Flabbergast,verb. (colloquial). To astound; to stagger, either physically or mentally. [O. E.,flab= to frighten +gast= to scare.] Fr.,abalober;baba(fromébahi= astounded);épater(= flatten out). Sp.,quedarse de, orhecho, una pieza(= ‘knocked all of a heap’).SeeFloored.1772.Annual Register, ‘On New Words.’ Now we areflabbergastedand bored from morning to night.1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. His colleagues wereflabbergastedwhen they heard of Castlereagh’s sudden death.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(‘Brothers of Birchington’). He was quiteflabbergastedto see the amount.1841.Punch, vol. I., p. 261. We rather just imagine they will be not a little puzzled andflabbergastedto discover the meaning or wit of some of those elegant phrases.1864.Derby Day, p. 67. You’re sort offlabbergasted. It’s taken all the wind out of you like, and you feel like an old screw a blowing up Highgate Hill.1889.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 18 Jan. Poor Clarke was completelyflabbergasted.1891.National Observer, 1 Aug. In no other sport is thelaudator temporis actiso completelyflabbergastedas here.Flabberdegaz,subs.(theatrical).—Words interpolated to dissemble a lapse of memory;gag(q.v.). Also, imperfect utterance or bad acting.Flag,subs.(old).—1. A groat, or fourpenny piece. AlsoFlagg, andFlagge. For synonyms,seeJoey.1567.Harman,Caveat(1814), p. 65.Roge. But aflagge, a wyn, and a make. (But a groat, a penny, and a half-penny.)1610.Rowlands,Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept. 1874) s.v.1714.Memoirs of John Hall(4th ed.), p. 12, s.v.1725.Jonathan Wild,Canting Dict., s.v.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 269. A[2]tremendous black doll bought for aflag(fourpence) of a retired rag-merchant.2. (common).—An apron; hence a badge of office or trade;cf.,Flag-flasher. Equivalents areBelly-cheatandFig-leaf.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232 (List of patterer’s words), s.v.1872.Dundee Advertiser, 20 April; ‘Report of Meeting of Domestic Servants.’It was contended that they were compelled to wear what was generally known as aflag.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Straight Tip. Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash yourflag.3. (obsolete).—A jade.1539.David Lyndsay,Thrie Estaitis. Works [Ed. Laing, 1879], ii. 109. Ane fistandflag.4. (common).—The menstrual cloth. Variants are bandage; clout; danger-signal; diaper; double clout (Durfey); gentleman’s pleasure garden padlock; periodicity rag; the red rag; sanitary towel; window-curtain.The Flag(orDanger-Signal)is up= “The Captain’s at home” (Grose),i.e., the menstrual flux is on.English Synonyms.—To have domestic afflictions, or the D.A.’s; to have theflowers(q.v.); to have one’s grandmother, or little friend, or auntie, with one; to have them (or it) on; to be in a state of ‘no thoroughfare’; to have the red rag on; to be road-making; to have the street up for repairs; to be at Number One, London; to have ‘the gate locked and the key lost.’French Synonyms.—Avoir ses cardinales(literally, to have one’s reds);avoir les histoires;avoir les affaires(common);avoir ses anglais(in allusion to the scarlet of English soldiers);broyer des tomates(= tomato-crushing);avoir son marquis(Cotgrave);avoir les fleurs rouges;avoir sa chemise tachée(Cotgrave);voir Sophie;avoir les ordinaires.Italian Synonyms.—Marchese(Florio),marchesano(= menses. Michel says, Art.marque= a month, a woman. “Il ne saurait être douteux que ce nom ne soit venu à cette division de l’année, de l’infirmité périodique qu’ont lesmarques, ou femmes, lors que la Lune, pour tenir sa diette et vaquer à ses purifications menstruelles, faitmarquerles logis feminins par son fourrier, lequel pour escusson n’a que son impression rouge”).To Fly the Flag,verb. phr.(tailors’).—To post a notice that ‘hands’ are wanted.SeealsoFly the Flag,post.Flag of Defiance,subs. phr.(old nautical).—A drunken roysterer. For synonyms,seeElbow-crooker.To hang out the flag of defiance(orbloody flag),verb. phr.—To be continuously drunk. [An allusion to the ‘crimson face’ (Cotgrave)and the pugnacity of certain terms of inebriety.] For synonyms,seerinks.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.The flag of defiance is out(among the Tarrs) the Fellow’s Face is very Red, and he is Drunk.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flag-flasher,subs.(common).—One sporting a badge or other ensign of office (cap, apron, uniform,[3]etc.) when off duty.—Cf.,Flag, sense 2.Flag-about,subs.(old).—A strumpet. [FromFlag, a paving-stone]. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.Flag-Flying.—SeeFlag.Flag of Distress,subs. phr.(common).—1. A card announcing ‘lodgings,’ or ‘board and lodgings.’ Hence, any overt sign of poverty.2. (common).—A flying shirt-tail; in America, aletter in the post-office(q.v.).Flagger,subs.(common).—A street-walker. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1865.Daily Paper, ‘Police Report.’ She wasn’t a low sort at all—she wasn’t aFlagger, as we call it. So I replies, ‘I am well, thankee; and am happy to say I feel as such.’Flags,subs.(common).—Linen drying and flying in the wind. For synonyms,seeSnow.Flag Unfurled,subs. phr.(rhyming).—A man of the world.Flag-Wagging,subs.(military).—Flag-signal drill.Flam,subs.(colloquial).—Nonsense (for synonyms,seeGammon); humbug; flattery; or, a lie: asa regular flam(for synonyms,seeWhopper).Cf.FLim-flam.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes, [Cf.,Flim-flam.]1647.BeaumontandFletcher,Humourous Lieutenant, iv., 1. With some newflamor other, nothing to the matter.1664.Butler,Hudibras, pt. II., ch. iii., p. 29. Aflammore senseless than the roguery of old aruspicey and aug’ry.1742–4.Roger North,Lives of the Norths, ch. i., p. 368. They must have known his Lordship better and not have ventured suchflamsat him.1760.Foote,Minor, Act II. Had theflambeen fact, your behaviour was natural enough.1762.Foote,Liar, bk. II., ch. ii. Can’t you discern that thisflamof Sir James Elliot’s is a mere fetch to favour his retreat?1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 298 (ed. 1854). Harry … told you as ow it was all aflamabout the child in the bundle!1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(ed. 1862), p. 325. No trick norflam, but your real Schiedam.1849.C. Kingsley,Alton Locke, ch. ii. And their pockets full they crams by their patrioticflams, And then swear ’tis for the good of the nation.1850.D. Jerrold,The Catspaw, Act II. Though the story of that scoundrel Coolcard, Augustus Coolcard—and I was never before deceived—never—is aflam—all aflam.1870.London Figaro, 22 Sept. Is not your boasted power aflam?1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good Night. You flymy titters fond offlam.2. (old).—A single stroke on the drum.—[Grose, 1785.]Adj.(old).—False.1692.Sprat,Relation of Young’s Contrivance(Harl. Misc. vi. 224). To amuse him the more in his search, she addeth aflamstory that she had got his hand by corrupting one of the letter-carriers in London.Verb(colloquial).—1. To take in; to flatter; to lie; to foist or fob off.flamming= lying.[4]1658.Rowley and Ford, &c.,Witch of Edm., ii., 2. Was this your cunning? and thenflamme off with an old witch, two wives, and Winnifride.1688.Shadwell,Sq. of Alsatia, II. in wks. (1720) iv. 41. Does he think toflamme with a lye?1830.S. Warren,Diary of a Late Physician, ch. v. But I’ll show him whether or not I, for one of them, am to be jeered andflammedwith impunity.1835.Marryat,Jacob Faithful, ch. xxviii. How she didflamthat poor old Domine.(American University).—To affect, or prefer, female society; toGrouse(q.v.). [A corruption offlame(q.v.)].SeeMolrowing.Flambustious,adj.(American).—Showy; gaudy; pleasant.1868.Putnam’s Magazine.We will have aflambustioustime. [Cf.,Shakspeare(1608),Antony and Cleopatra, iii., 11. Let’s have one othergaudynight.]Flamdoodle,subs.(American).—Nonsense; vain boasting. Probably a variant offlapdoodle(q.v.).1888.New York Sun.We wasn’t goin’ to have any high falutin’flamdoodlebusiness over him.Flame,subs.(colloquial).—1. A sweetheart; a mistress in keeping.Old flame= an old lover; a cast-off mistress. Also (2) a venereal disease.b.1664.d.1721.Mathew Prior[in Palgrave’s “Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” ed. 1885]. Euphelia serves to grace my measure, but Chloe is my realflame.1757.Foote,Author, Act I. Let’ssee, Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallader, and yourflame, the sister, as I live.1846–8.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. On this Rebecca instantly stated that Amelia was engaged to be married to a Lieutenant Osborne, a very oldflame.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flamer,subs.(colloquial).—A man, woman, thing, or incident above the common. [Literally conspicuous to flaming point,i.e., as a light in the dark]. For synonyms,seeStunner.1840.H. Cockton,Valentine Vox, ch. ii. Concocting a criticism on the evening’s performance, which certainly was, according to the signor’s own acknowledgment, a regularflamer.Flames,subs.(old).—A red-haired person.Cf.,CarrotsandGinger.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. Who should I fling my precious ogles upon butflames—she as lived at the ‘Blue Posts.’Flaming,ppl. adj.(colloquial).—Conspicuous; ardent;stunning(q.v.). For synonyms,seeA 1 andFizzing.1738.Swift,Polite Conv., Dialogue II.Lord Sparkish.My Lady Smart, your ladyship has a very fine scarf.Lady Smart.Yes, my lord, it will make aflamingfigure in a country church.1776.Rubrick,The Spleen, ii. I’ll send aflamingparagraph of their wedding to all the newspapers.1872.BesantandRice.Ready Money Mortiboy, ch. xxx. He called one of the children, and sent her for a bill. She presently returned with aflamingposter.Flanderkin,subs.(old).—Seequot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of theCantingCrew, s.v. A very large fat man or horse; also natives of that country.Flanders Fortunes,subs. phr.(old).—Of small substance.—B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew(1690).Flanders Pieces,subs. phr.(old).—Seequot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flanders pieces, pictures that look fair at a distance, but coarser near at hand.[5]Flank,verb(common).—1. To crack a whip; also, to hit a mark with the lash of one.1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford(ed. 1854), p. 18. He then, taking up a driving whip,flankeda fly from the opposite wall.1833. ‘An Anglo-sapphic Ode’ (Whibley,Cap and Gown, p. 136). Kicks up a row, gets drunk, orflanksa tandem whip out of window.2. (colloquial).—To deliver—a blow or a retort; to push; to hustle; to quoit (Shakspeare). Fr.,flanquer: as inflanquer à la porte, andJe lui at flanqué un fameux coup de pied au cul!A Plate of Thin Flank,subs. phr.(common).—A ‘sixpenny cut’ off the joint.SeeN. Twill inFancy Too Late for Dinner.To Flank the whole bottle,verb. phr.(American soldiers’).—To dodge,i.e., tooutflank, to achieve by strategy. For synonyms,seeStick.1871.De Vere,Americanisms, p. 286. When the men wished to escape the attention of pickets and guards by slipping past them, they said theyflankedthem; drill, and detail, and every irksome duty wasflanked, when it could be avoided by some cunning trick. Soon, however, honesty itself was thus treated, and the poor farmer wasflankedout of his pig and his poultry, and not infrequently even the comrade out of his pipe and tobacco, if not his rations. The height of strategy was employed in these variousflank manœuvres, when the Commissary could be made to surrender some of his whiskey, and thus it came about, in the South at least, that toflank the whole bottlewas a phrase expressive of superlative cunning and brilliant success.Flanker,subs.(common).—A blow; a retort; a kick.Cf.,Flank, sense 1.Flankey,subs.(common).—The posteriors. For synonyms,seeBlind CheeksandMonocular Eyeglass.1848.Duncombe,Sinks of London, s.v.Flannel.SeeHot Flannel.Flannels.To get one’s flannels,verb. phr.(schools’).—To get a place in the school football or cricket teams, or in the boats.Cf., ‘to get one’s colours,’ or ‘one’s blue.’Flap,subs.(thieves’).—1. Sheet-lead used for roofing. Fr.,doussin;noir.Cf.,Bluey.2. (old).—A blow.1539.David Lyndsay,Thrie Estaitis. Works [Laing, 1879], ii. 73. And to begin the play, tak thair aneflap.Verb(thieves’).—1. To rob; to swindle. For synonyms,seePrigandStick.2. (common).—To pay; ‘to fork out.’Cf.,Flap the Dimmock.3. (venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.To Flap a Jay,verb. phr.(thieves’).—To swindle a greenhorn; tosell a pup(q.v.).1885.Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18th, p. 3., col. 1. He and three others of the ‘division’ had ‘cut up’ £70 between them, obtained byflapping a jay, which, rendered into intelligible English, means plundering a simple-minded person.To Flap the Dimmock,verb.phr.(common).—To pay. [FromFlap, a verb of motion +Dimmock= money].Cf.,Flap.Flapdoodle,subs.(colloquial).—1. Transparent nonsense; “kid.”[6]AlsoFlamdoodleandFlam-sauce, orFlap-sauce. For synonyms,seeGammon.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. xxviii. ‘It’s my opinion, Peter, that the gentleman has eaten no small quantity offlapdoodlein his lifetime.’ ‘What’s that, O’Brien,’ replied I. ‘Why, Peter, it’s the stuff they feed fools on.’1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford. I shall talk to our regimental doctors about it, and get put through a course of fools’ diet—flapdoodlethey call it, what fools are fed on.1884.S. L. Clemens(‘Mark Twain’),Huck. Finn, xxv., 247. A speech, all full of tears andflapdoodleabout its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother to lose the diseased [deceased].2. (venery).—Thepenis. (Urquhart). For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.To talk Flapdoodle,verb. phr.(American).—To brag; to talk nonsense.1888.Daily Inter-Ocean, Mar. 2. Possibly rich men will turn from sharp dealing, from debauchery, fromflapdoodlefashion to a common-sense recognition of a situation, which clearly shows that wealth is no longer what it used to be—autocratic, absolute, the ruler of all else.Flapdoodler,subs.(American).—A braggart agitator; one thatmakes the eagle squeal(q.v.).Flap-dragon,subs.(old).—The pox orclap(q.v.). For synonyms,seeLadies’ Fever.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.Flapdragon, a clap or pox.Verb.(old).—To gulp down hastily, as in the game of flap-dragon.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, Act III., Sc. 3. But, to make an end of the ship: toseehow the seaflap-dragonedit!Flapman,subs.(prison).—A convict promoted for good behaviour to first or second class.Flapper,subs.(common).—1. The hand; alsoflapper-shaker. For synonyms,seeDaddleandMauley.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. vii. My Dear Mr. Simple, extend yourflapperto me for I’m delighted toseeyou.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum,or Rogues’ Lexicon, s.v.1866.London Miscellany, May 19, p. 235. ‘There’s myflapperon the strength of it.’ Guy shook hands with the eccentric stranger heartily.2. (common).—A little girl. [Also afledglingwild duck.]3. (venery).—A very young prostitute;cf., sense 2.4. (common).—A dustman’s or coal-heaver’s hat; afantail(q.v.).5. (in. pl.).—Very long-pointed shoes worn by ‘nigger’ minstrels.6. (venery).—Thepenis. (For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick).7. (colloquial).—A parasite; a remembrancer. (Cf.Swift,Gulliver, ‘Laputa.’)Flapper-shaking,subs.(common).—Hand-shaking.1853.Bradley(‘Cuthbert Bede’),Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. iv. Wondering whether … if the joining palms in a circus was the customaryflapper-shakingbefore ‘toeing the scratch’ for business.Flap-sauce.SeeFlapdoodle.[7]Flare,subs.(nautical).—1. Primarily a stylish craft; hence, by implication, anything out of the common. For synonyms,seeStunner.2. (colloquial).—A row; a dispute; a ‘drunk’; or spree.Cf.,flare-up.Verb.(thieves’).—1. Specifically to whisk out; hence, to steal actively, lightly, or delicately.1850.Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. Low Lodging Houses of London. B. tried his pocket saying, ‘I’ll show you how to do a hankerchief; but the baker looked round and B. stopped; and just after that Iflaredit (whisked the handerchief out); and that’s the first I did.’1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 457. Just after that Iflaredit (a handerchief).2. (common).—To swagger; to go with a bounce.1841.Leman Rede,Sixteen-String Jack, ii., 3. Crissy Odsbuds, I’ll on with my duds, And over the water we’llflare.All of a flare,adv. phr.(thieves’).—Bunglingly.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 113. Some of the girls at Milberry’s pick pockets at night: while one talks to the man, the other robs him; but they are not dextrous, they pull it outall of a flare.Flaring,adj.andadv.(colloquial).—Excessive:e.g., aflaringlie;flaringdrunk; aflaringwhore;seeFlaming.Flare-up(or-Out),subs.(popular). An orgie; a fight; an outburst of temper. Also a spree.1838.Haliburton,Clockmaker, 2 Ser. ch. x. Some of our young citizens … got into aflare-upwith a party of boatmen that lives in the Mississippi; a desperate row it was too.1847.Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148, Address at the Opening of a Casino. In forflare-upand frolic let us go, And polk it on the fast fantastic toe.1851.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 160. These (hot eel) dealers generally trade on their own capital; but when some have been having aflare-up, and have ‘broke down for stock’ to use the words of my informant, they borrow £1 and pay it back in a week or a fortnight.1879.Justin M’Carthy,Donna Quixote, ch. xvii. Paulina had a hard struggle many a time to keep down her temper, and not to have what she would have called aflare-out.English Synonyms.—Barney; batter; bean-feast; beano; breakdown; burst; booze (specifically a drinking-bout); caper; devil’s delight; dust; fanteague; fight; flare; flats-yad (back slang); fly; gig; hay-bag; hell’s delight; high jinks; hooping up; hop; jagg; jamboree; jump; jun-ketting; lark; drive; randan; on the tiles; on the fly; painting the town (American); rampage; razzle-dazzle; reeraw; ructions; shake; shine; spree; sky-wannocking; tear; tear up; toot.French Synonyms.—La nocerie(popular:une noce à tout casser; or,une noce de bâtons de chaise= a grand jollification);faire des crêpes(= to have a rare spree);badouiller(popular: especially applied to drinking bouts).Italian Synonym.—Far festa alle campane.Spanish Synonyms.—Trapisonda(a drunken revel);holgueta.Verb(common).—To fly into a passion.1849.Mahoney,Rel. Father Prout, I., 319. ‘Vert-Vert, the Parrot.’ Forth like a Congreave rocket burst, And storm’d and swore,flared up, and curs’d.[8]1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xii. He was in the ‘Cave of Harmony,’ he says, that night youflared upabout Captain Costigan.1871.Daily Telegraph, 8 June, ‘Paris in Convalescence.’ On this heflared uplike a Commune conflagration, and cried out, ‘Shame, in the name of religion, art, and history!’Flash,subs.(old).—1. The vulgar tongue; the lingo of thieves and their associates.To patter flash= to talk in thieves’ lingo. [The derivation ofFlash, like that of Frenchargot, is entirely speculative. It has, however, been generally referred to a district calledFlash(the primary signification as a place name is not clear), between Buxton Leek and Macclesfield: there lived many chapmen who, says Dr. Aiken (“Description of Country round Manchester”), ‘were known asflash-men… using a sort of slang or cant dialect.’]1718.Hitchin.The Regulator of Thieves, etc., with Account offlashwords, etc.(Title).1781.G. Parker,View of Society, II., 69. Jigger, being cant orflashfor door.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25. With respect to that peculiar language calledflash, or St. Jiles’ Greek, etc.1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. viii. Here a tall gentleman marched up to him, and addressed him in a certain language, which might be called the freemasonry offlash.1839.Harrison Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 12. ‘What does he say?’ roared the long drover. ‘He says he don’t understandflash,’ replied the lady in gentleman’s attire.1843–4.Hood,Miss Kilmansegg. His cheeks no longer drew the cash. Because, as his comrades explain’d inflash, He had overdrawn his badger.1827.Maginn,Vidocq’s Song. Pattered inflashlike a covey knowing.1864.Athenæum, 29 Oct. The northern village of ill-repute, and bearing that name (flash) gave to felonious high-flying the termflash.1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 278. Why, when the late Lord Lytton wrotePelhamit was brought against him that ‘his knowledge offlashwas evidently purely superficial.’Flash, my sister, is merely recondite slang or thieves’ argot.English Analogues.—Back Slang or Kacab-Genals (the main principle consists in roughly pronouncing the word backwards, aserifforfire,dabforbad, etc.: the practice exists in most languages);Cant(q.v.); Centre Slang (the central vowel is made the initial letter, vowels and consonants being added at pleasure); Gammy (North country: mainly composed of Gypsy words); Gibberish (formed by inserting a consonant between each syllable of a word, the result being the F, G, H, M or S gibberish, according to the letter used: thus, “goming mout tom-daym,” or “gosings outs tos-days?” = going out to-day?); jargon; the Green Lingo (French thieves’); Marrowskying or Hospital Greek (manufactured by transferring the initial letters of words;plenty of rainthus becomesrenty of plain: the ‘Gower St. dialect’ of Albert Smith,Mr. Ledbury); Pedlar’s French (old cant:Florio, 1598;Cotgrave, 1612);Rhyming Slang(q.v.);Slang(q.v.); St. Giles’ Greek (last century for Slang as distinguished from Cant); Thieves’ Latin; the Vulgar Tongue;Yob-gab(q.v.);Notions(q.v.);Ziph(q.v.).French and other Analogues.