1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 30

FLYING GIGGERS. Turnpike gates.

FLYING HOUSE. A lock in wrestling, by which he who uses it throws his adversary over his head.

FLYING PASTY. Sirreverence wrapped in paper and thrown over a neighbour's wall.

FLYING PORTERS. Cheats who obtain money by pretending to persons who have been lately robbed, that they may come from a place or party where, and from whom, they may receive information respecting the goods stolen from them, and demand payment as porters.

FLYING STATIONERS. Ballad-singers and hawkers of penny histories.

FLYMSEY. A bank note.

FOB. A cheat, trick, or contrivance, I will not be fobbed off so; I will not be thus deceived with false pretences. The fob is also a small breeches pocket for holding a watch.

FOG. Smoke. CANT.

FOGEY. Old Fogey. A nickname for an invalid soldier: derived from the French word fougeux, fierce or fiery.

FOGLE. A silk handkerchief,

FOGRAM. An old fogram; a fusty old fellow.

FOGUS. Tobacco. Tip me a gage of fogus; give me a pipe of tobacco. CANT.

FOOL. A fool at the end of a stick; a fool at one end, and a maggot at the other; gibes on an angler.

FOOL FINDER. A bailiff.

FOOLISH. An expression among impures, signifying the cully who pays, in opposition to a flash man. Is he foolish or flash?

FOOT PADS, or LOW PADS. Rogues who rob on foot.

FOOT WABBLER. A contemptuous appellation for a foot soldier, commonly used by the cavalry.

FOOTMAN'S MAWND. An artificial sore made with unslaked 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.

FOOTY DESPICABLE. A footy fellow, a despicable fellow; from the French foutue.

FOREFOOT, or PAW. Give us your fore foot; give us your hand.

FOREMAN OF THE JURY. One who engrosses all the talk to himself, or speaks for the rest of the company.

FORK. A pickpocket. Let us fork him; let us pick his pocket.--'The newest and most dexterous way, which is, to thrust the fingers strait, stiff, open, and very quick, into the pocket, and so closing them, hook what can be held between them.' N.B. This was taken from a book written many years ago: doubtless the art of picking pockets, like all others, must have been much improved since that time.

FORLORN HOPE. A gamester's last stake.

FORTUNE HUNTERS. Indigent men, seeking to enrich themselves by marrying a woman of fortune.

FORTUNE TELLER, or CUNNING MAN. A judge, who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot or doom. To go before the fortune teller, lambskin men, or conjuror; to be tried at an a.s.size. See LAMBSKIN MEN.

FOUL. To foul a plate with a man, to take a dinner with him.

FOUL-MOUTHED. Abusive.

FOUNDLING. A child dropped in the streets, and found, and educated at the parish expence.

FOUSIL. The name of a public house, where the Eccentrics a.s.semble in May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane.

Fox. A sharp, cunning fellow. Also an old term for a sword, probably a rusty one, or else from its being dyed red with blood; some say this name alluded to certain swords of remarkable good temper, or metal, marked with the figure of a fox, probably the sign, or rebus, of the maker.

FOX'S PAW. The vulgar p.r.o.nunciation of the French words faux pas. He made a confounded fox's paw.

FOXED. Intoxicated.

FOXEY. Rank. Stinking.

FOXING A BOOT. Mending the foot by capping it.

FOYST. A pickpocket, cheat, or rogue. See WOTTON'S GANG.

TO FOYST. To pick a pocket.

FOYSTED IN. Words or pa.s.sages surrept.i.tiously interpolated or inserted into a book or writing.

FRATERS. Vagabonds who beg with sham patents, or briefs, for hospitals, fires, inundations, &c.

FREE. Free of fumblers hall; a saying of one who cannot get his wife with child.

FREE AND EASY JOHNS. A society which meet at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet-street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.

FREE BOOTERS. Lawless robbers and plunderers: originally soldiers who served without pay, for the privilege of plundering the enemy.

FREEHOLDER. He whose wife accompanies him to the alehouse.

FREEMAN'S QUAY. Free of expence. To lush at Freeman's Quay; to drink at another's cost.

FREEZE. A thin, small, hard cider, much used by vintners and coopers in parting their wines, to lower the price of them, and to advance their gain. A freezing vintner; a vintner who balderdashes his wine.

FRENCH CREAM. Brandy; so called by the old tabbies and dowagers when drank in their tea.

FRENCH DISEASE. The venereal disease, said to have been imported from France. French gout; the same. He suffered by a blow over the snout with a French f.a.ggot-stick; i.e. he lost his nose by the pox.

FRENCH LEAVE. To take French leave; to go off without taking leave of the company: a saying frequently applied to persons who have run away from their creditors.

FRENCHIFIED. Infected with the venereal disease. The mort is Frenchified: the wench is infected.

FRESH MILK. Cambridge new comers to the university.

FRESHMAN. One just entered a member of the university.