Slang and its analogues, 2 | Project Gutenberg

ace, subs. (colloquial).—1. Confidence; boldness; also (more frequently) impudence: e.g., ‘I like your face’ = I like your cheek. Once literary; Cf., Cheek, Jaw, Gab, Brow, Mouth, Lip, etc.

1617. Middleton, A Faire Quarrell, II., ii. I that had face enough to do the deed, Cannot want tongue to speak it.

1668. Etherege, She Would if She Could, I., i. (1704), p. 95. I admire thy impudence, I could never have had the face to have wheadled the poor knight so.

1676. Etherege, Man of Mode, V., i., in wks. (1704), 265. I am amazed to find him here! How has he the face to come near you?

1702. Defoe, Shortest Way, in Arber’s Garner, vol. VII., p. 590. You have butchered one king! deposed another king! and made a mock king of a third! and yet, you could have the face to expect to be employed and trusted by the fourth.

1714. Spectator, No. 566. A man has scarce the face to make his court to a lady, without some credentials from the service to recommend him.

1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. liii. I can hardly suppose even Phil Tirrett would have the face to throw me over and ride for O’Brien.

1870. London Figaro, 3 June. ‘Look at that girl in pink, Sancho,’ he said; ‘that’s Lord Rubric’s daughter. Ran away with the family organist—that’s he with her. I like their face, though, to come here; it’s awfully good.’

2. (common).—Credit. To push one’s face = to get credit by bluster.—[See sense 1 and cf., Face-Entry.]

1765. Goldsmith, Essays, VIII. There are three ways of getting into debt: first, by pushing a face; as thus: ‘You, Mr. Lutestring, send me home six yards of that paduasoy, damme; but, harkee, don’t think I ever intend to pay you for it, damme.’ At this the mercer laughs heartily; cuts off the paduasoy, and sends it home; nor is he, till too late, surprised to find the gentleman had said nothing but the truth, and kept his word.

1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, p. 365. To run one’s face, to make use of one’s credit, to run one’s face for a thing is to get it ‘on tick.’

1875. American English in Chamb. Journal, 25 Sept., p. 610. To run your face, which means, to go upon credit.

3. (common).—A qualification of contempt: e.g., ‘Now face! where are you a-shoving of?’

Verb (old).—To bully.—See all senses, especially To Face with a card of ten.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, iv., 3. Face not me; thou hast brav’d many men; brave not me; I will neither be fac’d nor brav’d. [364]

To face or out-face with a card of ten, verb. phr. (old).—To browbeat; to ‘bluff.’ [Nares: derived from some game (possibly primero) wherein the standing boldly upon a ten was often successful. The phrase originally expressed the confidence of one player who with a ten, as at brag, faced or outfaced one who had really a faced card against him.]

1460–1529. Skelton [quoted by Nares.] First pycke a quarrel and fall out with him then, And so out face him with a card of ten.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii. A vengeance on your crafty wither’d hide, Yet I have fac’d it with a card of ten.

1630. B. Jonson, New Inn, i., 3. Some may be coats, as in the cards; but then Some must be knaves, some varlets, bawds, and ostlers, As aces, duces, cards o’ ten to face it Out, i’ the game which all the world is.

To face the knocker, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To go begging. For synonyms, see Cadge.

To have no face but one’s own, verb. phr. (old).—To be penniless; or (gamesters’) to hold no court cards. Fr., n’avoir pas une face = ‘not to have a sou.’

To make faces, verb. phr. (prison).—1. To go back, or ‘round’ upon a friend. [In allusion to the convicts’ habit of distorting their features under the lens.]

To face the music, verb phr. (American).—To meet an emergency; also to show one’s hand. [J. Fenimore Cooper derived it from the green-room, whence actors go on the boards and literally face the music. Another traces it to militia musters, where every man is expected to appear equipped and armed, when in rank and file, facing the music. A third derives it from drumming out of the army.]

1857. Worcester Spy, 22 Sept. Although such reverses would seem to fall with crushing weight upon some of our most substantial citizens, a strong determination to face the music is everywhere manifested.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 20 Feb. I am sure Fred can explain everything satisfactorily. I hope he hasn’t read the newspaper stories about him, for it might scare him, and he’d very foolishly skip out. That would be the worst thing he could do. He must face the music.

Face-entry, subs. (theatrical).—Freedom of access, the personal appearance being familiar to attendants.

Face-making, verb. subs. (old).—Begetting children. Cf., making feet for children’s stockings.

Facer, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A blow in the face.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 24. In short, not to dwell on each facer and fall, Poor Georgy was done up in no time at all.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood. ‘The Double Cross.’ No claret flows, No facers sound—no smashing blows.

