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

1611. Middleton, Roaring Girl, Act iii., Sc. 3. S. Alex. Then he’s a graduate. S. Davy. Say they trust him not. S. Alex. Then is he held a freshman and a sot.

1767. Colman, Oxonian in Town, ii., 3. And now I find you as dull and melancholy as a freshman at college after a jobation.

1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. xiv. ‘This is his third year,’ said the Doctor, ‘and he is only a freshman, having lost every examination.’

1891. Sporting Life, 20 Mar. The mile, bar accidents, will be a gift to B. C. Allen, of Corpus, who has more than maintained the reputation he gained as a fresher.

Adj. (University).—Of, or pertaining to, a freshman, or a first year student.

Freshmanship, subs. (old).—Of the quality or state of being a freshman.

1605. Jonson, Volpone, or the Fox, iv., 3. Well, wise Sir Pol., since you have practised thus, Upon my freshmanship, I’ll try your salt-head With what proof it is against a counter-plot.

Freshman’s Bible, subs. phr. (University).—The University Calendar.

Freshman’s Church, subs. phr. (University).—The Pitt Press at Cambridge. [From its ecclesiastical architecture.]

Freshman’s Landmark, subs. phr. (University).—King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. [From the situation.]

Freshwater Mariner (or Seaman), subs. phr. (old).—A beggar shamming sailor; a turnpike sailor (q.v.).

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 48. These freshwater mariners, their shipes were drowned in the playne of Salisbury. These kynde … counterfet great losses on the sea.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Freshwater seamen, that have never been on the Salt, or made any Voyage, meer Land-Men.

Freshwater Soldier, subs. phr. (old).—A raw recruit.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, Biancone. A goodly, great milke-soppe, a fresh water soldier.

1603. Knolles, Hist. of the Turkes. The nobility, as freshwater soldiers, which had never seen but some slight skirmishes, made light account of the Turks.

1696. Nomenclator. Bachelier aux armes, nouveau ou jeune soudard. A freshwater souldier: a young souldier: a novice: one that is trayned up to serve in the field. [73]

Fret, To fret one’s gizzard, guts, giblets, kidneys, cream, etc., verb. phr. (common).—To get harassed and worried about trifles; to tear one’s shirt (q.v.).

Friar, subs. (printers’).—A pale spot in a printed sheet. Fr., un moine (= monk).

Frib, subs. (old).—A stick. For synonyms, see Toko.

1754. Discoveries of John Poulter, p. 43. A Jacob and frib; a ladder and stick.

Fribble, subs. (old).—A trifler; a contemptible fop. [From the character in Garrick’s Miss in her Teens (1747)].

1860. Thackeray, Four Georges. George IV. That fribble, the leader of such men as Fox and Burke!

Friday-face, subs. (old).—A gloomy, dejected-looking man or woman. [Probably from Friday being, ecclesiastically, the banyan day of the week.] Fr., figure de carême.

1592. Greene, Groatsworth of Wit, in wks. xii., 120. The Foxe made a Friday-face, counterfeiting sorrow.

1889. Gentleman’s Mag., June, p. 593. Friday-face is a term still occasionally applied to a sour-visaged person; it was formerly in very common use.

Friday-faced, adj. (old).—Mortified; melancholy; ‘sour-featured’ (Scott).

1592. John Day, Blind Beggar, Act iii., Sc. 2, p. 57. Can. No, you Friday-fac’d frying-pan, it was to save us all from whipping or a worse shame.

1606. Wily Beguiled (Hawkins Eng. Dr., iii., 356). Marry, out upon him! What a Friday-fac’d slave it is! I think in my conscience his face never keeps holiday.

Friend (or Little Friend), subs.—The menstrual flux or domestic afflictions (q.v.), whose appearance is sometimes announced by the formula ‘My little friend has come.’ Conventionalisms are queer; poorly; changes (Irish); ‘the Captain’s at home’ (Grose). See Flag.

To go and see a sick friend, verb. phr. (venery).—To go on the loose. See Greens.

Friend Charles. See Charles his friend.

Friendly Lead, subs. phr. (thieves’).—An entertainment (as a sing-song) got up to assist a companion in trouble (q.v.), or to raise money for the wife and children of a ‘quodded pal.’

1871. Daily Telegraph, 4 Dec. This was the secret business, the tremendous conspiracy, to compass which it was deemed necessary to act with infinitely more caution than the friends of Bill Sikes feel called on to exercise when they distribute tickets for a friendly lead for the benefit of Bill, who is ‘just out of his trouble.’

1889. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 5 Jan. The men frequently club together in a friendly lead to help a brother in distress.

