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

Floor, verb. (colloquial).—1. To knock down. Hence to vanquish in argument; to make an end of; to defeat; to confound. See Floored and Dead-beat.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 15. That moment the farmer let fly at the drover, which floored him.

1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. xxi. ‘When I saw him so floored as not to be able to come to time, I knew there had been some hard hitting going on thereabouts, so I kept clear.’

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, p. 10. Then (apostrophising ‘Maga’) floor me not. Ibid., p. 60, The Corinthian, being no novice in these matters, floored two or three in a twinkling.

1835. Coleridge, Table Talk (published posthumously). The other day I was what you may called floored by a Jew.

1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 425 (Ed. 1857). Even Mr. Bob Sawyer … was floored.

1862. Mrs. H. Wood, The Channings, ch. v. ‘So if the master is directing his suspicions to the seniors, he’ll get floored.’

1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, Pt. V., p. 196. ‘Whenever the mammas object to asking her on account of that horrid Lady Wylde,’ I floor all opposition by saying, ‘Oh, Lady Jane Helter will bring her.’

1888. Sportsman, 28 Nov. Pope, who was the fresher, started at a terrific pace and drove his man all over the ring, ending by flooring him.

To floor the odds (betting men’s).—Said of a low-priced horse that pulls off the event in face of the betting.

1882. Daily Telegraph, 16 Nov. The odds were, nevertheless, floored from an unexpected quarter. [30]

1889. Echo, 24 Jan. As the odds betted on Miss Jessie II. were easily floored by Marsden.

2. (drunkards’).—To finish; to get outside of. E.g., ‘I floored three half-pints and a nip before breakfast.’

1837. Punch, 31 Jan. Dear Bill, this stone jug.… Is still the same snug, Free-and-easy old hole, Where Macheath met his blowens, and Wylde floored his bowl.

18(?). Macmillan’s Magazine (quoted in Century Dict.). I have a few bottles of old wine left: we may as well floor them.

To floor a paper, lesson, examination, examiner, etc., verb. phr. (university).—To answer every question; to master; to prove oneself superior to the occasion.

1852. Bristed, Five Years in an English University, p. 12. Somehow I nearly floored the paper.

To floor one’s licks, verb. phr. (common).—To surpass one’s self; to cut-around (q.v.).

To have, hold, or take the floor, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To rise to address a public meeting; in Ireland, to stand up to dance; and, in America, ‘to be in possession of the House.’

1882. McCabe, New York, xxi., p. 342. A member making a bid below or an offer above the one which has the floor.

1888. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. After a half hour’s recess Mr. Glover took the floor.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 11 Nov., p. 6, col. 1. The Duke of Rutland, however, who ‘took the floor’ non-politically at the end of the evening, was really ‘felicitous’ in his few remarks.

Floored, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—1. Vanquished; brought under; ruined. For synonyms, see Dead-beat and infra.

English Synonyms.—Basketted; bitched; bitched-up; bowled out; broken up; buggered up; busted; caved in; choked-off; cornered; cooked; coopered up; dead-beat; done brown; done for; done on toast; doubled up; flattened-out; fluffed; flummoxed; frummagemmed; gapped; gone through St. Peter’s needle; gone under; gravelled; gruelled; hoofed out; in the last of pea-time, or last run of shad; jacked-up; knocked out of time; knocked silly; looed; mucked-out; petered out; pocketed; potted; put in his little bed; queered in his pitch; rantanned; sat upon; sewn up; shut-up; smashed to smithereens; snashed; snuffed out; spread-eagled; struck of a heap; stumped; tied up; timbered; treed; trumped; up a tree.

French Synonyms.—Mon linge est lavé (pop.: = I have thrown up the sponge); coller sous bande (= to put in a hole: at billiards, bande = cushion); avoir son affaire (pop: = to have got a ‘settler’); aplatir (fam: = to flatten out); aplomber (thieves’: = to brazen down; to bluff); être pris dans la balancine (pop.: = to be in a fix); se faire coller (familiar); envoyer quelqu’un s’asseoir, or s’asseoir sur quelqu’un (popular).

Spanish Synonyms.—Pesado (doubled-up: from peso = weight); aculado (from acular = to corner); arrollar (= to sweep away, as a torrent); aturrullar (= to shut up); cogite! (= ‘I’ve got you.’ or, ‘there I have you!’)

2. (common).—Drunk; in Shakspearean ‘put down’: as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, ‘Never in your life, I think, unless you see Canary put me down.’ (Twelfth Night, i., 3). For synonyms, see Screwed.

3. (painters’).—Hung low at an exhibition; in contradistinction to skyed (q.v.), and on the line (q.v.).

Floorer, subs. (common).—1. An auctioneer (q.v.); or knock-down blow; cf., Dig, Bang, and Wipe. Hence, sudden or unpleasant news; a decisive argument; an unanswerable retort; a decisive check. Sp., peso.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 20. For in these fancy times, ’tis your hits in the muns, And your choppers and floorers that govern the funds.

