Dictionary

befleck en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /bɪˈflɛk/

Etymology

From be- + fleck.

Meanings

1. (poetic) to cover with small spots or flecks
   • The world is filled with changeful light, The clouds befleck the sky, And o’er the fields, to harvest white, The trooping shadows fly. 1854, Jonathan Freke Slingsby, “A Slingsby Wedding, and the Doings Thereat”, in The Dublin University Magazine, A Literary and Political Journal, volume 44:
   • I am not of those Fairies seen Tripping by moonlight on the green, Whose dewdrop bumpers, nightly poured, Befleck the mushroom’s virgin board, […] 1867, James Russell Lowell, “Hob Gobbling’s Song”, in Our Young Folks, volume 3:
   • 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. 1903, Pierre Loti, India:
   • 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. 1906, Nixon Waterman, “The Year’s Procession”, in Appleton’s Magazine, volume 8:

Forms