Chiefly Sc. Also 4–5 flaght(e, 8–9 flaucht. [ME. flaȝt, prob. repr. either OE. *fleaht or ON. *flaht-r (Icel. flảttr, used only in the sense ‘act of flaying’: see Fritzner s.v.); the OTeut. type would be *flahtu-z, f. either of the parallel roots flah-, flak- (Aryan plak-, plag-), whence FLAKE sb.2 and FLAW sb.2, both which have senses identical with those of this word.]
1. = FLAKE sb.2 1 a. Obs. exc. Sc.
1483. Cath. Angl., 133. A flaghte of snawe, floccus.
1808. Jamieson, s.v. Flaucht, A flaucht of snaw.
b. A lock of hair or wool; = FLAKE sb.2 1 b; spec. (see quot. 1825).
1768. A. Ross, Helenore, 54.
| A mournfu’ ditty till her sell she sang, | |
| Roove out her hair in flaughts, her hands she wrang. |
1806. R. Jamieson, Pop. Ballads, I. 20.
| He’s sent to you what ye lo’ed maist, | |
| A flaught o’ his yellow hair; | |
| And he has sent his lips sae sweet, | |
| A lover’s kiss to bear. |
1825. Brockett, Gloss. N. C. Words, Flaut, Flought a roll of wool carded ready for spinning.
2. A flash; a flash of lightning; a ‘tongue’ of flame; = FLAKE sb.2 2. Cf. FIRE-FLAUGHT.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17372 (Cott.). His cher lik was flaght [pr. slaght] o fire.
a. 1724. The Vision, ii., in Ramsay’s Evergreen (1824), I. 212.
| The Thunder crakt, and Flauchts did rift | |
| Frae the blak Vissart of the Lift: | |
| The Forrest schuke with Fricht. |
1820. Blackw. Mag., VIII. Nov., 202. There was neither moon nor stars—naething but a flaucht o’ fire every now and than, to keep the road by.
1876. C. C. Robinson, Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Flaught or Fire-flaught … applied to the particle of ‘live’ gaseous coal which darts out of a fire.
1887. Swinburne, Locrine, IV. i. 159.
| Sabrina. No. But when your eyes | |
| Wax red and dark, with flaughts of fire between, | |
| I fear them—or they fright me. |
3. A sudden blast of wind (and rain); = FLAKE sb.5 b, FLAW sb.2 Sc.
1802. Sibbald, Chron. Sc. Poetry, IV. Gloss., Flaggis, Flaughts, sudden blasts of wind, or of wind and rain.
Mod. Sc. The snaw is fleein by in flauchts.
4. A turf; also collect. turf. Obs. exc. dial. Cf. FLAG sb.2, FLAKE sb.2
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 57. I felle vpon þat floury flaȝt.
1483. Cath. Angl., 133. A Flaghte … vbi a turfe.
c. 1746. J. Collier (Tim Bobbin), View Lanc. Dial., Wks. (1862), 47. Meh Heart as leet as o bit on o Flaight. Ibid., Gloss., Flaight, a light turf.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Flauchts pl. turves for the fire. In Whitby Abbey Rolls, ‘flaghts.’
