subs. phr. (schoolboys’).—A schoolmaster; also an usher. Hence TO BRUSH THE BUM = to flog.

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  ENGLISH SYNONYMS.  Flay-bottom; haberdasher of pronouns.

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  FRENCH SYNONYMS.  Marchand de soupe; chien de cour; fouette-cul.

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  d. 1742.  SOMERVILLE, Fables, xiv. His BUM was often BRUSHED, you’ll say.

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  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, Works (1760), II., 86. [Dionysius] was forced to turn BUM-BRUSHER.

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  1788.  New London Magazine, 137. A successor was immediately called from that great nursery of BUM-BRUSHERS, Appleby School.

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  1832.  Blackwood’s Magazine, Oct., 426. To protract existence … in the shape of BUM-BRUSHERS, and so forth, after the fashion of the exalted emigrés of 1792?

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  1838.  The Comic Almanack, Dec. [Schoolmaster’s Letter signed] Barnabas BOMBRUSH.

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