1837. Barham, I. L. (The Ghost). Whom sometimes there would come on A sort of fear his spouse might knock his head off, Demolish half his teeth, or drive a rib in, She shone so much in facers and in ‘fibbing.’

1862. Athenæum, 1 Nov., p. 557, col. 1. Before his unknown adversary well [365]knew what was coming, the skilled fist of the Professor had planted such a facer as did not require repetition.

1868. C. Reade, Foul Play, ch. ii. This was followed by a quick succession of staggering facers, administered right and left, on the eyes and noses of the subordinates.

2. (common).—A sudden check; ‘a spoke in one’s wheel.’ [By implication from sense 1.]

1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xl. In the battle of life every man must meet with a blow or two, and every brave one would take his facer with good humour.

1869. Whyte Melville, M. or N., p. 189. Dick Stanmore took his punishment with true British pluck and pertinacity. It was a facer.

Facey, subs. (tailors’).—A fellow workman vis-à-vis. Facey on the bias = one in front either to right or left; Facey on the two thick = one working immediately behind one’s opposite.

Facings.—To be put, or go, through one’s facings, verb. phr. (popular).—To be called to account or scolded; to exemplify capacity; to ‘show off.’ [Military.]

Silk-facings, subs. (tailors’).—Stains upon work caused by droppings of beer. [In allusion to the ‘watered’ silk trimmings in front of a regimental jacket or coat.]

Fad-cattle, subs. (old).—Easy women. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart. [Cf., Faddle = to toy + cattle (q.v.).]

Faddist (also Fadmonger), subs. (colloquial).—A person (male or female) devoted to the pursuit of public fads: as ‘social purity,’ moral art, free-trade in syphilis, and so-forth.

Faddle, verb (obsolete).—To toy or trifle: as a subs. = a busybody; a ‘nancified’ affected male. Also Faddy = full of fads.

Fadge, subs. (common).—A farthing.

Verb (old).—To suit; to fit; to agree with; to come off. [A.S., fégan, fégean, to join, to fit. Nares says, ‘probably never better than a low word: it is now confined to the streets.’]

1593. Nashe, 4 Lett. Conf., in wks. (Grosart) II., 215. They haue broght in a new kind of a quicke sight, which your decrepite slow-mouing capacitie cannot fadge with.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, V., i., 154. We will haue, if this fadge not, an Antique.

1599. Massinger, Old Law, IV., ii. Clean. My Lord! Sim. Now it begins to fadge. [366]

1636. T. Heywood, Love’s Mistress, Act IV. Vulcan … I keep a dozen journeymen at least, besides my Ciclops and my Prentises, yet ’twill not fadge.

1639. Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit without Money, III., iv. Clothes I must get; this fashion will not fadge with me.

1678. Quack’s Academy; in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 32. That could never make their untoward handicrafts fadge to purpose.

1750. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 18 Oct. (1833), vol. II., p. 485. Alack! when I came to range them, they did not fadge at all.

1819. Scott, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), ii., 197. Pray let me know … how matters fadge in the great city of Edinburgh.

1830. Scott, Doom of Devorgoil, Act II., Sc. 1. If this same gear fadge right, I’ll cote and mouth her, And then! whoop! dead! dead! dead!

1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. lv., p. 173 (1888). Any new adventure which I can invent will not fadge well with the old tale.

Fadger, subs. (glaziers’).—A glazier’s frame; otherwise a ‘frail.’

Fadmonger, subs. (colloquial).—A Faddist (q.v.). Fadmongering, verb. phr. (colloquial) = dealing as a Faddist (q.v.) with fads.

Fag, subs. (public schools’).—1. A boy who does menial work for a schoolfellow in a higher form. [From Fag, to grow weary.]

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xviii. Bob Trotter, the diminutive fag of the studio, who ran on all the young men’s errands, and fetched them in apples, oranges, and walnuts.

1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. i. Is still enumerated among the feats of the brave days of old, by the fags over their evening small beer.

1850. L. Hunt, Autobiography, ch. iii. Fag, with us [at Christ’s Hospital], meant eatables. The learned derived the word from the Greek phago, to eat.

Verb (public schools’).—1. To do menial work for a schoolfellow in a higher form. Cf., Fag, subs., sense 1.

1884. Temple Bar, August, p. 514. He must have completely marred his chance of happiness at the school when he refused to fag and took countless thrashings, snivelling.

Fagger, Figger, or Figure, subs. (old).—A boy thief whose duty is to enter houses by windows and either open the doors to his confederates (as Oliver Twist with Bill Sykes), or hand out the ‘swag’ to them; also little snakesman (q.v.); cf., Diver.

Fagging, or Faggery, subs. (public schools’).—Waiting upon and doing menial work for a school-fellow in a higher form. Also used adjectively.

