1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 274. Let’s have a neat frisk or so, And then rub on the law.
1782. Cowper, Table Talk, 237. Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may.
1880. Ouida, Moths, ch. xiv. And her fancy-dress frisks, and her musical breakfasts, were great successes.
3. (venery).—The act of copulation. See Greens and Ride.
Verb (thieves’).—1. To search; to run the rule over (q.v.); Especially applied to the search made, after arrest, for evidence of character, antecedents, or identity. Hence, careful examination of any kind.
1781. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 179. They frisk him? That is search him. Ibid., p. 122. Putting a lap-feeder in our sack, that you or your blowen had prig’d yourselves though we should stand the frisk for it.
1828. Jon. Bee, Pict. of London. p. 69. The arms are seized from behind by one, whilst the other frisks the pockets of their contents.
1852. Judson, Mysteries, etc., of New York, ch. vii. Vel sare, the offisare ’ave frisk me: he ’ave not found ze skin or ze dummy, eh?
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, p. 21. ‘The knuck was copped to rights, a skin full of honey was found in his kick’s poke by the copper when he frisked him’; [i.e.] the pickpocket was arrested, and when searched by the officer a purse was found in his pantaloons pocket full of money.
2. (thieves’).—To pick pockets; to rob. To frisk a cly = to empty a pocket.