▪ I. flaught, n.1 Chiefly Sc.
(flɔːt, Sc. flaxt)
Also 4–5 flaght(e, 8–9 flaucht.
[ME. flaȝt, prob. repr. either OE. *fleaht or ON. *flaht-r (Icel. fláttr, used only in the sense ‘act of flaying’: see Fritzner s.v.); the OTeut. type would be *flahtu-z, f. either of the parallel roots flah-, flak- (Aryan -plak, plag-), whence flake n.2 and flaw n.2, both which have senses identical with those of this word.]
1. = flake n.2 1 a. Obs. exc. Sc.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 133 A flaghte of snawe, floccus. 1808 Jamieson s.v. Flaucht, A flaucht of snaw. |
b. A lock of hair or wool; = flake n.2 1 b; spec. (see quot. 1825).
| 1786 Ross Helenore (1789) 55 In flaughts roove out her hair. 1806 R. Jamieson Pop. Ballads I. 20 He's sent to you what ye lo'ed maist, A flaught o' his yellow hair. 1825 Brockett Gloss. N.C. Words, Flaut, Flought a roll of wool carded ready for spinning. |
2. A flash; a flash of lightning; a ‘tongue’ of flame; = flake n.2 2. Cf. fire-flaught.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 17372 (Cott.) His cher lik was flaght [pr. slaght] o fire. a 1724 Vision ii. in Ramsay's Evergreen (1824) I. 212 The Thunder crakt, and Flauchts did rift Frae the blak Vissart of the Lift. 1820 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 202 Naething but a flaucht o' fire every now and then, to keep the road by. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. Flaught or Fire-flaught applied to the particle of ‘live’ gaseous coal which darts out of a fire. 1887 Swinburne Locrine iv. i. 159 When your eyes Wax red and dark, with flaughts of fire between, I fear them. |
3. A sudden blast of wind (and rain); = flake n.5 b, flaw n.2 Sc.
| 1802 Sibbald Chron. Sc. Poetry IV. Gloss., Flaggis, Flaughts, sudden blasts of wind, or of wind and rain. Mod. Sc. The snaw is fleein by in flauchts. |
4. A turf; also collect. turf. Obs. exc. dial. Cf. flag n.2, flake n.2
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 57, I felle vpon þat floury flaȝt. 1483 Cath. Angl. 133 A Flaghte..vbi a turfe. c 1746 J. Collier (Tim Bobbin) View Lanc. Dial. Wks. (1862) 47 Meh Heart as leet as o bit on o Flaight. Ibid. Gloss., Flaight, a light turf. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Flaughts pl. turves for the fire. In Whitby Abbey Rolls, ‘flaghts.’ |
▪ II. flaught, n.2 Sc.
(flaxt)
[var. of flocht.]
1. A spreading out, as of wings for flight; a fluttering or agitated movement; a commotion.
| 1821 Galt Annals of Parish vii. 75 Nothing was spared but what the servants in the first flaught gathered up in a hurry and ran with. 1822 Sir A. Wylie II. i. 5 Getting up wi a great flaught of his arms. |
2. A flock of birds flying together; a flight.
| 1818 Edin. Mag. Aug. 155 As gin they had been a flaucht o' dows. |
▪ III. flaught, n.3 Sc.
[f. the vb.]
In pl. ‘Instruments used in preparing wool.’ (Jam.)
| 1875 in Ure's Dict. Arts II. 402. |
▪ IV. flaught, v. Sc. and north. dial.
(flaxt)
Also flauch(t.
[f. flaught n.1 (sense 1 b).]
‘To card (wool) into thin flakes’ (Jam. Suppl. 1825).
▪ V. flaught, adv. Sc.
(flɔːt, Sc. flaxt)
[Cf. flaught n.2]
With outspread wings; with great eagerness (Jam.). Cf. flaughtbred.
| 1806 Train Sparrow & H., Poet. Reveries 80 Then flaught on Philip, wi' a rair, She flew, an' pluck't his bosom bare. |