| 释义 |
▪ I. flail, n. and a.|fleɪl|
Forms: 1 fliᵹel, 3 Orm. fleȝȝl, 4–5 fleil(e, -yl(e, 4–6 flaill, 5 flayel, flaylle, flaelle, 5–7 flayl(e, 6 flale, flael, 6–8 flaile, 7 fleale, fleyle, (8 flay), 4– flail.
[The late OE. fliᵹel is possibly a corruption of *flęgil, corresponding to MDu., Du., LG. vlegel, OHG. flegel (MHG. vlegel, mod.Ger. flegel):—WGer. *flagil, prob. ad. L. flagellum lit. ‘scourge,’ but already in the Vulgate used for ‘flail’. Some scholars have thought that the WGer. word may be f. OTeut. root *flah-, flag-:—pre-Teut. *plak- (cf. Lith. plàkti to strike, Gr. πληγνύναι); but this appears improbable. Cf. the synonymous Rom. forms, OF. flaiel, flael, fleel (mod.F. fléau), Pr. flagel, flachel, Sp. flagelo, Pg. flagello, It. fragello:—L. flagellum. The 15th c. spelling flayel, and perh. some earlier forms, are influenced by the OF. word.]
A. n.
1. a. An instrument for threshing corn by hand, consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the end of which a stouter and shorter pole or club, called a swingle or swipple, is so hung as to swing freely.
a1100Gerefa in Anglia (1886) IX. 264 To odene fliᵹel and andlamena fela. c1200Ormin 1500 Þa þresshesst tu þin corn wiþþ fleȝȝl. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 174 Faytors..flapten on with fleiles from morwe til euen. 1481Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 15 Alle ranne theder..some with a rake, some with a brome..some with a flayel. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 134 b, The flayle tryeth y⊇ corne from the chaffe. 1635Cowley Davideis iv. 170 Nor did great Gideon his old Flail disdain, After won Fields. 1727Swift Gulliver iii. ii. 183 A blown bladder fastened like a flail at the end of a short stick. 1868Rogers Pol. Econ. x. (1876) 24 Thirty years ago all corn, or nearly all corn, was threshed by the flail.
Proverb.1674,1730[see fence n. 3].
b. fig. Also in phrase to be threshed with your own flail: to be treated as you have treated others.
c1489Caxton Blanchardyn xxxii. 121 Beten wyth the flayel of fortune. 1589Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 23 Faith Martin, you shall bee thresht with your owne flaile. 1682Dryden Mac Fl. 82 A scourge of Wit, and flayle of Sense. 1781Cowper Expost. 302 Flails of oratory thresh the floor. 1831Carlyle in Froude Life (1882) II. 208 A tall, loose..vehement-looking flail of a man.
2. A military weapon resembling a threshing-flail in construction, but usually of iron or strengthened with iron, and often having the striking part armed with spikes. Cf. morning-star.
Also Protestant flail (Eng. Hist.): a weapon consisting of a short staff, loaded with lead, attached to the wrist by a strap; it is said to have been carried during the excitement of the ‘Popish Plot’ (1678–81) by persons who professed to be in fear of murderous assaults by ‘Papists’.
c1475Partenay 2999 Flaelles thre of yre. c1500Melusine xxxviii. 303 The geaunt toke hys flayel of yron, & gaf geffray a grete buffet. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. ix. 19 He with his yron flaile Gan drive at him, with..might and maine. 1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. xi 24 She..Drove farre their flying troops, & thresht with iron flail. c1682Ballad in Roxb. Ball. IV. 35 Listen a while, and I'll tell you a tale Of a new Device of a Protestant Flayl. a1734North Exam. (1740) 572 A certain Pocket Weapon..called a Protestant Flail. 1887Dict. Nat. Biog. XI. 332 [S. College] made himself notorious..by inventing a weapon..which he called ‘the protestant flail’.
†3. [After F. fléau.] Something that swings on a pivot.
a. A swing-bar for a gate.
b. A beam like that of a balance (by which two buckets can be lowered alternately into a draw-well).
c. A lever with the free extremity weighted, forming part of a cider-press. Obs.
c1450Merlin 206 Merlin caught the flayle of the yate and plukked it to hym and yede oute as lightly as it hadde not haue ben lokked. c1450Henryson Mor. Fab. x. 177 Lawrence gird downe [the well]..The other bade aboue and held the flaill. 1691Worlidge Cyder (ed. 3) 113 The Flail-Press..with heavy Weights or Stones at the end of the Flail.
†4. As transl. of L. flagellum: A scourge. Obs.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 139 Takenge a flayle in theire honde.
5. attrib. and Comb., as flail-man; flail-finned, flail-like adjs. Also, flail-cap (= Du. vlegelkap, Ger. flegelkappe), the cap (cap n.1 12) or caplin of a flail; flail-capping dial. = prec.; flail(-type) harvester, a type of harvesting-machine for forage-grass (see quot.); flail-joint Med., a joint showing grossly excessive mobility; † flail-press (see 3 c); † flail-staff, the part of the flail held in the hands; flail-stone, an elongated stone with a hole at one end, for use as a flail-swingle; † flail-swinger, a thresher; flail-swingle, the swinging or freely-moving part of the flail; flail tank, a type of tank used for clearing a mine-field.
c1440Promp. Parv. 165/1 *Fleyl cappe, cappa.
