Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter F - Page 38
Flitting (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Flit.
Flit (v. i.) To move with celerity through the air; to fly away with a rapid motion; to dart along; to fleet; as, a bird flits away; a cloud flits along.
A shadow flits before me. -- Tennyson.
Flit (v. i.) To flutter; to rove on the wing. -- Dryden.
Flit (v. i.) To pass rapidly, as a light substance, from one place to another; to remove; to migrate.
It became a received opinion, that the souls of men, departing this life, did flit out of one body into some other. -- Hooker.
Flit (v. i.) To remove from one place or habitation to another. [Scot. & Prov. Eng.] -- Wright. Jamieson.
Flit (v. i.) To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
And the free soul to flitting air resigned. -- Dryden.
Flit (a.) Nimble; quick; swift. [Obs.] See Fleet.
Flit (n.) A sudden quick movement [syn: flit, dart].
Flit (n.) A secret move (to avoid paying debts); "they did a moonlight flit."
Flit (v.) Move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart; "The hummingbird flitted among the branches" [syn: flit, flutter, fleet, dart].
Flitch (v. t.) [imp. & p. p. Flitched; p. pr. & vb. n. Flitching.] [See Flitch, n.] To cut into, or off in, flitches or strips; as, to flitch logs; to flitch bacon.
Flitches (n. pl. ) of Flitch.
Flitch (n.) The side of a hog salted and cured; a side of bacon. -- Swift.
Flitch (n.) One of several planks, smaller timbers, or iron plates, which are secured together, side by side, to make a large girder or built beam.
Flitch (n.) The outside piece of a sawed log; a slab. [Eng.]
Flitch (n.) Fish steak usually cut from a halibut.
Flitch (n.) Salted and cured abdominal wall of a side of pork [syn: flitch, side of bacon].
Flite (v. i.) To scold; to quarrel. [Prov. Eng.] -- Grose. Flite
Flite, Flyte (n.) [AS. fl[imac]t. See Flite.] Strife; dispute; abusive or upbraiding talk, as in fliting; wrangling. [Obs. or Scot. & Prov. Eng.]
The bird of Pallas has also a good "flyte" on the moral side . . . in his suggestion that the principal effect of the nightingale's song is to make women false to their husbands. -- Saintsbury.
Flitter (v. i.) To flutter. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.
Flitter (v. t.) To flutter; to move quickly; as, to flitter the cards. -- Lowell.
Flitter (n.) A rag; a tatter; a small piece or fragment.
Flitter (v.) Move back and forth very rapidly; "the candle flickered" [syn: flicker, waver, flitter, flutter, quiver].
Flittermouse (n.) (Zool.) A bat; -- called also flickermouse, flindermouse, and flintymouse.
Compare: Pipistrel
Pipistrel, Pipistrelle (n.) (Zool.) A small European bat ({Vesperugo pipistrellus); -- called also flittermouse.
Flittern (a.) A term applied to the bark obtained from young oak trees.
Flittiness (n.) Unsteadiness; levity; lightness.
Flitting (n.) A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
Flitting (n.) A removal from one habitation to another. [Scot. & Prov. Eng.]
A neighbor had lent his cart for the flitting, and it was now standing loaded at the door, ready to move away. -- Jeffrey. Flitting
Flittingly (adv.) In a flitting manner.
Flitty (a.) Unstable; fluttering. [Obs.] -- Dr. H. More.
Flix (n.) Down; fur. [Obs. or Eng.] -- J. Dyer.
Flix (n.) The flux; dysentery. [Obs.] -- Udall.
Flix weed (Bot.), The Sisymbrium Sophia, a kind of hedge mustard, formerly used as a remedy for dysentery.
Flon (n. pl. ) of Flo.
Flo (n.) An arrow. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.
Flon (n. pl.) See Flo. [Obs.] -- Chaucer.
Float (n.) Anything which floats or rests on the surface of a fluid, as to sustain weight, or to indicate the height of the surface, or mark the place of, something. Specifically:
Float (n.) A mass of timber or boards fastened together, and conveyed down a stream by the current; a raft.
Float (n.) The hollow, metallic ball of a self-acting faucet, which floats upon the water in a cistern or boiler.
Float (n.) The cork or quill used in angling, to support the bait line, and indicate the bite of a fish.
