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Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary - Contents
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    FLINTY — FLOWERINESS

    FLINTY, a.

    1. Consisting of flint; as a flinty rock.NWAD FLINTY.2

    2. Like flint; very hard, not impressible; as a flinty heart.NWAD FLINTY.3

    3. Cruel; unmerciful; inexorable.NWAD FLINTY.4

    4. Full of flint stones, as flinty ground.NWAD FLINTY.5

    Flinty-slate, a mineral of two kinds, the common and the Lydian stone.NWAD FLINTY.6

    FLIP, n. A mixed liquor consisting of beer and spirit sweetened.

    FLIPDOG, n. An iron used, when heated, to warm flip.

    FLIPPANCY, n. [See Flippant.] Smoothness and rapidity of speech; volubility of tongue; fluency of speech.

    FLIPPANT, a. [L. labor, to slide or slip, and to liber, free.]

    1. Of smoother, fluent and rapid speech; speaking with ease and rapidity; having a voluble tongue; talkative.NWAD FLIPPANT.2

    2. Pert; petulant; waggish.NWAD FLIPPANT.3

    Away with flippant epilogues.NWAD FLIPPANT.4

    FLIPPANTLY, adv. Fluently; with ease and volubility of speech.

    FLIPPANTNESS, n. fluency of speech; volubility of tongue; flippancy.

    [This is not a low, vulgar word, but well authorized and peculiarly expressive.]NWAD FLIPPANTNESS.2

    FLIRT, v.t. flurt. [This word evidently belongs to the root of L. floreo, or ploro, signifying to throw, and coinciding with blurt.]

    1. To throw with a jerk or sudden effort or exertion. The boys flirt water in each other’s faces. He flirted a glove or a handkerchief.NWAD FLIRT.2

    2. To toss or throw; to move suddenly; as, to flirt a fan.NWAD FLIRT.3

    FLIRT, v.i.

    1. To jeer or gibe; to throw harsh or sarcastic words; to utter contemptuous language, with an air of disdain.NWAD FLIRT.5

    2. To run and dart about; to be moving hastily from place to place; to be unsteady or fluttering. The girls flirt about the room or the street.NWAD FLIRT.6

    FLIRT, n.

    1. A sudden jerk; a quick throw or cast; a darting motion.NWAD FLIRT.8

    In unfurling the fan are several little flirts and vibrations.NWAD FLIRT.9

    2. A young girl who moves hastily or frequently from place to place; a pert girl.NWAD FLIRT.10

    Several young flirts about town had a design to cast us out of the fashionable world.NWAD FLIRT.11

    FLIRT, a. Pert; wanton.

    FLIRTATION, n.

    1. A flirting; a quick sprightly motion.NWAD FLIRTATION.2

    2. Desire of attracting notice. [A cant word.]NWAD FLIRTATION.3

    FLIRTED, pp. Thrown with a sudden jerk.

    FLIRTING, ppr. Throwing; jerking; tossing; darting about; rambling and changing place hastily.

    FLIT, v.i. [Heb. It is undoubtedly from the same root as fleet, which see.]

    1. To fly away with a rapid motion; to dart along; to move with celerity through the air. We say, a bird flits away, or flits in air; a cloud flits along.NWAD FLIT.2

    2. To flutter; to rove on the wing.NWAD FLIT.3

    3. To remove; to migrate; to pass rapidly, as a light substance, from one place to another.NWAD FLIT.4

    It became a received opinion, that the souls of men, departing this life, did flit out of one body into some other.NWAD FLIT.5

    4. In Scotland, to remove from one habitation to another.NWAD FLIT.6

    5. To be unstable; to easily or often moved.NWAD FLIT.7

    An the free soul to flitting air resigned.NWAD FLIT.8

    FLIT, a. Nimble; quick; swift. Obs. [See Fleet.]

    FLITCH, n.

    The side of a hog salted and cured.NWAD FLITCH.2

    FLITTER, v.i. To flutter, which see.

    FLITTER, n. A rag; a tatter. [See Fritter.]

    FLITTERMOUSE, n. [Flit, flitter and mouse.]

