FITTON, i. e. Fiction, (q.v)

These thinges considered, I doubte not, but of your courtesse, and ye wil take back your filtons vnto yourself. Jewell. Defence, p. 180.

The title of Paul the Fift to the chaire of Peter in the lawfulnesse of his election, is diversely reported; hath hee therefore no true claime to his seate? But who ever placed Gregorie's pond in Sicily? This is one of the filtens of his Filz-Simons.

Bp. Hall. The Honour of the Married Clergy, b. iii. s. 2. He doth feed you with fillons.

B. Jonson. Cynthia's Revels, Act i. sc. 1.

FIVE. Goth. Fimf; A. S. Fif; Dut. Viif; Ger. Funf; Sw. Fem. The etymologists are content with the Gr. ПEνте. Without doubt, says Wachter, from wavτα, because five fingers are all.

Five is frequently prefixed.

These fyue kynges were tho, ac bute on now ther hys. R. Gloucester, p.6. They haue all many wiues, and the Lords fine-fould to the common sort.-Hacklugt. Voyages, vol. iii. p. 660.

And now he feasts them whom he formerly threatened; and turns their feare into wonder; all unequal love is not partial; all the brethren are entertained bountifully, but Benjamin hath a five-fold portion.

Bp. Hall. Cont. Of Joseph. Five-leaved flowers are commonly disposed circularly about the stylus.-Brown. Cyrus' Garden, c. 3.

As for cinque foile or fire-leaved grasse, there is not one but knoweth it: so common it is, and commendable besides for the strawberries which it beareth.

Holland. Plinie, b. xxv. c. 9.

O check the foamy bit, nor tempt thy fate,
Think on the murders of a fire-bar gate!

Gay. The Birth of the Squire.
In woods and fields their glory they complete,
There Master Betty leaps a five-barr'd gate.

FIX, v.

FIXABLE.

FIXATION.

FIXEDLY. FIXEDNESS. FIXIDITY. Fi'XITY. FIXTURE. FiXURE.

Young. On Women, Sat. 5.

And when our hearts are once stript naked, and carefully searcht, let our eyes be ever fixedly bent upon their conveyances and inclinations.-Bp. Hall. The Great Impostor.

How unexampled a favour is this, who ever but Hezekiah knew his period so long before? the fixednesse of his terme, is no less mercie than the protraction.

Id. Cont. Hezekiah & Sennacherib.

There are or may be some corporeal things in the compass of the universe that may possibly be of such a fixedness, stability and permanent nature, that may sustain an external existence, at least dependently upon the supreme cause. Hale. Origin. of Mankind, c. 3. s. 1. We may likewise without setting our thoughts to work fixure of them, wel derive great utility from them, by the infusion of some of their virtue, making thereof remedyes for the necessityes of our neighbours.

I do not see nor by any sense perceive the quiet, undisturbed air; yet because I do see that a bladder, that was before flaccid, doth swell by the reception of that which I see not, I do as truely and certainly conclude that there is such a subtil body which we call air, as if I could see it as plain as I see the water.-Hale. Origin. of Mankind, p. 19.

He [Solomon] grew not into utter prophaneness of spirit, to cast off all. Nor did David, his father, whilst yet his mouth was shut up to holy discourse; and his wonted fervent desires to turn others to God, grew flaccid, and were cooled in him.-Goodwin. Works, vol. ii. pt. iv. p. 350.

The external air, being permitted to flow back into the receiver, repulsed the air that had filled the bladder into its former narrow receptacle, and brought the bladder to be Boyle. Works, vol i. p. 20.

upon temporall goods in hope to make our happynes by the again flaccid and wrinkled as before.

Mountague. Devoute Essayes, pt. i. Treat. 6. s. 2.

And I presume to have cast the other sect by these two evidences brought against it, viz. the unfaithfullnesse of all material goods, in point of duration and fixure, and the ficklenesse even of our own affections, in the esteeme of such fruitions. Id. Ib. pt. i. Treat. 6. s. 3.

She in the midst began with sober grace;
Her servant's eyes were fix'd upon her face,
And, as she mov'd or turn'd, her motions view'd,
Her measures kept, and step by step pursued.
Dryden. The Flower and the Leaf.

My thoughts at present are fix'd on Homer: and by my translation of the first Iliad, I find him a poet more according to my genius than Virgil, and consequently hope I may do him more justice, in his fiery way of writing.

Id. Prose Works, vol. i. Let. 36. October, 1690. From this account of the causes or requisites of firily, may be deduced the following ineans of giving or adding fixation to a body, that was before either volatile, or less fixed. Boyle. Works, vol. iv. p. 307. But who settled that course of nature? If we ascend not

to the original cause, the fixation of that course is as admirable and unaccountable; if we do, a departure from it is as easy.-Howe. Funeral Sermon on Dr. W. Bates.

My religion is the Roman Catholic religion, in it I have lived above forty years, in it I now die; and so fixedly die, that if all the good things in this world were offered me to my Roman Catholic faith,

FLAG, v. FLAG, R. FLAGGY.

A. S. Fleog-an, volare, to fly; Dut. Vlagg-eren, volitare, and con

or float about, to hang floating, loose, (sc.) in the wind.

To flacke (in Gower)-to move to and fro, (to flicker.)

Flag, the plant, so called, because on account of the slenderness of its leaves it is moved by any wind.

Flag (of a ship, &c.)—because it flies in the wind.

To flag, (consequentially,) from the loose or wind, (see Skinner and Junius.)——

To fasten, join or unite closely, inseparably; to connect or bind; to put or place, set or stick fast or firmly, immovably; to settle steadily.

Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength, Defeating Sin and Death, his two maine armes, And fic farre deeper in his head their stings, Than temporal death shall bruise the victor's heel, Or the rs whom it redeems.-Millon. Par. Lost, b. xii. Since they cannot then stay what is transitory, let them attend to arrest that which is fixable, which is a good degree of peaceable acquiescence of spirit, in all transitory events. Mountague. Devoute Essayes, pt. i. Treat. 9. s. 2.

So that there are three causes of fixation; the even spreading both of the spirits, and tangible parts; the closeness of the tangible parts; and the jejunenesse, or extreme comminution of spirits.-Bacon. Naturall Historie, s. 799.

State Trials, an. 1679. David Lewis. Having given such proofs of the fixedness of its parts, as to have long endured the violence even of a glass-house fire, we can scarce imagine a body more unlikely to have any motion amongst its component particles.

Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 454.

So much do the fixidity and volatility of bodies depend upon texture. Id. Ib. vol. iii. p. 78.

I think I have brought a great many parts of crude gold to assume a mercurial form, and to cover over in that form by distillation (whatever divers learned men think of the insuperable fixity of gold.)—Id. Ib. vol. i. p. 634.

