1871.De Vere,Americanisms, p. 602.To flat, in the West, means to jilt, and is probably derived from another slang phrase, ‘to feel flat,’ denoting the depression which is apt to follow such a disappointment.To feel flat,verb. phr.(American).—1. To be low-spirited; out of sorts;off colour(q.v.).1838.J. C. Neal,Charcoal Sketches. Not to hurt a gentleman’s feelings and to make himfeel flatafore the country.2. (American).—To fail; to give way. Also used substantively.Flat as a flounder(orPancake),phr.(colloquial).—Very flat indeed. Alsoflat as be blowed.1882.Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1.To brush up a flat.SeeBrusher.To pick up a flat,verb. phr.(prostitutes’). To find a client. Fr.,leverorfaire un miché(miche= bread, frommichon= money. CompareBreadwinner: underMonosyllable(q.v.)).1869.Greenwood,Seven Curses of London. On the chance that she will, in the course of the evening,pick up a flat.To have(ordo)a bit of flat,verb. phr.(venery).—To indulge in sexual intercourse. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Flat-back,subs.(common).—A bed-bug. For synonyms,seeNorfolk Howard.Flat-broke,adj.(colloquial).—Utterly ruined;dead-broke(q.v.).Flat-catcher,subs.(common).—An impostor.1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, i., 6.Cope(speaking of a horse). Well, Master Gull’em, do you think we shall get theflat-catcheroff to-day?1841.Blackwood’s Mag., l., 202. Buttoners are those accomplices of thimble-riggers … whose duty it is to act asflat-catchersor decoys, by personating flats.1856.Mayhew,Great World of London, p. 46. Andflat-catchers, or ‘ring-droppers,’ who cheat by pretending to find valuables in the street.1864.London Review, June 18, p. 643. ‘The Bobby’ or chinked-back horse, is another favouriteflat-catcher.1869.Whyte-Melville,M. or N., p. 110. Rather aflat-catcher, Tom? said that nobleman, between the whiffs of a cigar.Flat-catching,subs.(common).—Swindling.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, p. 118, The no-pinned hero, on being elevated, gave, as a toast, ‘Success toflat-catching,’ which produced roars of laughter and shouts of approbation.1869.Greenwood,Seven Curses of London. To mark the many kinds of bait that are used inflat-catching, as the turf slang has it.Flatch,adj.(back-slang).—A half.flatch-kennurd= half drunk;flatch-yenork= half-a-crown;flatch-yennep= a half-penny (seesubs., sense 1).Subs.1.—A half-penny. [An abbreviation offlatch-yennep.] For synonyms,seeMag.c.1866.Vance,The Chickaleary Cove. I doesn’t care aflatchas long as I’ve a tach.2.(coiners’).—A counterfeit half-crown. For synonyms,seeMadza.[16]Flat-cap,subs.(old).—A nickname for a citizen of London. [In Henry the Eight’s time flat round caps were the pink of fashion; but when their date was out, they became ridiculous. The citizens continued to wear them long after they were generally disused, and were often satirized for their fidelity].1596.Ben Jonson,Every Man in H., ch. ii., v. 1. Mock me all over From myflat-capunto my shining shoes.1602.Dekker,Honest Whore. Old Plays, iii., 304. Come, Sirrah, youflat-cap, where be those whites?1605.Marston,Dutch Court, ii., 1. Wealthyflat-capsthat pay for their pleasure the best of any men in Europe.1613.BeaumontandFletcher,Hon. Man’s Fort., v. 3. Trade? to the city, child: aflat-capwill become thee.Flat-cock,subs.(old).—A female. [Grose, 1785.] For synonyms,seePetticoat.Flat-feet,subs.(common).—Specifically the Foot Guards, but also applied to other regiments of the line. Also (generally with some powerful adjective), applied to militia men to differentiate them from linesmen. For synonyms,seeMud-crusher.Flat-fish, (generally,a regular flat-fish)subs.(common).—A dullard. [A play uponflat= stupid, andFish= something tohookor catch.] For synonyms,seeBuffle,Cabbage-Head, andSammy-Soft.Cf., Fr.,platpied= a contemptible fellow.Flat-footed,adj.(American).—Downright; resolute; honest. [Western: the simile, common to most languages, is of a man standing, his back to the wall, resolute to accomplish his purpose.]1858.Harper’s Magazine, Sept. His herculean frame, and bold,flat-footedway of saying things, had impressed his neighbours, and he held the rod in terrorism over them.1871.Philadelphia Bulletin, Mar. 23. ‘The row at St. Clement’s Church.’ Now the Committee of the vestry put theirfoot flatlydown on auricular confession and priestly absolution.1887.R. A. Proctor,Knowledge, June 1. When, in America, General Grant said he hadput his foot downand meant to advance in that line if it took him all the summer, he conveyed … the American meaning of the expressionflat-footed.Flat-head,subs.(American).—A greenhorn; asammy-soft(q.v.).Flat-iron,subs.(common).—A corner public house. [From the triangular shape.]FlattieorFlatty,subs.(common).—A gull. [A diminutive offlat, sense 1.] Formerly‘cheap-jacks’ = one in a new ‘pitch.’1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. They betray to theflatties(natives) all their profits and proceedings.Flat-move,subs.(old).—An attempt or project that miscarries; folly and mismanagement generally.—Grose.Flats,subs.(old). 1. Playing cards. For synonyms,seeKing’s Books.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 56. We played atflatsin a budging-crib.2. (old).—False dice. For synonyms,seeFulhams.[17]3. (old).—Base money.Mahogany flats,subs. phr.(common).—Bed-bugs. For synonyms,seeNorfolk Howards.Flats and Sharps,subs. phr.(old).—Weapons.1818.Scott,Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘I have known many a pretty lad cut short in his first summer upon the road, because he was something hasty with hisflats and sharps.’Flatten Out,verb. phr.(American).—To get the better of (in argument or fight). For synonyms,seeFloor.Flattened-out= ruined; beaten.Flatter-trap,subs.(common).—The mouth. Fr.,la menteuse, but for synonyms,seePotato-trap.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flatty-ken,subs.(thieves’).—Seequot.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 261. Some take up their abode in what they callflatty-kens, that is, houses the landlord of which is not ‘awake’ or ‘fly’ to the ‘moves’ and dodges of the trade.Flawed,ppl. adj.(common).—1. Half drunk; ‘a little crooked’; quick-tempered.—Grose.For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (venery).—‘Cracked in the ring’;i.e., deflowered.Flay(orflay the fox),verb. phr.(old).—To vomit: ‘from the subject to the effect,’ saysCotgrave; ‘for the flaying of so stinking a beast is like enough to make them spue that feel it.’ Now,to shoot the cat. For synonyms,seeAccountsandCast up Accounts.Cf.,Fox,verb, sense 1.1653.Urquhart,Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xi. He wouldflay the fox.2. (American).—To clean out by unfair means.To flayorskin a flint,verb. phr.(old).—To be mean or miserly.SeeSkinflint.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. He’llflayorskinn a flintof a Meer Scrat or Miser.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, vol. II., p. 194 (ed. 1846). Report says she wouldskin a flintif she could.FlaybottomorFlaybottomist,subs.(common).—A schoolmaster, with a play on the word phlebotomist = a blood-letter.—Grose.Fr.,fouette-cul; and (Cotgrave) “Fesse-cul, a pedantical whip-arse.”Flavour,to catch(orget)the flavour.verb. phr.(common).—1. To be intoxicated. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (venery). To be ‘half-on’ for coition; to waxproud(q.v.): said of men and women both.Flax,verb.(American).—To beat severely;to give it hot(q.v.). For synonyms,seeTan.Flax-wench,subs.(old).—A prostitute. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, i., 2. My wife’s a hobby-horse; deserves a name As rank as anyflax-wench.[18]Flea.To send away with a flea in the ear.verb. phr.(common).—To dismiss with vigour and acerbity.1854.Notes and Queries, 8 Apl., p. 322, col. 2. The luckless applicant is peremptorily dismissed with an imperative ‘flee!’ … or, facetiously,with a flee in his ear.To have a flea in the ear= (1) to fail in an enterprise; and (2) to receive a scolding, or annoying suggestion.To sit on a bag of fleas,verb. phr.(common).—To sit uncomfortably;on a bag of hen fleas= very uncomfortablyindeed.To catch fleas for,verb. phr.(venery).—To be on terms of extreme intimacy:e.g., ‘I catch her fleas for her’ = She has nothing to refuse me.Cf., Shakspeare (Tempest, III., 2.), ‘Yet a tailor might scratch her wheree’er she did itch.’In a flea’s leap,adv. phr.(old).—In next to no time;instanter(q.v.).Flea-and-louse,subs.(rhyming slang). A house. For synonyms,seeKen.Flea-bag,subs.(common).—A bed; Fr.un pucier. For synonyms,seeKip.1839.Lever,Harry Lorrequer, ch. xl. ‘Troth, and I think the gentleman would be better if he went off to hisflea-baghimself.’Flea-bite,subs.(old).—A trifle.1630.Taylor,Works. If they doe lose by pirates, tempests, rocks, ’Tis but afleabiteto their wealthy stockes; Whilst the poore cutpurse day and night doth toile, Watches and wardes, and doth himselfe turmoile.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flea-biting,subs.(old).—A trifle.1621.Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy. Their miseries are butflea-bitingsto thine.Flea-(orFlay-)Flint,subs.(old.)—A miser:Cf.,Skin flint(q.v.).1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 141.Theflea-flints… strip me bare.Flear,verb.(old).—To grin. Aflearing fool= a grinning idiot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fleece,subs.(old).—An act of theft.Cf., old proverb, ‘to go out to shear and come home shorn.’ For synonyms,seeSkin.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fleece, to Rob, Plunder, or strip.1703.Mrs. Centlivre,Beau’s Duel, ii., 2. Had afleeceat his purse.2. (venery).—The female pubic hair. Fr.toison(Baudelaire); It.,barbiglioni(Florio). For foreign synonyms,seeMott.English Synonyms.—Banner (Durfey); bandoliers (old); beard; bearskin; belly-bristles; belly-thicket; belly-whiskers; Boskage of Venus; broom; brush; bush; cat-skin; clover-field; cunny-skin (Durfey); Cupid’s Arbour; cunt-curtain; damber-, dilberry-, gooseberry-, furze-, quim-, or whin-bush; down; Downshire; front-doormat; feather (Prior and Moore); fluff; forest (Donne); fud (Burns); fur; fur-below (old catch); ‘grove of eglantine’ (Carew); hedge on[19]the dyke; lower-wig (Burton); moss; mott-carpet; mustard-and-cress; nether eye-brow (or -lashes); nether-whiskers; parsley (Durfey); plush; quim-whiskers; quim-wig; scut (Shakspeare); shaving-brush (cf.,Lather); scrubbing-brush; shrubbery; sporran; stubble (seePointer); sweet-briar; thatch; tail-feathers; ‘toupee’;‘tufted honours’; twat-rug.Verb(now recognised).—To cheat; to shear or be shorn (as a sheep).1593.Nashe,Christ’s Teares, in wks. (Grosart) IV. 140. Tell me (almost) what gentleman hath been cast away at sea, or disasterly souldiourizd it by lande, but they (usurers) have enforst him thereunto by theirfleecing.1598.Shakspeare,I King Henry IV., ii., 2. Down with them:fleecethem!1620.Dekker,His Dreame, in wks. (Grosart) III. 52. Catchpolles, and varlets, who did poore menfleece(To their undoing) for a twelve-peny peece.1712.Arbuthnot,Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. ii. When a poor man has almost undone himself for thy sake, thou art forfleecinghim.1822.Scott,Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. He is now squeezed andfleecedby them on every pretence.1836.M. Scott,Cruise of the Midge, p. 106. He was stabbed by the Ragamuffin he hadfleeced.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. xxxi. Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion andfleecesthem.1859.Times, 25 Oct. ‘Review of Dean Ramsay’sReminiscences.’ I don’t know whether they are black or white sheep, but I know that if they are long there they are pretty certain to befleeced.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 16 Jan. How you would befleeced! You’ve got a lot to learn yet.Hencefleeced= ruined;dead-broke(q.v.for synonyms).Fleecer,subs.(old).—A thief.1600–69.Prynne,Breviate. Notfleecers, but feeders.Fleece-Hunter, or-Monger,subs. phr.(venery).—A whore-master. For synonyms,seeMolrower.Fleeter-Face,subs.(old).—A pale-face; a coward.Cf., Shakspeare’s ‘cream-faced loon.’1647.BeaumontandFletcher,Queen of Corinth. You know where you are, youfleeter-face.Fleet-Note,subs.(old).—A forged note.1821.Real Life in London.Fleet of the Desert,subs. phr.(common).—A caravan;cf.,ship of the desert= camel.Fleet-Street,subs. phr.(colloquial).—The estate of journalism, especially journalism of the baser sort.Fleet-Streeter,subs.(colloquial).—A journalist of the baser sort; a spungingprophet(q.v.); a sharking dramatic critic; aspicy(q.v.) paragraphist; and so on.Fleet-Streetese,subs. phr.(colloquial).—The so-called English, written to sell by theFleet-Streeter(q.v.), or baser sort of journalist: a mixture of sesquipedalians and slang, of phrases worn threadbare and phrases sprung from the kennel; of bad grammar and worse manners; the like of which is impossible outsideFleet-Street(q.v.), but which inFleet-Streetcommands a price, and enables not a few to live.[20]Fleg,verb.(old).—To whip.Bailey.Flemish Account,subs. phr.(old).—A remittance less than was expected; hence, an unsatisfactory account. [Among the Flemings (the merchants of Western Europe when commerce was young) accounts were kept in livres, sols, and pence; but the livre or pound only = 12s., so that what the Antwerp merchant called one livre thirteen and fourpence would in English currency be only 20s.]1668.T. Brown,The Accurate Accomptant, etc. Quoted inN. and Q.1. S. I., 286. London, August 10th, 1668. To Roger Pace, Factor, etc., for 10 pieces cont. 746 Ells Fl. at 10s. Flem. per Ell is £373 Flem. Exchange at 35s. makes Sterling Money £213 2s. 10d.1774–1826.Typ. Antiq., p. 1773. A person resident in London is said to have had most of Caxton’s publications. He sent them to Amsterdam for inspection, and on writing for them was informed that they had been destroyed by accident. ‘I am very much afraid,’ says Herbert, ‘my kind friend received but aFlemishaccountof his Caxton’s.’1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tong.Flemish account, a losing or bad account.Flesh,subs.(old).—Generic for the organs of generation, male or female. Also (of women)Fleshly-part.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, iv., 3. She would not exchangefleshwith one that loved her.1605.Cymbeline, i., 5. If you buy ladies’fleshat a million a dram you cannot preserve it from tainting.1620.Percy,Folio MSS.[Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘As I was ridinge by the way.’ Sweet hart, shall I put myfleshin thine?Flesh,verb., or,Flesh It; or,to be fleshed in(venery).—To have carnal knowledge of—to be ‘one flesh with’—a woman. [For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.] An equivalent in the passive sense isto feel his flesh in one’s body(said by women only).1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes, Andar in Carnafau. To go afleshingor a wenching: (Carnafau= thebrat-getting place; the hole of content).Flesh and Blood,subs. phr.(common).—Brandy and port in equal proportions.SeeDrinks.Flesh-bag,subs.(common).—A shirt or chemise.English Synonyms.—Biled rag (American); camesa; carrion-case; commission; dickey (formerly a worn-out shirt); gad (gipsy); lully; mill tog; mish; narp (Scots’); shaker; shimmy (= a chemise, Marryat); smish.French Synonyms.—Une liquetteorlimace(thieves’: from the Gypsy. The form also occurs also in the Italianlima);un panais(popular).German Synonyms.—Kamis,Kamsel,Kemsel, orGemsel(from med. Lat.,Camisiale; Fr.camisole);Kesones,Kusones, orKsones(also = cotton and underclothing);StaudeorStauden;Hanfstandt(Liber Vagatorum: literallyhempshrub).Italian Synonym.—Lima(seeFr.,limace).1820.London Magazine;i., 29. They are often without aflesh-bagto their backs.Flesh-broker,subs.(old).—1. A match-maker.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flesh-broker, a match-maker; also a bawd; between whom but little difference, for they both (usually) take money.2. A procuress [Grose].Cf.,Flesh-fly,Flesh-monger,[21]andFlesh-market. For synonyms,seeMother.Flesh-fly(also,Flesh-maggot),subs.(old).—A whoremaster. For synonyms,seeMolrower.1781.Cowper,Progress of Error, 323–324. Oh! that a verse had power, and could command far, Far away, theseflesh-fliesof the land.Flesh-market, orFlesh-shambles,subs.(common).—A brothel orflash-house(q.v.); also the pavement, in Piccadilly or Regent-street, for instance, where whores do congregate.Cf.,Meatmarket.1608.John Day,Humour out of Breath, II.I Asp.… She may bee well discended; if shee be, Shee’s fit for love, and why not then for me.Boy.And you be not fitted in Venice ’tis straunge, for ’tis counted the bestflesh-shamblesin Italie.Flesh-monger,subs.(old).—A procurer; a whore-master. [From Eng.Flesh+monger]. For synonyms,seeMotherandMolrower.Cf.,Flesh-fly,Flesh-market, andFlesh-broker.1603.Shakspeare,Measure for Measure, V., 1. And was the duke aflesh-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?Fleshmongering.To go flesh-mongering,verb. phr.(venery).—To quest for women; togo on the prowl(q.v.)., orafter meat.SeeGreensandRide.Flesh-pot.Sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt.phr.(common).—Hankering for good things no longer at command. [Biblical].1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 131. Do you think it is ahankering after the flesh-pots, and that the canon’s cook reconciles me to the canon’s opinions?Flesh-tailor,subs.(old).—A surgeon. For synonyms,seeSawbones.1633.Ford,’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, iii. Oh, help! help! help! Oh, for aflesh-tailorquickly.Fleshy,subs.(Winchester College).—SeeCat’s Head.Fletch,subs.(prison). A spurious coin.Cf.,Flatch.Flick, orFlig,subs.(colloquial).—1. A cut with a whip-lash; hence, a blow of any sort. Aflickingis often administered by schoolboys with a damp towel or pocket-handkerchief. For synonyms,seetanning.1750.Fielding,Tom Jones, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘I do know you are a woman,’ cries the squire, ‘and it’s well for thee, that art one; if had’st been a man, I promise thee I had lent thee aflicklong ago.’1787.Grose,Provincial Glossary, s.v.vlick.2. (common).—A jocular salutation; usuallyold flick.Cf.,CodgerandMy Tulip.1883.Punch, 28 July, p. 38, col. 1. Well, last night, They’d a feet in these gardens,old flick, as was something too awfully quite.Verb.(thieves’).—1. To cut.1690.B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flicking,c., to cut, cutting.1728.Bailey,Eng. Dict.(flickis given as a ‘country word’).1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue.Flickme some pannam and cassan, cut me some bread and cheese;flickthe peter, cut off the cloak bag or portmanteau.[22]1791.Carew,Life and Adventures,q.v.1837.Disraeli,Venetia, ch. xiv.Flickthe bread, cut the bread.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum,or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flickthe Peter and rake the swag for I want to pad my beaters.2. (colloquial).—To strike with, or as with, a whip.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xliii. Near him, leaning listlessly against the wall, stood a strong-built countryman,flickingwith a worn-out hunting whip the top-boot that adorned his right foot.1852.Dickens,Bleak House, ch. xxvii. Who … receives this compliment byflickingMr. George in the face with a head of greens.1854.Our Cruise in the Undine, p. 103. It appeared to us that one of the most frequent, and therefore we supposed the principal stroke aimed at (in a Heidelberg duel), was to strike your sword low down, perhaps four inches from the handle, upon your adversary’s bandaged arm, so that the end of the weapon (the only part that is sharpened) shouldFlickitself against your opponent’s face.1863.Hon. Mrs. Norton,Lost and Saved, p. 29. Drivers shouting, swearing, andflickingat the horses.Flicker,subs.(Old Cant).—A drinking glass.1690.B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flicker,c., a drinking-glass;Flicker snapt,c., the glass is broken;Nim the flicker,c., steal the glass;Rum flicker,c., a large glass or rummer;Queer flicker,c., a green or ordinary glass.French Synonyms.—Une lampe(masons’);un guindal(popular);un godet(very old);une gobette(thieves’);un gobeson(thieves’).Verb.1. To drink.—Matsell.2. (old).—To laugh wantonly; also to kiss, or lewdly fondle a woman.—Palsgrave.For synonyms,seeFirkytoodle.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.Flicker, to grin or flout.AlsoFlicking= (1) drinking, and (2) wanton laughter.Let her flicker,phr.(American).—Said of any doubtful issue: ‘let the matter take its chance.’Flicket-a-Flacket,adv.(old).—Onomatopoetic for a noise of flapping and flicking.