Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A press agent; a publicist.
- intransitive verb To act as a press agent.
- intransitive verb To act as a press agent for; promote.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To flutter; palpitate.
- To hang loosely; flag.
- To beat by flapping.
- noun A blow; a stroke.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive, obsolete To
flutter ;palpitate . - verb intransitive To
hang loosely;flag . - verb transitive To
beat byflapping . - noun a
publicist , a publicity agent - verb to
publicise , topromote - noun Alternative spelling of
flak .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes
- noun intense adverse criticism
- noun a slick spokesperson who can turn any criticism to the advantage of their employer
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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“In fact, we got flack from the studio one day, because we shot nine rolls of film of just Sharlto in this one scene; he just kept going and going and going!”
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If Mr. Obama is catching the requisite flack from the right, he's also getting it from the left, and it's not just over economics.
So Much for That 2009
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Back in April, the Department of Homeland Security caught a lot of flack from the right wing for issuing the memo that warned of "lone wolves" from both the extreme left and the right committing acts of terror just like this.
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He never gave a media interview, telling an overeager label flack: "It's better that way; when I talk, it's rubbish."
The Disappearing Maestro Norman Lebrecht 2011
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However, I thought you might be interested in one of the most obnoxious articles on the topic ever, from MacLean's (Canada's newsweekly) -- basically, the article quotes some flack from the plastic bag industry protesting Toronto's bag charge on the grounds that bags are only a small part of the ocean's trash, and therefore we shouldn't expend our efforts there but fight other plastics instead.
Seattle's Green Bag Campaign aka TBTAM 2009
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Pardon my language but how in the flickitty-flack is choking and punching someone after you threaten to kill them a “mistake?”
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Now I am probably going to catch a lot of flack from the pseudo-EMO crowd that follows these novels like a bevy of groveling lemmings.
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With today's Federal Communications Commission members taking regular flack from the television industry for being too deferential to the big telecom companies in areas such as spectrum allocation, it's easy to forget that the FCC has been staffed by people more sympathetic to broadcaster concerns.
2010's notable tech industry deaths Brad Reed 2010
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The reason I think this will get some flack is because often people cannot distinguish a story that stands on its own from a criticism on their beliefs.
...um, Hellboy? Witches? Conan? wendigomountain 2008
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Like some of the others who've commented, I got a lot of flack from a certain family member about staying home before the children came.
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