1690. B. E., Dict. of the Canting Crew. Fortune-tellers, c. the Judges of Life and Death, so-called by the Canting Crew. 1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulg. Tongue. Fortune-teller, or cunning man; a judge who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot, or doom; to go before the fortune-teller, lambskin man or conjuror, to be tried at an assize. 1871. Egan, Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 242. He had been werry cruelly used by the fortune-tellers. Forty. To talk forty (more commonly nineteen) to the dozen, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To chatter incessantly; to gabble. To walk off forty to the dozen = to decamp in quick time. 1891. Farjeon, Mystery of M. Felix, p. 107. He run agin me, he did, and I ased, ‘Who are yer pushing of?’ He didn’t say nothink, but walked off forty to the dozen. Roaring forties, subs. phr. (nautical).—The Atlantic between the fortieth and fiftieth degrees of latitude; also applied to the same region in southern latitudes. Forty-faced, adj. (colloquial).—An arrant deceiver: e.g., a forty-faced liar, a forty-faced flirt, and so forth. Forty-five, subs. (American).—A revolver. For synonyms, see Meat in the pot. Forty-foot or Forty-guts, subs. (common).—A fat, dumpy man, or woman. In contempt. English Synonyms.—‘All arse, and no body’; arse-and-corporation; all-belly (Cotgrave); all guts (idem); bacon-belly; barrel-belly; belly-god; bladder-figured; bosse-belly; Bosse of Billingsgate (Florio = a fat woman); chuff (Shakspeare); Christmas beef; double-guts; double-tripe; fat-cock; fat-guts (Shakspeare and Cotgrave); fatico; fattymus or fattyma; fubsy; fat Jack of the bonehouse; fat-lips; flanderkin; fustiluggs (Burton); fussock; gorbelly; grampus; gotch-guts; grand-guts (Florio); gulche (Florio); gullyguts; gundigutts; guts; guts-and-stomach; guts-and-garbage; guts-to-sell; hoddy-doddy; humpty-dumpty; hogshead; hopper-arse; Jack Weight; loppers; lummox; paunch; pod; porpoise; pot-guts; princod; pudding-belly; puff-guts; ribs; ‘short-and-thick-like-a-Welshman’s-cock’; slush-bucket; sow (a fat woman); spud; squab; studgy-guts; tallow-guts; tallow-merchant; thick-in-the-middle; tripes; tripes and trullibubs; tubs; waist; water-butt; walking ninepin; whopper. French Synonyms. Un gros bajaf (popular); un bout de cul (popular); un bas de plafond, or de cul (popular); un brasset (= a tall, stout man); un berdouillard. Spanish Synonym. Angelon de retablo (generally applied to a pot-bellied child). Forty-jawed, adj. (colloquial).—Excessively talkative. Forty-lunged, adj. (colloquial).—Stentorian; given to shouting; leather-lunged (q.v.). Forty-rod or Forty-rod Lightning, subs. phr. (American).—Whiskey; specifically, spirit of so fiery a nature that it is calculated to kill at Forty Rods’ distance, i.e., on sight. Cf., Rot-gut. For synonyms, see Drinks and Old man’s milk. Cf., Florio (1598), Catoblepa, ‘a serpent in India so venomous that with his looke he kils a man a mile off.’