fixings

A word used with absurd laxity, especially in the South and West, to signify arrangements, embellishments, trimmings, garnishings of any kind.

A man who goes into the woods as one of these veteran settlers observed to me, has a heap of little fixin's to study out, and a great deal of projecting to do.--Judge Hall, Letters from the West, Let. 18.

The theatre was better filled, and the fixings looked nicer than in Philadelphia.--Crockett, Tour down East, p. 38.

All the fellows fell to getting grapes for the ladies; but they all had their Sunday fixins on, and were afraid to go into the brush.--Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 42.

"Ah!" exclaimed the teamster [to a gentleman who had a good deal of luggage], "what anybody on earth can want with such lots of fixins, I'm sure's dark to me."--Mrs. Clavers, Forest Life, Vol. I. p.97.

One half of the country is overflowed in the winter, and t'other half, which is a darned sight the biggest, is covered with cane, pimento, and other fixins.--Porter's South-western Tales, p. 123.

The following advice was given to the editor of a new Western paper:

Advertise our doins in gineral, such as we got to sell, and throw yourself wide on the literary fixins and poetry for the galls; and, Mister, if you do this with spirit, the whole town will take your paper.--Robb, Squatter Life, p. 31.

For a use of the term as applied to food, see Chicken Fixings.