    A bat; an animal that has the fur of a mouse, and membranes which answer the purpose of wings, and enable the animal to sustain itself in a fluttering flight.NWAD FLITTERMOUSE.2

    FLITTINESS, n. [from flit.] Unsteadiness; levity; lightness.

    FLITTING, ppr. Flying rapidly; fluttering; moving swiftly.

    FLITTING, n. A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.

    FLITTY, a. Unstable; fluttering.

    FLIX, n. Down; fur. [Not used.]

    FLIXWEED, n. The Sisymbrium sophia, a species of water-cresses, growing on walls and waste grounds.

    FLO, n. An arrow. [Not in use.]

    FLOAT, n.

    1. That which swims or is borne on water; as a float of weeds and rushes. But particularly, a body or collection of timber, boards or planks fastened together and conveyed down a stream; a raft. [The latter word is more generally used in the United States.]NWAD FLOAT.2

    2. The cork or quill used on an angling line, to support it and discover the bite of a fish.NWAD FLOAT.3

    3. The act of flowing; flux; flood; the primary sense, but obsolete.NWAD FLOAT.4

    4. A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one deep.NWAD FLOAT.5

    5. A wave. [L. fuctus.]NWAD FLOAT.6

    FLOAT, v.i. [L. fluo, to flow.]

    1. To be borne or sustained on the surface of a fluid; to swim; to be buoyed up; not to sink; not to be aground. We say, the water is so shallow, the ship will not float.NWAD FLOAT.8

    2. To move or be conveyed on water; to swim. The raft floats down the river.NWAD FLOAT.9

    Three blustering nights, borne by the southern blast, I floated.NWAD FLOAT.10

    3. To be buoyed up and moved or conveyed in a fluid, as in air.NWAD FLOAT.11

    They stretch their plumes and float upon the wind.NWAD FLOAT.12

    4. To move with a light irregular course.NWAD FLOAT.13

    FLOAT, v.t.

    1. To cause to pass by swimming; to cause to be conveyed on water. The tide floated the ship into the harbor.NWAD FLOAT.15

    2. To flood; to inundate; to overflow; to cover with water.NWAD FLOAT.16

    Proud Pactolus floats the fruitful lands.NWAD FLOAT.17

    FLOATAGE, n. Any thing that floats on the water.

    FLOAT-BOARD, n. A board of the water-wheel of undershot mills, which receives the impulse of the stream, by which the wheel is driven.

    FLOATED, pp.

    1. Flooded; overflowed.NWAD FLOATED.2

    2. Borne on water.NWAD FLOATED.3

    FLOATER, n. One that floats or swims.

    FLOATING, ppr.

    1. Swimming; conveying on water; overflowing.NWAD FLOATING.2

    2. Lying flat on the surface of the water; as a floating leaf.NWAD FLOATING.3

    FLOATING-BRIDGE, n.

    1. In the United States, a bridge, consisting of logs or timber with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water.NWAD FLOATING-BRIDGE.2

    2. In war, 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.NWAD FLOATING-BRIDGE.3

    FLOATSTONE, n. Swimming flint, spungiform quartz, a mineral of a spungy texture, of a whitish gray color, often with a tinge of yellow. It frequently contains a nucleus of common flint.

    FLOATY, a. Buoyant; swimming on the surface; light.

    FLOCCULENCE, n. [L. flocculus, floccus. See Flock.]

    The state of being in locks or flocks; adhesion in small flakes.NWAD FLOCCULENCE.2

    FLOCCULENT, a. Coalescing and adhering in locks or flakes.

    I say the liquor is broken to flocculence, when the particles of herbaceous matter, seized by those of the lime, and coalescing, appear large and flocculent.NWAD FLOCCULENT.2

    FLOCK, n. [L. floccus. It is the same radically as flake, and applied to wool or hair, we write it lock. See Flake.]

    1. A company or collection; applied to sheep and other small animals. A flock of sheep answers to a herd of larger cattle. But the word may sometimes perhaps be applied to larger beasts, and in the plural, flocks may include all kinds of domesticated animals.NWAD FLOCK.2

    2. A company or collection of fowls of any kind, and when applied to birds on the wing, a flight; as a flock of wild-geese; a flock of ducks; a flock of blackbirds. in the United States, flocks of wild-pigeons sometimes darken the air.NWAD FLOCK.3

    3. A body or crowd of people. [little used. Gr. a troop.]NWAD FLOCK.4

    4. A lock of wool or hair. Hence, a flockbed.NWAD FLOCK.5

    FLOCK, v.i. To gather in companies or crowds; applied to men or other animals. People flock together. They flock to the play-house.

