The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fling \Fling\ (fl[i^]ng), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flung (fl[u^]ng); p. pr. & vb. n. Flinging.] [OE. flingen, flengen, to rush, hurl; cf. Icel. flengia to whip, ride furiously, OSw. flenga to strike, Sw. fl["a]nga to romp, Dan. flenge to slash.]
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To cast, send, to throw from the hand; to hurl; to dart; to emit with violence as if thrown from the hand; as, to fing a stone into the pond.
'T is Fate that flings the dice: and, as she flings, Of kings makes peasants, and of peasants kings.
--Dryden.He . . . like Jove, his lighting flung.
--Dryden.I know thy generous temper well. Fling but the appearance of dishonor on it, It straight takes fire.
--Addison. -
To shed forth; to emit; to scatter.
The sun begins to fling His flaring beams.
--Milton.Every beam new transient colors flings.
--Pope. -
To throw; to hurl; to throw off or down; to prostrate; hence, to baffle; to defeat; as, to fling a party in litigation. His horse started, flung him, and fell upon him. --Walpole. To fling about, to throw on all sides; to scatter. To fling away, to reject; to discard. Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition. --Shak. To fling down.
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To throw to the ground; esp., to throw in defiance, as formerly knights cast a glove into the arena as a challenge.
This question so flung down before the guests, . . . Was handed over by consent of all To me who had not spoken.
--Tennyson. -
To overturn; to demolish; to ruin.
To fling in, to throw in; not to charge in an account; as, in settling accounts, one party flings in a small sum, or a few days' work.
To fling off, to baffle in the chase; to defeat of prey; also, to get rid of.
--Addison.To fling open, to throw open; to open suddenly or with violence; as, to fling open a door.
To fling out, to utter; to speak in an abrupt or harsh manner; as, to fling out hard words against another.
To fling up, to relinquish; to abandon; as, to fling up a design.
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Usage examples of "to fling away".
What had come over him, to fling away ambition, friendship, the life he had made for himself, for the sake of a woman?
If you choose to fling away eight thousand a-year, which you may have for the asking, you may do it.
He tried to raise his hands to fling away the frame of dried branches, but his arms didn't work.
We have lost the power even of imagining what the ancient idealization of poverty could have meant: the liberation from material attachments, the unbribed soul, the manlier indifference, the paying our way by what we are or do and not by what we have, the right to fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly,—.