[Not found before 16th c.; though the related FLECK v. and FLECKED ppl. a. occur earlier; adopted from or cognate with ON. flekkr (Sw. fläck, MDa. flække), corresponding to MDu. vlecke fem. (Du. vlek fem., neut.), MLG. vlecke fem., vlek neut., OHG. flec(ch, fleccho, blow, mark of a blow, speck, spot, place (MHG. vlec, vlecke, mod.Ger. fleck, flecken speck, spot, hamlet):—OTeut. *flekko-, -kon-. Cf. the derivative Ger. flicken to patch.
The ulterior affinities are somewhat obscure; some of the senses strongly suggest connection with FLAKE sb.1 and the OAryan root plăg- or plăk- to strike; but the root vowels seem to belong to different ablaut-series. Further, the sense ‘patch,’ found in continental Teut., points to connection with ON. flĭk patch, rag, the form of which implies ĭ (neither e nor a) as the root vowel. Possibly two distinct OTeut. words have coalesced.]
1. A mark in the skin; a blemish, freckle, spot; also, a sore or abrasion of the skin.
1598. Florio, Varo, a fleck, or freckle in one’s face.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 377. The greace of a swan is commended both for to clense the skin of the face from all flecks and freckles, and also to take away wrinkles.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., s.v. Flesche-Axe, Fleck is properly a sore in the flesh from whence the skin is rubbed off.
1866. Swinburne, Poems & Ball., Laus Veneris, 1.
| Asleep or waking is it? for her neck | |
| Kissed over close, wears yet a purple speck | |
| Wherein the pained blood falters and goes out; | |
| Soft, and stung softly—fairer for a fleck. |
1889. N. W. Linc. Gloss., s.v. Them harvist-bugs hes maade big flecks cum oot all oher my airms.
fig. 1850. Tennyson, In Mem., li.
| So fret not, like an idle girl, | |
| That life is dash’d with flecks of sin. | |
| Abide: thy wealth is gather’d in, | |
| When Time hath sunder’d shell from pearl. |
1879. Hesba Stretton, Needle’s Eye, I. 196. There was not a fleck upon his reputation, nor an apparent flaw in his character.
b. A patch, spot, or streak of colour, light, etc.
1804. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1846), VI. 120. They [hammock cloths] have been badly painted (if it may be called painting), as it is all run in flecks, and peels off with the least touch.
1849. Longf., Building Ship, 89.
| Shadows from the flags and shrouds, | |
| Like the shadows cast by clouds, | |
| Broken by many a sunny fleck, | |
| Fall around them on the deck. |
1863. Macm. Mag., VII. Jan., 172/2. While I gazed, they were no longer on the ground; for the wings of many of them were extended, and through the sapphire air these rose and rose in rustling crowds, and others and others followed them, till, as if with pails of gold connected and ascending, the universal blue from Earth to Heaven was filled with flecks of fire.
1863. Baring-Gould, Iceland, 208. The red gable of Hlitharfyall standing up soft and rosy in the evening air, with a fleck of white on its apex.
1889. N. W. Linc. Gloss., s.v. Fleck. It’s a han’sum chimla’-peäce, back marble wi’ yalla flecks in it.
2. A small particle; a flake, speck.
1750. Walpole, in Phil. Trans., XLVII. 47. I never perceived, that I voided during my illness any flecks of a stone, besides that one.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Circles, Wks. (Bohn), I. 125. The Greek sculpture is all melted away, as if it had been statues of ice: here and there a solitary figure or fragment remaining, as we see flecks and scraps of snow left in cold dells and mountain clefts in June and July.
1861. Sir T. Martin, Catullus, Lam. Ariadne, 201.
| With teeth they smooth their work, as on it slips, | |
| And flecks of wool stick to their withered lips, | |
| Bit from the threads. |
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1870), 92. From a similar cause a fleck of rust on a bright surface of steel will steadily enlarge and deepen.
