Obs. From 16th c. chiefly Sc. Forms: 1 flíeman, fléman, flýman, 3 flæmen, fleman, -en, fleomen, Orm. flemmenn, south. vlemen, 4–5 flem, 4–7 fleeme, fleme, (4 flemme, flemon, 7 fleame). [OE. flíeman (:—earlier *fléamjan), f. fléam: see prec. Cf. ON. flǽma.]

1

  1.  trans. To cause to flee, put to flight; to drive away, drive out, chase; hence, to banish, exile; rarely, to reject (a proposal). Also, to fleme away, out, to flight. a. simply.

2

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 2115 (Gr.). Ac hie god flymde.

3

c. 1200.  Ormin, 8242. Augustuss … þatt flemmde himm ut.

4

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 29022 (Cott.).

        For fasting flemes flexsli sakes,
And praier gastli sinnes slakes.

5

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 328. Þo þat fled þei flemed als þe kynge’s felons.

6

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 12377. And I … Thus am flemyt to flight thurgh his false caste.

7

c. 1425.  Festivals of the Church 183, in Legends of the Holy Rood (1871), 216.

                  He will not flyte,
But flemon all þi foos away.

8

a. 1450.  Le Morte Arth., 2673.

        He were A fole wyth-outen sayle,
So feyr forwardys for to fleme.

9

1496.  Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), V. xiv. 215/1. God sayd to the fyrste mansleer that was Caym … Thou shalt be wanderynge & flemed vpon erth.

10

1553.  Kennedy, Comp. Tract., in Wodr. Soc. Misc. (1844), 151–2. Geve the Kirk had the auld ancient libertie … than sulde all heresies be flemit, and the peple weill techeit.

11

1578.  Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 171.

        They brunt and heryit Christen men,
And flemit them full sair.

12

16[?].  Merline, 1624, in Furniv., Percy Folio, I. 472–3.

        That betoekneth the heyres that thou didst fleame
with wrong out of the realme.

13

1814.  Scott, Wav., ix. ‘He help’d Miss Rose when she was flemit with the Laird of Killancureit’s new English bull.’

14

  b.  Const. from, of (= out of), out of; rarely with ellipsis of prep.

15

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 87. Þis laȝe [circumcisio] flemeð þe fule gost ut of þe child.

16

c. 1205.  Lay., 23447.

        þat he þa æð mihte
wið Arðure uihte
and ulemen of londe.

17

1352.  Minot, Halidon-Hyll, vi. The land that thai war flemid fra.

18

a. 1420.  Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, 2788.

        Lawe is nye flemede out of this contree;
For fewe ben that dreden it to offende.

19

1494.  Fabyan, Chron., VI. ccxiii. 229. Algarus was accused by malyce, and flemyd the lande.

20

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VIII. vi. 47.

        Banist and flemyt of my native land,
Strang destany, quhilk may nocht be ganestand.

21

16[?].  Merline, 426, in Furniv., Percy Folio, I. 435.

        Of many another doughtye Man
that hee had fleemed out of the Land.

22

  2.  intr. To flee, run away. rare–1.

23

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 3347.

        He is the furste with sweord that remith;
Thou art the furste with hors that flemeth.

24

  Hence Flemed ppl. a.; Fleming vbl. sb. Also Flemer, one who puts to flight.

25

c. 1205.  Lay., 7733. Alle eowre flemede men.

26

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 18625 (Cott.).

        Lang moght adam thinc þe space
Of fleming fra þat lauerd face.

27

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, III. 884.

        Dulcarnon clepid is ‘flemyng of wrecchis.’
    Ibid. (c. 1386), Man of Law’s T., 362.
The whyte lomb, that hurt was with the spere,
Flemer of feendes out of hym and here.

28

13[?].  Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxiii. 483.

        Went forþ a-pilgrimage
And þe flemed visyted.

29

1496.  Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), VII. vi. 284/1. [He] called them theues & outlawes & flemyd men.

30

a. 1500[?].  Ragman Roll, 169, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 76.

        Constant in vertu, flemer of malyce,
Trew of your worde, of wordys mesurable,
Benigne and gracius, al voyd of vyce,
Humbil of speryt, discreyt and honourable.

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