▪ I. feak, n.
(fiːk)
[Perh. related to feak v.3; possibly a sing. inferred from feax, fax n.1, mistaken for a pl.]
A dangling curl of hair.
| 1548 Thomas Ital. Gram., Ciocca, a feake, or quantitie of heare. 1598 Marston Pygmal. Sat. i. 138 He that..Can dally with his Mistres dangling feake, And wish that he were it. 1600 Abp. Abbot Exp. Jonah 593 It doth not become thee to go with such feakes and lockes. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. ii. (1653) 72 If anything be lopped off their feaks or foretops. |
▪ II. † feak, v.1 Obs.
[var. of feague v.]
trans. To beat, to thrash.
| 1652 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 117 The foole was feakt for this. |
Hence ˈfeaking vbl. n.; in quot. attrib.
| 1601 Cornwallyes Ess. xxiv, Being without his feaking sticke, he is without himselfe. |
▪ III. feak, v.2 Falconry.
(fiːk)
Cf. feat v. 2.
[ad. Ger. fegen to cleanse, sweep.]
a. intr. Of a hawk: To wipe the beak after feeding. b. trans. To wipe (the beak); also, to wipe the beak of.
| c 1575 Perfect Bk. Kepinge Sparhawkes (ed. Harting 1886) 19 They must..haue tyme to feake. 1618 Latham 2nd Bk. Falconry 146 When she hath fed, feaked, and reioyced. 1686 R. Blome Gentl. Recreat. ii. 48 When she [your Hawk] hath Fed, say she Feaketh her Beak and not wipeth it. 1852 R. F. Burton Falconry in Valley Indus iii. 28, I..gently pulled her off the pelf, feaked and hooded her. |
▪ IV. feak, v.3 dial.
(fiːk)
Also 9 feek.
[Cf. fike v. and ON. fj{uacu}ka to drift, fly away, and its causative feyka to blow, drive away, to rush.]
1. trans. To twitch, jerk, pull smartly.
| 1548 Thomas Ital. Gram., Dichiomare..to feake the heare awaie. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., ‘I know w'en our Maister's in a bad 'umour, fur e' al'ays feaks 'is wescut down.’ |
2. intr. (See quots.)
| 1775 Ash, Feake (v. int. in the Scotch dialect), to flutter, to be officiously busy, to be idle. 1811 W. Riding Gloss., Feak, to fidget, to be restless or busied about trifles. 1878 Cumbrld. Gloss., Feek, to be uneasy or anxious. |