Library / English Dictionary

FLECK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small contrasting part of something

Example:

a fleck of red

Synonyms:

dapple; fleck; maculation; patch; speckle; spot

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("fleck" is a kind of...):

marking (a pattern of marks)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fleck"):

facula (a bright spot on a planet)

facula; solar facula (a large bright spot on the sun's photosphere occurring most frequently in the vicinity of sunspots)

macula; sunspot (a cooler darker spot appearing periodically on the sun's photosphere; associated with a strong magnetic field)

mock sun; parhelion; sundog (a bright spot on the parhelic circle; caused by diffraction by ice crystals)

macula; macule (a patch of skin that is discolored but not usually elevated; caused by various diseases)

plaque ((pathology) a small abnormal patch on or inside the body)

fret; worn spot (a spot that has been worn away by abrasion or erosion)

splash (a patch of bright color)

nebula ((pathology) a faint cloudy spot on the cornea)

pinpoint; speck (a very small spot)

Derivation:

fleck (make a spot or mark onto)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A small fragment of something broken off from the whole

Example:

a bit of rock caught him in the eye

Synonyms:

bit; chip; flake; fleck; scrap

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("fleck" is a kind of...):

fragment (a piece broken off or cut off of something else)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fleck"):

matchwood (fragments of wood)

exfoliation; scale; scurf (a thin flake of dead epidermis shed from the surface of the skin)

scurf ((botany) a covering that resembles scales or bran that covers some plant parts)

sliver; splinter (a small thin sharp bit or wood or glass or metal)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a spot or mark onto

Example:

The wine spotted the tablecloth

Synonyms:

blob; blot; fleck; spot

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "fleck" is one way to...):

change surface (undergo or cause to undergo a change in the surface)

Verb group:

stain (produce or leave stains)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fleck"):

splotch (blotch or spot)

defile; maculate; stain; sully; tarnish (make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically)

bespeckle; speckle (mark with small spots)

bespatter; spatter (spot, splash, or soil)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

fleck (a small contrasting part of something)

Credits

 Context examples: 

As he clattered up, Alleyne could see that the roan horse was gray with dust and flecked with foam, as though it had left many a mile behind it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His lips were flecked with a soapy froth, and sometimes he choked and gurgled and became inarticulate.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Ford was seated at his left, his lips parted, his eyes staring, and a fleck of deep color on either cheek, his limbs all rigid as one who fears to move.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A blue heaven stretched above, a green rolling plain undulated below, intersected with hedge-rows and flecked with grazing sheep.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There, clinging to the stout halliards of the sheet, he gazed with amazement at the long lines of black waves, each with its curling ridge of foam, racing in endless succession from out the inexhaustible west. A huge sombre cloud, flecked with livid blotches, stretched over the whole seaward sky-line, with long ragged streamers whirled out in front of it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To the north stretched the tree country, but to the south, between two swelling downs, a glimpse might be caught of the cold gray shimmer of the sea, with the white fleck of a galley sail upon the distant sky-line.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From Vinney Ridge to Rhinefield Walk the woods grow thick and dense up to the very edges of the track, but beyond the country opens up into broad dun-colored moors, flecked with clumps of trees, and topping each other in long, low curves up to the dark lines of forest in the furthest distance.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Over the gently rising plain curved the white road which leads inland, usually flecked with travellers, but now with scarce a living form upon it, so completely had the lists drained all the district of its inhabitants.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)