It was not night-it was not day,

It was not even dungeon-light,

So hateful to my heavy sight,
But vacancy absorbing space,
And fixedness-without a place.

Byron. The Prisoner of Chillon, ix.

In short, all the Franks who are fixtures, and most of the English, Germans, Danes, &c., of passage, came over by degrees to their opinion, on much the same grounds that a Turk in England would condemn the nation by wholesale, because he was wronged by his lacquey and overcharged by his washer-woman.-Id. Childe Harold, notes to c. 2.

FIZZ. FizzLE.

Or to Fiest, as Junius; to Feist, as Skinner; or to Fyste, as Cotgrave writes it. See FITCHAT, and FESK.

It is the easiest thing, sir. to be done :
As plaine as fizzling; rowle but wi' your eyes
And foame at th' mouth.

B. Jonson. The Divell is an Asse, Act v. sc. 3. FLA'BBY. Probably Flappy. See FLAP.

If a man not very fat sits resting his leg carelessly upon a stool his calf will hang flabby like the handkerchief in your pocket, let him stand upright with a burthen upon his shoulders as much as he can well bear, and you will find his calves hardened into very bones.

Search. Light of Nature, vol. ii. pt. ii. c. 21. One reason of the difference may be, that animal bodies are, in a great measure, made up of soft, and flabby, substances, such as muscles and membranes.

Paley. Natural Theology, c. 9. FLACCID. Lat. Flaccidus, from Flaccere. FLACCIDITY. The origin, suys' Vossius, is the Gr. Bλakia, (h. e.) mollities, softness. Soft, loose, faint, relaxed. (lax, see Letter F.)

801

To hang loose, and drooping, to droop, to be or become flaccid, lax, languid or faint, weak or feeble.

Flekes, in R. Brunne, flags, twigs, (Hearne,)

withies. Botes and barges ilkon, with flekes mak tham tighte. R. Brunne, p. 321.

Hir cold breste began to heate,

Her herte also to flacke and beate.-Gower. Con. A. b. vill.
With hote alarmes I comforted my men,

In formost ranke I stoode before the rest,
And shooke my flagge, not all to shew my force,
But that thou mightst thereby perceiue my minde.
Gascoigne. Dan Bartholomew of Bathe.

But when my Muse, whose fethers, nothing flitt,
Doe yet but flagg and lowly learn to fly,
With bolder wing shall dare alofte to sty
To the last praises of this Faery Queene;
Then shall it make most famous memory
Of thine heroicke parts, such as they beene.

Spenser. To the Earl of Essex.
Not that thy Muse wants wing

To soar a loftier pitch, for she hath made
A noble flight, and plac'd th' heroic shade
Above the reach of our faint, flagging rhime.

Carew. To Aurelian Townsend.

For if the words be but becoming, and signifying, and the sense gentle, there is juyce: but where that wanteth, the language is thinne, flagging, poore, starv'd; scarce covering the bone, and shewes like stones in a sack.

B. Jonson. Discoveries.

Hee [Scipio] was not far from thence, when there xhim a ship of the Carthaginians, garnished with infules, ribbanus, and white flags of peace, and beset with branches of olive; wherin were ten oratours embarked, the best men of the citie, sent by the advice and motion of Anniball to crave peace.-Holland. Livivs, p. 765.

As swifte as swallowes on the waues they went
That their brode flaggy finnes no foame did reare
Ne bubling rowndell they behind them sent.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 4.
His flaggy winges, when forth he did display,
Were like two sayles, in which the hollow wynd
Is gathered full, and worketh speedy way.
Id. Ib. b. i. o. 11
Plantaines that haue a broad flaggie leafe growing fa
clusters and shaped like cucumbers.
Purchas. Pilgrimage, b. vi. c.
5 K

Already batter'd by his lee they lay,

In vain upon the passing winds they call:
The passing winds through their torn canvass play
And flugging sails on heartless sailors fall.

Dryden. Annus Mirabilis.

The wounded bird, ere yet she breath'd her last,
With flagging wings alighted on the mast;
A moment hung, and spread her pinions there,
Then sudden dropt, and left her life in air.

Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. xxiii.

That basking in the sun thy bees may lie,
And resting there, their flaggy pinions dry:
When, late returning home, the laden host
By raging winds is wreck'd upon the coast.

Dryden. Virgil. Georgics, b. iv.
Thus Reputation is a spur to Wit,
And some wits flag through fear of losing it.

Cowper. Table Talk. The notion that peace would hush up all our dangers had induced us to give up to Holland the honour of the flag; which though, perhaps, of itself of no essential importance, kept up the pride and spirit of the service, and has been maintained by us for a century and a half.

Windham. Speech. Definitive Treaty, May 13, 1802.

FLAG. Ray says, that the surface of FLAG-STONE. the earth, which they pare off to burn, the upper turf; and Mr. Moore, that the portion of clover land turned at once by the plough, is called flag. Woodward, in the passage quoted from him, tells us that flags of stone are no other than strata: whence the origin of the word appears to be the A. S. Fle-an; Dut. Vlaegh-en, deglubere, to flay: to strip off, to separate or divide into flakes. See FLAKE.

Flag-stone will not split, as siate does, being found formed into flags, or thrin plates, which are no other than so many

strata.-Woodward. On Fossils.

And these modern flagellants are sure, with a rigid fidelity, to whip their own enormities on the vicarious back of every small offender.-Burke. On the Nabob of Arcot's Debts.

History makes us acquainted with many curious instances in the heathen world, where the images of the Deities worshipped have been very roughly treated, and even suffered public flagellation, for not having averted the calamities, which had been deprecated. Cogan. On the Passions, vol. i. c. 1. s. 3.

FLAGEOLET. Fr. Flageolet, which Menage derives from the Lat. Flare, to blow. calls it a pipe, whistle, flute.

First he that led the cavalcate

Wore a sow-gelder's flagellate,
On which he blew as strong a levet

Cotgrave

As well-fee'd lawyer on his brev'ate.-Hudibras, pt.ii. c.2. And there wanted no variety, for Banister, besides playing on the violin, did wonders on the flageolet to a thro' base, and several other masters likewise played solos.-Dr. Burney. From Mr. North's Manuscript Memoirs of Musick.

FLAGITIOUS. Lat. Flagitium, from flaFLAGITIOUSLY. > gitare, to demand or require FLAGITIOUSNESS. eagerly, idque cum clamore, att convitiis; hence, flagitii, and flagitandi, were words which signified-ardentem amatoriam solicitationem ad stuprum; then applied-ad stuprum

He beynge blynded with the ambicious desyre of rule before this, in obteyning the kyngdome, had perpetrate and done many fagicious actes and detestable tyrannies. Hall. Rich. III. an. 3. These were artificers, which wicked men make use of, to

deter the best of men from punishing tyrants, and flagitious persons.-Milton. A Defence of the People of England.

