▪ I. flint, n.
(flɪnt)
Forms: 1–2 flint, 3–4 south. vlint, -ynt, (4 flent, 5 flynd), 4–6 flynt(e, 3– flint.
[OE. flint str. masc. = MDu. vlint, related to OHG. flins (MHG. vlins, mod.Ger. dial. flins), Da. flint str. masc., Sw. flinta wk. fem.; usually regarded as cogn. with Gr. πλίνθος tile.]
I. 1. a. A kind of hard stone, most commonly of a steely gray colour, found in roundish nodules of varying size, usually covered with a white incrustation. In early and poetic use often put for hard stone in general.
Chemically, it is one of the purest native forms of silica, and by modern mineralogists is classed among the chalcedonic varieties of that mineral.
| a 1000 Crist 6 (Gr.) Þæt þu..ᵹesomniᵹe side weallas fæste ᵹefoᵹe, flint unbræcne. c 1000 ælfric Num. xx. 11 He..sloh..þone flint, and þær fleow sona of þam flinte wæter. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 129 Þurh þisse tacne Moyses werp ut þet welle weter of þan herda flinte. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 64 And oute of þe flynte spronge þe flode þat folke & bestes dronke. a 1400–50 Alexander 4447 Þat modire ws cried Þat fourmed þe flode & þe flynt & þe faire lyndis. 1594 Spenser Amoretti xviii, The firmest flint doth in continuance weare. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 96 ¶1 A pillar of flint in the rocks of Hanga. 1832 G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 28 Flint is silica in a state nearly approaching to purity. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. iv. 163 Arrow-heads of flint. |
b. As a type of anything hard or unyielding.
| c 1320 Sir Tristr. 1451 Þe deuel dragouns hide Was hard so ani flint. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. ii. 26 Hart of flint would rew The undeserved woes and sorrowes, which ye shew. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. ix. 16 Throw my heart Against the flint and hardnesse of my fault. 1814 Scott Wav. xlvi, Callum, flint to other considerations, was penetrable to superstition. 1853 C. Brontë Villette xix, He struck on the flint of what firmness I owned. |
2. a. This stone, or a fragment of it, with reference to its property of giving off sparks when struck with iron or steel.
flint and steel: an apparatus consisting of a piece of each of these substances used for procuring fire by the ignition of tinder, touchwood, etc.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 805 Petrafocaria, flint. c 1050 Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 469 Petra focaria, fyrstan, flint. c 1330 Amis & Amil. 1321 Sir Amiloun, as fer of flint, With wrethe anon to him he wint. c 1450 Golagros & Gaw. 758 As fyre that fleis fra the flynt. 1589 R. Harvey P. Perc. (1590) 20 When the steele and the flint be knockde togither, a man may light his match by the sparkle. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 257. 1665 Hooke Microg. 46 Sparks struck from a Flint and a Steel. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxxi, Ugo found a flint, and the torch was lighted. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles ii. xxvi, As from the flint the fire, Flash'd forth at once his generous ire. 1833 L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 81 The flint and steel, which a French peasant carries for the service of his pipe. |
| fig. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 35 His offers were as flints, out of which they drew fire. 1677 A. Horneck Gt. Law Consid. vii. (1704) 422 My heart is all flint, but when.. struck sufficiently, it will then send forth holy fire. |
b. A fragment of this stone used to kindle the powder in a
flint-lock. Also, a piece of metal (
usu. an alloy of misch metal with a base metal such as iron) used to produce a spark for the ignition of the fuel in a cigarette-lighter.
| 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xiv. 100 We..caus'd a piece of Steel to be made of the form and bigness of the Flint, in whose place we put it. 1679 Levinz in Trial of White, & other Jesuits 10 The Flint of the Pistol failed. 1752 J. B. Maccoll in Scots Mag. Aug. (1753) 401/2 The..gun had an old wore flint in it. 1808 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. IV. 49 Each soldier will have with him three good flints. 1811 Byron Hints fr. Hor. 555 Dogs blink their covey, flints withhold the spark. 1833 Regul. Instr. Cavalry i. 30 In fixing the flint of Carbines..the flat side of it must be placed upwards or downwards. 1929 Sears, Roebuck Catal. Spring-Summer 471 Extra flints. For all lighters using a round flint. 1944 N. & Q. 30 Dec. 294/1 The flint used in petrol lighters is a cerium-iron alloy, and has very questionably taken over the name given..to lumps of silicon oxide found in chalk. 1971 Grattan's Catal., Autumn/Winter 1971–2 615 Ronson ‘Comet VC40’ Gas Lighter... Flick-top design for easy access to flints. |
