Fleak

The uſes indeed of the forenamed Plants are ſo univerſall, and take place ſo in every affaire of Man, that if it vvere lavvfull to be a little merry in ſo ſerious a matter, a man might not unfittingly apply that verſe of the Poet [Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters from the Black Sea), book IV, 3-35] to this ſo generall a commodity; / Omnia ſunt homini tenui pendentia filo. / That all the buſineſſes of Men do very much depend upon theſe little long fleaks or threds of Hempe and Flaxa.

Above that Region the Wind blew at South-weſt by South, as appeared by ſome ſmall Fleaks of Clouds coming from that Quarter.

Plutarke alſo calleth this beaſt a meticulous and fearefull beaſt, and in this cauſe concludeth the change of his colour, not as ſome ſay, to auoyde and deceiue the beholders and to vvorke out his ovvne happineuſſe, but for meere dread and terrour. […] But I for my part doe aſſigne the true cauſe to bee in the thinneſſe of their skinne, and therefore may eaſily take impreſſion of any colour, like to a thin fleake of a horne, vvhich being layde ouer blacke, ſeemeth blacke, and ſo ouer other colours: […]

Now, it is very demonſtrable from vvhat has been ſaid, that all ſuch Effects may be produc'd by a Prick of a Nail, a Stub, or a Fleak, when it ſticks in thoſe tender ſenſible Parts, […] [I]f there be any Fleak or Piece of Nail remaining in the Quick, vvhich may be knovvn by examining the Nail you have pull'd out, or by the continued Pain, with a conſtant Diſcharge of matter, you may introduce a Piece of dry Spunge, made in form of a Tent, vvith a Thread dravvn through the End of it: […]

Upon Examination, I found that they [the fat] conſiſted of regular large Laminæ: vvhich vvere eaſily ſeparable from one another, in broad Fleaks; […]

[M]any of them made use of flint for knives, […] this flint is of no regular form, and if they can only obtain a part of it, an inch or two in length that will cut they are satisfyed, they renew the edge by fleaking off the flint by means of the point of an Elk's or deer's horn.

Whence to flea, or to fleak, i.e. to pull off the skin. A school phrase, to be fleaked off, i.e. to have the skin fetched off by whipping.

[T]hey sent a perfect hail of bullets at us and we wasn't no ways disposed to stay there for them bullets were whispering to us about the head and fleaking up dirt around us and we run just because we could not fly, […]

[Edward] Young's Satires have been quite eclipsed by the fame of his Night Thoughts; a work the sublimity and dark splendour of which is fleaked with the wit and fancy which were essential constituents of his mind.

[W]hat am I here for? Vividly, but still calmly, he felt this in every nerve; and hope—fleaked, of course, by the gleams of tenderness and regret, which strong men feel as much as weak ones, and know that they must conquer—was burning in him like a central fire, as he turned his pony's head home.