1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

Flamer, subs. (colloquial).—A man, woman, thing, or incident above the common. [Literally conspicuous to flaming point, i.e., as a light in the dark]. For synonyms, see Stunner.

1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Vox, ch. ii. Concocting a criticism on the evening’s performance, which certainly was, according to the signor’s own acknowledgment, a regular flamer.

Flames, subs. (old).—A red-haired person. Cf., Carrots and Ginger.

1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. Who should I fling my precious ogles upon but flames—she as lived at the ‘Blue Posts.’

Flaming, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Conspicuous; ardent; stunning (q.v.). For synonyms, see A 1 and Fizzing.

1738. Swift, Polite Conv., Dialogue II. Lord Sparkish. My Lady Smart, your ladyship has a very fine scarf. Lady Smart. Yes, my lord, it will make a flaming figure in a country church.

1776. Rubrick, The Spleen, ii. I’ll send a flaming paragraph of their wedding to all the newspapers.

1872. Besant and Rice. Ready Money Mortiboy, ch. xxx. He called one of the children, and sent her for a bill. She presently returned with a flaming poster.

Flanderkin, subs. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. A very large fat man or horse; also natives of that country.

Flanders Fortunes, subs. phr. (old).—Of small substance.—B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew (1690).

Flanders Pieces, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flanders pieces, pictures that look fair at a distance, but coarser near at hand.

Flank, verb (common).—1. To crack a whip; also, to hit a mark with the lash of one.

1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford (ed. 1854), p. 18. He then, taking up a driving whip, flanked a fly from the opposite wall.

1833. ‘An Anglo-sapphic Ode’ (Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 136). Kicks up a row, gets drunk, or flanks a tandem whip out of window.

2. (colloquial).—To deliver—a blow or a retort; to push; to hustle; to quoit (Shakspeare). Fr., flanquer: as in flanquer à la porte, and Je lui at flanqué un fameux coup de pied au cul!

A Plate of Thin Flank, subs. phr. (common).—A ‘sixpenny cut’ off the joint. See N. Twill in Fancy Too Late for Dinner.

To Flank the whole bottle, verb. phr. (American soldiers’).—To dodge, i.e., to outflank, to achieve by strategy. For synonyms, see Stick.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 286. When the men wished to escape the attention of pickets and guards by slipping past them, they said they flanked them; drill, and detail, and every irksome duty was flanked, when it could be avoided by some cunning trick. Soon, however, honesty itself was thus treated, and the poor farmer was flanked out of his pig and his poultry, and not infrequently even the comrade out of his pipe and tobacco, if not his rations. The height of strategy was employed in these various flank manœuvres, when the Commissary could be made to surrender some of his whiskey, and thus it came about, in the South at least, that to flank the whole bottle was a phrase expressive of superlative cunning and brilliant success.

Flanker, subs. (common).—A blow; a retort; a kick. Cf., Flank, sense 1.

Flankey, subs. (common).—The posteriors. For synonyms, see Blind Cheeks and Monocular Eyeglass.

1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London, s.v.

Flannel. See Hot Flannel.

Flannels. To get one’s flannels, verb. phr. (schools’).—To get a place in the school football or cricket teams, or in the boats. Cf., ‘to get one’s colours,’ or ‘one’s blue.’

Flap, subs. (thieves’).—1. Sheet-lead used for roofing. Fr., doussin; noir. Cf., Bluey.

2. (old).—A blow.

1539. David Lyndsay, Thrie Estaitis. Works [Laing, 1879], ii. 73. And to begin the play, tak thair ane flap.

Verb (thieves’).—1. To rob; to swindle. For synonyms, see Prig and Stick.

2. (common).—To pay; ‘to fork out.’ Cf., Flap the Dimmock.

3. (venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

To Flap a Jay, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To swindle a greenhorn; to sell a pup (q.v.).

1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18th, p. 3., col. 1. He and three others of the ‘division’ had ‘cut up’ £70 between them, obtained by flapping a jay, which, rendered into intelligible English, means plundering a simple-minded person.

To Flap the Dimmock, verb. phr. (common).—To pay. [From Flap, a verb of motion + Dimmock = money]. Cf., Flap.

Flapdoodle, subs. (colloquial).—1. Transparent nonsense; “kid.”

