Obs. or dial. Also 4–6 bowge. [a. OF. bouge (also boulge, buge, buche, Godef.) a small leather bag or wallet:—L. bulga a leathern bag, also the womb; of Gaulish origin (Festus): OIr. bolg, bolc, a sack. The variant BULGE is found still earlier, and runs parallel to bouge in senses 1 and 2; 2 has also the variant form BULCH; 3 has the parallel and later form BILGE.]
† 1. A wallet or bag, esp. one made of hide; a skin-bottle; = BULGE sb. 1. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls Ser.), VII. 385. His malys were i-serched his bouges and his trussynge cofres.
1388. Wyclif, Ps. xxxii. 7. He gaderith togidere the watris of the see as in a bowge [1382 botel].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 46/1. Bowge, bulga.
c. 1470. Hors, Shepe, & G. (1822), 7. By draught of horse fro ryuers & wellis Bouges be brought to brewars for good ale.
1557. Paynell, Barclay’s Jugurth, 96. He charged bottels and bowges to the hydes of the same beaste.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXI. xxvii. 408. Fastning their apparrell to bouges of lether like bladders [in utres].
b. Her. Cf. BOUGET.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 30 b. D. beareth Or, three water bowges Sable in chefe.
† 2. A swelling, a hump; = BULGE sb. 2. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xl. (1495), 155. The caas of the galle is a certayne skynne sette vppon the bowges of the lyuer.
c. 1430. in Wyclif, Lev. xxi. 20 (MS. S.). If he hath a botche or a bouge on his bak.
1483. Cath. Angl., 38. A Bowge, gibbus, struma.
3. The protuberant part of a cask; = BILGE 2.
1741. Compl. Fam. Piece, I. v. 266. Then give it Vent at the Bouge, with a Hole made with a Gimblet.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandman, IV. ii. 109. Turning the cask sideways, on its bouge, immediately cork up the lower holes.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 122. Bouge or Bowge and Chine, or Bilge and Chimb, the end of one cask stowed against the bilge of another.
1875. Parish, Sussex Dial., Bouge, a water cask. The round swelling part of a cask.
4. A cowrie, rare. [a. F. bouge ‘coquillage servant de monnaie aux Indes’ (Boiste).]
1875. Jevons, Money, iv. 24. The cowry shells, which, under one name or another—chamgos, zimbis, bouges, porcelanes, etc.
5. Comb., as (sense 1) bouge-maker, -man; bowge-work, bulged or raised work.
1530. Palsgr., 187. Faysevr de bahus, a lether coofer maker or a bouge maker.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorelles B., 10. Tankarde berers, bouge men, and spere planers.
1596–7. Bond, in Hist. Croydon, App. (1783), 154. The windoes with bowge worke.
