firk

• ferk

• IPA^(key): /fɜː(ɹ)k/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k

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”).

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^[1].
   • 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, (please specify the Internet Archive 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.

firk (plural firks)

1. A stroke; lash.

Probably an alteration of freak.

firk (plural firks)

1. (UK obsolete, dialectal) A freak; trick; quirk^[2].
   • 1608, Lording Barry, Ram Alley:

     firk o' law

   • 1634, William Davenant, The Wits:

     a firk of piety

• firkery