Fox sb.

Also 3–7 foxe, 3, 4, 6 vox, (6 wox). [Com. Teut.: OE. fox str. masc. corresponds to Du. vos, OHG. fuhs (MHG. vuhs, mod. Ger. fuchs); the ON. fox neut., fraud, may be a different word. The OTeut. type is *fuhs-, from the same root as the feminine formation OHG. foha (MHG. vohe) vixen, fox, ON. fóa, Goth. fauhô fox, f. OTeut. *fuh-:—pre-Teut. *puk-, which some scholars plausibly connect with Skr. puccha tail.

  With regard to the Eng. and Du. o for OTeut. and HG. u before hs, cf. OE. lox = Du. los = OHG. luhs, lynx; also Du. drossaerd = OHG. truhsâȝȝo steward.]

  I.  1. An animal of the genus Vulpes, having an elongated pointed muzzle and long bushy tail. Usually V. vulgaris, preserved in England and elsewhere as a beast of the chase.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, lxii[i]. 11 [10]. Sien sald in hond sweordes daelas foxa bioð.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 294. Nimeð & keccheð us, leofmon, anon þe ȝunge uoxes.

a. 1300.  Vox & Wolf, 208, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 65.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 7151 (Cott.). Thre hundreth fox he samun knitt.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XIX. 663.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, F vj b. A skulke of ffoxis.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxix. § 16. As if the world did hat onely Woolues and thinke the Foxe a goodly creature.

1674.  N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., 1. (1677), 8. Fox … is called the first year, a Cub. The second year, a Fox, and afterwards an old Fox.

1718.  Prior, Knowledge, 210.

1835.  A. Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837), III. 245. If the esteem and confidence of the people were made as much a pursuit as a stinking fox’s brush, sure we are that we should have no reason to complain of the indolence and backwardness of the aristocracy.

1870.  Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 266. The red fox of America is ferruginous in colour.

  b.  with allusion to its artfulness and cunning.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 195. Þe fox þe mid his wrenches walt oðer deor and haueð his wille þerof.

a. 1634.  Randolph, Ode, 64.

1735.  Somerville, The Chace, III. 23.

1791.  Burns, 3rd Ep. R. Graham, 17.

  c.  in various proverbial expressions.

c. 1450.  Henryson, Mor. Fab., 29. Aye runnes the Foxe as long as hee feete hes.

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 10. Let furth youre geyse, the fox wille preche.

1539.  Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 27. An olde foxe is not taken in a snare.

1545.  Brinklow, Compl., xxiv. H v. As y^u mayest knowe a foxe by his furred taile.

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 153. When the foxe preacheth, then beware our geese.

1607.  T. Walkington, The Optick Glasse of Humors, 38. As a Fox is knowne by his bush, a Lion by his paw, an Asse by his eares, a Goate by his beard, so easily may a man be discerned, I meane the excellency of his soule by the beauty of his body, the endowments of the former by the complements of the latter.

1662.  Pepys, Diary, 26 Dec. We shall endeavour to joyne the lyon’s skin to the fox’s tail.

  d.  Phrases: † To catch, hunt the fox: to get drunk. To flay the fox: see FLAY v. 6. To play (the) fox: (a) to act cunningly, (b) to sham. † To smell a fox: to be suspicious.

1599.  Minsheu, Span. Dial., 19. Whosoeuer loues good wine, hunts the foxe once a yeere.

1611.  Middleton & Dekker, Roaring Girle, I. D.’s Wks. 1873, II. 145. Seb. Now I do smell a fox strongly.

1647.  Ward, The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America, 6. Remember how Tiberius play’d the Fox with the Senate of Rome, and how Fabius Maximus cropt his ears for his cunning.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Fox.… He has caught a Fox, he is very Drunk.

1894.  Crockett, Raiders, xxxix. 282. I played fox several times, pretending to be in pain, which with one harder-hearted than May was a game which would soon have spoiled itself.

  2.  fig. A man likened for craftiness to a fox.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Luke xiii. 32. Gað & secȝað þam foxe, deofol-seocnessa ic utadrife.

1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VI. (an. 31), 164 b. This auncient Fox, and pollitique Capitayne lost not one houre … till [etc.].

1712.  Arbuthnot, John Bull, I. iv. Don’t you see how that old fox steals away your customers, and turns you out of your business every day, and you sit like an idle drone with your hands in your pockets?

1851.  Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xlix. 309. I could not help reflecting on the strange stratagem by which the old fox [Rube] had saved himself.

  b.  ? Used as adj.: Fox-like, cunning.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 6646.

a. 1300.  Long Life, in O. E. Misc., 156. Fox and ferlich is his wren[c]h.

