Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
FLOWERING — FODDER
FLOWERING, ppr.
1. Blossoming; blooming; expanding the petals, as plants.
2. Adorning with artificial flowers, or figures of blossoms.
FLOWERING, n.
1. The season when plants blossom.
2. The act of adorning with flowers.
FLOWER-INWOVEN, a. Adorned with flowers.
FLOWER-KIRTLED, a. Dressed with garlands of flowers.
FLOWERLESS, a. Having no flower.
FLOWER-STALK, n. In botany, the peduncle of a plant, or the stem that supports the flower or fructification.
FLOWERY, a.
1. Full of flowers; abounding with blossoms; as a flowery field.
2. Adorned with artificial flowers, or the figures of blossoms.
3. Richly embellished with figurative language; florid; as a flowery style.
FLOWING, ppr. Moving as a fluid; issuing; proceeding; abounding; smooth, as style; inundating.
FLOWING, n. The act of running or moving as a fluid; an issuing; an overflowing; rise of water.
FLOWINGLY, adv. With volubility; with abundance.
FLOWINGNESS, n. Smoothness of diction; stream of diction.
FLOWK, FLUKE, n. A flounder.
FLOWN, had fled, in the following phrases, is not good English.
Was reason flown.
Sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
In the former passage, flown is used as the participle of fly or flee, both intransitive verbs, and the phrase should have been, had reason flown or fled. In the latter passage, flown is used for blown, inflated, but most improperly. Flown is the participle of the perfect or past tense of fly, but cannot regularly be used in a passive sense.
FLUATE, n. [from fluor, which see.] In chimistry, a salt formed by the fluoric acid combined with a base; as fluate of alumin, or of soda.
FLUCTUANT, a. [L. fluctuans. See Fluctuate.] Moving like a wave; wavering; unsteady.
FLUCTUATE, v.i. [L. fluctuo, from fluctus, a wave, from fluo, to flow.]
1. To move as a wave; to roll hither and thither; to wave; as a fluctuating field of air.
2. To float backward and forward, as on waves.
3. To move now in one direction and now in another; to be wavering or unsteady. Public opinion often fluctuates. Men often fluctuate between different parties and opinions. Hence,
4. To be irresolute or undetermined.
5. To rise and fall; to be in an unsettled state; to experience sudden vicissitudes. The funds or the prices of stocks fluctuate with the events of the day.
FLUCTUATING, ppr.
1. Wavering; rolling as a wave; moving in this and that direction; rising and falling.
2. a. Unsteady; wavering; changeable. We have little confidence in fluctuating opinions.
3. A rising and falling suddenly; as fluctuations of prices or of the funds.
FLUCTUATION, n. [L. fluctuatio.]
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.
3. A rising and falling suddenly; as fluctuations of prices or of the funds.
FLUDER, FLUDDER, n. An aquatic fowl of the diver kind, nearly as large as a goose.
FLUE, n. [probably contracted from flume, L. flumen, from fluo.]
A passage for smoke in a chimney, leading from the fireplace to the top of the chinmey, or into another passage; as a chinmey with four flues.
FLUE, n. [L. pluma.] Soft down or fur; very fine hair. [Local.]
FLUELLEN, n. The female speedwell, a plant of the genus Antirrhinum, or snapdragon.
FLUENCE, for fluency, is not used.
FLUENCY, n. [L. fluens, from flue, to flow.]
1. The quality of flowing, applied to speech or language; smoothness; freedom from harshness; as fluency of numbers.
2. Readiness of utterance; facility of words; volubility; as fluency of speech; a speaker of remarkable fluency.
3. Affluence; abundance. Obs.
FLUENT, a. [See Fluency.]
1. Liquid; flowing.
2. Flowing; passing.
Motion being a fluent thing.
3. Ready in the use of words; voluble; copious; having words at command and uttering them with facility and smoothness; as a fluent speaker.
4. Flowing; voluble; smooth; as fluent speech.
FLUENT, n.
1. A stream; a current of water. [Little used.]
2. The variable or flowing quantity in fluxions.
FLUENTLY, adv. With ready flow; volubly; without hesitation or obstruction; as, to speak fluently.
FLUGELMAN, n.
In German, the leader of a file. But with us, a soldier who stands on the wing of a body of men, and marks time for the motions.
FLUID, a. [L. fluidus, from fluo, to flow.] Having parts which easily move and change their relative position without separation, and which easily yield to pressure; that may flow; liquid. Water, spirit, air, are fluid substances. All bodies may be rendered fluid by heat or caloric.