1853. De Quincey, Autob. Sketches, i., 210. Faggery was an abuse too venerable and sacred to be touched by profane hands.

1873. Pall Mall Gazette, 17 May. The Winchester ‘tunding’ system, with all its faults, is hardly less objectionable than the fagging system pursued in the Scotch endowed hospitals.

Faggot, subs. (common).—1. A term of opprobrium applied to women; a ‘baggage.’ [At one time a faggot was a popular symbol of recantation of opinions [367]thought worthy only of burning (Bailey, 1728), and heretics who had thus escaped the stake were required either to bear a faggot and burn it in public, or to wear an imitation on the sleeve as a badge.] Also used in combination: e.g., Bed- (or Straw-) Faggot = a wife, or mistress; Tumble-faggot = a whoremaster; Carry-faggot = a mattress; and Spike- (or Tickle-) faggot (obsolete) = the penis.

1820. Reynolds (‘P. Corcoran’), The Fancy, p. 16. I have got a faggot here, Aye, and quite a bad one; Were I married, p’rhaps my dear Might think that he too had one.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. ii., p. 255. He then made his supper, or second meal, for tea he seldom touched, on fagots. This preparation … is a sort of cake, roll, or ball, a number being baked at a time, and is made of chopped liver and lights, mixed with gravy, and wrapped in pieces of pig’s caul. It weighs six ounces, so that it is unquestionably a cheap [it costs 1d. hot] and, to the scavager, a savoury meal, but to other nostrils it’s odour is not seductive.

1870. London Figaro, 2 July. Have you more than a penny? A glorious perspective opens out before you of all the delicacies of the season, commencing with trotters—the harmless mutton, or the succulent swine; ‘faggots,’ etc.

1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 615. They can obtain hot faggots, hot baked potatoes, hot fried fish, or a cut of pork with hot pease-pudding.

3. (old).—A ‘dummy’ soldier; one hired to appear at a muster to hide deficiencies. Many names of dummies would appear on the muster-roll: for these the colonel drew pay, but they were never in the ranks.

1672–1719. Addison [quoted in Imperial Dict.]. There were several counterfeit books which were carved in wood, and served only to fill up the number like fagots in the muster of a regiment.

Verb (old).—1. To bind hand and foot; to tie [as sticks into a faggot]. Fr., un fagot = a convict, because bound to a common chain on their way to the hulks.

Faggot-briefs, subs. (political).—Bundles of dummy papers sometimes carried by briefless barristers. [Cf., Faggot, sense 3.]

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 10 a.m. Par. 10. The counsel chat and poke each other in the ribs; the briefless ones, in the high back rows, scribble caricatures on their blotting-pads, or pretend to pore over faggot briefs.

Faggot briefs … those bundles of dummy papers sometimes carried by the briefless ones.

Faggoteer, (also Faggot-master), subs. (venery).—A whoremonger. For synonyms, see Molrower.

Faggot-vote, subs. (political).—A vote secured by the purchase of property under mortgage, or otherwise, so as to constitute a nominal qualification without a substantial basis. [Derived by some from Faggot, sense 3; by others from the mode of manufacture, i.e., by the purchase of property which is divided into as many lots as will constitute separate votes, and given to different persons.]

1854. Notes and Queries, vol. X., p. 403. Faggot-vote.—Can you inform [368]me of the origin of the term used to denote a spurious or fictitious vote, formed usually by the nominal transfer of a sufficient qualification to an otherwise unqualified man; this is called a faggot vote.

1879. Gladstone, 1st Midl. Speech, 25 Nov. Why, gentlemen, quite apart from every question of principle, nothing, I venture to say, can be so grossly imprudent as that which is familiarly known in homely but most accurate phrase as the manufacture of faggot votes.

1887. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 627. Faggot votes … the name is probably taken from an old military term.

Fains! Fainits! Fain it! intj. (schoolboys’).—A call for truce during the progress of a game without which priority or place would be lost; generally understood to be preferred ‘in bounds,’ or when out of danger. [Thought to be a corruption of ‘fend.’]—See Bags!

Fair-gang, subs. (old).—Gypsies. [From their habit of visiting fairs.]

Fair-rations, subs. (sporting).—Fair dealings.

Fair-shake, subs. (American).—A good bargain. [From a measure well shaken down.] Cf., Shake.

Fair-trade, subs. (nautical).—Smuggling.

Faithful. One of the faithful, subs. phr. (old).—1. A drunkard. For synonyms, see Elbow-crooker.

1609. The Man in the Moone. This fellow is one of the faithfull, as they prophanelie terme him, said Opinion; no Heliogabalus at meat, but he will drinke many degrees beyond a Dutchman.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon. Faithful. A tailor that gives long credit. ‘I say, Sam, what kind of crib was that you cracked?’ ‘Oh! it belonged to one of the faithful.’