1892. Ally Sloper, 2 Apr., p. 106, col. 3. My father takes the chair at friendly leads.

Friends in Need, subs. phr. (common).—Lice. For synonyms, see Chates.

Frig, verb trans. and refl. (venery).—To masturbate. Also subs. = an act of masturbation. Known sometimes as keeping down the census. [Latin, fricare = to rub.]

English Synonyms.—To bob; to box the Jesuit [‘St. Omer’s lewdness,’ Marston, [74]‘Scourge’ (1598)]; to chuff; to chuffer; to claw (Florio); to digitate (of women); to eat (or get) cock-roaches; to bring up (or off) by hand; to fight one’s turkey (Texan); to finger or finger-fuck (of women); to friggle (Florio); to fuck one’s fist (of men); to fetch mettle (Grose); to handle; to indorse; to jerk, play, pump, toss, or work off; to lark; to milk; to mount a corporal and four; to mess, or pull about; to play with (schoolboys’), to rub up; to shag; to tickle one’s crack (of women); to dash one’s doodle; to touch up; to play paw-paw tricks (Grose); to wriggle (old). For foreign synonyms, see Wriggle.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Fricciare … to frig, to wriggle, to tickle.

c. 1716–1746. Robertson of Struan. Poems, 83. So to a House of office … a School-Boy does repair, To … fr—— his P—— there.

Frigate, subs. (common).—A woman.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Friggat well rigg’d, a woman well drest and gentile.

Frigging, subs. (venery).—1. The act of masturbation; the ‘cynick friction’ (Marston, Scourge); otherwise simple infanticide.

Adj. and adv. (vulgar).—An expletive of intensification. Thus, frigging bad = ‘bloody’ bad; a frigging idiot = an absolute fool. See also Foutering and Fucking.

Frightfully, adv. (colloquial).—Very. An expletive used as are awfully, beastly, bloody, etc. (q.v.).

Frig-pig, subs. (old).—A finnicking trifler.

Frigster (in fem. Frigstress) subs. (venery).—A masturbator; an indorser (q.v., also = a Sodomite).

Frillery, subs. (common).—Feminine underclothing. For synonyms, see Snowy. To explore one’s frillery (venery) = to grope one’s person.

Frills, subs. (American).—Swagger; conceit; also accomplishments (as music, languages, etc.); and culture; cf., Man with no frills.

1870. Sacramento Paper (quoted in De Vere). ‘I can’t bear his talk, it’s all frills.’

1884. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Adventures of Huck Finn. 33. I never see such a son. I bet I’ll take some of these frills out of you before I’m done with you.

To put on one’s frills, verb. phr. (American).—To exaggerate; to chant the poker; to swagger; to put on side (q.v.); to sing it (q.v.). Fr., se gonfler le jabot, and faire son lard.

1890. Rudyard Kipling, National Observer, March, 1890, p. 69. ‘The Oont.’ It’s the commissariat camel putting on his blooming frills. [75]

2. (venery).—To get wanton or prick-proud (q.v.); in a state of must (q.v.).

To have been among one’s frills, verb. phr. (venery).—To have enjoyed the sexual favour. For synonyms, see Greens.

Frint, subs. (old).—A pawnbroker. For synonyms, see Uncle.

Frisco, subs. (American).—Short for San Francisco.

1870. Bret Harte, Poems, ‘Chiquita.’ Busted hisself at White Pine, and blew out his brains down in Frisco.

1890. Sporting Life, 8 Nov. The battle … took place in the theatre, Market St., Frisco.

Frisk, subs. (old).—1. A frolic; an outing; a lark (q.v.); mischief generally.

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iii., 1. If you have a mind to take a frisk with us, I have an interest with my lord; I can easily introduce you.

1825. The English Spy, vi., p. 162. Dick’s a trump and no telegraph—up to every frisk, and down to every move of the domini, thoroughbred and no want of courage.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xx., p. 171. ‘When you and I had the frisk down in Lincolnshire, Guppy, and drove over to see that house at Castle Wold.’

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 274. Let’s have a neat frisk or so, And then rub on the law.

1782. Cowper, Table Talk, 237. Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may.

1880. Ouida, Moths, ch. xiv. And her fancy-dress frisks, and her musical breakfasts, were great successes.

Verb (thieves’).—1. To search; to run the rule over (q.v.); Especially applied to the search made, after arrest, for evidence of character, antecedents, or identity. Hence, careful examination of any kind.

1781. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 179. They frisk him? That is search him. Ibid., p. 122. Putting a lap-feeder in our sack, that you or your blowen had prig’d yourselves though we should stand the frisk for it.

