flusker, v. Obs. exc. dial.
(ˈflʌskə(r))
[freq. of flusk ‘to fly at, as two cocks’ (‘Tim Bobbin’ Lanc. Dial.), ‘to startle a bird out of a bush’ (Almondbury Gloss., E.D.S.). Cf. flush v.1, flasker v.]
1. a. intr. To flutter or fly irregularly.
| 1660–1794 [see fluskering vbl. n. and ppl. a.]. 1820 Clare Rural Life (ed. 3) 150 A blackbird, or thrush, That, started from sleep, flusker'd out of the bush. 1821 ― Vill. Minstr. I. 94 The crowing pheasant..fluskers up. 1877 Leigh Chesh. Gloss., Flusker..to fly irregularly, as nestlings taking their first purposeless flight. |
2. trans. To fluster, confuse. Only in pass.
| 1841 Hartshorne Salop. Antiq. 429 ‘Meetily flusker'd’. 1854 Baker Northamptonsh. Gloss. I. 248, ‘I was so fluskered, I could not tell what to do’. |
Hence ˈfluskering vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1660 H. More Myst. Godl. vi. vi. 228 The offers and fluskerings, as I may so say, of the Faculties of the Soul of man. 1668 ― Div. Dial. II. 48 What strange..fluskering conceits flie up into the youthful imagination of Hylobares. 1794 T. Gisborne Walks Forest (1796) 69 Then with fluskering wings Broke forth. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 72 The fluskering pheasant took to wing. |