Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also Mr. Fox) a cunning, duplicitous person.

1560		Becon Early Works Parker Soc. (1843) 253: O insatiable dogs! O crafty foxes! What craft, deceit, subtility, and falsehood use merchants in buying and selling!
1592		Greene Blacke Bookes Messenger 9: The olde Foxe that knew the Oxe by the horne, was subtill enough to spie a pad in the straw, and to see that we went about to crossbite him.
1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) IV iii: The old Fox is so crafty, we shall hardly hunt him out of his den.
1642		J. Taylor St Hillarie’s Teares 7: The meaner sort of Tradesmen, cursing those devowring Foxes, the master and Wardens.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 26 22–30 Nov. 222: The Fox hath Smoaked him.
a.1661		‘Arsy versy’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 152: Thus the Foxes of Sampson that carried a brand / In their tails, to destroy and to burn up the land.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1701		N. Ward ‘A Walk to Islington’ Writings (1704) 72: In a hovel adjoining, a cunning sly Fox, / Stood shov’ling of money down into a Box.
1711		N. Ward Vulgus Britannicus I 8: The Fox will Bask, and Rowl and Stretch, / To bring his Prey within his Reach.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1771		R. King New London Spy 67: She was housekeeper to a vicious old baronet [...] This rank old fox [etc].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) I 221: This old fox was nearly sixty years of age.
1837		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 282: Old fox! he didn’t say he had paid.
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 126: I’ll be bound now, the old fox came straight home to earth.
1874		F.C. Burnand My Time 379: The Doctor’s a sly old fox [...] and all he wants is some more tin.
1886		Uncle Daniel’s Story of ‘Tom’ Anderson 157: The old fox (for he was very sly) said: ‘Yes, missus, I’s—I’s jes’ seein’ how many is here.’.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 11: fox A clever person.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 6 Apr. 433: It does not always follow that though a man writes a book about a certain country he has been there. Authors are sometimes foxes.
1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I vii: Crafty though the old fox was, the other’s surprise and agitation was too genuine to be questioned.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 190: I thought she was a fox, even though crazy.
1937		J. Tully Bruiser 37: He’s a fox – lot of brains.
1948		A. Wright Under the Whip 26: It was only too plain what was in the old fox’s mind.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 192: The whole contented clan of white-collar foxes.
1961		J. Kirkwood There Must Be a Pony! 44: Once a fox, always a fox!
1979		E. Torres After Hours 30: Kleinfeld is a fox.
1982		J. Davis Kullark 65: You sly ol’ fox, where’d you get that?
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 113: If New York loves anything, it’s displaced young foxes of little material means.

2. an artificial sore.

1862

Mayhew & Binny Criminal Prisons of London 305: Daring youths [...] were constantly in the habit of making ‘foxes’ (artificial sores).

3. (Aus.) a lie, nonsense.

1902

Bulletin (Sydney) 12 July 14/1: [T]he prize was £50 and not £100. And it was awarded, but all the rest is ‘foxes.’.

4. (US Und.) a tramp who rides on passenger trains by tricking the conductor as to his/her legitimacy.

1916		‘A-No. 1’ Snare of the Road 31: Ramblers are further subdivided into two classes: ‘Foxes’ are termed those who ride within the coaches by citing hat checks, by occupying vacant berths, and by resorting to other tricks of cunning.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 79: Fox.–A ‘rambler’ who rides, in a train, on forged or stolen hat checks or conductors’ identification slips, or in the toilet of a passenger car.

5. (US Und.) an escape, either from the police or prison.

1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.

6. (mainly US black) a girl, a woman, esp. an attractive and sexually active one; thus superfox n., an extreme example [backform. f. foxy adj.¹ (4)].

1914		Sport (Adelaide) 11 Sept. 4/3: ‘Sport’ heard that ‘foxes’ were plentiful in the bridge [...] Look out you don’t lose your brush, Fred.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 102: ‘Ain’t she tough? A real looker, right?’ ‘Yeah, she’s a real fox.’.
1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 112: His life was on the line and he was thinking about some fox.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 143: Stone fox. She look good and she be ready.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 187: A guy wearing about half a grand’s worth of leather on his back makes his way across the street, a sleek, slender, and blonde fox riding his arm.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] What a little fox [...] Innocent as the day is long. But that much sex appeal, she makes Elle Macpherson look like the bride of Frankenstein.
2000		M.E. Dassad ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 This little fox, she let out a blood-curdling scream, but the locals weren’t going to mind, and if they did they weren’t going to say anything.

7. a womanizer.

1945

Yank (Far East edn) 24 Mar. 18/2–3: Some of today’s teen-agers – pleasantly not many – talk the strange new language of ‘sling swing.’ In the bright lexicon of the good citizens of tomorrow [...] A boy given to hugging the girls—sentimental little rascals, some of these lads—is a ‘wolf on a scouter’ or an ‘educated fox.’.

8. (US prison) the passive partner in a lesbian relationship.

1969

in R. Giallombardo Social World of Imprisoned Girls 189: The fox is supposed to iron [her lesbian partner’s] clothes and give him [i.e. her] respect [HDAS].

9. (US campus) a sexually attractive person of the opposite sex.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 120: Fox A sexually attractive person, female.
1982		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 2: fox – handsome, attractive male.
2002		‘Valley Girls’ on Paranoiafanzine 🌐 So, like, which of these dudes is the fox?
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 210: ‘Check the schvantz on that fox [...] You think he gets laid?’.