See Also: flail(medicine)
flail(1)(dictionary)
flail(2)(dictionary)
Flail - Skydiving(gambling)
flail chest(medicine)
flail joint(medicine)
Flail chest(health)
flail 1, verb(dictionary)
flail 2, noun(dictionary)

flail(1) (iou)



flail noun & adjective.
[Old English (assumed), = Old Saxon flegil, Middle & mod. Dutch vlegel, Old & mod. High German flegel, from West Germanic, prob. from Latin flagellum scourge, flail. In Middle English prob. from Old French flaiel or Middle Dutch vlegel.]
A. noun.
A threshing implement consisting of a wooden handle attached to a heavy free-swinging pole or club. OE.
Something resembling this; a whip, a scourge. LME.
protestant flail a short staff weighted with lead carried by protestants at the time of the 'Popish plot' (1678-81).
Something which swings on a pivot, as the swing-bar of a gate, the clapper of a bell, the lever of a press. LME-L17.
A medieval weapon consisting of a (usu. iron) handle with a spiked club or lengths of chain attached. L15.
b. attrib. or as adjective. Medicine. Of a part of the body: abnormally movable, hanging loosely. L19.
Comb. & special collocations: flail chest a condition in which multiple rib fractures cause excessive flexibility of the chest wall, sufficient to interfere with breathing; flail harvester, flail mower, etc., a harvesting, mowing, etc., machine having free-swinging cutters mounted on a horizontal rotor; flail-joint Medicine a joint showing grossly excessive mobility; flail mower: see flail harvester above; flail-tank a tank with flails attached, used to detonate mines.