Forms: α. 1 flicci, flicce, 5 flykke, 5–6 flik, flyk(e, (5 flickke, 6 flycke), 6–7 (8, 9 dial.) flick. β. 3–4 flic(c)he, (5 vlycch, 6 fli(e)ch), 5–6 flitche, flytche, (6 fleetch, 9 dial. fleech, fleach), 6– flitch. [OE. flicce ? str. neut., corresp. to MLG. vlike, vlieke, ON. flikki (MDa. flykke):—OTeut. *flikkjom, f. root *flăk, found in ON. flík rag, and perh. in FLECK sb.]
1. The side of an animal, now only of a hog, salted and cured; a ‘side’ of bacon.
α. a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 774. Perna, flicci.
805–31. Charters, xxxvii. 18, in O. E. Texts, 444. Tua flicca.
901–9. Charter Eadweard, in Cod. Dipl., V. 164. Feor fliccu.
c. 1000. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 272/5. Perna, flicce.
1462. Test. Ebor., II. 261. iiij. bakon fliks, ij. beffe fliks.
a. 1529. Skelton, Col. Cloute, 846.
| Somtyme a bacon flycke, | |
| That is thre fyngers thycke | |
| Of larde and of greace, | |
| Theyr couent to encreace. |
1643. Inv. Skipton Castle, in Whitaker, Craven (1805), 302. 35 great large beefe flicks.
c. 1746. J. Collier (Tim Bohobin), Lanc. Dialect., Gloss., Flick, a flitch of bacon.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, iv. ‘Thee lookst as white as a flick o’ new bacon.’
β
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 37. Seoð þe cat at þe fliche.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 26. There fonde he tubbes wyth beef and many goed flytches of bacon.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 152 b. Cutting out the Head, the Gammon and the fleetches, pouder them with salt.
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat. IV. iv. 32.
| Or dried fliches of some smoked beeve | |
| Hang’d on a writhen with since Martin’s eve. |
1709. Swift, Baucis & Philemon, 25.
| Whilst he from out the Chimney took | |
| A Flitch of Bacon off the Hook. |
1859. Jephson, Brittany, v. 55. From the massive beams of the ceiling hung a goodly row of hams and flitches of bacon, not very thick, it must be owned, but reaching down nearly to the floor, the produce of a race of pigs which prevails throughout Brittany.
transf. 1648. Herrick, Hesper., Bacchus, 17.
| Although he has no riches, | |
| But walks with dangling breeches, | |
| And skirts that want their stiches, | |
| And shewes his naked flitches. |
b. The ‘flitch’ presented yearly at Dunmow, in Essex, to any married couple who could prove that they had lived in conjugal harmony for a year and a day. (Also at Wichnor: see quot. a. 1509.)
1362. [see FLITCHEN].
a. 1509. in Dugdale, Baronage (1676), II. 106/2. The said Sir Philip shall fynde meyntienge, and susteingne one Bacon flyke, hanging in his Halle at Whichenore … to be given to everyche mane, or woman married, after the day and the yere of their mariage be passed.
1615. Hist. Robert Fitz-walter, 25. One Richard Wright … came and required of the Bacon of Dunmow … And there was deliuered vnto the said Richard, one fleech of Bacon.
1820. W. Combe, Dr. Syntax, Consol., I. (Chandos), 125.
| They might have claim’d, or I’m mistaken, | |
| With conscience clear, the Flitch of Bacon. |
2. a. A square piece of blubber from a whale. b. A steak cut from a halibut.
1787. Hunter, in Phil. Trans., LXXVII. 394. The adipose covering from all of the Whale kind that is brought home in square pieces, called flitches, and which, by being boiled, yields the oil.
1884. [see FLITCH v.1]
3. A slice cut lengthways from the trunk of a tree, usually having the natural surface as one of its sides.
1823. Moor, Suffolk Words, Fleeches. The portions into which a tree or piece of timber is cut by the saw.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Flitch, the outside cut or slab of a tree.
1873. J. Richards, Wood-working Factories 126. In America lumber is nearly all forest sawn, and comes to the manufacturer cut to size, as near as can be, allowing for warping, shrinking, and irregularity; not cut first into deals or flitches for transportation, and then sawed again to sizes, as in Europe.
1875. T. Laslett, Timber, xxvi. 190. Those [trees] with faulty centres furnish only indifferent squares of smaller sizes, or pieces unequally sided, called flitches.
b. Carpentry. (See quot.)
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 883/1. Flitch. (Carpentry.) a. One of several associated planks which are fastened side by side to form a compound beam, or built-beam. b. A bolt of planks, united by the stub-shot.
4. Comb., as flitch-beam, -ware (see quots.).
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., IV. 348/1. Flitch Beam. A beam made in layers of material pinned together.
1750. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., VII. ii. 60. Flitch-ware, or that which is turned out of the intire round Part of the [beech] Tree.
