slang. [Of obscure origin. There appears to be some ground for regarding it as a variant of the older FEAK, FEAGUE, which are prob. ad. Ger. fegen (or the equivalent Du. or LG.) to furbish up, clean, sweep.
In Rowland’s Martin Mark-all 1610, a feager of loges is explained as meaning ‘one who begs with false documents’ (cf. to fake a screeve); and the modern fake away appears to correspond to the earlier feague it away. The colloquial and jocular uses of the Ger. fegen closely resemble the senses mentioned in quot. 1812: amongst those given by Grimm are ‘to clear out, plunder’ (a chest, purse: cf. to fake a cly), ‘to torment, ill treat.’]
1. trans. In thieves’ or vagrants’ language: To perform any operation upon; to ‘do,’ ‘do for’; to plunder, wound, kill; to do up, put into shape; to tamper with, for the purpose of deception. In the last-mentioned application it has latterly come into wider colloquial use, esp. with reference to the ‘cooking’ or dressing-up of news, reports, etc., for the press. Also, To fake up.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v. To fake any person or place, to rob them; to fake a person may also imply to shoot, wound, or cut; to fake a man out and out, is to kill him; a man who inflicts wounds upon, or otherwise disfigures, himself, for any sinister purpose, is said to have faked himself; if a man’s shoe happens to pinch or gall his foot, he will complain that his shoe fakes his foot sadly … to fake your slangs, is to cut your irons in order to escape from custody; to fake your pin, is to create a sore leg, or to cut it, as if accidentally … in hopes … to get into the doctor’s list, &c.; to fake a screeve is to write any letter or other paper; to fake a screw, is to shape out a skeleton or false key, for the purpose of screwing a particular place; to fake a cly is to pick a pocket.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 352. The ring is made out of brass gilt buttons, and stunning well: it ’s faked up to rights, and takes a good judge even at this day to detect it without a test.
1874. Punch, 7 March, 98/1. Pr’aps he’d a come to you with him [a horse] faked up for sale.
1885. Sporting Times, 23 May, 1/3. The chorister fair … Faked herself up.
1885. H. P. Grattan, in The Stage, 10 July. A pair of shoes to fake the patchey (Anglice play the harlequin).
1885. Spectator, 24 Jan., 119/2. Nine pictures out of ten in modern galleries are simply studies—‘faked up.’
1887. Times, 30 July, 5/5. He now knew that … these diamonds were ‘faked.’
1888. Phonetic Jrnl., 7 Jan., 4/2. ‘Faking’ in newzpaper fraze meanz … the supplying … ov unimportant detailz which may serv an exsellent purpos in the embellishment ov a despatch.
1888. ‘Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, xvii. (1890), 121, The [horse-]brand had been ‘faked’ or cleverly altered.
2. absol. or intr. To steal (? only a literary misapprehension); also in fake away (see quots.).
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Fake away, there’s no down … go on with your operations, there is no sign of any alarm or detection.
1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, III. v., ‘Jerry Juniper’s Chaunt.’
| And my father, as I’ve heard say, | |
| Fake away, | |
| Was a merchant of capers gay, | |
| Who cut his last fling with great applause, | |
| Nix my doll palls, fake away. |
1860. Reade, Cloister & H., III. iv. 82. They molest not beggars, unless they fake to boot, and then they drown us out of hand.
Hence Faked ppl. a.; Faking vbl. sb.; Faker, one who ‘fakes’ (cf. CLY-FAKER); Fakery, the practice of ‘faking.’
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Lay St. Aloys.
| Nought is waking | |
| Save Mischief and ‘Faking.’ |
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, II. iii. 29. We never calls them thieves here, but prigs and fakers.
1872. Morning Post, 7 Nov., 3/1. Since the ‘faking’ of the scales in Catch-’em-Alive’s year.
1885. Daily Tel., 1 Aug., 2. ‘I’ve turned faker of dolls and doll’s furniture.’
1886. Bicycling News, 11 June, 536/2. What has been termed a ‘faked’ machine.
1887. The Saturday Review, LXIII. 9 Jan., 70/2. The gold and vellum binding with the orange-tinted edges form a pretty piece of ‘fakery.’
1892. A. C. Doyle, Advent. S. Holmes, xiii. in Strand Mag., IV. No. 24. 657/2. I found him [the horse] in the hands of a faker.
