1837. Disraeli, Venetia, ch. xiv. Flick the bread, cut the bread.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or 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, 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. Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lost and Saved, p. 29. Drivers shouting, swearing, and flicking at the horses.
Flicker, subs. (Old Cant).—A drinking glass.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flicker, c., a drinking-glass; Flicker snapt, c., the glass is broken; Nim the flicker, c., steal the glass; Rum flicker, c., a large glass or rummer; Queer flicker, c., a green or ordinary glass.
French Synonyms.—Une lampe (masons’); un guindal (popular); un godet (very old); une gobette (thieves’); un gobeson (thieves’).