1839. Swinton, Trial of Wm. Humphreys, p. 297. It is a downright floorer to the Grown.

1856. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green. The Putney Pet stared.… The inquiry for his college was, in the language of his profession, a ‘regular floorers.’

1861. H. C. Pennell, Puck on Pegasus, p. 20. What a floorers to my hopes is this performance on the ropes! Miss Marianne suspensa scalis—(Would twere sus. per coll instead).

1868. Cassell’s Magazine, 4 Jan., p. 213. ‘Ah, she hasn’t told you of the strokes I have had, one arter the other—clean floorers, and left like a log of wood in my bed.’

4. (thieves’).—A thief who trips his man, and robs in picking him up; a Ramper (q.v.).

Flooring, subs. (pugilists’).—Knocking down. Hence, to vanquish in all senses.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. xii. Cross-buttocking … being as indispensable an ingredient, as nobbing, flooring, etc.

Floor-walker, subs. (American).—A shop-walker.

Flop, subs. and verb. (American university).—1. A bite (q.v.); a successful dodge.

1856. Hall, College Words and Customs. Any ‘cute’ performance by which a man is sold is a good flop, and by a phrase borrowed from the base-ball ground is ‘rightly played.’ The discomfited individual declares that they ‘are all on a side,’ and gives up, or ‘rolls over,’ by giving his opponent ‘gowdy.’ A man writes cards during examinations to ‘feeze the profs’; said cards are ‘gumming cards,’ and he flops the examination if he gets a good mark by the means. One usually flops his marks by feigning sickness.

1662. Rump Songs, ii., 3. The good the Rump will do, when they prevail, Is to give us a flop with a fox’s tail, Which nobody can deny. [32]

Verb. (colloquial).—1. To fall, or flap down suddenly. A variant of ‘flap.’ Fr., prendre un billet de parterre.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. iv. ch. v. She had flopped her hat over her eyes.

1859. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, bk. ii. ch. i. If you must go flopping yourself down.

1870. Public Opinion, 12 Feb. But even if they were more numerous and greater than they are, we should hold aloof from the crowd that flops in his presence with love and awe, as the dismal wife of Jerry Cruncher flopped in pious misery.

1883. The Theatre, Feb., p. 93. She is able to call in tumbling to the aid of tragedy, and bring the plastic arts to the portrayal of the passions; to flop through four such acts as these night after night, and finish with a death-scene warranted correct, to the very last kick and quiver.

1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 118. He cursed under his breath each time he rose to follow, and smothered a yell of pain and horror each time he flopped down.

Adv. (colloquial).—An onomatopœia expressive of the noise of a sudden and sounding fall. Often used expletively, as slap (q.v.) is, and the American right (q.v.)

1726. Vanbrugh, Journey to London, Act I., Sc. 2. That down came I flop o’ my feace all along in the channel.

1860. Punch, v. 38, p. 255. ’Twixt two stools, flop, he let me drop, The fall it was my murther.

1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. vi. ‘She’ll roll down, papa, and come flop.’

To flop over, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To turn heavily; hence (in America), to make a sudden change of sides, association, or allegiance.

Flop-Up, subs. (American).—A day’s tramp, as opposed to a sot-down = half a day’s travel.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 15 Sept. ‘Stranger, did ye lope it?’ (come on foot). ‘Yes.’ ‘A mile or a sot down?’ ‘More’n that. About a dozen flop-ups.’

[Flop, too, is something of a vocable of all-work. Thus to flop in = (venery) to effect intromission; to flop round = to loaf; to dangle; to flop a judy = to lay out, or ‘spread’ (q.v.), a girl; to do a flop = (colloquial) to sit, or to fall, down, and (venery) to lie down to a man; to flop out = to leave the water noisily and awkwardly; belly-flopping = belly-bumping, coition; a flop in the gills = a smack in the mouth.]

Florence, subs. (old)—‘A wench that has been touzed and ruffled.’

Floster, subs. (common).—A mixed drink: sherry, noyau, peach-leaves, lemon, sugar, ice, and soda-water. Cf., Flesh-and-blood.

Flouch. To fall (or go), flouch (or floush), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To come to pieces; to sag suddenly on the removal of a restraining influence: as a pair of stays.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 13. Old Georgy went floush, and his backers look’d shy.

Flounce, verb. (colloquial).—To move with violence, and (generally) in anger. Said of women, for whom such motion is, or rather was, inseparable from a great flourishing of flounces.

Flounder, subs. (riverside thieves’).—1. A drowned corpse. Cf., Dab, and for synonyms, see Stiff. [33]

2. (Stock Exchange).—To sell, and afterwards re-purchase a stock, or vice versâ.