—Argotorarguche;la langue verte(properly gamesters’);le langage soudardant(soldiers’[9]lingo);le jars;le jargon jobelin; (Cotgrave,Dictionarie, 1611.Jargon= ‘Gibridge, fustian language, Pedlar’s French, a barbarous jangling’);le langage de l’artis;langage en lem(formed by prefixing “l” and adding the syllable “em,” preceded by the first letter of the word); thus “main” becomes “lainmem.” A similar mode of dealing with words of more than one syllable is to replace the first consonant by the letter “l,” the word being followed by its first syllable preceded by “du”; thus, “jaquette” becomes “laqueite du jaq,” or if “m” be used as a key-letter, “maquette du jaq” etc.;le javanais—here the syllable “av” is interpolated;e.g., “jave l’avai vavu javeudavi” = (je l’ai vu jeudi).German.—Rothwalsch(fromRoter= beggar or vagabond +walsch= foreign);Gaunersprache(= thieves’ lingo).Italian.—Lingua gerga(abbreviated intogerga;Florio, 1598 ‘gergo= Pedlar’s French, fustian, or roguish language, gibbrish’);lingua franca(Levantine: the source of some English slang);lingua furbesca.Dutch.—Bargoens.Spanish.—Germania(the Gypsies were supposed to have come from Germany);jeriganza.Portuguese.—Calaõ(ZincaliorCalo= Gypsy).2. Hence, at one period, especially during the Regency days, the idiom of the man about town, of Tom and Jerrydom.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. xxix. To the cultivation in our times, of the Science of Pugilism, theflashlanguage is indebted for a considerable addition to its treasures.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc. They were invariably thieves and gamblers who usedflashformerly; but other kinds of persons, now-a-day, who may be rippishly inclined, adopt similar terms and phrases, to evince their uppishness in the affairs of life. These gentlemen also consider all terms of art and of science asflash; … of course, those words and sayings which are appropriate to the turf, the ring, and field sports, are equally considered asflashby them, and the word has been applied (too generally we allow), to all this species ofquid pro quolingo.3. (old).—See quot. andcf., with a Shaksperian gloss offlash= a burst of wit or merriment.1748.T. Dyche,Dict.(5th ed.),flash(s.), also a boast, brag, or great pretence made by a spendthrift, quack, or pretender to more art or knowledge than he really has.4. (old).—A showy swindler. (e.g., the Sir Petronel Flash of quot.); a blustering vulgarian.1605.Marston,Jonson, andChapman,Eastward Hoe!iv. 1. ‘Sir Petronel Flash, I am sorry to see suchflashescome from a gentleman of your quality.’1632.Shirley,Love in a Maze, i., 2. The town is full of these vaingloriousflashes.5. (old).—A peruke or perriwig.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Rumflash, a fine long wig. Queerflash, a miserable weather-beaten caxon.6. (common).—A portion; a drink; orgo(q.v.).Cf.,Flash of Lightning, sense 1.Adj.(common).—1. Relating to thieves, their habits, customs, devices, lingo, etc.1782.Geo. Parker,Humorous Sketches, p. 34. No more like a kiddy he’ll roll theflashsong.[10]1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ‘Long Ned’s Song.’ And rarely have the gentryflash, In sprucer clothes been seen.1837.Dickens,Oliver Twist, ch. viii. I suppose you don’t know what a beak is, myflashcom-pan-i-on.1857.Snowden,Mag. Assistant,3rd ed., p. 448. I have seen Cheeks (aflashname for an accomplice).1863.C. Reade,Hard Cash, II., 244. He used someflashwords, and they were shown into a public room.1864.Cornhill Magazine, ii., 336. In the following verse, taken from a petflashsong, you have a comic specimen of this sort of guilty chivalry.2. (thieves’).—Knowing; expert; showy.Cf.,down,fly,wide-awake, etc. Hence (popularly), by a simple transition, vulgarly counterfeit, showily shoddy: possibly the best understood meanings of the word in latter-day English.To put one flash to anything= to put him on his guard; to inform.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 19. Another philosopher, Seneca, has shown himself equallyflashon the subject.1835.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 17. Laying aside the knowing look, andflashair, with which he had repeated the previous anecdote.1836.Marryat,Japhet, etc., ch. lvii. He considered me as … aflashpickpocket rusticating until some hue and cry was over.1839.W. H. Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard, p. 138 (ed. 1840). ‘Awake! to be sure I am, myflashcove,’ replied Sheppard.1865.M. E. Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. v. He … took out the little packet of bank-notes. ‘I suppose you can understand these,’ he said. The languid youth … looked dubiously at his customer. ‘I can understand as they might beflashuns,’ he remarked, significantly.1888.C. D. Warner,Their Pilgrimage, p. 157. Theflashriders or horsebreakers, always called ‘broncho busters,’ can perform really marvellous feats.3. (originally thieves’, now general).—Vulgar, or blackguardly; showy; applied to one aping his betters. Hence (in Australia), vain glorious or swaggering. The idea conveyed is always one of vulgarity or showy blackguardism.1830. SirE. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford(ed. 1854), p. 21. A person of great notoriety among that portion of theélitewhich emphatically entitles itselfflash.1861.A. Trollope,Framley Parsonage, ch. ix. If the dear friendship of thisflashMember of Parliament did not represent that value, what else did do so?1880.G. R. Sims,Three Brass Balls, Pledge xi. The speaker was one of theflashyoung gentlemen who haunt suburban billiard-rooms, who carry chalk in their pockets, and call the marker ‘Jack.’4. (common).—In a set style. Also used substantively.1819.Vaux,Flash Dict., p. 173. s.v. A person who affects any peculiar habit, as swearing, dressing in a particular manner, taking snuff, etc., merely to be taken notice of is said to do it out offlash.1828.The English Spy.vol. I., p. 189. The man upon that half-starved nag Is an Ex S——ff, a strange wag, Half-flashand half a clown.1851.Mayhew,Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor,I., p. 36. They all of them (coster lads) delight in dressingflashas they call it.… They try to dress like the men, with large pockets in their cord jackets, and plenty of them. Their trousers, too, must fit tight at the knee, and their boots they like as good as possible. A good ‘kingsman,’ a plush skull-cap, and a seam down the trousers are the great points of ambition with the coster boys.[Hence, in combination,Flash-case,crib,drum,house,ken, orpanny(seeFlash-ken);flash-cove(q.v.);flash-dispensary(American = a boarding house), especially a swell brothel;flash-gentry(= the swell mob or higher class of thieves);flash-girl,-moll,-mollisher,-pieceor-woman(= a showy prostitute);flash-jig(costers’ = a favourite dance);flash-kiddy(= a dandy);flash-lingo, orsong(=[11]‘patter,’ or a song interlarded with cant words and phrases);flash-man(q.v.);flash-note(= a spurious bank-note);flash-rider(American,seebroncho-buster);flash toggery(= smart clothes);flash vessel(= a gaudy looking, but undisciplined ship)].1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, [1890,] p. 58. The rusticity of Jerry was fast wearing off … and he bid fair, etc. … to chaff with theflash mollishers.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood, p.273Soon then I mounted in Swell St. High, And sported myflashiest toggery.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 14. The other dances are jigs—flash jigs—hornpipes in fetters—a dance rendered popular by the success of the noted Jack Sheppard.Verb(common).—1. To show; to expose.[Among combinations may be mentioned,to flash one’s ivories= to show one’s teeth, to grin (Grose);to flash the hash= to vomit (Grose);to flash the dickey= to show the shirt front;to flash the dibs= to show or spend one’s money;to flash a fawney= to wear a ring;to flash one’s gab= to talk, to swagger, to brag;to flash the bubs= to expose the paps;to flash the muzzle(q.v.);to flash one’s ticker= to air one’s watch;to flash the drag= to wear women’s clothes for immoral purposes;to flash the white grin=seegrin;to flash it(q.v.), orto flash one’s meat(cf.,meat-flasher);to flash a bit(q.v.);to flash the flag= to sport an apron;to flash the wedge= to ‘fence’ the swag, etc.]1812.Vaux,Flash Dict.Don’tflash your sticks, don’t expose your pistols.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 2. His lordship, as usual, that very great dab At the flowers of rhet’ric, isflashing his gab.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc. Heflashed the blunt, made a show of money to dazzle the spectators.1825.E. Kent,Modern Flash Dict.Flashing his ivory, shew his teeth.1834.W. H. Ainsworth,Rookwood, (ed. 1864), p. 176.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Dead Drummer.’ When trav’lling, don’tflash your notesoryour cashBefore other people—it’sfoolish and rash.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good-Night. Likewise you molls thatflash your bubs, For swells to spot and stand you sam.1887.W. E. Henley,Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, orflash the drag.To flash a bit,verbal phr.(venery).—To show up; to permit examination; ‘to spread’ (q.v.); to behave indecently. Said of women only.To flash it, orto flash one’s meat.—To expose the person. [Hencemeat-flasher] (q.v.). Said usually of men.To flash the muzzle(old).—To produce a pistol.c.1823.Ballad(quoted inDon Juanxi.). On the high toby spiceflash the muzzleIn spite of each gallows old scout.To flash it about, orto cut a flashordash,verbal phr.(common).—To make a display; to live conspicuously and extravagantly.1877.Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 220. Heflashed it abouta good deal for a long time, going from one place to another. Sometimes he was a lord, at others an earl.To go flashing it,verb. phr.(venery).—To have sexual intercourse. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Flash-Case(or-Crib,-House,-Drum,-Ken,-Panny, etc.).—1. A house frequented by thieves, as a tavern, lodging-house, fence (q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flash-ken,c., a house where thieves use, and are connived at.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.1821.D. Haggart,Life, ‘Glossary,’ p. 172.Flash-kain, a house for receiving[12]stolen goods. [Haggart’s spelling, being that of the respectable Edinburgh lawyer who took down his ‘confessions’ is generally misleading and inaccurate.]1828.Smeeton,Doings in London, p. 39. It is a game in very great vogue among the macers, who congregate nightly at theflash-houses.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 50 (ed. 1854). There is one Peggy Lobkins who keeps a public house, a sort offlash-kencalled ‘The Mug’ in Thames Court.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(ed. 1840), p. 271. I’ve been to all theflash-casesin town, and can hear nothing of him or his wives.…Ibid, p. 135. ‘The Black Lion!’ echoed Terence, ‘I know the house well; by the same token that it’s aflash-crib.’2. (common).—A brothel; a haunt of loose women.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum(Flash song quoted underflash-panneys). Next for his favourite mot the kiddey looks about, And if she’s in aflash-pannyhe swears he’ll have her out; So he fences all his togs to buy her duds, and then He frisks his master’s lob to take her from the bawdy ken.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. (ed. 1840). You know how little I frequentflash-houses.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(ed. 1862), p. 380. Those troublesome swells, Who come from the play-houses,flash-kens, and hells.1840.Macaulay,Essays: ‘Lord Clive.’ The lowest wretches that the company’s crimps could pick up in theflash-housesof London.1852.Bristed,Upper Ten Thousand, p. 34. That is Mary Black who keeps the greatestflash housein Leonard Street.Flash-Cove(alsoFlash-Companion),subs.(common).—A thief; a sharper; afence(q.v.).1825.E. Kent,Modern Flash Dict.Flash-cove, the keeper of a place for the reception of stolen goods.1839.H. Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 60.—‘Awake! To be sure I am, myflash-cove!’ replied Sheppard.Flash-Man,subs.(old).—Primarily a man talkingflash(seequots., 1823 and 1862); hence, a rogue, a thief, the landlord of aflash-case(q.v.). Also afancy-joseph(for synonyms,seeFancy-man). In America, a person with no visible means of support, but living in style and ‘showing up’ well.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 141. Aflashmanis one who lives on the hackneyed prostitution of an unfortunate woman of the town.1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, II., 1. Soon one is floored upon the ground. While loud herflashmancries, ‘Arise, my ladybird, arise!’1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 80. Derived from his language, and this again has its appellation (’tis suggested) from the firstflash-menbeing highwaymen, that then generally abounded (circa 1770). He is the favorite, or protector of a prostitute, whoseflash-manhe is; and she is called inversely, hisflash-woman.c.1833.Broadside Ballad.Myflash-manhas gone to sea.1849.New South Wales, Past, Present, and Future, ch. i., p. 14. This man was known to Mr. Day to be what is termed aflash-man; and, seeing his own imminent danger, he instantly spoke to him and called him a cowardly rascal, and offered to give him shot for shot, while he was re-loading.1859.H. Kingsley,Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. You’re playing a dangerous game, myflashman.1862.Smiles,Lives of the Engineers, vol. I., pt. 5, ch. i., p. 307. Those articles were sold throughout the country by pedestrian hawkers, most of whom lived in the wild country calledthe flash, from a hamlet of that name situated between Buxton, Leek, and Macclesfield.… Travelling about from fair to fair, and using a cant or slang dialect, they became generally known asflash-men, and the name still survives (to which may be added: They paid, at first, ready money, but when they had established a credit, paid in promissory notes which were rarely honored.)[13]a.1873.Lyra Flagitiosa.[Quoted inHotten.] Myflash man’sin quod, And I’m the gal that’s willin’, So I’ll turn out to-night, And earn an honest shillin’.Flash of Lightning,subs. phr.(old).—1. A glass of gin; a dram of neat spirit.SeeGoandDrinks. Latterly, an ‘American drink.’Seequot. 1862.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 164, s.v.1821.P. Egan,Tom and Jerry(ed. 1890), p. 79. I have not exactly recovered from the severe effects of the repeatedflashes of lightningand strong claps of thunder, with which I had to encounter last night.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf(quoted in). But ere they homeward pik’d it, Aflash of lightningwas sarv’d round to every one as lik’d it.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, (ed. 1854), p. 141. The thunders of eloquence being hushed,flashes of lightning, or, as the vulgar say, ‘glasses of gin’ gleamed about.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 168. The stimulant of aflash of lightning… for so a dram of neat spirit was then called.1862.E. MacDermott,Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar, where visitors may indulge in … gum-ticklers, eye-openers,flashes of lightning… and a variety of similar beverages.2. (nautical). The gold braid on an officer’s cap.Flash in the Pan,subs. phr.(venery).—Connection without emission.Cf.Dry-Bob(q.v.). Also verbally.1719.Durfey,Pills, v., 340. Still hawking, still baulking, Youflash in the pan.Flashy,adj., andFlashily, orFlashly,adv.(old: now colloquial). Empty; showy; tawdry; insipid.1637.Milton,Lycidas, 123. Their lean andflashysongs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.1693.Congreve,Old Batchelor, Act I., sc. iv. It is oftentimes too late with some of you young, termagant,flashysinners.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 12. Aflashytown beau.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary, (5th ed.)Flashy(a), vain, bragging, boasting, foolish, empty; also anything waterish and unsavoury.1755.The World, No. 149. Whose melodious voices give every syllable (not of a lean andflashy, but of a fat and plump song) its just emphasis.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 13, (ed. 1854). Vy it be … the gemman vot payed you soflashly.1857. Song inDucange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 42. Your fogle you mustflashlytie.1863.Speke,Journal of the Discovery of the Nile, p. 154.Flashilydressed in coloured cloths and a turban, he sat down in one of our chairs.1864.Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. v. But he evinced no bad taste in the selection of a costume. He chose no gaudy colours, orflashilycut vestments.1873.Cassell’s Magazine, Jan., p. 246, col. 2. They are rather prone to dressflashily, and wear, when in full fig, no end of jewellery.1874.Mortimer Collins,Frances, ch. xvii. That wild set of people Captain Heath picked up with—members of Parliament andflashyyoung women—all driving four horses, I don’t know where.1882.Century Magazine, xxvi., 295. As stones, they were cheap andflashy.Flash-Tail,subs.(common).—A prostitute.—SeeTail.1868.Temple Bar, xxiv., p. 538–9. Picking-up Moll … aflashtail? a prostitute who goes about the streets at nights trying to pick up toffs.Flasher,subs.(old).—A high-flyer; a fop; a pretender to wit. For synonyms,seeDandy. Also (quot. 2), aBonnet(q.v.).1779.D’Arblay,Diary, etc. (1876). vol. I., p. 185. They are reckoned theflashersof the place, yet everybody laughs at them for their airs, affectations, and tonish graces and impertinences.[14]1880.Derbyshire Gatherer, p. 128. Long before this date (circa1800) the cant name offlasherwas applied to the man who sat by the table in the gambling-house to swear how many times he had seen lucky gamesters break the bank.Flashery,subs.(old).—Inferior, or vulgar, elegance, dash, distinction, display.Flash-yad,subs.(back-slang).—A day’s enjoyment. For synonyms,seeFlare-up.Flashy BladeorSpark,subs. phr.(old).—Adandy(q.v.); now a cheap and noisy swell, whether male or female;Cf.,Flasher.1719.Durfey,Pills,etc., vi., 104. In youth a nauseousflashy fop, in elder days a bore.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 40. For though all know thatflashy spark, etc.Flat,subs.(colloquial).—1. A greenhorn; noddy; gull. For synonyms,seeBuffleandCabbage-head; alsoSammy-soft.1762.Goldsmith,Life of Nash, in wks. p. 546 (Globe). Why, if you think me a dab I will get this strange gentleman, or this, pointing to theflat. Done! cries the sailor, but you shall not tell him.1789.Geo.Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out forflats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is, cards.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 59. Poor Johnny Raw, what madness could impel, So rum aflatto face so prime a swell.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ He’s been upon the mill, And cos he gammons all theflatswe calls him Veepin Bill.1841.Lytton,Night and Morning, bk. II., ch. ix. ‘Did he pay you for her?’ ‘Why, to be sure, he gave me a cheque on Coutt’s.’ ‘And you took it? My eyes? what aflat.’1847.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-tree. He play, the youngflat!1847.Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148. It mayn’t precisely please the moralflat. You won’t find fault with it, kind friends, for that.1848.Thackeray,The Book of Snobs, ch. x. When he does play he always contrives to get hold of a goodflat.1857.Ducange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 39. Fawney-droppers gammon theflatsand take the yokels in.1866.Yates,Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die, talking over aflat, or winning money of a greenhorn.1880.Mortimer Collins,Thoughts in My Garden, vol. II., p. 180. Their quack medicines that will cure everything, and their sales of invaluable articles at a loss, and a thousand other devices to catchflats.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good-night. Youflatsand joskins great and small.1889.Pall Mall Gazette, Sept. 21, p. 3, col. 1 (In a London Gambling Hell). Theflatswho play faro (Cross-heading).2. (American thieves’).—An honest man.3. (American). A lover’s dismissal; a jilting.Adj.(colloquial and literary).—Downright; plain; straightforward; as inthat’s flat?aflat lie, “flat burglary,” etc.1598.Shakspeare, 1King Henry IV., Act I., Sc. 3.Wor.: You start away, And lend no ear to my purposes. Those prisoners you shall keep.Hot.: Nay, I will;that’s flat.1835–40.Haliburton,The Clockmaker, p. 6, preface (ed. 1862).1848.Lowell,Fable for Critics, p. 19. (A fetch, I must say, most transparent andflat).[There are other usages, more or less colloquial:e.g., Insipid; tame; dull: as in Macaulay’s “flatas champagne in decanters.” On the Stock Exchange.flat= without interest: Stock is borrowedflatwhen no interest is allowed by the lender as security for the due return of the scrip.][15]Verb(American). To jilt.Cf.,subs., sense 3. For synonyms,seeMitten.
