Slang and its analogues past and present, volume III (of 7)

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 602. To flat, in the West, means to jilt, and is probably derived from another slang phrase, ‘to feel flat,’ denoting the depression which is apt to follow such a disappointment.

To feel flat, verb. phr. (American).—1. To be low-spirited; out of sorts; off colour (q.v.).

1838. J. C. Neal, Charcoal Sketches. Not to hurt a gentleman’s feelings and to make him feel flat afore the country.

Flat as a flounder (or Pancake), phr. (colloquial).—Very flat indeed. Also flat as be blowed.

To pick up a flat, verb. phr. (prostitutes’). To find a client. Fr., lever or faire un miché (miche = bread, from michon = money. Compare Breadwinner: under Monosyllable (q.v.)).

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. On the chance that she will, in the course of the evening, pick up a flat.

To have (or do) a bit of flat, verb. phr. (venery).—To indulge in sexual intercourse. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Flat-back, subs. (common).—A bed-bug. For synonyms, see Norfolk Howard.

Flat-broke, adj. (colloquial).—Utterly ruined; dead-broke (q.v.).

Flat-catcher, subs. (common).—An impostor.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, i., 6. Cope (speaking of a horse). Well, Master Gull’em, do you think we shall get the flat-catcher off to-day?

1841. Blackwood’s Mag., l., 202. Buttoners are those accomplices of thimble-riggers … whose duty it is to act as flat-catchers or decoys, by personating flats.

1856. Mayhew, Great World of London, p. 46. And flat-catchers, or ‘ring-droppers,’ who cheat by pretending to find valuables in the street.

1864. London Review, June 18, p. 643. ‘The Bobby’ or chinked-back horse, is another favourite flat-catcher.

1869. Whyte-Melville, M. or N., p. 110. Rather a flat-catcher, Tom? said that nobleman, between the whiffs of a cigar.

Flat-catching, subs. (common).—Swindling.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, p. 118, The no-pinned hero, on being elevated, gave, as a toast, ‘Success to flat-catching,’ which produced roars of laughter and shouts of approbation.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. To mark the many kinds of bait that are used in flat-catching, as the turf slang has it.

Flatch, adj. (back-slang).—A half. flatch-kennurd = half drunk; flatch-yenork = half-a-crown; flatch-yennep = a half-penny (see subs., sense 1).

Subs. 1.—A half-penny. [An abbreviation of flatch-yennep.] For synonyms, see Mag.

c. 1866. Vance, The Chickaleary Cove. I doesn’t care a flatch as long as I’ve a tach.

Flat-cap, subs. (old).—A nickname for a citizen of London. [In Henry the Eight’s time flat round caps were the pink of fashion; but when their date was out, they became ridiculous. The citizens continued to wear them long after they were generally disused, and were often satirized for their fidelity].

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in H., ch. ii., v. 1. Mock me all over From my flat-cap unto my shining shoes.

1602. Dekker, Honest Whore. Old Plays, iii., 304. Come, Sirrah, you flat-cap, where be those whites?

1605. Marston, Dutch Court, ii., 1. Wealthy flat-caps that pay for their pleasure the best of any men in Europe.

1613. Beaumont and Fletcher, Hon. Man’s Fort., v. 3. Trade? to the city, child: a flat-cap will become thee.

Flat-cock, subs. (old).—A female. [Grose, 1785.] For synonyms, see Petticoat.

Flat-feet, subs. (common).—Specifically the Foot Guards, but also applied to other regiments of the line. Also (generally with some powerful adjective), applied to militia men to differentiate them from linesmen. For synonyms, see Mud-crusher.

Flat-fish, (generally, a regular flat-fish) subs. (common).—A dullard. [A play upon flat = stupid, and Fish = something to hook or catch.] For synonyms, see Buffle, Cabbage-Head, and Sammy-Soft. Cf., Fr., platpied = a contemptible fellow.

Flat-footed, adj. (American).—Downright; resolute; honest. [Western: the simile, common to most languages, is of a man standing, his back to the wall, resolute to accomplish his purpose.]

1858. Harper’s Magazine, Sept. His herculean frame, and bold, flat-footed way of saying things, had impressed his neighbours, and he held the rod in terrorism over them.

1871. Philadelphia Bulletin, Mar. 23. ‘The row at St. Clement’s Church.’ Now the Committee of the vestry put their foot flatly down on auricular confession and priestly absolution.

1887. R. A. Proctor, Knowledge, June 1. When, in America, General Grant said he had put his foot down and meant to advance in that line if it took him all the summer, he conveyed … the American meaning of the expression flat-footed.

Flat-head, subs. (American).—A greenhorn; a sammy-soft (q.v.).

Flat-iron, subs. (common).—A corner public house. [From the triangular shape.]

