So Jack enters: / And trips up staires, as quick, as come penny, / Where we find, what's before good company! / Three female idle feaks, who long'd for pigs head.

Feague (also feak, q.v.) as a noun, was used of a slattern, a sluttish woman.]

FEAGUE, to feague a horse; to put ginger up a horse's fundament, to make him lively, and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse dealer's servant, who shall show a horse without first feagueing him, used figuratively for encouraging or spiriting one up.

Feague. To feague a horſe; to put ginger up a horſe's fundament, and formerly, as it is ſaid, a live eel, to make him lively, and carry his tail well: it is ſaid, a forfeit is incurred by any horſe dealer's ſervant, who ſhall ſhew a horſe without firſt feaguing him. Feague is uſed, figuratively, for encouraging or ſpiriting one up.

Run along to Hobson's Livery Stable and tell them I want a good fast horse, right? Something with a bit of fizz in its blood! Not some feagued-up old screw, and I know the difference! I want it here in half an hour! Off you go!

“... One of those chaps over there said someone feagues his horse. What the hell’s ‘feague’?” / O’Reilly’s sides heaved. “Feague? You’d know it as a different expression, but it’s a trick unscrupulous horse dealers use to make a horse look better than it is. You can judge a horse’s spirit by the way it carries its tail.” / “That’s what he said.” / “So,” said O’Reilly, “just before the buyer comes to look at the beast, the dealer sticks a clove of ginger up its rectum. Feagues the poor creature.” / The thought made Barry wince.

Dol[l]. (aside). Oh, if I wist this old priest would not sticke to me, by Ioue, I would ingle this old seruing-man. / Harp[oole]. Oh you old mad colt! yfaith, Ile feak you! fil all the pots in the house there.

[T]here's one Count Sharnofsky, too, such another ambitious dry-chops, he hath not the grace to love good drink, and yet he hath the impudence to aim at the Crown. […] [H]e squints at it fearfully, and he hath an itch at the Princess too; (Landlord squints, and makes grim-faces,) but I hope the Cardinal will feage [footnote: "Whip" or "beat."] 'um all.

Beau[gard]. Hark ye, ye curs, keep off from snapping at my heels, or I shall so feague ye.

Her noble Proteſtant has got a Flail, / Young, large, and fit to feague her briny Tail; / But now, poor Wench, ſhe lies as ſhe would burſt, / Sometimes with Brandy, and ſometimes with Luſt.
Note: although in this quotation feague ostensibly means "to beat or whip", sense 4 below is alluded to.

I begind to ſmell a rat! And there I talked with t'other Miſſee. I a ferretted and a feagued and a worked and a wormed it all out of ſhe.

The Saint Monday Gemmen held their diversions on the 18th, near Clay-hill, which consisted of a pugilistic exhibition between G. Wilkie, a coster-monger, and Jeffery Smith, a professor, but little calculated to astonish the spectators at his professional skill. The battle was for ten guineas; and, after a contest of about forty minutes, in which the combatants were decently feaked, and the head of Jeffery was a good deal disfigured, he resigned the contest, and the coster-monger was carried to Westminster in triumph, […]

February 22.—Very rheumatic. I e'en turned my table to the fire and feagued it away, as Bayes says.

feague. (1) To whip. A 17th century word; the 16th century has the term bumfeage, to spank. […] (2) To finish off, ‘do for’; […] (3) To feague away, to set in brisk motion (as violins); to stir in one's thoughts. To feague it away, to work at full power, […]

[W]hen Cataline a League / Had made[,] the Senators to fegue, / And ſtrumpet had told Marcus Tully, / The cloſe intentions of that Bully, / He not ſo much the cauſe revenging / O'th'State, as t'hinder his own ſwinging, / Made the beſt ſpeech to quell that ſtrife, / (Tis ſaid) that e're he made in's Life, […]

Chor[us]. […] See, yonder ſits Well-born with his pretty Wife. / […] Shee ſeeks for her Gallant, and he o'my Life / Hath a mind to be feaguing yon Vizor-Mask-Whore.

Sir Oliv[er Cockwood]. Here's my brother Jolly too can witneſs / The loyalty of my Heart, and that I did not intend / Any treaſonable practice againſt your Ladiſhip / In the leaſt. / Sir Joſ[lin Jolley]. Unleſs feguing 'em with a Beer-glaſs be / Included in the Statute. Come, Mr. Courtall, to / Satisfie my Lady, and put her in a little good humour, / Let us ſing the Catch I taught you yeſterday, […]

feague coit with. Ex the primary sense, beat or thrash (a common shift).

Feague

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