Flabbergast,verb. (colloquial). To astound; to stagger, either physically or mentally. [O. E.,flab= to frighten +gast= to scare.] Fr.,abalober;baba(fromébahi= astounded);épater(= flatten out). Sp.,quedarse de, orhecho, una pieza(= ‘knocked all of a heap’).SeeFloored.1772.Annual Register, ‘On New Words.’ Now we areflabbergastedand bored from morning to night.1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. His colleagues wereflabbergastedwhen they heard of Castlereagh’s sudden death.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(‘Brothers of Birchington’). He was quiteflabbergastedto see the amount.1841.Punch, vol. I., p. 261. We rather just imagine they will be not a little puzzled andflabbergastedto discover the meaning or wit of some of those elegant phrases.1864.Derby Day, p. 67. You’re sort offlabbergasted. It’s taken all the wind out of you like, and you feel like an old screw a blowing up Highgate Hill.1889.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 18 Jan. Poor Clarke was completelyflabbergasted.1891.National Observer, 1 Aug. In no other sport is thelaudator temporis actiso completelyflabbergastedas here.Flabberdegaz,subs.(theatrical).—Words interpolated to dissemble a lapse of memory;gag(q.v.). Also, imperfect utterance or bad acting.Flag,subs.(old).—1. A groat, or fourpenny piece. AlsoFlagg, andFlagge. For synonyms,seeJoey.1567.Harman,Caveat(1814), p. 65.Roge. But aflagge, a wyn, and a make. (But a groat, a penny, and a half-penny.)1610.Rowlands,Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept. 1874) s.v.1714.Memoirs of John Hall(4th ed.), p. 12, s.v.1725.Jonathan Wild,Canting Dict., s.v.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 269. A[2]tremendous black doll bought for aflag(fourpence) of a retired rag-merchant.2. (common).—An apron; hence a badge of office or trade;cf.,Flag-flasher. Equivalents areBelly-cheatandFig-leaf.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232 (List of patterer’s words), s.v.1872.Dundee Advertiser, 20 April; ‘Report of Meeting of Domestic Servants.’It was contended that they were compelled to wear what was generally known as aflag.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Straight Tip. Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash yourflag.3. (obsolete).—A jade.1539.David Lyndsay,Thrie Estaitis. Works [Ed. Laing, 1879], ii. 109. Ane fistandflag.4. (common).—The menstrual cloth. Variants are bandage; clout; danger-signal; diaper; double clout (Durfey); gentleman’s pleasure garden padlock; periodicity rag; the red rag; sanitary towel; window-curtain.The Flag(orDanger-Signal)is up= “The Captain’s at home” (Grose),i.e., the menstrual flux is on.English Synonyms.—To have domestic afflictions, or the D.A.’s; to have theflowers(q.v.); to have one’s grandmother, or little friend, or auntie, with one; to have them (or it) on; to be in a state of ‘no thoroughfare’; to have the red rag on; to be road-making; to have the street up for repairs; to be at Number One, London; to have ‘the gate locked and the key lost.’French Synonyms.—Avoir ses cardinales(literally, to have one’s reds);avoir les histoires;avoir les affaires(common);avoir ses anglais(in allusion to the scarlet of English soldiers);broyer des tomates(= tomato-crushing);avoir son marquis(Cotgrave);avoir les fleurs rouges;avoir sa chemise tachée(Cotgrave);voir Sophie;avoir les ordinaires.Italian Synonyms.—Marchese(Florio),marchesano(= menses. Michel says, Art.marque= a month, a woman. “Il ne saurait être douteux que ce nom ne soit venu à cette division de l’année, de l’infirmité périodique qu’ont lesmarques, ou femmes, lors que la Lune, pour tenir sa diette et vaquer à ses purifications menstruelles, faitmarquerles logis feminins par son fourrier, lequel pour escusson n’a que son impression rouge”).To Fly the Flag,verb. phr.(tailors’).—To post a notice that ‘hands’ are wanted.SeealsoFly the Flag,post.Flag of Defiance,subs. phr.(old nautical).—A drunken roysterer. For synonyms,seeElbow-crooker.To hang out the flag of defiance(orbloody flag),verb. phr.—To be continuously drunk. [An allusion to the ‘crimson face’ (Cotgrave)and the pugnacity of certain terms of inebriety.] For synonyms,seerinks.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.The flag of defiance is out(among the Tarrs) the Fellow’s Face is very Red, and he is Drunk.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flag-flasher,subs.(common).—One sporting a badge or other ensign of office (cap, apron, uniform,[3]etc.) when off duty.—Cf.,Flag, sense 2.Flag-about,subs.(old).—A strumpet. [FromFlag, a paving-stone]. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.Flag-Flying.—SeeFlag.Flag of Distress,subs. phr.(common).—1. A card announcing ‘lodgings,’ or ‘board and lodgings.’ Hence, any overt sign of poverty.2. (common).—A flying shirt-tail; in America, aletter in the post-office(q.v.).Flagger,subs.(common).—A street-walker. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1865.Daily Paper, ‘Police Report.’ She wasn’t a low sort at all—she wasn’t aFlagger, as we call it. So I replies, ‘I am well, thankee; and am happy to say I feel as such.’Flags,subs.(common).—Linen drying and flying in the wind. For synonyms,seeSnow.Flag Unfurled,subs. phr.(rhyming).—A man of the world.Flag-Wagging,subs.(military).—Flag-signal drill.Flam,subs.(colloquial).—Nonsense (for synonyms,seeGammon); humbug; flattery; or, a lie: asa regular flam(for synonyms,seeWhopper).Cf.FLim-flam.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes, [Cf.,Flim-flam.]1647.BeaumontandFletcher,Humourous Lieutenant, iv., 1. With some newflamor other, nothing to the matter.1664.Butler,Hudibras, pt. II., ch. iii., p. 29. Aflammore senseless than the roguery of old aruspicey and aug’ry.1742–4.Roger North,Lives of the Norths, ch. i., p. 368. They must have known his Lordship better and not have ventured suchflamsat him.1760.Foote,Minor, Act II. Had theflambeen fact, your behaviour was natural enough.1762.Foote,Liar, bk. II., ch. ii. Can’t you discern that thisflamof Sir James Elliot’s is a mere fetch to favour his retreat?1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 298 (ed. 1854). Harry … told you as ow it was all aflamabout the child in the bundle!1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(ed. 1862), p. 325. No trick norflam, but your real Schiedam.1849.C. Kingsley,Alton Locke, ch. ii. And their pockets full they crams by their patrioticflams, And then swear ’tis for the good of the nation.1850.D. Jerrold,The Catspaw, Act II. Though the story of that scoundrel Coolcard, Augustus Coolcard—and I was never before deceived—never—is aflam—all aflam.1870.London Figaro, 22 Sept. Is not your boasted power aflam?1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good Night. You flymy titters fond offlam.2. (old).—A single stroke on the drum.—[Grose, 1785.]Adj.(old).—False.1692.Sprat,Relation of Young’s Contrivance(Harl. Misc. vi. 224). To amuse him the more in his search, she addeth aflamstory that she had got his hand by corrupting one of the letter-carriers in London.Verb(colloquial).—1. To take in; to flatter; to lie; to foist or fob off.flamming= lying.[4]1658.Rowley and Ford, &c.,Witch of Edm., ii., 2. Was this your cunning? and thenflamme off with an old witch, two wives, and Winnifride.1688.Shadwell,Sq. of Alsatia, II. in wks. (1720) iv. 41. Does he think toflamme with a lye?1830.S. Warren,Diary of a Late Physician, ch. v. But I’ll show him whether or not I, for one of them, am to be jeered andflammedwith impunity.1835.Marryat,Jacob Faithful, ch. xxviii. How she didflamthat poor old Domine.(American University).—To affect, or prefer, female society; toGrouse(q.v.). [A corruption offlame(q.v.)].SeeMolrowing.Flambustious,adj.(American).—Showy; gaudy; pleasant.1868.Putnam’s Magazine.We will have aflambustioustime. [Cf.,Shakspeare(1608),Antony and Cleopatra, iii., 11. Let’s have one othergaudynight.]Flamdoodle,subs.(American).—Nonsense; vain boasting. Probably a variant offlapdoodle(q.v.).1888.New York Sun.We wasn’t goin’ to have any high falutin’flamdoodlebusiness over him.Flame,subs.(colloquial).—1. A sweetheart; a mistress in keeping.Old flame= an old lover; a cast-off mistress. Also (2) a venereal disease.b.1664.d.1721.Mathew Prior[in Palgrave’s “Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” ed. 1885]. Euphelia serves to grace my measure, but Chloe is my realflame.1757.Foote,Author, Act I. Let’ssee, Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallader, and yourflame, the sister, as I live.1846–8.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. On this Rebecca instantly stated that Amelia was engaged to be married to a Lieutenant Osborne, a very oldflame.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flamer,subs.(colloquial).—A man, woman, thing, or incident above the common. [Literally conspicuous to flaming point,i.e., as a light in the dark]. For synonyms,seeStunner.1840.H. Cockton,Valentine Vox, ch. ii. Concocting a criticism on the evening’s performance, which certainly was, according to the signor’s own acknowledgment, a regularflamer.Flames,subs.(old).—A red-haired person.Cf.,CarrotsandGinger.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. Who should I fling my precious ogles upon butflames—she as lived at the ‘Blue Posts.’Flaming,ppl. adj.(colloquial).—Conspicuous; ardent;stunning(q.v.). For synonyms,seeA 1 andFizzing.1738.Swift,Polite Conv., Dialogue II.Lord Sparkish.My Lady Smart, your ladyship has a very fine scarf.Lady Smart.Yes, my lord, it will make aflamingfigure in a country church.1776.Rubrick,The Spleen, ii. I’ll send aflamingparagraph of their wedding to all the newspapers.1872.BesantandRice.Ready Money Mortiboy, ch. xxx. He called one of the children, and sent her for a bill. She presently returned with aflamingposter.Flanderkin,subs.(old).—Seequot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of theCantingCrew, s.v. A very large fat man or horse; also natives of that country.Flanders Fortunes,subs. phr.(old).—Of small substance.—B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew(1690).Flanders Pieces,subs. phr.(old).—Seequot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flanders pieces, pictures that look fair at a distance, but coarser near at hand.[5]Flank,verb(common).—1. To crack a whip; also, to hit a mark with the lash of one.1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford(ed. 1854), p. 18. He then, taking up a driving whip,flankeda fly from the opposite wall.1833. ‘An Anglo-sapphic Ode’ (Whibley,Cap and Gown, p. 136). Kicks up a row, gets drunk, orflanksa tandem whip out of window.2. (colloquial).—To deliver—a blow or a retort; to push; to hustle; to quoit (Shakspeare). Fr.,flanquer: as inflanquer à la porte, andJe lui at flanqué un fameux coup de pied au cul!A Plate of Thin Flank,subs. phr.(common).—A ‘sixpenny cut’ off the joint.SeeN. Twill inFancy Too Late for Dinner.To Flank the whole bottle,verb. phr.(American soldiers’).—To dodge,i.e., tooutflank, to achieve by strategy. For synonyms,seeStick.1871.De Vere,Americanisms, p. 286. When the men wished to escape the attention of pickets and guards by slipping past them, they said theyflankedthem; drill, and detail, and every irksome duty wasflanked, when it could be avoided by some cunning trick. Soon, however, honesty itself was thus treated, and the poor farmer wasflankedout of his pig and his poultry, and not infrequently even the comrade out of his pipe and tobacco, if not his rations. The height of strategy was employed in these variousflank manœuvres, when the Commissary could be made to surrender some of his whiskey, and thus it came about, in the South at least, that toflank the whole bottlewas a phrase expressive of superlative cunning and brilliant success.Flanker,subs.(common).—A blow; a retort; a kick.Cf.,Flank, sense 1.Flankey,subs.(common).—The posteriors. For synonyms,seeBlind CheeksandMonocular Eyeglass.1848.Duncombe,Sinks of London, s.v.Flannel.SeeHot Flannel.Flannels.To get one’s flannels,verb. phr.(schools’).—To get a place in the school football or cricket teams, or in the boats.Cf., ‘to get one’s colours,’ or ‘one’s blue.’Flap,subs.(thieves’).—1. Sheet-lead used for roofing. Fr.,doussin;noir.Cf.,Bluey.2. (old).—A blow.1539.David Lyndsay,Thrie Estaitis. Works [Laing, 1879], ii. 73. And to begin the play, tak thair aneflap.Verb(thieves’).—1. To rob; to swindle. For synonyms,seePrigandStick.2. (common).—To pay; ‘to fork out.’Cf.,Flap the Dimmock.3. (venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.To Flap a Jay,verb. phr.(thieves’).—To swindle a greenhorn; tosell a pup(q.v.).1885.Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18th, p. 3., col. 1. He and three others of the ‘division’ had ‘cut up’ £70 between them, obtained byflapping a jay, which, rendered into intelligible English, means plundering a simple-minded person.To Flap the Dimmock,verb.phr.(common).—To pay. [FromFlap, a verb of motion +Dimmock= money].Cf.,Flap.Flapdoodle,subs.(colloquial).—1. Transparent nonsense; “kid.”[6]AlsoFlamdoodleandFlam-sauce, orFlap-sauce. For synonyms,seeGammon.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. xxviii. ‘It’s my opinion, Peter, that the gentleman has eaten no small quantity offlapdoodlein his lifetime.’ ‘What’s that, O’Brien,’ replied I. ‘Why, Peter, it’s the stuff they feed fools on.’1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford. I shall talk to our regimental doctors about it, and get put through a course of fools’ diet—flapdoodlethey call it, what fools are fed on.1884.S. L. Clemens(‘Mark Twain’),Huck. Finn, xxv., 247. A speech, all full of tears andflapdoodleabout its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother to lose the diseased [deceased].2. (venery).—Thepenis. (Urquhart). For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.To talk Flapdoodle,verb. phr.(American).—To brag; to talk nonsense.1888.Daily Inter-Ocean, Mar. 2. Possibly rich men will turn from sharp dealing, from debauchery, fromflapdoodlefashion to a common-sense recognition of a situation, which clearly shows that wealth is no longer what it used to be—autocratic, absolute, the ruler of all else.Flapdoodler,subs.(American).—A braggart agitator; one thatmakes the eagle squeal(q.v.).Flap-dragon,subs.(old).—The pox orclap(q.v.). For synonyms,seeLadies’ Fever.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.Flapdragon, a clap or pox.Verb.(old).—To gulp down hastily, as in the game of flap-dragon.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, Act III., Sc. 3. But, to make an end of the ship: toseehow the seaflap-dragonedit!Flapman,subs.(prison).—A convict promoted for good behaviour to first or second class.Flapper,subs.(common).—1. The hand; alsoflapper-shaker. For synonyms,seeDaddleandMauley.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. vii. My Dear Mr. Simple, extend yourflapperto me for I’m delighted toseeyou.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum,or Rogues’ Lexicon, s.v.1866.London Miscellany, May 19, p. 235. ‘There’s myflapperon the strength of it.’ Guy shook hands with the eccentric stranger heartily.2. (common).—A little girl. [Also afledglingwild duck.]3. (venery).—A very young prostitute;cf., sense 2.4. (common).—A dustman’s or coal-heaver’s hat; afantail(q.v.).5. (in. pl.).—Very long-pointed shoes worn by ‘nigger’ minstrels.6. (venery).—Thepenis. (For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick).7. (colloquial).—A parasite; a remembrancer. (Cf.Swift,Gulliver, ‘Laputa.’)Flapper-shaking,subs.(common).—Hand-shaking.1853.Bradley(‘Cuthbert Bede’),Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. iv. Wondering whether … if the joining palms in a circus was the customaryflapper-shakingbefore ‘toeing the scratch’ for business.Flap-sauce.SeeFlapdoodle.[7]Flare,subs.(nautical).—1. Primarily a stylish craft; hence, by implication, anything out of the common. For synonyms,seeStunner.2. (colloquial).—A row; a dispute; a ‘drunk’; or spree.Cf.,flare-up.Verb.(thieves’).—1. Specifically to whisk out; hence, to steal actively, lightly, or delicately.1850.Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. Low Lodging Houses of London. B. tried his pocket saying, ‘I’ll show you how to do a hankerchief; but the baker looked round and B. stopped; and just after that Iflaredit (whisked the handerchief out); and that’s the first I did.’1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 457. Just after that Iflaredit (a handerchief).2. (common).—To swagger; to go with a bounce.1841.Leman Rede,Sixteen-String Jack, ii., 3. Crissy Odsbuds, I’ll on with my duds, And over the water we’llflare.All of a flare,adv. phr.(thieves’).—Bunglingly.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 113. Some of the girls at Milberry’s pick pockets at night: while one talks to the man, the other robs him; but they are not dextrous, they pull it outall of a flare.Flaring,adj.andadv.(colloquial).—Excessive:e.g., aflaringlie;flaringdrunk; aflaringwhore;seeFlaming.Flare-up(or-Out),subs.(popular). An orgie; a fight; an outburst of temper. Also a spree.1838.Haliburton,Clockmaker, 2 Ser. ch. x. Some of our young citizens … got into aflare-upwith a party of boatmen that lives in the Mississippi; a desperate row it was too.1847.Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148, Address at the Opening of a Casino. In forflare-upand frolic let us go, And polk it on the fast fantastic toe.1851.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 160. These (hot eel) dealers generally trade on their own capital; but when some have been having aflare-up, and have ‘broke down for stock’ to use the words of my informant, they borrow £1 and pay it back in a week or a fortnight.1879.Justin M’Carthy,Donna Quixote, ch. xvii. Paulina had a hard struggle many a time to keep down her temper, and not to have what she would have called aflare-out.English Synonyms.—Barney; batter; bean-feast; beano; breakdown; burst; booze (specifically a drinking-bout); caper; devil’s delight; dust; fanteague; fight; flare; flats-yad (back slang); fly; gig; hay-bag; hell’s delight; high jinks; hooping up; hop; jagg; jamboree; jump; jun-ketting; lark; drive; randan; on the tiles; on the fly; painting the town (American); rampage; razzle-dazzle; reeraw; ructions; shake; shine; spree; sky-wannocking; tear; tear up; toot.French Synonyms.—La nocerie(popular:une noce à tout casser; or,une noce de bâtons de chaise= a grand jollification);faire des crêpes(= to have a rare spree);badouiller(popular: especially applied to drinking bouts).Italian Synonym.—Far festa alle campane.Spanish Synonyms.—Trapisonda(a drunken revel);holgueta.Verb(common).—To fly into a passion.1849.Mahoney,Rel. Father Prout, I., 319. ‘Vert-Vert, the Parrot.’ Forth like a Congreave rocket burst, And storm’d and swore,flared up, and curs’d.[8]1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xii. He was in the ‘Cave of Harmony,’ he says, that night youflared upabout Captain Costigan.1871.Daily Telegraph, 8 June, ‘Paris in Convalescence.’ On this heflared uplike a Commune conflagration, and cried out, ‘Shame, in the name of religion, art, and history!’Flash,subs.(old).—1. The vulgar tongue; the lingo of thieves and their associates.To patter flash= to talk in thieves’ lingo. [The derivation ofFlash, like that of Frenchargot, is entirely speculative. It has, however, been generally referred to a district calledFlash(the primary signification as a place name is not clear), between Buxton Leek and Macclesfield: there lived many chapmen who, says Dr. Aiken (“Description of Country round Manchester”), ‘were known asflash-men… using a sort of slang or cant dialect.’]1718.Hitchin.The Regulator of Thieves, etc., with Account offlashwords, etc.(Title).1781.G. Parker,View of Society, II., 69. Jigger, being cant orflashfor door.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25. With respect to that peculiar language calledflash, or St. Jiles’ Greek, etc.1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. viii. Here a tall gentleman marched up to him, and addressed him in a certain language, which might be called the freemasonry offlash.1839.Harrison Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 12. ‘What does he say?’ roared the long drover. ‘He says he don’t understandflash,’ replied the lady in gentleman’s attire.1843–4.Hood,Miss Kilmansegg. His cheeks no longer drew the cash. Because, as his comrades explain’d inflash, He had overdrawn his badger.1827.Maginn,Vidocq’s Song. Pattered inflashlike a covey knowing.1864.Athenæum, 29 Oct. The northern village of ill-repute, and bearing that name (flash) gave to felonious high-flying the termflash.1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 278. Why, when the late Lord Lytton wrotePelhamit was brought against him that ‘his knowledge offlashwas evidently purely superficial.’Flash, my sister, is merely recondite slang or thieves’ argot.English Analogues.—Back Slang or Kacab-Genals (the main principle consists in roughly pronouncing the word backwards, aserifforfire,dabforbad, etc.: the practice exists in most languages);Cant(q.v.); Centre Slang (the central vowel is made the initial letter, vowels and consonants being added at pleasure); Gammy (North country: mainly composed of Gypsy words); Gibberish (formed by inserting a consonant between each syllable of a word, the result being the F, G, H, M or S gibberish, according to the letter used: thus, “goming mout tom-daym,” or “gosings outs tos-days?” = going out to-day?); jargon; the Green Lingo (French thieves’); Marrowskying or Hospital Greek (manufactured by transferring the initial letters of words;plenty of rainthus becomesrenty of plain: the ‘Gower St. dialect’ of Albert Smith,Mr. Ledbury); Pedlar’s French (old cant:Florio, 1598;Cotgrave, 1612);Rhyming Slang(q.v.);Slang(q.v.); St. Giles’ Greek (last century for Slang as distinguished from Cant); Thieves’ Latin; the Vulgar Tongue;Yob-gab(q.v.);Notions(q.v.);Ziph(q.v.).French and other Analogues.