Forms: 3–5 flokke, 3–6 flocke, 6– flock. [prob. a. OF. floc lock of wool, snowflake, etc.:—L. floccus.
Words of similar sound and meaning exist in other Teut. langs.: OHG. floccho wk. masc. (MHG. vlocke, mod.Ger. flocke), MDu. vlocke MLG. (mod.Du. vlok), MDa. flok, flock (mod.Da. flok), MSw. flokker (mod.Sw. flock, flocka). It is doubtful whether these words are adopted from Lat. or Rom., or genuinely Teut.; in the latter case they would prob. be related by ablaut to ON. flóke felt, hair, wool, and to FLAKE sb.2 If the Teut. words are not of L. origin, they must be altogether unconnected with L. floccus, unless it be supposed that the pre-Teut. word began with ph.]
1. A lock, tuft or particle (of wool, cotton, etc.). † As a type of something valueless or contemptible: see quot. 1592 and FLOCK v.2 2.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 167/2. Flokkys of wulle or oþer lyke, floccus.
1563. W. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 48. They [clouds] look white, like flocks of wooll, when the light striketh into them.
1592. Lyly, Midas, IV. ii. If I may enioy the fleece of my sillie flock with quietnes, I will neuer care three flocks for his ambition.
1705. Bosman, Guinea, xiv. 250. ’Tis red and covered with a sort of Hair as thick set as Flocks of Wool.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 283. When the pods [of cotton] are full grown, and ripe, they burst, and expose their seeds wrapt up in their native flocks, to the sun: and when a great part of them are thus opened, the negroes begin to gather the wool with the seeds.
1869. E. A. Parkes, A Manual of Practical Hygiene (ed. 3), 96. Bronchitis, from the inhalation of fine particles of coal, sand, steel, or other metal, flocks of cotton, flax, hemp, or fine dust.
2. pl. A material consisting of the coarse tufts and refuse of wool or cotton, or of cloth torn to pieces by machinery, used for quilting garments, and stuffing beds, cushions, mattresses, etc.
1277. Munim. Gildh. Lond. (Rolls), III. 433. xv capella nigra … falsi operis et mixti de lana et flokkes.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 241.
| Cadace wolle or flokkys, where it may be sowth, | |
| To stuffe withal thi dobbelet, and make the of proporcyon. |
1494. in Ld. Treas. Accts. Scotl., I. 238. Item, gevin to Gildow to by flolkis to the harnes sadillis, ij s.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 19. Federbeddes bolsters and pillows made of … flokkis and feders togidre.
1589. Pappe with an Hatchet, E b. Their fleece [is] for flockes, not cloath.
1664. Cotton, Scarronides, 69.
| And on a Cushion stuff’d with Flocks, | |
| She clap’d her dainty Pair of Docks. |
1605. Congreve, Love for Love, I. i. Bid Margery put more Flocks in her Bed.
1801. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Tears & Smiles, Wks. 1812, V. 60.
| ‘Sleep here, my friend,’ the Landlord said: | |
| ‘A bed, but not of flocks, | |
| Is thine; of feathers nice and soft, | |
| Pick’d all from hens and cocks. |
1858. in W. White, Month in Yorkshire, xxvii. 353. The cylinder … ground it [rags] up into flocks of short, frizzly-looking fibre, resembling negro-hair, yet soft and free from knots.
fig. 1603. H. Crosse, Vertue’s Commonwealth (1878), 99. Fine phrases, Inkehorn-termes, swelling words, bumbasted out with the flocks of sundry languages, with much pollished and new-made eloquence.
b. sing. collect; e.g., in cotton-flock.
1881. F. Young, Every man his own Mechanic, § 797. To admit of the introduction of the stuffing, which may be clean cotton flock.
3. pl. (in later use collect. sing.) Powdered wool or cloth, or cloth-shearings, used formerly for thickening cloth and now in making flock-paper.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 8. Preamble, The Sellers of such course Clothes, being bare of Threde, usen for to powder and cast Flokkys of fynner Cloth upon the same.
1541. Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 18. Thei … shall [not] … make or stoppe any maner kerseies with flockes.
c. 1720. W. Gibson, Farrier’s Dispens., iv. (1734), 44. Flocks, or Shavings of Cloth … are chiefly used to spread over Plaisters.
1893. Jrnl. Soc. Arts, XLI. 367. The flock—which is composed of the cuttings of woollen cloth, cut up in a mill to the necessary degree of fineness, and dyed,—is then sprinkled over the paper.
† b. Often in the spelling flox(e taken as sing.
1558–68. Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., 112 b. Take of the saied earth foure partes, of clothmakers floxe or shearing, one part.