Faithful Durhams, subs. phr. (military).—The Sixty-Eight Foot.

Fake, subs. (common).—An action; a proceeding; a manœuvre; a mechanical contrivance—an affair of any kind irrespective of morals or legality: generally used in a sense specifically detrimental. In America, a swindler. [Origin dubious: Barrère says, ‘a very ancient cant word,’ but gives no evidence. Fakement (q.v.) appears to be the older subs. form (1785), while the verbal usage is traced to Ainsworth’s ‘fake away’! in Rookwood (1834). Conjecturally derived from the Latin facere, to make, to do: compare to which the French slang use of faire.]

1827. Maginn, in Blackwood’s Mag. … the fogle-hunters doing Their morning fake in the prigging lay.

[Circa 1850, but date uncertain.] ‘Bates’ Farm.’ I’m up to every little fake, But in me there’s no harm.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 237. After that we had a fine fake—that was the fire of the Tower of London—it sold rattling.

1871. London Figaro, 21 Oct. Yet they’ve been known for many a fake To coolly set a trap.

1883. Greenwood, Tag, Rag, and Co. Naming the house in the ridiculous way it was named was merely a fake to draw attention to it.

1888. New York Mercury. Both ladies then came to the conclusion that the fortune-teller was a fake, and they decided to notify the police.

1889. Globe, 23 July, p. 2, col. 2. Good Gladstonites, flock up and take One bottle of the Parnell fake.

Verb (common).—1. To do anything; to fabricate; to cheat; to deceive, or devise falsely; [369]to steal; to forge. A general verb-of-all-work. In America fix (q.v.) is employed much in the same way, whilst the French slang has faire; maquiller; aquiger or quiger; and goupiner.

[In combination to fake a screeve = to write a begging letter; to fake one’s slangs = to file through one’s fetters; to fake a cly (q.v.) = to pick a pocket; to fake the sweetener = to kiss; to fake the duck = to adulterate, to dodge; to fake the rubber = to stand treat; to fake the broads = to pack the cards, or to work the three-card trick; to fake a line (theatrical) = to improvise a speech; to fake a dance, or a step, or a trip (theatrical) = to perform what looks like, but is not, dancing.]

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 390. The ring is made out of brass gilt buttons, and stunning well: it’s faked up to rights, and takes a good judge even at this day to detect it without a test.

1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, ch. lv. There the folk are music-bitten, and they molest not beggars, unless they fake to boot, and then they drown us out of hand.

1872. Morning Post, 7 Nov. Since the faking of the scales in Catch-’em-alive’s year the oldest habitué of Newmarket cannot recall so sensational a Cambridgeshire week as the last one.

3. (theatrical).—Also to fake up. To paint one’s face; to make up a character.

1885. Sporting Times, 23 May. ‘The Chorister’s Promise.’ The landlady left, and the chorister fair Faked herself up, and frizzed her hair.

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood. The knucks in quod did my schoolmen play, Fake away!

1846. Punch’s Almanack, ‘Song of September.’ The partridge on its tender wing Is up at break of day, But down the bird my gun shall bring: Bang! fizz, boys! fake away!

Fake-boodle.—See Boodle.

Faked, ppl. adj. (common).—Counterfeit; sometimes faked-up. Fr., lophe.

1889. Answers, 15 June, p. 41, col. 1. In order to prevent any chance of a dishonest person winning by means of a faked puzzle we shall provide a number of puzzles ourselves, and these will be used by all competitors.

Fakement, subs. (old).—1. A counterfeit signature; a forgery; specifically a begging letter or petition. Fr., brasser des faffes = to forge documents, i.e., ‘to screeve fakements’; un fafiot (also a bank note, or shoe); and une luque or un luquet.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Tell the macers to mind their fakements, desire the swindlers to be careful not to forge another person’s signature.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Dependents of beggars; as screevers or the writers of ‘slums’ (letters) and fakements (petitions).

1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, p. 39. Lawyer Bob draws fakements up; he’s tipped a peg for each.

1889. Answers, 27 July, p. 137, col. 1. I have drawn up fakements for sham members of almost every trade, always using a leading name at the head of the list of donors.

2. (common).—Generic for dishonest practices; but applied to any kind of action, contrivance, or trade.—See Fake, subs., of which it is an older usage. Cf., Kidment.

