Link Centre Dictionary

fling

UK/ˈflɪŋ/ US/ˈflɪŋ/ fairly common literary
verb (4) noun (3)

verb

1.

throw with force or recklessness

  • “fling the frisbee”
2.

move in an abrupt or headlong manner

  • “He flung himself onto the sofa”
3.

indulge oneself

  • “I splurged on a new TV”
Synonyms
4.

noun

1.

a usually brief attempt

  • “he took a crack at it”
  • “I gave it a whirl”
Synonyms
2.

a brief indulgence of your impulses

Synonyms
3.

the act of flinging

Origin

From Middle English flyngen, from Old Norse flengja (“to whip”), from Proto-Germanic *flangijaną (“to beat, whip”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k-, *pleh₂g- (“to beat”). Cognate with Icelandic flengja (“to spank”), Norwegian flengja (“to rip, tear, or fling open”).

Phrases

  • fling off
  • fling out
  • full fling
  • Highland fling
  • trust someone as far as one could fling a bull by the tail

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.