BOOTLICKER. A student who seeks or gains favor from a teacher by flattery or officious civilities; one who curries favor. A correspondent from Union College writes: "As you watch the students more closely, you will perhaps find some of them particularly officious towards your teacher, and very apt to linger after recitation to get a clearer knowledge of some passage. They are _Bootlicks_, and that is known as _Bootlicking_; a reproach, I am sorry to say, too indiscriminately applied." At Yale, and _other colleges_, a tutor or any other officer who informs against the students, or acts as a spy upon their conduct, is also called a _bootlick_.
Three or four _bootlickers_ rise.--_Yale Banger_, Oct. 1848.
The rites of Wooden Spoons we next recite, When _bootlick_ hypocrites upraised their might. _Ibid._, Nov. 1849.
Then he arose, and offered himself as a "_bootlick_" to the Faculty.--_Yale Battery_, Feb. 14, 1850.
BOOTS. At the College of South Carolina it is customary to present the most unpopular member of a class with a pair of handsome red-topped boots, on which is inscribed the word BEAUTY. They were formerly given to the ugliest person, whence the inscription.
BORE. A tiresome person or unwelcome visitor, who makes himself obnoxious by his disagreeable manners, or by a repetition of visits.--_Bartlett_.
A person or thing that wearies by iteration.--_Webster_.
Although the use of this word is very general, yet it is so peculiarly applicable to the many annoyances to which a collegian is subjected, that it has come by adoption to be, to a certain extent, a student term. One writer classes under this title "text-books generally; the Professor who marks _slight_ mistakes; the familiar young man who calls continually, and when he finds the door fastened demonstrates his verdant curiosity by revealing an inquisitive countenance through the ventilator."--_Sophomore Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.
In college parlance, prayers, when the morning is cold or rainy, are a _bore_; a hard lesson is a _bore_; a dull lecture or lecturer is a _bore_; and, _par excellence_, an unwelcome visitor is a _bore_ of _bores_. This latter personage is well described in the following lines:--