1838. Glascock, Land Sharks and Sea Gulls, II., 4. That’s right; I see you’re fly to every fakement. [370]

1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulg. Tongue, p. 44. For every day, mind what I say, Fresh fakements you will find.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, ch. v. I cultivated his acquaintance, examined his affairs, and put him up to the neatest little fakement in the world.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 232. Stow your gab and gauffery, To every fakement I’m a-fly. Ibid., p. 233. I have got a pair of highly polished steel spring snuffers with extra fakement; they will either snuff a candle out or snuff a candle in.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 254. You worked that little fakement in a blooming quiet way, … said my late neighbour.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 7 Aug., p. 6, col. 2. Pair of moleskins [trousers], any colour … with a double fakement down the sides, and artful buttons at the bottom.

Fakement-Charley, subs. phr. (thieves’).—An owner’s private mark.

Faker, subs. (common).—1. One who makes, does, or ‘fakes’ anything; specifically a thief. Found in many combinations: e.g., Bit-faker; Flue-faker; Grub-faker; Sham-faker, Twat-faker, etc.

1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. xxxi., p. 112 (1888). We never calls them thieves here, but prigs and fakers.

1869. George Macdonald, Robert Falconer, pt. III., ch. x. Them pusses is mannyfactered express for the convenience o’ the fakers.

1885. Daily Telegraph, 1 August, p. 2, col. 1. ‘I’ve turned faker of dolls and dolls’ furniture; like what you see us working on now.’ ‘And when you say faker you mean—‘Renowater,’ struck in Miss Menders.’

Fakes and Slumboes, subs. phr. (theatrical).—Properties; accessories of any kind.

Faking, verb. subs. (common).—The act of doing anything. [From fake (q.v.) + ing.] Fr., le maquillage or le goupinage.

Fall, verb (thieves’).—1. To be arrested.

1883. Horsley, Jottings from Jail [in Echo]. A little time after this I fell again at St. Mary Cray for being found at the back of a house.

Fall of the Leaf, subs. phr. (old).—Hanging. [In allusion to the fall of the drop.] For synonyms, see Ladder.

1789. G. Parker, Variegated Characters. He was knocked down for the crap the last sessions. He went off at the fall of the leaf at Tuck’em Fair.

False-hereafter, subs. (American).—A bustle. For synonyms, see Bird-cage.

Fam.—See Fambling-cheat and Famble.

Famble, Fam, or Fem, subs. (old).—The hand. Cf., Fambling-cheat. For synonyms, see Bunch of fives and Daddle. [German slang has Fehm, Vehm, or Vehn, and is apparently the same word as the English Fam. A likely etymon is the Swed. and Dan. fem, five.] [371]

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Fambles. handes.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. If I had not helped you with these very fambles (holding up her hands).

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 28. Allowing for delicate fams, which have merely Been handling the sceptre, and that, too but queerly.

Verb (old).—To touch; to handle; especially with a view to ascertaining the whereabouts of valuables. Also termed to fam for the plant, and to run a rule over. To fam a donna = to take liberties with a woman; to firky-toodle (q.v.); to cross-fam (q.v.).

Famblers, Fambling-Cheats (q.v.) or Fam-snatchers (q.v.), subs. (old).—Gloves.

Fambling-cheat, Famble, or Fam, subs. (old).—A ring; also (about 1694) gloves, which later still were also called Fam-snatchers (q.v.). [From Famble, a hand + a.s. chete (q.v.), a thing.]

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Fambling Cheates, Rings.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, II., in wks. (1720), iv., 47. Look on my finger, sirrah, look here; here’s a famble.

Fam-grasp, verb (old).—To shake hands. Also substantively, hand-shaking.

Familiars, subs. (common).—Lice. For synonyms, see Chates.

Familiar-way, subs. (common).—With child.

Family Disturbance, subs. (American).—Whiskey. For synonyms, see Drinks.

Family-hotel, subs. (old).—A prison. For synonyms, see Cage. [Cf., Family-man.]

1857. Punch, 31 Jan. In a ward with one’s pals, Not locked up in a cell, To an old hand like me its a fam-ly hotel.

Family-man, subs. (old).—A thief; specifically, a fence (q.v.). [In allusion to the fraternities into which thieves were at one time invariably banded.]—See Thieves.

1749. Bamfylde Moore-Carew., ‘Oath of the Canting Crew.’ No dummerar, or romany; No member of the family.

1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Specialist, i., 221. Let the people say what they will against gamesters, gamblers, Or family-men.

1838. Glascock, Land Sharks and Sea Gulls, II., 100. This house … was a favourite resort of the family, or, to speak with less reserve, it was a thieves’ house.

Family of Love, subs. phr. (venery).—A company of prostitutes. [372]

Family-plate, subs. (common).—Silver money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

Family-pound, subs. (common).—A family grave.

Fam-lay, subs. (thieves’).—Shop-lifting. [From fam, a hand + lay, a performance.]

