Part 206

Swift.

3. A kind of dance; as, the Highland fling.

4. A trifing matter; an object of contempt. [Obs.]

England were but a fling Save for the crooked stick and the gray goose wing.

Old Proverb.

To have one's fling, to enjoy one's self to the full; to have a season of dissipation. J. H. Newman. "When I was as young as you, I had my fling. I led a life of pleasure." D. Jerrold.

Fling"dust` (?), n. One who kicks up the dust; a streetwalker; a low manner. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

Fling"er (?), n. One who flings; one who jeers.

Flint (?), n. [AS. flint, akin to Sw. flinta, Dan. flint; cf. OHG. flins flint, G. flinte gun (cf. E. flintlock), perh. akin to Gr. &?; brick. Cf. Plinth.] 1. (Min.) A massive, somewhat impure variety of quartz, in color usually of a gray to brown or nearly black, breaking with a conchoidal fracture and sharp edge. It is very hard, and strikes fire with steel.

2. A piece of flint for striking fire; -- formerly much used, esp. in the hammers of gun locks.

3. Anything extremely hard, unimpressible, and unyielding, like flint. "A heart of flint." Spenser.

Flint age. (Geol.) Same as Stone age, under Stone. -- Flint brick, a fire made principially of powdered silex. -- Flint glass. See in the Vocabulary. -- Flint implements (ArchÊol.), tools, etc., employed by men before the use of metals, such as axes, arrows, spears, knives, wedges, etc., which were commonly made of flint, but also of granite, jade, jasper, and other hard stones. -- Flint mill. (a) (Pottery) A mill in which flints are ground. (b) (Mining) An obsolete appliance for lighting the miner at his work, in which flints on a revolving wheel were made to produce a shower of sparks, which gave light, but did not inflame the fire damp. Knight. -- Flint stone, a hard, siliceous stone; a flint. -- Flint wall, a kind of wall, common in England, on the face of which are exposed the black surfaces of broken flints set in the mortar, with quions of masonry. -- Liquor of flints, a solution of silica, or flints, in potash. -- To skin a flint, to be capable of, or guilty of, any expedient or any meanness for making money. [Colloq.]

Flint" glass` (?). (Chem.) A soft, heavy, brilliant glass, consisting essentially of a silicate of lead and potassium. It is used for tableware, and for optical instruments, as prisms, its density giving a high degree of dispersive power; -- so called, because formerly the silica was obtained from pulverized flints. Called also crystal glass. Cf. Glass.

The concave or diverging half on an achromatic lens is usually made of flint glass.

Flint"-heart`ed (?), a. Hard- hearted. Shak.

Flint"i*ness (?), n. The state or quality of being flinty; hardness; cruelty. Beau. & Fl.

Flint"lock` (?), n. 1. A lock for a gun or pistol, having a flint fixed in the hammer, which on striking the steel ignites the priming.

2. A hand firearm fitted with a flintlock; esp., the old-fashioned musket of European and other armies.

Flint"ware` (?), n. A superior kind of earthenware into whose composition flint enters largely. Knight.

Flint"wood` (?), n. (Bot.) An Australian name for the very hard wood of the Eucalyptus piluralis.

Flint"y (?), a. [Compar. Flintier (?); superl. Flintiest.] Consisting of, composed of, abounding in, or resembling, flint; as, a flinty rock; flinty ground; a flinty heart.

Flinty rock, or Flinty state, a siliceous slate; -- basanite is here included. See Basanite.

Flip (?), n. [Cf. Prov. E. flip nimble, flippant, also, a slight blow. Cf. Flippant.] A mixture of beer, spirit, etc., stirred and heated by a hot iron.

Flip dog, an iron used, when heated, to warm flip.

Flip, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flipped (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Flipping.] To toss or fillip; as, to flip up a cent.

As when your little ones Do 'twixt their fingers flip their cherry stones.

W. Browne.

Flipe (?), v. t. To turn inside out, or with the leg part back over the foot, as a stocking in pulling off or for putting on. [Scot.]