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 20. Their bellies wentflicket-a-flacket.FlierorFlyer,subs.(racing and yachting).—1. A horse or boat of great speed; also (American railway) a fast train; hence, by implication, anything of excellence.Cf.,Dasher,Daisy, etc. Alsoadj., = keen for.1865.Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. xxii. The mare’s in splendid condition; well, you saw her take her trial gallop the other morning, and you must know she’s aflier, so I won’t talk about her.1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 156. Atalanta might be aflyer, but an artist like Pycroft, with a clever colt like Newsmonger under him, was quite likely to outride whatever boy Mr. Pipes might now be able to pick up.1888.St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 2 Mar. In spite of the strike passenger trains, what are known as theflyers, are running with reasonable regularity.1890.Bird o’ Freedom, 19 Mar., p. 1, col. 1. Clearly theG.O.M.is noflierover this course.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 Mar. Although he may doubtless be made a good deal better he may turn out to be noflier.1891.Bury and Hillier,Cycling, p. 6. A moderate rider, not being an athlete or aflier… can … get over in an hour seven or eight miles of ground on a tricycle.[23]1891.Anti-Jacobin, 23 May, p. 400. When Dangerous, Plenipotentiary, Bay Middleton, and otherflyersran.1891.Morning Advertiser, 28 Mar. In any event, he was never aflyerat breakfast. But late at night, and when, perhaps, he tumbled across something equivalent to woodcock, tripe and onions, or a hot lobster, say, why then, take my word for it, he made up for previous abstinence.1891.National Observer, 1 Aug. It remains to be seen whether large yachts constructed on the same principle will be equally invincible: that is, if theflyerswe have are one and all to disappear.2. (football).—A shot in the air.SeeMade-flyer.3. (American).—A small hand-bill; aDodger(q.v.).To take a flier(American trade).—1. To make a venture; to invest against odds.2. (venery).—To copulate in haste (Grose); to do aFast-fuck(q.v.).Flies,subs.(rhyming).—Lies. Hence, nonsense; trickery; deceit.There are no flies on me, on him, etc.,phr.(common).—‘I am dealing honestly with you;’ ‘he is genuine, and is not humbugging.’ In America, the expression is used of (1) a man of quick parts, a man who ‘knows a thing without its being kicked into him by a mule’; and (2) a person of superior breeding or descent. Sometimes the phrase is corrupted into ‘no fleas.’SeeGammon.1868.Diprose, St. Clement Danes,Past and Present. To Deaf Burke, the celebrated pugilist, is attributed the old story of the ‘flies and the gin and water;’and hence the term ‘no flies’ became prevalent. Burke had ordered … some ‘hot and strong and a dash of lemon.’ The goblet was brought … Burke raised … the nectar to his lips, and beheld some dissipated flies lying at the bottom of the tumbler; he placed the glass on the table, and deliberately removed the flies with the spoon, five or six in number, and laid them side by side before him, and then giving a hearty pull at the gin and water, he as deliberately replaced the flies … and passed it to his friend. His companion stared angrily. ‘Do you dare to insult me, and in the presence of company?’ said the iratevis-à-vis. ‘Pardon me,’ replied Burke, quietly handing the glass a second time, ‘though I don’t drinkfliesmyself, I didn’t know but what others might.’1888.Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug.There ain’t no flies on him, signifies, that he is not quiet long enough for moss to grow on his heels, that he is wide awake.1888.Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. People who are capable of descending to New York and Boston English are fully justified in saying thatthere are no flies on St. Louisor the St. Louis delegation either.Fligger(alsoFlicker),verb.(old).—To grin.1720.Durfey,Pills, etc., vi., 267. Hefliggered, and told me for all my brave alls He would have a stroke.Flim.—SeeFlimsy.Flim-flam,subs.(old).—An idle story; a sham; aRobin Hoodtale(q.v.). A duplication ofFlam(q.v.).1589.Pappe with an Hatchet(ed. 1844) p. 39. Trusse up thy packet offlim-flams, and roage to some countrey faire, or read it among boyes in the belfrie.1630.Taylor,Workes. They with a courtly tricke, or aflim-flam, do nod at me, whilst I the noddy am.1750.Fielding,Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. xii. I thought thou had’st been a lad of higher mettle than to give way to a parcel of maidenish tricks. I tell thee ’tis allflim-flam.1780.Mrs. Cowley,The Belle’s Stratagem, iii., 1. Mr. Curate, don’t think to come over me with yourflim-flams, for a better man than ever trod in your shoes is coming over-sea to marry me.[24]1805.Isaac Disraeli,Flim-flams;or the Life and Errors of my Uncle, and the Amours of my Aunt[title].1825.C. Lamb,Munden(inLondon Magazine) Feb. I wonder you can put suchflim-flamsupon us, sir.Adj.(old).—Idle; worthless.1589.Nashe,Month’s Minde, in wks. Vol. I., p. 174. But to leaue thyflim-flamtales and loytering lies.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes.Filastroccola,flim-flamtales, old wiues tales as they tell when they spinne, a tale without rime or reason, or head or foote.1633.T. Newton,Lennie’s Touch-stone of Complexions, p. 120. Reporting aflim-flamtale of Robin Hood.1750.Ozell’sRabelais, vol. V., p. 247. Glibly swallow down everyflim-flamstory that’s told them.1853.Lytton,My Novel, bk. X., ch. xix. I wish you’d mind the child—it is crumpling up and playing almighty smash with thatflim-flambook, which cost me one pound one.Flimp,verb.(thieves’)—1. To hustle or rob.To put on the flimp= to rob on the highway. For synonyms,seeCrackandPrig.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 111. To take a man’s watch is toflimphim, it can only be done in a crowd, one gets behind and pushes him in the back, while the other in front is robbing him.1857.Snowden,Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 445, s.v.2. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeRide.Flimping,subs.(thieves’).—Stealing from the person.1857.Ducange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 38. He told me as Bill hadflimpeda yack.1862.Cornhill Mag., vol. vi., p. 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, etc.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. lx.Flimpingis a style of theft which I have never practised, and, consequently of which I know nothing.Flimsy, orFlim,subs.(common).—1. A bank-note. [From the thinness of the paper.]Soft-flimsy= a note drawn on ‘The Bank of Elegance,’ or ‘The Bank of Engraving.’ For synonyms,seeSoft.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1818.P. Egan,Boxiana, iv., 443. Martin produced someflimsiesand said he would fight on Tuesday next.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(‘Merchant of Venice’). Not ‘kites,’manufactured to cheat and inveigle, But the right sort of‘flimsy,’all sign’d, by Monteagle.1855.Punch, XXIX., 10. ‘Will you take it inflimsies, or will you have it all in tin?’1870.Chambers’ Journal, 9 July, p. 448. ‘What would it be worth?’ ‘Aflim, Sam.’1884.Daily Telegraph, 8 Apl., col. 3. One of the slang terms for a spurious bank-note is asoft-flimsy.1891.Hume Nisbet,Bail Up!p. 149. Next morning when I went to the bank to collect the swag, they stopped theflimsy, and had me arrested before I could look round.2. (journalists’).—News of all kinds;points(q.v.). [From the thin prepared paper used by pressmen for making several copies at once]. First used at Lloyd’s.1861.Cornhill Magazine, iv., 199 ‘At Westminster,’ my lord is neither a mumbling nor a short-tempered judge; he will … read them a great deal of his notes, which are a thousand-fold clearer, fuller, and more accurate than the reporter’sflimsy.1865.Morning Star(‘The Flaneur’). A London correspondent, who, by the aid offlimsymisleads a vast number of provincial papers.1870.London Figaro, 23 Sept. ‘Special Lining.’ We do not think it is[25]altogether worthy of the high repute of thePall Mall Gazetteto publishflimsyas a special correspondence.1876.BesantandRice,Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The sharpest of the reporters had hisflimsyup in a minute, and took notes of the proceedings.Flinders,subs.(common).—Pieces infinitesimally small.1870.New York Evening Sun, 24 May. Report of Speech of Mr. Chandler. Let us knock the British crown toflinders; let us arrange for some one or two hundred thousand British graves forthwith, and cabbage the whole boundless continent without any further procrastination.Fling,subs.(colloquial).—1. A fit of temper.2. (common).—A jeer; a jibe; a personal allusion or attack.1592.Shakspeare,I Henry VI., iii., 1. Then would I have aflingat Winchester.1888.Star, 10 Oct. Those writers who had aflingat Iddesleigh after his poor running at Stockton will have to take their words back some day.1890.Pall Mall Gazette, 24 July, p. 4. col. 2. As the disputants warmed up, little personalflingswere of course introduced.Verb(old).—1. To cheat; to get the best of; todo(q.v.) or diddle.—Grose.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xxi.Flungthe governor out of a guinea.2. (Scots).—To dance.1790.Burns,Tam O’ Shanter. To tell how Maggie lapt andflang(A souple jaud she was, and strang).3. (venery).—To move in the act; toback-up(q.v.). Fr., ‘frizer la queue= to wriggle the tayle (in leachering).’—Cotgrave.1539.David Lyndsay,Three Estaitis, Works (Ed. Laing, Edinburgh, 1879). I traist sche sal find youflingingyour fill.To Fling Out,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To depart in a hurry, and, especially, in a temper.To fling(orflap)it in one’s face,verb. phr.(prostitutes’).—To expose the person.In a fling,adv. phr.(colloquial).—In a spasm of temper.To have one’s fling,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To enjoy full liberty of action or conduct.Cf.,High Old Time.1624.Beaumont and Fletcher,Rule a Wife, &c., iii., 5. I’ll have afling.1846–8.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiii. Hang it; the regiment’s just back from the West Indies, I musthave a little fling, and then when I’m married I’ll reform.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, II., 118. I don’t want to marry until Ihave had my fling, you know.1880.Gilbert,Pirates of Penzance. Peers will be peers, And youth willhave his fling.1891.Hume Nisbet,Bail Up!p. 253. If policy (police) show up, then you let mehave my fling, eh?To fling dirt.—Seedirt.Flinger,subs.(Scots).—A dancer.1821.Scott,Pirate, ch. ix. That’s as muckle as to say, that I suld hae minded you was aflingerand a fiddler yoursel’, Maister Mordaunt.Fling-Dust,subs.(old).—A street-walker. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.Flint,subs.(workmen’s). A man working for a ‘Union’ or ‘fair’ house; non-Unionists aredung(q.v.). Both terms occur in Foote’s burlesque,The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather, and they received a fresh lease of popularity during the tailors’[26]strike of 1832.Seequots.Cf.,Scab Soc,Snob,Snob-stick, andKnobstick.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue,flints, journeyman taylors who, on a late occasion, refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted were by the mutineers stiled dungs,i.e., dunghills.1832.P. Egan,Book of Sports, p. 34. Jack Reeve is without a rival; the throne of theflintsis decidedly freehold property to him.1834.Noctes Amb., xxxiv., vol. IV., p. 83. (The company is discussing the tailors’ strike).Tickler.Theflintsflash fire, and the day of the dungs is gone.Old flint,subs. phr.(common). A miser: one who would ‘skin a flint,’i.e., stoop to any meanness for a trifle.1840.Dickens,Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 34. It’s equally plain that the money which theold flint—rot him—first taught me to expect that I should share with her at his death, will all be hers.To fix one’s flint.SeeFix.To flint in,verb. phr.(American). To act with energy; not to stand on ceremony; to pitch into; to tackle. A verb of action well-nigh as common asfix(q.v.).Flip,subs.(common).—1. Hot beer, brandy, and sugar; also, says Grose, calledSir Cloudesleyafter Sir Cloudesley Shovel.SeeDrinks.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.flip, Sea Drink, of small beer (chiefly) and brandy, sweetened and spiced upon occasion.1690.Ward,London Spy, part II., p. 41. After the drinking a Kan of Phlip or a Bowl of Punch.1705.Ward,Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. 4, p. 8. So have I seen on board of ship, Some knawing beeff, some spewingflip.1748.Smollett,Rod. Random, ch.xxiv. He … sent for a can of beer, of which he made excellentflipto crown the banquet.1810.Crabbe,The Borough, Letter 16. Nay, with the seamen working in the ship, At their request, he’d share the grog andflip.1875.C. D. Warner,Backlog Studies, p. 18. It was thought best to heat the poker red-hot before plunging it into the mugs offlip.2. (popular).—A bribe or douceur.3. (common).—A light blow, or snatch.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 23. Barney made a very unceremoniousflipat the bit.Verb(thieves’).—To shoot.1819.Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood(ed.1864), p. 273.Fliphim, Dick; fire, or I’m taken.To flip up,verb. phr.(American).—To spin a coin.1879.New York Tribune, 4 Oct. The two great men couldflip upto see which should have the second place.Flip-Flap,subs.1 (old).—A flighty creature.1702.Vanbrugh,False Friend. 1. The light airyflip-flap, she kills him with her motions.2. (popular). A step-dance; acellar-flap(q.v.). Also (acrobats’); a kind of somersault, in which the performer throws himself over on his hands and feet alternately.1727.Gay,Fables, ‘Two Monkies.’ The tumbler whirls theflip-flapround. With sommersets he shakes the ground.1872.Braddon,Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xiv. There ain’t nothing you can’t do, Morty, from Shylock to aflip-flap.[27]1889.Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. There were the clowns who danced, turned somersaults,flip-flaps, and contorted themselves.3. (American). A kind of tea-cake.1876.BesantandRice,Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The first evening I took tea with Mrs. Scrimmager. ‘It must be more than a mite lonely for you,’ she said, as we sat over her dough-nuts andflip-flaps.4. (nautical). The arm. For synonyms,seeBender.5. (venery). Thepenis.1653.Urquhart,Rabelais, I., 20. I might have cleft her water-gap And joined it close with myflip-flap.Flipper,subs.(nautical and common). 1. The hand.Tip us your flipper= give me your hand. [From the flipper or paddle of a turtle.] For synonyms,seeDaddleandMauley.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Lay of St. Gengulphus.’ With those great sugar-nippers they nipp’d off hisflippers, As the clerk, very flippantly, termed his fists.1884.Punch, 11 Oct. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Old Bluebottletipped me his flipper, and ’oped I’d ‘refreshed,’ and all that.2. (common).SeeFlapper.3. (theatrical). Part of a scene, hinged and painted on both sides, used in trick changes.Flirtatious,adj.(American).—Flighty.1881,W. D. Howells,D. Breen’s Practice, ch. i., “Oh, you needn’t look afterher, Mr. Libby! There’s nothingflirtatiousabout Grace,” said Mrs. Maynard.Flirt-gill,Flirtgillian, orGill-flirt,subs.(old). A wanton; achopping girl(q.v.); specifically a strumpet. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1595.Shakspeare,Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Scurvy knave! I am none of hisflirt-gills.1713.Guardian, No. 26. We are invested with a parcel offlirt-gills, who are not capable of being mothers of brave men.1729.Gay,Polly, ii. 4. While a man is grappling with thesegill-flirts, pardon the expression, Captain, he runs his reason aground.1822.Scott,Fort. of Nigel, ch. v. She is a dutiful girl to her god-father, though I sometimes call her ajill-flirt.Flirtina Cop-all,subs. phr.(common). A wanton, young or old; amen’s woman(q.v.).Float,subs.(theatrical).—The footlights: before the invention of gas they were oil-pans with floating wicks.Cf.,Ark-floater.1886.Saturday Review, 24 July, p. 108. To an actor thefloatis not what it is to a fisherman.1889.Answers, 8 June, p. 24. He slapped me on the back, put me in a hansom, and cried, ‘We’ll have you behind thefloat(footlights) in a week.’If that’s the way the stick floats.SeeStick.Floater,subs.(Stock Exchange).—An Exchequer bill; applied also to other unfunded stock.1871.Temple Bar, XXXI., 320. On the Stock Exchange, where slang abounds,floatersis a term which would puzzle outsiders.Floatersare Exchequer bills and their unfunded stock.2. (common).—A suet dumpling in soup.3. (political).—A vendible voter.1883.Graphic, 17 Mar., p. 279, col. 3. ‘How many voters are there?’ asked a candidate in one of these pure-blooded[28]Yankee townships. ‘Four hundred.’ ‘And how manyfloaters,i.e., purchasable?’ ‘Four hundred.’1888.New York Herald, 4 Nov. The Building Materials Exchange people were in line to the number of about 200, with a band, and were followed by a sixteen-horse stage of the ‘Long Tom’ shape containing a lot offloatersand some fifers and drummers.4. (Western American).—A candidate representing several counties, and therefore not considered directly responsible to any one of them.1853.Texas State Gazette, 16 July. J. W. Lawrence, Esq., requests us to withdraw his name as a candidate forfloaterin the district composed of the counties of Fayette, Bastrop, and Travis.5. (venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Floating Academy,subs. phr.(old).—The hulks; alsoCampbell’s academy(q.v.), andfloating hell(q.v.). For synonyms,seeCage.Floating Batteries,subs. phr.(military).—1. Broken bread in tea; alsoslingers(q.v.).2. (American).—The Confederate bread rations during the Secession.Floating Coffin,subs. phr.(nautical).—A rotten ship.Floating Hell, orHell Afloat,subs. phr.(nautical).—A ship commanded by (1) a brutal savage, or (2) a ruthless disciplinarian.SeealsoFloating Academy.Flock,subs.(colloquial).—A clergyman’s congregation. Also any body of people with a common haunt or interest:e.g., a family of children, a company of soldiers, a school of girls or boys, ‘a cabful of molls,’ and such like.To fire into the wrong flock,verb. phr.(American pioneers’).—To blunder. A variant isto bark up the wrong tree.1858.New York Herald, 9 Nov. When Mr. Saulsbury rose and called the Speaker’s attention to the alleged blunder in the Secretary’s report, his own friends jumped up in great excitement and pulled him down; he soon found out that he hadfired into the wrong flock.Flock of Sheep,subs. phr.—1. (gaming). A hand at dominoes set out on the table.2. (colloquial).—White waves on the sea:White horses(q.v.).Flog,subs.(American thieves’).—1. A whip. A contraction ofFlogger(q.v.).To flog(now recognised), is cited by B. E. (1690),Grose, and the author ofBacchus and Venusas Cant.To be flogged at the tumbler,verb. phr.(old).—To be whipped at the cart’s tail.SeeTumbler.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.To flog the dead horse,verb. phr.(common).—1. To work up an interest in a bygone subject; to try against heart; to do with no will nor liking for the job. [Bright said that Earl Russell’s Reform Bill was adead horse(q.v.), and every attempt to create enthusiasm in its favour wasflogging the dead horse.]2. (nautical).—To work off an advance of wages.[29]To flog a willing horse,verb. phr.(common).—To urge on one who is already putting forth his best energies.Flogger,subs.(old).—1. A whip;cf.,Flog.Grosegives the word as Cant. Fr.,un bouis.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 173, s.v.2. (theatrical).—A mop (i.e., a bunch of slips of cloth on a handle) used in the painting room to whisk the charcoal dust from a sketch.Flogging,ppl. adj.(old).—Careful; penurious.Flogging-cove,subs. phr.(prison)—1. An official who administers thecat(q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flogging cove, c. the Beadle, or Whipper in Bridewell, or any such place.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flogging-cove, the beadle, or whipper, in Bridewell.2.SeeFlogging Cully.Flogging Cully,subs. phr.(venery).—A man addicted, whether from necessity or choice, to flagellation; awhipster(q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flogging, c. a Naked Woman’s whipping (with rods) an Old (usually) and (sometimes) a young Lecher.Flogging Stake,subs. phr.(old).—A whipping post.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.Flogster,subs.(old).—One addicted to flogging. Specifically (naval), a nickname applied to the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV).