1889. Echo, 1 Feb. A third expedient offers itself—namely, to turn round and buy; but this operation goes by the name of ‘floundering’ especially when the speculator loses both ways.

Flounder-and-Dab, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A cab. For synonyms, see Growler.

Flour, subs. (American).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

Flourish, subs. (venery).—Coition in a hurry; flyer (q.v.); a fast-fuck (q.v.). Also verbally. For synonyms see Greens and Ride.

1796. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v. To enjoy a woman with her clothes on or without going to bed.

Verb (colloquial.).—To be in luck: e.g., ‘I flourish’ = ‘I am well off’; ‘Do you flourish,’ or ‘Are you flourishing?’ = ‘Have you got any money?’

Flourishing, adj. (colloquial).—A retort to the enquiry, ‘How are you?’ The equivalent of ‘Pretty well, thank you?’

Flower, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum. Also Flower-pot. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Biancure, the monthly flowers that women have.

1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie. Le fourrier de la lune a marqué le logis, applicable to a woman that hath her flowers.

Flower-Fancier, subs. phr. (venery).—A whore-master.

Flowery, subs. (thieves’).—Lodging; entertainment; ‘square the omee for the flowery’ = pay the landlord for the lodging. [Lingua Franca.]

Flowery Language, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A euphemism for blasphemous and obscene speech.

Flower of Chivalry, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Flowing-hope, subs. (military).—A forlorn hope.

Flub-dub-and-Guff, subs. phr. (American).—Rhetorical embellishment; high-falutin’ (q.v.).

1888. Detroit Free Press, August. Rev. Mr. Selah (to desk editor of the Daily Roarer)—‘Mr. Seezars, are you going to publish my prayer in full?’ Desk Editor—‘In full? Well, I guess not.’ (Changing his tone)—‘However, we’ll do what we can for you. By swiping out the flub-dub-and-guff, I guess we’ll have room to put in the points.’

Flue, subs. (old). 1. The Recorder of London or any large town. Bamfylde Moore-Carew.

2. (colloquial).—The filth, part fluff, part hair, part dust, which collects under ill-kept beds, and at the junctures of sofas and chairs; Beggar’s Velvet (q.v.).

1860. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller. ‘Arcadian London.’ A power they possess of converting everything into flue. Such broken victuals as they take by stealth appear (whatever the nature [34]of the viands) to generate flue.… Ibid. ‘Refreshment for Travellers.’ Take the old established Bull’s Head … with its old-established flue under its old established four-post bedsteads.

1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, II., p. 250. I’ve had sometimes to leave half my stock in flue with a deputy for a night’s rest.

Up the flue (or spout), adj. phr. (colloquial).—Dead; collapsed, mentally or physically.

To be up one’s flue, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be awkward for one. That’s up your flue = That’s a ‘facer,’ or that’s up against you.

Flue-Faker (or Scraper), subs. (common).—A chimney-sweep. [From Flue + Faker (q.v.).] Minor clergy = young chimney sweeps. For synonyms, see Clergyman.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, p. 60. The ‘office’ has been given to ‘shove’ the poor flue-faker against Tom’s light drab coat.

Fluff (or Fluffings), subs. (railway clerks’).—1. Short change given by booking-clerks. The practice is known as Fluffing. Cf., Menavelings. Fr., des fruges (= more or less unlawful profits of any sort).

1890. Star, 27 Jan. Many porters on this line are but getting 15s. per week, and with regard to ‘tips,’ or, as we say, ‘fluff’—well, would you not think it mean to tell your servant when you engaged him that such were strictly forbidden by punishment with dismissal, and then proclaim to the world that with good wages and tips your servant was well paid.

2. (theatrical).—‘Lines’ half learned and imperfectly delivered. Hence, To do a fluff = to forget one’s part.

1891. W. Archer, The World, p. 28, col. 1, line 34. But even as seen through a cloud of fluff the burlesque is irresistibly amusing.

2. (common).—To disconcert, to Floor (q.v.). Cf., Fluff in the Pan = a failure.

Fluff it! Intj. (common).—An interjection of disapproval: ‘Be off!’ ‘Take it away!’

Fluffer, subs. (common).—1. A drunkard. Cf., Fluffiness.

2. (theatrical).—A player ‘rocky on his lines’; i.e., given to forgetting his part.

Fluffiness, subs. (common).—1. Drunkenness. Cf., Fluffy and Fluffer.

1886. Fun, 4 August, p. 44. A sullen-faced, clerical-looking young man, charged with fluffiness in a public conveyance, said he was sober as a judge when taken into custody. [35]

Fluffy, adj. (common and theatrical).—Unsteady; of uncertain memory. Cf., Fluffer (sense 2), and Fluffiness (sense 2).

1885. Referee, July 26, p. 3, col. 2. In the last act Groves and one or two others were either what actors call fluffy in their lines, or else Mr. Cross was guilty of irritating tautology.

Fluke, subs. (common).—In billiards, an accidental winning hazard; in all games a result not played for; a crow (q.v.). In yachting an effect of chance; a result in which seamanship has had no part. Hence, a stroke of luck. Sp., bambarria.

1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S. IV., p. 208, col. 1. In playing at billiards, if a player makes a hazard, etc., which he did not play for, it is often said that he made a crow.… Another term is, ‘He made a flook (or fluke).’

1869. Whyte Melville, M or N, p. 100. ‘Only lost a pony on the whole meeting,’ answered Dick triumphantly. ‘And even that was a fluke, because Bearwarden’s Bacchante filly was left at the post.’

1873. Black, Princess of Thule, ch. xix. ‘These conditions are not often fulfilled—it is a happy fluke when they are.’

1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. xxxii. ‘I suppose, by your asking the question, you have become acquainted with Mr. Solamo’s past.’ ‘That’s just it, Mr. Prossiter; by an odd fluke I have.’

1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 144. He was now being cured only to be hanged, most likely, unless by some happy fluke he got off with imprisonment for life.

1888. Sportsman, 20 Dec. Fortune once more assisted Mitchell, who, in trying to make a red loser, fluked a cannon, from which he got on the spot, and made forty-three winners in a break of 161.

1864. Eton School Days, ch. xvi., p. 203. ‘By Jove! I think I shall fluke doing Verses; I should like to see Paddy drive tandem through College,’ said Butler Burke.

To cut flukes out, verb. phr. (nautical).—To mutiny; to turn sulky and disobedient.

To turn flukes, verb. phr. (nautical).—To go to bed; i.e., to bunk (q.v.), or turn in.

Fluky, or Flukey, adj. (common).—Of the nature of a fluke (q.v.); i.e., achieved more by good luck than good guidance.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gazette, 20 March. Now, Grady was a smart young Irishman who had thrashed Stevens twice in days gone by, and had won a somewhat flukey victory over Young Norley.

1886. Ill. Sport. and Dram. News, 20 Feb., p. 579. There is no flukiness about him: he makes his runs because he is an excellent batsman, and takes his wickets because he is an excellent bowler.

Flummadiddle, subs. (American).—1. Nonsense; flummery (q.v.).

1884. G. A. Sala, in Ill. London News, July 19, p. 51, col. 2. I suppose that when the friendly skippers gam [q.v.], they feast on flummadiddle, a dish composed, I am given to understand, of stale bread, pork fat, molasses, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves.

Flummergasted, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Astonished; confounded. A variant of flabbergasted (q.v.). [36]

1849. New South Wales: Past and Present, ch. i., p. 14. This coolness so completely flummergasted the fellow, that he kept talking until Mr. Day shot him through the shoulder.

Flummery, subs. (colloquial). 1. Nonsense; gammon (q.v.); flattery.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Oatmeal and water boiled to a jelly; also compliments: neither … over-nourishing.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. i. I shall … blow off as much of the froth as I can, in order to present the residuum free of flummery.

1846. Thackeray, Yellow Plush Papers. She swallowed Lord Crabs’ flumery just as she would so many musheruims.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xii. None of the dubious, half-expressed, sentimental flummery.

Flummox, Flummocks, or Flummux, verb. (colloquial).—1. To perplex, dodge, abash, or silence; to victimize; to best (q.v.); to disappoint. Also conflummox. To flummox (or conflummox) by the lip = to outslang (q.v.), or talk down; to flummox the coppers = to dodge the police; to flummox the old Dutch = to cheat one’s wife, etc. For synonyms, see Flabbergast.

3. (American).—Used in the passive sense = to abandon a purpose; to give in; to die.

Flummoxed, ppl. adj. (thieves’ and general).—1. Spoilt; ruined; drunk; sent down (q.v.); boshed (q.v.); defeated; disappointed; silenced; floored (q.v.).

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxiii., p. 283. ‘And my ’pinion is, Sammy, that if your governor don’t prove an alleybi, he’ll be what the Italians call reg’larly flummoxed, and that’s all about it.’

1840. Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 170. So many of the men I know Were flummoxed at the last great go.

1861. H. C. Pennell, Puck on Pegasus, p. 17. I felt flummox’d in a brown (study understood) old fellow.

1864. Cornhill Magazine, Dec., p. 742. ‘I say, Tom.’ ‘Yes, mate.’ ‘If I should have a fit heave a bucket of water over me.’ Tom was too astonished, or, as he expressed it, conflummoxed to make any reply.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 25 July, p. 2, col. 1. I’ll give Tom his due, and say of him that for flummoxing a cuss (Custom House Officer) or working the weed, I don’t know any one he couldn’t give a chalk to and beat ’em.

1890. Punch, 30 Aug., p. 97. I’m fair flummoxed, and singing, ‘Oh, what a surprise!’

Flummocky, adj. (colloquial).—Out of place; in bad taste.