FLUID, n. Any substance whose parts easily move and change their relative position without separation, and which yields to the slightest pressure; a substance which flows, or which moves spontaneously on a plane with the least inclination; a liquid; liquor; opposed to a solid. Water, blood, chyle, are fluids.
FLUIDITY, n. The quality of being capable of flowing; that quality of bodies which renders them impressible to the slightest force, and by which the parts easily move or change their relative position without a separation of the mass; a liquid state; opposed to solidity. Fluidity is the effect of heat.
FLUIDNESS, n. The state of being fluid; fluidity, which see.
FLUKE, n.
The part of an anchor which fastens in the ground.
FLUKE, FLOWK, n. A flounder.
FLUKE-WORM, n. The guard-worm, a species of Fasciola.
FLUME, n. [L. flumen, from fluo, to flow.]
Literally, a flowing; hence, the passage or channel for the water that drives a mill-wheel.
FLUMMERY, n. [See Lumber.]
1. A sort of jelly made of flour or meal; pap.
Milk and flummery are very fit for children.
2. In vulgar use, any thing insipid or nothing to the purpose; flattery.
FLUNG, pret. and pp. of fling.
Several statues the Romans themselves flung into the river.
FLUOBORATE, n. A compound of fluoboric acid with a base.
FLUOBORIC, a. The fluoboric acid or gas is a compound of fluorine and boron.
FLUOR, n. [Low L. from fluo, to flow.]
1. A fluid state.
2. Menstrual flux. [Little used in either sense.]
3. In mineralogy, fluate of lime. Fluor spar is the foliated fluate of lime. This mineral, though sometimes massive, is almost always regularly crystallized. Its crystals present most frequently the form of a cube, often perfect, sometimes truncated on all its edges by planes, which form with the sides of the cube an angle of 135 degrees. The colors are very numerous and beautiful.
The flutate of lime, fluor, was so named from its use as a flux for certain ores.
FLUOR-ACID, n. The acid of fluor.
FLUORATED, a. Combined with fluoric acid.
FLUORIC, a. Pertaining to fluor; obtained from fluor; as fluoric acid.
FLUORIN, FLUORINE, n. The supposed basis of fluoric acid.
FLUOROUS, a. The fluorous acid is the acid of fluor in its first degree of oxygenation.
FLUOSILICATE, n. [fluor and silex or silica.]
In chiminstry, a compound of fluoric acid, containing silex, with some other substance.
FLUOSILICIC, a. Composed of or containing fluoric acid with silex.
FLURRY, n.
1. A sudden blast or gust, or a light temporary breeze; as a flurry of wind. It is never with us applied to a storm of duration.
2. A sudden shower of short duration; as a flurry of snow.
3. Agitation; commotion; bustle; hurry.
FLURRY, v.t. To put in agitation; to excite or alarm.
FLUSH, v.i.
1. To flow and spread suddenly; to rush; as, blood flushes into the face.
2. To come in haste; to start.
3. To appear suddenly, as redness or a blush.
A blush rose on their cheeks, flushing and fading like the changeful play of colors on a dolphin.
4. To become suddenly red; to glow; as, the cheeks flush.
5. To be gay, splendid or beautiful.
At once, arrayed in all the colors of the flushing year, the garden glows.
FLUSH, v.t.
1. To redden suddenly; to cause the blood to rush suddenly into the face.
Nor flush with shame the passing virgin’s cheek.
2. To elate; to elevate; to excite the spirits; to animate with joy; as, to flush with victory.
FLUSH, a.
1. Fresh, full of vigor; glowing; bright.
Flush as May.
2. Affluent; abounding; well furnished.
Lord Strut was not very flush in ready.
3. Free to spend; liberal; prodigal. He is very flush with his money. This is a popular use of the word in America.
A flush deck, in seamen’s language, is a deck without a half-deck or forecastle.
FLUSH, n.
1. A sudden flow of blood to the face; or more generally, the redness of face which proceeds from such an afflux of blood. Hectic constitutions are often known by a frequent flush in the cheeks.
2. Sudden impulse or excitement; sudden flow; as a flush of joy.
3. Bloom; growth; abundance.
4. A run of cards of the same suit.
5. A term for a number of ducks.
FLUSHED, pp.
1. Overspread or tinged with a red color from the flowing of blood to the face. We say, the skin, face or cheek is flushed.
2. Elated; excited; animated; as flushed with joy or success.
FLUSHER, n. The lesser butcher-bird.
FLUSHING, ppr. Overspreading with red; glowing.
FLUSHING, n. A glow of red in the face.
