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An ancient military weapon, like the common flail, often having the striking part armed with rows of spikes, or loaded. Fairholt. No citizen thought himself safe unless he carried under his coat a small flail, loaded with lead, to brain the Popish assassins. Macaulay.

genius; a momentary brightness or show. The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind. Shak. No striking sentiment, no flash of fancy. Wirt.

Wanting relief; destitute of variety; without points of prominence and striking interest. A large part of the work is, to me, very flat. Coleridge.

A piece of flint for striking fire; -- formerly much used, esp. in the hammers of gun locks.

ld chisel, used in chipping castings. -- Flogging hammer, a small sledge hammer used for striking a flogging chisel.

or organ stops in which the sound is caused by wind passing through a flue or fissure and striking an edge above; -- in distinction from reedwork.

or to equalize or impede the motion of machinery by the resistance of the air, as in the striking part of a clock.

ween four players, with two on each side and each side playing but one ball, the partners striking alternately. It is called a mixed foursome when each side consists of a man and a woman.

ve strain or in starting. -- Friction drop hammer, one in which the hammer is raised for striking by the friction of revolving rollers which nip the hammer rod. -- Friction gear. See Frictional gearing, under Frictional. -- Friction machine, an electrical machine, generating electricity by friction. -- Friction met…

A vitrified sand tube produced by the striking of lightning on sand; a lightning tube; also, the portion of rock surface fused by a lightning discharge.

Thundering; striking terror. Cotgrave.

ct, and uniting chemically, produce explosion. -- Concussion fuze, a fuze ignited by the striking of the projectile. -- Electric fuze, a fuze which is ignited by heat or a spark produced by an electric current. -- Friction fuze, a fuze which is ignited by the heat evolved by friction. -- Percussion fuze, a fuze in…

in a steam boiler. -- Gauge concussion (Railroads), the jar caused by a car-wheel flange striking the edge of the rail. -- Gauge glass, a glass tube for a water gauge. -- Gauge lathe, an automatic lathe for turning a round object having an irregular profile, as a baluster or chair round, to a templet or gauge. -- G…

Flying off (after striking) in an oblique direction; as, a glancing shot.

To be showy, specious, or striking, and hence attractive; as, the glittering scenes of a court.

Sententious; uttering or containing maxims, or striking detached thoughts; aphoristic. A city long famous as the seat of elegiac and gnomic poetry. G. R. Lewes. Gnomic Poets, Greek poets, as Theognis and Solon, of the sixth century B. C., whose writings consist of short sententious precepts and reflections.…

A flat saucerlike bell, rung by striking it with a small hammer which is connected with it by various mechanical devices; a stationary bell, used to sound calls or alarms; -- called also gong bell. Gong metal, an alloy (78 parts of copper, 22 of tin), from which Oriental gongs are made.

d pianos, in which special devices are employed to obtain perfect action of the hammer in striking and leaving the string. -- Grand Army of the Republic, an organized voluntary association of men who served in the Union army or navy during the civil war in the United States. The order has chapters, called Posts, throu…

Impressive or elevating in effect; vimposing; splendid; striking; -- in a good sense. The tone of the parts was to be perpetually kept down in order not to impair the grandiose effect of the whole. M. Arnold. The grandiose red tulips which grow wild. C. Kingsley.

A game played with such a ball, as by players striking it to and fro between them with the hands, or alternately against a wall, until one side or the other fails to return the ball.