subs. (old).—A barge-man or barger (the dictionary terms). [GROSE: Cambridge wit.]
1666. PEPYS, Diary (1879), VI. 89. Spent the evening on the water, making sport with the Westerne BARGEES.
1825. C. M. WESTMACOTT, The English Spy, 255. The town raff and the BARGEES.
1831. HONE, The Year Book, 672. A great sum is gained by the ‘BARGEES’ (bargemen, Eton phraseology).
1861. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, XXXIII. A country gentleman with the tongue of a Thames BARGEE and the heart of a Jew pawnbroker.
1861. H. KINGSLEY, Ravenshoe, xlii. The BARGEES nicknamed Lord Welter “the sweep,” and said he was a good fellow, but a terrible blackguard.