    Friends daily flock.NWAD FLOCK.7

    FLOCKING, ppr. Collecting or running together in a crowd.

    FLOG, v.t. [L. figo, to strike, that is, to lay on; L. flagrum, flagellum, Eng. flail; Gr.; L. plaga, a stroke, Eng. plague, slay.]

    To beat or strike with a rod or whip; to whip; to lash; to chastise with repeated blows; a colloquial word, applied to whipping or beating for punishment; as, to flog a schoolboy or a sailor.NWAD FLOG.2

    FLOGGED, pp. Whipped or scourged for punishment; chastised.

    FLOGGING, ppr. Whipping for punishment; chastising.

    FLOGGING, n. A whipping for punishment.

    FLOOD, n. flud.

    1. A great flow of water; a body of moving water; particularly, a body of water, rising, swelling and overflowing land not usually covered with water. Thus there is a flood, every spring, in the Connecticut, which inundates the adjacent meadows. There is an annual flood in the Nile, and in the Mississippi.NWAD FLOOD.2

    2. The flood, by way of eminence, the deluge; the great body of water which inundated the earth in the days of Noah. Before the flood, men live to a great age.NWAD FLOOD.3

    3. A river; a sense chiefly poetical.NWAD FLOOD.4

    4. The flowing of the tide; the semi-diurnal swell or rise of water in the ocean; opposed to ebb. The ship entered the harbor on the flood. Hence flood-tide; young flood; high flood.NWAD FLOOD.5

    5. A great quantity; an inundation; an overflowing; abundance; superabundance; as a flood of bank notes; a flood of paper currency.NWAD FLOOD.6

    6. A great body or stream of any fluid substance; as a flood of light; a flood of lava. Hence, figuratively, a flood of vice.NWAD FLOOD.7

    7. Menstrual discharge.NWAD FLOOD.8

    FLOOD, v.t. To overflow; to inundate; to deluge; as, to flood a meadow.

    FLOODED, pp. Overflowed inundated.

    FLOODGATE, n.

    1. A gate to be opened for letter water flow through, or to be shut to prevent it.NWAD FLOODGATE.2

    2. An opening or passage; an avenue for a flood or great body.NWAD FLOODGATE.3

    FLOODING, ppr. Overflowing; inundating.

    FLOODING, n. Any preternatural discharge of blood from the uterus.

    FLOOD-MARK, n. The mark or line to which the tide rises; high water mark.

    FLOOK. [See Fluke, the usual orthography.]

    FLOOKING, n. In mining, an interruption or shifting of a load of ore, by a cross vein or fissure.

    FLOOR, n. flore. [In early ages, the inhabitants of Europe had no floor in their huts, but the ground. The sense of the word is probably that which is laid or spread.]

    1. That part of a building or room on which we walk; the bottom or lower part, consisting, in modern houses, of boards, plands or pavement; as the floor of a house, room, bar, stable or outhouse.NWAD FLOOR.2

    2. A platform of boards or plans laid on timbers, as in a bridge; any similar platform.NWAD FLOOR.3

    3. A story in a building; as the first or second floor.NWAD FLOOR.4

    4. A floor or earthen floor is still used in some kinds of business, made of loam, or of lime, sand and iron dust, as in malting.NWAD FLOOR.5

    5. The bottom of a ship, or that part which is nearly horizontal.NWAD FLOOR.6

    FLOOR, v.t. To lay a floor; to cover timbers with a floor; to furnish with a floor; as, to floor a house with pine boards.

    FLOORED, Covered with boards, plank or pavement; furnished with a floor.

    FLOORING, ppr. Laying a floor; furnishing with a floor.

    FLOORING, n.

    1. A platform; the bottom of a room or building; pavement.NWAD FLOORING.3

    2. Materials for floors.NWAD FLOORING.4

    FLOOR-TIMBERS, n. The timbers on which a floor is laid.