Flattie or Flatty, subs. (common).—A gull. [A diminutive of flat, sense 1.] Formerly ‘cheap-jacks’ = one in a new ‘pitch.’

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. They betray to the flatties (natives) all their profits and proceedings.

Flat-move, subs. (old).—An attempt or project that miscarries; folly and mismanagement generally.—Grose.

Flats, subs. (old). 1. Playing cards. For synonyms, see King’s Books.

Mahogany flats, subs. phr. (common).—Bed-bugs. For synonyms, see Norfolk Howards.

Flats and Sharps, subs. phr. (old).—Weapons.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘I have known many a pretty lad cut short in his first summer upon the road, because he was something hasty with his flats and sharps.’

Flatten Out, verb. phr. (American).—To get the better of (in argument or fight). For synonyms, see Floor. Flattened-out = ruined; beaten.

Flatter-trap, subs. (common).—The mouth. Fr., la menteuse, but for synonyms, see Potato-trap.

Flatty-ken, subs. (thieves’).—See quot.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 261. Some take up their abode in what they call flatty-kens, that is, houses the landlord of which is not ‘awake’ or ‘fly’ to the ‘moves’ and dodges of the trade.

Flawed, ppl. adj. (common).—1. Half drunk; ‘a little crooked’; quick-tempered.—Grose. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Flay (or flay the fox), verb. phr. (old).—To vomit: ‘from the subject to the effect,’ says Cotgrave; ‘for the flaying of so stinking a beast is like enough to make them spue that feel it.’ Now, to shoot the cat. For synonyms, see Accounts and Cast up Accounts. Cf., Fox, verb, sense 1.

To flay or skin a flint, verb. phr. (old).—To be mean or miserly. See Skinflint.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. He’ll flay or skinn a flint of a Meer Scrat or Miser.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, vol. II., p. 194 (ed. 1846). Report says she would skin a flint if she could.

Flaybottom or Flaybottomist, subs. (common).—A schoolmaster, with a play on the word phlebotomist = a blood-letter.—Grose. Fr., fouette-cul; and (Cotgrave) “Fesse-cul, a pedantical whip-arse.”

Flavour, to catch (or get) the flavour. verb. phr. (common).—1. To be intoxicated. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

2. (venery). To be ‘half-on’ for coition; to wax proud (q.v.): said of men and women both.

Flax, verb. (American).—To beat severely; to give it hot (q.v.). For synonyms, see Tan.

Flax-wench, subs. (old).—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, i., 2. My wife’s a hobby-horse; deserves a name As rank as any flax-wench. [18]

Flea. To send away with a flea in the ear. verb. phr. (common).—To dismiss with vigour and acerbity.

1854. Notes and Queries, 8 Apl., p. 322, col. 2. The luckless applicant is peremptorily dismissed with an imperative ‘flee!’ … or, facetiously, with a flee in his ear.

To have a flea in the ear = (1) to fail in an enterprise; and (2) to receive a scolding, or annoying suggestion.

To sit on a bag of fleas, verb. phr. (common).—To sit uncomfortably; on a bag of hen fleas = very uncomfortably indeed.

To catch fleas for, verb. phr. (venery).—To be on terms of extreme intimacy: e.g., ‘I catch her fleas for her’ = She has nothing to refuse me. Cf., Shakspeare (Tempest, III., 2.), ‘Yet a tailor might scratch her wheree’er she did itch.’

In a flea’s leap, adv. phr. (old).—In next to no time; instanter (q.v.).

Flea-and-louse, subs. (rhyming slang). A house. For synonyms, see Ken.

Flea-bag, subs. (common).—A bed; Fr. un pucier. For synonyms, see Kip.

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xl. ‘Troth, and I think the gentleman would be better if he went off to his flea-bag himself.’

Flea-bite, subs. (old).—A trifle.

1630. Taylor, Works. If they doe lose by pirates, tempests, rocks, ’Tis but a fleabite to their wealthy stockes; Whilst the poore cutpurse day and night doth toile, Watches and wardes, and doth himselfe turmoile.

Flea-biting, subs. (old).—A trifle.

1621. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy. Their miseries are but flea-bitings to thine.

Flea- (or Flay-) Flint, subs. (old.)—A miser: Cf., Skin flint (q.v.).

Flear, verb. (old).—To grin. A flearing fool = a grinning idiot.

Fleece, subs. (old).—An act of theft. Cf., old proverb, ‘to go out to shear and come home shorn.’ For synonyms, see Skin.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Fleece, to Rob, Plunder, or strip.

2. (venery).—The female pubic hair. Fr. toison (Baudelaire); It., barbiglioni (Florio). For foreign synonyms, see Mott.

