Flush Flush intransitive verb (Mining) (a) To operate a placer mine, where the continuous supply of water is insufficient, by holding back the water, and releasing it periodically in a flood. (b) To fill underground spaces, especially in coal mines, with material carried by water, which, after drainage, constitutes a compact mass.

Flushboard Flush"board` noun Same as Flashboard .

Flusher Flush"er noun 1. A workman employed in cleaning sewers by flushing them with water.

2. (Zoology) The red-backed shrike. See Flasher .

Flushing Flush"ing noun 1. A heavy, coarse cloth manufactured from shoddy; -- commonly in the ... [ Eng.]

2. (Weaving) A surface formed of floating threads.

Flushingly Flush"ing·ly adverb In a flushing manner.

Flushness Flush"ness noun The state of being flush; abundance.

Fluster Flus"ter transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Flustered ; present participle & verbal noun Flustering .] [ Confer Icelandic flaustra to be flustered, flaustr a fluster.] To make hot and rosy, as with drinking; to heat; hence, to throw into agitation and confusion; to confuse; to muddle.

His habit or flustering himself daily with claret.

Macaulay.

Fluster Flus"ter intransitive verb To be in a heat or bustle; to be agitated and confused.

The flstering , vainglorious Greeks.

South.

Fluster Flus"ter noun Heat or glow, as from drinking; agitation mingled with confusion; disorder.

Flusteration Flus`ter·a"tion noun The act of flustering, or the state of being flustered; fluster. [ Colloq.]

Flustrate Flus"trate transitive verb [ See Fluster , transitive verb ] To fluster. [ Colloq.] Spectator.

Flustration Flus·tra"tion noun The act of flustrating; confusion; flurry. [ Colloq.] Richardson.

Flute Flute noun [ Middle English floute , floite , from Old French flaüte , flahute , flahuste , French fl...te ; confer Late Latin flauta , Dutch fluit . See Flute , intransitive verb ] 1. A musical wind instrument, consisting of a hollow cylinder or pipe, with holes along its length, stopped by the fingers or by keys which are opened by the fingers. The modern flute is closed at the upper end, and blown with the mouth at a lateral hole.

The breathing flute's soft notes are heard around.

Pope.

2. (Architecture) A channel of curved section; -- usually applied to one of a vertical series of such channels used to decorate columns and pilasters in classical architecture. See Illust. under Base , noun

3. A similar channel or groove made in wood or other material, esp. in plaited cloth, as in a lady's ruffle.

4. A long French breakfast roll. Simonds.

5. A stop in an organ, having a flutelike sound.

Flute bit , a boring tool for piercing ebony, rosewood, and other hard woods. -- Flute pipe , an organ pipe having a sharp lip or wind-cutter which imparts vibrations to the column of air in the pipe. Knight.
[ 1913 Webster]

Flute Flute (flūt) noun [ Confer French flūte a transport, Dutch fluit .] A kind of flyboat; a storeship.

Armed en flūte (Nav.) , partially armed.

Flute Flute intransitive verb [ Middle English flouten , floiten , Old French flaüter , fleüter , flouster , French flūter , confer Dutch fluiten ; ascribed to an assumed Late Latin flautare , flatuare , from Latin flatus a blowing, from flare to blow. Confer Flout , Flageolet , Flatulent .] To play on, or as on, a flute; to make a flutelike sound.

Flute Flute transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Fluted ; present participle & verbal noun Fluting .] 1. To play, whistle, or sing with a clear, soft note, like that of a flute.

Knaves are men,
That lute and flute fantastic tenderness.

Tennyson.

The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee.

Emerson.

2. To form flutes or channels in, as in a column, a ruffle, etc.

Flūte Ć  bec Flūte` Ć  bec" [ French] (Mus.) A beak flute, an older form of the flute, played with a mouthpiece resembling a beak, and held like a flageolet.

Fluted Flut"ed adjective 1. Thin; fine; clear and mellow; flutelike; as, fluted notes. Busby.

2. Decorated with flutes; channeled; grooved; as, a fluted column; a fluted ruffle; a fluted spectrum.

Flutemouth Flute"mouth` noun (Zoology) A fish of the genus Aulostoma , having a much elongated tubular snout.

Fluter Flut"er noun 1. One who plays on the flute; a flutist or flautist.

2. One who makes grooves or flutings.

Fluting Flut"ing noun Decoration by means of flutes or channels; a flute, or flutes collectively; as, the fluting of a column or pilaster; the fluting of a lady's ruffle.

