A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists

by Walter W. Skeat

F

faces about, the same as ‘right-about face’, i.e. turn round the other way. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 1. 14; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, v. 2 (Ralph); Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Y. Loveless).

fackins. The forms here given are distortions of fay (faith), frequent in trivial quasi-oaths. By my fackins, B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 3; By my feckins, Heywood, 1 Edw. I, iii. 1; By my facks, Middleton, Quiet Life, ii. 2; By my feck, Webster, Cure for Cuckold, iv. 3. Cp. I’ faikins, in truth, verily, used in Scotland, Lakeland, and Lancashire (EDD.). See [fay] (1).

fact, evil deed, crime. Meas. for M. iv. 2. 141; v. 439; Wint. Tale, iii. 2. 86; Macb. iii. 6. 10; in the fact, in the act, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 1. 173.

fadge, to fit, suit, agree; ‘Let men avoid what fadgeth not with their stomachs’, Robertson, Phras. 708; ‘How ill his shape with inward forme doth fadge’, Marston, Scourge of Villanie, i. 1. 172; to succeed, to turn out well, ‘How will this fadge?’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 2. 34; to get on well, to thrive, ‘Let him that cannot fadge in one course fall to another’, Cotgrave (s.v. Mouldre). In prov. use in various parts of England, meaning to fit, suit; to make things fit; to succeed, thrive, see EDD. (s.v. Fadge, vb.³).

fading, the name of a dance; ‘Fading is a fine jig’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight B. Pestle, iv. 5 (end). ‘With a fading’ was the refrain of a popular song of an indecent character, Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 195.

fagary, a vagary, freak. Middleton, Roaring Girl, iv. 2 (Goshawk); Lady Alimony, ii. 1 (1 Boy). See [fegary].

fagioli, French beans. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Ital. fagioli, ‘french peason, kidney beanes’ (Florio), Late L. phaseolus (Pliny), earlier L. phaselus (Virgil), Gk. φάσηλος, a kidney-bean.

fail, fayl, to deceive. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 11; iii. 11. 46. F. faillir, to deceive (Cotgr.).

fain, to rejoice. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 36. Hence fayning, gladsome, wistful, Hymn of Love, 216. OE. fægnian, to rejoice.

fair, fairness, beauty. Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 81 (Rasni); Death of E. of Huntingdon, ii. 1 (Salisbury); iii. 4 (Leicester); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 255, 282.

fairy money, money given by fairies, which turned to dry leaves if talked about; ‘Such borrowed wealth, like Fairy-money . . . will be but Leaves and Dust when it comes to use’, Locke, Human Und. I, iv. (NED.); Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 1 (Montague). See Davies.

faitour, an impostor, cheat, a lying vagabond. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 39; faytor, F. Q. i. 12. 35; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 173. See Notes to Piers Plowman, p. 166. The word means a sham, a maker-up of a character. OF. faitour, faiteör, Romanic type factitorem.

fa la, a snatch of song; ‘The fiddle, and the fa las’, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). From the notes in the upper part of the gamut—fa-sol-la-si. Hence, fa la la, as a refrain of a song.

fall, the blast blown on a horn at the death of the deer. Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 315. See [mort].

fall, a collar falling flat round the neck. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly); falls, pl., Middleton, Your Five Gallants, i. 1 (2 Fellow).

fall, autumn; ‘The hole yere is deuided into iiii. partes, spring-time, somer, faule of the leafe, and winter’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 48; Dryden, tr. Juvenal, Sat. x. In prov. use in various parts of England, very common in America (EDD.).

fall, to let fall, Temp. ii. 1. 296; Richard III, v. 3. 135; to happen, Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 188.

falling bands; see [band].

false: phr. to false a blow, to make a feint, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 46; ii. 5. 9. Cp. Cymbeline, ii. 3. 74.

falser, a deceiver. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec.; Epilogue, 6.

falx, a term in wrestling; a grip round the small of the back. Drayton, Pol. i. 244; Carew, Cornwall, 76. F. faux du corps (Sherwood, s.v. Wast). See NED. (s.v. Faulx).

famble, hand. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 87. Icel. fálma, the hand; cp. Swed. famle, to grope; cognate with OE. folm, a hand.

famble, a ring. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond Senior). So called because worn on the hand. See above.

famelic, exciting hunger, appetizing. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1 (Busy). L. famelicus, hungry; from fames, hunger.

Familist, one of the sect called the Family of Love. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Knavesby). See Dyce’s introduction to the Family of Love, by the same dramatist.

fang, to take, seize, seize upon. Timon, iv. 3. 23; spelt vang (Southern), London Prodigal, iii. 3. 5; fanged, pp., Northward Ho, i. 2. 6. OE. fōn, to take; pp. gefangen.

fanterie, infantry; ‘Cavallery [cavalry] and Fanterie’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. vi, c. 20; vol. i, p. 128 g; Fanteries, foot-soldiers, Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 152. OF. fanterie (Roquefort); Ital. ‘fantería, infantry; fante, a boy, a foot soldier’ (Florio); short for infante, an infant. Cp. ME. faunt, child (P. Plowman, B. xvi. 101), whence surname ‘Fauntleroy’.

fap, drunk. Merry Wives, i. 1. 183.

farandine, a kind of cloth, made partly of silk and partly of wool. Spelt farrendon, Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iii. 1 (Lucy); ferrandine, a gown of this material, id. v. 2 (Mrs. Joyner). Said to be from F. Ferrand, the name of the inventor (c. 1630). See NED.

farce, to stuff, fill out; ‘Farce thy lean ribs’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo); ‘The farced title’ (i.e. stuffed, tumid), Hen. V, iv. 1. 280; ‘Wit larded with malice, and malice farced with wit’, Tr. and Cr. v. 1. 64. See Dict. (s.v. Farce).

farcion, farcyon, the farcy, a disease in horses, akin to glanders. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 93. F. farcin; see Hatzfeld. See [fashions].

fardle, to furl a sail. Golding, Metam. xi. 483; fol. 138 (1603). F. fardeler, to truss or pack up (Cotgr.). See NED. (s.v. Fardel).

fare, course; track of a hare. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 16; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, iv. 2. 18. OE. fær, course; from faran, to go.

far-fet, fetched from afar. Milton, P. R. ii. 401. Things ‘far-fet’ were proverbially said to be good (or fit) for ladies; ‘Farre fet and deere bought is good for Ladyes’, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 93). See The Malcontent, v. 2 (Mendoza); B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, 1 Prologue; Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1 (Argurion).

farlies, strange things, wonders. Drayton, Pol. x. 170. ‘Ferlies’ (or ‘fairlies’) is in common use in Scotland for ‘sights, show things to be seen, lions’, see EDD. (sv. Ferly, 4). ME. ferly, strange, wonderful; also, a wonder (Barbour’s Bruce), OE. fǣrlic, sudden, unexpected.

fashions, or fashion, the ‘farcy’, a disease of the skin in horses, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 53; Dekker, O. Fortunatus, ii. 2 (Andelocia). See [farcion].

fast and loose, a cheating game with a leather strap, which is made up in intricate folds and laid edgewise on a table; the novice thrusts a skewer into it, thinking to hold it fast thereby, but the trickster takes hold of both ends and draws it away. Fletcher, Loyal Subject, ii. 1 (Theodore); City Nightcap, iv. 1 (Dorothea).

faste, faced, having faces; ‘Some faste Like loathly toades’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 12.

fastidious, distasteful, displeasing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 9, § 1; disdainful, B. Jonson, New Inn, Ode (at the end), l. 7.

fatch, a ‘vetch’; ‘A fatch for Love!’, Turbervile, The Penitent Lover, last stanza; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 1 (note on the word Cicero). See EDD. (s.v. Fatch).

fault, a misfortune. Pericles, iv. 2. 79; Massinger, Bondman, v. 1 (Leosthenes).

faun, for fawn, an act of fawning upon; a cringing. Phineas Fletcher, An Apology for the Premises, st. 4; B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 4 (Tucca).

fausen, a kind of eel (?). Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxi. 190. In Kent fazen-eel is in use for a large brown eel; see EDD. (s.v. Fazen).

fautie, ‘faulty’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 99. 2. The ordinary pronunciation in Scotland, and many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Faulty). F. fautif.

fautor, an adherent, partisan; spelt faultor, Mirror for Mag., Worcester, xx; a protector, patron, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 441; xi. 325. F. fauteur, ‘a fauter, favourer, protector’ (Cotgr.); L. fautor, a favourer, patron.

fautress, a patroness. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xxiii. 670.

