Flote Flote transitive verb To fleet; to skim. [ Obsolete] Tusser.

Flote Flote noun [ Confer French flot , Latin fluctus ; also confer Float , noun ] A wave. [ Obsolete] "The Mediterranean flote ." Shak.

Flotery Flot"er·y adjective Wavy; flowing. [ Obsolete]

With flotery beard.

Chaucer.

Flotilla Flo·til"la noun [ Spanish flotilla , dim. of flota fleet; akin to French flotte , Italian flotta , and French flot wave, from Latin fluctus , but probably influenced by words akin to English float . See Fluctuate , and confer Float , noun ] A little fleet, or a fleet of small vessels.

Flotsam, Flotson Flot"sam, Flot"son noun [ French flotter to float. See FFlotilla , and confer Jetsam .] (Law) Goods lost by shipwreck, and floating on the sea; -- in distinction from jetsam or jetson . Blackstone.

Flotten Flot"ten past participle of Flote , transitive verb Skimmed. [ Obsolete]

Flounce Flounce intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flounced (flounst); present participle & verbal noun Flouncing .] [ Confer OSw. flunsa to immerge.] 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; to flounder; to throw one's self with a jerk or spasm, often as in displeasure.

To flutter and flounce will do nothing but batter and bruise us.

Barrow.

With his broad fins and forky tail he laves
The rising sirge, and flounces in the waves.

Addison.

Flounce Flounce noun The act of floucing; a sudden, jerking motion of the body.

Flounce Flounce noun [ Confer German flaus , flausch , a tuft of wool or hair; akin to vliess , English fleece ; or perhaps corrupted from rounce .] An ornamental appendage to the skirt of a woman's dress, consisting of a strip gathered and sewed on by its upper edge around the skirt, and left hanging.

Flounce Flounce transitive verb To deck with a flounce or flounces; as, to flounce a petticoat or a frock.

Flounder Floun"der noun [ Confer Swedish flundra ; akin to Danish flynder , Icelandic fly...ra , German flunder , and perhaps to English flounder , v.i.] 1. (Zoology) A flatfish of the family Pleuronectidæ , of many species.

» The common English flounder is Pleuronectes flesus . There are several common American species used as food; as the smooth flounder ( P. glabra ); the rough or winter flounder ( P. Americanus ); the summer flounder, or plaice ( Paralichthys dentatus ), Atlantic coast; and the starry flounder ( Pleuronectes stellatus ).

2. (Bootmaking) A tool used in crimping boot fronts.

Flounder Floun"der intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Floundered ; present participle & verbal noun Floundering .] [ Confer Dutch flodderen to flap, splash through mire, English flounce , v.i., and flounder the fish.] To fling the limbs and body, as in making efforts to move; to struggle, as a horse in the mire, or as a fish on land; to roll, toss, and tumble; to flounce.

They have floundered on from blunder to blunder.

Sir W. Hamilton.

Flounder Floun"der noun The act of floundering.

Flour Flour noun [ French fleur de farine the flower ( i.e. , the best) of meal, confer Spanish flor de la harina superfine flour, Icelandic flür flower, flour. See Flower .] The finely ground meal of wheat, or of any other grain; especially, the finer part of meal separated by bolting; hence, the fine and soft powder of any substance; as, flour of emery; flour of mustard.

Flour bolt , in milling, a gauze-covered, revolving, cylindrical frame or reel, for sifting the flour from the refuse contained in the meal yielded by the stones. -- Flour box a tin box for scattering flour; a dredging box. -- Flour dredge or dredger , a flour box. -- Flour dresser , a mashine for sorting and distributing flour according to grades of fineness. -- Flour mill , a mill for grinding and sifting flour.

Flour Flour transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Floured ; present participle & verbal noun Flouring .] 1. To grind and bolt; to convert into flour; as, to flour wheat.

2. To sprinkle with flour.

Floured Floured p. adjective Finely granulated; -- said of quicksilver which has been granulated by agitation during the amalgamation process. Raymond.