1828. Jon. Bee, Pict. of London. p. 69. The arms are seized from behind by one, whilst the other frisks the pockets of their contents.

1852. Judson, Mysteries, etc., of New York, ch. vii. Vel sare, the offisare ’ave frisk me: he ’ave not found ze skin or ze dummy, eh?

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, p. 21. ‘The knuck was copped to rights, a skin full of honey was found in his kick’s poke by the copper when he frisked him’; [i.e.] the pickpocket was arrested, and when searched by the officer a purse was found in his pantaloons pocket full of money.

1852. Judson, Mysteries, etc. of New York, ch. iv. You’re as good a knuck as ever frisked a swell.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 13 June, p. 7, col. 3. The ragged little wretches who prowl in gangs about the suburbs, who crawl on their hands and knees into shops in order to ‘frisk the till.’

To dance the Paddington frisk, verb. phr. (old).—To dance on nothing; i.e., to be hanged. [Tyburn Tree was in Paddington.] For synonyms, see Ladder. [76]

Frisker, subs. (old).—A dancer.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 20. At no Whitsun Ale there e’er yet had been Such Fraysters and Friskers as these lads and lasses.

Frivol or Frivvle, verb. (colloquial).—To act frivolously; to trifle. [A resuscitation of an old word used in another sense, viz., to annul, to set aside].

1883. W. Black, Yolande, ch. xx. ‘Mind, I am assuming that you mean business—if you want to frivole, and pick pretty posies, I shut my door on you but, I say, if you mean business, I have told Mrs. Bell you are to have access to my herbarium, whether I am there or not.’

Frog, subs. (common).—1. A policeman. For synonyms, see Beak and Copper.

1881. New York Slang Dict., ‘On the Trail.’ I must amputate like a go-away, or the frogs will nail me.

1886. Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 130, col. 1. A policeman is also called … a ‘frog,’ the last-named because he is supposed to jump, as it were, suddenly upon guilty parties.

2. (common).—A Frenchman. Also froggy and frog-eater. [Formerly a Parisian; the shield of whose city bore three toads, while the quaggy state of the streets gave point to a jest common at Versailles before 1791: Qu’en disent les grenouilles? i.e., What do the frogs (the people of Paris) say?]

1883. Referee, 15 July, p. 7, col. 3. While Ned from Boulogne says ‘Oui mon brave,’ The Froggies must answer for ‘Tamatave.’

To frog on, verb. phr. (American).—To get on; to prosper frogging-on = success.

Frog-and-Toad, subs. (rhyming).—The main road.

Frog-and-Toe, subs. (American thieves’).—The city of New York.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, p. 35. Coves, let us frog-and-toe, coves, let us go to New York.

Froglander, subs. (old).—A Dutchman. Cf., frog, sense 2.

1852. Judson, Mysteries, etc., of New York, ch. xiv. The funny swag which they raised out of the froglander coves.

Frog-salad, subs. (American).—A ballet; i.e., a leg-piece (q.v.).

Frog’s March. To give the frog’s march, verb. phr. (common).—To carry a man face downwards to the station; a device adopted with drunken or turbulent prisoners.

1871. Evening Standard, ‘Clerkenwell Police Report,’ 18 April. In cross-examination the police stated that they did not give the defendant the frog’s march. The frog’s march was described to be carrying the face downwards.

1884. Daily News, Oct. 4, p. 5, col. 2. They had to resort to a mode of carrying him, familiarly known in the force, we believe, as the frog trot, or sometimes as the frog’s march.… The prisoner is carried with his face downwards and his arms drawn behind him.

1888. Daily Telegraph, 22 Dec. Whether the ‘bobbies’ ran the tipsy man in, treating him meanwhile to a taste of the frog’s march, and whether he was fined or imprisoned for assaulting the police, is not upon the record.

1890. Bird o’ Freedom, 19 Mar., p. 1, col. 1. And then he gets the frog’s march to the nearest Tealeaf’s. [77]

Frog’s Wine, subs. phr. (old).—Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks and Satin.

Frolic, subs. (common).—A merry-making.

1847. Robb. Squatter Life, p. 133. At all the frolicks round the country, Jess was hangin’ onter that gal.

Frosty-face, subs. (old).—A pox-pitted man. Grose (1785).

Front, verb (thieves’).—To conceal the operations of a pickpocket; to cover (q.v.).

1879. J. W. Horsley in Macmillan’s Mag., XL., 506. So my pal said, ‘Front me (cover me), and I will do him for it.’

Front-attic (or -door, -garden, -parlour, -room, or -window). subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. To have (or do) a bit of front-door work = to copulate.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Mrs. Fubb’s front-parlour (vide Tom Rees) is not to be mistaken for any part of any building.

