Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a dismissive excl., usu. as a fart for...!

c.1525		J. Rastell Gentleness and Nobility line 419: Straw for thi councell, torde, a fart! Trowist I wyll gyf up my plow or cart And folow thy folysh appityte and mynde?
c.1538		Thersytes (1550) D i: Folyshe frederycke furberer of a farte Dynge daniell deintye to deathe wyll with a darte .
1577		Misogonus in Farmer (1906) II v: A fart for you all!
1599		Greene George-A-Greene C2: [He] cast vp both his heeles, and let such a monstrous great fart, that was as much as in his language to say, A fart for the pound, and a fart for George a Greene.
1632		R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded II i: Fart for his undertaking; all the world is bent to crosse me.
1658		Mennis & Smith ‘Poeticall Poem to Mistresse Bess Sarney’ Wit Restor’d (1817) 219: A fart for all perfumes, a turd for roses.
c.1662		‘Honest Tradesman’s Honour Vindicated’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 37: I am a gallant Blade indeed, and gay apparel wear, / A fig for Trade, and a crown for a maid, and a fart for sorrow and care.
1698		N. Ward London Spy I 2: A fart for Virgil and his Elegancy.
1702		T. Brown Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1760) II 184: A fart for our creditors.
1742		Fielding Joseph Andrews (1954) I 64: ‘Common charity, a f--t!’ says she.
1751		F. Coventry Hist of Pompey Little I 103: I have been called to account for my Words [...] I must not say what I please against the Government. Talk with Decency indeed! a Fart of Decency!