Favell, a personification of flattery; ‘The fyrste was Favell, full of flatery, Wyth fables false that well coude fayne a tale’, Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 134; ‘Favell hath a goodly grace In eloquence’, Wyatt, The Courtier’s Life (ed. Bell, 216). ME. Fauel: ‘Bothe Fals and Fauel and fykeltonge Lyere’ (P. Plowman, C. iii. 6); see Notes, pp. 42, 43. Hoccleve, in his De Regimine Principum (ed. Wright, pp. 106, 111), fully describes favelle or flattery, and says, ‘In wrong praising is all his craft and arte’. See [curry-favell].

fawting, favourable. Mirror for Mag., Irenglas, st. 21 (ed. 1575). See [fautor].

fay, faith. Spenser, F. Q. v. S. 19; phr. by my fay, by my faith, Romeo, i. 5. 128. ME. fey, faith (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1126); Anglo-F. fei (F. foi). See [fackins].

fay, to clear away filth, to clean out a ditch or pond. Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 2. 4: Holland, tr. Livy, xxi. 37 (ed. 1609, 414); spelt fie, Tusser, Husbandry, § 20. 21. In common prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia: in the former ‘fey’ is the usual form, in the latter ‘fie’, see EDD. (s.v. Fay, vb.¹). Icel. fǣgja, to cleanse, polish.

fayles, a variety of backgammon, played with three dice. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 8. 104. Described in Gifford’s note; so called because a particular throw caused the adversary to fail. See NED. (where there is cited from Ludus Anglicorum (c. A.D. 1330) ‘Est et alius ludus qui vocatur Faylys’). See Nares.

feague, to settle one’s business, to take one in hand, to dispose of. Etherege, She Would if she Could, iii. 3 (Sir Oliver); also (Sir Joslin’s Song); iv. 2 (Sir Oliver). Spelt fegue, Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i. 1 (end). Cp. G. fegen, to sweep, to clean, to furbish; also, to chastise, rebuke; Du. vegen. See NED.

feague, to whip. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Beaugard). Probably the same word as above. See EDD. (s.v. Feag).

feak, a dangling curl of hair. Marston, Sat. i. 38. See NED.

feants, for fiants or fyaunts; see [fiants]. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37; p. 98.

fear, an object of terror. Hamlet, iii. 3. 25; Milton, P. L. ix. 285; to terrify, Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 221; 1 Hen. VI, v. 2. 2. ‘To fear’ is used in this sense in Scotland and in various parts of England (EDD.).

feat, made, fashioned. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iii. 2 (Sir N. Treadle); clever, dexterous, Cymb. v. 5. 88; graceful, ‘She speaks feat English’, Fletcher, Night-walker, iii. 6; neat, becoming, Temp. ii. 1. 273; to make a person elegant, Cymb. i. 1. 49. ‘Feat’ is in gen. prov. use in the sense of suitable, also, dexterous, adroit, smart (EDD.). F. fait, made; fait pour, made for, suitable for.

featuously, elegantly, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv, Ballad of Dowsabel, 24; feateously, dexterously, nimbly, Spenser, Prothal. 27. ME. fetysly, exquisitely; fetys, well-made, handsome, graceful (Chaucer). OF. fetis, feitis; L. facticius.

feature, fashion, make, form. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 44; ‘The grim Feature’ (used of Satan), Milton, P. L. x. 279.

feaze; see [feeze].

feeze. The threat ‘I’ll feeze you’ seems to have given rise to the sense. To ‘do for’, ‘settle the business of’, also, to beat, flog. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 6 (Ricardo); veeze, Massinger, Emperor East, iv. 2 (Countryman); pheese, Tam. Shrew, Induct, i. 1. ‘To fease’ is in prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England—Midlands, E. Anglia, and South Coast, in the sense of to drive away, to put to flight (EDD.). OE. fēsan, to drive away; cp. Norw. dialect föysa (Aasen).

fegary, figary, ‘vagary’, freak, whimsical trick. Spelt figuary, Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 2 (Clown); fegary, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 5 (Diego). See [fagary].

fegue; see [feague].

felfare, a field-fare. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, i. 1 (L. Beaufort). So in Nottingham and Warwick (EDD.).

fell, a marsh, a fen. Drayton, Pol. iii. 113; see NED. (s.v. Fell, sb.² 2 b).

fell, gall, rancour. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 2. L. fel, gall.

fell’ff, the ‘felloe’ of a wheel, part of the wheel-rim. Chapman, tr. Iliad, iv. 525. A Yorks. pron. of ‘felloe’ (EDD.). OE. felg.

fellowly, companionable, sympathetic. Temp. v. 1. 64; fellowlie, Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 55.

felly, cruelly, fiercely. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 50.

felness, fierceness, spite, anger. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 37.

feltred, with wool matted close together; ‘Feltred ram’, Chapman, tr. Iliad, iii. 219; ‘His felter’d locks’, Fairfax, Tasso, iv. 7. See EDD. (s.v. Felter).

feme, feeme, a woman; ‘Take time therefore, thou foolish Feeme’, Turbervile, On the divers Passions of his Love, st. 3 from end. OF. feme (F. femme).

feminitee, womanhood. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 51.

fennel, supposed to be an emblem of flattery; ‘How this smells of fennel’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 2 (Count F.). See Nares.

fenny, spoiled with damp, mouldy. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 44; ‘Fenny, mouldy as fenny cheese’, Worlidge, Ray’s English Words, 1691. In prov. use (EDD.). OE. fynig. See [finewed].

fensive, ‘defensive’, capable of defence. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 301; Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 4 (st. 4 from end).

fere, feere, a companion, mate, spouse. Titus Andron. iv. 1. 89. Often spelt pheer, pheere, as in Spenser, Muse of Thestylis, 100. ME. fere (Chaucer). OE. ge-fēra, a companion.

ferk; See [firk] (2).

ferle, a ‘ferule’; a rod, sceptre; ‘The one of knight-hoode bare the ferle’, Mirror for Mag., Mortimer, st. 9.

ferme, a lodging; ‘His sinfull sowle with desperate disdaine Out of her fleshly ferme fled to the place of paine’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 23.

ferrandine; see [farandine].

ferrary, farriery, the art of working in iron. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xiv. 141.

ferrour, ‘farrier’. Skelton (ed. Dyce, i. 24). OF. ferrier (Godefroy).

ferse, the piece now known as the ‘queen’ in chess. Surrey, To the Lady that scorned, 12, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 21; ‘Fers, The Queen at Chess-play’, Bullokar. ME. fers (Chaucer, Book Duch., 654). OF. fierce, also, fierge (Roman Rose), Med. L. fercia (Ducange). Of Persian origin, ferzên, prop. ‘wise man’, ‘counsellor’, cp. Arab, firzân, queen in chess.

ferula, a flat wooden bat, used by schoolmasters for inflicting pats on the palm of a boy’s hand. North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 41 (in Shak. Plut., p. 96, n. 1); Englished as ferule, Hall, Satires, iv. 1. 169. L. ferula.

fescue, a little stick or pin, for pointing out the letters to children learning to read. Hall, Satires, iv. 2. 100; Dryden, Prologue to Cleomenes, 38. Hence, the gnomon of a dial; Puritan Widow, iv. 2. 84. OF. festu (F. fétu), a straw, O. Prov. festuc, for L. festūca, a straw (cp. O. Prov. festuga).

festinately, hastily. L. L. L. iii. 1. 6. Deriv. of L. festinus, hasty.

fet, pt. t. and pp. fetched; ‘David sent, and fet her to his house’, Bible, 2 Sam. xi. 27, Acts xxviii. 13 (ed. 1611); ‘This conclusion is far fet’, Jewel (Wks., ed. Parker Soc. i. 146); ‘Deep-fet groans’, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 33; B. Jonson, Silent Woman, Prol. ‘To fet’ is in gen. prov. use for ‘fetch’ in Lancashire and Midland counties (EDD.) ME. fette, pt. s. of fecchen, and fet pp. (Chaucer). OE. fette, pt. s., and fetod, pp. of fetian, to fetch (B. T.).

fetch, a trick, stratagem. Tusser, Husbandry, § 64. 2; Hamlet, ii. 1. 38; King Lear, ii. 4. 90. In gen. prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Fetch, sb.² 14).

fetch in, to seize upon, apprehend. Ant. and Cl. iv. 1. 14, Massinger, Roman Actor, iv. 1 (Parthenius).

fetuous, well-formed, well-made. Herrick, The Temple, 68; featous (NED.). See [featuously].

feutred, featured, fashioned. J. Heywood, The Four Plays, Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 19, col. 1; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 376. The strange spelling feautered also occurs (NED.).

