flail

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
The scythe, the sickle, and the flail were the same as their forbears had used for centuries The demand of Europe for the food products of the Northern and Middle States obscured for a time the importance of cotton as an article of export.

View all »
Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun A manual threshing device consisting of a long wooden handle or staff and a shorter, free-swinging stick attached to its end.
  2. transitive verb To beat or strike with or as if with a flail: flailed our horses with the reins.
  3. transitive verb To wave or swing vigorously; thrash: flailed my arms to get their attention.
4 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • He fought now like a human flail, and every sweep of that terrible sword would have severed in twain any man or boy who obstructed it; but Peter fluttered round him as if the very wind it made blew him out of the danger zone. —  Peter Pan
  • ;She and Helio had been together during the time in question My mind started to flail, adrift in the ocean, no life preserver in reach. —  tell No one
  • I felt my limbs twitch and flail, and heard the happy cries of those who witnessed the tree taking me. —  Robin Hobb
  • My mind started to flail, adrift in the ocean, no life preserver in reach. —  Tell No One by Harlan Coben
  • She handles 't like a flail-- It does as weel in bits as hale-- But I'm a broken man mysel Wi' her and her annuity Her broozled flesh and broken banes Are weel as flesh and banes can be. —  The Book of Humorous Verse
More examples »
 

Tags

flail hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 166 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

pickaxe ·  battle-axe ·  mallet ·  sledgehammer ·  halberd ·  axe ·  hoe ·  spade ·  mace ·  scythe ·  mattock

Used in the same contextWord Family

flail:   flailed ·  flailing
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English flegil and from Old French flaiel, both from Late Latin flagellum, threshing tool, from Latin flagrum, whip.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English flaile, flayle, fleyl, flegl, a flail (in part, as in the form flael, from the Old French flael; in part, as the guttural in the earliest form shows, of Anglo-Saxon origin), from Anglo-Saxon *flegel (not recorded) = Middle Dutch vleghel, Dutch vlegel = Low German fleger = Old High German flegil, Middle High German vlegel, German flegel = Old French flael, flaiel, French fléau = Provencal flagel, flachel = Spanish flagelo = Portuguese Italian flagello, a flail, from Latin flagellum, a whip, scourge, Late Latin a flail: see flagellum, flagellate.
  2. from Middle English flaylen (cf. Old French flaieler, flaeler, later flageller, from Latin flagellare, whip, scourge: see flagelle, flagellate, v.); from the noun.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/fleɪl/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a year.

Recently looked up

recuse · flail · FRANNY · oddity · jeopardized

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich