flapdragon, a combustible put in liquor, to be swallowed flaming; e.g. a raisin set on fire. L. L. L. v. 1. 45; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 1 (Clause). Hence, as vb., to swallow quickly, Winter’s Tale, iii. 3. 100.
flapjack, a pancake; also, an apple turnover. Pericles, ii. 1. 87; Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Vincent); see Nares. In prov. use in E. Anglia, Sussex, and Somerset (EDD.).
flappet, a little flap; ‘A flappet of wood’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, i. 2 (or 3), Ralph. The sense of flap is here uncertain; perhaps a fly-flapper, to keep off flies.
flash, a pool, a marshy place. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 60; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 70. In common prov. use in the north country, also in Lincoln and Shropshire; occurring frequently in place-names, see EDD. (s.v. Flash, sb.1 1). ME. flasch, ‘lacuna’ (Prompt.), OF. flache, ‘locus aquis stagnantibus oppletus’ (Didot), Med. L. flachia (Ducange).
flask, to flap; also, to cause to flutter; ‘To flask his wings’, Golding, Metam. vi. 703 (fol. 77); ‘The weather flaskt . . . her garments’, id., ii. last line.
flasky, (perhaps) belonging to a ‘flask’ or ‘flash’, a muddy pool; ‘The flasky fiends of Limbo lake’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 149. See NED.
flat-cap, a London citizen; esp. a London apprentice; ‘Flat-caps thou call’st us. We scorne not the name’, Heywood, 1 Edw. IV, sc. 1 (NED.); Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iii. 1 (Song, st. 4). See Nares.
flatchet, a sword. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 92; flachet, iii. 241. 529. Cp. MHG. flatsche, flasche, a sword with a broad blade (Weigand).
flatted, laid flat, levelled, made smooth. Dryden, Ceyx and Alcyone, 131; tr. of Virgil, Aeneid x, 158. See EDD. (s.v. Flat, v. 21).
flaunt-a-flaunt, flauntingly displayed. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163.