flail

noun

an instrument for threshing grain, consisting of a staff or handle to one end of which is attached a freely swinging stick or bar.

a similar instrument used as a weapon of war.

verb (used with object), verb (used without object)

to beat or swing with or as if with a flail.

Origin:
before 1100; Middle English fleil (noun), Old English flighel (probably misspelling of *flegil), cognate with Dutch vlegel, German Flegel < West Germanic *flagil- < Late Latin flagellum flail, Latin: whip, scourge. See flagellum

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Relevant Questions

00:10

Flail is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

flail (fleɪl)

—n
1.	an implement used for threshing grain, consisting of a wooden handle with a free-swinging metal or wooden bar attached to it
2.	a weapon so shaped used in the Middle Ages

—vb
3.	(tr) to beat or thrash with or as if with a flail
4.	to move or be moved like a flail; thresh about: with arms flailing

[C12 fleil, ultimately from Late Latin flagellum flail, from Latin: whip]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

flail

"implement for threshing grain," c.1100, from an unrecorded O.E. *flegel, which probably represents W.Gmc. *flagil (cf. M.Du., Low Ger. vlegel, O.H.G. flegel, Ger. flegel), a borrowing of L.L. flagellum "winnowing tool, flail," from L. flagellum "whip." The verb is 15c., from the noun; originally "to

scourge;" sense of "to move like a flail" is from 1874. Related: Flailed; flailing.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

flail (flāl)
v. flailed, flail·ing, flails

To move vigorously or erratically; thrash about.
To strike or lash out violently.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

flail

ancient hand tool for threshing grain. It consists of two pieces of wood: the handstaff, or helve, and the beater, joined by a thong. The handstaff is a light rod several feet long, the beater a shorter piece. With a flail, one man could thresh 7 bushels of wheat, 8 of rye, 15 of barley, 18 of oats, or 20 of buckwheat in a day (one bushel equals about 35 litres). The flail remained the principal method of threshing until the mid-19th century, when mechanical threshers became widespread (see thresher).

Learn more about flail with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences

He was carrying a salvage flail mower chained to the loader.

During the rain, the wheat heads were laid out on the threshing floors or on the floors of the bastions and beaten with a flail.

Crocodiles position themselves nearby, picking off the animals as they flail in

the water.

Sometimes it didn't matter: he'd flail at me anyway.

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Matching Quote

"Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,
To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-laborers could not end:
Then lies him down the lubber fend,
And stretched out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength;
And crop-full out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings."

-John Milton