flinty

American  

[flin-tee] / ˈflɪn ti /

adjective

flintier, flintiest

1. composed of, containing, or resembling flint, especially in hardness.

2. unyielding; unmerciful; obdurate.

   a flinty heart.

---

flinty British  

/ ˈflɪntɪ /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or resembling flint

2. hard or cruel; obdurate; unyielding

---

Other Word Forms

• flintily
  adverb
• flintiness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of flinty

First recorded in 1530–40; flint + -y ¹

Explanation

Something that's made of or contains flint, or hard silica rock, is flinty. Flinty soil is rough and rocky, and not the best for planting a garden. Flinty earth is studded with jagged flakes of flint, and the adjective is often used in a figurative way to capture an equally rough and stony mood or personality. Your flinty uncle, for example, might be gruff and unsmiling. Since the 16th century flinty has been used this way, to mean "hard-hearted" or "tough as flint." The "full of flint" meaning is slightly newer.

Example Sentences

Flinty and funny, McDormand never asks for pity for her character, who craves her independence but wouldn’t say no to a living wage.

From Washington Post • Dec. 7, 2020

Flinty, funny, stylish, and mannish, a blend of Amelia Earhart and Humphrey Bogart, Dorothea adores Jamie, but her Depression-era rigor precludes her saying so.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 1, 2017

Flinty vs. flakey, Feng Shui vs. a stuffed and mounted javelina, tornado vs. earthquake.

From Golf Digest • May 18, 2010

Flinty Judge Orion Thomas Gower, a strict disciplinarian, felt it was high time to hand down a lesson.

From Time Magazine Archive

Here he will then, here he will      the fleet Flinty kindcold element let break across his limbs Long.

From Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Now First Published by Bridges, Robert Seymour

Related Words

• steely
• stony