Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) a minor newspaper.

[1889		Windsor & Richmond Gaz. (NSW) 7 Dec. 3/3: [T]here was a paper called ‘Paddy Kelly’s Budget,’ [...] a scurrillous production which contained nothing but personalities [...] It frequently came out with a fly-blister of a woodcut, representative of nothing in particular, though the local artist generally managed to label it [...] ‘The Execution of the latest murderer’].
1896–9		H. Lawson ‘The Hero of Redclay’ in Roderick (1972) 295: A Parliamentary push that owned some city fly-blisters and country papers sent him up to edit the Advertiser.
1907		Peak Hill Exp. (NSW) 12 Apr. 17/1: This is how the Molong Argus uncorks the vial of its abuse on a Gobar con temporary publication: — 'A blotchy looking journalistic fly-blister . . a horror-stricken nightmareish-looking sheet, made up of quack advertisements and clippings, interspersed with, half a dozen very original paragraphs printed in execrable English and thick ink.

(Aus.) treacle, jam.

1918		Aussie (France): Aus. Soldiers’ Mag. Feb. 6/2: ‘Back in the waggon lines we get butter, rooty, rice an’ flybog, but ’ere on the dump, if yer get butter yer don’t get fly bog, an’ if yer get flybog yer don’t get butter’.
1923		Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld) 6 Jan. 7/3: A meal which consisted [...] of porridge, flybog and tea.
1931		Sydney Mail 14 Oct. 2/4: You'll find some more damper in there, flybog, cocky’s joy, bullocky’s delight, axle grease, and a bit o’ junk. That day we had some doughboys and ‘underground mutton’.
1944		J. Devanny By Tropic Sea and Jungle 214: Sometimes you take a tin of fly-bog (treacle) with you as a luxury.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 27: Not even a tin of fly-bog of a Sunday tea – that’s if they had jam in them days.
1986		(con. early 1950s) J. Pilger Heroes 36: They would also try their best not to describe jam as ‘flybog’ and a shop assistant at David Jones's department store as a ‘counter jumper’ [etc.].

the vagina.

1879		‘Sub-Umbra, or Sport among the She-Noodles’ in Pearl 3 Sept. 2: La! Polly has got no hair on her fly trap yet.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

1. a gawping fool [his open mouth].

1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 103: The bunsellers or cake-makers [...] did injure them most outrageously, calling them [...] ninnie-hammer fly-catchers [...] and other such like defamatory epithets.
1801		G. Hangar Life, Adventures and Opinions II 59: Ye lovely Cyprians, never hire a young fly-catching foot-boy [...] but keep a stout, sturdy young fellow.

2. the vagina [see prev.].

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

1. a currant cake.

1915		Watchman (Sydney) 12 Aug. 3/3: [I]nstead of asking for a sausage roll, ‘Tommy’ will call for a ‘torpedo,’ a twopenny meat pie is known as a ‘shell,’ and a currant cake is a ‘fly cemetery’.
1923		St George Call (Kogarah, NSW) 5 Oct. 3/6: ‘Yes, we will have no bananas’ at the Ref’s Outing, but there will be fly-cemeteries and cocoanut dough-nuts.

2. a pastry square filled with mincemeat.

1921		Fort Scott Dly Trib. (KS) 16 Aug. 5/2: I cannot decide what of all the many [Scottish] cakes and goodies I like best, but think it is the ‘Fly Cemetary’ .
1970		Partridge DSUE (7th edn) 1141: since ca. 1945.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 46/1: fly cemetery dried fruit mix in pastry sandwich, usually currants, sometimes called a squashed fly cemetery if sultanas; in English boarding schools a currant pudding.
1990		Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI) 9 Nov. D6/4: ‘Fly Cemetery,’ the New Zealand name for raisin pie.
1991		M. Binchy Circle of Friends 173: Could the thought of my company [...] and the distinct possibility that I would buy you a coffee and a fly cemetery make you change your mind?
1999		M. Lipman Lip Reading 118: Already we were back in the dinner queue, the only difference being it was chicken and fruit salad instead of tinned mince and fly cemetery.
1999		Baltimore Sun (MD) 22 Sept. F1/4: [Scottish food feature] A fruit slice (raisins, currants and crushed almonds between two layers of sugar-sprinkled pastry) known as a ‘fly cemetery’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2010		News Jrnl (Wilmington, DE) 22 Sept. 27/1: Fly Cemetery. Dolly wrote, ‘I just love this recipe’ which originated in Scotland. The ‘flies’ can be currants, rasins or both.

3. (N.Z.) a raisin biscuit.

1980		L. Leland Personal Kiwi-Yankee Dict.
1988		N. Virtue Then Upon the Evil Season 104: Pita ate another fly cemetery. Then he sat, looking queasy.

4. steamed pudding with currants.

1963

New Society 22 Aug. 37/2: The well-known fly cemetery and frogspawn are still ok – descriptions of currant puddings and tapioca.

5. (Irish) a currant bun.

2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Fly Cemetery (n): currant bun.
2005		Y. Collins Introducing Vivian Leigh Reid 30: ‘Try the fly cemetery,’ he suggests. I stare into his eyes, transfixed, before offering this conversational gem: ‘What?’ ‘The currant buns,’ he says.

the fists.

1904		A. Binstead in Sporting Times 16 July 4/3: You can make more with yer fly-dusters in one night at Wonderland than you can in a month o’ Saturdays in Goswell Road.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 160: Our chauffeur [...] entertains the idea that he can ‘go a bit with his fly-dusters’.

a heavy club.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(Aus.) the small pieces of cork suspended from a hat to ward off flies.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang.

(S.Afr. black) methylated spirits.

1985

Pace Sept. n.p.: Have you heard that Ai-ai or flymachine is gaining popularity once more in the townships [...] it is on the verge of overtaking the concoction (mbamba) [...] current drinkers of Flymachine have forgiven it for killing seven old ladies [...]. who took too much Ai-ai [...]. Flymachine is the blue methylated spirits [DSAE].

(US) a contemptible person.

1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 8/1: Fly paper – A fellow who sticks around to catch something.
1927		B. Cormack Racket Act III: Orders, flypaper! I’ll give the orders tonight.

see squashed flies n.

a bald head.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

a member of the Life Guards; thus a cavalryman.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Fly slicers, life guard men, from their sitting on horse-back, under an arch, where they are frequently observed to drive away flies with their swords.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

see separate entry .

(Aus.) oxtail stew.

1959

Baker Drum.

1. the mouth, esp. a large one [note trap n.¹ (5)].

1797		M.G. Lewis in Sporting Mag. June X 174/1: The bride shuts her fly trap; the stranger complies.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 121: The Arrah Nows, with their fly-traps open, wou’d toss in a plum.
1843		N.Y. Sporting Whip 4 Mar. n.p.: You gave that fly-trap of yours such a twist.
1848		E. Bennett Mike Fink 9/1: Jest keep that ugly fly-trap o’ yourn shut.
1851		‘How Sally Hooter Got Snake-Bit’ in T.A. Burke Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 71: I shut up my fly trap, an’ lay low an’ kep dark!
1862		J.A. Hardwick ‘Cheap John’ Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 50: Shut up your fly-traps and listen to Cheap John.
1881		Sacramento Dly Record (CA) 24 Dec. 1/1: ‘Pass the coffin varnish this way, Lieutenant.’ [...] ‘Coffin vanrish indade. I’d have you understand...’ ‘Oh, shut up that fly-trap’.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 25: If I’d knowed you was Bill Roberts there wouldn’t been a peep from my fly-trap.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 25: You keep your fly-trap shut, my fine fellow.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1965		W. Alfred Hogan’s Goat I iv: A Lutheran lawyer with a fly-trap mouth.
1977		T. Berger Who is Teddy Villanova? 10: ‘Shut your fucking flytrap,’ he growled.
1982		M. Braun Judas Tree (1983) 27: Close your flytrap and make tracks.

2. an inferior, prob. corrupt gambling club or casino.

1827

Guards 51: [T]he common hells, the rookeries and pigeon- holes, cobweb warehouses and fly-traps, where the Greek committee sits nightly.

3. a run-down hotel or similar establishment.

1909		‘O. Henry’ Options (1916) 62: Old Jerome was lingering long after breakfast [...] before setting forth to his down town fly-trap.
1922–24		O.O. McIntyre White Light Nights 23: The tarnished ‘Flytrap’ could not compete with the mirrored elegance of a tea dansant.
1935		O.O. McIntyre ‘New York Day by Day’ 11 June [synd. col.] The cheapest of all jags [...] was a seidel of beer through a straw. It’s still a custom in Bowery fly-traps.
1944		J. Archibald ‘Downed on the Farm’ in Ten Detective Aces Nov. 🌐 You mean Poultney’s Paradise-in-the-Pines? [...] I would have to be paid to return to that fly trap.

4. see fly-cage

a blow to the mouth.

1842

Era 11 Dec. 10/2: After going it seemingly hammer and tongs for an hour and a half, all the sanguinary evidence [...] was a cut over the eye of the Slasher, and a ditto with a flytrapper on the mug of Brother Jonathan.

1. a poor white.

1927

(con. mid-19C) E. Rowland Varina Howell 92: [She] regarded with contempt the Democrats whom she had heard derided as ‘Sandhills,’ ‘Hill Billies,’ ‘Fly-up-the-creeks,’ and even ‘the Dirt Eaters;’ and always these were referred to as ‘the poor whites of the State’ [i.e. Mississippi].

2. an inhabitant of Florida.

1866		Montana Post (Virginia City, MT) 28 Apr. 4/1: The inhabitants of [...] Florida [are called] Fly-up-the-Creeks.
1873		Jasper Wkly Courier (IN) 28 Nov. 8/1: Delaware Musk rats; Florida, Fly-up-the-Creeks; Goergia, Buzzards; [...] Maine, Foxes.
1885		North Amer. Rev. Nov. 433: Among the rank and file, both armies, it was very general to speak of the different States they came from by their slang names. Those from Maine were called Foxes; [...] Missouri, Pukes; Mississippi, Tad Poles; Florida, Fly up the Creeks; Wisconsin, Badgers; Iowa, Hawkeyes; Oregon, Hard Cases.

3. a capricious person; also as adj., foolish.

1893		in DARE.
1903		DN II.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 220: fly-up-the-creek, foolish.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.

4. an immoral woman.

see drink v.