▪ I. frisking, vbl. n.
(ˈfrɪskɪŋ)
[f. frisk v. + -ing1.]
In senses of the vb.
| 1553 tr. Beza's Admonit. Parl. (1566) G iij b, The Lords Supper..is transformed into..olde stagelike frisking and horrible Idol gadding. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Gambade, Old peoples frisking doth presage their ending. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Nose, If it [the Blood] proceeds from a Vein, it is thicker and redder, and runs without any frisking. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Frisking, the wind freshening. 1890 Spectator 3 May 624/1 And the lambs bleat!.. And their friskings, and their races! 1913 H. A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 v. 140 We..gave them and their baggage such a ‘frisking’ as befalls a kaffir leaving a South African diamond mine. 1938 M. Allingham Fashion in Shrouds xix. 342 She only admitted one person at a time into the room, and then only after a keen visual ‘frisking’. 1958 S. Ellin Eighth Circle ii. xviii. 141 It was a professional frisking, down to the way his wrist watch..and pen were removed and examined. 1968 New Scientist 9 May 288/3 These [uses] included alarm devices in the entrances to banks and aircraft and as a police tool for the ‘frisking’ of the public. 1971 Times 7 May 2/3 (headline) Judge rejects protest over frisking. |
▪ II. frisking, ppl. a.
(ˈfrɪskɪŋ)
[f. frisk v. + -ing2.]
That frisks, in senses of the vb. † Of wine: Sparkling.
| 1566 Drant Horace's Sat. i. F ij, Fragrant friskyng wyne. 1610 Dr. Dodypoll iii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 122 A fine frisking usher in a dauncing schoole. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 105 The quick Motions of the frisking Tail. 1725 Pope Odyss. xiii. 296 The bounding goats and frisking heifers rove. 1827 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 21 A certain snappishness—a frisking abruptness. |
Hence ˈfriskingly adv., in a frisking or frisky manner.
| In mod. Dicts. |