Fais sa balle! (suis ses instructions), dit Fil-de-Soie.—Balzac, La Dernière Incarnation de Vautrin.
Faire son temps, to undergo a full term of imprisonment; —— sauter la coupe, to place, by dexterous manipulation, the cut card on the top, instead of at the bottom of the pack, termed by English card-sharpers “slipping;” —— suer un chêne, to kill a man, “to cook his goose.” See [Refroidir]. Faire sur l’orgue, to inform against, “to blow the gaff;” —— un coup à l’esbrouffe, to pick a person’s pockets while hustling him, “to flimp;” —— un coup d’étal, to steal property from a shop. A shoplifter is termed in English cant “buttock and file;” —— un coup de fourchette, to pick a pocket by delicately inserting two fingers only; —— coup de roulotte, to steal property from a vehicle; —— un rancart, to procure information; —— une maison entière, to break into a house and to massacre all the inmates; (artists’) —— chaud, to use warm tints in a painting, after the style of Rembrandt and other colourists; —— culotte, —— rôti, comparative and superlative of faire chaud; —— cru, to use crude tints in a picture, for instance, to use blue or red without any adjunction of another colour; —— cuire sa toile, to employ very warm tints in the painting of a picture; —— transparent, to paint in clair obscur, or “chiaro oscuro;” —— lanterne, to exaggerate the “chiaro oscuro;” —— grenouillard or croustillant, to paint in masterly, bold, dashing style, with “brio.” The expression is used also in reference to the statuary art. The works of the painter Delacroix and those of the sculptor Préault are executed in that style; —— sa cimaise sur quelqu’un. See [Cimaise]. Faire un pétard, to paint a sensational picture for the Salon. The Salomé of H. Regnault, his masterpiece, may be termed a “pétard;” —— des crêpes, to have a grand jollification, or “flare up;” (freemasons’) —— feu, to drink; (theatrical) —— feu, to lay peculiar stress on words; (mountebanks’) —— la manche, to make a collection of money among the public, or “nobbing;” (popular) —— à la redresse, to set one right, to correct one; —— danser un homme sur une pelle à feu is said of a woman who freely spends a man’s money; (familiar and popular) —— brûler Moscou, to mix a large bowl of punch; —— cabriolet, to drag oneself along on one’s behind; —— cascader, see [Cascader]; —— de cent sous quatre francs, to squander one’s money; —— de la musique, to make audible remarks about a game which is proceeding; —— de la poussière, to make a great fuss, to show off; —— de l’épate, to show off.
Ces jeunes troupiers font de l’épate, des embarras si vous aimez mieux.—J. Noriac.
Faire du lard, to sleep; to stay in bed late in the morning; —— du suif, to make unlawful profits, such as those procured by trade assistants who cheat their employers; —— faire à quelqu’un blanc de sa bourse, to draw freely on another’s purse, to live at his expense, “to sponge” on him; —— flanelle, to visit a brothel with platonic intentions; —— godard, to be starving; —— la place pour les pavés à ressort, to pretend to be looking for employment with a secret hope of not finding any; —— la retape, or le trottoir, to be a street-walker; —— l’écureuil, to give oneself much trouble to little purpose; —— le plongeon, to confess when on the point of death; to be ruined, “to be smashed up;” —— mal, to excite contemptuous pity. Tiens, tu me fais mal! well, I pity you! I am sorry for you! Faire passer le goût du pain, to kill, “to give one his gruel;” —— patrouille, to go on night revels with a number of boon companions, “to be on the tiles.”
Quatre jours en patrouille, pour dire en folies bachiques.—Cabarets de Paris.
Faire peau neuve, to get new clothes; —— petite chapelle is said of a woman who tucks up her clothes; —— pieds neufs, to be in childbed, or “in the straw;” —— pleurer son aveugle, to void urine, “to pump ship.” See [Lascailler]. Faire saluer le polichinelle, to be more successful than others. An allusion to certain games at fairs, when a successful shy brings out a puppet-head like a Jack-in-the-box; —— sa Lucie, or sa Sophie, to play the prude, to give oneself conceited or disdainful airs; —— sa merde, or sa poire, to have self-satisfied, conceited airs; to take up an arrogant position; assuming an air of superiority; to be on the “high jinks;” —— sa tata is said of a talkative person, or of one who assumes an air of importance; of a girl, for example, who plays the little woman; —— ses petits paquets, to be dying; —— son Cambronne, an euphemism for a coarse expression, “[faire sa merde]” (which see); —— son lézard, to be dozing during the daytime, like a lizard basking in the sun; —— un bœuf, to guillotine; to give cards; —— suer, to annoy; to disgust.
Ainsi, leur politique extérieure, vrai! ça fait suer depuis quelque temps.—Zola, L’Assommoir.
Faire un tassement, or un trou, to drink spirits in the course of a meal for the purpose of getting up a fresh appetite, synonymous of “faire le trou du Normand;” —— une femme, to succeed in finding a woman willing to give her favours; —— son fendant, to bluster; to swagger; to look big. Ne fais donc pas ton fendant, “come off the tall grass!” (an Americanism). Faire une entrée de ballet, to enter a room without bowing to the company. En —— son beurre, to put to good use, to good profit.
Et, si ton monsieur est bien nippé, démande-lui un vieux paletot, j’en ferai mon beurre.—Zola, L’Assommoir.
La —— à quelqu’un, to deceive, “to bamboozle” one. Faut pas m’la faire! may be rendered by “I don’t take that in;” “no go;” “not for Joe;” “do you see any green in my eye?” “Walker!”