Front-door Mat, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pubic hair. For synonyms, see Fleece.

Front-gut, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Frontispiece, subs. (pugilists’).—The face. For synonyms, see Dial.

1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, I., p. 221. Tyne put in right and left upon the Jew’s frontispiece two such severe blows, that Crabbe’s countenance underwent a trifling change.

1845. Buckstone, Green Bushes, i., 1. It’s a marcy my switch didn’t come in contract with your iligant frontispiece.

1864. A. Trollope, Sm. Ho. at Allington (1884), vol. ii., ch. V., p. 47. He said that he had had an accident—or rather, a row—and that he had come out of it with considerable damage to his frontispiece.

1891. Sporting Life, 28 Mar. It must be confessed that the ludicrous was attained when Griffiths subsequently appeared with a short black pipe in his distorted and battered frontispiece.

Front-windows, subs. (common).—1. The eyes; also the face.

2. In sing. (venery).—The female pudendum. Cf., front-attic; and for synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Frost, subs. (common).—A complete failure. Cf., Fr., un four noir. Also un temps noir = a blank interval; a prolonged silence (as when an actor’s memory fails him).

1885. Bell’s Life, 3 Jan., p. 3, col. 6. We regret we cannot write favorably concerning this matter, the affair being almost as big a frost athletically as it was financially.

Froudacious, Froudacity, adj. and subs. See quots.

1888. Colonies and India, 14 Nov. The word ‘Froudacity,’ invented by Mr. Darnell Davis in his able review of The Bow of Ulysses, recently published, has reached the height of popularity in the Australasian Colonies, where it has come into everyday use. In the Melbourne Assembly the other day an hon. member observed—speaking of some remarks made by a previous speaker—that he never heard [78]such froudacious statements in his life. The colonial papers are beginning, also, to spell the word with a small ‘f,’ which is significant.

1889. Graphic, 16 Feb. By exposing some of Mr. Froude’s manifold errors (the most dangerous is that which assumes the sour Waikato clays to be rich because they grow fern) he justifies the Australian adjective Froudacious.

Froust, subs. (Harrow School).—1. Extra sleep allowed on Sunday mornings and whole holidays. Fr., faire du lard.

Frousty, adj. (common).—Stinking.

Frout, adj. (Winchester College).—Angry; vexed.

Frow (or Froe, or Vroe), subs. (old).—A woman; a wife; a mistress. [From the Dutch.]

1607. Dekker, Westward Ho, Act V., Sc. 1. Eat with ’em as hungerly as soldiers; drink as if we were froes.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, V. Brush to your froe and wheedle for crap, c. whip to your mistress and speak her fair to give or lend you some Money.

1789. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 119 A flash of lightning next Bess tipt each cull and frow.

Fruitful Vine, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Fruitful vine. A woman’s private parts, i.e., that has flowers every month, and bears fruit in nine.

Frummagemed, adj. (old).—Choked; strangled; spoilt.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. ‘If I had not helped you with these very fambles (holding up her hands), Jean Baillie would have frummagem’d you, ye feckless do-little!’

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 21. There he lay, almost frummagem’d.

Frump, subs. (old).—1. A contemptuous speech or piece of conduct; a sneer; a jest.

1553. Wilson, Art of Rhetorique, p. 137. (He) shall be able to abashe a right worthie man, and make him at his witte’s ende, through the sodaine quicke and vnlooked frumpe giuen.

1589. Greene, Menaphon, p. 45. For women’s paines are more pinching if they be girded with a frumpe than if they be galled with a mischiefe.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Bichiacchia, jestes, toyes, frumps, flim-flam tales, etc.

1606. T. Dekker, Seven Deadly Sinnes, p. 44 (ed. Arber). The courtiers gives you an open scoffe, ye clown a secret mock, the cittizen yat dwels at your threshald, a ieery frump.

1630. Taylor, Works. But yet, me thinkes, he gives thee but a frumpe, In telling how thee kist a wenches rumpe.

1662. Rump Songs, ‘Arsy-Varsy,’ etc., ii., 47. As a preface of honor and not as a frump, First with a Sir reverence ushers the Rump.

1668. Dryden, An Evening’s Love, Act IV. Sc. 3. Not to be behindhand with you in your frumps, I give you back your purse of gold.

2. (common).—A slattern; more commonly a prim old lady; the correlative of fogey (q.v.). Fr., un graillon.

