1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
1881. New York Slang Dict., s.v.
Facey, subs. (tailors’).—A fellow workman vis-à-vis. Facey on the bias
= one in front either to right or left; Facey on the two thick = one
working immediately behind one’s opposite.
Facings.—To be put, or go, through one’s facings, verb. phr.
(popular).—To be called to account or scolded; to exemplify capacity;
to ‘show off.’ [Military.]
Silk-facings, subs. (tailors’).—Stains upon work caused by droppings of
beer. [In allusion to the ‘watered’ silk trimmings in front of a
regimental jacket or coat.]
Fad-cattle, subs. (old).—Easy women. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and
Tart. [Cf., Faddle = to toy + cattle (q.v.).]
Faddist (also Fadmonger), subs. (colloquial).—A person (male or female)
devoted to the pursuit of public fads: as ‘social purity,’ moral art,
free-trade in syphilis, and so-forth.
Faddle, verb (obsolete).—To toy or trifle: as a subs. = a busybody; a
‘nancified’ affected male. Also Faddy = full of fads.
Fadge, subs. (common).—A farthing.
English Synonyms.—Fiddler; farden; gig, or grig; quartereen.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London, s.v.
Verb (old).—To suit; to fit; to agree with; to come off. [A.S., fégan,
fégean, to join, to fit. Nares says, ‘probably never better than a low
word: it is now confined to the streets.’]
1593. Nashe, 4 Lett. Conf., in wks. (Grosart) II., 215. They haue
broght in a new kind of a quicke sight, which your decrepite
slow-mouing capacitie cannot fadge with.
1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, V., i., 154. We will haue,
if this fadge not, an Antique.
1599. Massinger, Old Law, IV., ii. Clean. My Lord! Sim. Now it
begins to fadge.
1636. T. Heywood, Love’s Mistress, Act IV. Vulcan ... I keep a
dozen journeymen at least, besides my Ciclops and my Prentises, yet
’twill not fadge.
1639. Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit without Money, III., iv. Clothes I
must get; this fashion will not fadge with me.
1678. Quack’s Academy; in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 32. That
could never make their untoward handicrafts fadge to purpose.
1750. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 18 Oct. (1833), vol. II., p. 485.
Alack! when I came to range them, they did not fadge at all.
1819. Scott, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), ii., 197.
Pray let me know ... how matters fadge in the great city of
Edinburgh.
1830. Scott, Doom of Devorgoil, Act II., Sc. 1. If this same gear
fadge right, I’ll cote and mouth her, And then! whoop! dead! dead!
dead!
1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. lv., p. 173 (1888). Any new
adventure which I can invent will not fadge well with the old tale.
Fadger, subs. (glaziers’).—A glazier’s frame; otherwise a ‘frail.’
Fadmonger, subs. (colloquial).—A Faddist (q.v.). Fadmongering, verb.
phr. (colloquial) = dealing as a Faddist (q.v.) with fads.
Fag, subs. (public schools’).—1. A boy who does menial work for a
schoolfellow in a higher form. [From Fag, to grow weary.]
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xviii. Bob Trotter, the diminutive
fag of the studio, who ran on all the young men’s errands, and
fetched them in apples, oranges, and walnuts.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. i. Is still enumerated
among the feats of the brave days of old, by the fags over their
evening small beer.