3. A nodule or pebble of flint. In early and poetic use often applied to any hard piece of stone.
| c 1300 Havelok 2667 So that with alþer-lest dint Were al to-shiuered a flint. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xvii. 18 A ryuer ful of flynt and great stones. c 1611 Chapman Iliad vi. 541 The flints he trod upon Sparkled with lustre of his arms. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 3 They shaved their heads with flints and other stones. 1662 J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 276 They use in their buildings, the flints, which they find by the Sea-side. 1740 Dyer Ruins Rome 281 Those ancient roads, o'er whose broad flints Such crowds have roll'd. 1816 W. Smith Strata Ident. 7 Knotty and irregular Flints. 1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. xviii. 340 Flints and other nodular concretions. |
4. Phrases.
as true as flint, used to express firmness in allegiance.
to get or wring water from a flint, used to express extreme difficulty in doing something.
to skin a flint: a hyperbolical exemplification of avarice.
(to set one's face) like a flint: firmly, steadfastly.
| 1382 Wyclif Ezek. iii. 9 Y ȝaue thi face as an adamaunt, and as a flynt. a 1592 Greene George a Greene Dram. Wks. II. 189 Faith, I see, it is as hard to get water out of a flint, as to get him to have a bout with me. 1597 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. i. 141 Hoping to wringe some water from a flinte. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. vi. §37 They would, in a manner, make pottage of a flint. 1847 Marryat Childr. N. Forest xi, As true as flint was Jacob Armitage. 1859 Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 321 Set his face like a flint. 1884 Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. xxxi, Just as the toper squeezes the empty bottle and the miser skins the flint. |
II. Transferred senses.
5. A flint-like substance.
a. (see
quot. 1892).
b. (see
quot. 1847.)
c. short for
flint-hide (see 10).
| a. 1709 Blair in Phil. Trans. XXVII. 102 They [horns]..have a Protuberance arising from it [the Scull], and filling up their Capacity, if cavous, commonly call'd the Flint. 1892 Northumbld. Gloss., Flint, the core of an animal's horn..The term is likewise applied to the hard excrescence formed on a cow's head where a horn has been knocked off. |
| b. 1847 Halliwell, Flints, refuse barley in making malt. |
| c. 1885 C. T. Davis Leather i. i. 54 Dry flint is a thoroughly dry hide that has not been salted. |
6. An avaricious person, a miser, skin-flint.
rare.
| 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop vii, The money which the old flint—rot him—first taught me to expect that I should share with her at his death. |
7. slang. (See
quots.)
| 1764 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 66/2 Journeymen taylors..who, refusing to comply with the masters terms, and the regulations of the magistrate, call themselves Flints, in contradistinction to those who submit, and are in derision stiled by the first Dungs. 1778 Foote Tailors ii. v, Shall the Flints, like them [Dungs], e'er sink to slaves? 1820 Scott Ivanhoe xliii, To see whether the heroes of the day are, in the heroic language of insurgent tailors, flints or dunghills. 1859 Slang Dict. s.v., Flint, an operative who works for a ‘society’ master—full wages. |
III. attrib. and
Comb. 8. a. simple attrib. (or adj.): Of flint.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 81 Me sculde in þe ehtuþe dei þet knaue child embsniþen mid ane ulint sexe. 1552 Huloet, Flynt, or of flynte, siliceus. 1711 Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) III. 163 A Flint Weapon and divers other Antiquities. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iii. iii. 87 Flint arrows and other primitive weapons. 1884 Dawson in Leisure H. Aug. 490/2 Flint knives were used for sacrificial and surgical purposes. |
b. ellipt. for
flint-glass.
| 1755 Oppenheim's Patent Specif. No. 707 The compounds of the flint contain two parts of lead, one part sand, and one part of saltpetre or borax. 1816 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 211 French glass..is found to produce the greatest quantity of electricity next to English flint. |
c. ellipt. for
flint corn (see 10).
| 1802 J. Drayton View South-Carolina 137 The flint is more hard and nourishing. 1857 Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. III. 63, I plant the white flint. It is rather on the gourd seed order. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XV. 309/2 The ‘Flint’ varieties are most common east of Lake Erie and north of Maryland. 1909 [see dent ppl. a. 3]. 1947 Ann. Missouri Bot. Garden Feb. 17 There is as yet little exact evidence as to how completely the gene combinations introduced from the northern flints have been broken up in modern dent corns. |
9. General comb.:
a. simple
attrib., as
flint-fragment,
flint-nodule,
flint-rock,
flint-tile.
