Flats, playing cards; sometimes called “broads.” Also the storeys of large houses, built on the “independent” principle, each flat having its separate and peculiar offices, street-door, &c.
Flatty, a rustic, or uninitiated person.
Flatty-ken, a public-house the landlord of which is ignorant of the practices of the thieves and tramps who frequent it.
Flay the fox, to vomit. Now replaced by the more popular “shoot the cat.”
Flemish account.—Old. Still used by sailors for a tangled and unsatisfactory account or reckoning.
Flesh and blood, brandy and port in equal quantities.
Flesh bag, a shirt. American humourists call a white shirt a “clean biled rag.” In the mining camps, and rough parts generally, a white shirt is called a “biled shirt” to distinguish it from the usual woollen garment, which cannot be boiled.
Flick, or OLD FLICK, a comical old chap or fellow. Term of endearment among low people.
Flick, or FLIG, to whip by striking, and drawing the lash back at the same time, which causes a stinging blow. A flicking is often administered by schoolboys with a damp towel or pocket-handkerchief.
Flies, trickery, nonsense. “There are no FLIES about me, sir.” Softening of lies.