If Amasa were now, in the act of loyalty, justly (on God's part) payd for the arerages of his late rebellion, yet that it should be done by thy hand, then and thus, it was flagitiously cruel.-Bp. Hall. Cont. Shebea's Rebellion. This Age

Of a most flagitious note degenerates
From the fan'd virtue of our ancestors,
And leaves but few examples for their excellence.
Rowe. The Ambitious Step-mother, Act ii.

The whole verse hath apparently two propositions: the one denoting the folly of Atheism. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God: the second declaring the Corruption and Flagitiousness of Life which naturally attend it.

Bentley, Ser. 1.

FLA'GON. Fr. Flacon, flascon; It. Fiasco; Sp. Flasco; Dut. Flesche; Ger. Flasche; A. S. Flaxe, a flask, (qv.) In Low Lat. Flasca. HesyVossius, chius has aσkwv, a species of cup. (de Vitiis,) thinks all are from the Ger. Flasche; not noticing the existence of the A. S. Flaxe; but the meaning of the word and the cause of the application are still wanting.

Cotgrave calls the “Fr. Flacon,-a great leathern bottle."

Agayne, that theyr fagons, theyr pottes, their vessels of brasse, their stooles, their beddes, and theyr other stuffe which was daily occupied, should be ofte washed.

Udal. Matthew, c. 15.

That is trewe, quod Roberte of Tulles, ye nede nat doute therin, nor haue no suspiciousnesse, for as yet there is of the same wyne in the flagons, wherof we wyll drinke and

assaye before you.—Berners. Froissart. Cron. vol. ii. c. 187.

Bring forth your flaggins (fill'd with sparkling wine)
Whereon swoln Bacchus, crowned with a vine,
Is graven.
Drayton. The Sacrifice to Apollo.
-I thirsty stand,
And see the double flaggon charge their hand,
See them puff off the froth, and gulp amain,
While with dry tongue I lick my lips in vain.

Gay. Trivia, b. ii.

See! in this glad farewell he doth appear
Stuck with the constellations of his sphere,
Fearing, we-numb'd-fear'd no flagration,
Hath curled all his fires in this one one;
Which (as they guard his hallowed chaste urn)
The dull approaching heretics do burn.

Lovelace. On Fletcher's Comedy of the Wild Goose Chase. Creatures that could vex, but not make you angry, such mean instruments of iniquity that the wickedness was dis paraged by their managing it, and the flagrancy and dan gerous consequence of what was doing was hidden by the inconsiderableness of the agents.—Steel's Apology, Pref.

Jesus had, as they conceived, committed a flagrant act of injustice, in assaulting the persons of men, who were under the protection of the state; and they call upon him only for a sign, since he did these things.-Hurd. A Discourse on Christ driving the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple.

The mysteries of Bacchus were well chosen for an example of corrupted rites, and of the mischiefs they produced; for they were early and flagrantly corrupted. Warburton. The Divine Legation, b. ii. s. 4. FLAIL. Fr. Flayau, fléau. Lacombe has, "Flaeller, battre avec un fléau." Roquefort has both the verb Flaeller, and noun flael. Dut. Veghel; Ger. Flegel; from the Lat. Flagellare, to whip, to

beat.

A beating or threshing tool.

Tho were faitours afered. and flowen to Peerses bernes And flapten on whit failes, fro morwe til evene. Piers Plouhman, p. 137, Beholde I wyll make the a treadynge carte and a newe flayle, that thou maiest threshe and grynde the mountaynes, and bring the hylles to poulder.-Bible, 1551. Esaye, c. 41. But, when as he would to a snake againe

Haue turn'd himselfe, he with his iron faile
Gan driue at him, with so huge might and maine,
That all his bones as small as sandy graile
He broke.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. v. c. 9.
Where Policy is busied all night long
In setting right what Faction has set wrong;
Where flails of oratory thrash the floor,
That yields them chaff and dust, and nothing more.
Couper. Expostulation.

A husbandman, or a gardener, will do more execution by being able to carry his scythe, his rake, or his faile, with a sufficient despatch through a sufficient space, then if, with greater strength his motions were proportionably more confined and slow.-Paley. Natural Theology, c. 9.

FLAKE, v. FLAKE, n. FLAKY.

Fr. noun Floquet; It. Fiocco. The It. verb Fioccare; Dut. Vlocken, is, ningere, to snow. The Ger. Flock, Wachter says, is pars avulsa lanæ, nivis, &c., and he refers to the verb, plucken, pflucken, carpere, vellere, to pluck, pull, or tear away. Somner has Flacea, floccini, flocci nivis, flakes of snow or such like. Junius seems inclined to refer to the Dut. Vliegen, to fly. Skinner decides from the Lat. Floccus; Ihre, Flage, pars avulsa. Snoeflage, flocculus nivis, and he derives from Flaecka, dividere, partiri, to divide or separate and this leads us to the Dut. Vlaeg-hen; A. S. Fle-an, (fle-ig-an,) to flay, to strip off, and thus to separate or divide, (sc.) into flakes or flags. See FLAG-STONE.

To part, separate or divide; to form into flakes or flags, or separate parts or portions: generally applied to such as are broad, thin and flat.

As flakes fallen in great snowes.

Chaucer. House of Fame, b. iii.
My morning minde which dwelt and dyed in dole,
Saught company for solace of the same:
My cares were cold, and craued comforts coale,
To warme my will with flakes of friendly flame.
Gascoigne. A Louer often warned.
Then can he term his dirty ill-fac'd bride
Lady and queen and virgin deify'd:

Be she all sooty black, or berry brown,
She's white as inarrow's milk, or fakes new blown.

Bp. Hall, b i. Sat. 7. The Egyptian paper (of which ours made of rags hath still the name) was made of a sedgie reed, growing in the marishes of Egypt, called Papyrus, which easily diuides it selfe into thinne fakes; these layd on a table, and moistned with the glutinous water of Nilis were prest together and dried in the sunne.-Purchas. Pilgrimage, b. vi. c. 5. s. 2.

Afterwards, being reduced into bars and gads when it is red not, it [steele] is spungeous and brittle, apt to breake or resolve in flakes.-Holland. Plinie, b. xxxiv. c. 4.

Some part of the sperma-ceti found on the shore was pure and needed little depuration; a great part mixed with fetid oyl, needing good preparation, and frequent expression to bring it to a flaky consistency.

Brown. Vulgar Erreurs, b. iii. c. 26

While from her tomb, behold, a flame ascends,
Of whitest fire, whose flight to heaven extends!
Un faking wings it mounts, and quick as sight
Cuts thro' the yielding air with rays of light.

Congreve. The Morning Muse of Alexis.
The bellying clouds
Burst into rain, or gild their sable skirts
With fakes of ruddy fire.

