flick
flick Lexical Profile
flick Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A sudden, quick, light movement or sharp tap, often made with the fingers or wrist.
"With a quick flick of her wrist, she sent the paper airplane gliding across the classroom."
A motion picture or film (used informally).
"We decided to stay home on Friday night and watch an old action flick."
• verb
To strike, propel, or remove something with a sudden, quick, light movement of the fingers or wrist.
"He paused to flick a speck of dust off the lapel of his jacket."
To move or wave quickly and lightly back and forth.
"The horse continued to flick its tail to keep the summer flies away."
To look quickly through the pages of a book, magazine, or set of television channels.
"She sat in the waiting room and began to flick through a travel magazine."
• Rhymes for flick
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the mid-15th century, likely of imitative origin representing the sound of a quick, light blow, and related to Middle English 'fliken' (to flutter lightly). The informal sense meaning 'movie' emerged in the 1920s as a shortening of 'flicker', referencing the flickering image of early motion-picture projectors.