bilk (bilk)

[See the verb.] 1. In cribbage, the spoiling of one's score in the crib.-21. Nothing; vain words. Tub. He will have the last word, though he talk bilk for't. Hugh. Bilk ! what's that? Tub. Why, nothing; a word signifying nothing, and borrowed here to expre nothing. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1. Bilk is said to be an Arabick word, and signifies nothing; cribbidge players understand it best. Blount, Glo ographia (ed. 1681), p. 85. [To call a word "Arabic" or "Hebrew" was and still is a way of dignifying slang or jargon.] 3. A trick; a fraud. [Rare.] -4. A cheat; a swindler.