188(?). Jenny Hill, Broadside Ballad. I’ve cut my wisdom teeth, some at top, some underneath.… So you needn’t try it on; I’m fly.
1890. Punch, 30 Aug., p. 9. Briggs, Junior, a lobsculler called me; I wasn’t quite fly to his lay.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Jan. If you get among a fly lot, why they’d skin you in less than no time.
2. (common).—Dextrous.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. No dummy hunter had forks so fly.
1839. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. We’ll knap a fogle with fingers fly.
3. (venery).—Wanton. Fly-girl, -woman, or -dame = a prostitute. [[42]]
1888. San Francisco News Letter, 4 Feb. ‘I’m just gettin’ sick’n tired o’ the way ’t them fly dames go on, ’n the way ’t the fellahs hang round ’em ’n dance with ’em ’n so forth.’
Verb. (thieves’).—1. To toss; to raise; to fly the mags = to toss up half-pence (cf., subs., sense 4).
1857. Snowden, Magistrates’ Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 447. To lift a window, to fly a window.