Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FLOW'ER-ED, pp.

Embellished with figures of flowers.

FLOW'ER-ET, n. [Fr. fleurette.]

A small flower; a floret. Shak. Milton. Dryden. [In botany, floret is solely used.]

FLOW'ER-FENCE, n.

The name of certain plants. The flower-fence of Barbados is of the genus Poinciana. The bastard flower-fence is the Adenanthera. Fam. of Plants.

FLOW'ER-FUL, a.

Abounding with flowers.

FLOW'ER-GAR-DEN, n.

A garden in which flowers are chiefly cultivated.

FLOW'ER-GEN-TLE, n.

A plant, the amaranth.

FLOW'ER-I-NESS, n. [from flowery.]

1. The state of being flowery, or of abounding with flowers.
2. Floridness of speech; abundance of figures.

FLOW'ER-ING, n.

1. The season when plants blossom.
2. The act of adorning with flowers.

FLOW'ER-ING, ppr.

1. Blossoming; blooming; expanding the petals, as plants.
2. Adorning with artificial flowers, or figures of blossoms.

FLOW-ER-IN-WO'VEN, a.

Adorned with flowers. Milton.

FLOW'ER-KIR-TLED, a.

Dressed with garlands of flowers. Milton.

FLOW'ER-LESS, a.

1. Having no flowers. Chaucer.
2. In botany, having no flowers or organs of fructification. Lindley.

FLOW'ER-LESS-NESS, n.

State or quality of being without flowers.

FLOW'ER-STALK, n.

In botany, the peduncle of a plant, or the stem that supports the flower or fructification.

FLOW'ER-Y, a.

1. Full of flowers; abounding with blossoms; as, a flowery field. Milton.
2. Adorned with artificial flowers, or the figures of blossoms.
3. Richly embellished with figurative language; florid; as, flowery style.

FLOW'ING, n.

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

FLOW-ING, ppr.

1. Moving as a fluid; issuing; proceeding; abounding; smooth, as style; inundating.
2. adj. Fluent; smooth, as style.

FLOW-ING-LY, adv.

With volubility; with abundance.

FLOW-ING-NESS, n.

Smoothness of diction; stream of diction. Nichols.

FLOWK, or FLUKE, n. [Sax. floc.]

A flounder. Carew.

FLOWN, pp.

(had fled,) in the following phrases, is not good English. Was reason flown. Prior. Sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. Milton. 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 can not regularly be used in a passive sense.

FLU'ATE, n. [from fluor – which see.]

In chimistry, a salt once supposed to be formed by the fluoric acid combined with a base; as, fluate alumin, or of soda.

FLUC'TU-ANT, a. [L. fluctuans. See fluctuate.]

Moving like a wave; wavering; unsteady. L'Estrange.

FLUC'TU-ATE, v.i. [L. 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. Blackmore.
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'TU-A-TING, ppr.

1. Wavering; rolling as a wave; moving in this and that direction; rising and falling.
2. adj. Unsteady; wavering; changeable. We have little confidence in fluctuating opinions.