flail
English
Etymology
From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#FLAILCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#FLAIL flayle, from earlier fleil, fleyl, fleȝȝl, from Old EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Old English#FLAILCategory:English terms derived from Old English#FLAIL fligel, *flegel (“flail”), from Proto-West GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#FLAILCategory:English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#FLAIL *flagil, of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots flail (“a thresher's flail”), West Frisian fleil, flaaiel (“flail”), Dutch vlegel (“flail”), German Flegel (“flail”). Possibly a native Germanic word from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#FLAIL *flagilaz (“whip”), from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#FLAIL *flag-, *flah- (“to whip, beat”), from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#FLAIL *pleh₂k- (“to beat, hit, strike; weep”); compare Old Norse flaga (“sudden attack, bout”), Lithuanian plàkti (“to whip, lash, flog”), Ancient Greek πληγνύναι (plēgnúnai, “strike, hit, encounter”), Latin plangō (“lament”, i.e. “beat one's breast”) + Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#FLAIL *-ilaz (instrumental suffix). If so, related also to English flag, flack, flacker.
Alternatively, Proto-West Germanic *flagil may be an early borrowing of LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#FLAIL flagellum (“winnowing tool, thresher”), diminutive of flagrum (“scourge, whip”), from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#FLAIL *bʰlag-, *bʰlaǵ- (“to beat”); compare Old Norse blekkja (“to beat, mistreat”). Compare also Old French flael (“flail”), Walloon flayea (“flail”) (locally pronounced "flai"), Italian flagello (“scourge, whip, plague”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fleɪl/Category:English 1-syllable words#FLAILCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#FLAIL
- (dialectal, archaic) IPA(key): /fɹeɪl/Category:English 1-syllable words#FLAILCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#FLAIL (see frailCategory:English links with manual fragments#FLAIL)[1]
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#FLAILAudio (US): (file)
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#FLAILAudio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪlCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪl#FLAILCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪl/1 syllable#FLAIL
Noun
flail (plural flails)Category:English lemmas#FLAILCategory:English nouns#FLAILCategory:English countable nouns#FLAILCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#FLAILCategory:Pages with entries#FLAILCategory:Pages with 1 entry#FLAIL
- A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle (handstock) with a shorter stick (swipple or swingle) attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
- 1631, John Milton, L'Allegro:
- When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,Category:English terms with quotations#FLAIL
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end;
- 1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan:
- Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Category:English terms with quotations#FLAIL
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail
- 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp:
- On him alone the curse of CainCategory:English terms with quotations#FLAIL
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth!
- 1879, Henry George, chapter V, in Progress and Poverty:
- If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...Category:English terms with quotations#FLAIL
- A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.
- Coordinate term: nunchaku
- (often plural) Part of a rotating device, often used for cutting vegetation.
- 1957 December, “Diesel Depot for Darlington”, in Railway Magazine, page 876:
- The carriage washing plant uses four pairs of rotating rag flails and will be capable of dealing with the whole of the diesel units as well as steam stock used for main-line trains.Category:English terms with quotations#FLAIL
Derived terms
Translations
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
flail (third-person singular simple present flails, present participle flailing, simple past and past participle flailed)Category:English lemmas#FLAILCategory:English verbs#FLAILCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#FLAILCategory:Pages with entries#FLAILCategory:Pages with 1 entry#FLAIL
- (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#FLAIL) To beat using a flail or similar implement.
- (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#FLAIL) To wave or swing vigorously
- Synonym: thrash
- 2011 October 20, Michael da Silva, “Stoke 3 - 0 Macc Tel-Aviv”, in BBC Sport:
- Tangling with Ziv, Cameron caught him with a flailing elbow, causing the Israeli defender to go down a little easily. However, the referee was in no doubt, much to the displeasure of the home fans.Category:English terms with quotations#FLAIL
- 1937, H. P. Lovecraft, The Evil Clergyman:
- He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.Category:English terms with quotations#FLAIL
- (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#FLAIL) To thresh.
- (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#FLAIL) To move like a flail.
- He was flailing wildly, but didn't land a blow.Category:English terms with usage examples#FLAIL
- 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 46:
- Undismayed he continued to flail with the broken half of it, denting many a helmet[.]Category:English terms with quotations#FLAIL
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
References
- ↑ Hall, Joseph Sargent (2 March 1942), “3. The Consonants”, in The Phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain Speech (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 4), New York: King's Crown Press, , →ISBN, § 5, page 97.
Further reading
flail on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - flail mower on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Flail in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
