fee-faw-fum
(fiːfɔːfʌm)
Also 7 fie foh fumme, 8 fe fi fo fum, 7–9 fee fa fum.
1. The first line of doggerel spoken by the giant in the nursery tale of ‘Jack the giant killer’ upon discovering the presence of Jack.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 188 His word was still fie, foh, and fumme, I smell the blood of a British man. 1711 Chap-bk., Jack & the Giants 11, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum I smell the Blood of an English Man. |
2. a. An exclamation indicating a murderous intention. b. Nonsense, fitted only to terrify children. Also attrib.
| 1690 Dryden Amphitryon ii. i, The bloody villain is at his fee, fa, fum, already. 1811 Lexicon Balatronicum, I am not to be frightened by fee, faw, fum. 1825 Macaulay Milton Ess. 1854 I. 12 They have..none of the fee-faw-fum of Tasso and Klopstock. 1830 A. Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837) II. 10 The fee-fa-fum style of rhetoric. a 1850 M. F. Ossoli At Home & Abroad (1860) 400 It is they who invent all the ‘fe, fo, fum’ stories about Italy. 1855 Browning Men & Women I. Lover's Quarrel 16 The valiant Thumb Facing the castle glum And the giant's fee-faw-fum! 1890 Review of Reviews II. 538/2 This is all fee-faw-fum. |
3. Used to express ‘a blood-thirsty person’.
| 1678 Dryden Limberham v. i, That Fe-fa-fum of a Keeper wou'd have smelt the Blood of a Cuckold-maker. 1824 S. E. Ferrier Inher. xiv, I feel so much of the fee, fa, fum about me, that I can scarcely ask you to trust your⁓self with me. |
Hence fee-faw-fumish a.
| 1846 Geo. Eliot Let. in Life ii. 81 The note in this proof sounds just as fee-fo-fumish as the other. |