Chapter First-fruits to Fixt of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Fiver (A). A five-pound note. A "tenner" is a ten-pound note.

Fives A game similar to court-tennis; the hand, however, is used instead of a racket. Said to be so called because the game is three fives (15).

"He forgot that cricket and fives are capital training for tennis." - T. Hughes: Tom Brown at Oxford, chap. ii.

   A bunch of fives. The fist, in which the five fingers are bound in a bunch.

Fix I'm in a fix. A predicament. The allusion is to machinery which will not move. The Northumberland was in a terrible fix at the launch, when it refused to leave the dock. (1866.)

Fixed Air Carbonic dioxide gas. Dr. Black gave it this name, because carbonate of magnesia evolved by heat carbonic acid, that is, MgO, CO₂ evolved CO₂, thereby proving that CO₂ (carbonic acid) is a "fixed air."

Fixed Oils Oils obtained by simple pressure. These oils do not readily dry or volatilise, but remain fixed in their oily character.

Fixed Stars Stars whose relative position to other stars is fixed or always the same. Planets are always shifting their relative positions.

Fixt (The). That is, the Firmament. According to the Ptolemaic System, the earth is surrounded by nine spheres. These spheres are surrounded by the Primum Mobile (or First Moved); and the Premium Mobile is enveloped by the empyrean, or abode of deity.

"They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixt.
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talked, and that first moved."
Milton: Paradise Lost, iii. 481-3.