livre thirteen
and fourpence would in English currency be only 20s.]
1668. T. Brown, The Accurate Accomptant, etc. Quoted in N. and Q. 1. S. I., 286. London, August 10th, 1668. To Roger Pace, Factor, etc., for 10 pieces cont. 746 Ells Fl. at 10s. Flem. per Ell is £373 Flem. Exchange at 35s. makes Sterling Money £213 2s. 10d.
1774–1826. Typ. Antiq., p. 1773. A person resident in London is said to have had most of Caxton’s publications. He sent them to Amsterdam for inspection, and on writing for them was informed that they had been destroyed by accident. ‘I am very much afraid,’ says Herbert, ‘my kind friend received but a Flemish account of his Caxton’s.’
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tong. Flemish account, a losing or bad account.
Flesh, subs. (old).—Generic for the organs of generation, male or female. Also (of women) Fleshly-part.
1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, iv., 3. She would not exchange flesh with one that loved her.
1605. Cymbeline, i., 5. If you buy ladies’ flesh at a million a dram you cannot preserve it from tainting.
1620. Percy, Folio MSS. [Hales & Furnivall, 1867]. ‘As I was ridinge by the way.’ Sweet hart, shall I put my flesh in thine?
Flesh, verb., or, Flesh It; or, to be fleshed in (venery).—To have carnal knowledge of—to be ‘one flesh with’—a woman. [For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.] An equivalent in the passive sense is to feel his flesh in one’s body (said by women only).
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, Andar in Carnafau. To go a fleshing or a wenching: (Carnafau = the brat-getting place; the hole of content).
Flesh and Blood, subs. phr. (common).—Brandy and port in equal proportions. See Drinks.
Flesh-bag, subs. (common).—A shirt or chemise.
English Synonyms.—Biled rag (American); camesa; carrion-case; commission; dickey (formerly a worn-out shirt); gad (gipsy); lully; mill tog; mish; narp (Scots’); shaker; shimmy (= a chemise, Marryat); smish.
French Synonyms.—Une liquette or limace (thieves’: from the Gypsy. The form also occurs also in the Italian lima); un panais (popular).
German Synonyms.—Kamis, Kamsel, Kemsel, or Gemsel (from med. Lat., Camisiale; Fr. camisole); Kesones, Kusones, or Ksones (also = cotton and underclothing); Staude or Stauden; Hanfstandt (Liber Vagatorum: literally hempshrub).
Italian Synonym.—Lima (see Fr., limace).
1820. London Magazine; i., 29. They are often without a flesh-bag to their backs.
Flesh-broker, subs. (old).—1. A match-maker.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flesh-broker, a match-maker; also a bawd; between whom but little difference, for they both (usually) take money.
2. A procuress [Grose]. Cf., Flesh-fly, Flesh-monger, and Flesh-market. For synonyms, see Mother.
Flesh-fly (also, Flesh-maggot), subs. (old).—A whoremaster. For synonyms, see Molrower.
1781. Cowper, Progress of Error, 323–324. Oh! that a verse had power, and could command far, Far away, these flesh-flies of the land.
Flesh-market, or Flesh-shambles, subs. (common).—A brothel or flash-house (q.v.); also the pavement, in Piccadilly or Regent-street, for instance, where whores do congregate. Cf., Meatmarket.
1608. John Day, Humour out of Breath, II. I Asp. ... She may bee well discended; if shee be, Shee’s fit for love, and why not then for me. Boy. And you be not fitted in Venice ’tis straunge, for ’tis counted the best flesh-shambles in Italie.
Flesh-monger, subs. (old).—A procurer; a whore-master. [From Eng. Flesh + monger]. For synonyms, see Mother and Molrower. Cf., Flesh-fly, Flesh-market, and Flesh-broker.
1603. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, V., 1. And was the duke a flesh-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?
Fleshmongering. To go flesh-mongering, verb. phr. (venery).—To quest for women; to go on the prowl (q.v.)., or after meat. See Greens and Ride.
Flesh-pot. Sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt. phr. (common).—Hankering for good things no longer at command. [Biblical].
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 131. Do you think it is a hankering after the flesh-pots, and that the canon’s cook reconciles me to the canon’s opinions?
Flesh-tailor, subs. (old).—A surgeon. For synonyms, see Sawbones.
1633. Ford, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, iii. Oh, help! help! help! Oh, for a flesh-tailor quickly.
Fleshy, subs. (Winchester College).—See Cat’s Head.
Fletch, subs. (prison). A spurious coin. Cf., Flatch.
Flick, or Flig, subs. (colloquial).—1. A cut with a whip-lash; hence, a blow of any sort. A flicking is often administered by schoolboys with a damp towel or pocket-handkerchief. For synonyms, see tanning.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘I do know you are a woman,’ cries the squire, ‘and it’s well for thee, that art one; if had’st been a man, I promise thee I had lent thee a flick long ago.’
