fleck

English

Etymology

From Middle English *flekk, *flekke (attested in Middle English flekked (“spotted, flecked”)), from Old Norse flekkr (“spot”), from Proto-Germanic *flekka-. Cognate with Dutch vlek, German Fleck, Swedish fläck.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɛk/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛk

Noun

fleck (plural flecks)

1. A flake.
   • 1675, William Rabisha, The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected, Taught and Fully:

     two flecks of Lard cut with your knife

2. A lock, as of wool.
   • 1861, Theodore Martin, The poems of Catullus, translated into English verse:

     With teeth they smooth their work, as on it slips,
     And flecks of wool stick to their wither'd lips

   • 2015, Graham Masterson, Eye for an Eye: A Katie Maguire Short Story:

     A single fleck of wool from his sock got caught on a splintery floorboard and that was enough to convict him.

3. A small spot or streak; a speckle.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:modicum

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto LI, page 74:

     So fret not, like an idle girl, / That life is dash'd with flecks of sin. / Abide: thy wealth is gathered in, / When Time hath sunder'd shell from pearl.

4. A small amount.

   a fleck of hope

   a fleck of imagination

Translations

Verb

fleck (third-person singular simple present flecks, present participle flecking, simple past and past participle flecked)

1. (transitive) To mark (something) with small spots.

   Synonym: (obsolete) fleak

   • 1908, W B M Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

Translations

Luxembourgish

Verb

fleck

1. second-person singular imperative of flecken