flail

[ fleyl ]

noun

1. an instrument for threshing grain, consisting of a staff or handle with a freely swinging stick or bar attached to one end of it.
2. a similar instrument used as a weapon of war.

verb (used without object)

1. to move about randomly and wildly:

   Running down to the lake I hit a patch of mud and found myself flailing all over the path, arms and legs flying.

2. to make desperate or unproductive attempts to respond to a challenging problem, awkward situation, etc. (usually followed by around or about ):

   He makes things worse by flailing about with administrative solutions to educational problems he doesn't understand.

   For six years the government flailed, proposing one ineffectual program after another.

verb (used with object)

1. to thresh (grain) with a flail:

   Together they managed to clear land, seed wheat, flail the grain by hand, and grind it into flour.

2. to beat, strike, attack, etc., repeatedly with or as if with a flail:

   I flailed the water with a variety of lures for hours, and caught three bass.

   The infantry closed in while artillery support flailed the enemy positions.

3. to move (a limb, one’s body, etc.) randomly and wildly (often followed by around or about ):

   Gasping and choking, he flailed a hand in my general direction.

4. to swing (something) about as if using a flail:

   She violently flailed the flare around, trying to catch the attention of the figure on the hill.

adjective

1. (of a limb or joint of the body) having excessive or abnormal mobility due to loss of muscle control as the result of injury or disease:

   The orthopedist studied hundreds of cases of post-polio flail shoulder.

flail

/ fleɪl /

noun

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

verb

1. tr to beat or thrash with or as if with a flail
2. to move or be moved like a flail; thresh about

   with arms flailing

Word History and Origins

Origin of flail¹

First recorded before 1100; Middle English fleil (noun), Old English flighel (probably misspelling of unattested flegil ), cognate with Dutch vlegel, German Flegel, from unattested West Germanic flagil-, from Late Latin flagellum “flail,” Latin: “whip, scourge”; flagellum

Word History and Origins

Origin of flail¹

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

Example Sentences

It is probably enough of a thrill to watch Daryl dispatch with zombies and despots using a medieval flail, or Carol stalk around centuries-old French villages like a commando.

From Salon

Governments sit and watch, he says, as tiny warriors flail in the face of the corporate army.

From Salon

Trump continues to flail about, claiming that Harris is responsible for every bad and dangerous thing on planet Earth, except for climate change because Trump doesn’t believe in it.

From Salon

It cultivates urgency, but only in a directionless flail.

From Slate

For a few hours at least, novels with protagonists like these allow me, one of so many busy bees in New York City’s go-go honeycomb, to flail vicariously, a smug literary tourist among the lonely-hearts and lost souls.

From New York Times

Related Words

• bash
• smack
• smash
• thrash