flail (flal)

[ Our soldiers' [weapons]-like the night-owl's lazy flight, Or like a lazy thresher with a flail - Fell gently down, as if they struck their friends. Shak., 3 Hen. VI., ii. 1. In one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn That ten day-labourers could not end. Milton, L'Allegro, 1. 108. 2. Milit., a similar implement used as a weapon of war in the middle ages. In this weapon the swingle or swiple was sometimes a ball set with long spikes, and sometimes a pear-shaped or still more elongated morning-star: body spiked see cut in like under manner morning-star); (in these forms the middle called band was a chain; and the hand-staff was of metal in the smaller single-handed flails, or of wood with long tangs and ferrules of metal in the larger forms. A fauchon of stele went he unto take, Well grounde or whet, but tendre was it noght; After flaelles thre of yre toke for hys sake. Rom. of Partenay (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2999. flail (flal), v. t. [ They him nayled and yl flayled , Alas, that innocent! Songs and Carols (ed. Wright), p. 72. 2. To strike with or as if with a flail; thresh. And in an od corner for Mars they be sternfulye flayling Hudge spoaks and chariots. Stan i hurst, Conceites, p. 138. It is nothing to get wet; but the misery of these individual pricks of cold all over my body at the same instant of time made me flail the water with my paddle like a madman. R. L. Stevens on, Inland Voyage, p. 186. flail-stone (flal's ton), n. A stone implement found among pal eolithic remains, thought to The busine es of men depend upon these little long fleaks or threads of hemp and flax. Dr. H. More, Antidote against Atheism. Great flakes of ice encompa ing our boat. Evelyn. Upon throwing in a stone the water boils for a considerable time, and at the same time are seen little flakes of scurf rising up. Add is on , Travels in Italy. In starry flake , and pellicle, All day the hoary meteor [snow] fell. Whittier, Snow-Bound. 2. Among florists, any variety of carnation in which the petals are marked with stripes of one color upon a white ground. So early as 1769 we find that the Carnation was divided into four cla es. The Flakes were those having two colours only, the stripes going the whole length of the petals. W. Robinson, English Flower Garden, p. 108. flakel (flāk), v .; pret. and pp. flaked , ppr. flak ing . [ flake1 , n.] I. in trans. To break or separate in flakes or layers; peel or scale off: absolutely or with off . We've seen the little tricks of life, its varnish and veneer, In stucco-fronts of character flake off and disappear. O. W. Holmes, Meeting of Alumni of Harvard College, [1857. II. trans. 1. To form or break into flakes: as, the frost flaked off the plaster. - 2. To cover with or as with flakes; fleck. Long fellow .