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flicker

noun
/ˈflɪkə/UK/ˈflɪkɚ/US

Etymology

From Middle English flikeren (“to flutter”), from Old English flicerian, flicorian (“to flutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *flikurōn. Akin to Saterland Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”), West Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”), Dutch flikkeren (“to flicker, flutter”), German Low German flickern (“to light up, flash, flicker”). Compare Old English flacor (“flickering, fluttering”), German flackern (“to flicker, flutter”), Old English flēogan (“to fly”).

  1. inherited from *flikurōn✻
  2. inherited from flicerian
  3. inherited from flikeren — “to flutter”

Definitions

  1. An unsteady flash of light.

    • the flicker of the dying candle
    • the flicker of an old movie

  2. A short moment.

    • a flicker of emotion
    • a flicker of hope
    • a flicker of recognition passed through my mind.

  3. To burn or shine unsteadily, or with a wavering light.

    • The shadows flicker to and fro.
  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. To keep going on and off

      To keep going on and off; to appear and disappear for short moments; to flutter.

      • A strong desire to smash up everything in the room kept flickering in his head.
      • There I lay on one side with a thin and rotten plank between the dead man and me, dazed with the blow to my head, and breathing hard; while the glow of torches as they came down the passage reddened and flickered on the roof above.

    2. To flutter or flap.

      • And flickering on her nest made short essays to sing.
      • But the child saw her; was it possible? He turned his head towards her, and flickered his baby hands, and cooed with that indescribable voice that goes to every woman's heart.

    3. Any of certain small woodpeckers, especially of the genus Colaptes.

    4. One who flicks.

    5. Ellipsis of channel flicker (“remote control”).

    6. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for flicker. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA