five-and-fifty, the highest number to stand on, at the game of primero. But it could be beaten by a flush, i.e. when the cards were all of one colour. ‘As big as five-and-fifty and flush’; as confident as one who held five-and-fifty in number, and also held a flush; so that he could not be beaten; B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face).
five eggs: in phr. to come in with one’s five eggs, to break in or interrupt fussily with an idle story; ‘Persones coming in with their five egges, how that Sylla had geuen ouer his office’, Udall, tr. of Erasmus’s Apoph., p. 272; ‘Another commeth in with his fiue egges’, Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, p. 56). The orig. phrase had reference to the offering of five eggs for a penny, which was a trivial offer, and not very advantageous to the purchaser in the sixteenth century; See [eggs] (2).
fiveleaf, cinquefoil, Potentilla reptans. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 229; ‘Of Cinquefoyle, or Five-finger grasse’, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. i, c. 56.
fives, a disease of horses. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 54; ‘Vyves, a disease that an horse hath, avives’, Palsgrave; so Cotgrave; ‘Adivas, the disease in Horses and other Beasts call’d the Vives’, Stevens, Span. Dict., 1706. Of Arabic origin, ad-dhîba, ‘morbi species qua affici solet guttur jumenti’ (Freytag); see Dozy, Glossaire, p. 45.
fixation, in alchemy; the process that rendered the elixir fixed. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).
flacket, a flask, bottle, or vessel; ‘A flacket of wyne’, Great Bible (1539), 1 Sam. xvi. 20; ‘A flacket, Uter formam habens doliarem’, Coles, Dict., 1679. In prov. use in Yorkshire for a small cask-shaped vessel for holding beer (EDD.). ME. flaket, ‘obba, uter’ (Cath. Angl.); flakette, ‘flasca’ (Prompt.). Anglo-F. flaket (Gower).
flag, used as a sign or signal; ‘A flag and sign of love’, Othello, i. 1. 157; ‘His flag hangs out’ (i.e. as an advertisement), Middleton, The Widow, iv. 1 (Valeria); ‘ ’Tis Lent, the flag’s down’ (i.e. there is no flag flying above the theatre, because it is Lent, and the performances are suspended), Middleton, A Mad World, i. 1 (Follywit).
flaighted, fleighted, terrified. Golding, Metam. iv. 597; fol. 52 (1603); id., xi. 677. See NED. (s.v. Flaite, also, Flight). ‘To flight’ means properly ‘to put to flight’, hence, ‘to frighten’, ‘to scare’. Cp. EDD. (s.v. Flaite).
flanker, a fortification protecting men against a ‘flank’ or side attack; ‘Flankers . . . cannon-proof’, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Rossaline).
†flantado, flaunting display. Only occurs in Stanyhurst (tr. Aeneid, i. 44).