Flare-up noun A sudden burst of anger or passion; an angry dispute. [ Colloq.]

Flare-up noun A sudden bursting into flame; a flaring.

Flaring adjective
1. That flares; flaming or blazing unsteadily; shining out with a dazzling light.

His [ the sun's] flaring beams.

Milton.

2. Opening or speading outwards.

Flaringly adverb In a flaring manner.

Flash (flăsh) intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flashed (flăsht); present participle & verbal noun Flashing .] [ Confer Middle English flaskien , vlaskien to pour, sprinkle, dial. Swedish flasa to blaze, English flush , flare .]
1. To burst or break forth with a sudden and transient flood of flame and light; as, the lighting flashes vividly; the powder flashed .

2. To break forth, as a sudden flood of light; to burst instantly and brightly on the sight; to show a momentary brilliancy; to come or pass like a flash.

Names which have flashed and thundered as the watch words of unnumbered struggles.

Talfourd.

The object is made to flash upon the eye of the mind.

M. Arnold.

A thought flashed through me, which I clothed in act.

Tennyson.

3. To burst forth like a sudden flame; to break out violently; to rush hastily.

Every hour
He flashes into one gross crime or other.

Shak.

To flash in the pan , to fail of success. [ Colloq.] See under Flash , a burst of light. Bartlett.

Syn. -- Flash , Glitter , Gleam , Glisten , Glister . Flash differs from glitter and gleam , denoting a flood or wide extent of light. The latter words may express the issuing of light from a small object, or from a pencil of rays. Flash differs from other words, also, in denoting suddenness of appearance and disappearance. Flashing differs from exploding or disploding in not being accompanied with a loud report. To glisten , or glister , is to shine with a soft and fitful luster, as eyes suffused with tears, or flowers wet with dew.

Flash (flăsh) transitive verb
1. To send out in flashes; to cause to burst forth with sudden flame or light.

The chariot of paternal Deity,
Flashing thick flames.

Milton.

2. To convey as by a flash; to light up, as by a sudden flame or light; as, to flash a message along the wires; to flash conviction on the mind.

3. (Glass Making) To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different color. See Flashing , noun , 3 (b) .

4. To trick up in a showy manner.

Limning and flashing it with various dyes.

A. Brewer.

5. [ Perh. due to confusion between flash of light and plash , splash .] To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash. [ Obsolete]

He rudely flashed the waves about.

Spenser.

Flashed glass . See Flashing , noun , 3.

Flash noun ; plural Flashes
1. A sudden burst of light; a flood of light instantaneously appearing and disappearing; a momentary blaze; as, a flash of lightning.

2. A sudden and brilliant burst, as of wit or genius; a momentary brightness or show.

The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind.

Shak.

No striking sentiment, no flash of fancy.

Wirt.

3. The time during which a flash is visible; an instant; a very brief period.

The Persians and Macedonians had it for a flash .

Bacon.

4. A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for coloring and giving a fictitious strength to liquors.

Flash light , or Flashing light , a kind of light shown by lighthouses, produced by the revolution of reflectors, so as to show a flash of light every few seconds, alternating with periods of dimness. Knight. -- Flash in the pan , the flashing of the priming in the pan of a flintlock musket without discharging the piece; hence, sudden, spasmodic effort that accomplishes nothing.

Flash adjective
1. Showy, but counterfeit; cheap, pretentious, and vulgar; as, flash jewelry; flash finery.

2. Wearing showy, counterfeit ornaments; vulgarly pretentious; as, flash people; flash men or women; -- applied especially to thieves, gamblers, and prostitutes that dress in a showy way and wear much cheap jewelry.

Flash house , a house frequented by flash people, as thieves and whores; hence, a brothel. "A gang of footpads, reveling with their favorite beauties at a flash house ." Macaulay.

Flash noun Slang or cant of thieves and prostitutes.

Flash noun [ Middle English flasche , flaske ; confer Old French flache , French flaque .]
1. A pool. [ Prov. Eng.] Haliwell.

2. (Engineering) A reservoir and sluiceway beside a navigable stream, just above a shoal, so that the stream may pour in water as boats pass, and thus bear them over the shoal.

Flash wheel (Mech.) , a paddle wheel made to revolve in a breast or curved water way, by which water is lifted from the lower to the higher level.

Flash boiler A variety of water-tube boiler, used chiefly in steam automobiles, consisting of a nest of strong tubes with very little water space, kept nearly red hot so that the water as it trickles drop by drop into the tubes is immediately flashed into steam and superheated.

Flash burner A gas burner with a device for lighting by an electric spark.