†fewmand. Only in B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Earnie): ‘They

fewmets, the excrement of a deer. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., i. 2 (John); Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 306; ‘Fumées, the dung or excrements of Deer, called by woodmen, fewmets, or fewmishing’, Cotgrave. Cp. F. fumier, dung, manure, cogn. w. L. fimus, dung, excrement. See NED. (s.v. Fumet).

fewterer, a term of the chase, one who looks after the dogs in the kennel, and lets them loose at the proper time. Beaumont and Fl., Tamer Tamed, ii. 2; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 2. See [yeoman-fewterer]. ME. vewter, a keeper of greyhounds (Bk. Curtasye 631, in Babee’s Bk., ed. 1868, p. 320). Anglo-F. veutrier, Med. L. veltrarius (Ducange), deriv. of Romanic type veltrus, a greyhound. Cp. O. Prov. veltre, It. veltro, for older L. vertragus, a greyhound, a Gaulish word.

feyster, to fester, as a wound. Morte Arthur, leaf 394, back, 31; bk. xix, c. 10.

fiant, fiaunt, a warrant. Spenser, Mother Hub. 1144. L. fiant, in phr. fiant literae patentes, let letters patent be made out; used of a warrant addressed to the Irish Chancery for a grant under the Great Seal (NED.).

fiants, the excrements of certain animals, esp. of the fox or badger, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 76, p. 216; fyaunts, id., c. 66, p. 184. F. fiente, the excrement of certain animals (Cotgr.).

fico, a fig. Gascoigne, Herbes (Wks., ed. 1587, 153); as a type of anything valueless or contemptible, ‘A fico for the phrase’, Merry Wives, i. 3. 33. Ital. fico. See Stanford.

fidge, to keep in continual movement. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Cokes); Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 4 (Hodge); ‘Remuer, to move, stir, fidge’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England (EDD.).

fie; see [fay] (to clean).

fig of Spain, a contemptuous gesture, consisting in thrusting the thumb between two of the closed fingers. Hen. V, iii. 6. 62; phr. to give the fig, to insult thus, 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 123. See Nares.

figent, fidgeting restless. Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, iii. 2 (Vertaigne); Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Nan); Chapman and others, Eastward Ho, iii. 2 (Quicksilver). Deriv. of [fidge]. See Nares.

fig-frail, a basket for holding figs. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, iv. 5 (Bungler). See [frail].

figging-law, the art of cutting purses and picking pockets. Dekker, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). See NED.

figgum, (perhaps) a juggler’s trick. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, v. 5 (Sir P. E.).

fights, screens of cloth used during a naval engagement, to conceal and protect a crew. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 142; ‘Bear my fights out bravely’, Fletcher, Valentinian, ii. 2 (Claudia); Dryden, Amboyne, iii. 3 (Song); Heywood, Fair Maid of West, iv (Wks., ed. 1874, ii. 316); Phillips, Dict. 1706.

figo, a fig. Hen. V, iii. 6. 60; iv. 1. 60. Span. figo; L. ficus. See [fico].

filch, a hooked staff, used by thieves. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); also called a filchman, Awdeley, Vagabonds, p. 4.

file, the thread, course, or tenor of a story or argument. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 37. F. fil, a thread, L. filum.

file, to render foul, filthy, or dirty; ‘To file my hands in villain’s blood’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, iii (Scarborow); Macbeth, iii. 1. 65. In prov. use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). OE. fȳlan (in compounds), deriv. of fūl, foul.

filed, polished with the ‘file’; neatly sculptured; also fig. of literary work. Tale of Pygmalion, 4; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 131; ‘True-filed lines’, B. Jonson, Pref. Verses to Shakespeare (1623), 68.

fill; fills, pl., the ‘thills’ or shafts of a cart. Tr. and Cr. iii. 2. 48; hence fill-horse, a shaft-horse, Herrick, The Hock-cart, 21; spelt phil-horse, Merch. Ven. ii. 2. 100. ‘Fill’ and ‘fill-horse’ are both in prov. use (EDD.). See [thiller].

filograin, ‘filigree’. Butler, On P. Nye’s Thanksgiving Beard, l. 13 from end. Ital. filigrana (Fanfani). See Dict. (s.v. Filigree).

fincture, a feint, in fencing. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 54. Ital. finctura, fintura (NED.); deriv. of L. fingere, to feign.

fine, end. Much Ado, i. 1. 247; Hamlet, v. 1. 113.

fineness, ingenuity. Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 209; Massinger, Renegado, iv. 1 (Master).

finewed, musty, mouldy. Mirr. for Mag., Lord Hastings, st. 28; spelt fenowed, ‘The Scripture . . . is a Panary of holesome foode against fenowed traditions’, Bible, 1611, The Translators to the Reader; vinewed, Baret, Alvearie (s.vv. Mouldie and Hoarie); Tr. and Cr. ii. 1. 15 (in the Folios whinid). ‘Vinnewed’ (or ‘Vinnied’), mouldy, is in common prov. use in the south-west of England, see EDD. (s.v. Vinny). See [fenny].

fingle-fangle, a trifle. Butler, Hud. iii. 3. 454.

fire-drake, a fiery dragon; hence, a meteor. Hen. VIII, v. 4. 45; Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (or 5), near the end. OE. fȳr-draca; fȳr, fire, and draca, L. draco, Gk. δράκων, a dragon; cp. E. dragon.

fireship, a prostitute. (Cant.) Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii. 1 (Sir Simon). [Smollett, Roderick Random, 1. xxiii.]

firk, to beat, trounce. Hen. V, iv. 4. 29. See EDD. (s.v. Firk, 4).

firk, to cheat, rob. Dekker, Honest Wh. (NED.); spelt ferk, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1. See NED. (s.v. Firk, 2, c).

firk, to move about briskly, to frisk, gallop. Shirley, Hyde Park, iv. 3 (Song). See NED. (s.v. Firk, 3 b).

firk, a frisk; (humorously), a dance. Shirley, Hyde Park, ii. 2 (Lacy).

firk up, to trim up. Shirley, Constant Maid, ii. 1 (Playfair).

fisgig, a light, worthless female, fond of gadding about. Tusser, Husbandry, § 77. 8; ‘Trotiere, a fisgig, fisking huswife, gadding flirt’, Cotgrave. See NED. (s.v. Fizgig).

fisk, to scamper about, frisk, move briskly; ‘Then he fyskes abrode’, Latimer, Fourth Sermon (ed. Arber, p. 104); ‘Tome Tannkard’s Cow . . . fysking with her taile’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2; fysking, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 45. 2; ‘Fisking about the house’, Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 1 (Pierre). A Shropshire word (EDD.).

fist, a contemptuous expression; ‘Fist o’ your kindness!’, Eastward Ho, iv. 1 [or 2] (Gertrude). Also spelt fiste, fyste, foist; the orig. sense is a breaking wind, a disagreeable smell. See NED. (s.v. Fist, sb.²).

fisting-hound, a spaniel; a contemptuous term. Fleming, tr. of Caius’ Dogs; in Arber, Eng. Garner, iii. 287. See above.

fitches, ‘vetches’. Bible, Isaiah xxviii. 25; fytches, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 20. 40, § 70. 8. ‘Vesce, . . . fitch or vitch’, Cotgrave. ‘Fitches’ in gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and England (EDD.).

fitchock, fichok, a polecat. Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius); Scornful Lady, v. 1 (end). ‘Fitch’ is a common prov. word for the polecat; see EDD. (s.v. Fitch, also, Fitchock).

fitten, fitton, an untruth, an invention. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus); Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 54. ‘Fitten’ is in prov. use for ‘an idle fancy’, ‘a pretence’, in Hants., Wilts., and Somerset (EDD.). ME. fyton or lesynge, ‘mendacium’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 729).

fitters, fragments, rags, pieces. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 3. 4; Pilgrim, i. 1. 22. In prov. use in the north (EDD.).

five-and-fifty, the highest number to stand on, at the game of primero. But it could be beaten by a flush, i.e. when the cards were all of one colour. ‘As big as five-and-fifty and flush’; as confident as one who held five-and-fifty in number, and also held a flush; so that he could not be beaten; B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face).

