flip 
flipi (flip), a. [E. dial.; < flipi, r. Cf. flippant.] 
Nimble; flippant. SaUiteM. [Prov. Eng.] 
flip' 2 (flip), . [Of dial, origin ; prob. < flipi, v., 
but the connection is not clear.] A mixture 
of which ale, beer, or cider is the chief ingre- 
dient, sweetened, spiced, made sometimes with 
eggs (see egg-flip), and drunk hot. it is consid- 
ered essential to heat the compound by means of hot irons 
plunged into the liquor, which gives a burnt taste. See 
flip-dog. 
He caus'd the flip in mugs gae roun' 
And wine in cans sac gay. 
Sir Patrick Spens (Child's Ballads, III. 340). 
If you spent the evening In a tavern (says John Adams), 
you found the house full of people drinking drams of flip, 
[and] toddy, and carousing and swearing. 
Nineteenth Century, XXIII. 97. 
In those good old days ... it was thought best to heat 
the poker red hot before plunging it into the mugs of flip. 
C. D. Warner, Backlog Studies, p. 18. 
flip-dog (flip'dog), n. An iron shaped like a 
poker, used to heat flip by plunging it while 
red-hot into the liquor. 
Warm your nose with Porter's flip-dog. 
S. Judit, Margaret, II. 11. 
flipe (flip), . [Formerly also flype; prob. of 
Scand. origin ; cf. Dan. flip, flap, a shirt-collar, 
corner of a handkerchief, etc.; Icel. flipi, a 
horse's lip, = Sw. dial, flip, the lip.] 1. A fold; 
a lap. [Scotch.] 2. The brim of a hat. [Prov. 
Eng. and Scotch.] 
Good blew bonnets on their head; 
Which on the one side had a flipe, 
Adorned with a tobacco pipe. 
Cleland, Poems, p. 12. 
3. A flake of snow. [Prov. Eng.] 
flipe (flip), v. t. ; pret. and pp. fliped, ppr. flip- 
ing. [Formerly also flype; < flipe, n.] 1. To 
fold back ; turn up or down, as a sleeve, or a 
stocking in pulling it off, by turning it inside 
out. [Prov. Eng. and Scotch.] 
I flype vp my sleues as one doth that Intendcth to do 
some thynge, or bycause his sleues shulde not hange oner 
his handes. Palsgrare. 
2. To ruffle back, as the skin. [Scotch.] 
The young man . . . played his pavie, by flitping up the 
lid of his eyes and casting up the white. 
McCrie, John Knox, II. 292. 
flipflap (flip'flap), n. [A varied reduplication 
of flap. Cf. flipi.] 1. A continual light flap- 
ping; the repeated stroke or noise made by 
the alternating movements of something broad, 
flat, and limber. 2. A somersault. [Slang.] 
3f. A flighty person. Davies. 
The light airy /tip/tap, she kills him with her motions. 
Vanbrugh, False Friend, i. 1. 
4. A neuropterous grub, the dobson or hell- 
grammite. [Virginia, U. 8.] 
flipflap (flip'flap), adv. [< flipflap, n.] With a 
flapping noise. Johnson. 
flipjack (flip'jak), n. Same us flapjack. 
flippancy (flip'an-si), n. [< flippan(t) + -cy.] 
The state or quality of being flippant ; free or 
inconsiderate volubility ; presumptuous or im- 
pertinent trifling in speech or conduct; disre- 
spectful smartness in speaking or writing; pert- 
ness. 
But this flippancy of language proves nothing but the 
passion of the men who have indulged themselves in it. 
Bp. Ilurd, Works, V. vii. 
flippant (flip'ant), a. [With suffix -ant, as if 
of L. origin, but due to the ME. ppr. suffix 
-and, -ende (< AS. -cude: see -ing*); appar. 
resting on flipi, but prob. < Icel. fleipa, orflei- 
pra, babble, prattle, fleipr, n., babble, tattle, = 
Sw. dial. Jlepa, talk nonsense.] If. Lively and 
fluent in speech; speaking freely; talkative; 
communicative. 