1871.De Vere,Americanisms, p. 602.To flat, in the West, means to jilt, and is probably derived from another slang phrase, ‘to feel flat,’ denoting the depression which is apt to follow such a disappointment.To feel flat,verb. phr.(American).—1. To be low-spirited; out of sorts;off colour(q.v.).1838.J. C. Neal,Charcoal Sketches. Not to hurt a gentleman’s feelings and to make himfeel flatafore the country.2. (American).—To fail; to give way. Also used substantively.Flat as a flounder(orPancake),phr.(colloquial).—Very flat indeed. Alsoflat as be blowed.1882.Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1.To brush up a flat.SeeBrusher.To pick up a flat,verb. phr.(prostitutes’). To find a client. Fr.,leverorfaire un miché(miche= bread, frommichon= money. CompareBreadwinner: underMonosyllable(q.v.)).1869.Greenwood,Seven Curses of London. On the chance that she will, in the course of the evening,pick up a flat.To have(ordo)a bit of flat,verb. phr.(venery).—To indulge in sexual intercourse. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Flat-back,subs.(common).—A bed-bug. For synonyms,seeNorfolk Howard.Flat-broke,adj.(colloquial).—Utterly ruined;dead-broke(q.v.).Flat-catcher,subs.(common).—An impostor.1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, i., 6.Cope(speaking of a horse). Well, Master Gull’em, do you think we shall get theflat-catcheroff to-day?1841.Blackwood’s Mag., l., 202. Buttoners are those accomplices of thimble-riggers … whose duty it is to act asflat-catchersor decoys, by personating flats.1856.Mayhew,Great World of London, p. 46. Andflat-catchers, or ‘ring-droppers,’ who cheat by pretending to find valuables in the street.1864.London Review, June 18, p. 643. ‘The Bobby’ or chinked-back horse, is another favouriteflat-catcher.1869.Whyte-Melville,M. or N., p. 110. Rather aflat-catcher, Tom? said that nobleman, between the whiffs of a cigar.Flat-catching,subs.(common).—Swindling.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, p. 118, The no-pinned hero, on being elevated, gave, as a toast, ‘Success toflat-catching,’ which produced roars of laughter and shouts of approbation.1869.Greenwood,Seven Curses of London. To mark the many kinds of bait that are used inflat-catching, as the turf slang has it.Flatch,adj.(back-slang).—A half.flatch-kennurd= half drunk;flatch-yenork= half-a-crown;flatch-yennep= a half-penny (seesubs., sense 1).Subs.1.—A half-penny. [An abbreviation offlatch-yennep.] For synonyms,seeMag.c.1866.Vance,The Chickaleary Cove. I doesn’t care aflatchas long as I’ve a tach.2.(coiners’).—A counterfeit half-crown. For synonyms,seeMadza.[16]Flat-cap,subs.(old).—A nickname for a citizen of London. [In Henry the Eight’s time flat round caps were the pink of fashion; but when their date was out, they became ridiculous. The citizens continued to wear them long after they were generally disused, and were often satirized for their fidelity].1596.Ben Jonson,Every Man in H., ch. ii., v. 1. Mock me all over From myflat-capunto my shining shoes.1602.Dekker,Honest Whore. Old Plays, iii., 304. Come, Sirrah, youflat-cap, where be those whites?1605.Marston,Dutch Court, ii., 1. Wealthyflat-capsthat pay for their pleasure the best of any men in Europe.1613.BeaumontandFletcher,Hon. Man’s Fort., v. 3. Trade? to the city, child: aflat-capwill become thee.Flat-cock,subs.(old).—A female. [Grose, 1785.] For synonyms,seePetticoat.Flat-feet,subs.(common).—Specifically the Foot Guards, but also applied to other regiments of the line. Also (generally with some powerful adjective), applied to militia men to differentiate them from linesmen. For synonyms,seeMud-crusher.Flat-fish, (generally,a regular flat-fish)subs.(common).—A dullard. [A play uponflat= stupid, andFish= something tohookor catch.] For synonyms,seeBuffle,Cabbage-Head, andSammy-Soft.Cf., Fr.,platpied= a contemptible fellow.Flat-footed,adj.(American).—Downright; resolute; honest. [Western: the simile, common to most languages, is of a man standing, his back to the wall, resolute to accomplish his purpose.]1858.Harper’s Magazine, Sept. His herculean frame, and bold,flat-footedway of saying things, had impressed his neighbours, and he held the rod in terrorism over them.1871.Philadelphia Bulletin, Mar. 23. ‘The row at St. Clement’s Church.’ Now the Committee of the vestry put theirfoot flatlydown on auricular confession and priestly absolution.1887.R. A. Proctor,Knowledge, June 1. When, in America, General Grant said he hadput his foot downand meant to advance in that line if it took him all the summer, he conveyed … the American meaning of the expressionflat-footed.Flat-head,subs.(American).—A greenhorn; asammy-soft(q.v.).Flat-iron,subs.(common).—A corner public house. [From the triangular shape.]FlattieorFlatty,subs.(common).—A gull. [A diminutive offlat, sense 1.] Formerly‘cheap-jacks’ = one in a new ‘pitch.’1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. They betray to theflatties(natives) all their profits and proceedings.Flat-move,subs.(old).—An attempt or project that miscarries; folly and mismanagement generally.—Grose.Flats,subs.(old). 1. Playing cards. For synonyms,seeKing’s Books.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 56. We played atflatsin a budging-crib.2. (old).—False dice. For synonyms,seeFulhams.[17]3. (old).—Base money.Mahogany flats,subs. phr.(common).—Bed-bugs. For synonyms,seeNorfolk Howards.Flats and Sharps,subs. phr.(old).—Weapons.1818.Scott,Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘I have known many a pretty lad cut short in his first summer upon the road, because he was something hasty with hisflats and sharps.’Flatten Out,verb. phr.(American).—To get the better of (in argument or fight). For synonyms,seeFloor.Flattened-out= ruined; beaten.Flatter-trap,subs.(common).—The mouth. Fr.,la menteuse, but for synonyms,seePotato-trap.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flatty-ken,subs.(thieves’).—Seequot.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 261. Some take up their abode in what they callflatty-kens, that is, houses the landlord of which is not ‘awake’ or ‘fly’ to the ‘moves’ and dodges of the trade.Flawed,ppl. adj.(common).—1. Half drunk; ‘a little crooked’; quick-tempered.—Grose.For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (venery).—‘Cracked in the ring’;i.e., deflowered.Flay(orflay the fox),verb. phr.(old).—To vomit: ‘from the subject to the effect,’ saysCotgrave; ‘for the flaying of so stinking a beast is like enough to make them spue that feel it.’ Now,to shoot the cat. For synonyms,seeAccountsandCast up Accounts.Cf.,Fox,verb, sense 1.1653.Urquhart,Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xi. He wouldflay the fox.2. (American).—To clean out by unfair means.To flayorskin a flint,verb. phr.(old).—To be mean or miserly.SeeSkinflint.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. He’llflayorskinn a flintof a Meer Scrat or Miser.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, vol. II., p. 194 (ed. 1846). Report says she wouldskin a flintif she could.FlaybottomorFlaybottomist,subs.(common).—A schoolmaster, with a play on the word phlebotomist = a blood-letter.—Grose.Fr.,fouette-cul; and (Cotgrave) “Fesse-cul, a pedantical whip-arse.”Flavour,to catch(orget)the flavour.verb. phr.(common).—1. To be intoxicated. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (venery). To be ‘half-on’ for coition; to waxproud(q.v.): said of men and women both.Flax,verb.(American).—To beat severely;to give it hot(q.v.). For synonyms,seeTan.Flax-wench,subs.(old).—A prostitute. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, i., 2. My wife’s a hobby-horse; deserves a name As rank as anyflax-wench.[18]Flea.To send away with a flea in the ear.verb. phr.(common).—To dismiss with vigour and acerbity.1854.Notes and Queries, 8 Apl., p. 322, col. 2. The luckless applicant is peremptorily dismissed with an imperative ‘flee!’ … or, facetiously,with a flee in his ear.To have a flea in the ear= (1) to fail in an enterprise; and (2) to receive a scolding, or annoying suggestion.To sit on a bag of fleas,verb. phr.(common).—To sit uncomfortably;on a bag of hen fleas= very uncomfortablyindeed.To catch fleas for,verb. phr.(venery).—To be on terms of extreme intimacy:e.g., ‘I catch her fleas for her’ = She has nothing to refuse me.Cf., Shakspeare (Tempest, III., 2.), ‘Yet a tailor might scratch her wheree’er she did itch.’In a flea’s leap,adv. phr.(old).—In next to no time;instanter(q.v.).Flea-and-louse,subs.(rhyming slang). A house. For synonyms,seeKen.Flea-bag,subs.(common).—A bed; Fr.un pucier. For synonyms,seeKip.1839.Lever,Harry Lorrequer, ch. xl. ‘Troth, and I think the gentleman would be better if he went off to hisflea-baghimself.’Flea-bite,subs.(old).—A trifle.1630.Taylor,Works. If they doe lose by pirates, tempests, rocks, ’Tis but afleabiteto their wealthy stockes; Whilst the poore cutpurse day and night doth toile, Watches and wardes, and doth himselfe turmoile.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flea-biting,subs.(old).—A trifle.1621.Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy. Their miseries are butflea-bitingsto thine.Flea-(orFlay-)Flint,subs.(old.)—A miser:Cf.,Skin flint(q.v.).1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 141.Theflea-flints… strip me bare.Flear,verb.(old).—To grin. Aflearing fool= a grinning idiot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fleece,subs.(old).—An act of theft.Cf., old proverb, ‘to go out to shear and come home shorn.’ For synonyms,seeSkin.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fleece, to Rob, Plunder, or strip.1703.Mrs. Centlivre,Beau’s Duel, ii., 2. Had afleeceat his purse.2. (venery).—The female pubic hair. Fr.toison(Baudelaire); It.,barbiglioni(Florio). For foreign synonyms,seeMott.English Synonyms.—Banner (Durfey); bandoliers (old); beard; bearskin; belly-bristles; belly-thicket; belly-whiskers; Boskage of Venus; broom; brush; bush; cat-skin; clover-field; cunny-skin (Durfey); Cupid’s Arbour; cunt-curtain; damber-, dilberry-, gooseberry-, furze-, quim-, or whin-bush; down; Downshire; front-doormat; feather (Prior and Moore); fluff; forest (Donne); fud (Burns); fur; fur-below (old catch); ‘grove of eglantine’ (Carew); hedge on[19]the dyke; lower-wig (Burton); moss; mott-carpet; mustard-and-cress; nether eye-brow (or -lashes); nether-whiskers; parsley (Durfey); plush; quim-whiskers; quim-wig; scut (Shakspeare); shaving-brush (cf.,Lather); scrubbing-brush; shrubbery; sporran; stubble (seePointer); sweet-briar; thatch; tail-feathers; ‘toupee’;‘tufted honours’; twat-rug.Verb(now recognised).—To cheat; to shear or be shorn (as a sheep).1593.Nashe,Christ’s Teares, in wks. (Grosart) IV. 140. Tell me (almost) what gentleman hath been cast away at sea, or disasterly souldiourizd it by lande, but they (usurers) have enforst him thereunto by theirfleecing.1598.Shakspeare,I King Henry IV., ii., 2. Down with them:fleecethem!1620.Dekker,His Dreame, in wks. (Grosart) III. 52. Catchpolles, and varlets, who did poore menfleece(To their undoing) for a twelve-peny peece.1712.Arbuthnot,Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. ii. When a poor man has almost undone himself for thy sake, thou art forfleecinghim.1822.Scott,Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. He is now squeezed andfleecedby them on every pretence.1836.M. Scott,Cruise of the Midge, p. 106. He was stabbed by the Ragamuffin he hadfleeced.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. xxxi. Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion andfleecesthem.1859.Times, 25 Oct. ‘Review of Dean Ramsay’sReminiscences.’ I don’t know whether they are black or white sheep, but I know that if they are long there they are pretty certain to befleeced.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 16 Jan. How you would befleeced! You’ve got a lot to learn yet.Hencefleeced= ruined;dead-broke(q.v.for synonyms).Fleecer,subs.(old).—A thief.1600–69.Prynne,Breviate. Notfleecers, but feeders.Fleece-Hunter, or-Monger,subs. phr.(venery).—A whore-master. For synonyms,seeMolrower.Fleeter-Face,subs.(old).—A pale-face; a coward.Cf., Shakspeare’s ‘cream-faced loon.’1647.BeaumontandFletcher,Queen of Corinth. You know where you are, youfleeter-face.Fleet-Note,subs.(old).—A forged note.1821.Real Life in London.Fleet of the Desert,subs. phr.(common).—A caravan;cf.,ship of the desert= camel.Fleet-Street,subs. phr.(colloquial).—The estate of journalism, especially journalism of the baser sort.Fleet-Streeter,subs.(colloquial).—A journalist of the baser sort; a spungingprophet(q.v.); a sharking dramatic critic; aspicy(q.v.) paragraphist; and so on.Fleet-Streetese,subs. phr.(colloquial).—The so-called English, written to sell by theFleet-Streeter(q.v.), or baser sort of journalist: a mixture of sesquipedalians and slang, of phrases worn threadbare and phrases sprung from the kennel; of bad grammar and worse manners; the like of which is impossible outsideFleet-Street(q.v.), but which inFleet-Streetcommands a price, and enables not a few to live.[20]Fleg,verb.(old).—To whip.Bailey.Flemish Account,subs. phr.(old).—A remittance less than was expected; hence, an unsatisfactory account. [Among the Flemings (the merchants of Western Europe when commerce was young) accounts were kept in livres, sols, and pence; but the livre or pound only = 12s., so that what the Antwerp merchant called one livre thirteen and fourpence would in English currency be only 20s.]1668.T. Brown,The Accurate Accomptant, etc. Quoted inN. and Q.1. S. I., 286. London, August 10th, 1668. To Roger Pace, Factor, etc., for 10 pieces cont. 746 Ells Fl. at 10s. Flem. per Ell is £373 Flem. Exchange at 35s. makes Sterling Money £213 2s. 10d.1774–1826.Typ. Antiq., p. 1773. A person resident in London is said to have had most of Caxton’s publications. He sent them to Amsterdam for inspection, and on writing for them was informed that they had been destroyed by accident. ‘I am very much afraid,’ says Herbert, ‘my kind friend received but aFlemishaccountof his Caxton’s.’1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tong.Flemish account, a losing or bad account.Flesh,subs.(old).—Generic for the organs of generation, male or female. Also (of women)Fleshly-part.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, iv., 3. She would not exchangefleshwith one that loved her.1605.Cymbeline, i., 5. If you buy ladies’fleshat a million a dram you cannot preserve it from tainting.1620.Percy,Folio MSS.[Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘As I was ridinge by the way.’ Sweet hart, shall I put myfleshin thine?Flesh,verb., or,Flesh It; or,to be fleshed in(venery).—To have carnal knowledge of—to be ‘one flesh with’—a woman. [For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.] An equivalent in the passive sense isto feel his flesh in one’s body(said by women only).1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes, Andar in Carnafau. To go afleshingor a wenching: (Carnafau= thebrat-getting place; the hole of content).Flesh and Blood,subs. phr.(common).—Brandy and port in equal proportions.SeeDrinks.Flesh-bag,subs.(common).—A shirt or chemise.English Synonyms.—Biled rag (American); camesa; carrion-case; commission; dickey (formerly a worn-out shirt); gad (gipsy); lully; mill tog; mish; narp (Scots’); shaker; shimmy (= a chemise, Marryat); smish.French Synonyms.—Une liquetteorlimace(thieves’: from the Gypsy. The form also occurs also in the Italianlima);un panais(popular).German Synonyms.—Kamis,Kamsel,Kemsel, orGemsel(from med. Lat.,Camisiale; Fr.camisole);Kesones,Kusones, orKsones(also = cotton and underclothing);StaudeorStauden;Hanfstandt(Liber Vagatorum: literallyhempshrub).Italian Synonym.—Lima(seeFr.,limace).1820.London Magazine;i., 29. They are often without aflesh-bagto their backs.Flesh-broker,subs.(old).—1. A match-maker.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flesh-broker, a match-maker; also a bawd; between whom but little difference, for they both (usually) take money.2. A procuress [Grose].Cf.,Flesh-fly,Flesh-monger,[21]andFlesh-market. For synonyms,seeMother.Flesh-fly(also,Flesh-maggot),subs.(old).—A whoremaster. For synonyms,seeMolrower.1781.Cowper,Progress of Error, 323–324. Oh! that a verse had power, and could command far, Far away, theseflesh-fliesof the land.Flesh-market, orFlesh-shambles,subs.(common).—A brothel orflash-house(q.v.); also the pavement, in Piccadilly or Regent-street, for instance, where whores do congregate.Cf.,Meatmarket.1608.John Day,Humour out of Breath, II.I Asp.… She may bee well discended; if shee be, Shee’s fit for love, and why not then for me.Boy.And you be not fitted in Venice ’tis straunge, for ’tis counted the bestflesh-shamblesin Italie.Flesh-monger,subs.(old).—A procurer; a whore-master. [From Eng.Flesh+monger]. For synonyms,seeMotherandMolrower.Cf.,Flesh-fly,Flesh-market, andFlesh-broker.1603.Shakspeare,Measure for Measure, V., 1. And was the duke aflesh-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?Fleshmongering.To go flesh-mongering,verb. phr.(venery).—To quest for women; togo on the prowl(q.v.)., orafter meat.SeeGreensandRide.Flesh-pot.Sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt.phr.(common).—Hankering for good things no longer at command. [Biblical].1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 131. Do you think it is ahankering after the flesh-pots, and that the canon’s cook reconciles me to the canon’s opinions?Flesh-tailor,subs.(old).—A surgeon. For synonyms,seeSawbones.1633.Ford,’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, iii. Oh, help! help! help! Oh, for aflesh-tailorquickly.Fleshy,subs.(Winchester College).—SeeCat’s Head.Fletch,subs.(prison). A spurious coin.Cf.,Flatch.Flick, orFlig,subs.(colloquial).—1. A cut with a whip-lash; hence, a blow of any sort. Aflickingis often administered by schoolboys with a damp towel or pocket-handkerchief. For synonyms,seetanning.1750.Fielding,Tom Jones, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘I do know you are a woman,’ cries the squire, ‘and it’s well for thee, that art one; if had’st been a man, I promise thee I had lent thee aflicklong ago.’1787.Grose,Provincial Glossary, s.v.vlick.2. (common).—A jocular salutation; usuallyold flick.Cf.,CodgerandMy Tulip.1883.Punch, 28 July, p. 38, col. 1. Well, last night, They’d a feet in these gardens,old flick, as was something too awfully quite.Verb.(thieves’).—1. To cut.1690.B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flicking,c., to cut, cutting.1728.Bailey,Eng. Dict.(flickis given as a ‘country word’).1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue.Flickme some pannam and cassan, cut me some bread and cheese;flickthe peter, cut off the cloak bag or portmanteau.[22]1791.Carew,Life and Adventures,q.v.1837.Disraeli,Venetia, ch. xiv.Flickthe bread, cut the bread.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum,or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flickthe Peter and rake the swag for I want to pad my beaters.2. (colloquial).—To strike with, or as with, a whip.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xliii. Near him, leaning listlessly against the wall, stood a strong-built countryman,flickingwith a worn-out hunting whip the top-boot that adorned his right foot.1852.Dickens,Bleak House, ch. xxvii. Who … receives this compliment byflickingMr. George in the face with a head of greens.1854.Our Cruise in the Undine, p. 103. It appeared to us that one of the most frequent, and therefore we supposed the principal stroke aimed at (in a Heidelberg duel), was to strike your sword low down, perhaps four inches from the handle, upon your adversary’s bandaged arm, so that the end of the weapon (the only part that is sharpened) shouldFlickitself against your opponent’s face.1863.Hon. Mrs. Norton,Lost and Saved, p. 29. Drivers shouting, swearing, andflickingat the horses.Flicker,subs.(Old Cant).—A drinking glass.1690.B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flicker,c., a drinking-glass;Flicker snapt,c., the glass is broken;Nim the flicker,c., steal the glass;Rum flicker,c., a large glass or rummer;Queer flicker,c., a green or ordinary glass.French Synonyms.—Une lampe(masons’);un guindal(popular);un godet(very old);une gobette(thieves’);un gobeson(thieves’).Verb.1. To drink.—Matsell.2. (old).—To laugh wantonly; also to kiss, or lewdly fondle a woman.—Palsgrave.For synonyms,seeFirkytoodle.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.Flicker, to grin or flout.AlsoFlicking= (1) drinking, and (2) wanton laughter.Let her flicker,phr.(American).—Said of any doubtful issue: ‘let the matter take its chance.’Flicket-a-Flacket,adv.(old).—Onomatopoetic for a noise of flapping and flicking.