flint

¹ American  

[flint] / flɪnt /

noun

1. a hard stone, a form of silica resembling chalcedony but more opaque, less pure, and less lustrous.

2. a piece of this, especially as used for striking fire.

3. a chunk of this used as a primitive tool or as the core from which such a tool was struck.

4. something very hard or unyielding.

5. a small piece of metal, usually an iron alloy, used to produce a spark to ignite the fuel in a cigarette lighter.

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verb (used with object)

1. to furnish with flint.

Flint ² American  

[flint] / flɪnt /

noun

1. Austin, 1812–86, U.S. physician: founder of Bellevue and Buffalo medical colleges.

2. his son Austin, 1836–1915, U.S. physiologist and physician.

3. a city in SE Michigan.

4. Flintshire.

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Flint ¹ British  

/ flɪnt /

noun

1. a town in NE Wales, in Flintshire, on the Dee estuary. Pop: 11 936 (2001)

2. a city in SE Michigan: closure of the car production plants led to a high level of unemployment. Pop: 120 292 (2003 est)

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flint ² British  

/ flɪnt /

noun

1. an impure opaque microcrystalline greyish-black form of quartz that occurs in chalk. It produces sparks when struck with steel and is used in the manufacture of pottery, flint glass, and road-construction materials. Formula: SiO 2

2. any piece of flint, esp one used as a primitive tool or for striking fire

3. a small cylindrical piece of an iron alloy, used in cigarette lighters

4. Also called: flint glass.   white flint.  colourless glass other than plate glass

5. See optical flint

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verb

1. (tr) to fit or provide with a flint

flint Scientific  

/ flĭnt /

1. A very hard, gray to black variety of chalcedony that makes sparks when it is struck with steel. It breaks with a conchoidal fracture.

2. The dark gray to black variety of chert.

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Other Word Forms

• flintlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of flint

before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Middle Dutch vlint, Danish flint; plinth

Explanation

Flint is a very hard type of rock. Ever since humans first learned to make tools, back in the Stone Age, they've used flint. Through history, flint has been used for sharp tools, in walls and buildings, for making sparks to start fires, and in jewelry and pottery. You can also use the word figuratively, to mean a quality of hardness or even cruelty in a someone's personality: "The flint in his nature made him unsympathetic even to the most pitiful crying child."

Example Sentences

There, archaeologists found two pieces of flint encased in birch tar residue, indicating the flint pieces were once hafted to other objects.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 22, 2024

You have to be particular about muzzle-loading a flintlock and making sure the flint is in place.

From Salon • Aug. 4, 2024

Most of the clues come as pottery, flint tools and bones.

From New York Times • Mar. 19, 2024

Here, Hublin's team uncovered chips from flint tools and a quartzite flake consistent with the LRJ technocomplex.

From Science Daily • Jan. 31, 2024

I saved my city pants and burned them bit by bit to make charred cloth for the flint and steel.

From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George