Chapter Field of the Forty Footsteps to Fighting Prelate of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

full fig). Another etymology has been suggested by a correspondent in Notes and Queries, that it is taken from the word full fig. (figure) in fashion books.

"The Speaker sits at one end all in full fig, with a clerk at the table below." - Trollope: West Indies, chap. ix. p. 101.

Fig or Figo. I don't care a fig for you; not worth a fig. Anything at all. Here fig is fico - a fillip or snap of the fingers. Thus we say, "I don't care that for you," snapping the fingers at the same time. (Italian, far le fiche, to snap the fingers; French, faire la figue; German, diefeigen weisen; Dutch, de vyghe setten, etc.) (See Fico.)

"A fig for Peter."
Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI., ii. 9.

"The figo for thy friendship."
Shakespeare: Henry V., iii. 6.

Fig Sunday Palm Sunday is so called from the custom of eating figs on that day. The practice arose from the Bible story of Zaccheus, who climbed up into a fig-tree to see Jesus.
    Many other festivals have their special foods; as, Michaelmas goose, Christmas, plum-pudding, Shrove Tuesday, pancake day; Ash Wednesday, salt cod; Good Friday, hot cross-buns; pasch-eggs, roast-chestnuts, etc., have their special days.

Fig-tree It is said that Judas hanged himself on a fig-tree. (See Elder-Tree.)

"Quæret aliquis qua ex arborë Judas se suspenderit? Arbor ficus fuisse dicitur." -Barradius.

Figs I shan't buy my Attic figs in future, but grow them. Don't count your chickens before they are hatched. It was Xerxes who boasted that he did not intend any longer to buy his figs, because he meant to conquer Attica and add it to his own empire; but Xerxes met a signal defeat at Salamis, and "never loosed his sandal till he reached Abdera."
   "In the name of the Prophet, Figs!" A burlesque of the solemn language employed in eastern countries in the common business of life. The line occurs in the imitation of Dr. Johnson's pompous style, in Rejected Addresses, by James and Horace Smith.

Figged out (See Fig, Full Fig.)

Figaro A type of cunning dexterity, and intrigue. The character is in the Barbier de Séville and Mariage de Figaro, by Beaumarchais. In the former he is a barber, and in the latter a valet; but in both he outwits every one. There are several operas founded on these dramas, as Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Fight (See Hudibras, Pt. iii. c. 3.)

"He that fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he that is in battle slain
Can never rise to fight again."
Sir John Mennes: Musarum Delictæ. (1656.)

   Demosthenes, being reproached for running away from Philip of Macedon, at Chæronea, replied, "A man that runs away may fight again ('Anhr o feugwn kai palin machesetai)." (See Aulus Gellius, xvii. 21.)

Fight Shy (To). To avoid. A shy person is unwilling to come forward, and to fight is to resist, to struggle in a contest. To "fight shy," therefore, is to resist being brought into contest or conflict.

Fighting-cocks To live like fighting-cocks. To have a profusion of the best food. Fighting-cocks used to be high fed in order to aggravate their pugnacity and increase their powers of endurance.

Fighting Fifth (The). The 5th Foot. This sobriquet was given to the regiment during the Peninsular War.
   The "Old and Bold Fifth," the Duke of Wellington's Body-guard, is now called the "Northumberland Fusiliers." What a terrible vexation must the abolition of the time-honoured names of our old regiments have been to our army!

Fighting Kings [Chen-kuo ]. Certain feudatories of China incessantly contending for mastery over each other. (B.C. 770-320.)