[Echoic; cf. F. flicflac the cracking of a whip.]
1. A light blow, esp. one given with something pliant, a whip, etc., or with the fingernail.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys, 85. Thy craft, he seyde, is not worth a flykke.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Cachete, a flicke in the cheeke.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, V. ii. D——n ’un, if the Parson had unt had his Petticuoats on, I should ha lent un a Flick.
1859. Boyd, Recr. Country Parson (1862), 74. Forgive me, my fellow-creature, if I have sometimes given you an angry flick, when you shied a little at a pig or a donkey.
1886. D. C. Murray, First Person Sing., xix. 146. With a dexterous flick of the towel he extinguished his own candle.
b. Any sudden movement; a jerk.
1866. Reader, 6 Jan., 19/1. Although most conscientiously accurate, none of the freedom of the originals has been lost—they have all their crispness of touch, and even the peculiar flick of the brush in drawing the terminations of the foliage or cusps is exactly imitated.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, vii. (1880), 263. The slightest ‘flick’ or ‘crack’ [in throwing the line] will necessitate putting on a new fly.
c. quasi-adv. With a flick.
1862. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, lxiv., in Macm. Mag., VI. July, 225/1. Charles’s poor little reel began screaming, and the next moment the line came ‘flick’ home across his face.
2. The sound thus produced; hence, any slight, sharp sound.
1844. Alb. Smith, Adv. Mr. Ledbury, I. xix. The only evidences of sound which they gave out being the creaking and straining of the wheels as they lumbered over the heavy ground, or the flick of the driver’s whip.
1866. Miss Thackeray, The Village on the Cliff, in Cornh. Mag., Dec., 655. The flick of her cards falling upon the table was the music she loved best to hear.
1890. Gloucestersh. Gloss., Flick, the hasty snap of a greyhound when he fails to secure the hare.
3. concr. Something thrown off with a jerk; a dash, splash. (Perh. influenced by FLECK sb.1)
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xix. The flicks of yellow that the rushlight threw on the dreary darkened ceiling.
1891. Pall Mall G., 13 Nov. 7/2. Great flicks of spray and foam as big as a man’s hand.
