different between flail vs lash

English

Etymology

From Middle English flaile, flayle, from earlier fleil, fleyl, fle??l, flegl, from Old English fligel, *flegel (“flail”), from Proto-Germanic *flagilaz (“flail, whip”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Old French fil and Latin f?lum ("a fine thread or wire, a filament", i.e. a defiling instrument for the thrashing of a wire). Cognate with Scots flail (“a thresher's flail”), West Frisian fleil, flaaiel (“flail”), Dutch vlegel (“flail”), Low German vlegel (“flail”), German Flegel (“flail”). Possibly a native Germanic word from Proto-Germanic *flag-, *flah- (“to whip, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh?k- (“to beat, hit, strike; weep”); compare Lithuanian plàkti (“to whip, lash, flog”), Ancient Greek ????????? (pl?gnúnai, “strike, hit, encounter”), Latin plang? (“lament”, i.e. “beat one's breast”) + Proto-Germanic *-ilaz (instrumental suffix); or a borrowing of Latin flagellum, diminutive of flagrum (“scourge, whip”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?lag-, *b?la?- (“to beat”); compare Old Norse blekkja (“to beat, mistreat”). Compare also Old French flael (“flail”), Walloon flayea (“flail”) (locally pronounced "flai"), Italian flagello (“scourge, whip, plague”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fle?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Noun

flail (plural flails)

1. A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
2. A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.

Synonyms

• threshel, thrashel

Quotations

• 1631 — John Milton, L'Allegro

  When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
  His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
  That ten day-labourers could not end;

• 1816 — Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

  Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
  Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail

• 1842 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp

  On him alone the curse of Cain
  Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
  And struck him to the earth!

• 1879 — Henry George, Progress and Poverty, ch V

  If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...

Translations

Coordinate terms

• (weapon): nunchaku

Verb

flail (third-person singular simple present flails, present participle flailing, simple past and past participle flailed)

1. (transitive) To beat using a flail or similar implement.
2. (transitive) To wave or swing vigorously

   Synonym: thrash

   • 1937, H. P. Lovecraft, The Evil Clergyman

     He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.

3. (transitive) To thresh.
4. (intransitive) To move like a flail.

Translations

See also

• flail on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Flail in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /læ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

From Middle English lashe, lasshe, lasche (“a stroke; the flexible end of a whip”), from Proto-Germanic *laskô (“flap of fabric, strap”).
Cognate with Dutch lasch, las (“a piece; seal; joint; notch; seam”), German Low German Laske, Lask (“a flap; dag; strap”), German Lasche (“a flap; joint; strap; tongue; scarf”), Swedish lask (“scarf”), Icelandic laski (“the bottom part of a glove”).

Noun

lash (plural lashes)

1. The thong or braided cord of a whip, with which the blow is given.

   • I observed that your whip wanted a lash to it.

2. (obsolete) A leash in which an animal is caught or held; hence, a snare.
3. A stroke with a whip, or anything pliant and tough.

4. A stroke of satire or sarcasm; an expression or retort that cuts or gives pain; a cut.
5. A hair growing from the edge of the eyelid; an eyelash.
6. In carpet weaving, a group of strings for lifting simultaneously certain yarns, to form the figure.

Translations

Verb

lash (third-person singular simple present lashes, present participle lashing, simple past and past participle lashed)

1. (transitive) To strike with a lash; to whip or scourge with a lash, or with something like one.

   • We lash the pupil, and defraud the ward

2. (transitive) To strike forcibly and quickly, as with a lash; to beat, or beat upon, with a motion like that of a lash.
3. (transitive) To throw out with a jerk or quickly.
4. (transitive) To scold; or to satirize; to censure with severity.

   Synonym: berate

5. (intransitive) To ply the whip; to strike.
6. (intransitive) To utter censure or sarcastic language.

   • To laugh at follies, or to lash at vice.

7. (intransitive, of rain) To fall heavily, especially in the phrase lash down

Synonyms

• (to whip or scourge): Thesaurus:whip

Translations

See also

• lash out

Etymology 2

From Middle French lachier, from Old French lacier (“to lace”)

Verb

lash (third-person singular simple present lashes, present participle lashing, simple past and past participle lashed)

1. (transitive) To bind with a rope, cord, thong, or chain, so as to fasten.

   to lash something to a spar

   lash a pack on a horse's back

Translations

Etymology 3

From Old French lasche (French lâche).

Adjective

lash (comparative more lash, superlative most lash)

1. (obsolete) Remiss, lax.
2. (obsolete) Relaxed.
3. Soft, watery, wet.
   • 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007, p. 211)

     Fruits being unwholesome and lash before the fourth or fifth Yeare.

4. (Ulster) excellent, wonderful

   We’re off school tomorrow, it’s gonna be lash!

   That Chinese (food) was lash!

5. (Britain) Drunk.

Synonyms

• (remiss): at fault, blameworthy, lax, neglectful, negligent, reprehensible
• (relaxed): See Thesaurus:carefree or Thesaurus:calm
• (soft, watery, wet): spongy, squidgy; see also Thesaurus:wet
• (excellent): See Thesaurus:excellent
• (drunk): See Thesaurus:drunk

Anagrams

• Ahls, HALs, HLAs, Sahl, lahs, shal

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English laste, from Old English latost.

Adverb

lash

1. last

Adjective

lash

1. last

Related terms

• lauthest

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN