[f. FRISK v.]
† 1. A brisk and lively movement in horsemanship or dancing; a caracole or curvet; a caper, a jig. To fetch a frisk: see FETCH v. 9. Obs.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. lxxviii. [lxxiv.] 234. Eche of them [knyghtes] a good dystaunce fro other made theyr tournes and fryskes fresshly.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 145. He leapt, and set a frisk or twain, as men commonly do in dauncing.
1396. Spenser, F. Q., IV. x. 46. Then doe the salvage beasts begin to play Their pleasant friskes.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 36. Diuers … can now for ioy … fetch friskes about the house.
1640. Shirley, Arcadia, III. i. The new frisk we danced at Enispe to-day.
1696. Aubrey, Misc. (1721), 79. When he had done his Message he gave a Frisk.
1780. Cowper, Table T., 237. Give him [the Frenchman] his lass, his fiddle and his frisk.
1842. Whitehead, R. Savage (1845), I. vii. 89. He favoured me with a frisk as I left him at his own door.
2. transf. and fig. A brisk sportive movement; a frolic; also, a freak, whim. † Frisk of nature = freak of nature: see FREAK sb. 4.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 186. If they do by a frisk get below that superficies, they presently ascend again.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, III. 79. New objects … excite the spirits into a pleasant frisk of motion.
1752. Johnson, in Boswell (1848), 80/1. I’ll have a frisk with you.
1801. Foster, in Life & Corr. (1846), I. 133. Much of this huge bustle seems to me as important, if it were as innocent, as the rippling course of a rill, or the frisks of a company of summer flies.
1809. Ann. Reg., 754*. There is scarcely a nobleman … who is not possessed of one or more of these frisks of nature.
1819. Scott, Fam. Lett., 17 April (1894), II. xv. 43. I wish you would all take a frisk down here this summer. Ibid. (1825), Jrnl., 22 Dec. Can’t say what made me take a frisk so uncommon of late years, as to write verses of free-will.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xx. When you and I had a frisk down in Lincolnshire.
1889. H. F. Wood, Englishman of Rue Caïn, iv. The married frumps come over for a frisk.
