Flowering 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 noun
1. The act of blossoming, or the season when plants blossom; florification.

2. The act of adorning with flowers.

Flowerless adjective Having no flowers.

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

Flowerlessness noun State of being without flowers.

Flowerpot noun A vessel, commonly or earthenware, for earth in which plants are grown.

Flowery adjective
1. Full of flowers; abounding with blossoms.

2. Highly embellished with figurative language; florid; as, a flowery style. Milton.

The flowery kingdom , China.

Flowery-kirtled adjective Dressed with garlands of flowers. [ Poetic & Rare] Milton.

Flowing adjective That flows or for flowing (in various sense of the verb); gliding along smoothly; copious.

Flowing battery (Electricity) , a battery which is kept constant by the flowing of the exciting liquid through the cell or cells. Knight. -- Flowing furnace , a furnace from which molten metal, can be drawn, as through a tap hole; a foundry cupola. -- Flowing sheet (Nautical) , a sheet when eased off, or loosened to the wind, as when the wind is abaft the beam. Totten.

Flowing adjective & noun from Flow , intransitive verb & t.

Flowingly adverb In a flowing manner.

Flowingness noun Flowing tendency or quality; fluency. [ R.] W. Nichols.

Flowk noun (Zoology) See 1st Fluke .

Flown past participle of Fly ; -- often used with the auxiliary verb to be ; as, the birds are flown .

Flown adjective Flushed, inflated. [ Supposed by some to be a mistake for blown or swoln .] Pope.

Then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

Milton.

Floxed silk See Floss silk , under Floss .

Floyte noun & v. A variant of Flute . [ Obsolete]

Fluate noun [ Confer French fluate . See Fluor .] (Chemistry) A fluoride. [ Obsolete]

Fluavil noun [ Etymol. uncertain.] (Chemistry) A hydrocarbon extracted from gutta-percha, as a yellow, resinous substance; -- called also fluanil .

Flucan noun (Mining) Soft clayey matter in the vein, or surrounding it. [ Written also flookan , flukan , and fluccan .]

Fluctiferous adjective [ Latin fluctus wave + -ferous .] Tending to produce waves. Blount.

Fluctisonous adjective [ Latin fluctisonus ; fluctus wave + sonus sound.] Sounding like waves.

Fluctuability noun The capacity or ability to fluctuate. [ R.] H. Walpole.

Fluctuant adjective [ Latin fluctuans , present participle of fluctuare . See Fluctuate .]
1. Moving like a wave; wavering ; (Medicine) showing undulation or fluctuation; as, a fluctuant tumor.

2. Floating on the waves. [ Obsolete] Bacon.

Fluctuate intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Fluctuated ; present participle & verbal noun Fluctuating .] [ Latin fluctuatus , past participle of fluctuare , to wave, from fluctus wave, from fluere , fluctum , to flow. See Fluent , and confer Flotilla .]
1. To move as a wave; to roll hither and thither; to wave; to float backward and forward, as on waves; as, a fluctuating field of air. Blackmore.

2. To move now in one direction and now in another; to be wavering or unsteady; to be irresolute or undetermined; to vacillate.

Syn. -- To waver; vacillate; hesitate; scruple. -- To Fluctuate , Vacillate , Waver . -- Fluctuate is applied both to things and persons and denotes that they move as they are acted upon. The stocks fluctuate ; a man fluctuates between conflicting influences. Vacillate and waver are applied to persons to represent them as acting themselves. A man vacillates when he goes backward and forward in his opinions and purposes, without any fixity of mind or principles. A man wavers when he shrinks back or hesitates at the approach of difficulty or danger. One who is fluctuating in his feelings is usually vacillating in resolve, and wavering in execution.

Fluctuate transitive verb To cause to move as a wave; to put in motion. [ R.]

And fluctuate all the still perfume.

Tennyson.

Fluctuation noun [ Latin fluctuatio ; confer French fluctuation .]
1. A motion like that of waves; a moving in this and that direction; as, the fluctuations of the sea.

2. A wavering; unsteadiness; as, fluctuations of opinion; fluctuations of prices.

3. (Medicine) The motion or undulation of a fluid collected in a natural or artifical cavity, which is felt when it is subjected to pressure or percussion. Dunglison.

Flue noun [ Confer Old French flue a flowing, from fluer to flow, from Latin fluere (cf. Fluent ); a perhaps a corruption of English flute .] An inclosed passage way for establishing and directing a current of air, gases, etc.; an air passage ; esp.: (a) A compartment or division of a chimney for conveying flame and smoke to the outer air. (b) A passage way for conducting a current of fresh, foul, or heated air from one place to another. (c) (Steam Boiler) A pipe or passage for conveying flame and hot gases through surrounding water in a boiler; -- distinguished from a tube which holds water and is surrounded by fire. Small flues are called fire tubes or simply tubes .

Flue boiler . See under Boiler . - - Flue bridge , the separating low wall between the flues and the laboratory of a reverberatory furnace. -- Flue plate (Steam Boiler) , a plate to which the ends of the flues are fastened; -- called also flue sheet , tube sheet , and tube plate . -- Flue surface (Steam Boiler) , the aggregate surface of flues exposed to flame or the hot gases.