Float (n.) Anything used to buoy up whatever is liable to sink; an inflated bag or pillow used by persons learning to swim; a life preserver.
Float (n.) The hollow, metallic ball which floats on the fuel in the fuel tank of a vehicle to indicate the level of the fuel surface, and thus the amount of fuel remaining.
Float (n.) A hollow elongated tank mounted under the wing of a seaplane which causes the plane to float when resting on the surface of the water.
This reform bill . . . had been used as a float by the conservative ministry. -- J. P. Peters.
Float (n.) A float board. See Float board (below).
Float (n.) (Tempering) A contrivance for affording a copious stream of water to the heated surface of an object of large bulk, as an anvil or die. -- Knight.
Float (n.) The act of flowing; flux; flow. [Obs.] -- Bacon.
Float (n.) A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one foot deep. [Obs.] -- Mortimer.
Float (n.) (Plastering) The trowel or tool with which the floated coat of plastering is leveled and smoothed.
Float (n.) A polishing block used in marble working; a runner. -- Knight.
Float (n.) A single-cut file for smoothing; a tool used by shoemakers for rasping off pegs inside a shoe.
Float (n.) A coal cart. [Eng.] -- Simmonds.
Float (n.) The sea; a wave. See Flote, n.
Float (n.) (Banking) The free use of money for a time between occurrence of a transaction (such as depositing a check or a purchase made using a credit card), and the time when funds are withdrawn to cover the transaction; also, the money made available between transactions in that manner.
Float (n.) A vehicle on which an exhibit or display is mounted, driven or pulled as part of a parade. The float often is based on a large flat platform, and may contain a very elaborate structure with a tableau or people.
Float board, One of the boards fixed radially to the rim of an undershot water wheel or of a steamer's paddle wheel; -- a vane.
Float case (Naut.), A caisson used for lifting a ship.
Float copper or Float gold (Mining), Fine particles of metallic copper or of gold suspended in water, and thus liable to be lost.
Float ore, Water-worn particles of ore; fragments of vein material found on the surface, away from the vein outcrop. -- Raymond.
Float stone (Arch.), A siliceous stone used to rub stonework or brickwork to a smooth surface.
Float valve, A valve or cock acted upon by a float. See Float, 1 (b).
Floated (imp. & p. p.) of Float.
Floating (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Float.
Float (v. i.) To rest on the surface of any fluid; to swim; to be buoyed up.
The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground. -- Milton.
Three blustering nights, borne by the southern blast, I floated. -- Dryden.
Float (v. i.) To move quietly or gently on the water, as a raft; to drift along; to move or glide without effort or impulse on the surface of a fluid, or through the air.
They stretch their broad plumes and float upon the wind. -- Pope.
There seems a floating whisper on the hills. -- Byron.
Float (v. t.) To cause to float; to cause to rest or move on the surface of a fluid; as, the tide floated the ship into the harbor.
Had floated that bell on the Inchcape rock. -- Southey.
Float (v. t.) To flood; to overflow; to cover with water.
Proud Pactolus floats the fruitful lands. -- Dryden.
Float (v. t.) (Plastering) To pass over and level the surface of with a float while the plastering is kept wet.
Float (v. t.) To support and sustain the credit of, as a commercial scheme or a joint-stock company, so as to enable it to go into, or continue in, operation.
Float (n.) The time interval between the deposit of a check in a bank and its payment.
Float (n.) The number of shares outstanding and available for trading by the public.
Float (n.) A drink with ice cream floating in it [syn: ice-cream soda, ice-cream float, float].
Float (n.) An elaborate display mounted on a platform carried by a truck (or pulled by a truck) in a procession or parade.
Float (n.) A hand tool with a flat face used for smoothing and finishing the surface of plaster or cement or stucco [syn: float, plasterer's float].
Float (n.) Something that floats on the surface of water.
Float (n.) An air-filled sac near the spinal column in many fishes that helps maintain buoyancy [syn: air bladder, swim bladder, float].
Float (v.) Be in motion due to some air or water current; "The leaves were blowing in the wind"; "the boat drifted on the lake"; "The sailboat was adrift on the open sea"; "the shipwrecked boat drifted away from the shore" [syn: float, drift, be adrift, blow].
