Bubble

or bub, subs. (old).—A dupe; a gull; a CARAVAN (q.v.); a ROOK (q.v.); also, as verb = to cheat; to humbug; to delude as with BUBBLES; to overreach (cf. South Sea BUBBLE). Also BUBBLEABLE = easy to dupe; gullible.

  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, All’s Well that Ends Well, iii. 4. 5. Sec. Lord. On my life, my lord, a BUBBLE. Ber. Do you think I am so far deceived in him?

  1614.  J. COOKE, Green’s Tu Quoque, or the Cittie Gallant, in The Ancient British Drama (1810), ii., 567. Sir Lion. Aye, but son BUBBLE, where did you two buy your felts? Scat. FELTS! by this light mine is a good beaver.

  1664.  ETHEREGE, The Comical Revenge, II., iii., in Wks. (1704), 24.

  1669.  The Nicker Nicked, in Harleian Miscellany (ed. PARK), II., 109. If the winner be BUBBLEABLE, they will insinuate themselves into his acquaintance, and civilly invite him to drink a glass of wine; wheedle him into play, and win all his money.

  c. 1683.  OLDHAM, Works and Remains (1686), 66.

  1685.  DRYDEN, Prologue to Albion and Albanius, 23.

  1686.  Twelve Ingenious Characters. The tincture of the sun’s-beard; the powder of the moon’s-horns; or a quintessence extracted from the souls of the heathen gods; will go off rarely for an universal medicine, and BUBBLE the simple out of their money first, and their lives afterwards.

  1688.  SHADWELL, The Squire of Alsatia, III., in Wks. (1720) IV., 62. This kinsman a most silly BUBBLE first, and afterwards a betrayer of young heirs.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BUB, or BUBBLE, c. one that is Cheated; also an Easy, Soft Fellow. Ibid., s.v. SETTERS, or Setting-dogs, they that draw in BUBBLES, for old Gamesters to Rook; also a Sergeant’s Yeoman, or Bailiff’s Follower, or Second, and an Excize-Officer to prevent the Brewers defrauding the King.

  1697.  VANBRUGH, The Provoked Wife, V., iii. If her conduct has put a trick upon her virtue, her virtue’s the BUBBLE, but her husband’s the loser.

  1699.  The Country Gentleman’s Vade Mecum, 75. And here begins the fatal Catastrophe; if they think that he has too much regard for his Reputation, or too much Modesty to make use of the Statute for his Defence, or perhaps (what’s more prevalent with him than either) will be unwilling that the Town should know he has been a BUBBLE, then they stick him in earnest, so deep, it may be, that he must be forc’d to cut off a Limb of his Estate to get out of their Clutches.

  1701.  DEFOE, The True-Born Englishman. Introd.

  1703.  Town-Misses Catechism.

  1705.  VANBRUGH, The Confederacy, i. An old dangling cheat, that hobbles about from house to house to BUBBLE the ladies of their money.

  1706.  WARD, The Wooden World Dissected, 10. BUBLING, he says, is the result of sound reasoning.

  1711.  Spectator, No. 89. That she has BUBBLED him out of his youth … and that he verily believes she will drop him in his old age, if she can find her account in another.

  1711.  SWIFT, Conduct of the Allies. We are thus become the dupes and BUBBLES of Europe.

  1712.  ARBUTHNOT, The History of John Bull, II., iii. He has been my BUBBLE [tool] these twenty years; and to my certain knowledge, understands no more of his own affairs than a child in swaddling clothes.

  1719.  D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, II., 54.

  1724.  Journey through England. Adjoyning to this village, the duke of Argyle had a fine seat called Caen-wood. You remember him at the head of the English at the famous battel of Blaregnies; but I shall do him wrong to mention him till I come to his own country, where his ancient and noble family have been very conspicuous for so many ages, and where his personal character will be best placed. It now belongs to one Dale, an upholsterer, who bought it out of the BUBBLES (i.e., of the bubbles of the South-sea year, 1720).

  1729.  GAY, Polly, ii., 9.

  1731.  Poor Robin. Towards the latter end of this month there will be more people in Smithfield than in Westminster Hall; Jack Pudding and Harlequin telling stories in jest to get money in earnest, and have much better luck than those who, while they are making a play day, lose one half of their money at gaming, and have the other half pick’d out of their pocket; such people are in more danger of going home mad than drunk; and it is hard to say which of the two looks more like a fool, he that wants wit, or he that has so foolishly been BUBBLED out of his money.

  1748.  T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). ‘Bilk’ (v.), to cheat, balk, disappoint, deceive, gull, or BUBBLE; also to go out of a publick-house or tavern, without paying the reckoning.

  1750.  FIELDING, Tom Jones, I., vii. This would be to own herself the mere tool and BUBBLE of the man.

  1752.  FIELDING, Amelia, XI., iv. He … actually BUBBLED several of their money by undertaking to do them services, which, in reality, were not within his power.

  1754.  B. MARTIN, English Dictionary (2nd ed.), s.v. ‘Setter’ … (3) an associate of sharpers to get them BUBBLES.

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 241.

  1777.  SHERIDAN, A Trip to Scarborough, ii. Help the gentleman with a chair, and carry him to my house presently—that’s the properest place—[aside]—to BUBBLE him out of his money.

  1788.  G. A. STEVENS, The Adventures of a Speculist, I., 69. He persuades his BUBBLE, that he will insure him a certain safe way of getting a sum of money. Ibid., I., 75. And this was the language which the pretenders to the Philosopher’s Stone used to BUBBLE their pigeons with.

  1795.  R. CUMBERLAND, The Jew, iii., 2. If he attempts to raise money upon expectancies, be at their peril who are fools enough to trust him: No prudent man will be his BUBBLE.

  1805.  G. BARRINGTON, New London Spy (4 ed.), 24. The shame of being thought a BUBBLE, and exposed to the town, frequently prevents gentlemen from making use of the statute provided in such cases.

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 37. Far from being point, quint, and quatorze with the ladies … you are to know, my friend, that I am their complete BUBBLE.

  1860.  H. H. DIXON (‘The Druid’), The Post and the Paddock.

  1880.  JUSTIN MCCARTHY, A History of Our Own Times, III., xii., 235. Some critics declared … that the French Emperor had BUBBLED him [Mr. Cobden].

  1889.  Gentleman’s Magazine, June, 598. Towards the end of the century [xvii] a person easily gulled, or BUBBLED was known as a ‘caravan,’ but earlier the term ‘rook,’ which is now restricted to a cheat or sharper, appears to have been applied to the person cheated.