3. (old).—To adulterate or balderdash (q.v.) wine with freeze (q.v.
sense 2).—Grose.
To freeze to (or on to), verb. phr. (American).—To take a strong fancy
to; to cling to; to, keep fast hold of; and (of persons) to button-hole
or shadow.
1883. Graphic, 17 March, p. 287, col. 1. If there was one
institution which the Anglo-Indian froze to more than another, it
was his sit-down supper and—its consequences.
1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 2 March. The competence of a juror was
judged by his ability to shake ready-formed opinions and freeze on
to new ones.
To Freeze Out, verb. phr. (American).—To compel to withdraw from
society by cold and contemptuous treatment; from business by
competition or opposition; from the market by depressing prices or
rates of exchange.
Freezer, subs. (common).—1. A tailless Eton jacket; cf., Bum-perisher.
For synonyms, see Monkey-jacket.
2. (colloquial).—A very cold day. By analogy, a chilling look, address,
or retort.
French-elixir (cream, lace, or article), subs. phr. (common).—Brandy.
[The custom of taking of brandy with tea and coffee was originally
French.—Whence French Cream. Laced tea = tea dashed with spirits].
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. ix. ‘Get out the gallon punch-bowl,
and plenty of lemons. I’ll stand for the French article by the time
I come back, and we’ll drink the young Laird’s health.’
1821. Real Life, i., p. 606. Not forgetting blue ruin and French
lace.
English Synonyms.—Ball-of-fire; bingo; cold tea; cold nantz; red
ribbon.
French Synonyms.—Le parfait amour du chiffonnier (i.e., ragman’s
happiness = coarse brandy); le trois-six (popular: = rot-gut);
fil-en-quatre, fil-en-trois, fil-en-six (specifically, old brandy, but
applied to spirits generally); le dur (= a drop of hard: common); le
raide (popular = a drop of stiff): le chenique or chnic (popular:); le
rude (popular: = a drop of rough, i.e., coarse brandy); l’eau d’affe
(thieves’); le pissat d’âne (popular: = donkey’s piss; sometimes
applied to bad beer, which is likewise called pissat de vache);
l’avoine (military = hay, as who should say ‘a nose bag’); le blanc
(popular = brandy or white wine); le possédé (thieves’: bingo); le
raspail (popular:); le cric (popular: also crik, crique, or cricque =
rough brandy:); le schnaps (popular); le schnick (common: = bad
brandy); le camphre (popular: = camphor; applied to the coarsest
spirit); le sacré-chien or sacré-chien tout pur (common: = the vilest
sold); casse-poitrine (common: = brandy heightened with pepper; cf.,
rot-gut); le jaune (rag-pickers’: = a drop of yellow); tord-boyaux
(popular = twist-gut); la consolation (popular = a drop of comfort);
requiqui (workmen’s); eau de mort (common: = death-water); le Tripoli
(rank brandy); casse-gueule (= ‘kill-the-carter’; applied to all kinds
of spirits).
French Fake. subs. phr. (nautical).—The fashion of coiling a rope by
taking it backwards and forwards in parallel bands, so that it may run
easily.
French Gout (or Disease, Fever, etc.), subs. phr. (common).—Sometimes
clap (q.v.), but more generally and correctly syphilis, Morbus
Gallicus, especially with older writers. For synonyms, see Ladies
Fever. Also The Frenchman. French Pox = a very bad variety of syphilis.
The French themselves always refer to the ailment as the mal de Naples,
for which see Marston (1598) and his ‘Naples canker,’ and Florio (1598)
mal di Napoli = French pocks. Cf., Shakspeare, Henry V., v., 1. News
have I that my Nell is dead i’ the spital Of malady of France.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Lue, a plague.... It is also used
for the French poxe.
1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie. Mal de Naples, the French Pocks.
1690. B. E. Dict. of the Canting Crew. (s.v.).
1740. Poor Robin. Some gallants will this month be so penurious
that they will not part with a crack’d groat to a poor body, but on
their cockatrice or punquetto will bestow half a dozen taffety
gowns, who in requittal bestows on him the French pox.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. He suffered by a blow
over the snout with a French faggot-stick; i.e., he lost his nose
by the pox.
Frenchified, adj. (old).—Clapped; more generally and accurately poxed.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Frenchified, infected
with the venereal disease; the mort is frenchified = the wench is
infected.
