1790. Burns, Tam O’ Shanter. To tell how Maggie lapt and flang (A
souple jaud she was, and strang).
3. (venery).—To move in the act; to back-up (q.v.). Fr., ‘frizer la
queue = to wriggle the tayle (in leachering).’—Cotgrave.
1539. David Lyndsay, Three Estaitis, Works (Ed. Laing, Edinburgh,
1879). I traist sche sal find you flinging your fill.
To Fling Out, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To depart in a hurry, and,
especially, in a temper.
To fling (or flap) it in one’s face, verb. phr. (prostitutes’).—To
expose the person.
In a fling, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In a spasm of temper.
To have one’s fling, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To enjoy full liberty of
action or conduct. Cf., High Old Time.
1624. Beaumont and Fletcher, Rule a Wife, &c., iii., 5. I’ll have a
fling.
1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xiii. Hang it; the regiment’s
just back from the West Indies, I must have a little fling, and
then when I’m married I’ll reform.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, II., 118. I don’t want to marry until I
have had my fling, you know.
1880. Gilbert, Pirates of Penzance. Peers will be peers, And youth
will have his fling.
1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 253. If policy (police) show up,
then you let me have my fling, eh?
To fling dirt.—See dirt.
Flinger, subs. (Scots).—A dancer.
1821. Scott, Pirate, ch. ix. That’s as muckle as to say, that I
suld hae minded you was a flinger and a fiddler yoursel’, Maister
Mordaunt.
Fling-Dust, subs. (old).—A street-walker. For synonyms, see
Barrack-hack and Tart.
Flint, subs. (workmen’s). A man working for a ‘Union’ or ‘fair’ house;
non-Unionists are dung (q.v.). Both terms occur in Foote’s burlesque,
The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather, and they received a fresh
lease of popularity during the tailors’ strike of 1832. See quots. Cf.,
Scab Soc, Snob, Snob-stick, and Knobstick.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, flints, journeyman taylors who, on
a late occasion, refused to work for the wages settled by law.
Those who submitted were by the mutineers stiled dungs, i.e.,
dunghills.
1832. P. Egan, Book of Sports, p. 34. Jack Reeve is without a
rival; the throne of the flints is decidedly freehold property to
him.
1834. Noctes Amb., xxxiv., vol. IV., p. 83. (The company is
discussing the tailors’ strike). Tickler. The flints flash fire,
and the day of the dungs is gone.
Old flint, subs. phr. (common). A miser: one who would ‘skin a flint,’
i.e., stoop to any meanness for a trifle.
1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 34. It’s equally
plain that the money which the old flint—rot him—first taught me to
expect that I should share with her at his death, will all be hers.
To fix one’s flint. See Fix.
To flint in, verb. phr. (American). To act with energy; not to stand on
ceremony; to pitch into; to tackle. A verb of action well-nigh as
common as fix (q.v.).
Flip, subs. (common).—1. Hot beer, brandy, and sugar; also, says Grose,
called Sir Cloudesley after Sir Cloudesley Shovel. See Drinks.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. flip, Sea Drink, of
small beer (chiefly) and brandy, sweetened and spiced upon
occasion.
1690. Ward, London Spy, part II., p. 41. After the drinking a Kan
of Phlip or a Bowl of Punch.
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. 4, p. 8. So have I
seen on board of ship, Some knawing beeff, some spewing flip.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxiv. He ... sent for a can of
beer, of which he made excellent flip to crown the banquet.
1810. Crabbe, The Borough, Letter 16. Nay, with the seamen working
in the ship, At their request, he’d share the grog and flip.
1875. C. D. Warner, Backlog Studies, p. 18. It was thought best to
heat the poker red-hot before plunging it into the mugs of flip.