1891. F. H. Groome. Blackwood’s Mag., March, p. 319. ‘It is a nice solemn dress,’ she said, as she lifted a piece to examine it more closely; ‘there’s nothing flummocky about it.’

Flummut, subs. (vagrants’).—A month in prison. See flummoxed. For synonyms, see Dose.

1889. Answers, 20th July, p. 121, col. 2. If you want to get rid of an importunate tramp tell him to ‘stow his patter,’ or you will get him a flummut.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. He [patterer] mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. I give one or two instances.… ‘Flummut,’ sure of a month in quod. [37]

Flump, verb. (colloquial).—To fall, put, or be set, down with violence or a thumping noise. Onomatopœic. Also to come down with a Flump. Cf., Plump and Cachunk.

1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, ch. v. Chairs were flumped down on the floor.

1865. H. Kingsley, The Hillyars and the Burtons, ch. lxii. Before my mother had been a week in the partly-erected slab-house, the women began to come in, to flump down into a seat and tell her all about it.

Flunk, subs. (American colloquial).—1. An idler, a Loafer (q.v.) or Lawrence (q.v.).

2. (Also Flunk-out).—A failure, especially (at college) in recitations; a backing out of undertakings.

1877. Brunonian, 24th Feb. A flunk is a complete fizzle; and a dead flunk is where one refuses to get out of his seat.

1888. Missouri Republican, 11th Feb. Riddleberger forced the presidential possibilities of the senate to a complete flunk.

Verb. (American).—To retire through fear; to fail (as in a lesson); to cause to fail. Cf., Funk.

1838. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, IV. Why, little ’un, you must be cracked, if you flunk out before we begin.

1847. The Yale Banger, 22 Oct. My dignity is outraged at beholding those who fizzle and flunk in my presence tower above me.

1853. Amherst Indicator, p. 253. They know that a man who has flunked, because too much of a genius to get his lesson, is not in a state to appreciate joking.

1871. John Hay, ‘Jim Bludso of the Prairie Bell,’ in New York Tribune, Jan. But he never flunked, and he never lied, I reckon he never know’d how.

Flunkey, subs. (nautical).—1. A ship’s steward.

1862. A Week in Wall St., p. 90. A broker, who had met with heavy losses, exclaimed: ‘I’m in a bear-trap,—this won’t do. The dogs will come over me. I shall be mulct in a loss. But I’ve got time; I’ll turn the scale; I’ll help the bulls operate for a rise, and draw in the flunkies.’

3. (American University.)—One that makes a complete failure in a recitation; one who flunks (q.v.).

1859. Yale Lit. Magazine. I bore him safe through Horace, Saved him from the flunkey’s doom.

4. (colloquial).—A man-servant, especially one in livery. Hence, by implication, a parasite or Toady (q.v.). Fr., un larbin.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs; ch. v. You who have no toadies; you whom no cringing flunkeys or shopmen bow out of doors.

Whence, Flunkeyism = Blind worship of rank, birth, or riches. Fr., la larbinerie.

1857. J. E. Ritchie, Night Side of London, p. 23. Our trading classes, becoming richer and more sunk in flunkeyism every day.

Flurryment, subs. (common.)—Agitation; bustle; confusion; nervous excitement. [Pleonastic, from Flurry.]

1848. Jones, Sketches of Travel, p. II. Mary and all on em was in a monstrous flurryment.

Flurry One’s Milk, verb. phr. (common).—To be worried, angry, or upset; To fret one’s kidneys (q.v.); To tear one’s shirt, or one’s hair (q.v.). [38]

Flush, subs. (gamesters’).—A hand of one suit.

Adj. (colloquial).—1. With plenty of money; the reverse of hard up (q.v.); warm (q.v.). Also abounding in anything: e.g. flush of his patter = full of his talk; flush of the lotion = liberal with the drink; flush of his notions = prodigal of ideas; flush of her charms = lavish of her person; and so forth.

1603. Dekker, Batchelor’s Banquet, ch. viii. Some dames of the company, which are more flush in crownes than her good man.

1605. The Play of Stucley, l. 538. They know he hath received His marriage money: they perceive he’s flush And mean to share with him ere all be gone.

1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act II. Con. Since you are so flush, sir, you shall give me a locket of diamonds of three hundred pounds.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flush in the pocket c. full of money. The cull is flush in the fob, the Spark’s pocket is well lined with money.

1767. O’Hara, Two Misers, Act I. What stops many an hopeful project? lack of cash—[looking archly at him]. Are you flush, Sir?

1846. Thackeray, V. F., vol. I. ch. xxviii. The expenses were borne by Jos and Osborne, who was flush of money and full of kind attentions to his wife.

1861. A. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, ch. viii. Allow me to draw on you for that amount at three months. Long before that time I shall be flush enough.

