1
as in flutters
to move or cause to move with a striking motion
started to flail his arms wildly when he spied a bat in the house
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in whips
to strike repeatedly with something long and thin or flexible
gruesome evidence that the prisoner had been flailed
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for flails
Verb
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In the video, Campos whips her long hair in disbelief.—
Christina Noriega,
Refinery29,
13 Oct. 2025 -
So unless Benito uncharacteristically whips out a slate of cover songs, his set will be entirely in Spanish.—
Maya Georgi,
Rolling Stone,
29 Sep. 2025
Noun
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There’s Xi Jinping mogging Bibi Netanyahu while deafeningly aggro phonk bludgeons away; hype montages paint Marx as history’s greatest theorist and pair Zohran Mamdani quotes with Playboi Carti Die Lit cuts.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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In the canonical metaphorical example, a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, and the cascading sequence of atmospheric perturbations leads to a tornado in Texas.—
Dan Garisto,
Scientific American,
22 Oct. 2025
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That goes for Jimmy Kimmel and for anybody who flaps their gums for a living.—
Jesse Edwards,
MSNBC Newsweek,
20 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Incarceration often hides in plain sight.—
PhotoVogue,
Vogue,
25 Oct. 2025
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The scene from Badlands hangs over the songwriting like a dark cloud; Spacek’s bedroom in the scene looks quite a bit like the bedroom in which the young Springsteen hides from his own angry father.—
Sadie Sartini Garner,
Pitchfork,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Mogollon Monster The Mogollon Monster is Arizona's Bigfoot, a legendary creature said to inhabit the Mogollon Rim, a rugged and densely forested area that slashes across the state.—
Tiffany Acosta,
AZCentral.com,
17 Oct. 2025
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This sale slashes $450 off the retail price of the HP OmniBook X Flip, a premium 2-in-1 featuring a 16-inch touch display.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
17 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Floribunda roses require a hard pruning in the spring to encourage large blooms, so only perform maintenance cuts to remove dead or diseased canes in the fall and reduce height.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
28 Oct. 2025
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Trim off dead roots, bulbs, stems, and canes.—
Leanne Potts,
Better Homes & Gardens,
23 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Framed by her Pepto-pink hair — another Moisturizer-era change — Teasdale bodyrolls and thrashes around, singing so wildly that the edges of her mouth seem to disappear.—
Sophie Williams,
Billboard,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Dozens of agents swarmed the area along with a military vehicle, Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, told USA TODAY, saying agents used batons and mace on demonstrators.—
Nicole Fallert,
USA Today,
22 Oct. 2025
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Today his agents used batons and pepper spray on street vendors and bystanders on Canal Street.—
Deputy News Editor,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Flails.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flails. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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