1862. A Week in Wall St., p. 90. A broker, who had met with heavy
losses, exclaimed: ‘I’m in a bear-trap,—this won’t do. The dogs
will come over me. I shall be mulct in a loss. But I’ve got time;
I’ll turn the scale; I’ll help the bulls operate for a rise, and
draw in the flunkies.’
3. (American University.)—One that makes a complete failure in a
recitation; one who flunks (q.v.).
1859. Yale Lit. Magazine. I bore him safe through Horace, Saved him
from the flunkey’s doom.
4. (colloquial).—A man-servant, especially one in livery. Hence, by
implication, a parasite or Toady (q.v.). Fr., un larbin.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs; ch. v. You who have no toadies; you
whom no cringing flunkeys or shopmen bow out of doors.
Whence, Flunkeyism = Blind worship of rank, birth, or riches. Fr., la
larbinerie.
1857. J. E. Ritchie, Night Side of London, p. 23. Our trading
classes, becoming richer and more sunk in flunkeyism every day.
Flurryment, subs. (common.)—Agitation; bustle; confusion; nervous
excitement. [Pleonastic, from Flurry.]
1848. Jones, Sketches of Travel, p. II. Mary and all on em was in a
monstrous flurryment.
Flurry One’s Milk, verb. phr. (common).—To be worried, angry, or upset;
To fret one’s kidneys (q.v.); To tear one’s shirt, or one’s hair
(q.v.).
Flush, subs. (gamesters’).—A hand of one suit.
Adj. (colloquial).—1. With plenty of money; the reverse of hard up
(q.v.); warm (q.v.). Also abounding in anything: e.g. flush of his
patter = full of his talk; flush of the lotion = liberal with the
drink; flush of his notions = prodigal of ideas; flush of her charms =
lavish of her person; and so forth.
1603. Dekker, Batchelor’s Banquet, ch. viii. Some dames of the
company, which are more flush in crownes than her good man.
1605. The Play of Stucley, l. 538. They know he hath received His
marriage money: they perceive he’s flush And mean to share with him
ere all be gone.
1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act II. Con. Since you are so flush,
sir, you shall give me a locket of diamonds of three hundred
pounds.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flush in the pocket c.
full of money. The cull is flush in the fob, the Spark’s pocket is
well lined with money.
1767. O’Hara, Two Misers, Act I. What stops many an hopeful
project? lack of cash—[looking archly at him]. Are you flush, Sir?
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1846. Thackeray, V. F., vol. I. ch. xxviii. The expenses were borne
by Jos and Osborne, who was flush of money and full of kind
attentions to his wife.
1861. A. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, ch. viii. Allow me to draw on
you for that amount at three months. Long before that time I shall
be flush enough.
1864. Economist, 29 Oct. The world was then, if such a very
colloquial expression could be pardoned, ‘flush of cash,’ and it
sent in that cash rapidly and at once.
2. (common).—Intoxicated (i.e., full to the brim); also flushed. For
synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.
3. (colloquial).—Level: e.g., flush with the top, with the water, with
the road, with the boat’s edge, etc.
Verb. (common).—1. To whip.
English Synonyms.—To bludgeon; to bumbaste; to breech (Cotgrave); to
brush; to club; to curry; to dress with an oaken towel; to drub; to
drybeat; to dry-bob; to drum; to fib; to flap; to flick; to flop; to
jerk; to give one ballast; to hide; to lamm; to larrup; to paste; to
punch; to rub down; to swinge; to swish; to switch; to trounce; to
thump; to tund (Winchester); to wallop. See also Tan.
French Synonyms.—Donner l’avoine (pop. = to give a feed of hay);
allumer (popular); bouiser (thieves’: un bouis = a whip).
Italian Synonyms.—Smanegrare; cotillare; corillare; cerire.
2. (colloquial).—To clean by filling full, and emptying, of water:
e.g., to flush a sewer; to wash, swill, or sluice away. Also to fill
with water: e.g., to flush a lock.
1884. Henley and Stevenson, Admiral Guinea, i., 8. Pray for a new
heart; flush out your sins with tears.
3. (shooting).—To start or raise a bird from covert: e.g., to flush a
snipe, or a covey of partridges. Hence (venery) to flush a wild duck =
to single out a woman for grousing (q.v.).
To come flush on one, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To come suddenly and
unexpectedly (Marvell); to overwhelm (as by a sudden rush of water).
Flushed on the Horse, phr. (prison).—Privately whipped in gaol.
