fleck meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

fleck

noun

/flɛk/

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.

A flake.

two flecks of Lard cut with your knife1675, William Rabisha, The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected, Taught and Fully:

A lock, as of wool.

With teeth they smooth their work, as on it slips, And flecks of wool stick to their wither'd lips1861, Theodore Martin, The poems of Catullus, translated into English verse:
A single fleck of wool from his sock got caught on a splintery floorboard and that was enough to convict him.2015, Graham Masterson, Eye for an Eye: A Katie Maguire Short Story:

A small spot or streak; a speckle.

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.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto LI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 74:

A small amount.

a fleck of hope
a fleck of imagination

Derived terms: befleck, fleckless, flecky, pith fleck, snowfleck, sunfleck

fleck

verb

To mark (something) with small spots.

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.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
It was a perfect June day, with only a few light clouds flecking a pure blue sky.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 241:

1 more example

The Names of the Moons of Mars is a frequently somber book, flecked through with optimism and humor.1989 December 17, Nan Donald, “Broken Hearts, Messed Up Families, And New Beginnings”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 23, page 9:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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Conjugation of “fleck”, all tenses