| Flail 1. (n.) An instrument for threshing or beating grain from the ear by hand, consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the end of which a stouter and shorter pole or club, called a swipe, is so hung as to swing freely. 2. (n.) An ancient military weapon, like the common flail, often having the striking part armed with rows of spikes, or loaded. Thesaurus Entries bang, baste, bastinado, batter, beat, belabor, belt, birch, buffet, cane, club, cowhide, cudgel, cut, cut and thrust, drub, feint, flagellate, flail at, flail away at, flap, flog, fustigate, give a whipping, give the stick, hammer, hit at, horsewhip, knock, knout, lace, lambaste, larrup, lash, lash out at, lay on, let drive at, let fly at, lunge at, maul, paste, patter, pelt, pistol-whip, poke at, pommel, pound, pulverize, pummel, rap, rawhide, scourge, sledgehammer, smite, spank, strap, strike at, strike out at, stripe, swing at, swing on, swinge, switch, thrash, thresh, thrust at, thump, trounce, truncheon, wallop, whale, whip, whop |