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Flingdust to Float
Flingdust
(Fling"dust`) n. One who kicks up the dust; a streetwalker; a low manner. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
Flinger
(Fling"er) n. One who flings; one who jeers.
Flint
(Flint) n. [AS. flint, akin to Sw. flinta, Dan. flint; cf. OHG. flins flint, G. flinte gun 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 (Archæol.), 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
(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-hearted
(Flint"-heart`ed) a. Hard- hearted. Shak.
Flintiness
(Flint"i*ness) n. The state or quality of being flinty; hardness; cruelty. Beau. & Fl.
Flintlock
(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.
Flintware
(Flint"ware`) n. A superior kind of earthenware into whose composition flint enters largely.
Knight.
Flintwood
(Flint"wood`) n. (Bot.) An Australian name for the very hard wood of the Eucalyptus piluralis.
Flinty
(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
(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.
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