Somervile. To Sir Adolphus Oughton. Winter my theme confines; whose nitry wind Shall crust the slabby mire, and kennels bind; She bids the snow descend in flaky sheets; And in her hoarv mantle clothe the streets.

Gay. Trivia, b. ii. The roof, though movable through all its length As the wind sways it, has yet well suffic'd, And, intercepting in their silent fall The frequent flakes, has kept a path for me.

Cowper. Task, b. vi. Amazing scene! What showers of mortal hail, what flaky fires Burst from the larkness.-Watts. The Victory of the Poles. FLAM, v. Skinner says, I know not whether FLAM, n. from the A. S. Flyma, vagus, q.d. rumor vagus, a flying rumor; with us, it denotes a lying story or fable. Flyma is from Fleam, flight, and this from the verb Flean, to fly. And thus, Skinner's explanation is correct.

A lying story or fable; a false pretext; a vagary. And

To flam, to put off, impose upon, cajole with such story or pretext.

Sus.
Till he and you be friends.
Was this your cunning?-and then fam me off
With an old witch, two wives, and Winnifrede?

Ford. The Witch of Edmonton, Act ii. sc. 2.

But still when any hope was, as 'tis her trick
To minister enough of those, then presently
With some new flam or other, nothing to the matter,
And such a frown, as would sink all before her,

She takes her chamber.

Beaum. & Fletch. The Humourous Lieutenant, Act iv. sc.1.

Ar. 'Tis a fool's indeed;

A very fool's; thou hast more of
These flams in thee, these musty doubts.

Beaum. & Fletch. The Loyal Subject.

I cannot (saith one) now attend to prayers, because I am not at liberty or at leisure, being urgently called away, and otherwise engaged by important affairs. How much a flamme this apology is, we shall presently descry, by asking a few questions about it.-Barrow, vol. i. Ser. 7.

Fair Isis, and ye banks of Cam!
Be witness if I tell a flam.

Swift. Directions for a Birthday Song. For when a writer can furnish no better an entertainment than a parcel of groundless flams, he will be much subject to repetition.-Warburton. On Bolingbroke's Philosophy, Let. 3.

FLAMBEAU. Fr. Flambeau, 18 (generally) a light; or any thing that yields a flame, and is carried in the dark, for light," (Cotgrave.)

And I had a flambeau in my hand, and was going before the coach; and coming along, at the lower end of St. Alban's Street, I heard the blunderbuss go off.

State Trials. Count Coningsmark and others, an. 1632.

All catch the frenzy, downward from her grace,
Whose flambeaux flash against the morning skies,
And gild our chamber ceilings as they pass,
To her, who, frugal only that her thrift
May feed excesses she can ill afford,

Is hackney'd home unlackey'd.-Cowper. The Task, b. ii. The day following. Clodius attacked Milo's house, with sword in hand and lighted Aambeaus, with intent to storm and burn it.-Middleton. Life of Cicero, s. 6.

And he criede and seide, fadir Abraham haue mersy on me and sende Lazarus that he dippe the ende of his finger in water, to kele my tunge: for I am turmentid in this fawme.-Wiclif. Luke, c. 16.

Father Abraham, haue mercye on me, and sende Lazarus that he maye dippe the typpe of his finger in water, and cole my tonge: for I am tormented in this flame. Bible, 1551. Ib. Flabe doun the doleful light of thyn influence Remebring thy seruants for thy magnificēce.

Chaucer. A Balade of our Ladie. And he wax wroth, and bade men shuld hire lede Home til hire house, and in hire hous (quod he) Brenne hire right in a bath, with flames red.

Id. The Second Nonnes Tale, v. 15,983. Then feleth he anon a flame of delit, and then it is good to beware and kepe him wel, or elles he wol fall anon to consenting of sinne.-Id. The Persones Tale.

Might I haue throwen into that rauy brandes,
And filled eke their deckes with flaming fire,
The father, sonne, and all their nacion
Destroied, and falln, my self ded ouer al!

Surrey. Virgile. Æneis, b. iv. The lightninge that fell out of the ayre beinge in the sommer season semed like fier, & ye flames sodeinly appearinge, were thought to come from Darius's campe. Brende. Quintus Curtius, fol. 85.

About this time were many wōderfull thinges seane in diueres quarters of the worlde, specially a greate comete or blaisinge starre, whiche semed with flamynges of fyre to fall into the sea.-Bale. English Votaries, pt. i.

Before the threshold, dreadfull Cerberus
His three deformed heads did lay along,
Curled with thousand adders venemous,
And lilled forth his bloudy flaming tongue.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 5.

Much was he moued at that rufull sight;
And, fam'd with zeale of vengeance inwardly,
He ask't, who had that dame so fouly fight,
Or whether his oune hand, or whether other wight?

Since the same flame, by different ways express'd,
Glows in the Hero's and the Poet's breast;
The same great thoughts that rouse you to the fight,
Inspire the Muse, and bid the Poet write.
Rowe. Prologue to the Royal Conver

He cas'd his limbs in brass; and first around
His manly legs with silver buckles bound
The clasping greaves; then to the breast applies
The flamy cuirass, of a thousand dyes.
Pope. Homer. Iliad, b.
Meanwhile they crown with cypress, sign of drear
And baleful yew, the fame devoted bier,
And infant's bed.

Lewis. Stalius. Thebas3.

Not more afraid the wond'ring swain descries,
Midst night's thick gloom a faming meteor rise.
Sent by the Furies, as he deems, to sow
Death and diseases on the earth below.

Wilkie. The Epigoniad, t. ii!.

The wild confusion, and the swarthy glow
Of fames on high, and torches from below;
The shriek of terrour, and the mingling yell-
For swords began to clash, and shouts to swell-
Flung o'er that spot of earth the air of hell!

Byron, The Corsair e. 2
Mortals, believe, what my Urania sings,
For she has seen him rise upon his amy wings.
Watts. To the Memory of the Rev. Mr. Gouge
Lat. Flamen, so called, says
Vossius, a flameo, (sc.) flamen
colore velamenti capitis; from
the flame colour of the covering of the head.
Their gownes long like flamine priestes.

FLA'MEN. FLAMINICAL. FLA'MINESHIP.

}

Id. Ib. b. v.

I say, proceeding from the sulphur of bodies torrified, that is the oylie fat, and unctuous parts wherein consist the principles of flammability.

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vi. c. 12.

White or christaline arsenic being artificial, and sublimed with salt, will not endure flammation.—Id. Ib. b. ii. c. 5.

For this flammeous light is not over all the body, but only visible on the inward side; in a small, white part near the tail (of the glow-worm.)-Id. Ib. b. iii. c. 27.

As for living creatures, it is certain, their vitall spirits are

a substance compounded of an airy and flamy matter; and

though air and flame being free, will well not mingle; yet bound in by a body that hath some fixing, they will.