1864. Economist, 29 Oct. The world was then, if such a very colloquial expression could be pardoned, ‘flush of cash,’ and it sent in that cash rapidly and at once.

2. (common).—Intoxicated (i.e., full to the brim); also flushed. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

3. (colloquial).—Level: e.g., flush with the top, with the water, with the road, with the boat’s edge, etc.

English Synonyms.—To bludgeon; to bumbaste; to breech (Cotgrave); to brush; to club; to curry; to dress with an oaken towel; to drub; to drybeat; to dry-bob; to drum; to fib; to flap; to flick; to flop; to jerk; to give one ballast; to hide; to lamm; to larrup; to paste; to punch; to rub down; to swinge; to swish; to switch; to trounce; to thump; to tund (Winchester); to wallop. See also Tan.

French Synonyms.—Donner l’avoine (pop. = to give a feed of hay); allumer (popular); bouiser (thieves’: un bouis = a whip).

2. (colloquial).—To clean by filling full, and emptying, of water: e.g., to flush a sewer; to wash, swill, or sluice away. Also to fill with water: e.g., to flush a lock.

1884. Henley and Stevenson, Admiral Guinea, i., 8. Pray for a new heart; flush out your sins with tears.

3. (shooting).—To start or raise a bird from covert: e.g., to flush a snipe, or a covey of partridges. Hence (venery) to flush a wild duck = to single out a woman for grousing (q.v.).

To come flush on one, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To come suddenly and unexpectedly (Marvell); to overwhelm (as by a sudden rush of water). [39]

Flushed on the Horse, phr. (prison).—Privately whipped in gaol.

Flush-hit, subs. phr. (pugilistic).—A clean blow; a hit full on the mark and straight from the shoulder. For synonyms, see Dig.

1891. Lic. Vict. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 7, col. 2. Landed a very heavy flush hit on the mouth.

1888. Sporting Life, 15 Dec. Both cautious, Wilson with marked frequency leading off, and getting the left flush on the face.

Fluster, verb. (old).—To excite; to confuse, abash, or flummox (q.v.); to upset, or be upset, with drink.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, I., 3. The very elements of this warlike isle,—Have I to-night fluster’d with flowing cups.

1711. Spectator, No. 87. It is very common for such as are too low in constitution to ogle the idol upon the strength of tea, to fluster themselves with warmer liquors.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 261. When I vext proud Celia just come from my glass, She tells me I’m flustered, and look like an ass.

1731. Fielding, Letter Writers. Act II., Sc. 5. Who hath taken me to the tavern, and, I protest, almost fluster’d me.

Flustered (or Flustrated), ppl. adj. (old).—Excited by drink, circumstances, another person’s impudence, etc.; also mildly drunk. Cf., Flusticated. For synonyms, see Screwed.

1686. Common. of Women, Prol. Another to compleat his daily task, fluster’d with claret, seizes on a mask.

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 3. I … therefore take this public occasion to admonish a young Nobleman, who came flustered into the box last night.

1748. T. Dyche, Dict. (5th ed.) Flustered (a) … somewhat intoxicated with liquor.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XIV., ch. ix. This latter, though not drunk, began to be somewhat flustered.

1779. The Mirror, No. 57. All of them flustered, some of them perfectly intoxicated.

Flusticated, or Flustrated, ppl. adj. (old and colloquial).—Confused; in a state of heat or excitement. Cf., Flustered.

1712. Spectator, No. 493. We were coming down Essex Street one night a little flustrated.

1766. Colman, Cland. Marriage V., in works (1777) i. 271. Your mind is too much flustrated, and you can neither eat nor drink.

1843. Maj. Jones’ Courtship, I. Somehow I was so flustrated that I tuk the rong way.

1847. Porter, Big Bear, &c., p. 98. I sot down, being sorter flusticated like, thinkin’ of that skrape, last time I was there.

Flustration, subs. (old and colloquial).—Heat; excitement; bustle; confusion; flurry (q.v.).

1843. Major Jones’ Courtship, viii. The old woman’s been in a monstrous flustration ’bout the comet.

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 177. My wife is in a delicut way, and the frite might cause a flustration.

1848. Jones, Studies of Travel, p. 21. The old woman was in such a flustration she didn’t know her lips from anything else.

1872. Mortimer Collins, Two Plunges for a Pearl, vol. II., ch. vii. Then was this pretty little actress whom he admired in a great state of flustration. [40]

Flute, subs. (old).—1. The recorder of a corporation.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flute, c. The recorder of London or of any other town.

2. (venery).—The penis. Also the one-holed, the living, or the silent flute. To play a tune on the one-holed flute = to have connection. Cf., Dryden (Sixth Juvenal, line 107). ‘And stretch his quail-pipe till they crack his voice.’ For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

1720. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 31. He took her by the middle, And taught her by the flute.