Fam-snatchers, subs. (old).—Gloves. Cf., Fambling-cheat.

c. 1824. Pierce Egan, Finish to Life in London. To Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., I resign my fam-snatchers, i.e., my gloves.

Fam-squeeze, subs. (old).—Strangulation.

Fam-struck, adj. and adv. (thieves’).—Baffled in ascertaining the whereabouts of valuables on the person of an intended victim; also handcuffed.

Fan, subs. (thieves’).—A waistcoat; said by Hotten (1864) to be a Houndsditch term, but quoted in Matsell (1859) as American.

French Synonyms.—Un gilmont (thieves’); un georget (popular: = a breast-plate); un casimir (popular); une camisole (popular: properly, a kind of petticoat-bodice worn by women); un croisant (popular).

German Synonyms.—Brustmalbisch; Kreuzspanne (Hanoverian); Nefesch (Ave-Lallement suggests identity with the Fischness of Zimmermann, a word said to be derived from the English ‘fashion.’ Probably, however, the true etymon is the Hebrew nephesch, in allusion to a waistcoat covering the chest and heart, the seat of life. German ladies call a scarf or shawl [which protects the same region] Seelenwärmer; i.e., a soul-warmer); Zwängerling (= fitting closely to the body; cf., Weitling, Hanoverian Weitchen, the trousers = wide).

1887. W. O. Tristram, in Eng. Ill. Mag., v., 228. The coachman now has recourse to all the dark arts of persuasion and the whip, fanning them, which, in the tongue of coachmen, is whipping them.

2. (thieves’).—To feel; to handle (with a view to ascertain if a victim has anything valuable about his person). [Cf. Fam, of which it is possibly a corruption.] Also to steal from the person.

1851–1861. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 319. Before Joe said anything to me, he had fanned the gentleman’s pocket, i.e., had felt the pocket and knew there was a handkerchief.

Fancy, subs. (old).—The fraternity of pugilists: prize-fighting being once regarded as THE fancy par excellence. Hence, by implication, people who cultivate a special hobby or taste. Cf., Fancy-bloke.

1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, vol. I., p. 355. The various gradations of the Fancy hither [373]resort, to discuss matters incidental to pugilism.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xiv. Mr. William Ramm, known to the Fancy as the Tutbury Pet.

Fancy-bloke, subs. (common).—1. A sporting man. [From Fancy (q.v.) + Bloke, a man.]

Fancy-house, subs. (venery).—A brothel; also a house of accommodation (q.v.). For synonyms, see Nanny-Shop.

Fancy-Joseph, subs. (venery).—A prostitute’s boy, or apple-squire, or cupid (q.v.). For synonyms, see Bully and Fancy-man.

Fancy-lay, subs. (old).—Pugilism. [From Fancy (q.v.) + Lay (q.v.) = an undertaking or pursuit.]

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 36. We, who’re of the fancy-lay, As dead hands at a mill as they, And quite as ready, after it, To share the spoil and grab the bit.

Fancy-man or Bloke, subs. (venery).—A prostitute’s lover, husband, or pensioner. [There are two suggested derivations; (1) that fancy here bears its face value; (2) that it is a corruption of the Fr. fiancé.] Fancy-woman = a mistress or keep (q.v.). For synonyms, see Bully and infra.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry, p. 20. Although ‘one of the fancy,’ he was not a fancy man.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 70. ‘And me,’ insinuated Mrs. Maggot. ‘My little fancy man’s quite as fond of me as of you, Bess. Ain’t you, Jacky darling?’

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 186. The women of the town buy of me, when it gets late, for themselves and their fancy men.

1885. Indoor Paupers, p. 38. The most degraded are the men who subsist by fastening upon street harlots and sharing their wretched earnings. When their mistresses come to grief, and are placed under lock and key, which happens frequently, the fancy man generally manages to skulk out of the mischief and escape scot-free.

English Synonyms. Apple-squire; faker; bully; ponce; pensioner; Sunday-man; fancy-Joseph; squire of the body; fucker; apron-squire; cunt-pensioner; petticoat pensioner; prosser; twat-faker; twat-master; stallion; mack; bouncer; bruiser; buck.

French Synonyms. Un Des Grieux (popular: the hero of Manon Lescaut); un aquarium (pop.: an assembly of fancy-men; cf., maquereau = a mackerel); un cousin de Moïse (pop.: a ‘fast’ man who has married a demi-mondaine; Delvau says, ‘dans l’argot du peuple, qui fait allusion aux deux lignes de feu dont sont ornées les tempes du législateur des Hébreux’); un caprice (pop.: un caprice sérieux = a man who keeps a mistress); un paillasson (pop.: = a mattress); un dos; un marlou.