English Synonyms.—Banner (Durfey); bandoliers (old); beard; bearskin; belly-bristles; belly-thicket; belly-whiskers; Boskage of Venus; broom; brush; bush; cat-skin; clover-field; cunny-skin (Durfey); Cupid’s Arbour; cunt-curtain; damber-, dilberry-, gooseberry-, furze-, quim-, or whin-bush; down; Downshire; front-doormat; feather (Prior and Moore); fluff; forest (Donne); fud (Burns); fur; fur-below (old catch); ‘grove of eglantine’ (Carew); hedge on [19]the dyke; lower-wig (Burton); moss; mott-carpet; mustard-and-cress; nether eye-brow (or -lashes); nether-whiskers; parsley (Durfey); plush; quim-whiskers; quim-wig; scut (Shakspeare); shaving-brush (cf., Lather); scrubbing-brush; shrubbery; sporran; stubble (see Pointer); sweet-briar; thatch; tail-feathers; ‘toupee’; ‘tufted honours’; twat-rug.

1593. Nashe, Christ’s Teares, in wks. (Grosart) IV. 140. Tell me (almost) what gentleman hath been cast away at sea, or disasterly souldiourizd it by lande, but they (usurers) have enforst him thereunto by their fleecing.

1620. Dekker, His Dreame, in wks. (Grosart) III. 52. Catchpolles, and varlets, who did poore men fleece (To their undoing) for a twelve-peny peece.

1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. ii. When a poor man has almost undone himself for thy sake, thou art for fleecing him.

1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. He is now squeezed and fleeced by them on every pretence.

1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 106. He was stabbed by the Ragamuffin he had fleeced.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxxi. Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion and fleeces them.

1859. Times, 25 Oct. ‘Review of Dean Ramsay’s Reminiscences.’ I don’t know whether they are black or white sheep, but I know that if they are long there they are pretty certain to be fleeced.

1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 16 Jan. How you would be fleeced! You’ve got a lot to learn yet.

Fleecer, subs. (old).—A thief.

Fleece-Hunter, or -Monger, subs. phr. (venery).—A whore-master. For synonyms, see Molrower.

Fleeter-Face, subs. (old).—A pale-face; a coward. Cf., Shakspeare’s ‘cream-faced loon.’

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Queen of Corinth. You know where you are, you fleeter-face.

Fleet-Note, subs. (old).—A forged note.

Fleet of the Desert, subs. phr. (common).—A caravan; cf., ship of the desert = camel.

Fleet-Street, subs. phr. (colloquial).—The estate of journalism, especially journalism of the baser sort.

Fleet-Streeter, subs. (colloquial).—A journalist of the baser sort; a spunging prophet (q.v.); a sharking dramatic critic; a spicy (q.v.) paragraphist; and so on.

Fleet-Streetese, subs. phr. (colloquial).—The so-called English, written to sell by the Fleet-Streeter (q.v.), or baser sort of journalist: a mixture of sesquipedalians and slang, of phrases worn threadbare and phrases sprung from the kennel; of bad grammar and worse manners; the like of which is impossible outside Fleet-Street (q.v.), but which in Fleet-Street commands a price, and enables not a few to live. [20]

Fleg, verb. (old).—To whip. Bailey.

Flemish Account, subs. phr. (old).—A remittance less than was expected; hence, an unsatisfactory account. [Among the Flemings (the merchants of Western Europe when commerce was young) accounts were kept in livres, sols, and pence; but the livre or pound only = 12s., so that what the Antwerp merchant called one livre thirteen and fourpence would in English currency be only 20s.]

1668. T. Brown, The Accurate Accomptant, etc. Quoted in N. and Q. 1. S. I., 286. London, August 10th, 1668. To Roger Pace, Factor, etc., for 10 pieces cont. 746 Ells Fl. at 10s. Flem. per Ell is £373 Flem. Exchange at 35s. makes Sterling Money £213 2s. 10d.

1774–1826. Typ. Antiq., p. 1773. A person resident in London is said to have had most of Caxton’s publications. He sent them to Amsterdam for inspection, and on writing for them was informed that they had been destroyed by accident. ‘I am very much afraid,’ says Herbert, ‘my kind friend received but a Flemish account of his Caxton’s.’

Flesh, subs. (old).—Generic for the organs of generation, male or female. Also (of women) Fleshly-part.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, iv., 3. She would not exchange flesh with one that loved her.

1605. Cymbeline, i., 5. If you buy ladies’ flesh at a million a dram you cannot preserve it from tainting.

1620. Percy, Folio MSS. [Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘As I was ridinge by the way.’ Sweet hart, shall I put my flesh in thine?

Flesh, verb., or, Flesh It; or, to be fleshed in (venery).—To have carnal knowledge of—to be ‘one flesh with’—a woman. [For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.] An equivalent in the passive sense is to feel his flesh in one’s body (said by women only).

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, Andar in Carnafau. To go a fleshing or a wenching: (Carnafau = the brat-getting place; the hole of content).

Flesh and Blood, subs. phr. (common).—Brandy and port in equal proportions. See Drinks.

Flesh-bag, subs. (common).—A shirt or chemise.

English Synonyms.—Biled rag (American); camesa; carrion-case; commission; dickey (formerly a worn-out shirt); gad (gipsy); lully; mill tog; mish; narp (Scots’); shaker; shimmy (= a chemise, Marryat); smish.

French Synonyms.—Une liquette or limace (thieves’: from the Gypsy. The form also occurs also in the Italian lima); un panais (popular).

German Synonyms.—Kamis, Kamsel, Kemsel, or Gemsel (from med. Lat., Camisiale; Fr. camisole); Kesones, Kusones, or Ksones (also = cotton and underclothing); Staude or Stauden; Hanfstandt (Liber Vagatorum: literally hempshrub).

1820. London Magazine; i., 29. They are often without a flesh-bag to their backs.

Flesh-broker, subs. (old).—1. A match-maker.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flesh-broker, a match-maker; also a bawd; between whom but little difference, for they both (usually) take money.

2. A procuress [Grose]. Cf., Flesh-fly, Flesh-monger, [21]and Flesh-market. For synonyms, see Mother.

Flesh-fly (also, Flesh-maggot), subs. (old).—A whoremaster. For synonyms, see Molrower.

1781. Cowper, Progress of Error, 323–324. Oh! that a verse had power, and could command far, Far away, these flesh-flies of the land.

Flesh-market, or Flesh-shambles, subs. (common).—A brothel or flash-house (q.v.); also the pavement, in Piccadilly or Regent-street, for instance, where whores do congregate. Cf., Meatmarket.

1608. John Day, Humour out of Breath, II. I Asp. … She may bee well discended; if shee be, Shee’s fit for love, and why not then for me. Boy. And you be not fitted in Venice ’tis straunge, for ’tis counted the best flesh-shambles in Italie.

Flesh-monger, subs. (old).—A procurer; a whore-master. [From Eng. Flesh + monger]. For synonyms, see Mother and Molrower. Cf., Flesh-fly, Flesh-market, and Flesh-broker.

1603. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, V., 1. And was the duke a flesh-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?

Fleshmongering. To go flesh-mongering, verb. phr. (venery).—To quest for women; to go on the prowl (q.v.)., or after meat. See Greens and Ride.

Flesh-pot. Sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt. phr. (common).—Hankering for good things no longer at command. [Biblical].

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 131. Do you think it is a hankering after the flesh-pots, and that the canon’s cook reconciles me to the canon’s opinions?

Flesh-tailor, subs. (old).—A surgeon. For synonyms, see Sawbones.

1633. Ford, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, iii. Oh, help! help! help! Oh, for a flesh-tailor quickly.

Fleshy, subs. (Winchester College).—See Cat’s Head.

Fletch, subs. (prison). A spurious coin. Cf., Flatch.

Flick, or Flig, subs. (colloquial).—1. A cut with a whip-lash; hence, a blow of any sort. A flicking is often administered by schoolboys with a damp towel or pocket-handkerchief. For synonyms, see tanning.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘I do know you are a woman,’ cries the squire, ‘and it’s well for thee, that art one; if had’st been a man, I promise thee I had lent thee a flick long ago.’

2. (common).—A jocular salutation; usually old flick. Cf., Codger and My Tulip.

1883. Punch, 28 July, p. 38, col. 1. Well, last night, They’d a feet in these gardens, old flick, as was something too awfully quite.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Flick me some pannam and cassan, cut me some bread and cheese; flick the peter, cut off the cloak bag or portmanteau. [22]

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. Flick the Peter and rake the swag for I want to pad my beaters.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xliii. Near him, leaning listlessly against the wall, stood a strong-built countryman, flicking with a worn-out hunting whip the top-boot that adorned his right foot.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxvii. Who … receives this compliment by flicking Mr. George in the face with a head of greens.

1854. Our Cruise in the Undine, p. 103. It appeared to us that one of the most frequent, and therefore we supposed the principal stroke aimed at (in a Heidelberg duel), was to strike your sword low down, perhaps four inches from the handle, upon your adversary’s bandaged arm, so that the end of the weapon (the only part that is sharpened) should Flick itself against your opponent’s face.

1863. Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lost and Saved, p. 29. Drivers shouting, swearing, and flicking at the horses.

Flicker, subs. (Old Cant).—A drinking glass.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flicker, c., a drinking-glass; Flicker snapt, c., the glass is broken; Nim the flicker, c., steal the glass; Rum flicker, c., a large glass or rummer; Queer flicker, c., a green or ordinary glass.