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 20. Their bellies wentflicket-a-flacket.FlierorFlyer,subs.(racing and yachting).—1. A horse or boat of great speed; also (American railway) a fast train; hence, by implication, anything of excellence.Cf.,Dasher,Daisy, etc. Alsoadj., = keen for.1865.Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. xxii. The mare’s in splendid condition; well, you saw her take her trial gallop the other morning, and you must know she’s aflier, so I won’t talk about her.1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 156. Atalanta might be aflyer, but an artist like Pycroft, with a clever colt like Newsmonger under him, was quite likely to outride whatever boy Mr. Pipes might now be able to pick up.1888.St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 2 Mar. In spite of the strike passenger trains, what are known as theflyers, are running with reasonable regularity.1890.Bird o’ Freedom, 19 Mar., p. 1, col. 1. Clearly theG.O.M.is noflierover this course.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 Mar. Although he may doubtless be made a good deal better he may turn out to be noflier.1891.Bury and Hillier,Cycling, p. 6. A moderate rider, not being an athlete or aflier… can … get over in an hour seven or eight miles of ground on a tricycle.[23]1891.Anti-Jacobin, 23 May, p. 400. When Dangerous, Plenipotentiary, Bay Middleton, and otherflyersran.1891.Morning Advertiser, 28 Mar. In any event, he was never aflyerat breakfast. But late at night, and when, perhaps, he tumbled across something equivalent to woodcock, tripe and onions, or a hot lobster, say, why then, take my word for it, he made up for previous abstinence.1891.National Observer, 1 Aug. It remains to be seen whether large yachts constructed on the same principle will be equally invincible: that is, if theflyerswe have are one and all to disappear.2. (football).—A shot in the air.SeeMade-flyer.3. (American).—A small hand-bill; aDodger(q.v.).To take a flier(American trade).—1. To make a venture; to invest against odds.2. (venery).—To copulate in haste (Grose); to do aFast-fuck(q.v.).Flies,subs.(rhyming).—Lies. Hence, nonsense; trickery; deceit.There are no flies on me, on him, etc.,phr.(common).—‘I am dealing honestly with you;’ ‘he is genuine, and is not humbugging.’ In America, the expression is used of (1) a man of quick parts, a man who ‘knows a thing without its being kicked into him by a mule’; and (2) a person of superior breeding or descent. Sometimes the phrase is corrupted into ‘no fleas.’SeeGammon.1868.Diprose, St. Clement Danes,Past and Present. To Deaf Burke, the celebrated pugilist, is attributed the old story of the ‘flies and the gin and water;’and hence the term ‘no flies’ became prevalent. Burke had ordered … some ‘hot and strong and a dash of lemon.’ The goblet was brought … Burke raised … the nectar to his lips, and beheld some dissipated flies lying at the bottom of the tumbler; he placed the glass on the table, and deliberately removed the flies with the spoon, five or six in number, and laid them side by side before him, and then giving a hearty pull at the gin and water, he as deliberately replaced the flies … and passed it to his friend. His companion stared angrily. ‘Do you dare to insult me, and in the presence of company?’ said the iratevis-à-vis. ‘Pardon me,’ replied Burke, quietly handing the glass a second time, ‘though I don’t drinkfliesmyself, I didn’t know but what others might.’1888.Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug.There ain’t no flies on him, signifies, that he is not quiet long enough for moss to grow on his heels, that he is wide awake.1888.Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. People who are capable of descending to New York and Boston English are fully justified in saying thatthere are no flies on St. Louisor the St. Louis delegation either.Fligger(alsoFlicker),verb.(old).—To grin.1720.Durfey,Pills, etc., vi., 267. Hefliggered, and told me for all my brave alls He would have a stroke.Flim.—SeeFlimsy.Flim-flam,subs.(old).—An idle story; a sham; aRobin Hoodtale(q.v.). A duplication ofFlam(q.v.).1589.Pappe with an Hatchet(ed. 1844) p. 39. Trusse up thy packet offlim-flams, and roage to some countrey faire, or read it among boyes in the belfrie.1630.Taylor,Workes. They with a courtly tricke, or aflim-flam, do nod at me, whilst I the noddy am.1750.Fielding,Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. xii. I thought thou had’st been a lad of higher mettle than to give way to a parcel of maidenish tricks. I tell thee ’tis allflim-flam.1780.Mrs. Cowley,The Belle’s Stratagem, iii., 1. Mr. Curate, don’t think to come over me with yourflim-flams, for a better man than ever trod in your shoes is coming over-sea to marry me.[24]1805.Isaac Disraeli,Flim-flams;or the Life and Errors of my Uncle, and the Amours of my Aunt[title].1825.C. Lamb,Munden(inLondon Magazine) Feb. I wonder you can put suchflim-flamsupon us, sir.Adj.(old).—Idle; worthless.1589.Nashe,Month’s Minde, in wks. Vol. I., p. 174. But to leaue thyflim-flamtales and loytering lies.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes.Filastroccola,flim-flamtales, old wiues tales as they tell when they spinne, a tale without rime or reason, or head or foote.1633.T. Newton,Lennie’s Touch-stone of Complexions, p. 120. Reporting aflim-flamtale of Robin Hood.1750.Ozell’sRabelais, vol. V., p. 247. Glibly swallow down everyflim-flamstory that’s told them.1853.Lytton,My Novel, bk. X., ch. xix. I wish you’d mind the child—it is crumpling up and playing almighty smash with thatflim-flambook, which cost me one pound one.Flimp,verb.(thieves’)—1. To hustle or rob.To put on the flimp= to rob on the highway. For synonyms,seeCrackandPrig.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 111. To take a man’s watch is toflimphim, it can only be done in a crowd, one gets behind and pushes him in the back, while the other in front is robbing him.1857.Snowden,Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 445, s.v.2. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeRide.Flimping,subs.(thieves’).—Stealing from the person.1857.Ducange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 38. He told me as Bill hadflimpeda yack.1862.Cornhill Mag., vol. vi., p. 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, etc.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. lx.Flimpingis a style of theft which I have never practised, and, consequently of which I know nothing.Flimsy, orFlim,subs.(common).—1. A bank-note. [From the thinness of the paper.]Soft-flimsy= a note drawn on ‘The Bank of Elegance,’ or ‘The Bank of Engraving.’ For synonyms,seeSoft.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1818.P. Egan,Boxiana, iv., 443. Martin produced someflimsiesand said he would fight on Tuesday next.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(‘Merchant of Venice’). Not ‘kites,’manufactured to cheat and inveigle, But the right sort of‘flimsy,’all sign’d, by Monteagle.1855.Punch, XXIX., 10. ‘Will you take it inflimsies, or will you have it all in tin?’1870.Chambers’ Journal, 9 July, p. 448. ‘What would it be worth?’ ‘Aflim, Sam.’1884.Daily Telegraph, 8 Apl., col. 3. One of the slang terms for a spurious bank-note is asoft-flimsy.1891.Hume Nisbet,Bail Up!p. 149. Next morning when I went to the bank to collect the swag, they stopped theflimsy, and had me arrested before I could look round.2. (journalists’).—News of all kinds;points(q.v.). [From the thin prepared paper used by pressmen for making several copies at once]. First used at Lloyd’s.1861.Cornhill Magazine, iv., 199 ‘At Westminster,’ my lord is neither a mumbling nor a short-tempered judge; he will … read them a great deal of his notes, which are a thousand-fold clearer, fuller, and more accurate than the reporter’sflimsy.1865.Morning Star(‘The Flaneur’). A London correspondent, who, by the aid offlimsymisleads a vast number of provincial papers.1870.London Figaro, 23 Sept. ‘Special Lining.’ We do not think it is[25]altogether worthy of the high repute of thePall Mall Gazetteto publishflimsyas a special correspondence.1876.BesantandRice,Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The sharpest of the reporters had hisflimsyup in a minute, and took notes of the proceedings.Flinders,subs.(common).—Pieces infinitesimally small.1870.New York Evening Sun, 24 May. Report of Speech of Mr. Chandler. Let us knock the British crown toflinders; let us arrange for some one or two hundred thousand British graves forthwith, and cabbage the whole boundless continent without any further procrastination.Fling,subs.(colloquial).—1. A fit of temper.2. (common).—A jeer; a jibe; a personal allusion or attack.1592.Shakspeare,I Henry VI., iii., 1. Then would I have aflingat Winchester.1888.Star, 10 Oct. Those writers who had aflingat Iddesleigh after his poor running at Stockton will have to take their words back some day.1890.Pall Mall Gazette, 24 July, p. 4. col. 2. As the disputants warmed up, little personalflingswere of course introduced.Verb(old).—1. To cheat; to get the best of; todo(q.v.) or diddle.—Grose.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xxi.Flungthe governor out of a guinea.2. (Scots).—To dance.1790.Burns,Tam O’ Shanter. To tell how Maggie lapt andflang(A souple jaud she was, and strang).3. (venery).—To move in the act; toback-up(q.v.). Fr., ‘frizer la queue= to wriggle the tayle (in leachering).’—Cotgrave.1539.David Lyndsay,Three Estaitis, Works (Ed. Laing, Edinburgh, 1879). I traist sche sal find youflingingyour fill.To Fling Out,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To depart in a hurry, and, especially, in a temper.To fling(orflap)it in one’s face,verb. phr.(prostitutes’).—To expose the person.In a fling,adv. phr.(colloquial).—In a spasm of temper.To have one’s fling,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To enjoy full liberty of action or conduct.Cf.,High Old Time.1624.Beaumont and Fletcher,Rule a Wife, &c., iii., 5. I’ll have afling.1846–8.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiii. Hang it; the regiment’s just back from the West Indies, I musthave a little fling, and then when I’m married I’ll reform.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, II., 118. I don’t want to marry until Ihave had my fling, you know.1880.Gilbert,Pirates of Penzance. Peers will be peers, And youth willhave his fling.1891.Hume Nisbet,Bail Up!p. 253. If policy (police) show up, then you let mehave my fling, eh?To fling dirt.—Seedirt.Flinger,subs.(Scots).—A dancer.1821.Scott,Pirate, ch. ix. That’s as muckle as to say, that I suld hae minded you was aflingerand a fiddler yoursel’, Maister Mordaunt.Fling-Dust,subs.(old).—A street-walker. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.Flint,subs.(workmen’s). A man working for a ‘Union’ or ‘fair’ house; non-Unionists aredung(q.v.). Both terms occur in Foote’s burlesque,The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather, and they received a fresh lease of popularity during the tailors’[26]strike of 1832.Seequots.Cf.,Scab Soc,Snob,Snob-stick, andKnobstick.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue,flints, journeyman taylors who, on a late occasion, refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted were by the mutineers stiled dungs,i.e., dunghills.1832.P. Egan,Book of Sports, p. 34. Jack Reeve is without a rival; the throne of theflintsis decidedly freehold property to him.1834.Noctes Amb., xxxiv., vol. IV., p. 83. (The company is discussing the tailors’ strike).Tickler.Theflintsflash fire, and the day of the dungs is gone.Old flint,subs. phr.(common). A miser: one who would ‘skin a flint,’i.e., stoop to any meanness for a trifle.1840.Dickens,Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 34. It’s equally plain that the money which theold flint—rot him—first taught me to expect that I should share with her at his death, will all be hers.To fix one’s flint.SeeFix.To flint in,verb. phr.(American). To act with energy; not to stand on ceremony; to pitch into; to tackle. A verb of action well-nigh as common asfix(q.v.).Flip,subs.(common).—1. Hot beer, brandy, and sugar; also, says Grose, calledSir Cloudesleyafter Sir Cloudesley Shovel.SeeDrinks.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.flip, Sea Drink, of small beer (chiefly) and brandy, sweetened and spiced upon occasion.1690.Ward,London Spy, part II., p. 41. After the drinking a Kan of Phlip or a Bowl of Punch.1705.Ward,Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. 4, p. 8. So have I seen on board of ship, Some knawing beeff, some spewingflip.1748.Smollett,Rod. Random, ch.xxiv. He … sent for a can of beer, of which he made excellentflipto crown the banquet.1810.Crabbe,The Borough, Letter 16. Nay, with the seamen working in the ship, At their request, he’d share the grog andflip.1875.C. D. Warner,Backlog Studies, p. 18. It was thought best to heat the poker red-hot before plunging it into the mugs offlip.2. (popular).—A bribe or douceur.3. (common).—A light blow, or snatch.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 23. Barney made a very unceremoniousflipat the bit.Verb(thieves’).—To shoot.1819.Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood(ed.1864), p. 273.Fliphim, Dick; fire, or I’m taken.To flip up,verb. phr.(American).—To spin a coin.1879.New York Tribune, 4 Oct. The two great men couldflip upto see which should have the second place.Flip-Flap,subs.1 (old).—A flighty creature.1702.Vanbrugh,False Friend. 1. The light airyflip-flap, she kills him with her motions.2. (popular). A step-dance; acellar-flap(q.v.). Also (acrobats’); a kind of somersault, in which the performer throws himself over on his hands and feet alternately.1727.Gay,Fables, ‘Two Monkies.’ The tumbler whirls theflip-flapround. With sommersets he shakes the ground.1872.Braddon,Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xiv. There ain’t nothing you can’t do, Morty, from Shylock to aflip-flap.[27]1889.Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. There were the clowns who danced, turned somersaults,flip-flaps, and contorted themselves.3. (American). A kind of tea-cake.1876.BesantandRice,Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The first evening I took tea with Mrs. Scrimmager. ‘It must be more than a mite lonely for you,’ she said, as we sat over her dough-nuts andflip-flaps.4. (nautical). The arm. For synonyms,seeBender.5. (venery). Thepenis.1653.Urquhart,Rabelais, I., 20. I might have cleft her water-gap And joined it close with myflip-flap.Flipper,subs.(nautical and common). 1. The hand.Tip us your flipper= give me your hand. [From the flipper or paddle of a turtle.] For synonyms,seeDaddleandMauley.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Lay of St. Gengulphus.’ With those great sugar-nippers they nipp’d off hisflippers, As the clerk, very flippantly, termed his fists.1884.Punch, 11 Oct. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Old Bluebottletipped me his flipper, and ’oped I’d ‘refreshed,’ and all that.2. (common).SeeFlapper.3. (theatrical). Part of a scene, hinged and painted on both sides, used in trick changes.Flirtatious,adj.(American).—Flighty.1881,W. D. Howells,D. Breen’s Practice, ch. i., “Oh, you needn’t look afterher, Mr. Libby! There’s nothingflirtatiousabout Grace,” said Mrs. Maynard.Flirt-gill,Flirtgillian, orGill-flirt,subs.(old). A wanton; achopping girl(q.v.); specifically a strumpet. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1595.Shakspeare,Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Scurvy knave! I am none of hisflirt-gills.1713.Guardian, No. 26. We are invested with a parcel offlirt-gills, who are not capable of being mothers of brave men.1729.Gay,Polly, ii. 4. While a man is grappling with thesegill-flirts, pardon the expression, Captain, he runs his reason aground.1822.Scott,Fort. of Nigel, ch. v. She is a dutiful girl to her god-father, though I sometimes call her ajill-flirt.Flirtina Cop-all,subs. phr.(common). A wanton, young or old; amen’s woman(q.v.).Float,subs.(theatrical).—The footlights: before the invention of gas they were oil-pans with floating wicks.Cf.,Ark-floater.1886.Saturday Review, 24 July, p. 108. To an actor thefloatis not what it is to a fisherman.1889.Answers, 8 June, p. 24. He slapped me on the back, put me in a hansom, and cried, ‘We’ll have you behind thefloat(footlights) in a week.’If that’s the way the stick floats.SeeStick.Floater,subs.(Stock Exchange).—An Exchequer bill; applied also to other unfunded stock.1871.Temple Bar, XXXI., 320. On the Stock Exchange, where slang abounds,floatersis a term which would puzzle outsiders.Floatersare Exchequer bills and their unfunded stock.2. (common).—A suet dumpling in soup.3. (political).—A vendible voter.1883.Graphic, 17 Mar., p. 279, col. 3. ‘How many voters are there?’ asked a candidate in one of these pure-blooded[28]Yankee townships. ‘Four hundred.’ ‘And how manyfloaters,i.e., purchasable?’ ‘Four hundred.’1888.New York Herald, 4 Nov. The Building Materials Exchange people were in line to the number of about 200, with a band, and were followed by a sixteen-horse stage of the ‘Long Tom’ shape containing a lot offloatersand some fifers and drummers.4. (Western American).—A candidate representing several counties, and therefore not considered directly responsible to any one of them.1853.Texas State Gazette, 16 July. J. W. Lawrence, Esq., requests us to withdraw his name as a candidate forfloaterin the district composed of the counties of Fayette, Bastrop, and Travis.5. (venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Floating Academy,subs. phr.(old).—The hulks; alsoCampbell’s academy(q.v.), andfloating hell(q.v.). For synonyms,seeCage.Floating Batteries,subs. phr.(military).—1. Broken bread in tea; alsoslingers(q.v.).2. (American).—The Confederate bread rations during the Secession.Floating Coffin,subs. phr.(nautical).—A rotten ship.Floating Hell, orHell Afloat,subs. phr.(nautical).—A ship commanded by (1) a brutal savage, or (2) a ruthless disciplinarian.SeealsoFloating Academy.Flock,subs.(colloquial).—A clergyman’s congregation. Also any body of people with a common haunt or interest:e.g., a family of children, a company of soldiers, a school of girls or boys, ‘a cabful of molls,’ and such like.To fire into the wrong flock,verb. phr.(American pioneers’).—To blunder. A variant isto bark up the wrong tree.1858.New York Herald, 9 Nov. When Mr. Saulsbury rose and called the Speaker’s attention to the alleged blunder in the Secretary’s report, his own friends jumped up in great excitement and pulled him down; he soon found out that he hadfired into the wrong flock.Flock of Sheep,subs. phr.—1. (gaming). A hand at dominoes set out on the table.2. (colloquial).—White waves on the sea:White horses(q.v.).Flog,subs.(American thieves’).—1. A whip. A contraction ofFlogger(q.v.).To flog(now recognised), is cited by B. E. (1690),Grose, and the author ofBacchus and Venusas Cant.To be flogged at the tumbler,verb. phr.(old).—To be whipped at the cart’s tail.SeeTumbler.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.To flog the dead horse,verb. phr.(common).—1. To work up an interest in a bygone subject; to try against heart; to do with no will nor liking for the job. [Bright said that Earl Russell’s Reform Bill was adead horse(q.v.), and every attempt to create enthusiasm in its favour wasflogging the dead horse.]2. (nautical).—To work off an advance of wages.[29]To flog a willing horse,verb. phr.(common).—To urge on one who is already putting forth his best energies.Flogger,subs.(old).—1. A whip;cf.,Flog.Grosegives the word as Cant. Fr.,un bouis.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 173, s.v.2. (theatrical).—A mop (i.e., a bunch of slips of cloth on a handle) used in the painting room to whisk the charcoal dust from a sketch.Flogging,ppl. adj.(old).—Careful; penurious.Flogging-cove,subs. phr.(prison)—1. An official who administers thecat(q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flogging cove, c. the Beadle, or Whipper in Bridewell, or any such place.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flogging-cove, the beadle, or whipper, in Bridewell.2.SeeFlogging Cully.Flogging Cully,subs. phr.(venery).—A man addicted, whether from necessity or choice, to flagellation; awhipster(q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flogging, c. a Naked Woman’s whipping (with rods) an Old (usually) and (sometimes) a young Lecher.Flogging Stake,subs. phr.(old).—A whipping post.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.Flogster,subs.(old).—One addicted to flogging. Specifically (naval), a nickname applied to the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV).
