Chapter 7

1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.2. (thieves’).—A finger. Theforks= the fore and middle fingers; alsocf., (proverbial) ‘Fingers were made beforeforks.’English Synonyms.—Claws; cunt-hooks (Grose); daddles (also the hands); divers; feelers; fives; flappers; grapplers; grappling irons; gropers; hooks; nail-bearers; pickers and stealers (Shakspeare); corn-stealers; Ten Commandments; ticklers; pinkies; muck-forks.French Synonyms.—Les apôtres(thieves’: = the ten Apostles);les fourchettes, orles fourchettes d’Adam(popular: = Adam’s forks);le peigne d’allemand(thieves’:Rabelais).German Synonyms.—Ezba(= the finger, especially the first or fore-finger. The names of the others are:Godel= the thumb;Ammo= the middle-finger;Kemizo= the ring-finger;Seres,i.e., ‘span’ = the little finger);Griffling(= also the hand. Fromgreifen= to seize).Spanish Synonyms.—Mandamiento(= a commandment:cf.,Ten Commandments);tijeras(= the fore- and middle fingers;Minsheu(1599)Dictionarie, tijeras= ‘small sheares, seizers, snuffers.’).[58]Portuguese Synonym.—Medunhos.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 121. Myforkswere equally long, and they never failed me.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood. ‘Nix my Dolly.’ No dummy hunter hadforksso fly.Ibid.Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 20. I’ll give him the edication of a prig—teach him the use of hisforksbetimes.1841.Tait’s Edinburgh Mag., VIII., p. 220. Myforkswere light and fly, and lightly faked away.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Feb. Up they came briskly with smiling mugs, shook hands, then stepped back a pace or two, put up theirforks, and the spectators were hushed into silence, for they saw that the battle was about to begin.3. In plural (common).—The hands.4. (old).—A gibbet; in the plural = the gallows. [forkis often applied to anything resembling a divarication (as of a tree, river, or road), etc.:Cf., sense 2.Cf., Cicero (de Div., i., 26).Ferens furcam ductus est: a slave so punished was calledfurcifer.]5. (old).—A spendthrift.1725.New Canting Dict., s.v.6. (tailors’ and venery).—Thecrutch(q.v.),nockandro(q.v.), orTwist(q.v.). [Thus,a bit on a fork= the femalepudendum; agrind(q.v.).] Fr., ‘Fourcheure, that part of the bodie from whence the thighs depart.’—Cotgrave.Verb(old).—1. To steal; specifically to pick a pocket by inserting the middle and forefinger. Alsoto put one’s forks down: Fr.,vol à la fourchette.1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew.Let’s fork him, c. Let us pick that man’s pocket, the newest and most dextrous way; it is to thrust the fingers straight, stiff, open, and very quick into the pocket, and so closing them hook what can be held between them.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Let usforkhim.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. Yet so keen was his appetite for the sport, that the veteran appropriator absolutely burst into tears at not having ‘forkedmore.’1878.C. Hindley,Life and Times of James Catnach. Frisk the Cly andforkthe Rag, Draw the fogies plummy.2. (venery).—To open up, orspread(q.v.).Tofork out, orover(sometimes abbreviated tofork).Verb. phr.(common).—To hand over; to pay;to shell out(q.v.).1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xxxi. The personforkhimoutten shiners.1836.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 84. His active mind at once perceived how much might be done in the way of … shoving the old and helpless into the wrong buss, and carrying them off … till they was rig’larly done over, andforked outthe stumpy.1837.Barham, I. L.,The Execution. He Pulls up at the door of a gin-shop, and gaily Cries, ‘What must Ifork outto night, my trump, For the whole first-floor of the Magpie and Stump?’1840.Comic Almanack.‘Tom the Devil,’ p. 214. ‘That’s a nate way of doin’ business, sure enough,’ was the commentary; ‘ounly I can’t larn the sinse of going to a private lodging, where, if you ordher a kidney for breakfast, you’re expected tofork outto the butcher.’1852.H. B. Stowe,Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. You’ve got tofork overfifty dollars, flat down, or this child don’t start a peg.1864.Dickens,Our Mutual Friend, Bk. III., ch. i. ‘Now,’ said Fledgeby, ‘fork outyour balance in hand, and prove by figures how you make it out that it ain’t more.’[59]1867.Albany Argus, 5 Sept. Now, sir, you will pleasefork overthat money to me, and pay your bill, or I’ll have the law out of you, as sure as you are born.1887.Lippincott’s Magazine, Aug., p. 199. Just calculate my percentage of our liabilities, and allow me tofork over.1888.Detroit Free Press, 9 Sept. The dozen screw-drivers came up C. O. D. and he had tofork overfor them.To fork on,verb. phr.(American).—To appropriate.Cf.,To freeze on to.To pitch the fork,verb. phr.(popular).—To tell a pitiful tale.To eat vinegar with a fork,verb. phr.(common).—A person either over-shrewd or over-snappish is said to haveeaten vinegar with a fork. Fr.,Avoir mangé de l’oseille.SeeNettle.Forker,subs.(nautical).—A dockyard thief orfence(q.v.). [Fromfork= to steal +er.]Forking,subs.(thieves’).—1. Thieving.SeeFork.2. (tailors’).—Hurrying andscamping(q.v.).Forkless,adj.(thieves’).—Clumsy; unworkmanlike; as withoutforks(q.v.).1821.Haggart,Life, p. 40. I met George Bagrie, and William Paterson, alias old Hag, two very willing, but poor snibs, accompanying a lushy cove, and going to work in a veryforklessmanner.Forloper,subs.(South African).—A teamster guide.Forlorn Hope,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A gamester’s last stake.—Grose.Form,subs.(turf.)—1. Condition; training; fitness for a contest.In or out of form= in or out of condition,i.e., fit or unfit for work.BetterorTop form, etc. (in comparison).Cf.,Colour.1861.Walsh,The Horse, ch. vi. If it be supposed that two three-year-olds, carrying the same weight, could run a mile and a-half, and come in abreast, it is said that theformof one is equal to that of the other.1884.Hawley Smart,Post to Finish, ch. xxxv. When fillies, in racing parlance, lose theirformat three years old, they are apt to never recover it.1868.Whyte Melville,White Rose, ch. xxxiv. That mysterious property racing men call ‘form.’2. (colloquial).—Behaviour (with a moral significance: asgood form, bad form= agreeable to good manners, breeding, principles, taste, etc., or the opposite). This usage, popularised in racing circles, is good literary English, though the word is commonly printed in inverted commas(“  ”):Shakspeare(Two Gentlemen of Verona, 4), says, ‘Can no way change you to a milderform,’i.e., manner of behaviour.1871.Orchestra, 13 Jan. This squabble at the Globe may most fitly, perhaps, be characterised by the words ‘bad form.’1871.The Drawing Room Gazette, Dec. 9, p. 5. It is an open question, whether snubbing be not, like cutting, in the worst possible ‘form.’1873.Belgravia, Feb. The demeanour and conduct which the ‘golden youth’ of the period call ‘good form’ was known to their fathers as bad manners.1881.Jas. Payn,Grape from a Thorn, ch. xvii. It would be considered what they call ‘bad form’ in my daughter Ella if she were known to be a contributor—for pay—to the columns of a magazine.1890.Speaker, 22 Feb, p. 211, col.2.Still, after all, we doubt very much whether it be fair, or right, or even prudent—it certainly is not ‘good form’—to publish to a world of Gallios a lot of irreverent bar-mess and circuit ‘good stories,’ worked up about living Lord Chancellors, Lord Justices, and other present occupants of the judicial bench.[60]3. (common).—Habit;game(q.v.):e.g., ‘That’s myform= That’s what I’m in the way of doing’; or ‘That’s the sort of man I am.’1884.Punch, 11 Oct.‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Athletics ain’t hardly myform.Forney,subs.(thieves’).—A ring; a variant offawney(q.v.).1871.Egan,Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 243. He sports a diamondforneyon his little finger.Fornicating-engine(-member;-tool),subs. phr.(venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Fornicator,subs.(venery).—1. Thepenis. Forsynonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.2. Inpl.(obsolete),—The old-fashioned flap trousers.Fornicator’s Hall,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Fort,subs.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.1620.Percy,Folio MSS.[Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘Come, Wanton Wenches.’ When they yourffortbeleauger; grant but a touch or a kisse ffor a tast.Fortune-biter,subs.(obsolete).—A sharper.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii. ‘Hey! for Richmond Ball’!Fortune-biters, Hags, bum-fighters, Nymphs of the Woods, And stale City goods.Fortune-teller,subs.(old).—A magistrate.1690. B.E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fortune-tellers, c. the Judges of Life and Death, so-called by the Canting Crew.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue.Fortune-teller, or cunning man; a judge who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot, or doom; to go before thefortune-teller, lambskin man or conjuror, to be tried at an assize.1871.Egan,Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 242. He had been werry cruelly used by thefortune-tellers.Forty.To talk forty(more commonlynineteen)to the dozen,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To chatter incessantly; to gabble.To walk off forty to the dozen= to decamp in quick time.1891.Farjeon,Mystery of M. Felix, p. 107. He run agin me, he did, and I ased, ‘Who are yer pushing of?’ He didn’t say nothink, but walked offforty to the dozen.Roaring forties,subs. phr.(nautical).—The Atlantic between the fortieth and fiftieth degrees of latitude; also applied to the same region in southern latitudes.Forty-faced,adj.(colloquial).—An arrant deceiver:e.g., aforty-facedliar, aforty-facedflirt, and so forth.Forty-five,subs.(American).—A revolver. For synonyms,seeMeat in the pot.Forty-footorForty-guts,subs.(common).—A fat, dumpy man, or woman. In contempt.English Synonyms.—‘All arse, and no body’; arse-and-corporation; all-belly (Cotgrave); all guts (idem); bacon-belly; barrel-belly; belly-god; bladder-figured; bosse-belly; Bosse of Billingsgate (Florio = a fat woman); chuff (Shakspeare); Christmas beef; double-guts; double-tripe; fat-cock; fat-guts (Shakspeare and Cotgrave); fatico; fattymus or[61]fattyma; fubsy; fat Jack of the bonehouse; fat-lips; flanderkin; fustiluggs (Burton); fussock; gorbelly; grampus; gotch-guts; grand-guts (Florio); gulche (Florio); gullyguts; gundigutts; guts; guts-and-stomach; guts-and-garbage; guts-to-sell; hoddy-doddy; humpty-dumpty; hogshead; hopper-arse; Jack Weight; loppers; lummox; paunch; pod; porpoise; pot-guts; princod; pudding-belly; puff-guts; ribs; ‘short-and-thick-like-a-Welshman’s-cock’; slush-bucket; sow (a fat woman); spud; squab; studgy-guts; tallow-guts; tallow-merchant; thick-in-the-middle; tripes; tripes and trullibubs; tubs; waist; water-butt; walking ninepin; whopper.French Synonyms.Un gros bajaf(popular);un bout de cul(popular);un bas de plafond, orde cul(popular);un brasset(= a tall, stout man);un berdouillard.Spanish Synonym.Angelon de retablo(generally applied to a pot-bellied child).Forty-jawed,adj.(colloquial).—Excessively talkative.Forty-lunged,adj.(colloquial).—Stentorian; given to shouting;leather-lunged(q.v.).Forty-rodorForty-rod Lightning,subs. phr.(American).—Whiskey; specifically, spirit of so fiery a nature that it is calculated to kill at Forty Rods’ distance,i.e., on sight.Cf.,Rot-gut. For synonyms,seeDrinksandOld man’s milk.Cf.,Florio(1598),Catoblepa, ‘a serpent in India so venomous that with his looke he kils a man a mile off.’1884.M. Twain,Huck. Finn, ch. v., p. 36. He got powerful thirsty and clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion, and traded his new coat for a jug offorty-rod.Forty-twa,subs.(Scots).—A common jakes, orbogshop(q.v.).—InEdinburgh: ‘so called from its accommodating that number of persons at once’ (Hotten). [Long a thing of the past.]Forty Winks,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A short sleep or nap.SeeDog’s Sleep.1866.G. Eliot,Felix Holt, ch. xliii. She was prevented by the appearance of old Mr. Transome, who since his walk had been having ‘forty-winks’ on the sofa in the library.1871.Egan,Finish to Tom and Jerry, p. 87. On uncommanly big gentlemen, told out, takingforty-winks.[Forty is often used to signify an indefinite number;cf., Shakespeare’s usage, ‘I could beat forty of them’ (Cor.iii., 1); ‘O that the slave had forty thousand lives’ (Othelloiii., 1); ‘forty thousand brothers’ (Hamlet, v., 1); ‘The Humour of Forty Fancies’ (Taming of the Shrew); and Jonson ‘Some forty boxes’ (Silent Woman).]Fossed,ppl. adj.(American thieves’).—Thrown;cf., [foss = a ditch].Fossick,verb(Australian miners’).—To work an abandoned claim, or to wash old dirt; hence to search persistently. [Halliwell: = to take trouble, butcf., fosse, a ditch or excavation.] Alsofossicking= a living got as aforesaid;fossicker= a man that works abandoned claims;fossicking about= (American)shinning around, or in Englandferreting(q.v.).1870.Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 3.[62]1878.Fraser’s Mag., Oct., p. 449, They are more suited … to plodding,fossicking, persevering industry, than for hard work.1887.Sala, inIll. Lond. News, 12 Mar., p. 282, col. 2. ‘To fossick’ in the old digging days was to get a living by extracting gold from the refuse wash-dirt which previous diggers had abandoned as worthless.1890.Illustrations, Jan., p. 158. After some ‘fossiking’ we discover three or four huts within ‘cooee,’ all diggers, all ‘hatters,’ and mostly good fellows.Fou, orFow,adj.(old English and Scots’ colloquial).—Drunk; variants arebitch-fou;greetin’-fou;piper-fou;roaring-fou;fou as barty(Burns);pissing-fou; and so forth. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed. Also (Scots’) = full of food or drink, as in quot. under date 1815.1697.Vanbrugh,Provoked Wife, III., ii. (quoted in). Then sit ye awhile, and tipple a bit, For we’s not veryfou, but we’re gayly yet.1787.Burns,Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 3. I was nafou, but just had plenty.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xlvi. ‘Are yefouor fasting?’ ‘Fasting from all but sin.’1857.J. E. Ritchie,Night Side of London, p. 166. The time admits of a man gettingfoubetween the commencement and the close of the entertainment.Foul,subs.(nautical and aquatic).—A running into; a running down.Verb.(idem).—To run against; to run down. Alsoto come(orfall)foul of.[Foul,adj.andverb.is used in two senses: (1) = dirty, as afoulword, afoulshrew (Dickens), tofoulthe bed, &c.; and (2) = unfair, as afoul(i.e., a felon) stroke, afoulblow, and so forth.]1626.Captain John Smith,Accidence for Seamen, in wks. (Arber), p. 796. Boord and boord, or thwart the hawse, we arefouleon each other.1724.E. Coles,Eng. Dict.Foul, hindred or intangled with another ship’s ropes, etc.1754.Connoisseur, No. 3. Which sailed very heavy, were often a-ground, and continually ranfoulon each other.1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xiii. Their coxswain … had to pull his left hand hard or they would havefouledthe Oxfordshire corner.1885Illus. London News, March 28, p. 316, col. 1. In 1849 there were two races in the course of the year; Cambridge won the first, Oxford the second, on afoul(the only time the race has been so won).1889.Licensed Victuallers’ Gaz., 18 Jan. Dick was done out of the stakes on an appeal offoul.To foul a plate with,verbal phr.(old, colloquial).—To dine or sup with.—Grose.Foulcher,subs.(thieves’).—A purse.1877.Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 243. ‘Afoulcher, with flimsies and couters for a score of quid in it.’Foul-mouthed,adj.(colloquial).—Obscene or blasphemous in speech.Found in a Parsley-bed.SeeParsley-bedandGooseberry-bush.Fountain of Love,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Four-and-nine(orFour-and-ninepenny),subs. phr.(old).—A hat. [So-called from the price at which an enterprising Bread Street hatter sold his hats,circa1844, at which date London was hideous with posters displaying a large black hat and ‘4s. and 9d.’ in white letters.]1844.Advertisement Couplet.Whene’er to slumber you incline, Take a short nap atfour-and-nine.[63]1846.Thackeray,Yellow Plush Papers, p. 152 (ed. 1887). You may, for instance, call a coronet a coronal (an ‘ancestral coronal,’ p. 74) if you like, as you might call a hat a ‘swart sombrero,’ a ‘glossyfour-and-nine,’ ‘a silken helm to storm impermeable, and lightsome as the breezy gossamer;’ but in the long run it is safer to call it a hat.1847.Thackeray,Mrs. Perkins’s Ball(The Mulligan). The Mulligan has withdrawn his custom from the ‘infernalfour-and-ninepennyscoundthrel,’ as he calls him. The hatter has not shut up shop in consequence.1849.Viator,Oxford Guide. He then did raise hisfour-and-nine, And scratched his shaggy pate.1867.Jas. Greenwood,Unsent. Journeys, xxx., 229. Because he wore afour-and-nine, and had a pencil stuck behind his ear.Four-bones,subs.(thieves’).—The knees.1857.Punch, 31 Jan. ‘Dear Bill, This Stone-jug.’ For them coves in Guildhall and that blessed Lord Mayor, Prigs on their four bones should chop whiners I swear.Four-eyes,subs.(common).—A person in spectacles: ‘a chap that can’t believe his own eyes.’Four-holed Middlings,subs. phr.(Winchester College).—Ordinary walking shoes;cf.beeswaxers. Obsolete.Four Kings.The history(orbook)of the four kings.subs. phr.(old).—A pack of cards; otherwise, achild’s best guide to the gallows, orthe devil’s picture books. Fr.,Livre des quatre rois.Four-legged burglar-alarm,subs. phr.(common).—A watch dog.Four-legged Frolic,subs. phr.(venery).—The act of kind: a reminiscence of the proverb, ‘There goes more to a marriage than four bare legs in a bed.’ For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Four-poster,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A four-post bedstead.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xliv. ‘Vill you allow me to en-quire vy you make up your bed under that ere deal table?’ said Sam. ‘’Cause I was alvays used to afour-posterafore I came here, and I find the legs of the table answer just as well,’ replied the cobbler.Four Seams and a Bit of Soap,subs. phr.(tailors’).—A pair of trousers.SeeKicks.Four—(more commonlyThree)—Sheets in the Wind,adv. phr.(nautical).—Drunk;cf.,half seas over. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Fourteen Hundred, …phr.(Stock Exchange).—A warning cry that a stranger is in the ‘House.’1887.Atkin,House Scraps. So, help me Got, Mo, who is he? Instead of replying in a straightforward way, Mo raised his voice as loud as he could, and shouted with might and main, ‘fourteen hundrednew fives!’ A hundred voices repeated the mysterious exclamation.1890.Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 26 April. The cry of ‘fourteen hundred’ is said to have had its origin in the fact that for a long while the number of members never exceeded 1,399; and it was customary to hail every new comer as the fourteen hundredth. It has, in its primary sense, long since lost significance, for there are now nearly three thousand members of the close corporation which has its home in Capel Court.Fourteenth Amendment Persuasion,subs. phr.(American).—Negroes. [From the number of the clause amending the Constitution at the abolition of slavery.]1888.Times Democrat, 5 Feb. To take the law is one of the greatest privileges in the estimation of the colored folk that thefourteenth amendmentconferred, and, whether offender or defendant, they take a pride in summonses beyond describing.[64]Fourth,subs.(Cambridge University).—Arear(q.v.) or jakes. [Origin uncertain; said to have been first used at St. John’s or Trinity, where the closets were situated in the Fourth Court. Whatever its derivation, the term is now the only one in use at Cambridge, and is frequently heard outside the university.] The verbal phrase isto keep a fourth(seeKeep).On his fourth,phr.(common).—Hopelessly drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Fourth Estate,subs. phr.(literary).—The body of journalists; the ‘Press.’ [Literally the Fourth Estate of the realm, the other three being Queen, Lords, and Commons.]1855.Notes and Queries. 1 S. xi., p. 452.1857.J. E. Ritchie,Night Side of London, p. 202. Let me say a word about these exceedingly seedy-looking individuals connected with thefourth estate.Four-wheeler,subs.(common).—A steak.2. (colloquial).—A four-wheeled cab; agrowler(q.v.).1873.Black,Princess of Thule, ch. 10. Having sent an all their luggage by a respectable oldfour-wheeler.Fousty,adj.(colloquial).—Stinking [probably derived fromfoist, sense 3].Fouter,verb, andFoutering,subs.(common).—To meddle, importune, waste time and tongue; the act of meddling, importunity, wasting time and tongue.E.g., ‘Don’t comefouteringhere!’ [From the French,foutre: the sense of which is intensified in a vulgarism of still fuller flavour].Fox,subs.(old).—A sword; specifically, the old English broadsword. [Derivation dubious.Suggestionsare: (1) from a maker’s name; (2) from the fox sometimes engraved on the blade; (3) from the Latinfalx.] For synonyms,seeCheese-toasterandPoker.1598,Shakspeare,Henry V., 4. O signieur Dew, thou dy’st on point offox.