Obs. exc. dial. [ME. flacken, of onomatopœic formation = MDu. vlacken (Kilian), Icel. flaka to flap, hang loose.]
1. intr. To flap, flutter; to flap the wings; to throb, palpitate.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 315. Her herte … [began] to flacke and bete.
1567. J. Maplet, A Greene Forest, or a Naturall Historie, 71. So soone as the Crow espieth the Asse, she flieth and flacketh about his eies & face, & pecketh and scratcheth out his eien.
1788. W. Marshall, Yorksh., Gloss., To Flack; to flicker as a bird; to throb as a wound.
1876. Mid. Yorksh. Gloss., Flack, to pulsate heavily.
2. To hang loosely, dial.
a. 1825. Forby, in Voc. E. Anglia.
1847. in Halliwell.
3. trans. To move or shake intermittently; to flap, flick; also, to flap or flick with (something). (Connoting a clumsier instrument and a ‘flatter’ blow than flick.)
1751. R. Paltock, P. Wilkins (1884), I. xii. 137. As I observed it did when the creature walked on land, it then frequently flacking its short tail.
1819. E. S. Barrett, Metropolis, I. 58. He now flacked his boot with a silk handkerchief, looked at his spurs, and took out a cambric one, and wiped his face.
1859. Sala, Gas-light & D., xxxiii. 385. Flacking his horsewhip to shake hands with lords.
1870. Daily Tel., 20 Aug., 3. Flacking his cloak in the eyes of a huge bull.
4. Agric. To beat with a flail; also to rake (hay).
1744–50. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., VI. iii. 71. They … flack the Heap of Corn not only once as it lies, but they turn it, and thrash it again and again.
1891. Rutland Gloss., Flack in, to rake hay in a long row.
Hence Flacking vbl. sb., the action of the vb.
1844. Zoologist, II. 500. The flight was quite distinct from the ‘flacking along the water’ of which Mr. Parsons speaks.
