subs. (common).—A dilemma; frequently in conjunction with AWFUL (q.v.), and REGULAR (q.v.), e.g., AN AWFUL FIX = a terrible position. Variants are CORNERED; UP A TREE; UP A CLOSE; UNDER A CLOUD; IN A SCRAPE. Fr., avoir des mots avec les sergots = to run amuck of the police.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of St. Medard’ (ed. 1862), p. 405.
| But,—alas! and alack!— | |
| He had stuff’d her sack | |
| So full that he found himself quite ‘IN A FIX.’ |
1840. DICKENS, The Old Curiosity Shop, ch. lxi. It can’t be helped you know. He ain’t the only one in the same FIX.
1858. C. W. SHIRLEY BROOKS, The Gordian Knot, p. 88. John Claxton, what a FIX I am in. That Mrs. Spencer will never go out of town.
1864. Tangle Talk, p. 271. Just as you are in a capital FIX, exquisitely placed for being made a laughing stock, your friend will turn round upon you.
1869. E. WOOD, Roland Yorke, ch. xxi. Oh, but I could tell you of worse FIXES than that.
1789. G. PARKER, Life’s Painter. If any of us was to come in by ourselves and should happen to take a snooze you’d snitch upon us and soon have the traps FIX us.
2. (American colloquial).—A general verb of action. Everything is FIXED except the meaning of the word itself. The farmer FIXES his fences, the mechanic his work-bench, the seamstress her sewing-machine, the fine lady her hair, and the schoolboy his books. The minister has to FIX his sermon, the doctor to FIX his medicines, the lawyer to FIX his brief. Dickens was requested to ‘UN-FIX his straps’; eatables are FIXED for a meal; a girl UNFIXES herself to go to bed, and FIXES HERSELF UP to go for a walk. At public meetings it is FIXED who are to be the candidates for office; rules are FIXED to govern an institution, and when the arrangements are made the people contentedly say, ‘Now everything is FIXED nicely.’ [This use is thought by Proctor to have arisen from some confusion between ‘fingency’ and ‘fixation’: as if the word had the meaning of the Latin fingo, fingere, instead of that of the Latin figo, figere. At least there is no use of FIX in American which would not fairly represent the meaning of both.—See Transactions of the Philological Society, 1865, p. 188.] The universality of the verb is only equalled by its antiquity, for, as J. R. Lowell points out, as early as 1675, the Commissioners of the United Colonies ordered ‘their arms well FIXED and fit for service.’
TO FIX THE BALLOT BOX = to tamper with returns.
1842. DICKENS, American Notes, ch. x., p. 86. You call upon a gentleman in a country town, and his help informs you that he is FIXING himself just now, but will be down directly: by which you are to understand that he is dressing. You inquire, on board a steamboat, of a fellow-passenger, whether breakfast will be ready soon, and he tells you he should think so, for when he was last below, they were FIXING the tables; in other words, laying the cloth. You beg a porter to collect your luggage, and he entreats you not to be uneasy, for he’ll FIX IT presently, and if you complain of indisposition, you are advised to have recourse to Doctor so and so, who will FIX you in no time.
1888. Scribner’s Magazine. I do hope you’ll like everything; it’s the first time we ever took boarders, but we try to FIX things nice.
ANYHOW, or NOHOW, YOU CAN or CAN’T FIX IT.—See ANYHOW.
TO FIX ONE’S FLINT, verb. phr. (American).—‘To settle one’s hash.’ For synonyms, see COOK ONE’S GOOSE.
1835–40. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xii. Their manners are rude, overbearin’, and tyrannical. They want their FLINTS FIXED for ’em as we did last war.