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, ii. A fellow that knows nothing but a basket-hilt, and an oldfoxin’t.c.1640. [Shirley],Captain Underwit, in Bullen’sOld Plays, ii., 321.Un.An oldfoxblade made atHounsloeheath.1667.Shirley,Love Tricks, Act II., Sc. 1. They say your swords most commonly arefoxes, and have notable metal in them.1700.Congreve,Way of the World, Act V., Sc. 10. Sir, I have an oldfoxby my thigh shall hack your instrument ofram vellumto shreds, Sir.1821.Scott,Kenilworth, ch. iv. ‘Come, come, comrade,’ said Lambourne, ‘here is enough done, and more than enough, put up yourfox, and let us be jogging.’Verb(old).—1. To intoxicate.Foxed= drunk;to catch a fox= to be very drunk; whileto flay the fox(Urquhart) = to vomit, to shed your liquor,i.e., to get rid of the beast.1611.Barry,Ram Alley, Act IV. They will bib hard; they will be fine sunburnt, Sufficientfox’dor columber’d now and then.1633.Heywood,Eng. Travellers, IV., v., p. 266 (Mermaid Series).Rioter.Worthy Reginald.Reig.Will, if he now come off well,foxyou all, Go, call for wine.c.1640. [Shirley],Captain Underwit, in Bullen’sOld Plays, ii. 375. Then to beefox’dit is no crime, Since thickest and dull braines It makes sublime.1661.T. Middleton,Mayor of Quinborough, V., i. Ah, blind as one that had beenfox’da sevennight.1673.Shadwell,Epsom Wells, IV., in wks. (1720), ii., 248. But here’s my cup. Come on. Udsooks, I begin to befox’d![65]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 194. Come, let’s trudge it to Kirkham Fair: There’s stout liquor enough tofoxme.1738.Swift,Polite Convers., Dial. 2.Lady Sm.But, Sir John, your ale is terrible strong and heady.…Sir John.Why, indeed, it is apt tofoxone.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th ed.).Fox(v.) … also to make a person drunk or fuddled.1891.Sporting Times, 11 April. And so to bed well nigh seven in the morning, and myself as nearfoxedas of old.2. (old).—To cheat; to trick; to rob (colloquial at Eton). For synonyms,seeGammon.1631.Mayne,City Match, iii., 1. Fore Jove, the captainfoxedhim rarely.1866.Notes and Queries, 3, S. x., 123. Where the tramps … out of their gout arefoxed.3. (common).—To watch closely. Alsoto fox about.Cf.,fox’s sleep. For synonyms,seeNose.1880.Greenwood,Odd People in Odd Places, p. 61. ‘You keep it going pretty loud here, with a couple of policemenfoxingabout just outside.’4. (colloquial).—To sham.1880.One and All, 6 Nov., p. 296, ‘Let us look at these vagabons; maybe they’re onlyfoxin’.’ The two men who had received such tangible mementos of the whip-handle and the blackthorn lay perfectly still.5. (American).—To play truant.6. (booksellers’).—To stain; to discolour with damp; said of books and engravings.Foxed= stained or discoloured.1881.C. M. I[ngleby]inNotes and Queries(6th S., iv., 96). Tissue paper harbours damp, and in a damp room will assuredly help tofoxthe plates which they face.1885.Austin Dobson,At the Sign of the Lyre, 83. And the Rabelaisfoxedand flea’d.7. (theatrical).—To criticise a ‘brother pro’s’ performance.8. (common).—To mend a boot by ‘capping’ it.To set a fox to keep one’s geese,phr.(common).—To entrust one’s money, or one’s circumstances, to the care of sharpers. Latin,Ovem lupo commisisti.To make a fox paw,verb. phr.(common).—To make a mistake or a wrong move; specifically (of women) to be seduced. [A corruption of the Fr.faux pas.]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue.Fox’s Sleep,subs. phr.(common).—A state of feigned yet very vigilant indifference to one’s surroundings. [Foxes were supposed to sleep with one eye open.]1830.Sir J. Barrington,Personal Sketches, Vol. III., p. 171 (ed. 1832). Mr. Fitzgerald, he supposed, was in afox’s sleep, and his bravo in another, who, instead of receding at all, on the contrary squeezed the attorney closer and closer.Foxy,adj.(colloquial).—1. Red-haired;cf.,carrotty.1828.G. Griffin,Collegians, ch. ii. Dunat O’Leary, the hair-cutter, orFoxyDunat, as he was named in allusion to his red head.2. (colloquial).—Cunning; vulpine in character and look. Once literary. Jonson (1605) calls his arch-foistvolpone, the second title of his play being ‘The Fox;’ and Florio (1598) definesVolponeas ‘an old fox, an old reinard, an old, crafty, sly, subtle companion, sneaking, lurking, wilie deceiver.’[66]d.1536.Tyndale,Workes, p. 148. Oh,foxyPharisay, that is thy leuen, of which Christ so diligently bad vs beware.1849.Dickens,David Copperfield, ch. xlix., p. 429.Whatever his state of health may be his appearance isfoxy, not to say diabolical.3. (American cobblers’).—Repaired with new toe-caps.Seefox, verb, sense 8.1877.M. Twain,Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 503. It was the scarecrow Dean—infoxyshoes, down at the heels; socks of odd colours, also ‘down.’4. (booksellers’).—A term applied to prints and books discoloured by damp;seeFox, verb, sense 6.5. (painters’: obsolete).—Inclined to reddishness.d.1792.Sir J. Reynolds,Notes on Dufresnoy. That (style) of Titian, which may be called the Golden manner, when unskilfully managed, becomes what the painters callfoxy.6. (common).—Strong-smelling. Said of a red-haired man or woman.Foy,subs.(old).—A cheat; a swindle.1615.Greene,Thieves Falling Out. You be crossbites,foys, and nips.Foyl-cloy,subs.(old).—A pickpocket; a rogue—B. E. [1690].Foyst,subs.andverb.SeeFoist.Foyster.SeeFoister.Fraggle,verb.(Texas).—To rob.Fragment,subs.(Winchester College).—A dinner for six (served in College Hall, after the ordinary dinner), ordered by a Fellow in favour of a particular boy, who was at liberty to invite five others to join him. Obs. A fragment was supposed to consist of three dishes.—Winchester Word-book[1891].Framer,subs.(American thieves’).—A shawl.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Frater,subs.(old).—A beggar working with a false petition.1567.Harman,Caveat, s.v.Frater, a beggar wyth a false paper.1622.Fletcher,Beggar’s Bush, ii., 1. And these what name or title e’er they bear, Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon,Frater, orAbramman, I speak to all That stand in fair election for the title Of king of beggars.1791.Life of Bamfylde Moore-Carew.‘Oath of Canting Crew.’ Rogue or rascal,frater, maunderer, Irish toyle, or other wanderer.Fraud,subs.(colloquial).—A failure; anything or body disappointing expectation;e.g., an acquaintance, a picture, a book, a play, a picture, a bottle of wine. Actual dishonesty is not necessarily implied.1882.Punch, LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1. Afraud, Charlie!Fraze.SeeVessel.Freak,subs.(American showmen’s). A living curiosity: as the Siamese Twins, the Two-headed Nightingale. [Short for ‘freak of nature.’]Free,adj.(Oxford University).—Impudent; self-possessed.1864.Tennyson,Northern Farmer, (Old Style), line 25.—But parson a coomes an’ a goos, an’ a says it eäsy an’freeä.Verb.(old).—To steal;cf.,annexandconvey. For synonyms,seePrig.[67]1857.Snowden,Magistrates’ Assistant, 3rd ed., p.444. To steal a muff. Tofreea cat.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.1882.McCabe,New York, ch. xxxiv., p. 509. (Given in list of slang terms.)Free-fucking,subs.(venery).—General lewdness. Also the favour gratis. Also fidelity to the other sex at large.Free of Fumbler’s Hall,adv. phr.(venery).—Impotent; unable to do ‘the trick.’ [Fumbler’s Hall= femalepudendum.]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongues.v., A saying of one who cannot get his wife with child.Free, gratis,—for nothing,phr.(common).—A pleonastic vulgarism.Cf.,On the dead.To make free with both ends of the busk,verb. phr.(venery).—To take liberties with a woman.Cf.,Both ends of the busk.Free of the house,adj. phr.(colloquial).—Intimate; privileged to come and go at will.Free of the bush,adj. phr.(venery).—On terms of extreme intimacy.SeeBush.[For the rest, the commonest sense offreeis one of liberality:e.g.,free of his foolishness= full of chaff;free-handed= lavish in giving;free-hearted= generously disposed;free of her favours= liberal of her person:free of his patter= full of talk.]Free-and-Easy,subs.(common).—A social gathering where you smoke, drink, and sing; generally held at a public house.1796. (InBee’sDict. of the Turf, published 1823, s.v.). Twenty seven years ago the cards of invitation to that (free-and-easy) at the ‘Pied Horse,’ in Moorfields, had the notable ‘N.B.—Fighting allowed.’1810.Crabbe,The Borough, Letter 10. Clubs. Next is the club, where to their friends in town, Our country neighbours once a-month come down; We term itfree-and-easy, and yet we Find it no easy matter to be free.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum.Free-and-easy Johns.A society which meets at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet Street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry(ed. 1890), p.91. Blew a cloud at afree-and-easy.1843.Macaulay,Essays: Gladstone on Church and State.Clubs of all ranks, from those which have lined Pall-Mall and St. James’s Street with their palaces, down to thefree-and-easywhich meets in the shabby parlour of the village inn.1869.Mrs. H. Wood,Roland Yorke, ch. xii. He tilted himself on to a high stool in the middle of the room, his legs dangling, just as though he had been at afree-and-easymeeting.1880.Jas. Greenwood,Odd People in Odd Places, p. 64. A roaring trade is done, for instance, on a Saturday evening at the ‘Medley’ in Hoxton, a combination of theatre and music-hall, and serves as afree-and-easychiefly for boys and girls.1891.Cassell’s Saturday Journal, Sept., p. 1068, col. 3. Thefree-and-easyof to-day among us is a species of public-house party, at which much indifferent liquor and tobacco are consumed, songs are sung, and speeches are got rid of.Freebooker,subs.(journalists’).—A ‘pirate’ bookseller or publisher; a play on the word freebooter.Free fight,subs.(colloquial).—A general mellay.1877.W. Mark,Green Past. and Picc., ch. xxx. That vehement German has been insisting on the Irish porters bringing up all our luggage at once; and as there has been a sort offree fightbelow he comes fuming upstairs.[68]Free-fishery,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Freeholder,subs.(venery).—1. A prostitute’s lover orfancyman.Cf.,Free-fishery, and for synonyms,seeJoseph.2. (old).—A man whose wife insists on accompanying him to a public house.1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. 1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Free-lance,subs.(common).—An habitual adulteress.c.1889. (Quoted fromSpectatorin ‘Slang, Jargon, and Cant’). Sooner than be out of the fashion they will tolerate what should be most galling and shaming to them—the thought that by these they are put down among thefree-lances.Also said of a journalist attached to no particular paper.Freeman,subs.(venery).—A married woman’s lover.Freeman of bucks,subs. phr.(old).—A cuckold. [In allusion to the horn.]Grose.To freeman, orto make a freeman of,verb. phr.(schoolboys’).—To spit on thepenisof a new comer. AlsoTo Freemason.Freeman’s Quay.To drink, orlush,at freeman’s quay,verb. phr.(old).—To drink at another’s expense. [Freeman’s Quay was a celebrated wharf near London Bridge, and the saying arose from the beer that was given to porters, carmen, and others going there on business.]1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.Freeze,subs.(colloquial).—1. The act or state of freezing; a frost.2. (old).—Hard cider.—Grose.Verb.(American).—1.To long for intensely;e.g., ‘tofreezeto go back,’ said of the home-sick; ‘tofreezefor meat.’1848.Ruxton,Life in the Far West(1887), p. 129. Threats of vengeance on every Redskin they met were loud and deep; and the wild war songs round their nightly camp-fires, and grotesque scalp-dances, borrowed from the Indians, proved to the initiated that they were, one and all,half-frozefor hair.2. (thieves’).—Hence, to appropriate; to steal; ‘to stick to.’3. (old).—To adulterate orbalderdash(q.v.) wine withfreeze(q.v.sense 2).—Grose.To freeze to(oron to),verb.phr.(American).—To take a strong fancy to; to cling to; to, keep fast hold of; and (of persons) to button-hole or shadow.1883.Graphic, 17 March, p. 287, col. 1. If there was one institution which the Anglo-Indianfrozeto more than another, it was his sit-down supper and—its consequences.1888.Daily Inter-Ocean, 2 March. The competence of a juror was judged by his ability to shake ready-formed opinions andfreeze on tonew ones.To Freeze Out,verb. phr.(American).—To compel to withdraw from society by cold and contemptuous treatment; from business by competition or opposition; from the market by depressing prices or rates of exchange.Freezer,subs.(common).—1. A tailless Eton jacket;cf.,Bum-perisher. For synonyms,seeMonkey-jacket.[69]2. (colloquial).—A very cold day. By analogy, a chilling look, address, or retort.French-elixir(cream,lace, orarticle),subs. phr.(common).—Brandy. [The custom of taking of brandy with tea and coffee was originally French.—Whence French Cream.Laced tea= tea dashed with spirits].1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. ix. ‘Get out the gallon punch-bowl, and plenty of lemons. I’ll stand for theFrench articleby the time I come back, and we’ll drink the young Laird’s health.’1821.Real Life, i., p. 606. Not forgetting blue ruin andFrench lace.English Synonyms.—Ball-of-fire; bingo; cold tea; cold nantz; red ribbon.French Synonyms.—Le parfait amour du chiffonnier(i.e., ragman’s happiness = coarse brandy);le trois-six(popular: =rot-gut);fil-en-quatre,fil-en-trois,fil-en-six(specifically, old brandy, but applied to spirits generally);le dur(= a drop of hard: common);le raide(popular = a drop of stiff):le cheniqueorchnic(popular:);le rude(popular: = a drop of rough,i.e., coarse brandy);l’eau d’affe(thieves’);le pissat d’âne(popular: = donkey’s piss; sometimes applied to bad beer, which is likewise calledpissat de vache);l’avoine(military = hay, as who should say ‘a nose bag’);le blanc(popular = brandy or white wine);le possédé(thieves’:bingo);le raspail(popular:);le cric(popular: alsocrik,crique, orcricque= rough brandy:);le schnaps(popular);le schnick(common: = bad brandy);le camphre(popular: = camphor; applied to the coarsest spirit);le sacré-chienorsacré-chien tout pur(common: = the vilest sold);casse-poitrine(common: = brandy heightened with pepper;cf.,rot-gut);le jaune(rag-pickers’: = a drop of yellow);tord-boyaux(popular = twist-gut);la consolation(popular = a drop of comfort);requiqui(workmen’s);eau de mort(common: = death-water);le Tripoli(rank brandy);casse-gueule(= ‘kill-the-carter’; applied to all kinds of spirits).French Fake.subs. phr.(nautical).—The fashion of coiling a rope by taking it backwards and forwards in parallel bands, so that it may run easily.French Gout(orDisease,Fever, etc.),subs. phr.(common).—Sometimesclap(q.v.), but more generally and correctly syphilis,Morbus Gallicus, especially with older writers. For synonyms,seeLadies Fever. AlsoThe Frenchman.French Pox= a very bad variety of syphilis. The French themselves always refer to the ailment as themal de Naples, for whichseeMarston(1598) and his ‘Naples canker,’ andFlorio(1598)mal di Napoli= French pocks.Cf.,Shakspeare,Henry V., v., 1. News have I that my Nell is dead i’ the spital Of malady of France.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes.Lue, a plague.… It is also used for theFrench poxe.1611.Cotgrave,Dictionarie.Mal de Naples, theFrench Pocks.1690. B. E.Dict. of the Canting Crew. (s.v.).[70]1740.Poor Robin.Some gallants will this month be so penurious that they will not part with a crack’d groat to a poor body, but on their cockatrice or punquetto will bestow half a dozen taffety gowns, who in requittal bestows on him theFrench pox.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. He suffered by a blow over the snout with a French faggot-stick;i.e., he lost his nose by thepox.Frenchified,adj.(old).—Clapped; more generally and accurately poxed.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.Frenchified, infected with the venereal disease; the mort isfrenchified=the wench is infected.French Leave,To take French leave.verb. phr.(colloquial).—(1) To decamp without notice; (2) to do anything without permission; (3) to purloin or steal; (4) to run away (as from an enemy). [Derivation obscure;French, probably traceable to the contempt engendered during the wars with France; the compliment is returned in similar expressions (seeSynonyms) +leave= departure or permission to depart. Sense 1 is probably the origin of senses 2, 3, and 4.SeeNotes and Queries, 1 S. i, 246; 3 S. vi, 17; 5 S. xii, 87; 6 S. v, 347, 496; viii, 514; ix, 133, 213, 279; 7 S. iii, 5, 109, 518.]English Synonyms.—To retire up (one’s fundament); to slope; to smouge; to do a sneak; to take the Frenchman; to vamoose.French Synonyms.—S’escarpiner(popular: = to flash one’s pumps);escarpin= a dancing shoe;jouer de l’escarpin= to ply one’s pumps, (16th century);s’échapper,s’esquiver,filer,disparaître,s’éclipser,se dérober,se retirer, ands’en aller à l’anglaise(= to take English leave);pisser à l’anglaise(= to do an English piss,i.e., affect a visit to the urinal);prendre sa permission sous son coude(popular: literally to take one’s leave under one’s arm);ficherorfoutre le camp.German Synonyms.—Französischen Abschied nehmen(= to take French leave: fromGutzkow, R.,4, 88, etc., born 1811);französischer Abschied(Iffland, 1759–1814, 5, 3, 117);auf gut französisch sich empfehlen(Blumauer, 2, 72, 1758–1798: alsoGutzkow, R., 4, 88);hinter der Thur urlaub(= to take leave behind [or outside] the door,i.e., after one has got outside it: quoted bySanders, fromFischart, 1550–1589);hinter der Thüre Abschied nehmen(= to say good-bye outside, to take French leave); also,er beurlaubte sich in aller Stille, explained aser stahl sich, schlich sich davon, and translated ‘he took French leave’; also,sich aus einer Gesellschaft stehlen.—Hilpert’sDict., 1845.Spanish Synonym.—Despedirse á la francesa(= to take French leave).1771.Smollett,Humphrey Clinker, p. 54. He stole away an Irishman’s bride, and took aFrench leaveof me andhismaster.1805.Newspaper(quoted inNotes and Queries, 5S. xii., 2 Aug., 79, p. 87, col. 2). On Thursday last Monsieur J. F. Desgranche, one of the French prisoners of war on parole at Chesterfield, tookFrench leaveof that place, in defiance of his parole engagement.1854.F. E. Smedley,Harry Coverdale, ch. lviii. ‘I thought I would avoid[71]all the difficulties … by takingFrench leave, and setting off in disguise and under a feigned name.’1885Stevenson,Treasure Island, ch. xxii., p. 178 (1886). My only plan was to takeFrench leave, and slip out when nobody was watching.1892.Globe, 25 Mar., p. 5, col. 1. They finally resolved to go onFrench leaveto the place.French-(alsoAmerican,Spanish, andItalian)Letter,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A sheath—of india-rubber, gold beater’s skin, gutta-percha—worn by a man during coition to prevent infection or fruition. Usually described in print asspecialities(q.v.). orcircular protectorsand (inU.S.A.) assafes(q.v.).SeeCundum. Fr.,capote anglaise.French Pigeon,subs. phr.(sportsman’s).—A pheasant killed by mistake in the partridge season. Alsomokoandoriental(q.v.).French Pig,subs. phr.(common).—A venereal bubo; ablue boar(q.v.), orWinchester goose(q.v.).French Prints,subs.(colloquial).—Generic for indecent pictures.1849–50.Thackeray,Pendennis II., ch. xxxi. Young de Boots of the Blues recognised you as the man who came to barracks, and did business, one-third in money, one-third in eau-de-Cologne, and one third inFrench prints, you confounded, demure, old sinner.French Vice,verb. phr.(venery).—A euphemism for all sexual malpractices;Larks(q.v.). First used (in print) in the case of Crawfordv.Crawford and Dilke.Frenchy,subs.(colloquial).—A Frenchman.Fresh,adj.(University).—1. Said of an undergraduate in his first term.1803.Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.1866.Trevelyan,Horace at Athens. When you and I werefresh.2. (common).—Slightly intoxicated; elevated. For synonymsseeDrinksandScrewed, (Scots’ = sober).1829.Marryat,Frank Mildmay, ch. xiii. Drinking was not among my vices. I could getfresh, as we call it, when in good company and excited by wit and mirth; but I never went to the length of being drunk.3. (Old English and modern American).—Inexperienced, but conceited and presumptuous; hence, forward, impudent.1596.Shakspeare,King John, iii., 4. How green you are andfreshin this old world.1886.Francis,Saddle and Mocassin. ‘Has Peggy been toofresh?’ Her sunburnt cheeks flushed.4. (common).—Fasting; opposed to eating or drinking.Fresh as paint, as a rose, as a daisy, as a new-born turd, etc.,phr.(common).—Full of health, strength, and activity;fit(q.v.).1864.E. Yates,Broken to Harness, ch. xix. This is his third day’s rest, and the cob will be about asfresh as paintwhen I get across him again.1880.Punch’s Almanack, p. 12.Fresh on the graft,adj. phr.(common).—New to the work.Cf.,Fresh bit.Fresh Bit,subs. phr.(venery).—A beginner; also a new mistress.Cf.,Bit of fresh= the sexual favour:meat, ormutton, orfish(q.v.), being understood.[72]Freshen One’s Way,verb. phr.(nautical).—To hurry; to quicken one’s movements. [The windfreshenswhen it rises.]Freshen Up,verb. phr.(colloquial). To clean; to vamp; to revive; to smarten.Fresher,subs.(University).—An undergraduate in his first term.Freshers.The Freshers,subs.(University).—That part of the Cam which lies between the Mill and Byron’s Pool. So called because it is frequented byfreshmen(q.v.).Freshman(orFresher),subs.(University).—A University man during his first year. In Dublin University he is ajunior freshmanduring his first year, and asenior freshmanthe Second year. At Oxford the title lasts for the first term. Ger.,Fuchs.1596.Nashe,Saffron Walden, in wks. iii., 8. When he was but yet afreshmanin Cambridge.

