floodmark

A mark or line showing the height to which the tide rises; high water mark. flood-tide, s. The rising-tide; the flood. flood, v. t. & i. [FLOOD, 8.] IMG:content-1781.png:[blocks in formation] The American Dictionary and Cyclopedia flooder flood-er, s. [Eng. flood; -er.] One who floods or irrigates. flood-gāte, *floud-gate, s. [Eng. flood, and gate.] I. Literally: 1. A tide-gate or sluice. "Fierce as a floodgate bursting in the night." Words worth: Ode for a General Thanksgiving . 2. A gate or sluice-door in a water-way, arranged to open when the water attains a height above a given level, and so allow it to escape freely, to prevent injury by flood. 3. A gate which lies down when the stream becomes deep and powerful, so as to avoid being carried off. II. Fig .: Anything which acts as a restraint or obstruction. "Forced the floodgates of licentious mirth." Cowper: Conversation , 264. flood'-ing, pr . par ., a. & s. [FLOOD, v.] A. & B. As pr. par. & particip. adj.: (See the verb.) IMG:content-1783.png:[blocks in formation] I. Ordinary Language : 1. In the same sense as II. 1. "The flore was swopen clene." -Tristram , ii. 98. 2. A platform of boards or planks laid on timbers, as in a bridge; a platform. 3. A story in a building; a suite of rooms on a level, as, the first or second floor of a house. "Mr. Bob Sawyer embellished one side of the fire in his first floor front." - Dickens : Pickwick , xxxii. 4. The part of the house a igned to members of a legislative a embly. ( American .) *5. The ground. IMG:content-1784.jpg:[blocks in formation] 1. Build .: The surface on which a person walks in a room or house. It may be of masonry, bricks, tiles, concrete, earth, boards. The term usually refers to boards laid close together, and nailed to timbers which are termed joists. A single-floor is one in which the joists pa from side to side of the house, resting upon wall-plates and sustaining the floor above, and the ceiling of the room below. A double-floor is one in which the primary timbers are binders which rest upon the wall-plates, and support the floor or bridging-joists and the ceiling joists. A framed floor has an additional member, which a umes the primary position. The girder rests on the wall-plates and supports the binding joists, whose ends rest thereupon. The binding joists support the bridging or floor-joists and the ceiling-joists, as before described. 2. Geol. & Archœol .: The part of a cavern corresponding in situation to the floor of a house. Here frequently there is now cave earth, covered, and therefore hermetically sealed for the purpose of the investigator, by stalagmite, which has been formed by droppings from the stalactites hanging from the roof. "The lime, instead of being removed, is re-deposited on the walls, roof, sides, and floor of the cavity, in the form of stalactites and stalagmite, and the work of re-fill. ing with solid carbonate of lime then takes place." Figuier: World before the Deluge , 416. 3. Naut .: The bottom part of the hold on each side of the keelson. The flat portion of a ve el's hold. 4. Hydr. Eng.: The inner piece of the two which together form the bucket of an overshot waterwheel. 5. Min .: The bottom of a coal-seam; the underlay upon which the coal, lead, or iron ore rests. To take the floor : (1) To rise to addre a public meeting. (2) To stand up to dance. ( Irish.) fate, făt, färe, amidst, what, fall, IMG:content-1785.png:[blocks in formation] 1. A heavy painted fabric for covering floors. The canvas or backing of a floor-cloth is a strong textile fabric of hemp or flax, known as burlaps . It is woven of a width of from four to eight yards. The pieces of convenient size are stretched in a vertical frame, and size is applied by workmen who stand on ranges of scaffolding in front of the canvas. "A mimic manufactory of floor - cloth ." -J. & H. Smith: Rejected Addre es, p. 121. 2. An artificial fabric painted, varnished, or saturated with a waterproof material. The kinds are IMG:content-1786.jpg:[blocks in formation] floor-guide, s. Ship - build .: A narrow flexible piece of timber placed between the floor-riband and the keel. floor-head, s . Ship - build .: The upper extremity of a floor-tim ber. floor-hollow, s. flop, v. t. & i. [A variant of flap (q. v.).) A. Transitive: 1. To strike or flap frequently; as, to flop the wings. 