[f. FLINT sb. + STONE.]

1

  1.  = FLINT sb. 1.

2

c. 1340.  Cursor Mundi, 20896 (Fairf.).

        Soroufully þen fel he doun
In liknes of flint-stane.

3

137S.  Cantic. de Creatione, 983, in Anglia, I.

        And sethen out of þe flynt-ston
  Moyses dede ywis
Water out rennen.

4

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. cxiii[i]. 8. The earth trembled at the presence of the Lorde, at the presence of the God of Iacob. Which turned the harde rocke in to a stonding water, & the flynt stone in to a sprynginge well.

5

1855.  Longf., Hiaw., XXI. 61.

        And where’er my footsteps wander,
All the wild beasts of the forest
Hide themselves in holes and caverns,
And the earth becomes as flintstone!

6

  2.  = FLINT sb. 2, 3.

7

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), v. 50. Men kutten the Braunches with a scharp Flyntston or with a scharp bon.

8

c. 1475.  Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 768/19. Silex, a flyntstone.

9

1535.  Coverdale, Isa. l. 7. I haue hardened my face like a flynt stone, for I am sure, that I shal not come to confucion.

10

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy. Turkie, IV. xxix. 151. In Arcadia greatlye florished Prometheus the sonne of Iapetus, who being a man of deep knowledge taught the rude menne to liue ciuillie, hee inuented the natural pourtractes with the fatte earth, and was also the firste that stroke fire out of the flint stone, and that taught the Grecians Astrologie and therefore the poets doe faine that hee helde vp the heauen.

11

1638.  Sanderson, Serm., II. 111. Set them once against God, or do but take them without God: you may as soon squeeze water out of a flint stone, or suck nourishment out of a dry breast, as gain a drop of comfort from any of the Creatures.

12

1871.  R. Ellis, Catullus, xxiii. 3.

        Yet most blest in a father and a step-dame,
Each for penury fit to tooth a flint-stone.

13