The F-Word (26 page)

2.a
. to harm irreparably; finish; damage; spoil; botch; (chiefly in
passive
) to put into a difficult or hopeless situation; doom.

1776
Frisky Songster
(new edition) 36: Hey ho! the wind did blow, down they fell,/Breeches and petticoat into the well./O, says the breeches, I shall be duck’d./Aye, says the petticoat I shall be f—d./O, how my old grannum will grumble and grunt,/When she’s got ne’er a petticoat to cover her c—t.
1906
Southwestern Reporter
XCV. 1083/2: Accused testified that prior to the homicide his brother had informed him that the deceased had stated that he would whip accused and his brother and fuck the whole family, a charge on manslaughter was not insufficient because it did not charge the jury that insulting conduct towards the female relatives of accused constituted adequate cause, for the word “fuck” only conveyed the idea of ill will towards the brother of accused, and a purpose to bring on a difficulty with him, especially in view of affidavits on a motion for a new trial averring that the word used meant “to whip, or beat, or chastise.”
1929
in F. S. Fitzgerald
Correspondence
226: Now you make them read the word cooked (+ fucked would be as bad)
one dozen times
.
1929
E. Hemingway
Farewell to Arms
(U.S. ed.) xxix. 219: The wheels spun and we pushed and pushed [the car]. But it wasn’t any use. “It’s ——,” I said.
1931
J. Dos Passos
Nineteen Nineteen
7 [refers to
ca
1914]: I guess I’m f—d for fair then.
1934
H. Miller
Tropic of Cancer
48: We’ll take his lousy review and we’ll fuck him good and proper.… The magazine’ll be finished.
1935
L. Zukofsky in G. Ahearn
Pound/Zukofsky
160: Time fucks it.
1937
A. Binns
Laurels Are Cut Down
200 [refers to 1920]: We did all their fighting. Now that we’ve quit, they’re —ed.
1938–39
J. Dos Passos
Young Man
257: Less said everything was the matter, American Miners was f—d to hell and back, the boys in Slade County was f—d and now here was this christbitten hellbound party line f—g them proper.
1941
E. Hemingway in
Selected Letters
(1981) 532: We are fucked in this war as of the first day.
1948
N. Mailer
Naked & Dead
10: Even
they
can’t fug me this time.
1967
N. Mailer
Why We Are in Vietnam
111: He, Rusty, is fucked unless he gets that bear.
1970
M. Thomas
Total Beast
137: He was fucking old Sunshine with that knife!
1970
R. Byrne
Memories non-Jewish Childhood
90: The snowdrifts and slush made darting and dodging impossible. I was, in short, fucked.
1972
D. Jenkins
Semi-Tough
159: We got too many ways to fuck ’em.
1984
M. Wallace & G. P. Gates
Close Encounters
155 [refers to 1968]: I drew a breath and continued, man to man. “Vietnam fucked you, Mr. President, and so, I’m afraid, you fucked the country.”
1984
K. Weaver
Texas Crude
3: I got you faded, fucked, and laughed at.
1989
S. Lee
Do the Right Thing
(film): I oughta fuck you just for that.
1995
D. McLean
Bunker Man
41: He didn’t want to slip going round a corner and fuck his ankle.
2000
I. Welsh in N. Hornby
Speaking with Angel
178: My heart-beat’s racing and there’s a pain in my chest. I’ll have to take things easier, drinking heavily in this heat always fucks me.
2005
W. Henderson in A. St. John
Clapton’s Guitar
xiv. 135: I don’t get distracted.… If I got distracted, I’d be fucked.

b
. to botch; bungle;
FUCK UP
, definition 1.—also used with
it
.

1969
L. Sanders
Anderson Tapes
43: It might fuck the whole thing.
1973
W. Karlin et al.
Free Fire Zone
108: Pellegrini, you fucked it again.
Ibid.
110: Them niggers fucked the roof—built this house so
fast
.
1972–79
T. Wolfe
Right Stuff
243: Oh, it was obvious…that Grissom had just
fucked it
…that was all.

3
.
a
. to cheat; deceive; betray. Compare synonyms
screw
and
FRIG
. [At the 1866 quotation, there is a note by the notary public following “fucked” that reads: “Before putting down the word as used
by the witness, I requested him to reflect upon the language he attributed to Mr Baker, and not to impute to him an outrage upon all that was decent. The witness reitterated [
sic
] it, and said that it was the word used by Mr Baker.”]