Flourish Flour"ish intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flourished ; present participle & verbal noun Flourishing .] [ Middle English florisshen , flurisshen , Old French flurir , French fleurir , from Latin florere to bloom, from flos , floris , flower. See Flower , and - ish .] 1. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive.

A tree thrives and flourishes in a kindly . . . soil.

Bp. Horne.

2. To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be prominent and influental; specifically, of authors, painters, etc., to be in a state of activity or production.

When all the workers of iniquity do flourish .

Ps. xcii 7

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

Nelson.

We say
Of those that held their heads above the crowd,
They flourished then or then.

Tennyson.

3. To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery.

They dilate . . . and flourish long on little incidents.

J. Watts.

4. To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.

Impetuous spread
The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head.

Pope.

5. To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.

6. To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude.

Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?

Shak.

7. To boast; to vaunt; to brag. Pope.

Flourish Flour"ish transitive verb 1. To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish. [ Obsolete] Fenton.

2. 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. [ Obsolete]

Sith that the justice of your title to him
Doth flourish the deceit.

Shak.

3. To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish.

And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

Shak.

4. To develop; to make thrive; to expand. [ Obsolete]

Bottoms of thread . . . which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works.

Bacon.

Flourish Flour"ish noun ; plural Flourishes 1. A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. [ Archaic]

The Roman monarchy, in her highest flourish , never had the like.

Howell.

2. Decoration; ornament; beauty.

The flourish of his sober youth
Was the pride of naked truth.

Crashaw.

3. Something made or performed in a fanciful, wanton, or vaunting manner, by way of ostentation, to excite admiration, etc.; ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of words and figures; show; as, a flourish of rhetoric or of wit.

He lards with flourishes his long harangue.

Dryden.

4. A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely decorative figure.

The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible curiously printed.

Boyle.

5. A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical composition; a cal; a fanfare.

A flourish , trumpets! strike alarum, drums!

Shak.

6. The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as, the flourish of a sword.

Flourisher Flour"ish·er noun One who flourishes.

Flourishingly Flour"ish·ing·ly adverb In a flourishing manner; ostentatiously.

Floury Flour"y adjective Of or resembling flour; mealy; covered with flour. Dickens.

Flout Flout transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flouted ; present participle & verbal noun Flouting .] [ OD. fluyten to play the flute, to jeer, Dutch fluiten , from fluit , from French. See Flute .] To mock or insult; to treat with contempt.

Phillida flouts me.

Walton.

Three gaudy standards flout the pale blue sky.

Byron.

Flout Flout intransitive verb To practice mocking; to behave with contempt; to sneer; to fleer; -- often with at .

Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout .

Swift.

Flout Flout noun A mock; an insult.

Who put your beauty to this flout and scorn.

Tennyson.

Flouter Flout"er noun One who flouts; a mocker.

Floutingly Flout"ing·ly adverb With flouting; insultingly; as, to treat a lover floutingly .

Flow Flow (flō), obsolete imperfect sing. of Fly , intransitive verb Chaucer.

Flow Flow (flō) intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flowed (flōd); present participle & verbal noun Flowing .] [ Anglo-Saxon flōwan ; akin to Dutch vloeijen , Old High German flawen to wash, Icelandic flōa to deluge, Greek plw`ein to float, sail, and probably ultimately to English float , fleet . √80. Confer Flood .] 1. To move with a continual change of place among the particles or parts, as a fluid; to change place or circulate, as a liquid; as, rivers flow from springs and lakes; tears flow from the eyes.

2. To become liquid; to melt.

The mountains flowed down at thy presence.

Is. lxiv. 3.

3. To proceed; to issue forth; as, wealth flows from industry and economy.

Those thousand decencies that daily flow
From all her words and actions.

Milton.

4. To glide along smoothly, without harshness or asperties; as, a flowing period; flowing numbers; to sound smoothly to the ear; to be uttered easily.

