FLAB'BY, adjective

Soft; yielding to the touch and easily moved or shaken; easily bent; hanging loose by its own weight; as flabby flesh.

FLAC'CID, adjective [Latin flaccidus, from flacceo, to hand down, to flag.]

Soft and weak; limber; lax; drooping; hanging down by its own weight; yielding to pressure for want of firmness and stiffness; as a flaccid muscle; flaccid flesh.

FLACCID'ITY, noun Laxity; limberness: want of firmness or stiffness.

FLAC'CIDNESS or FLACCIDITY, noun. Laxity; limberness: want of firmness or stiffness.

FLAG, verb intransitive [Latin flacceo. See Flaccid. The sense is primarily to bend, or rather to recede, to lag.]

1. To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down as flexible bodies; to be loose and yielding; as the flagging sails.

2. To grow spiritless or dejected; to droop; to grow languid; as, the spirits flag.

3. To grow weak; to lose vigor; as, the strength flags.

4. To become dull or languid.

The pleasures of the town begin to flag.

FLAG, verb transitive To let fall into feebleness; to suffer to drop; as, to flag the wings.

FLAG, noun A flat stone, or a pavement of flat stones.

FLAG, verb transitive To lay with flat stones.

The sides and floor were all flagged with excellent marble.

FLAG, noun An aquatic plant, with a bladed leaf, probably so called from its bending or yielding to the wind.

FLAG, noun

An ensign or colors; a cloth on which are usually painted or wrought certain figures, and borne on a staff. In the army, a banner by which one regiment is distinguished from another. In the marine, a banner or standard by which the ships of one nation are distinguished from those of another, or by which an admiral is distinguished from other ships of his squadron. In the British navy, an admiral's flag is displayed at the main-top-gallant-mast-head, a vice-admiral's at the fore-top-gallant-mast-head, and a rear-admiral's at the mizen-top-gallant-mast-head.

To strike or lower the flag, is to pull it down upon the cap in token of respect or submission. To strike the flag in an engagement, is the sign of surrendering.

To hang out the white flag, is to ask quarter; or in some cases, to manifest a friendly design. The red flag, is a sign of defiance or battle.

To hang the flag half mast high, is a token or signal of mourning.

Flag-officer, an admiral; the commander of a squadron.

Flag-ship, the ship which bears the admiral, and in which his flag is displayed.

Flag-staff, the staff that elevates the flag.

FLAG'BROOM, noun A broom for sweeping flags.

FLAG'ELET, noun [Latin flatus, by corruption or Gr. oblique, and a flute.]

A small flute; a small wind instrument of music.

FLAG'ELLANT, noun [Latin flagellans, from flagello, to flog.]

One who whips himself in religious discipline. The flagellants were a fanatical sect which arose in Italy, AD. 1260, who maintained that flagellation was of equal virtue with baptism and the sacrament. They walked in procession with shoulders bare, and whipped themselves till the blood ran down their bodies, to obtain the mercy of God, and appease his wrath against the vices of the age.

FLAG'ELLATE, verb transitive To whip; to scourge.

FLAGELLA'TION, noun [Latin flagello, to beat or whip, to flog, from flagellum, a whip, scourge or flail. See Flail and Flog.]

A beating or whipping; a flogging; the discipline of the scourge.

FLAG'GED, participle passive Laid with flat stones.

FLAG'GINESS, noun Laxity; limberness; want of tension.

FLAG'GING, participle present tense Growing weak; drooping; laying with flat stones.

FLAG'GY, adjective

1. Weak; flexible; limber; not stiff.

2. Weak in taste; insipid; as a flaggy apple.

3. Abounding with flags, the plant.

FLAGI'TIOUS, adjective [Latin flagitium, a scandalous crime, probably from the root of flagrant.]

1. Deeply criminal; grossly wicked; villainous; atrocious; scandalous; as a flagitious action or crime.

2. Guilty of enormous crimes; corrupt; wicked; as a flagitious person.

3. Marked or infected with scandalous crimes or vices; as flagitious times.

FLAGI'TIOUSLY, adverb With extreme wickedness.

FLAGI'TIOUSNESS, noun Extreme wickedness; villainy.

FLAG'ON, noun [Latin lagena; Gr.]

A vessel with a narrow mouth, used for holding and conveying liquors.

Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love.

FLA'GRANCY, noun [See Flagrant.]

1. A burning; great heat; inflammation. obsolete

Lust causeth a flagrancy in the eyes.

2. Excess; enormity; as the flagrancy of a crime.

FLA'GRANT, adjective [Latin flagrans, from flagro, to burn; Gr.]

1. Burning; ardent; eager; as flagrant desires.

2. Glowing; red; flushed.

See Sapho, at her toilet's greasy task,

Then issuing flagrant to an evening mask.

3. Red; inflamed.

The beadle's lash still flagrant on their back.

[The foregoing senses are unusual.]

4. Flaming in notice; glaring; notorious; enormous; as a flagrant crime.

FLA'GRANTLY, adverb Ardently; notoriously.

FLA'GRATE, verb transitive To burn. [Little used.]

FLAGRA'TION, noun A burning. [Little used.]

FLAG'STONE, noun A flat stone for pavement.

FLAG'WORM, noun A worm or grub found among flags and sedge.

FLA'IL, noun [Latin flagellum. We retain the original verb in flog, to strike, to lay on, Latin fligo, whence affligo, to afflict; plaga, a stroke, or perhaps from the same root as lick and lay. Gr. See Lick.]

An instrument for thrashing or beating corn from the ear.

FLAKE, noun [Latin floccus; Gr. flake and flock are doubtless the same word, varied in orthography, and connected perhaps with Latin plico, Gr. The sense is a complication, a crowd, or a lay.]

1. A small collection of snow, as it falls from the clouds or from the air; a little bunch or cluster of snowy crystals, such as fall in still moderate weather. This is a flake lock or flock of snow.

2. A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, on which cod-fish is dried.

3. A layer or stratum; as a flake of flesh or tallow.

Job 41:23.

4. A collection or little particle of fire, or of combustible matter on fire, separated and flying off.

5. Any scaly matter in layers; any mass cleaving off in scales.

Little flakes of scurf.

6. A sort of carnations of two colors only, having large stripes going through the leaves.

White-flake, in painting, is lead corroded by means of the pressing of grapes, or a ceruse prepared by the acid of grapes. It is brought from Italy, and of a quality superior to common white lead. It is used in oil and varnished painting, when a clean white is required.

FLAKE, verb transitive To form into flakes.

FLAKE, verb intransitive To break or separate in layers; to peel or scale off. We more usually say, to flake off.

FLA'KY, adjective

1. Consisting of flakes or locks; consisting of small loose masses.

2. Lying in flakes; consisting of layers, or cleaving off in layers.

FLAM, noun A freak or whim; also, a falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext; deception; delusion.

Lies immortalized and consigned over as a perpetual abuse and flam upon posterity.

FLAM, verb transitive To deceive with falsehood; to delude.

FLAM'BEAU, noun flam'bo. [Latin flamma, flame.]

A light or luminary made of thick wicks covered with wax, and used in the streets at night, at illuminations, and in processions. Flambeaus are made square, and usually consist of four wicks or branches, near an inch thick, and about three feet long, composed of coarse hempen yarn, half twisted.

FLAME, noun [Latin flamma.]

1. A blaze; burning vapor; vapor in combustion; or according to modern chimistry, hydrogen or any inflammable gas, in a state of combustion, and naturally ascending in a stream from burning bodies being specifically lighter than common air.

2. Fire in general.

3. Heat of passion; tumult; combustion; blaze; violent contention. One jealous, tattling mischief-maker will set a whole village in a flame

4. Ardor of temper or imagination; brightness of fancy; vigor of thought.

Great are their faults, and glorious is their flame

5. Ardor of inclination; warmth of affection.

Smit with the love of kindred arts we came,

And met congenial, mingling flame with flame

6. The passion of love; ardent love.

My heart's on flame

7. Rage; violence; as the flames of war.

FLAME, verb transitive To inflame; to excite.

FLAME, verb intransitive

1. To blaze; to burn in vapor, or in a current; to burn as gas emitted from bodies in combustion.

2. To shine like burning gas.

In flaming yellow bright.

3. To break out in violence of passion.

FLA'MECOLOR, noun Bright color, as that of flame.

FLA'MECOLORED, adjective Of the color of flame; of a bright yellow color.

FLA'MEEYED, adjective Having eyes like a flame.

FLA'MELESS, adjective Destitute of flame; without incense.

FLA'MEN, noun [Latin]

1. In ancient Rome, a priest. Originally there were three priests so called; the flamen Dialis, consecrated to Jupiter; flamen Martialis, sacred to Mars; and flamen Quirinalis, who superintended the rites of Quirinus or Romulus.

2. A priest.

FLA'MING, participle present tense

1. Burning in flame.

2. adjective Bright; red. Also, violent; vehement; as a flaming harangue.

FLA'MING, noun A bursting out in a flame.

FLA'MINGLY, adverb Most brightly; with great show or vehemence.

FLAMIN'GO, noun

A fowl constituting the genus Phoenicopterus, of the grallic order. The beak is naked, toothed, and bent as if broken; the feet palmated and four-toed. This fowl resembles the heron in shape, but is entirely red, except the quill-fethers. It is a native of Africa and America.

FLAMIN'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to a Roman flamen.

FLAMMABIL'ITY, noun The quality of admitting to be set on fire, or enkindled into a flame or blaze; inflammability.

FLAM'MABLE, adjective Capable of being enkindled into flame.

FLAMMA'TION, noun The act of setting on flame.

The three last words are little used. Instead of them are used the compounds, inflammable, inflammability, inflammation.

FLAM'MEOUS, adjective Consisting of flame; like flame.

FLAMMIF'EROUS, adjective [Latin flamma and fero, to bring.] Producing flame.

FLAMMIV'OMOUS, adjective [Latin flamma and vomo, to vomit.] Vomiting flames, as a volcano.

FLA'MY, adjective [from flame.]

1. Blazing; burning; as flamy breath.

2. Having the nature of flame; as flamy matter.

3. Having the color of flame.

FLANK, noun [Eng. flag. Gr. probably connected with lank, and so called from its laxity, or from breadth.]

1. The fleshy or muscular part of the side of an animal, between the ribs and the hip. Hence,

2. The side of an army, or of any division of an army, as of a brigade, regiment or battalion. To attack an enemy in flank is to attack them on the side.

3. In fortification, that part of a bastion which reaches from the curtain to the face, and defends the opposite face, the flank and the curtain; or it is a line drawn from the extremity of the face towards the inside of the work.

FLANK, verb transitive

1. To attack the side or flank of an army or body of troops; or to place troops so as to command or attack the flank

2. To post so as to overlook or command on the side; as, to flank a passage.

3. To secure or guard on the side; as flanked with rocks.

FLANK, verb intransitive

1. To border; to touch.

2. To be posted on the side.

FLANK'ED, participle passive Attacked on the side; covered or commanded on the flank.