Fluting iron , a laundry iron for fluting ruffles; -- called also Italian iron , or gaufering iron . Knight. -- Fluting lathe , a machine for forming spiral flutes, as on balusters, table legs, etc.

Flutist Flut"ist noun [ Confer French flūtiste .] A performer on the flute; a flautist. Busby.

2. To move with quick vibrations or undulations; as, a sail flutters in the wind; a fluttering fan.

3. To move about briskly, irregularly, or with great bustle and show, without much result.

No rag, no scrap, of all the beau, or wit,
That once so fluttered , and that once so writ.

Pope.

4. To be in agitation; to move irregularly; to flucttuate; to be uncertainty.

Long we fluttered on the wings of doubtful success.

Howell.

His thoughts are very fluttering and wandering.

I. Watts.

Flutter Flut"ter transitive verb 1. To vibrate or move quickly; as, a bird flutters its wings.

2. To drive in disorder; to throw into confusion.

Like an eagle in a dovecote, I
Fluttered your Volscians in Corioli.

Shak.

Flutter Flut"ter noun 1. The act of fluttering; quick and irregular motion; vibration; as, the flutter of a fan.

The chirp and flutter of some single bird

Milnes. .

2. Hurry; tumult; agitation of the mind; confusion; disorder. Pope.

Flutter wheel , a water wheel placed below a fall or in a chute where rapidly moving water strikes the tips of the floats; -- so called from the spattering, and the fluttering noise it makes.

Flutterer Flut"ter·er noun One who, or that which, flutters.

Flutteringly Flut"ter·ing·ly adverb In a fluttering manner.

Fluty Flut"y adjective Soft and clear in tone, like a flute.

Fluvial Flu"vi·al adjective [ Latin fluvialis , from fluvius river, from fluere to flow: confer French fluvial . See Fluent .] Belonging to rivers; growing or living in streams or ponds; as, a fluvial plant.

Fluvialist Flu"vi·al·ist noun One who exlpains geological phenomena by the action of streams. [ R.]

Fluviatic Flu`vi·at"ic adjective [ Latin fluviaticus . See Fluvial .] Belonging to rivers or streams; fluviatile. Johnson.

Fluviatile Flu"vi·a·tile adjective [ Latin fluviatilis , from fluvius river: confer French fluviatile .] Belonging to rivers or streams; existing in or about rivers; produced by river action; fluvial; as, fluviatile starta, plants. Lyell.

Fluvio-marine Flu`vi·o-ma·rine" adjective [ Latin fluvius river + English marine .] (Geol.) Formed by the joint action of a river and the sea, as deposits at the mouths of rivers.

Fluviograph Flu"vi·o·graph noun [ Latin fluvius river + -graph .] An instrument for measuring and recording automatically the rise and fall of a river.

Fluviometer Flu`vi·om"e·ter noun [ Latin fluvius river + -meter .] An instrument for measuring the height of water in a river; a river gauge.

Flux Flux (flŭks) noun [ Latin fluxus , from fluere , fluxum , to flow: confer French flux . See Fluent , and confer 1st & 2d Floss , Flush , noun , 6.] 1. The act of flowing; a continuous moving on or passing by, as of a flowing stream; constant succession; change.

By the perpetual flux of the liquids, a great part of them is thrown out of the body.

Arbuthnot.

Her image has escaped the flux of things,
And that same infant beauty that she wore
Is fixed upon her now forevermore.

Trench.

Languages, like our bodies, are in a continual flux .

Felton.

2. The setting in of the tide toward the shore, -- the ebb being called the reflux .

3. The state of being liquid through heat; fusion.

4. (Chem. & Metal.) Any substance or mixture used to promote the fusion of metals or minerals, as alkalies, borax, lime, fluorite.

» White flux is the residuum of the combustion of a mixture of equal parts of niter and tartar. It consists chiefly of the carbonate of potassium, and is white. -- Black flux is the ressiduum of the combustion of one part of niter and two of tartar, and consists essentially of a mixture of potassium carbonate and charcoal.

5. (Medicine) (a) A fluid discharge from the bowels or other part; especially, an excessive and morbid discharge; as, the bloody flux or dysentery. See Bloody flux . (b) The matter thus discharged.

6. (Physics) The quantity of a fluid that crosses a unit area of a given surface in a unit of time.

Flux Flux adjective [ Latin fluxus , past participle of fluere . See Flux , noun ] Flowing; unstable; inconstant; variable.

The flux nature of all things here.

Barrow.

Flux Flux transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Fluxed (flŭkst); present participle & verbal noun Fluxing .] 1. To affect, or bring to a certain state, by flux.

