or -baste, -tickle, verb. (old).—To thrash; TO PUNISH (q.v.). Whence RIB-ROASTING (&c.: also RIB-BENDING or RIBBING) = a pummelling; RIB-ROASTER (&c.: also RIB-BENDER, RIBBER, or A RIB OF ROAST) = (pugilists’) a blow on the body, or in the ribs, which brings down an opponent’s guard and opens up the head.—B. E.; MARTIN (1754); GROSE.
1576. GASCOIGNE, The Steele Glas, Ess. Ded. [ARBER]. Though the skornful doe mock me for a time, yet in the end I hope to geue them all a RIB OF ROSTE for their paines.
1595. Maroccus Extaticus, ‘To the Reader.’ Such a peece of filching is as punishable with RIBROAST among the turnespits at Pie Corner.
1620. ROWLANDS, The Night-Raven. Tom take thou a cudgell, and RIB ROAST him.
1663. BUTLER, Hudibras, I. ii. 247.
| Departs not meanly pround, and boasting | |
| Of his magnificent RIB-ROASTING. |
d. 1704. SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, Fables, 208. I have been only Pinch’d in my Flesh, and well RIB-ROASTED sometimes under my former Masters; but I’m In now for Skin and all.
1762. SMOLLETT, Sir Launcelot Greaves, I. v. In which he knew he should be RIB-ROASTED every day, and murdered at last.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 51. While RIBBERS rung from each resounding frame.
1853. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, II. iv. To one gentleman he would pleasantly observe…. “There’s a regular RIB-ROASTER for you!”
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 284. It was some time before he recovered the ‘RIB-BENDER’ he got from the fat show-woman.
1886. Philadelphia Times, 6 May. There was some terrible slogging…. Cleary planted two RIB-ROASTERS, and a tap on Langdon’s face.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Feb. Repaid the compliment with another RIB-BENDER.