Bacon. Naturall Historie, s. 30.

The first was Splendor. In a robe of flame-colour, naked brested; her bright haire loose flowing. B. Jonson. The Second Masque of Beauty. Let Impudence lead Slander on, to boast Her oblique look; and to her subtle side, Thou, black-mouth'd Execration, stand apply'd ; Draw to thee Bitternesse, whose pores sweat gal; She flame-ey'd Rage; Rage, mischiefe.

Id. Charmes from the Masques of Queens.
Pox on your flameship, Vulcan; if it be
To all as fatal as 't hath beene to me,
And to Paul's steeple; which was unto us
'Bove all your fire-workes had at Ephesus,
Or Alexandria.

Id. An Execration of Vulcan.
Sure Vulcan's shop is here-
Hark, how the anvils thunder round the dens
Flammivomus!
Thompson. Sickness, b. iii.
Around thy coast his bursting bombs he pours
On flaming citadels and falling towers;
With hissing streams of fire the air they streak
And hurl destruction round them where they break;
The skies with long ascending flames are bright,
And all the sea reflects a quivering light.

Addison. To the King.

C. Claudius, the arch flamine of Jupiter, lost his flamineship and was deprived of that sacerdotall dignitie, because he had committed an error in sacrificing, when hee should minister and distribute the inwards of the beast. Holland. Livirs, p. 601.

Divers auncient ceremonies also, which by little and little were disused and abolished, he restored agayne, as namely the Augurie of Salus, the Flamineship of Jupiter, the sacred Lupercal, the Sæculer playes, and the Compitality. Id. Suetonius, p. 52. Its [Religion] titles of pontiffs, augurs, and flamens were borne by Senators, Consuls, and Generals.

FLANK, v. FLANK, n. FLA'NKER, V. FLANKER, n.

Paley. Evidences, pt. i. c. 1. Fr. n. Flanc, v. Flanquer; It. Fianco, fiancheggiare Dut. Lancke; Ger. Lank and flanke; from the Gr. Aayar, ilia, says

;

Menage; ingeniosius credo quam verius, adds Skinner. The Dut. Ger. and Eng. Lank, seem to direct us to the A. S. Leng-ian, to long or lengthen, to extend: the difficulty is to account for the F. Wachter says, præposito digamma Eolico;-perhaps b into p, and then into f: belank, pe, ph, lank, plank, phank, flank. See F.

Flank, the n. is applied generally to the long or lengthened side of any thing; particularly, to That part of an animal which extends from the ribs to the thigh.

To flank, to be or lie, to stand or be stationed, on the side; and thus, to cover or protect, guard or defend it.

Our enemies made certain loope-holes in the wall, thorow the which they flancking and scouring all the ditch with their harquebussie, stopped our former course of carying, or going that way any more, without certaine and expresse danger.-Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 123.

In the castle was placed that famous gentleman Andrea Bragadino, who with a diligent gard had charge on that part of the castle principally, next vnto the sea side, trimming and digging out new flanckers for the better defence of the arsenal. Id. Ib. p. 122.

Some had the mainferres, the close gantlettes, the guis settes, the flancardes droped & gutted with red, and other had the spekeled grene.-Hall. Henry IV. an. 1.

Next these came Tyne, along whose stony bancke
That Romaine monarch built a brasen wall,
Which mote the feebled Britons strongly flancke
Against the Picts, that swarmed over all.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. !v. e. 11.

The sides, flankes, and bellie [of the chameleon] meet togither, as in fishes.-Holland. Plinie, b. viii. c. 33.

At daie breaking, the legions appointed for the flankes, either for feare, or contempt, abandoned their standings; and seased on the fielde adjoining, beyond the marshes. Grenewey. Tacitus, Annales, p. 26.

.

8. There are other rules concerning the situation of trees; the former author commending the north-east wind both for the flourishing of the tree, and advantage of the timber; but to my observation, in our climates, where those sharpe winds do rather flanker then blow fully opposite upon our plantations, they thrive best.-Evelyn. Silva, c. 3.

By the rich scent we found our perfum'd prey,
Which, flanck'd with rocks, did close in covert lie;
And round about their murdering cannon lay,
At once to threaten and invite the eye.

Dryden. Annus Mirabilia, s. 26.
And yet in town and country prospects please
Where stately colonades are flank'd with trees.

In order just the ready squadrons ride,
Then wheeling to the right and left divide,
To flank the foot, and guard each naked side.

Rowe. Lucan, b. iv.

With the rest of his tail he flapped and beat her legs. Holland. Plutarch, p. 792. They will fap the lye in Truth's teeth, tho she visibly stand before their face without any vizard. Howell, b. iii. Let. 23. Thou greene sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassell of a prodigal's purse thou.-Shakes. Troil. & Cress. Act v. sc. 1. But to make an end of the ship, to see how the sea flapdragon'd it.-Id. Winter's Tale, Act iii. sc. 3.

Amo. From stabbing of armes, flap-dragons, healths, whiffes and all such swaggering humours.

Chorus. Good Mercury defend us.

B. Jonson. Cynthia's Revels, Act v. sc. 3.
Fan. I'le go afore, and have the bon-fire made,
My fire-works, and flap-dragons, and good back-rack,
With a peck of little fishes, to drink down
In healths to this day.

Beaum. & Fletch. The Beggar's Bush, Act v. sc. 2. In the last place, for the Dira, or flying pest, which flapPitt. Epistle to J. Pitt, Esq. ping on the shield of Turnus, and fluttering about his head, disheartened him in the duel, and presag'd to him his approaching death, I might have plac'd it more properly amongst the objections.-Dryden. Dedication to the Eneid. I spoke with him, and took much notice of him, he had an old black hat on, that flapped, and a pair of Spanish leather shoes.-State Trials, an. 1679. T. Whitebread and others. Did not the tender nonsense strike, Contempt and scorn might look dislike; Forbidding airs might thin the place,The slightest flap a fly can chase.

The French infantry, posted at Blenheim, [made] at the same time a terrible fire from behind some hedges on their flank which were advanced too near the village, so that the first line was put into such disorder, part of them retired beyond the rivulet.

Tyndall. History of England. Anne, an. 3, 1704.

By great Antilochus, Atymnius dies,
Piere'd in the flank, lamented youth, he lies.
Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. xvi.
For this assault should either quarter feel
Again to flank the tempest she might reel.

Falconer. The Shipwreck. Would an officer employ one of these corps [the volunteer] to cover his flank, or to maintain an important post.

Windham. Speech. Local Militia, April 12, 1808.

FLANNEL. Pannus spongiosus, bibulus et mollis; perhaps, says Skinner, from Lanula, dim. of lana, wool.

