Chapter IV: Part 4

Footlights. To smell the footlights, verb. phr. (theatrical).—To acquire a taste for theatricals. [Footlights = the float (q.v.); the row of burners in front of the stage.]

To smell of the footlights. To carry theatrical concerns and phraseology into private life; to talk shop (q.v.).

Footman’s Inn, subs. phr. (old).—A poor lodging; a jail. Fr., Hôtel de la modestie = the Poor Man’s Arms.

1608. Penniles Parliament of Threedbare Poets. Those that depend on
destiny, and not on God, may chance look through a narrow lattice
at Footman’s Inn.

1612. Rowland, Knave of Hearts. Which at the heeles so hants his
frighted ghost, That he at last in Footman’s-inne must host, Some
castle dolorous compos’d of stone, Like (let me see) Newgate is
such a one.

Footman’s Maund, subs. phr. (old).—An artificial sore, as from a horse’s bite or kick. The fox’s bite of schoolboys. Also the Scaldrum Dodge, or Maund (q.v.). Maund = a cadger’s sale-basket. Cf., Masons’ Maund.

1690. B. E., Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. An artificial sore
made with unslacked lime, soap, and the rust of old iron, on the
back of a beggar’s hand, as if hurt by the bite or kick of a horse.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Foot-riding, subs. (cyclists’).—Walking and wheeling one’s machine instead of riding it.

1887. T. Stevens, Round the World on a Bicycle. Already I realise
that there is going to be as much foot-riding as anything for the
first part of my journey.

Foot-scamp, subs. (old).—A foot-pad.—G. Parker.

Footstool. See Angels’ Footstool.

Foot-wobbler, subs. (old, soldier’s’).—An infantryman. For synonyms, see Mudcrusher.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Footy, adj. (old).—Contemptible; worthless. Fr., foutu.—Grose.

1836. Michael Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. v. My eye, Captain, no
use to dodge from her; it is only dat footy little King’s cutter on
de Jamaica station.

Foozle, subs. (common and sporting).—1. A boggle; a miss.

2. (common).—A bore; a fogey; and (in America) a fool; a green ’un. For synonyms, see Buffle, Cabbage-head, and Sammy soft.

1867. Rhoda Broughton, Cometh up as a Flower, ch. xxvi. Frumps and
foozles in Eaton Square.

Verb. (common).—To miss; to boggle; to muff (q.v.).

1888. Field, 25 Feb. Park foozled his second stroke.

Foozled (or Foozley), adj. (colloquial).—Blurred in appearance and effect; fuzzy; muffed (q.v.). Often said of badly painted pictures, or parts of pictures.

Fop-doodle, subs. (old).—An insignificant man; a fool.

1689. Shadwell, Bury Fair. Come come, you brace of fop-doodle.

Fop’s Alley, subs. phr. (old).—See quot. 1883.

1782. D’Arblay, Cecilia, bk. II., ch. iv. Sir Robert Floyer,
sauntering down fop’s alley.

1883. Sala, Echoes of the Year, p. 369. Fop’s alley was the gangway
running parallel to the footlights, between the last row of the
stalls and the first row of the pit in Her Majesty’s Theatre, and
in its palmiest days it was always graced by the presence of a
subaltern of the Guards in full uniform, daintily swinging his
bearskin.

Forakers, subs. (Winchester College).—The water-closet. [Formerly spelt foricus and probably a corruption of foricas, an English plural of the Latin forica.] For synonyms, see Mrs. Jones.

Foraminate, verb. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Force, subs. (colloquial).—The police; properly a body of men trained for action. For synonyms, see Beak and Copper.

1868. Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. IV., ch. vi. ‘I should
like to ... bring a child up from the very cradle to the police
detective line, to see whether I couldn’t make that ’ere child a
ornament to the force.’

1883. Daily Telegraph, 5 April, p. 2, col. 1. But in all my
experience of the force, I think I never saw a policeman’s eyes so
expressive of gratitude.

To force the voucher, verb. phr. (turf).—It is customary for sporting tricksters to advertise selections and enclose vouchers (similar to those sent out by respectable commission agents) for double or treble the current odds. The correspondent is informed that, in consequence of early investments, the extra odds can be laid; a remittance is requested; the voucher is forced; and then the firm ‘dries up,’ and changes its name and address.

Forcemeat Ball, subs. phr. (old)—Something endured from compulsion: as (1) a rape: (2) going to prison; (3) transportation; (4) an affiliation order; (5) abstention (from drink, pleasure, etc.) through impecuniosity.

