B
Baconbrains – fat head
Backfriend – false friend
Bade – asked, commanded (I bid, he bade)
Bandy – give and take, to fight
Bane – cause of death, ‘his bane was liquor’
Bardlet, Bardling – bad or false poet
Bare-Bone – lean person
Base, Baseness – low, lowly born, animal-like, petty
Bastard – someone born out of wedlock
Baubling – trifling, no account
Baudstrot – one with a sexy walk
Bawcock – fine lusty fellow
Bawd – low person, pimp or prostitute
Bawdy – obscene, sexual, low class
Beauteous – beautiful
Bedlam – madhouse, madness
Bedswerver – adulterer, adulteress
Beef-Witted – brainless as an ox
Beetle-Headed – stupid
Befall – happen, turn out in the end, become of
Befortune – happen to
Beggary -meanness
Beguile – to charm or deceive with charm
Belswager – swaggering bully, a pimp
Bemadding – maddening
Bereft – deprived, robbed
Beshrew Me – shame on me, curse me
Beslubber – smear, daub
Bespeak – to speak to, address
Betimes – very early in the morning, quickly, soon
Betray – to give away (his face betrayed his thoughts)
Betrothed – engaged, fiancee
Betumbled – disordered
Blowen – wench
Blowze – beggar’s wench
Blubbered – swollen by weeping
Blushet – shy maiden
Bodes – foreshadows, an indicator of
Boggard, Bogshop, Boggish – privy, toilet, see Ajax
Bonoroba – showy wench, wanton (literally ‘good robe’)
Bosom – heart
Brace – a pair
Brache – female dog, ‘you son of a…’
Breast – chest, heart
By And By – immediately, directly
By My Faith! Marry! – Wow! (exclamation), see also Marry
C
Candlewasher – fool, one who wastes candles by reading at night without gain
Caper – leap or frisk about
Carouse – to party, have a good time, make merry, revel
Carriwithet – a bad pun
Catharan – puritan who constantly boasts of his purity
Certes – for sure, definitely
Chapman – itinerant peddler, carinie, boothie
Chatmate – close friend
Choler – wrath
Clew – rope
Clodpate – blockhead
Clumperton – silly fellow, fool, clown
Come hither – come here
Commend Me To – give my regards to
Constable – local law official
Cony – rabbit, also a woman’s private parts
Cony Catcher – con artist
Corse – corpse
Counsel – advice
Countenance – face, facial expression
Cousin – close friend, any relative
Cozener – cheater, con artist
Crack Halter – rogue or gallows bird, one who will crack the halter by which he is hanged, also Crack Rope
Crown – head
Cuckold – noun: a man whose wife cheated on him, verb: when a woman cheats, she cuckolds her husband
Cupshot, also Cupshotten – drunk, ‘in his cups’
Cutpurse – thief, pickpocket
D
Daft – stupid
Decree – order
Discourses – speaks
Dispatch – kill
Divers / Diverse – various
Dote On – to love dearly, sometimes to the point of spoiling a person
Doth – does
Doxy – wench, mistress
Drayer – cart driver
Drossel – slut
Drumble – inert, sluggish fellow
Dry – insipid, dull
E
E’en – even, evening
Enmity – hate, enemy
Enow – enough
Ere, also E’re – before
F
Fain – gladly, willingly (also forced or obliged)
Fair – pale, light-colored, attractive
Fare thee well – goodbye
Feign – pretend, to put on an emotion
Fie, Fie On It – darn it, to heck with it
Flag Fallen – unemployed, usually an actor
Flibbertigibbet – woman prone to gossip, or frivolous
Foe – enemy
Fool – term of endearment or pity
Forbear – stop, leave alone
Forsooth – truthfully
Forswear – to lie or cheat, renounce, deny
Fortnight – two weeks, fourteen nights
Fray – fight
Raymond Towers 