flacker, v. Obs. exc. dial.
(ˈflækə(r))
[ME. flakeren (possibly repr. OE. *flacorian; cf. flacor adj., flying, fluttering, and flicorian flicker v.), corresponding to MDu. flackeren, ON. flǫkra to flutter (Da. flagre), MHG. vlackern (mod.G. flackern) to flicker; a frequentative f. the onomatopœic stem flak-: see flack v.
The OHG. flagorôn, Flemish vlaggheren (Kilian) to flutter, may be compared as parallel onomatopœic formations.]
1. intr. To flap, flutter, throb; esp. of birds, to flap the wings, to fly flutteringly. In mod. dial. also trans. To flap (the wings) (Whitby Gloss.).
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1410 Foles in foler flakerande bitwene. 1535 Coverdale Isa. vi. 2 From aboue flakred the Seraphins. 1631 R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xviii. 321 As two Birds, that are flackering, and flying at the two ends of a threed. 1785 [Hutton] Bran New Wark 75 (E.D.S.) How strangely the mind of man flackers and flounces? 1877 Holderness Gloss. s.v., ‘Ther was a lot o' bods altegither, and didn't they flacker, mun, when Ah let gun off amang em?’ |
† 2. = flatter v. Obs. rare—1. (Perh. a corrupt reading; cf. however the similar sense of flicker v.)
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 222 Men..þet flakered [v.r. faltreð, flattereð] hire of freolac. |
Hence ˈflackering vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| c 1440 Gesta Rom. xxvi. 100 (Harl. MS) Þe Faucon seynge this, makethe a flakeryng with his wynges. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met viii. (1593) 192 Within the compasse of this pond great store of osiers grew..and flackring flags. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., A flackering at the heart. |