FLANK'ER, noun A fortification projecting so as to command the side of an assailing body.

FLANK'ER, verb transitive

1. To defend by lateral fortifications.

2. To attack sideways.

FLAN'NEL, noun [Latin lana.]

A soft nappy woolen cloth of loose texture.

FLAP, noun [Latin alapa, a slap. It seems difficult to separate flap from clap, slap, flabby, lap, etc.]

1. Any thing broad and limber that hangs loose, or is easily moved.

A cartilaginous flap on the opening of the larynx.

We say, the flap of a garment, the flap of the ear, the flap of a hat.

2. The motion of any thing broad and loose, or a stroke with it.

3. The flaps, a disease in the lips of horses.

FLAP, verb transitive

1. To beat with a flap

Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings.

2. To move something broad; as, to flap the wings.

3. To let fall, as the brim of a hat. [This sense seems to indicate a connection with lap.]

FLAP, verb intransitive

1. To move as wings, or as something broad or loose.

2. To fall, as the brim of a hat, or other broad thing.

FLAP'DRAGON, noun

1. A play in which they catch raisins out of burning brandy, and extinguishing them by closing the mouth, eat them.

2. The thing eaten.

FLAP'DRAGON, verb transitive To swallow or devour.

FLAP'EARED, adjective Having broad loose ears.

FLAP'JACK, noun An apple-puff.

FLAP'MOUTHED, adjective Having loose hanging lips.

FLAP'PED, participle passive Struck with something broad, let down; having the brim fallen, as a flapped hat.

FLAP'PER, noun One who flaps another.

FLAP'PING, participle present tense Striking; beating; moving something broad; as flapping wings. The ducks run flapping and fluttering.

FLARE, verb intransitive [If this word is not contracted, it may be allied to clear, glare, glory, Latin floreo, Eng. floor, the primary sense of which is to open, to spread, from parting, departing, or driving apart.]

1. To waver; to flutter; to burn with an unsteady light; as, the candle flares, that is the light wanders from its natural course.

2. To flutter with splendid show; to be loose and waving as a showy thing.

With ribbons pendant flaring 'bout her head.

3. To glitter with transient luster.

But speech alone doth vanish like a flaring thing.

4. To glitter with painful splendor.

When the sun begins to fling his flaring beams.

5. To be exposed to too much light.

I cannot stay flaring in sunshine all the day.

6. To open or spread outward.

FLA'RING, participle present tense or adjective

1. Burning with a wavering light; fluttering; glittering; showy.

2. Opening; widening outward; as a flaring fireplace.

FLASH, noun

1. A sudden burst of light; a flood of light instantaneously appearing and disappearing; as a flash of lightning.

2. A sudden burst of flame and light; as instantaneous blaze; as the flash of a gun.

3. A sudden burst, as of wit or merriment; as a flash of wit; a flash of joy or mirth.

His companions recollect no instance of premature wit, no striking sentiment, no flash of fancy -

4. A short, transient state.

The Persians and Macedonians had it for a flash

5. A body of water driven by violence. [Local.]

6. A little pool. [Local.]

FLASH, verb intransitive

1. To break forth, as a sudden flood of light; to burst or open instantly on the sight, as splendor. It differs from glitter, glisten and gleam in denoting a flood or wide extent of light. The latter words may express the issuing of light from a small object, or from a pencil of rays. A diamond may glitter or glisten, but it does not flash flash differs from other words also in denoting suddenness of appearance and disappearance.

2. To burst or break forth with a flood of flame and light; as, the powder flashed in the pan. Flashing differs from exploding or disploding, in not being accompanied with a loud report.

3. To burst out into any kind of violence.

Every hour he flashes into one gross crime or other.

4. To break out, as a sudden expression of wit, merriment or bright thought.

FLASH, verb transitive

1. To strike up a body of water from the surface.

He rudely flashed the waves.

[In this sense I believe this word is not used in America.]

2. To strike or to throw like a burst of light; as, to flash conviction on the mind.

FLASH'ER, noun

1. A man of more appearance of wit than reality.

2. A rower. [Not in use.]

FLASH'ILY, adverb With empty show; with a sudden glare; without solidity of wit or thought.

FLASH'ING, participle present tense Bursting forth as a flood of light, or of flame and light, or as wit, mirth or joy.

FLASH'Y, adjective

1. Showy, but empty; dazzling for a moment, but not solid; as flashy wit.

2. Showy; gay; as a flashy dress.

3. Insipid; vapid; without taste or spirit; as food or drink.

4. Washy; plashy. [See Plash.]

FL'ASK, noun

1. A kind of bottle; as a flask of wine or oil.

2. A vessel for powder.

3. A bed in a gun-carriage.

FL'ASKET, noun

1. A vessel in which viands are served up.

2. A long shallow basket.

FLAT, adjective [Latin latus, broad; Gr.; Eng. blade.]

1. Having an even surface, without risings or indentures, hills or valleys; as flat land.

2. Horizontal; level; without inclination; as a flat roof; or with a moderate inclination or slope; for we often apply the word to the roof of a house that is not steep, though inclined.

3. Prostrate; lying the whole length on the ground. He fell or lay flat on the ground.

4. Not elevated or erect; fallen.

Cease t'admire, and beauty's plumes fall flat

5. Level with the ground; totally fallen.

What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat

6. In painting, wanting relief or prominence of the figures.

7. Tasteless; stale; vapid; insipid; dead; as fruit flat to the taste.

8. Dull; unanimated; frigid; without point or spirit; applied to discourses and compositions. The sermon was very flat

9. Depressed; spiritless; dejected.

I feel - my hopes all flat

10. Unpleasing; not affording gratification.

How flat and insipid are all the pleasures of this life!

11. Peremptory; absolute; positive; downright. He gave the petitioner a flat denial.

Thus repulsed, our final hope is flat despair.

12. Not sharp or shrill; not acute; as a flat sound.

13. Low, as the prices of goods; or dull, as sales.

FLAT, noun

1. A level or extended plain. In America, it is applied particularly to low ground or meadow that is level, but it denotes any land of even surface and of some extent.

2. A level ground lying at a small depth under the surface of water; a shoal; a shallow; a strand; a sand bank under water.

3. The broad side of a blade.

4. Depression of thought or language.

5. A surface without relief or prominences.

6. In music, a mark of depression in sound. A flat denotes a fall or depression of half a tone.

7. A boat, broad and flat-bottomed. A flat-bottomed boat is constructed for conveying passengers or troops, horses, carriages and baggage.

FLAT, verb transitive

1. To level; to depress; to lay smooth or even; to make broad and smooth; to flatten.

2. To make vapid or tasteless.

3. To make dull or unanimated.

FLAT, verb intransitive

1. To grow flat; to fall to an even surface.

2. To become insipid, or dull and unanimated.

FLA'TIVE, adjective [Latin flatus, from flo, to blow.] Producing wind; flatulent. [Not in use.]

FLAT'LONG, adverb With the flat side downward; not edgewise.

FLAT'LY, adverb

1. Horizontally; without inclination.

2. Evenly; without elevations and depressions.

3. Without spirit; dully; frigidly.

4. Peremptorily; positively; downright.

He flatly refused his aid.

FLAT'NESS, noun

1. Evenness of surface; levelness; equality of surface.

2. Want of relief or prominence; as the flatness of a figure in sculpture.

3. Deadness; vapidness; insipidity; as the flatness of cider or beer.

4. Dejection of fortune; low state.

The flatness of my misery.

5. Dejection of mind; a low state of the spirits; depression; want of life.

6. Dullness; want of point; insipidity; frigidity.

Some of Homer's translators have swelled into fustian, and others sunk into flatness

7. Gravity of sound, as opposed to sharpness, acuteness or shrillness.

Flatness of sound - joined with a harshness.

FLAT'-NOSED, adjective Having a flat nose.

FLAT'TED, participle passive Made flat; rendered even on the surface; also, rendered vapid or insipid.

FLAT'TEN, verb transitive flat'n.

1. To make flat; to reduce to an equal or even surface; to level.

2. To beat down to the ground; to lay flat.

3. To make vapid or insipid; to render stale.

4. To depress; to deject, as the spirits; to dispirit.

5. In music, to reduce, as sound; to render less acute or sharp.

FLAT'TEN, verb intransitive flat'n.

1. To grow or become even on the surface.

2. To become dead, stale, vapid or tasteless.

3. To become dull or spiritless.

FLAT'TENING, participle present tense Making flat.

FLAT'TER, noun The person or thing by which any thing is flattened.

FLAT'TER, verb transitive [Flatter may be from the root of flat, that is, to make smooth, to appease, to soothe. Latin plaudo. Perhaps flat and plaudo are from one root, the radical sense of which must be to extend, strain, stretch.]

1. To soothe by praise; to gratify self-love by praise or obsequiousness; to please a person by applause or favorable notice, by respectful attention, or by any thing that exalts him in his own estimation, or confirms his good opinion of himself. We flatter a woman when we praise her children.

A man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his feet. Proverbs 29:5.

2. To please; to gratify; as, to flatter one's vanity or pride.

3. To praise falsely; to encourage by favorable notice; as, to flatter vices or crimes.

4. To encourage by favorable representations or indications; as, to flatter hopes. We are flattered with the prospect of peace.

5. To raise false hopes by representations not well founded; as, to flatter one with a prospect of success; to flatter a patient with the expectation of recovery when his case is desperate.

6. To please; to soothe.

A concert of voices - makes a harmony that flatters the ears.

7. To wheedle; to coax; to attempt to win by blandishments, praise or enticements. How many young and credulous persons are flattered out of their innocence and their property, by seducing arts!

FLAT'TERED, participle passive Soothed by praise; pleased by commendation; gratified with hopes, false or well founded; wheedled.

FLAT'TERER, noun One who flatters; a fawner; a wheedler; one who praises another, with a view to please him, to gain his favor, or to accomplish some purpose.

When I tell him he hates flatterers,

He says he does; being then most flattered.

The most abject flatterers degenerate into the greatest tyrants.

FLAT'TERING, participle present tense

1. Gratifying with praise; pleasing by applause; wheedling; coaxing.

2. adjective Pleasing to pride or vanity; gratifying to self-love; as a flattering eulogy. The minister gives a flattering account of his reception at court.

3. Pleasing; favorable; encouraging hope. We have a flattering prospect of an abundant harvest. The symptoms of the disease are flattering

4. Practicing adulation; uttering false praise; as a flattering tongue.

FLAT'TERINGLY, adverb

1. In a flattering manner; in a manner to flatter.

2. In a manner to favor; with partiality.

FLAT'TERY, noun

1. False praise; commendation bestowed for the purpose of gaining favor and influence, or to accomplish some purpose. Direct flattery consists in praising a person himself; indirect flattery consists in praising a person through his works or his connections.

Simple pride for flattery makes demands.

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.

2. Adulation; obsequiousness; wheedling.

3. Just commendation which gratifies self-love.

FLAT'TISH, adjective [from flat.] Somewhat flat; approaching to flatness.

FLAT'ULENCE,

FLAT'ULENCY, noun [See Flatulent.]

1. Windiness in the stomach; air generated in a weak stomach and intestines by imperfect digestion, occasioning distension, uneasiness, pain, and often belchings.

2. Airiness; emptiness; vanity.

FLAT'ULENCY, n. [See Flatulent.]

FLAT'ULENT, adjective [Latin flatulentus, flatus, from flo, to blow.]

1. Windy; affected with air generated in the stomach and intestines.

2. Turgid with air; windy; as a flatulent tumor.

3. Generating or apt to a generate wind in the stomach. Pease are a flatulent vegetable.

4. Empty; vain; big without substance or reality; puffy; as a flatulent writer; flatulent vanity.

FLATUOS'ITY, noun Windiness; fullness of air; flatulence. [Not used.]

FLAT'UOUS, adjective [Latin flatuosus.] Windy; generating wind. [Not used.]

FLA'TUS, noun [Latin from flo, to blow.]

1. A breath; a puff of wind.

2. Wind generated in the stomach or other cavities of the body; flatulence.

FLAT'WISE, adjective or adverb [from flat.] With the flat side downward or next to another object; not edgewise.

FL'AUNT, verb intransitive [I know not whence we have this word. From the root Latin bearing the sense of throwing out, or spreading. See Flounce.]

1. To throw or spread out; to flutter; to display ostentatiously; as a flaunting show.

You flaunt about the streets in your new gilt chariot.

One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade.

[This correctly expresses the author's meaning, which is, that the proud often attempt to make a show and parade of their importance, even in poverty. Johnson's remark on the use of the word seems therefore to be unfounded.]

2. To carry a pert or saucy appearance.

FL'AUNT, noun Any thing displayed for show.

FL'AUNTING, participle present tense Making an ostentatious display.

FLA'VOR, noun

The quality of a substance which affects the taste or smell, in any manner. We say, the wine has a fine flavor or a disagreeable flavor; the fruit has a bad flavor; a rose has a sweet flavor The word then signifies the quality which is tasted or smelled; taste, odor, fragrance, smell.

FLA'VOR, verb transitive To communicate some quality to a thing, that may affect the taste or smell.

FLA'VORED, adjective Having a quality that affects the sense of tasting or smelling; as high-flavored wine, having the quality in a high degree.

FLA'VORLESS, adjective Without flavor; tasteless; having no smell or taste.

FLA'VOROUS, adjective Pleasant to the taste or smell

FLA'VOUS, adjective [Latin flavus.] Yellow. [Not used.]

FLAW, noun [Gr. seems to be contracted .

1. A breach; a crack; a defect made by breaking or splitting; a gap or fissure; as a flaw in a scythe, knife or razor; a flaw in a china dish, or in a glass; a flaw in a wall.

2. A defect; a fault; any defect made by violence, or occasioned by neglect; as a flaw in reputation; a flaw in a will, or in a deed, or in a statute.

3. A sudden burst of wind; a sudden gust or blast of short duration; a word of common use among seamen. [This proves the primary sense to be, to burst or rush.]

4. A sudden burst of noise and disorder; a tumult; uproar.

And deluges of armies from the town

Came pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw

[In this sense, the word is not used in the United States.]

5. A sudden commotion of mind. [Not used.]

FLAW, verb transitive

1. To break; to crack.

The brazen cauldrons with the frosts are flawed.

2. To break; to violate; as, to flaw a league. [Little used.]

FLAW'ED, participle passive Broken; cracked.

FLAW'ING, participle present tense Breaking; cracking.

FLAW'LESS, adjective Without cracks; without defect.

FLAWN, noun A sort of custard or pie. [Obs.]

FLAW'TER, verb transitive To scrape or pare a skin. [Not used.]

FLAW'Y,

1. Full of flaws or cracks; broken; defective; faulty.

2. Subject to sudden gusts of wind.

FLAX, noun

1. A plant of the genus Linum, consisting of a single slender stalk, the skin or herl of which is used for making thread and cloth, called linen, cambric, lawn, lace, etc. The skin consists of fine fibers, which may be so separated as to be spun into threads as fine as silk.

2. The skin or fibrous part of the plant when broken and cleaned by hatcheling or combing.

FLAX'COMB, noun An instrument with teeth through which flax is drawn for separating from it the tow or coarser part and the shives. In America, we call it a hatchel.

FLAX'DRESSER, noun One who breaks and swingles flax.

FLAX'EN, adjective

1. Made of flax; as flaxen thread.

2. Resembling flax; of the color of flax; fair, long, and flowing; as flaxen hair.

FLAX'PLANT, noun The Phormium, a plant in New Zealand that serves the inhabitants for flax.

FLAX'RAISER, noun One who raises flax.

FLAX'SEED, noun The seed of flax.

FLAX'Y, adjective Like flax; being of a light color; fair.

FLAY, verb transitive [Gr. whence bark, rind; probably a contracted word.]

1. To skin; to strip off the skin of an animal; as, to flay an ox.

2. To take off the skin or surface of any thing. [Not used.]

FLA'YED, participle passive Skinned; stripped of the skin.

FLA'YER, noun One who strips off the skin.

FLA'YING, participle present tense Stripping off the skin.

FLEA, noun [See Flee and Fly.]

An insect of the genus Pulex. It has two eyes and six feet; the feelers are like threads; the rostrum is inflected, setaceous, and armed with a string. The flea is remarkable for its agility, leaping to a surprising distance, and its bite is very troublesome.

FLE'ABANE, noun A plant of the genus Conyza.

FLE'ABITE,

FLE'ABITING, noun

1. The bite of a flea, or the red spot caused by the bite.

2. A trifling wound or pain, like that of the bite of a flea.

FLE'ABITING, n.

FLE'ABITTEN, adjective

1. Bitten or stung by a flea.

2. Mean; worthless; of low birth or station.

FLEAK, A lock. [See Flake.]

FLEAM, noun

In surgery and farriery, a sharp instrument used for opening veins for letting blood.

FLE'AWORT, noun A plant.

FLECK,

FLECK'ER, verb transitive

To spot; to streak or stripe; to variegate; to dapple.

Both flecked with white, the true Arcadian strain.

[These words are obsolete or used only in poetry.]

FLECK'ER, v.t.

FLEC'TION, noun [Latin flectio.] The act of bending, or state of being bent.

FLEC'TOR, noun A flexor, which see.

FLED, preterit tense and participle passive of flee; as, truth has fled

FLEDGE, adjective flej.

Feathered; furnished with fethers or wings; able to fly.

His locks behind, illustrious on his shoulders, fledge with wings, lay waving round.

FLEDGE, verb transitive To furnish with fethers; to supply with the fethers necessary for flight.

The birds were not yet fledged enough to shift for themselves.

FLEDG'ED, participle passive Furnished with fethers for flight; covered with fethers.

FLEDG'ING, participle present tense Furnishing with fethers for flight.

FLEE, verb intransitive

1. To run with rapidity, as from danger; to attempt to escape; to hasten from danger or expected evil. The enemy fled at the first fire.

Arise, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt. Matthew 2:13.

2. To depart; to leave; to hasten away.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7.

3. To avoid; to keep at a distance from.

FLEE fornication; flee from idolatry. 1 Corinthians 6:10.

To flee the question or from the question, in legislation, is said of a legislator who, when a question is to be put to the house, leaves his seat to avoid the dilemma of voting against his conscience, or giving an unpopular vote. In the phrases in which this verb appears to be transitive, there is really an ellipsis.

FLEECE, noun flees. [Latin vellus, from vello, to pluck or tear off.]

The coat of wool shorn from a sheep at one time.

FLEECE, verb transitive

1. To shear off a covering or growth of wool.

2. To strip of money or property; to take from, by severe exactions, under color of law or justice, or pretext of necessity, or by virtue of authority. Arbitrary princes fleece their subjects; and clients complain that they are sometimes fleeced by their lawyers.

This word is rarely or never used for plundering in war by a licentious soldiery; but is properly used to express a stripping by contributions levied on a conquered people.

3. To spread over as with wool; to make white.

FLEE'CED, participle passive Stripped by severe exactions.

FLEE'CED, adjective Furnished with a fleece or with fleeces; as, a sheep is well fleeced

FLEE'CER, noun One who strips or takes by severe exactions.

FLEE'CING, participle present tense Stripping of money or property by severe demands of fees, taxes or contributions.

FLEE'CY, adjective

1. Covered with wool; woolly; as a fleecy flock.

2. Resembling wool or a fleece; soft; complicated; as fleecy snow; fleecy locks; fleecy hosiery.

FLEER, verb intransitive

1. To deride; to sneer; to mock; to gibe; to make a wry face in contempt, or to grin in scorn; as, to fleer and flout.

Covered with an antic face,

To fleer and scorn at our soleminity.

2. To leer; to grin with an air of civility.

A teacherous fleer on the face of deceivers.

FLEER, verb transitive to mock; to flout at.

FLEER, noun

1. Derision or mockery, expressed by words or looks.

And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns.

2. A grin of civility.

A treacherous fleer on the face of deceivers.

FLEE'RER, noun a mocker; a fawner.

FLEE'RING, participle present tense Deriding; mocking; counterfeiting an air of civility.

FLEET, in English names, denotes a flood, a creek or inlet, a bay or estuary, or a river; as in Fleet-street, North-flete, Fleet-prison.

FLEET, noun [Fleet and float seem to be allied. But whether they are formed from the root of flow, or whether the last consonant is radical, is not obvious. See Float.]

A navy or squadron of ships; a number of ships in company, whether ships of war, or of commerce. It more generally signifies ships of war.

FLEET, adjective [Eng. to flit.]

1. Swift of pace; moving or able to move with rapidity; nimble; light and quick in motion, or moving with lightness and celerity; as a fleet horse or dog.

2. Moving with velocity; as fleet winds.

3. Light; superficially fruitful; or thin; not penetrating deep; as soil.

4. Skimming the surface.

FLEET, verb intransitive

1. To fly swiftly; to hasten; to flit as a light substance. To fleet away is to vanish.

How all the other passions fleet to air.

2. To be in a transient state.

3. to float.

FLEET, verb transitive

1. to skim the surface; to pass over rapidly; as a ship that fleets the gulf.

2. To pass lightly, or in mirth and joy; as, to fleet away time. [Not used.]

3. To skim milk. [Local, in England.]

The verb in the transitive form is rarely or never used in America.

FLEE'TFOOT, adjective Swift of foot; running or able to run with rapidity.

FLEE'TING, participle present tense

1. Passing rapidly; flying with velocity.

2. adjective Transient; not durable; as the fleeting hours or moments.

FLEE'TLY, adverb Rapidly; lightly and nimbly; swiftly.

FLEE'TNESS, noun Swiftness; rapidity; velocity; celerity; speed; as the fleetness of a horse or a deer.

FLEM'ING, noun A native of Flanders, or the Low Countries in Europe.

FLEM'ISH, adjective Pertaining to Flanders.

FLESH, noun [I know not the primary sense; it may be soft.]

