45S F L I 
Removed from place to place by means of wings.—The 
fowls (ball take their flight away together. 2 Efdr. v. 6. 
Fowls, by winter forc’d, forfake the floods, 
And wing their harty flight to happier lands. Dryden. 
A flock ot birds flying together.—They take great pride 
in the feathers of birds, and this they took from their an- 
ceftors of the mountains, who were invited into it by the 
infinit tflights of birds that came up to the high grounds. 
Bacon. 
I can at will, doubt nod, 
Command a table in this wildernefs ; 
And call fwift flights of angels miniftrant, 
Array’d in glory, on my cup t’ attend. - Milton. 
The birds produced in the fame feafon : as, the harveft 
flight of pigeons. A volley ; a fltower ; as much fhot as 
is difcharged at once.—Above an hundred arrows dif- 
charged on my left hand, pricked me like fo many needles; 
and befides they (hot another flight into the air, as we do 
bombs. Swift. —The fpace palt by flying. The flairs 
from one landing-place to another. Heat of imagination; 
tally of the foul : 
Old Pindar’s flights by him are reacht, 
When on that gale his wings are ftretcht. Denham. 
Truft me, dear ! good humour can prevail, 
When airs and flights , and fcreams and fcolding, fail. Pope. 
Excurfion on the wing.—If there were any certain height 
where the flights of ambition end, one might imagine that 
the intereils of France were but to conlerve its prefent 
greatnefs. Temple. —The power of flying : 
In my fchool-days, when I had loft one fhaft, 
I (hot his fellow of the felf-fame flight 
The felf-fame way. Shakefpearc. 
A fleet arrow.—Here be of all forts; flights, rovers, and 
butfhafts. Ben Jonflon. 
FLIGHT'LY, adj. Fleeting; fwift. 
Time, thou anticipat'd my dread exploits : 
The flightly purpofe never is o’ertook, 
Unlels the deed go with it. Shakefpeare. 
Wild ; full of imagination. 
FLIM'SY, [derivation uncertain. ] Weak; feeble; 
without ftrength of texture.—Mean; fpiritlefs; without 
force.—Proud of a vaft extent of flimfy lines. Pope. 
FLIM'ZINESS, f. Eafy texture.—There is a certain 
Jlimzinefs in poetry, that feems expedient inafong. Shenflone. 
To FLINCH, v.n. [corrupted from fling. Skinner. ] 
To flirink from any fullering or undertaking; to with¬ 
draw from any pain or danger.—Every martyr could keep 
one eye fteadily fixed upon immortality, and look death 
and danger out of countenance with the other ; nor did 
they flinch from duty for fear of-martyrdom. South.— In 
Shakefpeare it lignilies to fail : 
If I break time, or flinch in property 
Of what I fpoke, unpitied let me die. Shakefpeare. 
FLINCH'ER,/ He who (brinks or fails in any matter. 
To FLING, prefer, flung-, part, flung or flong\ v. a. 
[from fligo, Lat. Skinner: according toothers from flying ; 
1b to fling is to fet flying .] To caft from the hand; to 
throw: 
’Tis fate that flings the dice ; and as (lie flings 
Of kings makes peafants, and of peafants kings. Dryden. 
To dart ; to call with violence : 
How much unlike that KeTor who return’d 
Clad in Achilles’ fpoils ; when he, among 
A thoufand (hips, like Jove, his lightning/attg-. Denham. 
Tofcatter: 
Ev’ry beam new tranfient colour flings. 
Colours that change when’er they wave their wings. Pope. 
To drive by violence.—A heap of rocks, falling, would 
F L l 
expel the waters out of their places with ftrch a violence 
as to fling them among the higheft clouds. Burnet _To 
move forcibly.—Theknight, feeing his,habitation reduced 
to f6 fmall a compafs, ordered all his apartments to be 
flung open. Addiflon. —To cafl : in an ill lenfe : 
I know thy gen’roits temper : 
Fling but the appearance of diflionour on it, 
It ftraight takes fire. Addiflon. 
To force into another condition, probably into a worfe ; 
Squalid fortune, into bafenefs j long, 
Doth fcorn the pride of wonted ornaments. Spenfcr. 
To FLING away. To ejeCt ; to difmifs : 
Cromwell, I charge thee,//g- away ambition ; 
-By that fin fell the angels. Shakefpeare. 
To FLING down % To.demolifli; to ruin.—Thefe are 
fo far from raifing mountains, that they overturn and 
fling down fome of thofe which were before Handing. 
Woodward. 
To FLING off. To baffle in the chace ; to .defeat of 
a prey.—Thefe men are too well acquainted with the 
chace to ht flung off by any falfe fteps or doubles. Addiflon. 
To FLING, v. n. To flounce ; to wince ; to fly into 
violent and irregular motions : 
The angry bead 
Began to kick, and fling, and wince, 
As if h’ had been belide his fenfe. Hudibras.. 
To FLING out. To grow unruly or outrageous : from 
the a£t of any angry horfe that throws out his legs .* 
D uncan’s horfes, 
Turn’d wild in nature, broke their flails, flung out, 
Contending ’gainfl obedience. Shakefpeare. 
FLING,/ A throw ; a cafl. A gibe ; a fneer; acott- 
temptuous remark : 
No little fcribbler is of wit fo bare, 
But has his fling at the poor wedded pair. Addiflon. 
FLING'ER,/. He who throws. He who jeers. 
FLINT, fl. [plinr, Sax.] A femi-pellucid done, o-f 
the filiceous order, and of a blackifh grey Alining colour, 
fometimes yellow ; of one fimilar and equal fubftance, 
free from veins, and naturally inverted with a wbitifli cruft. 
It is fometimes fmooth and equal, more frequently rough ; 
fize various. It is well known to rtrike fire with fteel ; 
and it is ufeful in glafs-making. For its natural forma¬ 
tion and properties, fee the article Mineralogy.—T here 
is the fame force and the fame refrefhing virtue in fire 
kindled by a fpark from a flint, as if it were kindled by a 
beam from the fun. South. 
Love melts the rigour which the rocks have bred ; 
A flint will break upon a featherbed. Cleavcland. 
Any thing eminently or proverbially hard : 
Your tears, a heart of flint 
Might tender make. Spenfer. 
The manufacture of gun-flints is chiefly confined to 
two or three departments in France. The operation is 
exceedingly fimple : a good workman will make one 
thoufand flints in a day. The whole art contifts in ftrik- 
ing the done repeatedly with a kind of mallet, and bring¬ 
ing off at eftch ftroke a fplinter, fliarp at one end, and 
thicker at the other. Thefe fplinters are afterwards 
fhaped at pleafure, by laying the line at which it is wifh- 
ed they fliouid break, upon a fliarp iron inftrumerft, and 
then giving it repeatedly fmall blows witli a mallet. 
During the whole operation the workman holds the Hone 
in his hand, or merely lupports it on his knee. 
FLINT, a town of North Wales, and capital of the 
county to which it gives name, fituatedata fmall diflance 
from the river Dee ; with an ancient caftle, where the 
unfortunate Richard II. vvasdepofed by the duke of Lan- 
c.irter. It has no market; but here are four fairs annually 
for 