1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.2. (thieves’).—A finger. Theforks= the fore and middle fingers; alsocf., (proverbial) ‘Fingers were made beforeforks.’English Synonyms.—Claws; cunt-hooks (Grose); daddles (also the hands); divers; feelers; fives; flappers; grapplers; grappling irons; gropers; hooks; nail-bearers; pickers and stealers (Shakspeare); corn-stealers; Ten Commandments; ticklers; pinkies; muck-forks.French Synonyms.—Les apôtres(thieves’: = the ten Apostles);les fourchettes, orles fourchettes d’Adam(popular: = Adam’s forks);le peigne d’allemand(thieves’:Rabelais).German Synonyms.—Ezba(= the finger, especially the first or fore-finger. The names of the others are:Godel= the thumb;Ammo= the middle-finger;Kemizo= the ring-finger;Seres,i.e., ‘span’ = the little finger);Griffling(= also the hand. Fromgreifen= to seize).Spanish Synonyms.—Mandamiento(= a commandment:cf.,Ten Commandments);tijeras(= the fore- and middle fingers;Minsheu(1599)Dictionarie, tijeras= ‘small sheares, seizers, snuffers.’).[58]Portuguese Synonym.—Medunhos.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 121. Myforkswere equally long, and they never failed me.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood. ‘Nix my Dolly.’ No dummy hunter hadforksso fly.Ibid.Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 20. I’ll give him the edication of a prig—teach him the use of hisforksbetimes.1841.Tait’s Edinburgh Mag., VIII., p. 220. Myforkswere light and fly, and lightly faked away.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Feb. Up they came briskly with smiling mugs, shook hands, then stepped back a pace or two, put up theirforks, and the spectators were hushed into silence, for they saw that the battle was about to begin.3. In plural (common).—The hands.4. (old).—A gibbet; in the plural = the gallows. [forkis often applied to anything resembling a divarication (as of a tree, river, or road), etc.:Cf., sense 2.Cf., Cicero (de Div., i., 26).Ferens furcam ductus est: a slave so punished was calledfurcifer.]5. (old).—A spendthrift.1725.New Canting Dict., s.v.6. (tailors’ and venery).—Thecrutch(q.v.),nockandro(q.v.), orTwist(q.v.). [Thus,a bit on a fork= the femalepudendum; agrind(q.v.).] Fr., ‘Fourcheure, that part of the bodie from whence the thighs depart.’—Cotgrave.Verb(old).—1. To steal; specifically to pick a pocket by inserting the middle and forefinger. Alsoto put one’s forks down: Fr.,vol à la fourchette.1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew.Let’s fork him, c. Let us pick that man’s pocket, the newest and most dextrous way; it is to thrust the fingers straight, stiff, open, and very quick into the pocket, and so closing them hook what can be held between them.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Let usforkhim.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. Yet so keen was his appetite for the sport, that the veteran appropriator absolutely burst into tears at not having ‘forkedmore.’1878.C. Hindley,Life and Times of James Catnach. Frisk the Cly andforkthe Rag, Draw the fogies plummy.2. (venery).—To open up, orspread(q.v.).Tofork out, orover(sometimes abbreviated tofork).Verb. phr.(common).—To hand over; to pay;to shell out(q.v.).1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xxxi. The personforkhimoutten shiners.1836.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 84. His active mind at once perceived how much might be done in the way of … shoving the old and helpless into the wrong buss, and carrying them off … till they was rig’larly done over, andforked outthe stumpy.1837.Barham, I. L.,The Execution. He Pulls up at the door of a gin-shop, and gaily Cries, ‘What must Ifork outto night, my trump, For the whole first-floor of the Magpie and Stump?’1840.Comic Almanack.‘Tom the Devil,’ p. 214. ‘That’s a nate way of doin’ business, sure enough,’ was the commentary; ‘ounly I can’t larn the sinse of going to a private lodging, where, if you ordher a kidney for breakfast, you’re expected tofork outto the butcher.’1852.H. B. Stowe,Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. You’ve got tofork overfifty dollars, flat down, or this child don’t start a peg.1864.Dickens,Our Mutual Friend, Bk. III., ch. i. ‘Now,’ said Fledgeby, ‘fork outyour balance in hand, and prove by figures how you make it out that it ain’t more.’[59]1867.Albany Argus, 5 Sept. Now, sir, you will pleasefork overthat money to me, and pay your bill, or I’ll have the law out of you, as sure as you are born.1887.Lippincott’s Magazine, Aug., p. 199. Just calculate my percentage of our liabilities, and allow me tofork over.1888.Detroit Free Press, 9 Sept. The dozen screw-drivers came up C. O. D. and he had tofork overfor them.To fork on,verb. phr.(American).—To appropriate.Cf.,To freeze on to.To pitch the fork,verb. phr.(popular).—To tell a pitiful tale.To eat vinegar with a fork,verb. phr.(common).—A person either over-shrewd or over-snappish is said to haveeaten vinegar with a fork. Fr.,Avoir mangé de l’oseille.SeeNettle.Forker,subs.(nautical).—A dockyard thief orfence(q.v.). [Fromfork= to steal +er.]Forking,subs.(thieves’).—1. Thieving.SeeFork.2. (tailors’).—Hurrying andscamping(q.v.).Forkless,adj.(thieves’).—Clumsy; unworkmanlike; as withoutforks(q.v.).1821.Haggart,Life, p. 40. I met George Bagrie, and William Paterson, alias old Hag, two very willing, but poor snibs, accompanying a lushy cove, and going to work in a veryforklessmanner.Forloper,subs.(South African).—A teamster guide.Forlorn Hope,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A gamester’s last stake.—Grose.Form,subs.(turf.)—1. Condition; training; fitness for a contest.In or out of form= in or out of condition,i.e., fit or unfit for work.BetterorTop form, etc. (in comparison).Cf.,Colour.1861.Walsh,The Horse, ch. vi. If it be supposed that two three-year-olds, carrying the same weight, could run a mile and a-half, and come in abreast, it is said that theformof one is equal to that of the other.1884.Hawley Smart,Post to Finish, ch. xxxv. When fillies, in racing parlance, lose theirformat three years old, they are apt to never recover it.1868.Whyte Melville,White Rose, ch. xxxiv. That mysterious property racing men call ‘form.’2. (colloquial).—Behaviour (with a moral significance: asgood form, bad form= agreeable to good manners, breeding, principles, taste, etc., or the opposite). This usage, popularised in racing circles, is good literary English, though the word is commonly printed in inverted commas(“  ”):Shakspeare(Two Gentlemen of Verona, 4), says, ‘Can no way change you to a milderform,’i.e., manner of behaviour.1871.Orchestra, 13 Jan. This squabble at the Globe may most fitly, perhaps, be characterised by the words ‘bad form.’1871.The Drawing Room Gazette, Dec. 9, p. 5. It is an open question, whether snubbing be not, like cutting, in the worst possible ‘form.’1873.Belgravia, Feb. The demeanour and conduct which the ‘golden youth’ of the period call ‘good form’ was known to their fathers as bad manners.1881.Jas. Payn,Grape from a Thorn, ch. xvii. It would be considered what they call ‘bad form’ in my daughter Ella if she were known to be a contributor—for pay—to the columns of a magazine.1890.Speaker, 22 Feb, p. 211, col.2.Still, after all, we doubt very much whether it be fair, or right, or even prudent—it certainly is not ‘good form’—to publish to a world of Gallios a lot of irreverent bar-mess and circuit ‘good stories,’ worked up about living Lord Chancellors, Lord Justices, and other present occupants of the judicial bench.[60]3. (common).—Habit;game(q.v.):e.g., ‘That’s myform= That’s what I’m in the way of doing’; or ‘That’s the sort of man I am.’1884.Punch, 11 Oct.‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Athletics ain’t hardly myform.Forney,subs.(thieves’).—A ring; a variant offawney(q.v.).1871.Egan,Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 243. He sports a diamondforneyon his little finger.Fornicating-engine(-member;-tool),subs. phr.(venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Fornicator,subs.(venery).—1. Thepenis. Forsynonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.2. Inpl.(obsolete),—The old-fashioned flap trousers.Fornicator’s Hall,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Fort,subs.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.1620.Percy,Folio MSS.[Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘Come, Wanton Wenches.’ When they yourffortbeleauger; grant but a touch or a kisse ffor a tast.Fortune-biter,subs.(obsolete).—A sharper.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii. ‘Hey! for Richmond Ball’!Fortune-biters, Hags, bum-fighters, Nymphs of the Woods, And stale City goods.Fortune-teller,subs.(old).—A magistrate.1690. B.E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fortune-tellers, c. the Judges of Life and Death, so-called by the Canting Crew.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue.Fortune-teller, or cunning man; a judge who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot, or doom; to go before thefortune-teller, lambskin man or conjuror, to be tried at an assize.1871.Egan,Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 242. He had been werry cruelly used by thefortune-tellers.Forty.To talk forty(more commonlynineteen)to the dozen,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To chatter incessantly; to gabble.To walk off forty to the dozen= to decamp in quick time.1891.Farjeon,Mystery of M. Felix, p. 107. He run agin me, he did, and I ased, ‘Who are yer pushing of?’ He didn’t say nothink, but walked offforty to the dozen.Roaring forties,subs. phr.(nautical).—The Atlantic between the fortieth and fiftieth degrees of latitude; also applied to the same region in southern latitudes.Forty-faced,adj.(colloquial).—An arrant deceiver:e.g., aforty-facedliar, aforty-facedflirt, and so forth.Forty-five,subs.(American).—A revolver. For synonyms,seeMeat in the pot.Forty-footorForty-guts,subs.(common).—A fat, dumpy man, or woman. In contempt.English Synonyms.—‘All arse, and no body’; arse-and-corporation; all-belly (Cotgrave); all guts (idem); bacon-belly; barrel-belly; belly-god; bladder-figured; bosse-belly; Bosse of Billingsgate (Florio = a fat woman); chuff (Shakspeare); Christmas beef; double-guts; double-tripe; fat-cock; fat-guts (Shakspeare and Cotgrave); fatico; fattymus or[61]fattyma; fubsy; fat Jack of the bonehouse; fat-lips; flanderkin; fustiluggs (Burton); fussock; gorbelly; grampus; gotch-guts; grand-guts (Florio); gulche (Florio); gullyguts; gundigutts; guts; guts-and-stomach; guts-and-garbage; guts-to-sell; hoddy-doddy; humpty-dumpty; hogshead; hopper-arse; Jack Weight; loppers; lummox; paunch; pod; porpoise; pot-guts; princod; pudding-belly; puff-guts; ribs; ‘short-and-thick-like-a-Welshman’s-cock’; slush-bucket; sow (a fat woman); spud; squab; studgy-guts; tallow-guts; tallow-merchant; thick-in-the-middle; tripes; tripes and trullibubs; tubs; waist; water-butt; walking ninepin; whopper.French Synonyms.Un gros bajaf(popular);un bout de cul(popular);un bas de plafond, orde cul(popular);un brasset(= a tall, stout man);un berdouillard.Spanish Synonym.Angelon de retablo(generally applied to a pot-bellied child).Forty-jawed,adj.(colloquial).—Excessively talkative.Forty-lunged,adj.(colloquial).—Stentorian; given to shouting;leather-lunged(q.v.).Forty-rodorForty-rod Lightning,subs. phr.(American).—Whiskey; specifically, spirit of so fiery a nature that it is calculated to kill at Forty Rods’ distance,i.e., on sight.Cf.,Rot-gut. For synonyms,seeDrinksandOld man’s milk.Cf.,Florio(1598),Catoblepa, ‘a serpent in India so venomous that with his looke he kils a man a mile off.’1884.M. Twain,Huck. Finn, ch. v., p. 36. He got powerful thirsty and clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion, and traded his new coat for a jug offorty-rod.Forty-twa,subs.(Scots).—A common jakes, orbogshop(q.v.).—InEdinburgh: ‘so called from its accommodating that number of persons at once’ (Hotten). [Long a thing of the past.]Forty Winks,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A short sleep or nap.SeeDog’s Sleep.1866.G. Eliot,Felix Holt, ch. xliii. She was prevented by the appearance of old Mr. Transome, who since his walk had been having ‘forty-winks’ on the sofa in the library.1871.Egan,Finish to Tom and Jerry, p. 87. On uncommanly big gentlemen, told out, takingforty-winks.[Forty is often used to signify an indefinite number;cf., Shakespeare’s usage, ‘I could beat forty of them’ (Cor.iii., 1); ‘O that the slave had forty thousand lives’ (Othelloiii., 1); ‘forty thousand brothers’ (Hamlet, v., 1); ‘The Humour of Forty Fancies’ (Taming of the Shrew); and Jonson ‘Some forty boxes’ (Silent Woman).]Fossed,ppl. adj.(American thieves’).—Thrown;cf., [foss = a ditch].Fossick,verb(Australian miners’).—To work an abandoned claim, or to wash old dirt; hence to search persistently. [Halliwell: = to take trouble, butcf., fosse, a ditch or excavation.] Alsofossicking= a living got as aforesaid;fossicker= a man that works abandoned claims;fossicking about= (American)shinning around, or in Englandferreting(q.v.).1870.Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 3.[62]1878.Fraser’s Mag., Oct., p. 449, They are more suited … to plodding,fossicking, persevering industry, than for hard work.1887.Sala, inIll. Lond. News, 12 Mar., p. 282, col. 2. ‘To fossick’ in the old digging days was to get a living by extracting gold from the refuse wash-dirt which previous diggers had abandoned as worthless.1890.Illustrations, Jan., p. 158. After some ‘fossiking’ we discover three or four huts within ‘cooee,’ all diggers, all ‘hatters,’ and mostly good fellows.Fou, orFow,adj.(old English and Scots’ colloquial).—Drunk; variants arebitch-fou;greetin’-fou;piper-fou;roaring-fou;fou as barty(Burns);pissing-fou; and so forth. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed. Also (Scots’) = full of food or drink, as in quot. under date 1815.1697.Vanbrugh,Provoked Wife, III., ii. (quoted in). Then sit ye awhile, and tipple a bit, For we’s not veryfou, but we’re gayly yet.1787.Burns,Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 3. I was nafou, but just had plenty.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xlvi. ‘Are yefouor fasting?’ ‘Fasting from all but sin.’1857.J. E. Ritchie,Night Side of London, p. 166. The time admits of a man gettingfoubetween the commencement and the close of the entertainment.Foul,subs.(nautical and aquatic).—A running into; a running down.Verb.(idem).—To run against; to run down. Alsoto come(orfall)foul of.[Foul,adj.andverb.is used in two senses: (1) = dirty, as afoulword, afoulshrew (Dickens), tofoulthe bed, &c.; and (2) = unfair, as afoul(i.e., a felon) stroke, afoulblow, and so forth.]1626.Captain John Smith,Accidence for Seamen, in wks. (Arber), p. 796. Boord and boord, or thwart the hawse, we arefouleon each other.1724.E. Coles,Eng. Dict.Foul, hindred or intangled with another ship’s ropes, etc.1754.Connoisseur, No. 3. Which sailed very heavy, were often a-ground, and continually ranfoulon each other.1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xiii. Their coxswain … had to pull his left hand hard or they would havefouledthe Oxfordshire corner.1885Illus. London News, March 28, p. 316, col. 1. In 1849 there were two races in the course of the year; Cambridge won the first, Oxford the second, on afoul(the only time the race has been so won).1889.Licensed Victuallers’ Gaz., 18 Jan. Dick was done out of the stakes on an appeal offoul.To foul a plate with,verbal phr.(old, colloquial).—To dine or sup with.—Grose.Foulcher,subs.(thieves’).—A purse.1877.Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 243. ‘Afoulcher, with flimsies and couters for a score of quid in it.’Foul-mouthed,adj.(colloquial).—Obscene or blasphemous in speech.Found in a Parsley-bed.SeeParsley-bedandGooseberry-bush.Fountain of Love,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Four-and-nine(orFour-and-ninepenny),subs. phr.(old).—A hat. [So-called from the price at which an enterprising Bread Street hatter sold his hats,circa1844, at which date London was hideous with posters displaying a large black hat and ‘4s. and 9d.’ in white letters.]1844.Advertisement Couplet.Whene’er to slumber you incline, Take a short nap atfour-and-nine.[63]1846.Thackeray,Yellow Plush Papers, p. 152 (ed. 1887). You may, for instance, call a coronet a coronal (an ‘ancestral coronal,’ p. 74) if you like, as you might call a hat a ‘swart sombrero,’ a ‘glossyfour-and-nine,’ ‘a silken helm to storm impermeable, and lightsome as the breezy gossamer;’ but in the long run it is safer to call it a hat.1847.Thackeray,Mrs. Perkins’s Ball(The Mulligan). The Mulligan has withdrawn his custom from the ‘infernalfour-and-ninepennyscoundthrel,’ as he calls him. The hatter has not shut up shop in consequence.1849.Viator,Oxford Guide. He then did raise hisfour-and-nine, And scratched his shaggy pate.1867.Jas. Greenwood,Unsent. Journeys, xxx., 229. Because he wore afour-and-nine, and had a pencil stuck behind his ear.Four-bones,subs.(thieves’).—The knees.1857.Punch, 31 Jan. ‘Dear Bill, This Stone-jug.’ For them coves in Guildhall and that blessed Lord Mayor, Prigs on their four bones should chop whiners I swear.Four-eyes,subs.(common).—A person in spectacles: ‘a chap that can’t believe his own eyes.’Four-holed Middlings,subs. phr.(Winchester College).—Ordinary walking shoes;cf.beeswaxers. Obsolete.Four Kings.The history(orbook)of the four kings.subs. phr.(old).—A pack of cards; otherwise, achild’s best guide to the gallows, orthe devil’s picture books. Fr.,Livre des quatre rois.Four-legged burglar-alarm,subs. phr.(common).—A watch dog.Four-legged Frolic,subs. phr.(venery).—The act of kind: a reminiscence of the proverb, ‘There goes more to a marriage than four bare legs in a bed.’ For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Four-poster,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A four-post bedstead.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xliv. ‘Vill you allow me to en-quire vy you make up your bed under that ere deal table?’ said Sam. ‘’Cause I was alvays used to afour-posterafore I came here, and I find the legs of the table answer just as well,’ replied the cobbler.Four Seams and a Bit of Soap,subs. phr.(tailors’).—A pair of trousers.SeeKicks.Four—(more commonlyThree)—Sheets in the Wind,adv. phr.(nautical).—Drunk;cf.,half seas over. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Fourteen Hundred, …phr.(Stock Exchange).—A warning cry that a stranger is in the ‘House.’1887.Atkin,House Scraps. So, help me Got, Mo, who is he? Instead of replying in a straightforward way, Mo raised his voice as loud as he could, and shouted with might and main, ‘fourteen hundrednew fives!’ A hundred voices repeated the mysterious exclamation.1890.Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 26 April. The cry of ‘fourteen hundred’ is said to have had its origin in the fact that for a long while the number of members never exceeded 1,399; and it was customary to hail every new comer as the fourteen hundredth. It has, in its primary sense, long since lost significance, for there are now nearly three thousand members of the close corporation which has its home in Capel Court.Fourteenth Amendment Persuasion,subs. phr.(American).—Negroes. [From the number of the clause amending the Constitution at the abolition of slavery.]1888.Times Democrat, 5 Feb. To take the law is one of the greatest privileges in the estimation of the colored folk that thefourteenth amendmentconferred, and, whether offender or defendant, they take a pride in summonses beyond describing.[64]Fourth,subs.(Cambridge University).—Arear(q.v.) or jakes. [Origin uncertain; said to have been first used at St. John’s or Trinity, where the closets were situated in the Fourth Court. Whatever its derivation, the term is now the only one in use at Cambridge, and is frequently heard outside the university.] The verbal phrase isto keep a fourth(seeKeep).On his fourth,phr.(common).—Hopelessly drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Fourth Estate,subs. phr.(literary).—The body of journalists; the ‘Press.’ [Literally the Fourth Estate of the realm, the other three being Queen, Lords, and Commons.]1855.Notes and Queries. 1 S. xi., p. 452.1857.J. E. Ritchie,Night Side of London, p. 202. Let me say a word about these exceedingly seedy-looking individuals connected with thefourth estate.Four-wheeler,subs.(common).—A steak.2. (colloquial).—A four-wheeled cab; agrowler(q.v.).1873.Black,Princess of Thule, ch. 10. Having sent an all their luggage by a respectable oldfour-wheeler.Fousty,adj.(colloquial).—Stinking [probably derived fromfoist, sense 3].Fouter,verb, andFoutering,subs.(common).—To meddle, importune, waste time and tongue; the act of meddling, importunity, wasting time and tongue.E.g., ‘Don’t comefouteringhere!’ [From the French,foutre: the sense of which is intensified in a vulgarism of still fuller flavour].Fox,subs.(old).—A sword; specifically, the old English broadsword. [Derivation dubious.Suggestionsare: (1) from a maker’s name; (2) from the fox sometimes engraved on the blade; (3) from the Latinfalx.] For synonyms,seeCheese-toasterandPoker.1598,Shakspeare,Henry V., 4. O signieur Dew, thou dy’st on point offox.