—Argotorarguche;la langue verte(properly gamesters’);le langage soudardant(soldiers’[9]lingo);le jars;le jargon jobelin; (Cotgrave,Dictionarie, 1611.Jargon= ‘Gibridge, fustian language, Pedlar’s French, a barbarous jangling’);le langage de l’artis;langage en lem(formed by prefixing “l” and adding the syllable “em,” preceded by the first letter of the word); thus “main” becomes “lainmem.” A similar mode of dealing with words of more than one syllable is to replace the first consonant by the letter “l,” the word being followed by its first syllable preceded by “du”; thus, “jaquette” becomes “laqueite du jaq,” or if “m” be used as a key-letter, “maquette du jaq” etc.;le javanais—here the syllable “av” is interpolated;e.g., “jave l’avai vavu javeudavi” = (je l’ai vu jeudi).German.—Rothwalsch(fromRoter= beggar or vagabond +walsch= foreign);Gaunersprache(= thieves’ lingo).Italian.—Lingua gerga(abbreviated intogerga;Florio, 1598 ‘gergo= Pedlar’s French, fustian, or roguish language, gibbrish’);lingua franca(Levantine: the source of some English slang);lingua furbesca.Dutch.—Bargoens.Spanish.—Germania(the Gypsies were supposed to have come from Germany);jeriganza.Portuguese.—Calaõ(ZincaliorCalo= Gypsy).2. Hence, at one period, especially during the Regency days, the idiom of the man about town, of Tom and Jerrydom.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. xxix. To the cultivation in our times, of the Science of Pugilism, theflashlanguage is indebted for a considerable addition to its treasures.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc. They were invariably thieves and gamblers who usedflashformerly; but other kinds of persons, now-a-day, who may be rippishly inclined, adopt similar terms and phrases, to evince their uppishness in the affairs of life. These gentlemen also consider all terms of art and of science asflash; … of course, those words and sayings which are appropriate to the turf, the ring, and field sports, are equally considered asflashby them, and the word has been applied (too generally we allow), to all this species ofquid pro quolingo.3. (old).—See quot. andcf., with a Shaksperian gloss offlash= a burst of wit or merriment.1748.T. Dyche,Dict.(5th ed.),flash(s.), also a boast, brag, or great pretence made by a spendthrift, quack, or pretender to more art or knowledge than he really has.4. (old).—A showy swindler. (e.g., the Sir Petronel Flash of quot.); a blustering vulgarian.1605.Marston,Jonson, andChapman,Eastward Hoe!iv. 1. ‘Sir Petronel Flash, I am sorry to see suchflashescome from a gentleman of your quality.’1632.Shirley,Love in a Maze, i., 2. The town is full of these vaingloriousflashes.5. (old).—A peruke or perriwig.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Rumflash, a fine long wig. Queerflash, a miserable weather-beaten caxon.6. (common).—A portion; a drink; orgo(q.v.).Cf.,Flash of Lightning, sense 1.Adj.(common).—1. Relating to thieves, their habits, customs, devices, lingo, etc.1782.Geo. Parker,Humorous Sketches, p. 34. No more like a kiddy he’ll roll theflashsong.[10]1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ‘Long Ned’s Song.’ And rarely have the gentryflash, In sprucer clothes been seen.1837.Dickens,Oliver Twist, ch. viii. I suppose you don’t know what a beak is, myflashcom-pan-i-on.1857.Snowden,Mag. Assistant,3rd ed., p. 448. I have seen Cheeks (aflashname for an accomplice).1863.C. Reade,Hard Cash, II., 244. He used someflashwords, and they were shown into a public room.1864.Cornhill Magazine, ii., 336. In the following verse, taken from a petflashsong, you have a comic specimen of this sort of guilty chivalry.2. (thieves’).—Knowing; expert; showy.Cf.,down,fly,wide-awake, etc. Hence (popularly), by a simple transition, vulgarly counterfeit, showily shoddy: possibly the best understood meanings of the word in latter-day English.To put one flash to anything= to put him on his guard; to inform.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 19. Another philosopher, Seneca, has shown himself equallyflashon the subject.1835.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 17. Laying aside the knowing look, andflashair, with which he had repeated the previous anecdote.1836.Marryat,Japhet, etc., ch. lvii. He considered me as … aflashpickpocket rusticating until some hue and cry was over.1839.W. H. Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard, p. 138 (ed. 1840). ‘Awake! to be sure I am, myflashcove,’ replied Sheppard.1865.M. E. Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. v. He … took out the little packet of bank-notes. ‘I suppose you can understand these,’ he said. The languid youth … looked dubiously at his customer. ‘I can understand as they might beflashuns,’ he remarked, significantly.1888.C. D. Warner,Their Pilgrimage, p. 157. Theflashriders or horsebreakers, always called ‘broncho busters,’ can perform really marvellous feats.3. (originally thieves’, now general).—Vulgar, or blackguardly; showy; applied to one aping his betters. Hence (in Australia), vain glorious or swaggering. The idea conveyed is always one of vulgarity or showy blackguardism.1830. SirE. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford(ed. 1854), p. 21. A person of great notoriety among that portion of theélitewhich emphatically entitles itselfflash.1861.A. Trollope,Framley Parsonage, ch. ix. If the dear friendship of thisflashMember of Parliament did not represent that value, what else did do so?1880.G. R. Sims,Three Brass Balls, Pledge xi. The speaker was one of theflashyoung gentlemen who haunt suburban billiard-rooms, who carry chalk in their pockets, and call the marker ‘Jack.’4. (common).—In a set style. Also used substantively.1819.Vaux,Flash Dict., p. 173. s.v. A person who affects any peculiar habit, as swearing, dressing in a particular manner, taking snuff, etc., merely to be taken notice of is said to do it out offlash.1828.The English Spy.vol. I., p. 189. The man upon that half-starved nag Is an Ex S——ff, a strange wag, Half-flashand half a clown.1851.Mayhew,Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor,I., p. 36. They all of them (coster lads) delight in dressingflashas they call it.… They try to dress like the men, with large pockets in their cord jackets, and plenty of them. Their trousers, too, must fit tight at the knee, and their boots they like as good as possible. A good ‘kingsman,’ a plush skull-cap, and a seam down the trousers are the great points of ambition with the coster boys.[Hence, in combination,Flash-case,crib,drum,house,ken, orpanny(seeFlash-ken);flash-cove(q.v.);flash-dispensary(American = a boarding house), especially a swell brothel;flash-gentry(= the swell mob or higher class of thieves);flash-girl,-moll,-mollisher,-pieceor-woman(= a showy prostitute);flash-jig(costers’ = a favourite dance);flash-kiddy(= a dandy);flash-lingo, orsong(=[11]‘patter,’ or a song interlarded with cant words and phrases);flash-man(q.v.);flash-note(= a spurious bank-note);flash-rider(American,seebroncho-buster);flash toggery(= smart clothes);flash vessel(= a gaudy looking, but undisciplined ship)].1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, [1890,] p. 58. The rusticity of Jerry was fast wearing off … and he bid fair, etc. … to chaff with theflash mollishers.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood, p.273Soon then I mounted in Swell St. High, And sported myflashiest toggery.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 14. The other dances are jigs—flash jigs—hornpipes in fetters—a dance rendered popular by the success of the noted Jack Sheppard.Verb(common).—1. To show; to expose.[Among combinations may be mentioned,to flash one’s ivories= to show one’s teeth, to grin (Grose);to flash the hash= to vomit (Grose);to flash the dickey= to show the shirt front;to flash the dibs= to show or spend one’s money;to flash a fawney= to wear a ring;to flash one’s gab= to talk, to swagger, to brag;to flash the bubs= to expose the paps;to flash the muzzle(q.v.);to flash one’s ticker= to air one’s watch;to flash the drag= to wear women’s clothes for immoral purposes;to flash the white grin=seegrin;to flash it(q.v.), orto flash one’s meat(cf.,meat-flasher);to flash a bit(q.v.);to flash the flag= to sport an apron;to flash the wedge= to ‘fence’ the swag, etc.]1812.Vaux,Flash Dict.Don’tflash your sticks, don’t expose your pistols.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 2. His lordship, as usual, that very great dab At the flowers of rhet’ric, isflashing his gab.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc. Heflashed the blunt, made a show of money to dazzle the spectators.1825.E. Kent,Modern Flash Dict.Flashing his ivory, shew his teeth.1834.W. H. Ainsworth,Rookwood, (ed. 1864), p. 176.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Dead Drummer.’ When trav’lling, don’tflash your notesoryour cashBefore other people—it’sfoolish and rash.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good-Night. Likewise you molls thatflash your bubs, For swells to spot and stand you sam.1887.W. E. Henley,Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, orflash the drag.To flash a bit,verbal phr.(venery).—To show up; to permit examination; ‘to spread’ (q.v.); to behave indecently. Said of women only.To flash it, orto flash one’s meat.—To expose the person. [Hencemeat-flasher] (q.v.). Said usually of men.To flash the muzzle(old).—To produce a pistol.c.1823.Ballad(quoted inDon Juanxi.). On the high toby spiceflash the muzzleIn spite of each gallows old scout.To flash it about, orto cut a flashordash,verbal phr.(common).—To make a display; to live conspicuously and extravagantly.1877.Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 220. Heflashed it abouta good deal for a long time, going from one place to another. Sometimes he was a lord, at others an earl.To go flashing it,verb. phr.(venery).—To have sexual intercourse. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Flash-Case(or-Crib,-House,-Drum,-Ken,-Panny, etc.).—1. A house frequented by thieves, as a tavern, lodging-house, fence (q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flash-ken,c., a house where thieves use, and are connived at.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.1821.D. Haggart,Life, ‘Glossary,’ p. 172.Flash-kain, a house for receiving[12]stolen goods. [Haggart’s spelling, being that of the respectable Edinburgh lawyer who took down his ‘confessions’ is generally misleading and inaccurate.]1828.Smeeton,Doings in London, p. 39. It is a game in very great vogue among the macers, who congregate nightly at theflash-houses.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 50 (ed. 1854). There is one Peggy Lobkins who keeps a public house, a sort offlash-kencalled ‘The Mug’ in Thames Court.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(ed. 1840), p. 271. I’ve been to all theflash-casesin town, and can hear nothing of him or his wives.…Ibid, p. 135. ‘The Black Lion!’ echoed Terence, ‘I know the house well; by the same token that it’s aflash-crib.’2. (common).—A brothel; a haunt of loose women.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum(Flash song quoted underflash-panneys). Next for his favourite mot the kiddey looks about, And if she’s in aflash-pannyhe swears he’ll have her out; So he fences all his togs to buy her duds, and then He frisks his master’s lob to take her from the bawdy ken.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. (ed. 1840). You know how little I frequentflash-houses.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(ed. 1862), p. 380. Those troublesome swells, Who come from the play-houses,flash-kens, and hells.1840.Macaulay,Essays: ‘Lord Clive.’ The lowest wretches that the company’s crimps could pick up in theflash-housesof London.1852.Bristed,Upper Ten Thousand, p. 34. That is Mary Black who keeps the greatestflash housein Leonard Street.Flash-Cove(alsoFlash-Companion),subs.(common).—A thief; a sharper; afence(q.v.).1825.E. Kent,Modern Flash Dict.Flash-cove, the keeper of a place for the reception of stolen goods.1839.H. Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 60.—‘Awake! To be sure I am, myflash-cove!’ replied Sheppard.Flash-Man,subs.(old).—Primarily a man talkingflash(seequots., 1823 and 1862); hence, a rogue, a thief, the landlord of aflash-case(q.v.). Also afancy-joseph(for synonyms,seeFancy-man). In America, a person with no visible means of support, but living in style and ‘showing up’ well.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 141. Aflashmanis one who lives on the hackneyed prostitution of an unfortunate woman of the town.1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, II., 1. Soon one is floored upon the ground. While loud herflashmancries, ‘Arise, my ladybird, arise!’1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 80. Derived from his language, and this again has its appellation (’tis suggested) from the firstflash-menbeing highwaymen, that then generally abounded (circa 1770). He is the favorite, or protector of a prostitute, whoseflash-manhe is; and she is called inversely, hisflash-woman.c.1833.Broadside Ballad.Myflash-manhas gone to sea.1849.New South Wales, Past, Present, and Future, ch. i., p. 14. This man was known to Mr. Day to be what is termed aflash-man; and, seeing his own imminent danger, he instantly spoke to him and called him a cowardly rascal, and offered to give him shot for shot, while he was re-loading.1859.H. Kingsley,Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. You’re playing a dangerous game, myflashman.1862.Smiles,Lives of the Engineers, vol. I., pt. 5, ch. i., p. 307. Those articles were sold throughout the country by pedestrian hawkers, most of whom lived in the wild country calledthe flash, from a hamlet of that name situated between Buxton, Leek, and Macclesfield.… Travelling about from fair to fair, and using a cant or slang dialect, they became generally known asflash-men, and the name still survives (to which may be added: They paid, at first, ready money, but when they had established a credit, paid in promissory notes which were rarely honored.)[13]a.1873.Lyra Flagitiosa.[Quoted inHotten.] Myflash man’sin quod, And I’m the gal that’s willin’, So I’ll turn out to-night, And earn an honest shillin’.Flash of Lightning,subs. phr.(old).—1. A glass of gin; a dram of neat spirit.SeeGoandDrinks. Latterly, an ‘American drink.’Seequot. 1862.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 164, s.v.1821.P. Egan,Tom and Jerry(ed. 1890), p. 79. I have not exactly recovered from the severe effects of the repeatedflashes of lightningand strong claps of thunder, with which I had to encounter last night.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf(quoted in). But ere they homeward pik’d it, Aflash of lightningwas sarv’d round to every one as lik’d it.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, (ed. 1854), p. 141. The thunders of eloquence being hushed,flashes of lightning, or, as the vulgar say, ‘glasses of gin’ gleamed about.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 168. The stimulant of aflash of lightning… for so a dram of neat spirit was then called.1862.E. MacDermott,Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar, where visitors may indulge in … gum-ticklers, eye-openers,flashes of lightning… and a variety of similar beverages.2. (nautical). The gold braid on an officer’s cap.Flash in the Pan,subs. phr.(venery).—Connection without emission.Cf.Dry-Bob(q.v.). Also verbally.1719.Durfey,Pills, v., 340. Still hawking, still baulking, Youflash in the pan.Flashy,adj., andFlashily, orFlashly,adv.(old: now colloquial). Empty; showy; tawdry; insipid.1637.Milton,Lycidas, 123. Their lean andflashysongs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.1693.Congreve,Old Batchelor, Act I., sc. iv. It is oftentimes too late with some of you young, termagant,flashysinners.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 12. Aflashytown beau.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary, (5th ed.)Flashy(a), vain, bragging, boasting, foolish, empty; also anything waterish and unsavoury.1755.The World, No. 149. Whose melodious voices give every syllable (not of a lean andflashy, but of a fat and plump song) its just emphasis.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 13, (ed. 1854). Vy it be … the gemman vot payed you soflashly.1857. Song inDucange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 42. Your fogle you mustflashlytie.1863.Speke,Journal of the Discovery of the Nile, p. 154.Flashilydressed in coloured cloths and a turban, he sat down in one of our chairs.1864.Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. v. But he evinced no bad taste in the selection of a costume. He chose no gaudy colours, orflashilycut vestments.1873.Cassell’s Magazine, Jan., p. 246, col. 2. They are rather prone to dressflashily, and wear, when in full fig, no end of jewellery.1874.Mortimer Collins,Frances, ch. xvii. That wild set of people Captain Heath picked up with—members of Parliament andflashyyoung women—all driving four horses, I don’t know where.1882.Century Magazine, xxvi., 295. As stones, they were cheap andflashy.Flash-Tail,subs.(common).—A prostitute.—SeeTail.1868.Temple Bar, xxiv., p. 538–9. Picking-up Moll … aflashtail? a prostitute who goes about the streets at nights trying to pick up toffs.Flasher,subs.(old).—A high-flyer; a fop; a pretender to wit. For synonyms,seeDandy. Also (quot. 2), aBonnet(q.v.).1779.D’Arblay,Diary, etc. (1876). vol. I., p. 185. They are reckoned theflashersof the place, yet everybody laughs at them for their airs, affectations, and tonish graces and impertinences.[14]1880.Derbyshire Gatherer, p. 128. Long before this date (circa1800) the cant name offlasherwas applied to the man who sat by the table in the gambling-house to swear how many times he had seen lucky gamesters break the bank.Flashery,subs.(old).—Inferior, or vulgar, elegance, dash, distinction, display.Flash-yad,subs.(back-slang).—A day’s enjoyment. For synonyms,seeFlare-up.Flashy BladeorSpark,subs. phr.(old).—Adandy(q.v.); now a cheap and noisy swell, whether male or female;Cf.,Flasher.1719.Durfey,Pills,etc., vi., 104. In youth a nauseousflashy fop, in elder days a bore.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 40. For though all know thatflashy spark, etc.Flat,subs.(colloquial).—1. A greenhorn; noddy; gull. For synonyms,seeBuffleandCabbage-head; alsoSammy-soft.1762.Goldsmith,Life of Nash, in wks. p. 546 (Globe). Why, if you think me a dab I will get this strange gentleman, or this, pointing to theflat. Done! cries the sailor, but you shall not tell him.1789.Geo.Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out forflats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is, cards.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 59. Poor Johnny Raw, what madness could impel, So rum aflatto face so prime a swell.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ He’s been upon the mill, And cos he gammons all theflatswe calls him Veepin Bill.1841.Lytton,Night and Morning, bk. II., ch. ix. ‘Did he pay you for her?’ ‘Why, to be sure, he gave me a cheque on Coutt’s.’ ‘And you took it? My eyes? what aflat.’1847.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-tree. He play, the youngflat!1847.Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148. It mayn’t precisely please the moralflat. You won’t find fault with it, kind friends, for that.1848.Thackeray,The Book of Snobs, ch. x. When he does play he always contrives to get hold of a goodflat.1857.Ducange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 39. Fawney-droppers gammon theflatsand take the yokels in.1866.Yates,Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die, talking over aflat, or winning money of a greenhorn.1880.Mortimer Collins,Thoughts in My Garden, vol. II., p. 180. Their quack medicines that will cure everything, and their sales of invaluable articles at a loss, and a thousand other devices to catchflats.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good-night. Youflatsand joskins great and small.1889.Pall Mall Gazette, Sept. 21, p. 3, col. 1 (In a London Gambling Hell). Theflatswho play faro (Cross-heading).2. (American thieves’).—An honest man.3. (American). A lover’s dismissal; a jilting.Adj.(colloquial and literary).—Downright; plain; straightforward; as inthat’s flat?aflat lie, “flat burglary,” etc.1598.Shakspeare, 1King Henry IV., Act I., Sc. 3.Wor.: You start away, And lend no ear to my purposes. Those prisoners you shall keep.Hot.: Nay, I will;that’s flat.1835–40.Haliburton,The Clockmaker, p. 6, preface (ed. 1862).1848.Lowell,Fable for Critics, p. 19. (A fetch, I must say, most transparent andflat).[There are other usages, more or less colloquial:e.g., Insipid; tame; dull: as in Macaulay’s “flatas champagne in decanters.” On the Stock Exchange.flat= without interest: Stock is borrowedflatwhen no interest is allowed by the lender as security for the due return of the scrip.][15]Verb(American). To jilt.Cf.,subs., sense 3. For synonyms,seeMitten.