1831. J. R. Planché, Olympic Revels, Sc. i. Cheat, you stingy frump! Who wants to cheat?

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, I., p. 157. Get into the hands of the other old frumps. [79]

1857. Thackeray, Virginians, ch. xxxi. She is changed now, isn’t she? What an old Gorgon it is! She is a great patroness of your book-men, and when that old frump was young they actually made verses about her.

1589. Nashe, Month’s Mind, in Works, Vol. I., p. 158. One of them … maketh a iest of Princes, and ‘the troubling of the State, and offending of her Maiestie,’ hee turneth of with a frumping forsooth, as though it were a toie to think of it.

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super, in Works II., 107. That despiseth the graces of God, flowteth the constellations of heaven, frumpeth the operations of nature.

1757. Garrick, Irish Widow, I., i. Yes, he was frumped, and called me old blockhead.

Frumper, subs. (old).—A sturdy man; a good blade.

Frumpish, adj. (colloquial).—Cross-grained; old-fashioned and severe in dress, manners, morals, and notions; ill-natured; given to frumps. Also Frumpy.

1589. Greene, Tullies Love, in wks. vii., 131. Who were you but as fauourable, as you are frumpish, would soone censure by my talke, how deepe I am reade in loues principles.

1701. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, Act. V., Sc. 5. She got, I don’t know how, a crotchet of jealousy in her head. This made her frumpish, but we had ne’er an angry word.

1757. Foote, Author, Act II. And methought she looked very frumpish and jealous.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, Bk. I., ch. xi. ‘Don’t fancy me a frumpy old married woman, my dear; I was married but the other day, you know.’

1889. Modern Society, 12 Oct., p. 1271, col. 2. Quite an elderly and superannuated look is given to the toilette which is finished off by a woollen cloud or silken shawl, and only invalids and sixty-year-old women should be allowed such frumpish privileges.

Frushee, subs. (Scots’).—An open jam tart.

Fry, verb (common).—To translate into plain English. Cf., boil down.

1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. xxx. ‘I shall repose the greatest confidence in you, my dear girl, which one human being can entrust to another,’ was one of its sentences, which, when it came ‘to be fried,’ meant that she should delegate to her the duties of combing Fido and cutting her canary’s claws.

Go and fry your face, phr. (common).—A retort expressive of incredulity, derision, or contempt.

Frying-pan. To jump from the frying-pan into the fire, verb. phr. (common).—To go from bad to worse. Cf., ‘from the smoke into the smother’ (As You Like it, i., 2.). Fr., tomber de la poêle dans la braise.

1684. Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, Part II. Some, though they shun the frying-pan, do leap into the fire.

F Sharp, subs. phr. (common).—A flea; cf., B flat.

Fuant, subs. (old).—Excrement.—B. E. Dict. of the Canting Crew.

Fub, verb. (old).—To cheat; to steal; to put off with false excuses. Also Fubbery = cheating, stealing, deception. [80]

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., II., 1. I have borne, and borne, and borne, and have been fubbed off, and fubbed off from this day to that day.

1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., 3. O no; but dream the most fantastical. O heaven! O fubbery! fubbery!

Fubsey or Fubsy, adj. (old).—Plump; fat; well-filled. Fubsy dummy = a well-filled pocket book; fubsy wench = a plump girl.

1825. English Spy, I., p. 188. Old dowagers, their fubsy faces, Painted to eclipse the Graces.

1837. Marryat, Snarley-yow, I., ch. viii. Seated on the widow’s little fubsy sofa.

Fubsiness, subs. (common).—Any sort of fatness.

Fuck, subs. (venery).—1. An act of coition. For synonyms, see Greens.

c. 1540. David Lyndsay, ‘Flyting with King James.’ Aye fukkand like ane furious fornicator.

1568. Clerk, Bannatyne MSS., Hunterian Soc. Publication, p. 298. He clappit fast, he kist, he chukkit, As with the glaikkis he wer ourgane; Yit be his feiris he wald haif fukkit.

1568. Anonymous, Bannatyne MSS., Hunterian Soc. Publication, p. 399. ‘In Somer when Flouris will Smell.’ Allace! said sch, my awin sweit thing, Your courtly fukking garis me fling, Ye wirk sae weill.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, Fottere. To jape; to sarde, to fucke; to swive; to occupy.

1620. Percy, Folio MSS., p. 459. [Hales and Furnivall, 1867.] A mighty mind to clipp, kisse, and to ffuck her.

1647–80. Rochester, ‘Written under Nelly’s Picture.’ Her father fucked them right together.

