Fetching, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Attractive (as of women); pleasing
(as of a dress or bonnet).
c. 1882. Broadside Ballad. ‘You May Lay Odds on That.’ Some most
fetching dresses the ladies now wear, You may lay odds on that.
1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 17 August, p. 262, col. 2. How
can they show off a pretty figure and a fetching bathing costume if
they go in further than knee deep?
1889. Bird o’ Freedom, 7 Aug., p. 3. Quite delighted at being at
last understood and appreciated by one of the fetching sex, Stewart
made the running so fast that I couldn’t see the way he went.
Fettle. In good or in proper fettle, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Drunk.
[From provincial English fettle = a state of fitness.]
Few. A few, or Just a few, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Originally (cf.,
quot., 1778) a little. Hence, by implication, on the lucus a non
lucendo principle, considerably; e.g., ‘Were you alarmed?’ ‘No, but I
was astonished a few!’ i.e., ‘I was greatly surprised.’ Cf., rather = a
good deal.
1778. D’Arblay, Diary, etc., 6 July, vol. I., ch. i., p. 15 (1876).
So I trembled a few, for I thought, ten to one but he’d say:
‘He?—not he—I promise you!’
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xx., p. 173. I appeal to our mutual
friend, Smallweed, whether he has or has not heard me remark, that
I can’t make him out. Mr. Smallweed bears the concise testimony, a
few.
Fib, verb (Old Cant).—1. To beat; specifically (pugilism) to get in a
quick succession of blows, as when you get your man round the neck
(i.e., into chancery) and pommel his ribs or face.
1665. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 49 (1874). Fib, to
beat.
1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Fib, to beat.
1811. Southey, Letters (ii., 236). I have been taking part in the
controversy about ‘Bell and the Dragon,’ as you will see in the
Quarterly, where I have fibbed the Edinburgh (as the fancy say)
most completely.
1853. Thackeray, Men’s Wives, Frank Berry, ch. 1. For heaven’s
sake, my boy, fib with your right, and mind his left hand!
1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘C. Bede’). Verdant Green, pt. I., p. 106.
His whole person put in chancery, stung, bruised, fibbed, propped
... and otherwise ill-treated.
1865. G. F. Berkeley, My Life, etc., I., 311. As there was no room
to hit out, in the phraseology of the ring, I fibbed at half a
dozen waistcoats and faces with all my might and main.