b. objective, as
flint-chipper,
flint digger,
flint-worker;
flint-using adj. c. instrumental, as
flint-headed,
flint-wrapped adjs. d. parasynthetic and similative, as
† flint-edged,
flint-eyed,
† flint-grey,
flint-hard,
† flint-hardy adjs.| 1872 Amer. Naturalist VI. 208 Unfinished specimens suggest that variety was continually aimed at by the ‘*flint chipper’. |
| 1809 Sporting Mag. XXXIII. 263 A *flint-digger on the new Brighton road. |
| 1665 Dryden Ind. Emperor iii. iii, Lay your *flint-edged weapon by. |
| 1898 Westm. Gaz. 30 Mar. 1/3 A tall, solemn, shy, *flint-eyed young man. |
| a 1000 Riddles iv. 19 (Gr.) *Flintgræᵹne flod. |
| 1933 W. de la Mare Fleeting 51 A still quiet challenge Fills her dark, her *flint-grey eyes. 1951 S. Spender World within World 126 The sun-bathers [were] lying in profusion on the flint-grey grass. |
| 1594 J. Dickenson Arisbas (1878) 77 Heart more *flint-hard then beating waues haue wrought On sea-washt rockes. |
| 1606 N. Baxter Man Created in Farr S.P. Jas. I (1848) 238 The braine..Both maters, and the *flint-hardie scull. |
| 1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. 2 Shadows of branching antlers and *flint-headed arrows caused many a darkness in his path. 1884 Dawson in Leisure H. Aug. 490/2 They used flint-headed arrows for shooting birds. |
| 1879 Sir G. G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 220 The Romans..were successful in employing..the *flint nodules of Kent. |
| 1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 77 As honey from the *flint-rock shed. |
| 1428 in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 6 Chalke, *flint⁓tyles and estriche boarde. |
| 1894 Academy 18 Aug. 120/3 The old *flint-using folk. |
| 1876 D. Wilson Preh. Man iii. (ed. 3) 79 The whole region..is rich in remains of the old *flint-workers. |
| 1646 G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 I. 12, I stood A verie Statua..Not *Flint-wrapt Niobe, more stone did rise. |
10. Special comb.:
flint-coal (see
quot.);
flint-core (see
quot. and
core n.1 5);
flint corn, the name of certain varieties of maize,
esp. Zea mays var. indurata, having very hard kernels;
flint-find, a discovery of flint implements;
flint-flake, a ‘flake’ or chip of flint used in prehistoric times as a cutting instrument;
flint-folk, people who, in prehistoric times, used flint implements;
flint-gravel, gravel containing flints;
flint-gun, a gun with a flint-lock;
flint-head, an arrow-head made of flint;
† flint-heart a. = next;
flint-hearted a., hard-hearted;
flint-hide (see
quot.);
flint-knacker = next;
flint-knapper, one who fashions flints to any desired shape; so
flint-knapping, fashioning flints (for gun-locks, etc.);
flint-man, one of the ‘flint-folk’;
flint-mill, (
a)
Pottery, a mill in which calcined flints are ground to powder for mixing with clay to form slip for porcelain; (
b)
Mining, ‘a mode formerly adopted for lighting mines, in which flints studded on the surface of a wheel were made to strike against a steel and give a quick succession of sparks to light the miner at his work’ (Knight);
† flint-moving a., that would move a heart of flint;
flint paper (see
quot. 1962); also
ellipt.;
flint-paring = flint-skinning;
flint-pit, a pit from which flint has been taken;
flint-rope, the stem of the sponge
Hyalonema Sieboldii (Cass.);
flint-skinning,
fig. the action of ‘skinning a flint’, parsimonious saving;
flint-soot (see
quot.);
flint-sponge, the sponge
Hyalonema mirabilis (
Cent. Dict.);
flint-wall, ‘a wall made of broken flints set in mortar, and with quoins of masonry’ (Knight);
flint-ware,
U.S. name for stone-ware,
q.v.;
flint-wheat (see
quot.);
flintwood, a name in New South Wales for
Eucalyptus pilularis;
† flint-wort, a name for aconite, suggested by Pliny's statement that it grows on bare rocks (
nudis cautibus).