1683. Earl of Dorset, ‘A Faithful Catalogue.’ From St. James’s to the Land of Thule, There’s not a whore who f——s so like a mule.

c. 1716–1746. Robertson of Struan, Poems, 256. But she gave proof that she could f——k, Or she is damnably bely’d.

c. 1790(?). Burns, Merry Muses. And yet misca’s a poor thing That fucks for its bread.

Fuckable, adj. (venery).—Desirable. Also Fucksome.

Fucker, subs. (common).—1. A lover; a fancy joseph (q.v.).

Fuck-finger, subs. phr. (venery).—A fricatrix.

Fuck-fist, subs. phr. (venery).—A frigster (q.v.); a masturbator. For synonyms, see Milkman.

Fuck-hole, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Fucking, subs. (venery).—Generic for the ‘act of kind.’

1568. Scott, Bannatyne MSS., Hunterian Soc. Publication, p. 363. ‘To the Derisioun of Wantoun Wemen.’ Thir foure, the suth to sane, Enforsis thame to fucking … Quod Scott. [81]

1575. Satirical Poems, etc., Scottish Text Soc. Pub. (1889–90) i., 208. ‘A Lewd Ballat.’ To se forett the holy frere his fukking so deplore.

Adv. (common).—Intensitive and expletive; a more violent form of bloody (q.v.). See Foutering.

Fuckish, adj. (venery).—Wanton; proud (q.v.); inclined for coition.

Fuckster, subs. (venery).—A good performer (q.v.); one specially addicted to the act. A woman-fucker (Florio), but in feminine fuckstress.

Fud, subs. (venery).—The pubic hair. For synonyms, see Fleece. Also the tail of a hare or rabbit.

Fuddle, subs. (common).—1. Drink. [Wedgwood: A corruption of fuzz.]

1621. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy. The university troop dined with the Earl of Abingdon and came back well fuzzed.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. fuddle, Drink. ‘This is rum fuddle, c. this is excellent Tipple.’

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, I., Pt. iv., p. 18. And so, said I, we sipp’d our fuddle, As women in the straw do caudle, ’Till every man had drown’d his noddle.

1733. Bailey, Erasmus, p. 125 (ed. 1877). Don’t go away; they have had their dose of fuddle.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2nd ed.). To fuddle. 1. To make a person drunk. 2. To grow drunk.

1770. Foote. Lame Lover, iii. Come, Hob or Nob, Master Circuit—let us try if we can’t fuddle the serjeant.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. He boxed the watch; he fuddled himself at taverns; he was no better than a Mohock.

1889. Echo, 15 Feb. If rich, you may fuddle with Bacchus all night, And be borne to your chamber remarkably tight.

Fuddlecap (or Fuddler), subs. (common).—A drunkard; a boon companion. For synonyms, see Lushington.

1607. Dekker, Jests to make you Merie, in wks. (Grosart) ii., 299. And your perfect fuddlecap [is known] by his red nose.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.) Fuddlecap (S.) one that loves tippling, an excessive drinker, or drunkard.

Fuddled, adj. (colloquial).—Stupid with drink. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1661. Pepys, Diary, 8 March After dinner, to drink all the afternoon … at last come in Sir William Wale, almost fuddled.

1713. Guardian, No. 145. It was my misfortune to call in at Tom’s last night, a little fuddled.

1730. Thomson, Autumn, 537. The table floating round, And pavement faithless to the fuddled foot.

1838. Dickens, Nich. Nickleby, ch. lx., p. 485. You’re a little fuddled to-night, [82]and may not be able to see this as clearly as you would at another time.

1841. Punch, I., p. 74. The Sultan got very fuddled last night with forbidden juice in the harem, and tumbled down the ivory steps.

1864. Glasgow Citizen, 19 Nov. No other word has so many equivalents as ‘drunk.’… One very common and old one has escaped Mr. Hotten—fuddled.

1888. Daily News, 28 Nov. Music halls would soon decrease in numbers if drink were not sold in them, for sober people would not go to see spectacles only attractive to those who were half fuddled.

Fudge, subs. (colloquial).—Nonsense; humbug; an exaggeration; a falsehood. [Provincial French, fuche, feuche; an exclamation of contempt from Low Ger. futsch = begone; see, however, quots. 1700 and 1712.] Also as an exclamation of contempt.

1700. Isaac Disraeli, Notes on the Navy. There was, in our time, one Captain Fudge, a commander of a merchant-man; who, upon his return from a voyage, always brought home a good cargo of lies; insomuch that now, aboard ship, the sailors, when they hear a great lie, cry out fudge.

1712. W. Crouch, A Collection of Papers. In the year 1664 we were sentenced for banishment to Jamaica by Judges Hyde and Twisden, and our number was 55. We were put on board the ship Black Eagle; the master’s name was Fudge, by some called Lying Fudge.

