flightily 
flightily (fli'ti-li), adv. In a flighty, wild, capri- 
cious, or imaginative manner, 
flightiness (fli'ti-nes), . The state of being 
flighty; eapriciousness; volatility; specifically, 
slight delirium or mental aberration. 
Her innate flightiness made her dangerous. 
T. Hook, Gilbert Gurney. 
= Syn. Lightness, Frivolity, etc. (see levity); giddiness, 
caprice. 
flightless (flit'les), a. [< flight + -less.'] Inca- 
pable of flying. 
The giant ostrich of Madagascar was a flightless bird. 
The Century, XXXI. 359. 
flight-Shaft (flit 'shaft), n. Same as flight- 
arrow. 
flight-shooting (fllt'shS'ting), n. The sport or 
practice of shooting birds as they fly in flocks, 
or to and from their feeding-grounds. 
flight-shot (flit'shot), n. The distance which 
an arrow flies ; bow-shot. 
The Temple had priuiledge of Sanctuarie, which Alex- 
ander extended to a furlong, Mithridates to a flight-shut, 
Antonius added part of the Citie. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 330. 
Aboute &flite-thot from the towne is the Cardinal's house. 
Evelyn, Diary, Sept. 14, 1664. 
Jack was already gone a flight-shot beyond his patience. 
Smft, Tale of a Tub, vi. 
flighty (fli'ti), a. [= D. vlugtig, volatile, = G. 
fluchtig = Dan. flygtig = Sw. flyktig, flighty; 
as flight 1 + -i/ 1 .] 1. Indulging in flights or 
sallies of imagination, humor, caprice, etc.; 
given to disordered fancies and extravagant 
conduct; volatile; giddy; fickle; capricious; 
slightly delirious ; wandering in mind. 
The flighty gamlwls of chance are objects of no science, 
nor grounds of any dependance whatever. 
A. Tucker, Light of Nature, III. xxvi. 
Proofs of my flighty and paradoxical turn of mind. 
Coleridge. 
Mr. Dingwell was a man of a flighty and furious tem- 
per. J. S. Le Fanu, Tenants of Mollory, xxxiv. 
2. Fleeting ; swift ; transient. [Rare.] 
The flighty purpose never Is o'ertook, 
Unless the deed go with it. 
Shak., Macbeth, iv. 1. 
flimflam (flim'flam), n. [A varied reduplica- 
tion of flaft; cf. flipflap, , whimtcham, etc.] A 
freak ; a trick ; an imposition or deception. 
This is a pretty flim-flam. Beau, and Fl. 
I wil not be troubled, colonel, with his meanings, if he 
do not marry her this very evening ; for I'le ha' none of 
his flim-flams and his may-be's. 
Cowley, Cutter of Coleman Street (1663). 
flimmer-ball (flim'er-bal), n. A protozoan of 
Haeckel's group Catallacta, Magosphatra planu- 
la of Norway. See Magosphara. 
flimsily (flim'zi-li), adr. In a flimsy manner. 
flimsiness (flim'zi-nes), n. The state or quality 
of being flimsy ; thin, weak texture ; weakness ; 
want of substance or solidity. 
There is a certain flimsiness of Poetry, that seems expe- 
dient in a song. Shenstone. 
If you like Vandyck or Gainsborough especially, you 
must be too much attracted by gentlemanly flimsiness. 
Ruttkin, Elements of Drawing, App. ii. 
flimsy (flim'zi). a. and . [Perhaps < W. llym- 
si, sluggish, spiritless, flimsy. The W. II is a 
voiceless /, which is sometimes thought by Eng- 
lish hearers to resemble th ; th before I is in 
other cases represented by /"(e. g., in flee 1 ; cf. 
,/H? 2 , for thill). The same 'change, W. 11 to E. 
fl, appears in flummery^, q. v.] I. a. 1. With- 
out material strength or solid substance; of 
loose and unsubstantial structure. 
Reveries, . . . 
Those flimsy webs, that break as soon as wrought, 
Attain not to the dignity of thought. 
Cowper, Retirement. 
2. Without strength or force of any kind ; weak ; 
ineffectual: as, a flimsy argument. 
Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines ! 
Pope, Prol. to Satires, 1. 94. 
That style which in the closet might justly be called 
flimsy seems the true mode of eloquence here. 
Goldsmith, English Clergy. 
In reply came/imsy and unmeaning excuses. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xx. 
= Syn, 1. Unsubstantial, thin, slight. 2. Feeble, trivial, 
shallow, superficial, frivolous, foolish, puerile. 
II. n. 1. A thin sort of paper by means of 
which several copies of a writing may be made 
at once; transfer-paper. 2. A bank-note, from 
its being made of thin paper. [Slang.] 
