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To throw with a jerk or quick effort; to fling suddenly; as, they flirt water in each other's faces; he flirted a glove, or a handkerchief.

To turn suddenly, as something broad and flat. [Colloq.] Fielding.

To throw the limbs and body one way and the other; to spring, turn, or twist with sudden effort or violence; to struggle, as a horse in mire; to flounder; to throw one's self with a jerk or spasm, often as in displeasure. To flutter and flounce will do nothing but batter and bruise us. Barrow. With his broad fins and f…

A sudden and brief blast or gust; a light, temporary breeze; as, a flurry of wind.

To flow and spread suddenly; to rush; as, blood flushes into the face. The flushing noise of many waters. Boyle. It flushes violently out of the cock. Mortimer.

To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly; -- usually with a qualifying word; as, a door flies open; a bomb flies apart. To fly about (Naut.), to change frequently in a short time; -- said of the wind. -- To fly around, to move about in haste. [Colloq.] -- To fly at, to spring toward; to rus…

A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid. Spenser. The huge Earl Doorm, . . . Bound on a foray, rolling eyes of prey. Tennyson.

To foretell. [Obs.] Her danger nigh that sudden change foresaid. Fairfax.

Done is due form, or with solemnity; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as, he gave his formal consent. His obscure funeral . . . No noble rite nor formal ostentation. Shak.

The arrival of something in a sudden or unexpected manner; chance; accident; luck; hap; also, the personified or deified power regarded as determining human success, apportioning happiness and unhappiness, and distributing arbitrarily or fortuitously the lots of life. 'T is more by fortune, lady, than by merit. Shak. O…

A loud and sudden sound; the report of anything bursting; a crash. I. Watts.

A sudden causeless change or turn of the mind; a whim of fancy; a capricious prank; a vagary or caprice. She is restless and peevish, and sometimes in a freak will instantly change her habitation. Spectator.

Apt to change the mind suddenly; whimsical; capricious. It may be a question whether the wife or the woman was the more freakish of the two. L'Estrange. Freakish when well, and fretful when she's sick. Pope. -- Freak"ish*ly, adv. -- Freak"ish*ness, n.

A flood or overflowing of a stream caused by heavy rains or melted snow; a sudden inundation. Cracked the sky, as ice in rivers When the freshet is at highest. Longfellow.

A state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.

, and the word the adverb. See From off, under Off, adv., and From afar, under Afar, adv. Sudden partings such as press The life from out young hearts. Byron.

toward; to have the front toward; to confront; as, the house fronts the street. And then suddenly front the changed reality. J. Morley.

The sudden brightening of a fused globule of gold or silver, when the last film of the oxide of lead or copper leaves its surface; -- also called blick. A phenomenon called, by the old chemists, fulguration. Ure.

With direct and violentop position; with sudden collision. [Colloq.] L'Estrange.

To thunder; hence, to make a loud, sudden noise; to detonate; to explode with a violent report.