subs. phr. (common).—A high-spirited horse; a thoroughbred.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 10.
| C—NN—G came in a job, and then canter’d about | |
| On a showy, but hot and unsound, BIT OF BLOOD. |
1843. DICKENS, Martin Chuzzlewit, II., p. 156. Not that we slacken in our pace the while, not we: we rather put the BITS OF BLOOD upon their mettle.
