subs. (rhyming slang).—Lies. Hence, nonsense; trickery; deceit.
THERE ARE NO FLIES ON ME, ON HIM, etc., phr. (common).—‘I am dealing honestly with you’; ‘he is genuine, and is not humbugging.’ In America, the expression is used of (1) a man of quick parts, a man who ‘knows a thing without its being kicked into him by a mule’; and (2) a person of superior breeding or descent. Sometimes the phrase is corrupted into ‘no fleas.’ See GAMMON.
1868. DIPROSE, Some Account of the Parish of Saint Clement Danes, Past and Present, 98. To Deaf Burke, the celebrated pugilist, is attributed the old story of the ‘flies and the gin-and-water,’ and hence the term ‘no flies’ became prevalent. Burke had ordered …. some hot and strong and a dash of lemon. ‘The goblet was brought … Burke raised … the mortal nectar to his lips and beheld some dissipated flies lying at the bottom of the tumbler; he placed the glass on the table and deliberately removed the flies with the spoon, five or six in number, and laid them side by side before him, and then giving a hearty pull at the gin-and-water, he as deliberately replaced the flies …. and passed it to his friend. His companion stared angrily: ‘Do you dare insult me, and in the presence of company?’ said the irate vis-a-vis. ‘Pardon me,’ replied Burke, quietly handing the glass a second time—‘tho’ I don’t drink flies myself, I didn’t know but what others might.’
1888. Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug. THERE AIN’T NO FLIES ON HIM, signifies, that he is not quiet long enough for moss to grow on his heels, that he is wide awake.
1888. Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. People who are capable of descending to New York and Boston English are fully justified in saying that THERE ARE NO FLIES ON ST. LOUIS or the St. Louis delegation either.
