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
His flinty 2022 debut “A Love Song” was drenched in melancholy, casting Dale Dickey and Wes Studi as aging childhood friends reunited, a tentative romance faintly sparking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025
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
Her captain, a mean-mouthed, flinty, kettle-bellied man with close-set, greedy eyes, was a bad cyvasse player and a worse loser.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
But Carney directly invoked the darker, flintier aspects of North American history when he was asked on Aug. 22 whether his country was now at war.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
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
But as a committed avant-gardist — as rooted in the flintier subcultures of jazz as he is in noise and doom metal — he also understands the purpose of a conceptual frame.
From New York Times ● May 20, 2013
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
Of course there was music of an entrancing sort, the numbers being especially designed to touch the flintiest of hearts, and Henriette was everywhere.
From Mrs. Raffles Being the Adventures of an Amateur Crackswoman by John Kendrick Bangs
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