foxship

foxship

English

Etymology

From fox +‎ -ship.

Noun

foxship (uncountable)

1. The character or qualities of a fox; foxiness; craftiness; cunning.
   • Shakespeare, Coriolanus Act 4, Scene 2

     Hadst thou foxship to banish him that struck more blows for Rome than thou hast spoken words.

   • 2011, William Cunningham Bissell, Urban design, chaos, and colonial power in Zanzibar

     " […] 'Are we not Wasawahili?' men who obtain their ends by foxship?"

2. (Used as a mock title) The fox.
   • 1880, The Californian

     The dingo, however, does not possess the cunning of his foxship; and, unlike the latter, he "gives himself away" by heralding his coming by a peculiar howl, the authorship of which it is impossible to mistake.

   • 1904, Field and Stream

     I caught a fleeting far-away glimpse of the quarry as he loped across an open field just before re-entering the big swamp-I thought a few things that were anything but complimentary to his foxship, and throwing myself on the ground, […]

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for foxship in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)