1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 194. Come, let's trudge it to Kirkham Fair: There's stout liquor enough to fox me.
1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial. 2. Lady Sm. But, Sir John, your ale is terrible strong and heady. . . . Sir John. Why, indeed, it is apt to fox one.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Fox (v.) . . . also to make a person drunk or fuddled.
1891. Sporting Times, 11 April. And so to bed well nigh seven in the morning, and myself as near foxed as of old.
2. (old).—To cheat; to trick; to rob (colloquial at Eton). For synonyms, see Gammon.
1631. Mayne, City Match, iii., 1. Fore Jove, the captain foxed him rarely.
1866. Notes and Queries, 3, S. x., 123. Where the tramps . . . out of their gout are foxed.
3. (common).—To watch closely. Also to fox about. Cf., fox's sleep. For synonyms, see Nose.
1880. Greenwood, Odd People in Odd Places, p. 61. 'You keep it going pretty loud here, with a couple of policemen foxing about just outside.'
4. (colloquial).—To sham.
1880. One and All, 6 Nov., p. 296, 'Let us look at these vagabons; maybe they're only foxin'.' The two men who had received such tangible mementos of the whip-handle and the blackthorn lay perfectly still.
5. (American).—To play truant.
6. (booksellers').—To stain; to discolour with damp; said of books and engravings. Foxed = stained or discoloured.
1881. C. M. I[ngleby] in Notes and Queries (6th S., iv., 96). Tissue paper harbours damp, and in a damp room will assuredly help to fox the plates which they face.
1885. Austin Dobson, At the Sign of the Lyre, 83. And the Rabelais foxed and flea'd.
7. (theatrical).—To criticise a 'brother pro's' performance.
8. (common).—To mend a boot by 'capping' it.
To set a fox to keep one's geese, phr. (common).—To entrust one's money, or one's circumstances, to the care of sharpers. Latin, Ovem lupo commisisti.
To make a fox paw, verb. phr. (common).—To make a mistake or a wrong move; specifically (of women) to be seduced. [A corruption of the Fr. faux pas.]
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue.
Fox's Sleep, subs. phr. (common).—A
state of feigned yet very
vigilant indifference to one's
surroundings. [Foxes were
supposed to sleep with one eye
open.]
1830. Sir J. Barrington, Personal Sketches, Vol. III., p. 171 (ed. 1832). Mr. Fitzgerald, he supposed, was in a fox's sleep, and his bravo in another, who, instead of receding at all, on the contrary squeezed the attorney closer and closer.
Foxy, adj. (colloquial).—1. Red-haired;
cf., carrotty.
1828. G. Griffin, Collegians, ch. ii. Dunat O'Leary, the hair-cutter, or Foxy Dunat, as he was named in allusion to his red head.
2. (colloquial).—Cunning; vulpine in character and look. Once literary. Jonson (1605) calls his arch-foist volpone, the second title of his play being 'The Fox;' and Florio (1598) defines Volpone as 'an old fox, an old reinard, an old, crafty, sly, subtle companion, sneaking, lurking, wilie deceiver.'