He might fashionably and genteelly . . . have been dueled or
fluxed into another world.

South.

2. To cause to become fluid; to fuse. Kirwan.

3. (Medicine) To cause a discharge from; to purge.

Fluxation Flux·a"tion noun The act of fluxing.

Fluxibility Flux`i·bil"i·ty noun [ Confer Late Latin fluxibilitas fluidity.] The quality of being fluxible. Hammond.

Fluxible Flux"i·ble adjective [ Confer LL. fluxibilis fluid, Old French fluxible .] Capable of being melted or fused, as a mineral. Holland.

-- Flux"i*ble*ness , noun

Fluxile Flux"ile adjective [ Latin fluxilis , adjective , fluid.] Fluxible. [ R.]

Fluxility Flux·il"i·ty noun State of being fluxible. [ Obsolete]

Fluxion Flux"ion noun [ Confer French fluxion .] The act of flowing. Cotgrave.

2. The matter that flows. Wiseman.

3. Fusion; the running of metals into a fluid state.

4. (Medicine) An unnatural or excessive flow of blood or fluid toward any organ; a determination.

5. A constantly varying indication.

Less to be counted than the fluxions of sun dials.

De Quincey.

6. (Math.) (a) The infinitely small increase or decrease of a variable or flowing quantity in a certain infinitely small and constant period of time; the rate of variation of a fluent; an incerement; a differential. (b) plural A method of analysis developed by Newton, and based on the conception of all magnitudes as generated by motion, and involving in their changes the notion of velocity or rate of change. Its results are the same as those of the differential and integral calculus, from which it differs little except in notation and logical method.

Fluxional Flux"ion·al adjective Pertaining to, or having the nature of, fluxion or fluxions; variable; inconstant.

The merely human,the temporary and fluxional .

Coleridge.

Fluxional structure (Geol.) , fluidal structure.

Fluxionary Flux"ion·a·ry adjective 1. Fluxional. Berkeley.

2. (Medicine) Pertaining to, or caused by, an increased flow of blood to a part; congestive; as, a fluxionary hemorrhage.

Fluxionist Flux"ion·ist noun One skilled in fluxions. Berkeley.

Fluxions Flux"ions noun plural (Math.) See Fluxion , 6 (b) .

Fluxive Flux"ive adjective Flowing; also, wanting solidity. B. Jonson.

Fluxure Flux"ure noun [ Latin fluxura a flowing.] 1. The quality of being fluid. [ Obsolete] Fielding.

2. Fluid matter. [ Obsolete] Drayton.

Fly Fly (flī) intransitive verb [ imperfect Flew (flū); past participle Flown (flōn); present participle & verbal noun Flying .] [ Middle English fleen , fleen , fleyen , flegen , Anglo-Saxon fleógan ; akin to Dutch vliegen , Old High German fliogan , German fliegen , Icelandic fljūga , Swedish flyga , Danish flyve , Goth. us-flaugjan to cause to fly away, blow about, and perhaps to Latin pluma feather, English plume . √84. Confer Fledge , Flight , Flock of animals.] 1. To move in or pass through the air with wings, as a bird.

2. To move through the air or before the wind; esp., to pass or be driven rapidly through the air by any impulse.

3. To float, wave, or rise in the air, as sparks or a flag.

Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

Job v. 7.

4. To move or pass swiftly; to hasten away; to circulate rapidly; as, a ship flies on the deep; a top flies around; rumor flies .

Fly , envious Time, till thou run out thy race.

Milton.

The dark waves murmured as the ships flew on.

Bryant.

5. To run from danger; to attempt to escape; to flee; as, an enemy or a coward flies . See Note under Flee .

Fly , ere evil intercept thy flight.

Milton.

Whither shall I fly to escape their hands ?

Shak.

6. To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly; -- usually with a qualifying word; as, a door flies open; a bomb flies apart.

To fly about (Nautical) , to change frequently in a short time; -- said of the wind. -- To fly around , to move about in haste. [ Colloq.] -- To fly at , to spring toward; to rush on; to attack suddenly. -- To fly in the face of , to insult; to assail; to set at defiance; to oppose with violence; to act in direct opposition to; to resist. -- To fly off , to separate, or become detached suddenly; to revolt. -- To fly on , to attack. -- To fly open , to open suddenly, or with violence. -- To fly out . (a) To rush out. (b) To burst into a passion; to break out into license. -- To let fly . (a) To throw or drive with violence; to discharge. "A man lets fly his arrow without taking any aim." Addison. (b) (Nautical) To let go suddenly and entirely; as, to let fly the sheets.

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