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, ii. A fellow that knows nothing but a basket-hilt, and an oldfoxin’t.c.1640. [Shirley],Captain Underwit, in Bullen’sOld Plays, ii., 321.Un.An oldfoxblade made atHounsloeheath.1667.Shirley,Love Tricks, Act II., Sc. 1. They say your swords most commonly arefoxes, and have notable metal in them.1700.Congreve,Way of the World, Act V., Sc. 10. Sir, I have an oldfoxby my thigh shall hack your instrument ofram vellumto shreds, Sir.1821.Scott,Kenilworth, ch. iv. ‘Come, come, comrade,’ said Lambourne, ‘here is enough done, and more than enough, put up yourfox, and let us be jogging.’Verb(old).—1. To intoxicate.Foxed= drunk;to catch a fox= to be very drunk; whileto flay the fox(Urquhart) = to vomit, to shed your liquor,i.e., to get rid of the beast.1611.Barry,Ram Alley, Act IV. They will bib hard; they will be fine sunburnt, Sufficientfox’dor columber’d now and then.1633.Heywood,Eng. Travellers, IV., v., p. 266 (Mermaid Series).Rioter.Worthy Reginald.Reig.Will, if he now come off well,foxyou all, Go, call for wine.c.1640. [Shirley],Captain Underwit, in Bullen’sOld Plays, ii. 375. Then to beefox’dit is no crime, Since thickest and dull braines It makes sublime.1661.T. Middleton,Mayor of Quinborough, V., i. Ah, blind as one that had beenfox’da sevennight.1673.Shadwell,Epsom Wells, IV., in wks. (1720), ii., 248. But here’s my cup. Come on. Udsooks, I begin to befox’d![65]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 194. Come, let’s trudge it to Kirkham Fair: There’s stout liquor enough tofoxme.1738.Swift,Polite Convers., Dial. 2.Lady Sm.But, Sir John, your ale is terrible strong and heady.…Sir John.Why, indeed, it is apt tofoxone.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th ed.).Fox(v.) … also to make a person drunk or fuddled.1891.Sporting Times, 11 April. And so to bed well nigh seven in the morning, and myself as nearfoxedas of old.2. (old).—To cheat; to trick; to rob (colloquial at Eton). For synonyms,seeGammon.1631.Mayne,City Match, iii., 1. Fore Jove, the captainfoxedhim rarely.1866.Notes and Queries, 3, S. x., 123. Where the tramps … out of their gout arefoxed.3. (common).—To watch closely. Alsoto fox about.Cf.,fox’s sleep. For synonyms,seeNose.1880.Greenwood,Odd People in Odd Places, p. 61. ‘You keep it going pretty loud here, with a couple of policemenfoxingabout just outside.’4. (colloquial).—To sham.1880.One and All, 6 Nov., p. 296, ‘Let us look at these vagabons; maybe they’re onlyfoxin’.’ The two men who had received such tangible mementos of the whip-handle and the blackthorn lay perfectly still.5. (American).—To play truant.6. (booksellers’).—To stain; to discolour with damp; said of books and engravings.Foxed= stained or discoloured.1881.C. M. I[ngleby]inNotes and Queries(6th S., iv., 96). Tissue paper harbours damp, and in a damp room will assuredly help tofoxthe plates which they face.1885.Austin Dobson,At the Sign of the Lyre, 83. And the Rabelaisfoxedand flea’d.7. (theatrical).—To criticise a ‘brother pro’s’ performance.8. (common).—To mend a boot by ‘capping’ it.To set a fox to keep one’s geese,phr.(common).—To entrust one’s money, or one’s circumstances, to the care of sharpers. Latin,Ovem lupo commisisti.To make a fox paw,verb. phr.(common).—To make a mistake or a wrong move; specifically (of women) to be seduced. [A corruption of the Fr.faux pas.]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue.Fox’s Sleep,subs. phr.(common).—A state of feigned yet very vigilant indifference to one’s surroundings. [Foxes were supposed to sleep with one eye open.]1830.Sir J. Barrington,Personal Sketches, Vol. III., p. 171 (ed. 1832). Mr. Fitzgerald, he supposed, was in afox’s sleep, and his bravo in another, who, instead of receding at all, on the contrary squeezed the attorney closer and closer.Foxy,adj.(colloquial).—1. Red-haired;cf.,carrotty.1828.G. Griffin,Collegians, ch. ii. Dunat O’Leary, the hair-cutter, orFoxyDunat, as he was named in allusion to his red head.2. (colloquial).—Cunning; vulpine in character and look. Once literary. Jonson (1605) calls his arch-foistvolpone, the second title of his play being ‘The Fox;’ and Florio (1598) definesVolponeas ‘an old fox, an old reinard, an old, crafty, sly, subtle companion, sneaking, lurking, wilie deceiver.’[66]d.1536.Tyndale,Workes, p. 148. Oh,foxyPharisay, that is thy leuen, of which Christ so diligently bad vs beware.1849.Dickens,David Copperfield, ch. xlix., p. 429.Whatever his state of health may be his appearance isfoxy, not to say diabolical.3. (American cobblers’).—Repaired with new toe-caps.Seefox, verb, sense 8.1877.M. Twain,Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 503. It was the scarecrow Dean—infoxyshoes, down at the heels; socks of odd colours, also ‘down.’4. (booksellers’).—A term applied to prints and books discoloured by damp;seeFox, verb, sense 6.5. (painters’: obsolete).—Inclined to reddishness.d.1792.Sir J. Reynolds,Notes on Dufresnoy. That (style) of Titian, which may be called the Golden manner, when unskilfully managed, becomes what the painters callfoxy.6. (common).—Strong-smelling. Said of a red-haired man or woman.Foy,subs.(old).—A cheat; a swindle.1615.Greene,Thieves Falling Out. You be crossbites,foys, and nips.Foyl-cloy,subs.(old).—A pickpocket; a rogue—B. E. [1690].Foyst,subs.andverb.SeeFoist.Foyster.SeeFoister.Fraggle,verb.(Texas).—To rob.Fragment,subs.(Winchester College).—A dinner for six (served in College Hall, after the ordinary dinner), ordered by a Fellow in favour of a particular boy, who was at liberty to invite five others to join him. Obs. A fragment was supposed to consist of three dishes.—Winchester Word-book[1891].Framer,subs.(American thieves’).—A shawl.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Frater,subs.(old).—A beggar working with a false petition.1567.Harman,Caveat, s.v.Frater, a beggar wyth a false paper.1622.Fletcher,Beggar’s Bush, ii., 1. And these what name or title e’er they bear, Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon,Frater, orAbramman, I speak to all That stand in fair election for the title Of king of beggars.1791.Life of Bamfylde Moore-Carew.‘Oath of Canting Crew.’ Rogue or rascal,frater, maunderer, Irish toyle, or other wanderer.Fraud,subs.(colloquial).—A failure; anything or body disappointing expectation;e.g., an acquaintance, a picture, a book, a play, a picture, a bottle of wine. Actual dishonesty is not necessarily implied.1882.Punch, LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1. Afraud, Charlie!Fraze.SeeVessel.Freak,subs.(American showmen’s). A living curiosity: as the Siamese Twins, the Two-headed Nightingale. [Short for ‘freak of nature.’]Free,adj.(Oxford University).—Impudent; self-possessed.1864.Tennyson,Northern Farmer, (Old Style), line 25.—But parson a coomes an’ a goos, an’ a says it eäsy an’freeä.Verb.(old).—To steal;cf.,annexandconvey. For synonyms,seePrig.[67]1857.Snowden,Magistrates’ Assistant, 3rd ed., p.444. To steal a muff. Tofreea cat.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.1882.McCabe,New York, ch. xxxiv., p. 509. (Given in list of slang terms.)Free-fucking,subs.(venery).—General lewdness. Also the favour gratis. Also fidelity to the other sex at large.Free of Fumbler’s Hall,adv. phr.(venery).—Impotent; unable to do ‘the trick.’ [Fumbler’s Hall= femalepudendum.]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongues.v., A saying of one who cannot get his wife with child.Free, gratis,—for nothing,phr.(common).—A pleonastic vulgarism.Cf.,On the dead.To make free with both ends of the busk,verb. phr.(venery).—To take liberties with a woman.Cf.,Both ends of the busk.Free of the house,adj. phr.(colloquial).—Intimate; privileged to come and go at will.Free of the bush,adj. phr.(venery).—On terms of extreme intimacy.SeeBush.[For the rest, the commonest sense offreeis one of liberality:e.g.,free of his foolishness= full of chaff;free-handed= lavish in giving;free-hearted= generously disposed;free of her favours= liberal of her person:free of his patter= full of talk.]Free-and-Easy,subs.(common).—A social gathering where you smoke, drink, and sing; generally held at a public house.1796. (InBee’sDict. of the Turf, published 1823, s.v.). Twenty seven years ago the cards of invitation to that (free-and-easy) at the ‘Pied Horse,’ in Moorfields, had the notable ‘N.B.—Fighting allowed.’1810.Crabbe,The Borough, Letter 10. Clubs. Next is the club, where to their friends in town, Our country neighbours once a-month come down; We term itfree-and-easy, and yet we Find it no easy matter to be free.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum.Free-and-easy Johns.A society which meets at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet Street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry(ed. 1890), p.91. Blew a cloud at afree-and-easy.1843.Macaulay,Essays: Gladstone on Church and State.Clubs of all ranks, from those which have lined Pall-Mall and St. James’s Street with their palaces, down to thefree-and-easywhich meets in the shabby parlour of the village inn.1869.Mrs. H. Wood,Roland Yorke, ch. xii. He tilted himself on to a high stool in the middle of the room, his legs dangling, just as though he had been at afree-and-easymeeting.1880.Jas. Greenwood,Odd People in Odd Places, p. 64. A roaring trade is done, for instance, on a Saturday evening at the ‘Medley’ in Hoxton, a combination of theatre and music-hall, and serves as afree-and-easychiefly for boys and girls.1891.Cassell’s Saturday Journal, Sept., p. 1068, col. 3. Thefree-and-easyof to-day among us is a species of public-house party, at which much indifferent liquor and tobacco are consumed, songs are sung, and speeches are got rid of.Freebooker,subs.(journalists’).—A ‘pirate’ bookseller or publisher; a play on the word freebooter.Free fight,subs.(colloquial).—A general mellay.1877.W. Mark,Green Past. and Picc., ch. xxx. That vehement German has been insisting on the Irish porters bringing up all our luggage at once; and as there has been a sort offree fightbelow he comes fuming upstairs.[68]Free-fishery,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Freeholder,subs.(venery).—1. A prostitute’s lover orfancyman.Cf.,Free-fishery, and for synonyms,seeJoseph.2. (old).—A man whose wife insists on accompanying him to a public house.1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. 1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Free-lance,subs.(common).—An habitual adulteress.c.1889. (Quoted fromSpectatorin ‘Slang, Jargon, and Cant’). Sooner than be out of the fashion they will tolerate what should be most galling and shaming to them—the thought that by these they are put down among thefree-lances.Also said of a journalist attached to no particular paper.Freeman,subs.(venery).—A married woman’s lover.Freeman of bucks,subs. phr.(old).—A cuckold. [In allusion to the horn.]Grose.To freeman, orto make a freeman of,verb. phr.(schoolboys’).—To spit on thepenisof a new comer. AlsoTo Freemason.Freeman’s Quay.To drink, orlush,at freeman’s quay,verb. phr.(old).—To drink at another’s expense. [Freeman’s Quay was a celebrated wharf near London Bridge, and the saying arose from the beer that was given to porters, carmen, and others going there on business.]1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.Freeze,subs.(colloquial).—1. The act or state of freezing; a frost.2. (old).—Hard cider.—Grose.Verb.(American).—1.To long for intensely;e.g., ‘tofreezeto go back,’ said of the home-sick; ‘tofreezefor meat.’1848.Ruxton,Life in the Far West(1887), p. 129. Threats of vengeance on every Redskin they met were loud and deep; and the wild war songs round their nightly camp-fires, and grotesque scalp-dances, borrowed from the Indians, proved to the initiated that they were, one and all,half-frozefor hair.2. (thieves’).—Hence, to appropriate; to steal; ‘to stick to.’3. (old).—To adulterate orbalderdash(q.v.) wine withfreeze(q.v.sense 2).—Grose.To freeze to(oron to),verb.phr.(American).—To take a strong fancy to; to cling to; to, keep fast hold of; and (of persons) to button-hole or shadow.1883.Graphic, 17 March, p. 287, col. 1. If there was one institution which the Anglo-Indianfrozeto more than another, it was his sit-down supper and—its consequences.1888.Daily Inter-Ocean, 2 March. The competence of a juror was judged by his ability to shake ready-formed opinions andfreeze on tonew ones.To Freeze Out,verb. phr.(American).—To compel to withdraw from society by cold and contemptuous treatment; from business by competition or opposition; from the market by depressing prices or rates of exchange.Freezer,subs.(common).—1. A tailless Eton jacket;cf.,Bum-perisher. For synonyms,seeMonkey-jacket.[69]2. (colloquial).—A very cold day. By analogy, a chilling look, address, or retort.French-elixir(cream,lace, orarticle),subs. phr.(common).—Brandy. [The custom of taking of brandy with tea and coffee was originally French.—Whence French Cream.Laced tea= tea dashed with spirits].1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. ix. ‘Get out the gallon punch-bowl, and plenty of lemons. I’ll stand for theFrench articleby the time I come back, and we’ll drink the young Laird’s health.’1821.Real Life, i., p. 606. Not forgetting blue ruin andFrench lace.English Synonyms.—Ball-of-fire; bingo; cold tea; cold nantz; red ribbon.French Synonyms.—Le parfait amour du chiffonnier(i.e., ragman’s happiness = coarse brandy);le trois-six(popular: =rot-gut);fil-en-quatre,fil-en-trois,fil-en-six(specifically, old brandy, but applied to spirits generally);le dur(= a drop of hard: common);le raide(popular = a drop of stiff):le cheniqueorchnic(popular:);le rude(popular: = a drop of rough,i.e., coarse brandy);l’eau d’affe(thieves’);le pissat d’âne(popular: = donkey’s piss; sometimes applied to bad beer, which is likewise calledpissat de vache);l’avoine(military = hay, as who should say ‘a nose bag’);le blanc(popular = brandy or white wine);le possédé(thieves’:bingo);le raspail(popular:);le cric(popular: alsocrik,crique, orcricque= rough brandy:);le schnaps(popular);le schnick(common: = bad brandy);le camphre(popular: = camphor; applied to the coarsest spirit);le sacré-chienorsacré-chien tout pur(common: = the vilest sold);casse-poitrine(common: = brandy heightened with pepper;cf.,rot-gut);le jaune(rag-pickers’: = a drop of yellow);tord-boyaux(popular = twist-gut);la consolation(popular = a drop of comfort);requiqui(workmen’s);eau de mort(common: = death-water);le Tripoli(rank brandy);casse-gueule(= ‘kill-the-carter’; applied to all kinds of spirits).French Fake.subs. phr.(nautical).—The fashion of coiling a rope by taking it backwards and forwards in parallel bands, so that it may run easily.French Gout(orDisease,Fever, etc.),subs. phr.(common).—Sometimesclap(q.v.), but more generally and correctly syphilis,Morbus Gallicus, especially with older writers. For synonyms,seeLadies Fever. AlsoThe Frenchman.French Pox= a very bad variety of syphilis. The French themselves always refer to the ailment as themal de Naples, for whichseeMarston(1598) and his ‘Naples canker,’ andFlorio(1598)mal di Napoli= French pocks.Cf.,Shakspeare,Henry V., v., 1. News have I that my Nell is dead i’ the spital Of malady of France.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes.Lue, a plague.… It is also used for theFrench poxe.1611.Cotgrave,Dictionarie.Mal de Naples, theFrench Pocks.1690. B. E.Dict. of the Canting Crew. (s.v.).[70]1740.Poor Robin.Some gallants will this month be so penurious that they will not part with a crack’d groat to a poor body, but on their cockatrice or punquetto will bestow half a dozen taffety gowns, who in requittal bestows on him theFrench pox.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. He suffered by a blow over the snout with a French faggot-stick;i.e., he lost his nose by thepox.Frenchified,adj.(old).—Clapped; more generally and accurately poxed.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.Frenchified, infected with the venereal disease; the mort isfrenchified=the wench is infected.French Leave,To take French leave.verb. phr.(colloquial).—(1) To decamp without notice; (2) to do anything without permission; (3) to purloin or steal; (4) to run away (as from an enemy). [Derivation obscure;French, probably traceable to the contempt engendered during the wars with France; the compliment is returned in similar expressions (seeSynonyms) +leave= departure or permission to depart. Sense 1 is probably the origin of senses 2, 3, and 4.SeeNotes and Queries, 1 S. i, 246; 3 S. vi, 17; 5 S. xii, 87; 6 S. v, 347, 496; viii, 514; ix, 133, 213, 279; 7 S. iii, 5, 109, 518.]English Synonyms.—To retire up (one’s fundament); to slope; to smouge; to do a sneak; to take the Frenchman; to vamoose.French Synonyms.—S’escarpiner(popular: = to flash one’s pumps);escarpin= a dancing shoe;jouer de l’escarpin= to ply one’s pumps, (16th century);s’échapper,s’esquiver,filer,disparaître,s’éclipser,se dérober,se retirer, ands’en aller à l’anglaise(= to take English leave);pisser à l’anglaise(= to do an English piss,i.e., affect a visit to the urinal);prendre sa permission sous son coude(popular: literally to take one’s leave under one’s arm);ficherorfoutre le camp.German Synonyms.—Französischen Abschied nehmen(= to take French leave: fromGutzkow, R.,4, 88, etc., born 1811);französischer Abschied(Iffland, 1759–1814, 5, 3, 117);auf gut französisch sich empfehlen(Blumauer, 2, 72, 1758–1798: alsoGutzkow, R., 4, 88);hinter der Thur urlaub(= to take leave behind [or outside] the door,i.e., after one has got outside it: quoted bySanders, fromFischart, 1550–1589);hinter der Thüre Abschied nehmen(= to say good-bye outside, to take French leave); also,er beurlaubte sich in aller Stille, explained aser stahl sich, schlich sich davon, and translated ‘he took French leave’; also,sich aus einer Gesellschaft stehlen.—Hilpert’sDict., 1845.Spanish Synonym.—Despedirse á la francesa(= to take French leave).1771.Smollett,Humphrey Clinker, p. 54. He stole away an Irishman’s bride, and took aFrench leaveof me andhismaster.1805.Newspaper(quoted inNotes and Queries, 5S. xii., 2 Aug., 79, p. 87, col. 2). On Thursday last Monsieur J. F. Desgranche, one of the French prisoners of war on parole at Chesterfield, tookFrench leaveof that place, in defiance of his parole engagement.1854.F. E. Smedley,Harry Coverdale, ch. lviii. ‘I thought I would avoid[71]all the difficulties … by takingFrench leave, and setting off in disguise and under a feigned name.’1885Stevenson,Treasure Island, ch. xxii., p. 178 (1886). My only plan was to takeFrench leave, and slip out when nobody was watching.1892.Globe, 25 Mar., p. 5, col. 1. They finally resolved to go onFrench leaveto the place.French-(alsoAmerican,Spanish, andItalian)Letter,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A sheath—of india-rubber, gold beater’s skin, gutta-percha—worn by a man during coition to prevent infection or fruition. Usually described in print asspecialities(q.v.). orcircular protectorsand (inU.S.A.) assafes(q.v.).SeeCundum. Fr.,capote anglaise.French Pigeon,subs. phr.(sportsman’s).—A pheasant killed by mistake in the partridge season. Alsomokoandoriental(q.v.).French Pig,subs. phr.(common).—A venereal bubo; ablue boar(q.v.), orWinchester goose(q.v.).French Prints,subs.(colloquial).—Generic for indecent pictures.1849–50.Thackeray,Pendennis II., ch. xxxi. Young de Boots of the Blues recognised you as the man who came to barracks, and did business, one-third in money, one-third in eau-de-Cologne, and one third inFrench prints, you confounded, demure, old sinner.French Vice,verb. phr.(venery).—A euphemism for all sexual malpractices;Larks(q.v.). First used (in print) in the case of Crawfordv.Crawford and Dilke.Frenchy,subs.(colloquial).—A Frenchman.Fresh,adj.(University).—1. Said of an undergraduate in his first term.1803.Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.1866.Trevelyan,Horace at Athens. When you and I werefresh.2. (common).—Slightly intoxicated; elevated. For synonymsseeDrinksandScrewed, (Scots’ = sober).1829.Marryat,Frank Mildmay, ch. xiii. Drinking was not among my vices. I could getfresh, as we call it, when in good company and excited by wit and mirth; but I never went to the length of being drunk.3. (Old English and modern American).—Inexperienced, but conceited and presumptuous; hence, forward, impudent.1596.Shakspeare,King John, iii., 4. How green you are andfreshin this old world.1886.Francis,Saddle and Mocassin. ‘Has Peggy been toofresh?’ Her sunburnt cheeks flushed.4. (common).—Fasting; opposed to eating or drinking.Fresh as paint, as a rose, as a daisy, as a new-born turd, etc.,phr.(common).—Full of health, strength, and activity;fit(q.v.).1864.E. Yates,Broken to Harness, ch. xix. This is his third day’s rest, and the cob will be about asfresh as paintwhen I get across him again.1880.Punch’s Almanack, p. 12.Fresh on the graft,adj. phr.(common).—New to the work.Cf.,Fresh bit.Fresh Bit,subs. phr.(venery).—A beginner; also a new mistress.Cf.,Bit of fresh= the sexual favour:meat, ormutton, orfish(q.v.), being understood.[72]Freshen One’s Way,verb. phr.(nautical).—To hurry; to quicken one’s movements. [The windfreshenswhen it rises.]Freshen Up,verb. phr.(colloquial). To clean; to vamp; to revive; to smarten.Fresher,subs.(University).—An undergraduate in his first term.Freshers.The Freshers,subs.(University).—That part of the Cam which lies between the Mill and Byron’s Pool. So called because it is frequented byfreshmen(q.v.).Freshman(orFresher),subs.(University).—A University man during his first year. In Dublin University he is ajunior freshmanduring his first year, and asenior freshmanthe Second year. At Oxford the title lasts for the first term. Ger.,Fuchs.1596.Nashe,Saffron Walden, in wks. iii., 8. When he was but yet afreshmanin Cambridge.

