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Flying-dustman.—See Stiff-un.

Flying-dutchman, subs. (common).—The London and Exeter express (G. W. R.). See also Flying Scotchman and Wild Irishman. Cf,, Dead-meat train and Larky subaltern's coach.


Flying-horse (or Mare), subs. (wrestling).—The throw by which an opponent is sent over the head. Introduced, says Bee, by Parkins.

1754. Foote, Knights, Act I. But we don't wrestle after your fashion; we ha' no tripping; fath and soul! we all go upon close hugs or the FLYING-MARE.

1884. Referee, 23 March, p. 1., col. 1. In the third and last bout, Klein brought his man clean over his head—holding him by his own—with a sort of FLYING-MARE, and elicited thunders of applause.

1886. Pall Mall Gazette, 5 July, p. 4. On a Mississippi steamer he astonished a rowdy who was shocked at his unnatural objection to whisky, by performing upon him the feat known to British wrestlers as 'the FLYING MARE.'


Flying-jigger or Gygger, subs. (thieves').—A turnpike gate. Jigger = a door or gate.]

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.

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


Flying-man, subs. (football).—A skirmisher good at taking, and running with, the ball.

1864. Eton School Days, ch. 23, p. 255. He possessed good wind, and was a very good 'kick-off,' and he could 'bully' a ball as well as any one. He was a little too heavy for 'FLYING-MAN,' but he made a decent 'sidepost,' and now and then he officiated as 'corner.'


Flying-mare. See Flying-horse.


Flying Pasty, subs. phr. (obsolete).—Excrement wrapped in paper and thrown over a neighbour's wall. [Grose.]


Flying-porter. See Flying cove.


Flying-stationer, subs. (street)—A hawker of street ballads; a PAPERWORKER (q.v.), or RUNNING PATTERER (q.v.). Cf., CROAK. 'Printed for the FLYING-STATIONER' is the imprimatur on hundreds of broadsheets from the last century onwards.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Ballad singers and hawkers of penny histories.

1851-61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. I, p. 228. That order or species of the pattering genus known as FLYING STATIONERS, from the fact of their being continually on the move while describing the attractions of the papers' they have to sell.

1886. Athenæum, 31 July, p. 139. Scores of tracts were issued in the Newgate region, from Giltspur Street to Blowbladder Street, whence numbers of FLYING STATIONERS drew their supplies long before either of the Catnachs were born.


Flymy. Adj. (streets).—Knowing, FAST (q.v.); roguish; sprightly. From Fly (q.v.).

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon's Good Night. You FLYMY titters fond of flam.


Fly-my-kite, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A light.


Flymy-mess, TO BE IN A FLYMY-MESS, verb. phr. (military).—To be hungry and have nothing to eat. For synonyms, see PECKISH.


Fly-slicer, subs. (common).—A cavalry-man: cf., Mudcrusher. French lancers are allumeurs de gaz, their weapons being likened to a lamplighter's rod.