1787. Grose, Provincial Glossary, s.v. vlick.
2. (common).—A jocular salutation; usually old flick. Cf., Codger and My Tulip.
1883. Punch, 28 July, p. 38, col. 1. Well, last night, They’d a feet in these gardens, old flick, as was something too awfully quite.
Verb. (thieves’).—1. To cut.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flicking, c., to cut, cutting.
1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict. (flick is given as a ‘country word’).
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Flick me some pannam and cassan, cut me some bread and cheese; flick the peter, cut off the cloak bag or portmanteau.
1791. Carew, Life and Adventures, q.v.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, ch. xiv. Flick the bread, cut the bread.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. Flick the Peter and rake the swag for I want to pad my beaters.
2. (colloquial).—To strike with, or as with, a whip.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xliii. Near him, leaning listlessly against the wall, stood a strong-built countryman, flicking with a worn-out hunting whip the top-boot that adorned his right foot.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxvii. Who ... receives this compliment by flicking Mr. George in the face with a head of greens.
1854. Our Cruise in the Undine, p. 103. It appeared to us that one of the most frequent, and therefore we supposed the principal stroke aimed at (in a Heidelberg duel), was to strike your sword low down, perhaps four inches from the handle, upon your adversary’s bandaged arm, so that the end of the weapon (the only part that is sharpened) should Flick itself against your opponent’s face.
1863. Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lost and Saved, p. 29. Drivers shouting, swearing, and flicking at the horses.
Flicker, subs. (Old Cant).—A drinking glass.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flicker, c., a drinking-glass; Flicker snapt, c., the glass is broken; Nim the flicker, c., steal the glass; Rum flicker, c., a large glass or rummer; Queer flicker, c., a green or ordinary glass.
French Synonyms.—Une lampe (masons’); un guindal (popular); un godet (very old); une gobette (thieves’); un gobeson (thieves’).
Verb. 1. To drink.—Matsell.
2. (old).—To laugh wantonly; also to kiss, or lewdly fondle a woman.—Palsgrave. For synonyms, see Firkytoodle.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. Flicker, to grin or flout.
Also Flicking = (1) drinking, and (2) wanton laughter.
Let her flicker, phr. (American).—Said of any doubtful issue: ‘let the matter take its chance.’
Flicket-a-Flacket, adv. (old).—Onomatopoetic for a noise of flapping and flicking.
1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 20. Their bellies went flicket-a-flacket.
Flier or Flyer, subs. (racing and yachting).—1. A horse or boat of great speed; also (American railway) a fast train; hence, by implication, anything of excellence. Cf., Dasher, Daisy, etc. Also adj., = keen for.
1865. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xxii. The mare’s in splendid condition; well, you saw her take her trial gallop the other morning, and you must know she’s a flier, so I won’t talk about her.
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 156. Atalanta might be a flyer, but an artist like Pycroft, with a clever colt like Newsmonger under him, was quite likely to outride whatever boy Mr. Pipes might now be able to pick up.
1888. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 2 Mar. In spite of the strike passenger trains, what are known as the flyers, are running with reasonable regularity.
1890. Bird o’ Freedom, 19 Mar., p. 1, col. 1. Clearly the G.O.M. is no flier over this course.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 Mar. Although he may doubtless be made a good deal better he may turn out to be no flier.
1891. Bury and Hillier, Cycling, p. 6. A moderate rider, not being an athlete or a flier ... can ... get over in an hour seven or eight miles of ground on a tricycle.
1891. Anti-Jacobin, 23 May, p. 400. When Dangerous, Plenipotentiary, Bay Middleton, and other flyers ran.
1891. Morning Advertiser, 28 Mar. In any event, he was never a flyer at breakfast. But late at night, and when, perhaps, he tumbled across something equivalent to woodcock, tripe and onions, or a hot lobster, say, why then, take my word for it, he made up for previous abstinence.
1891. National Observer, 1 Aug. It remains to be seen whether large yachts constructed on the same principle will be equally invincible: that is, if the flyers we have are one and all to disappear.
2. (football).—A shot in the air. See Made-flyer.
3. (American).—A small hand-bill; a Dodger (q.v.).
To take a flier (American trade).—1. To make a venture; to invest against odds.
2. (venery).—To copulate in haste (Grose); to do a Fast-fuck (q.v.).
Flies, subs. (rhyming).—Lies. Hence, nonsense; trickery; deceit.
There are no flies on me, on him, etc., phr. (common).—‘I am dealing honestly with you;’ ‘he is genuine, and is not humbugging.’ In America, the expression is used of (1) a man of quick parts, a man who ‘knows a thing without its being kicked into him by a mule’; and (2) a person of superior breeding or descent. Sometimes the phrase is corrupted into ‘no fleas.’ See Gammon.
