Verb (thieves’).—1. To search; to run the rule over (q.v.); Especially applied to the search made, after arrest, for evidence of character, antecedents, or identity. Hence, careful examination of any kind. 1781. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 179. They frisk him? That is search him. Ibid., p. 122. Putting a lap-feeder in our sack, that you or your blowen had prig’d yourselves though we should stand the frisk for it. 1828. Jon. Bee, Pict. of London. p. 69. The arms are seized from behind by one, whilst the other frisks the pockets of their contents. 1852. Judson, Mysteries, etc., of New York, ch. vii. Vel sare, the offisare ’ave frisk me: he ’ave not found ze skin or ze dummy, eh? 1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, p. 21. ‘The knuck was copped to rights, a skin full of honey was found in his kick’s poke by the copper when he frisked him’; [i.e.] the pickpocket was arrested, and when searched by the officer a purse was found in his pantaloons pocket full of money. 2. (thieves’).—To pick pockets; to rob. To frisk a cly = to empty a pocket. 1852. Judson, Mysteries, etc. of New York, ch. iv. You’re as good a knuck as ever frisked a swell. 1883. Daily Telegraph, 13 June, p. 7, col. 3. The ragged little wretches who prowl in gangs about the suburbs, who crawl on their hands and knees into shops in order to ‘frisk the till.’ 3. (venery).—To ‘have (q.v.) a woman.’ For synonyms, see Ride. To dance the Paddington frisk, verb. phr. (old).—To dance on nothing; i.e., to be hanged. [Tyburn Tree was in Paddington.] For synonyms, see Ladder. Frisker, subs. (old).—A dancer. 1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 20. At no Whitsun Ale there e’er yet had been Such Fraysters and Friskers as these lads and lasses. Frivol or Frivvle, verb. (colloquial).—To act frivolously; to trifle. [A resuscitation of an old word used in another sense, viz., to annul, to set aside]. 1883. W. Black, Yolande, ch. xx. ‘Mind, I am assuming that you mean business—if you want to frivole, and pick pretty posies, I shut my door on you but, I say, if you mean business, I have told Mrs. Bell you are to have access to my herbarium, whether I am there or not.’ Frog, subs. (common).—1. A policeman. For synonyms, see Beak and Copper. 1881. New York Slang Dict., ‘On the Trail.’ I must amputate like a go-away, or the frogs will nail me. 1886. Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 130, col. 1. A policeman is also called ... a ‘frog,’ the last-named because he is supposed to jump, as it were, suddenly upon guilty parties. 2. (common).—A Frenchman. Also froggy and frog-eater. [Formerly a Parisian; the shield of whose city bore three toads, while the quaggy state of the streets gave point to a jest common at Versailles before 1791: Qu’en disent les grenouilles? i.e., What do the frogs (the people of Paris) say?]