FLUSTER, v.t. To make hot and rosy, as with drinking; to heat; to hurry; to agitate; to confuse.
FLUSTER, v.i. To be in a heat or bustle; to be agitated.
FLUSTER, n. Heat; glow; agitation; confusion; disorder.
FLUSTERED, pp. Heated with liquor; agitated; confused.
FLUTE, n. [L. flo, flatus, to blow, or L. fluta, a lamprey, with the same number of holes.]
1. A small wind instrument; a pipe with lateral holes or stops, played by blowing with the mouth, and by stopping and opening the holes with the fingers.
2. A channel in a column or pillar; a perpendicular furrow or cavity, cut along the shaft of a column or pilaster; so called from its resemblance to a flute. It is used chiefly in the Ionic order; sometimes in the Composite and Corinthian; rarely in the Doric and Tuscan. It is called also a reed.
3. A long vessel or boat, with flat ribs or floor timbers, round behind, and swelled in the middle; a different orthography of float, flota.
Armed in flute. An armed ship, with her guns of the lower tier and part of those of the upper tier removed, used as a transport, is said to be armed in flute.
FLUTE, v.i. To play on a flute.
FLUTE, v.t. To form flutes or channels in a column.
FLUTED, pp. or a.
1. Channeled; furrowed; as a column.
2. In music, thin; fine; flutelike; as fluted notes.
FLUTING, ppr. Channeling; cutting furrows; as in a column.
FLUTING, n. A channel or furrow in a column; fluted work.
FLUTIST, n. A performer on the flute.
FLUTTER, v.i.
1. To move or flap the wings rapidly, without flying, or with short flights; to hover.
As an eagle stirreth up her next, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings - Deuteronomy 32:11.
2. To move about briskly, irregularly or with great bustle and show, without consequence.
No rag, no scrap of all the beau or wit, that once so fluttered, and that once so writ.
3. To move with quick vibrations or undulations; as a fluttering fan; a fluttering sail.
4. To be in agitation; to move irregularly; to fluctuate; to be in uncertainty.
How long we fluttered on the wings of doubtful success.
His thoughts are very fluttering and wandering.
FLUTTER, v.t.
1. To drive in disorder. [Little used.]
2. To hurry the mind; to agitate.
3. To disorder; to throw into confusion.
FLUTTER, n.
1. Quick and irregular motion; vibration; undulation; as the flutter of a fan.
2. Hurry; tumult; agitation of the mind.
3. Confusion; disorder; irregularity in position.
FLUTTERED, pp. Agitated; confused; disordered.
FLUTTERING, ppr. Flapping the wings without flight or with short flights; hovering; fluctuating; agitating; throwing into confusion.
FLUTTERING, n. The act of hovering, or flapping the wings without flight; a wavering agitation.
FLUVIATIC, FLUVIAL, a. [L. fluviaticus, from fluvius, a river; fluo, to flow.]
Belonging to rivers; growing or living in streams or ponds; as a fluviatic plant.
FLUVIATILE, a. [L. fluviatilis.] Belonging to rivers.
[Fluviatic is the preferable word.]
FLUX, n. [L. fluxus, fluo, fluxi.]
1. The act of flowing; the motion or passing of a fluid.
2. The moving or passing of any thing in continued succession. Things in this life, are in a continual flux.
3. Any flow or issue of matter. In medicine, an extraordinary issue or evacuation from the bowels or other part; as the bloody flux or dysentery, hepatic flux, etc.
4. In hydrography, the flow of the tide. The ebb is called reflux.
5. In metallurgy, any substance or mixture used to promote the fusion of metals or minerals, as alkalies, borax, tartar and other saline matter, or in large operations limestone or fluor. Alkaline fluxes are either the crude, the white or the black flux.
6. Fusion; a liquid state from the operation of heat.
7. That which flows or is discharged.
8. Concourse; confluence. [Little used.]
FLUX, a. Flowing; moving; maintained by a constant succession of parts; inconstant; variable. [Not well authorized.]
FLUX, v.t.
1. To melt; to fuse; to make fluid.
One part of mineral alkali will flux two of siliceous earth with effervescence.
2. To salivate. [Little used.]
FLUXATION, n. A flowing or passing away, and giving place to others.
FLUXED, pp. Melted; fused; reduced to a flowing state.
FLUXIBILITY, n. The quality of admitting fusion.
FLUXIBLE, a. [from Low L.] Capable of being melted or fused, as a mineral.
FLUXILITY, n. [Low L. fluxilis.] The quality of admitting fusion; possibility of being fused or liquified.
