0 present participle of flick
She sat in the waiting room, flicking her fingers nervously.
The flicking of a light switch, for example, is the cause of the lamp lighting in the sense that flicking 'tips the balance of events, producing the known outcome'.
That did not come just by flicking the fingers at the moment of nationalisation.
We have all been asked for directions by minicab drivers, or seen them flicking through their map book.