Aussitôt les forçats, les ex-galériens, examinent cette mécanique ... ils l’appellent tout à coup l’Abbaye de Monte-à-Regret! Ils étudient l’angle décrit par le couperet d’acier et trouvent pour en peindre l’action, le verbe faucher!—Balzac, La Dernière Incarnation de Vautrin.
Faucher dans le pont, to fall into a trap; —— le colas, to cut one’s throat; —— le grand pré, to be undergoing a term of penal servitude at a convict settlement. The convicts formerly were made to work on galleys, the long oar they plied being compared to a scythe and the sea to a large meadow. Lesage, in his Gil Blas, terms this “émoucher la mer avec un éventail de vingt pieds.” A more recent expression describes it as “écrire ses mémoires avec une plume de quinze pieds.”
Fauchettes, f. pl. (popular and thieves’), scissors.
Faucheur, m. (thieves’), thief who steals watch-chains, “slang or tackle-buzzer;” executioner. Properly reaper. Rabelais called him “Rouart,” or he who breaks on the wheel; (journalists’) dandy. From his peculiar gait.
Faucheux, m. (thieves’), scissors; (popular) man with long thin legs, or “daddy long-legs.” Properly a field spider.
Fauchon, m. (popular), sword, “toasting-fork.” Un —— de satou, a wooden sword.
Fauchure, f. (thieves’), a cut inflicted by some sharp instrument or weapon.
Fauconnier, m. (thieves’), confederate of the proprietor of a gaming-house.
Faussante, f. (thieves’), false name, alias.
Fausse-couche, f. (popular), man without any energy, a “sappy” fellow. Properly a miscarriage.