/flæk/
OriginFrom Middle English flacken (“to palpitate, flutter”), from Old English *flaccian, from Proto-West Germanic *flakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *flakkōną (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ-, which could be related to Ancient Greek πλάζω (plázō, “to turn away from”).
Akin to Middle Dutch vlacken (“to flicker, flash, sparkle”), Danish flakke (“to wander”), Swedish flacka (“to rove, rove about, ramble”), Icelandic flakka (“to move”). Compare also Icelandic flaka (“to flap, hang loose”), Swedish flaxa (“to flap, flutter”).
- intransitive, obsoleteTo flutter; palpitate.
- UK, dialectal, intransitiveTo hang loosely; flag.
- UK, dialectal, transitiveTo beat by flapping.
- Canada, USTo publicise, to promote.
“[..] he told funny stories about his early days in the theater district, flacking shows up and down the street, but Klara wasn’t listening.”
- Canada, USA publicist, a publicity agent.
“Edward Bernay, who was a consultant to the US Delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference which terminated the first World War (and who finally wound up as a flack for the United Fruit Company in La”
“Thought you were flack," she said.
"I'm not flack."
"All right, P.R., a reporter, a novelist."”
“In July, Nick Clegg, a former Deputy Prime Minister of the U.K. who is now a top flack at Facebook, published a piece on AdAge.com and on the company’s official blog titled “Facebook Does Not Benefit ”
Formsflacks(present, singular, third-person) · flacking(participle, present) · flacked(participle, past) · flacked(past) · flacks(plural)