1736. Cupid, p. 163. The Flute is good that’s made of Wood, And is, I own, the neatest; Yet ne’ertheless I must confess, The silent flute’s the sweetest.

Flutter, subs. (common).—1. An attempt, or shy (q.v.), at anything; a venture in earnest; a spree; a state of expectancy (as in betting). Hence gambling.

1883. Echo, 26 Feb. p. 4, col. 2. I have no stable tip, but I fancy the animal named will at any rate afford backers a flutter for their money.

1889. Licensed Vict. Gazette, 8 Feb. Of course he told her he only went in for a little flutter occasionally.

1890. Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, col. 1. They find out the addresses of people whom they see at the races—people whom they suspect to be fond of a flutter, and then an invitation is sent to a little soirée intime.

1887. Henley, Culture in the Slums, iii. I likes a merry little flutter, I keeps a Dado on the sly, In fact my form’s the blooming Utter.

3. (venery).—Connection defloration. To have had a flutter = (1) to have been there (cf., greens); and (2) to have lost one’s maidenhead.

1864. Eton School Days, chap. 1, p. 11. As I was going to be saying, I used to flutter the ribands of the London Croydon and South Coast coach.

[Flutter, if not a word of all-work, is a word with plenty to do. Thus, to have (or do) a flutter = to have a look in (q.v.), to go on the spree, and (of both sexes) to have carnal connection; to be on the flutter = to be on the spree, and also (venery) to be all there (q.v.) or on the spot (q.v.); to flutter a judy—both to pursue and to possess a girl; to flutter a brown = to spin a coin; to flutter (or fret) one’s kidneys = to agitate, to exasperate; to flutter a skirt = to walk the streets; and so forth.]

Flux, verb. (old).—1. To cheat; to cozen; to overreach. For synonyms, see Stick.

Fly, subs. (old).—A familiar; hence, by implication, a parasite or sucker (q.v.). [In the sixteenth and seventeenth century it was held that familiar spirits, in the guise of flies, lice, fleas, etc., attended witches, who for a price professed to dispose of the power for evil thus imparted.] [41]

1596. Lodge, Incarnate Devils. This divel prefers an Ephimerides before a Bible; and his Ptolemey and Hali before Ambrose, golden Chrisostome, or S. Augustine: promise him a familiar, and he will take a flie in a box for good paiment.

1610. Ben Jonson, Alchemist i. You are mistaken, doctor, Why he does ask one but for cups and horses, A rifling fly, none of your great familiars.

1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii., 2. Courtiers have flies That buzz all news unto them.

2. (old).—A printer’s devil; specifically a boy who lifted the printed sheets from the press. [Now the vibrating frame used for the same purpose.]

1688. R. Holme, Academy of Armory. These boys do in a printing-house commonly black and bedaub themselves, when the workmen do jocosely call them devils, and sometimes spirits, and sometimes flies.

5. (old).—A public wagon: afterwards (colloquial) a four-wheel hackney coach. Fr., mouche (fly) = a public boat on the Seine.

Adj. (common).—1. Knowing; artful (q.v.); up to every move; cute. Also fly to, a-fly, fly to the game, and fly to what’s what. Cf., Awake, and, for synonyms, see Knowing; fly dog (q.v.).

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, Cheese it, the coves are fly = be silent, the people understand our discourse.

1823. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act II., Sc. 2. Jerry. Charlies’ fiddles?—I’m not fly, Doctor. Log. Rattles, Jerry, rattles! Jerry rattles! you’re fly now, I see.

1838. Glascock, Land Sharks and Sea Gulls, II., 4. That’s right; I see you’re fly to every fakement.

1850. Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. ‘Low Lodging Houses of London.’ They say the fliest is easy to take in sometimes—that’s the artfullest; but I could do no good there.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 260. ‘We were too fly to send anybody to market but ourselves.’

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xxxv. [Chas. Ravenshoe to Shoeblack]. ‘On the cross?’ said Charles. ‘Ah,’ the boy said, ‘he goes out cly-faking and such. He’s a prig, and a smart one, too. He’s fly, is Harry.’

1876. Miss Braddon, Dead Men’s Shoes, ch. lii. ‘Go and fetch the cleverest police officer in Liverpool, and let him wait outside this door till I want him.’ ‘I’m fly,’ answers the youth, brightening at the prospect of excitement and remuneration. ‘Case of ’bezzlement, I suppose, Sir?’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 125. A certain prisoner, who was what is termed a very fly man, i.e., a clever, scheming fellow … sounded him as to getting tobacco and other matters.

188(?). Jenny Hill, Broadside Ballad. I’ve cut my wisdom teeth, some at top, some underneath.… So you needn’t try it on; I’m fly.

1890. Punch, 30 Aug., p. 9. Briggs, Junior, a lobsculler called me; I wasn’t quite fly to his lay.

1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Jan. If you get among a fly lot, why they’d skin you in less than no time.