five eggs: in phr. to come in with one’s five eggs, to break in or interrupt fussily with an idle story; ‘Persones coming in with their five egges, how that Sylla had geuen ouer his office’, Udall, tr. of Erasmus’s Apoph., p. 272; ‘Another commeth in with his fiue egges’, Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, p. 56). The orig. phrase had reference to the offering of five eggs for a penny, which was a trivial offer, and not very advantageous to the purchaser in the sixteenth century; See [eggs] (2).

fiveleaf, cinquefoil, Potentilla reptans. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 229; ‘Of Cinquefoyle, or Five-finger grasse’, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. i, c. 56.

fives, a disease of horses. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 54; ‘Vyves, a disease that an horse hath, avives’, Palsgrave; so Cotgrave; ‘Adivas, the disease in Horses and other Beasts call’d the Vives’, Stevens, Span. Dict., 1706. Of Arabic origin, ad-dhîba, ‘morbi species qua affici solet guttur jumenti’ (Freytag); see Dozy, Glossaire, p. 45.

fixation, in alchemy; the process that rendered the elixir fixed. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).

flacket, a flask, bottle, or vessel; ‘A flacket of wyne’, Great Bible (1539), 1 Sam. xvi. 20; ‘A flacket, Uter formam habens doliarem’, Coles, Dict., 1679. In prov. use in Yorkshire for a small cask-shaped vessel for holding beer (EDD.). ME. flaket, ‘obba, uter’ (Cath. Angl.); flakette, ‘flasca’ (Prompt.). Anglo-F. flaket (Gower).

flag, used as a sign or signal; ‘A flag and sign of love’, Othello, i. 1. 157; ‘His flag hangs out’ (i.e. as an advertisement), Middleton, The Widow, iv. 1 (Valeria); ‘ ’Tis Lent, the flag’s down’ (i.e. there is no flag flying above the theatre, because it is Lent, and the performances are suspended), Middleton, A Mad World, i. 1 (Follywit).

flaighted, fleighted, terrified. Golding, Metam. iv. 597; fol. 52 (1603); id., xi. 677. See NED. (s.v. Flaite, also, Flight). ‘To flight’ means properly ‘to put to flight’, hence, ‘to frighten’, ‘to scare’. Cp. EDD. (s.v. Flaite).

flanker, a fortification protecting men against a ‘flank’ or side attack; ‘Flankers . . . cannon-proof’, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Rossaline).

†flantado, flaunting display. Only occurs in Stanyhurst (tr. Aeneid, i. 44).

flapdragon, a combustible put in liquor, to be swallowed flaming; e.g. a raisin set on fire. L. L. L. v. 1. 45; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 1 (Clause). Hence, as vb., to swallow quickly, Winter’s Tale, iii. 3. 100.

flapjack, a pancake; also, an apple turnover. Pericles, ii. 1. 87; Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Vincent); see Nares. In prov. use in E. Anglia, Sussex, and Somerset (EDD.).

flappet, a little flap; ‘A flappet of wood’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, i. 2 (or 3), Ralph. The sense of flap is here uncertain; perhaps a fly-flapper, to keep off flies.

flash, a pool, a marshy place. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 60; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 70. In common prov. use in the north country, also in Lincoln and Shropshire; occurring frequently in place-names, see EDD. (s.v. Flash, sb.¹ 1). ME. flasch, ‘lacuna’ (Prompt.), OF. flache, ‘locus aquis stagnantibus oppletus’ (Didot), Med. L. flachia (Ducange).

flask, to flap; also, to cause to flutter; ‘To flask his wings’, Golding, Metam. vi. 703 (fol. 77); ‘The weather flaskt . . . her garments’, id., ii. last line.

flasky, (perhaps) belonging to a ‘flask’ or ‘flash’, a muddy pool; ‘The flasky fiends of Limbo lake’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 149. See NED.

flat-cap, a London citizen; esp. a London apprentice; ‘Flat-caps thou call’st us. We scorne not the name’, Heywood, 1 Edw. IV, sc. 1 (NED.); Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iii. 1 (Song, st. 4). See Nares.

flatchet, a sword. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 92; flachet, iii. 241. 529. Cp. MHG. flatsche, flasche, a sword with a broad blade (Weigand).

flatted, laid flat, levelled, made smooth. Dryden, Ceyx and Alcyone, 131; tr. of Virgil, Aeneid x, 158. See EDD. (s.v. Flat, v. 21).

flaunt-a-flaunt, flauntingly displayed. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163.

flaw, a gust of wind. Arden of Fev. iv. 4. 44; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 354; Hamlet, v. 1. 239. Metaphorically, a quarrel; Webster, White Devil (Camillo), ed. Dyce, p. 7. In prov. use in Scotland, also, in Devon and Cornwall (EDD.). Norw. dial, flaga, a gust of wind (Aasen).

flaw, to ‘flay’. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle). In prov. use in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Flaw, vb. 7).

fleck, to spot, stain; hence fleckt, spotted in the cheek, flushed with wine; ‘And drinke, till they be fleckt’, Mirror for Mag., Norfolk, st. 25. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Fleck, vb.¹ 5). Cp. Norw. dial. flekk, a spot (Aasen).

fledge, fully fledged, ready to fly. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii. 147; ‘Fledge souls’, Herbert, Temple, Death. OE. flycge, fledged; cp. G. flügge. See Dict. (s.v. Fledge). See [flidge].

fleet, to be afloat. Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 171; to be overflowed, to be covered with water; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 33; to pass or while away (time), As You Like It, i. 1. 124. OE. flēotan, to float.

fleet, to skim cream off milk; ‘I shall fleet their cream-bowls’, Grim the Collier, iv. 1 (Robin), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 443; Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 336). In prov. use in the north country, E. Anglia, and Kent and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Fleet, vb.²). OE. flēt, cream. Cp. Bremen dial. flöten, ‘die Sahne von der Milch abnehmen’ (Wtb.).

fleeten, pale, of the colour of skimmed milk; ‘You fleeten face!’, Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, iii. 1 (Conon).

fleet, a creek, inlet, run of water. Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 191; xxv. 51. 129. In prov. use in various parts of England; esp. in E. Anglia and Kent; hence the name of Northfleet, see EDD. (s.v. Fleet, sb.¹ 9). OE. flēot, estuary.

fleme, to put to flight. Morte Arthur, leaf 318. 8; bk. xiii, c. 16; lf. 414, back, 16; bk. xx, c. 17. OE. flēman (Anglian), to put to flight; deriv. of flēam, flight.

flert; see [flirt].

flesh, to feed with flesh, to satiate, All’s Well, iv. 3. 19; 2 Hen. IV, iv. 5. 133; to feed the sword with flesh for the first time, 1 Hen. IV, v. 4. 133; to make fierce and eager for combat, King John, v. 1. 71. Hence fleshed, eager for battle, inured to bloodshed, Richard III, iv. 3. 6; ‘A flesh’d ruffian’, Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iv. 2 (Zabulon).

fletcher, a maker or seller of arrows. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 110; ‘Jack Fletcher and his bolt’, Damon and Pithias (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 19). Anglo-F. fleccher, arrow-maker (Rough List); F. flèche, arrow.

flete, to float. Surrey, Description of Spring, 8; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 4. Fletyng, floating, swimming, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 259. See [fleet].

flew, the large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound; as of a bloodhound. Hence flews, with the sense of flaps, or flapping skirts, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 4 (Eyre). Hence also flew’d, having flews (of a particular quality), Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 125.

flew, a tube, pipe; see [flue].

flibote, fly-boat, a fast-sailing vessel. Heywood, King Edw. IV (Spicing), vol. i, p. 38; If you know not me (Medina), vol. i, p. 336. Dutch Vlie-boot, boat on the river Vlie, the channel leading out of the Zuyder Zee. See NED. (s.v. Fly-boat).

flicker, to flutter. Fletcher, Pilgrim, i. 1 (Alphonso); Dryden, Palamon, 1399. Metaph. to make fond movements, as with wings: Palsgrave has, ‘I flycker, I kysse together.’

flicker-mouse, a bat, a ‘flittermouse’. B. Jonson, New Inn, iii. 1; ‘Ratepenade, a bat, rearmouse or flickermouse’, Cotgrave. A Sussex word (EDD.).

flidge, fledged, furnished with feathers. Warner, Albion’s England. bk. ii, ch. 10, st. 48; Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 4, p. 33; flig, Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 408). OE. flyege, fledged. See [fledge].

