Part 213

2. A kind of mallet for beating the bung stave of a cask to start the bung. Knight.

Flog"ging (?), a. & n. from Flog, v. t.

Flogging chisel (Mach.), a large cold chisel, used in chipping castings. -- Flogging hammer, a small sledge hammer used for striking a flogging chisel.

Flon (?), n. pl. See Flo. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Flong (? or ?), obs. imp. & p. p. of Fling.

Flood (?), n. [OE. flod a flowing, stream, flood, AS. fld; akin to D. vloed, OS. fld, OHG. fluot, G. flut, Icel. fl, Sw. & Dan. flod, Goth. fldus; from the root of E. flow. √80. See Flow, v. i.] 1. A great flow of water; a body of moving water; the flowing stream, as of a river; especially, a body of water, rising, swelling, and overflowing land not usually thus covered; a deluge; a freshet; an inundation.

A covenant never to destroy The earth again by flood.

Milton.

2. The flowing in of the tide; the semidiurnal swell or rise of water in the ocean; -- opposed to ebb; as, young flood; high flood.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

Shak.

3. A great flow or stream of any fluid substance; as, a flood of light; a flood of lava; hence, a great quantity widely diffused; an overflowing; a superabundance; as, a flood of bank notes; a flood of paper currency.

4. Menstrual disharge; menses. Harvey.

Flood anchor (Naut.) , the anchor by which a ship is held while the tide is rising. -- Flood fence, a fence so secured that it will not be swept away by a flood. -- Flood gate, a gate for shutting out, admitting, or releasing, a body of water; a tide gate. -- Flood mark, the mark or line to which the tide, or a flood, rises; high-water mark. -- Flood tide, the rising tide; -- opposed to ebb tide. -- The Flood, the deluge in the days of Noah.

Flood, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flooded; p. pr. & vb. n. Flooding.] 1. To overflow; to inundate; to deluge; as, the swollen river flooded the valley.

2. To cause or permit to be inundated; to fill or cover with water or other fluid; as, to flood arable land for irrigation; to fill to excess or to its full capacity; as, to flood a country with a depreciated currency.

Flood"age (?; 48), n. Inundation. [R.] Carlyle.

Flood"er (?), n. One who floods anything.

Flood"ing, n. The filling or covering with water or other fluid; overflow; inundation; the filling anything to excess.

2. (Med.) An abnormal or excessive discharge of blood from the uterus. Dunglison.

Flook (?), n. A fluke of an anchor.

{ Flook"an (?), Flu"kan (?) }, n. (Mining) See Flucan.

Flook"y (?), a. Fluky.

Floor (?), n. [AS. fl&?;r; akin to D. vloer, G. flur field, floor, entrance hall, Icel. fl&?;r floor of a cow stall, cf. Ir. & Gael. lar floor, ground, earth, W. llawr, perh. akin to L. planus level. Cf. Plain smooth.] 1. The bottom or lower part of any room; the part upon which we stand and upon which the movables in the room are supported.

2. The structure formed of beams, girders, etc., with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into stories. Floor in sense 1 is, then, the upper surface of floor in sense 2.

3. The surface, or the platform, of a structure on which we walk or travel; as, the floor of a bridge.

4. A story of a building. See Story.

5. (Legislative Assemblies) (a) The part of the house assigned to the members. (b) The right to speak. [U.S.]