[f. FLEER v. + -ING1.] The action of the vb. FLEER.
1533. More, Debell. Salem, Wks. 962/2. Thys mannes deuyces in hys order to bee taken with such as speake heresies, be very vicious, and haue they neuer so fayre a flering at the first face: yet whan they bee considered well, they bee founded farre woorse than noughte.
1570. T. Norton, in Udall’s Royster D. (1847), p. xli. In the beginning of the rebellion how lustie they were, how their countenances, their fleering, their flinging paces, their whisperings, shewed their hartes.
1669. Penn, No Cross, xvii. § 5. Were it possible, that any One could bring us Father Adam’s Girdle, and Mother Eve’s Apron, what Laughing, what Fleering, what Mocking of their homely Fashion would there be?
1827. Macaulay, Country Clergym. Trip, vi.
| True gentlemen, kind and well-bred! | |
| No fleering! no distance! no scorn! | |
| They asked after my wife who is dead, | |
| And my children who never were born. |
1892. G. S. Layard, C. S. Keene, viii. 176. He found little or no pleasure in the gibbeting of an enemy, the fleering or flouting at a fellow-creature.
fig. 1840. Browning, Sordello, I. 277.
| Though he | |
| Partook the poppy’s red effrontery, | |
| Till Autumn spoiled their fleering quite with rain. |