1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.2. (thieves’).—A finger. Theforks= the fore and middle fingers; alsocf., (proverbial) ‘Fingers were made beforeforks.’English Synonyms.—Claws; cunt-hooks (Grose); daddles (also the hands); divers; feelers; fives; flappers; grapplers; grappling irons; gropers; hooks; nail-bearers; pickers and stealers (Shakspeare); corn-stealers; Ten Commandments; ticklers; pinkies; muck-forks.French Synonyms.—Les apôtres(thieves’: = the ten Apostles);les fourchettes, orles fourchettes d’Adam(popular: = Adam’s forks);le peigne d’allemand(thieves’:Rabelais).German Synonyms.—Ezba(= the finger, especially the first or fore-finger. The names of the others are:Godel= the thumb;Ammo= the middle-finger;Kemizo= the ring-finger;Seres,i.e., ‘span’ = the little finger);Griffling(= also the hand. Fromgreifen= to seize).Spanish Synonyms.—Mandamiento(= a commandment:cf.,Ten Commandments);tijeras(= the fore- and middle fingers;Minsheu(1599)Dictionarie, tijeras= ‘small sheares, seizers, snuffers.’).[58]Portuguese Synonym.—Medunhos.1821.Haggart,Life, p. 121. Myforkswere equally long, and they never failed me.1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood. ‘Nix my Dolly.’ No dummy hunter hadforksso fly.Ibid.Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 20. I’ll give him the edication of a prig—teach him the use of hisforksbetimes.1841.Tait’s Edinburgh Mag., VIII., p. 220. Myforkswere light and fly, and lightly faked away.1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Feb. Up they came briskly with smiling mugs, shook hands, then stepped back a pace or two, put up theirforks, and the spectators were hushed into silence, for they saw that the battle was about to begin.3. In plural (common).—The hands.4. (old).—A gibbet; in the plural = the gallows. [forkis often applied to anything resembling a divarication (as of a tree, river, or road), etc.:Cf., sense 2.Cf., Cicero (de Div., i., 26).Ferens furcam ductus est: a slave so punished was calledfurcifer.]5. (old).—A spendthrift.1725.New Canting Dict., s.v.6. (tailors’ and venery).—Thecrutch(q.v.),nockandro(q.v.), orTwist(q.v.). [Thus,a bit on a fork= the femalepudendum; agrind(q.v.).] Fr., ‘Fourcheure, that part of the bodie from whence the thighs depart.’—Cotgrave.Verb(old).—1. To steal; specifically to pick a pocket by inserting the middle and forefinger. Alsoto put one’s forks down: Fr.,vol à la fourchette.1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew.Let’s fork him, c. Let us pick that man’s pocket, the newest and most dextrous way; it is to thrust the fingers straight, stiff, open, and very quick into the pocket, and so closing them hook what can be held between them.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Let usforkhim.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. Yet so keen was his appetite for the sport, that the veteran appropriator absolutely burst into tears at not having ‘forkedmore.’1878.C. Hindley,Life and Times of James Catnach. Frisk the Cly andforkthe Rag, Draw the fogies plummy.2. (venery).—To open up, orspread(q.v.).Tofork out, orover(sometimes abbreviated tofork).Verb. phr.(common).—To hand over; to pay;to shell out(q.v.).1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xxxi. The personforkhimoutten shiners.1836.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 84. His active mind at once perceived how much might be done in the way of … shoving the old and helpless into the wrong buss, and carrying them off … till they was rig’larly done over, andforked outthe stumpy.1837.Barham, I. L.,The Execution. He Pulls up at the door of a gin-shop, and gaily Cries, ‘What must Ifork outto night, my trump, For the whole first-floor of the Magpie and Stump?’1840.Comic Almanack.‘Tom the Devil,’ p. 214. ‘That’s a nate way of doin’ business, sure enough,’ was the commentary; ‘ounly I can’t larn the sinse of going to a private lodging, where, if you ordher a kidney for breakfast, you’re expected tofork outto the butcher.’1852.H. B. Stowe,Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. You’ve got tofork overfifty dollars, flat down, or this child don’t start a peg.1864.Dickens,Our Mutual Friend, Bk. III., ch. i. ‘Now,’ said Fledgeby, ‘fork outyour balance in hand, and prove by figures how you make it out that it ain’t more.’[59]1867.Albany Argus, 5 Sept. Now, sir, you will pleasefork overthat money to me, and pay your bill, or I’ll have the law out of you, as sure as you are born.1887.Lippincott’s Magazine, Aug., p. 199. Just calculate my percentage of our liabilities, and allow me tofork over.1888.Detroit Free Press, 9 Sept. The dozen screw-drivers came up C. O. D. and he had tofork overfor them.To fork on,verb. phr.(American).—To appropriate.Cf.,To freeze on to.To pitch the fork,verb. phr.(popular).—To tell a pitiful tale.To eat vinegar with a fork,verb. phr.(common).—A person either over-shrewd or over-snappish is said to haveeaten vinegar with a fork. Fr.,Avoir mangé de l’oseille.SeeNettle.Forker,subs.(nautical).—A dockyard thief orfence(q.v.). [Fromfork= to steal +er.]Forking,subs.(thieves’).—1. Thieving.SeeFork.2. (tailors’).—Hurrying andscamping(q.v.).Forkless,adj.(thieves’).—Clumsy; unworkmanlike; as withoutforks(q.v.).1821.Haggart,Life, p. 40. I met George Bagrie, and William Paterson, alias old Hag, two very willing, but poor snibs, accompanying a lushy cove, and going to work in a veryforklessmanner.Forloper,subs.(South African).—A teamster guide.Forlorn Hope,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A gamester’s last stake.—Grose.Form,subs.(turf.)—1. Condition; training; fitness for a contest.In or out of form= in or out of condition,i.e., fit or unfit for work.BetterorTop form, etc. (in comparison).Cf.,Colour.1861.Walsh,The Horse, ch. vi. If it be supposed that two three-year-olds, carrying the same weight, could run a mile and a-half, and come in abreast, it is said that theformof one is equal to that of the other.1884.Hawley Smart,Post to Finish, ch. xxxv. When fillies, in racing parlance, lose theirformat three years old, they are apt to never recover it.1868.Whyte Melville,White Rose, ch. xxxiv. That mysterious property racing men call ‘form.’2. (colloquial).—Behaviour (with a moral significance: asgood form, bad form= agreeable to good manners, breeding, principles, taste, etc., or the opposite). This usage, popularised in racing circles, is good literary English, though the word is commonly printed in inverted commas(“  ”):Shakspeare(Two Gentlemen of Verona, 4), says, ‘Can no way change you to a milderform,’i.e., manner of behaviour.1871.Orchestra, 13 Jan. This squabble at the Globe may most fitly, perhaps, be characterised by the words ‘bad form.’1871.The Drawing Room Gazette, Dec. 9, p. 5. It is an open question, whether snubbing be not, like cutting, in the worst possible ‘form.’1873.Belgravia, Feb. The demeanour and conduct which the ‘golden youth’ of the period call ‘good form’ was known to their fathers as bad manners.1881.Jas. Payn,Grape from a Thorn, ch. xvii. It would be considered what they call ‘bad form’ in my daughter Ella if she were known to be a contributor—for pay—to the columns of a magazine.1890.Speaker, 22 Feb, p. 211, col.2.Still, after all, we doubt very much whether it be fair, or right, or even prudent—it certainly is not ‘good form’—to publish to a world of Gallios a lot of irreverent bar-mess and circuit ‘good stories,’ worked up about living Lord Chancellors, Lord Justices, and other present occupants of the judicial bench.[60]3. (common).—Habit;game(q.v.):e.g., ‘That’s myform= That’s what I’m in the way of doing’; or ‘That’s the sort of man I am.’1884.Punch, 11 Oct.‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Athletics ain’t hardly myform.Forney,subs.(thieves’).—A ring; a variant offawney(q.v.).1871.Egan,Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 243. He sports a diamondforneyon his little finger.Fornicating-engine(-member;-tool),subs. phr.(venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Fornicator,subs.(venery).—1. Thepenis. Forsynonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.2. Inpl.(obsolete),—The old-fashioned flap trousers.Fornicator’s Hall,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Fort,subs.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.1620.Percy,Folio MSS.[Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘Come, Wanton Wenches.’ When they yourffortbeleauger; grant but a touch or a kisse ffor a tast.Fortune-biter,subs.(obsolete).—A sharper.1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii. ‘Hey! for Richmond Ball’!Fortune-biters, Hags, bum-fighters, Nymphs of the Woods, And stale City goods.Fortune-teller,subs.(old).—A magistrate.1690. B.E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fortune-tellers, c. the Judges of Life and Death, so-called by the Canting Crew.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue.Fortune-teller, or cunning man; a judge who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot, or doom; to go before thefortune-teller, lambskin man or conjuror, to be tried at an assize.1871.Egan,Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 242. He had been werry cruelly used by thefortune-tellers.Forty.To talk forty(more commonlynineteen)to the dozen,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To chatter incessantly; to gabble.To walk off forty to the dozen= to decamp in quick time.1891.Farjeon,Mystery of M. Felix, p. 107. He run agin me, he did, and I ased, ‘Who are yer pushing of?’ He didn’t say nothink, but walked offforty to the dozen.Roaring forties,subs. phr.(nautical).—The Atlantic between the fortieth and fiftieth degrees of latitude; also applied to the same region in southern latitudes.Forty-faced,adj.(colloquial).—An arrant deceiver:e.g., aforty-facedliar, aforty-facedflirt, and so forth.Forty-five,subs.(American).—A revolver. For synonyms,seeMeat in the pot.Forty-footorForty-guts,subs.(common).—A fat, dumpy man, or woman. In contempt.English Synonyms.—‘All arse, and no body’; arse-and-corporation; all-belly (Cotgrave); all guts (idem); bacon-belly; barrel-belly; belly-god; bladder-figured; bosse-belly; Bosse of Billingsgate (Florio = a fat woman); chuff (Shakspeare); Christmas beef; double-guts; double-tripe; fat-cock; fat-guts (Shakspeare and Cotgrave); fatico; fattymus or[61]fattyma; fubsy; fat Jack of the bonehouse; fat-lips; flanderkin; fustiluggs (Burton); fussock; gorbelly; grampus; gotch-guts; grand-guts (Florio); gulche (Florio); gullyguts; gundigutts; guts; guts-and-stomach; guts-and-garbage; guts-to-sell; hoddy-doddy; humpty-dumpty; hogshead; hopper-arse; Jack Weight; loppers; lummox; paunch; pod; porpoise; pot-guts; princod; pudding-belly; puff-guts; ribs; ‘short-and-thick-like-a-Welshman’s-cock’; slush-bucket; sow (a fat woman); spud; squab; studgy-guts; tallow-guts; tallow-merchant; thick-in-the-middle; tripes; tripes and trullibubs; tubs; waist; water-butt; walking ninepin; whopper.French Synonyms.Un gros bajaf(popular);un bout de cul(popular);un bas de plafond, orde cul(popular);un brasset(= a tall, stout man);un berdouillard.Spanish Synonym.Angelon de retablo(generally applied to a pot-bellied child).Forty-jawed,adj.(colloquial).—Excessively talkative.Forty-lunged,adj.(colloquial).—Stentorian; given to shouting;leather-lunged(q.v.).Forty-rodorForty-rod Lightning,subs. phr.(American).—Whiskey; specifically, spirit of so fiery a nature that it is calculated to kill at Forty Rods’ distance,i.e., on sight.Cf.,Rot-gut. For synonyms,seeDrinksandOld man’s milk.Cf.,Florio(1598),Catoblepa, ‘a serpent in India so venomous that with his looke he kils a man a mile off.’1884.M. Twain,Huck. Finn, ch. v., p. 36. He got powerful thirsty and clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion, and traded his new coat for a jug offorty-rod.Forty-twa,subs.(Scots).—A common jakes, orbogshop(q.v.).—InEdinburgh: ‘so called from its accommodating that number of persons at once’ (Hotten). [Long a thing of the past.]Forty Winks,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A short sleep or nap.SeeDog’s Sleep.1866.G. Eliot,Felix Holt, ch. xliii. She was prevented by the appearance of old Mr. Transome, who since his walk had been having ‘forty-winks’ on the sofa in the library.1871.Egan,Finish to Tom and Jerry, p. 87. On uncommanly big gentlemen, told out, takingforty-winks.[Forty is often used to signify an indefinite number;cf., Shakespeare’s usage, ‘I could beat forty of them’ (Cor.iii., 1); ‘O that the slave had forty thousand lives’ (Othelloiii., 1); ‘forty thousand brothers’ (Hamlet, v., 1); ‘The Humour of Forty Fancies’ (Taming of the Shrew); and Jonson ‘Some forty boxes’ (Silent Woman).]Fossed,ppl. adj.(American thieves’).—Thrown;cf., [foss = a ditch].Fossick,verb(Australian miners’).—To work an abandoned claim, or to wash old dirt; hence to search persistently. [Halliwell: = to take trouble, butcf., fosse, a ditch or excavation.] Alsofossicking= a living got as aforesaid;fossicker= a man that works abandoned claims;fossicking about= (American)shinning around, or in Englandferreting(q.v.).1870.Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 3.[62]1878.Fraser’s Mag., Oct., p. 449, They are more suited … to plodding,fossicking, persevering industry, than for hard work.1887.Sala, inIll. Lond. News, 12 Mar., p. 282, col. 2. ‘To fossick’ in the old digging days was to get a living by extracting gold from the refuse wash-dirt which previous diggers had abandoned as worthless.1890.Illustrations, Jan., p. 158. After some ‘fossiking’ we discover three or four huts within ‘cooee,’ all diggers, all ‘hatters,’ and mostly good fellows.Fou, orFow,adj.(old English and Scots’ colloquial).—Drunk; variants arebitch-fou;greetin’-fou;piper-fou;roaring-fou;fou as barty(Burns);pissing-fou; and so forth. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed. Also (Scots’) = full of food or drink, as in quot. under date 1815.1697.Vanbrugh,Provoked Wife, III., ii. (quoted in). Then sit ye awhile, and tipple a bit, For we’s not veryfou, but we’re gayly yet.1787.Burns,Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 3. I was nafou, but just had plenty.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xlvi. ‘Are yefouor fasting?’ ‘Fasting from all but sin.’1857.J. E. Ritchie,Night Side of London, p. 166. The time admits of a man gettingfoubetween the commencement and the close of the entertainment.Foul,subs.(nautical and aquatic).—A running into; a running down.Verb.(idem).—To run against; to run down. Alsoto come(orfall)foul of.[Foul,adj.andverb.is used in two senses: (1) = dirty, as afoulword, afoulshrew (Dickens), tofoulthe bed, &c.; and (2) = unfair, as afoul(i.e., a felon) stroke, afoulblow, and so forth.]1626.Captain John Smith,Accidence for Seamen, in wks. (Arber), p. 796. Boord and boord, or thwart the hawse, we arefouleon each other.1724.E. Coles,Eng. Dict.Foul, hindred or intangled with another ship’s ropes, etc.1754.Connoisseur, No. 3. Which sailed very heavy, were often a-ground, and continually ranfoulon each other.1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xiii. Their coxswain … had to pull his left hand hard or they would havefouledthe Oxfordshire corner.1885Illus. London News, March 28, p. 316, col. 1. In 1849 there were two races in the course of the year; Cambridge won the first, Oxford the second, on afoul(the only time the race has been so won).1889.Licensed Victuallers’ Gaz., 18 Jan. Dick was done out of the stakes on an appeal offoul.To foul a plate with,verbal phr.(old, colloquial).—To dine or sup with.—Grose.Foulcher,subs.(thieves’).—A purse.1877.Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 243. ‘Afoulcher, with flimsies and couters for a score of quid in it.’Foul-mouthed,adj.(colloquial).—Obscene or blasphemous in speech.Found in a Parsley-bed.SeeParsley-bedandGooseberry-bush.Fountain of Love,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Four-and-nine(orFour-and-ninepenny),subs. phr.(old).—A hat. [So-called from the price at which an enterprising Bread Street hatter sold his hats,circa1844, at which date London was hideous with posters displaying a large black hat and ‘4s. and 9d.’ in white letters.]1844.Advertisement Couplet.Whene’er to slumber you incline, Take a short nap atfour-and-nine.[63]1846.Thackeray,Yellow Plush Papers, p. 152 (ed. 1887). You may, for instance, call a coronet a coronal (an ‘ancestral coronal,’ p. 74) if you like, as you might call a hat a ‘swart sombrero,’ a ‘glossyfour-and-nine,’ ‘a silken helm to storm impermeable, and lightsome as the breezy gossamer;’ but in the long run it is safer to call it a hat.1847.Thackeray,Mrs. Perkins’s Ball(The Mulligan). The Mulligan has withdrawn his custom from the ‘infernalfour-and-ninepennyscoundthrel,’ as he calls him. The hatter has not shut up shop in consequence.1849.Viator,Oxford Guide. He then did raise hisfour-and-nine, And scratched his shaggy pate.1867.Jas. Greenwood,Unsent. Journeys, xxx., 229. Because he wore afour-and-nine, and had a pencil stuck behind his ear.Four-bones,subs.(thieves’).—The knees.1857.Punch, 31 Jan. ‘Dear Bill, This Stone-jug.’ For them coves in Guildhall and that blessed Lord Mayor, Prigs on their four bones should chop whiners I swear.Four-eyes,subs.(common).—A person in spectacles: ‘a chap that can’t believe his own eyes.’Four-holed Middlings,subs. phr.(Winchester College).—Ordinary walking shoes;cf.beeswaxers. Obsolete.Four Kings.The history(orbook)of the four kings.subs. phr.(old).—A pack of cards; otherwise, achild’s best guide to the gallows, orthe devil’s picture books. Fr.,Livre des quatre rois.Four-legged burglar-alarm,subs. phr.(common).—A watch dog.Four-legged Frolic,subs. phr.(venery).—The act of kind: a reminiscence of the proverb, ‘There goes more to a marriage than four bare legs in a bed.’ For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Four-poster,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A four-post bedstead.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xliv. ‘Vill you allow me to en-quire vy you make up your bed under that ere deal table?’ said Sam. ‘’Cause I was alvays used to afour-posterafore I came here, and I find the legs of the table answer just as well,’ replied the cobbler.Four Seams and a Bit of Soap,subs. phr.(tailors’).—A pair of trousers.SeeKicks.Four—(more commonlyThree)—Sheets in the Wind,adv. phr.(nautical).—Drunk;cf.,half seas over. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Fourteen Hundred, …phr.(Stock Exchange).—A warning cry that a stranger is in the ‘House.’1887.Atkin,House Scraps. So, help me Got, Mo, who is he? Instead of replying in a straightforward way, Mo raised his voice as loud as he could, and shouted with might and main, ‘fourteen hundrednew fives!’ A hundred voices repeated the mysterious exclamation.1890.Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 26 April. The cry of ‘fourteen hundred’ is said to have had its origin in the fact that for a long while the number of members never exceeded 1,399; and it was customary to hail every new comer as the fourteen hundredth. It has, in its primary sense, long since lost significance, for there are now nearly three thousand members of the close corporation which has its home in Capel Court.Fourteenth Amendment Persuasion,subs. phr.(American).—Negroes. [From the number of the clause amending the Constitution at the abolition of slavery.]1888.Times Democrat, 5 Feb. To take the law is one of the greatest privileges in the estimation of the colored folk that thefourteenth amendmentconferred, and, whether offender or defendant, they take a pride in summonses beyond describing.[64]Fourth,subs.(Cambridge University).—Arear(q.v.) or jakes. [Origin uncertain; said to have been first used at St. John’s or Trinity, where the closets were situated in the Fourth Court. Whatever its derivation, the term is now the only one in use at Cambridge, and is frequently heard outside the university.] The verbal phrase isto keep a fourth(seeKeep).On his fourth,phr.(common).—Hopelessly drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Fourth Estate,subs. phr.(literary).—The body of journalists; the ‘Press.’ [Literally the Fourth Estate of the realm, the other three being Queen, Lords, and Commons.]1855.Notes and Queries. 1 S. xi., p. 452.1857.J. E. Ritchie,Night Side of London, p. 202. Let me say a word about these exceedingly seedy-looking individuals connected with thefourth estate.Four-wheeler,subs.(common).—A steak.2. (colloquial).—A four-wheeled cab; agrowler(q.v.).1873.Black,Princess of Thule, ch. 10. Having sent an all their luggage by a respectable oldfour-wheeler.Fousty,adj.(colloquial).—Stinking [probably derived fromfoist, sense 3].Fouter,verb, andFoutering,subs.(common).—To meddle, importune, waste time and tongue; the act of meddling, importunity, wasting time and tongue.E.g., ‘Don’t comefouteringhere!’ [From the French,foutre: the sense of which is intensified in a vulgarism of still fuller flavour].Fox,subs.(old).—A sword; specifically, the old English broadsword. [Derivation dubious.Suggestionsare: (1) from a maker’s name; (2) from the fox sometimes engraved on the blade; (3) from the Latinfalx.] For synonyms,seeCheese-toasterandPoker.1598,Shakspeare,Henry V., 4. O signieur Dew, thou dy’st on point offox.