French Synonyms.—Une lampe (masons’); un guindal (popular); un godet (very old); une gobette (thieves’); un gobeson (thieves’).

2. (old).—To laugh wantonly; also to kiss, or lewdly fondle a woman.—Palsgrave. For synonyms, see Firkytoodle.

Let her flicker, phr. (American).—Said of any doubtful issue: ‘let the matter take its chance.’

Flicket-a-Flacket, adv. (old).—Onomatopoetic for a noise of flapping and flicking.

Flier or Flyer, subs. (racing and yachting).—1. A horse or boat of great speed; also (American railway) a fast train; hence, by implication, anything of excellence. Cf., Dasher, Daisy, etc. Also adj., = keen for.

1865. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xxii. The mare’s in splendid condition; well, you saw her take her trial gallop the other morning, and you must know she’s a flier, so I won’t talk about her.

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 156. Atalanta might be a flyer, but an artist like Pycroft, with a clever colt like Newsmonger under him, was quite likely to outride whatever boy Mr. Pipes might now be able to pick up.

1888. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 2 Mar. In spite of the strike passenger trains, what are known as the flyers, are running with reasonable regularity.

1890. Bird o’ Freedom, 19 Mar., p. 1, col. 1. Clearly the G.O.M. is no flier over this course.

1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 Mar. Although he may doubtless be made a good deal better he may turn out to be no flier.

1891. Bury and Hillier, Cycling, p. 6. A moderate rider, not being an athlete or a flier … can … get over in an hour seven or eight miles of ground on a tricycle. [23]

1891. Anti-Jacobin, 23 May, p. 400. When Dangerous, Plenipotentiary, Bay Middleton, and other flyers ran.

1891. Morning Advertiser, 28 Mar. In any event, he was never a flyer at breakfast. But late at night, and when, perhaps, he tumbled across something equivalent to woodcock, tripe and onions, or a hot lobster, say, why then, take my word for it, he made up for previous abstinence.

1891. National Observer, 1 Aug. It remains to be seen whether large yachts constructed on the same principle will be equally invincible: that is, if the flyers we have are one and all to disappear.

To take a flier (American trade).—1. To make a venture; to invest against odds.

Flies, subs. (rhyming).—Lies. Hence, nonsense; trickery; deceit.

There are no flies on me, on him, etc., phr. (common).—‘I am dealing honestly with you;’ ‘he is genuine, and is not humbugging.’ In America, the expression is used of (1) a man of quick parts, a man who ‘knows a thing without its being kicked into him by a mule’; and (2) a person of superior breeding or descent. Sometimes the phrase is corrupted into ‘no fleas.’ See Gammon.

1868. Diprose, St. Clement Danes, Past and Present. To Deaf Burke, the celebrated pugilist, is attributed the old story of the ‘flies and the gin and water;’ and hence the term ‘no flies’ became prevalent. Burke had ordered … some ‘hot and strong and a dash of lemon.’ The goblet was brought … Burke raised … the nectar to his lips, and beheld some dissipated flies lying at the bottom of the tumbler; he placed the glass on the table, and deliberately removed the flies with the spoon, five or six in number, and laid them side by side before him, and then giving a hearty pull at the gin and water, he as deliberately replaced the flies … and passed it to his friend. His companion stared angrily. ‘Do you dare to insult me, and in the presence of company?’ said the irate vis-à-vis. ‘Pardon me,’ replied Burke, quietly handing the glass a second time, ‘though I don’t drink flies myself, I didn’t know but what others might.’

1888. Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug. There ain’t no flies on him, signifies, that he is not quiet long enough for moss to grow on his heels, that he is wide awake.

1888. Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. People who are capable of descending to New York and Boston English are fully justified in saying that there are no flies on St. Louis or the St. Louis delegation either.

Fligger (also Flicker), verb. (old).—To grin.

1720. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 267. He fliggered, and told me for all my brave alls He would have a stroke.

Flim.—See Flimsy.

Flim-flam, subs. (old).—An idle story; a sham; a Robin Hood tale (q.v.). A duplication of Flam (q.v.).

1589. Pappe with an Hatchet (ed. 1844) p. 39. Trusse up thy packet of flim-flams, and roage to some countrey faire, or read it among boyes in the belfrie.

1630. Taylor, Workes. They with a courtly tricke, or a flim-flam, do nod at me, whilst I the noddy am.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. xii. I thought thou had’st been a lad of higher mettle than to give way to a parcel of maidenish tricks. I tell thee ’tis all flim-flam.