  3.  The fur of the fox.

1501.  Bury Wills (Camden), 88. My tawney gown furryd w^t ffoxe.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., III. ii. 9. A fur’d gowne to keepe him warme; and furd with Foxe and Lamb-skins too, to signifie, that craft being richer then Innocency, stands for the facing.

1882.  Beck, Draper’s Dict., Fox.… Of this fur there are several varieties, the red, cross, arctic, sooty or blue, and black or silver fox.

  4.  One of the northern constellations (Vulpecula).

1868.  Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 398. Situated between the constellations of the Swan and the Fox.

  5.  Some beast or fish likened to a fox, esp. the gemmeous dragonet (Callionymus lyra), called also fox-fish. Flying-fox, Sea-fox: see those words.

1611.  Cotgr., Spase … sea-fox, or fox dog-fish.

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxiv. 169. Some are called the Fox, the Dog, the Sparrow, or Frog-fish.

1769.  Pennant, Zool., III. 311. These fish [carp] are extremely cunning, and on that account are by some styled the river fox.

1836.  Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, I. 302. Fox … The common Skulpin.

  b.  Short for fox-moth (see 16 b).

  II.  Senses of obscure development.

  † 6.  A kind of sword. Obs.

  It has been conjectured that this use arose from the figure of a wolf, on certain sword-blades, being mistaken for a fox.

1599.  Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt. (Percy Soc.), 60. Nay, mistres, I had a sword, I, the flower of Smithfield for a sword, a right fox, i faith.

1633.  Ford, Love’s Sacr., V. ii. Take my sword in your hand; ’tis none of the sprucest, but ’tis a tough fox will not fail his master, come what will come.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., iv. ‘Come, come, comrade,’ said Lambourne, ‘here is enough done, and more than enough, put up your fox, and let us be jogging.’

  7.  Brewing. (see quot.) Cf. FOX v. 5.

1750.  W. Ellis, Country Housewife, 377. Thus you will deliver yourself from that poisonous Damage, called in great Brewhouses the Fox, which gives the Drink a sickish nasty Taste, and a very unwholesome Quality.

  8.  Naut. (see quots. 1769, 1815).

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Fox a sort of strand, formed by twisting several rope-yarns together, and used as a seizing, or to weave a mat or paunch, &c.

1815.  Falconer’s Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Spanish Fox, a single rope-yarn untwisted, and then twisted up the contrary way and rubbed smooth. It is used for small seizings.

1833.  Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 38. Mr. Jenkins desired the other men to get half-a-dozen foxes and make a spread eagle of me.

c. 1860.  H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 27. How do you make a fox? By taking any number of yarns of any length, twisting them up together, and then rubbing them down.

  9.  A drain carried under another water-course by means of a tunnel. Cf. FOX v. 3.

1784.  M. Weighton Drainage Award, 13. The Fox made under the canal.

  10.  See quot. Also FOX-TAIL.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 912/1. Fox-bolt. A description of bolt which is made tight by a fox or wedge driven into a split in the end.

  11.  pl. A variety of ironstone, dial.

1793–1813.  A. Young, Agric. Surv. Sussex 13 (E.D.S.).

  12.  slang. An artificial sore.

1862.  Mayhew & Binny, Criminal Prisons Lond., 305. Daring youths, who winced not at pain, were constantly in the habit of making ‘foxes’ (artificial sores), and then, by an adroit fall, or an intentional contact with the revolving tread-wheel, would writhe and gesticulate to give colour to their deception.

  13.  In U.S. Colleges: A freshman. Cf. Ger. fuchs.

1839.  Longf., Hyperion, II. iv. (1865), 77. A procession of new comers, or Nasty-Foxes, as they are called in the college dialect, entered two by two, looking wild, and green, and foolish.

1847.  Yale Lit. Mag., Jan., XII. 116. ‘Halloo there, Herdman, fox!’ yelled another lusty tippler.

  † 14.  ? = FOXGLOVE 1. Obs.

1684.  trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., XIV. 473. Bathes wherein proper Herbs, especially Foxes, have been boiled are very good.

  III.  attrib. and Comb.

  15.  a. simple attrib., as fox-bitch, -burrow, -cover, -craft, -cub, -earth, -head, (used attributively); (used for taking the fox), as fox-gin, -trap; (sense 6), as fox-blade, -broadsword.

a. 1611.  Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, IV. i. When my *fox-bitch Beauty grows proud, I’ll borrow him.

c. 1640.  [Shirley], Capt. Underwit, I. in Bullen, O. Pl., II. 321. Un. An old *fox blade made at Hounsloe heath.

