Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.