1683. Pettus, Fleta Min., I. (1686), 155. Make each apart into Pouder, and moisten it with the white of Eggs, as is taught above, or with warm Ox or Sheeps-blood, add to it so much flox of woollen Cloth or wooll shav’d or shorn.
4. a. = FLOCK-BED. b. pl. = flock-papers.
a. 1783. Crabbe, Village, I. Wks. 1834, II. 85.
| Here, on a matted flock, with dust o’erspread, | |
| The drooping wretch reclines his languid head. |
b. 1881. F. Young, Every man his own Mechanic, § 1646. Papers for sitting-rooms may be procured at all prices, from 1s. per piece upwards; satins of the best quality ranging from 3s. to 6s., and flocks being even more expensive.
1884. Health. Exhib. Catal., 86/1. Artistic Wall Papers of various kinds … Raised Flocks.
5. pl. Of chemical precipitates, etc.: Light and loose masses, resembling tufts of wool.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse (ed. 2), 24 a. Not to leaue any flockes in the bottom of the cup.
1676. Phil. Trans., XI. 617. In the evaporation of all those waters, their terrestrial parts form’d themselves diversly; some into floting filmes, some into flocks, some into mucilages.
1788. Keir, ibid., LXXVIII. 327. The minute particles collected and fell to the bottom in form of white flocks.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 200. It dissolves in boiling water, forming a deep-blue liquid, but precipitates again, as the liquid cools, in large deep-blue flocks.
6. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib. passing into adj. (= made of, or stuffed with, flock), as flock-bed, hangings, mattress, -wool; also flock-mill, -work. b. similative, etc., as flock-hair, -headed; flock-like adj. Also, flock-paper, ‘paper prepared for walls by being sized in the first instance, either over the whole surface or over special parts, constituting the pattern only, and then powdering over it flock … which has been previously dyed’ (Brande, Dict. Sc., 1842); † flock-pate, a foolish or giddy person; whence flock-pated adj., foolish, giddy, stupid; flock-powder = sense 3; † flock-pox, some eruptive disease; flock-printing, the process of printing paper in size or varnish for ornamentation and dusting with flock while wet.
1327. Lanc. & Chesh. Wills (Chetham, 1854), 37. I beqweth to my sonne Hugh doghter a *fflokbedd.
1732. Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 301.
| On once a flock-bed, but repair’d with straw, | |
| With tape-tied curtains, never meant to draw, | |
| The George and Garter dangling from that bed | |
| Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red, | |
| Great Villiers lies. |
1835. Willis, Pencillings (1836), I. xxxiv. 238–9. The whole family huddled together on the clay floor, with no furniture but a flock-bed in the corner.
1877. Spry, Cruise ‘Challenger,’ xiii. (1895), 215. The *flock hair was trained to grow at right angles from the head, in the Fijian style.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., xcvi.
| Soe in *Flocke Hangings, wth an Azure Nose, | |
| Are Kings sett forth; Hee look’d like one of Those. |
1891. V. C. Cotes, 2 Girls on Barge, 108–9. The Bargee recovered his breath and apostrophised his steed as a ‘nasty *flock-headed besom.’
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants, IV. 339. Pileus funnel-shaped, cut at the edge, brown, with *flock-like radiated scores.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5837/4. The great Paper Mills, *Flock-Mills, and Corn Mill.
1869. E. A. Parkes, A Manual of Practical Hygiene (ed. 3), 331. All *flock and woollen mattresses should be discarded.
1750. Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. & Corr. (1861), II. 593. I have been as busy within doors; have hung my dressing-room (which was painted olive-colour before) with a dove-colour *flock paper.
1862. R. H. Patterson, Ess. Hist. & Art, 29. An artist of my acquaintance, whose drawing-room wall, covered with oil-paintings in gilt frames, has a flock-paper of deep green, the velvet pattern being of nearly equal extent with the smooth ground, but of a darker shade.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 510. Very flock-pates, dullberds.
1640[?]. Roxb. Ball. (Ball. Soc.), II. 168.
| And he that would be a poet, | |
| Must no wayes be *flocke-pated; | |
| His ignorance, if he shew it, | |
| He shall of all schollers be hated. |
1549. Latimer, 3rd Serm. bef. Edw. VI., G iv. Thei cal it *floke pouther they do so in corporate it to the cloth, that it is wonderfull to consider.
1672. in 13th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., vi. 272. My grandchild’s … illness of the *flock pox.
1789. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, VII. 169. I have made use of Spanish and Norfolk *flock-wool mixed.
1552. Inv. Ch. Surrey (1869), 28. Item ij alter clothes of *fllock worke.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5877/3. Raw and thrown Silk, Flock-Work.
