fike
To feign; dissemble; flatterTo feign; dissemble; flatter.
Meaning
3 senses(ambitransitive)To feign; dissemble; flatter.
(intransitive)To move about in a quick, uneasy way; be constantly in motion.
(transitive)To give trouble to; vex; perplex.
Origin
From Middle English fiken (“to feign, dissemble, flatter”), from Old English fician (“to wFrom Middle English fiken (“to feign, dissemble, flatter”), from Old English fician (“to wheedle, flatter”) (also found in compound befician (“to deceive”)), from Proto-West Germanic *fikōn, from Proto-Germanic *fikōną (“to deceive”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyǵ- (“ill-meaning, evil-minded, treacherous, hostile, bad”). Related to Old English ġefic (“fraud, deceit, deception”), Old English fācen (“deceit, fraud, treachery, sin, evil, crime, blemish, fault”), Middle High German veichen (“dissembling, deceit, fraud”), Latin piget (“it irks, it annoys”).
From Middle English fiken, fyken (“to fidget, move about restlessly, hasten away”), from Old Norse fíkjast (“to be eager or restless”), from fíka (“to climb, move”). Cognate with Scots fyke (“to move about restlessly, fidget, itch”), Norwegian fika (“to strive, take trouble”), Icelandic fikinn (“eager, greedy”). Related to fig and fidget.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
fikes, fiking, fiked, fikedLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.