Flue noun [ Confer French flou light, tender, German flau weak, W. llwch dust. √84.] Light down, such as rises from cotton, fur, etc.; very fine lint or hair. Dickens.

Flue noun In an organ flue pipe, the opening between the lower lip and the languet.

Flue pipe (Music) A pipe, esp. an organ pipe, whose tone is produced by the impinging of a current of air upon an edge, or lip, causing a wave motion in the air within; a mouth pipe; - - distinguished from reed pipe . Flue pipes are either open or closed (stopped at the distant end). The flute and flageolet are open pipes; a bottle acts as a closed pipe when one blows across the neck. The organ has both open and closed flue pipes, those of metal being usually round in section, and those of wood triangular or square.

Fluence noun Fluency. [ Obsolete] Milton.

Fluency noun [ Latin fluentia : confer French fluence . See Fluent .] The quality of being fluent; smoothness; readiness of utterance; volubility.

The art of expressing with fluency and perspicuity.

Macaulay.

Fluent adjective [ Latin fluens , - entis , present participle of fluere to flow; confer Greek ... to boil over. Confer Fluctuate , Flux .]
1. Flowing or capable of flowing; liquid; glodding; easily moving.

2. Ready in the use of words; voluble; copious; having words at command; and uttering them with facility and smoothness; as, a fluent speaker; hence, flowing; voluble; smooth; -- said of language; as, fluent speech.

With most fluent utterance.

Denham.

Fluent as the flight of a swallow is the sultan's letter.

De Quincey.

Fluent noun
1. A current of water; a stream. [ Obsolete]

2. [ Confer French fluente .] (Math.) A variable quantity, considered as increasing or diminishing; -- called, in the modern calculus, the function or integral .

Fluently adverb In a fluent manner.

Fluentness noun The quality of being fluent.

Fluework noun (Mus.) A general name for organ stops in which the sound is caused by wind passing through a flue or fissure and striking an edge above; -- in distinction from reedwork .

Fluey adjective [ 2d Flue .] Downy; fluffy. [ R.]

Fluff noun [ Confer 2d Flue . √84.] Nap or down; flue; soft, downy feathers.

Fluff transitive verb & i. To make or become fluffy; to move lightly like fluff. Holmes.

Fluffy adjective [ Compar. Fluffier ; superl. Fluffiest .] Pertaining to, or resembling, fluff or nap; soft and downy. "The carpets were fluffy ." Thackeray.

The present Barnacle . . . had a youthful aspect, and the fluffiest little whisker, perhaps, that ever was seen.

Dickens.

-- Fluff"i*ness , noun

Flugelman noun [ German flügelman .] (Mil.) Same as Fugleman .

Fluid (flūĭd) adjective [ Latin fluidus , from fluere to flow: confer French fluide . See Fluent .] Having particles which easily move and change their relative position without a separation of the mass, and which easily yield to pressure; capable of flowing; liquid or gaseous.

Fluid noun A fluid substance; a body whose particles move easily among themselves.

» Fluid is a generic term, including liquids and gases as species. Water, air, and steam are fluids . By analogy, the term is sometimes applied to electricity and magnetism, as in phrases electric fluid , magnetic fluid , though not strictly appropriate.

Fluid dram , or Fluid drachm , a measure of capacity equal to one eighth of a fluid ounce. -- Fluid ounce . (a) In the United States, a measure of capacity, in apothecaries' or wine measure, equal to one sixteenth of a pint or 29.57 cubic centimeters. This, for water, is about 1.04158 ounces avoirdupois, or 455.6 grains. (b) In England, a measure of capacity equal to the twentieth part of an imperial pint. For water, this is the weight of the avoirdupois ounce, or 437.5 grains. -- Fluids of the body . (Physiol.) The circulating blood and lymph, the chyle, the gastric, pancreatic, and intestinal juices, the saliva, bile, urine, aqueous humor, and muscle serum are the more important fluids of the body . The tissues themselves contain a large amount of combined water, so much, that an entire human body dried in vacuo with a very moderate degree of heat gives about 66 per cent of water. -- Burning fluid , Elastic fluid , Electric fluid , Magnetic fluid , etc. See under Burning , Elastic , etc.

Fluidal adjective Pertaining to a fluid, or to its flowing motion.

Fluidal structure (Geol.) , the structure characteristic of certain volcanic rocks in which the arrangement of the minute crystals shows the lines of flow of thew molten material before solidification; -- also called fluxion structure .

Fluidity noun [ Confer French fluidité .] The quality of being fluid or capable of flowing; a liquid, aëriform, or gaseous state; -- opposed to solidity .

It was this want of organization, this looseness and fluidity of the new movement, that made it penetrate through every class of society.

J. R. Green.

Fluidize transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Fluidized ; present participle & verbal noun Fluidizing .] To render fluid.

Fluidness noun The state of being fluid; fluidity.

Fluidounce noun See Fluid ounce , under Fluid .

Fluidrachm noun See Fluid dram , under Fluid . Pharm. of the U. S.

Flügel noun [ G., a wing.] (Mus.) A grand piano or a harpsichord, both being wing- shaped.