Forms: 1 fliȝel, 3 Orm. fleȝȝl, 4–5 fleil(e, -yl(e, 4–6 flaill, 5 flayel, flaylle, flaelle, 5–7 flayl(e, 6 flale, flael, 6–8 flaile. 7 fleale, fieyle, (8 flay), 4– flail. [The late OE. fliȝel is possibly a corruption of *flęgil, corresponding to MDu., Du., LG. vlegel, OHG. flegel (MHG. vlegel, mod. Ger. flegel):—WGer. *flagil, prob. ad. L. flagellum lit. ‘scourge,’ but already in the Vulgate used for ‘flail.’ Some scholars have thought that the WGer. word may be f. OTeut. root *flah-, flag-:—pre-Teut. *plak- (cf. Lith. plàkti to strike, Gr. πληγνύναι); but this appears improbable. Cf. the synonymous Rom. forms, OF. flaiel, flael, fleel (mod.F. fléau), Pr. flagel, flachel, Sp. flagelo, Pg. flagello, It. fragello:—L. flagellum. The 15th c. spelling flayel, and perh. some earlier forms, are influenced by the OF. word.]
1. An instrument for threshing corn by hand, consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the end of which a stouter and shorter pole or club, called a swingle or swipple, is so hung as to swing freely.
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia (1886), IX. 264. To odene fliȝel and andlamena fela.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1500. Þa þresshesst tu þin corn wiþþ fleȝȝl.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 174. Faytors … flapten on with fleiles · from morwe til euen.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 15. Alle ranne theder as fast as they coude … some with a rake, some with a brome, some with a stake of the hegghe and some with a flayel.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 134 b. The flayle tryeth y1 corne from the chaffe.
1635. Cowley, Davideis, IV. 170.
| Nor did great Gideon his old Flail disdain, | |
| After won Fields, sack’d Towns, and Princes slain. |
1727. Swift, Gulliver, III. ii. 183. A blown Bladder fasten’d like a Flail at the End of a short Stick.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., x. (1876), 131. Thirty years ago all corn, or nearly all corn, was threshed by the flail: at the present time, the sound of the flail has all but passed away, and before long the art of the thresher will be quite extinct.
Proverb.
1674, 1730. [see FENCE sb. 3].
b. fig. Also in phrase To be threshed with your own flail: to be treated as you have treated others.
c. 1489. Caxton, Blanchardyn and Eglantine, xxxii. 121. The poure sorowfull kynge, replenysshed and sore beten wyth the flayel of fortune, was cast in pryson.
1589. Pappe with an Hatchet (1844), 23. Faith Martin, you shall bee thresht with your owne flaile.
1682. Dryden, Mac Fl., 82.
| For ancient Decker prophesi’d long since, | |
| That in this Pile should Reign a mighty Prince, | |
| Born for a scourge of Wit, and flayle of Sense. |
1781. Cowper, Expostulation, 302.
| Where flails of oratory thresh the floor, | |
| That yields them chaff and dust, and nothing more. |
1831. Carlyle, in Froude, Life (1882), II. 208. A tall, loose, lank-haired, wrinkly, wintry, vehement-looking flail of a man. I reckon him [Fonblanque] the best of the fourth estate now extant in Britain.
2. A military weapon resembling a threshing-flail in construction, but usually of iron or strengthened with iron, and often having the striking part armed with spikes. Cf. MORNING-STAR.
Also Protestant flail (Eng. Hist.): a weapon consisting of a short staff, loaded with lead, attached to the wrist by a strap; it is said to have been carried during the excitement of the ‘Popish Plot’ (1678–81) by persons who professed to be in fear of murderous assaults by ‘Papists.’
c. 1475. The Romans of Partenay, 2999. Flaelles thre of yre.
c. 1500. Melusine, xxxviii. 303. The geaunt toke hys flayel of yron, & gaf geffray a grete buffet vpon his bassynet, wherewith he was almost astonyed.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. ix. 19.
| But when as he would to a snake againe | |
| Haue turn’d himselfe, he with his yron flayle | |
| Gan driue at him, with so huge might and maine, | |
| That all his bones, as small as sandy grayle | |
| He broke, and did his bowels disentrayle. |
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., XI. 24.
| But she redoubling strokes as thick as hail, | |
| Drove farre their flying troops, & thresht with iron flail. |
c. 1682[?]. Ballad, in Roxb. Ball., IV. 35.
| Listen a while, and I’ll tell you a tale | |
| Of a new Device of a Protestant Flayl | |
| With a thump, thump, thump, a thump, | |
| Thump, a thump, thump. |
a. 1734. North, Exam. (1740), 572. A certain Pocket Weapon … called a Protestant Flail.
1887. Dict. Nat. Biog., XI. 331–2. He [Stephen College] made himself notorious by his declamations against the papists, by writing and singing political ballads, and by inventing a weapon resembling the modern life-preserver, which he called ‘the protestant flail,’ consisting of a short staff, loaded with lead, and attached to the wrist by a leathern thong, to be used with deadly force at close quarters.
† 3. [After F. fléau.] Something that swings on a pivot, a. A swing-bar for a gate. b. A beam like that of a balance (by which two buckets can be lowered alternately into a draw-well). c. A lever with the free extremity weighted, forming part of a cider-press. Obs.
c. 1450. Merlin, 206. Merlin caught the flayle of the yate and plukked it to hym and yede oute as lightly as it hadde not haue ben lokked.
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., x. 177.
| Lawrence gird downe [the well] both soone and subtilie, | |
| The other bade aboue and held the flaill. |
1691. J. Worlidge, Vinetum Britannicum, or a Treatise of Cider (ed. 3), 113. The Flail-Press … with heavy weights or stones, at the end of the Flail.
† 4. As transl. of L. flagellum: A scourge. Obs.
1431–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 139. Takenge a flayle in theire honde, ferenge theire seruantes and dryvenge theyme aweye.
5. attrib. and Comb., as flail-man; flail-finned, -like adjs. Also, flail-cap (= Du. vlegelkap, Ger. flegelkappe), the cap (CAP sb.1 12) or CAPLIN of a flail; flail-capping dial. = prec.; † flail-press (see 3 c); † flail-staff, the part of the flail held in the hands; flail-stone, an elongated stone with a hole at one end, for use as a flail-swingle; † flail-swinger, a thresher; flail-swingle, the swinging or freely moving part of the flail.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 165/1. *Fleyl cappe, cappa.
1878. Cumberld. Gloss., *Flail cappin’, the leather attached to the upper end of the flail soople.
1630. Donne, Progress Soul, xxxvi. Poems (1669), 302.
| The *Flail-fin’d Thresher and steel-beak’d Sword-fish | |
| Only attempt to doe, what all do wish. |
1880. Browning, Dram. Idylls, Ser. II. 224.
| By metaphor, a human sheaf it thrashed | |
| *Flail-like. |
1855. J. Hewitt, Anc. Armour, I. 327. The *flail-man in our engraving is engaged in the assault of a castle.
1864. Ld. Palmerston, in Daily Tel., 16 Dec. When the first threshing machines were introduced there was a revolt … among the flail-men.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 165/2. *Fleyl staffe, or honde staffe, manutentum.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. I. vi. 190. Like the ruder *flail stone, the morning-star, when efficiently wielded, must have proved a deadly weapon in the desultory warfare of undisciplined assailants.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B. (Percy Soc.), 4. Adam auerus *flayle swenger.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 165/2. *Fleyle swyngyl, virga.