1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xi. Who … would cry out fudge! an expression which displeased us all, and, in some measure, damped the rising spirit of the conversation.

1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, Bk. II., ch. vii. Very genteel young man—prepossessing appearance—(that’s a fudge!)—highly educated; usher in a school—eh?

1850. Thackeray, Rebecca and Rowena, ch. i. Her ladyship’s proposition was what is called bosh … or fudge in plain Saxon.

1861. Cornhill Magazine, iv., 102. ‘A Cumberland Mare’s Nest.’ … Up jumped the worthy magistrate, And seizing ‘Burn,’ Of justices the oracle and badge, he straight Descended to his ‘lion’s den’ (a sobriquet in fudge meant) Where he, ‘a second Daniel,’ had often ‘come to judgment.’

1864. Tangled Talk, p. 108. It is fudge to tell a child to ‘love’ every living creature—a tapeworm, for instance, such as is bottled up in chemists windows.

1865. Morning Star, 1 June. Old as I am and half woor out, I would lay (too bad, Mr. Henley, this) upon my back and hallo fudge!

1882. Daily Telegraph, 5 Oct., p. 2, col. 2. Much that we hear concerning the ways and means of the working classes is sheer fudge.

Verb. (colloquial).—1. To fabricate; to interpolate; to contrive without proper materials.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xviii. By the time that he did know something about navigation, he discovered that his antagonist knew nothing. Before they arrived at Malta, Jack could fudge a day’s work.

1858. Shirley Brooks, Gordian Knot. Robert Spencer was hiding from his creditors, or fudging medical certificates.

1859. G. A. Sala, in John Bull, 21 May. I had provided myself with a good library of books of Russian travel, and so fudged my Journey Due North.

1877. Blanch, The Blue Coat Boys p. 97. Fudge, verb., trans. and intrans. To prompt a fellow in class, or prompt oneself in class artificially. Thence to tell; e.g., ‘fudge me what the time is.’

Fug, verb. (Shrewsbury School).—To stay in a stuffy room.

Fugel, verb. (venery).—To possess; to have (q.v.).

Fuggy, subs. (schoolboys’).—A hot roll.

Fugo, subs. (obsolete).—The rectum, or (Cotgrave) ‘bung-hole.’

1720. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 247. This maid, she like a beast turned her fugo to the East.

Fulhams or Fullams, subs. (old).—Loaded dice; called ‘high’ or ‘low’ fulhams as they were intended to turn up high or low. Cf., gourd. [Conjecturally, because manufactured at Fulham, or because that village was a notorious resort of blacklegs.] For synonyms, see Uphills.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller, in wks. v., 27. The dice of late are growen as melancholy as a dog, high men and low men both prosper alike, langrets, fullams, and all the whole fellowshippe of them will not affoord a man his dinner.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, i., 3. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd, and fullam holds, And high and low beguile the rich and poor.

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of His Hum., iii., 1. Car.: Who! he serve? ’sblood, he keeps high men, and low men, he! he has—fair living at Fullam. [Whalley’s note in Gifford’s Jonson, The dice were loaded to run high or low; hence they were called high men or low men, and sometimes high and low fullams. Called fullams either because F. was the resort of sharpers, or because they were chiefly made there.]

1664. Butler, Hudibras, Part II., C. i., 1. 642. But I do wonder you should chuse This way t’ attack me with your muse, As one cut out to pass your tricks on, With fulhams of poetic fiction. [Note in Dr. Nash’s Ed., vol. I., p. 272 (Ed. 1835). ‘That is, with cheats or impositions. Fulham was a cant word for a false die, many of them being made at that place.’]

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams and bristles … and a hundred ways of rooking besides.

Fulham Virgin, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A fast woman. Cf., Bankside lady; Covent Garden nun; St. John’s Wood vestal, etc.

Fulk, verb (old schoolboys’).—To use an unfair motion of the hand in plumping at taw.—Grose.

Fulke, verb (venery).—To copulate. [A euphemism suggested by Byron in Don Juan, the first and last words of which, so adepts tell you, are ‘I’ and ‘fulke.’]

Fulker, subs. (old).—A pawnbroker. For synonyms, see Uncle.

1566. Gascoigne, Supposes, ii., 3. The Fulker will not lend you a farthing upon it.

Full, adj. (colloquial).—1. Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 15 Dec. When he was full the police came and jugged.

2. (turf). Used by bookmakers to signify that they have laid all the money they wish against a particular horse.

A Full hand, subs. phr. (American waiters’). Five large beers. For analogous expressions, see Go.

Full team, subs. phr. (American).—An eulogium. A man is a full team when of consequence in the community. Variants are whole team, or whole team and a horse to spare. Cf. one-horse = mean, insignificant, or strikingly small.

Full to the bung, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Very drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

To have (or wear) a full suit of mourning, verb. phr. (pugilists’).—To have two black eyes. Half-mourning = one black eye. For synonyms, see Mouse.

To come full bob, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—To come suddenly; to come full tilt.

1672. Marvell, Rehearsal Transposed (in Grosart, iii., 414). The page and you meet full bob.

Full against, adv. phr. 1. Dead, or decidedly opposed to, a person, thing, or place.

Full-bottomed (or -breeched, or -pooped), adv. phr. (colloquial).—Broad in the hind; barge-arsed (q.v.)

Full-flavoured, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Peculiarly rank: as a story, an exhibition of profane swearing, an emission of wind, etc.

Full on, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Set strongly in a given direction, especially in an obscene sense: e.g., full on for it or full on for one = ready and willing au possible.

At full chisel, adv. phr. (American).—At full speed; with the greatest violence or impetuousity. Also full drive; full split. Cf. hickety split; ripping; staving along; two-thirty, etc.

In full blast, swing, etc., adv. phr. (colloquial).—In the height of success; in hot pursuit.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 5 a.m., Part I. At five a.m. the publication of the Times newspaper is, to use a north-country mining expression, in ‘full blast.’

1884. Daily News, Feb. 9, p. 5, col. 2. If he visit New York in that most pleasant season, the autumn, he will find that the ‘fall’ trade is ‘in full blast.’

1888. Daily Telegraph, 17 Nov. By half-past ten o’clock the smoking-room was in full swing.

In full fig.—1. See Fig (to which may be added the following illustrative quotations).

1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 178. In front of this shed—full fig, in regular Highland costume, philabeg, short hose, green coatee, bonnet and feather, marched the bagpiper.

1836. M. Scott, Cringle’s Log, ch. xi. Captain Transom, the other lieutenant, and myself in full puff, leading the van, followed by about fourteen seamen.

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, (2nd ed.), ch. viii. ‘Lookin’ as pleased as a peacock when it’s in full fig with its head and tail up.’

1841. Punch, i., p. 26, col. 1. Dressed in full fig—sword very troublesome—getting continually between my legs.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow (1st ed.), No. IV., p. 62. When our church bells were going for service, Major Parrifer’s carriage turned out with the ladies all in full fig.

2. adv. phr. (venery).—Said of an erection of the penis; prick-proud (q.v.). For synonyms, see Horn.

Like a straw-yard bull: full of fuck and half starved, phr. (venery). A friendly retort to the question, ‘How goes it?’ i.e., How are you?

Full of guts, phr. (colloquial).—Full of vigour; excellently inspired and done: as a picture, a novel, and so forth. See Guts.

Fuller’s Earth, subs. phr. (old).—Gin. For synonyms, see Satin.

1821. Real Life in London, i., 394. The swell covies and out-and-outers find nothing so refreshing, after a night’s spree, when the victualling office is out of order, as a little fuller’s earth, or dose of Daffy’s.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, iii., 3. Bring me de kwarten of de fuller’s earth.

Fullied. To be fullied, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To be committed for trial. [From the newspaper expression, ‘Fully committed.’] Fr., être mis sur la planche au pain.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, Vol. iii., p. 397. He got acquitted for that there note after he had me ‘pinched’ (arrested). I got fullied (fully committed).

1879. Horsley, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, xl., 506. I … was then fullied and got this stretch and a half.

1889. Answers, 13 April, p. 313. At the House of Detention I often noticed such announcements as ‘Jack from Bradford fullied for smashing, and expects seven stretch,’ i.e., fully committed for trial for passing bad money, and expects seven years’ penal servitude.

Fulness. There’s not fulness enough in the sleeve top. phr. (tailors’).—A derisive answer to a threat.

Fumbler, subs. (old).—An impotent man.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Fumbler, c., an unperforming husband; one that is insufficient; a weak Brother.

c. 1790. Burns, ‘David and Bathsheba,’ p. 40. ‘By Jove,’ says she, ‘what’s this I see, my Lord the King’s a fumbler.’

Fumbler’s Hall, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. See, however, quot. 1690. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. [86]

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Fumbler’s hall, the place where such (fumblers, q.v.) are to be put for their non-performance.

Fumbles, subs. (thieves’).—Gloves.

Fun, subs. (old).—1. A cheat; a trick.