Forceps, subs. (old).—The hands. [Properly a pair of surgeon’s pincers.]—For synonyms, see Daddle.

Fore-and-Aft, verb. (venery).—To copulate. See Greens and Ride.

Fore-and-after, subs. phr. (American).—1. See quot.

1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xi. ‘The way she walks her
chalks ain’t no matter. She is a regular fore-and-after.’

2. (venery).—A double-barrelled (q.v.) harlot. [As in the song attributed to an eminent living man of letters: “Sing whore, sing whore, Behind and before, Her price is a shilling—She never gets more.”]

Fore-buttocks, subs. (old).—The paps.—For synonyms, see Dairy.

a. 1745. Swift, Pope, and Arbuthnot, Misc. iv., 222. Now her
fore-buttocks to the navel bare.

Forecaster, subs. (venery). The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Fore-coach-wheel, subs. (common).—A half-crown. For synonyms, see Caroon.

Fore-court, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also Fore-hatch, Fore-castle, and Fore-room. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Forefoot, subs. (old).—The hand.

1599. Shakspeare, Henry V., II., 1. Give me thy fist; thy forefoot
to me give.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

Foregather, verb. (old).—To share the sexual embrace. For synonyms, see Ride.

Forehatch, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. Also Forecastle.

Foreman, subs. (old).—1. The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick. [Cf., Forewoman.]

1647. Ladies’ Parliament (q.v.).

Foreman of the jury, subs. phr. (old).—A babbler; one with the gift of the gab (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. of the Canting Crew. Foreman of the jury, he
that engrosses all the talk to himself.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.

Foreskin Hunter, subs. phr. (venery).—A harlot. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

Forest, subs. (venery).—The female pubic hair. For synonyms, see Fleece.

1573–1631. Donne, Elegies, xviii. Yet ere thou be where thou
would’st be embayed, Thou must upon another forest set, Where many
shipwreck and no further get.

1720. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 146. Give me the Country lass, That
trips it o’er the field, And opes her forest to the first.

Fore-stall, subs. (thieves’).—In garotting, a look-out in front of the operator, or ugly-man (q.v.); the watch behind is the back-stall (q.v.). [From fore + stall (q.v.).]

Forewoman, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Fork, subs. (old). 1. A pickpocket. Fr., ‘Avoir les mains crochues = to be a light-fingered or lime-fingered filcher; every finger of his hand as good as a lime-twig.’—Cotgrave.

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

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. (thieves’).—A finger. The forks = the fore and middle fingers; also cf., (proverbial) ‘Fingers were made before forks.’

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

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

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

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

Portuguese Synonym.—Medunhos.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 121. My forks were equally long, and they
never failed me.

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

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

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

3. In plural (common).—The hands.

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

5. (old).—A spendthrift.

1725. New Canting Dict., s.v.

6. (tailors’ and venery).—The crutch (q.v.), nockandro (q.v.), or Twist (q.v.). [Thus, a bit on a fork = the female pudendum; a grind (q.v.).] Fr., ‘Fourcheure, that part of the bodie from whence the thighs depart.’—Cotgrave.

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

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

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Let us fork him.

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

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

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

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

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. xxxi. The person fork him out ten
shiners.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1888. Detroit Free Press, 9 Sept. The dozen screw-drivers came up
C. O. D. and he had to fork over for them.

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

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

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

Forker, subs. (nautical).—A dockyard thief or fence (q.v.). [From fork = to steal + er.]

Forking, subs. (thieves’).—1. Thieving. See Fork.

2. (tailors’).—Hurrying and scamping (q.v.).

Forkless, adj. (thieves’).—Clumsy; unworkmanlike; as without forks (q.v.).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fornicating-engine (-member; -tool), subs. phr. (venery).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Fornicator, subs. (venery).—1. The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

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

Fornicator’s Hall, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Fort, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forty-faced, adj. (colloquial).—An arrant deceiver: e.g., a forty-faced liar, a forty-faced flirt, and so forth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1870. Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 3.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verb. (idem).—To run against; to run down. Also to come (or fall) foul of.

[Foul, adj. and verb. is used in two senses: (1) = dirty, as a foul
word, a foul shrew (Dickens), to foul the bed, &c.; and (2) =
unfair, as a foul (i.e., a felon) stroke, a foul blow, and so
forth.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foulcher, subs. (thieves’).—A purse.

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

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

Found in a Parsley-bed. See Parsley-bed and Gooseberry-bush.

