fart v.
1. to break wind; also in fig. use, to expel.
Miller’s Tale line 3337: He was somdel squaymous Of farting. | ||
Jacke Juggler Diii: If you beat me tyll I fart and shyt againe you shall not cause me for any payne. | ||
Misogonus in (1906) I iv: Tell me, by the mass! or I’ll make thee to fart. | ||
Invectiues Capitane Allexander Montgomeree and Pollvart in Parkinson (Poems) (2000) II line 3: Thou flyttis and thou freittis, thou fartis and thou flingis. | ||
Ulysses upon Ajax 58: You look like a sturdy hostler that could gird a mare till she f—t again? | ||
Dictionarie in Eng. and Latine 288: To fart, pedo [...] Hee that doth fart when as he will, When fart he would not, farts his fill. | ||
Scourge of Folly 220: All night she sleepes, she snores, she farts, past care. | ||
Beggar’s Bush III i: Ere a man could fart twice, I had made him a hog. | ||
Night-Walker II i: Tis the Devill [...] Sure he farts fire. | ||
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk II 307: The holy Pope to everyone gave liberty to fart at his own ease. | (trans.)||
Fables of Abstemius (1692) CCCVI 276: I’ll Fart with That Puppy for his Commission, and leave it to Judgement [...] which has the Clearer, and the Better Scented Pipe of the Two. | ||
Works (1999) 252: Tom Killigrew’s Wife, the fine Flowre of Dort, / At the sight of this Signior did Belch, Fart, and Snort. | ‘Signior Dildo’ in||
Fumblers-Hall 7: Sir Nicolas Frible: Every night she farts in her sleep, which [...] is most hateful to me. | ||
‘Worcestershire Ballad’ in Bagford Ballads (1878) II 999: He Farts and he Flusters, / He Belches and Blusters. | ||
Teagueland Jests I 34: I cannot lie wid dy nasty Sharvants [...] dey do fart and stink. | ||
‘On a Fart in the Parliament-House’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy I 346: Quoth Sir Henry Poole ’twas an audacious trick / To Fart in the Face of the Body Politick. | ||
Hudibras Redivivus I:4 9: Three Tuns, that very lately started, / A huge white Horse that never farted. [Ibid.] 2 III 9: Drums ratling, Lott’ry-Trumpets farting. | ||
Benefit of Farting 10: As for the Lawfulness of Farting, none I hope will dispute the point. | ||
Thoughts upon Reading the Lady’s Dressing-Room and the Gentleman’s Study 7: I find all the Knowledge we have by what’s writ Is, that both Male and Female, sweat stink, fart, and sh-t. | ||
Poems (1752) 285: Whereat he storm’d, he star’d, he stamp’d, / He farted and he slang, Sir. | ‘Letter from St--n to Lord James Murray’||
Tuesday Club Bk XIII in Micklus (1995) 309: Though it bears a human Shape, / Has not the Judgement of an ape, / For soon as it has op’d its Eyes, / It eats, speaks, Grumbles, farts and dies. | ||
‘The Rakes of Stony Batter’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 339: He gently laid her down, and he pull’d out his scarper, / He play’d her such a tune, which made her fart and caper. | ||
Nancy Dawson’s Jests 8: A country squire [...] pull’d down his breeches and farted. | ||
Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 94: [He] In a passion hobbl’d on, / And farted all the way he run. | ||
‘The Coughing Old Man’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 3: Like a hog in a sty he does grunt and puff, / A wheezing and harking both sneezing and farting. | ||
‘The Rakes of Stony Batter’ in | I (1975) 224: He play’d her such a tune, which made her fart and caper.||
Spirit of Irish Wit 9: The landlord, a pickled dog, said his wife had p—d, f—d, broke the pot, cut her a— , wetted the carpet, roared [...] all at the same moment. | ||
‘Peas, Beans, & Cabbages’ Knowing Chaunter 10: But since the young bitch / Has won the first heat, / I’ll challenge her out to f--t. | ||
Swell’s Night Guide 68: They are the rankest narks vot ever God put guts into, or ever farted in a kickses case. | ||
Peeping Tom (London) 18 70/3: One takes a hug, and buss at parting, / Another stretching, falls a f—ting. | ||
‘I Dreamt Last Night As I Lay On My Bed’ Rambler’s Flash Songster 36: I dreamt last night as I lay on my bed, / That I saw an old lecherous codger, / Who scarcely hear himself fart at my head, / And he said that he wanted a roger. | ||
in Limerick (1953) 138: There was a young man of Bhogat, / The cheeks of whose ass were so fat / That they had to be parted / Whenever he farted, / And propped wide apart when he shat. | ||
My Secret Life (1966) II 352: You’re frightened of farting. | ||
Inventions of the March Hare in Ricks (1996) 317: Columbo showed his disrespect / By farting in a barrel. | ‘Columbo & Bolo’||
in Limerick (1953) 155: Do you fart when you pee? | ||
Call It Sleep (1977) 149: He’s as squeamish as a newly-minted nun. One is not even permitted to fart when he’s around! | ||
A Gay Diary (1996) 5 May 473: He thinks farting is funny. | ||
Naked Lunch (1968) 62: Lest the unfortunate patient be reduced to fart and shit in his teeth. | ||
All Night Stand 63: I just have it in for Germans because they belch and fart and roar with laughter. | ||
Dopefiend (1991) 186: Dave got excited and started to fart loudly. | ||
Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 71: The cars farting families in VWs and Fords. | East in||
House of Hunger (2013) [ebook] Peter, as is usual when something indistinct disgusts him, farted long and loudly. | ||
Patriot Game (1985) 207: That stuff makes you all fulla gas [...] Probably fart polka dot tomorrow. | ||
Skin Tight 125: The engine farted an odious cloud of blue smoke. | ||
Between the Devlin 14: ‘Snoring and farting your head off’. | ||
(con. 1953) Prince Charming 149: Said the Nabob of Trincomalee: / ‘Young man, do you fart when you pee?’. | ||
Indep. on Sun. 9 Jan. 28: Women find themselves belching, farting and scratching their bellies. | ||
Turning Angel 342: No woman is a goddess. They shit and fart just like we do. | ||
Times Review 30 Apr. 11/4: Conor ‘farted hugely as he stood in the bathroom to pee’. | ||
Crongton Knights 112: ‘And no farting, McKay.’ [...] ‘I don’t roll into people’s castles and bust farts’. | ||
Class Act [ebook] ‘I can’t fart without half of Montie knowing about it’. | ||
🌐 ‘I guarantee he’ll run away pissing and farting’. | ‘Hula Hula Boys’ in What Pluckery Is This? (28 Jan 2024)||
Orphan Road 98: ‘Luchese spends most of his days farting into a couch in front of the TV’. |
2. (UK black) to suffer.
(con. 1979–80) Brixton Rock (2004) 202: In the winter you will fart when it gets cold. |
In derivatives
argumentativeness.
Seven Demons 107: [N]ot without some discussion and fartery unless the situation was exigent. |
In phrases
1. to dawdle, to mess around.
(con. 1917–19) USA (1966) 360: What the hell do they want to be fartin’ around here for? | Nineteen Nineteen in||
(con. 1944) Naked and Dead 23: The first wave’s still farting around. | ||
Sel. Letters (1992) 152: I fart about at College, drink little, read rather too much, smoke hardly at all, & feel tired most of the time. | letter 24 Mar. in Thwaite||
December Bride 184: So what’s the use of all this farting and fiddling around? | ||
Ginger Man (1958) 120: I’m not up to farting about at this godforsaken hour of the morning. | ||
LBJ Brigade (1967) 66: Ya fart around this jount long enough un your hair rots. | ||
letter 23 Oct. in Leader (2000) 9: Choose about 6 chaps and know them pretty thoroughly, rather than farting about with a bit of everyone. | ||
Service of all the Dead (1980) 160: Why fart around with all that piddling nonsense. | ||
Paco’s Story (1987) 157: They’ll fuck around and fart around and grab-ass around. | ||
Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] You still farting around with that McKillop business? | ||
Powder 329: Wheezer was running the show, here, while Guy was farting round in alternative medicine. | ||
(con. 1945–6) Devil’s Jump (2008) 184: Weeks of farting around, and now things are beginning to happen. |
2. to irritate.
Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 197: I’m sorry if you lads have been farted around a bit. |
(US) to dawdle, to proceed slowly.
Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 fart along (verb, intrans.) – to do something very slowly, without conviction. Like other terms using ‘fart’, this expression is almost neutral: ‘John just farts along writing his thesis.’ ‘That car in front of us holding up traffic is just farting along.’. |
(Aus.) to be very angry.
Lingo 88: One who is farting sparks is very angry indeed, possibly even more so than someone spitting chips. |
(US) to live prosperously, to feel happy, to be important.
Anecdota Americana I 181: She never farted through silk all her life. | ||
Story Omnibus (1966) 242: I’m pretty well fixed right now, sweating through silk, as the boys used to say, only that isn’t exactly what they said. | ‘Tulip’||
Duke of Deception (1990) 138: I sleep in a trailer, his wife farts through silk. | ||
Parliament of Whores 4: Vote for me, folks, and you’ll be farting through silk. | ||
Plainclothes Naked (2002) 185: We keep half this shit and sell the other half, we’re fartin’ in silk! We’ll be high and money! | ||
Leather Maiden 129: ‘You thought you were going to end up farting through silk’. |
In exclamations
(US) semi-euph versions of shit on!
Cat Man 53: Let’s go, Chief. We can find a better place,’ Fiddler said at last. — ‘Fart on the cages! I’m stayin’ here, be comfortable’. |