feel the pinch
Experience financial difficulty or hardship
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
feel up
to touch someone in a sexual manner without their consent
feele
A daughter, or child.—Corrupted French.
feet
To make feet for children's stockings; to beget children. An officer of feet; a jocular title for an officer of infantry.
feet first
to do something in a cautious or tentative manner
feet of clay
A weakness or fault in someone's character
feint
A sham attack on one part, when a real one is meant at another.
fellow commoner
An empty bottle: so called at the university of Cambridge, where fellow commoners are not in general considered as over full of learning. At Oxford an empty bottle is called a gentleman commoner for the same reason. They pay at Cambridge 250 l. a year for the privilege of wearing a gold or silver tassel to their caps. The younger branches of the nobility have the privilege of wearing a hat, and from thence are denominated HAT FELLOW COMMONERS.
Fellow Commoner
An undergraduate of Cambridge, who was formerly privileged to
fellow-commoner
Uncomplimentary epithet used at Cambridge for an empty bottle.
felo de se
The act of a suicide when he commits self-murder; also, the self- murderer himself. Murder is felony, and a man who murders himself commits this felony — felo de se.
felt
A hat.—Old term, in use in the sixteenth century.
feminine ending
An extra unaccented syllable at the end of a line of verse, e.g.
feminoid
A feminist.
femtard
A feminist.
fen
A bawd, or common prostitute. CANT.
Fen Nightingale
A frog, which sings at night in the fens, as nightingales sing in the groves.
fen-nightingales
Toads and frogs, from their continued croaking at night.
fence
A purchaser or receiver of stolen goods; also, the shop or warehouse of a FENCER.—Old Cant.
fence in
To restrict or limit someone's freedom or activity
fence the tables
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
fencepost problem
An off-by-one error due to incorrect counting of boundaries
fencing ken
The magazine, or warehouse, where stolen goods are secreted.
fend and prove
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
fend away
to defend or protect oneself from something
fenty
Fentanyl.
feria
Money.
feringee
A European—that is, a Frank.—Anglo-Indian.
fermerdy beggars
All those who have not the sham sores or clymes.
Fermiers Generaux
Those who in France in the 18th century farmed the state taxes. They guaranteed an agreed sum to the crown and retained any surplus which they could gather for themselves. They grew rich and amongst their activities was the production of a group of extremely rich illustrated books — notably the La Fontaine (1762) and the Boccaccio (1757-61).
Fern Seed
We have the receipt of fern seed, we walk invisible (1 Henry IV, iv, 4). The seed of certain species of fern is so small as to be in- visible to the naked eye, and hence the plant was believed to confer invisibility on those who carried it about their person. It was at one time believed that plants have the power of im- parting their own speciality to their wearer.
ferrara
Andrea Ferrara; the name of a famous sword-cutler: most of the Highland broad-swords are marked with his name; whence an Andrea Ferrara has become the common name for the glaymore or Highland broad-sword. See CLAYMORE.
ferret
A tradesman who sells goods to young unthrift heirs, at excessive rates, and then continually duns them for the debt. To ferret; to search out or expel any one from his hiding-place, as a ferret drives out rabbits; also to cheat. Ferret-eyed; red-eyed: ferrets have red eyes.
Ferrex and Porrex
Two sons of Gorbpduc, a mythical British king, who divided his kingdom between them. Porrex drove his brother from Britain, and when Ferrex returned with an army he was slain, but Porrex was shortly after put to death by his mother.
ferricadouzer
A knock-down blow, a good thrashing. Probably derived, through the Lingua Franca, from the Italian, "far’ cader’ douser," to knock down. "Far’ cader’ morto," is to knock down dead.
Fescennine Verses
Lampoons; so called from Fescennia in Tuscany, where performers at merry-makings used to extemporize scurrilous jests of a personal nature to amuse the audi- ence.
festie
A festival.
Festival of St
Michael and All Angels (see MICHAEL, above), one of the quarter-days when rents are due, and the day when magi- strates are elected.
festy
Disgusting.
fetch
A trick, wheedle, or invention to deceive.
fetch a compass
to go get something, often in a hurry
fetch and carry
To serve someone obediently and diligently
fetch up
To arrive somewhere, especially unexpectedly.
fetch way
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
fetid
Unpleasant.
fetti
Money.
fettled ale
Ale wanned and spiced, mulled. It is a dialectal use, principally North Country.
fetty
Fentanyl.
feu de joie
A running fire of guns on an occasion of rejoicing.
feuterer
A dog-keeper: from the French vautrier, or vaultrier, one that leads a lime hound for the chase.
fever pitch
A state of intense excitement or activity
few
Used to signify the reverse, thus:—"Don’t you call this considerably jolly?" "I believe you, my bo-o-oy, A FEW." Sometimes the reply is, "just a FEW." Another expression of the same kind is RATHER, which see.
few cards shy of a full deck
Lacking in intelligence or common sense
FfeshWing horses
The horses of Diomed, tyrant of Thrace (not Diomede, son of Tydeus) who fed his horses on the strangers who visited his kingdom. Hercules vanquished the tyrant, and gave the carcass to the horses to eat. Like to the Thracian tyrant who, they say, Unto his horses gave his guests for meat, Till he himself was made their greedy prey, And torn in pieces by Alcides great.
fi-fa
A writ of Fieri-Facias.—Legal.
fi-fi
Thackeray’s term for Paul de Kock’s novels, and similar modern French literature.
fib
To beat or strike.—Old Cant.
fibbing
A series of blows delivered quickly, and at a short distance.—Pugilistic.
fickle mistress
Something that is unpredictable and prone to sudden changes
fid of tobacco
A quid, from the small pieces of tow with which the vent or touch hole of a cannon is stopped. SEA TERM.
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