Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FLOS-FER-RI, n. [L. flower of iron.]

A mineral, a variety of arragonite, called by Jameson, after Haiiy, 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 crystaline 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. Cleaveland.

FLOSS, n.

A fluid glass floating on iron in the furnace, produced by the vitrification of oxyds and earths. Ure.

FLOSS, n. [L. flos.]

A downy or silky substance in the husks of certain plants. Tooke.

FLOS-SI-FI-CA'TION, n.

A flowering; expansion of flowers. [Novel.] Med. Repos.

FLOSS'-SILK, n.

Portions of raveled silk broken off in the filature of cocoons. It is carded and spun like cotton or wool. Ure.

FLO'TA, n. [Sp. See Fleet.]

A fleet; but appropriately a fleet of Spanish ships which formerly sailed every year from Cadiz to Vera Cruz, in Mexico, to transport to Spain the productions of Spanish America.

FLO'TAGE, n. [Fr. flottage.]

That which floats on the sea, or on rivers. [Little used.] Chambers.

FLO-TA'TION, n.

The act of floating.

FLOTE, v.t.

To skim. [Not used or local.] Tusser.

FLO-TIL'LA, n. [dim. of flota.]

A little fleet, or fleet of small vessels.

FLOT'SAM, or FLOT'SON, n. [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. English Law. Blackstone.

FLOT'TEN, pp.

Skimmed. [Not in use.]

FLOUNCE, n.

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.

FLOUNCE, v.i. [flouns; D. plonssen. 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, nor fret, nor flounce. Swift.
2. To move with jerks or agitation.

FLOUNCE, v.t.

To deck with a flounce; as, to flounce a petticoat or frock. Pope.

FLOUN'CED, pp.

Decked with a flounce.

FLOUN'CING, ppr.

Decking with a flounce.

FLOUN'DER, n. [Sw. flundra; G. flünder.]

A flat fish of the genus Pleuronectes.

FLOUN'DER, v.i. [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. Pope.

FLOUN'DER-ING, ppr.

Making irregular motions; struggling with violence.

FLOUR, n. [originally flower; Fr. fleur; Sp. flor; It. fiore; L. flos, floris, from floreo, to flourish.]

The edible part of corn; meal. Johnson. 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, v.t. [Sp. florear.]

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 cotunry.
2. To sprinkle with flour.

FLOUR'ED, pp.

Converted into flour; sprinkled with flour.

FLOUR'ING, ppr.

Converting into flour; sprinkling with flour.

FLOUR-ISH, n. [flur'ish.]

1. Beauty; showy splendor. The flourish of his sober youth. Crashaw.
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. Dryden.
3. Figures formed by bold, irregular lines, or fanciful strokes of the pen or graver; as the flourishes about a great letter. More.
4. A brandishing; the waving of a weapon or other thing; as, the flourish of a sword.