Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (60 page)

fifi
¹
n American

sex, sexual gratification. A humorous euphemism heard among middle-aged speakers, often in the phrase ‘getting some fifi'. It was featured in the US film
Extreme Prejudice
, 1987.

fifi
²
adj

‘prissy', conceited. This usage is probably inspired by the earlier use of the word as a nickname for a female or a lapdog.

fifth wheel
n

a superfluous or intrusive extra person, an unnecessary thing. The phrase is American in origin.

filleted
adj British

a late 1980s version of
gutted
. A fashionable way of conveying intense (or exaggerated) disappointment, bitterness, etc.

When she said she was going and taking the kids, I tell you, I was filleted.

fill one's boots
vb

to enrich oneself, grab an opportunity for rapid enrichment. Often an exhortation or invitation, the phrase, used by adults, was associated, e.g., with the Irish economic bubble of the mid 2000s.

fill someone in
vb British

to beat someone up. A phrase dating from before World War II.

filmi
adj South Asian

glamorous. A word evoking the glamour, ostentation and drama of Bollywood movies, now used by South Asians in the UK.

filth, the filth
n British

the police, especially those in plain clothes. A thoroughly derogatory term coined in the 1950s and enthusiastically adopted by radicals, student demonstrators and criminals alike in the 1960s.

‘I didn't realise he [an ex-boyfriend] was filth.'
(Recorded, nurse, London, 1985)

‘They don't call us the filth for nothing.'
(Comedian Julian Clary, in police uniform, on
Friday Night Live
, April 1988)

filthy
adj British

1.
extremely wealthy. A shortening of ‘filthy rich'.

I tell you, she's absolutely filthy.

2.
excellent. Like
dirty
, a vogue word in club culture since 2000. In Seattle it is always pronounced ‘filty'.

fin
n American

a five-dollar bill. From the Yiddish
finif
, meaning five.

See also
finski

finagling
n

devious machination, manoeuvre or manipulation. The word, which is sometimes used as a regular verb (‘to finagle'), is well established in the USA. It is said to
derive from the archaic British dialect word
fainaigue
(meaning to cheat).

financial
adj Australian

well-off, in funds, solvent

He's fairly financial just at the moment.

finesse (someone)
vb American

to outmanoeuvre, cleverly manipulate or cheat someone. From the technique in contract bridge. Originally a cardsharps' term, now in general use.

finger
¹
vb

to inform on someone. From the action of pointing out a culprit.

They fingered him for the Jamaica Avenue job.

finger
²
, finger fuck
vb

to sexually stimulate (vaginally or anally) with the finger(s)

fink
n American

an informer or any untrustworthy, reprehensible person. In the late 19th century the word was used for spies, informers, policemen and strikebreakers. It is the German word for finch and was presumably imported by German or Yiddish-speaking immigrants, although the exact meaning is obscure. (It appears not to be related to ‘singing like a canary'.)

See also
ratfink

finski
n American

a
fin
(five-dollar bill). An embellished form of the word used typically by high-school or college students. The
-ski
ending (in imitation of Slavic languages or Yiddish) is thought to add raciness to short everyday words.

‘See what a finski can do for a man's attitude?'
(
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
, US film, 1986)

fire
adj American

excellent, spectacular. The term, heard on campus in 2011 and described by one user as ‘often referring to marijuana and food' may be a shortening of
on fire
in the sense of stimulated and stimulating.

Man, those tacos are fire!
The poetry she wrote for her honors thesis was fire.

fireman's hose
n British

the
nose
. A piece of authentic rhyming slang, still heard occasionally in London.

‘He had to stick his fireman's hose into it, didn't he?'
(Recorded, hairdresser, Richmond, 1988)

firkin'
adj

fucking
. This word is generally thought of and used as a joky euphemism, inspired by the similarity of the taboo word with the archaic name for a cask of ale. In fact ‘firk' existed as a verb in its own right in early modern English. It meant to strike, and also to copulate, and may even have been in origin a distortion of ‘fuck'. The word is typically used as an intensifier, as in ‘firkin' cold'.

firm, the firm
n

a.
British
a criminal gang or organisation. Also used by and of teams of football hooligans, such as the Inter-City Firm, a much-publicised gang of older West Ham supporters.

b.
an insider's, or would-be insider's, euphemism for an official but clandestine organisation, such as a secret-service department or undercover police group

first base
n American
kissing, necking. The first stage in the process of seduction, as described by teenagers and students (usually from the male point of view). The image is taken from baseball, where to get to first base is the first step towards scoring a run; stretching the analogy, a
home run
or
homer
is full sexual intercourse.

fishing fleet
n British

a group of females arriving
en masse
in search of partners or husbands. The expression is applied today mainly to visitors to the outpost of upper-class society in Hong Kong; it formerly referred to the same social phenomenon occurring in India, etc. in the colonial era.

fishwank
adj British

inferior, disappointing, poor. A meaningless compound used especially by males since 2000.

fit
¹
adj British

excellent, fashionable. A vogue term among adolescents in the early 1990s. Synonyms are
mint
and
top
.

fit
²
n

1.
a set of clothes

I say rid [get rid of] the fit right now!

