subs. (workmen’s).—A man working for a ‘Union’ or ‘fair’ house; non-Unionists are DUNG (q.v.). Both terms occur in Foote’s burlesque, The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather, and they received a fresh lease of popularity during the tailors’ strike of 1832. See quots. Cf., SCAB SOC, SNOB, SNOB-STICK, and KNOBSTICK.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. FLINTS, journeyman taylors who, on a late occasion, refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted were by the mutineers stiled dungs, i.e., dunghills.
1832. P. EGAN, Book of Sports, p. 34. Jack Reeve is without a rival—the throne of the FLINTS is decidedly freehold property to him.
1834. J. WILSON, Noctes Ambrosianæ, xxxiv., vol. IV., p. 83. (The company is discussing the tailors’ strike). TICKLER. The FLINTS flash fire, and the day of the Dungs is gone.
OLD FLINT, subs. phr. (common).—A miser: one who would ‘skin a flint,’ i.e., stoop to any meanness for a trifle.
1840. DICKENS, The Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 34. It’s equally plain that the money which the OLD FLINT—rot him—first taught me to expect that I should share with her at his death, will all be hers.
TO FIX ONE’S FLINT. See FIX.
TO FLINT IN, verb. phr. (American).—To act with energy; not to stand on ceremony; to pitch into; to tackle. A verb of action well-nigh as common as FIX (q.v.).
