fanny n.2
1. verbal effusiveness, usu. nonsensical.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Night and the City 202: All this fanny about wrestlin’, all this madam. | |
| Indiscreet Guide to Soho 62: Since leaving school Joe has been a grafter and he can ‘spiel his fanny’ with the best of them. |
2. any form of story (poss. mendacious) designed to elicit money or sympathy, to provide excuses etc.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | (con. 1910s) Hell’s Kitchen 86: She was without money or food and the kiddie was ill. As she told the ‘fanny’ (story) the members of the gang all reached for their ‘kicks’. | |
| Western Gaz. 18 Mar. 12/4: Yes, my ‘fanny’ had to be that drink was my downfall. Women always like to hear that one. | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 4: Fanny (a man at the fanny): A false story. | |
| Farewell, Mr Gangster! 280: Slang used by English criminals [...] Put up the fanny – told false story. | |
| Yorks. Post 23 May 6/5: The Pitcher’s Jargon [...] The modern ‘pitcher’ must have a good apperance, a clear and resonant voice, and a considerable knowledge of crowd psychology. [...] The tale he tells is his ‘fanny’. | |
| Look Long Upon a Monkey 84: All a fanny, may I be topped if it ain’t. | |
| Villain’s Tale 8: He could brazen out any sort of fanny that he put up to the filth, or stand a quizzing from a silk in court, but this situation was different. | |
| ‘A Losing Streak’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] And don’t give me that old fanny about a losing streak. | |
 | ‘Problem Drug Use and Probation in London: An Evaluation’ at www.kcl.ac.uk 🌐 People can feed you the biggest load of fanny. | |
| Guardian 8 Feb. 🌐 PR types relentlessly hammer home the message that American football is ‘conquering the world’. And it’s all a load of fanny. |
3. in non-verbal sense, nonsense, absurdity.
| (con. 1920s) Burglar to the Nobility 51: All the usual fanny of cell light on all night, stripping me at bedtime and surprise searches of my cell. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Now that’s good out here in the nothin. Could mean fanny in town. | |
| Twitter 16 Dec. 🌐 Rees Mogg is talking utter fanny regarding nurses and strikes. |
4. a fit of temper.
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 fanny, dicky fit n. variation on radge. |
In compounds
one who offers only empty boasts and promises.
| Not the End of the World 96: It reminded him of the corpses-in-waiting you saw on telly at Conservative Party conferences, chuckling vacantly at some fanny-merchant’s dismal, scripted one-liner. | |
| Sun. Herald mag. (Glasgow) 11 June 🌐 These moments are interspersed with the wide eyed retellings of stories he heard from Dalgish – scoring against England at Wembley, psyching out Vinnie Jones (‘a fanny merchant’ apparently). |
(UK Und.) confidence tricksters.
| Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 78: You take a real worker — one ov the fanny mob or a cracksman or even a dip, anybody wiv a bit ov class, he’ll tell yer. |
In phrases
1. (UK und.) obtaining information regarding a possible crime.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 1: At the fanny: Seeking information. |
2. (UK und.) working as a racecourse confidence trickster.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 1: At the fanny: Working the confidence trick on a race course. |
to tell a deceitful story.
| ‘Stir’ 65: ‘Spin a right fanny to the “Croaker”,’ advised Smith [OED]. | |
| They Drive by Night 83: You better say you work for the firm and all – Aberdonian Transit. Spin them a fanny. | |
| Und. Nights 37: College Harry arrived [...] and span a fanny about how he was expecting a friend from the North who was coming straight on from Euston. |