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, ii. A fellow that knows nothing but a basket-hilt, and an oldfoxin’t.c.1640. [Shirley],Captain Underwit, in Bullen’sOld Plays, ii., 321.Un.An oldfoxblade made atHounsloeheath.1667.Shirley,Love Tricks, Act II., Sc. 1. They say your swords most commonly arefoxes, and have notable metal in them.1700.Congreve,Way of the World, Act V., Sc. 10. Sir, I have an oldfoxby my thigh shall hack your instrument ofram vellumto shreds, Sir.1821.Scott,Kenilworth, ch. iv. ‘Come, come, comrade,’ said Lambourne, ‘here is enough done, and more than enough, put up yourfox, and let us be jogging.’Verb(old).—1. To intoxicate.Foxed= drunk;to catch a fox= to be very drunk; whileto flay the fox(Urquhart) = to vomit, to shed your liquor,i.e., to get rid of the beast.1611.Barry,Ram Alley, Act IV. They will bib hard; they will be fine sunburnt, Sufficientfox’dor columber’d now and then.1633.Heywood,Eng. Travellers, IV., v., p. 266 (Mermaid Series).Rioter.Worthy Reginald.Reig.Will, if he now come off well,foxyou all, Go, call for wine.c.1640. [Shirley],Captain Underwit, in Bullen’sOld Plays, ii. 375. Then to beefox’dit is no crime, Since thickest and dull braines It makes sublime.1661.T. Middleton,Mayor of Quinborough, V., i. Ah, blind as one that had beenfox’da sevennight.1673.Shadwell,Epsom Wells, IV., in wks. (1720), ii., 248. But here’s my cup. Come on. Udsooks, I begin to befox’d![65]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 194. Come, let’s trudge it to Kirkham Fair: There’s stout liquor enough tofoxme.1738.Swift,Polite Convers., Dial. 2.Lady Sm.But, Sir John, your ale is terrible strong and heady.…Sir John.Why, indeed, it is apt tofoxone.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th ed.).Fox(v.) … also to make a person drunk or fuddled.1891.Sporting Times, 11 April. And so to bed well nigh seven in the morning, and myself as nearfoxedas of old.2. (old).—To cheat; to trick; to rob (colloquial at Eton). For synonyms,seeGammon.1631.Mayne,City Match, iii., 1. Fore Jove, the captainfoxedhim rarely.1866.Notes and Queries, 3, S. x., 123. Where the tramps … out of their gout arefoxed.3. (common).—To watch closely. Alsoto fox about.Cf.,fox’s sleep. For synonyms,seeNose.1880.Greenwood,Odd People in Odd Places, p. 61. ‘You keep it going pretty loud here, with a couple of policemenfoxingabout just outside.’4. (colloquial).—To sham.1880.One and All, 6 Nov., p. 296, ‘Let us look at these vagabons; maybe they’re onlyfoxin’.’ The two men who had received such tangible mementos of the whip-handle and the blackthorn lay perfectly still.5. (American).—To play truant.6. (booksellers’).—To stain; to discolour with damp; said of books and engravings.Foxed= stained or discoloured.1881.C. M. I[ngleby]inNotes and Queries(6th S., iv., 96). Tissue paper harbours damp, and in a damp room will assuredly help tofoxthe plates which they face.1885.Austin Dobson,At the Sign of the Lyre, 83. And the Rabelaisfoxedand flea’d.7. (theatrical).—To criticise a ‘brother pro’s’ performance.8. (common).—To mend a boot by ‘capping’ it.To set a fox to keep one’s geese,phr.(common).—To entrust one’s money, or one’s circumstances, to the care of sharpers. Latin,Ovem lupo commisisti.To make a fox paw,verb. phr.(common).—To make a mistake or a wrong move; specifically (of women) to be seduced. [A corruption of the Fr.faux pas.]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue.Fox’s Sleep,subs. phr.(common).—A state of feigned yet very vigilant indifference to one’s surroundings. [Foxes were supposed to sleep with one eye open.]1830.Sir J. Barrington,Personal Sketches, Vol. III., p. 171 (ed. 1832). Mr. Fitzgerald, he supposed, was in afox’s sleep, and his bravo in another, who, instead of receding at all, on the contrary squeezed the attorney closer and closer.Foxy,adj.(colloquial).—1. Red-haired;cf.,carrotty.1828.G. Griffin,Collegians, ch. ii. Dunat O’Leary, the hair-cutter, orFoxyDunat, as he was named in allusion to his red head.2. (colloquial).—Cunning; vulpine in character and look. Once literary. Jonson (1605) calls his arch-foistvolpone, the second title of his play being ‘The Fox;’ and Florio (1598) definesVolponeas ‘an old fox, an old reinard, an old, crafty, sly, subtle companion, sneaking, lurking, wilie deceiver.’[66]d.1536.Tyndale,Workes, p. 148. Oh,foxyPharisay, that is thy leuen, of which Christ so diligently bad vs beware.1849.Dickens,David Copperfield, ch. xlix., p. 429.Whatever his state of health may be his appearance isfoxy, not to say diabolical.3. (American cobblers’).—Repaired with new toe-caps.Seefox, verb, sense 8.1877.M. Twain,Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 503. It was the scarecrow Dean—infoxyshoes, down at the heels; socks of odd colours, also ‘down.’4. (booksellers’).—A term applied to prints and books discoloured by damp;seeFox, verb, sense 6.5. (painters’: obsolete).—Inclined to reddishness.d.1792.Sir J. Reynolds,Notes on Dufresnoy. That (style) of Titian, which may be called the Golden manner, when unskilfully managed, becomes what the painters callfoxy.6. (common).—Strong-smelling. Said of a red-haired man or woman.Foy,subs.(old).—A cheat; a swindle.1615.Greene,Thieves Falling Out. You be crossbites,foys, and nips.Foyl-cloy,subs.(old).—A pickpocket; a rogue—B. E. [1690].Foyst,subs.andverb.SeeFoist.Foyster.SeeFoister.Fraggle,verb.(Texas).—To rob.Fragment,subs.(Winchester College).—A dinner for six (served in College Hall, after the ordinary dinner), ordered by a Fellow in favour of a particular boy, who was at liberty to invite five others to join him. Obs. A fragment was supposed to consist of three dishes.—Winchester Word-book[1891].Framer,subs.(American thieves’).—A shawl.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.Frater,subs.(old).—A beggar working with a false petition.1567.Harman,Caveat, s.v.Frater, a beggar wyth a false paper.1622.Fletcher,Beggar’s Bush, ii., 1. And these what name or title e’er they bear, Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon,Frater, orAbramman, I speak to all That stand in fair election for the title Of king of beggars.1791.Life of Bamfylde Moore-Carew.‘Oath of Canting Crew.’ Rogue or rascal,frater, maunderer, Irish toyle, or other wanderer.Fraud,subs.(colloquial).—A failure; anything or body disappointing expectation;e.g., an acquaintance, a picture, a book, a play, a picture, a bottle of wine. Actual dishonesty is not necessarily implied.1882.Punch, LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1. Afraud, Charlie!Fraze.SeeVessel.Freak,subs.(American showmen’s). A living curiosity: as the Siamese Twins, the Two-headed Nightingale. [Short for ‘freak of nature.’]Free,adj.(Oxford University).—Impudent; self-possessed.1864.Tennyson,Northern Farmer, (Old Style), line 25.—But parson a coomes an’ a goos, an’ a says it eäsy an’freeä.Verb.(old).—To steal;cf.,annexandconvey. For synonyms,seePrig.[67]1857.Snowden,Magistrates’ Assistant, 3rd ed., p.444. To steal a muff. Tofreea cat.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.1882.McCabe,New York, ch. xxxiv., p. 509. (Given in list of slang terms.)Free-fucking,subs.(venery).—General lewdness. Also the favour gratis. Also fidelity to the other sex at large.Free of Fumbler’s Hall,adv. phr.(venery).—Impotent; unable to do ‘the trick.’ [Fumbler’s Hall= femalepudendum.]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongues.v., A saying of one who cannot get his wife with child.Free, gratis,—for nothing,phr.(common).—A pleonastic vulgarism.Cf.,On the dead.To make free with both ends of the busk,verb. phr.(venery).—To take liberties with a woman.Cf.,Both ends of the busk.Free of the house,adj. phr.(colloquial).—Intimate; privileged to come and go at will.Free of the bush,adj. phr.(venery).—On terms of extreme intimacy.SeeBush.[For the rest, the commonest sense offreeis one of liberality:e.g.,free of his foolishness= full of chaff;free-handed= lavish in giving;free-hearted= generously disposed;free of her favours= liberal of her person:free of his patter= full of talk.]Free-and-Easy,subs.(common).—A social gathering where you smoke, drink, and sing; generally held at a public house.1796. (InBee’sDict. of the Turf, published 1823, s.v.). Twenty seven years ago the cards of invitation to that (free-and-easy) at the ‘Pied Horse,’ in Moorfields, had the notable ‘N.B.—Fighting allowed.’1810.Crabbe,The Borough, Letter 10. Clubs. Next is the club, where to their friends in town, Our country neighbours once a-month come down; We term itfree-and-easy, and yet we Find it no easy matter to be free.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum.Free-and-easy Johns.A society which meets at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet Street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry(ed. 1890), p.91. Blew a cloud at afree-and-easy.1843.Macaulay,Essays: Gladstone on Church and State.Clubs of all ranks, from those which have lined Pall-Mall and St. James’s Street with their palaces, down to thefree-and-easywhich meets in the shabby parlour of the village inn.1869.Mrs. H. Wood,Roland Yorke, ch. xii. He tilted himself on to a high stool in the middle of the room, his legs dangling, just as though he had been at afree-and-easymeeting.1880.Jas. Greenwood,Odd People in Odd Places, p. 64. A roaring trade is done, for instance, on a Saturday evening at the ‘Medley’ in Hoxton, a combination of theatre and music-hall, and serves as afree-and-easychiefly for boys and girls.1891.Cassell’s Saturday Journal, Sept., p. 1068, col. 3. Thefree-and-easyof to-day among us is a species of public-house party, at which much indifferent liquor and tobacco are consumed, songs are sung, and speeches are got rid of.Freebooker,subs.(journalists’).—A ‘pirate’ bookseller or publisher; a play on the word freebooter.Free fight,subs.(colloquial).—A general mellay.1877.W. Mark,Green Past. and Picc., ch. xxx. That vehement German has been insisting on the Irish porters bringing up all our luggage at once; and as there has been a sort offree fightbelow he comes fuming upstairs.[68]Free-fishery,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Freeholder,subs.(venery).—1. A prostitute’s lover orfancyman.Cf.,Free-fishery, and for synonyms,seeJoseph.2. (old).—A man whose wife insists on accompanying him to a public house.1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. 1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Free-lance,subs.(common).—An habitual adulteress.c.1889. (Quoted fromSpectatorin ‘Slang, Jargon, and Cant’). Sooner than be out of the fashion they will tolerate what should be most galling and shaming to them—the thought that by these they are put down among thefree-lances.Also said of a journalist attached to no particular paper.Freeman,subs.(venery).—A married woman’s lover.Freeman of bucks,subs. phr.(old).—A cuckold. [In allusion to the horn.]Grose.To freeman, orto make a freeman of,verb. phr.(schoolboys’).—To spit on thepenisof a new comer. AlsoTo Freemason.Freeman’s Quay.To drink, orlush,at freeman’s quay,verb. phr.(old).—To drink at another’s expense. [Freeman’s Quay was a celebrated wharf near London Bridge, and the saying arose from the beer that was given to porters, carmen, and others going there on business.]1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.Freeze,subs.(colloquial).—1. The act or state of freezing; a frost.2. (old).—Hard cider.—Grose.Verb.(American).—1.To long for intensely;e.g., ‘tofreezeto go back,’ said of the home-sick; ‘tofreezefor meat.’1848.Ruxton,Life in the Far West(1887), p. 129. Threats of vengeance on every Redskin they met were loud and deep; and the wild war songs round their nightly camp-fires, and grotesque scalp-dances, borrowed from the Indians, proved to the initiated that they were, one and all,half-frozefor hair.2. (thieves’).—Hence, to appropriate; to steal; ‘to stick to.’3. (old).—To adulterate orbalderdash(q.v.) wine withfreeze(q.v.sense 2).—Grose.To freeze to(oron to),verb.phr.(American).—To take a strong fancy to; to cling to; to, keep fast hold of; and (of persons) to button-hole or shadow.1883.Graphic, 17 March, p. 287, col. 1. If there was one institution which the Anglo-Indianfrozeto more than another, it was his sit-down supper and—its consequences.1888.Daily Inter-Ocean, 2 March. The competence of a juror was judged by his ability to shake ready-formed opinions andfreeze on tonew ones.To Freeze Out,verb. phr.(American).—To compel to withdraw from society by cold and contemptuous treatment; from business by competition or opposition; from the market by depressing prices or rates of exchange.Freezer,subs.(common).—1. A tailless Eton jacket;cf.,Bum-perisher. For synonyms,seeMonkey-jacket.[69]2. (colloquial).—A very cold day. By analogy, a chilling look, address, or retort.French-elixir(cream,lace, orarticle),subs. phr.(common).—Brandy. [The custom of taking of brandy with tea and coffee was originally French.—Whence French Cream.Laced tea= tea dashed with spirits].1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. ix. ‘Get out the gallon punch-bowl, and plenty of lemons. I’ll stand for theFrench articleby the time I come back, and we’ll drink the young Laird’s health.’1821.Real Life, i., p. 606. Not forgetting blue ruin andFrench lace.English Synonyms.—Ball-of-fire; bingo; cold tea; cold nantz; red ribbon.French Synonyms.—Le parfait amour du chiffonnier(i.e., ragman’s happiness = coarse brandy);le trois-six(popular: =rot-gut);fil-en-quatre,fil-en-trois,fil-en-six(specifically, old brandy, but applied to spirits generally);le dur(= a drop of hard: common);le raide(popular = a drop of stiff):le cheniqueorchnic(popular:);le rude(popular: = a drop of rough,i.e., coarse brandy);l’eau d’affe(thieves’);le pissat d’âne(popular: = donkey’s piss; sometimes applied to bad beer, which is likewise calledpissat de vache);l’avoine(military = hay, as who should say ‘a nose bag’);le blanc(popular = brandy or white wine);le possédé(thieves’:bingo);le raspail(popular:);le cric(popular: alsocrik,crique, orcricque= rough brandy:);le schnaps(popular);le schnick(common: = bad brandy);le camphre(popular: = camphor; applied to the coarsest spirit);le sacré-chienorsacré-chien tout pur(common: = the vilest sold);casse-poitrine(common: = brandy heightened with pepper;cf.,rot-gut);le jaune(rag-pickers’: = a drop of yellow);tord-boyaux(popular = twist-gut);la consolation(popular = a drop of comfort);requiqui(workmen’s);eau de mort(common: = death-water);le Tripoli(rank brandy);casse-gueule(= ‘kill-the-carter’; applied to all kinds of spirits).French Fake.subs. phr.(nautical).—The fashion of coiling a rope by taking it backwards and forwards in parallel bands, so that it may run easily.French Gout(orDisease,Fever, etc.),subs. phr.(common).—Sometimesclap(q.v.), but more generally and correctly syphilis,Morbus Gallicus, especially with older writers. For synonyms,seeLadies Fever. AlsoThe Frenchman.French Pox= a very bad variety of syphilis. The French themselves always refer to the ailment as themal de Naples, for whichseeMarston(1598) and his ‘Naples canker,’ andFlorio(1598)mal di Napoli= French pocks.Cf.,Shakspeare,Henry V., v., 1. News have I that my Nell is dead i’ the spital Of malady of France.1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes.Lue, a plague.… It is also used for theFrench poxe.1611.Cotgrave,Dictionarie.Mal de Naples, theFrench Pocks.1690. B. E.Dict. of the Canting Crew. (s.v.).[70]1740.Poor Robin.Some gallants will this month be so penurious that they will not part with a crack’d groat to a poor body, but on their cockatrice or punquetto will bestow half a dozen taffety gowns, who in requittal bestows on him theFrench pox.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. He suffered by a blow over the snout with a French faggot-stick;i.e., he lost his nose by thepox.Frenchified,adj.(old).—Clapped; more generally and accurately poxed.1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.Frenchified, infected with the venereal disease; the mort isfrenchified=the wench is infected.French Leave,To take French leave.verb. phr.(colloquial).—(1) To decamp without notice; (2) to do anything without permission; (3) to purloin or steal; (4) to run away (as from an enemy). [Derivation obscure;French, probably traceable to the contempt engendered during the wars with France; the compliment is returned in similar expressions (seeSynonyms) +leave= departure or permission to depart. Sense 1 is probably the origin of senses 2, 3, and 4.SeeNotes and Queries, 1 S. i, 246; 3 S. vi, 17; 5 S. xii, 87; 6 S. v, 347, 496; viii, 514; ix, 133, 213, 279; 7 S. iii, 5, 109, 518.]English Synonyms.—To retire up (one’s fundament); to slope; to smouge; to do a sneak; to take the Frenchman; to vamoose.French Synonyms.—S’escarpiner(popular: = to flash one’s pumps);escarpin= a dancing shoe;jouer de l’escarpin= to ply one’s pumps, (16th century);s’échapper,s’esquiver,filer,disparaître,s’éclipser,se dérober,se retirer, ands’en aller à l’anglaise(= to take English leave);pisser à l’anglaise(= to do an English piss,i.e., affect a visit to the urinal);prendre sa permission sous son coude(popular: literally to take one’s leave under one’s arm);ficherorfoutre le camp.German Synonyms.—Französischen Abschied nehmen(= to take French leave: fromGutzkow, R.,4, 88, etc., born 1811);französischer Abschied(Iffland, 1759–1814, 5, 3, 117);auf gut französisch sich empfehlen(Blumauer, 2, 72, 1758–1798: alsoGutzkow, R., 4, 88);hinter der Thur urlaub(= to take leave behind [or outside] the door,i.e., after one has got outside it: quoted bySanders, fromFischart, 1550–1589);hinter der Thüre Abschied nehmen(= to say good-bye outside, to take French leave); also,er beurlaubte sich in aller Stille, explained aser stahl sich, schlich sich davon, and translated ‘he took French leave’; also,sich aus einer Gesellschaft stehlen.—Hilpert’sDict., 1845.Spanish Synonym.—Despedirse á la francesa(= to take French leave).1771.Smollett,Humphrey Clinker, p. 54. He stole away an Irishman’s bride, and took aFrench leaveof me andhismaster.1805.Newspaper(quoted inNotes and Queries, 5S. xii., 2 Aug., 79, p. 87, col. 2). On Thursday last Monsieur J. F. Desgranche, one of the French prisoners of war on parole at Chesterfield, tookFrench leaveof that place, in defiance of his parole engagement.1854.F. E. Smedley,Harry Coverdale, ch. lviii. ‘I thought I would avoid[71]all the difficulties … by takingFrench leave, and setting off in disguise and under a feigned name.’1885Stevenson,Treasure Island, ch. xxii., p. 178 (1886). My only plan was to takeFrench leave, and slip out when nobody was watching.1892.Globe, 25 Mar., p. 5, col. 1. They finally resolved to go onFrench leaveto the place.French-(alsoAmerican,Spanish, andItalian)Letter,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A sheath—of india-rubber, gold beater’s skin, gutta-percha—worn by a man during coition to prevent infection or fruition. Usually described in print asspecialities(q.v.). orcircular protectorsand (inU.S.A.) assafes(q.v.).SeeCundum. Fr.,capote anglaise.French Pigeon,subs. phr.(sportsman’s).—A pheasant killed by mistake in the partridge season. Alsomokoandoriental(q.v.).French Pig,subs. phr.(common).—A venereal bubo; ablue boar(q.v.), orWinchester goose(q.v.).French Prints,subs.(colloquial).—Generic for indecent pictures.1849–50.Thackeray,Pendennis II., ch. xxxi. Young de Boots of the Blues recognised you as the man who came to barracks, and did business, one-third in money, one-third in eau-de-Cologne, and one third inFrench prints, you confounded, demure, old sinner.French Vice,verb. phr.(venery).—A euphemism for all sexual malpractices;Larks(q.v.). First used (in print) in the case of Crawfordv.Crawford and Dilke.Frenchy,subs.(colloquial).—A Frenchman.Fresh,adj.(University).—1. Said of an undergraduate in his first term.1803.Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.1866.Trevelyan,Horace at Athens. When you and I werefresh.2. (common).—Slightly intoxicated; elevated. For synonymsseeDrinksandScrewed, (Scots’ = sober).1829.Marryat,Frank Mildmay, ch. xiii. Drinking was not among my vices. I could getfresh, as we call it, when in good company and excited by wit and mirth; but I never went to the length of being drunk.3. (Old English and modern American).—Inexperienced, but conceited and presumptuous; hence, forward, impudent.1596.Shakspeare,King John, iii., 4. How green you are andfreshin this old world.1886.Francis,Saddle and Mocassin. ‘Has Peggy been toofresh?’ Her sunburnt cheeks flushed.4. (common).—Fasting; opposed to eating or drinking.Fresh as paint, as a rose, as a daisy, as a new-born turd, etc.,phr.(common).—Full of health, strength, and activity;fit(q.v.).1864.E. Yates,Broken to Harness, ch. xix. This is his third day’s rest, and the cob will be about asfresh as paintwhen I get across him again.1880.Punch’s Almanack, p. 12.Fresh on the graft,adj. phr.(common).—New to the work.Cf.,Fresh bit.Fresh Bit,subs. phr.(venery).—A beginner; also a new mistress.Cf.,Bit of fresh= the sexual favour:meat, ormutton, orfish(q.v.), being understood.[72]Freshen One’s Way,verb. phr.(nautical).—To hurry; to quicken one’s movements. [The windfreshenswhen it rises.]Freshen Up,verb. phr.(colloquial). To clean; to vamp; to revive; to smarten.Fresher,subs.(University).—An undergraduate in his first term.Freshers.The Freshers,subs.(University).—That part of the Cam which lies between the Mill and Byron’s Pool. So called because it is frequented byfreshmen(q.v.).Freshman(orFresher),subs.(University).—A University man during his first year. In Dublin University he is ajunior freshmanduring his first year, and asenior freshmanthe Second year. At Oxford the title lasts for the first term. Ger.,Fuchs.1596.Nashe,Saffron Walden, in wks. iii., 8. When he was but yet afreshmanin Cambridge.

