[f. FANG sb.]
1. trans. To strike one’s fang or fangs into. Of an anchor: To ‘bite’ with its fluke, rare.
1808. J. Barlow, The Columbiad, VII. 216.
| Each fluvial flood | |
| Their gathering fleets and floating batteries load, | |
| Close their black sails, debark the amphibious host, | |
| And with thin moony anchors fang the coast. |
1839. Bailey, Festus (1854), 531. What though sin, Serpent-like, fanged her.
2. To fang a pump, (loosely) a well: to give (it) a grip of the water; to prime. Cf. FANG sb. 1 b, 7 b. also fig.
1819. Blackw. Mag., V., Sept., 654. To fang a well signifies to pour into it sufficient liquid to set the pump at work again.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 19. I ken where the pump is in the back green—and, if the wall’s fanged, I’ll bring up a gush wi’ a single drive.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
1883. W. C. Smith, N. C. Folk, 181.
| Little he read, and what he did | |
| Was mostly sermons to ‘fang his pump,’ | |
| When it ran dry, and the weekly need | |
| Rang in his head like a warning trump. |
