Flat"ware` (?), n. Articles for the table, as china or silverware, that are more or less flat, as distinguished from hollow ware.
Fleet, v. i. (Naut.) To move or change in position; -- said of persons; as, the crew fleeted aft.
Fleet", v. t. (Naut.) To move or change in position; used only in special phrases; as, of fleet aft the crew.
We got the long "stick" . . . down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured.
F. T. Bullen.
||Fleu`ron" (?), n. [F., fr. OF. floron. Cf. Floroon.] A flower-shaped ornament, esp. one terminating an object or forming one of a series, as a knob of a cover to a dish, or a flower-shaped part in a necklace.
Flick (?), v. t. To throw, snap, or toss with a jerk; to flirt; as, to flick a whiplash.
Rude boys were flicking butter pats across chaos.
Kipling.
Flick, n. [See Flick, v. t.] A light quick stroke or blow, esp. with something pliant; a flirt; also, the sound made by such a blow.
She actually took the whip out of his hand and gave a flick to the pony.
Mrs. Humphry Ward.
Fli"er (?), n. An aëroplane or flying machine.
Flitch (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flitched (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Flitching.] [See Flitch, n.] To cut into, or off in, flitches or strips; as, to flitch logs; to flitch bacon.
{ Flite, Flyte } (?), n. [AS. flt. See Flite.] Strife; dispute; abusive or upbraiding talk, as in fliting; wrangling. [Obs. or Scot. & Prov. Eng.]
The bird of Pallas has also a good "flyte" on the moral side . . . in his suggestion that the principal effect of the nightingale's song is to make women false to their husbands.
Saintsbury.
{ Flitt"ing, Flytt"ing } (?), n. Contention; strife; scolding; specif., a kind of metrical contest between two persons, popular in Scotland in the 16th century. [Obs. or Scot.]
These "flytings" consisted of alternate torrents of sheer Billingsgate poured upon each other by the combatants.
Saintsbury.
Float"er. (Politics) (a) A voter who shifts from party to party, esp. one whose vote is purchasable. [U. S.] (b) A person, as a delegate to a convention or a member of a legislature, who represents an irregular constituency, as one formed by a union of the voters of two counties neither of which has a number sufficient to be allowed a (or an extra) representative of its own. [U. S.] (c) A person who votes illegally in various polling places or election districts, either under false registration made by himself or under the name of some properly registered person who has not already voted. [U. S.]
Float"ing, n. The process of rendering oysters and scallops plump by placing them in fresh or brackish water; -- called also fattening, plumping, and laying out.
{ Floating charge, lien, etc. } (Law) A charge, lien, etc., that successively attaches to such assets as a person may have from time to time, leaving him more or less free to dispose of or encumber them as if no such charge or lien existed.
Floc"cu*late (?), v. t. To convert into floccules or flocculent aggregates; to make granular or crumbly; as, the flocculating of a soil improves its mechanical condition.
When applied to clay soils it [lime] binds the small particles together, or flocculates them.