Boodle

subs. (American).—1.  A crowd; a company; the ‘WHOLE BOILING’ (q.v.): also CABOODLE (q.v.). [MURRAY; the same as Markham’s ‘buddle’ (see quot.): BOODLE = money (see sense 2), may be a different word].

  1625.  FRANCIS MARKHAM, The Booke of Honour, IV., ii. Men curiously and carefully chosen out (from all the BUDDLE, and masse of great ones) for their aprooued wisedome.

  1857.  O. W. HOLMES, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 139. He would like to have the whole BOODLE of them (I remonstrated against this word, but the Professor said it was a diabolish good word …).

  1865.  G. W. BACON, Descriptive Handbook of America, 361. BOODLE, ‘the whole BOODLE of them.’ [List of Americanisms.]

  1884.  E. E. HALE, Christmas in Narragansett, ix., 272. At eleven o’clock the ‘whole BOODLE of them,’ as Uncle Nahum called the caravan, from grandmamma down to little Tom Roussillon, had to boot and spur for church.

  2.  (American).—Generic for illicit gain or contraband profit: e.g., money used for bribery; the result of some secret deal; a secret commission; the booty of a bank thief or absconding cashier; also (thieves’) money that is actually spurious or counterfeit; also (loosely) generic for money: see RHINO. Hence BOODLER = one who bribes or is bribed, who gets (or gives) a secret commission—the whole army of shady workers on the CROSS (q.v.); spec. the utterer of base money, who CARRIES BOODLE (or a FAKEBOODLE) = a roll of paper over which, after folding, a dollar bill is pasted, and another bill being loosely wrapped round this it looks as if the whole roll is made up of a large sum of money in bills.

  1884.  Boston (Mass.) Globe, 7 Oct. ‘Sinews of war,’ and ‘living issues,’ ‘soap,’ and other synonyms for campaign BOODLE are familiar.

  1888.  Philadelphia Bulletin, 24 Feb. The best man in the world cannot make an honest living by being a City Councilman. The office is an unsalaried one, and any money that is made out of it is BOODLE. This is the new term for plunder, fraud and every form of stealing that can be practised by office-holders, who, in the practice, add the crime of perjury. It is an easy business for men of easy virtue.

  1888.  Puck’s Library, Jan. 4.

  1888.  S. W. COOPER, in Puck’s Library, May, 3.

  1888.  Omaha World. We have elections and campaigns, and political parties, and bosses, and ringsters, and BOODLERS.

  1896.  LILLARD, Poker Stories, 76. As the “yaller pine” raked in the BOODLE, Sam started out to have his whack out of the pile.

  3.  (common).—A fool; a NOODLE (q.v.).