Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FLING, n.

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. – Swift.

FLING, v.i.

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. Shak.

FLING, v.t. [pret. and pp. flung. Ir. lingim; to fling, to dart, to fly off, to skip. If n is not radical, as I suppose, this may be the W. lluciaw, to fling, to throw, to dart, and L. 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. Dryden.
2. To dart; to cast with violence; to send forth. He – like Jove, his lightning flung. Dryden.
3. To send forth; to emit; to scatter. Every beam new transient colors flings. Pope.
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. Shak. To fling down, to demolish; to ruin. #2. To throw to the ground. To fling off, to baffle in the chase; to defeat of prey. Addison. To fling out, to utter; to speak; as, to fling out hard words against another. 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'ER, n.

One who flings; one who jeers.

FLING'ING, ppr.

Throwing; casting; jeering.

FLINT, n. [Sax. flint; Sw. flinta. In Dan. flint is a light gun, and flint is called flintsteen, flint-stone. So also in German. The Dutch and Germans call it also firestone. It may be from the root of splendor.]

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. Kirwan. Encyc.
2. A piece of the above described stone used in firearms to strike fire.
3. Any thing proverbially hard; as a heart of flint. Spenser.

FLINT-HEART, or FLINT-HEART-ED, a.

Having a hard, unfeeling heart.

FLINT'Y, a.

1. Consisting of flint; as, flinty rock.
2. Like flint; very hard; not impressible; as, a flinty heart.
3. Cruel; unmerciful; inexorable. Shak.
4. Full of flint stones; as, flinty ground. Bacon. Flinty-slate, a mineral of two kinds, the common and the Lydian stone. Ure.

FLIP, n.

A mixed liquor consisting of beer and spirit sweetened.

FLIP'DOG, n.

An iron used, when heated, to warm flip.

FLIP'PAN-CY, n. [See Flippant.]

Smoothness and rapidity of speech; volubility of tongue; fluency of speech.

FLIP'PANT, a. [W. llipanu, to make smooth or glib, from llib, llipa, flaccid, soft, limber; allied to flabby, and to glib, and probably to L. labor, to slide or slip, and to liber, free. Class Lb.]

1. Of smooth, fluent, and rapid speech; speaking with ease and rapidity; having a voluble tongue; talkative.
2. Pert; petulant; waggish. Away with flippant epilogues. Thomson.

FLIP'PANT-LY, adv.

Fluently; with ease and volubility of speech.

FLIP'PANT-NESS, n.

Fluency of speech; volubility of tongue; flippancy. [This is not a low, vulgar word, but well authorized and peculiarly expressive.]

FLIP'PER, n.

The paddle of a sea-turtle.

FLIRT, a.

Pert; wanton. – Shak.

FLIRT, n.

1. A sudden jerk; a quick throw or cast; a darting motion. In unfurling the fan are several little flirts and vibrations. – Addison.
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. – Addison.

FLIRT, v.i.

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, v.t. [flurt; This word evidently belongs to the root of L. floreo, or ploro, signifying to throw, and coinciding with blurt. Qu. Sax. fleardian, to trifle.]

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-A'TION, n.

1. A flirting; a quick sprightly motion.
2. Desire of attracting notice. [A cant word.] – Addison.

FLIRT'ED, pp.

Thrown with a sudden jerk.

FLIRT'ING, ppr.

Throwing; jerking; tossing; darting about; rambling and changing place hastily.

FLIT, a.

Nimble; quick; swift. [Obs.] [See Fleet.]

FLIT, v.i. [D. vlieden, to fly or flee; Dan. flyder, Sw. flyta, to flow, to glide away; Dan. flytter, Sw. flyttia, to remove; Ice. fliutur, swift. This word coincides in elements with Heb. Ch. Syr. פלט Class Ld, No. 43. 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. – Dryden.
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. – Hooker.
4. In Scotland, to remove from one habitation to another.
5. To be unstable; to be easily or often moved. And the free soul to flitting air resign'd. – Dryden.

FLITCH, n. [Sax. flicce; Fr. fleche, an arrow, a coach-beam, a flitch of bacon.]

The side of a hog salted and cured. – Dryden. Swift.