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flail

Pronunciation: /fleɪl/

Translate flail | into Italian
Definition of flail

noun

  • a threshing tool consisting of a wooden staff with a short heavy stick swinging from it.
  • a device similar to a flail, used as a weapon or for flogging.
  • a machine having a similar action to a flail, used for threshing or slashing: [as modifier]:a flail hedge trimmer

verb

  • 1wave or swing wildly: [no object]:his arms flailed as he sought to maintain his balance
  • [no object] flounder; struggle uselessly:I was flailing about in the water
  • 2 [with object] beat or flog (someone): he escorted them, flailing their shoulders with his cane
  • British cut (vegetation) with a flail:the modern practice of flailing hedges every year with mechanical cutters

Origin:

Old English, of West Germanic origin, based on Latin flagellum 'whip' (see flagellum); probably influenced in Middle English by Old French flaiel or Dutch vlegel

flail in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of flail in the US English dictionary
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