Dictionary

foam-flecked en · ADJ

Etymology

A reference to the way a rabid animal foams at the mouth.

Meanings

1. Rabid; furious; fanatical.
   • Now the hostess became his mistress: his love letters were passionate, indiscreet, and hate-filled, featuring Briish military secrets and foam-flecked rants against Jews: 2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 558:
   • Stephenson had already worked himself into something just short of a foam-flecked tirade by the time Will arrived. 2012, Ian Tregillis, Bitter Seeds:
   • The stories were fabulous bubbles of outrage (prawn-cocktail flaboured crisps were never banned), but the foam-flecked hymns of hate were real. 2020, Fintan O'Toole, Three Years in Hell: The Brexit Chronicles:
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see foam, flecked.; covered in flecks of foam.

Forms