Flabbergast,verb. (colloquial). To astound; to stagger, either physically or mentally. [O. E.,flab= to frighten +gast= to scare.] Fr.,abalober;baba(fromébahi= astounded);épater(= flatten out). Sp.,quedarse de, orhecho, una pieza(= ‘knocked all of a heap’).SeeFloored.1772.Annual Register, ‘On New Words.’ Now we areflabbergastedand bored from morning to night.1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. His colleagues wereflabbergastedwhen they heard of Castlereagh’s sudden death.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(‘Brothers of Birchington’). He was quiteflabbergastedto see the amount.1841.Punch, vol. I., p. 261. We rather just imagine they will be not a little puzzled andflabbergastedto discover the meaning or wit of some of those elegant phrases.1864.Derby Day, p. 67. You’re sort offlabbergasted. It’s taken all the wind out of you like, and you feel like an old screw a blowing up Highgate Hill.1889.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 18 Jan. Poor Clarke was completelyflabbergasted.1891.National Observer, 1 Aug. In no other sport is thelaudator temporis actiso completelyflabbergastedas here.Flabberdegaz,subs.(theatrical).—Words interpolated to dissemble a lapse of memory;gag(q.v.). Also, imperfect utterance or bad acting.Flag,subs.(old).—1. A groat, or fourpenny piece. AlsoFlagg, andFlagge. For synonyms,seeJoey.1567.Harman,Caveat(1814), p. 65.Roge. But aflagge, a wyn, and a make. (But a groat, a penny, and a half-penny.)1610.Rowlands,Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept. 1874) s.v.1714.Memoirs of John Hall(4th ed.), p. 12, s.v.1725.Jonathan Wild,Canting Dict., s.v.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 269. A[2]tremendous black doll bought for aflag(fourpence) of a retired rag-merchant.2. (common).—An apron; hence a badge of office or trade;cf.,Flag-flasher. Equivalents areBelly-cheatandFig-leaf.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232 (List of patterer’s words), s.v.1872.Dundee Advertiser, 20 April; ‘Report of Meeting of Domestic Servants.’It was contended that they were compelled to wear what was generally known as aflag.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Straight Tip. Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash yourflag.3. (obsolete).—A jade.1539.David Lyndsay,Thrie Estaitis. Works [Ed. Laing, 1879], ii. 109. Ane fistandflag.4. (common).—The menstrual cloth. Variants are bandage; clout; danger-signal; diaper; double clout (Durfey); gentleman’s pleasure garden padlock; periodicity rag; the red rag; sanitary towel; window-curtain.The Flag(orDanger-Signal)is up= “The Captain’s at home” (Grose),i.e., the menstrual flux is on.English Synonyms.—To have domestic afflictions, or the D.A.’s; to have theflowers(q.v.); to have one’s grandmother, or little friend, or auntie, with one; to have them (or it) on; to be in a state of ‘no thoroughfare’; to have the red rag on; to be road-making; to have the street up for repairs; to be at Number One, London; to have ‘the gate locked and the key lost.’French Synonyms.—Avoir ses cardinales(literally, to have one’s reds);avoir les histoires;avoir les affaires(common);avoir ses anglais(in allusion to the scarlet of English soldiers);broyer des tomates(= tomato-crushing);avoir son marquis(Cotgrave);avoir les fleurs rouges;avoir sa chemise tachée(Cotgrave);voir Sophie;avoir les ordinaires.Italian Synonyms.—Marchese(Florio),marchesano(= menses. Michel says, Art.marque= a month, a woman. “Il ne saurait être douteux que ce nom ne soit venu à cette division de l’année, de l’infirmité périodique qu’ont lesmarques, ou femmes, lors que la Lune, pour tenir sa diette et vaquer à ses purifications menstruelles, faitmarquerles logis feminins par son fourrier, lequel pour escusson n’a que son impression rouge”).To Fly the Flag,verb. phr.(tailors’).—To post a notice that ‘hands’ are wanted.SeealsoFly the Flag,post.Flag of Defiance,subs. phr.(old nautical).—A drunken roysterer. For synonyms,seeElbow-crooker.To hang out the flag of defiance(orbloody flag),verb. phr.—To be continuously drunk. [An allusion to the ‘crimson face’ (Cotgrave)and the pugnacity of certain terms of inebriety.] For synonyms,seerinks.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.The flag of defiance is out(among the Tarrs) the Fellow’s Face is very Red, and he is Drunk.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flag-flasher,subs.(common).—One sporting a badge or other ensign of office (cap, apron, uniform,[3]etc.) when off duty.—Cf.,Flag, sense 2.Flag-about,subs.(old).—A strumpet. [FromFlag, a paving-stone]. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.Flag-Flying.—SeeFlag.Flag of Distress,subs. phr.(common).—1. A card announcing ‘lodgings,’ or ‘board and lodgings.’ Hence, any overt sign of poverty.2. (common).—A flying shirt-tail; in America, aletter in the post-office(q.v.).Flagger,subs.(common).—A street-walker. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1865.Daily Paper, ‘Police Report.’ She wasn’t a low sort at all—she wasn’t aFlagger, as we call it. So I replies, ‘I am well, thankee; and am happy to say I feel as such.’Flags,subs.(common).—Linen drying and flying in the wind. For synonyms,seeSnow.Flag Unfurled,subs. phr.(rhyming).—A man of the world.Flag-Wagging,subs.(military).—Flag-signal drill.Flam,subs.(colloquial).—Nonsense (for synonyms,seeGammon); humbug; flattery; or, a lie: asa regular flam(for synonyms,seeWhopper).Cf.FLim-flam.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes, [Cf.,Flim-flam.]1647.BeaumontandFletcher,Humourous Lieutenant, iv., 1. With some newflamor other, nothing to the matter.1664.Butler,Hudibras, pt. II., ch. iii., p. 29. Aflammore senseless than the roguery of old aruspicey and aug’ry.1742–4.Roger North,Lives of the Norths, ch. i., p. 368. They must have known his Lordship better and not have ventured suchflamsat him.1760.Foote,Minor, Act II. Had theflambeen fact, your behaviour was natural enough.1762.Foote,Liar, bk. II., ch. ii. Can’t you discern that thisflamof Sir James Elliot’s is a mere fetch to favour his retreat?1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 298 (ed. 1854). Harry … told you as ow it was all aflamabout the child in the bundle!1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(ed. 1862), p. 325. No trick norflam, but your real Schiedam.1849.C. Kingsley,Alton Locke, ch. ii. And their pockets full they crams by their patrioticflams, And then swear ’tis for the good of the nation.1850.D. Jerrold,The Catspaw, Act II. Though the story of that scoundrel Coolcard, Augustus Coolcard—and I was never before deceived—never—is aflam—all aflam.1870.London Figaro, 22 Sept. Is not your boasted power aflam?1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good Night. You flymy titters fond offlam.2. (old).—A single stroke on the drum.—[Grose, 1785.]Adj.(old).—False.1692.Sprat,Relation of Young’s Contrivance(Harl. Misc. vi. 224). To amuse him the more in his search, she addeth aflamstory that she had got his hand by corrupting one of the letter-carriers in London.Verb(colloquial).—1. To take in; to flatter; to lie; to foist or fob off.flamming= lying.[4]1658.Rowley and Ford, &c.,Witch of Edm., ii., 2. Was this your cunning? and thenflamme off with an old witch, two wives, and Winnifride.1688.Shadwell,Sq. of Alsatia, II. in wks. (1720) iv. 41. Does he think toflamme with a lye?1830.S. Warren,Diary of a Late Physician, ch. v. But I’ll show him whether or not I, for one of them, am to be jeered andflammedwith impunity.1835.Marryat,Jacob Faithful, ch. xxviii. How she didflamthat poor old Domine.(American University).—To affect, or prefer, female society; toGrouse(q.v.). [A corruption offlame(q.v.)].SeeMolrowing.Flambustious,adj.(American).—Showy; gaudy; pleasant.1868.Putnam’s Magazine.We will have aflambustioustime. [Cf.,Shakspeare(1608),Antony and Cleopatra, iii., 11. Let’s have one othergaudynight.]Flamdoodle,subs.(American).—Nonsense; vain boasting. Probably a variant offlapdoodle(q.v.).1888.New York Sun.We wasn’t goin’ to have any high falutin’flamdoodlebusiness over him.Flame,subs.(colloquial).—1. A sweetheart; a mistress in keeping.Old flame= an old lover; a cast-off mistress. Also (2) a venereal disease.b.1664.d.1721.Mathew Prior[in Palgrave’s “Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” ed. 1885]. Euphelia serves to grace my measure, but Chloe is my realflame.1757.Foote,Author, Act I. Let’ssee, Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallader, and yourflame, the sister, as I live.1846–8.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. On this Rebecca instantly stated that Amelia was engaged to be married to a Lieutenant Osborne, a very oldflame.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flamer,subs.(colloquial).—A man, woman, thing, or incident above the common. [Literally conspicuous to flaming point,i.e., as a light in the dark]. For synonyms,seeStunner.1840.H. Cockton,Valentine Vox, ch. ii. Concocting a criticism on the evening’s performance, which certainly was, according to the signor’s own acknowledgment, a regularflamer.Flames,subs.(old).—A red-haired person.Cf.,CarrotsandGinger.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. Who should I fling my precious ogles upon butflames—she as lived at the ‘Blue Posts.’Flaming,ppl. adj.(colloquial).—Conspicuous; ardent;stunning(q.v.). For synonyms,seeA 1 andFizzing.1738.Swift,Polite Conv., Dialogue II.Lord Sparkish.My Lady Smart, your ladyship has a very fine scarf.Lady Smart.Yes, my lord, it will make aflamingfigure in a country church.1776.Rubrick,The Spleen, ii. I’ll send aflamingparagraph of their wedding to all the newspapers.1872.BesantandRice.Ready Money Mortiboy, ch. xxx. He called one of the children, and sent her for a bill. She presently returned with aflamingposter.Flanderkin,subs.(old).—Seequot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of theCantingCrew, s.v. A very large fat man or horse; also natives of that country.Flanders Fortunes,subs. phr.(old).—Of small substance.—B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew(1690).Flanders Pieces,subs. phr.(old).—Seequot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flanders pieces, pictures that look fair at a distance, but coarser near at hand.[5]Flank,verb(common).—1. To crack a whip; also, to hit a mark with the lash of one.1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford(ed. 1854), p. 18. He then, taking up a driving whip,flankeda fly from the opposite wall.1833. ‘An Anglo-sapphic Ode’ (Whibley,Cap and Gown, p. 136). Kicks up a row, gets drunk, orflanksa tandem whip out of window.2. (colloquial).—To deliver—a blow or a retort; to push; to hustle; to quoit (Shakspeare). Fr.,flanquer: as inflanquer à la porte, andJe lui at flanqué un fameux coup de pied au cul!A Plate of Thin Flank,subs. phr.(common).—A ‘sixpenny cut’ off the joint.SeeN. Twill inFancy Too Late for Dinner.To Flank the whole bottle,verb. phr.(American soldiers’).—To dodge,i.e., tooutflank, to achieve by strategy. For synonyms,seeStick.1871.De Vere,Americanisms, p. 286. When the men wished to escape the attention of pickets and guards by slipping past them, they said theyflankedthem; drill, and detail, and every irksome duty wasflanked, when it could be avoided by some cunning trick. Soon, however, honesty itself was thus treated, and the poor farmer wasflankedout of his pig and his poultry, and not infrequently even the comrade out of his pipe and tobacco, if not his rations. The height of strategy was employed in these variousflank manœuvres, when the Commissary could be made to surrender some of his whiskey, and thus it came about, in the South at least, that toflank the whole bottlewas a phrase expressive of superlative cunning and brilliant success.Flanker,subs.(common).—A blow; a retort; a kick.Cf.,Flank, sense 1.Flankey,subs.(common).—The posteriors. For synonyms,seeBlind CheeksandMonocular Eyeglass.1848.Duncombe,Sinks of London, s.v.Flannel.SeeHot Flannel.Flannels.To get one’s flannels,verb. phr.(schools’).—To get a place in the school football or cricket teams, or in the boats.Cf., ‘to get one’s colours,’ or ‘one’s blue.’Flap,subs.(thieves’).—1. Sheet-lead used for roofing. Fr.,doussin;noir.Cf.,Bluey.2. (old).—A blow.1539.David Lyndsay,Thrie Estaitis. Works [Laing, 1879], ii. 73. And to begin the play, tak thair aneflap.Verb(thieves’).—1. To rob; to swindle. For synonyms,seePrigandStick.2. (common).—To pay; ‘to fork out.’Cf.,Flap the Dimmock.3. (venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.To Flap a Jay,verb. phr.(thieves’).—To swindle a greenhorn; tosell a pup(q.v.).1885.Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18th, p. 3., col. 1. He and three others of the ‘division’ had ‘cut up’ £70 between them, obtained byflapping a jay, which, rendered into intelligible English, means plundering a simple-minded person.To Flap the Dimmock,verb.phr.(common).—To pay. [FromFlap, a verb of motion +Dimmock= money].Cf.,Flap.Flapdoodle,subs.(colloquial).—1. Transparent nonsense; “kid.”[6]AlsoFlamdoodleandFlam-sauce, orFlap-sauce. For synonyms,seeGammon.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. xxviii. ‘It’s my opinion, Peter, that the gentleman has eaten no small quantity offlapdoodlein his lifetime.’ ‘What’s that, O’Brien,’ replied I. ‘Why, Peter, it’s the stuff they feed fools on.’1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford. I shall talk to our regimental doctors about it, and get put through a course of fools’ diet—flapdoodlethey call it, what fools are fed on.1884.S. L. Clemens(‘Mark Twain’),Huck. Finn, xxv., 247. A speech, all full of tears andflapdoodleabout its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother to lose the diseased [deceased].2. (venery).—Thepenis. (Urquhart). For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.To talk Flapdoodle,verb. phr.(American).—To brag; to talk nonsense.1888.Daily Inter-Ocean, Mar. 2. Possibly rich men will turn from sharp dealing, from debauchery, fromflapdoodlefashion to a common-sense recognition of a situation, which clearly shows that wealth is no longer what it used to be—autocratic, absolute, the ruler of all else.Flapdoodler,subs.(American).—A braggart agitator; one thatmakes the eagle squeal(q.v.).Flap-dragon,subs.(old).—The pox orclap(q.v.). For synonyms,seeLadies’ Fever.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.Flapdragon, a clap or pox.Verb.(old).—To gulp down hastily, as in the game of flap-dragon.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, Act III., Sc. 3. But, to make an end of the ship: toseehow the seaflap-dragonedit!Flapman,subs.(prison).—A convict promoted for good behaviour to first or second class.Flapper,subs.(common).—1. The hand; alsoflapper-shaker. For synonyms,seeDaddleandMauley.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. vii. My Dear Mr. Simple, extend yourflapperto me for I’m delighted toseeyou.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum,or Rogues’ Lexicon, s.v.1866.London Miscellany, May 19, p. 235. ‘There’s myflapperon the strength of it.’ Guy shook hands with the eccentric stranger heartily.2. (common).—A little girl. [Also afledglingwild duck.]3. (venery).—A very young prostitute;cf., sense 2.4. (common).—A dustman’s or coal-heaver’s hat; afantail(q.v.).5. (in. pl.).—Very long-pointed shoes worn by ‘nigger’ minstrels.6. (venery).—Thepenis. (For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick).7. (colloquial).—A parasite; a remembrancer. (Cf.Swift,Gulliver, ‘Laputa.’)Flapper-shaking,subs.(common).—Hand-shaking.1853.Bradley(‘Cuthbert Bede’),Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. iv. Wondering whether … if the joining palms in a circus was the customaryflapper-shakingbefore ‘toeing the scratch’ for business.Flap-sauce.SeeFlapdoodle.[7]Flare,subs.(nautical).—1. Primarily a stylish craft; hence, by implication, anything out of the common. For synonyms,seeStunner.2. (colloquial).—A row; a dispute; a ‘drunk’; or spree.Cf.,flare-up.Verb.(thieves’).—1. Specifically to whisk out; hence, to steal actively, lightly, or delicately.1850.Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. Low Lodging Houses of London. B. tried his pocket saying, ‘I’ll show you how to do a hankerchief; but the baker looked round and B. stopped; and just after that Iflaredit (whisked the handerchief out); and that’s the first I did.’1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 457. Just after that Iflaredit (a handerchief).2. (common).—To swagger; to go with a bounce.1841.Leman Rede,Sixteen-String Jack, ii., 3. Crissy Odsbuds, I’ll on with my duds, And over the water we’llflare.All of a flare,adv. phr.(thieves’).—Bunglingly.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 113. Some of the girls at Milberry’s pick pockets at night: while one talks to the man, the other robs him; but they are not dextrous, they pull it outall of a flare.Flaring,adj.andadv.(colloquial).—Excessive:e.g., aflaringlie;flaringdrunk; aflaringwhore;seeFlaming.Flare-up(or-Out),subs.(popular). An orgie; a fight; an outburst of temper. Also a spree.1838.Haliburton,Clockmaker, 2 Ser. ch. x. Some of our young citizens … got into aflare-upwith a party of boatmen that lives in the Mississippi; a desperate row it was too.1847.Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148, Address at the Opening of a Casino. In forflare-upand frolic let us go, And polk it on the fast fantastic toe.1851.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 160. These (hot eel) dealers generally trade on their own capital; but when some have been having aflare-up, and have ‘broke down for stock’ to use the words of my informant, they borrow £1 and pay it back in a week or a fortnight.1879.Justin M’Carthy,Donna Quixote, ch. xvii. Paulina had a hard struggle many a time to keep down her temper, and not to have what she would have called aflare-out.English Synonyms.—Barney; batter; bean-feast; beano; breakdown; burst; booze (specifically a drinking-bout); caper; devil’s delight; dust; fanteague; fight; flare; flats-yad (back slang); fly; gig; hay-bag; hell’s delight; high jinks; hooping up; hop; jagg; jamboree; jump; jun-ketting; lark; drive; randan; on the tiles; on the fly; painting the town (American); rampage; razzle-dazzle; reeraw; ructions; shake; shine; spree; sky-wannocking; tear; tear up; toot.French Synonyms.—La nocerie(popular:une noce à tout casser; or,une noce de bâtons de chaise= a grand jollification);faire des crêpes(= to have a rare spree);badouiller(popular: especially applied to drinking bouts).Italian Synonym.—Far festa alle campane.Spanish Synonyms.—Trapisonda(a drunken revel);holgueta.Verb(common).—To fly into a passion.1849.Mahoney,Rel. Father Prout, I., 319. ‘Vert-Vert, the Parrot.’ Forth like a Congreave rocket burst, And storm’d and swore,flared up, and curs’d.[8]1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xii. He was in the ‘Cave of Harmony,’ he says, that night youflared upabout Captain Costigan.1871.Daily Telegraph, 8 June, ‘Paris in Convalescence.’ On this heflared uplike a Commune conflagration, and cried out, ‘Shame, in the name of religion, art, and history!’Flash,subs.(old).—1. The vulgar tongue; the lingo of thieves and their associates.To patter flash= to talk in thieves’ lingo. [The derivation ofFlash, like that of Frenchargot, is entirely speculative. It has, however, been generally referred to a district calledFlash(the primary signification as a place name is not clear), between Buxton Leek and Macclesfield: there lived many chapmen who, says Dr. Aiken (“Description of Country round Manchester”), ‘were known asflash-men… using a sort of slang or cant dialect.’]1718.Hitchin.The Regulator of Thieves, etc., with Account offlashwords, etc.(Title).1781.G. Parker,View of Society, II., 69. Jigger, being cant orflashfor door.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25. With respect to that peculiar language calledflash, or St. Jiles’ Greek, etc.1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. viii. Here a tall gentleman marched up to him, and addressed him in a certain language, which might be called the freemasonry offlash.1839.Harrison Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 12. ‘What does he say?’ roared the long drover. ‘He says he don’t understandflash,’ replied the lady in gentleman’s attire.1843–4.Hood,Miss Kilmansegg. His cheeks no longer drew the cash. Because, as his comrades explain’d inflash, He had overdrawn his badger.1827.Maginn,Vidocq’s Song. Pattered inflashlike a covey knowing.1864.Athenæum, 29 Oct. The northern village of ill-repute, and bearing that name (flash) gave to felonious high-flying the termflash.1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 278. Why, when the late Lord Lytton wrotePelhamit was brought against him that ‘his knowledge offlashwas evidently purely superficial.’Flash, my sister, is merely recondite slang or thieves’ argot.English Analogues.—Back Slang or Kacab-Genals (the main principle consists in roughly pronouncing the word backwards, aserifforfire,dabforbad, etc.: the practice exists in most languages);Cant(q.v.); Centre Slang (the central vowel is made the initial letter, vowels and consonants being added at pleasure); Gammy (North country: mainly composed of Gypsy words); Gibberish (formed by inserting a consonant between each syllable of a word, the result being the F, G, H, M or S gibberish, according to the letter used: thus, “goming mout tom-daym,” or “gosings outs tos-days?” = going out to-day?); jargon; the Green Lingo (French thieves’); Marrowskying or Hospital Greek (manufactured by transferring the initial letters of words;plenty of rainthus becomesrenty of plain: the ‘Gower St. dialect’ of Albert Smith,Mr. Ledbury); Pedlar’s French (old cant:Florio, 1598;Cotgrave, 1612);Rhyming Slang(q.v.);Slang(q.v.); St. Giles’ Greek (last century for Slang as distinguished from Cant); Thieves’ Latin; the Vulgar Tongue;Yob-gab(q.v.);Notions(q.v.);Ziph(q.v.).French and other Analogues.