Part 28 (2/2)

FIGURE DANCER. One who alters figures on bank notes, converting tens to hundreds.

FILCH, or FILEL. A beggar's staff, with an iron hook at the end, to pluck clothes from an hedge, or any thing out of a cas.e.m.e.nt. Filcher; the same as angler. Filching cove; a man thief. Filching mort; a woman thief.

FILE, FILE CLOY, or BUNGNIPPER. A pick pocket. To file; to rob or cheat. The file, or bungnipper, goes generally in company with two a.s.sistants, the adam tiler, and another called the bulk or bulker, Whose business it is to jostle the person they intend to rob, and push him against the wall, while the file picks his pocket, and gives'the booty to the adam tiler, who scours off with it. CANT.

FIN. An arm. A one finned fellow; a man who has lost an arm. SEA PHRASE.

FINE. Fine as five pence. Fine as a cow-t--d stuck with primroses.

FINE. A man imprisoned for any offence. A fine of eighty-four months; a transportation for seven years.

FINGER IN EYE. To put finger in eye; to weep: commonly applied to women. The more you cry the less you'll p-ss; a consolatory speech used by sailors to their doxies. It is as great a pity to see a woman cry, as to see a goose walk barefoot; another of the same kind.

FINGER POST. A parson: so called, because he points out a way to others which he never goes himself. Like the finger post, he points out a way he has never been, and probably will never go, i.e. the way to heaven.

FINISH. The finish; a small coffee-house in Coven Garden, market, opposite Russel-street, open very early in the morning, and therefore resorted to by debauchees shut out of every other house: it is also called Carpenter's coffee-house.

FIRING A GUN. Introducing a story by head and shoulders.

A man wanting to tell a particular story, said to the company, Hark! did you not hear a gun?--but now we are talking of a gun, I will tell you the story of one.

TO FIRE A SLUG. To drink a dram.

FIRE PRIGGERS. Villains who rob at fires under pretence of a.s.sisting in removing the goods.

FIRE s.h.i.+P. A wench who has the venereal disease.

FIRE SHOVEL. He or she when young, was fed with a fire shovel; a saying of persons with wide mouths.

FISH. A seaman. A scaly fish; a rough, blunt tar. To have other fish to fry; to have other matters to mind, something else to do.

FIT. Suitable. It won't fit; It will not suit or do.

FIVE s.h.i.+LLINGS. The sign of five s.h.i.+llings, i.e. the crown.

Fifteen s.h.i.+llings; the sign of the three crowns.

FIZZLE. An escape backward,

FLABAGASTED. Confounded.

FLABBY. Relaxed, flaccid, not firm or solid.

FLAG. A groat. CANT.--The flag of defiance, or b.l.o.o.d.y flag is out; signifying the man is drunk, and alluding to the redness of his face. SEA PHRASE.

FLAM. A lie, or sham story: also a single stroke on a drum.

To flam; to hum, to amuse, to deceive. Flim flams; idle stories.

FLAP DRAGON. A clap, or pox.

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