Flashboard noun A board placed temporarily upon a milldam, to raise the water in the pond above its usual level; a flushboard. [ U.S.]

Flasher noun
1. One who, or that which, flashes.

2. A man of more appearance of wit than reality.

3. (Zoology) (a) A large sparoid fish of the Atlantic coast and all tropical seas ( Lobotes Surinamensis ). (b) The European red-backed shrike ( Lanius collurio ); -- called also flusher .

Flashily adverb In a flashy manner; with empty show.

Flashiness noun The quality of being flashy.

Flashing noun
1. (Engineering) The creation of an artifical flood by the sudden letting in of a body of water; -- called also flushing .

2. (Architecture) Pieces of metal, built into the joints of a wall, so as to lap over the edge of the gutters or to cover the edge of the roofing; also, similar pieces used to cover the valleys of roofs of slate, shingles, or the like. By extension, the metal covering of ridges and hips of roofs; also, in the United States, the protecting of angles and breaks in walls of frame houses with waterproof material, tarred paper, or the like. Confer Filleting .

3. (Glass Making) (a) The reheating of an article at the furnace aperture during manufacture to restore its plastic condition; esp., the reheating of a globe of crown glass to allow it to assume a flat shape as it is rotated. (b) A mode of covering transparent white glass with a film of colored glass. Knight.

Flashing point (Chemistry) , that degree of temperature at which a volatile oil gives off vapor in sufficient quantity to burn, or flash, on the approach of a flame, used as a test of the comparative safety of oils, esp. kerosene; a flashing point of 100° F. is regarded as a fairly safe standard. The burning point of the oil is usually from ten to thirty degree above the flashing point of its vapor.

Flashy adjective
1. Dazzling for a moment; making a momentary show of brilliancy; transitorily bright.

A little flashy and transient pleasure.

Barrow.

2. Fiery; vehement; impetuous.

A temper always flashy .

Burke.

3. Showy; gay; gaudy; as, a flashy dress.

4. Without taste or spirit.

Lean and flashy songs.

Milton.

Flask noun [ Anglo-Saxon flasce , flaxe ; akin to Dutch flesch , Old High German flasca , German flasche , Icelandic & Swedish flaska , Danish flaske , Old French flasche , Late Latin flasca , flasco ; of uncertain origin; confer Latin vasculum , dim. of vas a vessel, Greek ..., ..., .... Confer Flagon , Flasket .]
1. A small bottle-shaped vessel for holding fluids; as, a flask of oil or wine.

2. A narrow-necked vessel of metal or glass, used for various purposes; as of sheet metal, to carry gunpowder in; or of wrought iron, to contain quicksilver; or of glass, to heat water in, etc.

3. A bed in a gun carriage. [ Obsolete] Bailey.

4. (Founding) The wooden or iron frame which holds the sand, etc., forming the mold used in a foundry; it consists of two or more parts; viz., the cope or top; sometimes, the cheeks , or middle part; and the drag , or bottom part. When there are one or more cheeks, the flask is called a three part flask , four part flask , etc.

Erlenmeyer flask , a thin glass flask, flat- bottomed and cone-shaped to allow of safely shaking its contents laterally without danger of spilling; -- so called from Erlenmeyer , a German chemist who invented it. -- Florence flask . [ From Florence in Italy.] (a) Same as Betty , noun , 3. (b) A glass flask, round or pear-shaped, with round or flat bottom, and usually very thin to allow of heating solutions. -- Pocket flask , a kind of pocket dram bottle, often covered with metal or leather to protect it from breaking.

Flasket noun [ Confer W. fflasged a vessel of straw or wickerwork, fflasg flask, basket, and English flask .]
1. A long, shallow basket, with two handles. [ Eng.]

In which they gathered flowers to fill their flasket .

Spenser.

2. A small flask.

3. A vessel in which viands are served. [ Obsolete] Pope.

Flat adjective [ Compar. Flatter ; superl. Flattest .] [ Akin to Icelandic flatr , Swedish flat , Danish flad , Old High German flaz , and Anglo-Saxon flet floor, German flötz stratum, layer.]
1. Having an even and horizontal surface, or nearly so, without prominences or depressions; level without inclination; plane.

Though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk.

Milton.

2. Lying at full length, or spread out, upon the ground; level with the ground or earth; prostrate; as, to lie flat on the ground; hence, fallen; laid low; ruined; destroyed.

What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat !

Milton.

I feel . . . my hopes all flat .

Milton.

3. (Fine Arts) Wanting relief; destitute of variety; without points of prominence and striking interest.