Virgil is sweet and flowing in his hexameters.

Dryden.

5. To have or be in abundance; to abound; to full, so as to run or flow over; to be copious.

In that day . . . the hills shall flow with milk.

Joel iii. 18.

The exhilaration of a night that needed not the influence of the flowing bowl.

Prof. Wilson.

6. To hang loose and waving; as, a flowing mantle; flowing locks.

The imperial purple flowing in his train.

A. Hamilton.

7. To rise, as the tide; -- opposed to ebb ; as, the tide flows twice in twenty-four hours.

The river hath thrice flowed , no ebb between.

Shak.

8. To discharge blood in excess from the uterus.

Flow Flow transitive verb 1. To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.

2. To cover with varnish.

Flow Flow noun 1. A stream of water or other fluid; a current; as, a flow of water; a flow of blood.

2. A continuous movement of something abundant; as, a flow of words.

3. Any gentle, gradual movement or procedure of thought, diction, music, or the like, resembling the quiet, steady movement of a river; a stream.

The feast of reason and the flow of soul.

Pope.

4. The tidal setting in of the water from the ocean to the shore. See Ebb and flow , under Ebb .

5. A low-lying piece of watery land; -- called also flow moss and flow bog . [ Scot.] Jamieson.

Flowage Flow"age noun An overflowing with water; also, the water which thus overflows.

Flowen Flow"en obsolete imperfect plural of Fly , intransitive verb Chaucer.

Flower Flow"er noun [ Middle English flour , Old French flour , flur , flor , French fleur , from Latin flos , floris . Confer Blossom , Effloresce , Floret , Florid , Florin , Flour , Flourish .] 1. In the popular sense, the bloom or blossom of a plant; the showy portion, usually of a different color, shape, and texture from the foliage.

2. (Botany) That part of a plant destined to produce seed, and hence including one or both of the sexual organs; an organ or combination of the organs of reproduction, whether inclosed by a circle of foliar parts or not. A complete flower consists of two essential parts, the stamens and the pistil, and two floral envelopes, the corolla and callyx. In mosses the flowers consist of a few special leaves surrounding or subtending organs called archegonia. See Blossom , and Corolla .

» If we examine a common flower, such for instance as a geranium, we shall find that it consists of: First, an outer envelope or calyx , sometimes tubular, sometimes consisting of separate leaves called sepals ; secondly, an inner envelope or corolla , which is generally more or less colored, and which, like the calyx, is sometimes tubular, sometimes composed of separate leaves called petals ; thirdly, one or more stamens , consisting of a stalk or filament and a head or anther , in which the pollen is produced; and fourthly, a pistil , which is situated in the center of the flower, and consists generally of three principal parts; one or more compartments at the base, each containing one or more seeds; the stalk or style ; and the stigma , which in many familiar instances forms a small head, at the top of the style or ovary, and to which the pollen must find its way in order to fertilize the flower. Sir J. Lubbock.

3. The fairest, freshest, and choicest part of anything; as, the flower of an army, or of a family; the state or time of freshness and bloom; as, the flower of life, that is, youth.

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

Hooker.

The flower of the chivalry of all Spain.

Southey.

A simple maiden in her flower
Is worth a hundred coats of arms.

Tennyson.

4. Grain pulverized; meal; flour. [ Obsolete]

The flowers of grains, mixed with water, will make a sort of glue.

Arbuthnot.

5. plural (Old Chem.) A substance in the form of a powder, especially when condensed from sublimation; as, the flowers of sulphur.

6. A figure of speech; an ornament of style.

7. plural (Print.) Ornamental type used chiefly for borders around pages, cards, etc. W. Savage.

8. plural Menstrual discharges. Lev. xv. 24.