1. A compound substance forming a large part of an animal, consisting of the softer solids, as distinguished from the bones and the fluids. Under the general appellation of flesh we include the muscles, fat, glands etc., which invest the bones and are covered with the skin. It is sometimes restricted to the muscles.

2. Animal food, in distinction from vegetable.

FLESH without being qualified with acids, is too alkalescent a diet.

3. The body of beasts and fowls used as food, distinct from fish. In Lent, the Catholics abstain from flesh but eat fish.

4. The body, as distinguished from the soul.

As if this flesh which walls about our life,

Were brass impregnable.

5. Animal nature; animals of all kinds.

The end of all flesh is come before me. Genesis 6:3.

6. Men in general; mankind.

My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh Genesis 6:3.

7. Human nature.

The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. John 1:13.

8. Carnality; corporeal appetites.

Fasting serves to mortify the flesh

The flesh lusteth against the spirit. Galatians 5:13.

9. A carnal state; a state of unrenewed nature.

They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:1.

10. The corruptible body of man, or corrupt nature.

FLESH and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 15:39.

11. The present life; the state of existence in this world.

To abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Philippians 1:22.

12. Legal righteousness, and ceremonial services.

What shall we then say that Abraham, our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? Romans 4:1. Galatians 3:3.

13. Kindred; stock; family.

He is our brother, and our flesh Genesis 37:27.

14. In botany, the soft pulpy substance of fruit; also, that part of a root, fruit, etc., which is fit to be eaten.

One flesh denotes intimate relation. To be one flesh is to be closely united, as in marriage. Gen 2. Ephesians 5:29.

After the flesh according to outward appearances, John 8:15

Or according to the common powers of nature. Gal 4:

Or according to sinful lusts and inclinations. Romans 8:1.

An arm of flesh human strength or aid.

FLESH, verb transitive

1. To initiate; a sportsman's use of the word, from the practice of training hawks and dogs by feeding them with the first game they take or other flesh

2. To harden; to accustom; to establish in any practice, as dogs by often feeding on any thing. Men fleshed in cruelty; women fleshed in malice.

3. To glut; to satiate.

The wild dog

Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.

FLESH'BROTH, noun Broth made by boiling flesh in water.

FLESH'BRUSH, noun A brush for exciting action in the skin by friction.

FLESH'COLOR, noun The color of flesh; carnation.

FLESH'COLORED, adjective Being of the color of flesh.

FLESH'DIET, noun Food consisting of flesh.

FLESH'ED, participle passive

1. Initiated; accustomed; glutted.

2. Fat; fleshy.

FLESH'FLY, noun A fly that feeds on flesh, and deposits her eggs in it.

FLESH'HOOK, noun A hook to draw flesh from a pot or caldron. 1 Samuel 2:13.

FLESH'INESS, noun [from fleshy.] Abundance of flesh or fat in animals; plumpness; corpulence; grossness.

FLESH'ING, participle present tense Initiating; making familiar; glutting.

FLESH'LESS, adjective Destitute of flesh; lean.

FLESH'LINESS, noun Carnal passions and appetites.

FLESH'LY, adjective

1. Pertaining to the flesh; corporeal.

2. Carnal; worldly; lascivious.

Abstain from fleshly lusts. 1 Peter 2:11.

3. Animal; not vegetable.

4. Human; not celestial; not spiritual or divine.

Vain of fleshly arm.

Fleshly wisdom. 2 Corinthians 1:12.

FLESH'MEAT, noun Animal food; the flesh of animals prepared or used for food.

FLESH'MENT, noun Eagerness gained by a successful initiation.

FLESH'MONGER, noun One who deals in flesh; a procurer; a pimp. [Little used.]

FLESH'POT, A vessel in which flesh is cooked; hence, plenty of provisions. Exodus 16:1.

FLESH'QUAKE, noun A trembling of the flesh. [Not used.]

FLESH'Y, adjective

1. Full of flesh; plump; musculous.

The sole of his foot is fleshy

2. Fat; gross; corpulent; as a fleshy man.

3. Corporeal.

4. Full of pulp; pulpous; plump; as fruit.

FLET, participle passive of fleet. Skimmed. [Not used.]

FLETCH, verb transitive To fether an arrow.

FLETCH'ER, noun An arrow-maker; a manufacturer of bows and arrows. hence the name of fletcher

But the use of the word as an appellative has ceased with the practice of archery.

FLETZ, adjective In geology, the fletz formations, so called, consist of rocks which lie immediately over the transition rocks. These formations are so called because the rocks usually appear in beds more nearly horizontal than the transition class. These formations consist of sandstone, limestone, gypsum, calamine, chalk, coal and trap. They contain abundance of petrifactions, both of animal and vegetable origin.

FLEW, preterit tense of fly.

The people flew upon the spoil. 1 Samuel 14:32.

FLEW, noun The large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound.

FLEW'ED, adjective Chapped; mouthed; deep-mouthed.

FLEXAN'IMOUS, adjective [from Latin ] Having power to change the mind. [Not used.]

FLEXIBIL'ITY, noun [See Flexible.]

1. The quality of admitting to be bent; pliancy; flexibleness; as the flexibility of rays of light.

2. Easiness to be persuaded; the quality of yielding to arguments, persuasion or circumstances; ductility of mind; readiness to comply; facility; as flexibility of temper.

FLEX'IBLE, adjective [Latin flexibilis, from flecto, flexi, to bend, plico.]

1. That may be bent; capable of being turned or forced from a straight line or form without breaking; pliant; yielding to pressure; not stiff; as a flexible rod; a flexible plant.

2. Capable of yielding to intreaties, arguments or other moral force; that may be persuaded to compliance; not invincibly rigid; or obstinate; not inexorable.

Phocion was a man of great severity, and no ways flexible to the will of the people.

It often denotes, easy or too easy to yield or comply; wavering; inconstant; not firm.

3. Ductile; manageable; tractable; as the tender and flexible minds of youth. flexible years or time of life, the time when the mind is tractable.

4. That may be turned or accommodated.

This was a principle more flexible to their purpose.

FLEX'IBLENESS, noun

1. Possibility to be bent or turned from a straight line or form without breaking; easiness to be bent; pliantness; pliancy; flexibility.

2. Facility of mind; readiness to comply or yield; obsequiousness; as the flexibleness of a courtier.

FLEX'ILE, adjective [Latin flexilis.] Pliant; pliable; easily bent; yielding to power, impulse or moral force.

FLEX'ION, noun [Latin flexio.]

1. The act of bending.

2. A bending; a part bent; a fold.

3. A turn; a cast; as a flexion of the eye.

FLEX'OR, noun In anatomy, a muscle whose office is to bend the part to which it belongs, in opposition to the extensors.

FLEX'UOUS, adjective [Latin flexuosus.]

1. Winding; having turns or windings; as a flexuous rivulet.

2. Bending; winding; wavering; not steady; as a flexuous flame.

3. In botany, bending or bent; changing its direction in a curve, from joint to joint, from bud to bud, or from flower to flower.

FLEX'URE, noun [Latin flexura.]

1. A winding or bending; the form of bending; as the flexure of a joint.

2. The act of bending.

3. The part bent; a joint.

4. The bending of the body; obsequious or servile cringe.

FLICK'ER, verb intransitive

1. To flutter; to flap the wings without flying; to strike rapidly with the wings.

And flickering on her nest made short essays to sing.

2. To fluctuate.

FLICK'ERING, participle present tense

1. Fluttering; flapping the wings without flight.

2. adjective With amorous motions of the eye.

The fair Lavinia - looks a little flickering after Turnus.

FLICK'ERING, noun A fluttering; short irregular movements.

FLICK'ERMOUSE, noun The bat.

FLI'ER, noun [See Fly. It ought to be flyer.]

1. One that flies or flees.

2. A runaway; a fugitive.

3. A part of a machine which, by moving rapidly, equalizes and regulates the motion of the whole; as the flier of a jack.

FLIGHT, noun [See Fly.]

1. The act of fleeing; the act of running away, to escape danger or expected evil; hasty departure.

Pray ye that your flight be not in winter. Matthew 24:20.

To put to flight to turn to flight is to compel to run away; to force to escape.

2. The act of flying; a passing through the air by the help of wings; volation; as the flight of birds and insects.

3. The manner of flying. Every fowl has its particular flight; the flight of the eagle is high; the flight of the swallow is rapid, with sudden turns.

4. Removal from place to place by flying.

5. A flock of birds flying in company; as a flight of pigeons or wild geese.

6. A number of beings flying or moving through the air together; as a flight of angels.

7. A number of things passing through the air together; a volley; as a flight of arrows.

8. A periodical flying of birds in flocks; as the spring flight or autumnal flight of ducks or pigeons.

9. In England, the birds produced in the same season.

10. The space passed by flying.

11. A mounting; a soaring; lofty elevation and excursion; as a flight of imagination or fancy; a flight of ambition.

12. Excursion; wandering; extravagant sally; as a flight of folly.

13. The power of flying.

14. In certain lead works, a substance that flies off in smoke.

FLIGHT of stairs, the series of stairs from the floor, or from one platform to another.

FLIGHTNESS, noun The state of being flighty; wildness; slight delirium.

FLIGHTY, adjective

1. Fleeting; swift.

The flighty purpose never is o'ertook.

2. Wild; indulging the sallies of imagination.

3. Disordered in mind; somewhat delirious.

FLIM'FLAM, noun A freak; a trick.

FLIM'SINESS, noun State or quality of being flimsy; thin, weak texture; weakness; want of substance or solidity.

FLIM'SY, adjective s as z. [The word is retained by the common people in New England in limsy, weak, limber, easily bending.]

1. Weak; feeble; slight; vain; without strength or solid substance; as a flimsy pretext; a flimsy excuse; flimsy objections.

2. Without strength or force; spiritless.

Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines.

3. Thin; of loose texture; as flimsy cloth or stuff. [Little used.]

FLINCH, verb intransitive [I have not found this word in any other language; but the sense of it occurs in blench, and not improbably it is from the same root, with a different prefix.]

1. To shrink; to withdraw from any suffering or undertaking, from pain or danger; to fail of proceeding, or of performing any thing. Never flinch from duty. One of the parties flinched from the combat.

A child, by a constant course of kindness, may be accustomed to bear very rough usage without flinching or complaining.

2. To fail.

FLINCH'ER, noun One who flinches or fails.

FLINCH'ING, participle present tense Failing to undertake, perform or proceed; shrinking; withdrawing.

FLIN'DER, noun A small piece or splinter; a fragment.

[This seems to be splinter, without the prefix.]

FLING, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive flung. [Latin lego legare.]

1. To cast, send or throw from the hand; to hurl; as, to fling a stone at a bird.

Tis fate that flings the dice; and as she flings,

Of kings makes peasants, and of peasants, kings.

2. To dart; to cast with violence; to send forth.

He - like Jove, his lightning flung.

3. To send forth; to emit; to scatter.

Every beam new transient colors flings.