1878Cumbld. Gloss., *Flail cappin', the leather attached to the upper end of the flail soople.
1630Donne Progress Soul xxxvi. Poems (1669) 302 The *Flail-finn'd Thresher and steel-beak'd Sword-fish.
1959Farmer & Stockbreeder 12 May 70 (heading) With a *flail harvester. Ibid. 70/1 The true flail-type harvester has a horizontal rotor to which is attached a number of free-swinging flails or cutters. [These flails] cut the grass by high speed impact.
1876Trans. Clin. Soc. IX. 173 A *flail joint, i.e. union by a fibrous bond, more or less long, between the bones of thigh and leg. 1967A. R. Shands et al. Handbk. Orthopaedic Surg. x. 190 Useful procedures in the surgical treatment of polio⁓myelitis and other types of flaccid paralysis..restore stability to flail joints.
1880Browning Dram. Idylls Ser. ii. 224 A human sheaf it thrashed *Flail-like.
1855J. Hewitt Anc. Armour I. 327 The *flail-man in our engraving is engaged in the assault of a castle. 1864Ld. Palmerston in Daily Tel. 16 Dec., When the first threshing machines were introduced there was a revolt..among the flail-men.
c1440Promp. Parv. 165/2 *Fleyl staffe, or honde staffe, manutentum.
1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. 190 Like the ruder *flail-stone, the morning-star, when efficiently wielded, must have proved a deadly weapon.
c1515Cocke Lorell's B. (Percy Soc.) 4 Adam auerus *flayle swenger.
c1440Promp. Parv. 165/2 *Fleyle swyngyl, virga.
1944Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 12 Apr.–12 Sept. 423 (caption) The enemy has sown mines and the *flail tank in the distance is clearing them away.
B. adj. [f. the n. used attrib. as in flail-joint (see above).] Of a part of the body, esp. a joint: exhibiting grossly excessive mobility as a result of the loss or absence of normal muscular control.
1876[see flail-joint above]. 1919R. C. Elmslie After Treatment Wounds & Injuries vi. 61 A flail but mobile hip joint can be supported by..a Thomas Caliper splint. Ibid. xiv. 206 A flail condition of the hip joint results from removal of the head of the femur. 1959A. G. Apley System of Orthopaedics & Fractures viii. 78 Where the muscles controlling a joint are all equally weakened..the joint becomes flail. 1961G. Perkins Orthopaedics xx. 300 A Charcot's elbow is also flail, but it is unlike the flail elbow caused by surgical excision. 1968A. B. Ferguson Orthopaedic Surg. (ed. 3) vii. 605 The foot, if completely flail, must be supported on both sides, as well as anteriorly and posteriorly, by a double upright brace. 1968S. Taylor et al. Short Textbk. Surg. (ed. 2) xvi. 202 When a number of ribs are doubly fractured and a segment of the chest wall cannot be used in respiration it is usually referred to as a flail chest.
▪ II. flail, v.|fleɪl|
Also 5 flayle, 7 fleyle.
[f. prec. n. In early examples of sense 1 perh. ad. OF. flaeler:—L. flagellāre to flagellate.]
1. trans. To scourge, whip; to beat or thrash. Also to flail along, to drive by beating.
14..Songs & Carols (Percy Soc.) lx. 72 They hym naylyd and yl flaylyd, Alas, that innocent! 1839K. H. Digby Mores Catholici ix. xi. 373 He flails me, and makes all my body burn with his fire. 1873Holland A. Bonnic. v. 85 That's the way my mother always flailed me. 1888Boldrewood Robbery under Arms (1890) 7 We soon got sharp enough to flail him [a pony] along with a quince stick.
2. To strike with or as with a flail.
1583Stanyhurst æneis, etc. (Arb.) 138 For Mars they [the Cyclopes] be sternfulye flayling Hudge spoaks and chariots. 1622H. Sydenham Serm. Sol. Occ. ii. 97 If we can fleyle down the transgressions of the time. 1878Stevenson Inland Voy. 165 The misery..made me flail the water with my paddle like a madman. 1878Cumbld. Gloss., Flail, to hit; to beat with a down stroke. 1883Blackw. Mag. Nov., With giant stroke she flails about, And heaps a score of dead.
3. To thresh (corn) with a flail.
1821Sir J. D. Paul Rouge et Noir 24 Clod..Pens verses on the sheaves he should be flailing.
fig.1857Whittier What of the Day 30 See..through its cloud of dust, the threshing-floor, Flailed by the thunder, heaped with chaffless grain!
4. intr. To move in the manner of a flail. Also fig.
1874J. S. Blackie in A. M. Stoddart J. S. Blackie (1895) II. xvii. 99 Carlyle..is flailing about him in the same one-sided magnificently unreasonable way that you know. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 122/2 She comes flailing along, head back, toes pointed. |