firk

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “firk”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Alternative forms

• ferk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɜː(ɹ)k/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k

Etymology 1

From Middle English firken, ferken (“to proceed, hasten”), from Old English fercian (“to bring, assist, support, carry, conduct, convey, proceed”), from Proto-West Germanic *farikōn, frequentative of Proto-Germanic *faraną (“to travel, fare”). Akin to Old English faran (“to fare, go”), English fare; if so, equivalent to fare +‎ -k. Cognate with Old High German fuora (“benefit, sustenance, support”), Swabian fergen, ferken (“to bring, dispatch”).

Verb

firk (third-person singular simple present firks, present participle firking, simple past and past participle firked)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To carry away or about; carry; move.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To drive away.
   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To rouse; raise up.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To move quickly; go off or fly out suddenly; turn out.
   • 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, →OCLC, (please specify the GB page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     A wench is a rare bait, with which a man / No sooner's taken but he straight firks mad.

Noun

firk (plural firks)

1. A stroke; lash.

Etymology 2

Probably an alteration of freak.

Noun

firk (plural firks)

1. (UK dialectal) A freak; trick; quirk.

Derived terms

• firkery