Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
verb (used without object)
- to serve as a press agent or publicist: to flack for a new rock group.
verb (used with object)
- to promote; publicize: to flack a new record.
noun
- mainly US and Canadian a press or publicity agent
noun
- a variant spelling of flak
“publicity or press agent,” 1945, also as a verb by that year, said to have been coined in show biz magazine “Variety” (but this is not the first attested use), supposedly from name of Gene Flack, a movie agent, but influenced by flak. There was a Gene Flack who was an advertising executive in the U.S. during the 1940s, but he seems to have sold principally biscuits, not movies.