To make a success, good or bad.
1834. A chap would make a blue fist of takin a dead aim through double sights, with the butt end of a psalm in his guzzle.—Caruthers, ‘The Kentuckian in New-York,’ i. 25.
1838. He reckoned he should make a better fist at farming than edicating.—Caroline Gilman, ‘Recollections of a Southern Matron,’ p. 46.
1841. You made a poor fist of this business.—W. G. Simms, ‘The Kinsmen,’ ii. 24 (Phila.).
1880. Mrs. Burton is really making a pretty fist at a salon.—W. D. Howells, ‘The Undiscovered Country,’ p. 87. (N.E.D.)