1826.  Scott, Woodst., i. As if ye should know something of a good *fox broad-sword.

1550.  Wilson, Logike (1567), 37 a. The huntesman in hunting the foxe, will sone espie when he seeth a hole, whether it be a *Foxe borough, or not.

1831.  Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 371. His landlord dies; and is succeeded by an heir who has no care for Swing, and turns his farm into a *fox-cover.

1654.  Vilvain, Epit. Ess., IV. xcii. 87. Two fals Scotsh Earls of *Fox-craft fraud composed.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iii. Through Uffington-wood to watch the *fox cubs playing in the green rides.

1530.  Palsgr., 222/2. *Foxe erthe, taisniere.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 141. The hanging coppice, where the lily of the valley grows so plentifully amongst broken ridges and fox-earths, and the roots of pollard-trees.

1669.  J. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 216. Also you may place small Iron-gins, about the breadth of ones hand, made like a *Fox-gin, and baited with raw Flesh, whereby I have caught very large Hawks.

1852.  R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, xviii. (1893), 88. He put on a desperately stiff starcher, secured in front with a large gold fox-head pin with carbuncle eyes.

1605.  B. Jonson, Volpone, V. iii. Let his sport pay for ’t. This is Call’d the *Fox-trap.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. v. 53. We found other traces of Esquimaux, both on Littleton Island, and in Shoal-Water Cove, near it. They consisted of huts, graves, places of deposit for meat, and rocks arranged as foxtraps.

  b.  objective, as fox-follower, -stealer, -worship; fox poisoning vbl. sb.

1781.  Cowper, Conversat., 409.

1890.  Daily News, 7 July, 3/8. Attempts at fox-poisoning.

1852.  R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, liii. (1893), 284. A public supper given by the poachers and *fox-stealers of the village.

1880.  Miss Bird, Japan, I. 71. Among the many shrines is an Inari or Fox temple, *fox-worship being one of the most universal superstitions in Japan.

  c.  parasynthetic, as fox-nosed, -visaged adjs.

1889.  Century Dict., s.v. The lemurs called fox-nosed monkeys.

1892.  A. Murdoch, Yoshiwara Episode, 41. English Jacks elbowed their way through throngs of pig-tailed Chinamen, here and there jabbering and chaffering and cheapening the wares the *fox-visaged, bullet-headed gyn kept on crying and extolling and thrusting upon the favourable notice of this huge Japanese Vanity Fair.

  16.  Special comb., as fox-beagle, a beagle used for fox-hunting; fox-bench, ‘indurated sand’ (Chesh. Gloss.); fox-bolt (see quot.); fox-brush, the tail of a fox, used similatively; † fox-case, the skin of a fox; fox-chase, (a) = FOX-HUNT: (b) a game in imitation of this, also attrib.; fox-color, a reddish-yellow color, whence fox-colored adj.; † fox-court, a place or yard in which foxes may be kept; fox-dog, a fox-hound; † fox-drunk a. (see quot.); fox-evil, ‘a disease in which the hair falls off’ (1842, Johnson, Farmer’s Encycl.), alopecia (see also 16 e); † fox-hen, ? a payment of a hen for the maintenance of fox-hunting; foxhound, a superior variety of hound trained and used for fox-hunting; fox-key (see quot.); † fox-lungs, some medicinal preparation; fox-mould, a name given to green sand when colored by an oxide of iron; fox-skin, the skin of a fox, also attrib.; fox-sleep, a pretended sleep; † fox-stones pl., (a) the testicles of a fox; (b) an old name for Orchis mascula; fox-terrier, one of a breed of short-haired terriers, used for unearthing foxes, but kept chiefly as pets; fox-trot, a pace with short steps, as in changing from trotting to walking; fox-wedge (see quot.); † fox-whelp, (a) a cub of the fox (used also as a term of contempt); (b) some kind of drink; fox-wood (see quot.; cf. FOX-FIRE).

1676.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1108/4. A black *Fox Beagle Bitch.

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), II. 155. Geology brings to mind here all the connexion of ideas of *fox-bench, with the denudation of forests, coal-beds, iron, fresh water piscatory exuviæ, and so forth—the consistency of Natue in all her works.

1874.  *Fox-bolt [see sense 10].

1891.  Daily News, 1 June, 2/5. Some large tails of *fox-brush orchids.

1610.  Guillim, Heraldry, III. xxiii. (1611), 170. Where the Lion’s skin is too scant it must bee peeced out with a *fox case.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, II. ii. You old fox-case.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Praise Poverty, Wks. 1730, I. 98. A kind of *Fox-chace pleasure, where the quarry is thrown away, after all the fatigue of the pursuit, to the hazard of neck or limbs.

1732.  Pope, Ep. Cobham, 73.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xiii. 145. I offered a prize to-day of a Guernsey shirt to the man who held out longest in a ‘fox-chase’ round the decks.

1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants, IV. 193. Gills white, in pairs: pileus *fox colour, convex.

1641.  H. Best, Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641 (Surtees), 84. *Foxecoloured lambes, whose woll in five or sixe moneths turneth white.

1879.  Rood, Chromatics, iv. 45. We frequently meet with pale grey or white deepening into a fox-coloured yellow, followed by a red-violet, brightening into a sea-green dashed with pure ultramarine.

1781.  P. Beckford, Hunting, 301. If you breed up cubs, you will find a *fox-court necessary: they should be kept there till they are large enough to take care of themselves.

1708.  Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xliv. (1737), 178. He swallows ome of your Badger’s or *Fox-Dogs, by the way of pills and boluses.

1592.  Nashe, P. Pennilesse, Wks. (Grosart), II. 82. The eighth [kind of drunkenness] is *Fox drunke, when he is craftie drunke, as manie of the Dutchmen bee, [that] will neuer bargaine but when they are drunke.

1659.  Torriano, Alopecia, the falling or shedding of a mans hair through foul diseases, called the *Fox-evil.

1528.  Sir R. Weston, in Dillon, Calais & Pale (1892), 93. He hath of every householde that hath hennes a henne by name of the *foxe henne, for the w^ch he ys lykewyse bownde to hunt the foxe.

a. 1763.  Shenstone, Œcon., I. 94.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 912/1. *Fox-key. (Machinery.) A split-cotter with a thin wedge of steel driven into the end to prevent its working back.

1660.  Act 12 Chas. II., c. 4. Rates Inwards, [In List of Drugs] *Fox lungs the pound iiis.

1807.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 41–2. The uncultivated parts of these parishes are formed of a moist peaty earth on a reddish brown clay, highly retentive of water, and commonly called *fox mould.

1598.  Hakluyt, Voy., I. 71. The Emperours mother, who gaue vnto eche of vs a gowne made of *Foxe-skinnes, with the furre on the outside.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. App. xi. 311. We adopted as nearly as we could the habits of the natives, burning lamps for heat, dressing in fox-skin clothing, and relying for our daily supplies on the success of organized hunting-parties.

1596.  Lodge, Margarite Amer. (1876), 30. Entring Arsadachus chamber, [they] found him in his *foxe sleepe.

1623.  Hexham, Tongue-Combat, Ep. Ded. 3. Will not awaken form that stupide Lethargie, or reserued Foxe sleepe of Policie, wherein they lye bed-rid, to be as couragious for Truth, as other men are for lyes, in this Age of Atheisme.

1597.  Gerard, Herball, I. cxiii. (1633), 212. There be divers sorts of *Fox-stones.

1604.  Marston & Webster, Malcontent, II. ii. Look ye, crab’s guts baked, distilled ox-pith, the pulverized hairs of a lion’s upper-lip, jelly of cock-sparrows, he-monkey’s marrow, or powder of fox-stones?

1823.  Byron, Juan, VII. xxiv.

1888.  H. S. Edwards, An Idyl of ‘Sinkin’ Mount’in,’ in Century Mag., XXXVI. Oct., 897/2. As the girl stood in brown reverie before the fragment of glass she heard a horse approaching at a *fox-trot.

1888.  Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. (ed. 3), *Fox-wedge, a long wedge driven between two other wedges with their thick ends placed in the opposite direction.

c. 1320.  Sir Beues, 1733. Aȝilt þe, a seide, þow *fox welp.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., IV. pr. iii. 78. Yif he be a preuey awaytor I-hidd and reioyseth him to rauisshe by wyles, þou shalt seyn him lyke to the fox whelpes.

1837.  Southey, Doctor, VI. Interch., xvi. 382. Fox-whelp, a beverage as much better than Champagne, as it is honester, wholesomer, and cheaper.