1839. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. We’ll knap a fogle with fingers fly.

1888. San Francisco News Letter, 4 Feb. ‘I’m just gettin’ sick’n tired o’ the way ’t them fly dames go on, ’n the way ’t the fellahs hang round ’em ’n dance with ’em ’n so forth.’

Verb. (thieves’).—1. To toss; to raise; to fly the mags = to toss up half-pence (cf., subs., sense 4).

1857. Snowden, Magistrates’ Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 447. To lift a window, to fly a window.

1865. G. F. Berkeley, My Life, II. 296. Heenan … told me his right hand was worth nothing to him, and we have since seen that his left flies, or, in other words, becomes puffed, softened, or severely damaged by the force of his own blows.

To fly around, verb. phr. (American).—To bestir oneself; to make haste. Also to fly around and tear one’s shirt.

1851. Hooper, Widow Rugby’s Husband, p. 44. Old ’ooman, fly around, git somethin’ for the Squire and Dick to eat.

To fly high (or rather high).—1. verb. phr. (common).—To get, or be drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

2. (colloquial).—To keep the best company, maintain the best appearances, and affect the best aims: i.e., to be a High-flier (q.v.). Also, to venture for the biggest stakes in the biggest way.

To fly low, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make as little of oneself as possible; to sing small (q.v.); and (among thieves) to keep out of the way when wanted (q.v.).

To fly off the handle, verb. phr. (American pioneer).—To lose temper; to fail of a promise; to jilt; to die; also to slip off the handle (q.v.); to disappoint in any way. [In pioneer life for an axe to part company with its handle is a serious trial to temper and patience.]

1843–4. Haliburton, The Attaché. You never see such a crotchical old critter as he is. He flies right off the handle for nothing.

1867. Home Journal (New York), 21 July (speaking of a man who had succeeded to a large fortune it says) he went off the handle in England rather unexpectedly.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 195. If a fair lady loses her temper, or worst of all, if she breaks the tender promise, she is said to fly off the handle, and the disappointment is as serious to the unlucky lover as a lost axe to many a settler.

1888. Pittsburg Chronicle. ‘I can’t say that I’am stuck on Sue Fitzpercy,’ remarked Amy. ‘She is liable to fly off the handle.’

1612. Chapman, Widow’s Tears, Act II., p. 317 (Plays, 1874). For wherefore rage wives at their husbands so when they fly out? for zeal against the sin?

1665–6. Pepys, Diary, 17 Jan. It is to be feared that the Parliament will fly out against him and particular men, the next Session.

1712. Spectator, No. 479. He (Socrates) has said, My dear friend, you are beholden to Xantippe, that I bear so well your flying out in a dispute.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xx. ‘And then the Colonel flies out about his boy, and says that my wife insulted him!’ [43]

To make the fur (or feathers) fly, verb. phr. (common).—To attack effectively; to make a disturbance; to quarrel noisily like two tom cats on the tiles, who are said (in American) to pull fur, or to pull wool.

1847. Porter, Big Bear, etc., p. 132. Thar, they’ve got him agin, and now the fur flies.

1888. Denver Republican, 29 Feb. ‘Wait until the National Committee assembles on February 22,’ said the organizer, ‘and you will see the fur fly from the Cleveland hide.’

To take on the fly, verb. phr. (vagrants’).—To beg in the streets; a specific usage of adverbial sense.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, II., p. 59. The ‘first move’ in his mendicant career was taking them on the fly, which means meeting the gentry on their walks, and beseeching or at times menacing them till something is given.

To fly a kite, verb. phr. (common).—To raise money by means of accommodation bills; to raise the wind (q.v.).

1812. From an old Dublin Jester. [The story, however, with slight variations, is told of other judges. See N. and Q., S. ix., 6 326–394.] In a case before the Lord Chancellor of Ireland Mr. Curran, on behalf of the suitor, prayed to be relieved from the payment of some bills for which he had not received consideration, but only lent his name as an accommodation. Mr. Curran, in the course of his pleadings, mentioned the terms kite and raising the wind several times, when his lordship requested to know the meaning of the words. ‘My lord,’ Mr. Curran replied, ‘in your country (meaning England) the wind generally raises the kite, but with us, significantly looking at the gentlemen of the bar, the kite raises the wind.’

1848. Punch, XIV., p. 226. ‘The Model Gentleman.’ He never does ‘a little discounting’ nor lends his hand to ‘flying a kite.’

1849. Perils of Pearl Street, p. 82. Flying the kite is rather a perilous adventure.

1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Little Worries). You have a kite you cannot fly, and creditors are pressing.

1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 23 Jan. Prince Alexis Soltykoff, who has been flying kites, and getting into trouble thereby, is the only son of Prince Soltykoff, the steward of the Jockey Club.