Also Flamdoodle and Flam-sauce, or Flap-sauce. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xxviii. ‘It’s my opinion, Peter, that the gentleman has eaten no small quantity of flapdoodle in his lifetime.’ ‘What’s that, O’Brien,’ replied I. ‘Why, Peter, it’s the stuff they feed fools on.’

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford. I shall talk to our regimental doctors about it, and get put through a course of fools’ diet—flapdoodle they call it, what fools are fed on.

1884. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Huck. Finn, xxv., 247. A speech, all full of tears and flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother to lose the diseased [deceased].

2. (venery).—The penis. (Urquhart). For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

To talk Flapdoodle, verb. phr. (American).—To brag; to talk nonsense.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Mar. 2. Possibly rich men will turn from sharp dealing, from debauchery, from flapdoodle fashion to a common-sense recognition of a situation, which clearly shows that wealth is no longer what it used to be—autocratic, absolute, the ruler of all else.

Flapdoodler, subs. (American).—A braggart agitator; one that makes the eagle squeal (q.v.).

Flap-dragon, subs. (old).—The pox or clap (q.v.). For synonyms, see Ladies’ Fever.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. Flapdragon, a clap or pox.

Verb. (old).—To gulp down hastily, as in the game of flap-dragon.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, Act III., Sc. 3. But, to make an end of the ship: to see how the sea flap-dragoned it!

Flapman, subs. (prison).—A convict promoted for good behaviour to first or second class.

Flapper, subs. (common).—1. The hand; also flapper-shaker. For synonyms, see Daddle and Mauley.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. vii. My Dear Mr. Simple, extend your flapper to me for I’m delighted to see you.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogues’ Lexicon, s.v.

1866. London Miscellany, May 19, p. 235. ‘There’s my flapper on the strength of it.’ Guy shook hands with the eccentric stranger heartily.

2. (common).—A little girl. [Also a fledgling wild duck.]

3. (venery).—A very young prostitute; cf., sense 2.

4. (common).—A dustman’s or coal-heaver’s hat; a fantail (q.v.).

5. (in. pl.).—Very long-pointed shoes worn by ‘nigger’ minstrels.

6. (venery).—The penis. (For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick).

7. (colloquial).—A parasite; a remembrancer. (Cf. Swift, Gulliver, ‘Laputa.’)

Flapper-shaking, subs. (common).—Hand-shaking.

1853. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. iv. Wondering whether ... if the joining palms in a circus was the customary flapper-shaking before ‘toeing the scratch’ for business.

Flap-sauce. See Flapdoodle.

Flare, subs. (nautical).—1. Primarily a stylish craft; hence, by implication, anything out of the common. For synonyms, see Stunner.

2. (colloquial).—A row; a dispute; a ‘drunk’; or spree. Cf., flare-up.

Verb. (thieves’).—1. Specifically to whisk out; hence, to steal actively, lightly, or delicately.

1850. Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. Low Lodging Houses of London. B. tried his pocket saying, ‘I’ll show you how to do a hankerchief; but the baker looked round and B. stopped; and just after that I flared it (whisked the handerchief out); and that’s the first I did.’

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 457. Just after that I flared it (a handerchief).

2. (common).—To swagger; to go with a bounce.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, ii., 3. Crissy Odsbuds, I’ll on with my duds, And over the water we’ll flare.

All of a flare, adv. phr. (thieves’).—Bunglingly.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 113. Some of the girls at Milberry’s pick pockets at night: while one talks to the man, the other robs him; but they are not dextrous, they pull it out all of a flare.

Flaring, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Excessive: e.g., a flaring lie; flaring drunk; a flaring whore; see Flaming.

Flare-up (or -Out), subs. (popular). An orgie; a fight; an outburst of temper. Also a spree.

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 Ser. ch. x. Some of our young citizens ... got into a flare-up with a party of boatmen that lives in the Mississippi; a desperate row it was too.

1847. Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148, Address at the Opening of a Casino. In for flare-up and frolic let us go, And polk it on the fast fantastic toe.

1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 160. These (hot eel) dealers generally trade on their own capital; but when some have been having a flare-up, and have ‘broke down for stock’ to use the words of my informant, they borrow £1 and pay it back in a week or a fortnight.

1879. Justin M’Carthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xvii. Paulina had a hard struggle many a time to keep down her temper, and not to have what she would have called a flare-out.