frisk
/frɪsk
/verb
1 [with object] (Of a police officer or other official) pass the hands over (someone) in a search for hidden weapons, drugs, or other items: he raised his arms to permit the officer to frisk him I was frisked and released without charge...
- One of them relieved Phelps of his gun and gun belt, while the other frisked him for hidden weapons or other ‘dangerous’ articles.
- Officers frisked Barnes and made him stand with them near the police cars.
- He holstered the pistol and frisked her for weapons.
Synonyms
search, body-search, check, inspect, examine
informal give someone the once-over
North American informal shake down
2 [no object, with adverbial of direction] Skip or leap playfully; frolic: spaniels frisked around me...
- She says she can picture Charlie right now frisking about some green field of Heaven, wearing his loop of flowers.
- ‘She was caught in the bush, sir,’ he explained, glancing down at the dog that was still frisking about.
- He watches them flirt, frolic, frisk and fondle.
Synonyms
frolic, gambol, cavort, caper, cut capers, sport, scamper, skip, dance, romp, trip, prance, leap, spring, hop, jump, bounce, bob
rare curvet, rollick, capriole
noun
1 [in singular] An act of frisking someone: a frisk search...
- The panel addressed the issue of whether probable cause to seize an object can arise during a frisk when a police officer knows the object in question to be narcotics.
- They will come and take you out to the back area, and they will do a bit of a frisk.
- If he knows that he could be frisked, he can place a non-metal explosive in a location that will not be disclosed by a frisk.
2A playful skip or leap.As the procession approached Hadleigh, he slipped off his horse, and leaped and took a frisk or two, as men commonly do in dancing.
Derivatives
frisker
- This means heavier pats from heavy-handed friskers.
- Hand-and-foot monitors are provided at high traffic boundaries and friskers at the rest.
- While this is standard operating procedure, they only had a couple friskers at each door, and five or six security guards looking lethargically over the crowd.
Origin
Early 16th century (in sense 2 of the noun): from obsolete frisk 'lively, frisky', from Old French frisque 'alert, lively, merry', perhaps of Germanic origin. sense 1 of the noun, originally a slang term, dates from the late 18th century.