Flush-hit, subs. phr. (pugilistic).—A clean blow; a hit full on the
mark and straight from the shoulder. For synonyms, see Dig.
1891. Lic. Vict. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 7, col. 2. Landed a very heavy
flush hit on the mouth.
Adv. (colloquial).—Full; straight; right on (q.v.).
1888. Sporting Life, 15 Dec. Both cautious, Wilson with marked
frequency leading off, and getting the left flush on the face.
Fluster, verb. (old).—To excite; to confuse, abash, or flummox (q.v.);
to upset, or be upset, with drink.
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, I., 3. The very elements of this warlike
isle,—Have I to-night fluster’d with flowing cups.
1711. Spectator, No. 87. It is very common for such as are too low
in constitution to ogle the idol upon the strength of tea, to
fluster themselves with warmer liquors.
1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 261. When I vext proud Celia just
come from my glass, She tells me I’m flustered, and look like an
ass.
1731. Fielding, Letter Writers. Act II., Sc. 5. Who hath taken me
to the tavern, and, I protest, almost fluster’d me.
Flustered (or Flustrated), ppl. adj. (old).—Excited by drink,
circumstances, another person’s impudence, etc.; also mildly drunk.
Cf., Flusticated. For synonyms, see Screwed.
1686. Common. of Women, Prol. Another to compleat his daily task,
fluster’d with claret, seizes on a mask.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. flustered, drunk.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 3. I ... therefore take this public
occasion to admonish a young Nobleman, who came flustered into the
box last night.
1748. T. Dyche, Dict. (5th ed.) Flustered (a) ... somewhat
intoxicated with liquor.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XIV., ch. ix. This latter, though
not drunk, began to be somewhat flustered.
1779. The Mirror, No. 57. All of them flustered, some of them
perfectly intoxicated.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
Flusticated, or Flustrated, ppl. adj. (old and colloquial).—Confused;
in a state of heat or excitement. Cf., Flustered.
1712. Spectator, No. 493. We were coming down Essex Street one
night a little flustrated.
1766. Colman, Cland. Marriage V., in works (1777) i. 271. Your mind
is too much flustrated, and you can neither eat nor drink.
1843. Maj. Jones’ Courtship, I. Somehow I was so flustrated that I
tuk the rong way.
1847. Porter, Big Bear, &c., p. 98. I sot down, being sorter
flusticated like, thinkin’ of that skrape, last time I was there.
Flustration, subs. (old and colloquial).—Heat; excitement; bustle;
confusion; flurry (q.v.).
1771. Smollet, Humphrey Clinker, I., 126. Being I was in such a
flustration.
1843. Major Jones’ Courtship, viii. The old woman’s been in a
monstrous flustration ’bout the comet.
1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 177. My wife is in a delicut
way, and the frite might cause a flustration.
1848. Jones, Studies of Travel, p. 21. The old woman was in such a
flustration she didn’t know her lips from anything else.
1872. Mortimer Collins, Two Plunges for a Pearl, vol. II., ch. vii.
Then was this pretty little actress whom he admired in a great
state of flustration.
Flute, subs. (old).—1. The recorder of a corporation.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Tibia, a flute, a recorder, a
pipe.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flute, c. The recorder
of London or of any other town.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1825. Kent, Modern Flash Dict. Flute—the recorder of any town.
2. (venery).—The penis. Also the one-holed, the living, or the silent
flute. To play a tune on the one-holed flute = to have connection. Cf.,
Dryden (Sixth Juvenal, line 107). ‘And stretch his quail-pipe till they
crack his voice.’ For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.
1720. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 31. He took her by the middle, And
taught her by the flute.
1736. Cupid, p. 163. The Flute is good that’s made of Wood, And is,
I own, the neatest; Yet ne’ertheless I must confess, The silent
flute’s the sweetest.
Flutter, subs. (common).—1. An attempt, or shy (q.v.), at anything; a
venture in earnest; a spree; a state of expectancy (as in betting).
Hence gambling.
1883. Echo, 26 Feb. p. 4, col. 2. I have no stable tip, but I fancy
the animal named will at any rate afford backers a flutter for
their money.
1889. Licensed Vict. Gazette, 8 Feb. Of course he told her he only
went in for a little flutter occasionally.
1890. Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, col. 1. They find out the
addresses of people whom they see at the races—people whom they
suspect to be fond of a flutter, and then an invitation is sent to
a little soirée intime.
1887. Henley, Culture in the Slums, iii. I likes a merry little
flutter, I keeps a Dado on the sly, In fact my form’s the blooming
Utter.