1871.De Vere,Americanisms, p. 602.To flat, in the West, means to jilt, and is probably derived from another slang phrase, ‘to feel flat,’ denoting the depression which is apt to follow such a disappointment.To feel flat,verb. phr.(American).—1. To be low-spirited; out of sorts;off colour(q.v.).1838.J. C. Neal,Charcoal Sketches. Not to hurt a gentleman’s feelings and to make himfeel flatafore the country.2. (American).—To fail; to give way. Also used substantively.Flat as a flounder(orPancake),phr.(colloquial).—Very flat indeed. Alsoflat as be blowed.1882.Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1.To brush up a flat.SeeBrusher.To pick up a flat,verb. phr.(prostitutes’). To find a client. Fr.,leverorfaire un miché(miche= bread, frommichon= money. CompareBreadwinner: underMonosyllable(q.v.)).1869.Greenwood,Seven Curses of London. On the chance that she will, in the course of the evening,pick up a flat.To have(ordo)a bit of flat,verb. phr.(venery).—To indulge in sexual intercourse. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Flat-back,subs.(common).—A bed-bug. For synonyms,seeNorfolk Howard.Flat-broke,adj.(colloquial).—Utterly ruined;dead-broke(q.v.).Flat-catcher,subs.(common).—An impostor.1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, i., 6.Cope(speaking of a horse). Well, Master Gull’em, do you think we shall get theflat-catcheroff to-day?1841.Blackwood’s Mag., l., 202. Buttoners are those accomplices of thimble-riggers … whose duty it is to act asflat-catchersor decoys, by personating flats.1856.Mayhew,Great World of London, p. 46. Andflat-catchers, or ‘ring-droppers,’ who cheat by pretending to find valuables in the street.1864.London Review, June 18, p. 643. ‘The Bobby’ or chinked-back horse, is another favouriteflat-catcher.1869.Whyte-Melville,M. or N., p. 110. Rather aflat-catcher, Tom? said that nobleman, between the whiffs of a cigar.Flat-catching,subs.(common).—Swindling.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, p. 118, The no-pinned hero, on being elevated, gave, as a toast, ‘Success toflat-catching,’ which produced roars of laughter and shouts of approbation.1869.Greenwood,Seven Curses of London. To mark the many kinds of bait that are used inflat-catching, as the turf slang has it.Flatch,adj.(back-slang).—A half.flatch-kennurd= half drunk;flatch-yenork= half-a-crown;flatch-yennep= a half-penny (seesubs., sense 1).Subs.1.—A half-penny. [An abbreviation offlatch-yennep.] For synonyms,seeMag.c.1866.Vance,The Chickaleary Cove. I doesn’t care aflatchas long as I’ve a tach.2.(coiners’).—A counterfeit half-crown. For synonyms,seeMadza.[16]Flat-cap,subs.(old).—A nickname for a citizen of London. [In Henry the Eight’s time flat round caps were the pink of fashion; but when their date was out, they became ridiculous. The citizens continued to wear them long after they were generally disused, and were often satirized for their fidelity].1596.Ben Jonson,Every Man in H., ch. ii., v. 1. Mock me all over From myflat-capunto my shining shoes.1602.Dekker,Honest Whore. Old Plays, iii., 304. Come, Sirrah, youflat-cap, where be those whites?1605.Marston,Dutch Court, ii., 1. Wealthyflat-capsthat pay for their pleasure the best of any men in Europe.1613.BeaumontandFletcher,Hon. Man’s Fort., v. 3. Trade? to the city, child: aflat-capwill become thee.Flat-cock,subs.(old).—A female. [Grose, 1785.] For synonyms,seePetticoat.Flat-feet,subs.(common).—Specifically the Foot Guards, but also applied to other regiments of the line. Also (generally with some powerful adjective), applied to militia men to differentiate them from linesmen. For synonyms,seeMud-crusher.Flat-fish, (generally,a regular flat-fish)subs.(common).—A dullard. [A play uponflat= stupid, andFish= something tohookor catch.] For synonyms,seeBuffle,Cabbage-Head, andSammy-Soft.Cf., Fr.,platpied= a contemptible fellow.Flat-footed,adj.(American).—Downright; resolute; honest. [Western: the simile, common to most languages, is of a man standing, his back to the wall, resolute to accomplish his purpose.]1858.Harper’s Magazine, Sept. His herculean frame, and bold,flat-footedway of saying things, had impressed his neighbours, and he held the rod in terrorism over them.1871.Philadelphia Bulletin, Mar. 23. ‘The row at St. Clement’s Church.’ Now the Committee of the vestry put theirfoot flatlydown on auricular confession and priestly absolution.1887.R. A. Proctor,Knowledge, June 1. When, in America, General Grant said he hadput his foot downand meant to advance in that line if it took him all the summer, he conveyed … the American meaning of the expressionflat-footed.Flat-head,subs.(American).—A greenhorn; asammy-soft(q.v.).Flat-iron,subs.(common).—A corner public house. [From the triangular shape.]FlattieorFlatty,subs.(common).—A gull. [A diminutive offlat, sense 1.] Formerly‘cheap-jacks’ = one in a new ‘pitch.’1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. They betray to theflatties(natives) all their profits and proceedings.Flat-move,subs.(old).—An attempt or project that miscarries; folly and mismanagement generally.—Grose.Flats,subs.(old). 1. Playing cards. For synonyms,seeKing’s Books.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 56. We played atflatsin a budging-crib.2. (old).—False dice. For synonyms,seeFulhams.[17]3. (old).—Base money.Mahogany flats,subs. phr.(common).—Bed-bugs. For synonyms,seeNorfolk Howards.Flats and Sharps,subs. phr.(old).—Weapons.1818.Scott,Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘I have known many a pretty lad cut short in his first summer upon the road, because he was something hasty with hisflats and sharps.’Flatten Out,verb. phr.(American).—To get the better of (in argument or fight). For synonyms,seeFloor.Flattened-out= ruined; beaten.Flatter-trap,subs.(common).—The mouth. Fr.,la menteuse, but for synonyms,seePotato-trap.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flatty-ken,subs.(thieves’).—Seequot.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 261. Some take up their abode in what they callflatty-kens, that is, houses the landlord of which is not ‘awake’ or ‘fly’ to the ‘moves’ and dodges of the trade.Flawed,ppl. adj.(common).—1. Half drunk; ‘a little crooked’; quick-tempered.—Grose.For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (venery).—‘Cracked in the ring’;i.e., deflowered.Flay(orflay the fox),verb. phr.(old).—To vomit: ‘from the subject to the effect,’ saysCotgrave; ‘for the flaying of so stinking a beast is like enough to make them spue that feel it.’ Now,to shoot the cat. For synonyms,seeAccountsandCast up Accounts.Cf.,Fox,verb, sense 1.1653.Urquhart,Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xi. He wouldflay the fox.2. (American).—To clean out by unfair means.To flayorskin a flint,verb. phr.(old).—To be mean or miserly.SeeSkinflint.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. He’llflayorskinn a flintof a Meer Scrat or Miser.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, vol. II., p. 194 (ed. 1846). Report says she wouldskin a flintif she could.FlaybottomorFlaybottomist,subs.(common).—A schoolmaster, with a play on the word phlebotomist = a blood-letter.—Grose.Fr.,fouette-cul; and (Cotgrave) “Fesse-cul, a pedantical whip-arse.”Flavour,to catch(orget)the flavour.verb. phr.(common).—1. To be intoxicated. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (venery). To be ‘half-on’ for coition; to waxproud(q.v.): said of men and women both.Flax,verb.(American).—To beat severely;to give it hot(q.v.). For synonyms,seeTan.Flax-wench,subs.(old).—A prostitute. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, i., 2. My wife’s a hobby-horse; deserves a name As rank as anyflax-wench.[18]Flea.To send away with a flea in the ear.verb. phr.(common).—To dismiss with vigour and acerbity.1854.Notes and Queries, 8 Apl., p. 322, col. 2. The luckless applicant is peremptorily dismissed with an imperative ‘flee!’ … or, facetiously,with a flee in his ear.To have a flea in the ear= (1) to fail in an enterprise; and (2) to receive a scolding, or annoying suggestion.To sit on a bag of fleas,verb. phr.(common).—To sit uncomfortably;on a bag of hen fleas= very uncomfortablyindeed.To catch fleas for,verb. phr.(venery).—To be on terms of extreme intimacy:e.g., ‘I catch her fleas for her’ = She has nothing to refuse me.Cf., Shakspeare (Tempest, III., 2.), ‘Yet a tailor might scratch her wheree’er she did itch.’In a flea’s leap,adv. phr.(old).—In next to no time;instanter(q.v.).Flea-and-louse,subs.(rhyming slang). A house. For synonyms,seeKen.Flea-bag,subs.(common).—A bed; Fr.un pucier. For synonyms,seeKip.1839.Lever,Harry Lorrequer, ch. xl. ‘Troth, and I think the gentleman would be better if he went off to hisflea-baghimself.’Flea-bite,subs.(old).—A trifle.1630.Taylor,Works. If they doe lose by pirates, tempests, rocks, ’Tis but afleabiteto their wealthy stockes; Whilst the poore cutpurse day and night doth toile, Watches and wardes, and doth himselfe turmoile.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flea-biting,subs.(old).—A trifle.1621.Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy. Their miseries are butflea-bitingsto thine.Flea-(orFlay-)Flint,subs.(old.)—A miser:Cf.,Skin flint(q.v.).1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 141.Theflea-flints… strip me bare.Flear,verb.(old).—To grin. Aflearing fool= a grinning idiot.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fleece,subs.(old).—An act of theft.Cf., old proverb, ‘to go out to shear and come home shorn.’ For synonyms,seeSkin.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fleece, to Rob, Plunder, or strip.1703.Mrs. Centlivre,Beau’s Duel, ii., 2. Had afleeceat his purse.2. (venery).—The female pubic hair. Fr.toison(Baudelaire); It.,barbiglioni(Florio). For foreign synonyms,seeMott.English Synonyms.—Banner (Durfey); bandoliers (old); beard; bearskin; belly-bristles; belly-thicket; belly-whiskers; Boskage of Venus; broom; brush; bush; cat-skin; clover-field; cunny-skin (Durfey); Cupid’s Arbour; cunt-curtain; damber-, dilberry-, gooseberry-, furze-, quim-, or whin-bush; down; Downshire; front-doormat; feather (Prior and Moore); fluff; forest (Donne); fud (Burns); fur; fur-below (old catch); ‘grove of eglantine’ (Carew); hedge on[19]the dyke; lower-wig (Burton); moss; mott-carpet; mustard-and-cress; nether eye-brow (or -lashes); nether-whiskers; parsley (Durfey); plush; quim-whiskers; quim-wig; scut (Shakspeare); shaving-brush (cf.,Lather); scrubbing-brush; shrubbery; sporran; stubble (seePointer); sweet-briar; thatch; tail-feathers; ‘toupee’;‘tufted honours’; twat-rug.Verb(now recognised).—To cheat; to shear or be shorn (as a sheep).1593.Nashe,Christ’s Teares, in wks. (Grosart) IV. 140. Tell me (almost) what gentleman hath been cast away at sea, or disasterly souldiourizd it by lande, but they (usurers) have enforst him thereunto by theirfleecing.1598.Shakspeare,I King Henry IV., ii., 2. Down with them:fleecethem!1620.Dekker,His Dreame, in wks. (Grosart) III. 52. Catchpolles, and varlets, who did poore menfleece(To their undoing) for a twelve-peny peece.1712.Arbuthnot,Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. ii. When a poor man has almost undone himself for thy sake, thou art forfleecinghim.1822.Scott,Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. He is now squeezed andfleecedby them on every pretence.1836.M. Scott,Cruise of the Midge, p. 106. He was stabbed by the Ragamuffin he hadfleeced.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. xxxi. Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion andfleecesthem.1859.Times, 25 Oct. ‘Review of Dean Ramsay’sReminiscences.’ I don’t know whether they are black or white sheep, but I know that if they are long there they are pretty certain to befleeced.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 16 Jan. How you would befleeced! You’ve got a lot to learn yet.Hencefleeced= ruined;dead-broke(q.v.for synonyms).Fleecer,subs.(old).—A thief.1600–69.Prynne,Breviate. Notfleecers, but feeders.Fleece-Hunter, or-Monger,subs. phr.(venery).—A whore-master. For synonyms,seeMolrower.Fleeter-Face,subs.(old).—A pale-face; a coward.Cf., Shakspeare’s ‘cream-faced loon.’1647.BeaumontandFletcher,Queen of Corinth. You know where you are, youfleeter-face.Fleet-Note,subs.(old).—A forged note.1821.Real Life in London.Fleet of the Desert,subs. phr.(common).—A caravan;cf.,ship of the desert= camel.Fleet-Street,subs. phr.(colloquial).—The estate of journalism, especially journalism of the baser sort.Fleet-Streeter,subs.(colloquial).—A journalist of the baser sort; a spungingprophet(q.v.); a sharking dramatic critic; aspicy(q.v.) paragraphist; and so on.Fleet-Streetese,subs. phr.(colloquial).—The so-called English, written to sell by theFleet-Streeter(q.v.), or baser sort of journalist: a mixture of sesquipedalians and slang, of phrases worn threadbare and phrases sprung from the kennel; of bad grammar and worse manners; the like of which is impossible outsideFleet-Street(q.v.), but which inFleet-Streetcommands a price, and enables not a few to live.[20]Fleg,verb.(old).—To whip.Bailey.Flemish Account,subs. phr.(old).—A remittance less than was expected; hence, an unsatisfactory account. [Among the Flemings (the merchants of Western Europe when commerce was young) accounts were kept in livres, sols, and pence; but the livre or pound only = 12s., so that what the Antwerp merchant called one livre thirteen and fourpence would in English currency be only 20s.]1668.T. Brown,The Accurate Accomptant, etc. Quoted inN. and Q.1. S. I., 286. London, August 10th, 1668. To Roger Pace, Factor, etc., for 10 pieces cont. 746 Ells Fl. at 10s. Flem. per Ell is £373 Flem. Exchange at 35s. makes Sterling Money £213 2s. 10d.1774–1826.Typ. Antiq., p. 1773. A person resident in London is said to have had most of Caxton’s publications. He sent them to Amsterdam for inspection, and on writing for them was informed that they had been destroyed by accident. ‘I am very much afraid,’ says Herbert, ‘my kind friend received but aFlemishaccountof his Caxton’s.’1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tong.Flemish account, a losing or bad account.Flesh,subs.(old).—Generic for the organs of generation, male or female. Also (of women)Fleshly-part.1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, iv., 3. She would not exchangefleshwith one that loved her.1605.Cymbeline, i., 5. If you buy ladies’fleshat a million a dram you cannot preserve it from tainting.1620.Percy,Folio MSS.[Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘As I was ridinge by the way.’ Sweet hart, shall I put myfleshin thine?Flesh,verb., or,Flesh It; or,to be fleshed in(venery).—To have carnal knowledge of—to be ‘one flesh with’—a woman. [For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.] An equivalent in the passive sense isto feel his flesh in one’s body(said by women only).1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes, Andar in Carnafau. To go afleshingor a wenching: (Carnafau= thebrat-getting place; the hole of content).Flesh and Blood,subs. phr.(common).—Brandy and port in equal proportions.SeeDrinks.Flesh-bag,subs.(common).—A shirt or chemise.English Synonyms.—Biled rag (American); camesa; carrion-case; commission; dickey (formerly a worn-out shirt); gad (gipsy); lully; mill tog; mish; narp (Scots’); shaker; shimmy (= a chemise, Marryat); smish.French Synonyms.—Une liquetteorlimace(thieves’: from the Gypsy. The form also occurs also in the Italianlima);un panais(popular).German Synonyms.—Kamis,Kamsel,Kemsel, orGemsel(from med. Lat.,Camisiale; Fr.camisole);Kesones,Kusones, orKsones(also = cotton and underclothing);StaudeorStauden;Hanfstandt(Liber Vagatorum: literallyhempshrub).Italian Synonym.—Lima(seeFr.,limace).1820.London Magazine;i., 29. They are often without aflesh-bagto their backs.Flesh-broker,subs.(old).—1. A match-maker.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flesh-broker, a match-maker; also a bawd; between whom but little difference, for they both (usually) take money.2. A procuress [Grose].Cf.,Flesh-fly,Flesh-monger,[21]andFlesh-market. For synonyms,seeMother.Flesh-fly(also,Flesh-maggot),subs.(old).—A whoremaster. For synonyms,seeMolrower.1781.Cowper,Progress of Error, 323–324. Oh! that a verse had power, and could command far, Far away, theseflesh-fliesof the land.Flesh-market, orFlesh-shambles,subs.(common).—A brothel orflash-house(q.v.); also the pavement, in Piccadilly or Regent-street, for instance, where whores do congregate.Cf.,Meatmarket.1608.John Day,Humour out of Breath, II.I Asp.… She may bee well discended; if shee be, Shee’s fit for love, and why not then for me.Boy.And you be not fitted in Venice ’tis straunge, for ’tis counted the bestflesh-shamblesin Italie.Flesh-monger,subs.(old).—A procurer; a whore-master. [From Eng.Flesh+monger]. For synonyms,seeMotherandMolrower.Cf.,Flesh-fly,Flesh-market, andFlesh-broker.1603.Shakspeare,Measure for Measure, V., 1. And was the duke aflesh-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?Fleshmongering.To go flesh-mongering,verb. phr.(venery).—To quest for women; togo on the prowl(q.v.)., orafter meat.SeeGreensandRide.Flesh-pot.Sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt.phr.(common).—Hankering for good things no longer at command. [Biblical].1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 131. Do you think it is ahankering after the flesh-pots, and that the canon’s cook reconciles me to the canon’s opinions?Flesh-tailor,subs.(old).—A surgeon. For synonyms,seeSawbones.1633.Ford,’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, iii. Oh, help! help! help! Oh, for aflesh-tailorquickly.Fleshy,subs.(Winchester College).—SeeCat’s Head.Fletch,subs.(prison). A spurious coin.Cf.,Flatch.Flick, orFlig,subs.(colloquial).—1. A cut with a whip-lash; hence, a blow of any sort. Aflickingis often administered by schoolboys with a damp towel or pocket-handkerchief. For synonyms,seetanning.1750.Fielding,Tom Jones, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘I do know you are a woman,’ cries the squire, ‘and it’s well for thee, that art one; if had’st been a man, I promise thee I had lent thee aflicklong ago.’1787.Grose,Provincial Glossary, s.v.vlick.2. (common).—A jocular salutation; usuallyold flick.Cf.,CodgerandMy Tulip.1883.Punch, 28 July, p. 38, col. 1. Well, last night, They’d a feet in these gardens,old flick, as was something too awfully quite.Verb.(thieves’).—1. To cut.1690.B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flicking,c., to cut, cutting.1728.Bailey,Eng. Dict.(flickis given as a ‘country word’).1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue.Flickme some pannam and cassan, cut me some bread and cheese;flickthe peter, cut off the cloak bag or portmanteau.[22]1791.Carew,Life and Adventures,q.v.1837.Disraeli,Venetia, ch. xiv.Flickthe bread, cut the bread.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum,or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flickthe Peter and rake the swag for I want to pad my beaters.2. (colloquial).—To strike with, or as with, a whip.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xliii. Near him, leaning listlessly against the wall, stood a strong-built countryman,flickingwith a worn-out hunting whip the top-boot that adorned his right foot.1852.Dickens,Bleak House, ch. xxvii. Who … receives this compliment byflickingMr. George in the face with a head of greens.1854.Our Cruise in the Undine, p. 103. It appeared to us that one of the most frequent, and therefore we supposed the principal stroke aimed at (in a Heidelberg duel), was to strike your sword low down, perhaps four inches from the handle, upon your adversary’s bandaged arm, so that the end of the weapon (the only part that is sharpened) shouldFlickitself against your opponent’s face.1863.Hon. Mrs. Norton,Lost and Saved, p. 29. Drivers shouting, swearing, andflickingat the horses.Flicker,subs.(Old Cant).—A drinking glass.1690.B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flicker,c., a drinking-glass;Flicker snapt,c., the glass is broken;Nim the flicker,c., steal the glass;Rum flicker,c., a large glass or rummer;Queer flicker,c., a green or ordinary glass.French Synonyms.—Une lampe(masons’);un guindal(popular);un godet(very old);une gobette(thieves’);un gobeson(thieves’).Verb.1. To drink.—Matsell.2. (old).—To laugh wantonly; also to kiss, or lewdly fondle a woman.—Palsgrave.For synonyms,seeFirkytoodle.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.Flicker, to grin or flout.AlsoFlicking= (1) drinking, and (2) wanton laughter.Let her flicker,phr.(American).—Said of any doubtful issue: ‘let the matter take its chance.’Flicket-a-Flacket,adv.(old).—Onomatopoetic for a noise of flapping and flicking.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 20. Their bellies wentflicket-a-flacket.FlierorFlyer,subs.(racing and yachting).—1. A horse or boat of great speed; also (American railway) a fast train; hence, by implication, anything of excellence.Cf.,Dasher,Daisy, etc. Alsoadj., = keen for.1865.Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. xxii. The mare’s in splendid condition; well, you saw her take her trial gallop the other morning, and you must know she’s aflier, so I won’t talk about her.1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 156. Atalanta might be aflyer, but an artist like Pycroft, with a clever colt like Newsmonger under him, was quite likely to outride whatever boy Mr. Pipes might now be able to pick up.1888.St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 2 Mar. In spite of the strike passenger trains, what are known as theflyers, are running with reasonable regularity.1890.Bird o’ Freedom, 19 Mar., p. 1, col. 1. Clearly theG.O.M.is noflierover this course.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 Mar. Although he may doubtless be made a good deal better he may turn out to be noflier.1891.Bury and Hillier,Cycling, p. 6. A moderate rider, not being an athlete or aflier… can … get over in an hour seven or eight miles of ground on a tricycle.[23]1891.Anti-Jacobin, 23 May, p. 400. When Dangerous, Plenipotentiary, Bay Middleton, and otherflyersran.1891.Morning Advertiser, 28 Mar. In any event, he was never aflyerat breakfast. But late at night, and when, perhaps, he tumbled across something equivalent to woodcock, tripe and onions, or a hot lobster, say, why then, take my word for it, he made up for previous abstinence.1891.National Observer, 1 Aug. It remains to be seen whether large yachts constructed on the same principle will be equally invincible: that is, if theflyerswe have are one and all to disappear.2. (football).—A shot in the air.SeeMade-flyer.3. (American).—A small hand-bill; aDodger(q.v.).To take a flier(American trade).—1. To make a venture; to invest against odds.2. (venery).—To copulate in haste (Grose); to do aFast-fuck(q.v.).Flies,subs.(rhyming).—Lies. Hence, nonsense; trickery; deceit.There are no flies on me, on him, etc.,phr.(common).—‘I am dealing honestly with you;’ ‘he is genuine, and is not humbugging.’ In America, the expression is used of (1) a man of quick parts, a man who ‘knows a thing without its being kicked into him by a mule’; and (2) a person of superior breeding or descent. Sometimes the phrase is corrupted into ‘no fleas.’SeeGammon.1868.Diprose, St. Clement Danes,Past and Present. To Deaf Burke, the celebrated pugilist, is attributed the old story of the ‘flies and the gin and water;’and hence the term ‘no flies’ became prevalent. Burke had ordered … some ‘hot and strong and a dash of lemon.’ The goblet was brought … Burke raised … the nectar to his lips, and beheld some dissipated flies lying at the bottom of the tumbler; he placed the glass on the table, and deliberately removed the flies with the spoon, five or six in number, and laid them side by side before him, and then giving a hearty pull at the gin and water, he as deliberately replaced the flies … and passed it to his friend. His companion stared angrily. ‘Do you dare to insult me, and in the presence of company?’ said the iratevis-à-vis. ‘Pardon me,’ replied Burke, quietly handing the glass a second time, ‘though I don’t drinkfliesmyself, I didn’t know but what others might.’1888.Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug.There ain’t no flies on him, signifies, that he is not quiet long enough for moss to grow on his heels, that he is wide awake.1888.Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. People who are capable of descending to New York and Boston English are fully justified in saying thatthere are no flies on St. Louisor the St. Louis delegation either.Fligger(alsoFlicker),verb.(old).—To grin.1720.Durfey,Pills, etc., vi., 267. Hefliggered, and told me for all my brave alls He would have a stroke.Flim.—SeeFlimsy.Flim-flam,subs.(old).—An idle story; a sham; aRobin Hoodtale(q.v.). A duplication ofFlam(q.v.).1589.Pappe with an Hatchet(ed. 1844) p. 39. Trusse up thy packet offlim-flams, and roage to some countrey faire, or read it among boyes in the belfrie.1630.Taylor,Workes. They with a courtly tricke, or aflim-flam, do nod at me, whilst I the noddy am.1750.Fielding,Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. xii. I thought thou had’st been a lad of higher mettle than to give way to a parcel of maidenish tricks. I tell thee ’tis allflim-flam.1780.Mrs. Cowley,The Belle’s Stratagem, iii., 1. Mr. Curate, don’t think to come over me with yourflim-flams, for a better man than ever trod in your shoes is coming over-sea to marry me.[24]1805.Isaac Disraeli,Flim-flams;or the Life and Errors of my Uncle, and the Amours of my Aunt[title].1825.C. Lamb,Munden(inLondon Magazine) Feb. I wonder you can put suchflim-flamsupon us, sir.Adj.(old).—Idle; worthless.1589.Nashe,Month’s Minde, in wks. Vol. I., p. 174. But to leaue thyflim-flamtales and loytering lies.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes.Filastroccola,flim-flamtales, old wiues tales as they tell when they spinne, a tale without rime or reason, or head or foote.1633.T. Newton,Lennie’s Touch-stone of Complexions, p. 120. Reporting aflim-flamtale of Robin Hood.1750.Ozell’sRabelais, vol. V., p. 247. Glibly swallow down everyflim-flamstory that’s told them.1853.Lytton,My Novel, bk. X., ch. xix. I wish you’d mind the child—it is crumpling up and playing almighty smash with thatflim-flambook, which cost me one pound one.Flimp,verb.(thieves’)—1. To hustle or rob.To put on the flimp= to rob on the highway. For synonyms,seeCrackandPrig.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 111. To take a man’s watch is toflimphim, it can only be done in a crowd, one gets behind and pushes him in the back, while the other in front is robbing him.1857.Snowden,Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 445, s.v.2. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeRide.Flimping,subs.(thieves’).—Stealing from the person.1857.Ducange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 38. He told me as Bill hadflimpeda yack.1862.Cornhill Mag., vol. vi., p. 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, etc.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. lx.Flimpingis a style of theft which I have never practised, and, consequently of which I know nothing.Flimsy, orFlim,subs.(common).—1. A bank-note. [From the thinness of the paper.]Soft-flimsy= a note drawn on ‘The Bank of Elegance,’ or ‘The Bank of Engraving.’ For synonyms,seeSoft.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1818.P. Egan,Boxiana, iv., 443. Martin produced someflimsiesand said he would fight on Tuesday next.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(‘Merchant of Venice’). Not ‘kites,’manufactured to cheat and inveigle, But the right sort of‘flimsy,’all sign’d, by Monteagle.1855.Punch, XXIX., 10. ‘Will you take it inflimsies, or will you have it all in tin?’1870.Chambers’ Journal, 9 July, p. 448. ‘What would it be worth?’ ‘Aflim, Sam.’1884.Daily Telegraph, 8 Apl., col. 3. One of the slang terms for a spurious bank-note is asoft-flimsy.1891.Hume Nisbet,Bail Up!p. 149. Next morning when I went to the bank to collect the swag, they stopped theflimsy, and had me arrested before I could look round.2. (journalists’).—News of all kinds;points(q.v.). [From the thin prepared paper used by pressmen for making several copies at once]. First used at Lloyd’s.1861.Cornhill Magazine, iv., 199 ‘At Westminster,’ my lord is neither a mumbling nor a short-tempered judge; he will … read them a great deal of his notes, which are a thousand-fold clearer, fuller, and more accurate than the reporter’sflimsy.1865.Morning Star(‘The Flaneur’). A London correspondent, who, by the aid offlimsymisleads a vast number of provincial papers.1870.London Figaro, 23 Sept. ‘Special Lining.’ We do not think it is[25]altogether worthy of the high repute of thePall Mall Gazetteto publishflimsyas a special correspondence.1876.BesantandRice,Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The sharpest of the reporters had hisflimsyup in a minute, and took notes of the proceedings.Flinders,subs.(common).—Pieces infinitesimally small.1870.New York Evening Sun, 24 May. Report of Speech of Mr. Chandler. Let us knock the British crown toflinders; let us arrange for some one or two hundred thousand British graves forthwith, and cabbage the whole boundless continent without any further procrastination.Fling,subs.(colloquial).—1. A fit of temper.2. (common).—A jeer; a jibe; a personal allusion or attack.1592.Shakspeare,I Henry VI., iii., 1. Then would I have aflingat Winchester.1888.Star, 10 Oct. Those writers who had aflingat Iddesleigh after his poor running at Stockton will have to take their words back some day.1890.Pall Mall Gazette, 24 July, p. 4. col. 2. As the disputants warmed up, little personalflingswere of course introduced.Verb(old).—1. To cheat; to get the best of; todo(q.v.) or diddle.—Grose.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xxi.Flungthe governor out of a guinea.2. (Scots).—To dance.1790.Burns,Tam O’ Shanter. To tell how Maggie lapt andflang(A souple jaud she was, and strang).3. (venery).—To move in the act; toback-up(q.v.). Fr., ‘frizer la queue= to wriggle the tayle (in leachering).’—Cotgrave.1539.David Lyndsay,Three Estaitis, Works (Ed. Laing, Edinburgh, 1879). I traist sche sal find youflingingyour fill.To Fling Out,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To depart in a hurry, and, especially, in a temper.To fling(orflap)it in one’s face,verb. phr.(prostitutes’).—To expose the person.In a fling,adv. phr.(colloquial).—In a spasm of temper.To have one’s fling,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To enjoy full liberty of action or conduct.Cf.,High Old Time.1624.Beaumont and Fletcher,Rule a Wife, &c., iii., 5. I’ll have afling.1846–8.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiii. Hang it; the regiment’s just back from the West Indies, I musthave a little fling, and then when I’m married I’ll reform.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, II., 118. I don’t want to marry until Ihave had my fling, you know.1880.Gilbert,Pirates of Penzance. Peers will be peers, And youth willhave his fling.1891.Hume Nisbet,Bail Up!p. 253. If policy (police) show up, then you let mehave my fling, eh?To fling dirt.—Seedirt.Flinger,subs.(Scots).—A dancer.1821.Scott,Pirate, ch. ix. That’s as muckle as to say, that I suld hae minded you was aflingerand a fiddler yoursel’, Maister Mordaunt.Fling-Dust,subs.(old).—A street-walker. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.Flint,subs.(workmen’s). A man working for a ‘Union’ or ‘fair’ house; non-Unionists aredung(q.v.). Both terms occur in Foote’s burlesque,The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather, and they received a fresh lease of popularity during the tailors’[26]strike of 1832.Seequots.Cf.,Scab Soc,Snob,Snob-stick, andKnobstick.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue,flints, journeyman taylors who, on a late occasion, refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted were by the mutineers stiled dungs,i.e., dunghills.1832.P. Egan,Book of Sports, p. 34. Jack Reeve is without a rival; the throne of theflintsis decidedly freehold property to him.1834.Noctes Amb., xxxiv., vol. IV., p. 83. (The company is discussing the tailors’ strike).Tickler.Theflintsflash fire, and the day of the dungs is gone.Old flint,subs. phr.(common). A miser: one who would ‘skin a flint,’i.e., stoop to any meanness for a trifle.1840.Dickens,Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 34. It’s equally plain that the money which theold flint—rot him—first taught me to expect that I should share with her at his death, will all be hers.To fix one’s flint.SeeFix.To flint in,verb. phr.(American). To act with energy; not to stand on ceremony; to pitch into; to tackle. A verb of action well-nigh as common asfix(q.v.).Flip,subs.(common).—1. Hot beer, brandy, and sugar; also, says Grose, calledSir Cloudesleyafter Sir Cloudesley Shovel.SeeDrinks.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.flip, Sea Drink, of small beer (chiefly) and brandy, sweetened and spiced upon occasion.1690.Ward,London Spy, part II., p. 41. After the drinking a Kan of Phlip or a Bowl of Punch.1705.Ward,Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. 4, p. 8. So have I seen on board of ship, Some knawing beeff, some spewingflip.1748.Smollett,Rod. Random, ch.xxiv. He … sent for a can of beer, of which he made excellentflipto crown the banquet.1810.Crabbe,The Borough, Letter 16. Nay, with the seamen working in the ship, At their request, he’d share the grog andflip.1875.C. D. Warner,Backlog Studies, p. 18. It was thought best to heat the poker red-hot before plunging it into the mugs offlip.2. (popular).—A bribe or douceur.3. (common).—A light blow, or snatch.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 23. Barney made a very unceremoniousflipat the bit.Verb(thieves’).—To shoot.1819.Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood(ed.1864), p. 273.Fliphim, Dick; fire, or I’m taken.To flip up,verb. phr.(American).—To spin a coin.1879.New York Tribune, 4 Oct. The two great men couldflip upto see which should have the second place.Flip-Flap,subs.1 (old).—A flighty creature.1702.Vanbrugh,False Friend. 1. The light airyflip-flap, she kills him with her motions.2. (popular). A step-dance; acellar-flap(q.v.). Also (acrobats’); a kind of somersault, in which the performer throws himself over on his hands and feet alternately.1727.Gay,Fables, ‘Two Monkies.’ The tumbler whirls theflip-flapround. With sommersets he shakes the ground.1872.Braddon,Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xiv. There ain’t nothing you can’t do, Morty, from Shylock to aflip-flap.[27]1889.Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. There were the clowns who danced, turned somersaults,flip-flaps, and contorted themselves.3. (American). A kind of tea-cake.1876.BesantandRice,Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The first evening I took tea with Mrs. Scrimmager. ‘It must be more than a mite lonely for you,’ she said, as we sat over her dough-nuts andflip-flaps.4. (nautical). The arm. For synonyms,seeBender.5. (venery). Thepenis.1653.Urquhart,Rabelais, I., 20. I might have cleft her water-gap And joined it close with myflip-flap.Flipper,subs.(nautical and common). 1. The hand.Tip us your flipper= give me your hand. [From the flipper or paddle of a turtle.] For synonyms,seeDaddleandMauley.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Lay of St. Gengulphus.’ With those great sugar-nippers they nipp’d off hisflippers, As the clerk, very flippantly, termed his fists.1884.Punch, 11 Oct. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Old Bluebottletipped me his flipper, and ’oped I’d ‘refreshed,’ and all that.2. (common).SeeFlapper.3. (theatrical). Part of a scene, hinged and painted on both sides, used in trick changes.Flirtatious,adj.(American).—Flighty.1881,W. D. Howells,D. Breen’s Practice, ch. i., “Oh, you needn’t look afterher, Mr. Libby! There’s nothingflirtatiousabout Grace,” said Mrs. Maynard.Flirt-gill,Flirtgillian, orGill-flirt,subs.(old). A wanton; achopping girl(q.v.); specifically a strumpet. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.1595.Shakspeare,Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Scurvy knave! I am none of hisflirt-gills.1713.Guardian, No. 26. We are invested with a parcel offlirt-gills, who are not capable of being mothers of brave men.1729.Gay,Polly, ii. 4. While a man is grappling with thesegill-flirts, pardon the expression, Captain, he runs his reason aground.1822.Scott,Fort. of Nigel, ch. v. She is a dutiful girl to her god-father, though I sometimes call her ajill-flirt.Flirtina Cop-all,subs. phr.(common). A wanton, young or old; amen’s woman(q.v.).Float,subs.(theatrical).—The footlights: before the invention of gas they were oil-pans with floating wicks.Cf.,Ark-floater.1886.Saturday Review, 24 July, p. 108. To an actor thefloatis not what it is to a fisherman.1889.Answers, 8 June, p. 24. He slapped me on the back, put me in a hansom, and cried, ‘We’ll have you behind thefloat(footlights) in a week.’If that’s the way the stick floats.SeeStick.Floater,subs.(Stock Exchange).—An Exchequer bill; applied also to other unfunded stock.1871.Temple Bar, XXXI., 320. On the Stock Exchange, where slang abounds,floatersis a term which would puzzle outsiders.Floatersare Exchequer bills and their unfunded stock.2. (common).—A suet dumpling in soup.3. (political).—A vendible voter.1883.Graphic, 17 Mar., p. 279, col. 3. ‘How many voters are there?’ asked a candidate in one of these pure-blooded[28]Yankee townships. ‘Four hundred.’ ‘And how manyfloaters,i.e., purchasable?’ ‘Four hundred.’1888.New York Herald, 4 Nov. The Building Materials Exchange people were in line to the number of about 200, with a band, and were followed by a sixteen-horse stage of the ‘Long Tom’ shape containing a lot offloatersand some fifers and drummers.4. (Western American).—A candidate representing several counties, and therefore not considered directly responsible to any one of them.1853.Texas State Gazette, 16 July. J. W. Lawrence, Esq., requests us to withdraw his name as a candidate forfloaterin the district composed of the counties of Fayette, Bastrop, and Travis.5. (venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Floating Academy,subs. phr.(old).—The hulks; alsoCampbell’s academy(q.v.), andfloating hell(q.v.). For synonyms,seeCage.Floating Batteries,subs. phr.(military).—1. Broken bread in tea; alsoslingers(q.v.).2. (American).—The Confederate bread rations during the Secession.Floating Coffin,subs. phr.(nautical).—A rotten ship.Floating Hell, orHell Afloat,subs. phr.(nautical).—A ship commanded by (1) a brutal savage, or (2) a ruthless disciplinarian.SeealsoFloating Academy.Flock,subs.(colloquial).—A clergyman’s congregation. Also any body of people with a common haunt or interest:e.g., a family of children, a company of soldiers, a school of girls or boys, ‘a cabful of molls,’ and such like.To fire into the wrong flock,verb. phr.(American pioneers’).—To blunder. A variant isto bark up the wrong tree.1858.New York Herald, 9 Nov. When Mr. Saulsbury rose and called the Speaker’s attention to the alleged blunder in the Secretary’s report, his own friends jumped up in great excitement and pulled him down; he soon found out that he hadfired into the wrong flock.Flock of Sheep,subs. phr.—1. (gaming). A hand at dominoes set out on the table.2. (colloquial).—White waves on the sea:White horses(q.v.).Flog,subs.(American thieves’).—1. A whip. A contraction ofFlogger(q.v.).To flog(now recognised), is cited by B. E. (1690),Grose, and the author ofBacchus and Venusas Cant.To be flogged at the tumbler,verb. phr.(old).—To be whipped at the cart’s tail.SeeTumbler.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.To flog the dead horse,verb. phr.(common).—1. To work up an interest in a bygone subject; to try against heart; to do with no will nor liking for the job. [Bright said that Earl Russell’s Reform Bill was adead horse(q.v.), and every attempt to create enthusiasm in its favour wasflogging the dead horse.]2. (nautical).—To work off an advance of wages.[29]To flog a willing horse,verb. phr.(common).—To urge on one who is already putting forth his best energies.Flogger,subs.(old).—1. A whip;cf.,Flog.Grosegives the word as Cant. Fr.,un bouis.1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 173, s.v.2. (theatrical).—A mop (i.e., a bunch of slips of cloth on a handle) used in the painting room to whisk the charcoal dust from a sketch.Flogging,ppl. adj.(old).—Careful; penurious.Flogging-cove,subs. phr.(prison)—1. An official who administers thecat(q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flogging cove, c. the Beadle, or Whipper in Bridewell, or any such place.1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flogging-cove, the beadle, or whipper, in Bridewell.2.SeeFlogging Cully.Flogging Cully,subs. phr.(venery).—A man addicted, whether from necessity or choice, to flagellation; awhipster(q.v.).1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flogging, c. a Naked Woman’s whipping (with rods) an Old (usually) and (sometimes) a young Lecher.Flogging Stake,subs. phr.(old).—A whipping post.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.Flogster,subs.(old).—One addicted to flogging. Specifically (naval), a nickname applied to the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV).
1871.De Vere,Americanisms, p. 602.To flat, in the West, means to jilt, and is probably derived from another slang phrase, ‘to feel flat,’ denoting the depression which is apt to follow such a disappointment.
To feel flat,verb. phr.(American).—1. To be low-spirited; out of sorts;off colour(q.v.).
1838.J. C. Neal,Charcoal Sketches. Not to hurt a gentleman’s feelings and to make himfeel flatafore the country.
2. (American).—To fail; to give way. Also used substantively.
Flat as a flounder(orPancake),phr.(colloquial).—Very flat indeed. Alsoflat as be blowed.
1882.Punch, vol. LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1.
To brush up a flat.SeeBrusher.
To pick up a flat,verb. phr.(prostitutes’). To find a client. Fr.,leverorfaire un miché(miche= bread, frommichon= money. CompareBreadwinner: underMonosyllable(q.v.)).
1869.Greenwood,Seven Curses of London. On the chance that she will, in the course of the evening,pick up a flat.
