Adjacent Words

Flint definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FLINT, n.
1. In natural history, a sub-species of quartz, of a yellowish or bluish gray, or grayish black color. It is amorphous, interspersed in other stones, or in nodules or rounded lumps. Its surface is generally uneven, and covered with a rind or crust, either calcarious or argillaceous. It is very hard, strikes fire with steel, and is an ingredient in glass.
2. A piece of the above described stone used in firearms to strike fire.
3. Any thing proverbially hard; as a heart of flint.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: showing unfeeling resistance to tender feelings; "his flinty gaze"; "the child's misery would move even the most obdurate heart" [syn: flinty, flint, granitic, obdurate, stony] n
1: a hard kind of stone; a form of silica more opaque than chalcedony
2: a river in western Georgia that flows generally south to join the Chattahoochee River at the Florida border where they form the Apalachicola River [syn: Flint, Flint River]
3: a city in southeast central Michigan near Detroit; automobile manufacturing

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German flins pebble, hard stone Date: before 12th century 1. a massive hard dark quartz that produces a spark when struck by steel 2. an implement of flint used in prehistoric cultures 3. a. a piece of flint b. a material used for producing a spark; especially an alloy (as of iron and cerium) used in lighters 4. something resembling flint in hardness • flintlike adjective

Merriam Webster's

I. biographical name Austin: father 1812-1886 & son 1836-1915 American physicians II. geographical name 1. river 265 miles (426 kilometers) W Georgia flowing S & SW into Lake Seminole 2. city SE central Michigan NNW of Detroit population 124,943 3. (or Flintshire) administrative area of NE Wales area 169 square miles (438 square kilometers)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a a hard grey stone of nearly pure silica occurring naturally as nodules or bands in chalk. b a piece of this esp. as flaked or ground to form a primitive tool or weapon. 2 a piece of hard alloy of rare-earth metals used to give an igniting spark in a cigarette-lighter etc. 3 a piece of flint used with steel to produce fire, esp. in a flintlock gun. 4 anything hard and unyielding. Phrases and idioms: flint corn a variety of maize having hard translucent grains. flint glass a pure lustrous kind of glass orig. made with flint. Derivatives: flinty adj. (flintier, flintiest). flintily adv. flintiness n. Etymology: OE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Flint Flint, n. [AS. flint, akin to Sw. flinta, Dan. flint; cf. OHG. flins flint, G. flinte gun (cf. E. flintlock), perh. akin to Gr. ? brick. Cf. Plinth.] 1. (Min.) A massive, somewhat impure variety of quartz, in color usually of a gray to brown or nearly black, breaking with a conchoidal fracture and sharp edge. It is very hard, and strikes fire with steel. 2. A piece of flint for striking fire; -- formerly much used, esp. in the hammers of gun locks. 3. Anything extremely hard, unimpressible, and unyielding, like flint. ``A heart of flint.'' --Spenser. Flint age. (Geol.) Same as Stone age, under Stone. Flint brick, a fire made principially of powdered silex. Flint glass. See in the Vocabulary. Flint implements (Arch[ae]ol.), tools, etc., employed by men before the use of metals, such as axes, arrows, spears, knives, wedges, etc., which were commonly made of flint, but also of granite, jade, jasper, and other hard stones. Flint mill. (a) (Pottery) A mill in which flints are ground. (b) (Mining) An obsolete appliance for lighting the miner at his work, in which flints on a revolving wheel were made to produce a shower of sparks, which gave light, but did not inflame the fire damp. --Knight. Flint stone, a hard, siliceous stone; a flint. Flint wall, a kind of wall, common in England, on the face of which are exposed the black surfaces of broken flints set in the mortar, with quions of masonry. Liquor of flints, a solution of silica, or flints, in potash. To skin a flint, to be capable of, or guilty of, any expedient or any meanness for making money. [Colloq.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(flints) 1. Flint is a very hard greyish-black stone that was used in former times for making tools. ...a flint arrowhead. ...eyes the colour of flint. 2. A flint is a small piece of flint which can be struck with a piece of steel to produce sparks. N-COUNT

Easton's Bible Dictionary

abounds in all the plains and valleys of the wilderness of the forty years' wanderings. In Isa. 50:7 and Ezek. 3:9 the expressions, where the word is used, means that the "Messiah would be firm and resolute amidst all contempt and scorn which he would meet; that he had made up his mind to endure it, and would not shrink from any kind or degree of suffering which would be necessary to accomplish the great work in which he was engaged." (Comp. Ezek. 3:8, 9.) The words "like a flint" are used with reference to the hoofs of horses (Isa. 5:28).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

flint (challamish (De 8:15; 32:13; Job 28:9; Ps 114:8), tsor (Ex 4:25; Eze 3:9), tser (Isa 5:28), tsur (Job 22:24; Ps 89:43), tsurim (Jos 5:2 f); (= kechlex "pebble"), kochlax ( /APC 1Macc 10:73)):

The word challamish signifies a hard stone, though not certainly flint, and is used as a figure for hardness in Isa 50:7, "Therefore have I set my face like a flint." A similar use of tsor is found in Eze 3:9, "As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead," and Isa 5:28, "Their horses' hoofs shall be accounted as flint"; and of tsela` in Jer 5:3, "They have made their faces harder than a rock." The same three words are used of the rock from which Moses drew water in the wilderness: challamish (De 8:15; Ps 114:8); tsur (Ex 17:6; De 8:15; Ps 78:20; Isa 48:21); cela` (Nu 20:8; Ne 9:15; Ps 78:16).

Tsur and cela` are used oftener than challamish for great rocks and cliffs, but tsur is used also for flint knives in Ex 4:25, "Then Zipporah took a flint (the King James Version "sharp stone"), and cut off the foreskin of her son," and in Jos 5:2 f, "Yahweh said unto Joshua, Make thee knives of flint (the King James Version "sharp knives"), and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time." Surgical implements of flint were used by the ancient Egyptians, and numerous flint chippings with occasional flint implements are found associated with the remains of early man in Syria and Palestine. Flint and the allied mineral, chert, are found in great abundance in the limestone rocks of Syria, Palestine and Egypt.

See ROCK.

Alfred Ely Day

Moby Thesaurus

adamant, bone, brand, brick, butane lighter, cement, cigarette lighter, concrete, diamond, firebrand, flambeau, flint and steel, granite, heart of oak, igniter, iron, light, lighter, marble, nails, oak, portfire, rock, sparker, spill, steel, stone, taper, torch