slang, trans. To strike or beat, to deliver blows in quick succession upon, as in pugilism. To fib about: to knock about. Also absol. or intr.
1655. R. Head, Eng. Rogue, iv. 32. Fib, to beat.
1692. Coles, Fib, to beat.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Fib, Fib the cove’s quarron in the rumpad for the lour in his bung, beat the fellow in the highway for the money in his purse.
1808. Sporting Mag., XXXII. May, 77/1. Gully changed his front, fibbed him, and kept him from falling, until he had ruffianed him into an apparent senseless state. Ibid. (1811), XXXIX. Oct., 18–9. Crib had again nobbed him, he got his head under the left arm, and fibbed until Molineux fell.
1831. The Mirror, XVII. 247/1. If two men choose to stand up and fib each other about (saying nothing of the practice), why let them do it.
1865. G. F. Berkeley, My Life, I. 311. As there was no room to hit out, in the phraseology of the ring, I ‘fibbed’ at half-a-dozen waistcoats and faces with all my might and main.
fig. 1811. Southey, Lett. (1856), II. 236. As you will see in the ‘Quarterly,’ where I have fibbed the ‘Edinburgh’ (as the ‘fancy’ say) most completely, showing it as little mercy as it deserves at my hands.
1830. De Quincey, Bentley, Wks. VII. 90. Here, again, Bentley got Bishop Greene under his arm, and ‘fibbed’ him cruelly.
Hence Fibbing vbl. sb., the action of the vb., an instance of this. Also attrib.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Fibbing-gloak, a pugilist; fibbing-match, a boxing-match.
1814. Sporting Mag., XLIV. 72. Oliver got at the fibbing system.
1816. Times, 25 Jan. Explain the terms … fibbing—cross buttock … hang up—and—prime.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Bagman’s Dog.
| —I say, could I borrow these Gentlemen’s Muses, | |
| More skill’d than my meek one in ‘fibbings’ and bruises. |