As for your mother, she was wise, a most flippant tongue 
she had. CAajmmn.'All Fools, v. 1. 
It becometh good men, in such cases, to be ... flip- 
pant and free in their speech. 
Barrow, Sermon on Gunpowder Treason. 
2. Voluble and confident, without due know- 
ledge or consideration ; talkative and forward; 
impertinent; disrespectfully smart in speech 
or conduct. 
She was so flippant in her answers to all the honest fel- 
lows that came near her, and so very vain of her beauty 
that she has valued herself upon her charms till they have 
ceased. Steele, Spectator, No. 118. 
To he flippant about troubles is as intolerable as if one 
were to be frivolous about aldermen. 
P. Robinson, Under the Sun, p. 287. 
3. Of alight and trifling quality ; shallow; pert; 
disrespectful. 
Have no regard to Sybil's dress, have none 
To her pert language, to her flippant tone. 
Crabbe, Works, IV. 142. 
2272 
Hurried and flippant fantasies are substituted for exact 
and philosophical reasoning. 
Story, Speech at Cambridge, Aug. 31, 1826. 
I will not echo the rather flippant observation of Mrs. 
Elisabeth Montagu, in her Essay on Shakespeare, ... to 
the effect that the primary glory of French dramatists in 
their own eyes seems to be their triumph over the diffi- 
culties of rhyming. A. W. Ward, Eng. Dram. Lit., 1. 110. 
flirtigig 
they might accidentally strike their sharp Fins into the 
hands of those that caught them. 
Dumpier, Voyages, I. 14S. 
Pacing the room bare-footed, with the tailsof his night- 
shirt flirting as he turned. 
R. L. Stevenson, Treasure of Franchard. 
,_ , 2. To play at courtship; practise coquettish 
flippantly (flip'aut-li), adv. In a flippant man- div ffns; engage in amatory pastime; in gen- 
ner: sliblv: with nert volubility. eral > to make insincere advances of any kind. 
ner; glibly; with pert volubility. 
With those great sugar-nippers they nipp'd off his flippers, 
As the Clerk very flippantly termed his fists. 
Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, I. 229. 
flippantness (flip'ant-nes), . Flippancy, 
flipper (flip'fer), . "[< flipi + -eri. cf . flapper.] 
1 . A limb used to swim with, (a) The fln of a fish. 
(6) Any limb of a sea-turtle, (c) The leg, especially the fore 
leg, of a seal or walrus, (d) The fore fln of a cetacean or a 
sirenian, as a whale, a porpoise, or a manatee, (f) The 
wing of a penguin. 
2. The hand : as, give us yom flipper. [Slang.] 
3. Part of a scene, hinged and painted on 
both sides, used in trick changes. [Theatrical 
cant.] 4. A flapjack; akind of griddle-cake. 
Square-flipper, the bearded seal, Krignathus barbatus. 
flippitt, . [Var.of/;>pe. Cf. flipi &*& flip- Mn <" l1 " 
pant.] A pert or lively person. 
How now, my wanton flippitt f 
Where are thy ging of sweetnes ? this is mettle 
To coyne young Cupids In. 
A . Wilton, Inconstant Lady. 
flird 1 (flerd), M. [Sc., formerly also flyrd; per- 
haps a particular use of ME. flerd, q. v.] 1. 
Anything thin and insufficient; any piece of 
dress that is unsubstantial. Jamieson. 2. pi. 
Worn-out clothes. Jamieson. 
flird 2 (flferd), r. i. [Sc. : see/r(, and cf. flirdi.] 
1. To gibe; jeer. 
Sum sings, Sum dances. Sum tell storyis. . . . 
Sum flyrds. Sum fenyeis ; and sum flatters. 
