flint

plural flints

1. uncountableA hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel, because tiny chips of the steel are heated to incandescence and burn in air.

   He used flint to make a fire.

   2 more examples

   Some of the enormous fragments of chalk which are interstratified with drift have not only layers of undisturbed flints, but also sandpipes in the middle of them, or cylindrical cavities filled with sand and gravel […]

   1840, Philosophical Magazine, page 365

   In a cornfield on one side flakings of flint are numerous.

   1916, Allen Jesse Reynolds, Wilson Straley, The Archaeological Bulletin, volumes 7-9, page 3

2. countableuncountableA piece of flint, such as a gunflint, used to produce a spark by striking it with a firestriker.

   He used a flint to make a fire.

3. countableuncountableA small cylinder of some other material of the same function in a cigarette lighter, etc.
4. countableuncountableA variety of maize/corn with a hard outer hull.
5. countablefigurativelyuncountableAnything figuratively hard.
6. UKcountableobsoleteslanguncountableA tailor's employee who is paid by the day.

present singular third person flints · participle present flinting · participle past flinted · past flinted

1. transitiveTo furnish or decorate an object with flint.

   The sun had warmed the air to a balmy 45 degrees and sent sparks flinting off the bleachy white snow.

   2005 January 14, Anne Goodwin Sides, “Rocky Mountain High Life”, in The New York Times

   2 more examples

   No schoolboys lingered round Bob Robertson's (yclept Roberson's) blacksmith's shop, for this sleepy day no lusty throat bellowed attention to the flaming tongues fanned from its bloodily blazing teeth; no luminous stars flinted from the clanking anvil.

   1907, Barbara Baynton, “Human Toll”, in Sally Krimmer, Alan Lawson, editors, Barbara Baynton: Bush Studies, Other Stories, Human Toll, Verse, Essays and Letters (Portable Australian Authors; UQP Australian Authors), St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 147

   No change from the primordial doth appear, / Within the earth’s rotation of the year, / Nor are ye heirless of her sane decree, / The problem is potentiality / Of Spring and Autumn, burdenful with Fate, / Upon the seeds of labour ye must wait, / Sowing the Consequence by which ye came, / Flinting the fire not to fire but flame, / With all the end of Destiny the same!

   1908, Gerda Dalliba, “[An Earth Poem] Children of Sod (Morning)”, in An Earth Poem and Other Poems, New York, N.Y.; London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, page 33

plural Flints

1. A placename:
   1. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Mitchell County, Georgia, named after the Flint River.
   2. countableuncountableA township in Pike County, Illinois.
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Jackson Township, Steuben County, Indiana.
   4. countableuncountableA former unincorporated community in Calloway County, Kentucky.
   5. countableuncountableA city, the county seat of Genesee County, Michigan.

      Each one claimed they were unjustly criticized, while claiming to have had Flint residents in mind.

      2016 March 15, Sara Ganim, “Congressman: ‘Sickening’ testimony in Flint hearing”, in CNN

      1 more example

      Remember that so many of us click on links to CashApps, Venmos, PayPals, etc. to donate to bail funds, Flint Water reliefs, the next Ferguson, and the like without any thought of integrating ourselves into collective action?

      2024, Too Black, Rasul A. Mowatt, “Conclusion”, in Laundering Black Rage: The Washing of Black Death, People, Property, and Profits, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN

   6. countableuncountableA township in Genesee County, Michigan, adjacent to the city.
   7. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Sharon Township, Franklin County, Ohio.
   8. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Smith County, Texas.
   9. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Randolph County, West Virginia.
   10. countableuncountableA town and community with a town council in Flintshire, Wales, United Kingdom, by the estuary of the River Dee (OS grid ref SJ2472).
2. countableuncountableA surname.
3. countableuncountableA male given name