There the Generall went on shore in his barge, and by chance met a canoe of Dominicans, to the people whereof he gaue a yellow waistcoate of flannell and an handkerchief; and they gaue hita such fruits as they had.

}

Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. ii. p. 384. Fal. Well I am your theame, you haue the start of me, I am detected: I am not able to answer the Welsh flannell. Shakespeare. Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. sc. 5. Where the brass knocker wrapt in flannel band, Forbids the thunder of the footman's hand. Gay. Trivia, b. ii. FLAP, v. Skinner thinks with Dr. Th. H., FLAP, n. that the verb is from the It. FlapFLAPPER. pare, flaccescere; and this either from the Lat. Flabrum, or flaccescere. The noun, (sc.) a fly-flap, from the Dut. Flabbe, muscarum colaphus, which Minshew says, is from the sound made in striking at flies. The similarity observable in the applications of the words, lap, (qv.) and flap, leads to a suspicion that they have the same origin; f prefixed to the latter-perhaps b into p, and then into f. (See F.) Junius says

Flap. is the extremity of any thing soft and pendulous, and which is shaken by any slight motion. To flap is

To move, fall or strike with a flap; that is, with the motion of such soft and pendulous substance. A flap-dragon is a small inflammable substance set on float in a glass of liquor. To swallow this unhurt while flaming was a proof of dexterity in a toper, and candle ends were sometimes used as the ne plus ultima of the exercise. In our times, raisins in hot brandy form one of the Christmas gambols of children.

A flap-jack, from a quotation produced by Archdeacon Nares, appears to have been a kind of pancake.

Tho were faitours a fered and flowen to Peerses bernes And fapen on white flailes. fro morwe til evene. Piers Ploukman, p. 137. For (quoth he) when many files stoode feeding vppon his tawe flesh, and had well fed themselues, he was contented aj another's perswasion to haue them flapt awaie.

Wilson. The Arte of Rhetorique, p. 201.

Gay. The Lady and the Wasp. Oh! grievance sore, and listless dull delay, To waste on sluggish hulks the sweetest breeze! What leagues are lost before the dawn of day, Thus loitering pensive on the willing seas, The flapping sail haul'd down to halt for logs like these. Byron. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, c. 2.

Q. Did you see any body, before that, have hold of the flap of Mr. O'Connor's coat?

Erskine. Speech. Trial of the Earl of Thanet, 1799. FLARE. Skinner says, Flare in one's eyes, oculis instar lucis obversari; I know not whether from the Dut. Flederen, volitare, vagari, q. d. oculos circumvolitare, circa oculos vagari: to flit or fly before or around the eye, glaring light. To feel, or cause to feel, to throw forth or emit, a broad, dazzling, glaring light.

But quaint pride Hath taught her sons to wound their mother's side, And gage the depth, to search for flaring shells, In whose bright bosome spumy Bacchus swells. G. Fletcher. Christ's Triumph on Earth. For all the fights

I have fought for you on land; the fears at sea, Where I have tugg'd with tempests, stood storms a midnight;

Out-star'd the flaring lightning, and the next morning Chas'd the unruly stubborn Turk with thunder.

Davenport. The City Night-Cap, Act iii. sc. 1. Her chaste and modest vail, surrounded with celestial beams, they over-laid with wanton tresses, and in a flaring tire bespeckl'd her with all the gaudy allurements of a whore. Milton. Of Reformation in England, b. i. Thy way unhappy shouldst thou take From Tyber's bank to Leman lake, Thou art an aged priest no more But a young flaring painted whore: Thy sex is lost, thy town is gone; No longer Rome, but Babylon. Now the shrill lark in ether floats, And carols wild her liquid notes; While Phoebus, in his lusty pride, His flaring beams flings far and wide.

Prior. Alma, c. 2.

Lloyd. To the Moon. Have we not seen round Britain's peopled shore, Her useful sons exchang'd for useless ore ? Seen all her triumphs but destruction haste, Like flaring tapers bright'ning as they waste.

Goldsmith. The Traveller. Junius, from the Gr. Aok, flame; Skinner, from the verb to blaze. It is not improbably from the verb to fly, to flit, to

FLASH, v. FLASH, N. FLA'SHING, n. FLA'SHY. flicker, A. S. Fliccerian.

To have or give a dazzling, glittering or shining appearance; to throw forth or emit a sudden and transient blaze or flame; and, generally, (lit. and met.) to throw or rush forth suddenly, so as to produce a shining or showy appearance.

"A flash," Grose says, "is a supply of water from the locks on the Thames, to assist the Cred. With what a lye you'd fap me in the mouth! barges." And Pegge, in his Supplement," Any Cartwright. The Ordinary, Act ii. sc. 5. pool of water." See the quotation from Drayton.

Flashy, the adjective, Skinner is inclined to derive from the Lat. Flaccidus; but it appears merely a consequential usage of the verb; showy vain, spiritless; and thus, tasteless, insipid.

Wherof cometh that horible and broade flashing flame of fyre? It sprong of one litel sparke.-Udal. James, c. 3. When loe the flashinge flames aloft the battlements had caught

Of Turnus noble tower, and vp to heauen they cracklinge raught. Phaer. Virgill. Eneidos, b. xii.

So did Sir Artegall upon her lay,

As if she had an yron and vile beene,
That flakes of fire, bright as the sunny ray,
Out of her steely armes were flashing seene.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. v. c. 5.

Yet will a many little surges be
Flashing upon the rocke full busily,
And doe the best they can to kiss her feet
But that their power and will not equal meet.

Browne. Britannia's Pastorals, b. ii. s. 3.
Lin. Oft have I seasoned savoury periods
With sugar'd words, to delude Gustus' taste,
And oft embellish'd my entreative phrase,
With smelling flowers of vernant rhetoric,
Limning and flashing it with various dyes
To draw proud Visus to me by the eyes.

Brewer. Lingua, Act i. sc. 1. Yet still the dangerous dykes, from shot do them secure, Where they [mallards, &c.] from flash to flash like the full epicure

Waft, as they lov'd to change their diet every meal.
Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 25.

And so, whilst I cast on thy funeral pile
The crown of bays, O let it crack awhile,
And spit disdain, till the devouring flashes
Suck all the moisture up, then turn to ashes.

Carew. An Elegy upon the Death of Dr. Donne. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others: but that would be, onely in the lesse important arguments, and the meaner sort of books: else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things.-Bacon. Ess. Of Studies.

At last, in a good hour, we are come to his farewel, which is to be a concluding taste of his jabberment in law, the

flashiest and the fustiest that ever corrupted in such an unswill'd hogshead.-Milton. Colasterion.

But sometimes so shaken be these shell-fishes with the feare of fashie lightenings, that they become emptie or bring forth feble young ones, or at leastwise by some abortive defects they slip and run on. Holland. Ammianus, p. 239.

So much the greater is their sinne, that seek to Aash out these flashings.-Purchas. Pilgrimage, b. i. c. 5.