Float (v.) Be afloat either on or below a liquid surface and not sink to the bottom [syn: float, swim] [ant: go down, go under, settle, sink].
Float (v.) Set afloat; "He floated the logs down the river"; "The boy floated his toy boat on the pond."
Float (v.) Circulate or discuss tentatively; test the waters with; "The Republicans are floating the idea of a tax reform."
Float (v.) Move lightly, as if suspended; "The dancer floated across the stage."
Float (v.) Put into the water; "float a ship."
Float (v.) Make the surface of level or smooth; "float the plaster."
Float (v.) Allow (currencies) to fluctuate; "The government floated the ruble for a few months."
Float (v.) Convert from a fixed point notation to a floating point notation; "float data."
Float, () The usual keyword for the floating-point data type, e.g. in the C programming language. The keyword "double" usually also introduces a floating-point type, but with twice the precession of a float. (2008-06-13)
Floatable (a.) That may be floated.
Floatage (n.) Same as Flotage.
Flotage (n.) [OF. flotage, F. flottage, fr. flotter to float.] The state of floating.
Flotage (n.) That which floats on the sea or in rivers. [Written also floatage.]
Floatation (n.) See Flotation.
Floatation (n.) The phenomenon of floating (remaining on the surface of a liquid without sinking) [syn: flotation, floatation].
Floatation (n.) Financing a commercial enterprise by bond or stock shares [syn: flotation, floatation].
Floater (n.) One who floats or swims.
Floater (n.) A float for indicating the height of a liquid surface.
Floater (n.) (Politics) A voter who shifts from party to party, esp. one whose vote is purchasable. [U. S.]
Floater (n.) (Politics) A person, as a delegate to a convention or a member of a legislature, who represents an irregular constituency, as one formed by a union of the voters of two counties neither of which has a number sufficient to be allowed a (or an extra) representative of its own. [U. S.]
Floater (n.) (Politics) A person who votes illegally in various polling places or election districts, either under false registration made by himself or under the name of some properly registered person who has not already voted. [U. S.]
Floater (n.) Spots before the eyes caused by opaque cell fragments in the vitreous humor and lens; "floaters seem to drift through the field of vision" [syn: musca volitans, muscae volitantes, floater, spots].
Floater (n.) A debt instrument with a variable interest rate tied to some other interest rate (e.g. the rate paid by T-bills).
Floater (n.) A wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support [syn: vagrant, drifter, floater, vagabond].
Floater (n.) An employee who is reassigned from job to job as needed.
Floater (n.) A voter who votes illegally at different polling places in the same election.
Floater (n.) A swimmer who floats in the water.
Floater (n.) An object that floats or is capable of floating.
Floater (n.) An insurance policy covering loss of movable property (e.g. jewelry) regardless of its location [syn: floater, floating policy].
Floater, () A report in a bug tracking system that "floats" at the top of the queue but never gets assigned to a developer, maybe because there is a workaround. [{Dodgy Coder (2012-04-25)
Floating (a.) Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a wreck; floating motes in the air.
Floating (a.) Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating ribs in man and some other animals.
Floating (a.) Not funded; not 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 for the defense of a coast or the bombardment of a place.
Floating bridge. (a) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See Bateau.
Floating bridge. (b) (Mil.) A kind of double bridge, the upper one projecting beyond the lower one, and capable of being moved forward by pulleys; -- used for carrying troops over narrow moats in attacking the outworks of a fort.
Floating bridge. (c) A kind of ferryboat which is guided and impelled by means of chains which are anchored on each side of a stream, and pass over wheels on the vessel, the wheels being driven by stream power.
Floating bridge. (d) The landing platform of a ferry dock.
Floating cartilage (Med.), A cartilage which moves freely in the cavity of a joint, and often interferes with the functions of the latter.
Floating dam. (a) An anchored dam.
Floating dam. (b) A caisson used as a gate for a dry dock.
Floating derrick, A derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc.
Floating dock. (Naut.) See under Dock.
Floating harbor, A breakwater of cages or booms, anchored and fastened together, and used as a protection to ships riding at anchor to leeward. -- Knight.
Floating heart (Bot.), A small aquatic plant ({Limnanthemum lacunosum) whose heart-shaped leaves float on the water of American ponds.
Floating island, A dish for dessert, consisting of custard with floating masses of whipped cream or white of eggs.
