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
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of flails
Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 16 Dec. 2025
The 16-year-old flails her arms, thrashes and kicks — sometimes for hours.
—Calmatters, Oc Register, 5 Dec. 2025
Verb
Premiums are poised to rise next year as the party flails on whether to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for flails
Verb
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Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel (center) flutters a Venezuelan and Cuban national flags in support of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Havana.—
Verb
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Or whips around his defender in a bold pirouette.—
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Marty whips off his sport coat and throws it in the crowd.—
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.—
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.—
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That goes for Jimmy Kimmel and for anybody who flaps their gums for a living.—
Verb
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And while Americans’ overall ideological self-identification looks stable in the aggregate (37% very conservative/conservative, 34% moderate, 25% very liberal/liberal), a January 2025 Gallup poll shows that this steadiness hides tectonic tensions tugging beneath the surface.—
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Now, Scieszka’s debut filters Tuck Everlasting-esque immortality through the social media age—examining how someone hides their eternal lifespan from facial recognition technology and venture capitalists looking to capitalize upon family property and the ultimate anti-aging secrets.—
Noun
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To rejuvenate an older plant, cut 50 to 75% of the oldest, thickest canes back to the ground to allow for new shoots to develop.—
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Wait until mid-to-late November to remove dead or diseased canes and reduce the overall size of the rose plant.—
Verb
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At some point, Alice slashes the tires on Rachel’s car.—
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There, Constance slashes her face with a knife.—
Noun
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By Monday afternoon, the unrest had spread to the northeastern city of Mashhad, where demonstrators gathered in central squares and clashed with riot police who moved in with batons.—
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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.—
Cite this Entry
“Flails.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flails. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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