The arguments of the Grecian, drawn from reason, work themselves into your understanding, and make a deep and lasting impression in your mind; those of the Roman, drawn from wit, flash immediately on your imagination, but leave no durable effect.-Dryden. The Life of Plutarch. Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires, The meteor drops, and in a flash expires.

Pope. The Dunciad, b. iv. Hart. Yet it is sometimes too late with some of your young, termagant, flashy sinners-you have all the guilt of the intention, and none of the pleasure of the practice.

Congreve. The Old Bachelor, Act i.

From amidst this thick darkness the lightnings, those swift executioners of divine vengeance, shall flash abroad over the earth, while ten thousand thunders, rolling from the glorious God that maketh them shall at once utter their tremendous voices; as it is written again in the same book of Psalms; "Our God shall come and shall not keep silence."-Horne. Works, vol. v. Dis. 5.

Now flashing wide, now glancing as in play,
Swift beyond thought the lightnings pass away.

Couper. Truth. Those sallies of jollity in the house of feasting are often forced from a troubled mind; like flashes from the black cloud, which, after a momentary effulgence, are succeeded by thicker darkness.-Blair, vol. ii. Ser. 13.

At the same moment that he asserts the high bailiff was intimidated [Lord Mulgrave] pronounces a flashy panegyric upon the firmness and intrepidity of the very man he affirms

to be thus terrified.

Fox. Speech. Westminster Scrutiny, June 8, 1784. The very attempt towards pleasing every body, discovers a temper always flashy, and often false and insincere. Burke. Speech at Bristol previous to the Election. FLASK. A. S. Flaxa; Ger. Flasche; It.

FLASKET.} Fiasco; Sp. Flasco, fiasco. See FLAGON.

Ray calls a flasket, a bottle made in fashion of a barrel; and Grose, flasket, a long, shallow basket.

This sulphurous flask, therefore, dyes in his own smok: onely leaving an hatefull stench behind.

Bp Hall. Cont. Hezekiah & Senacherib.

Where also there is one Canephoros, to wit, a virgin bearing upon her head a flasket of holy reliques; all of Scopas his making.-Holland. Plinic, b. xxxvi. c. 5.

They [good qualities] have all a tang of his testy humour, that shows itself in all he says and does: like a drop of oil left in a flask of wine, in every glass you taste it.

Southerne. The Maid's Last Prayer, Act ii. sc. 1.

The argument proves too much, for, by the same argument, a flask of air would have more intrinsic value than all the rest put together; since air is absolutely necessary to support life; which none of the rest are.

Waterland. Works, vol. viii. p. 186.

The Fauns through every furrow shot
To load their flaskets with the fruit.-Parnell. Bacchus.

FLAT, v.

FLAT, n.

FLAT, adj.

FLA'TLY.

FLA'TNESS.

FLATTEN, V.

Dut. Plat; Ger. Flach; Fr. Plat; It. Piatto; Gr. ПATUS, platus, piatto, (Menage.)

Just as in our streets, when the people stay

To see the prince and so fill up the way
That weesels scarce could passe, whe she comes nere
They throng, and cleave up, and a passage cleare,
As if for that time their round bodies flatned were.
Donne. The Progresse of the Soule, s. 1. v. 14.
Whilst they, sir, to relieve him in the fable,
Make their loose comments upon every word,
Gesture, or look, I use; mock me all over;
From my flat cap unto my shining shoes.
B. Jonson. Every Man in his Humour, Act ii. sc. 1.
A sharp-pointed hat,
(Now that you see the gallants all flat-headed,)
Appears not so ridiculous, as a yonker,
Without a love-intrigue.

Digby. Elvira, Act iii.

After which commeth the broad bit of the plough-sheare indeed, lying flat-wise, and in earing casteth up all before it, and clenseth the furrow.-Holland. Plinie, b. xviii. c. 18. Still over head

The mingling tempest weaves its gloom, and still
The deluge deepens; till the fields around

Lie sunk, and flatted, in the sordid wave.-Thomson. Aut.

(Met.) 1. Downright, positive.

2. Depressed or dejected, spiritless, inanimate, lifeless, tasteless, dull, stupid. A flat, one easily gulled or deluded.

And betimes in the morning we were altogether runne and folded in amongst flats and sands, amongst which we found shoale and deepe in euery three or foure shipes length, after we began to sound.-Hackiuyt. Voyages, vol. iii. p. 156.

Towards the northe lieth a nacion called Nasamons, who inhabitting vpon a flatte shore, be accustomed to liue on spoiles of the sea, & lye alwayes in a wayte vpon the coast to spoyle such ships as suffer wreck. Brende. Quintius Curtius, fol. 71. They fell downe flatte on theyr faces before the throne. Bale. Image, pt. i. Wherfore they stood most in doubt of the Duke of Parma his small and flat-bottomed ships. Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. i. p. 596. Their houses are flat-rooffed and built of lime and stone. Id. Ib. vol. iii. p. 391. When like a Phoebean champion, she [Vertue] hath routed the army of her enemies, flatted their strongest forts, brought the mightiest of her foes, in a chained subjection,

to humour the motions of her thronged chariot, and be the gaze of the abusive world.-Feltham, pt. i. Resolve 4.

It may be apprehended that the retrenchment of these pleasant liberties, may flat and dead the taste of conversation.--Mountague. Devoute Essayes, pt. i. Treat. 12. s. 3.

After this the Britains drew back toward the mouth of the Thames, and acquainted with those places, cross'd over; where the Romans following them through bogs and dangerous flats, hazarded the loss of all. Millon. History of England, b. ii. This is monte potiri, to get the hill. For no perfect discovery can be made upon a flat or a levell.

B. Jonson. Discoveries.

nt. What a blow was there given? Seb. And it had not falne flat long.

Shakespeare. Tempest, Act 11. sc. 2.

Isab. That in the captaine's but a chollericke word, Which in the souldier is flat blasphemie.

Id. Measure for Measure, Act ii. sc. 2.

Jes. Nay, you need not fear vs Lorenzo, Launcelot and I are out, he tells me flatly there is no mercy for me in heauen, because I am a Jew's daughter.

Id. Merchant of Venice, Act ii. sc. 2. Unjust thou saist, Flatly unjust, to bind with laws the free, And equal over equals to let reigne, One over all with unsucceeded power,

Id. Paradise Lost, b. v.

Wherof to help those many infirmities, which he reckons up, rudeness, impertinency, flatness, and the like, we have a remedy of God's finding out, which is not Liturgy, but his own free spirit.-Millon. Answer to Eikon Basilikè.

Howbeit, wonderful it remaineth still, how it should become a globe, considering so great flatnesse of plaines and seas.-Holland. Plinie, b. ii. c. 65.

