BATE ME AN ACE, QUOTH BOLTON! phr. (old).—An expression of credulity; ‘Excuse me! You’re going it too strong!’ Hence TO BATE AN ACE = to hesitate; to show reluctance.
d. 1535. MORE, Works, 18. Har. I use all to George Philpots at Dowgate; hees the best backswordeman in England. Kit. BATE AN ACE OF THAT, QUOTH BOLTON. Har. Ile not bate ye a pinne on’t, sir; for, by this cudgell, ’tis true.
1563. EDWARDS, Damon and Pithias [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), i., 224]. Grimme. Nay there, BATE ME AN ACE, QUOTH BOULTON.
1578. WHETSTONE, Promos and Cassandra, iv., 7. BATE ME AN ACE, QUOTH BOULTON: Tush, your mind I know: Ah sir, you would belike let my cock sparrows goe.
c. 1600. CAMDEN, Remaines, ‘Proverbs’ [SMITH (1870), 319]. BATE ME AN ACE of that, QUOTH BOLTON.
c. 1600. JOHN DAY, The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green (1881), 110. BATE ME AN ACE OF THAT, QUOD BOLTON.
1615. H. P[ARROT]. The Mastive.
| A pamphlet was of proverbs penn’d by Polton | |
| Wherein he thought all sorts included were; | |
| Until one told him, BATE M’AN ACE, QUOTH BOLTON: | |
| Indeed (said he) that proverb is not there. |
1616. HAUGHTON, English-Men for my Money, ii. 2. Yet a man may want of his will, and BATE AN ACE of his wish.
1633. JONSON, A Tale of a Tub, ii. 1. Go to, I will not BATE him AN ACE on’t.
1670. RAY, Proverbs, 177. Queen Elizabeth, by aptly citing this proverb, detected that it was wanting in a collection presented to her. It was asserted, that all the proverbs in the English language were there; “BATE ME AN ACE, QUOTH BOLTON,” answered the queen, implying that the assertion was probably too strong; and, in fact, that very proverb was wanting.
1676. MARVELL, Mr. Smirke (1875), IV. 60. The exposer has not BATED him AN ACE.
1733. R. NORTH, The Lives of the Norths (1826), III. 323. BATING him that ACE he was truly a great man. Ibid., Examen, I. iii. 158. His Lordship was within AMS-ACE. of being put in the plot.
A ROUSING BATE, subs. phr. (Eton).—A great rage.
