subs. (old).—1.  Wine; intoxicating liquor. Whence SON OF BACCHUS = a tippler: see LUSHINGTON; and Bacchi plenus = drunk: see SCREWED. [Innumerable derivatives and combinations have been and are still in more or less regular and literary use.]

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  c. 1496.  DUNBAR, The Goldin Terge, l. 124. BACUS, the gladder of the table.

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  c. 1640.  WALLER, The Battle of the Summer Islands, 17. The sweet palmettoes a new BACCHUS yield.

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  1747.  A Scheme for Equipping and Maintaining Sixteen Men of War, 36. The more corpulent SONS OF BACCHUS … might have Easy-Chairs.

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  1823.  BYRON, The Island, ii. xi.

        The palm, the loftiest dryad of the woods,
Within whose bosom infant BACCHUS broods.

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  2.  (Eton College).—See quot.

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  1865.  Etoniana, 27. On Shrove Tuesday verses were written (c. 1561) in honour or dispraise of Bacchus—‘because poets were considered the clients of Bacchus.’… This custom was continued almost into modern days, and though the subject was changed, the copy of verses was still called a BACCHUS.

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