slang. [Belongs to FAKE v.2]
1. An act of ‘faking’; a contrivance, ‘dodge,’ trick, invention; a ‘faked’ or ‘cooked’ report.
1827. Maginn, in Blackwood’s Magazine.
| And the fogle-hunters doing, | |
| Tol lol, &c. | |
| Their morning FAKE in the prigging lay. |
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), I. 223. After that we had a fine ‘fake’—that was the fire of the Tower of London—it sold rattling.
1885. Punch, 31 Jan., 60. If I worked the theatrical fake—which I don’t.
1887. Financ. News, 24 March, 1/4. D … is generally regarded as the father of the testimonial fake.
1891. Pall Mall G., 28 July, 6/2. The abominable fakes … telegraphed to the papers by the agencies.
attrib. 1892. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 9 June, 10/2, heading. Another Fake Interview Denounced.
2. A composition used for ‘faking’ (see quots.).
1866. Islington Guardian, 3 April, 3/3. [Condensed milk sold to dealers to be watered down and retailed as new milk] is known in the trade under the name of ‘Fake.’
1880. Gee, Goldsmith’s Handbk., x. (ed. 2), 140. Soft-soldering Fluid bears various names in the different workshops, such as ‘monkey,’ ‘fake.’
