thought worthy only of burning (Bailey, 1728), and heretics who had thus escaped the stake were required either to bear a faggot and burn it in public, or to wear an imitation on the sleeve as a badge.] Also used in combination: e.g., Bed- (or Straw-) Faggot = a wife, or mistress; Tumble-faggot = a whore-*master; Carry-faggot = a mattress; and Spike-(or Tickle)-faggot (obsolete) = the penis.
1820. Reynolds ('P. Corcoran'), The Fancy, p. 16. I have got a faggot here, Aye, and quite a bad one; Were I married, p'rhaps my dear Might think that he too had one.
2. (common).—See quot., 1851.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. ii., p. 255. He then made his supper, or second meal, for tea he seldom touched, on fagots. This preparation . . . is a sort of cake, roll, or ball, a number being baked at a time, and is made of chopped liver and lights, mixed with gravy, and wrapped in pieces of pig's caul. It weighs six ounces, so that it is unquestionably a cheap [it costs 1d. hot] and, to the scavager, a savoury meal, but to other nostrils it's odour is not seductive.
1870. London Figaro, 2 July. Have you more than a penny? A glorious perspective opens out before you of all the delicacies of the season, commencing with trotters—the harmless mutton, or the succulent swine; 'faggots,' etc.
1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 615. They can obtain hot faggots, hot baked potatoes, hot fried fish, or a cut of pork with hot pease-pudding.
3. (old).—A 'dummy' soldier; one hired to appear at a muster to hide deficiencies. Many names of dummies would appear on the muster-roll: for these the colonel drew pay, but they were never in the ranks.
1672-1719. Addison [quoted in Imperial Dict.]. There were several counterfeit books which were carved in wood, and served only to fill up the number like fagots in the muster of a regiment.
1728. Bailey, Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Verb (old).—1. To bind hand and foot; to tie [as sticks into a faggot]. Fr., un fagot = a convict, because bound to a common chain on their way to the hulks.
1728. Bailey, Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v. Faggot the culls, bind the men.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, s.v.
2. (venery).—To copulate;
also to frequent the company of loose women.
Faggot-briefs, subs. (political).—Bundles
of dummy papers sometimes
carried by briefless barristers.
[Cf., Faggot, sense 3.]
1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 10 a.m. Par. 10. The counsel chat and poke each other in the ribs; the briefless ones, in the high back rows, scribble caricatures on their blotting-pads, or pretend to pore over faggot briefs.
1887. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 627.
Faggot briefs . . . those bundles of dummy papers sometimes carried by the briefless ones.
Faggoteer, (also Faggot-*master),
subs. (venery).—A
whoremonger. For synonyms,
see Molrower.
Faggot-vote, subs. (political).—A
vote secured by the purchase
of property under mortgage, or
otherwise, so as to constitute a
nominal qualification without a
substantial basis. [Derived by
some from Faggot, sense 3; by
others from the mode of manufacture,
i.e., by the purchase of
property which is divided into as
many lots as will constitute
separate votes, and given to
different persons.]
1854. Notes and Queries, vol. X., p. 403. Faggot-vote.—Can you inform
