1605. Jonson, Eastward Hoe, pl. iv., 270. Marry, fyst o’ your Ruidess. I thought as much.
1662. Rump Songs, II., 3. That a reason be enacted (if there be not one), Why a fart hath a voice, and a fyst hath none, Which nobody can deny.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Canting Crew. Foyst … also a close strong stink, without noise or report.
1785. Grose. Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Fice or Foyse.
Verb. (old).—1. To trick; to swindle; to pick pockets.
1607. Dekker, Jests to Make You Merie, in wks. (Grosart) II., 332. But now to the manner of the foysting of a pocket, the sharing of the money, and how honest men may avoide them.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). To foyst, to picke a pocket.
1653. Middleton, Spanish Gipsy, ii., 1. I mean fitching, foisting, nimming.
2. (old).—To fart. Also to copulate (Urquhart).
1539. David Lyndsay, Thrie Estaitis (Works, Laing, 1879), ii., 109. Ane fistand flag.