A Topical Dictionary: Search for flail

Dictionary Results For "flail" [?]/[OPML]

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English

Image:Klassischer-Flegel.jpg|thumb|right|150px|a flail (weapon)

Etymology

From flagellum, 'whip'

Pronunciation

IPA: /fleɪl/
An audio transcript can be found at en-us-flail.ogg
Rhymes: Rhymes:English:-eɪl|-eɪl

Noun

A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain or thong etc.
A weapon which has the striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain etc.

Quotations

1631 — w:John Milton|John Milton, s:L'Allegro|L'Allegro
: When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end;
1816 — w:Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Samuel Taylor Coleridge, s:Kubla Khan|Kubla Khan
: Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail
1842 — w:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, s:The Slave in the Dismal Swamp|The Slave in the Dismal Swamp
: On him alone the curse of Cain
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth!
1879 — w:Henry George|Henry George, s:Progress and Poverty|Progress and Poverty, ch V
: If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...

Translations

Czech: cep
Dutch: Vlegel
Finnish: varsta
French: Fléau
German: Flegel
Latin: pertica trituaria

Polish: cep
Portuguese: mangual
Russian: цеп (cep)
Spanish: mayal
Swedish: slaga

Czech: řemdih
French: Fléau

Russian: кистень (kist'én') , моргенштерн (morg'enštérn)
Swedish: stridsgissel, morgonstjärna

Verb

To beat using a flail or similar.
To wave or swing vigorously (syn. thrash).
To thresh.

Quotations

1937 — w:H. P. Lovecraft|H. P. Lovecraft, s:The Evil Clergyman|The Evil Clergyman
: He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.

Translations

Spanish: sacudirse, agitarse, debatirse (uncommon)

Swedish: fäkta, vifta

Dutch: dorsen
Spanish: desgranar

Swedish: tröska

Category:Weapons

fr:flail io:flail ru:flail fi:flail te:flail vi:flail zh:flail

GNU Project's publication of CIDE, the Collaborative International Dictionary of English Flail \Flail\, n. [L. flagellum whip, scourge, in LL., a
threshing flail: cf. OF. flael, flaiel, F. fl['e]au. See
Flagellum.]
1. An instrument for threshing or beating grain from the ear
by hand, consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the
end of which a stouter and shorter pole or club, called a
swipe, is so hung as to swing freely.
[1913 Webster]

His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]

2. An ancient military weapon, like the common flail, often
having the striking part armed with rows of spikes, or
loaded. --Fairholt.
[1913 Webster]

No citizen thought himself safe unless he carried
under his coat a small flail, loaded with lead, to
brain the Popish assassins. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]

WordNet flail
n : an implement consisting of handle with a free swinging stick
at the end; used in manual threshing
v 1: give a thrashing to; beat hard [syn: thrash, thresh, lam]
2: move like a flail; thresh about; "Her arms were flailing"
[syn: thresh]

Moby Dictionary
bang , baste , bastinado , batter , beat , belabor , belt , birch , buffet ,
cane , club , cowhide , cudgel , cut , cut and thrust , drub , feint ,
flagellate , flail at , flail away at , flap , flog , fustigate ,
give a whipping , give the stick , hammer , hit at , horsewhip , knock ,
knout , lace , lambaste , larrup , lash , lash out at , lay on ,
let drive at , let fly at , lunge at , maul , paste , patter , pelt ,
pistol-whip , poke at , pommel , pound , pulverize , pummel , rap ,
rawhide , scourge , sledgehammer , smite , spank , strap , strike at ,
strike out at , stripe , swing at , swing on , swinge , switch , thrash ,
thresh , thrust at , thump , trounce , truncheon , wallop , whale , whip ,
whop