/flɪnt/
OriginFrom Middle English flynt, flint, from Old English flint, from Proto-West Germanic *flint, from Proto-Germanic *flintaz (compare Dutch vlint, flint (“flint, cobblestone”), German Flins, Flint (“flint, pebble”), Danish flint (“flint”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)plind- (“to split, cleave”) (compare Irish slinn (“slate, shingle”), Ancient Greek πλίνθος (plínthos)), from *(s)pley- (“to split”). More at split.
- countable, uncountableA hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel, because tiny chips of the steel are heated to incandescence and burn in air.
“He used flint to make a fire.”
“Some of the enormous fragments of chalk which are interstratified with drift have not only layers of undisturbed flints, but also sandpipes in the middle of them, or cylindrical cavities filled with s”
“In a cornfield on one side flakings of flint are numerous.”
- countable, uncountableA piece of flint, such as a gunflint, used to produce a spark by striking it with a firestriker.
- countable, uncountableA small cylinder of some other material of the same function in a cigarette lighter, etc.
- countable, uncountableA type of maize/corn with a hard outer hull.
- countable, figuratively, uncountableAnything figuratively hard.
- transitiveTo furnish or decorate an object with flint.
“No schoolboys lingered round Bob Robertson's (yclept Roberson's) blacksmith's shop, for this sleepy day no lusty throat bellowed attention to the flaming tongues fanned from its bloodily blazing teeth”
“No change from the primordial doth appear, / Within the earth’s rotation of the year, / Nor are ye heirless of her sane decree, / The problem is potentiality / Of Spring and Autumn, burdenful with Fat”
“The sun had warmed the air to a balmy 45 degrees and sent sparks flinting off the bleachy white snow.”
- An unincorporated community in Mitchell County, Georgia, named after the Flint River.
- A township in Pike County, Illinois.
- An unincorporated community in Jackson Township, Steuben County, Indiana.
- A former unincorporated community in Calloway County, Kentucky.
- A city, the county seat of Genesee County, Michigan.
“Each one claimed they were unjustly criticized, while claiming to have had Flint residents in mind.”
“Remember that so many of us click on links to CashApps, Venmos, PayPals, etc. to donate to bail funds, Flint Water reliefs, the next Ferguson, and the like without any thought of integrating ourselves”
- A township in Genesee County, Michigan, adjacent to the city.
- An unincorporated community in Sharon Township, Franklin County, Ohio.
- An unincorporated community in Smith County, Texas.
- An unincorporated community in Randolph County, West Virginia.
- A town and community with a town council in Flintshire, Wales, by the estuary of the River Dee (OS grid ref SJ2472).
- A surname.
Formsflints(plural) · flints(present, singular, third-person) · flinting(participle, present) · flinted(participle, past) · flinted(past)