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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.
To steal, or purloin. Originally a cant word, derived from the FILCHES, or hooks, thieves used to carry, to hook clothes, or any portable articles from open windows.—Vide Decker. It was considered a cant or gipsy term up to the beginning of the last century. Harman has "FYLCHE, to robbe." Probably from "FILICHI," Romany for a handkerchief.
A deep or artful man, a jocose name for a cunning person. Originally a term for a pickpocket, when to FILE was to cheat or rob. FILE, an artful man, was used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. To deal with an artful man is sometimes said to be like biting a FILE.
An American adventurer, who, if successful, helps to extend the boundaries of the United States, becomes a General, and receives high honours, but who remains a FILIBUSTER, and is despised as such, if he fails. The Texan, Nicaraguan, and kindred expeditions were of a FILIBUSTERING order.
The treadwheel in the house of correction.
To flatter, praise ironically.
A lame, prevaricating excuse.—Scandinavian.
An arm. A one finned fellow; a man who has lost an arm. SEA PHRASE.
A hand; "come, tip us your FIN," viz., let us shake hands.—Sea.
One who FINDS bacon and meat at the market before they are lost, i.e., steals them.
Fine as five pence. Fine as a cow-t--d stuck with primroses.
To put finger in eye; to weep: commonly applied to women. The more you cry the less you'll p-ss; a consolatory speech used by sailors to their doxies. It is as great a pity to see a woman cry, as to see a goose walk barefoot; another of the same kind.
A parson: so called, because he points out a way to others which he never goes himself. Like the finger post, he points out a way he has never been, and probably will never go, i.e. the way to heaven.
The finish; a small coffee-house in Coven Garden, market, opposite Russel-street, open very early in the morning, and therefore resorted to by debauchees shut out of every other house: it is also called Carpenter's coffee-house.
A five-pound note. DOUBLE FINNUF, a ten-pound note.—German, FUNF, five.
Villains who rob at fires under pretence of assisting in removing the goods.
A wench who has the venereal disease.
He or she when young, was fed with a fire shovel; a saying of persons with wide mouths.
A quarrelsome man, a braggadocio or turbulent person who is always ready to fight.
Introducing a story by head and shoulders. A man wanting to tell a particular story, said to the company, Hark! did you not hear a gun?--but now we are talking of a gun, I will tell you the story of one.
To cuddle or fondle.
The first lot to finish in a foot or horse race, in a fox hunt, &c.
A seaman. A scaly fish; a rough, blunt tar. To have other fish to fry; to have other matters to mind, something else to do.
A person; "a queer FISH," "a loose FISH." Term never used except in doubtful cases, as those quoted.
Originally a Billingsgate fishwife; now any scolding, vixenish, foul-mouthed woman.
Doubtful, unsound, rotten; used to denote a suspicion of a "screw being loose," or "something rotten in the state of Denmark," in referring to any proposed speculation.
Suitable. It won't fit; It will not suit or do.
An Americanism denoting the preterite of the verb to fight. A Yankee once came upon the words nihil fit, and he immediately wrote off to the editor of the paper to which he subscribed to know "Who was Nihil, who he fit, what amount he fit for, and if he won."
The sign of five shillings, i.e. the crown. Fifteen shillings; the sign of the three crowns.
"bunch of FIVES," the fist.
A predicament, or dilemma; "an awful FIX," a terrible position; "to FIX one’s flint for him," i.e., to "settle his hash," to "put a spoke in his wheel."
An Americanism, equivalent to our word "trimmings," which see.
Champagne; any sparkling wine.
First-rate, very good, excellent; synonymous with "stunning."
Or FLABBERGHAST, to astonish, or strike with wonder; literally, to strike aghast.—Old.
Relaxed, flaccid, not firm or solid.
A groat. CANT.--The flag of defiance, or bloody flag is out; signifying the man is drunk, and alluding to the redness of his face. SEA PHRASE.
A groat, or 4d.—Ancient Cant.
Any overt sign of poverty; the end of a person’s shirt when it protrudes through his trousers.
A lie, or sham story: also a single stroke on a drum. To flam; to hum, to amuse, to deceive. Flim flams; idle stories.
Nonsense, blarney, a lie, humbug. "A regular FLAM," a tale devoid of truth.
Or HOT FLANNEL, the old term for gin and beer, drunk hot, with nutmeg, sugar, &c.; a play on the old name "lambswool." Also called "flip." There is an anecdote told of Goldsmith helping to drink a quart of FLANNEL in a night-house, in company with George Parker, Ned Shuter, and a demure, grave-looking gentleman, who continually introduced the words "crap," "stretch," "scrag," and "swing." Upon the Doctor asking who this strange person might be, and being told his profession, he rushed from the p
Lead used for the coverings of roofs.
Or FLIPPER, the hand.
Knowing. Understanding another's meaning. The swell was flash, so I could not draw his fogle. The gentleman saw what I was about, and therefore I could not pick his pocket of his silk handkerchief. To patter flash, to speak the slang language. See PATTER.
Show it—said when any bargain is offered.
A house that harbours thieves.
The canting or slang language.
A bully to a bawdy house. A whore's bully.
The gold band on an officer’s cap.—Sea. Also in street slang, a glass of gin.
Houses to which thieves and prostitutes resort.
A bubble, gull, or silly fellow.
A fool, a silly or "soft" person; the opposite of "sharp." The terms appear to be shortenings for "sharp-witted" and "flat-witted." Or, maybe, from musical notes.
The battalion companies in the Foot Guards.
Half, or a halfpenny.
Half-a-crown. See preceding remarks.
Playing cards; sometimes called "broads." Also the storeys of large houses, built on the "independent" principle, each flat having its separate and peculiar offices, street-door, &c.
A rustic, or uninitiated person.
A public-house the landlord of which is ignorant of the practices of the thieves and tramps who frequent it.
To vomit. Now replaced by the more popular "shoot the cat."
A bum-brusher, or schoolmaster.