4. To throw; to drive by violence.

5. To throw to the ground; to prostrate.

The wrestler flung his antagonist.

6. To baffle; to defeat; as, to fling a party in litigation.

To fling away, to reject; to discard.

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition.

1. To fling down, to demolish; to ruin.

2. To throw to the ground.

To fling out, to utter; to speak; as, to fling out hard words against another.

To fling off, to baffle in the chase, to defeat of prey.

To fling in, to throw in; to make an allowance or deduction, or not to charge in an account. In settling accounts, one party flings in a small sum, or a few days work.

To fling open, to throw open; to open suddenly or with violence; as, to fling open a door.

To fling up, to relinquish; to abandon; as, to fling up a design.

FLING, verb intransitive

1. To flounce; to wince; to fly into violent and irregular motions. The horse began to kick and fling

2. To cast in the teeth; to utter harsh language; to sneer; to upbraid. The scold began to flout and fling

To fling out, to grow unruly or outrageous.

FLING, noun

1. A throw; a cast from the hand.

2. A gibe; a sneer; a sarcasm; a severe or contemptuous remark.

I, who love to have a fling

Both at senate house and king.

FLING'ER, noun One who flings; one who jeers.

FLING'ING, participle present tense Throwing; casting; jeering.

FLINT, noun

1. In natural history, a sub-species of quartz, of a yellowish or bluish gray, or grayish black color. It is amorphous, interspersed in other stones, or in nodules or rounded lumps. Its surface is generally uneven, and covered with a rind or crust, either calcarious or argillaceous. It is very hard, strikes fire with steel, and is an ingredient in glass.

2. A piece of the above described stone used in firearms to strike fire.

3. Any thing proverbially hard; as a heart of flint

FLINT'HEART,

FLINT'HEARTED, adjective Having a hard, unfeeling heart.

FLINT'HEARTED, a. Having a hard, unfeeling heart.

FLINT'Y, adjective

1. Consisting of flint; as a flinty rock.

2. Like flint; very hard, not impressible; as a flinty heart.

3. Cruel; unmerciful; inexorable.

4. Full of flint stones, as flinty ground.

Flinty-slate, a mineral of two kinds, the common and the Lydian stone.

FLIP, noun A mixed liquor consisting of beer and spirit sweetened.

FLIP'DOG, noun An iron used, when heated, to warm flip.

FLIP'PANCY, noun [See Flippant.] Smoothness and rapidity of speech; volubility of tongue; fluency of speech.

FLIP'PANT, adjective [Latin labor, to slide or slip, and to liber, free.]

1. Of smoother, fluent and rapid speech; speaking with ease and rapidity; having a voluble tongue; talkative.

2. Pert; petulant; waggish.

Away with flippant epilogues.

FLIP'PANTLY, adverb Fluently; with ease and volubility of speech.

FLIP'PANTNESS, noun fluency of speech; volubility of tongue; flippancy.

[This is not a low, vulgar word, but well authorized and peculiarly expressive.]

FLIRT, verb transitive flurt. [This word evidently belongs to the root of Latin floreo, or ploro, signifying to throw, and coinciding with blurt.]

1. To throw with a jerk or sudden effort or exertion. The boys flirt water in each other's faces. He flirted a glove or a handkerchief.

2. To toss or throw; to move suddenly; as, to flirt a fan.

FLIRT, verb intransitive

1. To jeer or gibe; to throw harsh or sarcastic words; to utter contemptuous language, with an air of disdain.

2. To run and dart about; to be moving hastily from place to place; to be unsteady or fluttering. The girls flirt about the room or the street.

FLIRT, noun

1. A sudden jerk; a quick throw or cast; a darting motion.

In unfurling the fan are several little flirts and vibrations.

2. A young girl who moves hastily or frequently from place to place; a pert girl.

Several young flirts about town had a design to cast us out of the fashionable world.

FLIRT, adjective Pert; wanton.

FLIRTA'TION, noun

1. A flirting; a quick sprightly motion.

2. Desire of attracting notice. [A cant word.]

FLIRT'ED, participle passive Thrown with a sudden jerk.

FLIRT'ING, participle present tense Throwing; jerking; tossing; darting about; rambling and changing place hastily.

FLIT, verb intransitive [Heb. It is undoubtedly from the same root as fleet, which see.]

1. To fly away with a rapid motion; to dart along; to move with celerity through the air. We say, a bird flits away, or flits in air; a cloud flits along.

2. To flutter; to rove on the wing.

3. To remove; to migrate; to pass rapidly, as a light substance, from one place to another.

It became a received opinion, that the souls of men, departing this life, did flit out of one body into some other.

4. In Scotland, to remove from one habitation to another.

5. To be unstable; to easily or often moved.

An the free soul to flitting air resigned.

FLIT, adjective Nimble; quick; swift. obsolete [See Fleet.]

FLITCH, noun

The side of a hog salted and cured.

FLIT'TER, verb intransitive To flutter, which see.

FLIT'TER, noun A rag; a tatter. [See Fritter.]

FLIT'TERMOUSE, noun [Flit, flitter and mouse.]

A bat; an animal that has the fur of a mouse, and membranes which answer the purpose of wings, and enable the animal to sustain itself in a fluttering flight.

FLIT'TINESS, noun [from flit.] Unsteadiness; levity; lightness.

FLIT'TING, participle present tense Flying rapidly; fluttering; moving swiftly.

FLIT'TING, noun A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.

FLIT'TY, adjective Unstable; fluttering.

FLIX, noun Down; fur. [Not used.]

FLIX'WEED, noun The Sisymbrium sophia, a species of water-cresses, growing on walls and waste grounds.

FLO, noun An arrow. [Not in use.]

FLOAT, noun

1. That which swims or is borne on water; as a float of weeds and rushes. But particularly, a body or collection of timber, boards or planks fastened together and conveyed down a stream; a raft. [The latter word is more generally used in the United States.]

2. The cork or quill used on an angling line, to support it and discover the bite of a fish.

3. The act of flowing; flux; flood; the primary sense, but obsolete.

4. A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one deep.

5. A wave. [Latin fuctus.]

FLOAT, verb intransitive [Latin fluo, to flow.]

1. To be borne or sustained on the surface of a fluid; to swim; to be buoyed up; not to sink; not to be aground. We say, the water is so shallow, the ship will not float

2. To move or be conveyed on water; to swim. The raft floats down the river.

Three blustering nights, borne by the southern blast, I floated.

3. To be buoyed up and moved or conveyed in a fluid, as in air.

They stretch their plumes and float upon the wind.

4. To move with a light irregular course.

FLOAT, verb transitive

1. To cause to pass by swimming; to cause to be conveyed on water. The tide floated the ship into the harbor.

2. To flood; to inundate; to overflow; to cover with water.

Proud Pactolus floats the fruitful lands.

FLO'ATAGE, noun Any thing that floats on the water.

FLO'ATED, participle passive

1. Flooded; overflowed.

2. Borne on water.

FLO'ATER, noun One that floats or swims.

FLO'ATING, participle present tense

1. Swimming; conveying on water; overflowing.

2. Lying flat on the surface of the water; as a floating leaf.

FLO'ATSTONE, noun Swimming flint, spungiform quartz, a mineral of a spungy texture, of a whitish gray color, often with a tinge of yellow. It frequently contains a nucleus of common flint.

FLO'ATY, adjective Buoyant; swimming on the surface; light.

FLOC'CULENCE, noun [Latin flocculus, floccus. See Flock.]

The state of being in locks or flocks; adhesion in small flakes.

FLOC'CULENT, adjective Coalescing and adhering in locks or flakes.

I say the liquor is broken to flocculence, when the particles of herbaceous matter, seized by those of the lime, and coalescing, appear large and flocculent

FLOCK, noun [Latin floccus. It is the same radically as flake, and applied to wool or hair, we write it lock. See Flake.]

1. A company or collection; applied to sheep and other small animals. A flock of sheep answers to a herd of larger cattle. But the word may sometimes perhaps be applied to larger beasts, and in the plural, flocks may include all kinds of domesticated animals.

2. A company or collection of fowls of any kind, and when applied to birds on the wing, a flight; as a flock of wild-geese; a flock of ducks; a flock of blackbirds. in the United States, flocks of wild-pigeons sometimes darken the air.

3. A body or crowd of people. [little used. Gr. a troop.]

4. A lock of wool or hair. Hence, a flockbed.

FLOCK, verb intransitive To gather in companies or crowds; applied to men or other animals. People flock together. They flock to the play-house.

Friends daily flock

FLOCK'ING, participle present tense Collecting or running together in a crowd.

FLOG, verb transitive [Latin figo, to strike, that is, to lay on; Latin flagrum, flagellum, Eng. flail; Gr.; Latin plaga, a stroke, Eng. plague, slay.]

To beat or strike with a rod or whip; to whip; to lash; to chastise with repeated blows; a colloquial word, applied to whipping or beating for punishment; as, to flog a schoolboy or a sailor.

FLOG'GED, participle passive Whipped or scourged for punishment; chastised.

FLOG'GING, participle present tense Whipping for punishment; chastising.

FLOG'GING, noun A whipping for punishment.

FLOOD, noun flud.

1. A great flow of water; a body of moving water; particularly, a body of water, rising, swelling and overflowing land not usually covered with water. Thus there is a flood every spring, in the Connecticut, which inundates the adjacent meadows. There is an annual flood in the Nile, and in the Mississippi.

2. The flood by way of eminence, the deluge; the great body of water which inundated the earth in the days of Noah. Before the flood men live to a great age.

3. A river; a sense chiefly poetical.

4. The flowing of the tide; the semi-diurnal swell or rise of water in the ocean; opposed to ebb. The ship entered the harbor on the flood Hence flood-tide; young flood; high flood

5. A great quantity; an inundation; an overflowing; abundance; superabundance; as a flood of bank notes; a flood of paper currency.

6. A great body or stream of any fluid substance; as a flood of light; a flood of lava. Hence, figuratively, a flood of vice.

7. Menstrual discharge.

FLOOD, verb transitive To overflow; to inundate; to deluge; as, to flood a meadow.

FLOOD'ED, participle passive Overflowed inundated.

FLOOD'GATE, noun

1. A gate to be opened for letter water flow through, or to be shut to prevent it.

2. An opening or passage; an avenue for a flood or great body.

FLOOD'ING, participle present tense Overflowing; inundating.

FLOOD'ING, noun Any preternatural discharge of blood from the uterus.

FLOOD'-MARK, noun The mark or line to which the tide rises; high water mark.

FLOOK. See Fluke, the usual orthography.]

FLOOK'ING, noun In mining, an interruption or shifting of a load of ore, by a cross vein or fissure.

FLOOR, noun flore. [In early ages, the inhabitants of Europe had no floor in their huts, but the ground. The sense of the word is probably that which is laid or spread.]

1. That part of a building or room on which we walk; the bottom or lower part, consisting, in modern houses, of boards, plands or pavement; as the floor of a house, room, bar, stable or outhouse.