Animal flower (Zoology) See under Animal . -- Cut flowers , flowers cut from the stalk, as for making a bouquet. -- Flower bed , a plat in a garden for the cultivation of flowers. -- Flower beetle (Zoology) , any beetle which feeds upon flowers, esp. any one of numerous small species of the genus Meligethes , family Nitidulidæ , some of which are injurious to crops. - - Flower bird (Zoology) , an Australian bird of the genus Anthornis , allied to the honey eaters. -- Flower bud , an unopened flower. -- Flower clock , an assemblage of flowers which open and close at different hours of the day, thus indicating the time. -- Flower head (Botany) , a compound flower in which all the florets are sessile on their receptacle, as in the case of the daisy. -- Flower pecker (Zoology) , one of a family ( Dicæidæ ) of small Indian and Australian birds. They resemble humming birds in habits. -- Flower piece . (a) A table ornament made of cut flowers. (b) (Fine Arts) A picture of flowers. -- Flower stalk (Botany) , the peduncle of a plant, or the stem that supports the flower or fructification.

Flower Flow"er intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flowered ; present participle & verbal noun Flowering .] [ From the noun. Confer Flourish .] 1. To blossom; to bloom; to expand the petals, as a plant; to produce flowers; as, this plant flowers in June.

2. To come into the finest or fairest condition.

Their lusty and flowering age.

Robynson (More's Utopia).

When flowered my youthful spring.

Spenser.

3. To froth; to ferment gently, as new beer.

That beer did flower a little.

Bacon.

4. To come off as flowers by sublimation. [ Obsolete]

Observations which have flowered off.

Milton.

Flower Flow"er transitive verb To embellish with flowers; to adorn with imitated flowers; as, flowered silk.

Flower State Flow"er State Florida; -- a nickname, alluding to sense of Latin floridus , from florida flowery. See Florid .

Flower-de-luce Flow"er-de-luce" noun [ Corrupted from fleur-de-lis .] (Botany) A genus of perennial herbs ( Iris ) with swordlike leaves and large three-petaled flowers often of very gay colors, but probably white in the plant first chosen for the royal French emblem.

» There are nearly one hundred species, natives of the north temperate zone. Some of the best known are Iris Germanica , I. Florentina , I. Persica , I. sambucina , and the American I. versicolor , I. prismatica , etc.

Flower-fence Flow"er-fence` noun (Botany) A tropical leguminous bush ( Poinciana, or Cæsalpinia, pulcherrima ) with prickly branches, and showy yellow or red flowers; -- so named from its having been sometimes used for hedges in the West Indies. Baird.

Flower-gentle Flow"er-gen`tle noun (Botany) A species of amaranth ( Amarantus melancholicus ).

Flowerage Flow"er·age noun State of flowers; flowers, collectively or in general. Tennyson.

Flowerer Flow"er·er noun A plant which flowers or blossoms.

Many hybrids are profuse and persistent flowerers .

Darwin.

Floweret Flow"er·et noun A small flower; a floret. Shak.

Flowerful Flow"er·ful adjective Abounding with flowers. Craig.

Floweriness Flow"er·i·ness noun The state of being flowery.

Flowering Flow"er·ing adjective (Botany) Having conspicuous flowers; -- used as an epithet with many names of plants; as, flowering ash; flowering dogwood; flowering almond, etc.

Flowering fern , a genus of showy ferns ( Osmunda ), with conspicuous bivalvular sporangia. They usually grow in wet places. -- Flowering plants , plants which have stamens and pistils, and produce true seeds; phenogamous plants; -- distinguished from flowerless plants . -- Flowering rush , a European rushlike plant ( Butomus umbellatus ), with an umbel of rosy blossoms.

Flowering Flow"er·ing noun 1. The act of blossoming, or the season when plants blossom; florification.

2. The act of adorning with flowers.

Flowerless Flow"er·less adjective Having no flowers.

Flowerless plants , plants which have no true flowers, and produce no seeds; cryptogamous plants.

Flowerlessness Flow"er·less·ness noun State of being without flowers.

Flowerpot Flow"er·pot` noun A vessel, commonly or earthenware, for earth in which plants are grown.

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