dial. and colloq. Also 7 fagarie, -ary, 7–8 figary, (7 figuary), 8 fleegerie, 9 fee-, fleegary. [A corruption of VAGARY.]
1. A vagary, prank, freak; a whim, eccentricity.
1600. Dekker, Fortunatus, Wks. 1873, I. 116. Shad. If your wits be not planet strucken, if your braines lie in their right place, you are well inough; for your body is little mended by your fetching fegaries.
1625. Shirley, Love-tricks, III. v. I have a great desire to be taught some of your figaries.
1659. Lady Alimony, II. i. in Hazl., Dodsley, XIV. 289. I know all their fagaries to a hair.
1663. J. Heath, Flagellum; or the Life and Death, Birth and Burial of Oliver Cromwell, the late Usurper (1672), 60. The Authority was left as entire in the King as before; the rest were some Caprichio’s of Biennial Parliaments and the like Figaries.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), V. 183. The world must stand still for their figaries.
2. Gewgaws, trifles; fineries in dress.
1724. Ramsay, Love inviting Reason, iii.
| Rouze up thy reason, my beautifu’ Annie, | |
| Dinna prefer your fleegeries to me. |
1808. Mayne, The Siller Gun, 56. iii. 2.
| Sic shakin hands and kind inquiries, | |
| ’Tween Uncle Johns and Aunty Marys! Grave dames in a’ their nice feegaries. |
1823. Tennant, Card. Beaton, I. iii. As braw a hizzie, wi’ her fardingales and her fleegaries, as ony.
Hence Fegary (also flagary), v. intr., to busy oneself about trifles in dress.
1821. H. Duncan, The Young South Country Weaver (ed. 2), 45. What did I come hame for? Was it to stan’ and look at your flagarying there?
