[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That fleers; † grinning, grimacing; † smiling obsequiously; laughing coarsely or scornfully.

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a. 1400[?].  Morte Arth., 1088. Fflatt-mowthede as a fluke, with fleryande lyppys. Ibid., 2779. Thow ffleryande wryche!

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c. 1450.  Holland, Howlat, lxiv. 820. In come twa flyrand fulis with a fonde fair.

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a. 1529.  Skelton, Poems agst. Garnesche, 152.

        Fleriing, flatyryng, fals, and fykkelle,
Scornefull and mokkyng ouer to mykkylle.

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1576.  Fleming, Caius’ Eng. Dogges (1880), 37. This dogge exceedeth all other in cruell conditions, his leering and fleering lookes, his sterne and sauage vissage, maketh him in sight feareful and terrible.

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1608.  R. Cawdrey, Table Alph., Giglot, strumpet, a fliering wench.

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1673.  Dryden, Amboyna, I. Wks. 1883, V. 18. Beam. I do not like these fleering Dutchmen, they overact their kindness.

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a. 1712.  W. King, Hold Fast Below, 19.

        Says then the fleering spark, with courteous grin,
By which he drew his infant cullies in;
‘Nothing more easy.’

8

1833.  Macaulay, Walpole’s Lett., Ess., 1854, I. 272. His tone was light and fleering; his topics were the topics of the club and the ball-room; and therefore his strange combinations and far-fetched allusions, though very closely resembling those which tire us to death in the poems of the time of Charles the First, are read with pleasure constantly new.

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1879.  Howells, L. Aroostook (1883), II. 26. He gave his fleering, drunken laugh.

10

1890.  H. M. Stanley, Darkest Africa, II. 402. Our flanks were thronged with hooting warriors and jeering youths and fleering girls; they annoyed us by gestures, wounded our sense of hearing by shrill insolent screams and savage taunts.

11

  Hence Fleeringly adv., in a fleering manner.

12

c. 1613.  Rowlands, Paire of Spy-Knaves, 3.

        A purblinde Momus fleeringly will looke,
And spie no knaue but’s selfe in all the Booke.

13

1728.  J. Morgan, Algiers, I. vi. 189. The Jerbin … had looked fleeringly all the Time.

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1887.  Stevenson, Merry Men, iv. He saw and recognized us with a toss of one hand fleeringly above his head.

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