FLUXION, n. [L. fluxio, from fluo, to flow.]
1. The act of flowing.
2. The matter that flows.
3. Fluxions, in mathematics, the analysis of infinitely small variable quantities, or a method of finding an infinitely small quantity, which being taken an infinite number of times, becomes equal to a quantity given.
In fluxions, magnitudes are supposed to be generated by motion; a line by the motion of a point, a surface by the motion of a line, and a solid by the motion of a surface. And some part of a figure is supposed to be generated by a uniform motion, in consequence of which the other parts may increase uniformly, or with an accelerated or retarded motion, or may decrease in any of these ways, and the computations are made by tracing the comparative velocities with which the parts flow.
A fluxion is an infinitely small quantity, an increment; the infinitely small increase of the fluent or flowing quantity.
FLUXIONARY, a. Pertaining to mathematical fluxions.
FLUXIONIST, n. One skilled in fluxions.
FLUXIVE, a. Flowing; wanting solidity. [Not used.]
FLUXURE, n. A flowing or fluid matter. [Not used.]
FLY, v.i.
1. To move through air by the aid of wings, as fowls.
2. To pass or move in air, by the force of wind or other impulse; as, clouds and vapors fly before the wind. A ball flies from a cannon, an arrow from a bow.
3. To rise in air, as light substances, by means of a current of air or by having less specific gravity than air, as smoke.
Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Job 5:7.
4. To move or pass with velocity or celerity, either on land or water. He flew to the relief of his distressed friend. The ship flies upon the main.
5. To move rapidly, in any manner; as, a top flies about.
6. To pass away; to depart; with the idea of haste, swiftness or escape. The bird has flown.
7. To pass rapidly, as time. Swift fly the fleeting hours.
8. To part suddenly or with violence; to burst, as a bottle.
9. To spring by an elastic force.
10. To pass swiftly, as rumor or report.
11. To flee; to run away; to attempt to escape; to escape.
I’ll fly from shepherds, flocks, and flowery plains.
12. To flutter; to vibrate or play; as a flag in the wind.
To fly at, to spring towards; to rush on; to fall on suddenly. A hen flies at a dog or cat; a dog flies at a man.
1. To fly in the face, to insult.
2. To assail; to resist; to set at defiance; to oppose with violence; to act in direct opposition.
1. To fly off, to separate or depart suddenly.
2. To revolt.
To fly open, to open suddenly or with violence; as, the doors flew open.
1. To fly out, to rush out; also, to burst into a passion.
2. To break out into license.
3. To start or issue with violence from any direction.
1. To let fly, to discharge; to throw or drive with violence; as, to let fly a shower of darts.
2. In seamanship, to let go suddenly. Let fly the sheets.
FLY, v.t. [This is used for flee, and from is understood after fly, so that it can hardly be called a transitive verb.]
1. To shun; to avoid; to decline; as, to fly the sight of one we hate. That is, primarily, to flee from
Sleep flies the wretch.
2. To quit by flight.
3. To attack by a bird of prey. [Not used.]
4. To cause to float in the air.
FLY, n.
1. In zoology, a winged insect of various species, whose distinguishing characteristic is that the wings are transparent. By this flies are distinguished from beetles, butterflies, grasshoppers, etc. Of flies, some have two wings and others four.
In common language, fly is the house fly, of the genus Musca.
2. In mechanics, a cross with leaden weights at the ends, or a heavy wheel at right angles with the axis of a windlass, jack or the like. The use of this is, to regulate and equalize the motion in all parts of the revolution of the machine.
3. That part of a vane which points and shows which way the wind blows.
4. The extent of an ensign, flag or pendant from the staff to the end that flutters loose in the wind.
FLYBANE, n. A plant called catch-fly, of the genus Silene.
FLYBITTEN, a. Marked by the bite of flies.
FLYBLOW, v.t. To deposit an egg in any thing, as a fly; to taint with the eggs which produce maggots.
Like a flyblown cake of tallow.
FLYBLOW, n. The egg of a fly.
FLYBOAT, n. A large flat-bottomed Dutch vessel, whose burden is from 600 to 1200 tons, with a stern remarkably high, resembling a Gothic turret, and very broad buttocks below.
FLYCATCHER, n.
1. One that hunts flies.
2. In zoology, a genus of birds, the Muscicapa, with a bill flatted at the base, almost triangular, notched at the upper mandible, and beset with bristles. These birds are of the order of Passers, and the species are very numerous.
FLYER, n.