A large part of the work is, to me, very flat .

Coleridge.

4. Tasteless; stale; vapid; insipid; dead; as, fruit or drink flat to the taste.

5. Unanimated; dull; uninteresting; without point or spirit; monotonous; as, a flat speech or composition.

How weary, stale, flat , and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world.

Shak.

6. Lacking liveliness of commercial exchange and dealings; depressed; dull; as, the market is flat .

7. Clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright.

Flat burglary as ever was committed.

Shak.

A great tobacco taker too, -- that's flat .

Marston.

8. (Mus.) (a) Below the true pitch; hence, as applied to intervals, minor, or lower by a half step; as, a flat seventh; A flat . (b) Not sharp or shrill; not acute; as, a flat sound.

9. (Phonetics) Sonant; vocal; -- applied to any one of the sonant or vocal consonants, as distinguished from a nonsonant (or sharp ) consonant.

Flat arch . (Architecture) See under Arch , noun , 2. ( b ). -- Flat cap , cap paper, not folded. See under Paper . -- Flat chasing , in fine art metal working, a mode of ornamenting silverware, etc., producing figures by dots and lines made with a punching tool. Knight. -- Flat chisel , a sculptor's chisel for smoothing. -- Flat file , a file wider than its thickness, and of rectangular section. See File . -- Flat nail , a small, sharp- pointed, wrought nail, with a flat, thin head, larger than a tack. Knight. -- Flat paper , paper which has not been folded. -- Flat rail , a railroad rail consisting of a simple flat bar spiked to a longitudinal sleeper. -- Flat rods (Mining) , horizontal or inclined connecting rods, for transmitting motion to pump rods at a distance. Raymond. -- Flat rope , a rope made by plaiting instead of twisting; gasket; sennit. Some flat hoisting ropes, as for mining shafts, are made by sewing together a number of ropes, making a wide, flat band. Knight. -- Flat space . (Geom.) See Euclidian space . -- Flat stitch , the process of wood engraving. [ Obsolete] -- Flat tint (Painting) , a coat of water color of one uniform shade. -- To fall flat (Fig.), to produce no effect; to fail in the intended effect; as, his speech fell flat .

Of all who fell by saber or by shot,
Not one fell half so flat as Walter Scott.

Lord Erskine.

Flat adverb
1. In a flat manner; directly; flatly.

Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty.

Herbert.

2. (Stock Exchange) Without allowance for accrued interest. [ Broker's Cant]

Flat noun
1. A level surface, without elevation, relief, or prominences; an extended plain; specifically, in the United States, a level tract along the along the banks of a river; as, the Mohawk Flats .

Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat .

Bacon.

2. A level tract lying at little depth below the surface of water, or alternately covered and left bare by the tide; a shoal; a shallow; a strand.

Half my power, this night
Passing these flats , are taken by the tide.

Shak.

3. Something broad and flat in form ; as: (a) A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught. (b) A straw hat, broad- brimmed and low-crowned. (c) (Railroad Mach.) A car without a roof, the body of which is a platform without sides; a platform car. (d) A platform on wheel, upon which emblematic designs, etc., are carried in processions.

4. The flat part, or side, of anything; as, the broad side of a blade, as distinguished from its edge.

5. (Architecture) A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself.

6. (Mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal. Raymond.

7. A dull fellow; a simpleton; a numskull. [ Colloq.]

Or if you can not make a speech,
Because you are a flat .

Holmes.

8. (Mus.) A character [ ♭] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower.

9. (Geom.) A homaloid space or extension.

Flat transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flatted ; present participle & verbal noun Flatting .]
1. To make flat; to flatten; to level.

2. To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.

Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted .

Barrow.

3. To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.

Flat intransitive verb
1. To become flat, or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface. Sir W. Temple.

2. (Mus.) To fall form the pitch.

To flat out , to fail from a promising beginning; to make a bad ending; to disappoint expectations. [ Colloq.]

Flat adjective
1. (Golf) Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft; -- said of a club.

2. (Gram.) Not having an inflectional ending or sign, as a noun used as an adjective, or an adjective as an adverb, without the addition of a formative suffix, or an infinitive without the sign to . Many flat adverbs, as in run fast , buy cheap , are from Anglo-Saxon adverbs in -ë , the loss of this ending having made them like the adjectives. Some having forms in ly , such as exceeding , wonderful , true , are now archaic.

3. (Hort.) Flattening at the ends; -- said of certain fruits.

Flat foot (Medicine) A foot in which the arch of the instep is flattened so that the entire sole of the foot rests upon the ground; also, the deformity, usually congential, exhibited by such a foot; splayfoot.

Flat-bottomed adjective Having an even lower surface or bottom; as, a flat-bottomed boat.

Flat-cap noun A kind of low- crowned cap formerly worn by all classes in England, and continued in London after disuse elsewhere; -- hence, a citizen of London. Marston.

Flat-footed adjective
1. Having a flat foot, with little or no arch of the instep.

2. Firm-footed; determined. [ Slang, U.S.]

Flat-headed adjective Having a head with a flattened top; as, a flat-headed nail.

Flatbill noun (Zoology) Any bird of the genus Flatyrynchus . They belong to the family of flycatchers.

Flatboat noun A boat with a flat bottom and square ends; -- used for the transportation of bulky freight, especially in shallow waters.

Flatfish noun (Zoology) Any fish of the family Pleuronectidæ ; esp., the winter flounder ( Pleuronectes Americanus ). The flatfishes have the body flattened, swim on the side, and have eyes on one side, as the flounder, turbot, and halibut. See Flounder .

Flathead adjective Characterized by flatness of head, especially that produced by artificial means, as a certain tribe of American Indians.

Flathead noun (Ethnol.) A Chinook Indian. See Chinook , noun , 1.

Flatiron noun An iron with a flat, smooth surface for ironing clothes.

Flative adjective [ Latin flare , flatum to blow.] Producing wind; flatulent. [ Obsolete] A. Brewer.

Flatling adverb [ Flat , adjective + adverbial suff. -ling .] With the flat side, as of a sword; flatlong; in a prostrate position. [ Obsolete] Spenser.

Flatlong adverb With the flat side downward; not edgewise. Shak.

Flatly adverb In a flat manner; evenly; horizontally; without spirit; dully; frigidly; peremptorily; positively; plainly. "He flatly refused his aid." Sir P. Sidney.

He that does the works of religion slowly, flatly , and without appetite.

Jer. Taylor.

Flatness noun
1. The quality or state of being flat.

2. Eveness of surface; want of relief or prominence; the state of being plane or level.

3. Want of vivacity or spirit; prostration; dejection; depression.

4. Want of variety or flavor; dullness; insipidity.

5. Depression of tone; the state of being below the true pitch; -- opposed to sharpness or acuteness .

Flatour noun [ Old French ] A flatterer. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Flatten (flăt"t'n) transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flattened ; present participle & verbal noun Flattening .] [ From Flat , adjective ]
1. To reduce to an even surface or one approaching evenness; to make flat; to level; to make plane.

2. To throw down; to bring to the ground; to prostrate; hence, to depress; to deject; to dispirit.

3. To make vapid or insipid; to render stale.

4. (Mus.) To lower the pitch of; to cause to sound less sharp; to let fall from the pitch.

To flatten a sail (Nautical) , to set it more nearly fore-and-aft of the vessel. -- Flattening oven , in glass making, a heated chamber in which split glass cylinders are flattened for window glass.

Flatten intransitive verb To become or grow flat, even, depressed, dull, vapid, spiritless, or depressed below pitch.

Flatter (flăt"tẽr) noun
1. One who, or that which, makes flat or flattens.

2. (Metal Working) (a) A flat-faced fulling hammer. (b) A drawplate with a narrow, rectangular orifice, for drawing flat strips, as watch springs, etc.

Flatter transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flattered ; present participle & verbal noun Flattering .] [ Middle English flateren , confer OD. flatteren ; akin to German flattern to flutter, Icelandic fla...ra to fawn, flatter: confer French flatter . Confer Flitter , Flutter , Flattery .]
1. To treat with praise or blandishments; to gratify or attempt to gratify the self-love or vanity of, esp. by artful and interested commendation or attentions; to blandish; to cajole; to wheedle.

When I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered .

Shak.

A man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his feet.

Prov. xxix. 5.

Others he flattered by asking their advice.

Prescott.

2. To raise hopes in; to encourage or favorable, but sometimes unfounded or deceitful, representations.

3. To portray too favorably; to give a too favorable idea of; as, his portrait flatters him.

Flatter intransitive verb To use flattery or insincere praise.

If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter , or adjure.

Milton.

Flatterer noun One who flatters.

The most abject flaterers degenerate into the greatest tyrants.

Addison.

Flattering adjective That flatters (in the various senses of the verb); as, a flattering speech.

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul.

Shak.

A flattering painter, who made it his care,
To draw men as they ought be, not as they are.

Goldsmith.

Flatteringly adverb With flattery.