different between flicker vs flick

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fl?k?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?fl?k?/
• Rhymes: -?k?(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English flikeren (“to flutter”), from Old English flicerian, flicorian (“to flutter”).

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 fl?o?an (“to fly”).

Noun

flicker (countable and uncountable, plural flickers)

1. An unsteady flash of light.

2. A short moment.

Translations

Verb

flicker (third-person singular simple present flickers, present participle flickering, simple past and past participle flickered)

1. (intransitive) To burn or shine unsteadily, or with a wavering light.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Death of the Old Year

     The shadows flicker to and fro.

   • Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, […].

2. (intransitive) To keep going on and off; to appear and disappear for short moments; to flutter.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, Ch.3:

     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.

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     The ruddy brick floor smiled up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything without distinction.

   • 1967, Barry Mason (writer), Tom Jones (performer), Delilah

     I saw the light on the night that I passed by her window
     I saw the flickering shadow of love on her blind
3. To flutter; to flap the wings without flying.

   • And flickering on her nest made short essays to sing.

Translations

Etymology 2

1808, American English, probably echoic of the bird's call, or from the white spotted plumage which appears to flicker.

Noun

flicker (plural flickers)

1. (US) Any of certain small woodpeckers, especially of the genus Colaptes.

Derived terms

• northern flicker (Colaptes auratus)
• yellow-shafted flicker (Colaptes auratus auratus)
• red-shafted flicker (Colaptes auratus cafer)
• Caribbean flicker (Colaptes auratus chrysocaulosus)
• Guatemalan flicker (Colaptes auratus mexicanoides)
• Campo flicker (Colaptes campestris)
• Pampas flicker (Colaptes campestris)
• gilded flicker (Colaptes chrysoides)
• Fernandina's flicker (Colaptes fernandinae)
• Bermuda flicker (Colaptes oceanicus)
• Chilean flicker (Colaptes pitius)
• Andean flicker (Colaptes rupicola)

Translations

See also

• flicker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 3

flick +? -er

Noun

flicker (plural flickers)

1. One who flicks.

Derived terms

• bean flicker

Anagrams

• fickler, frickle

English

Etymology

Perhaps related to flicker.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl?k/

• Rhymes: -?k

  Homophone: flic

Noun

flick (plural flicks)

1. A short, quick movement, especially a brush, sweep, or flip.
2. (informal) A motion picture, movie, film; (in plural, usually preceded by "the") movie theater, cinema.

3. (fencing) A cut that lands with the point, often involving a whip of the foible of the blade to strike at a concealed target.
4. (tennis) A powerful underarm volley shot.
5. The act of pressing a place on a touch screen device.
6. A flitch.

7. A unit of time, equal to 1/705,600,000 of a second
8. (dated, slang) A chap or fellow; sometimes as a friendly term of address.
   • 1920, H. C. McNeile, Bulldog Drummond

     'All that I have, dear old flick, is yours for the asking. What can I do?'

Synonyms

• (short, quick movement) fillip (of the finger)
• (cinema) the pictures

Descendants

• ? Afrikaans: fliek

Translations

Verb

flick (third-person singular simple present flicks, present participle flicking, simple past and past participle flicked)

1. To move or hit (something) with a short, quick motion.

   • Using her hands like windshield wipers, she tried to flick snow away from her mouth. When she clawed at her chest and neck, the crumbs maddeningly slid back onto her face. She grew claustrophobic.

   • 1860, William Makepeace Thackeray, The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century and Charity and Humour

     the Queen, flicking the snuff off her sleeve […]

Derived terms

• flick knife
• flick off
• flick the bean

Related terms

• flicker

Translations

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Verb

flick

1. singular imperative of flicken