    FLOP, v.t. [A different spelling of flap.]

    1. To clap or strike the wings.NWAD FLOP.2

    2. To let down the brim of a hat.NWAD FLOP.3

    FLORA, n. [See Floral.]

    1. In antiquity, the goddess of flowers.NWAD FLORA.2

    2. In modern usage, a catalogue or account of flowers or plants.NWAD FLORA.3

    FLORAL, a. [L. floralis, from flos, a flower, which see.]

    1. Containing the flower, as a floral bud; immediately attending the flower, as a floral leaf.NWAD FLORAL.2

    2. Pertaining to Flora or to flowers; as floral games; floral play.NWAD FLORAL.3

    FLOREN, FLORENCE, n. An ancient gold coin of Edward III of six shillings sterling value, about 134 cents.

    FLORENCE, n.

    1. A kind of cloth.NWAD FLORENCE.2

    2. A kind of wine from Florence in Italy.NWAD FLORENCE.3

    FLORENTINE, n.

    1. A native of Florence.NWAD FLORENTINE.2

    2. A kind of silk cloth, so called.NWAD FLORENTINE.3

    FLORESCENCE, n. [L. florescens, floresco. See Flower.]

    In botany, the season when plants expand their flowers.NWAD FLORESCENCE.2

    FLORET, n. A little flower; the partial or separate little flower of an aggregate flower.

    FLORID, a. [L. floridus, from floreo, to flower.]

    1. Literally, flowery; covered or abounding with flowers; but in this sense little used.NWAD FLORID.2

    2. Bright in color; flushed with red; of a lively red color; as a florid countenance; a florid cheek.NWAD FLORID.3

    3. Embellished with flowers of rhetoric; enriched with lively figures; splendid; brilliant; as a florid style; florid eloquence.NWAD FLORID.4

    FLORIDITY, n. Freshness or brightness of color; floridness.

    FLORIDNESS, n.

    1. Brightness or freshness of color or complexion.NWAD FLORIDNESS.2

    2. Vigor; spirit. [Unusual.]NWAD FLORIDNESS.3

    3. Embellishment; brilliant ornaments; ambitious elegance; applied to style.NWAD FLORIDNESS.4

    FLORIFEROUS, a. [L. florifer, from flos, a flower, and fero, to bear.] Producing flowers.

    FLORIFICATION, n. The act, process or time of flowering.

    FLORIN, n. A coin, originally made at Florence. The name is given to different coins of gold or silver, and of different values in different countries. It is also used as a money of account.

    FLORIST, n.

    1. A cultivator of flowers; one skilled in flowers.NWAD FLORIST.2

    2. One who writes a flora, or an account of plants.NWAD FLORIST.3

    FLORULENT, a. Flowery; blossoming. [Not in use.]

    FLOSCULAR, FLOSCULOUS, a. [infra.] In botany, a flosculous flower is a compound flower, composed entirely of florets with funnel-shaped petals, as in burdock, thistle and artichoke. This is the term used by Tournefort. For this Linne used tubulous.

    FLOSCULE, n. [L. flosculus.] In botany, a partial or lesser floret of an aggregate flower.

    FLOS FERRI, n. [L. flower of iron.] A mineral, a variety of arragonite, called by Jameson, after Hauy, coralloidal arragonite. It occurs in little cylinders, sometimes diverging and ending in a point, and sometimes branched, like coral. Its structure is fibrous, and the surface, which is smooth, or garnished with little crystalline points, is often very white, with a silken luster. It takes this name from its being often found in cavities in veins of sparry iron.

    FLOSS, n. [L. flos.] A downy or silky substance in the husks of certain plants.

    FLOSSIFICATION, n. A flowering; expansion of flowers. [Novel.]

    FLOTA, n. [See Fleet.] A fleet; but appropriately a fleet of Spanish ships which formerly sailed every year from Cadiz to Vera Crus, in Mexico, to transport to Spain the production of Spanish America.

    FLOTAGE, n. That which floats on the sea, or on rivers. [Little used.]

    FLOTE, v.t. To skim. [Not used or local.]

    FLOTILLA, n. [dim. of flota.] A little fleet, or fleet of small vessels.

    FLOTSAM, FLOTSON, n. [from float.] Goods lost by shipwreck, and floating on the sea. When such goods are cast on shore or found, the owner being unknown, they belong to the king.

    FLOTTEN, pp. Skimmed. [Not in use.]

    FLOUNCE, v.i. flouns. [See Flounder.]

    1. 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.NWAD FLOUNCE.2

    You neither fume, not fret, not flounce.NWAD FLOUNCE.3

    2. To move with jerks or agitation.NWAD FLOUNCE.4

    FLOUNCE, v.t. To deck with a flounce; as, to flounce a petticoat or frock.

    FLOUNCE, n. A narrow piece of cloth sewed to a petticoat, frock or gown, with the lower border loose and spreading. The present is the age of flounces. 1827.

    FLOUNDER, n. A flat fish of the genus Pleuronectes.

    FLOUNDER, v.i. [This seems to be allied to flaunt and flounce.]

    To fling the limbs and body, as in making efforts to move; to struggle as a horse in the mire; to roll, toss and tumble.NWAD FLOUNDER.3

    FLOUNDERING, ppr. Making irregular motions; struggling with violence.

    FLOUR, n. [originally flower; L. flos, floris, from floreo, to flourish.]

    The edible part of corn; meal. In the United States, the modern practice is to make a distinction between flour and meal; the word flour being more usually applied to the finer part of meal, separated from the bran, as wheat flour, rye flour. This is a just and useful distinction.NWAD FLOUR.2

    FLOUR, v.t.

    1. To grind and bolt; to convert into flour. Wheat used formerly to be sent to market; but now great quantities of it are floured in the interior country.NWAD FLOUR.4

    2. To sprinkle with flour.NWAD FLOUR.5

    FLOURED, pp. Converted into flour; sprinkled with flour.

    FLOURING, ppr. Converting into flour; sprinkling with flour.

    FLOURISH, v.i. flur’ish. [L. floresco, from floreo. The primary sense is to open, expand, enlarge, or to shoot out, as in glory, L. ploro.]

    1. To thrive; to grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant. The beech and the maple flourish best in a deep, rich and moist loam.NWAD FLOURISH.2

    2. To be prosperous; to increase in wealth or honor.NWAD FLOURISH.3

    Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that by the means of their wickedness.NWAD FLOURISH.4

    When all the workers of iniquity do flourish. Psalm 92:7.NWAD FLOURISH.5

    3. To grow in grace and in good works; to abound in the consolations of religion.NWAD FLOURISH.6

    The righteous shall flourish like the palmtree. Psalm 92:12.NWAD FLOURISH.7

    4. To be in a prosperous state; to grow or be augmented. We say agriculture flourishes, commerce flourishes, manufactures flourish.NWAD FLOURISH.8

    5. To use florid language; to make a display of figures and lofty expressions; to be copious and flowery.NWAD FLOURISH.9

    They dilate and flourish long on little incidents.NWAD FLOURISH.10

    6. To make bold strokes in writing; to make large and irregular lines; as, to flourish with the pen.NWAD FLOURISH.11

    7. To move or play in bold and irregular figures.NWAD FLOURISH.12

    Impetuous spread the stream, and smoking, flourished o’re his head.NWAD FLOURISH.13

    8. In music, to play with bold and irregular notes, or without settled form; as, to flourish on an organ or violin.NWAD FLOURISH.14

    9. To boast; to vaunt; to brag.NWAD FLOURISH.15

    FLOURISH, v.t. flur’ish.

    1. To adorn with flowers or beautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with any thing showy.NWAD FLOURISH.17

    2. To spread out; to enlarge into figures.NWAD FLOURISH.18

    3. To move in bold or irregular figures; to move in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish; as, to flourish a sword.NWAD FLOURISH.19

    4. To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence; to set off with a parade of words.NWAD FLOURISH.20

    5. To adorn; to embellish.NWAD FLOURISH.21

    6. To mark with a flourish or irregular stroke.NWAD FLOURISH.22

    The day book and inventory book shall be flourished.NWAD FLOURISH.23

    FLOURISH, n. flur’ish.

