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flail

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flail


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Flail  \Flail\,  n.  [L.  flagellum  whip,  scourge,  in  LL.,  a 
  threshing  flail:  cf  OF  flael,  flaiel,  F.  fl['e]au.  See 
  {Flagellum}.] 
  1.  An  instrument  for  threshing  or  beating  grain  from  the  ear 
  by  hand,  consisting  of  a  wooden  staff  or  handle,  at  the 
  end  of  which  a  stouter  and  shorter  pole  or  club,  called  a 
  swipe,  is  so  hung  as  to  swing  freely. 
 
  His  shadowy  flail  hath  threshed  the  corn.  --Milton. 
 
  2.  An  ancient  military  weapon,  like  the  common  flail,  often 
  having  the  striking  part  armed  with  rows  of  spikes,  or 
  loaded.  --Fairholt. 
 
  No  citizen  thought  himself  safe  unless  he  carried 
  under  his  coat  a  small  flail,  loaded  with  lead,  to 
  brain  the  Popish  assassins.  --Macaulay. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  flail 
  n  :  an  implement  consisting  of  handle  with  a  free  swinging  stick 
  at  the  end  used  in  manual  threshing 
  v  1:  give  a  thrashing  to  beat  hard  [syn:  {thrash},  {thresh},  {lam}] 
  2:  move  like  a  flail;  thresh  about  "Her  arms  were  flailing" 
  [syn:  {thresh}] 




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