befleck

English

Etymology

From be- +‎ fleck.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈflɛk/
• Rhymes: -ɛk

Verb

befleck (third-person singular simple present beflecks, present participle beflecking, simple past and past participle beflecked)

1. (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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bəˈflɛk]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧fleck
• Rhymes: -ɛk

Verb

befleck

1. singular imperative of beflecken