1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, iii., 1. Mr. Curate, don’t think to come over me with your flim-flams, for a better man than ever trod in your shoes is coming over-sea to marry me. [24]

1805. Isaac Disraeli, Flim-flams; or the Life and Errors of my Uncle, and the Amours of my Aunt [title].

1825. C. Lamb, Munden (in London Magazine) Feb. I wonder you can put such flim-flams upon us, sir.

1589. Nashe, Month’s Minde, in wks. Vol. I., p. 174. But to leaue thy flim-flam tales and loytering lies.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Filastroccola, flim-flam tales, old wiues tales as they tell when they spinne, a tale without rime or reason, or head or foote.

1633. T. Newton, Lennie’s Touch-stone of Complexions, p. 120. Reporting a flim-flam tale of Robin Hood.

1750. Ozell’s Rabelais, vol. V., p. 247. Glibly swallow down every flim-flam story that’s told them.

1853. Lytton, My Novel, bk. X., ch. xix. I wish you’d mind the child—it is crumpling up and playing almighty smash with that flim-flam book, which cost me one pound one.

Flimp, verb. (thieves’)—1. To hustle or rob. To put on the flimp = to rob on the highway. For synonyms, see Crack and Prig.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 111. To take a man’s watch is to flimp him, it can only be done in a crowd, one gets behind and pushes him in the back, while the other in front is robbing him.

Flimping, subs. (thieves’).—Stealing from the person.

1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, p. 38. He told me as Bill had flimped a yack.

1862. Cornhill Mag., vol. vi., p. 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, etc.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. lx. Flimping is a style of theft which I have never practised, and, consequently of which I know nothing.

Flimsy, or Flim, subs. (common).—1. A bank-note. [From the thinness of the paper.] Soft-flimsy = a note drawn on ‘The Bank of Elegance,’ or ‘The Bank of Engraving.’ For synonyms, see Soft.

1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, iv., 443. Martin produced some flimsies and said he would fight on Tuesday next.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (‘Merchant of Venice’). Not ‘kites,’ manufactured to cheat and inveigle, But the right sort of ‘flimsy,’ all sign’d, by Monteagle.

1855. Punch, XXIX., 10. ‘Will you take it in flimsies, or will you have it all in tin?’

1870. Chambers’ Journal, 9 July, p. 448. ‘What would it be worth?’ ‘A flim, Sam.’

1884. Daily Telegraph, 8 Apl., col. 3. One of the slang terms for a spurious bank-note is a soft-flimsy.

1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 149. Next morning when I went to the bank to collect the swag, they stopped the flimsy, and had me arrested before I could look round.

2. (journalists’).—News of all kinds; points (q.v.). [From the thin prepared paper used by pressmen for making several copies at once]. First used at Lloyd’s.

1861. Cornhill Magazine, iv., 199 ‘At Westminster,’ my lord is neither a mumbling nor a short-tempered judge; he will … read them a great deal of his notes, which are a thousand-fold clearer, fuller, and more accurate than the reporter’s flimsy.

1865. Morning Star (‘The Flaneur’). A London correspondent, who, by the aid of flimsy misleads a vast number of provincial papers.

1870. London Figaro, 23 Sept. ‘Special Lining.’ We do not think it is [25]altogether worthy of the high repute of the Pall Mall Gazette to publish flimsy as a special correspondence.

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The sharpest of the reporters had his flimsy up in a minute, and took notes of the proceedings.

Flinders, subs. (common).—Pieces infinitesimally small.

1870. New York Evening Sun, 24 May. Report of Speech of Mr. Chandler. Let us knock the British crown to flinders; let us arrange for some one or two hundred thousand British graves forthwith, and cabbage the whole boundless continent without any further procrastination.

Fling, subs. (colloquial).—1. A fit of temper.

1592. Shakspeare, I Henry VI., iii., 1. Then would I have a fling at Winchester.

1888. Star, 10 Oct. Those writers who had a fling at Iddesleigh after his poor running at Stockton will have to take their words back some day.

1890. Pall Mall Gazette, 24 July, p. 4. col. 2. As the disputants warmed up, little personal flings were of course introduced.

Verb (old).—1. To cheat; to get the best of; to do (q.v.) or diddle.—Grose.

1790. Burns, Tam O’ Shanter. To tell how Maggie lapt and flang (A souple jaud she was, and strang).

3. (venery).—To move in the act; to back-up (q.v.). Fr., ‘frizer la queue = to wriggle the tayle (in leachering).’—Cotgrave.

1539. David Lyndsay, Three Estaitis, Works (Ed. Laing, Edinburgh, 1879). I traist sche sal find you flinging your fill.

To Fling Out, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To depart in a hurry, and, especially, in a temper.

To fling (or flap) it in one’s face, verb. phr. (prostitutes’).—To expose the person.