Dunbar, Maitland Poems, p. 102. (Jamieton.) 
2. To flutter. Jamieson. 
According to Dame Jocelyn, George Washington flirted 
with her just a little bit in what a stately and highly 
finished manner can be imagined. 
T. B. AM rich, Bad Boy, p. 37. 
Harley as we now know had flirted with the Jacobites. 
Leslie Stephen, Swift, v. 
3. To practise gibing or jeering; scoff. 
Derided and /turfed at by divers of the baser people, at 
night we returned to our Bark. Sandyt, Travailes, p. 21. 
flirt (flert), n. [Formerly ulsoflurt; < flirt, .] 
1 . A smart toss or cast ; a darting or sprightly 
motion. 
Indeed there may be sometimes some small flurts of a 
Westerly Wind on these Coasts, but neither constant, cer- 
''" "" -'asting. Dampier, Voyages, II. iii. 16. 
When, with many & flirt and flutter, 
In there stepped a stately raven. 
Poe, The Raven. 
Thiscalmnessseemed to enrage Mr. Efflngham notalit- 
tle ; and he put on his cocked hat with a flirt of irritation. 
J. E, Cooke, Virginia Comedians, I. xii. 
2. A contemptuous remark ; a gibe; a jeer. 
One flirt at him, and then I am for the voyage. 
Fletcher, Pilgrim, HI. 1. 
Must these smiling roses entertain 
The blows of scorn, and flirts of base disdain ? 
Quarles, Emblems, iv. 9. 
3. One who flirts ; one who plays at courtship ; 
one who coquets for pastime or adventure : said 
of either sex, but most commonly of a woman. 
Ye belles, and ye flirts, and ye pert little things, 
Who trip In this frolicsome round. 
W. Whitehead, Song for Ranelagh. 
Several young flirts about town had a design to cast us 
out of the fashionable world. Addison, Guardian. 
General Tufto is a great flirt of mine. 
Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxv. 
flirdie, flirdy (fler'di), a. l<flird^ + -ie, -yl.] 
Giddy; unsettled: often applied to a skittish 
horse. Jamieson. [Scotch.] 
flirdoch (fler'doch), n. [<flird*.] A little flirt. 
Jamieson. [Scotch.] 
Hire (flir), v. and . An obsolete and dialectal 
variant of fleer 1 . 
flirk (flerk), r. t. [Formerly &lso flerk; a var. of 
flirt.] To throw or toss suddenly; jerk; flirt. 
[Now only prov. Eng.] 
flirk (flerk), . [Formerly also flerk; < flirk, 
v.] A sudden throw or toss; a jerk; a flirt, flirtation (fler-ta'shon), n. 
[Now only prov. Eng.] 
With sudden flerk the fatal hemp lets go 
The humming Flint. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, II., The Trophies. 
flirt (flert), r. [Formerly also written flurt ; 
of dial, origin, being associated in sense with 
several other words which have the same initial 
but different final elements, namely, flirk, flisk, 
flickl, throw, jerk, etc., fleer 1 , flire, gibe, flite, 
scold, etc. Cf. flirtf*, perhaps in part the orig. 
form of which flirk and flirt are variations; cf. 
also jerk, jert, yerk, etc. , throw : all these words 
being more or less dial., and regarded as vaguely 
imitative or suggestive of the act they signify, 
and in so far prob. variations of one or two orig. 
forms.] I. trans. 1 . To throw with a quick toss 
or jerk ; fling suddenly or smartly, and careless- 
ly or without aim ; toss off or about. 
The great event is the catastrophe of Sir John Bland, 
who has flirted away his whole fortune at hazard. 
Walpole, Letters, II. 424. 
The highly elastic pedicel . . . [\nCatasetumSaccatum] 
instantly flirts the heavy disc out of the stigmatic cham- 
ber, with such force that the whole pollinium is ejected. 