flight, an arrow for long distances, light and well-feathered. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Cupid); flight-shot, the distance to which a flight-arrow is shot, about 600 yards; ‘A flite shot over, as much as the Tamise is above the Bridge’, Leland, Itin. (ed. 1744, iv. 41); ‘It being from the park about two flight-shots in length’, Desc. of Royal Entertainment, 1613 (Works of T. Campion, ed. Bullen, p. 179); ‘Two flight-shot off’, Heywood, A Woman Killed, iv. 5. 2.

flip-flap, a fly-flapper, for driving away flies. Dekker, O. Fortunatus, i. 2 (Andelocia); flyp-flap, a lap of a garment, Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 508.

flirt, flert, to throw with a jerk, to jerk, fillip. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii (ed. Arber, 84); Drayton, Pol. vi. 50; to move with a jerk, to dart, to take short quick flights, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i (ed. Arber, 31).

flirt-gill, flurt-gill, flurt-gillian, a woman of light behaviour, a flirt. Romeo, ii. 4. 162; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 1 (Wife); flurt-Gillian, The Chances, iii. 1 (Landlady). ‘Gill’ and ‘Gillian’ are forms of the Christian-name ‘Juliana’.

flitter-mouse, a bat. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Alken); Alchemist, v. 2 (Subtle). In common prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

flix, fur of the hare. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 132. Also applied to other animals; ‘the flix of goat’, Dyer, The Fleece, bk. iv, l. 104. In prov. use for the fur of a hare, rabbit, or cat, see EDD. (s.v. Flick, sb.³).

float, flow, flood of the tide. Ford, Love’s Sacr. ii. 3; in float, at high water, ‘Hee being now in Float for Treasure’, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 128); Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 5 (Rod). See [flote] (wave).

flocket, a loose garment with long sleeves. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 53.

Florentine, a kind of pie; meat baked in a dish, with a cover of paste. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, v. 1 (Lazarillo); ‘I went to Florence, from whence we have the art of making custards, which are therefore called Florentines’, Wit’s Interpreter (Nares).

flote, a fleet. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 142, back, 31; 216, back, 1; Hakluyt, Voy. i. 296, l. 2; spelt floate, Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 135. OE. flota, a ship, fleet (BT.).

flote, a wave, billow; also, the sea; ‘The Mediterranean Flote’, Tempest, i. 2. 234; ‘The flotes of the see’, Caxton, Jason, 114 (NED.). OF. flot, a wave (Hatzfeld); cp. OE. flot, the sea (Sweet).

flote, to skim milk, to take off the cream. Tusser, Husbandry, § 49. 1. See EDD. (s.v. Float, vb. 16).

flower-de-luce, the ‘fleur-de-lis’, a plant of the genus Iris. Tusser, Husbandry, § 43. 11; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 16; Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 127; also, the heraldic lily, the armorial emblem of France, 1 Hen. VI, i. 1. 80.

flown: ‘The Sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine’, Milton, P. L. i. 502; ‘Flowen with wine’, Ussher, Ann, vi. 250 (NED.). ‘Flown’ was orig. used of a stream in full flow, ‘in flood’; ‘Cedron . . . in wynter . . . is mervaylously flowen with rage of water’, Guilford’s Pilgrimage (ed. Camden Soc. 31). See NED. (s.v. Flow, vb. 11 b).

†fluce, to flounce, plunge; ‘They [cattle] backward fluce and fling’, Drayton, The Moon-calf, 1352. Not found elsewhere.

flue, flew, an air-passage, a tube or pipe. In NED. (s.v. Flue, sb.³) is this note:—‘The following passage is usually quoted as the earliest example of the word, which is supposed to mean here the spiral cavity of a shell. But flue is probably a misprint for flute. [The quotation follows]: 1562, Phaer, Aeneid x [l. 209 of Lat. text] With whelkid shell Whoes wrinckly wreathed flue, did fearful shril in seas outyell.’ But this suggestion cannot be right; for the word occurs again in a parallel passage, where the spelling is flew, occurring at the end of a line, and riming with blew; viz. ‘Dolphins blew, And Tritons blowe their Trumpes, y^t sounds in seas w^t dropping flew,’ Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, v. 824.

fluence, a flowing stream. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 224; also, fluency, Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange (Works, vol. ii, p. 86).

flundering, ‘floundering’, plunging and tossing; ‘Th’ unruly flundring steeds’, H. More, Song of Soul, i. 1. 17; Chapman, Gent. Usher, i. 1 (Vincentio); the word makes no sense here, for the passage is intentional nonsense. But it’s a loud-sounding and impressive word.

†flundge, fly out, are flung out. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 59. An onomatopoeic word, not found elsewhere.

flurt at, to sneer at, to scoff at. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 19; Beaumont and Fl., Rule a Wife, iii. 2; id., Pilgrim, i. 1; iii. 1; Wild Goose Chase, ii. 1. See NED. (s.v. Flirt, vb. 4 a).

flush, a term at primero; when a player held four cards of the same colour. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face). See [five-and-fifty].

fluxure, fluidity; also, moisture; ‘Moisture and fluxure’, B. Jonson, Induct. to Ev. Man out of Humour (Asper); Mirror for Mag., Cromwell (by Drayton), st. 117. Late L. fluxura (Tertullian).

fly, a domestic parasite, a familiar. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 2 (Theoph.). Also, a familiar spirit; ‘I have my flies abroad’, B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Face). See NED. (s.v. Fly, sb.¹ 5, a, b.).

fly-boat; see [flibote].

fob; See [fub] (2).

fobus, a cheat; for fob-us, i.e. cheat us; from fob, to cheat. ‘You old fobus’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii (Jerry).

fode, a creature, person, man. Squire of Low Degree, l. 364; in Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, ii. 37; The World and the Child, l. 4; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 243. Also, a companion, id. 247. ME. fode, a person, creature (Prov. Hendyng, 63); see Dict. M. and S.

fode, foad, to beguile with show of kindness or fair words, to soothe in fancied security. Golding translates ‘Favet huic Aurora timori’, in Ovid, Met. vii. 721, by ‘The morning foading this my feare’, ed. 1587, 99^b. Skelton has fode, Magnyfycence, 1719. ME. foden, to beguile (Will. Palerne, 1646).

fog, rank, coarse grass. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 399; ‘Fogg in some places signifies long grass remaining in pasture till winter’, Worlidge, Dict. Rust.; ‘Fogge, postfaenium’, Levins, Manipulus. Hence foggy, abounding in coarse grass, Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 115; moist, Golding, Metam. xv. 203. ‘Fog’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for the aftermath; the long grass left standing in the fields during winter (EDD.). ME. fogge (Cleanness, 1683, in Allit. Poems, 85). Norm. dial. fogge, long grass (Ross).

fog, to traffic in a servile way, hunt after, cheat. Fogging rascal, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Ariosto). A back-formation from fogger; cp. ‘pettyfogger’; see Dict. (s.v. Petty).

foggy, flabby, puffy, corpulent; ‘Fat and foggy’, Contention betw. Liberality and Prodigality, v. 4 (Lib.); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 377; ‘Un enbonpoint de nourrice, a plump, fat, or foggy constitution of body’, Cotgrave; ‘Foggy, to [too] ful of waste flesshe’, Palsgrave. Also fog, bloated, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 672. ‘Foggy’ is in prov. use in the north country for fat, corpulent.

fogue, fury. Dryden, Astraea Redux, 203. Ital. foga, fury, violent force (Florio).

foil, foyle, to tread under foot, trample down; ‘That Idoll . . . he did foyle In filthy durt’, Spenser. F. Q. v. 11. 33; the tread or track of a hunted animal, ‘What? hunt a wife on the dull foil!’, Otway, Venice Preserved, iii. 2 (Pierre); foyling, ‘Foulée, the slot of a stag, the fuse of a buck (the view or footing of either) upon hard ground, grass, leaves, or dust; we call it (most properly) his foyling’, Cotgrave. See NED. (s.v. Foil, vb.¹ 2).

foil, foyle, repulse, defeat, disgrace. Mirror for Mag., Cordila, st. 18; 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 23. See above.

foin, a thrust, in fencing. King Lear, iv. 6. 251; ‘Keep at the foin’ (i.e. do not close in fight), Marriage of Wit and Science, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 389.

