Chapter Frithiof's Sword to Fulsome of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Frozen Words appears to have been a household joke with the ancient Greeks, for Antiphanes applies it to the discourses of Plato: "As the cold of certain cities is so intense that it freezes the very words we utter, which remain congealed till the heat of summer thaws them, so the mind of youth is so thoughtless that the wisdom of Plato lies there frozen, as it were, till it is thawed by the ripened judgment of mature age." (Plutarch's Morals.)

"The moment their backs were turned, little Jacob thawed, and renewed his crying from the point where Quilp had frozen him." - Dickens: Old Curiosity Shop.

"Truth in person doth appear
Like words congealed in northern air."
Butler: Hudibras, pt. i. 1, lines 147-8.

   Everyone knows the incident of the "frozen horn" related by Munchausen.
    Pantagruel and his companions, on the confines of the Frozen Sea, heard the uproar of a battle, which had been frozen the preceding winter, released by a thaw. (Rabelais: Pantagruel, book iv. chap. 56.)

Frumentius (St.). Apostle of Ethiopia and the Abyssinians in the fourth century.

Fry. Children (a word of contempt). Get away, you young fry. It means properly a crowd of young fishes, and its application to children should be limited to those that obstruct your path, crowd about you, or stand in your way. (French, frai, spawn.)
   Nothing to fry with (French). Nothing to eat; nothing to live on. (See Wide-nostrils.)

Frying-pan Out of the frying-pan into the fire. In trying to extricate yourself from one evil, you fell into a greater. The Greeks used to say, "Out of the smoke into the flame;" and the French say, "Tombre de la poële dans la braise. "

Fub To steal, to prig. (French, fourbi, "a Jew who conceals a trap;" fourber, "to cheat;" four, "a false pocket for concealing stolen goods.")

Fuchs [a fox ]. A freshman of the first year in the German University. In the second year he is called a Bursch.

Fudge Not true, stuff, make-up. (Gaelic, ffug, deception; Welsh, ffug, pretence; whence ffugiwr, a pretender or deceiver.) A word of contempt bestowed on one who says what is absurd or untrue. A favourite expression of Mr. Burchell in the Vicar of Wakefield.

Fudge Family A series of metrical epistles by Thomas Moore, purporting to be written by a family on a visit to Paris. Sequel, The Fudge Family in England.

Fuel Adding fuel to fire. Saying or doing something to increase the anger of a person already angry. The French say, "pouring oil on fire."

Fuga ad Salices (A). An affectation or pretence of denial; as, when Cæsar thrice refused the crown in the Lupercal. A "nolo episcopari." The allusion is to -

"Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella,
Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri."
Virgil: Ecloga, iii. 64, 65.

"Cranmer was not prepared for so great and sudden an elevation. Under pretence that the king's affairs still required his presence abroad, he tarried six months longer, in the hope that Henry might consign the crosier to some other hand. There was no affectation in this - no fuga ad salices. Ambition is made of sterner stuff than the spirit of Cranmer." - Blunt: Reformation in England, 123.

Fuggers German merchants, proverbial for their great wealth. "Rich as a Fugger" is common in Old English dramatists. Charles V. introduced some of the family into Spain, where they superintended the mines.

"I am neither an Indian merchant, nor yet a Fugger, but a poor boy like yourself." - Gusman d'Alfarache.

Fugleman means properly wingman, but is applied to a soldier who stands in front of men at drill to