2. To let down suddenly; to cause to fall with a noise. B. Intransitive: 1. To strike or flap about; to make a noise as the flapping of wings. "A blackbird was frighted almost to death with a huge flopping kite that she saw over her head."-L'Estrange: Fables . 2. To drop suddenly on one's knees; to plump down. " Flopping herself down, and praying that the bread and-butter may be snatched out of the mouth of her only child."- Dickens : Tale of Two Cities, bk. ii., ch. i. *3. To rise up suddenly. "A queer stump of basalt that flops up out of the sea." -Lord Duffer in: Letters from High Latitudes , lett. v. flop-damper, s. A stove or furnace damper which rests by its weight in open or shut position. flop, s . (FLOP, v.] The noise of a soft body fall- ing suddenly to the ground; as, It fell with a flop . flop-py, a . [Eng. flop ; -y.] Having a tendency the floor-timbers and lower futtocks. Ship - build .: An elliptical mold for the hollow of to flop about; as, a floppy hat. floor-plan, 8. 1. Arch .: A horizontal section, showing the thickne of the walls and partitions, the arrangement of the pa ages, apartments, and openings at the level of the principal or receiving floor of the house. 2. Ship- build .: A longitudinal section, showing the ship as divided at a water or rib-band line. floor-riband, s. Ship- build .: A riband which goes round a ship a little below the floor-heads to support the floors. floor-timber, s. Ship - build .: The lower section of a rib secured between the keel and keelson, the flat timbers cro ing the keel forming the floor of the hold. The timbers in continuation of the rib are first, second, third, .; futtocks. floor-walker, s. re called IMG:content-1787.png:[blocks in formation] "Hewn stone and timber for couplings and to floor the houses."-2 Chronicles xxxiv. 11. II. Figuratively ( Colloquial ) : 1. To knock down to the ground; as, to floor a man. 2. To beat in argument, discu ion, or question ing; to put to silence. 3. To finish, to get through, to make an end of. 4. To defeat. "The odds were, neverthele , floored from an unexpected quarter."-London Daily Telegraph . 5. To bring forward in argument, to table. ( Eng .) "I know not what you mean, or whom your proposal, in its genuine sense, strikes against; save that you floor it, to fall on some whom you mind to hit right or wrong." M ' Ward: Contendings , p. 177. floör-er, s. [Eng. floor, v.; -er.] A knock-down blow; a thorough defeat. "It is a downright floorer to the Crown."- Swinton : Trial of W. Humphreys (1839), p. 297. floör-ing, pr. par. a. & s. [FLOOR, v.] "In those days even fashionable caps were large and floppy."-G. Eliot: Amos Barton , ch. ii. Flör-a, flör'-ą, s. [Lat. Flora . (Def. II.)] I. Ord . Lang .: In the same sense as II. 2. "Another Flora there, of bolder hues, And richer sweets, beyond our garden's pride." Thomson: Summer , 694, 695. II. Technically : 1. Cla . Myth. ( of the form Flora): The Roman godde of flowers and gardens. She had especially to do with vines, olives, all kinds of fruit trees, and honey-bearing plants. Her temple was situated in the vicinity of the Circus Maximus, and her worship, which is said to have been introduced by Numa, was one of the oldest manifestations of Roman religious feeling. Games were instituted in her honor about B. C. 238, but were soon discontinued. They were restored in B. C. 173. 2. Bot . ( of either form): The whole vegetation of a country or geographical period, as the American Flora, meaning all IMG:content-1788.png:[graphic][merged small] IMG:content-1789.png:[blocks in formation] A. & B. As pr. par . & particip. adj.: (See the intybus ), from four to five; of the Dandelion ( Tar verb.) C. As substantive: IMG:content-1790.jpg:[blocks in formation] 3. A floor, a platform, a pavement. "Mosaique is a kind of painting in small pebbles, cockles, and shells of sundry colors-but of most use in pavements and floorings ." -Wotton: Remains , p. 63.