Floating kidney. (Med.) See Wandering kidney, under Wandering.
Floating light, A light shown at the masthead of a vessel moored over sunken rocks, shoals, etc., to warn mariners of danger; a light-ship; also, a light erected on a buoy or floating stage.
Floating liver. (Med.) See Wandering liver, under Wandering.
Floating pier, A landing stage or pier which rises and falls with the tide.
Floating ribs (Anat.), The lower or posterior ribs which are not connected with the others in front; in man they are the last two pairs.
Floating screed (Plastering), A strip of plastering first laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat.
Floating threads (Weaving), Threads which span several other threads without being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric.
Floating (n.) (Weaving) Floating threads. See Floating threads, above.
Floating (n.) The second coat of three-coat plastering. -- Knight.
Floating (n.) The process of rendering oysters and scallops plump by placing them in fresh or brackish water; -- called also fattening, plumping, and laying out. Floating charge
Floating (a.) Borne up by or suspended in a liquid; "the ship is still floating"; "floating logs"; "floating seaweed."
Floating (a.) Continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another; "a drifting double-dealer"; "the floating population"; "vagrant hippies of the sixties" [syn: aimless, drifting, floating, vagabond, vagrant].
Floating (a.) Inclined to move or be moved about; "a floating crap game."
Floating (a.) (Of a part of the body) Not firmly connected; movable or out of normal position; "floating ribs are not connected with the sternum"; "a floating kidney."
Floating (a.) Not definitely committed to a party or policy; "floating voters."
Floating (n.) The act of someone who floats on the water [syn: floating, natation].
Floatingly (adv.) In a floating manner.
Floaty (a.) Swimming on the surface; buoyant; light. -- Sir W. Raleigh.
Floaty (a.) Tending to float on a liquid or rise in air or gas; "buoyant balloons"; "buoyant balsawood boats"; "a floaty scarf" [syn: buoyant, floaty].
Flobert (n.) (Gun.) A small cartridge designed for target shooting; -- sometimes called ball cap.
Floccillation (n.) (Med.) A delirious picking of bedclothes by a sick person, as if to pick off flocks of wool; carphology; -- an alarming symptom in acute diseases. -- Dunglison.
Floccose (a.) Spotted with small tufts like wool. -- Wright.
Floccose (a.) (Bot.) Having tufts of soft hairs, which are often deciduous.
Floccose (a.) (Of plants) Having tufts of soft woolly hairs.
Floccular (a.) (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the flocculus.
Flocculated (imp. & p. p.) of Flocculate.
Flocculating (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Flocculate.
Flocculate (v. i.) (Geol.) To aggregate into small lumps.
Flocculate (a.) (Zool.) Furnished with tufts of curly hairs, as some insects.
Flocculate (v. t.) To convert into floccules or flocculent aggregates; to make granular or crumbly; as, the flocculating of a soil improves its mechanical condition.
When applied to clay soils it [lime] binds the small particles together, or flocculates them. -- I. P. Roberts.
Flocculate (v.) Form into an aggregated lumpy or fluffy mass; "the protoplasms flocculated."
Flocculate (v.) Cause to become a fluffy or lumpy aggregate; "The chemist flocculated the suspended material."
Flocculation (n.) (Geol.) The process by which small particles of fine soils and sediments aggregate into larger lumps.
Flocculation (n.) The process or event in which masses of a solid substance of perceptible size form in a liquid by aggregation of smaller particles, and usually sediment to the bottom of the containing vessel; as, addition of a cationic polymer can cause flocculation of a negatively charged colloidal suspension.
Flocculation (n.) The process of flocculating; forming woolly cloudlike aggregations.
Flocculence (n.) The state of being flocculent.
Flocculent (a.) Clothed with small flocks or flakes; woolly. -- Gray.
Flocculent (a.) (Zool.) Applied to the down of newly hatched or unfledged birds.
Flocculent (a.) (Chem.) Having a structure like shredded wool, as some precipitates.
Flocculent (a.) Having a fluffy character or appearance [syn: flocculent, woolly, wooly].
Flocculi (n. pl. ) of Flocculus.
Flocculus (n.) (Anat.) A small lobe in the under surface of the cerebellum, near the middle peduncle; the subpeduncular lobe.
