subs. (old).—1. A dog. [Considerable obscurity surrounds the origin of this term: for varying forms see quots.]
1567. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1814), 65. BUFE, a dogge. Ibid. (1575), BUFA.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 37 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. BUFFA, a Dogge.
1673. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, s.v. BUGHER.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BUGBER, c. a Dog.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), 11. BUFFER, a Dog.
1842. LOVER, Handy Andy, iv. It is not every day we get a badger, you know … Reilly the butcher has two or three capital dogs, and there’s a wicked mastiff below stairs, and I’ll send for my ‘BUFFER’ and we’d have some spanking sport.
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 192. They had a dog belonging to them that would be sure to begin a quarrel with another ‘BUFFER,’ whenever his master or mistress found a match.
2. (common).—A man; a fellow: sometimes contemptuously, but generally speaking a familiar address: e.g., OLD BUFFER.
1749. H. FITZCOTTON, Homer, I. (1748), 23.
| You’re a BUFFER always rear’d in | |
| The brutal pleasures of Bear-garden. |
1760. Old Song, ‘Come All You BUFFERS Gay’ [The Humourist, 2].
| Come all you BUFFERS gay, | |
| That rumly do pad the city. |
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (‘The Bagman’s Dog’).
| So I’ll merely observe, as the water grew rougher, | |
| The more my poor hero continued to suffer, | |
| Till the Sailors themselves cried, in pity, ‘Poor BUFFER!’ |
1882. T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Vice Versâ, xiv. I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow BUFFER who came in to see you.
1893. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 14. Bald BUFFERS seem fair in the run.
3. (pugilistic).—A boxer; one of THE FANCY (q.v.).
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 7. The BUFFERS, both ‘Boys of the Holy Ground.’ Ibid., 51. Sprightly to the scratch both BUFFERS came.
1834. W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood, iv. ii. Bold came each BUFFER to the scratch.
4. (old).—See quots.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew. BUFFER, c. a Rogue that kills good sound Horses, only for their Skins, by running a long Wyre into them, and semetimes knocking them on the Head, for the quicker Dispatch.
1737. Bacchus and Venus. BUFFER, a rogue that killed good sound horses for the sake of their skins, by running a long wire into them.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. BUFFER, one that steals and kills horses and dogs for their skins.
5. (old).—A hired false witness; a STRAWSHOES (q.v.).
6. (old).—A pistol.
1824. SCOTT, Redgauntlet, iii. Here be a pair of BUFFERS will bite as well as bark.
7. (old).—A smuggler; a rogue; a cheat.
8. (nautical).—A boatswain’s mate: his duty it is—or was—to administer THE CAT (q.v.).