1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.

1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. (thieves’).—A finger. Theforks= the fore and middle fingers; alsocf., (proverbial) ‘Fingers were made beforeforks.’

English Synonyms.—Claws; cunt-hooks (Grose); daddles (also the hands); divers; feelers; fives; flappers; grapplers; grappling irons; gropers; hooks; nail-bearers; pickers and stealers (Shakspeare); corn-stealers; Ten Commandments; ticklers; pinkies; muck-forks.

French Synonyms.—Les apôtres(thieves’: = the ten Apostles);les fourchettes, orles fourchettes d’Adam(popular: = Adam’s forks);le peigne d’allemand(thieves’:Rabelais).

German Synonyms.—Ezba(= the finger, especially the first or fore-finger. The names of the others are:Godel= the thumb;Ammo= the middle-finger;Kemizo= the ring-finger;Seres,i.e., ‘span’ = the little finger);Griffling(= also the hand. Fromgreifen= to seize).

Spanish Synonyms.—Mandamiento(= a commandment:cf.,Ten Commandments);tijeras(= the fore- and middle fingers;Minsheu(1599)Dictionarie, tijeras= ‘small sheares, seizers, snuffers.’).[58]

Portuguese Synonym.—Medunhos.

1821.Haggart,Life, p. 121. Myforkswere equally long, and they never failed me.

1834.Ainsworth,Rookwood. ‘Nix my Dolly.’ No dummy hunter hadforksso fly.Ibid.Jack Sheppard(1889), p. 20. I’ll give him the edication of a prig—teach him the use of hisforksbetimes.

1841.Tait’s Edinburgh Mag., VIII., p. 220. Myforkswere light and fly, and lightly faked away.

1891.Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Feb. Up they came briskly with smiling mugs, shook hands, then stepped back a pace or two, put up theirforks, and the spectators were hushed into silence, for they saw that the battle was about to begin.

3. In plural (common).—The hands.

4. (old).—A gibbet; in the plural = the gallows. [forkis often applied to anything resembling a divarication (as of a tree, river, or road), etc.:Cf., sense 2.Cf., Cicero (de Div., i., 26).Ferens furcam ductus est: a slave so punished was calledfurcifer.]

5. (old).—A spendthrift.

1725.New Canting Dict., s.v.

6. (tailors’ and venery).—Thecrutch(q.v.),nockandro(q.v.), orTwist(q.v.). [Thus,a bit on a fork= the femalepudendum; agrind(q.v.).] Fr., ‘Fourcheure, that part of the bodie from whence the thighs depart.’—Cotgrave.

Verb(old).—1. To steal; specifically to pick a pocket by inserting the middle and forefinger. Alsoto put one’s forks down: Fr.,vol à la fourchette.

1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew.Let’s fork him, c. Let us pick that man’s pocket, the newest and most dextrous way; it is to thrust the fingers straight, stiff, open, and very quick into the pocket, and so closing them hook what can be held between them.

1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Let usforkhim.

1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. Yet so keen was his appetite for the sport, that the veteran appropriator absolutely burst into tears at not having ‘forkedmore.’

1878.C. Hindley,Life and Times of James Catnach. Frisk the Cly andforkthe Rag, Draw the fogies plummy.

2. (venery).—To open up, orspread(q.v.).

Tofork out, orover(sometimes abbreviated tofork).Verb. phr.(common).—To hand over; to pay;to shell out(q.v.).

1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. xxxi. The personforkhimoutten shiners.

1836.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 84. His active mind at once perceived how much might be done in the way of … shoving the old and helpless into the wrong buss, and carrying them off … till they was rig’larly done over, andforked outthe stumpy.

1837.Barham, I. L.,The Execution. He Pulls up at the door of a gin-shop, and gaily Cries, ‘What must Ifork outto night, my trump, For the whole first-floor of the Magpie and Stump?’

1840.Comic Almanack.‘Tom the Devil,’ p. 214. ‘That’s a nate way of doin’ business, sure enough,’ was the commentary; ‘ounly I can’t larn the sinse of going to a private lodging, where, if you ordher a kidney for breakfast, you’re expected tofork outto the butcher.’

1852.H. B. Stowe,Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. You’ve got tofork overfifty dollars, flat down, or this child don’t start a peg.

1864.Dickens,Our Mutual Friend, Bk. III., ch. i. ‘Now,’ said Fledgeby, ‘fork outyour balance in hand, and prove by figures how you make it out that it ain’t more.’[59]

1867.Albany Argus, 5 Sept. Now, sir, you will pleasefork overthat money to me, and pay your bill, or I’ll have the law out of you, as sure as you are born.

1887.Lippincott’s Magazine, Aug., p. 199. Just calculate my percentage of our liabilities, and allow me tofork over.

1888.Detroit Free Press, 9 Sept. The dozen screw-drivers came up C. O. D. and he had tofork overfor them.

To fork on,verb. phr.(American).—To appropriate.Cf.,To freeze on to.

To pitch the fork,verb. phr.(popular).—To tell a pitiful tale.

To eat vinegar with a fork,verb. phr.(common).—A person either over-shrewd or over-snappish is said to haveeaten vinegar with a fork. Fr.,Avoir mangé de l’oseille.SeeNettle.

Forker,subs.(nautical).—A dockyard thief orfence(q.v.). [Fromfork= to steal +er.]

Forking,subs.(thieves’).—1. Thieving.SeeFork.

2. (tailors’).—Hurrying andscamping(q.v.).

Forkless,adj.(thieves’).—Clumsy; unworkmanlike; as withoutforks(q.v.).

1821.Haggart,Life, p. 40. I met George Bagrie, and William Paterson, alias old Hag, two very willing, but poor snibs, accompanying a lushy cove, and going to work in a veryforklessmanner.

Forloper,subs.(South African).—A teamster guide.

Forlorn Hope,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A gamester’s last stake.—Grose.

Form,subs.(turf.)—1. Condition; training; fitness for a contest.

In or out of form= in or out of condition,i.e., fit or unfit for work.BetterorTop form, etc. (in comparison).Cf.,Colour.

1861.Walsh,The Horse, ch. vi. If it be supposed that two three-year-olds, carrying the same weight, could run a mile and a-half, and come in abreast, it is said that theformof one is equal to that of the other.

1884.Hawley Smart,Post to Finish, ch. xxxv. When fillies, in racing parlance, lose theirformat three years old, they are apt to never recover it.

1868.Whyte Melville,White Rose, ch. xxxiv. That mysterious property racing men call ‘form.’

2. (colloquial).—Behaviour (with a moral significance: asgood form, bad form= agreeable to good manners, breeding, principles, taste, etc., or the opposite). This usage, popularised in racing circles, is good literary English, though the word is commonly printed in inverted commas(“  ”):Shakspeare(Two Gentlemen of Verona, 4), says, ‘Can no way change you to a milderform,’i.e., manner of behaviour.

1871.Orchestra, 13 Jan. This squabble at the Globe may most fitly, perhaps, be characterised by the words ‘bad form.’

1871.The Drawing Room Gazette, Dec. 9, p. 5. It is an open question, whether snubbing be not, like cutting, in the worst possible ‘form.’

1873.Belgravia, Feb. The demeanour and conduct which the ‘golden youth’ of the period call ‘good form’ was known to their fathers as bad manners.

1881.Jas. Payn,Grape from a Thorn, ch. xvii. It would be considered what they call ‘bad form’ in my daughter Ella if she were known to be a contributor—for pay—to the columns of a magazine.

1890.Speaker, 22 Feb, p. 211, col.2.Still, after all, we doubt very much whether it be fair, or right, or even prudent—it certainly is not ‘good form’—to publish to a world of Gallios a lot of irreverent bar-mess and circuit ‘good stories,’ worked up about living Lord Chancellors, Lord Justices, and other present occupants of the judicial bench.[60]

3. (common).—Habit;game(q.v.):e.g., ‘That’s myform= That’s what I’m in the way of doing’; or ‘That’s the sort of man I am.’

1884.Punch, 11 Oct.‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Athletics ain’t hardly myform.

Forney,subs.(thieves’).—A ring; a variant offawney(q.v.).

1871.Egan,Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 243. He sports a diamondforneyon his little finger.

Fornicating-engine(-member;-tool),subs. phr.(venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.

Fornicator,subs.(venery).—1. Thepenis. Forsynonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.

2. Inpl.(obsolete),—The old-fashioned flap trousers.

Fornicator’s Hall,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.

Fort,subs.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.

1620.Percy,Folio MSS.[Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘Come, Wanton Wenches.’ When they yourffortbeleauger; grant but a touch or a kisse ffor a tast.

Fortune-biter,subs.(obsolete).—A sharper.

1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii. ‘Hey! for Richmond Ball’!Fortune-biters, Hags, bum-fighters, Nymphs of the Woods, And stale City goods.

Fortune-teller,subs.(old).—A magistrate.

1690. B.E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew.Fortune-tellers, c. the Judges of Life and Death, so-called by the Canting Crew.

1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue.Fortune-teller, or cunning man; a judge who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot, or doom; to go before thefortune-teller, lambskin man or conjuror, to be tried at an assize.

1871.Egan,Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 242. He had been werry cruelly used by thefortune-tellers.

Forty.To talk forty(more commonlynineteen)to the dozen,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To chatter incessantly; to gabble.To walk off forty to the dozen= to decamp in quick time.

1891.Farjeon,Mystery of M. Felix, p. 107. He run agin me, he did, and I ased, ‘Who are yer pushing of?’ He didn’t say nothink, but walked offforty to the dozen.

Roaring forties,subs. phr.(nautical).—The Atlantic between the fortieth and fiftieth degrees of latitude; also applied to the same region in southern latitudes.

Forty-faced,adj.(colloquial).—An arrant deceiver:e.g., aforty-facedliar, aforty-facedflirt, and so forth.

Forty-five,subs.(American).—A revolver. For synonyms,seeMeat in the pot.

Forty-footorForty-guts,subs.(common).—A fat, dumpy man, or woman. In contempt.

English Synonyms.—‘All arse, and no body’; arse-and-corporation; all-belly (Cotgrave); all guts (idem); bacon-belly; barrel-belly; belly-god; bladder-figured; bosse-belly; Bosse of Billingsgate (Florio = a fat woman); chuff (Shakspeare); Christmas beef; double-guts; double-tripe; fat-cock; fat-guts (Shakspeare and Cotgrave); fatico; fattymus or[61]fattyma; fubsy; fat Jack of the bonehouse; fat-lips; flanderkin; fustiluggs (Burton); fussock; gorbelly; grampus; gotch-guts; grand-guts (Florio); gulche (Florio); gullyguts; gundigutts; guts; guts-and-stomach; guts-and-garbage; guts-to-sell; hoddy-doddy; humpty-dumpty; hogshead; hopper-arse; Jack Weight; loppers; lummox; paunch; pod; porpoise; pot-guts; princod; pudding-belly; puff-guts; ribs; ‘short-and-thick-like-a-Welshman’s-cock’; slush-bucket; sow (a fat woman); spud; squab; studgy-guts; tallow-guts; tallow-merchant; thick-in-the-middle; tripes; tripes and trullibubs; tubs; waist; water-butt; walking ninepin; whopper.

French Synonyms.Un gros bajaf(popular);un bout de cul(popular);un bas de plafond, orde cul(popular);un brasset(= a tall, stout man);un berdouillard.

Spanish Synonym.Angelon de retablo(generally applied to a pot-bellied child).

Forty-jawed,adj.(colloquial).—Excessively talkative.

Forty-lunged,adj.(colloquial).—Stentorian; given to shouting;leather-lunged(q.v.).

Forty-rodorForty-rod Lightning,subs. phr.(American).—Whiskey; specifically, spirit of so fiery a nature that it is calculated to kill at Forty Rods’ distance,i.e., on sight.Cf.,Rot-gut. For synonyms,seeDrinksandOld man’s milk.Cf.,Florio(1598),Catoblepa, ‘a serpent in India so venomous that with his looke he kils a man a mile off.’

1884.M. Twain,Huck. Finn, ch. v., p. 36. He got powerful thirsty and clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion, and traded his new coat for a jug offorty-rod.

Forty-twa,subs.(Scots).—A common jakes, orbogshop(q.v.).—InEdinburgh: ‘so called from its accommodating that number of persons at once’ (Hotten). [Long a thing of the past.]

Forty Winks,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A short sleep or nap.SeeDog’s Sleep.

1866.G. Eliot,Felix Holt, ch. xliii. She was prevented by the appearance of old Mr. Transome, who since his walk had been having ‘forty-winks’ on the sofa in the library.

1871.Egan,Finish to Tom and Jerry, p. 87. On uncommanly big gentlemen, told out, takingforty-winks.

[Forty is often used to signify an indefinite number;cf., Shakespeare’s usage, ‘I could beat forty of them’ (Cor.iii., 1); ‘O that the slave had forty thousand lives’ (Othelloiii., 1); ‘forty thousand brothers’ (Hamlet, v., 1); ‘The Humour of Forty Fancies’ (Taming of the Shrew); and Jonson ‘Some forty boxes’ (Silent Woman).]

Fossed,ppl. adj.(American thieves’).—Thrown;cf., [foss = a ditch].

Fossick,verb(Australian miners’).—To work an abandoned claim, or to wash old dirt; hence to search persistently. [Halliwell: = to take trouble, butcf., fosse, a ditch or excavation.] Alsofossicking= a living got as aforesaid;fossicker= a man that works abandoned claims;fossicking about= (American)shinning around, or in Englandferreting(q.v.).

1870.Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 3.[62]

1878.Fraser’s Mag., Oct., p. 449, They are more suited … to plodding,fossicking, persevering industry, than for hard work.

1887.Sala, inIll. Lond. News, 12 Mar., p. 282, col. 2. ‘To fossick’ in the old digging days was to get a living by extracting gold from the refuse wash-dirt which previous diggers had abandoned as worthless.

1890.Illustrations, Jan., p. 158. After some ‘fossiking’ we discover three or four huts within ‘cooee,’ all diggers, all ‘hatters,’ and mostly good fellows.

Fou, orFow,adj.(old English and Scots’ colloquial).—Drunk; variants arebitch-fou;greetin’-fou;piper-fou;roaring-fou;fou as barty(Burns);pissing-fou; and so forth. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed. Also (Scots’) = full of food or drink, as in quot. under date 1815.

1697.Vanbrugh,Provoked Wife, III., ii. (quoted in). Then sit ye awhile, and tipple a bit, For we’s not veryfou, but we’re gayly yet.

1787.Burns,Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 3. I was nafou, but just had plenty.

1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xlvi. ‘Are yefouor fasting?’ ‘Fasting from all but sin.’

1857.J. E. Ritchie,Night Side of London, p. 166. The time admits of a man gettingfoubetween the commencement and the close of the entertainment.

Foul,subs.(nautical and aquatic).—A running into; a running down.

Verb.(idem).—To run against; to run down. Alsoto come(orfall)foul of.

[Foul,adj.andverb.is used in two senses: (1) = dirty, as afoulword, afoulshrew (Dickens), tofoulthe bed, &c.; and (2) = unfair, as afoul(i.e., a felon) stroke, afoulblow, and so forth.]

1626.Captain John Smith,Accidence for Seamen, in wks. (Arber), p. 796. Boord and boord, or thwart the hawse, we arefouleon each other.

1724.E. Coles,Eng. Dict.Foul, hindred or intangled with another ship’s ropes, etc.

1754.Connoisseur, No. 3. Which sailed very heavy, were often a-ground, and continually ranfoulon each other.

1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xiii. Their coxswain … had to pull his left hand hard or they would havefouledthe Oxfordshire corner.

1885Illus. London News, March 28, p. 316, col. 1. In 1849 there were two races in the course of the year; Cambridge won the first, Oxford the second, on afoul(the only time the race has been so won).

1889.Licensed Victuallers’ Gaz., 18 Jan. Dick was done out of the stakes on an appeal offoul.

To foul a plate with,verbal phr.(old, colloquial).—To dine or sup with.—Grose.

Foulcher,subs.(thieves’).—A purse.

1877.Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 243. ‘Afoulcher, with flimsies and couters for a score of quid in it.’

Foul-mouthed,adj.(colloquial).—Obscene or blasphemous in speech.

Found in a Parsley-bed.SeeParsley-bedandGooseberry-bush.

Fountain of Love,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.

Four-and-nine(orFour-and-ninepenny),subs. phr.(old).—A hat. [So-called from the price at which an enterprising Bread Street hatter sold his hats,circa1844, at which date London was hideous with posters displaying a large black hat and ‘4s. and 9d.’ in white letters.]

1844.Advertisement Couplet.Whene’er to slumber you incline, Take a short nap atfour-and-nine.[63]

1846.Thackeray,Yellow Plush Papers, p. 152 (ed. 1887). You may, for instance, call a coronet a coronal (an ‘ancestral coronal,’ p. 74) if you like, as you might call a hat a ‘swart sombrero,’ a ‘glossyfour-and-nine,’ ‘a silken helm to storm impermeable, and lightsome as the breezy gossamer;’ but in the long run it is safer to call it a hat.

1847.Thackeray,Mrs. Perkins’s Ball(The Mulligan). The Mulligan has withdrawn his custom from the ‘infernalfour-and-ninepennyscoundthrel,’ as he calls him. The hatter has not shut up shop in consequence.

1849.Viator,Oxford Guide. He then did raise hisfour-and-nine, And scratched his shaggy pate.

1867.Jas. Greenwood,Unsent. Journeys, xxx., 229. Because he wore afour-and-nine, and had a pencil stuck behind his ear.

Four-bones,subs.(thieves’).—The knees.

1857.Punch, 31 Jan. ‘Dear Bill, This Stone-jug.’ For them coves in Guildhall and that blessed Lord Mayor, Prigs on their four bones should chop whiners I swear.

Four-eyes,subs.(common).—A person in spectacles: ‘a chap that can’t believe his own eyes.’

Four-holed Middlings,subs. phr.(Winchester College).—Ordinary walking shoes;cf.beeswaxers. Obsolete.

Four Kings.The history(orbook)of the four kings.subs. phr.(old).—A pack of cards; otherwise, achild’s best guide to the gallows, orthe devil’s picture books. Fr.,Livre des quatre rois.

Four-legged burglar-alarm,subs. phr.(common).—A watch dog.

Four-legged Frolic,subs. phr.(venery).—The act of kind: a reminiscence of the proverb, ‘There goes more to a marriage than four bare legs in a bed.’ For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.

Four-poster,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A four-post bedstead.

1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xliv. ‘Vill you allow me to en-quire vy you make up your bed under that ere deal table?’ said Sam. ‘’Cause I was alvays used to afour-posterafore I came here, and I find the legs of the table answer just as well,’ replied the cobbler.

Four Seams and a Bit of Soap,subs. phr.(tailors’).—A pair of trousers.SeeKicks.

Four—(more commonlyThree)—Sheets in the Wind,adv. phr.(nautical).—Drunk;cf.,half seas over. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.

Fourteen Hundred, …phr.(Stock Exchange).—A warning cry that a stranger is in the ‘House.’

1887.Atkin,House Scraps. So, help me Got, Mo, who is he? Instead of replying in a straightforward way, Mo raised his voice as loud as he could, and shouted with might and main, ‘fourteen hundrednew fives!’ A hundred voices repeated the mysterious exclamation.

1890.Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 26 April. The cry of ‘fourteen hundred’ is said to have had its origin in the fact that for a long while the number of members never exceeded 1,399; and it was customary to hail every new comer as the fourteen hundredth. It has, in its primary sense, long since lost significance, for there are now nearly three thousand members of the close corporation which has its home in Capel Court.

Fourteenth Amendment Persuasion,subs. phr.(American).—Negroes. [From the number of the clause amending the Constitution at the abolition of slavery.]

1888.Times Democrat, 5 Feb. To take the law is one of the greatest privileges in the estimation of the colored folk that thefourteenth amendmentconferred, and, whether offender or defendant, they take a pride in summonses beyond describing.[64]

Fourth,subs.(Cambridge University).—Arear(q.v.) or jakes. [Origin uncertain; said to have been first used at St. John’s or Trinity, where the closets were situated in the Fourth Court. Whatever its derivation, the term is now the only one in use at Cambridge, and is frequently heard outside the university.] The verbal phrase isto keep a fourth(seeKeep).

On his fourth,phr.(common).—Hopelessly drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.

Fourth Estate,subs. phr.(literary).—The body of journalists; the ‘Press.’ [Literally the Fourth Estate of the realm, the other three being Queen, Lords, and Commons.]

1855.Notes and Queries. 1 S. xi., p. 452.

1857.J. E. Ritchie,Night Side of London, p. 202. Let me say a word about these exceedingly seedy-looking individuals connected with thefourth estate.

Four-wheeler,subs.(common).—A steak.

2. (colloquial).—A four-wheeled cab; agrowler(q.v.).

1873.Black,Princess of Thule, ch. 10. Having sent an all their luggage by a respectable oldfour-wheeler.

Fousty,adj.(colloquial).—Stinking [probably derived fromfoist, sense 3].

Fouter,verb, andFoutering,subs.(common).—To meddle, importune, waste time and tongue; the act of meddling, importunity, wasting time and tongue.E.g., ‘Don’t comefouteringhere!’ [From the French,foutre: the sense of which is intensified in a vulgarism of still fuller flavour].

Fox,subs.(old).—A sword; specifically, the old English broadsword. [Derivation dubious.Suggestionsare: (1) from a maker’s name; (2) from the fox sometimes engraved on the blade; (3) from the Latinfalx.] For synonyms,seeCheese-toasterandPoker.

1598,Shakspeare,Henry V., 4. O signieur Dew, thou dy’st on point offox.

1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, ii. A fellow that knows nothing but a basket-hilt, and an oldfoxin’t.

c.1640. [Shirley],Captain Underwit, in Bullen’sOld Plays, ii., 321.Un.An oldfoxblade made atHounsloeheath.

1667.Shirley,Love Tricks, Act II., Sc. 1. They say your swords most commonly arefoxes, and have notable metal in them.

1700.Congreve,Way of the World, Act V., Sc. 10. Sir, I have an oldfoxby my thigh shall hack your instrument ofram vellumto shreds, Sir.

1821.Scott,Kenilworth, ch. iv. ‘Come, come, comrade,’ said Lambourne, ‘here is enough done, and more than enough, put up yourfox, and let us be jogging.’

Verb(old).—1. To intoxicate.Foxed= drunk;to catch a fox= to be very drunk; whileto flay the fox(Urquhart) = to vomit, to shed your liquor,i.e., to get rid of the beast.

1611.Barry,Ram Alley, Act IV. They will bib hard; they will be fine sunburnt, Sufficientfox’dor columber’d now and then.

