befleck
English edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
befleck (third-person singular simple present beflecks, present participle beflecking, simple past and past participle beflecked)
- (poetic) to cover with small spots or flecks
- 1854, Jonathan Freke Slingsby, “A Slingsby Wedding, and the Doings Thereat”, in The Dublin University Magazine, A Literary and Political Journal, volume 44:
- The world is filled with changeful light,
The clouds befleck the sky,
And o’er the fields, to harvest white,
The trooping shadows fly.
- 1867, James Russell Lowell, “Hob Gobbling’s Song”, in Our Young Folks, volume 3:
- I am not of those Fairies seen
Tripping by moonlight on the green,
Whose dewdrop bumpers, nightly poured,
Befleck the mushroom’s virgin board,
[…]
- 1903, Pierre Loti, India:
- Soon the heaps of rags become transformed into dark shapeless masses, patches of black which befleck the rosy gray of the enchanted city; but ever and anon a cough or a groan may be heard, and sometimes a leg or an arm protrudes from the ragged heap and stretches itself quiveringly into the air.
- 1906, Nixon Waterman, “The Year’s Procession”, in Appleton’s Magazine, volume 8:
- The buttercups befleck the hills with gold,
The bluejay calls, the lusty robin sings;
I look across the landscape and, behold!
The birds have brought the Southland on their wings.
German edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
befleck