[f. prec. sb.]
1. † a. trans. To play the fox for; to compass by crafty means (obs.). b. intr. To play the fox, dissemble, sham. Now dial. and slang.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. liii. (1612), 239.
| Insociable, maleparte, foxing their priuate good, | |
| Exiling hence wel-neere al troth, meete sports, and neighbourhood. |
1646. R. Baillie, Lett. & Jrnls. (1841), II. 351. The Florentine and the other pettie princes are foxeing alreadie for fear.
1884. Holland, Chester Gloss., Fox, to sham.
1886. D. C. Murray, 1st Pers. Singular, xxix. He had played the fox for so many years that now to his mind everybody was dodging and foxing.
2. trans. To intoxicate, befuddle. Also (? nonce-use), to redden (one’s nose) with drinking.
1611. [Tarlton], Jests (1844), 21. Before they parted they foxt Tarlton at the Castle in Pater Noster Row.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652), 258. It [Cider] … serves as well as that, for men to fox their noses, befoole themselves, and waste their patrimony.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 26 Oct. My father and Dr. Thomas Pepys dined at my house, the last of whom I did almost fox with Margate ale.
a. 1734. North, Exam., II. iv. § 41 (1740), 251. Mr. Atkins was absent at Greenwich, and there, at an Entertainment of some Ladies, soundly foxed, the Attorney General threw up.
† b. transf. To stupefy (fish). Obs.
1656. H. More, Enthus. Triumph., 86. For ought you know, it may be onely a charm to fox fishes.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 67. Take heart-wort, and lime, mingle them together, and throw them into a standing water, and it will fox them [fishes].
1805. Sporting Mag., XXVI. June, 178/2. Two gentlemen belonging to Halifax were foxing fish in the river Calder.
† c. fig. To delude. Obs.
a. 1660. H. Peters, in South, Serm. (Bohn), I. 540. Fox them a little more with religion.
a. 1734. North, Exam., I. ii. § 115 (1740), 93. When the Faction had … once foxed the People with an ill Opinion of the Government.
† d. intr. To get drunk. Obs.
1649. Lovelace, Lucasta (1864), 8.
| But as the humble tenant, that does bring | |
| A chicke or egges for’s offering, | |
| Is tane into the buttry, and does fox | |
| Equall with him that gave a stalled oxe. |
† 3. trans. To pierce with a ‘fox’ (see FOX sb. 6).
1567. Edwards, Damon & Pithias, in Hazl., Dodsley, IV. 68. Jack. By the mass, I will box you. Will. By Cock, I will fox you.
1589. Pasquil’s Ret., Nashe’s Wks. (Grosart), I. 123. Whee brought foorth Diuinitie wyth a scratcht face, holding of her hart as if she were sicke, because Martin would have foxed her.
4. trans. To discolor (the leaves of a book). See FOXED ppl. a.
5. intr. Of beer: To turn sour in fermenting; also trans. (causatively).
1744–50. W. Ellis, Mod. Husb., II. i. 130 (E.D.S.). She … took out the wort, that she strained off through a sieve into coolers, laying it thin enough to be out of danger of foxing.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 213. In this way the fermentation may fearlessly be conducted during the warmest weather without risk of foxing.
6. trans. To repair (boots or shoes) by renewing the upper leather; also to ornament (the upper of a shoe) with a strip of leather.
1796. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), Foxing a Boot, mending the foot by capping it.
1889. Farmer, Americanisms, Fox, a shoemaker’s term, to repair boots.
7. intr. To hunt the fox. U.S.
1877. [see FOXING 1].
† 8. trans. ? To trim (a horse’s ears) in some manner. Obs.
1806. Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1807), X. 109. Since that accident, he certainly stands very awkwardly, and appears also touched in the wind, or what the jockies call a roarer. His owners are anxious to have his ears foxed; but we think he is more in need of cropping and docking.
9. Comb. † fox-mine-host (see quot. and sense 2).
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. III. ii. 194. They may afterwards play at Foxe mine Host, or some other drinking Game, at Cards or Dice for their recreation, and so wash away care.
