flinty
Americanadjective
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composed of, containing, or resembling flint, especially in hardness.
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unyielding; unmerciful; obdurate.
a flinty heart.
adjective
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of, relating to, or resembling flint
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hard or cruel; obdurate; unyielding
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of flinty
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The person at the handlebars, whose back Colin clutches in moments of adrenaline-infused intimacy, is Ray, played with a sense of flinty mystery by Mr. Skarsgård.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
But there is still a combination of flinty determination and composure under pressure that has restricted England to just eight victories in 46 meetings across more than a century.
From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2025
"It's a big old cheese -- there's a lot going on. The texture is beautiful: it's flinty as you break it apart; the crystalline in there are so delicate," he said.
From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2025
Sweat, who is 70, has a golfer’s tan, flinty eyes, and a shirt unbuttoned just a little too far.
From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2025
The second lord, the straight-backed old man in the mail bymie, studied Reek with flinty eyes.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Gugino’s Sisco is flintier that Lopez's, and shades of her personality show up in “Jett.”
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2019
Colman and Weisz are Lanthimos veterans, and Weisz is even flintier here than she was in “The Lobster.”
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 16, 2018
Dave Murphy, however, remained flintier in the aftermath: never able to fully unload himself of three years’ worth of layered fury.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 13, 2015
I mention this only because in recent months, in need of flintier forms of solace, I’ve increasingly and somewhat guiltily been bookmarking on my laptop the poems of Mark Ford.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2014
The longma beat its wings, and Anja’s voice grew flintier.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
It would take the flintiest heart not to feel for Jofra Archer.
From BBC ● May 16, 2023
The Granite State features some of the country's best cross-country skiing trails and resorts, and cross-country skiing is generally regarded as the flintiest of winter sports.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2013
Graeme’s appeal touched even the flintiest hearts among the conservative commentariat.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2012
Isaac Sidel, the flintiest, least corrupt, most overbearing cop in New York, is a self-appointed patriarch of the Lower East Side.
From Time Magazine Archive
The folds of his stomach were so numerous that they digested even the hardest and flintiest of corn.
From The Last of the Plainsmen by Grey, Zane
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
