Search the Dictionary

A small wooden pipe, having six or more holes, and a mouthpiece inserted at one end. It produces a shrill sound, softer than of the piccolo flute, and is said to have superseded the old recorder. Flageolet tones (Mus.), the naturel harmonics or overtones of stringed instruments.

ing or beating grain from the ear by hand, consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the end of which a stouter and shorter pole or club, called a swipe, is so hung as to swing freely. His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn. Milton.

f a car wheel (see Car wheel.); or for attachment to another object, as the flange on the end of a pipe, steam cylinder, etc. Knight.

t projecting so as to command the side of an assailing body. They threw out flankers, and endeavored to dislodge their assailants. W. Irwing.

Anything broad and limber that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily moved; as, the flap of a garment. A cartilaginous flap upon the opening of the larynx. Sir T. Browne.

A level surface, without elevation, relief, or prominences; an extended plain; specifically, in the United States, a level tract along the along the banks of a river; as, the Mohawk Flats. Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat. Bacon.

A boat with a flat bottom and square ends; -- used for the transportation of bulky freight, especially in shallow waters.

d laterally, instead of being played, like the old flûte a bec, with a mouth piece at the end.

Flemish brick, a hard yellow paving brick. -- Flemish coil, a flat coil of rope with the end in the center and the turns lying against, without riding over, each other. -- Flemish eye (Naut.), an eye formed at the end of a rope by dividing the strands and lying them over each other. -- Flemish horse (Naut.), an addi…

he state or condition of having a form of flesh; incarnation. [R.] Thou, who hast thyself Endured this fleshhood. Mrs. Browning.

Finished at the ends with fleurs-de-lis; -- said esp. a cross so decorated.

ot fixed, invested, or determined; as, floating capital; a floating debt. Trade was at an end. Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island. Macaulay. Floating anchor (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail. -- Floating battery (Mil.), a battery erected on rafts or the hulls of ships, chiefly f…

To finish or make an end of; as, to floor a college examination. [Colloq.] I've floored my little-go work. T. Hughes.

The eight month of the French republican calendar. It began April 20, and ended May 19. See Vendémiare.

istinguished from reed pipe. Flue pipes are either open or closed (stopped at the distant end). The flute and flageolet are open pipes; a bottle acts as a closed pipe when one blows across the neck. The organ has both open and closed flue pipes, those of metal being usually round in section, and those of wood triangula…

ngers or by keys which are opened by the fingers. The modern flute is closed at the upper end, and blown with the mouth at a lateral hole. The breathing flute's soft notes are heard around. Pope.

dipterous insect; as, the house fly; flesh fly; black fly. See Diptera, and Illust. in Append.

he same path or direction; hence, to go with (a leader, guide, etc.); to accompany; to attend. It waves me forth again; I'll follow it. Shak.

To endeavor; to strive; to try. [Obs.] Chaucer.

ound part; the bottom, as of a mountain or column; also, the last of a row or series; the end or extremity, esp. if associated with inferiority; as, the foot of a hill; the foot of the procession; the foot of a class; the foot of the bed. And now at foot Of heaven's ascent they lift their feet. Milton.…