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

Four-and-nine (or Four-and-ninepenny), subs. phr. (old).—A hat. [So-called from the price at which an enterprising Bread Street hatter sold his hats, circa 1844, at which date London was hideous with posters displaying a large black hat and ‘4s. and 9d.’ in white letters.]

1844. Advertisement Couplet. Whene’er to slumber you incline, Take
a short nap at four-and-nine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four—(more commonly Three)—Sheets in the Wind, adv. phr. (nautical).—Drunk; cf., half seas over. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

On his fourth, phr. (common).—Hopelessly drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

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

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

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

Four-wheeler, subs. (common).—A steak.

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

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

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

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

Fox, subs. (old).—A sword; specifically, the old English broadsword. [Derivation dubious. Suggestions are: (1) from a maker’s name; (2) from the fox sometimes engraved on the blade; (3) from the Latin falx.] For synonyms, see Cheese-toaster and Poker.

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

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

c. 1640. [Shirley], Captain Underwit, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii.,
321. Un. An old fox blade made at Hounsloe heath.

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

1700. Congreve, Way of the World, Act V., Sc. 10. Sir, I have an
old fox by my thigh shall hack your instrument of ram vellum to
shreds, Sir.

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

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

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

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

c. 1640. [Shirley], Captain Underwit, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii.
375. Then to bee fox’d it is no crime, Since thickest and dull
braines It makes sublime.

1661. T. Middleton, Mayor of Quinborough, V., i. Ah, blind as one
that had been fox’d a sevennight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1631. Mayne, City Match, iii., 1. Fore Jove, the captain foxed him
rarely.

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

3. (common).—To watch closely. Also to fox about. Cf., fox’s sleep. For synonyms, see Nose.

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

4. (colloquial).—To sham.

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

5. (American).—To play truant.

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

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

1885. Austin Dobson, At the Sign of the Lyre, 83. And the Rabelais
foxed and flea’d.

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

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

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foy, subs. (old).—A cheat; a swindle.

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

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

Foyst, subs. and verb. See Foist.

Foyster. See Foister.

Fraggle, verb. (Texas).—To rob.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1882. Punch, LXXXII., p. 177, col. 1. A fraud, Charlie!

Fraze. See Vessel.

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

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

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

Verb. (old).—To steal; cf., annex and convey. For synonyms, see Prig.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Freeholder, subs. (venery).—1. A prostitute’s lover or fancyman. Cf., Free-fishery, and for synonyms, see Joseph.

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

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

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

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

Also said of a journalist attached to no particular paper.

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

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

To freeman, or to make a freeman of, verb. phr. (schoolboys’).—To spit on the penis of a new comer. Also To Freemason.

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

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

2. (old).—Hard cider.—Grose.

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

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

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

3. (old).—To adulterate or balderdash (q.v.) wine with freeze (q.v. sense 2).—Grose.

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

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

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

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

Freezer, subs. (common).—1. A tailless Eton jacket; cf., Bum-perisher. For synonyms, see Monkey-jacket.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie. Mal de Naples, the French Pocks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker, p. 54. He stole away an
Irishman’s bride, and took a French leave of me and his master.

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

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

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

1892. Globe, 25 Mar., p. 5, col. 1. They finally resolved to go on
French leave to the place.

French- (also American, Spanish, and Italian) Letter, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A sheath—of india-rubber, gold beater’s skin, gutta-percha—worn by a man during coition to prevent infection or fruition. Usually described in print as specialities (q.v.). or circular protectors and (in U.S.A.) as safes (q.v.). See Cundum. Fr., capote anglaise.

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

French Pig, subs. phr. (common).—A venereal bubo; a blue boar (q.v.), or Winchester goose (q.v.).

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

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

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

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

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

1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.

1866. Trevelyan, Horace at Athens. When you and I were fresh.

2. (common).—Slightly intoxicated; elevated. For synonyms see Drinks and Screwed, (Scots’ = sober).

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

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

1596. Shakspeare, King John, iii., 4. How green you are and fresh
in this old world.

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

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

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

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

1880. Punch’s Almanack, p. 12.

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

Fresh Bit, subs. phr. (venery).—A beginner; also a new mistress. Cf., Bit of fresh = the sexual favour: meat, or mutton, or fish (q.v.), being understood.

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

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

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

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

Freshman (or Fresher), subs. (University).—A University man during his first year. In Dublin University he is a junior freshman during his first year, and a senior freshman the Second year. At Oxford the title lasts for the first term. Ger., Fuchs.

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

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.

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)].

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.

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.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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.