Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FRISK, v.i. [Dan. frisk, fresh, new, green, brisk, lively, gay, vigorous; frisker, to freshen, to renew; friskhed, coolness, freshness, briskness; Sw. frisk; G. frisch, fresh, brisk. This is the same word as fresh, but from the Gothic. If it is radically the same as brisk, it is W. brysg, speedy, nimble, from rhys, a rushing. But this is doubtful. In some languages, fresh is written fersc, versch, as if from the root Br. But I think it can not be the Ch. פדכם, to be moved, to tremble.]

1. To leap; to skip; to spring suddenly one way and the other. The fish fell a frisking in the net. L'Estrange.
2. To dance, skip and gambol in frolick and gayety. The frisking satyrs on the summits danced. Addison. In vain to frisk or climb he tries. Swift.