1. One that flies or flees; usually written flier.
2. One that uses wings.
3. The fly of a jack.
4. In architecture, stairs that do not wind, but are made of an oblong square figure, and whose fore and back sides are parallel to each other, and so are their ends. The second of these flyers stands parallel behind the first, the third behind the second, and so are said to fly off from one another.
5. A performer in Mexico, who flies round an elevated post.
FLYFISH, v.i. To angle with flies for bait.
FLYFISHING, n. Angling; the art or practice of angling for fish with flies, natural or artificial, for bait.
FLYFLAP, n. Something to drive away flies.
FLY-HONEYSUCKLE, n. A plant, the Lonicera. The African fly-honeysuckle is the Halleria.
FLYING, ppr.
1. Moving in air by means of wings; passing rapidly; springing; bursting; avoiding.
2. a. Floating; waving; as flying colors.
3. a. Moving; light, and suited for prompt motion; as a flying camp.
Flying colors, a phrase expressing triumph.
FLYING-BRIDGE, n. A bridge of pontoons; also, a bridge composed of two boats.
FLYING-FISH, n. A small fish which flies by means of its pectoral fins. It is of the genus Exocoetus.
FLYING-PARTY, n. In military affairs, a detachment of men employed to hover about an enemy.
FLYING-PINION, n. The part of a clock, having a fly or fan, by which it fathers air, and checks the rapidity of the clock’s motion, when the weight descends in the striking part.
FLYTRAP, n. In botany, a species of sensitive plant, called Venus’ Fly-trap, the Dionaea Muscipula; a plant that has the power of seizing insects that light on it.
FLYTREE, n. A tree whose leaves are said to produce flies, from a little bag on the surface.
FOAL, n. [L. pullus; Gr. The primary sense of the verb is to shoot, to cast or throw, to fall. The same verb in Heb. signifies to unite, to fasten. The verb belongs probably to the root of Eng. fall and foul with a different prefix. Foal is literally a shoot, issue, or that which is cast, or which falls.]
The young of the equine genus of quadrupeds and of either sex; a colt; a filly.
FOAL, v.t. To bring forth a colt or filly; to bring forth young as a mare or a she-ass.
FOAL, v.i. To bring forth young, as a mare and certain other beasts.
FOALBIT, n. A plant.
FOALFOOT, n. The colt’s-foot, Tussilago.
FOAM, n. [L. fumo, to smoke, to foam.]
Froth; spume; the substance which is formed on the surface of liquors by fermentation or violent agitation, consisting of bubbles.
FOAM, v.i.
1. To froth; to gather foam. The billows foam. A horse foams at the mouth when violently heated.
2. To be in a rage; to be violently agitated.
He foameth and gnasheth with his teeth. Mark 9:18.
FOAM, v.t. To throw out with rage or violence; with out.
Foaming out their own shame. Jude 13.
FOAMING, ppr. Frothing; fuming.
FOAMINGLY, adv. Frothily.
FOAMY, a. Covered with foam; frothy.
Behold how high the foamy billows ride!
FOB, n. A little pocket for a watch.
FOB, v.t. To cheat; to trick; to impose on.
To fob off, to shift off by an artifice; to put aside; to delude with a trick. [A low word.]
FOBBED, pp. Cheated; imposed on.
FOBBING, ppr. Cheating; imposing on.
FOCAL, a. [from L. focus.] Belonging to a focus; as a focal point; focal distance.
FOCIL, n. The greater focil is the ulna or tibia, the greater bone of the fore-arm or leg. The lesser focil is the radius or fibula, the lesser bone of the fore-arm or leg.
FOCUS, n. plu. focuses, or foci. [L. focus, a fire, the hearth.]
1. In optics, a point in which any number of rays of light meet, after being reflected or refracted; as the focus of a lens.
2. In geometry and conic sections, a certain point in the parabola, ellipsis and hyperbola, where rays reflected from all parts of these curves, concur or meet.
The focus of an ellipsis, is a point towards each end of the longer axis, from which two right lines drawn to any point in the circumference, shall together be equal to the longer axis.
The focus of a parabola, is a point in the axis within the figure, and distant from the vertex by the fourth part of the parameter.
The focus of a hyperbola, is a point in the principal axis, within the opposite hyperbolas, from which if any two lines are drawn, meeting in either of the opposite hyperbolas, the difference will be equal to the principal axis.
3. A central point; point of concentration.
FODDER, n.
1. Food or dry food for cattle, horses and sheep, as hay, straw and other kinds of vegetables. The word is never applied to pasture.
2. In mining, a measure containing 20 hundred, or 22 1/2 hundred.