A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1951 (DOST Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1475-1512, 1572-1605, 1688-1689
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Fyk(e, Fike, v. Also: fyck-. [App. related to ON. fíkjast; MSw. fikja, to be eager or restless.]
1. tr. a. ? To disorder, disarrange. c1475 Acts of Schir William Wallace ix. 1866.
Agayn he turnit … And left his deid all fykit in to fy [v.r. fiklet in foly]
b. To trouble or vex. 1572 Satirical Poems xxxi. 123.
Blind Jamie tauld me ells, That quyetly thai news did fyk thame
2. intr. To move restlessly, to fidget. c1500-c1512 Dunb. xxvi. 89.
Suppois thay fycket with thair ersis, It mycht be na remeid a1605 Montg. Flyt. 18 (T).
Thou art … Fykand and fidland lyke Robene reid breist a1605 Polwart a1605 Ib. 181.
Quhill thow stuid fidging at the fyre, Fast fykand with thy hieland cheir c1590 J. Stewart 227 § 110.
Following hir, the litill vinche, licht Fickilnes, did fyk 1590 Burel Pilgr. i. xxiii.
The bee … Quhils stinging, quhils flinging, From hole to hole did fyke 1603 Philotus cxxx.
Ȝe fidge, ȝe fyke, As with a spreit possest a1689 Cleland Poems 105.
We forsooth must fyke and fling
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