Heading
to steal; to forge. A general verb-of-all-work. In America Fix (q.v.) is employed much in the same way, whilst the French slang has faire; maquiller; aquiger or quiger; and goupiner.
[In combination to fake a screeve = to write a begging letter; to fake one's slangs = to file through one's fetters; to fake a cly (q.v.) = to pick a pocket; to fake the sweetener = to kiss; TO FAKE THE DUCK = to adulterate, to dodge; to fake the RUBBER = to stand treat; to fake the BROADS = to pack the cards, or to work the three-card trick; to fake a line (theatrical) = to improvise a speech; to FAKE A DANCE, Or A STEP, Or A TRIP (theatrical) = to perform what looks like, but is not, dancing.]
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 390. The ring is made out of brass gilt buttons, and stunning well: it's faked up to rights, and takes a good judge even at this day to detect it without a test.
1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, ch. lv. There the folk are music-bitten, and they molest not beggars, unless they fake to boot, and then they drown us out of hand.
2. (sporting).—To hocus; to nobble; to tamper.
1872. Morning Post, 7 Nov. Since the faking of the scales in Catch-'em-alive's year the oldest habitué of Newmarket cannot recall so sensational a Cambridgeshire week as the last one.
3. (theatrical).—Also to fake up. To paint one's face; to make up a character.
1885. Sporting Times, 23 May. 'The Chorister's Promise.' The landlady left, and the chorister fair Faked herself up, and frizzed her hair.
4. (American thieves').—To cut out the wards of a key.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, s.v.
Fake away! intj. phr. (common).—An ejaculation of encouragement.
1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood. The knucks in quod did my school-*men play, Fake away!
1846. Punch's Almanack, 'Song of September.' The partridge on its tender wing Is up at break of day, But down the bird my gun shall bring: Bang! fizz, boys! FAKE AWAY!
Fake-boodle.—See Boodle.
Faked, ppl. adj. (common).—Counterfeit;
sometimes faked-up.
Fr., lophe.
1889. Answers, 15 June, p. 41, col. 1. In order to prevent any chance of a dishonest person winning by means of a faked puzzle we shall provide a number of puzzles ourselves, and these will be used by all competitors.
Fakement, subs. (old).—1. A
counterfeit signature; a forgery;
specifically a begging letter or
petition, Fr., brasser des faffes = to
forge documents, i.e., 'to screeve
fakements'; un fafiot (also a
bank note, or shoe); and une
luque or un luquet.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Tell the macers to mind their fakements, desire the swindlers to be careful not to forge another person's signature.
1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Dependents of beggars; as screevers or the writers of 'slums' (letters) and fakements (petitions).
1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, p. 39. Lawyer Bob draws fakements up; he's tipped a peg for each.
1889. Answers, 27 July, p. 137, col. 1. I have drawn up fakements for sham members of almost every trade, always using a leading name at the head of the list of donors.
2. (common).—Generic for dishonest practices; but applied to any kind of action, contrivance, or trade.—See Fake, subs., of which it is an older usage. Cf., Kidment.
1838. Glascock, Land Sharks and Sea Gulls, II., 4. That's right; I see you're fly to every fakement.
