flisk

plural flisks

1. ScotlandobsoleteA caper; a spring; a whim.
2. A comb with large teeth.

present singular third person flisks · participle present flisking · participle past flisked · past flisked

1. Northern EnglandScotlandTo frisk; to skip; to caper; to move quickly or restlessly.

   flit away the he flisking flies.

   1579, Stephen Gosson, The Schoole of Abuse

   2 more examples

   She flisked past me down the dale, / And, ah ! her cheek was painted pale " And wild , as is the wintry gale " That whistles thro ' the glade . " Three times I wander'd round the height , " My little flock to find , " I saw her wrath[…]

   1791, John Learmont, Poems, Pastoral, Satirical, Tragic, and Comic, page 40

   ... elves and fairies flisk a jig in, To waning moon:

   1878, William Nicholson, The poetical works of William Nicholson, with a memoir by M. McL. Harper, page 125

2. Northern EnglandScotlandTo flick or sprinkle (with or as if with water).

   'The wind got up east, and sent us a flisking rain.' Marianne Spry.—1888. S. B. G. To flisk is to sprinkle with fine spray; […]

   1889, Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, page 93

   2 more examples

   […] from everyone she had ever known, it seemed, except Jess who was out in his caped smock and leggings in a flisking rain, swearing[…]

   1990, Margery Forester, Rapid Falcons, →ISBN, page 73

   Streams and rivers in York could be wild and whimsical, drowning […] Cath stood on shore, her cloak heavy and damp. Flisked with water.

   1997, Marly Youmans, Catherwood, Harper Perennial, →ISBN, page 84