[f. FLECK sb.1 or v.1 + -ED1 or 2.] Having or marked with flecks; occas. preceded by some defining word as foam-, pearl-flecked, for which see those words.
1. Of animals, their feathers, skins, etc.: Dappled, pied, spotted.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XI. 321.
| Wylde wormes in wodes · and wonderful foules, | |
| With flekked fetheres · and of fele coloures. |
c. 1386. Chaucer, Merch. T., 604.
| He was al coltissh, ful of ragerye, | |
| And ful of jargoun, as a flekked pye. |
1548. Will of R. North or Keling (Somerset Ho.). Flecked cowe.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 403. They [sheep] will proue flecked and of diuers colours.
1786. Culley, Live Stock (ed. 4), 41. Their colours are much varied; but the generality are red and white mixed, or what the breeders call flecked; and, when properly mixed, is a very pleasing and agreeable colour.
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss., Flecked, spotted; mottled; speckled.
b. Of a person: Marked with spots; freckled.
1868. Geo. Eliot, Sp. Gipsy, 54.
| Pepíta, fair yet flecked, | |
| Saucy of lip and nose, of hair as red | |
| As breasts of robins stepping on the snow. |
† c. Of wood-work: Grained; marked. Obs.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, viii. 27. The firme and close Timber about the Roots [of the Wall-nut tree], which is admirable for fleck’d and chambletted works. Ibid. (1670), xxvii. (ed. 2), 134. Of the roots of ivy … are made curiously polish’d and fleck’d cups and boxes.
† 2. Of persons, their faces or cheeks: Marked with patches of red; flushed. Obs.
1544. Phaer, Regim. Lyfe (1560), U vj. The face red in coloure & flecked.
a. 1577. Gascoigne, Herbes, Wks. (1587), 103.
| His flecked cheekes | |
| Now chery red, now pale and green as leekes. |
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. v. I. vi. (1651), 396. If they drink a cup of wine or strong drink, they are as red and flect, and sweat as if they had been at a Majors feast.
1693. Congreve, Juvenal Sat., xi. 317.
| What tho thy Wife, do with the Morning light, | |
| (When thou in vain has toil’d and drudg’d all Night) | |
| Steal from thy Bed and House, abroad to roam, | |
| And having gorg’d her Lust, come reeking home, | |
| Fleck’d in her Face, and with disorder’d Hair, | |
| Her Garments ruffled, and her Bosom bare; | |
| With Ears still tingling, and her Eyes on fire, | |
| Half drown’d in Lust, still burning in Desire. |
3. Of darkness: Dappled with bright spots. Of the sky: Dappled with clouds. Of clouds: Cast like flecks over the sky; in quot. fig.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iii. 3 (Qo. 1).
| And flecked darkenes like a drunkard reeles, | |
| From forth daies path, and Titans fierie wheeles. |
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. V., Wks. (1711), 106. His Privy Counsellors being more of his antient Servants, than Nobles or Church-men (of which many were groping through these flecked Clouds of Ignorance) as they favoured gave their Opinions.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., III. ii.
| Invisible in flecked sky, | |
| The lark sent down her revelry. |
1866. T. Edmondston, Shetl. & Ork. Dial., Flecked, applied to the bottom of the sea when it has bunches of seaweed growing upon it.