Flocci (n. pl. ) of Floccus.
Floccus (n.) (Zool.) The tuft of hair terminating the tail of mammals.
Floccus (n.) (Zool.) A tuft of feathers on the head of young birds.
Floccus (n.) (Bot.) A woolly filament sometimes occuring with the sporules of certain fungi.
Flock (n.) 羊群；群，一群人，大量，棉束 A company or collection of living creatures; -- especially applied to sheep and birds, rarely to persons or (except in the plural) to cattle and other large animals; as, a flock of ravenous fowl. -- Milton.
The heathen . . . came to Nicanor by flocks. -- 2 Macc. xiv. 14.
Flock (n.) A Christian church or congregation; considered in their relation to the pastor, or minister in charge.
As half amazed, half frighted all his flock. -- Tennyson.
Flocked (imp. & p. p.) of Flock.
Flocking (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Flock.
Flock (v. i.) To gather in companies or crowds.
Friends
daily flock. -- Dryden.
Flocking fowl (Zool.), The greater scaup duck.
Flock (v. t.) 用棉束填滿 To flock to; to crowd. [Obs.]
Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so. -- Taylor (1609).
Flock (n.) A lock of wool or hair.
I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point [pommel]. -- Shak.
Flock (n.) Woolen or cotton refuse (sing. or pl.), old rags, etc., reduced to a degree of fineness by machinery, and used for stuffing unpholstered furniture.
Flock (n.) Very fine, sifted,
woolen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, used as a
coating for wall paper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the
dust of vegetable fiber used for a similar purpose.
Flock bed, A bed filled with flocks or locks of coarse wool, or
pieces of cloth cut up fine. "Once a flock bed, but repaired with straw." --
Pope.
Flock paper, Paper coated with flock fixed with glue or size.
Flock (v. t.) 成群而行，聚集 To coat with flock, as wall paper; to roughen the surface of (as glass) so as to give an appearance of being covered with fine flock.
Flock (n.) A church congregation guided by a pastor.
Flock (n.) A group of birds.
Flock (n.) (Often followed by `of') A large number or amount or extent; "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos"; "it must have cost plenty"; "a slew of journalists"; "a wad of money" [syn: {batch}, {deal}, {flock}, {good deal}, {great deal}, {hatful}, {heap}, {lot}, {mass}, {mess}, {mickle}, {mint}, {mountain}, {muckle}, {passel}, {peck}, {pile}, {plenty}, {pot}, {quite a little}, {raft}, {sight}, {slew}, {spate}, {stack}, {tidy sum}, {wad}].
Flock (n.) An orderly crowd; "a troop of children" [syn: {troop}, {flock}].
Flock (n.) A group of sheep or goats [syn: {flock}, {fold}].
Flock (v.) Move as a crowd or in a group; "Tourists flocked to the shrine where the statue was said to have shed tears".
Flock (v.) Come together as in a cluster or flock; "The poets constellate in this town every summer" [syn: {cluster}, {constellate}, {flock}, {clump}].
Flockling (n.) A lamb. [Obs.] --
Brome (1659).
Flockly (adv.) In flocks; in crowds. [Obs.]
Flockmel (adv.) In a flock; in a body. [Obs.]
That flockmel on a day they to him went. -- Chaucer.
Flocky (a.) Abounding with flocks; floccose.
Floe (n.) A low, flat mass of floating ice.
Floe rat (Zool.), A seal ({Phoca f[oe]tida"> Floe rat (Zool.), a seal ({Phoca f[oe]tida).
Floe (n.) A flat mass of ice (smaller than an ice field) floating at sea [syn: ice floe, floe].
Flogged (imp. & p. p.) of Flog.
Flogging (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Flog.
Flog (v. t.) To beat or strike with a rod or whip; to whip; to lash; to chastise with repeated blows.
Flogger (n.) One who flogs.
Flogger (n.) A kind of mallet for beating the bung stave of a cask to start the bung. -- Knight.
Flogging (a. & n.) from Flog, v. t.
Flogging chisel (Mach.), A large cold chisel, used in chipping castings.
Flogging hammer, A small sledge hammer used for striking a flogging chisel.
Flogging (n.) Beating with a whip or strap or rope as a form of punishment [syn: whipping, tanning, flogging, lashing, flagellation].