Heading
2. (general).—A chief in authority; an elder: e.g., the father of the house = the oldest member of the House of Commons (cf., Babe); among printers, the chairman of the chapel, the intermediary between master and men; in naval circles, the builder of a man-of-war or Government 'bottom.'
Father Derbies' Bands.—See
Darbies.
Father's Brother, subs. phr.
(common).—A pawnbroker; my
uncle (q.v.).
Fat Jack of the Bone-house,
subs. phr. (common).—A contumelious
epithet for a very stout
man.
Fat-mutton, subs. (venery).—A
fat bit (see Bit of Fat), i.e., a
stout bed-fellow.
Fatness, subs. (common).—Wealth.
Cf., Fat = rich.
Fatten-up, verb (theatrical).—To
write fat (subs., sense 3) into a
part.
Fat-un, subs. (common).—An emission
of wind from the anus of
peculiar rankness; a 'roarer'
(Swift).
Fatty (or Fatymus, or Fattyma),
subs. (colloquial).—A jocular
epithet for a fat man; a comic
endearment for a fat woman.
Faugh-a-Ballagh Boys, subs.
phr. (military).—The Eighty-Seventh
Foot; also known as the
eagle-takers (q.v.), and the
old fogs (q.v.). [From Fag an
bealac = 'Clear the Way,' the
name of the regimental march.]
Faulkner, subs. (old).—A tumbler;
juggler. Lex. Balat. [1811]
and Duncombe's Sinks of London
[1848].
Fawney, or Fauney, subs. (common).—1.
A ring; Fr., une
brobuante; une broquille; un
chason; Fourbesque, cerchiosa.
2. A swindle (also called Fawney-dropping, or rig), worked as follows:—A ring (snide) is let drop in front of a passer-by, who picks it up, and is confronted by the dropper, who claims to share. In consideration of immediate settlement he offers to accept something less than the apparent value in cash. Also done with pocket-books, meerschaum pipes, etc. Fawney-dropper = one that practices the ring-dropping trick; Fawney-bouncing = selling rings for a pretended wager; Fawnied = ringed.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, p. 174. Fawny. An old, stale trick, called ring-dropping.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 471. He wears a stunning fawny (ring) on his finger.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 389. I do a little in the fawney dropping line; (fawneys are rings).
1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, p. 39. Fawney-droppers gammon the flats and take the yokels in.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, p. 124. And where . . . The Chips, the fawneys, Chatty-*feeders, The bugs, the boungs, and well-filled readers.
Feager, subs. (old).—See quot. and
cf., Feaker.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). A. Feager of Loges, one that beggeth with counterfeit writings.