To have one’s fling, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To enjoy full liberty of action or conduct. Cf., High Old Time.

1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xiii. Hang it; the regiment’s just back from the West Indies, I must have a little fling, and then when I’m married I’ll reform.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, II., 118. I don’t want to marry until I have had my fling, you know.

1880. Gilbert, Pirates of Penzance. Peers will be peers, And youth will have his fling.

1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 253. If policy (police) show up, then you let me have my fling, eh?

Flinger, subs. (Scots).—A dancer.

1821. Scott, Pirate, ch. ix. That’s as muckle as to say, that I suld hae minded you was a flinger and a fiddler yoursel’, Maister Mordaunt.

Fling-Dust, subs. (old).—A street-walker. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

Flint, subs. (workmen’s). A man working for a ‘Union’ or ‘fair’ house; non-Unionists are dung (q.v.). Both terms occur in Foote’s burlesque, The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather, and they received a fresh lease of popularity during the tailors’ [26]strike of 1832. See quots. Cf., Scab Soc, Snob, Snob-stick, and Knobstick.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, flints, journeyman taylors who, on a late occasion, refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted were by the mutineers stiled dungs, i.e., dunghills.

1832. P. Egan, Book of Sports, p. 34. Jack Reeve is without a rival; the throne of the flints is decidedly freehold property to him.

1834. Noctes Amb., xxxiv., vol. IV., p. 83. (The company is discussing the tailors’ strike). Tickler. The flints flash fire, and the day of the dungs is gone.

Old flint, subs. phr. (common). A miser: one who would ‘skin a flint,’ i.e., stoop to any meanness for a trifle.

1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 34. It’s equally plain that the money which the old flint—rot him—first taught me to expect that I should share with her at his death, will all be hers.

To flint in, verb. phr. (American). To act with energy; not to stand on ceremony; to pitch into; to tackle. A verb of action well-nigh as common as fix (q.v.).

Flip, subs. (common).—1. Hot beer, brandy, and sugar; also, says Grose, called Sir Cloudesley after Sir Cloudesley Shovel. See Drinks.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. flip, Sea Drink, of small beer (chiefly) and brandy, sweetened and spiced upon occasion.

1690. Ward, London Spy, part II., p. 41. After the drinking a Kan of Phlip or a Bowl of Punch.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. 4, p. 8. So have I seen on board of ship, Some knawing beeff, some spewing flip.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxiv. He … sent for a can of beer, of which he made excellent flip to crown the banquet.

1810. Crabbe, The Borough, Letter 16. Nay, with the seamen working in the ship, At their request, he’d share the grog and flip.

1875. C. D. Warner, Backlog Studies, p. 18. It was thought best to heat the poker red-hot before plunging it into the mugs of flip.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood (ed. 1864), p. 273. Flip him, Dick; fire, or I’m taken.

1879. New York Tribune, 4 Oct. The two great men could flip up to see which should have the second place.

Flip-Flap, subs. 1 (old).—A flighty creature.

1702. Vanbrugh, False Friend. 1. The light airy flip-flap, she kills him with her motions.

2. (popular). A step-dance; a cellar-flap (q.v.). Also (acrobats’); a kind of somersault, in which the performer throws himself over on his hands and feet alternately.

1727. Gay, Fables, ‘Two Monkies.’ The tumbler whirls the flip-flap round. With sommersets he shakes the ground.

1872. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xiv. There ain’t nothing you can’t do, Morty, from Shylock to a flip-flap. [27]

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. There were the clowns who danced, turned somersaults, flip-flaps, and contorted themselves.

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The first evening I took tea with Mrs. Scrimmager. ‘It must be more than a mite lonely for you,’ she said, as we sat over her dough-nuts and flip-flaps.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I., 20. I might have cleft her water-gap And joined it close with my flip-flap.

Flipper, subs. (nautical and common). 1. The hand. Tip us your flipper = give me your hand. [From the flipper or paddle of a turtle.] For synonyms, see Daddle and Mauley.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Lay of St. Gengulphus.’ With those great sugar-nippers they nipp’d off his flippers, As the clerk, very flippantly, termed his fists.

1884. Punch, 11 Oct. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Old Bluebottle tipped me his flipper, and ’oped I’d ‘refreshed,’ and all that.

3. (theatrical). Part of a scene, hinged and painted on both sides, used in trick changes.

Flirtatious, adj. (American).—Flighty.

1881, W. D. Howells, D. Breen’s Practice, ch. i., “Oh, you needn’t look after her, Mr. Libby! There’s nothing flirtatious about Grace,” said Mrs. Maynard.

Flirt-gill, Flirtgillian, or Gill-flirt, subs. (old). A wanton; a chopping girl (q.v.); specifically a strumpet. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt-gills.

