ppl. a. Also 4 y-fracled, 5 y-freklet, fraculd. [f. FRECKLE sb. + -ED2.]
1. Marked with freckles.
1440. [see FRECKNY]
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., IV. Wks. 1856, I. 50.
| Her beautie is not halfe so ravishing | |
| As you discourse of; she hath a freckled face, | |
| A lowe forehead, and a lumpish eye. |
1680. Lond. Gaz., No. 1532/4. With pock-holes in his face, and freckled.
1751. Gordon, Another Cordial for Low Spirits, II. 138. One of the Barkin-Tribe, with weather-beaten Countenance and freckl’d Fist, would throw the tender-hearted Ladies of this delicate Age into Convulsions.
1885. Runciman, Skippers and Shellbacks, 232. No wonder the freckled children looked hard and healthy. Certainly there was no lack of open-air fun for them.
2. Spotted; dappled; variegated.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 3659. Of quente entaile was is stede, Al y-fracled wyþ whit & rede.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. (E.E.T.S.), 33. Eyen … whit y-freklet, or I-sprotid.
c. 1614. Drayton, Quest of Cynthia, Wks. (1748), 227.
| Sometimes we’ll angle at the brook, | |
| The freckled trout to take | |
| With silken worms, and bait the hook | |
| Which him our prey shall make. |
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., I. (1677), 41. If the Hair on the Back be black, and their Legs freckled with red and black, they then usually prove excellent Hounds.
1821. Clare, The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, I. 140. A Sigh.
| Again freckled cowslips are gilding the plain, | |
| And crow-flowers yellow again o’er the lea. |
1876. Rock, Text. Fabr., 63. The golden ground is trailed all over with leaf-bearing boughs of a bold type, in raised or cut ruby-toned velvet of a rich soft pile, which is freckled with gold thread sprouting up like loops.
† 3. Resembling a freckle. Obs.–1
1611. Bible, Lev. xiii. 39. If the bright spots in the skinne of their flesh bee darkish white, it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin: he is cleane.
4. Comb., as freckled-faced adj.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit. (1614), 107/2. When a stout frecled faced King should passe over that ford, then the power of the Welshmen should be brought under.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2256/4. They were taken away by a Fellow … swarthy and freckled Faced.
1885. Black, White Heather, I. ii. 22. The little red-headed, freckled-faced lassie obediently gathered up her belongings.
Hence Freckledness, the state of being freckled.
1611. Cotgr., Canetille … the frecklednesse of a face.