—Argotorarguche;la langue verte(properly gamesters’);le langage soudardant(soldiers’[9]lingo);le jars;le jargon jobelin; (Cotgrave,Dictionarie, 1611.Jargon= ‘Gibridge, fustian language, Pedlar’s French, a barbarous jangling’);le langage de l’artis;langage en lem(formed by prefixing “l” and adding the syllable “em,” preceded by the first letter of the word); thus “main” becomes “lainmem.” A similar mode of dealing with words of more than one syllable is to replace the first consonant by the letter “l,” the word being followed by its first syllable preceded by “du”; thus, “jaquette” becomes “laqueite du jaq,” or if “m” be used as a key-letter, “maquette du jaq” etc.;le javanais—here the syllable “av” is interpolated;e.g., “jave l’avai vavu javeudavi” = (je l’ai vu jeudi).German.—Rothwalsch(fromRoter= beggar or vagabond +walsch= foreign);Gaunersprache(= thieves’ lingo).Italian.—Lingua gerga(abbreviated intogerga;Florio, 1598 ‘gergo= Pedlar’s French, fustian, or roguish language, gibbrish’);lingua franca(Levantine: the source of some English slang);lingua furbesca.Dutch.—Bargoens.Spanish.—Germania(the Gypsies were supposed to have come from Germany);jeriganza.Portuguese.—Calaõ(ZincaliorCalo= Gypsy).2. Hence, at one period, especially during the Regency days, the idiom of the man about town, of Tom and Jerrydom.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. xxix. To the cultivation in our times, of the Science of Pugilism, theflashlanguage is indebted for a considerable addition to its treasures.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc. They were invariably thieves and gamblers who usedflashformerly; but other kinds of persons, now-a-day, who may be rippishly inclined, adopt similar terms and phrases, to evince their uppishness in the affairs of life. These gentlemen also consider all terms of art and of science asflash; … of course, those words and sayings which are appropriate to the turf, the ring, and field sports, are equally considered asflashby them, and the word has been applied (too generally we allow), to all this species ofquid pro quolingo.3. (old).—See quot. andcf., with a Shaksperian gloss offlash= a burst of wit or merriment.1748.T. Dyche,Dict.(5th ed.),flash(s.), also a boast, brag, or great pretence made by a spendthrift, quack, or pretender to more art or knowledge than he really has.4. (old).—A showy swindler. (e.g., the Sir Petronel Flash of quot.); a blustering vulgarian.1605.Marston,Jonson, andChapman,Eastward Hoe!iv. 1. ‘Sir Petronel Flash, I am sorry to see suchflashescome from a gentleman of your quality.’1632.Shirley,Love in a Maze, i., 2. The town is full of these vaingloriousflashes.5. (old).—A peruke or perriwig.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Rumflash, a fine long wig. Queerflash, a miserable weather-beaten caxon.6. (common).—A portion; a drink; orgo(q.v.).Cf.,Flash of Lightning, sense 1.Adj.(common).—1. Relating to thieves, their habits, customs, devices, lingo, etc.1782.Geo. Parker,Humorous Sketches, p. 34. No more like a kiddy he’ll roll theflashsong.[10]1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ‘Long Ned’s Song.’ And rarely have the gentryflash, In sprucer clothes been seen.1837.Dickens,Oliver Twist, ch. viii. I suppose you don’t know what a beak is, myflashcom-pan-i-on.1857.Snowden,Mag. Assistant,3rd ed., p. 448. I have seen Cheeks (aflashname for an accomplice).1863.C. Reade,Hard Cash, II., 244. He used someflashwords, and they were shown into a public room.1864.Cornhill Magazine, ii., 336. In the following verse, taken from a petflashsong, you have a comic specimen of this sort of guilty chivalry.2. (thieves’).—Knowing; expert; showy.Cf.,down,fly,wide-awake, etc. Hence (popularly), by a simple transition, vulgarly counterfeit, showily shoddy: possibly the best understood meanings of the word in latter-day English.To put one flash to anything= to put him on his guard; to inform.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 19. Another philosopher, Seneca, has shown himself equallyflashon the subject.1835.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 17. Laying aside the knowing look, andflashair, with which he had repeated the previous anecdote.1836.Marryat,Japhet, etc., ch. lvii. He considered me as … aflashpickpocket rusticating until some hue and cry was over.1839.W. H. Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard, p. 138 (ed. 1840). ‘Awake! to be sure I am, myflashcove,’ replied Sheppard.1865.M. E. Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. v. He … took out the little packet of bank-notes. ‘I suppose you can understand these,’ he said. The languid youth … looked dubiously at his customer. ‘I can understand as they might beflashuns,’ he remarked, significantly.1888.C. D. Warner,Their Pilgrimage, p. 157. Theflashriders or horsebreakers, always called ‘broncho busters,’ can perform really marvellous feats.3. (originally thieves’, now general).—Vulgar, or blackguardly; showy; applied to one aping his betters. Hence (in Australia), vain glorious or swaggering. The idea conveyed is always one of vulgarity or showy blackguardism.1830. SirE. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford(ed. 1854), p. 21. A person of great notoriety among that portion of theélitewhich emphatically entitles itselfflash.1861.A. Trollope,Framley Parsonage, ch. ix. If the dear friendship of thisflashMember of Parliament did not represent that value, what else did do so?1880.G. R. Sims,Three Brass Balls, Pledge xi. The speaker was one of theflashyoung gentlemen who haunt suburban billiard-rooms, who carry chalk in their pockets, and call the marker ‘Jack.’4. (common).—In a set style. Also used substantively.1819.Vaux,Flash Dict., p. 173. s.v. A person who affects any peculiar habit, as swearing, dressing in a particular manner, taking snuff, etc., merely to be taken notice of is said to do it out offlash.1828.The English Spy.vol. I., p. 189. The man upon that half-starved nag Is an Ex S——ff, a strange wag, Half-flashand half a clown.1851.Mayhew,Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor,I., p. 36. They all of them (coster lads) delight in dressingflashas they call it.… They try to dress like the men, with large pockets in their cord jackets, and plenty of them. Their trousers, too, must fit tight at the knee, and their boots they like as good as possible. A good ‘kingsman,’ a plush skull-cap, and a seam down the trousers are the great points of ambition with the coster boys.[Hence, in combination,Flash-case,crib,drum,house,ken, orpanny(seeFlash-ken);flash-cove(q.v.);flash-dispensary(American = a boarding house), especially a swell brothel;flash-gentry(= the swell mob or higher class of thieves);flash-girl,-moll,-mollisher,-pieceor-woman(= a showy prostitute);flash-jig(costers’ = a favourite dance);flash-kiddy(= a dandy);flash-lingo, orsong(=[11]‘patter,’ or a song interlarded with cant words and phrases);flash-man(q.v.);flash-note(= a spurious bank-note);flash-rider(American,seebroncho-buster);flash toggery(= smart clothes);flash vessel(= a gaudy looking, but undisciplined ship)].1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, [1890,] p. 58. The rusticity of Jerry was fast wearing off … and he bid fair, etc. … to chaff with theflash mollishers.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood, p.273Soon then I mounted in Swell St. High, And sported myflashiest toggery.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 14. The other dances are jigs—flash jigs—hornpipes in fetters—a dance rendered popular by the success of the noted Jack Sheppard.Verb(common).—1. To show; to expose.[Among combinations may be mentioned,to flash one’s ivories= to show one’s teeth, to grin (Grose);to flash the hash= to vomit (Grose);to flash the dickey= to show the shirt front;to flash the dibs= to show or spend one’s money;to flash a fawney= to wear a ring;to flash one’s gab= to talk, to swagger, to brag;to flash the bubs= to expose the paps;to flash the muzzle(q.v.);to flash one’s ticker= to air one’s watch;to flash the drag= to wear women’s clothes for immoral purposes;to flash the white grin=seegrin;to flash it(q.v.), orto flash one’s meat(cf.,meat-flasher);to flash a bit(q.v.);to flash the flag= to sport an apron;to flash the wedge= to ‘fence’ the swag, etc.]1812.Vaux,Flash Dict.Don’tflash your sticks, don’t expose your pistols.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 2. His lordship, as usual, that very great dab At the flowers of rhet’ric, isflashing his gab.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc. Heflashed the blunt, made a show of money to dazzle the spectators.1825.E. Kent,Modern Flash Dict.Flashing his ivory, shew his teeth.1834.W. H. Ainsworth,Rookwood, (ed. 1864), p. 176.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Dead Drummer.’ When trav’lling, don’tflash your notesoryour cashBefore other people—it’sfoolish and rash.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good-Night. Likewise you molls thatflash your bubs, For swells to spot and stand you sam.1887.W. E. Henley,Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, orflash the drag.To flash a bit,verbal phr.(venery).—To show up; to permit examination; ‘to spread’ (q.v.); to behave indecently. Said of women only.To flash it, orto flash one’s meat.—To expose the person. [Hencemeat-flasher] (q.v.). Said usually of men.To flash the muzzle(old).—To produce a pistol.c.1823.Ballad(quoted inDon Juanxi.). On the high toby spiceflash the muzzleIn spite of each gallows old scout.To flash it about, orto cut a flashordash,verbal phr.(common).—To make a display; to live conspicuously and extravagantly.1877.Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 220. Heflashed it abouta good deal for a long time, going from one place to another. Sometimes he was a lord, at others an earl.To go flashing it,verb. phr.(venery).—To have sexual intercourse. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Flash-Case(or-Crib,-House,-Drum,-Ken,-Panny, etc.).—1. A house frequented by thieves, as a tavern, lodging-house, fence (q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flash-ken,c., a house where thieves use, and are connived at.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.1821.D. Haggart,Life, ‘Glossary,’ p. 172.Flash-kain, a house for receiving[12]stolen goods. [Haggart’s spelling, being that of the respectable Edinburgh lawyer who took down his ‘confessions’ is generally misleading and inaccurate.]1828.Smeeton,Doings in London, p. 39. It is a game in very great vogue among the macers, who congregate nightly at theflash-houses.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 50 (ed. 1854). There is one Peggy Lobkins who keeps a public house, a sort offlash-kencalled ‘The Mug’ in Thames Court.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(ed. 1840), p. 271. I’ve been to all theflash-casesin town, and can hear nothing of him or his wives.…Ibid, p. 135. ‘The Black Lion!’ echoed Terence, ‘I know the house well; by the same token that it’s aflash-crib.’2. (common).—A brothel; a haunt of loose women.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum(Flash song quoted underflash-panneys). Next for his favourite mot the kiddey looks about, And if she’s in aflash-pannyhe swears he’ll have her out; So he fences all his togs to buy her duds, and then He frisks his master’s lob to take her from the bawdy ken.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. (ed. 1840). You know how little I frequentflash-houses.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(ed. 1862), p. 380. Those troublesome swells, Who come from the play-houses,flash-kens, and hells.1840.Macaulay,Essays: ‘Lord Clive.’ The lowest wretches that the company’s crimps could pick up in theflash-housesof London.1852.Bristed,Upper Ten Thousand, p. 34. That is Mary Black who keeps the greatestflash housein Leonard Street.Flash-Cove(alsoFlash-Companion),subs.(common).—A thief; a sharper; afence(q.v.).1825.E. Kent,Modern Flash Dict.Flash-cove, the keeper of a place for the reception of stolen goods.1839.H. Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 60.—‘Awake! To be sure I am, myflash-cove!’ replied Sheppard.Flash-Man,subs.(old).—Primarily a man talkingflash(seequots., 1823 and 1862); hence, a rogue, a thief, the landlord of aflash-case(q.v.). Also afancy-joseph(for synonyms,seeFancy-man). In America, a person with no visible means of support, but living in style and ‘showing up’ well.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 141. Aflashmanis one who lives on the hackneyed prostitution of an unfortunate woman of the town.1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, II., 1. Soon one is floored upon the ground. While loud herflashmancries, ‘Arise, my ladybird, arise!’1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 80. Derived from his language, and this again has its appellation (’tis suggested) from the firstflash-menbeing highwaymen, that then generally abounded (circa 1770). He is the favorite, or protector of a prostitute, whoseflash-manhe is; and she is called inversely, hisflash-woman.c.1833.Broadside Ballad.Myflash-manhas gone to sea.1849.New South Wales, Past, Present, and Future, ch. i., p. 14. This man was known to Mr. Day to be what is termed aflash-man; and, seeing his own imminent danger, he instantly spoke to him and called him a cowardly rascal, and offered to give him shot for shot, while he was re-loading.1859.H. Kingsley,Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. You’re playing a dangerous game, myflashman.1862.Smiles,Lives of the Engineers, vol. I., pt. 5, ch. i., p. 307. Those articles were sold throughout the country by pedestrian hawkers, most of whom lived in the wild country calledthe flash, from a hamlet of that name situated between Buxton, Leek, and Macclesfield.… Travelling about from fair to fair, and using a cant or slang dialect, they became generally known asflash-men, and the name still survives (to which may be added: They paid, at first, ready money, but when they had established a credit, paid in promissory notes which were rarely honored.)[13]a.1873.Lyra Flagitiosa.[Quoted inHotten.] Myflash man’sin quod, And I’m the gal that’s willin’, So I’ll turn out to-night, And earn an honest shillin’.Flash of Lightning,subs. phr.(old).—1. A glass of gin; a dram of neat spirit.SeeGoandDrinks. Latterly, an ‘American drink.’Seequot. 1862.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 164, s.v.1821.P. Egan,Tom and Jerry(ed. 1890), p. 79. I have not exactly recovered from the severe effects of the repeatedflashes of lightningand strong claps of thunder, with which I had to encounter last night.1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf(quoted in). But ere they homeward pik’d it, Aflash of lightningwas sarv’d round to every one as lik’d it.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, (ed. 1854), p. 141. The thunders of eloquence being hushed,flashes of lightning, or, as the vulgar say, ‘glasses of gin’ gleamed about.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 168. The stimulant of aflash of lightning… for so a dram of neat spirit was then called.1862.E. MacDermott,Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar, where visitors may indulge in … gum-ticklers, eye-openers,flashes of lightning… and a variety of similar beverages.2. (nautical). The gold braid on an officer’s cap.Flash in the Pan,subs. phr.(venery).—Connection without emission.Cf.Dry-Bob(q.v.). Also verbally.1719.Durfey,Pills, v., 340. Still hawking, still baulking, Youflash in the pan.Flashy,adj., andFlashily, orFlashly,adv.(old: now colloquial). Empty; showy; tawdry; insipid.1637.Milton,Lycidas, 123. Their lean andflashysongs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.1693.Congreve,Old Batchelor, Act I., sc. iv. It is oftentimes too late with some of you young, termagant,flashysinners.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 12. Aflashytown beau.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary, (5th ed.)Flashy(a), vain, bragging, boasting, foolish, empty; also anything waterish and unsavoury.1755.The World, No. 149. Whose melodious voices give every syllable (not of a lean andflashy, but of a fat and plump song) its just emphasis.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 13, (ed. 1854). Vy it be … the gemman vot payed you soflashly.1857. Song inDucange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 42. Your fogle you mustflashlytie.1863.Speke,Journal of the Discovery of the Nile, p. 154.Flashilydressed in coloured cloths and a turban, he sat down in one of our chairs.1864.Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. v. But he evinced no bad taste in the selection of a costume. He chose no gaudy colours, orflashilycut vestments.1873.Cassell’s Magazine, Jan., p. 246, col. 2. They are rather prone to dressflashily, and wear, when in full fig, no end of jewellery.1874.Mortimer Collins,Frances, ch. xvii. That wild set of people Captain Heath picked up with—members of Parliament andflashyyoung women—all driving four horses, I don’t know where.1882.Century Magazine, xxvi., 295. As stones, they were cheap andflashy.Flash-Tail,subs.(common).—A prostitute.—SeeTail.1868.Temple Bar, xxiv., p. 538–9. Picking-up Moll … aflashtail? a prostitute who goes about the streets at nights trying to pick up toffs.Flasher,subs.(old).—A high-flyer; a fop; a pretender to wit. For synonyms,seeDandy. Also (quot. 2), aBonnet(q.v.).1779.D’Arblay,Diary, etc. (1876). vol. I., p. 185. They are reckoned theflashersof the place, yet everybody laughs at them for their airs, affectations, and tonish graces and impertinences.[14]1880.Derbyshire Gatherer, p. 128. Long before this date (circa1800) the cant name offlasherwas applied to the man who sat by the table in the gambling-house to swear how many times he had seen lucky gamesters break the bank.Flashery,subs.(old).—Inferior, or vulgar, elegance, dash, distinction, display.Flash-yad,subs.(back-slang).—A day’s enjoyment. For synonyms,seeFlare-up.Flashy BladeorSpark,subs. phr.(old).—Adandy(q.v.); now a cheap and noisy swell, whether male or female;Cf.,Flasher.1719.Durfey,Pills,etc., vi., 104. In youth a nauseousflashy fop, in elder days a bore.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 40. For though all know thatflashy spark, etc.Flat,subs.(colloquial).—1. A greenhorn; noddy; gull. For synonyms,seeBuffleandCabbage-head; alsoSammy-soft.1762.Goldsmith,Life of Nash, in wks. p. 546 (Globe). Why, if you think me a dab I will get this strange gentleman, or this, pointing to theflat. Done! cries the sailor, but you shall not tell him.1789.Geo.Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out forflats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is, cards.1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 59. Poor Johnny Raw, what madness could impel, So rum aflatto face so prime a swell.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ He’s been upon the mill, And cos he gammons all theflatswe calls him Veepin Bill.1841.Lytton,Night and Morning, bk. II., ch. ix. ‘Did he pay you for her?’ ‘Why, to be sure, he gave me a cheque on Coutt’s.’ ‘And you took it? My eyes? what aflat.’1847.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-tree. He play, the youngflat!1847.Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148. It mayn’t precisely please the moralflat. You won’t find fault with it, kind friends, for that.1848.Thackeray,The Book of Snobs, ch. x. When he does play he always contrives to get hold of a goodflat.1857.Ducange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 39. Fawney-droppers gammon theflatsand take the yokels in.1866.Yates,Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die, talking over aflat, or winning money of a greenhorn.1880.Mortimer Collins,Thoughts in My Garden, vol. II., p. 180. Their quack medicines that will cure everything, and their sales of invaluable articles at a loss, and a thousand other devices to catchflats.1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good-night. Youflatsand joskins great and small.1889.Pall Mall Gazette, Sept. 21, p. 3, col. 1 (In a London Gambling Hell). Theflatswho play faro (Cross-heading).2. (American thieves’).—An honest man.3. (American). A lover’s dismissal; a jilting.Adj.(colloquial and literary).—Downright; plain; straightforward; as inthat’s flat?aflat lie, “flat burglary,” etc.1598.Shakspeare, 1King Henry IV., Act I., Sc. 3.Wor.: You start away, And lend no ear to my purposes. Those prisoners you shall keep.Hot.: Nay, I will;that’s flat.1835–40.Haliburton,The Clockmaker, p. 6, preface (ed. 1862).1848.Lowell,Fable for Critics, p. 19. (A fetch, I must say, most transparent andflat).[There are other usages, more or less colloquial:e.g., Insipid; tame; dull: as in Macaulay’s “flatas champagne in decanters.” On the Stock Exchange.flat= without interest: Stock is borrowedflatwhen no interest is allowed by the lender as security for the due return of the scrip.][15]Verb(American). To jilt.Cf.,subs., sense 3. For synonyms,seeMitten.
F
labbergast,verb. (colloquial). To astound; to stagger, either physically or mentally. [O. E.,flab= to frighten +gast= to scare.] Fr.,abalober;baba(fromébahi= astounded);épater(= flatten out). Sp.,quedarse de, orhecho, una pieza(= ‘knocked all of a heap’).SeeFloored.
1772.Annual Register, ‘On New Words.’ Now we areflabbergastedand bored from morning to night.
1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. His colleagues wereflabbergastedwhen they heard of Castlereagh’s sudden death.
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(‘Brothers of Birchington’). He was quiteflabbergastedto see the amount.
1841.Punch, vol. I., p. 261. We rather just imagine they will be not a little puzzled andflabbergastedto discover the meaning or wit of some of those elegant phrases.