foist, a light galley; ‘The Lord Mayor’s foist,’ B. Jonson, Epig. cxxxiii; Voyage, 100; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 6. 17. F. fuste, ‘a foist, a light galley’ (Cotgr.). Ital. fusta, ‘a foist, a fly-boat, a light galley’ (Florio); O. Prov. fusta, ‘poutre, bois, vaisseau, navire’ (Levy); Med. L. fusta, a galley, orig. a piece of timber (Ducange). See [galley-foist].

foist (a term in dice-play), to ‘palm’ or conceal in the fist, to manage the dice so as to fall as required, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 54); to cheat, play tricks, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez); a cheat, a pickpocket, B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 4 (Cob); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1; a trick, B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 6 (Vol.); foister, a cheat, a sharper, Mirror for Mag., Burdet, st. 32. Du. vuisten, to keep in the fist; vuist, the fist. See NED.

folk-mote, an assembly of the people. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 6. OE. folc-mōt; folc, folk, people, and mōt, a moot or meeting.

folt, a foolish person. Disobedient Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 304; foult, Drant, tr. of Horace, Sat. i. 1. ME. folett, ‘stolidus’ (Prompt.). OF. folet, ‘a pretty fool, a little fop, a young coxe, none of the wisest’ (Cotgr.).

folter. Of the limbs: to give way; ‘His [the horse’s] legges hath foltred’, Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, bk. 1, ch. 17; of one’s speech: to stumble, to stammer, Golding, Metam. iii. 277. See NED. (s.v. Falter, vb.¹).

fon, a fool. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 59. ME. fon (Wars Alex. 2944); fonne (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4089).

fond, to play the fool, become foolish; to dote; ‘I fonde, or dote upon’, Palsgrave. Hence fonded, befooled, full of folly, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv, l. 489 (L. demens, l. 374); ‘A fonded louer’ (an infatuated lover), Turbervile, The Lover, seing himselfe abusde, renounceth love, l. 11.

†fond, to found. Misspelt, for the sake of a quibble upon fond, foolish; Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 3 (Hammon).

fone, foes. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 10; Visions of Bellay, v. 10. OE. ge-fān, foes; pl. of ge-fā, a foe.

foody, abounding in food, supplying food. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 104; ‘Their foody fall,’ their settlement in a food-supplying place, id., xv. 638. ‘Foody’ is in prov. use in the north of England for rich, fertile, full of grass (EDD.).

footcloth, a large richly-ornamented cloth laid over the back of a horse and hanging down to the ground on each side; considered as a mark of dignity and state (NED.). 2 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 51; Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, ii. 1 (Marine); Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, v. 2 (Thierry); ‘My foot-cloth horse’, Richard III, iii. 4. 80; hence foot-cloth, a horse provided with this adornment, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, v. 1. 10.

foot-pace, a raised platform for supporting a chair of state. Bacon, Essay 56, § 4; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, x. 466. F. pas, a step.

†foot-saunt, a game at cards; also called cent-foot, and apparently the same as cent. Only in Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 35. See [cent].

fopdoodle, a simpleton. Massinger, Gt. Duke of Florence, ii. 1 (Calaminta); Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 998.

for-, intensive prefix, as distinct from fore-, beforehand. OE. for-. Examples are given below: as for-do, -hale, -slack, -slow, -speak, -spent, -swatt, -swonck, -weary, -wounded.

for, against, in order to prevent; chiefly with a sb. of verbal origin. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iv. 2; Two Gent. of Verona, i. 2. 136; for going, i.e. to prevent going, to save from going, Pericles, i. 1. 40. (Common; and, if the meaning be not caught, the sense of the sentence is altered.)

forby, foreby, hard by, near. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 39; v. 2. 54; by, id., v. 11. 17. ME. forby (Barbour’s Bruce, x. 345).

force. Of force, of necessity, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii. 5. 2; on force, Heywood and Rowley, Fortune by Land, &c., ii. 1 (John); Works, vi. 381; force perforce, by violent constraint, King John, iii. 1. 142; 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 116; to hunt at force, to run the game down with dogs instead of slaying with weapons, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Robin).

force. It is force, it is of consequence or importance; usually negative, it is no force, it does not matter, no force, no matter, what force? what matter?; ‘No force for that, for it is ordered so’, Wyatt, The Courtier’s Life (Works, ed. Bell, 217). ME. no force, no fors, no matter, no consequence; what fors, what matter (Chaucer). Cp. Anglo-F. force ne fet, it makes no force, it matters not (Bozon).

force, to trouble oneself, care; ‘I force it not’, I reck not of it, I care not for it, Mucedorus, Induction, 68; it forceth not, it matters not, it is not material, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 52). See NED. (s.v. Force, vb.¹ 14 b).

fordo, to destroy, overcome. Hamlet, ii. 1. 103. OE. fordōn, to destroy.

fore-, prefix; often miswritten for the prefix for-, as in forespent for forspent. See under [for-].

forehand: in phr. forehand (shaft), an arrow used for shooting straight before one. Ascham, Toxoph. p. 126; 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 52; former, previous, Much Ado, iv. 1. 51; foremost, leading, Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 618; in the front, the mainstay, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 143.

forelay, to lie in wait for. Dryden, Palamon, i. 493; also, to hinder, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid xi, 781.

forepoynted, appointed beforehand. Gascoigne, Hermit’s Tale, § 2; ed. Hazlitt, ii. 141.

fore-right, right on, straight ahead. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Malta, ii. 3. 8; said of a favourable wind, Massinger, Renegado, v. 8 (Aga). In prov. use in Devon and Cornwall in the sense of straight forward (EDD.).

foreset. Of foreset, of set purpose, purposely. Ferrex and Porrex, ii. 2, chorus, 13. See NED.

forespeak, to predict; especially, to foretell evil about one. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 792; xvii. 32; Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Mother Sawyer).

forfaint, very faint, extremely languid. Sackville, Induction, § 15; Mirror for Mag., Buckingham, st. 73.

forfare, to perish, decay; ‘Thonge Castell . . . is now forfaryn’, Fabyan, Chron., Pt. V, c. 83 (side-note); ed. Ellis, 61. ME. forfaren (Gen. and Ex. 3018).

forgetive, inventive. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 3. 107. A word of uncertain formation, commonly taken to be a deriv. of the vb. ‘to forge’.

forgrown, grown out of use. Gascoigne, Prol., to Hermit’s Tale, ed. Hazlitt, i. 139.

forhaile, to distract. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 243. See NED. (s.v. For-, prefix¹ 5 b).

for-hent, seized beforehand. Better fore-hent, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 49. From fore, before, and hent, caught, from OE. hentan, to seize.

forhewed, much hacked, severely cut. Sackville, Induction, st. 57.

forjust, to tire out in ‘justing’, beat in a tilting-match. Morte Arthur, leaf 162. 35; bk. viii, c. 33.

forkhead, the head of an arrow, with two barbs pointing forward, instead of backward, as in the swallow-tail. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 135.

forks, a forked stake used as a (Roman) whipping-post. Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius); ii. 4 (Decius). L. furcae, pl., forks; hence, a yoke under which defeated enemies passed; also, a whipping-post.

forlore, utterly wasted. Sackville, Induction, st. 48; forlorne, made bare, id. st. 8. OE. forloren, pp. of forlēosan, to lose, also, to destroy.

formerly, first of all, beforehand. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 38; vi. 3. 38. Also, just now, even now; id., ii. 12. 67; Merch. Venice, iv. 1. 362.

forpine, to waste away. Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene, 15; forpined, wasted, Hall, Sat. v. 2. 91.

forsane, pp. ‘forsaken’, avoided, Twyne, tr. Aeneid, x. 720; xi. 412. I can find no third example of the form forsaken being thus contracted. (Not in NED.).

forslack, foreslack, to delay, to spoil by delay. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 12; vii. 7. 45.

forslow, to delay. Marlowe, Edw. II, ii 4. 39. Ill spelt foreslow, 3 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 56; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 5 (Macilense).

forsonke, deeply sunk. Sackville, Induction, st. 20.

forspeak, to speak against. Ant. and Cl. iii. 7. 3.

forspeak, to bewitch. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 1 (Asotus); Middleton, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1. 12; ‘They [the witches] saie they have . . . forespoken hir neighbour’, R. Scot, Discov. Witchcraft, iii. 2. 45 (NED.); ‘Fasciner, to charm, bewitch, forspeak; fasciné, forspoken’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland for ‘to bewitch’, ‘to cause ill-luck by immoderate praise’ (EDD.). ME. forspekyn, or charmyn, ‘fascino’ (Prompt.).

