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flack

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flack¹

  • /flæk/

Sounds like flak · Rhymes with -æk

Where it comes from

From 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”).

verb flacks · flacking · flacked

  1. intransitive, obsolete To flutter; palpitate.
  2. UK, dialectal, intransitive To hang loosely; flag.
  3. UK, dialectal, transitive To beat by flapping.

flack²

  • /flæk/

Sounds like flak · Rhymes with -æk

Where it comes from

Most likely flak.

noun flacks

  1. Canada, US A 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 Latin America), believed that propaganda and its covert marketing could effectively alter the will of

verb flacks · flacking · flacked

  1. Canada, US To 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.

flack³

  • /flæk/

Sounds like flak · Rhymes with -æk

Where it comes from

Variant of flak.

noun flacks

  1. alternative, countable, uncountable Alternative spelling of flak

Flack⁴

Where it comes from

From Middle English flack (“sod, turf”); see flag (sense 4).

proper noun

  1. A surname.

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Cite this
MLA

"flack." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/flack. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

flack. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/flack

Chicago

"flack." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/flack.

BibTeX
@misc{flack_2026,
  title = {flack},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/flack},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}