Verb. (thieves’).—1. Specifically to whisk out; hence, to steal
actively, lightly, or delicately.
1850. Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. Low Lodging Houses of London. B. tried
his pocket saying, ‘I’ll show you how to do a hankerchief; but the
baker looked round and B. stopped; and just after that I flared it
(whisked the handerchief out); and that’s the first I did.’
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 457. Just after
that I flared it (a handerchief).