German Synonyms. Balhoche (from Hebrew baal, a man + hocho, here, there. Literally, one in possession but removable); Strichler or Strichbube (Strich = a fast locality); Strawes; Straweszunder (Viennese: from strizeln = to run quickly).

Spanish Synonyms. Comblezado (obsolete: applied to a [374]married man whose wife lives in adultery with another); mandilejo (vulgar).

Fancy-piece, subs. (venery).—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

Fancy-work. To take in fancy work, verb. phr. (popular).—To play the prostitute on the sly; in the language of venery, ‘to work for one’s living and do the naughty for one’s clothes.’ Said of women (as milliners, dressmakers, shop girls, and so forth) in receipt of low wages yet dressing well and having plenty of money. ‘How does she do it?’ ‘Oh! she takes in fancy-work!’ Cf., Fancy-house and Ride.

Fang-faker, subs. (common).—A dentist. [From Fang, a long pointed tooth + Faker (q.v.).] Fang-chovey = a dental establishment.—See Chovey.

Fanning, verb. subs. (thieves’).—1. Stealing; Cross-fanning = robbery from the person, the arms of the manipulator being folded.

Fanny (also Fanny-Artful and Fanny-fair), subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Fanny Adams, subs. phr. (naval).—Tinned mutton.

Fanny Blair, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—The hair. For synonyms, see Top-dressing.

Fantail, subs. (common).—A sort of round hat with a long leathern fan-shaped flap at the back; worn by coal-heavers and dustmen; a sou’-wester (q.v.).

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 199. He had good strong lace boots, gray worsted stockings, a stout pair of corduroy breeches, a short smockfrock and fantail.

1877. J. Greenwood, Dick Temple, ch. xiii. I fancy I see you, for example, with knee breeches and calves and a fantail, shouldering an inky sack and shooting its contents into a hole in the pavement.

Fanteague. On the fanteague, adv. phr. (colloquial).—On the ‘burst,’ or on the ‘loose.’

Far-back, subs. (tailors’).—An indifferent workman; an ignoramus.

Farden, subs. (common).—A farthing. For synonyms, see Fadge.

1880. Milliken, Punch’s Almanack, May. Otherwise don’t care one brass farden, For the best ever blowed in Covent Garden.

Farm, subs. (common).—1. An establishment where pauper children were lodged and fed at so much a head; also for illegitimate children. Also verbally = to contract to feed and lodge pauper or illegitimate children.

1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. ii. The parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be farmed, or, in other words, that he should be despatched to a branch workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws, rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female, who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. There can be no question that [375]he has a better chance … though his treacherous ‘adopter’ deserts him on a doorstep, than if he were so kindly cruel as to tolerate his existence at the farm.

2. (prison).—The prison infirmary. To fetch the farm = to be ordered infirmary diet and treatment.—See Fetch.

Farmer, subs. (old).—1. An alderman.

2. (common).—One who contracts to lodge and feed pauper or illegitimate children.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. These are not the farmers who append to their advertisements the notification that children of ill-health are not objected to.

Fart, subs. (vulgar).—An eruption of wind through the anus. [A.S. feort.] By implication a contemptible person. Also verbally = to discharge wind through the anus. Fr., lâcher une pastille.

1383. Chaucer, The Miller’s Tale. This Nicholas anon let fleen a fart As gret as it had been a thonder dint.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones. ‘I don’t give a fart for ’n,’ says the squire, suiting the action to the word.

1785. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook. But Dr. Hornbook with his art And cursed skill, Has made them baith no worth a f—t.

Fart-catcher, subs. (vulgar).—A footman. [That is, one who follows another closely; cf., Fart.] Other names are flunkey; John Thomas; James; catch-fart; and Calves (q.v.).

Fart-daniel, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Farthing. Not to care a brass farthing, phr. (common).—To care nothing. Chaucer uses the expression ‘no farthing of grease’ as equivalent to a small quantity. [James II. debased the coinage and issued brass pence, halfpence, and farthings.]

Fartick (also Fartkin), subs. (vulgar).—A diminutive of Fart (q.v.).

Farting-crackers, subs. (old).—Breeches. For synonyms, see Bags and Kicks.

Farting-trap, subs. (Irish).—A jaunting car. [An allusion to the effects of the rough-driving character of these vehicles.]

Fartleberries, subs. (vulgar).—Excrement on the hair about the anus; also dilberries (q.v.) or clinkers (q.v.).

Fart-sucker, subs. phr. (common).—A vile parasite; an ‘arse-hole creeper.’

Fast, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—1. Embarrassed; ‘hard-up’; ‘in a tight place.’

