Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) to ascertain the best method of committing a robbery.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: To feck to look out, to discover the best means of obtaining stolen goods.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 13: Feck, to – to discover which is the safest way of obtaining stolen goods.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

2. to steal.

1916		Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 41: ‘But why did they run away?’ [...] ‘Because they had fecked cash out of the rector’s room.’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 380: Kidnapping a squire’s heir by favour or moonlight or fecking maid’s linen or choking chickens behind a hedge.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 240: I fecked them, said Johnny gleefully [...] A nice thing if you’d been caught feckin’ them, she said, in a frightened voice.
1960		Edna O’Brien Country Girls (1978) 96: ‘Where are you going?’ ‘To feck a few samples from the surgery’ .
1963		L. Daiken Out Goes She 12: Scutting the whip, trespass, fecking (petty larceny), acts vicious or venturesome.
1981		(con. c.1920) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 61: ‘Give us another word for feck.’ We shouted together ‘RAWB’ (rob).
1999		(con. 1916) R. Doyle A Star Called Henry (2000) 98: Someone had fecked them from the Waxworks.
2002		Indep. Rev. 23 Mar. 2: ‘Feck’ [...] is also slang for thieving (’Someone’s fecked my pint!’).