or bristles, subs. phr. (old gaming).—A method of ‘cogging’ dice into which bristles have been inserted, thus influencing the position of the cubes when ‘thrown.’
1532. Dice Play, 28. BRISTLE DICE, be now too gross a practice to be put in use.
1680. COTTON, The Compleat Gamester, in S. W. Singer, Researches into the History of Playing Cards (1816), 335. This they do by false dice, as … By BRISTLE-DICE.
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, xxiii. ‘Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams, and BRISTLES … and a hundred ways of rooking besides.’