1633.Heywood,Eng. Travellers, IV., v., p. 266 (Mermaid Series).Rioter.Worthy Reginald.Reig.Will, if he now come off well,foxyou all, Go, call for wine.

c.1640. [Shirley],Captain Underwit, in Bullen’sOld Plays, ii. 375. Then to beefox’dit is no crime, Since thickest and dull braines It makes sublime.

1661.T. Middleton,Mayor of Quinborough, V., i. Ah, blind as one that had beenfox’da sevennight.

1673.Shadwell,Epsom Wells, IV., in wks. (1720), ii., 248. But here’s my cup. Come on. Udsooks, I begin to befox’d![65]

1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 194. Come, let’s trudge it to Kirkham Fair: There’s stout liquor enough tofoxme.

1738.Swift,Polite Convers., Dial. 2.Lady Sm.But, Sir John, your ale is terrible strong and heady.…Sir John.Why, indeed, it is apt tofoxone.

1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th ed.).Fox(v.) … also to make a person drunk or fuddled.

1891.Sporting Times, 11 April. And so to bed well nigh seven in the morning, and myself as nearfoxedas of old.

2. (old).—To cheat; to trick; to rob (colloquial at Eton). For synonyms,seeGammon.

1631.Mayne,City Match, iii., 1. Fore Jove, the captainfoxedhim rarely.

1866.Notes and Queries, 3, S. x., 123. Where the tramps … out of their gout arefoxed.

3. (common).—To watch closely. Alsoto fox about.Cf.,fox’s sleep. For synonyms,seeNose.

1880.Greenwood,Odd People in Odd Places, p. 61. ‘You keep it going pretty loud here, with a couple of policemenfoxingabout just outside.’

4. (colloquial).—To sham.

1880.One and All, 6 Nov., p. 296, ‘Let us look at these vagabons; maybe they’re onlyfoxin’.’ The two men who had received such tangible mementos of the whip-handle and the blackthorn lay perfectly still.

5. (American).—To play truant.

6. (booksellers’).—To stain; to discolour with damp; said of books and engravings.Foxed= stained or discoloured.

1881.C. M. I[ngleby]inNotes and Queries(6th S., iv., 96). Tissue paper harbours damp, and in a damp room will assuredly help tofoxthe plates which they face.

1885.Austin Dobson,At the Sign of the Lyre, 83. And the Rabelaisfoxedand flea’d.

7. (theatrical).—To criticise a ‘brother pro’s’ performance.

8. (common).—To mend a boot by ‘capping’ it.

To set a fox to keep one’s geese,phr.(common).—To entrust one’s money, or one’s circumstances, to the care of sharpers. Latin,Ovem lupo commisisti.

To make a fox paw,verb. phr.(common).—To make a mistake or a wrong move; specifically (of women) to be seduced. [A corruption of the Fr.faux pas.]

1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue.

Fox’s Sleep,subs. phr.(common).—A state of feigned yet very vigilant indifference to one’s surroundings. [Foxes were supposed to sleep with one eye open.]

1830.Sir J. Barrington,Personal Sketches, Vol. III., p. 171 (ed. 1832). Mr. Fitzgerald, he supposed, was in afox’s sleep, and his bravo in another, who, instead of receding at all, on the contrary squeezed the attorney closer and closer.

Foxy,adj.(colloquial).—1. Red-haired;cf.,carrotty.

1828.G. Griffin,Collegians, ch. ii. Dunat O’Leary, the hair-cutter, orFoxyDunat, as he was named in allusion to his red head.

2. (colloquial).—Cunning; vulpine in character and look. Once literary. Jonson (1605) calls his arch-foistvolpone, the second title of his play being ‘The Fox;’ and Florio (1598) definesVolponeas ‘an old fox, an old reinard, an old, crafty, sly, subtle companion, sneaking, lurking, wilie deceiver.’[66]

d.1536.Tyndale,Workes, p. 148. Oh,foxyPharisay, that is thy leuen, of which Christ so diligently bad vs beware.

1849.Dickens,David Copperfield, ch. xlix., p. 429.Whatever his state of health may be his appearance isfoxy, not to say diabolical.

3. (American cobblers’).—Repaired with new toe-caps.Seefox, verb, sense 8.

1877.M. Twain,Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 503. It was the scarecrow Dean—infoxyshoes, down at the heels; socks of odd colours, also ‘down.’

4. (booksellers’).—A term applied to prints and books discoloured by damp;seeFox, verb, sense 6.

5. (painters’: obsolete).—Inclined to reddishness.

d.1792.Sir J. Reynolds,Notes on Dufresnoy. That (style) of Titian, which may be called the Golden manner, when unskilfully managed, becomes what the painters callfoxy.

6. (common).—Strong-smelling. Said of a red-haired man or woman.

Foy,subs.(old).—A cheat; a swindle.

1615.Greene,Thieves Falling Out. You be crossbites,foys, and nips.

Foyl-cloy,subs.(old).—A pickpocket; a rogue—B. E. [1690].

Foyst,subs.andverb.SeeFoist.

Foyster.SeeFoister.

Fraggle,verb.(Texas).—To rob.

Fragment,subs.(Winchester College).—A dinner for six (served in College Hall, after the ordinary dinner), ordered by a Fellow in favour of a particular boy, who was at liberty to invite five others to join him. Obs. A fragment was supposed to consist of three dishes.—Winchester Word-book[1891].

Framer,subs.(American thieves’).—A shawl.

1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

Frater,subs.(old).—A beggar working with a false petition.

1567.Harman,Caveat, s.v.Frater, a beggar wyth a false paper.

1622.Fletcher,Beggar’s Bush, ii., 1. And these what name or title e’er they bear, Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon,Frater, orAbramman, I speak to all That stand in fair election for the title Of king of beggars.

1791.Life of Bamfylde Moore-Carew.‘Oath of Canting Crew.’ Rogue or rascal,frater, maunderer, Irish toyle, or other wanderer.

Fraud,subs.(colloquial).—A failure; anything or body disappointing expectation;e.g., an acquaintance, a picture, a book, a play, a picture, a bottle of wine. Actual dishonesty is not necessarily implied.

1882.Punch, LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1. Afraud, Charlie!

Fraze.SeeVessel.

Freak,subs.(American showmen’s). A living curiosity: as the Siamese Twins, the Two-headed Nightingale. [Short for ‘freak of nature.’]

Free,adj.(Oxford University).—Impudent; self-possessed.

1864.Tennyson,Northern Farmer, (Old Style), line 25.—But parson a coomes an’ a goos, an’ a says it eäsy an’freeä.

Verb.(old).—To steal;cf.,annexandconvey. For synonyms,seePrig.[67]

1857.Snowden,Magistrates’ Assistant, 3rd ed., p.444. To steal a muff. Tofreea cat.

1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

1882.McCabe,New York, ch. xxxiv., p. 509. (Given in list of slang terms.)

Free-fucking,subs.(venery).—General lewdness. Also the favour gratis. Also fidelity to the other sex at large.

Free of Fumbler’s Hall,adv. phr.(venery).—Impotent; unable to do ‘the trick.’ [Fumbler’s Hall= femalepudendum.]

1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongues.v., A saying of one who cannot get his wife with child.

Free, gratis,—for nothing,phr.(common).—A pleonastic vulgarism.Cf.,On the dead.

To make free with both ends of the busk,verb. phr.(venery).—To take liberties with a woman.Cf.,Both ends of the busk.

Free of the house,adj. phr.(colloquial).—Intimate; privileged to come and go at will.

Free of the bush,adj. phr.(venery).—On terms of extreme intimacy.SeeBush.

[For the rest, the commonest sense offreeis one of liberality:e.g.,free of his foolishness= full of chaff;free-handed= lavish in giving;free-hearted= generously disposed;free of her favours= liberal of her person:free of his patter= full of talk.]

Free-and-Easy,subs.(common).—A social gathering where you smoke, drink, and sing; generally held at a public house.

1796. (InBee’sDict. of the Turf, published 1823, s.v.). Twenty seven years ago the cards of invitation to that (free-and-easy) at the ‘Pied Horse,’ in Moorfields, had the notable ‘N.B.—Fighting allowed.’

1810.Crabbe,The Borough, Letter 10. Clubs. Next is the club, where to their friends in town, Our country neighbours once a-month come down; We term itfree-and-easy, and yet we Find it no easy matter to be free.

1811.Lexicon Balatronicum.Free-and-easy Johns.A society which meets at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet Street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.

1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry(ed. 1890), p.91. Blew a cloud at afree-and-easy.

1843.Macaulay,Essays: Gladstone on Church and State.Clubs of all ranks, from those which have lined Pall-Mall and St. James’s Street with their palaces, down to thefree-and-easywhich meets in the shabby parlour of the village inn.

1869.Mrs. H. Wood,Roland Yorke, ch. xii. He tilted himself on to a high stool in the middle of the room, his legs dangling, just as though he had been at afree-and-easymeeting.

1880.Jas. Greenwood,Odd People in Odd Places, p. 64. A roaring trade is done, for instance, on a Saturday evening at the ‘Medley’ in Hoxton, a combination of theatre and music-hall, and serves as afree-and-easychiefly for boys and girls.

1891.Cassell’s Saturday Journal, Sept., p. 1068, col. 3. Thefree-and-easyof to-day among us is a species of public-house party, at which much indifferent liquor and tobacco are consumed, songs are sung, and speeches are got rid of.

Freebooker,subs.(journalists’).—A ‘pirate’ bookseller or publisher; a play on the word freebooter.

Free fight,subs.(colloquial).—A general mellay.

1877.W. Mark,Green Past. and Picc., ch. xxx. That vehement German has been insisting on the Irish porters bringing up all our luggage at once; and as there has been a sort offree fightbelow he comes fuming upstairs.[68]

Free-fishery,subs. phr.(venery).—The femalepudendum. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.

Freeholder,subs.(venery).—1. A prostitute’s lover orfancyman.Cf.,Free-fishery, and for synonyms,seeJoseph.

2. (old).—A man whose wife insists on accompanying him to a public house.

1690. B. E.,Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. 1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Free-lance,subs.(common).—An habitual adulteress.

c.1889. (Quoted fromSpectatorin ‘Slang, Jargon, and Cant’). Sooner than be out of the fashion they will tolerate what should be most galling and shaming to them—the thought that by these they are put down among thefree-lances.

Also said of a journalist attached to no particular paper.

Freeman,subs.(venery).—A married woman’s lover.

Freeman of bucks,subs. phr.(old).—A cuckold. [In allusion to the horn.]Grose.

To freeman, orto make a freeman of,verb. phr.(schoolboys’).—To spit on thepenisof a new comer. AlsoTo Freemason.

Freeman’s Quay.To drink, orlush,at freeman’s quay,verb. phr.(old).—To drink at another’s expense. [Freeman’s Quay was a celebrated wharf near London Bridge, and the saying arose from the beer that was given to porters, carmen, and others going there on business.]

1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Freeze,subs.(colloquial).—1. The act or state of freezing; a frost.

2. (old).—Hard cider.—Grose.

Verb.(American).—1.To long for intensely;e.g., ‘tofreezeto go back,’ said of the home-sick; ‘tofreezefor meat.’

1848.Ruxton,Life in the Far West(1887), p. 129. Threats of vengeance on every Redskin they met were loud and deep; and the wild war songs round their nightly camp-fires, and grotesque scalp-dances, borrowed from the Indians, proved to the initiated that they were, one and all,half-frozefor hair.

2. (thieves’).—Hence, to appropriate; to steal; ‘to stick to.’

3. (old).—To adulterate orbalderdash(q.v.) wine withfreeze(q.v.sense 2).—Grose.

To freeze to(oron to),verb.phr.(American).—To take a strong fancy to; to cling to; to, keep fast hold of; and (of persons) to button-hole or shadow.

1883.Graphic, 17 March, p. 287, col. 1. If there was one institution which the Anglo-Indianfrozeto more than another, it was his sit-down supper and—its consequences.

1888.Daily Inter-Ocean, 2 March. The competence of a juror was judged by his ability to shake ready-formed opinions andfreeze on tonew ones.

To Freeze Out,verb. phr.(American).—To compel to withdraw from society by cold and contemptuous treatment; from business by competition or opposition; from the market by depressing prices or rates of exchange.

Freezer,subs.(common).—1. A tailless Eton jacket;cf.,Bum-perisher. For synonyms,seeMonkey-jacket.[69]

2. (colloquial).—A very cold day. By analogy, a chilling look, address, or retort.

French-elixir(cream,lace, orarticle),subs. phr.(common).—Brandy. [The custom of taking of brandy with tea and coffee was originally French.—Whence French Cream.Laced tea= tea dashed with spirits].

1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. ix. ‘Get out the gallon punch-bowl, and plenty of lemons. I’ll stand for theFrench articleby the time I come back, and we’ll drink the young Laird’s health.’

1821.Real Life, i., p. 606. Not forgetting blue ruin andFrench lace.

English Synonyms.—Ball-of-fire; bingo; cold tea; cold nantz; red ribbon.

French Synonyms.—Le parfait amour du chiffonnier(i.e., ragman’s happiness = coarse brandy);le trois-six(popular: =rot-gut);fil-en-quatre,fil-en-trois,fil-en-six(specifically, old brandy, but applied to spirits generally);le dur(= a drop of hard: common);le raide(popular = a drop of stiff):le cheniqueorchnic(popular:);le rude(popular: = a drop of rough,i.e., coarse brandy);l’eau d’affe(thieves’);le pissat d’âne(popular: = donkey’s piss; sometimes applied to bad beer, which is likewise calledpissat de vache);l’avoine(military = hay, as who should say ‘a nose bag’);le blanc(popular = brandy or white wine);le possédé(thieves’:bingo);le raspail(popular:);le cric(popular: alsocrik,crique, orcricque= rough brandy:);le schnaps(popular);le schnick(common: = bad brandy);le camphre(popular: = camphor; applied to the coarsest spirit);le sacré-chienorsacré-chien tout pur(common: = the vilest sold);casse-poitrine(common: = brandy heightened with pepper;cf.,rot-gut);le jaune(rag-pickers’: = a drop of yellow);tord-boyaux(popular = twist-gut);la consolation(popular = a drop of comfort);requiqui(workmen’s);eau de mort(common: = death-water);le Tripoli(rank brandy);casse-gueule(= ‘kill-the-carter’; applied to all kinds of spirits).

French Fake.subs. phr.(nautical).—The fashion of coiling a rope by taking it backwards and forwards in parallel bands, so that it may run easily.

French Gout(orDisease,Fever, etc.),subs. phr.(common).—Sometimesclap(q.v.), but more generally and correctly syphilis,Morbus Gallicus, especially with older writers. For synonyms,seeLadies Fever. AlsoThe Frenchman.French Pox= a very bad variety of syphilis. The French themselves always refer to the ailment as themal de Naples, for whichseeMarston(1598) and his ‘Naples canker,’ andFlorio(1598)mal di Napoli= French pocks.Cf.,Shakspeare,Henry V., v., 1. News have I that my Nell is dead i’ the spital Of malady of France.

1598.Florio,A Worlde of Wordes.Lue, a plague.… It is also used for theFrench poxe.

1611.Cotgrave,Dictionarie.Mal de Naples, theFrench Pocks.

1690. B. E.Dict. of the Canting Crew. (s.v.).[70]

1740.Poor Robin.Some gallants will this month be so penurious that they will not part with a crack’d groat to a poor body, but on their cockatrice or punquetto will bestow half a dozen taffety gowns, who in requittal bestows on him theFrench pox.

1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. He suffered by a blow over the snout with a French faggot-stick;i.e., he lost his nose by thepox.

Frenchified,adj.(old).—Clapped; more generally and accurately poxed.

1690. B. E.,New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.

1785.Grose,Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.Frenchified, infected with the venereal disease; the mort isfrenchified=the wench is infected.

French Leave,To take French leave.verb. phr.(colloquial).—(1) To decamp without notice; (2) to do anything without permission; (3) to purloin or steal; (4) to run away (as from an enemy). [Derivation obscure;French, probably traceable to the contempt engendered during the wars with France; the compliment is returned in similar expressions (seeSynonyms) +leave= departure or permission to depart. Sense 1 is probably the origin of senses 2, 3, and 4.SeeNotes and Queries, 1 S. i, 246; 3 S. vi, 17; 5 S. xii, 87; 6 S. v, 347, 496; viii, 514; ix, 133, 213, 279; 7 S. iii, 5, 109, 518.]

English Synonyms.—To retire up (one’s fundament); to slope; to smouge; to do a sneak; to take the Frenchman; to vamoose.

French Synonyms.—S’escarpiner(popular: = to flash one’s pumps);escarpin= a dancing shoe;jouer de l’escarpin= to ply one’s pumps, (16th century);s’échapper,s’esquiver,filer,disparaître,s’éclipser,se dérober,se retirer, ands’en aller à l’anglaise(= to take English leave);pisser à l’anglaise(= to do an English piss,i.e., affect a visit to the urinal);prendre sa permission sous son coude(popular: literally to take one’s leave under one’s arm);ficherorfoutre le camp.

German Synonyms.—Französischen Abschied nehmen(= to take French leave: fromGutzkow, R.,4, 88, etc., born 1811);französischer Abschied(Iffland, 1759–1814, 5, 3, 117);auf gut französisch sich empfehlen(Blumauer, 2, 72, 1758–1798: alsoGutzkow, R., 4, 88);hinter der Thur urlaub(= to take leave behind [or outside] the door,i.e., after one has got outside it: quoted bySanders, fromFischart, 1550–1589);hinter der Thüre Abschied nehmen(= to say good-bye outside, to take French leave); also,er beurlaubte sich in aller Stille, explained aser stahl sich, schlich sich davon, and translated ‘he took French leave’; also,sich aus einer Gesellschaft stehlen.—Hilpert’sDict., 1845.

Spanish Synonym.—Despedirse á la francesa(= to take French leave).

1771.Smollett,Humphrey Clinker, p. 54. He stole away an Irishman’s bride, and took aFrench leaveof me andhismaster.

1805.Newspaper(quoted inNotes and Queries, 5S. xii., 2 Aug., 79, p. 87, col. 2). On Thursday last Monsieur J. F. Desgranche, one of the French prisoners of war on parole at Chesterfield, tookFrench leaveof that place, in defiance of his parole engagement.

1854.F. E. Smedley,Harry Coverdale, ch. lviii. ‘I thought I would avoid[71]all the difficulties … by takingFrench leave, and setting off in disguise and under a feigned name.’

1885Stevenson,Treasure Island, ch. xxii., p. 178 (1886). My only plan was to takeFrench leave, and slip out when nobody was watching.

1892.Globe, 25 Mar., p. 5, col. 1. They finally resolved to go onFrench leaveto the place.

French-(alsoAmerican,Spanish, andItalian)Letter,subs. phr.(colloquial).—A sheath—of india-rubber, gold beater’s skin, gutta-percha—worn by a man during coition to prevent infection or fruition. Usually described in print asspecialities(q.v.). orcircular protectorsand (inU.S.A.) assafes(q.v.).SeeCundum. Fr.,capote anglaise.

French Pigeon,subs. phr.(sportsman’s).—A pheasant killed by mistake in the partridge season. Alsomokoandoriental(q.v.).

French Pig,subs. phr.(common).—A venereal bubo; ablue boar(q.v.), orWinchester goose(q.v.).

French Prints,subs.(colloquial).—Generic for indecent pictures.

1849–50.Thackeray,Pendennis II., ch. xxxi. Young de Boots of the Blues recognised you as the man who came to barracks, and did business, one-third in money, one-third in eau-de-Cologne, and one third inFrench prints, you confounded, demure, old sinner.

French Vice,verb. phr.(venery).—A euphemism for all sexual malpractices;Larks(q.v.). First used (in print) in the case of Crawfordv.Crawford and Dilke.

Frenchy,subs.(colloquial).—A Frenchman.

Fresh,adj.(University).—1. Said of an undergraduate in his first term.

1803.Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.

1866.Trevelyan,Horace at Athens. When you and I werefresh.

2. (common).—Slightly intoxicated; elevated. For synonymsseeDrinksandScrewed, (Scots’ = sober).

1829.Marryat,Frank Mildmay, ch. xiii. Drinking was not among my vices. I could getfresh, as we call it, when in good company and excited by wit and mirth; but I never went to the length of being drunk.

3. (Old English and modern American).—Inexperienced, but conceited and presumptuous; hence, forward, impudent.

1596.Shakspeare,King John, iii., 4. How green you are andfreshin this old world.

1886.Francis,Saddle and Mocassin. ‘Has Peggy been toofresh?’ Her sunburnt cheeks flushed.

4. (common).—Fasting; opposed to eating or drinking.

Fresh as paint, as a rose, as a daisy, as a new-born turd, etc.,phr.(common).—Full of health, strength, and activity;fit(q.v.).

1864.E. Yates,Broken to Harness, ch. xix. This is his third day’s rest, and the cob will be about asfresh as paintwhen I get across him again.

1880.Punch’s Almanack, p. 12.

Fresh on the graft,adj. phr.(common).—New to the work.Cf.,Fresh bit.

Fresh Bit,subs. phr.(venery).—A beginner; also a new mistress.Cf.,Bit of fresh= the sexual favour:meat, ormutton, orfish(q.v.), being understood.[72]

Freshen One’s Way,verb. phr.(nautical).—To hurry; to quicken one’s movements. [The windfreshenswhen it rises.]

Freshen Up,verb. phr.(colloquial). To clean; to vamp; to revive; to smarten.

Fresher,subs.(University).—An undergraduate in his first term.

Freshers.The Freshers,subs.(University).—That part of the Cam which lies between the Mill and Byron’s Pool. So called because it is frequented byfreshmen(q.v.).

Freshman(orFresher),subs.(University).—A University man during his first year. In Dublin University he is ajunior freshmanduring his first year, and asenior freshmanthe Second year. At Oxford the title lasts for the first term. Ger.,Fuchs.

1596.Nashe,Saffron Walden, in wks. iii., 8. When he was but yet afreshmanin Cambridge.

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