or flig, subs. (colloquial).—1. A cut with a whip-lash; hence, a blow of any sort. A FLICKING is often administered by schoolboys with a damp towel or pocket-handkerchief. For synonyms, see TANNING.
1750. FIELDING, Tom Jones, bk. VI., ch. ii. ‘I do know you are a woman,’ cries the squire, ‘and it’s well for thee, that art one; if had’st been a man, I promise thee I had lent thee a FLICK long ago.
1787. GROSE, A Provincial Glossary, etc., s.v. VLICK.
1883. Punch, 28 July, p. 38, col. 1, ‘’Arry at the Royal Evening Fete.’
| You ’ll ’ave ’eard of the Fisheries, CHARLIE, the Kensington Show. Well, larst night, | |
| They ’d a Feet in these Gardens, OLD FLICK, as was somethink too awfully quite. |
Verb. (thieves’).—1. To cut.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew. FLICKING, c., to cut, cutting.
1728. BAILEY, Dictionarium Britannicum (FLICK is given as a ‘country word’).
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. FLICK me some pannam and cassan, cut me some bread and cheese; FLICK the peter, cut off the cloak bag or portmanteau.
1791. R. GOADBY, The Life and Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, s.v.
1837. B. DISRAELI, Venetia, ch. xiv. FLICK the panam [Note: cut the bread].
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. ‘FLICK the Peter and rake the swag, for I want to pad my beaters.’
2. (colloquial).—To strike with, or as with, a whip.
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, ch. xliii. Near him, leaning listlessly against the wall, stood a strong-built countryman, FLICKING with a worn-out hunting whip the top-boot that adorned his right foot.
1852. DICKENS, Bleak House, ch. xxvii. Who … receives this compliment by FLICKING Mr. George in the face with a head of greens.
1854. Our Cruise in the Undine, p. 103. It appeared to us that one of the most frequent, and therefore we supposed the principal stroke aimed at (in a Heidelberg duel), was to strike your sword low down, perhaps four inches from the handle, upon your adversary’s bandaged arm, so that the end of the weapon (the only part that is sharpened) should FLICK itself against your opponent’s face.
1863. CAROLINE NORTON, Lost and Saved, p. 29. Drivers shouting, swearing, and FLICKING at the horses.