| 1841 Hartshorne Salopia Antiqua 427 *Flint Coal a coal measure so called, partly from its hardness, and partly from reposing upon a siliceous rock. |
| 1865 Athenæum 7 Jan. 23/2 Small arrow-heads and *flint-cores, from which such articles had been flaked, were found. |
| 1705 R. Beverley Virginia (1722) 126 The one [grain] looks as smooth, and as full as the early ripe Corn, and this they call *Flint-Corn. 1838 H. Colman Rep. Agric. Mass. 20 The best kinds of flint corn weigh 60 lbs. to the bushel. 1872 E. Eggleston End of World viii. 60 The relative merits of ‘gourd-seed’ and ‘flint’ corn. 1950 New Biol. VIII. 37 Flint corns (type of maize) have hard flinty kernels with a little soft starch inside. |
| 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times iv. (1890) 111 ‘*Flint-finds’..resembling in many respects these Danish ‘coast-finds’, are not..unknown in this country. |
| 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. 175 Rude and unshapely fragments of flint, known by the name of *Flint-Flakes. 1879 Lubbock Sci. Lect. v. 155 The simplest flint-flake forms a capital knife. |
| 1874 Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. §88 Races of men, which (like the old ‘*flint-folk’) had made but a very slight advance in the arts of life. |
| 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times xii. (1869) 408 All the *flint gravels in the South East of England have been produced by the destruction of chalk. |
| 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville (1895) II. 133 Their *flint guns were at fault, and missed fire. 1849 E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Africa II. 161 This inconvenience—with a flint gun—is generally to be remedied without firing off the piece. |
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 151 The *flint-heads of arrows made use of by the Caledonians. 1827 G. Higgins Celtic Druids 226 The Celts and flint-heads prove nothing. |
| 1596 Edw. III, ii. i. 14 Make a *flint-heart Scythian pitiful. |
| 1560 Becon Flower Godly Prayers Pref. Wks. II. 166 b, No man, excepte he be *flint hearted, can rede the history..without most large teares. 1632 Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry iv. iv, You prove ungrateful, Flint-hearted Charalois. |
| 1885 A. Watt Leather Manuf. iii. 30 Dried Hides..are sometimes called ‘*flint’ hides, from their excessive hardness. |
| 1879 Encycl. Brit. IX. 325/2 In 1876 there were 21 *flint knappers in Brandon. |
| 1887 Illustr. Lond. News 15 Oct. 468 The..almost extinct trade of *flint-knapping. |
| 1872 Bagehot Physics & Pol. (1876) 100 We are dealing with people capable of history..not with pre-historic *flint-men. |
| 1757 Brindley in Smiles Engineers (1874) I. 146 A new *flint mill [in the Potteries]. a 1852 Moore Sylph's Ball viii. 29 Musical flint⁓mills—swiftly played By elfin hands—that..Gave out, at once, both light and sound. |
| 1600 S. Nicholson Acolastus (1876) 36 And as I story my *flint-mouing wrong, Weepe thou. |
| 1916 H. A. Maddox Paper x. 137 *Flint papers and box enamels are burnished in the friction glazer. 1920 R. W. Sindall Paper Technol. (ed. 3) xviii. 295 Flint.—Papers, usually coated, to which an extra polish has been imparted by friction with a long flat stone moving quickly to and fro across the surface of the paper. 1962 F. T. Day Introd. to Paper 115/1 Flint papers, a base paper coated one side with a colour and afterwards hard burnished or flint glazed to produce a high gloss, water-proof surface. 1967 E. G. Loeber Suppl. Labarre's Dict. Paper 25 Flint, also called flint (glazed) paper. Ibid., Flint paper,..an abrasive paper..coated with ground flint-stone. |
| 1860 Motley Netherl. I. vi. 323 During this tedious *flint-paring, Antwerp..was falling into the hands of Philip. |
| 1891 D. Wilson Right Hand 62 A number of *flint-pits..near Brandon. |
| 1873 M. E. Braddon Str. & Pilgr. i. viii. 92 Her small economies, her domestic cheese-paring and *flint⁓skinning. |
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1578) 137 Take *Flint soote, that is hard dryed vpon a Post or roofe, and beate it into powder. |
| 1741 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Wall, *Flint, or Boulder-Walls, are frequently used in divers parts for fence-walls. 1782 J. Scott Ep. 1 Garden 16 Where..rough flint-walls are deck'd with shells and ores. |
| 1859 All Year Round No. 32. 126 Turkish *flint-wheat is one of those recommended as ‘a hardy, full variety, with..a long, flinty, light-coloured berry’. |
| 1884 A. Nilson Timber Trees N.S.W. 135 *Flintwood, Eucalyptus pilularis. |
| 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. vii. (1587) 94 a, A goblet ready filld With juice of *flint-woort venomous. |
▪ II. flint, v. (
flɪnt)
[f. prec. n.] trans. a. To fit (a gun) with a flint; to furnish or provide (a person) with a flint or flints.
b. To pave (ground) with flints; in
quot. fig.| 1803 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. II. 292 These parties will parade..and then be completed to thirty-six rounds and well flinted. 1816 P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 146 The same gun..which was neither cleaned afresh nor even new flinted. 1834 Landor Exam. Shaks. Wks. 1846 II. 276/1 The groundwork and religious duty not being well rammer-beaten and flinted. 1848 J. Grant Adv. Aide-de-C. xxv, Most carefully flinted and loaded. |