Meaning

noun a slick spokesperson who can turn any criticism to the advantage of their employer

noun intense adverse criticism

noun artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes

originFrom Middle English flacken (“to palpitate, flutter”), from Old English *flaccian, from Proto-West Germanic *flakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *flakkōną (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ-, which could be related to Ancient Greek πλάζω (plázō, “to turn away from”). Akin to Middle Dutch vlacken (“to flicker, flash, sparkle”), Danish flakke (“to wander”), Swedish flacka (“to rove, rove about,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0