flailing

[fley-ling]

noun

1. the act of moving one’s limbs or body about randomly and wildly (often followed by around orabout ).

   The patient had to be sedated, as her flailing gave the nurse a bloody nose.

2. the act or process of making desperate attempts to respond to a difficult or awkward situation (often followed by around orabout ).

   Embracing the challenge of doing business differently doesn't just mean more effort, more mindless flailing around.

3. the act or process of beating grain with a flail to separate the kernel from the chaff.

   As wheat production increased, flailing and winnowing were replaced with threshing machines and fanning mills.

adjective

1. moving about randomly and wildly, or making desperate attempts to respond to a challenge.

   I was pushed out of bed by the flailing limbs of my overexcited little boy.

   There was no real strike, only a flailing protest by unions trying to become relevant again.

Word History and Origins

Origin of flailing¹

First recorded in 1850–55; flail ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun senses; flail ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective sense

Example Sentences

But I couldn’t predict how bizarre her flailing would be, especially after she publicly hugged Vance in a way that stoked widespread rumors that the two are more than friends.

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Shout it as loud as a Will Smith home run, ball soaring, arms flailing, blue immortality awaiting.

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By the end of the month, Adams faced reality and dropped his flailing bid for re-election.

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Many of the tales of their early endeavors — including a 1936 test that ended with an oxygen line catching fire, creating, essentially, a flailing flame thrower — are now told in hyperbole, MacDonald noted.

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“Hal and Harper are just flailing,” says Raiff, who initially insisted to friends the show was not autobiographical, saying, “This is not my life.”

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Related Words

• whipping