1866
G. Washington
Affidavit
(Oct. 20) in I. Berlin et al.
Black Military Experience in Civil War
(1982) 791: Mr Baker replied that deponent would be
fucked
out of his money by Mr Brown.
1927
[J. Fliesler]
Anecdota Americana
76: It looks like you’ve fucked yourself out of a seat.
1932
H. Miller in
Letters to Emil
(1989) 114: But they fucked me all right. Fucked me good and proper.
1934
H. Miller
Tropic of Cancer
49: One by one I’ve fucked myself out of all these free meals which I had planned so carefully.
1935
E. E. Cummings in
Letters
136: “Fuck” has been changed to “trick” in new [
New English Weekly
] today arriving with editor’s comments.
1942
L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark
American Thesaurus of Slang
312: Cheat; defraud…
fuck (out of)
.
1945
in D. Levin
From Battlefield
56: He has been fucked again and again by the Corps.
1951
in
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis
XXV (1954) 39: To “get fucked” is to be made a “sucker.”
1954
L. Yablonsky
Violent Gang
75: Although I hang with them for protection, I fuck everybody. They try to burn me, I get my blade, I’ll get ’em all but good.
1959
W. Burroughs
Naked Lunch
179: You’re trying to fuck me out of my commission!
1960
G. Sire
Deathmakers
44: They’re out to fuck you. The whole fucking world. So fuck them first.
1961
J. Baldwin
Another Country
77: We been fucked for fair.
1965
in J. Mills
On Edge
8: You thought you were going to get laid, and what you really got was fucked.
1969
L. H. Whittemore
Cop!
27: So it’s the Puerto Ricans that fuck the Puerto Ricans. They sell their own people the worst shit.
1972
D. Halberstam
Best & Brightest
66 [refers to 1961]: Carl Kaysen…brought in the news that the Soviets had resumed atmospheric [nuclear] testing. The President’s reaction was simple and basic and reflected due frustrations of that year. “Fucked again,” he said.
1978
W. Strieber
Wolfen
201: But he ain’t gonna fuck me. He must think I’m some kind of schoolboy.
1979–82
L. Gwin
Going Overboard
195: As Mick tried to teach me, “Top dog fucks the bottom dog. That’s the law of the jungle.”
1983–86
G.C. Wilson
Supercarrier
67: “Being in the Russian military is like being in a chicken coop,” Belenko would say in his lectures. “You know you’re going to be fucked, you just don’t know when.”
1994
Q. Tarantino
Pulp Fiction
32:
Brett
. I just want you to know how sorry we are about how
fucked up things got between us and Mr. Wallace. When we entered into this thing, we only had the best intentions—…
Jules
. Does he look like a bitch?… Then why did you try to fuck ’im like a bitch?… Yes ya did Brett. Ya tried ta fuck ’im.
2004
P. Biskind
Down & Dirty Pictures
vi. 215: According to their bookkeeping, the film never made anything, even though it made so much money all over the world. I just got fucked out of everything.

b
. (in variations implying especially cruel deception or brutalization).

1945
in T. Shibutani
Derelicts of Company K
115: We’d get fucked out of Saturday afternoon though.… In this place they always fuck you in the ass when they get a chance.
1965
in H.S. Thompson
Shark Hunt
114: We read/a newspaper and saw where just about everybody/had been fucked in the face/or some other orifice or opening…/by the time the Chronicle went to press.
1974
R. Carter
16th Round
257: The cops knew that they were fucking me with a dry dick.
1977
E. Torres
Q & A
75: You got ten big ones.… We will fuck Reilly in the ass.
1978
R. Price
Ladies’ Man
106: Me? I went to [college]. I got fucked up the ass…I dropped out of school with six months to go.
1983
D. Mamet
Glengarry Glen Ross
36: When they
build
your business…fuck them up the ass.
1991
“Ice Cube”
No Vaseline
(rap song): You’re gettin’ fucked out your green by a white boy, with no Vaseline.
1997
New Yorker
(Sept. 8) 37: Gil didn’t understand how much firepower Steve had.… Steve is going to fuck Gil so hard his eardrums will pop.
2001
in L. Gottleib & J. Jacobs
Inside the Cult of Kibu
245: The company was doomed.… They got fucked up the ass, hard, without lube.

4.a
. (used as an imprecation or oath); God damn; to hell with; curse. See also
fuck it
, below, and
fuck you
, below.

