the dyke; lower-wig (Burton); moss; mott-carpet; mustard-and-cress; nether eye-brow (or -lashes); nether-whiskers; parsley (Durfey); plush; quim-whiskers; quim-wig; scut (Shakspeare); shaving-brush (cf., Lather); scrubbing-brush; shrubbery; sporran; stubble (see Pointer); sweet-briar; thatch; tail-feathers; 'toupee;' 'tufted honours'; twat-rug.
Verb (now recognised).—To cheat; to shear or be shorn (as a sheep).
1593. Nashe, Christ's Teares, in wks. (Grosart) IV. 140. Tell me (almost) what gentleman hath been cast away at sea, or disasterly souldiourizd it by lande, but they (usurers) have enforst him there-*unto by their fleecing.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 King Henry IV., ii., 2. Down with them: fleece them!
1620. Dekker, His Dreame, in wks. (Grosart) III. 52. Catchpolles, and varlets, who did poore men fleece (To their undoing) for a twelve-peny peece.
1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. ii. When a poor man has almost undone himself for thy sake, thou art for fleecing him.
1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. He is now squeezed and fleeced by them on every pretence.
1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 106. He was stabbed by the Ragamuffin he had fleeced.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxxi. Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion and fleeces them.
1859. Times, 25 Oct. 'Review of Dean Ramsay's Reminiscences.' I don't know whether they are black or white sheep, but I know that if they are long there they are pretty certain to be fleeced.
1891. Licensed Victuallers' Gazette, 16 Jan. How you would be fleeced! You've got a lot to learn yet.
Hence fleeced = ruined; dead-broke (q.v. for synonyms).
Fleecer, subs. (old).—A thief.
1600-69. Prynne, Breviate. Not fleecers, but feeders.
Fleece-Hunter, or -Monger,
subs. phr. (venery).—A whore-*master.
For synonyms, see Molrower.
Fleeter-Face, subs. (old).—A
pale-face; a coward. Cf.,
Shakspeare's 'cream-faced loon.'
1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Queen of Corinth. You know where you are, you fleeter-face.
Fleet-Note, subs. (old).—A forged
note.
1821. Real Life in London.
Fleet of the Desert, subs. phr.
(common).—A caravan; cf.,
ship of the desert = camel.
Fleet-Street, subs. phr. (colloquial).—The
estate of journalism,
especially journalism of the baser
sort.
Fleet-Streeter, subs. (colloquial).—A
journalist of the baser
sort; a spunging prophet (q.v.);
a sharking dramatic critic; a spicy
(q.v.) paragraphist; and so on.
Fleet-Streetese, subs. phr.
(colloquial).—The so-called
English, written to sell by the
Fleet-Streeter (q.v.), or baser
sort of journalist: a mixture of
sesquipedalians and slang, of
phrases worn threadbare and
phrases sprung from the kennel;
of bad grammar and worse
manners; the like of which is impossible
outside Fleet-Street
(q.v.), but which in Fleet-Street
commands a price, and
enables not a few to live.
