flint

[flint] /flɪnt/
noun
1.
a hard stone, a form of silica resembling chalcedony but more opaque, less pure, and less lustrous.
2.
a piece of this, especially as used for striking fire.
3.
a chunk of this used as a primitive tool or as the core from which such a tool was struck.
4.
something very hard or unyielding.
5.
a small piece of metal, usually an iron alloy, used to produce a spark to ignite the fuel in a cigarette lighter.
verb (used with object)
6.
to furnish with flint.
Origin
before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Middle Dutch vlint, Danish flint; cf. plinth
Related forms
flintlike, adjective

Flint

[flint] /flɪnt/
noun
1.
Austin, 1812–86, U.S. physician: founder of Bellevue and Buffalo medical colleges.
2.
his son, Austin, 1836–1915, U.S. physiologist and physician.
3.
a city in SE Michigan.
4.
Flintshire.
Examples from the web for flint
  • There is evidence of the exchange of obsidian and flint during the stone age.
  • They used small tools made of flint or bone, which have been found near the coast.
  • Cerium is a major component of ferrocerium, also known as lighter flint.
  • It is common to find flint and chert nodules embedded in chalk.
British Dictionary definitions for flint

flint

/flɪnt/
noun
1.
an impure opaque microcrystalline greyish-black form of quartz that occurs in chalk. It produces sparks when struck with steel and is used in the manufacture of pottery, flint glass, and road-construction materials. Formula: SiO2
2.
any piece of flint, esp one used as a primitive tool or for striking fire
3.
a small cylindrical piece of an iron alloy, used in cigarette lighters
4.
Also called flint glass, white flint. colourless glass other than plate glass
5.
See optical flint
verb
6.
(transitive) to fit or provide with a flint
Word Origin
Old English; related to Old High German flins, Old Swedish flinta splinter of stone, Latin splendēre to shine

Flint

/flɪnt/
noun
1.
a town in NE Wales, in Flintshire, on the Dee estuary. Pop: 11 936 (2001)
2.
a city in SE Michigan: closure of the car production plants led to a high level of unemployment. Pop: 120 292 (2003 est)
Word Origin and History for flint
n.

Old English flint "flint, rock," common Germanic (cf. Middle Dutch vlint, Old High German flins, Danish flint), from PIE *splind- "to split, cleave," from root *(s)plei- "to splice, split" (cf. Greek plinthos "brick, tile," Old Irish slind "brick"). Transferred senses were in Old English.

flint in Science
flint
  (flĭnt)   

  1. A very hard, gray to black variety of chalcedony that makes sparks when it is struck with steel. It breaks with a conchoidal fracture.

  2. The dark gray to black variety of chert.


flint in the Bible

abounds in all the plains and valleys of the wilderness of the forty years' wanderings. In Isa. 50:7 and Ezek. 3:9 the expressions, where the word is used, means that the "Messiah would be firm and resolute amidst all contempt and scorn which he would meet; that he had made up his mind to endure it, and would not shrink from any kind or degree of suffering which would be necessary to accomplish the great work in which he was engaged." (Comp. Ezek. 3:8, 9.) The words "like a flint" are used with reference to the hoofs of horses (Isa. 5:28).