To have(ordo)a bit of flat,verb. phr.(venery).—To indulge in sexual intercourse. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
Flat-back,subs.(common).—A bed-bug. For synonyms,seeNorfolk Howard.
Flat-broke,adj.(colloquial).—Utterly ruined;dead-broke(q.v.).
Flat-catcher,subs.(common).—An impostor.
1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, i., 6.Cope(speaking of a horse). Well, Master Gull’em, do you think we shall get theflat-catcheroff to-day?
1841.Blackwood’s Mag., l., 202. Buttoners are those accomplices of thimble-riggers … whose duty it is to act asflat-catchersor decoys, by personating flats.
1856.Mayhew,Great World of London, p. 46. Andflat-catchers, or ‘ring-droppers,’ who cheat by pretending to find valuables in the street.
1864.London Review, June 18, p. 643. ‘The Bobby’ or chinked-back horse, is another favouriteflat-catcher.
1869.Whyte-Melville,M. or N., p. 110. Rather aflat-catcher, Tom? said that nobleman, between the whiffs of a cigar.
Flat-catching,subs.(common).—Swindling.
1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, p. 118, The no-pinned hero, on being elevated, gave, as a toast, ‘Success toflat-catching,’ which produced roars of laughter and shouts of approbation.
1869.Greenwood,Seven Curses of London. To mark the many kinds of bait that are used inflat-catching, as the turf slang has it.
Flatch,adj.(back-slang).—A half.flatch-kennurd= half drunk;flatch-yenork= half-a-crown;flatch-yennep= a half-penny (seesubs., sense 1).
Subs.1.—A half-penny. [An abbreviation offlatch-yennep.] For synonyms,seeMag.
c.1866.Vance,The Chickaleary Cove. I doesn’t care aflatchas long as I’ve a tach.
2.(coiners’).—A counterfeit half-crown. For synonyms,seeMadza.[16]
Flat-cap,subs.(old).—A nickname for a citizen of London. [In Henry the Eight’s time flat round caps were the pink of fashion; but when their date was out, they became ridiculous. The citizens continued to wear them long after they were generally disused, and were often satirized for their fidelity].
1596.Ben Jonson,Every Man in H., ch. ii., v. 1. Mock me all over From myflat-capunto my shining shoes.
1602.Dekker,Honest Whore. Old Plays, iii., 304. Come, Sirrah, youflat-cap, where be those whites?
1605.Marston,Dutch Court, ii., 1. Wealthyflat-capsthat pay for their pleasure the best of any men in Europe.
1613.BeaumontandFletcher,Hon. Man’s Fort., v. 3. Trade? to the city, child: aflat-capwill become thee.
Flat-cock,subs.(old).—A female. [Grose, 1785.] For synonyms,seePetticoat.
Flat-feet,subs.(common).—Specifically the Foot Guards, but also applied to other regiments of the line. Also (generally with some powerful adjective), applied to militia men to differentiate them from linesmen. For synonyms,seeMud-crusher.
Flat-fish, (generally,a regular flat-fish)subs.(common).—A dullard. [A play uponflat= stupid, andFish= something tohookor catch.] For synonyms,seeBuffle,Cabbage-Head, andSammy-Soft.Cf., Fr.,platpied= a contemptible fellow.
Flat-footed,adj.(American).—Downright; resolute; honest. [Western: the simile, common to most languages, is of a man standing, his back to the wall, resolute to accomplish his purpose.]
1858.Harper’s Magazine, Sept. His herculean frame, and bold,flat-footedway of saying things, had impressed his neighbours, and he held the rod in terrorism over them.
1871.Philadelphia Bulletin, Mar. 23. ‘The row at St. Clement’s Church.’ Now the Committee of the vestry put theirfoot flatlydown on auricular confession and priestly absolution.
1887.R. A. Proctor,Knowledge, June 1. When, in America, General Grant said he hadput his foot downand meant to advance in that line if it took him all the summer, he conveyed … the American meaning of the expressionflat-footed.
Flat-head,subs.(American).—A greenhorn; asammy-soft(q.v.).
Flat-iron,subs.(common).—A corner public house. [From the triangular shape.]
FlattieorFlatty,subs.(common).—A gull. [A diminutive offlat, sense 1.] Formerly‘cheap-jacks’ = one in a new ‘pitch.’
1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. They betray to theflatties(natives) all their profits and proceedings.
Flat-move,subs.(old).—An attempt or project that miscarries; folly and mismanagement generally.—Grose.
Flats,subs.(old). 1. Playing cards. For synonyms,seeKing’s Books.
1821.Haggart,Life, p. 56. We played atflatsin a budging-crib.
2. (old).—False dice. For synonyms,seeFulhams.[17]
3. (old).—Base money.
Mahogany flats,subs. phr.(common).—Bed-bugs. For synonyms,seeNorfolk Howards.
Flats and Sharps,subs. phr.(old).—Weapons.
1818.Scott,Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘I have known many a pretty lad cut short in his first summer upon the road, because he was something hasty with hisflats and sharps.’
Flatten Out,verb. phr.(American).—To get the better of (in argument or fight). For synonyms,seeFloor.Flattened-out= ruined; beaten.
Flatter-trap,subs.(common).—The mouth. Fr.,la menteuse, but for synonyms,seePotato-trap.
1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
Flatty-ken,subs.(thieves’).—Seequot.
1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 261. Some take up their abode in what they callflatty-kens, that is, houses the landlord of which is not ‘awake’ or ‘fly’ to the ‘moves’ and dodges of the trade.
Flawed,ppl. adj.(common).—1. Half drunk; ‘a little crooked’; quick-tempered.—Grose.For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.
2. (venery).—‘Cracked in the ring’;i.e., deflowered.
Flay(orflay the fox),verb. phr.(old).—To vomit: ‘from the subject to the effect,’ saysCotgrave; ‘for the flaying of so stinking a beast is like enough to make them spue that feel it.’ Now,to shoot the cat. For synonyms,seeAccountsandCast up Accounts.Cf.,Fox,verb, sense 1.
1653.Urquhart,Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xi. He wouldflay the fox.
2. (American).—To clean out by unfair means.
To flayorskin a flint,verb. phr.(old).—To be mean or miserly.SeeSkinflint.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. He’llflayorskinn a flintof a Meer Scrat or Miser.
1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, vol. II., p. 194 (ed. 1846). Report says she wouldskin a flintif she could.
FlaybottomorFlaybottomist,subs.(common).—A schoolmaster, with a play on the word phlebotomist = a blood-letter.—Grose.Fr.,fouette-cul; and (Cotgrave) “Fesse-cul, a pedantical whip-arse.”
Flavour,to catch(orget)the flavour.verb. phr.(common).—1. To be intoxicated. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.
2. (venery). To be ‘half-on’ for coition; to waxproud(q.v.): said of men and women both.
Flax,verb.(American).—To beat severely;to give it hot(q.v.). For synonyms,seeTan.
Flax-wench,subs.(old).—A prostitute. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.
1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, i., 2. My wife’s a hobby-horse; deserves a name As rank as anyflax-wench.[18]
Flea.To send away with a flea in the ear.verb. phr.(common).—To dismiss with vigour and acerbity.
1854.Notes and Queries, 8 Apl., p. 322, col. 2. The luckless applicant is peremptorily dismissed with an imperative ‘flee!’ … or, facetiously,with a flee in his ear.
To have a flea in the ear= (1) to fail in an enterprise; and (2) to receive a scolding, or annoying suggestion.
To sit on a bag of fleas,verb. phr.(common).—To sit uncomfortably;on a bag of hen fleas= very uncomfortablyindeed.
To catch fleas for,verb. phr.(venery).—To be on terms of extreme intimacy:e.g., ‘I catch her fleas for her’ = She has nothing to refuse me.Cf., Shakspeare (Tempest, III., 2.), ‘Yet a tailor might scratch her wheree’er she did itch.’
In a flea’s leap,adv. phr.(old).—In next to no time;instanter(q.v.).
Flea-and-louse,subs.(rhyming slang). A house. For synonyms,seeKen.
Flea-bag,subs.(common).—A bed; Fr.un pucier. For synonyms,seeKip.
1839.Lever,Harry Lorrequer, ch. xl. ‘Troth, and I think the gentleman would be better if he went off to hisflea-baghimself.’
Flea-bite,subs.(old).—A trifle.
1630.Taylor,Works. If they doe lose by pirates, tempests, rocks, ’Tis but afleabiteto their wealthy stockes; Whilst the poore cutpurse day and night doth toile, Watches and wardes, and doth himselfe turmoile.
1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Flea-biting,subs.(old).—A trifle.
1621.Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy. Their miseries are butflea-bitingsto thine.
Flea-(orFlay-)Flint,subs.(old.)—A miser:Cf.,Skin flint(q.v.).
1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 141.Theflea-flints… strip me bare.
Flear,verb.(old).—To grin. Aflearing fool= a grinning idiot.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.
Fleece,subs.(old).—An act of theft.Cf., old proverb, ‘to go out to shear and come home shorn.’ For synonyms,seeSkin.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fleece, to Rob, Plunder, or strip.
1703.Mrs. Centlivre,Beau’s Duel, ii., 2. Had afleeceat his purse.
2. (venery).—The female pubic hair. Fr.toison(Baudelaire); It.,barbiglioni(Florio). For foreign synonyms,seeMott.
English Synonyms.—Banner (Durfey); bandoliers (old); beard; bearskin; belly-bristles; belly-thicket; belly-whiskers; Boskage of Venus; broom; brush; bush; cat-skin; clover-field; cunny-skin (Durfey); Cupid’s Arbour; cunt-curtain; damber-, dilberry-, gooseberry-, furze-, quim-, or whin-bush; down; Downshire; front-doormat; feather (Prior and Moore); fluff; forest (Donne); fud (Burns); fur; fur-below (old catch); ‘grove of eglantine’ (Carew); hedge on[19]the dyke; lower-wig (Burton); moss; mott-carpet; mustard-and-cress; nether eye-brow (or -lashes); nether-whiskers; parsley (Durfey); plush; quim-whiskers; quim-wig; scut (Shakspeare); shaving-brush (cf.,Lather); scrubbing-brush; shrubbery; sporran; stubble (seePointer); sweet-briar; thatch; tail-feathers; ‘toupee’;‘tufted honours’; twat-rug.
Verb(now recognised).—To cheat; to shear or be shorn (as a sheep).
1593.Nashe,Christ’s Teares, in wks. (Grosart) IV. 140. Tell me (almost) what gentleman hath been cast away at sea, or disasterly souldiourizd it by lande, but they (usurers) have enforst him thereunto by theirfleecing.
1598.Shakspeare,I King Henry IV., ii., 2. Down with them:fleecethem!
1620.Dekker,His Dreame, in wks. (Grosart) III. 52. Catchpolles, and varlets, who did poore menfleece(To their undoing) for a twelve-peny peece.
1712.Arbuthnot,Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. ii. When a poor man has almost undone himself for thy sake, thou art forfleecinghim.
1822.Scott,Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. He is now squeezed andfleecedby them on every pretence.
1836.M. Scott,Cruise of the Midge, p. 106. He was stabbed by the Ragamuffin he hadfleeced.
1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. xxxi. Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion andfleecesthem.
1859.Times, 25 Oct. ‘Review of Dean Ramsay’sReminiscences.’ I don’t know whether they are black or white sheep, but I know that if they are long there they are pretty certain to befleeced.
1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 16 Jan. How you would befleeced! You’ve got a lot to learn yet.
Hencefleeced= ruined;dead-broke(q.v.for synonyms).
Fleecer,subs.(old).—A thief.
1600–69.Prynne,Breviate. Notfleecers, but feeders.
Fleece-Hunter, or-Monger,subs. phr.(venery).—A whore-master. For synonyms,seeMolrower.
Fleeter-Face,subs.(old).—A pale-face; a coward.Cf., Shakspeare’s ‘cream-faced loon.’
1647.BeaumontandFletcher,Queen of Corinth. You know where you are, youfleeter-face.
Fleet-Note,subs.(old).—A forged note.
1821.Real Life in London.
Fleet of the Desert,subs. phr.(common).—A caravan;cf.,ship of the desert= camel.
Fleet-Street,subs. phr.(colloquial).—The estate of journalism, especially journalism of the baser sort.
Fleet-Streeter,subs.(colloquial).—A journalist of the baser sort; a spungingprophet(q.v.); a sharking dramatic critic; aspicy(q.v.) paragraphist; and so on.
Fleet-Streetese,subs. phr.(colloquial).—The so-called English, written to sell by theFleet-Streeter(q.v.), or baser sort of journalist: a mixture of sesquipedalians and slang, of phrases worn threadbare and phrases sprung from the kennel; of bad grammar and worse manners; the like of which is impossible outsideFleet-Street(q.v.), but which inFleet-Streetcommands a price, and enables not a few to live.[20]
Fleg,verb.(old).—To whip.Bailey.
Flemish Account,subs. phr.(old).—A remittance less than was expected; hence, an unsatisfactory account. [Among the Flemings (the merchants of Western Europe when commerce was young) accounts were kept in livres, sols, and pence; but the livre or pound only = 12s., so that what the Antwerp merchant called one livre thirteen and fourpence would in English currency be only 20s.]
1668.T. Brown,The Accurate Accomptant, etc. Quoted inN. and Q.1. S. I., 286. London, August 10th, 1668. To Roger Pace, Factor, etc., for 10 pieces cont. 746 Ells Fl. at 10s. Flem. per Ell is £373 Flem. Exchange at 35s. makes Sterling Money £213 2s. 10d.
1774–1826.Typ. Antiq., p. 1773. A person resident in London is said to have had most of Caxton’s publications. He sent them to Amsterdam for inspection, and on writing for them was informed that they had been destroyed by accident. ‘I am very much afraid,’ says Herbert, ‘my kind friend received but aFlemishaccountof his Caxton’s.’
1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tong.Flemish account, a losing or bad account.
Flesh,subs.(old).—Generic for the organs of generation, male or female. Also (of women)Fleshly-part.
1604.Shakspeare,Winter’s Tale, iv., 3. She would not exchangefleshwith one that loved her.
1605.Cymbeline, i., 5. If you buy ladies’fleshat a million a dram you cannot preserve it from tainting.
1620.Percy,Folio MSS.[Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘As I was ridinge by the way.’ Sweet hart, shall I put myfleshin thine?
Flesh,verb., or,Flesh It; or,to be fleshed in(venery).—To have carnal knowledge of—to be ‘one flesh with’—a woman. [For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.] An equivalent in the passive sense isto feel his flesh in one’s body(said by women only).
1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes, Andar in Carnafau. To go afleshingor a wenching: (Carnafau= thebrat-getting place; the hole of content).
Flesh and Blood,subs. phr.(common).—Brandy and port in equal proportions.SeeDrinks.
Flesh-bag,subs.(common).—A shirt or chemise.
English Synonyms.—Biled rag (American); camesa; carrion-case; commission; dickey (formerly a worn-out shirt); gad (gipsy); lully; mill tog; mish; narp (Scots’); shaker; shimmy (= a chemise, Marryat); smish.
French Synonyms.—Une liquetteorlimace(thieves’: from the Gypsy. The form also occurs also in the Italianlima);un panais(popular).
German Synonyms.—Kamis,Kamsel,Kemsel, orGemsel(from med. Lat.,Camisiale; Fr.camisole);Kesones,Kusones, orKsones(also = cotton and underclothing);StaudeorStauden;Hanfstandt(Liber Vagatorum: literallyhempshrub).
Italian Synonym.—Lima(seeFr.,limace).
1820.London Magazine;i., 29. They are often without aflesh-bagto their backs.
Flesh-broker,subs.(old).—1. A match-maker.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flesh-broker, a match-maker; also a bawd; between whom but little difference, for they both (usually) take money.
2. A procuress [Grose].Cf.,Flesh-fly,Flesh-monger,[21]andFlesh-market. For synonyms,seeMother.
Flesh-fly(also,Flesh-maggot),subs.(old).—A whoremaster. For synonyms,seeMolrower.
1781.Cowper,Progress of Error, 323–324. Oh! that a verse had power, and could command far, Far away, theseflesh-fliesof the land.
Flesh-market, orFlesh-shambles,subs.(common).—A brothel orflash-house(q.v.); also the pavement, in Piccadilly or Regent-street, for instance, where whores do congregate.Cf.,Meatmarket.
1608.John Day,Humour out of Breath, II.I Asp.… She may bee well discended; if shee be, Shee’s fit for love, and why not then for me.Boy.And you be not fitted in Venice ’tis straunge, for ’tis counted the bestflesh-shamblesin Italie.
Flesh-monger,subs.(old).—A procurer; a whore-master. [From Eng.Flesh+monger]. For synonyms,seeMotherandMolrower.Cf.,Flesh-fly,Flesh-market, andFlesh-broker.
1603.Shakspeare,Measure for Measure, V., 1. And was the duke aflesh-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?
Fleshmongering.To go flesh-mongering,verb. phr.(venery).—To quest for women; togo on the prowl(q.v.)., orafter meat.SeeGreensandRide.
Flesh-pot.Sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt.phr.(common).—Hankering for good things no longer at command. [Biblical].
1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 131. Do you think it is ahankering after the flesh-pots, and that the canon’s cook reconciles me to the canon’s opinions?
Flesh-tailor,subs.(old).—A surgeon. For synonyms,seeSawbones.
1633.Ford,’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, iii. Oh, help! help! help! Oh, for aflesh-tailorquickly.
Fleshy,subs.(Winchester College).—SeeCat’s Head.
Fletch,subs.(prison). A spurious coin.Cf.,Flatch.
Flick, orFlig,subs.(colloquial).—1. A cut with a whip-lash; hence, a blow of any sort. Aflickingis often administered by schoolboys with a damp towel or pocket-handkerchief. For synonyms,seetanning.
1750.Fielding,Tom Jones, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘I do know you are a woman,’ cries the squire, ‘and it’s well for thee, that art one; if had’st been a man, I promise thee I had lent thee aflicklong ago.’
1787.Grose,Provincial Glossary, s.v.vlick.
2. (common).—A jocular salutation; usuallyold flick.Cf.,CodgerandMy Tulip.
1883.Punch, 28 July, p. 38, col. 1. Well, last night, They’d a feet in these gardens,old flick, as was something too awfully quite.
Verb.(thieves’).—1. To cut.
1690.B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flicking,c., to cut, cutting.
1728.Bailey,Eng. Dict.(flickis given as a ‘country word’).
1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue.Flickme some pannam and cassan, cut me some bread and cheese;flickthe peter, cut off the cloak bag or portmanteau.[22]
1791.Carew,Life and Adventures,q.v.
1837.Disraeli,Venetia, ch. xiv.Flickthe bread, cut the bread.
1859.Matsell,Vocabulum,or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Flickthe Peter and rake the swag for I want to pad my beaters.
2. (colloquial).—To strike with, or as with, a whip.
1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xliii. Near him, leaning listlessly against the wall, stood a strong-built countryman,flickingwith a worn-out hunting whip the top-boot that adorned his right foot.
1852.Dickens,Bleak House, ch. xxvii. Who … receives this compliment byflickingMr. George in the face with a head of greens.
1854.Our Cruise in the Undine, p. 103. It appeared to us that one of the most frequent, and therefore we supposed the principal stroke aimed at (in a Heidelberg duel), was to strike your sword low down, perhaps four inches from the handle, upon your adversary’s bandaged arm, so that the end of the weapon (the only part that is sharpened) shouldFlickitself against your opponent’s face.
1863.Hon. Mrs. Norton,Lost and Saved, p. 29. Drivers shouting, swearing, andflickingat the horses.
Flicker,subs.(Old Cant).—A drinking glass.
1690.B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flicker,c., a drinking-glass;Flicker snapt,c., the glass is broken;Nim the flicker,c., steal the glass;Rum flicker,c., a large glass or rummer;Queer flicker,c., a green or ordinary glass.
French Synonyms.—Une lampe(masons’);un guindal(popular);un godet(very old);une gobette(thieves’);un gobeson(thieves’).
Verb.1. To drink.—Matsell.
2. (old).—To laugh wantonly; also to kiss, or lewdly fondle a woman.—Palsgrave.For synonyms,seeFirkytoodle.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.Flicker, to grin or flout.
AlsoFlicking= (1) drinking, and (2) wanton laughter.
Let her flicker,phr.(American).—Said of any doubtful issue: ‘let the matter take its chance.’
Flicket-a-Flacket,adv.(old).—Onomatopoetic for a noise of flapping and flicking.