1864.Derby Day, p. 67. You’re sort offlabbergasted. It’s taken all the wind out of you like, and you feel like an old screw a blowing up Highgate Hill.
1889.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 18 Jan. Poor Clarke was completelyflabbergasted.
1891.National Observer, 1 Aug. In no other sport is thelaudator temporis actiso completelyflabbergastedas here.
Flabberdegaz,subs.(theatrical).—Words interpolated to dissemble a lapse of memory;gag(q.v.). Also, imperfect utterance or bad acting.
Flag,subs.(old).—1. A groat, or fourpenny piece. AlsoFlagg, andFlagge. For synonyms,seeJoey.
1567.Harman,Caveat(1814), p. 65.Roge. But aflagge, a wyn, and a make. (But a groat, a penny, and a half-penny.)
1610.Rowlands,Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept. 1874) s.v.
1714.Memoirs of John Hall(4th ed.), p. 12, s.v.
1725.Jonathan Wild,Canting Dict., s.v.
1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 269. A[2]tremendous black doll bought for aflag(fourpence) of a retired rag-merchant.
2. (common).—An apron; hence a badge of office or trade;cf.,Flag-flasher. Equivalents areBelly-cheatandFig-leaf.
1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232 (List of patterer’s words), s.v.
1872.Dundee Advertiser, 20 April; ‘Report of Meeting of Domestic Servants.’It was contended that they were compelled to wear what was generally known as aflag.
1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Straight Tip. Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash yourflag.
3. (obsolete).—A jade.
1539.David Lyndsay,Thrie Estaitis. Works [Ed. Laing, 1879], ii. 109. Ane fistandflag.
4. (common).—The menstrual cloth. Variants are bandage; clout; danger-signal; diaper; double clout (Durfey); gentleman’s pleasure garden padlock; periodicity rag; the red rag; sanitary towel; window-curtain.
The Flag(orDanger-Signal)is up= “The Captain’s at home” (Grose),i.e., the menstrual flux is on.
English Synonyms.—To have domestic afflictions, or the D.A.’s; to have theflowers(q.v.); to have one’s grandmother, or little friend, or auntie, with one; to have them (or it) on; to be in a state of ‘no thoroughfare’; to have the red rag on; to be road-making; to have the street up for repairs; to be at Number One, London; to have ‘the gate locked and the key lost.’
French Synonyms.—Avoir ses cardinales(literally, to have one’s reds);avoir les histoires;avoir les affaires(common);avoir ses anglais(in allusion to the scarlet of English soldiers);broyer des tomates(= tomato-crushing);avoir son marquis(Cotgrave);avoir les fleurs rouges;avoir sa chemise tachée(Cotgrave);voir Sophie;avoir les ordinaires.
Italian Synonyms.—Marchese(Florio),marchesano(= menses. Michel says, Art.marque= a month, a woman. “Il ne saurait être douteux que ce nom ne soit venu à cette division de l’année, de l’infirmité périodique qu’ont lesmarques, ou femmes, lors que la Lune, pour tenir sa diette et vaquer à ses purifications menstruelles, faitmarquerles logis feminins par son fourrier, lequel pour escusson n’a que son impression rouge”).
To Fly the Flag,verb. phr.(tailors’).—To post a notice that ‘hands’ are wanted.SeealsoFly the Flag,post.
Flag of Defiance,subs. phr.(old nautical).—A drunken roysterer. For synonyms,seeElbow-crooker.
To hang out the flag of defiance(orbloody flag),verb. phr.—To be continuously drunk. [An allusion to the ‘crimson face’ (Cotgrave)and the pugnacity of certain terms of inebriety.] For synonyms,seerinks.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.The flag of defiance is out(among the Tarrs) the Fellow’s Face is very Red, and he is Drunk.
1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Flag-flasher,subs.(common).—One sporting a badge or other ensign of office (cap, apron, uniform,[3]etc.) when off duty.—Cf.,Flag, sense 2.
Flag-about,subs.(old).—A strumpet. [FromFlag, a paving-stone]. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.
Flag-Flying.—SeeFlag.
Flag of Distress,subs. phr.(common).—1. A card announcing ‘lodgings,’ or ‘board and lodgings.’ Hence, any overt sign of poverty.
2. (common).—A flying shirt-tail; in America, aletter in the post-office(q.v.).
Flagger,subs.(common).—A street-walker. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.
1865.Daily Paper, ‘Police Report.’ She wasn’t a low sort at all—she wasn’t aFlagger, as we call it. So I replies, ‘I am well, thankee; and am happy to say I feel as such.’
Flags,subs.(common).—Linen drying and flying in the wind. For synonyms,seeSnow.
Flag Unfurled,subs. phr.(rhyming).—A man of the world.
Flag-Wagging,subs.(military).—Flag-signal drill.
Flam,subs.(colloquial).—Nonsense (for synonyms,seeGammon); humbug; flattery; or, a lie: asa regular flam(for synonyms,seeWhopper).Cf.FLim-flam.
1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes, [Cf.,Flim-flam.]
1647.BeaumontandFletcher,Humourous Lieutenant, iv., 1. With some newflamor other, nothing to the matter.
1664.Butler,Hudibras, pt. II., ch. iii., p. 29. Aflammore senseless than the roguery of old aruspicey and aug’ry.
1742–4.Roger North,Lives of the Norths, ch. i., p. 368. They must have known his Lordship better and not have ventured suchflamsat him.
1760.Foote,Minor, Act II. Had theflambeen fact, your behaviour was natural enough.
1762.Foote,Liar, bk. II., ch. ii. Can’t you discern that thisflamof Sir James Elliot’s is a mere fetch to favour his retreat?
1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 298 (ed. 1854). Harry … told you as ow it was all aflamabout the child in the bundle!
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(ed. 1862), p. 325. No trick norflam, but your real Schiedam.
1849.C. Kingsley,Alton Locke, ch. ii. And their pockets full they crams by their patrioticflams, And then swear ’tis for the good of the nation.
1850.D. Jerrold,The Catspaw, Act II. Though the story of that scoundrel Coolcard, Augustus Coolcard—and I was never before deceived—never—is aflam—all aflam.
1870.London Figaro, 22 Sept. Is not your boasted power aflam?
1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good Night. You flymy titters fond offlam.
2. (old).—A single stroke on the drum.—[Grose, 1785.]
Adj.(old).—False.
1692.Sprat,Relation of Young’s Contrivance(Harl. Misc. vi. 224). To amuse him the more in his search, she addeth aflamstory that she had got his hand by corrupting one of the letter-carriers in London.
Verb(colloquial).—1. To take in; to flatter; to lie; to foist or fob off.flamming= lying.[4]
1658.Rowley and Ford, &c.,Witch of Edm., ii., 2. Was this your cunning? and thenflamme off with an old witch, two wives, and Winnifride.
1688.Shadwell,Sq. of Alsatia, II. in wks. (1720) iv. 41. Does he think toflamme with a lye?
1830.S. Warren,Diary of a Late Physician, ch. v. But I’ll show him whether or not I, for one of them, am to be jeered andflammedwith impunity.
1835.Marryat,Jacob Faithful, ch. xxviii. How she didflamthat poor old Domine.
(American University).—To affect, or prefer, female society; toGrouse(q.v.). [A corruption offlame(q.v.)].SeeMolrowing.
Flambustious,adj.(American).—Showy; gaudy; pleasant.
1868.Putnam’s Magazine.We will have aflambustioustime. [Cf.,Shakspeare(1608),Antony and Cleopatra, iii., 11. Let’s have one othergaudynight.]
Flamdoodle,subs.(American).—Nonsense; vain boasting. Probably a variant offlapdoodle(q.v.).
1888.New York Sun.We wasn’t goin’ to have any high falutin’flamdoodlebusiness over him.
Flame,subs.(colloquial).—1. A sweetheart; a mistress in keeping.Old flame= an old lover; a cast-off mistress. Also (2) a venereal disease.
b.1664.d.1721.Mathew Prior[in Palgrave’s “Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” ed. 1885]. Euphelia serves to grace my measure, but Chloe is my realflame.
1757.Foote,Author, Act I. Let’ssee, Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallader, and yourflame, the sister, as I live.
1846–8.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. On this Rebecca instantly stated that Amelia was engaged to be married to a Lieutenant Osborne, a very oldflame.
1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
Flamer,subs.(colloquial).—A man, woman, thing, or incident above the common. [Literally conspicuous to flaming point,i.e., as a light in the dark]. For synonyms,seeStunner.
1840.H. Cockton,Valentine Vox, ch. ii. Concocting a criticism on the evening’s performance, which certainly was, according to the signor’s own acknowledgment, a regularflamer.
Flames,subs.(old).—A red-haired person.Cf.,CarrotsandGinger.
1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. Who should I fling my precious ogles upon butflames—she as lived at the ‘Blue Posts.’
Flaming,ppl. adj.(colloquial).—Conspicuous; ardent;stunning(q.v.). For synonyms,seeA 1 andFizzing.
1738.Swift,Polite Conv., Dialogue II.Lord Sparkish.My Lady Smart, your ladyship has a very fine scarf.Lady Smart.Yes, my lord, it will make aflamingfigure in a country church.
1776.Rubrick,The Spleen, ii. I’ll send aflamingparagraph of their wedding to all the newspapers.
1872.BesantandRice.Ready Money Mortiboy, ch. xxx. He called one of the children, and sent her for a bill. She presently returned with aflamingposter.
Flanderkin,subs.(old).—Seequot.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of theCantingCrew, s.v. A very large fat man or horse; also natives of that country.
Flanders Fortunes,subs. phr.(old).—Of small substance.—B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew(1690).
Flanders Pieces,subs. phr.(old).—Seequot.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flanders pieces, pictures that look fair at a distance, but coarser near at hand.[5]
Flank,verb(common).—1. To crack a whip; also, to hit a mark with the lash of one.
1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford(ed. 1854), p. 18. He then, taking up a driving whip,flankeda fly from the opposite wall.
1833. ‘An Anglo-sapphic Ode’ (Whibley,Cap and Gown, p. 136). Kicks up a row, gets drunk, orflanksa tandem whip out of window.
2. (colloquial).—To deliver—a blow or a retort; to push; to hustle; to quoit (Shakspeare). Fr.,flanquer: as inflanquer à la porte, andJe lui at flanqué un fameux coup de pied au cul!
A Plate of Thin Flank,subs. phr.(common).—A ‘sixpenny cut’ off the joint.SeeN. Twill inFancy Too Late for Dinner.
To Flank the whole bottle,verb. phr.(American soldiers’).—To dodge,i.e., tooutflank, to achieve by strategy. For synonyms,seeStick.
1871.De Vere,Americanisms, p. 286. When the men wished to escape the attention of pickets and guards by slipping past them, they said theyflankedthem; drill, and detail, and every irksome duty wasflanked, when it could be avoided by some cunning trick. Soon, however, honesty itself was thus treated, and the poor farmer wasflankedout of his pig and his poultry, and not infrequently even the comrade out of his pipe and tobacco, if not his rations. The height of strategy was employed in these variousflank manœuvres, when the Commissary could be made to surrender some of his whiskey, and thus it came about, in the South at least, that toflank the whole bottlewas a phrase expressive of superlative cunning and brilliant success.
Flanker,subs.(common).—A blow; a retort; a kick.Cf.,Flank, sense 1.
Flankey,subs.(common).—The posteriors. For synonyms,seeBlind CheeksandMonocular Eyeglass.
1848.Duncombe,Sinks of London, s.v.
Flannel.SeeHot Flannel.
Flannels.To get one’s flannels,verb. phr.(schools’).—To get a place in the school football or cricket teams, or in the boats.Cf., ‘to get one’s colours,’ or ‘one’s blue.’
Flap,subs.(thieves’).—1. Sheet-lead used for roofing. Fr.,doussin;noir.Cf.,Bluey.
2. (old).—A blow.
1539.David Lyndsay,Thrie Estaitis. Works [Laing, 1879], ii. 73. And to begin the play, tak thair aneflap.
Verb(thieves’).—1. To rob; to swindle. For synonyms,seePrigandStick.
2. (common).—To pay; ‘to fork out.’Cf.,Flap the Dimmock.
3. (venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
To Flap a Jay,verb. phr.(thieves’).—To swindle a greenhorn; tosell a pup(q.v.).
1885.Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18th, p. 3., col. 1. He and three others of the ‘division’ had ‘cut up’ £70 between them, obtained byflapping a jay, which, rendered into intelligible English, means plundering a simple-minded person.
To Flap the Dimmock,verb.phr.(common).—To pay. [FromFlap, a verb of motion +Dimmock= money].Cf.,Flap.
Flapdoodle,subs.(colloquial).—1. Transparent nonsense; “kid.”[6]
AlsoFlamdoodleandFlam-sauce, orFlap-sauce. For synonyms,seeGammon.
1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. xxviii. ‘It’s my opinion, Peter, that the gentleman has eaten no small quantity offlapdoodlein his lifetime.’ ‘What’s that, O’Brien,’ replied I. ‘Why, Peter, it’s the stuff they feed fools on.’
1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford. I shall talk to our regimental doctors about it, and get put through a course of fools’ diet—flapdoodlethey call it, what fools are fed on.
1884.S. L. Clemens(‘Mark Twain’),Huck. Finn, xxv., 247. A speech, all full of tears andflapdoodleabout its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother to lose the diseased [deceased].
2. (venery).—Thepenis. (Urquhart). For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.
To talk Flapdoodle,verb. phr.(American).—To brag; to talk nonsense.
1888.Daily Inter-Ocean, Mar. 2. Possibly rich men will turn from sharp dealing, from debauchery, fromflapdoodlefashion to a common-sense recognition of a situation, which clearly shows that wealth is no longer what it used to be—autocratic, absolute, the ruler of all else.
Flapdoodler,subs.(American).—A braggart agitator; one thatmakes the eagle squeal(q.v.).
Flap-dragon,subs.(old).—The pox orclap(q.v.). For synonyms,seeLadies’ Fever.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.Flapdragon, a clap or pox.
Verb.(old).—To gulp down hastily, as in the game of flap-dragon.
1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, Act III., Sc. 3. But, to make an end of the ship: toseehow the seaflap-dragonedit!
Flapman,subs.(prison).—A convict promoted for good behaviour to first or second class.
Flapper,subs.(common).—1. The hand; alsoflapper-shaker. For synonyms,seeDaddleandMauley.
1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. vii. My Dear Mr. Simple, extend yourflapperto me for I’m delighted toseeyou.
1859.Matsell,Vocabulum,or Rogues’ Lexicon, s.v.
1866.London Miscellany, May 19, p. 235. ‘There’s myflapperon the strength of it.’ Guy shook hands with the eccentric stranger heartily.
2. (common).—A little girl. [Also afledglingwild duck.]
3. (venery).—A very young prostitute;cf., sense 2.
4. (common).—A dustman’s or coal-heaver’s hat; afantail(q.v.).
5. (in. pl.).—Very long-pointed shoes worn by ‘nigger’ minstrels.
6. (venery).—Thepenis. (For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick).
7. (colloquial).—A parasite; a remembrancer. (Cf.Swift,Gulliver, ‘Laputa.’)
Flapper-shaking,subs.(common).—Hand-shaking.
1853.Bradley(‘Cuthbert Bede’),Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. iv. Wondering whether … if the joining palms in a circus was the customaryflapper-shakingbefore ‘toeing the scratch’ for business.
Flap-sauce.SeeFlapdoodle.[7]
Flare,subs.(nautical).—1. Primarily a stylish craft; hence, by implication, anything out of the common. For synonyms,seeStunner.
2. (colloquial).—A row; a dispute; a ‘drunk’; or spree.Cf.,flare-up.
Verb.(thieves’).—1. Specifically to whisk out; hence, to steal actively, lightly, or delicately.
1850.Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. Low Lodging Houses of London. B. tried his pocket saying, ‘I’ll show you how to do a hankerchief; but the baker looked round and B. stopped; and just after that Iflaredit (whisked the handerchief out); and that’s the first I did.’
1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 457. Just after that Iflaredit (a handerchief).
2. (common).—To swagger; to go with a bounce.
1841.Leman Rede,Sixteen-String Jack, ii., 3. Crissy Odsbuds, I’ll on with my duds, And over the water we’llflare.
All of a flare,adv. phr.(thieves’).—Bunglingly.
1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 113. Some of the girls at Milberry’s pick pockets at night: while one talks to the man, the other robs him; but they are not dextrous, they pull it outall of a flare.
Flaring,adj.andadv.(colloquial).—Excessive:e.g., aflaringlie;flaringdrunk; aflaringwhore;seeFlaming.
Flare-up(or-Out),subs.(popular). An orgie; a fight; an outburst of temper. Also a spree.
1838.Haliburton,Clockmaker, 2 Ser. ch. x. Some of our young citizens … got into aflare-upwith a party of boatmen that lives in the Mississippi; a desperate row it was too.
1847.Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148, Address at the Opening of a Casino. In forflare-upand frolic let us go, And polk it on the fast fantastic toe.
1851.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 160. These (hot eel) dealers generally trade on their own capital; but when some have been having aflare-up, and have ‘broke down for stock’ to use the words of my informant, they borrow £1 and pay it back in a week or a fortnight.
1879.Justin M’Carthy,Donna Quixote, ch. xvii. Paulina had a hard struggle many a time to keep down her temper, and not to have what she would have called aflare-out.
English Synonyms.—Barney; batter; bean-feast; beano; breakdown; burst; booze (specifically a drinking-bout); caper; devil’s delight; dust; fanteague; fight; flare; flats-yad (back slang); fly; gig; hay-bag; hell’s delight; high jinks; hooping up; hop; jagg; jamboree; jump; jun-ketting; lark; drive; randan; on the tiles; on the fly; painting the town (American); rampage; razzle-dazzle; reeraw; ructions; shake; shine; spree; sky-wannocking; tear; tear up; toot.
French Synonyms.—La nocerie(popular:une noce à tout casser; or,une noce de bâtons de chaise= a grand jollification);faire des crêpes(= to have a rare spree);badouiller(popular: especially applied to drinking bouts).
Italian Synonym.—Far festa alle campane.
Spanish Synonyms.—Trapisonda(a drunken revel);holgueta.
Verb(common).—To fly into a passion.
1849.Mahoney,Rel. Father Prout, I., 319. ‘Vert-Vert, the Parrot.’ Forth like a Congreave rocket burst, And storm’d and swore,flared up, and curs’d.[8]
1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xii. He was in the ‘Cave of Harmony,’ he says, that night youflared upabout Captain Costigan.
1871.Daily Telegraph, 8 June, ‘Paris in Convalescence.’ On this heflared uplike a Commune conflagration, and cried out, ‘Shame, in the name of religion, art, and history!’
Flash,subs.(old).—1. The vulgar tongue; the lingo of thieves and their associates.To patter flash= to talk in thieves’ lingo. [The derivation ofFlash, like that of Frenchargot, is entirely speculative. It has, however, been generally referred to a district calledFlash(the primary signification as a place name is not clear), between Buxton Leek and Macclesfield: there lived many chapmen who, says Dr. Aiken (“Description of Country round Manchester”), ‘were known asflash-men… using a sort of slang or cant dialect.’]
1718.Hitchin.The Regulator of Thieves, etc., with Account offlashwords, etc.(Title).
1781.G. Parker,View of Society, II., 69. Jigger, being cant orflashfor door.
1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25. With respect to that peculiar language calledflash, or St. Jiles’ Greek, etc.
1830.Sir E. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. viii. Here a tall gentleman marched up to him, and addressed him in a certain language, which might be called the freemasonry offlash.
1839.Harrison Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 12. ‘What does he say?’ roared the long drover. ‘He says he don’t understandflash,’ replied the lady in gentleman’s attire.
1843–4.Hood,Miss Kilmansegg. His cheeks no longer drew the cash. Because, as his comrades explain’d inflash, He had overdrawn his badger.
1827.Maginn,Vidocq’s Song. Pattered inflashlike a covey knowing.
1864.Athenæum, 29 Oct. The northern village of ill-repute, and bearing that name (flash) gave to felonious high-flying the termflash.
1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 278. Why, when the late Lord Lytton wrotePelhamit was brought against him that ‘his knowledge offlashwas evidently purely superficial.’Flash, my sister, is merely recondite slang or thieves’ argot.
