extree, axle-tree. Golding, Metam. ii. 297; fol. 19, back (1603). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ax, sb.1), ME. ex-tre (Prompt. EETS. 145).
eyas, a young hawk taken from the nest for the purpose of training; eyas hauke, a young untrained hawk, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 34; eyas-musket (used jocularly of a sprightly child), Merry Wives, iii. 3. 22; ‘An aerie of children little eyases’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 355. F. niais (Fauconnerie), ‘qui n’a pas encore quitté le nid’ (Hatzfeld), L. nidacem, deriv. of nidus, a nest, cp. Ital. nidiace, ‘taken out of the nest, a simpleton’ (Florio). See [niaise].
eye, a brood; esp. of pheasants; ‘An Eye of Pheasaunts’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 118 (E. K. Gloss.); ‘An Eye of tame pheasants Or partridges’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg); Worlidge, Dict. Rust. 252; Coles, Lat. Dict. (1677). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Eye, sb.2); also in the form nye (nie, ni), see EDD. OF. ni, ‘nid’ (La Curne).
eyre, to ‘ear’, to plough. Drayton, Robert Duke of Normandy, st. 5. See [earth].
eysel; see [eisel].
F
faces about, the same as ‘right-about face’, i.e. turn round the other way. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 1. 14; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, v. 2 (Ralph); Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Y. Loveless).
fackins. The forms here given are distortions of fay (faith), frequent in trivial quasi-oaths. By my fackins, B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 3; By my feckins, Heywood, 1 Edw. I, iii. 1; By my facks, Middleton, Quiet Life, ii. 2; By my feck, Webster, Cure for Cuckold, iv. 3. Cp. I’ faikins, in truth, verily, used in Scotland, Lakeland, and Lancashire (EDD.). See [fay] (1).
fact, evil deed, crime. Meas. for M. iv. 2. 141; v. 439; Wint. Tale, iii. 2. 86; Macb. iii. 6. 10; in the fact, in the act, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 1. 173.
fadge, to fit, suit, agree; ‘Let men avoid what fadgeth not with their stomachs’, Robertson, Phras. 708; ‘How ill his shape with inward forme doth fadge’, Marston, Scourge of Villanie, i. 1. 172; to succeed, to turn out well, ‘How will this fadge?’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 2. 34; to get on well, to thrive, ‘Let him that cannot fadge in one course fall to another’, Cotgrave (s.v. Mouldre). In prov. use in various parts of England, meaning to fit, suit; to make things fit; to succeed, thrive, see EDD. (s.v. Fadge, vb.3).