When a man sends you the flimsy, he spares you the 
flourish. Dickens. 
flinch 1 (flinch), v. i. [Prob. a nasalized form 
(perhaps influenced by blench 1 ) of ME. flecchen: 
see fletch 1 ."} 1. To give way to fear or to a 
2270 
sense of pain ; shrink back from anything pain- 
ful or dangerous ; manifest a feeling or a fear 
of suffering or injury of any kind ; draw back 
from any act or undertaking through dread of 
consequences; shrink; wince: as, the pain was 
severe, but he did not flinch. 
They [Moskito Indians] behave themselves very bold in 
fight, and never seem to flinch nor hang back ; for they 
think that the white men with whom they are know bet- 
ter than they when it is best to fight. 
Dumpier, Voyages, I. 8. 
He [Stuyvesant] was never a man to flinch when he found 
himself in a scrape ; but to dash forward through thick 
and thin, trusting, by hook or by crook, to make all things 
straight in the end. Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 269. 
The mere holiday-politician . . . flinches from his du- 
ties as soon as those duties become difficult and disagree- 
able. Macaulay, Sir William Temple. 
2. In croquet, to allow the foot to slip from the 
ball in the act of croqueting. 
flinch 2 (flinch), v. t. Same as flense. 
flincher (flin'cher), n. One who flinches. 
Believe 't, sir, 
But make this good upon us you have promis'd, 
You shall not find uaflinchers. 
Fletcher (and others), Bloody Brother, 11. 2. 
flinching (flin'ching), n. In ship-building, same 
as snniit: 
flinchingly (fliu'ching-li), adv. In a flinching 
manner. 
flinder 1 (flin'der), n. [Also dial. (Sc.)flender; 
< Norw. flindra, dial, flingra, a thin slice or 
splinter, esp. of stone, dial, flinter, a crumb, 
fragment (cf. fara i flinter, fljuga i flint, Dan. 
springe i flint, go, fly, or spring to flinders, 
used fig., burst with rage; verb refl. flindrast, 
flintrast, splinter, shiver, go to flinders). Cf. 
D. flenters, rags, tatters, and see flint, flints. 
There is no connection with G. dial, flinder, 
flinter, G. flitter, spangle, tinsel, flittern, glit- 
ter, Dan. Sw. flitter, tinsel.] A splinter ; a thin 
slice; a small piece or fragment : usually in the 
plural. 
His Iww and his broad arrow 
In flinders flew about. 
Robin Hood and the Beggar (Child's Ballads, V. 191). 
They gar'd it a' in flinders flee. 
Jock o' the Side (Child's Ballads, VI. 86). 
Ill-' tough ash spear, so stout and true, 
Into a thousand flinders flew. 
Scott, L. of L. M., iii. 6. 
flinder 2 (flin'der), v. i. [Sc.; cf. D. vlinder, a 
butterfly.] To flirt; run about in a fluttering 
manner. Jamieson. 
flindermouset(flin'der-mous),n.; -pl.flindermice 
(-mis). [< late ME. flyndermouse; < flinder (cf . 
D. rlinder, a butterfly: see flinder^) + mouse; 
perhaps a var. of flittermouse, q. v.] A bat: 
same as flittermouse. 
Theune cam . . . the flyndemiows and the wezel. 
Caxton, Reynard the Fox (1481) (ed. Arber), p. 112. 
One face was attyred of the newe fashion of womens 
attyre, the other face like the olde arraye of women, and 
had wynges like a backe or flvndermmpse. 
MS. Sari., 486, f. 77. (Hallimll.) 
Flinders bar (flin'derz bar). [So called from 
its inventor: see Flindersia.] Naut., an ap- 
pliance for correcting a part of the local de- 
viation of the compass-needle on shipboard, 
consisting of a soft iron cylinder, generally 
two or three inches in diameter, placed ver- 
tically in front or in the rear of the compass- 
binnacle at such a distance as may be required. 
Besides helping to correct the semicircular de- 
viation, it tends to lessen the heeling-error. 
Flindersia (flin-der'si-a), n. [NL., so called af- 
ter Captain M. Flinders, R. N. (died 1814), who, 
accompanied by the botanist Robert Brown, ex- 
plored the coast of Australia in the beginning 
of the 19th century.] A genus of tall timber- 
trees of Australia, of the natural order Melia- 
cece, and allied to the mahogany. The wood of F. 
Greavesii is very hard and durable, and is used in house- 
building. F. australis, the ash or beech of Queensland, is 
largely used for staves. F. Oxleyana is known as white 
teak or yellow-wood, and furnishes a yellow dye. All 
have a woody capsule covered with sharp-pointed tuber- 
cles, which is used by the natives as a rasp in preparing 
roots, etc., for food. 
fling (fling), v. ; pret. and pp. flung, ppr. fling- 
ing. [< ME. flyngen, flengen (with strong pret. 
flang, flong), tr. fling, usually intr. hasten, fly, 
rush, also strike (at), < Icel. flengja, whip, 
ride furiously, = Sw. flanga, romp, ride furi- 
ously, a derived sense of OSw. flenga, strike, 
Sw. dial, flanga, strike, hack, strip bark from 
trees, = Norw. flengja, slash, gash, cut, esp. 
