FLICKER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Flicker

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/flˈɪkər/ Listen

noun

Flicker n.

The act of wavering or of fluttering; fluctuation; sudden and brief increase of brightness; as, the last flicker of the dying flame.

(Zool.) The golden-winged woodpecker (Colaptes aurutus); so called from its spring note. Called also yellow-hammer, high-holder, pigeon woodpecker, and yucca. "The cackle of the flicker among the oaks."

verb

Flicker v. i. (past & past part. flickered; pres. part. flickering)

To flutter; to flap the wings without flying. "And flickering on her nest made short essays to sing."

To waver unsteadily, like a flame in a current of air, or when about to expire; as, the flickering light. "The shadows flicker to fro."

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Etymology of 'Flicker'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Flicker" Quotes from Famous Books

... shades. The trees were sapling chestnuts if I am not mistaken, Spanish chestnuts, and used for hop-poles in those parts. Their leaves decay gradually, the fleshy part, so to speak, dropping away from the articulation till at last bleached skeleton leaves remain and flicker at every sigh of the wind. The ground was densely carpeted with other leaves in the same state, or about to become so. The silver grey was cross-hatched by the purple lines of the serried stems, and as the view receded ...

— Lore of Proserpine • Maurice Hewlett

... 15 feet high; and when we tied a candle to the end of an alpenstock, and passed it into the fissures, we found that the bend of the fissures prevented our seeing the termination of the ice. An intermittent disturbance of the air in these fissures made the flame flicker at intervals, though generally the candle burned steadily in them, and we could detect no current in the cave. The fourth column was in the low part of the cave, and we were obliged to grovel on the ice to get its dimensions: it was 3-1/4 feet broad and 4-1/3 feet high, the roof of the cave being ...

— Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland • George Forrest Browne

... his companion gently touched him, and pointing in a direction nearly straight across the lake, said 'Yon's ta cove.' A small point of light was seen to twinkle in the direction in which he pointed, and gradually increasing in size and lustre, seemed to flicker like a meteor upon the verge of the horizon. While Edward watched this phenomenon, the distant dash of oars was heard. The measured sound approached near and more near, and presently a loud whistle was heard in the same direction. His friend ...

— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott

... wandered up, and died out like a flicker of firelight. She did not move. And then it was that June perceived under the softness and immobility of this figure something desperate and resolved; something not to be turned away, something dangerous. She tore off her hat, and, putting both hands to her brow, pressed back ...

— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... his heavy boot gave him a sharp and solid kick. He was about repeating the performance—for the child hung like a rag in his grasp—but all of a sudden his ears rang, as if pistols were snapp'd close to them; lights of various hues flicker'd in his eye, (he had but one, it will be remember'd,) and a strong propelling power caused him to move from his position, and keep moving until he was brought up by the wall. A blow, a cuff given in such a scientific manner that the hand from which it proceeded was ...

— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman

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