2. (colloquial).—Dissipated; addicted to going the pace (q.v.): e.g., a fast man = a rake-hell, or spendthrift; a fast woman = a strumpet; a fast life = a life of debauchery; a fast house = a brothel, or a sporting tavern; to dress fast = to dress for the town; to live fast = to ‘go the pace,’ and so forth.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle ch. lxxxviii. He returned to his former course of fast living among the bucks of the town. [376]

1846. Thackeray, V. F., vol. 1., ch. xxvi. ‘He’s going it pretty fast,’ said the clerk. ‘He’s only married a week, and I saw him and some other military chaps handing Mrs. Highflyer to her carriage after the play.’

1860. The Atlas, 7 July. Lord William belongs to the genus fast and we presume to the species soft—contradictions more apparent than real.

1870. Daily Telegraph, 11 July. Having a delightful air of being mildly fast and decorously on the loose.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, Pledge xi. She knew he could not afford to gamble and keep fast company night after night.

3. (common).—Impudent; ‘cheeky’: e.g., ‘Don’t you be so fast’ = Mind your own business.

To play fast and loose, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To be variable; inconstant; to say one thing and do another. [From the ancient game now known as prick the garter (q.v.).]

1557. Tottel’s Miscellany, p. 157 (Arber’s ed.), ‘Of a new maried studient that plaied fast or lose’ [Title of Epigram].

1593. G. Harvey, New Letter, in wks., i., 274 (Grosart). If he playeth at fast and loose (as is vehemently suspected by strong presumptions) whom shall he cunny catch, or cros-bite, but his cast-away selfe?

1599. Jonson, Ev. Man out of his Hum., I. Nor how they play fast and loose with a poor gentleman’s fortunes, to get their own.

1632. Chapman and Shirley, The Ball, Act ii. Fr. Is’t come to this? if lords play fast and loose, What shall poor knights and gentlemen?

1710. Ward, Vulgus Britannicus, ch. iv., p. 50. On second Thoughts, we should excuse, The People’s playing Fast and Loose.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lvii., p. 477. I’m a practical one, and that’s my experience. So’s this rule. Fast and loose in one thing, Fast and loose in everything.

Fastener, or Fastner, subs. (old).—A warrant.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.; 1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

Fast-fuck, subs. (prostitutes’).—An act of trade done standing, or at least in quick time: as opposed to trade with an all-night lodger.

Fat, subs. (thieves’).—1. Money; Fr., de la graisse (= grease or tallow). For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

2. (printers’).—Composition full of blank spaces or in many lines. Verse is fat, while this dictionary, with its constant change of type, is lean (q.v.). Hence, work that pays well. Fr., une affaire juteuse = a ‘fat job.’

1868. O. W. Holmes, Guardian Angel, ch. xxiv., p. 203 (Rose Lib.). If collected and printed in large type, with plenty of what the unpleasant printers call fat ensuring thereby blank spaces upon … thick paper.

1885. Athenæum, 27 June, p. 817, col. 1. With the aid of wide margins and a liberal amount of fat, as the printers call it, the text is doled out in pages of but nineteen lines each, and thus the three articles are successfully expanded into a booklet of over two hundred pages.

3. (theatrical).—A good part; telling lines and conspicuous or commanding situations. [Cf., sense 2.] Fr., avoir des côtelettes = to have a bit of fat (Dictionnaire Historique et Pittoresque du Theâtre. Paris, 1884).

1883. Referee, 18 March, p. 2, col. 4. They look miserable because they have nothing to do, all the fat having been seized by Terry. [377]

1888. Referee, 15 April, 3, 1. I don’t want to rob Miss Claremont of her fat, but her part must be cut down.

1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 25. This would make the labour so much lighter, that every time a girl went to set a pound of candy she would consider that she had a good fat take.

d. 1626. Middleton [works, II., 422]. O, for a bowl of fat canary, Rich Aristippus, sparkling sherry! Some nectar else from Juno’s dairy, O, these draughts would make us merry.

1890. Speaker, 22 Feb., p. 212, col. 2. As ‘good’ in English is fat in Australian, the story is probably true about the missionary—not a story of Dr. Lumholtz’s. After many years of work in the field, this good missionary was taken apart by some anxious but meagre inquirers in his flock. Sir, said they, must a man be very fat to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? He was able to reassure them.

Bit of fat, subs. phr. (popular).—See subs., senses 2 and 3; also adj. in both senses: and (venery) connection with a stout woman.

All the fat’s in the fire, phr. (common).—Said of failures and of the results of sudden and unexpected revelation; disappointments: i.e., it is all ‘over’ or ‘up’ with a person or thing. A late equivalent is, ‘And then the band played.’

Fat- (also Barge-, Broad- and Heavy-) Arsed, adj. phr. (common).—Broad in the breech; and, by implication, in Richard Baxter’s Shove to Heavy Arsed Christians, thick-witted and slow to move.