sb. pl. rarely sing. Forms. 5–6 Sc. flend(e)ris, -ers, 9 Sc. (sing. and pl.) flinner(s, 8– flinders, [cf. mod.Norw. flindra thin chip or splinter, Du. flenter fragment.]
Fragments, pieces, splinters. Chiefly in phrases, as to break or fly in(to flinders. Cf. FLITTERS.
c. 1450. Golagros & Gaw., 915. Thair speris in the feild in flendris gart ga.
a. 1550. Christis Kirke Gr., ix. The bow in flenders flew.
1776. C. Keith, The Farmer’s Ha’, in Chambers, Pop. Poems Scotl. (1862), 32. He’ll their doors to flinders toss.
1808. J. Mayne, The Siller Gun, II. 127.
| When the gun snappit, James M‘Kee, | |
| Charge after charge, charged to the e’e: | |
| At length she bounced out-ower a tree, | |
| In mony a flinner. |
1840. Browning, Sordello, VI. 437. Flinders enrich the strand, and veins the rock.
1847. Kingsley, Poems, A New Forest Ballad, 30.
| The metal good and the walnut wood | |
| Did soon in flinders flee; | |
| They tost the orts to south and north, | |
| And grappled knee to knee. |
fig. 1786. Burns, On a Scotch Bard Gone to the West Indies, v.
| ’Twill mak her poor auld heart, I fear, | |
| In flinders flee. |
1878. Mrs. Stowe, Poganuc People, iii. 27. Parson Cushing could knock that air [discourse] all to flinders.
b. transf. Pieces, scraps.
1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses, ii. 19. To the best of her ability and means she demonstrates the latest fashion in her own attire, and wears her draggletail flinders of lace and ribbon in such an easy and old-fashionable manner, poor little wretch, as to impress one with the conviction that she must have been used to this sort of thing since the time of her shortcoating; which must have been many, many years ago.