1918
in E. Wilson
Prelude
213: I’ve often seen a couple o’ chaps bringin’ back a wounded prisoner and they get tired of leadin’ ’im and one of ’em says: “Aw, fuck ’im, Jock! Let’s do ’im in,” and they shoot ’im and leave ’im there.
1914–21
J. Joyce
Ulysses
603 [refers to 1904]: God fuck old Bennett.
1924
E. Hemingway in
Selected Letters
(1981) 113: I have lost the fine thrill enjoyed by Benj. Franklin when entering Philadelphia with a roll under each arm. Fuck Literature.
1926
F. Wray trans. H. Barbusse
Under Fire
110: F—them.
1929
in E. O’Neill
Letters
341: But I am forgetting our old watchword
of the Revolution—F—k ’em all!
1934
H. Miller
Tropic of Cancer
280: He was for eating a sandwich. “Fuck that!” I said.
1943
in M. Morriss & R. Day
South Pacific Diary
(1996) 72: So cheer up lads—fuck ’em all.
1948
N. Mailer
Naked & Dead
169 [refers to WWII]: I’m fugged if I’m going to tote a box all the way back.
1949
V. Van Praag
Day Without End
215: “Orders be fucked!” he muttered.
1952
S. Bellow
Adventures of Augie March
397: Oh, fuck Oliver!
1958
I. Fleming
Dr. No
(1960) xvii. 154: Bond said out loud, viciously, “—them all,” and turned sullenly back on his stomach.
1961
J. Peacock
Valhalla
425 [refers to 1953]: Eat the apple and fuck the Corps in ’54!
1965
S. Linakis
In Spring the War Ended
206: “Are you?” “Fucked if I know.”
1967
L. Yablonsky
Hippie Trip
206: I said fuck this shit and moved over here.
1983
W. D. Ehrhart
Vietnam to Perkasie
55 [refers to 1967]: Fuckin’ ARVN got better equipment than we do. Eat the apple and fuck the Corps.
1995
CA v. Simpson
(Court-TV) (Sept. 6): Fuck the rules. We’ll make them up later.
1998
D. Shapiro
Slow Motion
viii. 201:
Alcoholics Anonymous
, she had scribbled, along with a few names of churches and times of meetings. Fuck her, I thought. What does she know?
2005
S. Horn
Restless Sleep
ii. 23: If the detectives really weren’t doing their jobs and clearing these cases, fuck’em.

b
. (in stronger, more vivid, or more elaborate curses). See also
fuck you and the horse you rode in on,
below.

1940
J. Del Torto
Graffiti Transcript
(Kinsey Institute): Fuck you where you breathe.
1958
Stack A Lee
1: So fuck Billy the Lion in his motherfucking ass.
1962
G. Mandel
Wax Boom
72 [refers to WWII]: I fuck you all where you breathe.
1967
J. Rechy
Numbers
68: Fuck you in the ears, muscle-ladies.
1968
R. Gover
JC
164: As for the board [of directors], fuck it with a sixpenny nail.
1969
N.Y.C. man, age
ca
45: When we were kids we’d say, “Fuck ’em all, big and small, right up to the nostrils!”
1970
J. Conaway
Big Easy
94: “
Chinga su madre!
” “Fuck you in the heart,” he rejoined.
1971
H. Selby
Room
134: You’re a rotten lousy son of a bitch and I fuck you where you eat, and your mother too.
1973
M. Scorsese & M. Martin
Mean Streets
(film): I fuck you where you breathe! I don’t give two shits for you!
1975
S. P. Smith
American Boys
309: Fuck you in your mouth, Red!
1977
E. Bunker
Animal Factory
117: If she’s been a jiveass bitch, fuck her in her ass.
1978
L. K. Truscott
Dress Gray
370: Yeah? Well, fuck them and their marching orders.
1979
National Lampoon
(Dec.) 17: Fuck you in the eye.
1980
H. Gould
Fort Apache
51: Fuck them and the horse they rode in on.… Fuck ’em all, big and small.
1979–82
L. Gwin
Going
Overboard
185: Fuck you in the mouth, kiddo. This job is mine.
1983
S. Wright
Meditations
297: Fuck you in the ear.
1984
W. J. Caunitz
One Police Plaza
254: Fuck ’em where they breathe.
1984
A. R. Sample
Racehoss
217 [refers to
ca
1960]: Fuck all ya’ll rat dead in the ass!
1987
N. Bell
Cold Sweat
11: So fuck you both in the heart.
1993
G. Lee
Honor & Duty
130: Fuck you in the ear.
1995
A. Ginsberg in
Nation
(Nov. 27) 669: Fuck you in the face.
1996
D. Gilbert in
Harper’s
(July) 72: “Man, you’re hopeless.”…“Fuck your teeth.”
1997
Village Voice
(N.Y.C.) (Apr. 22) 53: Fuck my gums!
2007
A. Kentawy
Sunset Tales from New Iraq
199: Fuck you in the goat ass you fucken piece of fucken Chinese crap.