Leo. The prince has been upon him.
What a flatten face he has now? it takes, believe it;
How like an ass he looks.

Beaum. & Fletch. Humourous Lieutenant, Act iii. sc. 5.

To serve all times he could distinctions coin,
And with great ease flat contradictions join.
Id. Tarquin & Tullia.

A real presence all her sons allow,
And yet 'tis flat idolatry to bow,
Because the Godhead's there they know not how.
Id. The Hind and the Panther.

He was so far from spreading copies of his explanation, at taking the oath, that he flatly refused to give a kind, and discreet friend, then in his chamber, a copy of it, lest it might go abroad.-State Trials, an. 1681. Earl of Argyle.

The poet could not keep up his narration all along in the grandeur and magnificence of an heroic style: he has here sunk into the flatness of prose. Addison. Notes on Ovid. Melam. b. iii. These worms are small and black, lodging in a greyish shell, they have large fla'lish heads, a large mouth, with four black jaws.- Denham. Physico-Theology, b. iv. c. 11. N. 22. The pods (cocoa and cocô) which seldom contain less than thirty nuts of the size of a flatted olive, grow upon the stem and principal branches.-Granger. The Sugar Cane, b. i.

This Saxon style begins to be defined by flat and round arches, by some undulating zigzags on certain old fabricks, and by a very few other characteristics, all evidences of barbarous and ignorant times.

Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. c. 5.

mitted to an audience; and when he began to press, and But it is certain, from Cicero's account, that he was ad

even supplicate him in a manner the most affecting, that Pompey flatly refused to help him.

Middleton. The Life of Cicero, vol. i. s. 4.

The truth is, that many minds are not so indisposed to any thing which can be offered to them, as they are to the flatness of being content with common reasons: and what is most to be lamented, minds conscious of superiority are the most liable to this repugnancy.

Paley. Natural Theology, c. 23.

The ordinary shape of the fish's eye being in a much larger degree convex than that of land-animals, a corresponding difference attends its muscular conformation, viz. that it is throughout calculated for flattening the eye.-Id. Ib. c. 3.

Others say that this event happened in the palace of the Cardinal de Medici, Torreggiano being jealous of the superior honours paid to Michael Angelo, whose nose was flattened by the blow. Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. c. 4.

Whilst our heroes from home
For laurels thus roam,

Should the flat-bottom'd boats but appear,
Our militia shall show

No wooden-shoed foe
Can with freeman in battle compare.

FLATIVE. FLATULENCY. FLATULENT. FLATUO'SITY. FLA'TUOUS. FLA'TUS.

P. Whitehead. An Occasional Song.

Lat. Flare, to blow, which, with the Gr. λav, Vossius thinks-a sono factum.

That can or may blow; blowing, windy, swollen with wind, puffy, vain.

Gus. Eat not too many of these apples, they be very flative. Brewer. Lingua, Act iv. sc. 17.

The pure, light, and piercing substance of the fire, being now converted into lightning, is gone and passed away; but the more weighty, gross, and flatulent part remaining behind, enwrapped within the cloud, altereth and taketh quite the coldnesse away, and drinketh up the moisture, making it more flatuous and windy.-Holland. Plutarch, p. 577.

We see also that cor newly inned, and all fruits of trees presently upon their gathering, are plump, full and swe.ied again, untill such time as they have exhalted forth all that is flatuous, and breathed out the crudities thereof. Holland. Plutarch, p. 642.

The cause is for that rhubarb is a medicine, which the stomack in a small quantity doth digest and overcome, being not flatuous or loathsome.-Bacon. Nat. Hist. s. 44. Chrysippus writeth, that it is a soveraigne medicine for flatuosities, and such as be oppressed with melancholy. Holland. Plinie, b. xx. c. 9.

In this disease it were better for to represse the said windinesse and flatuositie.-Id. Ib. b. xxviii. c. 19.

The fourth cause is flatuosity: for wind stirred moveth to expell.-Bacon. Naturall Historie, s. 39.

I was assailed by that splenetic passion which a countrey good fellow that had been a piece of a grammarian meant, when he said he was sick of the flatus, and the other hard word; for hypochondriacus stuck in his teeth.

Reliquia Wottonianæ, p. 467. The most sure sign of a deficient perspiration is flatulency or wind.-Arbuthnot. Of Aliments, c. 5.

Vegetables abound more with aerial particles than animal substances, and therefore are more flatulent.-Id. Ib. c. 6. His story is not so pleasing as Ariosto's; he is too flatulent sometimes, and sometimes too dry. Dryden. Dedication to Juvenal. The painfull and comfortless sensations produced by fla tulencies and indigestions, in hypochondriac temperaments, have sometimes been mistaken for an anxious state of mind; and the medicines which relieve the one will administer comfort to the other.

Cogan. On the Passions, vol. i. pt. ii. c. 2.

FLATTER, v. FLATTERER. FLATTERING. FLATTERINGLY. FLATTERY.

Dut. Fletsen, fletteren; Fr. Flater; which Menage, supported by various preceding etymologists, derives from Flatare, a frequentative of flo, flare, to blow. Flare, flatum, flatare, flater. Junius thinks that it may have been formed from flat, because it is peculiar to flatterers, planâ explicatâque manu (with a flat hand) demulcere caput aut genas eorum, (or, according to the common phrase, to smoothen down those) into whose favour they would insinuate themselves. The Lat. Palpare is to touch or stroke gently and softly, and thus, to caress, to flatter; and palpum, a gentle stroke; flattery. According to the etymology of Menage,

To breathe or whisper (sc.) praise or pleasing words into the ear;-(of Junius) to smoothen or (sc.) by praise or pleasing words, or actions. soften down, to soothe or luil, to please or gratify,

Holland has coined the n. Flatteress, and Boyle the ad. Flatterously.

For thees frerere flaterede me. while he fond me riche. Piers Plouhman, p 202. Rygt so flaterers and foles. aren the fend procuratores. Entysen men thorgh here tales. to synne and to harlotrie. Id. p. 114. Fortune gan flaterie thenne. thaym fewe that were alyve. Id. p. 397.

O soden hap, O thou fortune unstable
Like to the scorpion so deceivable,
That flatrest with thy hed whan thou wolt sting.
Chaucer. The Marchantes Tale, v. 9933.
Thou shalt eke eschue the conceiling of all flatterers,
swiche as enforcen hem rather to preisen youre persone by
flaterie, than for to tell you the sothfastnesse of thinges.
Id. The Tale of Melibeus.

And thus with fained flattering and japes,
He made the persone, and the peple, his apes.
Id. The Prologue, v. 707.
Som saiden, that we ben in herte most esed
Whan that we ben uflatered and ypreised:
He goth ful nigh the sothe, I wol not lie;
A man shal win us best with flaterie.

Id. The Wif of Bathes Tale, v. 6514.