2. A platform of boards or plans laid on timbers, as in a bridge; any similar platform.

3. A story in a building; as the first or second floor

4. A floor or earthen floor is still used in some kinds of business, made of loam, or of lime, sand and iron dust, as in malting.

5. The bottom of a ship, or that part which is nearly horizontal.

FLOOR, verb transitive To lay a floor; to cover timbers with a floor; to furnish with a floor; as, to floor a house with pine boards.

FLOOR'ED, Covered with boards, plank or pavement; furnished with a floor.

FLOOR'ING, participle present tense Laying a floor; furnishing with a floor.

FLOOR'ING, noun

1. A platform; the bottom of a room or building; pavement.

2. Materials for floors.

FLOP, verb transitive [A different spelling of flap.]

1. To clap or strike the wings.

2. To let down the brim of a hat.

FLO'RA, noun [See Floral.]

1. In antiquity, the goddess of flowers.

2. In modern usage, a catalogue or account of flowers or plants.

FLO'RAL, adjective [Latin floralis, from flos, a flower, which see.]

1. Containing the flower, as a floral bud; immediately attending the flower, as a floral leaf.

2. Pertaining to Flora or to flowers; as floral games; floral play.

FLOR'EN

FLOR'ENCE, noun An ancient gold coin of Edward III of six shillings sterling value, about 134 cents.

FLOR'ENCE, noun

1. A kind of cloth.

2. A kind of wine from Florence in Italy.

FLOR'ENCE, n. An ancient gold coin of Edward III of six shillings sterling value, about 134 cents.

FLOR'ENCE, n.

FLOR'ENTINE, noun

1. A native of Florence.

2. A kind of silk cloth, so called.

FLORES'CENCE, noun [Latin florescens, floresco. See flower.]

In botany, the season when plants expand their flowers.

FLO'RET, noun A little flower; the partial or separate little flower of an aggregate flower.

FLOR'ID, adjective [Latin floridus, from floreo, to flower.]

1. Literally, flowery; covered or abounding with flowers; but in this sense little used.

2. Bright in color; flushed with red; of a lively red color; as a florid countenance; a florid cheek.

3. Embellished with flowers of rhetoric; enriched with lively figures; splendid; brilliant; as a florid style; florid eloquence.

FLORID'ITY, noun Freshness or brightness of color; floridness.

FLOR'IDNESS, noun

1. Brightness or freshness of color or complexion.

2. Vigor; spirit. [Unusual.]

3. Embellishment; brilliant ornaments; ambitious elegance; applied to style.

FLORIF'EROUS, adjective [Latin florifer, from flos, a flower, and fero, to bear.] Producing flowers.

FLORIFICA'TION, noun The act, process or time of flowering.

FLOR'IN, noun A coin, originally made at Florence. The name is given to different coins of gold or silver, and of different values in different countries. It is also used as a money of account.

FLO'RIST, noun

1. A cultivator of flowers; one skilled in flowers.

2. One who writes a flora, or an account of plants.

FLOR'ULENT, adjective Flowery; blossoming. [Not in use.]

FLOS'CULAR,

FLOS'CULE, noun [Latin flosculus.] In botany, a partial or lesser floret of an aggregate flower.

FLOS FERRI, noun [Latin flower of iron.] A mineral, a variety of arragonite, called by Jameson, after Hauy, coralloidal arragonite. It occurs in little cylinders, sometimes diverging and ending in a point, and sometimes branched, like coral. Its structure is fibrous, and the surface, which is smooth, or garnished with little crystalline points, is often very white, with a silken luster. It takes this name from its being often found in cavities in veins of sparry iron.

FLOS'CULE, n. [L. flosculus.] In botany, a partial or lesser floret of an aggregate flower.

FLOS'CULOUS, adjective [infra.] In botany, a flosculous flower is a compound flower, composed entirely of florets with funnel-shaped petals, as in burdock, thistle and artichoke. This is the term used by Tournefort. For this Linne used tubulous.

FLOSS, noun [Latin flos.] A downy or silky substance in the husks of certain plants.

FLOSSIFICA'TION, noun A flowering; expansion of flowers. [Novel.]

FLO'TA, noun [See Fleet.] A fleet; but appropriately a fleet of Spanish ships which formerly sailed every year from Cadiz to Vera Crus, in Mexico, to transport to Spain the production of Spanish America.

FLO'TAGE, noun That which floats on the sea, or on rivers. [Little used.]

FLOTE, verb transitive To skim. [Not used or local.]

FLOTIL'LA, noun [dim. of flota.] A little fleet, or fleet of small vessels.

FLOT'SAM,

FLOT'SON, noun [from float.] Goods lost by shipwreck, and floating on the sea. When such goods are cast on shore or found, the owner being unknown, they belong to the king.

FLOT'TEN, participle passive Skimmed. [Not in use.]

FLOUNCE, verb intransitive flouns. [See Flounder.]

1. To throw the limbs and body one way and the other; to spring, turn or twist with sudden effort or violence; to struggle as a horse in mire.

You neither fume, not fret, not flounce

2. To move with jerks or agitation.

FLOUNCE, verb transitive To deck with a flounce; as, to flounce a petticoat or frock.

FLOUNCE, noun A narrow piece of cloth sewed to a petticoat, frock or gown, with the lower border loose and spreading. The present is the age of flounces. 1827.

FLOUN'DER, noun A flat fish of the genus Pleuronectes.

FLOUN'DER, verb intransitive [This seems to be allied to flaunt and flounce.]

To fling the limbs and body, as in making efforts to move; to struggle as a horse in the mire; to roll, toss and tumble.

FLOUN'DERING, participle present tense Making irregular motions; struggling with violence.

FLOUR, noun [originally flower; Latin flos, floris, from floreo, to flourish.]

The edible part of corn; meal. In the United States, the modern practice is to make a distinction between flour and meal; the word flour being more usually applied to the finer part of meal, separated from the bran, as wheat flour rye flour This is a just and useful distinction.

FLOUR, verb transitive

1. To grind and bolt; to convert into flour Wheat used formerly to be sent to market; but now great quantities of it are floured in the interior country.

2. To sprinkle with flour

FLOUR'ED, participle passive Converted into flour; sprinkled with flour.

FLOUR'ING, participle present tense Converting into flour; sprinkling with flour.

FLOURISH, verb intransitive flur'ish. [Latin floresco, from floreo. The primary sense is to open, expand, enlarge, or to shoot out, as in glory, Latin ploro.]

1. To thrive; to grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant. The beech and the maple flourish best in a deep, rich and moist loam.

2. To be prosperous; to increase in wealth or honor.

Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish and that by the means of their wickedness.

When all the workers of iniquity do flourish Psalms 92:7.

3. To grow in grace and in good works; to abound in the consolations of religion.

The righteous shall flourish like the palmtree. Psalms 92:7.

4. To be in a prosperous state; to grow or be augmented. We say agriculture flourishes, commerce flourishes, manufactures flourish

5. To use florid language; to make a display of figures and lofty expressions; to be copious and flowery.

They dilate and flourish long on little incidents.

6. To make bold strokes in writing; to make large and irregular lines; as, to flourish with the pen.

7. To move or play in bold and irregular figures.

Impetuous spread the stream, and smoking, flourished o're his head.

8. In music, to play with bold and irregular notes, or without settled form; as, to flourish on an organ or violin.

9. To boast; to vaunt; to brag.

FLOURISH, verb transitive flur'ish.

1. To adorn with flowers or beautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with any thing showy.

2. To spread out; to enlarge into figures.

3. To move in bold or irregular figures; to move in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish; as, to flourish a sword.

4. To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence; to set off with a parade of words.

5. To adorn; to embellish.

6. To mark with a flourish or irregular stroke.

The day book and inventory book shall be flourished.

FLOURISH, noun flur'ish.

1. Beauty; showy splendor.

The flourish of his sober youth.

2. Ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of words and figures; show; as a flourish of rhetoric; a flourish of wit.

He lards with flourishes his long harangue.

3. Figures formed by bold, irregular lines, or fanciful strokes of the pen or graver; as the flourishes about a great letter.

4. A brandishing; the waving of a weapon or other thing; as the flourish of a sword.

FLOURISHED, participle passive flur'ished. Embellished; adorned with bold and irregular figures or lines; brandished.

FLOURISHER, noun flur'isher.

1. One who flourishes; one who thrives or prospers.

2. One who brandishes.

3. One who adorns with fanciful figures.

FLOURISHING, participle present tense or adjective flur'ishing. Thriving; prosperous; increasing; making a show.

FLOURISHINGLY, adverb flur'ishingly. With flourishes; ostentatiously.

FLOUT, verb transitive To mock or insult; to treat with contempt.

Phillida flouts me.

He flouted us downright.

FLOUT, verb intransitive To practice mocking; to sneer; to behave with contempt.

Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout

FLOUT, noun A mock; an insult.

FLOUT'ED, participle passive Mocked; treated with contempt.

FLOUT'ER, noun One who flouts and flings; a mocker.

FLOUT'ING, participle present tense Mocking; insulting; fleering.

FLOUT'INGLY, adverb With flouting; insultingly.

FLOW, verb intransitive [Latin fluo, contracted from fugo, for it forms fluri, fuctum. In one case, the word would agree with the root of blow, Latin flo; in the other, with the root of fly.]

1. To move along an inclined plane, or on descending ground, by the operation of gravity, and with a continual change of place among the particles or parts, as a fluid. A solid body descends or moves in mass, as a ball or a wheel; but in the flowing of liquid substances, and others consisting of very fine particles, there is a constant change of the relative position of some parts of the substance, as in the case with a stream of water, of quicksilver, and of sand. Particles at the bottom and sides of the stream, being somewhat checked by friction, move slower than those in the middle and near the surface of the current. Rivers flow from springs and lakes; tears flow from the eyes.

2. To melt; to become liquid.

That the mountains might flow down at they presence.

Isaiah 64:1.

3. To proceed; to issue. Evils flow from different sources. Wealth flows from industry and economy. All our blessings flow from divine bounty

4. To abound; to have in abundance.

In that day the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk. Joel 3:18.

5. To be full; to be copious; as flowing cups or goblets.

6. To glide along smoothly, without harshness or asperity; as a flowing period; flowing numbers.

7. To be smooth, as composition or utterance. The orator has a flowing tongue.

Virgil is sweet and flowing in his hexameters.

8. To hang loose and waving; as a flowing mantle; flowing locks.

The imperial purple flowing in his train.

9. To rise, as the tide; opposed to ebb. The tide flows twice in twenty four hours.

10. To move in the arteries and veins of the body; to circulate, as blood.

11. To issue, as rays or beams of light.

Light flows from the sun.

12. To move in a stream, as air.

FLOW, verb transitive To cover with water; to overflow; to inundate. The low grounds along the river are annually flowed.

FLOW, noun

1. A stream of water or other fluid; a current; as a flow of water; a flow of blood.

2. A current of water with a swell or rise; as the flow and ebb of tides.

3. A stream of any thing; as a flow of wealth into the country.

4. Abundance; copiousness with action; as a flow of spirits.

5. A stream of diction, denoting abundance of words at command and facility of speaking; volubility.

6. Free expression or communication of generous feelings and sentiments.

The feast of reason, and the flow of soul.