1889.  Century Dict., *Fox-wood … decayed Wood, especially such as emits a phosphorescent light [U.S.].

  b.  esp. in names of animals, etc. having a real or fancied resemblance to the fox, as † fox-ape, ? the opossum; fox-bat = FLYING FOX; fox-fish, see FOX sb. 5; fox-lynx, a variety of lynx; fox-moth, a greyish-brown European bombycid moth (Lasiocampa rubi); fox-shark, the sea-fox (Alopias vulpes); fox-snake, a large harmless snake of the United States (Coluber vulpinus); fox-sparrow, a North American sparrow (Passerella iliaca); fox-squirrel, a North American squirrel (Sciurus cinereus. S. niger, etc.).

1594.  Blundevil, Exerc., V. (ed. 7), 570. Gesner calleth this beast an Ape-foxe, or a *Foxe-ape.

1834.  Caunter, Oriental Annual, xiv. 187. The *fox-bat bustled from his covert among the tombs, and, spreading his broad leathern wings upon the still calm air, disturbed the holy silence by the flutter of his featherless pinions as he sailed heavily along through the gathering gloom.

1862.  H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 439. The Räflo, or fox-lynx, the smallest [of three varieties], of a soft reddish-white fur.

1828.  Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 385. C. vuples, Cuv. The *Fox Shark. Body lead-coloured, whitish beneath; head short and conical; upper lobe of the tail as long as the body.

1869.  J. Burroughs, in Galaxy Mag. (N. V.), Aug. The *fox-sparrow … comes to us in the fall.

1791.  W. Bartram, Carolina, 283. The great black *fox squirrel is above two feet in length fron the nose to the end of the tail, which for about two inches is milk white, as are the ears and nose.

1844.  Gosse, in Zoologist, II. 707. In the yard were some towering oaks, on which several fox squirrels (Sciurus capistratus) were frisking and leaping from bough to bough with great animation.

  c.  in plant-names, as fox-bane, a species of monkshood (Aconitum Vulparia); fox-berry = BEARBERRY; fox-chop (see quot.); fox-finger(s = FOXGLOVE; fox-geranium, -grass, herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum); fox-grape, a name for several North American species of wild grapes. Also FOXGLOVE, FOXTAIL.

1840.  Paxton, Bot. Dict., *Foxbane.

1866.  Treas. Bot., *Fox-chop. Mesembryanthemum vulpinum.

1657.  W. Coles, Adam in Eden, lxvii. 126. It hath no other name in English, that I know, but Foxgloves, unlesse some call it *Foxfinger.

1657.  R. Austen, A Treatise of Fruit-Trees, I. 59. The *Fox Grape is a faire large Fruit, and a very great bearer.

1683.  Penn, Wks. (1782), IV. 302. The great red grape now ripe) called by ignorance, ‘The fox-grape,’ (because of the relish it hath with unskilful palates) is in itself an extraordinary grape, and by art, doubtless, may be cultivated to an excellent wine.

1840.  Lowell, Biglow P., Poet. Wks. (1879), 176. He had never seen a sweet-water on a trellis growing so fairly, or in forms so pleasing to his eye, as a fox-grape over a scrub-oak in a swamp.

  d.  in the names of various games in which one of the players acts as a fox, as fox and geese, a game played on a board with pegs, draughtsmen or the like; fox and hounds, a boys’ game, in which the ‘hounds’ chase the ‘fox’; † fox in or to the or thy hole (see quote.)

1633.  Marmion, Fine Companion, II. v. Let him sit in the shop with ne’er a pair of cuffs on his hands, and play at *fox and geese with the foreman.

1856.  Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, IX. Poems, 1890, VI. 351.

1821.  Clare, The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, II. 37.

1585.  Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 298/1. A kinde of playe, wherein boyes lift vp one leg, and hop on the other: it is called *fox in thy hole.

1648.  Herrick, Hesper., New Yeares Gift (1869), 134.

1783.  Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), VI. Discoliasmus, Children’s play, called Fox to thy hole.

  e.  with genitive fox’s, as fox’s cough (see quot.); † foxes evil = fox-evil; fox’s foot, a kind of grass (Dactylis glomerata L.); in early use, perh. Sparganium simplex; fox’s tail (see FOXTAIL).

1611.  Cotgr., Toux de regnard, the *Foxes cough; a rooted, or old-growne cough, which waits on a man to his graue.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 379. The same also being mingled with a certaine oyle and warmed together, and anointed vpon the head of any one, whose haire doth shed, or is troubled with the Foxes euill, doth immediatly helpe and cure the same.

1671.  H. M., trans. Colloq. Erasm., 134. The foxes evil (falling off of the hair) had made him almost quite bald.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., I. 150. Genim þysse wyrte wyrttruman þe man … *foxesfot nemneð.

1853.  Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., I. 216. Dactylis glomerata.… Fox’s-foot, which the clustered panicle somewhat resembles.