Sc. and north. dial. Also 5–6 fek, 6 fecc, fect. [app. aphetic f. EFFECT sb.]
† 1. = EFFECT 2 b. The purport, drift, tenor, or substance (of a statement, intention, etc.). Sometimes coupled with form. ? Obs.
With first quot. cf. Chaucer, Merck, T., 153. Theffecte of his entente.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 2938. This is the fek of our entent.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 684. In forme and fect as it wes wont to be.
c. 1550. A. Scott, in Sibbald, Chron. Scot. Poetry, III. 148.
| Wald ye foirsè the forme, | |
| The fassoun, and the fek, | |
| Ye suld it fynd inorme, | |
| With bawdry yow to blek. |
1600. Heywood, 1 Edw. IV., IV. iv. So the feck and meaning, whereby, as it were, of all your long purgation, Sir Humfrey, is no more, in some respect, but the King wants money, and would haue some of his commonty.
2. [Cf. EFFECT 1 b.] Efficacy, efficiency, value; hence, vigour, energy.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 617.
| Thocht sum man said, quhilk semis weill to be | |
| Of lytill fecc or ȝit auctoritie. |
1597. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 631. Thay ar maire faschious nor of feck.
1789. Burns, Elegy on the Year 1788, 19.
| For Eighty-eight, he wished you weel, | |
| An’ gied ye a’ baith gear an’ meal; | |
| E’en mony a plack, and mony a peck, | |
| Ye ken yoursels, for little feck! |
1811. Willan, W. Riding Gloss., Feck, might, activity, zeal, abundance.
1823. Galt, Ringan Gilhaize, III. 169. Your laddie there’s owre young to be o’ ony fek in the way o’ war.
3. Amount, quantity. The (most) feck: the bulk, greatest part, ‘practically the whole.’
The corresponding sense of EFFECT sb. was not recognized in its proper place in this Dictionary, but an example of it prob. occurs in Chaucer, Fr. Tale, 153, ‘My purchas is theffect of al my rente,’ which may be rendered ‘My gains are the feck of all my income.’
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, VIII. 700. Swa sall we fend the fek of this regioun.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 526.
| The lordis all that tyme for the most fect, | |
| Amang thame self held Donewald suspect. |
a. 1774. Fergusson, Leith Races, Poet. Wks. (1845), 35.
| The races owre, they haill the dules | |
| Wi’ drink o’ a’ kin-kind: | |
| Great feck gae hirplin hame like fools, | |
| The cripple lead the blind. |
1794. Burns, Carle of Kelly Burn Braes, 53. I hae been a Deevil the feck o’ my life.
1822. W. J. Napier, Pract. Store-Farm., 266. ‘I hope you have lost none.’ ‘No mony.’ ‘What feck, think ye?’
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, xxiii. ‘Naething will be said or dune among a’ thae grand folk, for maybe the feck of three hours.’
1876. Whitby Gloss., s.v. ‘He did t’ feck o’ t’ wark.’ Ibid. ‘There’s a rare feck on’t.’
1887. Stevenson, Merry Men, 139. ‘He had a feck o’ books wi’ him—mair than had ever been seen before in a’ that presbytery.