1868. Diprose, St. Clement Danes, Past and Present. To Deaf Burke, the celebrated pugilist, is attributed the old story of the ‘flies and the gin and water;’ and hence the term ‘no flies’ became prevalent. Burke had ordered ... some ‘hot and strong and a dash of lemon.’ The goblet was brought ... Burke raised ... the nectar to his lips, and beheld some dissipated flies lying at the bottom of the tumbler; he placed the glass on the table, and deliberately removed the flies with the spoon, five or six in number, and laid them side by side before him, and then giving a hearty pull at the gin and water, he as deliberately replaced the flies ... and passed it to his friend. His companion stared angrily. ‘Do you dare to insult me, and in the presence of company?’ said the irate vis-à-vis. ‘Pardon me,’ replied Burke, quietly handing the glass a second time, ‘though I don’t drink flies myself, I didn’t know but what others might.’
1888. Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug. There ain’t no flies on him, signifies, that he is not quiet long enough for moss to grow on his heels, that he is wide awake.
1888. Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. People who are capable of descending to New York and Boston English are fully justified in saying that there are no flies on St. Louis or the St. Louis delegation either.
Fligger (also Flicker), verb. (old).—To grin.
1720. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 267. He fliggered, and told me for all my brave alls He would have a stroke.
Flim.—See Flimsy.
Flim-flam, subs. (old).—An idle story; a sham; a Robin Hood tale (q.v.). A duplication of Flam (q.v.).
1589. Pappe with an Hatchet (ed. 1844) p. 39. Trusse up thy packet of flim-flams, and roage to some countrey faire, or read it among boyes in the belfrie.
1630. Taylor, Workes. They with a courtly tricke, or a flim-flam, do nod at me, whilst I the noddy am.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. xii. I thought thou had’st been a lad of higher mettle than to give way to a parcel of maidenish tricks. I tell thee ’tis all flim-flam.
1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, iii., 1. Mr. Curate, don’t think to come over me with your flim-flams, for a better man than ever trod in your shoes is coming over-sea to marry me.
1805. Isaac Disraeli, Flim-flams; or the Life and Errors of my Uncle, and the Amours of my Aunt [title].
1825. C. Lamb, Munden (in London Magazine) Feb. I wonder you can put such flim-flams upon us, sir.
Adj. (old).—Idle; worthless.
1589. Nashe, Month’s Minde, in wks. Vol. I., p. 174. But to leaue thy flim-flam tales and loytering lies.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Filastroccola, flim-flam tales, old wiues tales as they tell when they spinne, a tale without rime or reason, or head or foote.
1633. T. Newton, Lennie’s Touch-stone of Complexions, p. 120. Reporting a flim-flam tale of Robin Hood.
1750. Ozell’s Rabelais, vol. V., p. 247. Glibly swallow down every flim-flam story that’s told them.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, bk. X., ch. xix. I wish you’d mind the child—it is crumpling up and playing almighty smash with that flim-flam book, which cost me one pound one.
Flimp, verb. (thieves’)—1. To hustle or rob. To put on the flimp = to rob on the highway. For synonyms, see Crack and Prig.
1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 111. To take a man’s watch is to flimp him, it can only be done in a crowd, one gets behind and pushes him in the back, while the other in front is robbing him.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 445, s.v.
2. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Ride.
Flimping, subs. (thieves’).—Stealing from the person.
1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, p. 38. He told me as Bill had flimped a yack.
1862. Cornhill Mag., vol. vi., p. 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, etc.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. lx. Flimping is a style of theft which I have never practised, and, consequently of which I know nothing.
Flimsy, or Flim, subs. (common).—1. A bank-note. [From the thinness of the paper.] Soft-flimsy = a note drawn on ‘The Bank of Elegance,’ or ‘The Bank of Engraving.’ For synonyms, see Soft.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, iv., 443. Martin produced some flimsies and said he would fight on Tuesday next.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (‘Merchant of Venice’). Not ‘kites,’ manufactured to cheat and inveigle, But the right sort of ‘flimsy,’ all sign’d, by Monteagle.
1855. Punch, XXIX., 10. ‘Will you take it in flimsies, or will you have it all in tin?’
1870. Chambers’ Journal, 9 July, p. 448. ‘What would it be worth?’ ‘A flim, Sam.’
1884. Daily Telegraph, 8 Apl., col. 3. One of the slang terms for a spurious bank-note is a soft-flimsy.
1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 149. Next morning when I went to the bank to collect the swag, they stopped the flimsy, and had me arrested before I could look round.
