1674. Hogan-Moganides, 31.
| A Buxom Wench, and Jolly Pug, | |
| Who oft together SCRAPING BACON | |
| At length they found that she had taken. | |
| Ibid. 89. | |
| Melting his BACON in the Sun. |
1691. Weesils, I. 5. No, they’l conclude I do’t to SAVE MY BACON.
1693. England’s Jests [J. ASHTON, Humour, etc., 23]. She was resolved to go [to church] once a month to SAVE HER BACON.
1693. Catalogue of Books [Harleian Miscellany (1745), V., 269. 2]. In dubiis tutior pars; Or the broad Way TO SAVE A MAN’S BACON, and damn his soul.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, i. 166. Countr. E’en get your Friends the Jews to SAVE YOUR BACON.
1705. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. ii. 12.
| For could their talent be forsaken, | |
| And they unite truth TO SAVE THEIR BACON. |
1721. CENTLIVRE, The Artifice, v. ii. That pretence shan’t SAVE YOUR BACON, you old villain you.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, xxv. The other, who refused any other satisfaction but that which an officer ought to claim … asked if Perry was afraid of his BACON.
1774. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 20.
| In haste I hither come, says Pallas, | |
| TO SAVE YOUR BACON from the gallows. |
1796. J. G. HOLMAN, Abroad and at Home, ii. 4. ’Tis Heaven’s mercy I was a likely lad. My beauty has SAV’D MY BACON.
1812. COMBE, Dr. Syntax, Picturesque, vi. 22.
| But as he ran to SAVE HIS BACON, | |
| By hat and wig he was forsaken. |
1823. BYRON, Don Juan, VII. xlii.
| But here I say the Turks were much mistaken, | |
| Who, hating hogs, yet wished to SAVE THEIR BACON. |
1825. CARLYLE, Schiller, III. (1845), 163.
| To the Kaiser, therefore, I SOLD MY BACON, | |
| And by him good charge of the whole is taken. |
1836. SCOTT, Tom Cringle’s Log, v. You know I SAVED YOUR BACON in that awkward affair.
1856. C. READE, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, lii. Jem drew a long breath and said brutally … ‘You have SAVED YOUR BACON this time.’
TO PULL BACON, verb. phr. (popular).—Described in the The Ingoldsby Legends: ‘He put his thumb unto his nose and spread his fingers out.’ TO TAKE A SIGHT q.v.), TO MAKE QUEEN ANNE’S FAN (q.v.).
1886. Household Words, Oct. 2, p. 453. [This] action has been described as ‘taking a sight.’ A solicitor, however, at Manchester, described it as PULLING BACON.
1887. Leeds Evening News, 15 Sept., ‘Police Report.’ The officers spoke to him, when he put his fingers to his nose and PULLED BACON at them.
PHRASES. A good voice to beg bacon (‘Said in jear of an ill voice’ (B. E. and GROSE); ‘When the devil is a hog, you shall eat BACON’ (RAY).