    1. Beauty; showy splendor.NWAD FLOURISH.25

    The flourish of his sober youth.NWAD FLOURISH.26

    2. Ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of words and figures; show; as a flourish of rhetoric; a flourish of wit.NWAD FLOURISH.27

    He lards with flourishes his long harangue.NWAD FLOURISH.28

    3. Figures formed by bold, irregular lines, or fanciful strokes of the pen or graver; as the flourishes about a great letter.NWAD FLOURISH.29

    4. A brandishing; the waving of a weapon or other thing; as the flourish of a sword.NWAD FLOURISH.30

    FLOURISHED, pp. flur’ished. Embellished; adorned with bold and irregular figures or lines; brandished.

    FLOURISHER, n. flur’isher.

    1. One who flourishes; one who thrives or prospers.NWAD FLOURISHER.2

    2. One who brandishes.NWAD FLOURISHER.3

    3. One who adorns with fanciful figures.NWAD FLOURISHER.4

    FLOURISHING, ppr. or a. flur’ishing. Thriving; prosperous; increasing; making a show.

    FLOURISHINGLY, adv. flur’ishingly. With flourishes; ostentatiously.

    FLOUT, v.t. To mock or insult; to treat with contempt.

    Phillida flouts me.NWAD FLOUT.2

    He flouted us downright.NWAD FLOUT.3

    FLOUT, v.i. To practice mocking; to sneer; to behave with contempt.

    Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout.NWAD FLOUT.5

    FLOUT, n. A mock; an insult.

    FLOUTED, pp. Mocked; treated with contempt.

    FLOUTER, n. One who flouts and flings; a mocker.

    FLOUTING, ppr. Mocking; insulting; fleering.

    FLOUTINGLY, adv. With flouting; insultingly.

    FLOW, v.i. [L. fluo, contracted from fugo, for it forms fluri, fuctum. In one case, the word would agree with the root of blow, L. flo; in the other, with the root of fly.]

    1. To move along an inclined plane, or on descending ground, by the operation of gravity, and with a continual change of place among the particles or parts, as a fluid. A solid body descends or moves in mass, as a ball or a wheel; but in the flowing of liquid substances, and others consisting of very fine particles, there is a constant change of the relative position of some parts of the substance, as in the case with a stream of water, of quicksilver, and of sand. Particles at the bottom and sides of the stream, being somewhat checked by friction, move slower than those in the middle and near the surface of the current. Rivers flow from springs and lakes; tears flow from the eyes.NWAD FLOW.2

    2. To melt; to become liquid.NWAD FLOW.3

    That the mountains might flow down at they presence. Isaiah 64:1.NWAD FLOW.4

    3. To proceed; to issue. Evils flow from different sources. Wealth flows from industry and economy. All our blessings flow from divine bountyNWAD FLOW.5

    4. To abound; to have in abundance.NWAD FLOW.6

    In that day the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk. Joel 3:18.NWAD FLOW.7

    5. To be full; to be copious; as flowing cups or goblets.NWAD FLOW.8

    6. To glide along smoothly, without harshness or asperity; as a flowing period; flowing numbers.NWAD FLOW.9

    7. To be smooth, as composition or utterance. The orator has a flowing tongue.NWAD FLOW.10

    Virgil is sweet and flowing in his hexameters.NWAD FLOW.11

    8. To hang loose and waving; as a flowing mantle; flowing locks.NWAD FLOW.12

    The imperial purple flowing in his train.NWAD FLOW.13

    9. To rise, as the tide; opposed to ebb. The tide flows twice in twenty four hours.NWAD FLOW.14

    10. To move in the arteries and veins of the body; to circulate, as blood.NWAD FLOW.15

    11. To issue, as rays or beams of light.NWAD FLOW.16

    Light flows from the sun.NWAD FLOW.17

    12. To move in a stream, as air.NWAD FLOW.18

    FLOW, v.t. To cover with water; to overflow; to inundate. The low grounds along the river are annually flowed.

    FLOW, n.

