flabby (flab i)

[A colloq. or dial. word of comparatively recent appearance in literature; it may be regarded as a var. of flappy, flab, the chaps (also, as a term of abuse, malapert); G. (pop.) flab be, the mouth. Cf. also flabbergast, flab berk in.] flab berk in.] 1. Without firmne or elasticity; hanging loose by its own weight; lax; flaccid: said chiefly of flesh: as, flabby cheeks. If a man not very fat sits resting his leg carele ly upon a stool, his calf will hang flabby like the handkerchief in your pocket. A. Tucker , Light of Nature, II. ii. 21. 2. Figuratively, nervele ; languid; feeble; lacking substance or force: as, a flabby manner; flabby logic or rhetoric. Our great men are themselves as flabby in their principles as those whom you describe as "all the rest." Spectator , No. 3009, p. 284. north winds. vies. flabel It is continually flabelled , blown upon, and aired by the Urquhart , tr. of Rabelais, i. 39. flabella, n. Plural of flabellum . Flabellária (flab-e-lā'ri-ä), (flab-e-la'ri-a), n. [NL., bellum , a fan: see flabel . ] A genus of alcyonarians, of the order Gorgon i aceæ and family Gor goniidæ , so called from the flabellate expansions formed of a corneous axis enveloped in a calcareous crust; the fan-corals. flabellarium (flab-e-lāʼri-um), n.; pl. flabella ria (-a). [NL., L. flabellum , a fan: see flabel , n .] One of the whip-like proce es of a polyzoan: polyzoan; a vibraculum: distinguished from a beak-like proce , or avicularium (which see). flabellate (fla-bel'at), a. [L. flabellum , a fan, ol, fiabelliforma fan + -atel .] -atel.] In bot . and zool . , flabelliform; fan IMG:content-1409.jpg:[blocks in formation] Soft and limber; lax; drooping by its own flacky (flak'i), a. [ flaccid flesh. IMG:content-1410.jpg:[blocks in formation] whip-like proce shaped- 1-that is, in the form of a broad segment of a circle, and usually also plaited like a fan.Flabellate antennæ, in entom., those antennæ in which the joints are short and furnished on one or both sides with long, slender proce es, which, when the antenna is bent back, spread out like a fan; the extreme form of the pectinate or bipectinate types. flabellately (fla-bel'at-li), adv. In a flabellate manner; with an approach to the form of a fan: as, flabellately orbiculate. S. Soma liens is,. stems wiry, branches copiously flabellately compound. short, distant Brit. and For. Jour. Bot ., 1883, p. 82. flabellation (flab-e-lā'shon), n . [= F. flabella tion , flab ell are , fan: see flabel , v.] In surg ., the act of keeping fractured limbs, as well as the dre ings surrounding them, cool by the use of a fan or a device of similar character.