fix

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

A condition; predicament; dilemma.


Some feller jest come and tuck my bundle and the jug of spirits, and left me in this here fix.--Chron. of Pineville, p. 47.

The gentleman must be stronger in the faith than ourselves, if he does not find himself in an awkward fix.--N. Y. Com. Adv. Oct. 18, 1845.

Are you drunk too? Well, I never did see you in that fix in all my live-long born days.--Georgia Scenes, p. 163.

TO FIX

In popular use, to put in order; to prepare; to adjust; to set or place in the manner desired or most suitable.--Webster.

Mr. Lyell, in his late book of Travels in North America, chap. iii. has the following remarks on this word: "At one of the stations where the train stopped, we heard one young woman from Ohio exclaim, 'Well, we are in a pretty fix!' and found their dilemma to be characteristic of the financial crisis of these times, for none of their dollar notes of the Ohio banks would pass here. The substantive 'fix' is an acknowledged vulgarism; but the verb is used in New England by well-educated people, in the sense of the French 'arrange,' or the English 'do.' To fix the hair, the table, the fire, means to dress the hair, lay the table, and make up the fire; and this application is, I presume, of Hibernian origin, as the Irish gentleman, King Corney, in Miss Edgeworth's tale of Ormond, says, 'I'll fix him and his wounds.'"

In Upper Canada this word is equally common, where it was probably introduced by the American settlers:

One of their most remarkable terms is to fix. Whatever work requires to be done must be fixed. 'Fix the room,' is to set it in order. 'Fix the table,' 'Fix the fire,' says the mistress to her servants and the things are fixed accordingly.--Backwoods of Canada, p. 82.

Related Words