fool
A fool at the end of a stick; a fool at one end, and a maggot at the other; gibes on an angler.
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
foolish
An expression among impures, signifying the cully who pays, in opposition to a flash man. Is he foolish or flash?
foont
A sovereign, or 20s. Probably a corruption of vingt.
foot wabbler
A contemptuous appellation for a foot soldier, commonly used by the cavalry.
footing
"to pay FOOTING." See SHOE.
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.
forakers
The closet of decency, or house of office. Term used by the boys at Winchester School. Very likely from "four acres," the original necessary having been in all likelihood a field behind the school.
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.
forks
Or GRAPPLING-IRONS, fingers. Costermongers and other clumsy feeders have a proverb which seems to justify their taking bones and choice morsels in their hands during the progress of a meal. It is, "Fingers were the first FORKS;" sometimes varied to "Fingers were made before FORKS."
forlorn hope
A gamester's last stake.
form
Condition, training. "In good FORM" or "in bad FORM" refers to a man’s or horse’s state of being in the sporting world. FORM has also had a moral significance of late years, and with the qualifying adjectives attached as occasion requires, is extensively used in general conversation. As, "It was bad FORM of Brown to do that." "That article was bad FORM." In the latter cases the word "in" rarely appears.
fortune hunters
Indigent men, seeking to enrich themselves by marrying a woman of fortune.
forty foot
A derisive appellation for a very short person.
forty guts
Vulgar term for a fat man.
forty-twa
The common place of retirement on a well-known French plan at Edinburgh, so called from its accommodating that number of persons at once.
fou
Rather more than slightly intoxicated.—Scotch.
foul
To foul a plate with a man, to take a dinner with him.
foul
To jostle or bore unfairly in a race. See BORE. To touch any foreign substance during a race—particularly a boat-race—is to FOUL it.
foul riding
Riding which after a horse-race is made the subject of complaint, such as refusing to let a competitor pass, boring him against the rails, &c. Some jockeys are great adepts at this work, and are invaluable to a confederacy as a means, not so much of attaining victory themselves, as of preventing its attainment in others. Of course unless proof of jostling can be given, or evidence of malicious intent shown, jockeyship of this kind is not considered foul riding.
foundling
A child dropped in the streets, and found, and educated at the parish expence.
four kings
HISTORY OF THE, an old name for a pack of playing cards. See Sir Thomas Urquhart’s Translation of Rabelais. In Argot, LIVRE DES QUATRE ROIS.
four-and-nine
Or FOUR-AND-NINEPENNY GOSS, a cheap hat, so called from 4s. 9d., the price at which a once noted advertising hat-maker sold his hats—
four-eyes
A man or woman who habitually wears spectacles.
fourth
Or FOURTH COURT, the court appropriated to the waterclosets at Cambridge; from its really being No. 4 at Trinity College. A man leaving his room to go to the FOURTH COURT, writes on his door, in algebraic notation, GONE^4, which expresses the Cambridge slang phrase, "gone to the FOURTH."
fourth estate
The media, especially the press, in its role of holding power to account.
fousil
The name of a public house, where the Eccentrics assemble in May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane.
fox
To cheat or rob.—Eton College. In London to watch closely and narrowly.
foxed
A term used by print and book collectors to denote the brown spotted appearance produced by damp on paper.
foxing
When one actor criticises another’s performance.—Theatrical. Also in street slang FOXING means watching slyly.
foxing a boot
Mending the foot by capping it.
foxy
Rank, tainted, from the odour of the animal.—Lincolnshire.
fox’s sleep
Or FOXING, a purposely assumed indifference to what is going on. A fox, as well as a weasel, is said to sleep with one eye open.
foyst
A pickpocket, cheat, or rogue. See WOTTON'S GANG.
foysted in
Words or passages surreptitiously interpolated or inserted into a book or writing.
frapping
A beating. French, FRAPPER.
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.
free fight
A fight conducted on the Irishman’s principle—"Sure, wherever you see a head, hit it." The term is, however, American, so the practice may be considered fairly general.
free-and-easy
A club held at a low public-house, the members of which meet in the tap-room or parlour for the purpose of drinking, smoking, and hearing each other sing. These gatherings are generally called harmonic meetings by the landlord, but FREE-AND-EASY best indicates the character of the proceedings.
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.
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 faggot-stick; i.e. he lost his nose by the pox.
French gout
Syphilis.
French leave
to leave a place without permission or notice
frenchified
Infected with the venereal disease. The mort is Frenchified: the wench is infected.
fresh
Said of a person slightly intoxicated.
fresh milk
Cambridge new comers to the university.
freshman
One just entered a member of the university.
freshman
A University man during his first year. The official appellation for the students until they have passed the Previous or First Cambridge Examination, otherwise called the Smalls or Little Go, is Junior Sophs or Sophisters. After this they are Senior Sophs until their last term, when they are Questionists, or preparing "ad respondendum quæstioni." At Oxford the title FRESHMAN lasts for the first term.
fribble
An effeminate fop; a name borrowed from a celebrated character of that kind, in the farce of Miss in her Teens, written by Mr. Garrick.
friday-face
A dismal countenance. Before, and even long after the Reformation, Friday was a day of abstinence, or jour maigre. Immediately after the restoration of king Charles II. a proclamation was issued, prohibiting all publicans from dressing any suppers on a Friday.
friday-face
A gloomy-looking man. Most likely from FRIDAY being a day of meagre fare among Catholics and High Church Protestants.
frig pig
A trifling, fiddle-faddle fellow.
frigate
A well-rigged frigate; a well-dressed wench.