forspent, exhausted. 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 37; misspelt forespent, Sackville, Induction, st. 12.

forswatt, covered with ‘sweat’. Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 99.

forswonck, spent with toil. Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 99. See [swink].

forth dayes, late in the day. Morte Arthur, leaf 402, back, 19; bk. xx, c. 5. ME. ‘Whanne it was forth daies hise disciplis camen’, Wyclif, Mark vi. 35.

forthink, to regret, to be sorry for. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 32; ‘I forthynke, I repent me, Je me repens’, Palsgrave. A north-country word (EDD.), ME. forthynke, ‘penitere’ (Cath. Angl.); OE. for forþencan, to despise.

forthright, straight forward. Dryden, tr. Aeneid, xii. 1076; id., Palamon, ii. 237; used as sb., a straight course, Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 158. In use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Forth). ME. forth right (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 295).

forthy, therefore, on that account. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 14; Shep. Kal., March, 37. ME. for-thy, therefore (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1841); OE. for-ðȳ.

forwaste, wasted utterly. Sackville, Induction, st. 11. (Better forwast, where wast is contracted from wasted.) Forwasted, laid waste, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 1.

forwearied, extremely wearied. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 13; Davies, Orchestra, 58 (Arber’s Garland, v. 37).

forwhy, because. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, p. 412, col. 1; Richard II, v. 1. 46. ME. for-why (Chaucer, Bk. Duch. 461); see Dict. M. and S., and Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

forwithered, utterly withered. Sackville, Induction, st. 12.

forworn, worn out, exhausted. Gascoigne, Jocasta, iv. 1 (Antigone).

forwounded, badly wounded. Morte Arthur, leaf 175, back, 26; bk. ix, c. 9.

foster, a ‘forester’. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 17; iii. 4. 50. Hence the surname ‘Foster’.

fougade, a small powder-mine; applied to the gunpowder plot of Guy Fawkes; ‘The fougade or powder plot’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. i, § 17. F. fougade, a mine (Cotgr.).

foulder, a thunder-bolt. Mirror for Mag., Clarence, st. 47; hence as vb., to drive out, as with a thunder-bolt, id., Mortimer, st. 4. Anglo-F. fouldre (Gower).

fouldring, thunderous. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 20.

foumerd, a ‘foumart’, polecat. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 52. For numerous forms of this very general prov. name for the polecat see EDD. (s.v. Foumart). See [fulmart].

fourraye, to fall upon, attack, raid; lit. to foray, plunder, act as forayers. Caxton, Hist. of Troye, leaf 203. 8; foureyed and threstid, charged and thrust, id., leaf 299. 29. See NED. (s.v. Foray).

foutra, footra, an expression of contempt; a foutra for, a fig for. 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 103; Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). For the origin, see NED.

fowe, fow, to clean out, cleanse; ‘I fowe a gonge’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in some parts of England for the more usual ‘fey’ or ‘fie’, see EDD. (s.v. Fay, vb.²). ME. fowyn, or make clean, ‘mundo, emundo’ (Prompt. EETS. 184, see note no. 833); Icel. fāga, to clean.

fowl, a bird; pronounced like fool, and quibbled upon. 3 Hen. VI, v. 6. 18-20.

fox, a kind of sword. Hen. V, iv. 4. 9; ‘A right [genuine] fox’, Two Angry Women, ii. 4 (Coomes). The wolf on some makes of sword-blade is supposed to have been mistaken for a fox.

foxed, drunk. (Cant.) Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 3 (Clown); fox, to make drunk, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iii. 1 (near the end); Pepys, Diary, Oct. 26, 1660.

fox-in-the-hole, a game in which boys hopped on one leg, and beat each other with pieces of leather (Boas). Kyd, Soliman and Persida, i. 3 (end); Herrick, The Country Life, 57.

foy, fidelity, homage. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 10. 41. F. foi, faith.

fraight, pp. fraught, loaded. Peele, Poems, ed. Dyce, p. 601, col. 1; Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 35.

frail, a basket made of rushes. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 2 (Peregrine); ‘A frail of figges’, Lyly, Mother Bombie, iv. 2 (Silena); ‘Cabas, a frail for raisins or figs’, Cotgrave; so Palsgrave. In common prov. use in various parts of England—the Midlands, E. Anglia, and south-west counties—for a soft flexible basket used by workmen and tradesmen (EDD.). ME. ffrayl of ffrute, ‘carica’ (Prompt.), fraiel (Wyclif, Jer. xxiv. 2); OF. frayel, ‘cabas à figues’ (La Curne). See Thomas, Phil. Fr. 366.

fraischeur, freshness, coolness. Dryden, Poem on the Coronation, 102. F. fraischeur (mod. fraîcheur), coolness (Cotgr.).

franion, an idle, loose, licentious person. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 37; v. 3. 22; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); Works, i. 44. See Nares.

frank, a sty, a place to feed pigs in. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 160; ‘Franc, a franke, or stie, to feed or fatten hogs in’, Cotgrave; as vb., to fatten, confine in a sty, Richard III, i. 3. 314; Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 14. ME. frank, a place for fattening animals, ‘saginarium’ (Prompt.), see Way’s note; OF. franc (Didot), see Ducange (s.v. Francum).

frapler, a blusterer, quarrelsome person. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1 (Amorphus); see NED. (s.v. Fraple). Cp. frap, to quarrel, frappish, quarrelsome, in EDD.

frappet, an endearing term addressed to a girl; ‘My little frappet’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, v. 1 (Ilford).

fraught, freight, cargo. Edw. III, v. 1. 79; Tempest, v. 1. 61; fig. of news brought by a new-comer. Milton, Samson, 1075; as vb., to lade, load, form a cargo, Tempest, 1. 2. 13. See Dict.

fraunch, to devour; ‘Fraunching the fysh . . . with teath of brasse’, Mirror for Mag., Rivers, st. 69; fraunshe, Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, 358); see NED.

fraunchise, freedom. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 15, § last; Fabyan, Chron. an. 1247-8, ed. Ellis, p. 336. ME. franchyse, privilege (Chaucer), fraunchyse, ‘libertas’ (Prompt.); Anglo-F. fraunchise, freedom, privileged liberty (Gower).

fraying, the coating rubbed off the horns of a deer, when she rubs it against a tree. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (John).

fraying-stock, a tree-stem against which a hart frays (or rubs) his horns. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 27, p. 69.

fream, to roar, rage. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, ii. 234; iv. 169. L. fremere.

freat, a weak place or blemish in a bow. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 114, 120; as vb., to injure, damage, Surrey, Praise of Mean Estate, 4; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 27. A Yorkshire word (EDD.). OF. frete (fraite), a breach, injury, see La Curne (s.v. Fraicte), and Didot (s.v. Fraite).

freke, a warrior, fighting-man. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 68; Grimald, Epitaph on Sir J. Wilford, 13; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 112. ME. freke, a warrior, a man (Dict. M. and S.), OE. freca (Beowulf).

fremman, a stranger. Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 210. For fremd man; ‘Fremd’ is in common prov. use for strange, foreign, in Scotland and the north of England down to Northampton (EDD.). ME. fremede, foreign (Chaucer). OE. fremede.

frenne, a stranger, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 28. ‘Fren’ is given as a Caithness word in EDD. ME. frend, foreign (Plowman’s Tale, 626). See above.

frequent, crowded, well-attended. B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 3. 1; Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 25; f. to, addicted to, Wint. Tale, iv. 2. 36; frequent with, familiar with, Shak. Sonnet 117. L. frequens, crowded (Cicero).

freshet, a stream or brook of fresh water. Hakluyt, Voy. i. 113, l. 4 from bottom; Milton, P. R. ii. 345.

fret, to wear away; to chafe, rub; ‘Frets like a gummed velvet’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 2. (Velvet, when stiffened with gum, quickly rubbed and fretted itself out.)

friar’s lantern, Ignis fatuus, will-of-the-wisp. Milton, L’Allegro, 104. [Scott in Marmion, iv. i, following Milton, has taken the ‘friar’ to be Friar Rush, who had nothing to do with the Ignis fatuus, but was the hero of a popular story—a demon disguised as a friar.]

frim, vigorous; ‘My frim and lusty flank’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 397; abundant in sap, juicy, id., Owle, 5; Worlidge, Syst. Agric, 224. In gen. prov. use in England in the sense of vigorous, healthy, thriving, in good condition, luxuriant in growth; also, juicy, succulent (EDD.). OE. *frym, cogn. w. freme, good, strenuous (BT.).