1713. Guardian, No. 26. We are invested with a parcel of flirt-gills, who are not capable of being mothers of brave men.

1729. Gay, Polly, ii. 4. While a man is grappling with these gill-flirts, pardon the expression, Captain, he runs his reason aground.

1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, ch. v. She is a dutiful girl to her god-father, though I sometimes call her a jill-flirt.

Flirtina Cop-all, subs. phr. (common). A wanton, young or old; a men’s woman (q.v.).

Float, subs. (theatrical).—The footlights: before the invention of gas they were oil-pans with floating wicks. Cf., Ark-floater.

1886. Saturday Review, 24 July, p. 108. To an actor the float is not what it is to a fisherman.

1889. Answers, 8 June, p. 24. He slapped me on the back, put me in a hansom, and cried, ‘We’ll have you behind the float (footlights) in a week.’

Floater, subs. (Stock Exchange).—An Exchequer bill; applied also to other unfunded stock.

1871. Temple Bar, XXXI., 320. On the Stock Exchange, where slang abounds, floaters is a term which would puzzle outsiders. Floaters are Exchequer bills and their unfunded stock.

1883. Graphic, 17 Mar., p. 279, col. 3. ‘How many voters are there?’ asked a candidate in one of these pure-blooded [28]Yankee townships. ‘Four hundred.’ ‘And how many floaters, i.e., purchasable?’ ‘Four hundred.’

1888. New York Herald, 4 Nov. The Building Materials Exchange people were in line to the number of about 200, with a band, and were followed by a sixteen-horse stage of the ‘Long Tom’ shape containing a lot of floaters and some fifers and drummers.

4. (Western American).—A candidate representing several counties, and therefore not considered directly responsible to any one of them.

1853. Texas State Gazette, 16 July. J. W. Lawrence, Esq., requests us to withdraw his name as a candidate for floater in the district composed of the counties of Fayette, Bastrop, and Travis.

Floating Academy, subs. phr. (old).—The hulks; also Campbell’s academy (q.v.), and floating hell (q.v.). For synonyms, see Cage.

Floating Batteries, subs. phr. (military).—1. Broken bread in tea; also slingers (q.v.).

Floating Coffin, subs. phr. (nautical).—A rotten ship.

Floating Hell, or Hell Afloat, subs. phr. (nautical).—A ship commanded by (1) a brutal savage, or (2) a ruthless disciplinarian. See also Floating Academy.

Flock, subs. (colloquial).—A clergyman’s congregation. Also any body of people with a common haunt or interest: e.g., a family of children, a company of soldiers, a school of girls or boys, ‘a cabful of molls,’ and such like.

To fire into the wrong flock, verb. phr. (American pioneers’).—To blunder. A variant is to bark up the wrong tree.

1858. New York Herald, 9 Nov. When Mr. Saulsbury rose and called the Speaker’s attention to the alleged blunder in the Secretary’s report, his own friends jumped up in great excitement and pulled him down; he soon found out that he had fired into the wrong flock.

Flock of Sheep, subs. phr.—1. (gaming). A hand at dominoes set out on the table.

Flog, subs. (American thieves’).—1. A whip. A contraction of Flogger (q.v.). To flog (now recognised), is cited by B. E. (1690), Grose, and the author of Bacchus and Venus as Cant.

To be flogged at the tumbler, verb. phr. (old).—To be whipped at the cart’s tail. See Tumbler.

To flog the dead horse, verb. phr. (common).—1. To work up an interest in a bygone subject; to try against heart; to do with no will nor liking for the job. [Bright said that Earl Russell’s Reform Bill was a dead horse (q.v.), and every attempt to create enthusiasm in its favour was flogging the dead horse.]

To flog a willing horse, verb. phr. (common).—To urge on one who is already putting forth his best energies.

Flogger, subs. (old).—1. A whip; cf., Flog. Grose gives the word as Cant. Fr., un bouis.

2. (theatrical).—A mop (i.e., a bunch of slips of cloth on a handle) used in the painting room to whisk the charcoal dust from a sketch.

Flogging, ppl. adj. (old).—Careful; penurious.

Flogging-cove, subs. phr. (prison)—1. An official who administers the cat (q.v.).

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flogging cove, c. the Beadle, or Whipper in Bridewell, or any such place.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Flogging-cove, the beadle, or whipper, in Bridewell.

Flogging Cully, subs. phr. (venery).—A man addicted, whether from necessity or choice, to flagellation; a whipster (q.v.).

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flogging, c. a Naked Woman’s whipping (with rods) an Old (usually) and (sometimes) a young Lecher.

Flogging Stake, subs. phr. (old).—A whipping post.

Flogster, subs. (old).—One addicted to flogging. Specifically (naval), a nickname applied to the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV).