Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to observe surreptitiously.

1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/1: Fox, to follow stealthily and watch closely.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 42: FOXING, watching in the streets for any occurrence which may be turned to profitable account.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 99/1: I and Howard in the meanwhile were ‘piping’ up and down the street to see that no one was ‘foxing’ us.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1883		J. Greenwood Odd People in Odd Places 61: You keep it going pretty loud here, with a couple of policemen foxing about just outside.
1892		‘’Arry in ’Arrygate’ in Punch 24 Sept. 133/3: You jest fox their faces.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 30: Fox, to watch closely, same as ‘shadowing’.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 73: FOX: to: thieves to tout, follow or stalk anyone without being observed: to pretend to be simple or not alert: foxing – pretending sickness etc.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Nov. 11/3: Determined to pursue the truth, they foxed their brilliant teacher till he entered the home of a lady.
1906		D. Stewart Vultures of the City in Illus. Police News 8 Dec. 12/1: ‘I don’t think as they nosed us, Jemmy’ [...] ‘[T]hey was a-foxing of summat the other way’.
1907		N.Z. Truth 30 Nov. 2/2: I foxes him up.
1910		D. Stewart Devil of Dartmoor in Illus. Police News 1 Oct. 12/2: ‘I was foxing yer as yer pulled old Joe Mason’s togs about’.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 1 May 4/2: Didn’t like being foxed, did you, George. Never mind, she is too good for you.
1960		E. North Nobody Stops Me 118: I went out of the station on the Racecourse side, climbed on a bus and doubled back down Grange Road. If anyone was foxing me it left them cold.

2. (Aus./N.Z.) to be a voyeur, esp. when spying on couples in the open air; thus foxer, a voyeur.

1892		H. Lawson ‘Billy’s “Square Affair”’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 226: She watched her bloke go out, and foxed his square affair and him.
1896		Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 7 Oct. 2/4: They Say [...] That a gentleman visited a lady. That lie was ‘foxed.’ That the foxer was also foxed.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Nov. 10/2: Evidence given at the inquest showed that he was one of a band of alleged men who prowled round the park of nights ‘foxing’ amorous couples.
1909		N.Z. Truth 30 Jan. 5/1: Young [...] stalked the unconscious couple and ‘foxed’ them to their retreat, to use the expression of the average sex-perverted hoodlum.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 18 Dec. 5/6: If the Yadnarie drakes kept their eyes open when fencing as wide as they do when foxing FS and DP they wouldn’t [etc].