Aussitôt les forçats, les ex-galériens, examinent cette mécanique ... ils l’appellent tout à coup l’Abbaye de Monte-à-Regret! Ils étudient l’angle décrit par le couperet d’acier et trouvent pour en peindre l’action, le verbe faucher!--=BALZAC=, _La Dernière Incarnation de Vautrin_.
Faucher dans le pont, _to fall into a trap_; ---- le colas, _to cut one’s throat_; ---- le grand pré,_ to be undergoing a term of penal servitude at a convict settlement_. The convicts formerly were made to work on galleys, the long oar they plied being compared to a scythe and the sea to a large meadow. Lesage, in his _Gil Blas_, terms this “émoucher la mer avec un éventail de vingt pieds.” A more recent expression describes it as “écrire ses mémoires avec une plume de quinze pieds.”
FAUCHETTES, _f. pl._ (popular and thieves’), _scissors_.
FAUCHEUR, _m._ (thieves’), _thief who steals watch-chains_, “slang or tackle-buzzer;” executioner. Properly _reaper_. Rabelais called him “Rouart,” or _he who breaks on the wheel_; (journalists’) _dandy_. From his peculiar gait.
FAUCHEUX, _m._ (thieves’), _scissors_; (popular) _man with long thin legs_, or “daddy long-legs.” Properly _a field spider_.
FAUCHON, _m._ (popular), _sword_, “toasting-fork.” Un ---- de satou, _a wooden sword_.
FAUCHURE, _f._ (thieves’), _a cut inflicted by some sharp instrument or weapon_.
FAUCONNIER, _m._ (thieves’), _confederate of the proprietor of a gaming-house_.
FAUSSANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _false name_, _alias_.
FAUSSE-COUCHE, _f._ (popular), _man without any energy_, _a_ “sappy” _fellow_. Properly _a miscarriage_.
FAUSSE-MANCHE, _f._, _fatigue jacket worn by the students of the military school of Saint-Cyr_.
FAUVE, _f._ (thieves’), _snuff-box_, or “sneezer.”
FAUVETTE, _f._ (thieves’), à tête noire, _gendarme_.
FAUX-COL, _m._ (familiar), _head of a glass of beer_. Garçon, trop d’faux-col à la clef! _Waiter, too much head by half!_
FÉDÉRÉ, _m._ (popular), avoir un ---- dans la casemate, or un polichinelle dans le tiroir, _to be pregnant_, or “lumpy.”
FÉE, _f._ (popular and thieves’), _love_; _young girl_, or “titter.” La ---- n’est pas loffe, _the girl is no fool_. Gaffine la ----, _look at the girl_, “nark the titter.”
FÉESANT, _m._ (thieves’), _lover_. From fée, _love_.