frisk n.1
(orig. UK Und.) a search.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Life’s Painter 142: If any of us was to come in by ourselves and should happen to take a rum snooze, you’d snitch upon us, and soon have the traps and fix us, in putting a lap-feeder in our sack, that you or your blowen had prig’d yourselves, though we should stand the frisk for it. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 June 3/1: Mr. Lovett, thereupon took the liberty of having a frisk over Phillips’ person, and [...] found a bulky sample of Mr Armstrong’s cutlery in bis outside pocket. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 7/2: All eyes seeming to turn towards ‘Dublin Joe’ he ‘tumbled’ to the ‘rachet’ and offered himelf first for the ‘frisk’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | News & Courier (Charleston, SC) 14 Apr. 18/1: There was a cop [...] and he took it, too, that I was all for a hurry frisk and he jumped up and gave me the arm twist. | |
| My Life in Prison 25: After a thorough ‘frisk’ I was escorted to the photograph gallery. | |
| Zone Policeman 88 140: We [...] gave them and their baggage such a ‘frisking’ as befalls a Kaffir leaving a South African diamond mine. | |
| Let Tomorrow Come 41: I’m packin’ a heater, see, an’ I don’t wanta stand no frisk. | |
| Rough Stuff 17: When I’d got the purse, I passed it on straight away to another pal [...] so if the woman did accidentally feel me taking her purse, and if I was grabbed by the crowd, I could stand a frisk (search). | |
| Iceman Cometh Act I: I steered him into a side street where it was dark and propped him against a wall and gave him a frisk. [...] I picked twelve bucks offa him. | |
| (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 385: It was Timmy who told of the frisk, the pinch by two red-necked bulls. | |
| (con. 1920s) South of Heaven (1994) 31: He gave us as good a frisk as I’ve ever seen. | |
| Snowblind (1978) 244: In Colombia [...] the airline frisk has become a matter of policy. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) ‘Johnnie I’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 117: I don’t want a bust, nor can I stand a frisk — I got a stick of pot in my pocket. | |
| Dark Spectre (1996) 26: Now they would strip-search us, do a rectal frisk and pack us off to the state pen. | |
| (ref. to 1963) Life 119As for the frisk, when I read that, I thought, ‘Even then?’ [...] Frisked for no reason at all: . | |
| Riptide Ultra-Glide 224: Catfish [...] entered with hands raised again, and turned around for the frisk. |
In phrases
working as a pickpocket, i.e. ‘searching’ the pockets / bags of strangers.
| ‘The Lively Kid’ in Rake’s Budget in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 87: The lively kid on the frisk has gone / And God knows where you’ll find him. |
see frisk v.2 (2)
(US prison) a strip search.
 | Oregon Dly Jrnl (Portland, OR) 6 Dec. 9/3: A ‘skin frisk’ was held at the county jail yesterday. | |
| S.F. Call 9 Oct. 3/2: Indicted Physician subjected to ‘Skin Frisk’ on his arrival at Portland Jail. | |
| Oregon Dly Jrnl (Portland, OR) 7 Oct. 11/2: [She] produced a pint of moonshine from her clothing when police sent for a policewoman to give her a ‘skin frisk’. | |
| (ref. to 1920s) Over the Wall 168: I was given a skin frisk, with no words of explanation. | |
| (con. 1970) Ottowa Jrnl 13 Sept. 10/2: Prisoners staged a revolt [...] to protest ‘skin frisks’ in which they were stripped and searched. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Chilliwack Progress (BC) 6 Nov. 15/2: Skin frisks of inmates [...] are carried out by male staff. | |
| Prison Sl. 99: Skin Frisk An old term used to mean a strip search of an inmate. |
to be searched.
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 242: [...] to stand frisk, is to stand search. |