1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 27

EWE. A white ewe; a beautiful woman. An old ewe, drest lamb fashion; an old woman, drest like a young girl.

EXECUTION DAY. Washing day.

EXPENDED. Killed: alluding to the gunner's accounts, wherein the articles consumed are charged under the t.i.tle of expended. Sea phrase.

EYE. It's all my eye and Betty Martin. It's all nonsense, all mere stuff.

EYE-SORE. A disagreeable object. It will be an eye-sore as long as she lives, said by a limn whose wife was cut for a fistula in ano.

FACE-MAKING. Begetting children. To face it out; to persist in a falsity. No face but his own: a saying of one who has no money in his pocket or no court cards in his hand.

FACER. A b.u.mper, a gla.s.s filled so full as to leave no room for the lip. Also a violent blow on the face.

FADGE. It won't fadge; it won't do. A farthing.

TO f.a.g. To beat. f.a.g the bloss; beat the wench; Cant.

A f.a.g also means a boy of an inferior form or cla.s.s, who acts as a servant to one of a superior, who is said to f.a.g him, he is my f.a.g; whence, perhaps, f.a.gged out, for jaded or tired.

To stand a good f.a.g; not to be soon tired.

f.a.gGER. A little boy put in at a window to rob the house.

f.a.gGOT. A man hired at a muster to appear as a soldier.

To f.a.ggot in the canting sense, means to bind: an allusion to the f.a.ggots made up by the woodmen, which are all bound. f.a.ggot the culls; bind the men.

FAITHFUL. One of the faithful; a taylor who gives long credit. His faith has made him unwhole; i.e. trusting too much, broke him.

FAIR. A set of subterraneous rooms in the Fleet Prison.

FAKEMENT. A counterfeit signature. A forgery. Tell the macers to mind their fakements; desire the swindlers to be careful not to forge another person's signature.

FALLALLS. Ornaments, chiefly women's, such as ribands, necklaces, &c.

FALLEN AWAY FROM A HORSE LOAD TO A CART LOAD.

A saying on one grown fat.

FAMILY MAN. A thief or receiver of stolen goods.

FAM LAY. Going into a goldsmith's shop, under pretence of buying a wedding ring, and palming one or two, by daubing the hand with some viscous matter.

FAMS, or FAMBLES. Hands. Famble cheats; rings or gloves. CANT.

TO FAMGRASP. To shake bands: figuratively, to agree or make up a difference. Famgrasp the cove; shake hands with the fellow. CANT.

FAMILY OF LOVE. Lewd women; also, a religious sect.

FANCY MAN. A man kept by a lady for secret services.

TO FAN. To beat any one. I fanned him sweetly; I beat him heartily.

FANTASTICALLY DRESSED, with more rags than ribands.

FART. He has let a brewer's fart, grains and all; said of one who has bewrayed his breeches.

p.i.s.s and fart.

Sound at heart.

Mingere c.u.m b.u.mbis, Res saluberrima est lumbis.

I dare not trust my a-se with a fart: said by a person troubled with a looseness.

FART CATCHER. A valet or footman from his walking behind his master or mistress.

FARTING CRACKERS. Breeches.

FARTLEBERRIES. Excrement hanging about the a.n.u.s.

FASTNER. A warrant.

FASTNESSES. Bogs.

FAT. The last landed, inned, or stowed, of any sort of merchandise: so called by the water-side porters, carmen, &c.

All the fat is in the fire; that is, it is all over with us: a saying used in case of any miscarriage or disappointment in an undertaking; an allusion to overturning the frying pan into the fire. Fat, among printers, means void s.p.a.ces.

AS FAT AS A HEN IN THE FOREHEAD. A saying of a meagre person.

FAT CULL. A rich fellow.

FAT HEADED. Stupid.

FAULKNER. A tumbler, juggler, or shewer of tricks; perhaps because they lure the people, as a faulconer does his hawks. CANT.

FAYTORS, or FATORS. Fortune tellers.

FAWNEY RIG. A common fraud, thus practised: A fellow drops a bra.s.s ring, double gilt, which he picks up before the party meant to be cheated, and to whom he disposes of it for less than its supposed, and ten times more than its real, value. See MONEY DROPPER.

FAWNEY. A ring.

FEAGUE. To feague a horse; to put ginger up a horse's fundament, and formerly, as it is said, a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer's servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him. Feague is used, figuratively, for encouraging or spiriting one up.

FEAK. The fundament.

To FEATHER ONE'S NEST. To enrich one's self.

FEATHER-BED LANE. A rough or stony lane.

FEE, FAW, FUM. Nonsensical words, supposed in childish story-books to be spoken by giants. I am not to be frighted by fee, faw, fum; I am not to be scared by nonsense.

FEEDER. A spoon. To nab the feeder; to steal a spoon.

FEET. To make feet for children's stockings; to beget children. An officer of feet; a jocular t.i.tle for an officer of infantry.