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Flibbertigibbet

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One of the five fiends that possessed “poor Tom.” Shakespeare got it from Bishop Harsnet’s account of the Spanish invasion, where we are told of forty fiends which the Jesuits cast out, and among the number was Fliberdigibet. Shakespeare says he “is the fiend of mopping and mowing, who possesses chambermaids and waiting women” (King Lear, iv. 2). And, again, that he “begins at curfew and walks till the first cock,” giving men pins and needles, squint eyes, hare-lips, and so on. (Shakespeare: Lear, iii. 4.)

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Fleet of the Desert
Flemish Account
Flemish School
Flesh and Blood
Flesh-pots
Fleshed
Fleshly School (The)
Fleta
Fleur-de-Luce
Fleurs-de-Lys
Flibbertigibbet
Flic (French)
Flick
Flies
Fling
Fling Herself at my Head (To)
Flins [a stone]
Flint
Flint Implements
Flint Jack
Flipper