English Analogues.—Back Slang or Kacab-Genals (the main principle consists in roughly pronouncing the word backwards, aserifforfire,dabforbad, etc.: the practice exists in most languages);Cant(q.v.); Centre Slang (the central vowel is made the initial letter, vowels and consonants being added at pleasure); Gammy (North country: mainly composed of Gypsy words); Gibberish (formed by inserting a consonant between each syllable of a word, the result being the F, G, H, M or S gibberish, according to the letter used: thus, “goming mout tom-daym,” or “gosings outs tos-days?” = going out to-day?); jargon; the Green Lingo (French thieves’); Marrowskying or Hospital Greek (manufactured by transferring the initial letters of words;plenty of rainthus becomesrenty of plain: the ‘Gower St. dialect’ of Albert Smith,Mr. Ledbury); Pedlar’s French (old cant:Florio, 1598;Cotgrave, 1612);Rhyming Slang(q.v.);Slang(q.v.); St. Giles’ Greek (last century for Slang as distinguished from Cant); Thieves’ Latin; the Vulgar Tongue;Yob-gab(q.v.);Notions(q.v.);Ziph(q.v.).
French and other Analogues.—Argotorarguche;la langue verte(properly gamesters’);le langage soudardant(soldiers’[9]lingo);le jars;le jargon jobelin; (Cotgrave,Dictionarie, 1611.Jargon= ‘Gibridge, fustian language, Pedlar’s French, a barbarous jangling’);le langage de l’artis;langage en lem(formed by prefixing “l” and adding the syllable “em,” preceded by the first letter of the word); thus “main” becomes “lainmem.” A similar mode of dealing with words of more than one syllable is to replace the first consonant by the letter “l,” the word being followed by its first syllable preceded by “du”; thus, “jaquette” becomes “laqueite du jaq,” or if “m” be used as a key-letter, “maquette du jaq” etc.;le javanais—here the syllable “av” is interpolated;e.g., “jave l’avai vavu javeudavi” = (je l’ai vu jeudi).German.—Rothwalsch(fromRoter= beggar or vagabond +walsch= foreign);Gaunersprache(= thieves’ lingo).Italian.—Lingua gerga(abbreviated intogerga;Florio, 1598 ‘gergo= Pedlar’s French, fustian, or roguish language, gibbrish’);lingua franca(Levantine: the source of some English slang);lingua furbesca.Dutch.—Bargoens.Spanish.—Germania(the Gypsies were supposed to have come from Germany);jeriganza.Portuguese.—Calaõ(ZincaliorCalo= Gypsy).
2. Hence, at one period, especially during the Regency days, the idiom of the man about town, of Tom and Jerrydom.
1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. xxix. To the cultivation in our times, of the Science of Pugilism, theflashlanguage is indebted for a considerable addition to its treasures.
1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc. They were invariably thieves and gamblers who usedflashformerly; but other kinds of persons, now-a-day, who may be rippishly inclined, adopt similar terms and phrases, to evince their uppishness in the affairs of life. These gentlemen also consider all terms of art and of science asflash; … of course, those words and sayings which are appropriate to the turf, the ring, and field sports, are equally considered asflashby them, and the word has been applied (too generally we allow), to all this species ofquid pro quolingo.
3. (old).—See quot. andcf., with a Shaksperian gloss offlash= a burst of wit or merriment.
1748.T. Dyche,Dict.(5th ed.),flash(s.), also a boast, brag, or great pretence made by a spendthrift, quack, or pretender to more art or knowledge than he really has.
4. (old).—A showy swindler. (e.g., the Sir Petronel Flash of quot.); a blustering vulgarian.
1605.Marston,Jonson, andChapman,Eastward Hoe!iv. 1. ‘Sir Petronel Flash, I am sorry to see suchflashescome from a gentleman of your quality.’
1632.Shirley,Love in a Maze, i., 2. The town is full of these vaingloriousflashes.
5. (old).—A peruke or perriwig.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Rumflash, a fine long wig. Queerflash, a miserable weather-beaten caxon.
6. (common).—A portion; a drink; orgo(q.v.).Cf.,Flash of Lightning, sense 1.
Adj.(common).—1. Relating to thieves, their habits, customs, devices, lingo, etc.
1782.Geo. Parker,Humorous Sketches, p. 34. No more like a kiddy he’ll roll theflashsong.[10]
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ‘Long Ned’s Song.’ And rarely have the gentryflash, In sprucer clothes been seen.
1837.Dickens,Oliver Twist, ch. viii. I suppose you don’t know what a beak is, myflashcom-pan-i-on.
1857.Snowden,Mag. Assistant,3rd ed., p. 448. I have seen Cheeks (aflashname for an accomplice).
1863.C. Reade,Hard Cash, II., 244. He used someflashwords, and they were shown into a public room.
1864.Cornhill Magazine, ii., 336. In the following verse, taken from a petflashsong, you have a comic specimen of this sort of guilty chivalry.
2. (thieves’).—Knowing; expert; showy.Cf.,down,fly,wide-awake, etc. Hence (popularly), by a simple transition, vulgarly counterfeit, showily shoddy: possibly the best understood meanings of the word in latter-day English.To put one flash to anything= to put him on his guard; to inform.
1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 19. Another philosopher, Seneca, has shown himself equallyflashon the subject.
1835.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 17. Laying aside the knowing look, andflashair, with which he had repeated the previous anecdote.
1836.Marryat,Japhet, etc., ch. lvii. He considered me as … aflashpickpocket rusticating until some hue and cry was over.
1839.W. H. Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard, p. 138 (ed. 1840). ‘Awake! to be sure I am, myflashcove,’ replied Sheppard.
1865.M. E. Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. v. He … took out the little packet of bank-notes. ‘I suppose you can understand these,’ he said. The languid youth … looked dubiously at his customer. ‘I can understand as they might beflashuns,’ he remarked, significantly.
1888.C. D. Warner,Their Pilgrimage, p. 157. Theflashriders or horsebreakers, always called ‘broncho busters,’ can perform really marvellous feats.
3. (originally thieves’, now general).—Vulgar, or blackguardly; showy; applied to one aping his betters. Hence (in Australia), vain glorious or swaggering. The idea conveyed is always one of vulgarity or showy blackguardism.
1830. SirE. B. Lytton,Paul Clifford(ed. 1854), p. 21. A person of great notoriety among that portion of theélitewhich emphatically entitles itselfflash.
1861.A. Trollope,Framley Parsonage, ch. ix. If the dear friendship of thisflashMember of Parliament did not represent that value, what else did do so?
1880.G. R. Sims,Three Brass Balls, Pledge xi. The speaker was one of theflashyoung gentlemen who haunt suburban billiard-rooms, who carry chalk in their pockets, and call the marker ‘Jack.’
4. (common).—In a set style. Also used substantively.
1819.Vaux,Flash Dict., p. 173. s.v. A person who affects any peculiar habit, as swearing, dressing in a particular manner, taking snuff, etc., merely to be taken notice of is said to do it out offlash.
1828.The English Spy.vol. I., p. 189. The man upon that half-starved nag Is an Ex S——ff, a strange wag, Half-flashand half a clown.
1851.Mayhew,Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor,I., p. 36. They all of them (coster lads) delight in dressingflashas they call it.… They try to dress like the men, with large pockets in their cord jackets, and plenty of them. Their trousers, too, must fit tight at the knee, and their boots they like as good as possible. A good ‘kingsman,’ a plush skull-cap, and a seam down the trousers are the great points of ambition with the coster boys.
[Hence, in combination,Flash-case,crib,drum,house,ken, orpanny(seeFlash-ken);flash-cove(q.v.);flash-dispensary(American = a boarding house), especially a swell brothel;flash-gentry(= the swell mob or higher class of thieves);flash-girl,-moll,-mollisher,-pieceor-woman(= a showy prostitute);flash-jig(costers’ = a favourite dance);flash-kiddy(= a dandy);flash-lingo, orsong(=[11]‘patter,’ or a song interlarded with cant words and phrases);flash-man(q.v.);flash-note(= a spurious bank-note);flash-rider(American,seebroncho-buster);flash toggery(= smart clothes);flash vessel(= a gaudy looking, but undisciplined ship)].
1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, [1890,] p. 58. The rusticity of Jerry was fast wearing off … and he bid fair, etc. … to chaff with theflash mollishers.
1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood, p.273Soon then I mounted in Swell St. High, And sported myflashiest toggery.
1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 14. The other dances are jigs—flash jigs—hornpipes in fetters—a dance rendered popular by the success of the noted Jack Sheppard.
Verb(common).—1. To show; to expose.
[Among combinations may be mentioned,to flash one’s ivories= to show one’s teeth, to grin (Grose);to flash the hash= to vomit (Grose);to flash the dickey= to show the shirt front;to flash the dibs= to show or spend one’s money;to flash a fawney= to wear a ring;to flash one’s gab= to talk, to swagger, to brag;to flash the bubs= to expose the paps;to flash the muzzle(q.v.);to flash one’s ticker= to air one’s watch;to flash the drag= to wear women’s clothes for immoral purposes;to flash the white grin=seegrin;to flash it(q.v.), orto flash one’s meat(cf.,meat-flasher);to flash a bit(q.v.);to flash the flag= to sport an apron;to flash the wedge= to ‘fence’ the swag, etc.]
1812.Vaux,Flash Dict.Don’tflash your sticks, don’t expose your pistols.
1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 2. His lordship, as usual, that very great dab At the flowers of rhet’ric, isflashing his gab.
1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc. Heflashed the blunt, made a show of money to dazzle the spectators.
1825.E. Kent,Modern Flash Dict.Flashing his ivory, shew his teeth.
1834.W. H. Ainsworth,Rookwood, (ed. 1864), p. 176.
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Dead Drummer.’ When trav’lling, don’tflash your notesoryour cashBefore other people—it’sfoolish and rash.
1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good-Night. Likewise you molls thatflash your bubs, For swells to spot and stand you sam.
1887.W. E. Henley,Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, orflash the drag.
To flash a bit,verbal phr.(venery).—To show up; to permit examination; ‘to spread’ (q.v.); to behave indecently. Said of women only.
To flash it, orto flash one’s meat.—To expose the person. [Hencemeat-flasher] (q.v.). Said usually of men.
To flash the muzzle(old).—To produce a pistol.
c.1823.Ballad(quoted inDon Juanxi.). On the high toby spiceflash the muzzleIn spite of each gallows old scout.
To flash it about, orto cut a flashordash,verbal phr.(common).—To make a display; to live conspicuously and extravagantly.
1877.Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 220. Heflashed it abouta good deal for a long time, going from one place to another. Sometimes he was a lord, at others an earl.
To go flashing it,verb. phr.(venery).—To have sexual intercourse. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
Flash-Case(or-Crib,-House,-Drum,-Ken,-Panny, etc.).—1. A house frequented by thieves, as a tavern, lodging-house, fence (q.v.).
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flash-ken,c., a house where thieves use, and are connived at.
1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1821.D. Haggart,Life, ‘Glossary,’ p. 172.Flash-kain, a house for receiving[12]stolen goods. [Haggart’s spelling, being that of the respectable Edinburgh lawyer who took down his ‘confessions’ is generally misleading and inaccurate.]
1828.Smeeton,Doings in London, p. 39. It is a game in very great vogue among the macers, who congregate nightly at theflash-houses.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 50 (ed. 1854). There is one Peggy Lobkins who keeps a public house, a sort offlash-kencalled ‘The Mug’ in Thames Court.
1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(ed. 1840), p. 271. I’ve been to all theflash-casesin town, and can hear nothing of him or his wives.…Ibid, p. 135. ‘The Black Lion!’ echoed Terence, ‘I know the house well; by the same token that it’s aflash-crib.’
2. (common).—A brothel; a haunt of loose women.
1811.Lexicon Balatronicum(Flash song quoted underflash-panneys). Next for his favourite mot the kiddey looks about, And if she’s in aflash-pannyhe swears he’ll have her out; So he fences all his togs to buy her duds, and then He frisks his master’s lob to take her from the bawdy ken.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. (ed. 1840). You know how little I frequentflash-houses.
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(ed. 1862), p. 380. Those troublesome swells, Who come from the play-houses,flash-kens, and hells.
1840.Macaulay,Essays: ‘Lord Clive.’ The lowest wretches that the company’s crimps could pick up in theflash-housesof London.
1852.Bristed,Upper Ten Thousand, p. 34. That is Mary Black who keeps the greatestflash housein Leonard Street.
Flash-Cove(alsoFlash-Companion),subs.(common).—A thief; a sharper; afence(q.v.).
1825.E. Kent,Modern Flash Dict.Flash-cove, the keeper of a place for the reception of stolen goods.
1839.H. Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 60.—‘Awake! To be sure I am, myflash-cove!’ replied Sheppard.
Flash-Man,subs.(old).—Primarily a man talkingflash(seequots., 1823 and 1862); hence, a rogue, a thief, the landlord of aflash-case(q.v.). Also afancy-joseph(for synonyms,seeFancy-man). In America, a person with no visible means of support, but living in style and ‘showing up’ well.
1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 141. Aflashmanis one who lives on the hackneyed prostitution of an unfortunate woman of the town.
1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, II., 1. Soon one is floored upon the ground. While loud herflashmancries, ‘Arise, my ladybird, arise!’
1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 80. Derived from his language, and this again has its appellation (’tis suggested) from the firstflash-menbeing highwaymen, that then generally abounded (circa 1770). He is the favorite, or protector of a prostitute, whoseflash-manhe is; and she is called inversely, hisflash-woman.
c.1833.Broadside Ballad.Myflash-manhas gone to sea.
1849.New South Wales, Past, Present, and Future, ch. i., p. 14. This man was known to Mr. Day to be what is termed aflash-man; and, seeing his own imminent danger, he instantly spoke to him and called him a cowardly rascal, and offered to give him shot for shot, while he was re-loading.
1859.H. Kingsley,Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. You’re playing a dangerous game, myflashman.
1862.Smiles,Lives of the Engineers, vol. I., pt. 5, ch. i., p. 307. Those articles were sold throughout the country by pedestrian hawkers, most of whom lived in the wild country calledthe flash, from a hamlet of that name situated between Buxton, Leek, and Macclesfield.… Travelling about from fair to fair, and using a cant or slang dialect, they became generally known asflash-men, and the name still survives (to which may be added: They paid, at first, ready money, but when they had established a credit, paid in promissory notes which were rarely honored.)[13]
a.1873.Lyra Flagitiosa.[Quoted inHotten.] Myflash man’sin quod, And I’m the gal that’s willin’, So I’ll turn out to-night, And earn an honest shillin’.
Flash of Lightning,subs. phr.(old).—1. A glass of gin; a dram of neat spirit.SeeGoandDrinks. Latterly, an ‘American drink.’Seequot. 1862.
1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 164, s.v.
1821.P. Egan,Tom and Jerry(ed. 1890), p. 79. I have not exactly recovered from the severe effects of the repeatedflashes of lightningand strong claps of thunder, with which I had to encounter last night.
1823.Jon Bee,Dict. of the Turf(quoted in). But ere they homeward pik’d it, Aflash of lightningwas sarv’d round to every one as lik’d it.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, (ed. 1854), p. 141. The thunders of eloquence being hushed,flashes of lightning, or, as the vulgar say, ‘glasses of gin’ gleamed about.
1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 168. The stimulant of aflash of lightning… for so a dram of neat spirit was then called.
1862.E. MacDermott,Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar, where visitors may indulge in … gum-ticklers, eye-openers,flashes of lightning… and a variety of similar beverages.
2. (nautical). The gold braid on an officer’s cap.
Flash in the Pan,subs. phr.(venery).—Connection without emission.Cf.Dry-Bob(q.v.). Also verbally.
1719.Durfey,Pills, v., 340. Still hawking, still baulking, Youflash in the pan.
Flashy,adj., andFlashily, orFlashly,adv.(old: now colloquial). Empty; showy; tawdry; insipid.
1637.Milton,Lycidas, 123. Their lean andflashysongs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.
1693.Congreve,Old Batchelor, Act I., sc. iv. It is oftentimes too late with some of you young, termagant,flashysinners.
1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 12. Aflashytown beau.
1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary, (5th ed.)Flashy(a), vain, bragging, boasting, foolish, empty; also anything waterish and unsavoury.
1755.The World, No. 149. Whose melodious voices give every syllable (not of a lean andflashy, but of a fat and plump song) its just emphasis.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 13, (ed. 1854). Vy it be … the gemman vot payed you soflashly.
1857. Song inDucange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 42. Your fogle you mustflashlytie.
1863.Speke,Journal of the Discovery of the Nile, p. 154.Flashilydressed in coloured cloths and a turban, he sat down in one of our chairs.
1864.Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. v. But he evinced no bad taste in the selection of a costume. He chose no gaudy colours, orflashilycut vestments.
1873.Cassell’s Magazine, Jan., p. 246, col. 2. They are rather prone to dressflashily, and wear, when in full fig, no end of jewellery.
1874.Mortimer Collins,Frances, ch. xvii. That wild set of people Captain Heath picked up with—members of Parliament andflashyyoung women—all driving four horses, I don’t know where.
1882.Century Magazine, xxvi., 295. As stones, they were cheap andflashy.
Flash-Tail,subs.(common).—A prostitute.—SeeTail.
1868.Temple Bar, xxiv., p. 538–9. Picking-up Moll … aflashtail? a prostitute who goes about the streets at nights trying to pick up toffs.
Flasher,subs.(old).—A high-flyer; a fop; a pretender to wit. For synonyms,seeDandy. Also (quot. 2), aBonnet(q.v.).
1779.D’Arblay,Diary, etc. (1876). vol. I., p. 185. They are reckoned theflashersof the place, yet everybody laughs at them for their airs, affectations, and tonish graces and impertinences.[14]
1880.Derbyshire Gatherer, p. 128. Long before this date (circa1800) the cant name offlasherwas applied to the man who sat by the table in the gambling-house to swear how many times he had seen lucky gamesters break the bank.
Flashery,subs.(old).—Inferior, or vulgar, elegance, dash, distinction, display.
Flash-yad,subs.(back-slang).—A day’s enjoyment. For synonyms,seeFlare-up.
Flashy BladeorSpark,subs. phr.(old).—Adandy(q.v.); now a cheap and noisy swell, whether male or female;Cf.,Flasher.
1719.Durfey,Pills,etc., vi., 104. In youth a nauseousflashy fop, in elder days a bore.
1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 40. For though all know thatflashy spark, etc.
Flat,subs.(colloquial).—1. A greenhorn; noddy; gull. For synonyms,seeBuffleandCabbage-head; alsoSammy-soft.
1762.Goldsmith,Life of Nash, in wks. p. 546 (Globe). Why, if you think me a dab I will get this strange gentleman, or this, pointing to theflat. Done! cries the sailor, but you shall not tell him.
1789.Geo.Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out forflats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is, cards.
1819.Moore,Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 59. Poor Johnny Raw, what madness could impel, So rum aflatto face so prime a swell.
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ He’s been upon the mill, And cos he gammons all theflatswe calls him Veepin Bill.
1841.Lytton,Night and Morning, bk. II., ch. ix. ‘Did he pay you for her?’ ‘Why, to be sure, he gave me a cheque on Coutt’s.’ ‘And you took it? My eyes? what aflat.’
1847.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-tree. He play, the youngflat!
1847.Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148. It mayn’t precisely please the moralflat. You won’t find fault with it, kind friends, for that.
1848.Thackeray,The Book of Snobs, ch. x. When he does play he always contrives to get hold of a goodflat.
1857.Ducange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 39. Fawney-droppers gammon theflatsand take the yokels in.
1866.Yates,Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die, talking over aflat, or winning money of a greenhorn.
1880.Mortimer Collins,Thoughts in My Garden, vol. II., p. 180. Their quack medicines that will cure everything, and their sales of invaluable articles at a loss, and a thousand other devices to catchflats.
1887.W. E. Henley,Villon’s Good-night. Youflatsand joskins great and small.
1889.Pall Mall Gazette, Sept. 21, p. 3, col. 1 (In a London Gambling Hell). Theflatswho play faro (Cross-heading).
2. (American thieves’).—An honest man.
3. (American). A lover’s dismissal; a jilting.
Adj.(colloquial and literary).—Downright; plain; straightforward; as inthat’s flat?aflat lie, “flat burglary,” etc.
1598.Shakspeare, 1King Henry IV., Act I., Sc. 3.Wor.: You start away, And lend no ear to my purposes. Those prisoners you shall keep.Hot.: Nay, I will;that’s flat.
1835–40.Haliburton,The Clockmaker, p. 6, preface (ed. 1862).
1848.Lowell,Fable for Critics, p. 19. (A fetch, I must say, most transparent andflat).
[There are other usages, more or less colloquial:e.g., Insipid; tame; dull: as in Macaulay’s “flatas champagne in decanters.” On the Stock Exchange.flat= without interest: Stock is borrowedflatwhen no interest is allowed by the lender as security for the due return of the scrip.][15]
Verb(American). To jilt.Cf.,subs., sense 3. For synonyms,seeMitten.