FLOWED, participle passive Overflowed; inundated.

FLOW'ER, noun [Latin flos, floris, a flower; floreo, to blossom. See Flourish.]

1. In botany, that part of a plant which contains the organs of fructification, with their coverings. A flower when complete, consists of a calyx, corol, stamen and pistil; but the essential parts are the anther and stigma, which are sufficient to constitute a flower either together in hermaphrodite flowers, or separate in male and female flowers.

2. In vulgar acceptation, a blossom or flower is the flower bud of a plant, when the petals are expanded; open petals being considered as the principal thing in constituting a flower But in botany, the petals are now considered as a finer sort of covering, and not at all necessary to constitute a flower

3. The early part of life, or rather of manhood; the prime; youthful vigor; youth; as the flower of age or of life.

4. The best or finest part of a thing; the most valuable part. The most active and vigorous part of an army are called the flower of the troops. Young, vigorous and brave men are called the flower of a nation.

5. The finest part; the essence.

The choice and flower of all things profitable the Psalms do more briefly contain.

6. He or that which is most distinguished for any thing valuable. We say, the youth are the flower of the country.

7. The finest part of grain pulverized. In this sense, it is now always written flour, which see.

1. Flowers, in chimistry, fine particles of bodies, especially when raised by fire in sublimation, and adhering to the heads of vessels in the form of a powder or mealy substance; as the flowers of sulphur.

A substance, somewhat similar, formed spontaneously, is called efforescence.

2. In rhetoric, figures and ornaments of discourse or composition.

3. Menstrual discharges.

FLOW'ER, verb intransitive [from the noun. The corresponding word in Latin is floreo.]

1. To blossom; to bloom; to expand the petals, as a plant. In New England peach trees usually flower in April, and apple trees in May.

2. To be in the prime and spring of life; to flourish; to be youthful, fresh and vigorous.

When flowered my youthful spring.

3. To froth; to ferment gently; to mantle, as new beer.

The beer did flower a little.

4. To come as cream from the surface.

FLOW'ER, verb transitive To embellish with figures of flowers; to adorn with imitated flowers.

FLOW'ERED, participle passive Embellished with figures of flowers.

FLOW'ERET, noun A small flower; a floret.

[In botany, floret is solely used.]

FLOW'ERINESS, noun [from flowery.]

1. The state of being flowery, or of abounding with flowers.

2. Floridness of speech; abundance of figures.

FLOW'ERING, participle present tense

1. Blossoming; blooming; expanding the petals, as plants.

2. Adorning with artificial flowers, or figures of blossoms.

FLOW'ERING, noun

1. The season when plants blossom.

2. The act of adorning with flowers.

FLOW'ERLESS, adjective Having no flower.

FLOW'ERY, adjective

1. Full of flowers; abounding with blossoms; as a flowery field.

2. Adorned with artificial flowers, or the figures of blossoms.

3. Richly embellished with figurative language; florid; as a flowery style.

FLOWING, participle present tense Moving as a fluid; issuing; proceeding; abounding; smooth, as style; inundating.

FLOWING, noun The act of running or moving as a fluid; an issuing; an overflowing; rise of water.

FLOWINGLY, adverb With volubility; with abundance.

FLOWINGNESS, noun Smoothness of diction; stream of diction.

FLOWK,

FLOWN, had fled, in the following phrases, is not good English.

Was reason flown.

Sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

In the former passage, flown is used as the participle of fly or flee, both intransitive verbs, and the phrase should have been, had reason flown or fled. In the latter passage, flown is used for blown, inflated, but most improperly. Flown is the participle of the perfect or past tense of fly, but cannot regularly be used in a passive sense.

FLOWN, had fled, in the following phrases, is not good English.

FLU'ATE, noun [from fluro, which see.] In chimistry, a salt formed by the fluoric acid combined with a base; as fluate of alumin, or of soda.

FLUC'TUANT, adjective [Latin fluctuans. See Fluctuate.] Moving like a wave; wavering; unsteady.

FLUC'TUATE, verb intransitive [Latin fluctuo, from fluctus, a wave, from fluo, to flow.]

1. To move as a wave; to roll hither and thither; to wave; as a fluctuating field of air.

2. To float backward and forward, as on waves.

3. To move now in one direction and now in another; to be wavering or unsteady. Public opinion often fluctuates. Men often fluctuate between different parties and opinions. Hence,

4. To be irresolute or undetermined.

5. To rise and fall; to be in an unsettled state; to experience sudden vicissitudes. The funds or the prices of stocks fluctuate with the events of the day.

FLUC'TUATING, participle present tense

1. Wavering; rolling as a wave; moving in this and that direction; rising and falling.

2. adjective Unsteady; wavering; changeable. We have little confidence in fluctuating opinions.

3. A rising and falling suddenly; as fluctuations of prices or of the funds.

FLUCTUA'TION, noun [Latin fluctuatio.]

1. A motion like that of waves; a moving in this and that direction; as the fluctuations of the sea.

2. A wavering; unsteadiness; as fluctuations of opinion.

3. A rising and falling suddenly; as fluctuations of prices or of the funds.

FLUD'DER, noun An aquatic fowl of the diver kind, nearly as large as a goose.

FLUD'ER,

FLUE, noun [probably contracted from flume, Latin flumen, from fluo.]

A passage for smoke in a chimney, leading from the fireplace to the top of the chinmey, or into another passage; as a chinmey with four flues.

FLUE, noun [Latin pluma.] Soft down or fur; very fine hair. [Local.]

FLUE, n. [probably contracted from flume, L. flumen, from fluo.]

FLUE, n. [L. pluma.] Soft down or fur; very fine hair. [Local.]

FLUEL'LEN, noun The female speedwell, a plant of the genus Antirrhinum, or snapdragon.

FLUENCE, for fluency, is not used.

FLU'ENCY, noun [Latin fluens, from flue, to flow.]

1. The quality of flowing, applied to speech or language; smoothness; freedom from harshness; as fluency of numbers.

2. Readiness of utterance; facility of words; volubility; as fluency of speech; a speaker of remarkable fluency

3. Affluence; abundance. obsolete

FLU'ENT, adjective [See Fluency.

1. Liquid; flowing.

2. Flowing; passing.

Motion being a fluent thing.

3. Ready in the use of words; voluble; copious; having words at command and uttering them with facility and smoothness; as a fluent speaker.

4. Flowing; voluble; smooth; as fluent speech.

FLU'ENT, noun

1. A stream; a current of water. [Little used.]

2. The variable or flowing quantity in fluxions.

FLU'ENTLY, adverb With ready flow; volubly; without hesitation or obstruction; as, to speak fluently

FLU'GELMAN, noun

In German, the leader of a file. But with us, a soldier who stands on the wing of a body of men, and marks time for the motions.

FLU'ID, adjective [Latin fluidus, from fluo, to flow.] Having parts which easily move and change their relative position without separation, and which easily yield to pressure; that may flow; liquid. Water, spirit, air, are fluid substances. All bodies may be rendered fluid by heat or caloric.

FLU'ID, noun Any substance whose parts easily move and change their relative position without separation, and which yields to the slightest pressure; a substance which flows, or which moves spontaneously on a plane with the least inclination; a liquid; liquor; opposed to a solid. Water, blood, chyle, are fluids.

FLUID'ITY, noun The quality of being capable of flowing; that quality of bodies which renders them impressible to the slightest force, and by which the parts easily move or change their relative position without a separation of the mass; a liquid state; opposed to solidity. fluidity is the effect of heat.

FLU'IDNESS, noun The state of being fluid; fluidity, which see.

FLUKE, noun

The part of an anchor which fastens in the ground.

FLUKE,

FLOWK, noun A flounder.

FLUKE, noun A flounder.

FLUME, noun [Latin flumen, from fluo, to flow.]

Literally, a flowing; hence, the passage or channel for the water that drives a mill-wheel.

FLU'MINATING, participle present tense

1. Thundering; crackling; exploding; detonating.

2. Hurling papal denunciations, menaces or censures.

Fulminating powder, a detonating compound of sulphur, carbonate of potash and niter.

FLUM'MERY, noun [See Lumber.]

1. A sort of jelly made of flour or meal; pap.

Milk and flummery are very fit for children.

2. In vulgar use, any thing insipid or nothing to the purpose; flattery.

FLUNG, preterit tense and participle passive of fling.

Several statues the Romans themselves flung into the river.

FLUOBO'RATE, noun A compound of fluoboric acid with a base.

FLUOBO'RIC, adjective The fluoboric acid or gas is a compound of fluorine and boron.

FLU'OR, noun [Low Latin from fluo, to flow.]

1. A fluid state.

2. Menstrual flux. [Little used in either sense.]

3. In mineralogy, fluate of lime. fluor spar is the foliated fluate of lime. This mineral, though sometimes massive, is almost always regularly crystallized. Its crystals present most frequently the form of a cube, often perfect, sometimes truncated on all its edges by planes, which form with the sides of the cube an angle of 135 degrees. The colors are very numerous and beautiful.

The flutate of lime, fluor was so named from its use as a flux for certain ores.

FLU'ORATED, adjective Combined with fluoric acid.

FLUOR'IC, adjective Pertaining to fluor; obtained from fluor; as fluoric acid.

FLU'ORIN,

FLU'ORINE, noun The supposed basis of fluoric acid.

FLU'ORINE, n. The supposed basis of fluoric acid.

FLU'OROUS, adjective The fluorous acid is the acid of fluor in its first degree of oxygenation.

FLUOSIL'ICATE, noun [fluor and silex or silica.]

In chiminstry, a compound of fluoric acid, containing silex, with some other substance.

FLUOSILIC'IC, adjective Composed of or containing fluoric acid with silex.

FLUR'RY, noun

1. A sudden blast or gust, or a light temporary breeze; as a flurry of wind. It is never with us applied to a storm of duration.

2. A sudden shower of short duration; as a flurry of snow.

3. Agitation; commotion; bustle; hurry.

FLUR'RY, verb transitive To put in agitation; to excite or alarm.

FLUSH, verb intransitive

1. To flow and spread suddenly; to rush; as, blood flushes into the face.

2. To come in haste; to start.

3. To appear suddenly, as redness or a blush.

A blush rose on their cheeks, flushing and fading like the changeful play of colors on a dolphin.

4. To become suddenly red; to glow; as, the cheeks flush

5. To be gay, splendid or beautiful.

At once, arrayed in all the colors of the flushing year, the garden glows.

FLUSH, verb transitive

1. To redden suddenly; to cause the blood to rush suddenly into the face.

Nor flush with shame the passing virgin's cheek.

2. To elate; to elevate; to excite the spirits; to animate with joy; as, to flush with victory.

FLUSH, adjective

1. Fresh, full of vigor; glowing; bright.

FLUSH as May.

2. Affluent; abounding; well furnished.

Lord Strut was not very flush in ready.

