n. [ AS. flint, akin to Sw. flinta, Dan. flint; cf. OHG. flins flint, G. flinte gun (cf. E. flintlock), perh. akin to Gr. &unr_; brick. Cf. Plinth. ] 1. (Min.) A massive, somewhat impure variety of quartz, in color usually of a gray to brown or nearly black, breaking with a conchoidal fracture and sharp edge. It is very hard, and strikes fire with steel. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A piece of flint for striking fire; -- formerly much used, esp. in the hammers of gun locks. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Anything extremely hard, unimpressible, and unyielding, like flint. “A heart of flint.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Flint age. (Geol.) Same as Stone age, under Stone. --
Flint brick, a fire made principially of powdered silex. --
Flint glass. See in the Vocabulary. --
Flint implements (Archæol.), tools, etc., employed by men before the use of metals, such as axes, arrows, spears, knives, wedges, etc., which were commonly made of flint, but also of granite, jade, jasper, and other hard stones. --
Flint mill. (a) (Pottery) A mill in which flints are ground. (b) (Mining) An obsolete appliance for lighting the miner at his work, in which flints on a revolving wheel were made to produce a shower of sparks, which gave light, but did not inflame the fire damp. Knight. --
Flint stone, a hard, siliceous stone; a flint. --
Flint wall, a kind of wall, common in England, on the face of which are exposed the black surfaces of broken flints set in the mortar, with quions of masonry. --
Liquor of flints, a solution of silica, or flints, in potash. --
To skin a flint, to be capable of, or guilty of, any expedient or any meanness for making money. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

(Chem.) A soft, heavy, brilliant glass, consisting essentially of a silicate of lead and potassium. It is used for tableware, and for optical instruments, as prisms, its density giving a high degree of dispersive power; -- so called, because formerly the silica was obtained from pulverized flints. Called also crystal glass. Cf. Glass. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The concave or diverging half on an achromatic lens is usually made of flint glass. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Hard-hearted. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state or quality of being flinty; hardness; cruelty. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A lock for a gun or pistol, having a flint fixed in the hammer, which on striking the steel ignites the priming. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A hand firearm fitted with a flintlock; esp., the old-fashioned musket of European and other armies. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A superior kind of earthenware into whose composition flint enters largely. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) An Australian name for the very hard wood of the Eucalyptus piluralis. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Compar. Flintier superl. Flintiest. ] Consisting of, composed of, abounding in, or resembling, flint; as, a flinty rock; flinty ground; a flinty heart. [ 1913 Webster ]

Flinty rock, or
Flinty state, a siliceous slate; -- basanite is here included. See Basanite. [ 1913 Webster ]