Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Flailing |
FlailingAdjective1. (especially of limbs or tail) waving or swinging about vigorously; "trying to drive insects away with his flailing arms"; "the aligator's thrashing tail". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "flailing" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1939. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Medicine | An involuntary displacement of a limb or limbs due to either high wind-blast forces, body instability, or both during escape from an aircraft, often resulting in bone or joint injury. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: FlailingSynonym: thrashing (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Flailing |
| English words defined with "flailing": cursing ♦ thrashing. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Why? Take a wild, flailing shot in the dark (Sports Night; writing credit: Tom Brady; Kevin Falls) | |
Lyrics | Come flailing around (Losing My Religion; performing artist: R.E.M.) You spent the weekend flailing round the trailer (Lunatic To Love; performing artist: The Residents) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Theater & Movies | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Flailing beans. Chippwea County, Wisconsin. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | While the sun was up, it was a beating, flailing heat, but now the heat came from below, from the earth itself, and the heat was thick and muffling |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Flailing" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 85.88% of the time. "Flailing" is used about 85 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 85.88% | 73 | 39,105 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 9.41% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Noun (singular) | 4.71% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 85 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "flailing": arm-flailing, guitar-flailing. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
flailing | 10 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "flailing"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Danish | flailing. (various references) | |
Dutch | fladderen (flutter, flirt, flit). (various references) | |
French | écartèlement. (various references) | |
German | dreschend (threshing). (various references) | |
Greek | καμπυλωτό μαχαίρι (cutting blade, flail, flailing hammer, swinging flail), πτερύγιο (fin, flipper, blade, flap, vane). (various references) | |
Italian | sbattimento involontario. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ailingflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | adejo. (various references) | |
Spanish | sacudida involuntaria. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Flailing" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: flailin, flailings, flailling, flairing, flaling, fleeling, frailing. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "flailing" (pronounced flā"ling) |
| 4 | -ā" l i ng | ailing, assailing, bailing, baling, curtailing, derailing, detailing, entailing, failing, Grayling, hailing, inhaling, jailing, mailing, nailing, prevailing, railing, regaling, sailing, scaling, surveilling, tailing, trailing, unavailing, unfailing, unveiling, veiling, wailing, whaling. |
| 3 | -l i ng | annealing, appalling, appealing, ambling, angling, assembling, babbling, backpedaling, baffling, balling, bankrolling, barreling, battling, beguiling, belittling, Belling, bicycling, billing, blackmailing, boggling, boiling, Bolling, bottling, bowling, brawling, bristling, broiling, bubbling, buckling, bugling, bumbling, bundling, bungling, burgling, burling, bustling, cackling, cajoling, calling, canceling, cancelling, Carling, ceiling, channeling, chilling, chortling, chronicling, chuckling, circling, coddling, commingling, compelling, compiling, concealing, consoling, controlling, cooling, corralling, counseling, countervailing, coupling, cowling, crackling, cradling, crawling, crippling, crumbling, cuddling, culling, curling, cycling, dabbling, dangling, darling, dawdling, dazzling, dealing, decoupling, Dialing, disabling, disgruntling, dismantling, dispelling, dissembling, distilling, doling, doubling, dribbling, drilling, drizzling, drooling, duckling, dueling, dulling, dumpling, dwelling, dwindling, earthling, emailing, embezzling, empaneling, enabling, encircling, enrolling, entangling, entitling, equaling, excelling, expelling, extolling, falling, feeling, felling, fiddling, filing, filling, fizzling, fledgling, foaling, foiling, fondling, fooling, forestalling, foretelling, fouling, foundling, freewheeling, fueling, fuelling, fulfilling, fumbling, funneling, galling, gambling, giggling, gobbling, grappling, grilling, groundling, groveling, growling, grueling, grumbling, gurgling, guzzling, haggling, handling, hassling, hauling, healing, heckling, helling, hilling, hobbling, holing, howling, huddling, humbling, hurdling, hurling, hurtling, hustling, idling, imperiling, initialing, inkling, installing, instilling, intermingling, jiggling, jostling, juggling, Keeling, killing, kindling, kneeling, labeling, leveling, lolling, Lulling, mangling, Marling, marshaling, meddling, Melling, middling, milling, mingling, mishandling, mislabeling, misspelling, modeling, mothballing, mottling, muddling, mulling, mumbling, muscling, needling, nestling, nibbling, nonruling, oiling, outselling, overbilling, overhauling, overkilling, overruling, overselling, paddling, paneling, panhandling, paralleling, parboiling, parceling, paroling, patrolling, pearling, pedaling, peddling, peeling, pickling, piddling, piling, Pilling, Pindling, poling, polling, pooling, profiling, propelling, prowling, pulling, pummeling, puzzling, quadrupling, quarreling, quelling, quibbling, quilling, Quisling, rambling, rankling, rappelling, rattling, raveling, rebelling, recalling, reconciling, recycling, redoubling, reeling, refueling, rekindling, remodeling, repealing, repelling, rescheduling, reselling, resembling, reshuffling, retailing, retelling, retooling, revealing, reveling, ridiculing, Riesling, rifling, rilling, rippling, rivaling, roiling, rolling, rototilling, ruffling, ruling, rumbling, rustling, saddling, sampling, Sandling, sapling, scheduling, Schilling, schooling, scowling, scrambling, scribbling, scuttling, sealing, seedling, Seeling, selling, settling, shelling, shilling, shoveling, shriveling, shuffling, shuttling, sibling, signaling, signalling, singling, sizzling, skilling, smelling, smiling, smuggling, snarling, Snelling, snowballing, sparkling, Sparling, spelling, spilling, spiraling, spiralling, spoiling, sprawling, sprinkling, squabbling, squealing, stalling, stapling, starling, startling, stealing, stenciling, sterling, stifling, stockpiling, stonewalling, storytelling, straddling, strangling, strickling, stripling, strolling, struggling, stumbling, styling, suckling, swashbuckling, swelling, swilling, swindling, swirling, swiveling, tabling, tackling, tangling, telling, thrilling, throttling, Tilling, tingling, tinkling, toddling, toggling, toiling, tolling, tooling, toppling, totaling, totalling, toweling, trampling, traveling, travelling, trembling, trickling, trifling, trilling, tripling, trolling, troubling, tumbling, tunneling, twiddling, twinkling, twirling, unappealing, unbundling, underling, underselling, unfeeling, unfurling, unraveling, unsettling, unsmiling, untangling, unwilling, waffling, waggling, walling, warbling, weakling, welling, wheeling, whirling, whistling, whittling, wholesaling, wiggling, wiling, willing, wobbling, wrangling, wrestling, wrinkling, yearling, yelling, yodeling. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-f-g-i-i-l-l-n" | |
-1 letter: failing, falling, filling. | |
-2 letters: ailing, filial, filing, finial, infall, nilgai. | |
-3 letters: algin, align, fagin, final, flail, fling, glial, ilial, liang, ligan, linga. | |
-4 letters: agin, alif, anil, fail, fain, fall, fang, fila, fill, flag, flan, gain, gall, gill, glia, ilia, inia, lain, lang, ling, naif, nail, nill. | |
-5 letters: ail, ain, all, ani, fag, fan, fig, fil. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-f-g-i-i-l-l-n" | |
+1 letter: failingly, infalling. | |
+2 letters: flatlining. | |
+3 letters: alkalifying, backfilling, fireballing, firewalling, unfailingly. | |
+4 letters: fibrillating, flimflamming, fungicidally, magnifically, syllabifying. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
