Acres, Bob. A character in Sheridan's comedy of "The Rivals;" celebrated for his cowardice, and his system of referential or allegorical swearing.
Besides, terror as Bob Acres says of its counterpart, courage, will come and go; and few people can afford timidity enough for the writer's purpose who is determined on "horrifying" them through three thick volumes.
--Sir W. Scott.
Acres, (Bob), a country gentleman, the rival of ensign Beverley, alias captain Absolute, for the hand and heart of Lydia Languish, the heiress. He tries to ape the man of fashion, gets himself up as a loud swell, and uses "sentimental oaths," i.e. oaths bearing on the subject. Thus if duels are spoken of he says, ods triggers and flints; if clothes, ods frogs and tambours; if music, ods minnums [minims] and crotchets; if ladies ods blushes and blooms. This he learnt from a militia officer, who told him the ancients swore by Jove, Bacchus, Mars, Venus, Minerva, etc., according to the sentiment. Bob Acres is a great blusterer, and talks big of his daring, but when put to the push "his courage always oozed out of his fingers' ends." J. Quick was the original Bob Acres. -- Sheridan: The Rivals (1775).
Acres, Bob: a coward and swearer, the rival of Ensign Beverley as a suitor for the hand of Lydia Languish.
--Sheridan, Rivals.