to flail
38
5.8
- verb
- /fleɪl/
:
agitar
- When he fell into the pool, he started to flail his arms and legs in a panic.
- flail your arms
- flail your legs
- flail your limbs
I'm not, I'm not, I don't feel that I'm flailing or, or struggling.
- I'm not, I'm not, I don't feel that I'm flailing or, or struggling.
- Otherwise it's just sort of flailing around, just doing things right.
- Thompson is long white biblical beard flailing about as the wind roars.
- But when we leave him or her out there Willy nilly, they're flailing, they're lost.
- One night when he was swimming across, the big storm hit and he started to flail and drown.
- It's like a room filled with fog, and the only way to clear it is to flail around for a bit.
- He's flailing and the minions are apparently done with the machine.
- And then I ended that and started a new network and I flailed for a while and I was really upset with myself.
- It was just when he couldn't take it anymore, he would just jump, jump, flail his body so high, so high, so high.
- And, you know, people have enough patience with writers if they think they're going to end up in a book that they let you flail around and so on.
- But even Trump's best friends at Fox, the Fox and friends have been flailing a bit to defend Trump's comments in Helsinki.
- But to assume that everybody else is going to find your child flailing around as adorable as you are is narcissistic.
- So normally when I wake up, I kind of flail around the dark for this water bottle and do a little sip like that.
Examples
-
You cannot come down here and stand outside my meetings and flail your arms around.
-
Jack grabs Les's flailing arms, trying to control him and not hurt him.
Fiction book (1992) -
So what you do is you flail around behind you for someone holding it like just through the door for you.
-
It's like a room filled with fog, and the only way to clear it is to flail around for a bit.
-
So normally when I wake up, I kind of flail around the dark for this water bottle and do a little sip like that.
-
OK, If you stop flailing around, you stop.
-
And then I ended that and started a new network and I flailed for a while and I was really upset with myself.
-
The girl behind me was flailing, I mean arms and legs going and screaming.
-
Alfred fell backward, arms flailing wildly, and sat down heavily on the deck.
Fiction book (1991) -
Then, in a surprising outburst, she cries out and begins flailing at the shelves.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
94
1.4
To move about in a violent or restless way
60
3.9
To move something quickly from side to side
24
5.8
Move or swing violently without control
1
7.0
To move your arms and body wildly or act in a messy way without success
1
6.1
Move the body violently when in pain or fear
1
8.9
Move violently without control, often by kicking when hurt
1
7.9
Make quick, wild movements because you are afraid or in pain
To move or shake your body suddenly and violently
Phrasal Verbs
How Wild
Surface Forms
Etymology
Flail as a verb comes from the image of swinging that farming tool hard and wildly, so it now means 'to wave or swing about wildly' when someone loses control or tries to get help.