with violence, = Dan. flainge, slash, gash ; hence 
the noun, Sw. flang, agitation, violent exercise, 
= Norw. fleng = Dan. flwnge, a slash, gash; 
cf. the adverbial phrase, Sw. i flang = Norw. 
i fleng = Dan. i flceng, at random, indiscrimi- 
fling 
nately.] I. trans. 1. To throw, cast, or hurl; 
especially, to throw with force, violence, or 
swiftness, with ardor, vehemence, disdain, im- 
patience, or indifference : as, the waves^<7 the 
ship upon the rocks; his antagonist flung him 
to the ground ; to fling a sarcasm at an oppo- 
nent ; they flung themselves suddenly upon the 
enemy ; to fling a penny to a beggar. 
He . . . raft him al his song 
And eke his speche, and out at dore him flong [var. slung, 
i. e., slung}. 
Chaucer, Manciple's Tale (ed. Tyrwhitt), 1. 17254. 
Who loves the king, and will embrace his pardon, 
Fling up his cap, and say God save his majesty ! 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., iv. 8. 
Another time my horse Calamity flung me over his head 
into a neighboring parish, as if I had been a shuttlecock. 
Sydney Smith, in Lady Holland, vii. 
Once more, on gay St. Crispin's day, 
Fling out your blazoned banner ! 
Whittirr, The Shoemakers. 
The bell 
Flung out iU sound o'er night or day. 
toilliam Morris, Earthly Paradise, III. 187. 
2. To throw aside or off, as a burden. 
Yon likewise will do well, 
Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling 
The tricks which make us toys of men. 
Tennyson, Princess, ii. 
To fling off. (o) To baffle in the chase ; defeat of prey. 
(6) To get rid of. 
You flung me off, before the court disgrac'd me, 
When in the pride I appear'd of all my beauty. 
Fletcher (and another), False One, iv. 2. 
To fling one's self out or about, to flounce out or 
about; dash out, as in anger or rage. To fling out, to 
utter or speak violently or recklessly: as, to fling out 
hard words against another. To fling the head, to 
throw up the head with a violent, contemptuous, or angry 
motion. 
II. intrang. 1. To act by throwing in some 
particular way ; discharge a missile, or some- 
thing analogous to a missile. 
Thou sitt'st upon this ball 
Of earth, secure, while death, that flings at all, 
Stands arm'd to strike thee down. 
Quarles, Emblems, 1. 7. 
I and my Cloe take a nobler Aim : 
At human Hearts we fling, nor ever miss the Game. 
Prior, Cloe Hunting. 
2f. To aim a blow, as with a weapon ; let fly. 
He ... flang at hym fuersly with a fyne swerde. 
Destruction ojf Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 5263. 
3. To hasten ; fly ; rush. 
Messagers conneflyng 
Into the halle before the kyng. 
King Alisaunder, 1. 1165. 
Then starting up, down yonder path he flung, 
Lest thou hadst miss'd thy way. 
Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, Hi. 1. 
This denunciation is eagerly caught up by the public : 
away they fling to propagate the distress. 
Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, evil. 
4. To start away with a sudden motion, as in 
token of displeasure ; rush away in anger. 
rfor hir son sha gan flyng, 
In rage as a lyonesse. 
Legend of St. Alexius, 1. 1034. 
Alas, kind lord ! 
He's flung in rage from this ungrateful seat 
Of monstrous friends. Snak., T. of A., iv. 2. 
She [Lady Townshend] burst into a flood of tears and 
rage ; told him she now believed all his father and mother 
had said of him ; and with a thousand other reproaches 
flung upstairs. Walpole, Letters, II. 51. 
Tom flung out of the room, and slammed the door after 
him. George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, ii. 4. 
5. To fly into violent and irregular motions; 
flounce ; throw out the legs violently, as a horse ; 
kick. 
Being fastned to proud Coursers collers, 
That fight and fling, it [willo-wort] will abate their chol- 
ers. Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 3. 
This is but to fling and struggle under the inevitable 
net of God, that now begins to inviron you round. 
Milton, On Def. of Humb. Remonst. 
The beasU began to kick and fling. 
S. Butler, Hudibras, II. ii. 833. 
6. To utter harsh or abusive language; up- 
braid; sneer: as, she began to flout and fling. 
fling (fling), n. [< fling, r.] 1 . A throw ; a cast 
from the hand. 2. Entire freedom of action; 
wild dash into pleasure, adventure, or excite- 
ment of any kind ; enjoyment of pleasure to the 
full extent of one's opportunities. 
Give me my fling, and let me say my say. 
Tennyson, Aylmer's Field. 
He has seen the world and had his fling at Paris. 
T. Winthrop, Cecil Dreeme, i. 
I tell you, don't think of marrying why should you 
marry? but just have your fling and pet a little fun 
while you can. Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentleman, xliv. 
3. A lively Scotch country-dance; a reel or 
hornpipe, especially of the kind called the High- 
land fling, usually danced by one person. 
