Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FLOUR-ISH, v.i. [flur'ish; L. floresco, from floreo; Fr. fleurir, fleurissant; Sp. florear; It. fiorire. The primary sense is to open, expand, enlarge, or to shoot out, as in glory, L. ploro, or in other words in Lr.]

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. Nelson. When all the workers of iniquity do flourish. Ps. xcii.
3. To grow in grace and in good works; to abound in the consolations of religion. The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree. Ps. xcii.
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. Watts.
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, flourish'd o'er his head. Pope.
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.

FLOUR-ISH, v.t. [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. Bacon.
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. Collier.
5. To adorn; to embellish. Shak.
6. To mark with a flourish or irregular stroke. The day book and inventory book shall be flourished. French Com. Code. Walsh.

FLOUR-ISH-ED, pp. [flur'ished.]

Embellished; adorned with bold and irregular figures or lines; brandished.

FLOUR-ISH-ER, n. [flur'isher.]

1. One who flourishes; one who thrives or prospers.
2. One who brandishes.
3. One who adorns with fanciful figures.

FLOUR-ISH-ING, ppr.

or a. [flur'ishing.] Thriving; prosperous; increasing; making a show.

FLOUR-ISH-ING-LY, adv. [flur'ishingly.]

With flourishes; ostentatiously.

FLOUT, n.

A mock; an insult.

FLOUT, v.i.

To practice mocking; to sneer; to behave with contempt. Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout. Shak.

FLOUT, v.t. [Scot. flyte, to scold or brawl; Sax. flitan.]

To mock or insult; to treat with contempt. Phillida flouts me. Walton. He flouted us downright. Shak.

FLOUT'ED, pp.

Mocked; treated with contempt.

FLOUT'ER, n.

One who flouts and flings; a mocker.

FLOUT'ING, ppr.

Mocking; insulting; fleering.

FLOUT'ING-LY, adv.

With flouting; insultingly.

FLOW, n.

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.

FLOW, v.i. [Sax. flowan; D. vloeijen. If the last radical was originally a dental, this word coincides with the D. vlieten, G. fliessen, Sw. flyta, Dan. flyder, to flow. If g was the last radical, flow coincides with the L. fluo, contracted from flugo, for it forms fluxi, fluctum. In one case, the word would agree with the root of blow, L. 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 is 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 thy presence. Is. lxiv.
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 iii.
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. Dryden.
8. To hang loose and waving; as, a flowing mantle; flowing locks. The imperial purple flowing in his train. Federalist, Hamilton.
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, v.t.

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

FLOW-ED, pp.

Overflowed; inundated.

FLOW'ER, n. [Fr. fleur; Sp. flor; It. fiore; Basque, lora; W. flur, bloom; fluraw, to bloom, to be bright; L. 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 pistil, which are sufficient to constitute a flower, either together in hermaphrodite flowers, or separate in male and female flowers. Martyn. Milne.
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. Milne.
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. Addison.
5. The finest part; the essence. The choice and flower of all things profitable the Psalms do more briefly contain. Hooker.
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. 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. Encyc. A substance, somewhat similar, formed spontaneously, is called efflorescence. #2. In rhetoric, figures and ornaments of discourse or composition. #3. Menstrual discharges.

FLOW'ER, v.i. [from the noun. The corresponding word in L. is floreo, Fr. fleurir, It. fiorire, Sp. and Port. florecer, W. fluraw.]

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. Spenser.
3. To froth; to ferment gently; to mantle, as new beer. The beer did flower a little. Bacon.
4. To come as cream from the surface. Milton.

FLOW'ER, v.t.

To embellish with figures of flowers; to adorn with imitated flowers.

FLOW'ER-AGE, n.

State of flowers; flowers in general.

FLOW'ER-BEAR-ING, a.

Producing flowers.

FLOW'ER-BUD, n.

The bud which produces a flower.

FLOW'ER-CROWN-ED, a.

Crowned with flowers.

FLOW'ER-DE-LIS, n. [Fr. fleur de lis, flower of the lily.]

1. In heraldry, a bearing representing a lily, the hieroglyphic of royal majesty. Encyc.
2. In botany, the Iris, a genus of monogynian trianders, called also flag-flower, and often written incorrectly flower-de-luce. The species are numerous.