Darwin, Fertil. of Orchids by Insects, p. 185. 
2. To handle with short, quick movements; 
make waving motions with. 
It Is like a flirt, mused I ; lively, uncertain, bright-col- 
ored. D. O. Mitchell, Reveries of a Bachelor, il. 
4f. A shrewish woman. 
A good, honest, painful man many times hath a shrew 
to his wife, . . . a proud peevish flirt. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel. 
[< flirt + -ation.] 
. 
1 . A flirting ; a quick sprightly motion. [Rare.] 
2. Playing at courtship; amorous trifling or 
adventure. 
I assisted at the birth of that most significant word flirta- 
tion, which dropped from the most l>eautiful mouth in the 
world, and which has since received the sanction of our 
most accurate Laureat in one of his comedies. Some in- 
attentive and nndiscerning people have, I know, taken it 
to be a term synonymous with coquetry : uut j i ay no i,j of 
this opportunity to undeceive them, and eventually to in- 
form Mr. Johnson that flirtation is short of coquetry, and 
intimates only the first hints of approximation, which sub- 
sequent coquetry may reduce to those preliminary articles 
that commonly end in a definite treaty. 
Chesterfield, quoted in Brit. Essayists, ci. 210. 
A propensity to flirtation is not confined to age or coun- 
try, and ... its consequences were not less disastrous to 
the mall-clad Ritter of the dark ages than to the silken 
courtier of the seventeenth century. 
Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, II. 33. 
Or if, perhaps, it was only a passing folly, a foolish little 
flirtation, nothing serious at all ? 
Mn. Oliphant, Poor Gentleman, xxxvii. 
= Syn. 2. Flirtation, Coquet nj. Coquetry may be general : 
as. she was full of coquetry. Flirtation is special Co- 
quetry is the result of the love of admiration ; flirtation is 
more often for the testing or the exhibition of power, and 
is generally venturesome or challenging. 
flirtatious (fler-ta'shus), a. [< flirtati-on + 
-ous.] Given to flirtation. [Colloq.] 
The naughty and flirtatious New York girl, Lilian. 
The American, VII. 154. 
Permit some happier man 
To kiss your hand or flirt your fan. 
Lord Dorset, Song, To all you Ladies now on Land, flirtatiousness (fler-ta'shus-nes), n. A dispo- 
The flirted fan, the bridle, and the toss. sition or tendency to flirtation ; the habit of flirt- 
Coiuper, Hope, 1. 344. 
3. To gibe, jeer, or scoff at ; flout. 
Is this the fellow 
That had the patience to become a fool, 
A flurted fool, and on a sudden break, 
As if he would shew a wonder to the world, 
Both in bravery and fortune too? 
Fletcher, Rule a Wife, iii. 2. 
4f. To snap the fingers at derisively. 5. To 
scold; chide. [Prov. Eng.] 
II. intrans. I. To move nimbly; run or dart 
about; flutter restlessly ; act with levity or gid- 
When we catch them [catfish] with a Hook, we tread flirtigig (fler'ti-gig), n. 
on them to take the Hook out of their Mouths, for other- 
wise, in flitrttng about, as all Fish will when first taken, 
Ing. [Colloq.] 
A North Carolina girl of ingenuous flit-tat iousnes. 
Atlantic Monthly, LVIII. 432. 
flirter (fler'ter), . One who flirts ; a flirt, 
flirt-gillt, flirt-gilliant (flert'jil, -jiFi-an), . 
[< flirt, n., + gill*, gillian.] A pert, forward 
girl ; a light, wanton woman. 
Scurvy knave ! I am none of his flirt-gills. 
Shak., R. and J., ii. 4. 
Thou took'st me up at every word I spoke, 
As I had been a mawkin, a flirt-rrillian. 
Fletcher, The Chances, iii. 1. 
[< flirt + <ji f i*; the-i- 
is merely connective.] A wanton or flirting 
girl. 
