FENCE, a receiver of stolen goods; to fence any property, is to sell it to a receiver or other person.
FIB, a stick. To fib is to beat with a stick; also to box.
FIBBING-GLOAK, a pugilist.
FIBBING-MATCH, a boxing match.
FILE, a person who has had a long course of experience in the arts of fraud, so as to have become an adept, is termed an old file upon the town; so it is usual to say of a man who is extremely cunning, and not to be over-reached, that he is a deep file. File, in the old version of cant, signified a pickpocket, but the term is now obsolete.
FINGER-SMITH, a midwife.
FI’PENNY, a clasp-knife.
FLASH, the cant language used by the family. To speak good flash is to be well versed in cant terms.
FLASH, a person who affects any peculiar habit, as swearing, dressing in a particular manner, taking snuff, &c., merely to be taken notice of, is said to do it out of flash.
FLASH, to be flash to any matter or meaning, is to understand or comprehend it, and is synonymous with being fly, down, or awake; to put a person flash to any thing, is to put him on his guard, to explain or inform him of what he was before unacquainted with.