# flail
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English flayle, from earlier fleil, fleyl, fleȝȝl, from Old English fligel, *flegel (“flail”), from Proto-West Germanic *flagil, of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots flail (“a thresher's flail”), West Frisian fleil, flaaiel (“flail”), Dutch vlegel (“flail”), German Flegel (“flail”). Possibly a native Germanic word from Proto-Germanic *flagilaz (“whip”), from Proto-Germanic *flag-, *flah- (“to whip, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- (“to beat, hit, strike; weep”); compare Old Norse flaga (“sudden attack, bout”), Lithuanian plàkti (“to whip, lash, flog”), Ancient Greek πληγνύναι (plēgnúnai, “strike, hit, encounter”), Latin plangō (“lament”, i.e. “beat one's breast”) + Proto-Germanic *-ilaz (instrumental suffix). If so, related also to English flag, flack, flacker.
Alternatively, Proto-West Germanic *flagil may be an early borrowing of Latin flagellum (“winnowing tool, thresher”), diminutive of flagrum (“scourge, whip”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlag-, *bʰlaǵ- (“to beat”); compare Old Norse blekkja (“to beat, mistreat”). Compare also Old French flael (“flail”), Walloon flayea (“flail”) (locally pronounced "flai"), Italian flagello (“scourge, whip, plague”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fleɪl/
* (dialectal, archaic) IPA: /fɹeɪl/ (see frail)
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪl

### Noun

flail (plural flails)
* A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle (handstock) with a shorter stick (swipple or swingle) attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
    Synonyms: frail (obsolete), thrashel, threshel
** 1631, John Milton, L'Allegro:When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn That ten day-labourers could not end;
** 1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan:Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail
** 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp:On him alone the curse of Cain Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain, And struck him to the earth!
** 1879, Henry George, chapter V, in Progress and Poverty:If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...
* A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.
    Coordinate term: nunchaku

#### Derived terms

* flail chest
* flaillike
* flailsome
* flail tank
* flaily
* mine flail

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

flail (third-person singular simple present flails, present participle flailing, simple past and past participle flailed)
* (transitive) To beat using a flail or similar implement.
* (transitive) To wave or swing vigorously
    Synonym: thrash
** 2011 October 20, Michael da Silva, “Stoke 3 - 0 Macc Tel-Aviv”, in BBC Sport‎:Tangling with Ziv, Cameron caught him with a flailing elbow, causing the Israeli defender to go down a little easily. However, the referee was in no doubt, much to the displeasure of the home fans.
** 1937, H. P. Lovecraft, The Evil Clergyman:He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.
* (transitive) To thresh.
* (intransitive) To move like a flail.
    He was flailing wildly, but didn't land a blow.
** 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 46:Undismayed he continued to flail with the broken half of it, denting many a helmet[.]

#### Derived terms

* flail about
* unflailed

#### Related terms

* flounder

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Hall, Joseph Sargent (1942 March 2) “3. The Consonants”, in The Phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain Speech (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 4), New York: King's Crown Press, →DOI, →ISBN, § 5, page 97.

### Further reading

* flail on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Flail in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

### Anagrams

* Filla, alfil