Heading
1636. T. Heywood, Loves Mistress, Act IV. Vulcan . . . I keep a dozen journeymen at least, besides my Ciclops and my Prentises, yet 'twill not fadge.
1639. Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit without Money, III., iv. Clothes I must get; this fashion will not fadge with me.
1678. Quack's Academy; in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 32. That could never make their untoward handicrafts fadge to purpose.
1750. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 18 Oct. (1833), vol. II., p. 485. Alack! when I came to range them, they did not fadge at all.
1819. Scott, in C. K. Sharpe's Correspondence (1888), ii., 197. Pray let me know . . . how matters fadge in the great city of Edinburgh.
1830. Scott, Doom of Devorgoil, Act II., Sc. 1. If this same gear fadge right, I'll cote and mouth her, And then! whoop! dead! dead! dead!
1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. lv., p. 173 (1888). Any new adventure which I can invent will not fadge well with the old tale.
Fadger, subs. (glaziers').—A glazier's
frame; otherwise a 'frail.'
Fadmonger, subs. (colloquial).—A
Faddist (q.v.). Fadmongering,
verb. phr. (colloquial) =
dealing as a Faddist (q.v.) with
fads.
FAG, subs. (public schools').—1. A
boy who does menial work for a
schoolfellow in a higher form.
[From Fag, to grow weary.]
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xviii. Bob Trotter, the diminutive fag of the studio, who ran on all the young men's errands, and fetched them in apples, oranges, and walnuts.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. i. Is still enumerated among the feats of the brave days of old, by the fags over their evening small beer.
2. (Christ's Hospital).—See quot.
1850. L. Hunt, Autobiography, ch. iii. Fag, with us [at Christ's Hospital], meant eatables. The learned derived the word from the Greek phago, to eat.
3. (American thieves').—A lawyer's clerk.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, s.v.
Verb (public schools').—1. To do menial work for a schoolfellow in a higher form. Cf., Fag, subs., sense 1.
1884. Temple Bar, August, p. 514. He must have completely marred his chance of happiness at the school when he refused to fag and took countless thrashings, snivelling.
2. (old).—To beat.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2nd ed.).
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Fag the bloss, beat the wench.
Fagger, Figger, or Figure, subs.
(old).—A boy thief whose duty is
to enter houses by windows and
either open the doors to his confederates
(as Oliver Twist with
Bill Sykes), or hand out the
'swag' to them; also little
snakesman (q.v.); cf., Diver.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London, s.v.
Fagging, or Faggery, subs.
(public schools').—Waiting upon
and doing menial work for a
school-fellow in a higher form.
Also used adjectively.
1853. De Quincey, Autob. Sketches, i., 210. Faggery was an abuse too venerable and sacred to be touched by profane hands.
1873. Pall Mall Gazette, 17 May. The Winchester 'tunding' system, with all its faults, is hardly less objectionable than the fagging system pursued in the Scotch endowed hospitals.
Faggot, subs. (common).—1. A term of opprobrium applied to women; a 'baggage.' [At one time a faggot was a popular symbol of recantation of opinions
