I have always heard the expression flip through a book, but recently I came across the similar flick through a book.
The Oxford Dictionary of English gives the meaning of the phrasal verb flip through as look quickly through (a book, magazine, etc) and surprisingly the meaning of flick through is given as the same.
What is the difference between flip through and flick through? Are these two expressions really identical in meaning?
Best Answer
As the comments indicated, "flicked through" appears to be common in British English, although they seem to use "flipped through" almost as often. Here's an Ngram with the "British English (2009)" corpus:
On the other hand, American English doesn't use "flicked through" as much. Here's the graph using the "American English (2009)" corpus:
Beyond that, a writer may alternate between flicking and flipping through pages for some variety. Both words are onomatopoeic and they create slightly different sounds in my mind as I read them.