3. Free to spend; liberal; prodigal. He is very flush with his money. This is a popular use of the word in America.

A flush deck, in seamen's language, is a deck without a half-deck or forecastle.

FLUSH, noun

1. A sudden flow of blood to the face; or more generally, the redness of face which proceeds from such an afflux of blood. Hectic constitutions are often known by a frequent flush in the cheeks.

2. Sudden impulse or excitement; sudden flow; as a flush of joy.

3. Bloom; growth; abundance.

4. A run of cards of the same suit.

5. A term for a number of ducks.

FLUSH'ED, participle passive

1. Overspread or tinged with a red color from the flowing of blood to the face. We say, the skin, face or cheek is flushed

2. Elated; excited; animated; as flushed with joy or success.

FLUSH'ER, noun The lesser butcher-bird.

FLUSH'ING, participle present tense Overspreading with red; glowing.

FLUSH'ING, noun A glow of red in the face.

FLUS'TER, verb transitive To make hot and rosy, as with drinking; to heat; to hurry; to agitate; to confuse.

FLUS'TER, verb intransitive To be in a heat or bustle; to be agitated.

FLUS'TER, noun Heat; glow; agitation; confusion; disorder.

FLUS'TERED, participle passive Heated with liquor; agitated; confused.

FLUTE, noun [Latin flo, flatus, to blow, or Latin fluta, a lamprey, with the same number of holes.]

1. A small wind instrument; a pipe with lateral holes or stops, played by blowing with the mouth, and by stopping and opening the holes with the fingers.

2. A channel in a column or pillar; a perpendicular furrow or cavity, cut along the shaft of a column or pilaster; so called from its resemblance to a flute It is used chiefly in the Ionic order; sometimes in the Composite and Corinthian; rarely in the Doric and Tuscan. It is called also a reed.

3. A long vessel or boat, with flat ribs or floor timbers, round behind, and swelled in the middle; a different orthography of float, flota.

Armed in flute An armed ship, with her guns of the lower tier and part of those of the upper tier removed, used as a transport, is said to be armed in flute

FLUTE, verb intransitive To play on a flute

FLUTE, verb transitive To form flutes or channels in a column.

FLU'TED, participle passive or adjective

1. Channeled; furrowed; as a column.

2. In music, thin; fine; flutelike; as fluted notes.

FLU'TING, participle present tense Channeling; cutting furrows; as in a column.

FLU'TING, noun A channel or furrow in a column; fluted work.

FLU'TIST, noun A performer on the flute.

FLUT'TER, verb intransitive

1. To move or flap the wings rapidly, without flying, or with short flights; to hover.

As an eagle stirreth up her next, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings - Deuteronomy 32:11.

2. To move about briskly, irregularly or with great bustle and show, without consequence.

No rag, no scrap of all the beau or wit, that once so fluttered, and that once so writ.

3. To move with quick vibrations or undulations; as a fluttering fan; a fluttering sail.

4. To be in agitation; to move irregularly; to fluctuate; to be in uncertainty.

How long we fluttered on the wings of doubtful success.

His thoughts are very fluttering and wandering.

FLUT'TER, verb transitive

1. To drive in disorder. [Little used.]

2. To hurry the mind; to agitate.

3. To disorder; to throw into confusion.

FLUT'TER, noun

1. Quick and irregular motion; vibration; undulation; as the flutter of a fan.

2. Hurry; tumult; agitation of the mind.

3. Confusion; disorder; irregularity in position.

FLUT'TERED, participle passive Agitated; confused; disordered.

FLUT'TERING, participle present tense Flapping the wings without flight or with short flights; hovering; fluctuating; agitating; throwing into confusion.

FLUT'TERING, noun The act of hovering, or flapping the wings without flight; a wavering agitation.

FLU'VIAL, adjective [Latin fluviaticus, from fluvius, a river; fluo, to flow.]

Belonging to rivers; growing or living in streams or ponds; as a fluviatic plant.

FLUVIAT'IC,

FLU'VIATILE, adjective [Latin fluviatilis.] Belonging to rivers.

[Fluviatic is the preferable word.]

FLUX, noun [Latin fluxus, fluo, fluxi.]

1. The act of flowing; the motion or passing of a fluid.

2. The moving or passing of any thing in continued succession. Things in this life, are in a continual flux

3. Any flow or issue of matter. In medicine, an extraordinary issue or evacuation from the bowels or other part; as the bloody flux or dysentery, hepatic flux etc.

4. In hydrography, the flow of the tide. The ebb is called reflux.

5. In metallurgy, any substance or mixture used to promote the fusion of metals or minerals, as alkalies, borax, tartar and other saline matter, or in large operations limestone or fluor. Alkaline fluxes are either the crude, the white or the black flux

6. Fusion; a liquid state from the operation of heat.

7. That which flows or is discharged.

8. Concourse; confluence. [Little used.]

FLUX, adjective Flowing; moving; maintained by a constant succession of parts; inconstant; variable. [Not well authorized.]

FLUX, verb transitive

1. To melt; to fuse; to make fluid.

One part of mineral alkali will flux two of siliceous earth with effervescence.

2. To salivate. [Little used.]

FLUXA'TION, noun A flowing or passing away, and giving place to others.

FLUX'ED, participle passive Melted; fused; reduced to a flowing state.

FLUXIBIL'ITY, noun The quality of admitting fusion.

FLUX'IBLE, adjective [from Low Latin ] Capable of being melted or fused, as a mineral.

FLUXIL'ITY, noun [Low Latin fluxilis.] The quality of admitting fusion; possibility of being fused or liquified.

FLUX'ION noun [Latin fluxio, from fluo, to flow.]

1. The act of flowing.

2. The matter that flows.

3. Fluxions, in mathematics, the analysis of infinitely small variable quantities, or a method of finding an infinitely small quantity, which being taken an infinite number of times, becomes equal to a quantity given.

In fluxions, magnitudes are supposed to be generated by motion; a line by the motion of a point, a surface by the motion of a line, and a solid by the motion of a surface. And some part of a figure is supposed to be generated by a uniform motion, in consequence of which the other parts may increase uniformly, or with an accelerated or retarded motion, or may decrease in any of these ways, and the computations are made by tracing the comparative velocities with which the parts flow.

A fluxion is an infinitely small quantity, an increment; the infinitely small increase of the fluent or flowing quantity.

FLUX'IONARY, adjective Pertaining to mathematical fluxions.

FLUX'IONIST, noun One skilled in fluxions.

FLUX'IVE, adjective Flowing; wanting solidity. [Not used.]

FLUX'URE, noun A flowing or fluid matter. [Not used.]

FLY, verb intransitive

1. To move through air by the aid of wings, as fowls.

2. To pass or move in air, by the force of wind or other impulse; as, clouds and vapors fly before the wind. A ball flies from a cannon, an arrow from a bow.

3. To rise in air, as light substances, by means of a current of air or by having less specific gravity than air, as smoke.

Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Job 5:7.

4. To move or pass with velocity or celerity, either on land or water. He flew to the relief of his distressed friend. The ship flies upon the main.

5. To move rapidly, in any manner; as, a top flies about.

6. To pass away; to depart; with the idea of haste, swiftness or escape. The bird has flown.

7. To pass rapidly, as time. Swift fly the fleeting hours.

8. To part suddenly or with violence; to burst, as a bottle.

9. To spring by an elastic force.

10. To pass swiftly, as rumor or report.

11. To flee; to run away; to attempt to escape; to escape.

I'll fly from shepherds, flocks, and flowery plains.

12. To flutter; to vibrate or play; as a flag in the wind.

To fly at, to spring towards; to rush on; to fall on suddenly. A hen flies at a dog or cat; a dog flies at a man.

1. To fly in the face, to insult.

2. To assail; to resist; to set at defiance; to oppose with violence; to act in direct opposition.

1. To fly off, to separate or depart suddenly.

2. To revolt.

To fly open, to open suddenly or with violence; as, the doors flew open.

1. To fly out, to rush out; also, to burst into a passion.

2. To break out into license.

3. To start or issue with violence from any direction.

1. To let fly to discharge; to throw or drive with violence; as, to let fly a shower of darts.

2. In seamanship, to let go suddenly. Let fly the sheets.

FLY, verb transitive [This is used for flee, and from is understood after fly so that it can hardly be called a transitive verb.]

1. To shun; to avoid; to decline; as, to fly the sight of one we hate. That is, primarily, to flee from

Sleep flies the wretch.

2. To quit by flight.

3. To attack by a bird of prey. [Not used.]

4. To cause to float in the air.

FLY, noun

1. In zoology, a winged insect of various species, whose distinguishing characteristic is that the wings are transparent. By this flies are distinguished from beetles, butterflies, grasshoppers, etc. Of flies, some have two wings and others four.

In common language, fly is the house fly of the genus Musca.

2. In mechanics, a cross with leaden weights at the ends, or a heavy wheel at right angles with the axis of a windlass, jack or the like. The use of this is, to regulate and equalize the motion in all parts of the revolution of the machine.

3. That part of a vane which points and shows which way the wind blows.

4. The extent of an ensign, flag or pendant from the staff to the end that flutters loose in the wind.

FLY'BANE, noun A plant called catch-fly, of the genus Silene.

FLYBITTEN, adjective Marked by the bite of flies.

FLYBLOW, verb transitive To deposit an egg in any thing, as a fly; to taint with the eggs which produce maggots.

Like a flyblown cake of tallow.

FLYBLOW, noun The egg of a fly.

FLYBOAT, noun A large flat-bottomed Dutch vessel, whose burden is from 600 to 1200 tons, with a stern remarkably high, resembling a Gothic turret, and very broad buttocks below.

FLYCATCHER, noun

1. One that hunts flies.

2. In zoology, a genus of birds, the Muscicapa, with a bill flatted at the base, almost triangular, notched at the upper mandible, and beset with bristles. These birds are of the order of Passers, and the species are very numerous.

FLYER, noun

1. One that flies or flees; usually written flier.

2. One that uses wings.

3. The fly of a jack.

4. In architecture, stairs that do not wind, but are made of an oblong square figure, and whose fore and back sides are parallel to each other, and so are their ends. The second of these flyers stands parallel behind the first, the third behind the second, and so are said to fly off from one another.

5. A performer in Mexico, who flies round an elevated post.

FLYFISH, verb intransitive To angle with flies for bait.

FLYFISHING, noun Angling; the art or practice of angling for fish with flies, natural or artificial, for bait.

FLYFLAP, noun Something to drive away flies.

FLYING, participle present tense

1. Moving in air by means of wings; passing rapidly; springing; bursting; avoiding.

2. adjective Floating; waving; as flying colors.

3. adjective Moving; light, and suited for prompt motion; as a flying camp.

FLYING colors, a phrase expressing triumph.

FLYTRAP, noun In botany, a species of sensitive plant, called Venus' Fly-trap, the Dionaea Muscipula; a plant that has the power of seizing insects that light on it.

FLYTREE, noun A tree whose leaves are said to produce flies, from a little bag on the surface.