▪ I. freckle, n.
(ˈfrɛk(ə)l)
Forms: 5–6 fracel, -le, frakel, -il, -le, 6 frekell(e, -le, -yll, 6–7 freck-(e)l, 7 frecle, -lle, 6– freckle.
[Alteration of frecken.]
1. A yellowish or light-brown spot in the skin, said to be produced by exposure to the sun and wind.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 189 Of clooþ þat is clepid fraclis or goute roset. 1544 T. Phaer Regim. Lyfe (1553) B v a, Lac virginis..taketh awaie frekles of y⊇ visage. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 163 The legs and thighes discoloured into frekels. 1700 Dryden Palamon & A. iii. 76 Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen, Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin. 1775 Sheridan Duenna ii. ii, Her skin..spangled here and there with a golden freckle. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. Fleet I. 5 She was running about without thinking of freckles. |
| fig. a 1535 More Wks. 7 He semed somwhat besprent w{supt} the frekell of negligence. |
2. Any small spot or discoloration.
| 1547 Borde Introd. Knowl. i. (1870) 127 If a man doth cast a cupe..in the well, it wyll be full of droppes or frakils. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 13 In their [Cowslips'] gold coats, spots you see, Those be Rubies, Fairie fauors, In those freckles, liue their sauors. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. 3 One would take them at first but for little reddish Frecles and Spots. 1784 Cowper Task vi. 241 Not a flower But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain, Of his unrivalled pencil. 1813 T. Forster Atmos. Phænom. (1815) 78 A sort of cirrostratus like little freckles. 1832 Bowles St. John in Patmos v. 57 Not a freckle stained the firmament High overhead. |
| transf. 18.. O. W. Holmes Good Time Going, This little speck, the British Isles? 'Tis but a freckle: never mind it! |
† 3. ? A wrinkle. Obs.
| 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 169 b, They fille vp theyr frekyllys: and stretche abrode theyr skyn with tetanother. |
4. Comb., as freckle-water; freckle-faced adj.
| 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2380/4 Charles Vine..freckle Fac'd..Run away from his Master. 1856 A. Manning Tasso & Leonora 100, I am off to the Barber-surgeon's to buy some freckle-water for Madama Leonora. 1884 Harper's Mag. Jan. 307/1 You were freckle-faced. |
▪ II. freckle, v.
(ˈfrək(ə)l)
[f. the n.]
1. trans. To cover with freckles or spots.
| 1613 Chapman Revenge Bussy d' Ambois Plays 1873 II. 107 The bloud She so much thirsts for, freckling hands and face. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 68 Persons naturally with brown skins, are blistered or freckled less than those who are fairer. 1844 Hood Discov. in Astron. ii, ‘Lord, master..To wonder so at spots upon the sun! I'll tell you what he's done—Freckled himself!’ |
b. intr. To appear in spots or patches.
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 207 The sunbeams, filtering small, Freckling through the branches fall. Ibid. II. 201 Where the sunshine freckles on the eye Through the half⁓clothed branches in the woods. |
2. intr. To become marked with freckles.
| 1842 Thackeray Fitz-Boodle's Conf. Wks. 1869 XXII. 220 Those fair complexions, they freckle so. 1889 Anstey Pariah i. iv, You know I never freckle. |