2. (colloquial).—Dull; fatwitted; thick (q.v.).
Fogle, subs. (thieves’).—A silk handkerchief; also generic. [Cf., Ital., foglia = a pocket, a purse; Fr., fouille = a pocket]. A cotton handkerchief is called a clout.
English Synonyms.—Bandanna; belcher; billy; clout; conch-clout; fam-cloth; flag; kent-rag; madam; muckender; mucketer (Florio); nose-wipe; pen-wiper; rag; sneezer; snottinger or snot-rag; stook; wipe. See Billy.
French Synonyms.—Un cachemire (popular); un blave or blavin (thieves’; from O.F., blave = blue); une fassolette (thieves’: It., fazzoletto); un chiffon or chiffonnion (popular = a rag); un moufion (popular); les mouchettes (popular = wipes).
German Synonyms.—Schneitzlingsschneiche (cf., Snot-rag); Flammert or Flamme (also a neckerchief and an apron); Wisch (= also clothing of any kind).
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry (1890), p. 74, Jerry’s sneezer was touched with some convulsive efforts so that his fogle was continually at work.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood bk. iii., ch. 5. Fogles and fawnies soon went their way.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xviii. ‘If you don’t take fogles and tickers——’ ‘What’s the good of talking in that way?’ interposed Master Bates: ‘he don’t know what you mean.’ ‘If you don’t take pocket-handkerchiefs and watches,’ said the Dodger.
1841. Tait’s Edinburgh Mag., viii., p. 220. Fawnies or fogles, onions gay, all were the same to me.