dia-bolus

Updated: June 25, 2025

Sir, you'd a laughed to-day had you seen him. I gave him a bolus, twice the size of a gooseberry. "What's this?" said he. "A bolus," says I. "The devil," says he; "dia-bolus, then," says I "hey?" said I, "well?" ha! ha! and by Jove, Sir, it actually half stuck in his oesophagus, and I shoved it down like a bullet, with a probang; you'd a died a laughing, yet 'twasn't a bit too big.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - The House by the Church-Yard