▪ I. flack, n.1 dial.
(flæk)
[echoic; cf. F. flac in same sense.]
A blow, slap, or stroke.
| 1823 Moor Suffolk Words, Flack, a blow. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Flack, a blow, particularly with something loose and pliant. |
▪ II. flack, n.2 slang (chiefly U.S.).
(flæk)
[Origin unkn.]
A press agent; a publicity man.
| 1946 ‘S. Sterling’ Where there's Smoke xiii. 99 That publicity flack is here. 1961 A. Berkman Singers' Gloss. Show Business 23 Flack, a member of the Publicity Department (usually of a motion picture studio); press agent. 1966 L. Charbonneau Way Out xiv. 102 And all of a sudden my flack friend believes in his own fairy tales. 1968 C. Drummond Death & Leaping Ladies v. 120 They were booked to do ten matches in Mexico City; Bull, their flack, had lined up the opposition. |
Add: 2. Special Comb. flackman orig. U.S. = sense 1; also, more loosely, an apologist or supporter.
| 1966 S. Freberg (title of comedy sketch) The *flackman and Reagan! [from record Freberg Underground Show No. 1]. 1973 Daily Tel. 8 Dec. 10/3 Of his [sc. Nixon's] principal flackmen and cronies,..a large and increasing number are now in jail. 1987 Spectator 21 Mar. 21/2 No amount of money, and no flackman genius, can sell Kinnock's policy to the President. 1989 Boston Globe 28 Mar. 30/1 The April 3 issue is a flackman's dream with a cover on Disney World. |
Hence ˈflackery n., the activity of press agents; public relations; promotion, ‘hype’.
| 1962 Time 20 Apr. 68/1 With the usual whiff of flackery, commuters making the maiden voyage were given life memberships in the Commuter Yacht Club. 1967 Maclean's Mag. Apr. 110/2 Belly-Button..happens to be a very funny book. Funny enough, perhaps, to sell well even without flim-flam or flackery. 1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 5 July 7/3 Restaurants where, the flackery holds, it may take anywhere up to six months to get a reservation. 1986 Fortune 26 May 100/1 The possibility that acid depositions in North American watersheds may have been overstated owing to high-level flackery. |
▪ III. flack, v. Obs. exc. dial.
(flæk)
[ME. flacken, of onomatopœic formation = MDu. vlacken (Kilian), Icel. flaka to flap, hang loose.]
1. intr. To flap, flutter; to flap the wings; to throb, palpitate.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 315 Her herte..[began] to flacke and bete. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 71 The Crow..flieth and flacketh about his eies and face. 1788 W. Marshall Yorksh. Gloss., Flack, to flicker as a bird; to throb as a wound. 1876 Mid. Yorksh. Gloss., Flack, to pulsate heavily. |
2. To hang loosely. dial.
| a 1825 Forby in Voc. E. Anglia. 1847 in Halliwell. |
3. trans. To move or shake intermittently; to flap, flick; also, to flap or flick with (something). (Connoting a clumsier instrument and a ‘flatter’ blow than flick.)
| 1751 R. Paltock P. Wilkins (1884) I. xii. 137, I observed it..frequently flacking its short tail. 1819 Metropolis I. 58 He now flacked his boot with a silk handkerchief. 1859 Sala Gas-light & D. xxxiii. 385 Flacking his horsewhip. 1870 Daily Tel. 20 Aug. 3 Flacking his cloak in the eyes of a huge bull. |
4. Agric. To beat with a flail; also to rake (hay).
| 1744–50 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. VI. iii. 71 They..flack the Heap of Corn not only once as it lies, but they turn it, and thrash it again and again. 1891 Rutland Gloss., Flack in, to rake hay in a long row. |
Hence ˈflacking vbl. n., the action of the vb.
| 1844 Zoologist II. 500 The flight was quite distinct from the ‘flacking along the water’ of which Mr. Parsons speaks. |
▪ IV. flack, v.2 N. Amer. colloq.
(flæk)
[f. flack n.2]
1. intr. To act as a press agent or promoter (for a person); hence, in extended use, to disseminate favourable publicity or information; to proselytize.
| 1966 Time 25 Mar. 55/2 Since he flacked for Fanny he has refined his methods. 1970 Time 15 June 40/3 The newsman fired by Washington's WETA-TV because his wife was hired to flack for Martha Mitchell. 1975 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 6 Dec. 3/2 Charges that the local news media shamelessly flack for the organizing committee. 1983 National Rev. (U.S.) 30 Sept. 1226/1 Never mind your dream, Buster—forget cement or pest control—start flacking for Rubin. 1984 Forbes (N.Y.) 30 Jan. 108/1 You could cite the country's poverty... You might even fault the tourism board for not flacking hard enough. Whatever, Americans are not flocking to India as they are to other, more expensive destinations. |
2. trans. To promote or speak in favour of (a person or thing), to ‘sell’; to retail or disseminate (information, etc.) to this end.
| 1975 J. K. Galbraith Money vii. 83 William Jennings Bryan..was reduced at the end of his life to flacking Florida real estate. 1977 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 16 Mar. 8/1 There was Marshall McLuhan receiving an honorary degree, presumably in honor of the gibberish he has flacked in the name of communications. 1985 Chicago Tribune v. 13p/2 ‘I'm in an awkward position,’ she explained. ‘It doesn't do anyone any good to attack work you've just done,’ and yet she said if she ‘flakked it’ she'd feel guilty about luring people into the theaters. 1986 Christian Science Monitor 15 Jan. 28/2 A few dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies, which they flacked with free samples from the Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chippery. |