Bam

or bamboozle, subs. (old).—A hoax; a cheat: as verb (BAMBOO, BOOZLE, or BAMBOOZE) = to victimize, outwit, mystify, or deceive (GROSE); also (HALLIWELL) to threaten: cf. HUM from HUMBUG. [SWIFT (1710), Tatler, ‘Refinements of Twenty Years Past’: ‘Certain words such as banter, BAMBOOZLE … now struggling for the vogue’; JOHNSON (1755): ‘a cant word’; BOUCHER (1833): ‘has long … had a place in the gypsy or canting dictionaries’; O.E.D.: ‘probably of cant origin’; Century: ‘a slang word of no definite origin.’] Whence numerous COMBINATIONS, COLLOQUIALISMS and PHRASES: e.g., TO BAMBOOZLE AWAY = to get rid of speciously; TO BAMBOOZLE INTO = to persuade artfully; TO BAMBOOZLE OUT OF = to obtain by trick; BAMBOOZLED = mystified, tricked; BAMBOOZLEMENT = tricky deception; BAMBOOZLER = a mystifier; BAMBOST = deceptive humbug; TO BAMBLUSTERCATE = to bluster, embarrass, or confuse: cf. CONGLOMERATE and COMFLOGISTICATE; BAMSQUABBLED (or BUMSQUABBLED) = discomfited, defeated, squelched. See BANTER.

  1703.  CIBBER, She Would and She Would Not, ii. 1. Sham proofs, that they propos’d to BAMBOOZLE me with. Ibid., iv. 1. The old Rogue … knows how to BAMBOOZLE … I’ll have a touch of the BAMBOOZLE with him. Ibid. (1707), Double Gallant, i. 2. Sir Sol. Pray, Sir, what is’t you do understand? Sound. Bite, BAM, and the best of the Lay, old Boy.

  1709.  STEELE, Tatler, No. 31. I perceive this is to you all BAMBOOZLING.

  1710.  SWIFT, Polite Conversation, ‘Introd.’ The exquisite refinements … BAM for BAMBOOZLE and BAMBOOZLE for, God knows what. Ibid., i. Her ladyship was plaguily BAMB’D.

  1712.  ARBUTHNOT, The History of John Bull, III. vi. Fellows that they call banterers and BAMBOOZLERS, that play such tricks; but … these fellows were in earnest! Ibid., 89. After Nic had BAMBOUZLED John a while about the 18,000 and the 28,000.

  1715.  ADDISON, The Drummer, i., 1. All the people upon earth, excepting these two or three worthy gentlemen, are imposed upon, cheated, bubbled, abused, BAMBOOZLED.

  1716.  ROWE, The Biter, i. 1. You intend to BAMBOUZLE me out of a Beef Stake.

  1728.  M. EARBERY [tr. Burnet’s Of the State of the Dead, I. 89]. The Gnosticks BAMBOUZLED away all the corporeal Resurrection.

  1747.  GARRICK, Miss in her Teens, ii. 1. I’ll break a lamp, bully a constable, BAM a justice, or bilk a box-keeper with any man.

  1762.  FOOTE, The Orators, ii. Why I know that man, he is all upon his fun; he lecture—why ’tis all but a BAM. Ibid. (1777) [WEBSTER]. Some conspiracy … to BAM, to chouse me out of my money.

  1774.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 104.

  c. 1787.  Kilmainham Minit [Ireland, Sixty Years Ago, 86]. To BOOZLE the bulldogs and pinners.

  1803.  C. K. SHARPE [Correspondence (1888), i. 17]. Billy BAMBOOZLE, a quizzer and wit.

  1815.  SCOTT, Guy Mannering, iii. What were then called bites and BAMS, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes. Ibid. (1817), Rob Roy, ix. ‘It’s all a BAM, ma’am—all a BAMBOOZLE and a bite.

  1827.  BULWER-LYTTON, Pelham, xxxvi. One does not like to be BAMBOOZLED out of one’s right of election.

  1830.  MARRYAT, The King’s Own, xlix. ‘Now, you’re BAMMING me—don’t put such stories off on your old granny.’

  1838.  HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 2 S. ii. If he didn’t look BUMSQUABBLED it’s a pity.

  1842.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of St. Cuthbert,’ 217.

  1855.  Scottish Review, 188. Washington Irving … exercises … his rare powers of BAMBOOZLEMENT and laughter-stirring.

  1859.  MASSEY [The Saturday Review, 5 March, 282. 1].

  1861.  The Saturday Review, 16 Feb., 6. 2. Government by BAMBOOZLE always presents considerable advantages at first sight.

  1865.  Day of Rest, Oct., 585. I was deaf to all that BAMBOSH.

  1874.  E. L. LINTON, Patricia Kemball, xxxix. That tale of Gordon Frere was all a BAM.

  1878.  W. BLACK, Green Pastures and Piccadilly, xli. 326. Who has BAMBOOZLED himself into the erroneous belief that …

  1886.  The Saturday Review, 27 March, 423. 2. The public is a great BAMBOOZABLE baby.