    1. A stream of water or other fluid; a current; as a flow of water; a flow of blood.NWAD FLOW.21

    2. A current of water with a swell or rise; as the flow and ebb of tides.NWAD FLOW.22

    3. A stream of any thing; as a flow of wealth into the country.NWAD FLOW.23

    4. Abundance; copiousness with action; as a flow of spirits.NWAD FLOW.24

    5. A stream of diction, denoting abundance of words at command and facility of speaking; volubility.NWAD FLOW.25

    6. Free expression or communication of generous feelings and sentiments.NWAD FLOW.26

    The feast of reason, and the flow of soul.NWAD FLOW.27

    FLOWED, pp. Overflowed; inundated.

    FLOWER, n. [L. flos, floris, a flower; floreo, to blossom. See Flourish.]

    1. In botany, that part of a plant which contains the organs of fructification, with their coverings. A flower, when complete, consists of a calyx, corol, stamen and pistil; but the essential parts are the anther and stigma, which are sufficient to constitute a flower, either together in hermaphrodite flowers, or separate in male and female flowers.NWAD FLOWER.2

    2. In vulgar acceptation, a blossom or flower is the flower bud of a plant, when the petals are expanded; open petals being considered as the principal thing in constituting a flower. But in botany, the petals are now considered as a finer sort of covering, and not at all necessary to constitute a flower.NWAD FLOWER.3

    3. The early part of life, or rather of manhood; the prime; youthful vigor; youth; as the flower of age or of life.NWAD FLOWER.4

    4. The best or finest part of a thing; the most valuable part. The most active and vigorous part of an army are called the flower of the troops. Young, vigorous and brave men are called the flower of a nation.NWAD FLOWER.5

    5. The finest part; the essence.NWAD FLOWER.6

    The choice and flower of all things profitable the Psalms do more briefly contain.NWAD FLOWER.7

    6. He or that which is most distinguished for any thing valuable. We say, the youth are the flower of the country.NWAD FLOWER.8

    7. The finest part of grain pulverized. In this sense, it is now always written flour, which see.NWAD FLOWER.9

    1. Flowers, in chimistry, fine particles of bodies, especially when raised by fire in sublimation, and adhering to the heads of vessels in the form of a powder or mealy substance; as the flowers of sulphur.NWAD FLOWER.10

    A substance, somewhat similar, formed spontaneously, is called efforescence.NWAD FLOWER.11

    2. In rhetoric, figures and ornaments of discourse or composition.NWAD FLOWER.12

    3. Menstrual discharges.NWAD FLOWER.13

    FLOWER, v.i. [from the noun. The corresponding word in L. is floreo.]

    1. To blossom; to bloom; to expand the petals, as a plant. In New England peach trees usually flower in April, and apple trees in May.NWAD FLOWER.15

    2. To be in the prime and spring of life; to flourish; to be youthful, fresh and vigorous.NWAD FLOWER.16

    When flowered my youthful spring.NWAD FLOWER.17

    3. To froth; to ferment gently; to mantle, as new beer.NWAD FLOWER.18

    The beer did flower a little.NWAD FLOWER.19

    4. To come as cream from the surface.NWAD FLOWER.20

    FLOWER, v.t. To embellish with figures of flowers; to adorn with imitated flowers.

    FLOWER-DE-LIS, n.

    1. In heraldry, a bearing representing a lily, the hieroglyphic of royal majesty.NWAD FLOWER-DE-LIS.2

    2. In botany, the Iris, a genus of monogynian trianders, called also flag-flower, and often written incorrectly flower-de-luce. The species are numerous.NWAD FLOWER-DE-LIS.3

    FLOWERED, pp. Embellished with figures of flowers.

    FLOWERET, n. A small flower; a floret.

    [In botany, floret is solely used.]NWAD FLOWERET.2

    FLOWER-FENCE, n. The name of certain plants. The flower-fence of Barbados is of the genus Poinciana. The bastard flower-fence is the Adenanthera.

    FLOWER-GARDEN, n. A garden in which flowers are chiefly cultivated.

    FLOWER-GENTLE, n. A plant, the amaranth.

    FLOWERINESS, n. [from flowery.]

    1. The state of being flowery, or of abounding with flowers.NWAD FLOWERINESS.2

    2. Floridness of speech; abundance of figures.NWAD FLOWERINESS.3

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