2.
British
the materials needed to prepare and inject heroin; the ligature, burner and hypodermic. An item of prisoners' and addicts' slang of the 1990s.

In both senses the word is a shortening of ‘outfit'.

fit-chased
adj American

drunk. A disguised form of
shitfaced
used by college students since the late 1990s.

fitted
adj American

elegant, well dressed

fittie
n British

an attractive person, usually referring to a female. A synonym of
hottie
, in use since 2000, based on the slang sense of
fit
.

fit up
vb British

to
frame
; to manufacture evidence to procure a (false) conviction for a criminal offence. A piece of police and underworld jargon, which by 1990 had become widely known through its use by journalists, scriptwriters, etc.

fit-up, fit
n

a
frame-up
, a situation in which an innocent person is accused or incriminated on the basis of false evidence, perjury, etc. The noun derives from the verb form

‘It was an obvious bloody fit-up, but they let it go through anyway.'
(Recorded, pub customer, London, 1987)

Five-0
n American

the police force or an individual police officer. The usage originated in the TV series
Hawaii Five-0
, broadcast in the early 1970s, and was still being used by London teenagers in 2012.

five by five
n American

a short, fat person

five-finger discount
n American

something stolen, especially a shoplifter's booty. This is the thieves' own term, popular, especially in New York, in the 1970s and 1980s.

fivehead
n

a very wide forehead. A witticism forming part of young people's repertoire of physical slights, heard since around 2003.

five-pinter
n British

an ugly or unattractive female. The pejorative term was defined by the Student World website in 2001 as ‘an ugly girl you'd only chat up after five pints'.
Ten-pinter
is an alternative form of the expression.

five thousand!, 5000!
exclamation American

goodbye. A variant form of
Audi!

fix
n

an injection of a narcotic. Originally an Americanism, by the 1960s it was in use throughout the English-speaking world. The word is now also used metaphorically or ironically to describe any habitual action, such as taking a fix of nicotine, or any pleasure which the speaker would not willingly forgo, as in a weekly fix of a television programme.

fix up!
exclamation British

an exhortation, in the words of one user to ‘get a grip!'. Used in street-gang code and its imitations since around 2010.

fizzing at the gash
adj British

(of a female) in a state of sexual arousal. The vulgarism was popularised by the TV series
The Inbetweeners
.

flack
n See

flak flag
vb American

to fail. In high-school and college usage, the term refers to an F grade attached to an assignment.

I knew they'd flag me.
Erin got flagged again.

flagged
adj American

nabbed, reprimanded, identified and/or warned. It is the custom in American-football matches for the umpires to throw a flag (a sort of yellow duster) when they spot an infringement, to mark the spot where it took place. This is known as there being ‘a flag on the play'. Flagged sometimes has the very specific senses of having been refused further drinks in a bar or being arrested.

flak
n

criticism, antagonism, aggression, trouble. The terms
Flugabwehrkanone
and
Fliegerabwehrkanone
, given to German World War II anti-aircraft guns, provided this acronym which was adopted as an English colloquialism. It is now sometimes spelt flack.

We've had to take a lot of flak over this. They've been getting a lot of flak from head office recently.

flake
n

1.
American
an eccentric or crazy person. A later formation from
flaky
. The origin is obscure.

‘Marx stands out as refreshingly creative and literate among a batch of flakes.'
(Robert Conquest,
Independent
, 27 January 1989)

2.
Australian
shark meat

flake and chips

3.
American
cocaine. High-quality Peruvian cocaine, e.g., is often sold in the form of small flakes.

4.
Australian
an unscrupulous, untrust-worthy person

5.
Scottish
an unreliable or dangerous individual

flaked, flaked out
adj

exhausted, collapsed

flasher out
vb

1.
American
to leave (a place). An American teenagers' idiom in use since the late 1970s.

2.
American
to act eccentrically. From
flake
and
flaky
.

3.
to collapse from weariness, fall asleep. In this sense the word is now a common colloquialism. Its derivation is uncertain.

flakers
adj British

exhausted. A term from armed-forces' usage, from the colloquial ‘flake out' (collapse from fatigue).

They were all flakers after the manoeuvres.

flaky
¹
, flakey
adj American

eccentric, crazy, unstable and irresponsible. This Americanism was given wider currency when President Ronald Reagan referred to Colonel Gaddafi as ‘flaky' in January 1986; the word had to be translated in the press for British and Australian readers. The original connotations of the word are obscure. Suggested derivations are from
flake
as a word for cocaine, or from ‘flaking' or ‘crumbling' stucco, stone, timber, etc. This second derivation, with overtones of disintegration and splitting or dividing, is more plausible.