1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 20. Their bellies wentflicket-a-flacket.
FlierorFlyer,subs.(racing and yachting).—1. A horse or boat of great speed; also (American railway) a fast train; hence, by implication, anything of excellence.Cf.,Dasher,Daisy, etc. Alsoadj., = keen for.
1865.Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. xxii. The mare’s in splendid condition; well, you saw her take her trial gallop the other morning, and you must know she’s aflier, so I won’t talk about her.
1884.Hawley Smart,From Post to Finish, p. 156. Atalanta might be aflyer, but an artist like Pycroft, with a clever colt like Newsmonger under him, was quite likely to outride whatever boy Mr. Pipes might now be able to pick up.
1888.St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 2 Mar. In spite of the strike passenger trains, what are known as theflyers, are running with reasonable regularity.
1890.Bird o’ Freedom, 19 Mar., p. 1, col. 1. Clearly theG.O.M.is noflierover this course.
1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 Mar. Although he may doubtless be made a good deal better he may turn out to be noflier.
1891.Bury and Hillier,Cycling, p. 6. A moderate rider, not being an athlete or aflier… can … get over in an hour seven or eight miles of ground on a tricycle.[23]
1891.Anti-Jacobin, 23 May, p. 400. When Dangerous, Plenipotentiary, Bay Middleton, and otherflyersran.
1891.Morning Advertiser, 28 Mar. In any event, he was never aflyerat breakfast. But late at night, and when, perhaps, he tumbled across something equivalent to woodcock, tripe and onions, or a hot lobster, say, why then, take my word for it, he made up for previous abstinence.
1891.National Observer, 1 Aug. It remains to be seen whether large yachts constructed on the same principle will be equally invincible: that is, if theflyerswe have are one and all to disappear.
2. (football).—A shot in the air.SeeMade-flyer.
3. (American).—A small hand-bill; aDodger(q.v.).
To take a flier(American trade).—1. To make a venture; to invest against odds.
2. (venery).—To copulate in haste (Grose); to do aFast-fuck(q.v.).
Flies,subs.(rhyming).—Lies. Hence, nonsense; trickery; deceit.
There are no flies on me, on him, etc.,phr.(common).—‘I am dealing honestly with you;’ ‘he is genuine, and is not humbugging.’ In America, the expression is used of (1) a man of quick parts, a man who ‘knows a thing without its being kicked into him by a mule’; and (2) a person of superior breeding or descent. Sometimes the phrase is corrupted into ‘no fleas.’SeeGammon.
1868.Diprose, St. Clement Danes,Past and Present. To Deaf Burke, the celebrated pugilist, is attributed the old story of the ‘flies and the gin and water;’and hence the term ‘no flies’ became prevalent. Burke had ordered … some ‘hot and strong and a dash of lemon.’ The goblet was brought … Burke raised … the nectar to his lips, and beheld some dissipated flies lying at the bottom of the tumbler; he placed the glass on the table, and deliberately removed the flies with the spoon, five or six in number, and laid them side by side before him, and then giving a hearty pull at the gin and water, he as deliberately replaced the flies … and passed it to his friend. His companion stared angrily. ‘Do you dare to insult me, and in the presence of company?’ said the iratevis-à-vis. ‘Pardon me,’ replied Burke, quietly handing the glass a second time, ‘though I don’t drinkfliesmyself, I didn’t know but what others might.’
1888.Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug.There ain’t no flies on him, signifies, that he is not quiet long enough for moss to grow on his heels, that he is wide awake.
1888.Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. People who are capable of descending to New York and Boston English are fully justified in saying thatthere are no flies on St. Louisor the St. Louis delegation either.
Fligger(alsoFlicker),verb.(old).—To grin.
1720.Durfey,Pills, etc., vi., 267. Hefliggered, and told me for all my brave alls He would have a stroke.
Flim.—SeeFlimsy.
Flim-flam,subs.(old).—An idle story; a sham; aRobin Hoodtale(q.v.). A duplication ofFlam(q.v.).
1589.Pappe with an Hatchet(ed. 1844) p. 39. Trusse up thy packet offlim-flams, and roage to some countrey faire, or read it among boyes in the belfrie.
1630.Taylor,Workes. They with a courtly tricke, or aflim-flam, do nod at me, whilst I the noddy am.
1750.Fielding,Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. xii. I thought thou had’st been a lad of higher mettle than to give way to a parcel of maidenish tricks. I tell thee ’tis allflim-flam.
1780.Mrs. Cowley,The Belle’s Stratagem, iii., 1. Mr. Curate, don’t think to come over me with yourflim-flams, for a better man than ever trod in your shoes is coming over-sea to marry me.[24]
1805.Isaac Disraeli,Flim-flams;or the Life and Errors of my Uncle, and the Amours of my Aunt[title].
1825.C. Lamb,Munden(inLondon Magazine) Feb. I wonder you can put suchflim-flamsupon us, sir.
Adj.(old).—Idle; worthless.
1589.Nashe,Month’s Minde, in wks. Vol. I., p. 174. But to leaue thyflim-flamtales and loytering lies.
1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes.Filastroccola,flim-flamtales, old wiues tales as they tell when they spinne, a tale without rime or reason, or head or foote.
1633.T. Newton,Lennie’s Touch-stone of Complexions, p. 120. Reporting aflim-flamtale of Robin Hood.
1750.Ozell’sRabelais, vol. V., p. 247. Glibly swallow down everyflim-flamstory that’s told them.
1853.Lytton,My Novel, bk. X., ch. xix. I wish you’d mind the child—it is crumpling up and playing almighty smash with thatflim-flambook, which cost me one pound one.
Flimp,verb.(thieves’)—1. To hustle or rob.To put on the flimp= to rob on the highway. For synonyms,seeCrackandPrig.
1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 111. To take a man’s watch is toflimphim, it can only be done in a crowd, one gets behind and pushes him in the back, while the other in front is robbing him.
1857.Snowden,Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 445, s.v.
2. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeRide.
Flimping,subs.(thieves’).—Stealing from the person.
1857.Ducange Anglicus,The Vulgar Tongue, p. 38. He told me as Bill hadflimpeda yack.
1862.Cornhill Mag., vol. vi., p. 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, etc.
1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. lx.Flimpingis a style of theft which I have never practised, and, consequently of which I know nothing.
Flimsy, orFlim,subs.(common).—1. A bank-note. [From the thinness of the paper.]Soft-flimsy= a note drawn on ‘The Bank of Elegance,’ or ‘The Bank of Engraving.’ For synonyms,seeSoft.
1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1818.P. Egan,Boxiana, iv., 443. Martin produced someflimsiesand said he would fight on Tuesday next.
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends(‘Merchant of Venice’). Not ‘kites,’manufactured to cheat and inveigle, But the right sort of‘flimsy,’all sign’d, by Monteagle.
1855.Punch, XXIX., 10. ‘Will you take it inflimsies, or will you have it all in tin?’
1870.Chambers’ Journal, 9 July, p. 448. ‘What would it be worth?’ ‘Aflim, Sam.’
1884.Daily Telegraph, 8 Apl., col. 3. One of the slang terms for a spurious bank-note is asoft-flimsy.
1891.Hume Nisbet,Bail Up!p. 149. Next morning when I went to the bank to collect the swag, they stopped theflimsy, and had me arrested before I could look round.
2. (journalists’).—News of all kinds;points(q.v.). [From the thin prepared paper used by pressmen for making several copies at once]. First used at Lloyd’s.
1861.Cornhill Magazine, iv., 199 ‘At Westminster,’ my lord is neither a mumbling nor a short-tempered judge; he will … read them a great deal of his notes, which are a thousand-fold clearer, fuller, and more accurate than the reporter’sflimsy.
1865.Morning Star(‘The Flaneur’). A London correspondent, who, by the aid offlimsymisleads a vast number of provincial papers.
1870.London Figaro, 23 Sept. ‘Special Lining.’ We do not think it is[25]altogether worthy of the high repute of thePall Mall Gazetteto publishflimsyas a special correspondence.
1876.BesantandRice,Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The sharpest of the reporters had hisflimsyup in a minute, and took notes of the proceedings.
Flinders,subs.(common).—Pieces infinitesimally small.
1870.New York Evening Sun, 24 May. Report of Speech of Mr. Chandler. Let us knock the British crown toflinders; let us arrange for some one or two hundred thousand British graves forthwith, and cabbage the whole boundless continent without any further procrastination.
Fling,subs.(colloquial).—1. A fit of temper.
2. (common).—A jeer; a jibe; a personal allusion or attack.
1592.Shakspeare,I Henry VI., iii., 1. Then would I have aflingat Winchester.
1888.Star, 10 Oct. Those writers who had aflingat Iddesleigh after his poor running at Stockton will have to take their words back some day.
1890.Pall Mall Gazette, 24 July, p. 4. col. 2. As the disputants warmed up, little personalflingswere of course introduced.
Verb(old).—1. To cheat; to get the best of; todo(q.v.) or diddle.—Grose.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xxi.Flungthe governor out of a guinea.
2. (Scots).—To dance.
1790.Burns,Tam O’ Shanter. To tell how Maggie lapt andflang(A souple jaud she was, and strang).
3. (venery).—To move in the act; toback-up(q.v.). Fr., ‘frizer la queue= to wriggle the tayle (in leachering).’—Cotgrave.
1539.David Lyndsay,Three Estaitis, Works (Ed. Laing, Edinburgh, 1879). I traist sche sal find youflingingyour fill.
To Fling Out,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To depart in a hurry, and, especially, in a temper.
To fling(orflap)it in one’s face,verb. phr.(prostitutes’).—To expose the person.
In a fling,adv. phr.(colloquial).—In a spasm of temper.
To have one’s fling,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To enjoy full liberty of action or conduct.Cf.,High Old Time.
1624.Beaumont and Fletcher,Rule a Wife, &c., iii., 5. I’ll have afling.
1846–8.Thackeray,Vanity Fair, ch. xiii. Hang it; the regiment’s just back from the West Indies, I musthave a little fling, and then when I’m married I’ll reform.
1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, II., 118. I don’t want to marry until Ihave had my fling, you know.
1880.Gilbert,Pirates of Penzance. Peers will be peers, And youth willhave his fling.
1891.Hume Nisbet,Bail Up!p. 253. If policy (police) show up, then you let mehave my fling, eh?
To fling dirt.—Seedirt.
Flinger,subs.(Scots).—A dancer.
1821.Scott,Pirate, ch. ix. That’s as muckle as to say, that I suld hae minded you was aflingerand a fiddler yoursel’, Maister Mordaunt.
Fling-Dust,subs.(old).—A street-walker. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.
Flint,subs.(workmen’s). A man working for a ‘Union’ or ‘fair’ house; non-Unionists aredung(q.v.). Both terms occur in Foote’s burlesque,The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather, and they received a fresh lease of popularity during the tailors’[26]strike of 1832.Seequots.Cf.,Scab Soc,Snob,Snob-stick, andKnobstick.
1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue,flints, journeyman taylors who, on a late occasion, refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted were by the mutineers stiled dungs,i.e., dunghills.
1832.P. Egan,Book of Sports, p. 34. Jack Reeve is without a rival; the throne of theflintsis decidedly freehold property to him.
1834.Noctes Amb., xxxiv., vol. IV., p. 83. (The company is discussing the tailors’ strike).Tickler.Theflintsflash fire, and the day of the dungs is gone.
Old flint,subs. phr.(common). A miser: one who would ‘skin a flint,’i.e., stoop to any meanness for a trifle.
1840.Dickens,Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 34. It’s equally plain that the money which theold flint—rot him—first taught me to expect that I should share with her at his death, will all be hers.
To fix one’s flint.SeeFix.
To flint in,verb. phr.(American). To act with energy; not to stand on ceremony; to pitch into; to tackle. A verb of action well-nigh as common asfix(q.v.).
Flip,subs.(common).—1. Hot beer, brandy, and sugar; also, says Grose, calledSir Cloudesleyafter Sir Cloudesley Shovel.SeeDrinks.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.flip, Sea Drink, of small beer (chiefly) and brandy, sweetened and spiced upon occasion.
1690.Ward,London Spy, part II., p. 41. After the drinking a Kan of Phlip or a Bowl of Punch.
1705.Ward,Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. 4, p. 8. So have I seen on board of ship, Some knawing beeff, some spewingflip.
1748.Smollett,Rod. Random, ch.xxiv. He … sent for a can of beer, of which he made excellentflipto crown the banquet.
1810.Crabbe,The Borough, Letter 16. Nay, with the seamen working in the ship, At their request, he’d share the grog andflip.
1875.C. D. Warner,Backlog Studies, p. 18. It was thought best to heat the poker red-hot before plunging it into the mugs offlip.
2. (popular).—A bribe or douceur.
3. (common).—A light blow, or snatch.
1821.Haggart,Life, p. 23. Barney made a very unceremoniousflipat the bit.
Verb(thieves’).—To shoot.
1819.Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v.
1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood(ed.1864), p. 273.Fliphim, Dick; fire, or I’m taken.
To flip up,verb. phr.(American).—To spin a coin.
1879.New York Tribune, 4 Oct. The two great men couldflip upto see which should have the second place.
Flip-Flap,subs.1 (old).—A flighty creature.
1702.Vanbrugh,False Friend. 1. The light airyflip-flap, she kills him with her motions.
2. (popular). A step-dance; acellar-flap(q.v.). Also (acrobats’); a kind of somersault, in which the performer throws himself over on his hands and feet alternately.
1727.Gay,Fables, ‘Two Monkies.’ The tumbler whirls theflip-flapround. With sommersets he shakes the ground.
1872.Braddon,Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xiv. There ain’t nothing you can’t do, Morty, from Shylock to aflip-flap.[27]
1889.Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. There were the clowns who danced, turned somersaults,flip-flaps, and contorted themselves.
3. (American). A kind of tea-cake.
1876.BesantandRice,Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The first evening I took tea with Mrs. Scrimmager. ‘It must be more than a mite lonely for you,’ she said, as we sat over her dough-nuts andflip-flaps.
4. (nautical). The arm. For synonyms,seeBender.
5. (venery). Thepenis.
1653.Urquhart,Rabelais, I., 20. I might have cleft her water-gap And joined it close with myflip-flap.
Flipper,subs.(nautical and common). 1. The hand.Tip us your flipper= give me your hand. [From the flipper or paddle of a turtle.] For synonyms,seeDaddleandMauley.
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Lay of St. Gengulphus.’ With those great sugar-nippers they nipp’d off hisflippers, As the clerk, very flippantly, termed his fists.
1884.Punch, 11 Oct. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Old Bluebottletipped me his flipper, and ’oped I’d ‘refreshed,’ and all that.
2. (common).SeeFlapper.
3. (theatrical). Part of a scene, hinged and painted on both sides, used in trick changes.
Flirtatious,adj.(American).—Flighty.
1881,W. D. Howells,D. Breen’s Practice, ch. i., “Oh, you needn’t look afterher, Mr. Libby! There’s nothingflirtatiousabout Grace,” said Mrs. Maynard.
Flirt-gill,Flirtgillian, orGill-flirt,subs.(old). A wanton; achopping girl(q.v.); specifically a strumpet. For synonyms,seeBarrack-hackandTart.
1595.Shakspeare,Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Scurvy knave! I am none of hisflirt-gills.
1713.Guardian, No. 26. We are invested with a parcel offlirt-gills, who are not capable of being mothers of brave men.
1729.Gay,Polly, ii. 4. While a man is grappling with thesegill-flirts, pardon the expression, Captain, he runs his reason aground.
1822.Scott,Fort. of Nigel, ch. v. She is a dutiful girl to her god-father, though I sometimes call her ajill-flirt.
Flirtina Cop-all,subs. phr.(common). A wanton, young or old; amen’s woman(q.v.).
Float,subs.(theatrical).—The footlights: before the invention of gas they were oil-pans with floating wicks.Cf.,Ark-floater.
1886.Saturday Review, 24 July, p. 108. To an actor thefloatis not what it is to a fisherman.
1889.Answers, 8 June, p. 24. He slapped me on the back, put me in a hansom, and cried, ‘We’ll have you behind thefloat(footlights) in a week.’
If that’s the way the stick floats.SeeStick.
Floater,subs.(Stock Exchange).—An Exchequer bill; applied also to other unfunded stock.
1871.Temple Bar, XXXI., 320. On the Stock Exchange, where slang abounds,floatersis a term which would puzzle outsiders.Floatersare Exchequer bills and their unfunded stock.
2. (common).—A suet dumpling in soup.
3. (political).—A vendible voter.
1883.Graphic, 17 Mar., p. 279, col. 3. ‘How many voters are there?’ asked a candidate in one of these pure-blooded[28]Yankee townships. ‘Four hundred.’ ‘And how manyfloaters,i.e., purchasable?’ ‘Four hundred.’
1888.New York Herald, 4 Nov. The Building Materials Exchange people were in line to the number of about 200, with a band, and were followed by a sixteen-horse stage of the ‘Long Tom’ shape containing a lot offloatersand some fifers and drummers.
4. (Western American).—A candidate representing several counties, and therefore not considered directly responsible to any one of them.
1853.Texas State Gazette, 16 July. J. W. Lawrence, Esq., requests us to withdraw his name as a candidate forfloaterin the district composed of the counties of Fayette, Bastrop, and Travis.
5. (venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.
Floating Academy,subs. phr.(old).—The hulks; alsoCampbell’s academy(q.v.), andfloating hell(q.v.). For synonyms,seeCage.
Floating Batteries,subs. phr.(military).—1. Broken bread in tea; alsoslingers(q.v.).
2. (American).—The Confederate bread rations during the Secession.
Floating Coffin,subs. phr.(nautical).—A rotten ship.
Floating Hell, orHell Afloat,subs. phr.(nautical).—A ship commanded by (1) a brutal savage, or (2) a ruthless disciplinarian.SeealsoFloating Academy.
Flock,subs.(colloquial).—A clergyman’s congregation. Also any body of people with a common haunt or interest:e.g., a family of children, a company of soldiers, a school of girls or boys, ‘a cabful of molls,’ and such like.
To fire into the wrong flock,verb. phr.(American pioneers’).—To blunder. A variant isto bark up the wrong tree.
1858.New York Herald, 9 Nov. When Mr. Saulsbury rose and called the Speaker’s attention to the alleged blunder in the Secretary’s report, his own friends jumped up in great excitement and pulled him down; he soon found out that he hadfired into the wrong flock.
Flock of Sheep,subs. phr.—1. (gaming). A hand at dominoes set out on the table.
2. (colloquial).—White waves on the sea:White horses(q.v.).
Flog,subs.(American thieves’).—1. A whip. A contraction ofFlogger(q.v.).To flog(now recognised), is cited by B. E. (1690),Grose, and the author ofBacchus and Venusas Cant.
To be flogged at the tumbler,verb. phr.(old).—To be whipped at the cart’s tail.SeeTumbler.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.
To flog the dead horse,verb. phr.(common).—1. To work up an interest in a bygone subject; to try against heart; to do with no will nor liking for the job. [Bright said that Earl Russell’s Reform Bill was adead horse(q.v.), and every attempt to create enthusiasm in its favour wasflogging the dead horse.]
2. (nautical).—To work off an advance of wages.[29]
To flog a willing horse,verb. phr.(common).—To urge on one who is already putting forth his best energies.
Flogger,subs.(old).—1. A whip;cf.,Flog.Grosegives the word as Cant. Fr.,un bouis.
1789.Geo. Parker,Life’s Painter, p. 173, s.v.
2. (theatrical).—A mop (i.e., a bunch of slips of cloth on a handle) used in the painting room to whisk the charcoal dust from a sketch.
Flogging,ppl. adj.(old).—Careful; penurious.
Flogging-cove,subs. phr.(prison)—1. An official who administers thecat(q.v.).
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flogging cove, c. the Beadle, or Whipper in Bridewell, or any such place.
1785.Grose,Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Flogging-cove, the beadle, or whipper, in Bridewell.
2.SeeFlogging Cully.
Flogging Cully,subs. phr.(venery).—A man addicted, whether from necessity or choice, to flagellation; awhipster(q.v.).
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew.Flogging, c. a Naked Woman’s whipping (with rods) an Old (usually) and (sometimes) a young Lecher.
Flogging Stake,subs. phr.(old).—A whipping post.
1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
Flogster,subs.(old).—One addicted to flogging. Specifically (naval), a nickname applied to the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV).