Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Flint
Flint
,Noun.
[AS.
flint
, akin to Sw. flinta
, Dan. flint
; cf. OHG. flins
flint, G. flinte
gun (cf. E. flint
lock), perh. akin to Gr. [GREEK] brick. Cf. Plinth
.] 1.
(Min.)
A massive, somewhat impure variety of quartz, in color usually of a gray to brown or nearly black, breaking with a conchoidal fracture and sharp edge. It is very hard, and strikes fire with steel.
2.
A piece of flint for striking fire; – formerly much used, esp. in the hammers of gun locks.
3.
Anything extremely hard, unimpressible, and unyielding, like flint.
“A heart of flint.” Spenser.
Flint age
. (Geol.)
Same as
– Stone age
, under Stone
. Flint brick
, a fire made principially of powdered silex.
– Flint glass
. See in the Vocabulary.
– Flint implements
(Archæol.)
, tools, etc., employed by men before the use of metals, such as axes, arrows, spears, knives, wedges, etc., which were commonly made of flint, but also of granite, jade, jasper, and other hard stones.
– Flint mill
. (a)
(Pottery)
A mill in which flints are ground.
(b)
(Mining)
An obsolete appliance for lighting the miner at his work, in which flints on a revolving wheel were made to produce a shower of sparks, which gave light, but did not inflame the fire damp.
Knight.
– Flint stone
, a hard, siliceous stone; a flint.
– Flint wall
, a kind of wall, common in England, on the face of which are exposed the black surfaces of broken flints set in the mortar, with quions of masonry.
– Liquor of flints
, a solution of silica, or flints, in potash.
– To skin a flint
, to be capable of, or guilty of, any expedient or any meanness for making money.
[Colloq.]
Webster 1828 Edition
Flint
FLINT
, n.1.
In natural history, a sub-species of quartz, of a yellowish or bluish gray, or grayish black color. It is amorphous, interspersed in other stones, or in nodules or rounded lumps. Its surface is generally uneven, and covered with a rind or crust, either calcarious or argillaceous. It is very hard, strikes fire with steel, and is an ingredient in glass.2.
A piece of the above described stone used in firearms to strike fire.3.
Any thing proverbially hard; as a heart of flint.