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Browse his Jib (To)

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A sailor’s phrase, meaning to drink till the face is flushed and swollen. The jib means the face, and to browse here means “to fatten.”

⁂ The only correct form of the phrase, however, is “to bowse his jib.” To bowse the jib means to haul the sail taut; and as a metaphor signifies that a man is “tight.”

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Browbeat
Brown
Brown as a Berry
Brown, Jones, and Robinson
Brown Bess
Brown Bill
Brown Study
Browns
Brownie
Brownists
Browse his Jib (To)
Bruel
Bruin
Brumaire
Brummagem
Brums
Brunehild
Brunello (in Orlando Furioso)
Brunswicker
Brunt
Brush