frisle, to ‘frizzle’, to curl the hair in small crisp curls. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1145; Twyne, tr. Aeneid, xii. 100. See EDD. (s.v. Frizzle, vb.²).

frith, wooded country, wood; often used vaguely; ‘In fryth or fell’, Gascoigne, Art of Venerie (ed. Hazlitt, ii. 306); Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, ix. 85 (L. silva). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. frith, ‘frith and fell’ (Cursor M. 7697). OE. fyrhð, a wood (Earle, Charters, 158).

fro, froe; see [frow].

fro, to go frowardly or amiss, to be unsuccessful. Mirror for Mag., Yorke, st. 23.

frolic, s., (prob.) a set of humorous verses sent round at a feast. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 3 (Meer.).

froligozene, interj., rejoice!, be happy! Two Angry Women, ii. 2 (end); Heywood, Witches of Lancs., i. 1 (Whetstone); vol. iv, p. 173. Du. vrolijk zijn, to be cheerful.

fronted, confronted. Bacon, Essay 15, § 16.

frontisterion; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xi. 310. See [phrontisterion].

frontless, shameless. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 159; Odyssey, i. 425; Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1040. 1187.

frore, intensely cold, frosty; ‘The parching Air Burns frore’, Milton, P. L. ii. 595. Now only in poetical diction after Milton’s use. OE. froren pp. of frēosan, to freeze. ‘Frore’ is still in prov. use in various parts of England for ‘frozen’, see EDD. (s.v. Freeze, 3 (11)).

frorn, frozen. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 243. In use in E. Anglia. See above.

frory, frosty. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 35. A Suffolk word (EDD.).

frosling, a ‘frostling’, a gosling nipped or injured by frost. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 460. ‘Froslin(g’ is a Suffolk word for anything—plant or animal—injured by the frost (EDD.).

frote, froat, to rub, chafe; to rub a garment with perfumes. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer); Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 3 (1 Creditor). In prov. use in the north country and Shropshire (EDD.). ME. frote, to rub (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1115, OF. froter (F. frotter).

frounce, to frizz or curl the hair; ‘An ouerstaring frounced hed’, Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. i (ed. Arber, p. 54); Milton, Il Penseroso, 123. F. froncer, to wrinkle the brow, to frown. See Dict. (s.v. Flounce, 2).

frow, frowe, fro, a Dutchwoman; a woman. London Prodigall, v. 1. 164; Bacchus’ froes, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, v. 1 (Wittypate). Du. vrouw; cp. G. Frau. See Stanford.

frowy, musty, sour, stale; ‘They like not of the frowie fede’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 111. In use in E. Anglia and America, see EDD. (s.v. Frowy), and NED. (s.v. Froughy). Probably a deriv. of OE. þrōh, rancid (Napier’s OE. Glosses, vii. 193 and 210).

froy, brave, handsome, gallant; ‘And then my froy Hans Buz, A Dutchman’, B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (Thomas). Du. fraai, ‘brave, handsome, gallant, neat’ (Sewel). Cp. F. frais, ‘fresh, young, lusty’ (Cotgr.).

frubber, a furbisher, burnisher, or polisher. Said to a maid-servant, Chapman, Widow’s Tears, v. 3 (Tharsalio).

frubbish, to polish by rubbing; ‘To frubbish, fricando polire’, Levins, Manip.; hence, frubisher, a polisher, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1076. F. fourbir, ‘to furbish, polish’ (Cotgr.).

frump, to mock or snub. Fletcher, Maid in a Mill, iii. 2 (Franio); ‘Sorner, to jest, boord, frump, gull’, Cotgrave; ‘Hee frumpeth those his mistresse frownes on’, Man in the Moone (Nares); a scoffer, Gascoigne (ed. Hazlitt, i. 24); a taunt, a biting sarcasm, Harington, Epigrams (Nares); Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 3. ‘To frump’ is in prov. use in many parts of England, meaning to flout, jeer; to scold, speak sharply or rudely to, see EDD. (s.v. Frump, vb.²).

frush, to bruise, batter. Tr. and Cr. v. 6. 29; frusshid, dashed in pieces, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 78. 28. OF. fruissier, froissier, to break to pieces.

frush, fragments, remnants. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 39. A Scottish word, see EDD. (s.v. Frush, sb.¹ 4).

fub, a cheat, a fool. Marston, Malcontent, ii. 3 (Malevole).

fub (gen. with off), to put off deceitfully. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 37; to fob off, Coriolanus, i. 1. 97. Cp. Low G. foppen, ‘Einen zum Narren haben’ (Berghaus). See EDD. (s.v. Fob, vb.⁴).

fubbed, fobbed, cheated. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle).

fucate, artificially painted over, disguised. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § last but one. L. fucatus, pp. of fucare, to paint the face; from fucus; see below.

fucus, paint for the complexion, a cosmetic. B. Jonson, Sejanus, ii. 1 (Eudemus); Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, ii. 1 (Gonzalo). L. fucus, red dye. Gk. φῦκος, rouge, prepared from seaweed so called.

fuge, to flee, flee away; ‘I to fuge and away’, Gascoigne, Works, i. 231. (The construction seems to be—I (gan) to fuge.) L. fugere.

†fulker, a pawn-broker. Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Dulipo). Cp. Du. focker, ‘an engrosser of wares’ (Hexham). See Fog (to traffic).

fullam, a loaded dice. Merry Wives, i. 3. 94. Spelt fulham. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 642.

fulmart, a ‘foumart’, pole-cat. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 4 (Lady Tub); also fullymart, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 31. ME. fulmard, fulmerde, a polecat, OE. fūl, foul, and mearð, marten, see Dict. M. and S. See [foumerd].

fum, to play or thrum (on a guitar) with the fingers. Westward Ho, v. 2; Dryden, Assignation, ii. 3.

fumado, fumatho, a smoked pilchard; ‘Cornish pilchards, otherwise called Fumados’, Nash, Lenten Stuff (1871), p. 61 (NED.); fumatho, Marston, The Fawn, iv. 1 (Page); ‘Their pilchards . . . by the name of Fumadoes, with oyle and a lemon, are meat for the mightiest Don in Spain’, Fuller, Worthies, Cornwall, 1. 194. Span. fumado, pp. of fumar, to smoke; L. fumus, smoke. See EDD. (s.v. Fair-maid).

fumbling, rambling in speech, hesitating. North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 43 (in Shak. Plut., p. 98, n. 2); ‘Thy fumbling throat’, Marston, Antonio’s Revenge, i. 1 (Piero).

fumer, a perfumer. Beaumont and Fl., Triumph of Time, sc. 1 (Desire).

fumish, angry, fractious. See EDD. and Nares. Fumishly, with indignation, ‘Toke highly or fumishly’; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 14.

fumishing, variant of fewmishing, the dung of a hart or deer. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 23; p. 65. See [fewmets].

funambulous, narrow, as if one were walking on a tight-rope; ‘This funambulous path’, Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 31.

furacane, furicane, a hurricane; ‘These tempestes of the ayer . . . they caule Furacanes’, R. Eden, First three E. Books on America (ed. Arber, p. 81). Furicanes, Heywood, Iron Age, Part II, vol. iii, p. 405. O. Span. furacan (Sp. huracan), Pg. furacão, from the Carib word given by Peter Martyr as furacan. See NED. (s.v. Hurricane).

furbery, a trick, imposture. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. viii, p. 43. F. fourberie, a trick.

fur-fare, to cause to perish, destroy. Morte Arthur, leaf 95, back, 30; bk. vi, c. 6. See [forfare].

furniment, furniture, array. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 38. F. fourniment, provision, furniture; fournir, to furnish (Cotgr.).

furniture, equipment. Tam. Shrew, iv. 3. 182; trappings, All’s Well, ii. 3. 65.

†furny; ‘I have a furny card in a place’, Lusty Juventus, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 78. Meaning doubtful; perhaps = F. fourni, provided.

fustick, the name of a kind of wood. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 123; Dyer, The Fleece, bk. iii. 189. The name was given to two kinds of wood: (a) that of the Venetian sumach (Rhus Cotinus); (b) of the Cladrastis tinctoria of the W. Indies. F. and Span. fustoc, Arab. fustuq; from Gk. πιστάκη, pistachio.

futile, unable to hold one’s tongue, loquacious. Bacon, Essay 20, § 4. L. futilis, that easily pours out, ‘leaky’.

fyaunts; see [fiants].