French Leave, To take French leave. verb. phr. (colloquial).—(1) To
decamp without notice; (2) to do anything without permission; (3) to
purloin or steal; (4) to run away (as from an enemy). [Derivation
obscure; French, probably traceable to the contempt engendered during
the wars with France; the compliment is returned in similar expressions
(see Synonyms) + leave = departure or permission to depart. Sense 1 is
probably the origin of senses 2, 3, and 4. See Notes and Queries, 1 S.
i, 246; 3 S. vi, 17; 5 S. xii, 87; 6 S. v, 347, 496; viii, 514; ix,
133, 213, 279; 7 S. iii, 5, 109, 518.]
English Synonyms.—To retire up (one’s fundament); to slope; to smouge;
to do a sneak; to take the Frenchman; to vamoose.
French Synonyms.—S’escarpiner (popular: = to flash one’s pumps);
escarpin = a dancing shoe; jouer de l’escarpin = to ply one’s pumps,
(16th century); s’échapper, s’esquiver, filer, disparaître, s’éclipser,
se dérober, se retirer, and s’en aller à l’anglaise (= to take English
leave); pisser à l’anglaise (= to do an English piss, i.e., affect a
visit to the urinal); prendre sa permission sous son coude (popular:
literally to take one’s leave under one’s arm); ficher or foutre le
camp.
German Synonyms.—Französischen Abschied nehmen (= to take French leave:
from Gutzkow, R., 4, 88, etc., born 1811); französischer Abschied
(Iffland, 1759–1814, 5, 3, 117); auf gut französisch sich empfehlen
(Blumauer, 2, 72, 1758–1798: also Gutzkow, R., 4, 88); hinter der Thur
urlaub (= to take leave behind [or outside] the door, i.e., after one
has got outside it: quoted by Sanders, from Fischart, 1550–1589);
hinter der Thüre Abschied nehmen (= to say good-bye outside, to take
French leave); also, er beurlaubte sich in aller Stille, explained as
er stahl sich, schlich sich davon, and translated ‘he took French
leave’; also, sich aus einer Gesellschaft stehlen.—Hilpert’s Dict.,
1845.
Spanish Synonym.—Despedirse á la francesa (= to take French leave).
1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker, p. 54. He stole away an
Irishman’s bride, and took a French leave of me and his master.
1805. Newspaper (quoted in Notes and Queries, 5 S. xii., 2 Aug.,
79, p. 87, col. 2). On Thursday last Monsieur J. F. Desgranche, one
of the French prisoners of war on parole at Chesterfield, took
French leave of that place, in defiance of his parole engagement.
1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. lviii. ‘I thought I would
avoid all the difficulties ... by taking French leave, and setting
off in disguise and under a feigned name.’
1885 Stevenson, Treasure Island, ch. xxii., p. 178 (1886). My only
plan was to take French leave, and slip out when nobody was
watching.
1892. Globe, 25 Mar., p. 5, col. 1. They finally resolved to go on
French leave to the place.
French- (also American, Spanish, and Italian) Letter, subs. phr.
(colloquial).—A sheath—of india-rubber, gold beater’s skin,
gutta-percha—worn by a man during coition to prevent infection or
fruition. Usually described in print as specialities (q.v.). or
circular protectors and (in U.S.A.) as safes (q.v.). See Cundum. Fr.,
capote anglaise.
French Pigeon, subs. phr. (sportsman’s).—A pheasant killed by mistake
in the partridge season. Also moko and oriental (q.v.).
French Pig, subs. phr. (common).—A venereal bubo; a blue boar (q.v.),
or Winchester goose (q.v.).
French Prints, subs. (colloquial).—Generic for indecent pictures.
1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis II., ch. xxxi. Young de Boots of the
Blues recognised you as the man who came to barracks, and did
business, one-third in money, one-third in eau-de-Cologne, and one
third in French prints, you confounded, demure, old sinner.
French Vice, verb. phr. (venery).—A euphemism for all sexual
malpractices; Larks (q.v.). First used (in print) in the case of
Crawford v. Crawford and Dilke.
Frenchy, subs. (colloquial).—A Frenchman.
Fresh, adj. (University).—1. Said of an undergraduate in his first
term.
1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.
1866. Trevelyan, Horace at Athens. When you and I were fresh.
2. (common).—Slightly intoxicated; elevated. For synonyms see Drinks
and Screwed, (Scots’ = sober).
1829. Marryat, Frank Mildmay, ch. xiii. Drinking was not among my
vices. I could get fresh, as we call it, when in good company and
excited by wit and mirth; but I never went to the length of being
drunk.
3. (Old English and modern American).—Inexperienced, but conceited and
presumptuous; hence, forward, impudent.
1596. Shakspeare, King John, iii., 4. How green you are and fresh
in this old world.
1886. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. ‘Has Peggy been too fresh?’ Her
sunburnt cheeks flushed.