fancy man
Synonym of ponce (“a pimp hired by a prostitute”).
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
fiddler's money
small change
field-lane duck
A baked sheep's head.
five fingers
The five of trumps in the game of Don Pedro.
flare up
To burn brightly again.
flemish account
A tangled and unsatisfactory account or reckoning.
fork out
To pay out, to hand over.
forty winks
A short sleep or nap.
fox's paw
A mistake; a blunder.
f sharps
Fleas. Compare B FLATS.
face
Credit at a public-house, impudence, confidence, brass; thus a BRAZEN-FACE. "To run one’s FACE," is to obtain credit in a bounceable manner. "He’s got some FACE," i.e., he has got lots of impudence.
face entry
The entrée to a theatre. From the FACE being known, as distinguished from free-list entry.
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 bumper, a glass filled so full as to leave no room for the lip. Also a violent blow on the face.
facer
A blow on the face. In Ireland, a dram.
fad
A hobby, a favourite pursuit.
fadge
It won't fadge; it won't do. A farthing.
fadge
To suit or fit; "it wont FADGE," it will not do. Used by Shakspeare, but now heard only in the streets.
fadger
A glazier’s frame. Otherwise called a "frail," perhaps in reference to the fragile nature of its contents.
fag
A schoolboy who performs a servant’s offices to a superior schoolmate. From FAG, to become weary or tired out. Low German, FAKK, wearied.
fagger
A little boy put in at a window to rob the house.
faggot
A man hired at a muster to appear as a soldier. To faggot in the canting sense, means to bind: an allusion to the faggots made up by the woodmen, which are all bound. Faggot the culls; bind the men.
faggot
A bundle of bits of the "stickings" (hence probably its name) sold for food to the London poor. It is sometimes called a duck. In appearance it resembles a Scotch "haggis," without, however, being nearly so good as that fragrant article. Probably the FAG-END of a thing, the inferior or remaining part, the refuse.
faggot briefs
Bundles of worthless papers tied up with red tape, carried by unemployed barristers in the back rows of the courts to simulate briefs.
fair
A set of subterraneous rooms in the Fleet Prison.
faithful
One of the faithful; a taylor who gives long credit. His faith has made him unwhole; i.e. trusting too much, broke him.
fake
In the sporting world, means to hocus or poison. Fake is also a mixture supposed to be used for purposes of "making safe."
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.
fakement
A false begging petition, any act of robbery, swindling, or deception. FAKEMENT is a word of most general application among the lower classes. Any things strange, and most things not strange, are called FAKEMENTS, particularly if there is anything peculiar or artistic in their production.
fakement charley
The owner’s private mark. FAKER, is one who makes or FAKES anything. To "fake a cly," is to pick a pocket.
fal-lals
Trumpery ornaments, gewgaws. Forby suggests as a derivation the Latin PHALERÆ, horse trappings.
fallalls
Ornaments, chiefly women's, such as ribands, necklaces, &c.
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.
fambles
Or FAMMS, the hands.—Ancient Cant. German, FANGEN.
family man
A thief or receiver of stolen goods.
family men
Or PEOPLE, thieves, or burglars.
family of love
Lewd women; also, a religious sect.
fan
A waistcoat.—Houndsditch term.
fancy
The favourite sports, pets, or pastime of a person, the ton of low life. Pugilists are sometimes termed the FANCY. Shakspeare uses the word in the sense of a favourite or pet; and the paramour of a prostitute is still called her FANCY MAN.
fancy bloak
A fancy or sporting man.
fanning
A beating. FANNING is also stealing; CROSS-FANNING is stealing with the arms crossed so as to distract attention, as in stealing breast-pins, &c.
fanqui
A European, literally foreign devil.—Anglo-Chinese.
fantail
A dustman’s or coalheaver’s hat. So called from the shape.
farm
To contract, after the manner of those who engage to feed and lodge children belonging to the parish, at so much a head; a fruitful cause of starvation and misery. See Oliver Twist. The baby farmings, unconnected with the parishes in which they occurred, which ultimately resulted in the trial and execution of Margaret Waters, on the 11th October, 1870, have caused the word FARM as applied to any dealings with children, parish or private, to be one of obloquy and reproach.
farmer
In Suffolk this term is applied to the eldest son of the occupier of the farm. In London it is used derisively of a countryman, and denotes a farm-labourer or clodpole. Both senses are different from the proper meaning.
fart
He has let a brewer's fart, grains and all; said of one who has bewrayed his breeches.
fart catcher
A valet or footman from his walking behind his master or mistress.
fartleberries
Excrement hanging about the anus.
fast
Embarrassed, wanting money, tied up. Sometimes synonymous with "hard up."—Yorkshire.
fast and loose
Behaving recklessly or irresponsibly
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 spaces.
fat
A printer’s term signifying the void spaces on a page, for which he is paid at the same rate as for full or unbroken pages. Occasionally called "grease," and applied variously, but always as showing some undue or uncommon amount of advantage.
father
Or FENCE, a buyer of stolen property.
faulkner
A tumbler, juggler, or shewer of tricks; perhaps because they lure the people, as a faulconer does his hawks. CANT.
favourite
The horse that has the lowest odds laid against it in the betting list. When the FAVOURITE wins, the public or backers of horses generally are the gainers. When an outsider wins, the ring, that is to say, the persons who make a business of laying against the chances of horses, are the gainers.
fawney
A finger ring. Irish, FAINEE, a ring.
fawney bouncing
Selling rings for a pretended wager. This practice is founded upon the old tale of a gentleman laying a wager that if he were to offer "real gold sovereigns" at a penny a-piece at the foot of London Bridge, the English public would be too incredulous to buy. The story states that the gentleman stationed himself with sovereigns on a tea-tray, and sold only two within the hour, thus winning the bet.
fawney rig
A common fraud, thus practised: A fellow drops a brass 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.
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.
feather-bed lane
A rough or stony lane.