2. (journalists’).—News of all kinds; points (q.v.). [From the thin prepared paper used by pressmen for making several copies at once]. First used at Lloyd’s.
1861. Cornhill Magazine, iv., 199 ‘At Westminster,’ my lord is neither a mumbling nor a short-tempered judge; he will ... read them a great deal of his notes, which are a thousand-fold clearer, fuller, and more accurate than the reporter’s flimsy.
1865. Morning Star (‘The Flaneur’). A London correspondent, who, by the aid of flimsy misleads a vast number of provincial papers.
1870. London Figaro, 23 Sept. ‘Special Lining.’ We do not think it is altogether worthy of the high repute of the Pall Mall Gazette to publish flimsy as a special correspondence.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The sharpest of the reporters had his flimsy up in a minute, and took notes of the proceedings.
Flinders, subs. (common).—Pieces infinitesimally small.
1870. New York Evening Sun, 24 May. Report of Speech of Mr. Chandler. Let us knock the British crown to flinders; let us arrange for some one or two hundred thousand British graves forthwith, and cabbage the whole boundless continent without any further procrastination.
Fling, subs. (colloquial).—1. A fit of temper.
2. (common).—A jeer; a jibe; a personal allusion or attack.
1592. Shakspeare, I Henry VI., iii., 1. Then would I have a fling at Winchester.
1888. Star, 10 Oct. Those writers who had a fling at Iddesleigh after his poor running at Stockton will have to take their words back some day.
1890. Pall Mall Gazette, 24 July, p. 4. col. 2. As the disputants warmed up, little personal flings were of course introduced.
Verb (old).—1. To cheat; to get the best of; to do (q.v.) or diddle.—Grose.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. xxi. Flung the governor out of a guinea.
2. (Scots).—To dance.
1790. Burns, Tam O’ Shanter. To tell how Maggie lapt and flang (A souple jaud she was, and strang).
3. (venery).—To move in the act; to back-up (q.v.). Fr., ‘frizer la queue = to wriggle the tayle (in leachering).’—Cotgrave.
1539. David Lyndsay, Three Estaitis, Works (Ed. Laing, Edinburgh, 1879). I traist sche sal find you flinging your fill.
To Fling Out, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To depart in a hurry, and, especially, in a temper.
To fling (or flap) it in one’s face, verb. phr. (prostitutes’).—To expose the person.
In a fling, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In a spasm of temper.
To have one’s fling, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To enjoy full liberty of
## action or conduct. Cf., High Old Time.
1624. Beaumont and Fletcher, Rule a Wife, &c., iii., 5. I’ll have a fling.
1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xiii. Hang it; the regiment’s just back from the West Indies, I must have a little fling, and then when I’m married I’ll reform.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, II., 118. I don’t want to marry until I have had my fling, you know.
1880. Gilbert, Pirates of Penzance. Peers will be peers, And youth will have his fling.
1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 253. If policy (police) show up, then you let me have my fling, eh?
To fling dirt.—See dirt.
Flinger, subs. (Scots).—A dancer.
1821. Scott, Pirate, ch. ix. That’s as muckle as to say, that I suld hae minded you was a flinger and a fiddler yoursel’, Maister Mordaunt.
Fling-Dust, subs. (old).—A street-walker. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.
Flint, subs. (workmen’s). A man working for a ‘Union’ or ‘fair’ house; non-Unionists are dung (q.v.). Both terms occur in Foote’s burlesque, The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather, and they received a fresh lease of popularity during the tailors’ strike of 1832. See quots. Cf., Scab Soc, Snob, Snob-stick, and Knobstick.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, flints, journeyman taylors who, on a late occasion, refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted were by the mutineers stiled dungs, i.e., dunghills.
1832. P. Egan, Book of Sports, p. 34. Jack Reeve is without a rival; the throne of the flints is decidedly freehold property to him.
1834. Noctes Amb., xxxiv., vol. IV., p. 83. (The company is discussing the tailors’ strike). Tickler. The flints flash fire, and the day of the dungs is gone.
Old flint, subs. phr. (common). A miser: one who would ‘skin a flint,’ i.e., stoop to any meanness for a trifle.
1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 34. It’s equally plain that the money which the old flint—rot him—first taught me to expect that I should share with her at his death, will all be hers.
To fix one’s flint. See Fix.
To flint in, verb. phr. (American). To act with energy; not to stand on ceremony; to pitch into; to tackle. A verb of action well-nigh as common as fix (q.v.).
Flip, subs. (common).—1. Hot beer, brandy, and sugar; also, says Grose, called Sir Cloudesley after Sir Cloudesley Shovel. See Drinks.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. flip, Sea Drink, of small beer (chiefly) and brandy, sweetened and spiced upon occasion.
1690. Ward, London Spy,