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Flail vs Smite - What's the difference?

flail | smite | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between flail and smite

is that flail is to beat using a flail or similar implement while smite is to hit.

As a noun flail

is a tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.

flail

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
  • A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.
  • Quotations
    * 1631 — *: When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
    His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
    That ten day-labourers could not end; * 1816 — *: Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
    Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail * 1842 — *: On him alone the curse of Cain
    Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
    And struck him to the earth! * 1879 — , ch V *: If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...

    Coordinate terms

    *(weapon) nunchaku

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To beat using a flail or similar implement.
  • To wave or swing vigorously
  • *
  • * 1937 , ,
  • He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.
  • To thresh.
  • To move like a flail.
  • He was flailing wildly, but didn't land a blow.

    Synonyms

    * thrash

    See also

    * (wikipedia "flail") *

    smite

    English

    Verb

  • (lb) To hit.
  • *(Bible), (w) v.39:
  • *:Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
  • *
  • *:It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
  • *1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), , Ch.IV:
  • *:"Right you are!" I cried. "We must believe the other until we prove it false. We can't afford to give up heart now, when we need heart most. The branch was carried down by a river, and we are going to find that river." I smote my open palm with a clenched fist, to emphasize a determination unsupported by hope.
  • To strike down or kill with godly force.
  • To injure with divine power.
  • To put to rout in battle; to overthrow by war.
  • To afflict; to chasten; to punish.
  • *(William Wake) (1657-1737)
  • *:Let us not mistake God's goodness, nor imagine, because he smites us, that we are forsaken by him.
  • To strike with love or infatuation.
  • :
  • *(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • *:the charms that smite the simple heart
  • Anagrams

    * (l), (l), (l), (l), , (l), (l), (l), (l) ----